Chapter 5

That evening, the group gathered in the kitchen to eat dinner together, as was usual. Their conversation, however, was far from it.

“So what are we going to do about this ... um... ‘woman’?” Adam spoke up.

“I guess we’ll at least have to wait for her to wake up before we figure anything out.” Sarah shrugged. They had spent the last couple months watching aliens take over an entire city, so it was not incredibly shocking to have discovered another one - albeit of an apparently different species. Or at least they assumed the woman was an extraterrestrial. She had several human-like features, but many that were distinctly not of this earth.

“She kinda’ reminds me of a void elf from World of Warcraft...” Steven said absent mindedly while prodding at his canned corn.

“Mmm ... yeah I can see it.” Adam nodded in agreement.

“Wh-huh?” Sarah said in confusion. Zoey put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head, saying,

“It’s from a video game.”

“Ah.”

Sarah wasn’t too familiar with the game in question, but she definitely agreed that the woman looked like something out of a fantasy story. Beyond just having light blue skin, she also had long, white hair, two eyes that were slightly larger than a human’s, ears with two pointed ends, and flat nostrils instead of a nose.

The fact that she clearly had mammaries (or what Sarah assumed to be breasts) made her question all that she thought she knew about evolution and the common ancestry of humans. Her most striking features, however, were her extremely long white eyebrows that curled up in the air like antennae. At a glance she would be mistaken for a gorgeous, graceful human woman, but she was, without a doubt, an alien.

“Good thing she’s at least able to breathe our air.” Sarah sighed. “Who knows what might have happened otherwise after we took off her helmet.”

“I knew something was different about her when she tried to speak to me after I saved her,” Steven said. “I didn’t recognize the language.”

“After YOU saved HER?” Zoey gave him an incredulous look. “You do realize we were watching the whole thing on the monitors, right?”

“It was all a blur, honestly.” He shrugged.

“What were you even thinking!? You could have been captured! Did you even think about how that would affect us? Affect me!?”

“Listen, when I hear someone in trouble, it’s my instinct to go help.”

“Mhm.” Zoey eyed him over skeptically. “I assume I know what ‘instincts’ you are referring to. So it’s just a coincidence that she happens to be a total babe?”

“I can’t control the winds of fate. We’re all just slaves to destiny...” Steven said wistfully while giving his sister a dramatic look. She punched him in the arm.

“If you ever do something like that again, you’re going to WISH they had taken you away.” She glared at him and shoved a spoonful of spinach into her mouth. “Blughh ... I’ll never get used to this...” She mournfully swallowed the offending green mush. She gulped down the rest of her bottled water as if trying to drown herself to avoid having to eat any more vegetables.

“Hey, careful with how much of that you drink,” Adam cautioned. “As Steven confirmed earlier, our water barrels are running pretty low due to the lack of rain. We need to be a bit more frugal in our water usage for the time being.”

“Ah, right...” Zoey said sheepishly.

“Don’t worry so much,” said Steven, trying to reassure his sister. “It looked like some rain clouds were finally rolling in overhead just as I was getting back. We’ll be able to replenish our water reserves in no time!”

The rest of the group didn’t seem too sure, however, and they continued to eat in silence for a few more minutes until Adam once again broke the awkward silence.

“So...” He spoke slowly. “What about ... alien viruses and stuff? Shouldn’t we be quarantining her or something?”

“Mnn, thash a common mishconshepshun,” Zoey said through a mouthful of greens while shaking her head. She took a labored gulp and continued. “Bacteria and viruses that evolved on Earth alongside humans are able to infect us for that exact reason. Pathogenesis requires that the bacteria or virus be able to interface with the host’s cells, which is the product of millions of years of coevolution. Furthermore -”

“Ok, let me stop you right there,” Steven groaned, putting his hand up to his sister’s blabbering mouth. “We get it. You’re smart. It’s good to know we’re safe from killer alien diseases, at least.”

“Zoey’s right,” Sarah agreed. “However ... this ... alien, for lack of a better name, does share a surprising amount of features with us. So it may be too early to assume that their biology is completely different from ours.”

“We actually refer to ourselves as ‘Bellus.’”

