Together, Tow and Cuddy walked forward—deeper and deeper into that starlit brightness that increased with their every step. Squinting now—the light becoming too bright to see into—brighter than the Sun—Jackie was forced to hold a hand before her eyes. And then, just as suddenly, the blinding light was gone, the musical tones quieted. The swirling stars were now moving in the opposite direction—returning back to the pod. The heritage pod’s giant leaves began to rise off the deck and reform into their original pod-like shape. Jackie’s eyes roamed the space—searching for Tow and Cuddy. They weren’t there. They were gone. Her mind raced… had Cuddy delivered Tow into that incredible afterlife realm… never to return? Without so much as saying a goodbye? Suddenly, her sense of loss was profound, but then, all too quickly, her sadness turned to anger. Her hands tightened into fists, her breath quickening with the passage of every progressive second. How could he… just leave us here? Leave me here?
The glittering lights were all but gone now, hastening their rate as they funneled into the top of the heritage pod. All but one.
Jackie took a hesitant step forward, her eyes not wavering from the barely perceptive, yet increasing in size, light. Cuddy’s form soon took shape and she saw him walking toward her—crossing from that ethereal realm of glittering stars, an infinite universe—back to the everyday reality of the here and now.
Running toward him before she realized it, her arms open, she pulled Cuddy to her with desperation—with hunger for closeness she was unaware she felt. Burying her face into his chest, she sobbed uncontrollably as his strong arms enveloped her. Then she heard his voice by her ear. “It was so beautiful there, Jackie, like nothing you could possibly imagine. But it wasn’t my time to stay. And I felt you… felt you pulling me back here.”
Suddenly embarrassed, Jackie pushed herself away. Briefly looking up, without making eye contact, she noted the tears on his cheeks.
He said, “I wish… I wish he didn’t have to leave. I already miss him.”
“You said something… before. You said, maybe someday?”
Cuddy didn’t reply, instead stared across at the lone body, lying on the deck. “I now must bury my friend.”
Jackie watched Cuddy move away and head toward Tow’s body. She hadn’t realized it until that very moment, but what she’d earlier witnessed was something else… perhaps Tow’s essence—rising up, departing. What remained here was simply his discarded form.
Gently, Cuddy picked up Tow’s body. The AI orb, hovering mere feet away, stayed close by them. As Cuddy passed Jackie, he requested, “In the hold… can you find me something to dig with.”
Dusk had now turned into night and a waxing moon was providing just enough light to see by. Deep in the woods, they discovered seven elongated mounds of soil. Cuddy had found the burial site of Tow’s deceased crewmembers. Although Kyle offered, Cuddy insisted that he, himself, should dig Tow’s grave, and then made it as deep and symmetrical a rectangle as he could manage.
Perspiration and dirt covered Cuddy from head to toe. Now, standing within the six-foot-deep hole, he reached up a hand. Tony and Kyle pulled him up and out, and then—with their help—lowered Tow’s body into the grave. Taking turns, they refilled the hole, shoveling in the piled up soil around it.
Cuddy spent several minutes looking for eight round rocks—each approximately the same size—and set them in a pile. When the last one dropped onto the pile, Cuddy turned to the AI orb, hovering nearby. He gestured toward the rocks then toward the elongated mound of soil. The orb moved with silent efficiency—taking ahold, one by one, one rock after another, delivering each to the head of the mound of Tow’s grave, then placed them around the top of the gravesite forming a perfect circle.
Jackie questioned, “Eight… the number of crewmembers on the Evermore?”
Cuddy nodded and attempted a smile. She smiled back, though she still hadn’t made eye contact with him since their embrace. He didn’t fully understand the whole situation.
Tony Bone asked, “What now?” turning toward Kyle, who was patting dust and dirt from his jeans. Kyle shrugged and looked at Jackie, then at Cuddy.
“Now… we take back our planet,” Cuddy told them.
Chapter 32
They were running now—Cuddy, Jackie, Kyle and Tony. They leapt over the babbling brook, heading toward the edge of the forest where it met the Perkins’ property-line boundary. Rufus and the AI orb easily kept pace as the four hurried around the corral, into the barn, then out the other side. The horse was in the pasture, eating hay.
Cuddy yelled to the orb, “Get to the ship… I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
The AI orb did as it was instructed, while the others detoured left—toward the house. Cuddy, first to reach the porch, noted the battered screen door and that the front door was both closed and locked. Pounding on it with a clenched fist, he yelled, “Momma?”
He knocked again, then looked back at Kyle. Shrugging, his brother leapt from the porch and moved around to the large front-facing kitchen window. He brought his face close to the glass and peered in. “It’s dark… can’t see a thing inside.”
“There!” Jackie said. “My car.”
Cuddy watched her quickly stride across the old wooden planks, hop off the porch, and then hurry over to her car. In the dark, he’d missed it—a piece of white notebook paper lay pinned beneath one of the windshield wipers.
Jackie pulled it free and began to read. After several beats she looked up and, cocking her head to one side, smiling, said, “She’s gone.”
“Momma?”
“I guess Officer Plumkin brought her car back. She left right after that… says she’s at the hospital. Got freaked out being all alone here, with those dead aliens lying around.”
“Can’t really blame her,” Tony said. “I’m a little creeped out myself.”
All eyes went to Cuddy. “We can’t wait,” he said, looking at Kyle. “Are you coming with me?”
The question took Kyle off guard. “You need to ask? Yeah… I’m coming!”
“I’m coming too!” Jackie said.
Cuddy stared back at her for a long moment. “You can’t… you can’t come with us.”
“Why not! What are you talking about?”
“It’s something Tow told me before… before he left. He told me you were to stay here when we took off in the Howsh ship, along with some other things as well. He was very clear… you were not to travel with us.”
“Well, too bad, I’m going anyway.”
“If we survive… we’ll be back for the Evermore, and the other thing I will then need to do.”
“Other thing?” Kyle asked.
Jackie answered the question first, clearly angry. “Take the Evermore—the heritage pod—to some flippin’ world on the other side of the galaxy. That’s all… no big deal. But first, he has to run off and fight two alien spacecraft. Hey, it’s all in a day’s work, right? You don’t need me…”
“I’m sorry, Jackie. Please tell Momma, well… just tell her goodbye for me… for us, okay?”
Tony broke the tension: “Hey, maybe I should stay here, too. Go with Jackie back to the hospital.”
Fuming, Jackie still continued to glare at Cuddy. “No… go with them, Tony,” she said firmly, bringing her attention to him. “They’ll need your help.”