by Amber Stuart
“It looks like humans need protecting, anyway,” I said musingly. “We were ravaging the environment.”
“That is true,” he said. “But we did it more for the benefit of all life on the planet. It has the most biodiversity of any planet my species has seen.” His screen made a pinging sound and he glanced at it. “It’s a message from my parents,” he said, reading through the words that appeared. “They want to talk to us about something.”
We got up to leave. “Maybe Dr. Lirros told them about the baby after all.”
“Maybe,” he said.
We took the chute up the second floor; it was like an elevator without a floor. We just had to stand in it, and it would instantly bring us up. It was a startling sensation, but it didn’t go fast enough for it to be frightening. If I were a kid, I would have loved it.
I followed Tal as he strode to the former king’s chambers. “Mother, you wanted to see us?” he asked.
She smiled, her pink crest rising a little. She had something exciting to tell us. “We’re going to be having dinner with the Emperor tonight,” she said. “Shortly, in fact.”
Tal’s eyes widened and glowed a bright green color. “What?”
His mother nodded. “He wants to see both of you to congratulate you for your efforts with Saltar 7. I believe he has a plan to reward both of you.”
“Both of us?” I repeated.
“That is correct. I do not know what it is, but if the Emperor is involved, then I know it will be a worthwhile reward.”
Tal seemed to be utterly stunned. Truth be told, I hadn’t heard much about this Emperor while I was here; he seemed to be a faraway person who didn’t have much bearing on the lives of everyday Mirrotirik. But suddenly, like a deity coming down from the mountain, he would be entering our lives.
“This is excellent,” he said, turning to me. “I cannot believe we’ve attracted his attention.”
“He did mean to congratulate you on your coronation, regardless of the rewards,” said Tal’s mother.
“Oh, that’s true,” said Tal thoughtfully. “Thank you for the warning.”
“Of course.”
We went up to Tal’s chambers so he could dress. I had never seen him like this. He didn’t seem nervous at all about meeting this Emperor, but he was jazzed and energetic. I watched as his personal servant, Selmine, helped him slip into an elegant looking gown with heavy silver embroidery.
Melisse helped me pick out something that matched. After a tense but anticipatory half hour of killing time, we made our way down to the dining room. This time, it had been elaborately decorated, and there were twice as many different dishes as there usually were. My heart was pounding. I had no idea what to expect.
Tal rose when the door opened, and the Emperor walked into the room with his wife. His parents rose too, so I followed their lead. The Emperor had an affable grin, but his bearing implied great power. His gown was almost as decorated as the ones we had worn for the coronation.
“King Taliskirrik and Queen Maia, it is a pleasure to see you,” he said, striding up to us. The Mirrotirik did not have any particular sort of greeting, for which I was glad. I could barely handle human etiquette.
“And you too,” said Tal.
I smiled widely, nervous, but the Emperor seemed nice enough.
“I have come to join you for dinner today, but I am also bringing you good news,” he continued, not wasting time in the typical Mirrotirik way. “Queen Maia, you will be awarded the Tirik Medal for Distinguished Service for your suggestion to use killer whales. It was a simple action, yet it saved so many lives and helped us defeat a longtime enemy. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I squeaked.
“And King Taliskirrik of Virrim, you are to be stationed near Earth. Your ingenuity in using new forms and interest in travel has earned you this privilege. Your job is to study the life forms of the planet, with your knowledgeable wife, and inform us of others that may be useful.”
Tal’s eyes were a yellow-green color. “This is such an honor, Emperor, thank you.”
I quickly realized what that meant for me—I would get to see my family much more often. And Tal would get to travel, but he wouldn’t be in danger. It was an ideal situation all around.
“Thank you for your service, both of you,” said the Emperor. “Now, shall we eat?” He grinned.
I felt a lot more comfortable with the Emperor as the dinner progressed. He seemed to be a very casual kind of person, even though everyone around him was deferential. The meal was enjoyable, and I was left in awe that I had attracted the attention of someone was so powerful.
We left for my chambers soon after that. I could feel the weight of my belly; I had put on a few pounds recently, and even though it wasn’t that much, it felt like a lot simply because I knew what it meant.
When Tal and I curled up together in my bed, I felt fulfilled, totally happy, without a trace of anxiety. I hadn’t known that it was even possible for me to feel this way. I turned towards him, looking into his serene, navy eyes.
“I’m so glad I picked you,” he said, smiling.
“I’m glad you did, too.”
“I’m excited to get to explore Earth more. I can meet your family.”
“Yeah!” I said.
“Do you think they’ll like me?” he asked.
“My family will like anyone who treats me well,” I said. “And you treat me like a queen.”
He laughed and kissed me gently on the lips.
I sighed. Life was good.
EPILOGUE
Tal
“So, have you thought about your choice?” I asked. We were sitting across from our daughter, Mariska.
“Yes,” she said, frowning, her irises an agitated orange color. “But I don’t know if you will like it.”
I was puzzled. “Why wouldn’t we like it?”
