Alien Love

by Stan Schatt

  He peeled off his clothes and joined the figure half-hidden under his sheets. She immediately flung herself on top of him and began kissing him. As Jack responded, he felt Cassandra’s tongue in his mouth. She hated this last time, he thought. Her hands began to caress him in a way he’d only experienced once, and that was at the whorehouse with the worst reputation in Hong Kong. He felt himself grow hard. She’s picked up a few tricks. I can’t believe it’s the same woman. I feel like I’m with a pro, he thought.

  Cassandra’s rapid breathing matched Jack’s. They both climaxed and then Jack felt her hands touching him again. She repeated the process several more times and used her mouth very artfully until he lay totally spent. She began massaging his shoulders and back, and he felt himself begin to drift. Soon he slept.

  Chapter 8

  THE SUN STREAMED into the kitchen where Cassandra sat at the table. Jack poured her a second cup of coffee and then refilled his cup. He went to his refrigerator and removed an egg carton and began placing eggs on the counter. While Jack wasn’t much of a cook, he could fry an egg with the best of them. He started to break an egg over a bowl when he saw Cassandra’s expression.

  “You don’t want eggs for breakfast?”

  “Could I just have some cold cereal instead? I’m a vegetarian.”

  “Sure.” He compared Cassandra with Suzie who had loved a good steak. Maybe there was something to the health angle, though. Suzie always fought a grim battle to keep from gaining weight while Cassandra looked perfect. He brought the cereal and milk to the table and watched her eat for a couple of minutes before breaking the silence.

  “Any plans today?”

  Cassandra smiled. “I probably should go to work.”

  “Play hooky. It’s too pretty a day to work.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Let’s go to Balboa Park and spend the day. I bet you’ve never spent any time there.”

  “I don’t get out much.”

  Jack studied Cassandra’s face for a moment and then walked to the bathroom and collected a tube of sunblock. He tossed it to her.

  “I don’t have a hat for you, so you better put some of this stuff on so you don’t get a sunburn.”

  Cassandra held the package up and turned it to read the directions. She smiled and began applying the cream. He watched her and then handed her a towel so she could rub in the white spots. They drove toward the park without having to do much braking because they left well after the morning commuters and well before the lunch traffic. When Cassandra flinched at one point, Jack checked his side mirrors but didn’t see anything until he heard a siren grow louder and closer. He saw an ambulance in his rearview mirror and quickly cut over to the far right lane.

  “You must have good hearing.”

  Cassandra nodded and smiled. “I’m glad you don’t have a dog whistle. That would really make me jump.”

  Jack found parking in an isolated lot on the museum side of the park. Construction on a new parking garage meant that many of the main parking lots were closed temporarily. They followed a path that led away from the museums until Jack veered off when he saw a grassy spot far away from the closest trees. He spread a blanket so they could lie in the sun. He couldn’t stop staring at Cassandra because he never had seen anyone so beautiful.

  She seemed oblivious to his staring as she lay there, smiling as the warm sunlight illuminated her face. She spread her arms as if she wanted to capture as much of it as she could.

  “Is it cooler where you come from?”

  Cassandra nodded. “No place is as perfect as San Diego. Did you ever have to fight in bright sunlight like this?”

  “Once…and it went badly.”

  “What about when it’s pitch dark? I’m interested in how you managed to coordinate an attack in the dark with infrared equipment. How did you do it?”

  “I can’t really talk about some of it. I’m surprised a biologist would want to know.”

  “I’m interested in anything that has to do with you. Just tell me what’s permitted.” Later Jack walked through the park with Cassandra while he held hands like a schoolboy on his first date. He led her to a cart where he bought them ice cream cones. She devoured hers and part of his. They ate pizza at a restaurant in the park and then Jack led her to a round shaped building labeled the Reuben Fleet Science Center.

  “Why are we going here?”

