We Are NOT Alone

As they reached the top of the stairs and opened the door, Peter was the first to enter. Housekeeping had cleaned everything up so perfectly. “Maybe we should hire at least a housekeeper,” Peter whispered not wanting to wake up the baby. “Where’s M.?”

“I don’t know,” Josh whispered back, and then he got a look of sheer horror on his face and froze in his tracks and put his arm back to wave Peter away, but it was too late. Peter was not expecting Josh to freeze and he walked right into him pushing him forward into the living room where Muriel was plainly visible sitting there secured to a chair facing two ominous-looking, strangely dressed men. Peter instinctively handed Hunter to Josh.

She mouthed to them “I’m sorry, I couldn’t warn you not to come in here.”

Peter charged over, “What is the meaning of this.” The slightly taller of the two men, immediately pushed a button on his hand-held transponder and froze Peter into a catatonic state standing there stiff as a board.

“What’s going on?” Josh demanded protecting Hunter with all of his might.

“The Prince of the house of Björn Aqua will properly calm down,” the shorter man said and waved at him to take a seat. “Please do not force us to use force. We have been authorized.”

Josh sat down as instructed but spoke up anyway, “Who are you and what are you doing here.”

“All we be explained. Please remain calm.”

“Calm, no way, unfreeze my forever partner this instant.”

The taller one unfroze Peter whose stored kinetic energy, now being released all at once, caused him to roll and tumble over. He got to his feet.

“Please sit down, or you will give us no choice.” Peter complied and sat next to Josh. At that moment, the door opened of its own accord, and in walked two incredibly dashing and exquisitely-dressed men. They looked like they had arrived directly from Paris Fashion week. They were of nearly equal height but bore more resemblance to those of men in statues one sees in the museums of Europe than regular people. One had a very well-groomed beard and the other was clean-shaven.

“The room is secure your majesties.”

“Thank you, you may stand down,” the bearded king said.

“Please everyone, remain calm, all of your questions are soon to be answered,” the clean-shaven king said.

“By all means, please enlighten us,” Peter stated a bit too angrily still feeling violated and attacked.

“I am King Björn Ärlig and this is my partner King Aqua Fata. We hail from our home world, the planet Ama.” They both bow. “We apologize for that Peter. Unfortunately, we did have to authorize the use of fixation force only in the case of any threat of imminent danger.”

“Pardon me Kings whoever of wherever, but what are you doing here and what is going on!” Peter demanded having lost all patience.

“Peter, please let them speak,” Josh urged.

“Ama is located in what you call the Orion Nebula, Peter if that makes you feel any differently.” King Fata spoke.

“It doesn’t,” Peter said flatly.

King Björn continued, “Our kind has been visiting your planet for many hundreds of thousands of years. You have thought of us as gods due to our advanced technology. Of course, this will sound trite and straight from your science fiction because you have many great writers who have predicted this very thing based on the facts and relics we have left behind.”

“Yes, it sounds kind of familiar yet science ‘fictiony’,” Josh concurred.

“Yes, Prince, well we come now because our world, your home world, is in grave danger.”

“Why are you calling me Prince? This is my world.”

“Please do not be impatient, Crown Prince Joshua, allow your father prime to explain without interruption and everything will be understood,” King Aqua stated sternly. This noise caused Hunter to fuss a little; but, then, he went back to sleep after Josh hugged and cuddled him a bit.

“I shall continue then. The royal houses have destroyed our species’ genetic compatibility. In fact, no child has been born on our planet in more than one thousand years. A product of our own stupidity as we believed we could do better than nature in ensuring the abilities of our children. Via selective, pre-determined mating, cloning, and other techniques, we did, for a while, produce better and better versions of ourselves.” He paused.

King Aqua continued, “Better being a hugely relative term as it turned out, for every improvement, we realized too late there was a new flaw which we did not notice. Eventually, these flaws overpowered almost everything. The only thing keeping the few of us still alive was a fortunate mutation that allowed some of us incredible longevity.”

Peter could not help himself at this point. “Don’t you have any multi-media technology to make this whole story more visceral? I’m losing the point. What has any of this got to do with us except you keep referring to my forever partner as Prince? ”

“Silence,” one of the guards said and pushed a button on his transponder which put Peter on mute. “You were warned, human.”

Peter was getting very upset now and while his mouth might have been muted his body was not. He jumped up and ran at the guard ripping the transponder right out of his hand believing he was taking control of the situation and being the hero if only for a moment. The other guard pushed a button on his transponder. This one splayed Peter out like an X stuck on the ceiling on mute. Peter released the transponder which floated to its guard.

“Put him down, gently, at once,” Josh commanded, the guards looked at the Kings who nodded and complied. The shorter one pushed a button on his transponder which allowed Peter to descend slowly onto his feet. Once released, Peter realized there was nothing he could do to match their power. He said back down next to Josh.

