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V - the Visitors
EnkiSchmidt
Posts: 5,341 Member
I’m posting a picture story on my tumblr, but hit a wall where I have finished the script, but little motivation to take any more screenshots. Maybe if I post here, too, I’ll find that motivation again.
The story is based on the miniseries V – the Visitors, starring my Detroit sims. If you watched the series, you already know the plot, and if you played Detroit: Become Human, you’ll have an idea what each of the sims might so next. If you know neither, that’s actually the best way to go into this story, because I’m going to take a fair number of liberties with the source material.
That said - Enjoy!
Blog link: https://enkisstories.tumblr.com/tagged/sims4 dbh VtheVisitors/chrono
The story is based on the miniseries V – the Visitors, starring my Detroit sims. If you watched the series, you already know the plot, and if you played Detroit: Become Human, you’ll have an idea what each of the sims might so next. If you know neither, that’s actually the best way to go into this story, because I’m going to take a fair number of liberties with the source material.
That said - Enjoy!
Blog link: https://enkisstories.tumblr.com/tagged/sims4 dbh VtheVisitors/chrono
Currently playing: Journey to Batuu & Horse Ranch mashup
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Detroit, 1983.
In the course of their investigations the detectives Anderson and Reed have driven to a tiny loading dock at the Detroit river. Here they take a break for a quick snack. One of them, at least.
Gavin: “You sure you don‘t want anything? Could be a long afternoon today…”
Hank: “I’ll eat when real food becomes available again. Meat, boy!”
Gavin: “Fish is meat.”
Hank: “Hell, no! Even vegetarians eat fish! Such a pity I got paired with an upright walking cat instead of with a human!”
Gavin: “I won’t argue with you while your twin watches over you. Two against one isn’t fair!”
Hank: “Twin…?”
Following Gavin’s gaze, Hank looks over his shoulder. Then both men laugh.
Hank: “Oh, Gavin… never change!”
Hank watches his co-worker snack on his fish sandwich, occasionally casting a casual gaze over the dock or into the sky. The air is flickering, what is strange, because it isn’t that hot today.
Hank flinches…
Gavin: “Huh? For a moment I thought I’d seen… something. In the sky. But it’s only the seagulls.”
Hank: “Nah. I wasn’t sure myself, but now that you noticed it, too, I realize that there is indeed something odd up about the sky.”
Gavin: “In case of a concealed UFO, how far upwards exactly does the DPD’s jurisdiction reach?”
Hank: “I dunno. But I know I’m going to clamp the suckers the moment they land somewhere they shouldn’t!”
Gavin: “And for real? What do you think is causing this? Pest Control Supply & Co. releasing their waste into the environment again, maybe?”
Hank: “Yeah, sounds about right.”
Hank and Gavin cannot know that their joke is actually the truth. An alien capital ship has entered Earth’s atmosphere and is about to drop its cloaking device in a coordinated effort with forty-nine others.
From a faraway star system these visitors may come, but they look human. Even the smiles they exchange and their nervousness gestures when faced with their difficult task are astonishingly similar to 🐸🐸🐸🐸 sapiens’.
The only noticeable difference is the red light that fills the bridge. The lamps radiating it are installed here solely for warmth and therefore energy. The crew’s eyes, despite these beings being tetrachromates, have lost the red cone. To them red appears white.
Simon: “Approaching the east coast of the You Essay. Preparing for landfill…”
Markus: “I hope not.”
Simon: “Huh? Oh, I see. Preparing for landFALL… All systems are perfectly in sync with the rest of the fleet.”
Josh: “Same goes for the communication channels, Captain. If we wanted, we could play a fleetwide game of Bingo.”
Markus: “Good! Simon - activate the extravehicular cameras!”
…
Markus: “Simon…?”
Markus: “That’s you, Lieutenant!”
Simon: “Oh! Ah… sorry. I should get used to getting called by a human name, right? Ssssimon. My name is Simon.”
Markus: “What’s our ship’s name in human speech?”
Simon: “The Jericho! How could I forget that?!”
Markus: “Your priorities are weird, Lieutenant. Let us see some landscape now!”
When the Jericho’s external cameras capture the first impressions of Earth, the whole bridge crew gasps audibly. It’s a windy day, and the waves crash on the shores of Lake Erie forcefully. The majesty of the display is not lost to the visitors, but because they function very similar to humans mentally, the first bridge officer already start joking to conceal just how deeply touched they are:
North: “Get out the floaties, guys, this is a planetwide beach resort!”
Josh: “According to the humans’ lore, these are called “lakes”. Imagine! All this water, and those barbarians say Oh, that, yeah, that’s just a lake!”
Markus: “All this water…”
Simon: “And food!”
Markus: “Huh? Where?”
Simon: “One moment… I’m zooming in as close as possible… There!”
North: “Aw, now you’ve made me hungry!”
Markus: “Haha! Leave it to us to approach a new planet and immediately locate a pizza delivery person! That’s why we’re the best ship in this fleet!”
Simon: “So what do you say, Captain? Should we go down right here?”
Markus: “Of course! Not even a question!”
Simon: “And the pool floaties, haha? I don’t think we brought any.”
Markus: “You can’t tell me the humans haven’t invented the most natural object for people living at the sea? I bet they have beach equipment that we never dreamed of! Soon as we get shore leave, there’ll be an epic shopping spree!”
And so the Jericho dropped her cloaking device right over Detroit…
Hank: “I see seagulls and… some kind of jellyfish.”
Gavin: “Jellyfish. Right. Totally a five mile diameter jellyfish.”
…
Gavin: “Hank?”
Hank: “Yes, Gavin?”
