Chapter Ten
“You’re going to help me search for aliens?” Juliana asked, a quirky sweet smile shaping her lovely mouth. Diesel was so smitten.
“I thought that’s what you wanted to see.”
“I want to take a tour of Alienn, certainly, but I didn’t expect an actual alien hunt.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you before we even get started, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up that we’ll actually see any little green aliens with red death rays shooting from their eyes.”
“That’s okay. I’d be delighted with a few great stories, even if they are from bygone days, that I can include in my article.”
“What kind of stories?”
“I’d like to hear the kind of tale that will make folks who buy this special edition of the Finder’s guide book eager to travel here to check it out so they can see it for themselves.”
He pointed to his vehicle, a truck he’d had a few years. It was blue, had four-wheel-drive and was still in pretty good shape. She grinned. “I wondered what you drove.”
“Oh? Why? What did you think I’d drive?”
“Honestly, I sort of expected the Fearless Leader of the Big Bang Truck Stop to drive a spacecraft or possibly a Mars rover.”
He laughed. “Impractical. I’d never be able to fit either of those vehicles in my garage.”
“True. And my third guess as to what you drive regularly wouldn’t fit either.”
“Third guess?”
“Tractor-trailer.”
“Not to mention impossible to find parking anywhere I wanted to go shopping.”
“However, the Fearless Leader driving a regular truck just like every third person in this state is a bit surprising.”
“It’s not so surprising. I told you I was an Arkansas boy. That’s what we drive, trucks.” He held open the passenger door for her as she climbed into his vehicle.
“Thank you. I see you’re an Arkansas boy with manners.”
“Well, I had a mama who insisted. Actually, come to think of it I had a daddy who did, too.” He closed her door before he started kissing her like he wanted to and ended up staying in the parking lot too long.
He rounded the front of his vehicle and hopped inside, starting it up and revving the engine a couple of times. The small space in the cab already smelled deliciously like Juliana’s perfume. He inhaled deeply, centered his thoughts again, and said, “Ready to go?”
“Absolutely. Let’s get this tour started. I’m anxious to see what you want to show me.”
Diesel nodded, having come up with a plan to show her a few things that wouldn’t be terribly scandalous. She’d caught him off guard more than once. He was prepared this time. He’d done some homework after leaving her house yesterday. He’d poked around the local library for historic references to any unexplained tales that might be of interest and also had nothing to do with alien activity.
He planned to take Juliana on a tour of the small town of Alienn and point out a few places of possible curiosity that would suffice for her article, but at the same time not get him into trouble.
All history set throughout the Alphas’ time here in Alienn was likely subject to a security look before release to the public, but Diesel would cross that bridge when he came to it. He was someone who believed that not all publicity was good. However, a mention in a famous travel guide like Finder’s was a boon, not a scandal in the making. He hoped.
Any inclusion in this Finder’s book without an actual provable alien sighting—beyond Maxwell the Martian—might bring more humans into the truck stop. He’d cite free marketing exposure as his excuse if needed, and see if he couldn’t produce an uptick in sales as a result when the book was available.
Diesel pulled out of the truck stop and headed toward town. They could have walked, and if it had been a nice sunny day he might have suggested it, but it was dark. With a recently arrived spacecraft and a few extra aliens ensconced below, he didn’t want to accidentally come across any strangers from another galaxy that would result in Juliana being blasted with the Defender again.
He glanced in her direction. She was looking out her passenger side window. He’d driven from her place the day before, traveling most of the way home considering his pursuit of a life with Juliana. He’d also thought about their short history and the memories she’d never get back.
She’d mentioned a dream about their experience with Maxwell the Martian, a memory the Defender should have wiped away. His first order of business upon returning home yesterday was to privately read up on the Defender for its uses, applications and capabilities to discover why it obviously hadn’t worked fully on Juliana. Unless she started having more dreams about the time directly before his brother shot her with the Defender, he’d keep that volatile information close. A conversation with his security-minded brother would be a last resort.
He glanced through the notes Cam had given out when the Defender had been distributed. He wasn’t able to get much useful information, just a notation that it had only failed one time, which had frustratingly not been explained in reference accompanying the device.
