Alien Revelation
The Arathians
Nicole Krizek
Copyright © 2018 Nicole Krizek
Cover art by Cynthia Nickles
Photographs from shutterstock.com & 123RF.com
Edited by Lessa Lamb
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
ISBN 10: 1720315361
ISBN 13: 9781720315360
Other books by Nicole Krizek
The Arathian Series:
Alien Savior
Alien Rescue
Alien Incursion
Shipmates: An Arathian Universe Novella
Tropical Temptation: An Arathian Universe Novella
The Sirilians:
Adrift
Unearthed
As always, I’d like to thank my family. Without their love, support, and a great deal of understanding, none of my books would be possible.
Also, thank you to my professional support system: Cindy, Lessa, and my beta readers. You guys are awesome! I couldn’t do this without you!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
Conall MacLeod stood in front of the giant replicator in his new home on Arath, and impatiently scrolled through images of beds. Goddamn beds.
It eluded him as to why there were so many options.
He would have been happy to continue sleeping on the large sofa he’d replicated for his new suite of rooms (like he’d been doing for the past few weeks), but his mother, Clare, had insisted that he have a proper bed. He couldn’t care less, but she’d forced him to sit in front of the replicator and choose. It was the last thing he wanted to be doing.
He could have stood up to her—he was a grown man after all—but when it came to Clare MacLeod, it was easier to just acquiesce.
“Why are there so many options?” he mumbled to himself in his Scottish brogue. “And why are they all so bloody big?”
The Arathians were a large race, both in height and width, but all of these were designed to fit five people. He had no reason for one that large. It was just him. Alone.
Not only was he expected to find furniture for his own bedroom, but Clare wanted him to replicate pieces for his entire suite: a guest bedroom, sitting area… each of their family members had the same set-up in their corner of the house. The reason why each person needed that much space also alluded him.
“May I help you, sir?”
Conall was slightly startled by the male’s voice which came from behind him. He turned to find Ozgur, their new butler, standing just inside the door of the replicator room. The man moved much too silently.
“Ahhh… that’d be grand, thanks,” Conall replied.
He moved aside, and Ozgur looked at the console. As weird as it was for the MacLeods to have staff in their new home, Conall had to admit that he liked Ozgur. He was an older Arathian man, roughly in his fifties, who’d been recommended to them by Karo and Aevum. Aside from helping around the house, he was also aiding the family in settling into their new lives on an alien world.
“Choosing a bed?” Ozgur asked.
“Aye. That and everything else for my area of the house.”
Ozgur’s head cocked to the side in contemplation. “You need to replicate entire rooms?”
“Aye, as soon as possible. Mum threatened to choose herself if I procrastinate any longer, and she’s partial to lace and flowers.”
The butler chuckled. “You wouldn’t want that. Let’s see what we can find.”
He backed out of the individual pieces of furniture and began scrolling through entire bedroom sets. There were beds, lamps, side tables… everything Conall needed and more, conveniently pre-matched.
“See anything you like?” Ozgur asked.
Conall scanned the images until he saw one that caught his eye. The set was in dark colors, which he liked, but it was the bed that he liked most. It was huge—they all were—but it had tall posters from which fabric could be hung. In his too-big room, it would be nice to pull the drapes closed on his too-big bed and pretend that he was in a smaller space. Somewhere a bit more intimate.
“I like that one,” he told Ozgur, while pointing to the image. The man selected it, and pulled up the pieces individually. All Conall cared about was the bed.
“This one? Are you sure?”
“Aye.”
Ozgur nodded. “Alright. If you’d like, I can have it replicated and placed in your rooms. It will be ready for your use this evening.”
“Thanks, Ozgur. Can you replicate the linens as well?”
“Of course, sir. But would you like to choose something yourself? We can replicate any color or pattern you want…”
“No, thank you,” Conall interrupted. “What’s on the image will be just fine.”
The last thing he wanted to do was spend time pouring over color swatches.
“Just as you say, sir,” Ozgur replied.
“Thank you.” Conall hesitated, but since Ozgur was already helping him… “Do you mind also choosing a set for the adjoining bedroom in my suite? Mum wants that one furnished as well.”
“You don’t care to choose it yourself?” Ozgur asked.
Hell no. Anymore looking at the replicator console and Conall might pull out his hair.
“No, I’ll leave it in your capable hands,” he answered, before he turned and walked out of the replicator room.
It was located at one end of their large house, adjacent to the garage, which was already full of vehicles. Although, unlike the cars of Earth, these were transports that automatically drove their occupants to their destinations. There were six of them. Why they needed so many, Conall didn’t have a clue. But they had already been there when he and his family had arrived on Arath.
So far no member of the family had had a reason to use them, since they hadn’t ventured outside of their new home. Most of that was because of the adjustment to living on another planet. And what an adjustment it had been.
