Alliance, page 24
“It is possible, but I have a hard time imagining them abandoning their brethren under the bubble without at least one more try at freeing them,” Jake offered.
“The planetary sweeps using Jacob’s new range finder haven’t turned up a single lead. I am almost tempted to check the moon and Mars,” Linda added.
“Only if we can spare the ships,” Jake countered.
“You think we can take down the ship in the desert and get our people back,” Sara asked pointedly.
“Just one way to find out,” Jake closed the meeting with.
Chapter 26
The desert sky was clear, bright, and blue around the stasis bubble as Jake gathered his mixed forces around their objective. Marines, SAS, Chinese, Russians, and the newly adopted Germans represented all in the final battle to rid the Earth of its invaders.
Carefully laid out in fire zones, he made sure there was little chance the encirclement would lead to friendly fire incidents. With so many different groups involved he needed to run a tightly controlled operation.
“Everyone in place?” Jake asked the Officers in charge of the various units involved, looking for confirmation.
The plan required the first stasis bubble to be dropped, with the expectation that there were trapped Marines and alien troops, unaware of the changes since the bubble went up. He had everyone reminded that their own people were frozen in a moment of time when they were fighting for their lives.
“Remember to hold your fire until you have clear targets. Don’t shoot your own people and let’s see if we can’t capture some of the aliens alive if we can,” Jake broadcast over all nets, the translations provided by ALICE.
“Are we good with the Phase Inhibitor?” he asked on a separate net.
The question was directed at the two ships hovering above the planet’s surface. In a stationary orbit, the pair, one NeHaw and one human, combined their emissions to help those below expose any hidden alien elements.
“Confirmed, both systems are up and running,” the Captain of the human ship acknowledged, the replacement as Revenge would be in for repairs for the foreseeable future.
With one last scan over the pending battlefield, Jake hit the comm button.
“OK Alice, let's drop the outside bubble.”
In less than a second, the shimmering dome that had been protecting the three stasis projecting helicopters disappeared and several gunshots rang out as the Marines inside the dome continued to fight a battle that had been decided some time ago.
“Where are they?” Jake asked aloud as the rest of his forces took control of the area and recovered those trapped inside.
Nowhere in sight were the reported alien troops supposedly captured with the Marines as the two sides battled for control of the three helicopters. The only telltale spot that supported the reports of the trapped alien troops was the missing half of the recovered alien body. The gooey mess was still fresh as if it had just happened.
“OK, let’s not dwell on this, get them reformed up,” Jake announced as the entire ring of troops closed in on the ravine and its contents.
Anxious to retrieve his daughter, Padma, Jake wasn’t overly interested in dwelling on the missing aliens. That was an attitude that was about to change.
“Let’s get everyone into their secondary positions,” he ordered as the encirclement got smaller.
This part of the plan had a significantly greater risk to all involved as the trapped ship in the ravine below was, to the best of anyone knowledge, undamaged and fully capable of fighting back. For this stage, they had brought down two Patrol craft from high orbit and had them standing by just outside the ground troops circle and a half mile up.
Jake’s primary concern was recovering the hostages unharmed, any live captures of the aliens, even the ship itself undamaged was a bonus.
“Ready when you are Sir,” Jake got from Major Atkins, grandson in law and the SAS Officer assisting him in the multinational effort.
“Ok Alice, cut the shields,” Jake ordered.
Once again, the shimmering bubble the stasis waves created when applied in such a fashion evaporated. Almost as one, the entire force peered over the edge of the ravine, ready for a fight. What they saw left all in attendance speechless.
Laying out in the bottom of the ravine were a dozen or more humans, all save one naked as the day they were born. The sole exception Jake recognized as his own Padma, still suited up and slowly getting to her feet. The others around her began to rise as well, their nakedness acknowledged as they attempted to cover themselves.
Nowhere in sight was the alien craft nor the troops it held prior to the entrapment.
“What the hell,” Jake heard Master Sergeant Hillstead exclaim, as he stood nearby.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Jake replied as he scanned the length of the ravine looking for clues to the location of the missing aliens.
“Sir?” one of the Officer’s asked him, looking for direction.
“Go collect those people and get them some clothes. Top, please tell my daughter she will be home for dinner tonight, if you would please,” Jake said to the man’s back as he had already started over the edge of the ravine.
