Tales of the Multiverse: Volume 2: Predator and Prey

By Kathleen West

The Whatchamacallit? is an alien race that has discovered humans are delicious. Now they are heading toward planet Earth to fulfill a dark mission: to harvest humans as livestock.

A group of elite scientists, military, and government officials initiate communication in an attempt to learn the motivation of the extraterrestrial visitors. After a “First Contact” diplomatic procedure, they discover that the Earth faces a grave threat unless they surrender to the demands of the hungry Whatchamacallit? aliens.

Meanwhile, Earthling Greta Müller has been plagued by strange dreams for some time, leaving her unsure of her reality and past memories of her capture and escape from the Whatchamacallit? planet. Now it is up to Greta and her friends with special abilities, both artificially intelligent entities and horse-like alien creatures, to collaborate to face the Whatchamacallit? threat.

In this continuing science fiction saga, old and new friends unite to aid in stopping the greatest alien threat against human civilization, before it is too late for all. But will Greta’s friends find the human race worth saving? Or will they allow the Whatchamacallit? predators to restore balance to an already damaged ecosystem on Earth with humans as prey?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Feb 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684716227

Book preview

CHAPTER

1

THEY CAME FOR DINNER

Smiling Sam

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Gryffon looks into a mirror smiling at her appearance

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Gryffon adjusted her light-blue skirt in front of her door mirror and made sure it fit tightly around her shapely bottom. Her fingers ran over her legs to inspect her stockings for any tears or wrinkles, then pulled the slack from her right stocking above her muscular thigh to hide it under her skirt. She padded tissue under her bra and then buttoned up her shirt. Instead of greeting the world with a naked face, she carefully airbrushed ivory foundation to further lighten her already creamy white skin and then finished with a light blush of color. Her lips were outlined and painted a natural red.

She practiced her friendly but seductive smile in the mirror. Gryffon’s facial expression while smiling was a magnet for the eye. The voice could deliver the worst message, but her smile could fool the receiver into feeling just fine. That smile had the power to penetrate the soul into her control. Gryffon had carefully studied and found the right body language and tone to persuade any audience into her power. Today she wanted to make an impression based on appearance; only by appearance did she think air force superiors would trust her advice. Satisfied with herself in the mirror, she opened the door to greet the world in her superheroine outfit and a fake smile.

Something big was happening and Gryffon wanted to know the scoop. Her superior colonel selfishly withheld details from her, and that teased her mind as she exited her hotel room and made way to the hotel lobby.

The forceful sound of her heels on the lobby’s hard floor alerted Colonel Richard Danes that his hired help was here. Gryffon stopped and stood in front of the dick. She stood, waiting while he finished reading his newspaper. A minute later, he abruptly stopped and placed the paper on his briefcase to acknowledge her presence.

Good morning, Samantha, said the colonel. You are looking beautiful today.

Samantha Gryffon reacted with a fake smile and patted her hair bun seductively.

Do you think so? I hope everyone will be impressed with us, said Samantha as she continued to control attention with her body language.

The colonel stood up and looked over his lieutenant carefully. Sam kept her fake smile back at him as he glanced toward her breasts. The colonel thought they seemed larger than normal today. Then he found an eyelash on her neatly pressed shirt and carefully picked it off to show her, then flicked it off his finger to the floor. His fingers quickly ran through his hair to turn his inner anxiety into full male confidence to lead his subordinate.

"Everyone will be impressed with me, he said, if you follow my lead and speak only when requested. Just keep that pretty smile and be seen, not heard."

Yes, sir, answered Gryffon. Can I ask what we will be doing today?

We will discuss that on the way, said Colonel Danes. The secretary of defense has sent a secure car to pick our team up from the hotels.

The colonel called the driver to communicate that they were ready to be picked up, so they both waited outside for their ride. Then he handed Samantha a small tablet after using a retinal scanner to unlock it.

Samantha’s heart raced as she saw the document title page: "Extraterrestrial Event Notification".

A Status Question

the united states government capital building white house shown has gloomy weather

Samantha eagerly read the tablet report as they were chauffeured toward a nicer hotel to pick up the general. Her superior kept asking her pleasantries about her hotel stay, which distracted her from reading the report. They arrived at the Willard in DC, which was within walking distance of the White House.

