Alien in the Family

Which meant I had to help him settle this in his consciousness, or he was going to short out and take Paul with him.
    ACE, are the A-Cs coming more powerful than you are?
    ACE is . . . not sure.
    They created you, or at least okayed your creation, didn’t they?
    Terry confirms this as so.
    Then, that means maybe they are more powerful than you. Or will know weaknesses you have that we don’t know about.
    I could feel ACE considering this. That would mean it would be . . . correct . . . for ACE to protect . . . ACE?
    Yes, I think so. We should see what’s coming, but I think we all need to be prepared. They’re far more powerful than any of us on Earth.
    Yes. Terry says Kitty must be prepared. The test is not for Jeff, it is for Kitty. And Terry knows the royal family will want Kitty to fail.
    Great. Okay, thanks, ACE. I’ll do my best. I didn’t want to push ACE for more. It was better to save that for when we might really need it.
    ACE knows Kitty will be able to triumph. Kitty thinks right. I saw Paul’s expression shift, and he shuddered a bit.
    Martini came over to me. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
    “For now, yeah.” The dread had subsided, and I was suddenly exhausted. “Jeff, I want to go to the Lair, okay?”
    “Okay. Right now?”
    “Yeah. Chuckie’s in charge; let him deal with this.” I picked up the Unity Necklace. The dread came back along with a sharp pain. “OUCH!” I dropped it back on the table. Dread disappeared, pain stuck around. Well, one out of two wasn’t bad.
    “What?” Martini asked as everyone else spun toward me.
    “The stone . . . it burned me.” I showed him my palm. I had a burn mark in the rounded shape of the jewel.
    Lorraine came over and pulled a tube out of the small med case she carried with her at all times now. She put something on the burn, and the pain stopped.
    “How did it get hot?” Christopher asked.
    Michael leaned forward and put his hand on it. “It’s cool to the touch.”
    I put my hand toward it again. “I can feel the heat from here.” My hand was a good six inches away. I left it there as the others put their hands on the necklace. It was cool for everyone else, including Martini.
    “What in hell is going on?” Martini asked finally.
    “I don’t think whoever’s coming likes me.”

CHAPTER 6

    WE WERE BACK AT THE LAIR. It was on the fifteenth floor of the Dulce Science Center, and no one went there but Martini and me. Other than what I now called the A-C Elves. I had no idea if there really were elves about, but someone or something did the housekeeping, ensured that the right clothes were there for you, no matter when you showed up or what room you showed up in, and snatched your dirty laundry in the night. I assumed the same elves provided the drinks that appeared in the variety I wanted, anywhere, any time, as long as it was in a fridge of some kind. As of yet, Martini hadn’t shared how this was done. I got the impression he enjoyed the fact I really wanted to know.
    I would have loved something stronger than Cherry Coke, but A-Cs were deadly allergic to alcohol, and the last thing I wanted to do was either kill Martini because there was too much alcohol residue in my mouth or have him unable to kiss me.
    My hand didn’t hurt much any more, but I was staring at it. I knew better than to tell Martini that his aunt’s consciousness was in ACE. Neither he nor Christopher were really over the trauma of losing her, and that had happened almost twenty-one years ago.
    I was cuddled in Martini’s lap, and we had the TV on, watching Love Boat reruns. He loved all the cheesy old shows, and I just wanted to have something on I could pretend to pay attention to. This was the most human room of any A-C location I’d ever seen, and right now it was overwhelmingly comforting.
    “Baby, it’ll be okay.” He’d said this about a hundred times. I still didn’t believe it, or believe that he believed it.
    “Why did you tell Chuckie he was more of a problem than Christopher?”
    “Because he’s a viable alternative who’s already proposed to you, hasn’t married anyone else in the meantime, and isn’t in our bloodline,” Martini growled. “And since he’s ostensibly my superior, it makes him a better catch for you, at least the way the home world hierarchy apparently thinks. According to my father, that actually makes it easier for the royal family to insist that you can’t marry me. I won’t be leaving you at the