“You’re telling us we were kidnapped by aliens because a bunch of horny feline humanoids were looking for mates?” demanded Drake Rylan. He was one of ten people left in the main conference room of Raptor One. Drake was rescued after being kidnapped from Earth by alien pirates with nine other people. Now they were learning why.
“That’s probably a little crass, but basically. They were holding you for ransom to your Narovian mates. Most of them are wealthy even by Narovian standards---except for Lieutenant Zes. He saved for months to pay for DNA matching. While meomee bonding is highly sexual, it is also very tender and loving. …And yes, I’m speaking from experience.”
“But, doesn’t it upset you that you had no choice in the matter?” Drake asked.
“Honestly, it was a mutual attraction with a biological connection. The biological connection helps keep you in harmony with your mate.”
“Well, I don’t want to be mated for life with any cat person,” said Drake. “I just want to go home!”
“And, that is your prerogative. No one is going to be compelled to meet their Narovian matches.” Meg told them. “My mating with Captain Marrek was random---so neither of us had much choice. But I am very happy things turned out as they did.”
“Well, I want to know my mate,” said Kelly. “Harlee seems really happy. I think it would be great to be with someone who wants a life mate badly enough to search on another world for the right one.”
Two of the other abductees also consented to meet their mates, but the other five either adamantly declined or weren’t sure about mating with aliens. “We will inform those matched to you by the agency of your decisions, but there is no guarantee that they won’t come find you on their own. I can assure you they mean you no harm.”
“No, they just want to bind us to them for life---not going to happen,” said Drake.
“I hope you won’t let your experience with Captain Mezra prejudice you against the Narovian feline race as a whole. Raptor One’s crew is fifty-five percent felines, and they are the ones who were instrumental in rescuing all of you.”
“I’m grateful for that, but it doesn’t mean I want to marry one. I just want to get back to my business and my life.”
“I thought that, too,” Jenna murmured. “I didn’t want to be mated to an alien I didn’t know for life. But the alternate choices were even worse. All I could think was I couldn’t have sex with a man I didn’t even know. But the side effects of pheromones made it impossible to resist. It’s only been two weeks, and I feel like Zeke is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Understandable, that you are anxious to get home and put this behind you,” Meg said. “We will get you back there in about ten days. As we advise all our crime victims from Earth, it is best if you do not discuss your experience with your people. It could not only expose you to ridicule but also call into question your mental status. Otherwise, you are free to talk about it with whomever you wish.”
“Those of you who are going to Narova with Captain Be’Kal will also arrive there in about ten days.
The two women and one man who were going to Narova with the sentiment they had nothing to lose. Melinda Arlen, and Yvonne Roberts both on the rebound from broken relationships and James Lawrence though handsome in a geeky way was so shy he could barely talk when he faced with an attractive woman. He wouldn’t say if he’d ever had sex before. He only said he knew how, so Meg didn’t press him.
Even with the promise of language implants, the Earth contingent spent a great deal of the next ten days learning and practicing the language of their new home world. Zeke, Tray, and Sajh took turns helping them. The exercises also helped them stave off their apprehension about their decision to give up their lives on Earth to live on an alien planet.
When they reached Narova, Zeke and Tray guided the immigrants through the Narovian equivalent of customs and immigration. Because they were meomee matches with Narovians, they automatically received resident status. Once they received their language biochips, Zeke and Tray guided them to their connections for where they needed to go to meet their mates.
It was a couple of hours before Zeke and Jenna could rent a hovercraft to visit his mother for a few days in the nearby city of T’sali. The first thing Jenna noticed when they left the Starport to fly over the city, was that Narov reminded her of pictures she had seen of Dubai. There were ultra-modern buildings that towered high into the sky. Jenna thought it appeared it was arranged to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Zeke let her know she was exactly right.
On their way to T’sali, they passed through over 100 kilometers of forest and farmland. The houses were large and ultra-modern and surrounded by a lot of land, so they were not close together. Even the homes surrounding the inner city of Narov had considerably more land than most cities on Earth. Because travel between metropolitan centers and even the smaller towns was done by hovercraft, there was no need for hard paved roads. Even goods were delivered to businesses and individuals by automated hover tram.
