Mom reached down and shook his hand. “I hear you’re the man in charge.”
“Of the contingent here, yes.” Muddy looked around. “I do not see my two friends nor the Old One.”
“They’re in the water,” Mom said briskly. “Rounding up the aliens.” She shook her head. “It’s been an interesting time here.” With that she led us to the port side of the boat.
There was what looked like a very large seal and two sea turtles in the water, and they appeared to be herding just an absolute tonnage of tiny blue and white creatures. Each one had a body that resembled a gecko with six rounded and spiny limbs or fins or whatever they were. They looked familiar, as if I’d seen them somewhere before.
“Glaucus atlanticus,” Chuckie said. “Why are we here to look at sea slugs?”
“Right! Those natural sciences classes I made us take at ASU really keep on paying off, don’t they?”
“Because they are not only sea slugs, apparently,” Mom said, ignoring my comment on my college curriculum. “They’re not from Earth originally.”
The realization that the hidden alien race we were coming to meet were tiny, lovely, little creatures that floated on the surface of the ocean nudged into my brain. “Um, they’re pretty and they eat jellyfish. How does that make them aliens?”
The seal leapt up onto the deck of the boat in a way no seal was actually able to do and shifted into Wruck. “They’re ready to speak with you,” he said to me and Jeff. “The Turleens are going to need to translate, however.”
“The sea turtles are your missing pals?” I asked Muddy.
Who nodded. “Their names translate for you to be Dew and Mossy. Dew is a female, Mossy is a male.”
“Good to know. And you all speak Glaucus atlanticus?”
“No,” Muddy said politely. “We all speak Mykali. Which is what they are.”
“How long have they been here,” Chuckie asked, “and how long have you Turleens known they’ve been here?”
“For centuries,” Muddy replied. “It’s why we speak their language—if you plan to travel to Earth, it’s suggested you learn Mykali so that you can communicate with the natives who will not, ah . . .”
“Try to kill you,” I supplied.
“Exactly. But only recently did we realize that humans had no idea that the Mykali were here. It is because of that, and because of the others who are coming, that Dew and Mossy took the Old One to meet the Mykali.”
“After searching for more enemies,” Wruck added.
Chuckie looked at him. “And what about the Ancients? Or the Z’porrah? How much did you affect with all of this?”
Wruck shook his head. “I had no idea the Mykali still existed. We know of their solar system, which died, but what happened to the races that lived there was unknown.”
“To the Ancients only, or the Ancients and the Z’porrah?” Jeff asked. “Because it seems unlikely that your two races just ignored a bunch of others you could meddle with.”
“This happened when our races were still friends,” Wruck said. “At that time, we were still young enough races that we were unable to help with uplift or rescue. This system’s dying spurred us on to greater achievements.”
“If you can call what your two races have done to this galaxy achieving,” Jeff said.
“You mean the Mykali here are the only ones left?” I asked, lest Jeff and Wruck get into an argument we didn’t have time for and that didn’t matter anyway—what was done was done.
Wruck nodded. “Yes, we just confirmed it with this group. The Mykali’s home planet was running out of water hundreds of thousands of years ago, due to their star beginning the first stages of its death. The planet was heating up and the water was evaporating. Earth was discovered, and it was determined that they could live in Earth’s oceans. They came here in a mass exodus.”
“That’s sounds far too simple,” Chuckie said. He looked down on the water. “I’m not saying that the Mykali might not be playing possum and just pretending they have no scientific knowhow in order to remain under humanity’s radar, but if so, how did something without any actual limbs or digits create spaceflight?”
“Who did their uplift?” I added. “Because that seems to matter quite a bit right about now.”
“Neither Ancient nor Z’porrah uplifted anyone in that solar system. As I said, this happened well before we had the capability.”
“So how did they get here?” Jeff asked pointedly.
“They can’t survive out of the water for too long, nor can they stay congregated like this for too long a time—this high a concentration of Mykali will bring predators,” Wruck said. His meaning was clear. We were going to get this info straight from the sea slugs’ mouths or we weren’t going to get it.
“Great. I hope that the Elves have the contract for this boat.”
Was relieved that Buchanan and Mom had kept the Secret Service away because the argument we’d have gotten for this plan would have been extreme. As it was, we all just trooped into a lower deck and changed into swimsuits that were neatly laid out on the beds in each guest cabin.
“Thanks,” I said quietly to the suits. Had no idea where Algar’s portal was on this ship, other than potentially in my purse. Which was not going to be going swimming with us.
Jeff sighed as we got undressed. “This would be a great place to relax.”
“If by relax you mean have wild sex for hours, yes, I agree. Of course, I think the various new aliens around and aboard, not to mention my mother, would probably suggest we wait for another time.”
Jeff pulled me to him and kissed me deeply. As always, I was grinding against him in a moment. He ended our kiss slowly, eyes smoldering. “Well, it’s something we should definitely keep in mind, baby.”
“Mmmm, I love how you think.”
Swimsuits on, Jeff slathered the rest of me with sunscreen. Looked around the room. “I wonder if there are any goggles or such around?”
“Why are you asking in such a loud, weird way?”
“No reason.” Wandered over to the small dresser. Opened up the top drawer to find goggles and snorkeling equipment for five. “Huh, lucky us.”
Gave Jeff a set of goggles, a snorkel, and flippers, took a set for myself, then went in search of the others. Found them all on the main deck with Mom and handed out the rest of the gear.
Had to admit, as impromptu outings went, getting to be with Jeff, Buchanan, Chuckie, and White all in swimsuits made up for a lot of other things. I had one-third of a best-selling swimsuit calendar in front of me. Did my best to think about flowers, because Jeff was really able to pick up my lust, and though I didn’t have any desire to do anything other than look and drool a little, it had been a tough day for both of us and I had no desire to get into any kind of jealousy argument.
Jeff snorted softly. “I know you think we’re all hot. It’s a compliment that you’re trying to decide if I should be Mister January or Mister December.”