"Julie was looking to where Martin was going and almost fainted. There were two snipers and an officer up there. They seemed to be getting ready to take a shot at Grok!

She let out an uncontrolled shriek and dove at Grok. “They are going to shoot you!!!”. About that time, there was a shot but it fell to the floor in back of Grok. Apparently, he had some sort of personal shield. There was another shot and one of the little children fell to the floor with blood running out of her chest."

Changed by Aliens
by Gwen Brown

 

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Chapter 2
 
It’s been a little over 5 years since the Meridians left. As a precaution they’d set up a subspace antenna array that had the capability to detect traffic clear out to the Oort cloud. First Martin ran the array for a few weeks, then much to Logan’s pleasure, he was taught to use it and given the foot tall stack of manuals (in English) to read.

10 year old Gwen watched her big brother Logan through the picture window, momentarily taking a break from her homework. He was much bigger than his younger sister and doted on her when Mom and Daddy were gone. He’d been doing maintenance on the antenna array in the edge of the woods. The Meridians had hidden it by making it look just like the lodge pole pines in that grove. Even a relatively close examination would not reveal the arrays’ presence. It was a very clever design, self powered and easy to maintain.

Actually Grok knew that it did not require any maintenance, but he wanted the family to learn all they could about the technology so that one day, they could move on to more important things. Grok was the Meridian’s contact with Gwen’s family since the day of their unintended confrontation. He kept a careful watch on the family form far out in space. Though technologically primitive, the Humans had impressed the Meridan. In the process of his monitoring, Grok had become fond of the family.

Gwen grew curious about what Logan was doing and carefully laid her book on the couch. Once outside, Gwen quietly walked over to see what he was working on. “Logie, what are you doing?” she said quietly but right at his shoulder.

“Hi twerp! I am doing some improvements our friends told me to do in this mornings’ message. The detection work the array was doing could easily have been done from orbit, but that was just one more thing for the Federation to find.

“Logie, do you think they will ever come back to visit us?” Gwen asked hopefully.

“I just don’t know Gwendolyn. I would really like to see them come back.”

“Do you think the Federation will ever come here?”

“Well, the Meridian Rebels were concerned enough about it to leave this array.”

“When I sit out at night and look at the stars, I just know there are others living there. It thrills me, but at the same time, frightens me some too,” Gwen said.

“Well, Gwendolyn, Mom is going to send me to Burns for my last year of High School this fall. I will only be home on breaks and birthdays you know. You need to start looking after the array, you know. Sometimes, I’ve thought I have seen things on the plot. Of course, the Oort cloud blocks our view any farther out.

“We’ve learned so much about space since the Meridians visited,” She said.

“Well, with them using the spare set of phone lines to be discreet, they have been sending little hints and the data from the Array to key people to hurry our own research along.” He said. “The Meridians don’t want to show up on TV just yet because they are fearful that their appearance would cause a world panic. That manned research station on Mars would not have happened if they were not helping us along and quite a lot too.”

“Well, I was sure frightened when I first saw them. But they straightened me out, so now I am very grateful” She said. “Before, I did not know that I was really a girl. I feel like I have the missing pieces now.”

Their conversation was interrupted by their Mom appearing on the porch. “Gwen, honey, come help me with dinner will you?”

“Ok Mom, I’ll be there in just a second.”

“Logan, will you teach me to run the array before you leave?” the seventh grader asked her big brother?”

“How about this Saturday?”

“That would be so wonderful.” Her heart gave a flutter and she suddenly hugged Logan. She quickly swung away and started toward the house gently humming some song.

“Hey squirt; I’ll miss you, too.” He called after her.

She came skipping into the Kitchen and began preparing the Mashed Potatoes.

“Mom, I am going to miss Logan”, She said wistfully.

“I know honey, we all will. Burns is over 100 miles and that is just too far to commute. He’ll still be home on breaks and some weekends”, Mom said gently.

“Well, why can’t he home school like we always have?” Gwen complained.

“Sweetie, your brother needs to learn to deal with the outside world.”

“I’ll be lonely though!” she wailed. Mom didn’t say anything for a while. She had thought of putting little Gwen in a boarding school in Burns, but feared that she would be too upset being away from home. In many ways, little Gwen was emotionally much younger than a normal 10 year old, but she was improving.

“Mom, do you think the Meridians would like to come and visit?”

“Oh, I imagine that they are very busy right now.”

“Oh, poo!”

