Jason King: Agent to the Stars 1: The Enclaves of Sylox (6 page)

“That’s all great,” Miranda said, still in awe of the statue. “But it’s still a frickin two-foot tall diamond….”

“It has a conversion function here,” Heather said. She tapped a button on her screen. “Twenty-eight thousand, six hundred forty-eight – that would be the Earth-equivalent of its weight in carats. The largest uncut diamond ever found on Earth was just over three thousand carats, and this one’s been cut.”

“Holy crap, that’s a big-ass diamond,” I said, trying to break the spell that had fallen over the two women.

It didn’t work, so I just shook my head and pitied Heather’s future husband. After seeing something like this, how could she ever be content with a simple one-carat diamond wedding ring? Miranda, on the other hand; well I could see her with a ten-carat ring one day, if not larger. Not from me, of course, but some other helpless sucker who would fall under her spell.

But right now I had to herd the women out of the office and get our minds back in the game. Orn’s house was truly a one-of-a-kind estate, yet the next one I had to show the Wilson’s was the home they would buy. I had to get on with it.

The home was in Sterling Bridge South – actually not too far from where I lived – and was still at the higher end of the price range set by Mark and Jennifer, however it had all the bells and whistles they required. I had the home under contract once before, but it had fallen out when my buyer bolted back to Earth, unable to come to grips with the alien environment of Sylox. The eventual sale of the home was now a matter of principle to me, an obsession almost.

I hate losing deals, especially ones in the ten-million dollar price range. However, today I would get my redemption.

**********

What can I say? I’m a professional.

So when Jennifer Wilson started to cry at the end of the showing of the Sterling Bridge home, I knew I’d made the sale – just as planned.

This was actually one of the best parts of my job, when I can find the perfect home for my customers. The choice of a home is a very personal and traumatic event for a family. There’s always so much worry, stress and trepidation that accompanies it. So when everyone winds up on the same page and ecstatic with the choice, then my work here is done, and I feel like I can now jump on my horse and ride off into the sunset – the hero once again.

In a quiet time, while Mark and Jennifer and the kids took one last run – literally – through the house, I took the opportunity to approach Miranda. We high-fived, feeling a bond that I hoped would itself become literal.

“So let’s celebrate,” I said. “Dinner’s on me.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Her smile was warm and genuine, and I melted inside.

“Tonight then, if that’s not too soon?”

“Oh my, I’m going have to do some quick planning. Why don’t I meet you at the restaurant? Do you have one in mind?”

“Yep, and it’s just outside the Consulate Compound. I’ll email you the name and directions. You sure you don’t want me to pick you up?

“Nah, I can catch a ride from the Embassy. But you have to give me until eight. I wasn’t planning on going on a date tonight.”

“This is a date? I thought we’d just celebrate our little victory today. Now I’m getting nervous.”

“Call it what you want, Jason King, but honestly I can’t wait.”

And then she leaned over and kissed my cheek, her perfume even stronger and more seductive close up.

Then with a whirl of her silky black hair, she turned on her heel and bounced her way back into the house. Just then that old, crude saying came to mind:
I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.

If ever that was true, I was living the moment.

I gave myself a mental pat on the back. First, I just made a really big real estate deal, and now a date with the hottest woman – Human woman – on the planet. Things were really looking up for ole Jason King, if I did say so myself.

Chapter 8

The restaurant was called Belgon’s Consumptionary and it was located just outside the main gate to the massive Consulate Compound. Years ago I’d helped its owner, Belgon Cor, add a line of Human-like entrees to his menu for which he’s been eternally grateful. His business exploded thereafter and now he catered almost exclusively to people from the Compound.

The building was huge, and Belgon himself led Miranda and me to a private booth facing an open veranda, with an amazing view of Lomick River and the city skyscrapers beyond. A soft evening breeze filtered through the restaurant, and the mixture of smells from the fragrant blossoms of the
Jacobin
trees outside, along with the savory cuisine within, all set the stage for what was shaping up to be the perfect first-date.

I was still in awe of the poise and elegance of the ravishing twenty-six year old; she was much more comfortable in this alien world than was expected. Fighting to keep my eyes from wandering down the deep cut of her shimmering white gown, I decided to start the conversation with a compliment.

“How is it that you don’t seem overwhelmed by all of this, like your cousin appears to be?”

