Yearning, p.29
Yearning, page 29
the screen. The tunnel rushed by, and she was certain she’d
screwed up the settings.
“We’re going too fast!” Darian also held onto her seat.
“Can you slow it down?”
“I can try.” Samantha tapped the console, trying to
disengage the automatic process. Nothing happened, and
she was torn between panicking and having her NIEC
override the emotional response. Drawing a few deep
breaths, Samantha forced herself to let the NIEC do its
thing. If she struggled against it, nausea and vertigo would
be the result.
“Samantha! Look!” Darian pointed at a smaller screen
next to Samantha’s main screen. “That thing.”
Samantha had managed to push back the onslaught of
acute stress and knew what the gauge showed. “It’s
counting down.” Relief flooded Samantha. “We should be all
right. It’s counting down the exact distance. I—I forgot.”
“Are we slowing? Feels like it.” Darian peered up at the
main screen that wrapped around the entire bridge area.
“See?”
“We are. We’re almost there. I have no idea what speed
we hit, but it’ll take us there in less than three minutes.”
Preparing for the next maneuver, Samantha clenched and
opened her hands a few times to loosen her joints. “Damn.”
“That got the old juices going,” Philber said, and it
boggled Samantha’s mind how he could sound so cheerful.
The speeder stopped right at the second elevator. Feeling
more secure, Samantha guided it onto the pad, where it
hovered steadily. “It’s unfathomable that we’re doing this,”
Samantha murmured. “Yet we aren’t even close to
hesitating.”
“I know.” Darian leaned forward and looked at Samantha
and then over to Raoul. “You okay there, Doc?”
“Never better.” Raoul flashed a bright smile Samantha
had rarely seen from the normally quite serious man.
“Then let’s start up the elevator here. Ops, you’re in
charge again.”
Raoul performed the procedure. “This elevator is faster.
According to my console, the speeder will adjust, and
sensors on its belly will keep it aligned.”
“I see it too,” Samantha said and let her gaze double-
check all the readings. The NIEC had infused her mind with
so much knowledge, it was remarkable that it hadn’t
exploded by now. In passing, she wondered how much she
might retain once they returned, and she disengaged it.
“Commence elevator sequence.”
“Here we go,” Raoul said.
Samantha had thought the flight through the tunnel was
fast, but now it felt as if the speeder burrowed into the
bedrock at lightning speed. She couldn’t see anything but a
blur on the screen showing the external cameras…no,
sensors. Double-checking the smaller screen that she’d
forgotten earlier, she saw it count down at a much faster
pace. It was daunting to imagine what might happen to
them if the speeder slammed into the bedrock at the end of
this part of the tunnel at this speed. All they could do now
was trust their ancestors’ technology.
“Thirty seconds,” Raoul said. “Twenty-five. Twenty.” As he
counted down, Samantha readied herself for what would be
required of her when they reached the hatch to the
meadows.
“Slowing down,” Darian said after Raoul counted twelve
seconds.
Speeder One stopped softly about two yards from the
end of the tunnel.
“Damn, this thing is incredible.” This time it was
Camilla’s voice from behind. “If only I were a little younger.”
“At least we get to take part in it,” Walker said.
Samantha jerked as something hit the speeder from
above. “Tell me that’s just dirt, Raoul.”
“It is. Adjusting sensors to show topside.”
Soon the screen showed the hatch opening above them.
More dirt and debris fell, but no big boulders that risked
damaging their ship. When the hatch was fully open,
Samantha realized it was her time to prove that her NIEC
hadn’t made a mistake. “Hold on. I have the controls now.”
She shot Darian a quick glance.
Darian gave her a thumbs-up. “Go for it.”
Samantha let her instincts take over, set on not second-
guessing herself and what needed to happen. They had
traveled sideways through this tunnel, and she saw the
hatch was aligned the same way. Carefully, but with entirely
steady hands, she let Speeder One rise. The visible layers of
sediment began to switch from bedrock, to clay, to dirt, and
then to roots. As soon as the sensors reached ground level,
the rays from the setting sun flooded the ship via the main
screen.
