Chronicle - Mel and Chris Ch. 04

"That's a Boss Mustang," Chris said of the car that was four empty slots to the east of his.

"And an alien disguised as a human standing next to it. See anyone else?"

"Only recognize a couple of the cars, but no one else moving. No really big guys in cheap suits like Joyce described."

"Hello, Anna," Mel said a few minutes later, her voice as clear as Chris had ever heard it, "nice morning today, isn't it?"

"I've had better, but yes, demon, it looks like a beautiful day. Queen Anna and my mom talked about days like this back on... I'll never, no one, will see that again."

She went silent, her eyes moist.

"We're sorry, Anna, we... well, we've just needed to know."

Chris nudged Mel's arm and moved her attention to a white van that had just entered the parking lot a couple of hundred yards to the north. She nodded and moved ten steps away from him.

"What?" Anna's gaze swung from Mel to Chris, back to the horned head.

"Those your friends, Anna? White van, dark windows," Mel's voice roughened.

The tall woman turned and looked.

"Shi...," her lips moved but nothing more was audible. The van stopped.

"I... kind of lied last night," Anna's gaze bounced between the pair, "I don't really have... guards. Well, yeah, they're here."

She quickly turned to glance again at the van.

"But I'm not really supposed to stay down here. Queen Anna had it all laid out and I was already down here. She didn't tell me to come back during the fight when they crashed. There's a... council. They told me to come back up a while ago and I said no and my mom told them to stuff it. The guards don't watch over me so much as track me. But they haven't tried to force me to go, almost never even talk to me. Yet. But there's only a couple of them."

"Do they hear everything you hear?"

"Huh? No, leather boy, they don't. Only if I... allow that. It's usually... telemetry. Location, that I'm alive. Injured or not."

"What did you tell Bobby about last night? Does he KNOW about you?"

"No. He... doesn't. Told him it was an argument between me and Asha, about Jayne, Dave got in the middle and stumbled. People saw me and her wrestle. He knows Asha doesn't like Jayne because my friend is a pushy bitch about reporting and she keeps wanting to interview her and Tracy."

"Except about herself. You're very human, Anna," Mel said, "you can lie."

"We're, we, were, are, like you in many ways. Queen Anna could spin tales. Is Dave okay?"

"Yeah, I called his place. His roommate Linda said he called her, ribs badly bruised but not broken, he'll be fine. He stayed at Asha's place. She wouldn't let him call us."

"Tell him... sorry. I panicked a bit. Guess I'm not as good a spy as I thought."

"We promise," Mel's voice kind, "we won't tell Bobby."

Anna opened her mouth but Mel spoke again.

"But the rest of us, and that detective, all know. It might... slip."

Anna smiled sadly and nodded.

"But hey, it's Bobby. I've known him since my first day here. I think... you'll be fine. But why are you here, right now?"

"I want that padlet. It obviously has information about the first expedition. The criminals. And more..."

"The government must have plenty of them from the crash. Well, some had to have survived."

"The mutineers had wiped them, we can do that remotely, but each needs a unique code, so can't do yours. And Peter's was somehow protected, he broke into all of our stuff. They can disassemble them, but what will they figure out? Computers, yeah, but circuitry no one on this planet knows how to build."

Chris and Mel looked at each other. Chris mouthed 'yet' and Mel replied 'Peter.' Anna had said he'd burrowed deep into their systems. Chris was pretty sure it had to have been Peter's padlet that had survived the crash. But what else had the government gotten off of it?

"And if we don't give it to you? There's at least one of your little probes behind Mel. Do they have ray guns?"

Anna's eyes went wide and she mouthed 'what?' But her eyes darted to her right to the spot and Chris turned and saw the telltale blur as it sped to his right and out of sight.

"That one just so we'd think there was only one while another sneaks up on us?"

Anna smiled.

"We don't have millions of them. Just kept one close to you after your little announcements last summer."

