A Sky Without Zeppelins: Chapter Twenty-Four

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                                                                   Chapter Twenty-four

“The only explanation I want at the moment is the one that tells me when my Rose is going to wake up,” Jonathon says sternly. He laces his fingers through Rose’s limp hand and glares at Lumin. “That’s more important to me than finding out what the hell is going on.” He turns back to Dr. Milligan. “Why is she still unconscious?”

Lumin and Dr. Milligan glance around the room and then Lumin says, “Let’s move Rose into a private room so we can discuss this away from the other invalids.”

“What does it matter? They’re all unconscious aren’t they?” Jonathon asks.

“The rest of the staff is not and only my most highly trusted employees know anything of what I’m going to tell you.”

Dr. Milligan nods in agreement and Jonathon gives in. She and Jonathon push Rose’s hospital bed into a nearby room, a clean ICU chamber. Jonathon sits in a chair by Rose’s bed and the others cluster around it.

“Well? Why doesn’t she wake up? You said you healed her.” He is beyond wondering how that could possibly be true. When a person sees their boss dissolve into a mass of pure green energy, accepting things at face value seems to become a given.

“She was touched by the Caligo, the black cloud,” Dr. Milligan explains. “Their touch generally means death. If you are engulfed by one of these alien beings it kills you instantly. A light touch means a slower death. There are only twenty-four hours from exposure to death. The longer the time between exposure and cure, the longer it takes to recover fully. How long was it from the time she first exhibited symptoms until you brought her in?” Dr. Milligan asks.

“A few hours. But she seemed fine until suddenly she wasn’t.”

“You cut it very close. She’s lucky to be alive.”

Jonathon bites his lip and looks back at Rose. He should have brought her in when she first started thinking there was something wrong with her, first started being suspicious that it was the cloud that had done this. But he had been so caught up in making love with her that he’d pushed it aside. He could have killed her in his carelessness. His Rose, his beautiful loving Rose could be dead right now and all because he couldn’t keep his libido in check.

“It’s my fault,” he whispers.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Donna says sharply. His head snaps up and he turns to glare at his friend. “Don’t you dare even think about blaming yourself for this, Jonathon!” Donna tells him. “There is no way you could know, and considering the plans the two of you had, of course you’d not think it was more than exhaustion until it got serious. Rose was up ridiculously early yesterday on top of everything else. You’d not be able to tell. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this!”

“But she said she was feeling off. She even suspected the cloud. I--.”

“No!” Donna says fiercely. “These are aliens. They’re evil aliens. And they are outside of your ken. Don’t even think there is an ounce of this that is your fault.”

“If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine,” Lumin says hanging his head.

Jonathon turns angry eyes on his boss. In a sharp, clipped tone he asks, “How is this your fault?”

“Those aliens were after me. I never should have gone out into public that day, but the exposition is so important to the future of scientific research on this planet. Catch the children’s interest young and they study in the right fields from the start. I thought I knew better, that I could fool the Caligo. I thought I could disguise myself with the gadgets you made for me, but somehow they still knew. They came after me and in the process people died, children died. I never should have left the building when I knew they were on this planet.”

“What has staying in the building got to do with anything?” he snaps.

“It’s shielded,” Donna tells him.

“Yes,” Lumin agrees. “It’s very heavily reinforced. There’s a…for lack of a better word, a bubble that surrounds the campus. It’s invisible and it’s impenetrable to alien scans. To anyone with the technology to be looking there’s nothing advanced enough to see through it. It would register simply as Earth normal and full of humans.”

“Why didn’t you just use that technology to mask your presence? Why go to all the trouble of having me create gadgets for you?” Jonathon asks. He is starting to forget his anger as his interest in the situation is piqued.

“Because it’s big. It takes up the entire fourteenth floor. I needed something portable, something I could keep in my pockets.”

Jonathon frowns. “Wait a minute. This building only has thirteen floors.”

Lumin frowns at his slip and then sighs. “Floor fourteen is invisible. The technology masks the presence of the entire floor as well as the building,” he admits.

Rose makes a small noise and shifts in the hospital bed. Jonathon leans forward. “Rose? Rose!”

“It’ll be a while yet before she regains consciousness, Dr. Smith,” Dr. Milligan tells him. “But this is a good sign; the first sign of recovery. It means she should be opening her eyes in another couple of hours.”

He turns hard eyes on James Lumin. “I won’t keep this from her. Not any of it.” He waves his hand expansively.

“You’ve signed a non-disclosure contract when you started working here,” Donna begins but he cuts her off.

“I don’t care. I’ll not keep this a secret. Rose deserves to know what happened to her and besides, that confidentiality contract was about technology created and used on site in this corporation. I read it fully. There’s nothing in there about aliens or alien attack. I won’t lie to her. I won’t have this between us,” he insists.

“Jonathon--.”

“It’s all right, Donna,” Lumin says softly. “If she will, Rose can sign a non-disclosure contract before she leaves. She’ll need to sign one when she comes to work here after graduation anyway.”

