The Alien Mind (free)

The Journey Home

RIVI WOKE UP WRAPPED IN A BLANKET and laying on the floor in a hallway. She sat up, and Enuet rushed to her side.

"Are you all right, Rivi?" Enuet asked in concern.

Rivi thought for a moment, assessing both her physical and mental conditions, while noticing that the complex was apparently still under attack. The hallway shook and rumbled around her, and dust rained down from the ceiling.

"I think so," Rivi answered.

"Good," Ankh interjected as he, Orlon, and the administrator exited the computer room through the wall across from them.

"We've talked to an agency on Earth that has agreed to prepare accommodations for you," the administrator said.

"How long was I out?" Rivi asked.

"A few moments, perhaps. What you did was very brave, Rivi," Enuet replied.

"Everything has been set. You should get going. It will not be long now before the Aruk break through our outer defenses," the Administrator said as another, rather harsh blast rattled the complex.

"Here is your computer," Orlon said, handing Rivi her black triangular laptop. "I found its configuration quite interesting and complex. You did some fine work on it."

"Thank you," Rivi replied, then turned to look at Ankh, "but how am I supposed to get to Earth?"

"I'll take you. We'll use the tesser cubes," Ankh said.

"Will the children join us now that Earth has responded?" Rivi asked.

"I'm afraid not. It is such a long way to planet Earth. The only reasonable way is to travel hyper-dimensionally. Most of the other children are far too immature, both intellectually and physically, to make the journey," the administrator replied.

Rivi nodded, and then stood, picked up the box she had packed from her room, and gave Enuet a hug. Ankh said farewell and hugged his wife as well.

"Stay safe," Ankh said.

"Always," Enuet replied with a mischievous smile.

Rivi took one last look around at what had been her home on Aun for the past nine years, then followed Ankh to the launch crater.

#

"We don't have much time." Ankh said, leading Rivi out into the center of the launch crater. "I'm going to give you a shortened lesson on tesser traveling."

Rivi's concerned gaze drifted toward the sky as she watched the Aruk fire-blasts rain down on the invisible shield that covered the launch crater.

"I'll do my best to learn."

Ankh pulled a piece of thin, black rope out of one of the hidden pockets in his long, vest-like robe. Hanging from the rope was a clear sphere, and inside the sphere was a silver cube. Ankh held his hand under the sphere, changed the atoms in its walls to create an opening, and allowed the cube to drop into one of his other hands. He then placed the cube on the ground in front of him with his third hand. The cube seemed to vibrate where it sat.

Even though the shield still protected the launch crater, the force of the Aruk's attacks shook the ground. Rivi stumbled forward a step from a particularly large blast and Ankh caught her by the elbow.

"Can you expand the cube?" Ankh asked, handing Rivi the now empty sphere hanging on the rope.

Rivi looked at the small cube sitting in the green sand by their feet, then back up at the shield. The blasts were getting stronger. Rivi looked back down at the cube and frowned in concentration until the small, silver cube began expanding itself into a larger cube.

"Now, manipulate the atoms to make the cube hollow and the sides pliable enough to walk through."

Rivi did as asked, then gingerly touched the side of the cube. It gave way beneath her fingers and allowed both her and Ankh to step through before sealing itself solidly behind them. Rivi felt for the sides of the cube as she found herself plunged into total darkness.

Suddenly, in the darkness, there was light as Ankh produced two lit bracelets. After he put one on his own wrist, he gave the second one to Rivi.

A large blast rocked the cube causing Rivi and Ankh to stretch their arms out and press their hands against the cube walls to stay upright.

"They must have broken through. Keep the walls solid, but change their elements so that the cube is lighter than the air outside."

"This will cause us to float into the sky," Rivi added.

"Precisely."

Rivi did as she was told. She felt the upward momentum as the cube began to rise through the atmosphere. The cube was buffeted back and forth as it narrowly missed several of the Aruk's blasts. Rivi struggled to maintain her concentration through the ride and almost lost her balance twice before Ankh steadied her with one of his three hands.

How much longer! Rivi screamed in her mind.

Rivi knew she wouldn't be able to hold the cube together through much more of this, but suddenly, there was silence and weightlessness.

Rivi looked anxiously toward Ankh, who was floating above her head beside the black box that held the only personal belongings Rivi had left. Ankh nodded, and Rivi returned the walls to their original composition. Having escaped planet Aun's gravity, they were well away from its influence. They were floating through space, traveling away from the planet.

