Sins Of The Past
Chapter 34
XXXIV
Accusingly, Gray Hawk's finger pointed directly at the younger Max from earth. Angie Lee gasped, and Kyle appeared too stunned to speak. Liz sat with her mouth open but no words coming out. Max turned a shade paler than normal, but after a moment, he managed to stammer…
"There was a book… In it there was something about us having mates before… on Antar… but I… we… none of us… know anything about that other than what the book said. I swear, I could never have had anything to do with harming Angie Lee, though."
"You did not," Gray Hawk replied. "Her enemies were also your enemies. They killed you, too… all of you. But you, Max, were the king… and A'in Ji Lii was your queen. You were married."
Angie Lee looked at Max then at Kyle. Kyle appeared vaguely ill.
Angie Lee swallowed hard. "I… I don't remember that… I don't remember anything from then. I don't… I'm sorry, Max… I don't feel that way… about you."
Max breathed a deep breath. It was hard to tell if he was finding his voice again or if it was a reflex action caused by relief. In either case, it was the first breath he had taken since Gray Hawk had pointed his finger at him.
Max shook his head. "I have no memory of that either. And it's alright, Angie Lee. I…" He glanced at Liz beside him… "I love someone else already. It only makes sense that you would, too. This life is not the one we lived before… on Antar. We may have been made from their DNA… We may even be them… but we have different… destinies."
Liz shook her head and laid her shaking hand on the table in front of her. She attempted to calm it by laying the other hand on top of it, but that hand was shaking, too…
"How can we fight destiny, Max? I mean… if that's your destiny… How can you fight it?"
Max's mouth dropped open, and he appeared to be shocked and hurt. "How can you accept that, Liz… just like that? I thought you… I thought we…"
Isabel kicked Max under the table and gave him a piercing look…
"Max, you idiot, look at her. It's not what she wants. She's looking for a way out of this stupid destiny crap. You're supposed to help her find it, not act like a friggin' hurt puppy!"
Max closed his eyes for a moment then opened them again. "I'm sorry, Liz. I just…"
Liz held a hand up and shook her head. "Don't, Max. I understand."
"No, I don't think you do, Liz." Max shook his head emphatically. "I don't believe in destiny… except the destiny that we make ourselves. If we had a different life before, that life doesn't exist now… at least not the same way it did before. Angie Lee knows it, too. If destiny was in play here, I'd be looking at Angie Lee all the time like… like… well, kind of like Kyle keeps looking at her… when he thinks no one is noticing."
Kyle's face momentarily reddened enough that he might have passed for a Mesaliko, and Angie Lee looked down to try to hide the smile that was inching over her face.
Tess stood up and walked over beside her younger near-double. Tess was, for all practical purposes, Angie Lee's double, but besides the slight age difference, which they all had, Tess had light, smoky blue eyes; the younger Angie Lee's eyes were jade green. Except for those minor differences, the two might have been mistaken for identical twins…
"Angie Lee, I think I may be able to help you understand some of this… You, too, Max," Tess said, turning to the younger Max from earth. "In our dimension, Max and I have been through this already. So has Liz." Tess looked at the younger Liz. "And Liz, Max married you in my dimension… not me. So destiny can be changed, like Max said. It's not set in concrete… nothing is… except as we allow it to be. I married Rayylar." Tess smiled at Rayylar, and he returned the smile. "It was the best thing I ever did… Max was crushed, of course, but… somebody had to do the right thing." Tess winked at Liz from Antar, and Liz shook her head and smiled. Beside her, Max closed his eyes and bit his tongue.
"And there's something else, Angie Lee," Tess said… "something that you really have to know. It would have made life so much easier for me if I had known it from the start. Our scientists discovered that about twelve thousand years ago, one of the king's confidants switched his own baby for the king's baby. No one ever knew it at the time. The confidant's baby grew up as part of the royal family, and the king's baby grew up thinking she was the daughter of the other man. The king's real daughter, who was raised by this other man and didn't know she was part of the royal family, eventually got married and had children, and they had children, and their children had children… through about twelve generations, I think… until about ten thousand years ago, when three girls were born into her line, MayaSabriena, AnDasniya, and JoLeesa. Their father was a cosmic mapper and xenobiologist, and he took his family to a blue planet in the seventh galaxy from Antar, called Eluymer, to map that planet and gather life forms to bring back to Antar for study. You know Eluymer as earth. The three girls were only fourteen years old… going on fifteen… when they came to earth. And they were triplets.
