The Sol 3 Agenda

by Brian Kitchen

  Soon they were leaving the A38 and turning onto the ring road and in the distance, King could see a huge building. As they drew nearer to it, King could see the sign on it, which declared that it was the VarTech HQ. King had heard of VarTech, but didn’t really know much about them. Terry Jackson, King noticed, was studying the building intently.

  “I wonder if that’s where you are, John Trevaskis,” King heard Terry Jackson mutter under his breath. King glanced at him, but Jackson spotted him.

  “Keep your eyes on the road, Royalty,” Terry sharply told him. “I don’t want you pranging the car near here!”

  Pranging, King thought, he hadn’t heard that word used for years. He took a chance to take another surreptitious, sideways glance at his passenger and was lucky this time not to be seen. Who the hell are you, Terry Jackson. King thought, closely studying the man.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Norfolk, Virginia, Tuesday 13th September 2005

  Joshua woke up with another sudden start and realised that he must have gone back to sleep after the strenuous bout of lovemaking that Fionnuala had insisted on. What had woken him up again? Then he heard the banging on the door.

  “Open up, police,” someone was shouting. Fionnuala stirred and then woke up.

  “What is all that noise?” she angrily asked.

  “It’s the police,” Joshua told her in a tremulous voice.

  “Are you sure?” Go and look out of the window.”

  Joshua did as he was bid, jumping out of the bed and running across to the window. Looking down into the street he saw that there were at least three police cars and two large paddy wagons. Craning his neck so that he could see the entrance doors to the hotel, he saw that the police were taking both men and women, who were in various stages of undress, out of the hotel and over to the paddy wagons. It must be a raid, he thought.

  “It’s a raid, Fionnuala,” he anxiously told her as further banging came on the door.

  “A raid?” Fionnuala questioned, stretching languorously.

  “Yes, they’re taking men and women over to two paddy wagons. Some of them are half-naked. They must think that prostitution is going on here.”

  “Open up now, or we’ll break down the door,” someone was now shouting.

  “You had better let them in, Joshua,” Fionnuala told him getting out of bed.

  “I’ve got nothing on!” Joshua hysterically cried, hunting frantically for his jeans, or underpants, or anything to put on.

  “I can see that Joshua, but then neither have I,” Fionnuala answered, stretching her arms upwards, her breasts jutting forward.

  Joshua found his jeans and quickly pulled them on, before running to the door and opening it. Two burly policemen pushed by him and entered the room and then stopped abruptly. Turning to see why, Joshua saw that Fionnuala was standing in the middle of the room, stark naked, her arms across her chest.

  “What is the meaning of this intrusion?” Fionnuala demanded to know in an imperious voice.

  Both policemen were standing mouths open, staring stunned at her. She was a truly magnificent sight, Joshua had to admit, even though he realised he must be red with embarrassment.

  “Ma’am,” one of the policemen finally managed to stutter, “We have reason to believe that illegal immoral activities are being carried out in these premises.”

  “I see,” Fionnuala answered,

  “Are you two married to each other?” The policeman’s colleague, a rather fat man, enquired.

  “No, we are not,” Fionnuala replied.

  “Are you married to anyone else?” The first policeman to have spoken wanted to know.

  “No,” Fionnuala answered.

  The policeman then turned to address Joshua.

  “You sir?” Joshua shook his head.

  “Have you been fornicating?” the second policeman, the rather fat one then enquired. Looking first at Joshua and then Fionnuala.

  “Of course, we have been fornicating,” Fionnuala replied, looking at the policeman as if he was mentally deficient.

  “Then you’ll both have to come with us to the police station.”

  “Why do we need to do that? Fionnuala demanded to know.

  “Fornication is a Class 2 Misdemeanour, ma’am. I suggest that you put some clothes on.”

  “A Class 2 Misdemeanour?” Joshua said incredulously

  “Yes, sir. The General Assembly passed the law making it a Class 2 Misdemeanour, only last July. We are a good Christian state and follow the word of the Lord,” the rather fat policeman told him pompously.

  Joshua blanched; he knew a little about the law.

  “That means we might go to jail?” Joshua stuttered.

