Kurt looked up at the endless blue sky, watching the contrail of a spacecraft leaving for orbit, probably a freighter out of Des Moines, he decided. The corn around him swayed slightly in the breeze, extending all around him, as limitless as the sky itself. It wasn’t up past his knees yet, but this same field would be tall enough to hide him in a few months. He knelt down, examining some one of the leaves for defect, seeing none he stood back up.

A car horn beeped angrily several times, “Hey, Kurt, come on, the corn’s fine!” he glanced up to see Joey, leaning out the window of their wheeled ground transport. Joey was a dark skinned young man with long hair and the kind of smile girls liked to see in a stranger, or at least he always did better than Kurt did anyway. He beeped the corn again, “come on!” he shouted, “We’ve got like five more fields before we’re done with this bullshit!”

Kurt rolled his eyes and started walking back towards the transport. It was a rectangular white vehicle, electric, Zetan made, one of the alien race’s many gifts and reparations to humanity. Zetan transports, or “boxies” as denizens of earth colloquially called them, weren’t nearly as popular as pre-contact earth vehicles. They were cheap and easy to maintain sure, but they lacked style and luxury. For government work though, the odds of getting an earth made set of wheels were slim to none.

“What’s got you in such a hurry?” Kurt asked, stepping into the vehicle.

“HQ says we can knock off as soon as we’re done with the inspections today,” Joey said, “I’m eager to start my three-day weekend early.”

“Oh right,” Kurt muttered, “Alliance Day…” like a lot of humans he had… mixed emotions regarding the holiday meant to celebrate humanity’s alliance with the Zetan Empire.

Joey saw his look at shared a grimace as he started the vehicle, “Yeah… I know how you feel man, but it’s still a paid day off.”

“Yeah,” Kurt muttered, watching the corn race by outside the window.

They were quiet a moment, then Joey spoke again, “Who’d they kill in your family?” he asked quietly.

“Grandad,” Kurt muttered. “I mean… I never knew the guy, but dad would talk about him sometimes when he had a few too many beers.” He shuddered, “fucking greenskins landed outside the house and… I guess they got him with their shrink ray and crushed him while grandma got dad and my uncles out of there.”

“Shit, I’m sorry man,” Joey muttered, “my uncle was one of the people they shrank and kept as…” Joey ran his hand through his hair, “I guess they treated him like a pet or something… even had a little cage for him, like a hamster.” He shrugged, “he’s still kind of fucked up over it, even after all this time.”

“Forty years since the treaty,” Kurt muttered, “they’re going to go all out for this one, they do on all the big ten year anniversaries.”

“I think they’re doing parades all over the place,” Joey said, “they’re also broadcasting lots of those movies where a human and a Zetan fall in love or whatever.”

“I hate those,” Kurt said with disgust, “you ever notice how in those movies, every Zetan is some kind hearted soul who is against the war?”

“Yeah!” Joey laughed, “like how many ‘good’ Zetans are we supposed to believe there were?” He rolled his eyes as he turned down another road, passing a sign that read “This Road Paved by the Zetan Empire as a Sign of Friendship to the Humans of Iowa!” 

“They always act like they respected us as warriors too,” Kurt said angrily, “if that’s how they felt, they could have shot at us with plasma cannons or something, I’d have understood that… they used fucking shrink rays on us because they thought it was funny to step on us.” He was quiet a moment, then in a low voice, “you know some of them ate people? Like just shrank them and swallowed them whole.”

“They would have taken us all eventually,” Joey agreed, “just made us all tiny and kept us as their little toys…” He slowed as they reached the next field they needed to test. He glanced around, seeing no other vehicles nearby. “You wanna see something?” Joey whispered.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, “sure.”

Joey lifted up the leg on his Agricultural Department uniform pants, revealing a small holster with a silvery looking handgun in it. With a grin he pulled it out of the holster, revealing a glowing green line along the side. Kurt’s eyes went wide as the weapon powered up, the hum filling the cabin of the vehicle.