Sam had no idea why the general just did not walk there himself. They stepped out of the car to properly greet the general. General Collins man-greeted Colonel Danes by firmly shaking his hand, wrapping his arm around his back, and petting him like he was a good dog. Danes quickly introduced Sam as his assistant and then held the door open for the general. The general took one quick look at Sam’s breasts and, without another word, entered the car.

Sam had never been to the White House before, so she was surprised when they were granted immediate access through the staff gate entrance. She figured it was probably easier for them all to enter through a secure car than to walk through the entrance on foot. All three of them checked in with security that not just photographed their faces but also inspected their items for threats before they were granted visitor passes. The general then led the way to the briefing room. Sam scurried behind the men and struggled to keep up with their fast pace while carrying both her own and her supervisor’s briefcases.

Sam scanned the briefing room for the least obtrusive spot to sit and set up her laptop to take notes, farthest away from the men. That was expected of her—to be in her place. She remained standing, awaiting acknowledgment for a couple of minutes while other senior officers arrived. All of them huddled in the front of the room, farthest from the door, and circled around the general to network with him. Occasionally someone looked around the room to stare at her like she was a Barbie doll for their amusement, and more than once, she overheard the colonel mention her as his assistant.

She finally felt a genuine smile as she recognized an old friend and colleague of hers, walk in the door.

Dr. Samantha Gryffon, how are you? It has been so long, said Dr. Julius Barnes, a psychology professor at Howard with a top-secret security clearance.

Samantha warmly smiled and hugged him. It’s so wonderful to see you again. I’ve been following your career and have read all your new books. I am excited that you are here to work with us on this project.

The chorus of man-laughter and chatter across the room halted as everyone observed the pretty white girl in the room hug an old black man and talk warmly about their past at Stanford. Sam had been a graduate student under Dr. Barnes’s mentorship while at Stanford and then disappointed him when she chose her future in the military rather than academia.

So how is the military career suiting you? If you ever want to come back to academia, I could refer you to a few deans who are good friends of mine, Yale … Harvard … your pick. said Barnes sympathetically to Sam.

Colonel Danes stepped toward the two and intruded on their conversation. A few men followed him because they were also interested in what the pretty white lady was doing. The general retreated to pour himself a plain black cup of coffee.

Ah, I see you have met my assistant. I have not had the pleasure of introducing myself. I am Colonel Richard Danes. I lead the clinical and behavior psychology division of the US Air Force, said Danes as he firmly squeezed Dr. Barnes’s hand a little too firmly for his comfort level. Dr. Barnes massaged his wrist after the handshake as it felt like it had just been wedged between a door and a doorframe and he’d lost a competitive battle over which man had the firmer handshake.

Nice to meet you, Colonel. My name is Dr. Julius Barnes and … well, I assume you have the clearances since you are here, but I consult the department of defense on special occasions regarding national security as well as teach graduate-level psychology at Howard, Barnes said. I was just talking to Samantha over here. She was one of my best students at Stanford, and I’m pleased to see she will be working with us on this project.

The colonel raised an eyebrow in amusement and then tried to categorize the man regarding his status. Barnes’s blackness both frightened and threatened him, along with his Stanford education and affiliation with the DOD. He had read several of his books but had no idea the author was black because the author had anticipated racism and removed his photo from his published works. Colonel Danes had assumed every famous psychology professor from Stanford was a distinguished white guy.

Dr. Barnes was also psychoanalyzing the colonel’s body language and choice of words. Stereotypical white male with dominating superiority complex, he thought. Barnes caught the colonel’s eyes land on his groin and tried hard to restrain himself from laughing because he knew the guy’s subconscious was really intimidated by his bigger black cock. Dr. Barnes immediately tried to steer away from the colonel’s judgment of his body and asked about his background.

Master’s in psychology at the academy, said Danes. I know it’s not Stanford, but it’s really about leadership and applying psychology to the military’s needs.

I am sure your leadership will be invaluable to the team, affirmed Dr. Barnes.

The secretary of defense then walked into the room with his entourage. Everyone went silent and watched as he found the seat at the head of the table and sat down.

A Moon Landing

a bright full moon is shown over planet earth

The deputy secretary of defense promptly began the meeting at 9:05 a.m. with a roll call of everyone who was invited to the meeting, stating each person’s title and relationship to the project. When the deputy secretary announced the name of Colonel Danes, Samantha stood next to her superior officer, welcomingly with a fake smile. Dr. Barnes sat next to Sam, and they exchanged looks when the deputy presented a video taken from their military space satellite showing an unknown spacecraft on the sunny side of the moon.

