Humans and other Aliens: Book 1

by Winzer, Alexander

  Suki stood in front of Chris’s room holding one of Ivan’s alien scanners. Suki felt nervous. She liked how it felt when she was close to Chris. What would it be like to finally spend some time alone with him in his private room?

  “Ivan asked me to deliver one of his gadgets to you. You know the one that detects the alien ghosts?”

  Chris took the device while Suki explained, “See, this is how it works… You press this button to set the device’s sensitivity to a certain radius… Let’s say maybe 2 km… that should be close enough.”

  Suki noticed Chris’s eyes wandering from the screen, gazing at her eyes, her cheekbones, her lips. She felt like kissing him, but instead she just carefully brushed his hand that held the device.

  “What about this button?” he asked.

  Suki knew that Chris was not really interested in Ivan’s technical achievements. She noticed how the tension between their two bodies grew. It felt like an electrical charge was building. She looked at Chris. He must have had another shave. He smelt of a fragrant aftershave. She recognized it from some stranger that she had been serving in first class… but that wasn’t important right now… She turned around, facing him. “Would you like me to show you…”

  Chris stood there looking into her eyes. Something was melting away; an unseen wall seemed to crumble, to disintegrate into dust. She couldn’t think straight anymore. “I…”

  Chris pulled her closer, his hands firmly supporting her back. “Yes…” Their lips touched in a timeless moment of pure bliss. Suki inhaled his fragrance. She felt the blood pulsing in her veins.

  Suki dropped Ivan’s device, grabbed Chris’s head, and pulled him closer. She had never felt like this before. She had kissed other men, yes, but this was different; this was beyond anything she had ever experienced. It was perfect unity.

  Suki couldn’t tell how much time had gone by or how they eventually found their way into his bed, but it felt like an eternity had passed when Chris smiled at her, gave her another long kiss, and got up from his bed.

  “I think we should check on the others. I’d love to spend the rest of my life with you in this room, no, in this bed, but there might not be a human being left for us to save if we stay here much longer.”

  Suki enjoyed looking at Chris’s naked body. He was muscular, but not like the hormone-inflated gym junkies. He looked natural, like a man who built up his muscles from a healthy lifestyle, not from an hour at the e-gym where they first artificially stimulated muscles and then fed you genetically altered growth hormones.

  Suki knew what Chris was talking about; she would have loved to spend a few more hours lazily relaxing, enjoying Chris’s company. But he was right. They had to get going. “OK… but only after I have a quick shower.”

  Chris had a cheeky smile on his face as he asked, “Together?”

  Suki turned on the water, setting the temperature on the shower cubicle’s touch panel as Chris entered the room. “You look beautiful!”

  Suki suddenly noticed a change in the water’s consistency. The drops hitting her naked body felt like tiny electric shocks, making her hair stand on end. A blue glow was forming on her wet skin while the humid air started to buzz with an electrical charge that built rapidly.

  “Get out!” Chris yelled at Suki who hit the off button and jumped out of the glass cubicle, grabbing the towel that hung next to the shower, wiping the fluorescent liquid off her tingling skin. Suki sensed a presence materializing behind her. She turned around. “No… not again.”

  The alien woman establishing contact: “Brother… Sister… Why did you summon me?”

  Chris grabbed Suki’s hand, increasing their powers to a level that should be able to deflect the alien intruder.

  “We didn’t…” Suki stared at the alien creature, a tall, African-looking woman with short, bright orange hair. That’s not hair, thought Suki. It looks like spikes are growing out of her oval-shaped head. Her eyes were glowing in the dim light, offsetting the color of her ebony skin, which was covered in a host of tiny, glistening plates of armor, in a shape similar to the teethlike placoid scales of a shark. Her slender arms ended in fingers that were tipped with long retractable nails while her legs were muscular and powerful, reminding Suki of an antelope.

  Chris gradually regained his composure. “How did you find us?”

  The alien woman smiled. “I don’t have to find you. I am always with you.”

