Page 4 of Breedable Boys from Outer Space
He nodded. “I don’t like it. Don’t ask, don’t tell isn’t that long ago, and the rhetoric against gays has been ramping up again. Being singled out like this, with no explanation, is worrying. I just want to do my job, and who I stick my dick in shouldn’t matter as long as the other person wants it there.”
“Think it’s political?”
“Hope not.”
“Hope the colonel was right,” I replied, glancing out the window. “About this being a voluntary thing.”
“Sure doesn’t feel voluntary.”
“Yeah…”
We pulled into an underground garage for some unknown building about an hour later and were led to an auditorium—where easily a thousand men already waited, with at least as many seats still open.
“Damn,” a Marine who’d been on our bus said.
I couldn’t have agreed more.
We made our way down and found empty seats while more people poured in behind us.
Finally, the doors shut, men called to each other that the room was secure, and a general strode onto the stage.
“Good afternoon gentlemen,” the general started. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice.”
“Not like we had any choice,” Edwards grumbled softly from beside me.
A general sound of discontent made it clear that many shared his opinion.
The general cleared his throat. “I’m sure you all have questions, and you’re about to get answers. But let me state this now. You are all under orders to not discuss what you learn here today, even with your superiors. This information is classified, and dissemination will result in incarceration. Is that understood?”
A chorus of ‘Yes, sir,’ from around the auditorium.
He nodded. “Good. Let’s begin.”
His gaze swept the audience. “Gentlemen. Extraterrestrials are real, they are here, and they need you to breed them.”
Chapter 3
Amoment of stunned silence filled the auditorium, then a lone voice from the back.
“Is this some sort of twisted joke, General?”
“No joke, soldier,” he replied, as matter-of-factly as he’d delivered the earlier declaration. “Not only is it not a joke, this is a matter of national security.”
A screen slid down behind the general, and a projector lit it up, though there was no information displayed.
The general clasped his hands behind his back and resumed speaking. “Approximately seven months ago, officials in the government were contacted by an interstellar source. At first, it was believed to be some sort of elaborate prank, but it was quickly confirmed. We had been contacted by beings outside our solar system, and they were declaring their intention to come here.”
A murmur rippled through the room. Then he cleared his throat and continued. “Given the high levels of xenophobia that still exist on this planet, attempts were made to dissuade them from coming. Frankly, humanity is not ready to admit to extraterrestrial intelligence. However, the situation is critical for these off-worlders, and they feel that we’re their only chance.”
“How are we their only chance if they’re capable of interstellar travel, while we’re still taking potshots at asteroids?” somebody shouted.
“Because these off-worlders are mostly human,” the general answered. “And their scientists have determined that their best chance of survival requires unaltered human DNA.”
A slide with a timeline appeared on the screen, and the general turned to consult it before turning back to us.
“According to the history that we have been given, there was a mass abduction of humans approximately seven thousand years ago. Several thousand were taken to a nearby planetary system for observation and study. At first, they weren’t aware that they were no longer on Earth. Simulated environments gave those earliest humans the impression that everything was as they’d always known. However, over the course of many generations, they slowly began to interact with the extraterrestrials who had taken them. And by five thousand years ago they had an integrated society with both the human and extraterrestrial populations flourishing and mingling.”
He paused. “Then, according to the off-worlders, around three thousand years ago a disease swept their planet. Most of the native extraterrestrials perished, with only a handful surviving—all with some degree of human heritage. But they quickly died out and the hybrid humans became the dominant species.
