Playing Cards With Aliens

by Erin Raegan

  Jeremy and Holden followed me out of that coffee shop in silence and right to Jeremy’s old blue Ford truck. We drove right out of that city and kept on going. I’d cried for an hour against Holden’s shoulder and never once looked back.

  Not until I stepped onto the stage at my senior graduation. Wolf whistles and catcalls had drawn my attention to the crowd, and I’d zeroed right in on my favorite people in the whole world. But a tall man in a dark suit stood stoically in the back, watching with boredom and indifference. Sal and Bets hadn’t even seen Noah sneak into the ceremony.

  But he was waiting on the front porch when we got home. Seeing him standing there, looking so out of place, my aunt had burst into tears.

  And after that one long, uncomfortably awkward visit, four years of phone calls picked up from a few times a year to once a month and hadn’t stopped.

  According to Noah’s words now, he had no intention of stopping them any time soon. If I was honest, I was torn if I even wanted them to. But I knew the calls hurt my aunt and uncle.

  They had wanted to bring him into their home and give him all the love they’d given me. After a sixteen-year marriage and three miscarriages, their niece and nephew had been the blessing they’d prayed so long for. But where I’d welcomed them with all the love a two-year-old could bestow, my brother had rejected them.

  It hurt the same now as it did twenty years ago.

  I clutched the phone tighter in my hand. Noah prattled on in my ear about all the things I could study in college, and I slumped into the rickety chair beside the phone. He would go through his memorized list and run out of steam. I just had to wait him out.

  Business, medical, blah, blah. He went on and on. I had no interest in any of them.

  I wasn’t like Noah and that irked him. I didn’t have the same drive he did. I didn’t see money or success the same way he did. My brother’s presence in my life didn’t instill a desire to become more than I was. But my sad little trips to visit him had sparked one desire—I wanted to travel. I wanted to see the world.

  But I loved my home. I loved my life. I didn’t know if one day I would take over Aunt Bets’s tea shop like she talked about. And I knew my uncle wanted me nowhere near his failing business. But I knew whatever I did and wherever I did it, I was going to travel. I already had a healthy nest egg put away that I’d earned on my own.

  Because no matter how many times Noah told me I needed to get a better education or how far it would get me in life, I knew I could get there on my own. In the way I wanted to get there. And no amount of money he threw at me was going to get me to change my mind. His money came with strings I wanted no part of.

  He threw out a ridiculous amount now and I rolled my eyes dramatically, earning a grunt from my uncle and a huffy laugh from my aunt.

  See, Noah had apparently thought he was coming to my graduation to save me from a small miserable life in a small miserable town. But what he didn’t know was that my aunt and uncle had been saving up for my education from the moment they took me in. It was still sitting in the same account, receiving the same monthly deposits it had been for years. I had never touched a penny and I didn’t plan to.

  Eventually Sal would accept my unwillingness to touch it and use it to pay off the bank for the sake of the business. It was taking him a tad too long to see it my way, but I had faith I would get him there.

  Aunt Bets and Uncle Sal had saved that money for me because they loved me. I could use it for college or to travel. They didn’t care, as long as I was happy.

  Noah’s money came with expectations that I had no interest in delivering on. He wanted me to go off to some fancy college and get some fancy job and live a sad, lonely life like he did. But I had been raised in this small town, and after seeing my fill of the world, visiting blue waters and rolling green hills, I would die here. And it would be an amazing and fulfilling life.

  I couldn’t wait to experience every minute of it.

  A radio came to life in the background of the call cutting his rant off and my knee bounced anxiously. He would shut off the radio before I could hear whatever top secret information his top secret colleagues were conveying for his top secret job. Just like always.

  Noah had never told me what he did, but Uncle Sal had followed Noah’s schooling and life enough to know he had been plucked out of his college graduation ceremony and dipped off the radar for a few years. When he resurfaced, Noah was a little colder, a little more wary of the world, and—impossibly—a million times more secretive than he had already been.

