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Crash Landing (hawethorne19 & Collector of Rarities

H

hawethorne19

Planetoid
Joined
Jul 3, 2012
All was quiet in the skies over eastern Kentucky. The stars shone brightly over the dark wilderness of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a clear night with a new moon, leaving the forest below covered with a thick blanket of darkness. No one could ever expect that the CIA would be out, lost in that cold and empty darkness. Probationary Field Agent William Taggart shuddered in the frigid night air, his breath fogging in the inky blackness.

"Nothing to report, sir." he said, his eyes darting rapidly between tree and sky. The boys in Langley had given them a blacker-than-black ops job, cleared higher than top secret, and Will knew something was funny about the whole thing. Nobody seemed to really know why they were even out there, digging around a dark forest in the middle of nowhere.

"Keep searching, Taggart. Langley wants answers before we can leave." his boss, Lt. Commander Miles Jensen, said over the radio. Jensen was a retired Naval Intelligence officer who had joined up with the CIA after "getting bored" with retirement. Will didn't like him, and wasn't afraid to let it show.

"Langley'll have our asses freeze off before we find anything, sir." Will shot back at Cmdr. Jensen. A light chuckle buzzed over the radio before it returned to static. Will shook his head and resumed his search of the area.

Suddenly, a bright light shot overhead with a loud wailing noise trailing behind it. Will panicked and called for back-up over his radio. Whatever the CIA was looking for in Blue Ridge, they were about to find it.
 
Things had gone from bad to worse for the creature in the pod. Her ship had fallen prey to a surprise attack and for all she knew she was the only survivor. She had made it to an escape pod in the nick of time and had launched off just before the ship exploded. She had been a researcher on an exploratory mission to the planet humans referred to as Mars; her people had one had a research station set up there long ago, but it had been abandoned. Now, with recent scientific breakthroughs, they had been sent back to reopen it and continue their work. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be happening.

The escape pod was programmed to head for the nearest planet on which she could survive, which happened to be Earth. The pod landed in the middle of a forest at night. The pod absorbed much of the impact, but the creature still sustained a sprained ankle in the crash. She opened the pod door and took a tentative step outside.

She was tall, standing at around six feet, with deep red skin and golden cat-like eyes that quickly adjusted to the darkness. She had long black hair that was usually held back in a clip, but that had probably been destroyed when the ship exploded. Her fingers and toes both ended in black nails. She wore a white robe with a green four-pointed star on the left side of her chest to indicate that she was a scientist, although the robe was torn and had several large gashes in the fabric. While this was her default form, her species was able to change their shape within a matter of minutes.

She stumbled out of the space craft and looked around, hoping to find a safe place to hide until her pod's distress beacon could signal a rescue ship.
 
"Probi! Get to the crash site!" Cmdr. Jensen barked at Will, who was already racing through the forest, his path barely illuminated by his flashlight.

"Nearly there, boss!" Will yelled, nearly tripping over some of the old growth. This forest was in dire need of a few good lumberjacks. As he neared the crash site, he began to notice some of the debris left in the wake of the crash. The debris glowed softly with a combination of fire and an unearthly glow. He noticed that it didn't resemble any human materials or designs.

"Sir, this debris doesn't look right." Will radioed in, making sure to collect a few scraps for his own personal collection. If this is was alien, he definately wanted to keep some proof, regardless of what the CIA had in mind.

"I know, Probi, but I can't say anything." Jensen said with a cold and mechanical edge. Will sighed heavily and picked back up on his approach. When he reached the site, he nearly lost consciousness.

All around him was alien debris, flaming and bathed in an unearthly glow. As his composure returned to him, he quickly began searching for lifeforms, human or otherwise. Humanity just hit a First Contact moment, and Will was right in the thick of it. A slight rustling noise from some brush nearby caught Will's attention, and what lay within was beyond the scope of his human mind.
 
Lela, the alien who had stumbled from the crash, heard something running through the forest and toward the crash site. In a fit of panic, she jumped into the nearest bush to hide, further tearing her robe. It was easier to move on this planet than her own, meaning that the gravity was probably lower; a fact that she filed away for future use. She hid in the bush and tried to remain as silent as possible, but she soon felt something crawling on her skin. She looked down to see a spider climbing up her thigh, causing her to jerk in panic and swat at the arachnid, realizing too late that she had just given away her position.

