Chapter Seven
#noDAPL
I awaken in panic, afraid to move. Everywhere I look there is white. Where am I? Who…what am I lying on?
Then it all comes back to me even as HD stirs. An overnight flurry has covered the little ship's clear canopy with a layer of translucent snow.
"Idunt ookaaay?"
"I'm okay, Huge Dude. Just didn't know where I was for a moment."
"Scceeent Idunt feeeaar."
"Through your mask? What does it smell like?"
My curiosity aroused, I sit up to look down on my mask covered, fish net warmed mattress, kidnapper and benefactor.
"Baaaaad."
"Well thanks a lot! You know I haven't bathed since we got here."
"Oooge Doood knnooow."
Great. I stink. I tentatively sniff at HD, but find nothing detectable.
"Well, I'm not gonna go roll in the snow. There's got to be somewhere to wash up in this camp. I need to find out if the council is meeting today and find some breakfast."
"Brrrekffaaaasst?"
"Food, Huge Dude, food. I appreciate all the meat you've been feeding me but humans need other things in their diet besides meat. Things like vegetables, bread and fruit."
"Frrrooooot?"
"I'll show you sometime. Maybe you'll even like it. Now, may I please get out? I need to pee and there's no kitty litter in here."
The canopy promptly opens and I am deposited, naked, on the ground. My dress follows, falling like a blanket to cover my head. I shimmy it on, then find my pot holder hand warmers tossed to me. Thank God I left my boots on. Bare feet in the snow burns like hell.
HD follows, snaps on his camouflage and stomps off. "Where are you going?" I call after him.
"Peee," rumbles back at me. Fascinated, I stare at the blur heading out onto the fresh snow. It stops a short distance away and after some fumbling movement, spouts a stream of greenish liquid that steams onto the ground.
So . . . he can pee standing. Does that mean he's got junk? I'm suddenly discomforted by the remembrance that I slept naked on top of him all night.
Movement catches the corner of my eye and I turn to see three mounted horses approaching. At breakneck speed the ponies plunge, their riders whooping and screaming into the midst of the camp. Men, women and children pour from the tents, tepees and shacks to surround the disruptors.
A rumble tells me HD is at my side. Quietly, I try to keep him calm. "I don't know what's happening. This isn't an attack. Let me go find out what's going on. Please stay here, hidden."
HD's grunt agrees with me and I proceed toward the commotion. Squeezing between people, I edge in to see and hear. The riders have dismounted, holding their steaming horses and one is speaking.
"They are gone! It's a miracle. They are all gone! We rode into their camp – it's deserted. All the cops are gone!"
Whoops erupt from the crowd. An Elder yells for everyone to be quiet. When the air is still, he questions, "You found no one? No…bodies or anything?"
"Nothing, Chief Looking Horse. We found only the tracks of their trucks. It looks like they were in a hurry. They left much behind."
The Chief looked through the crowd, and upon finding someone, motioned for them to come join him. I followed the direction of his beckon to see my Grandfather walking.
"It is perhaps this is related to what you told me," the Chief addressed my Kaka. "Something seems to have scared them. Let all the council come and sit after we have eaten. We have much to discuss. And fetch your granddaughter, John. We will hear her words."
My Grandfather had not wasted any time in contacting the council. I work my way back to where I'd left HD. "Good news, Huge Dude. I will speak with the governing council this morning. I think you'd better come too, but stay invisible unless I need you. Okay?"
"Oookaaay."
"I'm going to get some food now. Do you need to eat?"
"Nooooo. Goooooo."
Following the crowd to the main mess tent, I greet my Grandfather near the head of the line before taking my rightful place nearer the end. Elders always eat first as a sign of respect for their wisdom and age. If there is little to go around, usually everyone takes only a small amount so that the person behind them may also be fed.
I soon content myself with a bowl of oatmeal. Not my favorite, but a good choice for such a large crowd. Sitting on a straw bale to eat, I watch the children, some assisted by their mothers, help themselves to breakfast. One small boy is building a mountain of brown sugar on top of his oatmeal.
