Vegeta. Age unknown, assumed to be in mid-twenties to early thirties in Earth years. Claims to be a prince of an unknown race on an unknown planet. Superior physical ability due to accelerated amino acid utilization. Requires a huge diet somewhere between a million to two million calories a day to compensate. Seems to process foods more efficiently as it does not result in more waste than a normal healthy male human. Emits an odd wavelength somewhere between the spectrum of visibility and ultraviolet. Can create a sort of electrical beam using his species equivalent of mitochondria. DNA profiles reveal he is 99% human.
The cursor flashed on the e-mail. The government wanted a complete profile on Vegeta, but I wasn't comfortable handing them over everything. They would only use it for nefarious reasons anyway. I could practically hear the military salivating with the potential budget increases due to the alien threat. This short paragraph was more than enough. Wait, aside from one thing. I added, ALIEN IS NON-HOSTILE. The caps lock may seem like too much, but if there's one thing I've learned dealing with those government types, the most important information goes in all caps because it's usually the only thing they read.
In the seven months since Vegeta's arrival, we still had yet to find the three disturbances. We found the craters of the ships' impact, all of which were identical to Vegeta's, but we couldn't find any trace of their inhabitant's whereabouts. One of the ships took a bad impact and we recovered most of it, but the other two had yet to be found. Vegeta didn't seem to be too worried over it, but I'm the type of gal that doesn't like to leave ghosts conferring around the coffins, so to speak.
Three knocks interrupted my thoughts. "Come in."
"Sorry to interrupt," Norah, my assistant, greeted. "This package was marked urgent. I think it's those parts you wanted."
I jumped up. "Finally! I asked them to overnight it and it still took three days. I swear." I grabbed the package from her hands, stabbed a ballpoint pen through the tape, and opened it up. Most parts were done in-house, but the particular mechanism inside was best done by the experts over at NASA. I grabbed the small box and ran out of the office, taking the elevator down to the basement.
The device lay in several pieces on my worktable. As fast as I could, I set the mechanism inside and began calibrating it. When I turned it on, it began beeping steadily, showing a hit right on the center. "Yes! It works, it works!" I danced around to the beat of the beep. It's rare something I create works on the first go around.
A second dot appeared on the outer rim of the circle. I sucked in a breath. Vegeta had to be the one in the center, but the other dot had to be one of the three that crashed the same night as him.
There's a chance it won't be as welcoming as Vegeta. But if he's their prince, then maybe he'll listen to him? Should I call him overhead? No, something like this he would argue his way out of it. He particularly enjoyed working out, especially in the artificial gravity chambers we constructed for space travel. The stress his body could handle was quite remarkable, really.
I pocketed the device and made my way to the outside facilities. The moment I stepped outside I heard his howl echoing. Oh god, not again. I dashed to the round chamber, opened the panel, and hit the emergency shutoff switch.
Seconds later the chamber opened, shirtless and sweaty Vegeta stepping out of it. "What do you think you're doing, wench!"
"If you break that thing one more time, I'm not fixing it, that's what!"
"I wasn't going to break it," he whined.
"Yeah, sure. I could hear you doing that powering up thing all the way at the main building."
"It's called psyching myself up. Don't you humans prepare yourself mentally for the battles up ahead?"
Battles. That's all Vegeta spoke of day and night. The threat had no name. It was hard to tell if he was the warmonger or if he prepared for some other threat. The idea of something being stronger than Vegeta wasn't exactly reassuring. "Speaking of battles, look." I pulled the device out of my pocket and turned it on. The two spots appeared again. I pointed at the center dot. "See that? That's you." I pointed to the dot at the right edge. "It's this one I'm worried about."
"What is that and why should I care?"
"It's a device I create specifically to search for your people."
His expression became stoic. "And you're saying there's one nearby."
"This radar is good for one thousand kilometers from the epicenter, which is this building. Considering it's at the edge, I'd say it's a bit away."
"Give it to me. I'm going to check it out."
"Like hell I am." I held the device to my chest. "We're going to check it out."
He crossed his arms. "Do you honestly think you can defend yourself if something goes wrong?"
I put my hands on my hips. "All this time together and you refuse to protect me? Man, I know how to pick 'em."
"Pick what?"
"Men."
"I'm not human."
I slapped my hand against my forehead. "It's an expression. Remember? Expressions aren't literal."
"Speak in words I can understand!"
"I am speaking in words you understand. You just don't understand the meaning."
He growled in obvious frustration. The next second I was inside the chamber, pressed against the wall. "You drive me insane," he cursed and crushed my lips in a sloppy kiss.
"Stop," I gasped. "We don't have time for this."
"The hell we don't." He slid his hand up my thigh and teased my entrance. "You're already ready for me."