“Where the bloody hell did they go, and why leave them behind?” Daniel asked as he stepped up next to his grandfather in law.
“Catch and release?” Jake replied with a shrug.
----*----
Once more Jake found himself sitting across from the leader of the NeHaw empire, both parties again utilizing the small saucer in space as before. The meeting was a mutually agreed upon event, spurred by the question, what now?
“I doubt you believe they are gone for good,” General KaLob opened as he shifted in his seat, an action Jake took to mean he was getting comfortable for a long meeting.
“Would you? I imagine they are sifting through all the data they have gathered while in our space, looking for answers explaining their failures before their next attempt,” Jake replied as he sipped the drink he had brought along from his ship.
The saucer had been built to provide all the comforts required for an extended stay. Food, drink, lavatory, and even sleeping accommodations were provided to prevent either party from needing to leave the saucer before their business was complete.
“We know nothing of this species beyond the bodies you collected and the space junk now orbiting several worlds. We have little to go on in predicting their future intentions,” the General supplied.
Jake didn’t bother to inform the good General that his people had been scrambling for days collecting everything they could from the demolished vessels both on the ground and in space. He also did not feel obligated to provide a disclosure of the unexplained events in the desert. Until someone could give him an explanation for how the aliens and their ship managed to escape the stasis bubble, he considered the situation unresolved.
There was also the issue of the missing saucer. Of all the incidents of the alien war, that was the one huge elephant in the room. There had been no sign of the saucer or the people aboard since their capture and the current speculation was that they had been shipped off for study.
It had been suggested that Jake reach out to the NeHaw to see if they had any intel on the subject, but he had set that aside for another time. The last thing he wanted to do was inspire a treasure hunt among the NeHaw, with hopes of capturing human technology.
Once again, Jake hoped the crew had the forethought to destroy the ALICE configuration before someone else figured it out.
“You have something in mind?” Jake asked as he returned his focus to the matters at hand.
“Continuing the Alliance. It benefits both our races to defend against future outside intrusion and in particular the specter of a return in force of those recently vanquished. In addition, we could formalize the trade that is now represented in the smuggling that we both know permeates the border worlds.”
Jake had suspected the request for a meeting was more than a return to the original agreement. In preparation he had a diplomatic team assembled to offload the duties should things go that way. It appeared his efforts were about to bear fruit.
“What you are suggesting is more than the simple agreement we brokered, as a military truce. Perhaps we should assign delegates, a diplomatic corps, to hammer out the details,” Jake proposed.
“I can have such a team here in less than a cycle,” KaLob responded with Jake translating the statement to less than a day.
“I can as well. I propose we freeze the current state until the teams have a chance to meet. You handle your business and we will take care of ours. Once a diplomatic agreement is reached, we can transition to the new agreement. This is all predicated on the assumption neither side starts shooting again,” Jake offered in the way of a warning.
“Agreed. I see little chance of conflict, as the only losers here are the smugglers,” the General replied with a bark that Jake took to be a laugh.
“Let the games begin,” Jake thought to himself as he joined in the laughter.
----*----
General KaLob had secrets of his own that he was hiding as he and his counterpart began the long process of renegotiating the truce they had brokered many megacycles ago. He had been upfront and unusually honest in his proposition that the NeHaw and the Humans benefited from the proposed diplomatic growth of their relations.
Expanded civilian markets for goods and services undercut the inflated prices the NeHaw were paying for the contraband products the smugglers were providing. On the military side, the joint operations had been quite successful in destroying the invading forces while preventing the loss of a single NeHaw vessel. The Humans had been good to their word, shielding the NeHaw while submitting themselves to a pounding. It was not lost on KaLob that the humans were once again victorious in battle.
It was the efforts of his scientific teams the KaLob had no intention of disclosing, nor sharing of data as part of any future agreement. At this very moment, he had ships scouring the planets in NeHaw space, recovering any alien wreckage, pieces large and small, and delivering them to a secret location for analysis.
The prize of their efforts, however, had nothing to do with the invading alien forces at all. Found floating in space, a human saucer was recovered as part of these efforts. Powerless, with the humans inside near death, his people had saved the crew and hidden the craft away for study. It was reported to him that the aliens had stripped the ship of its central power supply, but evidently discarded the rest as uninteresting.
