Chapter 15: A New Home

Their ride was became a time of togetherness. Few words were spoken and none were needed. They drifted above a world that had become dark and threatening to their families and their friends. Raak, grumpy old farts, as Greg thought of the Council, they all needed to go away and leave the Storms and the Ryans alone.

"Fat chance of that happening," Greg said aloud.

Vikki snuggled harder against him and asked, "What did you say, sweetheart?"

Greg twitched in his seat when he heard the term of endearment. "Oh I was just wishing the old codgers and the Raak would all leave us alone. Everybody wants something and they won't leave us alone until they get it from us."

"Yes, I know." Vikki sighed and rubbed her face against his back. She kissed the back of his neck and the bike almost jerked out from under them.

"Damn it!" Greg yelled. "Stop that stuff. You almost wrecked us." He stiffened up in his seat.

Vikki began to cry. "I'm sorry. But you didn't have to swear at me. I just wanted to express how much I love you. Can't I do anything without you become angry at me?" She began to sob harder.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. But when you licked my neck, I felt ... Never mind what I felt." Greg became too embarrassed to tell her what he felt.

Right then Greg decided he would have to control his temper and be nicer to Vikki. "Dad explained this stuff to me and told me how Mom almost scared him off when she told him how she felt about him. I got those feelings for you and they scare me because..." His voice trailed off.

"I guess I understand. Mother told me many of the males of the People reach puberty at a much slower rate than natives do. Vikki decided she would not be able to hurry any changes in Greg. (At least not yet, she decided.)

"Vikki," Greg told her in a firm voice, "I am a native. I am a person. You were born here and you are a native too. You can call yourself anything you want, but you are native to Earth. You better start to remember that.?

Vikki felt ashamed of her attitude. She never realized before that she looked down on those the People called "natives." She nodded to herself and said aloud, "I'm sorry, Greg. You're right.

She was surprised when Greg pulled landed in the Storm's backyard. He let the bike roll a couple of feet and stopped. When Vikki slipped off, she gave him a kiss on the lips and hurried into the house. Greg saw Ralph watching with a smile on his face.

"We just got engaged I think, okay?" He stuck his jaw out, daring anyone to make fun of him.

"Okay by me, Greg," Ralph answered, smiling. "You are wanted back in the house." He nodded at the Storm's back door. "I think it's pretty important."

Six very unhappy old men sat quietly on chairs along one wall. "Son, will you keep your temper under control? We'd like to know how many people you think you can move at one time."

Greg felt ashamed that he had acted so childish before. "Dad, if my new idea is right, I can make a portal and gate all in one which will let people walk from here to there, wherever 'there' is."

He thought hard to find the right words. It's sort of like the way they match up when a space ship has to match openings with the space station. I make a leak proof link.

All they have to do is line up and step through. I think two people side by side are about all I can make it handle right now. Later, maybe I can do more. Why?"

Henry answered, "You saw all those men in suits wandering around outside?"

"How could I miss them? They all use the same kind of perfume." Greg wrinkled his nose.

"I believe you smelled Government Issue aftershave lotion, son," Steve told him, grinning. Greg shrugged.

"We just got a call from our friend in the St Paul FBI office. It seems those guys are from the DSI in Washington DC. They know something is up. They're worried about what we might or might not be involved in. They have decided to find out just what our something is and take it away from us." Henry looked troubled and added, "They intend to invoke that Homeland Security nonsense."

Greg's chin jutted out and he became belligerant all over again. "I'll just catch them one at a time and send them to the other place. That ought to take care of them." With his usual confidence, Greg saw no obstacles to the simple approach.

"Not good," Vikki announced as she came into the room and placed her arm around Greg's waist. "What you propose is called kidnapping and would land us all in trouble; besides which it is morally wrong."

Only half joking she asked, "Instead, why don't we start the New Age Minnesota Swedish Meditation Center and Lost Swede Mine Shaft Cafe? We'll make them think we are a bunch of kooks. If the government believes it's all a religious scam they might lose interest fast. Then we go on from there.

Henry looked at his daughter, amused at her attempt to find a funny side to their problems. "And whom do you see as the high priestess, you with Greg as your noble consort?"

She laughed, "No, of course not. A nerdy teenager and her hot tempered fiancé to be wouldn't fit the picture, but Dog does."

"No!" Dog's indignant thought echoed in Greg's mind. "Tell them absolutely no. I will have nothing to do with this."

Greg laughed, "Dog says he won't do it. I have an idea, though, that might work." When everyone stopped talking and looked at him he pointed to the older council members and continued, "Those old guys right there would be the perfect ones. They know more about lying to people and keeping secrets than anyone I know of."

