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  “It better be,” came a flat reply, “because this is not how things work. I call you because I am the one who makes things happen, not the other way around.”

  Bureaucrats, Mark thought with a role of his eyes. “Oh have it your way then, Terrance. If you would be so gracious as to call me back, I will impart knowledge upon you that will literally make you soil yourself.” CLICK.

  Mark despised playing these little head games with Terrance, but found they were the only way to effectively get the man’s attention and reinforce the fact that Terrance was nothing without Mark. Another moment passed and his phone finally rang. He waited for the third tone before answering just to make his point all the more obvious. “Yes, Terrance, how may I be of service?”

  “Cut the games. If you have information you think I need; let’s have it,” Terrance demanded.

  Mark took the next ten minutes informing his boss about recent events: the discovered Pyramid and Sphinx chambers, the tunnel, the gravity weapon, the aliens, their Nexus device, and the fact that two archeologists knew about all of it.

  “Do you need a moment to change your shorts?” Mark politely asked.

  “I’m starting to think I should wear adult diapers when talking with you,” Terrance finally managed to spit out. “Basically you’re telling me your absolute worst fears about an alien presence on Earth are now realized. You have thoroughly failed to manage or contain the threat and now our entire existence as a civilization stands on the brink thanks to this gravity weapon of theirs.”

  “You are such a pessimist; I’m actually rather encouraged,” Mark jabbed back. “I finally know what I’m dealing with, and at least for now, I have an effective counter measure.”

  “How do you figure that? Are you still on friendly terms with the Greek god Atlas? Do you think he can add holding the moon up as well as carrying Earth on his back?” Terrance sardonically asked.

  Mark failed to contain a laugh, but quickly regained his composure. “I’ve found the gods to be a little finicky lately. I prefer relying on the alien’s attachment to the twenty million lives held inside that Nexus device of theirs. If they do pull the trigger on that doomsday device, they also destroy themselves and the Nexus. It has to be a measure of last resort for them.”

  “Well that certainly makes me feel safe,” Terrance said with obvious sarcasm. “Why are you calling me again?”

  “You called me,” Mark quickly corrected picturing Terrance turning bright red and drawing his pistol to shoot an already bullet riddled picture of Mark mounted on his office wall. A silent couple of seconds let Mark know the time for playing head games had passed. “We know who and where they are now, at least three of them anyway. We need to lock down the Giza plateau and lay siege to the tunnel entrance so they can’t get out once their Nexus device regenerates them. Then we just need to get permission from the Egyptian government to blow their national treasures off the face of the planet so the alien gravity machine no longer functions.”

  “Oh is that all?” Terrance responded with disbelief draped all over the four little words.

  “Like you said earlier, Terrance, you are the one who makes things happen. Now is your time to shine,” Mark continued. “Right now all we have are a dozen Navy SEALs and two Humvees guarding the exit point. We’re going to need more. You have to call up every NSA asset within a ten hour travel radius and get them here immediately. That way Frank can lock this place down with as low a profile as possible.”

  “Frank? Why aren’t you going to command the situation?” Terrance asked. “Is there something more important for you to do at this moment?”

  Mark knew he had to sell his intentions just right. In the NSA your mission came first over everything else, even family. “When Frank gets done making his deposit at the safe house, he will take control of the situation here. I need to return stateside and pay my brother a visit in that psychiatric ward where he works.”

  Terrance immediately pounced on the opportunity to land a barb. “If you need time off just say so, you don’t need to have yourself committed.”

  “Jeff is apparently being held captive by the leader of this alien presence here on Earth,” Mark answered in a matter of fact tone. “It seems a man posing as a patient named Hastelloy is using my brother to get my attention. He wants to have a little chat with me, so I’m going to oblige him.”

  “Sounds to me like you’re abandoning your post to rescue your brother from a potential mad man,” Terrance countered. “We have assets in place there who can handle things if they turn ugly.”

  “They went to the trouble of bringing me back from the dead with that Nexus device for the express purpose of talking with this Hastelloy character,” Mark insisted. “Whatever happens here, Frank can handle it. I need to go have that conversation, or at the very least kill the man. That way we will have three of them trapped inside the Sphinx chamber instead of just two.”

