Grumpy Alien King by Celeste King
Juliette
Ididn’t know what was up with these jokers, but I was pretty confident I could handle whatever it was. In fact, I was looking forward to it. Anything to get my mind off these past few days.Walker and Wilkinson were a little goofy and acted more like... I don’t know... lMen in Black rather than talent scouts for a talk show, or whatever they said they were. Actually, weren’t the MIB supposed to be keeping aliens from humanity?
Aeron though. There was something about him... something hidden. He was much different from the other two, but in a good way. More serious and well informed. If this really was some elaborate hoax, at least he was playing hit part dutifully.
But, there was something else. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I was drawn to him, and that surprised the fuck out of me, frankly. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like that.
Whatever. I wasn’t going to worry about that now.
First things first, I was apparently going to head into ‘outer space’. An amused chuckle escaped me at the thought. At least that’s what these guys claimed. As if, we can barely get to the moon with a bajillion dollars. But, hey, I’ll play along. They got my curiosity if not anything else.
After closing my office and locking up, I climbed into the back of their car, which looked like a Lincoln SUV. Nothing special. Adrienne had about a million different cars fancier than this one. Still, it was nice enough, I guessed. but if they think we’re getting to outer space in this thing, they have another thing coming.
A deep sigh escaped me. At least it wasn’t some shoddy van with men inside ready to kidnap me. As we cruise through Nashville heading eastbound, my skin pricked at the base of my neck. The first sign something more was going on.
“Is your seatbelt on?” Walker asked, looking at me over his shoulder.
Shit.I glanced down, whoops. “Not yet.”
“Put it on,” he ordered quickly. I looked over to see Aeron doing the same.
“Just one sec...where the heck are the—”
A wave of nausea hit me like a Tsunami and I suddenly made a horrifying discovery. The car was lifting off the highway.
INTO. THE. AIR.
“Whaaaaat the fuck is happening right now?” I screeched, my hands grabbing onto Aeron, who looked as casual as ever. As if a flying Lincoln was just another tuesday.
“Yeah. So, this is a... well... a flying car,” Aeron said.
“No shit!” I stared out the window, watching the streets below me grow smaller and smaller. Soon I could see the roundness of the planet, the southern coast of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba...This can’t be real, I told myself. How could it be? ”
Aeron shrugged and nodded.
“Like I said,” Walker spoke up from the front, “I’d put on your seat belt.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. Fumbling behind my back, I finally found the stupid thing and clicked it into position just as the car hit another burst of speed. Before I could take my next breath, we were at the edge of the atmosphere. At least, that’s what it looked like. Everything was getting so dark, and a little chilly.
“How are we breathing? How are we not dying right now?” I exclaimed. My breath was visible in front of me.
“Oh, this model is rigged for upper atmosphere travel. But, to get where we’re going, we need the shuttle,” Walker said.
I looked over to Aeron who nodded again.
“I can’t believe this,” I muttered, still in shock. After a while, I noticed Wilkinson had fallen asleep, and I gaped at him. How could he be sleeping at a time like this? “How are you not amazed by this?”
“Sorry,” Aeron said, busy texting away on something that looked like a cell phone. It was black and retangular with a shiny screen. Guess some things are not all that different after all. “We do this a lot.”
“Travel through space?” I gave him a speculative look. “ In a Lincoln?”
“More often than you would guess,” Walker yawned from the front seat, but he had to be joking. He was still fiddling with his control panel, doing god knows what, so I didn’t bother to ask. What if he accidently messed something up and we all died horrible, horrible deaths?
“What the hell is happening to my life?” I mused out loud. Then it suddenly hit me. I was in outer freaking space. Everything I’ve ever known has shrunk down to the size of a pea, a barely noticeable dot in the dark expanse consuming us. My friends, my job, my neighbours cat that always stops by for a can of tuna. She’s probably already pawing at my back door right now.
“Crash course in what the rest of the galaxy already knows,” Walker replied and then supplied me with some very basic information, none of which I was expecting.
