Castaway Found
By Thomas Mc

Chapter 2

The next night Centauri, Maggie and the Ambassador were back on the dock. Alex and Louis were in the water trying to retrieve the beacon transmitter. The Ambassador had begun telling Maggie about his son as a young very active child and how he had joined the Legion and become a Starfighter. They had ended up discussing children in general and the trials of being a parent. Centauri had mostly just listened to the discussion. His only contribution to the discussion was his contention that children were more trouble than they were worth and he had no intention of ever having any.

After several hours Centauri announced that Louis had just surfaced. They all turned their attention to the water as Louis tossed an object into the boat. A second later Alex broke the surface and tossed the signal tracker and some digging tools into the boat. Then both young men climbed in and rowed the boat over to the dock where the others were waiting. The entire group immediately returned to Alex and Maggie's suite, unaware of the other small group of young people dressed in patched together clothing that had been watching them from a distance.

Once back at the hotel room Alex hauled the recovered beacon onto a hastily cleared table and began examining it. The beacon case was badly damaged but there was no doubt that it was from a Gunstar and the serial number was readable. Alex compared the serial number to a list of missing and destroyed ships and found that it had indeed come from the Ambassador's son's ship.

Though he had already accepted that it was his son's ship they had found, the final irrefutable verification hit Ambassador Zadoranis like a punch in the gut. He sat down heavily into the nearest chair and looked resignedly up at Alex. "So that is it, then." He looked back at the damaged case. "This is where my son and his mate finally ended up."

~ o ~

It was late Saturday morning and Catherine and Vincent were in their parlor playing with their one and a half year old twins when Jamie and Mouse came up through the basement tunnel entrance.

Jamie started taking excitedly as soon as she arrived. "They showed up at the docks again last night. There were five of them this time. Two of them went diving in the East River and brought up something about twice the size of a shoebox. The one that looked like Vincent kept his hood up most of the time but he got very excited when they brought up that box thing and his hood slipped. I was using the binoculars that Doctor Peter loaned me when his hood fell back so I got a good look at him. I swear he looked exactly like a white furred version of Vincent." She paused a moment then shrugged as she continued. "They left for the hotel as soon as the other two got back to the dock. We kept a good distance from them and were able to follow them to a hotel on the east side of the park. Geoffrey found out what room they are in and he is there now keeping an eye on the room."

Catherine's heart jumped at Jamie's words. Over their bond she felt Vincent's complicated emotional reaction as well. "I have to check this out." She went to the phone and made three calls. One call was to Jenny asking her to come over to watch the twins in case she and Vincent needed to go out for a while. The other two calls were to Isaac and Joe asking them to meet her in the lobby of the hotel that the strangers were staying at. She knew that she could count on those two to back her play regardless of what it was. What she had in mind was a bit heavy handed, but the answers to questions that had haunted Vincent all his life just might be within her grasp. It was time for bold action and she didn't want to waste a lot of precious, and possibly limited, time trying to be circumspect about this.

~ o ~

Alex, Maggie, Louis, Centauri and Ambassador Zadoranis were gathered in the common room of the suite discussing what to do next. Centauri had just downloaded the data from the beacon and was reporting what he had found.

"The data storage was nearly destroyed. I was however able to retrieve some data from it. There are indications that the emergency escape protocol and the self destruct were both activated from the navigator's pod. I could find no telemetry at all from the Starfighter's pod. Most of the telemetry from the navigation computer was also missing and what little information I could retrieve is hopelessly garbled which may explain how the ship ended up so far from home. From all indications it looks like Zoria at least was alive after the ship crashed." Centauri glanced sympathetically at the Ambassador. "I'm sorry but the data is not very encouraging about whether or not Zamiis survived."

Zadoranis seemed to shrink slightly at the less than positive report then shook his head as he spoke. "We have to find out for sure what happened to them."

