Touched by an Alien

to battle a crowd of supervillains bearing hilariously unoriginal supernames, Kitty uses her iPod, an armored vehicle, hot water, and hairspray as weapons. This delightful romp has many interesting twists and turns as it glances at racism, politics, and religion en route. It will have fanciers of cinematic sf parodies referencing Men in Black, Ghost Busters, and X-Men. Meanwhile, readers who like the smart sf silliness of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novels, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga, Pat Murphy’s There and Back Again (2000), and A. Lee Martinez’s The Automatic Detective (2008) will find it distinctively different, for Koch’s humor is more in the vein of MaryJanice Davidson in her Undead series, but darned amusing, all the same. —Diana Tixier Herald



I WENT TO THE BOX AND LOOKED IN.
    It was a man, dead, as far as I could tell. At least, I hoped so. He had long, sharp claws where his fingers and toes should have been, and his teeth were long and jagged and looked razor sharp. His expression was a contortion of fury and hatred.
    “He looks like the man I killed. Right before I killed him, I mean.”
    “They all look like that,” Martini said quietly.
    “What are they? And don’t say mutants,” I added.
    “Superbeings is what we call them,” White replied. “Roswell’s history is somewhat true. Aliens did crash-land here in the late nineteen-forties. However, when we opened the ship, the aliens were all dead. Our scientists studied them, of course. Different body structures, but they were more like humans than not. There were what we took to be books with them, and those were in a language so different from ours that it took decades to decipher.”
    “What did the books say?” I asked, wanting to stop looking at the dead superbeing in front of me and not being able to.
    “Turned out the aliens were on a mission of mercy,” White said. “They weren’t the only ones sent out, just the only ones sent to Earth. Their planet had been invaded by a parasitic race. They’d learned how to fight against the parasites, but they knew this would only make other planets targets. So they sent emissaries out to warn the other populated planets of the threat.”
    “What do the parasites do?”
    “Guess,” Martini said softly.
    When White didn’t counter that, I gave what I was in some way hoping was the wrong answer. “The parasite attaches to someone and alters them into a superbeing, capable of great destruction. They’re attracted to rage and fear, or whatever pheromones are given off from those emotions. That’s how they pick their new host.”

DAW Books Presents GINI KOCH’s
Alien Novels:
     
    TOUCHED BY AN ALIEN
     
    ALIEN TANGO
    ( Available December 2010 )



Copyright © 2010 by Jeanne Cook.
     
    All Rights Reserved.
     
     
    DAW Book Collectors No. 1506.
     
    DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
     
    All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
     
     
    The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
     
    Nearly all the designs and trade names in this book are registered trademarks. All that are still in commercial use are protected by United States and international trademark law.
    eISBN : 978-1-101-18632-9
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    First Printing, April 2010

    S.A.
    http://us.penguingroup.com

To Steve and Veronica,
for being mine and, in your own ways,
always being ready to “bring it.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
    They say writing is a solitary pursuit, but not the way I do it. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I have a lot of people I want to thank for a variety of reasons.
    First off, a huge thank you to my agent, Cherry Weiner, for taking me on even though she had a full list, and for also being the best agent, and friend, any writer could hope to have.
    To Sheila Gilbert, my awesome editor, thanks so much for taking a chance on a new author and making the entire publishing and editing process a joy—I’m spoiled by having the best the first time out of the gate.
    Special thanks to Lisa Dovichi, critique partner extraordinaire, BBFF and