"Damn it, Vegeta!" I shuddered as he slipped a finger inside.
He chuckled. "I know how much you love it like this."
Damn it, am I that obvious? "No," I groaned as my core tightened with anticipation. He slid his finger in and out achingly slow. I stifled a moan. "We need to check this out now. We'll lose the trail."
"I'll make it quick." He kissed me and our tongues danced together. That spicy taste of his could make a woman lose her mind. And if I didn't stop this now, I would lose myself to pleasure.
I grabbed his arm and held it still. "After we go check that reading out I promise I'll clear out my entire afternoon, but we really have to go."
He frowned and pulled his finger out. "Fine. But I'm going alone."
I sighed. "We went over this already."
"I can't be babysitting you if things go south. It's easier for me to go check it out myself."
"And I need to see what's going on. You can't analyze the situation like I can."
"I am analyzing the situation and it's too dangerous for you, you stubborn bitch," he growled.
I shrugged. "I'm going to get the jet set up. Meet me at the helipad in twenty minutes. That gives you enough time to shower."
"Oh, I have time to shower but not time to—"
"Yes," I replied simply as I pushed him aside and walked out the door.
"I'm going to fly," Vegeta said as he walked to the jet. "And there's no way you won't be detected in that thing."
"I'll land about five kilometers away."
"And then what? Hike the rest of the way?"
"You're going to fly me there, obviously."
His expression told me he wasn't agreeable with my plan, but surprisingly he didn't protest it.
"I'm not going inside that thing. If something happens I don't want to be stuck inside."
"Then how are you going to know where to go?"
"I know where to go."
I started to ask how, but I knew he wouldn't reply to me. Does that mean he's known where they were this entire time? My chest tightened. After months of being with him daily I trusted him impetuously, but what if this was some elaborate scheme of his?
"Go slow enough that I can keep up."
"I will."
And he did. I kept my speed relatively slow, which more than likely annoyed him, but it was still a rudimentary item and I couldn't afford to speed around in circles. The flat planes gave way to the mountains and forests. Of course. Mountains and forests. Perfect places to hide.
When we were about five kilometers away I landed the jet inside a canyon. As I stepped out, Vegeta greeted me with his usual scowl. "Hurry up."
"Hold on, I need to figure out where it is."
"I told you, I know exactly where he is."
My eyebrows arched. "He?"
He growled and grabbed me around my waist and took off. I yelped and grabbed onto him in a vice grip. He laughed.
He does that on purpose. He whizzed through the trees, somehow managing to avoid the branches despite his speed, until we stopped just at the edge of a clearing.
"Don't say anything and don't make any noise." We took a couple of steps forward. He stopped and added, "Don't think anything either."
"How am I not—" He pressed a finger to my lip, cutting me off.
"Shut up, woman," he growled through clenched teeth. We crept through the thick foliage until I could see a small camp. An alien was fiddling with instruments, just as built as Vegeta, a little taller, with a shaved head. But he wore the same type of armor that Vegeta wore when he first came on our planet.
I jabbed his arm. "Who is that?" I mouthed.
"Shut up," he hissed.
I gave him the universal I didn't do anything sign children did when their mothers scolded them. He glared and returned his focus to the alien.
The alien turned around and left to the opposite side of the woods. Vegeta motioned to the camp. I followed him and immediately went to the table with the technology. There was what looked like a computer, but all the keys and symbols may have well been hieroglyphics. "Can you read this?"
"Yeah. It's irrelevant."
"Says you," I retorted. "What's he logging?"
"Everything about this area. The animals, the plants, the soil, everything."
"So he's doing ground research. Is it for you?"
"What are you talking about?"
I crossed my arms. "He's wearing the same armor as you, so obviously you should know who he is."
"And how do you know that armor isn't standard issue through the galaxy?"
I stared at him with a look that said, do you really think I'm that stupid? He picked up a notebook and pressed it against my chest. "Take this with you."
"Quit changing the subject. You know, we still haven't talked about why you're here and what you're doing."
"We don't have time for that right now, you madwoman!" He walked over to what looked like a communicating device due to a ball that resembled a microphone and began hitting keys. Though he was adept at hiding his feelings, I saw a moment of panic flash across his face. Cold fear seemed to halt my heart for a second.
But I couldn't afford to talk to him right now. If I took this notebook with me, surely the alien would notice its absence, especially one absorbed in small details enough to do research. I took out my phone and began snapping photos of every page. Before I could finish, Vegeta's arm was around my waist and we were in the air.
"What's going on?"
"He sensed us. We need to get out of here."
"But my plane—"
"We don't have time for that. I'm taking you back before he figures out who I am."
"And then what are you going to do?"
