The Zeta Grey War: New Recruits

by D F Capps

  Andrews placed both hands on the podium. “No.”

  Whitcolm nodded. “What was the nature of the technology?”

  Andrews glanced around at the people in the chamber. “Twelve flight simulators were delivered to Russian President Yuri Pasternov as part of an agreement for our two countries to join forces against a very dangerous common enemy.”

  Whitcolm grinned. “You are indicating that Russia is no longer our enemy?” He turned to face the members of Congress.

  “I am.” Andrews stated.

  Whitcolm turned back to Andrews. “Then who is? China?”

  Andrews shook his head. “No. I have also shared the same technology with China. Both Russia and China are our allies. We are in this fight together.”

  Whitcolm feigned surprise. “Fight? A fight against whom?”

  Andrews glanced at the members of Congress again. They were all paying close attention to his answer.

  “Not a whom, a what. The night before Marine One was shot down I met with Chinese President Hua in China. On the way back, I was almost killed by this new enemy. Were it not for the skill and courage of a very dedicated pilot, I wouldn’t be here now.”

  Whitcolm moved closer to the podium. “And what is this so called new enemy?”

  This was the moment Andrews was waiting for: “It’s easier to show you.”

  Andrews turned to a side door and nodded. Franks opened the door while three soldiers carried in black body bags. The expression on Whitcolm’s face dropped, and he turned pale. The soldiers walked straight to the center of the room, unzipped the body bags, and dumped the dark gray bodies of three dead Zeta Grey aliens out onto the expensive carpet of the House floor. Whitcolm appeared horrified, as did Metzner. Several members of Congress turned and covered their mouths as they ran for the restrooms. A distinctly offensive odor permeated the room.

  “This race of extraterrestrial is known as the Zeta Grey. They have been visiting our solar system for all of our recorded history. They have taken a keen interest in us only since we developed nuclear weapons. They have conned us, manipulated our minds, invaded our planet, and our military system. There are approximately eighteen thousand of them currently on our planet, mostly in underground military facilities. They are a violent, ruthless, despicable race of alien clones. They use our people for genetic material and as a food supply. Most major governments of the world have contracts with these creatures, including us.”

  He watched the look of horror spread through the members of Congress.

  “We mistakenly believed we would receive very advanced technology in exchange for the lives of some of our people. In the past, our political leaders believed the sacrifice of some innocent souls was worth what we expected to receive in return.”

  Andrews leaned closer to the microphone and lowered his voice slightly.

  “I am here today to tell you that not only was that wrong, but we have been had. The Zeta Greys have no intention of delivering on their promise, ever. We have received nothing useful in return. Certainly nothing that justifies the lost lives of thousands of our citizens.”

  He paused for effect. “Yes, thousands.”

  As he let that sink in, he made eye contact with as many members as he could.

  “In the last year, the Zeta Greys have abducted over forty thousand people worldwide. In excess of ten thousand people per year are never seen again. Those who are returned have been physically abused, psychologically damaged, chipped, tracked, and controlled for the rest of their ruined lives.”

  He looked at Whitcolm, who was backing slowly away.

  “Make no mistake about it. We are at war. We have Russia and China at our side—humans fighting against the Zeta Greys. We have the technology to defeat them, but we have been able to build only a small percentage of the very advanced fighter craft and exotic weapons we need to do the job. Several of our major defense contractors have been corrupted by the influence of the Zeta Greys and the money that flows into their coffers.”

  He looked directly at Speaker Metzner. “That stops now. I have a list of over four thousand people who have or still are cooperating directly with the Zeta Greys. I also have a list of twelve thousand other people who have been corrupted by the Greys and are working indirectly with them. All of those people are now being arrested or at least detained.”

  Whitcolm slowly moved for the door. Andrews turned to face him. “Senator Whitcolm, congratulations. You made the short list. You are under arrest for treason against the United States and complicity in the deaths of more than four thousand of your fellow Americans.”

