I Married An Alien (4 page)

I had to giggle at her analogy. Obviously people of the future still remembered some of the old phrases, and how to crack a joke. We all still spoke with the Australian accent I’d grown accustomed to, so I assumed the shining city we’d just left had been Sydney, since that was where I’d gone for the experiment. Had the spaceport been built on the site of Sir Kingsford Smith Airport? I wondered how the locals handled the noise from spaceships rather than airplanes. But perhaps they now had perfectly sound-proofed homes.

Turning my attention to my own tablet, I stared at its blank screen, feeling around the sides for an ‘on’ switch. I soon learnt that it was tuned to the owner’s mind waves, because my questing mind caused a whole manner of images and snippets of text to appear on the display in front of me.

Since I had been thinking about Earth’s history over the past three hundred years, the device presented me with a brief rundown.

Before I knew it I was so engrossed I forgot that I was on a spaceship headed to another planet.

The nuclear wars some of the other participants had glimpsed through the Prof’s rose colored goggles never happened. Something even worse had. Slowly but surely we had been killing the planet with our greenhouse gasses. The carbon trading introduced in the early years of the twenty-first century had failed miserably to stem global warming as business fat-cats continued to pollute and waste natural resources.

Year by year the Earth heated up, and island nations disappeared beneath the rising oceans, never to be seen again. People died in massive floors, cyclones, devastating snowstorms, and droughts that lasted decades.

But this didn’t stop the wealthier nations from continuing with their expensive space exploration projects. Telling the poorer nations still in existence that it was to search for a solution didn’t go down too well, and for many years wars raged between the Middle East and the West, particularly the US.

However their questing finally paid off. Scientists from my own nation, Australia, discovered the wormhole in 2200.

I had to stop and wait for my head to stop spinning. Wormhole! Now I
knew
I was in the future! Wormholes had been speculated about for years, but this was the first one to be discovered, only a few million kilometers from Earth. It was stable enough for exploratory robot probes to be sent through, and one was intercepted by the Terrons. They sent us instructions on how to meet them, and the first Humans travelled through the wormhole to the other side of the Galaxy.

Even though the Terron race was dying from major fertility issues, they had the technology to help Earth. They had also invented the infinity squared system, which enabled us to navigate through what we soon discovered was a whole network of wormholes. Without it, we would have quickly become lost in the tangled web of conduits that ran through the universe.

The Terrons also possessed fuel that wouldn’t pollute the atmosphere, found in three-metre tall plants that had once been considered weeds on their planet. Once the Earthlings discovered that oil could be refined from the stems and leaves of these large sunflower like plants, it could be used safely as fuel on Earth, so they encouraged the Terrons to begin farming them, since they refused to grow on Earth, our soil and atmosphere not compatible, no matter how much our scientists tried to recreate its unique properties.

But so far the only beings benefiting from this chance intergalactic meeting were the Earthlings, until the day a half-caste child was born of the two races, the first child planet Terron claimed to have seen in a decade. Unfortunately the mother died in childbirth, something that had not been heard of on Earth for hundreds of years. They soon discovered her death had occurred because the fetus had grown too quickly, and then born too suddenly and violently.

The child emerged healthy and hale, and the the Terrons realized that their race need not die out after all. They requested a deal with Earth that they explore the matter further. Surely there must be a way for babies to be born without the mother having to die.

But by then the news was already out. No woman was prepared to take the risk.

The Terrons threatened to halt all oil shipments to Earth. Earth’s entire infrastructures would collapse within weeks, since the planet no longer had an acceptable back up power source.

Earth had been backed into a corner.

So the Treaty of 2212 was drawn up. All women of child-bearing age had to take a tour of duty to Terron. It sent fear into the hearts of them all, since it meant that the only way they could ever bear a half-caste child was to undergo a C-Section that had to be done at precisely the right time. Too soon and the baby was too young to survive, too late and the mother would die.

It was a precarious situation, since many lives were lost, and so few Earth women were actually compatible with Terron men. It heightened tensions between the two planets that would probably take years to overcome.

“
Please fasten your seatbelts,” the computer broke into my perusal. “We are about to exit infinity squared and enter the orbit of Terron’s atmosphere.”

Since I would not be able to hold onto the tablet while we shuddered our way out of infinity, I stuck it behind my back and braced myself for our arrival.

As I was forced back into my seat, it dawned on me that Anita and her classmates were part of the next consignment of brood mares, and the incredible hunks at the other end of the passenger deck were Terrron men.

Chapter
Three

As he followed Logan into the restaurant, Jordan chafed from the restrictive Earth clothing his friend had packed in his suitcase. Logan, of course, strode ahead of him in his comfortable flowing Terron robes, while Jordan’s pants pinched him in places he dared not mention in polite company, As for the shirt, it stretched so taut across his chest, he feared a wrong move would tear the buttons from their moorings and send them flying in all directions like deadly bullets.

It wasn’t until he tried to sit down at the table they had been shown by their Aged waiter that Jordan realized just how tight and uncomfortable the pants were going to be. They gripped his thighs like a vice and bit into his most vulnerable anatomy.

He almost wished he’d worn the wedding pants. At least they were made from Terron fibre, and stretched as far as one wanted them to stretch. But it was forbidden to don that outfit until it was needed - or as Jordan suspected, would
never
be needed.

They had only been in the city for two days, and Jordan had actually begun to relax and enjoy himself. They had met up with some old acquaintances, several of whom would be joining them for dinner. One had said he would bring his Earth mate, making Jordan realize that they hadn’t dropped off the face of the planet after all. It would be interesting to see how they interacted, because the few Earth women Jordan had glimpsed since his arrival hadn’t looked the slightest bit impressed about being here. And not one had stirred his senses or his body, indicating that she was meant for him.

