by Paul Phipps
Lt. Commander Fuller/ Comm Mode: “Ratter, Johan has been following you and he clued me in about your waif. Tom-Cat is already moving for the changing rooms. Meet him there and he’ll get you out of there. Oh yes, tell little Rani there that he will berate and belittle the two of you in public. Tell her to play along and call him father.
The Bloodhound is releasing a Masked MARS unit to retrieve the three of you. Don’t bother heading back to the Bloodhound, I’ll meet you on the Huntress over England. So move it!”
Ratter/ Comm Mode: “Yes sir, I’m going to get her moving. We may be slow though she’s just skin and bones. Literally, I’m afraid.”
Ratter smiled at Rani and then leaned over and whispered in her ear. “I have friends coming to get us. If you want me to save you, then we are leaving now. Ok?”
With a quick nearly disbelieving nod, Rani got up carefully and the two of them walked holding hands to the changing rooms. Once the two of them were inside a changing room, Ratter told Rani to be quiet, in less than a minute later she came back with two Burqa’s she had stolen from pegs on the wall. Quickly they dressed and walked out into the bright sunlight.
Tom-Cat was indeed waiting for them and proceeded to talk loudly and berate the two of them for being slow and that he was very tempted to punish them both. With several onlookers approving of his tirade he ushered them into a taxi and gave a quick address across town.
With a dodge down an alley and a quick scan for watching eyes or instruments the three of them were lifted into the masked MARS unit. Private Edwards had them lifting for orbit immediately thereafter that.
* * *
TSN Huntress
Commander Delacort and Command Chief Cavendish came through the Trans-Portal at the same time into Ansel’s briefing room that he had taken over earlier in the day. They stopped and gave a wary glance at the young girl, well a walking skeleton of a girl anyway who was eating a meal at the table. She was accompanied by Lt. Commander Fuller and his two operative/apprentices code named Tom-Cat and Ratter.
Ansel and Admiral Webster were on the opposite side of the table watching her closely. With the entrance of the two ladies, Ansel got up from his chair and ushered them to the table.
“Captain Llewellyn will be here shortly with King William and the other English members to our “conspiracy’.” He told them with a grin, “In the meantime this is Rani, Ratter and Tom-Cat just rescued her from Indonesia and the tender mercies of the Mother and her ‘children’.”
Rani paused briefly from her eating to greet the two women and then continued to eat like she hadn’t eaten in days.
“Rani should really be in the Med-Center right now.” Lt. Commander Fuller stated, “But I felt that King William, President Richardson and Prime Minister Almarakh should also meet her. They will be joining us shortly to do so. And before you can ask, yes they are coming here in person.”
“Anything more on those Electrical signals that Ratter and Tom-Cat picked up at the pool?” Admiral Webster asked.
“Signal analysis indicates extremely powerful DC motors or possibly a single motor. From the strength it may have been a train or something similar. Since there aren’t any train tracks in that vicinity the logical thought is that it’s underground.
With that as a possible starting point I have the Bloodhound investigating the area. However there is a very real danger here as they will have to use some active emission sensors for this task.”
“What sort of danger Albert?” Sarah asked him, “Danger to your covert mission or danger to the Bloodhound and its crew?”
“Mostly to the covert nature I suppose, we are much more effective if the person or area under surveillance doesn’t know that they are of interest to us.”
There were understanding nods around the room at that. Then there was quiet with the only sounds being those made by Rani as she finished eating her meal.
* * *
Captain Llewellyn was near the end of the special tour for King William and his small entourage when he received the notification that everyone else was waiting on them in the conference room.
With a small smile, he directed the party toward the nearest Trans Portal and once through he had to stop and enjoy the looks on their faces as they saw President Richardson and his wife as well as the Israeli Prime Minister already at the table waiting for them.
The King of England in turn had half expected the other two national leaders and he acknowledged them both with a nod and a smile. His attention after that was totally on the small skeleton of a girl. He immediately went over to her chair and knelt down to ask if she was all right. The concern on his face was very evident at her apparent condition.
She in turn assured him that she was and that she would be getting better. He nodded in acceptance and went to the chair that had been set aside for him.
“Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for coming here today. Since the time that you received briefings about the Quarn what we knew at that time about them, we have discovered a few more things. First off, Rani here, no don’t get up dear,” Admiral Webster said looking at the girl kindly, “is from Indonesia. She was one of a number of people that the Quarn Mother has been feeding off of. According to her it’s only taken about two weeks of daily feedings for her to get into the condition you can see.
Diana please show us the recording Tom-Cat made of the feeding he witnessed.”
