A/N: a quick reminder to my long time readers: Nina does not know about Allie yet… I know I already made a note about the plot change but I just wanted to be sure and minimize the level of confusion.
Legacy: chapter 31
Monday, the morning after…
Everything still seemed the same. No major changes had swept the country; or the world, no masses of people pushing at fences, no major media attention… yet. Only the people that were stopped at the roadblock knew anything was amiss.
The meaning of life was only altered for those lucky few. That spot is where John chose to bring the small alien craft to land, if it can be called landing. It just hung there, about twenty feet off the ground, no noise, but there was a definite field of some sort of energy. The warm vibrations reached these people first, the energy of the future, a sensation of security, the same feeling Lisa grasped firmly in her memories.
The tapes that were recorded all throughout the finale of the search had yet to broadcast. The news van was only just raising its transmitter mast as the sun broke over the horizon and through the trees. Yes, for the entire population of the planet, this would be a normal day for only about another hour. That's how long Lisa gave the news to spread to every developed corner of the globe. An hour, tops.
Pain flared, a hangover… Lisa clutched her forehead as another surging wave of numb pain washed over her thoughts. The higher awareness that she had enjoyed last night was still integrated, it was permanent now. The insight that drove their search was expensive though, and this pain was its method of collection. A hangover from hell! Lisa managed to refocus her vision on the KDML mast-truck.
She had always wanted to keep her life private, 'wanted' being the key word. Privacy was no longer an option, for any of them. Especially Allie. That's what hurt Lisa more then this throbbing. All her daughter wanted was to be a normal little girl. Now, she was not so little anymore, but she would still have had the chance to be normal if things could have worked out differently. Lisa always knew her family was special, that her daughter was important. This was just the first taste of the true meaning of that importance. Allie had great things waiting for her, things that would forever change and benefit humanity as a whole; it seemed so petty and selfish to Lisa for her to wish a normal life on her daughter. Allie knew all of this would happen, this is why she made that decision to go with the aliens in the first place. To grow and prepare herself.
The Styrofoam cup of coffee in Lisa's hands seemed so distant in this fuzzy state of mind. The energy she had exerted left her with a familiar disconnected feeling. like she had felt at the beginning of the awakening process, but it was different this time. No loss of control over the body… just a loss of will, and in turn, energy to do anything, even bringing the cup of coffee to her mouth seemed an impossible task.
Some movement caught Lisa's attention, a military truck rolled into a new position. Her eyes quickly veered off of the truck and onto the saucer. Allie was in that spaceship… John and Charlie too. Lisa knew she was no use to them in this state. Her mothering instincts told her to run to her daughter's side and never leave it again; but her newfound insight told her she could help more by staying out of the way. There was nothing more she could do, after all.
John and Ka'len noticed her condition, almost in unison, after they had returned with Allie, and demanded that she rest. They said something about "cerebral energy" and it being too low. The same thing that put Allie in that coma…
The antenna mast on the news van locked into place with a loud click. It seemed loud enough to Lisa, she turned to see if something had malfunctioned, but no one else stared at the van like she did. Maybe it's just me, she thought.
Christina would start beaming the video out to their main station at any moment. Everyone in Seattle who owned a television would know in just a few minutes and this current scene, relatively quiet, would be flooded with a rush of the curious. Once it was clear that this was no hoax… the government would come; Lisa was glad Mary and that nice Mr. Pierce were here to help handle that. Lisa realized something else:
No one even knows Allie is home yet… Uncle Tom, Nina… Mom. There were many more, but Lisa only cared about those three for now. That's all she thought she had the energy to call. They deserved to hear the news from her mouth, not from the television.
Gathering all the concentration she could, Lisa stood from her seat on the back of one of the army trucks and started walking toward the news van. They were TV people, one of them had to have a phone she could borrow.
John did not know what he should say, or how to say it. Watching Charlie, as he hovered over Allie; Hoping, wishing… expecting her to sit up at any moment, filled John with a strange pity. It would not happen. Allie was in trouble, still alive, but very, very weak. John didn't know how, or if he even should tell Charlie the fact that Allie might not come back exactly the same, if she ever came back at all.
She was so close to the edge of death that anything done with the intention of helping, might inadvertently kill her. Technology and medicine aside, life is still fragile, so very fragile… and this tiny Varin had no facilities to handle a situation such as this.
"Why did this happen?" Charlie's voice was demanding, but not hateful. A simple, calm question; previous experiences told John how combative this man was, but nothing prepared him for such understanding. This was the best possible thing to happen so far.
