Outward Borne (41 page)

JiDeSon did not know how to answer that
question and sat before the screen, a bit stunned. Who else could
he be?

“
I am Patty Palmer and this is my
friend Martha Merit, just call her Marta. We want to help. We can
tell you how to use the computer, and you can find out almost
everything on GoogleFace.” Perhaps this was not the most formal
spaceman greeting ever imagined, but then the girls never imagined
that they would need to do such a thing.

JiDeSon looked into the screen and
introduced himself. He explained that the Voyagers hoped to do many
things after leaving the lander, but they needed to have contact
with some of the people themselves, not just with Colonel
Fitzsimmons, who was not being helpful. In fact, they were growing
afraid of him. “We do not know how to go about this, or how things
work in your world. Would it be possible to have someone represent
our interests? Do you do things like that?”

“
Do you mean like a lawyer?”
Martha asked. “My Uncle Bill is a partner in a big law firm. They
do all kinds of things, I am sure he could help. Dad says he is
very nice, for a lawyer.”

“
Do you think he would be willing
to speak with us? We do not have any money. The lawyers wish to
have money, do they not?” The Voyagers had watched a lot of
courtroom dramas.

“
Are you kidding?” Patty stuck in.
“There is nobody on this planet who would not want to talk to you.
It is the neatest thing in the world, without exception. Give me a
few minutes to contact Uncle Bill. I hope he is home”

Martha tried to call his cell phone, but it
was turned off. She had no other number, so she called her father.
“Dad, this is Marta. Dad, you must find Uncle Bill and have him
call me now, like, immediately. It will be the neatest thing he
ever did.”

“
Calling you will be the neatest
thing? We have to have a talk about your ego.”

“
Dad, don’t joke, this is
important, but I can’t tell you what it is. Please, Dad, trust
me.”

“
Is everything all right? Are you
still camping by that space ship?”

“
Yes Dad, we are fantastic. You
need to get Uncle Bill even if you have to get him out of bed,
OK?”

Roger Merit had worked with his
brother-in-law on a few cases, and had several contact numbers.
Bill was in New York attending a conference, and Roger tracked him
to his hotel, which put through the call on the house phone. It was
two in the morning.

“
Rog, what’s up? Is something
wrong? How’s Mom?”

“
Fine Bill, it is nothing like
that. Bill, I got a call from Martha. She says she has something
big, but could not tell me what it was.”

“
Marta? How could she have
something big?”

“
My thoughts exactly, but I
decided to trust her. You know where she is, don’t you? Up in the
mountains with that space ship.”

“
Really.”

“
Give her a call Bill. And Bill,
if it is something silly, I will have her sent to a convent in
Saskatoon.”

“
Do they have convents in
Saskatoon?”

“
I will have one
built.”

Minutes later, Bill Hanson got through to his
niece. He did not know if he should be amused or upset, but he did
it anyway.

“
Uncle Bill, thank God you called.
You will not believe this.”

“
I had better believe it because I
am rather disturbed that you had your father get me out of bed in
New York at two in the morning.”

“
Really, I didn’t know, sorry. But
the thing is, Uncle Bill, we are talking with the Voyagers, the
space people. They want someone to represent them, so I called
you.”

“
Who is we, and who are you
speaking with, and how? Have they left the ship?”

“
Patty Palmer and I, oh, and
Derik. We gave their dog Patty’s computer, and they are using her
iSite. Key in HotPattyPalmer.iSite.pop and we will link you
up.”

So William S. Hanson, Senior
Partner of Biddle, Pasterecki, Burges, Hanson and Lawson, staff of
134 lawyers, offices in San Francisco, New York, London and Tokyo,
sat facing the still excited Martha/Patty, and a hopeful JiDeSon
Alomar.

“
Perhaps, Mr. Hanson, is that the
correct manner of address? May I tell you of our desperation? We
would like to live among the people of your country in such a way
as to be independent of your government. We fear that their
intentions are to keep us, not captive, but controlled. Is that
correct? We hope to live in a compound together. That is how we
have always lived, and to have dedicated medical care. We are
worried about infectious diseases, you see. And we must acquire
money to buy these things, and to pay you, of course. We have heard
from Colonel Fitzsimmons, and he has made us very concerned about
our future. He tells us that we will be taken to some military
installation, where we will be quarantined until they decide that
we may be released. They will not say what will happen after that.
Mr. Hanson, we fear that they will proclaim us to be illegal
entrants into this nation and, as we are homeless and have no
country, we will not be able to contest their wishes. We know that
they could declare us to be threats to security and retain us
indefinitely. This is very frightening, Mr. Hanson. We are
protected as long as we remain the lander, but once we leave, we
will be powerless to resist the orders of the military men. Is
there anything that can be done?”

“
Extraordinary! Who would have
thought? I mean I was asleep. Now give me a moment. Well, yes there
are several things, but let me first assure you that, in the longer
term, your accommodations, healthcare, and monetary needs can be
arranged, without any doubt, so you should have no worries there.
Your legal status and the relationship with the government must be
our first concern. Let’s work on that, but first let me apologize
for my government. Their actions are inexcusable. They should have
welcomed you as warmly as her citizens do. Now, do you know what
country your ancestors came from?”

“
We do not think that there were
countries then, their villages were isolated, but they did call
themselves Saxons.”

“
Then they were from
England?”

“
No. Many of their people left
their homes to conquer that land, but our ancestors stayed. We have
studied your maps very carefully, and believe that they lived near
the sea, along what is now called the Schlei Firth.

After a quick search, he found the fjord in
northern Germany, just south of the Danish border. “This is great.
I will have some of our people start to work on this. Maybe Germany
could be persuaded to offer you citizenship. Denmark as well, that
area was part of Denmark before the wars, if I recall. It would be
good to have some powerful supporters.”

