The Alien Who Fell to Earth

by Fiona Roarke

  Oh, no. Was he in trouble? Or was he faking fatigue so he didn’t have to talk to the sheriff? So clever, this guy, but Victoria had to school her features to concern and not giddy delight over a fellow Alpha doing basically what he was supposed to do, but doing it very well.

  She put her hand on his shoulder. “Honey? What’s wrong?” She expected him to mumble something about being tired and wanting to sleep.

  Instead, the monitor attached to his arm started beeping stridently.

  The doctor bounded to his side, pressed a button to signal for more help, and dropped the bed down flat. A nurse arrived, pushing past the sheriff and moving next to the doctor.

  Together they worked on waking Holden up for the next few minutes, talking in shorthand medical speak. They did various tests, listened to his heart and checked his pulse. If the dour look on the doctor’s face was any indication, it didn’t seem like Holden had passed any of the tests.

  Was he truly hurt? Oh, no. How could she get him out of here and back to the rendezvous in time, let alone all the way back to Alienn, Arkansas?

  “Holden.” Victoria pushed on his shoulder again. “Wake up. Please. You’re scaring me.”

  The doctor adjusted several dials on the medical equipment and the beeping finally stopped, but Holden didn’t wake up. The nurse gave her a puzzled look as if wondering where she’d come from.

  “Are you an immediate family member?”

  The doctor said, “That’s his wife.”

  “His wife? I don’t have any record saying he has a wife.”

  The sheriff, who’d remained quiet at the end of the bed, suddenly looked alert.

  Victoria, thinking on her feet, said quickly, “Well, you don’t have record of his name either, do you?”

  The nurse shrugged. “True. I just didn’t know about you. I’m sorry.”

  Victoria didn’t want to make an enemy. “I’m so sorry to have snapped at you,” she said sincerely. “I’m just so worried about him.”

  The nurse relaxed. “It’s understandable. Did you just call him Holden?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ve been calling him John Doe, JD for short. But he looks like a Holden.”

  “What’s his last name?” the sheriff asked.

  “Gri—” Spuds. Don’t use his real name! She pretended to have something suddenly caught in her throat and then quickly said, “Gregg. Holden Gregg.”

  “Holden Gregg?”

  “Yes.”

  “And so you’re Mrs. Gregg, is that right?”

  “That’s right. Victoria Gregg. G-R-E-G-G,” she spelled out. “Gregg with two Gs at the end.” Lie. Lie. Lie. Wish. Wish. Wish.

  “How long have the two of you been together, Mrs. Gregg with two Gs at the end?” The sheriff looked down at his notebook with a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. Was he making fun of her?

  Victoria tilted her head, ready to be sassy. “Married or otherwise?”

  The sheriff smiled, this time with his whole mouth. He also relaxed like she wasn’t suspect anymore. Good. “Let’s start with married.”

  Victoria figured even with this new understanding, he would still commit her answers to memory so he could later grill Holden. But if her “husband” continued to “forget” who he was, the sheriff wouldn’t have any reason to suspect them of anything at all.

  “Together five years or so, married for almost three.”

  “Any kids?”

  Victoria’s cheeks heated in an instant at the notion of where babies came from, and a flash fantasy of being with Holden in that way. Whew, doggies. She forcefully calmed herself. “No. Not yet.”

  “When was the last time you saw your husband, Holden?”

  Victoria cleared her throat and spun her tale. “Last night. He went out to get a few last-minute supplies for the picnic we planned today. I tried to stay up until he got back, but I fell asleep about five minutes after he left. I didn’t wake up until late this morning and he still was gone. It was clear he’d never come back. Our vehicle was gone.”

  “Where are you staying?”

  “Right here until he wakes up.” Victoria knew what he meant, but didn’t have the best answer for his real question.

  “I meant, where did you stay last night?”

  “Oh. A friend of Holden’s has a cabin nearby. I can’t remember his name. Anyway, he offered to let us stay there for the weekend.”