  “My surprise. Tonight’s one of the nights when this museum has a planetarium show. My father used to take me, and they’re actually pretty cool.”

  He paid for their tickets and found a seat in the auditorium.

  “What are we going to see?”

  Jack shrugged and looked sheepish. “I forgot to look, but they’re always pretty good. I guess we’ll both be surprised. If you don’t like it, we’ll just leave.”

  The room became pitch black as the ceiling suddenly displayed much too many stars to count and an actor’s deep resonant voice boomed through the theater, “Are we alone? Will our search for intelligent life be successful?”

  Jack saw that he’d been lucky because the screen had Cassandra’s full attention. She leaned forward and whispered, “This is great.”

  The production showed pictures of the SETI project to find radio signals from intelligent life forms. It then began to zero in on various star systems where there were planets in what was called the “Goldilocks Zone,” the area where planets would not be too hot or too cold to sustain life. Jack soon found himself immersed in the show. The screen showed various candidates for life including some recently discovered planets such as Kepler-62e, Gliese 677 and 832c and Kepler-78f. Jack felt something ping inside his head, but he couldn’t place it.

  It was dark by the time the show ended, but a full moon hung low in the sky.

  “Looks like we’re going to have a full moon tonight.”

  Cassandra frowned and shuddered. “I don’t know why there are so many romantic songs about that moon.”

  Jack smiled. “You sound like a scientist who just looks at it and sees a lifeless hunk of rock. I think that one reason there are so many romantic songs about it is that it’s an easy rhyme. To be honest, I always liked moonless nights when we had to go into hostile territory.”

  Jack related a couple of stories that illustrated how the lack of moonlight saved his team. He held Cassandra’s hand tightly as they walked back toward where he had parked. He thought about the movie they’d seen as he looked up at the stars.

  “You’d think someone would send us a message. I seriously doubt we’re alone in the universe.”

  “Why would they bother?”

  “What do you mean? Haven’t you seen Jodie Foster in Contact? Maybe the aliens could send plans for us to build a ship to visit them. There’s so much they could teach us about curing cancer and feeding everyone. Since they would have to be more advanced, they could teach us how to live in peace.”

  “Live in peace?”

  “Sure, they must have something like the Federation of Planets in Star Trek.”

  “You make it sound so wonderful and peaceful.”

  “You don’t think so?” Jack turned and studied her and saw that whatever he had said had changed her mood.

  Cassandra’s faced clouded. “Human history is filled with wars. Even Cro-Magnon man fought the Neanderthals. The winners write the history books. You’re not going to find a book from the Neanderthal perspective about how to live peacefully. Aggression and the desire to preserve the race both seem built into all living things including insects.”

  “Maybe that’s just because we’re such a young planet. What does that have to do with an advanced civilization that has survived by learning to handle their conflicts by compromising and living in peace?”

  Cassandra laughed. “I didn’t want to turn this into a debate. I’m not sure why you think advanced alien civilizations have to be peaceful. What if an advanced alien race conquered everyone around them, so that other intelligent aliens did
n’t want to broadcast to alert them of their presence? I believe Stephen Hawking said that we shouldn’t alert aliens that we are here.”

  “So, when you think of aliens, you think Independence Day and not ET? That seems kind of cynical for a scientist.”

  “I’m just saying that real life might not be like a movie that ends happily in two hours with the humans defeating the horrible looking aliens. Maybe the aliens are more complicated than can be explained in a two-hour movie. Think about their appearance. The aliens in so many movies look alike—you know, short, gray with huge eyes. Look at all the variety we have on this planet when it comes to humans and birds and insects. Why assume the universe is so bland?”

  “Okay, say you’re right and the aliens come in all shapes and sizes. What would they want here? Our water and precious metals?”

  “How would I know? Maybe different aliens want different things.”

  Jack smiled at Cassandra. “You mean they’re not all here for our women?”

  Cassandra stared at Jack with her mouth open in surprise. “What would they want with Earth’s women?”

