Star Gift

Chapter Twenty-One

"Hey . . . Rus. What's up?"

"It's all OK, buddy. At least on this side of the world. And it's pretty obvious you're not coming to San Diego. Right? Classes begin up north in a day or so."

"Yeah . . . It seriously looks that way."

"So, what's up, man? You OK?

"Yeah. I don't know . . . just really beat up over here right now. Gotta get some sleep, Rus."

"Wait . . . So what's the matter, Blake? The Aliens get you over there?" He heard a female laugh nearby.

Blake was silent. Too tired and confused to even address the question. Or who it was that contributed the laugh.

"Naw," he finally said. "Just tired, man. We did a lot of digging today. I'm just really tired, OK?"

"No. Really. . . so what did you find?"

Blake was silent for several moments. Thinking more now about Russel not being alone and with whom.

"Hey look, Blake. I've got to talk to you . . . about . . . me and Steph sometime, OK?"

He should have been surprised with the comment, but somehow knew it had been coming. 

"Not now man. And maybe never, alright? I'll just see you back in Santa Cruz. Might be after classes start. I'm not really sure"

"What?  Hey man. Come on. What's up over there?"

"Gotta go, Rus. You guys . . . just take it slow, OK?"

He clicked off the phone before his friend could respond.

* * *

In what seemed like only moments later, Blake was being wakened by Michael, now fully dressed and shaking his bare shoulder.

"Come on, California boy! Tuwa's waiting for us in the dining area."

"Shit, Michael . . . What time is it?"

"After ten. I let you sleep awhile."

"Jesus. . . . Not nearly enough."

"Come on my friend. The desert is waiting. Tuwa's got our breakfast laid out, she says. Juice . . . coffee. . . hot rolls. A feast!"

"Michael . . . just tell me  that was all a dream yesterday. I mean. . .Did we really . . ."

"Yes, we did, Blake. You witnessed it all. Now come on. Get dressed. Lucky for us we buried the discs only lightly. It won't be as much work for us today."

With much effort, Blake rolled out of bed, wearing only his underwear. The pain in his joints reminded him of the hours of physical work he had done some twenty-four hours before. The skin on his face and arms was still sensitive and slightly burning

Getting up, he had a craving for something, anything, to drink. After using his hands to dink from the bathroom sink and rinsing off his face, Blake reluctantly came back into the main room to put on the same clothes, all smelling dusty and pungent from his sweat the day before.

Soon the two were sitting across from Tuwa, drinking coffee and managing to eat all the rolls with butter and jam which she had prepared for them.

"I just won't be relaxed until we get all the discs . . . somewhere new," Tuwa remarked. "Hidden and protected," she added. "There could be more artifacts in that pit. Possibly further down. We'll explore that today, once we get the cache of discs into the trailer and covered up."