Page 29 of Whoops-A-Mate From Outer Space
Hell, I was only taking my wallet with my ID and passport out of habit.
“Where’s Eashai?” I asked as the driver got the cart going.
“Already there,” the man stated. “Took him and his samples about half an hour ago.”
“Oh.”
He turned onto a road that led deeper into the base. We passed a guard shack, with the man inside merely waving us through.
We drove through a small commercial district being renovated, then past rows of townhouses covered with tarps as windows and siding were replaced.
The scale of it all hit me. They were planning to house people on the base—families with hybrid children. All of them hidden away…
For their own safety.
Xenophobia… homophobia… Eashai’s people knew what they were facing and had come anyway.
They didn’t have time to wait any longer, and were forced to make an impossible choice: watch their species die out, or partner with a world that wasn’t ready.
What could I add to help when they’d already decided that it was worth the risk?
I shook my head. They were focused on their survival. I was focused on giving the kids an accepting atmosphere as they grew up.
The driver turned down a tree-lined road between two groups of townhouses, leaving the construction din behind. A minute later, all I could hear was the whine of the cart’s electric motor.
“Almost there,” the driver stated when he saw me looking around. “It’s just past that curve.”
I nodded and focused on the road. He guided us around the bend, and a large metal building came into view.
We stopped outside a door.
“And we’re here,” he said. There was a beat of silence, then, “Congrats.”
“Pardon?”
He turned with a chuckle. “News moves fast around here. Plus, I can count on one hand the number of humans I’ve brought up here other than the colonel and the general. Only one didn’t have an immediate ride back.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “It doesn’t take much to read between the lines. You’ve got a golden ticket off-world. One of the first.”
“Wow.”
“Have fun out there,” he said as the door opened and Eashai poked his head out.
“Thanks,” I replied as I grabbed my backpack and stepped off the cart.
“Gene, you are just in time,” Eashai said as he held the door open for me. “We are almost ready to depart.”
I followed him in, then froze. A gleaming metallic pod sat in the middle of the building, back hatch opened as several Lalyllte moved in and out.
Eashai took several steps before realizing that I’d stopped. He turned to face me and offered his hand.
“It is perfectly safe,” he stated, misunderstanding the reason that I was standing there gawking.
I let out a half-laugh, half-nervous chuckle. “You don’t get it. The closest I’ve been to a working spacecraft was when my parents took us to Florida when I was a kid. We got to watch a launch from Cape Canaveral. Other than that, it’s been all decommissioned stuff and replicas in museums.”
He blinked several times, then smiled. “It is difficult for me to envision, but… I understand that it has now become a momentous occasion for you.”