"Allie is very powerful, Charlie." John started, "she is much more powerful then we expected, and far more advanced then our race. All that power comes with a weakness though." John crossed the floor to stand beside Charlie, still in his human form for Charlie's sake, but given his attitude, John thought it might not matter.
"What weakness?" Charlie asked, never taking his eyes away from Allie's peaceful face.
"The power itself." John said plainly, knelt to Charlie's level. "She has used up too much… even more then she had available. And now she must rest."
"Just like last time!" Charlie looked over to John briefly, "that night in Texas… before she went with…" he looked back to Allie, letting the obviously painful memory hang.
"Very similar." John nodded.
"Then she will be fine soon!" urgent eyes back to John, "in a couple hours she will wake up and everything will be alright."
John shook his head, "I am sorry, Charlie."
"Why… what do you mean?"
"Allie's new abilities… are incredible. We possess a very limited ability to translate our physical presence, but Allie can move farther then any of us dare. I believe she used this ability, and it weakened her beyond the point of easy recovery."
Charlie stared blankly.
"What you know she is capable of is very small compared to these new abilities. This is beyond even our medicine. No Xean has ever achieved this level of ability… we have never dealt with this condition before. We don't know how to help Allie."
Charlie swallowed, he didn't understand much of that except for the last few words, "but… you said that with time…"
"Time is the only thing I have to offer."
Charlie took in all the sobering and confusing information and slowly turned his attention back to Allie. She was so beautiful, and Charlie kicked himself for realizing it so late. So strong, so vulnerable… so… Allie. Her name floated on his tongue for several seconds. Never, in any of his most remote dreams did Charlie ever imagine having such a perfect family… even John was a part of that perfection.
"Lisa has changed," Charlie spoke softly, "just over the past few hours, in ways that I wont even pretend to understand. Allie was always a mystery to me from the first time I met her… so peaceful and knowing… I don't think I need to understand it, any of it. I trust Lisa, and I believe every word that comes out of her mouth. She said that Allie would be okay, so she will be. That's all I need to know." Charlie reached over and ran a hand across the top of Allie's head, smoothing several stray strands of blond out of her face.
John said nothing. He didn't need to. Charlie respected that in Ka'len, and now in John. Words are cheep if used wrong, and this moment needed no further words.
Several minutes passed as both John and Charlie knelt, in silence. Then John placed a hand on Charlie's shoulder, said: "perhaps, after all this is over, we might become friends."
Charlie looked toward the alien man, the one who started all of this, who wrecked their lives and stole Allie's childhood from her. But he didn't see any of that; he didn't want to see it. That was in the past, just like that man said back there in the woods. Any being capable of reason can make decisions, and John had made bad decisions. But they were made, chiseled into the stone of time, unchangeable. What happens now, what words Charlie chose to use, the way he spoke, all of it could be changed. Nothing that is yet to be done has to be done. Charlie wanted a part of Lisa's enlightenment. No more living in the past!
"I'd like that…" Charlie answered.
More silence passed between them. The ever present humming of the alien craft was now nothing more then normal background noise to Charlie. He felt oddly at home in these surroundings. Something he dared not question, for fear that it might change something about this moment.
"There is one thing I can do." John stood, "be you will not be able to remain by Allie's side, nor will I."
"I don't care," Charlie looked up as he spoke, "if it will help her, do it."
"I was anticipating that response." John moved around to the front of the dome and touched something on one of the silvery finger pads.
"Uh… what?" Charlie asked.
"This vessel will return to my command craft. More suitable medical facilities may be able to do more for her then time alone can accomplish."
Charlie nodded, but something didn't add up. "What do you mean you can't go?"
"Events have been set into motion, Charlie. I must remain here to represent my race."
"Represent your race?"
"Allie was instructed not to tell anyone." John made his way back to Charlie's position as the craft's background hum grew louder, "we are proposing a cooperative alliance between our peoples. Allie was to mediate on the behalf of both Xean and Human interest, but I will substitute until she has recovered."
Charlie did not know what to say, so he asked the simplest, yet most important question anyone can ask: "why?"
"Because of what we have seen in Allie." John answered simply, but Charlie would need more information to understand fully: "Your species is incredibly powerful. And you are nearing the point where normal humans can realize that power. We simply want to help guide the human race through a time that all but destroyed Xean civilization."
That explains her first few days home! Charlie felt anger building for the first time since last night as he placed these last few pieces in the puzzle and got a big, uncomfortable picture of the scope of the 'plan', and Allie's assigned role, right in the middle of it. John could sense Charlie's anger too and backtracked through his last few statements to make sure he had not said something wrong.