"We must be above the Aruk forces by now," Ankh said. "We can't stay this close to Aun for too long, though. The Aruk are sure to spot us. Do you remember what your physics teacher explained about dimensions?"

"Um, yes. A two dimensional object would be a drawing on a piece of paper, a three dimensional object is like this cube. You can bring a two dimensional drawing into a three dimensional world by folding it into a cube. The two dimensional drawing would go from just a slice with only a front and back to having six sides."

"What's so great about having six sides?" Ankh asked.

Rivi thought for a moment, and then realized that Ankh was applying the physics lesson to tesser travel.

"Because you could move in a three dimensional world if you had more than just two sides!" Rivi answered.

"Yes. In order to punch through and travel through fourth dimensional space we need to fold our three dimensional cube into a fourth dimensional shape," Ankh explained. "So if an unfolded box in the two dimensional stage looks like a t-shape of squares with two arms, what would an unfolded fourth dimensional object look like?"

"A t-shape of cubes with four arms!" Rivi exclaimed.

Rivi and Ankh turned the cube from a three-dimensional object into an unfolded four-dimensional object. Creating a simultaneous energy explosion at key points all around the ship, they collapsed and folded their unfolded four-dimensional object into a full four-dimensional shape. This brought them suddenly into a whole new plane of existence.

Rivi found that she was looking at her own back. A shift of her eyes to the right, and somehow, she could also see her left side as well as Ankh. A shift of her eyes to the left and she saw the right side of her and Ankh again.

"Um ... Ankh?" Rivi murmured.

"Cool, huh? What you are seeing is how your eyesight is interpreting four dimensional space."

"So what would it look like outside our object then?" Rivi asked.

"Picture walking around our normal world in a three-way mirror." Ankh chuckled at the disturbed look Rivi gave him, "We are not meant to stay here long, Rivi. We should go. Concentrate on Earth."

Rivi and Ankh concentrated on their intended destination, and their shape unfolded and popped into existence just outside of a multicolored planet of blues, greens, and browns.

"Now you will need to turn this shape into a ship so you can control it in Earth's atmosphere while we land." Ankh spread his hands downward until his feet touched the floor. "Configure it as you would one of your computers."

Rivi kicked off from the nearest wall and grabbed her black box as well as her triangular computer, then brought herself down to the floor as well.

She thought for a moment. Her eyes closed as she first got rid of all the extra cubes and then struggled to visualize a ship—her ship. Around her, the cube morphed and molded. The space they stood in lengthened and the corners melted into curves. Windows formed in the front and along the side of the ship through which she watched as the material obeyed her thought and formed into wings with panels she could turn up and down to slow their decent. She created circuits to connect the ship's wings, minor controls, view-screens, and other components to a port she designed especially for her computer.

Rivi half-walked and half-floated over to a chair she created in the front of her new ship and plugged in her computer. She sat down and immediately began trying to access every part of her ship's systems. Ankh took the seat beside her.

"Ok, now we can relax a moment. It won't be long before the planet's gravity will pull us into the atmosphere, and then you can maneuver the ship to land," Ankh said as they slowly approached the blue-green sphere hanging in space.

Rivi began feeling a bit tentative about setting foot on this planet, Earth, a world she barely even remembered. Ankh patted Rivi on the shoulder.

"Just breathe, Rivi, everything will be OK. Once this all blows over, I'll come and get you."

Rivi took a steadying breath and nodded. Focusing her nerves on the task at hand, she began to prepare the ship for entry into Earth's atmosphere. She made double-sure the composition of the hull of the ship was heat-resistant in all areas, and then, reaching out with her mind to the circuits that controlled the wing flaps, she glided the ship down through the atmosphere. Ankh gave her a set of coordinates, and in the literal blink of an eye, Rivi had turned on the viewscreen on her palmtop so she could steer toward their preset landing site. The sky above the red, sandy desert was dark and filled with stars as Rivi landed her ship. Off in the distance, she could see the lights of a town.

Without a word, she and Ankh exited the ship after she collected her computer and the black box containing the few items she brought from her room on Aun. As her feet touched the soft ground, Rivi breathed in the cool, sweet, night air. She saw the lights of a few Earth vehicles coming toward her and Ankh from the small town in the distance.

"I must leave you now. You will be safe with these people," Ankh said, pointing toward the nearing vehicles.