  Aunt Bets thought he was in the CIA, but Noah had never shared and I’d stopped asking at sixteen. I just knew his phone calls were always from an unknown number and whatever he did for work allowed him to buy a lot of fancy suits.

  I heard someone ask his whereabouts before he silenced the radio call, but instead of getting the usual “same time next week” warning, Noah cleared his throat. “Theodora, I’ll be coming for a visit in two weeks.”

  I stood straight and gaped, my mouth opening and closing like Frank’s pet goldfish. Aunt Bets perked up and stared hard at the side of my face.

  “W-what?” I managed.

  “We will discuss your future in person. Please think on what I’ve said.”

  The line went dead. Uncle Sal slowly pulled the phone from my limp hand and hung it up, his mouth pressed in a firm line.

  “Well, sugar, don’t leave us in suspense,” Aunt Bets chided in a near screech.

  Uncle Sal hushed her and put his heavy hands on my shoulders to guide me back into my chair. “What’d he say, Boots?”

  The nickname fell out of his mouth gently, as it always had. According to him, I’d been clomping around in his big work boots all my life, begging him to take me to work in the salvage yard with him.

  I shook my head and closed my mouth with a snap. Then opened it again. “He’s coming here.”

  Bets sucked in a sharp breath, her weathered hands going to her chest to clutch the daisy pendant there. Sal scowled fiercely, his brows wrinkling.

  I shrugged helplessly. My feet itched to run away from their suffocating emotions.

  Aunt Bets was hard to read. Part of her had to be thrilled to see Noah, forever reaching for the relationship Noah had denied her. The other part of her would already be scheming on how to make Noah uncomfortable. How to drive him right back out of here.

  He’d looked down on us for too long, hurting all of us.

  Bets got satisfaction out of making people uncomfortable, Noah particularly. He would be subjected to tea tastings until his teeth ached, and I’d bet she was already mentally pulling out her most flowery duvet and ruffled shams to throw on the air mattress in the basement for him.

  Not that I thought Noah had any intention on staying here longer than an hour or two, let alone the night. His disdain for my aunt and uncle’s home had been obvious four years ago. Plus Sal would drive him away as fast as he could.

  I had cried over Noah for too many years for Sal to put up with a long visit.

  I didn’t know what Noah was thinking. If I hadn’t said yes to his demands for the last four years, I wasn’t about to gobble them up now just because he deigned to visit me.

  Still, my brother was coming. Here.

  Why?

  Meet The Kilbus Lord Aka: Kil or Lord or His Majesty or Asshole

  Kil

  “We’re drifting now, my lord,” Fisand called on a long sigh. “I have limited control.”

  I looked out at the planet coming up across the stars to our right. “The population here is still in its infancy. They will have minor technologies.” I looked at the planet’s small moon. “We’ll mask our presence easily.”

  Or not. It did not matter. We would take what we needed regardless.

  “How advanced?” Oren asked tightly.

  I shrugged. “It’s been far too long since I’ve been. I imagine they’ve advanced decently in the last millennia or so.”

  Oren grimaced. I smirked
—my friend was far too uptight these days.

  Even if the humans discovered us, they could do nothing trapped on their little planet. They had not advanced to space flight. Of that, I was certain.

  We had suffered a blow against the Juldo, but not so terrible that the damage couldn’t be repaired. We just needed something to patch the breach and to rebuild the thrusters planet side. I remembered Earth was ripe with metals. Not terribly impressive metals, but they would suffice until we could make it to the far side of the galaxy and dock on Litsipth.

  “I’ll send down a crew,” Oren muttered, reaching for his comm unit.

  “No,” I rumbled. “We will go. If possible, we should not reveal our presence, and I am already familiar with the terrain and culture.”

  Oren sighed heavily but did not dare defy me as his lord and commander. “We’ll bring Leovin with us.”