Pretty soon, I saw the oblong shape of another craft. The shuttle, Aeron told me, which was where we were heading. Shortly after spotting it, Walker expertly docked the car into it’s cargo bay, one that oddly looked similar to something you’d see on an episode of Star Trek. Once we were secured inside, the bay door closed, locking us in. As soon as we were pressurized and gravity was restored, Walker promptly gave me the go ahead to step out.
I swallowed hard, and looked at Aeron. He smiled and nodded. “It’s safe. Go ahead.”
For some reason, I trusted his judgement, soI opened the door and stepped out into an alien spacecraft. This was not how I thought things would go when I woke up this morning with an appointment about a talk show, that was for sure.
A big, horned, scaly-looking thing appeared in the shuttle bay. Barely humanoid at all.
“What the fuck is that?” I screamed, my heart hammering in my chest.
“What’s what?” The thing turned his entire body around to look behind him. “I don’t see anything,” he reported.
“Hey, Rajak, this is Juliette. Juliette, this is Rajak, our pilot,” Aeron said. Sauntering over, he strolled up beside me and chuckled as he watched his friend look for whatever frightened me, completely oblivious.
“I don,’t see anything,” he muttered again, turning back to face us. “Oh, right. You’re the chicken hero, yeah?”
“It can...talk?” I asked, astonished, my mind still catching up.
The behemoth Rajak rolled his eyes at me. “Oh, man. She’s one of those.”
“Sorry, Ray. She’s new. She’ll get over it,” Aeron replied, still grinning. Nothing got past him it seemed.
“Oh, yeah? That's why you’re still hiding?” he asked.
“What does that mean?” I queried Aeron with my wide eyes.
“Rajak, I was gonna wait to... oh, fuck it. Never mind.”
As I watched, Aeron, hit a button on his belt and the air around him waved, just like it did in the restaurant yesterday. Suddenly, Aeron was gone. He’d been replaced by a blue-skinned creature who looked like Rajak.
“WHAT THE HELL?!” I stumbled back a few feet, still gazing at his monstrous, yet weirdly... handsome form.
“Sorry, Juliette.” Aeron said, looking apologetic. “I was going to tell you a little later, but, yeah. I’m not human, obviously. Neither is Ray over there. We’re called Kaleth.”
“Kaleth? That’s your... what... your... species?” The words fell from my mouth in a stumble and I’m sure I sounded like a bumbling idiot. I guess my brain still hadn’t caught up to the fact that these guys were actually aliens...despite the fact I just travelled through space in a freaking Lincoln. Was I going insane? Had I somehow hit my head yesterday? Tentatively, I not so discreetly reached up and checked for any bumps, but didn’t find any. Okay...so not injured and I know I’m definitely not crazy. So this was real.
“Sure. Yeah. That’s what we call ourselves. Like you’re ‘human’.”
“Anyone else hungry?” Wilkinson suddenly said, producing one of those Area 51 chicken sandwiches.
“Another one? And where did that one come from?” Walker asked, a look of incredulity forming across his face.
“Always be prepared,” Wilkinson replied, shrugging his shoulders before taking a massive bit.
“Well, I’m heading back to the cockpit,” Rajak said. “See you later.” Then he turned and walked out.
“Take a breath,” Aeron said. “It’s all ok. We’re not going to hurt you, remember?”
I laughed.
“What?” He seemed a little affronted by my response.
“An alien who looks like a big-horned sheep is telling me he’s not gonna hurt me. And the weird part is, I believe him.” The fact that I had to explain that to him told me that I was in way over my head, but what could I do? I agreed to go on some talk show in outer space because I thought it was a joke. Now here I was, chumming with aliens.
He smiled at me, and something warm spread throughout my body. Sure he looked...very different than what I had gotten used to on the way here, but he had kind eyes that pulled me in. I filed that away to worry about later.
“What about you two?” I asked, turning to Walker and Wilkinson. “You guys aliens too?”
“I’m from Seattle,” Wilkinson said.
“Philly,” Walker piped up. “Go Eagles.”
“You two seem human enough,” I mumbled, checking their persons for any suspect looking buttons that would turn them into battle rams or something totally absurd. “Although it’s hard for me to say that about Eagles’ fans.”
“Totally fair,” Walker said, his response vague and offered me no answers.
