Shards Ch. 05

Tichawsk answered, "You are very suspicious and imaginative, young human. You did not trust Cathy at first, either. So, ask yourself the same question you asked about her. Why would I lie? I could threaten, if coercion was my goal or could have already invaded or destroyed your world, if that was our purpose. Neither is true."

"So, how does the Empire expand?" I asked.

"Actually, it currently is in a consolidation phase, handling an influx of new civilizations that have developed technology within its existing sphere. The Empire is a rather decentralized alliance of worlds, not a series of colonized or conquered worlds ruled from a capital. When it does expand, it seeks to do so peacefully. The worlds that had to be destroyed were those completely infected by the nanites before the Empire became aware of the problem. Worlds with only partial infections were given help in eliminating them. After that, the program to detect the probe's landing signals has amounted to getting ahead of the problem, not trailing behind the destruction. The probes themselves are too small to detect before then, given the immensity of the galaxy. In the time since the program began, intervening as soon as the nanites land has been 98% effective in halting the nanites, even as the rate of landings has dwindled down to one every few centuries."

"Why have they dwindled?" Nancy asked.

Ze answered, "There are far fewer probes remaining. We estimate no more than 250. Each one which landed meant one fewer still flying, of course. A large number have passed out of the galaxy, still others were likely destroyed, particularly those that passed into the denser areas near the core. Those that are still seeking for a world are now spread vast distances from each other. Without precisely knowing the directions they were originally launched, the Empire places monitors around any star that could meet the probe's requirements and continues monitoring them after the potential danger has passed, just in case the Empire might eventually offer membership when it resumes expanding."

"So, it's our turn to be offered membership?" I asked.

"Your world has a lot of things to do before it qualifies for such an offer, perhaps not even in your lifetime. Now that the nanites have been neutralized, I will take my leave. Senator, Governor, we will communicate again after either of you takes office as President."

Tichawsk tapped a medallion on zirs chest and said one word in another language that I did not recognize. Another shimmer surrounded zim and ze was gone.

"Did that just fucking happen?" Zack asked.

I moved over to Cathy and asked, "Are you okay?"

Ze answered, "Physically, I am fine. My existence never depended on the nanites, so their demise did not harm me. However, this will mean that our children won't have telepathy, since it's not a product of their DNA and I didn't have the nanites grant it yet. Emotionally, I am happy that my world survived, but dismayed that all of the other Teclewtans who left it like I did caused so much chaos that this Amal Empire had to destroy entire populations to put an end to the threat they posed."

"I for one am glad we won't be next," I said. "Thank you for being that exception."

Senator Chaston turned to me and said, "All of mankind owes Cathy thanks for that, Mister Davis, even if it would be best for that to stay a secret. I can also confirm that the Empire did not wait until the Nova virus spread to make contact. The Ambassador teleported directly into the Oval Office only a week after the Teclewtan ship's signal was detected, but without knowing an exact landing location other than somewhere on our west coast."

"A week? How did they get here so fast?" Nancy asked. "Teclewt sent its probes out at sub-light speeds."

The senator chuckled. "I imagine the Amal Empire was already more advanced than Teclewt back then and another 100,000 years have gone by for technology to advance further. They're clearly capable of nearly-instantaneous travel and communications now, by means they're not revealing to us. Anyway, as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee and a member of Foreign Relations, I was given a classified briefing on Tichawsk's arrival the next day. The President ordered the CDC to begin checking for signs of the nanites spreading, based on detection information provided by Tichawsk, only to have Nova be what showed up in the news. Tichawsk quickly indicated a connection to the nanites once they isolated the retrovirus for us. I am at least as suspicious a person as you are and I believe they are telling us the truth. If I'm wrong, I don't imagine there's much we can do about it. I don't want to imagine how advanced their weapons might be and I hope they are never turned on us."

"This is at your pay grade, anyway, sir," I said. "I'm so over my head with all this."

"It's over all of our heads, son. Quite literally," he said, glancing up.

Nancy asked, "So, Senator, you've known about the nanites and the Empire for almost your whole Presidential campaign and not said a word?"

He answered, "It was classified top secret then and remains so. I did not even tell my daughter and she's having a Nova baby. That's why we intervened to prevent your press conference today, to keep a lid on things until we're ready to reveal the Empire's existence."

"And you, Governor? When did you find out?"

Governor Burke replied, "The President personally briefed me about a week after Ambassador Tichawsk arrived, because I still have a top secret clearance from my career in the Air Force. He then asked me to run for President to succeed him, rather than backing his Vice President. These two transitions are the most important issues facing our nation and planet and among the few things the Senator and I agree upon without question. In fact, we have agreed that whoever wins will name the other to be Secretary of State, to handle the interaction with the Empire going forward. We would even run on the same ticket, if we could agree on which of us should be President."

"Oh, you know it should be me, just admit it," the Senator joked.

