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 Not one solitary pig has either landed or taken off at PTI Airport.

But staunch Republican Steve Arnold and staunch Democrat Skip Alston are still close partners, if not best buds.

In "Star Trek," this kind of stuff only happens in alternate universes. Yet, as Alston reminded a packed house last week at the annual State of Our Community luncheon, he and his unlikely political ally are still working together, for better (they insist) or worse (say their critics).

Alston smiled last week as he recounted the sheer unlikeliness of the alliance. "Who would have thought that Commissioner Steve Arnold and I would be able to put aside our differences and move Guilford County forward?" Alston said at the luncheon.

Alston was, as usual, dressed to the nines in a three-piece suit and perfectly knotted tie.

He also was clearly in his element.

Alston, chairman of the county commissioners, used no notes, except in his opening remarks. And he came across as the most engaging of the three speakers, who included Mayor Yvonne Johnson and school board Chairman Alan Duncan.

That's more than a little ironic, since Alston had said beforehand that he didn't like the luncheon's shift from the old format of scripted speeches to a moderated panel. He had suspected the change was engineered to put him on the spot. But it actually played to Alston's strengths.

"At first, I didn't like this format," Alston admitted later. " ... But I kinda like it. Do it more often than once a year." Maybe even once a month, he added.

Alston came across as forceful, clear and smart. He showed again why he has the tools to be one of the county's most effective public officials.

If only (as they say in comic books) he'd use those powers for good.

When he does, he can cut an impressive figure. He certainly did last week -- not that anyone bought everything he was selling.

Alston did make some very good points during the discussion:

l The need to save money and increase efficiencies by combining more city and county services.

l The need for city and county governments "to check our egos at the door" and "talk more to each other than talking about each other."

l Even the need to better fund the Guilford County Schools. "I know that they are hurting," he said. "They need all the funds they can get." (Maybe we actually are in an alternate universe?)

But some of the pronouncements don't square with how Alston has conducted business.

There was scant communication to the media or anyone else when Alston and Arnold engineered a clean sweep of top county administrators.

But it would be dishonest not to give Alston and Arnold credit for cutting county spending, avoiding a tax increase and conceiving an intriguing new incentives policy that would be more consistent and benefit more businesses, especially smaller ones.

Conceived primarily by Arnold, the policy extends tax breaks to nearly all businesses that invest in capital expansions. It is smart and visionary, and well worth trying, if it passes legal muster.

And Arnold has pitched it as a countywide concept that he hopes the High Point and Greensboro governments also might adopt.

Our editorial board has given both Alston and Arnold grief for the havoc they've wreaked in recent months. And they deserved it. But they may be on to something here.

And the potential to use the policy as a branding mechanism for the county and a means to get local governments working more cooperatively is promising.

Even if the policy ultimately doesn't pass scrutiny by the UNC School of Government, Arnold and Alston deserve credit for trying. And they should keep trying.

Incidentally, Arnold shocked us a couple of weeks ago by dropping by unannounced and making an impassioned case for the policy. Although in recent years he had seemed bored and aloof as a commissioner, he was visibly excited.

How did he and Alston, who is in many ways his political and ideological opposite, come together?

Alston asked, Arnold said. (What was it they said about Nixon going to China?)

At one point last week, Alston came to within inches of sermonizing and some of us were tempted to join the mayor when she said "Amen."

"We may have come over in different ships," Alston said, quoting the familiar adage. "But we're in the same boat now."

One even dares wonder if Alston has begun to find his voice as not just a politician, but a leader.

Maybe. But only if he commits to practice what he preaches more than some of the time.