“It’s… It’s an Earth animal,” she admitted, looking down.
“Of course you can choose an Earth animal,” I said. “Mine is an Earth animal too.”
“Really?” She perked up considerably.
“Really. You’ll find out what it is after you get the serum and make your first transformation.” I smiled encouragingly.
“Gosh,” she said, unsure of what to make of my reaction.
“Mariska, all life is sacred,” I said. “All life forms are beautiful. While we encourage you to choose one that is strong and agile, for practical reasons, you will naturally be drawn to the correct animal for you, regardless of these other factors.”
“So I can’t make the wrong choice?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. It was adorable how much her concerns echoed those of her mother’s years ago, when she had picked her soul animal.
“Wow,” she said. “Can I make my vial now?”
I nodded. She stood up and walked towards the cabinets while Maia and I watched, skillfully sorting through all the samples. One of the big projects that Maia and I had taken on when we had been stationed on Earth was a bank of specimens. While we enjoyed keeping all the animal forms around us, this was far more efficient and less costly. It also allowed more Mirrotirik to take on a greater number of forms.
“This is it,” she said.
“Okay, go ahead,” said Maia. She was smiling. We were both intensely curious to see what animal our child would choose. Because she was our daughter, she was allowed to choose anything, including those species set aside for military use. We had taught her to use the serum machine, and she expertly punched in all the codes, waiting patiently as it converted the drops of blood into serum.
She took one of the blunt syringes, affixed the vial, and pressed it into her tan skin. Then she stripped off her clothes and stood, closing her eyes and falling on all fours. Her skin became reddish and shaggy, and her limbs became long and thin. For a moment, I thought she had chosen to become a deer, but when fangs grew from her mouth
, I realized she had chosen some kind of carnivore.
When she was done, she was some kind of animal that looked like a cross between a wolf and a fox. It looked familiar, but I could not think of the name.
“A maned wolf!” cried Maia. “What a wonderful choice!”
“It’s beautiful,” I agreed.
This is so cool, said Mariska, prancing around on her elegant legs, swishing her tail. I can’t believe this is real.
“Want to go running?” asked Maia.
Yeah! she cried.
We opened the door to our ship and went down the stairs. We were parked in a grassy Mirrotirik research compound, perfect for giving our forms space to run. Maia and I carefully transformed into our forms as well, and the three of us stood there together. Mariska couldn’t sit still; she was darting around like a dragonfly.
I started running, and she took off after me. I could sense how joyful she was. Maia followed us, her caracal legs too short to keep up properly. I doubled back and ran around her, and we all chased each other, totally lost in the sheer pleasure of playing as animals.
It was also curious, I thought, that the maned wolf looked remarkably like a cross between Maia’s and my soul animals. It was rust orange in color with black markings, like Maia’s caracal, but it appeared to be a canine, like my wolf.
This is the best thing! cried Mariska again. She seemed like she would never tire. Where did children get so much energy, I wondered.
Just wait until you get a bird form and can fly, said Maia. Or an aquatic form so you can swim.
Oh my gosh! said Mariska. It hadn’t occurred to her that a whole library of forms was available to her now. Of course, she knew about the specimen cabinets. But the realization only really hit anyone after they picked their soul animal and realized how awesome it was to be able to transform.
I playfully tackled her and she tipped over, rolling around on the grass. Maia plopped on top of her, pinning her down. I could hear them both giggling madly as they play-wrestled in the shadow of the ship. I watched them fondly.
All those years ago, I hadn’t wanted to settle down with a wife. I had thought I would be saddled to all these responsibilities I didn’t care for. Now, looking at my wife playing with my child, I realized one thing—I hadn’t had any idea what the future had had in store for me.
It was better than anything I could ever have imagined.
THE END
ALIEN GENERAL’S WIFE
By
SCARLETT GROVE
JUNO WELLS
Chapter One
Indigo Robertson sat on the lumpy futon in her dorm room, reading a romance novel about aliens from far-off worlds. It had been written a decade ago when the idea of aliens had still been science-fiction. Everything was different now.
Her roommate Molly burst through the door and flopped on her bed across from Indigo’s. The willowy blonde was Indigo’s complete opposite. While Indigo was curvy with cocoa skin and kinky black hair, Molly was fair and skinny.
Indigo might be curvy, but she was on an athletic scholarship for tennis. She blamed the extra padding on her heritage, but the truth was, it was all muscle underneath.
Molly sighed. She had a date almost every night with a different guy. Molly wasn’t easy, but she did have a lot of guys buying her dinner. Not that Molly ever ate anything.
“I really liked this one,” Molly said. “Why do guys have to be such jerks?”
“I have no idea. I don’t even bother,” Indigo said.
She hadn’t had a boyfriend since high school and didn’t want one either. She was too busy with her schoolwork and tennis practice to get involved with the annoying dudes around campus.
Since the economy had gone into recession several years ago, the only guys who ended up in college tended to be entitled, self-absorbed jackasses. Unlike Molly, Indigo didn’t want to have anything to do with that scene.
