CHAPTER THREE
HEATHER MAVEN
When the small alien aircraft landed on the roof, I did not know what to expect. Were these going to be squishy, squid-like aliens? Would they be hideous and more animal-like than like man? I had no idea what to expect. But when they walked down the ramp, I was completely surprised.
There were two that walked in the lead. Both of them were shirtless with very strong physical forms and toned muscles. They were almost 9-feet tall, with broad shoulders. A thin loincloth hung from their waist. It was very short, exposing muscular thighs. Boots that went up to their calves seemed to have compartments and straps that weapons were adhered to. They looked like island warriors from another century. There was a pattern tattooed along their arms and up to their chests. They were definitely something to look at. Four armed soldiers followed closely behind these two.
One of the two aliens in the lead really caught my attention. I could not keep my eyes off of him. His long black hair went down just past his shoulders. It was choppy and rugged. His piercing green eyes looked almost like glass. He was attractive, if an alien could be found attractive. The other alien looked a bit more menacing. He had white hair that was cut short, almost like a military haircut that we have here on Earth. His eyes were black, and there was nothing kind about them. I could tell that he was a man of business and that he was in charge of this alien visit before he even opened his mouth.
But nothing prepared me for the message that they had. They were here on Earth to tell us that their race had been abducting human females for decades in order to mate with them, and they wanted it stopped. It was astounding. I almost did not believe it except for the fact that I could see why a human female would give in to one of these physically fit and attractive alien .
But the time had now come for them to prove to us that the alien called Zoq Kane was the product of interbreeding with human females. We led them down to the garage that we had evacuated.
“Is this enough room, Captain?” I said as we walked onto the level of the underground garage. It was empty. All cars had been evacuated from all levels. Every single entrance to the garage was now guarded so that people did not mistakenly come upon this amazing transformation that we were about to see. According to the captain, it was going to be very frightening.
“Yes, this is ample room. Now if you all will step back far from us. We need the space to transform,” the captain said.
All of us gave them plenty of room by retreating to almost the other side of the garage. I had to admit that my stomach was in knots. I was full of anxiety and fear over what was about to happen. This was a turning point in human history, and I was about to witness it. But what made me fear the transformation the most was that this would prove that not only were these aliens more technologically advanced than we were, they were physically advanced as well. They had been stealing human females for years right under our noses. It took great technology to go unnoticed by our satellites, and by the masses. We were dealing with an alien race that could be a very advanced enemy that we would never be able to compete with.
“Ready?” the captain shouted.
“We are ready when you are!” I shouted back.
The two alien males, the captain and commander, took steps away from each other. Then the captain stepped forward. In a quick and simple flash, he shifted. Where he once was now stood a very large gray dragon. We were all in complete amazement and awe. The man beside me took steps backward in fright. It was a very menacing-looking creature. The dragon was very tall and the wings spread out from its body at a wingspan of 10 feet or more. Sharp teeth were exposed in its mouth, and it had a very long tail that snaked behind it. Then, just as suddenly as it shifted into Dragon form, it shifted back. The captain was now standing where the dragon stood.
“That was incredible,” I whispered.
“I have never seen anything like that,” Director Fox said.
“It is dangerous. We should kill it now,” Eric whispered.
“No. Don’t even think such things. We do not know what other powers they may have, and you are putting us all in danger by whispering things like that, Eric,” Director Fox scolded him.
“That was a shift into full-blooded dragon. This is something that only the full-blooded Draqua can do. This was how it has always been. But now that we have mixed with humans, we have the hybrid shift!” Captain Blace shouted at us. Then he nodded at his colleague, Commander Zoq Kane. Zoq stepped forward. In a flash, he shifted. But he did not shift into a dragon like the captain did. Instead, he stood there looking almost the same until Wings spread out from behind him. It was a very long wingspan, just like the dragon. But he was still in full male form. We were too far to see the difference in the scales on his skin. But we were all astounded by his shift. Then he flew into the air. It was marvelous. He flew from left to right in front of the captain, demonstrating to us his ability. We were in shocked silence. It was true. He was half human and half dragon. This was a lot to take in.
