Hara's Legacy (15 page)

They talked a few minutes more, then the aliens decided to look over Mick’s medical office. As they all shuffled out the door and down to the small building that housed his medical equipment, Jane managed to pull Mick aside and tell him about her startling discovery. She knew Mick could telepathically send her message to Justin and Caleb, though she herself had very little telepathic ability.

When they reached his office, Mick gave the aliens a quick tour, then settled Jane on his oversized examining table. He watched carefully as Prime and Mara used small devices to record her vital signs and take something like an ultrasound image of her womb. He asked questions at each step, seeking assurance their technology would do no harm to the fetus or to Jane.

When it came Mara’s turn, Mick explained the methods human doctors had traditionally used to track the progress of a pregnancy. He explained each as he used his own tools?blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, heart rate monitor, etc?to do a cursory examination of

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Mara’s distended stomach. While he explained to them on one level, on another he was communicating with the baby. He was amazed by what he found when he sent out his first tentative thought to the child in Mara’s womb.

“I’ve shown you the basic human medical tests I can do here,” he said quietly. “But there’s something further we can do that regular humans, in the old days, could not.” Standing back, Mick motioned Justin forward. The aliens were intrigued enough to let him continue. “You already realize your child may have some of Justin’s extrasensory abilities. Justin is strongly telekinetic, but also somewhat telepathic.” He turned to Justin. “You should be the first to really communicate with him, Justin. He’s your son.”

“You mean to say the fetus can communicate already?” Prime asked, clearly intrigued.

Mick nodded as Justin moved forward to put his hand on Mara’s belly. Mick kept the scientists occupied with an explanation of human gestation and growth, giving Justin a moment to commune with his child.

Justin sent out his first tentative thoughts to the baby, shocked to his core when the child sent back a barrage of thought images. The boy had no real understanding of the wider world around him, but he knew sensations and feelings and he could communicate them using his already strong telepathy.

Tears formed behind Justin’s eyes as he realized just how special his boy was. He sent the thought to him, trying to let the baby know how much he was loved by his father and that he could always come to his father for help and understanding.

“Is he speaking to you?” Mara’s lilting voice interrupted, her hand moving to cover Justin’s on her tummy.

Justin nodded. “He’s communicating, though not quite in words. It’s amazing.”

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“I take it this is not the usual course of events. Can you communicate with Jane’s baby as well?” Mick stepped up to answer Mara while Justin concentrated on the stolen moments with his son. “Jane’s baby isn’t very self-aware just yet. I’ve tried once or twice to see if I could communicate, but never received the kind of response we’re getting from your child. Of course, that might also just mean Jane’s child will not be as strongly telepathic as yours. It could be that Jane’s baby has different gifts.”

“My baby communicates with me empathically,” Jane said quietly, coming forward. “It gets stronger each day, but it only started a few weeks ago.”

Mara tilted her head. “This baby has been sending me dream images for much longer. I think the first one I made note of was only three weeks into the pregnancy.”

“So early?” Mick asked. “Have they gotten stronger over time?”

“Yes, and I believe my ability to interpret his images has gotten better as well.”

“He’s telling me about a cold place,” Justin said, concentrating on the images in his mind. “He doesn’t like the cold, damp feeling, and he wishes you wouldn’t stay there so long.”

Mara laughed and the room was filled with the tinkling alien notes. “There are caves below the city where I go to visit some of our test subjects. It is rather cold and damp. I will endeavor not to visit quite so long for the baby’s comfort.”

“I’ll tell him.” Justin smiled, sending the thought to the boy. “He’s grateful,” Justin said after a moment,

“and he seems to want to spend more time in a place where there’s a lot of rainbow light and a very comforting, vibrating hum.”

“The resonance chamber,” Prime said quickly, nodding. “That must be what he means.” Mara nodded. “I enjoy the sound of the place as well and will do as he asks. It’s very soothing there.”

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“He agrees. He likes the vibrations. They make him feel warm.” After that he spent a few more minutes communicating back and forth, but when Mara asked what some of the dreams the baby had been sending her meant, Justin asked Mick to step in to try to decipher them with his stronger telepathy.

Mick spent some time helping Mara learn what the baby had meant with the dreams he’d sent, then saw an opportunity to advance the family’s plan. They’d all discussed ways they could get this child under their protection, to raise him within their family, show him love, and teach him about the legacy of his humanity.

One of the dreams the baby had sent made them all laugh. The baby wanted her to eat more of a certain kind of vegetable because the way it rumbled in her digestive tract made him happy. It was hard to figure that one out, but Mick’s medical training and strong telepathy allowed him to come up with the right words to explain what the baby sent. The other dreams were of a similar nature, and Mick tried to send back to the child how his mother didn’t really understand all his messages, though she was trying. The baby seemed reassured by the thoughts Mick sent him and rested content in his mother’s womb. When the last dream was explained to Mara’s satisfaction, Mick struck up the conversation he’d been rehearsing in one corner of his mind.

“You know, we could help you with this kind of thing as he grows.” His gaze sought and held Mara’s, but he knew his brothers and Jane were holding their breath, waiting to see how the alien woman would respond. “If you’d bring him back here every so often, or let him stay with us once in a while, we could teach him about his extrasensory gifts and help him learn to both control and use them responsibly.” Mara seemed to consider. “Your suggestion has some merit. I will think more about this.” Mick sighed. He didn’t want to push the woman. He didn’t want to seem too eager and make her suspicious. He’d planted the seed and would wait to argue the case, if needed, when he had her decision.