She held stalk still as she heard footsteps approaching her hiding place. By the time William pushed aside the branches and revealed her hiding place, her body was rigid with fright and her eyes had gone wide. In a sort of comedic way, she behaved like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. She had no idea what a human was, nor how intelligent they were. While they bore a resemblance to her people, although their skin was a different color and their hair came in different shades, Lela couldn't be sure how their senses worked; for all she knew, the man before her wouldn't be able to see her unless she moved. Holding out for this slim chance, she remained as still as possible and tried to keep her breathing calm and controlled.
 
Will's brain refused to believe what his eyes were seeing. The woman before, laying unnaturally still, was obviously not a human. As that reality dawned on him, he began to smile. This is what he had wanted to find all his life, the reason he joined the CIA in the first place. He finally knew the truth: that humans weren't alone in the universe. Will radio burst to life, pulling him back down to earth.

"Probi! Status Report!" It was Jensen. Will reached for the radio slowly, not wanting to startle the alien. He knew that Jensen would want her locked up and experimented on, but Will couldn't let that happen. If humanity wasn't alone, then people needed to know.

"Nothing sir. Just a bunch of debris." Will said, giving the Jensen a half-truth to gnaw on for a few minutes. He would have to act fast to get the alien to a safe place, and try to hide her amazing appearance. Will looked over her and found himself enamored by her. She was incredibly attractive, even though she wasn't human, and Will could already feel his heart begin to flutter as it always does around beautiful women. Gathering all his courage, he bent down and offered her his hand.

"It's okay," he said kindly, motioning for her to take his hand. "My name's Will, and I'm a friend, but the people behind aren't so nice."
 
Lela remained still as Will talked to her. Well, at least he was capable of speech, meaning that she had a way to communicate with him. Reaching out, she touched the palm of his hand with her fingers, establishing a mental link with him. This was what made her species so good at exploring: with a touch, they could establish a telepathic link with another sapient species. The link didn't work so well with animals, but she got a brief, very insightful glance into Will's mind. Out of courtesy, she did her best to stay away from personal memories and focus on the language. This worked for the most part, but she accidentally glimpsed a few brief images as she sifted through the information. Once she had what she needed, she broke the mental link and grabbed Will's hand, allowing him to help her up.

Once standing, Lela began the process of rearranging her vocal cords to fit the English language. She spoke a few random words she had picked up in order to test her voice; first it was too high-pitched, then too deep. After a few more tries, she found something that would work.

"I am Lela," she said in a voice that sounded eerily like a girl Will had once known in high school. "I am a scientist, not a warrior. Please, my ship was attacked and I crash landed here. I mean you no harm: I just need a place to stay until my distress signal can be picked up by another ship, although I don't know how long that will be." She looked down at her robe, which had a large gash over her abdomen and another on the side of her chest, revealing a bit of her right breast. "I will also need a change of clothing, if you would be so kind," she said, blushing a deep shade of purple.
 
Will blinked rapidly, recovering from the shock of hearing the alien speak. He shook his head quickly and pushed his focus toward helping Lela and away from the holes in her clothing.

"I can help with that." Will said, glancing behind him at the edge of the crash site and trying very hard not to sneak a glance at Lela's exposed flesh. The others would be here soon, and Will needed to form a plan, and fast. He looked around the crash site for any place that wouldn't be searched over by the others. He couldn't find any.

"Okay, we have maybe ten minutes until the others reach us and there's nowhere you can hide that they won't find you." Will said, glad that the alien, through an incredibly bizarre Vulcan Mind-Meld kind of process, had learned to speak english. He sighed heavily, and realized something strange about Lela.

"You wouldn't be able to shapeshift, would you? I mean, you can definately alter your voice because I just heard you do that a few seconds ago." Will asked. Inside he felt as though he were grasping at straws. Sighing again before she could answer him, he shrugged out of his field jacket and put it around her shoulders, covering up her exposed flesh and freeing up some of his focus.
 