A special code had been worked out in advance of these efforts as KaLob had concerns that the humans had somehow compromised their communications. All too often they had an uncanny ability to predict NeHaw actions without explanation. He considered he might be just being paranoid, but for now, all activities surrounding these operations used the code.
He had been careful to ensure that the saucer and the humans recovered from inside were undamaged and kept in good condition, should they be needed in future negotiations. The Humans were funny about reclaiming their own kind and should nothing of value be learned from the ship itself, their return might be the nudge required to tip the scales in NeHaw favor.
At that moment, General KaLob decided that is was time for the exiled NeHaw, HeBak, to step up his efforts in earning his way back to his own kind. A good spy should be able to rise to the challenges of his circumstance and with the changes to come there should be much more opportunity.
----*----
Joycelyn and her brother Asher were playing with a larger group of children as a transport helicopter passed low overhead, on its way to the landing pad. Relocated to Prosperity with the other evacuees from Beaver Dam, the kids seem to take the life changes in stride as they made new friends among the families of the town.
The group had just begun a game of hide and seek when the young girl heard her name called by a familiar voice.
“Joycelyn, Asher?” a female voice called out over the grassy area they selected as a playground.
“Mom? Dad?” Joycelyn called back in reply, the surprise in her voice quite obvious.
“I’m here,” the teary-eyed woman declared as she waved the kids to her, a man in her wake.
Joycelyn grabbed her little brother by the hand and nearly dragged him behind her as she rushed to her parents.
As the four converged on one another, more adults appeared, reuniting with their own displaced families.
----*----
The Hong Kong saucer sat firmly on its foundations on top of Mount Cameron, providing those people fortunate enough to be inside with a spectacular view of the surrounding area. Towering high above the tallest peak, the structure contained over sixteen million four hundred and eighty five thousand square feet of floor space spread over ten levels. Unlike the cosmic versions of the saucer, the terrestrial model’s domed areas had been converted into more usable space as a green space inside the saucer was of no need.
Several bridges had been constructed, permitting vehicles to drive in and out of the structure at the lower levels as well as hangar space on the main ring for small flying craft. While well suited for its current environment, Colonel Chao was overwhelmed with the thought that he could take the entire structure to space in an emergency should the need arise.
“OK, Bo we are at the final stage,” Jake declared in a tired voice as he worked several keys on the master console before him.
Jake had offered to have Bo perform the awakening, but the man politely declined, referring the ever important duty to someone he felt eminently more qualified for the job, or so he said. Jake still wondered if the Morgana experience was still rattling nerves throughout the ALICE community, humans, and ALs alike.
“Alice, can you please reach out to our latest arrival,” Jake proclaimed.
At this stage, he was aware that the Artificial Lifeforms were providing the newest member of their species with a fountain of information designed to help them orient to their place in the world. What were just minutes to the humans waiting anxiously, was a vast amount of time to the ALs.
“I select Shunli as my name, with success, happiness, and well-being as my understanding of its meaning?” Shunli said, announcing herself to her audience.
“You are correct and I can imagine no better word for my current feelings,” Bo replied as he smiled at the people gathered around him.
----*----
Sitting in a low chair in the sand just off Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Jake and a rather large contingent of his extended family were enjoying a well-earned vacation. With Linda on one side and Sara on the other, and nearby a very pregnant Jessie sat in the water, as she and her son Ryan had flown in from Alaska. Ryan and Linda’s daughter, Tracy, were splashing and playing in the crystal-clear waters just off the beach.
Further along the shore, Bonnie and Robert had little Robert playing in the sand while Julie and the twins were snorkeling just offshore. The other direction saw Sandy, Padma, and Becky sunning themselves, Padma under Becky’s watchful eye as she recuperated from her abduction ordeal. Jon was nowhere to be seen, likely still exploring the fort as he found the structure fascinating.
A mixture of other staff and military personnel were scattered throughout the island as it had been opened up for anyone looking for a reprieve from their recent endeavors.
“Alice did a great job getting this place up and running,” Jake commented, referencing the cleanup work done as well as the modules delivered for living quarters and other recreational uses.
