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

toward the watching crowd. None of them took to it well, but decided not to argue with the men since they carried guns. Agent Sicamore approached Professor Pratte.

"I think perhaps we had better regulate the inspection of this place before the contents are destroyed, sir?" Sicamore said, gesturing back outside. "Even those two kids are waiting before entering. Perhaps a little caution is warranted?"

Professor Pratte stepped out from the door with a glance at Zormna and Jafarr. The pair had retreated a few yards away on a rock where they were whispering together in their tongue, peeking at the door. Their eyes were intense with thoughts, and planning.

The FBI agents 'gently escorted' Professor Dumas out of the ship's entrance.

"Of all the - " The fat professor blustered, trying to shake them off as they nudged him away from the buried space craft.

Professor Pratte raised his voice to Zormna and Jafarr. "What say you? Are you going to have your little peek?"

They stopped their conversation in their language and looked over at him.

"What was that?" Jafarr replied, blinking his dark eyes at him.

Professor Pratte stepped towards them, away from the opened ship. "I said: Are you going to have your peek? That's why you came here isn't it?"

Zormna shrugged. "I've seen one of those ships before. I really don't need to -  Ow!"

Jafarr elbowed her in the ribs. "I'd like a look if you don't mind."

The FBI agents and the professors stepped back. Jafarr walked toward the open door with Zormna following. She was rubbing her ribs, scowling at him. Jafarr stepped inside, glancing about the dark cabin. He then walked over to the front to the pilot and copilot seats. Zormna stood in the center of the room and glanced around.

"Isn't it a little dark?" she murmured. "Where are the auxiliary lights?"

Jafarr shrugged, peering over the control panels, stroking up dust with curiosity. "Perhaps they burned out five thousand years ago. It's an old ship, Zormna."

Zormna squinted in the darkness and shook her head. "I can't see anything. Weezhwoi'ee![1]"

Tiny blue lights suddenly illuminated the edge of the floor and along the center aisle.

The crowd near the doorway drew in breaths. More eyes stared at them. They proved authentic.

"I guess it does have power," Jafarr said, walking back from the front with hardly a look at the people watching them. "Zormna, how did you know you could do that?"

She shrugged, glancing at Agent Sicamore who was coming in the door. "Standard operating system. You can always call emergency lights on. You taught me the ancient word. I just figured the rest."

Jafarr smiled back at her, "You've been studying...."

She shrugged, trying not to look too pleased with herself.

"Tough little ship," Sicamore said, looking about the room. "It crashed ten thousand years ago, and it still has emergency power."

Zormna shrugged. "What can I say? We make them well."

Jafarr laughed, shaking his head.  

Sicamore walked to the front where Jafarr had been. The ground crunched underneath his feet. From that vantage point, he could see that the whole windshield, made of some metallic polymer, had been shattered. A huge metal shield covered where the front shield had been. A large red symbol he did not recognize emblazoned most of it with writing. Reaching down and picking up a huge crusted piece of the clear front shield, Sicamore murmured, "I suppose that chunk was what was stuck into your pilot's skull."

"Looks that way," Jafarr said, walking back to where Zormna was standing. She had been lingering near the back cargo holds, prying open the doors and muttering over their empty space. It had all been cleared out ages ago.

"And what was the purpose of that man's mission?" Professor Pratte asked, entering the cabin again. It clearly wasn't containing any toxic gas, as would be in...say, an Egyptian tomb.

Zormna turned to look at him. "Evacuation of refugees of course."

"Evacuation of refugees from where? Why evacuate to Earth? Who are you people? Where do you come from?" the professor demanded.

Everyone listened in for the answer.

"Now, Professor, that's not important just now," Agent Sicamore started.

The professor stepped back. "It is important. It is the question of this whole dig! Why did this man come here? Did he just crash here, or did he mean to land here and autopilot took over once he was wounded? Who are these people?" He waved his arm out to Kyle especially.

Kyle stepped down the hill toward them. "Do you really want to know the truth?"

Professor Pratte stepped out of the ship. "Are you capable of telling the truth?"

Kyle scowled, but he nodded. "I can. And I will."

Zormna stomped out of the ship straight towards Kyle. "Oh, no you can't! First law of immigration states clearly that it is forbidden to inform residents of this planet anything about Home."

"Which you haven't already done?" Kyle sneered back at her.

"I never purposely revealed anything!" She shouted at him, standing at her full five feet up against him, who was almost a head taller. "Besides, they already knew before I got here!"

Jafarr ran out after her and pulled her back from Kyle, quickly acting as a barrier. Zormna huffed at him for yanking her around like that, but Kyle had looked liable to pounce.

"I'll tell you everything you want to know," Kyle said to the professor, ignoring them.

"I'll have you deported!" Zormna yelled, trying to get at him, but this time Jafarr held her back.

"You're going to have to deport him anyway with the way he's been acting," Jafarr dryly said to her.

"Like you can..." Kyle smirked at her and Jafarr, replying, "Even if you could, I'll tell the People's Military where you are, and they'll hunt you down and eliminate you properly. Either way I win."

Agent Palmer bristled at the word 'properly'. His partner had to hold him back.

Zormna growled with the desire to clobber him, but Jafarr pulled her aside with one heavy arm and hissed into her ear, "Ignore the idiot. Keep your cool. It doesn't matter with these people anyway. Besides, if the ship has emergency power, then I'm sure other things work as well."

