by Nick Braker
“I doubt that,” Asher said.
Seph glared at him.
“Careful, big guy. I have an itchy foot,” Jules said, punching Asher in the shoulder playfully.
“Drink,” Greg said, interrupting them.
“What? No way,” Jules replied.
“I have to agree with Grep on this one, Jule. You referred to Aeon in a way that violates the rule,” Seph said.
“Wait a minute. Almost all of you have done that tonight and no one said anything then,” Jules replied.
“More accurately,” Seph said, correcting her. “All of us have had to drink for the same reason but this is the first time you were caught at it.”
“Drink,” Asher said, handing hers to her.
She paused, staring at him but then relented. Her look turned to a glare and then she lifted the White Russian, finishing it off with a flourish.
“Take that, Aeon,” she said, as Greg handed her another one.
“Take it, I will,” Asher replied, smirking at her.
Jules mocked him, smiling sweetly at him in response.
“It would be a painful attempt on your part,” she paused to emphasize her next word. “Dear.”
Before anyone could yell drink, she was already downing a shot sized drink from her glass. Jules wiped her mouth with her sleeve intentionally making a big show of it. She turned toward the great room to get everyone’s attention, raising her voice so the crowd could hear.
“Okay everyone. Get your bathing suits on. Time for some pool party competition. We will be pitting the girls against the guys to start. Yes, I know that is not fair to the guys but when is life ever fair?”
Seph followed up behind her.
“We girls so enjoy stomping your little male egos.”
“Even little ol’ me, Seph?” Greg pleaded, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
“No mercy, little man,” she said and darted off to the west bedrooms.
“Damn,” Greg said, mildly stunned. “That was my best, pleading look.”
Jules continued.
“We are going to take you on in some water polo. Does anyone here need to have the rules explained to them? Good. Girls to the west bedrooms and boys to the east.”
“West is best,” Asher whispered to no one in particular.
The two groups split and headed off to change.
Some of the guys headed outside to grab their suits from their cars.
“Asher, I’ll get our duffel bags. Be right back,” Weston volunteered.
Asher threw him the keys as he darted out the front door. Several other guys had already filed into the back bedrooms and were changing when Weston returned with three duffel bags and his swimsuit.
“Here you go dudes, and don’t give me anymore drink crap,” Weston said, obviously inebriated.
“How many times did you have to drink, Clay?” Asher asked.
“Seven. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Rock has you beat by a long stretch,” Greg said.
“I lost count,” Brandon blurted out.
They found spots in the bedrooms to change without bumping into each other. Asher put his swim trunks on and stashed his clothes in his duffel bag while his friends finished changing.
“Rock,” Greg said. “What was Zara talking to you about earlier? You were in stitches, man.”
Brandon started laughing again.
“Holy hell, dudes. She wouldn’t stop telling jokes about, you know... feminine hygiene. She’s funnier than Rodney Dangerfield. Man, I was in tears.”
“Yeah, we could tell. You’re sick, man. Sick.” Greg said.
“Okay, enough of that crap,” Asher said. “We have some arrogant little women that need to have a healthy dose of what it means to lose, big time.”
“Hell yeah,” Weston said, giving Asher a high five.
“It’s time I got behind the wheel of the bus because I’ll be taking them to school,” Greg said.
Everyone stopped, the room getting awkwardly silent.
“Really? Was that supposed to be funny? New material, Greg. New material,” Brandon said, laughing at him.
“I have a pretty little bird for you, Rock,” Greg said.
Asher pushed Greg back a step, getting in his face.
“Do I have your attention now? Time to focus. We have to win this or it will be nothing but front page news, in our face, from them all night long.”
“Yeah, fine. Fine.”
The group headed outside to find the girls were still not ready. Some other guys had already jumped in the pool and were tossing the ball back and forth. Brandon jumped in, joining them. Greg tapped Asher and Weston on the shoulder.
“Did you two get to meet Fira, Bree, and Mira yet?”
Weston nodded but Asher shook his head.
Greg continued, nodding his head knowingly.
“Oh yeah, every single girl at this party is a knockout. I feel like at any moment I’m going to turn around and Allen Funt is going to jump out and yell ‘Surprise, you’re on Candid Camera.’”
“Damn, Greg. I was thinking the same thing earlier,” Asher said.
“It’s sort of surreal, actually,” Greg responded. “I’ve never met this many beautiful women in one place who are smart and also well off. I keep chalking it up to the fact we are at a sorority from a prestigious university.”
“Clay, the four of them own this place,” Asher said.
“This home is their sorority and it’s like we’re in a movie where no one is ugly,” Greg added. “Frankly, Clay, your luck must be at work again.”
“Dude, did you forget the sorority we stopped at first?” Brandon said, swimming up to the edge.
Asher and Greg both shook their head with disappointment at Brandon. The girls walked out from their bedrooms drawing everyone’s attention. He turned around to see that Jules was out in front. The guys all started whistling and jeering.
“Okay, pipe down,” Jules said, standing at the edge of the pool.