"We know," Mel purred, "hope your people enjoyed the shows we gave it."

Anna shook her head at that but her smile told them she'd seen some of what the probe had seen.

"Do they follow you?"

"Sometimes," the tall brunette shrugged.

"Like at the Broiler?"

"Huh? Uh... after... after the gang showed, I... called... what you'd call an SOS. One was outside to let the guards watch. But they wouldn't have shown themselves unless it was really desperate."

"Uh huh," Chris continued, "Joyce, Detective Shaw, thinks one bashed that Wolfman in the head, made him fall. We told her about them Friday. She's pretty good."

Anna's face twisted and her mouth moved for a few moments before she could speak.

"I didn't tell it to do that..."

"We believe you, Anna," Mel said, "and it's not like Joyce plans to tell her bosses. Yet. But we got the impression she's not happy he's dead."

"Do they have ray guns?" Chris asked again as he did a slow spin, his eyes unfocused. You couldn't see the probes but you could see the interference pattern in the background. Like a heat haze.

"Ray guns?"

"Shock weapons," Mel picked up, "like an electric shock. Your people used one on Peter or Carole. Or with them."

Anna glanced back at the van, it hadn't moved.

"They... that was the guards. To convince them. The only probes with weapons would've been ones with Queen Anna. We have very few of those. As you can see I don't have a weapon."

She held her hands angled out from her body and showed them her palms. Her tight sweatshirt and jeans didn't offer room for weapons, at least nothing gun-like.

"But they do," Chris looked at the van.

"Yes. So please. Give me the padlet."

"And if we don't? Will your friends in the van come over and convince us? Take us away?"

Anna exhaled loudly. She really was a very good human, Chris thought.

"No. They... don't know. I don't know what they might really do to you. Or to me... they're not here for you. They're... watching me. But that padlet might have answers for us."

"Don't have it."

"But... in there...," Anna nodded her head at the building.

Chris shrugged off his backpack and unzipped it. He and Anna took a step and he angled it, she saw a couple of textbooks and nothing else. They retreated and he zipped the pack and slipped it on.

"I think you'd be disappointed though," Chris said, "it's just your technology. Like, someone planned to sell info... nothing about your people, or home, or the other people on the expedition."

"Maybe it's hidden, I---"

"No," Chris's voice was sharper than he'd meant, "it's... paranoid. It was... hesitant until it knew we were humans. It claims it was told to help only humans and hide from your people."

"You're kidding, right?" Anna looked at Chris then Mel, their faces held sad smiles.

"What were they? The criminals?"

"She was a reactor engineer, how she would've known how to sabotage the starship. He... the male, was a computer speciali...," she paused and sighed, "they taught it English? There were linguists, we had recordings of your languages from hidden probes."

And Russian and Chinese," Chris answered.

"We're not ready to give it back. It's fallen in love with my RedFruit and we'd feel bad to break them up."

He clearly read the 'what da fuck' although Anna's voice stayed silent as she stared at Mel.

"Anna, I once joked to Mel that if we lined you up with every student in the Engineering building, you'd easily be more human than half of them. I underestimated you. It was just seeing those two, the ones you claim are criminals that threw you."

"We just have your word about them being criminals," Mel said, "we accept something happened. But I'm going to dig into the archives, check up on any sightings back in '63. And the padlet likes to watch me and Chris... just like your probes. Your people really are quite the horn dogs! But if that stuff you told us is true about Peter and Carole and your Queen and your mother... And a Brittany?"

Anna scowled harshly at the last name.

"All true, I swear. He... he fucked all of us, even that blue-eyed mutineer whore. Except the Queen. She and him... never..."

Mel and Chris glanced at each other, he offered a tiny shrug, before Mel responded.

"You, well, your people, can fuck humans? You definitely..."

"There are... some issues, if they're not like me. But, yes. Peter and my mom adapted quite well."

Mel shook her head.

