Part 5
Maria gradually became aware of a quiet humming sound that seemed to be coming from all around. After a few moments she realized that she was lying on the floor and that she could feel the vibrations being generated beneath her. She slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around, feeling disoriented and dizzy. She recognized the Granolith chamber almost immediately and valiantly fought against a wave of nausea as she shakily got to her feet.
She slowly stumbled over to the chambers' entrance, bracing her hand against the wall as the dizziness made the room swim before her eyes. Behind her the Granolith glowed brightly, the light pulsing for a moment. She ducked down to make her way out of the chamber when a mellow voice spoke up.
"Good luck."
She turned around and stared at the Granolith for several seconds before carefully shaking her head. The voice sounded quite different than it had earlier, it sounded almost mischievous. As if it had just played a prank on someone and it was quite pleased with itself. Ridiculous, she thought, blaming her whimsical thoughts on the feeling of disorientation that she hadn't shaken off yet. There was no way the cold, unemotional entity was capable of coming anywhere close to feeling any of those things.
She made her way into the outer chamber and stood, brushing her clothes off. Her gaze scanned over the pods, her eyes going directly to the one that had held Michael so safely after the crash. She ran her fingers over the edges, hoping to feel her connection to him come alive once more. She could feel… something, almost like a faint flicker, but it wasn't strong enough to convince her that everything was as it was supposed to be.
She turned to look at the other pods and gasped loudly when her eyes fell on one that still held a small body cocooned inside. Tess, she realized, moving closer to it. Had the Granolith sent her back, expecting her to kill the alien? To do whatever was necessary to prevent Tess from coming into their lives and causing so many problems?
She hurried back into the innermost chamber, standing and facing off against the device that she had trusted to fix things. "What'd you do?" she demanded. "When I asked you to fix things, to bring Michael back, this isn't what you were supposed to do!" She paced restlessly, trying to put her argument together. "Did you send me back here to kill Tess? If her coming into our lives is the catalyst that set everything in motion from that point on, couldn't you have just removed her from the equation yourself?"
"If it would save your mate and prevent events from happening as they did, would you carry out your mission?"
The voice was almost… kind as it made its query and she frowned at it. Could she do it? If it meant altering the past, removing the threat that Tess had been to all of them, could she make that choice? Alex would be alive, Michael would never have been near that ledge, Max wouldn't have been taken by Pierce, Michael wouldn't have had to kill Pierce and live with the guilt… There were so many reasons to do it, to take the life of one alien, and not just any alien, but Tess. She wouldn't remember it, but could she take the life of a child, even if it was Tess?
The Granolith glowed brightly for a moment and suddenly it was speaking again, its tone reassuring and warm. "Do not worry, this decision is not yours to make; this decision was made long ago. Accept my offering and begin your journey."
"What are you offering me?" she asked suspiciously.
"You have been given the power to affect the events of the past, present, and future." It made a sound close to a chuckle though it was mechanically distorted, and the light surrounding it pulsed once more. "Be more trusting, young human. I know what I am doing. Go now, and discover what I am offering you."
Maria stared at the alien device and shook her head. Either she had hit her head somewhere along the way or this thing had a multiple personality disorder.
Confused and no closer to an answer she went back out into the pod chamber and crouched down to look at Tess more closely, studying the features of the alien in the shadowed pod. The pod was completely dark, the small body inside perfectly preserved, but dead. That meant that she had never hatched, never gone to Roswell… she hadn't brought Nacedo into their lives, Alex would still be alive… But, wait, if Alex hadn't translated the destiny book, the hybrids had never had the opportunity to go back to Antar, and Michael wouldn't have chosen to stay behind for her. What would that mean to their relationship?
She could feel sadness trying to push its way to the surface and she ruthlessly shoved it away before it could take hold of her. She had to stay strong if she was going to figure out the Granolith's riddle and hopefully find out what it was offering her. She hoped it was the opportunity to change the past as it had suggested; changing the past would affect the past, present, and future, right? So, that had to be what it was talking about.
