Hey hey! This is one idea that wouldn't let go so I decide to write it anyway. I first posted this fic in ao3 and now I decided to put it here also, so I'll probably be updating once a day until the fic is at the same point in both sites. Anyways, this is my first posted fic in a while and although I've been writing for some time I'm not what you'd call a master writer so ye be warned. Enjoy!

Lena was paranoid.

Well, she hadn't always been this paranoid. Usually it was just the typical 'don't go into creepy dark alleys' and 'watch out for anyone trying to roofie your drink', but she had to admit her paranoia had been increasingly growing over the years. She only had herself to blame though. Her and her life choices – you don't start illegally hacking into people's computers without becoming the least bit paranoid that someone is going to find out what you've been up to and throw you in jail.

Maybe she should stop.

Maybe, she mused, she could put her computer skills to a non-illegal use. She was pretty good at it, if she said so herself. Maybe she should stop all the illegal hacking and just, you know, get a move on with her life, do something productive. Maybe.

After this job I'll get right on it.

(Never mind that was what she'd said the last two times.)

Sipping from her coffee, Lena looked over the other people occupying the coffee shop to make sure no one seemed too… suspicious. Aaaand there was the paranoia again – she stared a little longer at a man with a dark coat standing on the door of the coffee shop that looked a tad suspicious (or at least to her paranoia-filled mind) until someone that seemed to be his girlfriend showed up and they left together.

She really wasn't that paranoid usually. She had her reasons, she really did. Mainly, the fact that just a few hours ago she had picked up on a really,really weird signal on her computer. It wasn't like anything she'd ever seen before, floating around on a rarely used frequency that when she decrypted it (with some difficulty), only looked like a bunch of strange symbols. She had stopped right there, figuring the symbols probably needed to also be decrypted and not wanting to find out what they meant (okay that was a lie – she was so damn curious about it – but what she didn't want to face were the consequences of that if she did). However, it did leave her feeling extremely paranoid.

She hoped with all her might that no one noticed her picking up on it.

Lena had watched enough cop shows to know that you should never return to the scene of the crime and, granted, there was no crime committed (no murder at least, the legality of it all was still questionable), but she felt uneasy going back to where she had picked up that weird signal.

It was an antenna in the middle of nowhere, right outside of town, that sat in the middle of an empty farm. She wasn't going back there out of her own free will, but rather because she had a job to finish. Lena briefly wondered when and why she started getting involved with such shady characters, ones that 'hired' her to install a backdoor on the computer terminal of this weird in-the-middle-of-nowhere antenna. She had no idea why there was such thing in this place, nor why they needed a backdoor to it, but she didn't ask questions - she'd be done and they'd pay her and she could go on her merry way. After a while of living on her own, money started becoming scarce so she had to get by with what skills she had.

Which apparently involved getting mixed up with shady figures that one of her 'friends' – and she used that word loosely – put her up with.

This also meant she had to finish this job or take it up to the shady guy, so she decided to suck it up and go back. It was her own damn fault that she got distracted with the weird signal (that she picked up while using the antenna in the first place).

It took her a bus and some hitchhiking to get to the abandoned farmhouse where the antenna was, and that was the easy part. Not only it was creepy as hell during the night (which she figured would be the best time to do her, uh, illegal activities), but she was still feeling extremely paranoid at the whole signal thing. Thankfully, she somewhat remembered the way from her previous incursion the day before and was able to get to the computer terminal relatively quicker than before. Also considering she didn't have to start it all over again, she could just pick up from where she left off and be done with it sooner.

Lena nodded to herself as she plugged her computer back in – alright, just have to finish the thing and then you can go home.

(Home being a crappy motel room, but still. Better than nothing, right?)

Time flew as she focused on writing the code, only shifting position every now and then because she was sitting uncomfortably on the dirty ground. When the wind picked up she pulled her jacket closer to her body, but never let her attention waver from the computer. Even when the wind started whipping her hair around (she should have worn a hair band) she only let go of the computer after she finished typing and let the computer work on its own.

Lena stretched her arms and stood up, brushing the dirt off her jeans. Just a little while longer and she would be finished with this, all she had to do was wait for the computer to finish processing.

After this I'm definitely not getting involved with shady characters again.

Her paranoia struck again and she felt a prickling feeling on the back of her neck that made her look around. She couldn't see much in the dark, although there wasn't much to be seen other than plants and dust and the abandoned barn just a few feet away. And also wind, but you can't reallysee the wind so it didn't count.

And you can't see noise either.

But she definitely heard something.

Lena turned abruptly, trying to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. It sounded like – a helicopter? And it was getting louder, as in, getting closer.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Lena turned back to her things and started to frantically shove them back inside her bag - she didn't know and didn't care what the noise was but she was not risking getting caught over this. She shot a glance at the computer just as she pulled the strap of her bag over her head and cursed when she saw that it wasn't done yet. Screw it, time to go. She slammed her laptop shut and hastily disconnected it, the growing noise of the helicopter urging her to just get the hell out of there.

And get the hell out of there she did. Or at least she tried to.

Just as Lena was making a run for the barn – maybe she could hide in there – a bright light flashed down on her, nearly blinding her and making her stop in her tracks. With one hand shielding her face and the other clutching on her laptop, Lena looked up and what she saw was mostdefinitely not a helicopter.

Or a plane.

Or a jet.

Or any kind of aircraft that she'd ever seen.

Truth be told, she was twelve percent sure she was actually just dreaming, and probably would wake back up in her room and think to herself 'wow, I really should stop watching alien movies before bed'. Meanwhile, the other eighty eight percent was filled with pure panic. And then all she registered was an even brighter light and an extremely uncomfortable sensation passing through her body before she didn't register anything else.

Hope it wasn't too confusing! I have a way of, er, stumbling with words so

Next chapter coming out tomorrow!