The extra-large swimming pool was nearly filled with men and young boys. There was swimming and water games being played. It was a very rapid process that took from beginning to end maybe three minutes. The extreme tiredness was evident on the faces and then there were expressions that look liked ecstasy. It took nearly fifteen minutes for the men to regain their energy back. For the boys it took almost twice as long and they too were showing the loss of body mass that Rani had.
“Without more extensive data all we can say is that it appears that human children don’t have the ‘hold’ or ‘grip’ on their body’s life force that an adult has. This then gives us at least a plausible reason why the ‘Mother Quarn’ prefers to feed on human children. It’s easier to do and maybe she gets a bigger bite out of her prey, so to say.”
After he was done there were a number of questions aimed at Rani about her experiences before going to the Ayesha Orphanage and while she was there.
“So what’s next?” Came the question from President Richardson.
“That’s a very, very good question, Mr. President.” Admiral Webster said in reflection. “The TSN is dedicated to Nurture and Protect the Human Race. This Quarn creature falls squarely in that set of orders.
Our problem here is not so much one of pure destruction of the Quarn as it is in the political ramifications. Too many politicians and their hangers-on have joined the ranks of the Quarn through their ability to parasitize humans. If we go on a wholesale binge of killing every one of the Quarn we know about or find later on, the various countries of the world will revolt and quite rightly too as they will perceive it and be driven on by the various purveyors of the news.
So how can we nurture the human race if we are perceived as being murderers in the first place?”
At that admission the various politicians looked at each other and gave various shrugs and grimaces. Finally Mrs. Richardson stood up and said:
“As a non-politician and a Politician’s wife, I can say this: If you are worried about the fall-out of your actions, you’ve already pretty much lost to the Quarn. I personally recommend you get the news media in line and then be straight forward about what you are doing and why. Then be prepared to prove it.” She looked around the room and said, “I would start here with Rani and your background information. Have it prepared and in the can, so to say and then release it as necessary.”
Ansel listened carefully and nodded as he followed her logic. “I like the way you think, Mrs. Richardson. Is there any way I can hire you as a consultant?” He finished up with a chuckle.
With a laugh she said
, “Well maybe we can arrange something along those lines when my husband no longer has the presidency hanging like a noose around his neck.”
“Seriously though, that is a very good suggestion Mrs. Richardson gave you Admiral Webster.” The Prime Minister of England said. The other politicians’ all nodded in agreement, which in itself was an amazing thing since they regularly disagreed over everything else.
* * *
Ansel arrived through the Trans Portal into the offices that FOX/CNN had set up on board the Huntress. After checking with Diana he headed over to a side room that Mary Roberts had set up as her office. After knocking and getting permission to come in he found her with her top people sharing a bottle of champagne. It looked like it had been a very good day for them.
“Commander Webster! Come in. Come in!” She called from her place of honor at the table inside. “What brings you down here at this hour? Didn’t you have enough television time today with the Beeb and SKYNews?”
“Yeah, I did Mary.” Ansel said somberly. He sat down at the table after John Sparks and Sean moved aside for him. His tone of voice penetrated their exuberance and all of them looked at Ansel questioningly.
Ansel looked at the champagne bottle, and with a bit of regret pushed it aside. “Mary, I need to ask you a question. Please do your best to answer it honestly for me, actually that goes for all of you.” He told everyone in the room.
“Ok Commander, you’ve got my full attention and yes, I’ll do my best to answer you honestly. You’ve been up front with me and with the network, so shoot, let’s hear it.”
“Ok, let me be blunt here, I have a story for you. It’s not just huge, it’s the sort of story that changes lives forever.”
“Go on…” Mary Roberts said into the sudden stillness of the room.
“What I want… Well no, I can’t say want… What I NEED to tell you is something that you will have to hold onto for a short time, probably less than a month but it might be more than that. The problem as I see it is that you and your network aren’t used to holding onto stories. You have too much competition and if you snooze you lose.” He looked at her and waited.
“Soooo… You need to tell us something. But you want us to keep it secret until the time is right to tell the story, correct?”
Ansel nodded in the affirmative.
“Why not tell us when the time is right for you then? That’s what everyone else does.” Mary stated plainly.
“That’s true Mary, everyone else does that. The Terran Space Navy isn’t everyone else though. And this story is too big to just drop it on you and expect that not only will you get it right but that you will have the background information necessary to get it correct.
Therefore the proper thing is to bring you in now, give you the information, let you figure out how best to tell the story when it breaks. And most of all, the right thing is to trust you.” Ansel looked her right in the eyes and waited.
Mary Roberts in turn was a bit intimidated, she suddenly wanted in on this story, whatever it was. But secrecy? That was a bit different, sure the networks and reporters kept secrets all of the time but until she knew what this one was, how did he know that she could keep it.