“
There were other people taken
from the villages,” Ragnar noted. “The Red Girls came from the
north, we think Sweden, and the Alimani came from the south after
they were driven from their lands, most likely the mountains
between today’s France and Switzerland.”

“
Even better, perhaps we can start
a competition over who adopts you first. We will pursue U.S.
Nationality, of course. You can claim to have been born over U.S.
airspace, more space than air, hey. It will be an interesting
brief. Anyway, continue to collect as much information as you can.
I will get things started here as soon as some people get into the
office. I plan to take the first flight out, and hope to get to you
around noon tomorrow. He was about to sign off and write some
instructions for his admin when Martha stopped him. She explained
their need for better tech gear, spare batteries, some guys to help
keep intruders away, and more food if more people were going to be
there. He promised to have a string of people head their way, some
would arrive early tomorrow with whatever they could carry and,
yes, he thanked her. It made her very happy.

The first contact William Hanson made was to
his old college roommate, an urgent call to Arun Sharma
SC.

“
What is the SC about,
Bill?”

“
Didn’t I read recently where you
are the second coming of Steve Jobs?”

“
Ah, one good product launch and
you are a hero, and two, divine. So how may I help you instead of
going to bed?”

“
Sorry about the late hour, Arun,
but I am having more fun than I have had since we left school, and
you are about to share in a marketing bonanza. Arun, this must be
held in absolute confidence for now. Do I have your word? You are
having the pleasure of speaking with the exclusive legal
representative for our recently arrived spacefarers.”

“
No! How did that come
about?”

“
It’s a story that I don’t
completely understand myself, but my niece managed to give them her
computer. It was one of yours, Arun, and now you may thank the many
gods that you know. They are using her friend’s iSite and are video
conferencing with some people inside the space ship. They have only
one computer, Arun, and the battery will not last long. I need to
get them some good tech gear, power supplies, all that stuff, some
bodies to help them, food, clothes, whatever they need to stay in
place until we can negotiate proper treatment by our rather
reluctant government. Can you take care of this, Arun? I will be
flying into Reno and may be hard to reach for the next six hours.
And Arun, put the fear of Steve in them, no leaks. If anyone finds
out what they have done, it will be all over.”

The CEO of Apple was not one to
let a good marketing ploy pass him by. He immediately called Deni
Rossum, who was the leader of the New Products Group, and got him
out of bed. Deni organized demonstrations and set up shows for new
Apple products, and was someone who could obtain the latest
equipment and have it operational by early the next morning. They
agreed to provide all of the Voyagers with an iCom2, the new
super-thin phone with full communications and computer
capabilities, and with three laptop computers, that were loaded,
encrypted, and networked to a wireless server that could be
controlled from the landing site. Deni could get his team to
assemble the equipment, but they would need more than hardware to
stay in the mountains for a week or more. He arranged to have a
small plane leave San Jose Airport at 6:15 in the morning and fly
to Reno in time to meet Bill Hanson. Now, all Deni needed to do was
arrange everything in the middle of the night and with all the
stores closed, and have it all at the airport on time.

Deni had one good shot. His
secretary had taken the week off to go cliff climbing with her
gawky brother and her boyfriend. Sad, really, she was very good and
it would be a shame to lose her, but maybe he could co-opt her
camping gear and keep her alive for a while longer. He woke her up,
promised Janet that Sharma himself would buy them new equipment and
supplies, whatever they wanted, but he could not tell her why he
needed their stuff. She knew only that she would have a story to
tell her grandkids when this was all over. Just get the gear to the
airport, plus food for seven for a week, and some boots and rugged
clothing for a five-foot-ten man. The lawyer would look odd walking
around the forest in a rumpled suit.

With a great deal of texting and
hustle, Will Knolles (boyfriend), Stan Miguel (brother) and Jin
Leung (electrical engineer) loaded their gear into the plane in the
early morning light and flew off to Reno. They would stay in
contact with Janet, and she would collect whatever else they, or
the kids, would need to stay the duration. She would bring it up on
the next wave.

Hanson realized, somewhere over
Kansas, that he was ill prepared to spend a week in the forest,
something he had never done before. When he arrived in Reno, he was
relieved to learn that they had clothes, gear, and a tent for him,
though the boots were too big. He changed during the thirty-minute
flight into Tower Canyon, but the helicopter was not allowed to
land within view of the meadow. They were made to put down in the
next valley and walk in. The four made good time, all things
considered, and arrived at the campsite by eleven in the morning.
Martha was still hyped about their contact with the Voyagers and
ran up to give her uncle a hug, which had never happened before, as
she thought him somewhat scary. While the equipment was unpacked
and tents set up, Martha, Patty, and Derik told them about the
latest happenings.

“
We have talked with a bunch of
Voyagers already,” Patty said, as she logged in.

“
How long have you been here?”
Uncle Bill asked.

“
It has been two weeks already, we
got here before they came out and made their speech.”

“
You look too clean to have been
out here so long, sleeping in the dirt.”

Patty opened the link to the lander. “Oh, we
went swimming yesterday, in a pond on the other side of the
bluff.”

“
The water was so cold I was numb
for an hour,” said Martha. Derik had a too-goofy grin, like he
wanted to tell all.

Bill wondered why they would have
brought bathing suits to a cold place like this, but he decided to
forego that line of inquiry. William Hanson could hardly believe it
when Patty opened the connection. He had time to tell Ragnar about
the equipment that they had coming. It was just in time apparently,
as the battery on Patty’s computer died. They would have new
communication devices, upgraded computers, spare batteries and
portable power supplies, but what could they do with it?