Page 23 of The Space Traveller's Lover
THE SIEGE
And are you still going to tell me that you are not human?
As the scouting-craft gently lands on the farm’s backyard, Shaillah jumps out onto the grass and rushes towards the kitchen door, breaking open the lock with a swift but intense electric discharge from her body shield. A startled Sam follows her cautiously, keeping a safe distance.
An overexcited Blazer greets them as they go in, jumping at her repeatedly every time he is knocked back, trying to reach her.
“So, Blazer seems to recognise you all right,” Sam notes while the dog keeps jumping towards her.
She points at her wooden chair, guiding her dog to stand on it and ordering him to be quiet. Blazer immediately stops panting and shaking, sitting perfectly still and looking at her, whining as if wholly hypnotised.
As Sam watches her guiding Blazer, her giggles and sighs of joy bring back memories of the Erin he knew so well and loved so deeply. It’s Erin! It’s her , he repeats to himself.
“Are you still doubting it?” she reprimands him.
“N-n-no,” he stammers, wondering how she could know what he is thinking.
The whirring of the helicopters rattles through the air, and the squeaking of the braking cars vibrates through the ground.
Sam rushes to one of the front windows and looks towards the farm’s road through the spaced wooden fence panels.
Astonished, he sees several vehicles trying to approach the farmhouse from different directions, only to grind to a halt a few metres away from the fence as if stopped by an invisible barrier.
No matter how hard they try, the drivers are unable to make their cars advance any further. Likewise, the pilots cannot make their helicopters descend past a certain height, eventually giving up and landing farther away, beyond the parked vehicles of the islanders and ARA personnel.
Albert Lobart sharply stops his pickup truck by the row of police cars parked at each side of the road leading to his farm’s front gates.
He asks Patricia to get out, and as soon as she does, he accelerates and weaves his way through the gaps between the cars.
His mad dash doesn’t last long, as his truck crashes and grinds to a halt against the invisible barrier, provoking a sudden lightning strike against the bonnet. He falls flat over the steering wheel.
Two police officers run to him, finding him completely unconscious.
As the officers quickly carry Lobart’s non-responsive body towards a waiting police car, Martha and Bill Sheppard approach them.
They watch in disbelief as the officers lay a lifeless Albert Lobart on the backseats while despairing at how their son might be faring inside the farmhouse.
Pat Lobart arrives as the vehicle speeds off.
“Oh, Patricia,” Martha shouts, running towards a dazzled Mrs Lobart, “he’s badly bruised. He crashed against the barrier, no wonder.”
“What barrier?” Patricia growls in disconcert.
“Listen, everyone.” The voice of J. J. Walker, the island’s police section captain, resounds over the rowdy congregation. “Do not approach the farm from any direction. Stay clear of this area. I repeat—stay clear.”
It’s not long before news of the day’s events spread across the island, and many of its residents and visitors rush towards the site.
The police and ARA brigades start to surround the area and set up a police cordon, keeping the curious people at what they consider a safe distance, fifty metres away from the farm’s perimeter fence.
“Are you ready to come out now, children?” shouts Captain Walker through the loudspeaker, stressing the word “children” in a sarcastic tone.
But to no avail. No one is responding from the farmhouse.
Martha Sheppard runs towards the captain and asks him to let her speak to her son. He reluctantly hands the loudspeaker to her .
“Sam, Sam, it’s your mother. Please talk to us, darling.” She tries several times, but her desperate plea is unanswered.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until they decide to come out,” Walker concludes. “Let’s hope it’s not too long.”
Walker grabs his binoculars and scours the farmhouse’s large front lawn and wide porch, eventually spotting Sam standing by one of the front windows.
“Ah! Mrs Sheppard, I can see your son. He seems okay.” The captain smiles at Martha, but even then, he cannot conceal his concern.
Bill Sheppard takes the binoculars from the captain’s hands and points in the same direction. He finds his son standing by the window, looking directly at him.
Bill passes the binoculars onto Martha, but Sam has disappeared from view by the time she focuses on the window.
Shaillah has taken him out of the line of sight and into the backyard once again. Blazer follows them obediently, walking close to Shaillah’s feet.
“Did you see your parents?” she asks.
