Secret Identity

"Tales of the ESDF"  [13+] by Eric the Fred
    Tales from the Earth System Defense Force

SECRET IDENTITY
Eric Paul Fretheim
Chapter I

"Tawny, you say the weirdest things."

That confused me, and it hurt a little, and I tried to show it. Sam just laughed, and shook her head.

"Forget the sad puppy dog look. It doesn't work for you."

It was another late spring day after school.  In Berenice, my home town, that means either it's raining, or it's hot and muggy. That's coastal Texas for you. I was feeling like I couldn't breathe, but at least it wasn't raining. We were walking to Sam's house, which is in an older part of town, close to where the shrimp boats dock.

"Okay, fine," I answered, still sulking some. "All I said was, May looks very spiritual.  What's so weird about that?"

Sam's eyes  widened, as if she couldn't believe what I was asking. "What's weird?  What does it even mean? How does somebody look spiritual?"

Well, I didn't know how, and I couldn't explain myself. So, once again, my best friend and I were completely failing to communicate. I fiddled with my scrying glass, the little pendant I always wear, and didn't say anything. Sometimes, with Sam, the safest thing to do was to shut up.

Sam wrinkled her nose at something on the other side of me, and I glanced over to see what she was looking at.  I saw Rufus, one of Daddy's friends, but Sam saw something disgusting. I decided not to mention how my father knew him. He waved at me from the spot where he was sitting, though, leaning against the side of a waterfront building.

I couldn't be rude, so I waved back.  Sam made an exasperated noise.  "What are you doing, Tawny?"

"Just being polite." I tried to sound matter-of-fact, but it came out sounding too defensive.

"You don't have to be polite to some drunk bum," she lectured.

I didn't reply. Honestly, I didn't understand Sam either, some of the time. She was so nice, to me, and to other kids, but then she could be so cold to a complete stranger.

Sam's voice hovered as she suggested, "So, I suppose you think May isn't just putting on a show?"

I don't skip around between subjects as easily as Sam. I had to think for a moment to figure out she had gone back to our old conversation.

"I guess so," I answered, a little wary. With Sam, I sometimes feel like I'm walking through a mine field. I never know when I'm going to step on one. "She really does believe in that stuff, you know."

"So what do you think? Should she be making so much stink about a stupid textbook?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know how to think like her."

Sam started looking at me funny again. Kaboom.

I sighed, and asking, in my 'impending doom' voice, "What did I say, now?"

"You 'don't know how to think like her'?" She repeated, and then rolled her eyes. "I swear, I give up!"

I could get very frustrated with her sometimes, too. I stayed patient, this time, because I was really hoping to understand her a little better. "What do you mean?"

"Well, besides the fact I don't understand why it makes a difference to your answer, who do you know how to think like? Other than yourself?"

"Well, you're easy... most of the time. Sometimes, like right now, you're very confusing, and I can't do it. The teachers, most of the time..."

"It's at times like these, Tawny," Sam interrupted to declare, "I am forced to say, I do not have any freaking idea what you're talking about."

We walked along in silence for a while. Sam always says she's ready to give up on me, but we've actually been together since the first grade. Now, as we were getting ready to leave Middle School, we were best friends, but we did seem to argue a lot. I think she actually enjoyed getting frustrated with me, at least some of the time, and purposefully failed to understand what I was saying, just for fun. This time, though, she didn't feel like she was enjoying herself. She was just frustrated with me.

I decided not to mention it. She usually gets confused when I start talking about what people feel like or look like. I always end up saying something which sounds strange to her.

I know I don't think the same way as other kids, or react the same way to situations, but I often wish Sam would understand that she and the other kids often don't make any sense to me, either. This time was a good example. Sam once said  she understands somebody when she listens to them, but it made very little sense to me. I mean, listening to someone just tells you what words they're using, right? How could that be enough to understand them?

So we always ended up in these stupid arguments. It was okay, because we would just change the subject and laugh about something else, so it never hurt our friendship. This day, though, we didn't get a chance to change the subject. Something else decided it was going to get in the way.

I felt it behind me before we heard anything, and I knew immediately what it was. When I was little, my mother taught me how to watch for the specters, and she has been training me in how to fight them ever since. More than once, she's let me use my glass on them, instead of taking care of it herself. So I knew what I was feeling the instant it appeared, and I knew what I had to do.

The problem was, this one appeared right on top of us. That's the only reason it got near us, or Rufus would have taken it out from his position, before I ever did anything. It was already diving on Sam when I felt it.

My first reaction was to shriek like a little kid, but I also managed to shove Sam aside and grab for my glass. Fumbling for the little pendant while trying to sing the thought-mantra in my head was hard enough, but doing it while a specter was swooping  down on Sam like an owl on its prey was impossible. I wasn't ready when  it struck.

I don't know if it was fear, or anger, or love for my friend, but I had tons extra energy just then. While Sam was still falling to the ground, I struck, and the specter transformed instantly from a near-invisible almost-shadow hovering above her to an ugly bird-bat-thing dropping dead next to her.

Sam was sobbing and shaking where she lay, staring in terror at the dead monster which lay directly in front of her face. "What... what... "

Unless Mom fibbed to me about what happened to some of the earlier ones, this was the first time I had ever killed one, instead of just wounding it.  It was definitely the first time I ever saw one so close. Most of the time, specters are cloaked, and are elusive as ghosts. That's how they got their name. They hide so well, most people have never seen one, even though every human alive has probably had one fly close by them at some point.  When they aren't cloaked, they are truly frightful creatures.

I've heard Mom describe them as 'gargoyles'. I've seen pictures of real gargoyles, the statues on European buildings, so I can see what she means. Specters don't actually look like them but they make you react the same way. For what they look like, 'ugly bird-bat-thing' is the best I've ever been able to come up with.

Rufus was running hard in our direction from where he had been staked out. I could see he had his cell-phone out to phone in the attack. I knelt over Sam and checked her for injuries. She was looking up at me, bewildered, and I could see her world changing before her eyes.

I had been warned many times not to talk about scrying, or specters, or what my parents did for a living. I had never thought before about what my world would look like to someone who stumbled into it from the world where these things didn't exist. Her mind was too busy struggling with what she was seeing to even recognize she was wounded.

In a small, shaking voice, she asked, "Tawny... what is that thing?".

I could hear Rufus talking rapidly into the phone as he approached, but he also had his glass out, and was scrying Sam rapidly as well. ".. no, it is dead, hit really hard. The West girl maybe take a nerve injury. Is to wait for pickup here."

