By Any Other Name

By Wesa

Series: Crossover War of the Worlds/ The People

Rating: PG

Category: Angst

Disclaimers: War of the Worlds characters belong to Paramount and Strangis & Strangis. The concept of The People belonged to the late Zenna Henderson until her death; I don't know who owns it now. I have nothing but admiration for those who created these characters and concepts, and I mean no disrespect. I'm not making any money from this; this is just for my own entertainment and for the entertainment of those who want to read it.

By Wesa.

Paul and Harrison sat up another hour after Randie and Lytha retired to their sleeping bags. They spoke little, each staring into the fire as long, companionable silences stretched between them.

"Should we tell Suzanne and Norton?" Harrison asked at last, softly.

"I've been wondering about that, too," Paul agreed. "They don't really need to know, not right now. But if something was to go wrong, if we could no longer fight, the People might be able to offer them sanctuary. I'd like them to know that much, in case you and I get killed and can't tell them."

"But how could we tell them that without telling them about the People themselves?" Harrison wondered. "And you're talking about dying again. Why is it that whenever you're in a good mood you start talking about death? You know, Paul, I'm starting to get a little worried about you."

Paul chuckled softly, staring into the fire again but seeing only mental images of the woman who had fascinated him from their first meeting: the way her hair billowed like a dark cloud when she moved; her eyes sparkling when she laughed in delight at something he'd said; the warmth of her body as she had cringed against him when Harrison's enthusiasm had frightened her. At that moment, it had taken all his strength of will not to embrace her protectively.

"Paul?" Harrison asked.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Paul asked innocently.

"You're not fooling anyone, you know," Harrison said, "except possibly Randie."

"About what?" Paul asked. It was madness even to fantasize about loving an alien.

Harrison sighed in resignation. "Look, far be it from me to tell you how to run your life- "

"Ha!" Paul scoffed.

"- But Paul," Harrison continued, "for God's sake, kiss the girl."

"Harrison," Paul replied, "I'm a soldier, a warrior. A gentle, sensitive girl like Randie wouldn't want anything to do with me. Hell, none of the People would. You heard Randie tell how the guy that was involved in the bombing of Hiroshima felt. And he didn't kill anyone himself. I have had blood on my hands, my friend. And I don't only mean Sara Cole. Randie's not stupid; she knows a combat soldier kills. She couldn't possibly want me."

"That was quite a tirade, Paul," Harrison laughed. "I notice you don't deny wanting her."

Paul sighed; he should have known he couldn't keep his feelings from his friend. "But Harrison," he said reluctantly, "it could never work between us. She's a pacifist; I'm a soldier. I hunt aliens. I kill aliens. She is one. It would never work."

"It won't work if you don't try," Harrison needled him. "Have you spoken to her about it at all?"

"No."

"No? What were you doing while Lytha took me to use the phone at the store?"

"Packing the camping gear," Paul replied as if it should have been obvious.

Harrison frowned at his friend. Then, slowly, a wicked gleam grew deep in his eyes. "She is pretty," he said. "And smart... If you're not going to move on her- "

Paul glared at him. "You'll frighten her again!" he protested. "Just keep away from her, Harrison."

"You're not going to move on her, but no one else can? Paul, that's not fair to Randie." He stretched and yawned. "Stormclouds have just about blotted out the stars. Are you going to sleep tonight, or are you going to stay out here pouting, and get all wet?"

Paul waited until rain began to fall in earnest before joining Harrison in the small tent on the opposite side of the fire from the one Lytha and Randie shared. He spent the time thinking, wondering how he could bring Randie to the Cottage without General Wilson running a background check on her. Right now, he was sure, was not a good time for the General to learn about the People. The General might not understand that the People were different than the enemy. Certainly he would want Randie to have a physical exam if he knew she was part - mostly - alien.

Paul realized he didn't want her to have to endure such treatment partly because he was afraid they would find some difference, some reason to believe the People posed a threat to Earth. Paul was sure they weren't a threat, although perhaps they wouldn't be much help. They didn't seem to be fighters at all.

