Glen looked down from his perch. He stood on an upside-down milk crate to adjust the butter, which would not fit correctly on the top shelf. The girl was blonde, very pretty, and about half of Glen’s age, which would put her under thirty, but not by much. Glen ran his fingers through his gray and mostly missing hair and felt very old.

“Excuse me.” The woman repeated herself and attempted a smile, though it seemed a very poor attempt. “I would like one of those,” she pointed. Glen tried not to sigh as he stepped off the crate so she could reach around him. She still tried to smile when Glen grabbed her. The butter landed on the old tile floor, the woman landed on the butter, and Glen landed on top of the woman.

She screamed. “What is wrong with you? I am a lawyer—” she growled but did not finish the sentence as the margarine above their heads exploded in a flash of blue-green light.

Glen grabbed the woman by the hand and dragged her around the corner, into the bread aisle. She still screamed but sat and watched as the old man in her face vanished and a well-built young man with a terrific smile appeared in front of her. He came dressed in chain armor that looked ancient, like something medieval, if not Roman, and he had the sword to go with it, slanted across his back, with the handle up above his left shoulder.

“N-no. Ex…” The young man tried to say, “Excuse me” in echo of her words, but his stutter got in the way, and he had other concerns. Keeping low was a big one. The young man peeked around the corner of the aisle and whipped out the long knife that rested across the small of his back. He sent it flying with his left hand. It entered—whatever it was—and the thing shrieked a thoroughly alien sound and collapsed.

“You missed.” The woman leaned over his shoulder, more curiosity than fear in her face. “My fiancé is a doctor. Heart is on the left.”

The man in armor shook his head as he stood. The—whatever it was—sprawled on the ground, its weapon having clattered across the dirty tiles. The young man pointed at the thing and then at the right side of his chest and smiled a smile that pierced the poor woman’s heart. Her heart on the left skipped a beat; but then the young man vanished and the old man came back. Curiously, he kept the armor, and in fact, the armor adjusted in size to fit the shorter man, belly and all. He took her hand to bring them close. The woman gave her hand without hesitation.

“Vordan have their heart on the right side,” Glen said. “But what on earth is it doing here… on Earth?” Glen cleaned and returned the knife to its place and picked up the alien weapon. He held it in a way that suggested he knew how to use it.

“Vordan?” The woman looked at the green colored creature on the floor. It looked like it might double for a swamp monster. “Vordan.” She repeated the name and looked at the old man. “I would guess it is not from around here.” She smiled a genuine smile for the first time.

“Come on.” Glen pulled on her hand to move them to the front of the store, but the woman balked and yanked her hand free. One side of her lip turned up as she spoke: not a flattering expression.

“Who the hell are you? You’re just a grocery clerk.”

“Actually, I work for a national merchandising company,” Glen said. He started to walk.

“But wait! What is with that chain mail get-up? Who was that other man?”

“Later.” Glen turned to walk backwards. “Are you coming or not?”

The woman did not hesitate for long. She had on a soft summer dress, and though Glen imagined jeans would have been a better choice, she had on running shoes instead of flip-flops so it took nothing for her to catch up. “Where are we going?” she asked above the screams that echoed around the supermarket.

 “To find the rest of them.” Glen thrust his arm out to hold her back while he let loose with a shot from that alien weapon. One was coming in the door, but it got distracted for a moment when the door automatically opened. The Vordan collapsed in the doorway and Glen rushed outside, right over the body. He kept low the whole way to stay below the front windows. He scooted up against one of the big columns in the shopping center and the woman stayed right on his heels. He pointed.

An alien ship about the size of a tractor-trailer sat in the parking lot, and three more Vordan hovered around the perimeter. One spotted him and fired. Glen turned and held up his cape between the woman and the blue-green energy beam—a cape that he had not been wearing a moment earlier. The shot hit the column, and while the façade melted, the steel beam at the center remained solid enough.

As soon as the enemy fire paused, Glen spun and returned fire. He did not appear to do any better than the Vordan. He missed all three and hit the alien ship instead. “Bad aim,” she said. Glen paused and looked at his gun as if something might be wrong with it.

“Communications array,” Glen responded, absentmindedly. “I don’t want them calling in reinforcements.”

“Too late.” The woman tapped Glen’s shoulder and pointed to the sky. An odd airplane-like vehicle looked to be closing in, fast.

“Cavalry,” Glen said, as he clicked something on the Vordan weapon and turned to fire again. The Vordan that had been creeping up close turned on sight of the oncoming ship. They ran back to their ship. Glen shot the mechanism that would delay their ability to open the door, and in a few seconds, the saucer vehicle came overhead. It emitted a greenish light that encompassed the Vordan ship and everyone around it for twenty yards. Both humans and Vordan in that section of the parking lot collapsed, and Glen grabbed the woman’s hand once more. “Come on,” he said, and this time she came without question.

After a few moments, the plane landed, but it had to crush one car to do it. The only thing the woman could do was gasp. The plane looked much bigger than it appeared in the sky. A door opened in the side and a ramp shot to the ground. A dozen armed people poured out and most headed for the Vordan and their ship. Three headed toward Glen and his woman follower.

“At least these look human,” the woman quipped, but Glen let go of her hand without responding. He reached out and hugged a big, African-American woman and she hugged him right back.

Glen smiled at the greeting but turned his head. “There’s another one by the butter,” he shouted toward the man who was examining the Vordan in the automatic door. The door kept trying to close but opened every time it bumped the body. Glen kissed the black woman on the cheek before he let go and turned to the blond. “You’re a lawyer?”

The woman nodded to the word but her eyes darted around. She gave the impression that all of this suddenly caught up to her and she might be feeling a bit overwhelmed. “Corporate contracts and such.” She managed to say that much.

“Good. My name’s Glen.”

The African-American woman pulled out a thin billfold. “Roberta Brooks, FBI.” She showed her I. D. but the woman lawyer shook her head.

“The FBI doesn’t have flying saucers.”

“Sanchez is with the State Department.” Ms. Brooks pointed at the man who still worked in the doorway. “Carlson here is with the ATF.”

Glen handed Carlson his car keys. “Glad you didn’t crush my car. It’s that silver Ford. Tell my wife I’ll be late for supper, will you?” Carlson looked briefly at the black woman. She nodded her head and Carlson smiled.

“I’m only sorry I’ll miss it,” Carlson said, as he headed toward Glen’s car.

Glen returned the smile as he once again took the pretty blond by the hand. He began to pull her forward as he and Ms. Brooks started toward the ramp and the saucer. “So, Bobbi, what are the Vordan doing here?” Glen asked.

“Vordan?” Ms. Brooks said the word as if tasting it for the first time. “We did not even know who they were. You tell me.”

“Mister Smith not around?”

“No, and that concerns us as well. There are three battleships on the dark side of the moon, and we only found out that much by accident. Normally, Mister Smith shows up with that kind of information, but no one has seen him.”

“Can’t be time for…” Glen stopped walking. Clearly, he did not finish his sentence. “Still, this is a Kargill planet by treaty. The Vordan have no business being here.”