Chapter 2: Earth's only hope

The world tilted around her. Even expecting his answer, her body still readied for fight or flight. "Why? Why me?" Sure the foundation was influential, but why would the aliens be interested in someone doing charity work? "How do they even know me out of the billions of people on Earth?"

"I can only guess."

"You're going to hand me over?" She had worth, she should be protected. She was a tax payer, after all.

He spoke between clenched teeth, his jaw bulging like that of a bull dog. "If they'd landed their spaceships, if we could fight them, I'd dare them to come for you and give them a war that would make their great grandchildren say my name with loathing." He paced - long angry strides, up and down in front of her. "My hands are tied. They shoot down our missiles and planes before they even leave the atmosphere. I can't get to them to fight them." He sat behind the desk, shoulders tensed, his hands fisted against his forehead. "Even if I could, those idiots in the cabinet would oppose me."

Her mind kept screaming at her to get away from there. To run to safety. Her legs wouldn't run. "I'm - " She swallowed, tried again. "I'm your only hope to get to them?"

Her hands started a fine tremble that spread to the rest of her body. She hid them in the folds of her dress. She wanted to sound as if she'd be glad to sacrifice herself for the human race, but she didn't pull it off. Acid crept up her throat. Why did this keep happening to her?

He stopped pacing and turned to look her straight in the eye. "I hate to ask this of you." Those soldier's eyes pierced hers. "I don't even want to speculate on what they want, but this is an opportunity we cannot ignore. We'd have someone on the inside."

"But you're not asking, are you, Mr. President?" Just as the man who had handed her over before had not asked.

Aurora heard her own voice through a peculiar swishing noise in her ears, the bitterness penetrating like a whistle through fog. She didn't want to be Earth's only hope. If she was the only one who could save them from the tinners, Earth was in big trouble. Her sister could attest to that. Aurora wanted to run and keep running. But this horrendous feeling of inevitability chained her to her chair.

He became military straight, lifted his chin. "I cannot afford to give you a choice."

Aurora started to lift her hand to push it through her hair, remembered she carried a deadly weapon there, and lowered it. "Let's face it, you'd be a much better hostage. I'm only grand master of an organization that builds schools and helps street children."

She wasn't done, either. So many children out there still needed help while she searched for Ter. She didn't have time for the president to sacrifice her.

He punched his fist into his palm, and she jumped in the chair. "Dammit, I don't want to do this. For whatever reason, they fixated on you. And this is a chance for us to get someone on the inside."

"What exactly do you expect me to do once I'm up there? They'll probably throw me into a cell and dissect me." She'd be helpless, unable to defend herself. It was ironic really. She'd spent her whole life trying to ensure that she'd never be vulnerable and helpless again. But all her martial arts and weapons training wouldn't help her on a spaceship surrounded by aliens. "And, anyway, pico technology has never worked the way its creators hoped."

In every test, the scientists had lost control over the substance injected into lab animals.

"We have to try it," he said.

She couldn't suppress a visible shudder. "He could go crazy on me. Or worse, I could be gang raped. Or dissected."

He tensed. "Rape is a very real concern. But I don't think they plan to dissect you. He asked me what you eat, the precise portions necessary to ensure your health. And I mean precise. The temperature that would be 'optimal' for your 'survival.' His words."

"So how is this supposed to work?" She had visions of chains clanging around her wrists and ankles while the president handed her over. Social media being what it was, it would go viral as well.

The president paced. "It doesn't sit well with me, sending a civilian into the enemy's hands - a female civilian." She could see him vibrate with the need to go to war. When she opened her mouth to repeat her question, he held up a hand. "To answer your question, he said he'd come get you here."

Her stomach turned, and she couldn't stop her hands from crushing the heavy silk material of her dress. It took all her self-control not to run for the door before the tinner came to take her to her doom.

He stopped in front of her. "I hate to say it - "

"I'm Earth's only hope," she finished for him, the clichéd words tasting ominous on her lips. "I want something in return."

"I know of your search for your sister. I will use every resource at my disposal to find her."

She fixed him with the gaze she used when she forced the board of the foundation to approve funds for her pet projects. "Know this, Mr. President, as long as I am assured you are saving my sister, I am Earth's only hope. Cross me on this, and I'll be Earth's biggest nightmare."

Ever since she walked into this office, she'd seen regret, caution, and other emotions in the president's eyes. Now he lifted a hand and patted her shoulder in an awkward, almost boyish, gesture. He walked up and down in front of her, and she resisted the urge to push him into a chair where he couldn't make her dizzy with his pacing. "We don't have much time left," he said. "You have to pretend to return his interest if it's sexual. Make it subtle, so he doesn't realize you're playing him. Do whatever you have to do to gain his trust."

"And if he's a machine, how do I gain the trust of something that has the same emotional capacity than my laptop?"

The president lifted his stubborn chin at her. "If he's any type of AI, you appeal to his logic."

"When do I inject him with the picos?"

"First, I need you to get me some information. Where do they come from? How many of them are there? Are there more on their way? What kind and how many weapons do they have?"

Did he really think they'd let her walk around the spaceship asking questions? She clutched her arms around her middle. Oh God, she was going to be taken to the aliens on their spaceship. Dread paralyzed her and stole her senses. She tried to speak, to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. "Do you think they'd let me close enough to one of them to inject?"

"He will if you seduce him."

"And, of course, I would be the person for the job." She didn't care that her voice dripped bitterness. "How do I report my findings to you? I doubt he'd just let me come home to talk to you every now and then." It was more likely that she'd be dead the moment she passed on any information she managed to get her hands on. She suppressed a shudder.

"I told him I would only hand you over if I can talk to you every week."

"And he agreed to that?"

"Yes."