Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 33: More Attacks
May walked over to where Ashley and Sarah were taking down their tent. “Wayne left with his parents. His father was cold and wanted pancakes and bacon. Professor Sobczak doesn’t understand what’s going on, but his wife was smiling as she dealt with his arguing. She asked me to thank you for inviting them. Wayne said they were driving to LA. They’re going to have his brother take care of them. Wayne tried to get his brother and his family to come, but his brother had operations scheduled. Wayne argued with him, but it sounds like they don’t get along.”
“Aunt Ruth, Uncle Bob, and the rest of their family are also leaving for LA. She’s supposed to be in court tomorrow, so she needs to make arrangements.”
Sarah saw Teresa Rice heading towards them and stopped the folding of the tent. Ashley, though facing the other direction, stopped also. They stood and watched Teresa approach.
“Ashley, Jinghua asked if you would ride back with us. She wants my help in selecting people to hear what she knows. So many years she’s lived. China was her creation.” Teresa gushed.
“Why does she want me?” Ashley glanced at Sarah, who gave a nod and went back to working on the tent. Ashley grabbed her backpack and waved goodbye to May.
“She wants yours and my inputs on what our government and the other governments might do when they learn about what we’ve learned.” Teresa started to turn to go back to where Jinghua and Jian were loading their car.
Ashley pointed towards the cabin. “I need to tell grandfather. We’ll also find out what they have heard from Washington.”
The two SEALs standing guard outside Mark’s office door smiled as Ashley approached. One opened the door for her. Ashley waved Teresa ahead of her.
“One moment, sir.” Sheila said as she saw Mark turn towards the door.
Those in the room watched as Ashley closed the door. “Jinghua wants Dr. Teresa Rice and me to accompany her on the drive back to Stanford. She wants our input on which people to pass her information to and on working out what the different governments might do.” She faced the speaker phone. “Mr. President, what direction or suggestions do you have right now? I’ll set up an antenna on the car to allow my computer to be in contact with you or whomever you designate. I suggest we use the third setting on the MSI encryption unit.”
“Would you ask her if she would talk to me before she left?”
“Sir, if she was ready to talk with you, she would be here talking to you instead of me. Dr. Rice just informed me China is her creation. She’s why civilization was much more advanced there than anywhere else. She has been running things there for thousands of years but from behind the scenes. Now she plans to come into the open. She hadn’t planned to, but what has occurred recently is changing things for her just as much as it is for everyone else.”
There had been exclamations in the background on the other end of the phone conversation.
“Ashley, let us discuss this here. We’ll get back to you in a few minutes.” The line went quiet.
“It’s always interesting when you and the President talk.” Nat was smiling.
“Sheila, may I suggest you ask Jinghua if you could provide an armed military escort for us?” Ashley turned to her grandfather. “I do have your permission.”
“Of course. I wish I could go with you, but I need to stay here until everyone is ready to go.” Mark looked at Sheila. “I suggest Commander Whitner ask Jinghua if she would accept an escort. It should be either him or you. He should also talk with her.”
Sheila realized what Mark was implying. “Commander, give our compliments to the Daughter of the Earth. Inform her Miss Sawyer has requested information and guidance from President DeSantis. Ask her if she would like vehicles with some of your SEALs and their families to escort her.” She paused and looked at Marsha. “You have agents here with their families. Having someone with them with domestic authority may prove to be helpful.”
“I think a young couple would work better. John and your daughter Patty have hit it off. She is very interested in Jinghua.”
Sheila was surprised at the suggestions but after a second smiled and nodded. “Nat, get with John and Patty and explain what’s needed. They should accompany you when you talk with Jinghua.”
“I’ll see to that, ma’am. Full deference to someone who has been responsible for selecting a large number of rulers.” He smiled at Mark. “I agree it would be an interesting discussion but I don’t know how much I would be able to tell her.”
“No, you and John should ask her if there is any information you can provide her or get for her. The more information she has the better advice she can give us.”
