Alien in the Family

after her now?”
    “Why is anything after me?”
    “Kitty, look at the lights again. Look at them carefully.” Chuckie sounded amused.
    “What’s so funny about this?” I was staring at them. They still seemed really familiar.
    “Imagine the pattern as smaller. And hanging around your neck.”
    I did. “Oh. Well, you didn’t say tilt it.”
    “Right, I realize that makes all the difference.” Chuckie was definitely amused. But that humor left his voice when he spoke to Martini again. “I’d like to know what’s going on, Martini. And I’d like to know now. Or you’ll be explaining this at C.I.A. headquarters. In a private room.”
    Martini was still speaking through clenched teeth. “I have no idea.”
    I was moving from worried to scared, and I could see terrified waving at me from just around the next bend in the road. “Guys? Does anyone else realize the peak we’re on corresponds to the jewel in the necklace?”
    “Yes,” Chuckie said. “I do. I’m guessing I’m the only one other than your fiancé, but I’m very clear on it.”
    “Is that why we’re standing here?”
    “Yes. What’s significant about this peak, Martini?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “Come on, you gave her the necklace.”
    “It’s from our home world. It’s been in our family for centuries.”
    “So your family has been planning to invade Earth for centuries?”
    “We’re all here,” Christopher’s voice snarled from the walkie. “You, of all people, should know that.”
    Something tickled in my brain. Maybe it was because I’d been focused the past few weeks on wedding invitations and seating arrangements and all the horrors that go along with a wedding. “Um . . .”
    “I’m fully aware of it,” Chuckie said, calmly but with more anger in his tone. “I’m also aware you all brought the parasites with you.”
    “Um . . .”
    “No they didn’t and you know it,” Reader snarled. “They’re the only people stopping the parasites.”
    “Um . . .”
    “Which have slowed down since Kitty joined up.” Chuckie’s voice was starting to rise, too.
    “Um . . .”
    “They haven’t stopped, and they won’t stop, as far as we can tell,” Christopher snarled through the walkie.
    “Um . . .”
    “True. We’re expecting a whole slew of them now,” Chuckie said with a mirthless laugh.
    “Um . . .”
    “Look, we are not calling anyone here!” Martini was close to bellowing, but not quite there.
    “Um . . .”
    The walkie crackled. “ACE would like to mention that Kitty wishes to say something.” It was Gower’s voice, just slightly different, which meant ACE was in charge of their main consciousness.
    The men with me all stopped bickering and looked at me. I could feel everyone else on the walkies listening. “Thanks, ACE.”
    “ACE is happy to help.”
    “Hold onto that thought.” I took a deep breath. “Jeff, when did you decide you wanted to marry me? I mean for real, not joking around.”
    Martini gave an exasperated growl. “Why are you asking me that, when you know the answer? The day we met, okay? Is there a problem?”
    “Yeah, but not with that.” I gulped. “Christopher’s actually not quite right.”
    “What is that supposed to mean?” he snarked at me through the walkie.
    “Well, I can’t speak for the other A-Cs, but the two of you actually don’t have all your families here on Earth.”
    “Come again?” Martini asked, sounding confused and a little hurt and angry.
    “Your dad and Christopher’s mother married into the family, they weren’t part of the original families who were exiled here.” The A-Cs on Earth were religious exiles from their home world, and they didn’t like to talk about it much.
    “So?”
    “You told me the necklace travels through the male line, right?”
    “Right. Again, so? My father gave it to me to give to you.”
    “That’s sweet. Who gave it to him?”
    “His father.” Martini didn’t say “duh,” but I could feel him thinking it.
    “Right. And you have no brothers, only sisters.”
    “Right again. And, again, so?”
    “Meaning you’re the last male in your family line.”
    “Yes. And, again, what does that have to do with anything?”
    Reader started to laugh. “Oh, my God. This is going to bring a whole new meaning to the term ‘reception from hell.’”
    “What are you talking about?” Martini sounded angry and confused, and I could tell the hurt was still there.
    “Are you sure?” Chuckie asked