strangetomato | Strangetown, Here We Come: Chapter Thirty-Three

Warnings: language, suggestion of sexual situations, suggestion of alien probings, and extreme cuteness in the form of an alien toddler.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Stella had been gone for only five minutes before Jayne picked up the phone.

She dialed the number and waited as the rings went in.

"Hello?" a voice asked.

"Yeah, hi," she said, "Can I speak to Johnny, please?"

"YOU?! What the hell do YOU want with him?!"

"Relax. I just need to speak to him, okay?"

"No! I will NOT relax! You have some fucking nerve! What makes you think I'm going to let you speak to him, after what you did to him?"

"So you're his gatekeeper now?"

"Damn right I am!"

Jayne let out a sigh. "Look, I heard about his father..."

"Yeah. AND?!"

"And I need to speak to him."

"Well, you should have thought about that before you had him abducted!"

"Ripp... be reasonable."

"I AM being reasonable! Look, Johnny's in a lot of pain right now, okay?" He paused for a moment to swallow. "And this is the last thing he needs."

"Look, I know. I get it. You don't have any reason to trust me, but I swear I have only good intentions this time. Well, I had good intentions to first time too, not that I expect—"

"Are you fucking KIDDING me?! You abducted him! Was he supposed to LIKE that?"

"Look, I don't expect you to understand, but trust me... he's going to want to talk to me."

"No..."

"His father's illness changes everything. This is serious, you know. With the virus here, on this planet, he's going to want to give this whole thing more thought.

"No... he doesn't. He doesn't want that."

"How do you know that? Are you him?"

"Well..." Ripp paused. The truth was he feared exactly what Jayne was suggesting, that this did change things for Johnny, but he didn't want to believe that.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Jayne continued. "I don't know what else to say. But I do need to speak to him. This is really serious. I mean, Stella's already fled for her life..."

"What?!"

"She's gone. She's leaving the planet."

"Already?!"

"Well, yeah! What do you expect? She's not going to wait around to catch it! Her life is in danger! Of course she's left already! She just left. They're picking her up over at the far end of campus."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Ripp?"

Nothing.

"RIPP?!"

There was nothing but dead air. He'd left without even hanging up the phone.

"Oh, for..." she muttered to herself as she slammed down the receiver. "Idiot!" Now she couldn't even call back.

She paused a moment, then tried Johnny's cell. Nothing. She received a message telling her he was outside the service area.

That cleared that up, at least. It seemed like she need not have bothered with Ripp anyway. Johnny had obviously already gone back to Strangetown.

Jayne paced the apartment, then finally settled down to sit on the futon.

What was she doing?

It was a question she hadn't really asked herself until that moment, or not directly, at least. She had grown so caught up Stella's plight that she hadn't stopped to consider it until recently. Was she doing the right thing? It was her battle too, wasn't it? She thought so.

Other times, she wasn't so sure.

Was she nothing more than a cog in the machine that Stella was helping to maintain?

After she had given Johnny up for abduction, she had felt real regret. It had all seemed like such a good idea in theory, and harmless enough.

But that idea had dissolved as soon as she saw the look of sheer terror on Johnny Smith's face.

She regretted that, but she still believed it was for the greater good. She'd done it for the right reasons.

And their plan had worked, to a point. She was sure it had gotten through to him, though he was obviously reluctant to accept their offer. He was thinking about it, though. She knew that much.

There had also been her other plan, which had worked nearly perfectly, to a point. Ripp had taken the bait. With the alpha male out of the way, the beta had made his move. It was Stella's analogy, not hers. An amusing observation, based on her research into animal sexuality, and oddly fitting.

But somehow, that hadn't really worked out the way she planned it at all. Territories had been drawn and negotiated, but not in the way she'd expected. She didn't know all the details, but she knew that it hadn't caused the damage to pack relations that she had been hoping for.

Part of her was relieved.

