Angelika Queen Of Mars

Chapter 32

Chapter 32 Natural Born World Shaker

Our friends were gone, it was just Dori and I now. The house seemed so quiet now, the kitchen became a very lonely place, but I couldn't afford to let it get me down. It was just the two of us working at the store, however Kaitlan and Robert would stop by from time to time to offer any help. Right after The Kor'Math, and Giuffrida had left, we kept watching the news for the first indication that the government had been alerted as to the fact that Angelika had paid them visit.

It was close to two days before a small news item reported that the "Queen of Mars," had paid us a visit. There was no mention of where she had visited, which was strange. Even more puzzling, was the fact that there was absolutely no mention made of the video we had left with the store clerk, I knew she must have contacted NASA or possibly the FBI right away, they were sitting on this story, for some reason, and after a lot of speculation, I thought I had the answer. The government had to be worried about Angelika, and how the public might react to her message. No doubt she had pissed off some governmental functionary to the point that they didn't want the public to see this video.

I also began to browse the internet looking for anything about our little "visit," to Judith. Finally I discovered a small story in he Missoula newspaper telling of how the "Queen of Mars and three friends appeared at the Judith Quick Stop at closing time, seeking nothing more than coffee. The store clerk's name was not mentioned, nor was any reference to Angelika's first visit. I also received a brief mention in that,

"Along with the "Queen's" two companions, was a male believed to be in his mid twenties. The man was heavily disguised and wearing dark glasses. It is suspected that he is from right here in the US, authorities are seeking his whereabouts."

I re-read the small article several times, and scanned following papers, but there was no more information forthcoming about our little "road trip." The part about the government seeking someone living in the US had me a bit worried, which is why I decided not to call the Quick Stop for fear their phone might be tapped, the same for calling the Missoula newspaper over their story, you just never knew. One thing I did know, was that everyone was obsessed with what was going on Europa. Fueled by a reckless news media, many were convinced an invasion was imminent, while still more simply didn't understand "What them crazy aliens was up to."

Dori and I spent a lot of time discussing what might be going on, she couldn't believe that the government was hiding all this, I wondered why the press was sitting on the story, but thinking of the way they covered the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, I answered my own question. In the meantime, I did what I could to work on the old house, and called in contractors to repair what I couldn't, such as upgrading the wiring, and putting on a new roof. I also had a company come in and construct a heated storage building.

It was basically a pole barn type of structure, but I had it built next to the clearing where the Giuffrida landed.

The building was built high, and with a 45 degree radius in it, sparking curiosity in the contractor. I simply told him I had my reasons and left it at that. We were making a lot of money at our endeavors along with the fact that Moreck authorized the buildings construction, so I could do this thing right. Since the building's height was merely to conceal the Giuffrida while it was on the ground a floor/ceiling was added as well as insulated saving on our heating/cooling bills. I had a dock on one side, so all I had to do was back the truck in and unload. The building also had a concrete floor, a bathroom with shower, a kitchen unit, as well as a room with bunks to relieve the bed shortage at the house. I also installed a small office equipped with satellite wi-fi, although later another form of communications was added, allowing me to talk to any Falthian vessel in space, but more on that later.

The whole thing took a couple of months to build, but when it was done I had a nice storage facility in which to store our coffee and sacks of peanuts disguised as an innocuous farm shed. I even moved my small tractor along with everything I'd been storing in the garage and old shed into this new building to disguise it even more.

Probably the most complicated part of our job was converting the gold that the Falthians always paid us in. Early on, I had recommended that we receive payment in gold coins, so Moreck and Branak had the gold copied to look like modern gold coins such as Krugerrands, American double eagles, or more modern coins at exactly one ounce.

Apparently this was also done back in the day when the Falthians were coming here to harvest St. Johns Wort, and walnuts. Through trial and error, we settled on a company that was discreet and didn't ask questions. Gold was gold, once ounce coins of almost pure gold really put us in the "chips" early on, anyway it worked, and no one was the wiser, call it counterfeiting, but like I said, gold was gold no matter where it came from. The best thing about it was the fact that gold didn't have the value it did here on earth, Morbidium was the metal the Falthians truly valued, gold was an industrial metal used primarily in electrical circuits and certain engine components.

I was still trying to find someone to fill out our training cadre but so far was striking out. I had gone through everyone I remembered from my old unit as well as names offered by Carman. Everyone was either involved in something else, still serving, or moved on with their lives. One day Dori and I were working at the store when a man about my age came in, he was obviously a native American and I didn't give him too much attention at first. I heard Dori talking to him then something in my head told me to check this guy out. I got up to talk to him, offering a cup of coffee,

He introduced himself as Kevin LeBeau, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe.

"I got out of the army last year, and have been pounding the pavement looking for work ever since, I've been thinking about re-upping, as my only option, although one I'd rather not do."

"Didn't like the military?" I asked,

"Hell! I loved it," he replied, but the army's changing, lots of stuff going on I don't care for, I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet, a guys gotta eat, plus my mother and sister are still livin on the rez and I've been trying to help them out." Something about this guy had caught my attention, so I asked,

"What was your MOS?"

