On the way there, she passed stores that were already being stripped; electronic stores and shoe stores being looted. She shook her head in disgust, wondering how people could even think about things like big-screen TVs when we were facing an alien invasion. By the time they made it to the lake, Lottie was asleep in the passenger seat. It was dark with only a few lights glowing on the rural street, deep in the forest around the small lake.
When she’d called from the road to rent the cabin, no one had answered. After a dozen attempts, she’d given up trying. She made it to the cabin with her gas tank nearly on empty and having to pee like crazy, but at least her wits were still about her. She parked the car in front of the dark cabin, turned on her cell phone’s flashlight, and walked up the rickety stairs to the front porch.
Bouncing like a fidgety preschooler, she tried the doorknob and front windows. All locked. But when she walked around the back, she found an unlocked window. She pushed it open and removed the screen. Holding her bladder, she climbed inside. Once inside the small three-room cabin, she hurried to the front door and unlocked it, turning the lights on as she went. When she opened the door, she found Lottie standing on the other side with the duffel bag in her hands.
Lottie walked through the door, blurry-eyed and frowning. Freda suggested Lottie sit down on the couch and see if there was anything on the television while Freda used the bathroom.
When she was done, she checked the plumbing to make sure water was coming through the tap. When the water sputtered out clean, she let out a long, grateful sigh and washed her hands. In the living room, she grabbed the duffle bag off the floor, went into the kitchen and began unpacking her supplies: a small first-aid kit, cans of food and non-perishables from her pantry, a bag of rice, a carton of oatmeal, and a jar of coconut oil. She had a large bag of beef jerky from the last time she'd gone to the gourmet grocery store and a pound of ground coffee. She looked around the cabin and found the rudimentary provisions the park had supplied. Coffee filters, salt and pepper shakers, plates, a toaster. She looked in the freezer and found ice already made and a box of baking soda in the fridge.
“Did you find anything good on TV?” Freda asked her sister, turning into the living room.
“Only emergency broadcasts about the international discussions.”
“How many cities were lost?” Freda asked.
“So far, the reports are New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Beijing. It’s estimated there are half a billion dead.”
Freda sank down in the arm chair across the room from Lottie, the severity of the attack finally sinking in. She had switched into emergency mode the moment she'd heard the hologram in the sky, but it wasn't until this very moment that she'd had a chance to reflect on the atrocities. A tear slid from her cheek and she wiped it away, getting to her feet.
“How about rice and beef jerky for dinner?” she asked her sister. “I even have a can of corn.”
“That sounds great,” Lottie said weakly.
Freda went to the kitchen and began to prepare the rice in one of the pots provided by the park. She set it on the stove and lingered in the kitchen, not wanting to let her sister see her cry. She had to be the strong one. She couldn't let the death toll tear her apart. She knew that her parents were in New York City today, having planned their weekend getaway while Lottie visited Boston. She had tried to call them several dozen times on the road to the cabin, but neither of them had answered their phones. There was an obvious reason for that. And Freda didn't want to let herself think it, let alone believe it. But there was no way around it, her parents were probably dead. And she would have to bring it up with her sister eventually.
Chapter 4
When Freda woke the next morning to make her coffee, she turned on the television and listened to the emergency broadcasts. There had been lights in the sky the night before making sleep hard to come by. To her utter shock, the TV announcer informed the public that another species of aliens had countered the cyborgs and driven them from the solar system.
“This new species of aliens are called Draxos. They say that they come in peace and only wish to protect us from the cyborgs. All indications point to their honesty, but we at the White House are taking every precaution in this matter. It seems that the cyborg threat has been neutralized. We will keep you up-to-date on the diplomatic talks with the Draxos. We urge you all to go back to your normal lives and routines. As much as we can, as we mourn the many who were lost.”
“What happened?” Lottie said, walking out of her bedroom with a blanket around her shoulders.
“Another species of alien has driven the cyborgs from our solar system.” Freda informed her.
“That's good news, right?”
“I don't know. It could be a trick. Maybe they're working together,” Freda mused.
“Maybe they really are here to save us,” Lottie said, flopping down on the couch.
That would be better, Freda thought. She went to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of black coffee and took a long sip, savoring the rush of caffeine to her brain. It would help her think in this chaotic situation. Alien saviors or not, she still had to keep her sister safe. The White House was urging everyone to return to their normal routines, but Freda intended to stay at the cabin until she had a better sense of what these Draxos aliens wanted from humanity.
She brought Lottie a cup of coffee and they watched the news for most of the morning. Several hours later, Freda called the park again and was able to make reservations in the cabin where they were staying. At least things had settled down a little bit and she could pay for the time they stayed there. As much as she wanted to get back to her dissertation, protecting Lottie was her first priority.
