Alien Coffee (5 page)

The hangar started moving by outside the
window. Then the ground dropped away and the treetops right after.
Jillian gripped the arms of the cushioned chair she sat in. Her
stomach sank, but it was a mental sinking, not a physical one.
There was no sensation of motion from the ship, which was more
disconcerting in a way than it would have been otherwise. She
guessed Sclurp was the pilot. It would make sense considering he
was supposed to be the technician, although Jillian admitted to
herself that she didn’t know if a technician would be able to
fly.

Through the window she watched the forest,
lakes and mountains fall away below as the ship rose. The rate of
ascent was faster than any plane she had ever been on, but there
was still no physical sense of motion. Her eyes were the only sense
telling her they were zipping through the air. It was fascinating
to watch the scenery fly by so rapidly and she wondered where they
were going.

Jillian pinched herself again, hard. It hurt,
but she didn’t wake up. Either she wasn’t dreaming, or pinching
oneself was a worthless way to wake up and she was going through
unnecessary suffering for nothing. The whole situation was surreal.
In an instant Jillian had gone from a pleasant, quiet life to one
filled with aliens, snail spaceships, coffee as a drug and emo
bunny ray guns.
Is this all real?

“Would you come over here, Jillian?” Nyxulla
said from where she and Buffy were sitting. Jillian looked at them
and blinked a few times. Their alien appearances where strikingly
odd, like something a person would see in a movie, yet they were
three dimensional, vibrant and alive. “Jillian?” Nyxulla said,
drawing Jillian out of her reverie. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah . . . yes,” she responded, standing up
abruptly. With a deep breath and a shake of her head, Jillian
cleared the cobwebs out and went over to a seat next to Nyxulla.
“What do you need?”

“We need to tell you about the life
threatening situation we’re about to drag you into,” Buffy told her
before Nyxulla could speak. The green-skinned alien woman glared at
the BEM who held its hands out innocently. “What? It’s the truth
and it would be foolish to tell her otherwise.”

“I still want to go,” Jillian said right
away. It was foolish, but she had always wanted to do something
truly foolish and wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity. “Even if
it’s a life threatening situation.”

“It’s not all that life threatening,” Nyxulla
reassured her. “The teens are being held captive in a fortified
compound by a Columbian drug lord and his well-armed guerrilla
army. The good news is that there are coffee fields nearby and we
can get you some fresh beans to try in that roaster you got for
Christmas.” She sounded eager.

A Columbian drug lord and his guerrilla army
sounded
very
life threatening to Jillian. “Oh . . . a
Columbian drug . . . wait . . . Raymond said he didn’t get me that
roaster and we couldn’t figure out where it came from. How did you
know? . . .” She stopped at Nyxulla’s deep green blush. “Did you
give me that?”

“Fresh roasted is the best ever,” Nyxulla
responded in a guilty voice. “Sclurp and I both chipped in for that
and the bag of coffee beans.”

“You mean the hundred fifty pound burlap sack
of coffee beans!” Jillian said incredulously. “What in the world am
I supposed to do with that much coffee? I’ve only used maybe a
pound of it.”

Nyxulla looked back and forth between Jillian
and Buffy, who was staring critically with those creepy bug eyes.
Finally she folded her hands in her lap. “You’re absolutely right.
That is way too much coffee for you to drink by yourself. Sclurp
and I will come by every day to help you roast and drink it,” she
suggested helpfully.

“You are absolutely pitiful. How would your
parents react if they knew how bad your addiction is?” Buffy
challenged. “I can’t imagine they would approve of your
behavior.”

“My parents would only be mad because they
can’t get coffee!” Nyxulla yelled suddenly, throwing her hands in
the air. “I don’t know why it’s so illegal. Coffee isn’t that bad
for you. It helps relax a person and keep their mood level.”

“It’s also illegal and highly addictive,”
Buffy pointed out intensely, leaning forward and jabbing a clawed
tip over the table. “The people who distribute it use it as a lure
for heavier drugs and they love drawing in pretty girls like
you.”