"Nineteen Delta, Cav scout," he then chuckled,

"It's what any of my family have done since way back, I've got an ancestor who was at the Little Bighorn, my grandfather served with Patton, my dad was actually with the seventh Cav in Europe during Viet Nam, now here I am just carrying on the tradition."

We sat and talked for the better part of the morning, then I invited him to lunch learning everything I could about this guy, finally I said to him.

"Obviously you realize I don't have anything for you here, however you interest me, I just may have something else to offer you. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much other than I'm involved in a training cadre, we need another man, and your skills would fit right in. Your army, the rest of us are marines, but we won't hold that against you. The job is not in this country, you would be assisting us in training a…um…Foreign military. This is not a combat situation so you don't need to worry about getting shot. I'm unable to tell you where this place is at the moment, you're just going to have to trust me and make a leap of faith, oh and the job pays in gold."

Kevin was clearly interested, but showed signs of concern."

"What about my mom and sister?" he asked, "I would need to get them money somehow."

"Well we're looking at two to three years out of the country," I replied,

"if you were to accept this offer, we would set up an account with the bank we deal with, anything you were to send back would be deposited in the account so your mom could draw on it." He continued to ask me more questions, I answered what I could, until finally.

"Here's the deal Kevin," I stated, "If your interested, we could certainly use you. As far as the job goes, I can't tell you anymore than I already have other than we're not involved in anything illegal, for security purposes I can tell you no more until such time as we leave. We've got a great group of guys so you'd fit right in. Go home, talk it over with your mom. If you decide to join us, show up here, with a duffel, bringing all your old uniforms, replace anything that's worn. If you have any "toys," bring them as well including all the ammo you can get your hands on, it's not that our hosts won't supply ammo, it's just that they don't use what we use." This last comment puzzled him, but I didn't elaborate.

Despite my evasive answers, Kevin remained enthused by my offer but promising to talk it over with his mother and sister before making up his mind.

"Transportation will be provided, but I don't expect any action on this for at least three weeks, I've explained everything as much as I can, if you decide to pass on this, I'll understand. However, if what I've told you grabs your interest, show up here Saturday morning in three weeks ready to go." That evening, I talked it over with Dori who also thought he looked like a promising candidate,

"Time will tell," I sighed, "We'll see if he shows up in three weeks."

Dori's English skills had improved to a point that everybody thought she was from Poland or Russia, so we let it go at that, I steadily built up her "paper trail," social security card, bank account and charge card ID's. Technically, she was an illegal alien, so I made some very discreet inquiries concerning a birth certificate. If half of Mexico could game the system, she could too, one thing was for certain, her unusual hairstyle was catching on with the punk, and Goth set in and around Deadwood. After awhile we started seeing girls sporting identical hairstyles, some with just half their head shaved, some going all the way with an elaborate tattoo like Dori.

On several occasions she was actually stopped on the street by curious females asking about her unusual hairstyle.

Although she had explained the reason for her hair being the way it was when we first met, she reminded me,

"One of her first duties as queen was to make me her "Kourska," which as Dori explained it was to bind her to the royal family in a sort of personnel representative role as well as a sort of private secretary. The tattoo indicated she was a member of the royal house and any and all dealings with her were in fact dealings with the royal house. Dori tried to explain further but I only got more confused. I tried to compare it with the old English system of kings and queens, but there were just too many subtleties to make any sense of the situation.

"All that is gone now," sighed Dori, "Perhaps it is for the best, Angelika, Sharla and I will always be the closest of friends." It was at this point I made suggestion,

"Dori, why don't you write a story about your life? There are sites on the internet that encourage new writers with stories to tell, I'll be glad to help you whenever I can, there are software programs that can assist you as well. Now naturally you'd have to write your story as science fiction, but it's something to think about." She seemed disinterested at first, but after a week or so, Dori asked me about writing. Eventually, Carman would help her as well, but slowly my wife began to "find" herself in her writing with signing up on a creative writing website being one of her first efforts.

Both of us had been so busy with the business as well as the contractors we had almost lost track of time. One Saturday morning I had just finished unloading a coffee shipment from a freight delivery truck when Kaitlan informed me that there was a guy here to see me, it was Kevin LeBeau.

"I really thought about your offer sir," he said, "Mom isn't too keen on it but considering her situation, she has accepted it, so here I am ready to go." Smiling, I shook his hand,

"I'm really glad you decided to come on board with us Kevin, we'll go down to the bank right now and get your account set up, it might still be a week possibly two before we can get going but you're more than welcome out to the house. It will also be a good opportunity to do a little running and get back in shape."

By now the house repairs were almost done, the electrician still had to run electricity out to the new shed which was almost done as well. Time was growing near as I worried about the contractor finishing the shed, the heating guy was dragging his feet, so I was resigned to Carman wrapping things up, the coffee and bags of peanuts were all out here in the new building, Kevin and I ran every morning, his curiosity driving him to ask more questions concerning the great unknown he had elected to enter. A little over a week later, he had his answer,

"Hmm, sounds like thunder," he observed as we were in the living room watching TV.

Dori and I chuckled,

"Sorry Kevin," I replied, "Our "ride" is here, prepare to be astounded."