Chapter 2

“Houston, we have a problem”, I told my host. There was no point in trying to withhold this kind of information from him.

“I understand your allusion and also the basis for the problem. May we assume that you are no longer willing to support us?”

“That is correct. It would be against everything in our nature to support a military attack on the Earth. Many of us are sickened by the support we have already provided.” I sat down to collect my thoughts.

“It seems to me”, I said, “that it would be pointless to ask for proof of any evidence that we were doing the right thing by helping you. You have the means to manufacture any scenario needed to convince us, so why bother? My gut tells me that you are the good guys in this contest, even if it is Earth that you are fighting.”

He pondered that. “What do you suppose causes you to believe that?”

“I have absolutely no idea. It is my gut talking and that is what separates us from you and your enemies. Guts are not logical in the traditional sense, but what I have learned is that my gut processes data that I have never verbalized and may not realize I know it. It also performs instantly and instinctively. It is what has protected the human race and what gives us the ability to make intuitive leaps in the face of established fact and logical analysis.”

“Precisely. That is why we came to you. I suppose that you have also realized that we must now be in your far distant future?”

“Yes, we did not have a fleet of spaceships engaged in a war of the worlds when I come from. In fact, there was no organization named ‘United Space Alliance’, either.”

“That is correct. The United Space Alliance was formed thousands of years after your time. The pilots flying the ships you have been destroying are far from human. The human race became the minority on Earth a thousand years or so into your future. The ships you have been destroying are not piloted by humans. They are the humans’ greatest nightmare, who subjugated the human race long ago. Humans exist more as food animals on Earth at this time.”

I fought the urge to retch, even though I was aware that everything he told me could have been formulated to palliate my concerns.

“But what about the use of English? Surely the conquerors of Earth would have had their own language.”

“Of course they did, but so did 90% of the countries on Earth when they conquered you. However, English was the required common language for all aircraft operations. It was the only language on Earth that was spoken by at least some people in every country, so it was adopted as the worldwide standard and was maintained as the standard for all flight operations, including space operations.”

“So, where do we go from here?”

“Why not take a sabbatical, if that is a proper name for the type of activity I expect will be going on? Just kick back and let’s all relax and see what comes to mind. The advantage you have given us already should guarantee our survival even if we continue losing resources at the rate we were losing them when we enlisted your help. You have given us a sufficient lead to remain in a leadership position until the end. Our enemies will surely die if they lose the war, so they have no reason to stop fighting as long as any survive.”

“That is so sad”, I mused. “My girls and I will put our thinking caps on and see what we might be able to come up with.” I was looking forward to a chance to work my way further down the list I had made in the beginning. Next up was that hot chick who claimed to have a thing for mules. It should be fun to interview her.

The next few weeks were primarily a blur to me. I suppose I was throwing myself into a sea of lust in an attempt to erase from my mind the possibility that we had done something beyond reprehensible in supporting our hosts. I still had no name for them, other than ‘hosts’.

How does one make a determination of fact in an atmosphere that includes the ability to create ‘fact’, before, during and after the fact?

“Master?” Mule-girl approached me timidly and respectfully. I did not demand such things. I respected all of my compadres, but this chick wanted it this way and I had grown very fond of her. She always seemed to be the most inventive of my wide assortment of women.

“Yes, Leslie?” I made a point of remembering all their real names, regardless of the nickname I used in my mind. She would always be ‘Mule-girl’ in my mind, but ‘Leslie’ when we spoke.

“Why have we stopped helping our hosts? It’s getting boring around here. If you don’t have anything for me to do, could I take Wilbur and leave?”

“I’m not sure what our parameters are in this case, Leslie. I will ask, to see what is possible.”

“Ok. It’s mainly that I am so damned horny and it has been so long since I’ve had a nice fat dick and you don’t seem interested and we are no longer having the fighting games, so could I just go?”

“As I said, I will check, but what do you mean by not getting any dick? Isn’t Wilbur mule enough for you?”

“Silly. Wilbur and I don’t do sex. Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Well, he has this huge crank and I asked for a girl who loved mules and here you came. I assumed that he was giving you all you needed and you wouldn’t be interested in my slightly smaller equipment.”

“Slightly?” <grin>

“Yeah”. <grin>

“Well, for your information, the love I have for Wilbur is on a higher plane. Many girls love their horses, but Wilbur is smarter than any horse. We talk all the time.”

“Oh, yeah? Tell me about it.”

“Ok. Well, his mouth isn’t made for speaking, so we communicate mentally.”

“You mean like you can tell him when to stop, go and turn, using mental commands?”

“No, Silly. I mean we can carry on conversations using a mental link. In fact, he has quite a few comments regarding this project that I think you should listen to.”

“O-o-okay. How do we do that?”

“I will translate for you. You may ask me a question and I will pass it to Wilbur and pass his answer back to you.”

“Ok, then answer me this, Wilbur. Are you an alien?”

The answer came back from Mule-girl immediately. “No, not in the sense that our species originated on a different planet and came to Earth. We originated on Earth, but are the only hybrid known to surpass our parents in their best attributes. We are stronger than horses and smarter than donkeys. Scientists have always been mystified by that. They would be mystified out of their drawers if they also knew that we are telepathic.”

“All mules are telepathic?”

“All that I know, are.”

“Holy shit!”

“Ain’t it a bitch?”

“You got that right. What else can you do that we don’t know about.”

“Are you sure that you want to know?”

“I do, I do.”

“Settle down. We aren’t getting married. Leslie and I will do that as soon as circumstances permit.”

“We don’t do very well in Quantum Physics.”

“Neither do I, but that is because I think it is a crock of shit.”

“Well, duh. That’s why we don’t, either. Just like that String theory nonsense. It is all drummed up to create professorships and grants. It’s damned hard to prove something doesn’t exist, when you can’t prove it does exist, either.”