The Insane Journey

Chapter 38

 The Zargonians stood at the top of the ruins, their various eyes watching the angel’s path into the sky, Maxwell and Wendy walking away, and each other. After a moment, Snox said to Lubidada, “what did she mean by ‘you could have taken the lake’?”

 “I was puzzling over the same matter,” said Lubidada.

 “Do you think there may be a portal on this planet?” asked Snox.

 “I suspect there may be. We will follow the one who spoke of the lake. If it exists, she will soon go to it.”

 “Yes.”

 “I believe we have visitors.”

 The fleet of IIA hovercrafts blew into the access road and parked near the aliens. Dan, Sam and Frank jumped out of the lead vehicle.

 “Interplanetary Intelligence Agency. I’m Dan.”

 “Pleased to meet you, Dan. I am Lubidada and this is my partner Snox.”

 “We have reason to believe there is a violent, unregistered alien in the vicinity.”

 “We are Zargonians. Our race is not only registered with the Galactic Registry of Sentient Life Forms, we co-founded it. We are also both registered with the Europa Government as resident aliens,” said Lubidada patiently.

 “I know that,” said Dan impatiently. “This is a new alien. Never seen before and dangerous.”

 “We have not seen anything like that here,” said Lubidada.

 One eye on each of the Zargonians looked down the access road to see a small group of white vehicles with flashing lights approaching. Another eye on each looked into the eye of the other, conveying an expression of this situation is clearly going to become significantly more chaotic; we should consider our socially acceptable escape options,an expression that two Zargonians can readily convey to one another discreetly. Students of Zargonian social psychology have suggested that this simple facial expression may be a key reason why the Zargonians are the oldest surviving intelligent race in the galaxy.

 “Are you sure? The unregistered aliens are highly human in appearance, however, they have large fleshy wings and appear to be reminiscent of angels,” said Dan.

 “Ah, the angel,” said Lubidada, as the police vehicles drew up.

 “So, you have seen the alien,” said Dan.

 “No,” said the Zargonian as the vehicles came to a stop.

 “But, you said...” said Dan.

 “Yes, there was an ‘angel’ here,” said the Zargonian. “But she was not an angel. She was a human.”

 “Humans don’t have wings!” said Dan.

 “She was from an alternative reality, but she was genetically human.” said the Zargonian as the doors opened on the lead police vehicle and a couple of officers climbed out.

 A senior police officer walked over and nodded politely at the Zargonians. They had already met earlier when the Zargonians had introduced themselves. Then he looked at Dan.

 “What the hell are you doing here, sir?” he asked.

 “Excuse me, officer?” asked Dan.

 “I said, what the hell are you doing here?” said the officer.

 “I am with the Interplanetary Intelligence Agency, on official business.”

 “Your Interplanetary Intelligence Agency has been shut down, sir,” said the officer.

 “That has not been confirmed,” said Dan, suddenly looking a little less authoritative.

 “Yes it has, sir. It seems a team of idiots shot up two dozen schoolgirls in Crashsite today, I gather it was the last straw.”

 “We used stun guns. We didn’t kill anyone.”

 “It was you?” said the officer.

 “Yes, we had good reason to believe there were dangerous aliens in the hotel.”

 “Let us leave without saying goodbye,” said Snox discreetly to Lubidada.

 “Yes, let’s,” said Lubidada.

 “The only thing dangerous near that hotel was you and your gang of thugs!” said the officer.

 “But the guns were set to stun. No one was killed!” said Dan.

 “You don’t need to argue this with me. All I know is your agency was shut down today. After a spate of disasters, shooting the schoolgirls was too much. The Europa government launched an emergency measure to shut the agency down., Take it up with your ex-agency.”

 “I don’t think I like your attitude, officer! We were trying to save innocent people,” said Dan.

 “More like shooting them up. Several of the girls were seriously injured,” said the officer.

 “Collateral damage,” said Dan. “Shit happens.”

 The two Zargonians quietly stepped back, hopped into their hovercraft and raced off into the twilight, unnoticed by the arguing officials.