I asked, "So, you don't want us having a press conference, even though we didn't plan on revealing involvement of nanites or aliens in what happened. But, I still need to explain being pregnant to people I work with and eventually so will Zack since we just confirmed ze is pregnant as well. Do you have a plan for that?"

The Governor said, "We would rather you did not bring up the meteor explanation, either. Perhaps a medical experiment to reverse the effects of the retrovirus could explain your transformations?"

Nancy said, "The timing wouldn't work. We would have to claim that Paige and I both volunteered for that experiment while already pregnant, which nobody would accept. Paige was pregnant before Cathy arrived on Earth and my body became pregnant several days later. Although Cathy was in my body at the time and my mind was in Dan's body. Even if you claimed that the U.S. government detected the retrovirus immediately, you couldn't have known the effects it had until the Nova embryos had developed enough to be detected. So, any program to reverse it would have been started later."

I said, "Besides, that would indicate we're open to additional testing. I don't know how we can avoid mentioning the meteor, either, since the press already reported on our miraculous recovery from it, even if the story faded away quickly. They would surely dig that story back up once we revealed that our bodies have also changed. Is there any reason that pointing to the meteor as a source of both our transformation and the retrovirus needs to implicate an alien presence on and around Earth? The nanites are gone now, so there's no way for them to be identified as the true cause of the transformation, even if human technology was capable of detecting them without the help Tichawsk provided. We could say that the meteor carried the virus and its more extreme affects on us were based on strength of exposure, but that it's likely faded now."

The Governor nodded and said, "Very well."

Zack asked, "Paige and I weren't hit by the meteor. Do we still claim that our transformations were sexually transmitted from you? We can't replicate it, now that the nanites are gone."

I answered, "We don't have a better story than that. We weren't going to try proving it, though. I still want to avoid constant testing and having sex with strangers as an experiment is out of the question. All a blood test right now would find is trace elements of the destroyed nanites and those won't cause the transformation at all. We'll simply have to claim that the effect of the meteor has faded."

Senator Chaston cautioned, "If you identify yourselves as the source of the retrovirus, you are going to get blamed, by people who see the Nova children as something bad."

"What's our alternative?" Zack asked. "Go into hiding? Pretend to all be females, to explain pregnant bellies? How do we then give birth, if an OB isn't prepared to find a penis over our vagina? Dr. deLong is already aware of Dan and Nancy's status, so why bring someone else into it?"

"The government would be prepared to provide you housing and even new identities, along with doctors with security clearances."

"Like witness protection? Giving up our jobs and breaking contact with our families and other friends? No, thank you. I'll take the risk of being a target for bigots, if it keeps them from harming even one Nova child instead."

Dr. DeLong entered the room at that point. "I'm sorry if it seems like I betrayed you, folks. But when the head of the CDC shows up at your office and takes charge of the arrangements for a press conference, you don't resist. I take it things have been resolved?"

I said, "Not completely. We still have the government trying to keep us quiet, offering us new identities and such."

"It might be safest, Dan," she said.

I turned to the Senator and asked, "How much can we tell the doctor?"

"Dr. deLong still has clearance from her own time in the military, Mr. Davis, or she wouldn't have been allowed to know that the Governor and I are here. She already understands this is a top secret classification, coming straight from the President."

"Yes sir," she agreed.

I said, "I was about to say, we didn't do this to be safe, but to lead the way, for all of the Nova kids who will start being born soon. How can we lead if we're hiding?"

Dr. DeLong's eyes narrowed. "Hold on. This was voluntary? Not an accident?"

I said, "It's a long story, so hold any questions until we finish, okay?" We told the full story of Cathy's arrival, Nancy's transfer into my mind, the decision to conceive a hermaphrodite baby and how that resulted in the retrovirus, then related Cathy's later transfer into Paige. Cathy then explained how and why Teclewt had sent out its ships, how those Teclewtans had misbehaved and how the Amal Empire had reacted, Tichawsk's arrival and interrogation and how the government wanted to keep the alien presence a secret, down to offering us new identities.

When we were done, Dr. DeLong gave a quick shake of the head, then asked, "So, when I have examined Nancy, that was actually Cathy in charge? And Nancy was in control of Dan's body?"

Nancy answered, "Yes. I've only been back in my body for six weeks, since Paige's accident."

"Did you choose me as your doctor because I wouldn't recognize any differences in your personalities?"

"No, that wasn't a factor. Dr. Perkins referred us to you since she doesn't deliver babies. If she did, we would have had her do so. We'd already escaped detection by coworkers and other friends for weeks by then. Cathy had access to my memories and telepathy, while Dan was conscious and able to coach me."

"Telepathy, too," Astrid muttered, then said, "I'll need to digest the rest of it, but I assume most is to be considered classified, anyway. The basic question then is whether to risk that some jerk is going to blame you all because his baby is going to be Nova instead of a boy and come after you?