“Sure, I did.”
“Why didn’t you wave at them?”
“I’m so confused, Erin. Was it you stopping me?
“Yes, I was. Just wanted to show you how I can control you. But don’t worry. You’ll be with them soon.”
“Will you please stop all this? What are you trying to do?” As he tries to touch her shoulders, he is struck by a swift electrical discharge and has to let go swiftly.
“What the hell?” he shouts, looking at her, astonished, “Okay, I suppose I have to believe all your weirdness. I have no choice.”
She keeps nodding at him, reaffirming his words. “I’m not Erin anymore, Sam. If you call me by my real name, it will be easier for you to accept our new reality. My name is Shaillah.”
“Oh sure. And why have you brought me here, Shaillah?” Sam emphasises her name in the most sarcastic tone he can muster while bowing to her in a derisive gesture.
“I wanted to say sorry … and maybe goodbye,” she replies in a dead-serious tone as Sam straightens up his body and looks back at her with a dumbfounded expression .
“But I don’t want to say goodbye, Erin,” he protests. “You can be whatever you want to be. I’ll always be here for you. I’ll change if I have to—”
“This cannot be. We must say goodbye. I belong to them—the Rom-Ghenshars,” she replies in an unyielding tone.
She takes his hands and then puts them close to her chest. He feels his palms getting hot as subtle electric pulses come off her shield, but he holds on firm, fighting his intense emotions as he notices her glimmering tears.
“I see the sadness in your face. And are you still going to tell me that you are not human? that you feel nothing for me?” he vehemently asks her.
“True, I still do have some human emotions. But every day, I feel more different. Every day, I feel closer to them.”
“Damn them, whoever they are!” Sam can barely contain his frustration, but he manages to stay composed as he vows: “I promise you, I’ll never leave you. You can say goodbye as many times as you like. But I’ll always be here for you—anytime you need me.”
As he tries to hug her, the sudden discharge pushes him back, reminding him that he cannot even touch her.
“And for the record,” he adds downheartedly, “did I ever tell you that I love you?”
She slowly shakes her head while looking directly at him and pressing her index finger against her mouth to discourage him from talking.
But Sam keeps a persistent, albeit dejected gaze. “I’ve always loved you since the day we met,” he declares, trying to sound firm, but the anguish in his voice betrays his crushing despair.
“Don’t say anything else. There’s no point. Goodbye, my dear friend. Thank you for everything,” she sombrely replies.
All the memories flicker through Sam’s mind like a flipped deck of cards. Still, the revolving images suddenly stop in the middle of this moment—the moment that he must accept that something profound, way beyond his control, has come to separate them.
“Go back to your family now. Tell them everything will be all right—as long as they don’t try to attack us. We bring a message of peace and friendship.” As she speaks to him, the saddened expression on her face becomes blank and distant .
Slowly stepping backwards, he approaches the front door, feeling as though he is moving away from a vanishing mirage. Her words seem to be coming from very far away. Her image is getting ever blurrier, in double vision.
As he appears on the farm’s porch, the armed guards instinctively point their weapons at a petrified Sam, who raises his arms in the air while Captain Walker repeatedly shouts through the loudspeakers, “Don’t shoot!”
A tense atmosphere sets in as Sam steps onto the front lawn while nervously glancing at the armed guards, who immediately lay down their weapons.
He makes his way to the front gates in a dash.
A loud cheer comes from the crowd trying to get a better view behind the police cordon as Sam appears outside the fence and rushes towards his parents.
At that moment, taking advantage of the guards’ full attention on Sam, Pat Lobart runs towards the farmhouse, attempting to push through the front gate from where Sam had walked out.
Two of the armed guards go after her, trying to stop her, but she runs with even more impetus as she manages to go past the invisible line and through the gate.
As Pat reaches the porch of her house, thinking she is about to pass through the open front door, she crashes against the barrier that has now formed just outside the building walls.
“Erin, Erin, you will pay dearly if you don’t come out right now!” Pat Lobart shouts as she pounds her fists against the invisible barrier over her front door.
Suddenly, Mrs Lobart collapses, hit by a bolt of lightning. When the guards cautiously approach, they find her unconscious, as was the case with her husband.