It had been a long and tiring day.
Drunk truckers Samantha could deal with, that was just part of dealing with day to day life in a small town. Calls about crashed spaceships... well, that was a new one.
They'd cordoned the spaceship off and then tried to work out who they were supposed to contact in this situation. They had called NASA, the FAA and the Military. NASA had assured her that they had no missing spacecraft, the FAA had asked if it was a prank call and the man at the nearest airforce base had laughed at her until she had graphically described the threat of what she would do to him if he didn't put her on with a superior officer. The officer had listened to what she had to say, then assured her that they would definitely send someone out to check it out, no they couldn't say when.
Her burning desire for the ability to be able to punch people through phonelines had been tempered somewhat when David called to tell her that he had been given the all clear to retune home. The relief that she felt that neither her husband or anyone else was in danger from radiation or toxic leaks had slid a little back down towards annoyance when she had returned home to find the strange girl was still there.
Some time later Samantha and David stood in the kitchen facing their daughter.
"Who is she?" Samantha asked.
"Her name is Kara." Replied Emily
"Yes but who is she? She's not local I know that."
Emily shrugged. "I'm not sure where she's from."
"You haven't you asked her?"
"No. Well, yes, but I don't think she can speak English."
"What?"
"Yeah, I think she's an immigrant or something."
Samantha closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Em, you can't just invite a girl you know nothing about to stay in our house."
Emily shrugged again. "Why not? You said we should always help people if we can and-"
"Helping people does not mean letting complete strangers stay in your house." Samantha snapped.
"She seems okay. She helped me last night."
Samantha's eyes narrowed. "Yes, I've been meaning to ask you about that."
Emily sighed. "Look, a couple of guys were bothering me and Kara got them to leave me alone. I told you this morning."
Samanta leaned forward. "You told me it was one guy. And those two guys ended up in hospital with broken bones."
Mother and daughter held each other's gaze for a moment.
"Emily." Said Samantha softly. "I just want you to be honest with me."
Emily frowned. "Then you shouldn't freak out whenever I tell you anything." She said, grabbing her drink and stalking out of the kitchen.
"You know," Said David softly, pulling a drink out of the fridge. "She may have a point."
Samantha turned to face him. "David," She said quietly. "Do not start."
David gazed at her, over the top of his drinks can. "We've always trusted our Daughter to be mature and make the right decisions."
Samantha sighed. "I know. I do trust her. It's just... It's been a hard day, I don't know who this girl is and what I've been told doesn't add up."
"Do you seriously thing a couple of teenage girls beat up two big truckers?" Asked David.
"Well something happened to them. I've been told three different stories about what happened and I'm not sure I believe any of them. I'd just feel more comfortable if I could talk to this girl."
The doorbell sounded.
"Pizza's here." Said David, pulling out his wallet and heading to the front door.
Samantha went into the front room. Emily and the girl, Kara, were sitting together on the couch. Emily turned when Samantha entered, Kara stayed staring at the screen, watching a nature documentary with rapt attention. Samantha put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"She can stay another night, but tomorrow I want to have a serious talk about this."
Emily met her gaze."Okay, Mom."
"We still friends?" Asked Samantha.
Emily smiled. "Yeah, Mom."
Samantha smiled back and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "Come on, food's ready."
Emily nudged Kara, then led her through to the kitchen. Samantha fished the remote out from down the side of the couch, turned the TV off and went to join her family.
As the TV was off, they missed a broadcast that was being shown on all channels simultaneously.
…
As the rotation of the planet brought the local area into planetary shadow, many of the creatures went away, presumably to dwellings and such.
Now that the area was clear of observers, it could safely move.
Detaching itself from the vehicle, it moved towards where it had sensed a great deal of electromagnetic signals.
Eventually it found what it was looking for. The technology was crude, but it would suffice for now.
