"Did you ever find out the names of these loyalists?"
"Of one of them, yes. But they have since disappeared even deeper into the shadows."
"Even so, we need to find them. Give me a name. I'll do my best to expose them." She shook her head.
"That is for others better suited to the job. I need you exactly where you are. On the front lines." I sighed.
“You know what? I was just thinking, having his body there in the morgue may open the eyes of those that see it and maybe open the eyes of the public, eventually. It might get covered up or the information might get out, if you can convince the right people to get hold of it.” She nodded slowly, thinking.
“That will take careful, sensitive scheming. Do you think the people will believe us? That aliens are among us?”
“Many people not on Earthside already know or, at least, have some inkling of the truth. But, I think, yes. Eventually. That video of what happened in the auditorium is all over the web and the non-mainstream news feeds and media sites. I've noticed the tone of the mainstream news has been changing over the last few months as well. The public consciousness on aliens among us is rising. I'm working to push this in the mainstream media. There's an incredible push-back and many of the corporations that I believe have been havens for loyalists are covering up the issues.”
“They can't do it forever. A reckoning is coming.”
“I know. And you'll be happy to know that two of the CEO's at the convention have been arrested. The head of Lunar Travel Corp. and the head of Futura Technologies. So far, I've seen to it that the charges are on various forms of fraud and tax evasion but this is a pretense to arrest them and then examine whether or not they are human or alien. It's time we moved this along.”
“How sneaky. How are you going to expose them?”
“I have my ways. By the way, how's your arm?” she asked.
I flexed it slowly. I'd been on hiatus from work and in physical therapy for three months, recovering from the Blackguard incident. I was ready to go home and spend some time with my family.
“It's good. The recovery is going well. My body isn't rejecting it so far.”
“I think you'll find that the techniques and medical practices we use at the lab are bleeding edge, new and improved. I don't mean to make light of your injury but I hope this new limb will serve you well in the future.”
"How do you mean?"
“Just be careful with how you use it. And make sure you take your injections regularly like clockwork, Robert. Never forget. How are the burns?” I glanced over my right arm and hand. I'd been given medication and a tetanus shot the day I'd lost my arm. For the burns. Today, it was as if I'd never been burned.
“Looks like new.”
“Good. I want to congratulate you on a job well done. I want to treat you and your family to a long vacation. Anywhere you want to go. It's on the company. Go home and relax. When your family decides where they want to go, just let me know.”
Hey, after all, I'd been through, I wasn't complaining. Before I got up to leave she had one last thing for me.
“Robert, about the name.” She folded her hands and then unfolded them, flattening them on her desk. Then she looked up at me, her gaze hard.
“Yes?”
“Borghese. Giulio Borghese. I suspect he's still alive. Out there, somewhere. I want to know where he hides."
“Borghese. If I can find him, I will,” I said.
But I had a few more things to do before I finally went back home or started digging around for evil- plotting loyalists. Darkman deserved something. Who knew what they were doing to his body at the morgue? He was our ally and risked his life to help the cause and he wasn't even one of us. I felt a growing worry over this as well. I was now exposing the alien takeover but not all of them were our enemies. Much of the help I'd received over the few years since my first flight to Mars came from rebel aliens. The road ahead was going to be hard and dangerous. That wasn't the part that worried me. I'd learned to confront danger head on. What worried me was that it was also going to get murky. If this was blown apart would I be seen as a species traitor?
And how was I going to deal with it? I didn't know. But now I had Pam again in my corner, my faithful and stalwart supporter, who came to see me four days every week all the time I was in the lab hospital.
When I reached the house and climbed out of the cab she was waiting outside and hugged me. She then looked down at my arm.
“It looks real. Feels real. They did a good job patching you up, honey.” I laughed. She turned to call the kids but they were busting down the front door before either of us got a word out.
My kids raced across the lawn and jumped on me, burying me piles of arms, legs and loving embraces. Tears welled up in my eyes. Whatever the future held, if my family was behind me I could see it through. Hell, I might even triumph.
The news was full with coverage of the incident at the convention but there was a split now. Most news feeds talked of the so-called terrorist activity at the convention center. 'Terror in Seaport!' they'd dubbed it. A few others, however, were starting to pick up on the alien and stargate footage released on the web, footage which had spread like wildfire across the world. A huge shift would be coming as some people were starting to process what they saw on the web feeds.
Later that day Diamond sent me a message to contact him. He, Chip, and Will had some very interesting things to tell me.
. . .
When I arrived at Chip's place Will was sitting by a strange looking console hooked up to several computers.
“How is your new arm, Bob?” asked Chip.
“I'm not sure, yet. No more pain as long as I take my pain meds, anyway.”
“I couldn't believe what happened to you. Diamond said there was a sea of blood in the stairwell. We were afraid you'd left this world already.”
“Well, you guys aren't getting rid of me that easily.”
