SECOND CHANCE

copyright July 2000 Richard Kaplan

Bennu was approaching yet another Indian mound when he felt the presence of a human mind nearby. He heard a "Hello, there! I didn't think there would be anyone else interested in these sites - there's no hidden treasure, you know."

Bennu turned to find a woman, apparently in her twenties, wearing full field dress, approaching. "It depends upon the definition of 'treasure.' What I seek is not gold, but something far more precious to me - this Sign." He showed it to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Names Jean - Jean Spade - and PLEASE no bad archaeology jokes! I'm so used to people who have no respect for either the burial places of fellow humans or the science or archaeology, that I just assumed . . . ."

Bennu replied: "I'm Bennu. Sadly, you're too often correct. I'm only an amateur, but I'm looking for proof that ancient astronauts visited this planet and made contact with the natives. The Sign I showed you seems to be the key."

Jean: "You'd get along great with my father - that's his belief, too. Me, I'm not so sure. Sorry I can't help you - I've never run across anything like it."

Bennu had done his research well. He had read - at the amazing speed Mature minds were capable of - any scholarly works on the subject in the libraries and Indian museums of the cities he had passed through. Suddenly, a picture on a dust jacket came to mind. "Are you the daughter of the author of 'Indians and Aliens - Contact?' I seem to recall a picture of a girl who looks a lot like you would have 15 years ago."

Jean: "Yes, that's me. I've been going on digs since I was 7. I guess it runs in the family - I'm doing field work for a book of my own."

They strode into the mound and had a look around - it was a dry hole for both of them, but it was dry. It had been raining for the last few days, and Bennu hadn't even managed a decent SunCharge recently.

After several minutes of scientific chatting, Jean suggested: "Who wants to get either dusty or muddy AGAIN? Why don't we know it off for the day and continue our discussion in my tent?"

Bennu didn't have to be a telepath to know that she had been admiring his body, but by now, he was quite experienced at deflecting flirtations. "Sorry, but there are a LOT of mounds at this site, and my time is limited."

Jean shrugged. Pity! He was a most excellent specimen of the human male, and it would have been a nice break from work. But field sciences placed great demands on one's time, and she'd been the one who'd said "No" on several occasions. In fact, she was fairly sure her father wouldn't have found the time to get married if his bride-to-be hadn't been a field assistant whose father was a minister.

They parted amicably, and for the next few hours, saw each other ducking into and out of various mounds. Then both called it a day. She folded her tent and drove back to the motel in town while he camped out in a mound.

Once there, she placed the obligatory call to her father - he was such a worry wart! In the course of it, she naturally mentioned her encounter with Bennu and his familiarity with her father's book. She even teased him gently by giving a detailed description of her fellow mound explorer.

After she'd hung up, Doctor Spade began trying to remember where he'd heard that name. There was some government fellow who had spoken to him a while ago. In an attempt to remember, he began talking to himself. "Let's see, it was something about additional funding - (field scientists ALWAYS needed extra funding, so he was making a special effort to recall the conversation) - oh, yes. Some branch of the Government actually agreed with his theories, and this Bennu fellow may have made some significant discoveries. He was a loner, though, and they couldn't contact him to let him know a grant was available. If the Doctor ever heard about or from him, please give us a call, and you'll be included in the grant." Yes, that sounded right. The physical description - tall, Nordic blond - matched, too. Now, where was the card?

Amazingly, he actually found it in less than 15 minutes. "Bureau of Indian Archaeology. Justin Premminger, Field Director" it read. Early the next morning he dialed the number . . .

Premminger got the team moving. It was a large site and there was a good chance Bennu was still busy with it. Premminger felt lucky - as much as he allowed himself to believe in luck, anyway.

Yes, indeed, this was his lucky day. Bennu had been seen entering a small mound and was now surrounded. Wanting to make the capture himself, Premminger took a fellow agent in with him.

For his part, Bennu had much more significant problems to deal with. Yago had been waiting for him, and with his charge level not the best, Bennu, his back against the far wall, was fighting back furiously.

Premminger spotted him and stepped forward to make the capture, ignoring the flickering of medallion flashes and the strange "shadow" between them. Just as he entered it, his fellow agent, a devout Catholic, yelled some "gibberish" about Evil Spirits. "Evil Spirits indeed! Why, he found believing in aliens hard eno . . .

He was engulfed in a blackness so absolute that it seemed not to be merely the absence of light, but its negation. At the same time, a shattering cold gripped him. He was absolutely terrified!

Then things turned BAD. The blackness was replaced by a spinning vortex. A Voice echoed through his mind: "Well, hello, human. Have you chosen to serve Me? Come!" Premminger, helpless to stop it, found himself dragged into a whirlpool of pure Evil.

Jose, his fellow agent, held out the cross he always wore and, praying at the top of his voice, thrust his arm into the blackness. He collapsed from coldshock. However, Yago, a part of his mind already busy with Premminger, was briefly distracted by this further intrusion. Bennu, seeing his chanced, fired a final Mindblast.

All Premminger saw was a lance of Light arcing across the whirlpool, fading as it reached the edge. It was enough - barely. The Evil blackness disappeared, to be replaced by the merciful one of unconsciousness.

Bennu was close to that state himself, and in his case, if he couldn't reach Sunlight, it might well prove fatal. He staggered forward - and noticed the two humans. One, now genuinely babbling gibberish, was suffering mainly from psychic shock - nothing that had to be dealt with immediately. The other, unfortunately, was dying. What could he do? If it hadn't been for their unintended intervention, he probably would be babbling gibberish or dying. He HAD to help.

