Ancient Birthright (52 page)

“That sounds good to me. Becca and I barely had time to wave at each other during the last mission,” Striker said.

“Duane, could you continue working with the engineers to get the living quarters back in operation?” Saigg asked. “Unless you feel you need to stay with the others going to the
Universe Explorer.
”

“I’d like to stay here and help. Once we get the other sections of the installation operational, I’ll rejoin the rest of my family on the
UE
.”

“Okay, let’s go. I know the people we picked up on Earth will appreciate the amenities and room on the
Explorer
over what we can provide here. By the time Beldon, Dantee, and I get back to Earth, it will be getting dark,” Saigg said.

Dantee trotted across the hangar and climbed the stairs to
Janna
. Saigg and Beldon followed at a slower pace.

“When we get there, I think you should approach the house by yourself,” Saigg told Beldon. “I think that if I go with you, the occupants may be too shocked to hear what you have to say.”

“You’re probably right, but let’s wait and see what the situation is before we make our final decision.”

Dantee had
Janna
prepared, and had passed her the coordinates of their destination by the time Saigg and Beldon climbed the stairs.

An hour later, they were settling on the helipad at the rear of the twenty-two room house of the network president. Their slow silent approach seemed to have gone unnoticed by the other homes in the area. Fortunately, they were all located at least a half mile away.

Saigg watched the panoramic VH display of the immediate area for movement or automated alarms. Nothing. “I think we made it undetected.
Janna
, are you registering any strange sounds or electronic activity in the immediate area?”

“No, Saigg, everything is quiet. I am picking up the sound of an entertainment device in the house, and my sensors indicate two humans in close proximity to the devuce.”

“I guess we might as well all go then,” Beldon said.

“
Janna
when we leave, close the access hatch and only open it if one of us or someone else from the Moon installation asks you to.”

“Yes, Saigg.”

The three cautiously walked to the kitchen door of the large house, keeping watch for anything unusual and listening for strange noises.

“Do we just walk in?” Dantee asked.

“No, usually there is a push button, it’s called a doorbell, that you press to signal the people inside that someone is at the door,” Beldon told her. “Maybe you and your dad should stand in the shadow beyond the light while I try the doorbell.”

Saigg and Dantee moved to the side and stepped into a deep shadow cast by a large ornamental bush. Beldon pressed the doorbell and waited. When nothing happened for several minutes, he pressed it again.

Finally, he heard footsteps approaching the door.

“Hey Dude, you could have come to the front door. You didn’t have to walk all the way around to the kitchen just to deliver a pizza,” a young male voice said as the door opened to show a boy of about fifteen.

“Hi, I’m Beldon Dumas, and I’m here to talk to Mr. Metzler,” Beldon told the surprised youth.

“My dad’s not home right now. He and mom went to an awards ceremony tonight. He won’t be home for a couple of hours.”

“Could I possibly come in and wait for him. It’s really important.”

“I don’t know. They don’t like us to let strangers in the house when they’re out.”

“What’s taking so long with the pizza,” a young girl about two years younger than the boy called as she crossed the kitchen.

“It’s not the pizza guy; it’s somebody who wants to talk to dad.”

“Hi, my name is Beldon, and we really need to talk to your dad tonight.”

“We?” said the girl looking past Beldon to the empty yard with the massive craft parked on the helipad. “What is that?” she asked pointing at the spaceship.

“That’s
Janna
, our spaceship,” Dantee said as she stepped up beside Beldon. “I’m Dantee, and it’s starting to get a little cool out here. It’s been one hell of a day, and we would really like to come in and wait for your parents to come home.”

The girl let out a startled “Eeep,” as she slid behind her older brother.

“What are you afraid of? You’re a whole lot bigger than I am,” Dantee said as she marched through the door and pulled a stool out from the eating island so she could sit.

The boy and girl froze in place with eyes like saucers. Beldon could imagine their brains trying to adjust to the fact that a two-foot tall dinosaur had just talked to them and sat down in their kitchen.

After a few seconds, the boy took a gasping breath to make up for the fact he’d been holding his breath, while his sister panted like a steam engine.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. Dantee is a real sweetheart. Why don’t we all sit down, and we’ll tell you what’s going on,” Beldon said.

