The Bonding (23 page)

“Howdy boys!” Janet said. “Sorry for all
the confusion tonight.”

The two officers walked towards Janet and
Homer with their guns drawn. “Hold it right there folks,” said the older man
with the large belly hanging over his belt. He was obviously the sheriff and
the younger man was his deputy.

“Homer, is that you?” the sheriff asked.

“Yeh Bob, it’s me. Sorry for draggin’ you outta bed so
late.”

“What in Sam Hill is goin’ on around
here? Who
is
this lady and what the
hell
is
that thing over there? Your wife called havin’ a hissy fit about hearin’ you
shootin’ at burglars or something.”

Janet stepped forward and extended her
hand. “Hi Bob, my name is Lt. Colonel Janet Shelby, with the U.S. Air Force,
and that thing over there is a top-secret that nobody around here was supposed
to know about. But, unfortunately, we had some electrical problems and here we
are. All we needed to do was use the phone and call for help.”

Bob shook her hand. “Pleased to meet you
Commander. What the hell is that thing?”

“I wish I could talk about it, but I
can’t. Like I said, it’s top-secret and we weren’t even supposed to be here
right now.”

“Why didn’t you just call somebody on
your radio? I’m sure that thing has a radio doesn’t it?”

“I told you we had electrical problems.
Our radios and engine controls quit working. We saw the gas station and figured
that there would be a telephone here, but the pay phone was out of order, so we
had to break into the gas station to use the one inside. The Air Force will pay
for any damage to the door, but I still haven’t called for help yet. We keep
getting interrupted.”

Bob started smiling. “Well, you don’t
have to worry about that. We already called and help is on the way.”

That was not what Janet wanted to hear.
“Who did you call?”

“The Air Force over at Carswell. I told
them we had what looked like some kind of UFO hoverin’ over the town of Padgett
and they said they’d get someone here right away.”

“Bob, I appreciate your help, but there
are only certain people that we want involved here, and regular Air Force is
not them. Obviously, this is no fighter jet.”

All of them looked in unison to the east
at the sound of approaching helicopters. Janet was getting worried now. She
looked at the gas station window, towards Tarku. She could feel his thoughts
and they were worried also.

“Bob, I need to get some things ready on
board the ship before anyone gets here. Like I said before, this is top-secret,
and I can’t let anyone without proper authorization get on board. I left some
things in the office that I have to get. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be right
back.”
 
Janet turned and headed
into the gas station. She needed to get Tarku back to the ship without anyone seeing
him, but she wasn’t sure how. He was still back out of the way as she entered.

“This is not a good situation,” he said.
“Are those helicopters I hear approaching?”

“Yes! Do you think you can get back to
the ship without anyone seeing you if I distract them?”

“I’ll go out the back and around the
building. We’ll have to hurry before the others arrive.”

Suddenly the office door opened and the
sheriff and deputy were standing there. Their jaws dropped open simultaneously
as they looked up in amazement at Tarku. Janet forgot about Homer. He told Bob and
the deputy about the big alien creature inside the office.

“Holy mother of God!” Bob exclaimed.

Up to this point the deputy hadn’t said a
word, and was still speechless as he stared at Tarku.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” Tarku asked.

“Uh… Uh…” Bob didn’t know what to say.

Tarku reached out his arm to shake Bob’s
hand. “I am Tarku.”

Bob and the deputy looked down at his
massive hand with claws in place of fingernails and weren’t sure if they should
shake it or not. Finally Bob reached out and placed his hand in Tarku’s, never
taking his eyes off the hands.

“I… I… I’m Bob.” His eyes slowly moved
from Tarku’s hands up to his face.

Tarku reached for the deputy. “And who
are you?”

The deputy’s mouth was still hanging
open. “Uh… Uh… I’m Justin, Justin Haggarty.” His small hand was engulfed by
Tarku’s, but he was instantly relieved when it felt just like anyone else’s
hand. He smiled and looked up at Tarku, who was also smiling.

“Gentlemen, we need to get back on board
our ship. It was a pleasure meeting you, but we have to get going.”

The sound of the helicopters got very
loud as everyone’s attention moved to the street. Two black helicopters set
down between the cars and the spaceship, and a team of armed soldiers jumped
out and began forming a perimeter around the ship.

Tarku and Janet looked at each other and
knew each other’s thoughts. This was quickly turning into a nightmare. There
was no way to get back to the ship now.

They all watched as the officer in charge
and five armed men walked towards the office.

“Looks like your help is here,” Bob said
smiling.

Janet and Tarku weren’t smiling. Janet
thought that there was only one way that she and Tarku were going to get back
onto their ship. She had to act like there was nothing wrong and that she was
in charge of this operation. She looked over at Tarku.

“Follow me,” she said.

Tarku had learned to trust her instincts
on certain things and didn’t hesitate to follow her out the door. As they
walked out the men approaching them stopped. Janet walked up to the officer in
charge, but they didn’t even look at her. All eyes were on Tarku.

Janet saw that he was a Major. “Good
morning, Major,” she said extending her hand. “I’m Lt. Colonel Janet Shelby of
the Air Force special operations unit, and this is Tarku.”

The Major turned his eyes to Janet and
quickly scanned her from head to toe and back, then shook her hand. “I’m Major
Barton.”

Tarku extended his hand. “I am Tarku,
Major Barton.”

The Major shook Tarku’s hand, taking
notice of the claws. “Pleased to meet you, Tarku. Can you tell me what’s going
on here?”