Getting an early start on your diabetes? Grandmother always told me not to eat white man's food, that it would kill me.
My daydreaming finishes as I see Kaka get up, along with a stream of other Elders and head off. It is council meeting time. I've never been to one before and doubt there has ever been one of such magnitude. This is not simply a council of the Lakota and Dakota from Standing Rock reservation. Many tribes have joined us here and all nations will be fairly represented. Even the whites who've joined us? What about the Asians here? People from all over the world have come to spend some time at the camp and support, to a greater or lesser degree, the pipeline protest. I suspect that the council will be made of only First Nations. The help of others is appreciated and respected, but the burdens of decisions must fall upon us – protectors of our most ancient Mother Earth.
I trust HD is near, but don't feel or hear his presence as I follow the Elders into large rectangular tent. Inside, a central fire is burning, smoke rising to the exit hole in the middle. A great oblong hoop of tribal leaders is forming along the tent edges. Each Elder takes a seat and waits in silence. Looking around for Grandfather, I spy him next to Chief Looking Horse and obey his head jerk to come sit by him. It is a great honor to be here and I am careful to keep my eyes down in humility.
The sacred sage is produced, lit and, following our custom, everyone washes themselves in the pungent smoke. I see several here who have come from far away. The smudge is probably new to them, but respecting our ways, they urge the smoke over their arms and bodies in purification.
Now, Chief Looking Horse opens the meeting by greeting everyone, giving thanks to Creator and then passing the talking to my Grandfather. Kaka stands and tells the story, my story, of the aliens and how I am now here with HD. No one interrupts. When he is done talking, it will be each Chief and Holy man's turn to speak and each one will speak his mind until he is finished without interruption.
I listen and try not to fidget as the talking goes on through the morning. Many express concerns and dismay at the news that Earth is dying. No one questions the truth of my Grandfather's words. He is respected. He has spoken and that is enough.
Finally, after many hours, the hoop winds down to me. I look at Grandfather, feeling like an eight year old, and squeak, "What should I say?"
"What is in your heart. And then, present him. He is here?"
"He is," I say with only a little doubt in my words. I trust he's here, but I don't know where.
Standing shakily, I begin. "I am honored to be here today. I am only Angela Lea, a young woman finding her place in the world."
And so I tell them firsthand of my abduction and some of how it was aboard the alien ship. I tell them of how HD has taken care of me and how he wishes to find young people suitable for transplant to a new world. We will gain a new Mother to be learned, to be cared for, respected and cherished and it is my hope that we can avoid the mistakes made on Earth. Our kind will continue. First Nations will be the first seed in a new home.
"So, this alien is among us now and he will appear when I ask him too. He is large, strong and will strike fear into your heart. Do not fear, but respect him. Huge Dude, will you show yourself now?"
A reflective blur comes into the center. How he has been unnoticed in a tent packed with this many, I don't know. The tiny streaks of electricity crackle to reveal him standing tall in all his fearsome glory. He doesn't crouch or jut his jaw, but simply stands there, letting everyone get a good look.
He is magnificent. Several feet taller than the tallest man here, with bulging muscles that seem to require no pumping to display themselves. The gray metal mask hides his complex face and I think that is good. There is enough for them to deal with in his appearance right now. They don't need extra jaws to complicate things.
There is movement on the sidelines. A man with a red sash wound around his head comes slowly to stand several feet away from HD. He keeps his eyes low and then kneels. HD doesn't move, simply allows this genuflection. The man then stands to address the assembly.
"I represent the great Hopi Nation. We know of this being, this kachina. He is a powerful spirit and we must do as he wishes."
Another man rises and also kneels to HD before speaking. "I am of the Aztec people. We too, know of this being. Long ago, he taught us to build our temples to the gods and demanded sacrifices. I fear him, but I wish to know what sacrifices he wants before we agree to this."
Murmurs softly buzz through the tent.
Sacrifices? The Aztecs sacrificed their conquered enemies. They cut their hearts out. Holy Shit, HD.