Rufus' words get garbled up sometimes. His English is a lot better when he takes time to think about it.  He put away the phone as he knelt down next to Sam, and lifted her to a sitting position. He began carefully inspecting her back. "It hit you where, Miss?"

Sam was still too dazed to find it odd a wino had a cell-phone, or was checking her for injuries like a paramedic, but she was beginning to feel a dull pain. At least, that's what I felt from her. It was rapidly strengthening, and I began to have trouble looking at her. She pointed weakly at where the thing had struck her, on the shoulder which had been closest to me. It probably would have had her right between the shoulder blades, on the spinal column, if I hadn't shoved her. If only I had reacted a half-second faster the thing might have missed her entirely.

Rufus glanced up at me. "You see anything, Miss Tawny?"

He was asking if I could see anything inside Sam, any foreign object the specter might have left behind. I winced as I tried to look. "No, there's... there's too much pain, Rufus. I can't look closely."

Rufus frowned, and shook his head. "To use your glass, Miss."

I've been told many times how I have a very strong mind. My parents had to get me a special, extra strong glass after I burned out two of Mom's. Daddy is like that, too, so he doesn't dare use any glass but his own. So Rufus wanted me to help, because I could see more things than him. Only....

"I... I don't know how to do that, Rufus," I explained, a little ashamed I hadn't learned yet. Mom is always getting on me to train harder, and now, I knew I should have. "The only thing I know how to do with the glass is fight specters."

Sam really was in terrible pain now, but it wasn't the bright, searing pain you get from a new injury. It was the dull throbbing pain which normally comes with swollen injuries, and it was really getting to me bad.

Her brain was starting to get into gear, though. She looked at Rufus, then at me, then at the thing on the ground. "What is going on?" she pleaded.

"It attack you. Miss Tawny kill it, save you. Luck she with you." He stopped, thought, and repeated more carefully, "It is lucky she was with you."

She was looking at me with a look I had never seen before. I could feel a wariness now, fear of me, as if she was seeing me for the first time. "You?...  killed it? How?"

"Third thought-mantra of striking, focused through my glass." I pointed at the pendant. "That's my best one. My family and Rufus and others are the guardians of this town. This is what we do. We... keep things like that away from people like you."  Then, I remembered the most important detail of the moment, and I hung my head down in shame. "I'm sorry. I failed. You got hurt anyway."

Confusion flared up in her. "You've been... guarding me?"

"Not you, specifically. We guard the whole town. I don't know why it picked you."

A police car rolled around the corner down the road, and came cruising up to us. Rufus was helping Sam to her feet as it stopped in front of us. I saw a woman in civilian clothes riding in the passenger seat. The officer who had been driving jumped out and ran around the car as soon as it stopped.

"Is she hurt?" he demanded as he pushed Rufus aside to take over with Sam. Rufus shook his head, a little amused. The officer seemed to have disliked the sight of Rufus holding her, which I thought was odd, since he obviously knew he was a guardian, not some bum.

"No blood," Rufus replied, scratching his head and watching the officer lead Sam to his car. "Nerve hit only. Hello, Major McCampbell."

He said the last thing to the woman who had just stepped out of the police car.  She was a well-dressed woman, very trim and athletic, about my parents' age. She felt very commanding, very self-assured. She nodded to Rufus and crisply replied "Armsman," as she walked over and crouched next to the specter, looking at it carefully.  I had just become very nervous. My parents' new boss was named Fil McCampbell, so this couldn't be anyone but her.

"Big one," she commented, and glanced back up to Rufus. "How many shots did it take?"

"Just one, ma'am," I replied. She turned around and looked at me with surprise, as if she hadn't thought of me as a participant until that moment.

She turned back to Rufus. "What is going on here, Armsman?"

Rufus smiled over at me, proudly. "Tawny the hero today, ma'am. She took on the specter herself."

Major McCampbell narrowed her eyes and looked closely at me. "You aren't one of mine."

I didn't know what she meant, but I thought it might mean I should introduce myself, so I just bobbed my head and replied, "I'm Tawny Amos, ma'am"

"Ah." Her face lit with recognition. My name apparently meant something to her. She nodded. "The Amos girl. That explains it."

I didn't know why me being 'the Amos girl' explained anything, unless it just meant she knew my parents had a daughter.  They had us get into the back of the police car, which was a first for me, and told Rufus to join us at the West house when his relief showed up. He was to stay at his post until then, and drag the specter corpse out of sight until someone got there to clean it up.

I was a little surprised, once I thought about it, that he would know where Sam's house was. Then I realized I had already heard him calling her 'the West girl.' He already knew who she was.

I was the Amos girl, and Sam was the West girl? I wondered to myself, why did these adults know us? It was only a short drive to Sam's house, though, so I never got a chance to ask.

I found it a little odd we weren't taking Sam to the hospital, but I didn't say anything. On the way, the Major had called her 'office' and order a doctor to join us. The policeman and Major McCampbell helped Sam into the house as her mother fluttered around her in panic.

I was already learning stuff I had never known before. I didn't know my parents had military ranks. My father was 'Chief Warrant Officer Amos' and my mother was 'PTO Joss', although I had never heard of a rank called 'PTO', before. I also learned  Sam's parents already knew about the town's guardian force, and knew my parents, too. I had known Sam for almost a decade but never knew our parents were acquainted. Sam's mom had apparently never connected me to my parents, either.

More importantly, I learned, once these people knew who I was, their attitude about me changed wildly. The police officer had given Rufus an attitude I can only call respectfully repulsed. He became exactly the same toward me once he knew I had killed the specter. It was weird, but to him I was something very nasty and very good, all at the same time.

To the Major I had been some bystander kid at first, until she learned who I was.  Then, she thought of me the same way she thought of the Corporal, which is what she called the police officer, and 'Armsman' Rufus. Somehow, I was one of her soldiers. She didn't have the same attitude toward Sam and her Mom, because they were civilians. I didn't quite get why I wasn't a civilian.

Sam's mom, though, once she knew I was the daughter of 'Chief' Amos... she was carefully hiding the fact that she was terrified of me. I'm pretty sure she looked at me with the same degree of raw fear as she would give a specter.

My mother insists I hide it when I can tell what people think of me. Mrs. West had so much fear, though, that I wanted desperately to tell her to stop.  I wanted to beg her 'be not afraid,' like some angel in the Bible. I kept my mouth shut, somehow.

With all the weird, negative impressions of me swirling around, the doctor provided a very welcome change when he arrived. He turned out to be Dr. Reyes, my own family doctor. To him, I was just Tawny, and he looked at me like anyone else. He turned out to have a rank, too, 'Lieutenant Commander'. I was beginning to wonder if everyone I knew would turn out to be in the military. He gave her a shot which seemed to help a little. He also wrote a painkiller prescription and gave Mrs. West some samples.

