Chapter 20

The White House, Washington, D.C.

President William Howard Taft Ellis was desperate. At first, his efforts to modify the U.S. Constitution went well, with the ‘assistance’ of Federal troops in the voting chambers of the Congress and the state legislatures. The placement of U.S. troops at major and minor entry points into America went well, in the aftermath of the previous President’s assassination. The searches of incoming shipping containers and all truck cargos did effectively shut down the importation of drugs, weapons, and illegal people – including some terrorists. And the assassination of the late, unlamented President did go well.

But the invasion of Canada was halted. Well, he wasn’t really trying to invade Canada, was he? He just wanted to offer to his neighbors to the north some additional protection of their new scientific development – a new way of generating electricity. That was his story, and he was sticking to it. The Canadians had responded with a mobilization of their entire forces and beefing up their long border with the U.S. Further, Canada had notified NATO that a “strange, anti-democratic government” in the U.S. was threatening an invasion, and they were making noises about invoking an Article 4 meeting. That meeting would discuss “the territorial integrity, political independence or security” when “any of the parties is threatened”. France, Germany, and Italy had joined Canada in its “concern” when a NATO signatory was threatening another signatory. Great Britain remained neutral.

The economy tanked. It was now in the most serious recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, worse even than the recession of 2008. The only saving grace was that Ellis was exploding public debt, and had hired hundreds of thousands of people for major infrastructure projects. But things were disappearing from the shelves of supermarkets and big box stores like Wal-Mart. The goods coming from overseas were backed up at the ports, while every single shipping container was examined.

The tourist and holiday industry was laying off people left and right. American tourists didn’t want to spend money in the face of dwindling employment numbers, and of course overseas tourism was virtually nonexistent.

Big Beaver, Saskatchewan

Armis was billeted in the C.O.’s quarters and Redstone slept in his office. She woke up about 0950 hours the next day -- groggy, disoriented and with an enormous headache. SOMC Dubois, who had the 8-12 shift watching the sleeping girl, had her feet propped up on the commanding officer’s ottoman and was reading her electronic book.

Armis started and realized she was wearing someone’s t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts -- and nothing else. “I feel like shit,” she said. Then she realized that the last place she remembered being was in captivity. She turned her head, saw Dubois putting down her Kinship e-reader and said “Where am I? And who the fuck are you?”

Dubois had had more than her fair share of hangovers and she was tempted to use her Master Chief’s command voice – that would be just under a shout – to answer, but then she remembered that Armis’ hangover was not because she’d over indulged, but because she’d been drugged.

She answered quietly. “You’re with SEAL Team 9. In Canada. The young girl we went in to rescue is safe and here with us. Her parents have been informed. You were drugged with something ... we took a blood sample and we’ll eventually find out what it was. We have all the kidnappers.”

The partly awake girl said, “Oh. Good.”

Armis closed her eyes and rolled over. She groaned a little and Io whispered through the comm link: ‘Be careful of what you say. Rest, you don’t have to do anything for a few days. I’ll still be here.‘

Armis whispered/mumbled aloud, “I know, Io. Gotta sleep now.” Dubois heard something but couldn’t make it out.

...

She awoke again at 1740 hours, and Sam Redstone was on watch. He was sitting in his armchair with his feet up. He had his laptop on and he had his headphones in place. Armis rolled over and saw him sitting there in the semi-darkness.

Armis: “Are you a SEAL?”

Redstone: “Sure am. We’ve met before, remember? How are you feeling? Want something to drink?”

A: “Drink? ... Uh ... Yeah. That would be good ... Your name is ... Red ... uh ... Red...”

R: “Redstone. Sam Redstone, commanding SEAL Team 9.”

She fumbled in the bed and hoisted herself up to a sitting position, leaning on the bookcase behind her. Redstone hoisted his large body and crossed to a small refrigerator and emerged with a 16 oz. bottle of lemon-lime sports drink. “This has some electrolytes. Drink all of it. I’ll call and get you some food.”

A: “Yeah.” She took a big drink. “Food would be good.”

