Unearthly Secrets Ch. 01

Jack Hudson stepped out of the car. He stared up at his grandmother's house, an exquisite Victorian mansion set on several acres of private land. This house was special - it had been in their family for generations. He always liked coming here and smelling the sweet crisp air that surrounded these ancient pine trees. The forest shrouded your view in any direction you looked, making this little hollow feel like a secret world inside of a world. It felt like these timbers had stood for thousands of years. It was a serene, calming place, and he had always felt at peace here.

His mother, Amy, briskly slammed her door shut not soon after him. She was your typical middle-aged suburban housewife and mother. She worked part-time and enjoyed her sappy TV shows at night. Today she wore a white blouse and jeans, her large chest concealed nicely by the color and shape of the fabric. Her wide hips and round ass were always harder to hide in the denim, however.

Jack took a look around, noticing several cars in the driveway.

"Uh, mom..." he asked. "How come Emily and Aunt Kim's cars are here? I thought you said it was just me, you, and Nana tonight?"

Amy felt her cheeks flush. She had told them to park behind the house, but her daughter and sister had apparently lost their ability to remember simple instructions.

"I guess Nana invited them over, too," she replied, trying to come up with a suitable lie. "I'm sure it's hard for her without Grandpa... Besides, it will be nice to see your Aunt. Maybe she brought Kate with her too."

"Huh," was all her son said in response. He hadn't cried when his grandfather had died all those years ago, even though he missed him terribly. He had always secretly felt bad about it.

Amy knew very well that her niece Kate had come. She had to be here, as they all did. Every one of them with the Ultari blood had been summoned tonight.

"Now come on, carry in this fruit salad for me," she ordered. Jack walked around to the trunk to help his mother.

She was attractive, he noticed again; Something he had been noticing uncomfortably often these days. Her long, blonde hair was curly and fell down just above her shoulders. From the backside, the roundness of her ass was unmistakable. Jack had been having more of these intrusive thoughts about his mother recently, but he chalked it up to the dry spell he'd been in since breaking up with Rebecca a few months ago. He felt a twinge of disgust and pushed the thought from his mind, picking up the bowl of fruit like he was asked.

After a few knocks, Jack's grandmother finally opened the door. Cynthia Banks was good looking for her advanced age, considering she had several fully grown grandchildren at this point. Jack often compared his mother and grandmother in his head, noting not only their similar features but their mannerisms as well. It seemed fairly certain that his mom was aging into almost exactly the same woman as her. It wasn't the worst way to grow old, all things considered. Again, another intrusive, inappropriate thought.

"There he is!" Cynthia exclaimed, reaching out her arms to hug Jack.

As he embraced his grandmother, he noticed his older sister, Emily, standing next to his Aunt Kim and her daughter, his cousin, Kate.

"Surprise!" they all shouted in unison.

"Happy birthday, sweetie," Amy said, standing next to him. She leaned over and planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

Flabbergasted, Jack took a second to collect himself.

"You... assholes!" he finally let out. "You know I hate surprises!" His tone conveyed his insincerity.

"I knew something was up, though. All of your cars are parked in the driveway."

His grandmother just simply laughed, and then they were all chuckling, Jack included.

"What did I tell you, Emily? You were supposed to park in the back!" he heard his mom shout over the din.

"Well, mister no-surprises... Do you hate this surprise cake?" his Nana said, approaching him with a tin in hand.

Jack peered down to see what it was.

"You made the special donut cake? Thank you, Nana!" he said.

"Let's go sit down in the dining room, come on sweetie," Amy chimed in, trying to get the crowd moving. They had more important matters to get to tonight, after all.

His mother stood in the corner while everyone sang happy birthday and her son blew out his candles. Cynthia slowly made her way over to her daughter and whispered in her ear.

"It's going to go fine, Amy," she said.

"I know," she replied. "Still, I'm just nervous."

"That's normal. But don't think too hard about it."

Cynthia went back to the table, rejoining the celebration and helping dole out slices of cake.

"Happy twentieth, Jack!" Kim cheered, holding out her drink. They all clinked their glasses together. Kim had poured a tiny sip of wine into his cup even though he was still a year away from the legal drinking age. It wasn't like he was going to get plastered, and besides - it was a celebration.

