Bones in the Sand, Julie Steimle [best books to read for students .TXT] 📗

glad to see she was no longer sulky. "Well...If you wanna hear a joke, have you heard about the one where - ?"

"Zeldar?" Kyle's voice bellowed from a few yards away.

Jafarr rolled his eyes.

"That explains why you're helping her! You rebellious Tarrn lover!" Kyle wished to dive down the rocks at them, but his voiced carried to well in his anger, and they were not that far from the FBI encampment. He knew whose side the very armed FBI would take.

Jafarr stood up and stepped between Kyle and Zormna. "Yeah? What of it? I happen to be proud of my family history."

Kyle stepped down the hill towards him. "Family history huh? Of rebels you mean. Zeldars have been nothing but trouble for Arras. Now I don't have to feel guilty killing you too, you filthy rat."

"Shut your mouth, you cockroach!" Zormna barked back over Jafarr's shoulder, bristling.

Kyle snarled at her. "Tainted blood, the both of you. Fitting really that a rotten flea of a Tarrn would put her trust in a Zeldar-Seer Class half breed. When I get my hands around that neck of yours, you'll wish I killed you with the steak fork yesterday."

Zormna shot Jafarr a dry look. "He has no logic in his head..."

Nodding, Jafarr shot back at Kyle, "I suggest you get your sorry butt away from Zormna and me. You already lost friends from your stint yesterday - so you really don't need to lose your little fan club by doing anything foolish today."

Yet that only got a smirk from Kyle as he bowed away.

"You'd better watch your back, sweet cheeks!" he said, blowing a kiss toward Zormna and Jafarr as he stepped toward the lab tent.

Zormna and Jafarr sat back together on the rocks.

"How long do you think before Steve gets angry with Kyle and throws him out of the tent?" Zormna asked bemusedly, watching Kyle enter the tent.

Jafarr's eyes watched with amusement. "I give him two minutes."

Zormna glanced at her watch, peeking at the minute hand. "I'd give him three. Sicamore's there, and they might talk a bit."

Jafarr nodded, and they waited and watched. The wind blew over the hill silently, stirring up the sand with a hollow sound. The distant song of quail cooed over the desert wind from the bushes nearby.

"Get out!" Steve's voice broke the desert silence.

Kyle tumbled backward through the tent flaps.

"How many?" Jafarr asked, peering at Zormna's watch.

She smiled with a shrug. "You were right. Two minutes."

He chuckled.

By noon, dusty and grinning with sunburns on their cheeks, the digging crews returned from the ship dig site.

"We just need crowbars, and we'll get that door open," one of the college students said.

Professor Pratte nodded. "I suppose we should inform the FBI agents."

 The student shook his head. "No, sir.  I think Mr. Sicamore has already been informed by one of his own men. They were at the site."

"And the girl and boy?" Professor Pratte asked.

The student shrugged. "I think they were watching from the hill. They've been sitting there playing cards for the last hour. I think they are counting on it being opened today."

"Have you told Professor Dumas?" his professor asked.

The man shook his head. "Not yet."

Professor Pratte nodded. "Alright then. Let everyone know we're going to open the door after lunch. I figure that will draw a crowd."

The young man left the camper and scampered to the student campsite.

Professor Pratte was left with his thoughts.

Ever since the day before, his perception of reality had tipped on its ear. He had thought the two young individuals that had come to the camp were aliens. But now that he knew his favored aide was one of them, he didn't know what to think.

He had thought Kyle to be an ordinary trustworthy sort. He had known him since he entered his department his freshman year, eager and wide-eyed. The professor had seen his high school record. Kyle was average. Not overly bright in comparison to so many others, but Kyle was determined to make something of himself. The thing that really ruffled the professor was that Kyle had also been a strong supporter of Professor Dumas's theories, which were that human life evolved and advanced on the earth. In fact, Kyle had said on a number of occasions that he did not believe in aliens and he hated anything that presented fantasy or supernatural phenomenon. Like Professor Dumas who was a highly intelligent skeptic, Kyle had stated time and again that he did not believe in anything that couldn't be proven by touch. But now the professor realized it had all been an act. Yet it was still so hard to believe that his favored aide was indeed one of the alien race of the crashed ship.

Thinking about them, the professor gazed out of his camper window. The two visitors were just passing by with their last granola bars in their hands. He could tell Jafarr was getting sick of them, but Zormna appeared not to be bothered. He had studied their movements, their body structure and their behavior toward the FBI since they had arrived. The two alien teenagers were always on their guard, ready to be attacked, and ready and able to fight back. That was why Kyle's first story was so believable. And yet the boy, Jafarr, had told the truth. The professor made sure, by asking others who had been with Jafarr and the FBI agent before he had run up the hill. Of course now, since the attack, the pair had become inseparable and even more on the alert than before.