  Chris looked at Suki. He seemed unsure of what to make of that. Suki smiled. She suddenly knew what to do. Suki concentrated, delivering her telepathic message to the alien being. “Thank you for joining us, sister. How can we help you?”

  The alien woman looked sad. Suki thought she felt a sense of longing shining through the eyes of this magical creature.

  “Release me from the prison that binds me. Allow me to leave this cursed place.”

  Suki felt the pain that the alien woman carried. “I’m afraid we can’t help you right now, but we’ll do our best to break the chains that hold you.”

  A hesitant smile crossed the dark woman’s face. “Thank you, sister. I know you will.” She lowered her head and slowly moved towards Suki, extending her hand. “Let me show you something.”

  Suki lifted her hand that was holding on to Chris’s, placing both their hands into the tall woman’s. Her skin felt cool, it was silky, and soft to touch.

  “Close your eyes!”

  Chris and Suki intuitively followed her bidding, but instead of finding themselves flung into darkness they were surrounded by trees. They stood in a forest where massive pines grew some hundred meters tall.

  “Meet my sisters!”

  Suki heard the voice of the woman, but this time it seemed to be coming from the tree standing right next to her.

  “We have been living in this form for millennia, but humans are killing us fast. It won’t be long before none of us are left.”

  Suki touched the trunk of the tree, her fingers gliding over the rough, ancient bark. She felt the woman’s heart beating in the hard wood of the tree.

  “Mother has summoned us from the beyond, to help our sisters who can only watch. But taking lives is not in our nature, we are peaceful and kind.”

  Suki felt her sadness. Her heart was broken. It was crying out for help. Suki answered, “We will correct the mistakes that have been made. Man’s ignorance will be removed. Humanity will change!”

  A pine cone dropped out of the tree that seemed to be the alien woman’s real nature. “Take this gift.”

  Suki nodded and picked it up.

  “There is one more thing I have to show you…”

  Suki noticed the smell of smoke. A fire was burning just out of sight. An orange glow emerged from behind a little hill and smoke drifted across, finding its way through the trees to where they were standing. Suki felt the heat of the wind touching the skin of her face. She looked at Chris who turned towards her, taking her into his arms just before a tsunami of fire wiped away the forest around them. “What… is happening?”

  Suki felt the heat racing past them. She looked at what was once a forest. Only piles of glowing embers were left resting on the ashes of incinerated trees.

  “That was my brother… you will have to act fast… when he arrives time will end.” The whole world went black. It felt like an eternity before her eyes suddenly opened.

  Chris and Suki found themselves in their room, lying on the floor, panting hard. Chris slowly got up and helped Suki onto his bed. She was holding on to a pine cone. It was glowing on the top, a wisp of smoke coming off it as Suki dipped it into the glass of water that sat on the bedside table.

  “Do we have to tell the others?” Suki didn’t like the prospect of informing people that her making love with Chris might have been a catalyst for the alien creature materializing.

  “I… don’t know. Let’s talk with Delta first. He likes keeping secrets.”

  Suki nodded. Chris might be right. Delta would keep it to himself, at least until i
t was necessary to let everybody know.

  Chris and Suki slowly walked down the corridor towards Jon’s lab. Suki still shivered when she thought of how it felt when the firestorm burnt away all life that had previously existed in the lush forest they had visited in the vision the alien woman had invoked. She looked at Chris thinking how it felt to touch his body, kiss his lips. It made her feel better. It helped push away these thoughts of ultimate destruction.

  Chris bent down and kissed her on the neck. “I love your smell.”

  Suki looked at Chris, faking annoyance. “Stop that… they don’t have to know.”

  Jon was talking to Eva when Chris and Suki entered the lab. “Hi Eva, Jon, can we be of any help at all?”

  Eva smiled and nodded at Chris. “Great timing, please sit down. We’ll be with you in a minute.”

  Chris walked over to the food synthesizer. “Would you like a drink?”

  “Yes, water, please. The last couple of hours have made me thirsty.”

