Boyd, Boyd, Boyd. How can you be both brilliant about things alien and clueless about your own body...
Lol, I imagine a gym class on lightsaber fencing would get many geeks off their buns.
What a great chapter!
Poor Boyd. It's amazing what one can rationalize when they really don't want to think it's happening to them. As much as he has the whole Fox Mulder "I want to believe" outlook on aliens and UFOs, the scientist in him can't get past the thought that biology isn't supposed to work that way, so he can't be alien-pregnant. Those are just stories on the internet, and if it did happen, surely it was only to those who were abducted many times and subjected to much more experimentation. So it can't be happening to him, right?
Terrific update Cheezey! Light sabre fencing! What a brilliant idea but it's not going to save Boyd from his expanding waistline. Bwa ha ha!
Ha, nope! Although a lightsaber sparring match between Boyd and Cycl0n3 would be quite entertaining.
Yeah. If sims really did have lightsabers (well I guess there's some CC ones you could download) Cycl0n3, BOyd, Blair, and Susan would love to spar using them! 
I'd be surprised if there wasn't some out there somewhere.
Chapter 34
Fall finally gave way to winter, and Sunset Valley was blanketed in a thick coat of frost and the looming threat of the first snow. The Wainwrights put up their Snowflake Day tree and other decorations, eager to enjoy their first winter holiday season in their new home.
They got a call from Blair inviting them to meet up with her at the library. She and Cycl0n3 were there with Chris. Since Cycl0n3 had P.I. work to do, Blair thought it would be fun for Patrick and Chris to play in the kids’ section together. The two boys played with blocks at the activity table while Blair chatted with her parents.
“Red goes here!” Patrick’s little voice was insistent as he placed the block.
“Boo!” Chris put up a blue block. Patrick was not entirely pleased with his choice, but he allowed it after moving it half an inch with all of the superior authority an older preschooler could show to a younger one.
“Learning his colors already? That’s great,” remarked Susan.
“Patrick took to that fast. His favorite books are the ones with the shapes and colors.” Boyd picked up
Handprints of the Masters. “We have a copy of this at home. He loves it.”
“I was thinking I’d read to them in a little while, but for now they’re having fun.” Blair picked up a toy and sat down beside them. “Aren’t we?”
While Blair sat with Chris and Patrick, Susan browsed the skill book section for interesting titles, and Boyd wandered into the room Cycl0n3 was in. His stomach rumbled again, and he could swear he felt it twisting inside. He ate a candy bar to take the edge off.
“Haha. Keep eating those, Space, and you’ll have your own moons orbiting you soon,” Cycl0n3 quipped when he saw him munching.
Boyd was not amused. “Another fat joke, Cycl0n3? Come on. I thought the great Troll King of TarzWar was more creative than that.”
“Oh, relax. I was just kidding around.” He typed something and then looked over. “So, do you find the internet speed here as pitiful as I do? I know it’s free and all, but I feel like I’m getting what I’m paying for.”
“They probably don’t get enough of our tax dollars for better.” Boyd shrugged. “But can’t you do your online investigative work at home?”
“I’m only here to observe. My case is book club drama. You wouldn’t think such a thing existed, right? But I’ve got a client who’s convinced that his girlfriend in the book club is still sleeping with her ex, also in the book club. So I showed up before their meeting so I can see what’s going on without looking conspicuous. Too bad I don’t have better internet in the meantime.”
“Do you think they’d be obvious enough to be all over each other in public?”
“Ugh. Since I got into this business, you wouldn’t
believe what some people are stupidly obvious about. I’ve caught cheating spouses with their so-called discreet affairs kissing at work, in restaurant parking lots, pawing each other in a public pool, even at the laundromat on top of an industrial dryer. Being dumb enough to make out behind a bookcase in the public library wouldn’t surprise me at all.” He snickered. “Bet it would rile the librarians, though.”
