Pa spoke with a hoarse voice, “I’ll not ask my son to go see those speckled monsters.” He held my gaze for several seconds before he coughed again.

“Yeah, what if they make me after?”

Becky spoke, “Something tells me if they did it wouldn’t be forced.”

My Pa let out a tired sigh.

Becky continued, “If they were forcing people, they would have taken all the men they wanted. They don’t do that. They have honor.” She drew out the last word and stared at me. “They take men willing to turn themselves into Omegas.”

“Which ain’t me.”

“Not what I’m saying. Not everyone passes. If you do, just say you changed your mind.” Her eyes darted off to the side before they resumed on me. “Tommy Jeffers in the next county took it.”

I gasped. “He did?”

“Yeah, and they were going to offer him the works. You know… ‘The Package’.”

My heartbeats raced. ‘The Package’ varied. Didn’t matter what you needed when you had a race of beings that could offer almost anything and deliver. Plenty of change-overs got money. Of course, they didn’t need it where they were going. Although, their families were well off after.

Money for a farm would be nothing to them. As for Pa’s cough, well, if they couldn’t fix him then nobody on this planet could.

My eyes narrowed. “That makes no sense. You’re lying. I saw him at the football game. You know with his…”

“Boyfriend, Peter. His boyfriend. Modern people can say that.”

My frown deepened.

I wasn’t a bigot and there was a time when two guys holding hands would get your ass kicked. I suppose it still would in some parts, but Tommy was always stubborn. Plenty of folks teased him but nobody got violent.

I shook myself out of the daydream.

“Yeah, but the point I’m making is he’s not walking around with a full belly.”

“Well, can you blame him with all the bigots?”

Well, she had a point there. Plenty of people didn’t trust the Volardi. I suspect even if they were ‘just’ aliens they’d still have issues. Beyond the suspicions, they were… well gay. At least that’s how I saw it. And beyond even that, their males carried babies. Queer was bad enough, but this perverted everything decent. Sure, I wasn’t a real bigot, but Omegas weren’t seen much on Earth.

“Figured he liked boys, and that was it,” she said. “Didn’t want to carry a kid. Sides, his boyfriend’s rich. Would have put a real crimp in their gay relationship if he got pregnant and then sent off world.”

I bit my lip. Tommy was always a bit... odd. I wondered what caused him to refuse the offer? Pregnancy or going off planet?

“The Volardi gave him ten thousand,” said Becky. “Got one of those automatic cars after.”

“I thought that was his rich boyfriend.” I sneered. “You know... the type.”

Becky’s eyes narrowed while I sensed my Pa’s gaze.

“He took the test. Two hours later he had the money in his bank account.