“Come on! Let me see it!” he urged. I pulled off my jacket and flexed my arm. It looked, and to the touch, felt exactly like a human arm. Except, there were no hairs growing out of the follicles. I had one smooth arm and one hairy arm, which was a little weird. And it still felt slightly numb, as if I had neuropathy in the fingers. The doctors at the lab told me that I would feel that way for a few months and that I would eventually get used to it. It wasn't easy to type or use other fine motor skills but that would improve with time.
“State of the art bio-engineering, pal!” said Chip appreciatively. “Give me a high five!” He raised his hand in the air. I raised mine and we slapped hands and he went tumbling out of his chair backwards.
"Whoa!"
“Chip!” I exclaimed.
“Good God, man!” Diamond exclaimed. I stared at the arm in shock.
“I didn't mean to do that at all, Chip!” Chip picked himself up from the floor and settled back down in his chair, looking sheepish.
“Okay, six million dollar man. Take it easy. I'm alright.”
“No, seriously, I had no idea. . .” Chip laughed and waved it off.
“Don't worry about it. You aren't used to it yet and I'm guessing there's not much feeling in it either.” I sighed and sat down across from him.
“So what did you pick up, Will?” I asked. Will smiled widely.
“Oh, listen to this!” said Chip, rubbing his hands together.
“I can finally hear the communications of a high-level mech out there. It's located on a base somewhere beyond the asteroid belt. It's in communication with a ship in the Black Fleet. And from what I've gathered, they have another way into this solar system.”
“I knew it!” I nearly jumped out of my seat.
“Why am I not surprised,” said Diamond.
“How do you guys know?” asked Chip.
“I have a sixth sense. I've had dreams of it. And Diamond's got friends and contacts out there beyond the belt.” Chip gave me a dubious look.
“Don't get all mystical on me, Bob.�
�
“He's not,” said Diamond. “Listen to the man. He knows what he knows.” Chip shot us both with an even more dubious look.
“Well, you guys are right. They haven't given up. They are building another gate it seems from the amount of activity happening and being tracked from Will's information, in this area.” He pointed to a holo-screen to the ice moon Enceladus. Right because wormholes were lying around all over the dang place in this solar system, apparently.
“But we don't know where this other gate is, for certain. Will has detected that they are in the midst of building another gate. My assumption is that it's on Enceladus.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Where else would it be?” he said. I shrugged. But I doubted it was on Enceladus. That would be too easy to find. Even if it were cloaked. The rebels and sentinels and others out there watching them would find out. It had to be in an unexpected location. And who knew what kind of technology they understood that we didn't?
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“From what I've gathered, we have a year and two months before the first line of ships of the Black Fleet arrive through this hidden gate. The first line of offense is a vanguard of fighters and three battle cruisers. Their Rebirth Initiative." Or among the more religiously zealous of them, the Sacred Way.
"From what I've been able to pick up through their own communications there are warships massing on one of the Jovian moons and another base on Enceladus,” Will said.
“I think their other lunar military base is Io,” said Diamond. I nodded.
“Gorgons. One year and two months,” I said pensively. “It's been a long time since I've seen a gorgon.” We were all silent. Chip had never seen one. I hope he never had to.
“I need to talk to Genevieve, Rychik, and Tulos. To know what they're seeing out there.”
“Do it. We need to know what they know,” said Chip.
“Not only do we have a problem of mobilizing forces on Earth but we have aliens that are friendly to us. What of them? Once humans decide to fight they'll paint all of them as enemies.”
“We'll get through that maze when we get to it.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We mobilize U-net. Muster every ally we can find out there. There's a new base of operations for U-net on St. Anthony. I'm going there as soon as I recover. As long as they haven't yet made the jump we've got time.” I looked over at Will.
“The gate is still under major construction,” said Will. “We still have time left, according to the mech I've been secretly listening to. There's more but I have to translate it before I can make sense of the information.”
We needed the Allied Martian Powers and we needed a battle plan.
“What is Vartan planning to do?” Asked Diamond.
“Mobilize people on Earth. Chip and Diamond, why don't you two go to St. Anthony now? I can let Vartan know you're interested in meeting with them.” They glanced at each other.
“A sound idea,” said Chip. Diamond nodded an affirmative.
“Well, I've got nothing to do right now. I might just make that trip in the next few days and contact you if I get any new information,” said Diamond.
“I'm looking forward to it,” I said.
“See you guys later. Take care of your new arm!” He said, grinning and left. I rubbed it in response.
“I wonder if the cipher carried the same information that you were receiving, Will?” I asked.
“It's possible but you forced it to self-destruct. So we will never know. But we don't need to. We already know the most important thing,” said Will.
“Yeah,” said Chip. “The cipher was meant to work with a stargate, carry and upload encrypted information to it and receive the same, activate and possibly deactivate the gate when needed and self-destruct if anyone without the proper key tries gets the encrypted information from it. And you stopped the gate.”
“It looks as if we all have a lot of work to do,” said Will. “I'd like to get back to work, if you two don't mind.”
“Please. We'll need all the information we can get from you,” I said. Will left and went to his recharging station Chip built for him.