Soon, the book club members started to arrive, and they headed upstairs to their usual meeting area. Cycl0n3 casually logged off of the library computer and followed. When he noticed an empty chess table, he sat at it, pretending to work on his game strategy so he wouldn’t attract their attention. It worked, and none of them seemed to notice. He was close enough to hear their conversation, but nothing out of the ordinary was being said. They were discussing some novel called
Abstract with Turkey.
He was starting to feel like he’d wasted his time when he saw something he didn’t expect, although it had nothing to do with his case.
Tamara was at the library. That was a little surprising to him, since it wasn’t the usual kind of place she would hang out. He wondered what kind of books she was there for, but it turned out she wasn’t after a book at all. She never noticed Cycl0n3, and went directly to the other side of the second floor to talk to a man sitting at one of the computers.
Oh, wow, is Tam picking up guys at the library now? Guess she wants someone smarter after dating Xander! He decided to take a brief break from his stakeout to say hello, and razz her if that was what she was doing.
He was right, although it was obvious that it was not some random pickup, but a planned meeting. He hadn’t even gotten over there before Tamara and the man started flirting, and stepped behind one of the privacy screens to keep their “conversation” private.
Cycl0n3 wanted to face-palm. When he’d joked to Boyd about someone being brazen enough to make out in the library, he hadn’t expected it to be Tam, with… wait, did that guy have a wedding ring on? “Oh, Tam.” Cycl0n3 muttered and shook his head. He was debating whether or not to make her squirm with a hello when he heard the scraping of chairs behind him. The book club was wrapping up.
So much for that stakeout.
Figures I’d catch someone cheating I won’t get money for, Cycl0n3 mused as he watched the ones he’d come to spy on leave without saying a word to each other, and drive off in separate cars.
While Cycl0n3 wrapped up the case of the literature-loving non-lovers and moved on to the next, Boyd and Susan got a call with great news. Their lawyer had finally negotiated a buyout price for Landgraab Industries. They met with him and Nancy Landgraab to sign the papers, and left as full owners of the science facility.
“I say the first thing we do is change the name!” Susan declared as they left. “Wainwright Innovations sounds much better than Landgraab Industries, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely!” Boyd was grinning. “I almost feel bad for Nancy, though. She has no idea what she just sold the rights to.”
“I’m not worried about it. She looked pretty smug when we left. You know she thinks she got the better deal, and took advantage of us with that price.”
Boyd shrugged. “Experimental compounds can be a risky investment. Her management has been all about minimizing risk and maximizing profit. I’m not surprised she didn’t see the potential in the existing data when she saw the expense of things like the alchemy potions and life fruit. But it’s not like she didn’t have full disclosure on the data we’ve got. She had no problems saying its ‘potential profitability years down the line’ justified padding the purchase price.”
“The lawyer thought we should argue that down.”
“I know, but letting her have it got us the company sooner. In that sense, we were more generous to the Landgraabs than they would’ve been with us, from what Emit said.”
“I wonder if she’ll buy back some stock when we do develop LI-WX923 into something.”
“She might. She might even try to buy the company back.”
“The only problem with that is,” Susan said with a knowing smile, “we won’t sell.”
Boyd and Susan invited Blair and Cycl0n3 over to dinner to share their good news and celebrate. To start it off, Susan tried out a recipe for deep fried onion fingers that Emma had shared on SimBook.
“Wow, Mom. You got a fryer? You’re really getting into this home chef thing.”
“It’s not like we can’t afford one or don’t have space for it now. So I figured, why not?” She nibbled at her onion finger. “Though this kind of thing is a bit labor intensive and messy to make often. Don’t get too used to it.”
“That’s okay. It’s not healthy to eat a lot of fried food anyway.” Blair glanced at her father, who had already wolfed down half of his plate.
Boyd noticed, and tried not to let it get to him. He knew Blair meant well, but he was already frustrated with his weight gain without the reminder. He’d put on enough that his clothes hardly fit, but despite that, he was still hungry all the time. Sometimes it felt like his stomach was going to tear itself apart if he didn’t eat, and other times that writhing in his gut made him so nauseous that he’d spend an hour curled up by the toilet. But he couldn’t explain any of that without going into the abduction, and he certainly wasn’t going to open himself up to a stream of tinfoil hat and alien probe jokes from his son-in-law by doing so.