It was moments like this, surrounded by all these women, that Jack really felt that he was the only boy in the family--besides his dad (who was often out of town for business anyways). His Aunt Kim had gotten pregnant young and raised Katie on her own. She'd never married or even dated, as far as he knew. Jack always felt like he was treated differently because of his status as the lone grandson. Nana always doted on him, and nobody else ever received surprise parties. In all honestly, he enjoyed the preferential treatment even though it was sometimes isolating on his island of masculinity.

They sliced the cake and ate as much as they could before setting it back in the fridge for later. Jack thought to himself what a pleasant night it had been. He truly loved his family and how close they all were. It wasn't even a result of the slight buzz he had going, either. Even though his dad was traveling for work all of the time and his grandfather had passed away, his family was still so full and happy. He closed his eyes, contented.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he barely noticed everyone disappearing into the kitchen. Everyone, except for his mother.

"Jack?" she said, walking up behind him.

"Are you all done?"

"Huh? Oh, mhm," he said, startled. He lifted his empty plate up for her to grab.

His mother's voice sounded different. She was nervous, he sensed.

"Why don't you just leave that there for now and come with me," she responded.

Jack's confusion showed visibly on his face, but he complied with his mom's request.

He stood up and followed her into the kitchen. He noticed now that it was empty and quiet.

"Is that alcohol on your breath?" she asked, turning around and taking another whiff.

"Er..." he mumbled. He had always been a bad liar.

"Aunt Kim just gave me one small glass. I swear!"

Amy scoffed. That was just like her sister - breaking the rules whenever it suited her.

"Well... I suppose just one is fine." She sighed, not willing to die on this hill tonight. Especially not before what was about to happen.

"Mom," he interjected, still unsure was going on.

"Where did everyone go?"

"They're in the basement," she answered.

"We need to go down and join them."

The basement, he wondered? Nana's basement was just cement floors and old storage boxes. Why was everyone down there all of a sudden?

Still, he followed his mom down the stairs and made sure to duck his head under the one support beam that hung too low. He had given himself a good goose egg the last time he had been down here to fetch the laundry for his grandmother. Nobody else in the family was tall enough for it to be a problem, and his mom easily passed underneath without issue.

There was something odd about her demeanor now, but Jack had also sensed it earlier, in the car ride over. She seemed... apprehensive. Tense. But he couldn't figure out why.

He was surprised for a second time that night when they finally descended the stairs into the musty, cold cellar to see... absolutely nobody. Was his mom lying to him? Was this some kind of prank? Another birthday surprise?

"Uh, where are they?" he asked.

His mother didn't respond at first. She just stared at him with that same expression of apprehension.

Finally, she opened her mouth.

"They're... below," she said.

"Below?" he replied. There was no below. This was the basement. What was she talking about?

"Watch what I do. And remember how I do it." was all Amy said. It was a strange nonsequitur.

Jack watched as she walked over to the light bulb that hung from the ceiling. She grabbed the pull-string and gave it three gentle tugs. She then glided over to the far wall and turned the electrical outlet off and on again.

At that moment, a sound began emanating from the cement wall next to her. A crease appeared where before had only been solid, smooth surface. It began to pull back, leaving a small gap in the wall. Finally it began sliding to the right, revealing a dark passageway. There were stairs heading downwards.

"What was the order?" Amy snapped at him.

Jack was too mesmerized by the event that he didn't respond.

"Jack! What was the order? I need to know you know this." she said again.

"Uh, the light bulb, three times. Then the switch, off and on." he said, trying to remember.

"Good. It has to all be done quickly, or else the system resets. Clear?"

"As crystal," he answered.

"Okay, good," she said. "Now let's go."

Amy took a few steps down into the darkness.

"We're... going down there?" he asked, scared and still confused.

Amy sighed. She forgot how bizarre this had all been to her when she had been his age. He would need a little more reassurance.

"It's okay, honey. It's nothing dangerous. It's just a second basement, okay?" she said.

Sure, another basement that nobody had mentioned for twenty years, Jack thought to himself. What kind of house had a secret passageway like this? It was a tad bit absurd.