“But don’t you ever get lonely?” Molly asked wistfully. She brushed a long strand of blonde hair out of her face and flopped on her back on her fluffy pink comforter.
“I have you,” Indigo said. Molly could get a little obnoxious with her flighty wistfulness, but she was a good friend and a sweet girl. At the end of the day, Indigo really did love Molly. They’d been roommates for two years and had become best friends despite their differences.
“Indigo, you’re so sweet. Any guy would be lucky to have you.”
“They’d have to catch me first,” Indigo said, holding back a snort. She set the romance novel down on her nightstand. Her book boyfriends were all that she could handle right now. Human men just couldn’t compare.
After the Draconians, the dragon shifter aliens, had landed on Earth and offered advanced technology in exchange for human cooperation in their mating lottery, millions of girls had lined up for their chance to win.
When Indigo had turned eighteen, she’d entered the mating lottery herself. The seven-foot-tall dragon shifters not only offered five hundred thousand dollars to the family of any girl who was chosen, they were also superfine in every way imaginable. Indigo had never seen a Draconian up close, but from what she’d seen on television, those guys left human men in the dust.
Since the advanced technology that the Draconians had brought to Earth had sent the human economy into turmoil, people needed the money from the mating lottery more than ever. Indigo’s parents certainly could have used the cash, but she hadn’t been genetically matched with an alien.
She was offered a tennis scholarship to her university, and she’d jumped at the chance to get a college education and play her favorite sport. Maybe after college she would even become a pro, who knew? For now, she was focused on her studies and planned to become a fitness trainer.
In the last several months, the Draconians had become more involved in Earth society after a series of terrorist attacks. But things still hadn’t improved all that much on a day-to-day basis for the average human. Molly clicked on the television with the remote and started flipping through channels until she landed on the news.
Breaking news: the Earth is under attack. The Earth is under attack. An unknown alien species has landed on the planet. Several cities have been bombed. New York. London. Paris. Stay indoors and stay tuned for updates.
“What the hell?” Molly asked. “Have the Draconians turned against us?”
“Why would they do that? They want to mate with our women. They need us to revitalize their DNA and save their own species from extinction. Hurting us would hurt them.”
“These are different aliens?”
“I guess,” Indigo said below her breath. Things had been bad enough since the Draconians had arrived. Human consciousness had to expand to incorporate the reality of alien life forms.
Not only did aliens exist, they were seven feet tall, hunky, and wanted to make babies with human women. There had been mass hysteria and fear of global nuclear war. When the Draconians offered advanced technology to humanity in exchange for entering the mating lottery, the gap between rich and poor had widened more with each passing year.
Now, humanity would have to contend with a new alien species who obviously wanted to do them harm. Indigo shook her head and bit her lip. This was totally messed up.
“Change the channel and see if there’s more information somewhere else,” Indigo said to Molly.
Molly flipped through the channels and landed on another news station showing a video of a group of aliens shooting up a university in Chicago. Indigo and Molly went to school in Los Angeles. Chicago was thousands of miles away, but that was nothing for aliens who had traveled across the universe to destroy them. Who knew how long it would take for the aliens to arrive at their door?
“Are those lizards?” Molly said, her face full of terror.
Indigo stared at the television as the video played over and over again. A group of giant lizard-men wearing skintight orange uniforms walked into the University of Chicago and shot
up the students there. It was a bloodbath. The lizard aliens’ laser rifles were more powerful than any weapons humans had. Their skin seemed to be impervious to bullets. They were unstoppable.
“Why do they want to hurt us?” Molly said, her voice quivering.
“I don’t know, Molly,” Indigo said, standing from her own futon to cross the room to where Molly sat shivering on her own bed. Indigo put her arm around her friend and held her close. Molly seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown.
“Why is this happening? Why is this happening?” Molly repeated the phrase over and over again as she rocked back and forth in Indigo’s arms. Indigo patted her friend’s hair and tried to calm her down, but Indigo was freaking out, too. Just when she thought she was getting her life under control, a new species of aliens landed on Earth and started killing college kids.
In the midst of Molly’s whimpers, the lights blinked out. Screams and shouts erupted from down the hall of the dormitory. People were starting to panic.
This is bad.
Really bad.
Indigo knew that she had to be the one to help people who weren’t as strong as her. People like Molly. But what was she supposed to do? She was a twenty-one-year-old girl herself. She had no experience with fighting aliens.
“We need to get the hell out of here, now,” Indigo said. ”Where your car keys?”
Molly handed Indigo the keys, and Indigo yanked Molly up from her bed. Her friend was stunned and could barely move. She was shivering and crying, nearly hysterical. Indigo had to get her out of there fast or whatever was making the rest of the dormitory scream their heads off would get to them, too.
Indigo looked Molly in the eye, then slapped her across the face. She didn’t want to hurt her; she just wanted to stun her into silence.
“Pull it together, Molly. Let’s go.”
Molly sucked her sobs back and nodded her head, holding her cheek where Indigo had slapped her.
