Reprieve

Tuesday.
We were still stuck at the station. Nobody had brought the ship back yet. I wasn't happy about that, or having to work every day of the week. I grudgingly went about my work, biding my time.
I had this one guy call about a problem he had with a retailer. It was one of those dumb situations where the guy wanted to complain to a supervisor because he couldn't get away with violating company policy. I offered to send him to corporate but he said they wouldn't listen. His voice sounded funny and I couldn't help smiling a little too much. Before I could shut off the picture, he really got mad and kept demanding a supervisor. The problem was, the escalation line was busy and my two crewmates were busy. So he just waited and waited and then he insulted me and made fun of my looks and made comments about one of the stories circulating about me. I just put up with it because it was my job. He wouldn't let me put him on hold or anything. Eventually I got Sigma to take the call.
The other calls went more smoothly, though more people were asking strange questions about me getting drunk on something called Vefrek. I wondered how they knew that but didn't ask them.
I went to lunch and asked Minda about it. Her response was "I don't know, maybe Sigma said something." And then she looked sad. I asked her why she looked glum and she said "You're leaving." I sighed and said yes. I told her I was tired of the station and wanted to go home and she could come visit me if she wanted. She just sighed and said nothing. I told her it was good we hadn't done anything beyond what we did or it would have been worse for her. That made her nod. Then she just stared at the table. I thought about doing something to comfort her, but I figured that probably would have made the parting worse.
I took some more calls. Another crisis about scientific instrumentation on a Liobvalx cruiser. And stupid account system problems. Just the usual stuff, nothing memorable. The architecture of the spaceships and dwellings was pretty uniform and uninteresting for the most part. The novelty had passed the first couple days I'd taken calls. And those calls weren't any different. I logged out for the day and went to the break room to watch cable.
About a half hour later, Minda comes into the room, looking like she'd been crying or something. I didn't know what to say. She sat down next to me on the couch, wrapping her arms and tail around me, so I put my arm around her. She tries to kiss me, but I push her back and tell her no, explaining the biblical stance on marriage. She said that wasn't what I was saying that night we were kissing, but again I said I was drunk.
Then she asks me, "Is it worth marrying someone if your partner is of a different species and you don't know if their sexual equipment is compatible?" It wasn't a very subtle question, so I said if she's talking about an Abreya, then yes. Until I knew for certain, the marriage would be a valid thing. If it really was impossible, the two could just go their separate ways, but all that means is that their wedding shouldn't be a huge spectacle. She sadly nods and we just cuddle.
I have another study session with her, do some exercises, and prepare for bed.
When I was heading down to the crew quarters to sleep, I heard a shout. I went out to investigate, and Sigma was telling me to get ready to go and that the ship was here.

Laughable UFO story

This is what Phantasmo's Cheese Factory is all about. The paranormal.
For your paranormal reading pleasure, please direct your attention to the article entitled "Strange Blue Light"/"I think ufo are really" from February 19, 2003 on this page:
http://www.ufosoveramerica.com/flash/ufo_sightings.html
Revel in its amazingly bad grammar and unconvincing story. Yes, they are from Kosova (or is it Kosovo?), but still, it is terrible, and the website admin did not edit it. For four years. Enjoy!

I don't think so.

Many UFO stories involve people describing the number of windows on the spaceship. How would they find the time to do this? How would they remember? Wouldn't they latch on to a more interesting detail instead? I mean, if they were an odd shape, or had decoration, or glowed or something, you'd think that would distract you from counting, wouldn't it? When I look at a hotrod dragster car, I don't count the number of pipes coming out of the engine. I stare at the cool paint job, the style of the car, etc. I might notice if it's a sedan or a coupe, but not as much the windows. I don't count the windows on a cruise liner, and those look weird.
Another paranormal story involves a "witness" noticing that her fingernails were growing at a different rate than she was used to. Who in their right mind monitors the rate their damn fingernails are growing? It would have to be pretty friggin' fast for me to notice!

