I Married An Alien

  Chapter Sixteen

  The military spaceport was actually located near the army barracks where Derek had dismissed those two traitorous Terron troopers. The entire base was shielded from prying eyes – permanently. Obviously the Terrons had decided not to trust the Earthlings quite as implicitly as they had claimed.

  I was quite glad for that fact, as we stepped through the shield. What had previously looked like a large lagoon was actually a bustling port crammed with small, sleek atmospheric craft, larger drop ships and shuttles, and several freighters undergoing repairs.

  Soldiers in heavy-duty combat armor were standing by with their weapons at the ready, awaiting further orders. They probably all expected to be sent up to combat the threat that had suddenly descended upon the planet. I supposed because it had been Jordan's idea in the first place, and possibly also because the Chancellor thought us expendable, that we had been chosen to go instead. Why send fully trained troops who might be required for future, possibly bigger conflicts, when between us Jordan and I had enough reason to hate the Rembrants to embark on what now looked like a foolhardy mission? We were to fly a completely unarmed ship, relying on fire-power from the bowels of Terron half a galaxy away.

  Our small group; Derek, Jordan, Logan, Dana and myself, were all that stood in the way of a full-scale interplanetary war. It still boggled my brain how someone as diabolical as Ian Rembrandt had managed to gain so much power. He must have been a formidable businessman and tycoon, with his dirty fingers in many horrible, secret pies. Every time I recalled that evil face on the holographic monitor and my com-pad, I shuddered and felt sick.

  “Are you alright, Anita?” Jordan asked, giving my hand a comforting squeeze as we progressed through the complex.

  “Yes, I’ll be fine,” I managed. “I just hope the computer controlling your spindles have a really good aim.”

  He smiled at that. “They are very powerful devices, from a darker, more paranoid age when the war between the Galactic Order and the Etiran Empire threatened to include us. Consider yourself fortunate we decided to maintain rather than decommission them.”

  “Over here!” Derek motioned us over to a military shuttle much like the one Rembrandt’s men had tried to steal. Logan was already hurrying up the ramp as fast as his elderly legs allowed. He appeared quite spritely now that he had a purpose, and soon disappeared into the belly of the sleek, silver craft. Two soldiers standing off to one side saluted as we boarded, and wished us good luck on our life-or-death mission. I wondered if I detected sarcasm in their manner and tone, but then decided there was no point in worrying about it. If we didn't make it back, we certainly wouldn't have to concern ourselves with their opinions. And if we did, there would be two less evil men in the universe and a chance at peace between Earth and Terron. As it now stood Earth was risking annihilation if the Terrons decided to aim every spindle they owned onto my home planet.

  The craft was big enough to carry a whole company of shock troops. Normally it bristled with weapons, but all had been removed for our mission of ‘peaceful exchange’. It could travel both in a planet’s atmosphere and outer space. It was also equipped with the Infinity-Squared system for wormhole travel, and carried several months' worth of supplies. Our destination was the bridge, where there were enough seats for a crew of eight. Logan was already bustling about the consoles, powering up and making sure everything was running at peak efficiency. Derek took his place in the plush pilot’s chair, and beckoned Jordan over.

  “I’ll be right over there, Anita,” Jordan promised me. He gave me a kiss on the cheek, then joined Derek in the co-pilot’s seat beside him. Dana took another chair opposite Logan, at a console that also looked far too complicated for me. I took a chair in the middle, that wasn’t near any computer banks. I felt a bit like a fifth wheel. Everyone seemed to have a job except me.

  “All spindles are primed and ready, the coordinates programmed in,” called Logan. “We’re good to go.”

  “Right. Shields are up. Everyone buckle up for takeoff.” Derek began pushing buttons. I felt the deep hum of powerful thrusters starting. Doors and airlocks hissed closed. I felt around for my seat belt and pulled on my buckle.

  “Are you settled in, Anita?” Jordan called over his shoulder.

  “Yes!”

  The ship’s rumbling increased and I was pushed back into my chair. Through the wide row of windows in front I could see the military base drop away. We flew up through the fallout cloud from Rembrandt’s Hytana bomb, and then into the clear purple sky above. Slowly it darkened to black and stars began to appear.

  I began to feel myself rise from my seat, the belt the only thing keeping me in place as I watched in bemusement as my legs lifted of their own accord.

