The Invasion Of Roswell, Part I
The Tide Turns
Chapter 30
XXX
Max rushed to position himself where he could catch Liz if she fell. But as the moments passed… she remained standing.
Liz looked at her feet then at Max… then at the sofa she had been sitting on. For a moment, it seemed as though she might sit back down, but instead she lifted one leg… slowly… and placed it in front of the other. Max reached out for her, but Liz shook her head.
"Don't help me."
Without realizing it, Max stopped breathing. Liz lifted her other leg… slowly… methodically… placing it in front of the first leg. Then she set her foot down on the floor. She had taken her first step.
Max suddenly realized that his lungs were aching for air and reflexively took a deep breath… If the truth were told, it was difficult to tell if Liz's first step had been more stressful on Liz or on Max. Max was a conflicting mass of emotions, his face covered in a broad smile, yet scarcely daring to breathe.
"You walked! Liz! You really did it! You walked!"
Liz lifted her left foot and placed it in front of her right foot again, then placed her right foot in front of her left. It was easier this time. Her legs were beginning to tire, though. She took three more steps, falling into Max's arms as she reached him.
"Are you okay," Max asked breathlessly, holding her in his arms.
Liz smiled. "Yeah. I'm just tired, Max. My legs haven't had to support any weight for a long time."
"Are you sure that's all? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"
Liz shook her head and kissed him. "Don't worry, I'm fine. And I walked, Max! I did it once… I can do it again."
"Her legs will have to adjust to bearing weight again," Rahn said… "but it looks like that will not be a problem for Liz. She's already done the hard part. She took the first step… the first several steps, in fact. She has walked."
Max ran his hand over his eyes, still apparently trying to convince himself that what he had just seen had actually happened and that he had not merely dreamt that Liz had walked again, as he had so many times before.
"I don't know how to thank you, Rahn. I could never begin to thank you for this."
Rahn seemed embarrassed. "It was the right thing to do."
"Is she healed now?"
Rahn shook his head. "Liz is still exactly as she was… What I did has not changed that. What will change is that she will be able to use shape-shifting to reconstruct her spine at will in order to walk again… or anything else she wants to do. She will just have to hold it that way with her mind."
"You mean… she'll have to keep thinking about it all the time?" Max was clearly concerned. "Won't that be taxing… constantly having to hold a… a 'repaired' form?"
Rahn shook his head. "It's not as hard as it might seem. Once the brain has been prepared, holding a shape is like breathing… well, maybe more like walking. You don't consciously think about it all the time. You don't say, 'Okay, now I have to put the other foot forward' or 'Now I have to take a breath…'"
"Maybe YOU don't," Max said, telling himself to take another breath as he realized that he had started to hold it again from the excitement of seeing Liz walking.
Rahn ignored the comment and continued seriously. "Somewhere in your subconscious, maybe you tell yourself to walk or to breath… but you don't think about it when you do it. I have held an alien shape, without changing back, for as long as ten years. Once she is used to it, Liz should have no trouble holding the repaired form whenever she is awake… but she will probably revert back when she sleeps."
"But that's not the same as being healed," Max said.
"After she becomes accustomed to holding the shape, it will almost be the same," Rahn replied. "It'll be like getting out of bed and walking. She'll just have to make a slight adjustment before she stands up. No one would notice."
Liz nodded. "It'll be fine, Max! I'll walk again. I can do anything I ever did before! How many people get that chance?"
"I know," Max admitted. "I am grateful, Rahn. I want you to know that. I owe you a lot. I just care a lot about Liz, and I want her to have a normal life again."
"Well… maybe normal isn't my thing, Max," Liz said scoldingly. "I already told you. I made the decision to live my life with you… and that means with all the consequences that that might include. It was my decision. I would never go back to normal again… even if I could. Normal would be so boring now anyway."
Max smiled. "Well, for better or worse, Elizabeth Parker, you'll certainly never be bored with me. I can promise you that."