Gavin: “I think I’m not that fond of seafood anymore.”
Not just the humans were shocked at the sight of the UFO, the vessel’s Captain, too, was in for a surprise.
John: “Jericho! What was that just now? You were instructed to assume hovering position over New York! However, our grid shows you over Detroit!”
Markus: “NY is at the ocean, Sir. Salt water. Detroit has access to the Great Lakes and superior trade lines. Plus, the Jericho will cover two human countries in this spot.”
John: “Neither of that excuses your solo action, Captain! What would you tell the Great Thinker, if they asked you about this?”
Markus: “Well, that’s the beauty of our leader: being aptly titled. They think and would see my point.”
John: “Well, and I think that was one insubordination too much, Lieutenant Markus. The “Jericho” is to remain in her spot, we’ll send someone more reliable to New York. And you will prepare for the arrival of a new Captain to take over.”
Markus: “Oh, plum…”
Simon: “I’m unfamiliar with that word.”
Markus: “It’s not generally taught to personnel. The Supreme Leader fears we might use it in front of the humans.”
Simon: “Sounds like a word that will make anybody NOT using it a lot stand out like a gecko in heat in a wheatfield.”
Markus: “Stick out like a sore thumb.”
Simon: “Huh?”
Markus: “You did it again. You translated a saying literally when there is a perfectly valid english phrase you could have used instead.”
Simon: “I did? Oh, plum!”
And so the Visitors had come to stay. After the initial confusion, followed by a public meeting between Supreme Commander John and the United Nations Secretary-General, the two species tentatively got to know each other. The aliens immediately buying Belle Isle from the city of Detroit tarnished their reputation a little, but then again, the arrivals acting like rich tourists that could buy their way through town made them relatable. They even wore sunglasses all the time…
Because of the purchase, Detroit now had access to Visitor currency and vis a vis. It was deemed a good start.
Amanda: “My name is Amanda, I’m the Captain of the Detroit Mothership. This here is Lt. Markus, my right hand. The other Motherships boast about how much they can do for you "Earthlings", which is true, of course, but after our journey we’re also very excited to learn about local customs and just relax.
We’re looking forwards to learning from each other. I’m sure we can do great things together, things we never dared dreaming of individually!”
Amanda’s words became the Detroit Mothership’s official slogan and got replicated on thousands of posters. They were for sale same as action figures of Amanda and Markus.
A week later Markus and the Jericho's bridge crew were found drunk and stripped almost bare in a back alley but still remained steadfast in their conviction that coming to Detroit had been the right decision. They treated their stay as an exotic vacation that they enjoyed every minute of.
Humans and Visitors - united in consumerism first, curiosity second. It wasn’t what the movies had trained the people of Earth to expect from a first contact with aliens. But under the hood things weren’t as nice as on the surface, because nobody suspected that there might be a Visitors Vs. Visitors conflict ongoing…
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
I considered that, but I have a very bad track record of not knowing where to stop when creating franchise characters. If I made a Tyler sim, I'd also feel the need to add Faber, for Mike I'd "need" his mom, Sean, Tony, Marten... That's why I decided to keep canon characters' appearances off screen. Ham Tyler
There were two things every government had trouble keeping indoors when aliens came knocking at the door: The army and the children.
After “The Visitors” - so far they hadn’t revealed the name they called themselves by collectively, if any - had arrived at Earth, they tended to leave the armies to the local rulers, but reached out to the children. In the fifty cities that had Motherships hovering in geostationary orbit, the aliens founded “Friends of the Visitors” groups that worked not unlike scouts groups.
The Detroit/Windsor chapter met at Belle Isle Aquarium. At first it was only a tiny group consisting of no more than six regular attendees. One of those was Police Lt. Anderson’s son, Cole.
The group’s supervisor was the spitting image of Lt. Simon and was in fact that one’s sibling, although not twin, a fact that was baffling every human who saw Daniel and Simon together. How could two men who were neither twins nor clones look near identical?! However, once you talked the duo for some time, Daniel’s age advantage over Simon’s became apparent. They could both be adorably goofy at times when confronted with human customs, but Daniel was drawing on a richer life experience than Simon.
Daniel: “There the human children come. Alice? Promise you won’t hide in the alligator tank again!”
Alice: “P… p… promise…”
Daniel: “Hello, my name is Daniel, I’m the Detroit Mothership’s Youth Corps Leader. What is a fancy name for a nanny. And these here are Alice and Eustace.”
Cole: “There are baby visitors?!”
Eustace: “Call me a baby again and I’ll toss you into the alligator tank!”
Daniel: “Threaten another kid again and I’ll show them photos of you as a baby!”
Eustace: “You’re bluffing, Daniel! You mustn’t do that, Amanda wouldn’t allow it! - But just for your information, little human, I was an adorable infant! Were you, too?”
Cole: “I don’t know. But on my baby photo I’m on a polar bear pelt!”
Eustace: “…you win.”
Daniel: “Alice and Eustace were born during our journey. They’ve never been on a planet before.”
Emma: “Wow! So what are we gonna do today? Is there a program of sorts or do we just hang out? What kind of music do you listen to? Did you bring any records, Daniel?”
Alice: “Can we go look for a library?”
Much as the human children wanted to visit the mothership, for the “Friends of the Visitors”’s first meeting they went to the aquarium’s basement. In the artificial light down here Daniel removed his sun glasses and cap, what made the Visitor look both more approachable and less cool.
Daniel: “Which of you owns an LCD game?”
Emma: “I have a Microvision. It’s lame. But we’ve got a home computer!”
Daniel: “And we have these. Go on, try them out!”