"As soon as we can arrange a cover story, I need to get her into the hospital for some tests," the doctor instructed her. "The specter doesn't appear to have left anything inside her, but I can't say that for certain from here."

After that, he bid a cheery goodbye and left.  I was sorry to see him go, because it left me alone with people I couldn't be comfortable around. I had the distinct impression he was in  a hurry to be out of there, too, and I wondered why.

The Major took a seat, the one the doctor had been using, near where Sam lay on the sofa, and looked at her with two completely different feelings. I can't really explain, except it was like two completely different people were looking at her.  I learned later the Major had a son not much older than me. I suppose that's the Major who was looking at Sam with concern. The other Major was looking at her like a fascinating bug in a jar.

"Well, then," she said. "Why is the Enemy interested in you, I wonder?"

Sam's mother gasped. "Surely they weren't actually after my daughter! They must have been after her and Sam just got in the way!"

She was pointing at me. I was offended she thought it was my fault Sam was hurt. I was about to protest, but the Major responded before I could.

"That is almost certainly not true, Mrs. West. Specters avoid her kind if they can, for very good reasons. I imagine it was not expecting to find her there, at all. According to the armsman, Tawny pushed your daughter away from the attacker, so she probably saved her much more severe injury. It had no other target available, so we can be certain the specter was after your daughter."

Silence fell for a moment after that, giving me a chance to wonder what she meant by 'her kind'.

Sam was conscious, although I could tell the shot was affecting her. She felt fuzzy, but she was still very frightened and confused.  "Why?"

The Major smiled. "Why was it after you? That was my question, young lady."

Sam forced herself to think, to ask her question more clearly. "Why was it here? Why are there monsters here? Why are my best friend and that homeless guy some kind of secret soldiers? Why do all you people, and even my mom, know all about it? Why is this happening?"

The Major's cellphone rang just then, and she went digging for it, while frowning and shaking her head. "Your parents should be the ones telling you these things."

She answered her phone by snapping "McCampbell!" A moment later, she became very focused. I could tell something big was happening. She shot a look over at Sam as she hung up.

Then she looked at me. "Young lady, keep your glass ready. We're getting reports from all over, of specters criss-crossing the town. It looks like a search pattern. Your friend needs you right now. You should sit here, next to her." She stood up to give me the chair.

The Major and the police officer were choosing spots to stand, and getting out their weapons as I took my seat, feeling very tiny. Before, I didn't have any time to think about it. I just reacted when the specter attacked. Now, I was on guard duty, and everyone was counting on me. Someone was officially dependent on my ability to stop the attackers... someone who I had already let down, once. The chance I could let Sam down even worse, and she could die, scared me terribly.

Sam's mom was frightened, too. The fear was burning like a fire across the room, but there was a difference. She had seen us together many times before. When we started middle school, Sam and I began hanging out at each other's homes. Only, when she had seen me sitting next to her baby, before, she didn't know I was one of my kind.

She didn't know I was a monster.

                                                 *      *      *

                                                 Chapter II

The Major's cell phone rang again, and she answered. She immediately looked over at me and began to say "Get read..."

I had already stopped listening to her, because a specter was in the room.  I don't know how it got into the house, but there it was. The mantra began in my mind almost on its own, and I lashed out through my glass. As the specter lost some of its cloak from my attack and became visible, the Major and the police officer fired at it.

I sprang out of my chair as a second specter came at Sam from the other side. I couldn't start another mantra so quickly, so I did the only thing left to me. I threw myself at it, intercepting it on the way to Sam and wrapping my arms around it.  I could feel its talons, meant for Sam, slashing into my body like razors, and I could feel its anger, its hate, its fear, its loathing, all getting mixed up together with the sudden torrent of pain from where it was clawing my back. I tried to sing a warding mantra to push its thoughts out enough so I could concentrate on another strike. I wanted desperately to let go and get away from the pain, but Sam needed me to hang on, so I tightened my grip. The demon pulled its claws out of me and jammed them in again, and I felt my body let go without my permission.

The front door came flying open and Rufus rushed into the room, his glass out, his thoughts singing loudly. His mind whipped out and struck the evil thing, and it released me.  I heard the guns firing again, and felt the evil light switch off.

I fell to the floor, helpless, and found I could not breathe. Nor could I move my hands or my feet.  I heard the Major reporting three of the 'Zindavoor' had taken up stations outside. I heard Mrs. West panicking and fluttering over to check on her baby. As I began fading from lack of oxygen, I wondered if anyone had even noticed me down on the floor.

Then Rufus was turning me over. As I rolled, I caught a glimpse of his eyes growing wide, and his worry turning into something else. I ended up on my back, but with my head propped up against a chair, staring down at my chest.

He pulled out a huge knife and  began ripping my clothing open. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. I was dying, and this man seemed to be assaulting me! My shirt came open, then my bra, and as I stared down helplessly, he stabbed the knife into my solar plexus.

Then I could see he was not stabbing, but using it as a lever. I began to recognize, belatedly, that he was feeling fear, not some horrible perversion. Something let go in my chest, and I watched it swing open like a box top. Rufus threw the knife down and reached into my open torso ....

My awareness switched like channels changing on a television, and I found myself  wedged into a very tight space. I seemed to be surrounded by plastic. I could see a Paul Bunyan-sized Rufus reaching down toward me, to grasp me with gigantic hands and pull me out. Next thing I knew, he was cuddling me against his titanic chest, his fear changing to massive relief.

It didn't feel the same as breathing normally felt, but I could tell I was breathing again. I could move again, too. I turned my head and saw... me. My favorite blouse was ripped apart, and my half-naked body was opened up like a cardboard box, revealing a gaping hole within, which was lined with black plastic instead of dripping with gore. I looked around and saw Sam's mother looking back fearfully, the Major concerned, the police officer repulsed, and Sam... horrified.

As I huddled deeper into  Rufus's arms, terrified at the insane turn my life had just taken, the Major strode across the room and pulled the chain for my glass from my...  old body's neck. For decency's sake, she also pushed the doors of my chest closed and arranged my shirt to cover things. I looked dead.  I guess that body actually was dead. She turned toward the new me, handing over the pendant, a grave look in her eyes.

"You had better keep it with you, young lady. We aren't out of this, yet."

I reached out and took it with tiny, furry paws. One part of my mind was screaming, My hands look like cat's paws! while another was marveling over the size of what used to be my little scrying glass. It looked absolutely huge, but it was definitely my glass. I hugged it to my furry chest as if it were a teddy bear. I was in panic over the mad events which had just taken place, of the weird changes I had just been forced through, and it was one stable thing, one familiar piece of my old world I could cling to.