He’d have to do further research or ask Cam for more notes, but put it off. Cam would want to know why. Instead he moved on to his next topic of consideration: a future with Juliana. He’d never thought about marrying a human before, but after meeting Juliana and especially after kissing her, he couldn’t think about anything else. He’d never thought about love at first sight, but figured that was exactly what had happened. There was no other explanation.
An Alpha marrying an earthling wasn’t impossible, but it also wouldn’t be easy. While there wasn’t any Alpha-Prime general colonization law against it, there were strict rules and protocols that covered such an occurrence.
Surprisingly enough, not many Alphas fell in love with humans.
On the flipside, there were plenty of instances of the reverse happening. Lots of earthlings fawned over the extraterrestrial population of Alienn Arkansas, especially at the truck stop. Alphas—whether male or female—were often taller, had a more muscled physic and very symmetrical facial structures than the average human. Tall, muscular and attractive were features humans liked, apparently.
Most Alphas had long-range goals that didn’t include a human mate or permanently residing on Earth. A number of Alphas only planned to stay for a few years before returning to their home planet. He equated it to serving in the military or possibly the Peace Corps for a limited time and then going back home after having lived a slightly different experience.
Even so, a handful of Alphas and humans had decided to mate over the years. It was the exception rather than the rule. In each instance, the Alpha gave up their post on Earth to move back to Alpha-Prime with their human mate. Both parties had to agree to it, in writing in fact. A blood oath was also required.
On a couple of occasions, the earthling broke up with their alien lover upon discovering the truth about Alienn, Alpha-Prime, the galactic way station, the mine and the rest.
However, the singular option for Alpha-human couples to be together was available only on Alpha-Prime, a rather barren planet by Earth standards, located far away in an adjacent galaxy. Those tragic instances of the human partners backing out were rare. The earthlings who hadn’t wanted to make such a drastic location change had to be dealt with as far as their knowledge of Alienn, the Big Bang Truck Stop and especially the lower level and its galactic activities.
The most recent instance had been seven or eight years ago when Diesel’s father had been Fearless Leader. They hadn’t had the Defender then.
The end of that relationship had involved using the old injection recall serum to erase the entirety of the earthling’s memories and allow her to reintegrate into human society, blissfully unaware of aliens hiding in plain sight in southern Arkansas.
The Alpha who’d lost his human love had been left distraught and heartbroken. He could have stayed on Earth, but not long after the breakup he’d moved back to Alpha-Prime, all alone. The recall serum didn’t harm humans, but it was imprecise and sometimes erased several weeks of memories instead of only specific ones about aliens in Arkansas.
In the most recent case, the earthling had lost not only all memories of Alienn, but also the entire relationship with the Alpha she’d been ready to marry. It had been heartbreaking, but their only method to erase memories. That was well before Cam invented the handy dandy Defender. That creation was better than losing months of loving memories, but also problematic, as Diesel’s experience with Juliana attested.
If Diesel continued his relationship with Juliana, he’d have to consider giving up his post as Fearless Leader and moving back to Alpha-Prime with her. Unless she refused to go and insisted on staying on Earth. He chose to ignore that depressing and forlorn thought.
He’d been born on Earth. He had an Arkansas birth certificate and everything. So did his siblings, but they were all one hundred percent Alpha-Prime aliens. He knew no exception would be made for him because of his current title or his birthplace. It was assumed that one day he’d marry an Alpha who was either living on Earth or visiting from Alpha-Prime.
Diesel drove past the green and white flying saucer-shaped sign that listed the population of Alienn, Arkansas as 1,988.
Juliana pointed at it. “I love your flying saucer population sign. It matches your water tower.”
“We had that custom made to suit our town’s theme. You should have seen the look on the guy’s face when we put in the request.” Diesel—like his father before him—used small businesses, locally if possible or in state if not, to acquire whatever they needed. The metal fab guy a couple of counties over had also created the three-dimensional version of Maxwell hanging off the water tower. Luckily, that Maxwell had stayed put, probably because it was welded securely. It didn’t hurt that it was five stories in the air.