“Adjusting settings,” Darian said. “Let’s not blind our
pilot.”
Samantha agreed. She was busy maneuvering the
speeder through the opening and keeping it from rising too
far off the ground, well aware of how important it was to fly
below both civilian and military radars. As soon as they were
completely through the hatch, it closed underneath them.
She hoped the ship had a record of the exact location for
their return.
“Heading northwest toward the mountains. I don’t think
we should push our luck this first time,” Samantha said as
she pulled up the preset course she’d practiced during their
diagnostic dry runs. “Unless we run into trouble, we’ll take
more flights.”
“Agreed,” a chorus of voices said from behind.
Samantha smiled as she slid her fingers into a pattern on
her console surface. The speeder turned where it hovered
and took off due northwest. They had the sun slightly from
the side, and the screen showed how they passed along the
meadows. Before them stretched the vast forests that clad
these parts of the Adirondack mountains. In the distance,
Samantha could make out the road that led farther into the
mountains and then west. Only one road ran into her
hometown, and this was the continuation of it, heading out.
It made her town vulnerable in many ways, but perhaps the
extraterrestrials had also considered this location easier to
defend—and control?
Setting the distance to the ground to twelve feet, she
thought of a smooth roller-coaster ride as the speeder kept
this setting while they crossed valleys and forests.
Samantha was itching to let the vessel soar, shoot straight
out toward orbit and get close to the celestial bodies out
there. Something pulled her, no, beckoned her. How could
the Elders among the crew that landed here decide for
every single soul on their ship that they were to remain on
this, for them, alien planet?
Was this the origin of the yearning? Had the descendants
of the crew from Dwynna Major inherited their ancestors’
longing for home?
“Time to turn back,” Samantha said quietly. “I could go
on forever, but the risk is too great.”
Darian nodded. “I could keep going too. This…it feels
right, doesn’t it?”
Samantha was about to agree when Raoul slapped his
forehead. “Not sure if my NIEC is slow on the uptake or I am.
I have a setting that will make it a lot easier, and safer, to
return to the meadows.”
Samantha blinked. “What?”
“None of us has understood that we can use stealth
mode, and I assume, as a doctor, it was a need-to-know
thing for me. Once we have a true ops officer, these things
will go smoother.” Raoul stared at them. “Permission to
engage it?” He was clearly very serious.
“By all means.” Ready to try to mitigate any trouble,
Samantha squared her shoulders.
“And we’re supposed to be invisible,” Raoul said after
dragging both index fingers along his console. He raised his
hands, palms up. “Hard to know if it’s working.”
“Only one way to find out,” Darian said and pointed to
the screen. “There’s the lake. Set the sensors on the belly to
film the surface as we pass it.”
“Brilliant,” Raoul called out. “If there’s no reflection, we
are invisible.”
“And if someone’s there?” Camilla asked.
“Who’d believe them even if they saw us?” Darian said.
Samantha hesitated but decided to risk it. “I think we can
do it. I’ll do a sweep first above the trees. If tons of cars are
in the parking lot, we’ll abort.”
“Good thinking,” Darian said.
After circling the dense woods around the lake, they
passed the parking lot at enough distance to spot cars, but
to Samantha’s relief, only one occupied it. Two people were
getting into it, and she steered away toward the water.
“Ready with the sensors?”
“Yes.” Raoul was tapping his screen. “You’re good to go.”
“Keep looking at the water. I’ll be busy flying.” Samantha
meant to go low, perhaps ten feet. Letting the speeder down
as soon as she cleared the trees, she flew it across the lake
at a slower speed than before.
“Nothing. Apart from causing some waves, no reflection
of the speeder!” Darian raised her hands in the air.
“Amazing! Wow!”
“Wait. Go around. I thought I saw something just after
you passed it.” Raoul adjusted something. “Try to go even
slower.”
