Chapter 21

“As they stood outside the shuttle on Comrie, James with a grin said, “Alright. What gives? You keep telling us to expect an experience that is like a Star Trek adventure. However, in looking around, I feel like we are being recruited to join a nudist colony. You told us Dóchas was a clothing optional location, but when I stepped out of the shuttle it looks much the same here.” Several smiled at his comment. Although he tried to sound concerned, everyone could see the laughter in his eyes.

“You could describe it that way,” said Claudette with a grin. “If you didn’t catch it earlier, I’m Claudette. You’ve met Alison, Tara, Sarah, Sally, Terry, Rusty and Joyce, all of whom are part of our family group, and there are several more. A nudist colony? I guess we could be called that, as we seldom wear any covering unless it is needed. None of that probably addresses your real question.” They all nodded. “Both James and Clarence know some of our background, which is why they are so relaxed with what has happened this evening. Although the nudity is obviously an aspect of our environment they apparently didn’t remember it.

“Now, with respect to who we are, let me provide you with these tidbits: Nearly all of us were originally from Earth primarily western hemisphere but there are quite a few people with us who have other ethnic origins. Besides here, most of us live on the space ship you just visited and more at our settlement on Mars. We would like to defer going into further detail until everyone has had a chance to rest. We have a set of presentations that detail our history, background and the physical differences between us. Currently our intent is to show them to you after breakfast tomorrow. By then you should be rested and the other activity settled down.”

“James, Clarence, we had planned on Tara giving all of you a tour of the facility,” said Sarah. “However, we know you are anxious to talk to your office, and the group headed for the resort. We would just like to point out a couple of things before we show you to your offices. There are phones in your offices and rooms. These function just like your phone at home, except they have a couple of extra buttons. One button is marked with a ‘T’ and the other is marked with an ‘R’. Pressing those will tell our system to Trace and /or Record the call. Other than that, they are more private and secure than any you have used before. You dial a number just like you did in Grand View.

“If you go out walking around the site, please stay in sight of the buildings for the next couple of days. The only reason for the request is that we don’t particularly want to be distracted by having to search for one of you.”

“Sarah, how is the operation progressing?” asked James.

“Pretty well, the situation at the resort is stable. As you know he Blackhawks are en route. Hmm ... actually, they should arrive in less than an hour.”

“We need to talk to them before they arrive. Preferably before they see the resort,” said Clarence. “Also, if possible both of us would like to observe the operation once they arrive. On top of all that, it sure would be nice to take a short nap before all this starts.”

“We can accommodate that by showing both of you to the conference room, adjacent to your office,” replied Sarah. “Tara can take everyone else on a tour, with the conference room as the last stop, if that’s agreeable.” Everyone nodded their heads. “This way, you can contact your staff then perhaps have a very short nap in the conference room. The other benefit is you will have a little longer nap than if you went to your room.”

“We would like to join you,” said Marge.

“Marge, Evelyn, Fred, Chad, it would be a pleasure to have you there with us,” said James. “Your editors were very anxious when they received the email abruptly announcing your vacation, so you might want to call them first thing in the morning.”

“James, Clarence,” said Sally, “we can arrange an office for them near yours if that’s OK.”

James looked at Clarence then said, “I like that, let’s do it.”

“Sarah, we arrived OK,” said Alice. “We could use a few medical technicians here, as Frank does not have any with those skills currently on staff. He is also light on kitchen staff, but he thinks that can be worked out. He also wants to talk to you.”

“Okay. It will be about twenty minutes before a team can be there. We should have thought about sending a medical team in the first place.”

“Good. Here is Frank.”

“Hello, Sarah. Alice has told me a bit about what your group has been dealing with. It pleases me that you thought to ask for my assistance, and please don’t hesitate to call on me if you need help in the future. Although, seeing the craft that brought Alice and the others here I am not sure how much help I could be. We don’t have many visitors this time of year, so the only people here are our year round residents. Your guests should be quite secure. We don’t have anything like the four-legged security team that Alice says you have.”

“Yes, they work very nicely. We could loan you a pair for a while if you like.”

“That would err on the safe side.”

“Alright, they will arrive with the medical team. One other thing, at this point we are not sure how many guests will be arriving at your location. Let us know if you need anything else.”

“Not a problem. Thanks, and come for visit. I would really like to meet you and your family. I have never heard Alice rave about anyone like she does you and your group.”

“Thanks.”

The Blackhawks were a little more than 45 minutes from the resort, when James and Clarence reached the conference room.

“Rusty,” said Clarence, “we should tell them that we are safe now as knowing that will change their approach.”

