Chapter 5 chapter Five

She watched it fly from Henry's direction, and at first she was just a little curious, wondering what those lights were.Trixie didn't live a million miles from Heathrow Airport, and she was no stranger to lights in the sky.Of course, they usually don't appear so late, nor are they so low, so she was a little curious. When that something got closer and closer, her curiosity turned into bewilderment. "Mmm," she thought.When it comes to thinking, this is the highest state she can reach so far.The jet lag has not yet reversed, she is still groggy, and the information sent from one side of her brain to the other may not necessarily arrive on time or run in the right direction.She has poured her coffee and now she walks out of the kitchen and opens the back door that leads to the back garden.She took a deep breath of the cool night air, stepped out the door, and looked up.

Something—about the size of a large camper van—was parked a hundred feet above her lawn. It's really there.hanging there.Almost no sound. Something in her heart stirred. Tricia's arms dropped slowly, and she didn't even notice the hot coffee splashing on her feet.She barely breathed, watching the spaceship drop inch by inch, foot by foot.Its light shines softly on the ground, as if searching and feeling.They fell on her. She had thought there was no hope, that there was no way she would ever get a second chance.He found her?He is back? The spaceship continued to descend, descend, and finally landed quietly on her lawn. She felt that its appearance was not exactly the same as the one that flew away many years ago, but what she saw at that time were only the twinkling lights in the night sky, It was inherently difficult to determine the shape.

silence. Then there was a tick and a buzz. Then another tick and buzz.Tick, hum, tick, hum. A door opened, and light spilled across the lawn into her eyes. She waited, expectantly. A figure appeared in the light, and another, and another. His big eyes blinked slowly at her.Several hands slowly raised to say hello. "Macmillan?" Someone finally spoke. The voice was thin and strange, and it seemed to be squeezed out with difficulty. "Trica McMillan? Ms. Tricia McMillan?" "It's me." Tricia's answer almost got stuck in her throat. "We've been monitoring you."

"Surveillance... monitoring? Me?" "yes." They stared at her for a while, their big eyes moving slowly from head to toe. "You look smaller in real life," one of them finally said. "What?" Tricia asked. "yes." "I... I don't understand." Of course, everything was completely unexpected, but even as a completely unexpected situation, it didn't go in the direction she didn't expect.Finally she asked: "Are you... are you... from Zaphod?" Her question seemed to cause a little panic among the three.They talked for a while in their own light and funny language, then turned to face her again.

"We don't think so. Not as far as we know," one of them said. "Where's Zaphod?" asked the other, looking up at the night sky. "I...I don't know." Tricia said helplessly. "Is it far from here? In which direction? We don't know." Tricia's heart sank as she realized that the other person had no idea who she was talking about, or even what she meant.And she didn't understand what they were talking about.Once again she pushed hope firmly away, and her head started working again.Nothing to be disappointed.She has to wake up, with the exclusive headlines of the century in front of her eyes, what should she do?Go back to the house and get the camera?Will they be gone by the time she returns?Tricia was at a loss as to what strategy and tactics to adopt at this moment.Let them go on, she thought.Think about it later.

"You've been monitoring...me?" "You all. Everything on your planet. Televisions, radios, radios, computers, video feeds, stores." "what?" "Parking lot. Everything. We monitor everything." Tricia glared at them. "It must be boring, right?" she blurted out. "yes." "Then why..." "Apart from……" "What? Except what?" "TV Trivia. We love watching trivia on TV." A long, eerie silence ensued, during which Tricia looked at the alien and the alien looked at her. "I want to get some things in my room." Tricia said word by word, "I said, you, or which one of you, would you like to go in and have a look with me?"

"Very willing." They were all very enthusiastic. All three aliens stood in her living room, looking slightly awkward.Tricia hastily grabbed a video camera, a camera with a 35mm lens, a tape recorder, in short, all the recording equipment she could get her hands on.The aliens were all thin, and in the indoor lighting conditions, they appeared a kind of purplish green. "Soon, guys, really." Tricia began to sweep through the drawers, searching for blank films, tapes, whatever. The alien was looking at her CD rack and her old records.One of them touched the other very lightly.