“All right?” Frowning, Samantha came about, her hands
certain now as she used the controls. “Here we go again.”
“Oh, my God!” Darian said, making Samantha take her
eyes off her readings and look at the screens. “That has
never happened like that. It has to be us. It has to be!”
Samantha stared at the surface of the lake and didn’t see
any reflection of them, just like Darian had said before.
Instead, she saw the lake lights, brighter than ever before.
❖
Darian looked over the readings while Samantha took
them back to the meadows, replayed them several times,
and made sure she had copied them over to their
computers. She still had problems understanding what had
just happened. The lights had been bright, tinted green and
yellow, and the rippling water Speeder One had created had
made the lake look alive with something…alien.
“Fuck,” Darian said as a thought began to gain traction in
her brain.
“What’s wrong?” Samantha asked, focused only on the
instruments on her screen.
“Let me just try to figure out what I’m thinking.” Darian
pulled up texts on her console. She logged in and began
searching security folders she hadn’t accessed before and
kept looking for any sign that she might be right. It was one
thing to guess, another to bring the theory to the others
with some sort of proof.
“All right.” Samantha slid her fingertips back and forth on
her console. “We’re here. I’m cancelling stealth mode.”
Darian knew she could keep reading once they’d gotten
Speeder One safely into the tunnel. She needed to be ready
to assist Samantha if they ran into problems. “You are right
on path, according to the sensors.”
“Agreed,” Raoul said. “Reduce speed a little more than
recommended. We need to be sure the hatch doors don’t
get stuck.”
“Point taken,” Samantha said. “Reducing speed.”
“It’s almost dark. We were gone longer than we
anticipated.” Darian looked at the screen showing the outer
sensor videos. “The lights are on in Dennamore. Going to be
pitch-black soon.”
“I can still get us in. Sensors don’t care about what kind
of light we travel in.” Samantha gave Darian a gentle smile.
“I wouldn’t dare just use the screens anyway.”
“Smart.” Darian watched the doors in the ground open.
“Raoul? Can you see if they’re locked in place?”
“Not yet. Give it a moment.” He drummed his fingertips
on the armrests. “There. All set.”
“Going in.” Samantha sounded tense, but her fingers
moved in a slow, soft kind of a ballet, turning the speeder
around ninety degrees. Hovering above the opening in the
ground, she began their descent, and then the automatic
process commenced. “Thank God.” Exhaling, Samantha
extended a hand to Darian. “We’re inside, and now we know
we can trust the instruments to take us back to the shuttle
bay.”
“You were amazing.” Darian grinned. “Nobody could’ve
guessed you usually drive a little blue sedan.” She turned
her head and looked back at the others. “Are you okay there
in the rear?” She spotted tears on Camilla’s cheeks. “Gran?”
About to detach her harness and rush over to her
grandmother, she stopped in midmotion when Camilla held
up her hand, palm toward Darian.
“I’m fine. More than fine. Imagine that I would live long
enough to be a part of something like this.” She leaned her
head against Walker’s shoulder. “And more than that. To
experience it with you, and with this one.” She patted
Walker’s chest. “Unbelievable.”
“Hey, what are we? Yesterday’s newspaper?” Philber
huffed, but his eyes were radiant where he sat next to Carl.
“Carl?” Darian asked.
“If you don’t give me a NIEC, I’m going to be really, really
mad,” Carl said, and it was obvious he was only half joking.
“That’s up to Samantha at this point,” Darian said, “and
if we can find a way to bring your parents in on this…what?”
Samantha had squeezed her hand hard. “You said you
were thinking about something, and even if it isn’t what
struck me as we flew back from the lake, I bet it is similar.”
She glanced back at Carl. “If you can be patient a little
longer, I might find a way to figure this out. What do you
say?”
Blushing a hot pink, Carl nodded. “Sure. Of course, Ms.
Pike…Samantha.”
