Alien Tango

or you all to get back home. So, what’s the best way to ensure that, short of destroying us? They don’t want to destroy us because you’re still luring parasites here, so that means parasites are still knocking over on Alpha Centauri’s ozone shield there. So, they put up a fence, a barrier, a trip wire of some kind, in whatever radius around Earth they felt was appropriate. We won’t see it—if our technology can’t see the cloaking you’ve had here since the nineteen-sixties, I guarantee we can’t spot whatever Alpha Centauri’s put up since then.”
    Gower nodded. “It makes sense. Go on.”
    “The Valiant tripped the wire. So, the ‘back off’ mechanism went into place. Something entered the ship, took over, and took it back— right back to where it came from, which, as a human living with A-Cs, strikes me as just your race’s kind of efficiency. No human would have or could have done it—a human agency trying to fool someone would have landed the Valiant where it should have been, and no sane human would try to land a rocket ship back sitting on its butt. Nor could we have done it without help, alien-type help.”
    “How do we prove it?” Martini asked.
    “We talk to your fathers—they should know what was done to hold that warlike planet at bay. I’m betting it’s something like this.”
    “Fair enough,” Gower said, as Martini and Christopher both pulled out phones and started dialing. “But why are the entities still inside the astronauts, and why are they confused about what they’re here for?”
    “And why are we seeing dead people?” Chee asked.
    Martini moved away from me. Both he and Christopher were having animated conversations with their fathers, and both of them looked pissed. I nudged Gower. “I’m right.”
    He nodded. “Yeah, it makes sense when you explain it like you did.”
    “The dead people?” Chee asked again.
    “The people aren’t there. The entities are looking for them. They’ve seen these people, and they can’t find them now.”
    “There are plenty of living astronauts who aren’t on parade here,” Chee said.
    “I’m sure. The entities are confused. I don’t think they’re supposed to be destructive—after all, Alpha Centauri needs Earth and needs us populated with humans and A-Cs. I’d imagine that the entities can see us, possibly from much farther off than we could see them. So, they’ve seen every human and A-C who’s ever gone into space. It’s lonely out there, isn’t it?”
    Chee nodded. “It can be.”
    “They’ve been sitting there for decades, maybe longer, who knows? Just waiting for someone to trip their wire and give them something to do. So, they took an interest in the space travelers who didn’t quite make it to their border. Like . . . like a penguin observer in the wild. You get attached to the penguins, even though the penguins have no idea you’re there. You name them, you care about them. And when you come back the next year, you look for ‘your’ penguins. And maybe you don’t find them.”
    “But how are the entities doing that?” Gower asked.
    I looked at Christopher, and the answer radiated out like a beacon.

CHAPTER 34
    “ONE OF THEM’S AN IMAGEER. Maybe another’s an empath or a dream-seer, like you,” I said to Gower. “Maybe these entities are a distillation of A-C talents. But somewhere in there is the imageer ability. Christopher drew a picture of his mother in the air for me by rearranging the molecules. It can be done, and I think that’s what they’re doing.”
    “So, why are they, and the images, attracted to you?” Gower asked.
    “Because a female can neutralize them,” Martini growled. He stalked over to us and he was furious. “They knew about this, and it never occurred to them that our former oppressors would do the same thing to Earth.” He rubbed his forehead. “You’re right, baby, completely. It’s the same damn thing they used on that warlike planet. We’re surrounded by a net. We cross it, the net tosses us back.”
    “Humanely, which is an A-C watchword.”
    “Oh, it’s better than that, though.” Christopher was also fuming. “If we make enough attempts, and no one’s clear on just how many ‘enough’ is, then they stop tossing back nicely and start killing things and making the net smaller.”
    It was an ugly picture. “America isn’t the only country interested in space travel.”
    “I know.” Christopher actually sounded angrier than Martini,