“Zoey’s right,” Sarah agreed. “However… this… alien, for lack of a better name, does share a surprising amount of features with us. So it may be too early to assume that their biology is completely different from ours.”
“We actually refer to ourselves as ‘Bellus.’”
All four of the humans in the room swiveled in their seats to face the kitchen entryway. Adam barely seemed to notice that he knocked over his open bottle of water. Standing behind them all was the alien woman, who was now very much awake. Her large, almond shaped eyes had a buttery yellow hue to them and white irises in the center.
Her eyes scanned the room calmly, giving off the impression that she was sizing them all up. The alien didn’t seem concerned at all, likely because she believed that she could take them all in a fight. Based on the footage from before, Sarah had no doubt that this belief was well founded.
“Forgive me for intruding on this communal calorie ingestion,” the ‘bellus’ continued. “But we must be swift. I believe we share a common enemy in the Krinis and time grows short for us to act.” She looked out at them all expectantly. No one said a word as they simply stared at the alien nonplussed.
“Y-you can speak English…?” Steven finally mustered up the courage to ask. “But back then you…”
“Did not have this,” she replied. She tossed him something, which he caught out of the air.
“My phone!” Steven exclaimed. “I thought I lost this forever!”
“Yes, apologies. I procured this during our earlier battle. Though primitive, I was able to operate it well enough to gain at least a basic understanding of your species and planet.” She wore an expression that Sarah swore was a smug grin, but it was hard to know for sure. “I will admit, I was worried you all spoke in rhyme like on your device there. I am glad to know that you do not seem to behave this way normally.”
“What…?” Steven scratched his head. “Oh…! You must have listened to my music! I’ve got good taste, right?”
“I have not had a chance to sample your kind’s cuisine. It hardly seems palatable.” She gave a side-eyed glance at Zoey, who still had a soggy spinach leaf dangling from her stupefied mouth. “I take it by your inexpressive faces that your planet has yet to achieve interstellar contact. I imagine that my presence must be quite shocking, then, but I would expect the Krinis to be even more so.”
“Krinis…” Sarah finally found her words. “You’ve said that a couple of times now… what is that?” The alien looked at Sarah as if she were a pitiful ignoramus. Sarah was getting a little tired of her apparent superiority complex, even if it was arguably justified.
“The ones consuming your planet,” she replied. “The parasites who leech off of your reproductive systems. They are the Krinis. They devastated my world and are now on the verge of claiming yours. Or maybe you did not notice?”
“Yeah we ‘noticed,’” Adam said with a huff. “Maybe you didn’t notice yourself, but we saved your life – so maybe at least thank us, miss alien?” She looked over at him with an evaluating gaze, blinking a few times before giving a small smile.
“Forgive me. I am not yet accustomed to your social mores.” She put her hands up to her eyebrow-antennae in a sort of salute. “You may call this one A’luhr. It is the closest approximation to your human vocal sounds. Thank you for assisting and healing me, though the battle was lost.”
“You can call me Adam. This is my place.”
“Impressive,” said A’luhr, not looking particularly impressed.
“S-Steven!” Seven stuttered, with a hint of a blush.
“I’m Zoey.” Said his sister as she finished the food in her mouth with a look of embarrassment.
“My name is Sarah Cassidy,” Sarah declared, standing and walking towards A’luhr. “I-I have so many questions to ask you… about… everything! But to start, what did you mean when you said ‘our time grows short’?”
“Based on how much time seems to have elapsed since they first invaded your planet, it would be unsurprising if the new Krinis Queen were to hatch soon.”
“Queen? Like a hive?” Sarah asked. A’luhr sighed and leaned against the doorframe.
“It seems you have discovered less than I had anticipated,” she said in an exasperated voice. “Allow me to explain the perilous situation we are all in.”
***
Over the course of the next half hour, A’luhr conveyed what she knew about the tentacle aliens, which apparently were called the Krinis. The group asked questions here and there, but they got the gist of it pretty quickly. These parasitic beings were unable to reliably reproduce on their own, as their fertility rates were extremely low. To make up for this, they assimilated the local dominant sexual species and turned them into their mindless breeding slaves – often employing powerful chemical excretions to directly stimulate their prey’s pleasure centers.
The wombs and reproductive juices of their captives would be used to birth more of their kind and provide sustenance to the youth. Once enough of these life-giving liquids were harvested from their slaves, a queen would be born, who would leave the nest and head out to other planets to parasitize and repeat the process.
Apparently the matriarch was capable of faster-than-light speeds, though A’luhr admitted she was not clear on how a mere organism could achieve this – but luckily it seemed this was a trait unique to the queen. A’luhr had managed to escape from the nests on her own planet and followed the new queen using her own vessel, arriving on Earth shortly after the Krinis first invaded.
“This… this is all quite a lot to take in…” Sarah croaked. “So basically these… ‘Krinis’ impregnate our women and consume the semen of our men in order to further their species?”
“Correct,” A’luhr affirmed.
“If grabbing as many people as possible is in their best interest, why don’t they just keep using those big balloon units?” Steven asked.
“Ah, you must mean the Kri-vesus,” A’luhr replied. “I do not know much about them, as my own knowledge is based on my observations from when my own planet was invaded, but I believe it is because they require too much energy to keep active. The Krinis are a subterranean species and do not enjoy the light of the stars. The young queen sends the Kri-vesus as a first wave of attack on a new planet to collect as many slaves as possible before they must be retired. With the plentiful captives, they can create drones to go and hunt for more prey, as the drones use the bodily fluids of the slaves inside of them to maintain their energy.”
“You mean the Takers?” Adam asked. “The ones with the people stuck inside them?”
“Yes. The ones that attacked me while I attempted to access your local reserves of starfire,” A’luhr sighed regretfully.
“Starfire?” Zoey, who had been looking more and more depressed by the minute, perked up at the interesting name.
“Hmm…” A’luhr’s eyebrows curled as if in thought. “I do not know its name in your tongue. It is a mineral not found on the Krinis’ home planet. When ignited with flame, it creates a light of pure, blinding brilliance that reduces their cells to ash. It is their only true weakness, that I know of, at least.”