  The Secret Service quietly took Whitcolm into custody.

  “Speaker Metzner, you also made the list.”

  Secret Service agents put Metzner in handcuffs and led him out the door.

  “What I need from the rest of you, today, is an off-the-books authorization for one trillion dollars to expand the new United States Space Command so we can kick these stinking creatures off our planet. Similar measures are being introduced in Russia and China as we speak. I expect your authorization on my desk by the end of the day. And in case you’re wondering, I have more alien bodies where these three came from. It’s time for us to take our planet back.”

  Andrews turned and walked out the side door leaving the three dead Zeta Greys lying on the floor, thin green blood seeping into the carpet.

  * * *

  Representative George Elias of Missouri delivered the approved authorization bill to President Andrews at the White House later that afternoon. He was scanned for proper ID, weapons, and then brought down to the underground bunker.

  “So what happened after I left?” Andrews asked.

  Elias still looked somewhat shaken up by the experience.

  “The impeachment vote stopped—the whole thing was dropped. The biggest concern was what to do with the dead bodies. Several people came over to get a closer look, but mostly no one could stand the stench. They finally decided to move the bodies over to the Smithsonian.”

  Andrews nodded. “The discussion on the appropriation?”

  Elias shook his head. “There wasn’t much. Mostly everyone agreed that the expense was both necessary and reasonable. It passed both the House and the Senate by voice vote. I don’t remember hearing a single nay.”

  Andrews signed the appropriations bill, finalizing the process to make it official.

  “I’ve got to say,” Elias said. “I’d heard rumors about UFOs and aliens from a few friends, but I never even considered that they could be real. It just seemed too weird, you know?”

  Andrews sat back in his chair. “And now?”

  Elias shrugged. “You don’t have to show me more than once. You said they tried to kill you?”

  Andrews nodded. “Yes, they did.”

  Elias paused, apparently thinking things over. “They’re that dangerous?”

  Andrews stood. “More so than you can imagine.”

  Chapter 54

  Diane studied the new rules of engagement against the Zeta Greys. Now that they had a full squadron of twenty-four fighter craft, they could begin to project overwhelming force against a small group of saucers. With the significant losses the Zeta Greys were experiencing against Diane’s squadron, the saucers were fleeing rather than attacking them. She liked the new rules: They were winning.

  Rules, she thought. Her mind drifted back to the question cascade she had experienced with Charlie. In a telepathic society, everyone follows the rules. That was especially true for the Zetas. That’s why the jinking worked: It was random—it didn’t follow the rules. The Greys couldn’t adapt to something spontaneous. That was an Earth human quality—spontaneity. The telepathic civilizations considered Earth humans to be inferior because we couldn’t communicate mind-to-mind. But that also left us free to be spontaneous. That’s one thing we do that’s not a weakness; it’s a strength.

  She had received the information from Charlie in a few seconds, but it was taking her days to absorb
what the information meant. She was still connecting the dots, realizing the implications, and understanding the relationships between everything he shared with her.

  This whole thing isn’t as simple as I had imagined, she thought. Just like most of our human relationships: It’s complicated.

  * * *

  Diane had been watching a new pilot, Eric Thorensen, go through his first flights. He was good, she thought. We could use more like him. It didn’t take long for the squadron to nickname him Thor. With twenty-four craft in the squadron, Diane broke them up into four flight groups of six fighters each. She placed Thor in her flight group so she could see how he performed in combat.

  The scramble alarm sounded. “Saucer intrusion! Saucer intrusion!”

  She ran for the elevators and joined Ryan on their way up to the staging deck.

  “I thought the planetary shield was operating,” Ryan said. “How are they getting through?”

  Diane shrugged. “Maybe they’re not. We’ll have to hear what Hollis has to say when we get into our fighter craft.”

