Chapter 3
B lue.
He was blue—with brown eyes and salt-and-pepper hair.
And he was holding his hand out, waiting for me.
He frowned and reached up to rub behind an ear. “Is my translator not functioning?”
“B-blue…” I finally stammered.
Eashai blinked at me several times. “Yes. I am blue.”
“Apologies, Eashai,” Floyd jumped in. “I wasn’t expecting you back until tomorrow. Doctor Wallace just arrived this morning, and I hadn’t briefed him on what to expect with your physical appearance.”
Eashai studied me for a moment, then laughed. “What is that phrase you taught me?” he paused. “No time like the present?”
“That’s right,” Floyd responded.
Eashai nodded. “Then, no time like the present.” He extended his hand to me once again. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor. I am Eashai, and indeed, I am blue.”
My brain started working again, and I finally remembered basic manners. I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.” I swallowed. “Are… are all of you…”
He blinked, then laughed again. “Blue? Some of us. We have a range of skin pigmentation. What did I hear?...” he paused, a contemplative expression on his face. “Ah, yes. I believe somebody said that we look like a box of sidewalk chalk.”
“What?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I also do not know what sidewalk chalk is.”
I gaped, then started laughing. “No, I know what sidewalk chalk is. I’m just unsure of the comparison. They’re usually thick chalk sticks in pastel colors. Kids use it to make art on sidewalks.”
“Ah,” he replied. “I understand now. Given that information, the comparison seems correct. Our skin pigmentation does include a range of colors and shades that you could consider pastel.”
My inner scientist reared its head. “Does geographic location play a role in color determination?”
His brown eyes brightened and a smile spread across his face. “No, but given Earth’s evolutionary history, the question is well-founded.”
“So what determines…” I started.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” Floyd interrupted. “Before you get too deep into discussion, I need to ask Eashai some questions.”
Eashai turned. “You may ask.”
“Did something happen to make you come back early?”
“No. I merely completed my work on Lyll ahead of schedule.”
“Any good news?”
“It is too soon to be certain. However, early indications are that there are no environmental factors that affect human female tissue.”
“Wasn’t it a virus, though?”
Eashai nodded. “Correct. But we determined that the best course of action was to exclude environmental causes prior to additional testing.”
“I see. Does this mean you’ll need additional samples?”
Eashai shook his head. “Not at this time.”
“Let me or the Colonel know if you need anything.”
Eashai laughed. “You are not the only ones offering samples.”
Floyd visibly bristled. “Yes, well…”
“I will inform you once we have additional needs.”
Floyd sighed, then nodded. “Please do.” He looked between us, then faced me. “Doctor, do you wish to continue touring the facility, or would you like to continue your conversation?”
I glanced between him and Eashai, who smiled at me. “I think I’d like to stay and meet everybody.”
Floyd turned to Eashai. “Are you comfortable showing the Doctor around?”
He laughed. “I am well acquainted with where we are allowed to go.”
Floyd shrugged. “Good enough.” He turned to me. “Doctor, I’ll leave you in the hands of Major Klein, Eashai, and your team. Let me know if you need anything. My office is in the admin building.”
“Got it.”
He nodded, then turned and strode out.
“What was that about?” I asked.
Eashai chuckled. “It is a problem with every country. Each wants to set themselves out as the most useful.”
“Huh? Each country?”
He studied me for a moment, then shook his head. “You should have been better informed. I will need to address this with the General. We are working with almost all countries on Earth simultaneously.”
“You didn’t pick one or two?”
“No. We had hoped that we would be able to give humanity the time to evolve beyond territorial and ideological squabbles. Unfortunately, our situation necessitated that we initiate contact now. Given the history of advancements being used to oppress countries without access to technology, it was determined that the best course of action was to contact every government and offer the same incentives for working with us.”
“And everybody gets the same thing, regardless of level of participation?”
He nodded. “Inequity still plagues this planet. We instead consider the relative contribution. We wish to neither burden a struggling population nor give a government with additional resources an advantage.”
“I think I get it,” I replied. “You don’t want to make things worse.”
“Yes. We understand that our presence will change things, but humans are our best option. So we are working to minimize the impact of our disruption.”
I swallowed. “You’ve… mentioned a situation, and now humans being your best option… What do you mean?”