Fighting back tears, Rivi gave Ankh a short hug, and he received it with all three arms. As the vehicles got closer, Ankh stepped back and drew the silver cube out from the sphere hanging from the rope around his own neck, set the cube on the sand, and expanded it. After he gave a short wave to Rivi, he entered the cube and it floated up and away.

The Earth vehicles came to a stop about five yards away from Rivi. Turning away from the glare of their headlights, Rivi compressed her ship into a small, silver cube and dropped it inside the clear sphere on the cord now hanging around her neck.

As she adjusted the cord, a man and a woman dressed in khaki pants, blue shirts, and dark glasses approached Rivi.

"Greetings," the man said in a slightly louder than normal voice, raising his hands in a gesture of peace.

"I am fluent in most dialects of Earth, including English," Rivi said, shaking her head and smiling slightly.

"Good. Then my name is Ed, and this would be Alice, an associate of mine," the man replied, slightly taken by surprise.

"Was that a friend of yours?" the woman asked, looking into the night sky curiously.

"Yes, ma'am," Rivi replied, suddenly feeling small and alone as she stared after the silver cube that was now almost out of her sight.

"We've arranged for you to stay with one of our fellow employees. If you'll come with us, please," the man said, pulling off his glasses as if he suddenly noticed Rivi's change in behavior.

Rivi nodded and let them assist her into their vehicle. As the vehicles headed into the town, Rivi stared behind her and across the dark horizon. The dirt road from the desert valley turned into a hard, black surface that made the ride smoother. Although she knew that this place would be her new home, Rivi felt as separate from it as the houses in the town were separate from each other. The vehicles turned down a few streets before they came to a stop on the side of a road in front of a blue-sided house. The man got out of the front seat and walked around the vehicle to help Rivi out.

"Do you need help?" Rivi asked, seeing Alice pulling a large cardboard box out of the front seat.

"No, I'm fine," Alice said with a smile.

Rivi looked up at the house as they walked toward it, but her gaze soon drifted back toward the starry sky. They stepped up onto the front steps, and the man knocked on the front door. A light went on in the house, and a woman opened the door, meeting them with a smile. She pointed into the house and up the stairs behind her as Alice carried the box inside.

"This is Miss Olivia Tate. She will be your caretaker," Ed said. "Miss Tate, this is Sarah Ernestine."

"Please, I am much more accustomed to being called 'Rivinaig'," Rivi said with closed eyes as painful memories surged to the forefront of her thoughts, stirred by the mention of her birth name.

"Sure, come on inside then, Rivinaig. You look tired," Miss Tate replied with a warm smile as she stepped back a few steps, welcoming Rivi into her home.

Rivi looked up at her and then back to Ed, who gestured toward the door with his hand. Rivi entered the house as Miss Tate shut the door. Rivi followed Miss Tate up a flight of stairs and into another hallway.

"You only mentioned your first name," Miss Tate said as Rivi made it to the top of the stairs behind her. "Do you have a last name?"

"We never could figure out what all of our full names were. Many of the children were still young," Rivi said. "The Aunantet gave us all new names when they adopted us into their families. They never had any use for last names. The last time I heard my real name was before I was taken by the Aruk. Those are not memories I enjoy reliving."

"Well, you would probably stick out like a sore thumb if you enrolled in school with just a first name, but don't worry. I'll figure something out." Miss. Tate added as she saw a look of concern start to spread across Rivi's face. "The bathroom is here on your right, and your room is at the end of the hall to your right as well. If you need anything, I'll be in the room to the left."

"Okay," Rivi said quietly.

Rivi peered at Alice as she entered the hall from the door that was to be Rivi's room.

"We knew you would need some clothes," Alice said as though that one comment explained everything. "They're basic, regulation stuff, but they'll get you started until you and Miss Tate get some time to get some more."

"Thank you," Rivi said.

"You can put the empty box on the table downstairs. I'll be down in a minute," Miss Tate added.

Rivi watched Alice head downstairs a few steps before Miss Tate patted her on the shoulder. Rivi looked up at Miss Tate, who smiled and tilted her head toward Rivi's room.

Rivi walked into her room and realized that she was still carrying her black box and her palmtop under her left arm. She crossed the room and set the box on the windowsill. Feeling overcome with the events of the day, she walked over and lay down on the twin bed along the opposite wall. Miss Tate watched her silently before quietly shutting the door to give Rivi some space. Within moments, Rivi was sound asleep.