"Yes, I can change my form, but it takes... er, I suppose you'd say a few minutes," she said, attempting to translate her measure of time into the human measure. "But I can only change my flesh, not my clothes. Do human females usually wander the forest at night wearing a scientist's robe?"

Lela only picked up the language, not most of the information that came along with it. She understood the general idea of a human woman, but she didn't understand their habits. For all she knew, it was perfectly normal for women to walk around dressed as she was. Her primary concern, though, was how Will would explain her presence. Perhaps he'd say that she got lost? Or maybe there was some sort of ritual that human females went through? She shook her head and focused on changing her form.

Lela's skin crawled as she shrunk a good five inches and her skin changed to match Will's shade. Her eyes changed from cat-like to normal, although they retained their golden hue. This caused her night vision to become much less efficient, so she was unable to see nearly as well as she had a moment ago. Her hair stayed at its present length, cascading over her shoulders, and her nails turned from black to the human translucent. The entire process took about two minutes.

"So what now?" she asked.
 
Will's eyes went wide as Lela transformed before him. As an alien she was stunning, but as a human she was gorgeous. His jaw hung open for a couple of seconds before he managed to snap himself back to reality. He looked over her again before his thought processes fully returned to normal. Her golden eyes caught the most of his attention, with their piercing gaze and unique appearance.

"Now, I just need you to act lost and wounded." Will said, putting his arms around her and tightening his grip on his CIA field jacket that he had draped across Lela's shoulders. When the other agents found them, he told Lela to do as he said and let him do the talking.

"Probi! I thought you said it was just debris?" Cmdr. Jensen yelled at Will, obviously angry with him for not reporting the woman.

Will smiled at Jensen's reaction. He was always easier to trick when angry.

"I found her in the nearby brush. She's just a lost camper, sir. I offered to take her to the nearest town and escort her home in the morning." Will lied, hoping Jensen would by it.

Jensen's face contorted as his anger increased, now furious with Will's young bravado and showboating. Will occasionally did things like this just to get under Jensen's skin, and it worked every time.

"Always gotta be the damn hero, eh kid?" Jensen said, his fury leveling off and beginning to lower. Will grinned and seized the opportunity to get Lela past Jensen.

"You know me all to well, boss. Now can I get the lady back to town, or does Langley need--"

"Get the hell out of here, Taggart!" Jensen yelled, throwing an enraged hand at the surrounding forest. He looked back at two of his men and ordered them to escort them to basecamp, yelling various obscenities at Will as they left.

The group soon reached the basecamp, with the other two agents leaving Will to his business. They obviously didn't want to get caught in the crossfire. Will pulled Lela close and whispered in her ear, catching the scent of her hair as he did so. It was sweet and, oddly, earthy. It resembled the smell of a meadow in bloom, save for the hint of smoke from the crash.

"Get in the car. I'll answer all your questions on the ride, deal?" Will said, looking Lela in her piercing golden eyes, nearly getting himself lost in her gaze.
 
It was easy for Lela to act lost and wounded, largely because she was. Her shape shifting ability helped to heal minor wounds quickly, but sprains, like the one in her left ankle, healed at a normal rate. She simply stood silent, her eyes wide in fear as Will's boss shouted at the both of them and limped off in Will's arms as he lead her to his car.

The car had a familiar shape, although the cars on her planet used hoverplates instead of wheels to propel them. She sat in the passenger seat and zipped up the jacket Will had given her, shivering slightly. It might have been summer, but the night still had a chill that bit into her flesh through the holes in her clothing.

"Where am I?" she asked. "I know that this planet is called Earth, but where on Earth am I? Who were those men that came to my escape pod? Is there an embassy that I can go to to apply as a diplomat from my planet? I know that our species haven't encountered each other before, but you must have had contact with at least one other planet; you're only a system away from the nearest habitable planet."
 
Will loosened up once they reached the main road. He had promised Lela answers, and she had asked the first salvo of questions. Will sighed before he gave her the answers she needed.

"Currently we are driving through the eastern part of the American State of Kentucky, a Part of the United States of America." Will said, glancing at Lela every few seconds to gauge her reaction. He still couldn't get over how attractive she was.

