Chapter 50
This was the strangest alliance I had brokered so far.
Normally, first contact with an alien government required a great deal of bureaucratic nonsense I let the ambassadors handle.
It would take years for enough information to be gathered and passed back and forth before anything would be agreed upon.
The other species would have to show clear respect for our territory and the laws within it before we even considered signing and forming a formal agreement with them.
This one, with the Shek'invitali, was like nothing I'd ever experienced before.
They had one single-minded goal, and that was to gain access to human women and secure those women's legal right to leave our territory and go to theirs and vice versa. It was so focused it made negotiations easy.
I had no issue with offering civil rights to the hoomons.
It was easy to agree to.
They even offered up an absolute wealth of information on the hoomon's home planet and the military strength of the species that held it under control. Their only condition was the same - access to the hoomon women on that planet and the free passage of those women to and from their own space.
When I made it clear I would be capturing the planet, the Shek'invitali's fleet came in support.
I'd already sent out scouts to validate the information they provided.
There was always a chance the information was false, a lure to maneuver my fleet into a compromised position.
My scouts met up with us halfway on our path to Earth and confirmed my instincts were correct.
The information was trustworthy.
It was clear that my fleet could take the planet. The grey aliens’ defenses were not enough to stop us, and they wouldn't be able to muster the forces to retake it easily. There was something going on in the fact that the Terrans didn’t control Earth.
Had they given it to the greys?
The grey aliens holding Earth in their possession were dramatically outgunned. There was no way they could have withstood the other hoomons taking the planet back.
They didn’t put up any resistance to our forces at all.
So we went.
They fled.
In the direction of the Terran held space.
My mate stood beside me in our control room as we advanced into Earth’s solar system without stealth. We had them outgunned. We knew it, they knew it, so we walked right it like we already owned it.
"If it was this easy, why didn't the Shek'invitali just take the system?
" my mate asked as we stood in our control room, reviewing the reports that flooded in from my fleet, asking the same questions that had just been running through my mind.
I smiled at her, pleased that she could extrapolate the same conclusion from the data.
"The greys didn't even put up any resistance. "
Our fleet was now stationed behind the Earth's moon.
"We don’t have enough information yet," I mused as I reviewed the reports. "We thought that they were holding the system while at war with the Terrans, but they fled in that direction. This warrants further investigation.”
“That report said they were genetically experimenting on humans on Earth,” my mate said, waving her hand to shift through the holographic display.
“Does your species have any history with these guys? There has to be some reason you and I look so similar. There is no way there are so many bipedal humanoid aliens that can cross breed without someone mucking about with something.”
I was silent for a long moment as I processed the implications.
“I will call for a historical consult,” I said. “You are right. There is more to this.”
"What the actual fuck?" Lorelei exclaimed.
I glanced over, expecting that she was reacting to what I had said, only to see her staring at a screen showing a broadcast from the planet's surface.
I moved closer to look over her shoulder.
The translator on my wrist unit interpreted the sound coming from the broadcast as some sort of weather report.
"What is upsetting about this?" I asked.
"It's… I…" She was clearly having trouble with words.
I gently ran my hand down her back, reassuring her. I remained silent, waiting for her to sort out the complexity in her head. Rushing and cutting each other off was what had gotten us into our previous predicament.
It was important to wait and give the other time and attention to speak.
"It hasn't been four hundred years," she said. "The news is… it's only been four months."
She was shaking, her entire body trembling with emotion.
"Those you know are still alive," I said. "That is good news."
"No," she snarled. "Bryan is still alive."
"Who is Bryan?" I asked.