Lifting her eyes to him so that their gazed met, she slowly nodded. And though she didn't look happy with the situation, she had calmed down enough to think a little more reasonably.

Watching them, Kyle went into his narrative move, shoulders squaring as he said, "The truth is, all humans came from our world."

Kyle grinned at Zormna who looked like she wanted to rip his head off and throw it to the coyotes. Of course Jafarr held her back, but he was staring just as stonily at Kyle.

"When our world - Arras - had reached a technological peak, we went to war with each other...unfortunately, just like this world today. The nation of Knarr - that's our country," pointing at Zormna and Jafarr and himself, "had enough foresight to create huge ships and take its population into space."

"And who were the kings and queens of Knarr?" Jafarr asked.

Kyle glared at him. "Shut up, rat."

He gazed back at his watching audience who were intrigued by the interchange. Just from their exchange they could tell what the answer to that question was.

"The rest of the people destroyed themselves and the planet," Kyle said. "Only a few refugees from each of the nations escaped to here - Partha, as we call it. They made their homes here, starting all over again without technology. Back to the stone age, so to speak."

"Wait a second." Professor Pratte approached him. "You're saying the people here were refugees from another planet?"

Kyle nodded. "No land bridge. Yeah. Just another hokey theory we helped propagate to keep the scientific community looking in all the wrong places."

The phrase 'hokey theory' murmured through the listening crowd. Yet the look on Zormna's face agreed with Kyle. She was trying to remove it. Jafarr remained impassive.

"But the man that had crashed here, the one with the helmet, is one of your kind," Professor Pratte said, peeking at both Zormna and Jafarr. "Why was he not with his people?"

Jafarr piped up to explain. "Most ships from our home never made it to this world because of the war. But Arrand was one of the royal guard, and a famous pilot. He volunteered to fly the refugees who had fled to Knarr to come to this world, as our nation was the only one that had stayed out of the war."

"Shut up! Rat!" Kyle barked, swinging a punch at Jafarr. "This is my story!"

Jafarr dodged, backing up with raised hands. "Excuse me, but I've heard the High Class version of the events, and they always leave out who he really was."

Kyle scowled at him. "It's my story. I was telling it."

All eyes watched the two. Jafarr seemed to be only amused, but Kyle looked like a vicious Rottweiler who had a kid pulling his tail.

"The point is," Kyle continued, "That man is a famous hero of the Knarr people. He crashed here in the middle of one of his famous evacuation flights."

"Never resting, always taking full loads," Zormna murmured with stars of admiration in her eyes.

Jafarr shrugged. "I dunno. It really isn't that important for you to know anyway."

Every last person crowd gaped at Jafarr.

"Not important?" Steve retorted, appalled at the casual way Jafarr said that. "That guy just said that all humans came from outer space! How can that not be important?"

"How will that change your life any?" Jafarr smirked. "You can't exactly put that in a résumé."

A general murmur rumbled through the crowd.

Zormna groaned.

"Too far?" Jafarr winced and glanced back at Zormna.

But she was frowning with a glare at Kyle.

"Now you see why it is forbidden?" Zormna snapped at the redheaded university student.

Smugly, Kyle lifted his chin and smirked back at her. "Yes, but now they know you can't be trusted, and I doubt they'll let you run around anymore like a princess."

Shaking her head, she turned around walked away as if to go back to her tent. But she stopped, waiting for Jafarr.

"We are not delusional enough to think anyone would trust us," Jafarr bickered back. "But she is a princess. And if you recall, it was her ancestors that saved your ancestors' hides way back then in the Great War - so you really ought to be a little nicer."

Kyle bristled as if his hackles were raising, much like a lion preparing to pounce.

Yet before he could move, the FBI agents stepped between them. But the Agents' eyes were on Jafarr and Zormna. Sicamore seemed the most irate.

"Is it true? What he said?" Agent Sicamore asked.

"Oh, come on." Jafarr smirked steely at him. "You didn't know? I would have thought your source would have told you."

The FBI agent's voice turned brittle. "Tell me now."

Jafarr looked reluctant, shoulders hunching. He then took a breath to speak.

Zormna hopped to him and wrapped both hands over Jafarr's mouth. "No."

He turned around, blinking at her. "What?"

"Not another word," she said, her eyes on his. "You have told enough. I'd hate for you to have this also on your record, especially since you did it in front of a Zeta officer"

Jafarr opened his mouth, half in a laugh. Yet he nodded, then shook his head. The FBI understood the reference, if only just - but did not quite get what that meant. With a peek to them, Jafarr said, "You're right. I'll stick with the law. Let Kyle bury himself."

Zormna turned, satisfied.

"Zeta officer...?" Kyle murmured, looking confused. He peeked at the FBI to see if they knew what it meant.

Jafarr walked away from the ship, led by Zormna and her firm militaristic march back toward their tent.

"Jafarr!" Agent Sicamore yelled after him, following.

Jafarr glanced back over his shoulder and shrugged. "Sorry. Top secret!"

"Streigle!" the FBI agent yelled again, face flushing.

Jafarr parade-waved as they walked away.

"Jafarr!" the agent yelled at last, but the Boy had gone and would not heed his call.

After watching them frustrate the FBI by leaving, Kyle grinned, walking over to the federal agents. "So you