She wore a solid black bikini with tiny stars across each piece. It looked like a galaxy star cluster. Asher didn’t linger with the thought long. He was more focused on the fact she walked with obvious grace and confidence. She was not shy in the slightest and knew how good she looked.
Damn, I bet they all have played this game many times.
“Here are the rules,” she continued. “Every time a team scores, the other team drinks a shot. Oh, and none of the sissy stuff. Each shot will be Jack Daniel’s. If you do not drink, you do not play. I guess it goes without saying, but if you pass out, you do not play.”
The other girls laughed and pointed at the guys, taunting them. Seph pointed at Greg, making a gun with her hand and pulling the trigger. She waved goodbye to him.
“You are going down, little man,” she mouthed.
“To hell with that,” Greg said, looking at Asher. “Beauty or not, she just sealed the deal. They’re going to their rooms crying tonight... wait, that didn’t sound right. Well, you know what I mean.”
Greg was competitive. All of his friends were. All their taunting and smack talk just fired them up. He looked down at the pool, up at the girls standing near it and back down to the pool. Asher jumped in, making sure he created a splash large enough to hit all the girls nearby.
“Sounds easy enough,” he said as he came up from under the water.
The girls that got splashed screamed from the unexpected cold water.
“Trying to piss off the other team, Aeon?” Jules asked.
“Just trying to help get this competition going, little lady,” he said with a slight smirk on his face.
Weston jumped in next to him and touched his shoulder, getting his attention.
“Those three are Mira, Fira and Bree,” he said, pointing to each of them.
“Wow, Greg was not kidding. Every one of the girls are gorgeous,” he said, looking at Weston and laughed. “Have we died and gone to heaven?”
Weston turned to stare at the
girls getting in the pool.
“Lead us to the promised land, brother Ash.”
Everyone got into the pool and took sides. The girls were on the west end of the pool and the guys huddled around the east working up a strategy. Asher looked back at the girls.
“Dudes, they aren’t even talking amongst themselves. They are either way too cocky or they’ve done this many times.”
“Crap,” Greg said, looking back at them. “You’re right. What do you guys think?”
Several of the others chimed in about this being their first time here.
“Let’s play a few points and see what we’re up against,” Asher said, ending the huddle. “We can handle a few shots and we’ll build our strategy around what we learn.”
They turned to face the girls.
“Are you boys through with your huddling?” Zara taunted.
“I want to apologize ahead of time for kicking your asses on your own home turf. I hope you won’t hold it against us when we do,” Asher grinned and pointed at them, taunting them with the gesture.
“Rock,” Zara said, winking at Brandon. “If you are nice to me during the game, I’ll be nice to you afterward, very nice to you--”
“We do not need to cheat to beat them,” Jules said, glaring at Zara. “I do not want them whining later about losing because Brandon threw the game.”
Brandon laughed at them both.
“Don’t worry, little lady. I don’t throw games for nobody. You,” pointing at Zara, “are going to lose in the pool now and win in the bed later, guaranteed.”
The guys all laughed and got into position. The game was about to start but Asher’s head snapped up trying to locate a strange sound coming from the other side of the sorority house. The wind picked up quickly, sending a chill into the crowd. Lights flashed from the edges of the roof.
“What the hell is that guys?” he asked.
“Whatever it is,” Greg said, backing up toward the edge of the pool, “it’s coming this way fast and it’s getting louder. I think we should get out of the pool, right now.”
Greg looked concerned and Asher’s unease increased. He swam to the other side of the pool toward Jules. She stood, waist deep in the water watching the lights above the house getting closer.
“Jules, we need to get out of here. This isn’t good,” he told her.
“Asher, do not be silly. I am sure it is nothing,” she said calmly.
Asher grabbed her arm.
“Get out of the pool, now,” he said, pulling her along with him.
She started to struggle against his pull but she quickly changed her mind and decided to go with him willingly. They reached the edge of the pool, then stopped. He stood there, in the water with her, unable to move. He tried to reach for the pool edge to get out but his arms felt like lead.
What the hell?
He tried again but still he couldn’t move. He tried to turn around to see if Jules was okay but his head stayed facing forward. He tried to tell Jules to run but nothing came out. The intensity of the sound grew, hurting his ears. The lights were so bright he could barely see and the sound so loud he felt his head would explode. Tears welled up in his eyes as the intensity of sound and light sent waves of pain shooting through him. The pool dropped out from underneath him. His first thought was the earth had fallen away from where he was standing but it lasted only a second as his mind raced to piece together what was really happening. He was floating, floating up and away from the pool. He couldn’t move any part of his body, nonetheless, he was moving. Lights played all around him but it was the dancing lights at the edges of his vision that he focused on. Sick to his stomach, he heaved twice and everything went black.
Chapter 7
TIMELINE UPDATE
Earth - Paris, France
May 27, 1987
Alara continued to monitor the church from her hotel penthouse. The Kron were especially sensitive to the Aliri’s fight against them and would eventually send an Omarii agent to thwart her people’s use of the old church here in Paris. It was chosen by her father for its isolation and because it was closed due to the city’s planned reconstruction efforts.
Update available, the computer interrupted, projecting through her electronic mental link.
