Pamela F. Service & Mike Gorman - Alien Agent 03, page 1
Service/Gorman
Pamela F. Service is the author
of the Alien Agent series. She has
also written more than 20 books
in the science fiction, fantasy, and
nonfiction genres. After working
as a history museum curator for
many years in Indiana, she became
the director of a museum in Eureka,
California, where she lives with her
husband and cats. She is also active
alien
in community theater, politics, and
agent
beach combing.
ALien e
Mike Gorman is a seasoned
editorial illustrator whose work has
been seen in The New York Times,
The New Yorker, Entertainment
x
Weekly, and other publications. He
lives in Westbrook, Maine, with his
pedition
wife, three children, two dogs, a cat,
and a gecko.
Jacket art by Mike Gorman
t Car
t Carolrhoda Books
olrhoda
A division of Lerner Publishing Group
241 First Avenue North • Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Printed and bound in U.S.A.
Service/Gorman
Pamela F. Service is the author
of the Alien Agent series. She has
also written more than 20 books
in the science fiction, fantasy, and
nonfiction genres. After working
as a history museum curator for
many years in Indiana, she became
the director of a museum in Eureka,
California, where she lives with her
husband and cats. She is also active
alien
in community theater, politics, and
agent
beach combing.
ALien e
Mike Gorman is a seasoned
editorial illustrator whose work has
been seen in The New York Times,
The New Yorker, Entertainment
x
Weekly, and other publications. He
lives in Westbrook, Maine, with his
pedition
wife, three children, two dogs, a cat,
and a gecko.
Jacket art by Mike Gorman
t Car
t Carolrhoda Books
olrhoda
A division of Lerner Publishing Group
241 First Avenue North • Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Printed and bound in U.S.A.
alien
expedition
Book #3 of the
ALien Agent
[
]
s e r i e s
PameLa F. Service
illustrated by MiKE GORMAN
t Carolrhoda Books Minneapolis
• New York
Text copyright © 2009 by Pamela F. Service
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.
Carolrhoda Books
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Website address: www.lernerbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Service, Pamela F.
Alien expedition / by Pamela F. Service ; illustrated by Mike Gorman.
p. cm. — (Alien agent)
Summary: Young alien agent Zack joins an archaeological dig in Mongolia to ensure that there is no trouble from the dinosaur-like scientists from Vraj’s home planet who are on a similar dig nearby.
ISBN: 978–0–8225–8870–2 (trade hard cover : alk. paper)
[1. Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction. 2. Archaeological expeditions—Fiction. 3. Kidnapping—
Fiction. 4. Mongolia—Fiction. 5. Science fiction. 6. Humorous stories.] I. Gorman, Mike, ill. II. Title.
III. Series.
PZ7.S4885Ali 2009
[Fic]—dc22
2008020679
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 – B P – 1 4 1 3 12 11 10 0 9
eISBN: 978-0-7613-5694-3
s e r i e s
ALien Agent
[
]
#1 My Cousin, the ALien
#2 Camp aLien
#3 ALien Expedition
For Bob, Bill, and everyone at BGC
—P. S.
For Gracelyn, Skye, and Samuel: thank you
for all the joy you bring to my life
—M. G.
/gaither
Agent#21135
Prologue
1258
“I’m transmitting all the
information you need for this
job,” Chief Agent Zythis said
through the ship’s communica-
tion screen. Agent Sorn watched
as several of her boss’s ten-
tacles jabbed controls.
“The Galactic Union is counting on you,
Agent Sorn,” Zythis said. A half-dozen of his
twelve eyes sparkled with confidence. Sorn
tried to smile back as she closed the link.
Turning away, she glowered out her ship’s
view port at the stars flowing by through
transluminal space. Usually, the colored
streaks soothed her. Not now.
Annoyance sizzled through her. Here
she’d been on an important mission to
planet Quafeer Nine. Zythis’s orders had
just diverted her to an even more impor-
tant mission on planet Earth.
When was the Galactic Union ever going to
get enough personnel to handle this sector?
She particularly hated going to Earth.
