Read Online My Cousin, the Alien by Pamela F. Service - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Pamela F. Service
Ads: Link
lying on my back staring vaguely at the stars when a figure came between me and them. Someone helped me sit up.
“So, you learned to use the power.”
“Yeah,” I said weakly. “But it’s not my. . . Ethan! Will he be all right?”
The stranger nodded. “I checked him over. He’s scratched and battered, but he’ll be fine. He’ll wake up soon.”
I looked at our rescuer and realized I’d seen her before. Somewhere. Yes. The white-haired lady from the Vulcan Wasser Pavilion, the one who’d also been on the boat trip! Her hair might be white, but clearly she wasn’t old or feeble.
“What. . .how. . .who. . .?” I stuttered, then tried again. “You’re an alien too, aren’t you?”
She smiled. “Of course. My name is Agent Sorn. And I apologize. We didn’t suspect things were going wrong, or we would have stepped in earlier.”
I looked at my cousin lying peacefully on the rock. “Are you going to take Ethan away?” I felt heavy waiting for the answer.
“Your cousin? Why should I take him away?”
“Well, I mean, if he’s a lost alien prince or something, and the bad guys have found him, won’t you have to hide him somewhere else? Or is it time to go back to his home planet anyway?”
For a moment she looked puzzled. Then she laughed. A sharp birdlike sound, it finally died into little chuckles. “I see what you must have been thinking. But no, your cousin’s not an alien.”
“He’s not?”
“No. You are.”
After everything that had been happening lately, you’d think nothing could surprise me. But those words sure did. They bounced around my mind but wouldn’t sink in.
“What was that again?”
“You are the alien here,” the woman said calmly. “When your parents adopted you, they didn’t realize you weren’t human, of course. Not even most doctors could tell. When we do an Agent Project, we choose representatives from compatible species.”
More words that weren’t sinking in. But something had. One word jabbed like a chip of ice. “I’m adopted?” That one word, and I felt like my brain had just exploded. My world certainly had.
“That’s the standard procedure. It’s important that the Agent be raised as if he, she, or it belongs on that planet—raised to be totally part of its culture.”
I must have looked as stunned and confused as I felt. She stopped and said, “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”
Numbly I shook my head.
“The problem is that I shouldn’t be explaining this at all—not now, anyway. Usually we let Agents fully mature in their adopted cultures before they’re told of their true natures. Ideally, we would have waited until you were in your twenties.”
I stared at her, still not getting much of this. “Maybe you could start by explaining who this ‘we’ is.”
“The Galactic Union. When a planet’s civilization becomes advanced enough, it is invited to join. The problem is, many species become very disturbed when they first learn they aren’t the most important thing in the universe— that there are thousands of other intelligent species, some of which are very different from themselves. We’ve found that the best way to open contact is to have an Agent on the planet who totally understands the local culture, who can act as an intermediary between the Galactic Union and the natives. So when the time is right, we introduce an Agent, as an infant, into a normal native family and let it mature and learn there.”
“Oh.” I shook my head, trying to get things to settle. Better go at this piece by piece. “So who are . . . were the fat, bald guys?”
She frowned. “Unfortunate. They were Gnairt. Gnairt are a piratical species who like to exploit planets before they are ready to join the Galactic Union. They want to keep Earth out longer so they can steal its natural resources and profit from private trading deals. Once they learned the Union had already planted its Agent here, their aim was to find and remove
“So, you learned to use the power.”
“Yeah,” I said weakly. “But it’s not my. . . Ethan! Will he be all right?”
The stranger nodded. “I checked him over. He’s scratched and battered, but he’ll be fine. He’ll wake up soon.”
I looked at our rescuer and realized I’d seen her before. Somewhere. Yes. The white-haired lady from the Vulcan Wasser Pavilion, the one who’d also been on the boat trip! Her hair might be white, but clearly she wasn’t old or feeble.
“What. . .how. . .who. . .?” I stuttered, then tried again. “You’re an alien too, aren’t you?”
She smiled. “Of course. My name is Agent Sorn. And I apologize. We didn’t suspect things were going wrong, or we would have stepped in earlier.”
I looked at my cousin lying peacefully on the rock. “Are you going to take Ethan away?” I felt heavy waiting for the answer.
“Your cousin? Why should I take him away?”
“Well, I mean, if he’s a lost alien prince or something, and the bad guys have found him, won’t you have to hide him somewhere else? Or is it time to go back to his home planet anyway?”
For a moment she looked puzzled. Then she laughed. A sharp birdlike sound, it finally died into little chuckles. “I see what you must have been thinking. But no, your cousin’s not an alien.”
“He’s not?”
“No. You are.”
After everything that had been happening lately, you’d think nothing could surprise me. But those words sure did. They bounced around my mind but wouldn’t sink in.
“What was that again?”
“You are the alien here,” the woman said calmly. “When your parents adopted you, they didn’t realize you weren’t human, of course. Not even most doctors could tell. When we do an Agent Project, we choose representatives from compatible species.”
More words that weren’t sinking in. But something had. One word jabbed like a chip of ice. “I’m adopted?” That one word, and I felt like my brain had just exploded. My world certainly had.
“That’s the standard procedure. It’s important that the Agent be raised as if he, she, or it belongs on that planet—raised to be totally part of its culture.”
I must have looked as stunned and confused as I felt. She stopped and said, “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”
Numbly I shook my head.
“The problem is that I shouldn’t be explaining this at all—not now, anyway. Usually we let Agents fully mature in their adopted cultures before they’re told of their true natures. Ideally, we would have waited until you were in your twenties.”
I stared at her, still not getting much of this. “Maybe you could start by explaining who this ‘we’ is.”
“The Galactic Union. When a planet’s civilization becomes advanced enough, it is invited to join. The problem is, many species become very disturbed when they first learn they aren’t the most important thing in the universe— that there are thousands of other intelligent species, some of which are very different from themselves. We’ve found that the best way to open contact is to have an Agent on the planet who totally understands the local culture, who can act as an intermediary between the Galactic Union and the natives. So when the time is right, we introduce an Agent, as an infant, into a normal native family and let it mature and learn there.”
“Oh.” I shook my head, trying to get things to settle. Better go at this piece by piece. “So who are . . . were the fat, bald guys?”
She frowned. “Unfortunate. They were Gnairt. Gnairt are a piratical species who like to exploit planets before they are ready to join the Galactic Union. They want to keep Earth out longer so they can steal its natural resources and profit from private trading deals. Once they learned the Union had already planted its Agent here, their aim was to find and remove
Similar Books