Alara set the binoculars down, putting her arms to her sides. It was an automatic motion on her part, developed over the years whenever a timeline update was about to occur. Alara hated the updates. They generally meant the plan had changed because something unanticipated had occurred and that nearly always meant something had gone wrong. Early on, during these updates, she had broken several items as they simply slipped from her grasp while her mind focused on grasping the magnitude of the shift in future events. These changes for her would be analogous to a normal human getting their own memories knowingly and completely replaced by a new set. The updates had grown more and more frequent as she and the Aliri interfaced directly with Earth and humans in particular. It was similar with Kron but here on Earth the updates were staggeringly numerous.
Are you prepared to accept at this time? It asked.
Yes.
Initializing, it continued. Updating.
The flow of data began. Images would invade her conscious thoughts first, as they were the most vivid and the easiest to grasp during the download. She trained herself early in her childhood to remain neutral when these images formed. By themselves, they were easily misconstrued and she would wait until the download was complete to understand what they really meant. Billions of images flashed through her mind but she could only focus on a few during the download. No normal human could handle this much information.
An image of an Aliri spaceship hovered over an in-ground pool.
Another image of Asher bound to a laboratory table, unable to move.
A dead female lying upon a table of blood.
A brunette wearing a strikingly revealing black bikini, coated in blood, stood in front of Asher.
Was that Jules?
A gruesome death of a Kron male impaled with a metal pipe.
Alara meeting Asher in person.
He is so handsome.
Alara in the back seat of a jeep, Asher at her side.
A large, black hole of death destroying Earth and every human being on it.
Asher dead, his body broken and bloodied, lying in the dirt near the center of a huge crater.
Download complete, the computer projected again.
Alara dropped to her knees, crying.
“No,” she screamed, sobbing.
Asher woke. The air smelled acidic and stale. His mouth tasted like he hadn’t brushed his teeth in days. Lights flickered in the room around him. The sounds of groaning metal that surrounded him were suddenly drowned out by a clicking noise coming from the flickering lights. His body hurt in several places but it was his head that felt the worst.
Must be the booze?
He wasn’t sure that was the reason as he had never really experienced hangovers before.
What is the last thing I remember? Sorority. Party. Girls. Swimming pool. Shit. An alien spaceship. No way, this is not happening, this is not possible.
The events came rushing back to him. He was in danger. They all were. Asher tried to move his arms but they were held in place. He examined them, thankful he could at least move his head. His wrists were engulfed in a glowing blue light. The light was shaped as if he had on wide handcuffs made of energy. An almost imperceptible buzzing sound emanated from them. The overhead lights flickered off making the bonds appear brighter and giving the room a blue tint. He tested their strength against his and they won. He didn’t even budge them. He tried to stand but his torso and ankles were also bound by the strange energy. Unable to move, panic crept into him. Adrenaline rushed through his body and he tried again, even harder. The buzzing sound from the bonds grew slightly louder as his strength vied to break them but they would not move. Willing himself to calm down, he assessed his surroundings. He was in a room with o
ne end several feet wider than the other. The shorter end had a door, except that there was no handle with which to open it. He surmised this room was part of the circular alien ship, which explained the differences in length on the ends. The dull glow of the lights made it difficult to gather much detail in the room. Through the haze and low light, metal tables lined each side of the room. Six on each side with a narrow aisle between them. On the tables were his friends and the girls from the sorority. He started to call out to Brandon who was nearest on his side, when the lights flickered off a few seconds and then back on.
What the hell?
He started to say something again to Brandon when Greg opened his eyes, raising his head to look at him. Within a few seconds of each other, his other friends regained consciousness. Greg was first, then Brandon, and finally Weston. In total, Asher had been awake now for only a few minutes. Whatever it was that knocked them out must have worn off.
“Dudes, you okay?” Asher whispered.
“Where the hell are we?” Greg asked quietly.
“Guys,” Weston said, starting to yell but cutting it off. “I’m completely secured to this table and I can’t move.”
“Yeah, we all are. Hold still and save your strength. We’re not breaking these bonds. We’ll have to find another way,” Asher told them.
The lights flickered again, shorter this time. The clicking sound from the lights irritated Asher but, so far, it was the only other sound in the room besides their rushed breathing. He had no idea how to get out of this one. His arms and legs ached from the strain of being strapped down to these ice-cold, metal tables. The coldness compounded the pain and discomfort. It wasn’t enough that they were practically paralyzed but it seemed that this room was intentionally kept cold. The girls were still unconscious, which was a blessing. Whatever hit them had not worn off yet.
“Damn, dudes, we’re still in our swimsuits and I’m freezing,” Greg said. “It’s so damn cold.”
Asher craned his neck to examine his swimsuit.
“We’ve been here awhile because my suit is dry.”
The door slid open producing a grinding metal sound. It got everyone’s attention. Time slowed down for Asher, as a small, metal cart was pushed through the door. Behind it was a humanoid figure several inches under six feet tall. Asher couldn’t get a good look at the creature through what little light was in the room and the haze in the air. He also happened to be furthest from the door. One thing was certain, it was not human. His gut told him that. Fear tried to take root within him but he had to control it. He had to focus.