Cole: “Oh, neat!”
Emma: “I’m so glad you brought the videogames! I was afraid we’d have to learn stuff here. You know, like in the girlscouts.”
Daniel: “Oh, you’ll learn stuff alright. Soon as the new captain has signed my lesson and excursion plan.”
Emma: “The new captain? What’s wrong with Amanda? Is it because she’s a girl?”
Daniel: “No, I meant that Amanda is the new captain. Because… we… uh… got shuffled around before entering orbit, so that everyone got assigned to the geographical region they liked to be in the most. That’s why.”
Cole: “And you wanted to come to Detroit of all places?”
Daniel: “Not specifically. Just the Great Lakes in general. Supreme Commander John sent us to your city literally the last minute.”
Cole: “Oh, he did? He must really hate you guys!”
Elsa: “This isn’t even a REAL tele-game. Videogames are played with your fingers only, you don’t have to hop around!”
Pierce: “But it’s fun!”
Elsa: “Yes!”
Emma: “Say, Daniel… you wouldn’t be interested in buying a car, would you?”
Daniel: “What?!”
Emma: “Thought so. Sorry. I promised dad to ask you. We own a car dealership, and he hopes to expand his customer pool.”
Daniel: “You kidding, little Emma? Of course I want a car! Having your own car means freedom to go wherever I want whenever I want! Tood bad we are trained at totally different vehicles. The city council doesn’t let us drive human cars.”
Emma: “So if mom and dad offered driving lessons to aliens that came in an UFO, would that be helpful? In addition to sound stupid?”
Daniel: “Yes to both!!! I take it your parents gave you their calling card to give me?”
Emma: “Yeah… here you go!”
Alice: “Is it true that humans eat all the time?”
Emma: “Who told you that?”
Alice: “I don’t remember. But I heard that when you are tired, you take a quick snack and can go on. You don’t have to rest in the sun.”
Emma: “Oh, you must mean coffee! That’s a real thing. But it doesn’t really give energy, it just makes your brain forget that you are tired.”
Daniel: “One sugar rush coming up, ladies!” (to himself:) “And probably diarrhea.”
Eustace: “What’s so cool about this place, Cole? It’s just a public aquarium, but you act as if drinking lemonade in the basement is the bees knees!”
Cole: “Oh, right, you can’t know that! During the prohibition this basement was a Speakeasy. People came here to drink alcohol in secret, when the government had outlawed doing so.”
Eustace: “That’s scary, Cole! The government being able to tell you what and what not to eat!“
Cole: “Well, I guess they only forbid stuff that is bad for you.”
Eustace: “Like…?”
Cole: “Like… chocolates… oh, plum! You’re right, Eustace! It’s a VERY scary thought!”
Cole: “Let’s see what you’re really made of now!”
Eustace: “I’ll crush you!”
Cole: “I’ll smash you!”
Cole: “Loser has to eat a whole… hm.. oh, I know! A whole live snail!”
Cole didn’t notice it, but suddenly Eustace didn’t focus on winning anymore...
None of the children, Human or Visitor, noticed that Daniel carefully monitored their progress in the skill game or that he was saving their results in the system. To them the man’s scrutinizing glare passed for the typical “adult looking important” mimic. As for the saved numbers, who didn't want to show off their High Scores later? There was nothing suspicious here.
“…to alleviate feelings of inferiority in the face of a space faring civilization by pretending that for all our achievements at least we have no fashion sense whatsoever.”
The sarcasm in the Visitor’s speech was dripping like acid, a stern contrast to the aliens’ usual amiable demeanor. The children couldn’t help but smirk. This man was “their” Visitor, their very own and slightly rebellious alien from outerspace who couldn’t wait to lay his hands on a driver’s license.
“Anyway, let’s eat now! Let’s see where… Ah, this would be the right place!”
Eustace: “Awesome!!! I like colorful fish so much!”
Daniel: “So how does this work? Where do we place an order? Or do we take something ourselves and carry it to the cashier’s desk?”
Cole: “Daniel! This is a pet shop!”
Daniel: “It is?”
Cole: “Surely you must have seen that there are rats and hamsters here? You don’t think humans EAT those?”
Focus… Food!
Focus… Food! Food!
Cole: “You aren’t saying anything, Daniel? Are you angry at me?”
Focus… focus… focus… Fooooooood!!!
Cole: “There’s a sushi bar upstairs. Its sign can easily get mistaken as leading to the pet shop. It’s a joke ‘round here.”
Daniel: “Yes! Upstairs! Now!”
Cole: “Maaan, you’re shivering! Living on protein bars on your space ship must be a bummer. But now it’s real food again for you.”
Daniel: “So that’s a sushi bar. What can one eat here?”
Cole: “Almost raw fish seasoned with vinegar and wrapped in algae leaves.”
Eustace: “Oh, please, Daniel! Can we try almost raw fish the way the humans eat it? Please, please, please!”
Daniel: “Okay, sounds good. Find seats, everybody, I’ll place an order.”
And so children of both planets sat down to eat onigiri while enjoying a splendid view over Spice Market.
Eustace: “Why’s my fish in algae leaves not twitching anymore? Is it dead?”
Cole: “Of course it’s dead! For real, you Visitors have some odd concepts of how we eat here on Earth!”
Some tastes take some serious getting used to…
Daniel: Ugh… can’t even tell whether I’m eating head or tail here…
Alice: Hm...
Eustace: Ugh… poor fishies… did they boil them or what?!
Cole: “And? How was it?”
Alice didn’t let me make up something, she made sure to throw me a thought bubble that made her preferences absolutely clear: Food that doesn’t struggle anymore is best food!
