John walked into the restaurant and looked around. To his surprise he saw Jennifer through the glass to the play area. He thought he would have gotten there first. He began to walk towards her. The entire way he was thinking McDonalds really is the perfect place for such a clandestine meeting. There were only a few people this time of day, and nobody was in the play area.
He walked through the door and was surprised how different she looked. She wore a nice blouse and pants. Her face looked much better. All and all she looked a lot better than the last time John had seen her only a couple of days ago. She even had ordered a sundae it seems.
“Nice to see you again John. Please have a seat,” she said after swallowing a spoonful of ice cream. She motioned for the chair opposite her.
“Thank you,” he said and sat down.
“Well I didn’t find much,” she said. “There were scattered reports of people seeing a woman leaving the crash, everyone seems to think she had just been in the area when the ship crashed.” She took a byte of her sundae.
John considered this news for a second, but was interrupted when Michael sat down with a cup of coffee. “What did I miss?” he asked.
“No. We know nothing basically,” Jennifer said.
“What are you doing here?” John asked surprised.
“Jennifer said you guys were looking for Rogalia. I thought I would tag along,” he said.
John thought about asking why, but decided he cared more about the subject they came here to discuss. “Does the military know anything?” he asked.
Jennifer considered his question while she swallowed her latest bite. “Well, I don’t know exactly. I don’t have many contacts at the military as I used to.” She paused for a moment and bowed her head. She looked back up at John and continued. “I don’t think so. I could be wrong though. Michael have you been in contact with any of your friends from the military?“ she said.
“Nobodies telling me anything,” he said. “They were pleasant and all, but when it comes down to it, nobody says anything useful. I take it they’ve been ordered not to.”
“Do you think they have her or know where she is?” Jennifer asked.
“Don’t know. Maybe, maybe not,” Michael said. “It’s really a mess down there it seems. I doubt they know what they know, if you know what I mean. These aliens have them all running around like headless chickens.”
“It’s a good bet they don’t know where she is yet, but we should hurry,” John said. “It’s a not likely to stay that way forever.”
“You know something don’t you,” she said.
John was taken back for a second. Her gift for reading people was almost freighting. “Yes actually. I think I may have found her,” he said. “If I’m right, she is living in New Jersey near New York. She is working as a model for an adult site there.”
Jennifer was taken back, and Michael gave him a scolding look “An adult internet site?” he asked.
“Yes,” John said simply ignoring the looks he was getting from the others.
Jennifer considered this news for a moment. “How did you find this out?” she asked. “I mean did you just happen to be watching porn last night and come across her?”
“You need to be staying away from those sites son,” Michael said. “They’re no good for you. I wish they would ban them all, and get rid of the lot once and for all.”
John ignored the additional commentary. “I remembered that her race has to have sex often, and I figured that would mean she might get involved in the sex industry somehow. So I downloaded an open source web crawler and face recognition software. Then I pointed it to google search results for adult sites, escorts, you know things like that. I got a ton of false positives, but eventually I found her.”
John looked at the others. They looked puzzled. He guessed he didn’t explain it very well, but certainly they get the gist of it right?
“So she is in New Jersey?” Michael asked. John nodded affirmative. “Well that’s good enough for me I guess.”
Michael waited outside of Rogalia’s apartment. He tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. He wore dark clothes, and tried to stay in the shadows. He didn’t want to scare the neighbors and have them call the cops.
The street was filled with small multistory homes crunched closely together down one side of the street, and larger brick apartment buildings down the other. Michael was waiting around the corner from the entrance.
Jennifer and John were waiting a few blocks away in a small dinner. They thought it best only one of them wait for her. It would be impossible for all three to remain inconspicuous, and that would lead to unwanted attention.
He had been waiting for a couple of hours. It seems John was wrong again, not that it surprised Michael. He saw someone walk into the apartment, but it was a man. Where was she? John had told him she would be leaving work an hour and a half ago. He may be good with the technical stuff, Michael thought to himself, but when it comes to everyday life stuff the man is an idiot.
Finally he saw her walking down the street with her arm around another woman. They were talking and laughing together, but Michael couldn’t make out what they were saying. They did seem a bit too friendly though.
Michael began to get angry with her. This is a bad idea, he said to himself. The last thing we need is to get involved with someone like her. We are better of facing what is to come alone and leave her be. He thought about just leaving, but decided he had better at least talk with her. The others would try and track her down anyways, so he thought it best he stay involved.
