Chapter 18

Still Day 8

There is always that ‘one’ person that manages to slip through the cracks. In this case it was someone that managed to either avoid the scans or fool them. Stefano Vargas was not like any of the other refugees. He had no intention if staying trapped in this place they claim was the moon.

Stefano Vargas was far past the point of being upset. In fact, upset would be an absurdly gentle term. He was pissed off past any point of reference he had ever known. Stefano had volunteered at every opportunity, to help with the aid effort to his countrymen. He had been refused each time. It wasn’t like he gave a shit about those starving assholes down there, but it would have gotten him down to the planet.

“Set aside your vendettas and your anger,” the main asshole had said when they had first arrived.

Bullshit! He had people to kill. The people on this base were like programmed ‘Stepford wives’. He could never be anything here, other than someone else’s lackey. He intended to be someone.

He figured out long ago that they were brainwashing everyone each night. He had stopped sleeping on his bed, after the first night. Hell, if truth be told, he hardly slept at all, anyway. After the drug lords had had his parents killed, they had tried to capture him. He’d gotten away, though. He wasn’t going to be anyone’s ‘butt-boy’. He’d just had the misfortune of falling asleep outside someone’s house. That someone was wanted by the cartel, so they had taken him, too. Now he was trapped with these soon-to-be-mindless drones.

To hear everyone else talking, they were becoming geniuses, or something. That one guy, the main one, was just fucking with their head. He was making them think they were smarter. The guy in charge ... now, there was one scary dude. As he thought this, a shiver ran through him. He had plans of taking the guy out, for those two sweet pieces of tail that are always around him. Well, that was, until last night. The fucking guy went airborne and took out five army guys before he touched back down. Before that, the sweet little bitch took out the other guy, and had to be stopped from killing him. Maybe the other one, she was still sweet looking meat.

Who the fuck was he kidding? She was in one of those weird suits. She could probably kick his ass, too. He showed up in the docking bay as the latest groups were chosen. Once again, he had been left out ... Well, fine! ‘I will find my own fucking way out of here,’ he thought. He joined the group that got on the platform, and tried to blend in. The moment it touched down in the lower level he was moving, trying to find a bit of cover. He quickly ducked behind some pallets. He soon learned that this was a bad idea. The egg-shaped monsters were loading them onto one of the ships.

He moved further away, and marveled at all of the strange shaped ships that were stored here. Any one of them would bring him a fortune, if he could just get it back to the planet.

‘Fuck it!’ he thought. ‘Why sell it, when I can keep it and name myself Emperor? Yeah, that has a nice ring to it. I’ll be able to get some righteous fucking revenge, then.’

Stefano had just enough time to duck behind some equipment as two men came out of the only ship that looked to be open. They were talking unhappily about something as they passed him. Something about ‘program not accepting’ something. He missed the rest as they passed beyond his hearing. Just as he was about to step out and climb into a ship, two egg things came near. They went into the ship.

Stefano set down on the floor and rested, while the two egginators were inside. He laughed as he thought of the face of Swartzenkoffer (or what ever his name was) being on one of the egg things saying, “I’ll be back.”

He wondered, not for the first time since he had been here, if he was losing his mind. Four hours of sleep, and twenty hours awake, just wasn’t getting it. And that was, if he was ABLE to sleep! What kind of fucked up system is that? Stefano started awake. The bad news was realizing that he had fallen asleep. The good news was that the egginators were leaving the ship. Stefano broke into a run when he realized the door was starting to close. He barely made it past the outer and then inner hatch doors.

