Chapter 215

While Courtney was in the sleep state induced by the blocking equipment, Art, Sandra and Bobby left the room. The helmet chimed and Jeff lifted it from Courtney's head. She blinked her eyes open, looked around her, then turned to Jeff, who was again standing behind her. "I'm ready whenever you are," she blurted, tension apparent in her voice.

Diana broke in with, "It's finished, Courtney."

"But ... What's finished? Nothing has happened." Then she remembered what Jeff had said. "Oh," she sighed, blushing when she realized she had acted just as he had said she would.

"You ready, Matt? It might be more comfortable if you stretched out on the couch..." Jeff offered.

"I'll just slide down and lean my head on the back here." Then to his wife, "Hon, keep me from falling over, okay?" he said, sliding down some and leaning slightly into her. "Do it, Colonel."

"Jeff," the Prime absently corrected again as he placed the thin helmet on Matt's head and activated the equipment.

The SAC was instantly in a deep sleep. "Did I do that?" Courtney asked, looking at her husband's slack countenance.

"We all do that, or did," Diana responded.

Courtney let out a sigh. "The more I see, the more I believe that you people really are aliens..."

Diana and Jeff exchanged a worried glance, and the Queen came over and knelt in front of Courtney, reaching to take one of the young woman's hands. How can I convince her? The man she loves and trusts told her that a group of invisible warriors with super weapons came to rescue her husband during that terrible storm. They annihilated a group of mercenaries in a matter of minutes, then marched up a ramp to disappear again, taking the mangled bodies of the mercenaries with them. Then we fly her out here in a helicopter that doesn't make any sound, to see a man who has fourteen wives. Now she sits with an alien in her lap who we tell her can heal, and Art, who she knew was severely injured only a few days ago, is obviously completely healed. Then we tell her she needs to be blocked, put a thin helmet on her head, and a moment later, at least to her senses, we tell her the blocks are in. Now with the same helmet on her husband's head, he's instantly asleep. Shit, she still hasn't been told there's a sentient starship sitting in our back yard. And, oh yeah, it's invisible, too. No friggin' wonder she won't get off the alien kick.

Diana locked eyes with Courtney. Screw it. I would think we're aliens, too. But now I can talk to her. Aloud, "We are not aliens, but Jeff and his team have been to alien worlds. Then her sense of humor kicked in. "And, Baby, as they say, 'you ain't seen nothin' yet.'"

Courtney stared at a grinning Diana, the absurdity of the situation sinking in as an answering grin began to touch her own lips. The Queen quickly moved up to sit next to Courtney, putting an arm around her to hug her, causing Matt to slip toward them alarmingly.

Jeff, still standing behind Matt, put a hand on the agent's shoulder to stop his sideways slide as the women broke into gales of laughter. He knew Courtney probably wasn't nearly as amused as she sounded, and he worried that there might be a tad of hysteria in her laughter, but Diana seemed to have somehow diffused the situation, at least, for now.

After Matt had awakened, Diana freshened their coffee and they all eventually finished their drink as the Prime and his clan Queen began to tell some of their long story. " ... so, much of the technological advances in recent years have been the result of the General's scientists' adaptations of off-world technology. Just about any marked advance in science that you can think of has a direct link to the General – hidden, granted, but there. And ... many of the biggest tech companies around the world are owned – indirectly, of course – by General Whitworth."

"Shit," Matt whispered almost to himself, then louder. "It makes sense. I've read more than one article about how quickly our technology has advanced in the last thirty years. One of the authors said it was flat out impossible for us to do that. Others have come up with weird explanations as to why we suddenly began to understand things we never thought of before. Crap, this makes ... sense. A weird kind of sense, true, but I'm beginning to think it sounds logical. And this block thing..."

"Is the General's way of ensuring that knowledge of the portal and all the accompanying information never gets out to the public. If it did, some crackpot leading a nation would decide that the portal needed to be radioactive dust. Even if that didn't happen, there would be many who would be jealous of the portal and want to take it over. At best, it would be run by an international committee representing governments around the world. Can you imagine the United Nations running a portal to the dimensions?"

"Now that is a scary thought," Matt said with a chuckle. "So the General has kept everything for himself?"

Jeff sighed. "I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong. He lives much as his troops do. Oh, his home is a little better, but certainly nowhere near what you're sitting in right now, and to be fair, his home is probably quite a bit less than what a typical General usually has. He still wears the same uniform and eats the same food as his people. And yeah, he's a dictator, if you will, but then again, that's debatably the most efficient type of government there is, if ... it doesn't go to the head of the ruling person. You'll meet him tomorrow, and I'll let you two make your own decisions about him."

Jeff nodded to the Healer still on Courtney's lap, the young woman having continued to unconsciously stroke the little alien. "Now it's time for her," Jeff said with a nod.

"It ... uh, she really can heal people?" Courtney asked, her voice tentative as she tried to digest what she had heard.

Diana, sitting beside Jeff on a love seat facing the new Alpha and his mate, leaned a little forward to speak more directly with Courtney. "She can do far more than heal anything wrong with a person. She can enhance that person – us – all of us. Your mate – your husband – is an Alpha. Jeff felt him in Georgia and knew. Alphas have hidden abilities. Abilities that we think were once part of the species, at least for certain individuals. These atrophied abilities, well, some of them at least, can be brought back. That's what Little One thinks, anyhow. In addition to that, any of us that Little One enhances will live for a very long time. An enhanced person's body will function far better than we could have once imagined. To say that you will feel better and have a much more efficient brain and body is ... an understatement. Your cells will reproduce – perfectly. There will never be any cancer, or heart problems, or disease – nothing like that. Our bodies and brains won't age, ever. Think about that."

