Page 15 of Whoops-A-Mate From Outer Space
I blinked, having forgotten that there were others in the room as a chorus of ‘no’s sounded.
“Go ahead,” Major Klein responded. “Nobody better to explain everything.”
Eashai nodded. “Let us… what is the phrase?” he mused. “Oh, yes. Let us take a walk.”
“Sure,” I replied as he led me out of the room.
We walked down a different hall than the one Floyd had shown me, then out a side door that led to a grassy area. In the distance, a handful of soldiers ran in formation.
“What exactly were you told, Doctor?” Eashai asked.
I chuckled. “Please, call me Gene. And… to be honest, I know almost nothing. The general and Floyd came to my university with some anatomy scans, and a bit about…” I paused. “I guess… your species… altered their own DNA to be male-only. That was all they would tell me at the time. That was two days ago, and I was flown in this morning.”
“That is all?” he asked as he took a seat at a round metal picnic table.
I sat across from him and noticed how the sunlight danced across his skin and highlighted undertones of more blue and pink.
“Gene?”
“Oh,” I chuckled. “Sorry. Yes. They did say some things that made me think that somebody who specializes in genetic migration might be a better match, but they seemed worried about women or people with more connections to women.”
He let out a long sigh. “I understand, probably better than most, the need for secrecy. But we will have to determine a strategy so that those who come here know what to expect. It is far more dangerous for people to be unaware.”
I propped my elbows on the table, still slightly shocked that I was talking to a man so clearly not from Earth. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
He laughed. “It is no small irony that the beginning you speak of is here, on Earth.”
One of my eyebrows went up. “Explain.”
“My home world is called Lyll,” he said with a soft smile. “We call ourselves Lalyllte, which would translate to ‘the others of Lyll.’”
“The others?”
He nodded. “We… are not native to Lyll, not in the way humans think of native species anyway. There was a race before us, the Lalylltiar, or ‘the people of Lyll.’”
He paused. “They were already a spacefaring species when human civilization was in its infancy. They saw those early humans—millennia before the pyramids were built—and wanted to study the emerging society. However, they were not suited tolife on Earth. Lyll has a thick cloud layer in its atmosphere, and the surface receives far less ultraviolet light than here. So they selected small groups and relocated several thousand humans to Lyll to live in simulated environments.”
I frowned, and Eashai appeared uncomfortable.
“Your displeasure is understandable,” he said. “We do not condone the actions of those Lalylltiar. However, had that decision not been made, the Lalyllte would not exist.”
“You interbred…” I stated as the pieces started to fall into place.
He nodded. “That is correct. Inevitable accidents and lapses in procedure led to interactions. And…” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Lalylltiar mating practices were quite intense, and humans are exceedingly compatible.”
“What do you mean by intense?”
His cheeks darkened slightly, and his gaze made me wonder if he was remembering something. He shook his head and smiled. “Lalylltiar pheromones were potent, and they were also highly attuned to human pheromones. Mutual sexual attraction causes each partner to react to the other in a way that leads to immediate and lifelong mating.”
“Immediate?”
He nodded. “Immediate. It is called the mating rush. Desire so intense that most engage in… pre-intercourse activities?”
“Foreplay?” I asked.
He considered the word for a second. “Yes, foreplay. Couples engage in foreplay within minutes of meeting, and usually have intercourse before a few of your hours have passed.”
“Hours? And you mate for life?”