Darian’s stomach clenched when she heard the
decisiveness in Samantha’s voice. Something had dawned
on both of them, and if it was by any means related, they
were going to have more than one discussion about it.
❖
Two hours later, which had included getting the speeder
back to the shuttle bay, putting the uniforms back,
downloading all the information they’d gathered into their
computers, and driving back in two haulers, all eight of
them sat in Camilla’s parlor, curtains pulled. The ones
wearing NIECs had placed them safely in their boxes.
They had eaten a dinner that Brandon had prepared
ahead of time, and Darian had noticed their appetites had
varied from zero—Samantha—to voracious—Carl. Now they
held on to their beverage of choice, and Darian was grateful
that Brandon had suggested a cup of hot chocolate to
Samantha. Darian was sipping a glass of red wine, and so
was Camilla. The men, predictably, had opted for beer,
except Carl, who gladly downed another Coke.
“Should I start?” Samantha turned to Darian. “Or…?”
“Yes, please do.” Darian sipped her wine, wondering if
Samantha had the same thoughts she did. She shifted until
she sat toward Samantha and pulled her legs up. She
wanted to be able to see Samantha’s expression as she
talked. Something reverberated in the depths of her
stomach, and she was more nervous than she’d ever been.
“To be honest,” Samantha said, “I had this thought
already when we flew among the mountains. After the lake
lights went on, it hit me even harder. We can’t do it like
this.” She looked at each of them, one by one. Carl seemed
about to object, but a gentle tap on his shoulder from
Brandon settled him down again.
Samantha waited a few beats and then continued. “What
I mean is, this is not our secret to keep. We can’t do this on
our own because it isn’t right. We have so many direct
descendants from the original settlers living in this town,
people who never left here, like Walker and Carl, and people
who returned because something pulled them, like Camilla.
Even some like Darian, who never lived here but still are
affected by the yearning. These ships, artifacts, and
information belong to them as well. Perhaps it took us, this
particular constellation of people in this room, to figure out
that something about this town is remarkable. After all,
people have lived here for many years, and not one has
screwed up the settings.
“We’re going too fast!” Darian also held onto her seat.
“Can you slow it down?”
“I can try.” Samantha tapped the console, trying to
disengage the automatic process. Nothing happened, and
she was torn between panicking and having her NIEC
override the emotional response. Drawing a few deep
breaths, Samantha forced herself to let the NIEC do its
thing. If she struggled against it, nausea and vertigo would
be the result.
“Samantha! Look!” Darian pointed at a smaller screen
next to Samantha’s main screen. “That thing.”
Samantha had managed to push back the onslaught of
acute stress and knew what the gauge showed. “It’s
counting down.” Relief flooded Samantha. “We should be all
right. It’s counting down the exact distance. I—I forgot.”
“Are we slowing? Feels like it.” Darian peered up at the
main screen that wrapped around the entire bridge area.
“See?”
“We are. We’re almost there. I have no idea what speed
we hit, but it’ll take us there in less than three minutes.”
Preparing for the next maneuver, Samantha clenched and
opened her hands a few times to loosen her joints. “Damn.”
“That got the old juices going,” Philber said, and it
boggled Samantha’s mind how he could sound so cheerful.
The speeder stopped right at the second elevator. Feeling
more secure, Samantha guided it onto the pad, where it
hovered steadily. “It’s unfathomable that we’re doing this,”
Samantha murmured. “Yet we aren’t even close to
hesitating.”
“I know.” Darian leaned forward and looked at Samantha
and then over to Raoul. “You okay there, Doc?”
“Never better.” Raoul flashed a bright smile Samantha
had rarely seen from the normally quite serious man.
“Then let’s start up the elevator here. Ops, you’re in
charge again.”
Raoul performed the procedure. “This elevator is faster.
According to my console, the speeder will adjust, and
sensors on its belly will keep it aligned.”