Alex remarked sympathetically. "I'm sorry we couldn't find better news." He paused glancing at Centauri then back at Zadoranis who was straightening his shoulders as if forcing himself to face the realities. Alex continued, thinking rapidly as he spoke. "If we accept the possibility that one or both of them survived the crash, and the urban legend of the Creature of Central Park suggests that at least one did survive, we have to ask ourselves where have she or they been hiding all this time. The only thing we can be sure of is that it must be somewhere close to Central Park since that as where the reported sightings usually occur." Alex shook his head and looked helplessly at Zadoranis. "Even if they are still alive somewhere nearby I have no idea how we can go about finding them."

Zadoranis responded. "I know that at least one of them is alive. I told you about making momentary contact when we first arrived. I was able to catch a sense of one of them but it was very weak and I lost the contact before I could locate whoever it was."

Alex looked up as a thought hit him. "I forgot about that empathic ability your people have. Do you think you can use that to trace one of them?"

Zadoranis shook his head. "I don't think it would work. The emotional emanations of you humans are so much like those of my race that it will make it extremely difficult to discriminate between them. It would be like trying to locate one voice in the middle of a noisy crowd. That one contact that I did feel may have just been a fluke. It was so fleeting that I couldn't get anything definite from it." He shrugged his shoulders, looking down. "I will continue to try but I don't hold much hope for that approach." He seemed to become lost in thought.

Maggie spoke up at this point. "Maybe if we can't find them, we can get them to find us."

Alex looked at Maggie in surprised admiration. "That's it. You're right. If we could get some kind of message out that only they could understand with directions on where to find us then maybe we can get them to come to us."

Centauri jumped in. "Some ads and fliers. They could say something like . . . 'To the lost ones your father is here looking for you.' We could include the same message along with critical contact information in Cutahnian symbols in the decorative boarders."

Zadoranis looked around at the others with a glimmer of hope in his eyes then he glanced over toward the suite's entrance in surprise and reported in low warning tones. "There are other entities approaching."

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Centauri and Zadoranis scrambled for one of the bedrooms and Alex went to the door. After a quick glance over his shoulder to verify that Centauri and Zadoranis were both out of sight, Alex opened the main entrance door. There was a very pretty woman standing there accompanied by two formidable looking men. "Yes?" Alex remarked curiously.

The woman and one of the men essentially barged their way into the room as the man flashed his identification at them while officiously announcing himself. "I am New York City District Attorney Joseph Maxwell."

The woman jumped in. "We are here to speak to you about your actions at the east river docks over the last two nights." The woman's eyes narrowed as she quickly scanned the interior of the suite. Her gaze came to rest on the closed bedroom door and her face took on a determined look as she rushed over to it. "Who is in this room?"

Alex shook off his surprise and took a step toward her in an attempt to stop her, insisting. "You cannot go in there."

Isaac stepped into the room, closing the door as Joe quickly stepped around Alex and moved up right behind Catherine effectively blocking Alex from approaching her. Maggie also took a step forward but was stopped by Louis' hand on her shoulder. Without as much as the slightest pause, Catherine opened the closed door and barged into the bedroom. Her own momentum carried her forward two more steps before she stopped and exclaimed. "Oh my God!" This brought Joe rushing into the room behind her.

Centauri and Zadoranis were both caught completely off guard when the Earth female suddenly barged into the room. Zadoranis clearly sensed determination coming from the female which quickly turned to surprise, amazement and disbelief. What surprised Zadoranis the most was that he could sense no fear or animosity from the female, but rather a strong growing streak of recognition as she exclaimed to her god. The exclamation drew the male into the room and Zadoranis sensed an almost identical emotional reaction from him. Then the female blurted out. "You're real!"

The man that had come in behind her was staring at Zadoranis. "I don't believe it."

Both of the intruders seemed more surprised by his presence than by his appearance. After a few frozen moments Ambassador Zadoranis recovered his composure and spoke to strange female human. "~ Vcxlmd ~ ghijgns ~ odfhjd ~ smzm ~ fbdkv ~ !"