"I know," Liz said, returning his smile.
Standing nearby, Max's double from Antar looked over at Michael… "I think we need to bring the rest of the guests up to the bridge now."
Michael raised his eyebrows a notch and smiled. "The more the merrier. I'll round up the rest of our crew and get them in here, too, and we can have a game of who's who… or doubles… or something. It should be interesting."
Michael left and went to the recreation room at the end of the hall where most of the sleeping quarters were. That was where the "guests" had been taken by the droid. Michael and Max had decided earlier that the group brought up from earth would be divided into "guests" and "hostiles" for future reference. Though not locked up, Edmonds and his unit, along with the fighter pilot who had been brought onboard earlier, had been placed in a separate area that was more securely monitored, and they would not be joining the others now.
Michael returned to the bridge after a few minutes with the earth "guests," which at that time included his counterpart, Michael from earth, Maria, Jim, Amy, Gray Hawk, Little Fox, White Feather, Angie Lee, Kyle, Isabel, Alex, Diane, and her assistant and cameraman, Glenna and Jeff. The gang of rescuers from Antar was already there, having been paged to come to the bridge as soon as possible. They included Jim, Alex, Isabel, Maria, Tess, and Rayylar. Both Maxes, both Lizzes, and Varec, had already been on the bridge, as had Michael of Antar before he went to get the others. Fortunately, the bridge of the New Granolith was large enough to accommodate everyone present and quite a few more, but it was beginning to have all the atmosphere of a party already with so many people present.
As the guests entered the room, Gray Hawk immediately noticed Tess and seemed to be confused by what appeared to be another Angie Lee. He knew that the real Angie Lee had transported up with him. But even if she hadn't, he still would have been able to pick her out. The faces might be the same, but there were still the cultural differences. In some unexplainable way, they were clear to Gray Hawk. This other one was a dead ringer for his Angie Lee, but she wasn't the one he had raised. Seeing the look on Gray Hawk's face, Angie Lee hugged him. Gray Hawk looked at her then smiled and wiped a tear from the cheek of his weathered face.
Amy spotted Maria… both of them… and ran to them, hugging them both together. She knew, of course, which one was hers, but it appeared for a while that she intended to simply take them both. Maybe it was a mother's instinct.
"Uh, Mom," Maria said cautiously. "I'm the one. I'm your daughter."
"I know," Amy replied, hugging Maria again. "But how often do I lose my daughter, think she's dead, then get two of them back? Huh?"
"I don't think you can handle two of us, Mom."
Amy smiled.
After giving Maria a hug, too, Jim walked up to his double from Antar and looked him over… then he nodded.
"I've held up pretty well for an old man."
Jim's Antarian double's mouth dropped open. "There's only about five years between us… seven tops."
"Really? The local Jim said. "I guess I'd better start taking better care of myself then."
"Well, when you've hunted in the Nan-Torel and faced off a wild pawgor come back and we'll have somethin' to talk about," the Jim from Antar replied. Both Jims looked at each other for a few moments, as though sizing each other up, then they smiled and slapped each other on the arm.
"Okay, you're me alright," the local Jim said. "I don't know what a wild pawgor is, but I've faced a few wild FBI special agents. That's gotta be good for somethin'!"
"Pretty close," his Antarian counterpart said, nodding. "I'd rather face off the wild pawgors, to tell the truth."
"Did you ever get remarried," the local Jim asked.
His counterpart from Antar nodded. "Yep… to Kathleen Topolsky."
The local Jim's eyes opened wide. "Topolsky? The Agent Topolsky? No! You're kidding, right?"
Jim's Antarian double shook his head.
"Is she here… with you?"
"No. She stayed on Antar to help watch the kids."
The local Jim shook his head. "You know Topolsky's one of those wild FBI agents I was talking about."
"But she's pretty," the Jim from Antar said with a wry grin. "Anyway, I tamed her."