Miranda lifted a tall, thin glass of water and took a sip through her moist, red lips. She set the glass back down and looked to her right, at the brilliant lights of the skyline beyond the river. “I may not show it, but this is really something amazing. You have to remember I’m a Galactic Affairs major, so being here on Sylox is the culmination of a dream I’ve had for a very long time. There’s no place I’d rather be.”

That made sense, but still there was an unnatural calm about the woman.

Belgon himself came to the table to take our order. He was a Crimin, a thin, dark-skinned alien about six feet tall. He had distinctly Humanoid features – Prime features – so his appearance was not off-putting. I ordered a bottle of fermented
Dolic
wine to start.

“Jason was very instrumental in helping establish my Human menu,” Belgon said with enthusiasm. “He is a wonderful creature.”

“Before you get too excited,” I began, “many of the dishes are made from native plants and animals, and not Earth foods, no matter what the names may suggest.”

“Really, yet they taste the same as Earth food?” Miranda asked.

I smiled. “Just about everything in the galaxy can be made to taste like chicken, even native eel-snakes. But it’s best if I order for us without going into too much detail. Just think: if it tastes like chicken, then consider it chicken. You’ll enjoy the meal a lot more if you do. And remember, I’ve tasted everything on the menu, so nothing should make you sick. At least I hope not.”

When the wine came, Miranda sampled it with approval. “This is really good. I’m sure the rest of the meal will be perfect, as well.”

I shifted nervously as Miranda locked her eyes on mine and refused to look away. After a moment, it became too much.

“What?” I said with a frown.

“It’s just that you are such a fascinating man, Jason King. Don’t be mad, but I pulled your file while at the Consulate the other day.”

“You have access to that?”

Her eyes sparkled. “I have ways of getting what I want.”

“I’m sure you do,” I stammered. What was this spell this woman had over me? “So what did you find that was so fascinating?”

She raised her eyebrows. “What wasn’t?” she said. “Your time on Sylox is interesting enough, what with all your interactions with the Council and such, but it’s your time on Earth that I found so … so incongruous.”

“That’s a good word for it. So what you’re asking is how did an ex-Army Ranger turn out to be such an incredible real agent and entrepreneur?” I didn’t like to talk much about my time on Earth; that was a long time ago and in another reality, one that no longer had much meaning.

“Exactly, it did seem to be a rather strange career path you took.”

“I really didn’t have a choice, now did I?”

Miranda nodded. “We studied the early years just before and after First Contact, so I know what you mean. But you have to admit, the alien’s approach to the whole First Contact thing was pure genius.”

“Yeah, but it still caught a lot of us off guard.”

**********

It all began with a series of extremely popular science fiction books, followed by the movie trilogy. The story revolved around an alien race coming to Earth, and the reaction of the population to First Contact. The aliens came in peace, yet in typical Human fashion, we didn’t trust them and instead we fought. In the end the aliens left, taking with them all their advance medicine – including a cure for cancer – along with technology that would have provided free and clean energy for the entire planet. The aliens had indeed been benign, and the gifts they offered would have saved mankind from itself.

But we blew it. And that was the moral of the story.

The books and movies were extremely popular, with an estimated reader-and viewership of over half the population of the planet. So it really didn’t come as much of a shock when the aliens finally did arrive – for real – and they looked
exactly
like those depicted in the movies!

As the truth came out later, the aliens had been instrumental in the creation of the books and movies as a way of preparing the population for their eventual arrival. Just think: what if aliens had arrived on Earth a couple of decades before and they all looked like Mr. Spock? The shock of their existence would have been greatly reduced.

That’s what happened when the Amelians arrived. By then nearly everyone on Earth had already seen them – at least on the big screen or on their TV’s or the internet. And they came offering exactly the same gifts as in the movies and books; however this time mankind reacted differently – which had been the alien’s intention all along.

Of course, there were the skeptics. Yet as the years went by, and all the promises of the aliens came true, they became fewer and fewer. Now the Amelians, as well as all the alien species within the Galactic Union were accepted – not feared – by Humanity.

**********

“When the Amelians outlawed war among nations, that’s what basically ended my military career.”

“But that was a good thing, right?”

“Of course, Miranda, the last thing a professional soldier wants is war. However, there were still a few hot spots around the world, having mainly to do with terrorism. The aliens let us continue to defend ourselves against those threats for a while, yet when they stepped in to help with the effort, terrorist activities came to a screeching halt.”

