Page 2 of Her Alien Savior
My guide stared at me, dazed for a moment, as if he was confused by it as much as I was, before he said, “Join me in the briefing room, Miss Spearit. My name is Joel, and I’ll be your placement adviser for the time being.” He seemed so thrilled to be stuck with me, the sarcasm was thick in my mind, but it wouldn’t damper my mood.
“What does this mean?” I asked excitedly.
“It means there is an exchange opportunity posted and your data fits the request, so you’ll be briefed. If you accept, then there is yet another approval process by the hosts to confirm your placement.”
Joel was all of a sudden acting much sweeter towards me, and I’d take it. He led me to a conference room down the hall, behind the employee-only sliding doors that whooshed as I passed. The ground glowed yellow, then green—possibly making sure I was authorized to be there. I glanced around at all the pictures on the walls of other humans with their exchange hosts, some smiling and some not. There were a few exchanges not well-suited to humans, and those were flagged after people returned with their reports.
We were human advocates; not only did we learn, but we also helped bring back intel for Earth. It was a win-win.
I stared at one photo on the revolving screen display in particular. Which species was that? I mean sure I took a bunch of preparation courses for the exchange program, but though they provided different training for terrain survival, and trill culture from Trillume, they kept most information on a need-to-know basis. And if you weren’t assigned to a species you weren’t need to know. I read up on different species, and their uniforms made me think of the ones that were known as the alien police force.
“Those are the necia, a warrior species in alliance with the Trillume. They’ve been flagged as a bit too rough of an exchange for those on their first voyage. Only warriors are usually recruited—humans with talent in warfare, weaponry, and with exceptional strength. The necia make up most of the Trillume warrior fleets sent out to keep the peace between species in their system.”
I cringed at that explanation.Theirsystem, as if the Trillume owned all planets in this galaxy and the next several surrounding. I mean, they weren’t completely wrong, it wasn’t like anyone could stop them from invading any single planet if they decided to be dicks about it. Luckily for us, they seemed to be very diplomatic about everything, allowing humans to continue to manage our own planet with little interference.
“Don’t worry, they don’t assign females to their battle fleets, even if most of their missions are pretty boring considering no one wants to mess with the Trillume Galactic Law.” He mistook my recoil at his explanation of the galaxy as not wishing to be assigned to the necia warriors. I’d never seen an actual necia warrior, or even a photo until now, but I’d read up on them, at least what they allowed us to know about them.
Suddenly, a stubbornness came over me that I was all too accustomed to, but Joel would probably baulk at. So what if I didn’t have muscles like those necia warriors? The whole point of the exchange was to train and learn. I bet I’d be just as good of a warrior as any other human sent there.
“I checked ‘all’ on my application, so maybe I’ll meet the necia one day,” I replied casually. Necia were the warrior species that joined the alliance and became well-known as the enforcers of the galactic law. I knew that much, but I could see why their pictures weren’t plastered everywhere like the trill were, and I smiled at how formidable they looked. They could strike fear into any human with spikes like that. Necia warriors were living weapons, and according to human laws, so was I.
“The females are quite aggressive… and territorial over their males. It’s actually not uncommon for the necia females to be stronger. It’s why mostly male humans are sent and not females… due to the likelihood of being killed in a duel for dominance. Their culture has, uh, tribal laws that the Trillume don’t interfere with.” Joel cleared his throat, and the room grew dark to highlight the display of a planet labeled AsunGor.
“It’s beautiful.” I gazed at the gaseous planet filled with bright colors. Where our oceans were blue and lands green and brown, theirs were a deep purple, yellow, and orange. Swirls of red clouds painted the atmosphere. Anything outside of Earth was other and strangely captivating.
“ASunGor,” he said with appreciation then quickly added, “but that was for a different assignment.”
A new image appeared of a planet I was a bit more familiar with considering all the hype about the H.E.T. across all recruitment centers. Trillume.
It was massive compared to the size of Earth, making our sun’s size seem normal at 109 times wider than Earth. It was no wonder Trillume was considered home to more species than the trill, becoming home to aliens that had lost their own planets, and making it the base of galactic law within any known star system, lumping Earth’s galaxy into the fold of the Trillume Star System, T.S.S.
I stared in awe for a moment until the planet zoomed in and I got an overhead view of the main city, putting our own sci-fi movies to shame. There were quadrants creating habitats agreeable to many different species surrounding the city in domes that were created with forcefield nano nets that controlled every aspect of the environment without obstructing the view of the green sky.
Was I dreaming? Was I going to be given an assignment on Trillume?
“I’m only showing you this because something in your file was flagged, but I wouldn’t get your hopes too high on this one. I’ve had plenty of flagged applicants be rejected once they’ve accepted the host.”
“I’m confused, I selected ‘all’ under the training exchange. They should be expecting any human they choose to require training on whatever job they are offering…”
Joel sighed like this wasn’t the first time he’d had to explain this. That didn’t give me a bunch of warm fuzzies about my chances.
But this was Trillume we were talking about! No matter what my assignment was, it was the hub of many species, and on my off time I could explore everything. There was even a sexy, alien blue district palace if humans wanted to have some fun with no strings attached. I could only imagine the kind of kinks people discovered there.
Those necia alien warriors came to mind, and, though I wasn’t a prude by any means, I wasn’t really one to visit a sex palace either. Did the warriors even visit those kinds of places? They had to, right? They must get lonely after a long assignment patrolling the galaxy for law breakers.
I shook my head of the thought. I wasn’t visiting an alien sex palace. I repeated that to myself, hoping that if I said it enough times, my curiosity wouldn’t get the better of me. But all those hard muscles… the necia males didn’t even wear shirts!
Joel cleared his throat to regain my attention. I smiled lamely, as if he couldn’t see the blush on my face signaling exactly where my mind went.
“There is a scientist researching reproductive studies on various species that are on a population decline, and they have requested a human to assist their research biologically, but also intelligently. They will train on research basics, handling their technology, and evaluating results.”
“Sounds important,” I said, intrigued by the idea of helping another species. But biologically speaking, I’d be an awful specimen for child-rearing of humans. I couldn’t have children, but damn if I wasn’t going to help other aliens have theirs. Something deep inside of me ached, and I felt my eyes get scratchy. I quickly dismissed the thoughts of having a family and tried to refocus on distracting myself.
Choking back my emotion, I knew I had to get this assignment.
“You’ve been part of the other human’s dismissals, right? Let’s be real, Joel. What do you know?”
He squinted at me like I’d grown another head before he rubbed his temples. “I couldn’t care less one way or the other if you get this placement, but I’ll tell you what I know. It’s become a bit of a running joke around the recruitment centers that a human gets flagged once a day for this job and not a single one gets through the final approval.
