Project X
All Rights Reserved
© 2016 Luna Black
~*~
The atmosphere in the room was tense. Both parties were sitting uncomfortably across each other as they tried to abide by the rules of the peace treaty and the silence was becoming quite bothersome.
The Xrion leader was tapping his finger against the edge of the desk as he waited for the President to speak what was truly on his mind. They only met a couple of times per month due to the hostility that the humans presented, caused by their fear.
Jenks, the Xrion leader, was not bothered by President Goodhart's attempts at intimidating him. It bothered him quite a lot, in fact, but he wouldn't allow the annoyance to show. It was a surprise that they had not called for war once they asked for a land to inhabit, but the fear that would occasionally flash across their eyes whenever the Xrions were present was most likely the reason why they signed the peace treaty.
Not only did the President have to hand over a tremendous piece of land, but he also had to make sure that the Xrions didn't break their end of the deal. The United Nations were already antsy thanks to the extra-terrestrial presence in their planet and they placed the Americans in charge of the aliens.
Trent, one of the seconds-in-command of the Xrion leader, was growing impatient. He leaned towards the table, placing his palms on the furniture in an impassive expression and quietly muttered, "Your people are lucky that the Griods are not the ones inhabiting your puny land."
President Goodhart raised an eyebrow, interest and confusion flashing clear across his face. "The what?"
"The Griods," General Jenks repeated, glaring at Trent for mentioning one of the most dangerous races from their galaxy. He sighed, leaning back against his chair and elaborated, "As you might have inferred, we are not the only group that come from another galaxy. There are other races," he grimaced, "that are not as civilised and peaceful as we are."
"There are more of you," the president laughed, not finding it humorous at all. "Of course there are," he scoffed sarcastically.
General Jenks sighed, sliding his seat closer to the large circle table that was separating them and said, "We know that it is a very hard thing to ask your people. We would not even dare to ask, if we were not in dire need of it."
"You are asking me to force my citizens to reproduce with Aliens, the very same Aliens that they believe look like green little blobs."
"Your people lack imagination," Trent muttered dryly, ignoring Jenks' warning glares.
"You would not be forcing them," Xander, the other second-in-command, spoke up, "we do not want your people to feel more threatened by us than they already do. We are merely asking you to ask them to volunteer."
The President narrowed his eyes, not bothering to look at his new Vice President because he knew exactly what the man would say. Take the deal in exchange for protection. It was the only logical solution, but there was no way in hell that American females would volunteer to become reproductive machines; especially during that time when women empowerment and the twisted ideals of what should have been feminism were taking over.
"Listen General Jenks," The President sighed, "the American females don't want to be taken home to make children. This generation? They want to be viewed the same way a man would be."
Jenks frowned. "This generation? Was it not that way before?"
Xander shook his head, surprising the human leader as he said, "Throughout the history of Earth women were seen as child-bearers. They were not to leave their homes to work and earn money, but to make sure that the household was kept organised."
"Oh," his frown deepened, "that is certainly different than our customs, President Goodhart."
"However," Xander turned to look at the President, "our intent is not solely for breeding purposes. They are the only gender that can carry a child; we are not asking them to do the impossible. Their bodies are genetically perfect for that purpose; we would not be treating them for that only. The role of women in our culture was very respected. Their opinions in any matter was valued and they served to be great warriors."
President Goodhart chuckled, shaking his head and said, "You say that you aren't asking them to do the impossible, yet you are asking them to go with complete strangers and have children. That seems a bit delusional to me, honestly."
Xander sighed, slowly becoming aggravated by the human leader's misinterpretation of his words. "By not asking them the impossible, I meant that it is only possible for females to bear children."
"Anyway," He waved his hand dismissively, "how would this even work? Let's say, hypothetically, that I agreed to ask the American citizens to volunteer and that they did; what then? What's the process?" He was no longer looking at Xander, he felt that his rank was not so high that he would have known that information.
However, General Jenks motioned toward Xander and said, "Xander may explain it better than I seeing that he was the one that planned it all."
Xander cleared his throat, grabbing the President's attention and said, "Well, if your people agreed to help us, we would have a couple of requirements. The females that would essentially qualify to be our partners would have to be...intelligent. Not necessarily educated, but their morals should not differ from ours greatly." At his confused expression, the Alien cleared his throat again and said, "Let me explain, we would not want that female to simply want children and not care for them in exchange for the benefits that they would eventually receive."
"Okay," he replied slowly.
"Secondly, they must be fertile, seeing that we are asking them to bear our children. And thirdly, they must be single. We do not want any of the females volunteering to be partnered up with someone; that is considered very disrespectful in our culture and we believe that it is the same with yours."
President Goodhart nodded, tapping the desk with his pen. "That all sounds wonderful," he muttered, "but how will you determine all of this?"
"Through questionnaires. Once the females that have volunteered to help are known, they will be given questionnaires, that will not only help us determine if they fit the requirements, but it will also help us partner them up according to compatibility with our men. After we receive the completed questionnaires, we will put it through a database that will find compatible matches and then we will send them letters, notifying them of their departure to come live with us. That way, we will have a set date and they will be able to depart from their families, let their jobs know, et cetera."
The President tilted his head to the side, glancing over at his Vice President, Derek, and said, "What do you think?"
Derek shrugged, his facial expression showing his discomfort with it all and said, "I believe that we can ask the public if they would like to volunteer in exchange for protection against the people that you mentioned earlier."
"The Griods?" General Jenks spoke up, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow.
He nodded. "Yes, as you have mentioned before in our prior meetings, we are not technologically prepared for a war with your people. If you say that the Griods are dangerous, then we are better protected against them with your aid."
General Jenks nodded, standing up as the President did so and said, "We can definitely protect your planet against the Griods. Thank you for this, President Goodhart."
"Don't thank me just yet," he replied bitterly, "we have to see if the women want to do this."
Xander nodded his head at him respectfully and said, "We will be sending you documents with more detailed information, such as the benefits that they would essentially receive for participating in the programme."
The President turned to look at Trent, surprised that he has stayed quiet through it all and said, "Are you participating in this?"
"No," he scoffed, "I doubt that your females could handle what our people are into."
He raised a curious eyebrow, but didn't question him. "What about you?" He turned to Xander.
He nodded his head once, smiling. "I will be partaking in the programme."
President Goodhart chuckled. "Don't look so happy, you don't know what you're getting into." He stood next to Derek, waving his hand once in a dismissal and said, "But good luck."
~*~
Good luck, indeed, Xander. Good luck, indeed, haha. So what do you guys think of this? Does it explain a little better the confusion that some of you had over the kidnapping? This was how the "choosing" was supposed to happen, not by the kidnappings.
Also, in more bitter news, my laptop erased Word 2010 with the new (November 2015) Windows 10 update and I hadn't bought it ('cause it came with the laptop) and now I can't write. I'm freaking out because I can't write in Docs (I don't like it) and yeah. So as of now, I'm going to have to stop writing until I can find a free version of Word because I'm poor af, haha and I can't write in anything else that isn't Word, since I'm so used to the format. Ugh.