As he left, Aleks broke into a grin at Abigail’s blush. “Not so calm, cool and collected, are you?”
This made Abigail blush more. “This is just so… nice. I am not used to getting such special presents.”
“Well, little sister, get used to it. I think Ichiro likes you, as do many other men. Welcome to the eternal challenge of women—dealing with men who have the hots for us.”
CHAPTER 9
My investigations, interviews of people involved, and studies of the recovered documents have shown me Director Adam Lloyd was not a one dimensional dictator as many have tried to portray him. Misguided he may have been, he was not eaten up with evil intent toward others, was not in the same class Hitler and Stalin.
-Excerpts from the Works of Princess Akiko, Free Japan Royal Family
KEY WEST, FLORIDA
Adam Lloyd sat at his office desk, reading an email. It was a short and sweet report about the aborted entry into Atlanta by the Kraken forces. He grunted as he thought about the chances of a reconditioned F-51 Fighter, older than just about every surviving human on Earth (the Invasion and Long Winter had been extremely rough on the very old and the very young), being used to successfully strike deep into Cattle Country. Once again, the lack of understanding on the part of the Tschaaa concerning general warfare, matters especially air defense, had been demonstrated. Their eye in the sky saw things, then ignored them because the Squids really did not understand threat evaluation. The concept of recognizing potential or possible threats was alien to them. On their world, threats had been categorized based on whether something attacked the Tschaaa, primarily the young. Once it did, then it was classified as an enemy, a threat. Just because a creature had lots of teeth and claws did not mean it was avoided; it had to try and eat a Tschaaa before it was designated as dangerous.
Adam thought their development in the oceans of their world must have been different than man’s journey from trees to savannah. Man’s brain had developed in such a fashion that everything different was treated as a threat until proven otherwise. The fact that in the early days, almost every predator was perfectly happy to try primate or monkey flesh was probably the primary reason for man’s built in hyper vigilance. Those individuals that were wary of everything survived to pass on their genes. Possibly, in Adam’s mind, modern society’s dumbing down of this wariness and distrust of strangers as a means for all to “just get along” may have slowed the realization after the first rock strike that someone was attacking Earth.
The Tschaaa had set in place limited parameters for search and detection for the eye in the sky. Thus, an awful lot of aircraft and surface movement and activity were ignored. This attitude had now come to bite them in the ass in a big way, again.
Mary was in the outer office. Both she and Kat were beginning to show the early signs of pregnancy. Close examination and monitoring by Doctor Fredericks of some two dozen pregnant females that had definitely been ‘infected’ by the Tschaaa materials had so far not shown any dangerous effects. All the fetuses were developing at an accelerated rate, leading to their greatly increased metabolism, and the food intake by the mothers. At the time of birth would come the big test. Would they be delivered normally, especially as all the pregnancies were with twins, or would the sped up gestation cause complications? And what about the first year of growth, development? There were so many questions, all which made Adam pissed off because this whole development was accomplished in secret by the Tschaaa, driven by His Lordship.
At least the now two “sister wives” were getting along. They had bonded after their extremely nasty knockdown-drag out catfight. Then, they had manipulated him into simultaneously impregnating them on the same night. This was before the revelations of the attempted Tschaaa developed modifications. But, knowing they would both be giving birth to twins gave them the sense of well-being and accomplishment many pregnant women feel. Having someone close to you experiencing pregnancy at the same time added to the positive attitudes, and feelings of security.
Adam sighed. He loved them both dearly. Having just one wife had never been in his plans, definitely not two. But now he knew he could not bear to live without them both. Jamey and Jeanie still shared his quarters, and occasionally his bed. Kat and Mary thought of them as sisters and were grateful they provided Adam with sexual outlets and activities that took the onus off of them. The two Wives knew they were not a threat to the family unit. In fact, Jeanie and Jamey looked forward to being “aunts” to the four newborns, just as they had enjoyed being bridesmaids at the small wedding Adam and his new wives had at the Base Chapel. Since the fallout, both physically and figuratively, from the U.S. nuke strike on His Lordship and the resultant time of rage by the Tschaaa against all humans, the positive feelings many Base personnel had for him were muted. Many no longer really trusted his “vision” of Squid/human relations. After all, what would stop the Tschaaa from having another moment of rage and attempting to harvest the Key West Base personnel, supposedly “friendlies”.
