CHAPTER TWO
COMMANDER ZOQ KANE
I was on a mission. It was a mission that I had been working toward for years; now it was all coming together. Now, we had finally arrived on Earth. I was ready. I was ready to do what I had to do. I was focused.
“Zoq! You are being summoned by Teqqin,” a warrior said as he walked onto the flight deck of the ship.
“On my way,” I said as I turned and walked down the hallway.
“You wanted to see me sir?” I said as I walked into the captain's quarters where Captain Teqqin Blace stood.
“How far are we?” he asked.
“We will be entering Earth’s atmosphere in 20 hours,” I said.
“Good. I hope you are ready for this. This is the only way that we can stop our race of Draqua from mating with humans once and for all,” he said.
“I understand. That is why I am here. I want to help you and the opposition stop the Draqua from mating with humans,” I said.
He looked at me up and down, “It is very unusual for a hybrid like yourself to think such a thing. You, after all, are the product of a Draqua mating with a human.”
“Yes, and I do not like being a hybrid. I wish that I was a full-blooded Draqua like you and the others. I know there have been hybrids that side with the opposition, so it is not that unusual. That is why I came to you in the first place, 8 months ago,” I said. “I want to do my part.”
“And you shall. It is important that the humans believe us when we tell them why we are visiting Earth. They must see that we have, in fact, been taking human females from Earth secretly and mating with them for many years. The only way to prove it is to show them a result of that; you are the result,” he said.
“I understand. I am ready to do whatever you ask of me,” I said to him.
“Good. When we arrive, we shall wait a couple of hours to see how the humans react. Then we will broadcast a message to them that we wish to meet in peace to have a conversation. Do you understand this schedule?” he asked.
“I do. Have you prepared the message to be broadcast?” I asked.
“I have. Here it is,” he said as he handed it to me. I read it. “We are the Draqua, from the planet of Kelon. We do not wish to cause harm. We wish to speak with a leader of Earth. We bring you an important message.”
“That is it. Do not get a word of it wrong. This is a very delicate situation. We do not want to be shot down by the Earth army.”
“Yes, Captain. I understand.”
“Once they respond and agree to meet, you and I will take a small ship with four warriors to a place they want to meet.”
“Which four?” I asked.
“You pick. Just make sure that they are not armed,” he said.
“Understood,” I said as I nodded to him and then left his quarters. I walked back to the communications room and prepared the message. I went over it many times to make sure that it was typed in correctly. Then, I moved back to the flight deck to oversee the last few hours before arriving on Earth.
I had left my home planet to help the captain and the opposition get to Earth to alert them and let them know what our race had been up to for decades. We had been stealing human females from Earth in order to mate with them. It was something that we had to do in order to keep the Draqua race alive. Our own females had become barren and could no longer create offspring. So the Draqua looked to another race to prevent the extinction of our race: humans. My own mother was a human, but now I was working with the opposition to stop the theft of females from Earth.
There had been many battles between the opposition Draqua and the Draqua that supported mating with humans. The opposition almost always lost. So now there was a new plan that the opposition had devised. We would make it impossible for the Draqua to steal human females from Earth because we were going to tell the humans what had been going on. The opposition thought that once the humans learned about us and what had been happening, that they would stop it. Then the Draqua would not be able to get any more human females. Only time would tell if this plan could work, and with our arrival on Earth, the plan would begin.
But what no one knew was that I was hiding a secret. It was a secret that could get me killed. It was a secret that I knew I could handle when I set out on this mission with the opposition, but I wasn’t planning that it could possibly harm someone other than myself.
The next day, we arrived on Earth.
We were in a holding pattern. The message had been broadcast, and we were awaiting a response. I looked out over the vast city on Earth. I had never been to Earth before, and I was astonished at its beauty. It wasn’t as beautiful as my planet of Kelon, but it was beautiful and interesting in its own right.
“Zoq, what news?” Teqqin said as he walked in.
“Still waiting for a response. We’ve shown no sign of activity or movement. It is just as you asked,” I said.
“Good. It should be any minute now,” he said.
Then within minutes, we received a message. It was from the Space Agency of Earth, and it said, “We welcome you in peace. You are invited to meet with us and discuss your message. You will not be harmed.”
