“I have no choice but to believe you,” she said seriously. “You’re not lying to me.”
“How can you tell?” Zack asked her curiously.
“I see people lie to me every day. I know the signs,” Madison explained dryly, as she thought about all the girls who came to her sessions who would sit and tell her that they were okay. It always made her sick to her stomach when she had to hear a girl telling herself that she was okay, when the inside of her eyes revealed nothing but a shattered sense of self.
He nodded. He didn’t ask why people lied to her. He just looked satisfied that he could move on with his explanation. “The legend I told you about,” he started, and Madison nodded. “There are some people on my planet who believe that it’s true and that our rightful home is here on Earth,” he explained with a look of shame in his eyes. “Our planet has been dying now for some time. Our scientists have done what they could, but everything that is made will one day break, and this is true of where I call home.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Madison said quickly. She couldn’t imagine what it might feel like to know that the very ground she walked upon was dying under her feet. She had thought it was bad enough when she’d been living in the bedsit[S2] and the floorboards had started to rot.
He shook his head. “There is no sadness in a life lived in full,” he said wisely. “Our planet is old and it is her time to go.”
Madison nodded. “I don’t understand what this has to do with you being here, though,” she admitted, because he seemed lost in the thoughts of his planet’s destruction. She could see it in his eyes. She could see the pain he was denying feeling, because she’d seen it so many times before.
He sighed. “The people who believe that we came from Earth believe that we should return,” he explained, and the look of shame returned. “They believe that they have an ancient claim to the land, and that if your people stand in our way, then they have every right to wipe you out completely.” The way he said “wipe you out completely” made Madison wonder what would happen if the human race did take the sudden invasion well.
“What if we welcome you in peace?” she asked him, because he’d really made it sound as though there wasn’t a happy ending to be found. “What if we open up what’s left of our land to you all?”
He shook his head. “It won’t be enough,” he said. “There are probably as many of us as there are of you. We can’t all coexist on the planet.”
Madison let the information sink in. “So, you’re telling me that your people are coming here to attack us either way?” He nodded. “So why have you come? Are you here to check out the opposition or something?” Madison asked, but she didn’t really believe what she was saying. There was something about Zack that was leading her to believe that he was a friend, even though his words advised her otherwise.
“There is a small group of my people who believe that we have no right to take back the Earth. There aren’t many of us, but there are enough of us to make our plan work. The war on your planet will not happen for another ten years. We’ve come to Earth to offer our help. We want to arm you with everything that we have.”
“How are you going to do that?” Madison asked. She pictured Zack working in some secret government lab as he tried to show the humans how his complicated space technology worked.
“We are going to give you the only advantage we have. Our race was born with a gift that yours never developed. We have the ability to look through another’s eyes. I can see into every corner of the Earth without even having to move,” he explained.
“And you’re going to give humans that?” Madison asked, because she couldn’t understand how it was even possible.
Zack nodded. “It’s not just a gift you can simply pass over to anybody you would like, though. It must be passed on through genetics.” He paused to let the information sink in. “We have come to offer ourselves to you, so that you might be able to conceive children who will one day help to save your planet.”
“You’re here to breed with us?” Madison asked outright.
“In a much simpler sense, yes,” Zack said with a frown. “You must understand that our purpose is to give you the advantage that we have. The small fraction of people I spoke about believe that when our Earth dies that we should find somewhere new. Perhaps if our people know that this Earth is protected then that’s what we’ll do,” he finished hopefully.
“So, are you just going to ask any human to mate with you, then? Or do you have a plan about that too?” Madison asked him with a strained expression, as she tried to get her mind around how anybody could be so clinical about having children.
He nodded. “We want to make sure that we pick strong women. We need to ensure that our offspring have the best genetics from both parents, so that we can minimize the chances of them being unable to protect you all.”
“You should probably go then,” Madison said, and she stood up so that she could walk Zack back to her front door. “You will have a lot of ground to cover if you’re planning on finding the strongest females the planet has to offer.”
He shook his head and didn’t make any move to get up. “It’s not about being the strongest overall. We just need to make sure that you’re strong. If you would be willing, then I think you would be the perfect choice for me.” He looked at her with eyes that seemed to seep deep beneath her skin. It was a strange sensation, and she didn’t quite know how to describe it other than it felt like her soul was being watched.
“You want to mate with me?” she asked him. She had never really considered herself strong before. She felt like he’d made some kind of mistake. She wasn’t able to create a savior of the human race; she was just a girl who was trying to work out what her life meant and how she could make other people’s lives better.
“I think you’re the ideal choice. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve taken a look through your memories. It’s remarkable how you’ve moved on from all that you’ve been through,” he said, as though she was some kind of animal that he was observing at a zoo.
She wasn’t sure whether she should be offended or not. He’d gone through her memories without even asking first. That wasn’t how things were going to work, if she was going to help him. “If you’re serious, then I’ll do it,” she said, because she knew she couldn’t pass on an opportunity to help save the Earth. “I need you to be upfront with me about everything, though, and that includes when you intend to read my mind,” she added, just so that he knew where the boundaries were.