Paranormal experience

Last February, me and my friend were out in a field in New Alaska, when we saw a giant square craft rise up from an ice sheet. It hovered in the sky for several minutes, changing colors and shapes right before our disbelieving eyes. Red hearts, green diamonds, yellow stars, and purple horseshoes. Then suddenly it rocketed off into space, leaving a trail of stars reading, "You will never get me lucky charms!"

Re-encounters of the third kind

When a person reports more than one UFO story, I feel it lessens the likelihood of it being even remotely true. A person reporting that he was struck by lightning is less credible when he says it happened to him a second time. The most credible UFO story is like a hit and run. They don't want to be found, so any encounter with them would be a mistake that the aliens wouldn't want to repeat. This is all to say that if you go to a website and have the same guy posting more than one "true story" about being abducted or seeing an alien, it's too ridiculous to be believed without some credible connection to the previous event.

WTF

This was a real post at Ufosoveramerica.com:

"I was just curious. I definitely believe there is life out there in other planets, but I was just curious have you ever thought that what ufos could possibly be is parts of a space ship. Like lets take apollo 13 for instance it lost some of it's major parts. could that be part of a space ship? it is getting late so I could be losing my mind but I don't really think I am."

Um, why does the moderator post rambling, poorly conceived junk like this on the website? Someone just e-mailed them and said, "gee, I wonder" and they actually posted it. I think some people just don't care.

Close encounters of the first kind

First kind encounters don't interest me. So you saw a little speck moving around in the sky. Maybe you've been staring too long and your eyes are playing tricks on you. Sort of like how you get stars swimming across your eyes if you hold your finger down on your eyelid for a long time. They're not very interesting or creative. Especially if the encounter is so distant that they don't get to a description of a "saucer".

"Sitings"

When the moderator at ufosoveramerica.com titles at header "Truckers Site Ufos", it does nothing to add credibility. Um, isn't that supposed to be "sight"?

Identified "flying" object

Jose at http://www.qsl.net/w5www/stories2.html gave a description of an uncanny light that more than likely came from something inside the car, or a street light outside the car.
"Next observation I had was when going I a car just a few years ago with my friends. Just for a brief moment between some trees and woods while riding in a car I manage to got a glimpse of the TV tower in Stockholm (Kaknästornet). I cant believe this is happening to me I remember thinking to myself. A big ball shaped object is hanging over the tower."
Anyone who has ridden as a passenger in a car for a long enough period can notice strange objects "hovering" over whatever they see in the window. This is called an "optical illusion." For example, if your dome light is on, and you look at a mountain in just the right angle, it looks like a "saucer" is floating over the mountain. Wow! A close encounter of the third kind! Except different. It's sort of like that "paranormal" novelty bowl that presents the illusion of a penny that magically "floats" above the bowl. It's all done with reflections.
"There I was, in the car with my friends, and I'm the only one looking at that direction. Í was shouting to the driver to stop the car but it was impossible to do it because we were driving on the highway with other cars and vehicles around. The shape of the object was round and had no sharp edges, it was kind of blurred. The color was orange glowing and it was pretty big to."
So you saw the reflection of a sign or something orange in the car being reflected on the object.
"It was raining that night so the sky was one big cloud. the objects orange light illuminated the clouds above it."
A reflection can also "filter" things being seen with different colors and patterns. You can "map" a plaid pattern on a white building, for example, if your shirt is close enough to the window.
"We were four persons in the car, but only one witness..."
This lends even more credence to it being a reflection.
Jose includes an illustration involving a "UFO" resembling the side of a quarter, which turns in a static rotation pattern as it travels across "the sky." After examining the illustration, I deduced that it is extremely possible that the "UFO" is actually a reflection of a certain type of hubcap on somebody's car, or the wheels on a semitrailer. If you have a shiny metal hubcap with just the right shape to it, and if an orange light from a sign or a car hits it just right, the reflection will rotate in exactly the way described.

Huh?

A person posted a UFO story at qsl.net in which he said "I have pictures and if you would like me to email some of them perhaps you could let me know." The thing is, there's no e-mail listed. Clearly, it's a conspiracy!