So, a small wedding was best. Besides, none of the participants had surviving family members to attend.
The idea of man with two wives and two “aunts” who shared the marital bed would have been deemed weird and perverted in most circles ten years prior. Now, thanks to the Rocks and the Invasion/Infestation, almost every human institution had been at least modified, with some being destroyed. This especially applied to what constituted a “family”. If five people said they were family, then they were. With entire bloodlines wiped out almost overnight, human society was rebuilding around new constructs.
Things finally began to settle down, with the majority of the residents of the Key West area getting back to what had been normal day-to-day living the last few years. The local Tschaaa and their minions were either bending over backwards to appear non-threatening or at least to not appear at all. After the initial rage, the counting of the dead by the Tschaaa (ten thousand and rising from the nuke and its aftermath—two-thirds of the victims young and adolescents), a new concept set in among the Tschaaa on Earth. They were vulnerable. They had last felt this when the Plague had hit their primary food source on their home world, leading to the great trek here to Earth for a replacement food source, dark meat. They had so quickly overwhelmed the human defenses, then survived the Long Winter with few problems, their sense of superiority and security felt as a species prior to the Plague had returned with a vengeance. Only to come crashing down again due to that same over confidence.
His Lordship Neptune and the other Lords had finally come to an agreement that, if they were to survive on a world still inhabited with dangerous feral humans, they had two choices. First, turn all of their resources and individuals—including robocops, lizards, and greys—to slaughtering or imprisoning every single human left on Earth, probably an impossible task in one lifetime. Or, second, work with the “friendlies” they were attempting to develop into a client species and contain the Feral humans, especially the ones organized into the Unoccupied States. Lord Neptune had pointed out that the humans residing in the U.S. seemed to be the main agitators. Deal with them, and the head of the snake may be cut off. It may grow back in Free Russia, Japan, or some other area, but that would take time. The former Americans seemed to be the driving force behind the organized resistance.
After a heated discussion, with His Lordship pointing out the human concept of scorched earth warfare, it was decided to use the virulent followers in the Church of Kraken, backed with Tschaaa weapons, Squid-manned Deltas, robocops in Falcons, the battlerobs, and small numbers of lizards and greys using smaller tactical weapons, would support large numbers of human Krakens armed with human weapons.
The Tschaaa had seized large numbers of weapons, leaving many in huge piles, some unprotected from the elements. His Lordship Neptune had also established a large manufacturing and reconditioning unit on the huge Gulf of Baja complex. Using some captured humans from Mexico that he had allowed to run loose as a backup source of dark mea
t genetic diversity, he had over a thousand humans working twenty-four hours a day in bringing small arms back to operational status. Already, some one hundred thousand rifle, pistols, and machine guns had been provided to the Church of Kraken “volunteers” being trained to assault the Ferals. But, as just proven by the quick and dirty single plane air attack, the Tschaaa controlled forces were far from being efficient.
Just then, the combination laptop-notepad communication device that Andrew had built for him buzzed. His Lordship was calling him on this secure device, in order to have a completely private conversation, with not even Andrew listening in (supposedly).
Adam connected, His Lordship appearing on the screen. No longer located at the damaged super complex at Marquesas Key, the Tschaaa Lord was floating at a very slow speed on one of three seagoing platforms the aquatic aliens had built on Earth. Three times the size of the USS Ronald Reagan nuclear carrier, its mass enabled it to ride out most storms or hurricanes. Though slow, its movement made it harder for anyone to attack it. The Lord was not going to be attacked again.
