Close Encounters

[cautiousswitch]

“Sherrif! Sherrif! We got ‘em!”

“Calm down, Dell.  Who did you get?”

“The aliens! We got ‘em!”

Oh crap.  One of the deputies chose this as a good time to go to the bathroom; the other started to busily clean his desk, clearly not wanting to get involved.  Sherrif Dawson took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.

“You’re sure they’re aliens? You and Clint have been making a lot of claims.”

“We got ‘em tied up in the back of Clint’s truck.  They’s aliens alright.”

Double crap.  “You’ve studied them?”

“Hell no! Not after all those government warnings about alien viruses.  Once we got ‘em we kept our distance.”

The Sherrif gave a sigh of relief.  When they had first started reporting aliens he had told them he would alert the government and hoped that the threat of disease would keep them from investigating further.  Things hadn’t worked out quite as he’d hoped but his lie had done a little good.

“Get Marlow,” he told the one deputy., “We’d better take control of these aliens.  We got special training on how to handle aliens after your first sighting,” he lied to Dell.  “Better let me and the deputies unload them.”

“Good thinking, Sherrif.”

“So where did you catch them?” Dawson asked as they headed for the station parking lot.

“Out by that clearing east of the bend in the creek.  I know you said not to try and catch ‘em or touch ‘em or anything, but we thought maybe we could get a picture of their ship – then we would have gotten out of there.  Course we stumbled across two of them and, well, we just got carried away and grabbed ‘em.  To be honest, we sort of forgot about the diseases until we had ‘em pinned, so weren’t sure what to do.”

 “As you can see they got no sexual organs despite being naked.  Their skin is darker than you’d find on them Greys and definitely not human.  Probably has something to do with their own planet.  They appear to be a new type or possibly some sort of Grey/Nordic crossbreed…”

“Clint, delete that and get away from those… aliens.”

“C’mon, Sherrif, I’ve got to document this.”  Clint was trying to get a good video of his captives with his phone while staying a safe distance away from any alien viruses.

“And if their superiors are monitoring Earth communications, they’ll find out we’ve got them and destroy us all.”

“Goddamn aliens!” Clint cried out but started deleting the video.  “You finally get proof of ‘em and they blow up the whole town.”

“The government wouldn’t want us causing a panic until they determine the aliens’ motive for being here, so it’s best not to tell anyone we got them until I’ve contacted them.  Boys, get the… aliens,” he still had trouble saying the word seriously, “inside.”

The two deputies lowered the tailgate and slid one of the hogtied bodies out.  It started to struggle, but the two of them were able to control it.

“I’m sure if this leads to peaceful relations between us and them,” Sherrif Dawson pointed up, “you’ll be heroes.  Until then the government will want to keep things quiet.  You two should go home and shower, wash your clothes, you know alien precautions.”

“Better hose out the truck too,” one of the deputies added as they returned for the other body.

Good one.  “Yeah, a little bleach should do the job.”

He watched the two concerned citizens drive away before going back into the station.  The two bodies were on the floor, squirming and making strange grunting sounds.  He knelt by one of them and located the hidden zipper running down the back.  It had some sort of locking mechanism on it.

“Untie them. Lock them up if they give you any trouble.  I’ve got to make a phone call.”

In his office, the Sherrif pulled out a copy of the county code before making his call.

“Hello, Elegant Designs.  How may I help you?” said an overly friendly voice.

“Cut the bullshit, Teri. It’s Sherrif Dawson.  I’ve got to talk to one of your bosses.”

“I’m sorry, Sherrif.  We’re hosting a special event and they’re all with clients.  I can’t interrupt…”

“Tell them we’ve got two of your clients in lockup.  I think they won’t mind the interruption.”

There was an awkward pause.  They would certainly want to know if the law had any clients but would also mind that they did.

“Goddess Claire,” a dignified voice finally responded.  “How are you this evening, my dear?”

“We have two of your clients,” he said as calmly as possible.

“Our clients are usually so discreet.  What makes you think they are ours?”

“They haven’t mentioned you by name.  The rubber suits they’re locked in prevents them from saying much of anything.”

“Oh.  Those two.”

“Locals caught them in the woods.  I know you own about a third of those woods, but they had wandered well into public lands.  I’ve told you, you have to mark your borders better.”

“We have.  Those suits do block vision a little.  There’s no law against walking through the woods at night, is there?”

“No, there isn’t.  Nor is there any law against wearing rubber suits in public.  And I doubt that they were engaged in any,” he glanced at the book he had been thumbing through, “lewd or unseemly behaviour.”  Dell and Clint would still be talking about fornicating aliens trying to propagate if they had seen anything of that sort.  “And if anything like that does happen you’ve been good keeping it out of sight of the border.”

“Oh, Sherrif, some day you will have to visit our side of the woods and we will show you what goes on there.  Or we can keep it inside if you aren’t a nature lover…” Goddess Claire said teasingly.

“Right now a few local kooks just think it’s aliens.  I told you, any time they wander of your land we get calls about aliens.”

“It’s those masks, I tell you.  Haven’t we kept our other outside activities under wraps?”

“Most locals stumbling across your other activities would be happy to watch, but seeing those suits at a distance makes people think it’s aliens.  If you give the kooks any more reason to keep talking then all sorts of kooks will be coming to town.  What will the rest of your clients think of your discretion if the ‘design studios’ are at the centre of every internet conspiracy webpage?”

“Point taken, darling.  I also don’t think they would care much for one of your cars to show up during tonight’s activities.  I will send a slave to pick up those two if you wouldn’t mind holding them a little longer.  They’re really harmless.”

“You’ve tipped us off about abduction scenarios in the past.”

“Yes.  Really not their thing, but now that it’s happened once they may have a taste for it.  I’ll see to it that they have a stern talking to.”

“It might be considered filing a false police report if they do it on purpose in the future.  I won’t be able to just let them go.”

“I’ll be sure they understand that.  You really are a peach for releasing them to us this time.  Consider my offer to show you our business always open.”