the side of creature faded into black. There was crashing and tumbling and finally we were on the ground.
I climbed out of the plane first. The night was silent. I heard my Uncle's voice. “Dan. There are no bad guys left in the woods. We have some wounded men. Come out and help.” I followed Ben up the logging road. The leader of the FBI surveillance team was sitting up next to a tree trunk, binding a wound on his side and arm. He looked up. “What about Sam and Todd?'
Ben replied, “Sam is gone. I haven't looked for Todd yet.'
I said to the man, “Can you walk?'
He shook his head yes. “Up the road a little ways is a yellow submarine. Tabitha is there. We will meet you there with Todd.” The man stared with a blank look on his face. I pointed, “Go up the road.” I helped him up. When I turned, Ben was already making his way over a mass of broken trees. Ben was bending over something by the time I caught up to him. It was a man. Half of his face was burnt away and his left arm was missing at the shoulder.
Flashes of light and a rumble through the ground followed by a roar in the air. Ben looked up. “The farm is gone.'
The man was alive. Something had burned the stub of his arm keeping the bleeding under control. Ben finished checking him over. “We can move him. I will take the shoulders you lift the feet.” We picked our way around the dead fall. We had barely started when there were flashes in the sky followed by more explosions.
The FBI man was sitting in the same position but now his back was leaning against the submarine when we arrived with the wounded man. Tabby was looking over what was left of the flying sub. The front sphere looked like it was crushed from the inside and the wings were just broken stubs. “Tabby. We need to get the men out of the woods. Can we use the sub?'
“The back sphere is working and we have two wing spheres left on each side. If we put the wounded on top of the wings and power up the spheres, we should be able to push everything out of the woods backwards.'
“Let's get them on.'
Tabby was climbing into the submarine to turn the power on to the spheres when we heard the helicopters. Ben listened. “Marines. We should be safe heading back to the house.'
I was pushing on the wing next to the man without the arm. Tabby was on the other side while Ben pushed from in back. The yellow submarine moved easily. The vents on the wing spheres started to whistle. Blood from the wounded man dripped down the wing to the vent. Red strings of bloody air vibrated into the night sky. The melancholy sound from the whistling vents brought back a memory from my childhood. My grandmother would visit and tell stories and legends from Finland. One of the stories was about a mythical man who knew everything but was never able to find a wife or have a family. This man, Vainamoinen, would play and sing beautiful sad songs for the gods and all of the creatures of the earth. In my child's mind, I had always thought of the strings on the Vainamoinen's harp being a sad red in color. The harp Vainamoinen used was called a kantele. I knew I would call the gravity spheres kantele from now on.
We were coming close to the edge of the woods. Ben yelled, “Yo. Marines. Coming in with wounded.' “Who are you?'
“The wounded are FBI. The rest of us used to live at the farm.'
“Come out into the open and stop.'
We stepped out of the woods and into hell. There was an orange glow coming from where the buildings used to be. Red flares were marking the road and a landing site for the helicopters. Flashing lights from police cars and ambulances strobed just past the next dip in the road. Dark silhouettes ran across the orange, red, and flashing lights disappearing into the darkness of the surrounding fields.
Chapter 18
Rebuilding
I don't know what woke me. It could have been the throbbing headache or the hard ground. I woke trying to figure out where I was. Soft puffs of warm moist air touched my neck and I knew the warmth coming from my side was Tabitha. I moved, the throbbing increased, and claws sunk into my chest. Move-over had been lying on top of me. I opened my eyes and Move-over stared back. I remembered.
I left the tent with Tabby and Move-over still lying together.
Outside I could smell the wet burn of what was left of my farm buildings. It was midday. I looked across the farm. The missing buildings made everything look larger. The army trucks parked around the field gave the feeling of being on a low budget movie set. A single crow was sitting on a power line watching. There was less noise than I thought there would be. Men were moving around. Some were examining the destruction, others were moving back and forth with a seeming purpose, and a few stood around on obvious guard duty. I got a few steps from the tent and a young man in green stepped in front of me.
“Sorry, sir. You have to stay here.'
I smiled at the young man trying to stand straight and look soldierly. “Kid. I am not a sir. Why don't we just find someone that we can talk to?” I looked at the kid. I hurt too much to push around him but I was cranky enough not to give up.
“I'm Major Burrows. Corporal. You can stand guard. I will talk to Mr. Karpinen.'
“Yes, sir.'
I started to walk past the Major. “I am sorry sir but you will have to stay here till we are sure it is safe.'
“Major. We would be dead or fighting for our lives if it wasn't over. Don't you get it? We just won our first interstellar battle. And like I told the kid. Don't call me sir.
“I need a phone. You either find me one or I will walk to my neighbors.'
“Mr. Karpinen you just can't...'
“I can't what?” While the poor Major tried to figure out what to say and do, another man walked up. “Mr. Karpinen. I am Harry Zimmerman, FBI.'
“Good for you. Do you have a phone?'
“Yes. But we would like you to be discreet with who you talk to.'
I stood with my hand out until Zimmerman gave me his phone. I dialed Tabby's home. While I was waiting for one of her parents to pick up, I asked Zimmerman, “How is Felix and the other man?'
“They are stable...” I raised my hand stopping the conversation.
“Earl. Daniel here. Tabitha is alright. She is sleeping now ... Yes, there was a bit of a problem ... Do you know a good contractor for some fill work and a basement and septic? ... Really ... I'll have Tabby call when she wakes up ... Sure ... Bye.'
I looked up and saw the Major and Zimmerman watching me. “What's your problem? I got to get things fixed up before winter. Summers are short around here.” I saw Tabby climb out of the tent. I smiled. I knew the two men wouldn't have a chance now that she was awake.
A month later I was trying to make a new trailer house livable when Gertrude, a friend of my mother, came to the door with a casserole. By then everybody knew most of what had happened. Gerti said, “Dan you need to patent your work. I know you are busy here but the Coffee Klutch can handle it for you.'
“Gerti. What do you know about what I've been doing?'
“Well when you had your demonstration Oggie decided that aerospace would be a place to put some of our investments in. Well we bought into Lockheed Martin and got control of some proxies ... Anyway we know possibly more about what is being done with your discoveries than you do.'
“Okay, Gerti. If I have you take care of my patent rights and business, how much is the Coffee Klutch going to ask for?'
“Ten percent.'
Gerti convinced me to let the Coffee Klutch handle my business. I was just about broke. It seems that insurance companies don't payout for acts of war. The U of M still wanted me to work on their research project so they did foot the bill for a new metal shed. This one was insulated and fully wired for telecommunications and industrial power requirements. But the rest of the bills left me with just enough for a used trailer house. It was going to be a cold winter except for the warmth of Tabby and Move-over.