  “Brace yourselves - activating artificial gravity now!” called Derek.

  I flopped back into my seat with a gasp, suddenly realizing what had been happening and how it had been stopped. Damn, I thought. I really would have enjoyed a quick float around the cabin.

  Dana swiveled in her chair. “How are you going, Anita?”

  “Space flight is still taking some getting used to! This is only my second trip up!”

  She gave me a smile “I’ve only been into space a couple of times myself.”

  “Initiating Infinity Squared!” called Derek.

  This time I could see what was going on through the large front windows. I gaped as a large, swirling hole opened up right in front of us. Oh my God, I was staring right into the mouth of a giant wormhole! Strange colors and lights whirled around inside. “Holy sh-“

  We flew inside. There was a jolt that threw me back into my seat again. I caught a glimpse of more lights and colors; weird shades I couldn’t even begin to name. When I closed my eyes I felt like we weren’t moving at all, but in front of us the walls of that psychedelic tunnel shot past at incredible speed. I could feel my breakfast coming up for a second visit. I closed my eyes again.

  Ah, perfect, silent stillness.

  “Anita? Are you feeling okay?” Jordan called.

  “Fine, so long as I don’t look outside!”

  “Ah, yes – moving through the wormhole can be disconcerting. Didn’t you take a look out of a window on your trip here?”

  “No. I wasn’t near any windows. And besides, I was too busy giving myself a crash-course on my I-pad com-link thingy. How long is this going to take?”

  “Not long. We’re meeting about half-way between Terron and Earth.”

  I opened my eyes. I was okay so long as I didn’t look out the front. Dana left her seat at the medical console and came to sit by me. “You really didn’t know the spindles were weapons?” I asked her.

  She gave a wan smile. “I assure you I really didn’t know. I should have suspected they were used for something, and not just an architectural design feature.”

  "Deadly weapon disguised as an architectural design feature," I snorted. "I like that."

  Jordan appeared on my other side. He was also wearing a sheepish expression on his handsome face. He took one of my hands and squeezed it. “I have to admit I did know about them, because when Logan and I worked for the Administration, we were involved in a complete reconfiguration of the Spindle control systems. And because I thought too much like a Human, I convinced our chancellors to never reveal their existence to Earth’s government. It’s fortunate the Earthlings also assumed the spindles were just 'architectural design features' and never asked any questions.”

  “I thought you guys said you didn't keep secrets!” I gasped.

  “Just omissions. And precautions. The Humans were happy to assume we're completely peaceful. It really is the way we prefer to be, but it's better to be prepared in case situations like this crop up, don't you think?”

  “Jordan, we’re coming up on the rendezvous point!” called Derek from the pilot’s chair. “You’re needed on sensors!”

  “Right.” Jordan gave me another kiss on the cheek, and hurried across the cockpit to his
seat.

  “Spindles at full power and ready to fire,” called Logan.

  “Brace yourselves! Deactivating Infinity Squared – now!” shouted Derek.

  There was another jolt that threw me back in my seat, and finally I dared to look back out of the front windows. Silent, normal space dotted with stars greeted me. It was beautiful, and I was smack bang in the middle of it.

  “We’re about a thousand kilometers from the agreed site – just out of the spindle blast radius. Rembrandt hasn’t arrived yet." Scarcely had Derek spoken when another portal swirled open in front of us, and what looked like an entire battle fleet flew out; one large fighter surrounded by numerous smaller ones to protect it.

  “Looks like he brought friends,” Derek growled.

  “I should have known he wouldn’t play fair!” snarled Jordan.

  “Dear God, will the spindle get all of them?” I gasped.

  “Only one way to find out," he answered grimly. "Let’s get this over and done with. Derek?”

  “Uncloaking.” Derek’s hands flickered over the console. “We’re visible now, and our gun ports are open and empty, showing that we’re unarmed. We should be sufficiently non-threatening.”

  “Incoming transmission,” Jordan announced.

  “Keep your head,” Derek growled at Jordan. “We don’t want any of those trigger-happy idiots letting fly too early!”

  “Yes sir.” Jordan actually saluted.

  A small section of the window darkened, and the horribly familiar face of Ian Rembrandt appeared, looking supremely pleased with himself.