The local Jim nodded. "Yeah… she's pretty… pretty dangerous! But you're right, there's no denyin' she's a looker. I'll give you that. Damn, man! There's more to you than I thought."
The Antarian Jim smiled. "How 'bout you? Did you get remarried?"
"Yeah… just recently… to Amy."
"Amy DeLuca?" the Antarian counterpart exclaimed. "You talk about me livin' dangerous! Now there's a woman that'll take more than a little tamin'!"
"I don't plan to tame her," the younger Jim said. "I decided to take her just like she is."
Jim from Antar smiled. "Well, that was smart… and you made a good choice. If I hadn't fallen in love with Kath because of circumstances that put us together and all, I might have wound up with Amy myself. But I'm happy… and so's she. She married Varec." Jim motioned toward the mysterious, good-looking alien.
"An alien?"
"Well… we both got married on Antar, and he's the Antarian… so I reckon he's the one that married the alien. Anyway, she likes him."
"Go figure," the younger Jim said. "Amy always was a bit of the rebel. Funny thing is, I can see her going for someone like him… I mean if I weren't around. I wonder how he deals with her, though… her being an alien to him and… and being Amy, too! She's pretty feisty."
The Antarian Jim grinned. "I'd say they get along pretty well. They've got a little girl, Liz-Jolee z'Varec. Kath and I have a boy, Danyy. He can talk to pawgors and other animals."
"I wish I could meet him," the Jim from earth said. "Danny, huh?"
"Yeah. We spell it with one n and two y's. It's more like the spelling of his Antarian name. I wish you could meet him, too. Danyy's quite a boy! But he's in a different dimension right now. I doubt we'll ever have the chance for all of us to be together with the kids and all. This was kind of a one-time rescue mission. We didn't bring the kids. We weren't really sure what we would find on this trip."
As Jim and the rest of the group got acquainted with their doubles and met those they didn't know onboard the ship, Liz called Max over to her. Both Max's came running.
Liz looked at her Max… then she looked at his double from Antar…
"Max… I know we're safe here on this ship, but… I need to know if Mom and Dad are okay. They're still in danger down there. And there's something else…"
"What's that," Max asked.
"I want them to be the first ones to see… you know… what Rahn helped me do… well, the first ones except for you and Michael and the ones who were here when it happened, of course."
"You aren't going to tell anyone else?" Max asked.
"Not yet. You understand, don't you, Max? I'll just sit here on the sofa and talk to everyone. They don't have to know yet. Will you keep my secret?"
Both Maxes smiled and nodded. "I think there's something we can do about that," Max from Antar said. "It's about time we took a more active role in this conflict anyway. Jim told me that your mom and dad and some of the others are waiting at the entrance to the Reservation. I was thinking they might be willing to accept a ride… if they knew that you were here. What do you think?"
Michael looked at Max. "We can do that. We can transfer them all up to the ship… as long as they're not too close to anyone we don't want to bring up."
"Varec," Max said. "Let's take the ship down all the way. It's time people got a good look at us."
**********
Outside the Mesaliko Reservation, Liz's parents, Jeff and Nancy Parker, Max and Isabel's parents, Phillip and Diane Evans, and Alex's parents, Charles and Gloria Whitman, were still waiting at the entrance. The fact that they were not inside the Reservation already was due only to a steadily growing contingent of soldiers armed with AK-47's keeping them out. The moment the first house had been blown up and the parents had seen the smoke, it had been almost impossible for the soldiers to keep them from rushing in, and more guards had quickly had to be called.
But as the day had worn on, the parents had become only a small part of the soldiers' concerns. Unknown to anyone inside but the army, the scene had become almost as chaotic outside the Reservation as inside it. Since Diane's newscast, a huge throng of screaming people, many with protest signs, had descended on the Reservation trying to get in and demanding an end to the attack. In addition, at least a dozen other news teams were now present outside the Reservation, each fully equipped with extension cameras and the latest satellite broadcast equipment. The contingent of armed soldiers had been increased several times, as people continued to show up in cars, on motorcycles, and by almost every other possible means. The continuing explosions and smoke coming from inside the Reservation only served to send many of those outside the entrance into a frenzy, and it was almost a miracle that, up till now, no one had been shot and the soldiers had managed to keep everyone out. But that was all about to change.