  They quickly changed into their flight suits and ran to their craft. As Ryan powered up the fighter and went through the preflight checklist, Diane listened for Hollis’s directions.

  “Four saucers have been located operating close to the ground. Coordinates are being sent to your displays. Flights alpha through delta are assigned to targets one through four respectively. Go get ’em people. Stay aware, and stay alive.”

  The targeting assignment appeared on Ryan’s screen “Okay. Our target is in Costa Rica, heading south. If we stay low and come up from behind it, our ETA is three minutes, thirty seconds.”

  She nudged the thruster control forward. “Roger that.”

  She guided her fighter craft up the access shaft and took her place on the front left of the flight deck. The red lights were flashing and the blast door was already rising as she arrived. The entire squadron was in place as the lights turned to solid green.

  Diane and the other five fighter craft in her flight group swung north, circled tight around the mountain with Peregrine Base carved inside, and headed south at fifty percent thrust. They quickly slipped through one mountain valley after another, using the landscape as natural cover, swinging southeast over Mexico and Central America. When they reached Costa Rica, she guided her flight out over the Pacific Ocean, staying close to the water. The saucer was now off the coast of Peru and gaining altitude.

  “Increase thrust to seventy percent and start firing at five miles from the target,” Diane ordered.

  “Effective range of our cannon is only three miles,” Ryan reminded her.

  Diane checked the other craft in her formation. Everyone was holding in tight.

  “We’re not trying to hit them—we’re just giving them a reason to run.”

  She smiled. Chasing was a lot safer than them shooting back.

  “Copy that,” Ryan answered.

  The six fighter craft moved in perfect synchronicity as they pulled up at the lone saucer above them.

  “Eighty percent thrust,” Diane ordered.

  The saucer bolted vertically before any cannon shots had been fired, racing into the upper atmosphere.

  “Jink to base, let me know when you have the target in range.”

  She checked the formation one more time.

  “Copy, Jink,” Peregrine Base replied. “Three seconds, two, one.”

  “Flight Alpha, break, break,” she ordered.

  The six fighter craft banked down toward the ground and decreased speed. Diane looked back at the saucer. A bright blue glowing light appeared in the sky around it followed by half a dozen lightning bolts striking the target. The saucer, carried by its momentum, arced up, and over, slowly beginning its long tumbling fall to the ocean below.

  “Jink to base. Target one is down. I confirm target one has been hit and killed. The shield is working.”

  She could hear the cheers from Peregrine Base over the radio.

  “Roger that Jink. Return to base.”

  She was about to issue the return command when Ryan interrupted, “Hold on. I show at least twenty bandits coming out of the Andes Mountains at high speed. ETA is twelve seconds.”

  It’s never clean or simple, is it, Diane thought.

  “Flight Alpha, engage!”

  The six fighter craft turned east and flew straight into the saucers.

  “More bandits coming in behind them. This is going to get messy!” Ryan shouted.

  She saw Thor make his first kill as she swung and dipped, shooting another saucer in the process. She smiled. He was going to do just fine. She focused on shooting two more saucers.

  “Thor is hit,” Ryan said. “He’s dropping.”

  Diane glanced at the falling fighter craft. Movement in her peripheral vision drew her attention. A large saucer, approximately a hundred feet in diameter, swooped in below them from the east. It slowed dramatically in front of Thor and projected an intense blue light onto his craft. Thor was no longer falling to the ocean below. He was being sucked up into the large saucer!

  The battle was chaotic and changing rapidly. Diane weaved and shot, hopping over one saucer and shooting another. When she managed to glance back at Thor, his craft was disappearing inside the large saucer backwards, with his cannons pointing away from the saucer. Nothing he could do, she realized. Just like her brother, Daniel.

  The fighting continued until the large saucer disappeared at high speed back into the mountains. As soon as it was gone, the remaining scout saucers broke off the attack, scattered and vanished into the distant mountains.

  “Let’s go get ‘em!” Buddha shouted.

