Divine Mall in The Modern World

Noon passed and soon it was the early hours of evening. A strange hum attracted the attention of pedestrians as they looked up to see a massive sleek vehicle slowly descending from the sky. As it lowered to the asphalt and hovered three feet from the ground, mouths opened agape, and people pulled out their phones to take videos.

As cars stopped and people stood still to watch, Carter waited at the storefront in excitement as he wondered what form of alien would step out of the craft. Bulbous heads? Scales? Multiple eyes? His mind wandered and he braced his heart in anticipation.

The front door of the vehicle opened with a gentle his and from it stepped out a man.

"Human?"

His face instantly fell as if cold water had been poured on his excitement. But the man wasn't quite human, he had mechanical attachments to his limbs pulsing with energy and whirling with each movement.

"Carter Grianna?" The man wearing a high-visibility vest and some mechanical attachments to his limbs approached Carter while onlookers gasped at his mechanical parts.

"Yes," Carter cleared his throat and replied. He understood he was breaching a new world, now was not the time to be boyish.

"I'm Alsen Vigor, Chief Engineer of this construction team. Do you have any custom specifications for this upgrade or would you like to see our upgrade plans?" The strangely dressed man asked.

Carter had so many questions, was he actually human wearing mechanical parts? Or was he a mechanical being with human customization?

But it would be unprofessional to ask.

"Let's talk inside," he gestured towards the door as his eyes roamed about the crowd now gathered in front of the store, taking pictures and making calls.

Alsen followed Carter into the store glancing around curiously at everything. He found it odd that such a primitive store on a primitive planet could bag a contract with his company, let alone afford the cost of construction. Yet here he was, with enough funds to allow his team some leeway and flexibility in their work.

"Can you show me some of your designs?" Carter asked as they stepped in. The store had no space to receive guests, only shelves and aisles.

"Of course. Our signature is the spatial expansion technology which grants more dimensions to each facility without taking too much ground space. Here are a few plans, you can choose whichever suits your taste better" as Alsen finished speaking, Carter was dazzled by a flash of colorful light which soon morphed into a hovering holographic image of upgrade models.

"You can interact with it" Alsen encouraged when he noticed Carter's hesitation.

Slowly reaching, Carter marvelled as the display reacted to his gestures, allowing him to zoom, rotate, and even look into walls.

The upgrade models shocked him; the design was very futuristic, but not so much that it would be unfamiliar to local architecture. The gleaming countertops and shelves, recessed lighting, proper restroom design, and the residency. It was all fascinating.

"What's your preferred Residency capacity?" Alsen asked as Carter switched to check out another design.

"Uh-" Carter hesitated as he was still lost in the projection.

He cleared his throat and replied, "For the owner's residence, three bedrooms and a simple apartment with an office space, and for the Staff Residence, you can just follow the model in the plan. I have two employees at the moment, but I don't imagine I'll have more than five before the next upgrade," he explained in detail.

"You might also want to change a few of the polishing, they are a little dazzling but I don't think they'll be easy on the eyes of my customers"

The two of them spent the next ten minutes discussing a few changes to one of the designs. After all, human taste was quite different than wherever Alsen came from.

"Alright, we'll do our best to give you exactly as requested. If the budget allows, we'll do a few adjustments to the storefront to make it a bit more inviting," Alsen nodded as they concluded.

The duo walked back out of the store so Alsen could call out his workers, but the sight before them was not what they had expected.

A large crowd had now gathered in front of the store, separated from the strange vehicle by barricades of Humvees and soldiers with ballistic shields in front of them as they aimed their rifles at Alsen's vehicle.

"This is Captain Morgan of the 49th Federation Guard Battalion. Extraterrestrials, slowly step out of the vehicle and state your purpose."

A stout man standing between two vehicles spoke into a mic, his voice amplified by the speakers mounted on the military Humvees.

"I'll take care of this" Alsen said to the stunned Carter and stepped forward towards his vehicle.

As he moved, the soldiers finally noticed him and trained their weapons on him.

"I can't do nothing or this escalation will be bad for business" Carter muttered to himself. It was unknown when he started to care more about the business.

"Captain Morgan, I am Carter Grianna, owner of this shop, can I speak with you in private?" He called in a loud voice with both his hands raised.

Stunned at the sight of an Earthling and a young boy too, the soldiers exchanged glances, and many took their fingers off the trigger.

Seeing this situation, Captain Morgan hesitated for a moment, then took a step forward, but behind him, a soldier pulled him back.

"You already know where I stand with aliens if they are not shooting at us, they are not enemies," Morgan said to the soldier and continued forward towards Carter.

