Invaders (a sequel to Vaz, Tiona and Disc) (29 page)

“Why don’t you ask
her
,” Tiona said a little snippily.

Nolan gave Tiona a haunted look. “I like her. I don’t want to hurt her feelings by admitting that, if she did sleep with me, it was so unmemorable that I can’t even remember it… but I
will
if
you
want me to.”

Tiona stared at him.
Do I want to know? Would I trust Carolyn if she said they didn’t?
She suddenly realized that she
would
trust Carolyn to tell the truth… and that it didn’t matter. She loved Nolan and that was what mattered, not what he might have done while he was drunk. And while Tiona was ignoring him and generally being a shitty girlfriend.

She reached up and slipped her arms around Nolan’s neck, “Don’t bother. I love you too and… that’s what really matters…”

Watching the fireworks while standing in the cool water of the lake was fun, but telling Nolan what was going on with the aliens and getting his reactions and ideas was soothing in a way she hadn’t expected.

Shared burdens really are easier to bear,
she thought.

***

Tiona was thinking how nice it was to be back with Nolan when he looked up from his French toast and said, “It seems to me like all the work of preparing for the arrival of the aliens is being done by the government?”

“No it’s not!” Tiona said, suddenly irritated that he would be discounting GSI’s efforts. “The company’s cooperating in
every
way. Costa and Sons are putting in twenty-four hour shifts to finish the two new saucers they’d already had in production. GSI’s been advising the military on modifications for the small saucers they’ve been using in LEO so that those can go into deep space. We’re helping them build a fixture for some kind of top-secret space gun they want to mount on one of the saucers that’s returning from Saturn. Rob Marshall took the big saucer out to get a better look at the aliens with the telescopes it uses to examine asteroids.” A stricken look crossed her face, “I guess I should be out there with him.”

Nolan put his hands up defensively, “No, no, that’s
not
what I meant! You should be
leading
. Not by going out there yourself, but by organizing the people who already know how to use saucers in deep space so that
they
can deal with the aliens. You guys at GSI have all the experience building saucers and actually getting out there, away from low Earth orbit. Shouldn’t you guys… actually be the ones out there
dealing
with aliens? I mean, the military guys have only been thinking about how to fight wars
—
and the wars they’ve planned for were supposed to happen
here
on Earth.”

“
I’ve
never thought about how to fight wars at all!”

“I just think…” Nolan said, then seemed to run down in the face of her dismay.

Abruptly getting over her pique, Tiona said, “Sorry, I shouldn’t be barking at you. If you’ve got some ideas, I want to hear them.”

Nolan had raised his hands in surrender. Now he said, “I’m not trying to be critical… just wanting to help. But I’m probably so far behind the rest of you guys that I can only play catchup.”

Tiona reached out to touch his hand, “Then we’d better get you up to speed. Tell me your thoughts.”

“Well, first of all, any kind of “space gun”
sounds
pretty stupid. You’ve got thrusters, you should accelerate your projectiles with them. Accelerate them, and control them all the way to impact.”

Tiona got a focused look in her eyes. She said, “I’ve been worrying about the military’s gun. If it really is an ordinary projectile weapon, and the reason the aliens have had their beam weapon in the first place is to shoot at meteorites, they should be able to shoot projectiles fairly easily. After all, meteorites travel at much higher speeds than bullets. If they can hit meteorites…” she trailed off, then said, “I’ve been hoping the military guys are actually planning to mount their own beam weapon.”

Nolan tilted his head and got a concerned look, “You’re right, if they can hit meteorites, they should be able to hit
objects
we send at them,” he shrugged, “even if they’re pushed by thrusters.”

Tiona said, “But with thrusters we’d be able to make them bob and weave a little, like I did the saucer after they shot us that first time.”

“That should work as long as they’re far enough away that it takes an appreciable number of milliseconds for their beam to cross the intervening space. But, obviously for our weapon to hit them, it eventually has to get close enough that the beam weapon will transit essentially instantaneously.” He frowned, “How big a hole did you say it punched in the saucer?”

She shrugged, “About two centimeters.”

“If it’s meant for meteorite deflection, it can’t be
intended
to punch through. That wouldn’t stop an oncoming object. It’d have to work by ablating material to generate reactive thrust.” He got a distant look in his eyes and mused, “Large objects would be detected further away by their radar system, giving them more time to deflect them. Small objects might not show up until they were close, but could be deflected or even vaporized even at short distances… Really big objects…” he stopped and thought for a moment, “They probably have to maneuver to avoid those.” His eyes widened and he turned to stare at her, “They must have
known
your saucer was a ship! They couldn’t have reasonably expected to
deflect
it with a beam that small. They purposefully
attacked
you!”

Tiona shrugged, “Yeah. I haven’t told you what my dad said about them yet, have I?” After Nolan shook his head, she went on to explain how Vaz had said they intended to wipe out the human race. “But, no one’s really been able to talk to him since then, not even my mom. He’s done this before—clammed up and been impossible to talk to, I mean—but this time he’s been so closed up I’m a little worried about his sanity.” She glanced uncertainly at Nolan, “What if he’s misinterpreting everything? I’m uncomfortable arguing that we should attack them on the basis of statements he made right before he went incommunicado.”

“Can’t you get on his computer and check out some of his claims?”

She gave a little snort, “
No one
can get on
his
computer without his help; you should remember that.”

Giving her a concerned look, Nolan said, “When’s the last time you tried to talk to him?”

Tiona shrugged, “By direction of the President, I try to talk to him every day. So does my mom.” She gave him a curious look, “Want to go with me this morning?”

***

They stopped by the house first where Lisanne told them that Vaz was acting almost normally, as long as she didn’t ask him anything about the aliens. If she tried to do that, he closed up, typically going to the lab and becoming impossible to talk to for hours at a time.