Oh, it was a nice enough place, even though
it was not part of the Union yet nor even
aware that other planets were inhabited.
But Zack Gaither, the Union’s planted agent
there, was still too young and too untrained.
He was being asked, yet again, to go on a
possibly dangerous mission.
And she had to do the asking. Again.
Angrily she stalked to her makeup cab-
inet. With this new assignment coming
when she was already in space, she hadn’t
been able to use the Union’s Physical
Transformation Service. Good thing her
species was basically shaped like Earth hu-
mans. Her natural white hair would fit in.
But not her purple skin. Pawing through
bottles, she found a lotion that might do.
It should temporarily turn her a light tan.
Frowning, she thought about the ship’s
wardrobe. Designed for Quafeer Nine, it
was pretty flamboyant stuff. Still, she
ought to be able to alter something.
Again, she cursed everyone involved in this
situation. She had not gone through years
of agent training to become a seamstress!
Grabbing a pair of sonic scissors, she
went after her wardrobe.
Chapter one
“Hello, Zack,” a voice said. I turned on the
sidewalk and looked at the woman standing in
the shade of a tree outside the school yard. My
stomach tightened with fear and excitement.
Despite her human-tinted skin and normal
clothes, I recognized her. Agent Sorn.
It was a few weeks before summer vacation
when I saw her waiting for me outside the
school yard. She might have been someone’s
grandmother, a basically human-looking per-
son with a shock of white hair. But the sight
of her suddenly pumped me with adrenaline.
After all, the two times I’d had anything to do
with her before, I’d had plenty of excitement.
ALiEN ExPEditiON 15
The alien lady smiled apologetically. “You
probably hoped you wouldn’t be seeing me
again for a long time.”
I smiled back. She might have been right a
few months ago, but not now. After last sum-
mer’s adventures, I thought I’d had enough of
being a secret alien agent. Back then I was
just looking forward to an ordinary school year
as an ordinary human student.
But I guess the dangers and excitement had
kind of seeped into my blood. I mean, over
one summer I’d discovered I’m really an alien,
adopted by unsuspecting human parents. I
ended up working with good aliens and being
chased and almost killed by bad ones. That
So after a few months, ordinary school life had
started to look pretty dull.
Still, I was resigned to it. I was looking for-
ward to hanging out with friends this summer.
However, my plans—once again—tanked. It
turned out that Ken’s family was going to
Hawaii (tough life), and Jessica had to help
16 ALiEN AGENt
her grandparents move to Florida. The summer
was starting to look like a real bust.
Until Alien Agent Sorn showed up, that is.
After a slightly awkward handshake, we
walked to the burger place near school. She
said it was her treat, so I splurged on a root
beer float and large fries, while she ordered a
huge hot fudge sundae. “One of the plusses
about visiting your planet,” she whispered, as
the waitress left with our orders. We’d chosen
a pretty secluded booth. The kinds of things
we were likely to talk about seemed to require
spylike secrecy.
“How are you doing on the lessons that we’re
sending you?” she asked, as she plucked napkins
from the dispenser. I guess she was familiar
with messy sundaes. “Your parents haven’t
figured out that it’s not regular e-mail?”
I looked around to see if anyone I knew was
within sight. I could always explain away Sorn
as a long lost aunt or something, but juggling
too many lies gets complicated. “No,” I whis-
pered back, “and I’m careful they don’t see me
ALiEN ExPEditiON 17
practicing. The self-defense stuff is cool, but
learning how to use these powers of mine is
kind of scary. I haven’t got it all down yet.”
“And you won’t for a while. You’re still too
young. I wish I or some other agent could be
here to teach you personally, but frankly our
forces are way too thin in this sector. We just
can’t get to this planet very often. That’s why
it’s so important to have you here, an agent
who’s been brought up as a human. You can
act as an intermediary when the Galactic Union
finally makes official contact with your planet.
And, of course, it’s good having someone on-
site who can help out with little projects be-
fore then.” We both smiled innocently at the
waitress as she returned with our orders.