They began to talk about other things and in no time dinner was ready to be put on the table. Mom turned down the heat on the stove., Gwendolyn set the table. Both of them busied themselves doing extra things for dinner until Martin’s truck came up the drive. The dust was not even settled as Martin strode energetically into the kitchen.

The girls mobbed Martin. The excitement from a few years ago with meeting the Meridians had changed the family dynamic. They all knew the importance of each moment spent together.

It was just a few days before School started for Logan when late at night; there came a knock on the back door. Gwen went immediately into the bedroom with mom and Logan handed Martin one of the two loaded rifles.

Martin turned on the porch light while Logan looked out the dining room window from the shadows. The light grey uniform and the scaled appendages immediately told the men that it was one of the Meridians.

Still being cautious, Martin opened the back door and as soon as he did, he recognized the distinctive pattern of scales of the Alien that had saved them the last time the rebels had visited.

“Grok! Forgive my caution! It has been years… hasn’t it? Come on in and let’s talk!” Grok’s anatomy prevented him from sitting straight on a chair, so he turned it around and sat backwards on it much like a man wearing a sword might.

Julie quickly put on a house dress and came out to make the men coffee. Of course, little Gwen could not be kept out of it! They talked about seemingly inconsequential things for a while. Grok had to know how Martin’s old wounds were and Martin assured him that he was just as good as new.

Grok even made a fuss over little Gwen. “Come here child and let me look at you.” His hands were surprisingly soft for someone who had scales. Pretty soon, Mom could see that Gwendolyn was developing a real affection for Commander Grok.

Eventually the greetings slowed to a standstill, and Martin asked,” What brings you our way again?”

“Well, Martin, there is a problem. The Federation is working their way in this direction and in fact, you may have seen flashes of them on the monitoring equipment we left for you.

“What about it? Logan, have you seen anything?” Grok asked.

“Just a few flashes of something moving really fast at a great distance away, but I do not think they have come here yet.”

“It could be that they are just scouting so far, but sooner or later, the Federation will come here.” Grok finished. The family was completely amazed that Grok could speak such perfect English. When questioned about that before, he’d simply replied that he was talented with language.

Logan had felt that the issue was much deeper, but did not want to risk offending Grok.

They all sat around the table discussing problems the Federation could cause them with their planet miners and terraforming practices. Over breakfast, since they’d talked the night through, they planned how to recruit from among the humans without causing a major panic.

By now, Gwen had managed to push Grok back in his chair some and had insinuated herself onto his lap. She sat listening to them discuss various ideas and rejecting them in turn.

“Hey everyone, I could take Mr. Grok to some shopping centers and introduce him.”

Everyone laughed openly for a moment, but when they looked at little Gwen’s face, they stopped laughing. She had given them all “the look.“

Julie looked at Gwen’s brimming eyes, and her heart broke. She punched Martin in the shoulder and motioned for him to look at his daughter. The sudden silence was really uncomfortable.

“Yes, well… there is a possibility that it could work.” Grok said, breaking the tension.

“You’re serious?” Martin said.

“You know, if this is done properly, it could work really fast,” Logan said.

In the following discussion, they eventually came around to the idea that several of Grok’s men could station themselves in cites throughout this and adjacent states. They’d listen to the public service channels. When a fire or wreck happened, each of his men could beat the Fire Department or the Police to the scene render assistance and leave before anyone who could interfere would show up.

Grok told them that his people could withstand normal fire for extended periods of time, which would make rescues where fire was involved, really easy.

The fire started from a burning candle in the living room. The smoke from the fire was just beginning to pour out the open living room window, when the alarm was called in. Actually, it was the listening Meridian who luckily saw the fire first, and reported it. He wanted to make sure the house did not get too involved. After all, this was about introducing himself gradually to the humans, not killing them. The incident needed to be managed with great care.

This time, Grok had taken great care to bring only good seasoned soldiers and no “loose cannons.” His careful selection paid off as this soldier acted per his orders.

Using his translator, he broadcast a woman screaming loudly “Fire, Fire”. Sure, the scream, had it been measured, would have been about 145 db. But then, no one was awake that his instruments could detect. He doubted that many would remember what had awakened them. Though, some men would say that their wife’s screams would wake the dead.

It didn’t take long and lights were on in the neighborhood. People were coming outside. Lt Nong quickly ran from the backyard, around the house, and then inside. In full view of the neighbors outside, he quickly helped the occupants outside and extinguished the fire; feeling sad that he had to allow it to go that far. With that, he moved around towards the back of the house, amid the hysterical cries from the people who saw him. When the Police and Fire units had arrived, there was no sign of him.