Only four months had gone by from the time the MacLeods learned about the existence of aliens, to the time they’d arrived on Arath. Most of that had been spent preparing for the move.
They’d sold all of their Highland Cows and other farm animals, telling their neighbors that Conall’s father, Artair’s, health had degenerated to such a level that he needed to begin spending the winters south, to escape the harsh Scottish climate. Everyone had bought the rouse. It allowed the family to retain the house and acreage, and come back to visit when they wanted.
Of course the Arathians had cured Artair of his osteoarthritis long before then, but he’d walked with a cane when in Scotland to keep up appearances. No one liked deceiving their neighbors and friends, but it was the price they paid for their new reality.
What was that reality? That aliens not only existed, but that one of them (a man named Reus) was now married to Conall�
�s sister, Ashlyn. Reus came from a planet called Siril, which had long-since been abandoned by its inhabitants. Now Reus, and the only other two Sirilians in known existence (Karo, and his mate Aevum) were the MacLeod’s new family.
Karo and Aevum had both spent millennia in stasis chambers before being saved by the Arathians, not long before Reus had been unearthed in Conall’s own backyard. Now the two were their sponsors on this planet, and had taken them in as family—a perk of which was that Karo and Aevum had provided everything they needed for their new life on Arath.
To Conall, it was an uncomfortable situation.
If the duo had provided food and a modest apartment, it would have been perfectly adequate. But Karo and Aevum were rich… Bill-Gates-rich… An-entire-country’s-GDP-rich. They’d bought a huge parcel of land adjacent to their own, and hired a contractor to design and build a mansion for the MacLeods.
Each family member had their own private suite of rooms, and individual workspaces. There was an Arathian version of a fitness center, complete with an octoball court (Conall wasn’t sure what that was yet, but the Sirilians sure liked to play it), an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a greenhouse that put other greenhouses to shame, a movie theater, and an adjacent hangar where Reus’s new interstellar ship was docked.
In the blink of an eye, Conall and his family had gone from small-town farmers struggling to get through the winter, to having their own spread on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Arathian Edition.
It felt strange—and wrong—to be relying on Karo’s money.
Conall had worked hard his whole life. Directly after finishing school he’d begun an apprenticeship to become an arc welder. After years of week-long shifts repairing oil rigs, and then the tragic and unexpected death of his wife, he’d moved back into his parent’s home and worked seven days a week at the farm. He never had time to be bored… Or lonely… Or to wish that things were different. He’d been too worried about providing food and a house for his family. He’d worried about ordering too much or too little silage to get the cows through the winter. And he’d worried about his son, Oliver.
But now? Even though he wanted to contribute to the household, he had no skills that could be of use on Arath. Karo and Aevum wouldn’t have heard of him trying to find work either. Karo had made a fortune selling a version of their advanced artificial intelligence, LINK, to the Arathian Defense. They eagerly provided, and asked for nothing in return—except to be accepted: something Conall’s family seemed happy to do.
After leaving Ozgur to replicate his furniture, Conall wandered the house in search of his son. Upstairs, he checked their suite, but upon finding it empty, he continued searching. He was walking by his parents’ door when it opened, and his mother, Clare, exited.
Her face was flushed, smile bright, and she was twisting her red hair up into a clip atop her head. She startled when she saw him.
“Oh! Hello, Conall, dear. I didn’t see you there.”
“It’s alright, Mum. I was just looking for Oliver. Have you seen him?”
“Well, no… but I’ve been… ahhh…”
His brows drew together in question. What’s wrong with her? Before Conall could ask if she was alright, the door opened and his father’s voice rang out into the hall.
“Clarey, what ye running away for? I wasn’t done with you yet…”
Artair paused as he stepped out and saw Conall standing just outside their suite. He wore a robe, and Conall was sure there was nothing on underneath. The man’s chicken legs poked out from the fall of fabric.
“Sorry, Conall. Didn’t see you there,” Artair added.
Conall’s mouth dropped open. Were his parents having afternoon sex?!
Good for them, a part of his mind quipped. The other part told that part to shut the hell up. These were his parents. No one wanted to think of their parents having sex. The hall felt too cramped all of a sudden.
“He was looking for Oliver,” Clare supplied.
“Oh! Well, I’ll go help you look…” Artair cinched his robe tighter and moved to join Conall.
“No, Da’, it’s alright. I’ll go look for him. You can go back to…” Conall trailed off, “…whatever it was you were doing.”
Without waiting for a reply, Conall turned and headed back the way he’d come, urging his ears to not hear Clare’s giggle.
He headed downstairs, towards the large workspaces that Reus occupied. His hunch had been right: Conall entered the cluttered garage-like lab and saw Oliver’s sneakers bouncing out from behind a mountain of equipment.