“Nat, on my authority, treat her as having a top-secret clearance but use your discretion.”
“Understood, ma’am.” Nat saluted before leaving.
After he left, Mark turned to Teresa Rice. “Teresa, you and others from the university were among those talking with Jinghua last night. Can you tell us what was discussed?”
“It was mainly the geneticists but she had suggestions or information for all of them. Dr. Liu asked about some green crystal balls found in Hawaii. She said they were definitely something from some wreckage of an alien spacecraft. She didn’t learn about the Hawaiian Islands until recently. Well recently for her. She had people checking out the Pacific earlier than I ever heard any mention about.”
“Dr. Rice, if you could see there were reports on what was learned sent to me, I would find it helpful in deciding what we need to do. I would like you to write a summary of those reports as well as the discussion you and Ashley will be having.” Only Mark and Ashley had noticed the phone connection had become live again. “Dr. Rice, would you accept an appointment as U.S. Ambassador to handle our relationship with Professor Mingyu? I will need to get Senate approval, but from the nods I’m seeing, we will have bipartisan support for your appointment.”
“President DeSantis, I would suggest Ambassador Rice be appointed the U.S. representative to the court of the Daughter of the Earth. I have seen two references to that title in my readings of old Chinese writings. I believe mentioning we are working with the Daughter of the Earth will get Chinese cooperation faster than anything you could do.”
“Thank you, Ashley. Ask the Daughter of the Earth who else may be swayed mentioning her by that name or another name she has used.” The President paused. “You and Ambassador Rice may discuss anything you feel appropriate with her. Ambassador Rice, you have your top-secret clearance reinstated. Your discussions with the Daughter of the Earth shall be considered top secret until we have had a chance to better asses our situation.”
“Sir, I am the Provost at Stanford. I’m not ready to give that up.” Teresa Rice had returned to Stanford after serving in the previous administration.
“Dr. Rice, you have shown a lot of interest in talking with the Daughter of the Earth. Do you plan to just return to your position as Provost? If things go right, you and everyone else who was here last night have many, many years ahead of them. Since it sounds like Jinghua plans to make use of her association with Stanford, might not your position there evolve into one where you coordinate her meetings just as the President is asking for your help doing something similar for the entire country?” Mark nodded as he saw the realization show on Teresa’s face.
“Sir, I accept your offer. I hadn’t realized how well it meshed with my own interests.”
“Good. Ashley, should we give you a position also?” There was a note of humor in the President’s voice.
Ashley started to answer, but Teresa spoke first. “Jinghua sees Ashley and Sarah as assistants or even apprentices.”
Marsha interjected, “Acolytes.”
Someone with the President started to laugh.
“Yes, that may be closer to it. The Daughter of the Earth was mentioned as a goddess in one of the references we found.” An unidentified voice said from the phone.
“Which isn’t what I want to be.” Ashley looked and sounded angry. “I want to take care of this jerk, Omara, who has been causing all of these problems. After that, I plan to build spaceships to find out what is out there. I suspect someone took care of those who attacked us before, but we will never know until we get out there and find out. We should also be ready to deal with another attack if one comes.”
There was quiet for nearly a minute.
“Ashley, I don’t see mine or the country’s goals as being in conflict with what you just said. My first priority is to see to the protection of all the people. We will need to discuss this when you are here Thanksgiving week.”
“What about the Young Again change?” A female voice from the President’s end of the phone conversation asked.
“Sarah will be coordinating that. She should have been at the discussion last night, but we were handling a lot of questions about the change.” Ashley shrugged. “Any information we can pass on.”
“Both of you girls are taking on big projects. Admiral Kyser started preparations for medical attention and physical protection for those undergoing the change. We are refining that and should have everything ready in a few hours. We will let you know where they should go.”
“Sheila, the married military personnel were talking about returning home. Was that considered in the planning?” Ashley asked the commander of the military assigned to the project.
