What in the hell happened here?

The SUV continued through the town, which barely registered to Susan as much more the a stop on the interstate. By the time she thought to notice it they were out, moving away from the lights towards what looked like the end of civilization. Leaning back she decided maybe she could catch some sleep.
This proved to be a mistake.

"We are almost there Ma'am." the driver said as Susan fought a sudden bout of queasiness. I hate curvey roads.

One moment it was all darkness then it was all light. Ahead on the left side of the road, it looked like the circus had come to Tennessee. In truth it had.

Two apache type copters streaked overhead as the SUV coasted into what appeared to be a sudden tent city set up on the side of the road. She had to remind herself not to gawk. It was unbelievable at the amount of tech, hardware and soldier all around this clearing and forest. Why would anyone go to this much trouble if-

Wait one damn moment! she thought. Was this actually the first time for real that aliens had come to Earth?

She dismissed the thought as a squad of soldiers approached then surrounded the SUV. They were shepherded to a spot off the side of the road about 100 yards from the "event zone." This is actually what the driver of the SUV called it as if it was scientific and official. Susan was fairly sure that he had just made it up.

She climbed out of the SUV, when a tall lanky man in a lab coat came striding over. He was not handsome, although there was something charming about the sly grin he shot her before holding his hand out.
"Dr. McGraff, I presume. I am Dr. Williams." His voice pitched so she could hear him over the hubbub surrounding him. He looked positively giddy.
"Dr, Williams." She said taking his hand shaking it then letting it go. Sweaty palms.
"Care to fill me in?"

"My pleasure." He replied before gesturing towards the site.
They picked their way around cars, trucks, boxes, light kits and some kind of power unit on a trailer. Leaving the road they walk outside a line of what Susan took to be police tape.
"As far as we can tell, the Ripple connected with the surface approximately 6 hours 12 minutes and 32 seconds ago at the center of this field." he lifted the yellow tape at this point- about 15 yards off the road- she tried to mentally pace it out anyway. It was a nerdy thing to do and she chided herself since she could get measurements later.
She ducked under the tape and Williams followed.
"The ripple came down over there." Williams pointed to a spot surrounded by lights about 40 foot in diameter with what appeared to be part of a beat up pickup truck crashed into a tree projecting into the circle.
"A truck?" She heard herself say.
"Yes, that, it seems the Ripple or event intersected the truck bed and de-atomized the part that fell within its intersect."
"De-atomized?"
Williams gave a micro-shrug and spread his hands.
"He won't say disintegrated." a thin man said before turning around from where he crouched with what Susan had at first taken to be a cluster of lab techs but now looked and smelled more like University interns (she would claim to have a nose for this kind of thing).
Williams coughed.
"I am Mick, Dr. Williams assistant in all things technical."
"He's an intern in my Astro-mapping project at Berkeley."  William's explained, trying to wave Mick off.
"You guys got here fast." She said, an eyebrow raised.
"Well when Nasa informed the Military of what was happening, Some General started calling in favors and a group of G-men showed up at the lab and scooped up me and my staff of six, stuffed us into a jet I have never seen before and flew us pretty much straight here."

Susan was pretty sure she knew what General he was speaking about.

"So, the event field?" She prodded.
Williams chuckled, "Right. The Field. It's amazing isn't it?" He gestured at the circle filled with markers and lab techs scurrying over the space collecting everything in sight- grass, and soil included.
"What the Doc isn't telling you is what we found shortly after arriving here." Mick interjected.
"Well, I wanted her to get an idea of how much space we have to cover." Williams shot back.
"What am I missing?" Susan said trying to figure out what she was not seeing.
"It's unbelievable, that is what it is!" Williams excitement came bubbling up- the man was positively hopping in place.
"What is unbelievable?" She asked
"DNA, tons and tons of DNA." William yelled, he was dancing.
"DNA?"
"What the Doc is saying, Dr. McGraff is that the event field/zone is filled with little bits of DNA that is not terrestrial as far as we can tell at this juncture."

She must have gaped then blinked at the 40 foot diameter that was in fact, perhaps the single biggest discovery of her lifetime.
The Aliens has arrived.

She gulped but then could help wishing that they could have been a little bit bigger.

Touchdown Tennessee

Susan had dozed off by the time the jet touched down in Tennessee at a small airstrip outside Crossville. The Marine who woke her was polite but not overly friendly. He id have what Susan took for a southern accent, but she was tired and getting Ma'amed a lot could dull the senses.
She left the jet and got into the black SUV Escalade that seemed to be the Government's vehicle modus operandi these days.
After a moment she yawned in a very unladylike manner looked over at her driver, the marine was in the seat behind her.
"Where are we?"

"We just left Whitson Field Airport, Ma'am." The driver replied.
The marine made as if to say something but stopped himself and looked out the window into the night.
"Where is that?"

