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  Chapter Three

  "Wait until we're contacted," repeated Aurora Willekens, throwing a rubber ball at the tile wall and catching it on the rebound; it made a loud, meaty slap in her huge palm. She turned to face the others, shaking her head. "Am I the only one who feels helpless? What's the saying... like a sitting duck?"

  "You're not alone," said Sybil, lifting a forkful of egg to her mouth. "I admit, I am not familiar with the feeling. I don't make a habit out of giving myself over to the whim of men, let alone men who aren't even of my race."

  Stella walked over from the food station, loudly setting down her tray and coffee mug. "Let's not pretend we have a choice here, ladies. You're all very intelligent, or else you wouldn't be here. So I'm sure you all understand this situation just as I do."

  Everyone stared at the floor or at their food.

  "When a bunch of males say they want 'viable females', I don't wonder what the females are wanted for," Stella added. "That's all I'm saying. Sybil, don't delude yourself. Your feminist ideals and don't-take-any-shit attitude aren't going to get you through this. As much as I respect you."

  Sybil just ate her food. As if she didn't hear anything.

  "It's true, though," said Aurora, tossing her ball again. "We're all very fuckable, aren't we? If all I have to do to save my race is drop my panties... I think I can live with that."

  "As if we had any choice," said Tina.

  They were the first words she'd spoken in nearly an hour. Everyone looked at her. She shrunk down, hiding behind her bowl of porridge.

  "She's right," Kozue said, coming to Tina's rescue. "A bunch of guys in suits showed up at my door and informed me I would be going on an important mission. They didn't ask me any questions, except if I wanted help carrying my bags. I assume you all had a similar experience. We did not choose; we were chosen."

  "I wonder why," Tina said quietly. Mostly to herself. But they all heard it.

  "I don't wonder," Aurora said. "It's because we're highly fuckable. I already said that. Historically speaking, when it comes to war, the men on the losing side are killed, and the women are impregnated." She shrugged. "It's sort of a gift, in a way. The gift of stronger seed. You give birth to children that are less likely to be conquered and more likely to do the conquering. It's part of nature. And one of the big reasons why we are such a dominant species."

  Sybil set her fork down loudly and reached for the pepper shaker. "We may not be dominant much longer, Aurora. Do I need to remind you of what's at stake?"

  Aurora laughed, tossing her ball in the air and catching it. "For me, Sybil, nothing is at stake. I only stand to gain from this situation. Women always desire the stronger, bigger male. That's how it's always been. And it will always be that way."

  Tina shivered. "Speak for yourself."

  ***

  After breakfast, Sybil announced that they were free to do as they pleased until Tide said otherwise.

  Tina went back to her tiny room and dug in the footlocker at the end of her bed. There, she found the fifteen pounds of personal cargo the army had let her bring, including a small stack of paperback books. She dug one out and reclined on her bed to read. Now that she was safely cocooned in this small room, away from windows and AI and smartass Dutchwomen, it wasn't hard to become immersed in the fictional world of black letters and yellowing pulp pages.

  She had made it through three chapters before a crackling sound issued from the overhead intercom, startling her out of the fantasy. Tide's voice came a moment later. "Attention," he said. "Communication link has been established with the other ship. No messages thus far. I urge you all to hurry back to the bridge."

  Tina dog-eared her page and tossed the book onto her bed as she rose. She stuck her feet in a pair of slippers and ran out into the hall.

  She nearly collided with Sybil, who was running down the hall from the right. The older woman was covered in sweat, wearing lightweight running shoes that must have been part of her own personal cargo. Seeing as there was no gym on the ship, the translator must have been running the short stretches of hall back and forth.

  Sybil caught Tina's arm and said quietly, "Don't be afraid. That's my job. I'm the leader, here."

  It was meant to make Tina feel better, and it mostly worked. She knew Sybil was hardly a socially adept woman; the effort mattered more than the actual words. Sybil knew languages, but not niceties.