  The sheriff nodded. “How did you get into town?”

  “I walked. It took a long time.”

  “I’ll bet.” The sheriff’s brows furrowed. “You don’t have a cell phone?”

  Victoria pushed a long sigh out—thinking quickly—“It was in our car still attached to the charger. Did you find our car?”

  The sheriff didn’t miss a beat. “What kind of car do you have?”

  “It’s an SUV. It’s silver.” Victoria recited the make, model and plate number of the vehicle she, Stella and Elisa had brought from Arkansas to locate the three UFO crash victims. But she changed the state to Florida to slow the sheriff down a bit in identifying the vehicle.

  The registration would eventually trace back to the Big Bang Truck Stop and the fact that she worked there as a specialist. A specialist for what was non-specific for anyone out of Alienn, Arkansas, asking, but she was a security specialist to anyone at home.

  The sheriff stepped away to presumably call in her vehicle information. The doctor and nurse hovered over Holden’s bed with frowns. Holden looked peaceful, but he was not awake. He’d need to be not only conscious, but mobile for the two of them to make their great escape.

  Another doctor showed up and basically did all the same things the first doctor had done, and then a third after that.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” she asked when the third doctor shook his head and actually shrugged.

  “Your husband seems to be in a coma.”

  “What? But he was just talking a minute ago.” Victoria couldn’t help it. She took Holden’s hand and squeezed it.

  “His head injury may be worse and the concussion more extensive than we initially thought.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The sheriff came back in time to hear the doctor respond, “We’ll just have to keep him comfortable until he wakes up. We believe that his body simply needs time to heal itself.”

  “How long will he be in the coma?”

  “No way to know.” The expression on her face must have been incredibly forlorn.

  The doctor patted her shoulder, trying to be positive. “Now, don’t worry until you have to, Mrs. Gregg.”

  “Call me Victoria,” she said, still staring at Holden’s beautiful, peaceful face.

  “Okay, Victoria. Sometimes the human body just needs quiet time to heal.” What if his body is Alpha and not human? Does the same advice apply?

  “He should be fine as long as the coma doesn’t last longer than a few days, a week at the most. Have patience.” Patience? For a whole week?

  Yes. She’d wait even if it took a month. Please not a month.

  Victoria would have to find a place to stay. The lies she’d already told would have to be remembered from now on. And any amount of time stuck in this peculiar Halloween town waiting for her fake husband to come out of his coma so she could sneak him out of this medical facility and head to Alienn was going to be a challenge. She pushed out a long sigh at the daunting task ahead.

  Super spuds.

  Chapter Four

  <^> <^> <^>

  Alienn, Arkansas – almost a month after the crash

  Bartholomew Angus Thorne—Bubba Thorne, to anyone who didn’t want a hard, quick punch to the face—exited the spacecraft that had just landed on Earth. Returning from XkR-9, the worst gulag in the galaxy—or maybe in all galaxies ever discovered—was certainly a relief. Ten days there was long enough to ensure he never wanted to go back, even as a guard.

  The place was vile.

  However, he was grateful to have been i
n a position to help his best friend Riker and Riker’s brother, Draeken, out of a difficult spot. Before he made it too far, another friend from Alpha-Prime—currently stationed on this colony planet—stopped him for a moment, welcoming him to Earth.

  He only took a few steps when he saw Riker and Elise approaching.

  Bubba shot a thumb over his shoulder and said, “It’ll be a minute or two. Your brother and Stella are currently latched together in a public display of affection, talking about a yellow ribbon around a tree or some such nonsense.” He rolled his eyes as though love, and any public display of it, was foolish. But that wasn’t exactly how he felt.

  Riker reached out and shook hands with him. In a low, not entirely unemotional voice, he said, “Thanks, Bubba. I owe you one.”

  Strolling toward the Big Bang Truck Stop basement facility once more, he was stopped yet again. This third time by Cam and Diesel Grey, two of the brothers in a family of seven who ran not only the truck stop in Alienn, but also the extensive alien basement facility.