“C’mon,” Aeron interrupted. “Let’s head up to the main cabin, we got lots to do.”
He held out his hand to me and I took it, albeit with some hesitation. As soon as I touched him, I felt that weird little jolt again.
Seriously, what the hell was happening?
Guiding me, we travelled throughout the ship, which oddly enough didn’t look as alien as I expected it to be, I guessed I watched too many scifi shows or something. After travelling for about a minute, we made it to a cabin and Aeron opened the door and sat down, offering me the seat across from him. Walker and Wilkinson moved to sit down as well.
Almost immediately, however, Aeron was buried in his phone again.
“What’s up?” I asked and then laughed, because there were a million things that were ‘up’. Still, I thought it was funny that some things just didn’t change. It seemed it didn’t matter where you were from, people were always on their tablet, phone...alien devices.
“Oh, sorry. I’m just swamped with messages right now. We’re preparing for a show. We got a big one coming up.”
I suddenly felt a little chuffed.
“Am I the ‘big show’?” I gave him a playful, but devious smirk. Let’s be real here. If they honestly came across the galaxy for little ol me, there had to be a reason, right?
Aeron took on a pitying look, the kind you gave children when they first learned Santa wasn’t real. “Oh, no, sorry, Juliette. No. Samantha is judging for Intergalactic Idol. We’re trying to get everything ready for it. It’s a huge deal.”
Was it bad that I sagged in my seat a little? “Intergalactic Idol? Is that what I think it is?”
“It is,” Aeron nodded. “But much bigger. Like, ‘political implications’ bigger. Everyone is trying to be on it, and everyone is trying to win it, because they think with Samantha judging, the winner will carry a lot more weight and can set someone up for an election or the like.”
“For winning a singing contest?” I asked dubiously. Back home, winning the television show was barely a guarantee for success.
“Hey,” Aeron said, raising an eyebrow, “didn’t you guys elect a reality show host once?”
I was about to make a retort, but realized I had nothing to say in return, so I shut my mouth.
“That’s what I thought,” Aeron said with a smirk that made me want to smack him even though it turned me on at the same time.
“Anyway,” he said, “that’s what’s up.”
“Well, that makes sense,” I said dryly.
“We know it’s a lot to take in,” Walker chimed in, “but we promise it will be a little more gradual from here on out. We can prep you a bit more for what you’re going to see and hear.”
“That would be great because I’m not sure how many more surprises I can take.” As soon as I said this, of course, the shuttle went into a nosedive.
The four of us flew all over the cabin, the G-force knocking us silly.
“What’s happening?” I shouted, grabbing onto the nearest object to stabilize me.
Walker shook his head and was about to answer when everything started shuddering violently. We dived again, this time at a sharper angle. He and Wilkinson, being near the front of the cabin, whacked themselves against the wall, while Aeron and I grabbed onto the table, the only thing not sliding across the floor. Arm reaching outward, Aeron grabbed for a device on the wall.
“Rajak?” Aeron asked, hitting the comm button.
No reply.
“Rajak, Come in!”
Nothing. Only static came through the comm systems. So much for alien technology being so great and advanced.
I looked at him and shook my head.
“We need to get up to the cockpit,” I told him, my
Aeron nodded and we both pushed ourselves forward, me struggling more than him. He had muscles for days to fight the harsh amount of gravity keeping me in place. Seemed I had become more complacent than I had once thought. When I reached back home, I guessed I would have to start working out again. If...if I reached back home.
The two of us struggled out the door, and down the hall. I felt bad for leaving Walker and Wilkinson behind, but there was no time to wait around for them. We quickly made it to the cockpit door, only to find it slammed shut.
“Is this normal?”
“Back up,” Aeron ordered. After we cleared the space he thrust himself against the door, knocking it open and nearly falling ass-over-tea kettle as he went in.
I followed right after and helped him to his feet, but nearly toppled over him when I caught a glimpse of the world outside the viewing screen. Jaw dropping open, a huge planet was heading straight for us. Or rather, we were diving bombing for it.
And there was no pilot on board.
To Be Continued. Read More by clicking on Lured By The Alien!