Over a period of several weeks, there were dozens of incidents like this all over the Western States. It was impossible for the government to interfere because the locations were unpredictable and the Meridian involved was gone too quickly.

Then, one Saturday, just after the mall had opened, a little girl was seen walking down a residential street with a Lizard. As before, the participants were gone before authorities could arrive. One such incident nearly ended in disaster when the two walked out of a secluded spot, right in front of a parked police car with two cops in it. Fortunately, they were a hundred yards away, and the little girl and the Lizard had started playing Soccer before the police got out of their vehicle. The police stood by their car for a little while; apparently thinking that the Lizard was a man in a suit. As they approached closer, the Lizard and the girl faded into the trees. There was no sign of either of them when the police got to the edge of the woods and examined the area.
 

~*~
 
“Well, Mr. Grok, are you ready for this?” Gwen said.

“May as well, uh, Princess,” Grok said. He was so proud of himself for finally learning to wink.

She giggled happily.

No one, including Martin, knew the big Lizard’s defense capabilities.

The two stepped out of a side alley into the first level of the nearly unoccupied Lloyd Center, in Portland. They began window shopping as if it were a completely normal activity. They ignored startled words from the few humans near them. The plan was to let this go on until people got too panic filled or until the police arrived. Julie and Martin were following at a distance, prepared to take little Gwen to safety if things went south. Martin’s Gun, a .45 ACP look alike was concealed in a shoulder holster and even he had debated leaving it at home. He was a licensed federal officer and knew well how to manage himself.

Happily, things went as planned - for awhile.

“Grok, do you think people will get really upset?” Gwen said.

“I hope not. I feel that we are running very short of time and we Meridians are not sufficient in number to fight off the Federation. It is questionable if there are enough humans to defend themselves from the Federation. If we are not very careful to keep them well away from your planet, they, well… we just need to keep them away.

As the Mall filled, more people saw the big Lizard. But with the little girl standing calmly beside him, most people did not get upset. When there were sufficient people in the mall, Gwen and Grok sat down by the edge of a fountain. The little children seemed most fascinated. And, because of normal parental inattention, they began to gravitate towards him. In a little while, he was enchanting the children with tales of his own childhood and experiences. They sat there for a little over an hour when a mother began to take pictures. Even the security guards were simply walking by - except one. He had called Homeland Security, bypassing the County Sheriff entirely.

Julie and Martin had gone over to the food court and returned with several orders of chicken nuggets. The little children in the crowd were eating them one and two at a time. Grok then rolled his head back, opened his huge mouth and dumped a full container in.

“Wow! Mister, you eat way more than my dog!” an 8-year old girl exclaimed and then giggled.

“Oh? Little one, this is just a snack for me. I would love to eat much more, but you do not have insects in a sufficient quantity to readily eat.” He bent his mouth in a slight smile.

One of the Mothers began to realize that Grok was no man in a suit. She grabbed her two children and began to move quickly away. Her children were wailing piteously.

“It is alright woman, I will not hurt your cubs.” Grok softly tried to point out. He’d deliberately used what the woman would think of as alien words to say what he had; thus reinforcing the idea that he really was an alien.

“Mommy! Can’t we go back and talk to Mr. Grok?” her little girl pleaded.

“Sally, we really have to go home in a few minutes.”

“OK, Mommy.”

About that time, Homeland Security showed up. They came in noisily, wearing battle armor, and carrying weapons - scaring all the little children. There were several mothers who immediately saw what was about to happen and one of them walked over to one of the soldiers, screaming at him to stop terrorizing her children. They tried to hustle her off, but several of the other mothers came to her defense - one of them punching the soldier with astonishing strength.

It did not take long for the Sergeant in charge of the soldiers to see that lots of innocent people were going to get hurt if they persisted. One of the contract news services had heard the radio traffic involving the Lloyd Center and had gotten a van over there almost as soon as Homeland Security had arrived.

On the balcony above the action, bright news lights suddenly came on, deepening the dilemma of the Homeland Security Sergeant. The incident turned into a rout for the soldiers and they were told to stand down, but remain alert. Homeland Security did not want news footage of them escalating an incident without provocation. Off to the side, there was a scuffle and a Newswoman struggled into view.