“I see it too,” Samantha said and let her gaze double-
check all the readings. The NIEC had infused her mind with
so much knowledge, it was remarkable that it hadn’t
exploded by now. In passing, she wondered how much she
might retain once they returned, and she disengaged it.
“Commence elevator sequence.”
“Here we go,” Raoul said.
Samantha had thought the flight through the tunnel was
fast, but now it felt as if the speeder burrowed into the
bedrock at lightning speed. She couldn’t see anything but a
blur on the screen showing the external cameras…no,
sensors. Double-checking the smaller screen that she’d
forgotten earlier, she saw it count down at a much faster
pace. It was daunting to imagine what might happen to
them if the speeder slammed into the bedrock at the end of
this part of the tunnel at this speed. All they could do now
was trust their ancestors’ technology.
“Thirty seconds,” Raoul said. “Twenty-five. Twenty.” As he
counted down, Samantha readied herself for what would be
required of her when they reached the hatch to the
meadows.
“Slowing down,” Darian said after Raoul counted twelve
seconds.
Speeder One stopped softly about two yards from the
end of the tunnel.
“Damn, this thing is incredible.” This time it was
Camilla’s voice from behind. “If only I were a little younger.”
“At least we get to take part in it,” Walker said.
Samantha jerked as something hit the speeder from
above. “Tell me that’s just dirt, Raoul.”
“It is. Adjusting sensors to show topside.”
Soon the screen showed the hatch opening above them.
More dirt and debris fell, but no big boulders that risked
damaging their ship. When the hatch was fully open,
Samantha realized it was her time to prove that her NIEC
hadn’t made a mistake. “Hold on. I have the controls now.”
She shot Darian a quick glance.
Darian gave her a thumbs-up. “Go for it.”
Samantha let her instincts take over, set on not second-
guessing herself and what needed to happen. They had
traveled sideways through this tunnel, and she saw the
hatch was aligned the same way. Carefully, but with entirely
steady hands, she let Speeder One rise. The visible layers of
sediment began to switch from bedrock, to clay, to dirt, and
then to roots. As soon as the sensors reached ground level,
the rays from the setting sun flooded the ship via the main
screen.
“Adjusting settings,” Darian said. “Let’s not blind our
pilot.”
Samantha agreed. She was busy maneuvering the
speeder through the opening and keeping it from rising too
far off the ground, well aware of how important it was to fly
below both civilian and military radars. As soon as they were
completely through the hatch, it closed underneath them.
She hoped the ship had a record of the exact location for
their return.
“Heading northwest toward the mountains. I don’t think
we should push our luck this first time,” Samantha said as
she pulled up the preset course she’d practiced during their
diagnostic dry runs. “Unless we run into trouble, we’ll take
more flights.”
“Agreed,” a chorus of voices said from behind.
Samantha smiled as she slid her fingers into a pattern on
her console surface. The speeder turned where it hovered
and took off due northwest. They had the sun slightly from
the side, and the screen showed how they passed along the
meadows. Before them stretched the vast forests that clad
these parts of the Adirondack mountains. In the distance,
Samantha could make out the road that led farther into the
mountains and then west. Only one road ran into her
hometown, and this was the continuation of it, heading out.
It made her town vulnerable in many ways, but perhaps the
extraterrestrials had also considered this location easier to
defend—and control?
Setting the distance to the ground to twelve feet, she
thought of a smooth roller-coaster ride as the speeder kept
this setting while they crossed valleys and forests.
Samantha was itching to let the vessel soar, shoot straight
out toward orbit and get close to the celestial bodies out
there. Something pulled her, no, beckoned her. How could
the Elders among the crew that landed here decide for
every single soul on their ship that they were to remain on
this, for them, alien planet?
Was this the origin of the yearning? Had the descendants
of the crew from Dwynna Major inherited their ancestors’
longing for home?
“Time to turn back,” Samantha said quietly. “I could go
on forever, but the risk is too great.”
Darian nodded. “I could keep going too. This…it feels
right, doesn’t it?”