He frowned, then turned slightly. “Do any of you need to speak with me?”
I blinked, having forgotten that there were others in the room as a chorus of ‘no’s sounded.
“Go ahead,” Major Klein responded. “Nobody better to explain everything.”
Eashai nodded. “Let us… what is the phrase?” he mused. “Oh, yes. Let us take a walk.”
“Sure,” I replied as he led me out of the room.
We walked down a different hall than the one Floyd had shown me, then out a side door that led to a grassy area. In the distance, a handful of soldiers ran in formation.
“What exactly were you told, Doctor?” Eashai asked.
I chuckled. “Please, call me Gene. And… to be honest, I know almost nothing. The general and Floyd came to my university with some anatomy scans, and a bit about…” I paused.
“I guess… your species… altered their own DNA to be male-only. That was all they would tell me at the time. That was two days ago, and I was flown in this morning.”
“That is all?” he asked as he took a seat at a round metal picnic table.
I sat across from him and noticed how the sunlight danced across his skin and highlighted undertones of more blue and pink.
“Gene?”
“Oh,” I chuckled. “Sorry. Yes. They did say some things that made me think that somebody who specializes in genetic migration might be a better match, but they seemed worried about women or people with more connections to women.”
He let out a long sigh. “I understand, probably better than most, the need for secrecy. But we will have to determine a strategy so that those who come here know what to expect. It is far more dangerous for people to be unaware.”
I propped my elbows on the table, still slightly shocked that I was talking to a man so clearly not from Earth. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
He laughed. “It is no small irony that the beginning you speak of is here, on Earth.”
One of my eyebrows went up. “Explain.”
“My home world is called Lyll,” he said with a soft smile. “We call ourselves Lalyllte, which would translate to ‘the others of Lyll.’”
“The others?”
He nodded. “We… are not native to Lyll, not in the way humans think of native species anyway. There was a race before us, the Lalylltiar, or ‘the people of Lyll.’”
He paused. “They were already a spacefaring species when human civilization was in its infancy. They saw those early humans—millennia before the pyramids were built—and wanted to study the emerging society. However, they were not suited to life on Earth. Lyll has a thick cloud layer in its atmosphere, and the surface receives far less ultraviolet light than here. So they selected small groups and relocated several thousand humans to Lyll to live in simulated environments.”
I frowned, and Eashai appeared uncomfortable.
“Your displeasure is understandable,” he said. “We do not condone the actions of those Lalylltiar. However, had that decision not been made, the Lalyllte would not exist.”
“You interbred…” I stated as the pieces started to fall into place.
He nodded. “That is correct. Inevitable accidents and lapses in procedure led to interactions. And…” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Lalylltiar mating practices were quite intense, and humans are exceedingly compatible.”
“What do you mean by intense?”
His cheeks darkened slightly, and his gaze made me wonder if he was remembering something.
He shook his head and smiled. “Lalylltiar pheromones were potent, and they were also highly attuned to human pheromones. Mutual sexual attraction causes each partner to react to the other in a way that leads to immediate and lifelong mating.”
“Immediate?”
He nodded. “Immediate. It is called the mating rush. Desire so intense that most engage in… pre-intercourse activities?”
“Foreplay?” I asked.
He considered the word for a second. “Yes, foreplay. Couples engage in foreplay within minutes of meeting, and usually have intercourse before a few of your hours have passed.”
“Hours? And you mate for life?”
“Correct. You understand that intercourse impacts the brain?”
I laughed. “I should hope so. My specialties are in reproductive physiology and changes to reproductive DNA due to time or environmental factors.”
He grinned. “That is great news!”
I cocked my head to the side. “How so? My impression was that they really needed somebody who specialized in genetic migration.”
He leaned in, eyes sparkling. “Of course, that is what they think is important. Their focus is on how long until this becomes an issue for the public, not on how both species will be impacted long-term. We have run projections, but it will be impossible to know how the genetics will change until children are born.”
I gaped at him.
“Back to mating,” he said. “Because it is so intense, the changes to the brain cement the emotions.”
“And nobody breaks up?”
“It is extraordinarily rare. The desire to remain together is stronger than that to part, so much effort is made to resolve problems.”
“Wow…”