Janet spoke up. “As you can see we are in
a bit of a jam. This ship behind you is top-secret, but getting less secret by
the minute. We experienced a major electrical problem, which knocked out our
communications equipment and engine controls. We are not supposed to be here,
and this ship should already be underground. In a couple of hours it’s going to
be daylight, and I can see that the town’s people are already gathering. We’re
going to have to debrief everyone you know. No one can talk about what they
have seen here tonight.”

The Major was staring at her, but not
saying a word. Janet could see that he was going over the entire situation in
his mind. From his unmarked helicopters and the black, unmarked uniforms of his
troops, she knew that he was from the Black-Ops team.

“Our intention was to call our go-team,
from the telephone inside this gas station, so they could come and get us.
However, nothing is going as planned.”

“Now I remember you,” the Major blurted
out as if not hearing anything else she had said. “Yes! Commander Janet Shelby
of the space shuttle Intrepid – lost three years ago in a tragic accident
while orbiting the moon.”

“That’s the story the public knows,”
Janet replied. “In reality, the shuttle was not lost. We had to have a reason
to leave the moon’s orbit and rendezvous with Tarku’s ship out in space,
approximately fifty thousand miles beyond the moon. Major, I’m not even
supposed to be telling you this, but we are obviously in an unfortunate situation.
I need to contact my team and get them here to get this ship out of here. You
need to keep this area isolated from the public until they get here.”

The Major was still looking at her with
speculation. Her story made perfect sense, but he was one of the people who
should have known all about her operation, and was wondering why he didn’t.

“Where are you from, Mr. Tarku?” the
Major asked.

“That is classified information, Major,”
Janet replied.

“With all due respect, Commander, I
believe that’s bullshit! I know all of the classified information regarding
everything with extraterrestrials and space phenomena, and I’ve never seen or
heard anything on this operation.”

“And you never will!” she snapped back.
“You don’t know every operation, Major.”

“
Who
do you
report to, Commander?”

“I’m not at liberty to tell you that.”

“Bullshit!” He was getting visibly
frustrated with her.

“Major Barton, you are bordering on
insubordination. All you need to do is keep this area secure and my team will
take care of everything else. And, since I outrank you, Major, that is an
order. Do I make myself clear?” she commanded.

“Perfectly!” the Major replied, still
quite irritated. He was use to giving the orders, not taking them, and he still
felt that there was something not right with the situation. He turned to his
second in command and started barking orders.

“Get this entire town secured. No one
goes in or out. I want perimeters set up three miles outside of the city
limits. Anyone who hasn’t already awakened and seen this ship needs to stay in
their
homes until further notice. You know the routine.”

The captain saluted. “Yes sir! I’ll get
it done.”

Janet’s only goal, at this time, was to
get her and Tarku back on board their ship, so they could get out of there. She
felt that she had done a pretty good bullshit job on the Major.

“I still need to call my team, Major. Do
you have a phone?”

“Yes Ma’am. This way.” The Major led her
back to his chopper and got a satellite phone from the cockpit. “Here you are,
Ma’am. All you have to do…”

“I’m quite familiar with how to use a
satcom phone, Major.” Janet began dialing numbers, ensuring that the Major
couldn’t see the keypad. At this point, everything she did seemed like an
irritation to him. She began to walk away from him and he followed.

“This is a private conversation, Major,”
she said firmly, giving him a cold stare. Visibly upset, he looked at Tarku,
who was smiling, which aggravated him even more. He turned around and walked
away.

Janet continued dialing the phone and
smiled at Tarku. “How am I doing?”

Tarku nodded. “Quite well! I think you’ve
totally pissed off the Major.”

“I’m still going to complete this
mission. I’m calling my parents. Although the Major thinks I’m calling our
team.”

Tarku watched the Major as he went back
to the chopper and got on another satcom phone. “I don’t trust that man.”

“I don’t either,” Janet replied. “But we
won’t have to deal with him much longer. As soon as I talk with my parents
we’re getting out of here.”

Tarku kept watching the Major. He was in
a heated conversation with whoever was on the other end of his telephone call,
and he kept looking over at Janet and Tarku, then at the ship, as though he was
describing it. When he hung up the phone he was smiling and immediately went
over by the spaceship and spoke with the guards.

Janet finished her conversation and Tarku
noticed her wiping away tears and trying to compose herself. “Are you all
right?”

She nodded. “That was one of the hardest
things I’ve ever done in my life. At first, my dad didn’t believe that it was
me
, until I told him some things that only he and I know.
Then my mom got on the phone with him. I explained what really happened, about
how you rescued me and how we’ve been traveling the universe together, and how
I would not be able to see them ever again.”

“I am very proud of you, Janet. That took
a lot of courage, and whatever happens, I’m glad that we came here so that you
could speak with them.”

“I love you, Tarku.”

“I love you too, Janet.”

She looked over at the Major, who was
standing by the guards near the ship elevator. “Let’s get out of here.”

Tarku nodded. “I’m ready.”

They walked up to the Major, who now had a smug expression.
“Our team is on the way,” she said. “But before they get here, there are things
on board that we need to do.”

“Fine,” the Major said. “I’ll be glad to
assist you in any way I can. I’d love to see the inside of this one. It’s so
much different that the others at area 51. That
is
where your team is
coming from isn’t it, Commander?”

“Where my team is coming from is not your
concern,” she replied.

“Oh but it is,” he said smugly. “You see,
Commander, I’ve been on the phone also, and my boss, who is in charge of area
51, has never heard of this ship or Mr. Tarku, or your story about what
happened with your shuttle. And he is very interested in speaking with you in
person and seeing this ship for himself.”