Chapter 8 #2
Colette arched a brow. “Still not seeing how this concerns me.” Although she had an inkling. Guess she might not have dreamed the blue hunks after all.
“Last night, at twenty-one-thirty-two, an energy pulse was detected emitting from orbit and centering on the building owned by your company. That same pulse occurred again in that same vicinity at twenty-one-thirty-five, twenty-one-fifty-nine, and twenty-two-eleven. At twenty-three oh nine, it then repeated, but in a different location. Care to guess the address?”
Colette’s heart stopped. Well, shit. She had met aliens. She whispered, “My condo.”
“Exactly. A final pulse emitted from your home address at twenty-three-thirty-seven.” The general stared right at Colette. “Care to explain?”
Explain she’d met aliens who wanted to date human women using Colette as their matchmaker? It sounded crazy, so Colette chose her words carefully. “Surely if you’re monitoring these energy pulses, you know the cause.”
“We do know, but we’d like you to confirm.”
“Confirm what exactly?”
The calm general never had a chance to reply because the colonel slapped his hands on the table. “Enough pussyfooting. We know you met with extraterrestrials.”
Colette’s lips pinched. “If you know, then why ask?”
“What do they want? Why are they here?” The man stood and yelled, spittle flying and his cheeks turning a ruddy color.
“Calm yourself, Colonel,” the general rebuked.
“I will not. If the aliens are here to scout in advance of an attack, then we need to know.”
“They’re not here to cause trouble,” Colette muttered, which led to three sets of eyes fixing on her.
“So you do admit to meeting with beings not from Earth?” The general cocked her head.
“Yes, although I initially thought it was a joke.” Colette couldn’t help a wry twist of her lips. “I mean, a blue guy shows up out of nowhere claiming he’s an alien? I assumed my staff were pranking me.”
“Blue?” The woman in the white coat jotted on her notepad. “What else can you tell us about them?”
Colette hesitated. While she and the blue hunks had discussed them having to out themselves to the world, she wasn’t sure how much she should reveal.
The general helped by holding up a remote and clicking it while saying, “Did they happen to look like this?”
A screen illuminated on a wall and showed an image of a guy, thickly built, dressed in regular clothes, with blue-hued flesh.
“While the skin color is similar, that’s not either of the guys I met.”
“Guys,” snorted the colonel.
The general ignored him to ask, “You met with more than one?”
“Yes.”
“How many in total came in on their ship?” asked the general.
Colette shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I only met the pair, and they didn’t say anything that indicated their ship had anyone else aboard, nor did I see anyone during my short visit.” The truth spilled out by accident.
“Aboard?” The doctor’s jaw dropped. “You actually saw the inside of their vessel?”
“Briefly, and before you ask, I can’t tell you much about it. The room they brought me to had nothing of real note, unless you count the weird invisible laser thing that decontaminated.” Colette held back the tidbit about it cleaning up her puke and losing her clothes.
“How did you get aboard?” The general leaned forward, hands steepled in front of her.
“Some kind of teleportation technology. One minute I was in my office, the next, on their vessel. Kind of like you see happen in Star Trek but without the lights and that funky sound.”
“I assume the teleportation happened during one of the energy pulse time frames I mentioned previously.”
Colette shrugged. “I guess. I wasn’t looking at my watch, so I can’t be sure, but it seems likely.”
“What kind of weapons do they have?” The colonel remained brusque.
“I told you, I didn’t see anything other than that simple room.”
“What did they do to you while on board?” The doctor stared at her and waited with her finger poised above her tablet.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit!” exclaimed the colonel.
“It’s the truth. Other than the decontamination thing, they just wanted to talk. I wasn’t there for long. They only brought me aboard to prove they were actual aliens.”
“When you say talk, what did they want to know? Why did they come to see you specifically?” the general queried.
When Colette didn’t immediately answer, the doctor added, “Did you reject the alien? Were you somehow incompatible? Why were you returned to Earth?”
“Wait, you know they’ve been taking women from Earth?” Obviously, they were aware since they had an image.
“We’re aware they’ve been visiting our planet for some time. From the details we’ve gathered, they’ve done so purely to kidnap females of reproductive age, but we’re unsure why or what happened to them,” the doctor explained.