She walked out of the cave and looked to the east, pausing a moment to watch the sun's slow climb into the early morning sky. First things first, she thought. She had to get to Roswell. Would she find the others there? There was only one way to find out. She glanced at the sunrise once more, estimating that she only had a couple of hours to make it out to the highway before the temperature began to rise to unbearable degrees as the sun got higher and reflected off of the sand below.
All of those long walks that Michael liked to take had conditioned her for the hike across several miles of desert and once he heard about this he wouldn't let her forget it. Her spirits momentarily dipped towards depression as she recalled her reason for having to hike across the desert in the first place.
"You can do this, Maria," she said, forcing her voice to be strong and not waver. She took a moment to breathe deeply, drawing strength from her belief that in the end she would have Michael back. "You can do this," she whispered once more before taking the first steps of her journey.
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Michael tossed the saddlebags down on the hotel room dresser and sprawled out on the bed, linking his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. He had opted to go with one of Santa Fe's nicer hotels because he liked room service, ready-to-order porn, and because uptight rich chicks were so much fun to mess with. There was a buffet of beautiful women at this hotel - he knew because he had staked out two others before deciding on this one. There were a couple of hot chicks on the staff too and he hadn't missed the day shift manager checking him out. Hell, he could probably get a couple decent fucks outta her and get the room for free. Hmm, now there was an idea, he thought. It wasn't like he was struggling for money or anything, he was set financially, but hey, if he could save a few bucks and get laid, who was he to complain?
He pushed himself up on his elbows and glanced down at his lower body, frowning at the lack of activity below his belt. He wasn't used to having to coax a response out of his dick; the damn thing normally had a mind of its own and as a rule he never questioned its judgment. But the last day or so it had not been behaving normally and he was beginning to really get pissed off at it.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he muttered. Maybe it wasn't sexually-related at all; maybe it was an alien thing. Maybe he was sick. "Yeah, right, you're sick and your dick's the only thing affected." Nah, he'd never been sick a day in his life. He stood up and walked into the bathroom to start the shower, uneasy about this recent turn of events. The problem wasn't just his dick; he wasn't feeling that usual drive to go on the prowl and nail whatever piece of ass caught his attention.
He was tired, that's all it was, he thought, denying that it could possibly be anything else. For the past few months he had taken on several jobs back-to-back and he was just exhausted, that's all it was. "Mentally and physically exhausted," he said, nodding to himself in satisfaction.
Once the water was hot enough he stripped out of his clothes and threw them on the floor behind him, determined to move past this annoying problem. He pushed the curtain back and stepped into the marble tub, bracing his hands against the wall under the showerhead as the scalding hot water poured down over him. He looked down at the pair of metal identification tags swinging from the chain around his neck and let his thoughts wander back to that bitch cop he had fucked… Damn, had it really been more than twenty-four hours ago? She'd had a thing about his tags, fisting them while she rode him, as if she could control him that way. No one could control him, he thought defiantly. He had made it a point to take control every time she had reached for his tags, flipping her over and pounding her into the mattress. It had become a matter of competition once he realized that she had no intention of releasing her hold on the tags. She had given him a run for his money, but in the end he had won.
He glanced down when he felt the familiar tug of arousal and realized that his dick had decided to get back in the game. "I always win," he told it as he took it in hand. "You'd do well to remember that."
Feeling much better after jerking off and finishing his shower Michael toweled off and crossed the room to retrieve his cell phone. He scrolled through the numbers until he reached the one he wanted, pressing the call button and pinning the phone between his shoulder and ear.
"Somebody'd better be dyin'," the voice from the other end answered gruffly.
"Sounds like you're the one dyin', Indigo," Michael said loudly, easily identifying the hangover from the man's raspy voice. "Late night?"
"Guerin, where the fuck you been, man?"
He grinned at the man's sudden switch from hangover to sober. "Hidin' in plain sight as always. You got plans tonight?"
When did he not have plans? "You in town?"
"For a few days." Hanging out with Indigo would do him some good; the man knew where to find beautiful women. There would be no need for him to work to get laid, it'd be a piece of cake.
"Shit, man, why didn't you just come on over?"
Good question, but one he didn't really wanna think about. "Nah, just needed to kick back for a while."