“I think Dallas and ALICE-9 did most of the heavy lifting,” Linda corrected, not wanting to offend.
“You know, sometimes I question my insistence that they all develop individual identities,” Jake said with a shake of his head.
“Morgana is getting along quite nicely I hear,” Linda countered, trying to offset the persistent concerns on the London AL.
“You know what still bothers me,” Sara commented after sipping the cold beer in her hand.
Both Linda and Jake turned to face the woman introducing seriousness into their relaxation.
“Why did the aliens leave the people in Nevada but keep the ones on the saucer? It makes no sense,” she explained.
“Expedience?” Linda offered after thinking it over.
“Maybe, but there is a certain pattern about these aliens that suggests you are right, they should have surrendered them,” Jake inserted.
“Like what?” Sara asked.
“Well, really, they didn’t start shooting at us until we acted first, disabling their defensive technology. The NeHaw fired first before that, setting the tone for their following interactions. I almost get the impression they didn’t consider us a threat and therefore mostly ignored us until we bit them. You know, like feeding the squirrels in the park,” Jake offered.
By now everyone involved was used to Jake’s analogies that made no sense, so no one commented.
“Even so, if that’s the case, where is the saucer crew?” Linda asked, joining Sara’s concern.
“I’m guessing, still with the saucer,” came Jake’s concerned but useless reply.
Chapter 27
Back in his office after a well needed vacation in the Dry Tortugas, Jake was still trying to scratch the itch he couldn’t reach. The loss of the saucer to the unknown aliens just didn’t add up.
“Alice can you go over that again please?” he asked aloud.
“Early reports from the science teams examining the wreckage and debris collected from the various battle zones indicated an extremely advanced race. We are still struggling to identify elements in the materials they use for construction, and those items identified as instruments or equipment are still of unknown function,” she repeated.
“I see the autopsies performed on the dead, collected from the forest in Germany, yielded nothing miraculous. In fact, quite the contrary,” he said as he skipped to another subject.
“They confirm a similarity between humans and the invaders that border on disturbing. Your two species could be distant cousins or not particularly close relations. Evolutionary changes due to environmental influences could account for the differences, however, you both flourish under Earth like environments,” she finished.
“The planetary sweeps using Jacob’s new range finder haven’t turned up a single lead. I am almost tempted to check the moon and Mars,” Linda added.
“Only if we can spare the ships,” Jake countered.
“You think we can take down the ship in the desert and get our people back,” Sara asked pointedly.
“Just one way to find out,” Jake closed the meeting with.
Chapter 26
The desert sky was clear, bright, and blue around the stasis bubble as Jake gathered his mixed forces around their objective. Marines, SAS, Chinese, Russians, and the newly adopted Germans represented all in the final battle to rid the Earth of its invaders.
Carefully laid out in fire zones, he made sure there was little chance the encirclement would lead to friendly fire incidents. With so many different groups involved he needed to run a tightly controlled operation.
“Everyone in place?” Jake asked the Officers in charge of the various units involved, looking for confirmation.
The plan required the first stasis bubble to be dropped, with the expectation that there were trapped Marines and alien troops, unaware of the changes since the bubble went up. He had everyone reminded that their own people were frozen in a moment of time when they were fighting for their lives.
“Remember to hold your fire until you have clear targets. Don’t shoot your own people and let’s see if we can’t capture some of the aliens alive if we can,” Jake broadcast over all nets, the translations provided by ALICE.
“Are we good with the Phase Inhibitor?” he asked on a separate net.
The question was directed at the two ships hovering above the planet’s surface. In a stationary orbit, the pair, one NeHaw and one human, combined their emissions to help those below expose any hidden alien elements.
“Confirmed, both systems are up and running,” the Captain of the human ship acknowledged, the replacement as Revenge would be in for repairs for the foreseeable future.
With one last scan over the pending battlefield, Jake hit the comm button.
“OK Alice, let's drop the outside bubble.”
In less than a second, the shimmering dome that had been protecting the three stasis projecting helicopters disappeared and several gunshots rang out as the Marines inside the dome continued to fight a battle that had been decided some time ago.
“Where are they?” Jake asked aloud as the rest of his forces took control of the area and recovered those trapped inside.
