Sera joined Joely and Asa in the driveway. Rodriguez was making his slow exit from his vehicle, and she took in his battered visage and shook her head.

“You look like hell,” she said.

He gave a half-hearted smile. “I feel that way, too.” He shut the car door and limped toward them, a satchel in his good hand. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“They haven’t hurt you?”

Joely snorted, and Sera shot her a hard look. “No. Not at all.”

Rodriguez relaxed. “Good. I was so afraid I’d done something horribly wrong by letting them take you.”

“Yeah, about that,” Asa said, strolling forward, his massive arms crossed. “What made you think it was okay to let two aliens kidnap my mentor?”

He gestured toward his sling. “Look what happened to me for staying. I didn’t think she’d enjoy getting the same treatment.”

“Who worked you over?” Sera asked.

“The army. They were… displeased with my interference.” He sighed and leaned against his car. “Can we go inside and sit down? I’ve been driving all night…”

Asa nodded, slipping into his Texan hospitality. “Sure thing. Come on in. You got any bags?”

“No.” He held up the satchel. “Just this.”

Their host took the satchel so that Rodriguez didn’t have to carry it, and the Mexican archaeologist gave him a grateful smile. Asa led the way into the house, and Joely and Sera flanked Rodriguez as he went up the steps, ready to spot him if he should start to topple.  He made it into the house without incident, and they got him set up in the living room on an easy chair.

“Thanks,” he said, his face a mask of fatigue and pain.

“No problem.”
Asa put the satchel down at Rodriguez’s feet and took a seat on the couch. Joely plopped down beside him, and Sera sat in another arm chair a few feet away.

Rodriguez reached into the bag and pulled out a manila folder, which he handed to Sera. “The fluid in the sarcophagus was similar to amniotic fluid, containing nutrients, hormones and antibodies, but it also had a few trace elements the lab wasn’t able to identify. The full chemical breakdown is listed there.”

Organic chemistry had never been her strong suit. She flipped through the folder as their new guest continued talking.

“There were a number of articles in a storage space at the bottom of the, I guess, coffin…”

“Hibernation unit,” she corrected, looking at a photograph of Theyn still in suspended animation.

“What articles?” Asa asked.

“There’s a list with photographs there in the file.” He adjusted his sling. “Everything that was in the coffin was taken to Mexico City. I don’t know where they put it, but the government has it.”

She found the list and photographs. There was a stun unit, like the one that Beno had been using, and a host of other objects that she couldn’t quite identify.

Beno, Theyn, she called. Can you hear me?

Loud and clear, Theyn responded. Is everything all right?

So far, so good. Listen, if I look at something, can you see it through my eyes?

 

I can’t, but Beno could.

Beno’s voice chimed in. Show me.

She examined the list and photographs again, focusing as hard as she could so that the images would hopefully be clear when he looked for them in her mind. What is all this stuff?

 

Ah, Beno said.

Ah?

She could feel Theyn smiling.  I left the majority of our supplies with Theyn when we went into our separate pods. That’s what you’re looking at. The stunner you know…

Intimately, she quipped.

Now they both smiled. The second picture shows our communication unit. The third is scientific tools. The fourth is a medical kit… we could really use that. The fourth is Theyn’s totem.

Your totem?

He hesitated, then told her, I am a priest of the Burning One.

She blinked. Wow. You’re full of surprises.

“Sera?” Joely asked. “Are you okay?”

She looked up, surprised. “Oh, yes. Sorry. These pictures are just fascinating.”

Rodriguez nodded. “They really are. And so are their owners. I was hoping I would have a chance to talk to them. There’s so much we can learn from each other, don’t you think?” He fixed a focused look on Sera’s face. “Are they here?”

Asa saved her with a deceptive truth. “There ain’t no aliens in this house, Mr. Rodriguez.”

He looked disappointed. “Where did they go?”

The cowboy shrugged. “I can’t rightly say, sir.  They left the house together.”

“So they were here.”

“For a while, yeah.” He looked into Rodriguez’s eyes with a silent dare to press the point. “But they ain’t here now.”

The newcomer tapped his toe once in agitation. “That’s unfortunate. Very unfortunate.”

Sera asked, “For whom?”

“For me.” He smiled. “Not many people can say that they’ve been able to speak to men from outer space.”

Joely stood up. “Listen, it’s hella late, and I’m tired. You said you’d been driving for hours, and you look like you could use a pain bill and a pillow. Let’s turn in and revisit all of this in the morning when we’re all awake.”

Rodriguez looked grateful. “That would be much appreciated, if you have the room.”

Asa nodded. “Yeah, we got the room. I won’t even make you take the stairs.”

“Kind of you.”

“I’m that way.”

Their host led Rodriguez down the hall toward a small first-floor guest room. Sera and Joely exchanged looks.

“He’s lying his ass off,” her assistant opined.

“I got that feeling, too.”

“I’ll bet he’s got a tracking device or a bug on him or something.”

Sera frowned. “It’s not outside the realm of possibility…”

I’m on it, Beno told her. Stay inside.

