CHAPTER 177: PRECIOUS CARGO

After two weeks of constant negotiations with government panels, two of the richest men on the planet got their way. Ed Hawthorne and Jake Traylor could be very convincing, especially when skeletons started falling out of certain government officials’ closets.

Kevin stood on the tarmac and kissed Donnie. "I’ll be right back. Our family gets to meet all of your stepsons and grandsons, and they’ll get to meet you and their little brothers and nephew. Plus, we mustn’t forget Stephen and the baby—that’s going to be a big shock, especially for Walt, who fought and suffered so much loss to help save his life."

The transportation shuttle took off with Kevin at the helm. He wasn’t trusting this precious cargo to anyone else. If there was going to be a disaster, it would be his disaster—no one else would have to suffer but him.

As predetermined, the transport shuttle was to return to the surface, but it would be directed to land in a clearing at Z1 near the medical facility. Lex and everyone were standing by, Clark especially nervous knowing that Walt had gone into hibernation almost three months along. He hoped it would be no problem reviving him and the child he carried within him.

There were news crews all over the staging area at Z1, waiting for the Hollis family to land. Everyone hoped to get an interview with the few survivors of the Zeta Nine outpost after its attack over one hundred years ago.

Slowly, the transport shuttle came into a stationary hover above the clearing and lowered down its precious cargo. The container holding the Hollis family and human survivors came to rest on the ground. The unit was decontaminated on the exterior, and Lex and the crew of medical personnel waited for Kevin to arrive to unlock the doors to the stasis pods.

Kevin had landed the transport shuttle, and Zach brought him to the cargo container. Kevin got out of the runner and walked up to the main door, entering the code. With a little hissing and exhausting of oxygen out of the container, the main door slowly opened. Kevin walked in, followed by Lex and a couple of other medical personnel, including Clark. Lex was amazed at how the stasis pods were assembled and fit into this container.

Kevin went to the control panel and entered the special sequence to start the slow process of reviving his family plus their thirty-five guests. This wasn’t going to be a quick process—it was going to take several hours to complete.

The containers would revive in series of five. There would be at least ten minutes between each section of stasis containers before the next ones would open, giving medical staff enough time to get them off the container and over to the medical facility for a quick exam. The media was asked to please refrain from any flash photography and be respectful of everyone with continuous video footage. No questions were to be asked at all during this process. After everyone got their land legs, then and only then would any interviews be allowed to take place.

Kevin had already given the reporters a basic rundown and account of what happened from his perspective of being on the outpost after the attack. He told them that his family would only give interviews if they wished to—there would be no mandatory interviews and there would be no invasion of their privacy as they got used to a normal life on the planet for the first time, surrounded by a few new family members.

Zach told the crowd that had gathered that the family members would be going to host families of Z1 in groups, and they would slowly get used to their new life.

After Zach stepped down from the podium and went to rejoin the rest of the group, a young Genman approached, carrying an application along with pictures of the family unit he wished to host at his cottage. Zach looked up at him.

"Curtis, are you for real? You want to host this family at your place? I haven’t known you to even have a visitor in your home since I gave that place to you when you were sixteen, but yet you feel that you can host someone else?"

"Mr. Zach," Curtis replied, "after reading the bio on this family, I figured that I needed to open my place up and I had to start living. I’ve kept myself closed off from the world since you took me in as family when I was trying to hitchhike here. I owe you my life and my future. It seems like this one, Walter, has lost a lot in his life, so maybe we might get along and I can help him as much as he can help me. I need to get back into life and live it."

"Okay, Curtis, if this is what you want, I’ll recommend that Walter and his two boys be placed in your cottage with you. I expect you to help them, though. And by the way, welcome back, Curtis. Welcome to the living."

Zach took the package of paperwork and walked into the clinic.

"Kevin, I have the first host that’s willing to put up Walt and his family—an individual who has a two-bedroom, one-bath cottage that he’s lived in since he was sixteen, by himself. This is the first time that Curtis has ever stepped forward to help anyone since I brought him in one night myself. He’s a straight shooter. He doesn’t play games, he doesn’t pull any punches, and if you have a problem, he’ll back you up one hundred percent. He doesn’t look for trouble. This is one that I would want on my side, so I think he’ll do Walt and his boys just fine."

"Okay, Zach. If that’s what you think is the best fit for Walter and the boys, and he’s willing to put up with a pregnant hybrid and a set of twins, who am I to say no? I love Walter, I love those boys. He’s going to have to have someone that knows what it’s like to overcome something massive in the past."

"Kevin, Curtis has a past, and it’s not a pretty past. I met him on a dark stretch of road one night coming back from an outing—he was trying to hitchhike. I could tell he was in bad shape, sixteen and looked like hammered shit. He got into the old runner I had and gingerly sat down. I could tell there were certain problems with him. He handed me an address and asked if I was going near this place because he needed to find a new home and he never wanted to look back again. He was headed to Z1. He told me he was asking for sanctuary when he arrived there.

"I questioned him about his family. He relayed to me that he was alone—his dad had passed away during childbirth, and the baby had been sent away to another farm to be cared for by its father. I asked why he wasn’t staying where he was. He said he couldn’t do it. He could not go back, would not go back. It wasn’t right.

"I asked Curtis to explain a little bit more. Slowly, the walls began to crumble and he started to sob. It seems the young Genman was placed with an older, mature Genman so that he could guide him along the way by prepping him for his transition. Oh, he prepped him. He recounted how the older Genman came into his room, climbed on top of him, and took him that very night. He had cleaned himself up the best he could, took what little pocket change was lying around after the animal went to sleep, then left the farm and ran. That’s when I found him hitchhiking on his way to Z1.

"After we arrived, I brought him in, contacted medical, and had a thorough exam done on him. He was given three antibiotic shots in case there was any infection. We took cultures for any kind of diseases that might’ve been transmitted to him. I got him fresh clothing and made him a bath. I made a fresh meal and put him in bed to sleep. After a few nightmares, I ended up sitting beside his bed in a chair, holding the young man’s hand until morning. I made breakfast, and he’s been in that cottage living ever since, by himself. This is the first time he has stepped out of his comfort zone and away from his shell, so this will do them both good."

Kevin took a deep breath. "Zach, I think you made a good choice. It sounds like they have both been through hell already. Maybe they will end up being friends."

Walter’s pod was the first one to be brought offline. He groggily began to wake up and smiled when he saw his father. Kevin hugged his son and grandsons.

"Walter, I need you to go with these kind people to medical for you and the boys to have a quick exam. There, our new friend Mr. Zach will introduce you to a host. You will stay in the home of your host until we can find permanent arrangements here where we are now. There’s a lot I need to explain to you, but right now I have to get your brothers’ other containers and their families, plus the extra humans that accompanied us here to our new home. You’re on a planet—you’re no longer in space. You will live on the planet with your family."

Walter hugged his dad again and told him he loved him, then went off with the medical staff. He needed a little help walking, as almost one hundred and eight years had passed since he had been put in stasis, and things were still not working quite right.