Chapter 1

Aboard the exterminator ship, Uxeloflat:

"There it is. The one the local oxygen breathers call Urth, or Yerth, or something like that. It isn't important, but I do like to know the sort of vermin we are eliminating."

"Yes, Captain Ergla, we will go about our business as efficiently as usual. Ah, I see that they have spotted us. Humph! A chemical rocket, of all things! Erdolf, swat that bug!"

"Yes, Ma'am, Supreme Leader Enslow. I'll have the laser lined up in a moment. Aha, got it on the first shot. They must have been using hydrogen for fuel, the way it was so thoroughly destroyed with a minimum beam strength."

"Good shooting, Erdolf. I'll make sure it goes into your efficiency report."

"Thank you very much, Ma'am. You are only too kind to a lowly gunner's mate."

On Earth:

"Shit! There goes our only chance to try for a friendly contact. OK, General Schwarzo, I am authorizing you to do whatever you must to destroy that alien spaceship."

"Yes, Sir, Mr. President. I'll get right on it. But, I must say, in all honesty, the way the peaceniks have throttled our development efforts, there is really not much that we can do."

On Luna:

"Colonel, the aliens have just destroyed the peace mission launched to contact their space ship!"

"OK, Captain, have your people keep a close watch, but don't do anything to attract their attention."

"Yes, Sir."

That last acknowledgment was almost cut off as Colonel Jacob Harrison flipped the off-switch on his intercom. He didn't want the sound of his cursing to leak out to the rest of his command. "Janet," he said to his adjutant, "I think we are in serious trouble. How near are we to being independent of Earth?"

"Actually, we have been practically independent for the last 17 standard days, but the official transfer isn't scheduled for another 13 days. That was supposed to allow time for the bigwigs on Earth to line up to take the credit for all of our work. Our farms have been supplying all of our needs for the last six months, and the water-from-rock plant has been on line for a couple of weeks. We have all of the solar and nuclear power we need, so we are no longer in any way dependent on Earth for anything but special medical supplies. Our chemical lab could even handle that, if necessary."

"Great. I think that we will be needing all of that before long. Damn, it really pisses me off that we don't have something that we could launch at that fucking spaceship to teach them some manners, but we will just have to hide from them and hope that we are not noticed. I can't help this feeling that they are up to no good!"

Aboard the exterminator ship, Uxeloflat:

"Captain Ergla, we have deployed the shell of satellites around the planet. You may have the honor of initiating the extermination."

"Thank you. So be it. Commence the extermination."

At the captain's order, an opaque field completely enclosed Earth so that no sunlight could pass through. This caused considerable panic among the beings on the planet, both human and animal. There was no importance to this panic, because, about 270 seconds later, a bright flash of light, so bright that some of it leaked through the opaque shield, was set off under the shield and over the planet. The humans never did find out what this radiation was, but it killed all life on the planet, from single-cell organisms on up through the most complex, in less than a second.

The aliens gave the satellites a little time to cool off before retrieving them and leaving for their next assignment.

On Luna:

"Janet, am I right that we have had no communication with Earth in the week since the aliens left?"

"Yes, Sir. There has been absolutely no sign of life anywhere on the planet. I, for one, am very concerned. My youngest brother's bar mitzvah party is due up in 22 days, and I very much wanted to attend. I had scheduled my medical rotation to Earth to coincide with the party, and now I am afraid that I will miss it."

"Janet, I hate to say this, but I think that your brother will miss it, too. I have a hunch that the aliens wiped out all life on Earth, and we have to be the ones, eventually, to avenge that."

Janet started to cry. "Please excuse me, Colonel. I have been fighting off that realization for the past week, and your words just broke my hold on my emotions."

Jacob got us from his desk and embraced Janet. "Just go ahead and let it all out. I know exactly how you feel. I did my crying last night, and now I am just mad."

Janet cried for another 10 minutes before she got herself under control. However, she was a strong person, emotionally, so she was able to channel her sorrow into rage at the aliens. "Jacob, oops, sorry Colonel, what can we do to avenge all of those dead people?"

"I have been working on some ideas that I would like to bounce off you. Go splash some water on your face and repair your makeup if you want to. When you get back, we need to start a serious planning session.

Three weeks later, Jacob called a meeting of all of the personnel on Luna. There were 296 men and 102 women in the crowd, and 12 men and women on the stage. He opened the meeting with a few general remarks. "By now, all of you know that we have not had any success in contacting any people on Earth. All of us here on the stage, and I am sure that most of you agree, have concluded that we are the only humans left alive anywhere in the galaxy!" Jacob was interrupted at that point by a sustained murmur from the crowd, with but a few denials.

He quieted the audience down and resumed his prepared remarks. "We all sincerely hope that this assumption is wrong, but we all agree that we must act as if it is correct. We will present detailed plans to each of you over the next few days as to what we think that you should do to help us keep the human race alive and to get revenge on the aliens that so callously wiped out the life on Earth. Whether you agree with us or not, you must understand that there is no current way that we can return you to Earth. With that fact in mind, you have no choice but to cooperate with us until something can be done to remedy that.

"There are serious medical issues associated with us being marooned on Luna, the major one being the low gravity. I am sure that all of you know how quickly the human body loses bone mass in low gravity. Indeed, some of you were scheduled to rotate back to Earth in the very near future so that you can return to living under 1 g conditions. Frankly, a solution to that problem is our number one concern at the moment. Hopefully, we will solve the problem in time, but there is always a chance that we will not. If we don't, we will be stuck on Luna for the rest of our lives. I'll keep you posted on the progress of our efforts. But, remember, any other research projects are of lower priority to that one, so be prepared to be asked to switch your efforts into a new direction, if you are needed."

Jacob then introduced the other people on the stage, and each one gave a short summary of the conditions and requirements associated with his or her bailiwick. The meeting lasted for nearly two hours before it was dismissed for lunch. When it was over, everybody was informed, but nobody was happy.

Back in Jacob's office, Janet brought up a serious potential problem: SEX. She pointed out that there was a ratio of 2.8 men to every woman. Unless something could be done to eliminate the surplus men, the old scheme of monogamy was dead and polyandry was in force.

Jacob agreed and asked Janet for her ideas. Janet suggested that they have the women choose one mate from the pool of all men. When that was done, The women would again choose a mate from the remaining men. At that point, each woman would have two husbands. A third round would be held, and, if any men were left at that point, they would be assigned to a woman by a computer controlled lottery.

Janet did say that Jacob was her first choice, but she would bet that he was the first choice of every other woman on Luna. If, for no other reason, every woman would want to have the top male as her husband. Jacob laughed and admitted that there was no way he could service over 200 women. At least, not and keep them happy.