"Well, it's roughly about-" the driver began but stopped talking as he had to make a fairly complicated turn around a pair of pickup trucks stopped in opposite directions so that each drivers side window could be opposite. The men in the trucks were chatting amicably and hardly noticed their passing.

"We just left Crossville Memorial/Whitson Field Airport, we are driving to Crossville which is 4 and a half miles away." The Marine said- he sounded bored. "We are proceeding to State Hwy 298, Genesis road, to an empty field just on the other side of the Cartoosa Wildlife Management area. Which will be about 19 miles away from the center of town."

Susan raised her eyebrows at the soldier and he shrugged once before returning to his reverie

Words from above

Susan McGraff, professional astronomic reassurer, looked out the window of the small jet as it streaked over the US, probably somewhere over Georgia. She was not actually a "professional astronomic reassurer" it was what she referred to herself as. I am actually a theoretical astrophysicist masquerading as a human being. She looked down at the ipad in her hand wanting to increase the resolution on the the radio cameras in orbit hundreds of miles above her. The resolution would come soon, well hopefully soon.
Here she was flying to some place in Tennessee where this wave had intersected the planet. Why Tennessee? Yes, she had actually asked that and was told by the annoyed Lieutenant Max-something that she could discuss this to her hearts content when she got there with some Professor Williams whose SETA team had found the "Ripple" a few weeks ago. Apparently he would be meeting her at the landing strip she was enroute to.
Susan had no idea who Dr. Williams was, much more than he was a mostly ignored member of the Berkeley staff who spent his time and government subsidies searching the universe for intelligent life or something. She should be fair. He probably didn't deserve that remark. But she was not in the mood to be kind.
The pictures of the impact, no effect that the wave "ripple" had on the YSat Communication Satellite were dramatic on the level of a science fiction movie. Well almost. The actual time it took for the effect of the collision took longer than any sci fi fan would have sat still for. Still as she flipped through the footage, the collision remained thrilling as the Satellite shuddered and ripped apart until the thruster fuel or batteries or something ignited and the satellite blew apart. Fortunately, for all those folks up there and the other satellites, it blew into tiny bits. No, she corrected herself as her mind began the calculations, the debris would only impact a fraction of the atmosphere, given the orbit and decay most of the debris would miss the space station and other satellites.

Well, some news is good news.
As to the other news, it was curious and infinitely more troublesome. The early reports coming in were worse, much worse. From the small amount of data that she had been sent so far, it appeared that the ripple had stopped as soon as it intersected the physical surface of the planet and something had happened for about six minutes before the entire wave had ceased in sending. There was still an aftershadow of course where it had been. But the ripple had vanished from the universe as far as the radio satellites could tell. There was a logical explanation for this but the guys with the military were still freaking out about it.
Given what little she knew about overall galactic mechanics, it was unlikely that a natural phenomena could hit the Earth twice. But the behavior of the wave pointed to artificial intelligence which meant that the air force was trying to persuade the president to go to def con 4 most likely as the first real panic in years set in.
What do you do when the aliens invade the planet in six minutes or less?

Okay where are you guys from?

Mars considered this being as she stared out the front of their transport. Her eyes were wide and she (blinked) rapidly. Blinked- what a strange word, it meant something like the quick opening and closing of the fleshy membranes over the optical receptors. Water-like substance began to run down from the receptors, down the (woman's) face. Her (hands) gripped the controls tightly- to tightly like the controls would move on their own or would break apart if she dared to remove her hands from them. The woman (Mags) mouth vibrated- correction the fleshy membrane surrounding her mouth trembled as she closed it over and over again even as it opened over and over again. No sound came out but the trembling increased as the water (tear) flow increased. She is (crying) his mind told him- no (think/thought) not the trace but his own mind (being).
Being in this form was so utterly complex, even with the probes programming and suggestions, he was unsure that he would be able to grasp the complexity in a life time. When all else fails, go with what your body tell yous to do. The thought was the same a the memory of the other self had been told to do when danger dictated demanded he react (quickly). So much had happened in so short a span of (time), would he be able to survive the exile? The other 2 were trying and failing to adapt, Kymat was better but Fijbold continued to fail to grasp the basics like rudimentary movement. Time (time) was relative he supposed, they had all the time in the Universe or at least time as this new form would allow. Mars made the strange noise that he had heard the woman make, it was not identical but close. Time! Time was so different to what they had known in the other place- this place it was like moving through (the word was gone, although the feeling of immobility remained) thickness when compared to the other place. Also, as far as he could grasp this place (time) her was limited to one apparent direction instead of what it was like back there.