“Don’t lecture me, you freaky little bug. I’m
quite capable of handling myself,” Nyxulla retorted, pointing her
own finger in its face. “I can quit anytime I want to. Everybody
gives coffee such a hard time. You drink tea and it’s even more
addicting and worse for your health!” She sat back and folded her
arms. Jillian didn’t interrupt, but was beginning to feel a little
bit like an unsuspecting drug pusher. She wondered what coffee did
to aliens that made it an illegal drug.

“Tea is legal unlike coffee and my health is
none of your concern. I like drinking tea. It relieves the tension
in my shoulders and helps with stress,” Buffy replied
defensively.

The two aliens glared at each other across
the small table. The multi-faceted bug eyes made it hard to tell
for certain, but it seemed like glaring. The situation was
extremely uncomfortable and Jillian was a bit afraid of them. “So
we have to rescue the teenagers from a Columbian drug lord. Do we
have a plan?” She hoped the question would refocus their
attention.

It worked to a degree. Buffy continued
glaring, but Nyxulla turned her attention to a screen and pulled
out an image of a fenced compound in the middle of a jungle. The
image was brilliant and three dimensional, covering the top of the
table. It looked like a digitally rendered scale model of the
actual compound. The neatest part was that miniature images of
people with guns walked around in real time.

Nyxulla pointed at one of the smaller
buildings. “The teens are kept in this building, which is heavily
guarded.” There were two miniature men holding guns in front of the
building. One flicked a cigarette on the ground and crushed it with
his foot. Another two were walking back and forth along the sides
and next to a tall chain link fence behind it. “The drugs are
produced in other compounds not far away.”

Buffy pointed at the largest building, which
looked like a large mansion. “This is where the drug lord lives
with his wife and children. There are quite a few soldiers in and
around it.” Jillian couldn’t see inside, but there were definitely
soldiers walking around the exterior. Another was in a tower that
rose above the surrounding trees.

Movement behind a small shed in the in back
corner near the building where the teens were being held caught her
eye. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at it over the table.

They all stared for a moment. Buffy jerked
back in repulsion. “Oh! That’s just disgusting! That’s unnecessary.
What is it with you inbred mammals that makes you behave like
that?”

Jillian gasped as she realized it was two men
having sex over a barrel behind the building. She blushed deeply
while sitting up straight and covering her eyes. Nyxulla was the
only one that didn’t react negatively. “Oh that looks interesting.
I think I’ll record it.” When she caught Jillian looking at her in
horror, she justified the action. “What? Humans are extremely
compatible with my race. I find humanity’s liberal sexual habits
invigorating. We’re not allowed to do those sorts of thing on my
world.” Nyxulla pointed at the two men. “I like watching humans
having sex.”

“Yes, we’ve noticed by the fact that you own
the most extensive library of pornography in the Amalgamation,”
Buffy said sarcastically.

“It’s not the largest yet,” Nyxulla defended,
sticking her tongue out. Jillian idly noticed it was pink like a
human’s. What really shocked her most was that Nyxulla seemed
almost as flawed as a human in her behavior. The alien woman did
drugs in the form of coffee, argued with others and had rather
strong sexual drive from all appearances, not that the last was
necessarily a flaw.

“Getting back to the task at hand, all of
their weapons are loaded and deadly.” Buffy gestured at the men in
the compound, pointedly ignoring the two in the corner that Nyxulla
had gone back to staring at. “There are more weapons and ammunition
here.” The BEM pointed at a shed on the opposite side of the
compound. “There are men at the gate and more positioned up the
only road leading to it.” Buffy moved the image in order to show
the road with bunkers on either side.

“We’re in a spaceship. Surely we don’t need
to take the road . . .” Jillian suggested.

“Well of course not,” Buffy replied. “But we
need to know what dangers are around. Next is the matter of the
ship.” The image moved sideways through deep jungle, bringing into
view the crashed spaceship. There were a few armed soldiers as well
as other people who were milling around in a makeshift camp nearby.
Jillian immediately noticed that it didn’t look like a snail even
in its broken condition. Buffy pointed at it. “It’s a nice sports
ship their parents likely bought them. We’re to destroy it and any
parts that may have been taken off of it.”