“Donna, advise the DA’s Strike Team of an incoming general announcement.”

The group listened as the com-link was established with the Strike Team. Rusty nodded to Clarence.

“Strike Team Leader, this is Clarence O’Toole. Copy?”

“This is Stuart. Hey, Clarence did you get tired of being their plaything before we could get there? Over,” He could be heard chuckling.

“Nah, I knew you would come. Anyway, we were fortunate. Some friends showed up earlier to spring us. Besides, I didn’t want to buy another hat. Over.”

“Did the last one get too close for you? Over.”

“You know damn well that the last one required stitches. Too damn many stitches. Over.”

“Just how in the hell did you manage to get out of there,” exclaimed Stuart, as he felt that the personal information, along with the sound of Clarence’s voice, confirmed who he was talking to.

“Our escape was assisted by a group of GISS operatives. We are using their secure facilities at the moment, and expect we may need to stay here for some time. James and our families are also here with me.”

“We may make you buy hats for our group. So, how do you want to handle this now?”

“Follow the plan you’ve got, as I suspect the only change is that you will not have to worry about finding us. There are several GISS agents inside the resort now. They plan to pull back as you enter, as they do not want to be involved. Do not expect to see them. Go for the evidence and any other relevant items. Let the guests leave, but get their names if you have the chance. Any guests in the members area should be scrutinized closely. There are two types of staff there. The first group is the operational staff, which includes security, maintenance and house-keeping. The second group are those used as escorts, guest companions or pleasure counselors by the members and guests. GISS offered to spirit out the last group as quickly as they could be identified. They are being taken to an isolated, secure location, as we think the organization behind the resort will want to silence all of them. So if need be we can get statements from them at our convenience. Details later.”

“This is James. Make sure you document everything, and I hope you have arranged for warrants,” said James. “We don’t want any of these twerps escaping, as the principals are very well connected; so try to cover all angles. I will have Marie and Trudy contact you shortly, to confirm that you are talking to us.”

“The staff in the office sent the warrants to us while we were en route. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, you heard the boss’s instructions. Let’s move into position.”

“One last thing,” said Clarence, “if you run into resistance, the GISS operatives will back you up. I wouldn’t worry about being gentle. We don’t think that will happen, but it is nice to have a little insurance. Over and out.”

Later, just as James and Clarence were waking up from their nap, their families drifted into the conference room. As everyone sat down, they could see the position of the helicopters on the wall map, they were almost within sight of the resort. They were surprised when several more monitors came to life, showing the helicopters and the approaching resort. The displays showed multiple views, along with a map showing positions.

The group at Comrie watched as the helicopters fanned out to their designated approach points. Once positioned, the Strike Team launched their operation. This was the first time James and Clarence’s families had seen an operation like this. They were watching the events very intently. When the soldiers and investigators entered a room, they were shocked to see the Security team just disappear. In moments, the resort employees began to stir.

Sam turned to Joyce, with concern in her voice, “What happened to the Security team members?”

“They are still there, but we are showing what the Strike Team sees. Donna, show the Security team members in view 1 for a few minutes.” Sam watched, as the four team members reappeared. They had moved off to the side of the room, out of the way. Once the Security team saw that the soldiers and law enforcement officers had everything under control, they began leaving.

“Wow. This is even better than Star Trek,” said Sam, with both Kelsey and Karmen nodding. The adults chuckled.

Sarah’s Clan and several Security team members were having breakfast in the Comrie dining room when their guests entered. They were wearing the light robes and sandals that had been placed in their rooms earlier. Anticipating that their guests would wear the robes, they had worn them as well.

Alison and Sarah noticed James’ and Clarence’s families pause at the entrance for a few moments. On seeing them, James led the group toward them.

On reaching Alison and Sarah, Alison said, “You all look like you feel much better now.” While she was speaking, the four reporters joined them. They all nodded.

“You had a number of questions for us last evening, and it looks like you are anxious to ask them now.” While she was speaking, many of the guests looked around in awe at their hosts. They now noticed how different they were from themselves, and that a few were exceptionally tall. After all the uncertainty of last night, the newcomers were surprised at how comfortable they felt in these new surroundings.

“Mr. MacFarland, Mr. O’Toole, families and reporters,” said Alison, being quite formal, “I would like to introduce you to all of my spouses, even though you have already met some of them.” With that, Alison introduced each person in the group to her clan.

