She Came From Another World! (short story)

She Came From Another World! was a P.R.O.B.E. short story. Originally released for free on the Arcbeatle Press website, an audiobook version of it was later created as part of the Audio Adventures in Time & Space range (read by Bill Baggs), before a print version was included in the anthology True Origins.

Summary
One night, Giles finds himself investigating, or rather chasing down, a shooting star. Driving his car down a lane in a forest lane, he hears the impact — more akin to slow-motion car crash than rock. At gun point, he approaches the spaceship as the cockpit opens, and a duffle bag is thrown out, then a young woman emerges. Giles initially believes the woman human, until he sees her face, which while similar to that of a human, was otherworldly. She tries to communicate with Giles, but due to her alien dialect they don't get far, but she does manage to introduce herself as Maxiassa. Suddenly, a humanoid figure materialises near the ship, the air glitching and distorting around it, which Maxiassa names Mar'tuth. Mar'tuth destroys Maxiassa's spacecraft, and Giles and Maxiassa run to Giles's car, get in, and accelerate off. Mar'tuth avoids a mirror on the car, and Maxiassa pulls out a compact mirror from her duffle bag, and aims it at Mar'tuth, causing it to swerve out of the reflection. Giles notices this, so he drives the car to Homestyle. They lure Mar'tuth to an aisle filled with mirrors, trapping it, and when it tries to attack Giles and Maxiassa, it inadvertently destroys itself due to its powers being reflected by the mirrors.

Two months later, Giles sets up a meeting with Sir Andrew Williams, trying to get Maxiassa, now going by the name of Maxine Masters, asylum in the UK. Giles sets up the terms that Maxine can live in England so long as she works for P.R.O.B.E., and Andrew and Maxine agree. At Maxine's new residency, Giles visits her. He asks her to repair a trio-disregulator, which she does, saying that it was easy enough for a child to do, and he responds by telling her that a team of scientists worked on it for five years and got nowhere. Satisfied with her ability, he gives Maxine his old job, a technician.

Characters

 * Giles
 * Maxiassa
 * Mar'tuth
 * Secretary
 * Sir Andrew Williams

Referenced only

 * Tiassia
 * Maxiassa's mothers
 * Maxiassa's fathers
 * Maxiassa's siblings

Worldbuilding

 * Giles's car has an accelerator, a driver's seat, a passenger door, rear-view mirror, backseats,
 * Giles hopes to at least be a witness to the crash.
 * The shooting star hadn't been predicted, not even by an astronomer.
 * Smoke rose from the crashed spaceship.
 * Until meeting Maxiassa, Giles had only heard stories and read reports on aliens.
 * Maxiassa's ship is dark shiny black, and highly reflective. It has a tail, and arms that try to repair the damage.
 * There are leaves in the forest.
 * Giles mistakenly believes Maxiassa is a military test pilot at first.
 * Maxiassa wears a grey poncho over a white blouse and pants, with sturdy boots and a big satchel.
 * Maxiassa has vibrant purple hair, tied in a ponytail, and pure white skin, not Caucasian. She has purple eyes and veins with blood, and an odd bone structure.
 * Maxiassa looks at Giles like a deer in the headlights.
 * The Gendar language sounds like singing, which is accompanied by hand movements.
 * Giles can speak multiple languages.
 * Mar'tuth comes out of a "glitch" in the air, pixelating and ripping.
 * Giles thinks that the distortion around Mar'tuth looks corrupted video on a computer mixed with the visual tearing on an old VHS tape, often changing colours, which Giles found was headache inducing.
 * The security cameras at Homestyle all had software corruption at 9PM.
 * Maxiassa looks like she came out of a sci-fi serial.
 * Maxiassa cries out Zia Miat when Mar'tuth is destroyed.
 * Maxie reads Wuthering Heights, and she asks Giles why Catherine didn't just marry Linton and Heathcliffe.
 * Maxine uses the word "marriage" in the wrong context.
 * Maxine checks her looks with her compact, seeing that she has brown contacts that cover her irises, dyed brown hair, and layer of make-up over her visible skin.
 * She has a purse, which she considers "a sort of small satchel many women here had in lieu of pockets". She also wears a skirt.
 * Other non-P.R.O.B.E. groups recommend extradition for Maxine.
 * Maxine felt fear run up her spine when Sir Andrew asked about her life prior to Earth.
 * She has a flashback to when Tiassia, her friend, was killed on Gendar after they had been scouting for their tour. Maxine was a tour guide.
 * Maxine has a notebook.
 * Sir Andrew gives Maxine a white cloth to wipe the tears from her eyes and nose.
 * Maxine adjects a copy of a painting of "swirling blues and yellow stars [that formed] a night sky" in her apartment.
 * On Gendar, there are movies, shows, and music, but she curses herself for not downloading more.
 * Tea is a tradition shared by England and Gendar.
 * Maxine has a coffee table and a cabinet in her apartment. She also owns a cheap set of tools There is a laundry room, bed, and bathroom.
 * The trio-disregulator has something to do with laundry.
 * Maxine never went to university on Gendar.

Continuity

 * Giles first appeared in HOMEVID: When to Die.
 * The Gendar previously appeared in PROSE: The Door We Forgot and they have a song-like language. (PROSE: Out of the Box)
 * The Gendar are physically weak. (PROSE: A Worthy Successor)
 * Giles is in charge of P.R.O.B.E.. (WC: Shadows of Doubt, PROSE: A Worthy Successor)