Backyard Aliens Read online

  “It appears to have minimal movement,” the girl said. “But we don’t know what’s natural for them.” She said it in a hurry, as though covering her steps.

  Mavra reached to touch the girl’s hand. “You don’t mean minimal. There’s no heartbeat either, is there?”

  “How would you know that?” the girl said. She looked as though she was going to cry. “Who told you?”

  Mavra said, “What other tests are they going to do? Is there any plan to try to talk with them?”

  The young man scoffed. “They’re animals. They’re not intelligent.”

  “Then how did they put that equipment together?” Neil said.

  “We found some sort of programming chip at the base of the skull of the male. The female has one, too, but we didn’t remove it yet. We were…”

  “Afraid after how long it took for her to respond from the tranquilizer,” the young girl finished his sentence.

  “That’ll be next.” Neil shoveled food into his mouth as though he was trying not to speak.

  Mavra easily recognized when he was angry. This was one of those times. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and took a long drink. She stood, then reached down and pulled him up. “We’d better go,” she said, knowing that she didn’t need Neil yelling at the lab techs. The situation had nothing to do with them.

  He glanced at the lab techs. “We’ll see you soon,” he said to the two techs.

  The young girl held a napkin over her mouth, and looking distraught.

  Mavra led Neil away from the table and out the door. As they turned down their hall, they saw a guard at the far end, near the entrance. “Do you really think they’re going to allow us in to see them?”

  “No,” Neil said.

  ***

  “The baby,” Kek-ta said while holding her hands over her stomach.

  Chit-Chit-ta sat a few inches from her, his hand over the bandage on the back of his neck. He looked up as she spoke, then inched his way toward her. “I’m here.” He slipped his arm over her shoulder.

  CHAPTER 15

  “WE’LL HAVE TO FIND OUR OWN WAY IN,” Neil said once they were inside the barracks room.

  “You have a suggestion as to how?” Mavra asked.

  “Not yet. But I will soon. Just give me a few minutes alone.”

  “That’s not going to happen in here,” she said with a sweep of her arm.

  Neil snapped his fingers and began to pace in the widest circle he could manage inside the room.

  Mavra slipped onto the bottom bunk, out of his way.

  He shoved the chair under the desk on his first pass, slapped the side of the dresser, tapped the desktop, slid his hand over the door, and rubbed his chin. His arms continued to move about as fast as his feet propelled him over the floor. Then he stopped, lowered his head with his eyes closed and ruffled his own hair with both hands as though getting the blood flowing inside his skull.

  Neil let his right brain free associate, while his left brain calculated the potential times when major figures would be gone, and only lab techs would be manning the aliens. When would there be meetings, routine operations, cleanup, or monitoring? He scrunched his face at the thought of operations, but he didn’t mean actual operations, only general tests. Either way, he could image he and Mavra stepping through the lab doors as though called in to make observations others might not be able to make. Another image appeared with him escorting her as though she were in a trance. Surely, after lunch, the techs asked about Mavra and Neil. They would know her special talent.

  He snapped his fingers again and bent down to look in at Mavra. “We have to help them escape,” he said. “But you knew that part. I think I can figure this out.”

  “Are you sure, Neil? You said yourself that if anything strange happened they might never call you in again.”

  “I have to take that chance.”

  “Was it that bad when you were young? I thought it was okay.” She rose from the bed. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

  He stared at her, traced her hairline and cheeks with his eyes then let his eyes lock into hers. “I try not to think about it,” he said in a quiet voice. “I want to understand my parents side of the story, why they would do such a thing. I love them. They’re my parents, after all. I want to let it go. I do.”

  “I know, honey.” She reached for his cheek. “My parents weren’t too sure about me either. I suppose it got pretty spooky when I warned about an accident and then two days later it happened. When I told them about bank robberies, and about the kid who got lost in the woods near school. My teachers were suspicious. It was hard to make friends. I get it.” She kissed him. “I’m sure it was ten times worse for you.”

  “You know I didn’t go to school. Not regular school.”

  She nodded her head. “This could be devastating to both our careers. Is it worth the risk?”

  “We make it look like a mistake,” he said. “But I’ve got to get a good look at their lab before any of this can be fully figured out. So, here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to walk in there like we are on a mission. You’ll be in a half-trance and I’ll be ushering you close to where the aliens are being kept. While you’re faking what you do, I’m going to scan and memorize the layout. That’s the first step.”

  She smiled at him. “Step one.” She held up a finger. “When do we get started?”

  Neil glanced at his watch. “Soon. They’ll have an early afternoon meeting for progress updates. Everyone will be out of there except a few of the techs. We already know how easily influenced they are.”

  “You’re sure of this?”

  “Every business, every military operation, every medical lab or hospital or donut shop has a fucking afternoon meeting. I’ll bet my ass on it.”

  “Oh, not that,” she chided. “Okay, what time?”

  “I’d say between two and three. If I lean against the door, I can hear what’s going on down the hall. Once several of them leave the lab, we’re on our way.”

  “They’ll be sorry that they positioned us so close to the entrance, won’t they?”

  Neil hugged her and wondered what he’d do without her support. “This is going to be tricky. You up for it?”

