The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda #1)(39)
It was almost noon by the time they loaded everything onto their bikes and made their way out to the starship, which they had named the Second Ship. The trip out had taken them twice as long as normal since they stopped several times to be sure they weren’t followed.
Once through the holographic field, Heather climbed up into the ship first, leaning down to retrieve the packages as Jennifer handed them up to her. Jennifer struggled climbing up but, with Heather’s help, finally managed. Then, pausing only to slip the headsets into place, Heather and Jennifer climbed up to the command deck.
For two hours they worked, laying out all of the receiver equipment, the laptop, the tape drive, and their tools and then hooking in the solar panel battery charging system. They were very happy with the way the ship responded to their request for enhanced lighting directed to the panel. A bright beam focused itself directly on the spot where they had laid out the solar array.
Another wonderful discovery presented itself completely by accident.
As Jennifer and Heather worked on the wiring from the solar collectors to the battery charging circuitry, Jennifer said, “I don’t know about you, but I wish we had more pleasant surroundings to work on this stuff.”
“I know what you mean. It would be nice to be on the beach in Bora Bora right now.”
The rose-colored light surrounding them dissolved away, replaced with the cobalt waters of the reef-sheltered island, gently lapping at the shore.
“Incredible,” said Jennifer, standing and looking around.
Behind them, a high volcanic peak wreathed in clouds rose majestically into the sky. Heather could feel the soft breeze, smell the sea air, taste the salt on her tongue. It was so real that Heather knelt down to run her fingers through the sand, an act that almost resulted in her breaking a nail on the smooth floor of the command deck.
“How did it know what Bora Bora looks like?” Jennifer asked.
“It must have gotten it from my mind,” said Heather. “We stopped there on our Tahiti cruise last year. It’s my favorite Tahitian island. If you’ve seen the old musical South Pacific, then you’ve seen it.”
The illusion was so beautiful, the girls took a while to return to work.
When they finally finished and powered the system up, they received an unpleasant surprise. The QT receiver was not picking up a signal.
Jennifer turned to look at Heather. “What’s going on? Do you think they destroyed the airplane?”
Heather paused to think. “I don’t know, but I doubt it. More likely it’s somewhere dark, so there’s no power to the system. When the light comes back on, it’ll start sending again.”
“You mean if the light gets turned on. What if it’s in a box?”
“Well, we can’t worry about that. Let’s go ahead and set the output to be captured to tape if the computer detects an incoming signal. We’ll just leave it and come back tomorrow after church. Then we’ll see if we have anything.”
Jennifer moved to the keyboard and began programming in the instructions. As familiar as Heather was with how good Jennifer had gotten, she still found herself amazed at just how fast her friend was on the computer.
After just a few minutes, Jennifer stood up. “Okay, that’s done. I guess all we can do now is wait.”
It felt odd to leave all of their equipment set up on the floor of the command deck, but it made climbing the steep canyon slope back to their bikes much easier. It also made for a pleasant ride back to White Rock. As they approached the turn in to their houses, Meadow Lane held a surprise that killed Heather’s good mood.
A small crowd had gathered in front of the Smythe house, clad in an assortment of outlandish garb and carrying signs such as “Send out the Alien” and “Basketball is for Earthlings.”
Braking hard enough to leave skid marks, Jennifer barely managed to miss a woman who danced out into the street whirling a long scarf. It reminded Heather of one of those Olympic ribbon gymnastic routines.
“Hey, watch it! What do you think you’re doing?” Jennifer demanded.
The woman stopped whirling, a vapid smile on her lips. “A welcoming dance, of course. The young alien must know that some of us welcome his presence here on our planet. Not everyone on Earth is a bigot.”
Seeing Jennifer’s raised eyebrow, Heather leaned over.
“Jen, forget it. Let’s get inside.”
Two policemen were on the scene and managed to keep the group off of the Smythe front lawn and out of their driveway. One of them was kind enough to escort Jennifer through to her garage. Heather waved at Jennifer and then ducked into her own garage. Fortunately, the crowd remained oblivious to her presence.
By the time her mother had dinner ready, a larger contingent of police had arrived with a van and, having made several arrests for unlawful assembly and trespassing, managed to clear the area.
Heather’s father peered out through the curtains on the front window before joining Heather and her mother at the table.
“Finally. I was wondering when the authorities would get that under control.”
Her mother shook her head. “All it takes to stir up the nutcases is a story in the Inquisitor. Poor Mark. They almost attacked him and his girlfriend when they came home this afternoon. She seems like such a sweet girl.”
Both her parents looked over at Heather as she almost choked on her spaghetti.