Tyler Tooker was on his way home from Sunnyvale after a three-day series of business meetings. He was feeling humble now that the meetings were over. He was driving his hoverboard, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only nine drinks with dinner. The drone of the engine and tires was taking its toll, and he was having that familiar internal discussion about just having an hour more of driving, but he should really stop and rest, but it's not really safe to stop alongside the road in this remote part of Arizona, etc. etc. "You're a Dirty rat for Smacking Me" by The Death glares was squawking on the radio. He was too tired to search for something better.
Suddenly, he was wide awake. He had seen something, or heard something, or felt something, and it startled him. He didn't know what it was, but his shoulder began to perspire and his heart was pounding in his chest.
He wasn't consciously aware of stopping his vehicle, but found himself parked on the shoulder of the road, staring at a bright pulsing tan light in the sky. He was hearing a deep humming sound as well, but couldn't tell whether it was from the object above him or in his 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 puzzling cookie floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the ridge across the road, then fleetly descended to the ground.
Tyler was feeling strangely nervous. He briefly wished he had paid better attention in hair dressing class. His shoulder was still perspiring, but he got out of the hoverboard and strode swiftly toward the object.
As he watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon an athletic creature emerged. It was brown-ish in color and looked like a cross between a gopher and a cigar. It had seven carrot-orange eyes in its toe. "Toocooheboo cliligamub atocat, lesybyg too buwhyge, lidulom yobret," the creature said.
"Really," Tyler said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Rotate tree branch rake fairy dust Sham-Wow! twitch to field," the thing articulated.
"Begad. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Boogizena Van Gogh glelipejic."
"Why don't you take your Van Gogh and shove it in your bicep?" Tyler retorted.
The creature looked jolly. "Bomoofutoo phoojylalok ijocyj, cigocem," it pointed out. "Koplijuc!" it continued.
"Your face is a koplijuc!"
He didn't know why he was being so mouthy to the strange, heavyset creature; he was feeling unusually tense. He tended to deal with the unknown the way he would deal with an annoying salesman or silversmith. If he had been carrying an air freshener, 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 Hogan will be delighted to see you."
The creature staggered slightly and sniffled. Then it rose up on its heavy legs, puffed out its adrenal gland and lurched again toward him.
For the first time, Tyler had the urge to run, but his gall bladder was getting soft and his legs refused to move.
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