  “Just one piddly little ship?" he snorted. "I find that hard to believe. I know you people have cloaking technology. Reveal yourselves.”

  “It’s just us,” Derek assurred. “You have my word. We Terrons have trouble lying, you know that. And we have Anita DeBurgh here.”

  “Bring her forward,” Rembrandt barked.

  Jordan turned and beckoned me out of my seat. On shaky legs I rose to my feet. Up on screen there was a shuffling, and then another face appeared beside Ian’s; the brutish face of his son, Oliver. He gave a wide, nasty smile at the sight of me.

  “Hello cutie!” he purred, and licked his rubbery lips.

  I felt like throwing up all over again, and said nothing. I hoped the look in my eyes was sharp enough to kill. I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear.

  “I’m really looking forward to our wedding night. I’m sure we can make it just as memorable as our last union.” He licked his lips again and then he lifted his hands into view.

  He was holding a leather belt which he pulled tight with a snap.

  I could only see the back of Jordan's blonde head, but I could tell he wanted to punch a hole through the screen his anger was a palpable thing. My knees began to shake, but I managed to hold myself steady. Then Jordan turned his head and looked at Logan.

  Jordan had never loathed anyone more in his life than the odious pair on the screen before him. The hatred boiling in his veins was like a physical force. His people didn’t normally feel such strong antipathy towards anyone. Mated males were almost always content and relaxed and rarely picked fights, and the Aged ones were too old and tired to stir up trouble. But those two diabolic Humans! Jordan wanted to utterly destroy them!

  He wondered how they could possibly live with themselves, knowing what they had done to Anita and the Terrons at the main spaceport. Jordan just couldn’t comprehend their level of… evil.

  He hoped his signal to Logan had not been interpreted by the smirking pair on screen.

  Logan lifted a gnarled hand and pressed a button on the armory console in front of him; his all too important communication to the Spindle Computer Network.

  In Jordan’s mind’s eye it happened. He had never seen the spindles in action, but he could imagine them powering up, glowing brighter and brighter. Would people on the top floors of these buildings run from the sight of previously decorative artifacts preparing to fire? Or had everyone been evacuated in time?

  Spindles were located in every major city on Terron, so the whole planet was protected like a giant cactus. The spindles currently pointing in the right direction would now be at full power, throbbing angrily.

  Then they would fire, their energy beams merging above the planet’s atmosphere into one massive, devastating beam of power that contained all the heat and power of the planet’s white-hot core.

  Almost, but not quite, directly behind the Terron fighter a wormhole cycled open.

  “What nonsense is this-“ Ian Rembrandt had time to demand before a beam of highly concentrated light as bright as the sun lanced out of the portal and blasted right into the centre of Earth's battle fleet. The biggest ship at the centre, belonging to the Rembrandts, was outlined in a blue-white halo.

  The terrorists’ faces were briefly outlined on the Terron ship’s screen, their eyes wide with horror as they witnessed their own horrible, fiery death. Then the screen went blank – and ahead, the battleship exploded. Shrapnel blew out in all directions, destroying the closest fighters and scattering the smaller ones in all directions. Some chunks of debris flew towards the Terron ship, and Derek had to initiate evasive actions to avoid them.

  Jordan was flung back into his seat, but he didn’t care. He wept with relief that the Rembrandt threat was gone at last. When the last flaming chunks had spun off into space, he unbuckled his belt and stumbled over to Anita, where he dropped to his knees in front of her seat. He gathered her into his arms and held her close, whispering into her soft hair that it was over, it was all over.

  She clutched him back, succumbing to tears herself. They had done it! Their plan had worked!

  Jordan lifted his head from Anita’s shoulder. “Oh my love, we are free,” he croaked. “But I fear… I fear we may have looked too deeply into the abyss. In thinking like terrorists to defeat them… we may well have become them.” He shuddered at the thought.

  “Jordan,” Anita clasped his face in her trembling hands. “We did what we had to do. There was no other solution. I’m sure they would have killed me once I was back in their hands… and continued their vendetta against Terron.”

  Jordan shuddered again. The thought of her being abused and violated by those vicious Humans made him feel physically ill. There was only one place he wanted her to be for the rest of his life, safe and sound in his arms.

  "I love you Jordan," Anita whispered against his ear.