Sam finally got over her own panic-induced paralysis. She wailed, "What was that thing doing inside Tawny? What happened to Tawny?" She had up and looked back and forth with terror from me to the other me on the floor. Her voice was something just short of a scream. "Did that thing kill her?"

I could have been screaming just as loudly. I wasn't any less horrified at this turn of events than Sam. The only reason I wasn't, was that I didn't seem to have the reflex anymore.

I am Tawny, I protested. That's when I realized I didn't know how to speak in this body. Rufus said it for me, though. He stood up, and bent over slightly next to her, showing this new me to her more closely.

"This your friend, Miss Sam. Miss Tawny always this. Always... Zindavoor."

That's the word the Major had used. Three of the Zindavoor were outside, guarding.

Three of... my kind.

Rufus straightened up again, still cradling me. He nodded down to the thing on the floor, the me I had woken as, this morning. "It just manikin. Shell. Human disguise. Not Tawny."

He strode across the room, stepping over my old body and a dead specter in the process. I huddled against him, still confused and scared. Human disguise, he had just said. I suppose it was obvious already to everyone else that I wasn't Human, but it was the first time it had been confirmed for me. He kept speaking, in gentle, caring tones. "She never see herself, before.  Live whole life in manikin. Look, Miss Tawny."

Rufus had brought me to a mirror. I turned my head for a look. A rabbit-chihuahua-ferret-meerkat thing was huddled in Rufus's arms. Dark little eyes with no whites or pupils or iris, like solid black marbles, stared back at me, and a tail... I have a tail?... draped down from the other end. Orange-Brown fur... was that why they named me Tawny?... covered my tiny everything.

After he let me look for a while, he crossed back over to Sam. "Hold your arms out, Miss Sam."

Confused, she did, and Rufus put me in them. They're treating me like a baby... or a baby kitten.

I still couldn't figure out how to speak, and it was just adding to the anxiety. Sam was nervous, and a little repelled, but she held me, and stroked my fur. I could feel her attitude changing slowly, as she looked at me. I could feel anguish, pity, curiosity....

In a small voice, she asked, "Is that really you, Tawny?"

I put my paw on her hand and looked up at her.  I was still afraid, but somehow, Sam calling me 'Tawny' instead of 'that thing' had made it a little better.

It's really me, Sam, I wanted to tell her, but my new body did not seem to have any idea how to do it. It didn't seem to know how to cry, either. Unable to do anything, I just  left my paw there and kept looking at her, hoping she would get the message. Hoping we were still friends.

"Zindavoor have no voice," Rufus explained. "Zindavoor body can't make sound. Use mind, make gestalts. With alien sensitives, make thought-glyphs. Tawny grew up as human. Learn to talk good English, live good with Humans, but parents could not teach her thought-glyphs, gestalts. Experiment bad. She can not talk Zindavoor."

I'm... an experiment. That was somehow worse than learning I was a small furry creature. My parents experimented on me.

The horrible irony came to me just about then that I was experiencing exactly what Sam had, a little while before, when she was face-to-face with the dead specter. A whole new reality had just invaded my world, overthrowing it as completely as mine had overthrown hers.  I had always known the guardians, me and my parents and all their weird friends like Rufus, felt different than the average townspeople. Now I knew it wasn't because we were guardians. It was because we were... aliens.

The specters continued to circle, inexplicably drawn to Sam, and we sat there, trapped in a standoff. We were now simply waiting for their next move, or for more reinforcements to arrive, whichever came first. Sam began filling the time by asking one question after another, and gradually, as Mrs. West and the Major answered, we both learned about our new realities.

We learned about the war.  Well, I suppose I already knew we were in a war, but I didn't know it involved so much more than the Earth, or that it was so old. For longer than Human history, a group called the Alliance had been battling the Enemy throughout the Galaxy, in one long, continuous conflict.

While the Alliance had been fighting all that time, the Zindavoor and the Humans were both very new to the scene.  Three centuries ago, we Zindavoor were just stone age primitives living on a planet behind Enemy lines, but the Enemy decided we were too dangerous to live, and sterilized our home world. My ancestors survived because the Alliance had secretly smuggled out a small number of us, just before the end.

The front lines in the war had just shifted, and the Earth was suddenly no longer in Enemy territory, although still dangerously close. At that time, Earth might have been 'liberated', but it wasn't free. The Enemy regarded Humans as dangerous also, but potentially useful, so they controlled them, to keep their development suppressed, instead of exterminating them. They wanted to save the Humans for later, once they could figure out how to make them useful without making them more dangerous. The local Enemy force was cut off from supplies when the lines shifted, but it was still very large, and very much in charge here on Earth.

The Alliance created a 'resistance' on Earth to fight the local Enemy, but Humans have very little potential to be Sensitives... that's the kind of people that can use their thoughts the way Zindavoor do... so they needed help to fight the specters. Zindavoor are very similar to Humans, as aliens go. We come in male and female, we can eat the same food, and we think a lot like Humans do. The Zindavoor needed a home and the Humans  needed Sensitives, so the Alliance sent the refugees to live on Earth.

Now, three hundred years later, the Enemy and its specter soldiers were losing control of the Earth, but they were still not so weak that the underground, the Earth System Defense Force, could become public knowledge. The Alliance believed if they tried to go public, the Enemy would use the Zindavoor and other non-Human helpers as 'evidence' to panic the Humans into destroying their own defenders themselves. So it continued to be a secret war, being fought both on Earth and off, while most of the Human race continued to imagine themselves all alone in the Universe.

The ESDF was now a huge secret Human military, and even flying out from secret bases all over the world to fight on the front lines alongside the Allies, in addition to fighting the Enemy here on Earth. My family and Sam's family had both been part of the force for generations. Our parents worked at a base near our town, and Rufus and McCampbell were part of what she called 'the perimeter' for that base.

The Major smiled at me when she came to that part. "Right now I imagine you think you're a very tiny thing, Miss Amos, but you come from a long line of Earth's bravest. You did your ancestry proud, today."

Well, it's hard to think of yourself as heroic when your best friend is absentmindedly petting you like a cat. She'd been doing it off and on the entire time we were listening to the Major, and it was kind of irritating. It seemed to help her cope with the situation though, so I just put up with it.  Rufus noticed it at one point,  and he caught my eye and winked. You must learn to deal with the Humans with good-natured humor, that wink seemed to say. They can't help it.

I don't know, but maybe that was the first time I heard a 'gestalt' from another Zindavoor. Or maybe it was just a wink and I  imagined the rest.