Once the introductions were made, Sarah said, “We would like you to sit with us during breakfast. This will give us a chance to provide some additional background information, especially for those we met last night. Once breakfast is over, we will have our usual morning meeting. During the meeting, we generally discuss current activities, any general issues, and introduce visitors if they are willing. After that, we plan to show three presentations which will give everyone a pretty good idea of who we are, and our plans. We are very open with information about ourselves and our activities. When we are done here, the Command Staff would like to have a more in depth meeting with James and Clarence regarding the ‘flesh peddlers’ group running the resort. From our perspective, we think you may want to include your families and the reporters. Now, if all of you will go with Janet and Jill, they will show you where we plan to sit, as we have several other people to greet before breakfast begins.” Janet and Jill led them over to a group of tables in the corner.

Sarah saw Eilene and Beth talking with Eilene’s sisters, who looked a bit uneasy and said, “Guys, I think we need to meet Eilene’s sisters.”

“Good morning, Eilene and Beth,” said Sarah, as she walked up, with most of her family. She introduced each of her spouses to the group. Eilene then introduced her sisters and her baby.

“We are glad all of you could come on such short notice,” said Sarah. “We know Eilene has been quite worried about you, and we suspect you’ve worried about her. We hope none of you will be offended, but this island is normally clothing optional, as are all of our locations. It is entirely up to you whether you chose to be clothed or not. We want you to choose what you are comfortable with. Shortly after breakfast, we intend to give a presentation about us and our history. Please feel free to ask questions of us at any time.”

When Donna told Sarah’s Clan everyone was in the dining room, Sarah, Rusty, Sally and Alison walked to the front of the room. As they reached the front, a chime sounded, and the room became quiet. “Good morning,” they said, speaking as one, causing several surprised looks. “We have visitors and are pleased to see that they are with us for breakfast. As soon as you find a place to sit, we can begin. A number of you are wondering where you are and why you’re here. We will try to answer those questions right after breakfast. Breakfast is buffet style. A staff member will indicate when a table is to join the buffet line. Enjoy.”

With that, Jill and Janet brought the group at their table over to the buffet line, to join the rest of their clan. As they began to eat, James’ and Clarence’s families kept glancing at Sarah’s Clan.

After a few moments, Rusty and Sarah began by saying, “We know that each of you can hear us telepathically, so we would like to continue in that manner. Okay?” Everyone nodded, with a somewhat disbelieving look.

“We believe all of you experienced communicating this way yesterday. You should sense the presence of our thoughts in your mind, in a way that seems as though we are speaking to you. Please nod if you hear us.” Everyone nodded, and even if they hadn’t, their expressions would have confirmed they were hearing the thoughts. “Several things you will hear shortly will undoubtedly raise questions. We ask that you hold those questions until later, because as we said earlier we would like to meet privately with all of you after we are finished here.

“First, we don’t know if James or Clarence have had a chance to tell any of you how we met, less than a week ago. I know we have hinted at it. At our first meeting, we gave them enough information about us to establish our credibility, and our ability to ensure you all were safe and we could rescue you. Most of our meeting then focused on planning possible responses to the events that began, for five of you about 4 months ago.”

While James and Clarence nodded in agreement their families’ expressions indicated their surprise.

“As you have probably surmised, we are not truly residents of Earth, even thou many of us were born and grew up on Earth. Our society is similar to yours in many aspects, and quite different in others. We normally refrain from becoming involved in another society’s internal issues, unless we are asked by members of that society and the situation meets some additional criteria. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we have become more involved with your society than is normal. Like any society, we have several precepts for interactions. Even though we are all telepathic, we do not look at another’s thoughts without a mutual agreement beforehand. There can be reasons to override this rule, mistakes however, are not tolerated. Memories are very difficult to see, unless there is a very, very close relationship between both people, such as between spouses. In this society, you may do anything, as long as no one else is harmed, and we will protect the weak from the strong.

“We have been monitoring James’ and Clarence’s efforts in trying to find, and bring to justice, those behind the ‘Lodge Incident’. We refer to them as the ‘flesh peddlers’. An element of our group has monitored their activity quite closely, even to the point of making sure evidence was not destroyed before it was found. Some of our crew have taken actions to make sure some leads were fruitful, without tainting any evidence you found. We have been very careful to avoid any action that would compromise your cases. Within the last week, we learned of the plans to compromise James and Clarence. The plan was to have their families star in porn films. To achieve this, they not only drugged them but they also induced them to ask for enhancements to their bodies. Recordings were made of them engaged in sex with their daughters. The ultimatum was that they either stop the investigation or the recordings would be released.

“Based on conversations we heard between the Grand Councilor and his associates, they have issued disposal contracts for all of you. Currently, we are monitoring your homes. We are anticipating that some one will try to destroy them, whether they are occupied or not.”