Alice: “Amazing! That was the best meal I ever had! Thank you for bringing us here, Cole!”
Alice: “Can we always eat like this, Daniel?”
Eustace: “Somebody please shoot me…”
Time passed. While the Visitors where sharing secrets of their advanced medicine with humanity and worldviews were challenged, some things remained the same. Small scale crime, for example, had neither dropped nor increased in number. Therefore for the DPD detectives the daily grind continued…
Gavin: “…although I swear there are fewer rats in the streets nowadays. Speaking of little rats, shouldn’t it be your weekend with Cole?”
Hank: “Yeah. But the kid is so absorbed in his Friends of the Visitors group that he hardly knows his family anymore. Can’t even blame him. The only thing that’s better than spaceships at this age are dinosaurs, after all.
I’m glad Cole learns not just how to push buttons that make shiny tech light up, but also solid character values during those get togethers. Still…”
Gavin: “Yeah, I feel you. I miss my brother, too.”
Hank: “Still no word of him? Or of Chloe?”
Gavin: “Nah. But on the other hand, radio silence from Elijah is nothing new. He always was a bit of a recluse.”
Hank: “Still, you sound worried…”
Gavin: “You know El, he’s a nutcase, the very model of a mad scientist. It’s guys like him who give scientists a bad reputation.”
Hank: “Ugh, don’t start me on that! One or two overzealous researchers cross the boundaries of decency with the Visitors and rightfully get mauled by the law of two planets, and suddenly the whole populace goes “Ew, all scientists evil!”. It’s stupid, but that’s humans for you.”
Gavin: “So what should I be more worried about: El getting arrested by Amanda, the Visitors getting cut apart by El or my job security from being related to a scientist?”
Hank: “Job secu… come again?!”
Gavin: “I’m not joking, Hank! The Chief warned me about “continuing my ways”, never mind that “my ways” are sharing half of my dna with Elijah. And Captain Fowler doesn’t assign us any high profile cases anymore. Things are spiraling out of control. Even for the standards of this city!”
While Gavin looked up to the ever looming presence of the UFO over Detroit, Hank tried to chain the most recent developments together:
“So I don’t get high profile cases anymore because you, my partner, are the half-brother of a scientist, because there is an alleged scientist-conspiracy against the Visitors? I should drop you for my own good - that about right?”
“Uh-huh, that sums it up. I wonder… I wonder if it were better if those plummers packed up and rode home!”
“Haha! Spoken like a true scientist conspiracy member! I shouldn’t just drop you, but also report you to the authorities!”
Hank laughed it off, but truth was that Gavin would have gotten in trouble for real, had he made his frustrated remark in, say, a bar. It was frightening.
Thanks to generous donations from the Visitors, the Detroit Police Department Central Station was looking like something out of a science fiction movie now, the kind with scheming A.I.s and sentient robots.
Truth be told, the Visitors couldn’t care any less about crime in Detroit. But they were taking threats to themselves serious and made sure to equip their human allys with the instruments to combat those threats.
Rika: “A package just arrived for you, Detective!”
Gavin: “Thank you, Rika!”
Rika: “What is it?”
Gavin: “Just some chemicals Forensics ordered. They’re for coloring slices of cells to better see the details.”
Rika: “Really? But didn’t we get a machine for evidence analysis along with all the other stuff from the Visitors?”
Gavin: “I guess so. But our nerds don’t understand how that thing works.”
Rika: “Misplaced the manual?”
Gavin: “Haha, no! The book only tells you what button to push and how to interpret the results the machine spits out. Nobody knows what it does, exactly.”
Rika: “Does that mean our forensics department mistrusts the Visitors?”
Gavin: “Nah! They are just naturally curious.”
Rika: “And why were YOU ordering the chemicals, anyway?”
Gavin: “Since we have the machines now, Captain Fowler cut Forensics’ budget. I still have plenty unspent expenses credit, so I chipped in.”
Rika: “Oh my…”
The one co-worker who was known as a highly competitive opportunist was suddenly dishing out money? But, wait, not to just anybody. Gavin Reed was aiding specifically the scientists in the basement, who seemed to distrust the Visitors. Reed’s own brother was a scientist, too…
“Oh my” didn’t even begin to cover it in Officer Tachibana’s eyes. The Scientist Conspiracy apparently was real! And it had infiltrated law enforcement!
“We’ll do great things together, huh? Wrong city for that, Amanda-dear.”
Fingers unfamiliar with the task moved a spray paint can left and right, up and down, until eventually two rows of crude letters were formed:
GO HOME
Gavin turned around and ran away. He might not have accomplished anything, and in fact, the man didn’t even feel any better after letting out his frustration.
For once Detroit had gotten graced with something good: technologically advanced aliens that were do-gooders through and through. But they were also… Gavin didn’t know what exactly the Visitors were doing wrong, only that it was showing “in everything” and that the aliens just didn’t want to see the damage they were doing. Something like that. In any case, they needed to go away!
One of these days the Kasbah Gallery for Contemporary Art hosted an exhibition of local celebrity artist Carl Manfred’s paintings. The man living even more reclusive than Gavin’s (still missing) brother, nobody expected him to stay for longer than a couple of press photographs, but then the miracle happened:
In young Lieutenant Markus of the Visitors Carl found a conversation partner who both understood and challenged the human. That came as a surprise, because Markus’ bridge crew had the reputation of tourists romping through the city. They drank, played loud music and stared uncomfortably long at humans in swimwear – definitely not into their eyes.