"She cried," Charlie said, obviously keeping emotions in check, but just barely, "several days after she got home, for no reason at all…and now I know why." Charlie turned his eyes onto John, the combative spirit flowing back into them. "tell me why you did that to her? She could have at least talked about it… she tried to talk to me but I didn't know what to say…"
"You must understand…" information can calm human anger, "we did not know that Allie would gain these friends to help protect her. What we told her was for her safety, and for your own."
"So… what is she supposed to do?" Charlie asked bitterly.
"It was my idea to bring her back…" John continued. He had heard Charlie's question, but a further explanation might calm him further, into a state more receptive to logic, "the original time table would have given her five years to recapture her normal life… I wanted to give that to her. Plans changed… and so I have returned with a small fleet to start the assimilation process early."
"What happens if it doesn't work?" Charlie stood, "what happens to Allie, and to us and her friends if your little 'plan' backfires and the army chases your ships away."
John could laugh at that idea… but he was more interested in Charlie's demonstration of aggression. The Experiment might not have been such a bad thing after all. Never, if John was presented the opportunity, would he participate in anything like it again; but these humans that made up a part of his family… they were proving to be a never-ending source of insight into his own inner being.
"Please, calm yourself, Charlie." John spoke soothingly as a blinding light formed an opening along the wall nearest them, "the plan is already a success."
John stepped around Allie and gestured toward the brilliant white opening. Charlie felt compelled to walk into the light, but he felt equal compulsion to remain by his daughter's side. "What about her?" he asked, "you're just going to let who… what ever it is on that other ship deal with her?"
"What would you have me do?" John thought Charlie was taking the confrontational side to an excessive point now, but it was to be expected after being through so much… for the second time. John kept his voice calm and steady: "there are those in my crew who follow the ancient religion, those few view Allie as a reincarnated prophet, returned to them through their gods gift of science. The others view her for what she is, more advanced then they are, therefore, more important then they are. She will be well cared for."
John was confident his speech had the desired effect. Charlie looked once more upon Allie, then slowly entered the lighted passage. John followed behind him and immediately they were both standing on the grass alongside the road and the military vehicles.
John asked: "do you see the plan in motion now?" as they both looked out at the crowd of excited people. More civilian clothes then military could be seen in the throng now, and yes, Charlie could understand the idea behind the plan. It was his own, from Texas. Get as many witnesses as you can and the government cannot do a thing to you. Except in this case it was skewed; John intended to build this alliance on the civilian population! Government was of a secondary concern.
"Yes, I think I do." Charlie said.
John smiled, "good. I knew you would be the first to understand." Then he started walking toward that crowd as the Varin behind them started to slowly rise back into the air from its stationary hover. "Now I must talk with Lisa… this change you spoke of is of great importance… and interest"
Stuffy, dust filled air was the last thing most people would expect on such a clear and cold morning, but Mary's lungs were assailed with the smells and the texture as soon as she flung the canvas hangings back and entered the rear area of the military transport truck. Keith sat alone on one of the hard wooden benches, nylon zip-tie handcuffs and all. He did not acknowledge her entrance in the least, just kept looking forward and after a short, tense silence, asked:
"Is Allie going to be okay?"
Mary's cheeks flushed bright red. How dare he?! He caused this!
She rushed across the short distance and slapped him in the side of the face with a ridged open palm. He had to have felt it! But he showed no sign. Simply straightened himself after absorbing the blow and reaffixed his eyes onto some arbitrary point on the opposing bench.
"I should have shot you!" Mary's voice was about to explode into a wild scream, but she controlled it. Why the hell was he acting so… serene? The question only filled Mary with more anger.
"But you didn't" Keith spoke after letting Mary think for a second. She knew he did it on purpose! What could have possibly happened to 'change' him so much… people can't just 'change' so fast!
"You better start talking, you bastard." The last word dripped from Mary's mouth like venom from a snake's fang as she sat on the opposing bench, forcing Keith's gaze onto her.
"Isn't this ironic?" Keith asked with a slight smirk.
"I don't care!" Mary snapped but quickly calmed herself.
Keith continued: "our roles are reversed. When I first met you, you were the one in federal custody."
So he wants to play? Mary spoke dryly: "you are in military custody, Mr. Sheppard. A very, very, very different situation."
"An astute observation." Keith smiled again. No smirk this time… it was a real smile with real feeling behind it. He was genuinely amused, and Mary was conflicted.
"I am a scientist, Sheppard, it goes with the territory… now stop dodging."
"You're the one who's dodging."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You felt it, last night in the woods… the Knowledge."