“I-Is that-“

“Zetan plasma pistol,” Joey said, “we all know that one of these days they’re going to swoop down and try to shrink us all again, I’m going to have a little surprise for them.”

“That had to cost half a year’s pay,” he said in awe.

“For agricultural department workers like us? Sure,” Joey said, holstering the gun again, “but a man’s got to look out for himself, right?” He shrugged, “grandma says the old timers couldn’t get through their armor with bullets, they had to wait until they took it off to sleep or eat to shoot them… I won’t have to wait.”

Kurt chuckled, “you think we’ll be priority targets? We literally watch corn grow for a living.”

“Maybe they’ll try to take out our food supply first next time!” Joey said, “the only reason they didn’t dust our crops and cattle the first time around was because they wanted us well fed when they enslaved us, this time they know we’re going to have some bite, they might take us a little more seriously.”

“They won’t touch us as long as the squids are out there,” Kurt muttered, looking up at the sky again, “The Cephelos supposedly killed like a quarter of their population without taking a single casualty, that makes our fight with them look fair.”

Joey looked at him a moment, “Kurt, you’re not some kind of squid-truther, are you?”

Kurt just shrugged, “Nah, I know they’re real… I get why some people are skeptical, it had to have been hard finding out we were under attack by another alien race, and the only way to beat them was to buddy up with the same greenskins that spent five years trying to stomp us out, literally…” He shrugged, “personally I’d have told the Zetans to enjoy being a squid’s dinner.”

“My gramps fought them both,” Joey said, stepping out of the car and getting his crop surveillance equipment ready, “now you know I’m not some kind of Zetan sympathizer-“

“Fuck no man,” Kurt said reassuringly, “I know you’re not with the greenskins.”

“Yeah,” Joey muttered, looking over the cornfield, “well, gramps said that even with the Zetans shrinking people, crushing them, enslaving them… the squids were worse.” He was quiet a moment, “he always used to tell us the Zetans were evil people, the squids though? They’re not people at all…”

“Did he serve on a Zetan ship after the alliance?” Kurt asked curiously. Most humans had a story of family members working alongside the invaders once the Cephalo menace had presented itself, Kurt’s own father had served as the resident human on a small scout ship for a few years before marrying his mother.

“You didn’t ‘serve’ on a ship back then,” Joey muttered, “Zetans would do their usual thing, raiding human towns and shrinking everyone, then they’d find any humans with fighting experience and beg them to protect their ship against the Squids. You said yes, then they’d put you and everyone they took back to normal.”

“Had to be a weird time,” Kurt said with a nod.

“Yeah, the Squids were pretty terrifying back then,” Joey said, glancing over the field. Unlike Kurt he didn’t feel the need to wade into it, and he pulled up the holo-display on his wrist computer and simply checked a box stating “corn healthy” before stepping back into the car. “I guess their mind control isn’t like anything the Zetans ever saw in any of the other species out there.” He smirked a moment, “you ever see any of the old Zetan propaganda about us?”

“A little,” Kurt admitted, “a lot of that stuff is banned from broadcast…”

“Banned,” Joey said in a mocking, whining, voice. “Please, you’ve totally seen that shit, you’ve probably seen vids of their invasion too.”

“Yeah,” Kurt said quietly, “I’ve seen the footage of people getting stomped, torn limb from limb… I’ve seen the stuff they aired on their homeworld calling us animals and whatever, what’s your point?”

“You don’t think it’s just a little funny?” Joey asked with a grin, “they talked about how we had inferior brains so often, then it turns out we’re the only species in the galaxy immune to Squid mind control?” He chuckled, “not just immune, but we can even keep them safe if we want.”

“What’s funny about it?” Kurt said darkly, “if it wasn’t for the squids, we’d be their little toys and pets.”

