The Vacation

Chapter 12

Stranded on a Sandbar

John sat at the kitchen island, his and Sam's laptops in front of him, side-by-side. He looked at the pictures on one and then compared to the pictures on the other. He'd magnify, go to the next, back and forth.

"You're going to kill your eyes."

John didn't bother to glance up at his sister. "I'll be the last one on this island to kill their eyes. Maybe." He nodded to the refrigerator. "Can you get me a beer and then pull up a chair?"

"You know, there is an easier way to do that." Sam pushed herself from the wall and did as her brother asked. Sitting down next to him, she peered closely, while opening her bottle of water.

He pushed both laptops to face her. "Show me."

Smirking, she split both sets of pictures onto one screen, Mars on the left and the Polynesian Island's on the right. She maneuvered back and forth until she found what seemed to be two similar carvings. She layered on over the other.

"God, they're identical."

"Question is, are there more?"

For a half an hour, Sam layered one after the other. Even the ones not identical, the carvings were eerily similar.

John turned Sam's laptop towards him and took a long pull on the bottom of his beer before exhaling. "Question is, which came first? The chicken or the egg?"

Sam laughed at his outward musing. "I would suspect our ruins here came after the ruins on Olduvai."

John was shaking his head. "Unless they started here and sent a colony to Mars, like we did."

"Or," Sam pulled the laptop to face her and magnified the original set of identical pictures. "The survivors escaped to here and either they forgot how to travel or they purposely destroyed Olduvai to keep what was up there from coming down here." She shuddered, remembering the red-eyed shadow on John's balcony a few weeks before, "If that's the case, they failed. Monsters came with them."

"They're heeeeeeeeere…" He started laughing when Sam began to pummel him. He let her wear herself out, puny little punches from her puny little fists. "You hit like a girl!" he snickered. "I'm either going to lower my punching bag or get you a box to stand on and teach you how to hit right!" He finished his beer, tossed the empty bottle into the trash and tapped the screen. "We need to finish clearing our ruin."

Sam finished the thought for him. "We need to figure out which ruin came first and then find out why there is a ruin here."

The Marine was snarling. "I get the stinky feeling this is a set up from the get-go. Either the government or your bosses knew this was here and they wanted us to find it."

"But they don't know we have the information downloaded from the computers from Olduvai with us."

"True that." He cocked his head to the side, pulling the computers back towards him. "Do you think Abby has a carbon dater?"

Sam finished her water and got up to grab a wine glass and the bottle from the frig. "I can't remember if she does. I don't think so." She turned to her brother, filling her glass. "She's not part of this set up. She's an anthropologist, here to study the natives."

John pushed up from his seat and away from the kitchen island. "Sam, if she discovers that her natives are really planet-hopping aliens that are stranded here and they're harboring super-soldiers with no remorse-filter, she's in grave danger." He nodded towards the computers.

Sam made quick work of saving everything to the flashdrives and removing them. She gripped them tightly in her hand before sliding them into the battery compartment of the vibrators sitting behind the computers. "What are we going to do?"

"We are going to pretend everything is A-O-K, Snafu, Systems normal, all fucked up." He headed to the back of the cottage, towards his room. He yelled over his shoulder, so she could hear. "You going with me every other day to the dig. On the days you're not with me, you will spend those days or afternoons Abby doesn't go into the jungle to work with her, pick her brain and scarf all the information you can about her natives, like you have been. File, copy and type up all of her notes! In the meantime," there was a pause, the rustling of clothes apparent, "I'm going to have a chat with JinJin and tell him to inform our benefactor that we need a carbon dating machine and that chromosome thingy like you had up on Olduvai. I'll let him know we don't need help, simply you're bored out of your skull and are simply needing something to occupy your time and keep your mind off your itchy ass and leg pins!" He exited his room and came down the hall wearing clean jeans and a decent flowery Hawaiian button up shirt. "But right this minute, we're going into town and hitting up that little burger place near the beach and eat!" He gave her his winningest smile. "And maybe, if I'm lucky, Abby will be there!"

