“Let’s go and meet them then,” Becka cried as she threw her hands up. “We can use your ship, Adhara! We just go meet them and show off our bellies or whatever, and they’ll call it off.”
“No,” the lilac woman said sadly. “They think we are hostages of war. They would blow up the ship before we had time to say anything.”
“Not what I had in mind.” Becka grimaced.
“What if they could see you inside the ship?” I asked. “Surely they wouldn’t hurt you?”
“They would think it was trap,” Adhara said. “They do not realize how primitive human technology is. They think you are alakerik. They could think it is a hologram.”
“This can’t be happening,” Becka whispered, and her brown eyes filled up with tears as she rubbed her stomach.
I came over to pull her against me for a moment, and I gently stroked her cheek and wiped a tear away. Then my desperation started to turn into anger as I gazed into her big brown eyes.
My pregnant lovers should be putting their feet up and drinking tea while I went down on them, not stressing out about asshole aliens coming to destroy us all. It was meant to be our wedding night, and I should be tangled up in bed with my gorgeous wives and lovers by now, making sure each one of them was pleasured and absolutely filled with my cum.
If there was anything left worth fighting for, it was the promise of those nights.
“How can we convince them?” I asked as I turned back to the aliens. “Is there any way we can change their minds?”
“You said your parents are important,” Kat reminded Adhara. “They would listen to you, right?”
Adhara nodded, and her emerald eyes stared down at the ground as she bit her lip. I knew how guilty she felt about the whole situation, and that she would do anything to try and save us, but if all it took was to prove I didn’t have gills, then there had to be a way to get in front of her parents.
All I had to do was lift up my shirt, and the world could be saved.
My life was fucking ridiculous.
“Can we send them a picture?” Becka asked. “Like, just take a shot of Jason’s abs and text it to them?”
“Do aliens have text?” Kat snorted.
“Yes, why not?” Hae-won agreed. “Adhara, you must have even better cameras than we do. We could make a video of all of us showing our bellies!”
“Text it to them?” Adhara asked as she wrinkled her nose. “What is this?”
“Like sending a message from one device to another,” I said. “But in picture form.”
“This would not be proof.” Adhara shook her head. “Pictures can be made to look like anything. They are of no value. No truth. Humans can do this also?”
“Photoshop.” Kat nodded. “Yeah, I guess it needs to be in person or it won’t work.”
“Like I said.” Adhara shrugged. “My people do not realize how bad your technology is. They will not believe anything that they do not see right in front of them.”
“I don’t suppose they’d zoom in real quick when they get here before they blast us all to smithereens?” Becka asked.
All three aliens furrowed their brows, and the blonde Brit shrank back a little as the men looked at her like she was the most primitive creature they’d ever met.
“Just checking,” she mumbled.
I looked over my shoulder as another truck engine started and then drove off through the forest, and I realized that Kwan’s men had all vanished. I only hoped that they could bring all the villagers to safety in time. They had been so welcoming to me and the girls and had even celebrated our wedding with us outside their beautiful temple.
The whole celebration had been a reminder that there were still so many good people left in the world to fight for, and I couldn’t let them down now.
“My father will protect his people,” Hae-won said when she saw the look on my face. “But we need to know how long we have to work with if we’re going to fix this.”
“Let us check the map.” Adhara nodded. “Come.”
The two male aliens turned away and led us around the back of one of their ships. There were crushed palm trees that stuck out beside the doorway, and the aliens leapt through first as I waited by the door with the girls.
When the forcefield buzzed off, I stepped inside to see the ship was very similar to Adhara’s, except the lighting had a green hue to it. Then I walked into the dim control room, and I noticed that the pilot’s seat was slightly broader than Adhara’s.
The taller alien guy opened the bedroom door, and I craned my neck just a bit to see his room had a little shelf built next to the door. He grabbed something that looked like an iPad from it, and he started to tap around on the screen.
The device flashed electric blue and showed a complex-looking diagram with different planets separated into small boxes. Each planet appeared to actually be rotating at different speeds, and I wondered if this was a real-time rendition of other worlds just sitting in the palm of his hands. Then he scrolled along, and the image expanded to show thousands more boxes.
“What is that?” Becka asked as she twirled a strand of hair.
My blonde lover looked less panicked as she peered at the alien machine and still had a hand on her stomach, and I was relieved to see her pressing onward in this challenge.
“It shows us which sector and solar plane the mothership is in,” Adhara explained. “But only when it is stationary. It will not appear when the ship is moving. Goes in bursts.”
I leaned over to get a better look at the screen, but I couldn’t see anything other than the grid and planets.
“So the mothership is moving right now?” I asked. “Does that mean the fleet is, too?”
“The fleet is always slightly behind.” Adhara nodded. “The mothership is where my parents are. Along with the other officials who are in charge.”
The two male scouts hummed and clicked to each other as one scrolled through the map, and I got the impression that it could be a while until we had our answer.
“This has to be the most stressful wedding day ever,” Hae-won sighed.
“It is not how I planned our wedding night,” Becka agreed and began pacing around the control room.
