An Alien Ate My Baby: Part 5, Tali

This is how it ended.

You already know how it started. My forebears journals are not merely best sellers, but they are the subjects of movies, interactive entertainment, and a prime time television show ("The Aliens"? Really? Sounds like a B grade sci-fi show).

But nobody likes endings. Nobody wants to talk about them - because if you talk about an ending, you have to face the fact that it's over. And nobody wanted that.

Yet here we are.

Mother left us when I was 16. We weren't really all that close, to be honest. While I was definitely her favourite - the only girl of four children - she wasn't particularly mine. Our bodies require vigorous exercise to fight off atrophy on this low gravity planet - and Uncle Thane was my personal trainer. Our minds require constant stimulation to fight the microbes that cause premature senility - and Aunt Nerys was my tutor. My mother birthed me. She tended to leave the messy parts to her siblings.

Speaking of siblings, my elder brothers Worsel and Tregonsee were frivolous. I don't deny that some of the luxuries we now take for granted are, well, luxurious - nor that it isn't pleasant to have a thriving VirtuNet 24x7. But it was hardly the most pressing problem - the colonist overlords were in open revolt. My twin and I would have to pick up the slack.

Our opponents were desperate. They had retreated to the shell of the colony ship - still impregnable after over a century - and they worked in secret with the only allies that we could not control - the unquiet dead. It is fortunate indeed that our superior biology rendered sleep unnecessary; the almost constant nightly presence of our ectoplasmic ancestors would have guaranteed none of us ever got the rest we didn't need.

While we had enough rations for our own lifetimes, the colony ship contained all the nutrient supplies we'd need for population growth. The people were with us, but only if we could prove our strength.

The military was ours, as was most of the law enforcement and crime syndicate. None of it was of any use - the colony ship had been built to withstand the rigours of deep space, nothing we or the natives had could breach its hull. We couldn't talk them out, we couldn't wait them out - the cold sleep booths were now fully functional again. They could afford to play the long game. We could not.

When we finished last time I'd just moved out Na'toth, leaving Nerys (retired Empress of Evil, 79 days old, kept around to collect and transmute stuff), Worsel (YA, aiming for Architect - all he needs are the careeers), Tregonsee (YA, aiming for Gamer - all he needs is the hacking and careers), Nadreck (teen, aiming for Paranormal), and last but not least Tali (teen, aiming for Naturalist). The teens are 2 days away from YA status. Tali is already level 3 in the Mausoleum career; Nadreck is about 2.5 and, since he doesn't get another work day until after YA hits, he's going to be a bit delayed. It is Week 36, Day 4. My current score is 291; with 4 more points from the final 4 lifts, and the perfect plants or fish from Naturalist, I cannot fail to get 300. All I need is time.

I've used the weather controller liberally to make sure it's usually sunny, to minimise the number of snow days, as the kids actually do benefit from after school activities.

On my 18th birthday, I gave up my study of death at the local graveyard. Nadreck seemed to have more of a grasp upon it. Indeed, my studies were of a completely different nature - I took over the local laboratory and began to experiment with strains of plant and marine life. If we could find something we could eat, then we could wait the colonists out.

Week 36, Day 6, and now we're in the end zone.

But Nadreck did master death. The weapon that the colonists had launched at us was more mystical than scientific. He lured the dead - the ghosts, I suppose we must call them - with tales he had spun, he befriended them, and he got them to agree that if he beat them at chess, they would bother us no more. His logic was infallible, his stories riveting - the most successful author in our lineage, which is no small feat - and the unquiet dead bother us little now. We do occasionally get visits from Kara, Kal-El, Kerrigan, Jon'zz, and Longshot - but given that most of those died horribly after great achievements, we chose to view that as our penance.

Nadreck took the aging Aunt Nerys with him to an undisclosed location. As you know, his experiments to thwart death for her were successful. Aunt Nerys was our first true immortal. I have no intention of revealing where we perform these experiments - the last thing I need to worry about is ageless colonist rebels.

Week 37, Day 5 - Paranormal cleared. Can't really show the ghost friends - they're not on lot - and there's a similar problem with the chess games, but both requirements were satisfied. The novels took the longest.

Nadreck and Nerys move out. And then there were 3.

Despite my misgivings, Worsel did indeed assist us. While mostly focussed on new buildings and luxuries, it was largely his understanding of structural defects that allowed us to begin our siege of the colonist ship.