  “Got a minute, Thorne?” Cam asked.

  “For you, I’ve got five. Also, call me, Bubba. What’s up?”

  Diesel and Cam exchanged worried looks. Oh no. This wasn’t going to be good news.

  “We recovered the remains of the wrecked spacecraft from Nocturne Falls, Georgia, and brought it to Alienn so the investigators could piece it together and find out the cause of the crash. Recently, and by that I mean an hour ago, the reconstruction and investigation team finished the assessment of what they believe brought it down.”

  “Okay. That’s good, I guess. What does it have to do with me?”

  “The RAI team’s initial finding has discovered an irregularity.”

  “Irregularity? Like what?”

  Cam lowered his tone. “Turns out there was a stowaway aboard the spaceship and that has been the determination of why it crashed in Georgia.”

  “Wow. That’s incredible. Wait a minute. How do they know about the stowaway?”

  “The weight differential was a factor in skewing the craft’s exit from the express wormhole,” Cam said. “The team found one of the suspended sleep chambers in the lower hold had been used. The pod was empty, but the computer information said the occupant left the chamber alive. We also have a match to a missing person back on Alpha-Prime.”

  “That’s interesting and everything, but again, what’s it got to do with me?”

  “We’d like you to go to Nocturne Falls and locate this Alpha for us,” Diesel said.

  “Very funny,” he said, hoping they were kidding. “I just stepped off a surprise roundtrip to a gulag. Don’t you have trained folks here to do this sort of thing?”

  Diesel and Cam exchanged looks again. “Sorry, we’re not joking. The thing is, we’re stretched a bit thin around here. One of our security team members is still in Nocturne Falls with the pilot. He’s in a coma and she won’t desert him,” Diesel said. “Another one is marrying The Calderian and leaving Earth for Alpha-Prime permanently in a few days.”

  “Riker is getting married?”

  Diesel nodded.

  Cam asked, “So can you help us out short-term on this project? We’ve heard it on good authority that you excel at tracking.”

  Bubba rolled his shoulders. Riker had referred to him as the best tracker in three galaxies. He didn’t know if it was true, but he did seem to have a knack for finding people. Plus, he had hoped to explore Earth a bit before returning to his home planet. Maybe he could sightsee in this Nocturne Falls place and pick up the trail of the stowaway.

  “I’ve been known to hunt down a criminal or two when others have failed.”

  “And that’s why we’d like you on this. Plus, Riker said we’d be stupid to trust anyone else.”

  Bubba laughed. Riker was always the first to sing his praises when it came to any kind of fieldwork tracking someone down. “Okay. I’ll go to this Nocturne Falls and search the area. Should I take a Defender?” He’d already used the shackle sticker Cam had invented. It was remarkable. It would change Alpha-Prime’s system of apprehensions dramatically.

  Cam shook his head. “The thing is, we have an understanding with the leadership there.”

  “The leadership of Nocturne Falls?”

  “Yep. They have a similar situation to the one we have here.”

  Bubba squinted, not sure he understood. “They’re aliens, too?”

  “Not exactly,” Diesel said under his breath.

  “Then what exactly?”

  The brothers traded another look. “They are supernaturals,” Diesel said.

  Bubba blinked in surprise. “What, like spirits, ghosts and ghouls?”

  “No. Like vampires, witches and werewolves.”

  Bubba only blinked, unsure he’d heard the Fearless Leader correctly.

  Diesel leaned closer, adding, “And gargoyles and shifters and dragons.”

  Oh my.

  “There are more, but I can’t name them all. Anyway, we promised the leadership in Nocturne Falls we wouldn’t use the big D there. It attracts too much negative attention. And it doesn’t work on most of the supernatural folks anyway,” Cam said. Bubba had heard the Defender’s inventor was rather insistent on its use in all alien-related reveals. If he was saying not to use his most important invention for an out-of-town retrieval, then it must be important.

