Transformation
By DocPaul
***************************************
Part
Seven: Dilemma
The room was stunned. Michael stood there in front of
Maria, his long hair blowing back as if in a breeze, and his face had moisture
from sweat on both his upper lip and brow, as an energy force blasted across the
room throwing Jesse back from the door into a back wall. As before, when Michael
was king, Jesse was held pinned to the wall, suspended with his feet off the
ground.
“Michael! No!” Isabel screamed as she tried to put
herself between Michael and Jesse to deflect the blow.
Michael reached out his other hand, and without effort sent
Isabel sprawling across the room, out of the line of fire. “Stay there! He’s
not Jesse! I don’t know what he is, but he isn’t Jesse.”
Moaning, Isabel tried to regain her feet, but found herself
held down by some invisible force. “Michael!” Isabel demanded, but Michael
moved slowly towards Jesse.
“No!” He told her, otherwise ignoring her. Michael
walked towards the other man.
“Release me!” Jesse commanded.
“No.”
“Release me, or I will kill you.”
“And if I release you?”
The man inhabiting Jesse’s body suddenly shifted in
appearance. He was still Jesse, but his face altered to show an evil leer
directed at Michael. “I’ll still kill you, Commander. You and your bitch,
and the unborn half-breed she is carrying.”
Michael’s hand closed in a fist as pain contorted
“Jesse’s” face, and he screamed. Isabel, crying, put her hands over her
ears begging Michael to stop.
“Just us?” Michael interrogated, his voice cold as a
calm resolve moved over his face.
“All of you—all except my beloved Vilandra.” Jesse
said turning to stare at Isabel. “Did you honestly believe I would let you
chose this worthless human body over me?”
Isabel stood up now released by Michael, horror moving over
her face. Jesse. Her husband—not her husband. Kivar. She—they—oh god...
Isabel’s hands covered her face as she turned away from the man twisting her
husband’s face and body into something monstrous.
“It was you who searched the cabin yesterday?” Jim
guessed.
“Yes. Not as slow witted as I first suspected.”
“Kill him,” Kyle suggested. Kivar was a killer, one who
had wanted the podsters dead. He was there, in their control. The time was now.
“No! He’s—he’s in Jesse’s body! If you kill him,
you kill Jesse.”
Max walked over to the man still pinned against the wall.
He took one of his arms and checked the pulse point. “There is no pulse.”
Max glanced up at the man that was once his brother-in-law. “How long have you
been Jesse?”
“Long enough. I knew it was only a matter of time before
my beloved Vilandra came back. She doesn’t do well alone, without some type of
adoration, and her puppy dog husband was an obvious choice.”
“And the host?” Max asked quietly.
“He will be dead the moment I release his body. He’s
been dead a long time, and it is my presence only that keeps his body moving and
functioning. I have his memories, his feelings, his thoughts and knowledge.”
Kivar turned to Isabel. “Don’t worry, my sweet, his death was instantaneous,
much like the death of your parents.”
“Isabel, no!” Max hurled himself at his sister as she
raised her hand to kill the monster invading her dead husband’s body.
~~~
The group was quiet, all of them occasionally glancing over
at the unconscious alien filling Jesse Ramirez’s body. Isabel was softly
crying to herself as the others remained silent, unable to possibly offer her
solace.
“Michael, how did you know?” Jim asked confused by how
normal Jesse had been once he returned.
“Maria. Maria knew.”
Jim glanced at Michael and then Maria, still confused.
Sighing, Maria huddled closer to Michael’s body. “There was nothing human
about him. Since I became pregnant, I can sense “Essences of the Alien,” I
guess you could call it.” Maria moved her arm to circle Michael’s body,
still uncomfortable with the presence of so much alienness in the room, not just
emitting from Kivar. “I can handle you fine, Jim. You barely have much in your
system, or at least not enough active amounts to warn the baby. Kyle is becoming
harder, almost like overnight, as if a bulb suddenly turned on. Liz isn’t too
bad, but still enough to cause my heart to speed up, and if caught unaware
…” Maria cleared her throat. “The other aliens are fear inducing at a
grand scale.”
“Then we have to thank you for ferreting out Jesse …”
Jim noticed the flinch Isabel gave at the mention of her husband. “Sorry. I
mean Kivar.”
“What I don’t get is not only how they are finding us,
but what the hell he was looking for?” Kyle moved around the table refilling
his own coffee cup and others, but pointedly ignoring Max’s. Liz calmly took
the pot from Kyle and refilled Max’s cup.
They had eaten breakfast and were drinking coffee while
discussing their plans, with Kivar unconscious on the floor from the combined
energy blast from both Michael and Isabel. They were uncertain whether he would
wake again, or whether they were looking at Jesse’s dead body.
“Whatever it is, we can assume it’s important enough to
pull Kivar from Antar into Jesse’s body. Didn’t Larek say that the amount of
resources it took to maintain a connection with a host body was incredible?”
Michael pointed out as he glanced down to notice that Maria was asleep. She
looked tired. Since her pregnancy began, she took about four naps a day. He
would have shifted her to a bedroom to sleep undisturbed, but he realized that
he was incapable of not having her in his sight, especially with all the other
alien presences in the room.
