The ship had come in low over the camp, then shortly after returned
at a slightly higher altitude but just before crossing over, shot straight up
several hundred feet, did a loop de loop and making a sharp turn away from the
escarpment headed for the only large open field located several hundred feet the
other side of the forest that surrounded us.
We donned our cloaks, hoping they'd give us the same
protection as before, collected our shotguns, rifles, longbows and ammunition
and headed for the cover of the woods to wait.
Why hadn’t we been wearing our proper clothing? Stupid mistake! If we survived, that would not be repeated.
The ship had already landed when we arrived at our rendezvous point. We watched and listened as they arrogantly, crashed
through the brush, obviously not used to this terrain, or just as stupid as we
had been. What approaching army would
make such racket on its way to destroy its enemy? Of course, they may have felt that they had
such superior fire power that they needn’t fear us. But maybe we would surprise them this
time. We crouched low. Suddenly, the first one broke into the
open. Out of the corner of my eye, I
could see that Bruce was prepared to let one fly. The arrow caught the creature just below
shoulder height on the right side, but in the chest cavity. The creature did not stop. Nor did it raise a weapon. Two others appeared behind him, again, no
weapons were visible. Another arrow shot
toward the wounded thing, but this time, the hand on the uninjured side reached
out and grabbed it before it made contact.
“Hold your fire,” I shouted with a sense of urgency as I stood to my
feet. I knew that Bruce would
have already notched his next arrow and was prepared to let it go. Years before, I had learned to trust my
instincts, and at this moment, they were screaming at me to not be too hasty
with these three, or at least this particular one.
The three visitors stopped.
The one with the arrow protruding from his chest faced me. I blinked at a sudden yellow light that had
just penetrated my right eye. While
continuing to look my way, he raised his hands, then slowly began to remove
what I thought was his head. No, not his
head. He was taking off a grotesque
headpiece, like a child returning from a successful Halloween outing. I was shocked to see that he was…human.
“Doctor,” I called. See to
this…person. Coming out of hiding,
Manning appeared with her bag of necessary field dressings and
medications. I studied the motionless individual
carefully. There was something faintly
familiar, something...from the tire store.
The uniform. That insignia. Those letters that seemed to be an L and
X. I spoke to the wounded being. “Do you speak our language?
I was surprised to hear a male voice respond in flawless English
like my own, perhaps with a slight American accent. “You may call me LX, for want of a better
name.” He pointed to the insignia on his
uniform with his left hand. “Greetings,”
he said, stretching forth a hand as if he were a business man introducing himself
to a new client. I wasn't quite
ready to make friends with the Devil, so I gave a slight nod of the head, excusing
myself from the physical contact.
He didn't appear to be in much pain and I wondered how a man - he
certainly seemed to be a man anyway - could use both arms when wounded in this
way. Doctor Manning pulled out the shaft
and dressed the wound. I could see by
her expression, that she was somehow intrigued by all this. I thought perhaps that she was feeling a
little angry that I had called a halt to our military maneuver as these persons
may have been responsible for the death of her family. I too was having mixed emotions, but again
there was that something that told me to be careful how I treated them. They had not strafed our camp, had raised no
weapons, and even after being shot at, still demonstrated a lack of
hostility. “Strange behavior from one’s
enemy,” I was thinking. “Would you like to
come with us to our camp?” I queried the one who spoke. Bruce was all for drilling another hole in
the speaker, and those with guns were of the same mind, but held their peace.
“We would,” he responded, and with that turned to his comrades, and
said something in that strange, high pitched sound I had heard months earlier
while watching him through that tiny hole in the shelving. They then reached up and removed their head
pieces. More humans! We proceeded to the camp where I decided that
we would entertain our guests at our special group dining area. This
consisted of several heavy, flat stones that had fallen from the escarpment
over the years. With great difficulty,
we had arranged them into a very large table, with several smaller stone chairs
set about, so that we could sit around in comfort, either eating, writing, or
playing cards, if we so chose. Here, we now sat with the three of them. “So, to what do we owe the pleasure?” I asked,
hoping to determine their purpose.
Everyone from our camp continued to hold their weapons at the ready.
“We are not armed,” LX said, looking intently around. “We are not here for hostility. We want to help.”
At that, I was rather incensed, considering the help that he gave in
the past. How many innocent victims were
there because of his kind of help? As I
looked around the table, I read the same thought on many other faces.