Susan caught the look on Boyd’s face and changed the subject. “So, we’re the proud owners of Landgraab Industries now. Soon to be Wainwright Innovations. What do you think?”
“I think it’s great!” Blair said cheerfully. “You must be so excited.”
“We are.” Boyd exchanged a smile with Susan.
“So what are you going to do there now that you’re in charge?” asked Cycl0n3. “Got anyone you hate that you’re planning to fire? That would’ve been top on my list if I suddenly became the owner back when I worked at Doo Peas.”
“Hate?” Boyd shook his head. “No.”
“There are a few incompetent idiots, but that’s the case in all workplaces, sadly,” said Susan. “There’s nobody I’m ready to toss out on the spot, though.”
“The administrative part’s all going to be new to us. We’ve always been in the lab. Not that we won’t still be. But the board won’t be making any more uninformed decisions where the science is completely ignored over profit or what they think is efficiency,” Boyd explained. “We’re prioritizing good science.”
Susan nodded. “I like to think we’ll be reasonable, ingenious, and profitable. Creating new and better things for the world, and being remembered as great visionaries of our time.”
“That sounds like the start of a catchy slogan, Mom. I think you’ll do great!”
Shortly after dinner, Boyd felt an uncomfortable squirming sensation in his stomach. He’d been hungry and eaten fast, so he chalked it up to the fried onions not agreeing with him. He hoped it would pass, but after a few minutes he felt worse, not better. “I think I’m going to go lie down. Thanks for coming by,” he told Blair and Cycl0n3.
“I hope you feel better, Dad.” Blair gave him a hug.
“Yeah, take it easy,” said Cycl0n3. “Don’t keel over on us or anything.”
“Thanks. I’ll try not to,” Boyd said as he left, while Susan shook her head at Cycl0n3.
After her father left, Blair talked to her mother, concerned. “I’m worried about Dad. Is he all right?”
Susan forced a reassuring smile. The truth was, she was worried about Boyd, too, but they had agreed not to tell anyone, even Blair, about the abduction. “It’s probably just a stomach ache or indigestion. He’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? I’m not saying this to be mean or judge, but he’s put on a lot of weight lately. Not just a few pounds. Every time I see him, it’s more. He’s not very active, and you know how he worries all the time... I don’t want him to have a heart attack. Has he seen a doctor?”
“He’s not going to have a heart attack, honey.”
“I hope not,” she replied, unconvinced.
“He hasn’t had any chest pains or high blood pressure or the like. I promise, if he did, I’d have made him go to the doctor already.”
Blair relaxed. “Okay.”
Susan put Patrick to bed after Blair and Cycl0n3 went home, and then turned in herself. She woke up a few hours later only to find Boyd missing from the bed again. He was on the third floor, looking through their indoor telescope set up by a picture window that faced the ocean.
“Boyd?”
“I couldn’t sleep again.”
“I figured. The dreams?”
“Yeah.”
Susan eyed her husband with concern. He looked exhausted and weary, and she couldn’t help but think of the conversation she’d had with Blair earlier. “What were you looking for? Whatever took you?”
“Answers. Something. Anything.”
“I’m worried about you,” Susan said bluntly. “Very worried. This isn’t normal, and it’s not getting better. If anything, it’s getting worse. What really happened earlier? I told Blair you had indigestion.”
“It was my stomach. The twisting, pressure, pain thing again.” He sighed. “It eased up after a while.”
“Oh, Boyd. I know you don’t want to see a doctor, but—”
“No! It won’t do any good. Even if they believe me about the aliens, and don’t lock me away or send me off with pills to help with my ‘delusions,’ what are the odds they could do anything to help?” He sounded miserable and defeated, and it frustrated Susan.