Jim rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, glancing at the quiet Max.
“Michael is correct. This masquerade has a purpose, a real portent one. The
added sightings, accounts of abductions, and now Jesse? I don’t know who took
your parents and Jesse originally. It was clearly not the FBI or the defunct
Special Unit. At best, it was the rogue faction of the Special Unit, the
commander of the Airforce base, and obviously their backer—Kivar.”
Max stood up and paced the room rubbing the back of his
neck. His stomach was sick. He was having a hard time concentrating with both
Kyle and Liz in the room. It was as if his body was being torn in two. There was
a part of him—Zan, who saw Kyle, and felt Tess. And then, there was his other
side, his human side—Max, who only saw and felt Liz.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he tried to
concentrate. “Perhaps once Tess blew the Airforce base—one small female, it
sent a message to those that survived, those that feared an alien
invasion—that regardless what they did, technologically and evolutionarily
they were no match for the aliens.”
“You’re suggesting that people in the know—those that
have a reason to know that aliens exist, namely members of the defunct Special
Unit, and surviving members of the Airforce base threw their alliance to another
team? To Kivar?” Michael glanced at the alien in Jesse’s skin. Kivar?
Nicholas? How many more? Maybe even their remaining Dupes? “They obviously
knew about the Royal Four from Kivar. It was why they only targeted the four of
us, and not all.”
They now understood why only Max, Isabel, Michael and Liz
had been targeted at graduation. Kivar had ordered his human traitors to find
and destroy the Royal Four, and that meant Max, his queen whom they assumed was
Liz, Michael and Isabel. Kivar hadn’t known about Tess’s death and he
didn’t feel the human important enough to worry about. He would kill them all
eventually when he took over the Earth.
“So a shadow government or organization, one that knows
that the aliens are coming and they are aligning themselves with the clear and
obvious victors?” Kyle asked, not liking the idea, let alone the actual
vocalization of it. “This is like conspiracy theory! Shadow governments, rogue
corrupt agents, evil aliens—fuck, it’s X-Files! Where are our heroes? Where
is Scully and Mulder, and can I date Scully?”
“Kyle,” Jim cautioned. “I know you tend to create
humor to diffuse a situation, but let’s keep the sarcasm down. This is a real
threat here, not only to us, but to this world.”
“Dad, catch a clue. We’re toast. They’re living large
among us, and they’re coming. We already know that!”
“Listen to the human. He’s right,” said Kivar from
the floor. They all turned toward the sound of Jesse’s voice, staring at the
awakened Kivar. “We are here. We are not leaving, and there are more on the
way. Your doom is not the question, but rather the timing of it.”
Michael stood up threateningly, but before he could advance
on Kivar to make him talk, the man turned to Isabel.
“Don’t mourn too long, my love. I’ll be seeing you
again soon.” Jesse’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and the body
slumped in a heap as Kivar finally released the body.
Isabel made a sound of distress and moved to the floor to
gather Jesse’s dead body near crying over him in soft wracking sobs. Maria
woke to the sound, and she glanced down at Isabel and Jesse, tears filling her
eyes.
“He’s gone,” Maria said softly burying her head
against Michael confirming that Kivar had left the planet.
~~~
Maria was cooking, ignoring the talk as she often of late
chose to do with an increasing regularity. What was the use? They would
‘discuss’ endlessly, then decide. It was the decision that concerned her
most, not the boring long process that got to that point. She trusted Michael to
argue their point and side, so she kept her peace, merely intervening when her
husband rose to a certain level of nastiness or sarcasm that was unproductive.
“What are you making?” Kyle asked dipping a spoon into
the pot.
“Chili.”
Kyle lifted a brow. “It tastes like chocolate.”
Maria made a nice soothing humming noise as she tasted the
spicy mixture. “Uh-huh. Good, huh?”
“Yeah, I like this! It’s spicy, and has a taste of
chocolate.” Kyle grabbed a bowl and was searching for a ladle, but Maria
swatted him away.
“Not ready yet. Shoo!”
“Condemn me to the boring people? How could you?”
“Easy. You’re making me nauseous.”
“Sorry.” Kyle searched her face noting the thin layer
of moisture on her upper lip. “Is it really that bad?”
“No.” Maria confessed. “I think the baby is coming to
recognize all of you. I think in a little while, he’ll stop reacting to your
presence.”
“Just to unknown aliens.”
“Right.”
Kyle sniffed. He reached in with his spoon and tried the
chili mixture again. It really was highly unusual, but good. “You’ve become
a nice alien detector, Mrs. Guerin.”
“Highly inconvenient for me, being all sick and
everything, but otherwise, I think I'm liking this baby thing. It’s …”
Maria smiled as she patted her stomach, “… unexpected.” She couldn’t
explain it, but she was happy and excited at the same time.
“I bet. I feel that way about my newfound alien powers as
well.”
Maria took down a bowl and gave Kyle some chili anyway.
Sitting across from him at the table, she could hear the heated discussion in
the next room. “So, you and Max?”
“Don’t ask!”
“Okay, I won’t, but you’ll tell me anyway.”
“Dammit! I’m not gay!”
“I never said you were. You don’t have to prove
anything to me, Kyle.”
