Page 50 of Escaping my Dragon

“We all heard the voice.”

“It could have been a random message received through the headsets. Or maybe one of those fissures that opened up released some type of gas that made us think we heard something.”

A very unladylike noise escaped from Joslyn. “You’re really stretching there. I know you prefer to debunk the heeby jeeby stuff, but even you have to admit, something is going on. Too many people are experiencing the exact same thing. Although, I find it weird how your dream features an eyeball, but everyone else seems to get the ice cave.”

“Not true. Last night, people dreamt of volcanoes.” Which, in hindsight, I should have heeded.

“I gotta ask, why did it choose you as its baby mama? Why not someone at McMurdo that would have been wetting her panties at the chance?”

While I wish I could retort that no women would ever want to be used in such a manner, I didn’t, because Joslyn had a point. The voice, alien, whatever, could have convinced at least one female to be its egg donor.

I cradled my cooling mug and shrugged. “Honestly, nothing makes sense, and I’m still not convinced any of it is real.”

“Still going with the mass psychosis theory.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time in history a bunch of people exposed to an environmental contaminant convinced themselves of something.”

“I hope not. I mean, how cool would it be if there was an alien?” Trust Joslyn to sound excited.

“So cool. I mean, forget the fact it plans to eat people and to make babies with my eggs.” My reply emerged a tad dry.

Joslyn grinned. “I’ll bet they’d be cute. As for devouring some of the population, the talking head know-it-alls are always claiming that to save the planet, we need fewer people. Could be a win, especially if we started by giving it the assholes first.”

“Pick and choose who dies?”

“Sacrifices are known to appease gods, so why not an alien?”

“How much Aztec blood have you got running in your veins?”

“None. But I am part Viking,” Joslyn proudly declared.

Noah joined us, looking grim.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Bad news. Word is, we aren’t being rescued anytime soon.”

“Why not?”

“All inbound aircraft have been ground due to the detection of several unidentified aerial objects moving rapidly towards Antarctica.”

“UFOS?” Joslyn exclaimed, practically bouncing.

“Maybe, although, word is three of them are rather small for that and their shape is all wrong. The Air Force is scrambling some recon jets to see what the hell is in the sky.”

“As if we didn’t have enough to deal with,” I grumbled.

“Might be nothing, but they’re being cautious.”

“I don’t suppose you’d repeat that for the cameras?” Joslyn asked.

Noah shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it, but given the situation concerns us all, I thought you should know.”

“Bummer.” Joslyn gave a moue of disappointment that lasted a half second. “Wonder if I can charm one of the comms people into spilling.”

“No getting the married ones in trouble,” I admonished.

“I’m not going to sleep with them,” Joslyn exclaimed, only to grin. “Just use my phone sex voice to get what I want.”