Once he was satisfied nobody was following or could see them, Grady made for the big fissure between two cliffs Mike had described. There was the faint outline of an old dirt road that had once snaked around one cliff face, only to disappear into the fissure. If you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t see it, which was ingenious. No doubt, the natural look of the road, and its state of disrepair, kept its secret safe.
Grady maneuvered the craft into the wide, natural opening that narrowed as it twisted into the very rock, forming a natural tunnel. A fissure, really, that narrowed as it rose, permitting only the barest amount of light to penetrate to the path below. Rounding several curves, Grady saw what looked like a dead end.
Even as he watched, the rock parted and a giant door opened. The bay was lit dimly from within—a long, huge entryway that ended in a massive steel door on the other end. This then was the airlock, so to speak. The preliminary entryway that safeguarded the facility. He pulled the craft to a stop within the long, wide tunnel and waited for the massive rock-fronted doors to close.
Once they did, lights came up to full strength. Grady and Jim waved from within the cockpit as they saw a camera drone zip over to check them out. It examined the vehicle from all angles before zipping back to its storage area along one of the walls somewhere. Only then did the inner doors begin to cycle open.
Grady brought the craft to a rest next to a large group of aircraft. Some were fighter jets, some propeller craft. All were old and looked like they hadn’t been used in decades, which was probably an accurate guess. Farther in, he could just make out some long, cylindrical objects he guessed were missiles of some sort. The humans had a lot of firepower in this mountain. More than he’d guessed was left.
“Holy shit,” Jim breathed as he saw the armament and aircraft.
“I guess there is no doubt this was once a military installation.”
Grady popped the hatch, and the men piled out. Grady had a pack with him—personal supplies he’d left behind on his previous departure from the craft. He’d take it with him this time, for he knew he might never see this craft again. With an odd pang, he realized he didn’t really care. His future was with Gina now—however it worked out. He had to have faith in the spirits of his ancestors that somehow it would.
They met Mike on the floor of the massive hangar.
“Some stash you’ve got here,” Jim commented as he looked around at the assembled craft.
“Yeah, we found this a couple of weeks ago, but we don’t have anyone who can fly them.”
Jim’s gaze zeroed in on Mike, flashing excitement in his eyes. “I do.”
“Really?”
“We kept a lot of our staff since the base was operating at the time of the cataclysm. We sent out fighters, but we didn’t have this many. We lost a lot until we finally realized the better part of valor in this case was hunkering down and hiding. We have pilots and their families. A lot of the guys have taught their kids what they knew. The kids have never been up for real, but we’ve got a top-rated flight simulator and it’s one of the things the younger generation enjoys doing for fun. As a result, we have more pilots than planes.”
“That’s mighty interesting.” Mike’s casual words belied his eager expression.
They took their leave of Jaci, Mike and the rest later that day. At first, they suggested Jim’s pod go first, but after some good-natured ribbing about not being able to keep their eyes on the road being newlyweds and all, Dave, Bill and Sam went first. Sam was a new addition to the group, but a welcome one. Grady valued the man’s insight and was pleased to learn he was a close friend of Bill’s.
Bill needed friends—human friends—if he was going to continue to thrive on his own, without a mate. Grady didn’t know how he did it, but he admired the man’s strength of character and will. Grady suspected he wouldn’t be half as stoic if he’d had to face life without a Resonance Mate by his side.
But perhaps Bill lived on hope. Grady wasn’t sure. Bill was naturally secretive, having been the top Zxerah assassin most of his life. He’d also had emotions longer than any other Alvian. He was better at dealing with them. They were more integrated into his personality.
The trip back was uneventful. Every time they stopped at a station, both groups would get out of their pods and walk around a bit, exploring. Dave and Sam even scouted up some of the ventilation shafts to see what they could learn of the topside terrain.
Not needed to watch the track ahead, Jim, Grady and Gina spent most of the time making love. He and Jim had come to an understanding and even began to develop a sort of unspoken communication like he’d once had with the soldiers who served with him. They were able to anticipate what the other wanted when it came to pleasuring Gina.
She shocked them a few times as well. Such as when she climbed over Grady’s lap with no preliminaries and started fucking him where he sat. In fact, that entire encounter had been surprising in the extreme. Especially when Jim moved behind her and began to penetrate her ass.
Grady had never shared a woman in such a way before. He could feel the other man’s movements through the thin membranes of Gina’s luscious body. It was an odd sensation. One that drove his own passion higher.
“You weren’t kidding about how hot he gets,” Jim whispered in Gina’s ear, but it was loud enough that Grady heard him. He met Jim’s gaze over her shoulder, not quite sure what the amusement in his expression meant. But he was too far gone to wonder more. Gina moved on them both, causing a violent rush of passion that resulted in a hard, fast climax that sent him reeling.
Gina sat in his lap, draped over him like a living blanket in the aftermath. Jim moved off to claim a chair for himself, breathing hard after his own climax.
“I never did that before,” she whispered.
“Me neither.” Grady stroked her back with long, sweeping touches.
“I have,” Jim announced from beside them. Grady looked over to see a grin lighting his satisfied face. “And I’ll gladly do it again and again, judging by your response, Gina. I’d say you liked it.”
“Liked it?” She rolled her head against Grady’s chest so she could look at Jim. “I loved it! As much as I love both of you.”
Epilogue
When they arrived in Colorado a crowd gathered to meet the newcomers. Word spread like wildfire through the facility—especially about the aliens in their midst. Some were angry, some curious, others frightened, but everything changed when Bill’s tawny wings made an appearance.
Of all those gathered, it was a child who saw them first. A youngster who broke the ice.
“Mama, is he an angel?” a child’s loud whisper sounded, silencing everyone, and Gina saw a little girl pointing at Bill and tugging on her mother’s hand.
“I’m no angel.” Bill knelt on the ground before the child, his wings spread out and exposed for all to see.
A man stepped forward from the group. “Are you Alvian?” A collective murmur went up from the assembled people.
“No longer. If ever I was. I am an Alvian-Avarel hybrid, bred as an experiment, then experimented on even further. Unlike most other Alvians, I have feelings and for that I’m being hunted.”
“What’s an Avarel?” One of the crowd wanted to know.
“They were a race of advanced explorers that visited our worlds many generations ago. I can only surmise our leaders preserved some of their DNA without their knowledge, and I’m the result. The Avarel, it is said, had wings much larger than mine in a myriad of colorations. They were depicted in ancient artwork as having skin patterns that matched the color of their wings in a rainbow of hues. Few visited our worlds, but they were welcomed. It was from observing them that our leaders first realized our ways were too aggressive. We were killing ourselves in large numbers and the geneticists stepped in to solve the problem. They began changing us on a genetic level.”