But today the same Markus who usually was the most rambunctious lout of the bunch showed a different side of himself, one that was eager to engage in discussions about the art and philosophy of two worlds. If he didn’t understand something about any given painting, the Visitor said so instead of steering towards allegedly safer topics like the paintings’ colors. In fact, Markus didn’t mention the colors at all…
Carl in turn was patient to a degree that few people would have given him credit to possess. One of those few who knew better was Carl's out of wedlock son, Leo, a young man who conveniently remembered his blood-relation to the painter whenever he was short of money. Standing a bit aside from the discussion, Leo directed his resentment against the world as a whole against the young Visitor. Why didn't Carl adopt Markus?!
Captain Amanda felt out of place at the exhibition. For the first time the Visitor Captain was interacting not with a pre-selected group of humans in a formal environment, but with dozens of them, coming and going as they pleased. Conversation partners changed as quickly as topics, and there was no concept to follow at all. What was posing a problem, because Amanda could not read human body language quickly enough.
Humans’ skins didn’t change with their emotions and energy level. At most they blushed a little. And so, when one Caroline Phillips innocently asked what was on Amanda’s mind, the Visitor blurted out: “Colors!!!”
“Pardon me…?” Caroline snapped.
Fortunately there was a different color related thought that had crossed the Captain’s mind several times:
“Oh, I meant… Seventy percent of your city’s population is black, but I only see pale skinned humans at this exhibition. Why is that so?”
Caroline: “There are… uh… lots, though? Of them?”
Amanda: “The cloakroom attendant. The toilet lady. Some cops. But only very few actual museum visitors.”
John: “Oh, speaking of the cloakroom! I think I left my… driver’s license in my overcoat. Let’s go check for it!”
Caroline: “Lost your driver’s license?”
John: “It was the first thing that came to mind, okay? Or would you have liked to stay and explain our history and how it is still echoing in today’s economy to Amanda? Things are just the way they are, but then those aliens make you see the world through their eyes and it suddenly looks like a much meaner place. The Visitors are oh-so enlightened… innocent… everything… My mind cannot decide whether to adore them as wide-eyed puppies or hate them for being so utterly perfect. - Oh, hello, Daniel!”
Daniel: “I heard you lost your driver’s license, John?”
Caroline: “No! Yes! He misplaced it. It didn’t get revoked.”
Meanwhile in the Detroit suburbs, police officer Chris Miller and a Visitor named Timothy were watching the Bellamy family residence, where a “scientist family” was living.
Chris: “What science exactly do the Professors Bellamy teach?”
Timothy: “I dunno. Does it matter?”
Chris: “…probably not. I’m just a bit annoyed at all the “Scientist” Conspiracy talk, as if that was an occupation like baker or hair stylist.”
Timothy: “Yeah. How about we call it “Nerd Conspiracy” instead?”
Chris: “That sounds a lot less intimidating, lol.”
Timothy: “Haha, you’re right! Or, here’s is a good one: Comparative Literature Studies Conspiracy!”
Chris: “Thank you for the laugh, Tim! I sure feel silly watching this house on a random day.”
Timothy: “It’s not that random, you know. With the big art exhibition in Detroit today, Captain Amanda suspects the Bellamys might use that as a distraction to slip out of town. And if they try that, we shoot them. You ready to do that, Chris?”
Chris: “Of course! I mean, why would they flee, if not because they are guilty? If they have nothing to fear, they’ll calmly stay put.”
Timothy: “…guess so.”
John: “So how’s my best driving student doing? Your reflexes are astonishing, Daniel! I take it you have a military background?”
Daniel: “Me? Haha, no! I’m a teacher.”
Caroline: “A teacher… just like you, John! Haha, that’s so surreal! Aliens drop out of the sky and they are cops and teachers and accountants! Not to mention human.”
John: “True, but come to think of it, what else should they be? Only primates have the capability to advance to sapience and invent space flight. Birds lack hands. And reptiles would laze around on heated rocks all day.”
Daniel: “Advanced reptiles would build houses with heat lamps. If you installed those at your workplace, that would function like a coffee shower for humans.”
John: “They’d still spend much of their time resting.”
Daniel: “They’d use the time to think! A lot!”
Caroline: “But there wouldn’t come anything out of it. You know how the innermost part of our brain is called the Reptile? Because they passed it down to the proto-mammals. And to this day the reptile is still the best actual reptiles can bring to the table in the brain department.”
Daniel: “That’s where you err, Caroline! Reptiles are actually pretty clever!”
Caroline: “It’s cute how you defend them, Daniel. Got a pet lizard?”
Daniel: “I used to, back home, but that’s beside the point!”
Caroline: “Let’s face it, reptiles are outdated creatures that evolution has discarded long ago in favor of primates.”
Later the bartender wouldn’t be able to explain just how Daniel had crossed the distance between himself and the Phillips couple. Everything had happened so fast, like an alligator attack. For half a minute the man watched the brawl in stunned silence, then he hit the panic button that would alert the DPD. Fortunately a police car was parked right outside the art gallery.
The first responder’s name was Antony Deckart and he went ahead full of confidence. Alien or not, Daniel wasn’t Antony’s first arrest in a bar and would hardly be the last.
“Come on, lad, drunk tank’s waiting! Consider it a rite of passage, then it’ll sting less!”
When Marlon Wilson arrived just a couple of moments later, he almost dripped over Antony. K.O.ing an officer that quickly attested the Visitor a respectable strength, so Marlon switched to a Martial Arts style that he hoped Daniel would not be able to match.
Daniel: “What’s that going to be? A dance competition?”
THUD!
Marlon’s boot connected with something solid. There wasn’t just skin under the Visitor’s jacket. A security vest, maybe.