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As the conversation drifted, Mara looked at each of the brothers in turn. “You, Caleb, have the leadership qualities of Hara, and Mick, the inquisitive mind. But what of you, Justin? What did you do before my people came?”

Justin sighed heavily. He knew he had to tell the truth, though as a rule, he liked to keep his past private.

“Before the cataclysm I was a soldier. I was selected and trained as a special operative. If Caleb hadn’t called me home, I would have stayed in the military, probably for the next twenty years or so, but I came home when my family needed me.”

“You were a warrior. As was your ancestor, Hara.” Mara seemed pleased, though it was hard to tell when she had so little emotion. “Hara was a great leader, a warrior educated in science and possessed of a daring that few of my kind still have. I see parts of him in all three of you.”

“I’d like to read about him, if you have any historical records that could be translated into English you’re willing to share.” Mick’s request seemed to surprise the aliens, but Mara smiled with something that approached pleasure as she thought about it.

“It would be fitting that the descendants of Hara make a study of his life and accomplishments.” She seemed to be almost thinking out loud. “I will take your request under consideration. It is a reasonable and respectful one.”

“You seem surprised,” Justin said, a little insulted by her tone of astonishment that heathen Breeds could be either reasonable or respectful.

Mara tilted her head, his emotional tone completely lost on her.

“You have continually surprised me since the moment we met, Justin O Hara. You are not at all what I expected of Breeds. Especially males of your species.” Caleb stepped forward. “We’re not all savages driven half mad by loss, lack of female companionship and rough living. I know a lot of the men

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living in the Waste are a bit odd, even among humans, but you shouldn’t expect they’re representative of all of humanity. We were a civilized, technologically growing and caring people before the cataclysm.

We’ve tried to stay as close to the old ways as we could given the circumstances of our new world.” Caleb’s tone was patient as he tried to educate the alien woman who just couldn’t comprehend the emotional toll the cataclysm had taken on the few survivors of humanity.

“Forgive my assumptions. We had reports of a much more primitive indigenous species when my predecessors formulated our plans for colonization of this planet.”

“Well, your reports were dead wrong,” Justin said, his anger showing in his words, but totally lost on Mara.

She turned her attention to him, her flat, unemotional eyes giving him chills.

“I am beginning to revise my opinion on that matter as well, but I must gather further data to draw reasonable conclusions. Regardless, what’s done is done and we all must live with it. My people have no choice but to proceed with colonization of this planet. There is nowhere else for us to go.”

“Why not? Surely there are other planets like this one in the galaxy,” Mick asked, ever the scientist.

Mara nodded. “Yes, we found several with untuned crystal deposits sufficient to sustain us and dispatched other colony ships to each likely candidate. Our homestar went supernova and we had to relocate the populations of several planets. We are the survivors of Alvia Prime, the first homeworld. The inhabitants of Secundus and Tierti and so on were sent to other worlds, spread far across this and other galaxies. We do not expect to hear from them for many centuries. We can only hope they found their worlds to be as acceptable as we have so far found this one.”

“Alvia? So then your race would be called Alvian?” Mick asked.

Mara nodded. “Yes. Is that significant?”

The brothers looked at each other and grinned. It was Jane who took pity on the aliens to explain.

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“We had legends of a race called elves who looked a lot like your people. Tall, blond, pointy ears, musical voices.” The scientists nodded, that inquisitive look back on their faces. “They were also believed to have magical abilities. I imagine your technology would have looked like magic to the less advanced people of this planet centuries ago and if your people bred with humans and psychic abilities were the result, well, you can see how the legends now seem to have some basis in fact. It’s not a far leap in our language from Alvian to elven, is it?”

Mara nodded again. “Fascinating,” she said, turning to Helas Prime. “I believe this observation merits further study.” The old man nodded in agreement and they asked a few questions about Earth’s legends which the O’Haras answered as best they could.

Mara and Prime headed for the silver ship not long after, the giant, silent warrior at their back. The O’Haras went to see them off, but Caleb and Mick hung back with Jane while Justin said goodbye to the alien woman who was having his child.

“Thank you for coming here, Mara. I appreciate the opportunity to see you this way and share in my child’s development.” He placed a hand on her tummy, sending his thoughts to the baby, saying goodbye for now and telling him to be strong and to remember that his father loved him, always. Mara placed her hand over his.

“I have learned much here today. I wish to reassure you that our bargain holds firm. Your ranch will remain unchanged by my people’s presence in the Waste and your family will not be taken for study or removed from here.”

“I thank you for that.”

“The debt is mine and it is an honorable one. You have fulfilled your part, now I fulfill mine.” She made a gesture with her hands that seemed ritualistic. “I will try to return after the child is born so that we may compare him with Jane’s baby.”

Justin noted she wasn’t coming back so he could meet his son. No, it was for the sake of her damned experiment that she would return. Again it amazed him how little feeling this woman had and how little she

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understood human sentiments. Perhaps his boy would be the one to teach her. Perhaps their son would show her the damage she’d done to human lives with her experiments, and help stop them.

But he was getting ahead of himself. The boy had to be born first, and Justin was just glad Mara had a reason to return so Justin could meet his son.

“We’ll look forward to your visit,” he said formally, leaning forward to kiss her cheek in farewell. She seemed surprised by the gesture, but returned it.

As the scientists turned to go, Justin nodded to the huge warrior who had observed all, a shadow who’d followed them around all day. Grady nodded back as Justin stepped away from the craft and joined his family. They moved well back from the ship, unsure how much clearance it would need to take off, but watched carefully as it lifted almost soundlessly into the sky and flew quickly out of sight.