CH51

"Here is a list of sites that you can try to obtain the cell phones you are interested in purchasing. You can go to all four if you wish. I will guide you to each site and where to open a transmat door that does not allow others to view you when you do." Lucile tells them.

"You may begin when ready." Lucile tells them.

Cases for Phones

6709 NE 63rd St, Vancouver, WA

Wireless Toyz 13521 SE 3rd Way, Vancouver, WA

Tom Harris TELUS Store

1632 McKenzie Ave #101, Victoria, BC V8N 0A3, Canada

PacificTelephone

102-225 Menzies St, Victoria, BC V8V 1N9, Canada

Javi opens a transmat door and Ryan goes with him. It turned out to be relatively simple. They looked just like any other American tourist. Ryan even suggested that they look at some 'Tourist Items' before selecting the phones they wanted, buying only one phone at each location.

While they are moving from the second site to the third, Castle returned to the house.

"Hi ladies. Where is everyone?"

"The guys went looking for burner phones in case we needed them for some reason."

Castle starts to have a panic attack. "They left the house! Where did they go?"

"Lucile found them a couple of stores in Vancouver, Canada and Victoria, Canada."

"Oh." Castle's fears are now gone. They seemed to have picked good places to go. Not likely Bracken had any men in those locations.

"How is Katie?" Jim asks Castle.

"Last I saw her we were eating dinner on the observation deck. She had just left the first exam by her doctor. She was fine. Alexis is with her. If I know my daughter, she'll have Kate out exploring as fast as she can."

"What's it like? Where she is?"

"I'm not sure I can explain it easily." Castle takes a deep breath. "The Evergreen is miles long and cylindrical in design. The interior is hollow. This is where all the buildings are located. There are parks. The space is broken into sections. Each section has places to eat, get groceries, watch movies, countless things just like any community. Everyone lives in an apartment like building. None of them have kitchens. You don't cook at home. You can only go out to one of the eateries. It doesn't matter where you go.

Way toward the rear of the ship is the location of the 'Stockyards'. What you would call cattle and other animals used for food. Including animals that produce things like milk or eggs, for example."

Just in front of that is the machine area. They make appliances, tools, provide construction materials. Think Home Depot, only bigger."

Just as he finishes Javi and Kevin come walking up the stairs. "Castle. How are you and Kate doing?"

"Kate has finished her first round of tests. They will continue in the morning. I left her with Alexis who can show her around. …. I hear you guys went site seeing."

"We thought we could get some flash/bangs from a friend of mine. And decided we needed some burner phones to contact him with. So Lucile gave us some sites in Canada to do our shopping."

"Cool. Find what you wanted?"

"Ya, we got four phones. We used a little more of the money we had than we thought we would. But it worked out."

"You need cash? I can front you some if you like. I would give it to you but I don't think you would accept it that way.

What? $100 per person maybe? More can easily be done."

They all kind of talk low voices amongst themselves. "$100 per person would be fine Castle. Thanks."

"Be right back." And Castle heads down to his study. And is back with a $100 dollar bill for each.

"So, back to these flash/bangs. Why would we want them?"

"We were thinking that we could open a 'Door' into one of their bedrooms in a hotel and everyone tosses one in before we walk in and immediately stun them. Then take them somewhere like the General.

If we keep this up we would remove Bracken's hit men that he has access to in NY and we could go back home.

Jenny would really like to go home."

Castle is silent for a little while as he thinks it over. "Not bad. If we did all of them in the same night, Bracken would have no one to help him almost instantly. We could go to the dome on the moon and practice, using dummy objects instead of the real thing."

"Practice would be good." Javi agrees.

"Great, you call your guy, see how many he can get you, and we can transmat to a rendezvous location to pick them up. You're sure we can trust him? You could give his name to Lucile and she can quietly check him out."

"He's clean Castle."

"Bracken has ways of getting to people, you would not believe. And he'll never know. I promise."

"I suppose, it just feels like I'm insulting him by doing it. Like I don't trust him, and I do."

Castle kind of Uhhmms and Auuhhs. Not wanting to insult his friends but wanting to make sure they don't expose themselves to danger.

"Ok, Javi. I'll trust you. I just hope your trust in your friend is justified. Or this could go south, fast."

"Richard?"

"Yes, Lucile."

"The processing plant in Afghanistan is presently at its lowest number of people on site there has ever been in the past. It may stay that way for at least a little time to come."

"Hhhmm, interesting. …. Thoughts guys."

"I like it but we have not studied the building yet. No recon. And what do we do to blow it up?"

"Blowing it up is the easy part. I already have that. I just want to make this easy on us. How do we get them all out so we can move around without worrying where anyone is?"

"Start a fire maybe?" Javi wonders.

"And draw everyone in to fight the fire." Ryan counters.

"Eliminate the power somehow?" Javi tries again.

"And we walk around in the dark trying to blow it up." Ryan again counters.

"And if we had night vision goggles?" Javi tries again.

"And if the power loss turns out to be a danger. Do you know the process needed to make opium or heroin?" Ryan still counters.

"Who's side are you on, bro?" Javi probes.

"Ours, I just want to live thru it. I don't want Jen to kill me if I get killed." Ryan tells him.

"Actually that gives me an idea." Castle tells them.