On second thought… Visitors in general were moving slowly and Daniel was no exception. Only after he had entered combat mode had Daniel sped up and was now acting with astonishing reflexes. Adding that to superhuman strength and the mysterious dermal plating, Marlon came to a conclusion about what he was facing off with here:
“A robot! Holy plum, I’m fighting a robot!”
The boy either wasn’t aware of the police operation downstairs or he was under the impression that being the Lieutenant’s son cleared him to watch it, in any case Cole arrived in a cheerful mood - that died the moment his eyes fell on his afterschool teacher.
“D…d…daniel? What are you doing, Daniel?! Are you drunk?”
His ward’s arrival caused to Daniel to momentarily hesitate.
“Daniel! Stop attacking people!” Cole called out in his squeaky voice that was reminiscent of a mouse’s. “The cops won’t hurt you! Just fine you, and I bet you can even put that on your expense list! Please surrender! I promise it’ll be okay!”
Daniel didn’t care for any of the words, but Cole’s tone resonated within him. The boy’s disappointment was more than the Visitor could take now. He started moving slower, less coordinated, although far from sluggish.
Slowing down didn’t make Daniel any less of a danger in melee, but he was now a valid target for David Allen, the third cop who had been in the police car. David didn’t take any chances. Soon as he had an unobstructed line of sight, he emptied a full magazine of gel rounds into Daniel.
As the Visitor went down, he cursed little Cole for “tricking” him.
The cops grinned, after all, a little spite in the face of this defeat was to be expected. And then they smiled with relieve, because Daniel was still breathing, his heart beating. Uncanny combat powers notwithstanding, this was a living being, not a robot.
That evening Lt. Hank Anderson stayed late at work. The reason for this decision was kept in the rightmost holding cell, a certain prisoner Hank needed to make sure didn’t get mistreated. With no other pressing concerns, the man tried to familiarize himself with the computers the Visitors had donated to the DPD.
Meanwhile Hank’s son from a failed marriage was playing on a carpet on the floor, waiting for the second prisoner, his afterschool club teacher Daniel, to come back to his senses.
Cole: “Swoosh! Bam! Pow! Pow!”
Hank: “What’s going on down there? Sounds serious!”
Cole: “It is! The evil robo-overlord has captured Simon in a stasis tube. Amanda battles him, but robo-overlord is stronger. So Markus sneaks around robo-overlord and frees Simon!”
Hank: “That was clever of him. Aaaaaaand - kiss!”
Cole: “Ew, no, kissing is gross!”
Surprisingly that wasn’t new for the teacher. Life on the Visitor mothership was organized in a military fashion and ending up in detention now and then was pretty common across all ranks, the actual military members and the former civilians alike. And in any case getting locked up in solitary was still better than some of the chores you could get put to.
The question now was just how angry was Amanda at Daniel?
A quick look around revealed that the cell came with breakfast of the catch-it-yourself variant. The breakfast was wearing a leather jacket and was far too large to get swallowed whole. So that was the first chicanery during Daniel’s detention. Visitors were perfectly able to sustain themselves on dead meat, but smaller, live game was preferred and believed to be healthier.
Daniel (internally): I’m not going to eat this! It’s unhygienic, not to mention that a whole human for a single person is wasteful.
It was a moot point anyway, since Daniel was still feeling like having collided with the mothership. The Visitor was in no condition to hunt large game.
While pondering his food options, Daniel noticed that the constant hum of a mothership in hover mode was missing. Maybe he was at the Visitor base at Belle Isle?
The prisoner took a step towards the cell door. A quick look outside revealed a mixture of human furniture and Visitor tech. A handful of humans in police uniforms were present, pretending to work.
Daniel: “Wait, what, are we at the DPD?!”
Breakfast Cellmate: “Where else?”
Daniel: “Oh.”
This detention had just went downhill from icky breakfast to no breakfast at all. Nothing species appropriate for a Visitor at least.
Gavin: “So now there’s no place you Visitors haven’t visited, ey? Haha! You’ll make the news, dude, the first alien to get fined for a drunken brawl! How did you get plastered in the first place, even? The way you went at my co-workers, one would think a guy with your condition would be able to keep his booze.”
Daniel: “Shut up! I wasn’t drunk! The Phillips were being jerks! - Wait, your co-workers you said? Then why are you in here, if you’re a cop? Spying on me?!”
Gavin: “Graffitti’ing the building… I'm getting better at the actual act, but didn't improve in the Get-away-quickly-afterwards department.”
Daniel: “Ah, so. And do you by chance know Lt. Anderson?”
Gavin: “He’s been my partner for years.”
Daniel: “Then you also know little Cole?”
Gavin: “Sure!“
Daniel: “I think I just lost my appetite…”
Gavin: ???
Gavin: “I don’t know what that meant just now, or what got into you in the art gallery. But I DO know that I’m fed up with you “Visitors”!
Hank is staying late today to make sure I’m “safe”, from what- or whoever. Because you criminalized my brother (nevermind he’s perfectly able to criminalize himself), my career, too, is going down the drain!”
Daniel: “Hey! Hands off!”
Gavin: “You wish! How many more bruises do you think Hank can explain away as you having sustained them in the brawl, hm? I’ll spell it out it for you: A whole d--- lot!”
Daniel: “Kch… kch…”
Gavin: “There the mighty hero from outerspace is… Ha! Even you need to breath like any living creature. So, what are you gonna do now?”
Daniel couldn’t tell. He was, however, quite certain what his body would do reflexively, if the human didn’t let go of him in one… two…
*GOB!*
Gavin: “Ouch, ouch, ouch! Did you just SPIT at me?!”