As he corralled his sister towards the door, grabbing the keys to the house and the electric cart, and armed the defense mechanism, he mulled over a possibility his sister either hadn't mentioned or hadn't thought about.

What if both sets of ruins were created by the same group of people?

~~~...~~~

What was it about never-ending summer? Summer on the beach, cool beach breezes, the smell of pina coladas... Coconut?

Abby's scent?

John smelled her before she was able to sneak up behind them. He turned just as she prepared to jump.

"AAAARGH!"

Abby jumped backed, startled. "How do you do that? Ah man! Look!" She gazed down the front of her yellow sundress. "I spilled my drink all down the front of my newest acquisition!"

John jumped up, ready to be the hero. "Sorry." He took her food and leaking cup from her hands. He set her plate down next to his seat, so she was situated between him and his sister. "Tell me what you're drinking and I'll get you a replacement." Within seconds, he was off to the window of the walk up burger stand, leaking cup in hand, asking for another raspberry lemonade.

Abby sat down slowly. "He certainly is attentive."

Sam nodded. "Aye, he is."

Abby turned her paper tray around, trying to find a strategic point of attack. Finding a perfect angle, she picked up her burger. "How is your hip?"

Sam had a feeling she knew where that question was coming from. "It hurts. John says I'm not ready to go to the ruins every day. I'm wondering if you mind if I continue to work with you."

Abby was chewing solemnly. She finally swallowed, looking around for her missing drink. "Well, if you're in too much pain to go into the jungle to work with John, then going to the village won't be possibility." Seeing Sam's look of disappointment she hurried on. "I could use someone to type up my notes and scribbles a few hours a week like you've been doing." Sam brightened. "I don't even have to be there, if it's okay." Sam's smile became fake.

"You know, sometimes, I like girl talk." She bent down over her lunch as her brother returned.

"What?" He set the replacement plastic cup in front of Abby. For all of mankind's innovations, no one had found a better solution for plastic.

"I was telling Abby sometimes I needed someone to talk to besides you!"

John's expression was one of mock severity. "I'll take you to see JinJin!" He pointed over his shoulder. "You should see his personal quarters. Something out of 19th century British India!" He began to nod. "That will give you something to talk about!"

Abby back-handed him playfully. "You're so mean."

Sam was concentrating on sucking her lemonade through a straw. By the noise she was making, she was reaching the bottom. "He's very mean. All the time." Now, she looked up. "Girl talk. So desperately need."

By now, John was seemingly focused on his own food. "All archaeology digging and no girl talk makes Sam a very bitchy girl." He began to hum tunelessly. "The kind you don't take home to motherrrrrrrrr."

Abby was now laughing. "Okay, I get the picture. So!" She turned her attention to Sam. "How is the dig? Find anything amazing yet?" She caught the unspoken message that flashed between the twins. "What? Something you'd rather not talk about?"

John spoke up. "We have serious ruins."

Abby slammed her cup down. "What?"

"We have very serious ruins."

Abby's finger began to switch back and forth between the siblings. "Ruins. As in honest-to-God ancient archaeological stone carved-"

"Ruins."

Abby's jaw was now in the process of becoming unhinged. "Do you think Santoso's people are descendants?"

John shrugged and nodded to Sam. "She's the expert." He proceeded to shove fries in his mouth.

Sam took a deep breath and mentally prepared for a swift kick to her shin if she said too much. Her friend was opening herself way up and Sam mentally squashed any guilty thought she had. "We suspect yes. We don't know how old the ruins are and we don't know how long Santoso's people have been here. This area of the Pacific, islanders traveled. It could be an older, previous civilization; it could be Santosa's people ancestors. We just don't know."

Abby thought for a minute. "You know, this could tie in with my research if they are! I mean, it's completely out of my realm of expertise." She began to tap her fingers on the table, deep in thought, not realizing the Siblings Grimm were sending each other knowing glances across the table.