  They were soon joined by the other women. Aurora emerged wearing ear buds, with music blasting audibly from them. At a sharp glance from Sybil, the Dutchwoman removed the buds and stuffed them into her pocket.

  Stella and Kozue, as usual, congregated and began talking quietly amongst themselves. They were not giggling anymore. They looked like two friends on their way to try and defend themselves in court.

  Sybil strode on ahead, a brave figurehead shoved headlong into the storm by the huge weight of responsibility behind her.

  Tide was waiting on the bridge. His hands were outstretched; another hologram floated above them, a line that scrolled from left to right and occasionally oscillated up or down.

  "It's the signal strength of our comm link," Stella said. "Quite strong. Tide, do you know where their signal is originating from?"

  "Not exactly," said Tide. "If I had to guess, I would say they are drifting somewhere between three and five hundred meters to our starboard."

  "Very close," said Sybil. "Can't you get a visual on them?"

  "No, I cannot. They are cloaked in some way. I assume they stand in that direction, because I can detect a void. A dark silhouette, devoid of stars."

  "How big is their ship?"

  "Assuming they are four hundred meters away, the ship must be at least five kilometers in length."

  Sybil nodded, her eyes staring at something past Tide. "We're a shrimp beside a whale."

  "But we're safe," Stella said, stepping forward.

  She reached into her pocket, pulling out a strange glove that covered only her index and middle finger. She put in on her right hand and reached out to Tide with it. The hologram changed, showing a more data-based representation of the AI. Stella flipped through a series of databanks before she found one that had to do with their communications hardware.

  "No attempt at communication has been made," Tide reiterated. "Their ship initiated the hardware handshake and comm link."

  "How is that possible?" asked Kozue. "How can they know our equipment?"

  "Because they have our equipment," Stella replied. "I can’t imagine our space probe was just destroyed; it was likely captured and repurposed. They would’ve used it to learn about us. After all, that was one of its goals. It carried various data about humankind, in case it was ever found by an alien race. And that's just what happened. They're now using it to communicate with us."

  "I like that better than the alternative," said Tina.

  "Being?" Stella asked.

  "Them capturing us somehow."

  "That may still happen," said Sybil. "Tide, what do you advise?"

  "I recommend we take the reins here," the AI said. "We cannot let the enemy control and guide everything. Rather than wait for them to contact us, we should make the first move."

  Sybil nodded. "Very well. Kozue, I trust you to help me come up with a diplomatic first communication. Let's not make it too wordy. They obviously know English, but if their first message was any indicator they have a rather basic grasp."

  After a few minutes of deliberation between mostly Sybil and Tide, the first message was sent out:

  Hello. This is the human crew that you requested. We are five females who wish to begin relations with your race on a happy note. We hope to build a friendship that will last for a long time.

  As soon as it was sent, the women gathered around Tide in a tight unit and wrung their hands as they waited anxiously for a response.

  "Receiving transmission," said Tide.

  "Audio or text?" asked Stella.

  "Text."

  "Show it."
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  The words appeared.

  We will take you now. No worry. You will have no problem during this.

  Stella looked at Kozue, narrowing her eyes. Aurora started bouncing on her feet, from anxiety or excitement. Probably the latter. Sybil nodded her head as if everything made perfect sense.

  "There seems no use in composing a reply," she said. "Tide, what are you seeing?"

  The AI's human form reappeared before them. "The enemy ship is moving. Coming closer. They have uncloaked, but I see nothing other than sharp edges and surfaces of some very dark metal. They approach at a steady speed."

  "What do you recommend?" Sybil asked.

  "That all crew strap themselves in."

  The translator turned to her women. "You heard him. Get on with it."

  Part of their meager training back on Earth had to do with the layout of the ship. Tina knew from memory that, on the bulkhead that separated the bridge from the rest of the ship, there were sections of wall that jutted out a little further. These contained fold-out seating with full shock absorption and a bulky harness.

