Alien Caller

by Greg Curtis

He wasn’t given the chance to find out as the back door suddenly swung open and he turned in surprise to see Alice marching calmly in as if she owned the place. She had the most knowing look on her face and there was something in her eyes that said she wasn’t even vaguely surprised by what she saw. She’d expected it. David stared at her and then as the truth dawned back at his house guest. They knew each other and he’d been set up. Yet at exactly the same instant, she too stared at Alice and then back at him.

  “Looks like you’re well enough covered to me.”

  Fingers tightened on weapons David and his alien guest spent an eternity staring at each other and then at Alice, wondering who would shoot first. Neither wanted to, but they were both afraid the other would.

  “Play nice now children. No-one’s going to hurt you.” It took a while before either of them let the old woman’s words wash through them. Then they took hold. Neither of them took their hands off their weapons, but the tension eased, just a tiny bit as they stepped back from the edge once more.

  “Put the guns down. We’re all friends here. You’ll only end up doing something stupid.” She was so calm and so certain, David found himself obeying, or at least lowering his gun, and wondered why. The alien also lowered her weapons, as she imitated David’s actions, understanding everything even though she didn’t even speak English. The tension eased off a few more notches, but apparently it wasn’t enough.

  “I said put them down! Right down! And then push them away. You’ll only end up hurting each other.” There was a sudden strength in the old woman’s voice and David felt the need to comply. A little. He wasn't discarding his weapons, but he still cautiously slung his weapon behind his back, watching as his former patient returned hers to her belt. Their weapons no longer in their hands at least, once again they moved carefully to opposite ends of the room, neither knowing what to expect, what to do.

  “That’s better. Just like little children with cap guns.” Coming from the old lady it almost seemed a reasonable statement, and David tried hard not to feel like a small child as she shook her head pityingly. He wasn’t entirely successful. Yet he wasn’t the only one affected. On the other side of the room his former patient was similarly trying not to look down at her toes. It was strange that they shared the same body language he later reflected. But apparently they did as he understood her reaction perfectly.

  How was it he belatedly wondered, that his guest could apparently understand Mrs. James when she spoke English, and yet she couldn’t understand him? Yet even as he wondered he heard the answer, echoing faintly in his alien guest’s ear. He’d been hearing it for some time, and thought it was just the buzzing of a fly. He turned and looked closely, noticing for the first time that she had a tiny black lump just on the entrance to the ear canal. He hadn’t noticed it before. But then he hadn’t really looked closely at her ears. In turn he saw his neighbour had something similar on her throat. She spoke, and it translated her words into his patient’s ear.

  David wanted to ask how she could have such a thing, and then realized he really didn’t want to know the answer. The fact that they could communicate in such a way suggested that there was some close connection between the alien woman and his elderly neighbour, and that spelled all sorts of trouble for an ex-military intelligence agent. He had to do something. He just didn’t know what. Her next words unfortunately took the decision out of his hands.

  “David Hill, I’d like you to meet Ayn Cyrea. Ayn Cyrea, David Hill.”

  In that one sentence he later realized, Alice changed his entire world forever. Perhaps more so than anything else in his life ever would. Partly it was the fact that she clearly knew the alien woman, and he had to accept that his elderly sweet old neighbour was in fact in cahoots with aliens, and that he should no doubt be ringing up the authorities about her too. But it was that she knew his patient’s name which really turned his world upside down. For in doing so David suddenly had to accept the alien woman was a person and not just an alien. A nameless alien was so much easier to fear and if necessary kill, while a person, no matter where they came from or what they looked like, wasn’t an alien. Not really. And she was a person, though she wasn’t a human being.

  Ayn Cyrea made a gesture with her hands, unfolding them and pushing them forward towards him as though she was releasing a basket ball, and he eventually realized that she was probably doing the equivalent of nodding. In turn he nodded very slightly to her, acknowledging the introduction. Neither of them however, took their eyes off the other.

  “So I see you’ve been having fun.” With that Mrs. James cast her eyes around the remains of his lounge, and for the first time he took in the devastation they had made with his own eyes as they followed hers. Chairs were knocked over and broken, coffee cups and their contents were strewn around the floor, and the floor rugs were scattered like lumps of dough around the walls. Ayn Cyrea also saw the mess and for a split second he thought he might even have seen a trace of shame in her eyes. But he ignored it, his mind finally returning to some semblance of order, and instead knew he had to ask the old lady all the questions he couldn’t ask the alien woman.

  The questions came out broken and flat, the result of having so many of them, and so many more doubts as to whether he really wanted to hear the answers at all, but it was far too late. He already knew too much. He had to know the rest, whether he liked it or not. Mrs. James, or Alice as she usually preferred to be called, apparently understood. She told him he needed to know what was going on before he did anything stupid, and that was the end of his resistance.