  “I don’t know. In most of the science fiction movies I’ve seen, it’s the women that the aliens want to kidnap and take back with them.”

  Cassandra laughed. “Maybe that’s because all the aliens in the movies were males.”

  They walked in silence for a while. The terrain looked very different at night despite the full moon. The friendly trees they saw that morning that promised welcoming shade now cast large shadows that could hide phantoms or real-life criminals. They heard breaking glass as they approached the parking lot.

  “Wait here,” Jack said and sprinted in the direction where the noise had come. He didn’t look behind him, but he could hear Cassandra’s breathing as she ran closely behind him. He started to tell her to stay put, but then he saw the two men standing beside his car. One held a crowbar that he had shoved through the driver’s side window.

  Jack ducked as the man swung the crowbar and then connected with an uppercut to the man’s jaw that sent him sprawling. He heard a grunt and turned, expecting he’d seen the man’s companion trying to attack him from behind.

  Instead, he saw the second man lying flat on his back. Cassandra held her index finger against the man’s neck. He appeared close to passing out.

  “What did you do to him?” Jack said.

  “It’s just basic self-defense. I reacted when he attacked me. Do you need him conscious?”

  “No, I don’t want to have to wait here for the police.”

  Cassandra pressed her finger down more firmly and then released it. The man’s body collapsed like a rag doll that had been thrown to the ground. Jack studied the man and marveled at Cassandra’s skills. He placed his arms under one of the men’s arms.

  “I’ll drag them over to the grass and then we’ll leave. The police won’t do anything to them even if we press charges. It’s going to be their word against ours since there aren’t any other witnesses.”

  Both men remained unconscious while Jack moved them so that they were partially hidden by a tree trunk. He swept the glass out of his car and covered the seats with the blanket they had used for sun bathing while trying to remember what kind of deductible he had on his insurance. He drove Cassandra back to his place while checking his rearview mirror to see whether anyone was following him.

  Cassandra glanced at the books stacked in a pile as they entered the apartment. “What are you working on?” she asked as she looked at him with her guileless blue eyes.

  “Just a trip I’m going to take with a few of my friends.”

  “Do you want company?”

  “It’s not that kind of trip. It’s just a boring guy thing.”

  They talked and eventually went to bed. Jack marveled how good they were together. Their bodies seemed to meld on their own as each anticipated what would please the other. Cassandra fell asleep in his arms. Soon he also was sleeping deeply.

  Chapter 9

  JACK SLEPT until late morning; he stared at the empty pillow beside him. Cassandra’s absence disappointed him because he still felt her warmth on the sheets, and that made him desire her even more. He vowed that next time he’d get her contact info before he let her leave the apartment. He showered and ate. He glanced at the stack of books Hawk had given him. Something didn’t look right. He didn’t remember leaving them in such a neat stack and thought he had left one book open to a specific page. He must have dreamed that. He shrugged and headed out the door.

  As he approached the College Avenue exit, the freeway slowed as cars bunched up waiting to exit. He smiled as he thought about the lack of parking spots at San Diego State. All those people would be fighting over one or two vacant parking spots. His buddy Leroy called the parking stickers SDSU issued “hunting licenses.” He just didn’t have patience today with anything that slowed him down.

  Eventually Jack made it to La Mesa and found a parking spot across from the Dallas Bar and Grill. He figured Maurice picked this spot because Navy people never drove that far from the base for lunch. He heard one of Johnny Cash’s old tunes blaring over speakers as he entered through a side door and walked past several tables of business types wolfing down half-pound hamburgers and large pitchers of beer. Finally he found Maurice, almost invisible at a small table near the restrooms. He sat across from the man who looked even thinner and far more frightened than the last time they met.

  “I almost didn’t come.”

  “I can’t thank you enough.”

  Maurice glanced around the room. Even though the loud country music drowned out conversation, he spoke in a soft voice. “Pete’s in a bad way.”