He followed Amy down yet another flight of steps, rounding a corner to find that the darkness was illuminated at the bottom.

The space opened up into a wide, circular room. The ceilings were not terribly high, and the walls were smooth and glistened like metal in the soft light. Jack noticed a few door-shaped outlines surrounding the room, but none seemed to be open.

In the center of the room was a small rectangular bed, however it did not seem to be made of regular materials. No wood, no cloth, no feather pillows. It seemed firm and metallic, like a massage table almost, but strangely alien.

Standing around this raised table were all of his family. Grandmother, sister, aunt, and cousin were spread equally in a circle around them, all wearing the same bizarre red dress. They looked like somewhat like Japanese kimonos, but they were almost certainly not. Alien, almost...

Everyone was smiling, even his mother as she stepped to the side to grab a red dress of her own.

"Wh- what is all of this?" he stammered.

"What is going on?"

Amy said nothing, but rather grabbed him by the forearm and led him to the table. She gently pushed him down, encouraging him to sit on the platform. As he did, he noticed how soft and comfortable it was. Vastly better than his bed at home. He found that odd, considering how firm it seemed to the eye.

"I'm really excited for you, Jack." his mother said. She looked back and forth at everyone else standing around her.

"We're all really excited."

He still didn't understand. What was going on, and where even were they right now?

Cynthia spoke up before he could respond.

"Jack, as the reigning matriarch of this family, it is my duty to share this knowledge with you now that you have reached the age of maturity." his grandmother spoke, stepping forward.

Hadn't that been when he had turned eighteen? Or perhaps you could argue it was when you turned 21 and could finally drink. Either way, something felt off, but his grandmother continued speaking.

"What we are about to share with you has been a secret our family has kept for a dozen generations. You must vow here tonight to keep this secret until the day you perish, or else threaten our family's very survival. Do you understand?" she said.

Jack figured he was supposed to respond.

"Er, yeah. Yes, I do." he answered, clearing his throat. What kind of secret could be so deadly that it threatened his entire family? They weren't superheroes; they were normal people with normal lives.

"Very well..." she replied, pausing for a beat.

Jack felt every muscle in his body tensing. The strangeness of it all was making him want to run. It felt like a bad trip, like a nightmare of sorts. He didn't feel like he was in danger, but he felt like he suddenly didn't know his family anymore. He hated surprises, but he had preferred the surprise party to this.

Cynthia waved a hand and spoke out loud.

"Computer, draw up coordinates AW481 HH718."

A holographic image appeared then in front of him, showing what looked like a model of the solar system.

"This is Earth, your home," his grandmother began.

"But this is not where you come from."

Jack felt his stomach drop. Was this some sort of prank? But the hologram... how? It was too real to be fake. Like something out of Star Trek.

"Our family traveled here, hundreds of years ago, when our planet was dying and falling into violence."

The hologram now showed a small dot zooming away from Earth, the scope of the galaxy growing larger as the display pulled back. The dot was traveling hundreds, maybe thousands of light years away. Finally, it settled on another planet, and the image zoomed in again to show finer detail.

"This is Ultaria, our home," Cynthia continued.

"It faced an inescapable catastrophe hundreds of years ago, and it forced our family, like many others, to flee. We wandered the stars for many years in search of a new home. Your ancestors eventually found this world, earth, to settle on. But there was one problem: earth was already full of sentient creatures."

The hologram was now showing this supposed spaceship traveling through the cosmos before arriving in Earth's orbit.

"Luckily for us, the homo sapien vaguely resembled ourselves. We could more or less disguise ourselves among them with the help of temporary mutagenic cocktails. Our first ancestors on Earth learned quickly how to sequence their genetic code and adapt our Ultari DNA to match that of the humans."

The images now shifted to resemble a woman who seemed human, albeit slightly different. Like a crappy prosthetic affect you would see in a low budget science fiction movie. Jack assumed this was his original "ancestor".

"We were able to combine our genetic sequences to fully blend in permanently. But we still retain a majority of our Ultari DNA. This includes you as well, Jack."

Jack finally felt the need to speak up.