“You plan to hire Rose?” Jonathon asks momentarily startled.

“Of course I do. Do you have any idea how brilliant she is? Top of her class four years running. I’d have offered her a job here a year ago if her professors hadn’t informed me she was so adamant about completing university first. She’s got a first rate mind, one of the most brilliant I’ve seen come up in this generation. I’ve been watching her since she won the science fair at age eleven at her junior school. I’ve wanted her here for a long time,” Lumin confesses.

“That’ll make her happy. Her whole life has been working towards a job here, it seems,” Jonathon says with a glance back at Rose. He feels her fingers tighten convulsively in his and then go limp again.

“Rose? Rose!” He shakes her arm. “Her hand moved!” he says looking anxiously at Dr. Milligan.

“Muscle spasm. It’s normal. She’ll be out for a while yet,” the doctor reassures him.

“I’d like to let you in on the full secrets of our work here,” Lumin ventures a few minutes later. Jonathon refocuses his gaze sharply on his boss.

“What do you mean?” he asks warily.

“I mean that Martha and I aren’t the only people with alien blood in this facility.”

“Martha?” he asks.

“That’s me,” says Dr. Milligan.

“What kind of alien are you, then?” he asks her.

“I don’t know,” she tells him. “There was a crash about one hundred years ago. My great-grandfather was rescued from the burning wreckage by my great-grandmother. She hid him from the rest of the villagers and nursed him back from his injuries, but he never fully recovered from the head injury. There was memory loss from the damages.”

She smiled softly. “He looked human and he never spoke of where he came from other than to say it was near Kasterborous. Everyone outside the family always thought it was a foreign land, but inside it we all knew it was a constellation. We knew he was from another planet. My telepathy has passed from one generation to the next until it settled in me and my brother and sister. We all have it. I also have a remarkable ability to heal myself. Other than that, I’m completely human in every way.”

“How did you end up working here?” Jonathon asks her.

“Paranormal mind research studies,” she explains. “I’m a medical doctor, but my minor was in that. I’ve been able to combine them here in a way the rest of the world isn’t prepared for. I didn’t know when I came here that Mr. Lumin was an alien or that it was a sanctuary for aliens and other people like me.”

“Sanctuary?”

“Anyone that comes to me seeking asylum may remain here under my protection unless they do something that violates our agreement. Harming humans or the other aliens, committing some gross violation of human law, that sort of thing. I’ve only ever had to…deal with that sort of situation twice. My father before me, only once.” A darkness settles over his face as he speaks, but with a gentle stroking of his arm from Donna he shakes it off and smiles.

“Most of the aliens are employed by me. There is only one here that doesn’t work at all and it is recovering from nearly dying.”

“How many aliens are here?”

“Seven, not including myself or the human/alien hybrids like Martha.”

“Can I see them?”

“We can go now, if you like,” Lumin replies.

“Not without, Rose. As I said, she’s in this with me. All the way.”

“As you like. I’ll take you when she has recovered. Now, I must go and return to my natural form and recover from all the healing I’ve done today. Donna, with me. Dr. Milligan,” he says returning to a more formal state of address, “please keep Donna informed of the conditions of the victims so she can relay that information on to me.” With that Donna and Lumin say their farewells and leave the room.

Dr. Milligan busies herself for a moment checking Rose’s vitals and then excuses herself to go check on the other patients. Jonathon pushes Rose’s body to one edge of the hospital bed and then crawls under the blankets with her and pulls her back tightly into his arms. Even in her unconscious state she snuggles into him. He kisses her forehead and prays to a God he has never believed in that Rose truly will be all right.




Rose wakes in blinding agony, every nerve ending in her body screaming out its discontent as she regains consciousness. It passes in a split second, leaving her sobbing and confused. “Rose, I’m here.”

The gentle voice of Jonathon comes from above her head, rumbles from beneath her ear where it rests on his chest. His hands stroke soothingly across her back. The body-wracking sobs the pain has wrenched from her throat taper off to quieter snuffling and she manages to croak out his name. “Jonathon?”

“Yes, love, yes, it’s me. I’m here.”

She makes no move to leave the comfort of his arms. “What hap-happened to me?” she asks on a hiccup.

There’s a light tap on the door and then someone is entering the room. “She should be regaining—oh, you’re awake.”

Rose shifts and turns enough to see the pretty, tiny, young black woman in the white lab coat. “Hello, Rose. I’m Dr. Martha Milligan, but feel free to call me Martha. How are you feeling?”

“There was pain,” Rose says dumbly. She manages to sit up with help from Jonathon.

“Ah, yes. No help for it. It’s the last burning off of the death cloud that entered your system when the Caligo touched you,” the doctor explains. “It’s the only sure way of knowing you’re free of infestation.”

“Caligo? Death cloud?” Rose questions. “Infestation?” Her voice rises to a squeak on the last word.