Not certain what else to do, she made her way up the stairs to the bedroom. She could hear Asa getting Rodriguez settled downstairs, then coming up to his own room to settle down for the night. Joely was already in her bed, fidgeting for a comfortable position, the springs creaking in protest. 

Sera’s own room felt empty without her Ylian lovers there. Even though she knew they were just outside, she felt a hollowness as if they were a thousand miles away. She sat down on the bed, looking out the window at the bright moon and wishing she had never taken Rodriguez’s call.

What an idiot I am, she thought. I never should have given him this address. What the hell was I thinking?

Unexpectedly, Theyn’s voice answered her. What’s done is done. You had your reasons at the time. Be gentle with yourself. Everyone makes mistakes.

He was so reasonable and calm. She envied his serenity and marveled that he could stay so level-headed in the middle of what had to be an extraordinarily painful period in his life. Not everyone’s mistakes could cost the lives of people they care about, she argued.

Are you sure about that? Beno asked.

Theyn sighed. Both of you need to learn to forgive yourselves.

I will when I can atone for my sins, his partner said. Ah! Here it is. There’s a tiny transmitter on the vehicle, just under the steering column. His mental voice took on a tinge of satisfaction. Or there was.

She toppled over on the bed, her face settling into the pillow that had supported Theyn’s head last night. She could smell his exotic musk. She reached out and grabbed the other pillow, the one that had been beneath Beno’s head, and she brought it to her face. His spicier smell was there, and the combination of their scents made her mouth water.

I need you, she told them.

She could feel Theyn smiling. I would love to comply, but until he leaves…

Come out here to us, Beno invited. There’s a loft over the barn filled with sweet-smelling vegetation. If you bring a blanket or two, it might be comfortable for sleeping.

Theyn added, Or anything else you might like to do.

She shivered. I can’t even tell you how tempting that is…

Then come down.

Beno’s voice was warm and seductive in her head, like the whisper of the devil on her shoulder. Theyn laughed softly in response, tempting her with promises of his own. She grabbed the bedspread and pillows from the bed along with a folded quilt from the closet and crept toward the stairs.

She tiptoed down the stairs, nearly holding her breath in her attempt to be quiet. The rest of the house was silent around her, the darkness hiding her as she tried to slink out the door. She had nearly reached the kitchen when she heard Rodriguez’s voice in his room.

He was speaking quietly, but in the silent house, his words carried. He was speaking Spanish. “I’m here,” he said. He hesitated, listening. “No, I haven’t seen them. Cooper is here, and her students. They said they left.”

She leaned against the wall, the bedding clutched in her arms. She listened harder.

“There’s a big ditch in the ground here, with some scorching on the soil. I don’t know what that’s from.” He paused. “No, not that much. Where are you?”

She wished that she could read his mind and hear who he was talking to, or the other side of the conversation. Maybe she knew someone who could.

Beno, she called. Can you read minds from a distance?

He seemed surprised by her question. If depends on how much distance, and whose mind…

Can you read Rodriguez from where you are?

There was silence as he tried. No. I’m too far away.

Theyn suggested, She can be your power locus. It should work, since we’re bonded now.

Good idea. Her head buzzed, and the feeling of the brunet’s presence grew in her mind until it was as if he was standing inside her head. Hold still, Beno counseled her.

She heard Rodriguez again. “When will you be here?”

Another voice, filtered through Rodriguez’s consciousness and into hers and Beno’s, replied. “I will be there soon. The American Air Force is joining us with their Apache helicopters, and we should be ready for anything the aliens send our way.”

She didn’t know the other speaker.

“So the Americans will help us?” Rodriguez said. “Even though she’s their citizen?”

She clutched the blanket more tightly.  “Yes. They agree that their strategic interests and Mexico’s are the same in this case.”

Rodriguez chuckled sourly. “Don’t tell their President that.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, he doesn’t really have control. His advisor does, and his advisor is on our side.”

“They’ll want to take them.”

The other speaker laughed, his tone unkind. “When we’re done getting what we want from them, they’ll be welcome to their bodies.”

If Rodriguez and his unknown partner were talking about bodies and the military, they were clearly planning something that she didn’t want to experience.

The three-way bond shivered with anxiety and a strange floating feeling. She could see flashes of images, but they passed too quickly for her to identify anything. Theyn shuddered, and fear flooded them all.

Get out of there, he said, his tone urgent. Hurry.

She didn’t need to be told twice. She headed out through the kitchen and onto the porch.

Beno was standing at the open driver’s side door of Rodriguez’s car, and Theyn was waiting for her at the bottom of the steps. He took her hand and led her away at a trot.

“Can you operate this vehicle?” Beno asked her. 

“Of course.”

“We need you to do so,” Theyn said. “We have to leave before his allies arrive.”

She pushed the blankets and pillows into Theyn’s arms. “Wait here.”

Sera hurried back into the house, and Beno followed her. They went to their shared room and gathered their few belongings. She texted Joely a quick message - ‘gotta jet’ - and left her cell phone on the bed. Beno slid on his glove, the one he had used to disable the medical devices in Theyn’s hospital room.