All four of the humans in the room swiveled in their seats to face the kitchen entryway. Adam barely seemed to notice that he knocked over his open bottle of water. Standing behind them all was the alien woman, who was now very much awake. Her large, almond shaped eyes had a buttery yellow hue to them and white irises in the center.

Her eyes scanned the room calmly, giving off the impression that she was sizing them all up. The alien didn’t seem concerned at all, likely because she believed that she could take them all in a fight. Based on the footage from before, Sarah had no doubt that this belief was well founded.

“Forgive me for intruding on this communal calorie ingestion,” the ‘bellus’ continued. “But we must be swift. I believe we share a common enemy in the Krinis and time grows short for us to act.” She looked out at them all expectantly. No one said a word as they simply stared at the alien nonplussed.

“Y-you can speak English... ?” Steven finally mustered up the courage to ask. “But back then you...”

“Did not have this,” she replied. She tossed him something, which he caught out of the air.

“My phone!” Steven exclaimed. “I thought I lost this forever!”

“Yes, apologies. I procured this during our earlier battle. Though primitive, I was able to operate it well enough to gain at least a basic understanding of your species and planet.” She wore an expression that Sarah swore was a smug grin, but it was hard to know for sure. “I will admit, I was worried you all spoke in rhyme like on your device there. I am glad to know that you do not seem to behave this way normally.”

“What... ?” Steven scratched his head. “Oh... ! You must have listened to my music! I’ve got good taste, right?”

“I have not had a chance to sample your kind’s cuisine. It hardly seems palatable.” She gave a side-eyed glance at Zoey, who still had a soggy spinach leaf dangling from her stupefied mouth. “I take it by your inexpressive faces that your planet has yet to achieve interstellar contact. I imagine that my presence must be quite shocking, then, but I would expect the Krinis to be even more so.”

“Krinis...” Sarah finally found her words. “You’ve said that a couple of times now ... what is that?” The alien looked at Sarah as if she were a pitiful child. Sarah was getting a little tired of her apparent superiority complex, even if it was arguably justified.

“The ones consuming your planet,” she replied. “The parasites who leech off of your reproductive systems. They are the Krinis. They devastated my world and are now on the verge of claiming yours. Or maybe you did not notice?”

“Yeah we ‘noticed,’” Adam said with a huff. “Maybe you didn’t notice yourself, but we saved your life - so maybe at least thank us, miss alien?” She looked over at him with an evaluating gaze, blinking a few times before giving a small smile.

“Forgive me. I am not yet accustomed to your social mores.” She put her hands up to her eyebrow-antennae in a sort of salute. “You may call this one A’luhr. It is the closest approximation to your human vocal sounds. Thank you for assisting and healing me, though the battle was lost.”

“You can call me Adam. This is my place.”

“Impressive,” said A’luhr, not looking particularly impressed.

“S-Steven!” Seven stuttered, with a hint of a blush.

“I’m Zoey.” Said his sister as she finished the food in her mouth with a look of embarrassment.

“My name is Sarah Cassidy,” Sarah declared, standing and walking towards A’luhr. “I-I have so many questions to ask you ... about ... everything! But to start, what did you mean when you said ‘our time grows short’?”

“Based on how much time seems to have elapsed since they first invaded your planet, it would be unsurprising if the new Krinis Queen were to hatch soon.”

“Queen? Like a hive?” Sarah asked. A’luhr sighed and leaned against the doorframe.

“It seems you have discovered less than I had anticipated,” she said in an exasperated voice. “Allow me to explain the perilous situation we are all in.”

Over the course of the next half hour, A’luhr conveyed what she knew about the tentacle aliens, which apparently were called the Krinis. The group asked questions here and there, but they got the gist of it pretty quickly. These parasitic beings were unable to reliably reproduce on their own, as their fertility rates were extremely low. To make up for this, they assimilated the local dominant sexual species and turned them into their mindless breeding slaves - often employing powerful chemical excretions to directly stimulate their prey’s pleasure centers.

The wombs and reproductive juices of their captives would be used to birth more of their kind and provide sustenance to the youth. Once enough of these life-giving liquids were harvested from their slaves, a queen would be born, who would leave the nest and head out to other planets to parasitize and repeat the process.