The Fate of Nations Book II The Harvest (7 page)

She couldn't believe her eyes. A beautiful little gray striped kitten, with white feet, stood on the hematite colored floor of Mikel's living area. Sarah sat down and reached out her hand to pet it.“I think she needs some food and water, Mikel,” Sarah said, after picking the listless little cat up and placing it on her lap. “I wonder how it has stayed alive so long?”
I wonder,
Mikel thought, smiling to himself. Mikel had found the kitten over three and a half weeks earlier, he had just wanted to see Sarah for a few hours before they took her home again.

“What does the kit-ten eat?” Mikel asked

casually, and Sarah, thinking, said, “Well, Mikel, I think that it can eat what I eat.” Mikel produced a container of mashed shrimp from a wall compartment, handing it to Sarah along with water in another coppery blue container. The kitten ate hungrily and drank part of the water before curling up on Sarah's lap again. “I think I'll call her Mare,” Sarah said, spelling the word out M..a..r..e, for Mikel, and stroked the kittens soft fur. “A mare is a female horse, Sarah,” Mikel said dryly. “Why do you want to call her by a horse's name?” “No, Mikel, Sarah replied, “It's just spelled like that, but pronounced Mary,” Mikel replied a little irritatedly “Then why don't you just name her Mary?” “Because I like the way Mare is spelled.” Sarah said stubbornly, adding, “So that's what her name will be.” “Well that is just the silliest thing I have heard in a long time Sarah.” Mikel said in exasperation. “You name her what you want to name her. I will name her kitten, because that is what she is.”

Sarah looked at Mikel and shook her head. It was no use arguing with Mikel, he was just as stubborn as she was.

“Fine” she said. “Fine” Mikel mimicked, imitating her voice perfectly.

With instructions for Mare’s care given to Mikel, Sarah started to leave, but Mikel stopped her. Mare had walked over and laid down in front of the Brancher.

This was the weirdest looking thing that Sarah had ever seen. It resembled a large tree branch. It had four long spindly legs that looked impossible to support it's trunk-like torso. It was covered with a thick brown and gray bark like flesh that was rough and skinned in places.

“The Brancher is not life as you know it, Sarah,”

Mikel explained, noticing the way she stared at it. “I found him on Liftun, or rather, he found me,” Mikel sighed.“Why did you bring him on board Mikel?” Sarah asked.

“He was not happy on Liftun,” Mikel replied.

“He followed me back on board my ship. I discovered him there in the cargo bay, but by then, we were too far away from Liftun to turn back, so I advised Serel of the situation and was allowed to keep him in my living area. The Brancher doesn't want to go back to Liftun.

He wants to stay here with me.” Mikel sighed deeply and looked over at the Brancher. He didn't understand why the Brancher had chosen him to bond with, but it had not been his decision. The Brancher made the decisions.

Sarah looked at the Brancher, he seemed to be
listening
her mind whispered, again. “He is listening,”

Mikel said, reading her unspoken thoughts.“He is a highly evolved form of life. He is one of the oldest and highest in the Great Order of Beings. He is nothing like anything you have, or ever will see again,” Mikel continued. “I named him the Brancher, because that is what he looks like, and that is what he does, but that is not his true name. He would not tell me his true name.”

“He branches out into space and time with his thoughts. He can harness energy from the vastness of space and is an enlightened being of gathered and stored knowledge. The energy he harnesses can manifest as knowledge or as raw power, a power so great that it can scorch entire worlds.”

“What are you going to do with him Mikel?”

Sarah asked, warily regarding the Brancher despite Mikel's assurances that it wouldn't sneak up on her.“What am I going to do with
him
?” Mikel laughed, his voice tinkled like crystals.“The real question is, Sarah, what is he going to do with
me
?”

Mikel walked over to the Brancher and placed his hand on its' rough bark like body, near what Sarah thought might be its' head. Mikel's hand began to glow with a luminous white light. “What is it doing to you Mikel?” Sarah asked, alarmed. “Is it hurting you?”

Mikel didn't answer her, he only stood beside of the Brancher. The glow from his hand now spread up his arm and traveled quickly towards his torso. “Mikel!”

