Interview with an Alien

Chapter 2

 Rosa sits around a large fire on the beach, a full cup of warm beer in her hand. She tries to look natural holding it, but she knows it would be a million years before she ever drank it. Alcohol wasn't really her thing, and losing control under the influence of alcohol definitely wasn't her thing either. She digs her toes in the sand and looks up at the stars, soaking up the atmosphere of a party alive around her, the waves breaking against the sand a few feet away, and the warm breeze of summer.

She stares up at the stars and begins identifying specific constellations. Aquila, Hercules, Alrakis... She begins searching for more when she suddenly sees a meteorite enter the atmosphere. She is immediately surprised when it doesn't disappear like most "falling stars" do at night, and continues to watch it. It becomes bigger and bigger, and begins changing from a far white prick of light in the dark sky to a fiery orange.

Rosa looks around her, at first surprised no one else has noticed. Her surprise fades away when she sees multiple drunk people, having too much fun to notice anything outside their own immediate world and presence. One couple sneak off to some bushes, and others are playing in the waves. A few people gather around a guy playing the guitar.

Rosa ignores them though, and slips on her flip flops. She sends her dad a text, are you at the center? saw something weird in sky. I'm stopping by to check it out and chart it. Her dad doesn't reply, but she grabs her purse and keys and heads to her car anyways.

Her dad usually worked late. Even if he wasn't there, she had her own key card. She had been working as an intern there for over a year, usually keeping to herself and learning as much as she could. She wasn't sure yet what she wanted to do, so she usually just floated around the NASA center, exploring and shadowing from person to person. She was lucky her dad had such high clearance, or else she wouldn't know how else she could figure out what she wanted to do after college.

As Rosa walks to her car in the parking lot past the dark beach, she loses herself in deep thought about what the thing in the sky could be. Was there a landing at the NASA center she didn't know about? She immediately marked off that possibility- the whole center buzzed with activity weeks before a scheduled landing. She would have known. Curiosity buzzing, she picks up her pace to get to her car.

Rosa starts her car and pulls out of the parking lot. As she drives down residential streets and then onto the highway, she notices in the back of her mind all the street lights lit and burning bright. Most of the stars above her disappear in the orange glow of the lights. For many months half of the lights along all the roads had been turned off to conserve energy. She wonders now why the city has turned them on, but dismisses the thought.

She nears the NASA center, and rolls down her windows to enjoy the cool summer breeze one last moment. There were hardly any windows in the center, and at times she felt suffocated. She only felt truly free to think and feel when the wind was on her cheeks and she could smell the air. Rosa hears someone speaking on the loud intercom from the center, but cannot distinguish the words. She was too far away, and thinks, They must be having a landing if the intercoms are on. This must be highly classified if I do not know about it...

With that thought, an inkling of apprehension fills Rosa, and she begins to wonder if she should have come to the center tonight. It was nearing midnight, anyhow, and she had class in the morning. But curiosity rears its head again, and Rosa decides she couldn't turn around even if she wanted to. She was getting close to the security gate.

Rosa sees the security gate well-lit like it usually was, but could tell something was different. She could not spot the difference, but still drove carefully forward. Upon reaching the gate and the building adjacent to it, she grabs her key card. A man in a military uniform steps forward, and a shock of surprise shoots through Rosa.

"Where's Lance?" Rosa asks, clear nervousness in her voice. The usual friendly night security guard was absent, replaced by this stoic man. Rosa peers around him into the small building, and sees more men in uniform inside. They are bent around multiple screens of cameras, except one who stands inside the doorframe and stares Rosa down. He clutches a large automatic weapon at his side.

The man at Rosa's window says in a hard voice, "State your name and reason for your presence, and please exit the vehicle." Rosa slowly opens her door, suddenly afraid. The other man in the doorframe steps forward, and Rosa avoids eye contact. He begins searching her car, starting with the trunk. Rosa swallows the protest in her throat.

"I am Rosalind Gidman. My father works here, and I am an intern. I came to chart something I saw in the sky..." Rosa glances towards the gate, and wishes she was on the other side of it. Not only did it hold the answers to what this crazy situation may hold, but it was a comfortable environment. With the armed men around her, though, the gate suddenly seemed foreign and impenetrable.

The rest of the men in the building come out, and Rosa feels chills run down her spine as their eyes roam everywhere, searching. She thinks, These men are intense. The man asking Rosa questions speaks into what she guessed was a microphone in his sleeve, "Security check for Rosalind Gidman. Security check for Rosalind Gidman." He listens for a moment, and Rosa spots an earpiece in his ear.

"You have been given clearance." The man nods his head, and Rosa suddenly realizes she was shaking the whole time. She attempts to send thoughts of steel to her bones, and climbs back into her car. The man searching her car moves back into the building, and continues to stare her down with a harsh stare.

As the gate moves forward from a command inside the small building and Rosa drives forwards, she hears one of the men in uniform say, "What is a kid doing here?" Rosa almost stops the car to turn around and ask them what they were talking about and what was going on, but decides against it. The only real answers she could have is what is in front of her- the Kennedy Space Center.

Rosa drives down a road with nothing but dense mangroves around her. Ahead, she sees the light of the main buildings of the center. But what she was most curious about was what was towards her left. Towards her left was the landing runway facility. It was lit up with bright white lights, but Rosa couldn't see any details.

She speeds up a little, the butterflies in her stomach left with the armed men behind her. Now, she felt only excitement. For years she had been studying everything from cell biology to various human cultures, always in the search of something new and exciting to learn. And deep down, she knew that thirst for new knowledge may be satisfied tonight- at least, for the moment.