“That’s our first priority,” Nyxulla stated.
“It has a self-destruct feature we can activate remotely once we’re
certain there’s no one on board. The self-destruct should spread to
any parts that have been taken, but we’ll have to scan the area to
make certain.”

“There are thousands of snails in the area,
so once we have the teens they can take one back to their parents
who will certainly be thrilled to hear how they wrecked an
expensive sports ship on a forbidden planet,” Buffy proclaimed
haughtily. The image lit up with countless tiny purple dots that
Jillian guessed were snails. With a wave of a hand, Buffy made them
disappear.

“So we need to destroy the wreckage, rescue
the teens, get them in a snail,” Jillian giggled as she said that
out loud, “and then send them off to their parents. Does that sound
right?”

“Yes. That’s exactly it,” Nyxulla replied
happily. Buffy nodded.

“Okay. How exactly are we supposed to rescue
them from the compound?” Jillian asked. “A bunch of soldiers with
deadly weapons seems like a fairly serious obstacle to
overcome.”

“We have invisibility devices,” Nyxulla
patted the one on her belt. “We have one you can use too.”

Buffy stood. “You’re not supposed to have
that either. At this point, if anyone finds out, you’ll be executed
and the rest of us will go for reconditioning, lose our positions
and shame our families. But that’s alright as long as we’re all
having fun,” Buffy sniped derisively, patting Jillian on the
shoulder. “I’ll go get the device for you.” The crabby alien walked
to the back of the ship and disappeared through a door to the
shell.

“Don’t mind Buffy,” Nyxulla told her with a
dismissive wave in the direction of the departed BEM. “Everything
will be fine.”

“I
am
worried about it. It sounds like
we could get into a
lot
of trouble,” Jillian replied. “I’m
mostly worried about you. I don’t want you to get into trouble for
taking me with.”

“You’re not worried about dying?” Nyxulla
asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well . . . maybe a little, but I trust you
even though I don’t know why. I honestly don’t think anything bad
is going to happen to me,” she answered with a smile and shrug.
Jillian didn’t know if she was being overconfident or just didn’t
think she could die, but she really did feel that way. “If you
don’t mind my asking . . . I don’t know what to ask actually, but .
. . what brings you to Earth? Can you tell me anything about
yourself?” Jillian was genuinely curious about the alien’s
life.

Nyxulla dialed up two drinks that appeared
from an opening in the wall and handed one to Jillian. “I’m the
youngest of four children. My parents love me very much . . .
providing they don’t have to see or talk to me.” She shrugged and
sipped from her cup. Jillian tried her own drink and found it to be
delicious. It was some sort of exotic fruit juice from what she
could tell. “It’s quxoma juice,” Nyxulla told her. “It’s from my
world, but completely safe for humans.”

“It’s yummy,” Jillian told her, taking
another sip. Drinking an alien juice was thrilling and she couldn’t
help but smile. She hoped Nyxulla would continue talking.

“As a child, I received high scores in
science and analytical processes, so my parents sent me off to the
finest boarding school. I haven’t seen them since.” She frowned and
took another sip of her drink. The subject obviously bothered
her.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I thought . . . For
some reason I figured life would be wonderful and perfect in a
galactic civilization,” Jillian told her, placing an empathetic
hand on the alien’s shoulder.

Nyxulla smiled in response. “No . . . I mean
it’s better than the mess you humans are making, but everything is
most definitely
not
perfect.” She looked at the image of the
jungle and moved it back to the compound. “The Amalgamation is
enormous with thousands of races living on tens of thousands of
worlds, but each race brings its own challenges and beliefs. The
result is a big, exciting mess.”

“It sounds fascinating,” Jillian replied,
taking another sip. She wanted to see all those worlds and races.
Science fiction was her favorite genre and she had dreamed of
exploring the universe ever since she was a little child looking up
at all the stars in the Milky Way.

“It really is,” she agreed. “I haven’t been
very many places. I went to . . . the equivalent of one of your
universities I suppose. Although we learn more in our basic schools
than you do in your most advanced institutions,” she stated with a
look of embarrassment. “But in many ways, the experiences are
similar. I had a lot of fun at University and still managed to
graduate at the top of my class even though I spent a great deal of
time partying.” She grinned.