“So we stand by and let you just get worse and worse until you die, then? Is that your solution?” She met his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you. Blair doesn’t want to, either. She came to me, you know. Saying she’s worried. She’s afraid you’re going to have a heart attack. I convinced her you’d be fine, but it was a good act, because I’m not convinced myself. Not knowing what I know.” Her voice choked up a little. “We have to think of something.”
“We’ve run all the tests we can think of. You saw my blood work when we ran it. It’s normal. Healthy, even.” He let out a hollow laugh. “So Blair doesn’t have to worry about me having a heart attack.”
“What about the almanac? Has there been anything?” A while back, they tried to contact Emit to ask what he knew, since alien abductions were known about and documented in his time. But when they left Oasis Landing, Emit had said he’d contact them when it was time. He never left instructions on how to reach him from the past, and the portal was not active. They made their best guess at how to use the almanac to get in touch with him, but so far they had received no response.
“No.” Boyd shook his head. “We’re on our own. Short of the aliens showing up with an explanation, our best shot now is hoping we find something when we go through the Landgraab Industries top secret files.”
“Then that’s what we’re doing tomorrow.”
It was exciting going to work as the owners. They still had their old projects and duties, and officially retained their original positions. They were given posh new offices for their administrative work, and of course, had their pick of labs to work in. They promoted both Madison and Christopher, since they had proven themselves in their time working for them.
It struck them how much had changed over the past several years. Boyd remembered when Madison was the clumsy new girl who almost knocked him into a cow plant pen, and now she was well on her way to being a scientist. She and Christopher were happily married and expecting their first child. Christopher had come in young and inexperienced as well, but had proven to be a great asset to the lab. Their old colleagues, Judy and Gobias, were gone. Judy was retired, and Gobias had quit his job as a scientist for a new career at Doo Peas. Judy’s oldest son, Ethan, followed in his mother’s footsteps. After he graduated from high school, he applied for a job at Landgraab Industries, or Wainwright Innovations, as it would soon be officially named. He was a natural at the job, bright and eager, and well-liked by his co-workers.
Most exciting, though, was walking into the top secret underground lab for the first time. The outer rooms had security code access limited to a handful of dedicated maintenance personnel and the scientists assigned to work there. Those labs were not all that different than the labs elsewhere in the facility. They had the same type of analysis equipment, benches, computers, and even a small dedicated cow plant room. What they found behind the security-code locked door marked “Alien Research,” though, was a different story. According to security, only the head of security, and the scientist assigned to the lab could get in there.
“Wow.” When they walked in, Susan first saw what looked like a giant ray gun, while Boyd’s eyes fell on the alien-looking capsule against the wall.
“Look at this,” he murmured, amazed. “Do you think we built this, or is it borrowed or salvaged Sixam technology?”
“I wondered that about this,” she replied, running her hand lightly over the giant weapon.
The other side of the room held a large holo-archive that reminded Boyd of a primitive version of the holographic bookshelves he’d seen in Oasis Landing. He went over to the shelf. “Were we developing this stuff in our time, or do you think Emit’s been here?”
“I don’t know. He said he knew what we did in the future and what happened here. Maybe he has been here.”
“Who’s assigned to this lab?”
Susan checked her tablet. “According to the personnel files HR gave me, the last active position in this lab was vacated almost a year ago. I don’t recognize the name. It says ‘deceased,’ so I guess he died. His title was Top Secret Researcher. Level 8. Nobody else has had a title that high in,” she paused as she located the information, “sixteen years.”
“We’re Level 7 now,” Boyd said. “And there aren’t many of us this high here. And now without Judy…”
“It’s just us on site here now.” Susan smiled at the realization that they would’ve been the highest level scientists even if they hadn’t bought the place. “We would’ve wound up here before long, I think. As soon as the board decided we were qualified, and wanted this actively pursued again.”
“I wonder what the last Top Secret Researcher knew.”
“Only one way to find out.” Susan began browsing the holo archive study files, while Boyd examined the alien pod and ray weapon.
