“Why are you still doing in my house?” asked Martha.
“You have made yourself a positive nuisance today. I told you to leave my home
and I would have expected you to have the decency to do so.” She couldn’t
believe she was having this conversation.
“I
have nowhere to go to, Martha Walker,” she said. “I’m sure you understand what
that is like.”
Martha
stared at her long and hard. “How do you know my name?”
‘It
is a long story, one that I think you will not have the willingness to listen
to or believe.”
“If
it has to do with me I want to know about it,” Martha replied. “I have the
right to know if some weird scientific experiment has to do with me.”
“Have
to do with you?” the woman in the
spacesuit rolled her eyes dramatically. “You people think that everything is
about you all the time, as if you were something of any importance!”
“You
keep saying ‘you people’ as if we were something apart from you. What makes you
better?”
“Lots
of things my dear, but—my, aren’t you quick one.”
“Don’t
change the subject.”
The
woman in the spacesuit began to pace up and down across the room, fingers
pressed to her chin, deep in thought. Martha stood quivering in fear and awe,
although she tried to look composed and serious. Outside the sky began to tinge
red; it was five o’clock and the sun was starting to rise.
Eventually
the woman in the spacesuit stopped pace and crossed the room to Martha,
standing very close to her and peering deeply into her eyes. “I must make you
promise to listen to me, not just listen but believe. I do not lie. I have
never lied in my life. I am telling you all of this because I desperately need
your help; there is a man hungry for my life and my protection is broken, for
now. This little apartment of yours seems to be the only protection I have.
Please hear me out.”
She
took Martha by the elbow and led her to the window. They stood beneath the
rising sun and talked quietly, the spacesuit lady leaning closely to Martha’s
ear.
“I
am an alien from another planet. Don’t be alarmed; I’m harmless as can be. My
species developed teleportation and space travel quite a long time ago—oh,
about three-thousand years ago now,” she added with a little laugh, almost
bitterly it seemed to Martha. She continued: “I set out to this planet a long
time ago, and I am in hot pursuit for a crime I did not commit. He is dead set
on punishing me for it too.”
“And
how on earth do you expect me to believe all of this?” asked Martha. “Who are
you anyways?”
“They
call me Jun. As for proof, I could do three things to show you that I am
telling you the truth. I could either do something else spectacular to show you
that I am not of this world—but I wonder if you would actually want that,
considering what a great shock the other two did you. And why should I do it
again, considering that I have already given you evidence that I am something
that you have never seen before? Then there is the second option, which is to
use my telepathic abilities to enter your mind and show you that I am telling
you the truth. Fair warning though, it’s a fairly uncomfortable experience, especially
considering that we are not even of the same species. Other than discomfort, it
would definitely help to prove a few things.”
“What is the third option?”
“I
could always just force you to do what I want,” Jun said solemnly. “Of course
this would only be as a last resort; I don’t find mind control to be very
ethical, but you insist on being stubborn and putting my life in danger I will
have to do what I deem necessary.”
Martha
stepped back and cleaned against the desk with a heavy sigh. These options did
not seem to be in her favor, but at least they would help her figure out what
was happening.
How
unfair it was that this had chanced to happen to her! She wanted nothing to do
with this situation, so surreal that she could hardly believe it all wasn’t a
dream. And now this stranger was demanding her help when Martha couldn’t
ascertain whether she trusted her or not. Martha just wanted to be left alone
entirely. Martha however could feel within herself that this would be all
right. What other reason could this be here for than something spectacular? She
could think of no rational explanation. And she could not turn away someone who
was suffering. So slowly she turned to the lady in the spacesuit and answered,
“So
you invading my brain seems to be the only option.”
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