He walked up to her. The two girls were involved with each other so much they didn’t see him until he was standing right in front of them. “Good evening,” he said and smiled.
Rogalia’s friend was frightened and acted as if she wanted to run. She looked to Rogalia, waiting to see what she would do. Rogalia gave Michael a big smile and rushed forward to hug him. Michael stepped back and indicated she shouldn’t. She recoiled, and her smile turned into a frown.
After a moment and shook it off and gave him a half smile. “Did you come for a quickie?” she asked.
He started at her in disgust. “I came her to talk. That’s all that’s going to happen,” he said. He looked at her friend. His eyes were drawn towards the needle marks along her arm.
“Some of our mutual friends would like to have a word with you, if you don’t mind. They are waiting for us,” he said.
“Oh. Wait which mutual friends? Do you mean Jennifer and John?” she asked.
“Just come with me please,” Michael said. He indicated she should follow.
She began to follow him, but was stopped by her friend. “Maybe I should come with you,” she said.
Rogalia looked surprised. “Why?” she asked.
“Well…” her friend began. “He is a strange man that comes and takes you away in the middle of the night. I mean is that the safest thing for you to do?” She drew Rogalia closer and whispered, “What if he hurts you?”
Rogalia gave her a big smile and a hug. “Don’t worry,” she told her friend. “I know them. They won’t hurt me, even if I ask, I suspect.” She walked towards Michael. Her friend watched for a few minutes, then shrugged her shoulders and went inside the apartment building.
It was a fairly nice night, so they decided to walk. It would be faster then getting a cab. Michael rushed down the street, forcing Rogalia to almost jog along side him. Michael remained silent the entire time, but Rogalia wouldn’t shut up. Michael stopped listening to what she was saying the third time she insinuated she wanted to sleep with him, which was about 30 seconds after they left. Michael began to speed up, and was almost at a jog when they reached the dinner.
Michael went in the door, found the people he was looking for, and rushed over to their table. Rogalia followed, now breathing heavily. When she caught her breath, she gave them both a smile and a hug. They politely stood and accepted them. “I’m so glad to see you guys. I’ve missed you,” she said. “How did you find me? Michael wouldn’t say. Is it a secret?”
“John found you,” Michael said as the group took their seats. “Some kind of internet search thing.”
“I found a picture of you on the internet site for your job,” John explained. He gave her a smile.
“I guess job would be one way of describing it,” Michael said sarcastically. Everyone ignored him.
“Did either of you see any of the videos?” Rogalia said excitedly. “Do you like them?”
“Well, no. We didn’t get the chance,” John said after recovering from the initial shock of the question.
“Nobody is interested in your videos,” Michael said.
Rogalia got a hurt look on her face. “That is a mean thing to say,” she said. “I mean I’m an amateur and all. I’m well aware of this, but you humans suck at sex videos. Back on Velaria, we have high school plays that are better. Anyways, if you want to see them, I think I can get copies for you. What do you say?” she had an excited look on her face.
“Can we please stay focused on why we are here?” Michael said, clearly annoyed.
“We wanted to ask if you would help us defend us from the Biaz,” Jennifer said. “It seems you’re the only person on Earth that really know anything about them. Your knowledge could be invaluable.” Jennifer took Rogalia’s hand. “Please our world needs you,” she pleaded.
“No, I don’t think I want to do that,” she said. She had a concerned look, almost as if she was frightened by the notion of helping us humans. “I think it best if I stay out of the way. Both of you can be far too violent. I don’t want to be a part of that.”
“Your either with us or against us,” Michael said.
“What is that suppose to mean?” Rogalia said.
“It means that by with holding help from us,” Jennifer answered, “you are in effect helping the Biaz kill and enslave us, just like they did to your world and to the Kults. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to see humans dying by the millions when there is a chance you could have helped, or prevented it altogether.” Jennifer tightened her grip on Rogalia’s hand slightly.
Rogalia considered Jennifer’s words. “What do you want me to do?” she asked. “I don’t think I could fight. I don’t want to even try.”
“We are capable of defending ourselves. We don’t need you to help in that regard,” Michael said. Rogalia gave him a look of horror.
Jennifer smiled. “We wouldn’t expect you to fight for us,” she said. “We only need you to share what you know, that is all.”
