Chapter 27 Robbie
ROBBIE
It was probably very much to our credit that none of us were overly surprised when a very familiar looking alien entered the gate chamber after we popped through.
Of course, the stories about them were completely wrong.
For one thing, while gray with solid black eyes, it wasn’t a pure gray.
In fact, it was readily apparent why some claimed they were green men, as his skin tone was in fact, a gray-green.
He also wasn’t an especially diminutive being at all, either, though he was on the willowy side.
I estimated his height at maybe five foot five, so while he also wasn’t particularly tall, his species’s lack of height was a piece of obvious disinformation, as was the fact that they wore clothes.
Clothes in the form of a tight jumpsuit that was more Lost in Space than it was Trek, the silvery material snug enough to show our guide was quite well endowed indeed.
“Your people have been to Earth before,” I accused as he took us along a well maintained path up the side of the cliff.
“We have,” he confirmed. “All will be explained, but first, I must get you to the Council chambers to discuss your arrival here and its impact on this pre-flight society. They’ve already had their natural development stunted by severe climate change and the unauthorized incursions of slavers.”
That silenced my questions and the mutterings of my friends as they heard his words, as the import of what he was saying hit us.
Uncomfortable thoughts filtered through my mind.
Had we unwittingly brought doom to those who’d rescued us by introducing viruses that would sweep through their numbers and decimate them?
Had we likewise been exposed to things that, if we were returned to Earth, would start a pandemic and kill off large swaths of our own people?
And the sudden climate change - I knew in my bones without asking that he must be referring to this ice age somehow, but I was unsure if he meant that the ice and snow came quite suddenly due to some natural catastrophe or something else, like their ice caps were melting really fast due to warming and the sea levels were going to drown the world as the native inhabitants knew it.
My legs were aching, and I was puffing for breath by the time we made it halfway up the cliff, where the path widened before the mouth of yet another cave.
Like the one to the chamber in that underground tunnel beneath the crystalline trees, there was a double door across the entrance, with an oblong key panel set into the frame.
Our guide’s slender, triple jointed fingers danced along the panel, entering in the sequence to unlock the door.
I turned to glance out at the sea before following him in, blinking when I spotted what appeared to be a boat bobbing in the water.
The cold sunlight glinted off the hull, and I realized with a start that the boat either was made of those crystalline trees or metal.
I’d thought I’d understood the world I’d found myself in, that it was a medieval sort of society living sheltered within a cavern.
That might have been true of Gree-Gree’s people, but it didn’t explain the dudes in the forest and the casualness of them all with the more advanced tech we now saw in use.
In fact, the more I saw of this world and the people on it, the more fucking questions I had.
The doors parted, and we followed our guide into a high tech wonderland that looked very advanced indeed.
Another gray green, silver jumpsuited figure tapped at a clear glass screen before him.
Whatever he was seeing must have only been visible on his side, which was pretty cool, though the familiarity of having seen similar screens on contemporary TV shows shook me.
Just how well did our government and tech bros know these aliens?
Oh my God, was Roswell true in some way?
Had they taken possession of a crashed alien spacecraft only to befriend the aliens who came looking for their missing ship and crew?
The alien stopped their movements and said something that sounded like gibberish to our guide, the words sibilant as they rolled off his tongue.
Our guide answered back in the same language, and the new one nodded, gesturing towards yet another door set into a wall towards the back, off to the left hand side.
Our guide indicated we should follow him, and he led us towards the door in question.
Alrighty then. It looked like we were going through it, hopefully to find out the answers to all of our questions.
I tightened my grip on Gree-Gree’s hand as we drew close enough that I’d have to let go in order to walk through the door.
I just hoped this wasn’t the end of what was blossoming between me and my gorgeous yeti.
My life had changed so much so fast, and he was central to my everything.
No, I realized with sudden clarity as he pulled his hand from mine and gently urged me forward with his other hand on the small of my back.
He had become my everything. I’d gone straight from crush into head over heels in love.