Fear and Aggression (32 page)

“
Yes, thank you for your
concern.”

“
I have my top
investigator continuing to look into the mystery. I’m afraid that
we have no clues, other than what you have been able to share. We
have had no similar events to report within Plensen, nor in the
surrounding areas. Still, we will continue to monitor the
situation. I do hope that she is recovered soon, and in good
condition. So strange, I can’t imagine why anyone would do this.”
Mayor Tinron shook his head with genuine concern.

“
I do thank you. If I may,
I do have something to report to you.”

“
Please, go
on.”

“
I have shared this with
no else, other than immediate family; I’m afraid that it is
extraordinary—rather unbelievable. I have personally seen an object
rotating around our world. I have seen it now on two occasions. It
looked, at first, like a falling star; but it was not a falling
star: it lasted for too long. I saw it before Aspiria’s
disappearance, and then I saw it again two nights ago. It was on
this second occasion that I realized the nature of this object. I
came into Plensen last night to discuss this with my
brothers-in-law. As it turns out, my niece also has been a witness
to this phenomenon. She saw it on a separate occasion from the two
I mentioned before.”

Mayor Tinron leaned back in his chair and
adjusted his glasses, and then while resting his elbows on his
chair arms crossed his fingers with the two index fingers pointing
up, and placed the two index fingers on his lips. He narrowed his
eyes and continued to listen.

“
I do not believe that
anyone on our world has the capacity to put an object in orbit
around our world, but there is indeed an object in orbit here. I
believe that we have visitors here from another world. Furthermore,
I believe that Aspiria’s disappearance can be traced to this. As I
said before, I first witnessed this object prior to her
disappearance. I was with her on this occasion, and we witnessed it
together, just a few days before she was gone. I have gone over the
tracks and clues, related to her disappearance, over, and over
again. There are the tracks of four men coming from and returning
to a rocky clearing not far from our home, and on the night she
disappeared we found a deer that had been shot with a sleeping
drug. One track, returning back, shows much greater depth,
indicative of this man carrying what we all believe to be Aspiria.
It would seem that they had drugged her, as they had the deer. From
this location, there are no additional tracks—nothing leading into
or away from the rocky clearing. We have searched over and over
again. The rocky clearing itself appears to be the origin and the
destination. This has baffled everyone, perhaps even your
investigator.

“
If men from another world
have the capacity to travel from their world to ours, then they may
have the capacity to bring their craft down to our world—the rocky
clearance near my home—and then return the craft into orbit around
our world. I am aware of how fantastic this story is; I hope that I
do not come across as just a fool. It is true that I want my wife
back, but I believe that my supposition is rational, none the less.
With an additional pair of witnesses, my niece Miigal and her
boyfriend Jeriyal, I am more convinced than ever.”

“
Perhaps we can find
additional witnesses of this orbiting object,” Mayor Tinron
mused.

“
Yes, we are indeed
seeking that out now. We are not telling what we fear the object to
be, nor our supposed connection to the disappearance of Aspiria;
but we are simply looking for additional witnesses. I believe that
you know Aspiria’s brother, Priori. He is discussing this with his
colleagues in hopes that he may find out more about the nature of
an orbiting object. He believes that by finding the dates and times
of the observations, some of his colleagues may be able to
calculate the nature of the orbit. We may be able to predict when
it will be sighted again. This would confirm that it is an orbiting
object. My belief that it is men from another world would not be
proved, but I am at a loss to think of another
possibility.

“
Even if it is known that
we do have this orbiting craft filled with men from another world,
it would not prove a connection with the disappearance of Aspiria,
but it would be worth considering. For myself, I know it to be
true, for I have felt it. Still, for others, I want hard proof. I
am not here in hopes that you will believe me—you may believe or
not believe as you choose—but I hope that you will assist me in
finding proof of this. Even if it is true, I do not know what we
would have the power to do about it, but I must try what I
can.”

“
Roloff, I have known you,
and respected you, I might add, for many years. You are a gem of a
man, and I and my wife would do anything for you and your lovely
Aspiria. I, for myself—I do believe you, though I find it
mindboggling. I agree with you, it matters not whether I believe or
not, or even if you believe or not; we have witnesses of a
phenomenon that needs to be investigated. If these men have this
power, and have used it in this way—to take your lovely wife—then
they may have additional powers. We do not know their motivations,
or their capacities. We simply know that they have come here, and
have taken your wife, and seem to be cowering and hiding. I do not
like the sound of this. We must seek as much information as we can,
and prepare for what this could mean to our people, to our towns,
and city.”

“
I have shared nothing
with the good people of Arkasia. I am afraid of how they may
respond. Fear may cause more problems, than the circumstances
alone. When we know more, we will need to share the
information.”

“
If they return to the
surface and take another, we will be responsible if we have not
warned the people,” expressed Mayor Tinron.

“
I agree, but we have so
little to go on,” said Roloff with concern.

“
True. We must act
quickly. We will get the science community and our investigators on
this immediately. We must seek out witnesses from the communities
as well.”

“
I do thank you, again,
Mayor Tinron. I feel a great sense of relief at having shared this
with you. I know that with your help and advice, I am closer to
seeing my Aspiria again. I will be at Priori’s home for a few days
before I must get Caryell, my son, back to school. I will call on
you again if I get any further information. Good day.”

“
Please call again in two
days. I will have more information, and we can collaborate at that
time. I am at your service, my good sir. Good day.”

