flashed through her mind - the bizarre beings in the cantina scene fromStar Wars , the gill-man inThe Creature From the Black Lagoon , the hideous reptilian creature inAlien , the hulking monster fromThe Thing . Oh, Lord, what kind of hideous beast had she made love to?
"Lainey?"
She shook her head, ashamed of her cowardice. "I don't want to know."
A rueful smile touched his lips. "I'm considered quite handsome by those who know me."
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," she retorted. "If you feel the need to go on with this farce, just show me your spaceship and I'll believe you."
"I doubt if it's a good idea to go back there just now."
Lainey nodded. He was right, of course. No doubt the police and the people from SETI were still searching the area.
SETI... outer space... images of the blue glow she'd seen in the bathroom and the odd color of Micah's blood rose up in her mind. Merciful heavens, what if he was telling her the truth? But that was impossible. There were no such things as flying saucers. There had to be another explanation. A logical explanation.
Micah leaned forward. "Where's the black box I gave you?"
"In the kitchen."
"Get it."
Muttering under her breath, Lainey did as he asked. Returning to the living room, she handed it to him.
"All right," she said, resuming her place on the sofa, "I'll bite. What is that thing?"
"It's an intergalactic transmitter. A radio."
She looked skeptical. "It doesn't look like any radio I've ever seen."
His gaze held hers. "Exactly."
He tapped what sounded like some sort of code onto the top of the box with his fingertip and the lid popped open. Lainey leaned forward. There was a keypad labeled with foreign symbols of some kind, and several small, square chips that looked like the innards of her computer.
Micah frowned. "I'd hoped to have it working by now."
"Hard to find spare parts this far from home, I guess," Lainey muttered sarcastically.
Micah nodded absently, his attention momentarily focused on the transmitter. Thus far, he hadn't activated the distress signal. Slight as it was, there was always a chance that a tracking station here on earth might pick up the signal, and he had no wish to alert the earthlings to his presence, or risk putting Pergith and his craft in danger. If he could only get the transmitter working, he could advise Pergith of his whereabouts and arrange a rendezvous. There was always a chance someone on earth might pick up his transmission, but with luck, he would be on his way back home before any of earth's tracking devices could pinpoint his location.
"So," Lainey asked, "what are you going to do?"
Micah shrugged. "I might be able to salvage what I need from the wreckage of my ship."
"I thought you said you couldn't go there."
"Not now. But your people are bound to give up sooner or later."
"Maybe."
Micah closed the box and slid it under the sofa. "I don't want to leave you," he murmured fervently. "But I can't stay. And I can't take you with me."
Suddenly, it was all too much. She needed to be alone, to think, to try and make sense out of something that was totally incomprehensible.
Abruptly, she stood up. "I think I need another walk," she said, and rushed out of the room before he could stop her.
It was warm outside. The sky was clear and blue; the sun was shining. The people she passed on the street looked ordinary.
Outer space. He said he was from outer space. Why would he concoct such an outlandish story if it wasn't true? Unless he was just crazy. But he didn't act crazy.
Maybe she was. She thought of the strange blue aura around the figure in the photograph, then shook her head. Probably just a glitch in the developing. And the brown blood? Try as she might, she couldn't explain that away, or blame it on a roll of faulty film.
Increasing her stride, she headed for the library.
She was surprised by the number of books that had been written about UFO sightings. She picked several at random, found an unoccupied table, and started to read.
Facts and figures jumped out at her. Since World War II, tens of thousands of reports of UFOs had been gathered by the Air Force and other government and civilian investigative organizations around the world.
Reports came from ordinary people in small towns, from astronauts like Borman and McDivitt, to police officers like Lonnie Zamora who claimed to have seen a UFO