“Yeah, well... sexual fantasies about Max and once dating
Liz Parker are hardly proof that I’m not a big queer guy living in denial.”
“Stop being bitter and work it through.” Maria ordered
him, not wanting to live through yet another round of Max and Liz bashing. It
was getting old after all this time. What was done was done. That milk was spilt
so long ago, why sit meowing over the acrid residue? “You’re not stupid.
Make the cheese. Figure it out.”
“What?”
Maria sighed. Kyle was too busy being angry, too busy
blaming Max, that he was missing the obvious. “Kyle, your powers came on like
gangbusters. You seem to have some control.”
Kyle shrugged. “More every day.”
“It’s nothing like Liz’s powers. You seem able to
focus them now, if you don’t let your emotions rule you. True?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Kyle’s face became thoughtful.
“What you hinting at Earthling?”
“Tess left something behind in you. She had to have
touched you, or imprinted her version of a ‘crest’ in you, much like what
happened to Michael when Max died. Your powers aren’t Max’s fault, nor are
the flashes. They’re coming from you. From Tess.”
“Whoa! Back up, Nelly!” Kyle stood up quickly. “What?
I’m soon to become an evil genocidal killer from hell or what?”
The others came to the door quietly at the sound of
Kyle’s raised voice.
Maria ignored them though her body’s reaction increased,
making her highly uncomfortable. “No. I don’t think Tess was a killer by
nature, only by necessity. Honestly Kyle, work it out! She passed on her essence
to you, her power, her memories and feelings for Max! Kyle, you’re the
queen!”
Maria looked at the others in the doorway, saw that no one
else was connecting with the obvious. “Oh, for the love of cheese! Don’t any
of you get it? Ava didn’t get Tess’s powers, Kyle did. Not only did he get
her powers, but she probably stabilized his body, so he won’t be burning out!
Maybe she felt remorse, or an unhappiness over the part she played in Kyle’s
life, so she endowed him with a gift—her powers upon her death. He’s the
fourth! He’s your missing Royal of the Royal Four.”
Kyle shook his head still not getting it. “Does this mean
I have to marry Max?”
~~~
Maria was sleeping stretched out on the sofa, her head in
Michael’s lap. Liz watched her sleep, amazed by how easily tired she got. More
amazing was the look on Michael’s face as his hands feathered through her
hair, and he watched her sleep, half listening to the others. He loved her. It
was so apparent in every sweep of his hand, his touch, and the way he watched
over her, his hand occasionally going to rest on her flat stomach.
“If you want to put her to bed, we can wait,” Liz
suggested quietly.
Michael shook his head. “I—I can’t. I need her in my
line of vision.” He couldn’t explain it, and it wasn’t that he didn’t
trust the others, but this compulsion had to be an ingrained instinct.
“Do you think she’s right?” Max asked Michael.
“That Kyle is Tess’s replacement?” Michael shrugged.
“It’s possibly. He’s dreaming of Antar, and Tess is the only one ever to
go there. She was also the only one among us who had clear memories of our past
lives. I think Kyle got not only her powers, but her position—or rightful
position in your life. Your mate.” Michael glanced at Liz. “Sorry. I really
mean her position as a capacitor of king’s power, which would be mine and
Max’s combined, along with the sibling—Isabel’s.”
“It explains why when you were the king,” Max pointed
out, “that your powers seemed so much stronger. It was just my powers added to
your own, but actually, it was our full powers reunited—all the powers that
the native king of Antar should have.”
“My warlike nature …”
“Highly confrontational all the time,” Max confirmed.
“You always think you know all the answers.”
“I do.” Michael shrugged. “I can’t help it if I got
all the ability to think ‘right’, and you’re just wrong.”
Liz remained quiet. It was hard to determine what hurt
most. The fact that she was the actual interloper between Max and Tess, or that
Tess in one last smite had proven that she was
the true queen, and Max’s true mate. It hurt that Tess, even from the grave,
continued to win.
“Look, can we put aside the whole queen and mate thing
and concentrate on what’s important?” Jim suggested. He breathed in deeply
searching Maria’s sleeping face. “Did you and Maria go to
“Yeah,” Michael said quietly.
“And her mom and Sean—you know?”
“The fire?” Michael guessed wondering if his ruse
worked.
“Yeah. I’m so sorry for her. Seeing Amy dead, I can
only imagine how Maria felt, especially in her state.”
“It was hard to finally realize her life in
Liz finally spoke up. They all had suffered, and from all
indications it was only going to get worse. “We know an invasion is coming. We
know that the future is still set to end. What I don’t understand is why the
aliens are attacking us, why Kivar searched the cabin, and what is causing this
increased activity.”
Max finally spoke, doing something none of them expected.
“What I want to know is what’s going to happen. I want to know what the
events of the last timeline were before it changed, and how it all came
about.” He stood up to walk around the room unable to contain his energy any
more than his impatience. “I agree. My future self was an idiot. Despite that,
he and his Liz did discover that the Royal Four was needed. Supposedly, we now
have that, but how do we use it? Maybe this was our purpose. Obviously destiny
was a hoax created by Nasedo, and we were never destined to return to Antar. We
were sent here. We were sent with the Granilith. There had to be more.”
