Chapter 18: The Confrontation

The next morning we were awake about eight but didn't bother getting up. I asked Kristy if everyone was already here and she said the last few arrived this morning. I told her to seal us in and watched as the doors closed. I got up and turned on the large projection monitor and brought up a picture of the planet. I then went to grab some of the instant breakfasts for my family and we tried them out, eggs bacon and sausage; all came out hot and the little jug of milk came out cold. This was so cool and it was better than the real thing. We ate and chatted till about 9:00 then I took the floor again.

"Ok everyone did you enjoy breakfast?" I asked.

Everyone stated how they loved breakfast.

"Ok then most of you know why we are here today; some of the new members are not so sure. I plan on filling everyone in on what we know and what we think will happen. Please don't interrupt me even if you think I'm crazy, just let me finish and I will prove what I say. It all started two months ago. Before that time none of what you see here existed. I was camping when I met Patricia, now the love of my life. She ended up staying with me a few nights later; I was a perfect gentleman I swear. That night did however change our lives forever; we were both involved in an accident that was caused by aliens. Yes, you heard me correctly..."

I went on to tell the entire story, absolutely everything and what we had now done to try and prevent it. I told them about the dreams and about Mike and Frank, and then I told them about New Nation and the military involvement.

"Now I know some of you must think I'm crazy, well we will know at about 10:00 when the battle starts. Now are there any questions? Please keep the sane comments till later," I said.

"How many people died in the attack in the dream?"

"I honestly don't know, but after wandering around the high desert for a few weeks we only had a few hundred survivors," I said.

"What about the animals on that are now the surface?"

"Kristy is providing a shield around the entire city; hopefully it will prevent any harm from coming to them and protect stuff from the 'EMP' affect," I said.

"What are we going to do if everyone else dies?"

"Well we start over, with Kris and Kristy's help we start right here and build a new civilization. Eventually I will petition the POG group to help as well, they may or may not help, I don't know."

"Can we trust aliens like them?"

"The two AI's Kris and Kristy I trust with my life, the commander of the ship I met, I trust as well. As far as the rest of them I have no way to tell, but we have no way to fight them so it wouldn't matter."

It was about 9:55 when someone yelled, "Look." We all looked at the monitor and saw about 13 ships come up to the planet and start to orbit. Now I crossed my fingers, the ships hadn't been stopped for more than 30 seconds before they started again. They appeared to be moving away from the planet.

"They're moving away."

"Yes it looks like they got the message."

Right as I said that another group of ships appeared and started firing. The rear ships started returning fire when there was a bright green flash that appeared to cover all the ships and the planet. At that time most of the ships had stopped firing but they were still pulling away; you could see the enemy was tearing the Lodi ships apart. Then as they got further away there were multiple giant white flashes and the ground shook just slightly and then the screen was empty.

"Kristy, status please."

"The shielding held and we suffered no damage. The 'EMP' still hit the planet but I believe the population survived. The ships were pretty far away when they self destructed and took the invaders with them," she said.

"Check the planet please; try to confirm everything you just said. When do you think it will be safe to go out?"

"I will start to scan now. It would be safer to wait till tomorrow or until I have checked everything first, maybe later today," she said.

"Thanks Kristy, Ok people we made it and it appears at least some of the population did as well," I said.

Everyone applauded at that as we were watching the video footage of the planet.

"Well what's next boss?" someone yelled.

"Linda, what have you done about putting together a council?" I asked.

"We have 14 people on the council, 7 men, and 7 women, with you as advisor and tie breaker if needed." Linda said.

"Ok I can live with that, what has been decided so far?" I asked.

"We have decided to hold off voting till the end of the year for the most part, there are too many things we just need to do right now. You will be in charge of the ranch like you said, basically being a governor, Paul will be in charge of the security forces overall. Jessica will be in charge of local security and Mike will be in charge of mission security. Gloria will be in charge of food and food stores, Martha will be under her as head cook. Arleen Torres & Linda Street will be in charge of starting the school; Captain Delmore will retain command of the local Sheriff's office and serve the Big Bear area but ultimately fall under command of Paul Lake. Now everything we have done may be changed since we're still working on it, if something does not work out we will fix it."

"Great so far, we also need someone to plan the housing out and who gets what and so forth. We should have a supply coordinator to pass out necessities to whoever needs them. Also before everyone leaves please speak to either Kris or Kristy. Because they have a small questionnaire to ask you verbally."

"What if the people who own property in Big Bear come back?" someone asked.

"If they have title to the property and records show that, then it's theirs. However, that won't provide them with electricity, food, or water. The utilities don't exist anymore so moving in wouldn't be a good idea right now."

"So will you be supplying the utilities in the future?"

"Yes, for a while anyway. We need to work out a system for compensation. Since money has no value anymore we need to work on something else. For example Linda is on the council and will be one of our pilots, she will be compensated for that by getting a house and utilities and food items. So basically if you provide the group a service you will be taken care of, this can be anything from being an officer or just a truck driver, or helping with the animals. If it needs to be done and you help you get the benefits to go with it. This system will get more involved as time goes on but that's it for now."

"What if you're retired?"

I laughed and said, "Even retired people can help watch kids or help with the school. If you have medical problems that prevent you from this see Kristy. Everyone of course gets free medical for the foreseeable future."