Then he landed and shifted back into his normal form. For some reason, I began to clap. Suddenly the men with me began to clap along. It was something to marvel at. I did not know if the aliens understood what clapping meant, but we were very impressed. Finally, we both walked toward each other and met in the middle of the garage.
“I hope that this has been proof for you. We would not be here if we did not want this to be stopped. We hope that with your help, our race of Draqua will no longer be able to steal human females from Earth. Now that you know about it, you can stop it. Now that you know about it, you will be expecting it,” the captain said.
“Yes, that was proof. We are grateful for the message that you bring us. We do not want our females taken from Earth at all. We will do what is necessary to stop it. For now, there is much to consider and go over. We will need to put a plan in place and How long is your visit to Earth?” I asked the captain.
“We are here for as long as you need us. But we do not mean to make a home here. We very much want to get back to our own planet. We want to leave Earth in peace and know that the message has been delivered and will properly be used.”
“Then let us meet again tomorrow at the same time. I will have more information for you on how we can help each other to stop the abduction of human females from Earth,” I said. The captain nodded. “We will lead you back to the roof into your ship. We will issue a message to the humans of Earth that you are here in peace and will be returning back to your planet fairly soon. It is important for the humans to know this. Many of them do not obey rules and do as they please. So if, for whatever reason, shots are fired at you, know that it is not us, that it is one or two humans that have taken it upon themselves to do as they please. It is a problem, and we will do as much as we can to protect you.”
“We understand. We will meet again tomorrow,” the captain said.
Soon, we led them back to the roof and to their ship. They drove the smaller ship to their big mothership where it would stay hovering in the sky. Once they were gone, we had a meeting of our own to process it. We sat in the conference room where we had sat with the two aliens previously.
“I don't like it. What if they are tricking us? What if they are here to kill us and they are using this so-called message in order to infiltrate us. You see what they can do. They are advanced, and they can shift into dragons! This is wrong; I can feel it!” Eric Becker shouted.
“Good thing it is not up to you. It is not up to any of us!” Director Fox shouted at him. “We are only here to communicate with them. That is our profession. We are not the decision-makers. The president and the government will be making these decisions for us. We are going to report everything that happened here today in exactly 20 minutes. Heather, you are the lead. You will be the one taking the video conferencing call and explaining what information we have gathered through our communication with the aliens,” Director Fox said. “Eric, you are dismissed from this meeting, as well as this team. Your suspicions give us unnecessary anxiety, as well as can inadvertently cause the aliens to mistrust us. You do not understand how dangerous this is. What you said in the garage could have easily been overheard by the aliens. Perhaps their hearing is one hundred times what ours is. But you are too dumb to take that into consideration when opening your mouth, and because of that, you put all of us and all of Earth in danger. You are dismissed!”
Eric stood up and threw the chair behind him. His eyes narrowed at me. Once again, he was taking out his incompetence on me. As though I had something to do with how stupid he was. He walked out of the room in silence. I knew it was not the last that I would be seeing of him. He had a way of pushing himself into projects by getting other people to give in to fear. He was dangerous, more dangerous than these aliens.
“I need a few moments to prepare my notes to speak with the president and the government,” I said as I sat down with my notepad and began to write down the key points of everything that I could remember from the astounding meeting. I wrote down everything that would keep the president and the government from fearing these aliens. I truly believe that they were here just to deliver the message and had no ulterior motives other than trying to stop the war between their race on their own planet. They meant us no harm.
“Agent Maven, here is the missing person report you requested,” an assistant said as she walked into the conference room and placed a folder on my desk.
“Thank you,” I said as I opened it. I had almost forgotten that I had requested it. I was surprised by the report. I looked over at Fox.
“What it?” he asked.