“Hello?” Conall called. He didn’t want to startle them.
“Over here, Da’!” Oliver answered.
Conall picked his way through the chaos and found Oliver watching Reus work on… something. Conall had no idea what it was. Reus looked up when he got close.
“Hi, Conall,” he greeted.
Enough time had gone by that Conall didn’t even register the fact that Reus had stark white hair, or that his skin was blue—deep cerulean blue.
“Hey. What are you two working on?” Conall asked.
“We’re reassembling the data core from my ship,” Reus answered, before visibly backtracking. “The old ship that’s on Earth, not the new one.”
Conall hoped that Reus wasn’t already taking apart the new interstellar ship they’d acquired, or any of the autotransports. They were brand new, and Conall’d already chosen his favorite: it was a sleek green vehicle that reminded him of a sports car from home.
He couldn’t help himself; even though he wanted to contribute to the household, he could still appreciate their new toys.
“I didn’t know you’d brought that with us,” Conall observed, gesturing to the data core.
Reus nodded. “Yeah, it was one of the things I made sure we took before we reburied the ship that last time.”
If Conall remembered correctly, the data core had been a pain in the ass to remove from the decrepit ship. They’d basically had to laser cut it out of the walls.
“I thought you’d be in here working on your holoprojectors?” Conall replied.
Reus had the opportunity to make another small fortune selling his advanced holographic technology. The Arathians didn’t have any like it on their planet, and even Conall could tell that it was impressive. Apparently, before his crash, Reus had filled his entire ship with the projectors, creating a virtual world inside his small vessel.
“Eventually I’ll work on them, but not until the data core is working properly,” Reus answered.
“What makes it so important?” Conall asked.
Reus stopped what he was doing to answer.
“This is the ship’s central memory core. It contains all of the data from my time spent in space: from the launch, up until I crashed—all of my scans, logs… everything that the interior and exterior sensors recorded is stored inside.”
“We’ll get to see what Earth was like eight-thousand years ago!” Oliver excitedly added from his side.
Conall’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Is that true?” he asked Reus, who nodded.
“I spent several days orbiting your world gathering data on everything I possibly could. The data is like a time-stamp of Earth. Ashlyn is dying for me to get the data core fixed so that she can begin studying everything.”
“I bet she is,” Conall agreed.
He couldn’t imagine what it would be like for his sister—an archaeologist—to actually see how people lived on Earth nearly eight-thousand years ago. “I’m surprised she’s not in here breathing down your neck.”
Reus chuckled. “She was, but your mother enlisted her help in some project outside. I don’t know what.”
Knowing Clare, she’d probably done it as a much-needed distraction.
“I think the landscapers are due to arrive with the initial truckloads of plants,” Conall added.
Reus shook his head good-naturedly. “I’m sure Clare will be enlisting all of our help before the day is out.”
“Maybe not, if she has a whole crew of landscapers to direct.”
Both men laughed.
“Tell him about LINK,” Oliver prodded Reus.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot: LINK is on the data core as well.”
Conall’s brows knit together in confusion. “I don’t understand. Karo already uploaded LINK into the house’s system. He’s everywhere now.”
And Conall meant everywhere. Karo had made sure that their house had the most advanced system, literally built into the walls. The artificial intelligence was in everything, including their ship and autotransports.
Reus nodded in agreement. “That’s true, but that’s Karo’s version of LINK. Remember, I have my own version that I continued to tweak while on my mission in space.”
“How’s yours different?” Conall asked.
“Well, for starters, mine’s a female.”
Conall’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “My sister is okay with that?”
Reus waved him off. “It’s not like that! My LINK is a different race, and physically the same age as your mother.” His expression turned a little sad, and he set his tools aside. “She was my friend for many years. I hope that when we crashed, her matrix managed to remain intact in here.”
He placed his hand on the data core reverently, and Conall was reminded that Reus had spent years alone on his spaceship before crashing on Earth. So what if he’d modified a super-intelligence to keep him company?
“I’ll leave you to it then,” Conall replied before turning to his son. “Oliver, don’t forget that we’re going to try out your new classroom after dinner.”
“I won’t Da’.”
Conall left the room, heading… he wasn’t sure where. His only tasks for the day had been to choose furniture (which Ozgur was handling), and to practice using Oliver’s new classroom with him. Conall shook his head in amazement at the technology that had been installed in Oliver’s workspace the day prior.
Because there were so few children on Arath, the kids didn’t go to a centralized location for school. Instead, the schools provided technology that allowed kids to link with the other students from any location around the planet. It was a much more simplified version of Reus’s holographic tech, but it ensured that no matter where the children lived, or what race they were, they each had the same access to education.
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