The laughter from the other end was disbelieving. "You found a piece of ass to nail, didn't you? Bet you're at one of those overpriced hotels too, huh?"
"Overpriced, but who says I'm payin' for it."
"Manager's a woman, right?" Indigo laughed raucously. "You did the manager? Guerin, you're such a dog! You remember where my place is?"
Michael grunted in response.
"Head over this way when you're ready to get movin' and we'll make a night of it."
Michael disconnected from the call and tossed the phone on the bed beside him. He was gonna get at least a couple hours of sleep before he left the hotel; he was going to need it for a night out with Indigo because the man liked to party. He was twenty-nine years old and he acted like someone half his age most of the time.
He reached up to rub his eyes tiredly before grabbing an edge of the comforter and pulling it over himself as he rolled over and quickly fell asleep.
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Maria stepped out of the truck, thanking the man behind the wheel, and stood back as he pulled away from the curb. The stretch of highway that led out past the part of the desert where the Granolith was housed wasn't well-traveled, but thankfully truck drivers used it on a regular basis. She was surprised that she had only seen the one truck, but luckily the man had stopped to give her a lift, and he had been pleasant but not very talkative.
She looked around the town she had grown up in, feeling more like a tourist than someone who had spent most of her life living there. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn't know what day it was; she should have asked the Granolith about that before leaving.
It was a good thing that Roswell wasn't that large, she thought as she started walking towards the Crashdown. The restaurant that Liz's parents owned was the best place to start and they would have a newspaper that she could check for the date without raising any eyebrows. She had to know at what point in time the Granolith had placed her so she would know what the others knew about the hybrids, the humans, the Special Unit, and each other before she approached them.
The bell above the door tinkled cheerfully as she stepped inside the familiar building, but as she looked around she was surprised to see that it had changed. She seated herself at one of the booths and asked for a glass of water and a newspaper when the waitress approached her. She hid a smile when the young woman walked away, rolling her eyes; people who came in and only ordered a glass of water rarely ordered anything else and they never left a tip.
Maria sipped her water and reached for the paper the waitress had placed on the other side of the table. Her eyes lifted to the date, relieved to find it correct. She glanced around the restaurant once more, wondering how it was possible for things to change so much in such a short time. They had been gone less than a year and in that time the Parkers had changed the interior from the alien theme it had always had to a bland, basic style that had no ambience to it.
She lowered her gaze back to the newspaper, opening it up and scanning over the bold headlines, looking for anything of interest. Her eyes locked on one that stated that the President was planning to seek another term in office and she shook her head as she looked at the large picture below the article.
"This isn't right," she muttered.
"You didn't vote for him either, huh?"
She glanced up at the man who had spoken. "I'm sorry?"
"I wasn't eavesdropping," he said as he motioned to the paper she held. "I overheard your comment and figured you must be reading about President Dennison's' plans to run for office again. Don't worry, I didn't vote for that idiot either." He smiled as he sat down across from her, uninvited. "You must be new in town; just passin' through?"
She nodded. "Yeah, just passing through; I used to live here, years ago." She took another sip of her water. "I don't know; I might stay for a few days. I haven't decided yet." She glanced at him over her paper. "You live here?"
"For a few years now."
"Well, maybe you'd know what happened to this place." She waved one hand around, indicating the walls around them. "It used to have a very different theme."
"The alien thing, right?" He nodded and shrugged. "The couple who owned it sold it not long after their daughter was shot and killed. They left the state, but I don't know where they moved to. I guess it was too much for them to - " He paused when the young woman across from him paled. "Hey, are you alright?"
Maria quickly forced her breathing back under control and her eyes locked on the man across from her. "Liz Parker? You're telling me Liz Parker is dead?"
"Yeah, did you know her or somethin'?"
"Years ago," she answered carefully.
"Well, I've gotta get going," he said, rising with an apologetic smile. "Work's waiting."
What the hell was going on? If Liz was dead then Max hadn't saved her and that meant that she and Michael had never gotten together. She needed more information. Maria dropped the newspaper and hurried out of the restaurant, heading for the one place that would have the information she needed.