“We were sent together, in fours.” Isabel said,
speaking for the first time in a long time. “You’re right. We had to have a
purpose.”
“Look, this is all good and well—speculate away.”
Michael suggested. “But obviously something happened on Antar. Something is
happening. There is too much activity, too much of a need for it to be nothing.
That system was in civil war. Well they got the damn Granilith back. We sent it
with Tess and Zan. They’re tracking us, and we don’t know how. We have
something they want—which we also don’t know what it is. There are too many
questions and not enough answers.”
“True,” Max agreed. “Whatever happened before is
happening again, and maybe it will be thirteen years of long hard campaign to
die in the end, or maybe the timeline was changed enough to speed up the events
so that we don’t have thirteen years. I don’t know, and my future self
wasn’t kind enough to leave us any information that could’ve helped. We’re
blind, but we do have one advantage. We know that the Royal Four, that we four
being together is important, and we know that we can effect a change if only we
can come to understand how to do it. Time is something that is limited.”
“And?” Michael prompted.
“And—I don’t know! Okay? I wish I did, but I
don’t!”
Michael’s eyes darkened, becoming harder than the coldest
diamond. “Look—brother, I’m sure your plight is harder than mine, being
born first to a birthright. Great. I’ve supported and was loyal to you in the
last life, and I’m more than willing to support you now—if …” Michael
breathed in deeply. “If you step up, and become the man you were born to
be—to be the king, our leader. The power and position is yours, so what are
you going to do?”
“Michael …”
“No. Not this time. I don’t want to hear you whine
about the unfairness, or your great love, or blah, blah, blah. Heard it. Done
it. And I’ve got no time for you. I’m a father. I’m a husband.
People—other people than myself, depend on me to stay true to my word, to
love, honor, protect and respect them for as long as we both shall live. You
might not know how to do it, but there is a reason you
are the king, that you were born
first. So I want to know, brother...,” Michael stared at Max exclusively
ignoring the others. “I want to know if you’re going to be the same
sniveling indecisive coward you’ve always been—that I expect you to be, or
if you’re going to step up and be a king I can believe in, and fight!”
The two men, brothers in arms and in life, twins in another
lifetime stared at each other, their combined power something awesome to behold
as they stood facing each other, ready to face off if a compromise could not be
had.
“To the death, come what may?” Max asked.
“To the death,” Michael confirmed. It was time to face
facts. There could be no other way.
Max came to stand over Michael where he sat with Maria
sleeping in his lap. Max put his hand on Michael’s shoulder nodding. “To the
death. We fight.”
~~~
“Maria?”
Brody Davis frowned at the blonde he once knew from
“Hi, Brody!” Maria smiled at him. “I’m sorry to
have to do this.” Maria stepped forward and zapped Brody with a taser.
~~~
Brody hated the bloody bastard whining in his ear. What a
crud. Shaking his head, confused, wincing from the entrance of light into his
optic nerve, he slowly lifted his head.
Fuck. He was the crud. What the hell?
“Maria?”
Maria came to stand next to him. “I’m so sorry! Really
I am. Are you okay?”
“My head feels like a three day binge, otherwise …”
Brody looked around the dark room noting the others. “Evans? Sheriff?” He
glanced around confused. “What is going on? Is this a
“No. Yes. Maybe,” Maria laughed. She pulled Michael
closer. “You remember my husband, Michael?”
Brody looked between the two, and made a face, but smiled
anyway. “Sure the worthless boyfriend that couldn’t figure out why a girl
would want a present or attention. Sure. So you married him?” Maria nodded
laughing at the look on Michael’s face. “Well girl, do not complain when he
starts forgetting your anniversary. It wasn’t like you didn’t know what he
was like before you said ‘I do’, now is it?”
“True. I’ll cut him some slack.”
Brody nodded, but his glance kept going to the others.
“So this happy reunion—it’s more than a kidnapping or is it a surprise
party?”
“Neither.” Maria confessed, standing back to let
Michael and the others take over.
“We’re sorry to steal you from your home, Brody,”
said Max joining Michael. “Because you are a constant and frequent host,
we’re unsure how often they watch you, or come to you to send messages back to
Larek. We couldn’t take a chance they’re keeping an eye on you especially
with your past relationship with us.”
“What are you saying, Max?” Brody’s face screwed up
with the mention of the name Larek. “Larek? I know that name! I know I do!”
“Yes.” Max helped Brody sit up. “You do. You know
Larek, Brody, because he is the reason you are abducted. He takes over your
body, and you lose time.”
“What?” Brody looked at all of them in shock. “You
believe me? You don’t think I’m a crackpot?” He seemed to give it some
additional thought, talking to himself. “Or maybe you do, but are you more
noodled than me? Or maybe you’re just playing me to …”
“Brody, we believe you.” Michael interjected, needing
to get this done. They had so little time before the Skins tracked them. “We
believe you because we can do this.” Michael reached out a hand and altered a
nearby vase into statue and then back.
Brody scrambled back, knocking over a chair in his mad
flight. “Fuck me!” He frantically looked among them.
“We believe you because we know for a fact that aliens do
exist since we are aliens,” Michael finished up.
