What was that about a Chicklet?

How does one find a bright yellow rubber ball that is not a bright yellow rubber ball?
He probably was hallucinating Wilson thought as he wove through the geeks in yellow environment suits.
Still it was better that sitting around watching the science nerds go bonkers over DNA. Finally he spotted what he was looking for.
"Sergeant?" The Operations Officer asked as Wilson came up.
"Not much to report sir, the Science Ne- Scientists say they have found that the subject is missing a DNA strand." Wilson said as he came to attention, hands behind his back.
"I guess, considering what I know about you Wilson, that would not seem like much." The officer, Ricks on the nametag, looked back to the reports he was reading on the makeshift desk that sat outside the hermetically sealed Military Transport with big bio-medical symbols on the sides and tons of warning notices around each entrance, Wilson itched to look inside.
"The subject stated that a the labrats removed a ball of light from his possession."
"Yes. The lab rats have it squirreled away in that tin can." Ricks said as he jerked his thumb backwards.
"Any idea what it is, sir?'
"Not a clue- but don't tell the General that when he debriefs you."
"The General is coming?"
"No he will call via Com-Sat in about an hour."
A private ran up and saluted, then handed Ricks a folded note. Ricks read it, frowned then looked at the private.
"When did this come in?"
"0700 hours, Sir."
"Well, this is worth looking into." Ricks looked at Wilson and nodded. "Carry on Private.
The private saluted and began to pivot when Ricks added.
"Send me Reilly and his squad. I have a job for them..'
The private saluted again, nodding even as he said "yessir!"
Wilson raised an eyebrow.
Ricks leaned back in his chair then reconsidered it and leaned forward onto his elbows.
"Sergeant, we have intercepted a private radio call from the locals to an area hospital concerning a gunshot victim."
"Is that important sir?" Wilson shrugged.
"Normally it wouldn't save that the locals switched off their regular channel probably to avoid anyone overhearing that. However, what has attracted our interest, is that fact that the Deputy at the ER is reporting that an alien has been admitted."
"I see..."
"I need you to bounce down there, take Dr. Susan,,, whatever with you and try to find out if there is any truth to what deputy dog just called in."
"Yes sir."
"And Sergeant?'
"Yes sir?"
"Make sure you are discreet." Ricks saluted.
"I am always discreet Sir." Wilson said even as he saluted Ricks back.

Well this is certainly better than a Chicklet. 

What happened to Fijbold?

This world was strange. If Fijbold had the benefit of having lived the human experience he would have found some humor in that apparent fact.
Fijbold wasn't human by any stretch of the imagination. For that matter he knew that he was not even a he no matter what his (mind) kept telling him that was supposed to be.
Fijbold tried for probably the hundredth time to remember what he/she/it had been like before. Fijbold decided he wanted to think of himself as it.
It stopped and looked around. The landscape was the same ugly green thing that Kymat had called grass. Fijbold wanted the air to be....wetter? Yes, wetter was what it wanted. Everything need to be wetter. Fijbold continued to stand in the dry space wanting the wetness that filled his memories to become a reality.
The wetness came. Slowly his skin felt slick and he opened his eyes (a very strange and foreign concept) and looked up into the (sky). The wetness was falling down to the dry place.
Fijbold smiled and spread his appendages wide welcoming the first familiar thing.
Something begin to hurt and it knew that a wave of euphoria was less ecstatic as it was picked up from the ground and flung backwards down into the green things that were all around him.
The wetness was on him, then a ugly human thing blocked his vision and it gave over to the darkness.


"What is that?" Dr. Phil Stone said as the EMT's wheeled in the thing on the gurney.
"Not sure Doc." The EMT spoke as he handed his clipboard over to Stone as his partner paired up the gurney with one from the ER. Several ER personnel rushed over  to help with the transfer.
"Dispatch said the 911 operator got a call from a "concerned citizen" who said two guys in a rusty pickup dumped it on the side of Hickleberry Lane."
"Hickleberry?' Stone asked looking at the scribbled notes on the form that was attached to the clipboard.
"Private road near the I-40 exit to Crossville."
"Oh. Hell." Stone looked at the "man" on the gurney. "I can see your point."
"Yeah. Okay, here we go." The EMT straightened and Stone finally took note of his name. Parker.
"One gunshot wound to the chest area. Lucky for him it had to be at least 20 yards away." Parker pointed the the multiple red stains across the ruin of the man's chest. "Definite penetration but apparently not enough to kill him."
"Shotgun?" Stone said looking back at the form. "Obviously. Hmmm."
"Yes, I see you have noticed that too." Parker said.
Stone squinted at the form. There was a lot of erasing and cross out marks on the form.
"What is all this?" he asked after a moment as he followed the ER staff as they wheeled into OR2.
"This is where it gets bizarre." Parker said but then waited until the ER staff with them moved off to start up equipment. "I am not sure how to put this-"
"Put what exactly?" Stone asked glancing from the chart back to the man on the gurney.
Parker leaned in close.
"That guy lying there is not like any guy I have ever worked on." Parker said, sucked on his lip and then said.
"He ain't human Doc."

