Chapter 2

The alien trio chose to go to Earth during Mardi Gras. They reasoned that they could interact with humans in a normal manner while disguised in yet another holiday costume. The citizens of New Orleans celebrate Mardi Gras in a big way so the aliens picked Tulane University to visit on a busy weekend. They drove Hector's 'hand built car' and parked it in Tulane's north student lot at one o'clock on Saturday afternoon.

Before landing on Earth, Worel had hacked into the internet and made an appointment to meet with Charlie Smith, a brilliant physicist. Charlie had developed theories that led him to believe that the speed of light might not be an absolute limit. Worel had a few hours to kill before his meeting so he decided to walk across town to the café on Lake Pontchartrain. Hector and Mary headed for the Student Center.

During her routine check of parking lots, a Tulane security woman noted the gull winged car. Such a fancy vehicle seemed out of place in student parking and so she ran the license plates. Because the plates were Canadian, registered in Ontario, the Louisiana DMV system kicked the request to the national system. After two hours the results came back. The plates belonged on a silver Mercedes Benzes. The plates had not been reported stolen.

"Well, this car is certainly not a Mercedes," thought the security woman. She checked her files again and found a grainy picture of a car reported to be involved in the disappearance of six high school students in Ohio. She notified the sheriff.

The sheriff was excited. His office might solve a case that had remained in the national headlines for months. He called out the swat team. When they arrived at the school lot, he positioned six snipers so that their fire patterns covered both sides of the car as well as the front and back. Ten plainclothes officers spread out along the grounds around the parking lot while three patrolmen remained in their cars. Another fifteen squad cars slowly drove the streets near the campus. The trap was set. Now, all they could do was wait.

Hector and Mary found their prospects, two men and three women, at a campus study group for healthy living. They invited the humans to see their (non-existent) organic gardening endeavor in a greenhouse complex one hour distant. The seven of them made their way back to Hectors' car. When they arrived, Hector moved to open the car door for his guests. Three sheriff deputies quickly came forward and ordered the group to the ground.

The humans immediately became belligerent and refused to cooperate. The deputies drew their weapons and Hector and Mary drew their laser weapons. In less than a second the three lawmen lay dead.

The snipers reacted. Their comrades were down. All had clear shots and each fired once. Hector suffered two wounds to his head and was killed instantly. Mary was hit in the chest and would die five minutes later.

Like others of their species, when doing field work off planet, all three carried tracking devices embedded in their left lower arm. These were linked to their communicators which were designed with special functions. Because of the Prime Directive, one of these functions was to monitor the life signs of its owner. If an alien were captured or killed, the communicators would detect it. Ninety seconds after an owner's death or incapacitation, or incarceration, the communicator would go critical and destroy the body.

The devices noted that Hector was dead and that Mary was mortally wounded. The communicators signaled Hector's car and activated an auto-drive program which would cause it to leave for their home base one minute later, with or without the rest of the team. The devices then began their ninety second countdown to self destruct.

Worel and Charlie Smith had been talking theoretical physics and Worel easily won Charlie's confidence. Worel knew that faster than light travel was possible, because the aliens had faster than light technology. Worel put enough "INSIGHT" into the discussion to overwhelm Charlie's doubts and insure he accepted an invitation to visit Worel's lab. The two were walking to the parking lot to meet Hector when Worel's communicator signaled a warning.

The communicator notified Worel that Hector was dead and that Mary was dying. Since both team leaders were mortally wounded, Worels' com unit was programmed to go critical unless he made it to the car. With less than a minute to act Worel had a decision to make. He chose to live. Worel used his pocket knife to cut his forearm open and remove the tracking device. With blood splattering everywhere, he dumped both his communicator and the tracking device into his briefcase. Worel then heaved his brief case into the lake. Pulling the astonished Charlie with him, they dropped to the ground behind a three foot high concrete landscape wall.