Chapter 664

2214 — Mid-afternoon, Jeff, Diana, Kayla, Selina and the alien women are working to strip the garden of the ripe produce.

Diana had been worried about the Miadax women not being accustomed to the sunshine, and mentioned it to Jeff. Ship, overhearing, had become visible as she hovered above to shadow the entire garden and beyond, which seemed to drop the temperature several degrees. Both Jeff and Diana insisted that everyone take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water.

Jeff had become suspicious when he moved to what should have been a new unpicked row of Northern beans, only to find that they had been picked. When he looked above him, Ship responded even before he asked. “Removing the beans is an easy process, and I do not have a back to become tired,” she defended.

Jeff just chuckled and moved to the next unpicked row before calling Morales on the radio. When he answered, Jeff told him that Ship would provide lunch for the people working in the field and invited everyone working at the cave to eat with them. After a few seconds’ hesitation, Morales came back on to thank him for the thought, but Jasmine didn’t want to shut down the ongoing canning process, so everyone working at the cave would eat there.

By mid-afternoon, Ship was putting the baskets of produce onboard as well as the tables and miscellaneous supplies.

A few minutes later, they were all back at the cave where Jasmine and her sister wives thanked the aliens profusely and gave them several dozen jars of assorted canned food. Amidst the thanks, she said that Diana had promised to bring them various types of fruits so they could make jelly to share with the rest of the Miadax.

With hugs all around, Jeff escorted the aliens, other than Adrienné, back to their facility. At the cave, he dismissed Ship to go pick up Arlene and Ann, as well as the other aviators. After dropping the pilots off at the Retreat to return to their billets, Arlene and Ann returned to 2214 with Ship.

The two families were sitting outside the cave chatting after a tiring day. Jeff could tell that Morales was worried, so the Prime turned to Jasmine and asked, “What do you think? Two days or maybe three to catch up with the canning?”

Jasmine, not expecting the question, frowned for a second before, “Hopefully two, and that would be with all the people we had to help can today, but you told us that we would be required to train...”

Jeff was stretched out on the ground with his head and shoulders propped against the big tree while sipping on a glass of lemonade — the height of relaxation as far as he was concerned. “When I made out my training schedule, I thought I had worked in time for the garden, but I forgot about the way things happened on 2214, and the size of the garden. When your food preservation slacks off, then we’ll go back to my schedule, but that isn’t set in stone. I said we would leave in the fall after everyone qualified, but there is no deadline. We could leave six months or a year from now just as easily. When the time is right, we’ll launch our search. However, the trip will take a backseat to the search for Selina’s parents, if and when we can come up with a general area to search in. If we can’t narrow it down, we’ll have to figure out a way to search the area along the whole trail that Selina’s mother mentioned, hopefully with a better method than just walking along the trail and calling out their names.

“Obviously, that would not work if they are several miles off the main trail. But somehow, we will find them.”

With a nod to Selina, he went on. “Selina’s mother did give us one clue that might narrow the search down a bit. She mentioned a castle, accessible only by helicopter or hiking, that they were considering using as a base.”

Selina, who was assisting Ashley with cleanup in the shelling area, stopped to address her Prime. “So far, none of the advertisements I have reviewed have mentioned having limited access to their facility, but I must reiterate that the main trail is reported to be over three hundred and twenty-five kilometers long.”

“There can’t be that many castles in the area,” Jeff reasoned.

Selina momentarily stopped what she was doing to glance at her Prime. “Unfortunately, the word ‘castle’ is frequently used, sometimes even for hotels or resorts that are relatively new. From what I have read, the owners often add a front that gives the appearance of aged excellence. They then refer to the hotel in the advertisement as Castle Roman Dawn or something along those lines that they consider elegant. Indeed, there are many true castles throughout that area, and with the addition of the other resorts and hotels, it would be a daunting job to visit each under normal conditions. With the lack of transportation, it could become a truly daunting and extremely time-consuming task, even with Ship’s assistance.” Frustrated, she hesitated for a second before complaining. “I do not understand why I cannot locate an advertisement about a castle that is accessible only by helicopter or hiking. That would make finding this ‘castle’ simple compared to checking every hotel or resort in a several-hundred-mile-long area that tends to cater to tourists.”

Selina suddenly sat down, obviously deep in thought. “What?” Jeff prompted after a moment.

The little genius hesitated again, “My mother and father have something in common that just occurred to me and might be of use in our finding them. They sometimes enjoy... very exclusive, out-of-the-way places whose management does not adhere to the norm. They generally do not enjoy being around crowds, especially when vacationing. This castle just might not be advertised at all. Its management may depend on the castle’s exclusivity and word-of-mouth references from the ultra-rich for its existence. I have been looking at advertisements for castles, hotels, resorts or similar buildings along or on this long hiking trail she mentioned. However, there is another aspect to consider. On or along might well be a relative term under the circumstances. Perhaps ‘accessible from’ might be a better descriptive expression. I must study a detailed map of that trail to see what large buildings or castles are within hiking distance of the trail and have a helipad.”