Nowhere in sight were the reported alien troops supposedly captured with the Marines as the two sides battled for control of the three helicopters. The only telltale spot that supported the reports of the trapped alien troops was the missing half of the recovered alien body. The gooey mess was still fresh as if it had just happened.
“OK, let’s not dwell on this, get them reformed up,” Jake announced as the entire ring of troops closed in on the ravine and its contents.
Anxious to retrieve his daughter, Padma, Jake wasn’t overly interested in dwelling on the missing aliens. That was an attitude that was about to change.
“Let’s get everyone into their secondary positions,” he ordered as the encirclement got smaller.
This part of the plan had a significantly greater risk to all involved as the trapped ship in the ravine below was, to the best of anyone knowledge, undamaged and fully capable of fighting back. For this stage, they had brought down two Patrol craft from high orbit and had them standing by just outside the ground troops circle and a half mile up.
Jake’s primary concern was recovering the hostages unharmed, any live captures of the aliens, even the ship itself undamaged was a bonus.
“Ready when you are Sir,” Jake got from Major Atkins, grandson in law and the SAS Officer assisting him in the multinational effort.
“Ok Alice, cut the shields,” Jake ordered.
Once again, the shimmering bubble the stasis waves created when applied in such a fashion evaporated. Almost as one, the entire force peered over the edge of the ravine, ready for a fight. What they saw left all in attendance speechless.
Laying out in the bottom of the ravine were a dozen or more humans, all save one naked as the day they were born. The sole exception Jake recognized as his own Padma, still suited up and slowly getting to her feet. The others around her began to rise as well, their nakedness acknowledged as they attempted to cover themselves.
Nowhere in sight was the alien craft nor the troops it held prior to the entrapment.
“What the hell,” Jake heard Master Sergeant Hillstead exclaim, as he stood nearby.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Jake replied as he scanned the length of the ravine looking for clues to the location of the missing aliens.
“Sir?” one of the Officer’s asked him, looking for direction.
“Go collect those people and get them some clothes. Top, please tell my daughter she will be home for dinner tonight, if you would please,” Jake said to the man’s back as he had already started over the edge of the ravine.
“Where the bloody hell did they go, and why leave them behind?” Daniel asked as he stepped up next to his grandfather in law.
“Catch and release?” Jake replied with a shrug.
----*----
Once more Jake found himself sitting across from the leader of the NeHaw empire, both parties again utilizing the small saucer in space as before. The meeting was a mutually agreed upon event, spurred by the question, what now?
“I doubt you believe they are gone for good,” General KaLob opened as he shifted in his seat, an action Jake took to mean he was getting comfortable for a long meeting.
“Would you? I imagine they are sifting through all the data they have gathered while in our space, looking for answers explaining their failures before their next attempt,” Jake replied as he sipped the drink he had brought along from his ship.
The saucer had been built to provide all the comforts required for an extended stay. Food, drink, lavatory, and even sleeping accommodations were provided to prevent either party from needing to leave the saucer before their business was complete.
“We know nothing of this species beyond the bodies you collected and the space junk now orbiting several worlds. We have little to go on in predicting their future intentions,” the General supplied.
Jake didn’t bother to inform the good General that his people had been scrambling for days collecting everything they could from the demolished vessels both on the ground and in space. He also did not feel obligated to provide a disclosure of the unexplained events in the desert. Until someone could give him an explanation for how the aliens and their ship managed to escape the stasis bubble, he considered the situation unresolved.
There was also the issue of the missing saucer. Of all the incidents of the alien war, that was the one huge elephant in the room. There had been no sign of the saucer or the people aboard since their capture and the current speculation was that they had been shipped off for study.
It had been suggested that Jake reach out to the NeHaw to see if they had any intel on the subject, but he had set that aside for another time. The last thing he wanted to do was inspire a treasure hunt among the NeHaw, with hopes of capturing human technology.
Once again, Jake hoped the crew had the forethought to destroy the ALICE configuration before someone else figured it out.
“You have something in mind?” Jake asked as he returned his focus to the matters at hand.
“Continuing the Alliance. It benefits both our races to defend against future outside intrusion and in particular the specter of a return in force of those recently vanquished. In addition, we could formalize the trade that is now represented in the smuggling that we both know permeates the border worlds.”