  A few contemplative moments passed without a sound. “Fine. Wait for the site to be secured and then you may pay this alien leader a visit. In the meantime let me get things happening, but no promises on permission from the Egyptians to blow up the Pyramid.”

  “It may come down to us not having a choice,” Mark cautioned before the other end of the line hung up.

  **********

  On board the USS Ronald Regan a command bulletin came into the hands of the carrier group admiral by his first officer.

  “Looks like we’re being ordered to the Mediterranean off the coast of Egypt,” the subordinate said while waiting for the admiral to finish reviewing the orders. “Another exercise?”

  “I don’t think so,” the admiral eventually responded. “They don’t usually pull the only carrier group in the Persian Gulf away for exercises; they bring in another. Plus four B2 bombers have already left Whitman. At two billion dollars a pop they don’t send those things halfway around the world without a reason. While we relocate, we need to send up a second AWAC and constantly have one sitting on standby to coordinate all the aircraft that will be buzzing around this region a few hours from now.”

  Chapter 5: Long Range Planning

  Kuanti did not need to see the central gathering chamber to know it was fully occupied with young Alpha pups eager to learn their daily history lessons from him. He could sense their presence. He felt their individual moods and could hear their words, but that was all. As a relic he could not smell their individual scents, or feel the touch of an embrace from his great, great grandchildren. He dearly missed the sensations of his physical form, but alas, the physical body was a temporary tool granted by Mother Nature and taken away again at her leisure.

  The vibrant energy of youth that filled the large room along with the soft chatter of individual conversations brought Kuanti’s attention back to the moment. He had a job to do.

  “Silence,” Kuanti ordered in an expectant tone. The din of chaotic noise immediately diminished and was replaced by an attentive silence from four hundred youth ranging from five to fifteen years of age. “Take your seats.”

  “Yes, Founder,” came a crisp chorus of voices followed by the Alpha youth obediently sitting on the cave room floor. The chamber was well lit with electric lights scattered along the twenty foot high ceiling. Kuanti occupied the place of honor at the head of the room floating atop a stone altar.

  When the rustle of movement quieted once more Kuanti asked, “What is our mission?”

  In unison four hundred voices replied, “We are the Alpha race. My enemy is the Novi. Their greed and aggression knows no end. For the sake of our people, the Novi must be destroyed. All that I am I dedicate to the annihilation of this enemy. I am willing and ready to give up my life for this cause.”

  “Covax, how did we first meet the Novi?” Kuanti asked one of his newest pupils.

  “The aggressors landed on our planet claiming their ship had nowhere else to go. They took advantage of our hospitality to steal our resources and spy on our superior technology.”


  “How long did it take us to expel those spies from our planet?” Kuanti asked.

  “Fifty years,” every student, even the young ones, responded.

  “Noren, what lesson did our forefathers learn from that time of occupation?”

  “The Alpha race could no longer remain on our own planet,” his brightest student recited. “The Novi aggressors were conquering new territories every day and the galaxy’s sentient races needed the protection of the Alpha race.”

  “How long did we prepare for the conflict before initiating hostilities with the Novi?” Kuanti asked of Noren.

  “Ten generations,” came a proud response.

  Kuanti lit up the chamber with his pride. “Very good. Ten generations of our Alpha ancestors labored and toiled and paid their efforts forward for the greater good of our race. The noble efforts of the Greatest Generations allowed the Alpha to beat back the Novi aggressors. Now, all of you find yourselves in the same situation.”

  “We are stuck on this barren planet,” Kuanti went on. “Look around you. This chamber, the surrounding network of caves and constructed tunnels in the mountainside that provides a contained and habitable environment for you to live, were built by your ancestors. We paid it forward so that some day we will be able to communicate with the Alpha home world, or construct a craft to take us home.”

  “You are the inheritors and stewards of the efforts of every generation that has preceded your existence.” For dramatic effect Kuanti let his last statement reverberate throughout the chamber for several seconds. Eventually an inquisitive thought from the student body caught his attention. “Yes, young Covax, you have a question.”

  “Founder, what are you?” came the young pup’s shy voice.

  “I am the life force of Kuanti, the Founding Leader of this colony,” he boomed. The inner glow of his flowing life force hovering inches above the stone altar tripled in intensity at the pride he took in his revered title. “I labored all my life for this colony. Mother Nature reclaimed my body three hundred years ago. Now I serve your current leader as a guiding light to achieve the ultimate goal of returning every Alpha warrior and relic of warriors past on this planet to the home world.”