Joey just rolled his eyes, “if you don’t think it’s funny that a race that spent every day ranting about its superiority had to suddenly get on its knees and beg us stupid earth monkeys for help, well hell Kurt, I don’t know what would make you chuckle.”

“And what about when the squids are gone?” Kurt asked, “you think the Zetans will find it funny?”

Joey shrugged, starting their vehicle again, “they say the squids have like five hundred planets, we’ve got four and the Zetans have twenty, I think we’ve got time to figure it out.” He grinned, glancing down at his ankle holster, “besides, it’s not like we’ve been sitting on our asses this whole time, we’d have our own star cruisers for round two, our own plasma weapons, and even bumfuck police departments like ours have power armor now.”

“I guess,” Kurt muttered, looking up at the sky again. There was a ring-shaped cloud where the space freighter had entered hyperspace, no doubt using the wormhole corridor the Zetans had established directly from Earth to their homeworld. It was supposedly an honor, an expensive infrastructure piece that even their own colonies mostly didn’t enjoy. Zetan press releases said it was because they wanted a stronger relationship with earth, the reality was that the Zetans wanted Zeta Prime to always have easy access to humans in the event of another Cephalo attack.

“You going to the parade downtown or driving over to Des Moines?” Joey asked. “Should be plenty of girls there, even people who hate the Zetans love to spend their money on a good party.”

“Fuck Des Moines,” Kurt laughed, “let’s just go to the one in downtown Clearwater, it’ll be smaller but it’ll have cheaper beer and nicer girls.”

Joey gave him a pair of finger guns as he grinned, “Hell yeah!”

…

Adam Langstrom sighed as he read over the reports. The fortieth Alliance Day celebration was upon them, and the Human-Zetan Cultural Office was on top of things, making sure celebrations would proceed smoothly. Few humans or Zetans were familiar with his office, and that was by design. Any who tried to learn more were given some short paragraph from their website about how his office promoted human cultural interests on Zeta Prime and it’s associated worlds and facilitated friendship between the two species. The truth was that the Cultural Office had more influence in the Earth and Zetan governments than any other organization short of the two species militaries.

There was a knock at his door, “Come in,” he called, reading over various plans for Alliance Day celebrations.

“Langstrom,” a female voice purred in perfect English, too perfect really. He looked up to see the pale green skinned woman in long black dress elegantly stalking into his office.

He smiled, meeting her pale yellow eyes, “Kira Darkstar, I’d heard you were rotating back to earth.” She was short for a Zetan at only six feet, and her pointed ears seemed to twitch happily as he greeted her.

“I just can’t stay away,” The Zetan woman said with a smile as she sat down across from him. “I thought it best that we meet to discuss the Alliance Day plans?”

“There’s little to discuss,” Adam muttered, closing the report, “we’ll have ample security at celebration sites in major cities, radical human groups intend to protest, but they shouldn’t cause too much trouble.”

“Same for us,” Kira said, pulling up a holographic data display, “the most troubling is Zeta Forever, they’re expected to field actual candidates for election soon, part of their official platform is that our government should pursue shrinking humans as a general policy again.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Adam exclaimed, “isn’t this the same group that was involved in black market human pet rings? How are they still in operation?”

Kira sighed, “we couldn’t tie it to any of the higher ups, luckily their polling numbers are quite low…”

“Maybe that’s a sign that your people are finally starting to see us as equals,” Adam muttered.

Kira bit her lip, “A significant portion of the Zetan population would like to see you reduced back to our toys,” she said, “they’re just smart enough to know that doing it while the Cephalos are out there is a death sentence for the Empire.” 

“So the ones openly voting to start shrinking humans again are just those stupid enough to say the quiet part out loud?” Adam mused with a smile.

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” Kira said with a small smile, “but rest assured our efforts haven’t gone entirely without effect, plenty of Zetans adore your species now.”

“Adoration takes many forms,” Adam said, rolling his eyes with a smile, “the last time I was on Zeta Prime no less than five young women propositioned me, and only one was going to let me stay full size for the act.”