Sarah shouted, “Mikel are you alright!?

Mikel seemed to hear her for the first time since placing his hand on the Brancher. His voice sounded far away and faint, but he responded. “I am not being harmed, Sarah. I am with the Brancher in his thoughts.

We are traveling. Do not be alarmed, he will bring me back safely.”

Mikel didn't say anything else for hours

afterwards, he only stood beside of the Brancher, his body inundated with luminous white light.

Pate and Samel stood with Sarah in Mikel's living area and watched Mikel. They talked to Sarah and reassured her that Mikel would be alright, that he would return, but after four hours, even they began to show signs of worry. From Samel's sporadic pacing to Pate tapping his fingers restlessly on the large viewing window, it was becoming obvious they were worried.

“We don't know very much about this life form,”

Pate stated after the fourth hour had passed. “Mikel trusted it,” Samel replied, “He knows what he's doing,”

Sarah watched Mikel for any sign that he had returned from his travels with the Brancher, but Mikel remained as he had been for the last four hours, frozen in place, bathed in a brilliant white glow, his eyes vacantly staring out into space and time.

After the sixth hour of Mikel's strange

transformation, Pate was becoming really worried. He tapped his fingers restlessly against the viewing glass window in a steady beat that was driving Sarah nuts.

“We have to get him away from that Brancher,” Pate told Samel, “I'm afraid of what it might be doing to him.” Samel looked over at Pate and shook his head slowly back and forth in a surprisingly human like gesture. “Don't you touch him, Pate,” Samel warned him, an ominous tone in his otherwise quiet voice.

“Mikel said that he would be alright, and we are going to wait for him to get back, and that is that.”

Pate didn't want to argue with Samel. Samel was his superior and his elder, and in both respects had earned his obedience, as Mikel had, but Pate was now torn between the obedience he felt for Mikel and for Samel. He couldn't just stand here and let that being take Mikel where they couldn't find him or help him.

Pate's mind raced to the thousands of different outcomes that might occur if he disobeyed Samel and just walked over to where Mikel stood, stuck like glue to the Brancher, and pushed him away from it. “Don't do it.” Samel warned, the ominous tone in his voice magnifying his growing impatience for Pate's thoughts.

“You do not want to face what awaits you if you disobey me,” he added.

Pate drummed his fingers nervously on the

viewing window as Samel began pacing the room, his eyes locked with Pate's. They tuned Sarah out of their conversation and stood face to face at the viewing window. A battle of wills was being raged between them. All was silent in Mikel's living space, and Sarah stared at the two beings as they conversed.

The air had become charged with an electrifying sensation and the faint smell of an electric charge drifted into Sarah's nose. She turned to look at Mikel, and saw that the glow from the Brancher had faded and was only visible on the hand that Mikel still had placed on it. As she watched, the luminous glow faded away completely and Mikel was present in her mind again.

His voice held a quality that she did not

immediately understand or recognize. He sounded
different
, she thought. His voice sounded fuller, richer, wiser, more experienced than it had over six hours ago.

It was as if she had not heard his voice for eons, for ages. “Sarah,” Mikel began, and then noticed Samel and Pate by the viewing window.

Mikel walked over to where the two still stood face to face, deep in conversation, or battle, or perhaps now reaching an understanding. He stood with them for ten minutes before he finally addressed Sarah again.

Sarah watched this with genuine curiosity. It fascinated her how they were able to talk like that, silent and privately, without ever opening their mouths.

Although she, herself had been doing the very same thing, it was still fascinating to watch it actually taking place.

After ten minutes, Mikel walked away from his two friends and over to where Sarah stood watching them. “What happened Mikel?” Sarah asked, “Is everything alright?” She nodded towards Samel and Pate, who now faced them.

“You can ask me, you know,” Samel broke in irritatedly, “I'm standing right here.” “Leave her alone,”

Mikel responded quickly to Samel. “She was speaking to me, not you.” “Yes. Of course, Mikel,” Samel answered quietly, his voice had lost its' ominous quality since Mikel's return.