  Not entirely certain he had heard her correctly, he said; "What?"

  "I said I love you," she repeated in a slightly more audible tone.

  "I thought that was what you said, but wondered if my ears were deceiving me. It's so rare for a Human female to admit such emotion to her Terron partner so soon after their mating… I love you too, Anita Ruth. So very, very much."

  She tightened her hold of him. "Anita Ruth eh? I think I like that."

  "Time to go home kids," Logan announced. "And figure out what the hell we're going to do about Earth next. I mean, we might have blasted the Rembrandts into smithereens, but I wonder just how true their claim about no longer needing the plant oil is."

  "I guess we'll find out soon enough," Derek remarked. "But I suspect things are going to be vastly different from now on."

  Epilogue

  Derek had been right with his comment. Relations between Earth and Terron would be seriously strained for some time to come.

  The very next day the First Chancellor recalled all the farmers to the Citadel, inviting them to return to their previous positions. In the days that followed all Human personnel who weren't mated were sent back to Earth, where it was discovered that Rembrandt's scientists had in fact worked out how to synthesize the Haytana oil. But it was a long and labor intensive process, and because he had used so much of it to make his bombs, there was now a dire shortage of fuel on the planet, something the Terrons were in no hurry to help them rectify.

  And so the hundred year Treaty came to an end
. Earth was once again faced with major infrastructure failure, and Terron from population problems. But the Terron scientists, technicians and doctors were now back in place, ready once more to find a solution to the problem. And Earth had it's safe fuel alternative. They just had to work out how to make enough of it themselves before the planet fell into complete and utter anarchy.

  Before Jordan took up his role as Chief Systems Engineer he and I completed our honeymoon. We flew to his family home by the ocean south of the Citadel, where we decided we would continue to live and commute to work via hover every day.

  It was the most beautiful place imaginable, like a great Greek guesthouse, complete with sunken gardens and indoor swimming pools. One by one the neighbors returned, and the coastline one again was bursting with life.

  Even one of Jordan's two brothers found his way back home, and a wonderful family reunion took place, particularly since his brother had fathered two small children by a Earth woman I couldn't help liking on the spot. So far no one knew where the other brother was, or even if he was still alive.

  Suddenly there were so many people in my life, good kind people who treated me with respect, even reverence when they found we had been responsible for thwarting the threat to Terron by the Rembrandts.

  I also found a job that suited me. I decided to team up with Dana to devise a promotional campaign to encourage Earth woman to travel to Terron of their own accord now that the Treaty was null and void.

  It wasn't easy to break years of negative propaganda and prejudice. But due to the massive fuel shortages on Earth, other supplies began to dwindle, and poverty became a huge motivating force. Soon women were leaving Earth in droves, arriving at spaceports all over Terron.

  Our small team grew into an agency that specialized in finding these women employment while they waited for their mates. There was plenty of work on Terron, so they weren't confined to the hotel where I had first met Jordan. This made it easier for them to mingle with the Terrons and for them to find their partners.

  Even though both Jordan and I were kept busy with our respective new roles, we always found time for one another; to talk, relax and most of all make love so that the Terron race wouldn't die out.

  THE END

 

  Here is an excerpt from Book Two of the Treaty Series She Married A Time Traveler

  Professor Leon Jackson's time travel experiment appears to have been a dismal failure. After sending his last subject Ruth Clarke into a coma, he faces not only disgrace and dismissal from the faculty, but also a possible prison sentence. So he tries the experiment on himself. What else has he got to lose, even if it ends up killing him?

  But it doesn't kill him. It sends his mind three hundred years into the future, into the body of an alien soldier from Terron, left stranded on Earth when the fuel shortage struck. Weak and hungry from an unknown illness, he is helped by Sonia Turner and her father. Roger Turner is an ex-spaceship pilot, and offers to return Leon, now in the body of Brendon Demanteena, to his home planet, the only place he can safely recover.

  Sonia has always had a fascination with anything Terron, so she jumps at the opportunity of leaving anarchy ravaged Earth with her father and a fascinating man who appears to have lost his memory.

  After his lonely existence on Earth, has Leon finally been given a second chance at life and love? Will Sonia stand by him when she finds out who he really is? And will the Terrons let him stay?

  Find out in this sexy romp through space and time, the second book in the Treaty Series.