Samantha was about to agree when Raoul slapped his
forehead. “Not sure if my NIEC is slow on the uptake or I am.
I have a setting that will make it a lot easier, and safer, to
return to the meadows.”
Samantha blinked. “What?”
“None of us has understood that we can use stealth
mode, and I assume, as a doctor, it was a need-to-know
thing for me. Once we have a true ops officer, these things
will go smoother.” Raoul stared at them. “Permission to
engage it?” He was clearly very serious.
“By all means.” Ready to try to mitigate any trouble,
Samantha squared her shoulders.
“And we’re supposed to be invisible,” Raoul said after
dragging both index fingers along his console. He raised his
hands, palms up. “Hard to know if it’s working.”
“Only one way to find out,” Darian said and pointed to
the screen. “There’s the lake. Set the sensors on the belly to
film the surface as we pass it.”
“Brilliant,” Raoul called out. “If there’s no reflection, we
are invisible.”
“And if someone’s there?” Camilla asked.
“Who’d believe them even if they saw us?” Darian said.
Samantha hesitated but decided to risk it. “I think we can
do it. I’ll do a sweep first above the trees. If tons of cars are
in the parking lot, we’ll abort.”
“Good thinking,” Darian said.
After circling the dense woods around the lake, they
passed the parking lot at enough distance to spot cars, but
to Samantha’s relief, only one occupied it. Two people were
getting into it, and she steered away toward the water.
“Ready with the sensors?”
“Yes.” Raoul was tapping his screen. “You’re good to go.”
“Keep looking at the water. I’ll be busy flying.” Samantha
meant to go low, perhaps ten feet. Letting the speeder down
as soon as she cleared the trees, she flew it across the lake
at a slower speed than before.
“Nothing. Apart from causing some waves, no reflection
of the speeder!” Darian raised her hands in the air.
“Amazing! Wow!”
“Wait. Go around. I thought I saw something just after
you passed it.” Raoul adjusted something. “Try to go even
slower.”
“All right?” Frowning, Samantha came about, her hands
certain now as she used the controls. “Here we go again.”
“Oh, my God!” Darian said, making Samantha take her
eyes off her readings and look at the screens. “That has
never happened like that. It has to be us. It has to be!”
Samantha stared at the surface of the lake and didn’t see
any reflection of them, just like Darian had said before.
Instead, she saw the lake lights, brighter than ever before.
❖
Darian looked over the readings while Samantha took
them back to the meadows, replayed them several times,
and made sure she had copied them over to their
computers. She still had problems understanding what had
just happened. The lights had been bright, tinted green and
yellow, and the rippling water Speeder One had created had
made the lake look alive with something…alien.
“Fuck,” Darian said as a thought began to gain traction in
her brain.
“What’s wrong?” Samantha asked, focused only on the
instruments on her screen.
“Let me just try to figure out what I’m thinking.” Darian
pulled up texts on her console. She logged in and began
searching security folders she hadn’t accessed before and
kept looking for any sign that she might be right. It was one
thing to guess, another to bring the theory to the others
with some sort of proof.
“All right.” Samantha slid her fingertips back and forth on
her console. “We’re here. I’m cancelling stealth mode.”
Darian knew she could keep reading once they’d gotten
Speeder One safely into the tunnel. She needed to be ready
to assist Samantha if they ran into problems. “You are right
on path, according to the sensors.”
“Agreed,” Raoul said. “Reduce speed a little more than
recommended. We need to be sure the hatch doors don’t
get stuck.”
“Point taken,” Samantha said. “Reducing speed.”
“It’s almost dark. We were gone longer than we
anticipated.” Darian looked at the screen showing the outer
sensor videos. “The lights are on in Dennamore. Going to be
pitch-black soon.”
“I can still get us in. Sensors don’t care about what kind
of light we travel in.” Samantha gave Darian a gentle smile.
“I wouldn’t dare just use the screens anyway.”
“Smart.” Darian watched the doors in the ground open.
