Chapter No.48 Luck

You have to pay to play.

The next day we arrived at the cloaked planet and began the slow zero-insertion procedure to get past their cloaking shield. We prayed that they would allow us to come into their inner sanctum instead of destroying us. After the twenty-minute-long procedure, we entered the planet's atmosphere and achieved orbit.

"We'll go down in a shuttle with Alice and Ellen," I told Judy.

"The shuttle is ready, Jason."

As before we flew down to an open area in a plaza that contained a transparent aquatic figure fountain. Not long after we landed, two of the aliens approached. Molly and I came out of the shuttle and met them.

"Greetings," I said. "We've returned to see how you're coming along with the embryo experiments."

"We have succeeded in producing a more modern human," one of them said.

"That's wonderful. Another reason we've come back is to find out if you have any of the embryos left."

"Come, and we will discuss your needs," the alien said.

As before, we went with them to a transparent building and what appeared to be a meeting area; although, it was difficult to tell what they considered it.

"We have created new embryos that we believe are more representative of the human species," the alien said. "We will show you our progress."

We followed the two aliens to an elevator that propelled us rather rapidly to the top of the building where we boarded a flying machine to travel to their zoo complex.

The human section of the zoo had been expanded and the new inmates were definitely more human looking. In fact, they were indistinguishable from modern humans.

"Yes, they are definitely more like what we remember," I said.

"We will provide you with twelve embryos that will produce this version of the species," the spokesperson alien said.

"We are most grateful," I said, adding a nod.

After a few minutes, an alien came out carrying our original cryogenic container. I took it and handed it to Alice. She could carry it with no trouble even though it weighed a hundred kilograms. That demonstrated to me that these aliens were strong despite their fragile appearance. Although, I didn't have much problem handling the container. Was that because I was also strong?

After returning to the building, we offered our good byes and returned to our shuttle. The aliens didn't seem to be the least bit disturbed by our presence. I believe that this was because we acted in a civil manner and demonstrated no outward signs of disgust with their intelligent species zoo.

We experienced no problems in leaving the cloaked planet, but the entire event disturbed both of us.

"I don't like what they're doing," Molly said. "They've enslaved intelligent beings for their amusement."

"Yes, I don't like it either, but we're doing something similar."

"Yes, but we're not doing it for amusement."

"True, but it's still as if we're playing god."

"I thought that repopulating Earth was your passion," she said.

"It is, but now I'm not sure that it's a good idea."

She frowned. "Why not?"

"These humans that we're inserting onto Earth don't have any idea of what happened on the planet." I pointed to her and me. "We're the only humans that know what Earth was like before the collision event, and we're no longer human. Oh, I suppose that these humans might find archeological artifacts that would make them wonder about what was here, but they'll never know what it was like."

"Maybe it's better that they don't know what took place here. Earth's history is not exactly a fairy tale. It's brutal and ugly."

I nodded. "That's true, but it is totally human. What we're introducing to Earth is part alien."

She sighed. "I suppose we have no other choice. All of the original human population was destroyed . . . except for us, that is."

"Yes, and we will be around long after humans and most other intelligent species are long gone."

She flashed a confident smile. "There is one way that we could prolong their existence."

I tilted my head. "How's that?"

"If we put them on the Helios station, we could move it out further away from the sun as it ages. Eventually, we could move the station to another star, one that's younger. There are plenty of new stars being created in our galaxy."

"That would only prolong the inevitable," I said. "The universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. Eventually, there will be no stars or even black holes."

"I don't think that will be the case," she said. "I think that the fact that parallel universes are bumping into our universe will not only slow the expansion, it will stop it.

I smiled. "Interesting theory. Eventually, this universe will grow old, too old to sustain life."

"We'll just have to move to a younger universe."

She chuckled. "Hopefully, there will be younger universes."

I shrugged. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. We have a long time to go before we have to worry about it."

She nodded her agreement.