“He was not lying. Look at this. This is the human female that he claims to be his mother. She was abducted exactly 27 years ago. She has the same green eyes that he has. She has black hair. She was taken from a forest in Upstate New York. She was hiking alone, never to be seen again. I think we have to believe them.”
“This is absolutely insane. I am dumbfounded. I can sit in awe of this for hours and days. But we have work to do. Let’s scan this and send to the president,” he said.
“Yes, good idea,” I said as I called in the assistant. Then Director Fox looked at me and said, “Heather, you did astounding work communicating with the aliens. You kept calm when no one else did. You kept your mind sound and calm and made strategic decisions. This first meeting went off successfully because of you. If anyone else had been in charge, there could have been a heated exchange, maybe even death. I am glad that I chose you for the job. I chose right. Good work. You did not disappoint me.”
“Thank you. I am honored to have the position and glad that I did not disappoint you. This is very heavy information that we are dealing with. We need to stop more humans from being taken from Earth against their will. It is wrong. Being forced to mate with an alien is very wrong, and as a woman, I am greatly offended by it. I will do everything in my power to stop this. Let us start with this meeting with the president and the government,” I said.
“I will leave you to your notes and return in ten minutes for the meeting,” he said as he walked out.
I sat down and return to my notes. But I could not stop thinking about Commander Zoq Kane. I could not stop thinking about him shifted into half dragon form flying back and forth. It was absolutely amazing and something that I would never forget. But there was something else about him that I could not put my finger on. It was his quiet nature. As though he was keeping himself from exposing too much. There was something going on with him, but how could I really know? I had never met an alien before and didn't know what their normal behavior was like. I pushed the image of his strong chest and hard six-pack abs out of my mind and continued with my work. I had to stay focused.
The next day was unlike any other day I had in my entire life. This day meant that life would never be the same on Earth. We had now discovered that alien life did exist. Nothing would ever be the same. It was a hard concept to grasp, and I had spent the entire night tossing and turning, trying to get sleep. But I could not. I simply could not push what had happened out of my mind. The alien arrival was all over the news. People were in a panic. Some were evacuating the city while others were declaring their own private war against the aliens. It was complete chaos, as to be expected. I had to carry on as though it was any other work day.
Finally, I made it into the space agency and was prepared for what the president would put into action.
“The president and the government have decided that we shall continue our work with the two aliens that we have been in communication with. The president commends you on such a good execution of the first communication, Heather. Therefore he wants you to continue. You have established a trust with the two aliens, and he wants you to continue that while gathering more information,” Director Fox said.
“I understand,” I said to him. “What exactly do the government and the president want and what do they want to achieve?” I asked.
“For now, they want you to meet with the aliens and find out which human females have been taken, or at least the ones that they know of. Obviously, it has been years. But knowing even a few names will be helpful. That is your objective for today. The president and the government are still in the process of figuring out how to deal with this new situation. It is a very delicate matter, obviously. However, the president feels that having constant contact with aliens is a good thing. Since you are the best communication specialist, you are the best candidate to do this,” Director Fox said.
“I see. The president wants me to establish a relationship with the aliens in order to establish trust. Keeping constant contact will not give the aliens time in solitude that would be needed for them to start to be suspicious of our inaction. It is a good plan,” I said.
“Exactly. That is exactly it. You are very sharp,” he said.
“Thank you. I will get to work and make sure that I have a plan outlined for what I want to communicate to the aliens and what answers we seek. We meet with them on the rooftop in only a few hours. I will get to work,” I said.
“Great. I am off to Washington tonight. But I will be there for this second meeting. I will see you in a few hours, and we will regroup before meeting them on the rooftop. Again, your work has been perfect and astounding. Keep up the good work,” Director Fox said.
I went to work. A few hours later, we were on the rooftop greeting the two aliens and their guards once more. I had to admit that I had been looking forward to this moment. Not simply because it was good work for my career, but because I was excited to see the aliens again. For the most part, I was very excited to see Commander Zoq Kane.
“Humans, we are grateful for this second meeting. You have news for us?” Captain Blace said.