“And did you take up any of those offers?” Kira giggled.

“Oh Kira,” he said with a playful smile, “you know the only Zetan I’ve ever had eyes for was you.”

“Good boy,” she said with a smirk, “you’re not seeing anyone are you? Zetan or… otherwise?”

“I haven’t dated since your last rotation here ended,” he said, folding his hands behind his head, “too busy with Cultural Office work…”

“I’m much the same,” Kira said, hefting an earth style purse up on his desk, “since I’m back on earth, why not simply pick up where we left off?”

Adam’s eyes went wide, and he smiled, “I’d love that!”

“Glad to be dating you again Adam,” Kira said, reaching into her purse, “you’re the only male in either of our species I ever got along with… now, are you done with your work for today?”

“Just finished wrapping things up,” he said.

“Oh good,” Kira said, drawing a small silvery device out of her purse.

Adam gulped nervously as he saw the shrink ray. Almost all Zetans carried one, using the miraculous devices for anything from self-defense to making the movement of heavy objects easier. The Zetan insistence on continuing to carry the devices on Earth was insensitive to say the least, a shrink ray in a green hand almost instinctively made any human nervous, even those like Adam who were well used to them.

Kira saw his expression and grinned, “Relax,” she said in a low voice as she aimed the device at him, “let’s just have fun tonight, like we used to.”

“Kira-“ he started, but a beam leapt out from the silver remote, striking him in the chest. A moment later he was looking up in shock at the monolith of his desk, a faraway grinning green face peered over it. He struggled to stand up on the leather of his chair as a giant hand reached down for him, the verdant fingers curling around his body and lifting him into the air.

He squirmed in her grip as he was brought up to her smiling face, she tilted him from side to side idly, getting a good look at him. Kira had always enjoyed handling him when he was tiny, and as the fingers longer than his legs began groping at him, he had to admit he’d missed it too. He fought the urge to gasp as the pad of her index finger traced along the front of his pants, quickly finding his erection. His will to resist dropped as she slowly began circling her finger back and forth, stimulating him and causing him to arch his back against her palm.

“I’ve missed playing with you,” she giggled. He gave her a pleading look as her finger pulled away, but she just laughed and rolled her eyes. Adam’s tiny body was brought to the two massive green globes of her breasts, and without another word she slowly stuffed him between them. “Go on,” she whispered, “get down there, I don’t want anyone to see me carrying you out like this.” Her finger pressed on his forehead, submerging him as his arms flailed like a drowning man. With a final muffled sound the shrunken human disappeared between the alien’s breasts.

Kira jiggled them slightly, settling her captive lower. With one final look around the office, she shut the light off and left. She waved pleasantly as she passed humans, and even a few other Zetans, in the hall. There were a few new faces, a few office renovations, but it was still the familiar building she’d spent her first visit to earth working at.

I can’t believe Adam was still unclaimed, she thought excitedly, single as the Earth people would say… Kira had loved her first rotation of duty on Earth, not least because of the human paramour she’d befriended, coming back and finding him still waiting for her? That was a message from the gods, no doubt about it.

Kira sighed and looked up at the blue sky, breathing in the smell of the human city. Most Zetans would look down on such a metropolis, dotted with pre-invasion buildings and more modern ones, gleaming with holographic advertisements and signs. There was nothing quite so authentic on Zeta Prime, nor most Zetan worlds, she brushed her hand along a stone structure that had a sign designating it as a bank. A building this old would have been knocked down at home on principle…

It’s good to be back, she thought.

…

“My friends,” the green skinned woman on the holoscreen began, “Am I alone in asking why we must continue to bow and scrape before these primitives?”