King Aqua said, “I shall try to do better.”

King Björn said, “You did very well, Fata, allow me to continue.” King Aqua nodded.

“Unfortunately, also, the panic on the planet led to many conflicts that subsequently plunged our world into war, chaos, and despair. The royal houses of Björn and Aqua (your mythology knows us as the Norse and Roman gods), drafted up a plan to prevent some wars as we were among the most robust of the survivors numbering still in the thousands while the number of others had dwindled to the hundreds at most.” King Björn explained. “The two crown princes were betrothed to each other, and sent to Enlil (earth) on a clandestine experimental mission to see if the environmental factors could allow for us to conceive a child.”

“Us?” Josh interrupted. “You two were the crown princes?”

“Yes, my son,” King Björn said then continued, “At first, of course, we were not in love, in a strange world, feeling the weight of this mission to save our planet, but as time wore on, we bonded and fell in love with each other as we are to this day.” He smiled at Fata who smiled back.

King Aqua spoke next, “Whether it was because of love or the environmental factors, we could not be sure at the time, however scientifically improbable, we did conceive a child, Prince Joshua, and that child is you.”

Peter looked at Josh. All of a sudden waves of emotion and past history flashed in his brain like a kinetic thunderstorm. “No wonder,” Peter said. “I always thought you were either a prince or an angel!”

Josh blushed. “I am neither, trust me, this is bullshi…”.

Peter shushed Josh, “Not in front of the baby.” For some reason, this sort of broke the ice and everyone calmed down a bit, and chuckled, though the heightened urgency of the affair remained.

“Ärlig, we must hurry,” King Aqua interrupted the mood.

King Björn sighed, then spoke again “The news of the birth of our child, however, spread quickly, through spies, mercenaries, and gossips. Others came as soon as possible to try it.”

King Aqua picked up, “Alas, only we were successful. Thus putting our lives and yours at risk. The other remaining elders of houses and of Kings of Ama feared that Ama would be lost and overtaken by our houses while the rest of our civilization and their cultures would be wiped out entirely.”

“So, assassins were sent to destroy us and our child. We had no choice but to hide you with a local family and flee the planet.” King Björn paused looking old and weary suddenly. “Without the cluster of our biosignatures, our infant son would be nearly impossible to locate given the close proximity of our biosignatures to that of humans.”

King Aqua finally blurted out, “Joshua, you are our son, and the son you now hold in your hands born with Peter, is our grandson.”

“How is it possible?” Peter blundered in. “We are genetically compatible with your species?”

“Your majesties, allow me,” Muriel spoke up after remaining quiet all this time.

“As an expert,” King Björn motioned for her to take over.

“Yes, Peter, because it was our Aman ancestors who seeded Enlil ‘earth’” she used air quotes “with humanoid beings in the first place. After the great meteor strike wiped out the great Enlil Mus ‘dinosaurs’, Enlil became quite suitable for humanoid life. Our various houses staked claims and began seeding the planet here and there. As the population grew, however, and to prevent the problems found on Ama, a wise leader of the Supreme Council proposed that we stop migrating, and leave our descendants to develop on earth unencumbered by our technology and our wrong thinking. Little did he realize at the time, how crucial, prescient, and wise were his decisions.”

“Excellent explanation, Aqua Mur-atEnlil,” King Aqua mentioned.

Josh and Peter looked flabbergasted. “M. you have some explaining to do!”

King Aqua intervened, “Aqua Mur-atEnlil, or Muriel as you know her, is my cousin, Prince Joshua.”

King Björn continued, “She volunteered at great cost and personal sacrifice to come and look over you at the very next interlocution of the portals.”

“So, not to get too personal, but is it safe to say you two are gay and had this baby Joshua?” Peter interrupted still processing an enormous amount of new information with his brain churning through tens of thousands of years of history trying to make sense of it all.

Muriel fielded this one as well, “Yes, Peter, on Ama there is only one female birth in 100,000, and we are generally infertile. So, what you think of as males are our predominant reproductive gender. In the case of evolved humans, we gather due to a mutation that was supported as it forces greater genetic diversity, the percentage of females increased over time, as did the reproductive processes and fertility. Therefore, Josh, not being actually human and being born of two Amans, possesses our anatomy, and was therefore easily able to be impregnated by a modern human such as you, hence baby Hunter was conceived. Although, he too is the first known case of an Aman / Human hybrid.”

“Correct,” continued King Aqua. “Which makes him all the more important because he may hold the key to restoring the lost population on Ama.”