She could understand why Johnny couldn't bring himself to leave Ophelia, despite their best efforts.

He was in love with her.

He was in love with her, and nothing else mattered. She could understand that.

She was in love too.

She'd decided long ago that she would go with Stella and do her part for her species. Maybe she wouldn't be with Stella every day, but she'd see her sometimes, and that was better than never seeing her at all.

As a pollination technician, Stella would spend most of her days working on pollinations, but she would return to her planet to stock up on supplies, and they would be able to see each other then.

Stella would become part of a team of four pollination technicians. That was how they worked, in groups of four, each to their own spaceship, but looking out for each other. It was for safety reasons. With the way things were becoming, that was growing in importance.

Johnny's father had been in one of the very first teams of PTs to work on The Pollination Project, and Stella admired him very much. She had met him once, just before his retirement, when she was still very young. He had given her good advice for her future career.

Stella had also been in close contact with one of the currently active PT teams during her training and her years at LFT. They had been mentors to her. Two of these, PTs No. 59 and 88, had branched from the group after a disagreement regarding their methods. They weren't the only ones. There was a lot of friction among the ranks of the PTs these days, as fear of sim retaliation increased.

PTs No. 14 and 35 had been the ones to abduct Johnny and speak to him.

PT No. 88 had been Jayne's pollinator.

Stella had shown her an image of her "mother" or "father" or whatever s/he would be considered in the arrangement, and Jayne had been grateful for that. It had been hard to grow up without any idea of who her other parent was. The mystery had always occupied some small part of her consciousness.

Now Stella was returning to join with a team of her own and would begin her pollinating career.

Jayne wondered, what would Stella's team of PTs look like?

Stella had only been gone for about half an hour, and she already missed her more than she could describe.

"I will come back for you," Stella had said.

They would wait to see about Johnny. With his father dying, it wasn't the time, but that time would come. They would approach him again, and seek an answer. Then Stella would return, and take Jayne with her. As for Johnny, and possibly others, that remained to be seen.

But what was there for her to do now, while she waited? She couldn't go on counting the minutes, and staring at the walls got old pretty fast. Time seemed to have come to a halt.

No, Jayne couldn't stay there, now that Stella was gone.

It was time for her to go home.

"STELLAAAA!"

"Wait! Stella! STELLA!"

Stella stopped and turned around to see Ripp running to catch up with her.

"Yes, Ripp? What do you want?"

Ripp sputtered and panted and gasped for air. "I... just... are you leaving? Just like that? Without saying goodbye?"

"I have to go. I don't have time for goodbyes. Also, I haven't seen you in a long time. You stopped coming around."

"Oh, yeah... that. Well, I've been kinda busy. And, you know... the Johnny thing."

"The Johnny thing?"

"The abduction. Remember?"

"Yes. Why wouldn't I remember?"

"Listen, Stella... what do you want with Johnny, anyway? I mean, I know he's the llama's ass and all that, and he's PT No. 9's son...

"But he's not really all THAT special," Ripp insisted. "In fact, he's a huge fucking pain in the ass! You wouldn't want to have him on your planet at all—trust me!"

"If you say so."

"But the truth is that we need every hybrid we can get, and Johnny is a prime candidate. He's young and skilled and strong, as you know, and he'd make a good leader for our new colony. We need hybrids like him."

"But... well, yeah, but you're not forcing him, right? He does have a choice?"

"He does. It is not my plan that anyone should be forced. We have heavily suggested it to him, and I trust that he will make the right decision. You should worry about yourself, Ripp. Let Johnny decide for himself."

"I... am. I am doing that. I mean, there's nothing I can do, is there?"

"Is that all you came here to say?"

Well, no. Yeah. Sort of. I don't really know what else to say."

"How about goodbye? I should be going..." She turned to leave, then turned back to face Ripp again.

"Before I go, I will give you some advice."

"Advice?"