"Okay, hold on... so you're saying that I... that we... are aliens?"

His mother stepped closer to him, placing her hands on his shoulders.

"Yes, sweetie. That's exactly what she's saying."

Jack felt as if he was going to vomit. How could any of that story be true? It was insane. But the strange room... the secret door in the basement... this Star Trek hologram... none of it added up.

"B- but... that's absurd," he exclaimed, wishing somebody would just end the charade.

"It's the truth, dear," his grandmother said, now sitting down next to him and placing her hand on his lap.

"Look around you. What do you think this place is?" she asked.

He looked again, this time understanding what he was truly seeing.

"Holy shit... It's a space ship... our space ship?" he gasped.

"Mhm," his mother nodded her head, smiling.

Jack looked over to his grandmother.

"How come it's all the way down here?" he asked.

"Our family decided to bury it," she replied.

"They decommissioned the pulse drive and set it here where they built this house. We're now a part of this world, do you understand?"

He nodded to affirm his understanding. He then looked around at his sister, aunt, and cousin.

"And all of you knew this as well?" he asked.

"Mhm," Kim said.

"Once we all turned twenty, yes," Emily replied.

Jack thought for a moment to what his sister said.

"But... I was here for your birthday that year, Em. How come I don't remember all of you sneaking off down here?"

Emily laughed.

"Dude, you fell asleep on the couch at like nine o'clock. We didn't have to really try to sneak around."

It was a fair point, he conceded. He had forgotten about that part...

There was a lengthy silence that filled the room then.

"There are... some other things you need to know about concerning all of this," his grandmother said.

"We Ultari possess some special abilities that our human neighbors do not... namely, the ability to speak silently between our minds."

Jack nearly laughed, but thought better of it.

"Like, psychic powers?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Nana... you can't be serious?"

Jack turned to his mother.

"Is she being serious?"

Amy let out a soft giggle.

"I'm afraid she is, Jack."

"You may have already begun noticing it," Cynthia said.

"Have you? It usually begins around the twentieth year."

Jack had no clue what they were talking about. His head was radio silence most of the time.

He shook his head.

"No."

"That's okay, it usually requires being spoken to first," she replied.

"Here, watch," his mother said, now standing in front of him. She placed her palm on his temple and smiled warmly.

Hello, my sweet boy. Can you hear me? he felt. And it was a feeling. Distinctly separate from sound or thought; almost like a hum. It was the strangest sensation. But it had worked. Jack felt like he might pass out.

Almost intuitively he felt himself respond.

I think so... can you hear me back? he said.

"There, see. You did it just fine." Amy said out loud this time.

Jack couldn't believe it. Not only was he an alien, he was a psychic one at that!

Cynthia grinned. She grabbed his temple now like Amy just had.

Welcome, my grandson. I am so happy to finally share this with you, she hummed.

Now each remaining family member stepped forward to him, gently clasping his face in the same way, and they all spoke to him through their minds. They congratulated him and expressed their excitement. Jack responded to each of them, eager to use this new power.

When they finished, Kim, Kate, and Emily disrobed and placed the red dresses in some sort of chest. They began climbing back up the stairs. His mother and Cynthia did not stir, however.

"There is one more thing to share, Jack," his grandmother said, waiting for the others to leave.

He genuinely had no idea what to expect now. It seemed anything could be true at this point.

"There is a small detail about Ultaria that I purposefully left out earlier... having to do with procreation."

This was not what he had expected her to say. He didn't know exactly what he had been expecting, to be fair, but it hadn't been that.

"Er, okay," was all he said in response. His mother was now sat next to him, opposite his grandmother. Her palm gently squeezed his leg.

"Where we come from, procreation happens a bit differently. Can you guess what I'm getting at?" She asked.

Jack had no idea. He shook his head.

Cynthia swallowed.

"What I'm about to share may... shock you. Which is why I asked everybody but your mother to leave. It's okay if you get upset at first... but please promise you will listen to everything I say." she said.

He simply nodded.

"Okay."

He turned to his mother. She smiled. He turned back to Cynthia.

"Where we come from... procreation is only possible between members of the same family. Do you understand what I mean by that?"