Part 28
"And you're sure it's this way?" Jack asked again, earning Stitch's flattened-ear, tooth-baring equivalent to the classic eyeroll.
Daniel grinned, unable to believe how amusing it was to watch the alien butt heads with the colonel. They had such dominant personalities, it was like having two Alpha Males in a pack and watching them battle for supremacy. The biggest trouble, he decided, was that Stitch was in many ways more like a cat than a dog: stubborn, territorial, and fiercely independent. Unfortunately, that description also perfectly suited Jack, who he was sure wouldn't appreciate being compared to a tomcat.
"Whoa," Jack suddenly breathed. "Something's this way."
Peering past the colonel, Daniel gave a low whistle at the swath of newly-toppled trees that ended abruptly in a crater. Pieces of red metal were strewn across the clearing, and a thin wisp of dark smoke still rose from the hole in the ground. They'd found Stitch's crash site.
Digging into his pocket, Jack pulled out his cell phone, selected a number on speed dial, then brought the device up to his ear. "Carter," he began, "yeah, it's me. Listen, Daniel's new little friend just led us to his ship." He approached the edge of the crater. "Looks like not much of it left. I guess Stitch--er, that's the 'dog'--must have ejected or something before it crashed. Uh-huh. Unfortunately, it's not on my property, so anybody can just stumble across it. There's a twenty-foot furrow it dug up on the way down, so the camo net's not going to be much good for keeping casual eyes from spotting it.
"Oh, and get this: the spaceship is red. Cherry red. Fire engine red. We're lucky nobody's spotted it from the air yet. Yeah. This part of the state's a lot of farmland, so we're lucky he crashed somewhere a little less-travelled." He beckoned to Daniel, who dutifully hefted the drawstring bag containing the camouflage netting Jack had kept at the cabin because "it might come in handy some time". It was now about to serve its purpose, which had the colonel quite pleased with himself for having had the "foresight" to buy it.
While Stitch watched from a nearby tree stump, Jack and Daniel unfolded the net and began to drag it over the wrecked ship. Since he was still talking and listening to Sam, Jack was forced to contort himself strangely to keep the cell pressed between his shoulder and ear, grumbling all the while that he should have gotten a hands-free set for reasons just like this.
So much for his precious "foresight", Daniel thought smugly.
Net spread, the duo stepped back to survey their work. As Daniel valiantly attempted to stifle his snickers, Jack spoke into the receiver. "Carter, get your geek squad together and get on a plane." There was a pause. "It's one of the little ones, for cryin' out loud, so we've got big piles of dirt and a fifteen-by-fifteen square of green smack-dab in the middle. It looks ridiculous."
Daniel stepped back over to the crater and lifted one corner of the net. The spaceship--or what remained of it, anyway--didn't look very big, and he wondered if they could get it into the back of Jack's truck, and... No, he and Jack had flown to Minnesota and rented an SUV, instead.
"Hey, Jack?"
"What?"
"How about we just bury the ship for now? I mean, it'll keep away all but the most-curious, and I doubt anybody'd will be determined enough to dig three feet for it."
Jack shrugged. "That's an awful lot of dirt to move, but you might be right." He lifted the phone again. "Hey, Carter... make sure you bring shovels. Yep. See ya tomorrow."
Leaving the conspicuous-looking netting where it lay, the trio hiked back to the Jeep and returned to the cabin to get Jack's shovel and wheelbarrow. Even though Daniel knew he was too small to be of much help, he insisted on selecting a trowel and bucket to render assistance where he could. Then man, boy, and alien dog travelled back to the crash site and set to work.
The day was pleasantly warm under normal circumstances, but after an hour shovelling dirt, Daniel was hot, sweaty, and exhausted. He knew Jack had to be even more tired. Swiping at the sweat on his brow--unwittingly leaving behind a streak of dirt--he turned to his furry companion. "Can you help us out any, Stitch?"
Stitch stopped throwing rocks into the woods and turned around, eliciting an inquisitive grunt that might have been, "Me?"
"Yeah," Daniel answered. "The sooner we finish burying your ship, the sooner we can get back to the cabin. I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm bored."
Jack gave a short bark of laughter. "You're an archaeologist, Danny, I thought you loved digging in the dirt."
"Sure I do... except we're burying something from an advanced society, not uncovering artifacts from ancient ones. Big difference."
The colonel leaned against his shovel and shrugged. "Good point. Of course, Carter and her sciencey types get to do the honors tomorrow. You and me and Stitch are going to be elsewhere."
"Where? Are we going back to the Mountain already?"
"Nah. I just figured that since we're on vacation, we ought to... vacation. Go boating, have a picnic, something."
"Oh." To Daniel's amazement, Jack's idea actually sounded like it might be enjoyable. "Okay."
Jack started to reply, then did a double-take. "Okay? Oh... okay. Right." Swapping his surprised look for a mischievous squint, he levelled his index finger at Daniel. "But first, young man, you and I have a spaceship to bury."
Suddenly, a blue streak flew across the clearing, slamming into one of the heaps of dirt piled around the crater's edge and sending the clumpy earth flying skyward. Some of the dirt rained down on Jack and Daniel, but the majority of it ended up in a liberal streak across the scorched hull of the crashed ship. With a gleeful cackle, Stitch bounded over to the edge of the clearing and charged at another heap, blasting another earthen shower into the air.
"Is he related to Sonic the Hedgehog?" Jack gaped.
"Sonic the what?" Daniel asked.
Jack laughed, shook his head, and resumed shovelling. "I think Charlie's old Sega system is somewhere in your room. Remind me to dig it out for you later."
Author's Notes:
Yay! Finally starting to recover a bit from my second bout of Writers' Block in recent weeks. But hey... I've been writing and posting something almost weekly (and sometimes daily) since February 14th!
