ALIEN TRUCK STOP

They crossed the galaxy. Then they had to run a roadhouse.

Somewhere between Winton and Longreach sits the Gidgee Creek Roadhouse — fuel, food, repairs and not much else. Until an interstellar spacecraft drops out of the sky and lands directly on it.

With their ship damaged, four stranded aliens have twenty-eight days before they can leave. There is only one problem: the crash has destroyed the roadhouse and killed the four humans working inside. So the visitors rebuild the place, copy the humans’ appearances and try to keep the whole disaster hidden until repairs are complete.

Now a highly experienced alien commander has to master Australian small talk, a scientist refuses to deliberately ruin a steak, an engineer becomes emotionally attached to an old spanner, and an alien posing as a waitress begins discovering that human life is considerably more complicated than the mission briefing suggested.

Unfortunately, the better they become at running the roadhouse, the harder it becomes to stay unnoticed.