"Yes, advice. I have to be honest with you, for your own good. You should be very careful in the future. Very careful about becoming a target for abduction. As a single male, you may as well have a bullseye marked on your forehead."

"A target?" Ripp gulped. "Me?! I'm not a knowledge sim. I don't even have ANY sort of knowledge. I'm completely useless. Would they really want me?"

"I'm afraid so. If you go out by yourself after dark, there is a very good chance some PT will swoop down to beam you up."

After a moment, she added, "And that includes me."

"What?! Wait a minute! But you said you wouldn't knock me up. You promised!"

"That was different. I can no longer promise you that. After today, you become my target. I'm sorry, Ripp. That's the way it is now. I'm warning you for your own good."

"Yeah, well... thanks. I guess."

"You should settle down and reproduce. It will help your odds. But with the way some PTs have been acting, there is no guarantee."

"Settle down?"

"Yes. Maybe you have a favourite mating partner you could settle with and do some breeding?"

"Yeah, maybe. But I don't know, Stella. That's a lot to think about right now. I'm not sure I'm up to it, exactly."

"Well, I'll leave you to it."

She turned her head to where the spaceship hovered above them. "They're waiting for me."

"Well, I guess this is goodbye."

"Yes, goodbye. Thank you for helping me with my research. You were my favourite sex partner. Aside from Jayne, that is. You were very helpful to me."

"Well, no problem. It was my pleasure, believe me."

"Maybe we will meet again some day."

"Yeah, maybe." For his own sake, he hoped not. Not if it meant he'd be pollinated. "Well, then I guess this is it. Bye, Stella."

"Goodbye."

And with that, she left.

It wasn't long before Jayne returned home to be with her father, who was now past his elder transition, and to Arthur, her baby brother, who was about to become a toddler.

They celebrated the occasion with a birthday cake, but the event was a rather subdued one.

Afterwards, they retired to the living room, and spoke about their respective artistic endeavors. Jayne was still painting, and her father was always anxious to hear about her work.

They didn't speak about alien matters, but it wasn't long before the topic came up on its own.

The television had been on in the background, unnoticed, until a fragment of a news story caught their attention.

"...This isn't the first time an alien spacecraft has crashed into Sim Earth. A similar incident took place in Strangetown, nearly ten years ago."

"What?" Jayne rushed to the screen.

"The recent event was clearly linked to an abduction, as residents in Desiderata Valley had been attracted from their homes earlier that night.

An adult male, scientist Edward Contrary, and his partner in both marriage and research, Opal, were abducted earlier that night, but they were not returned to his home in the typical manner, and instead plummeted in the crash, along with the craft's sole alien occupant.

The military has secured the crash site, and will question the abductees before releasing them to the hospital. They have also taken the alien abductor, who refer themselves as 'pollination technicians,' into their custody. They have released no details, but a witness has leaked the following image to the press."

Jayne observed the screen. "That's PT No. 59," she said. "One of the team of four that recently split into two factions. He's been one of the ones who have been acting carelessly. 'Gone renegade,' as Stella said, and this just proves it."

"A married couple, nearly elders, retired and with a grown child... it just doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Well, they were people of science," remarked Mr. Doe. "That isn't such a bad bet, is it?"

"No, but it's all very risky. What if one of them dies in childbirth? That will make us seem like predators who don't care at all for our victims!"

"Us?"

Jayne turned from her father. "I think you know what I'm referrring to."

He did, but they didn't speak further about it. That would come soon enough.

"Dad, your second abduction could have killed you too. Their actions are dangerous, and they put the whole mission in jeopardy. Public opposition is at an all-time high."

"Yet you still believe that it's important?"

"I'm a part of it, whether I want to be or not."

"You could choose to live your life as a sim, regardless of that connection."

"That wouldn't feel right to me."

"So you've decided to marry him? This Johnny Smith character?" He tried to hide his distaste for the whole affair, but it was difficult, as always.