Ansel in turn just kept quiet and watched her eyes waiting for her answer. After some minutes she finally said, “I can do it, Ladies, Gentlemen and you too John,” at which point she got some laughter from the others, “if you can keep this quiet then you are on board. If you think you might have a problem with that, leave the room now.” In the silence that followed there were some quick glances amongst them and then a series of head nods.
Ansel accepted that as yes, “Ok then, please come with me.” And with that he headed for the Trans-Portal in the room next door. Once they were all through Ansel heard a slight gasp from behind him as the reporters recognized the men and women in the room.
After he introduced the FOX/CNN crew to the others Ansel began to speak, “Mary, I want to introduce you to Rani. Rani could you please come here?”
The reporters watched the skeletally thin girl get up carefully from her chair and come over to Ansel. “Rani, I am trying not to embarrass you, so please don’t think that. These people here are news reporters. They need to look at you so that when I tell them your story they understand bone deep that they are hearing the truth. Do you understand?”
Rani looked up at Ansel trustingly and said, “Yes Sir, what do you want me to do? Undress?”
“Yes Rani, at least as much as you can without feeling embarrassed. This is important both for you and for the other children.” Ansel told her softly and with feeling.
With a nod of understanding Rani pulled the robe like garment over her head and held out her arms to either side and turned around twice. There were gasps of anger and sorrow from all around the room at the living skeleton they saw. Then Ansel helped her put on the robe and turned to Sarah.
“Commander Delacort, Chief Cavendish, please escort Rani to the Med-Center and get her started on the road back to health. Please come back here when you are through there.” The two women saluted him and did as they were asked.
Ansel then indicated that the reporters were to take a seat at the table. He then began to speak. “The Terran Space Navy rescued Rani from an Orphanage in Indonesia today. I am afraid there are many more like her there.” He sighed loudly at that point, “It breaks my heart to say that we can’t go and rescue them all right now. Why we can’t is a very long story. So let me begin by having you watch the briefing I gave to King William here about what we are facing. To make it quicker on the rest of us I am going to have you do the briefing via our Virtual Reality system.”
Once they were equipped and their chairs had been reclined to a more comfortable position they received the briefing. Around twenty minutes later they began to stir and sit back up.
John Sparks was the first to speak. “Commander… I’m not sure where to begin, but I will say that when you say a story is huge, you’re not joking. Just the fact that the President-for-Life is still alive and pulling strings is big enough, but that he was the lead in an alien invasion of the Earth. And you have proof of that besides, well its mind boggling to say the least.”
“You’ve made your point with me too, Commander Webster.” Sean Davis added soberly. And one after the other the rest agreed. Mary Roberts came directly to the point then. “So what are you going to do about the Quarn?”
“We have a plan that we believe will end their attempt at conquering the Earth. But it relies on good timing to do so. And I must admit some very good luck too.
We’ve made some assumptions about the capabilities of the Quarn. Some of them we are very sure about and some of them we are simply just guessing at using historical data from other Earth Analogues.” Ansel told Sean.
“That’s good, but can you tell us your plan?”
“No, not right now. But when the time comes we will and no matter what occurs, success or failure in our mission, I can assure you that we did our utmost to protect the Human Race.
Tuesday, March 9, 2027
Admiral’s Staff Meeting
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, on the political front things are moving along nicely. We now have an Executive Order issued by President Richardson permitting a “working agreement” with the Departments of the Executive Branch. Our status is technically described as a Non-Governmental Organization. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
We have also received a very interesting proposal from a Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Leroy Jenkins to be precise. Mr. Jenkins operates a crop dusting service that covers much of the Midwest of the United States. As a self-described lifetime supporter of the Planetary Society he has come up with a proposal to use his private airport in the state of Nebraska as an official space port for the Terran Space Navy.
I’ve visited the facility and have talked to Mr. Jenkins about what he envisions. I found him well versed in his subject and I have decided that the Terran Space Navy will place a Gravit
y Elevator at his facility. We will also pay for widening the access road to the nearby Interstate and we will provide funds for the Advertising of the new Space Port.
He in turn will lengthen the runway so that it can support Air Liners and Cargo Carriers, he will also construct a terminal and additional storage buildings. I believe that he will have everything in place for us to start conducting operations sometime early next year.
Which segues nicely into the situation in Israel, Captain Johansson and the Johnny Reb have done a great job in fabricating an additional Garbage Recycling and Petroleum platform similar to our other four currently in operation. In addition though, this one is also producing fresh water fit for human consumption. Our friends the Israeli’s are pushing their plans for a set of pipelines to our facility. If things go as planned they will be fully functional in two months. There are also other aspects that I will leave to Captain Johansson to brief us more fully on.