I stood. "With the council's permission, I will ask him."
With nods indicating approval, I stand before Huge Dude, feeling quite small in his presence.
"Huge Dude," I say in a quiet intimate voice, "they have questions."
His mask inclines toward me, "Oooge Doood knooow. Teeell . . . Oooge Doood nnnooot assskkk thiiisss."
"Grandfathers. The alien says that he will not ask that we make human sacrifices like the Aztec ancestors did."
The old Aztec Elder raises his voice, "That is good. Ask him why they made our ancestors do it."
"Did you understand that, HD?"
He nods. "Teeeelll weeeee noooot maaaakkee."
"You mean your ancestors didn't make his ancestors do human sacrifices? Why did they do it then?"
"Ooowwwwn choooiice."
I again address the Elders, "Grandfathers, the alien says that his ancestors did not force the Aztecs to conduct human sacrifices. He says that they chose to do it."
The Aztec spoke again, directly to HD, "Why then, I wonder, did they make this choice. What did they hope to accomplish? Did they need to appease you?"
This time, Huge Dude holds up a hand to stop me and replies in his own voice, "Oouuurrrr neeeedssss aarrreeee feeew."
The Aztec seems to have nothing more to say. Pursing his lips, he sits down. Chief Looking Horse again stands. "The council must sleep and smoke on this. We will come to a decision in three days."
HD's head snaps up, tusks rattling. "Oone daaayy. Muussst urrrryyy."
The chief glances at me and I take it as permission to speak. "Chief, Council of First Nations, the alien has repeatedly told me of an urgency to accomplish this. Perhaps we do not have the luxury of three days?"
Chief Looking Horse walks solemnly right up in front of HD and stands. "We will take your council, Angela, and talk through the night. But it is never wise to rush important decisions."
I whisper to the Chief, "May I remind you that we really don't have a decision. He can take who he wants, any time. He already took me."
The Chief's eyes widen, the only change in his demeanor. He nods and addresses the council, "All who wish to speak remain here. Our talk will go on."
Then he speaks to HD, "May Angela stay and talk with us? There is still much to learn from her."
Huge Dudes nods his acquiescence and wavers into invisibility before leaving the tent. With weak knees, I resume my seat next to Grandfather and watch the wavering blur that is Huge Dude leave the tent before I say anything.
"Grandfather, may I speak?" Kaka turns to Chief Looking Horse and relays my question in soft tones and again I am telling my tale.
I tell them all the rest of it - my kidnapping, the other members of the alien crew, their ship in orbit above - apparently undetectable by any radar. I even relate how the two men were also kidnapped, and how the aliens expected them to fight each other, the winner apparently a mate for me. There are chuckles when I tell them how I cleaned his clock, but everyone is very quiet when they learn that I never saw my potential husband again.
"I don't know what they did to him. They may have killed him. I don't know if they would make the effort to take him back to where they found him. Also, they seem to find value in fighting. The alien with me sometimes fights his superior. I've seen his bruises and he told me they were fighting. Maybe it's recreational but I have a feeling it is more. HD seems to pride himself as a good fighter and he was very interested in the fight here until he found out you weren't using weapons. Seemed to make no sense to him.
"And the reason the DAPL cops are gone is that I set HD on them. He promised me he wouldn't kill anybody, but I don't know what he did. It certainly had a good effect.
"Please realize there is really not a decision here to make about whether or not we will cooperate with HD. He can take anyone he wants. He says he needs eight hundred people, it's an opportunity for us to populate a new world and for our nations to continue."
I haven't said this much to a public audience since I was the wicked stepmother in our junior high production of Cinderella.
"This is all I have to say," I promptly sit down.
The talking continues. Each man speaking in turn, saying what he has to say without interruption. After many hours, food is brought and we get a break to eat and stretch our legs. Then, the talking resumes again.
I listen to the comments; very little that is new is said. There are many expressions of grief and of hopelessness. I'm finding it difficult to keep my eyes open and sit with them closed, trying not to lean into Grandfather. Finally, there is nothing left to be said and the Chief makes a pronouncement.