“Yes, I wish we could do mating,” Adhara sighed, and the male aliens glanced at her but didn’t say a word.
Becka’s pacing quickened, and I reached out a hand to grab her waist. Then I pulled her close, and she sniffed as she buried her head in my chest.
“We’re going to figure this out,” I whispered as I stroked her soft blonde hair. “I did not fight this long through a dino apocalypse to be killed for having non-existent gills.”
Becka giggled and nodded as she pulled back. “So true.”
“We just need to get to that ship,” Kat said. “And show off Jason’s sculpted abs. I know your abs are awesome, and I never pictured them saving the world, but I kind of love this. I’m proud in the weirdest way.”
I grinned at the pretty soldier, and the map suddenly made a loud beeping sound.
“What was that?” Hae-won gasped. “Did something happen?”
I watched the male scouts glance at each other, and my stomach dropped. I could tell by their hurried humming that it wasn’t good news. What if we were too late, and the fleet was literally about to evaporate every human in existence?
Adhara’s emerald eyes met mine, and a single tear ran down her pretty face.
I swiftly came closer and looked at the map, and a new little addition had appeared inside one of the boxes. It was a silver circle which I assumed represented the mothership, and it glowed softly as the beeps continued.
“Well?” Kat asked as she put her hands on her hips. “What does it mean? Do we have a few weeks?”
“Months?” Becka added in a small voice.
I knew neither of these could be the case, and I prepared myself for the worst as I looked at the little silver circle on the screen.
“They are near,” Adhara sniffed as she looked b
ack at the map. “Within the Alakerinician Sector.”
“Yeah, but that’s like… hundreds of solar planes big, right?” Hae-won asked.
“Yes, but it will not be a long time until they arrive in this solar plane,” the beautiful alien answered.
“That’s when they’ll attack?” I asked.
“As soon as they are in Earth’s orbit,” Adhara said and quickly wiped away the tear on her perfect face. “Not far at all once in the solar plane. The fleet will have to travel slower to reach the planet without collision, but still very fast.”
“How close are they to this solar plane?” I asked urgently. “How much time do we have?”
“Maybe a few days,” Adhara replied, and Becka gripped my arm. “But no longer than a week. For definite.”
Silence fell over the ship, and as Becka’s grip on me tightened, I looked out at the dark forest.
My heart thrummed at a million miles an hour, my palms began to sweat, and I felt nausea creep up in my throat.
We had a few days to save humanity, and even after everything we had been through, there was no doubt that we were about to enter the fight of our lives.
And I didn’t even have the beginnings of a plan yet.
Chapter 2
I ran a hand through my hair and tried to slow down my breathing as the news sank in, and I had never seen the girls so quiet before.
Kat slumped into the pilot seat of the silent spaceship, and Becka stared out of the window while she tugged on her blonde hair. Hae-won chewed her lip with a scowl, and she kept her arms folded tight around her chest.
The bright screen of the map illuminated the three aliens’ faces as they huddled over it, and they started to mutter in their native language while Adhara pointed and scrolled.
I knew I had to take control of the situation before everyone became hopeless.
“So,” I said to break the silence. “If we can’t use these ships to get to the mothership, is there another way of getting on board?”
“There are many ways,” Adhara said as she wiggled her fingers by her side. “But I do not know how to operate these ways here on Earth.”
“Your technology is…” the shorter alien trailed.
“Primitive,” I sighed. “Yeah, I’ve heard. But there must be something we can use. Anything that can prove we aren’t alakeriks.”
“Can you zap yourselves onboard?” Becka asked.
“Ohh, good idea!” Hae-won gasped. “We could teleport!”
“Teleport?” the tall alien asked. “We do not have this term in our minds.”
“It means you vanish from this spot and reappear somewhere else without having to physically travel that distance,” I said.
“Ahh, we can do this.” Adhara gave a quick nod. “But we need equipment. It cannot be done with only our minds and bodies. Not yet.”
“Not yet?” Hae-won’s eyes went wide.
“Yes, the scientists take too long on some things,” Adhara sighed with irritation, and the other two alien scouts pursed their lips in agreement.
“Too busy with ommati and war,” the tall man muttered.
“Dammit,” Becka groaned, and she scrunched up her face as she leaned against the control panel.
“What equipment do you need?” Kat asked as she slowly spun the chair around. “I bet Kwan has some kind of connections in tech.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “The guy’s got his own satellite, and a thousand favors owed to him. If anyone can hook us up with equipment, then it’s Kwan.”
“It is not so simple,” Adhara said. “There is not human equipment that would make this work.”
The map suddenly made a low, pulsing beep, and the screen flashed red.
“What’s that?” I asked. “Does that mean the ship’s moving?”
“No,” the taller alien man replied. “It is the signal which was received from your science experiment.”
“The Hadron Collider?” I asked, and the scouts nodded.
“It is still being registered as a weapon,” Adhara said as she looked at the screen. “This is the warning signal that we pick up from it.”
“What if we turn it off?” Hae-won asked. “If it stopped sending out the signals, it would show we are not trying to use it as a weapon.”
