Close Encounters Of The Alien Kind: A Nocturne Falls Universe story

By Fiona Roarke

Pilot. Guard. Prisoner.

All three are crashed in the Georgia woods, lost on a world where extraterrestrials are the stuff of science fiction. Blending into the human world is doable, if dangerous. But what if the locals are far from human themselves, with secrets of their own?

Former bounty hunter Stella Grey grew up an orphan on family-centric Alpha-Prime, so she knows the value of belonging. Leaving everything—and everyone—behind to join distant kin a galaxy away in Alienn, Arkansas, is a small price to pay. Heading up a retrieval operation following a spacecraft crash in rural Georgia is her chance to prove herself to them. Her mission? Locate the ship’s occupants. Secure the prisoner. And, above all, keep the earthlings from discovering that aliens live and walk among them.

Draeken Phoenix is the bad boy from one of Alpha-Prime’s best families, known for getting in and out of scrapes with wit, charm and sheer bravado. He never expected to become an actual prisoner bound for a galactic gulag. Until now, the worst thing that had ever happened to him was losing the woman he loved.

But he has a plan.

He’s bet his life on it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sugar Skull Books
• Release date: Jan 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386226413

Book preview

Close Encounters of the Alien Kind

Pilot. Guard. Prisoner.

All three are crashed in the Georgia woods, lost on a world where extraterrestrials are the stuff of science fiction. Blending into the human world is doable, if dangerous. But what if the locals are far from human themselves, with secrets of their own?

Former bounty hunter Stella Grey grew up an orphan on family-centric Alpha-Prime, so she knows the value of belonging. Leaving everything—and everyone—behind to join distant kin a galaxy away in Alienn, Arkansas, is a small price to pay. Heading up a retrieval operation following a spacecraft crash in rural Georgia is her chance to prove herself to them.

Her mission? Locate the ship’s occupants. Secure the prisoner. And, above all, keep the earthlings from discovering that aliens live and walk among them.

Draeken Phoenix is the bad boy from one of Alpha-Prime’s best families, known for getting in and out of scrapes with wit, charm and sheer bravado. He never expected to become an actual prisoner bound for a galactic gulag. Until now, the worst thing that had ever happened to him was losing the woman he loved.

But he has a plan.

He’s bet his life on it.

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To Kristen for giving me this truly premium opportunity.

And thanks so much for letting me crash a UFO in your world. It was really fun.

Prologue

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Alienn, Arkansas – Mission Room in the basement facility below the Big Bang Truck Stop

Stella Grey had been summoned. Excitement filled her body and soul as she seated herself at the conference table. She’d checked the rotation chart three times before coming in here, confirming she was about to be in charge of her first mission.

Diesel Grey, her cousin and the facility’s Fearless Leader, sat at the head of the conference table. Stella and the other two members of her team sat to his left, filling one side of the table, all composed and professional, with pens in hand and ready to jot down important notes.

Seated between the other two, Stella did her best to maintain a nonchalant façade for the benefit of her team. It wouldn’t do for Elise Midori and Victoria Greene to see her lose her cool. She knew this was all business as usual for the team, but today was special for her.

There has been a UFO crash just outside of a place called Nocturne Falls, Georgia. It’s about an eight-hour drive from here. There are three souls aboard the ship. You’ll be responsible for recovering all of them, hopefully alive. Diesel consulted a sheet of gray paper, the color of the paper meant the message was of the highest priority. There is a pilot, a guard and a prisoner.

Are their names available? Stella asked.

No. This was the first run of a new endeavor for our business. Since it was last minute, we only got bare information.

What new endeavor? Elise asked.

Diesel lowered the paper to explain. "We’ve secured a contract to serve as a way station for the gulag transport system shuttling prisoners from Alpha-Prime to Galactic Gulag XkR-9. Normally this would be a monthly run, but there is a lucrative addendum on our contract for small runs between the scheduled ones.

This flight happened to be an out-of-routine run to the gulag with a single prisoner. It’s due to that, unfortunately, we don’t have any detailed information.

Stella regarded the Fearless Leader with some surprise as he outlined the known facts for the coming assignment. Typically, he was edgier during mission briefs.

This mission was obviously important because a possible alien sighting had to be controlled. Anytime a team was sent out, there was the potential threat of earthlings discovering their existence on Earth. That was always a big deal, but certainly nothing they hadn’t dealt with before.