  “Negative,” Diane said. “This was a trap. It still is. If we follow them into the mountains, we all die.”

  * * *

  Sean Wells pulled into the small parking area in front of the guest ranch on U.S. 60 in Datil, New Mexico. He was surprised they were still open, being the off season for tourists. He ordered the meatloaf special for dinner along with some peach pie for dessert. They obviously had rooms available and he was in the area where he was supposed to be, so he registered to stay for several nights. He just didn’t know how or why it was so important for him to be in this place in the middle of nowhere.

  * * *

  Rosaq watched from the deck in the side of a remote mountain near the border between Peru and Bolivia. The bright blue tractor beam moved the captured rogue fighter craft into the wide cave and placed it on the flat stone surface. The two occupants were unconscious. Workers cut the clear canopy from the craft and extracted the crew. Their flight suits and uniforms were removed and they were placed naked on examination tables. Tissue samples were taken and a physical exam completed.

  Earth humans, Rosaq thought. That answered the first question. This was not an off-world group of rogues stirring up trouble. This was the first phase of a rebellion.

  The human who had been in the front seat of the craft woke slowly. Rosaq leaned over the human and stared into his eyes, initiating neural engagement. He followed the optic nerve into the recesses of the brain and extracted all of the information about Peregrine Base, the planetary shield being put into place, and the technical specifications for the fighter craft.

  * * *

  When Diane and her squadron returned, Hollis and Theo were waiting for her.

  “What happened?” Hollis asked.

  She looked at the floor. “It was a trap, sir.” She looked up at him. “They sacrificed four saucers to draw us out.”

  Hollis looked surprised. “Do you think they knew about the planetary shield?”

  Diane shook her head. “I don’t think so, sir. The whole thing seems to have been set up for the sole purpose of capturing one of our craft with its crew.”

  Theo sighed. “How much did the crew know?”

  Hollis breathed out and closed his eyes momentarily. “Pretty much everything about Peregrine Base, its defenses, layout, and the fighter craft.”

/>   Theo nodded. “Then that’s what the Zetas know now. What about the location of Ceti Research?”

  Hollis shook his head. “The three of us are the only people here who know.”

  Theo relaxed a little.

  “So what’s going to happen to Thorensen and his RIO?” Diane asked.

  Theo glanced at the floor. “It’s not like there’s ever going to be a prisoner exchange. They’re probably already dead.”

  The pain from the loss of Daniel swelled in her chest with the addition of Eric Thorensen and his RIO. She tried to remember the name of his RIO, but it just wouldn’t come to her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to stifle the sobs pushing their way up. She turned away from Hollis and Theo as the tears flooded down her cheeks. Her breath came in jerks as she wept.

  Theo stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms gently around her, giving her a soft hug.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  * * *

  Hollis called the flight crew together and announced that their new flight suits had arrived and were ready for them in the conference room. As they entered, Dr. Theo Shugart stood at the front of the room.

  She looked at him, unable to smile from the loss of Thorensen. He gave her a concerned look.

  “Please take a seat. These are your new flight suits.” He held a suit in his right hand and a helmet in his left for them to see. The suit was a highly reflective chrome color, as was the helmet. “You’ll notice that each suit has a backpack built into it. On the side are the connections for the cooling system, oxygen, carbon dioxide removal, and communications—all combined into this master connector. Your fighter craft are being modified for the new suits as we speak and should be complete by tomorrow morning.”

  “That suit looks like something from a bad 1950s science fiction movie,” Ryan said.

  Theo chuckled. “We thought so, too, but it turned out to be the most efficient design. Infrared emissions are almost zero. The backpack has a dry ice core that will maintain temperature inside the suit for twenty minutes outside of the fighter craft. The cooling pack is primed by plugging into the fighter craft and putting your helmet on. Cooling is activated by unplugging with your helmet on. Remove the helmet and the backpack systems shut down.”