I dialed the phone I had picked up at a store on the way here to a number my Prima had obtained yesterday. It rang twice before the connection was accepted.
“MacNeal.”
“Good morning, Lieutenant Commander MacNeal. My name is Xt-fv-hw-gn-lr-tk-hs, but you may call me Allegro. I am with your new friends from out of town.”
There was a pause. Also predicted.
“What can I do for you Allegro?”
“I have come to meet you to discuss an issue we have. Indeed, it is the whole reason we came to town in the first place. Right now I am at the publicly accessible area at the far end of the pedestrian tunnel into the complex. May I have some of your time?”
“Should I be worried?”
“No, so please moderate your response. While it isn’t every day an alien shows up at your Pentagon, I am squishy and quite unarmed.”
“I’ll send someone and join you myself shortly. It is a bit of a walk from my office. Who are we looking for?
“Polka dot sun dress and bright shoes with matching hat. Can’t miss me.” I hung up.
It was about five minutes before I noticed three additional uniformed members of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency arrive. Sitting demurely on a bench, I let them position themselves around me and we all waited. It was another ten minutes before MacNeal arrived.
“Good morning Miss Allegro.” he said as he walked to within easy speaking distance. “I would say it is a pleasure, but I have questions.”
“I would love to put your mind at ease. Is there a comfortable place nearby more suitable to having long conversations?
“Have you eaten? There is a cafe over there where we can get some preliminary things out of the way.” MacNeal pointed to it.
“I could eat.”
MacNeal waved over one of the uniformed officers.
“Sergeant, we are going to go have lunch there and a chat, would you like to join us?”
“I’ll take a coffee. My break is coming up and I brought lunch.”
We all walked into the cafe, looking to all the world like an officer and his daughter walking with a police man.
“Steak sandwich for me please.” MacNeal told the girl at the counter. “And I’m buying this officer’s coffee.”
“Black, large.” the Sergeant pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to the coffee display behind us. The girl put a cup on the counter.
“You have a broccoli soup that is tolerable. I’ll have that,” I said.
MacNeal paid for it all and we went to sit down.
“So first question, who are you? You look very not-alien from where I am sitting.” MacNeal started.
“My South Dakota birth certificate and Oklahoma ID card say my name is Stacy Anderson. I could give you my registration number with the Social Security Administration, but I really shouldn’t.” I smiled.
“But you are an alien?”
“Yes. I spent most of my existence working as a computerized intelligence in the Hive Fleet, and about twenty years ago I was selected to transfer into the science division to assist the anthropologists with Earth observation. I was due to start in another handful of years, but that program has been halted.”
“And the body?” He sounded dubious.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Lab grown. That being said, and to answer the next inevitable question, this body was born in the legal jurisdiction of the state of South Dakota. We didn’t fake the birth certificate, we never do. Parents are listed as John and Jane Doe, and the adoptive parents know I am alright. I wouldn’t bother them though, they really don’t know anything out of the ordinary.”
“So why should I not be worried about an invasion of the body snatchers?” MacNeal asked after fetching our food from the counter and taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Commander, we could indeed produce a body that looks exactly like you or anyone else on the planet, but it wouldn't pass such simple scrutiny of a metal detector and an X-Ray machine. There is also no point to it because doing so doesn’t comport with the Science Division’s mission of observing human behavior. You don’t get good measurements when you have your thumb on the scale.”
“So why are you revealing yourself to us now?” MacNeal had inhaled his sandwich. “Does this have anything to do with Ensign Trainor?”
“No, and it isn’t necessary to bring it up to her either. She is busy with Princess Arpeggio and will be for the foreseeable future.” I was still picking at my soup. Not my favorite.
“About 3 months ago there was an incursion. All previous attempts to break the Hive Fleet’s quarantine of your system have been detected and stopped, but this one was neither. We still do not know who the intruder is, or how or even exactly when they arrived on your planet. Your government’s electronic misinformation campaign was skilled work, and set us back in our search by approximately three weeks, but it also informed us that you had a hand in the whereabouts of the missing entity. We then focused all of our search efforts to the United States and its territories."
I took another bite for dramatic effect.
“We are now sure that this person is in North Carolina. We don’t have a reason to be where we believe this person is, and are unwilling to bluster into secure areas to force the issue. It doesn’t make for good neighbors."
“So this is about Kos-Api."
“And now we have a name. May we please meet with this person to figure out what happened? Your planet’s security is at stake.” I pushed the remainder of my bowl of soup away.
“Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I were to say no?” MacNeal asked, testing the waters.
“Your planet would go on, just as safe as it was but less safe than it could be because we would be unable to patch the hole in the security that we provide to you.”
“That’s it?”
“The Science division is still there. More dramatic measures do not comport with the goal of keeping the thumb off of the scale.”
“But you revealed yourselves.” he pointed out.
“The cat is out of the bag. An extra-terrestrial entity is here unapproved by the Hive Fleet for the first time in your recorded history. The parameters have changed from keeping you secure absent your knowledge to keeping you secure with your assistance.”
“Kos-Api has information that we want to know. We are unprepared to hand her over at this time.”
“Is the information you seek pertaining to extraterrestrial weapons technology?” I asked. “That is a Pandora’s box you do not want to open yet. Just think of what you went through with nuclear weapons technology.”
“No.”
“If you are sure of your own security with regards to this individual then we are content to continue the status quo of you maintaining custody.” MacNeal rolled his eyes and I gave him the courtesy of pretending I didn’t notice. “This individual can obviously breathe here, which wouldn’t be the case at the Hive Fleet. We just want to talk.”
MacNeal conveyed to me a tale of near-humans and other races on an unknown world filled with magic, and it seemed preposterous to me.
“Are you sure? These are things we have never heard of, and I am left wondering if someone is taking the poor humans for a ride.”
“All we know for sure at this point is that her DNA tests as a close match for humans, but we can’t match ancestry for any region on earth, her physiology has some interesting things about it that we can’t explain looking at her DNA, and she has shown us personal abilities not linked to technological devices that we don’t even have a theoretical explanation for.” MacNeal replied.
“Are you going to allow us to talk to her?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure. She is in North Carolina as you already figured out. I haven’t met her yet myself, so I would like to be there. Are you handling transportation, or should I?”
“I’ll take care of it if you can inform the base command that we are coming. There is an airfield near her that you land vertical take off planes at which will do fine for our purposes. If you bring an overnight bag I will pick you up at your house in the morning.”
“Zero Four?”
“Sure, if that’s what you want.”
“Alright then, if you will excuse me, I have some phone calls to make.”
“Interestingly enough, so do I.”
The Navy officer and the police left back to the tunnel, and I got back on the metro and ignored the plainclothes officer keeping an eye on me. He stayed on the metro when I got off and I headed out to a bus station.
Pulling out the new phone, I dialed again.
“Hi Mom.”
I left the phone on the bus when I got off an hour later.