Steve could hear conversation and laughter
as he walked down the corridor. He listened intently as the two
women spoke. Aspiria was speaking nearly-perfect American English.
Over the past several days her exaggerated nasally tone had
disappeared. She now enunciated almost accent-free. With a careful
ear, a subtle accent could be heard, yet even this seemed to be
disappearing as the days went by. This conversation that he was
eves dropping on, though originating in another room, sounded like
two American women speaking with no sign of an accent at all.
Aspiria’s vocabulary was increasing so steadily, that she never
even stumbled for a word. By comparison, his ability to communicate
with her in her language was rudimentary at best. He was beginning
to put sentences together with simple words, but even then, he knew
that his pronunciation was horrific. His ability to even produce
the sounds was pathetic at best. Still, he knew that this was of
prime importance. Language experts from around the world were
analyzing the recordings of her language, but they were at a loss
without Aspiria’s explanations. Steve was getting a one-on-one
tutorial, and she was an excellent teacher. This was one of the
most critical aspects of the current mission. He would work his
hardest to continue to grasp and then report on the alien
language.

The other major concern, from Command, was
the fact that Aspiria seemed to have an awareness of the earth,
which she claimed to have prior to being captured. This had
warranted a direct conversation between Steve and the President. It
was a fact that via the tablet that Aspiria had had access to, she
could have learned a lot about the earth. She was not always
closely supervised while using the tablet; it was possible that she
could have researched a lot in order to manipulate a way to get
released. Her ability to learn and maintain information was
extraordinary; her comprehension of English was already
magnificent. Steve was not convinced that she was manipulative. She
had been very direct with him in regards to her desires; beyond
that, he felt something when she spoke about religion and
spirituality. It did not feel contrived at all. But he would be
required to investigate this completely.

Upon entering the lab, he was pleasantly
surprised to see that not only was Aspiria all made up, but Tammy
was too. Tammy had on a short, low-cut, spaghetti-strapped red
dress, and high heels. He had never seen her dressed like that
before. “Wow, what’s the occasion!”

“
We’ve been shooting
photos and videos for public release. I didn’t want Aspiria to get
all of the attention.”

“
I won’t even be noticed
with you wearing that,” Aspiria commented.

“
Aspiria doesn’t think
that a woman should show so much skin. She says that it gives the
wrong idea to people, and it isn’t good for men’s eyes.”

“
You are much too
beautiful as you are. Dressing like this doesn’t increase your
beauty; it focuses attention to your body, instead of your beauty.”
Aspiria was direct, but kindly in her tone. Tammy, for her part,
found it entertaining and comical.

“
I don’t know, Aspiria,
I’m pretty impressed right now!” said Steve.

“
I prove my point,” Tammy
said with a smile.

“
Could you bring your
tablet, Aspiria? I have some things that I need to talk with you
about. If you could get everything set up on the table, I’ll be
with you in a moment.”

Aspiria went to her cell.

Steve and Tammy began to speak softly. “You
look stunning, Tammy. I wish that I could take you out for the
night. I’m afraid that I have nowhere to take you. Even on the
planet, I doubt that we could get away without getting caught.
Somehow, I think, at least you would stand out looking like
this!”

“
I wish that we could go
out, too. It was so fun getting all dressed up. Am I in, at least,
the same
league
as her?”

“
Who?”

She lightly punched him on the arm. “You
know she’s beautiful.”

“
Yes, but I only have eyes
for you. Now, I’m afraid that the whole world will have eyes for
you, too. Maybe it will generate some sympathy for me when our
predicament becomes public.”

Tammy looked away and then back again. “I’m
not going to let that happen. It isn’t fair to either one of us. We
don’t need this now; you, me, or us. We are in the middle of
something important.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I’m not keeping this
pregnancy. I never wanted to do this, but I can’t keep this
baby.”

“
I’m worried and scared,
too. I know that it’s you that has to carry the baby, but it’s my
baby, too. It’s
our
baby; it’s a part of us. I don’t think we should do that. I
know, I don’t have a good solution, yet, but I don’t think that we
should do that.”

“
It will be better for us.
We can work on our relationship, among all of the other stresses in
our life. We won’t be forced together because of this. We can
decide if we both want this, and enjoy all of the success that we
are now having. It will solve all of the problems. I can have
everything back to normal, and we won’t have any
consequences.”

“
If we make our
relationship work, and we have a family someday, we will always
know that we did this to one of our own. I can’t imagine looking at
our children one day, and realizing that we did this to one of
them. I don’t think it’s right. We made a mistake: there should be
consequences.”

“
Steve, I don’t think that
you are thinking about this. I love you, and I don’t want to do
this. But, like you say, sometimes you have to make choices; you
have to take risks. For everything that we will gain, I think that
we need to make this choice. I don’t want this baby right now. I
don’t want to be in this situation. I have everything that I want
right now, and this takes it all away; I don’t want to keep this
pregnancy.”

“
Tammy, I love you, too.
We’ll talk more soon.” Steve sighed, then grinned. “You really look
great! I need to talk with Aspiria. She’s right, though, I think
that you’re burning my eyes with your beauty. I don’t know how I am
going to concentrate.”

Aspiria was turned with her back to them
sitting at the table now. Tammy leaned up and kissed Steve, and
then he turned and went to talk with Aspiria.

“
I need to talk with you,
and this is very important. My commanders are very concerned about
you knowing about the earth, that is, more than what we have told
you. They are concerned that you knew that we existed, before we
brought you to this ship. Did you read about the story of Jesus, or
hear someone, like Danny, talking about it? Is that how you first
heard about Jesus?”