| |
AUSTRALIA:
Thanks to Donner’s connections, this time a helicopter picks him up at the airport and Alex arrives at the prison with verified papers for Pandora’s release into his custody. The pilot sets down on the far side of the building, and Alex climbs out and walks to the rear entrance. Two different men with blue eyes escort him to Pandora’s cage. He notices the power to the energy field is still on, but it doesn’t matter. In a few minutes, she will be outside.
Pandora stands from the cot when she sees Alex. “I was hoping you got my message. I can get you the cure. I promise.”
Alex knows for the moment, he’s forced to trust her to keep her word. “All right. Come with me.” He turns to the men. “Open the door, please.”
When the door swings out of the way, she smiles and steps out, then reaches for Alex. “I knew you liked me.”
Alex holds his hands up to stop her. “I didn’t say that. You have something I need. That’s it. Now let’s go.”
Pandora knows the moment she steps out of the building the ship will be in charge. She slowly reaches out for Alex’s hand. “I won’t hurt you. This will be the last time I can touch you as just me, not the ship.”
Alex realizes she’s right and wraps his fingers around her hand. “I do like you as just you. I just wish you could stay that way.”
“Me too, but I don’t have a choice.”
Alex turns to walk out, but she is reluctant to leave the room and he has to urge her to the door. When they step outside, the change is immediate. Her eyes are more intense, so he lets go of her hand as a precaution.
Pandora follows Alex out of the building, but stops before they reach the helicopter. “I’ll have the ship land in this field.”
“I’m afraid there are too many witnesses.”
“I was in contact with your ship’s AI. I did not know your species has evolved here. If you would let me have the remaining data, I can leave this planet in your destructive hands. I’m sure if I come back in a thousand years, you will have killed every breathing creature on this planet, then I can reclaim it.”
Alex realizes he has a new bargaining chip, but decides to save it for the right occasion. “I see. All right. Here’s the deal. I’ll take you some place close to meet your ship.” He hands her a small piece of paper where he has written the coordinates. “I’ll fly home and meet you at this location in two days. You give me the cure and I’ll give you the data.”
“I can do more than control the weather and melt your machines. Using your device is only a convenient opportunity. Do not try to deceive me.”
“I wouldn’t think of it. I’m a man of my word.”
***
NEVADA:
Pandora steps outside the ship when the wind from the helicopter blades ceases, and waits while Alex walks over empty-handed. She stares at him when he stops in front of her.
“Give me the cure and I’ll have Okana bring the data.” He notices her sparkle grow more intense.
Pandora holds out a small vial with the clear liquid inside, partially hidden by a note wrapped around the outside. “Here is the base serum to use as a culture for replication. The process and dosage are on the note.”
Alex takes the small capsule and stares at the contents. He holds it up with the sky as a background, and it’s perfectly clear. He has no way of verifying if it truly is the cure, but he doesn’t have a choice. He waves Okana over, then slides the vial into his pocket.
Okana grabs a small flash drive from his shirt pocket, and walks over to join Alex. “Are we good?”
“Yes, give her the data.”
Okana holds it out to her. “Wow, you must be pissed about something. Your eyes are on fire.”
Pandora snatches the small device from his hand. “We’re done.” She turns and steps inside her ship and the opening seals behind her.
Alex turns to walk back to the helicopter when suddenly he hears Pandora holler his name. He spins around. The door into the ship is open, and she is waving him over. He walks back to her and can tell it’s just the woman. “Aren’t you going with her?”
“Listen closely, Alex. She lied. That’s not the cure.”
Alex grits his teeth and heads for the entrance. Pandora suddenly grabs his arm and spins him back. He grabs her wrist and glares at her. “I’m going into that ship!”
“Wait. Once you’re inside, she can kill you. You already have the cure. I gave it to you. She doesn’t know.”
Alex lets go and watches her rub her wrist. “How?”
“Your scar. The one on the inside of your lip, where I bit you.”
He’s been constantly rubbing his teeth against it, wondering why it doesn’t go away like the others. “I don’t understand.”
“Like I said, you are unique among your species. Your genetic structure allows you to both carry the virus and be immune to it, like me. All you need to do is bite the scar open and swallow the liquid. Your own antibodies produced it. All I did was give them a chance to congregate in one location to adapt to the new threat. It will work just like the virus. If you touch any BROWN, the antibody to kill the virus will spread between your skins. That person will then pass it on.”