"Look," he said, "Elvis." Tricia stopped and looked them over again. "You like Elvis?" she asked. "Yes." They answered. "Elvis Presley?" "yes." She shook her head in bewilderment as she tried to insert a new roll of film into the camera. "Several of you," stammered one of her guests, "think Elvis was abducted by aliens." "What?" Tricia said. "Is that so?" "It's possible." "You mean you kidnapped Elvis?" Tricia gasped.She had been trying to keep her composure so as not to mess up the equipment, but this move really made her a little unacceptable.

"No, not us," said her guest. "Aliens. That's a very interesting possibility. We talk about it a lot." "I've got to record this," Tricia murmured.She checked that the film was loaded and working properly.She pointed the camera at them, but didn't raise it to her eyes for fear of scaring them.Anyway, she is experienced enough, and she can take pictures clearly even if the machine is placed on her lap. "Okay," she said, "now tell me who you are? Speak slowly and carefully. You go first." She said to the one on the left, "What's your name?"

"I have no idea." "You do not know?" "have no idea." "Well." Tricia said, "What about you two?" "we do not know." "Okay, fine. Maybe you can tell me where you're from?" They shook their heads. "So," said Tricia, "you are... er..." She was panicking, but because of her professionalism, the camera still didn't tremble when she was panicking. "We're on a mission," said an alien. "Do a mission? What kind of mission?" "we do not know." The camera still didn't shake at all.

"So, what are you doing here on Earth?" "We're here to take you away." Not moving at all, not moving at all, as if on a tripod.She wondered if she should really get a tripod.And the reason why she thinks this way is because it can buy her a little time to digest what they just said.No, she thought, more maneuverable in the hand.Her other thought was, help, what should I do? "Why," she asked calmly, "are you taking me away?" "Because we got insanity." "Sorry," Tricia said, "I need a tripod." They seemed happy to just stand around doing nothing, so Tricia quickly found a tripod and put the camera on it.There was no fluctuation on her face at all, but her heart was in a mess, she didn't know what was going on at the moment, or how she should look at this problem. "Okay." Everything was ready, "Why..." "We liked your interview with the astrologers." "Did you see it?" "We watch everything. We're interested in astrology. We love astrology. It's interesting. Not everything is interesting. Astrology is interesting. What the stars can tell us, what the stars can predict. This We can use this type of information." "Can……" Tricia didn't know where to start. Come on, she thought, it's no use figuring it out here by yourself. So she said, "But I don't know astrology at all." "We understand." "You understand?" "Yes, we follow our horoscope. We are very motivated. We read all your newspapers and magazines and are very positive. But our leaders say we have a problem." "You have a leader?" "yes." "What's his name?" "we do not know." "What the hell did he say his name was? Sorry, I have to cut this out. What did he say his name was?" "he does not know." "Then how do you know he is the leader?" "He took power. He said someone had to do something here." "Ah!" Tricia caught the clue, "Where is 'here'?" "Rupert." "You folks call it Rupert. The tenth planet from your sun. We've been living there for years. It's freezing cold and boring, but good for surveillance." "Why are you monitoring us?" "That's all we'll do." "Okay," Tricia said. "Okay, your leader says you have a problem. What's the problem?" "Triangulation." "Sorry, what?" "Astrology is a very precise science, we know that." "Hmm..." Tricia didn't continue. "But its precision is for your Earth." "No...no...that's right" She had a terrible feeling, as if she had caught a glimpse of the truth. "So, for example, when it is mentioned that Venus is rising in Capricornus, it is from the perspective of the earth. So what if we are in Rupert? What about when the earth is rising in Capricornus? It's really hard for us to know. Among the things we forget—and we think that those things are not only huge in number, but very deep—include trigonometry." "See if I understand correctly." Tricia said, "You want me to go with you... Rupert..." "yes." "Help you recalculate your horoscope to take into account the relative positions of the earth and Rupert?" "yes." "Can I do a scoop?" "can." "That's it." Tricia said, she was very confident that at least this could be sold to American gossip magazines. As she boarded the ship that would take her to the end of the solar system, the first thing she saw was a mass of monitors flashing a thousand images.A fourth alien watched them from the spaceship, except he was looking at a monitor with a steady picture--it was replaying Tricia's impromptu interview.Seeing her worryingly climbing into the spaceship, the alien looked up. "Good evening, Ms. McMillan," he said. "What a great job the camera plays."