Since he was sitting down, Grok looked much less imposing, especially with little Gwen on his lap and surrounded by a couple dozen or so other children between 6 and 10 years old. Exercising good sense, the Newswoman wisely stood closely by and listened to him regaling the children with impossible sounding tales.

After a few minutes, she managed to catch him between stories.

“Where are you from… Mr. Grok is it?”

“Madam, my people were once from a part of the Galaxy too far away to even think of. You call the region of space Cygnus. We have an enemy that began systematically wiping us out about 300 of your planet’s years ago. Those of us that are left are but a remnant of what once existed of our race.”

“We have come here to alert you to the danger and possibly enlist you in our battle to stop them. There are barely enough of my people to provide sufficient Genetic variety to start over again if we possibly do defeat them.”

“We have been too timid for many years and have wasted far too much time trying to figure out a strategy to contact all the humans of earth without producing panic. It was the idea of this little girl that led to us all being here today.” He finished.

She managed to get in the usual stupid, irritating questions for a while.

Sensing a human interest story, the woman seized the opportunity. It was easy for Gwen to see that the woman was shaking like a farm truck in a stream bed.

“Don’t worry lady, Mr. Grok here is my friend.”

“Oh, he is?” she was surprised. After all, how could she reveal her true fear in face of this brave little girl?

“Oh, yes Mam! A few years ago, he fixed me, and now I will always love him”

Poor Grok! He had not known a devotion like this from such a tiny person. If he’d possessed tear ducts, his eyes would have been brimming with tears. As it was, all he could do is wheeze a little and gently squeeze her hand.

The woman asked, “Were you ill?”

Gwen smiled.“Yes, I was born wrong and he made me all right.”

“Yes, and how were you ‘born wrong’?” She asked, gently correcting Gwen’s language.

“I was always a girl inside, but a boy outside. So after the battle, and things were calm, he fixed me and my Dad. They even fixed our house and barn and all that. They were very nice to us after our misunderstanding got worked out.”

Standing a few feet away from Gwen and Grok, Martin and Julie were beaming proud of little Gwen. “All this from the mouth of a babe, eh?” Martin mused. “Here we were, all so worried!” Julie replied.

“I doubt that any of us have appreciated the grave danger we are all in.” Martin said.

Martin was looking back over Grok’s head, toward the balcony and suddenly gasped. “Stay here! And don’t alarm anyone.” He then quietly moved off toward the stairs that went up to the second level.

Julie was looking to where Martin was going and almost fainted. There were two snipers and an officer up there. They seemed to be getting ready to take a shot at Grok!

She let out an uncontrolled shriek and dove at Grok. “They are going to shoot you!!!”. About that time, there was a shot but it fell to the floor in back of Grok. Apparently, he had some sort of personal shield. There was another shot and one of the little children fell to the floor with blood running out of her chest.

Julie could hear Martin’s pistol fire once, there was shouting, a shot and then silence. Martin had killed the first sniper, and then the officer as he began to pull his pistol. The other sniper laid his rifle down.

Martin’s look at the other soldier, told him that he was going to die. “There is a problem with these pistols son, you don’t wound people.” The soldier shoved the rifle away as far as he could.

He could hear screaming from below, and looking could see the wounded body of one of the children. Something in Martin snapped and he looked at the soldier. “What in the hell were you thinking?” The surrendered sniper didn’t get a chance to reply, having been bashed in the face with Martin’s pistol. Martin didn’t even know where these Jackasses came from! Later, they all would find out that the three were local gun freaks bent on bagging themselves an Alien.

Grok was at the little Girl’s side with the shrieking mother. “Woman, let me take the girl. Maybe I can save her.”

“Not without me!” The mother exclaimed. The Mom had lost all sign of fear of the big Alien. Grok had been talking into his wrist. In moments, part of the roof was sucked out and a beam appeared on the floor. “Come, we must go now.”

They had no more than stepped into the beam when they were floating up and through the hole.
Their tiny craft was just moving to altitude when a huge shadow appeared above them. In less than a minute the girl was being examined by other Meridians.

There was conversation in a language that Sandy, the girl’s mother, did not understand. There was a soft flare of light around the little girl. Moments later, the circle of Lizards parted and one of them motioned Sandy over to her daughter.

“Mom… the bad man killed me. I have to go, but Mr. Grok said I could talk to you for awhile.” I don’t know how I am alive, but he says they can’t do it long.”

“Oh Jenny, please don’t die!!! Dear God! I’ll do anything. Save her!!!!”

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To Be Continued...