"The men who came after you are part of the CIA, a government agency devoted to finding intelligence, and not the science kind. And as far as an Alien Embassy goes, we don't have one. As far as I know, your the first non-human intelligence to set foot on Earth." Will finished, making sure that he gave her all the information he could manage while driving away from an alien crash-site.

The two eventually entered a rural town with a small motel. Will pulled the car into the parking lot and turned to face Lela before he started speaking again.

"We have to stay here for the rest of the night. It's best if we share a room, but you may want to leave the jacket in the car." Will said, motioning towards the back of the black four-door sedan the two were sitting in. He caught her gaze again and nearly lost his focus. There was just something about her eyes that shook his foundations.

"Now, we'll discuss further plans in the morning. Until then, we should get some rest." Will said, grabbing a large duffel bag out of the back of the car.

Will got out of the car and motioned for Lela to follow. ten minutes and $250 dollars later, they were tucked away in a motel room under fake names. Will pulled the curtains shut and turned back to Lela, who sat on the edge of the room's only bed.

"You said you'd need a change of clothes? Here." Will said, tossing the duffel bag at her feet. Inside lay an assortment of clothes belonging to Will's ex-girlfriend, who was about Lela's size.

"You can change in there. I won't look." he said, pointing at the motel room's bathroom which, in typical rural fashion, lacked a door. He covered his eyes with one hand and apologized for there only being one bed.

"Don't worry about it," he said, his voice lightening in tone. "I'll sleep on the chair." He pointed to an old armchair and turned back around, leaving Lela to go and change.
 
Lela stared directly at Will as he spoke. Her face was serious, but her wide eyes sparkled as she soaked in all of the information he provided her with. He could almost see the elaborate thought process going on behind her golden irises as she filed away each little tidbit. A hint of a frown tugged at the side of her lips when she heard that there was no alien embassy, but it vanished almost as soon as it began.

"Oh," she said, a bit disappointed. "Well, on the upside, I can be credited with discovering another sapient race when I return home!" She smiled, but it was obviously forced.

Upon arriving at the motel, she tossed the jacket into the back of the sedan and followed Will to the front desk. The man behind the desk starred at her disheveled state, but she merely flashed him a friendly smile and remained silent. She decided that it was best not to talk to other people for now in case she accidentally revealed her identity. Upon entering the motel room, she looked about and took everything in categorically. Despite how alien the decor seemed to her, she couldn't help but notice that it looked far more comfortable than the tiny little room on the research ship she had been on. She graciously accepted the clothing that was given to her and headed into the restroom.

She stripped out of her robe and began rifling through the duffel bag. She was able to figure out the shirts, skirts, pants and panties easily enough, but the bras gave her pause. The clothing she was used to had breast support built in to it, so she had no idea how to put on a bra, although she figured out what it was for easily enough. She started by putting on a pair of panties and sweat pants to start, then struggled with the bra for a good ten minutes before she gave up and tossed it aside. She threw on a loose-fitting shirt and walked out into the bedroom.

"Oh, you don't have to make any accommodations for me," she said. "After all, you are the host: it is your prerogative to decide where the guest sleeps."
 
Will smiled at Lela. For an alien refugee, she was very open minded. If he were in her shoes, he'd probably be in such a panic that he would be incapable of rational thought.

"I was merely suggesting that because humans don't normally share beds with people they've just met. It's sometimes an awkward thing for us." said Will, who was still sitting in the old armchair. A cloud of dust followed him when he stood, settling onto the ground when he came to Lela. He looked down at her ankle, seeing the awkward way she stood on one.

"You're hurt." he said, gesturing at her ankle. He guided her to the edge of the bed and lifted her injured ankle onto his lap, careful not to aggravate it. He turned and felt it before getting a bandage wrap from the first-aide kit.

"My guess is a sprain. If your anything like us humans, you'll be hurting for a couple weeks." he said while slowly wrapping the bandage around her ankle. He was glad to help her, and that those athletic trainer classes were starting to pay off.