“Sarah, there was just a disagreement between the two of them. Everything has been sorted out, and everything is fine.” Mikel reassured her. “Pate will be punished for his disobedient thoughts.” Mikel saw the way Sarah frowned when he told her Pate was to be punished and quickly added, “but it will be nothing he cannot bear, so stop worrying, alright?”

She is too young.
Mikel thought.
She is too alien,
to ever understand why Pate's disobedient thoughts are
such a serious infraction of our rules, our echelon
strata and our entire way of life. Sarah need not know
how Pate would be punished. She would only hurt for
him when she shouldn't and pity him when none was
warranted.

Pate had known full well what his disobedient
thoughts would incur.
Michael thought, saddened by the knowledge,
he was one of them, and they all knew what
such thoughts led to. Pate had accepted his punishment
before it was given. He would face it and move forward
or he would die.

Mikel told Pate to report to Serel, where he would accompany him later to administer his punishment. Samel stayed behind to escort Sarah back to the machine spaces after Mikel had finished speaking with her about the little cat they had found.

Mare now sat on the Brancher, and Sarah was alarmed when she saw her there, afraid that the Brancher would kill her, but Mikel quickly told her that the Brancher had allowed her to sit on him. The Brancher also told Mikel that he liked the way she scratched him with her small claws, “He said it felt invigorating,” Mikel chuckled.

Mare sat on the Brancher looking out of the large wide window into space. She looked as if she were hoping to see home again,
like Sarah
, Mikel thought.

Mikel was saddened. Once again, he had to say goodbye to his friend. He always hated doing that. He would keep Sarah with him, but she, like the little cat, would slowly die from the strangeness of the ship, from the separation from her own kind. She had to be taken home.

He turned to Sarah and told her that they were taking them home after they had harvested the shrimp they needed to replenish their food supply.

“She will leave with you Sarah and she will protect you. I have her promise that she will never leave your side.” “She can't even talk Mikel,” Sarah replied, smiling sadly. “How could she tell you that?” “You're just joking around, aren't you?” “She talked to me Sarah” Mikel said, astonished that Sarah would say that after what had just taken place in his living area.

Didn't she realize yet, that every living being speaks? That all life has a voice? “All animals can speak. You just have to learn how to listen.” Mikel said patiently. Sarah walked over to the viewing window where Mare sat contentedly on the Brancher, staring out. She carefully avoided standing too close to the Brancher.
Wise decision,
the Brancher thought to himself. Mare's eyes were wide and watchful as she stared out into the depths of space.

Author's Note - Mikel returns Sarah to her home on
Earth. The remaining trip is uneventful, only the
endless talk of The Harvest from the Grays and the
unchanging scenery of the fiery stars and colorful
planets as the patrol ship hurdles through space
towards Earth. We'll leave Sarah here, safely back on
Earth, at least for awhile.

Leslie

Leslie sat at her desk, her fingers restlessly drummed the keyboard of her old Hewlitt Packard laptop. A cigarette's smoke twirled in thin ribbons from the ashtray beside of it. “What was that dammed word? She thought irritably, picking the cigarette up and taking a long deep drag on it. She tapped her head absently with her fingertips but the word never materialized in her mind. She stubbed the cigarette out. The television, in the living room of her small house blared out a distracting mix of paid advertising commercials. It was the only thing on this late at night on the Network channels. Every five minutes of the program was interrupted by a plea from one of the animal rights organizations to help stop hunger, help stop abuse, and help stop the homelessness of animals. Leslie sighed deeply and closed her laptop gently. She couldn't concentrate on her writing tonight. She walked into the living room and turned the television off.

Those commercials always depressed her. The faces of those little animals stuck behind the bars of their cages was heart wrenching. Leslie gave donations to every animal welfare organization out there at one point or another, and those commercials...oh, they always got to her.

She tossed the TV remote carelessly on the sofa and walked into the kitchen. She poured another glass of Lambrusco then turned on the radio. It was turning into another long night. She listened to music from the eighties on the local Norfolk radio station 95.9 The Tide until three a.m. before she felt tired enough to call it a night.