Codename Alpha

Chapter 18

There was something that felt nostalgic about this truck. Not necessarily in the sense that it was something I remembered, but that it was somehow a slice of history from an era that took place a century before I was born. The manual windows, wood grain paneling on the dashboard, and just the general feel of the truck were very cool. The bench in the back didn't seem to be designed for sitting normally without some other thing being done, but I found a way to make it work, by laying down resting against the window, somewhat buckled in. It wasn't quite comfortable for my tail, but I did get an interesting view out of the window across from me.

It was an enjoyable change of pace from running and hiding to just relax and watch the cars and trucks pass by outside. It was strange how they didn't seem outright alien, but at this point I was starting to get used to it. One thing that I was certainly going to have to get used to were the colors of sunsets and sunrises this planet had, a far cry from both those I had seen on Veta and on Valdera.

"How about some music?" Max asked.

"Sounds good to me," Jack said. "If not music, news or some kind of talk show that is in this local language is good."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I think I'm gonna sleep for a bit. If you do start listening to news, though..." I reached under my vest and into the pocket where I kept the camcorder in, and pulled it out, reaching over Jack's seat. He took it. "As much content you can get would be very useful in establishing a translation method later. Also, take pictures of advertisements, semi truck sides, pretty much anything written you can see."

"Got it," he answered. "Sleep tight."

"Will do," I said, trying to get a bit more relaxed. I began to realize how long it'd been since I had gotten any actual decent sleep. One thing being on this alien planet was definitely doing to me was screwing up my sleep patterns, too. Nonetheless, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind and thought about less obtrusive things, like I typically did before I went to bed.

The radio was turned on and began playing music, but it wasn't too distracting. The song playing was certainly odd, but it was quiet so I didn't care much. Whoever, or whatever, 'billie jean is not my lover' was would just have to deal with it.

Still, my mind wandered as I tried to just fall asleep. I thought about the Valiant, stuck in orbit of this planet's moon, with no idea what the hell was on this planet. I realized that by this point they had likely seen the lights on the night side, potentially even using the telescope to observe their cities and stuff from orbit. The thought also occurred that Commander Ibrahimov had been under the apprehension that this planet was entirely unoccupied. With the potential prospect of alien contact, I wouldn't put it past him sending another shuttlecraft to do just that. I worried that it was entirely possible there was a shuttlecraft in orbit at this moment, tracking the diversion signal we had set up in that boxcar, wondering if we were still alive.

The idea that we could just survive on this planet for a week also seemed ridiculous, the more I thought about it. The only things Max, Jack and I were specialized in certainly were not related to evading the police or keeping government agencies at bay. It had to only be a matter of time before whatever country we were in sent in the military or deployed some other extreme measures to track us down and capture us.

At the same time, I wondered if that would even be an outright bad thing. The notion of them dissecting us on the virtue of us being aliens was something right out of crappy scifi from decades ago. At the same time, they might simply just have it out for us, under the impression that we were perhaps genetically modified pilots from some rival nation. After all, we apparently weren't as alien as we thought, in regards to the native animals of this planet.

My mind drifted back to the Valiant, and the disaster that took place. I remembered suddenly being woken up by the announcement from the bridge, getting dressed, and then the sudden explosion. The horror and chaos that ensued also came back to me. The alarms, explosions, sceams, all of it suddenly came rushing back as I tried to sleep. It felt like it had both only been a few hours and a month since it all took place.