Within the hour, Teqqin and I were with the four warriors on a smaller ship as it disembarked from the larger mother ship. We were given the coordinates to a building rooftop. As we approached,we could see a group of armed military men as well as unarmed men in black clothing. I looked at Teqqin.
“It is to be expected. We cannot expect them to trust our word, just as we brought our own warriors, not trusting them,” he said.
“I understand. It just adds unnecessary tension, but we cannot be sure that they are not going to shoot us either,” I said.
Finally, we landed on the rooftop. We walked out to meet the men face to face. Then I saw her; I saw a petite woman standing among the men. I was surprised to see a woman. She was wearing a dark suit, but it was with a shorter skirt. My eyes immediately were glued to her. She had a lot of confidence about her. Her brown hair was pulled back on her head, and her blue eyes were focused on me.
“Humans, we are grateful to meet with you. I am Captain Teqqin Blace, and as our message said, we mean you no harm. We bring you a message, and that is the only reason that we want to meet with you,” Teqqin spoke first.
We waited for the men to speak. But it was not a man that responded. The woman took one step forward and said, “We are pleased to meet you. My name is Communications Agent Heather Maven. I am in charge of communications here with other beings, such as yourself. We mean you no harm as well. We are very interested in the message that you bring us. We would like to invite you inside to a meeting space with a table and chairs for your comfort. Will you join us?” she asked.
Teqqin smiled at her, “Yes, thank you.”
She smiled in response. Her full pink lips showed white teeth, and I could tell that she was nervous. I was nervous as well. I had a secret to hide, and I had to remember not to expose myself. But it was hard now that she was here.
“Follow me,” she said as she turned to walk toward an elevator. We followed, and soon we found ourselves in a large room with a glass wall that looked out over the city. There was a very large table and chairs. We each took our seat, except for the guards that stood along the walls, both our warriors and the human guards.
“Captain Teqqin Blace, we are thrilled and very excited that you were here. I believe that we have established that we mean each other no harm. I think that we can jump right into receiving the message that you have brought us. We are ready,” the human female named Heather said. The more I looked at her, and the more that she took charge, the more I admired her. I was here to stop my own race from mating with humans, but if that was not the issue, I would already be taking her. She aroused me.
“Thank you,” Captain Teqqin said. Then he began. “I will be blunt about this. We are a race known as the Draqua from a planet called Kelon. We know that you humans do not know of our existence, but we know of you. We have known of you for many decades. We have secretly visited your planet off and on throughout the years.”
There was a low grumble among the humans. They were shocked. They obviously had no idea, and that was the entire point of our visit: to let them know.
“You see, the Draqua race became an infertile one a few decades ago. The female of our species is unable to produce offspring. Every now and then, there is a female that becomes pregnant, but it is very rare. We were faced with extinction. We had to look elsewhere in order to procreate. And so our race did. But through this time of interbreeding with a different race of beings, there became a group known as the opposition. The opposition is against the interbreeding of species. They only want to breed with our own kind, only with Draqua females. This split has caused many battles between the Draqua.”
“And what side are you on?” Heather asked.
“That is a good question, Agent Maven,” Captain Blace said. “We are with the opposition. It is the reason for our visit to Earth. It is the reason that we have made this visit anything but a secret. It is to tell you that the chosen species of female that the Draqua have bred with these many years, are humans.”
There was shock all around the room. Then everyone spoke on top of each other as they voiced their disbelief and anger. All the men were shouting on top of each other, but there was one that stayed silent. It was Heather. She stayed seated and calm. She was looking at the captain, and then at me. I could tell that she was processing the information and calculating her next move. She was a clever female. That was obvious to me.
“Gentleman! Gentlemen, please!” she finally shouted as she stood up and pounded her fist on the table. “Nothing will ever get done if you are shouting at each other like this. We are in a civilized talk with a civilized alien race. Let us show them some courtesy. I know that the captain has more to say. I apologize, Captain; please continue,” she said as she got the crowd under control and everyone took to their seats.
“No apology needed. That kind of reaction is to be expected. I would have the same reaction if it were the other way around. If I may continue, we do not agree with breeding with humans. We want it stopped. We oppose it. But fighting among our own kind has not stopped it. There is only one way to stop it, and that is to let you humans of Earth know that the Draqua have been secretly abducting human females for many years. That is how we are able to breed with them. We steal them from Earth and never return them. They become part of families on our planet.”
