Tales from Beyond Roswell

Chapter 17

Max could feel Liz and Maria staring at them from across the room. "Look...Zan this isn't fair to them, they've been with us for three years now, we can trust them with anything."

"That's fine for you pops, but all I know is that they're human," then under his breath "at least for now."

"Hey! Speak up you little twerp, you think this is funny?" It was Michael this time, of course. He'd been so on edge this entire time, but none of them blamed him. He came dangerously close to loosing Maria back there, a little impatience was to be expected.

"Just listen," Zan took a breath "you're all probably wondering why it's only been a year and I look like what you would call a teenager. Well, I'm an alien, and you're going to have to trust me when I say we age differently, faster." He took a pause to look around and see if there was any opposition to his story, seeing there was none, he went on. "But I'm sure you understand that we age differently, given that the ship landed in 47 and you three only appear to be 19."

'So what,' thought Isabel 'get on with it kid,' "Okay so you're all grown up now, perfect, that still doesn't explain why you're here tossing bombs at our vehicle and nearly getting us all killed in the process."

Zan cringed, "Right, sorry about that, it was total miscalculation on my part, I swear I never meant to hurt any of you."

For a second they all looked to be in thought then Michael spoke up again, "So what was with that cryptic message from before? Cause that didn't feel like a friendly hello."

"Yeah, this is quickly turning into an episode of how many ways can Zan fuck up in 24 hours, I thought that if I scared you guys enough that maybe I could get you to do what I need you to do without actually meeting you face to face."

Max let out a long sigh, his story seemed plausible enough, "And what exactly is it that you need us to do?"