At that time, Eluymer… your earth… had two moons…"
A number of people around the table sat up, appearing shocked at this bit of information, especially General Strickland, Corporal Edmonds, Dan Klein, and Diane Casey.
"The smaller of the two moons," Tess said, "was only about half as far away as the larger of the two, the one that is still there today. Anyway, Maya, Andya, and JoLeese were allowed to travel back and forth to the small moon at will in a kind of small, enclosed vehicle that was apparently pretty simple to operate. And they went back and forth often, because they had a secret hideout there… a hidden cave on the far side. I won't go into the whole story of these girls' lives or what happened to them, but here's why they're so important to us…
Ten thousand years after those girls went to earth, Max and Michael found a diary and some other things that one of the girls, Maya, had kept when they were on earth. Because of this diary, our scientists decided to trace the girls' ancestry and lineage, both on Antar and on earth. What they found was that these three girls were… according to their DNA… in the direct line from the king. But this was not possible, so they traced the ancestry, using DNA, of the most recent queen… me… and found that I was NOT in the direct line from the king or from any of the extended royal family. Instead, I was in the line from the king's confidant thousands of years before. Of course, like everyone else, I didn't know this. This meant that the triplets had been the most recent known true female descendants of the real original king of Antar. When our scientists traced Maya, Andya, and JoLeesa's lineage on earth, they found that one of the girls, Maya, the first-born of the three and the one who had kept the diary, had a descendant still living on earth today." Tess looked at Liz from Antar. "That descendant is Liz. And since she is the only known direct living descendant of MayaSabriena, who was a direct descendant of the king of Antar at the time when the lines diverged, Liz is… legally and rightly… the real queen of Antar. Who'd've known, right?"
For several moments, Angie Lee sat quietly, absorbing this information… Then she asked…
"Does that mean that Max is not the real king then? And if he is… and Liz is the real Queen, too… aren't they like… related?"
Tess smiled. "That would be logical, but they're not really. Max is descended directly from the original king through the male line. Traditionally, the queen was chosen from among the many descendants of the many members of the royal family who were descended from the original king. But after more than twelve thousand years and a lot of marriages outside the royal family, none of the women who become queen are really that closely related, bloodwise, to the King… Only the King, through the male bloodline, maintains an absolutely pure lineage. But position is everything. I was the Queen of Antar in our past life, because Max… Zan, that is… married me… but I was not a queen by heritage, only by his choice, because I had never belonged to the royal family as it turns out. Liz, on the other hand, is Queen both by heritage and by choice. She is a true Queen of Antar."
Several people around the table applauded lightly, and "Wow" was heard more than once.
"The reason you need to know this, Angie Lee," Tess said, "is because you need to let go of any preconceptions you might come to have about some false position in society that you occupy. When we returned to Antar, I knew that Max was married to Liz and that I would never be his queen… I accepted that… and I was totally okay with it… but I had this preconception that I had that station in life, as the rightful heiress to the throne based on my lineage, and without realizing it, I shut a lot of people out of my life… guys especially. I didn't really understand why everyone else had someone and I was still alone… until Alex told me. Mr. Big shot King over here didn't want to hurt my feelings." Tess walked over and gave Max a light thunk on the back of the head with a flick of her finger.
"Michael, aren't you supposed to be protecting me," Max asked, rubbing the back of his head and giving Michael a bewildered look.
Michael smiled.
"So much for being a king, huh!" Max groaned good-naturedly.
There was some laughter around the table.
"Nobody wanted to tell me," Tess said. "After the others found out about it, it was all hush-hush around me. It took Alex to tell me the truth. He just came right out with it… 'Tess, you're not the real Queen. Liz is.' There… it was as easy as that. Then he told me what they all knew but were too afraid to tell me."
Isabel squirmed in her seat, and Alex smiled. He remembered how Isabel had practically threatened to end his life with supreme prejudice and violence after he had embarrassed her by so bluntly telling Tess the truth right in front of her. But Alex had surmised that Tess needed to know this in order to move on with her life… and he had been right. He hadn't told her the truth to be cruel, though to some… like Isabel at the time… it had seemed so. Isabel had put him on notice after that that the only reason he was still living at all was because he was so unbearably cute and irresistible… most of the time… Otherwise…
In their own dimension, before Max and Michael went to Antar and defeated Kivar to retake Max's throne, Tess had been responsible for Alex's death. But when Max and Michael later returned to earth in its past to try to save Liz, Maria, and Isabel from dying in the end of the world, they wound up changing time in some unexpected ways, specifically by undoing the damage to time that 'future Max' had done by coming back in the old granolith. As a result, the earth survived, and Tess never killed Alex. In fact, she never knew Nasado at all. Years later, when the special unit found out that Alex had been close to Isabel, they dragged him off to the base without letting anyone know what had happened to him. His parents thought he had been killed, and it was Tess who saved him and brought him to Antar.