“Raoul? Can you see if they’re locked in place?”
“Not yet. Give it a moment.” He drummed his fingertips
on the armrests. “There. All set.”
“Going in.” Samantha sounded tense, but her fingers
moved in a slow, soft kind of a ballet, turning the speeder
around ninety degrees. Hovering above the opening in the
ground, she began their descent, and then the automatic
process commenced. “Thank God.” Exhaling, Samantha
extended a hand to Darian. “We’re inside, and now we know
we can trust the instruments to take us back to the shuttle
bay.”
“You were amazing.” Darian grinned. “Nobody could’ve
guessed you usually drive a little blue sedan.” She turned
her head and looked back at the others. “Are you okay there
in the rear?” She spotted tears on Camilla’s cheeks. “Gran?”
About to detach her harness and rush over to her
grandmother, she stopped in midmotion when Camilla held
up her hand, palm toward Darian.
“I’m fine. More than fine. Imagine that I would live long
enough to be a part of something like this.” She leaned her
head against Walker’s shoulder. “And more than that. To
experience it with you, and with this one.” She patted
Walker’s chest. “Unbelievable.”
“Hey, what are we? Yesterday’s newspaper?” Philber
huffed, but his eyes were radiant where he sat next to Carl.
“Carl?” Darian asked.
“If you don’t give me a NIEC, I’m going to be really, really
mad,” Carl said, and it was obvious he was only half joking.
“That’s up to Samantha at this point,” Darian said, “and
if we can find a way to bring your parents in on this…what?”
Samantha had squeezed her hand hard. “You said you
were thinking about something, and even if it isn’t what
struck me as we flew back from the lake, I bet it is similar.”
She glanced back at Carl. “If you can be patient a little
longer, I might find a way to figure this out. What do you
say?”
Blushing a hot pink, Carl nodded. “Sure. Of course, Ms.
Pike…Samantha.”
Darian’s stomach clenched when she heard the
decisiveness in Samantha’s voice. Something had dawned
on both of them, and if it was by any means related, they
were going to have more than one discussion about it.
❖
Two hours later, which had included getting the speeder
back to the shuttle bay, putting the uniforms back,
downloading all the information they’d gathered into their
computers, and driving back in two haulers, all eight of
them sat in Camilla’s parlor, curtains pulled. The ones
wearing NIECs had placed them safely in their boxes.
They had eaten a dinner that Brandon had prepared
ahead of time, and Darian had noticed their appetites had
varied from zero—Samantha—to voracious—Carl. Now they
held on to their beverage of choice, and Darian was grateful
that Brandon had suggested a cup of hot chocolate to
Samantha. Darian was sipping a glass of red wine, and so
was Camilla. The men, predictably, had opted for beer,
except Carl, who gladly downed another Coke.
“Should I start?” Samantha turned to Darian. “Or…?”
“Yes, please do.” Darian sipped her wine, wondering if
Samantha had the same thoughts she did. She shifted until
she sat toward Samantha and pulled her legs up. She
wanted to be able to see Samantha’s expression as she
talked. Something reverberated in the depths of her
stomach, and she was more nervous than she’d ever been.
“To be honest,” Samantha said, “I had this thought
already when we flew among the mountains. After the lake
lights went on, it hit me even harder. We can’t do it like
this.” She looked at each of them, one by one. Carl seemed
about to object, but a gentle tap on his shoulder from
Brandon settled him down again.
Samantha waited a few beats and then continued. “What
I mean is, this is not our secret to keep. We can’t do this on
our own because it isn’t right. We have so many direct
descendants from the original settlers living in this town,
people who never left here, like Walker and Carl, and people
who returned because something pulled them, like Camilla.
Even some like Darian, who never lived here but still are
affected by the yearning. These ships, artifacts, and
information belong to them as well. Perhaps it took us, this
particular constellation of people in this room, to figure out
that something about this town is remarkable. After all,
people have lived here for many years, and not one has