He growled and tightened his grip around my waist. I held him tighter as he picked up speed.
Questions swirled in my head. He was with me all this time and I took it for granted. I should know what he was up to right now. Geez, I'm so stupid.
Regret and worry wound itself into a swarm inside my belly. He set me down at the front entrance to Capsule Corp. Before I could say another word, he flew off into the distance. "Vegeta!" I screamed to his fading figure. He can't leave without an explanation like that!
But first things first, I had a code to crack.
"Okay, let's see if I can start this baby up." Not much had been done to Vegeta's ship since the initial impact and extraction. We recovered only one ship from the other three impacts and being that it was in much worse shape when we found it, we chose that one to take apart and fiddle with.
The screens booted up and I compared the symbols on the screens to the symbols on the photos. It all resembled one of those I.Q. test problems, especially the visual sequencing. Except this language looked like it combined the brushstrokes of Chinese with the artistic curves of Arabic combined with the pictorial density of hieroglyphics. With English and other alphabet-based languages, at least letters repeated, which made it possible to start breaking down the language and deciphering it. This seemed like it was something akin to Chinese, in which there wasn't an alphabet and each part seemed its own word.
Of course it wouldn't be that simple. Inside the ship was three screens, one in front of me and two at my peripherals. Vegeta's eyes were straight ahead like a human, so while the first screen had nothing displayed currently, I bet it would be full of relevant things in space travel, such as debris. The auxiliary screens had scripts of text scrolling on them at various intervals. Perhaps one was updating the status of the ship, but it didn't make sense to have constant updates. That lead to an overflow of information, and that was just plain old bad design.
I tapped the screen of the phone, scrolling through the images of the notebook. Each page had a line with a peculiar break in between the symbols. It went three symbols, a large dot, four symbols, two swirly-looking things, then one symbol. This repeated on every single page, though the symbols in between the marks were all different.
I could really use Vegeta right now. He wasn't very forthcoming when it came to translation, and sometimes I couldn't blame him, after all, it would be rather annoying to sit there and read mundane things all day, but just this one line could give me a big clue.
The world shook, rattling everything. As I braced myself by grabbing the armrests, a center console came down.
Three symbols, a dot, four symbols, two swirly-looking things, one symbol. Static. Below it, three blanks, a large dot, four blanks, two swirly-looking things, one blank.
If that's what displayed when the thing started, that can only mean those numbers are coordinates. Okay, then why are there coordinates on the lead of every page in that notebook?
The world rattled around me again. The emergency fire alarms echoed. The mechanism refused to budge. I bunched up and squirmed out of the bottom like a snake. I took two steps before everything rumbled.
No earthquake caused tremors that close together. According to the company calendar on my phone, no large-scale experiments were scheduled today, so that rules out experiment gone bad. The world rumbled again, this time to the point I fell to my knees. The sensor rolled out in front of me. As I picked it up, it beeped on.
Two small lights three kilometers away.
Vegeta. If I could get into the jet I could – the jet was a valley thousands of kilometers away.
I glanced back down at the sensor. Should I chance it by land? A part of me recoiled in fear. Vegeta had lightening quick reflexes and magical beam powers. What if all this ground-shaking was due to a battle only Hollywood could imagine? As a mere mortal, I wouldn't last a second.
But I need to know if Vegeta is on my side. A painful ache halted my breath. We weren't together officially, I knew that, but in these seven months I felt like something started. Something small, not enough to call itself a true relationship, but enough that the thought of it being a lie hurt like a crush answering your confession with a wrinkled nose.
But worrying solved nothing. Ever since I was old enough to have rational thought, Father instilled one thing – observe, hypothesis, observe. And to do that, I had to go to wherever those two dots were.
Long before I got to them, I saw the evidence of their clash. The air around the car swirled like a dust storm. The ground shook under me like a boat in choppy water. I stopped the car and opened the door.
In high school chemistry, we did an experiment when everyone held hands and the teacher sent an electrical current through us. The buzz, the slight chill, and the way my hair stood on end, the air felt exactly like that.
The dust did little favors to sight. Sure, my feet moved in front of the other, but I had no way of knowing where they carried me. Winds peppered my skin with the grains. A crackle resembling lightening made my ears ring. The winds slowed. The dust began to settle. The sandy soil turned into rudimentary stalagmites, thin, ragged towers of erratic glass. That confirmed Vegeta was there. His little lightening finger probably created those during their battle.
A body, about five meters away. After a long moment, it didn't move. Dead? Or just unconscious? The smell of charred flesh filled my nostrils. I gagged. Sirens echoed in the distance.
Though his face was badly burned to the point no recognition, the build and armor resembled the alien we saw in the forest moments earlier. And only one person could be responsible.
Vegeta.
