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“I’m not from here,” he said as he wedged a knee between the shrinking gap.
“I know that already. The accents are a dead giveaway.” She grunted as she dug her feet into the carpet, putting more strength into her efforts.
“Ouch!” Phate exclaimed as the heavy wood door slammed on the side of his knee. “I mean, I’m not from Earth. I’m from a different planet.”
Tasha paused. “A different planet? What does that even mean?”
“It means Earth isn’t my home.”
Tasha rolled to press her back against the door and laughed. “If you don’t want to keep in touch after you move out, just say it. Don’t go making up a crazy ass story.”
“I’m not making it up. We crashed here over four months ago.”
Tasha, still pressed on the door, studied Phate. He didn’t appear to have a few screws missing. In fact, he looked very sincere. He also didn’t look like he was joking. There wasn’t a hint of a smile on his face.
She narrowed her eyes on him. “What angle are you getting at? I wasn’t going to try to keep in touch with you after you left. You made it quite apparent that us...we...we’re nothing. Why come here and lie to me? What are you gaining from this, Phate?”
He shrugged massive shoulders. “What I hope to gain? I want to right the wrong I caused.”
Her hands were balled into fists. She wanted to pop him in his face. “By giving me some cockamamie lie?!”
He raised his hands into a pleading motion. “Tasha, it’s not a lie. If you stop trying to close the door, I’ll give you the full truth.”
Tasha thought about putting her back into it and slamming the door, his knee be damned. But in the end, she relented, wanting to hear what he had to say instead. She opened the door but blocked entry into her apartment. With arms crossed over her chest, she said, “Spill it.”
Phate breathed a sigh of relief. “Some time ago, we...meaning some watchers on our home planet, received a transmission from Earth. It was unlike anything that anyone living had ever received before. There was a description of what humans looked like, where your planet was located in the galaxy and about basic life here on Earth. It was decided that we needed to investigate.
“Although we have allies on different planets, we, like Earth, live in a secluded part of the galaxy. Actually, we thought we were the farthest planet in this part of the galaxy. The transmission was a big discovery. Aside from being the only intelligent species for lightyears in any direction, we also don’t have any compatible species near us. That all changed after we received your transmission.
“We could now have close neighbors to share technology, become allies and possibly intermingle with. But first we needed to send a recognizance mission to get updated information on this new species.”
Tasha tried to wrap her head around what Phate was saying but none of it made a lick of sense. “Wait. So, you’re telling me you’re from another planet and you’re here because of some transmission?”
Phate nodded. “We weren’t supposed to come down here. We should’ve been in our spaceship, cloaked in space, gathering information. If your sun’s solar flare hadn’t happened, which caused our systems to malfunction, we would’ve still been up there.”
“Well, actually.” Kien suddenly stepped into the hallway and Tasha jumped. “We wouldn’t still be here. We would’ve gotten the information a long time ago, downloaded it to the home base and been on Pesna-9 having our much-needed vacation.”
Tasha placed a hand on her head and shook it. “You can’t possibly be in on this stupid lie too.”
“Yes!” Solgre stepped out next. “This is all a lie.” Then he turned to Phate and pulled him close. “What are you doing?” he whispered urgently.
Phate kept his gaze on her. “I’m telling Tasha how I feel about her.”
Solgrehumphed. “It looks like you’re telling her everythingbuthow you feel about her.”
“I was getting to that part,” Phate grumbled.
Solgre shook his head. “How you feel doesn’t matter. We’ll be leaving this place soon, we’ll give the home world the information we’ve gathered, and we can leave this behind us.”
The pieces were starting to fall in place now. Their accents, their speech patterns, the serial dating for “research”, how they didn’t quite understand human customs, and their fashion sense. “This is true?” Tasha asked, stunned.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Phate said.
Tasha raised her chin. “I need some proof.”
Phate didn’t hesitate to grab something from Solgre’s hand, ignoring Solgre when he bit out Phate’s name. “This is proof,” he said holding up what looked like a nondescript item that was the size of a remote control but bulkier.
Tasha raised her eyebrows. “And what exactly is that?”