  She made her way over, and only noticed when she was almost there that no one was ahead of her. They moved behind, apparently following her example. Letting her lead them to the seats whose location they had forgotten. Sybil, too, remained at the back, though Tina doubted she had forgotten anything; she probably just wanted to give the quieter, less confident woman a chance to shine.

  After they had strapped in, looking like a quintet of beautiful ladies waiting to begin a theme park ride, Tide's avatar disappeared and was replaced with a live feed from cameras on the hull of the ship. He tilted the ship slightly to give them a better view, but was forced to revert back when a stern message arrived from the alien ship; Must keep original position, or no safe.

  The larger ship floated and lifted until it was directly above them. It then opened up for them. A large cylinder of black, shiny metal dilated, showing nothing beyond but a gray mist of atmosphere leakage or freezing moisture.

  The large ship then moved down onto them, taking their tiny vessel into its opening. They were lost in darkness. Tide informed them that their ship was being held steady in a sort of strong magnetic field and was perfectly safe. Strapped in their chairs, the human crew felt nothing at all.

  "Okay," Sybil said. "That wasn't so bad. I'm impressed."

  "As am I," Kozue said. "They have marvelous technology... I fail to see how such an advanced race could still follow the ways of violence."

  "You're basing that on the advancement of your own race," said Aurora. "Of humans. War was more prevalent in our infancy. Perhaps for this race, it's the other way around. Maybe it's not even their ship."

  Tina hadn't thought of that. But now she did. Her writer's brain went crazy with ideas. Perhaps an advanced and peaceful race had landed on the homeworld of the creatures she and her crew were about to meet. And then a battle ensued, the smart and pacifistic overcome by the mighty and aggressive. Their ship had been stolen and now roamed the galaxy to continue the cycle of killing and conquering and ravaging forever.

  "The magnetic field is weakening," Tide announced. "We're sinking toward the floor of whatever cargo bay they brought us into. Touchdown will follow in approximately ten seconds. It should be quite gentle."

  "Our ship won't be damaged," Aurora said. "Why damage it when they can take it for their own use?"

  "I doubt they'd have much use for this ship," Stella replied. She made no effort to keep the venom from her voice.

  "Sure about that?" asked Aurora. "We have a TIDE unit, just in case you didn't know. An AI that knows everything about Earth and its defenses."

  "I heard that," said Tide. "To ease your worries, Aurora, I should tell you that I am equipped with a self-destruct function that is frighteningly easy to trigger."

  Meanwhile, Tina had been counting. She was already at twenty-three, but still had felt nothing.

  "Tide," Sybil said, "have we touched down?"

  "Yes. And it looks like some lights are coming on."

  The camera view came back. Now, instead of pure black, they saw a distant ceiling that reflected a yellow glow.

  "Nice," said Aurora.

  "New transmission," said Tide and showed it to them.

  Open your airlock. Our air safe and clean.

  Sybil took a deep breath. "This is it, then. Tide, open the airlock."

  "Doing it now," he said.

  At the back of the ship, though they could neither see nor hear it, they knew the airlock was opening and the ramp extending to touch the floor of the cargo bay. Tina tensed up and squeezed her eyes, expecting one of a million terrible things to happen.

  After a long, silent moment, Sybil asked, "Any visitors?"

  "None," said Tide. "I detect no signs of movement or life in the cargo bay."

  Sybil unbuckled from her chair and stood up. "Then we'll move out and recon the area."

  Wait," said Tide. "Look."

  The video feed switched to a different camera, looking horizontally across the cargo bay. Some two or three hundred yard away, a huge door was sliding open. It let in a slightly brighter but still quite muted wash of yellow light. As well as a marching unit of five huge figures.

  "They're coming," said Tide.

  Tina's first instinct was to burrow deeper into her chair. If she had been the leader, she would have ordered the airlock closed and sealed.

  "Let's go greet them," Sybil said. "We can't afford to show even one sign of weakness."

