Dulce Truths

Mark sighs. “Not as glamorous as you might think. For one, it’s hell on the body and the mind. The 177th might have zapped me into the future for 10 years and then zapped me right back to the moment I left, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t aged those 10 years both in body and mind.”

“And spirit?” Heather asks, looking over at him.

Mark cocks his head to one side in a sort of shrug. “I suppose so. After what I’ve seen and done… well, I suppose so.”

Heather rolls over onto her stomach, the better to stare into Mark’s face. “And what did you see… and are they still fighting in 2036?”

Mark nods. “Still fighting in 2036 and probably will be for years.” He scoffs. “We keep fucking it up so much that we have to keep going back in and redoing it, over and over.”

“And the Grays aren’t getting wise to that?”

“Oh, they are… and that’s probably why we keep losing.” He sighs again. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many men we’ve lost, good men too, the kind that don’t come around more than once a century.”

“How far back are you having to go to find them?”

Mark chuckles. “Commander Titor had just pulled six of ‘em out of the Spanish-American War when I left. My God, Heather, they’re from 1898… damn-near one hundred years ago!”

“Can they even use our modern weapons… not to mention the futuristic stuff?”

“Titor’s solved that with the computer-mind uploads. Most become masters of both 20th-century and 21st-century armaments real quick… and probably know more than most of the men on this base here.”

Heather sighs and rolls back over to look up at the ceiling. “Just seems strange is all… constantly fighting in the same year, having to recruit further and further back in time… when will it all just end?”

“It has to some day,” Mark says, rolling over onto his side now to look at her. “Now, why don’t we talk about you for awhile? Tell me… what was it like down there?”

“Oh God,” Heather says, rolling her eyes, “I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

“How about with your abduction? You know I was against that right from the get-go.”

Heather scoffs. “Then you shouldn’t spend so much time off-world or in different times — you’d be here instead, able to tell me what to do.”

“Heather, I didn’t mean it like that, I—”

“What’s there to say anyways?” Heather says quickly, cutting off his words. “We went with the planned abduction, going with a group of women. It went well, we were taken onto a large ship of some sort — perhaps a mothership — and then taken to Dulce. It happened fast, getting put down on the lower levels, and after that they started picking us off one by one, either impregnating us, tinkering with our DNA, or cutting us up and using us as food.”

“Even the women?”

“Even the women,” Heather confirms. “It’s not like it was just a couple years ago, Mark. It’s like the Grays don’t have as much use for the women as they once did. Before they’d never allow one to be used for food, but now, well…”

“They’re moving on to the next phase of their plan,” Mark says.

“And we need to be moving on to ours,” Heather replies, and she rolls over and off the bed. Mark stares at her beautiful and naked body for a moment before she begins picking up her clothes and putting them back on.

“And what might that be?” Mark says as he too rolls off the bed and begins retrieving his clothes. Watching Heather there in the act of dressing, however, makes him wonder why he’s doing so.

“Well, it’s complicated but we know that… hey, you letch!”

“What?” Mark laughs as he gets his arms around Heather’s body again, begins to unfasten the bra she’d just put on. “I’ve been in space for a long time, haven’t felt your body in even longer.”

“We have to—”

“See to your every need and desire,” Mark says as he begins kissing the back of her neck.

That does it — Heather gives up her protestations and turns about, kisses Mark full on the mouth. Within moments they’re back on the bed, their clothes once again piled on the floor about them.

* * *

Around the same time that Heather and Mark are getting back into it, Stu is leaving the mess hall. One thought is on his mind — who the hell can I trust… and will they believe me?

He gets the answer right away when Captain Moses Cochrane comes around a corner in the hallway. Stu recognizes him right away as one that’d gone into Dulce, though in more of a support position as a helicopter pilot. Still… he knows, Stu thinks, and as the two pass by each other he reaches out his hand and grabs hold of Moses’ arm. Moses gives him a sharp look and is about to offer a rebuke as well, but Stu says what he has to say first.

“Moses,” he says, looking up into the pilot’s eyes, “for the love of God, remember that Aaron gets back just after midnight.”

“What?” Moses says, his face screwing up in a look of confusion and bewilderment.

But Stu is already walking down the hallway, hoping his few words will prove enough.

8 — In Too Deep

Blue Lake

Friday, May 25, 1979

6:49 AM