He finally fell asleep despite the wind and the crash of thunder over and around them.

The next morning he stretched before he even crawled out of his borrowed sleeping bag, popping his back discreetly. He didn't need Harrison to start kiping at him about yoga again, but he hadn't slept on the ground in years and, he discovered, his back didn't like it anymore.

Lytha was frying eggs over the campfire, and Randie met him with a cup of coffee as he exited the tent. He took a sip and smiled at her. "You two sure know how to keep a man happy," he told Randie softly.

"I might have to keep you around, Randie," Harrison agreed as he inverted himself, propping his feet against a convenient tree. "He's usually Mr. Grouchy Bear in the mornings."

The women laughed. "How long have you been living together?" Lytha asked innocently.

Paul spat his mouthful of coffee into the fire at her phrasing, causing Lytha to stare at him blankly while Randie chastised him gently, "That's not what she meant."

"I'm sorry," he apologized immediately. "The way she put it just took me by surprise."

Lytha frowned from Paul to Randie. "What?" she asked, glaring at Harrison for laughing.

"I'll explain later," Randie soothed her. "You ran headlong into an Outsider idiom."

Lytha blushed deeply. "Is that all Outsiders ever think about?" she demanded.

Randie laughed. "Of course not, silly toola. How could they write great novels, create great art, come to such great insights about Creation if that was all they thought about?" she teased Lytha. "But it is important to them, and they haven't the advantage we have of always knowing when they find their Loves."

Both Paul and Harrison alerted to her words. "The People always know?" Harrison asked.

"Well, not always right away," Lytha explained. "How long did Jemmy and Valancy know each other before they figured it out, Randie?"

Randie grinned wryly. "Well, they both knew right away. The trouble was that each thought the other was an Outsider. We didn't know yet then how much like us your people are. They both thought they would have to live their lives alone because of it."

"What happened?" Paul asked, remembering the old couple who had kept him from telling Norton and Suzanne everything he knew about the People on his first day here. They had seemed perfect for each other, from the little he had seen, and as much in love as newlyweds, if less obvious about it.

"There was a fire," Lytha told him. "Valancy was the teacher at the school in Cougar Canyon, and she had taken the class up into the hills for a holiday. The manzanita caught fire, and there was no way to get the children safely away without giving away who and what she was." She grinned. "Fortunately, so were the kids and their parents."

"I love the way Karen described it," Randie said dreamily. "''Til I die I'll never forget Valancy standing there tense and taller than life against the rolling convulsive clouds of smoke, both her hands outstretched, fingers wide apart as the measured terror of her voice went on and on in words that plagued me because I should have known them and didn't. As I watched I felt an icy cold gather, a paralyzing unearthly cold that froze the tears on my tensely upturned face,'" she quoted, her eyes closed as if she could see the scene Karen had described. For all Paul and Harrison knew, she could.

"'And then lightning leaped from finger to finger of her lifted hands. And lightning answered in the clouds above her. With a toss of her hands she threw the cold, the lightning, the sullen shifting smoke upward, and the roar of the racing fire was drowned in a hissing roar of down-drenching rain.'"

Paul stared at Randie, eventually remembering to swallow the coffee in his mouth. "You can do that?" he asked in awe.

She shook her head, smiling. "Best I can do is cloud-herd," she told him, "but that's from Gramma Dita; it's an Earth talent. Valancy, they discovered, was not only one of us and Jemmy's Love, but she was also the most powerful Sorter we'd had since we came to Earth, and she had all the Persuasions and Designs that had been lost in the Crossing."

Lytha had begun dishing up eggs, and Harrison folded his knees down and stood right side up, wandering over to join the rest of them. "'Persuasions' and 'Designs?'" he repeated, accepting a plate from the teenager.