“Yes. The pain has passed now hasn’t it?” the doctor asks.

Rose nods. “But…what happened?”

The doctor and Jonathon quickly bring Rose up to speed explaining everything that they know about the alien attack and everything that’s been learned from Lumin since Jonathon brought Rose to Illuminate. She takes it all in with wide eyes that dart back and forth between her lover and this doctor woman who checks her vitals and removes the IV from her hand.

There is no trace of this being a joke, of anyone putting her on, though she wouldn’t expect it from Jonathon anyway. Of course, she’s been open to the idea of aliens most of her life, but it’s a far cry from the idea of aliens to the actuality of it. When the explanations trail to a close she just sits there, cradled against Jonathon, silent and unmoving.

“Rose?”

“It’s just…an awful lot to wrap my mind around is all. I mean…aliens. It’s just so…alien. I look at you,” she says as she glances over at Martha, “and you’re…alien.”

“Only a little bit,” says Martha. “Just an eighth.”

“You say it so casually,” Rose replies.

“I’ve lived with it my whole life. Makes a difference in how a person sees things if they’re brought up with it.”

“You going to be all right with this, Rose?” Jonathon asks her.

“Think so. Least when the shock wears off. I mean…aliens are real. That’s just so…” She pauses and then grins at him. “Incredible, really.”

His face breaks into a brilliant smile. “It really is, isn’t it?” For the first time since she entered the room, Martha Milligan relaxes. Rose notices.

“I suppose you don’t tell people a lot,” she says softly.

“Not exactly the sort of thing you bring up in casual conversation. My husband Tom knows, of course. But outside of my family and the few people at work who know, there are only two people who are aware. It’s rare that I’ve ever trusted people with my secret,” Martha says. “Most people would think I was a right nutter and the others would want to see me dead just because of the fact that some of my blood isn’t human,” Martha explains. “Learned that the hard way.”

“Then why are you trusting us with it?” Rose asks.

“She wasn’t exactly given a choice,” Jonathon begins.

“Oh, but I was. Mr. Lumin never would have let it be known if it wasn’t okay with me. I saw in your mind that there was no danger. I saw it in yours, too, Rose. Sorry, I had to go in to assess the damage, but I didn’t look anywhere other than surface thoughts and core personality.”

“You mean you’re psychic?” Rose asks.

“Not as such. Just a telepath and an empath. I don’t see the future or read tea leaves or any of that. As a rule I don’t read people if I can help it. Most minds are…ugly. But this was an emergency. I had to know the extent of the damage to you and I had to know if Mr. Lumin could trust Jonathon enough to reveal his own secret. It took very little invasion of privacy to discover those things and then I backed out completely.”

“Did you see anything private?” Rose wants to know.

“A little. Just the stuff that was broadcasting very heavily in the forefront of your minds. The fact that you love each other very much and…”

“And?” Jonathon asks.

“That you’re very newly lovers. Sorry. It was really very…loud,” Martha says shyly. “From both of you. It’s beautiful though, the love that I saw.”

“You didn’t see…?” Rose blushes violently and is unable to finish her sentence.

“Oh, no, no, no!” Martha hastens to reassure her. “No memories of what you did or thoughts about it or anything like that. No images at all. Just emotions. I promise.”

Rose gives a hasty sigh of relief. She doesn’t particularly want her newly acquired sex life to be picture in picture, play by play, surround sound for anyone. “Good,” she says. She swings her legs over the side of the bed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” says Jonathon putting out his hand to grab her shoulder and staying her movement. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m getting up. I feel fine now.”

“Rose, you almost died. If I hadn’t gotten you here when I did, you would be dead.” His voice sounds anguished at his confession.

“I know that. But I feel okay now. Whatever Mr. Lumin did, it healed me. I’m all right.”

“Dr. Milligan?” Jonathon asks turning to the doctor.

“Martha, please,” she says repeating her earlier request. “Rose should be fine now as long as she doesn’t overdo it.” Her eyes switch to meet Rose’s. “Take it easy for a day or two, Rose. Nothing too strenuous. Sex is okay as long as it’s not overly athletic, but don’t go running any marathons. You may have joint pain for the next few days and your skin may feel overly sensitized, but other than that you should be fine. If you’re not fine or have any other aftereffects have Jonathon bring you back.”

“Does that mean we’re free to go?” Rose asks.

“Yes, but…”

“But what?”

“Mr. Lumin requested I get you to sign a non-disclosure contract, Rose. He says you’ll have to sign one when you come to work here anyway, so you may as well do it now. And then…he told me I could take you and Jonathon up to meet the rest of the aliens.”

Rose sits back stunned, her mouth working as she puts together everything Martha has just said. A non-disclosure contract? Meeting aliens? Working at Illuminate? “Is…is he…is he offering me a job?” she asks in shock.

“Just as soon as you graduate,” Martha told him. “It’s yours if you want it.”

“Where do I sign?”

Ch. 25:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/166781.html