Alex had no memory of ever being killed, of course, because once that timeline changed, it never happened. The only ones who remembered it were Max, Michael, and Kyle, because they had lived on earth in that past before it was changed. Everyone else was a product of the changed past. Alex did know about it, because Max and Michael had told him, but he shrugged it off. Tess was, after all, his good friend in this timeline. She had saved him from the special unit and had brought him with her to Antar. Despite these differences in Tess, however, she was keenly aware that she had been the Queen of Antar in her past life… and until Alex relieved her of that burden, it had ruled her life in ways that she never realized.
"Liz is good as the Queen," Tess said. "She isn't bothered by preconceptions of any kind. She's just herself. And it works… for her. I would have thought I'd have been upset to find out that I wasn't even a royal, but I actually just felt liberated. I looked around, and there was this whole world that I had never seen before… guys that I had hardly allowed myself to speak to or who wouldn't speak to me because I gave off that air like, 'Don't come close, I'm a royal.' You know? I didn't realize I was even doing that. But suddenly, I was free, and I could see it… and it actually felt good to be… just me."
Tess sat down, and Rayylar pulled her close and gave her a kiss. Alex leaned over and boldly gave her a kiss of his own on the cheek, and Tess smiled. Somehow, Alex knew that Rayylar wouldn't mind. Isabel shook her head, certain that one day Alex was going to miscalculate. But she smiled, too. Alex was Alex after all. And there was nobody else in the whole world like Alex… Alex was free of all preconceptions, as Tess had so aptly said about Liz. Alex was pure… He was Alex. And it allowed him to get away with a lot.
Two days later, in Roswell, Jim and Amy were making their way through the crowds toward City Hall. The streets of Roswell were packed, something that reminded Jim of the UFO conventions that were celebrated there every year… probably almost since the crash happened in 1947. UFO freaks and alien-seeking sci-fi buffs came from all over the U.S. and many other countries each year for the convention, and the town's leaders encouraged it. It meant money… big money… in the city's coffers. The business people loved it, too. Business at the CrashDown, Jeff and Nancy Parker's alien-themed café, always bustled during the UFO Convention. It brought in more profit in five days than the whole next three to four months together could be expected to generate. So it was no wonder, really, that the town leaders were meeting today to discuss how to best capitalize on the presence above Roswell and the Mesaliko Reservation of an honest-to-God, bona-fide UFO with worldwide news coverage already assured. Jim could just imagine the salivating that was going on in that meeting, and it made his blood boil.
To Jim, it seemed the absolute epitome of hypocrisy for these men and women to sit there in their plush seats talking about how to make more money from this phenomenon that literally dropped into their laps… after the way they had treated Liz and Alex… even passing a special ordinance allowing Judge Lewis to send them to an insane asylum on trumped up charges of dealing drugs, something that no one in Roswell would have truly believed. Judge Lewis had wielded enormous power in Roswell, enough to lead the town council any way he wanted them to go, but that did not excuse them in Jim's mind. What they had done was criminal, and Jim would not let them get away with it so easily… much less allow them to profit from the presence of the 'aliens' now… at least not without hearing from him first.
Jim opened the door of the city hall building and held it for Amy. Amy was a very independent person, but Jim was nothing if he wasn't a gentleman… It was in his blood. And Amy would have had it no other way. They walked up the stairs together to the third floor council room, and Jim opened the door again. Councilman Moss was leading the meeting, and he stopped in mid-sentence. Everybody turned to look at Jim and Amy. For a moment, no words were spoken, then Jim broke the silence.
"Gentlemen… as Sheriff of Roswell, I believe I am allowed to attend this meeting."
"Sure… Yeah, sure, you are Sheriff," Councilman Ralph Moss replied. "Have a seat. We were just talking about how our town can grow and… uh… take advantage… uh… put to best advantage… the presence of this wonderful… uh… turn of events in our area."
Jim's eyes widened. "Wonderful, Ralph? Is that what you all think it is now?"
"Well, sure, Jim… We all want what's best for Roswell. This is a boon. We intend to take advantage of it… The town can benefit…"
Jim nodded. "I see that. What about those two kids… Elizabeth Parker and Alex Whitman, Ralph?"
"Now what do you mean by that, Sheriff? Nobody done those kids any harm. They're both doing just fine. I heard the girl's even walking again."