  Jack’s smile disappeared. “I saw the blood he left in my apartment. How bad?”

  “At least a concussion. They used a concussion grenade and then tasered him, but it still took three guys to drag him out into the parking lot. He’s in some place called Dulce now. Do you know where that is?”

  Jack’s blood drained from his face. After reading Hawk’s books, he knew what Pete’s odds for survival were. “Yeah, I really owe you.”

  “You sure as hell do, but both of us need to be alive for me to collect. I can’t stay. I might already be in trouble for asking too many questions. Take care of yourself.” Maurice laid a $10 bill on the table, downed the rest of his beer, and left. Jack sat lost in thought.

  “Sir, I asked if your friend would be returning?” Jack glanced up as the young waitress’s words finally registered. He shook his head and tried to clear it. Still dazed, he ordered a hamburger and watched the powerbrokers around him laughing and bragging about business deals. I wonder what they’d do if I told them about the aliens? They’d probably have me committed, he thought.

  One man dressed in an expensive suit leaned over and whispered to a woman who resembled Suzie. Jack strained to look in order to make sure it wasn’t his ex-girlfriend. He rose at one point and walked slowly past the couple toward the restroom. He glanced at her and saw her face didn’t measure up. Suzie had been a real beauty. If only she hadn’t tried to control me and mold me into someone I just wasn’t. A guy should be able to set his own course and not be told what to do with his life.

  Now he realized just how empty he felt; he hungered for more than just a series of one-night stands. Cassandra excited him, but she was half nuts. Still, if she showed him she cared about him and not just his sperm, maybe they could build a real relationship, and she could get help for whatever problem she had. He went over that day at Balboa Park and smiled to himself. Lost in his thoughts, he drove in auto mode and didn’t realize where he was until he exited the freeway.

  Jack struggled to control his thoughts and turn them to another subject. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. What about Pete? Focus on how you can rescue him. He forced his mind to concentrate on a plan. He’d need to go over those books on Dulce again and reassemble his old team. Would they be willing to put their lives on hold and take on what sounded like a suicide
mission?

  He pulled into his apartment complex’s parking lot and climbed the stairs slowly while he surveyed the parameter. He opened the door cautiously and sighed with relief when he sensed he was alone. Jack walked to his bedroom and pulled his gun along with some spare clips from his raincoat and placed them in a pocket. If the people who followed him ever forced him off the road and tried to grab him, he’d make them pay. He drove toward Front Street and parked near his mother’s office. First he’d visit Fred and then he’d surprise her and see how her search for his biological mother was going.

  Fred Goldstone’s office commanded a view of the Coronado Bridge as well as the island. A thin woman wearing dark-framed glasses that hung at the tip of her nose ran her fingers though the gray hair she had wound into a tight bun. She looked up from her desk, eyed Jack, and didn’t smile. “Do you have an appointment?” she said in such a way that she managed to convey her feeling that he didn’t warrant an appointment.

  “I’m an old friend. Please please tell Fred that Jack Starling is here and it’s important.”

  “He’s extremely busy right now. Could you come back in a couple of hours?”

  “I’m sure he’ll be at lunch then and after that you’ll tell me that he’ll be tied up for the day. I’m not leaving. Buzz him and let him decide if he wants to talk to me. If he doesn’t, I’ll leave.”

  The woman hesitated and then shrugged. “His meeting should be over in five minutes. I’ll ask him then.”

  Jack sat and picked up a National Geographic and found it had a special cover story on the SETI program. He smiled as he remembered the planetarium movie and then he turned to the article and began reading.

  He thought about what Cassandra had said. Maybe people are lucky no aliens had heard our radio signals yet and responded. He focused on the article and then stopped, startled. There it was again, Gliese 677, one of the leading candidates for alien life. He remembered hearing it mentioned in the movie, but there was something else. He tried to make the connection, but the receptionist interrupted him.