  “Oh yes, sir,” the policeman rather smugly replied. “You could receive a sentence of up to 6 months imprisonment.”

  “But we didn’t know what we were doing was against the law,” Joshua protested.

  “Not knowing the law is no defence, sir. Is it now Jared?” the fat policeman turned to address his colleague.

  “Certainly not, Caleb. Sinful ways must be punished,” his colleague replied, with a smirk upon his face. He’d been the one that Joshua had noticed had been pointedly staring at Fionnuala’s breasts since she had uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips.

  “You will give me privacy to get dressed,” Fionnuala said very haughtily, staring hard at Jared, who dropped his eyes from her breasts.

  “Come on Jared, we’ll give these sinners privacy to get dressed, “Caleb said, grabbing his colleague by the arm and shepherding him to the door out of the room. “We’ll give you a couple of minutes ma-am and then we’ll return”

  Fionnuala waited until the policemen had left the room and were out of earshot, before she then turned to Joshua.

  “We get dressed, put the Cloaking Devices back on and get well away from here,” she quietly told him. “A good plan, eh Joshua?”

  “They’ll be recharged by now?” Joshua asked, whispering.

  “Of course,” Fionnuala confirmed

  “Then that’s a very good plan.” Joshua agreed, quickly grabbing his clothes.

  “I have never heard of such a stupid law, punishing people for what is a very natural act,” Fionnuala complained whilst she got hurriedly dressed.

  “Some Americans are very devout Christians,” Joshua tried to explain. “They frown upon what they see as ungodly acts such as fornication.” Fionnuala snorted derisively and then asked.

  “What are Christians?”

  “It’s people who practise the religion called Christianity, Fionnuala.”

  “I see. You do know Joshua, that the Triumvirate, which was the Morrigan, the Badhbh and the Nemhain, were a religion too, once upon a time. We were worshipped as the triple goddesses by the primitive peoples of Earth,” she told him, tucking her blouse into her jeans.

  “Yes, I know. I’ve read Irish Mythology,” Joshua said, picking his T shirt up off the radiator where he’d hung it to dry, after washing it in the wash basin. It was still a bit damp, but he pulled it on over his head all the same.

  “Mythology!” Fionnuala retorted. “We are real, Joshua, we are not myths!”

  “Yes, I know that, but how the heck are you able to live so long? I know about the medical nanobots, but surely they couldn’t keep you alive for thousands of years?”

  “The Morrigan, Nemhain and Badhbh are titles, Joshua, like King, or Queen. Hereditary ones which are passed down from mother to daughter,” Fionnuala explained. “I am the 519th Nemhain of the Aos Si Empire.” They were both dressed by now and so Fionnuala picked up the Cloaking Devices and handed one to Joshua. “Let’s leave this place and go and see if we can find somewhere where we can teleport ourselves back to the Deltoid.”

  Chapter 22

  Earth Orbit

  Tuesday 13th September 2005

  At 35 years of age, Colonel Hoskens was the youngest full colonel in the US Army, having benefited from the accelerated promotion scheme that
Mona McBeolain had introduced on becoming President. Hoskens now commanded the ultra-secret Special Alien Threat Containment Unit, or SATCU as it was known to its members and those of the US military who knew of its existence. Hoskens was however, one of the very few humans that not only knew of the existence of the Aos Si, but that his President was also one of them. Of course, Mona McBeolain, didn’t know that Hoskens knew who she really was. He wouldn’t still be alive if she did.

  The Special Alien Threat Containment Unit (SATCU) were based at what was popularly known as Area 51, at the Edwards US Air Force base in Nevada. Since Mona McBeolain had become the President of the United States of America, Area 51 had been extensively developed and heavily fortified, increasing the paranoia of the conspiracy theorists, who thought there was alien technology and even alien remains stored there. Although the Government dismissed these theories as wild fantasy, the conspiracy theorists were correct in some of their assumptions. Alien technology was stored at Area 51, including a vastly modified and fully functional Deltoid.