"Not exactly." Jayne searched for the right words. "I'll be leaving the planet, either way. And he might come too. It depends on how things fall into place. But I'll be going, one way or the other, and I do plan to have children there, whether it's with Johnny or with some other hybrid sim."

"So you give no more care to it than that?"

"It's a different way of thinking. You can't think with a sim mind and fully understand it. I came to understand it from Stella. Remember I mentioned her? Anyway, she explained it all to me and I understand where they're coming from. They fall into their roles, and they do it for the common good."

"And you really feel that this is right for you?"

"Yes, I think maybe it is. I feel connected to it. I think I have a place in it. It's my heritage."

Beneath her feet, Arthur cried for attention.

Jayne bent down and picked up the child. "Maybe one day, you'll come join us there too, eh Arthur?"

Arthur giggled and cooed in response, since he wasn't much of a talker yet.

"If he wants to," corrected Mr. Doe. "I won't have him forced into something he doesn't want."

She could hear in his statement a reference to his own part in the mission of the aliens, which had not been willingly given, though he had never openly bemoaned it. he had been a good father to her, as he would be to Arthur, but she could only begin to imagine what it had cost him as a person.

"It's going to be fine, Dad." Jayne tickled Arthur, and he cried out in laughter again. "It'll be exciting, starting up a whole new colony like that. We'll be able to draw from our own sim heritage and make it work in the context of that planet and their culture."

"Well, I'll give them one thing. It is a much better idea to bring this mission back to their own planet. Many people resent the presence of the hybrids here."

"Exactly. We'll move as many of them as we can, and then there will be less reason to retaliate against us."

There had been another news item that reflected that growing concern, and more of these stories appeared daily.

A young man, both a hybrid alien and a successful dancer, had been attacked and beaten on the streets of Sim City.

He had been reluctant to agree that the attack had been related to his hybrid status, but the media had ran with it anyway. There had been much public debate about the issue and anything at all became fodder for the growing media frenzy.

"But they won't all leave," Mr. Doe said, gravely. "What would the aliens do? Start kidnapping the babies from their cribs before they have a choice?"

Jayne didn't answer. If it came to that, she had no doubt they would. Stella had even mentioned the possibility of hybrid PTs, sent to abduct and impregnate other hybrid sims who refused to leave Sim Earth. Would she herself consent to take on that mission? It felt like they would be forcing those that specifically wished to remain as regular sims, but did they have the luxury of choice?

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," Jayne said.

Mr. Doe paused for a couple of beats before offering a reaction. "Be careful," he said, though he knew she'd behave as she wanted to, regardless of whether he said so or not.

He watched her leave, still thinking about her as a child, a toddler, an infant. There had been a time when he could protect her, but now he could only hope she'd do the same for herself.

He often wished he'd never let the old alien in through his front door. That was when it had still been his choice to make. After that moment, he no longer had the right to make decisions for Jayne. It was her life and her choice. He wouldn't deny her that, even if he could.

That didn't mean he had to like it.

He stood above the crib, and watched his son calmly sleeping. For now, none of this concerned Arthur.

For now.

He wished it could remain that way, but he knew that his son’s day would also come.

Jayne approached the cheery yellow house, surrounded by a lush green lawn.

She noticed him, sitting on the veranda. Even from a distance, it was obviously Johnny.

He had a very distinct stature, and there was that trademark shock of sunny blond hair. She'd recognize it anywhere. She was relieved that she wouldn't have to ring the bell, but still felt a reluctance as she drew nearer to him. He didn't turn his head, but she was sure he could sense her approaching.

He wouldn't turn his head; Johnny Smith was like that. It was both infuriating and attractive to her at the same time.

She stood for a moment before speaking.

"Hi, Johnny."

He finally let himself look up, and when their eyes met, he seemed suddenly very unfamiliar to her. There was something there, in his face, that she'd never seen before.