#

Two hours later, a nightmare encroached on her peaceful sleep. Miss Tate ran into the room to find a lamp, a few books, Rivi's black box, and a pair of shoes floating around the room. Shocked, Miss Tate looked toward Rivi, who was flinching and writhing on her bed.

All at once, Rivi woke, opening her eyes wide. She sat up, trying to figure out where she was—obviously, she was not on Aun! After a second, she looked toward the door to see a frightened Miss Tate looking from her to the objects floating in the room as light from the hallway behind her spilled into the room.

"Sorry ... nightmare," Rivi said, realizing where she was.

She looked at each floating object and lowered them softly to their places.

"Does this happen often?" Miss Tate asked, concerned.

Rivi shrugged and closed her eyes.

"Most nights, yes," she said, as she relaxed and lay back down.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"Not really. I was able to tell some of it to my guardian father, Ankh, but I was never able to tell him all of it. The dreams just keep coming back."

"Perhaps it would help if you shared all of it?"

"Maybe someday I'll be able to share all of it with someone. For now, I just live with the dreams," Rivi answered, trying to push the horrible dream from her mind.

"Does the 'floating objects' thing happen often?" Miss Tate asked, worriedly.

"Oh, that? That's nothing." Rivi looked over at a book and made it float over to her new caretaker.

Miss Tate gasped and waved her hand around the book to try to figure out how it was floating.

"It won't bite."

Miss Tate gingerly plucked the book from the air.

"Goodnight, then, if you're sure you're okay," Miss Tate said, still a bit unsettled.

"Yes, goodnight," Rivi answered, rolling over as Miss Tate left and shut the door behind her.

#

It was five o'clock in the morning when Miss Tate tiptoed in to wake Rivi, who rolled over and sat up in her bed, already alert.

"I was going to drive you to school for your first day, but something came up. I've been called in early to work. I can have the agency send someone else to drive you to school," Miss Tate explained.

"Where is the school?" Rivi asked.

"Just a few blocks away. You can see it from the end of this road."

"Oh, that's fine. I can walk. I'll be ok. What time will you be home in the evening?" Rivi asked, as she scooted to sit on the edge of the bed.

Miss Tate blinked at her for a few moments, unsure of what to make of Rivi's confidence.

Certainly a change from the meek girl I met last night, she thought.

"Um, I'm afraid that it'll be sometime after dinner, but there's plenty of food in the kitchen. You can call me if you need help. Just press the 'star' key on the phone downstairs. I programmed it last night to make it easier for you to call my cell. As long as you're sure you don't want me to send someone to drive you, I can set directions to the school on the kitchen table. It's not far. "

"I'm sure I'll manage."

"All right," Miss Tate paused, "Rivinaig, none of the kids at school, nor any on Earth, for that matter, are accustomed to seeing people with abilities such as yours. Please, be careful."

"I will," Rivi replied. "If word got out that I was here, the Aruk would find me."

"Okay," Miss Tate said, satisfied that Rivi seemed to understand the danger.

Rivi got out of bed as Miss Tate left the room. Realizing that she was still dressed in her clothes from Aun, she decided she should change. Walking around her room, she opened drawer after drawer and then, finally, looked in the closet, where five different sets of shirts and pants hung, neatly pressed. There were other smaller articles, like socks, arranged neatly in their own cubbyholes. Rivi shrugged and chose a set of each, remembering that Ankh had taught them how the citizens of Earth normally dressed during each particular season. She removed her own articles of clothing and proceeded to dress herself accordingly.

Rivi slipped her palmtop into her back pocket and went downstairs and found the kitchen. The directions to the school were on the table along with a set of notebooks, pencils, and a backpack. She put the supplies into the backpack and then went to look around the rest of the house.

She found a room with a large table and another room that had two machines in it. Rivi recognized the machines from Ankh's classes: a washer and a dryer. She then found a room with a couch and an armchair facing a large black box with a blank screen. Frowning slightly, Rivi sat down on the couch and turned the TV on with her mind.

As pictures and words began to reach her, Rivi drifted off into boredom. She closed her eyes, shook her head to get rid of the pictures, and shut the television off.

"Mind-numbing," she said simply as she continued her tour.

She found, to her surprise, a computer sitting in the next room. Rivi turned on and accessed the computer with her mind, instantly finding and destroying five viruses, one of which would have soon become capable of attacking the computer's boot sector. After she repaired the damage the viruses had caused, she found the computer to be more primitive than those to which she was accustomed. She decided to leave it alone, and left the room.