“Yes, Captain. We do. We are also grateful for this second meeting. Thank you for meeting with us again. Let us go inside to our meeting room once more. We can speak there,” I said to him.
“Yes, let us meet in your rooms. We are ready,” the captain said.
A few minutes later, we were around the conference table once more. It was almost like a dream. I still had a hard time grasping the fact that I was meeting with aliens from another planet. I had to stay focused.
“Our leaders are astounded by the message that you have for us. They wish to convey their sincerest gratitude to you for bringing this to our attention. We are ready to work with you in order to gather as much information as possible that will aid us in keeping your race from taking our females. But there is much that we need to know in order to put a plan into action,” I said.
“We knew that you would want to know and that you would want to stop it. We are here to give you as much information as you need in order to help stop this. Stopping our race from taking human females is our goal as well. Together, we can work to make this goal a reality. Your human females will be safe and our race will go back to being pure Draqua.It is what we want, and what you want. Tell us what you need?” Captain Blace said.
“I have a very tall order for information here in this file. I will need to meet with one of you one-on-one for several hours each day to gather answers to all of my questions. It is a very time consuming task. If you are able to assign one of your Draqua to answer questions, then we can get started on this today,” I said, pointing at a file on the table.
“And what is the next step after you have this information?” the captain asked.
“After I have the information, or as much as we can get, I send this to our leaders. Then they will have more of a plan. I know that our leader, the president, will want to meet with you very soon. They are coming up with a plan to best figure out how to do that. Things take a lot of time here on Earth. There are many humans involved in decision making, therefore it takes a lot of time. I apologize for that. But the most important thing is your message. Now that we know that we have human females being taken from our planet, we are aware of it and can put a stop to it,” I said.
“Excellent. That is the main goal. As captain, I cannot be away from the ship 4 hours. But my commander here, Commander Zoq Kane, can meet with you to answer your questions several hours a day for as long as you need.”
“That works for us,” I said, secretly excited that I was going to be able to speak further to this commander that intrigued me. I was very interested to find out all that I could about his race and what had been happening. The Draqua fully fascinated me.
So that was how I found myself alone in the conference room with an alien warrior of the Draqua race. I sat down in a chair while he moved back and forth along the windows, looking out at the city. I was very aware of just how naked he was with only a loincloth and boots covering him.
“These are all the ones that you know of?” I asked him.
“Yes, those are the names that I know of. There are many, but I do not know all of them. It has been many, many years,” he said.
He had just finished telling me all of the names of the human females that he knew that were living on his planet called Kelon. I did not expect him to know every single human female that was on his planet or that had been taken in the past. But this was one question that the president and his team had sent to me. They thought it was very crucial that they know just how many had been taken, and who. I understood.
“If you remember any other names, please let me know. We can move on,” I said to him.
“Good, but I have told you answers to your questions. I have questions too,” he said as he moved behind me. I was suddenly very aware of just how close he was standing behind my chair. His masculine scent enveloped me. It was a heady, sweet scent. I could feel his masculine, tall stature behind me without even turning around. My breathing grew heavy. What the hell was wrong with me? His proximity to me should not be doing this. But I was nervous. I still did not know exactly what the aliens wanted, and he could kill me if he wanted to and fly out of there. He was a dragon shifter after all. stood up quickly from my chair ready to move away from him. I turned toward him. Now he was only a few inches away from me. It was a thrilling sensation. My face was staring directly at his strong chest. A part of me wanted to plant my hand on it. I looked up at him.
“Your captain said that you and you are race knew plenty about Earth. What questions could you possibly not have answered?” I said as I moved to the left. He moved, blocking my exit.
“It is not Earth that I wish to know about. I know about Earth. I want to know about you, Heather. What are you thinking? What do you enjoy? What do you like?” he asked as his voice got husky and low. My heart began to pound. I felt my nipples grow hard. I hoped that he didn't notice. But his glance further down to my chest let me know that he had.