The ship wasn’t nearly as large as he’d thought it would be. There were four alien pod-looking things in one room. There was a table, with four weirdly roundish seat-like things. A foodacator thing, or whatever it was called, was on the wall. That made him remember that he was hungry. He ordered food, then sat down and ate it. He paid little attention to it, so focused was he on what he was going to do when he got home. After eating, he finally found something that might be the piloting area. There were more of the round almost seat-like protrusions sticking out of the floor. They looked much like the ones in the eating room. In front of a few of them, were some consoles. He perched on a ‘seat’, and looked things over. He realized he didn’t have a clue as to what to do. He expected some kind of hands-on-controls like the fighter jock game he’d played in the arcades, when he was young. Instead, there was a keyboard, like a computer, and he had no idea in what language it was marked. He fought them, but the tears started rolling down his face. He laid his head down on the console. All of the stress and sleep deprivation took its own revenge. Slumber carried him away, again.

Since the morning update had been interrupted, John called for one that evening. Sam had suggested inviting both Paul and Dennis to the meeting. John hadn’t questioned her suggestion, merely nodding his head. He had headed towards his quarters to get a quick shower and to change his ‘coating’. He knew after the last time, what the build up of pheromones under the coating, during stressful situations, could do to him.

The moment the door slid open, Kirkuria launched herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Instinctively he wrapped his arms protectively around her. She was smothering him with kisses so rapidly, that he couldn’t ask what was the cause. He managed to make it into the room without letting them fall ... Not that Kiri weighed all that much. In fact, she felt as light as a child. However, it threw off his center of balance.

John eventually discovered the cause of Kiri’s sudden emotional outburst. He had left her a note. It was as simple as that. Moreover, he had written it in Rhylertian, and because of it, she hadn’t worried. This was her way of showing her appreciation for his thoughtfulness. John sent out a silent thanks to his mother, wherever she might be.

Kirkuria joined him in the shower. They only played for a short time, though. John had to remind her that they had a meeting to attend. Surprisingly, even with the delays in the shower, they were not the last to arrive. Another banquet table had been provided. Everyone helped themselves. John waited until after the meal before calling the meeting to order.

Once again, he set forth the ground rules for such a meeting. If his council continued to grow like this, he might have to rethink the rules, or he would have people trying to speak out at the same time. He was already considering a civilian government, so he didn’t have to keep concerning himself with that area of operations.

When every one was settled, John indicated for Adam to start.

“John, the relief efforts are still moving smoothly. In fact, the first twenty bases are now being run by locals. They are only being overseen by our people. In a few more days we can end our involvement altogether. Something else you should be aware of, John, is that the government of your country has suddenly become very interested in the Phoenix Corporation. Apparently, public opinion that was already at an all time low, with our independent actions, it has dropped even further. The Corporation is being investigated by no less than four separate agencies. They are even trying to trace the Corporations sources of income for this endeavor.”

“Any chance that they can find something that will cause a problem?”

“Nothing we have done has violated any of their laws. We did not use any of the holdings being held under their jurisdiction. That doesn’t mean we won’t be fighting the rumors that will be started.”

John nodded. Of all the things he could think of that he DIDN’T want to do; getting into a ‘pissing contest’ with an established government was definitely among the top ten.

He turned his attention to Sam, when she spoke to the room.

“I think money is the best place to start, we managed to spend or set aside ten billion dollars today.”

This brought several gasps.

“When you said ‘set aside’, Sam, what did you mean?” John asked.

Sam’s smile broadened and said, “Our friends in the Columbian government, seemed a little too anxious to get their payments in one lump sum. So what I have done, is set up installments that are contingent on their continued cooperation. They have received their first payments. At the end of each week that they continue to give us support, they will get another. At the end of six weeks, or when a better solution is found, they will receive the remaining balance.”

“That was absolutely brilliant!” blurted out Ray. “They will think long and hard before they consider acting in a manner that would cost them that money.”

“I’m glad you approve,” Sam said with a smile. “The next thing I need to mention, is that I went ahead and launched Radkenian. There were too many questions being asked as to why that shuttle wasn’t being used, so I chose to remove the problem. I hope that my actions are acceptable in that matter.”

She looked to John with just a touch of worry in her expression.

“Of course, Sam. If we had managed to have our meeting this morning, then he would have been on his way earlier. I know it is early, but have you had any reports from him?”

