CHAPTER ONE

ALL I COULD THINK ABOUT as I pedaled along the bike path was aliens. I loved aliens as a kid. Heck, I still do. That's why I couldn't wait to get home and give my son aliens of his very own.

Daniel is in the second grade, with his own ideas about the world. I'm not sure what they are. Figuring out what is going on in Danny's head is a challenge, but it's rewarding when something gets through to him. Maybe aliens will be just the trick.

I parked the bike in the garage, took the panniers off the back and headed into the house. "Danny!"

Nata came out of the kitchen. "Good luck. He's up in his room."

Up in his room meant one thing: video games. I found him perched on the corner of his bed playing a retro Super Mario Bros 3. Danny was determined to beat the entire series from its very beginnings.

Mario grabbed a raccoon suit and took off into the sky.

"Hey Danny."

He made a grunting noise. That was typical. His way of telling me that he knew I was here but he didn't mind. I sat down on the bed. Mario grabbed a turtle shell and threw it at a line of walking turtles. He chased after it until it hit the last turtle and a one-up mushroom appeared. Mario ran into it and continued his rampage.

"Good moves," I said.

Watching Danny play is amazing. He is so quick and responsive in the game. When he pulls off a difficult move, you can almost see a smile on his lips. Interrupting him now wouldn't work; I'd have to wait until he finished the current level. Now that I was home, and he could see that I had a package, he would probably come find me when he finished.

I kissed the top of his head. He didn't pull away. That was nice.

Nata was sitting on one of the bar stools in the kitchen with a cup of coffee sat on the counter beside her. She lowered her Kindle.

"What do you have there?"

I took a seat at the dining room table and put the package down in front of me. "Space Monkeys."

She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You know. Space Monkeys. Like Sea Monkeys, only these are aliens from space."

"Aliens?"

"Remember? It was on the news."

"Oh, really? Did you get those for Danny or yourself?"

That really was a good question. I wanted to share this with Danny. Finding ways to share things with him was one of the most challenging, and rewarding things in my life. It was like that with video games. He took to all of the old classics right away. Some of my best memories are playing those games with Mario, Donkey Kong, Sonic and Link. Danny hasn't tried the Zelda games yet, but I don't want to introduce them until I track down the old Gameboy games. Danny likes to do the entire series, in order produced. I figure there are plenty there for him to do, but I want him to learn more about the universe than video games.

And aliens might be just the thing. I tipped the package back. There were pictures of the aliens on the packaging. Enlarged, of course, but they looked something like fat fish with four radial arms. In motion, they pointed the arms forward and back and wriggled like a snake through the water. When they stopped, they used all four arms to capture prey. The most exciting thing about them was their bioluminescence: they flashed a rainbow of colors. Signals to one another, it seemed.

Nata sat down and took the package. "It was that probe you told me about?"

"IRiS. Interstellar Recovery Spacecraft. It was the sample return mission from that comet that was passing through the solar system. An amazing technical feat. They couldn't match velocity, so they approached it on a trajectory that took them through the tail and captured debris coming off the comet."

"And found aliens? Are they sure about that?"

I love my wife, but this sort of thing wasn't something she paid that much attention to. In that respect she was more like the rest of the population.

"Yes."

"How do they know this wasn't from Earth?"

I took the package and turned it around so that she could see the short popular science explanation on the back of the box, showing the key proof that these really were aliens, all in a snazzy 3D holographic display.

"Handedness. Amino acids on Earth are left-handed and sugars are right-handed, but with these guys it's the opposite. It also makes them safe. They can't spread because they couldn't digest anything on Earth."

"Life finds a way," Nata said.

"Yeah, but these aren't enzyme-inhibited dinosaurs. They simply aren't going to find anything compatible on Earth except for the food that the company produces."

Our debate was interrupted when Danny came downstairs. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs for a moment just taking in what was going on. After he saw enough, he came over and sat down at the end of the table. I met Nata's eyes. She smiled. I pushed the package over in front of Danny.

"Aliens, packaged and sold." Nata shook her head and stood up. "Amazing."

It was amazing. Danny reached up and touched the pictures on the package. I knew he'd already read the text. He turned the box around and studied the holographic explanation. When the probe returned with the comet samples, he'd only been three years old; but even then he watched the news with me. Did he remember that? I remembered how he sat next to me the entire time, not moving, his eyes fixed on the screen and afterwards he had smiled at me.

Danny set the package down. He got up, left the table and went back upstairs.

Nata came around the table and hugged me close. She kissed the top of my head. "Sorry, Emmett."

I dragged the package over. No problem. These things took time; I'd get another shot at it.