She opened her mouth to say, “Well, thank you very much but I suppose you’d best take me home now,” when a voice suddenly filled the cabin.
“Monstrum Ship One, I have an urgent communication for you” it said and a face flickered onto the viewscreen.
It was another feline face, Em saw, but this one looked rather more like a tiger with black stripes and rich and orange and white fur with black stripes. The features were mostly humanoid but with a slightly broader nose and a split upper lip, just like Rarev’s.
“Chief Commander, the situation is dire!” he exclaimed.
8
“What is it, Communications Officer Torl?” Rarev demanded of the Tigris Monstrum. He rose smoothly from his crouch beside Em’s chair and stared intently at the viewscreen.
“Chief Commander, the slits to the Darkling’s ‘verse have opened again,” the other Monstrum growled in a low, throaty voice. “We fear an attack on the Earth is imminent and our supply of Yillium is dangerously low!”
As he spoke, Rarev did something to the viewscreen so that only half of it showed the tiger man. The other half of the split screen showed a long green gash in space, opening just above the Earth.
Em’s heart grew cold as she watched it widen and the ugly black forms of the Darklings beginning to pour out.
“Send out the fleet!” Rarev roared urgently. “We must head them off before they attack the Earth!”
“Acknowledged, Chief Commander,” the Tigris Monstrum growled.
Suddenly the sky was filled with golden ships, all of them whizzing towards the Earth to head off the ravenous Darklings. They swarmed the sky over the blue-white globe as Em and Rarev watched.
The battle didn’t take long. Rarev used the viewscreen so that they could see all of it—watching the different green gashes above the Earth in turn. Em watched as the Darklings poured out and the Monstrum Kindred ships shot at them, turning the horrid things into so many pretty blue sparkles and dust.
At last, to her relief, the evil enemy hoard seemed to have had enough. The few remaining Darklings rushed back into the slits, which irised closed again.
“Communications Officer report,” Rarev barked as the golden ships began flying home to the Monstrum Mother Ship.
The viewscreen flickered and the tiger man appeared once more.
“Chief Commander, the threat has been neutralized—for now,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have used the last of our Yillium. And if the Darklings follow the same pattern they did in our verse, their next attack will be soon. They won’t give up until those damn slits close completely and the Goddess herself knows when that will be.”
“Understood.” Rarev’s leonine face was grave. “Very well, inform Captain Storn and his new bride, Mia, that they will be needed for an urgent mission on Rigellen Five. I’ll brief them as soon as I return to the Mother Ship.”
The tiger man frowned.
“But Chief Commander, I’m afraid Captain Storn and his bride are away from the Mother Ship at the moment. They went on what the humans call a “honeymoon” to O’ah Prime. They are completely unreachable, as the O’ah people do not allow any kind of electronic or digital communication or technology on their planet.”
Rarev swore in a low, guttural language that sounded something like German but wasn’t.
“Very well,” he said. “Stand by for a moment.”
He pressed a button which evidently muted the viewscreen and looked at Em.
“You will no doubt consider this a rude question, but is there any chance you might be with child at this moment?”
Em stared at him blankly.
“I’m sorry—did you ask if I might be pregnant?”
Rarev nodded.
“Exactly. I don’t smell another male on you but scents can fade and your own scent is so warm and sweet it might be blocking that of a male’s. Also, I can tell you’re on the verge of your Second Mating Season—early pregnancies have been known to happen at that time”
Em shook her head. Second Mating Cycle? What was he talking about?
“I can assure you, Chief Commander Rarev, there is no possible way I could be ‘with child,’” she said icily.
Besides the fact that she hadn’t had any sex since well before Nigel left her, (he’d professed headaches and other illnesses but only because he’d already been cheating on her with his secretary,) there was also the little matter of her Menopause—the unwanted and unasked for early Christmas gift—which she was currently experiencing.
But of course, Em wasn’t about to say any of this to the arrogant Monstrum Commander. He didn’t need to know about her sad lack of a sex life and he probably wouldn’t even know what “Menopause” was. A man his age wouldn’t need to know what a woman her age was going through.
Rarev only nodded briefly in response to her statement and un-muted the viewscreen.
“Communications Officer, please alert the Transport Crew that we need space folded to Rigellen Five at once.”