Epilogue

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Alienn, Arkansas – The Big Bang Truck Stop conference room

Diesel Grey pushed the button on the speakerphone and connected to a special number he’d been given to speak to the leaders and representatives of Nocturne Falls.

“Hello.” The call was answered by a man with an English accent.

“This is Diesel Grey. I operate and manage the Big Bang Truck Stop in Alienn, Arkansas. You’re expecting my call, yes?”

“Yes.”

Diesel had spoken to Hank Merrow when his cousin had been sent to retrieve the occupants of the ship that had crashed near Nocturne Falls. He knew the sheriff didn’t have an English accent.

“I’m here with my two of my brothers, Cam and Axel. Cam is our security officer here in Alienn, and Axel is our communications officer. We’d like to extend an opening expression of good faith regarding our two towns and their unique place in this world.”

“Good to meet you, Diesel,” the man said. “My name is Hugh Ellingham. I’m here with the sheriff of Nocturne Falls, Hank Merrow.”

Diesel thought of the vivid account Stella had given him regarding the sheriff. “When I first met him I thought he was big and tall with icy blue eyes and a mean streak, but he turned out to be decent. He did let me and Draeken go after speaking with you.”

“Good to talk to you again, Sheriff Merrow. My cousin Stella sends her regards.”

Diesel heard a grunt, then whispering. The sheriff said, “Please return my heartfelt regards to her. I hope she was able to meet her time-crunch deadline.”

“She was, thanks to your understanding in the matter. Let me start by saying we’d like to outline a mutually beneficial plan to keep the details of our respective towns private and out of the public light.”

“Great start,” Hugh said. “We’d also like to discuss a collaboration of technology, with a special slant toward the device used to make humans forget what they’ve seen regarding your presence on Earth.”

Diesel glanced at Cam. Technology was his department. His brother frowned, but didn’t scream, “No!” either. Diesel viewed it as a positive step in the right direction.

“That would be great. I’m assuming you also have such technology in place for your purposes.”

Hugh said, “Yes. But I’d say it’s a quite different method than you might be accustomed to.”

“Even so, I believe it wouldn’t hurt to combine our efforts at some future date.”

“Agreed. Let’s set up a regular monthly phone call to discuss plans to collaborate, meet and further combine our resources. Would the first day of every month at this same hour work to get us started?”

“Yes. That is acceptable.” His brothers made faces at his use of the more formal wording. He was just an Arkansas boy most days, but with Hugh Ellingham’s polished English accent he felt like he should use his best grammar.

“Excellent. Next time we’ll initiate the call.”

“Perfect,” Diesel said, then added, “I look forward to speaking with you next time. Until then, keep on truckin’.”

The End

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Next up, look for NFU #2

Invasion of the Alien Snatchers

(The Guard) in May 2017

And also NFU #3

The Alien Who Fell to Earth

(The Pilot) in September 2017