Max quickly tried to quell Brody’s fears. “We lived
here all our lives, raised in
Brody was shaking his head, but Maria came forward again
going to him, her eyes sympathetic and full of remorse for her part in his
confusion and what was happening.
“Brody, you know I wouldn’t harm or lie to you. This is
all true, and all we ask is that you listen. It involves you, an alien name
Larek, and your daughter Sydney. We have all the answers you’ve been looking
for. We know why they take you.”
“
“It’s a long story,” warned Maria.
“I don’t care. If it involves my daughter, then I want
to know!”
~~~
The room was silent. Brody stared out a window, his back to
the room with hands clasped behind him. He hadn’t spoken for a while.
“Brody?” Maria cleared her throat. “I—can I get you
anything?”
“My sanity?” Brody suggested. Or maybe just give me
back the bliss of not knowing? He shook his head. “No thanks, Maria. There is
nothing.” He turned to look at the others. “So, I’ve been tracking
increased alien activity, you know. You’re right, it has increased
immeasurably. I can’t even remember the last time it was this high. Oh, well,
I guess I do. Never. Not in the history of my watching.”
Brody went to sit down again in the very seat he vacated
after Max told him everything. Resting his elbows on his knees, he leaned
forward as this hands dangled between his knees. “So my daughter …”
“I’m sorry,” said Max softly.
Brody waved it off. “Doesn’t matter. You can’t
understand. It was a gift. Her life is a gift. She would be dead, so you gave me
more than you can know. Now I know. I know what to look for.” Brody turned
dark serious eyes on Max. “Thank you. Thanks to all of you for her life. It
might be short, but it is a gift.”
“Brody …” Maria bit her lip. She understood more than
anyone else. She, Michael and Jim. They all understood that a moment with their
child would be worth everything compared to a lifetime of nothing. Maria placed
her hand on her stomach as she knelt down beside his chair. “The end is
coming. We have to fight. It’s the only choice we have, for our children, our
futures, and our world. There are no options. We can fight, or we can die—but
in slavery? That’s not a future I want for me or my children.”
Brody glanced at Maria, his hazel blue eyes meeting her
green ones as he searched her face. “You’ve grown up so much since last
I’ve seen you. I always knew you would be breathtakingly beautiful. You
already were, but I knew that it would only become more incredible.”
Michael made a move forward, but Maria gestured to him to
stay back.
“I want to see my daughter grown to adulthood too. She
might not make it, but I need to give her the chance to see a future. Not one
full of violence or fear.” Brody took Maria’s hand kissing the back of it.
“Pregnancy looks good on you.”
“Brody will you?”
“You could’ve done it without my consent.” Brody
pointed out.
“This war involves all of us. There is no more hiding, no
more silence. You are part of this. Not without your consent.”
Brody stood up offering Maria his hand. Pulling her to her
feet, he handed her back to her husband, and Michael, not being a fool, quickly
pulled her back to him. His eyes met Brody’s and without a word, Michael
nodded. He had a Lieutenant.
“So,” said Brody brightly rubbing his hand, ready to
start. “How do we contact this Larek chap?”
~~~
“Brody?”
“No, Larek.” Larek stood up shaking his head. “I told
you, this is dangerous! This body is not prepared!”
“We know. We need an audience. Release the body, prepare
it, and come back,” Max ordered. He stared at Larek in Brody’s body.
“It’s important, Larek. Please?”
“I’ll return.” Brody’s body collapsed.
“Max!”
“I got him.” Max dropped to the ground placing a hand
on Brody’s chest, this time he didn’t have to worry about the silver
handprint. He quickly restarted Brody’s heart. He was careful not to heal him
as he had the others, but rather used his powers to give the heart an electrical
jolt.
Suddenly turning to his side, Brody coughed violently as
his hand went to his chest reflexively rubbing the pain. “Frick, that
hurts!” He looked up at Max with tears in his eyes, as he tried to clear his
head. “How many times did you do that to me?”
“Just once, I swear.” Max reached down and pulled Brody
to his feet. “Why do you think we asked this time? I might have been a bastard
alien in my last life, but I’m trying to change that. I swear.”
“Okay—but next time, we do you.”
Michael snickered. “Max loves to be done. Careful, Brody,
you might find you have a fatal attraction to Max.”
“Shut up, Michael!” Max, Liz and Kyle all said at the
same time.
Michael made a face and went to find food while they waited
for Larek to contact them. He walked into the kitchen to find his mate making a
pig of herself. He happily joined her stealing her sandwich with a nice long
kiss. The others trickled in to eat, and they all finally settled in the living
room to wait.
“Does she sleep a lot?” Brody asked as they waited. He
glanced at the napping Maria, hogging the main sofa while the others found
chairs and the floor.
“Yeah,” Michael said between bites of food, with his
mouth full. “Is that normal?”
Brody shrugged as he finished a bag chips. “My wife
literally threw up or slept through the first three months of her pregnancy with
“So this is normal?”
Brody laughed recognizing Michael’s need for reassurance.
“Yeah, looks normal.”
Michael nodded, pulling his food closer when he noted Kyle
staring at his stash. “Hey, no mooching! I’m having sympathetic pregnancy
symptoms.”
“I thought you were just a pig.”