Given what the blue hunks wanted to accomplish, and what the military already knew, Colette saw no reason to obfuscate. “The blue aliens have been taking them back to their home world, voluntarily, according to them.”
“Why?” the general asked.
“Apparently, a virus caused the females of their world to die off in large numbers, and to avoid extinction, they sought out compatible species in order to rebuild their population.”
“They’re using our women as incubators?” The colonel didn’t hide his repugnance and shock.
“Yes and no. I mean, yes, they want them to make babies, but the way they explained it, those abducted are being taken as brides and are coddled by their mates.”
“They’re marrying them?” The general sounded surprised.
“So they claim.” Colette only had their word.
“I want to return to the fact they didn’t keep you. Was your advanced age why you weren’t taken?” the doctor asked.
Another woman might have been insulted at the inference she was over the hill.
Colette snorted. “They didn’t visit me because they wanted to marry me and make babies.
” She paused before revealing, “They want me to set up a dating service to help their eligible bachelors find human women willing to wed and relocate to their planet.”
Needless to say, the colonel freaked. “Like fucking hell.”
The doctor furiously tapped on her screen.
The general frowned. “Do you believe them?”
“I don’t know what to think, but they did seem sincere.
And let’s be honest, why else would they come to me?
I’m just the CEO of a very successful matchmaking service.
As your doctor noted, I’m not some nubile young lady capable of popping out babies, nor am I a government official they could use to influence or advance their agenda.
Also, while well off, I’m not a billionaire who can influence. ”
“You’re lying!” the colonel yelled.
“Colonel—”
“No. She’s covering for those blue bastards.
Tell us why they’re really here. Did they abduct those women to study us so that they can create a virus to wipe us out?
Is their armada coming?” Colette had no chance to reply—nor did anyone else, for that matter—as the colonel turned to the general, huffing, “We need to act at once before it’s too late.
You should advise the president of the imminent threat so he can authorize the use of missiles to take them out. ”
The demand widened Colette’s eyes. “You can’t be seriously thinking about killing them.”
“Better them than us,” he snarled.
“We are not blowing up their ship,” was the general’s firm reply, which led to the colonel scowling.
“If we don’t show ourselves strong, they’ll think they can just waltz in here and subjugate Earth.”
“They don’t want our planet,” Colette interjected, which had the colonel turning a glare in her direction. “Just willing brides to take back home.”
“As if they’d tell you their true plans.”
“Why would they lie to me?”
“To get you to trust them, and you were dumb enough to believe.” A claim that came with a mighty sneer from the colonel.
“What does me trusting what they say get them?” Colette exclaimed. “Again, I don’t have any kind of money or influence to do anything that might be of use to aliens.”
“There must be a reason. I’m thinking you’re connected to the human trafficking trade and know how to funnel victims to these alien invaders.”
“That’s outrageous.” Colette had no idea how to defend herself against the ridiculous and baseless accusation.
“Colonel, I think you should go for a walk and calm yourself.” The general’s pinched disapproval iced the command.
“But—”
“Now.” The general’s steely tone left no room for argument.
A visibly angry colonel stalked out, and the general sighed. “I’d apologize for his outburst, but it comes from a good place. He’s just worried. We all are.”
“I can understand that, but I honestly didn’t get the impression they meant us any harm.
As a matter of fact, they did broach the fact they’d have to make their presence known to the governments on Earth, given what they want to achieve will expose their existence.
We were supposed to discuss that, amongst other things, at our next meeting. ”
“You believe they’re telling the truth?”
“Maybe.” Colette shrugged. “I don’t know. Yesterday, aliens were little green men with antennas driving Fred Flintstone nuts. Today, they’re blue and looking for women to make babies with.”
The doctor glanced at Colette. “If what you say is true, then I would assume that means our species are physically compatible.”
Colette couldn’t stop the heat from filling her cheeks as she mumbled. “That’s what they told me.”
“Do you think you could arrange a meeting?” The general jumped in. “How do you contact them? Or do you have to wait for them to contact you?”
“I haven’t the slightest clue how to get in touch. When we spoke last night, we’d planned to link up this morning in my office to discuss in more detail exactly what they wanted me to do and how we’d go about it. But seeing as how I’m here and not there…” Colette shrugged.
“You missed the meeting, given the colonel chose to snatch you first thing this morning.” The general tapped her fingers on the table.