Chapter 11: Brant's Version

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It had been another long day on base. The generals and their "special guests" were still about, requiring extra guards and extra protection. While I'd love to know what they were discussing behind sealed doors, I'm a soldier not a scientist. It would probably all sound like stereo instructions to me. I was just glad to receive word that I could head home early. I could finally spend some time with my little girl; I'd been gone so much these past few weeks.

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As I came up the steps, the sounds of gunfire and car tires reached my ears. Ah, a good spy movie, and a recent one from the sound of it. My darling daughter had asked to have some of her friends over to study, but if she was watching a movie, they must have already left. Genesis would never neglect her studies for entertainment.

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At least she wouldn't without some serious coercion.

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I couldn't believe it. Aliens. Green skinned, bug eyed, antennae waving freaks. I wasn't aware there were any of those in town. I never would have moved here if there were. They'd over-run the town outside the military base and now they were trying to establish a foothold in the quaint little village I had chosen to call our home. And worse....

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one of them was making free with the person of my daughter.

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I wasn't going to stand for this in my own house, and I let them know it. Loudly. With a few terms I usually saved for the bathtub when it broke.

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They sprung apart like I'd thrown cold water on them. Not giving the alien interloper time to start talking (some of them have the ability to hypnotize you with their words. Obviously a power he'd used on my poor daughter) I immediately started questioning him on what he was doing there, along with giving him my opinion of his person and his lineage.

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My darling Genesis looked more than a little shocked. I suppose she was still a bit stunned, having been brainwashed and manhandled by this interstellar reject. What did she see in this thing?

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The bug-eyed freak took poorly to the lecture I rained down upon his head about proper manners and behavior.

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I realized it was probably pointless. Do these things even have parents, or do they spawn as children from some sort of amorphous pod?

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Regardless, they're obviously trying to blend in by trying to be 'normal' families. Normal families with abnormal powers they use to flood society with more of their kind. No wonder Strangetown is rife with them.

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Oh, this one seems polite enough, trying to offer an explanation and an apology for what I'd witnessed. Obviously trying to use those alien powers of 'persuasion' again.

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I'm made of stronger fibre than that; I'm not going to fall for any alien superpowers. I gave him a few more choice words and told him to remove his bug eyed visage from my home.

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As he stormed off, my dear daughter rushed over to me, trying to explain and make amends.

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As much as I hated to bring up the memories of her wonderful mother, my beloved Evey, I had to remind Genesis of the danger these aliens presented. Had she forgotten her mother had been studying the captured technology of these creatures when that horrible accident had taken her from us? How could she bring herself to associate with one of them in such an intimate way?

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She explained that she had invited her friends over to study, but only the alien -- "Spencer" she called him -- had showed up. Her other friends had called and cancelled. No doubt influenced by his alien powers... though I didn't mention this to Genesis. I wouldn't want her to think less of her friends for having been manipulated.

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My dear daughter had never meant for anything to happen and said that they had studied like good kids. She even had finished homework she could show me. And she tried to explain that this Spencer wasn't like the aliens I described. That he was nice and had a family and went to school just like rest of her friends.

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She may have been horribly used and manipulated by alien brainwaves, but I could never stay mad at my darling daughter when she pouted at me like that.

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Hugging her, I told her I forgave her. I couldn't blame her for something not her fault. I did tell her she was forbidden to see this freak... er Spencer again. I stopped short of telling her not to have anything to do with any of her friends who are also friends with this alien. I wouldn't want to leave her completely friendless.

With a fatherly kiss, I sent her off to bed...

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Because I still had unfinished business.

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