Contact

by M. D. Neu

  “Come, Faa,” Suloff said from off screen. “You did a good job, auntie. The humans aren’t nearly as ugly or hairy as I thought.”

  Ecra frowned at her.

  Pretending to stifle a yawn Mirtoff covered the grin on her face with her hand. She bowed to her niece. “Thank you, Suloff.” She turned her attention back to Ecra. “I would like to spend time with you tonight when I return. May I join you and Suloff for a meal?”

  “Of course,” Ecra said. “You know you’re always welcome. I’ll get the evening meal ready, and we can talk then. It’ll be good to see you.”

  “Very good.” Mirtoff’s spirits rose as the weight of both worlds were slowly lessening. “It’ll be good to spend time with you as well. I’m looking forward to it.”

  “As do I, sister. See you soon.” Ecra bowed. The screen turned black and filled with the Nentraee symbol.

  Family. I need to spend time with my family and relax. So much has happened, and I need the time away.

  Finishing her drink, Mirtoff savored the last of the cool spice and stood. She walked to the window, watching the ship move through Earth’s early afternoon sky.

  “This is new for all of us,” Mirtoff told herself. She leaned her head back, putting her hands to her sides and offered a small prayer for all of them. “Please, J’Veesa, guide me and help me to make the right choices for my people.”

  Thirteen: At the Office

  TODD COULD FINALLY relax. His head wasn’t pounding, and the back of his neck didn’t feel like a giant knot. The events of the last few days were behind them and life was starting to return to normal; the curfew was lifted, and people returned to work. With little incident, President Zachary decided the forty-eight-hour cooling off period had been effective, and no other restrictions were necessary. As predicted, the stock market suffered the largest two-day drop on record but rebounded as the world settled and collectively decided humankind could live with the realization aliens existed.

  Talk turned to where the aliens should go and how they would adapt. All Terrans, as people were starting to refer to themselves jokingly, talked about was how different the Nentraee appeared and how mysterious they seemed.

  The media provided updates and mentioned different countries signing agreements with the aliens. Reports aired of religious groups protesting against the arrival and claiming the Nentraee were here for nefarious reasons. Protesters shouted Earth was for humans only. Religious zealots claimed that if God wanted the Nentraee here, he would have mentioned them in the Bible.

  As he looked around the CRiNE conference room, Todd wondered how it made the aliens feel.

  Was this why they were being so standoffish?

  He pulled a chair off the stack and placed it. He was setting up for the all-staff meeting Varick wanted to have.

  “What do you think, Kati?” Todd asked.

  She didn’t respond, so he kept talking. “My brother said they’re gonna visit San Jose. He doesn’t have the details, and he’s been busy with keeping things calm. Their space technology is more advanced than ours. Duh. They may even have stuff like terraforming and artificial gravity. Cool, right?” Todd glanced up at her.

  Kati refused to answer. Her head was slightly tilted, and her lips were sealed together; she was still upset, and it showed on her normally very pretty face.

  “Oh, come on, don’t glare at me like that.” Todd frowned and lined up the chair he’d just put down with the row of chairs in front of him in an attempt to keep the chairs even.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t call me. You didn’t even try to warn me.” She crossed her arms in front of her cashmere blazer, forcing her chest to pop out a little more. “You’re lucky I don’t cut off your balls and add them to my collection. I called you once the phone lines were back to normal, right? I didn’t forget you.” Kati adjusted her silk shirt, picked up a chair from the stack, and dropped it next to the one Todd had just left. “You’re lucky I’m helping you at all, ass.”

  Crossing over to her with a big, dopey smile on his face, Todd said, “C’mon Kati, you wouldn’t have believed me if I told you. It was crazy. With Brad showing up and dropping this bomb on us what was I supposed to do? My head was somewhere else. Plus, Jerry didn’t even believe him. He thought we were both nuts. There was no way I was gonna risk telling you. Who knows what you would’ve done?” He lowered his head and stared at her. “I told you that in confidence, so don’t go off and share that bit of info. I didn’t even tell Dan.”