He touched down two hours ago. The drones were dropped off by one of the Chimera since it could make a quicker turn around. Also, I had all the drones which had been searching for Atlantis, converge on the area. They will be converted to construction drones as well. He will keep in close contact, so that we have a better idea of the time line on construction. John, I should point out that Radkenian had the same modifications to his mainframe that Adam and I have had. Since he doesn’t have a base to run, he could operate thousands of construction drones easily. So as far as time lines go, we are probably looking at days, and not weeks as we originally projected.”

John whistled at the time line she was projecting, but also saw the benefit of it. Once New Atlantis had risen and was accepting people. They would have a way to explain some of the multiple disappearances. He was thoughtful for a moment then nodded at all of this information. With the exception of the time line for Atlantis, these were all things that had been discussed, already.

Sam let out a sigh before saying, “Things for our time traveler did not work the way we had hoped. Because some of the things need a personal perspective, I am going to turn this over to Paul.”

Paul suddenly had a look of terror on his face. His eyes darted around the room as though counting the number of people present. John felt Mora do something.

‘Interesting,’ he thought to himself, ‘not only can she sense emotions, but in a limited capacity she seemed to be able to send them as well.’

Mora was sending waves of calmness towards Paul. Though he still looked tense and nervous, he began to speak.

“I’m unaccustomed to public speaking,” he said with a forced laugh.

When a few in the room laughed with him, he relaxed a bit more.

Focusing on John he said, “Since Sam was busy, she gave me the programming to get the time traveler ready for his trip. I went down to the launching bay to the one ship you had segregated and uploaded the program. When I tried to access the program to run the diagnostic, to make sure it functioned the way it was supposed to, it wasn’t there.”

John furrowed his brow. Although he wasn’t a computer expert, he wasn’t totally computer illiterate, either. Your program may not always go where you want it too, but once you’d uploaded it, it had to be there somewhere.

Paul held up his hand to stop any questions John might have asked, and continued.

“John, I don’t know how it does it, or why it does it. All I can tell you is, any program uploaded onto it disperses and vanishes. I decided that I would try it on the other Hruth built ships. I had the same problem, so I contacted Dennis, in hopes he could help out.”

Dennis looked at his old friend. He smiled and took pity on Paul, as he took up the explanation.

“Paul contacted me shortly after we got relieved from the shuttles. The problems that Paul described ... well, to be honest, I didn’t think it was possible. I hurried over to see what I could do. I figured it had to be a bad upload cable or something. What I found still has me baffled.”

He looked directly at John and said, “There is absolutely no reason in the world that those systems should work at all. Yet I know they are performing tasks around the ship. What worries me is, if we don’t know how they are doing what they are doing, then it is possible that they can do things that we can’t imagine.”

John looked at Adam and passed a silent command. Adam nodded his acknowledgment and set about the task requested.

Lower in the base, six construction drones headed toward the three Hruth built ships. They broke into pairs. Two each entered each ship. They did not bother to try to deactivate the AI’s onboard. That was not in their instructions. Instead, in a synchronized action, they immediately approached the AI and returned it to its smallest possible atomic composition. All of the drones onboard each of the ships register an unusual transmission. Though they reported it, they continued the job they had been given. Section by section, they acted in unison. Soon they had the ships reduced to the smallest possible atomic composition. This material was transferred to storage for future use.

Grugrat Preeth was once the captain of the Lawest She-eppah. He had been her thirteenth captain. The ship had a long, proud history, dating back to the original ‘Planet Fall’. However, lately it had been plagued with malfunctions that were unexplainable. He was still in command of her, but had been promoted to Commodore. Four additional ships had been assigned to his command. The Haxroth was also a battle cruiser. Though it was a newer ship, he felt at home here. He was drawn out of his thoughts, when heard the momentary beeping from the communication station. He waited for the report. It was probably just another damn glitch in the system.