It was taking a long time for our parents to arrive, because they all had to come together from the Base, and apparently arrangements had to be made. I always thought my parents just went around guarding the town all day, like Rufus and some of the other guardians do, but it turned out they actually both spent their day at the Base, doing other jobs. They pitched in guarding the town during their off hours.

My parents, and Sam's dad, arrived with a lot of other people, about an hour after the attack. Mr. West entered first, rushing in, then stopped when he saw my old body, me sitting in Sam's lap, and two dead specters on the floor.  After stepping gingerly through the mess, he sat down next to his daughter and gave her a hug. If he said anything to her, it must have been very quiet, because I never heard it. Of course, I was paying attention to my own father, who had just come in behind him.

I had never seen Daddy in uniform before, but it didn't matter, because he was just the same as always. He looked at me sadly, and shook his head as he came across the room.  I saw him flip a kind of unconscious salute to the Major, but his mind was on me. At the moment he picked me up, though, I saw Mom behind him. I saw her as a soldier for the first time.

You see, when she's in civilian clothes, on 'town duty', she's just Mom. She acts like a lady in her thirties with a kid.  She smiles, she chats, she does everything a human her age would do. She's apparently better at acting like a human than any other adult Zindavoor around. When she's in uniform....

Well, you have to understand that Daddy in uniform is still just Daddy. I suppose it's because he's not a fighting man. He's a technical specialist, a spacecraft mechanic at the Base. Mom is no mechanic, though. Like most Zindavoor females, she's an infantry soldier. A PTO is a sergeant who the ESDF made into an officer to command a platoon.

Walking into the house in uniform, Mom really looked the part. Everything clicked. Her eyes would flick sharply around the room, the rifle slung over her shoulder went tick, tick, tick, as she walked, and the heels of her boots tapped between the ticks. I had never seen her even slightly like this before. She stopped and saluted the Major first, then turned her eyes to me.

She stayed a soldier, but from somewhere inside there, I could tell she was looking at me and smiling proudly. It wasn't on her face. Her eyes had this odd, hard gleam I had never seen before. I could see my mother's glowing pride inside her, though. I guess I had done okay, that day.

It felt good... but then I remembered I wasn't really looking at my parents. I was looking at a couple of 'manikins'. Suddenly the warm cradle of my Daddy's arms and Mom's steady approving gaze felt very wrong to me. I wanted desperately to cry, but... Zindavoor don't do that either. It was completely unfair. This horrible universe had taken away Mom's face, and Daddy's warm arms, and replaced them with robots, and then, for an encore, it took away my own tears.  I covered up my face in frustration and began shaking.

I heard my mother asking, "Mrs. West, can a bedroom be borrowed? For  privacy, please?"

"I... what?  Why would you need..."

Mr. West's voice interrupted his wife. "Use Sam's room. Down that hall, second door on the right."

"Thank you."

I stayed curled up for a long time, but eventually Daddy stepped over to the sofa, and laid me down there. That's when I looked up and saw my mother as herself for the first time. She was a bigger version of me, with darker fur, laying curled on the sofa, looking at me with dark gold eyes with no pupils. Even in a different body, though, I could feel it was Mom. Zindavoor faces don't show emotions, but I guess that's because we don't use our eyes to see them. I felt concern, worry, and even fear in her mind. Is she afraid... I'm too angry to forgive her?

Then I just wanted to go to her. I tried to move, but I found I really didn't know how to walk in this body. I wobbled and fell in a miserable heap on the sofa cushion. Mom uncurled and moved over to me.

I don't know if Zindavoor hugged their kids before they came to Earth, or  if they learned it from Humans, but I'm sure glad they hug now. Because I think it was the only thing that could have helped me just then.  I couldn't talk, I couldn't cry...  but I could stay there, in my mother's real arms, shaking and scared, but not quite so lonely anymore.

My father began speaking gently to me as I stayed there. "Your mother wants you to know she's sorry. Your parents are both so sorry. It isn't the Zindavoor way to raise you like this. When you came, your parents should have moved  to one of the private colonies, where the children can just be themselves, but the elders wanted to try something new. They wanted you to grow up in Human society, with Human kids."

I finally looked up at Daddy again.  His eyes were sad, but he felt much sadder.  I think Daddy right then was wishing he could cry, too.  "Because you were so small, you had to have a special manikin, you had to stay in it all the time. That affected you. Your mind was not crippled,  because you could feel emotions, even follow Human thought sometimes, but...  you would never speak as a Zindavoor. The doctors decided... you shouldn't be told until later, or it would become worse. Such a mistake...." He closed his eyes, put his face in his hand.

After a while, Mom let go of me, and Daddy picked me up again. She jumped down off the couch, scampering along like a long-legged ferret, and disappeared back down the hallway. I can't really say I felt better, but just seeing that I wasn't the only one like this gave me a sort of security. When I felt that, somehow Daddy's arms felt like they should once more, even though they still seemed so many times bigger than they ought to be.

Mr. West spoke up first, after that, asking the Major, "So, what are we going to do about this?"

She said something back to him, but I didn't catch it, because other people were coming into the house, now.  Some sort of van was outside, and men came in to pick up the specters and my body. That was really weird to watch, because they didn't put it on a stretcher or anything. They just brought in this box and tossed it in, like trash. I guess they didn't see it as me, the way I still did. I wanted to complain about how they were treating it, but... well, I couldn't talk, remember?

Three soldiers came in and saluted the Major as the clean-up crew carried the bodies away. They wore the same uniform as Mom did, but one of them had stripes on the sleeves. The policeman nodded to them and saluted her as well, and she dismissed him. Rufus left somewhere during this time, too, and I realized the new soldiers were replacing them so they could get back to where they were supposed to be.

When my mother came back out, once again disguised as a Human, the three soldiers all snapped to attention. This was when I learned why people say 'snapped to attention'. You can hear it. All the little movement sounds, taps of the feet, clicks of weapons, or whatever, all happen together in a single sound.

She returned the salute and they went back to their original posture. I was finding it hard to imagine this military officer with the hard eyes and the brisk salute was the same as the furry little Mom who had just been hugging me, but I couldn't deny she felt like the same person. She turned around to me and Daddy.

"The specters target Miss West, so to keep a discreet guard at several points outside, all Zindavoor work outside tonight. To have his glass out there, you father is also outside."

She turned to the Major. "Ma'am, nobody can take care of Tawny, tonight, until more Zindavoor get in from elsewhere.  She will stay to guard Miss West. To stay with someone familiar, to contribute... it is good for her."