  He got closer to her and lowered his voice. “You’re still my favorite bitch here,” he teased.

  “You better watch your tongue, Mister HR Manager.” She pushed him back, waving a finger back and forth. “If people hear you talk like that, I won’t be the only one getting in trouble for inappropriate language in the workplace.”

  Todd pursed his lips.

  Despite her expensive outfits and soft feminine exterior, Katherine had the mouth of a trucker. Todd had to tell her often to soften her language because some staff found her too foulmouthed and irreverent. Personally, he enjoyed her honest non-PC nature. It was the same with Dan. They had no problem telling people what they thought. If someone didn’t like it, they would tell them where to stick it too.

  She picked a piece of white cat hair from his dress shirt. “Seriously?” She held the hair up so he could see it. She dropped it, and it floated away.

  “What can I say?” Todd scratched his goatee. “Bianca purposely puts her cat hair everywhere. If I’m wearing black, it’s like the kiss of death!”

  “You should have your house boy—”

  “Who?”

  “Dan.” Kati shook her head. “Anyway, you should have him scrubbing your house, and maybe get him a French maid outfit. It’d be super cute,” she said. “How long’s he going to stay this time?”

  “I don’t know. With the Nentraee here and his mother completely freaking out over them, what could we do? So, we told him he could stay with us as long as he needs; plus I can’t, in all good conscience, make him sleep on the couch at his sister’s place, and there is no way he would survive staying with his mother.” He shrugged.

  “Ah, you and Jerry are such good friends.”

  “I guess so,” he said.

  “You ‘guess so’? Well, I’d be charging his ass rent at the very least.”

  “Nah, we’re fine. We have the space, and he’s no trouble. Plus, he does help around the house and all that. Honestly, isn’t that what friends do for each other?”

  “Maybe I need to suck up to you more just to keep you around.”

  “Har har.” He dusted his shirt. “Anyway, we’re finished here, and it’s almost lunch. What say I let you buy me lunch to make up for things?” Todd pushed out his lower lip in his best pouty face, making it quiver, watching her through big, open eyes.

  “Oh, fine. How can I stay mad at such a pretty little gay boy?” Kati quipped. She walked up to him and smacked his face with affection.

  “Ouch.” He raised a hand to his cheek. The smack was harder than it should have been, and Todd knew it. Kati wouldn’t forget, and she’d make sure he wouldn’t either.

  “Where’d you want to go?” she asked.

  Todd rubbed his cheek as they left the conference room.

  “Let’s go to the Poor House? We haven’t been there in a while.”

  “Sure, that sounds good. Let me get my stuff. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

  Todd and Kati spent their lunch eating and talking about the Nentraee like everyone else in the restaurant. Getting back to the office, Todd parked his Jeep, and he and Kati got out of the cool car. Peeking around the parking lot as the waves of heat reflected off the asphalt, a small drop of sweat ran down Todd’s cheek.

  “Jesus.” Kati huffed, waving her hand by her face.

  They hurried to the office building to get back into the chilled air. Finally, he opened the lobby door and welcomed the rush of the cool breeze from the building’s air conditioning. He
shuddered as he went through the second set of glass doors and saw Varick standing at the reception desk, dropping off an overnight envelope.

  “Ah! Todd, come to my office, please?” Varick commanded.

  Todd always smiled when he heard his boss’s German accent.

  “Sure, Varick. What’s up?”

  Kati walked through the interior lobby doors and headed back to the offices. “I’ll talk to you later, Todd.”

  Varick ushered Todd into his office. Once they were in and Varick’s office door shut, Varick went behind his desk and sat. Todd took in the sight of his boss reclining in his chair. He was an imposing bull of a man whose brows were always wrinkled in a serious expression.

  The man had never met a joke.

  Todd raised a hand in front of his face, pretended to yawn, and hid his amusement.