It will probably never be known who was the first to see it; many of those in the crowd looked up at the same time, as did the soldiers who were guarding the entrance. At first, it had only seemed to be a cloud passing in front of the sun; but soon it became very clear that it was not. The object approaching from the sky in the east was enormous and seemed to have no end. As far as anyone could see in that direction, nothing else was visible. It appeared to have a classic saucer shape, but that was hard to tell for sure, because at this point, no one could actually see the other end of it. The noise level among the crowd diminished to a stunned hush, and for several long moments, no sound was heard except for the soft whisper of the wind blowing around the ship as it drew nearer.
The eerie silence was broken when one of the soldiers guarding the entrance suddenly began firing his AK-47 at the approaching ship. Apparently taking this to be an invitation, the other soldiers began to fire, too, but their bullets had no effect. They simply disappeared into the air.
The ship slowed… then stopped, hovering above the soldiers and the crowd for a time like a huge low cloud, the lights around its outer lower rim flashing continuously but nothing else happening.
Onboard the ship, Max pointed at the view screen. "Do you see that, Michael? There must be several thousand people down there. How are we gonna get the ones we want without bringing a whole lot of others onboard with them?"
Michael shook his head.
Max turned to Varec. "Can you refine the transporter beam, Varec… enough to pick out the ones we want and not get any others?"
"I can refine it… but not that much," Varec replied. "If they're closer than four feet… maybe three… to anyone else, that person will come up, too."
"They're all closer than that," Max said, looking at the scene below.
"Well, there's another way to do this," Michael said. "Varec, we still have those transporter tag pins in storage, don't we?"
"Yeah."
"Do you have about six of them at least?"
"Yeah."
"Give 'em to me."
Varec went to the storage area underneath the console and brought out a handful of tag pins, special tags that would stick to a person's clothing and identify them, and only them, as the ones to be transported. Michael took the pins from him.
"I'll be back shortly… after I hand these out."
Michael left the room and took the ascension chamber to the cargo bay. Then he went to the room where his bike was stored.
"Looks like we've got at least one more ride left to do while we're here," Michael said to the bike, as he rolled it to the bay doors. Climbing on and putting his helmet on his head, Michael pressed his remote, and the bay doors opened slightly, just enough for a bike to roll down the ramp and out, falling into the air below. Michael twisted the throttle on the right handlebar, and the motorbike disappeared suddenly into a rift in the air. Several seconds later, another rift opened up, this time behind the crowd below. Michael's bike shot out of the rift, and the rift closed back up with an explosive BOOM that shook the ground and knocked several people off their feet. The crowd hurried to get out of the path of the oncoming bike, though the bike slowed to a more normal speed once it had emerged from the rift. Michael quickly rode through the crowd and handed the tag pins to a stunned Jeff Parker.
"Each one of you put one on… you and Mrs. Parker, Mr. and Mrs. Evans, and Mr. and Mrs. Whitman. Sorry I don't have more time to explain. Just do it… quickly. I'll keep the guards over there distracted."
Indeed, the guards had been trying to get to Michael, but they didn't want to stray too far from the entrance to do it. If they did, the crowd might get past them. And they didn't want to shoot into the crowd with so many witnesses present. After handing Jeff Parker the tag pins, Michael turned the bike around and quickly headed back out of the throng. Once he was a short distance away, he turned the bike back around and faced everyone again. The crowd parted, instinctively making room for him. Michael twisted the throttle on the handlebar, and the bike shot forward. The soldiers saw it coming and prepared to fire as the bike passed them, but they never got a chance. The air opened up, and the bike rushed into the rift as it passed, surging forward suddenly at an incredible speed and disappearing as it had come… with a tremendous BOOM and a scream like the engines of an F-16 passing by. Culpepper's soldiers, who were standing nearest to the rift, were thrown through the air, most of them losing their weapons as they tried to break their falls. Then the crowd and TV news vans surged forward over and around the soldiers, who could do nothing now but protect themselves from being trampled.
