Backyard Aliens

by Persun, Terry

  BACKYARD ALIENS

  A Neil & Mavra Altman Adventure

  BY TERRY PERSUN

  Booktrope Editions

  Seattle, WA 2014

  COPYRIGHT 2014 TERRY PERSUN

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

  Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

  Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

  No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

  Inquiries about additional permissions

  should be directed to: info@booktrope.com

  Cover Design by Greg Simanson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional.

  PRINT ISBN 978-1-62015-196-9

  EPUB ISBN 978-1-62015-292-8

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2013922093

  Table of Contents

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT PAGE

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  BONUS INTERVIEW

  BONUS NOVEL EXCERPT: CATHEDRAL OF DREAMS

  OTHER TITLES BY TERRY PERSUN

  MORE GREAT READS FROM BOOKTROPE

  For Mom

  CHAPTER 1

  MAVRA WOULDN’T LET NEIL READ the report while driving, even if he could easily do both without a loss of concentration. “At first,” she said in her sternest tone, “they thought the oblong sphere resembled a hammer used by the local tribes some ten thousand years ago, but the kids who found it swore from the beginning it was an egg.”

  “And the scientists couldn’t tell the difference?” Neil said.

  “I don’t think egg was their first thought, not in that time period or for a specimen of that size.” She read silently for a moment, skimming over the parts where the kids came to the dig and how the archaeologists thought they were just trying to get attention. “Apparently not until the kids heard something inside and brought the egg to the dig. It says they found it a few miles away.” She laughed.

  “What?”

  “They found it almost in their back yard,” she said.

  “Go back to the ‘heard something inside’ part,” Neil said.

  “Something moving.”

  “That must have creeped them out. But I’m not so sure they heard what they thought they heard. I mean, come on. After all these years? Unless these guys are thinking Jurassic Park, there must be something else going on.” Neil made a turn off Highway 90 toward Bozeman.

  “They’re not thinking. They’re investigating,” Mavra reached over and placed her hand on his knee. “You really want to read this yourself, don’t you? Your right eye keeps glancing over.”

  “I don’t need both eyes on the road to drive,” he said.

  She smiled. “Just let me do this. I don’t want to just sit here while you go through all the reports and drive at the same time. I’d feel like a stump.” She squeezed his knee then brought her hand back to the report and flipped a few pages.

  Neil nodded and reached over for her hand. He gripped it, squeezed and then let go, repeating what she had done to his knee. “This is your job. I’m only along for the ride.”

  “And don’t you forget it,” she teased.

  Neil maneuvered a bend in the road. “This is beautiful country,”

  “It is,” she said before going back to the report.

  After a few more minutes, Neil said, “So, do they expect you to hold this egg, or whatever it is, between your hands and tell them what’s inside?”

  “Psychometry,” she said.

  “I know what it’s called, but what’re the chances it’ll work? Can you even do that with something as old as a fossil? Something that’s been buried for that long? And hasn’t been in anyone’s possession for what, you said ten thousand years?”

  “I might be able to detect something. I don’t know what, but if humans touched it, I’d get something. And if it’s an animal’s egg—I mean if it really was—I should be able to sense that, too.”

  “What if no one has ever touched or owned or been around the specimen? What if it’s just a rock?”

  “That’s most likely the case, but who knows?” she said. “I’ll find out.”

  “They thinking cave men?”

  “They don’t know.”

  “That’s why they called you in.” Neil pointed out the window up ahead. “A hawk sitting in that tree.”

  “Beautiful,” Mavra said. “And yes, that’s why they called. What appeared to be a rock is not a rock any longer.”

  “Does it actually say that in the report?”

  She held up a finger while she read. The electric car purred along the road. She noticed Neil’s right eye straining to get a look at the report and she turned to lean against the passenger door. “Keep those eyes on the road, Mister.”

  Neil shook his head.

  “Eyes,” she said, emphasizing the s.

  “Then read out loud.”

  “As the egg began to grow—”

  “Now it’s an egg for sure?”

  “Neil!”

  “Go on.”

  “…the rock portion peeled away and something different started to show,” she read. “Not from here, I’d say,” she said while taking her eyes from the report.

  “By that you mean…”

  “Earth.”

  “Oh for the love of God…”

  “I thought you’d be a bit more open to something like this,” she said.

  “You mean after the time machine stuff?”

  “Not just that, but yeah.”

  “Aliens?” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Really?” He turned toward her and banked into a turn. Another car came toward them and swerved over the yellow line.

  Mavra watched as Neil swung into action and turned the Spree off the road, into a gulley, then, skidding the rear end as he did so, back onto the road.

  “What the hell?” he said.

  Mavra banged her elbow on the armrest while he maneuvered the car. She rubbed it as he straightened the car out. “Your attention shifted.”