"We are from a place so different from this one, I can not make you understand what or why it was different." he told the woman who stopped her crying to stare at him in confusion.
"Where is that?'
'You cannot-" he stopped as his mind tried several words and failed to offer him one. "You cannot go there."
"Go? Why would I want to go there?'
(Good) question. No, he would let his body tell him instead of trying to understand what he was thinking or what she was saying.
"You cannot go, no can we go back." (back) was that the right word. Stop thinking about the (language). it was maddening since his mind was grasping more of the (speech) that he was making with his mouth.
"Can I see it?'
See (see)! That was the word he had originally meant to say. See- sight, what his organic being would perceive through the optical receptors.
"No, it is-" Don't think just say what the body tell you to say- "too far away to see."
Mags leaned back in the seat and held up her (arms).
"Can you point in the general direction?"
Mars' first instinct was to point in the current direction that his mind immediately identified as the (general) direction, but he stopped himself. It was down and to the side in a steep angle. Instead he point up. it was (relative) to what his body told him the direction should be. It had been the direction of the Slipgate when it arrived on this world.
She looked at his finger pointed up and shook her head.
"No." She shook her head, the (tears) slowing "No, no, no-" the tears increased as she shut her (eyes) and began to beat her hands on the controls she had gripped earlier.
"No?" he said not sure why he should but (feeling) that he should try.
"This can't be happening to me. Little green men do not exist, there is no such thing as UFOs! I refuse to believe that you guys are aliens. I mean that kind of aliens."
Without knowing what or why he was doing it, he reached over and pulled her to him as she begin to cry again in intense spasms. She did not resist him and her hair (smelled) (nice).

Where DID you get those clothes

She looked at him, the laughter bubbling up out of the same place as her hysteria. For his part, Mars did not even crack a smile. Kymat tried to imitate Maggie and failed miserably. It only made her laugh harder.
Mars waited until she was mostly done. When she leaned her head back, he began:

"You went into the structure- store (pause as he turned this completely foreign word over in his mind), We observed you browsing through the coverings- clothes (another pause) and then we looked at your display examples."
"What?" Maggie interrupted. "What display examples?"
"They were inanimate simulacrums to you and wore different coverings." Kymat said.
Maggie stared at him until he looked down in embarrassment  (it could have been embarrassment).
"The clothes were on humans who did not move even when Kymat took their clothes off. They were un-living without faces." Mars said.
"Mannequins!" Maggie laughed for few beats. "you are talking about the mannequins."
"Yes, that word must be what they were."
"You undressed the mannequins and no one noticed." Maggie said shaking her head. On the other hand it was 4am in the morning and Kigbowl was running around the parking lot.

She pulled the car over into a closed gas station.
"Let's try this again." She said before opening her door and getting out.
The three men got out of the car and stood there looking at her. She took the clothes out and handed a pair of sweats to Kymat and Kigbowl, then stopped. Mars actually looked okay. His clothes mostly fit and didn't look so bad.
Kymat studied the sweats with interest while Kigbowl just looked at them dumbly.
Maggie sighed and felt he eyes beginning to roll, so she stopped herself. When she looked back Mars was taking his clothes off and then putting them back on. Kigbowl- Okay she knew she had the name wrong, but she seriously doubted anyone was going to spell it. Hell, Mars was the only one with a normal sounding name.
After a few minutes of Mars doing show and tell Kigbowl manged to get the sweats on. Kymat shed the hot pants and slipped into the sweats with a sigh of relief. She looked down at the size 5 hot pants and wondered how he hadn't passed out from the lack of oxygen they must have caused.

She considered them. They were a motley crue but they were at least good looking even if Kigbowl- kickball? kept making strange faces.
"Let's go." She got back into the car.
The men climbed back in, well Kymat and Mars did, they all stopped to watch Kickball try to climb in feet first and then stop, he looked at them a laughed. It could have been a laugh save for the fact that is sounded more like a sucking noise,
The man straightened then made a few attempts at folding his arms and legs only managing to fall down and sit on the pavement. Mars said something that couldn't have been English and stepped out of the car. He walked back to Kickball and grabbed him in a bear hug and tossed him in the back seat. Amazingly Kickball went in smoothly like a ragdoll.
Mars returned to his seat and looked at her.
She looked back at him trying to decide where to go now.

The absurdity of the entire night hit her and she sat staring at the man who she didn't know and should have been scared of. What in the hell was she doing? Fucking up. that was what she was doing. She had almost driven these three weirdos to her house. Somehow she had not been afraid of them, somehow she had ignored the obvious. How could she be so damnably blind!
She turned to look out the window, her hands were white form where she gripped the steering wheel.
Whare should she go? Were they waiting to kill her?
She gulped for air like a drowning victim, she would not cry, she wouldn't!

"Where did you guys say you were from?" she said the fear clamping down on her like a iron vice.

