Nate sat at the end of the table, jaw clenched at the call his matchmakers had all but forced him to make. Tired of arguing with them, especially after dealing with Sheena, he’d conceded defeat. There was no convincing them that the AAS Director had far more important things to do than waste his time with foolish requests about mating ceremonies.

The three of them now watched John pace across the screen as he thought aloud and talked through what they were asking. A firm no was likely forthcoming, but Nate figured his superior was trying not to be any more adamant than necessary with their primitive Universe 6 abductees.

“Intriguing idea to give each matched couple a whole formal ceremony. Keeping the visiting aliens confined to the airship has only been done for precautionary reasons. We owe them our lives, so we fiercely protect theirs, even from our own bigoted New Earth people.”

“They’re not so scary once ya have been around them for a bit,” Angus supplied.

John stopped pacing to look at Angus. “New Earth has several unsavory factions who would greatly enjoy using alien deaths to start the next world war. True—it’s very short sighted of them given the alien technology we’ve fought against in the past. Plus, such an action would start an interplanetary war, one much worse than the historical invasion our ancestors fought against. But who can truly understand the criminal mind? Our healers can medicate it, but we cannot seem to breed it out of existence.”

Angus leaned over to Erin. “Are ya hearing a yes or a no, Erin? Yer a lot better at understanding such musings.”

“Shush, fool. John’s thinking it through. Listen politely,” Erin chastised.

Nate glared in the irreverent man’s direction, but his non-verbal warning went unnoticed. Not looking his way at all, Angus grinned in the direction of the large screen as he leaned back in his chair.

“Are you sure you want to volunteer your private home?” John asked. “There are military facilities with protection already in place. One’s home should always be kept as a sanctuary.”

Erin shook her head. “A military base would be just as bad as doing it here. We’re trying to make them feel like the choice they’re making to mate with an alien isn’t so arbitrary.”

“Arbitrary?” Angus repeated. “Fancy word there, O’Shea.”

Ignoring Angus, Erin went on with her debate. “This ship feels like a prison with its escorts and guards all over. The women’s area is large, but they still have no liberty to move about outside of it. Do ya know how many of them feel like going to another planet is a death sentence, John? It’s no wonder ya have so many putting off matches. We need to send our lasses off with a pleasant memory of their home planet. Goddess knows, every female born in Universe 6 dreamed of that ceremony. I can’t imagine it’s any different here than it was back home.”

John sighed. “No. I think it’s about the same, Erin. I’ve gone through the torture three times now—and none of those were my choice.”

“Then ya know I’m right about this,” Erin said firmly.

Nate’s gaze bounced between John, Erin, and a snorting Angus. “I only had the ceremony once. The other four times, it was just a matter of signing and filing the right forms.”

Angus turned and lifted a brow. “Which ceremony took for ya, Admiral? Which do ya remember? There’s something binding about standing before yer fellow men and declaring yourself to be the keeper of one woman and one alone.”

“I’m just saying it doesn’t necessarily matter to the end result of the match. It only matters to some women,” Nate finished, even after realizing how lame he sounded. Marrying Sheena was the only one he remembered. It was the only time he’d invested his heart in a relationship. He nearly winced when Erin snorted at him and glared.

“It matters to all women who know the man they’re promised to will be the last and only one she lets bed her. That’s no small thing and should not be seen as one by her matchmakers or the people of the planet she’s saving. Every woman in this program is a fecking heroine—no, she’s a fecking warrior—and should be honored as such.”

“Maybe we should get married and show these Universe 10 bastards how it works,” Angus declared.

“Don’t start,” Erin said, turning her glare on Angus. “Yer not an alien, Angus. I’ll marry ya when I’m good and ready, and not one day before.”

Angus smiled at her answer. “Well, that’s not the sweetest yes I’ve ever heard, but I guess it will do, considering the source.”

Erin let an exasperated breath escape before turning her attention fully back to John. “Will ya put in a good word with the Guardians for us? That’s all we’re asking.”

John stopped in front of a conference table and crossed his arms. “Alright. I’ll sponsor your request. I doubt they will agree to your suggestion, but we can try.”

“Thanks be to ya, John. That’s all we can ask of ya,” Erin said, favoring her superior with a smile.

“Angus?”

“Yes, John,” Angus said, his attention on the screen now.

“Did you get your kilt yet?”

When Angus looked at him, Nate shook his head. He gave John his full attention too. “Who was delivering to the ship? It hasn’t arrived.”

John smiled. “Well, the delivery I actually sent to you was a bit more complicated than I’d originally planned. Let me check into the matter and I’ll get back to you with an estimated arrival time.”

Nate nodded once. “Very well.”

Good-byes were said and then the com screen went blessedly blank. Nate could barely wait to leave the room. For once, he was more than happy to be heading to his empty quarters. He needed a break from the MacNamara madness.

* * *

“You haven’t blinked once in thirty minutes. It can’t be that fascinating.”

Still dazed over what she was seeing, Sheena lifted her head from her private com to stare at her snarky sister. “I think I’m wrong about them being clones. Or at least I hope to hell I am.”

Bri took the seat on the other side of the table. “I’ve waited all my life to hear you admit you might not be right about something. Why are you ruining the moment with that startled look like you just got tranquilized?”