The Major was a little concerned. "Are you sure she's up to it, right now? I was hoping we could let the poor kid off, since we have reinforcements. She's surely done more than anyone has a right to expect of her, already."

My mother shook her head. "To be active, participate, contribute... these are the best remedies for Zindavoor, Ma'am."

Then she looked at me, and smiled gently. "She proved she is Zindavoor today."

Mom praises me when she believes I deserve it, but... she has pretty high standards. Daddy has always been easier that way, so I guess getting it from Mom has always been a bigger deal to me.  It took a moment to understand it was because I had fought well... I guess maybe that's not a thing Human mothers normally praise in their daughters, but to a Zindavoor, it's a big deal.

I was really conflicted about my mother being proud of me for nearly getting myself killed. It still seemed silly to me that a race of living plushy toys was some sort of warrior culture. Mom? I wanted to demand, Aren't you worried about leaving me here? You want to protect Sam, but what about me?

But the glowing warmth from Mom, for whatever reason she felt it, was a special thing. I finally settled on enjoying it and hoping I would understand, later.

                                                 *      *      *

                                                 Chapter III

Mom saluted the Major again and left with one of the other soldiers shortly after that. I was still in Daddy's arms, and I felt his chest move as he expelled a sigh. "She didn't ask you folks if it was alright. Is it alright?"

I could feel Mrs. West, still frightened, wanting to say no. Mr. West apparently knew it, too, and he spoke first, firmly. "Of course. Your daughter will always be welcome with us."

After taking a moment to squeeze me gently, Daddy gave me back to Sam. "She eats the same  food as you, but right now, she can't move very well. She probably can't get up and down off chairs yet. To help her, please. To also make sure she always  has her scrying glass... her necklace."

He and the Major left together. It was just me and the Wests, and a couple soldiers now. I felt lonely. Mrs. West was quietly grilling her husband. "Dear, why did you agree to let her stay here? We can't be responsible for her! We don't know anything about taking care of her kind!"

Her husband shook his head. "I heard the entire story on the way here, Lydia. That girl saved our daughter's life. Twice. The second time, she nearly died defending her!"

Her voice dropped into a hissing whisper. "She's a Zin, Bill! She kills things just by looking at them! She could kill you or me, right now!"

Mr. West looked at her and shook his head sadly. He looked over at the soldier near the door, who was carefully avoiding showing his emotions. I could feel them, though. The guy was boiling mad at Mrs. West, for my sake.

Mr. West pointed at the soldier. "So could he. He could take that rifle and gun us both down. So could the other soldier. Or either one of us could choke the other dead. Having the physical capacity to kill doesn't mean a thing. It's true of almost everyone you meet. Why are you only afraid of the girl? Even after she saved your daughter's life?"

It's okay! I wanted to say. I don't mind! She can't help it! Leave her alone! I really didn't mind, either. You get used to knowing what people think of you, even if it's only the general idea. After you get tired of resenting everyone, you learn how to understand why they think what they do, instead.

Mr. West kept going though. "That girl risked her life for our baby. She would have died for her, if Rufus hadn't shown up. I know it's not exactly a surprise a Zindavoor was courageous, but she's just a little girl! They grow up slower than us, Lydia. If she were Human, she would only be seven or eight years old!"

That last bit was news to me. I thought I was just five years from adulthood, like all my friends. I was still just a little kid?

The family argument wasn't ever settled, but it didn't continue much longer. The family worked their way through a difficult evening while I figured out how to do things in this unfamiliar body.  I could walk, but it wasn't my mom's easy scampering and hopping.  I could manage a fairly fast crawl, eventually. I learned how to sit up, and felt stupid when I realized I had been thinking about it like it was a big accomplishment.. Dinner was a pretty horrible experience, and I don't really want to talk about it. All things considered, it was a night I would rather forget.

Sam was my hero, even if she probably didn't think about it that way. She would hardly let me out of her sight. When I had trouble eating, she put me on her lap and  fed me, carefully spooning little bits of salisbury steak and mashed potatoes for me. The feelings coming from her were all confused. I couldn't tell whether she saw me as a baby, a pet, a protector, or her friend most of the time, but I was grateful for the help, and the caring.

That night, Mrs. West wanted to make up a bed for me in the living room, but Sam wouldn't hear of it. She practically screamed at her mother, and Mr. West had to step in and rule that I needed to sleep in Sam's room. I wanted it that way, too, because I wanted to be as close as possible if another specter came. I couldn't tell exactly what Sam's reasons were. Her thoughts and feelings continued to be all mixed up and complicated, and no matter how much I tried to think like her, to understand her, I couldn't follow them.

When I curled up to sleep on her bed it was almost like a comedy routine. First, she had me lay down next to her, but as she drifted off, she hugged me to her chest like a teddy bear.  Sam is, well, kinda grown up for an eighth-grader, and I found this a little suffocating, so I had to wriggle around until I could breathe okay.

That lasted only a short while, until I felt something happen in her head, as she woke back up and realized this was her best friend she was holding to her bosom, not a stuffed animal. I saw a flash in her mind, as she imagined holding me that way in my old body. She got all embarrassed, let go of me and flipped over.

I guess I sort of understand what that was about, but maybe I don't have the right  ancestry to really understand. All I know is, she was super ashamed about something which hadn't bothered me at all. I nudged her a couple times until she turned back to face me. She was looking at me all worried, so I just curled up and reached out to take her hand. I wanted to make her feel better, and that seemed to do it. We went to sleep like that, holding hands.

A couple hours later, I came awake with a fright. I had the sense of specter, and thought I had just seen one... except I felt nothing but Sam's screaming fear. Literally screaming, I realized a second later, as she let out a howling shriek.  I scanned around desperately, looking through the scrying glass once I managed to get hold of it with my tiny paws, but still couldn't feel anything. Then, I realized the specter I had seen was in Sam's mind.

She was having a really bad nightmare, like a memory replaying from that afternoon. I grabbed her arm and began shaking it, hoping to wake her. Mr. West came bursting into the room and threw the light switch and she finally came springing awake, with a jolt which sent me flying off the bed.

Our dreams really aren't the same thing as Human dreams. They're more like a hazy awareness of our mind sense, and a kind of mental snuggling up with other Zindavoor, if they're close enough. Mom tells me this is more because we're Sensitives than because we're aliens, because Sensitives of other species do the same thing. So I don't have nightmares. I know what they are, of course, but this was the first time I ever encountered a Human nightmare, and I was shivering from fright along with Sam.

Fortunately, I wasn't injured. When Sam realized what she had done to me, she went looking for me, all scared and worried about it, but I was fine. She put me back on the bed, and we curled up again, with a worried Mr. West watching over us as we went back to sleep.