“Let’s go.”

They left as quickly and as quietly as they could, hoping not to attract attention.  Sera found the keys to the rental car that Joely had driven from Mexico, and she clutched them as they raced out of the house.

They loaded their things into the car, then Beno went into the barn. Theyn opened his partner’s backpack and removed a small object made of white metal.  Beno returned, a carry all slung over his shoulder and his hands overflowing with rectangular chips made of metal and white crystals. He handed the chips to Theyn, who pressed them to the object in his hand. The chips were absorbed into the unit, and a tiny light on the corner flipped from red to green.

Sera got behind the wheel while the two Ylians climbed into passenger seats. She fired up the engine and drove away from the house.

“Where are we going?”

“Anywhere but here,” Beno answered.  “Theyn had a vision.”

She drove out onto the highway, at a loss. She had no idea where they were or what direction to take. “A vision?”

“Rodriguez was bringing death,” he said. “I saw it.”

“He has premonitions.”

Theyn nodded. “Not often, but when I do, they’re never wrong.”

He turned his attention to the white object in his hand. A press of a button caused a low hum, and then a three-dimensional image of a starfield appeared in the air, hovering over his hand. He spun the image and tapped it once. A keypad appeared, and he typed rapidly. Numbers and arcing lines appeared, spreading out from a central point in all directions.

She activated the GPS system and requested directions to the nearest gas station. They could purchase a map, she hoped, and figure out where they were going from there. She glanced at the image that Theyn was manipulating.

“What is that?”

“A predictive model using the data the Taluans had on hand. I’m trying to see where our people might have gone. These points and lines all follow individual launches that the Taluans noted when they were busy stripping our world.”

He adjusted the resolution and magnification, and a familiar blue planet appeared. Several of the arcing lines touched the image of Earth, scattered all around the globe. She gaped and nearly ran off the road.

“Does that mean what I think it does?”

Beno nodded. “Many of our people may have come to Earth.”

“Do you think they’re in hibernation, like you were?”

Theyn adjusted the image again, looking more closely at the Taluan data. “Some might be. Others may have been in craft that didn’t come equipped with hibernation units.” 

He looked thoughtful, and he and Beno had a silent conversation for a long moment. Sera felt a little irritated to be excluded, but she decided to let it go. They weren’t obligated to share every thought with her.

“When we get to a good stopping place, Sera,” Theyn said, “would you allow me to take a drop of your blood for analysis?”

She looked at him in surprise. “Blood? Why?”

“I want to test a hypothesis.”

He thinks that our people may have interbred with humans. Given your response to the stun, it may be that you have Ylian blood in your veins, Beno explained.

“That’s crazy.”

“But possible,” Theyn shrugged.

“Just a drop?”

He smiled. “Just one drop.”

She nodded. “All right, then. You can take it right now.” 

She held her hand out to him. Beno retrieved what looked like a medical kit from his bag and handed it to Theyn.  He opened it and took out a tiny probe, barely longer than a toothpick and just as slender.  It was made of a material that she couldn’t identify, and it had a tiny pressure pad on the side. He put the probe against her fingertip and pressed the pad, and a single drop of blood oozed from her skin. There was no pain and no injury, no pinprick or cut. The blood just exuded on command, filling the tip of the probe.

“Fancy,” she said, at a loss for anything else to say but driven to speak.

He put the probe against an instrument from the medical kit, and it clicked once. A three-dimensional display like the star map was projected above the tool, and a double helix slowly rotated in the image it showed. Along the strand, individual proteins glowed bright blue while others were a more muted yellow. A smaller DNA strand floated near the larger one, and this one had more blue than any other color. It shone in the darkness of the car, casting blue light onto their faces.

Beno’s voice was rough. “Are you sure?”

Theyn nodded. “This is 99% accurate. There is some small room for doubt, but not much. Not with an imprint this bright.”

Sera felt a jolt of nervousness and excitement from both men, and it made her stomach flutter. “What are you talking about?”

The blond pointed to the larger DNA strand. “This is your genetic material. The blue glowing parts are Ylian in origin. You are a hybrid.”

She slammed on the brakes and turned to face him. “I’m part Ylian? For real?”

“For real.” He smiled, but with a twitch at the corner of his mouth, as if he was trying to keep from grinning like a fool.  “There’s more.”

She parked the car. “I can hardly wait for this.”

Beno and Theyn exchanged a look, and then Theyn said, “The smaller DNA strand belongs to an entity other than yourself.”

“Why would another entity’s DNA be in my bloodstream?” she asked.

“Some people would call it a parasite, but it’s not as negative as all that,” the blond explained. He licked his lips and turned his glowing blue eyes onto her face. “That DNA belongs to your baby...our baby.”

Sera gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles went white. Her head swam. “What?” she asked weakly, although she had heard him loud and clear. “I’m…”

“Pregnant.”

She gaped at him, a million emotions coursing through her, ranging from horror to shock to excited happiness. She started driving again, but her heart was pounding so hard that the thudding in her ears was nearly obliterating all other sound. She didn’t know what to say, or what to think.

Pregnant.