  I gave him that small concession, though the guard was unnecessary when I could control every creature on that small planet with merely a thought.

  I put out an alert across my ship, ordering my Kilbus to rest but remain on guard as I dealt with our repairs. We had not suffered many losses in the skirmish with the drifting Juldo ship, but the battle was long and arduous and my crew needed their rest. The location was not ideal, but they would make do.

  With a hole as large as a freighter in the hull, we had no choice but to shut down and conserve fuel. My Kilbus had suffered worse.

  As a raiding species, we drifted in the vastness of the space seas, amassing wealth and comforts from our enemies and those of whoever was willing to pay the highest price.

  We did not dock often, but when we did, it was never on a primitive planet declared off-limits by the Galactic Council. Invasion was forbidden without consent from the inhabitants on any planet. But particularly among infant species. My Kilbus and I were not members and did not abide the laws of the Council, but I’d rather not provoke them.

  I needed to get down to the planet, collect what was needed, and leave without detection.

  With my ship and crew vulnerable, I would task no one but myself with the mission. However, I could not predict how long it may take me to collect the proper supplies and rebuild, since I did not know what was waiting below.

  I’d kept my eyes on the humans and their planet for some time now.

  Since my first arrival. Then, they were grunting and attacking me with spears. I’d enjoyed their fire and the beautiful planet immensely.

  I had no doubt I would enjoy it once more.

  The planet had been broadcasting into the sea of space for some time now, providing a drifting ship such as mine with unending information and a vast array of entertainment. I’d already spent some time reviewing much of what we had picked up. As delightfully amusing as most of their broadcasts were, they were also quite informational—those of which that were not unending streams of nonsense.

  Their entertainment vids were the most informative and held my attention the longest. They showed the humans as far more advanced now than the last time I’d been this far on this side of this sector—they were also well-humored, self-destructive, quite fragile, and often times too emotional. They were a favorite of mine.

  As far as I was aware, Earth was still drifting undetected in space, but it was only a matter of opportunity and luck before someone other than the Order—or me—caught one of their broadcasts and found the helpless little planet.

  They were shouting out their presence and vulnerabilities with every broadcast, and as far as I could tell, they had yet to come far enough in their technologies to handle the many threats lurking so close by.

  The planet would not survive much longer without greater influence from outside their system. Perhaps the Dahk could take them under their wings, but Earth was so very far for the introverts to travel. The Guhuvin were another option.

  But unless the Order made little Earth a priority, a darker, more sinister species would happen upon them.

  Or perhaps I would grow bored and take it for myself.

  I walked to the freighter, leaving the ship’s command with my second, Fisand. Leovin was in the pilot’s seat, Oren loading weapons and supplies beside Dereth.

  “You can mask the ship?” Oren asked, doubting me and my abilities as was a favorite past time of his.

  I grunted. “We’ll need to mask our personal appearances as well.”

  Oren scowled. He was still mastering the Kilbus abilities. One of the last living original Kilbus, he felt shame of himself with his failure to master his blood right.

  All blood born Kilbus held some level of the same ability. The ability to break into the minds of those weaker then ourselves and meld them at will. Among other useful skills.

  Leo and Dereth could not, since both were from other species that had cast them out. They’d joined my ship and pledged themselves Kilbus, though they were not by blood. As was the majority of my ship. I was quite fond of the strays. Very loyal and fun to collect.

  The Kilbus name no longer belonged to one species. We were now a mix of raiders and bandits. No longer the scholars and sorcerers we had once been known as. My world was long since dead. We’d drifted into space eons ago to escape our dying system.

  Now, I was the last of the original Kilbus lords.

  Long ago, as the last of my predecessors perished, I cast aside my birth name and became Kilbus itself. The last Kilbus Lord. A pirate lord, as the little humans might say. I rather liked the title. It had quite the appeal.

  I was no one and nothing else. I was loyal to no one and nothing else.