  “What’s going on?” Todd sat. Experience had taught him the only time Varick wished to see him was when there was a problem. Their work relationship was built on trust, respect, and noninterference, which afforded Todd latitude. He braced himself for bad news.

  Varick’s face transformed into what appeared to be a painful expression.

  It was so off-putting that Todd had to catch himself from yelping.

  Holy crap, it’s a smile. No, it’s a sneer-grin.

  “All is well.” Varick’s words almost sounded like the German “alles ist gut.” Todd couldn’t tell anymore. “I was granted a meeting with one of those things.” He was still sneer-grinning from ear to ear. “We did it! Well, I did it.” He sorted through his notes on his desk. “Mi’ko Soemu. He heads their Business and Technology Information Ministry. He’s their vice speaker, as well. Mister Soemu will be heading up their efforts to integrate our technologies.”

  Somehow the sneer-grin grew bigger on Varick’s face. “It would appear they are very interested in our expertise. They like our biometric algorithm and the robustness of our hardware. We were on their short list of companies.”

  “Outstanding.” Todd smiled, and his head nodded with excitement.

  “I’m sure it helped that we have several government contracts. Our form of biometric scanners are new to them, as is our software.” Varick beamed.

  It was unbelievable; this was great news. Todd knew how important this would be for CRiNE and for Varick. And to see Varick this animated over anything was enough to make Todd chuckle. “That’s great.”

  “I want you there.” Varick’s face became serious.

  “Wait? What?” Todd forced himself to relax, letting it soak in. “But why do you want me there?” He shifted in his seat. “Not that I don’t want to meet them. I would love to, but why me?”

  “You’re the only one in the company who has a degree in psychology and knows how to deal with people properly.” The sneer-grin was starting to come back. “Grant and Lorena will be there, as well.”

  Todd was ready to speak, but Varick raised a hand, stopping him.

  “These alien things are new to us. I want your help understanding them. The government-provided information says having someone who can offer this sort of support is good. They can give us a list of contractors, but I don’t want to pay for that. We can’t afford the cost. You’re good enough.” Varick folded his hands on his desk. “Basically, I want you to be my Counselor Troi from Star Trek for our first contact.” He let out a single laugh.

  Todd’s heart started pounding, and his forehead started to sweat.

  I can’t believe this. This is amazing. I mean, holy shit! I get to meet the aliens.

  After several minutes of silence, Varick leaned forward. “Are you okay?”

  Todd nodded, remaining quiet, his head finally quieting. He processed Varick’s words.

  “Todd?”

  Todd shook his head. “Um…all right, I can do that. I can be at the meeting for you. A government official might be better, but if it helps the company.” He stopped and studied Varick. “One suggestion, you might not want to refer to them as things.”

  Varick’s mouth twitched. “Good point. See? The perfect Counselor Troi.”

  Har har. I hope he’s not expecting me to wear the outfit.

  He didn’t mind the Counselor Troi jokes. Varick had discovered he liked Star Trek by accident during his first interview, and they bonded over it at once.

  “So, when’s the meeting?” Todd asked, getting up.

  “It’s set for Thursday, the twelfth of July. That gives you time to go over the information the government sent us on how to deal with those… I mean…the Nentraee. They’ll meet us here at the office, and we’ll put them through the whole dog and horse show.”

  Varick still had problems with American colloquialisms, but Todd caught his meaning.

  “I don’t have the details yet, but I’ll have Jim provide you with them,” Varick said, writing something on one of his notepads. “Another thing—there’ll be a welcome party downtown that night at the Fairmont. I expect you to be there as well. Bring Jerry. I’m sure he’d like to attend.”

  “They agreed to a reception? Wow!” Todd walked to the door. “That should be fun.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be good for everyone,” Varick said. “See you at the staff meeting.”

  Todd left the office. How great was this? He caught himself in a skip-hop and made his way to Kati’s office. He had to tell someone. Now he would have to pull up the information on the aliens and study. He was sure there would be a lot he would have to learn. If the government was sending information, then there would be more online as well. It was going to be an education, and somehow, he was pretty sure Varick wouldn’t be giving him any more money to do it either. The man was as cheap as he was stoic.