Because of the high level of automation in business and factory production, opportunities for employment were limited to those with technologic skills. They had technical robots to maintain the automated production facilities. Breakthroughs in nanite technology and tissue regeneration had revolutionized the practice of medicine and food production. Agriculture no longer depended on the raising and slaughter of animals for food. It was purely crop driven. Animal protein tissue was all grown in factory labs fed by the same nutrient sources from plants that comprised the original animals’ diet.
The starter cells were obtained from living animals using techniques similar to those employed to obtain biopsies on Earth. The animals felt little pain. Other than the periodic cell donations, the animals lived in sanctuaries that resembled their natural setting.
From what Jenna could see and what Zeke told her, life on Narova seemed quite idyllic---maybe even a little boring. There hadn’t been a war on Narova since the unification of nations in the tenth century AD of Earth. They had been space faring since the eighth century.
Most families like Zeke’s had fortunes that passed from generation to generation, so most people were free to lead lives of leisure, pursuing the arts, athletics, gaming, or learning and scientific discovery. Others like Zeke took to the stars.
After Zeke’s cultural lesson on the way to T’sali, Jenna felt pretty sure that life on Narova was not for her. She would rather live on Earth or a newer colony that would provide some challenges that would be worth giving up the stars for. Zeke said that he would opt for a colony where they could get some land, build a home and raise a family if they ever decided it was what they wanted.
Zeke enjoyed his time on Earth, but the planet was too crowded and the politics too volatile. Those were exactly the reasons the Alliance High Council kept delaying opening diplomatic relations with Earth. But it would be necessary if they were to stop the human trafficking by the Tenzari. On the other hand, the Earth would probably be better off if its population was considerably reduced.
The Alliance had a lot to offer Earth in the way of science and technology and population reduction by resettlement on under populated colonies. Until now, Alliance practiced under a policy of non-interference, though not as strict as the Prime Directive of Star Trek fame. The High Council worried that Earth was teetering on the brink of self-destruction through their constant warring and the destruction of the ecological balance of the planet.
While those to blame would deserve what they got, the others who wanted to change and progress to a higher level of civilization deserved better. No decision had been made yet. Bringing Earth into the fold would be the first step. Narovian felines mostly favored the move because it would make it easier for them to travel to Earth to find their mates. They could do so openly and hopefully live there openly.
There would still be racial prejudices to overcome in a world where people still discriminated on the basis of skin color. Wait until they saw the true diversity of humanoid form among the Alliance sectors alone. Perhaps then skin color wouldn’t matter anymore. Zeke could hardly believe that Tasha thought her meomee would reject her on the basis of her skin color---which of course he didn’t. That she was meomee was all he needed to know.
Zeke himself still felt a twinge of conscience that he had tried to resist the meomee attraction to Jenna.
“Zeke, I was resisting just as much as you,” Jenna soothed. “It wasn’t your race that bothered me it was probably the culmination of everything starting with the kidnapping and the fear of the unknown. Our lives were forever changed by the mating pheromones. My life on Earth kind of sucked. I thought sex was something to be endured---but with you, it is pure joy. Being with you, loving you, and having you love me back is just so awesome.”
“It is,” he said softly and leaned in to kiss her tenderly on the mouth. “My resistance was never about you because I was and am totally attracted. I was out in space living my dream, and I thought mating would change all that. Nobody resists the meomee pheromones.”
“Because resistance is futile?” Jenna laughed at her inside joke.
“It sure is!” Zeke frowned. “Why is that funny?”
“It’s a line from an old sci-fi show, I used to watch as a kid,” she smiled at him. “This whole situation is out of sci-fi to me. I just hope there aren’t any races out here like the Borg that go around assimilating other races.”
“The Drayids are the closest thing to that, but they don’t assimilate, they subjugate. Humanoids like us are like the cattle you raise for food on Earth. That’s why slavery doesn’t bother them. They consider us lower life forms to be preyed upon.”
“That’s why the Alliance is so careful not to piss them off.”
“Essentially,” Zeke confirmed. “If there is war, they will be the ones to make the first move.”
“What if they come to attack Earth?”
“The Alliance will protect Earth,” he assured her. “It has been under our protection for hundreds of years.”