Part 9 (1/2)
”We both agree that there's been a transference.”
Tom just stared at him.
”A mental transference,” Rhodes said. ”Your daughter... isn't who she appears to be. She still looks like a little girl, but she's not. Whatever's in your den, Mr. Hammond, is not human.”
”Oh,” Tom said softly, as if the wind had been punched out of him.
”We think the transference was caused by the black sphere. Why that happened, or how, we don't know. We're dealing with things here that are pretty d.a.m.ned strange-which I guess is the understatement of the year, huh?” He smiled tensely. Tom's expression remained blank. ”There's a reason I'm here,” the colonel continued. ”When the object started coming down, and the tracking computer verified that it wasn't a meteor or a malfunctioning satellite, I was called onto special duty. I've worked for over six years with the Bluebook Project-investigating UFO sightings, talking to witnesses, going to close-encounter sites all over the country. So I've had experience with UFO phenomena.”
Tom took his gla.s.ses off and cleaned the lenses on his s.h.i.+rt. It seemed very important to him that the lenses be spotless. Jessie was still lost in her thoughts, but Ray suddenly broke out of his own trance and said, ”You mean... you've seen a real flying saucer? Like from another planet?”
”Yes, I have,” Rhodes answered without hesitation; this whole incident was going to be a new chapter in the security procedures book anyway, so he figured he might as well tell the truth. ”Ninety percent of what's reported are meteor fragments, ball lightning, pranks, that kind of thing. But the ten percent is something else entirely. An ETV-extraterrestrial vehicle-crashed in Vermont three years ago. We got samples of the metal and parts of alien bodies. Another one came down in Georgia last summer-but it was a totally different design, and the pilot was a different life form from the Vermont incident.” I'm revealing national secrets to a kid with orange spikes in his hair! he realized. But Ray was paying rapt attention, while Tom had mentally checked out and was still scrubbing his gla.s.ses. ”So, considering all the sightings of differently shaped ETVs, we've concluded that Earth is near... well, a superhighway in s.p.a.ce. A corridor from one part of the galaxy to another, maybe. Some of the ETVs, like our cars, they break down; they get sucked into Earth's atmosphere, and they crash.”
”Wow,” Ray whispered, his eyes huge behind his gla.s.ses.
For revealing that information without authority, Rhodes knew he could get life in prison, but the circ.u.mstances warranted explanation and-besides-n.o.body ever believed such stories anyway unless they'd had a personal close encounter. He returned his gaze to Tom. ”My crew is cleaning up the crash site. We'll be ready to leave around midnight. And... I'm going to have to take the creature with me.”
”She's my daughter.” Jessie's voice was weak, but gaining strength again. ”She's not a creature! ”
Rhodes sighed; they'd already been over this several agonizing times. ”We have no choice but to take the creature to Webb, and from there to a research lab in Virginia. There's no way we can let such a thing run loose; we don't know what its intentions are, or anything about its biology, chemistry, or-”
”Psychology,” Tom finished for him; he put his gla.s.ses back on with trembling fingers. His wits had clicked back into gear, though everything still seemed hazy and dreamlike.
”Right. That too. So far, she-I mean, it-has been nonthreatening, but you never know what might set it off.”
”Gnarly, man!” Ray said. ”My sister the alien!”
”Ray!” Jessie snapped, and the boy's grin faded. ”Colonel Rhodes, we're not going to let you take Stevie.” Her voice cracked. ”She's still our daughter.”
”Still looks like your daughter.”
”Okay! So whatever's in her might leave! If her body's fine, then her mind might come back-”
”Colonel!” Gunniston appeared in the doorway between the living room and den. His freckled face had paled even more, and he looked like what he was: a scared twenty-three-year-old kid in an air-force uniform. ”She's on the last volume.”
”We'll talk about this later,” Rhodes told Jessie, and stood up. He hurried into the den, with Ray at his heels. Tom put his arm around Jessie and they followed.
But Tom stopped as if he'd been struck when he came through the door. Ray stood and stared, openmouthed.
The volumes of their encyclopedia lay all over the room. The Webster's Dictionary, World Atlas, Roget's Thesaurus, and other reference books lay on the floor as well, and right in the center of the disarray sat Stevie, holding the WXYZ volume of the Britannica between her hands. She sat on her haunches, perched forward like a bird. As Tom watched, his daughter opened the book and began to turn the pages at a rate of about one every two seconds.
”She's already gone through the dictionary and the thesaurus,” Rhodes said. Call it an alien, or a creature, he reminded himself-but she looked like a little girl in blue jeans and a T-s.h.i.+rt, and those cold terms didn't seem right. Her eyes were no longer lifeless; they were sparkling and intense, directed at the pages with all-consuming concentration. ”It took her about thirty minutes to figure out our alphabet. After that, it was open season on your bookcase.”
