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“The Scourge!” the voice exclaimed. “Our ancient enemies!”
“Yes, we know they’re your enemies but we’re hiding behind Jupiter,” Seline said desperately. “It’s this big gas giant planet and it’s millions of miles from where the Scourge are. They’ve enslaved my people—the humans, I mean—in this universe. And so they’re sticking close to Earth which is my home planet—at least, in my own universe, anyway.”
“Hold for a moment.”
The voice was gone only a few moments this time.
“Commander Sylvania wishes to know if your people—the humans—are biologically compatible with the Kindred?” the female voice asked.
“Yes—in our universe,” Nox told her. “But I have calculated a 1 percent differential between this universe and our own, so I cannot promise you that they are compatible here.”
“What is the percentage of males verses females on Earth?” the voice asked.
“It’s about fifty-fifty—at least in our universe,” Seline told her. “Oh, and there are about eight billion people on the planet. At least on my Earth there are. There might be less in this universe—there’s no telling what the Scourge have done to Earth over here,” she added.
“I see.” The person on the other end seemed to be speaking to someone and Nox wondered if Commander Sylvania was standing over the subordinate’s shoulder listening to everything that was said and giving orders. He thought it was very probable.
“All right—send us your coordinates,” the voice said at last. “We will verify that you’re out of range of the Scourge Father Ship and if it is true, we will shortly be folding space to meet you.”
“Sending to you now,” Nox said, sending them.
“Thank you. Received.”
The viewscreen link went dead and Nox and Seline looked at each other.
“Why do you think they wanted to know the population breakdown?” she asked.
Nox shrugged.
“Probably the same reason the Kindred were drawn to Earth in our own universe—we are 95% male and so we are always looking for brides. Well, most Kindred are, anyway—Dark Kindred don’t usually look for a female to Bond with.”
“Sometimes, they find one anyway, though.” Seline gave him a shy smile and took his hand.
Nox felt his heart fill with a good emotion—possessiveness and tenderness mixed together-- as he looked at the beautiful female beside him.
“Yes—sometimes they do,” he murmured, squeezing her fingers gently. “They—”
“Oh—look!” Seline pointed at the viewscreen.
There was a red gash appearing in the blackness of space in front of them, near the curving side of Jupiter. As they watched, the gash widened horizontally until it looked like a bloody mouth. Then, suddenly, an enormous white ship flew out of it and the gash in space closed as quickly as it had opened.
“Wow…” Seline’s eyes were huge. “I’ve folded space and gone through the fold with you several times, but I’ve never seen a ship come through the fold—especially not such a big one.”
“Yes, the Mother Ship is quite impressive,” Nox murmured. He was looking over the immense vessel carefully, but he could see no differences between it and the Mother Ship he knew back home. Maybe the differences in this universe only extended to the name of the Commander. That would be ideal.
The viewscreen crackled to life once more and this time they could see who they were talking to. It was a woman with dark hair and golden eyes.
“This is Commander Lisandra, Communications Officer,” she informed them. “And you must be Commander Nox and Seline of Earth?”
“Yes—hello!” Seline said eagerly and Nox nodded as well.
“Very well—we have scanned your vessel and we detect no anomalies. You have permission to land in our Docking Bay,” the woman told them. “Someone will meet you and lead you to Commander Sylvania’s office.”
Then the viewscreen blinked off again and there was nothing to do but dock inside the huge, white Mother Ship.
FORTY-FIVE
SELINE
“Are you sure I look all right? I hate to show too much skin when we’re not on Yonnie Six.”
Seline looked down at herself, fretting with the dress she was wearing. It was the most modest one Kat had made for her, but it was still cut low in the top, showing lots of cleavage. It also had a split up one side, which showed a lot of thigh. But there was no help for it—the only other thing she could have worn would have been one of Nox’s uniform shirts and that wouldn’t have looked right at all, since he was so much bigger than her.
The color was good though—a deep blue which went well with her creamy skin and auburn hair. She just hoped these new Kindred wouldn’t think less of her for showing some skin. Of course, the Kindred of her own universe were very non-judgmental—it was one of the best things about them as far as Seline was concerned. But who knew about these new ones? All in all, she was feeling very jumpy and uncertain.