Jeff sat up a little straighter. “That helipad could very well be just an open space big enough for a helicopter to land safely. I’ve seen helipads at expensive resorts that were just well-kept lawns with a big white circle in the middle with an ‘X’ in its center and a windsock on a pole within sight of the landing spot.”

Selina slumped against the tree as she reviewed her photographic memory of the map of the area the backpacking trail wound through. “While the trail she mentioned has many hotels, resorts and small villages strewn along its length, my mother insisted that they were not going to ‘waste their time’ walking through meadows and villages but would seek out lesser-traveled areas devoid of the mechanism of civilization. This could mean deserted areas probably in the foothills or maybe somewhat into the mountains themselves. They would use the ‘castle’ as a staging point for their backpacking trips and possibly a resupply depot when their food ran low.

“In my search for knowledge when I was four, I found my mother’s backpacking journals from when she and my father were newly married. In our conversation, she alluded to finding a secluded place far from society to spend some quality time with my father while primitive camping. Considering the things she repeatedly mentioned, I would suggest that they might well be up to fifty miles from the main backpacking trail in the most secluded place they could find. Hopefully, that secluded place was safe from the Miadax’s attacks. But, keep in mind that the aliens destroyed two large dams in the general area. That would mean that there exists a possibility of an encounter, not to mention the danger of the torrent of released water.”

With her last comment, she abruptly sat to hold her hands over her face, which prompted the women to pull her into a group hug led by Diana. After a few moments, Selina blew her nose and continued, “On the plus side, as I mentioned, they might well have heard that the Earth was being invaded by aliens and decided to remain well away from civilization until they were certain the confrontation was over.”

Selina hesitated before saying, “But, if that were the case, then why haven’t they surfaced after the fighting was over?” She was quiet for a moment as she looked around at the others. “Logic would dictate that there is a reason — a serious reason they have not returned to society.”

Jeff was shaking his head as he came over to sit by her side. “Baby, you’re still not considering just how screwed up the country is in that area. Remember, the General told us that there is no power and no transportation other than the army. They might very well be at an aid station somewhere handing out food or even delivering it to people who can’t walk to get it.”

“But they would know that my sister, brother and I would be worried.”

“So, how are they to contact us? You’ve seen the news programs, heard what the General says. The government is feeding people and has set up centers for those without a place to live. Chances are excellent that their cell phones don’t work. How could they with no power for the cell towers for that whole end of the country? Too much of the power grid was destroyed, including several generating stations, for things to be back to normal in this short a period of time. We’ll find them eventually, but it’s going to take time — maybe a lot of time.”

“I know. I know,” Selina snuffled out as the tears began to flow in earnest.

The Clan Queen gathered the seven-year-old into her arms. “I’m sorry, Baby. I wish there were something positive I could tell you, but none of us here are going to lie to you. There are probably thousands of people looking for relatives over there, particularly in the cities that were the hardest hit. We are reasonably confident that your parents are somewhere along that trail. Maybe not right on it, but in the general vicinity. And... the Miadax seldom bothered with solitary targets, and instead, often went for the biggest buildings where they could probably expect to kill the most people, which, of course, translated into terror and death for those involved. Probably, all this was designed to maximize terror and soften up Earth’s resistance so we would become productive slaves too humbled to resist.

“Surely Phillip and Dessie would have survived the attacks out there in the woods. To remind you, the aliens tended to go after population centers, and the fact that your parents were in that remote area seems to bode well for their survival. Maybe they got lost or something, or they have no means of communications,” she finished, desperate to think of something to appease Selina’s worry.

Selina’s voice hardened. “I want to go there — go somewhere in the area. Do something rather than just worry and speculate.”

Jeff reached to take the child’s hand for a moment. “We had been watching videos on the news even before we destroyed the Miadax ship and the last of the Paladins. They had been trying to systematically destroy the area — one of many — presumably as an example for the rest of the world, should the Earth refuse to capitulate. With their weapons, it only took minutes for a couple of those Paladins to wreak havoc on even a large city. They could fly over a city at high speed while their multiple gunners fired at anything that struck their fancy. It only took one pulse from their weapons to do significant damage to even modern skyscrapers if the pulse struck the supporting structure of the building. As Diana said, they were into destruction so the rest of the world would see and realize how futile resistance was, and eventually capitulate totally. No telling why they chose that area of Germany. We eventually destroyed the Paladins, but they killed and wounded many of our citizens, particularly in that country, as well as rendering a tremendous amount of destruction to the area’s infrastructure.

“But,” Jeff continued, “other than the destruction of the two dams in that area, most of the damage, from what we can determine, was limited to the big cities.”