Steve looked at his son and shook his head. Vikki had a "you are nuts" expression on her face. Henry looked amused at first and then though about it. "You know, Greg just might have something there. You senior council members have talents and expertise we need. You would be right here and we could coordinate everything with you.

Steve's cell phone sounded. "Yah?" he said. He listened and finally said, "You guys get double bonuses. Come back here to the main house next to the barn. We'll send you home tonight."

"Who was that?" a mystified Henry asked.

"Oh, just the miners we had digging a tunnel from here to the caverns on the other side of my house. They just broke through and found all sorts of what they called 'stuff stranger than a mother in law.' We need Ralph to hire a plane to fly them home and we also need Henry to dig deep in his pockets to pay them off."

"I think I liked you better as a cheapskate, partner." Henry laughed and asked, what about this 'older' stuff? You have any idea what it all means?"

"Well," Greg asked Dog, "What do you know about anything stranger than mother in laws?"

"I didn't dare hope we would find that cache, if it's what I think it is. There should be more links to the Others there. I mean the real Others and not the lies concocted by the council."

Greg frowned at the senior council members, "I have been told you people lied about the Others. The Others really weren't all so bad. Now why would you tell lies about them?"

The senior councilman answered suddenly surrendered. "Young man, I don't know where you get your information or how. It is absolutely uncanny the way you have dug out some of our darkest and most closely held secrets. You are correct, our ancestors, the original settlers attacked the Others when they came out of a portal, almost in our own back yards. The Others retaliated and the weapons used by both sides were terrible.

"The ensuing explosions were felt planet wide and what we named the Great Cataclysm happened as a result. Continents were ripped apart and shoved many, many of miles away from their original locations. A few tectonic plates were even destroyed. Millions of The People were killed and the remaining few were defenseless and were mostly killed or captured by savage tribes. Only a few survived. This is a part of what we have been hiding for centuries. This is our shame."

Henry shook his head. "You lie to cover a lie and then keep lying to keep a secret which should have never been a secret in the first place. Do you still think your lies and other deceptions were proper?"

"No," the old man said. "However, once started on such a road of deception it was hard to stop."

"Hey, how about this, then," Greg asked. What if we send all those people home except the first hundred who came here and offer them the chance to move to a new planet? We can call them into the house one or two at a time and talk to them. Since they are The People, they ought to get first chance to go."

"Sounds like a winner to me, son, you're still on a roll." Steve slapped Greg's back. Henry nodded and Vikki kissed Greg again.

"Hey, I think you can cool it a little," Greg grumped. Vikki could tell he didn't meant it and ruffled up his hair.

The twins came rushing in. Jason shouted, "Six guys in suits tried to go down in the tunnel by the barn. The security guards tried to stop them and were placed under arrest. We unarrested our guards and duct taped two of the intruders back-to-back and used most of your duct tape. You better order some more."

Greg nodded to Vikki and they rushed outside in time to see two more men in black suits freeing their friends. "Hey!" Greg yelled, "You guys stop. They're our prisoners and when we tapes 'em they stays taped."

One of the two showed his gun in its holster by opening his suit coat enough to expose his shoulder holster. "Go back kid, before you get hurt."

He got to say no more as Vikki jumped into the air and planted her heels in the middle of his chest. The shock to his heart paralyzed him. As he fell, Greg ran up and took his gun while Vikki dispatched the other one. Greg then checked both the strangers for more weapons and found none. "When Vikki kicks 'em they stay kicked," he said in his terrible imitation of Popeye.

"There might be two more around here somewhere," Vikki told him.

Ralph came running out of the house. "As usual I get there too late when you kids get involved. "What's going on?"

"We got two, the twins got two and we need to find the other two somewhere." Vikki looked at Greg, "The tunnel and the chamber!" she exclaimed.

"I'll go first," Ralph said. He almost ran as he went down the steps into the tunnel and sprinted toward the chamber. He caught the two missing government agents trying to remove an artifact from its place on a stone shelf. It wouldn't budge. Without saying a word he grabbed them by their necks and banged their heads together.

Two of Ralph's security people ran into the chamber in time to see the federal agents fall. "We're almost out of duct tape. Use your sticky cuffs and get these guys out of here," Ralph ordered them. He followed as his men dragged the cuffed pair out and down the tunnel. When he got back to the surface he saw Captain Anderson waiting.

"Never a dull moment around this place. Which government agency are these guys from?"

"CIA I think," Ralph said. The two the kids took down had Ids from the FBI, The DIA and the BATF. Only the CIA would go around with so much overkill."