Jerthed Newlex nearly jumped off his octhrid when the alarm had sounded at his station. For the most part, the job between planet falls was simply boring. It was often difficult to stay alert while on duty. The fact that his duty shift was the same as the Commodore’s helped a lot. The Commodore was not patient with crew who lost focus during their work cycle. Less so, since his promotion. The weight of his promotion seemed to keep him grumpy most of the time.

“Sir,” Jerthed said cautiously, “I think you should take a look at this.”

Grugrat, who decided he didn’t feel like hefting his bulk at the moment, ordered the young ensign to give him a report.

“Sir, I believe that we just received three simultaneous emergency beacon signals, and that all three were interrupted at the same time.”

The Commodore looked at the young and capable ensign, and decided to sound him out.

“Ensign, what is your opinion of these signals?”

“Sir, since we received coordinates, I would discount the idea that this is another glitch. In addition, the area where the signal originated, is unexplored. I would surmise that three of our scout ships may have just met an ill fate.”

Grugrat nodded. He had already come to the same conclusion. This young ensign had potential. Maybe it was time for him to let the ensign prove his worth.

“Ensign Newlex, if this were your ship, what would be your course of action?”

Jerthed’s eyes grew wide, and he swallowed hard.

“Sir, we are under a mandate that requires us to investigate any emergency broadcast, no matter what the distance from the fleet. I would send word back to the fleet and take the five ships in our group to investigate.”

Commodore Grugrat was impressed. So far, this young ensign had listed everything he had intended to do. However, the Commodore wasn’t done with his teaching lesson, yet.

“Ensign Newlex, please tell me why it is that you would take two battle cruisers and three frigates to investigate a possible problem with three scout ships?”

“Sir!” Jerthed exclaimed, astonished the Commodore would suggest they not go in force. “We would be going into unknown territory! There is no way of knowing what the scout ships encountered. Granted it could be a natural event that caught them by surprise, but it could just as easily have been some unknown enemy that had attacked them. However, I believe that our group of ships are more than enough to handle anything we are likely to encounter.”

Grugrat sighed, remembering his own youthful exuberance. However, he wasn’t as confident in Hruth superiority as he once was. They hadn’t had a new tech breakthrough in over five hundred annums (an annum is just short of thirteen earth months). Still, he had a job to do, regardless what they encountered.

“Ensign Newlex, tell me how far into unknown space we will be traveling. Then, since you know what we need to do, see to it. I will be here to give any commands necessary to facilitate your control.”

Jerthed’s eyes grew wide again. But, as he realized the Commodore was serious, he turned and got to work.

“Sir, if these coordinates are accurate, then we will be in hyper for an annum.”

Grugrat nodded for Jerthed to continue, and reminded him to send a message to the fleet, along with the coordinates for their destination.

In the end, between Paul, Dennis and Sam, they had explained how they had reprogrammed one of the Hruth damaged ships and placed within it the new programs. Paul explained it in detail. What it boiled down to, was that the programming they had installed, had become one of the ships prime directives. There was very little more to the meeting, so John had Sam activate the ship, and prepare it for departure. The ship flew to where it was calculated least likely to encounter anything on its trip back into time, and the countdown was activated.

Everyone’s attention was on the large screen. There wasn’t much to see, though. The ship was sitting still, relative to them, in space. The countdown was just like all of the NASA launches that he used to love to watch. Suddenly the lighting in the room turned red, and began to pulse, while a klaxon sounded. John almost missed it as the ship winked out of sight. The lighting returned to normal and the klaxon went silent.

“What the fuck was that?” Dennis demanded!

John looked to Sam, who had a shocked and horrified expression on her face.

She explained that she had done a last minute scan, to verify that everything was fine. Her sensors told her that there was someone aboard the ship. By the time she had verified it, she hadn’t had enough time to act. She had not been able to stop the ship.

Kirkuria, Penny and Mora led her out of the office. John could hear the comforting words that they were saying to her. John turned to Adam when the door closed behind the women.

