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“Up until last night, it was useless on this planet,” Kien chimed in.
“Something in this atmosphere probably prevented it from working properly,” Solgre said.
“If it was still down, you wouldn’t have received information about the rescue?” Tasha asked.
Phate nodded.
Tasha glanced up at Solgre. “I don’t understand the issue. It works now and your rescue is coming.”
“While playing with the frequencies this morning, to see if I could pick up on anything else, I heard two people, male and female discussing us,” Solgre said.
Everyone in the room stilled except for Kien and Solgre. Kien picked up the device and turned a knob. The crackle of static filled the room.
“Are you sure?” Phate asked. He reached out for the device and Kien handed it to him.
“We’re sure.” As Phate played with the knobs, Kien continued, “Solgre heard them first then brought it to me to listen. They were discussing targets and aliens. I’ll admit that’s not really definitive of us being found out, but I didn’t like the way any of it sounded.”
“There was a lot of interference, as if there was a security block on the line, but the pieces I could make out weren’t good.” Solgre turned in a tight circle and scrubbed his hand down his face.
“On top of everything else, we now have to worry about being found out,” Kien grumbled.
“Hold on,” Tasha said. “The odds you picked up on some kind of government conversation talking about space aliens is small and even smaller they would be discussing you guys in particular.
“We have a lot of immigrants coming into Minnesota, and if they overstay their Visa, they’re deemed as illegal aliens. ICE, a government agency, tracks them down and deports them back to their country. My guess would be that you might’ve overheard a conversation about that.”
“Or those people might be from some government agency looking for the aliens who’d crashed landed on Earth,” Nisha said. “I’m assuming you guys probably entered the atmosphere in a blaze of glory.”
“Nisha!” Tasha yelled.
Nisha rolled her eyes and listed her shoulders. She was mad at Kien, but that wasn’t a reason to freak out Solgre and Phate, who now were caught up in her crossfire.
Solgre turned on his heels to Kien. “We have to leave town immediately,” he said with a head nod.
“Wait. Let’s think about it further.” Phate scooched to the end of the couch. Tasha reached to hold his hand. She knew her time with him was short. She’d been mentally preparing herself to tell him bye, but to tell it to him now? She fought against the tears threatening to overtake her eyes.
“Even if the government was looking for aliens, how would the government know you’re in Point Breeze?” Tasha asked Phate. “Was the crash nearby?”
Phate squeezed her hand. “We crashed some distance away. We were only able to cloak our spaceship for a short amount of time before landing. I’m sure our ship wasn’t tracked after entering the atmosphere. Your human technology doesn’t seem that advanced.”
Tasha pinned her gaze on Solgre. “Do you know where the transmission came from? You could’ve picked it up from two towns over or Canada for that matter.”
“No.” Solgre shook his head. “But I still think we need to leave town as a precaution. Our spaceship is the safest place to go and hide out.”
Phate scrubbed a hand down his face. “There’s too much damage to the shields. The radiation wouldn’t be cleared yet. Life support systems might still be off. We can’t stay there, those are the reasons we left.”
Kien folded his arms and leaned against one of the walls. “The mechanical bots should be back online by now. With the power diverted from the life support systems, they’ll be able fix the shields, clear the radiation and work to get the engineering systems back online.”
“I agree, but it still might not be habitable,” Phate said.
Tasha couldn’t take it anymore. They were discussing leaving when this might be some misunderstanding. She threw up her hands. Everyone turned to watch her. “Wait. Wait. Wait. This is a whole lot of discussion for what is probably information about an ICE raid.”
“Give me a sec.” Nisha picked up her phone and started tapping at the screen. “Let me check something.”
Tasha laid against Phate, not wanting this to be the last time she touched him.
“Major ICE raids happen a few times a year and according to the first article pulled up from an internet search, we’re due for another one,” Nisha said.
Tasha let out a relieved breath and turned toward Solgre. “See? You’ve probably hacked into an illegal alien raid.”