He reached out and, in shock, realized that it was his enemy Premminger. What a cruel trick of Fate. Probably foolishly, but entirely in character, he spent the last of his sunpower to partially heal him. Then Bennu, utterly drained, collapsed.

Premminger awoke, the horror still ringing in his mind. What had HAPPENED?? He looked in disgust at Jose. Superstitious fool! Completely useless when you needed him most. He found his flashlight and shined it around. Light glinted off metal. The beam revealed a crumpled form - Bennu! He crawled over and reached for the medallion.

Bennu: "Go . . . ahead . . . take it. I have Failed. My death will Awaken Mira. Just pray to whatever you call the Light that she can deal with Yago. You wouldn't like living on a planet he rules - " Bennu fell unconscious. Clearly, he was dying.

Premminger was, well, Premminger. His first thought was: "I can't let him die. My career will be ruined!" Still, it had the desired effect. He croaked a "Help" into the walkie-talkie, and several agents raced in, guns drawn. "Put those things away and get us out of here. No take Bennu first, he's dying." Remember the reports, he said: "Put him in the sunniest spot you can find, and leave his medallion alone!"

One of the agents said: "But if we let him keep his medallion, he might escape."

Premminger replied: "At least he'll still be alive. If we don't let him keep it, he'll die, and our orders are explicit about the 'alive' part!"

Much to his surprise, Bennu awoke to find his medallion still around his neck. The Sun had finally come out, and before anybody could change their mind, he removed his shirt and SunCharged. Premminger averted his eyes, but everybody else, for various reasons, watched. In a much better frame of mind, Bennu began to plan a possible escape. It didn't look promising, but "medallioned and SunCharged in the open" was much better than "dying in a mound."

Premminger, still badly shaken, walked up to Bennu. "What WAS That?"

Bennu: "Yago, No mortal race is perfect. Even among my people, some become corrupted. He is one of our Failures."

Premminger: "But where is his body?"

Bennu: "Some place on this planet. As you've seen, he is quite horrible - and powerful - enough without it. If he ever locates it and rejoins . . . " Both Bennu and Premminger shuddered.

Premminger: "I think I'll have nightmares about today for the rest of my life."

Bennu: "I can fix that easily enough." He reached for his medallion.

Premminger paled. Though none of his coworkers knew about it, had had been very seriously ill with a high fever when he was a child, and had spent several days delirious. The idea that his mind wasn't under his absolute control explained much about him, and he simply couldn't accept Bennu's help. Perhaps his attitude DID help him survive his captivity in Vietnam, but unfortunately, THAT experience made his need for control far stronger . . . Even the thought of having his mind read appalled him.

Bennu, who'd been doing exactly that with the intention of offering to fix that problem, too, gave up. It was, after all, one's right to refuse help, no matter how Immature that decision was.

Jose, who was convinced that Bennu was an Angel (if he'd defeated an Evil Spirit, it's certainly the most logical conclusion), was another matter. He was only too happy to accept help, though Bennu did have to explain that he and Yago were simply members of an advanced alien race.

As the Light formed about the two of them, all watched in awe. Well, OK, not Premminger, but even his curiosity got the better of him and he did peek out of the corner of an eye.

One can say a lot of things about Justin Premminger, and very few are favorable: a bully, ungrateful, arrogant, overly ambitious, vindictive, and mean-spirited make a decent start at describing his personality. "Evil," however, in the sense that Hitler - or Yago - was, was not one of those words. And he was patriotic. If this had happened in the Soviet Union, Premminger might have made a different decision, but the thought of Yago loose in the United States terrified him even more than the loss of his career.

Premminger: "Oh, get lost. Just don't let me catch you again."

He watched the rapidly retreating back of his former - and soon to be again - quarry. He wasn't completely sure why he had chosen to give Bennu a second chance, but that battle in the mound had a lot to do with it. Premminger, though a very poor example of humanity, wasn't a sociopath, and at least this one time, he honestly felt he owed a favor. Well, he'd paid that debt, and Mr. Bennu Space Alien had better not expect it to happen again, but he was satisfied that he'd done the right thing.

One of the agents spoke up: "But what do we put in our report?"

Premminger: "Report? What report? Did anybody here see anything . . . they want to report? Not me!"

Alas, old beliefs - or disbeliefs - die hard, and within a few days, Premminger had managed to shove even the horror of Yago to the back of his mind. There it sat quietly, waiting patiently for the right moment, buried amidst his other traumas, seemingly just another generator of occasional nightmares.

He was soon berating himself for the one "moment of weakness" he'd shown in his adult life. As a result, he became an even more unpleasant person. He reserved the largest part of his scorn for Jose, whom he blamed for failing to prevent him from committing such a "foolish" act. Space aliens, indeed, and one of them without a body, no less! Never mind healing lights and other such nonsense. Clearly, this Bennu character was a master of hypnosis, and Premminger was glad he'd recovered from its effects.

Jose accepted the added burden with calmness. His beliefs were at least as deeply held as Justin's, and he happened to agree with him about Bennu - at least as far as aliens went.

He was much more at peace with himself after his experience with Bennu. The Light and Love of a Healer were, at a minimum, a profoundly emotional experience, and Jose was firmly convinced that, despite his denials, Bennu was an Angel.

Unlike Premminger's experience, it was most unlikely to cause any damage. Still, Bennu would have preferred Jose to have accepted the ful Truth. But it was a common, and not really unreasonable, belief among the Immature.