This was momentous. It was the first time I felt that there was a real plan with a true, mobilized force that wasn't on Mars. There was a lot of work to do. And a lot of hope in my heart.
I thought of Tulos and his spiritual journey, and of the gristone sword. And I thought of the enemies of the temple lurking about like shadows on Mars; were they the same enemies that lurked about in shadow groups on Earth? Were they different? Several battles were looming in the future, on many fronts. We would need to root out any and all secretive loyalist enclaves on Earth and the moon and everywhere else. The key to doing that was the new genetic material floating around in my body; it gave me an advantage. How long it would last, I didn't know. The Fiorjah, in her own violent and twisted way had thought to strengthen the human race to defeat the Black Fleet. In a way, her plan might work, just not in the way she'd intended. And I wondered how Vartan would use her in the coming war.
I told Chip of my ordeal at Hussa. It was high time my own friends knew about it and I would never keep such things from them again.
And after we talked and plotted all night and into the next morning there was still one important task left to do before I threw myself into the fight for the future.
13
I handled the small paper boats with care. Marybear made them for me, at my request. I told the taxi driver to stop at a florist shop. Climbing high through the busy streams of traffic lanes I saw the florist shop's neon letters blazing, cheerily garish reflective lights in the windows of the taxi. He docked at an elongated landing strip right in front of the shop. I told him to stay put and that I'd be back.
As I went in the florist shop was warm and moist due to the large greenhouse containers that held thousands of growing, cultivated flowers. Passing by the brilliant and beautiful hothouse flowers of hundreds of varieties, it was hard to decide.
“May I help you?” Asked a young woman. Her name-tag said: Harumi.
“Ah, yeah.” This was a bittersweet occasion that I would be celebrating by myself but I needed the right thing. “I had two friends who died not long ago. And I want to honor them. I'm not sure what to get. Roses seem too common.”
“Friends, you say? Please don't be offended but were these difficult passings? Illness?”
“They died defending my life.” Harumi nodded her head in sympathy.
“May I suggest cherry blossoms? Cherry blossoms have an important meaning in Japanese culture, especially for soldiers.”
“That would be perfect.”
“The cherry blossom can represent the noble character of a man who doesn't fear death.” She gazed at me, her expression changing to one of curiosity. “Your face. . .you look very familiar.” Not at all surprised, I just smiled.
The cherry blossom. That was the perfect symbol I was looking for and I felt my spirit uplifted when she said this. Noble character. That was exactly what Patrick, who risked his life and died, was. And Darkman. Grenu. I wonder if that was actually his real name. Grenu.
His dying request was to fight on, to journey to St. Anthony and to remind humans that not all of his people were the enemy.
Yes, he too, I would honor. I would honor all of those requests.
I ordered votive candles and a bunch of cherry blossoms, their sweet, soft fragrance relaxing and uplifting. It was now early spring. The time for new life. And cherry blossoms were an excellent way to honor their sacrifices. I thanked Harumi and went on my way.
I had the driver take me to the Salmonberry River which was located in an emerald green woodland outside of the city between the valley and the coast. It was a small, lonely river that twisted and ran under the dark, thick canopy of fir trees and rain. In fact, it was raining lightly now.
I felt my arm tingle. I rubbed it to make the blood circulate and relieve the n
umbness. Then I lit the candles and placed each inside a paper boat and arranged a bunch of blossoms in each boat. Then I waded into the lower Salmonberry River where the green moss boulders stood like soft emerald jewels. I lowered the first paper boat in that I had named in red pen: 'Darkman'. I watched it float down the clear water into the distance.
It was then that I remembered, with sadness, the man or alien ally who'd died in the abandoned lift shaft. In all of the chaos and my own medical complications that followed I had nearly forgotten that one. Nor did Vartan ever mention anything about him. Or her. One day I would ask about that agent. For that one, I said a silent prayer.
Then I lowered in the second boat labeled: 'Patrick'. It, too, floated away down the river. I watched them both in silence until they disappeared in the distance. I heard the frail yelping of a coyote. Besides that and the river I heard nothing else. I thought of the heroics that I'd experienced and seen, not just in myself but in others; others who had extended themselves to help me. I was grateful, thankful of the courage of others. I felt humbled by it. I was thankful of the fragility and the beauty of life. Others, like Patrick and Darkman, had been taken from the race of life, sacrificing their own lives while I continued to run. And now their fight was over.
14
Saturday, February 8, 2155.
The Astor family was now settled safely in our home again and I had a brand new alarm system installed and a new bodyguard hired to watch over the house, paid for by the company.
We had our first family discussion of where we were going for vacation. I was nervous about it, after my most recent ordeal and what we were facing but family life shouldn't come to a complete halt, even in the face of a coming alien invasion.
So this time, we'd take another, proper, family vacation. And this time, my family wouldn't hate me and I wouldn't think that I was dragging them along just to placate them. We were a happy family again. Where we were planning to go was still the topic of conversation each day.
Mission: Blackguard Conspiracy Page 15