"But with this wrap you should be able to walk on it well enough." He said as he finished, patting the bandage softly, proud of his work. He smiled at Lela, for a moment forgetting that they were on the run from the CIA and that she was an alien. For a moment, he thought about her in a capacity beyond her looks. He laughed nervously, his hand brushing against hers and triggering the strange Mind-Meld feeling again, reminding him of what she was, and why they were here.
 
Lela allowed Will to wrap her ankle and smiled appreciatively at him once he was done.

"Thank you, um..." she squinted at him, then blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I don't think I ever learned your name."

When Will's hand brushed hers, he felt a small tingling sensation in the corners of his mind, but Lela didn't read his thoughts. The ability to control her tactile telepathy was one of the first things Lela learned to do growing up, just like every other child from her planet. While the telepathy was a good way to quickly communicate information, it could also be used to invade someone's privacy. There had even been cases of some of her people getting lost in each other's identities after spending too long in the mind of another.

"On my planet, sharing a bed is very common," she explained. "You do not have a word for it, but I think the best translation is a "sleeping friend"; when two people are very close, but have no interest in a union or even intercourse, it is not uncommon for them to share a bed. While this is usually done between friends, it isn't unheard of for colleagues or students to share a bed when working on a project in order to save on travel time. I guess that that isn't a concept you're familiar with, though."
 
"Not entirely. On Earth the closest thing we've got are friends with benefits, which are people who have sex without any romantic involvement." Will responded, a nervous smile spreading across his face. He hadn't shared a bed with anyone since he broke of his relationship with Sarah, his ex-girlfriend. His smile held as his eyes met her gaze again. This time he saw more than the piercing quality of her alien eyes. He saw glints of kindness and compassion. He knew she was a scientist, but the qualities he found in her golden eyes were warm and peaceful, and passionate. He felt drawn to her, for reasons beyond him. After all, he was human and she wasn't. His people saw her as a threat or something to be locked up and studied, but he saw her as a person.

"My name's Will. Sorry for never properly introducing myself." He said, answering her question and feeling the tension building inside him ease a bit. His smile weakened a bit as his mind wandered back to why they where in the motel. The CIA would be looking for them soon, and they had to get new IDs and fade into anonymity before they were discovered. But Will managed to push those thoughts aside, bringing himself back to the room with Lela.

"Anything you want to know about me, feel free to ask. After all, if we'll be running for awhile until your rescue ship get here."
 
"Why would we be running?" asked Lela, cocking her head. "This CIA you told me never learned that I was from another world? Wouldn't it just look more suspicious if we ran away? Forgive me if I am wrong, but the smartest thing for right now seems to be staying put."

Lela was getting better at reading human emotions. To tell the truth, they weren't that different from her own. It worried her that Will seemed to be getting attracted to her fairly quickly. She was a scientist and she hopefully wouldn't be on Earth very long, so it would be a bad idea to get attached to a man who wasn't even of her own species. Still, if his skin were red and his hair a bit longer, she'd have found will a very attractive man. She looked away from him and blushed, this time a vibrant shade of red instead of her usual purple.

"I suppose I could sleep in the bed alone, if it would make you more comfortable," she said, her voice a bit nervous.
 
Will nodded and moved back to the chair, berated himself silently for being attracted to someone he barely knew, especially an alien. Nice as she was, it would never work out between them. He sat quietly, thinking about what she had said. The CIA didn't know anyone had survived the crash, but Will didn't believe it would stay that way. They would eventually find out, whether it be from what little bit of data found in the wreckage, or by finding and escape pod of some sort. They would find out that something made it off that ship.

"They don't know yet, but they will find out. And they'll start looking at the most suspicious things, like an agent taking a lost hiker back to town, and never coming back." Will said, realizing that some of what would happen was ultimately his fault. He sighed heavily, his eyes weary with sleep. His only hope now was buying enough time to Lela off world, because if the CIA found them, they'd lock her up in a lab and most likely kill him.

"Tomorrow we need to get some supplies for the coming journey. It'll be a few days before the CIA can figure anything out, but we need to be ready just in case they do." Will said, barely managing to keep his eyes open. He was beginning to drift to sleep, but managed to hold on long enough to hear anything Lela may have to say to him.
 