Our tour of duty only lasted three days, the bare minimum required from our Earth authorities. In that time I got to see some incredible sights and experience the most amazing technology, making me wish I had more time to examine everything. It all felt so rushed, like the 'See Europe in Ten Days' type holidays from in my own time.

We took a sight-seeing tour on a hover bus. I soon learned that roads were no longer required. The bus was air-conditioned because the outdoor temperature was forty degrees Celsius in the shade. The huge orange sun made everything look like I was still squinting through the Prof’s sunnies. Even though I had a funky pair of my own to wear, everything still looked brighter than it did on Earth. Every person I saw had a flushed appearance, making them look excited rather than drained from the heat.

The countryside was incredibly beautiful; lush and green, with undulating hills interspaced with
Hytana
farms checker-boarding the red soil with yellow.

Then we took off to the coast, the hover bus speeding us there at more than five hundred kilometers per hour. It was like being on a plane that hugged the contours of the land.

The coast could only be described as a tropical paradise, with gorgeous palm trees heavily hung with mango-like fruits. It was obvious that this was where holiday makers of both races came for their well-earned breaks.

As we alternated between swimming in the cool surf and relaxing in the shade of the palm trees, we were encouraged to stay apart from the native population. The few Terron women I saw didn’t look like they were particularly enjoying themselves. Recalling what I’d read on my tablet, I could understand why. These poor females had become virtually extinct.

The children I spotted resembled Earth youngsters, except they were actually older than they looked. I commented on a cute little blonde girl who seemed to have difficulty walking and was informed that she was just a toddler, only recently discovering what legs were for, not the four-year-old I’d initially guessed. It seemed these mixed-blood youngsters had all inherited the Terron height.

During the trips on the bus I studied my tablet to gather more information. I wanted to learn as much as I could about this beautiful alien planet.

I soon realized why the Terrons were taller than Humans. The gravity here was actually less than Earth’s, but only by a fraction, so tiny I hadn’t even noticed. I couldn’t even test it, as I was inhabiting a completely different body of a new and unknown fitness level.

Even though my companions refused to look at the Terrons, I couldn’t help but sneak covert glances at the males. Having had so little to do with men during my sheltered life, their masculine beauty mesmerized me.

At the beach, they strode about in very little, their tanned skin accustomed to the glare of that huge bright sun. Their bodies were all lean, rippling with muscle, and their chiseled faces the epitome of an idealized Hollywood dream. And they were so tall, towering over their female companions, should they actually have one. But it seemed very few did. Those lucky enough to have an entire family looked more content than I’d ever seen anyone capable of being. It seemed they at least valued the forced matings my traveling companions were so vehemently against.

At one stage Miss Jackson distributed perfume bottles amongst us, saying it confused Terron men if we all smelt the same. From what I remember about scents, I would have thought everyone’s skin type would react differently to it, but they had obviously invented one so uniform, we did exude the same aroma, something akin to hibiscus flowers.

On our last evening on Terron we were scheduled to dine at our hotel’s restaurant. I had been sharing a room with Miss Redhead, whom I found out was actually called Emily-Sue. Seriously old-fashioned Americanized names appeared to have made a comeback.

I really seemed to have confounded her with my inability to remember how to style my hair and put on my make-up, but she took great pleasure in helping me get ready for our evening meal.

Once again I was wearing the gorgeous blue gown and satin slippers, my hair curled about my head, with several soft waves left to drape seductively over my shoulders. When I was sure no one was looking, I’d stopped to study this beauty in the mirror, enjoying the pleasure it gave me, because I simply didn’t know when all this would end.

It seemed strange this adventure had gone on as long as it had. I wondered if I was still slouched in that chair in the glass booth, while Professor Jackson fought to bring me back. Or perhaps I had slipped into some sort of coma, and was right now languishing in a hospital bed, surrounded by machines with tubes stuck into my body.

The thought should have worried me, but since there was nothing else I wanted to do with my life right now, I reveled in the whole experience. This was like a second life for me – the future stretched ahead, mine for the taking. My companions often frowned at me, no doubt wondering why I was the only one smiling and enjoying my exotic food and drink. All they could talk about was what they were going to do when they got back to Earth.

I supposed I would end up back in my drafty old mountain house when all this over, but I tried not to think about it. For the first time in my life I was really enjoying myself. Even getting all dolled up was fun, particularly when the results beamed back at me in such a stunning way.

Emily-Sue was about to usher us both out of our suite, when she grabbed the little perfume bottle from a side table. “Better have another spray of this. I don’t think we had a dose of it since breakfast this morning.” She pressed the plunger in my direction. I waved my hand in front of my face as the side of my neck was doused in hibiscus scent.

Still fanning myself, I followed her out the door, where we were met by several of the other girls. Miss Jackson was bearing down on us, knocking on various doors as she went. “Come along. Come along,” she called out like am old fashioned school ma’am.

Once we were all assembled, Miss Jackson led the way to the elevator, which sped us up to our destination; the rooftop restaurant, where it was claimed we’d be able to see for hundreds of kilometers.

Jordan enjoyed his entrée and the conversation with his old friends. He hadn’t realizing just how isolated he and Logan had become during the past few years. He had kept himself up to date with news reports on the vidcom, but as the evening progressed, he realized they simply didn’t compare with living Terron contact. It was good to catch up with the latest gossip. Seeing how happy his dining companions were should have filled him with jealousy, but he only felt relief that they at least had made sure their race wouldn’t die out… well, not within the next hundred years or so.