“I hadn’t heard. Probably, nobody wanted to break into this meeting with personal problems. I’ll need to check on it.” She headed for the door.
“Sheila, I’ll check with the Commander or the Senior Chief about the interest in returning home.” Mark gave Ashley a quick hug before stepping out.
Sheila stopped and thought about where her people should be going. “Mr. President, if you would inform Admiral Kyser, there may be married Marines and SEALs who will be returning to their home bases. I’ll give them orders to report there. I believe spreading them out will help provide better medical attention and personal protection while lessening what may appear as an epidemic in the San Francisco area.”
“We had realized word of the changes might get out but causing a panic with so many mysteriously ill will need to be avoided.”
“Sir, it may be a while before anyone says anything. Anyone who is undergoing the Young Again change will be sick starting tomorrow but only for a few days. They all know Omara, the ancient who started the second Korean war, will be looking to kill anyone who changes. Not one person backed out upon learning this. They’re dedicated to working against him.” Sheila realized how strongly she felt that stopping Omara was extremely important.
“Everyone?”
“Yes, sir, even I. Jinghua told us a different version of history, which shows Omara behind many of the wars and other things, which have caused people to suffer through the ages. She says definitely not most of them but enough to create the conditions where others would be more likely to do similar things.”
Mark reentered the room.
“Mr. President, one of the things I want to set up when I’m back at Stanford is getting her together with the history department. I’ll have to make sure they don’t monopolize her. Having someone with a perfect memory who lived so long and was one of the primary movers of world events will be an incredible draw for those who will believe her.” The grin on Teresa Rice’s face showed she was looking forward to being present for the initial meeting.
“It sounds like there is much more we need to hear about.”
“President DeSantis, Mark Sawyer. We have experienced and heard many world-changing things recently. The Daughter of the Earth’s existence changes our view of the events of the past. What she has told us is her view. Even if she didn’t have an agenda, we have to look for verification. Ambassador Rice getting the Daughter of the Earth together with the Stanford history department is a major step towards such verification. Genetics and the alien attacks are the other major areas we will learn a lot about from her. There will be much more information which won’t be as world-changing. What Teresa and Ashley need right now is general guidelines on how they are to proceed and word that the United States is interested in working with the Daughter of the Earth to stop whoever caused this Second Korean War. An invitation to meet with the other world leaders over the Thanksgiving week might be something else you could offer her.”
“Good summary, Mark. Let me check with the others here. Does anyone have any disagreement, suggestions, or comments?” President DeSantis asked the other government leaders meeting with him.
“Shouldn’t we meet with the Daughter of the Earth sooner than that?”
“No, we have to take into consideration the other countries she will be meeting with. We will need to be seen as working together. As it is, we will only be able to invite a small number of countries. Mainly, the ones we will need working with us as we go after the Ancient Omara. Dr. Rice, ask the Daughter of the Earth if she has suggestions on which countries should be at the initial meetings. At this time, it is China, France, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan. Russia is still organizing her new government. We need to know what Omara’s relationship is with the different governments.”
“Sir, I understand. I’ll find out what she knows and ask her for suggestions.” Teresa has a small notebook in which she was taking notes.
“Sir, I have information on some of the people trying to form the new government in Russia. Since one of her sisters was working behind the scenes in Moscow, we may have Omara trying to take control there. You might want to make it a priority to support the right group there. It will make the situation in Russia one of the first questions we ask.”
“Good suggestion, Ashley. We need to rethink everything in light of what we have learned. Does anyone have anything else? It looks to me that we will be very busy here. If no one has anything else, Ambassador Rice and Ashley Sawyer need to have a long talk with the Daughter of the Earth. Ashley, I will get Ray Arnold to set up the contact with us. I would like a quick summary in a few hours as well as anything you think we need to know sooner. Please inform the Daughter of the Earth, I’m not the only one looking forward to meeting and talking with her when she comes to Washington. Captain McRae, continue to do as we discussed to get your people and the civilians to the protection Admiral Kyser is setting up. Inform him about the changes we discussed. He is at his office. Everyone best of luck.”