Sorn shoved a strand of white hair back from
her forehead, gripped the spoon, and dove into
her sundae. I took a slurp of my float and
prompted her. “And you’ve got another little
project for me now?”
Sighing, she said, “I really wish we didn’t
have to keep calling on you before you’re older
18 ALiEN AGENt
and fully trained, but something critical has
come up on this planet. This new assignment
should be easy, though. You probably won’t
have to do a thing besides enjoy a foreign va-
cation and be on hand just in case our other
agent needs a bit of help.”
“Sounds good,” I said, dumping ketchup on
my fries. “So where’s this vacation?”
“Mongolia.”
My hand jerked so much I sloshed ketchup
on the Formica tabletop. She might as well
have said Mars or Alpha Centauri or some-
thing. “You mean, like over by China?” I said
as I hastily wiped up the ketchup with a wad
of paper napkins.
“Between China and Russia. We’ve ar-
ranged for your parents to be invited to join
an American expedition to the Gobi Desert
this summer. And of course you’ll go along.
It’s a real scientific expedition doing an ar-
chaeological survey. Your dad will soon learn
he’s the lucky, average, high-school science
teacher ‘randomly selected’ to join the survey.
20 ALiEN AGENt
Of course, the real reason we arranged this is
because the expedition is going to be in the
part of the world where we need you.”
“In Mongolia?” I said, picturing a lot of bar-
ren emptiness. “Kind of the ends of the Earth,
isn’t it?”
“It is rather remote from your point of view,
I suppose. But it seems there’s going to be
another expedition there as well, unknown to
anyone on this planet. It’s from the Tirgizian
Academy of Science. We tried to persuade them
to hold off with their trip until the Galactic
Union was ready to make contact officially
with Earth. Unfortunately, the Tirgizians are
not a patient people. And they have a lot of
friends in high places, so their expedition is
going ahead.
“They have sworn to keep their presence abso-
lutely secret from the natives, but we thought it
best to place an agent there to monitor things.
And, as a backup to her, we need another agent
who can work with humans in case anything
goes wrong. That would be you.”
ALiEN ExPEditiON 21
“And your other agent can’t work with
humans?”
Agent Sorn smiled. “Well, she had a little
trouble last year, I believe.”
“Vraj?” I cried, and then lowered my voice,
looking around to see if anyone noticed. At
the other tables, no heads had swiveled our
way. “Cadet Agent Vraj? Yeah, I’d say look-
ing like a vicious dinosaur does make it kind
of tough getting along with people. How come
you chose her?”
“She’s a Tirgizian herself. In fact her parents
are part of the Tirgizian Academy of Science
expedition. Apparently they were never very
keen on their daughter becoming a Galactic
Patrol cadet. But now it’s proving useful to
the scientists, because she can handle what-
ever contact is needed between them and the
Earth-based agent—you. She is familiar with
this planet, after all.”
Vraj, I thought. She was a stuck-up, bossy,
bad-tempered sort when we’d first met last
summer—and still was at the end. But I’d kind
22 ALiEN AGENt
of gotten to like her, in an odd sort of way. I’d
even gotten used to my fellow agent looking
like a velociraptor.
But this was no time for reminiscing. Not
with all the questions bubbling in my brain.
“So why is this bunch of scientists from a plan-
et of dinosaurs on Earth anyway?”
“They’re looking for their roots.”
“Huh?”
“They have a theory that your Earth is their
long lost planet of origin. Hundreds of mil-
lions of years ago, their ancestors were moved
to Tirgizia, because the planet they lived on
was about to be hit by a huge asteroid. A help-
ful galactic race, which has since disappeared,
transported a sampling of the planet’s domi-
nant species to an uninhabited world to give
them a chance to evolve. Those creatures did
evolve. Tirgizians have become highly intel-
ligent beings. They have long searched the
galaxy for their mother planet. Their science
academy expedition is hoping to prove that
Earth is it.”
ALiEN ExPEditiON 23
“Well, I can see why you don’t want them
seen by the natives. Humans watch lots of
movies about dinosaurs eating people and
trampling cities.”