The next morning, my parents came inside for a discussion with Sam's parents. They were both in civilian clothes, now, so they could blend in outside during the day. Sam had laid down on the couch after breakfast, but the rest of our family and hers were gathered around the kitchen table.

They talked about Sam and me. We couldn't go to school, when Sam had to be surrounded by guards, and I... well that went without saying. This was when I learned how long it would be until they could get a new manikin for me.

My mom was the one who broke the bad news. "They change you to a larger body every summer, so an order is in progress. The manikins are manufactured on a planet of one of the Allies. Earth doesn't have this sort of technology yet, and no world close by does, either. The factory is many, many light years away."

Too far away to get a message to them in time to hurry up the order,  because it would have been shipped before the message even got to them. I wasn't getting my new body any time before it was due to be delivered in June. Until then, the school would be informed I was 'in a hospital in Houston.'

"And how long more is your daughter going to stay at our house?" Mrs. West demanded. I thought about how, even if my mother couldn't see her feelings, she would have certainly known how hostile Sam's mother was about me staying there.

"The watch must continue. The specters still circle," Mom said flatly. It was her calm way of saying, Hey, we're busy fighting a battle here! but I don't think Mrs. West really understood.

Daddy was more helpful. "When the reinforcements from other bases arrive, or when the Enemy is driven back, your daughter will not need her constant watch." He smiled over to me. "Then, she will go to a Zindavoor colony, to meet the rest of her family. She has never known any of them, except her parents, and her uncle."

I didn't know what uncle he was talking about, but later on, I learned Rufus was Mom's younger brother, although he and Dad really were friends. I wasn't wondering much about that, though, because I was too busy worrying about meeting all kinds of people I didn't know existed a minute ago. Up until that time, my parents had sort of allowed me to think they didn't have much in the way of family.

Daddy had to get back outside, because he was still on duty. My mom stayed for a only little bit longer after he left. She rubbed my head and smiled at me. "Are you okay, Tawny?" she inquired, and I did a careful head nod. It's funny how even something as simple as nodding is an unfamiliar action when you're in a new body. She smiled again, and dug something out of her purse.

I stared at it with dismay. A collar? It was actually more of a choker necklace, but collar was my first impression I had. If she noticed my reaction, though, she didn't mention it. She took my glass from me, and pulled it off the  pendant chain.

The necklace was very pretty, three parallel strings of pearls. After attaching my glass to a dangling chain, she fit the 'collar' around my neck. I had  been afraid it was going to be tight, but it was very comfortable. "This  is a common way to carry a glass. Human pendant chains do not work well with Zindavoor shoulders."

I stared at the dangling glass, having some major doubts. If I sat up, it would hang halfway down. If I walked, it was long enough to drag around on the floor. It just didn't look right at all... but while I was looking at it, Mom dug out a black band, which she slid onto my arm. The glass went into a pocket in the armband, the chain looping from neck to arm. She sat back and appraised the work. She was very happy with how I looked in it, although she stayed calm and practical about it on the outside.

"It is good," she judged. "Most would also wear a belt-pouch, but one small enough was not available. You will get one while you visit the family."

After she left, I fiddled with it, and experimented with taking the glass out and putting it back. I was afraid at first it would get snagged when I needed it, but it seemed to work okay. I then carefully lowered myself out of the chair I was sitting in, so I could lie down close to Sam. I'm glad nobody was watching the clown show I put on, struggling up onto that couch.

She had fallen asleep again, so I curled up to take a nap, too. It was only beginning to sink in, that school was over for me, at least for the year, and none of my other friends would know what really happened to me. My parents had told me the force had come up with some story about the two of us being in a hit-and-run accident, and both of us had to be taken to Houston. That's what the kids at school would be hearing, right about that time.

I didn't like the idea. I know I've kept being a guardian hidden, and I should be used to secrecy, but this wasn't secrecy. It was dishonesty, and I wondered how I would feel, when I finally saw my friends again.

I guess I went to sleep while pondering all this, because I was jolted awake by another fearsome image of a specter. Sam was dreaming again, the same terrifying image of a specter swooping in on her, homing in like a falcon. She didn't shriek this time, but she was getting ready to.

The thought-mantra of soothing floated up from my memory, and I began singing it to her. My mother always sang it to me whenever I fell down or did something else silly and painful, but it had been years since she had last needed to, so I'm not sure how I even managed to remember it. I stroked Sam's shoulder as I sang, and the terrible dream vanished like fog.

Is she going to keep having that dream? I wondered. What a horrible thing to have to keep repeating. I curled up again and sang the mantra again, a little quieter, just to help her along. While I watched her sleep, I wondered what people who have nightmares do about them. I decided the universe had really screwed up, to put the people who are tormented by such things on one planet, and the people who could get rid of them so easily on another, thousands of light years away. It seemed like bad planning.

At the kitchen table, Sam's mother was on her phone, chattering to someone. "...I just don't know how much more I can take of this. Do you know, they actually blocked my long distance? I was trying to call my brother in Tulsa, and instead, I get this prissy sergeant, lecturing me about outside contact during a crises. I mean, they intercepted my call! I swear, I love the man, but I never would have married him if I had known about the force. I would rather have stayed ignorant."

She was silent for a while, then said something I didn't understand. "I thought things would be okay for Sammy, after the implant thing didn't work out. At least, they wouldn't try to put her in one of their damned fighters or something. They say she can't channel enough data." She was silent again, then continued, "No, she didn't know what the tests were about. She isn't full nerve-ware yet, just the preps. Bill told me it was really bad when they did the full implants to him, so he asked them to delay as long as they could. If she's going to be just running equipment or something instead of piloting, it's okay to wait a couple years."

I wondered what that was all about. They had tried to make Sam a fighter pilot? Could an eighth-grader even be a fighter pilot?...

I was bumped awake again, but this time it wasn't Sam. Mrs. West was still chattering away in the kitchen, but it wasn't her voice which had woke me, either. Then, my ears flattened out, just like a cat, as I sensed the waves of violence pouring in from outside. That must be....

I fumbled for the chain and the glass as I realized a battle going on outside. I began scrying hard, trying to see through the walls. Guardians, dozens of them, were facing a wedge of at least a hundred specters, driving hard straight at the house. I had never seen so many specters before. I sat up and braced myself.

The wedge was being torn to pieces, but there were so many of them, flying hard to get through the barrage of mind-whips, some would have to get through. I started hearing something else, a sound like really loud hammers.

Mrs. West gasped and then shouted "Gunfire!!" She stood up, still pressing her cell phone to her ear, and began looking around. I thought she might be wondering if she should take cover. Then one of the leading specters got all the way through.

