Alien Salvation by Tracy St.John Read Free Book Online Page A

retrospect, Kalquor had not handled
its end of the conflict well either.
    It had all started with a virus
centuries prior. The virus swept through the Kalquorian people,
cutting down their numbers and rendering most females infertile.
The few female children born after that time were reproductively
damaged, the virus’ effects written into their very DNA.
    As fewer and fewer fertile women
reached adulthood, the males had been forced to cluster into clans.
Each clan consisted of one of each personality type: the Dramok, a
natural-born leader, the nurturing Imdiko, and the protective
Nobek. Three men to each woman still left many men unmated. Despite
these efforts, the species’ numbers dwindled until extinction had
loomed on Kalquor’s horizon.
    It was then that Kalquor had looked to
Earth. The shocking similarities between the two races had been
remarked on. Theories abounded they might have a common ancestry,
theories the fanatically religious Earth government had repudiated.
Hostile, Earth refused to entertain Kalquor’s desperate pleas for
compatibility tests. With extinction estimated to be only 300 years
away, Kalquor had acted. They tested an Earther female without her
consent and discovered the two species were indeed compatible for
breeding.
    Upon the discovery, Kalquorian clans
had kidnapped approximately 1500 Earther women and spirited them to
Kalquor. Kalquorian men worshipped their new Matara clanmates, and
for the most part, the repressed females had responded positively
to their change of status. Tipping the two worlds into full-fledged
war had been the Imperial Clan’s choice of an Earther Matara,
Jessica McInness. With one of their own on Kalquor’s throne, Earth
had responded with a declaration of war.
    The battles had nearly finished off
Bacoj’s people. Despite Kalquor’s advanced technology, the hordes
of Earther troops had come close to overwhelming them. The
Kalquorians’ desperate last-resort invasion had resulted in Earth’s
leaders setting off stockpiles of nuclear warheads under many of
the major cities. They chose to kill themselves and most of their
hapless population rather than submit to Kalquorian
rule.
    It had been a horrifying end to a
horrifying war. Kalquorians still reeled from the knowledge that
they had been instrumental in the decimation of the very people
they needed for salvation.

    Now all that could be done was to
rescue as many Earthers as they could find, to take them away from
their dying planet to start new lives among their former enemies.
The hope was to forge a new species from the remains of the
two.
    Lindsey led the group to a tall,
seemingly abandoned building. She picked her way carefully through
glass-daggered doors to enter an uncomfortably warm room. Little of
the refreshing salt-tinged breezes entered the rubble-strewn
environs.
    She stopped to listen carefully, and
Bacoj’s ears strained for sound too. All he heard was the distant
roar of the ocean. “Mom and Dad must be on the roof,” Lindsey said,
her voice approving. “It’s too hot to be indoors.”
    Bacoj agreed. He was starting to sweat
and wanted to be outside again.
    “This way,” she encouraged them,
holstering her gun. Bacoj and Japohn kept theirs at the ready.
Lindsey led them to a flight of stairs and started up, then paused.
She turned to face them.
    “Please don’t tell my parents what I
traded for the food.”
    Under Earth’s old regime, sex outside
of Church-approved marriage had been a death penalty offense. The
government was gone, but not all the fears it had incited,
apparently. Bacoj nodded his agreement for the clan.
    “No tell parents sex.”
    Lindsey nodded and resumed climbing the
stairs. Bacoj followed her with Vax behind him and Japohn bringing
up the rear, keeping an eye on the floor below to make sure they
weren’t followed.
    It grew hotter and hotter as they
reached the upper floors. The air seemed to gain in thickness,
making it hard to breathe. Fortunately, Lindsey