We arrive in the conference room just in time to see the news anchor flash a link on the screen to the whole text of the decoded message. The link is only on the screen for about thirty seconds before they switch to footage of the UN meeting to discuss options for sending a return message.

At that point, I decide to ignore what is going on on the screen to look up their translated message. I need to know if they got it right. I go back to the breakout room where my computer is, and I sit down to look up the message.

I read through the article and the translation. They have turned off comments on the article, which in itself is rare.

Damian, or Loki, comes in as I finish reading the message, he takes the seat next to me, turning the chair so he is leaning against the table and looking right at me.

"How are you doing, Alyssa. It has been a few days since we've spoken."

"Honestly?"

"I'm still responsible for your wellbeing. I can't do that if you aren't honest." He is smiling, but the smile doesn't reach his eyes. Is he here out of duty, or because he actually wants to know? I decide to take him at face value.

"I'm exhausted. We've been constantly on the move for over a month. I feel like I could sleep for a week."

"Grief will do that to you. I heard about your sister, I'm sorry."

I somewhat unintentionally slam the laptop closed, and turn my full attention to him. "I just don't understand how they could kill one of their own, just to abduct her family. From what Rue said, they didn't even try to preserve her life! They just shot her. And they took the body! Do you… do you think they dissected her?"

He sighs, "almost certainly. They are likely interested in her brain to see if she had structural differences that would have made her susceptible to taking a djinn as a mate. Was she a puppet or conscious in her decisions?"

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"That's fucked up. Of course she was conscious in her decisions."

"Look at it from their point of view. We have magic and ways of manipulating humans they have no way of countering. They know next to nothing of us. Governments always assume the worst."

My anger, which was becoming hot and all consuming, retreats at his words. "I guess that makes sense. I just… I hate it."

He leans back, "yeah, me too." We let the silence fill the room for a moment. It is comfortable, peaceful. A calm before the storm.

Calm never lasts.

"We have a path to terraforming mars," I offer softly, breaking the silence.

"Hmm… we haven't been able to find a way to get the initial team there. Not in a timely fashion."

"We can't work out a way to create a safe habitat for those who can't survive the native martian habitat."

"How long will it take to terraform the planet?"

"Like a month? I'm not sure at what point in that month people who need a more earth like habitat will be able to survive outside. How long until the humns are able to send a signal back?"

"They'll have it by the end of the week."

"That fast? That's in like," I check the calendar on my phone, "four days."

"Yeah, we are out of time."

We lapse into silence again, contemplating the magnitude of the problem. "How long once they send the signal will it take for our counterparts to arrive?"

"My understanding is they use a modified version of fairy circles to travel long distances in jumps. We have lost the notes on how to do that, it was the first thing we tried in the transportation breakout room. So, they could be here a day of two after the humans send the signal. It depends on how much time they might need to prepare."

"What if we used them?"

Loki looks intrigued, "what do you men?"

"What if we snuck a secret signal in with the human's signal, and evacuated our population to their ship? They could transport the forward deploy team to mars to begin terraforming, and we could stay on their ship until mars can support us." I'm getting excited by the prospect of a solved problem, "we could create our own team for first contact to make sure it is handled properly so the humans come together, and use their ship to do it."

Loki nods, then leans his head back and closes his eyes like he does when he is processing something. This is going to take a while.I open my computer and start reading through the updates on the supernatural subreddit while I wait for him to rengage.

I'm not sure how long he sits processing all the possible outcomes before he speaks. "It is a gamble. A big gamble."

"But is it worth it?"

"Whether it is or not, we may not have a choice."