Cha'Nara's Gift

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Heart of Gold

"You two ladies are certainly having a good time," I said as I entered. "I really like this thing you call dancing," said Cha'Nara as she and Emily ended their dance. "You don't dance on Vaga IV?" Emily asked. "not like that, very slow, not happy like this," said Pip. Eying the six pack of beer, she continued, "Thirsty, can I have some?" I looked at her in amazement, "What, no, you're not old enough yet." "Please, thirsty, not like the drinks you call coke, or mountain dew." "Let her have a beer Deak, one won't hurt her," chimed in Emily. I handed Cha'Nara a beer and she sat on the edge of her bed and unscrewed the cap on a Coors Light. She took a pretty hefty swig, then savored it, "Jaaka, this tastes like Jaaka, very weak, Jaaka is much better!" Curious, both Emily and I asked her what "Jaaka" was.

"It's a very favorite beverage on my world," "Is it beer, does it have alcohol in it," I inquired. "What is alcohol?" Asked Pip. "It's what gets you drunk ," said Emily, "Hmmm, don't know about drunk, young people my age and older like it because it, how you say, makes you feel good inside makes you in better mood to love." Both Emily and I burst out laughing, poor Pip got upset thinking she had said something to offend us, I immediately put her mind at ease. "No, No Cha'Nara we didn't mean to embarrass you, but it sounds like "Jaaka" is an aphrodisiac to enhance s*x or to put the other person in the mood to have sex."

She looked at us, thought for a moment then said, "Yes, this is so." Emily looked aghast, "They let kids drink this stuff?" "Oh yes it is a very popular drink." I looked at Emily, "Don't forget Emily, what she's told us already about social mores on her planet, Christ! Can you imagine what it would be like if they had that stuff here?" Emily rolled her eyes and just shook her head. "Tell me "Pip" you took a pretty good chug of that beer, feel funny, feel light headed, or kinda weak?" Cha'Nara thought for a moment, bounced up and down on the bed a few times,

"No, feel like another beer though," "Now wait a minute, you drank that first beer pretty fast, you ought to have the start of a good beer buzz going for you right now," said Emily. I gave Cha'Nara another beer; she gulped it down pretty quickly, but showed no outward signs of intoxication. Emily threw up her hands, "Man! I simply don't believe this, a normal kid her age would be on the way to a good drunk, this is incredible."

I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to the convenience store for another six-pack, "This is for Emily and I Pip, you can have what's left of the first one." By bedtime she had polished off the whole six-pack with none the worse for wear. We ordered a large pizza for supper Cha'Nara hid in the bathroom when the pizza guy showed up, she seemed to enjoy the veggies but not the sausage or pepperoni, "I take it you guys don't eat meat on Vaga IV," I casually asked. "No, not eat meat at all," she tried to describe the food they ate, but without much success, I remember Emily's mom asking her the same questions but not getting any farther than we just had. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV, Cha'Nara went and took a shower, coming out of the bathroom totally naked, Emily yelped and shoved a pillow over my face, "You get those PJ's I bought you on right now young lady," demanded Emily, lying on the bed with Emily trying to suffocate me with a pillow all I could think of was, "Damn!"

Cha'Nara pouted for a few moments for being yelled at then crawled into bed, I took a shower while Emily changed, after we were both in bed and the lights turned out, and Emily and I were holding each other a voice came from the other bed, "If you two want to make love It will not bother me," I snickered, getting an elbow in the ribs, Emily said, "Go to sleep Cha'Nara."

For breakfast, I drove to the McDonalds and picked up stuff I thought we could all handle, pancakes and eggs with fruit and yogurt for Pip, pancakes eggs and sausage for Emily and I. Emily re-applied the flesh-toned make-up on Cha'Nara's face and hands again. along with her coat, Cha'Nara wore one of those funny knit hats with the flaps hanging down like droopy dogs ears. We continued our hunt. Around 1:00 pm, we spotted what looked like a good place to conceal Cha'Nara's craft, and it was fairly near where a lot of gold activity took place. It didn't appear to ever have been disturbed by man in the past either; we took careful GPS readings along with compass azimuths. We also stopped at a local museum to verify certain aspects of the gold discoveries in the area and the dates. Next it was up to South Platte, where we found a place rather quickly, as we took GPS readings, the snow started to fall, and rather heavily at that. As we drove around the area, Cha'Nara commented on how beautiful everything was, "It is so lovely, we do not have this sort of thing on Vaga IV." "I know," said Emily, "Those visions you put in my head, indicate a more tropical climate, very strange rock formations, almost like ones I've seen pictures of in China."

We checked another possibility near Central City but the site we found near South Platte would be where we would build our little town. I was ready to settle for a Motel-6, but Emily opted for a Super 8, "They have pretty decent breakfasts at Super 8's" said Emily, Super 8 it was. We chose the two double beds again, we almost were spotted sneaking Cha'Nara up to the room, We weren't trying to hide the fact that we had a third person, but even with her gloves hat and coat, Pip could attract unwanted attention to the right "eyes" This time it was Chinese, Cha'Nara really did a job on the rice and chow mien, she said it was quite similar to what she was used to eating at home. "Oh lucky day!" they had pretty decent cable on the TV, plus WI-FI, which Emily used to check our E-mail, and do some more research. Pip became fascinated with some show on the oxygen network called "Bad Girls" Soon she had Emily watching it too, all I knew was that it drove me crazy, I ended going down to the lobby to watch TV.