  I could have allowed my species to die out with me, but I had never been a shortsighted commander. Over time, I allowed my brothers by battle to pledge themselves to me, and the Kilbus became what I allowed them to be. What I made them.

  Leovin may be Xixin by birth, as were many of my crew, but he was Kilbus by heart.

  And Oren needed to accept that his own talents were just as valuable to me as any of my crew and that of his Kilbus blood. But for now, I would allow Oren to ponder his fate in silence. It propagated humility and intellect.

  As we crossed into the planet’s atmosphere undetected, I would enter any human mind we encountered and alter our appearances enough to pass as the local inhabitants. The humans.

  As was my way, I took my joy when I could find it. Oren and Leo’s new appearances would garner some attention, though nothing that would give us away. I would enjoy the humans’ confusion.

  Oren was an acceptable name on this world, but Lord Kilbus would just not do. Neither would Leovin. Perhaps I needed a surname as the humans used as well. Something bold and fitting of my stature.

  I was itching to have some fun.

  Now to find a few unsuspecting humans I could manipulate and control for a time.

  The First Greeting

  Theo

  Round and round the fan spun. My fingers twitched. There were strings of dust dangling from the blades. When exactly was the last time Uncle Sal cleaned that fan? Ten, fifteen years? Longer?

  Maybe never. The fan’s blades were so weighed down from the heavy layer of dust that it made a screeching thump every half a second. And it was on low. Poor fan probably couldn’t even get up to full speed from all that weight.

  I closed my eyes against the terrible sight, kicking off the floor with my toes so the office chair spun in slow circles. I wanted so badly to go find a ladder tall enough to reach that fan, but I knew Sal would come down on me for it. His office was a pigsty. Always. Just as he liked it.

  I had memories of my aunt trying to go behind his back over the years to clean up, but it made my uncle so angry, he wouldn’t come home from the office in time for dinner just to spite her. He liked his mess. He always told her that he would keep his clutter from the house so long as she left his office alone. So she did. Aunt Bets took dinner very seriously.

  My lips quirked. Uncle Sal didn’t just have clutter. He was messy. Downright gross at times.

  But
this was his place away from home to eat and do whatever he wanted without my aunt breathing down his neck, and boy, did he know how to let go. Normally I stayed far away from his office and the mountain of pizza boxes hiding the shag carpet, but Mr. Peterson was visiting the salvage yard today and I wanted to avoid that grumpy old man more than I wanted to avoid the mess.

  So there I was, hiding out in a stuffy office.

  Frank had the same idea, snoring in his wheelchair beside me. He had already been in here when I took off running for the office the moment Mr. Peterson pulled in, so Frank could have been napping there for the last hour for all I knew.

  The bitter scent of coffee drifted under the door, and I groaned in frustration. Jeremy must have arrived. He was normally there to start the coffee pot at ten in the morning, which meant I couldn’t get away with hiding for much longer. He and Holden would need me to print off their pickups for the day soon.

  It was Saturday, which meant everyone in the county had something or other they needed to dispose. Old vehicles, random appliances—we got random stuff ever since Sal decided he could make a little extra cash doing at-home pickups for the dump and refurbishers. And with the boys running the tow business from here, we would also get calls coming in from emergency services. Mondays and Saturdays were our busiest days.

  But I could still hear Mr. Peterson outside the office door, whining to Sal about the state of the yard. Mr. Peterson was our neighbor. Our only neighbor for miles. He had lived in the estate down the road for decades and knew all about the salvage yard right next door before he bought the place. But still, he gave us a hard time.

  Aunt Bets said it was because Peterson didn’t care much for Sal, but my uncle insisted Peterson had given the previous owners just as much flak.

  It didn’t matter either way to me. The old man was impossible and a grump and his harping wasn’t just for us. He had a problem with the town’s trash pickup, the mail carriers, the water company, and was a regular at the town meetings, raising his voice above everyone else. The man was a grouch, and Aunt Bets, along with the rest of the town, couldn’t stand him.