The phone line went dead before Sheila could respond.
“Ashley, copy Sarah and me on the information you send. I’ll be working with Captain McRae and Agent Poe to ensure everything goes smoothly.”
Ashley gave her grandfather a hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaving with Ambassador Rice.
As they exited the cabin, Ashley saw John Wilson waiting for her. She ran to him and they embraced. “Sarah said you were riding back with the Daughter of the Earth.”
“Yes, Dr. Rice has been appointed ambassador to the court of the Daughter of the Earth. Luckily, I got out of getting any title.” Ashley stepped back and looked at John. “How are you feeling?”
“Everyone is feeling thirsty. Your grandfather mentioned how much he drank when he went through the change. We are planning to stop and get a lot to drink on the ride back. We might have to be stopping a lot.”
“The only reason Ashley didn’t get a title was that she may be ending up as a member of the court of the Daughter of the Earth.” Teresa regarded this boy who had won Ashley’s attention.
“Dr. Rice, this is John Wilson. We met in our robotics class. John, this is Teresa Rice. She is the Provost at Stanford as well as having just been appointed Ambassador.” Ashley made introductions.
“You’re someone it won’t hurt to know when I apply to Stanford. I’m a junior now, but I have this job where the boss will pay my way through college even graduate school, so I plan to apply to Stanford.”
“John, I think you and the rest of us undergoing the Young Again change may be undergoing a lot of testing to see what changes occur. One of those would be increased ability to learn. Stanford will probably be setting up an education program similar to what we offered Ashley and Sarah for those who can benefit from it.”
John and Ashley both have big grins on their faces. Ashley took John’s hand. “Personally, that would be wonderful. If it were combined with the testing of the changes, it would help to understand the change better. Also, it would get my younger workers better prepared for the work we will be doing.”
“Dr. Rice, can I tell my family? Bert was planning to play football at Stanford, but he, Jimmy, and Troy think the change will give them an unfair advantage.”
“It would be a very interesting season if they could be on the team. I was looking forward to them being on the team without the change. Maybe by their senior year we could have everyone undergo the Young Again change so it would be fair. I’m a big football fan.”
“Dr. Rice, the game will have to be changed.” Ashley picked up a small rock and looked around. She pointed away from most of the people. “Chain of the old bird feeder over there.” She threw the rock. It hit the chain. The distance was over a hundred feet.
“You wanted to see me pitch?” John looked at Ashley.
“Yes, I was told you were very good for an unchanged human.” There was a twinkle in Ashley’s eyes.
“I think we will have to reconsider most competitive team sports. Even golf will need to have longer fairways.” Teresa shook her head. “We need to get going. The way I understand it, us older people will have a more severe reaction to the change. I want to do a number of things before I’m bedridden.”
“We’ll need to figure out what we have to do to play Bert and Sarah at tennis.” John pulled Ashley in to an embrace and Ashley gave him a definitely non-sisterly kiss.
Admiral Larry Kyser stretched and looked across his desk towards Marine General Ryan McCausey. “Pendleton and Coronado are prepared. Ryan, thanks for not asking for a full explanation now. As you heard, I’m restrained from telling you more about the Young Again change. When we get to the White House, you will find out more about what is going on.”
“I was here when you argued with the President to bring the rest of us in on what was going on. It sounded like this has something to do with the North Koreans.” The Marine Commandant couldn’t help fishing for more information.
Larry smiled and shook his head. “I don’t have...” His intercom beeped and the light shone. “That should be them.” He hit the button to open the connection. “Yes, Alice.”
“Generals Whitman and Scott are here.”
“Show them in. Hold all calls except the President or Secretary Simpson.” Larry and Ryan rose to greet them.
“Kevin, Mike, thanks for coming in on such short notice. All of you will get a full briefing when we get to the White House, but I can give you a short explanation of what we need to prepare for. We have intelligence on who is behind the North Korean attack. It comes from a very unusual source. The President has called a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the information, the source, and what we should do. When the Chinese heard about who our source was, they have agreed to consider working with us fully.”