“Stars no!” Nea muttered, turning the volume up as the Zeta Forever candidate began her speech. She lounged on her expansive bed, one befitting a princess of the royal family, and with a flick of her wrist a drone brought her a drink, a cold Zetan beverage known as qet. She grimaced as she sipped it, it was said to be an acquired taste, but Nea was having some trouble… acquiring it. Still all proper Zetans drank qet, not that “cola” from Earth. Disgusting sludge, she thought angrily, she’d never tried it of course, she wouldn’t lower herself.

“Now it’s true that humans make a useful weapon against the Cephalos,” the candidate admitted, as a crowd of other Zetans mumbled halfhearted agreements, “but if humans are to be our shield, we should simply take as many as our fleets need!” the crowd roared in approval, “these knuckle dragging apes from earth aren’t allies, they’re trained animals, and it’s time we started reminding them of that!” cheers echoed through the hololink, and Nea fought the urge to rise off her bed and join them.

“They say we’re in a golden age of Human-Zetan relations,” the speaker finished, “but I say the golden age was when you could buy them at the market, when they scampered at our feet and cowered when we taught them tricks!” The figure on the screen nodded as members of the crowd shouted things like “make them pets!” “shrink all humans!” and “a good human is a tiny human!”

“Personally, I’m going to go buy a human enclosure as soon as I’m done with this speech,” the candidate roared, “because we all know we’ll need them again soon!”

“Stars align and make it so,” Nea muttered, flipping the holoscreen off. She glanced at the corner of her room, where a human enclosure sat, empty. She walked over to it, looking down at the facsimile of a earth-style house and green astroturf. A human would be lucky to get to live in there, she thought to herself.

“Princess?” a voice echoed from her door, coupled with a quick buzz of her alarm, indicating someone was requesting entry.

She recognized the voice of her bodyguard, Telma, “enter,” she said neutrally.

The door unlocked, and the other Zetan entered, her dark grey ceremonial armor glinting in the artificial sunlight of Nea’s room. Telma was a good seven feet tall, towering over Nea’s own six-and-a-half foot frame, and her pale silver hair contrasted with Nea’s own dark green. Nea stared bitterly a moment at Telma’s yellow eyes, the sign of a pure blooded Zetan. Her own were a vibrant blue, a consequence of her grandmother’s disgusting decision to allow a human to pollute the royal line.

“Your mother has summoned you, along with all of your sisters,” Telma said, “you did not respond?”

“I’m not going to participate in Alliance Day,” Nea snapped, “we shouldn’t be celebrating the fact that our people are chained to a gaggle of useless primitives.”

Telma’s mouth was a thin line, “my lady, your sentiments are my sentiments, but the Empress has commanded your presence.” Telma’s eyes glanced over the human enclosure, and she smirked, “you may wish to hide that, if your mother hears of it, she’ll order you disciplined.”

“Mother is a human loving traitor!” Nea said angrily.

Telma frowned, “She’s also the empress, now please get dressed Nea, I don’t want to see my colleagues drag you before her again.”

…

The Zetan throne room was an opulent and towering interior, with ceilings that stretched hundreds of feet high, archways leading to a throne that gleamed like mother of pearl in a radiant light that bathed the empress of the stars. Empress Tetra was dressed in a gown of starsilk, a dark fabric that gleamed and glittered like the night sky as she regarded her daughters. She had eight of them, each one a potential heir to her throne. Her oldest three and her youngest one had the bright yellow eyes of a Zetan, but the other four had a mix of green and blue eyes that betrayed human heritage. The empress herself had emerald eyes that almost matched the shade of her green skin.

“Nea,” the Empress said as her second youngest stalked angrily to join her sisters in a line, “so good of you to join us, we were discussing how the royal family will celebrate Alliance Day.”

“Where is father?” she demanded, looking at a smaller, empty, throne next to the Empress’s own.