"Wow. You may as well BE humans! Chris can only dream of such a good sex life! Did Peter ever sleep up there!"

"Couple hours, now and then. We kept him busy...," Anna drawled as Chris snorted.

"The criminals, Queen Anna, Joyce and Dave saw her, aren't like you. Are you all changing?" Mel's question was sharp.

"We can't just change... anybody," Anna's delayed answer, "only in the womb. There were only a few like me. But, Angie and Kim were on the ship that crashed. Not that many of us left, most just little. Us, we changelings, we were Queen Anna's project and my mom was her protégée, took over the project after I was born. But my mom was devastated by the crash."

"Anna, we'll help you find the golden eyed criminals or whatever they are," Chris added, "but we're keeping the padlet for now."

"Can you get your friends in the van to leave, then you leave? Then we'll go."

"If you're still around, come to racquetball on Friday. We'll talk then."

"Huh," Anna snorted, her 'human' side again front and center, "yeah, that or stay at my place while that bitch Asha and Dave that I beat the shit out of come to play that silly D&D Friday night. That ain't happening. Ok."

"And one more thing," Chris drew her stare, "you said someone 'killed your sun.' Who? How? There's nothing on the padlet about that, like we said, nothing about your home world, just tech stuff. But more, does that mean something for us?"

"We... don't know. Ian had ideas. Something about dust clouds in the galaxy. But yes. Someday. I... don't know why your padlet doesn't have it, we sent them the info once Ian had it, told them our plans to evacuate. But about the sun, I don't understand it all, I'm not an astrophysicist."

"I am," Mel's voice firm, "get me what you have."

Anna looked at Mel, nodded. Her lips moved slightly and a moment later the van drove a half circle and exited the parking lot and it followed the road down the slope around the rise where the Engineering Building stood. Anna opened her driver's door.

"You're not going to tell anyone else about me? About Jayne?"

"No, Anna," Mel said, "but like we said that detective knows. But she's not going to do anything for now. I mean, what laws have you really broken?"

All three laughed but there was little amusement in it.

"That detective," Anna said, "I'd like to talk to her."

"The Golden Criminals?"

"Yeah, them, but also something, someone else. Ties to Peter and maybe other things. But not quick, like, maybe after spring break. Me and Bobby..."

Her worry was obvious. Chris knew that wasn't just her human visage. Whatever exactly she truly was, that being loved Bobby.

Mel nodded her head, mouthed 'okay.'

Anna slid into the driver's seat as Chris stepped to Mel's side and they sidled away. They heard the throaty 351 and Anna waved quickly then put the Mustang into gear, pulled forward and did a slow one-eighty to the left away from Mel and Chris before she mashed the accelerator and laid rubber with second gear.

"She's a good driver for having been born on a spaceship," Chris said as the Mustang's tires squealed through the first three gears as she traced the van's path around the hill.

"Think they'll search the building?"

Mel slipped her arm around Chris's waist and he put his across her shoulders as they walked to his car.

"If they can. So we'll have to hope the rest of our plan works out. Let's go home and get changed, we haven't done a hard run up the hill to our park since fall. Good day for it."

"Sounds like part one of a plan," Mel's free hand reached across and did a quick crotch grope, "let's hope the rest of today's plans work out."

****

Chris and Mel will return soon in their next adventure. Asha and Tracy star in their own 'Geek Pride' series (initial entry, 'You Promised Me Geeks' in Non-Human) and they drop by here now and again (and vice-versa). If you've not read about Peter's time with Queen Anna and her 'paeple' please take a look at my Halloween 2019 tale 'A Tale of Two Parties' in Erotic Horror and its sequel that follows him and Queen Anna on her satellite 'Adrift in Space' in Science Fiction & Fantasy. Detective Shaw's full search for what happened to Peter after the fateful Halloween evening is in 'Chasing Robes & Shadows' in Exhibitionist & Voyeur.