“Good morning, my Director. I see you are already working on the daily tasks and problems you incur as part of your position. By any chance have you received reports concerning Atlanta?”
“Good Morning, my Lordship. Yes, I was reviewing it just this minute. Unfortunately, some of my predictions were true.”
The Tschaaa Lord signed frustration with his social tentacles. “Yes. Once again, your fellow humans accomplished something completely unforeseen. I thought my decades of study had given me some insight into what humans can be expected to do in most situations. Apparently, I have been horribly wrong. Why is that, Director Lloyd... Adam? You and I seem to understand each other. Why can I not understand other humans?”
Adam sighed. “You have, to put it bluntly, completely underestimated us. We humans are a nasty, warlike species who have waged global conflict for centuries. We have such a wealth of experience in long term killing of our own species, not to mention any other predator that threatened our survival. Thus, we have developed almost unlimited means and methods to attack and kill, as well as defend against such attacks. Your species has not. You developed a very homogeneous culture and population very early. Crèches allowed controlled breeding as well as controlled competition for power and breeding rights, preventing mass warfare. You have become used to dealing with species who were either so overwhelmed that they could never really provide real resistance, or species who accepted your dominance and tried to work with you. Of course, other than your original meat source, you did not try to eat the other species with established cultures, societies. Then you found us.”
Adam considered his words carefully. “Your Lordship, you have been of two minds with us, almost schizophrenic in nature. You want to eat us, but you also want to communicate with us and use as a client species. One minute, you are scaring the crap out of us, the next minute you are trying to calm us, pet us like a faithful dog. You are doing all of this to a species that is very good at developing tools to slash, kill, and exterminate all who stand in our way. We have more books involving stories of war and conflict than all other topics. We have entire colleges whose sole purpose is to study war, to improve our tactics and strategy on how to kill people and break things. You decided to try and control us. We have forgotten more about waging war that you will ever know.”
Adam stopped. He wondered if he had just gone too far, said too much. He knew this Lordship was the one who developed the majority of tactics and weapons to invade and occupy much of the Earth. He set up the current system of harvesting dark meat, of potential human clients. But the nuke strike had thrown that into disarray.
His Lordship stop moving for a moment, the Squid’s flesh darkening to show negative emotions. Finally, Lord Neptune manipulated his two social tentacles into signs of resignation, then agreement. “Unfortunately, you are right, my Director. Your bluntness once again proves to me that my decision to use you in this leadership position among humans was correct. I guess we Tschaaa have a tendency, in your vernacular, of preferring to be fat, dumb, and happy. Now, I have barely been able to regain control of most of the major population centers in Cattle Country. But Atlanta still holds out. Out of the two hundred and fifty Church of Kraken members sent to probe the city, in one quick and simple attack, a hundred were fatalities, many others damaged. I also lost battlerobs and Soldiers. It has shaken faith in the ability of myself and my Crèche to deal with this problem and keep it from spreading. Already, there are reports of parts of Europe and the Near East where adult Tschaaa have been attacked, harvester ships and stations damaged, humans friendly to us killed. I am being blamed. I cannot afford any more…defeats.”
As much as Adam wished he could just ignore this, to allow the Tschaaa Lord to sleep in the bed he had made, he could not. Any day, someone else could take over the Key West Base and the Reconstructed States, with all the inhabitants harvested just to be rid of them. The Tschaaa greatly preferred dark meat, but would kill and eat any human deemed to be a problem. So, Adam must not let Lord Neptune fail and fall. Not just yet.
“You have more Kraken humans going to Atlanta, true?”
“Yes. Over a thousand will arrive tomorrow. Luckily, I was able to use the survivors of the air attack to form a thin line around Atlanta. Many Cattle are still afraid, and are hiding rather than trying to break out. They may not realize how weak my forces are. I could flatten Atlanta, but that would be admitting defeat by burying much usable meat.”