“You should have Maxwell the Martian hanging off the side of it like on the water tower.”
“We tried that years ago, but kids kept snapping it off, leaving only six little fingers on the edge of the sign. We had the metal fab guy make three replacements in a single month before the design was changed to exclude Maxwell.”
“Kids will be kids, I guess.”
“Honestly, adults will be adults, too.” Diesel didn’t think kids had snapped Maxwell off the sign. He suspected tourists. Could have been alien or human. Didn’t matter, as it was the same result. So they added a smaller version of the metal population sign with Maxwell attached to their souvenir inventory for sale and made a nice tidy profit.
“Do you really have almost two thousand people in the town of Alienn? It doesn’t seem that big.”
“Yep. Inside the city limits of Alienn, there’s a good-sized Bauxite mining operation to the west, the truck stop, of course, and the town itself.” He named off all of the themed businesses close to the truck stop. “And we also sell quite a few souvenirs. We have several warehouses out east of town to store inventory to keep up with demand.”
“You have a Maxwell the Martian souvenir demand?”
“He’s the most popular character, but we sell all manner of alien-related merchandise.”
Juliana looked at him with a quizzical expression. “Interesting.”
“In fact, we have quite a healthy online business run out of the warehouses that ships direct to customers.”
The number of residents included the below-ground facilities operating the way station for galactic travelers, but Diesel didn’t add that to the list he rattled off for Juliana, even though about a fourth of the population worked there.
Diesel drove slowly toward the main street, past the Nebula Nail Salon. A sign in the window said, “All galactic travelers welcome!”
“I see the fun continues from the truck stop into town,” she said with a smile as she stared out her window.
“Branded marketing definitely works for us.” For humans and aliens alike.
“This is the courthouse.” He pointed to a brick-and-granite building on the left. She ducked to see out his window.
“Beautiful. Is that where the infamous founder Alienne got her name shortened and never put right?”
“Yep. I’d take you inside, but it’s closed for the weekend.”
“Could we go in there sometime when it is open?”
“Sure.”
Diesel continued through town until he came to a very old-fashioned building on the right. He slowed to a stop, turned off the engine and pointed out the deserted corner structure, four stories tall and painted a dull red, with a corner porch out front.
“This used to be a speakeasy back during Prohibition.”
“Ooh,” she said, excitedly. “I’ll bet there are lots of old and very interesting stories in there.”
“That’s why I brought you here.”
“Also it keeps the focus off the aliens at the truck stop, right?”
“Yes. You’ve figured out my master plan to keep the puny earthling—that would be you—from discovering our ultimate plans to take over the Earth.” He smiled. “Haven’t I gotten you to believe that Maxwell is the only alien in town yet?”
She shrugged. “Well, you did try to use mind control on me.”
“True. And I may try again.”
“Bring it,” she said with a smile. “So can we get out and look around?”
“Sure. Let’s go. There was an interesting story from about eighty-plus years ago that I thought you might like about an infamous duo in town and up to no good.”
“That is very interesting and vague. Can we get inside and look around?”
“Maybe. Aren’t you afraid?”
“Nope. Since you won’t tell me about all the aliens roaming around here, I’m on the hunt for an interesting story that I can put in my article. It’s really important to me to turn in something great that the book editors will love and want to include.”
“You said that before. Will you share with me why this article in Finder’s is so important to you?”
She opened her mouth but closed it, her body language clearly saying she was hesitant to explain, as if she feared his reaction. “It’s a long story,” she finally said very softly, not looking at him.
“We have all weekend.”
She turned slowly and stared at him with what looked like desire. “Well, then, I’ll explain sometime this weekend.” She moved closer as she spoke. He leaned toward her, seeking the kiss he’d wanted when they’d gotten into his truck.
Diesel held her gaze, wanting to discuss how long she intended to stay, wanting to kiss her senseless, wanting to get lost in a sensual embrace—
Ring. Ring. Ring.
The ring of his communicator pealed loudly in the confined space of his truck cab, jarring the mutual staring contest and, worst of all, ruining the moment.