Tetra’s mouth quirked slightly, she knew Nea didn’t care where her father was, she was only asking to annoy her. Zetan males were rare, at less than one in fifty natural pregnancies, the one Tetra had selected to be her consort was handsome to be sure, but a bit of a wastrel who did not care for palace life or politics at all. His lack of interest was one of the reasons why Tetra had wanted him in the first place, Zetan history was full of stories of prince consorts working behind the scenes, pursuing their own agendas, Tetra hadn’t wanted any of that. A fool with a pleasant personality and a taste for the finer things suited her just fine.

“Your father is away on other business,” Tetra said tersely, “I was discussing how your sisters were to behave at our gala tomorrow, most of Earth’s dignitaries are going to be there and I don’t want any diplomatic incidents.”

“Then don’t make me go,” Nea retorted angrily, “unless you’re going to let me take my shrink ray and-“

“Enough,” the empress said coolly, “I am embarrassed that you speak this way in the presence of my guards…” she gestured around the room. While there were a dozen royal Zetan guards in the same pale grey armor Telma wore, at the far end near the doorways four black suited humans wearing sunglasses and earpieces waited. While most high ranking Zetans had at least one human guard, a precaution against Cephalo attack, the empress had a rotating staff of nearly a dozen. Unlike most other Zetans she did not demand they conform to her species’ fashion, and the crisp black earth style suits contrasted sharply with the gleaming white walls.

“Your guards,” Nea mocked, “the only use a human has in fighting is keeping a squid’s tentacles out of your head, otherwise? They’re just decoration.”

“Agent Smith,” the empress ordered. One of the humans stood forward from the others, his hands behind his back, “discipline my daughter for me.”

The human bodyguard frowned, “Ma’am,” he began slowly, “we are here to protect you and your family, I don’t know if I feel comfortable with-“

The empress just laughed, “I do love how formal humans can be. Agent Smith you are new, you will learn in time how the palace functions… but for now, discipline my daughter.”

Smith glanced back at the other agents, who nodded as one. With a sigh the human approached the towering amazon that was Nea, who just grinned excitedly. He took his jacket off, then a moment later unbuckled his gun holster, the plasma pistol glowing within it as he folded his black suitcoat over it and placed it on the ground. Finally, he loosened his tie, taking a fighting stance across from her.

“Pathetic,” Nea laughed, stepping forward, “your other daughters neglect themselves mother, but I am a trained warrior, no human could ever-“ The wind was knocked out of her as the human’s first blow landed. She glanced down at her attacker in surprise, then threw a jab that was easily caught by the agent. Her world spun, and she grunted in pain as her face was forced into the ground, her arm pinned behind her back.

Nea’s face burned with rage, and tears of embarrassment stung the corners of her eyes. From her place on the ground, she could see her sisters giving her mocking smiles. She struggled against the human, but even though she was larger than him he had her pinned.

“Smith,” The empress said, a small smile on her own face, “break the arm.”

“I refuse,” Smith said, gritting his teeth as he held her in place.

“Refusing an order from the Empress,” Tetra laughed, “and my daughter thinks your species is cowardly… I suppose the princess has learned her lesson, release her.” Smith stepped back, and a seething Nea was let up. She glared angrily at her mother, fighting back a fresh wave of tears as her sisters giggled at her embarrassment.

“Do not speak ill of humans in my presence again,” the Empress said in a low voice. “You will celebrate Alliance Day, and you will be a paragon of polite conversation, now go.”

Nea sneered at them all one final time, before walking out of the room. She snarled as she passed Smith, who just stared at her impassively from behind those dark glasses. As the throne room door closed behind her, Telma joined her, following behind.

…

“S-She set that thing on me,” Nea raged, pacing her room while her bodyguard watched. “She was going to let him break my-“ She gulped, rubbing her still sore arm. “Humans are far too dangerous to be allowed to walk around at full size…”

“They’re most effective against the Cephalos at their full height,” Telma mused, “but… I admit I’d prefer them smaller, at least when they’re not needed.”

“Alliance Day,” Nea muttered, clenching her fists, “I’ll show them what I think of Alliance Day…” She glanced at her human enclosure, “the worst part of it is humans know they’d be better off in their rightful place.”

