Humans tended to have quite a strong reaction to exposure to extraterrestrials and not always in a positive way.
The colonization prerogative of Alpha-Prime was mostly in place for planets where Alphas permanently resided and the indigenous population was aware of their existence.
Earth had not been so categorized. The Alpha community on Earth had started as a mining colony, but they’d maintained the truck stop for nearly as long. Earth was not even on the list for the indigenous population to be notified as to their presence in the near or even distant future. As far as the home planet and the elders who’d retired on Earth were concerned, it would remain that way for quite some time. The ruling party members on Alpha-Prime were not convinced earthlings were ready to accept aliens in their midst.
Diesel mostly agreed with that assessment, but once in a while he wished their existence was out in the open. He had several human friends and wished he didn’t feel like he was lying to them by omission each time they conversed.
Meanwhile, the elder council was here to ensure he and any future Fearless Leader kept with the old ways of secrecy as much as possible. That meant the council members poked their retired noses into his business every chance they got and any manner of change was usually met with indignation at best, outrage the rest of the time.
Diesel said, “I wish the elder council was more agreeable to any kind of variation in our routine. We so much as change the scheduled gelatin flavor at the Cosmos Café on any given day and there is a mass organized protest—usually with Aunt Dixie, protest sign in hand, leading the way ready to sanction me for crimes against humanity.”
Axel grunted. “Wish in one hand and poop in the other and see which fills up first.”
“Stop with the hillbilly proverbs.”
Axel shrugged. “Stop wishing for foolish things.”
“Change is not foolish. Until I took over last year, nothing much had changed since our people arrived on Earth.”
“So?”
“So things are different. Thanks to advances in human technology, now we have to do a better job of hiding our existence from the population, but the councils here and on Alpha-Prime don’t seem to get it.
“If we get found out and anyone can prove it or we don’t erase their memories quickly enough, the rulers on Alpha-Prime will yank our operation out of here so fast our heads will spin off, then use an experimental Defender bomb to level the place and ensure local memories of our very existence are forever erased.”
“So break it to the council gently,” Axel said. “You’re good at handling them, Diesel. That’s why we voted you into the job.”
“I’m the eldest in our family and I worked my butt off to be in charge. That’s why I’m here, not because of any vote.”
“That you know of.” Axel grinned and Diesel relaxed. His brother was just winding him up. He took another deep breath and read the few words on the contract signature page for the Galactic Gulag Run.
“If you explain the reasons why this is so important, the council will understand.” Axel tilted his head and added, “Or they’ll boo and hiss and stick their tongues out at you, but you’ve already survived that kind of torture more than once.”
That was the truth. Anytime Aunt Dixie and her friends were involved in an unpopular decision, they always booed, they always hissed and someonealwaysstuck their tongue out at him.
“Right.” Diesel studied the gray paper again, rereading it quickly.
“What are you going to do?” Axel asked.
“I’ll sign the contract and tell them all about it later. Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission, right?”
Axel looked dubious. “Sure, Bro, whatever you think.”
Diesel thought he’d rather consign himself to the worst prison in the United Galactic Gulag system and spend the rest of his life doing hard labor, sledgehammering granite-like boulders down to pea gravel, than break this news to the council of elders.
Axel was right, though. This was a good contract for their purposes. It would add significantly to the bottom line of his Earth-bound colony.
Often he secretly asked himself,What would my father do?
He well knew his father had once tried to procure the same type of prison contract, but had been shot down by the council. His father had stopped asking them anything important soon after and advised Diesel to do the same.
Zeb Grey had been one of the best leaders the colony had ever had. Diesel had big space boots to fill when his parent retired, but he knew his father had been very ready to step down and let him take over. His mother wanted to travel across the country. His father, as always, wanted to indulge her. Currently his parents were somewhere in the continental U.S. in an RV enjoying their retirement.
Diesel knew his father might have signed the UGG contract without any input from anyone else, if retirement hadn’t been on his horizon. He’d left the decision to Diesel, because he was the one who’d have to deal with it in the long run.
Diesel signed the document with a flourish, agreeing to the ten-year contract for a monthly service run from Alpha-Prime in the Caldera Forte Galaxy to the prison planet XkR-9, in the Andromeda Galaxy by way of the Milky Way and Earth. It would be steady, regular income for the next ten years, making it harder for Alpha-Prime to shut them down on a whim. Plus, the way station would receive a generous stipend for each and every UGG ship beyond the scheduled monthly run that landed here for service, rest and relaxation during the long trip between galaxies.
Before Axel left the room, Diesel’s assistant, Nova Greene, raced into his office. She looked distressed.Now what?He should’ve called in sick, even though their kind never got sick in the way humans did.