Stella had never seen her cousin appear so…relaxed during a task assignment meeting. He was usually overly concerned about such things and that translated often to a more serious and gruff presentation. His odd demeanor was enough to put her senses on the alert.

What do we know about the place we’re headed? she asked.

Not much. The crash site is a couple of miles from town in a wooded area, which is good for us.

Nocturne Falls. Farming community? One-industry town? Stella asked, pen poised to note the details in her mission log.

It seems to be a themed town.

Elise voiced the question before Stella could. A themed town? What’s that?

Diesel read from his reference document. Nocturne Falls is billed as the town that celebrates Halloween three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

Stella and her teammates exchanged looks that said, "What?"

Interesting. Elise crossed her arms as she always did when she pondered new information. The fiery redhead was a warrior at heart, a loyal fighter and a great teammate. So was Victoria, who had long dark hair, a quiet, serious intelligence and had fooled many into thinking she was harmless as an opponent. She wasn’t. None of them were. Stella thought the three of them made an excellent team.

Diesel shrugged. I figure it’s a little bit like our aboveground operation here. We run a truck stop with a spacey, galactic theme. They run their whole town with a Halloween theme.

What else do we know? Stella asked.

There has been no communication with the ship since we lost it over Georgia. A final garbled message came after they dropped off our sensor screens, reporting some sort of problem upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, and we briefly had a weak beacon signal once they were on the ground. That has since stopped transmitting, but at least we have the approximate location.

Is it a hot scene? Elise asked, using the term that meant humans were either already involved in the crash site or at least knew about it.

We don’t think so. It seems the camouflage held until they went down, but since the beacon has stopped, we don’t know exactly what you’re going to find. Best-case scenario, you get to the crash site before any humans do. Diesel stared directly at Stella when he said the last part. She was being briefed not only as a member of the preliminary team, but also in her first role as commander of the personnel retrieval team.

Stella, Elise and Victoria had gone on several missions to check out other reports, but never anything as big or as vitally important as this.

Success with her in charge of such a critical assignment would, in Stella’s mind, go a long way to ensuring her inclusion in the extended family she’d found on Earth.

She wanted a home here in Alienn, Arkansas with a friendly and supportive family more than anything. Uncle Zeb, Aunt Xenia and their children had been friendly and supportive, but Stella wanted to contribute. She wanted to be valuable to them. She wanted to belong.

You will leave immediately, Diesel said in a low, controlled voice. Each of you should take a Defender along with a full tactical equipment pack. Talk to Cam. He’ll see that you’re outfitted completely with whatever you may need for this important mission. I believe he has some brand-new gear he’d like you to try out in the field.

Cam was one of Diesel’s younger brothers and primarily in charge of security at the Big Bang Truck Stop and the large alien facility below ground. He dabbled in creating and developing new technology to help keep humans from discovering their presence on Earth. The Defender was their latest and greatest weapon.

Diesel and Cam were two of the six boys and one girl in their immediate family. Stella often felt sorry for the youngest of their clan, who preferred to be called Valene. Stella thought the sound of the girl’s true name was beautiful, but apparently Valvoline was also the name of motor oil and automotive lubricants for vehicles and thus much hated by the youngest daughter—and only girl cousin—of her newfound family.

Valene made it seem like half a dozen older brothers were cruel and unusual punishment, but perhaps Stella’s early life as an only child and now an orphan in this galaxy, making her the last in her family line, influenced her attitude in the other direction. Still, she supported Valene. They were almost the same age, with Stella being not quite two years older, and had become fast friends since Stella arrived on Earth a year ago.

Has there been any communication with the downed ship since they crashed?

No, Diesel said. "But as the beacon worked for a short time afterward, it’s possible the ship is at least partially intact. With luck, you’re only providing transport back to Alienn for the trio.

If the ship is in one piece, hide it or camouflage it. The vessel retrieval team will leave tomorrow morning and work independently to recover the wreckage and any equipment. Cam will provide camouflage tarps for you to use if the spacecraft can be seen by any humans before the other retrieval team gets there.

Stella wondered if Diesel’s calm, collected, even patient manner was due to his new romance. Recently their Fearless Leader had become involved with an earthling. It wasn’t a scandal, exactly, but pretty close, even though everyone liked Juliana. While many secretly wondered at her appeal, Stella decided Diesel’s human girlfriend must be a good influence on his typical edginess.

As the eldest offspring in the Grey family, Diesel’s command had been mostly assured from the start, but now he seemed much more comfortable in his role as Fearless Leader of their people here on