The Way back home

She was driving, she knew that much for sure- as to the rest she wasn't sure. They were on the road, a road, wait a damn minute! They?
Now she was braking, and skidding and stopping.
Wide eyed she looked around to find the man she called Walker looking at her in puzzlement.
She looked back out at the road. she made herself relax her hand from their death grip on the steering wheel. her stomach churned. The road came into focus as did the houses on either side of it. Residential, they were in a suburb. Her suburb... she was driving these men back to her house.
Count to 20 Maggie.
Count to 20 and calmly turn the car around and go to the police station and tell them that she had found 3 naked men on the side of the road. Then for some reason felt compelled to take them to Walmart to buy them clothes and then everything had gone wrong- so wrong and now she was fu-
Walker put his hand on hers and she felt the heat jump into her arm. She glared at him defiantly but her sudden flare of anger melted and she deflated like a stuck balloon.
The police would find her on the side of the road later, Maggie the deflated beach float.
So she looked back at the road tried to count to two and gave up, leaned her head forward and sobbed.

Mars considered this odd creature that his mind kept insisting was a woman- which was something similar to... what? Then the word/thoughts formed into meaning. He would have told the Trace that his mind stopped being the other and became human- if the Trace had been there to talk to. The Trace was gone, perhaps to never return but it had told him that it would come with him before the exile before it had gone silent. He must be... patient, the word had meaning now. he considered it then looked back at the woman.

She was in pain, she needed something more that touch. What should he do? What would he have done for his own... mate (that was the word but it had no meaning for he had no such thing before the exile). He had one thing or rather one other thing before the exile. It had given him comfort when before had had begun the Walk. His new mind began to make associations of a human woman who had held him aloft when his life had begun and- sounded- no, spoken his name.

"Mags."
She continued to cry in a way very similar to Fijbold- perhaps this was like (sorrow). He had done this by now being able to adapt to this new world, new form quick enough.
"Mags."
'What?" She stopped making the noises. The woman, Mags leaned her head against the round thing that must control the transport.
"Mags." What do you say to an stranger (alien)?
She looked up, her face had gone from (nice) to look at to wet and with dark marks all around her (eyes) and (lips?) and other parts that were not translating. She looked at him for a long time then
"How do you know my name?"
"The other said that word and you responded in the container where you were looking through the coverings."
"Huh?"
"I do not know the- erm- words right. But he- the other who chased-" (it was chased he was sure of that)    "-Fijbold around the transport."

She blinked at him a few times, then suddenly reached out a touched the coverings he wore before leaning back in and making a new noise that was like the crying but harsher and more abrupt.

"Where did you get those clothes?" She said.

Quiz time or was it a riddle?

Hey, Maggie?
What?
What does one 4 door Geo, 3 naked men and 1 dumb women have in common?
What?
What?
What!
Oh, nevermind.

Shock was like this or so she thought as she was trying to take in the scene of Bill chasing Fijshbowl around the parking lot. She was in shock- what else could it be?
She knew there were at least six other people who had come outside to watch the display and stood there gawking alongside her. Would any of them have a camera in their cell phone? Would this be on the news in the morning? What in the name of Elvis Presley was she going to do now?

Nope, nothing was coming.
She looked down at the sweats in the bag in her hands.
What was she doing here? Wasn't her life in shambles anyway?
Go home Maggie. Go home now and leave the idiots behind.

So she did. Well, she tried to anyway. At least she made it as far as her car.
She had her keys out when Fishbowl plowed into her, sending her sprawling, the keys went scrittering away. The mercy was she fell on the bag of sweats which cushioned her fall. Not that it helped much since Bill who had been closing in for the kill tripped over her and maced them both in the collapse.

Someone was screaming.
Someone was crying
and someone was cussing.

Maggie sat up in the parking lot and closed her mouth- which was on fire along with her face.
Strangely the cussing stopped. She tried to looked around through the haze. Fishbowl was curled up a couple of feet away from her, there was blood on his face and he was crying in gasping sobs.
So who was screaming then?

Bill was.
Apparently his armed had turned inward after tripping over her and he had gassed himself full in the face with his can of mace. He was also nearby writhing on the pavement in very vocal agony. Idiot!
A shadow fell over her and pulled her to her feet- it was a tall handsome man in brand new clothing. This seemed as surreal as everything else. She tried to speak and opened her mouth but shut it immediately as the burning sensation began again. The man turned her around and propelled her towards the car. On the way, he reached around her, scooped up the keys and put them in her hand.
Somehow she got the door open and found the other man already sitting in the car- in a dress that was at least to sizes to short and had several "hello kitty" stencils on it. She blinked at him a few times before remembering that she was supposed to be driving. Absently she popped the trunk, heard something heavy being dropped in it and it slamming shut. Then the shadow which somehow translated into that Walker guy got in the car and laid a hand over her shaking ones which were on the steering wheel.

"We should go."

Later she would swear it was a dream. Later she was not sure that it had happened exactly like that. Later she would look at the Police Chief and shrug and say that yes, she must have been drinking.