Henry approached them, "Arrest them and take their prints. I doubt they will be connected to any federal agency though. These are more of the same ones who shot at the kids and planted a bullet in Dog. We call them Raak." Henry looked as if he wanted to kick them himself.

Captain Anderson laughed, "Well let's let the sheriff handle this bunch. I just came to check out a rumor of more government types from DC wandering around out here looking for trouble. It looks like they found it.

Greg patted the cell phone on his belt and laughed, "While you got those two guys out of the chamber I ordered two cases of duct tape. We're more than ready for another attack." He laughed at Captain Anderson's expression.

Greg told him, "Hey, Minnesota runs on duct tape. Without duct tape to hold things together, the whope state would fall off into the Great Lakes."

A group of five of the young people Vikki had invited over the Internet came up. Before they could say anything, Greg told them, "You guys are going to be the first through a portal if you want to go."

"Hey, this is great! Can we bring our girlfriends?"

Greg thought a moment, "Sure you can. I just have to make a couple of adjustments. Be here at sunup in the morning."

"Sure! You bet!" the one who acted as their spokesman said. They hurried off to spread the news to the others. In less than an hour it was like a riot scene as the area between the Storms new house and the barn. The whole area was crowded with young people who wanted to go.

Greg called for Ralph. "You got the loudest voice, you tell them after the ten go through tomorrow and come back to tell them how it was they have to go home and wait their turns. We want everyone to leave their names and addresses and phone numbers. Also their email addresses if they have one. When they go through the next time they better plan to stay for good and build a new country of their own."

When Ralph relayed the message one voice, a young woman's, asked, "What if we don't wish to stay?"

"Then we bring you back on the next return trip," Greg yelled. "If you don't want us, we don't want you." He went inside the house.

"A salesman you'll never be," Vikki told him. "But you said it right. I'm proud of you." Greg got another quick hug and they sat down in her room. "What do you have on your mind?" she asked.

"I'm going to take ten people through the portal tomorrow morning early. We'll make two trips and show them what a great world they will have to live in. I want to go back there right now and see if there are any other people already living there. If there are, we had better look some place else. You ready to go?" She nodded and they returned to the barn where Dog already waited for them.

As soon as Dog and Greg linked together mentally Greg told the purple, "I want you to take us directly back to the world we visited the first time. Then take us up to five hundred feet and let us cruise in an easterly direction." He felt a twisty motion in his stomach. They had arrived at the same place they visited before.

They shot up to the asked for five hundred feet and began a sedate easterly cruise. "Make our speed one hundred miles an hour and keep at this height." After an hour with no results, Greg ordered, "Take us up to ten thousand feet." Still they saw no signs of civilization.

The air was hard to breath and they all three felt the cold. Greg ordered them back down to fifty feet above ground. They floated in silence, barely skimming over the tops of the taller pine trees. They saw deer, a bear and a mountain lion. The animals were a little different from their Earth twins in shape and coloration.

"Where are we going to live, Greg?" Vikki asked. "I love it here. The air is so sweet and clean. We must keep it this way.

"Right now, all I want to do is to help get The People moved and do some exploring. I want to see everything I can."

Greg felt restless. "Don't you understand, Vikki? I'm just a teenager who can do some tricks. We've had people shoot at us and try to hurt both you and me and our parents. My best friend Dog was shot and almost killed and we have to live with guards to protect us. I'm sick and tired of it all. I want to have some fun!"

"Are you sick and tired of me too?" Vikki asked in a small voice.

"Aw no, you know better, or you ought to. I feel closer to you than I do my own folks in some ways. You and Dog as well. As far as I care, it's just us three."

"Greg, set us down! I think I see something important. Right there in the clearing below is fine." Greg followed Dog's instructions. The small clearing they landed in was so quiet there was barely a breeze blowing.

Dog dove off the platform while it was still ten feet in the air. He landed gracefully and ran to a small rock jutting up out of the soil. He began to digging. Greg sensed the great dog's frustration yet he could not understand what all the excitement was about. "Dog, if you back away, I can use the purple to dig the rock out of the ground."

"Do so right now!"

"Don't go having puppies on me, just get back." Dog was reluctant to move back out of the way.

Greg caused a small piece of the purple to separate from the platform. It took the shape of a shovel blade. With surprising speed the purple shovel scooped the dirt from around the rock.

"Stop," Dog ordered. The exposed "rock" turned out not to be a rock at all. It appeared to be some sort of artificial cast stone. It was square with a round ball on top. There was another, smaller ball on top of that one. "This is the top of a building of some sort. It appears to have been made by Vikki's people. What is it doing here, buried underground?" For once Greg saw Dog was completely puzzled and had no idea of what to do next.