With dinner behind them, it was almost time for the crew to get back to business. Almost. They still had to wait for Kacey to actually show up.

“How is it taking this lady longer to show up than it took us to get off the spaceship?”

“Apparently it was hard to convince her,” Corey said. “She is, quite understandably, skeptical of armed strangers showing up and trying to threaten her to go somewhere.”

The police had charitably described the situation as a “misunderstanding”, but from the description Corey had heard it was more like a standoff. The cult both she and Corey had been a part of was effectively dissolved, but its former members still held grudges. Kacey had apparently been harassed and threatened before, and her responses usually came in the form of a shotgun.

“Seriously?”

Kamak turned and looked at one of the two officers on guard. For lack of any better options, their initial meeting with Kacey was going to happen at the local police station. Kamak took the opportunity to stare down an officer.

“You brought the guns to give a girl an invitation?”

The officer on guard gave no response. Kamak rolled his eyes.

“This fucker can’t understand me either, can he?”

“Apparently not,” Corey said. The sound of comprehensible speech got the officer’s attention.

“Do you need something?”

“I need you to know you’re an idiot,” Kamak said, to absolutely no recognition from the idiot. “Corey, tell him he’s an idiot.”

“That’s not necessary,” Corey said.

“I think it’s necessary,” Kamak said.

“For the record, I can understand you,” said the other cop on guard. “And he’s right.”

The smug smile on Kamak’s face lasted until Kacey finally showed up, about ten minutes later. It took Corey a second to recognize her, as her appearance had changed radically since their last, brief meeting. She wore her hair short now, and had ditched the prim and modest attire of the cult for jeans and flannel. She put her hands in the pockets of said jeans and nodded stiffly in Corey’s direction.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Corey. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Corey said, intent on maintaining the charade that they had not met (and murdered his father together) before.

“So. Shapeshifting alien serial killer?”

“I know it sounds hard to believe, but-”

“No, I believe it,” Kacey said. She had become a lot more open minded since getting visited by aliens two years ago.

“Speaking of our perpetrator,” Farsus said. “I would appreciate you confirming you are who you say you are. An isolated cabin in the woods is not exactly a secure environment.”

“Right,” Kacey said. She looked at the numerous guns around her. “I’m going to whisper something in Corey’s ear, please don’t shoot me when I get close to him.”

After getting confirmation she would not be shot, Kacey leaned in and whispered a few details about the death of Corey’s father, including some tedious details like the color of the dress she’d been wearing.

“She’s clear,” Corey said.

“Great, now we can get to work,” Kamak said. “You noticed anything serial killer-y around lately?”

Kacey stared at Kamak for a few seconds, and then looked at Corey.

“Oh for- did you not get chipped either?”

“Couldn’t afford it,” Kacey shrugged.

“Wait, are people charging money for the chips?” To Vo said. “The translation hardware is supposed to be made available for free.”

Corey passed along her words, to the best of his ability. He hated having to play translator.

“It is, but there’s a waiting list and I’m low on it,” Kacey said. She nodded towards the police officers. “Even with these guys passing up every opportunity.”

Police and other public servants were higher on the priority list than common citizens, but even with the police passing the buck there were still only so many to go around. Certain enterprising capitalists were buying up extra models to resell on Earth, but those usually came at a high markup. Not technically illegal, but it did make To Vo upset.

“God, fine,” Kamak said. “Corey, take charge.”

“Kacey, have you seen anything suspicious in the past couple swaps?”

“Swaps?”

“Sorry, days,” Corey said. “Space word. Anything suspicious in the past couple days?”

“Well, someone was lurking in the woods outside my cabin,” Kacey said. “Though that could just be Melvin Johnson again, who has set my house on fire three times and still not been arrested.”

The pointed glare at a nearby officer went entirely unanswered.

“Other than that, no,” Kacey said. “But I’ve been keeping to myself lately. Not a lot of reasons to leave the house.”

“Great. Seems like things are fairly secure, at least. You might want to have one of us stick around, though.”

“Or I could stick with you. You got any room on that spaceship of yours?”

“There is in fact one more room on the spaceship,” Corey said.

“Hey, we’re not adopting a new human,” Kamak said. “Especially not a female one. You’ll start multiplying.”

Tooley gave Kamak an even dirtier look than Corey did. Kacey did a quick double take between them and Kamak.

“What’s that look about?”

“Just Kamak being Kamak,” Corey said. “You’re welcome to stay with us for a while, but…”

“I’ve got no plans to leave Earth,” Kacey said. “Don’t worry about me trying to hitch a ride.”

“Great, she can stay,” Kamak said. “She’s buying her own food, though. Those leftover breadsticks are all mine."