“Oh?” Telma asked, eyebrow raised.

“Zeta Forever says a lot of humans were happier when they were tiny,” Nea explained casually, “did you know, even after they were released, almost a third of them stayed here on Zeta Prime?”

“Well yes,” Telma said with a smirk, “but you’ll notice none of them wanted to stay tiny…”

Nea snorted, “plenty of people go down to the Human sector and offer to shrink them for a little fun, I’ve heard they never say no, that they practically beg you for it!”

Telma’s smirk indicated she was fighting a laugh, “have you ever been to the Human sector Nea?” she asked curiously.

“Of course not,” Nea snapped, “I’m not going to go consort with wild humans like that… If I desired to use one in a carnal sense it would be my own pet, a properly obedient one raised with a firm hand.” A strange expression traced across her face, “maybe that’s it…” she said, a grin forming on her face.

“You want a human?” Telma asked, the bodyguard blinked and cleared her throat uncomfortably, “I can arrange for one to uh… visit.”

“No, nothing like that,” Nea said, quickly pulling up the holographic display on her wrist computer. She typed in “Human-Zetan Friendship and Alliance Treaty” and quickly had the entire document displayed for her in Zetan and several human languages. She scrolled through it, then beamed as she found the passage she was looking for.

“The royal family of the Zetan Empire reserves the right to harvest humans from earth for recreation and procreation purposes,” she read excitedly. “Such humans shall be held until such time as the royal family deigns to release them.” She turned to Telma, “it’s still legal for me to take a human as a pet, even if our people are denied their rights.”

Telma licked her lips nervously, “Nea, that part of the treaty was… it was more symbolic than anything, no member of the royal family has ever actually invoked it.”

“Then perhaps it’s overdue,” Nea said, “prepare my ship, I want a military grade shrink rifle, battle armor, combat drones, everything a soldier invading earth would have had forty-five years ago.”

“I’m sworn to obey you,” Telma said nervously, “as your bodyguard I obey you even over the Empress, you know that… but I urge you to carefully consider this course of-“

“It’s exactly what’s needed!” Nea said eagerly, “our people crave real leadership, seeing their royal family exercise its rights to shrink and take a human will invigorate them and make the humans remember their place.”

“Nea,” Telma began uncertainly, “the ramifications could be-“

“Make the preparations,” the princess ordered. With a sigh Telma bowed, leaving to do her princess’s bidding

Nea glanced over her human enclosure, I’ll get a cute one, she decided, male… She thought of some of the things the texts said Zetans had done during the invasion of earth, and she giggled thinking of which ones she’d try for herself. I’ll do my best to treat my pet kindly, she decided, he’ll have to be a role model for the rest of his species after all, if he looks happy… it would be better. She bit her lip, of course he’ll need to be trained properly…

…

Alliance day celebrations began early in the morning, and as the small craft lifted over the sparkling spires of the Zetan capital, fireworks burst below them. Per Nea’s instructions Telma had prepared a ship, armor, and weaponry for them. The princess was in gleaming emerald green armor that was molded to her body, exposing her lithe physique as she checked the shrink-rifle, a device powerful enough to reduce even the largest human fighting vehicles to mere toys.

“Excellent work Telma,” Nea beamed, joining her bodyguard in the cockpit. She frowned as she saw the other Zetan had a cup of... something. Was it bubbling? “Telma,” she said in a disapproving tone, “is that one of those Earth sodas?”

“It is,” Telma said defensively, taking another sip, “they contain a delightful substance called caffeine, I like to have some at the start of my day.”

“Earth narcotics are for the weak,” Nea said, “go pour it out and prepare us two cups of qet.”

“Ah yes, qet,” Telma muttered, “just the drink for starting an interplanetary incident.”

“Indeed,” Nea said excitedly, missing the sarcasm. “This Alliance Day is sure to be one the humans will never forget… Set course for Earth!”