  The other women unbuckled and followed their leader. Before leaving the bridge, Sybil approached the hologram pit and pulled a small tablet from the side of Tide's pedestal. It was a direct communication link to the AI.

  They walked through the ship, a band of women on a funeral march. The hallways felt shorter than ever, and before they knew it they were at the airlock. Sybil stopped and turned to face her crew.

  "We're humans," she said. "We've not quite reached the heights of these beings, but we've probably had significantly less time. We have worth, and we have a lot to offer. Let's be civil, here. We are all feeling afraid, but as women we're already quite used to that, aren't we?"

  They all nodded.

  "Good," said Sybil. "Let's meet these aliens on equal footing. Let's make them our friends and allies, no matter what we need to do to make that happen."

  "Amen," said Aurora. "Look at how beautiful we are. I don't care who or what these things are. They have penises, so you bet your ass we can get them wrapped nice and tight. Right around here."

  She held up her little finger.

  More often than not, Tina was the one to get wrapped. But the little speech was just flippant and naive enough to be inspiring. She followed Sybil out of the airlock and into the shadows of an alien cargo bay and no longer felt very afraid at all. Or maybe she was just numb.

  The aliens had crossed half the distance from the door to the smaller ship and now stood still, waiting. Tina was surprised and relieved to see that they were fully clothed. Her relief was tempered when she came close enough to see that it wasn't any ordinary clothing. It was armor, covered in spines and spikes and dull, dented metal.

  It looked quite primitive at first, but then Tina noticed the intricate fastenings, made perhaps of magnets of some sort and composing of highly delicate little parts. The armor, then, was a purposeful and symbolic throwback to an earlier time in the race's history. Or maybe they thought it looked cool and scary.

  Sybil drew her group to a stop twenty feet from the aliens. The two parties stood looking at each other.

  Tina wasn't good at math, but she knew how tall she was. She was about five-five. Kozue was the smallest, at barely five feet. And Aurora was the tallest, at nearly six feet. She brought the average height of the party up by a good bit.

  And yet the average height of the alien group was probably six and a half feet, at least. The tallest of them stood well over seven feet, with shoulders wide enough for Tina to lie across th
em like a bed and still have room.

  "What now?" Stella asked quietly.

  "I have no idea," Sybil whispered back. "This is uncharted territory. All I know is, they've stopped walking. And so I have stopped walking. I don't want to be weak, but I don't want to upset any of their customs, either."

  Tina, hiding slightly behind Aurora, let her eyes wander around the alien group. One of them, a brute with a huge scar on his face and a fresh, still fresh wound on his neck, was staring right at her. She quickly looked away, terrified. Sybil had told her not to show a sign of weakness, but she couldn't help it.

  "This is awkward," Kozue noted. "With your permission, Sybil, I will step forward and attempt communication."

  "Do you think that's a good idea?" asked Sybil.

  "Nothing about this is a good idea."

  "Good point. Permission granted. But don't go too far."

  Kozue, who had often worked in many threatening and scary places, knew better than to leave her group behind. She took two small steps past them and raised a hand to wave at the aliens.

  The creatures looked around at each other, silently considering. Then one of them stepped forward and did his best to mimic the gesture of the tiny woman.

  Kozue laughed, shyly covering her mouth with one hand.

  Sybil let out a huge sigh of relief.

  "They seem like nice guys," Stella said.

  "So did my ex-husband," Sybil replied. "Don't let your guard down."

  The alien who had waved now reached a hand behind him. One of the others placed in his palm a flat, square-shaped device. He held it out toward Kozue, then touched his throat and nodded slightly.

  "He wants me to speak," said Kozue, in her excitement forgetting to keep her voice low.

  The device in the creature's hand, even as Kozue spoke, translated her words into a throaty but surprisingly melodious language. It consisted of short, distinct syllables with little or no gaps between them. A pattern of speech which must require an incredibly deft and agile tongue.

  The creature touched a button on the side of the device and spoke. He kept his voice quiet so that the humans could hear the translation over it.