“It is too late,” Adhara said with a frown. “Our fleet is coming. Turning off the signal would just make them think you are cowards, not that you are no longer a threat.”
“What is Hadron Collider?” The taller scout asked. “What does it do?”
“It’s the ‘weapon’ you guys are worried about,” I explained. “But our species isn’t using it as a weapon. I’m pretty sure we don’t even know it could be used that way. We’re only doing scientific experiments with it. Something to do with accelerating protons. I guess the Hadron Collider speeds them up, almost to the speed of light and throws them together. I think I read something about it even making little black holes, but I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know much.”
“Black holes?” Adhara asked, and her emerald eyes widened. “This machine can make them?”
“I think so?” I said. “Is that important?”
Adhara looked at the other scouts, and they hurriedly started to talk in their low hums. Their tones seemed rushed and urgent, although it was always hard to tell with their odd language, and every time they hit a certain frequency, the hairs on my neck seemed to vibrate.
Kat stood up from her chair and folded her arms, and we waited for the aliens to finish their discussion.
“This could be good,” Adhara finally announced, and a smile crept over her pretty face. “We can use black holes to get on board the ship.”
“Uh… are you sure about that?” I asked and furrowed my brow. “Because from my understanding, traveling through black holes is impossible, and physicists all over the world have--”
“Your physicists know nothing,” the shorter alien flatly informed me.
“Better leave the black hole business to the aliens,” the blonde Brit whispered.
“Okay, but scientifically speaking, it’s not possible to…” I trailed off as the shorter alien shot me a sharp glance, so I decided to just let the aliens do their thing, even if it made no physical sense to me. At least we had a glimpse of hope, and suddenly, everything didn’t seem so utterly impossible.
Only completely crazy in the best way.
“It would still take some programming of the machine,” Adhara said. “But if we can get to a black hole, then we can transport very easy.”
“Easy?” Hae-won chuckled. “Just… zip in and out of a black hole?”
“Yes, easy.” The tall alien nodded with an expression that proved he genuinely meant this.
Becka squealed and threw her arms around the lilac woman.
Adhara patted Becka’s back, and they held each other for a moment before Becka pulled back and clapped.
“So, we are going to Switzerland?” Hae-won asked.
“I think it’s between Switzerland and France,” Kat said. “But I mean, we obviously have to go, right?”
“Fuck yes, we do,” I agreed. “If there is a chance that this could work, we’re going to take it.”
“Then, fuck yes,” Kat echoed, and her lopsided grin lit up the control room.
“Come on, Adhara,” Becka giggled. “Give us a fuck yes.”
“Fuck yes!” Adhara sang as she bounced on the spot, and I couldn’t help but snort with laughter at her confused enthusiasm.
“Should we go right this second?” Hae-won asked. “Maybe we should get changed first?”
I had completely forgotten that we were all still in our wedding outfits, and my suit pants were definitely too snug for another day of dino fighting. The girls looked gorgeous, but their figure-hugging dresses and high heels would probably cause some issues during combat.
Plus, I knew Becka would implode if her wedding dress got dino blood on it.
“We should time it so we aren’t there in the p
itch black.” I said. “We don’t know what the dino situation is like there, and we want to have any upper-hand we can get. They must be a few hours behind us in that part of the world, right?”
“I think about seven or eight hours.” Kat nodded. “It will just be getting dark there, basically.”
“Okay,” I said. “So we leave first thing in the morning. We get to CERN, and we get to the mothership.”
“Jason flashes his abs,” Becka added. “And the war is called off.”
“Simple,” Kat said. “Sounds almost too easy. What could possibly go wrong?”
“We’ve got this,” I said. “One step at a time, okay?”
The girls nodded, and I was hit with a sudden tiredness as I stifled a yawn. It had been a whirlwind of a day, and I was ready to crawl under some silk sheets for the night.
“We leave at the sun up,” the taller alien announced. He hit something on his map, and the screen went black.
“You are very welcome to sleep in the base,” Hae-won offered. “It is going to be rather crowded when the villagers come, but we can find you a room.”
“That is not necessary,” the scout replied. “We use our sleeping rooms on ship.”
“But thank you,” Adhara added as she elbowed the male scout in the ribs.
“Would it be okay to give you guys human names?” I asked. “It feels kind of dickish to not have something to call you.”
“Dickish?” The shorter alien man furrowed his brow.
“Better not translate that one,” Kat muttered, and I cleared my throat.
“I just meant it would be nice to have a name to call you,” I clarified.
“I have name,” the taller man said, and he proceeded to make a series of grunts and hums.
“They cannot pronounce this,” Adhara sighed. “We can speak their tongues, it will make it easier. Mine is Adhara. Human name.”
She stuck out her chest as she spoke, and I was glad she was still a fan of the title we had given her.
“Hmm.” The shorter alien shrugged. “It does not matter to me.”
“We can talk it over in the morning,” I said with a wave of my hand. “You guys are up for the trip?”
Dinosaur World 8 Page 2
