“Not to mention impossible to find parking anywhere I wanted to go shopping.”
“However, the Fearless Leader driving a regular truck just like every third person in this state is a bit surprising.”
“It’s not so surprising. I told you I was an Arkansas boy. That’s what we drive, trucks.” He held open the passenger door for her as she climbed into his vehicle.
“Thank you. I see you’re an Arkansas boy with manners.”
“Well, I had a mama who insisted. Actually, come to think of it I had a daddy who did, too.” He closed her door before he started kissing her like he wanted to and ended up staying in the parking lot too long.
He rounded the front of his vehicle and hopped inside, starting it up and revving the engine a couple of times. The small space in the cab already smelled deliciously like Juliana’s perfume. He inhaled deeply, centered his thoughts again, and said, “Ready to go?”
“Absolutely. Let’s get this tour started. I’m anxious to see what you want to show me.”
Diesel nodded, having come up with a plan to show her a few things that wouldn’t be terribly scandalous. She’d caught him off guard more than once. He was prepared this time. He’d done some homework after leaving her house yesterday. He’d poked around the local library for historic references to any unexplained tales that might be of interest and also had nothing to do with alien activity.
He planned to take Juliana on a tour of the small town of Alienn and point out a few places of possible curiosity that would suffice for her article, but at the same time not get him into trouble.
All history set throughout the Alphas’ time here in Alienn was likely subject to a security look before release to the public, but Diesel would cross that bridge when he came to it. He was someone who believed that not all publicity was good. However, a mention in a famous travel guide like Finder’s was a boon, not a scandal in the making. He hoped.
Any inclusion in this Finder’s book without an actual provable alien sighting—beyond Maxwell the Martian—might bring more humans into the truck stop. He’d cite free marketing exposure as his excuse if needed, and see if he couldn’t produce an uptick in sales as a result when the book was available.
Diesel pulled out of the truck stop and headed toward town. They could have walked, and if it had been a nice sunny day he might have suggested it, but it was dark. With a recently arrived spacecraft and a few extra aliens ensconced below, he didn’t want to accidentally come across any strangers from another galaxy that would result in Juliana being blasted with the Defender again.
He glanced in her direction. She was looking out her passenger side window. He’d driven from her place the day before, traveling most of the way home considering his pursuit of a life with Juliana. He’d also thought about their short history and the memories she’d never get back.
She’d mentioned a dream about their experience with Maxwell the Martian, a memory the Defender should have wiped away. His first order of business upon returning home yesterday was to privately read up on the Defender for its uses, applications and capabilities to discover why it obviously hadn’t worked fully on Juliana. Unless she started having more dreams about the time directly before his brother shot her with the Defender, he’d keep that volatile information close. A conversation with his security-minded brother would be a last resort.
He glanced through the notes Cam had given out when the Defender had been distributed. He wasn’t able to get much useful information, just a notation that it had only failed one time, which had frustratingly not been explained in reference accompanying the device.
He’d have to do further research or ask Cam for more notes, but put it off. Cam would want to know why. Instead he moved on to his next topic of consideration: a future with Juliana. He’d never thought about marrying a human before, but after meeting Juliana and especially after kissing her, he couldn’t think about anything else. He’d never thought about love at first sight, but figured that was exactly what had happened. There was no other explanation.
An Alpha marrying an earthling wasn’t impossible, but it also wouldn’t be easy. While there wasn’t any Alpha-Prime general colonization law against it, there were strict rules and protocols that covered such an occurrence.
Surprisingly enough, not many Alphas fell in love with humans.
On the flipside, there were plenty of instances of the reverse happening. Lots of earthlings fawned over the extraterrestrial population of Alienn Arkansas, especially at the truck stop. Alphas—whether male or female—were often taller, had a more muscled physic and very symmetrical facial structures than the average human. Tall, muscular and attractive were features humans liked, apparently.
Most Alphas had long-range goals that didn’t include a human mate or permanently residing on Earth. A number of Alphas only planned to stay for a few years before returning to their home planet. He equated it to serving in the military or possibly the Peace Corps for a limited time and then going back home after having lived a slightly different experience.
Even so, a handful of Alphas and humans had decided to mate over the years. It was the exception rather than the rule. In each instance, the Alpha gave up their post on Earth to move back to Alpha-Prime with their human mate. Both parties had to agree to it, in writing in fact. A blood oath was also required.
On a couple of occasions, the earthling broke up with their alien lover upon discovering the truth about Alienn, Alpha-Prime, the galactic way station, the mine and the rest.
However, the singular option for Alpha-human couples to be together was available only on Alpha-Prime, a rather barren planet by Earth standards, located far away in an adjacent galaxy. Those tragic instances of the human partners backing out were rare. The earthlings who hadn’t wanted to make such a drastic location change had to be dealt with as far as their knowledge of Alienn, the Big Bang Truck Stop and especially the lower level and its galactic activities.
The most recent instance had been seven or eight years ago when Diesel’s father had been Fearless Leader. They hadn’t had the Defender then.
The end of that relationship had involved using the old injection recall serum to erase the entirety of the earthling’s memories and allow her to reintegrate into human society, blissfully unaware of aliens hiding in plain sight in southern Arkansas.
The Alpha who’d lost his human love had been left distraught and heartbroken. He could have stayed on Earth, but not long after the breakup he’d moved back to Alpha-Prime, all alone. The recall serum didn’t harm humans, but it was imprecise and sometimes erased several weeks of memories instead of only specific ones about aliens in Arkansas.
In the most recent case, the earthling had lost not only all memories of Alienn, but also the entire relationship with the Alpha she’d been ready to marry. It had been heartbreaking, but their only method to erase memories. That was well before Cam invented the handy dandy Defender. That creation was better than losing months of loving memories, but also problematic, as Diesel’s experience with Juliana attested.
If Diesel continued his relationship with Juliana, he’d have to consider giving up his post as Fearless Leader and moving back to Alpha-Prime with her. Unless she refused to go and insisted on staying on Earth. He chose to ignore that depressing and forlorn thought.
He’d been born on Earth. He had an Arkansas birth certificate and everything. So did his siblings, but they were all one hundred percent Alpha-Prime aliens. He knew no exception would be made for him because of his current title or his birthplace. It was assumed that one day he’d marry an Alpha who was either living on Earth or visiting from Alpha-Prime.
Diesel drove past the green and white flying saucer-shaped sign that listed the population of Alienn, Arkansas as 1,988.