  As she spoke, something changed in the air between them. The elderly lady somehow began to dominate them in that room. He had known Alice now for over three years and in all that time he had never found her to be anything other than a sweet old lady with a penchant for gossip and lecturing people about their misdemeanours. But in that room she became an empress and neither of them could argue with her.

  She was also a very angry ruler. Angry with them. And the more they cowed to her authority, the angrier she became. She knew they had been fighting, and that to her was a sign of utter stupidity in her own words. They couldn’t deny the truth either. Under her commanding presence they both finally surrendered their weapons, David placing his on the table, his former patient giving hers meekly to Alice who dropped them in a shopping bag with a grimace of distaste. Nor was she deceived into thinking that that was all they had and she stood there tapping her feet, waiting for the rest.

  It was a lengthy process, as they both discovered how much the other was carrying. David had his shotgun, another machine pistol and two automatics, as well as a set of knives, two hand grenades and a pair of knuckle dusters. And while Ayn Cyrea had already ceded her belt, she still had a multitude of knives and other objects secreted around her clothes. Things he’d never even noticed. Things that looked like they might have helped her to pick locks he realized with some chagrin. He’d not thought to check. Together they would have been a walking arsenal.

  Disarmed and feeling distinctly naked, David discovered the old lady still wasn’t finished with them. She treated them as if they were naughty children and there was no way she was going to let them off the hook that easily. Somehow she had them both sitting down side by side on the couch, after they’d righted it while she took the easy chair. There was no mystery about it actually. She ordered and they obeyed. Slowly, hesitantly and unwillingly, but they obeyed. At least she didn’t take a wooden spoon to them!

  David’s first instinct was to sit as far away from Ayn Cyrea as he could, worried that she might attack him again, and oddly that seemed to be her belief as well. But Alice wouldn’t accept that sort of childishness as she termed it, and made them both sit in the middle, touching. It made sense he realized, trying to cut down on the hostility between them, but he was also sure Alice was enjoying their discomfort. She could be quite petty when she wanted, and she had a sense of humour. It certainly wasn’t easy for either of them. But as time w
ent by they found it easier to relax and listen.

  Then Alice began lecturing them. There was no other word to describe it. She started speaking down to them both as though they were children, and for some reason they both seemed to accept it. Maybe they both had an extremely deferential view of the elderly, or perhaps they both understood she was the only one who could explain the situation. Then again, maybe they simply knew she was right.

  They both took the dressing down with as much dignity as they could, for the first time united in their common shame, and the understanding that sooner or later Alice would run out of steam, and after that would answer their questions. Questions they both needed answered.

  For all that it was strange to be sitting on a couch beside an alien woman, and talking about spaceships and little green men, it also seemed familiar, and David found himself relaxing as he listened closely. Very closely. No matter how he denied it, he was fascinated by the reality of aliens living on Earth, especially having one sit so close to him, and as a retired agent he badly needed to know about it, if only so he could kick himself as he worked out what to do. So he endured the telling off and waited impatiently for the explanation. Of course there was a lot of abuse, followed by even more sarcasm. Alice had an acid tongue.

  “So David, this will have been fun for you! Attacked by a brain sucking space vampire! Living in the middle of an alien invasion for years and never knowing. Didn’t even notice the pod people I suppose.” While sarcastic, her words actually helped to put him at ease. Since if there was one thing that it didn’t seem to be, it was an invasion. Nor did Ayn Cyrea seem to be particularly ghoulish. But living here for years? And just how many people knew? He said nothing knowing that at least answers were coming.

  “And Cyrea, sent out to keep your people from interfering with the locals too much, and the first thing you do is crash your scout ship in the mountains, and then walk in on the one person in the valley who didn’t know about your people. The one person we didn’t want to know. It’s a fine mess.” His ex-patient’s head crashed down even further, and he felt more than a twinge of sorrow for her. And shame for himself. The only person in the valley who didn’t know? That was embarrassing. Suddenly he didn’t want to know.

  But he had to. Now he not only had aliens on his doorstep, he had sympathisers for want of a better word. Every one of them would be rounded up by the various intelligence agencies when they learned of them and interrogated until the cows came home. Then they'd likely be thrown in a top secret jail never to return. Including Alice.

  “Still, what’s done is done. It can’t be taken back. So instead I suppose we’ll just have to explain and count on David being reasonable. Something the military’s not exactly known for.” Alice stared at him, asking and accusing all at the same time, and he stared back, trying to look cool and in charge of things while wondering what he could possibly say? What he could even do?

  There was an uncomfortable silence which Alice didn’t seem inclined to break. Neither was David, but ultimately he had no choice. He knew she was waiting for something. For an answer. And he knew he had to give her one.