  “He was on the wrong side of the road,” Neil said.

  “Either way, we’ve been driving long enough. Maybe we should take a break.” Her heart raced now, even though she was glad Neil was driving. His reflexes were much better than hers.

  “As soon as I find somewhere we can stop,” he said.

  He appeared to be relaxed, as though nothing had happened, but Mavra understood how he’d just switched from the side of his brain that might be jittery, and communicated with her using the calm side. Amazing. “I saw a sign for a restaurant that should be coming up.”

  “I thought you were reading?” he said.

  Mavra leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I can do several things at once, too.”

  “I’m sure you can.”

  As the restaurant came into view, Neil slowed and turned into the parking lot. S
everal men hung around outside the establishment, talking and leaning against the tailgate of an old, heavy-duty Dodge Ram. “You’d better put that report away for now,” Neil said.

  Mavra flipped the pages back to hold her place and stuffed the report under her seat and out of view. “Should be safe there.”

  Neil glanced at his watch. “One-thirty. Shouldn’t be too busy.”

  “I am hungry.”

  “Me too.” He stepped from the car and waited for Mavra to close her door before he locked the car up. “Little early for a town meeting,” he said, nodding toward the men farther down in the lot.

  “They’re not locals,” Mavra said.

  “And you think my eyes are creepy?”

  “The way they’re dressed,” she explained. “I wasn’t picking up any psychic weirdness or anything.”

  He placed an arm around her as they made their way into the restaurant. “I never know.”

  “They are watching us pretty closely, though.”

  “We make a nice couple,” he said. “They’re probably jealous.”

  “And they should be,” Mavra said.

  A twenty-something waitress greeted them near the desert and checkout counter in the front of the restaurant. “Two for lunch?” She didn’t wait for a reply. She slipped two single-page menus from a pile at the side of the counter and walked toward the left side of the seating area. Windows lined the entire outside walls on three sides. The kitchen and bathrooms were located along the back wall. She placed the menus down opposite one another on a booth table. “Anything to drink?”

  “Water,” Mavra said.

  “Beer?” Neil said.

  “Water, coffee, and soda,” the waitress said.

  “Water it is, then.”

  Mavra knew her husband’s habits and sat with her back toward the front of the restaurant. He liked to be able to see everything, people coming and going. It made him nervous to sit with his back to the door.

  Neil slid into the booth and grabbed a menu.

  “I’m going to make this easy and order the soup and half sandwich,” Mavra said while placing the menu at the edge of the table. “You?”

  She watched as Neil flipped the menu back and forth several times. He just couldn’t stay still sometimes. “Honey?” she said to get his attention. She shook her head. “You still a bit jostled from that scare back there?”

  “He was on the wrong side of the road.”

  “I know. So, what do you want to eat?”

  “Same as you, I guess.”

  “Only a whole sandwich? What kind?” Mavra reached for his menu as the waitress came to the table with their waters. She picked up the other menu and held them while she ordered for both of them, except that she waited for Neil to name his sandwich.

  “Ham and cheese,” he said.

  The waitress entered their order on some sort of reader and pushed a final button. “Your order is in,” she said before taking the menus. “Would you like anything else?”

  “We’re good,” Mavra said.

  “They should have readers at the table. Then we could punch in our own order,” Neil said.

  “I like the personal service. Life is isolated enough as it is,” Mavra said. “So?” She looked around. Finding that the restaurant was fairly empty, she said, “Any additional thoughts?”

  “About what?”

  Mavra shook her head. “The investigation?”

  “No thoughts,” he said. He smiled at her and reached over to touch her cheek. “Thanks for bringing me along.”

  “We’re a team now,” she said. “I thought that was clear.”

  “I know, but…” He turned his head. “Don’t look now, but those guys from the parking lot are headed our way.”

  “Do they look mad about something?”

  “Tell you in a minute,” Neil said. “Fellows?”

  Mavra turned once the men were next to the booth. They didn’t look dangerous. Although they were all a bit dusty and their jeans were worn pretty heavily. There were five of them, three slender and two set a bit heavier. One of the thin one’s—short black hair and brown eyes—reached toward Mavra, his hand out. “I’m Jake.”

  “Mavra.” She shook his hand briefly.

  Jake turned toward his buddies. “Told you.” He turned his gaze back to Mavra. “The kids brought the hammer to us first. Probably scared of old Dr. Lesser.”

  “So you saw it?” Mavra said.

  “Held it in my own hands,” Jake said. He looked to his friends. “We all did. Passed it around.”

  “Anything unusual?”

  “That’s your job,” Jake said. “You’re the psychic, right?” And that was when his voice changed. “Right?”

  Mavra glanced over at Neil.