  Eva sat down opposite Suki who was wiping some water off her lips. Jon took the seat next to Eva. “We’d like to take a DNA sample from you and Chris. A simple cheek swab should do, thank you.”

  Chris nodded, accepting the plastic stick and rubbing it on the inside of his cheek.

  “Why do you need it?” Suki was naturally curious and not truly happy about someone taking her DNA sample.

  “Delta has shown us the pure, unaltered alien DNA section that is the seed of mirror consciousness. At least that’s what he calls it. It’s the basic framework that developed into what we know today as self-consciousness. He believes that this specific DNA section, this seed, was implanted in the human DNA some two million years ago. Before this time there was no reflective functionality in consciousness. We have now found the corresponding, mutated DNA section in our own human DNA structure, but we were wondering … as you two seem to be somehow different… if your DNA structure is the same or if it has maybe reverted back to a more original state… if you know what I mean…”

  Suki was not sure how to counter that. “OK, here’s your swab.”

  Eva took the little plastic stick and placed it into the DNA scanner next to Chris’s sample. “This will only take a minute…”

  The DNA scanner now displayed the result of the analysis. “That’s very interesting. Chris and Suki’s corresponding DNA structure is pretty much identical, but at the same time it’s quite different to the normal structure of other human beings. Jon, have a look at this…”

  Jon got up and walked over to Eva’s display with Chris and Suki following a few steps behind.

  “When I compare Suki and Chris to the alien DNA structure, theirs is about thirty percent more closely related to it than let’s say mine or yours.”

  Jon nodded. “This might explain why the aliens don’t see them as a threat. Maybe they identify them as one of their own, especially if they’re together, which seems to further increase the correlation. Maybe we should try this…”

  Jon fetched another two swabs and handed them to Chris and Suki. “Please could you take another sample, but this time Suki, you take a sample from Chris and while you’re doing this, please think in an open and loving way about him. When you hold the swab, please do the same; direct all your love towards him and then place it into the scanner.”

  Suki stared at Jon, a sheepish look on her face. “What? Why would that make any difference?”

  Jon smiled. “Please, just do it. I’ve recently read a scientific paper that proposed that one might be able to change the structure of the DNA through positive, loving thoughts and attitude towards it. I was wondering if…”

  Suki laughed. Jon’s explanation sounded just too weird. “OK, OK, I’ll do it. Here we go.”

  Suki took the swab and went back to Chris who slowly opened his mouth. She touched his hand while inserting the little plastic swab and carefully rubbed it on the inside of his cheek. Suki felt her face blush.

  She was just starting to enjoy the process when Jon interrupted. “OK, that should be enough. Now please put it inside this device.”

  Chris didn’t do much better hiding his feelings for Suki. Suki noticed Jon looking at Eva, who smiled and raised an eyebrow, watching Chris’s cheeks turning red, competing with the healthy glow her own face displayed.

  Eva closed the lid of the device and started the analysis. “Any bets? I say that the reading will be some five percent higher than before.”

  Jon looked surprised. Suki felt that he wasn’t sure if he should bet on the outcome of a scientific experiment. His answer surprised her.

  “I bet that it’ll be quite a bit higher. Let’s say thirty percent higher.”

  Eva looked just as surprised. It seemed she hadn’t expected Jon to be such an optimist. “I guess a bet’s only worth as much as the prize you can win. How about the loser pays for dinner?”

  Jon smiled at Eva and nodded. “What about you, Suki? Chris?”

  Suki was looking at Chris, unsure what to say, when the DNA scanner started beeping. “Ah… the results are in, seems it’s only you two for dinner.” Suki gazed at Chris who wore a mysterious smile.

  “Look at that!” Jon seemed to be truly amazed. Suki knew he must have thought that his guess was very optimistic and that Eva would be much closer, but the results indicated something very different. “Sixty-eight percent and seventy-one percent, that’s pretty amazing.”

  Eva seemed to be even more startled, “Seriously, I now have to buy you dinner?”