Alex shakes his head at the irony. “All right.”
“Just one more thing.” She smiles at him. “Why don’t you come with me?”
He hears Okana chuckle and turns to glare at him, then looks at Pandora’s beautiful eyes. “Why did the A.I. say you and she needed me?”
“We’ve reached the limit of our once diverse genetic abilities, and it needs a new gene pool.”
“I still don’t understand how you are bound to this artificial intelligence. Are you slaves?”
“I suppose, in a manner of speaking. We are engineered to serve this race of A.I.’s. We build ships for them to go out and claim more territory in the universe.” She closes her eyes to concentrate.
“Are you alright?”
“She’s trying to regain control. I have to go before she learns what I’ve told you.” She opens her eyes and slowly wraps her arms around Alex. “I’m sorry she lied about the cure. I’ll miss you.” She gives him a gentle kiss, then turns and runs back into the ship.
Alex watches her disappear into the spacecraft, then the side becomes a mirror an instant before it cloaks. He walks toward it with his palm extended and just keeps going. He stops and looks up at the sky, but it’s gone. “I lied too. Goodbye, Pandora.”
Okana walks up beside his friend and looks up at the sky. “Do you think it will work?”
Alex stops staring skyward and grins at his friend. “David and Christa made the software with the tracker work, and they said adapting that first download was more difficult than installing the new code to make the ship self-destruct.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a shame Pandora didn’t stay here with us. Of course, knowing that they are just slaves to an artificial intelligence does ease my conscious a little.”
“I still feel bad about killing them. It isn’t their fault.”
Okana puts his hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Let’s get going. You have a few million people to save.”
Alex looks up at the sky, then bites down on his scar. When he swallows, his throat burns for a second. A moment later, he feels a tingling in his fingertips and turns his back to the sun as he brings them up to see why. When he spreads his fingers apart, sparks pass between them for a fraction of a second and stops. He spreads them again, but nothing happens and the tingling is gone. He turns to Okana. “Let’s go.”
***
The ride back to the base takes only a few minutes, and Alex’s first stop is the infirmary. He finds Henry hooked up to an intravenous drip regulator. He recognizes the label on the hanging plastic bag. It’s morphine. He walks up beside the bed and gently takes Henry’s hand. “I’m back, Doc. I have the cure, so you’re going to be fine now.”
Henry feels a tingling sensation in his fingertips, then in his arms, and it seems to cover his entire body. “I do not know what is happening. I have this strange sensation, like electricity on my skin. Wait a minute, the pain in my skull seems to be fading.” He reaches up and removes the gauze covering his eyes, squinting and blinking from the bright light. After a few moments, he looks over at Alex and smiles. “I can see you.”
Alex puts his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “I’m just glad it worked.”
Henry sits up on the edge of the bed. “Go tell that nurse to unhook me from this machine. We have a lot of hands to shake.”
Alex walks around the end of the bed to the I.V. drip. “I’ll take care of it, Doc.”
Okana leans against the doorjamb and looks across at Alex. “So all you have to do is touch them and they’re cured? Since you’re unique among our species and have God like powers, tell me what else you can do.”
Alex grins. “I’ll let you know when I can walk on water.”
***
AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY NEAR SYDNEY:
“Janet, come here! I just saw something spectacular!” Jim Rogers, a graduate assistant doing thesis work in the AAO observatory, blinks furiously to clear his eyes. “There’s a blinding flash, like a star going nova in the Pleiades constellation, but much, much closer!”
His boss looks up from her categorizing activities, and walks over to his workstation. “Show me.”
“Sure. It’s, it’s, well, uh, that’s funny, it’s gone.”
“That’s OK. It’s all on the hard drive. Pull up the past minute and put it on the big screen,” she says, waving at the seventy-five-inch panel hanging on the wall.
The two of them watch as a small area brightens for a moment, blots out several stars, then shrinks to a pinpoint and disappears completely.
“Wow”, Jim exclaims, “Should we report it?”
Janet has been here before. “No. We’d open a Pandora’s Box of problems trying to explain it. Just let it go.”
The end.
I hope you enjoyed Pandora’s Eyes, and please take a moment to write a short review, because they do help.
Thank you.
James M. Corkill
Here is a preview of the next Alex Cave adventure