Page 8 of His to Mate

“I’m 48, Ann. Old enough to be your father!” He howled with laughter, but she just gaped at him.

“Seriously?” Her eyes scanned for the signs of age, gray hair or lines around his eyes and mouth, but there were none, just smooth, youthful skin, healthy and clean. “Fuck.”

“I’m an old man in your world. In mine, I’m no older than you really. Well, a little older, but not by much.”

“Fuck.” She could only stare at him. “You’re really 48?”

“I am, Ann. Does it bother you?”

“No, I just can’t believe you’re that old.”

“Oh, now who’s doing the insulting?” He smiled at her to let her know it was said in jest and looked out. “You might want to start looking around now. There might be people trying to get out our attention, or run from it.”

“Why do you capture people that don’t want to come with you?” It was something that had bothered her from the first contact she’d had with the aliens.

“Because, sometimes, people fear the unknown, and obviously we are unknown. As you know yourself, we’re not here to harm any of you. Just repopulate the planet and bring it back to life.”

“I see,” she said softly, her eyes on his face. He didn’t look like he was rehearsing a speech, or speaking from rote, just an honest statement that made it easier for her to sit there with him. “That’s why we tried to hide from you. That and we’d heard you were killing the wolves.”

“Only the bad ones.” He spoke softly, his eyes on what was around them too. Most of the landscape was empty, but here and there were dots of houses or buildings. Some were in good shape, but most were just shells of what had once been. It was sad, to see it all from up here. Down on the ground, the scale of it all was immense, but up here, where you could see how much had really been destroyed, it made her speechless.

“It’s so sad.” Ann finally broke the silence. “There used to be so much in the world, but now? It’s just so sad.”

“Not for the planet, or the other lives here. The ocean life, the wildlife on land. Even the plants and rocks are better off without man crowding the planet.”

“You’re right. Just before the cataclysm, I read an article online that said most countries were using up a year’s worth of supplies in less than five months. Some barely lasted two. It was unsustainable. Even if the cataclysm hadn’t happened, something would have broken sooner or later, and we’d have all been at war for goods or dying of diseases.”

“That’s truer than you know, Ann. We came here before, as I’ve said, a very long time ago. We left a few of our species here. We thought they’d interact with the local populations and maybe make their own colonies. We had no idea they’d breed with the people you call Neanderthals and populate the entire planet.”

“Bred like wild rabbits, did they?” She knew they had, but she’d wanted to lighten the mood more than anything.

“Yes, as you well know. There were 8.5 billion people on your planet when the cataclysm happened. That’s, well, it’s outrageous, really.”

“How so? Isn’t your planet overcrowded?” Her look of confusion was hard to hide. Hadn’t he said that at some point before?

“Not really, we only have 1 billion people on a planet of the same size. The last time your planet had only that many people was before the 20th century. In the 1800s. We’re also far more technologically advanced and we did all of that without the troubles and wars that your planet has faced.”

“How? You don’t have enough people…” her words trailed off as he shook his head.

“We use our resources more wisely, don’t engage in warfare like your people do, and value science above all other things. We missed a lot of what your planet had.” He was being delicate, she could tell, and she let him sidestep the issue he was avoiding. There was one major difference here, his people didn’t have a religion. Her planet had hundreds, if not more.

“I know what you’re saying.” She could understand it much better now. His people had been focused on science, and a way of life that made life better, not on subjugation and suppressing science.

“There’s a lake over there, and a little cove of trees. Shall we stop there? I had some food and clothes packed for us. We’ll be gone a couple of days, there’s bedding too if we have to stay in the transporter for shelter. And a tent.”

“Did you bring the kitchen sink too?” She asked with a laugh as he set the transporter down.

“No, but I thought about it.” He grinned and turned the machine off. “Let’s see what’s down there, shall we?”

“I’d like that.” She got out and walked around with him to a spot where the grass was short and not too far from the water’s edge. There was a nice little beach that would make it perfect. “It’s a lovely spot.”

“Not as lovely as you, Ann.” He said it as he spread a blanket down on the ground and sat down on it. There was a basket with food that had been tucked away in a cabinet, and a bottle of wine as well as one of water.

They ate homemade pimento cheese sandwiches, some fresh vegetables, and had a glass of wine as the sun rose higher in the sky. The day warmed up, and even the shorts and t-shirt that Ann had on were almost too much clothing. “I think I might go for a paddle around the lake.”

“You aren’t going to wait for the allotted hour?” he asked, his smirk in place.

“Just how much television did you watch before you came here?” She was amused at the amount of knowledge he had about her world, but it was hard to picture him sitting still long enough to watch that much television.