“They have a superstitious trust in the Daughter of the Earth.” Kevin Whitman interrupted.
“Who?” Larry didn’t show his surprise when the Chief of Staff of the Army mentioned the name he had first heard yesterday and which he had only spoken about with the President and Secretary Simpson.
‘She’s using the name Jinghua Mingyu. She’s been hiding as a professor at Stanford.”
“It could be. The information did come from California.” Larry saw Ryan and also realized Kevin had much more information than Larry had shared with him. “The President has more information than I do.” Which is true since he was talking with Sheila. “The important thing is we have information we need to consider. Let’s hold further discussion until we are briefed.” He saw Ryan looked like he was about to say something. Yes, I told you I would tell you more when the others got here. “Ryan, would you drive? We need to ensure this information is tightly restricted, so we don’t want to have a driver. I can talk about some of the earlier things we know which led to this new information on the drive over.” Which will allow me to see if Kevin knows anything else that he shouldn’t. “We’ll talk more when we’re in the car.”
Jinghua broke off her conversation with Commander Whitner as Ashley and Teresa drew near. “Thank you, commander, for the escort. Now that your government knows of my existence and has passed that on to the Chinese, having something happen to me while I’m here would cause problems we cannot afford at this time. As to the military capabilities of your SEALs, I have kept away from actual involvement in combat. I find selecting the right man for the job to be sufficient once you told him what needed to be done.” She looked at Ashley. “I will be revising my policy in the future once I have assistants who are trained to handle this type of thing. For dealing with Omara, I know you will be able to handle the situation before they are fully trained. You’ll need to allow the change to complete, then learn how to adjust to your new abilities. Be warned, yours and your men’s abilities will probably not match those of Ashley, Sarah, and even Mark. My mother never spoke of some of the abilities or the level of ability they have shown. I know that man has improved since she was alive. I encouraged such changes, but often one finds that more occurs than that over which you have control. The three of them are examples of that. Others who were here, including your men, may have some of these changes or even different ones. The mixing of different peoples in this country has created some superior individuals. It will be one of the advantages you have over Omara. He hasn’t tried to improve his people. In fact, they’ve been left behind by recent changes.” Her nod and switching her attention were surely one of the clearest dismissals Nat had ever gotten. “Girls, what have you learned?”
It had been years since anyone had called Teresa a girl without her feeling like it was an insult. When she saw Ashley give Jinghua a small bow, she copied the action.
“President DeSantis sends his greeting to the Daughter of the Earth. He’s concerned for your safety as we work together with you. To assist in the cooperative effort, he has appointed Doctor Teresa Rice as ambassador to the court of the Daughter of the Moon.” Ashley did a smaller bow towards Teresa.
“Good, he did what I expected. Teresa, we’ll have much to discuss and you’ll be passing a lot of information back and forth between your government and those of my court.” She smiled at Ashley. “He refrained from giving you a title?”
“You honor Sarah and me with your offer, but we should be independent of you while still working with you. You are still a big unknown to us. What you have told us is beneficial to us, our country, and mankind, but your motives and plans are unknown. In working with you, I feel the need to treat you as a goddess from a fable. Old, wise, and with powers and motives which are largely unknown. So, we are ready to work with you, learn from you, and even assist you, but we are allies, nothing more. At least for the foreseeable future.” Ashley stood looking directly into the Ancient’s eyes.
Those standing around listening were shocked at the directness of Ashley’s statements.
“And you can speak for your blood sister in this?”
Ashley was a little surprised Jinghua would have known they had done their own blood-sharing ceremony so many years ago. “Yes, we discussed it last night.”
“Good, one less thing I’ll have to teach you. Trust no one, not even your blood sister.” Jinghua saw the disagreement on Ashley’s face. “You disagree.”