He had also heard the rumors since the morning from the lab technicians who had put the bones and helmet in the box at Zormna's request. And he also heard the other rumors from those that relayed the stories Kyle had shared at the campfire....and their disgust at being lied to again by Kyle when they heard about what had happened in the tent and what the FBI agent Sicamore had to say on the subject. The rumor that Zormna was royalty in hiding, and Jafarr was acting as her bodyguard, kind of unsettled him. The agents had explained numerous times that she had been raised as a soldier, but that was less difficult to digest than thinking of her as a 'princess'.... Yet he even heard Kyle snidely referred to her as 'her highness'.

Kyle had lost most of his 'fan club' when her 'royal' status came up. In fact, only Janelle stuck by him.

"Professor! They're opening the ship now!" the voice of the first messenger called through the aluminum door.

Professor Pratte jumped up from his seat and shoved the door open, almost knocking the student to the ground. Hurrying along with the others that wanted to see the insides of the ship, he scrambled up the hill to where the ship still lay half imbedded under rock.

Zormna and Jafarr were already there, standing aside and watching the commotion. The FBI man Sicamore was waiting at the other side. Kyle stood apart from the crowd, feeling the animosity from his fellow students who now regarded him as a dirty spy. Standing not far from the two teenagers, Professor Dumas rubbed his bearded chin and squinted in the sun. Five men were attempting to open the door.

Panting and heavily sweating, one stopped, standing his crowbar aside. "It's no use. It's jammed."

Zormna snorted.

The other four men stopped and looked at her, massaging their muscles while leaning on their crowbars like walking sticks.

"Try again," Sicamore said. "The seal might have hardened, but I think you might have broken it."

Going at it again, they groaned and pushed and pried, but the door just wouldn't budge.

Zormna smirked and choked on a laugh.

One of the brawny crowbar wielding men stopped and glared at her. "You think you can open it?"

Zormna laughed and nodded. "It's probably locked."

All the men dropped their crowbars.

"Locked?" another exclaimed.

"But couldn't they have broken through the lock?" Agent Sicamore said.

Zormna shook her head, stepping toward the ship. "Not without the code. These locks are meant to keep air pressure secure, so no amount of huffing and pushing is going to change that."

Jafarr nodded in agreement.

"So can you open it?" Sicamore asked, swelling with irritation.

Smirking, Zormna said, "Compared to the box, this a piece of cake."

Only the FBI agents and Jafarr knew what she was referring to. The five men backed up from the ship as Zormna stepped down the hill to where they were working. She then set her hand to the side of the doorway, and with a little force, lifted a sliding panel that had merely appeared as a patch at the side of the door alongside the edge. Exposed, inside they saw a key pad very similar to any security entry lock, except the markings on it were different and there were five extra buttons. With effort, Zormna pushed in four square keys in the flat pad, each indenting until she finished. Then they popped out again.

Nothing happened.

"It's not opening," one of the men said.

She shot him a glare. "Be patient. There are several codes that they used on shuttles. I just didn't get the right one the first time."

She typed in another code. There was no reaction except the buttons popping out again.

"Maybe there is no more energy in the power cells," Jafarr offered already at her side, his eyes peeking back towards Kyle who was watching them darkly.

Zormna glanced at him. "These locks have a manual code. It should unlock at least, even if it no longer has energy to open its doors."

Jafarr shrugged, watching her type in another code.

This time they heard air hiss, popping, and a low drawn out gaseous sound. Sand fell out from the cracks in the door - but the door didn't lift open. She grinned smugly. Turning back to the men leaning on the crowbars, she said, "Now you can pry it open. It should be stiff from sitting for so long."

She stepped aside.

The men shrugged to each other. Picking up the heavy pointed bars, they stuck their crowbars into the slot again and pressed down to pry the door open. This time the door creaked and lifted.

The crowd behind them cheered.

But they only had it open a crack. They shoved the crowbars farther in between the gap, and one person brought out the car jack they were going to use to lift the door higher. Everyone watched as they lifted and strained for the jack to rest underneath. Once it fit, they rested and took turns pumping it. The jack could only lift the door so high, but it was high enough for them to prop the door open with the crowbars. Yet, just as they tried to, one guy leaned in as he propped it. The entire door suddenly slid inside the ceiling of the ship, leaving only about two inches of the door at the top where there was another key panel and a handle to close it from the inside.

Everyone stared from where they stood, taking in the dark gaping hole. The inside cabin wasn't large. It was about the size of Sicamore's silver trailer in width. The floor, when they looked at it, they saw had rubber-like grips at the step.

"Amazing," Professor Pratte murmured. His eyes squinted into the shade of the ancient ship cabin.

That was the consensus of the entire crowd staring in.

Professor Dumas walked closer to look into the door. He stopped at the step. He stuck his head inside. "Rather roomy in here. There's about five rows of seats in here, and the front has these nice cushy chairs." He pulled his head out and smiled at the dusty workers. "Want to have a rest? I think there is space for each of you."

The men laughed. Stepping in, they also ventured a look.

Professor Pratte tromped right over to the door, brushing the men away. "That's all very well.... Let me have a look!"

Agent Sicamore, flanked by Palmer and Powell, also walked toward the entrance, excusing the five workers to go