"Let us ask this alien what he wishes to do now. We will cooperate. Angela, what do you think of this plan?"
"I startle from my half-sleep and struggle on legs full of pins and needles to stand. "He will want to make his selection from our young adults. It would be a show of cooperation if we gather them together and let them know what's going on. Volunteers will be easier to work with. I am certain he'll examine them with his instruments and make the final selection himself."
My Grandfather nods his white head in approval. The Chief asks if anyone wishes to discuss this plan.
Please God, no more discussion.
No one has anything to say, so everyone begins to file out into the night.
"Good night, Kaka. I need to go find HD. Do you think he can begin examining volunteers in the morning?"
"Tomorrow, some time. We will gather the young adults and tell them. The volunteers will be ready after they have volunteered."
"Okay," I know better than to press him for an exact time. 'Events happen in their own time' is his perspective on the world. After leaving the reservation, I learned to live and work in the white man's world of schedules and appointments. In the native world, things are freer to happen in their own time and take however long they need to take.
I trudge through the snow toward the parked ship. I hope he'll be patient with this process. They did hurry things because of what he said.
Crunching snow announces HD's presence. He's camouflaged but those heavy footfalls can't be anyone else. I'm stopped in my tracks by a heavy hand on top of my head.
"Coooomme."
I'm tired and just want to sleep, but obediently turn toward the voice. "Okay, but I can't see to follow you in the dark."
"Trrrraccks," is his quick retort.
A full moon allows me to easily see the goliath footprints in the snow, in spite of the growing number of clouds. Even with other tracks, his huge fresh ones stand out to me. Wearily, I follow him around the camp edge and up a small rise to a cluster of tepees. Skirting them, the tracks lead up to the last one and I see the flap is opened.
Ducking inside, a small fire lights and warms the space. Quickly, I secure the door and then find HD's form resolving. He damn near takes up the entire tepee and has to duck down when he moves out of the center. I hold my breath watching him dodge poles. He points to a sleeping bag near the fire.
"Idunt sleeeepp."
"This is wonderful, Huge Dude! How did you manage this?"
HD unhooks the tubes to his mask and pops it off using both hands. His jaws spread wide as though he's in need of a face stretch. He seems in no hurry to put it back on.
"You can breathe our air!"
"Caaaan. Shhhooorrrt tttiiime."
"So why aren't we sleeping in the ship?"
"Tthisss beetttterrr. Noooo?"
"Yea, I was in that meeting all day. No time to shower. This IS better. Thanks. But how did you get it?"
"Eeeemmmptteee."
"Oh. It was empty so you thought you'd move us in?"
HD nods and I can't think of anything else to say. Instead, I unzip the sleeping bag and climb in. HD lays down on the ground, still without his mask, his back to me.
"HD?"
"Wwhaaat?" Did he sigh?
"Don't you want to know about the council meeting?"
"Nnnoooo. eeeeaaarrrd."
"What? Did my grandfather find you and tell you?"
"Nnnnoooo. eeeeeaaaard aalllll."
I sat up, suddenly awake. "You never left did you? You were there and heard everything?"
"Ouuuuttsssiiiide. Eeeear aallll."
"You stood next to the tent and listened in! That's trusting. That means you heard everything I said didn't you?"
"Yeeeessss . . . Idunt aaaaangrrry?"
"Well . . . no. I guess not. It's just that I probably wouldn't have said everything like I said it if I knew you were right there listening."
"Idunt . . . nooo maaaake sssseeeennssse. Sssssleeep."
I lay back down watching the fire flicker. He doesn't seem offended that I told them I was kidnapped and the rest of the horrible story. That's good. I keep trying to give him human emotions and reactions. He's not human. Don't forget that!
Awakening suddenly to the howl of a blizzard I bolt upright. The tepee shudders, but seems to be holding. The fire is down to coals. I rouse myself to retrieve more wood from near the doorway to rebuild the fire. When it is going nicely, I sit to warm myself. Pulling my hood up, I scoot as close to the flames as I dare. Looking through the flickering fire tongues, I see HD looking at me.
