chapter 1

In some ways, I liked the isolation of my ranch. It was 250 acres in Wyoming, northeast of Rock Springs. From my porch, I could see a mountain range to the west and north, and the Great Divide to the east. In other ways, I found myself feeling lonesome. Rock Springs was over a 45 minute drive, although there were smaller towns closer by where I could buy the necessities. But they didn't have much to offer as far as socializing. My nearest neighbor was about a 10-15 minute drive, and since everybody's spreads were nestled in hills, chance encounters simply didn't happen.

But, it had been my choice to move here. Originally from Sacramento, I'd gone to college, gotten the degree, and went to work in Silicon Valley. I was good at it, and the money was good, very good. But the pressure and the pace were brutal. There wasn't a lot of time to date, and the girls weren't my type anyway. I was not your typical California guy looking for the lean girls. For whatever reason, I preferred girls that ranged from pleasantly plump to downright chubby. They were few and far between in Silicon Valley.

At any rate, I found myself turning 30 and starting to burn out when the family lawyer, Bert Lansing, called me. "Pete," he opened, "I'm sorry to call with bad news. I don't know how to say it gently, so I'll just say it. Both your parents were killed in a car accident yesterday. I'm just as sorry as I can be. Let me know what I can do."

Obviously I was devastated. I hadn't been very good about keeping in touch with my parents, with the long hours I had been putting in at work. Now they were gone. Settling the estate had been simple, and Bert handled all the details. I was an only child, so it all came to me. Both of my parents had had successful careers, so it was no surprise that I inherited a comfortable amount of money. Added to the money I'd been too busy to spend over the last eight years, I found that I really didn't have to work if I didn't want to. The surprise in the estate was the 250 acre ranch in Wyoming. I knew my parent liked to visit Wyoming, and I'd been vaguely aware that they had talked about buying land there, but I didn't realize that they had actually done it. But there it was, and it was now mine. Free and clear. It even had a comfortable cabin on it, large enough to be considered spacious, but not so large that it was too much for one guy to take care of. After I settled my parent's affairs, I decided that I'd had enough of Silicon Valley, and I would take an extended sabbatical on my new ranch.

I was on my porch at my favorite time of day. It was early summer, the days were long, I'd had dinner and it was a good time to sit on the porch with a tumbler of scotch. The sun had gone down, and the light was fading. That's when I saw it. A streak of light came over the horizon and touched down just north of my cabin. In the dim light, I could barely see that it had been some kind of object that had come down horizontally, skipped on the ground a couple of times and came to a rest. I grabbed a flashlight and ran out there.

My first thought was that some kind of military jet had come down. They flew over now and then. But as I got closer, it didn't look like a jet at all. I stopped running and walked up to within about twenty feet of it. It had a grey metal body with a string of windows that wrapped around the front and halfway down the sides. It was shaped like an upside down bathtub, except for the rear, which was cut off flat. No wings and no tail. I guessed it at about 40 feet long and maybe 15 feet wide at the base. I played the flashlight over it, and didn't see any damage. The metallic looking skin was smooth. Just then, I heard a mild whine, looked toward the front of the craft and a door lifted up and out. I was wondering just what I might be dealing with, and whether I should have already been running back to the cabin. Curiosity held me in place and I watch the opening. A woman walked out.

She was about five foot seven, with light brown hair and a medium build. She had reasonably attractive features, and the word that came to mind was average. Average height, average build, average looks. Someone you wouldn't necessarily notice on the street. She was wearing a set of beige coveralls, again nothing that would catch the eye.

She shook her hair as though she needed to clear her head. Then she looked around and saw me. Well, I was standing there in the dark with a flashlight, so she would certainly see me. I still hadn't thought to move, or anything else.
"Hello," she said, "I hope my landing didn't scare you."

"No," I replied, proud that my voice wasn't quivering. "I saw you go down and thought you might have crashed."

"I didn't crash exactly, but it was a hard landing. My thruster controls were going in and out, and I had to bring it down in a hurry."

"Uh, yeah, uh, well, I, uh..." I realized I was sounding like an idiot.

"You're wondering what kind of craft this is, and who I am, aren't you?" she said, looking amused.

"Well, yeah, I've never seen anything like this before."

"Since I'm going to need your help, I guess I better tell you then, shouldn't I? As you may have guessed, I'm not of this world and of course my craft isn't either."

That's when I really started to get nervous. Just what had fallen on my ranch? And was I in danger? I guess she saw my unease. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you. I was on a mission to learn about your people. I've been monitoring your transmissions for a little over a year now, and learned several of your languages. Also enough of your customs that I've been able to walk among you now and then and learn firsthand about you. You are a very interesting people."

"You said you needed my help? What do you what?"

"Right to the point, a quality of most North Americans and some Western Europeans. Okay, that's fine. I'm not supposed to be seen. My job is to observe and learn without anyone knowing about it. We don't think your world is ready to deal with people from...." She pointed straight up. "With my controls malfunctioning, I had no choice but to reveal myself to you, but I'd really like to keep it to just you. Can I stay here for a few weeks until my home world can send spare parts? And can you help me hide my craft?"

I thought about whether I should call the authorities, like maybe the police. On the other hand, she hadn't broken any laws, she had just broken down. I wouldn't call the law on someone whose car had broken down, would I? And so far she had been nice, so calling the cops seemed like it would be a lousy thing to do. "Okay, sure. How are we going to move it?"