Courtney's face showed doubt. "You're saying we will live forever?"

But Diana was shaking her head. "We're not immortal. Statistically speaking, something will eventually kill us, but we won't die from our bodies giving out; when we die, it will come from some exterior means."

"And all this comes from this small ... alien sitting in my lap?"

"She is one source. There's another that we'll talk about later."

"Leap of faith, again," Diana said with a smile as she nodded her head. "There's a two-person recliner over there. You two can take a nap with Little One. When you awaken, there will no longer be any doubt about her healing abilities. You'll feel better than you could imagine – ever. Or you can wait for bedtime and she'll do it when you sleep."

Courtney sat up straight, sucking in a breath. "That's the reason all the women here are so ... beautiful, and the men..."

Jeff broke in with, "Our women were always beautiful, but yes, a perfect brain and a perfect body mean just that – perfect. There aren't any blemishes or imperfections of any kind. That's not restricted to just an occasional mole removal or a breast lift. The body becomes perfect over a short period of time as the enhancement progresses. And there's something else I need to tell you about. If you concentrate on the age you want to be, your body will achieve that over a period of time. It isn't instantaneous, but it's pretty quick. I can't imagine either of you wanting to be a different age, but if you decide later on that you want to be, it's possible."

Courtney stared at Diana, "That's..."

" ... the reason my mom looks so young, as do I."

"And there are absolutely no side effects to this?" Courtney queried.

"Well..." Diana began.

But Jeff spoke up. "I messed up when I first brought the Healer to our home in Georgia to heal Diana's broken ankle. Little One wasn't familiar with human beings. She enhanced Diana, or at least started the process when she healed the ankle. The Healer didn't have much power then, so it took the enhancement process a long time to really get going. But ... something happened when the process began. Something that I hadn't planned for, and Little One didn't have enough knowledge of our species to anticipate..."

"What my loving husband is trying to do with his stumbling narrative," she said, squeezing his hand and smiling at him, "is to protect my ... image. What Little One did enhanced everything about Arlene and me – including our, uh, sexual desires, I guess you could say. Arlene and I had little resistance, and we didn't realize it..."

"A bully in the neighborhood took advantage of that," Jeff interjected, overriding what Diana was about to say. "He won't do it again," he finished, grimly.

Seeing the look on Jeff's face as he remembered caused a tremor to run down Courtney's spine. She wondered if the bully had suffered much before he died.

"I didn't kill him," the Prime said, guessing what Courtney was thinking. The soft chuckle that Matt gave out almost under his breath only added to Courtney's imagination. She had no doubt that Jeff wished he had killed the bully, and wondered just what Jeff had done to the guy.

The Prime continued with the theme of the conversation. "Little One is more cognizant of our bodies now, but we want the two of you to be aware that your sexual desires will be enhanced, and ... your sexual ... uh, abilities as well."

Courtney's eyes widened. "You're saying that..."

"Yeah," Diana said with a grin. "There are other reasons why an Alpha usually has more than one mate. Did any of the women you've met since you've been here appear to be sexually frustrated? Don't answer that," she laughed. "But I can tell you with certainty that none of them are. And ... if you think you've enjoyed sex before ... Well, you really haven't."

"This isn't going to turn me into a nymphomaniac, is it?" Courtney worried aloud.

"No. No," Diana laughed. "And now that Little One understands us, the only man who will really attract you is your Alpha. Oh, you will certainly notice other Alphas, but your mate's pheromones and his mental attractants will be all you need or want. And before you even think of it, no, we're not like a bunch of zombies following our man around. We're a loving family, and we women have minds of our own."

"But how can you ... I mean, how can you share your husband?" Courtney blurted out. "Didn't you get mad when he brought other women home?"

"Court," Matt admonished.

"Viable question," Diana quickly responded. "But ... actually, I'm the one who instigated Jeff taking our other wives."

"'Our?'" Courtney questioned.

"Yeah, we're all married to each other. They're my sister-wives." At Courtney's look, Diana laughed and quickly went on. "Oh, don't even think that. I'm not gay, or bi. I can't even explain what I am, but rest assured that I'm the one who insisted that Jeff have other women."

"But fourteen?" Courtney blurted before she realized it.

"There are a lot of things that you don't know about Alphas, and Jeff will teach your husband some things that you'll love. Should you decide that you want other women for him, he'll be able to take care of them – and you – with no problem at all. The decision for him to have more wives is one of the things that will make a change in your body. One of those changes will help to convince your sister-wives that you're a Queen."

"A Queen?" Courtney got out, knowing by the sound of Diana's voice that she was serious. "You mean something like a hive queen that bees have?"

A startled look passed over Diana's face before she burst out laughing. "I ... I don't think so, but your sister-wives will recognize you as their Queen, and there will be other obvious signs, as well. Signs that both you and your husband will like very much, I suspect."

"Signs?"

"Ummm. Why don't we wait for that part of the discussion until after Little One enhances the two of you? Jeff will have some things he can talk to Matt about, and I'll talk to you about some changes in your body, and other changes you will have, should you become a Queen. But I won't lie to you; you might not be Matt's Queen. It has a lot to do with your attitude on certain things, and more ... The decision has to be yours. You don't have to share your mate. That's up to the two of you, but as you have seen, the Alphas here have more than one wife, and I've yet to see an Alpha's wife who isn't pleased with her position, whether she's a Queen or not."