The door chime rang, but with a different sound than the one Beldon had heard when he used the kitchen doorbell. “That’s probably your pizza, why don’t you guys pull up chairs by Dantee and get to know each other, and I’ll grab the pizza. Is it paid for?”

“Yeah, credit card, you just have to sign,” mumbled the boy as he slowly inched onto a stool.

“Okay.” Beldon headed for the front of the house, searching for the front door.

A couple of minutes later, he returned to the kitchen carrying a large pizza box, another with cinnamon bread and a two-liter bottle of Sprite. Beldon set the food on the island and looked at the two kids. “Dantee’s dad is waiting outside. I’m going to call him in. Is that okay?”

The two Metzler children just stared at him.

“Saigg, you want to join us. These guys were kind enough to order pizza,” Beldon called through the kitchen door.

“Hey, I’ve never had pizza before,” Saigg said as he walked into the kitchen and closed the door.

“Look in the cabinets over there and see if you can find some plates to put the pizza on,” Beldon said as he began opening doors looking for glasses.

Beldon returned to the island, set down five tumblers while Saigg found the plates, and brought them over.

“I’m Saigg Garuu, and I heard Beldon tell you that this is my daughter Dantee. What are your names?”

“Ah...Josh and Mandy...Metzler,” answered Josh a little breathlessly.

“Pizza...I haven’t had pizza since we blasted off in
Endeavour
.” Beldon flipped the pizza box open. “A super supreme with extra cheese—I think I’m in heaven.” Beldon pulled slices out of the box and loaded them on plates, then opened the Sprite and filled the tumblers.

Saigg and Dantee watched as Beldon poked the pointed end of the pizza slice in his mouth and bit down.

“Mmmmmmm, God, that’s good.”

Dantee picked up her slice of pizza, sniffed it then took a small bite. “He’s right, Dad. This is wonderful. It’s a whole lot better than the mushy stuff they had on the
Endeavour
. It’s a good thing Reedn’s not here, he’d eat the whole thing by himself.”

Saigg tested his pizza and smiled. “I’m going to come to Earth more often just to get pizza.”

“Eat kids, we didn’t mean to take over your meal, but like Dantee said, it’s been a long day,” Beldon mumbled around a mouth full of pizza.

“I think I should have ordered two,” Josh said as he watched the pizza disappear.

Beldon leaned back on his stool, snagged the cordless phone from the counter behind him, and handed it to Josh. “Go ahead and order another one since we have to wait for your folks to get back anyway.”

Josh took a large bite of pizza and chewed for a few seconds before he dialed the phone.

Mandy watched the strange band of visitors for several more minutes before she, too, began to eat.

Josh pressed a button on the phone and laid it down, “He said the pizza will be here in about thirty to forty minutes.”

“Great. That will give us time to get to know each other,” Beldon said as he slipped another slice of pizza from the box.

It took a while, but Josh and Mandy finally accepted the strange situation and began talking about themselves and their family.

“This Sprite is pretty good, but I like sweet drink better,” Dantee said.

“What’s sweet drink?” Mandy asked.

“It’s the main drinking liquid we get from our food units, other than water,” Dantee explained.

“I’d like to try it sometime,” Mandy said as she finished her Sprite.

“Let’s go get some from
Janna
,” Dantee said.

The two girls left the kitchen and headed for the spaceship.

Josh gave Beldon a wide-eyed alarmed look.

“It’s okay Josh. They’ll be back in a few minutes. Mandy will be all right,” Beldon told him. “So are you into sports?”

“Naah...I like science and computers. The video stuff dad deals with is pretty cool, too.”

“I was that way when I was your age. Computers were my life back then. The girls thought I was too much of a geek to talk to,” Beldon explained. “How about you, Saigg? What did you like when you were fifteen?”

“At fifteen, I hated authority and thought that thrustboarding was the only thing worth living for. I had this customized thrustboard that was faster and more maneuverable than anything my friends had.” Saigg eyes became unfocused as he reminisced about his exploits on the
Universe Explorer
.

The girls returned giggling and talking a mile a minute. Mandy had three disposacups of sweet drink, and Dantee carried two more.