"You heard right, Ralph. It's no thanks to you or anyone in this room, though. If you had had your way, she'd be dead now… along with the Whitman boy."
"Now that's a mighty hard accusation, Jim. We never wanted to harm them… either one of them. Judge Lewis maybe… I can't speak for him. But leave us out of that."
"You didn't leave yourself out of it, Ralph. How did you vote on that resolution the Judge asked you to pass… you know, the one that gave him the authority to ship those kids up to that asylum and kept their parents –and me- from seeing them?"
"That's not fair, Jim."
"How'd you vote, Ralph?"
There was a brief silence. "I voted 'yes,' Jim. We all did. You know that."
Jim nodded. "Yeah… I do. Not even one of you brave, noble councilmen had the guts to say no to Judge Lewis then. Why was that? Huh? Was it that hard to do the right thing? Judge Lewis was taking kickbacks from renegade miscreants in the FBI and the Army, from common criminals, and even from the coyotes. Some of you even knew it. What happened? Cat got your tongues? Nobody knew how to speak up? You just turned those kids over to the FBI and Army to be… killed… or dissected… or whatever… Washed your hands of them… of the whole affair? Well, it's not that easy."
"That's not fair, Jim," Moss insisted again. "We had every reason to trust the special units. They are, after all, government sponsored. My God, Jim, we're talking the U.S. of A. here. You don't question your country. It's a matter of… of patriotism."
Jim straightened and raised himself up tall suddenly, almost as though he had just been struck in the back by a board, and he looked Moss directly in the eye for several moments… several long moments for Moss. Then he let his gaze drift around the room, catching each council member in turn in his gaze. As he did, he pronounced each ones name in turn slowly and deliberately… "Connie Lawrence… Buddy Mills… Lou Bateman… Frank Johnson… Loretta Sims… Angela Harwood… Kenneth Wilder… Will Wilson… Marsha Goodwin… Tom Everett… Gene Kirby… Jessica and Lonnie Benson…" Each one lowered his or her eyes as Jim called their names.
"Shame on you all! That's all I have to say. Shame on you all! We are all fortunate that those two children survived and were rescued… no thanks to any of you sitting here in this room today salivating over the ways to make money off of them now. You sold them out, then you sold out the Mesalikos…"
"We had nothing to do with that, Jim," Jessica Benson quickly retorted.
"You are all responsible, Jessica. Each and every single one of you. You allowed a cancer to grow in your midst… Judge Lewis. You fed it, groomed it, used it, coddled it. Now you own it… and all that it is responsible for…
And Ralph! Patriotism is the right to be proud of what you have accomplished and done when it is GOOD… and the responsibility to keep it that way. History has shown us that even great cities revert to wilderness when there is no one left who cares to tend them, protect them, and build upon them. If our country is great, it is because men and women who cared have fought to keep it that way and to vigilantly weed out corruption that would seek to destroy it. To follow blindly while allowing ourselves to sink into an abyss of corruption and disrepute is not patriotism. That's a crime. What, then, is there to set us apart, as a race, from the Hitlers, Pol Pots, or any other despots and criminals? Might we all hide behind the robes of patriotism? If we as a nation have the right to be patriotic –and indeed we do- it is because some have earned it for us. I would ask you…" Jim looked each one straight in the eyes again. "Do you feel that your actions… or inactions… on this board have earned you that right today? Gentlemen… and ladies, too… we all have made mistakes. Greatness comes in recognizing our mistakes… and then bringing about change that will guarantee the justness of our cause, preserve our heritage, and assure our right and that of every future generation to share in that heritage. Then, and only then, can we as individuals stand proud… and claim our earned right… to patriotism. So Councilman Moss… before you talk to me of patriotism, be absolutely sure that your actions do not betray you. That's all I have to say. Amy? Can you think of anything else?"
Amy smiled and shook her head. "You said it all, Jim. I wouldn't change or add a word."
"Then gentlemen… and ladies," Jim said, "Thank you all for your time. When next this board meets, I trust we will have happier things to discuss. You may go back to your business now. I think you were talking about how to capitalize on the UFO craze that has come to Roswell." Jim turned and left the room with Amy, leaving only stunned silence in the council hall behind them.
Out on the sidewalk again, Amy kissed Jim and wiped a tear from her eyes. "I swear, Jim, I could hear The Star Spangled Banner playing as you spoke. I'd give anything to be a fly on the wall in there right now."
Jim smiled and put his arm around Amy.
tbc
Coming up: Judge Lewis gets out of the hospital, and the gang gets a look at Gray Hawk's new house.