Moments later, the bike came out of a rift below the ship, and the transporter beam caught it and transported it into the ship's cargo bay. Michael removed his helmet, then he put the bike back in its place and hurried to contact Max on the intercom.
"They're ready."
Max looked at Varec, and Varec nodded. With the tag pins on, the individuals that they wanted to transport up could be picked out of the crowd as long as they weren't actually touching anyone else. Varec moved his hand over a sensor on the console, and somewhere in the surging crowd below, six people disappeared and reappeared onboard the New Granolith… to find Michael already waiting for them.
"Welcome to our little ship," Michael said, with a touch of obvious understatement. "I know you've got a lot of questions, and I'll be glad to answer all of them for you, but right now someone's waiting to see you."
Michael turned around and headed to the ascension chamber, and the six parents followed without a word. At the moment, no one quite knew what to say anyway. When the ascension chamber came to a stop, everyone stepped out to find Varec waiting to accompany them to the bridge with Michael.
The first thing they all noticed was the huge window at the front of the bridge. They could see the entire town of Roswell from up here. They could also now see quite clearly the ghastly destruction that had been wreaked on the Mesalikos' homes. But as they walked into the room, they saw something else… the reason they were here.
Diane ran to Isabel and hugged her, with Phillip right behind. Charles and Gloria Whitman spotted their son, Alex, and both of them ran to him at once, with Charles trying to check him out to make sure he was okay, as Gloria held him fiercely in a mother's hug. Jeff and Nancy looked around the room and spotted Liz. Well, actually, they saw two Lizzes, but they had no doubt which one was theirs. Both Jeff and Nancy started toward the sofa, but Liz held up her hand and smiled. Jeff and Nancy paused. Liz knew that nothing in the world would make them stay there in that spot for more than a few seconds. She would have to act quickly.
Liz put her weight on her feet then stood up and walked… not very fast… but she walked… to them. Jeff and Nancy both threw their arms around Liz and held her tight, as tears ran down their cheeks; and Liz hugged them back, smiling victoriously, as she wiped the tears from her own eyes.
"Max healed you!" Jeff exclaimed, finally finding his voice.
Liz shook her head. "He tried. Both of them tried. I think it helped. I felt stronger afterwards. But it took something a little more radical to help me walk again."
Jeff looked at Liz. "What did they do to you, Lizzie?"
"Rahn did it," Liz said, motioning toward Rahn.
"The roadrunner," Jeff said, extending his hand to Rahn with a smile. "I didn't know you could heal people, Rahn."
"I can't."
"Then how did you…" Jeff turned to Liz… "What did he do to you?"
"Nothing too drastic, Dad. He sort of taught me how to alter my injury through shape-shifting."
"You can do that?" Nancy asked, incredulous.
"I thought you had to be born a shape-shifter to be… you know… one of them," Jeff added.
"Well, Dad, I haven't turned into a bird or anything. I think that's a little beyond my meager abilities. But I CAN adjust my spine so that it functions normally again. I didn't really want to be a bird anyway."
"That's good," Jeff said. "I don't think I would be able to explain that to people. My daughter, the roadrunner!"
"And I couldn't hug a roadrunner like this," Nancy said, squeezing Liz tightly. Liz squeezed her back then hugged her Dad.
