HIGHLANDER: The Highlander’s Surrender Bride (Scottish Alpha Male Pregnancy Romance) (54 page)

“
We
?” she asked, feeling astonished.  “You mean that there’s more than one of you here?”

“On Earth?  No, I’m the only one… I’m all that is needed to stand guard.”

“Guard?  Against what?” she asked, though considering everything that she had seen in the last sixty seconds she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know.

“You’re much happier not knowing,” he replied, the comment making her think that he was attuned to her thoughts. 

Shit!  Maybe he is!  He’s a fucking alien!

“I… I don’t…”

“The scientists of your world believe that Earth is a conglomeration of random chances that are rare – nearly impossible – in the rest of the galaxy.  Water that is in a liquid state… an oxygen atmosphere… more forms of life than can be counted… rest assured these things are not exclusive to Earth.  Not by a long shot.”

She took a tentative step forward.  “There are others?”

“Millions,” Ian replied.  “Scattered so far across the cosmos that even with the technology of my own people, it would take a century to reach the nearest habitable planet with intelligent life upon it.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat.  “That sounds pretty far.”

Ian turned to look at her.  “It is.  It’s a wonderful place, I’m told.”

She looked around at the floating images.  “And all of these have life upon them?  And what?  You can attack them all from here with this… weapon?”

“No… not at all,” he said.  “What you’re looking at is a real-time projection of every system that has elements upon it that are… hateful towards Earth.  I can track and monitor them all, yes, but the weapons systems are meant to protect the Earth primarily.”

“Wait… what do you mean
hateful
?” she said, feeling a pang of panic.

“There is
one
thing your science fiction films tend to get right.  It is a place where other envious species would very much like to come to pillage your world for one very specific resource.”

“Liquid water?” she guessed.

“No.”

“The people… slave labor?”

“Not even close.”

“Oil?  Vegetation?  Minerals?”

“No, no, and no.”

“Then what?”

Ian folded his hands at his waist once again, a gesture that was humanizing and familiar.  Somehow it comforted her to see him do so.  “Reproduction.”

She felt a nerve twitch in her forehead.  “Come again?”

He began to walk again, circling her.  “Biological reproduction… evolution… basically, they wish to learn more about sex.”

She wasn’t sure what she was hearing.  It was as if he had told her that the Earth was actually just painted on the face of the galaxy’s largest balloon and that their world could pop at any moment.  “Wait…
what
?” she said firmly.

“It would take too long to explain it in its entirety, Lanie.  But the simplest version would be to say that countless species all over the universe – while mostly organic – have gotten to the point of technologically surpassing others.  But by doing so they diminish themselves biologically… evolution loses its grip because of their tinkering with their own genetics and such.  I can think of a dozen species who utilized machines for reproduction… and eventually they became so dependent upon such things that they couldn’t survive without them.  Something was… lost.  They would very much like to try and find it again.  And they would not be gentle in their means of doing so.”

She felt a lump form in her throat as dark images formed in her mind.  “And so… how do we fit into all of that?”

“Humans are not so different from the countless species of the galaxy, Lanie.  You develop machinery to aid you in every little effort… communication… transportation… computers… refrigeration… microwaves… light… heat… others have done as much before.  But the one arena where you have not developed technology to replace similar facets of your lives is how you reproduce.”

She shook her head, finding a weak spot in the argument.  “But… there have to be species out there that can… I don’t know…
clone
themselves or something in order to keep living.”

“Indeed there are… some can grow entire populations within a day.  But as I said, but doing so, they’ve
lost
something critical.  Nature… natural selection… reinforcing the gene pool… selective mutation as nature intended… you humans have not lost this, despite your many advancements.”

“But… we use technology for reproduction all the time.  Conception implants… genetic modification… artificial insemination…”

“All true,” Ian replied, “but you – as a species – don’t use such devices as a sole means of procreation.  You… uh… what is the best way to describe it?  Still do it the old fashioned way?”

She was silent.

Ian rocked on his feet, a thing that she knew he did in his alternate form when he was nervous about something.  Such a thing did not happen often.  “Now that I’ve said that, I suppose now would be as good a time as any to share another secret of mine.”

She waited.

“Lanie… the form you see me in now is only
half
of what I truly am.”

“Huh?”

He sighed.  “There is one universal constant for all species in the galaxy, Lanie.  We’re born, we grow old, and we die.  And it falls to our progeny to replace us when we’ve gone.”

A chord in her heart struck her.  “Oh my God… are you dying?”

“Am I—?  What?  No, no, no, no,” he said quickly.  “No, I’m not dying… and hopefully not for a long time yet.”

She felt relieved. 

“No… what I mean to say is… I need an heir,” he said carefully, almost nervously.  It was the first time she had ever heard him sound like that. 

“An heir?”

“Someone to take over all of this,” he said, gesturing the impossibly large room and encompassing everything in it, “when I’m too old to carry on.”  He faced her and she had the overpowering feeling that he was staring at her, though he had no eyes.

The implication struck her like an industrial dump truck. 

“Wait… you mean…?”

He stepped forward took her darker flesh into illuminated hands.  “Lanie… I didn’t just choose you for your intellect, although that was a largely contributing factor.  That implant in your hand… it does more than just open doors.”

The small implant in her right hand suddenly seemed to grow very hot beneath her skin, yet she remained unharmed.  “It’s… it’s some kind of a genetic reader, isn’t it?”

