Page 74 of Keeping Sarah

“Why is that?”

He merely gestured at his green jelly body.

“Are you showing off the goods to our boss?” Ode flirted with her boyfriend as she walked in.

Treg laughed. “Hi, sweetheart.”

She kissed his cheek, before Tiger and Drift joined us in the café. Then, Ode took the floor to prepare us for the next phase of my plan.

“Alright, a couple of things you all need to know about humans, in case you don’t already know,” she said, glancing at each of us. “For one, they don’t acknowledge that thereare people from other planets—noten masse, as it were—so learning this can be a kind of trauma and you will need to be understanding if things go awry. Sometimes there’s screaming or fainting or vomiting…humans tend toward the dramatic. So, after you mog, make sure you have one of us look you over to ensure you look completely human. And two, these people speak English.”

We all groaned in unison, and Ode put up a hand to quiet us. “I know, it’s an ugly language and it feels weird coming out of our throats, but that’s what they do, so I have jet injectors for everyone to be able to speak their language fluently. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.”

Over the next few minutes, she inoculated us all with that dreadful language, and we started mogging into our human form.

Ode looked each one of us over thoroughly, and took special care to ensure the mogging had worked for Treg. It was strange to look human, and to see my friends with those characteristics, as well. I had done it as a teenager, of course—one of those rebellious phases all classed Ladrians go through—but to conduct business of any variety as a human felt peculiar.

I looked in the mirror at what they would see. Gray hair, trimmed short. Hazel eyes. Strong jaw, pronounced chin. At least I was able to keep those aspects of myself. But I was so much shorter and smaller.Proportional, I supposed. I guessed to be only six and a half feet tall, and my musculature was that of human athletes.

“I feel like a child,” I complained.

Ode laughed, her newly yellow hair tossed over her shoulder. “The height difference?”

I nodded. “It’s so strange. I had forgotten how short I am as a human.”

“You’re still taller than most of the humans,” Tiger said, glancing my way. “So be careful. They are easily intimidated by height.”

“Sarah never was,” I said, feeling even more uncomfortable seeing that my tail was now gone.

He laughed incredulously. “Are you kidding? When we stole her from this weird planet, she was intimidated by everything. Remember, Ode? All the screaming?”

“It was a lot,” Ode agreed. “So let’s keep that in mind for when we talk to these people, okay?”

I swallowed hard. “Will do.”

Once we were all human looking and spoke English with relative ease, Drift parked us between some trees near our destination in a way that hid the ship. I had always wanted to come to Earth, but I had never thought I would do it without Jac. When I thought of him, every part of me ached for him. Then I thought of Sarah and the predicament she was in, and I could have wept. But I forced all those emotions down and focused on the mission at hand.

“Are we ready?” I asked my crew.

They all nodded and Ode said, “Everyone is human, everyone is speaking English. I think we are ready to do this.”

“Do we all remember our cover stories?” I asked them.

Again, more nods. But each of them wore the same anxious look that tightened across my chest. I forced my human face to become lineless, to show no worry. To ignore my thundering, apprehensive heart.

“Follow me,” I said, and led the way to the exit.

A keening noise poured in, as the Earth’s warm humid air flowed up the lowering onramp.

Startled, I asked, “What is that sound?”

“Crickets,” Tiger explained.

“Are they aggressive?” I asked him, my body tensing as the high pitched sound in my ears. “Are they in pain?”

“No, they’re some kind of bug,” Tiger said, sounding unconcerned. “They make that sound all night. I think it’s a mating thing. We’re probably hearing thousands of them right now.”

I fought the urge to cringe at the bugs and walked onto the ground, followed by the crew. Earth gravity was close to Orhon and Halla, but the atmosphere smelled flowered. Near the house, there were bushes covered in white flowers, so I assumed they were the source.

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