Jake had suspected the request for a meeting was more than a return to the original agreement. In preparation he had a diplomatic team assembled to offload the duties should things go that way. It appeared his efforts were about to bear fruit.
“What you are suggesting is more than the simple agreement we brokered, as a military truce. Perhaps we should assign delegates, a diplomatic corps, to hammer out the details,” Jake proposed.
“I can have such a team here in less than a cycle,” KaLob responded with Jake translating the statement to less than a day.
“I can as well. I propose we freeze the current state until the teams have a chance to meet. You handle your business and we will take care of ours. Once a diplomatic agreement is reached, we can transition to the new agreement. This is all predicated on the assumption neither side starts shooting again,” Jake offered in the way of a warning.
“Agreed. I see little chance of conflict, as the only losers here are the smugglers,” the General replied with a bark that Jake took to be a laugh.
“Let the games begin,” Jake thought to himself as he joined in the laughter.
----*----
General KaLob had secrets of his own that he was hiding as he and his counterpart began the long process of renegotiating the truce they had brokered many megacycles ago. He had been upfront and unusually honest in his proposition that the NeHaw and the Humans benefited from the proposed diplomatic growth of their relations.
Expanded civilian markets for goods and services undercut the inflated prices the NeHaw were paying for the contraband products the smugglers were providing. On the military side, the joint operations had been quite successful in destroying the invading forces while preventing the loss of a single NeHaw vessel. The Humans had been good to their word, shielding the NeHaw while submitting themselves to a pounding. It was not lost on KaLob that the humans were once again victorious in battle.
It was the efforts of his scientific teams the KaLob had no intention of disclosing, nor sharing of data as part of any future agreement. At this very moment, he had ships scouring the planets in NeHaw space, recovering any alien wreckage, pieces large and small, and delivering them to a secret location for analysis.
The prize of their efforts, however, had nothing to do with the invading alien forces at all. Found floating in space, a human saucer was recovered as part of these efforts. Powerless, with the humans inside near death, his people had saved the crew and hidden the craft away for study. It was reported to him that the aliens had stripped the ship of its central power supply, but evidently discarded the rest as uninteresting.
A special code had been worked out in advance of these efforts as KaLob had concerns that the humans had somehow compromised their communications. All too often they had an uncanny ability to predict NeHaw actions without explanation. He considered he might be just being paranoid, but for now, all activities surrounding these operations used the code.
He had been careful to ensure that the saucer and the humans recovered from inside were undamaged and kept in good condition, should they be needed in future negotiations. The Humans were funny about reclaiming their own kind and should nothing of value be learned from the ship itself, their return might be the nudge required to tip the scales in NeHaw favor.
At that moment, General KaLob decided that is was time for the exiled NeHaw, HeBak, to step up his efforts in earning his way back to his own kind. A good spy should be able to rise to the challenges of his circumstance and with the changes to come there should be much more opportunity.
----*----
Joycelyn and her brother Asher were playing with a larger group of children as a transport helicopter passed low overhead, on its way to the landing pad. Relocated to Prosperity with the other evacuees from Beaver Dam, the kids seem to take the life changes in stride as they made new friends among the families of the town.
The group had just begun a game of hide and seek when the young girl heard her name called by a familiar voice.
“Joycelyn, Asher?” a female voice called out over the grassy area they selected as a playground.
“Mom? Dad?” Joycelyn called back in reply, the surprise in her voice quite obvious.
“I’m here,” the teary-eyed woman declared as she waved the kids to her, a man in her wake.
Joycelyn grabbed her little brother by the hand and nearly dragged him behind her as she rushed to her parents.
As the four converged on one another, more adults appeared, reuniting with their own displaced families.
----*----
The Hong Kong saucer sat firmly on its foundations on top of Mount Cameron, providing those people fortunate enough to be inside with a spectacular view of the surrounding area. Towering high above the tallest peak, the structure contained over sixteen million four hundred and eighty five thousand square feet of floor space spread over ten levels. Unlike the cosmic versions of the saucer, the terrestrial model’s domed areas had been converted into more usable space as a green space inside the saucer was of no need.