“So what did you do then?”

I knew that the basic timeline of my so-called career path was contained in my file, yet there was still a lot of detail Miranda wasn’t aware of. She had leaned in closer to me by now and seemed genuinely interested in my story. So before the meal came, I decided to give her a little more insight into the life and times of one Jason King.

“I had been Special Forces – Rangers – in the Army and really enjoyed the work. It was challenging and I worked with a great group of guys. However, after mustering out, I found myself like thousands of others without a job.”

“But the economy was booming at the time, thanks to the Union.”

“You’re right. We’d never seen the economy so robust, but there also weren’t a lot of opportunities at the time for people with my particular skill set, especially with all the peace breaking out around the world.” I finished the last statement with a wide smile. I didn’t want Miranda to think I was some kind of crazed warmonger.

“Around that time, a former Ranger friend of mine got a job at a place in Nevada called
Battlefield Vegas
.” I saw the frown on Miranda’s smooth, tanned forehead. “It was a place in Las Vegas where civilians could fire a variety of assault and other weaponry. At the time, it was the number one tourist attraction in the city, if you didn’t consider gambling a tourist attraction.

“Anyway, I got a job there, too, and it was great at first. I knew the weapons and how to use them, and the management there was really great. My boss was a guy named Mario, who was ex-military as well as a former policeman. The dude was a genius when it came to weapons and tactics, and he pulled off a major coup when he got hold of some of the alien weapons. After that, business literally exploded. Everyone – and I mean everyone – wanted to fire the alien ray guns.”

“Ray guns, really?”

“Well, they don’t actually shoot rays, but concentrated balls of plasma that move so fast that they look like rays. The aliens call them flash weapons. But the point is we were the only place in the country that had them, and for a time we ran five thousand people or more per day through Battlefield Vegas.”

“What happened?” Miranda asked. “I’ve been to Vegas before and I’ve never heard of the place.”

“Well, that’s the tragic part of the story. The aliens suddenly put an end to us shooting their weapons, and that essentially killed the business overnight.”

“What about the other weapons you had?”

I laughed. “It seems that after the aliens came no one wanted to fire the primitive
Human
weapons anymore. They were just too heavy and loud. The place quickly went under.”

“So those poor guys who owned the company, what happened to them?”

“Oh, don’t feel too sorry for them. They all made out like bandits, pocketing millions from the two great years we had with the alien flash weapons.”

“But now
you’re
out of a job … again.”

“And that’s when my life took an unlikely turn for the better.”

I put my story on hold when our meals came. By that time the wine had kicked in and the seductive smells of the night, along with the warm breeze and sparkling lights of the city were really beginning to take effect.

We wolfed down our meals, which to my delight Miranda found to be delicious. I never did tell her what the main course was made of – that was best left to the imagination. And besides, the truth would have been a little hard to swallow, literally.

After dinner we had room for a decadent dessert, which we shared from a common plate. And then more alien wine.

“So finish your story, Jason.” Miranda scooted over closer to me in the booth until our knees were touching. And that’s when I leaned over and kissed her for the first time. She welcomed it with a passion enhanced by the alcohol. The evening was shaping up as perfectly as could be imagined, and it was several minutes before we came up for air.

“Damn you, Jason King, are you trying to distract me from hearing the rest of your story?”

“You’re the distraction here, my dear, especially in
that
dress!”

“Well, I’m terribly sorry if you find my dress distracting. Maybe I should just take it off.”

Miranda lifted her arms and reached behind her neck, searching for the clasp holding the sheer, silky outfit together. I reached out and took her hands.

“I’m afraid they have decency laws here, just like on Earth.”

She laughed; a wild and free expression that sent my heart aflutter. And then she leaned against the leather back of the booth. “Finish your damn story! If not, then I’m going to sit right here until you do.”

“I could take you back to your apartment and finish it there.”

She shook her head, sending her silky black cascades swishing back and forth across her face. “Nope, not until you tell me who you
really
are. Are you some kind of trained-killer, adept at all aspects of special ops, or just a money-grubbing real estate agent out to make a quick buck off my unsuspecting cousin?”

“What if I said I’m both?”

She leaned forward suddenly, bringing her face to within inches of mine and stroking it with both her hands. “Then I’d say that’s really, really hot.”