Week 38, Day 4: Architect lifted. Worsel leaves, and then there were 2.

Tregonsee's study of gaming turned out to have a hidden catch.

There is a game he created. You have almost certainly played it. It is not a game.

And that is all need be said.

Week 38, Day 6, Gamer lifted. Tregonsee leaves.

And then there was 1. Everything is done except level 10 Science.

When I discovered how to bring edible food, flora, and fauna to this world, the colonists time was over. I would like to say that they fought bravely, but in truth they surrendered. They had nothing left to fight for.

We were merciful. You do not know their fates, but be assured that they live. This world of yours - we are guests here, but we are also its masters. The colonists will not be of any further trouble.

But if you think of crossing us, remember their fate - lost to history, kept alive at our whim, and able to be erased whenever we wish. We are merciful. We are just.

But we are also in charge. Forget this at your peril.

Week 39, Day 6, Naturalist is lifted.

The final score was 300:

• Restrictions 25 (all, including Alien Technology).
• Bonuses 193:
• Copious Library 1 (17 books)
• Amazing Naturalist 60 (all space rocks, all metals, all gems, and a bunch of fish and plants)
• Admiral Adonis 49 (trained 10 Sims for 10 hours each, 19 household Sims got to level 10 - that is, all household Sims)
• Skill Meister 30
• I Want It, I Want It 15
• Ghostly Ghosts 15
• Gnamely Gnomes 3 (Mysterious Mr Gnome, Evil Mr Gome, sGnomeman Bittertrotter)
• Money Money Money 10 (2 522 928 - I sold off all our investments, but there was easily another 100k on the lot if I'd wanted it)
• Time in a Bottle 10 (no aging off days used)
• Advantages/Handicaps 100
• Prestige Alien 50
• We don't need no education 30
• Walk to work 10
• It's hopeless 10
• 5 bloopers (-0)
• I picked up a sleeping bag once.
• I forgot to place a hamper.(Be careful with this - lots of packs have hampers, in my case it was Generations).
• I used the telescope once during the day before Espionage was lifted
• Nadreck made friends with 2 ghosts while still a child. This is illegal; he had to wait until YA until he could declare Paranormal. I didn't count either of those ghosts towards his friends; this was 2 bloopers.
• Total: 300 (max)

The total time was 272 days.

If you've read this far, thank you for your time and I hope you've enjoyed my chronicle. Aliens are fairly easy in the end; the only reason my time was so poor is because the lack of expansion packs made it necessary to lift Military to even attempt some of the lifts, and that was an unfortunate ordering.

An Alien Ate My Baby, Part 4: Na'toth

Well well. Aren't you all lucky?

Most of my forebears have been describing how we were constantly being inhibited by the human colonists. And that is still true, but they failed to really explain why.

I am Na'toth. I will never lie to you, not even by omission. You are my descendant, and you deserve nothing but truth.

It is because we are not human. We are not really natives either. We are a fusion - we are Homo Superior, we are human plus. We are better than they are, and they fear us.

When last we met, Na'toth had just aged up a day before, and she's our newly designated heir. To reiterate, I have currently lifted Alien Technology, Business, Culinary, Education, Entertainment, Forensics, Journalism, Politics, Science, and Symphonic.

So, the four teens spend more of their time working out, filling in the gaps with a little Charisma training, making potions, or whatever. The kids make muffins, write books, and play hopscotch. Longshot is out in the snow freezing. Kara is painting to earn some cash.

This superiority is not without costs. Occasionally, we must sacrifice one of our number to strengthen the rest.

You who read this - you benefited. You are who you are because of those who died before you. So I repeat: aren't you lucky? Great Uncle Longshot froze to death for you - you had better be worth it.

Week 26, Day 6, freezing ghost achieved. It takes ages to die of freezing or starvation when you are Hardly Hungry. But it will eventually happen.

On Week 27, Day 1, Garrus becomes a YA; the next day, so does Thane. Garrus already has Become an Astronaut locked as LTW, which is why I was waiting for Thane. I choose Master of the Arts for Thane (he has painting 6, and with both Entertainment and Symphonic lifted he's allowed to learn Guitar), and then I have Thane check the paper. Science, Criminal, and Business are all available. Even if I hadn't lifted Journalism, I'd still be eligible to choose Criminal here (for Master Thief), which of course I do. I'm going to wait 3 days now for Na'toth and Deanna to age up so that they can check the paper - if Garrus ever does, he is required to take a job, and I don't want him taking anything but military. Obviously there is an expiration date on this, but I can wait a week without significant impact as he's not an heir - which means he has another 6 days before he has to worry. He'll probably manage to skip any Graduation Day nonsense as an added bonus.