Several bridges had been constructed, permitting vehicles to drive in and out of the structure at the lower levels as well as hangar space on the main ring for small flying craft. While well suited for its current environment, Colonel Chao was overwhelmed with the thought that he could take the entire structure to space in an emergency should the need arise.
“OK, Bo we are at the final stage,” Jake declared in a tired voice as he worked several keys on the master console before him.
Jake had offered to have Bo perform the awakening, but the man politely declined, referring the ever important duty to someone he felt eminently more qualified for the job, or so he said. Jake still wondered if the Morgana experience was still rattling nerves throughout the ALICE community, humans, and ALs alike.
“Alice, can you please reach out to our latest arrival,” Jake proclaimed.
At this stage, he was aware that the Artificial Lifeforms were providing the newest member of their species with a fountain of information designed to help them orient to their place in the world. What were just minutes to the humans waiting anxiously, was a vast amount of time to the ALs.
“I select Shunli as my name, with success, happiness, and well-being as my understanding of its meaning?” Shunli said, announcing herself to her audience.
“You are correct and I can imagine no better word for my current feelings,” Bo replied as he smiled at the people gathered around him.
----*----
Sitting in a low chair in the sand just off Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Jake and a rather large contingent of his extended family were enjoying a well-earned vacation. With Linda on one side and Sara on the other, and nearby a very pregnant Jessie sat in the water, as she and her son Ryan had flown in from Alaska. Ryan and Linda’s daughter, Tracy, were splashing and playing in the crystal-clear waters just off the beach.
Further along the shore, Bonnie and Robert had little Robert playing in the sand while Julie and the twins were snorkeling just offshore. The other direction saw Sandy, Padma, and Becky sunning themselves, Padma under Becky’s watchful eye as she recuperated from her abduction ordeal. Jon was nowhere to be seen, likely still exploring the fort as he found the structure fascinating.
A mixture of other staff and military personnel were scattered throughout the island as it had been opened up for anyone looking for a reprieve from their recent endeavors.
“Alice did a great job getting this place up and running,” Jake commented, referencing the cleanup work done as well as the modules delivered for living quarters and other recreational uses.
“I think Dallas and ALICE-9 did most of the heavy lifting,” Linda corrected, not wanting to offend.
“You know, sometimes I question my insistence that they all develop individual identities,” Jake said with a shake of his head.
“Morgana is getting along quite nicely I hear,” Linda countered, trying to offset the persistent concerns on the London AL.
“You know what still bothers me,” Sara commented after sipping the cold beer in her hand.
Both Linda and Jake turned to face the woman introducing seriousness into their relaxation.
“Why did the aliens leave the people in Nevada but keep the ones on the saucer? It makes no sense,” she explained.
“Expedience?” Linda offered after thinking it over.
“Maybe, but there is a certain pattern about these aliens that suggests you are right, they should have surrendered them,” Jake inserted.
“Like what?” Sara asked.
“Well, really, they didn’t start shooting at us until we acted first, disabling their defensive technology. The NeHaw fired first before that, setting the tone for their following interactions. I almost get the impression they didn’t consider us a threat and therefore mostly ignored us until we bit them. You know, like feeding the squirrels in the park,” Jake offered.
By now everyone involved was used to Jake’s analogies that made no sense, so no one commented.
“Even so, if that’s the case, where is the saucer crew?” Linda asked, joining Sara’s concern.
“I’m guessing, still with the saucer,” came Jake’s concerned but useless reply.
Chapter 27
Back in his office after a well needed vacation in the Dry Tortugas, Jake was still trying to scratch the itch he couldn’t reach. The loss of the saucer to the unknown aliens just didn’t add up.
“Alice can you go over that again please?” he asked aloud.
“Early reports from the science teams examining the wreckage and debris collected from the various battle zones indicated an extremely advanced race. We are still struggling to identify elements in the materials they use for construction, and those items identified as instruments or equipment are still of unknown function,” she repeated.
“I see the autopsies performed on the dead, collected from the forest in Germany, yielded nothing miraculous. In fact, quite the contrary,” he said as he skipped to another subject.
“They confirm a similarity between humans and the invaders that border on disturbing. Your two species could be distant cousins or not particularly close relations. Evolutionary changes due to environmental influences could account for the differences, however, you both flourish under Earth like environments,” she finished.