He nodded. “I’m sorry, I should have asked first,” he said quickly, when he sensed the meaning behind her additional comment. “You have agreed, though, to the program?” he asked.
Madison nodded. “Sure. So, how do we do this?”
*********
Zack pulled out a small metal cube from his pocket and placed it on Madison’s coffee table. “What is that?” she asked him, as he leaned forward and started tapping on the top of it.
“It’s a transport device,” he explained, as a strange, almost-clear blue glow started to emit from it. “It’s going to take us back to the ship that I traveled here on.”
“Can’t we just do it here?” Madison asked, as a small slither of fear started to wrap its cold hands around her thoughts. “I mean, we don’t need to go back to your ship, do we?” she protested.
“I’m afraid we do. If this is going to work, then we are going to need the technology that’s on board,” he said, and then he stood up and walked over to Madison. He took her hand firmly in his and then picked up the metal cube. “Try to hold your breath when it starts,” he said in an overly casual tone. Then it started.
It wasn’t painful, but Madison was sure that it should have been. She could feel the very molecules that held her together being pulled apart. She was turning into dust. She was turning into something smaller than dust. She was nothing. For a few seconds she would always swear to anybody who knew about it that she just simply stopped existing. She felt h
er feet hit something solid and then she breathed out. Her mind felt a mess. Her body felt shaky, but she was sure that she’d made it through the teleportation without the severe burns or broken bones that Zack had warned her of.
She looked around the small room they had materialized in. There was nothing in it but large metal storage containers. She could hear Zack starting to walk away from her and she turned and hurriedly caught up. “So, is this your ship?” she asked him when he’d keyed in a number on a small pad and a door had shifted open for them to pass though.
“Technically, I borrowed it,” Zack said with a small shrug. “I’m not sure the government on my planet would be all too happy to know I’m here,” he said, and Madison could hear the nervous edge in his voice.
“What would happen if they found out?” Madison asked curiously.
“They’d have me killed on the grounds of being a traitor, and my whole family killed on the grounds of them being related to one,” he explained somberly. “Treason isn’t something that is taken lightly among my people.”
“I’m sorry that you’ve had to risk yourself and your loved ones like this,” Madison said, as she thought back to how her attack had broken her family to the point of it being beyond repair.
“It’s a risk that must be taken,” Zack said gravely as they walked through a dull metal tunnel and into a circular room. “I’ll try to make this place seem a little more homelike for you,” he said quickly, and then he pulled down a panel on the wall and began to work with a computer interface. The walls of the room flickered and then changed before Madison’s eyes.
She was taken aback. It looked like she was standing in a larger version of her living room. “That’s incredible,” she said as she turned to look at Zack. He just shrugged, as though it wasn’t anything special to him.
“I need to explain a few things to you before we start,” he said nervously. “There is a reason that it needs to happen on this ship. If our child is going to be able to fight in the war, then he or she is going to need to be an adult within the next ten years. I have the technology on my ship that can do that. It will quicken the process of both your pregnancy and our child’s growth rate,” he explained.
“You’re going to put our child on super speed?” Madison asked, and she felt like she should probably be more alarmed than she was actually feeling. She’d already taken so much in that it was hard to be surprised by anything else.
“Yes. If we want this plan to work, then we will have to do that,” he said with a sympathetic look.
Madison nodded. “I guess that’s what will have to happen then,” she said with a small nod. “So, how does this actually work?” she asked, suddenly feeling nervous. She’d been thinking so much about the saving the world aspect of the plan that she’d put no thought at all into how they were going to conceive the child.
“Actually, it’s not going to be as bad as you think,” he said with a sly smile, which told Madison that he’d dipped into her thoughts again without permission. “We don’t mate like your people do. In fact, everything can be transferred over in a kiss,” he explained.
“So, it’s just going to be a kiss?” Madison asked him to confirm, because that seemed too simple.
He nodded. “That’s right,” he said, and then he walked over to the fake version of Madison’s couch and sat down. Madison followed him and sat down on what she’d thought at first was just a hologram. It felt like her couch. It even had the same sag in the seat that hers did. She looked over at Zack.
She was kind of happy, in a way, that he was an alien. If he were human, she thought, then she would have never have stood a chance with him. He was gorgeous. He looked like a supermodel. His hair was dark brown, but there were streaks of golden blond running through it that caught the light. His cheekbones were sharp, but his lips softened everything off and she imagined they gave people a warm first impression of him.
She leaned forward so that her lips could meet his. She’d been on a few dates since her attack, but they hadn’t gone very far. She was expecting the kiss to feel like all of the others. She was expecting it to feel like someone was attaching himself to her lips and then clinging on, but it didn’t. His lips were soft against hers. She could feel his heat sinking deep below her skin, as she opened her mouth slightly and followed his lips, until they’d found a gentle rhythm.