Nearby, the Whitmans were still doting on Alex, somewhat to his embarrassment, but he didn't seem to be complaining. Meanwhile, Phillip Evans had one arm around Max's shoulder, as Isabel tried to tell them everything that she and the others had been through this day, which was starting to seem like a week already. Jim and Amy had already had their reintroduction to Maria, having been transported aboard with the first group earlier; but even so, Amy didn't seem to be finished holding onto Maria or hugging her, and Maria was beginning to think that her Mom might have to be declared an appendage. For now, though, Maria was clearly enjoying it. It was hard to tell how Amy and Maria could understand each other. They were like one body with two heads talking at the same time, but they obviously had the method down to a refined art. It certainly seemed to have the potential to reduce the time needed for a conversation, but in their case, there always seemed to be more to talk about. Perhaps that was why they both talked at the same time… It was the only way they could ever hope to get everything in.
Nancy had noticed the other Liz, too, the moment she had walked in; and though she had never had any doubt as to which one was "hers," like Amy, she felt somehow compelled to hug the other one, too. It was a mother's instinct. And they WERE, in a real sense, both hers. She was Liz's mother, and both of them were Liz.
There were also two Michaels, two Marias, two Isabels, two Alex's, and two Jim Valenti's. Nancy made a mental note that this had the potential to become very confusing, and she determined that she would have to do something about it if it started to get out of hand. That didn't take too long…
Amy, who had been talking with Maria, called Jim over, and both of them came.
"I meant my husband," Amy said, smiling at the two Jims. Jim of Antar turned and instinctively called Varec over… then suddenly remembered that this Amy wasn't married to Varec; she was married to his counterpart. Varec, not knowing yet that this Amy was married to Jim, but knowing that his Amy had not come with them, smiled and appeared a bit embarrassed, unsure what to say to Amy. She was, after all, his wife… albeit in another dimension… but this one was not HIS wife. The fact that his counterpart from earth seemed to be a bit too "friendly" with Amy in this dimension, when as far as Varec knew, he was supposed to be married to Kathleen, seemed out of place to Varec… especially when it was with his wife… even if she wasn't HIS wife.
Eventually, Jim did explain to Varec that, in this dimension, he was married to Amy. Varec understood better than anyone the fact that different dimensions might not follow the same courses. He had been the one who had said so in the first place. But this was his wife… even if she was not HIS wife. Seeing her holding onto Jim and kissing him was going to take more than a little adjustment to his emotional thought processes if nothing else.
Over the course of the next twenty minutes, it became obvious that whenever a name was mentioned, at least half the time, either the wrong one came or both of them came. Isabel from Antar had already offered to settle the matter of which Alex was hers by just taking them both, but her counterpart from earth didn't care much for the idea. Every time either Liz said Maria's name, both Marias would answer or show up, and even Max and Michael seemed to have trouble making it clear which one they wanted to speak to when they spoke to each other. Nancy had had enough…
"Stop!"
Everybody turned and looked at Nancy, who blushed slightly as she realized that she had just made herself, Nancy Parker, the center of attention.
"This is giving me a headache. There are two of so many people here that no one knows who they're talking to… at least I don't." Nancy lowered her voice and said more calmly, "We need to do something about it."
Max shrugged. "I didn't really notice. It doesn't bother me."
"Me either," Isabel from Antar said, pretending to be absolutely serious… "I already offered to take both Alex's back with me… but miss spoil-sport over there doesn't want to solve the problem."
Isabel's double from earth knew how to play this little game as well as her Antarian counterpart did, and she gave the Antarian Isabel a look that reminded her of just one of the reasons she had once been called the "ice princess." Probably no one but Isabel could have called herself that now and got away with it, but both Isabels knew that they were playing a private game… and no one else would have dared to enter into it for all the money on earth and Antar put together.
"Max," Nancy said, reclaiming everyone's attention. Immediately, both Max's answered.
"See what I mean?" She looked at Max from Antar. "Max, what do they call you on your planet?"
"My friends call me Max. Most everyone else calls me Zan."
"Alright… then you're Zan."
She looked at his counterpart from earth. "And you're going to be Max."
"What are you called on your planet, Michael?"
"Rath," Michael said cautiously, knowing where this was going.
"Okay, then you're Rath," Nancy said. "And you're Michael," she said to his counterpart from earth.
