Touched by an Alien

Center—avoiding the Tomb of Creepiness level, supposedly for Martini’s health and well-being and not because it terrified me—I was getting pathological.
    I was in full Dazzler uniform now, complete with rather sexy black Aerosole heels—at least they bought the comfortable designer shoes. My own clothes were still being cleaned, or burned, I wasn’t sure which.
    Talking to my parents would have been fine, but they were both busy. Mom was with White, discussing moving part of her antiterrorism unit over to base out of the Science Center, and Dad was so deeply engrossed in the translations that a food, drink, bathroom break, and bed rest team had to be assigned to him.
    Tim, Claudia, and Lorraine were still debriefing the A-Cs and American military personnel on most of what had gone on. I would be asked to give a full report in a day or so, but since I was new to everything, I was given time off.
    Our dogs had the run of the place, thanks to Duchess, who was still the heroine of the day. Pretty much every Dazzler wanted her own pit bull now, and I couldn’t blame them.
    The cats were still in my parent’s room, and I went to visit them, to find Christopher in there, all three cats on the sofa with him, purring up a storm.
    “Your parents told me I could come in any time.”
    I sat down on the sofa next to him. “That’s fine. I don’t think you’re a total jerk any more.”
    He laughed. “Good to know.” He looked down at Sugarfoot, who was in his lap. “Is my mother still in your mind?”
    I’d been wondering the same thing myself. “I don’t think it’s her so much as her influence.”
    “What do you mean?” He still wasn’t looking at me.
    “She was dying, and she knew it. Either she willed it to happen, so she wouldn’t give birth to a superbeing, or the impregnation, if we can even call it that, affected her system so badly it killed her. But she knew she was going to die.”
    He nodded. “She told us, me and Jeff, that she was.”
    My throat felt tight. They’d been ten years old. Too early to become men. “She couldn’t put the memory, the feeling, into your mind—you’d create an image from it, and then you’d know …” I couldn’t finish that sentence.
    Christopher could. “I’d know my grandfather raped my mother, his son’s wife.” He looked back at me. “We can’t tell my father.”
    “I think he knows, or at least suspects.”
    “I don’t want to find out you’re wrong.”
    “That’s fair.”
    “Why Jeff?”
    “Who else? He’s the most powerful empath your race has—I’m sure your mother knew that. She was training him, after all.” He nodded. I didn’t mention the glowing cube I’d seen. I didn’t want to let either one of them know what Terry had shown me. “So she did some empathic thing, I have no idea what—Jeff might not either—and programmed him. He knew she gave him something to pass along, but nothing more.” Martini had been looking for me all his life. It made my heart ache to think about it.
    Christopher closed his eyes. “You know, there were a few years when I hated him.”
    “After Lissa?”
    “Yeah. They would have killed her no matter what, though. I know that now.” He managed a weak smile. “At least they didn’t get Jeff.”
    “He loves you very much.”
    “I know. He’s more than my cousin, more than a brother.”
    “Yeah, she showed me. She knew that when it mattered, you two would always stand together.”
    “That almost fell apart these last couple of days,” he said with a chuckle.
    “No, actually, Jeff offered to step aside so we could be together. Right before Mephistopheles did his tap dance on our car.”
    “They won’t let him marry you. I know you don’t want to believe it, but it’s true.”
    “We’ll see. I’ve known all of you for less than a week. I think I can stand dating a bit before racing off to the chapel with Jeff.”
    “He’ll suggest it the second he can walk again.”
    “It’s part of his charm.”
    “Is that what you call it?”
    “Yeah. What was your mother like?”
    He leaned his head back. “Like I used to be. Like Jeff is now.”
    “You miss it? How you used to be, I mean.”
    “Sometimes.” He grinned. “Jeff does it better than I ever did, though.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Being human. It’s what all of us born on Earth want, to be human. Jeff passes without any issues. Not so easy for the rest of us.”
    “I’ll start calling you Chris if that’ll