"What do you mean not human?"
"I can't explain it. But when I got his shirt open his chest was moving around in a very un-human was and by the time we were halfway here- his skin opened up and kind of spat out the pellets that had been inside him."

Parker signaled to his partner who held up a ziplock bag with several dozen bloody objects that Stone accepted to be shotgun pellets.
Parker looked a bit sick.
"What?" Stone asked dreading what was coming next.
Parker pressed his hands against his forehead then stopped and stripped off his bloodied latex gloves.
"There's something that looks a lot like salt water in each of the wounds."
"No shit?"

"No shit."

WTH and other Acronyms

What the Hell just happened Maggie thought as Luke's left boot went down in the daisies next to her front door.
Luke went down with a yelp of surprise. There are a crunchy thud as he kissed the gravel. Maggie felt a wave of satisfaction.
Luke came back up to his feet, his nose was bleeding and there was gravel in his hair and shirt. He growled and came around her car.
"I am going to fuck you up! Asshole!'

Luke crossed the distance between them and charged Mars who had somehow moved between Her and Luke again. She had to give the man credit, he was incredibly fast.
Luke crashed into Mars and came to a dead stop. Mars did not budge or get thrown off his feet. Luke looked like a car that had slammed into a brick wall thinking it was a picket fence.
Luke tried to take a step back even as Mars suddenly moved and laid Luke out with what looked like a full armed boxer punch like Mike Tyson would throw. Needless to say Luke's mouth and jaw went in opposite directions and teeth flew. Luke followed his teeth through the air to land flat on his back with a bone-jarring crash that Maggie would have sworn she felt.

Mars straightened back up even as Maggie stepped around him to consider Luke who was sputtering up considerably more blood now.
FUBAR
That was the word that came to mind and she could not remember what it meant save that it was an apt description of Luke's face contorted in bewilderment and rage. One of his eyes was beginning to swell and his cheeks were going a shade of purple.
Luke screamed something but ended up biting his tongue and howling instead.
Luke made to get up and Maggie step forward without thinking and kicked him in the crotch.

She did manage to step back before Luke hunched over and puked all over his jeans.

When he was done puking. He crawled to his knees, then got to his feet, stumbled around until he spotted his boot and carefully retrieved it. Mars began to move, but Maggie put her hand on his arm and he stopped. Luke froze then slowly back pedaled out of her short drive, then turned as quick as he could manage and limped away down the road.

They watched him go.

"I could end him." Mars said after a moment.

"No, let him live." She heard herself say as the rage slowly drained out of her.

She looked up at her Alien with a strange sense of pride. He was the first person who had ever stood up for her since her Dad had died seven years ago. Well, stranger things have happened.
She was dog tired suddenly DTTW. She need a shower, a shave and a beer.
She chuckled as she walked back to her door.
Mars still stood looking down the road.
She turned back to this man, no scratch that this alien, and did the unthinkable.

She walked over to him, took him by the arm and escorted him into her home.

her last thought was. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly."
She wasn't sure who was the spider or the fly.
At that moment she didn't care.

Who the Hell are you? and other conversation pieces

Maggie saw stars. One moment she was looking at the interior of her trailer wondering who had turned off all the lights and the next her head hurt and she felt herself float free from this realm of existence.
She vaguely wondered how her life had spun so out of control.

Mars watched as Mags went sideways suddenly as the other person collided with her. Then the two struck the side of the door with a thump and fell out of the strange oblong box.
He reacted immediately moving to grab Mags' shirt as she fell and scoop her up into his arms while using his foot to dislodge the other person from her body. It almost worked too.

In the end. He sat on the hard, pointed surface that led to the box, cradling Mags in his arms. The man lay between Mags' legs face down and groaning.
He was sure that this was a strange new way these beings interacted. He would have said weird even, if not for the nagging doubt that it had been much different from the other place he had left behind.

They all sat there for a time. Maggie opened her eyes to look up at Mars and wondered why he was holding her again. A moment of deja vu washed over her before she remembered the attack and her eyes darted to the weight between her legs. There was a blond haired man face down between her legs. She very nearly screamed.
After a moment, he looked up at her.
"Hello Mags."
It was Luke. The asshole ex boyfriend.

Luke clambered to his feet. Maggie just sat there and looked up at him. Mars stood up and pulled her up as he stood. She found her legs could support her weight. She blew out a puff of air that moved some hair and felt like she had been run over, again.

