Sam Sawyer Chapter Twenty

Sam Sawyer
Chapter Twenty

“You killed our
little sister. We salvaged her.” She hunched forward, closely caressing the
naked infant shielding her from the cold wind as she drew her robe up from the
ground regathered it around her body and head with nothing more than a jerk of
her chin, “My name is Rethera, first daughter of the people, your people, erroneously
calls the Nordics. We have no more to do with that region of Earth than any
other. Which is nothing. This planet, our home world, is called Panath, our raw
reality, our origin. Do not refer to us as Nordics ever again. We are Panaths,
that is our heritage, our privilege, our calling, our purpose for being. To
call us anything else is deeply insulting and profoundly ignorant.  

Sam stumbled
back. “What? Sister? That’s a lie.” He reared back, trying to look strong and
defiant.

Rethera sighed
as if bored, “Her ignorance, her false memory was our purpose for her and you. Your
bravado like your capacity for understanding is typically terran; vain and
impotent. You love her. This is evident. Why is a mystery. Terrans, and their
antiquated sentimentality,” she mused to herself. “Not sure how useful that
will prove to be, but it is a curious development. We made her believe she was
human, Terran. A spy that believes their own cover is usually the most
effective. You took her life away from her, thinking you could make her a God.”
She grunted, “Compared to you, she already is.”

“What! I
wasn’t trying make her a God. I was trying to keep her alive. What are you
people, the intergalactic CIA?”

She smirked,
not bothering to disagree. “Self -deceit, another Terran trait.”

“You want
her back.” Rethera said. The seven- foot tall alien looked down at him as if he
were a bug.

“You let me
kill her!” Sam roared up at her. “Of course, I want her back. You’re probably
lying anyway.”

“Everything
is an experiment, an opportunity to discover the truth. The truly enlightened never
construct false barriers. We allowed you to do what you wanted. You wanted to
kill her. That is neither good nor bad. No such thing exists. We will not be
constrained by your quaint shallow notions of right and wrong. We were not
certain we could extract her from your core.  It was quite an educational challenge. For
that, I suppose, we owe you our gratitude. Come, the child needs shelter and
time. And your nose is turning red, Terrans, so fragile.”

Feeling like
a fool, he turned away from Kit’s remains. He was also feeling the sharp cold
Panathian wind cut through his clothes as if they were only a hologram. For all
he knew maybe they were. Maybe everything here was a lie. Except the cold, and
his hatred for Rethera, that he felt. That was real.

The moment
he drew near Rethera she looked up to the ship. A blue light engulfed them
warmed him and bloated out the harsh barren landscape. Then it vanished and he
found himself standing a dimly lit room. It was so dark he could not make out
its’ size or color. It did feel small, but not cramped. The floor was flat hard
and smooth. The wall directly in front of him, suddenly became transparent instantly
becoming a ten by ten- foot window. It was then he realized he was alone.  

A sheet of
stars, stark and bright burned white against the deep blackness of space,
except for a large dull yellow ball that filled the upper right corner of the
window. Panath, he assumed.

“We wanted
you to see her home world.” Rethera said as she casually walked right through
the back wall. “She can never return. You did that to her also.”

“You’re
really big on the guilt trips aren’t you.” Sam glanced over his shoulder, barely
acknowledging her presence. “She’s better off on Earth.”

“An insult, more
pointless bravado. You do know your powers will not return until you are back
on Earth.”

“No, but
thanks for the info. Where’s Kit?”

“Growing.”

“You mean I
don’t get to raise her.”

“You would
take a helpless infant back to your beast infested planet, of course you would.
You are just that selfish and stupid. She will be just as you remember her soon,
except she will have to powers you promised her. But that does not mean her
true past, her original identity will never return. When, and if, it does she
will most likely kill you, especially now that she is at the very least, your
equal. Do you still want her?”

Sam turned toward
her and looked straight up into her face. “You already know the answer.”

“So, the
experiment continues. Very well.” She hunched down over him, her eyes glowing
yellow as they bore into his. “You love her that much, that quickly? Yours’ is
strange race. So weak. Your emotions rule and will ruin you.”

He did not
flinch, “We’re not soulless freaks like you and Oloran.” It was a suicidal
comeback. The impossibly tall slender alien glared down at him, exposing her
own emotions, then quickly recoiled her anger jerked around and left him alone.

The window
vanished. They extinguished what little light they allowed to filter in.
Darkness fell like a black sheet over his body and his mind. They were not
about to reveal anymore to him than they already had.

“Sam!” It
was Kathy, yelling from somewhere behind

Her arms suddenly
clamped around him pressing Kit against his chest. He was back in his woods.
The smell of pine filled his nostrils as a cool breeze somehow managed to
breach the mezzanine, another mystery to solve.

   Kit
stirred against his chest. Kathy released her death grip as Sam looked down and
found himself looking straight into Kit’s deep penetrating eyes. He tried to
smile but couldn’t quite managed it. Kit blinked several times, as if trying to
sweep away the hurt he saw in them. Suddenly she gently pushed away and smiled,
letting the warm sunlight bathe her face and coax her back into the world.

Her nostrils
flared as she inhaled the sweet smell of honeysuckle. Spreading her arms like
wings she slowly corkscrewed toward the lush forest overhang. “It worked!” She
beamed and darted down then back up again like a happy butterfly.

“You did
it.” Kathy squealed with delight, “you actually did it.”

Sam lifted
the corners of his lips up as if they were weighted down with twenty- pound
stones. “Yeah, yeah, I did it all right. But not again. It ah, ah, made me vulnerable,
weak and…” He came close to telling them the whole truth of it when Kit broke
in. "I've never been happier Sam!"

Sam smiled and nodded up at her, “We can’t afford that kind of lapse." He continued, "I could have gotten us all killed.”

“But you
were only gone a few seconds.” Kathy was quick to inform him.

“Really, they,
ah I, work fast.” Sam hated lying but he felt he had no choice.   

“Thank you,
thank you so much Sam. I’ve never felt so free, so safe. So happy.” Kit practically
sang as swooped and darted about, looking too much like a fairy, albeit a Goth
fairy. She curved around planted a kiss on his cheek and swerved back up into
the shady tree rafters. “I’m like another person, reborn. This is even better
than I imagined.”

Kathy grinned
up at her. Sam could not help seeing motherly pride on her smiling face. “At
least some one made her happy,” he said under his breath.

“What Sam?”

“Oh,
nothing, nothing to bother about now.”

Kathy’s grin
sagged for a moment then turned back up as Kit darted out from under the sagging
tree limbs, headed for the mezzanine wall, stopped short and pressed her right index
finger through it. A transparent swirl of distorted air seemed to caress and yield to her
finger as it easily passed through.

“Yeah,” Sam said,
“that’s what you need. You need to come and go as you please. Your life is yours
Kit, remember that. That all I want for you-life and freedom.”  

There was a
heaviness in his voice that he never intended. He only hoped they did not hear it
as clearly as he did.