Knowledge? The way Keith emphasized the word made it sound religious. Mary could not remember much between the time Brian spotted Allie, to Lisa's hand touching her shoulder; boy did she ever remember that! The warm tingling could still be felt where Lisa's hand had rested. Something big had changed in Lisa… could Keith have somehow found what Lisa had found.
"You don't understand?" Keith asked, to which Mary could only shake her head 'no'.
"It's very simple… Allie told me who I am, and in doing so, answered every unasked question that has ever plagued me in my entire life… all with that one simple act."
Mary found her voice again: "so, who are you?" She did not take him very seriously, and the tone of her voice conveyed this skepticism.
Keith shrugged, "you'd just say I was lying."
"Try me." Dull curiosity, if even that.
"I…" Keith hesitated, something he had not done seriously before. Which caused Mary to listen closer. Maybe this 'change' was real. Keith continued: "I am part of them, just like Allie and her mother."
Yeah right! Mary's disbelief was overpowering, Keith had been right, Mary did think he was lying… but something in the way he had said it stopped Mary from laughing out loud. So serious a voice for conveying such a ludicrous idea. Something more was there, though. Something unspoken, but profoundly important to understanding. Mary phrased a question instead of her planned dismissive remark: "that's what Allie told you?"
"Yes." So blunt, so honest!
But his entire line of work is based on how well he can lie… Mary would not fall into another of this mans traps. Especially one this outrageous.
"So… you're what? Allie's second cousins uncles nephew?" Mary laughed.
Keith considered the question though, forgetting the fact that it was a pure joke, and said after a moment of thought: "I'm not sure. An uncle? Half-uncle? I haven't got a clue about genealogy so I can't tell you."
"Why can't you drop it?" Mary asked in a low voice, "you're caught, busted, fin, finished, that's all she wrote… just give it a rest and tell me what you wanted from Allie!"
"What I wanted," Keith leaned forward, "was money."
"From Allie? Like her family has money… I don't buy that."
"You didn't let me finish, Miss Crawford. I was going to sell her to a pharmaceuticals research firm… one-hundred million, no questions asked, no faces or names shared."
"Okay, I believe you part-alien story more then I believe that."
"Both, Mary, are the truth. It's not my problem if you don't believe me."
"It doesn't make sense!" Mary almost flew up from the bench. She knew he was going to beat around the bush as much as possible… but he was mutilating that poor bush and not doing anything but wasting her time.
"I should have shot you when I had the chance! I knew it! I had the gun, and you, and it was perfect…"
"Was it really, Mary? Why didn't you shoot?"
"Oh no! Not you too! Ka'len and Lisa went on and on about my motives, and what my not pulling the trigger meant… I'm not going to hear it from you too!"
"I don't think you listened to what they said, so if I say it, you will have heard it for the first time."
"Look!" Mary did stand that time, "stop these games and answer me, or I will shoot you!"
"I've already answered you, you crazy bitch. Sit down and calm down… you're wasting your own time."
"Fine," that was more in his normal character, Mary thought. She really wanted to kick him in the side of the head, and could have, but sat back on the bench instead. "If your story is true, tell me how a pharmaceuticals firm even knew about Allie?"
"I told them. I had to go through several companies till I found one that would believe what I said she was capable of."
"Why would they even care?"
Keith shrugged, "I never asked, and they never told."
"How convenient for your little story…"
Keith continued without the slightest reaction to Mary's implication, "the man I talked to did say that all they required was the brain. But that if I could bring in the 'subjects' entire body that it would be worth twice as much."
Mary could only stare for several seconds as she processed every thing. Keith had to have an angle… but Mary could come up with nothing to show it. And the way he spoke gave no hints if insincerity. Believing his story would cause just as many problems as not doing so. On the one hand, there was a rouge research firm out there that would have to be dealt with somehow; on the other, Mary had just wasted ten minutes of her suddenly very exciting life on this arrogant ass-hole without a thing to show for it.
"What reason do I have to lie, Mary? You already said it yourself, 'fin, finished, that's all she wrote'. I don't gain anything from continuing in my old MO, you should have already figured that out."
He's right…am I just afraid to believe him?
"Tell me a name. For this 'pharmaceuticals' company."
"I don't have one." Keith lied, he knew now that he was still in the game, and he knew that Mary knew. He needed just that one card to play. "I can tell you where I was supposed to drop the body."
Mary's eyes took on a searching glaze as she stared at the painted wooden floor slats for what seemed like a full minute. Then she looked up and said: "I have no explanation why, but I believe you."
Keith could hear the way those last three words were ripped from her. She really did not want to say that, and it showed. Meaning one thing above all else: she meant it because she wanted to hide it.
"Stand up." Mary said as she stood, "we're going on a field trip."