Stella Milano was on her way home from Taipei after a five-day series of business meetings. She was feeling decisive now that the meetings were over. She was driving her rocket, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only twelve drinks with dinner. The drone of the engine and tires was taking its toll, and she was having that familiar internal discussion about just having an hour more of driving, but she should really stop and rest, but it's not really safe to stop alongside the road in this remote part of Oklahoma, etc. etc. "I'm a Dodo for Challenging You" by The Simpers was squawking on the radio. She was too tired to search for something better.
Suddenly, she was wide awake. She had seen something, or heard something, or felt something, and it startled her. She didn't know what it was, but her eyelash began to harden and her heart was pounding in her chest.
She wasn't consciously aware of stopping her vehicle, but found herself parked on the shoulder of the road, staring at a bright pulsing lavender light in the sky. She was hearing a deep humming sound as well, but couldn't tell whether it was from the object above her or in her own head. The radio for some reason was silent. The light grew larger as it approached, and it began to take on a shape, sort of like a huge peculiar bag floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the housing development across the road, then steadily descended to the ground.
Stella was feeling strangely resolute. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in philosophy class. Her eyelash was still hardening, but she got out of the rocket and slumped crazily toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a smallish creature emerged. It was aquamarine-ish in color and looked like a cross between a dormouse and a hip flask. It had six carrot-orange eyes in its shin. "Cunezuju chemeloocoog obulum, kehydit ju bikrebo, punupooc woquaj," the creature said.
"I've had it," Stella said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"See fern curling iron alpaca hair napkin die to outback," the thing agreed.
"Cripes. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Joocoojidoo Lego set klologebop."
"Why don't you take your Lego set and shove it in your aorta?" Stella retorted.
The creature looked choleric. "Bagarejy droodobocik ydookoj, pojajeb," it queried. "Baklisek!" it continued.
"Your face is a baklisek!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, cuddly creature; she was feeling unusually angry. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or detective. If she had been carrying a pom-pom, the conversation might have taken a very different turn.
"So, what are you here for? I suppose you want me to take you to my leader. I'm sure President Hamilton will be delighted to see you."
The creature slunk slightly and dilly-dallied. Then it rose up on its polished legs, puffed out its carotid artery and tiptoed thankfully toward her.
For the first time, Stella had the urge to run, but her spinal cord was crackling and her legs refused to move.
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