“What do you want exactly,” Rogalia said and withdrew her hand from Jennifer’s.
”You could start by teaching me their language and culture,” she said. She withdrew her hand to her side, but continued to smile at Rogalia.
“Ok, I can do that, but do we have to start tonight?” she said. “Who do you want me to teach? Your president, and his helper people?”
“That wouldn’t be a good idea,” Jennifer said. Michael looked at her. So General Mac was right, she does intend to work against the military. Jennifer looked back at Michael. He quickly looked back at Rogalia, who was staring at Jennifer.
“Why?” Rogalia asked after nobody else spoke up.
“Well they are frightened,” Jennifer said, “and some of the elements in the government may want to keep you locked up, or make you do things you wouldn’t feel comfortable doing.” Jennifer tried to keep a pleasant tone. She gave Rogalia a smile when she was finished.
“She is just being paranoid,” Michael said. “I’m sure the government wouldn’t hurt you without any reason. We are not cavemen you know,” he directed the last comment towards Jennifer. Jennifer just smiled back at him. He then turned back to Rogalia. “Besides, even if it were true, the world is about to be overrun by them bastards. We can’t let the inconvenience of one person, or of everyone get in the way of defending our world.”
“No,” Rogalia said. “I think I wouldn’t like that. How about I teach Jennifer and she can teach the rest of you?”
“And me,” John chimed in.
Everyone stared at Michael, obviously expecting him to agree as well. He considered it for a few moments. He hated the prospect of spending time with Rogalia, but he had to admit, speaking Biaz might just come in handy. “Ok, I’ll do it as well.”
He really thought she should agree to help his government directly. That would make up for some of her mistakes in the past, but Jennifer would never allow him to force her, and he doubted he could convince her to volunteer. He decided to report Jennifer’s plan to General Mac and see what he thought they should do.
“When do you want to start?” she said.
“I think it best you come back with us. You can stay with me in my apartment,” Jennifer said. “We can start after you get settled in.”
“Your going to have her stay with you?” Michael asked. “Do you think its wise?”
“Well where else is she going to stay?” Jennifer replied. Michael just shrugged. They all got up to leave. They decided to stay the night there and leave in the morning. There wouldn’t be any trains leaving this late anyways.
At the hotel, Michael snuck out of the room under the pretense of calling his wife. He called General Mac from his cell phone. General Mac agreed that Rogalia should be taken into custody. It was too dangerous having an alien walking around, both for her and for the general populace. She would be safer in military custody for a while.
It would also be better for her to teach military and CIA operatives the Biaz language. They would put in to much better use than Jennifer and John. She could also prove useful in advising the military as they devised a strategy to defend earth.
The train trip back to Baltimore was eventful for Michael. He caught Rogalia having sex in one of the back rooms with a man she had met on the train earlier. He tried to explain how inappropriate it was for her to have sex with men she just met, not to mention in a public place, but it was to no avail. No matter how he tried to explain it to her, she would always give the same answer: “Humans are so strange.”
When they reached Baltimore, he excused himself to call his wife. Again he found a quite corner of the train station and called General Mac. The plan was for the military to pick Rogalia up at Jennifer’s apartment. General Mac thought it best to ambush them at a more private place rather than someplace like a train station. Michael disagreed, but he trusted General Mac’s judgment.
He was just telling General Mac that Rogalia was on her way, when he turned around to face Jennifer. Michael waited for her to say something, but she just stared at him with a slight smile.
“She’s more useful with us. It’s what is best for everyone,” he said.
“You are one of us. Not one of them,” she said.
Michael brushed off her comment. “How long have you known?” he asked.
“Since you came to see me last week,” she said.
Michael was a bit shocked. “Really?” He didn’t believe her. How could she have known since the beginning? “Why did you invite me to find Rogalia then?” he asked.
“Like I said your one of us,” she said. “They or whoever did something to us: John, Myra, Me, and you. There is no denying that. I think it best we all stick together until we find out our grand purpose in all of this.”
She turned to leave. “Oh,” she called back. “Don’t bother trying to find Rogalia at my apartment. She isn’t heading there.”
Michael was impressed, both with her ability and her demeanor. “They will just take her the next time any of us meet up with her,” he called after her. She turned and smiled at him, but kept walking without a word.
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