“Josh, you should see their spaceship. Her name is
Janna
, and she is so cool to talk to. She’s like, super smart, and you would not believe the video screens, it’s like you’re in the picture. Dantee let me try some of the cakes they eat. They were good, but I like pizza better. Did you know Dantee gets to fly spaceships? She started before she was a year-old. Dantee invited me to come for a sleepover sometime. She has a brother the same age, and four younger brothers from the same clutch. They came down from the Moon to talk to dad, but Dantee said they’ve been to Earth three times already today, and out to the
Universe Explorer
once and twice to the Moon. Do you think mom and dad would let me go to the Moon to meet Reedn, Dantee’s brother? Oh, and
Janna
said to tell you the pizza delivery guy is coming up our street.”

Beldon was ready to take a deep breath for the excited Mandy, since he hadn’t seen her stop to breath during the entire monologue she’d just given.

Josh climbed off his stool. ”I’ll get the pizza.”

Half an hour later, the second pizza was just a memory, and the last piece of cinnamon bread was a distant thought. The girls went into the family room to talk and listen to music while the men stayed in the kitchen and exchanged anecdotes from their teen years.

Later, Saigg went to check on Dantee and reported that the two had fallen asleep on the couch cuddled up together.

“Mom and dad should be home soon. Dad has to leave for his office by eight in the morning to get through traffic, so he likes to get home before eleven on nights like this,” Josh told them. He had just completed his statement when they heard the garage door open.

“Saigg, could you go in with the girls for a few minutes until I can explain what’s going on?” Josh asked.

“Call me when you want me to join you,” Saigg told Josh.

The door leading to the garage opened, and a man and woman in evening dress stepped through.

“Mom, dad we have company.”

Beldon stood and folded the empty pizza boxes as he waited for the Metzler’s to get over their surprise.

“Mr. and Mrs. Metzler, I’m Beldon Dumas. Sorry to intrude like this, but I didn’t have any luck getting through on the phone today, and it’s really important that I speak to you about a vital project we need you to do on your TV network.”

“Mr. Dumas, I don’t do business at home, and especially at this hour of the night. How did you get here anyway, I didn’t see a car in the drive?”

“Well, I guess you could say I was dropped off. Please, Mr. Metzler, if I could just have a few minutes of your time, I’ll explain why I’m here.”

“I want you to leave my house immediately, if you don’t, I’ll call the police and have you arrested for trespassing,” an angry Metzler said.

“Dad, I think you should listen to what Beldon has to say. It’s really important, and I believe you’ll be glad that you did,” Josh said trying to calm his father.

“Mr. Metzler, when I said I was dropped off, I should have said that I dropped in to have a friendly chat and see if we could help each other. I parked my craft on your helipad, if you’d care to take a look,” Beldon told the angry man.

Mrs. Metzler pulled back the curtains on the kitchen door and looked into the back yard. “Oh my!” was all that came out as she turned very pale. “Harold, maybe you should listen to what Mr. Dumas has to say.”

“I’ll take care of this, Ginny. I don’t care how nice his helicopter is. He can make an appointment like anyone else who wants to pitch an idea to me.”

“Harold, he doesn’t have a helicopter.”

“What do you mean? He said he landed on the helipad.” Harold Metzler moved next to his wife to look out the window.

“What the hell is that?” he asked as he turned to Beldon.

“That’s
Janna
, our spaceship,” Beldon explained.

“W...where are you from,” gasped Metzler.

“Socorro, New Mexico, is where I grew up and went to school, but I lived at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for a while before my wife and I left on the
Endeavour
.”

“Normal people don’t just drop in in spaceships. Where are you really from? What planet?”

“Earth, everyone in this house is from Earth.”

“Dad, Beldon didn’t come here alone. Saigg and his daughter came with him. I asked Saigg to wait in the family room until I had a chance to explain things to you,” Josh said.

“Where’s Mandy?” Ginny Metzler’s face pinched in fear.

“She and Dantee, that’s my daughter, fell asleep on the couch.” Saigg stepped into the light of the kitchen. “Dantee told me she’d had a long hard day and couldn’t keep her eyes open another minute.”