Cries of the Children(119)

Just then the door opened and two white-suited figures entered. The children moved toward the adults. Wil instinctively reached for the gun that was no longer at his side. The figures did not acknowledge the group, but went to LaBerge’s prone figure and knelt down to examine it. Then they stood up and took off their helmets.

There was a man with a crewcut and a woman with black hair and porcelain skin. The woman gazed at Lorraine while the man spoke.

“He’s alive.”

Samantha guessed at once who the woman must be.

“You . . . Lorraine belongs with you, doesn’t she?”

“Vrodrani is our child,” the woman said. She went to the little girl and knelt down to her.

“How did you get in here?” Wil asked. “Where are the guards?”

The man grinned broadly. “Sleeping it off. They won’t awaken until we’re long gone.”

Lorraine put her hands on the woman’s face, staring into her eyes.

“I wanted to find you,” she said. “But I had to come here when Marty called.”

“I know, dear,” the woman said.

She stood up and looked at the group.

“My true name is Morgana,” she said. “Here on Earth I’m called Judy. This is my husband, Kalor.”

“My Terran name is George,” the man said. “In fact, until we know we are safe, it would be best to use our Earth names.”

Barbara held up her hands.

“Whoa!” she cried. “All this alien stuff is really bothering me. Would one of you guys like to explain what’s going on here?”

“Please sit down,” George said. “It’s going to be a very long story. It began nearly a hundred years ago . . .”

Everyone took a seat and listened intently. They were so caught up in George/Kalor’s words that their minds did not pick up the signals coming from LaBerge’s body. He was coming into wakefulness, but he played possum, and listened to every word that was said.





55


“OUR RACE ACHIEVED the ability of interstellar flight many Earth centuries ago,” George said. “In the time since then, we’ve made just a few ‘first contacts.’ We became aware of Earth only recently in our history.”

“One can’t simply land on a planet and say, ‘Hello, we’re here!’” Judy said.

She held Lorraine on her lap. The child’s head had dropped to her chest, and she was sound asleep. Her ordeal in the operating room, and then in the tunnel, had been too much for her.

“It takes years to prepare for a meeting with another species,” Judy went on. “Years of study, of acclimating to that new race’s way of life.”

“You’ve been among us for nearly a century?” Wil asked, recalling George’s earlier words.

“Yes,” George said. “We first sent a small group to orbit your planet and study you from afar. At that time, of course, you did not have the tracking devices you employ today. We were able to cruise around Earth’s atmosphere without being detected.”

Barbara swung a hand, indicating the structure around them.

“You sure were detected this time,” she said.

“Yes, we were,” George acknowledged. “That was a mistake, but I’ll get to that later. Our first attempts to study your culture told us that as a general rule you would be unable to withstand the shock of knowing there are other life forms in the universe. We realized this would take time. More important, we were able to learn of your different cultures, your styles of dress, methods of work, and so on. With this information, the next wave was sent to Earth at the turn of the twentieth century. Disguised as humans, we joined with your societies all around the globe.”

Judy nodded. “We served in your wars, worked in your factories, and generally lived the lives of humans.”

“How many of these ‘waves’ have arrived so far?” Wil asked.

“The children would be the tenth,” Judy said.

“In this plan,” George said, “we had never sent anyone but individuals. We felt it was time to begin studying Earth’s cultures as family units. Ten Earth years ago, a group including Morgana and me was sent to prepare for lives as families. We had . . .”

He stopped a moment to consider the right word.

“We ‘deposited’ reproductive cells in a laboratory,” he continued. “These were cultured, and the resulting babies raised for one purpose only—to be the first children to travel from our planet.”

“Wow,” Steven said.

Eric looked at the little boy.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “Let me make sure I understand this. Are you saying Rachel came with the ninth group and that Steven was raised in a test tube to be sent to her at a later date?”