  Hoskens had just received his latest orders which were to terminate a very dangerous female Aos Si Imperial, who had been seen outside the White House accompanied by a weedy-looking young man with longish black hair. As Hoskens studied the footage obtained from the CCTV cameras in Pennsylvania Avenue, he wondered who the tall, beautiful, strawberry blonde Aos Si woman really was. Hoskens had been told that she was a dangerous renegade, a terrorist who was attempting to assassinate the President. Hoskens didn’t believe that. By now he knew enough of both the Aos Si and terrorists, to know that neither of them would be openly standing outside the gates to the White House, if they were intent on murdering Mona McBeolain. Well at least no sane one would and most of the Aos Si that Hoskens knew were perfectly sane.

  Studying the footage of the Aos Si woman more closely, Hoskens recognized in her bearing, someone used to command. Hoskens wondered if this Aos Si woman was in fact a rival of Mona’s. If that was the case, then rather than terminate her, Hoskens decided that he would sooner capture her alive and find out who she really was. After all, from what Hoskens had uncovered over the past few years, this Aos Si woman might be a very useful ally to have. Indeed, the very fate of planet Earth might well depend upon her and others like her.

  As soon as Colonel Hoskens had received the call from the President, he and his team had boarded their Deltoid. Piloted by Declan, an android, it had then taken off and they were soon on their way to Norfolk, Virginia, where Hoskens had been told that the Aos Si woman and her companion had apparently gone.

  “We will soon be in the airspace above Norfolk, Virginia, Colonel,” Declan told Hoskens. “We will be cloaked too, but obviously it will be affected when we attempt to take down the enemy Deltoid’s cloak.”

  “Then we need to fire upon them as soon as they become visible,” Hoskens told him.

  “Do you mean to totally destroy their craft?” Declan asked, in what for an android was a rather concerned tone.

  “No, just disable it. I want to know who it is on board it.” Colonel Hoskens answered.

  “Is that wise sir? Whoever it is could be very dangerous.”

  “Are you questioning my orders, android?”

  “No sir.”

  “Then see that they’re carried out.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The same day, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

  “You’ve had enough time to get dressed. We’re coming in,” Caleb announced, flinging open the door and walking in, before stopping abruptly, causing Jared to bump into him.

  “They’re not here! They’ve gone!” Caleb exclaimed, looking all around the obviously empty room.

  “That’s impossible Caleb, “ Jared said disbelievingly. “We’ve been outside the door and no-one has come out of the room.”

  “Then they must be hiding somewhere,” Caleb said, frantically searching the room. “The Captain will have our jobs for this!” he anxiously declared, looking under the bed. Jared shook his head and searched the small closet. “They must have got out of the window,” Caleb then optimistically declared.

  “We’re four storeys up, Caleb. What would they do, scale down the walls?” Jared questioned sarcastically, walking over to the window and trying to open it. “It’s jammed solid,” he told Caleb. “There’s no way they got out through that.” Where had they gone Jared thought, it was like something out of the X-Files.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Invisible to the two policemen, Fionnuala and Joshua had slipped past them as soon as the door to the room had been opened. Exiting the hotel, they saw that scantily clad women and very embarrassed looking men were still being loaded into the paddy wagons.

  “This place has a sea front I presume?” Fionnuala enquired as they quickly walked along, as far away from the hotel and the police as possible.

  “I know there’s an Ocean View Beach Park,” Joshua replied.

  “Good, we’ll go there.”

  It took them a while to find it, but eventually they arrived at the beach which looked out onto Chesapeake Bay.

  “Now I will see if we can teleport out of here.” Fionnuala said, tapping on the screen of the tablet PC she’d used before. “Good, we are able to be teleported now, but wait the signal is very weak, something is still disrupting it, I do not think that we can chance it. If we teleport now, then we may never materialise again.”

  “Then what do we do Fionnuala?”

  “I’ll try and contact Fenella,” the Nemhain replied. “ it’s possible that she may be able to boost our teleport signal and then teleport us up to the Deltoid. I just wish I knew what was causing the interference with the signal.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Earth Orbit, Nemhain’s Command Deltoid

  “Commander, the Nemhain is contacting us. I’ll put it on speaker,” one of the crew of the Nemhain’s Command Deltoid announced.