"What the hell do you want?' She said after a  moment of trying to think of someway to tell him off and failing.

Luke looked at her, then he looked down, his blond curls falling over his face. She knew the answer before he spoke.
"Shalance left me." He said and looked up at her through his curls and she knew that was his signature I am weak and need help move.

"That was quick." Maggie replied. "how did you get in my house?"

"I know, right." Luke said straightening. "One minute she's all I love you and the next it's I can't believe you were dating that white bitch and then it was like you are too dumb to date someone like me after you dated someone like her."
The asshole actually managed to smile.
"Besides, I knew you'd take me back, Mags" She really hated being called Mags. "Jimmying your door was easy, I've done it a dozen times."
A dozen times.
Maggie felt a sudden was of self-loathing. This asshole had been in her house at least a dozen times alone without her even knowing that he had violated her privacy.
"Come on, Mags, I forgive you, won't you forgive me?"
Call me that one more time you bastard, she thought trying to marshal a response. How had she fallen for this crap for the last 2 years?

"Fuck off Luke." Someone said. "Get the fuck out of my life."

"What?"

She had said it. "Get the fuck out of my life."

"Really Mags. that is so-"
She lost it she started screaming and slapping at him as he back pedaled towards her house.

"Seriously Mags. not cool." Luke said as he blocked her onslaught. "I'm warning you, cut it out."
She didn't but she did start kicking as well. She even connected with his knee. It hurt her foot like hell too.
Luke took a swing at her at that moment.
His fist never made it.
It crashed into Mars open palm and stopped dead. Maggie could imagine the impact it must have looked like. All she did see was Mars moving between her and Luke and the resounding smack.
Luke looked wide eyed at Mars.

"Who the Hell are you?"

"I am the end." Mars said, closing his hand over Luke's fist before pulling sideways and throwing Luke like a rag doll over her car.

What the Hell is that thing.

There was a noise of squealing tires filled the air.
She was not going to hyperventilate! She would remain in control!
Maggie stopped looking out the windscreen and shut her eyes.
No, she was okay.
What was a military helicopter flying into Crossville for? There had to be a rational explanation.
Instead she turned to look at Mars.
He stared at the fading spectre entranced probably caught up in a memory or something.
She realised the hand brake and eased her foot off the gas pedal. The car lurched forward but she managed to avoid the ditch as she headed home again. About a mile down the road she took a left and bypassed the road that would have taken them back to the road where she had found the three men.

The Military showed up in the movies every time Aliens appeared in the movies. The movies couldn't be completely wrong- right? I mean this could actually be the beginning of an Alien Invasion! She could be aiding and abetting the enemy who would end up impregnating her and then she would...
Mars stared at her with one eyebrow slightly raised and she clamped her mouth shut and put a hand over it.
He was so calm it was scary.
She pointed out the windscreen and tried to say something but nothing came out save for a squeak.

Mars leaned towards her and came so close that he could have kissed her. For a moment, she was sure he was going to. Instead, he breathed soft humid air into her face and said.
"Why do you keep acting so irrationally?"
She just stared at him and then she pushed her face against his and kissed him.

Time seemed to stop and then Mars said something into her mouth. She froze.
The moment passed.

She sat back, he had tasted good for the moment they had almost kissed.

When had she stopped the car? Maggie looked around looked around. She was driving on automatic. They were stopped at the farmed gate.

She held up her hands, then after a moment put the car in park and got out of the car and opened the gate.
She climbed back in and drove down to her trailer.

Some things seemed to be okay, at least, the same.
Well the same crappy trailer, same junk that a previous boyfriend had abandoned in her yard.

She was out of the car and marching to the door before she remembered that she had an alien in the car.
She turned to find him standing a few feet behind her.

She shook her head, she needed a shower, a drink and some sleep in her own bed.
As she thought this a warm memory creeped into her head of mars holding her while she slept.

Dammit Maggie. Get a Grip!
She should have known that something was wrong when her front door just open when she touched it.
But she was too busy to look for the guy coming for her from the darkened interior until it was too late.

Things to do when your world is ending.