"Basically," Zack replied. "Or choose to stay hidden somewhere while that same jerk targets his own child, instead. I vote for going ahead with our original plan for a press conference, which wasn't going to mention nanites or aliens, while pointing to the meteor as source of the retrovirus and our transformations. It would give us a better chance of staying in control of the story, versus just revealing ourselves to coworkers, neighbors and family and having the story leak out from one of them." Nancy, Cathy and I agreed.

"Very well," the senator said. "We'll let you do it your way and keep an eye on how things work out. A mid-level representative from the CDC will be provided to back up your story. We'll also get you devices that will let you summon the FBI in an emergency, but don't use them unless things are so dire that you'd have to take us up on the offer of those new identities. We want to minimize the appearance of federal interest in your case and having the FBI monitoring you would qualify as unusual. For anything less critical, rely on local law enforcement. And not a word about the two of us being here today."

The senator and governor and the two guards left the hospital.

Dr. deLong asked me, "Since we're here, Dan, how about we get your 20-week ultrasound done? I would offer to test Zack, but one week after conception is too soon for a blood test, never mind an ultrasound to confirm twins. I'll schedule a blood test for him two days before the press conference, but remember that you can't announce twins for several weeks more."

~~~~~

March 19, 2016

The press conference, while chaotic, accomplished our goals in making it publicly known that we were adult Novas who were not going to hide our status any longer. I will admit that we used our telepathy to identify which reporters were prepared to ask us friendly questions versus which ones were hostile or preparing to trip us up. We also used it to discuss answers amongst ourselves before answering them.

Public opinion was solidly on our side from the start, people accepting that we were not to blame for the retrovirus and applauding our bravery in standing up as spokespeople for the younger Novas who were beginning to be born. Our coworkers adjusted fairly soon and life settled into a new normal for us, with policies changed to balance paternity and maternity benefits in all of our companies.

~~~~~

April 3, 2016

"It's getting too hard to arrange these group positions around our bellies," Nancy said about two weeks later. "How can we still have sex together?"

I asked, "We only need to be touching, for the empathy to work, right?"

"Yeah..."

"So, you and Cathy lie on your sides facing each other, even though you can't get your groins close enough to penetrate each other. Kiss, play with each other's tits, reach under your bellies to frig each other's cock. Zack and I will spoon behind you and fuck you from behind, with one arm reached over to make contact, so all four of us link."

We arranged with Zack behind Nancy and me behind Cathy and we entered the two of them, while Zack reached over to caress my breast. We fucked them slowly, letting the empathy produce something of an echo effect that heightened our sensation. Feeling Cathy and Nancy kissing made me lick my own lips.

What raised the intensity was when Nancy reached under Cathy's belly and started to frig Cathy's cock and the Cathy did the same, slightly faster.

With Zack adjusting his own pace to be somewhere between my thrusts and Nancy's hand, we wound up with four different frequencies of stroking reverberating through our sensations and feeling like all four of us were engaged in the fastest fuck we had ever felt. "Oh, fuck, why didn't we think of this before?" Nancy cried out in between kissing Cathy.

"When we were... trying to be a beast with four backs... we had to keep the same basic pace," I answered, between my own gasps. 'This feels crazy!"

"Cumming!" Zack called out first, causing a cascade of orgasms to wash over the four of us. Nancy and Cathy managed to capture each other's cum in their hands, then licked it off. I even sensed the taste in my mouth.

~~~~~

Epilogue:

On April 22nd, Cathy gave birth to Paige's child. Ze and Zack selected the name Kel, which Cathy said linked to zir Teclewtan name and also melded the names of Paige's parents, Karen and Mel.

We moved to a spacious four-bedroom home in Danville, to Walnut Creek's south, three weeks later.

On June 6th, Nancy gave birth to our child, who we named Nat, as that could be a gender neutral nickname for either Natalie or Nathan. We put Nat and Kel into the same bedroom, expecting the twins to take the other two.

I was nearly at my due date when Nancy and I observed our 9th wedding anniversary on September 8th, along with observing one year since Cathy had arrived in our lives. I gave birth to our twins two days later. We chose the names Robin and Dove for them.

Governor Burke won the presidential election on November 8th. The next day, his first announcement of a cabinet pick was Senator Chaston, as promised.

Last, Zack gave birth to the final pair of twins on November 26th. Ze and Cathy selected the names Paige and Pax.

As more and more Nova babies were born, humanity adjusted rapidly. So, when President Burke announced first contact with the Amal Empire at the beginning of 2019, the world was better prepared to handle the second shock. Clearly, Secretary of State Chaston had been doing significant diplomatic work in secret for the preceding two years, as all of the nuclear-equipped nations announced their intentions to disarm, in order to begin meeting the Amal conditions for membership in the Empire. The technology we could gain was worth so much more than continuing nationalism.

I had been writing this account of our story for some time and got clearance to publish it from the President himself. We know that we are taking a risk in revealing Cathy's alien nature and our telepathy, but we have faith in our fellow citizens for the first time in a long time. Just as Homo Sapiens is beginning to give way to Homo Nova, it's finally earning the "Sapiens" part of its name, which is Latin for "wise man".