  “We’re just having lunch, boys,” Neil said.

  “You have no training and you expect to tell us what it is? If that were possible, wouldn’t we have occultists at all our digs? Maybe put a psychic on the moon? Send one to Mars?” Jake laughed and looked around at his buddies, who chuckled, though not as heartily as Jake.

  Neil stood and stepped from the booth. He was an inch or two taller than most of the guys.

  Mavra held up her hand. “Neil, it’s okay. I can understand how they feel.”

  “Why would Lesser call you in?” Jake said.

  “I don’t know,” Mavra said. “Maybe he had no choice. Either way, I come in and do my job when asked. This happens to be it.”

  “He’s going senile,” one of the other men said.

  “We’re not even allowed near it,” Jake said.

  “And we brought it to Dr. Lesser,” the other man said.

  “I’m sure you’ll be called in as soon as I’m through,” Mavra tried to sound as though she knew it to be true, and hoped she came across authoritative enough. “I’ll recommend it.” She pointed at Neil and then herself. “We both know what it’s like to be pulled from a project that could be interesting or exciting.”

  Jake looked over at Neil, who let his eyes spread to look in opposite directions.

  Jake jumped back. “What the fuck?”

  Mavra knew Neil did it on purpose, just to freak Jake out.

  “Fucking weirdos,” Jake said. “Let’s get out of here.” Before he left, he leaned over the table toward Mavra. “You won’t find anything. This is science, not magic.”

  Neil reached over and placed his hand on Jake’s chest until he moved away from Mavra.

  Jake looked directly at Neil. “You’d better be careful, old man.”

  “You’d better leave,” Neil said.

  The five men left the restaurant, and a few moments later the tires of several cars spun out as they left the parking lot.

  “Seriously?” Mavra said. “Where the hell are we?”

  “Anywhere, USA,” Neil said. “You should know by now that scientists don’t like anyone—not you or other scientists—to poke around their experiments.”

  “But they’re just a bunch of kids,” she said.

  “The worst kind of scientists are those eager to make a discovery.”

  The waitress came over and set down two small bowls of tomato soup, a half BLT, and a whole ham and cheese sandwich. “Would you like anything else?”

  “No thank you,” Mavra said.

  The waitress stood where she was.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you really Mavra Altman?”

  “We’ve had a long day,” Neil said.

  The waitress didn’t take her eyes from Mavra. “Could you tell me anything about me and my boyfriend?”

  “Please,” Neil said. “Can we eat?”

  Mavra reached out to the waitress and held her hand for a moment. “It’s not that easy, honey. But I can tell you this: don’t hold onto him too tightly. You need to know that you’re a good enough person. He’s there because he wants to be there.” She shook the woman’s hand again and then let go, noticing that the waitresses shoulders relaxed. Whatever was on her mind had eased u
p for now.

  The waitress said, “Thank you so much. I didn’t know…” She never finished her sentence. She just turned and rushed away.

  “That was nice of you,” Neil said.

  “Thanks.” She pointed. “How’s the food?”

  Neil smiled at her and took the first bite of his sandwich.

  Mavra didn’t feel great about Jake and his friends, but knew she could look calm enough that Neil wouldn’t be alarmed. It comforted her that he tagged along, though. He’d protect her.

  The warm food went down easily, and in no time they were back on the road. “Not much farther,” Neil said. “I’m glad we stopped. There won’t be food for hours when we get to the college.”

  The report sat across Mavra’s lap. She barely heard Neil’s comment. She said, “I know.”

  “Anything else interesting in that thing?”

  “Not a lot. They did a few tests on it, and were afraid that was why the outer casing sloughed off. The next layer of the egg—now they’re calling it an egg all the time—appears slightly transparent.” She shook her head. “Not clear enough to see anything.”

  “Too foggy?”

  “Yes.” She placed a hand over the report. “I have a funny feeling about this.”

  “Save it for the authorities,” Neil said.

  “I mean it, honey. Why would the thing grow and become so active only after it was found? Do you think motion has anything to do with it?”

  “You make it sound like it’s some kind of electronics or something. It’s a rock. A rock that has some kind of sound inside it. Ever hear of Mexican jumping beans? Maybe there’s something rattling around inside, something that moves on its own but isn’t alive. Just because there’s noise doesn’t mean that something is living in there. In fact, without air, how could anything live in there? Couldn’t this just be some natural phenomenon?” He had one eye on her while his other one was glued to the road.

  “You’re probably right. The rock is acting weird, so they’re getting overly concerned about it. Maybe Jake and his buddies were right. Maybe Dr. Lesser is losing it.”

  “Maybe it’s not even a rock. Expansion can happen if gas is caught inside it. It’s got to be warmer where they’re holding it, in comparison to under the ground.”