“Find out who was onboard that ship. Notify whoever it is that you need to, as to where the person now is. Unfortunately, there is a good possibility that they won’t be coming back,” he said. Everyone filed out after that.

John walked back to his apartment, alone.

Day 9

Lieutenant Jones, Smith, Green ... Whatever the hell was he calling himself today. It didn’t matter, what was consequential was the football. Why the hell did someone call it a fucking football? It was a briefcase with a launching mechanism. Now that was important. This one was tied to three nukes that were supposed to be retired and dismantled, and hadn’t been.

He had targets by the hundreds, but only three nukes. He had been waiting all day for them to be prepped and fueled. Of his hundreds of targets the first two were easy. Groom lake simply had to be a nest of aliens and alien lovers. Washington DC because that was just a nest of vipers. The third target had taken a little more thought. It was only when he heard one of the men mention a movie about aliens that he selected his third target.

All he was waiting for now was the final light to go green. Unlike so many other decisions he did not share the targets with the men. All they knew was that he was testing the systems. His trust in his men was waning. Twenty-two deserters in a week. They all knew the location of the base, which meant they had to move ... quickly.

He hoped they were all shot as deserters. He chuckled at that thought. Because they had deserted the post that they had deserted their post for. As he finished that thought the final light turned green. Without hesitation he turned the key and pushed the button.

Log Entry 3

John sat at his desk in his home office. He had two things to ponder. The first being the new weapons he had been gifted with. He discovered them lying beside himself, in bed, when he woke up. This was just as Penny and Mora had experienced. Though he had no clue as to how Sifu had managed it, he knew without a doubt that this was Sifu’s doing.

The weapons themselves were intriguing. Well maybe not the one, it was a bo similar to Penny’s, though created for him. The second was a set of two. These had many remarkable qualities. Their uniqueness came from the fact that there was no way they should be able to do what they did. They looked a bit like his dotrezz, but they were round like the bo. They were about six inches in length with a single button.

When John pushed the button, he expected something to project out of the handle. He was not, however, prepared for the sai-like weapon that protruded from the handle. It was three pronged just as sais are. He had no idea how a three pronged weapon could extend from the circular handle he held, let alone how the center blade extended sixteen inches out of the six inch handle.

They were odd in another way, in that although textured to give a better grip, there were no runes on them with ancient bits of wisdom. Still the weapons were only one thing he had to think about.

The second concerned much more pleasurable things.

Last night he consummated his relationship with Kirkuria. Last night with her, had been more than he had ever imagined that time spent with a woman could be. He smiled as the memories rolled over him and swept him away.

Kirkuria was not home when he got there, so he made some tea and sat down to think about things. He hoped that his luck would hold out, and that the time traveler would be okay.

Kirkuria had come home a short while after John had. He had been sitting on the couch with his second cup of tea.

Though Kiri didn’t go into detail, she alluded to the fact that the three of them had been able to convince Sam that Sam wasn’t omniscient. When she had left, Penny and Mora were still keeping Sam company. Kirkuria curled up close to John, and even took a few sips of his tea.

They mutually headed toward the bedroom a short time later, though not a word had passed between them for many minutes. It wasn’t that they were using telepathy either, unless they were using it at a subliminal level, which neither was aware of. Shortly after entering the bedroom, clothes were soon piled on the floor, and the two eased into bed together.

For John, this was an oddity. Not the being in bed with a naked woman; but the fact he knew that the two of them were going to make love, and the normal pre ‘sex-for-the-first time’ jitters, were not there.

John pulled Kiri into his arms and they shared a light kiss. He pulled back, and they made eye contact. In the past, John had always avoided this. There is too much to be seen, and for other to see, if you look too long into someone’s eyes. As the old adage says, they are indeed ‘windows to the soul’.

This time, he held back nothing. He let Kirkuria in, and allowed himself to become lost in hers. A short time later, he was still looking at her, but he was no longer lost, he was found. He reached up and lightly caressed her face, while continuing to look her in the eyes.