John swallowed the last of his burger. "This is such an exciting discovery, Abby. They are definitely old and we're being very careful not to damage anything. Sam brought some archaeological tools, but..." he shook his head. "What we're doing is very rudimentary, almost..."

"Amateurish." Sam completed for him.

Abby was beaming up at John. "The bug has bitten you."

"There are lots of bugs here. I get bit all the time." He gave himself a smack. "The gnats are vicious. Bloodsucking little Pacific vampires!" He checked his arm. "The dig is nothing serious. Just trying to keep busy."

Abby glared at the man. "You just told me you have very serious ruins."

"You act shocked." John was making rude noises, jacking off her straw

"I'm not shocked," she hissed. "I knew there had to be older portions of the settlement. Something... there isn't anything in the village." Her attention returned to her plate. "There should be more there, something of historical value, and there isn't."

Sam was sucking the bottom of her drink, the empty cup noise echoing over the sound of the surf. "If we could connect the ruins with the villagers... or... not..."

Abby's eyes lifted up to her friend. "I have a carbon dater, if that's what you're wondering. It's small. Hasn't been used much. Slightly out of date, but better than what they had seventy-five years ago!"

"Everything's better than it was seventy-five years ago." John was back to stuffing food in his mouth.

"You're disgusting," Sam lamented.

John leaned back and thumped his chest. "I'm a Marine!"

Abby laughed at his antics. "You've been lying to yourself." She turned back to Sam. "Anything else you might think you need that I might have?"

Sam didn't miss a beat. "A genetic and chromosomal analyzer."

"I've got one of those."

Both John and Sam gasped at the same time. "You do?" Sam was the first to gush.

Abby was looking back and forth between them. "Remember, I'm here because they're disease resistant; their immunity systems are near perfect. Wainright-"

"Would give their left nut to find a cure for pretty much anything from the common cold to cancer!" John finished for her.

"JOHN!"

"Well," Abby blushed. "I wouldn't put it that way."

"Sorry. Not."

"You know," Sam was musing, "I've been to your place to organize and type up your notes-"

"Which I can't thank you enough for."

Sam smiled. "And I don't remember seeing one of those." She shrugged. "I've been trying to organize your notes, make an equipment sheet so you'd have it at your fingertips."

Abby was gawking, as if trying to figure out what was going on. She'd known Sam for a long time. "It's probably buried in the spare bedroom. I've not had a use for it yet." She cocked her head to the side. "You have ruins. Impressive ruins and you'd like to connect them with Santoso and his village."

"Yes."

John waved his finger in the air. "How did you find out about this small group of indigenous people who have been off the radar like forever anyway?"

Abby took a breath. "When you first arrived, I told Sam about the villagers; they are intelligent, well-educated. They go through the motions of an education at the school in town, but many of them go on to well-known universities in the States and in Europe."

"One wonders where they get the money?"

Abby nodded. "Lots of money to be made in the tourist trade, I suppose. They own the entire island and have an office in town."

"Nice racket."

"Anyway," Abby continued, "one of them attended Columbia University. Ossi. He's Santoso's grandson or something. Majored in scientific engineering. He attended one of my lectures and told me I should visit, that I might be interested. I was looking for a new project and this fit the bill."

"Perfect timing."

Abby took the final bite of her fries and stood up with her drink. "I'll do what I can to help you connect the natives to your ruins. I can't get you a pee sample. You're going to have to figure out that one on your own. Good luck with that!" She turned to Abby. "My offer to find you a hunky native still stands. I understand one of their wandering sons is coming home for a few weeks. Santoso says he's every girl's dream!"

Sam smiled weakly. "We'll see. Thanks for the offer."

"Well, it's back to the grind for me. I'm working at home this afternoon, so if you want to join me, we'll find the carbon dater as well as the analyzer and whatever else I have and get them set up."

Sam's smile turned genuine. "I'll be there in an hour?"

"Sounds like a plan! See you then!" She waved to John and trotted off.

Both of the siblings watched as she bounded up on the boardwalk and disappeared up the stairs that led to the village before high-fiving each other.

"YES!"