“Sarah and I share a bond you might put under the new abilities you mentioned to Nat. She may do something which will harm me in the future, but I trust her that it will be necessary, so I wouldn’t fault her for doing it.”
Jinghua stood looking at Ashley, thinking and slowly nodding her head. She didn’t immediately speak. “You trust those listening to us to keep your secret?”
“Not completely, but we suspect others may soon share such a bond, maybe even with us. As you said, there are new abilities for which we need to be ready. Forewarned, it will be handled better. When two young girls discover they were close together as they grew up is different from teens or adults learning the same.”
“But you didn’t tell everyone before they left.”
“No. Getting everyone together and saying, ‘Look at what we can do,’ is a little much even for us.” Ashley laughed.
“But I might find you and I share such a bond.”
Ashley had known John had followed her from the cabin. “Yes, John. It would be something we would have to grow used to, but that’s because you and Bert are guys. The one we fear more is you or Bert or both of you bonding with someone else and not us.” She looked at him with a weak smile.
“Yes, I wouldn’t like it either. Should we stay together to enable a bond to grow?” John showed practical acceptance of the possibility, though when Ashley saw the anguish which he was feeling at the possibility, it made her rush to him and embrace him.
“You have a bond of spirit already; it will happen or it won’t.” Jinghua had a slight smile. “Your job now is to let others know this bond is possible. I need to speak with Ashley and Teresa. Come, we have much to do.” She turned and walked to her car, where Jian opened the door for her.
“Please don’t become like her.” John whispered in Ashley’s ear.
“She has been essentially alone for most of her years. I don’t plan to have that type of life.” A small tear slowly made its way down her face. “I feel sorry for her. I have Sarah, family, friends, and someone who I am finding I care more and more about every time I see him.” Their kiss was brief but intense before Ashley joined Jinghua for the ride back.
Sarah was riding back with her parents when, through a break in the trees, she saw a CNN News helicopter heading towards the cabin. “Dad, keep going. There’s a helicopter heading towards the cabin. It’ll get there way before we could turn around and get back to the cabin. Slow down at the turn just ahead. I’ll be able to make a call from there.”
“Sarah, there are no cell towers up here.” Jim increased his speed just a little. This was the second time he had driven back on this dirt road, but he was no more comfortable with the road than he had been the first time, though someone had taken some effort to fill in the worst washed-out spots.
“Satellite phone. Mark wasn’t happy that Ash couldn’t contact anyone when she was on the island.” She glanced back towards the helicopter. “It’s CNN, but they shouldn’t have known about the cabin. We would have noticed if they were searching and found it.”
“Why?” Sally was confused.
“Anyone who looked at a number of the online records for the cabin or anything associated with the Sawyers or us would be checked by one of our people. Not MSI itself, or there would have been too many hits to follow. We automated the check, filtered the results, and looked for multiple inquiries. Any news agency would have gotten special attention. The helicopter knows where they’re going. Our decoy destinations should have them expecting us to be elsewhere. Why they are flying to the cabin is very suspicious.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Just send a warning. Ash is out of the mountains and has her computer set up to operate in the car. She’ll handle things until we’re out of the mountains. You both need to turn off your phones and take out the batteries so they cannot be tracked. We’ll stop and get you prepaid phones along the way home.” She handed her mother a half dozen hundred-dollar bills. “No credit cards. OK, I have the text message written. After I send it, continue until we are at the turn, then stop. It will take a little time to attach the antenna for my computer. Mom, consider an alternate location for us to go to until you two are past the effects of the change.”
Ashley read the text message on her phone. “There’s a CNN News helicopter heading towards the cabin. They shouldn’t know the location or even that we were there this weekend.” She saw Teresa nod in agreement, but Jinghua’s look said she was waiting for more information. “Master Chang, there is a Safeway on the left in a couple of miles. Pull in there. I’ll tell everyone else with us to do the same. We need to have a plan.” She paused. “Sending a helicopter to the cabin is a lot more than I would expect from even CNN.”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.