What she said was making sense. I really hadn’t looked at it that way. The shaking inside me was calming down and the panic was receding some, as well. I had shared the ugly truth and shame that was hiding inside of me, and she was still here. This was the hardest thing I had ever done. I never imagined it could also feel so liberating.
“And NASA?” she asked.
“NASA isn’t really a civilian controlled agency like it’s presented,” I replied. “It’s organized under the Department of Defense. They put me there to control the Mars Rovers. I also wrote their programs.”
“So what about the robot’s head?” she asked.
I had to smile. “That’s the strange part,” I explained. “I got into a shouting match with my boss, Dr. Sheldon Woolser over the information we were getting back from Mars. We found evidence of an ancient civilization on Mars. Not only that, but the Mars Orbiter photographed thousand foot high trees and migrating animals. There’s life on Mars and I believed that the public was ready to accept the truth. We’re not alone in the universe. Life is everywhere. But the Department of Defense had all of this information classified because they thought people would panic if they found out.”
“That argument got me sent to the Clark Street Storage Facility doing inventory work. That’s how I found the robot’s head. The rest you know.”
“What about relationships?” Tia asked.
“Relationships?” I said.
“Significant others?” she replied.
I shook my head.
“High school sweetheart?” she asked.
I shook my head again. “I was a real nerd in high school — didn’t really have many friends.”
“No high school prom?” she asked.
I looked down at the floor. “The night of my high school prom was my first night in federal prison.”
There was an awkward pause.
“In college?”
“Too busy.”
“And while you were at NASA?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I thought about it,” I said, “I just couldn’t. I…”
“A paid companion?”
I shook my head again. “I…”
“So you’ve never…” she asked.
I shook my head again. “Pretty bad, huh.”
Tia got up and took my hand. She led me up the stairs to the great room. The terror of the emotional abyss started to come back. I was breathing hard and fast, trying my best not to panic. My cheeks were starting to tingle, as were my hands and arms. I was feeling disoriented as we crossed the kitchen to the stairs that led up to our rooms. A third of the way up the stairs I stumbled and fell to the steps.
“Carl, you’re trembling,” she said.
I couldn’t stop shaking. I started weeping and couldn’t stop that, either. The intimacy that I knew she wanted had me so terrified that I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I felt so panicked that my brain froze. I couldn’t think. I was just so filled with fear and raw emotion that I was paralyzed, unable to function at all.
“Oh, God, Carl,” she said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand.” She held me tight and rocked me in her arms as she sat on the steps.
I heard John’s voice. “Okay,” he said quietly. “The denial is over. Now he can start healing. You can help him if you want to take this on.”
“I do,” Tia said quietly. “I do.”
“Nancy was a rape counselor as well as a nurse,” John said. “Talk to her. She can help.”
CHAPTER 22
We had moved our personal belongings to the cave during the past week along with most of the equipment from John’s cabin. Alex left the main screen and the television receivers connected in the communications room. I had gradually recovered from my panic attack. John and Tia said nothing about it.
“One last check of the news?” Alex asked.
“Sure,” I said.
Tia came into the communications room as Alex selected Network News on the receiver. “Tonight is going to be the greatest celestial display in the recorded history of the world,” the reporter said. “And people are gathering by the millions to see it.”
The scene showed a pudgy man sitting in a lawn chair with a glass of beer in his hand. Next to him on a table was a half keg and snack food. To the right of the table was a large barbeque.
“Meteor party!” the man shouted, raising his glass of beer into the air. “Eeee, haa!”
“The meteor display is still eight hours away, and already people are celebrating,” the reporter continued. “This is going to be the biggest party since the turn of the millennium. Stay tuned as we provide continuing coverage of the meteor display.”
“They have no idea what is coming, do they?” I asked.
“We sent all of the media companies a complete packet with all of the backup data and research in it,” Alex said. “It’s not like they didn’t have a clue. We told them. They simply have chosen to ignore everything we have said.”
“This is really depressing, and sad,” Tia said.
“Seen enough?” Alex asked.
“Yeah,” Tia replied. “Meteor parties.” She shook her head and started up the stairs.
“Hang on,” I said. “I’m coming with you.”
John was in the kitchen fixing our last meal in the cabin.
“They’re having meteor parties,” Tia announced.
John exhaled and hung his head. Ed came down the stairs from his room. “Meteor parties?” he asked. “Did I hear that correctly?” Tia nodded. Ed shook his head.
“You never did explain how you knew the media center was going to be attacked,” John said, looking at me.
“I think it’s the medallion,” I replied, as I took it out from under my shirt. “Tia checked it out. Each of the bumps on the medallion resonates at a specific biological frequency. Each body system, like the liver or kidneys, has its own frequency. The medallion has five more frequencies than we have physical body systems. I think the center bump is for our intuition, which is what warned me of the attack on the media center.”
“That’s handy,” Ed said.
“What are the other bumps for?” John asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I replied. “As we figure it out, I’ll let you know.”
“Well, you saved the lives of a lot of people today,” John said. “Thank you.”
“I just wish I could have recognized it sooner,” I said. “Then nobody would have had to die.”
“Some things you can’t stop,” John said.
“Yeah,” Tia replied. “Like meteor parties.”
On that somber note, we sat down for dinner.
After dinner, we made our final journey from the cabin to the cave. All of the other people in John’s local group were already there. All in all, we had over three hundred people in the cave. As midnight passed I began to get anxious again. I sat in my personal enclosure and calmed my mind. I wanted to go to the rock outcropping and watch the beginning of the meteor storm, but the anxiety I was experiencing told me there might be a problem if I went. After considerable thought, I decided I would go anyway.
At twelve-forty, I met with Tia and Ed for the twenty minute walk to the rock outcropping. Each of us had a flashlight and a bottle of water. Ed carried a satchel slung over his shoulder.
“What are you bringing?” I asked.
He reached into the satchel and brought out several light green sticks.
“Glow sticks,” he said, “to light our way back to the cave. Wouldn’t want to get lost, would we?”