Randie and Lytha looked at each other as if consulting on how to define the terms for him. "Well," Lytha began slowly, "Lifting is a Persuasion -" As she spoke, the log on which the two men had sat the evening before rose into the air and hovered there. "- And platting twishers is a Design." She reached into a shaft of early-morning sunshine, gathered a handful, and swiftly wove it into an intricate pattern, which she tossed at the log. Briefly enveloped in light, it settled right back into the same place she had Lifted it from.

"Wow," Harrison chuckled softly, accepting a cup of coffee from Randie. "Paul, I don't care if they can't actually fight. They'd be a great help fending off the invasion."

His statement had a chilling effect on both the women. After staring at him in horror for a second, Lytha burst into tears and disappeared into the tent she and Randie shared. Randie watched her young cousin out of sight. "Would you destroy the Mortaxians only because they're not of Earth?" she asked sadly. "How can you think we would help you kill others of God's children?"

"'God's children?'" Paul repeated, aghast. "Randie, they're not human. They kill humans without a qualm!"

She nodded. "I know," she replied, "but didn't God create the whole of the universe? Does that not include all sentient species? Do you think the Mortaxians don't have souls?"

"They killed my parents," Harrison said tightly.

Randie took his hand and showed him again the memory of a burning barn falling down around her great-grandmother's family. "And what did your ancestors do to mine?" she asked softly. She sighed and Lifted a plate of fried eggs and toast into Paul's hands. "Eat. I'll go look after Lytha."

They watched her duck into the tent. Harrison turned to Paul and said bitterly, "I guess you were right, Colonel. They're more different than I ever imagined."

*******************************************************************************

"I'm sorry," Lytha apologized, still sniffling back tears.

Paul watched as Harrison looked down into the teenager's tear-stained face. He could tell that Harrison's heart was breaking; the scientist looked as if he, too, might burst into tears. "It's my fault," he told her softly. "I just want them to go away so bad, and I thought you could help us make them. I should have known better. Paul told me about the memory Valancy had shown him of your early days here, and Randie has shown us what happened to your great-grandmother's sister and her family. I should have known better," he repeated. He held out his hand. "Friends?" he asked.

Lytha hesitated only briefly, then shook Harrison's hand soberly. "Do you still want to go to the mine?" she asked.

Harrison nodded, his seriousness matching hers. "If you're still willing to take us."

Randie's eyes met Paul's sadly. "We will take you there," she promised. "We'll even help you look for pieces of our ship. Just don't ask either of us to kill anyone."

"We wouldn't do that," he assured her. "There shouldn't be anyone else there anyway, should there?"

Lytha turned her head and looked further up the mountain. "No, there's no one there," she said.

Randie nodded. "Okay. There's nowhere to put the car up there. We can walk and climb, or if you're willing to trust us, we can Lift. Lifting's faster and easier, at least for Lytha and me, if you can deal with it psychologically." She looked at Paul apologetically. "I'm sorry. I know it makes you nervous."

"It's usually easier for Outsiders when there's contact," Lytha told Harrison, reaching out her hand to him. "Or I could Still you," she offered, looking at Paul.

He hesitated, torn. He didn't want to be Stilled, but neither did he want to risk offending Randie with a physical reaction to her nearness. Their earlier disagreement had left him even more uncertain about his feelings for her than before, and he looked at Randie questioningly.

She met his gaze with warm understanding in her eyes and gestured to him to walk with her a little way away from the others. "I won't drop you, Paul," she promised softly. "I would prefer you awake. I'm not that easily offended."

Paul stared at her in embarrassment. "I thought you couldn't read minds," he said.

She caught at his hand and squeezed it. "But I can read body language as well as any Outsider," she told him, "and if you can look past me being an alien, I can certainly look past an involuntary reflex." She smiled up at him. "Actually, it's kind of flattering," she added.

Watching them, Harrison chuckled when a smile tugged faintly at Paul's lips. Lytha grinned at him. "They're almost as dumb about this as Jemmy and Valancy were, aren't they?" she murmured.

"Paul's not stupid," Harrison told her, "but he's overcautious sometimes. Fortunately it looks like Randie has more sense."