The Wainwrights spent the better part of their work day in that secret lab, fascinated and excited by the discoveries. Although they found out a lot of interesting things, such as the old study where the first viable robot fish were bred, the files about Sixam were mostly documented sightings, images, and astronomical data. There were a few files discussing abduction, and one that mentioned a “procedural implantation,” but it was closed out after an entry stating that the test subject was “no longer available,” and the file was closed “at military request” with a case number after it.
“No longer available at military request?” Boyd’s voice rose in horror. “Oh, my Watcher. The government’s in on it! They really are. I knew it! Emit said they did that kind of thing, but this is proof! No. Oh, no, no, no, no! What if they know about me and how they experimented on me? What if they make me disappear?”
“Nobody’s going to make you disappear,” Susan tried to reassure him.
“And procedural implantation, what does that mean? Did they put a chip in me? One so small we can’t see it or detect it? Futuristic alien nanotech? What if it’s infected my whole system, and that’s why I’m so hungry? What if it’s gotten into my brain?!”
“Boyd, please calm down. We don’t know any of this for sure.” She skimmed the file. “There’s nothing here about what kind of implant it is.”
“So we don’t know!” He started pacing, nearly hyperventilating.
“Precisely! There’s nothing saying it’s as dire as all that. And ‘no longer available’ could just mean the subject wasn’t feeling sick anymore, or was tired of being poked and prodded, and quit the study.”
“Or died! Or was taken away by Sixam or the government…”
“I don’t think they died. Remember, company S.O.P. requires a death to be noted a certain way in a study file. It’s not.”
Boyd considered that. “Okay, but if it it’s not bad, why would the military want it closed?”
“Maybe there was something classified, or it had to do with privacy laws. If the subject was in the military, they might’ve had to transfer the files to their medical officer.”
“I was hoping for more answers, and all we got is more questions.” Boyd winced as his stomach twisted painfully.
“Boyd?”
“I—I don’t feel good.” He sat down, and leaned back, hoping it would pass.
Susan leaned over him, concerned. “Come on. We’re calling it a day. If you won’t go to a doctor, at least let’s go home and rest.”
Boyd nodded through his discomfort. “Okay.”
Susan helped him to his feet, out of the top secret lab, and to the elevator. “Fair warning. If you pass out, or get worse, I’m taking you to the hospital. No argument.”
“I’ll be all right when it passes. It’s just another stomach ache…”
“Still.” Her tone would accept no argument as she walked with him to the car.
When they got home, Boyd was ravenously hungry. He ate some bread to settle his roiling stomach, and then went to lie down. He was too uncomfortable to fall asleep, and a combination of nausea and pain overwhelmed him.
Susan had been on her way to Patrick’s room, but when she heard Boyd up and about, she checked in on him. “You’re feeling worse, aren’t you?”
“Just nauseous.”
Susan pulled him into a hug. “I meant what I said earlier.”
“It’s not worse. I’ll be fine.”
“But if it gets that way, you’ll let me know, right?”
Boyd nodded.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Okay.” Reluctantly, she let go of him. “Feel better.”
After Susan left, Boyd took several deep breaths and splashed water on his face. He started to feel better, and for a moment he was optimistic that it was going to pass.
That was when the clawing, gut-wrenching pain started. Pain so intense it took his breath away. “Oh, Watcher…”
He gasped, and caught sight of himself in the mirror. At first he’d thought it was his imagination, but then he realized it was real.
His stomach was moving. Something was under his skin.
“No. Oh no. No.”
It was like a nightmare, and even more terrifying than the ones he had of the alien ship. He put his hand over it, as if to convince himself it wasn’t real, and then he felt the movement, just as a searing pain tore through his abdomen.
He cried out, but it was hard to breathe. “Susan!” Trying to shout for her came out as a ragged, desperate gasp, too quiet for her to hear where she was feeding Patrick downstairs. “Susan! Help…”
Boyd fell forward, and clutched at the sink in agony as his vision swam and his knees buckled. The room around him went dark, then bright, as he tried to call out for Susan one more time before he collapsed.
