Alien Captain's Bride - Scarlett Grove Page 0,3
when the first ship escaped from a destroyed Earth and made it to Mars, our people had to find a way to survive. Our ancient scientists had already started the experiments that would lead to the eventual annihilation of our species. To survive the Mantis invasion and our resettlement on Mars, we had to adapt. But that adaptation has nearly destroyed us.
The Xojor shoots through the darkness of space, charging toward the distant golden sun at the center of our solar system. The planet we once called home, the planet from which all life on Mars originated, is now as dark and red as Mars had once been.
I’ve seen this sight numerous times. I’ve explored the ruined Earth for artifacts and signs of life. After the ancient Earthlings’ failed attempt to vanquish the Mantis invasion with nuclear bombs, Earth and all her beauty were destroyed.
We approach the solar coordinates and hover in space outside the golden ring of the timegate.
“Initiate timegate,” I command.
The technology to create the timegate has been within our power for decades. But the time to use it has only just arrived. Time travel comes with a slew of dangers, a time paradox being the most damaging.
It took years to calculate the exact moment in time to leave and when to arrive in the past. If we have made a mistake, our entire species could disappear from existence in the blink of an eye.
If there were any other option, no one would suggest time travel. Not King Damious, not the scientists, and certainly not me.
But the genetic price we paid for our survival has been the slow and painful loss of our women.
The genetic manipulations that made male Martians large and well-muscled with stamina, speed, and strength—superhuman to our Earthling ancestors—has eradicated our females.
After five hundred years on Mars, we turned it from a barren desert with no atmosphere to a garden planet with blue skies, oceans, and forests. But that was when the genetic manipulations of the past first started to reveal their side effects. Fewer and fewer females were fertile. At first, it was only a few percent who could not bear young, but that percentage quickly grew larger.
A hundred years ago, ninety percent of females were infertile. Then the birth rate of females dropped from fifty percent to twenty percent to zero. Last year, the last female died giving birth to the last son of Mars.
Mars is now a paradise with everything we could ever need: everything except women.
The timegate technicians call out the intricate sequence, igniting the massive gate that took a decade to build. We have one shot at this mission. If we fail, we are all doomed.
Even with our vast understanding of genetic manipulation, we have yet to produce a viable fetus in an artificial womb. Perhaps it is because of our broken genetic code. Perhaps it is because we began harvesting eggs too late to salvage them. Perhaps we simply lack the technology to incubate a fetus outside a natural womb. All theories have been suggested, but the simple truth is, no one really knows why every experiment has failed. But we all feel each new failure as another nail in the coffin of our species.
Our only hope now lies beyond the timegate.
The circular gate begins to spin. The view of the sun and planets beyond it disappear from view as the gate comes to life. It is a blank void, like a black mirror that reflects nothing but our ignorance and our sins.
We’ve sent many unmanned missions through the gate. We have ample evidence that it is safe, but I cannot help but feel a wave of anxiety at the thought of flying through it.
“Timegate ready, Captain,” the engineering crew informs me.
“Good luck, gentlemen. See you on the other side. We embark on my count. Five, four, three, two, one…”
The ship shoots forward, charging toward the void. I hold my breath as the sharp obsidian tip of the Xojor pierces through. There is no going back. Our fate is sealed.
A cold shiver of panic drenches my senses as we pass through the void. The blackness slices my awareness in two, and I come out on the other side of the gate an instant later, heart pounding, dripping sweat.
A collective sigh of relief rises from the crew. I command status updates from the various departments: zero-point core, timegate engineering, life support. All report back at optimum capacity. The view outside is of the planet Earth as she had once been.