“That is incredible, and absolutely shocking. We want to take your word for it,” one of the gentlemen stood up and said. “But what proof do you have? How do we know that you are not setting us up for something that we cannot see?”
“Excuse my colleague, Mr. Becker. He is quite suspicious of everyone and everything, including myself,” Heather said as she stood up. She gave the man she called Becker a look of anger. But then she continued. “But he does have a point. Do you have any proof of this? Women on Earth go missing all the time never to be found. It is not something that we are proud of, but it does happen. Never did we think that an alien race was taking them. What proof do you have of this?”
“I knew that you would need proof. I came with some. This is what we call a hybrid,” the captain said as he pointed at me. “This is Commander Zoq Kane. His mother is a human female, and his father is a full-blooded Draqua.”
“This hybrid looks exactly like you. I see no difference,” Becker said.
“For now. But at another stage that we are able to accomplish, you will see that he is more human than a full-blooded Draqua. We would like to show this to you, but we need a larger space,” the captain said. The humans looked at each other very confused.
“I don't understand. What other stage do you speak of?” Heather asked.
“We know everything there is to know about humans. But you know nothing of us Draqua. We have the ability to shift. We come from a long race of water dragons. We are able to shift into dragon form,” Captain Blace said.
“Impossible!” Becker said.
“He lies,” said another human. The room exploded into these types of statements amongst each other. Once again, Heather stayed quiet. She was looking at me up and down. She was examining me.
“How big of a space do you need?” she asked.
The room grew silent. The captain smiled and said, “Very large. At least twenty feet in height and four times the size of this room. The rooftop is ideal.”
“No, we cannot use the roof. All eyes from all over the city are on the building. People will panic if they see you shift into Dragon form. We have not issued a statement yet to the people, and we do not need panic in the city. You do not need it either. People might take matters into their own hands and start shooting you. I have a better idea,” she said as she walked across the room and picked up a telephone.
“This is Agent Maven. Evacuate every single level of the underground parking garage. Contact me as soon as it is finished. You have less than 15 minutes.” Then she hung up. “You will have your space to show us that this one is a hybrid. It will be ready in 15 minutes.”
“Thank you. I must warn you that when I turn into Dragon form, I am full Dragon. Do not be alarmed by me. Do not shoot me. I am still myself and in complete control. I still have my mind. Only my body has changed, not me on the inside. But I do not want your men to be scared suddenly and shoot me out of fear.”
“I understand. No hands will be on any artillery. This is the only way to guarantee that no one is spooked into accidentally shooting you,” she said. Then she turned and looked at me.
“Commander Kane. You are a hybrid. You are born from a human female. Tell us her name,” Heather said as she looked at me. The room grew quiet. I looked at the captain for permission. He nodded his head yes.
“My mother is a human female. Her name is Robin Gelson.
There was silence. Then Heather picked up the phone again. “I want you to put in an emergency request. I need a missing person’s report on the name Robin Gelson. I want it within the hour,” then she hung up.
“Tell me, Zoq Kane, what happens when you shift into Dragon form?” she asked as she walked over to me. She circled around me, examining me. Her shoes clicked on the floor with every step. I had to admit it was quite arousing to be under such a dominant human female. In all my years on Kelon, I had never met such a confident and dominant human female before. It was refreshing and strange, and I enjoyed seeing her in command and in her element. I bet she could command an entire army if she needed to. I stood up straight, letting her look at me.
“I stay as I am now, what you see, except for a few things. Dragon wings sprout from my back and these designs that you see on my arm now…”
“These? They look like tattoos,” she said as her fingertips lightly slid over my forearm on top of the patterned scales on my arm. Her fingers on my skin set me on fire. She was using a very soft caressing touch.
“Yes, those. They become hard, like dragon scales. It is armor.”
“Fascinating,” she said. Then she stopped and stepped over to one of the men and said, “Director Fox, I think it is best that our most recently arrived scientists join us in the garage as well.”
“I think you are right. I will summon them,” the man she called Fox said. Just then, a ringing sounded in the air. Heather walked over to the phone and picked it up. “Yes, thank you,” she said. Then she hung up.
“The garage is evacuated. Shall we go down so that you may show us this amazing transformation?”