”My G.o.d... this morning she could barely read,” Tom said. ”I mean... she's not even in the first grade yet!”
”That was this morning. I think she's about ready for college by now.”
The pages continued to turn. There was a dripping noise, and Tom saw liquid soak into the carpet beneath his daughter.
”Evidently the body's still carrying out its normal functions,” Rhodes told him. ”So we know that at least one portion of a human brain's at work, if just unconsciously.”
Jessie grasped her husband's arm and held on tightly; she'd seen him waver, and was afraid he was about to pitch onto his face. Stevie was still totally absorbed by the book, and the turning of the pages was getting faster, becoming almost a blur.
”She's goin' into overdrive!” Ray said. ”Man, look at that!” He stepped forward, but the colonel caught his s.h.i.+rt and prevented him from going any closer. ”Hey, Stevie! It's me, Ray!”
The child's head lifted. Swiveled toward him. The eyes stared, curious and penetrating.
”Ray!” he repeated, and thumped himself on the chest.
Her head c.o.c.ked. She blinked slowly. Then: ”Ray,” the voice said, and she thumped her own chest. Returned to her reading.
”Well,” Rhodes observed, ”maybe she's not ready for college just yet, but she's learning.”
Tom looked at all the books scattered about. ”If... she's really not Stevie anymore... if she's something different, then how does she know about books?”
Jessie said, ”She found them and must have figured out what they were. After she went through the alphabet, she walked around the house, examining things. A lamp seemed to fascinate her. And a mirror too-she kept trying to reach into it.” She heard herself talking and realized she was sounding detached, like Rhodes. ”That is our daughter. It is.” But as she watched the encyclopedia's pages turning, she knew that wherever Stevie was-and what made Stevie? Her mind? Her soul?-it was no longer inside the body that crouched before them, absorbing information over a puddle of urine. The last page was reached. The volume was closed and set gently, almost reverently aside. Tom now truly knew it wasn't Stevie; their daughter flung things instead of carefully putting them down. The creature stood up, with a smooth and controlled motion, no longer unsteady on her feet. It was as if she'd gotten accustomed to the weight of gravity. She looked at the five people who stared back at her, her gaze carefully examining their faces. She lifted her hands and studied them, comparing their size to those on the arms of the others. Particularly intrigued by the gla.s.ses both Tom and Ray wore, she touched her own face as if she expected to find a pair there.
”She's got the alphabet, a dictionary and thesaurus, a world atlas, and a set of encyclopedias in her head,” Rhodes said quietly. ”I think she's trying to learn as much about us as she can.” The creature watched his mouth moving and touched her own lips. ”I guess this is as good a time as any, huh?” He took a step toward her, then stopped, so as not to get too close and scare her. ”Your name,” he said, trying to enunciate as clearly as possible. His heart was fluttering like a caged bird. ”What is your name?”
”Your name,” she answered. ”What is your name?”
”Your name.” He pointed at her. ”Tell us yours.”
She seemed to be thinking, her eyes fixed on him. She glanced at Ray and pointed. ”Ray.”
”Jeez!” the boy shouted. ”An alien knows my name!”
”Hus.h.!.+” Jessie almost pinched a plug out of his arm.
Rhodes nodded. ”Right. That's Ray. What's your name?”
The creature swiveled around and walked with a graceful gliding gait to the hallway. She halted, turned toward them again. ”Name,” she said, and walked on into the hall. Jessie's heart jumped. ”I think she wants us to follow.”
They did. The creature was waiting in Stevie's room. Her arm was lifted, her index finger pointing to something.
”Your name,” Rhodes repeated, not understanding. ”Tell us what we can call you.”
She answered: ”Dau-fin.”
And all of them saw that her finger was aimed at the picture of a dolphin on Stevie's bulletin board.
”Double gnarly!” Ray exclaimed. ”She's Flipper!”
”Dau-fin.” It was said with the inflections of a child. Her arm stretched up; the fingers touched the picture, moved over the aquamarine water. ”Dau-fin.”
Rhodes was unsure if she actually meant the dolphin or the ocean. In any case he was certain the creature before them was much more than a dolphin in human skin: much, much more. Her eyes asked if he understood, and he nodded; her fingers lingered for a few seconds on the picture, making a gentle wavelike motion. Then her interest drifted to another picture, and Rhodes saw her flinch.
”Sting-er,” she said, like she had tasted something nasty. She touched the scorpion, drew her fingers quickly back as if afraid she might be stung.