I am almost certain that thing flew straight through the walls into the house. It's the only way to explain the path I sensed it take as it came in. It flew right over Mrs. West's shoulder without her seeing it at all. I sang, as loud as I could, and the creature flew backward, hard. Another push, and it collapsed to the ground.

Mrs. West stared at me in shock, then her eyes turned, without moving her head, to the specter. She was still standing that way as a pair of them flew past her, one on each side, coming straight at me.

I was ready, this time. I couldn't use all of it on one, or the other would get to its target, so I split it up between them, waiting until they were nearly on top of me. Cloaks flared and sparked, and they both drew back, hurt, hesitating. They waited just long enough I could take another shot. I thought one of them looked stronger, and struck it with the whole blow. It fell to the ground right in front of Sam's mom, who just stood there, frozen.

The other one began trying to escape, but a guardian and a soldier came bursting into the house just then. It was partially visible now, and the soldier reacted to it first, leveling his rifle and firing a burst which blew it into the wall. It dropped to the floor, and the room went silent. Both here in the house and outside, the attack just ended. Through my glass, I saw the remaining specters flying back out to circle again.

Sam mumbled, "Wh... what's going on?" She had been asleep until the soldier fired his weapon. Now she looked around, confused, and down at the floor where the specter had dropped in front of her mother.  Mrs. West was shaking, looking down at the thing at her feet with wild eyes.

I didn't know the guardian who had come in. He was dressed in normal clothes, but the way he acted, I bet he was another soldier.  He quickly scryed the two enemies, to make sure they were dead, then came over to check on Sam.

I felt something, like a question, and knew he was trying to talk to me. I couldn't do anything about, so I just sat there, helplessly. After scrying her quickly, he asked Sam, "Did it touch you, child?"

"I...  I don't think so...." I saw the image of a specter flying towards her in her mind, again. I don't get images very often, because people usually don't picture things so strongly.

I could hear a tiny little voice screaming "Lydia! What is going on?!" and realized Mrs. West had dropped her cellphone on the floor. She was too terrified to pay any attention to it, and backed into the kitchen. The soldier went in to check on her, and the guardian followed, after shooting me a funny look, I guess 'cause I wasn't answering.

I could see an image in Mrs. West's mind, too, but it was a picture of me, holding up my glass and blasting straight at her. I had been battling those things right in front of her, and she couldn't see them until after I hit them. She sat there at the table, staring at me with glassy eyes.

She stayed like that until some other lady came running in. As she chattered at her, all about how worried she'd been and stuff, I understood this was the person who had been on the phone. The soldier and the guardian left after that, leaving the specter bodies laying on the floor.

I didn't listen to the conversation much, but there was a lot of "I can't take this any more!" and "What do they want from Sammy?!" from Mrs. West. I was wondering the same thing. What would make them work so hard to get this one young girl?

Mrs. West was still looking at me with scared eyes once in a while. I felt horrible she had thought I was shooting at her, even if she knew what I was really doing, now. I felt horrible that I had scared her so badly. She couldn't see the things I was shooting at until after I hit them. The image in her mind of me holding up my glass was as terrifying to her as Sam's image of the specter homing in....

That must have been what made me think of it. I'm not good at math problems and puzzles usually, but something just kind of clicked in my brain then. Sam couldn't see the specters when they were attacking her! Where did she get the image?!... and that's when it hit me that this didn't have to be the first time she was attacked.

Specters don't usually try to kill people, unless they're ESDF, or they learn about the specters and try to expose them to the world. Normally they try attack them to do things to them, so they can use them in some way. They don't let the people they touch remember it. Seeing the dead specters must have broken her blocked memories free.

I thought about what Rufus had asked me to do, to look inside her with my glass. I might be able to spot something he couldn't. I figured it must be like scanning for specters, but how could I know what I was looking at? I decided to try anyway.

At first, it was really gross... I mean, we're talking about Sam's insides, here... but then, I saw it. Something that was completely different from the other stuff, something alien, was attached to her spinal cord. The first specter had been trying to get at her spinal cord....

I didn't know why they wanted it, but I knew what the specters were trying to get... and I couldn't tell anyone! Mrs. West and her friend were still chattering away in the kitchen, and nobody else was around except a scared, huddled up Sam. Then I spotted the cell phone, still laying on the floor and had an idea.

I struggled down off the couch and walked as fast as I could to get to the phone. Mrs. West saw me moving and must have thought I was coming to get her, because she hissed softly, "Annie, keep that thing away from me!"

I got to the phone and started trying to work with it. "Hey! You leave that alone!" 'Annie' yelled, rising from her chair. I realized I wasn't even going to get the chance to figure out how to work the message menu.

I grabbed the phone with one arm and struggled quickly across the room, three legged. Everyone was shouting at me, know, even Sam, except I think she was shouting at her mom, too. I stumbled a couple times, but somehow, I managed to get behind the couch before they caught up with me.

While I listened to Mrs. West demand Annie help her move the couch, I quickly figured out how to get text messaging to work. Mom always has her cellphone on, and I had the number memorized, so I just had to figure out what to say.

Mom, Tawny. I c spectr thing in Sam spine. Spectrs want to get back b4 we find it. Help.

I sent it just as the couch moved and my hiding spot disappeared. I left the phone there and backed away. Annie come forward and picked it up, watching me warily. Sam had come up from the other side, and she reached down to pick me up, feeling confused.

She frowned down at the phone. "It looks like she just sent a message."

She must have seen the message, because she quietly gasped "Oh!" and looked up at Sam.

There isn't much to tell after that. My Mom came with a bunch of other soldiers and an ambulance to take Sam to the hospital. The Major was there, shaking her head and cussing a little about the situation. "Why the hell didn't we just do this in the first place?"

When they got it out of her later, they found a recorder the Enemy had put in her, to get data on the process of implanting 'nerve-ware'. That's the stuff they implant in Humans so they can use alien technology, and Sam was going to be implanted. The very first specter had probably just been planning to knock her out and retrieve the data, but after I killed it, they were just trying to kill her and get the recorder back so the Humans wouldn't get a look at it.

Mom and I rode in the ambulance with Sam, to protect her. Mom was carrying me in her arms, now, because Sam was hurting again. She was all proud of me and stuff, and I could feel her relief that the job was done. I was also a little surprised to find out she was relieved I was safe. She really had been worried about me all along, but she wouldn't let me see it. I don't know why she hid it. There is so much about being Zindavoor I still have to learn. It made me feel good to know, though. She saw me watching her, and gave me a little hug.

NEXT:"Star Light"