They shared another kiss that was just slightly more passionate than the last. When John broke this one, he looked at her. Truly looked at her. He began to touch her face with his fingers. He traced her eyebrows with finger tips, and brushed her cheeks with him palms. His forefinger followed and memorized the slope of her nose. Kiri closed her eyes and allowed him to touch and trace as he willed. John committed to memory every detail that made this woman so beautiful.

After sharing another deepening kiss, John moved his explorations, to her body. He touched and caressed her neck and ears. Down each of her shoulders, one at a time, to the tips of her fingers touching caressing and memorizing each new area. He also noted the many areas that caused her breath to catch, so that he could revisit them when he wished. When he began exploring her breasts with his light touches, a quiet moan escaped Kiri’s lips. Though her nipples were erect when he got to them, he spent little time teasing them. Instead, his hands continued down her body. He caressed and touched her taut abdomen and he took special care to avoid her hairless mons as he worked his way down each leg.

Her mons being hairless wasn’t a total surprise. During his genetic alteration his facial hair had stopped growing and the hair on his body fell out. The Rhylertions must have designed it that way.

For Kiri’s part, she was in unknown territory. Oh, certainly, she’d had sex, on many occasions, But she had never experienced anything like THIS. It was as though John was worshiping each new area of her body that he came to. He had just reached her abdomen and she found herself in a state of arousal unmatched by any previous experience. This, and he had not yet truly touched her in a sexual way. She felt his love with each touch, caress, and embrace. She was impatient, yet she didn’t want him to stop. She was torn between her two desires.

As John worked his way back up between her legs he decided, that he knew the front part of her body as well as he ever would. A part of him wanted to finish his exploration; there was something building inside of him that needed to be satisfied. This time, when he reached her mons, he began licking lightly at her blood-engorged labia. It was easy to tell that she was completely aroused, just by the flavor and leakage.

This was something John truly enjoyed. Many acquaintances had teased that it was an acquired taste, not so for John. From his first ever taste, he had been hooked. And so it was that Kiri found herself on the receiving end of orally induced pleasure, rivaled by none. John worked his tongue into her, and savored the taste. Kiri was squirming under his ministrations and thrusting her hips in an attempt to make more substantial contact.

John took this in stride, and moved with her, allowing her only the contact he wished to give. It wasn’t that he was trying to deny her, her release; but he knew if she was allowed the build up first, it would be that much more intense for her. He worked his arms under her legs, and began caressing her abdomen with his hands. Occasionally he would cup and caress her breasts. Kiri’s breath grew more ragged as he worked on her. John watched as her clit extended out from underneath its hooded hiding place. When he was certain she was on the edge, he sucked her clit into his mouth and ran his tongue in circles around it.

Kirkuria’s body went rigid, lifting her off the bed, though not a sound was uttered. John continued the stimulation until the air whooshed out of her lungs, and she was fell back onto the bed. He used his tongue to clean up much of the fluids she had expelled, and then began to kiss his way up her body. He took a lot of time with her breasts, simply because he enjoyed kissing and sucking on them ... It always helped that most women enjoyed the attention, also.

When John got to her face, the look he found there could only be described as pure unadulterated lust. He rose up a bit and her hands wrapped around his penis. Kiri used it to pull him closer and began sliding the crown through her slit lubricating it fully. Once she had it lodged in place, she tried to lunge herself onto it. Fortunately, John was ready for this, and moved with her. Not enough, though. The head wedged its way into her, but it was enough to keep her from injuring herself.

The look of pain on her face was unmistakable, and nearly broke his heart. John bent down and kissed her. He wanted her to become accustomed to his size slowly. The dick he had now, was quite a bit larger than the average one he used to have; and even then he knew you shouldn’t rush. Kiri was a petite woman, and that exacerbated the problem. When he felt her hips began to move again, he took control. Slowly, oh so slowly, he worked as much of his cock as she could manage, inside of her. He looked down and there was still about two inches outside of her. He knew he would always have to be careful not to get carried away.