The deputy spoke. At approximately 11:40 p.m. on March 11 of this year, we observed this scene from our satellites. After a discussion with the president, the United States initiated procedure Project Green Book Number 200 to secure communication with the unknown spacecraft entity. Your project leads have been sent the secure documents digitally. Here is a summary presentation of what data we sent the unknown entity via procedure Number 200.

The presentation then shifted to key bullet points of what data was sent and how it was transmitted via an array of lasers beamed at the entity. The satellites had first transmitted a mathematical keymap pattern rooted in primary numbers, then binary, then a language dictionary character mapping to the English language. The laser beam repeated the Hello Sequence for a couple of hours and then transferred the transmission to another satellite as it stayed in orbit facing the moon.

Sam’s eyes widened and then looked toward her confidante Barnes, who whispered, I helped design that procedure.

Then the deputy went on that to say they received the echo of the entire pattern back via lasers from the entity on the moon. It first repeated the same signal pattern as an exact replica. The Green project procedure then transmitted a new signal with the same large sequence of mathematical patterns mapping to new messages patterns such as Hello Me and Hello You and so on to teach them our language. The transmission, receival, and bounce back of the laser messages repeated for many days. Per our procedure we had taught the entity a primer in the English language and how to communicate with us. Then after the primer message sequences stopped, we went the most important question on Earth: Why are you here?

The unknown entity responded with a unique sequence. They did not repeat the signal patterns previously transmitted by our satellites and we believe the message was completely understood per the response. Per our procedure simulations, we had anticipated the complete language learning primer to have finished its transmission sequence at approximately 6 am this morning. The entity responded with a unique sequence at approximately 6:05 am. At 6:25 am the secretary of defense briefed with the President to discuss the entity’s response. We scheduled this meeting, which you’re all in now, in advance in anticipation of any unique primer response and how we should interpret and respond to this entity response.

The deputy then took a deep breath, sipped a glass of water, and snapped to the next slide to read out loud, This is the complete and full entity response as mapped to our language primer, said the deputy, it currently reads:

WE are hungry.

Fear

Immediately, the room broke out in an uproar and the deputy begged everyone to please remain silent and orderly per the rules of the meeting. The deputy then called for a fifteen-minute break before proceeding with the order of business and determining how best to respond to the entity.

Sam’s hands jittered as she paused her notetaking on her laptop and then carefully locked her computer. She then rose from her seat with the intention of breathing some fresh air outside on the White House lawn. Many of the meeting attendees also did the same. Barnes noticed how pale and upset Sam had looked, so he approached her.

Are you okay? Barnes said.

I’m fine. Just a little scared and nervous, said Sam.

Why are you scared? said Barnes calmly and strongly as if he were analyzing a patient.

Samantha looked back at him and passed a fake smile, Really? I’m scared because everyone else is scared. Don’t tell me you aren’t scared?

Not at all, confidently replied Barnes, Fear is an obstacle to freedom of the mind, as he pointed his fingers toward his temple.

Now let’s analyze that response, he continued. Why do you think they replied with a short message?

They, started Sam, could be one entity but most likely a collection of individual entities, responded in brevity with their prime directive. Every life form has a need to eat, and if the environmental resources are right to reproduce, they then fulfill their next prime directive - to dominate their ecosystem.

Correct, said Barnes, they responded with their first prime directive, with the second hidden in the first word.

Sam looked back at Barnes and wondered where his logic was going and then a lightbulb of understanding flickered in her head.

Barnes nodded his head and said, They wrote the pronoun WE in all capital letters. They knew the correct spelling was only the first letter since they used punctuation at the end of their response. It is possible they made a grammatical error, but if they didn’t, well… let’s just say we will be up against an entity that views us as inferior.

Questions and Answers

The deputy secretary of defense promptly resumed the meeting at 10:15 am with an agenda in hand. They would first have a 30-minute question and answer session. Each team representative would be allowed to ask one and only one question each. A few of the questions and answers are described below from the deputy:

Q. Was this verified to be delivered from an alien entity and not an Earth origin vessel?

A. Yes. Our scientists observed the entity approaching our solar system from our deep space telescopes, then orbiting and landing on the visible side of the moon. We verified this is an actual space vessel not originating from Earth.

Q. Did the international community spot the entity? What were they doing and how were we cooperating?

A. That’s two questions, but I’ll answer both since they are good topics. The Chinese and a few other countries have spoken to the President and have agreed