Normally, in this situation, it was understandable for a person, especially a child of Carter's age, to feel intimidated by the idea of interacting with a fully armed soldier. However, Carter was not new to this experience. He'd followed his father to the Region 49 Base a few times, and the rowdy, humorous soldiers back there were more intimidating than these ones aiming guns at him.

"Carter Grianna?" The captain asked for confirmation as he approached. The name Grianna was quite feminine for a surname and also very rare.

"Yes, my Father is in the corps," Carter replied, knowing what the Captain was really asking. Because of his name alone, his father was quite famous among his colleagues.

"What's going on here son?" The Captain asked, a confused flicker in his eyes.

"They work with a construction company, I just hired them for some renovations," Carter explained, but even this explanation caused the Captain's face to scrunch up.

He hired aliens for a renovation? Whatever happened to the countless construction companies on earth? How did he even get in contact with aliens? How was he paying for it? With Earth currency? So many questions.

But the stubborn look on Carter's face was all he needed to know that he would not be getting any more information.

There was currently no protocol on how to deal with or interact with aliens who made it past the Planetary Defense Corps.

Not to mention that there was no sign of an invasion of any sort.

With nothing to go on, he could only push back the perimeter and report back for instructions on how to proceed.

****

Unknown to Carter and Captain Morgan, thanks to the Construction company making contact with Earth, the planet was introduced to the universe. Many interplanetary business conglomerates now knew of a new habitable planet teeming with life. A lush world of potential profits. Hence, more and more aliens began sneaking past the meaningless Planetary Defense Corps to advertise and cooperate with the locals.

As for conquering and exterminating local life on earth? Sorry, that was human fiction. If they did, they would become a public enemy of the universe. After all, no one knew what was in the unbreached region of space. If they set a precedent by attacking new planets, it would make it perfectly reasonable for a more powerful civilization to show up and attack them! No one wanted such a nightmare.

Captain Morgan was in no hurry and neither were his superiors, since these aliens were here for construction work, they would be here a few days at least. But forty minutes was the system's estimated completion time. Although Carter added a few changes and because of the generous budget, Alsen decided to add a few other things, the work took a whole hour.

Right before the eyes of Captain Morgan, the soldiers, and the crowds, the construction crew carried their tools back out of the shop and into their vehicle, and a second later, the small car-shaped vehicle was levitating even higher and was gone into the atmosphere without much flair.

"You can relax, they've left he planet, maybe even the solar system," Carter said to Captain Morgan and hurried back into his store. He was excited to check out the new changes.

The front of the store no longer looked as simple as it did a second ago. Instead of opening directly into the store, it now opened to a reception lounge with glass walls that filtered the dust and heat of Region 49. A soft hum in the air from environmental controls.

To the left, glowing letters read "Mall", guiding eyes to wide spacious corridors stretching further than the store looked from outside. Cool white lighting bathed sleek and pristine shelves.

To the right side, similar glowing letters read, "Eatery", stepping forward, Carter could feel a warmth and even smell freshly cooked meals, although there was nothing made in it yet.

Wandering into the Eatery, Carter traced his fingers on the fancy wood tops of tables and comfortable chairs. His eyes gleamed with excitement as his gaze settled on the counter behind which was a glass display for wines, unfortunately, it was still empty for now.

He wandered past the staff-only door behind the counter into the fancy kitchen full of all kitchen utensils, even appliances he hadn't bought. There was a small corridor leading into a cooler and dry storage room, and another door leading out from the storage room to the mall.

Now Carter understood what Alsen meant by Spatial Technology. There was no way this building could normally fit in the small plot the store was standing on, and yet somehow it did! The inside of the store far broader than anyone could conceive by looking from the outside.

A corner of the storage room was an elevator leading upwards to the second floor, where the residences were. Carter rode it with stunned silence up to the staff residence.

A clean, well-lit modern hallway welcomed him as he stepped into it. Five doors stood on each side of the hallway, the doors aligned slightly to the side from each other so none of them opened into the one across. Each door had a door cam and a card reader.

Using his Master card, Carter opened one of his apartments and wandered into it. It had two bedrooms, a general restroom, a kitchen, and an adjoining dining hall. Each well-furnished with appliances and all necessities.

"This is better than our current apartment," Carter laughed to himself as he thought about how Sienna would react when she arrived in the morning.

Then the Owners' Residence on the third floor had a fancy living room, four bedrooms, a dining room adjacent to the kitchen, an office, and a visitors' restroom.

Carter was wowed at the change. Although he would have preferred to have the mall and restaurant on different floors but the current space was unsuitable for it.

Still the current store. . . If it could still be called that, it was something mind-boggling.

Standing in the living room of the Residence, he looked out of the glass walls at the city below, his mind full of expectations for the future.

Just then, there was a chime on his

phone. Alsen had installed a control app on his phone and laptop through which he could control and observe the entire building.