Squirting acid that could leave a large mammal such as Gavin temporarily blinded was a tried and true defense mechanism of the Visitors. And it would have worked against a random pedestrian, but not a detective who had learned the ropes in the streets of Detroit. It took more than a little pepper spray to incapitate Gavin Reed.
Gavin quickly wiped the acid off his face, then attacked his cellmate again. The human was better trained, more experienced in dirty fighting, the Visitor was naturally stronger and quicker, but a non-combatent in addition to just having woken up from unconsciousness. Gavin didn’t expect his opponent to flinch away instead of attacking back, and so his fingers scraped across Daniel’s skin… that suddenly gave way, revealing a second layer underneath.
Gavin: “A mask? You’re wearing a rubber mask? And this is what you’re looking like underneath? Like the proverbial little green men from Mars?!"
Daniel: “Wrong, human. This is how I look with the glue that holds the mask in place smeared all over my face. And with contact lenses.”
Gavin: “Hank! Hank, come quick! There’s some weird critter in my cell!”
Daniel: “Says the little pink man from outer space…”
Hank: “Coming… coming! Geeze, Gavin, what’s with the commotion? A spider in your cell?”
Gavin: “I think Daniel would like that a lot. It spit acid at me, Hank! With a forked tongue! And the “dermal plating” Marlon and Antony spoke of are scales. It’s a plumming lizard!”
Hank: “Oh, crap! - I think I need a coffee now.”
Gavin: “Make it two!”
Hank: “So, two coffee and a… What are you going to have, Daniel? Not really a spider?”
Daniel: “A chipmunk, please, if it’s no too much of a bother.”
Hank: “So… do we panic now?”
Gavin: “Maybe later. I’m too angry now. Too much of a professional to panic, probably. Or maybe the sight of Daniel munching down on the basement’s spider population has numbed all emotions in me.”
Hank: “Hey, I was trying to lighten the mood! I didn’t expect Daniel to really eat them! - So what will we do now? For now we locked Daniel in the basement, out of sight, but we cannot keep him there forever in the hopes his kin will forget him.”
Gavin: “Maybe he’d like to hibernate down there?”
Hank: “That’s the point, there are too many Maybes involved here. So let’s do our job and start eliminating a few of them. Soon as the suspect has finished his meal, we’ll interrogate him.”
It was night already when Hank and Gavin, running on donuts and lots of coffee, took Daniel, running on lots of spiders and the bright desk lamp, into the interrogation chamber. The atmosphere was tense, but not hostile. In fact, Hank likened the short-fused alien to the equally easy to anger Gavin. Different metabolisms aside, psychologically the higher mammals and the higher reptiles seemed similar enough.
Praying silently that he’d be able to read the Visitor’s mimic and body language well enough, the detective opened the conversation.
Hank: “So, Daniel, you may wonder why you are in this room and I’m obligated to tell you before we start: You are suspected of impersonation.”
Daniel: “I’m pretty sure we do not use masks of individual humans.”
Hank: “Impersonating a whole species! Or, more prosaic, Intent to Mislead.”
Daniel: “That’s hard to deny after the mask came off, I guess…”
Hank: “Yeah. But I get it! Reptiles disguising themselves as humans makes sense. Humans fear everything that’s different. We have a long history of subjugating even members our own species on that account.”
Daniel: “Indeed! The masks make this contact so much easier! Without them, you’d never have let us mingle freely in your society, let alone get close to your children. Thank you for understanding!”
A relieved smile appeared on the Visitor’s face. But Hank wasn’t finished yet…
Hank: “Why would befriending our children be such a priority for you, one wonders? I’ll tell you: Kids are easily impressed. They already love you to pieces and my own son would probably jump if you said frog.”
Hank: “Molding the younger generations… making the older ones dependent on your products… probably factory seconds or stuff that’s outdated on your planet, but that aside… These are the baby stages of colonialism!”
Hank: “I seem to have hit a nerve, but I have a haunch that there’s more.”
Gavin: “Maybe we should let Cole talk to the Visitor? Would you be okay with that?”
At this point of the interrogation the Visitor/Human officer duo Timothy and Chris burst through the door.
Timothy: “Amanda demands the release of Daniel! Compensation for the damage he did will be sent, but the human government must not detain Daniel any longer! Why’s he in the interrogation chamber anyway? His crime was pretty clear!”
Chris (looking at unmasked Daniel): “I have a myriad of other questions first…”
Timothy: “You wouldn’t like the answers.”
Chris: “So that’s why we had to monitor the Bellamy residence today… and why the whole “Scientist Conspiracy” was invented in the first place! Because you were afraid an anthropologist might spot that something wasn’t quite right with your skulls!”
Timothy: “That’s the gist of it, yes.”
Chris: “Wipe that smile off your face, lizardface! Earlier today I was ready to shoot at innocent people on you Visitors’ behalf! Because you had successfully persuaded everyone that the Bellamys were evil!”
Timothy: “You don’t know the half of what the Great Thinker has convinced MY people to condone.”
Timothy: “Permission to speak freely, Lt. Anderson? Because this could be a one in a lifetime chance for both our species. You see, there are those who oppose the Thinker’s plans for Earth… and for our own world, for that matter.”
Chris: “They deceived us, Hank! They’ll do so again!”
Hank: “It’s not like I’d gotten lied to before in my profession. And Daniel going “Oh, plum” tells me there’s a story worth listening to here.”
Daniel: “I just wanna punch John Phillips again. He started this mess!”
A ruse like that of the Visitors was hard to pull off and indeed in several cities where motherships were stationed, humans had seen through the disguises. The first resistance cells had formed and already perished again, but even so the awareness of the Visitors true nature was slowly spreading. Very few humans were privy to the aliens’ actual plans, though.