  “If anyone can figure this out and make it work, it’s you. We both know that,” she said.

  “I suppose we do.” He saw no sense in lying or faking modesty.

  Neil sat at the desk with his head lowered into his arms for a while, then got up to lean his ear against the door and wait. Mavra lay in bed as quietly as possible. “Seriously, do you think they’d kill them just to see what’s inside?”

  Neil whispered, “Not going to give them the chance.”

  She angled herself in the bed and hung her head over, looking up and around the room. “You don’t think this place is bugged, do you? I never thought of that.”

  “I did. I checked. We’re safe.”

  “Should have known.”

  He held a finger to his lips and began to nod. He listened as several people wandered past their door toward the front of the building. He opened the door and motioned for her to follow.

  Mavra was right behind him.

  At the lab, he put an arm around her shoulder and held her hand with his as though leading a blind woman. He shoved against the doors with his shoulder. There were only two lab techs in the room. When one of them walked toward him and opened his mouth as though getting ready to say something, Neil lifted his finger to his lips. “Where are they?” he whispered.

  The other tech pointed to an obvious place off the main lab, and Neil headed for those doors next. In the meantime, trying to be discrete, he scanned the lab for other doors, other way’s out, but there weren’t any.

  Uh, oh.

  He pushed through the second door, both techs close behind him.

  “What’s going on?” one of them said.

  The other one made a face and angled his head toward Mavra. “The psychic,” he said, as though the other
tech was an idiot.

  Neil stopped in front of the cage and helped Mavra kneel down so that she could see the aliens. Even if they had been removed from the cage for the operation on the male, they had already been put back inside the small space. Neil saw a pile of feces in the back corner and felt bad for them. The odor didn’t bother him; it was strange, but not offensive. He did wonder where the feces had come from, though, since he’d never seen them eat, and their growth appeared to happen so quickly. Their condition reminded him of one of his childhood events where he peed in his pajamas one night because he couldn’t remember how to get in and out of his bedroom—he was likely using the wrong side of his brain, not letting the two sides communicate properly. He recalled how terrifying it had felt being unable to get to the toilet.

  He stood up and Mavra remained kneeling.

  “Is there anything we can do?” one of the tech’s asked from behind him.

  “No. Let’s just give her a few minutes.” He turned around and put his hand on the tech’s shoulder and walked out of the area. Just before going through the doors, he heard the female alien say, “Okay,” in a voice that, to him, was pleading for it to be true.

  He told the two techs that they could go back to whatever they’d been doing. They separated and went back to their benches. Surprised at how easily things were working out so far, Neil took a moment to look around the room again. Benches stood against all the walls and two rows of lab tables ran down the center of the room.

  The tech’s appeared occupied, so he didn’t stay in the room long.

  Back in with Mavra, he looked for a way out and pinpointed another door at the rear of the room. He strolled back and glanced through the window in the door where an area opened up that looked like a room where surgeries were performed. It had been cleaned, sterilized, and organized as though ready for the next operation. There was no way out of that room.

  He returned to Mavra and kneeled next to her. Her finger pushed through the bars, and the female held to it. “Are they okay?”

  “Okay,” the female copied, her eyes angling toward him.

  “No,” Mavra said. “Look at him.” There were tears forming in her eyes.

  Neil bent lower to see the male who stood farther away. His hand lay over the back of his neck where the electronics must have been removed. “He doesn’t know what happened or why, does he?”

  “We have to help them. They mean no harm. I doubt they ever did, even if their species returned. They have such gentle eyes.” She tugged on her finger slightly, and the female let go of her. She stood and buried her face into Neil’s shoulder.

  “Let’s go.” He put his arm around her again and walked through the first set of doors.

  The lab techs talked with an older man who turned toward Neil and Mavra as they entered the lab. “I wasn’t aware you were coming,” the man said. Then he held out his hand, “Dr. Bursk.”

  He laughed. “You met my wife earlier. Trust me, it gets confusing for us, too.”

  Neil shook the man’s hand, but Dr. Bursk held it too long. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”

  “We have access—” Neil started.

  “No you don’t.” The doctor squeezed Neil’s hand then let it go. “But I get it. She’s made contact with them. There’s a bond of some kind. That happens, I’m sure. Like a pet. But I’ll have to let the general know.”

  “Harkins?”

  “I don’t think he’ll like it,” Dr. Bursk said.

  Mavra sniffed, then said, “I have a right to know how my blood and skin samples came out.”

  “Sure. You’re clean as a whistle. It’s like those things are from here, but they’re not. We can all see that. Not with that thing under their skin, either. Not with the way it advanced their metabolism and growth. To say nothing of how they look.” He put his hand to his chin and turned to the side. “That’s some pretty sophisticated technology, I understand. The electronics, that is, probably meant to get them past the time of needing a parent. Fascinating.” He turned back to them. “That doesn’t change the fact that you two are not supposed to be here. So what was this about?”

  “Like you said,” Mavra spoke up, “I felt attached, wanted to know they were okay. I had heard that the female may have lost her, her…”

  Dr. Bursk closed his eyes. “I’m afraid so. We need to remove it.”