~~~...~~~

The house was quiet. So very quiet. With Sam at Abby's getting a closer look at what Abby had, John was left alone with his own devices. He originally planned to watch some porn and do some naked sunbathing, but instead, he found himself sitting in front of his laptop, looking at things he'd tried to ignore.

There was an email from his Commanding Officer, General Leestrom. It was marked with a flashing yellow arrow, notating its importance. It was terse and to the point. Reading it, John could hear the man's growl and smell the cigar he knew he had been smoking when he wrote it.

"The conspiracy shit-blogs are at it again! Just when we think they've died down, someone jerks them back up again! Apparently they believe your little sister stole information, you helped set it up and the two of you destroyed the Ark as retaliation for your parents death! I lost almost an entire top ranked RRTS crew and I have your back, but damn it son, I need answers! Someone fucking important had a personal interest in a scientist there and he's pissed all that research is lost! Are you sure your sister doesn't know anything? Because if nothing survived and your sister lost it all, then you can expect a desk job when you come back, if you come back! How are you?"

John exhaled. A desk job. Sam lost intel and he would get the desk job! That would suck. For not the first time since discovering the ruins, he seriously considered not re-enlisting and going back to school to finish his degree. Help Sam.

Hang out with Abby.

And for not the first time, he wondered just how important Abby was to his future.

This is too fast.

He reached over and turned on the scrambler, knowing that this response would be slower than slow as the message he was going to send would be bounced through no less than a dozen satellites. General Leestrom knew where he was, but that didn't mean he wanted hackers between point A and B to know as well.

"Sir. My sister had nothing on her when we arrived topside. As you know, she was badly injured by an unfriendly. I didn't look for anything around her and wasn't aware she was squirreling intel. We were in a dangerous, deadly situation, and I simply wanted to get her and myself out. More than likely, such intel was left on Mars." He rolled back in his chair and studied the message again. In reading the missive, he'd missed the last line. "As for how I am, this place is almost as boring as a desk job."He didn't tell him about the natives or the ruins or even running on the beach.

He hit send.

The top spun slowly, the message taking its sweet time bouncing from satellite to satellite, giving one after another fake IP. The scrambler was created by the military, so it was the best of its kind. John wasn't worried about a hacker tracing him.

He was worried about the Feds...

For not the first time, he considered buying a cheap laptop with untraceable funds. Funds and programs not installed by the military. One that wasn't meant to go online.

The top stopped spinning, a sign the email was scrambled and sent to his CO's computer.

John's mind began to race. All of this, there was only one thing he could do to manage everything invading his mind at the same time. He changed into jogging shorts and a tank. He carefully armed the defense mechanism and grabbed the cottage keys. Making his way down to the beach, he began to jog at a steady pace and allowed his mind to roam.

Someone important... someone important... lovely. This was what he feared the most. 'Someone important' had to be the Feds and they wanted what was lost. Badly. It could be UAC, but they would have been pestering Sam as they were her employer. He'd have to ask Sam if they were questioning her. He thought she would tell him if they were. Nah, this was the Feds. They were watching Carmike's experiment, funded it. They provided him with his psychotic lab rat and were pissed to the fucking gills that none of it survived. It was exactly what they wanted Sam to retrieve.

But why would they want a psychotic serial killer enhanced to unkillable proportions? They had to know someone like that would be uncontrollable.

And why would they think threatening him with a desk job would change things? He would just not reenlist when the time came up within the next year.

But if he and Sam were still here, what would the consequences be if he didn't reenlist? Would their anonymous benefactor stop being beneficial?

What did they plan to do with Sam? If they ever found out he and Sam managed to bring a lot if not all of Carmike's and other scientific research from Mars, how far would they go to retrieve it? He had a feeling the two would disappear and no one would find the bodies.

There was no one who would look for the bodies, much less miss them.

Except maybe Abby.

All of a sudden, the battery compartments of Sam's vibrators didn't seem safe enough.

Nothing or nowhere did.

He was going to have to find alternative places to hide them and the external when it came in. And not together.

He was almost at the end of the beach, when he realized he was being watched.

By very unfriendly eyes.

tbc