Mother was a ruthless psychopath. I'll say it, if nobody else does. She basically killed all of her siblings, out of petty jealousy. You can say that she had some sort of greater good in mind if you like - whatever helps you to sleep. I hope you realise, my children, that your grandmother was not a woman you should feel any particular nostalgia for. If you've met her ectoplasmic form, you'll know this. Of course, despite the horrors she inflicted on our aunts and uncles, she herself died peacefully of old age.

There is no justice. There is only us.

Week 27, Day 4, Kara dies. That's the last of my platinum tombstones required, so I'm really hoping I can get Garrus to lift Military so I can avoid any further deaths.

But enough of my morality.

It took them a while to place my siblings and I. It is true that Thane was employed fairly swiftly - he says that he managed to infiltrate the local black marketeers, but in truth they shanghaied him - it wasn't really his choice. After a year of waiting, they finally decided to train me as a spy. Their thought was that I would be able to infiltrate the natives and spot sympathisers, for a coming war.

Evidently they had no true knowledge where my loyalties lay.

Garrus was 24 before they finally found him a position cleaning latrines at the local military base. The colonists loathe us, but they should not have let us on the base, even in such a demeaning position.

Deanna, they took an even graver risk. They required her to register as an organ donor, but they should never have let us into their hospitals.

The local sports-ball team was doing very poorly - the Councillors 11 was getting completely smashed by the Colonists Crushers. So when my brother Mordin came of age, they decided to force him to see what could be done about that, starting him out with an all-access pass to the councillor's team.

Thane's initial survey of the mobsters revealed that it was more difficult than he imagined - he needed help. Nerys came to his rescue - eventually, all criminals would work for her.

Week 27, Day 5. Na'toth checks the paper and sees Business, Culinary, and Journalism. All are clear already, so I can refuse and try again the next day. Na'toth chooses Living in the Lap of Luxury as her LTW (Deanna already has World Renowned Surgeon locked).

The next day is Graduation Day. Thane (the only one employed) is already friends with his boss, and so this is actually pretty good timing. The paper the next day has Science, Culinary, and Law Enforcement - so Na'toth is now in Espionage. I now have to hope I get lucky, because it's no longer worth delaying any longer (Mordin is still 5 more days from becoming a YA).

On the next day, Military is amongst the four options (Law Enforcement, Politics, Science are the other three - apparently there are "3 to 5" each day, though it seems waited towards 3). So Garrus takes that, and I choose to wait another day for Deanna. There, the choices were Medical, Military, and Retired (thanks SP!) - so she takes Medical. This was kind of lucky, but I did have plenty of LTR points saved for Change Lifetime Wish if needed.

It all rounds out with Mordin taking Athletics and Nerys getting Criminal - literally the only two possible jobs they could get, as with Military not yet lifted, Architect, Gamer, and Paranormal are all off limits.

With Nerys running interference, Thane quickly broke a lot of the corruption by stealing embarrassing secrets. Of course there is still crime, but it's no longer tacitly supported at the government level. When you children came of age, you were able to choose what to do with your life.

OK, that isn't true, of course. But the choice you were mandated to make was mandated by me, not by corrupt government employees.

Week 30, Day 2, Master Thief is lifted. Thane's hanging around for a little while though, as he may well be able to clear 2 Guitar skill challenges (Guitar Star is basically impossible, but Money Maker is easy enough, and Master Guitarist just needs me to lift Military so I can get to the store).

As for my contribution? That was in two parts. The first was to build on the spy network that Thane uncovered and turn it to our own use. We quickly identified criminal elements and those that would not work for us, were put away or blown away, as the occasion merited. Harsh, but these were revolutionary times.

Week 30, Day 3, Espionage lifted (thanks to a call in the previous day). Na'toth is still the designated heir; she has 4 days until she's an adult, so she will have plenty of time. I need to wait for Military to clear anyway (at least another 6 days - so many days off), so I might as well see if any new alien males pop by.

