Chapter 345: Cleaning Up After Christmas

I want mommy and daddy too.

As we approached, I connected the plane’s radios to all of the different ones used by the groups watching over my house.

“We’re coming in to land now. Please stand down,” I said as I brought the jet down vertically in front of my house.

A truck came up to move in from the side. The people got April out after I climbed down. No one needed to tell me to put the guns and magazines into the case in the storage compartment. My family didn’t need to know what I had done or what I could do. I changed out of my flight suit but kept on my combat armor. April was sound asleep in her flight suit, which is all she had on besides the training pants, so I carried her to the house, still wearing her helmet. At some point, someone connected a small oxygen generator to the back of her flight suit. Oddly, it was only my parents, Paula, and Steve watching us from the house. I flipped up April’s dark visor but left the clear one down to keep her suit sealed. Once I was walking up the driveway, I sensed the jet taking off behind me as the truck drove away. No one was in the cockpit.

“Before you ask, I don’t know where it came from or want to know. I know whoever sent the plane for me remotely piloted it. I’m not sure that I read the gauges right, but at one point, I saw that it was flying faster than Mach 10. If it can go that fast for real is need to know, and I don’t need to know,” I told them.

After getting inside, holding April to me as she slept, I gave a censored version of the details around what happened. I made sure they knew it wasn’t anything to do with the Elite families and that my concern was getting April back home safely. No one I went through to get to April was dead, or at risk of dying, from what I did to get to April, when I flew away.

“It is none of my business what happens to them now,” I explained. “I am sure that Corwin, Skylar, and Mary’s families have people discussing the events with all involved. These elite families deal with these people all the time.”

Paula perked up to say, “Plausible deniability, David. An excellent position to take in matters with international implications, though I don’t expect there will be any blowback in this instance.”

Mom insisted that we not talk about anything at all until after I had my Christmas dinner plate she made for me.

As I ate, they said that Corwin, Skylar, and Mary are asleep in my bed at their insistence. Doctors arrived to check them from head to toe, inside and out. The girls got stitched up, tetanus shots, and antibiotics. Camden was sleeping on the couch in my room because she is the only one who can translate when I am not home. All three babies were healthy and unharmed.

Mom put her hand on my arm to say, “I have no idea how Annie and Crystal managed to walk away relatively unharmed. Both suffered multiple gunshots, but the doctors called them through and through shots that didn’t damage any organs. Both have some new scars too. Even as they were looking for more attackers, the girls apologized for not being fast enough to keep the people from taking April. Keeping us safe was all they hand on their minds. You chose your friends wisely.”

“Repair crews will be here early tomorrow to patch up the holes in your room,” dad told me. “Camden thinks the three ladies expressed their desire that no one will ever be able to shoot into our house from the outside again. I don’t know that that entails, but if it keeps our family and guests safe, then it is fine in my book.”

April woke needing to pee badly, but she let the training pants diaper soak it all up. Once finished, she started tugging on the helmet to get it off. I disconnected the oxygen generator and removed her helmet. She was out of the flight suit and in a new pull up before she couldn’t wait any longer to run to my parents. She didn’t seem to have any memories of the ordeal.

Steve said that he and Paula were heading home. I thanked him for being here to keep an eye out and work through any problems that remained in the area while I went to get April.

My brother and sister went with Molly’s family to their house. Camden explained that April, and most likely I, were the targets, so everyone else could go home without worrying about someone coming to their homes to try to kill them. That said, it didn’t excuse them shooting Corwin, Skylar, and Mary. They knew they were here, where the girls were in the house, and yet still took the shots, big mistake.

Casey and Sidney left in the morning. Both girls were going home so that Sidney could take her rightful place as the head of her family. Casey was happy to be returning home with her sister. No more clinic for her. Sidney admitted that her parents were scared for her little sister and didn’t have any idea how to help her out without Casey getting pissed off for them doing things she could do herself now. She had siblings, cousins, and friends that missed her a lot.

Early on New Year’s Eve, Eve, Corwin, Skylar, and Mary headed home. They were going crazy being here with me and the doctors telling them no sex due to their gunshot wounds. Camden wasn’t restricted, but she was a good friend and didn’t get laid while they were here. We fucked all until she headed home after breakfast on New Year’s Eve.

Soon it was only my parents, April and I.

“As you may expect, I know some very resourceful people. Oddly enough, I have no idea who my benefactors are who helped me get April back. What they did provide was access to some fantastic aircraft. Not as amazing as some I know of since before people kidnapped April, but there are some reasons why it isn’t appropriate for me to ask to use the latter at this time,” I told them.