He nodded.  “Not everyone gets one here, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.  You’re the
only
one in fact.  And that day I brought you to the doors here and asked you to touch them?  You remember what happened?”

She recalled the sensation.  “That sting that I got?”

He nodded.  “All life is composed of energy, Lanie.  Most are radically different from one another… like nuclear fusion versus steam power.  But there are some that are so similar that they’re almost identical, like electricity and lightning.”

“Lightning
is
electricity,” she pointed out.

“No… lightning is naturally occurring plasma, provided by nature.  Electricity is the result of burning coal, or friction derived by wind power or hydrodynamics.  One is man-made, the other is not.”

Oddly enough, she saw his point.

“Lanie,” he said, his grip gentle upon her hands, “I chose you because you’re keenly intellectual… because I knew that somewhere deep inside you were curious about the work that we did here.  The company works to provide and make things better for mankind.  That is exactly what
I
do from within these walls.  But what I can’t do is go on forever.”

She nervously licked her lips.  “Ian… you’re asking me to… have your child?”

“I am,” he said, though he said so plainly and not as though he wished to press her for an answer.

She was silent.

“My mother was also human, Lanie.”

She looked at him curiously.

“That is why I said I am only half of what I appear to be.  We – the Paladin – do not have genders… not as you understand them.  But when my first ancestor came here, many thousands of years ago, we discovered that this post had many problems.  It was too far away from home for one.  We were
years
away from our home world… we could not simply go back and forth as we wished.  We had to make some… adjustments.”

She knew where he was going with this.  “You started taking human wives?”

“Ones that were carefully selected,” he confirmed.  “Once we realized that the energies of our bodies were compatible we realized that we did not
have
to go back home.  Earth became our home.  And the mission of my greatest forbearers became the mission of the next generation, all the way down to me.  And now, my time has come.”

“So… what… you’re looking to
retire
?” she asked.

“Eventually,” he said, “but not today… and certainly not for many years to come.”  He sighed, and the sound was tinged with self-disappointment as if he were failing to achieve what he had set out to do.  “What I said about other races utilizing machines to reproduce… the same is true for me… as it was for my ancestors, only our dependence relies on biologics now rather than technology.  My genome has changed since the time of my first ancestor.  If I were to return to the Paladin home world, I would not be able to procreate with anyone there.  I need a woman… a
human
woman if my mission is to continue.”  His grip on her hands became lightly firmer, pleading, “I want that to be
you
, Lanie.”

The oddity of this whole event seemed to melt inside of her like butter.  She had imagined a man saying words like this to her for her entire life.  That a rich, powerful, and handsome man might do it was the stuff that other women dreamed of. 

Never imagined it like this though, did you?

She couldn’t bring herself to stifle the question posed by her inner voice.  No… this… unreal as it was… had been like nothing that she had ever imagined.  The weight of it all fell squarely upon her shoulders and she was able to sum it up in one small and simple statement.

“You want me to literally be the mother of the next guardian of the world?”

Ian gave her hands a second squeeze.  She knew she had hit the issue squarely on the head.  “I realize it’s a big decision, Lanie,” Ian replied, “but time is short.  I could not simply tell you what I was or what I truly do here over the dinner table.  You never would have believed me.  You had to see it to believe it… and I can only show you this once.  Your physiology would not tolerate my true form a second time and I can only pass the genetic material necessary to you while in this form.  I’m sorry for that, Lanie, truly and deeply I am.  But I’m afraid that I do need your answer.”

The weight of the issue seemed to grow heavier upon her shoulders.  She hated making rushed decisions, and she always had.

Then her eyes fell upon her wrist watch.  The pressure of the decision seemed to fade away like smoke in the wind. 

Dad
… she thought, looking at her device.  The watch… it had been through all kinds of shit… and while wearing it, she was invincible.  The watch had adorned the wrists of every man in her family that had served in the military… worn by proud defenders of their country.  And now here she was, in a position to outdo them all by being the mother of the next defender of the
planet
.  Just as Ian’s position… his mission… had been passed to him by his ancestors, so had this watch been passed to her.

A smile touched her face.

“Yes…” she said, almost inaudibly.

“Pardon?”

She looked at Ian’s faceless features and somehow was able to still perceive the handsome features that she had witnessed there when first she had met him.  She squeezed his hands enthusiastically. 

“Yes… I will,” she said, feeling as though she had just confirmed some manner of a marriage contract.  Sudden though it was, she felt comfortable and safe in doing so.  Who better to provide for her and the next generation than the wealthiest man in the world?  And who better to protect her than the man responsible for protecting the whole world?  There was a beautiful symmetry in that.

Ian gave a great sigh of relief.  “Lanie… you don’t know what this means to me.”

She put a finger on his face, right about where a mouth would have been if he’d had one.  “I get it,” she replied softly.  “Really I do… and you’re right.  If I hadn’t seen this for myself, I never would have believed it.”

She released his hands and took two small steps back.  Though she felt a little silly at doing so, she slowly began to unzip her dress.  The zipper stretched up the entire left side of her body and for every inch that she parted the fastener, more and more of her chocolate skin became exposed.  Her dress unzipped, she slid out of it and the finely crafted dress fell into a pool around her feet. 

She stood before Ian, unable to discern if he was grinning or staring wide-eyed at her for his lack of a face, though she did notice that he was swaying gently on his feet.  She could feel his gaze upon her, though he had no eyes.  She began to feel the privilege of seeing him like this… of being with him like this.