“Well sir, barricade, quarantine the entire area. Get more forces there. Have a tight ring around the city. Then, slowly lay siege to them. Light attacks here and there, just enough to keep them hunkered down. You will then starve them out over the winter. Move in during the spring, mop up the survivors. The cities under your control can provide additional units of meat, in addition to the ones killed trying to fight or flee. As long as you provide uninterrupted high quality fresh dark meat, your fellow Lords will soon lose interest in your problems. Show them success, they will adopt like tactics in their areas, and slow the spread of insurrection before it becomes organized.”
His Lordship known as Neptune wiggled his tentacles in a sign of glee. “Yes! How stupid of me. This is mentioned in many of your books, films. Why did I not notice that?”
“Because, Your Lordship, you are not a warlike human.”
After another half hour of dealings and discussion with His Lordship, Adam cut the connection and walked out to Mary’s office. Sitting next to her was Kat. “What a pleasant surprise. My two wives together.” He walked up and kissed each of them in turn. He mused about this odd turn of events—two sister wives who loved him and each other, both pregnant with twins. The fact they had been manipulated genetically and hormonally by the Squids definitely did not make them happy at first. However, they decided to accept the feelings their conditions generated, especially the love for each other and Adam. The children in their bellies were developing in a healthy but accelerated fashion. At night, the two women would put their bellies together so the half-siblings could “visit” while in the womb. They gently talked to the unborn, rubbing each other’s stomachs.
He slept between them, sometimes being woken by them in the middle of the night, as they began to caress him, and each other. Soft, slow love making was the order of the day, and he did not complain.
He still had not had a real discussion with Jamey and Jeanie—his assistants and still occasional lovers— about this new dynamic of two pregnant wives, and what they wanted to do in the future. When he tried to talk to the “Barbie Twins” they smiled, told him not to worry, told him to worry about Kat and Mary, not them. They were happy helping with the children of Key West Base and would be happier with all the new twins that would be running around in the next few years. They had found a purpose in life, were adapted to existing under Tschaaa control. Which was another reason he tried to keep the situation with His Lordship from imploding or exploding. The thoug
ht of a bunch of Squid and harvester robots grabbing the residents of Key West made him ill. He would do anything to prevent it.
Both Kat and Mary stood up and gave him a group hug. “How’re doing, Boss?” Married or not, Kat still called him Boss, and of course, she flashed her signature perky smile at him. The producer who said in another lifetime ago that her perky smile early in the morning, when things were going bad, was a definite plus didn’t know the half of it. Lately, her smile and Mary’s calm support were almost all that he looked forward to. Chief Hamilton, of course, was still a rock, but he always was. His smile, however, was not perky.
“It is going as well as can be expected. His Lordship is still trying to regain complete control in Cattle Country, while also figuring out what do about the Unoccupied States. Some of his fellow Lords wanted to start using Falcons and rocks to pound the Ferals into dust. They had to be reminded about the Long Winter, its effects on breeding areas, and the idea of scorched earth. We know the U.S. forces have access to nuclear weapons, leftover ICBMs. That bomb on Marquesas Keys proves some of the warheads are still functional. I think Madam President would risk bombing everyone back to the Stone Age rather than cede complete control to the Tschaaa. Mutual assured destruction keeps us from an all-out nuclear and rock strikes war. At least as long as calmer heads prevail.”
“Well, on a positive note,” Mary said. “Doctor Fredericks says our babies are developing just fine, though faster. So we are hungry all the time.”
Adam smiled. “Well, I’ll get us all a nice big lunch. Any requests?”
“Lots of meat and cheese, Boss. I need all the protein I can get.” Kat flashed a full grin.
Adam looked at his two ladies. “Did anyone tell you just how much I love you both? That without you, I’d be lost?”
At that comment, Mary began to tear up. “Dammit, don’t be so serious. Of course we know, you big jerk. Now you’ve set off my waterworks.” Kat handed her a tissue to dab her eyes, then hugged her.
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