We were down in the bomb shelter with April, so dad didn’t feel concerned when he asked, “There is a lot we don’t know about you, David, but it has been clear that since you awoke from your coma, that you have met a lot of influential people and done a lot of things. I’m not so unobservant to not pick up on the fact that this Darren person has similar mannerisms, behavior patterns, and draws females to him as you have all your life. You weren’t home at the same time he showed up in Corwin, Mary, and Skylar’s worlds. Then we have the whole Mr. Smith matter. Given the plane you arrived in with April, it isn’t that hard of a stretch that Mr. Smith, Darren, and you are, or were at least at one time, the same person. People did see who they believed to be Darren die in that lair with the heads of those crime families. Sidney said that she saw you, Darren, and Mr. Smith at the resort together with this person called the Elder. Corwin, Skylar, Mary, and Camden all believe that the other Elites in their world do know that Darren handed off over a trillion dollars to Elena’s traveling companion, who is a teenager from a middle-class family from out in Nowhere USA. I tore into Steve, and he told me that he did send you to be a blind kid as part of a big drug bust mission. They needed someone who could get in close to the people, so the clinic used customized contacts to make you effectively blind before sending you through their newly blinded person boot camp. You did remarkably well, and the government paid you well. The payment went through third-party hands. A few other times, he sent you places that they needed a kid to get close to other kids, such as those at these Elite vacation spots. You were never in any danger,” dad told me.

Mom added in, “David. Let’s be serious here for a minute. Your life has never been in any danger, just like I know that April was in no danger from the people that kidnapped her. I sense the same vibes off her that I did from you when you were her age. I’ll even go out on a limb to say that the lightning strikes were never at risk of killing you. Why else would you have charged ground zero to be hit by the lightning instead of those girls?”

“There is a lot I can’t explain because I don’t understand it myself,” I started telling them. “Yes, I am unique. So are some others I know. Those three girls at the school board meeting weren’t there to be cute. All three are unique too. They can track down people like me. Many governments around the world like to make those like the girls and people like me into lab rats. Well, people mostly like me. I’m slightly different from those like me. Those girls were at the meeting because the man wasn’t wrong in assuming that I was one of the people the girls can track. He made them push as hard as they could to tell him that I am one of the people like me. From those I have met like me, I’m the only one that can block them out entirely. There is a lot I want to tell you, but if I do, then you and my siblings will all be in a lot of danger, and I won’t do that to you. When the snipers started shooting, and the assholes came into start trying to kill people in our house, none of you were in danger of more than a through-and-through gunshot wound. They didn’t know that.”

I did my best to answer the questions they had that wouldn’t put them in danger and put off the rest. It was for the best that they didn’t know.

“Can we talk about this later? April and I, at least, committed to being somewhere to wish some people a Happy New Year. I want you to come along, but only if you are willing to keep this to yourselves and know that you can’t ever tell anyone, except Molly and Paula,” I asked.

They looked at me in surprise. Finally, after some discussion among themselves, my parents decided it was time for an adventure.

I made a call, and at eleven AM, people came in to take my parents to their bedroom. I knew what was happening, but didn’t let them in on in. The people left, and another group came in at noon to verify by getting them into flight suits.

“Ready to go?” I asked.

“This had better be one hell of a surprise for me to let so many people feel me up, David,” mom told me with a smile.

We headed out of town toward a rural area. After taking a long dirt road, we pulled up next to a cropduster’s runway. A woman came over to take April from my arms to get her into her new pressure suit. Hers was now pink with teddy bears. I stripped to my boxers, slipped on my flight suit, and then pressure suit.

It is pretty much pointless to put me in a pressure suit, but I need to keep up appearances.

Mom and dad came out from inside the ladder truck, looking confused, and carrying their helmets.

Seeing the jet appear out of thin air was a big shock for them, but I think they may have seen some of that when I brought April home. They were still staring at the plane when people came around to put on their oxygen generators, small oxygen tanks, and CO2 scrubbers, all stored in a small backpack. April already had hers on, and they fitted me with something different.

The jet they sent was yet another design than the one I flew home. It still had a place for April to be up behind me in a copilot-like configuration. My parents were further back and side by side. They got in first, and I heard the techs ensuring that their helmets were locked in properly and everything was airtight. April giggled away as they did the same for her. I was on my own.