  “Please tell me what you can and I’ll listen. I’ll even tell you what I’ll do. I am a reasonable man. I want to be. And I really don’t want to report any of this to anyone. It’ll just get me in trouble and drag me back to a place I left years ago and don’t want to return to. But I can’t make promises until I know what’s going on. Until I know my country is safe.” There was nothing more he could say, and Alice surely knew that. But did she realise that her own life was in danger too? He didn't know how to tell her. His elderly neighbour said nothing, while her eyes studied him carefully as she searched for any clue as to his intentions. He hoped if she found one she’d let him know, since he didn’t have the slightest idea of what to do.

  Eventually she gave in and did as she’d promised. He could see it in the softening of her eyes even before she spoke.

  “It’s safe. Believe me. These are good people who only want to help.” Strangely enough he did believe her. He didn’t know Alice that well, but in that moment he knew she was telling the truth. Or at least, as she understood it.

  “But it’s not just the country that you need to think about any longer. Not just the United States of America. It’s strange how our perspectives have changed over the last few years. And though it may take a while, yours will too. These people are here to help the world, not just America.” She was right David suddenly realised about it affecting the world and not just America. Aliens were on Earth and any boons or risks they might pose were to all humanity, not just his country. It was an unsettling thought for someone who had dedicated his life to his country. He wanted to believe that she was right about them only having good intentions too.

  “For us it began a bit over five years ago when our visitors moved in.” As he should have expected by then, her words took him completely by surprise. Five years! For five whole years they’d been here. Wandering around, doing whatever they were doing, and he’d never known. No-one had. Except the locals of course, who’d carefully avoided telling him anything. They’d arrived even before he had.

  “They landed one night in the middle of the Wrath Valley, totally unobserved, and it was at least a few months before any of us noticed anything out of the ordinary. But in time little oddities began to make themselves known, and we knew something was up.”

  “At first it was just the small things. Hunters for whatever reason, seemed to be avoiding the Wrath valley, despite its resident elk population. And they never really seemed to be able to say why. They just kept mentioning they had a feeling about the place. The rangers too stopped inspecting the valley for signs of poaching. It was as though people just naturally seemed to want to avoid it, without ever having any real reason.” As if ghost stories weren’t enough, but David bit his tongue.

  “Later the sightings began. Like you David, people started seeing cougars everywhere, but cougars with strange tracks. I’d guess you must have noticed that for yourself, with the way you skated around the truth with old Bill and Emery. They’re still giggling about it by the way.” Colour began to rise in his cheeks but David suppressed it. After all how could he have known that they knew there were aliens about? He had acted properly after all. It was just that they had superior knowledge. Of course it was beginning to look as though the entire valley had that knowledge, while he had been sitting quietly in his cabin for a little over three years, in blissful ignorance.

  “To be totally honest I’m not really sure why they saw cougars. Cyrea doesn’t really look very cat like at all. More sort of Oriental perhaps, with a lot of body hair.” David found himself agreeing with Alice, noting Cyrea’s small nose and almost slanted eyes. When she mentioned it he could see the Asian aspect to her features. Her build too, apart from the claws and tail was compact and athletic, also quite Asian.

  “Then we started finding the equipment. Odd bits and pieces of metal and other strange materials, fashioned into inexplicable devices, everywhere.

  We thought for a while that a jet had started losing bits and pieces of itself as it flew over one day. But that didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, not when they were everywhere and undamaged. Nor, when we took the things along to old John at the store could he tell us anything about them.” David knew she was talking about John Prescott, the electrical store manager. A nice enough guy who’d talk your arm off if you gave him the chance, especially about the world of computers. He’d dealt with him regularly when he needed something repaired or his computer upgraded. But now it appeared he too knew about the visitors and had told David nothing. Just how many people were involved in the cover up? How many were in danger?

  “Then finally one day Isaac took a wander over the hill into the Wrath Valley, and they made themselves known. Poor old coot nearly had a heart attack when he saw them and a stroke when he tried to tell the rest of us about it later and we just laughed. I suppose it was hard for him to come fa
ce to face with aliens for the first time in human history.” Which was something David could understand.

  “But then Isaac never actually tried to start a war with them. Threatening people you don’t even know with weapons. Why? Are you insane? Or just feeble minded?” Alice suddenly changed tune in mid track, something else she was prone to doing, and launched another verbal assault at him. Yet David knew it was only what he should have expected. If there was anything Alice hated, it was violence, of any sort. Whether it was two people having a fistfight, or children rough and tumbling, Alice would take them apart with her words the instant she found out. At the start at least, she’d held back, for as long as she could. But that period of grace had apparently passed.

  “You imbecile! You stupid, stupid child! No wonder they say army intelligence is an oxymoron. Soldiers thinking with their guns!” Suddenly his elderly neighbour was nearly shouting at him. David started looking at his feet once again, suitably chastised, even though as he told himself, it wasn’t his fault. There were a lot of things that weren’t his fault. Ayn Cyrea he noticed was managing to look suitably vindicated by her words. She should have known better.