“Naw. I got them all. Morning sickness. Cravings. My feet
are actually swelling as we speak.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Maria said without opening her
eyes, her hand moving over to stroke Michael’s back lovingly. “He had all
the symptoms before I was pregnant.”
“Not the swelling feet and how about all the runs to the
bathroom? I can’t hold my pee.”
“Your feet aren’t swelling. They’re just fat from all
the extra food and retained water from salt intake, and the bathroom thing? Six
big gulps will do that to anyone.” Maria gave a loud screeching laugh when
Michael turned and grabbed her tickling her making loud sucking noises on her
throat.
“They are very, adorable, Zan, but surely you had a
better reason to summon me?” Larek said from behind Brody’s eyes.
Maria and Michael both straightened up to stare at the
alien, as the other slowly stood.
“Larek,” said Max.
“Zan.”
~~~
“So, Kivar was there, in a body.”
“Yes,” Max took a seat close to the alien while Maria
retreated a safe distance, but Larek’s eyes found her.
“She is pregnant. The Commander’s mate, Maria is
pregnant.”
“How do you know that?” Michael asked.
“I have access to all of Brody’s memories. He is very
happy for you.” Larek looked at Maria. “She senses me, doesn’t she?”
“The baby senses aliens, specifically ones who are not
the father.”
“Smart.” Larek sighed heavily. “Did Kivar discover
that a baby is being born to the Earth between a hybrid and a human?”
The group looked questioningly at each other. They
weren’t sure.
“He knew that Michael married Maria,” Isabel said,
wracking her brain slightly and turning red. “Actually, he does know. We told
him, and I talked to him about children when we were together. I wanted to know
why I never got pregnant once Zan was born to Max and Tess, despite it
activating Michael’s mating cycle.”
“So he knows. That would increase his urgency then. Earth
is fast becoming a place we will no longer be able to visit.”
“But why didn’t I get pregnant?”
“Because the Commander is next in line. His seed is more
important than yours. Once his mate is impregnated, your mating cycle should
activate. His would’ve activated around the time of the new king’s first
birthday. You can become pregnant now.”
“And me?” Liz asked.
“Who are you?” Larek asked recognizing Liz from before,
but he was uncertain her place among the aliens.
“I am married to Max.”
“Well, Max—Zan has already issued an heir. Until the
other Royals are born, more than likely his mating cycle will not resume until
the others produce. The Royals are all born within a certain time of each other,
so they are raised and grow to adulthood together.” Larek shrugged.
“You’re not pregnant because for all practical purpose, Zan will remain
sterile until the next set of Royals are all born, then all your mating cycles
should resume to normal human ones. It is usually only the mate of the
king—the queen, who is off cycle. The other three will be close, but the
queen’s has her own cycle. With the queen dead, and you no longer residing on
Antar, I am uncertain how the next king can locate his true mate.”
“We have a substitute queen,” Michael pointed out.
“And she is a he.” Michael nodded to a surly Kyle. “Tess, before she died,
imprinted him with her own powers, and once she died …”
“They transferred.” Larek concluded. “Yes, your first
born will all be imprinted as the next in line as part of a new Royal Four, and
once you, the king, die or any of the current Royals, the new Royal Four will
rise to power, taking your place. You broke the triad, by being born twins,
making it a Royal Four instead of a Royal Triad. Now perhaps the queen has
shifted the balance again by choosing her successor, removing a mating need
between her line and that of the king. Perhaps, it will merely be the
descendants of each of your lines that will rise to power.”
“You don’t know?” Liz asked.
“Of course not! Brave new world you are etching out
there! If the first hybrid-human birth is occurring now, then human evolution is
about to take a turn upward.”
Michael stepped forward. “Wait, explain that. Why is my
son important?”
“You mean other than being another part of the next Royal
Four? Normally it would’ve been the king’s child, but since he mated with
another hybrid, that negated the result.” Larek rubbed his jaw speaking more
to himself. “Interesting, the mating bond transferred through time, even
through re-engineering. Your mating cycle was tied to the queen’s, and had you
not mated …” Larek laughed. “That was unforeseen.”
“Wait, but both Tess and I were basically human, so why
isn’t Zan the catalyst for change?” Max asked.
“Was he born on Earth, to a native Earthling?”
“No. He was born on Antar to two hybrids.”
“Then he is unnatural to the system. His importance to
human evolution is negated unless he sires a child with a human, then the line
from him continues to his first born.”
“And if he is sterile? It was suggested that offspring of
hybrid-hybrid matches would be sterile.”
“True, but nature finds a way. Do not discount the
balance. It finds its own levels, and your son, if he can produce viable heirs,
will be the next leader of the next Royal Four. Basically their structure is one
of equality, but the ‘king’ determines the mating cycle. Really, in the
grand scheme of Earth, not much more than that. There is no throne for him to
reign upon.”
“And if Zan can not produce viable offspring?” Max
asked.
“Then your next born will inherit the power. Most of you
will find that all your matings will occur in threes. So you either have three
children, or you have six, or …”
“Yeah,” Michael interrupted. “We know how to count by
threes. So what is it about us mating with humans that’s so important?”