After watching newsfeeds of talking heads discussing the implications of extraterrestrial life in the galaxy, Freda decided to drive into town to the grocery store. Having fresh food would go a long way toward making their stay at the cabin more comfortable. She left Lottie with strict instructions to stay inside and started down the road to town. When she got to the store, she found it was free of looters and still running like a normal business. She bought her supplies quickly and headed back home. With a fully stocked kitchen and pantry and a weeklong reservation at the cabin, Freda was feel slightly less agitated when she carried the bags into the cabin. Before she could set the bags down in the kitchen, Lottie greeted her at the door.
“What is it?” Freda asked, seeing the excitement in Lottie’s face.
“The dragons say that the Draxos found recessive dragon genes in our gene pool,” Lottie said.
“Dragon genes?” Freda said, passing her and moving into the kitchen.
“There was a big update on the identity of the Draxos while you were gone.” Lottie said. “Apparently, they are dragon shifters who are seven feet tall, extremely good looking from the pictures that I saw, and are in a desperate need of females.”
“Uh hu,” Freda said, unpacking the bags into the refrigerator. “Why do they need females?”
“The cyborgs unleashed a virus on the Draxos that wiped out fifty percent of their females five hundred years ago and caused them to have less and less female births each year. Now fewer than five percent of their population is female.”
“That's sad,” Freda said sarcastically. “They’ll probably go extinct soon.”
“They're protecting our planet from the cyborgs,” Lottie spat out.
“You believe that?” Freda asked.
“Everyone believes it,” Lottie said. “Even the president. He gave an address, not fifteen minutes ago, informing us about the dragons.”
“So, what do the dragons intend to do now?” Freda asked, folding up the paper bags and storing them in a drawer.
“The Draxos think humans might somehow be compatible with them,” Lottie said.
“Compatible? That's ridiculous,” Freda said before thinking.
It was possible that they could somehow be genetically compatible and pr
oduce viable young. But she couldn't imagine how. The scientific history of the human race was fairly well understood and there was no evidence of any genetic link to an alien dragon species anywhere that she had ever heard of.
“Wouldn't it be weird if we could have dragon babies?” Lottie said.
“I guess weird is the best way to describe that idea,” Freda said.
At least Lottie was feeling better and that did Freda's heart good. It was hard for her to see her sister so distressed. These new dragon shifters were a good distraction. After the destruction of the most populated cities on the planet, she knew eventually she would have to remind Lottie that their parents were probably gone.
She couldn't bring herself to do it yet though. She knew her sister was sensitive and it would crush her. Freda suspected Lottie must know at the back of her mind, but Lottie hadn't said or asked anything about it. So, Freda hadn't brought it up. It was like a pact of silence between them. Neither one of them wanted to say the words first, but eventually it would have to come out and the floodgates of sorrow and other bitter emotions would be opened.
Freda made fried chicken for dinner with baked potatoes and they had a feast on the patio overlooking the lake. For the next week, Freda and Lottie spent most of their time cooking and eating, watching emergency broadcasts of commentary on the Draxos, or fishing in the cool waters of the lake.
The latest announcement from the alien diplomacy committee was that the Draxos were interested in implementing a genetic breeding program with the females of Earth who had the rare recessive dragonoid gene. It all sounded a little sketchy and weird to Freda. She had no interest in adding her genetic material to the database of candidates for their breeding program. Even if the Draxos were offering compensation in the form of technology, worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the human race. The governments of the world had already offered to establish a bride fund to give one million dollars to any girl who was found to be a match to the Draxos.
What she’d come to understand was that the Draxos had one fated mate, and it could only be determined if the male was in battle and went into a hyper aggressive form they called a thrall. When Freda heard about that, she just shook her head and frowned. This whole alien invasion was taking her precious time away from her dissertation. All she wanted was to get back home.
Chapter 5
After recruiting his sister Joon, a genetic scientist, to research the connection between humans and Draxos, Sysko was rewarded with groundbreaking information. His sister had found an ancient text that outlined how the Draxos gods had entered Earth’s galaxy millennia ago and had mated with the native humans of that era.
Through several genetic manipulations, they’d created a hybrid species that was indistinguishable from humans and remained within the human gene pool. These were the humans with the recessive Draxos gene. But the tale went further, outlining the story of how the Draxos had been able to transform the hybrid humans into full-fledged dragons, by activating the recessive gene. It was only the fated mate of a dragon who could be transformed, by using the semen of the enthralled male to activate the recessive genes of a hybrid female.
His sister had even found a ritual that would bring the human into total transformation, culminating in the mating bite that would complete the transition. Once the transition was complete, the human would be like any other Draxos, capable of reproducing full-blooded dragons. He couldn't believe what luck he'd had. His sister had just gone through a mating tournament of her own and had been granted five mates. Had he known she was so busy, he would not have given her the mission, but she obviously was the right person for the job.
Now he had the information he needed to conduct his breeding program. The possibility of success was growing with each passing day. His sister's computer simulations, back on their home moon Arcadia, showed very positive results that corroborated with the results his science officer was achieving onboard the Black Phantom.