“Guys,” said James, “without this group’s assistance, we would have been in a very difficult position yesterday, no, not difficult, an impossible position.” Clarence nodded his head in agreement. “The ‘Lodge Incident’ as Rusty phrased it, has been one of the most difficult cases we have ever worked. If it was not for the journalists, activity on it would have probably ceased a long time ago.

“Their insight into a number of situations really helped us out. It would please me to see them continue to work with us.”

“Oh, we will,” said Marge. “Our editors have been pushing us for more variety in our stories. I think we have it now.”

“So, when did you become telepathic,” asked Sally.

“We are not sure. We may have always been that way, and not known it.”

“Am I wrong in thinking that you all were responsible for our dreams,” enquired Evelyn.

“We were,” responded Aoife. “Actually the dreams were your creation, we only provided the story elements. Okay?”

“I believe so. Can we discuss this some other time?”

“Sure. Choose a time and let me know.”

“After breakfast, at least one of us needs to sit with the four of you, to go over how telepathy works and other aspects of it.”

“What did you mean by variety?” asked Joyce.

“We think there are many human interest stories among those rescued. Perhaps there are some among the crew, as well.”

“As for our house, I don’t think we have any particular attachment to it,” said James, with Sue and Sam nodding. “The two people I treasure most are here with me.”

“Now clan, we need to begin our morning meeting,” said Sarah. With that, Sarah’s Clan rose as one and moved to the front of the room, their movement caused conversation around the room to die down.

In the dining room on Frank’s island, Alice, Susan and Frank, along with the others from the crew, were greeting the former resort staff members as they arrived for breakfast. Each arrival was encouraged to get their breakfast and then find a seat.

While the former resort staff members were concerned about their new surroundings, they felt comfortable with their hosts. This place was much more comfortable than living at the resort had been. All of them had wondered from time to time about who was behind the resort’s activity, but had never seemed inclined to ask. Many found it hard to believe their memories of their activities at the resort. They knew part of it must be true, because of the way their bodies had changed, and the body jewelry they now wore. All were pleased to find robes in their rooms, even though many had chosen not to wear them. This was because they felt more comfortable naked, a thought that surprised many of them.

As breakfast was ending, Alice and Susan walked to the front of the room. The room quieted down quickly.

“Good morning,” said Alice and Susan. “We hope you enjoyed breakfast. We would like you to return the dishes to the kitchen, and wipe off the tables.” They waited while the dining room was spruced up.

“We are thankful to have you here as our guests. We can assure all of you that you are healthy. While you may not realize it, when you worked at the resort you were under the influence of several drugs. They made you compliant and submissive. This is how the resort operators and guests controlled your actions. Many of you may feel embarrassed that you enjoyed much of the sexual activity. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the sharing of affection and sex, when it is done willingly. Now you know what activities feel good, so you can try them again with agreeable partners. When you arrived here, we gave you an antidote to the drugs you were receiving. You should notice a difference in how you feel about your surroundings. In a few moments, we will see a presentation that will cover where you are, why you were brought here, and what your options are. At the end of this, the presenters will answer any questions you have. Please speak up, as others may have the same concerns.”

As Alice and Susan sat down, a holographic display formed where they had been standing. The display showed an overall view of the dining room at the Comrie enclave, then zoomed in on Sarah’s Clan standing at the front of the room. The whole thing caused quite a few murmurs throughout the group.

“So that’s Sarah’s Clan,” said Frank, his deep voice carrying across the room. Alice chuckled at this reaction and started to respond, but was interrupted as Sarah’s Clan began speaking.

“Good morning all,” said Sarah’s Clan, together. “As some of you heard, we are known collectively as Sarah’s Clan.” Sarah and Rusty then stepped forward, introducing themselves. They then alternated, as they indicated the names of their spouses. “We have several things we would like to share with you this morning, as we suspect many of you have questions, probably many questions.”

“Our first topic will be why you are here. We will then show you a series of presentations that will tell you about us; as many of you have noticed we are a little different. We think the presentations will answer most questions, so, if you would hold them until the end, we would appreciate it. If we run out of time this morning, we will continue this evening. We have a gathering such as this after breakfast and dinner every day. Normally, we would let our question and answer session run until all questions are answered. However, today is not a normal day. So, this morning we need to limit the time, and there will be an opportunity after dinner to ask questions. All of us are available to answer questions, and you should be able to find us easily.” This lead to quite a bit of laughter. “Oh, we’re sorry, the group at the other location haven’t seen us up close, yet. Our height is a little over seven feet seven inches.”