"Earth needs to get beyond single pairs of gateways and the binary language of ones and zeros before it will make any vast improvement in technology," Rivi said to herself, as she walked out the back door into the fence-enclosed back yard.

She found a ladder leading to the kitchen roof and decided to investigate. At the top, she found a newly shingled, shallowly-sloped roof. Walking out onto the roof, she found herself outside of her bedroom and sat down on the wooden window ledge. She looked up into the stars, which were growing dimmer with the approaching sunrise, and found where planet Aun would be if it were bright enough to be seen at this distance. Gazing at that one spot, she began to wonder how the rest of the children were faring.

An hour later, as the sun had just begun to brighten the early morning sky, the computer she had put into her pants pocket fought for her mind's attention, just as she had taught it. Giving it a second glance, she found that it was time for her to leave. Rivi got down off the roof and went back into the kitchen. She picked up her backpack, read the directions a few times to memorize them, and then set off toward the school.

#

Rivi arrived at Jackfort High early, which was how she preferred it. She was surprised to see that there were already quite a few students at the school. Most of the students seemed to prefer hanging out outside the building. Only a handful were actually heading inside. Rivi entered through the main door of the two-story building and located the main office.

Rivi entered the office and told the secretary that she was new to the school. Miss Tate had, apparently, already faxed the secretary Rivi's paperwork earlier that morning. The secretary promptly pulled out a file and gave Rivi her class schedule, as well as directions to her first class. As Rivi headed out of the office, she paused with her hand on the doorknob. She had spotted her name across the top of the class schedule: Rivinaig Tate. She realized, with a smile, that Mrs. Tate must have given Rivi her last name. Rivi looked over the schedule once more, folded it and put it into her backpack and then shut the office door behind her.

With her schedule memorized and tucked into her backpack, Rivi proceeded to try to find her first class.

There has to be a more efficient way of arranging these classes, Rivi thought to herself.

Suddenly, four figures at the far end of the hall caught her attention. As she approached, she realized that three of the boys were bullying the fourth one.

"I thought we told you to stay off of our street, Danny boy?" the oldest bully jeered as he pushed the fourth boy.

"My ... my house is at th ... the end of the street next to yours ... It's the fastest way to school," the boy answered, struggling to keep a hold on his stack of books and papers.

"So what?" the bigger boy asked, shrugging.

"You need to teach him, Bill!" one of the bullies suggested.

"You know, I think I will," the taller 'Bill' character said, looking toward the fourth boy with a mean sneer, then knocking the stack of books out of the boy's hands and onto the floor.

Bill pushed the boy, and Rivi felt her insides turn red hot. She fought to maintain her cool composure as memories of a***e at the hands of the Aruk tried to flood her mind. As the fourth boy's head made contact with the wall behind him, Rivi manipulated the concrete atoms to soften the impact.

"Hey!" Rivi called as she approached, stepping over a few of the books on the floor. "Is there a reason why you are bothering this boy?"

"Yeah. We feel like it," Bill challenged. "You think you can do somethin' about it?"

"The word is 'something,' and I can do quite a bit, so I wouldn't try irritating me," Rivi answered with a sly smile.

"Ya' hear that, boys? This little girl doesn't want to be 'irritated,'" Bill jeered, using his hands to embellish 'irritated' with air-quotes, "I bet she's new and scared!"

Rivi narrowed her eyes, smiled, and nodded.

"Yes, I am new," she answered, which made the bullies smirk, "but no, I'm not scared at all," Rivi continued, her smile melting into a scowl.

The bully shrugged, signaled to his two friends, and they all sauntered off.

Rivi bent down to help the fourth boy pick up his books. She handed him the stack she had collected, and asked politely if he was all right.

"I'll be fine, but you shouldn't have helped. Now they'll only make it worse on me for being defended by a girl," the boy answered with remorse.

Rivi raised her eyebrows and took one of his schoolbooks off the top of the stack in his arms. She opened the front cover and found a name written inside.

"Your name is Daniel Peterson?" Rivi asked, giving the book back as Daniel answered with a nod. "Well, Daniel, at what point in time in the history of the United States of America did its citizens go back to being ruled and pushed around by bullies?" she asked, giving him a long look before she walked off toward her class.

Rivi shook her head, unable to help wishing she was back in the well-ordered society on Aun.