Catherine stared at the lion-man in confusion as he spoke in some kind of unintelligible gibberish. Though she had no idea what he had said, his voice sounded so much like Vincent that it sent a shiver down her spine. At that moment the man that had answered the front door barged through the bedroom door past her and Joe to take up a protective position between Catherine and the lion-man. Then the white haired lion-man came out with another string of gibberish.

Catherine shook her head. "What is he saying?"

Alex looked blankly at her a moment before it hit him. "Oh, I apologize but you barged in here and I forgot." He raised his voice just slightly. "Maggie, will you bring me that small blue cylinder from my suitcase." Then he turned his attention to Catherine. "The Ambassador was expressing surprise that you have apparently seen someone like him before."

Catherine caught the 'Ambassador' reference as she directed her response to Alex. "What makes him think that I have seen another like him?"

The lion-man responded with more of his gibberish as the dark haired woman called Maggie eased into the room carrying a small blue device that was about the size of a roll of quarters. Alex took the small device from her and spoke as he approached Catherine. "If you will permit me?" He gingerly placed it against her shirt collar as he told her what Ambassador Zadoranis had just said. "He remarked that your actions and your emotions tell him that you apparently were familiar with his appearance." There was a soft click sound and Alex took a step back from her leaving a silver and gray button about the size of a quarter attached to her collar.

Catherine's eyes grew wide as she stared at the lion-man. "Of course! You're sensing my emotions aren't you?"

Zadoranis nodded. "So you have met someone like me." He took a step forward. "You must tell me where I can find them."

Catherine again displayed surprise. "You know English?"

Joe glanced over at Catherine in surprise. "What?" He shook his head. "I only heard more gibberish."

Alex responded. "No he's still speaking his own language but you are hearing English through your translator button." He stepped toward Joe. "If you don't mind." He held up the blue device.

Joe barely nodded and Alex deposited one of the translator buttons on his collar as well.

Zadoranis spoke again. "I implore you, if you know where there are others like myself; please show me where they are."

Joe was surprised to hear English because he had been watching closely and noticed that the movement of the lion-man's mouth did not match the words he was now hearing.

Catherine responded. "Suppose I did see another like you, what do you want with him?"

Zadoranis noted her use of the male reference as well as detecting a strong sense of protectiveness from the woman. "I think he may be my son." He felt her shock and surprise as the woman took a step back.

The man named Maxwell placed his hand on the woman's upper arm and appeared to be offering support to her as he spoke. "He does look just like him. Cathy, I think we should bring him with us. You know that Vincent is going to want to meet him so we might as well." He then looked uncertainly at Zadoranis. "If you are willing to come with us we can take you to the one you may be looking for."

Ambassador Zadoranis glanced over at Alex, Maggie and Louis standing fascinated at the bedroom door then back at the woman, now identified as Cathy. He disparately wanted to go with her but knew that it was unwise to just deliver himself into the hands of these alien strangers. After a moment's consideration he settled on a solution. "I will come with you but I must bring my personal escort with me." He indicated the three people standing at the doorway and Centauri who was standing beside him.

Joe glanced around then responded. "We can't put this many in my car."

Catherine barely paused a moment then she spoke to Ambassador Zadoranis. "Your escort could ride in Isaac's car. The rest of us can ride in the Joe's car."

Joe seemed to be lost in thought for a several seconds then addressed Zadoranis. "You said 'your son' just now, can you give us some idea how old your son would be?"

Zadoranis glanced over at Alex and shrugged. "I do not know how to convert the time frames."

Alex thought a moment then responded. "I think Zamiis age calculates out to about fifty-seven earth years."

Catherine shook her head. "That can't be Vincent. He's only thirty-five."

Alex looked over at the Ambassador, his eyes wide in surprise, as he responded. "Zamiis and Zoria disappeared approximately thirty-six earth years ago."

Zadoranis looked back at Alex just as surprised. "They had a child?" Then he faced the woman, Cathy. "I must see him immediately, please take me to him."

