CHAPTER TWO

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"Oh, this isn't good. This isn't good at all."

There was a windswept silence as the alien party, led by Vay, descended from their ship out into the surrounding desert. Coarse yellow sand stretched for miles along a flat plain, ending at the sharp edge of a mountain range on the horizon. Clouds of dust flared up as dirt devils danced about. Two or three dust clouds in particular seemed to be drawing toward them at an alarming rate, far too fast and straight for the sluggish, zigzagging whirlwinds. Heat radiated up from the earth in ripples of vapor that distorted the air before them. It took a very long minute for them to realize what they were seeing. By the time they understood, it was too late; five military hummers screeched to a halt just twenty yards in front of their ship, followed closely by their respective dust clouds. Half a dozen peculiar creatures, clad identically in olive drab, poured out of each of the vehicles and ran toward them, their weapons raised.

Vay cringed at the semi-automatic assault rifle that the nearest human was pointing at her. On instinct, she placed her hands protectively over her stomach. As if in response to her fear, the baby squirmed. Its panicked movement caused her to double over for a moment. Her insides writhed painfully from the combined movement of the baby and a sudden onset of morning sickness. For a horrifying instant, she thought they were going to die. There they were, minimally armed and surrounded by about thirty fierce and heavily armed beings, on a strange planet on the far side of the universe, with no clue what was to become of themselves. Vay Pleakley, the foremost 'expert' on this planet and its bizarre inhabitants, was at a loss. She could feel the eyes of her colleagues boring into the back of her head as they awaited her instruction. Blitznak! Daddy never told me that humans were hostile! Of course, he never told me they had only two legs, either. Knowing that everything that happened from this point on depended solely on her, Vay raised a hand in what she hoped would be taken as a friendly gesture, and slowly, every so slowly, moved one foot forward. The nearest human narrowed his eyes as his finger tightened around the trigger of his rifle. Vay dropped her hand back down over her stomach and made a face, hoping to project her feeling of fear to the strange being. She rubbed her stomach a little with one hand and watched as the human's eyes followed that motion. For a moment, there appeared to be a flicker of understanding on the man's face.

Perhaps he sees that I'm pregnant, she thought, hoping this would earn her party some compassion before the humans went ballistic and opened fire on them. One of the men in the background, obviously a commanding officer to the others, let loose a garbled string of nonsensical gibberish in his native language. Vay tilted her head, puzzled, as she tried to understand his words. The past two nights spent hooked up to the translator (a device which subliminally implanted the knowledge of alien languages into the brain during one's sleep cycle) had apparently not been as productive as she had hoped. There was so very little known about this planet's inhabitants, it was quite probable that they had picked up a different dialect, or perhaps a different language entirely, that was not of the particular region they had landed in. But when the human nearest her vocalized his reply, her antenna perked up. She understood him!

"No, sir. I don't think so. I think she's pregnant."

In her excitement, Vay leapt up off of all three feet and shouted "Yes!" startling several humans, and even the grand councilwoman, as she did so.

Suddenly calm, she looked directly at the man who had just spoken and said, very slow and clear, "Yes. I. Am. Pregnant."

The entire herd of humans stood staring at her in disbelief. Several were now murmuring amongst themselves, though not a single one bothered to lower their weapons. In fact, some looked more eager than ever to put a bullet in her belly. This she realized with a fresh pang of fear. She patted her stomach again, making big, circular motions with her hand.

"Baby," she said, a note of tenderness in her voice.

Racking her brain for the desired words, she turned a pleading eye on the nearest man and swept it across the entire group. "Please. Please. Do not - do not death. Not kill. Baby. Please."

The nearest man, the one who had spoken, lowered his rifle. There was a strange look on his alien face, though alien as it was, Vay was sure that she could interpret it as compassion. A moment of silence swept over them all with a hot wind, before the human commander barked out another string of gibberish which Vay again failed to understand. She knew she could have understood him if only he had spoken more clearly and slowly, as the other man had. All she knew was that the stunned look on this man's face following his superior's enunciation indicated something appalling. She had no time to wonder what had been said, for suddenly she was being advanced upon by three buff and fierce-looking humans. Petrified, Vay took three steps backward in retreat, one for each foot, and stumbled, falling flat on her patooki. As the men swooped down on her, she shrieked, curling up in a fetal position, her hands and head pressed protectively against her abdomen.

"NO! NEVER! NOT KILL BABY! NO!"

The rest of her shouts became an incoherent tangle of Turian and English. Hearts pounding painfully in her throat, Vay Pleakley waited for death to claim her. For countless long seconds she waited, and when it did not come, she moved her arm slightly in order to peek up at her assailants. Not a single one of them was paying any attention to her. In fact, all the humans appeared to have halted in their tracks and turned to look at something that was coming towards them. Hearing the distinct whir and vroom of a motorized vehicle, Vay sat up just enough to get a glimpse through the forest of human legs and see a shining black Ferrari pull up alongside one of the hummers. The thirty-odd military men stood straight and attentively as two figures emerged from opposite sides of the vehicle. Both humans appeared to be male, and both wore identical black suits and dark shades over their eyes. The larger of the two men, a very buff and intimidating male with dark skin, walked over to the commanding officer and began speaking to him in low tones. He pulled something out of his suit pocket, flipped it open, and flashed it. Vay saw a quick glint of gold and knew that it had to be a badge of some sort. Who was this man?

"CIA!" the dark man said out loud, turning to face not only the military, but the aliens as well.

"We'll take it from here."