When I returned to our room, I discovered Emily and Cha'Nara had finished off all the beer from the previous night, Emily had a good buzz going, Pip was normal, as we prepared to go to sleep Pip asked, "Is the reason you two don't make love because of me?" "We-l-l-l, Yeah!" said Emily, "Generally when we earthlings make love we do it in private, it's not a spectator sport, nothing against you Cha'Nara, it's just a custom we have here on earth." Cha'Nara thought about that for a moment then crawled into bed with out another word.

We got to the Denver claims center around 9:30, waited in line for half an hour then spoke with a government drone. Emily produced the winning ticket, filled out the claims form, and was informed that there was another winner, so we'd only get half after all. Still, it was better than nothing, we made arrangements for the money to be deposited in our bank in Limon. We drove home knowing that in a little over a week; we could start doing some serious spending.

While we waited at home for the money to be deposited, Emily and Cha'Nara carefully went over the GPS data, making sure it was properly integrated into the spacecraft's navigation computer. We also "topped off" the charges to both power tubes, once the money started to flow in, I had planned to get a second Converter made as a back-up, Cha'Nara had suggested some minor changes to the original design to improve the charging rate. Finally the day arrived we had all been waiting for, the bank called and informed us that our winnings had been deposited. While Cha'Nara remained at home, Emily and I headed for town. We set up a couple more accounts with the bank, another one with another bank, bought life insurance policies, bought a ton of groceries and a whole lot of things we had been putting off, plus a few things we needed for the converter. Afterwards, Emily and I had dinner at one of the nicer places in town, checked into the local Quality Inn, and made love all night long.

After sleeping in, we headed home, I told Mr. Carter to go to the dealer of his choice and select a truck, we told Emily's parents that as soon as arrangements could be made, we wanted to pay off any debt they owed on the ranch, and set up an account to pay taxes. Naturally they protested, but we wouldn't hear of it, I called my mother and told her about our winnings, and that I wanted to do the same for her, pay off any outstanding debt. The day after that, we visited a local gun store and purchased an armory. Since they didn't usually carry what I had in mind, we had to order. For me, it was a Springfield M1A, with a Trijicon ACOG scope, a Benelli M4 Tactical shotgun, a Springfield armory .45 Auto, as well as a Sig Sauer P226 Semi-auto. Actually I did this over a week, lest I draw too much attention to myself. Emily bought her own stuff.

Which consisted primarily of an Armalite M4 modified carbine, A Sig Sauer P226, and a Benelli M4 shotgun like mine? Much of this hardware was proven in the 'Stan, once we got the weapons, a lot of customization would take place,

We hit the online places pretty hard, every place that sold high end weapons and components. Being combat vets, Emily and I saw stuff in action, what worked and what didn't. We also purchased Kevlar vests one for each of us as well as Cha'Nara since she would have to accompany us. I had planned to introduce her to the basics of shooting, but I really wasn't sure if she could handle it, we'd have to see. We purchased first aid kits, MRE's, knives, and a couple chain saws. Christ! We were like drunken sailors on a spree, Fed-Ex and UPS knew The Carter ranch like a second home. After much debate with Emily, I bought Cha'Nara a double barrel 20 gauge shotgun, I cut the barrel down to sixteen inches, and the stock leaving just a pistol grip, I modified a leg holster so she could reach it quickly. I also bought a stun gun and pepper spray.

I spent a couple days showing Pip how to fire the shotgun, emphasizing gun safety and proper handling procedures, loud noises bothered her so I got her a pair of hearing protectors. In the end, I satisfied that she wouldn't accidentally shoot herself, or one of us. Emily really put the fear of God in her about pointing guns at people unless you were going to kill them. As our "goodies" started coming in Emily and I added them to our personal weapons. For me, it was the ACOG scope for my M1A, red dot sights for all our pistols, an EO Tech sight for Emily's Armalite, Holographic tactical sights for the M4 shotguns, and a bipod for my M1A. I even found an on-line deal for a pair of night vision goggles. It was a cold and snowy day we sighted everything in but we decided from the "git-go" there would be no crappy antique guns for us, none of this "cowboy" shooting crap, it was going to superior firepower right on down the line.

We rounded out our equipment list with medical first aid kit's a surgical trauma kit, as well as a surgical suction pump, a decent tent, sleeping bags water filtration bags and filters, and last but not least, FOOD! We also purchased old west type clothing, for our disguises but planned to wear our Marine corps BDU's when we left. We packed every square inch of Cha'Nara's "unit' with gear, ammo and weapons, her little "Now you see it, Now you don't" device was used on the generator and converter, as they were too large to carry any other way. Work on the second converter was going slow, so Mr. Carter said he would pick it up when the shop finished it.

Poor Cha'Nara hated the cold and snow, especially the snow, she only went out in it to walk to the barn and where her spacecraft was hidden, she wore her hat and gloves indoors and always had on a sweatshirt over a heavy wool shirt. On the other hand, she was fascinated by the snow, never having experienced it, but just couldn't deal with Colorado winters.