~ o ~

Vincent was watching from the rooftop garden when two vehicles pulled up in front of the brownstone. He knew from the bond that Catherine was returning home and her complex emotional state told him that she was determined, uncertain, hopeful, excited, fearful, and she was bringing home momentous news.

He watched as Catherine, Joe, and a third unknown person got out of Joe's car. Isaac and four unknown people got out of Isaac's van. As they reached the front door Vincent turned and headed down the stairs.

~ o ~

The fact that they had pulled up in front of a brownstone that was directly across the street from Central Park did not go unnoticed by all the members of the Ambassador's party. As they entered the brownstone, Alex, Maggie and Louis were immediately aware of the simple understated elegance of the place. Zadoranis and Centauri glanced around appraising the domicile they had entered. The place spoke of someone that lived well. Zadoranis opened his empathic sense and detected four individual entities in the floors above them. He also noticed that one of them had sensed his presence and was now very curious.

Catherine felt Vincent's churning curiosity as she called out. "Vincent, I've brought home someone very interesting that wants to meet you."

Everyone's attention focused on the elegant spiral staircase as Vincent descended to the parlor. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and for several seconds Vincent and Zadoranis stood there staring at each other.

Vincent's emotions were as jumbled and conflicted as Catherine had ever felt them.

Finally Zadoranis spoke. "I would know you anywhere. I can see both of your parents in your face . . . and you definitely have your father's eyes."

Vincent's brows furrowed in confusion over the unintelligible gibberish that this elderly mirror of himself had produced. But the emotions Vincent had sensed coming from him had been as clear as a bell. He felt surprise, amazement, recognition and an overriding joy mixed with old sorrow.

Catherine recognized Vincent's confusion and translated. "He just said that you look just like your parents and you have your father's eyes." Then she turned toward Alex. "Maybe you can give him one of those translator things."

Vincent watched warily as the strange man approached him and used some type of device that left a button the size of a quarter on his shirt collar. Vincent glanced around at all the strangers standing in his parlor. All but one of them radiated emotions of surprise and happiness with an aura of self-satisfied achievement. The one exception was the man that had hung back. His emotions felt strange, almost non-human. Vincent filed that impression away as he turned his attention back to his lookalike but he addressed his remark to Catherine. "How does he know my parents?"

"Your father was my son." The leonine stranger responded in perfect English.

At Vincent's surprised look Catherine explained. "That silver button on your collar is some kind of language translator. Apparently no matter what language someone else speaks, you hear it as English."

Vincent took a moment to think about what had been said then he responded. "Then you are saying that you are my grandfather?" He was having a hard time believing that the answers to all the questions, that had haunted him all his life, was now standing before him in the person of his biological grandfather.

Zadoranis replied. "It is the only logical explanation. My son and his mate were lost and crashed here at about the same time you were born and the resemblance between them and you is obvious. We also found the remains of their ship close to here." He glanced over at Alex then back at Vincent. "Once we get you back home where you belong, we can run the tests to prove your relationship."

Vincent glanced at Catherine, sensing her surprise and worry, then addressed Zadoranis. "What do you mean by back home where I belong?"

"You are Cutahnian and my grandson and we must give you a proper family name." Zadoranis took a couple of steps toward Vincent. "You must come home to Cutahni with me where you can be with others of your kind and find a mate. Then you can begin building a family of your own and take your rightful place as my descendant."

Vincent glanced at Catherine who looked worriedly back at him. "Sir, though I am strongly tempted by the offer to see where I come from, there are things about me that you must understand and accept." Vincent placed his arm around Catherine's waist pulling her in close. "I already have a name and I already have a family. I have no intention of giving up either one of them."

For a moment Ambassador Zadoranis stared at Vincent and Catherine in shocked disbelief. Then he began to sputter. "This is totally unacceptable. It isn't done. You must mate with someone of your own kind and carry on the family line."

Continued in Part 3

'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures.
'The Last Starfighter' and its characters are owned by Universal Pictures and Lorimar Film Entertainment.

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