"The fire was nearly out. I don't have mesh like you do. Sorry to wake you up."
"Sssttooorrrrrrm?"
"Yes, a bad one. I hope the tepee holds."
"Teeeepeeee?"
"This," I point. "Our shelter. The wind could blow it down."
He looks all around as if assessing the structure, then sets up. "Idunt cooooold?"
"Yes, that and the storm woke me up."
"Hoooge Doood waaarrrrm. Coooome." He motioned for me to join him.
"Thanks, but I'll be fine. This fire is warming me up."
HD shrugged as if to say, 'suit yourself' and then reached for his mask. Twiddling with the inside of it, he plopped it back on his face and reconnected the hoses.
"Hooooww looooonnng sssstoooorrrrm?"
"Dunno. We may be stuck in this tepee for awhile. We can melt snow for water until the wood runs out. We may get hungry. It's not safe to go out in the blizzard when there's a white out." Anticipating he didn't know what a white out was, I added, "Between the falling snow, the frozen water, and the white ground, you can't see anything. You can't tell where you are going and you can get lost and freeze to death."
A chuckle comes from the mask. "Hoooge Doood noooo geeeeettt looooosssst. Noooooo worrrrryy Idunt. Weeeee wiiiillll eeeaaat, drrrrriiiinnk."
"Well, okay then!" I brighten, "Maybe we can help others then who will be pinned in their tents. You know, make sure they have wood, food and water."
"Thhhheeeey nooooot reeeeady?"
"Not ready? Oh, you mean not prepared for this storm. Well, if they've listened to the Elders they probably are. My people have lived here many years and we know how to survive harsh winters.
"Tell me, what would your people do if some of them were unprepared to survive a bad weather situation?"
"Noooottt prrrreeeepaaarrrreed? Diiiieeeee."
"You wouldn't help each other?"
"Deeeeeepeeeennds. Nooo heeeeelp stuuuupppid."
I can't help but laugh. "Yea, that makes sense to me too. But we humans, we often feel the need to help each other no matter what. I mean, shit happens and we feel obligated to help each other out."
HD stares at me for a long time, long enough for me to begin to feel uncomfortable. "What? Don't you believe me?"
"Hooooge Doood sssseeeee noooo heeeellllp. Ooomans diiiieee. Nooooo fooood. Nooooo waaaattterrr. Siiiiiicck. Mmmuuuurderr, waaarrrr. Seee eeevverrrywherrrre."
"Oh. Yea. That. Well, we help our own. We help our own families, tribe, town. That kind of thing. When there is disaster, many help."
A sort of hmmmpf sound spits out from under the mask.
"Well, what do you guys do? Is your society so much better than ours?"
"Ittt isssss. Faaaaiiir. Eaaaccch musssst dooo. Wooord isss truuuttth. Strrrroong, smaarrrrt rrrriiissse."
"Let me see if I understand. So everyone must contribute?"
HD nods.
"And your word is always the truth? Like when we say 'my word is my bond'?
He nods again.
"And it sounds like survival of the fittest. The strongest and the smartest are the leaders?"
"Yeeeeeessss. Idunt unnnnddderrrrstaaaand."
"Well what happens to the weak? The sick? Don't you have any poor?"
HD clears his throat. I suspect our long conversation is taking a toll on him. "Weeeakk. Siiiiick. Heeal oorrrrr diiiiiee. Doooo ooorrr diiiiieee. Nooooo pooooor. Allll aaavvve nnneeeddsss meeeet."
"I'd have to see how you manage all that in order to say whether or not I think it's good or fair. No offense, Huge Dude. Do or die sounds pretty cold to me."
The tepee poles rattle as the tent lifts over us and is gone. The burning fire scatters in the wind as I feel engulfed by HD. I'm lifted and carried like a small child through the howling wind. Wet snow pelts my face as I strain to see. There is nothing but darkness. I turn my face into Huge Dude's chest and pray that he will be able to get us to shelter.