  Todd poked his head into Kati’s office. “You got a minute?”

  Kati held her hand up—she was on the phone. “Listen, you dipshit. Get me my brochures by Friday, or I’ll have your balls as earrings and your dick as a pendant. Do I make myself clear?” She hung up the phone and smiled at him.

  “Buttercup, how can I help you?” she asked, typing something onto the keyboard.

  “Ouch.” Todd shook his head, trying to get Kati’s vivid imagery out of his mind. “Was that really necessary? I mean the poor guy.”

  “That ‘poor guy’ has been dicking around with our order for a month. He’s been throwing every excuse at me in the book, and when we met face to face, all he did was stare at my boobs. So…yum…you bet he deserved it.” She glanced up at Todd. “What did Big V want?”

  “Oh, right. Varick’s got a meeting with the Nentraee. They’re gonna come here to the office.” Todd’s voice became animated, faster than normal. “And he wants me in on it. Can you believe it? How cool, right?”

  Kati stood, knocking her chair back so hard it made a loud bang. “Holy Shit! That’s great! They’re coming to the office? Wow.”

  Todd talked over her. “I mean, there is so much we don’t know about them, and now I get to sit in a meeting with them? He wants me there. Did I tell you that? So I can make sure he doesn’t screw up. Say something dumb, you know? I wonder what they’re gonna be like? I hope they’re nice. God, I hope the meeting’s not boring. Crap, what if Varick makes a dumb joke? Oh God, what if I make a dumb joke?”

  “Breathe.” Kati snapped her fingers at him.

  Todd inhaled catching whiffs of Kati’s floral perfume and hints of smoke from lunch. He hoped it would help him relax, but it wasn’t helping; he was too excited.

  “There’s some dinner welcome event. I get to go to that too.” Todd was still racing through his words. “I can bring Jerry. How cool, right? We get to meet them in person!”

  “Slow down there, big boy.” Kati frowned, glancing at her fingernails. “I’ll only get to meet them in passing, I suppose. It’ll depend on what Grant wants, the rat bastard. Maybe, I can sweet-talk my way in?”

  Todd nodded, but they both knew there was no way it would happen. Grant was the VP of Marketing and Sales, and he would never allow Kati to attend. It wasn
’t her area.

  “Do you suppose Varick or Grant will say anything at the meeting today?” she asked.

  “I guess. He’s excited about it. I can’t imagine him not telling everyone.” Todd checked his watch. “Speaking of which, I need to get my butt in gear and finish. Talk to you later.”

  “See ya,” Kati called out.

  He went back to his office and tried to focus on preparing for the meeting. He moved his replica Star Trek phaser on his bookcase so he could get at his employee benefits binder. Flipping through the pages, he started to bob along to Scott Williams’s “Parson’s Farewell” playing on his iPod.

  Scattered around his desk and on the rest of the shelves were little toys people had given him over the years. It was all in an effort to make his office as unthreatening as possible. Right next to his desk phone was a photo of him and Jerry from their trip to London. They were standing next to one of the guards at Buckingham Palace. It was true they never smiled, but at least they got a photo with him. They had joked about patting the guard’s butt right before the photo, but he was armed, and they didn’t want to get shot.

  Todd’s heart was finally getting back to normal.

  Aliens. I’m going to meet the aliens.

  He still couldn’t believe this. He glanced out the office window at the foothills. It was hazy, but the mist hadn’t covered them entirely. They were golden and speckled with trees.

  It’s beautiful.

  Todd sorted through his emails. “It must be a slow day. Only twenty new messages,” he said to his tiny office.

  Scanning the list for one name in particular, Todd found Jerry’s name and clicked on it:

  Nothing happening here. I’m setting up a couple of new computers. I’ll be in and out. Hope you had a good lunch. Is Katherine talking to you, or are you still in trouble? Do you still have your balls? Talk to you later.