While at the West Coast Mike Donovan got to stare at an impressive display of tanks in the L.A. mothership, in Detroit the DPD officers had to take Timothy’s word on that they existed and were holding…
Timothy: “…the whole of the planet’s water reserves, if the Great Thinker got their way!”
Chris: “That’s a bit hard to swallow, Tim. Not to mention stupid.”
Timothy: “Well, we had no idea that your planet is practically all water. Maybe the original plan has changed to stealing a little water and moving settlers here, but in any case the orders of our fleet are to fill up on water and humans. What you see in orbit are freighters protected by our army. The real battleships are elsewhere.”
Hank: “What would you want to collect humans for? I’m a human and I can tell you it’s a very bad idea to introduce us to a foreign ecosystem. For the ecosystem, that is.”
Timothy: “That’s exactly why! You’re the ultimate biological weapon, Lieutenant, aggressive in battle while still being generally destructive in your downtime. The Great Thinker intends to use abducted humans as slave soldiers in their wars. And those who aren’t suited for that… You tell them, Daniel.”
Daniel: “…canned food. The idea is that if we have to kill you, we can just as well make use of all the meat.”
Timothy: “Could you please say again that this plan is insane, Chris?”
But Chris said nothing. None of the three humans in the room said anything, and neither did Daniel.
Timothy: “Our bunch of dissatisfieds has adopted the name “Fifths Column”, because it is our hope to ally with the humans. Right now we’re scattered across all fifty motherships, but despite this presence we’re hardly able to act. Together with the people of Earth we may have a chance, especially with you guys of the local law enforcement.”
Chris: “You got that, pal. Friends, even! Now that I know you’re wearing a mask, I can see your face muscles moving beneath it. It’s scary, but you’re still Tim. And you’re still invited to our fishing trip this weekend!”
Gavin: “Fishing trip? Count me in!”
Chris: “Ugh… see what you’ve done? Gavin wasn’t supposed to learn of it.”
Timothy: “Thank you, Chris - and sorry!”
Hank: “So what do you propose we should do next?”
Timothy: “You meet with us, either at the DPD or a neutral place. Offer protection to humans and Visitors alike that Amanda might target - that would be the Fifths Columnists and your Scientists for starters. In turn we cover up the Daniel unmasking incident.”
Daniel: “Do I get a say in this?”
Gavin: “Sure! You can choose between your afterschool club kids getting eaten or dying in the “Great Thinker”’s wars.”
Daniel: “If you put it like that… okay, I’m in. I won’t spill anything about this meeting or anything that comes of it to the officers. But that’s all I can promise.”
Hank: “Fair enough, I suppose. Okay, let’s get Daniel out of here now! Chris - you get us a paper bag from the cafeteria. Timothy - give Daniel your gloves! Gavin - you go to checkout and pay whatever the city demands for spraying those posters. We’ll get the money back from the Visitors, I promise!”
Cole: “Oh, are we leaving already, dad? I thought we’d stay at the police station overnight, and sleep in the cells!”
Hank: “I’ll be gone for a while, but you can totally sleep in a cell if you want!”
Cole: “I want to!!!”
Hank: “Okay, I’ll tell Officer Tachibana. But in case I’m not back yet in the morning, don’t take the bus on your own! Stay put and wait for your mother to pick you up! There’s some seriously dangerous plum out there these days.”
Cole: “Or maybe you just don’t want to be here when mom swings by…”
Daniel: “Cole! That’s no way to talk to a parent!”
Cole: “Daniel? That’s… uh… no way to look and get taken seriously, man!”
Daniel: “That’s the point, junior. Amanda makes me wear this bag of shame for having started the brawl in the art gallery.”
Cole: “In full public view?!”
Cole winced. If that was how the Visitors treated their miscreants… and Daniel was his afterschool club teacher in the Friends of the Visitors group… then he might get ideas like doing this to Cole, too!
I better be on my best… on my better behaviour, the boy concluded.
Hank: “We’re walking Daniel back to Belle Isle. Please don’t comment on the paper bag, that seems to be the Visitors’ idea to punish misconduct in public.”
Rika: “It’s… uh… wholesome?”
Daniel: “You tell me.”
Rika: “Why’s Gavin out of his cell?”
Gavin: “C’mon, Rika, I sprayed a couple of posters. What could that warrant? Community hours?”
Rika: “Actually you are suspended… And the Visitors have called. Since you defiled not really the DPD’s walls, but the Visitors’ own faces, their public order office will deal with you, not Detroit’s. You are to report there tomorrow.”
Rika saying this with a straight face, a smile even… If Hank and Gavin hadn’t believed Timothy that something was afoot, now the definitely knew! Now the men wished they had retained more of their school knowledge. What was it that snakes did to mammals’ brains? Paralyze the prey? What if the Visitors could do more? Like, charm humans into being more inclined to see things the aliens’ way, even if it contradicted their occupational knowledge?
Timothy would have to answer some more questions soon! But for now he came to the rescue:
Timothy: “Public Order Office? That’s on Belle Isle, where we’re headed anyway. If it’s alright with you, Officer Tachibana, I’ll take the Detective along!”
The mixed group of would-be rebels left the DPD. They had no idea what they were to each other, collectively, or where their alliance would lead.
But for now they had a - however vague - goal and a definite destination: Belle Isle.
Gavin: “How’s it hanging, fellow Public Enemy?”
Daniel: “All over my face.”
Gavin: !!!
Daniel: “What?”
Gavin: “Tina’s right. I shouldn’t use that phrase anymore.”