"What if we cause a catastrophe? Say that some process has a problem and shoots the opium out into the air, forcing an evacuation, which they can't enter back into until the dust clears. Or they find the kind of suits necessary for all of them to re-enter?"

"So you want US to breathe all that in while we are walking around to blow the place to the moon?"

"Not if we are wearing suits." Castle counters.

"Yea, but they may already be in suits." Ryan counters Castle.

"Can we throw something in before we go in that will drive them out and force them to stay out?" Javi tries again.

"Overload the space with tear gas at first to drive them out in the beginning. Then fill the space with airborne opium and heroin?" Castle offers.

"And kill us with a drug overdose?" Ryan wonders if Castle has lost his mind. Or do aliens have minds?

"We wear something equal to class 4 self-contained bio hazard suits." Castle wonders.

"That might work. Can we practice first like we want to practice for Bracken's men?"

"Sure! Let's charge your phones and let you make a call.

"Lucile, can you put in a request for, 1, 2, 3, ….4? short time space suits. I'll pick them up when ready."

"Yes, Richard, ….. Requested sent." Lucile tells him.

"Bulky space suits? Really Castle?"

Castle is grinning. "Just wait until you see them. You'll change your tune. You just wait."

Back on Evergreen:

"Come on Mom, I'll show you around. We can pass some of the places to eat. Go to a couple of parks. Maybe some time we can go down to the animals. They are way at the end of the ship. I used to go there a lot."

Why does Alexis and animals on the ship not surprise her. "Sure, I want to see where you grew up."

Alexis takes them to the 'Restaurant' area first. "Most offer different types of food. Kind of like Mexican, Chinese, Indian and such. Most probably don't have menu's you can read. These places are meant mostly for 'Locals'. … But I can help. You just have to tell me what you want."

"Not really hungry yet sweetie. Maybe later."

"No problem mom. Just tell me when. Up here is one of the parks I went to a lot."

"WOW! What kind of trees are those?" As Kate points to a tall skinny tree with little, kind of light colored purple leaves.

"Oh that's right. I hadn't thought about that. You've never seen that tree before. It's native to our home.

"Here try this, mom." As Alexis walks up to a medium sized bush with flowering looking like leaves. Mostly green but it has a slight reddish purple color in a stripe pattern. "Here, stroke the leaf. It's safe. Start at the base and work your way to the tip.

Kate does as suggested. And as soon as her finger touches it she can hear a very faint sound. As she strokes her finger to the tip the sound changes in pitch.

Kate is grinning wide and tries it again. Then tries it with a different leaf. Then one finger on each hand on separate leaves. Kate has a wide smile on her face. And watches Alexis walk up beside her and places a finger from each hand on different leaves, and waits for Kate to start.

Soon they are stroking leaves, different ones trying to get a tune to play, or some kind of rhythm going.

After they stop. "Cool huh mom?"

"Yup, pretty cool sweetie."

"Oh, you'll love this! …. Watch." As Alexis pokes the top of a flower which instantly retracts into itself in the blink of an eye. There is also a soft whoosh sound that goes with it.

Kate steps up to one and pops it on its nose, and watches it disappear. Then her fingers are dancing over numerous flowers making them disappear.

Grinning wide she turns to Alexis. "How long do they stay like that?"

"Oh they'll start coming back out slowly in about a minute."

"OH, over here." And Alexis races over to a patch of ground that looks kind of like grass, except it has different shades of green on the blades. "Take your shoes off and walk across." Alexis tells her.

Kate watches Alexis remove her shoes quickly and waits for Kate to do the same. When Kate has hers off, Alexis takes her hand and they start walking across the 'grass'.

Just a few steps in Kate can feel her bare feet being 'nibbled on'. Is the best she can think to describe the feeling? It kind of felt like tickling, biting and sucking all at the same time. Kate couldn't take much more and walked quickly back to her shoes on the pavement.

"What was that?"

"The 'Grass' (as Alexis uses her hand to draw quote signs in the air) gets its nutrients from eating the dead flesh off of your body. …. You should try it when wearing a swim suit." Alexis explains.

"The grass was eating me!" Kate is alarmed.

"Just the dead skin that your body sheds each day. It's perfectly harmless. Feels kind of funny huh?"

"I'm not quite sure 'funny' is the word I would use." Alexis just giggles.

"Sweetie, do you know much about your home planet?"

Alexis just shakes her head. "Only what little there was I could read. There are no pictures. All the plants, animals and insects here are from home.

That's why when we come or leave we can only open a 'door' at certain locations. So things from our planet don't make it to yours. Or from yours to here. They call it, ... Imprassive?"

"Invasive." Kate corrects her.

"Yea, they say if any get out, it may take over and drive the local stuff away. Possibly destroy some sections of the planet."

"We already have that problem. Like fish that were native to some lakes in Asia have made it to the US. And they are taking over and driving the local fish populations down. Even some plants are being a problem. Australia has a big problem with toads."

"They say it might get worse if anything from here got to yours."

"I don't remember going thru anything when I got here."

"There was a type of sonic cleaner in that little transmat room that we entered when we got here. They will do the same when we leave to go home.

Come on I'll show you the pool, then we can go looking for something to eat if you like."