Madison opened her eyes in surprise when she felt his hand reach out and rest on her thigh. She found them closing again as his fingertips started to trace gentle lines against the inside of her leg. She could feel her body growing hotter. She could feel herself leaning into him further and further as his hand reached up higher and higher.
Her mind was ablaze with thoughts. She was scared, but she wanted to continue. She could feel herself starting to tremble under his touch. She wanted him. She wanted him in a deep and profound way that she’d never felt before and wasn’t sure she’d ever feel again. She let her hands brush over his legs for a moment, before she brought them down and started to trace up to the zipper of his pants. She didn’t care if they didn’t have to do it that way, because she wanted it and she was sure that he’d be able to read that clearly in her mind.
*******
Madison looked over at Zack, who was fastening up his top. She could feel her heart starting to slow down, as the moment passed and all that was left were the pleasant memories and tingling between her legs. “How can we be sure that the kiss worked?” she asked him, when she’d put on all of her clothes and had sat back down on the couch.
“I’m going to scan you, and if it reads positive then I can start up the growth-speeding process,” he explained, and then he picked up a long object that looked like it had been made out of clear glass. Madison sat back on the coach and watched as Zack waved the wand-like object over her. He stopped and then nodded. “It’s reading positive,” he said, and his lips pulled up in a smile as he realized what that meant.
“I’m going to go ahead and hurry up the growing process,” he said, and then he typed something into the wand-like object and started waving it over her again. At first nothing happened. Madison started to wonder whether it had worked or whether she had been expecting too much too quickly, but then she felt a strong kick on the inside of her stomach and she found herself doubling over in pain. “You’re going to be okay,” Zack said, as he put his hands reassuringly on her shoulders. “You’re going to be giving birth in about five minutes, so you might want to prepare yourself a little,” he added.
Madison turned to him with a look of horror on her face. “Five minutes?” she asked in between deep breaths. The pain in her stomach was getting worse. It was getting stronger and more frequent and she was struggling to catch her breath between each new tide of it.
Zack nodded. “You’ll be thankful when it’s over,” he said, as though that was any kind of consolation to what was happening. “You just need to breathe, and when I tell you, you need to start pushing,” he added.
Zack had been wrong. Madison had three minutes after their conversation, not five, before the baby started to push its way out of her. She’d never experienced pain like it in her life. It felt like every bone in her body was starting to fracture, as the tiny person inside of her moved forward without a care about what it might be doing to its host.
Madison was sure that she was going to pass out. The corners of her vision had started to darken and she was welcoming the incoming darkness with open arms. She was tired. Her body hurt. All she wanted to do was get away from the pain. Then it stopped, and in the place of her screams there was nothing but silence.
She looked down at Zack quickly. “Shouldn’t it be crying?” she asked nervously, when the silence seemed to stretch on.
Zack nodded and then turned over the baby and slapped its little, chubby bum. The baby started to cry and Zack offered it over to Madison. “Congratulations,” he said and she could hear the soft sadness that came from a moment of pure happiness ring through his voice. “She’s be
autiful,” he added.
“She’s a girl?” Madison asked, as she looked down and saw the big blue eyes of her baby looking up at her. She was perfect. She had her father’s tanned skin. She had her mother’s little ski jumped nose. She was the most amazing thing that Madison had ever seen, and if she had ever doubted the existence of love before, then she knew she would never be able to again. She was holding her daughter. She was holding her baby. The circumstances didn’t matter, because it had resulted in the most perfect thing that had ever been brought into creation.
“What are you going to name her?” Zack asked Madison, after he’d given her a moment to embrace her new daughter.
“Shouldn’t we pick something together?” Madison asked him.
Zack shook his head. “You should pick the name. After all, you’re the one who has just given birth to her,” he said with a supportive smile.
Madison nodded, and then she looked down at her daughter, who was sleeping in her arms. “She should be called Poppy,” Madison said when she was sure that she’d picked out the right name. “When the wars were over, poppies were found growing in the fields. They were proof that beauty could be found, even where blood had fallen.”
“Poppy is perfect,” Zack agreed with a warm smile.
“So, what happens now?” Madison asked, as she rocked Poppy back and forth in her arms.
“You need to make a choice,” Zack said, and the seriousness in his voice made Madison turn and give him her undivided attention.
“What kind of choice?” she asked, because she could see the conflict starting to rage in Zack’s eyes.
“I need to make sure that our daughter is ready to fight,” he explained. “That means she needs to stay on this ship with me, so that I can prepare her. I have enough supplies on board to allow for her mother to stay too, but it would mean that you wouldn’t be able to return to Earth until the great battle starts.”
“I don’t understand,” Madison said, as she tried to get her head around what Zack had just told her. “I either stay on this ship or I leave without my daughter?” she asked, because that’s what it had sounded like to her, but she was sure that Zack wouldn’t make her choose between those two things. He’d looked into her mind; he knew how important it was that she continued the work she was doing with the girls in her counselling group.
Untamed Abduction: Alien Romance Collection Page 2