“Their DNA is perfectly flawed. They both have disease markers that haven’t been seen in a millennia on this planet. Yet they also have a level of DNA health that barely exists in New Earth humans who were born before the alien biologics were released during the invasion. Their DNA—for a lack of a better way of saying it—is as innocent as Angus and Erin are.”

Bri waved a hand at the com Sheena leaned over. “I won’t pretend I understand even a quarter of what you do, but are you saying they actually are our freaking ancestors?”

Sheena shrugged. “Strictly from a DNA standpoint—yes.”

“Huh,” Bri said. “So they were telling us the truth, just like they said they were. I like them, but this whole time I really thought they were lying.”

Sheena shook her head trying to shake off her conclusions, but it just wasn’t working. She didn’t like where her mind had gone. “I just thought they were programmed with the story they gave us.”

“I don’t get it. If they’re our ancestors, where the hell did they come from?” Bri asked.

Sheena frowned. “If they’re clones of Mom and Dad’s ancestors, their existence is the biggest success this world has ever seen in self-replication. Any clone with DNA this complex won’t die early. Instead, they’ll thrive like born humans. Can you imagine the ramifications? Natural reproduction has been challenging for anyone exposed to the alien biologics during the invasion. Though they never said, I had the sense that was why Mom and Dad waited so long to make us. I don’t think conception was possible for them in the normal way.”

“Wow. That suddenly makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it.”

“It absolutely does. But frankly I’m not buying the clone theory anymore. I don’t think Angus and Erin are clones at all. No one has done more research into regeneration than I have. I’m nowhere close to creating beings as viable as Angus and Erin are. That kind of human replication simply isn’t possible yet. Plus, you have to keep in mind our true origins. All humans were seeded from an alien species to begin with. What they set in motion within our continuing evolution has never been duplicated by any other species we’ve ever encountered. The Anunnaki, whoever they were originally, they’re our real ancestors. We’re all just copies of them and each other.”

“Now I’m more confused. What’s your take on Angus and Erin then?” Bri asked, honestly wanting to know.

Sheena glanced at the screen, no longer seeing what was on it. All she saw was a hundred more unanswered questions. “I don’t think they’re anything as simple as clones. I think maybe they are our ancestors. I just don’t know how that’s possible unless the Guardians have perfected time travel.”

Bri laughed. “Time travel. Right. That’s about as likely as us learning to pinpoint wormholes in space. Time travel attempts have all ended in unexplained deaths and missing people. I can see the Guardians playing with it, but if that was true, they’d have already gone back and halted the invasion.”

Sheena sighed. If Bri stayed on this ship much longer, she was going to lose quite a few of her illusions.

“The data I’ve seen indicates that there are certain insurmountable problems with New Earth’s presence in the time and space continuum. Dad worked on a project involving time travel. Test subjects left our time and never reappeared. Plus history was altered by their absence. Luckily, nothing catastrophic happened before the project was ceased. The problem is we can’t stop and start time in our own rapidly spinning universe, especially not well enough to do anything like retrieving someone from our own past. But…”

“But what?”

Sheena shook her head. “Let me think this through before I postulate something stupid just because I’m desperate for some kind of answer. I’m going to look through the notes Dad left for me. I compressed them until they fit on a zeon crystal. I wear it like a necklace. No one ever knows it’s a compilation of over four hundred years of his research.”

Bri chuckled. “A necklace? And you always said I was the sentimental one.”

“You are the sentimental one,” Sheena said, grinning back.

“So what are you going to do next?” Bri asked.

“That depends. Are you ready to leave with me?”

“Sheena… we talked about this.”

Sheena smiled. “That’s what I thought, which means I’m staying until you do. And since I’m staying, I figure I might as well scratch an old itch while I’m here.”

Bri’s eyebrows rose. “Just like that?”

Sheena snorted. “No. Of course not. But the chemistry is still there and it’s going to happen eventually. I’d rather it be when I decide it should and not because I’ve had too much alien ale. That could have happened when he came by. It didn’t, but it could have.”

“Watch your heart,” Bri advised, sighing softly. “You still haven’t gotten over the last time Nate broke it. I’m not sure you realize the effect he has on you.”

Sheena shrugged. “Maybe things are different now. Maybe when I leave it will be completely over. Imagine me feeling no anger. No hurt. No disappointment over coming in second to a damn airship. Maybe Nate and I will just be lovers for old times sake and then both just walk away afterwards.”

Bri pressed on her eyelids which were both starting to twitch. It always had been her only visible sign of stress. “Yeah… and I’ll keep pretending I’m not sexually interested in the fiercest looking creature who ever came through the alien portal.”

“Darcone’s a good person… for an alien. He thinks he’s too old for you and he might just be, but that would be the case with any Earth female interested in him,” Sheena said, closing down her research. “I will confess to you, and you only, that he’s the only alien I ever liked.”

“Nate’s a good person too,” Bri said. “Mostly he’s been good to Angus and Erin. He’s been good to me as well. He let me stay instead of kicking me off his airship.”

Sheena nodded as she headed to her room. “Yes, I know. That’s why I’m going to sleep with him. Nate can consider it my thank you for taking care of the only family I have left… and yes, I am now including Angus and Erin in that group.”