After everything had happened it turned out that she had spent the rest of the night asleep in the man who called himself Mars' arms. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there but she felt better when she awoke to the morning sunlight coming through the sunlight.
She yawned and looked up at him as he sat there looking down at her. She smiled at him and he nodded before gently helping her back up to sit behind the wheel. She complied because it felt right. Once she was sitting up he got out of the car and walked into the field until he disappeared into the trees.
She took a look in the rearview mirror and sighed. She was a wreck. Total loss.
Maggie realized she was alone in the car. The other 2 aliens were not there. Aliens. The word did not scare her as much as she thought it should. Where were they anyway. They had left the Walmart and driven towards her home. Then she had...
Shit! Yes, Maggie had gone to pieces. Classic ex-girl friend fashion to boot. At least one of the aliens was cute and the other hugged very nicely. She blew out a breath and considered her options. What does one do with three aliens who are not doing well passing off as human beings.
It would have been good if her brother was here in Tennessee, then she could go ask him. He was the one who read all the sci fi books while the most she had covered was some of his less violent comic books and harlequin romances (hers). Thinking of Lawrence made her flinch, he was still in Iraq fighting that fucking war and might be killed at any point and then all Maggie and Grace would have left was the memory of his smile.
Poor Grace, they had only been married like 3 days when we invaded Iraq. No honeymoon, no time to even really say goodbye. Maggie decided she would call Grace once she got home and showered and -
Oh right the Aliens.
Well that was a game changer as Larry always would say. What would he think of his little sister now? I mean other than the fact I dropped out of school, picked up a string of loser boyfriends and lost my 4th job since he had left?

She looked back out to where Mars had vanished. Then she spotted them standing a ways off in the field talking. Well Mars and Kimat were talking but Fishbowl was running around flapping his arms and screaming. Not for the first time, she was grateful that they were in the virtual middle of nowhere. At least home was on a farm away from the city and her mother's house was at least a mile from her trailer.

Fishbowl suddenly stopped running around and fell into the grass. A wail like a siren erupted from where he had fallen. Obviously he hadn't hurt himself as the other two men took one look at him and then resumed their conversation. She wondered what they were discussing.


Mars looked down at Fijbold in disgust. He figured that the Marcreation (what?) would not make it long on this world. It was a bad turn of luck that Fijbold had not connected near a hydrocarbon mass and gotten a different form. This form lacked a lot but Mars could see some possibilities to it. Of the three, Kymat had the least transition to the new form, his species had been bipedal and adept at walking upright. He had the least adjustment then Mars or Fijbold even though his lower limbs- his legs moved in the opposite direction as his previous ones.
Kymat sighed.
"So it is settled then." he said. "we must go our separate ways."
"We were never friends." Mars said but then stopped as they both realized the strange word did not quite accurately describe their prior relationship.
"I will go with the woman." The word felt right to his body although the concept did match something Mars could not quite define in himself. "I would advise you each to find similar, since the other was less approachable."
Kymat nodded. Fijbold wailed.
"This is a fairly large world. we probably will not need to encounter again." Mars said.
"But should we need to we will all come back to the place we first connected in 2 passes of this world around its star." Kymat said and Mars nodded. Fijbold stopped wailing and nodded.
"I don' like it." was all he said from where he crouched in the grass.
Mars knew it would be very unlikely Fijbold would ever make it back to this place even if he survived.

The men stopped talking and walked away in different directions. Mars walked back to the car. He turned once a raised his hands skyward. Kimat stopped and did the same. Fishbowl did not stop nor look back as he walked away into the woods. Kimat walked away from them down the road.

Mars opened the door and got in. He looked at her and made as if to smile but it did not work. he shook his head and said
"We decided to go our own ways from here."
"Oh." Maggie replied.
"I have decided to remain with you." Mars said.
Maggie's heart jumped inside her chest and she flushed with pleasure. She glanced at Mars who did not look back he was staring at the sky.
"Okay. I guess I will take you home then." She said but he was now pointing up into the sky.
"What is that thing?" He said.
She followed his finger to the Helicopter that was flying back towards town. It was the biggest helicopter she had ever seen.
"Shit." was all she could manage.

How DNA strands does it take to change a lightbulb? Not as many as you would think.

Susan just stared at the DNA Map on Mick's Laptop as it turned. The graphic was clear, Floyd was actually missing a strand of his DNA. It seemed impossible, she glanced over to see Wilson demanding something from Floyd who blubber like and infant and she shook her head, this guy could be missing entire sequences of DNA and no one would notice- definitely not Floyd anyway. She shook her head then turned back as Mick tried unsuccessfully to get his laptop to isolate the strand in question. The result of which is the Mac Book locked up and the apple appeared and Mick started cursing (a lot).
Susan turned back to find Floyd asleep in his chair- snoring. Wilson was nowhere to be seen. Odd.

Dr. Williams stepped back and took his glasses off to rub his eyes. Mick stopped swearing at the laptop and stood up.
"Sorry." He said, looking a bit embarrassed.
"It's okay." Susan said.
"Fucking Macs." Mick said as if that was an explanation.
"I guess we will need a server to pull this kind of crunching." Dr. Williams said. "Is there a university or lab or something around here."
"I'll have to ask around." Susan said as she walked past Floyd to the tent flap.
"In the meantime, Mick and I will try to get the Computer working again."