Alien in the Family

one of our only two other female agents. She was a bit younger than me and had gotten involved during my first outing with the A-Cs, aka Operation Fugly. Like all A-C women, whom I thought of as the Dazzlers, she was beyond gorgeous. She was also beyond nice and one of my two best girlfriends in the A-C community.
    “I’m with Lorraine. I don’t see why it’s a negative.” Claudia was my other A-C female operative and friend. She was about my age, winsome and brunette to Lorraine’s buxom blonde, just as nice. They were both also scientifically brilliant and excellent medical technicians. I could sprint and hurdle and do some Kung Fu. Somehow, they reported to me. And didn’t mind.
    “Why so?” Kevin asked. He was taking over, subtly, which was okay with everyone in the room except Chuckie. Technically, the C.I.A. reported dotted line into the P.T.C.U., and we all liked the P.T.C.U. a lot better.
    Lorraine shrugged. “So they want to come out for Jeff’s wedding. I think it’s nice. About time they acknowledged that we’re all here and alive and doing the work they should be helping us with.”
    “They put up the PPB net to keep us from leaving the solar system, hell, to keep us from leaving the inner planets.” Martini sounded as angry as he looked. “These people aren’t our friends, they’re our enemies. It’s about time we accepted that.”
    “Paul? What does ACE think? This is really a time when we need his expertise.”
    Gower nodded, twitched a bit, and the ACE voice came out of his mouth. “Jeff is right. But Lorraine is right, too.”
    Silence. We all looked at each other.
    “Um, ACE? That’s it?”
    “Yes.” Gower twitched and blinked. “One day, supposedly the palsy will go away. Anyway, I think ACE is confused, Kitty. He can’t imagine anyone not wanting to meet you.”
    “Oh, the superconsciousness hero worship,” Christopher said as he rolled his eyes. “Can you get through to him that some people don’t think Kitty walks on water?”
    “Not really. ACE, ah, doesn’t like that kind of discussion.” Gower looked uncomfortable.
    Reader laughed. “Be happy Kitty uses ACE’s powers for good. Remember, ACE thinks Kitty thinks right.”
    There was a lot of good-natured laughing and kidding about this, but I knew it to be true. When ACE had come to Earth, I was the only one who’d understood what was going on. So I tried to think as ACE would and figure out why anyone would be coming out from Alpha Centauri for this wedding. I came up with nothing other than an idea of who might know.
    “Jeff, is it normal morning in Florida?”
    Martini sighed. “Yes, baby, it is.” He pulled out his cell phone and dialed. “Hi, Dad, good morning. No, not yet. Yes, glad you liked the invitations, it took us three weeks to choose them. No, no, I didn’t. Because I hate them. No, I’m not joking. I hate, no, make that despise them. You have got to be kidding. Mom has no right to invite anyone to our wedding, let alone them. Argh! Okay, fine! Look, that’s not why I’m calling.”
    He looked over at me and covered the phone. “Against all logic and common sense, my mother invited Barbara and her husband to our wedding.”
    “Is she high?” Barbara had tried to force Martini to marry her daughter, Doreen. In fact, it was this incident that had caused the younger generation’s revolt and mass exodus to Caliente Base.
    “Who knows?” Martini went back to the phone. “Thanks for the update. Glad to know everyone’s healthy, and I could not have lived without the newest babies’ pooping, eating, crawling, and walking reports. Now, can we get to the reason I called, since we’re about to go to a state of national emergency?”
    Apparently not. Martini leaned on the conference table, his head on his free hand, without speaking. He grunted occasionally.
    “Is every call to them like this?” Chuckie asked me quietly.
    “Pretty much.”
    “No wonder he’s always in a bad mood.”
    Lorraine was on her phone, undoubtedly warning Doreen that her parents were going to be coming to our wedding. She looked at me. “Doreen says she and Irving will be happy to physically prevent her parents from entering.”
    I managed a laugh. “Tell her thanks and I’ll keep it in mind.” Irving was a human science geek, meaning he was what every Dazzler under thirty was hoping to bag. Dazzlers really went for brains. If the packaging was decent to look at, that was a bonus, but it wasn’t what