  “Fenella, I’m having difficulty teleporting up to you,” the Nemhain’s voice came from the speaker. “ Something is disrupting the signal.”

  “It’s good to hear from you, Nemhain. I was getting worried,” Fenella answered. “I’ll see if I can teleport you up to the Deltoid from here.” Fenella then turned to another crew member. “Is anything showing up on the Proximity Scanner?” Fenella knew that she would have to decloak, to be able to teleport the Nemhain and Joshua back to the Deltoid. That would also mean however exposing their Deltoid to a potential enemy. Fortunately, the Nemhain’s Command Deltoid was equipped with a Proximity Scanner which detected any possible threats in the vicinity.

  “Nothing showing at present, Commander.”

  “Then decloak and initiate teleportation of the Nemhain and her consort,” Fenella ordered, walking off to the Teleportation Chamber. “We’re teleporting you now, Nemhain,” Fenella said into her communicator, before walking off to meet her.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Earth Orbit, SATCU Deltoid, the same time

  “Is there anything showing on our Proximity Scanner?” Hoskens asked the member of his crew monitoring that piece of equipment.

  “Nothing whatsoever as yet, Colonel,” Sergeant First Class, Eoghan Kelly reported.

  Where could they be? Hoskens wondered, getting very concerned now. He only had Mona McBeolain’s word that the recently installed Proximity Scanner on the Deltoid worked and the more that he was discovering about the woman, the more highly suspicious he was becoming, of anything that she told him. Hoskens had also been told that the new top-secret device, which linked with the Proximity Scanner and had only been installed just before take-off, had the ability to stop any uncloaked, enemy vessels from recloaking. So, this meant that either the potentially hostile Deltoid wasn’t anywhere in the area or that the Proximity Scanner didn’t work.

  For a very long time, Hoskens had had his suspicions that Mona McBeolain wasn’t who she said she was. Sam Hoskens was descended from an Aos Si couple, who had come to Earth to escape the horrors of the war between the Aos Si and the Varns. They had su
rvived the great flood that had devastated the planet 10,000 years ago and when following the disaster, the Aos Si had then gone to Erin, his family had gone too. His family had survived through the millennia that followed and prospered, but like many of the Aos Si descendants had concealed their true identities and had lived simple lives.

  The Great Irish Famine of 1845-52 had nearly wiped out his family and things had never been the same in Erin afterwards. Sam’s great, great grandfather had emigrated to the USA in 1851, from Ireland with his parents. The family had been unable to put down roots anywhere at first, probably missing their adopted homeland and had drifted from town to town, until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. By then Sam’s great, great grandfather was 18 years old.

  Sam’s family had often been soldiers, even serving the High King of Ireland in the old days and Sam’s great, great grandfather and his father had realised that if they were to remain in the USA, they needed employment. Both of them had enlisted in the Union Army, realising even at that early stage, that the Confederates were a lost cause. After the war, both men continued to serve in the military and had had distinguished military careers.

  It was Sam’s great great-grandfather who had moved the family to Cody, Wyoming, after he’d retired from the army. When asked why he’d moved the family there, he told folks it was mainly because of its association with Colonel William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who he admired.

  It was Sam’s grandfather however who was the first of Sam’s line to attend West Point, but he was then followed there by his son and eventually his grandson. Upon graduation from West Point, the newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Sam Hoskens, was not as he expected, sent on a Basic Officer Leader Course, but sent instead to the newly opened Future Warfare Advanced Training College in Nevada, situated not far from Edwards US Air Force base. He learnt that he would spend the next three years there, undergoing extensive specialised training, far beyond the normal training that a young Second Lieutenant could expect to receive.

  Sam had been curious of the backgrounds of the other participants in the accelerated promotion scheme and had done some digging around. He had learnt to his great surprise that all of them on it were of Aos Si ancestry, like himself. Sam had been told when he was in his early teens of his family’s background and where they had come from, thousands of years before. It had been instilled into him that he needed to keep this a secret. Being a basically open and honest person, this had proved troubling to Sam at times. He certainly didn’t feel superior to the indigenous natives of the Planet Earth, unlike some of his compatriots, nor was he quite so open in sharing information about his background with them, as they were with him.