"What is your name on your planet, Isabel?"
"Vilandra," Isabel said, not seeming terribly happy with being pegged with that name, though there were those who still called her that on Antar.
"So we have Vilandra, and we have Isabel," Nancy said, indicating the two of them. "Jim…" She looked at the Jim from Antar. "You can be James."
Jim wrinkled his nose slightly.
"Don't you like that name," Nancy asked.
"It sounds… formal," Jim said.
"Well, what do they call you on Antar?"
Jim smiled. "To my face or when I'm not around to hear it?"
"What do you prefer?" Nancy asked.
Jim shrugged. "To my friends, I'm just Jim. Antarians who know me only by reputation or from TV call me a lot of things."
"Like what?"
"Jim –ee- pa' ogor, Jim –ee- Eluymer, Jim-Shta' –ee- Genz'ah… and maybe some other things."
"What does all that mean?" Nancy asked.
"Well, the first one means 'Pawgor Jim,' or literally, Jim the Pawgor man.' It's a long story. The second one means 'Jim the earthman,' the third one, preferred by a lot of Antarians who watch my show, I've heard, means 'Jim, that crazy alien guy.'
Nancy raised her eyebrows and smiled. "We can just use the 'Jim –ee-' part. You can be Jimmy."
"Can I still be James?" Jim asked. "Now that I think about it, I kind of like James."
Nancy nodded then looked at Tess.
"Are you Angie Lee, too?"
Tess shook her head. "I'm Tess."
"Oh. Okay… well, that won't be a problem. She looked at Alex.
"Alex!"
Alex winced.
"Your name is Charles, isn't it?"
"Yeah… but Dad's is, too."
"Do they call you anything on your planet?"
"Not when Iz is around," Alex said, joking. Nancy looked at him seriously, and Alex sighed.
"No. I don't have any cute pet names like Jim…"
"Like James," Nancy corrected.
"Yeah… I meant James… Anyway, I'm just Alex to everybody. Maybe 'Alex –ee- Eluymer.' That just means Alex the earthman."
"Maybe we can make you 'Alex E' then, and your counterpart here can just be Alex."
"Alex –ee-," Alex repeated. "That would kind of mean 'Alex the Man…' kind of like 'I the stud.' I guess that's cool." Alex noticed Nancy's look of confusion. "Never mind. It was just a password I once used on my computer."
"Maria," Nancy said, turning to Maria's Antarian counterpart. "What can we call you?"
"Well, I'm kind of partial to Maria," Maria said. "But if we're changing everybody's names, just call me Marisol."
"Marisol? Is that alien… what is it… Antarian?"
"No, it's Spanish. I just always wondered what it would be like to be a Marisol."
Nancy nodded then looked at her own daughter's Antarian counterpart, Liz from Antar.
'Zan' smiled.
"Uh uh!" Liz said. "Nobody is calling me Queenie! Don't even go there, Max!"
"Zan," Nancy corrected.
"Zan, Kingy, whatever… I'm not going by Queenie."
Nancy smiled in spite of herself. "Okay, what can we call you that will set the two of you apart, honey? I can't call you my 'earth daughter' and my 'alien daughter.'"
"You can call me Elizabeth and her Liz."
Nancy nodded. "Okay." She looked around. "I think that covers everyone. Now maybe we can keep everyone straight around here."
'Zan' looked at 'Elizabeth' and whispered, "Why do I think it's not going to be so simple?"
'Elizabeth' smiled and gave him a kiss. "Give her a day… maybe two… She'll forget all about this silly name stuff. She's my Mom… I know her… even if she is from another dimension."
tbc
Coming up: Culpepper makes a fatal mistake when he pulls a "Star Wars" stunt to try to destroy the New Granolith, and the Mesaliko Reservation comes under attack again, this time by a unit of the National Guard and by thousands of irate citizens… but they are not interested in killing aliens or blowing up Mesaliko homes.