Now, they just had to get enough females into the program and convince them that they would be well-compensated. It would still require each hybrid female, who was identified, to be taken back to Draxos for the tournament. Only then could fated mates be found. The computerized simulation suggested that a thrall state could be achieved with a hybrid present, the pheromones still carried traces of the recessive-dragonoid genes. However, they had yet to find a volunteer.
His fighters had been successful in ridding the planet of most of the cyborgs, but the readouts suggested that there were still several more lurking in wait. If the cyborgs were able to begin assimilation or release a virus on the humans, all would be lost. Every last cyborg had to be eliminated from the Earth to ensure the safety of the population and the survival of both species.
Sysko’s sister Joon was convinced that the human DNA could be the key to a cure for the plague that had crippled their own race. Bringing mature females into the gene pool would both ensure their immediate strength, and increase the birthrates quickly. So many males went without mates. Many males fulfilled themselves in the pleasure houses throughout the galaxy. Some even settled down with non-Draxos females, even though young would never result from the mating. Still, others had turned to fellow males for love. But most refused to give up the fight, each time a new maiden entered the tournament.
Sysko himself had not competed in the tournament in twenty cycles. The times he had competed had been a great disappointment. He'd been left wounded and scarred in the desperate attempt to win a bride. But he had never thralled. Now, he’d found a planet full of compatible females. Even with the small fraction of a percentage of those with the necessary recessive genes, it was still a vast quantity more than the available females in the Draxos race.
It was now a matter of identifying them and getting them to agree to enter the tournament. The Draxos had started their offer at one million dollars, but there had been very few entrants into the DNA database. The one female they’d found with the dragonoid gene was beyond childbearing age.
He understood their reluctance. Their planet had just lost almost a billion of its race, and they were understandably shaken. Most were probably confused about the difference between the cyborgs and the Draxos. It would take time to build a relationship with these people and to bring them reassurance that the Draxos meant them no harm. Without even one positive outcome to show as an example, he would get very little buy-in from the human race.
All he needed was one successful transformation. One happy bride and family. This would require patience. In the meantime, Sysko was determined to cut down each and every last cyborg on Earth. It took a great deal of tracking to find their signals among the signals admitted from the planet, but he finally found one more. Out of sheer agitation at the stress of not finding brides, he decided to go on the last scouting mission himself.
Sysko gathered his away team and started to his private military speeder in the hangar. His science and tactical officers followed him into the ship. They hurried out of the hangar and exited the hatch into space. Sysko steered his speeder through space, past the remains of the Archon mothership.
He knew there were more Archon ships and more armadas across the galaxy. The one he had destroyed was only one of many. Of all of the surviving races in the Galactic Collective the Draxos were the strongest, but their strength was fading fast. Sysko angled his speeder through the atmosphere of Earth, following the signal of the last cyborg on Earth.
He flew over a large wilderness area and swooped over the signal and hovered above a small lake. Two human females emerged from inside a tiny structure on the shore and looked up at his speeder with shock in their eyes. This was not the best introduction for them, but it could not be helped. There was a dangerous cyborg in the vicinity and it had to be destroyed.
Chapter 6
Freda could barely hear herself think over the sound of Lottie’s screams. She jumped from the couch in the cabin and hurried to look outside at what had caused her sister such panic. Freda gulped and he
r mouth hung open as her eyes widened at the sight of a spaceship hovering over the lake outside the cabin. Freda hurried out onto the patio to stare at the ship.
“It's the Draxos,” Lottie said, relaxing.
Lottie had become a super fan of the dragon shifters over the last week. She saw them as the saviors of the human race. Freda, on the other hand, was saving her judgment until a later date. She had kept her sister and herself safe in the cabin since the attack, but this was the first time they had been confronted with the reality of what they'd been watching on the news since the bombs were dropped.
“Come back inside,” Freda demanded.
“It's them,” she said. “They've come to make us their brides.”
“Don't be ridiculous, Lottie. Get back in the cabin right now,” Freda yelled over the sound of the hovering engine.
The craft landed in the parking lot outside of the cabin and six huge men emerged. They were dressed in skintight uniforms and had various, strange colors of skin. Most of them black and speckled like the night sky. One of them was red and the other was blue. They were definitely like the Draxos she'd seen on the evening news.
“What do you want from us,” Freda yelled as the aliens approached.
“Do not be alarmed,” the leader said, holding up his big hand. “I am Admiral Sysko D’fray of the Draxos Armada. We have come because we’ve found the signal of a cyborg ship in this area.”
“There's a cyborg here?” Lottie said, her teeth chattering as she clung to Freda's arm.
“We will protect you from the threat,” the leader said.
As skeptical as Freda felt about the entire dragon-shifter-alien-situation, she couldn't help but note how stunning the leader of the aliens was in his skintight uniform. The steely-blue color contrasted with his night-sky skin in the glow of the cabin porch light. She was not unfamiliar with human males, although she didn't get out to date much, but before she could stop herself, her mind concluded that the commander was the most handsome male she'd ever laid eyes on. As soon as she thought it, she grumbled at herself and told her inner romantic to quiet down.