Chapter 12

"It's taking too damned long!" Caprio fumed. Three years he had been the head of Earth government, and while the orbital pickets were getting better at intercepting the alien attackers, the aliens were still in the system, and still, occasionally, getting through the sphere of satellites and orbital fighters designed to protect against them. The social and infrastructure programs were gradually yielding results, as witness the increased availability of near earth combat vessels, but defending Earth, as the alien tormentors delighted in proving over and over again, was not enough. The aliens needed to be driven completely out of the system, not just held at bay around Earth.

Caprio's popularity numbers, in the nineties after the destruction of one of the alien vessels, had steadily declined. There was resentment among the nations of Earth at having to answer to a central government, and even more at being held accountable for their actions, but hard times call for harsh measures, and Caprio was determined to use the remainder of his five year term to see those nations working together at last.

"Who was that guy the Americans thought was helping them with the terrorists a few years back?" He asked his aide. "Prometheus, Promo..."

"Prototype Ten, sir." The aide said quietly. "Actually, there was a man and a woman and they called themselves 'Prototype Nine' and 'Prototype Ten.' It was rumored that they were the products of a secret US experiment that got out of hand."

"Yes, yes! Prototype Ten! Whatever happened to them?" Caprio asked impatiently. "I could use the help of a pair like that about now!"

"No one seems to know what happened to them, and that program, if it existed, is one of the ones the US exempted from disclosure when they joined the UE." The Aide said, checking his personal data terminal. "They just dropped out of sight one day and no one has seen or heard from them since."

"Do you suppose the US Government finally caught them?"

"Doubtful, sir." The aide replied, still consulting his PDT. "If they were capable of even a fraction of the things they were reported to have done, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to have caught them. If they did, it would have to have been such a large operation that some hint of it would have leaked, and there has been nothing. It is more likely that, since they were clearly the result of someone's experimentation, they were biologically unstable. If that was the case, they may have just crawled off into a corner somewhere and died."

"I knew it was too much to hope for." Caprio sighed. "Anyway, what are the figures this week?"

"Seven attacks that made it through the orbital pickets." The aide used his stylus to bring up another report on the PDT. "That's down from twenty three for the same period last year. As usual, all attacks were against military targets. Two were wounded and one is missing. No fatalities."

The aide knew what was coming next but hoped that this time the President would forget. He didn't. "And the missing person?"

"Captain Yvette Colbert, Sir." The aide replied. "One of the picket pilots."

"Was her ship destroyed?"

"No sir."

"Damaged?"

"No sir."

"Anyone see what happened?"

"Just like the others, sir. One moment she was there, the next, gone. Her ship wasn't engaged in any action with the enemy." The aide replied.