“It is dominant species theory. A naturally born advanced
species will change the Earth’s ecosystem. An advanced child born to a human
will activate the need for change. Nature will respond once your child is born,
and part of the Earth’s natural system. Two dominant species cannot co-exist,
and your child will be an advancement which will evolutionarily cause the human
genome to switch on that dormant gene. The more children you hybrids have, the
more genes will activate in the genome, and soon across the world children will
begin to be born with higher mental acuity, a clearer understanding of how
things work, and slowly over the course of a few generations, usually five to
ten, the entire Earth will have been evolved.”
“You mean like Cro-Magnon replacing Neanderthals?” Liz
asked.
“Yes, in a sense, but at a faster scale. You basically
ambushed nature, giving it a ‘burst’ upward, and nature will evolve the
human race to help to reestablish the stability of its systems. Evolution is not
about moving upward, but rather about maintaining the balance—the status quo.
Evolving the human species will be the only way nature can possibly return
stability to the ecosystem.”
Maria sighed heavily, rubbing her stomach. It was hard
enough being pregnant at nineteen looking at being a mother at twenty, but to be
the mother of a new human race? Maria gave Michael a glare. He swiftly and
easily caught the look, having no problem reading his wife.
“Oh, this is getting to be my fault again?”
“I thought we once agreed that everything would
automatically be your fault.” Maria’s eyes narrowed at the tone of his voice
and the sudden change of stature of his body. Damn, her husband was a peacock,
all bristled and pumped up about his virility. “Michael, you don’t have to
sound so pleased with yourself.” Michael gave her a cheeky grin which made her
give a huffing noise under her breath as she mumbled on her way to the kitchen.
Ice cream. She needed ice cream.
“Zan, my time is short. Is there anything else, or did
you just need a mating lesson?”
Max shook his head. “No. We’re having increased
incidents of abductions, Skins, and other strange occurrences that can only be
attributed to increased alien activity. What is happening on Antar and in your
solar system? Why are we having so much fallout?”
“Ah, so you figured it out did you? Well, I warned you
that you made no friends here when you refused to give back the Granilith.”
Larek’s face took on a sly knowing look. “But then you did give it back,
didn’t you?”
“Tess, the queen returned to Antar with my son, to birth
him there. She took the Granilith.”
“You were a fool to ever turn it over to Kivar.”
“Wait, you told me …” Max’s eyes narrowed.
“Larek, what the hell is going on? During the
“True, but Hanar, Sero, and Kathana hated Kivar more than
you. Together with me and by intercepting the Granilith we would’ve crushed
Kivar, allowed you to assign a new King to Antar, a Regent, and then we
would’ve returned you to Earth to live out your life unhindered by your
previous one.”
“But …”
“But, that didn’t happen. You held the Granilith, which
is exactly what your parents would’ve wanted. Here, in this solar system, once
we knew Kivar didn’t have the Granilith, the civil war became a full scale
revolution. All planets that were currently held captive under Kivar rose in
revolt. Hanar’s world was practically destroyed beyond retrieval. Kivar was
forced to use weapons so harsh to retain his power that he practically decimated
our entire solar system into a nuclear winter, dead to all life for the next
millennium or more. He punctured the core of our smallest sun, and if it were
not for our other suns, the cool off for the planets would’ve extinguished all
life on all planets almost immediately.”
Larek told the tale of his worlds without emotion. “The
Granilith would’ve allowed Kivar to hold the peace, to hold us hostage, but
without it, we had no reason to not resist.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Things changed when the Granilith returned. Kivar
attacked Sero, and we knew the Granilith was back. There was no question from
all the posturing and arrogance. I had heard that he had tried to retrieve your
sister, Vilandra. I had assumed that it was to help him retrieve the Granilith,
but he already had it, so my best guess was he wanted to place his issue on the
throne from the Antarian King line, so civil war on Antar would subside.”
“He failed.”
“Yes, he did. Once he retrieved the Granilith, he tried
to mend the sun, to restore it to some semblance of what it was once. He tried
to use the Granilith to go back and stop himself from committing the
destruction. He did not succeed, but he was able to decrease the amount of
damage moving the destruction from a punctured core to a decimated helio-layer.
The sun is still leaking hydrogen, and we are looking at its death in about
another five to ten thousand years, more than likely—less.”
“So the alien activity...?” Kyle asked, having remained
as quiet as his father.
“Mass exodus from our solar system. You can call the
activity ‘scouts’ who are reconnoitering the location and situation. Yours
is a planet we know. One we can manipulate to meet our needs. Kivar has sent
agents to make deals with governments of your world to place himself in power.
Obviously the legitimate governments will not deal with a dictator, threatening
to annihilate the Earth’s current populations. Only a fool would not see that
there is no survival once the atmosphere is altered to accommodate our
species.”
“Well, hell’s bells,” said Kyle under his breath,
“we’re doomed. We have our share of idiots in control. The powers that be
are rarely noted for this ability to think.”
“All of you are coming?” Max asked ignoring Kyle for
the moment.