Tiona looked at Nolan and shrugged, “Same as for me.”

As they walked over to the barn above her dad’s basement lab, Tiona said, “Try to be unobtrusive. He’s usually better when it’s just me. Even though he knows you and you two get along okay…” she shrugged, assuming that Nolan would get the gist of her concern. Nolan nodded and she opened the door into the main part of the barn.

To Tiona’s astonishment, especially after having visited him on numerous occasions now and having him essentially ignore her presence, he was standing next to one of the large open areas in the barn, watching Reven rocketing around in the thruster based wheelchair! After Tiona got over her shock, she realized it
was
pretty fun to watch Reven zooming around in the lab. She was slaloming various obstacles and, as Tiona watched, she shot directly towards one of the benches, relying on the wheelchair’s software to lift her up over it and drop her down on the other side. Reven spun back to Vaz with an ear to ear grin splitting her face. She said, “This is a blast!”

Tiona was embarrassed to realize that, in addition to missing the fact that thrusters could provide a better wheelchair for those who were bound into them, she’d also missed the possibility that they might just be
fun
for those unfortunates. Also, Tiona knew that paraplegics and quadriplegics often got sores underneath them from sitting stationary for long periods. Sitting without moving for long periods of time didn’t cause pain in their insensate bottoms so paraplegics had to remember to lift their bottoms and allow blood to circulate. Quadriplegics usually didn’t have the arm strength to lift their bottoms, so they were even more prone to sores. However, riding a wheelchair the way Reven had been would tend to shift your weight around and allow better circulation. Tiona realized that the chair could even be set to bounce up and down slightly to improve circulation. Thrust chairs like this would not only provide better mobility and transportation, but also could be fun for young people who liked sports
and
could help with some of their health issues!

Vaz hadn’t noticed Tiona and he spoke as readily to Reven as he ever spoke to anyone. “Would you mind taking the wheelchair to the young man who gave me the idea? I asked Tiona, but she’s been too busy.”

Wide-eyed, Reven said, “Sure! But don’t
you
want to do it? He’s gonna love it! If I were you, I’d want to see his face when he gets it.”

Vaz gave one of his micro shrugs and spoke flatly, “I’m not good with people.”

Reven said, “I’ll send you a vid of his reaction!” Then Reven saw Tiona and Nolan standing over at the side of the barn, “Wait, Tiona’s here. Maybe she has time to deliver it now?” She threw Tiona a questioning look.

Even though she felt guilty for not having delivered it already, and a little sad that she wouldn’t be able to see the boy’s reaction, Tiona said, “Unfortunately, I’m still really swamped. But I’d also love to have a vid of when he first sees it.” Seeing that Vaz had turned to look at her, she gave him a little wave but then turned back to Reven and indicated Nolan, “This is my boyfriend, Nolan Marlowe.”

Reven zipped the wheelchair over to them and stuck her hand out to shake Nolan’s. She turned back to Tiona, “Sucks for you. What’s got you so busy?”

Trying not to look at her dad, Tiona said, “GSI’s been involved in dealing with the aliens.”

Reven’s smile dropped away. “Oh, yeah. I heard they shot at one of your saucers and killed somebody!”

Tiona merely nodded, still trying not to look at her dad though she desperately wanted to know his reaction. Suddenly realizing that this conversation might provide a way to communicate obliquely with her dad, she said, “We’re still trying to figure out whether they shot at us on purpose or whether it was just the automatic reaction of a meteorite protection system.”

Reven got a shocked expression, “Us?! Were you
on
that saucer?!”

Tiona only nodded, still rigidly controlling her eyes so she wouldn’t look at her dad. She really wanted to know his reaction and, though she thought to herself that he might not even notice that she was looking at him since he never looked anyone in the eye, she was trying to carry on this conversation and just let him listen in rather than actually confront him with it by focusing it at him.

Suddenly, Vaz broke his silence. “They shot at you on purpose.”

Tiona looked at him in response to this comment. Sure enough his eyes were on the floor. She said softly, “That’s extremely helpful to know. Can you provide a copy of your translation software so I can read their messages myself?”

Without saying anything, Vaz turned and stumped toward the basement stairs.

Tiona’s shoulders slumped.

Looking after him, Reven said, “Is he upset?”

Tiona only nodded, not trusting her voice to speak.

After a brief silence, Reven said, “Do you think it’d be okay if I took the wheelchair to that boy? Your dad already showed me where he lives.”

Tiona nodded again, then, her voice breaking, said, “That’d be very nice.”

After Reven had zoomed over and picked her sky-board up from one of the benches, she zipped out the door in the thrust chair with the sky-board in her lap.

Tiona turned to look at Nolan, wondering what his reaction would be.

Nolan thought he understood the question in her eyes. He stepped closer and put his arms around her, “This has got to be really tough. Are you thinking he really
has
been able to translate their… messages or understand them… or whatever?”

Tiona shrugged, “Sometimes I think, ‘no freaking way!’ He’s got no context. Figuring out they’re using trinary, yeah, that’s not so hard. Working out their machine language… How in the hell could he even do
that
? It’s not like he can see what the machines do in response to their input. How can he work out a programming language when he doesn’t even understand their regular language?! The fact they sent some kind of encyclopedic data sounds pretty good until you start thinking about the fact that figuring out how they coded the images that he claims he’s using to understand their language would be nearly impossible!” Tiona’s little outburst paused, her head shaking and her eyes disbelieving. Then she shuddered a little bit and looked back up into Nolan’s eyes, “Then I remember that, no matter how weird he is, he’s managed to do
all kinds
of things that other people thought were
impossible.
And… machines… or I should say, computers. He and computers, it’s like they
think alike
. He can get them to do things… that
no one
…” Tiona ran down again.