'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 58: Reunion

“Well, girls, homeward bound,” said Laura, pouring them all some more of the aliens’ excellent Chablis.

“I’ll say this for them,” said Gemma, “they do keep an excellent cellar. It’s one thing I’m certainly going to miss.”

“This vintage certainly travels well,” added Laura, laughing.

She, Gemma and Amisha were sitting in what they had come to refer to as the VIP Lounge, with its oh-so comfortable chairs and the panoramic view of space. It was the third day after the destruction of the alien ship and, true to their word, the aliens had set course for Earth, a journey - they had painstakingly tried to explain - that would take less than the outward one due to a complicated gravitational theorem. “Going downhill, I suspect,” was how Amisha interpreted it. Whatever the explanation, they would be seeing Earth in just over a week.

But the first two days had been difficult. 

Kate, exhausted and more than a little traumatised by her ordeal, had just wanted to sleep.The three other women had looked in on her from time to time, sometimes finding Matias sitting quietly near her bedside. Apart from this, the aliens had kept very much to themselves and were clearly distressed at the destruction of the other ship and the deaths of their comrades. They sometimes met at meal times, but never stayed long, hardly talking to the women, or even to one another. It was never easy to read their expressions, but the women half suspected they were embarrassed by the dangers into which they had plunged their captives. Not to mention the threat to Earth. 

On this subject they had said very little other than to reassure the women that they believed Earth was safe, the secret of its discovery having died with the other ship. 

“But they traced you once,” Gemma had asked, “what’s to stop it happening again?”

“We plan to leave the Solar System,” Irvn explained, “to get as far away as possible.”

“But where will you go?” asked Laura, surprised to find how much she minded what happened to Teo, thinking about the bleak future he and the others faced, alone and forever running.

“One possibility we’ve considered,” said Teo, “is to return to Sacmis, in secret, and join up with others who feel as we do. Perhaps a proper embassy might then be sent to Earth and - ” he hesitated, “ - women could be invited - freely - to join us.”

After he said this, there was a long silence broken by Amisha, who burst out laughing.

“Of course. You could set up a dating site - like Tinder,” she hooted.

“Alien Dates,” added Gemma, giggling. “It can’t fail.”

The laughter had been what was needed and even though it was at the men’s expense they smiled along with the women.

“Seriously guys,” said Laura, “you have a lot going for you. I can genuinely see how many women might be totally intrigued, fascinated.”

“But not you?” asked Teo quietly.

To which Laura had said nothing, turning away rather than meet his eyes.

Now, the day after this ice-breaking meeting, as Amisha, Laura and Gemma sat alone in the VIP Lounge, thoughts of what they would do after returning to Earth occupied them all.

“I guess it’ll be back to the Law,” said Laura. “But certainly not back to the jerk called Jake,” and she mimed quotation marks in the air.  And how about you, Amisha?”

“I guess it will be back to Afghanistan,” replied the Indian girl. “After I’ve seen my family. I really hope they bought the messages these guys sent them.”