  “You can’t do that. You have no idea—”

  “We have every idea and we have every right,” he snapped at her. “You are the one who doesn’t have a right.” He pointed to one of the techs. “Roger, get security in here.”

  “Hey, hey,” Neil said separating from Mavra and holding his arms up, palms out. “We came to see if they were okay. That’s all. We know where our room is and can get out of here ourselves.” He cocked his head. “We’re not prisoners yet, and we aren’t going to be. I’ve got top clearance for this and much, much more. We’ve signed all the security documents. We’re clean. And you, whether you’re the head of this lab or not, are not going to push your weight around.” He lowered one hand and pointed at Bursk. “You got that?”

  Dr. Bursk didn’t look happy, but Neil knew what he was doing. He knew how to handle this type of situation. “You call in security and you’ll be the one they haul out of here. Got that?” he said again.

  Bursk blinked when Neil said, “Got that?” the third time. He nodded and said, “Get out.”

  “You can have your lab back.” Neil reached for Mavra’s hand, but it was too late. She had turned and walked toward the door, so he followed her instead. In the hall, he said, “He’s going to tell on us like the snitch on the playground.”

  “What do you think Harkins will say?”

  “Probably not much more than he usually says—which is nothing. He may not like it, but he knows that we have rights here, too; although, he may say something to us about our tactics. We did break the rules by going in without prior approval.”

  “Another rule,” she smirked.

  “Fine, another rule. He’s got to be getting used to it.”

  “We still have an escape to facilitate,” she said.

  “I know. Let me sleep on it.”

  ***

  “They’re not going to do anything,” Chit-Chit-ta said.

  Kek-ta rubbed the area around the location of his incision to relieve the itching she was sure was there. “But they’re all we have,” she said.

  The two of them huddled into the corner together when the lab techs came into the area, hooked up some machinery and proceeded to clean the cage using a hose with some kind off-smelling sanitizing liquid.

  “Stinks,” Chit-Chit-ta said.

  “Quiet,” Kek-ta whispered to him. She listened to the techs as they communicated, and watched as they pointed and assembled their tools.

  “Do you understand them?”

  “Not yet,” Kek-ta said.

  CHAPTER 16

  AFTER A LOUSY NIGHT’S SLEEP, Mavra opened her eyes to the sound of the shower running. “Oh,” she said as she sat up and rubbed her head. She wore army green pajamas, part of the kit that had waited for them the day before when they returned from the lab. They had been left alone all night, which didn’t feel right to either one of them. They’d expected to be reprimanded for their intrusion, but that didn’t happen. Perhaps Dr. Bursk hadn’t told on them after all.

  Neil stepped from the doorway to the bathroom naked from the waist up. He wore green pajama bottoms, like Mavra. A toothbrush poked from his mouth and the scent of Ivory soap wafted through the room.

  “How long you been up?” she said.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he said around the toothbrush.

  “I’m sure you have, but can it wait until your mouth is empty?”

  He nodded and shot back into the bathroom to spit into the sink. He used his hand to scoop a couple handfuls of water into this mouth and spit again. “Okay,” he said rushing through the doorway. “I have an idea how this can be done.”

 
Mavra stood and put both of her hands on his chest and patted his skin. She took a good whiff of his clean body and looked into his eyes and shook her head. “Not now.” She turned from him and strolled toward the bathroom. “You shave already?”

  “Yeah. You go ahead and shower and I’ll run down to the mess hall and get us a couple coffees.”

  “You’re the best,” she said while slipping the pajama top over her head and hanging it on a hook by the shower. She felt him looking at her and turned, spread her arms so he could see her breasts, and said, “Now will you go?”

  Neil laughed. “Now I want to stay.”

  Mavra turned around and flipped the shower on. “Get going, loverboy.” She heard the room door click as he left, then she stepped into the warm rush of the shower water, which pelted her head and the back of her neck and eased the pain caused by the uncomfortable bed she’d slept on all night. At one point during the night, she actually thought of moving the mattress to the floor, the springs were so saggy. But she decided not to, which was why her back and neck hurt.

  She soaped up and rinsed, washed her hair using the labeless shampoo bottle in the shower, taking an extra few minutes to massage her head. When she stepped out of the shower, Neil held a towel in one hand and a coffee in the other. “Look all you want,” she said before kissing him quickly, “as long as that coffee’s for me.” She threw the towel around her and took the coffee. One sip and she set it down on the sink. “Now scoot out of here while I finish.”

  Neil walked back into the main dorm room, and Mavra closed the door behind him. In a few minutes she finished drying off, but instead of putting her pajamas back on, she wrapped the towel around her, grabbed her coffee cup, and walked out. She reached for the pile of clothes they had been given—everything was white like what the lab techs wore. “At least they got my bra size right; although I hate this type, they’re so uncomfortable.” She leaned over and put the bra on, then grabbed a pair of granny-panties. “Please, honey, do not remember how I look in these.” She laughed and pulled on the white pants and pullover. Everything fit loosely. Instead of using a hairbrush, she ran her hands through her hair. “I’m ready,” she said, picking up the coffee and taking a good swig.