Deanna's new fusion of native and human biological knowledge allowed us to genetically modify some of the native bacteria to produce fresh water. What was once in short supply is now in abundance, and at a stroke this also ended a lot of preventable diseases, allowing the newly uncorrupt doctors and researchers to focus their attention on actually advancing their knowledge instead of merely treating symptoms.

Same day, Medical lifted. At least the synchronised toilet trips can stop - most of the household are now packing the trifecta of Steel Bladder, Hardly Hungry, and Dirt Defiant. A few also have Simmunity, and Na'toth has Fertility Treatment. I've been liberally using Midlife Crisis, which is the reason not all of the household has everything - but they will.

Garrus finally managed to train and equip an actual standing army. The colonists were far from happy with this - virtually all the members were natives, for one - but it wasn't really a military coup.

Because we were basically already in charge.

Now that we were able to commandeer a personal escort and claim buildings for our own use, Garrus set himself up a permanent barracks and Deanna set herself up a lab for medical research. It was time for me to consider my next contribution.

As I said, I will never lie to you. Why you had to find out who your mother was in this journal is ... complicated. Let us say that it was time to inject human genes back into our lineage - because the colonists were a mockery of their former selves. The natives, however - buoyed by our numerous triumphs, they were beginning to think they were superior to us.

They were not. They are not. We are something better, and we needed to make sure they understood that.

Week 31, Day 2, Military lifted. Thus begins the exodus - Deanna and Garrus both leave. Thane is hanging around to clear a couple of skill challenges, while Mordin and Nerys are still lifting their restrictions (and of course Na'toth is the heir).

We are the fusion of mental and physical perfection, thanks to Mordin's discovery of anti-atrophy techniques. He started his own clinic devoted to them - we, of course, get free service.

Week 31, Day 3, Athletics is lifted. I can now (mostly) dismantle my original house - I've been living in the Politics house but I had most of my original still there as a shell, because of objects I couldn't delete. It's still partly there because of tombstones, but mostly it's gone now.

And that's about when you come in. Worsel and Tregonsee, my twin first borns. I won't bore you with your own exploits here - you're well aware of them, I'm sure. I may cover the highlights, though.

You may wonder who your father is. You will continue to do so - I will never tell you. He is unimportant, no more relevant in your upbringing than the manufacturer of your teddy bear. You are my children - not his.

Week 31, Day 7. I need 4 more (including these two), and it literally does not matter whether they count as aliens or not, because I don't need an heir, only spares. I'm going to have Worsel lift Architect and Tregonsee lift Gamer. Meanwhile Nerys is on target to lift on her next work day (assuming she doesn't get arrested), while a lot of training is going on for Adonis points.

So with any impetus for finding a new alien to mate with, I just grabbed one of the Adonis trainees into the shower. It was the same one for both sets of kids, but that was coincidental rather than by design.

With Nerys's achievements the criminal element in the colony now worked entirely for us. We no longer had any fear of mundane threats - were we not blessed with native biology and still needed sleep, we would doubtless be able to sleep far more soundly. But there are still the ectoplasmic threats. That, of course, you are well aware of.

Week 32, Day 3, Criminal lifted. I was arrested a total of 3 times, which set me back considerably.

After all, Nadreck, that was really your area of expertise.

But as our line has ever been matriarchal, it is fitting that new life was brought to us by Tali. I remember when you were just a tiny infant, my sweet child.

Then you were a toddler, a child, and even a teen. You cried when Uncle Thane left for his retirement home, but you understood - he did not wish to burden us with an angry ghost.

Week 32, Day 4, the last two midgets are born. Nadreck will lift Paranormal, and Tali will lift Naturalist. I have Nerys and Thane making nightly raids to steal space rocks from the science facility on a sort of "while-you-wait" basis; Thane is also helping out with the toddlers and Nerys is burning a lot of brain power transmuting.

There's not really a lot to say here; the teens got part time jobs where appropriate, they were all trained to 10 Athletics, and Thane kept collecting gems and (where appropriate) transmuting them. On Week 36, Day 1, when Thane was 90, I had him move out (can't have him dying after all).

And that was why I had to leave too. I leave you in the care of Aunty Nerys, and your older brothers. I know we will see each other again - in this life, or the next.

Week 36, Day 4, Na'toth moves out. Thane was already dead by this point, so clearly I can't rely on them to live very long after 90 - and this is her 90th day. One last push in the next instalment.