Free The Harvest by N.W. Harris

the sound was
muted. Shane selected a set of headphones from a basket to the side
of the TV with a tag that read “English” on it. He slipped them on,
and the alien’s voice played in his ears. It was a lecture on
Anunnaki anatomy, talking about their muscle connections and how
they made most Anunnaki physically weaker than the average human.
But, he warned, their armor more than made up for the
difference.
    Taking off the headphones, he returned them
to the basket. Five other baskets hung on the wall, each with a
different language tag on it. Shane gathered at least one other
English-speaking team would be joining them. There were twice as
many headphones in that language than the rest.
    “The loop takes seventy-two hours to get
through, and then it replays. You should spend as much of your
limited free time as possible viewing these lessons,” Jones
advised. “The more you learn, the more effective you’ll be when the
time comes for you to try to save this world.”
    “No pressure,” Maurice said, laughing
nervously.
    “I’m sure Lily made it clear, but to put it
in words you can understand, we don’t intend to sugarcoat anything.
You must fully grasp the magnitude of this situation, so the only
one surprised during your attack is the enemy.” Jones shifted his
cold gaze from Maurice to the rest of them. “We want you fully
prepared. If you lose, we lose—my people have no place else to go
either,” he added, no less aggression in his voice.
    “Come this way, and I’ll show you the
quads.”
    They followed him past the TV area and
between the bunks. Once they were in the aisle, Shane could see
narrow panels separated the beds, creating cubicles that slept four
people per section. The quads opened onto the aisle, affording no
privacy from the people on the opposite side. In each divided area,
four metal lockers sat under the high windows on the exterior
walls. There were no locks on them to secure valuables, not that
Shane or his friends had any. All they had left at this point was
each other.
    “This first set of quads belongs to you,”
Jones growled. “Boys on the left, girls on the right.”
    “I guess that means we get an extra bed,”
Maurice said, cheerful in spite of the gruff alien’s
condescension.
    One of the bunks had stacks of black clothing
on it—seven piles of sweatpants, shorts, and T-shirts—all the same
as the ones Dr. Blain had provided for him.
    “Looks like we all have to wear
butt-huggers,” Steve complained, picking up the running shorts from
the stack with the largest-sized clothing in it.
    “They suit some of us quite nicely,” Kelly
whispered to Shane.
    “Yeah.” He chuckled. “I can’t wait to see you
in them.” He shot a grin at her, and she was the one blushing this
time.
    There was also a small, clear plastic case
with an earbud in it that looked like a tiny, transparent hearing
aid, and a paper cup with five large pills in it.
    “What’s this?” Jules asked, picking up the
earbud. “I didn’t think we’d need to wear it until we attacked the
Anunnaki.”
    “It is the device that will suppress the
slave gene, but it’s also a translator and the simulator
interface,” Jones explained. “You’ll need to wear it at all times
during training so you can understand the non-English speaking
teams.”
    “What about the Anunnaki?” Jules asked. “What
language do you speak?”
    Shane tried hard not to smile. She was pithy
and aggressive as any of them—a fitting complement to his team.
Jones’ face twitched—he clearly didn’t appreciate the label.
    “ They speak a universal language
everyone on this planet will understand. To you, it will be
English. To the Chinese, it will be Mandarin,” he replied. “You’ll
understand the Anunnaki, and they’ll understand you.”
    He wondered why the alien kept the scar on
his face. After what Dr. Blain had done to the gash in Shane’s
chest, he was certain she could fix anything. Perhaps the captain
was just