R: “Take your time. I’ll get you some pasta, and some veggies. That okay?” She nodded, and he picked up the phone to order. “You got any questions?”

A: “Yeah. Wha’ happened? How did I get here? Whose clothes am I wearing?”

R: “Clothes first. They came from our quartermaster. Never worn by anybody. They were put on you by our medics and some local doctors, or nurses; I never found out the details.

“How did you get here? In SEAL team trucks driven by Cree warriors. They came down to pick up every single person who was at the missile silo: SEALs, kidnappers, kidnappees – everybody, including you.

“And what happened? To make a long story short: we blasted our way into the missile silo and took it over. We extracted everybody with only one injury – a shoulder wound to a bad guy. We got everybody out.”

A: “We gotta get Ms. MacDowell back to her parents.”

R: “Agreed. But we don’t know where they are and she won’t give us the Senator’s comm number.”

A: “Smart girl. Don’t trust anybody, especially if you’ve been kidnapped.”

R: “But we’re...”

A: “You’re a bunch of armed men who took her from one installation to another. She doesn’t know you from Adam.”

R: “Well ... yes. But we’re the good guys.”

A: [laugh] “And she should take your word for it?”

R: “All right. All right. How do we get her home?”

Io: [to Armis only] ‘Government agents have besieged the casino/hotel. We need to get her parents out of there. When you’re able to teleport again, we can do it. I’ve already notified them that she’s been rescued and is safe. I comm’d her mother on her head comm.’

A: “I can teleport her to her parents. I feel much better, but what do your doctors say about my condition?”

R: “Uhhh ... I thought you were extraterrestrial. I mean, they gave you a once over, but...”

A: “I am ... and I’m not. This body was born on Earth. When the original ... uh ... owner died as the result of meningitis, it was available for me to ... uh ... use. I came here as a non-corporeal entity, and found this body. So ... I can deal with your doctors.”

A: [to Io] ‘God! I hope this story hangs together and doesn’t get out.’

Io: [to Armis] [chuckles] ‘You’re a natural IVT, Armis.’

R: “Oh. Uhh. Let me get our corpsman in here. She’ll give you a readout on your condition.”

Redstone stuck his head out of the tent. “Get Smyth and Hapgood ... A-sap.”

In a few minutes, two SEAL corpsmen – one of each gender – appeared, accompanied by Dubois. Redstone explained the situation, and the female medic asked her senior officers to leave.

Hapgood: “I’m Dolores Hapgood and I’m the Team’s senior corpsman. I’m fully qualified to do everything up to emergency surgery. Same is true for Mike Smyth here. That’s pronounced ‘smith’ but he spells it with a ‘y’ instead. What’s your story?”

Armis repeated her story and said she wanted a thorough readout of ‘her human body.’

Smyth: “Do you want me to leave?”

A: “Why? Are you going to be unprofessional?”

S: “No, ma’am.”

A: “So, stay.”

S: “Yes, ma’am.”

A: “Can you not call me ‘ma’am’?”

S: “Yes, ma’am.” [laughs]

Hapgood: “Okay, okay. Miss Armis, can you stand? If you’re comfortable, please take off your clothes.”

A: “Just Armis.” She began to take off the green t-shirt and boxer shorts.

Hapgood began poking and prodding here and there, looking in her ears, eyes, nose and mouth. They prodded her rectum and her vagina. “How old is ... uh ... this body?” she asked.

A: “Sixteen years old.”

H: “You know that you’re a virgin, right?”

A: “I assumed.”

S: “You have a ... thing ... on the back of your neck, kinda under your hair.”

A: “Oh ... that’s my comm device to my ship.”

And with that, she reached up, detached the amulet and reattached it just below her breastbone.

H: “Do you mind if I... ?” She reached for the amulet.

A: “You don’t want to touch that.”

H: “Oh ... sorry. I didn’t mean to...”

A: “Perfectly all right. It’s just that it can be damaged, or it will damage you.”

H: “Oh ... sorry. Uh ... we took some blood when you came in here, and ran some tests. You are – your body is slightly anemic, there is nothing else that showed up except that you had an unknown drug in your system. Otherwise you’re 100%. You’re AB positive.”