Lela watched as Will drifted off to sleep. She still questioned the wisdom of his plan, but she supposed he knew his own world and the CIA better than she did. Besides, the brief glimpse she had inside of Will's head made him appear smart enough: surely he knew what he was doing. Lying back on the bed, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Lela woke with the sun the next morning to a grumbling in her stomach. The process of changing shape required a lot of energy and always left her hungry afterwards. Still, she didn't want to be a rude guest, so she sat on the edge of the bed and waited patiently for will to wake up. When he finally did, the first thing he saw were Lela's wide, golden eyes starring directly at him.

"Oh, good!" she said. "You're awake. I don't know the proper etiquette on this world, so please forgive me if I sound rude, but how does one politely ask for food?"
 
Will blinked to clear the sleep from his eyes, then jumped when he realized the golden glare staring in his face wasn't the sun. When he heard Lela's question, he laughed a bit.

"The motel has free breakfast in the lobby. Just go make a plate and bring it back here." Will said, lifting himself off of the chair. He yawned and looked at his watch. 9:30 AM. He shrugged and grabbed his keys of the nightstand.

"I'm going to get some travel supplies. You get whatever you want from the breakfast table and I'll meet you back here in about two hours." Will said, heading out the door. He reached his sedan and then looked around, scoping out his surroundings for the out of place subtleties of the CIA. Satisfied that they weren't around, he started the car and proceeded to hit the town's only grocery store, followed next by the local sporting goods place.

Satisfied with his purchases, Will returned to the motel. He scoped out his surroundings, taking note of the black SUV driving down the road. After it turned a corner, he got out of the car and quickly walked back into the room. He sat down on the chair and rested before planning how to get out of town without drawing suspicion. He saw that Lela wasn't in the room, and figured see must still be eating breakfast. He laughed and waited for her to return, making note to tell her about his suspicions when she did.
 
Lela went to the lobby of the motel and took in everything that it had to offer. She had names for each of the foods on display, but she didn't know anything about them. She was unsure as to how it was polite to take food that was set out, since she had been to planets where taking food without permission was highly offensive. She looked about the room until she saw someone wearing the motel's uniform.

"Excuse me," she said, walking up to him. "May I take some food from the buffet?"

"Yeah..." said the young man, giving her a strange look. "It's part of renting a room: you can eat as much as you want. That's why they call it a buffet."

"Thank you!" said Lela, giving the boy a broad smile before hurrying off to the breakfast table.

She piled her plate with a little bit of everything she could find, including some dd items like a salt shaker and a small container of coffee creamer. She sampled each of them in turn, finding the ones she liked and the ones she didn't like, before returning for another plateful of food. In all, she got back up four times, each time returning with an enormous helping of food. She received some odd looks from the other patrons, but paid them no mind as she ate. Once she was done, she stacked the plates and utensils neatly on her table and left to return to the room.

"Breakfast was good!" she said as she opened to door. "I got to eat as much as I wanted, too! Does all food on Earth come in unlimited quantities? If so, how do you produce so much with your primitive technology? OR is there some more sophisticated tech that you're keeping hidden somewhere?"
 
"Not all of it is unlimited. Most places make you pay for it." Will said, laughing quietly. It was amusing having someone completely ignorant of Earth customs around. Will thought Lela's questions were amusing, but also eye opening. Never before had he had to explain everyday living to someone. In his particular situation, it was paramount to their survival.

Will remembered the black SUV that he saw when he got back to the motel, reminding him to break the news to Lela.

"I think the CIA figured something out," Will said, taking a nervous look over his shoulder. "When I got back here, I saw a black SUV making a pass by the motel. It's the same kind some of the agents drive on recon runs." Will finished. The possible presence of them in the town made him anxious. He'd surely get an execution for what he was doing if he got caught, and Lela would get worse than death.

He outlined the rest of his plan to Lela, pausing to explain the parts that got questioning looks. When he finished, he began sorting through the stuff he bought, rationing out the food for the next couple of days while packing the camping goods away in their respective cases.

"Okay, we leave in twenty minutes. Any questions before we head out?" Will asked, kneeling over a half-packed duffel bag.
 
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