PROLOGUE
The Breeding Program
Ambassador Ramses of the Planet Aries
Outlined are the final 5 steps of our First Contact plan with the alien planet Terra I, known as “Earth” to its inhabitants. Every government shall send a report detailing the physiological, genetic, and anatomical data about their selected specimen before launch day in 14 planet rotations.
(1) Select an alien specimen well suited to enduring multiple alien environments not limited to temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius and 100 degrees Celsius. Specimens should expect harsh testing by the primitive species during captivity.
(2) Selected specimens shall be launched into Earth’s atmosphere on their assigned due dates and capsules should land within 400 meters of major scientific labs dedicated to studying astronomy or extraterrestrial life.
(3) Specimens should be trained to induce captivity if humans appear unwilling or terrified to capture them.
(4) While in captivity, specimens will begin making scientific observations about human behavior and are expected to explore every aspect of human behavior possible.
(5) When enough data has been collected after a period of 1/2 solar rotation (six Terran months) on Terra I, specimens will return to their home planet and send detailed reports to Alliance representatives.
Once these reports have been received, affiliated members of The Alliance will decide the best way to induce official First Contact with the primitive world.
RAMSES
ONE
JESSICA BENALLY
Our family has beenin Alaska fromwaytoo long. Dad’s family came from the mainland United States, far south of here, and moved up here because the jobs pay better and he always liked the winter, hunting, and fishing.
He didn’t much care aboutweliked.
Plus he liked being a drunk and beating down on my mom and appreciated the fact that here, neighbors minded their own and didn’t bother him too much for being the sort of guy who hit his wife.
I got out of his house as soon as I could. When I was sixteen I tried to run away first and shacked up next door with old Mr. Lewis, who was forty. Daddy came and beat me so bad and then dragged me back home.
I didn’t leave again ’til I was twenty and that time when daddy fought, I fought back. I raised my gun to him and told him I meant to leave, and even if I only moved across town to a tiny double wide that I shared with Tina and Nancy, I got some kind of independence.
Tina and Nancy had husbands when they first came up to this cold hellhole. Paddy, Nancy’s husband, was a drunk whothey found face down outside the bar two Christmases ago. He left her with ten thousand dollars of debt and a bar tab of $500 which Craig, the town bartender, forced her to pay.
She could barely afford the funeral and afterwards she turned to pills and turning tricks. I didn’t judge, plus she always paid her rent on time, so I minded her even less ‘cause of that. Tina did drugs too, but she mostly sold them to the guys with back pain from working on the rig and the hunters who needed an extra kick to keep them up while they caught elk and wolves.
They weren’t ideal roommates, but you didn’t have much choice out here. It takes a special kind of person to want to live in this kind of cold.
I did odd jobs mostly, helping folks where I could and working a shift at the bar a few times a week. I hustled money all week and came home to count the stash of cash under my bed. $100 was enough for my rent that week and then I had $50 left for food and booze. Perfect. I shoved $20 into my pocket and slipped into my boots, getting ready to head out and get myself a bit of liquor.
As I reached the front door, it swung open and Nancy stumbled in, drunk off her behind with a guy hanging on her arm. He was about twice her age and groped her ass as she giggled.
“Jeb, stop! Jeb! Not in front of my roommate.”
“Hi Nancy.”
“Hi, Jess. This is Jeb… Isn’t he cute?”
He wasn’t.
“Good afternoon, sir,” I mumbled, hoping this guy would stop leering at me.
“I’ll throw in another $30 if you get ‘er to join in,” he mumbled to Nancy.
She laughed and smacked him on the chest.