As if reading my mind, he continued, “We realize that you have very
little reason to trust us. You saw us in
the middle of the invasion, doing nothing but seemingly being the eyes and ears
of the N’davalites...the people of my planet. But
I assure you, that we did what we could under the circumstances to save as many
of your people as possible.”
“And just how did you go about that?” Bruce shot in, red faced and
obviously unhappy with last remark. “We
lost everyone we ever cared about.”
Choosing his words carefully, LX replied, “I understand your rage. There are so many things I, or rather, we
need to tell you, but again I want to reassure you that we mean you no
harm. We may look like humans, like you,
but we are not. And, we are different
beings than the N’davalites. We have
lived on the planet N’davala nearly as long as the N’davalites. Each of us was sent to this planet most
recently about the turn of your 20th century. Having the appearance of humans, we
experienced your First World War, the 20’s, the depression and dust bowl years
and the Second World War. At the end of
that conflict, with fear and trepidation, we witnessed the rise of your atomic
age.
“What were you so afraid of?” Bruce interrupted again.
“Fear is a natural human emotion.
In many respects, we share a lot of similarities to you humans.”
“Not every respect. Most
humans don’t go around killing everyone in sight.” Bruce was waxing eloquent,
but not diplomatic.
“Bruce, give the man a chance to tell his story. You can hang him later,” I said, jumping
in. Turning to LX, I continued, “Just a
figure of speech. Please, go on.”
If LX was insulted or angered by Bruce's remarks, it didn't show as he
just ignored Bruce's hostility. “I understand your language very well, including the idiomatic
expressions. The next thirty years
seemed to point to a nuclear holocaust as the two super powers battled it out
with words and little wars here and there around the planet. We figured that before the turn of the 21st
century that there'd be nothing left alive here.
Fortunately, a wise Soviet came to power and for a time, there was
relative peace and good will between the two former enemies.
“What does all this have to do with anything?” There was that voice again. I waved him to be
silent and nodded to LX.
“Seeing no hope for your planet and having no desire to be vaporized
by an incoming missile, we contacted our home world and asked to be
removed. What our people decided, was
that if the planet was going to destroy itself anyway, they might just as well
collect them. We did not understand
this, until they arrived.”
“Why didn’t they just come here and take away the nuclear toys?” I
questioned.
“The N’davalites are a malevolent species, more so than any of us
realized. Apparently, it was just an
excuse to do what they'd planned to do all along. It
just moved up the date, as in take it now, before there's nothing left to
take. Look, I can see by the looks on
your faces that you either don't believe me, or that you want to kill us right
now. Let me make something clear, again. We're not your enemy.
We are of them, that is true; we
are from N’davala, but we are not one
of them. In that store, your leader
here,” LX nodded my way while addressing the group, “saw me and I saw him. I did nothing to betray your presence. As a matter of fact, I put my own being in
jeopardy by seeing nothing. What you
don’t understand, is that the N’davalites can see through most material,
including steel, as long as it isn't too thick.
For some reason, they weren't able to see you that day and turned to me to
verify that no one was beneath the rubble.
My race can see much better than the N’davalites. I chose to lie.”
“The blankets! They couldn’t
see us through the blankets,” I heard several of our company exclaim.
“Blankets? What you are
wearing now, these are the blankets? They
wouldn't have been able
to see through these.
Were you wearing this the day of the harvest?”
“No,” Bruce replied, “but we were buried under a couple of boxes of
them.”
“I see. It would have something to do with the color, not
the material itself. You were wise to
clothe yourselves in it. You would be
almost completely camouflaged while wearing it.
It poses little problem for one using infrared headgear.” He spoke to one of his comrades who then gave
him his helmet. “Here, try this on,” he
said, handing me the head gear.
I slipped it over my head and he pushed a button on the side. Suddenly, I could see ghost like figures
standing and sitting all around me, our campers and the visitors. I removed the helmet and returned it to the
owner. “Impressive!”
“Only very thick layers of rock or metal can keep a secret from
us. I noticed that your van also was of
this particular shade. It would have
made its discovery very difficult provided it wasn't moving. There was someone inside, but since no one
asked me about it, I saw no reason to volunteer any information. I assume that it was your doctor, here. That day, only I saw you pinned beneath the
shelf. It was only today,” he said,
turning to me, “as I scanned your retina that I realized it was you whom I had
seen that afternoon. I am pleased that
you were able to survive.”
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