“Sir,” one of the people said over the radio in the helmets. “Follow the air traffic control’s directions up to fifteen miles. Your heads-up-display will provide you the telemetry required to match the speed and altitude of your target. The required docking assemblies are already in place and have passed multiple docking procedures. The large storage compartment behind your passengers contains items that will ensure your visit remains redacted, as happened on your last visit. Safe voyage, sir.”

With the truck clear, and I fired up the engines.

“Mom and Dad,” I said over the intercom. “It is good that both of you are not prone to motion sickness, and like roller coasters still. Hang on and enjoy the ride.”

“David Jones, requesting departure clearance,” I said into the radio on the frequency for the closest air traffic control tower.

“David Jones, you are cleared for departure on heading zero-three-five,” the tower responded.

“Cleared for departure on heading zero-three-five, David Jones,” I replied.

I kicked in the engines. I went to five-thousand feet, waiting for the ATC directions.

They soon said, “David Jones. Turn to two-seven-zero and proceed to eight-five-thousand.”

“Turning to two-seven-zero and proceeding to eight-five-thousand, David Jones,” I said before changing my direction and pulling back on the stick as I throttled up a bit.

Using the intercom, I told my parents, “Look out the window and enjoy watching as we head toward Mach 1.”

Once I hit fifty-thousand feet, I pushed the plane to Mach 0.95 so that my parents could see the “bubble” around the aircraft before I punched it to head toward Mach 5 as I reached fifteen miles up.

“Now things are going to get interesting. Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” I told them.

I first hit the switch that reconfigured this airplane to reach over Mach 10 as I followed the directions on my HUD. After passing Mach 10, the instructions told me to hit another switch and then decrease the throttle all the way. Another set of buttons did something to the engines, again, before I saw it go to one-quarter throttle and reduce my angle of ascent. I looked out to the side to see the wings doing something that modified their configuration slightly. Once that finished, It said to give it full-throttle and keep following their details in my HUD.

“I trust you, David, but we are flying pretty high up for a jet, aren’t we?” dad asked.

After making some adjustments to the throttle and flight angle, I said, “For a run-of-the-mill jet, yes. As you already know, this isn’t a run-of-the-mill jet. I guess a better description would be to call it a spaceplane. Others exist that make this one look slow and outdated, but those will not go unnoticed, and thus raise questions that aren’t questions we need people asking. I should have asked you if you want to ring in the new year with the cosmonauts and astronauts in the International Space Station. They are a good group of people, and I happen to be able to speak with them in their language.”

Mom asked, “You are kidding, right?”

“Nope. We will be there fifteen minutes before Moscow rings in the new year. Why else do you think you would be wearing space suits? If you want, we can take a spacewalk to let you scratch that off your bucket list. I doubt they will mind as long as you stay tethered to the space station. I have a few favors to do that will require me to be out there for a few hours,” I told them.

Doing this favor is going to be interesting. My shield won’t need me to require a scrubber to split off the carbon from the oxygen.

I went through the “script” in my visor to let the ISS personnel now that I was docking. They already knew that I was on my way and that they couldn’t tell anyone about it.

I’m sure that my special cargo, other than what I need to go into space to do, will ensure they stay close-lipped.

Once docked, and they confirmed I could open the canopy, they would open the airlock. I knew that I had run of the place already, but April got the royal treatment. I helped my parents out, and one of the crew showed them around. I started to unload the cargo. I found that I had a Santa hat and beard in the pile of stuff.

“Sorry that Christmas was a little late this year. Some extenuating circumstances busied all available resources. I did happen to bring champagne, in pouches, to ring in the new year. After that, I have some things to do outside for a bit,” I told them, and they didn’t bat an eye.

April was having a complete blast being weightless. When it was midnight in Moscow, I watched the shocked faces of the government officials as April thanked them for helping me rescue her. I made sure to let them know that things worked out so that I could be here after all. We shared a toast, and they signed off.

One of the things I did was to take a video of everyone opening their Christmas gifts from their families. I wasn’t the first unofficial person to visit the ISS over the years, using off the books spacecraft, and this turned into a bit of a tradition.

Mom and Dad did take a spacewalk. I listened in on their excited chatter as I moved around the outside of the ISS, detaching some things and attaching others. I had some special requests to make some modifications using the place in my head to devices that no governments anywhere knew even existed. None of these devices were on any blueprints for the ISS.

I “overheard” that my parents asked for a bit of privacy for a little while.

While my parents learned about sex in zero gravity, I told the crew, “I have one more small gift that I’m sure you and future crew members will enjoy for a long time. I brought you forty-terabytes of music, movies, and TV series, including every episode, to date, of El Barto.”