  “I’ll bring the wine,” said Jon, smiling happily at Eva who quickly turned to Suki.

  “Do you have any idea why you’re so different? Chris has told us about his experience in the elevator in New Zealand. My guess is this could have something to do with it, but what about you?”

  Suki sat down and hesitated for a brief moment. Where should she start? She took a deep breath. “Well… there were two events that I believe resulted in a drastic change of my point of view of life and of myself. When I was very young I had a near-death experience. A voice told me that I could either stay here or go back to this body, but either way there would be nothing to be afraid of, that I would always be one with the timeless, the infinite. The second event happened when I was about twenty years old. I was walking across a street in Tokyo after spending a night out with friends. It was already early morning and the sun was coming up. I was crossing the road and it suddenly felt like I was walking through myself. Everything that I saw, heard, and felt was equally me. This body was no more me than the car that was approaching, there wasn’t any separation. This doesn’t mean that I thought that I was a car. No. I was still me, but the implied separation was gone and with it the fear of something happening to me was gone as well.”

  Suki noticed a flash of understanding moving in Jon’s eyes as he carefully replied, “It seems that experiences like these function like a trigger, a switch that turns off our acquired, conditioned thought patterns, leaving us with… a direct knowing of our true nature.”

  Suki nodded. “Whatever we call it, it was made perfectly clear that looking at myself as an island, existing independently of everything else was simply a wrong assumption. A belief that had to be seen through.”

  Jon’s eyes now displayed a sparkle Suki had not seen in the man before. He spoke, nearly whispering the result of his understanding. “A deep integration of this realization has to result in a change of the underlying framework of belief, of the whole value system that our society is built upon… It would make it impossible, or rather perfectly unjustifiable to act in a way that is harmful to nature, to earth, even the universe itself.”

  Thirty-Three

  Ezrah

  Ezrah felt sick when he got out of the travel pod after another day of recruiting. The humid heat of Mumbai was taking its toll on him.

  “Thank you, sir, I will pick you up tomorrow, 8 a.m.”

  Ezrah nodded and waved goodbye to Anil who swiftly took off in his silvery pod. I wish I was in San
Francisco, thought Ezrah. I hope that Zoe is having more success in London.

  Ezrah had been very optimistic after the first day of his journey resulted in a one hundred percent success rate. Both Kal and Indrani had accepted his invitation to join him at ARC, but today had been very different.

  Ezrah had met all six potential candidates, but only one agreed to join their cause. The others were either too involved in their current job, had recently fallen in love, or were just about to start a family. All good reasons not to leave this place, thought Ezrah, but then again, this city can swiftly turn into your worst nightmare, considering yesterday’s death toll.

  Nearly a thousand people had been killed in Mumbai alone in one single day, a number that should have made anyone reconsider his chances of surviving the next couple of months.

  A young man called Jai Anand seemed to have thought about these numbers carefully and thus decided to help Ezrah and his friends back in the US. He was only twenty-one and his parents had been killed by an alien attack two weeks ago. Ezrah was still surprised at how calm and composed Jai appeared, taking into account he had buried his parents the week before. Maybe this is because of the difficult two years he has just gone through, thought Ezrah reflecting on the weeks that Jai had spent in hospital and later home rehab following his surfing accident in Gokarna. He came off his board, hitting his head hard on the shallow reef below. He was floating in the water for minutes, unconscious, before other surfers spotted him and finally dragged him out of the water. He wasn’t breathing when the ambulance arrived. They tried to resuscitate him for more than twenty minutes, but it was only when his mum arrived at the scene demanding that they use the defibrillator one more time that Jai started breathing again, but the damage had been done. Most of the neuronal connections in his brain had dissolved leaving him in a state similar to a newborn. When Jai finally woke up in hospital a few days later he couldn’t remember anything. He didn’t recognize his parents, he couldn’t remember his name, he wasn’t even able to perform the most basic motor functions. He was put in adult nappies drooling like a baby.