Larek laughed. “No. Not all. My world, Sero’s and
Kathana’s are still inhabitable as they are even with the one sun gone. The
loss of the one sun will change the gravitational paths of all our planets. We
can perhaps in generations in the future find a way to mend the damage, to
reverse it, but in truth, the new path will make our worlds paradises, much like
your Earth, and our species will evolve to meet the change since it will take
generations for the sun to die, and the shift in environment will occur slowly
over time.”
Larek seemed amused by a special irony. “Antar and
Hanar’s worlds were too far from the heating core, and their altered paths
will prove to be detrimental. They will cool, then suffer an ice age, partially
through the season, too cool part of the year, and as their elliptical path
takes them too close to the sun, too hot. In so many years they will become dead
planets unable to sustain life, and once the sun is gone, their worlds will be
dead.”
“So it is Kivar—Antar and this Hanar that looks to
invade our world?” Jim asked.
“No. As mentioned, Hanar’s world practically lies in
ruin already. Most of his remaining populations have immigrated to our worlds,
and here they will remain. It is Kivar and Antar you must fear, not us. We are
happy to see Kivar gone, but we have to fight to keep him from invading our
worlds and taking them as he did Antar.”
“If he has the Granilith, and he holds your solar system
hostage, then why does he not take over your planets?” Liz couldn’t
understand why Kivar would be so desperate to search Earth and find them. It
made no sense. He had the power to destroy a sun. Why not reestablish himself on
a new world in his native solar system.
“Why indeed?” Larek laughed. “Maybe because we give
him no leave to take our worlds, but also because not too long ago, he lost the
Granilith. We don’t know how, but some believe he destroyed it trying to
repair the damage he did to the sun. Wherever it went, or whatever happened, he
lost the ability to control us, and it has been open warfare ever since. His
world is all but dead, or will be. For the first time in our collective
histories we are allied against a common foe. Kivar needs a new world, and
we’ll be dead before we allow him to have ours. He seeks to rule you, to take
from you, because your species has not advanced enough to resist.”
Michael made a face of disgust. “Great, we’re good
fodder.”
Max started to speak, but a knock on the door stopped him.
Everyone paused looking at each other, no one moving. Maria came back into the
living room from the kitchen, from where she listened, but safely stayed out of
range from Michael, and his ability to steal her ice cream.
“I’ll get it!”
“Wait!” Max ordered her. “What if it’s a Skin?”
Maria made a face. “Since when do they knock?” Maria
pulled the door open and then stepped back immediately. “I stand corrected.
It’s an alien.”
Kal grinned at the group. “Hey kiddies! Miss me?”
~~~
“Kal, what are you doing here?” Max demanded shocked to
see the Shapeshifter, and not only due to the outlandish pink suit he was
wearing.
“I tracked you, just like the others.”
Michael stood up. “Tracked us. How?”
Kal pulled a device out of his pocket and showed them. It
was similar to the device that Brody once used to suppress their powers, but it
had a different symbol on it. “Strange that I forgot about this. I had no
reason to use it over the years, but I was confused by how they could so easily
locate you.” He turned it on and showed them. “Yep, huge energy signature,
one that far exceeds anything native to this planet. Someone is bugged.”
“Can you pinpoint it?” Michael pulled Maria closer to
him.
“Absolutely.” Kal glanced at Brody. “A friend?”
“Larek.” Brody introduced himself. “I take it you are
one of the Protectors.”
“Hey, not anyone’s protector anymore. I gave up the
lifesized condom job a long time ago. I’m a
“I’m happy for you, but surprised you found a way to
break your secondary protocol.”
“Secondary smeck-o-nary. Forget all that Antarian jazz.
It gives me the heaves.” Kal made a face at Larek, aka Brody. “Oh gosh,
don’t tell me you’re still friends with this schmuck?” He made a face at
Max literally sticking his tongue out at him. “You deserve to be bothered by
Kivar. May a thousand of him rain down upon your head. What is it with Antar?
They can only produce the biggest turds ever to rule.”
“Always the protector I see. I can almost guess which one
you are.”
“Hey! I’ve reformed.”
“Yes, I see. The whining one who had a total hissy when
they sent him. Literally had to be tossed onboard.”
“Like I said, I changed. This planet is a gas. I live for
dessert. Had I known it was such a hoot, I’d have jumped onboard and sang
soprano all the way—after I dismantled the pods. These pod people are
trying.”
“Tell me about it. I am half a galaxy away and they pull
me out of bed to have a ‘chat’ not even asking what I was doing or who I was
with.”
“I’m not even hearing you. Larek, the Larek I
remembered was all about duty, work, work—work, and sex? Yeah, right.” Kal
moved around the room with the devise. “You should’ve migrated to this
world. It has a lifetime of amusement and adventure. Love pie. Pie is my
favorite. Especially Key Lime. Wonderful favorable stuff, not that I can taste
it recently, but about six years ago, I had a piece that made my jockeys
shrink.”
“Kal, spare us the details and descriptions,” Michael
ordered. “You got something.”
“Yeah.” Kal bent to a bag, taking it to the table.
“My bag?” Maria’s mouth opened in wonder. “There is
an alien tracking device—bug in my bag!”
Kal put down the monitor and opened the bag. He pulled out
the black cone that Michael had retrieved from the Airforce base from Tess’s
ship’s crash site.
“The Granilith,” both Larek and Kal said at the same
time in awe.