  “I see. What else?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you want me to track down this stowaway and call back with the location? Or track down, apprehend, subdue and haul the stowaway back in to Alienn like a prisoner?”

  “Choice two.”

  “That’ll take longer.”

  “However long it takes. We’ll double the standard contract rate for a job of this nature and add on a daily expense account.”

  Bubba shrugged. “Okay. I’ll need a shackle sticker or two, probably.”

  “I’ll ensure you have a standard shackle pack,” Cam assured him. “Plus, I have a prototype device that I think you’ll find handy for this particular job. I’ll let you be the first to use it.”

  “Well, that does sound interesting.” Bubba wasn’t exactly looking for work, nor did he need the credits, but double the pay for what he considered an easy job and the bonus of seeing another part of this interesting planet was appealing.

  A rush of wind came up and the tall trees lining the edge of the landing area right outside the door to the way station’s basement entrance all swayed as if waving at the sky.

  He looked over his shoulder at brothers Draeken and Riker. They stood near the ship he and Draeken had exited, each with their new love interests, and felt a small pang. Not of jealousy, but certainly a wish for the same thing. Someday he’d find someone to settle down with and have the family life he’d always wanted, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

  “When do you need me to leave?” Bubba expected them to say yesterday.

  “As soon as possible. Best-case scenario, the Alpha is hiding out either in Nocturne Falls or nearby in the forest, hoping we don’t know about them.”

  “What’s the worst case?”

  “The stowaway is out in the open, already far away from Nocturne Falls and Alienn, telling any earthling who will listen about being an Alpha from another planet and wanting to go back there.”

  Bubba shrugged. “This planet doesn’t believe in extraterrestrials as a rule. They’ll think the person is a kook, and possibly lock them away, won’t they?”

  “Unless the Alpha has a better-than-average ability to read minds.”

  “Wouldn’t you have heard about that by now?”

  Cam and Diesel gave each other that look again.

  “What?”

  “The sheriff called me a couple of weeks ago to report a vagrant who supposedly could read minds, panhandling in the area for money. Sort of their version of the guy on the busiest street corner holding a cardboard sign and telling anyone who’ll listen a hard-luck story pretending to look for wor
k.”

  “A psychic panhandler. That’s a new one.” Bubba put his hands on his hips. “Did they bring this person in?”

  “No. The person ran off without being caught. No one has reported further beggars with mind-reading abilities. It was reported shortly after the crash, and at the time we thought it might have been one of the other three occupants. Now we think it may have been the stowaway.”

  “Anything else I should know?”

  “That’s the only clue we have as to location,” Diesel said. “But we don’t even know if it’s valid or connected to our Alpha stowaway. We know it’s not much to go on, but if you could check this out for us, we’d be grateful.”

  “I’ve located targets with less. At least I have a town to start in. I’ll leave right away.” He looked over his shoulder again. “Or as soon as The Calderian gets married. I’d hate to miss that.”

  “Great. No problem.”

  Bubba started toward the foursome, but then remembered something and turned back. “Did you say you have the identity of the Alpha already? If you have background information on him it’ll make it easier.”

  Cam and Diesel looked at each other again.

  “Now what?”

  “It’s not a him, it’s a her.”

  “A woman criminal from Alpha-Prime?”

  Bubba almost told them no deal. He’d tangled with a few felonious female Alphas in his time. They were meaner than a poot-snake in a sticker bush. Smaller than male Alphas? Yes. Lighter? Yes. Softer? Not even remotely.

  Alpha women criminals took poor attitude to a whole new level and then turned it around and used it as a weapon. He’d be smart to put on special protection to cover his family jewels, if he ever hoped to sire children. And he did. Did they manufacture a life-sized shackle sticker? If so, he wanted one. Maybe he could rig a system to shoot the shackle sticker at her to bring her down without having to get within arm’s distance.

  Diesel and Cam didn’t answer.

  “So you’re telling me that a hostile Alpha female criminal menace is possibly out and about loose on this planet? No wonder you doubled the standard fee and added expenses.”