Page 10 of All You Need is Alien Love
“And paramount to all of this,” Agent Catengi adds, “is keeping humanity unaware of our existence while all of this is going on.”
“Wow. No pressure, eh?” Mal says, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I don’t like any of this. We have too little in the way of concrete intel,” Roxy says, biting her thumb in frustration. “How many invaders are we looking at dealing with? Do we even have enough personnel to handle them? If they get enough feet on the ground here, we could be at a major disadvantage.”
River inhales sharply and raises his hand like he’s in class. “Okay, I know I’m kind of channeling Sigourney Weaver’s character in the timeless classic,Galaxy Quest, and just restating what’s been said, but how the hypernova hell are we going to stop sketchy aliens from landing on Earth and trying to take it over like this is some kind of plot fromIndependence Day?” He hesitates for a moment. “On a side note, I would like to add that I could look just as good as Sigourney in that tight jumpsuit. Even if I don’t have boobs.”
Roxy guffaws and my mom snorts.
The tension in the room goes down a notch.
I can’t hold back a grin. Even at a stressful time like this, River somehow manages to bring some levity to the situation with his geeky pop culture references.
Galactic gods, do I love him.
Agent Catengi even smiles, which is a slightly disturbing sight, particularly since the Yendrathi man rarely shows any expression. But he and River have lately started to become friends while bonding over their mutual love for all thingsStar Trek. River tells me Agent Catengi is basically a Vulcan with ahint of Betazoid mixed in thanks to his telepathic psy-enhanced parasitic symbiont, Zugo.
“I think this invasion attempt is more purposeful than that,” Catengi confides. “Layne Madison doesn’t have the support or resources for a full planetary invasion. I suspect he and his main accomplice have a more specific goal in mind.”
“Like what?” I ask, an unsettling feeling taking root in my gut.
“When I ferreted out the mole, I disrupted Adeline’s plan before she was entirely ready. Consequently, she was forced to leave behind a lot of her experimental data from the research she’d been surreptitiously conducting on members of the Alliance for many years.” Agent Catengi fixes me with a steady gaze. “I believe they are coming back to reclaim it and possibly much more.”
I clench my hands tightly in my lap while I hold back my tentacles that are churning with worry. “And we still don’t know exactly what she was doing with her experiments?”
Agent Catengi shakes his head. “I’m afraid not. The files she left behind are encrypted and we haven’t been able to crack them yet. But whatever purpose she had, my years of experience are telling me she wants to retrieve the results of her many years of work instead of starting over.”
“I agree. After hiding among us for so many years, she won’t let her hard work be lost. Not without a fight,” my mom says, a frosty look in her eyes.
I know she’s been berating herself for not realizing we had a traitor in our midst for so long. But she’s not to blame. None of us suspected Adeline, nor did anyone realize she was an Osairan in disguise, not even Roxy who’s an Osairan as well. Their chameleon-like abilities as a species make them incredibly dangerous if they go Dark Side.
My father strokes his chin with a frown. “So, in all likelihood, if they make it past our extraplanetary defenses, we’re looking at a smaller-scale targeted assault on both Alliance locations with the goal of taking control and gaining access to that data?”
“And, like I said earlier, probably any other classified information on our servers,” Mom growls, clenching her hand into a fist.
“Indeed. There’s a lot of valuable and highly sensitive material to be mined from the Alliance outpost here on Earth.”
River heaves a huge sigh of relief. “So I don’t need to grab a cigar and my best Will Smith Ray-Bans to fight a global battle against alien baddies a laIndependence Day?”
Agent Catengi’s mouth quirks into a faint smile again.
“Layne Madison has amassed a sizable group of supporters throughout the universe, but they are spread out and not nearly as organized or unified as he would need for a planet-wide assault. Plus, Earth is an Alliance-protected planet. Even the most war-mongering of species in the universe tend to steer clear of the Intergalactic Alliance. Because of all this, Layne Madison and Adeline don’t have the resources or numbers to conquer the entire planet. Few would. Humans procreate in far greater numbers than many other beings. Besides, the rest of the universe is all too well aware of your trigger-happy tendencies when it comes to things like nuclear weapons.” He shudders. “Even Layne Madison and his supporters wouldn’t want to run the risk of atomic retaliation.”
My mom scowls and crosses her arms with a huff. “No doubt they hope to take over control of the Alliance’s outposts here and then negotiate new trade deals with various human governments.”
Agent Catengi sighs. “That is their most probable strategy.”
“Which means their first step will be eradicating all Alliance personnel currently stationed on this planet,” Dad says, his mouth set in a grim line.
“Holy fuck nuggets,” River whispers.
I reach over and take his hand in mine, squeezing tight. “We won’t let that happen.”
“What about all the creepy ‘species purity’ rhetoric these assholes espouse?” River asks. “I don’t see how this invasion relates to that.”
“Good question,” Mal mutters. “It feels like we’re being played, and I don’t like it.”
“Could the ideological zealotry be just another smoke screen?” Roxy asks.