King Björn took over the conversation, “Grand Crown Prince Hunter, your baby, therefore, must be protected at all costs. Many would first like to end his life outright because as it stands, he is the third in the line of succession to the throne of our houses. This certainly gives our houses the longest chance of surviving all other Amans on the planet and his descendants to rule the planet. Of those that remain which by now are only six other houses, they have no heirs in our generation. Our laws would give him full reign over everything even if the planet is witnessing the end of our presence on it as we know it. They would never stand to see it held in its last glimpse of our power by your child, a hybrid no less. Meanwhile, others would rather cut him apart molecule by molecule to study why he exists at all.”

“My gosh,” Josh exclaimed suddenly growing even more intensely frightened and territorial about protecting Hunter than any regular father.

“Indeed, Prince Joshua,” King Aqua paused, “Neither scenario is good for you nor Grand Crown Prince Hunter.”

“Unfortunately,” King Björn continued, “Our enemies can more easily locate us using these transponder devices due to the density of our biosignatures. With six biosignatures in one location, we will pop up as a big red dot. So, you can see the problem!”

“I can see the solution,” Peter said, “with all due respect, you guys, Kings, my apologies, thanks for coming, nice to meet you, time to go back to your Ama. It seems like we can probably hide out without any problems just like Josh and I have been doing for years.”

“An understandable and rational conclusion, Peter.” King Björn reasoned.

“I beg your pardon, your Majesty,” Muriel interrupted. “Shouldn’t Peter have a royal title now that he is forever partnered to Prince Joshua?”

“Indeed, my mistake.” King Björn, “Peter, not just because of your years of love for our son and heroic dedication to him and his life, you shall be granted the title of Prince Peter Duke vid-Björn Aqua.”

Peter blushed, “Thank you, King Björn, I am honored. That’s a mouthful, but it has a nice ring to it.” Peter looked at Josh who in turn looked like he was half proud and still half very confused as to what was going on.

“This is a vast amount of knowledge to absorb in such little time. For that we are sorry. Our technology is superior, but the distance between the planets is vast, and there is not much time left,” King Aqua attempted to apologize while moving things forward.

“Princes, Prince Hunter stands as the only hope for the survival of our people. Therefore our suggestion is that we take him back to Ama and keep him safe.”

“When we know more and ascertain if he can be the beginning of a new era for Ama as we hope, you both can come to Ama and visit him.” King Björn’s final words hit the room like a dropped shoe.

“You’re saying you want to take him back and study him. No way.” Peter said firmly standing his ground.

“You’d rather he be in mortal danger here? Peter, that does not sound like you.” Muriel argued.

“No, we can protect him ourselves thank you! Josh back me up!”

Josh held Hunter more tightly than he ever had. “Of course, we can protect him ourselves. And no, we’re not going to be separated from him. We just got him, and no one is going to raise him but us.”

The transponder in the hand of the taller guard emitted a cyclical pulse with five sonic blasts accompanied by piercing vibration enough to get everyone’s attention.

The taller guard spoke, “Your majesties, the window of exchange is starting to close. We have fewer than five Enlil minutes to complete the transfer. The next window is 7 Enlil years away.

“We are sorry, there is no more time for discussion. You two will remain here and produce more children, as many as possible. The Grand Crown Prince Hunter will return to Ama with us. Our decision is final.” King Björn spoke his edict.

“M., Peter, we can handle this, right? We can protect him! We’re not going to let Hunter off Earth.” Josh started to panic. This was unfamiliar territory for him. This was all terrible, strange, unwelcome news at once. He had read the “Princess Diaries” and this was not how things were supposed to go. He looked positively desperate.

“No way!” Peter put his foot down. “Sorry, he may be the fate of an entire planet, but we are his parents and we say ‘hell no’!”

At that moment darkness flooded the room causing confusion and chaos.

“Joshua give us the baby now,” King Aqua shouted. “Our enemies are upon us. Guards grab the child and initiate extraction sequence delta delta alpha.”

Peter shouted, “Josh, give me Hunter now, trust me!” Josh’s instincts were to hold on to Hunter will all his might, but he also trusted Peter with every last fiber of his being. Peter shouted again, “Mitaka, Ānuenue wailele!” Blinded in total darkness, Josh honed in on the sound of Peter’s voice and passed Hunter into two hands hoping beyond hope that they were Peter’s.

“Give us the child,” Peter heard the voice call to him from within the darkness like the voice of a sinister serpent. Instantly, his brain remembered that night in the alley. This was the same voice that had scared the hell out of him. He complied and handed over the baby in his hands. In a flash, the darkness disappeared for all to see Peter’s final act of delivering the baby into the hands of the enemy. At that same instant, the transponder devices erupted in an energetic wave as they had been preprogrammed to do. Everyone in the room shouted “Noooooooooooooo!” at the same time but for very different reasons. Those unaffected by the wave remained motionless for ten seconds and bore witness to the time and space-bending portal that shimmered and transported the alien Kings and their guardians away.

As one by one their bodily functions restored, they each stood still now frozen with fear and disbelief.