  “But how will we ever be able to do that?” young Covax innocently asked.

  The negative tone of the question did not sit well with Kuanti and a frustrated shudder rippled up his flowing relic. “By paying attention in school, learning your lessons well and applying them to strengthen our industrial complex so we can advance and finally construct a communicator capable of reaching home.”

  “But why is it taking so long,” Covax pressed further. “We had the technology once, why not now?”

  “You are a curious one aren’t you?” Kuanti commended. “The reasoning is threefold. First, the main computer memory core was on the other half of the ship which crash landed on the third planet in this solar system with Captain Goron. The only knowledge we had was in the heads of the original crew and our ability to teach the next generation.”

  “Second, we had to build a self-sustaining colony with a habitable environment, renewable power supply, and stable food source before focusing on technological redevelopment.”

  “Finally, the tools and ability to extract and process advanced building materials, power cells and complex metallurgy takes generations to develop. No one even knows how to build a flashtrans communicator anymore, but we know the steps we need to take to get there, so we progress. Generation after generation we move toward that technological goal we know is out there, but is for the moment beyond our ability to achieve.”

  “Let me ask you a question then, young Covax. What can you do for the greater good of the colony?”

  “Learn my lessons, advance our progress and then pass that knowledge on to the next generation when I, too, become a relic,” the youth obediently answered.

  “Well said,” Kuanti commended, “now get to it.”

  With his dismissing words, the chamber emptied quickly as the children headed to their respective grade level classrooms for specific instruction from other relics who served as instructors. He did sense a presence remaining in the chamber, however.

  “How nice of you to take time away from your duties as administrator of my colony to consult with your Founding Leader,” Kuanti admonished softly. “How do things progress, Quin?”

  The old and frail figure of Quin hobbled his way to stand in front of the altar while leaning on a cane for extra support. In the old days this frail Leader would have been put down by a leadership challenge decades ago, but times were different now. Knowledge and planning abilities were revered far more than a set of strong muscles and the ability to use them in a physical confrontation.

  “We had a breakthrough this morning,” Quin reported. “We were able to hook the power leads from the broadcast tower to the central fusion reactor without melting them. It still can’t handle the amount of power transfer we need to transmit a Flashtrans signal, but it is a considerable leap forward.”

  “Excellent,” Kuanti exclaimed. “The third and fourth planets will move within forty million miles of each other in just a few more weeks. I was hoping we would have good news to report to Captain Goron. Otherwise it would be another two months of him insulting our intellect and efforts before we move out of contact range with his relic.”

  “What a whimsical ability an Alpha life force has,” Quin admired in between a coughing fit that spoke volumes of the man’s ailing health. “You are able to communicate and collaborate freely with any relic within millions of miles.”

  “Yes, and I fear you may be joining us in that fellowship before too long,” Kuanti cautioned. “Don’t be too eager to shed your physical form. While existing in the collective is a unique experience, it pales in comparison to the sensations of a physical body.”

  Chapter 6: Darkness Comes to Us All

  A knock at Dr. Holmes’ office door gave way to Hastelloy entering the room closely escorted by a brawny orderly named Terry. Jeffrey fought past the dangers his brother mentioned, and the disturbing imagery of his dream the night before, to greet his patient with a stiff handshake. “Good morning.”

  Hastelloy’s eyes were busy giving the room a once over as he responded, “And to you. Two sessions in two days? Can’t say I’m not getting my money’s worth,” he concluded as his eyes came back to meet Jeffrey’s. “Nice tie.”

  Dang it.

  Questions Tara may have had about him spending the night in his office Jeffrey could avoid, Hastelloy’s he could not. The patient was far too intelligent and self-aware to let it go. As a principle, Jeffrey believed in being open and honest with his patients, but not this time. He was just trying to fill time while waiting for Mark to arrive and clear this matter up.

  “A little domestic dispute at home I’m afraid,” Jeffrey sighed and then ushered Hastelloy to his chair while dismissing Terry with a nod. He then took a seat for himself in the other chair nestled around a coffee table opposite the sofa. “Bad for me, but good for you since it gives us another opportunity to chat.”

  Hastelloy looked genuinely concerned. “You and I have certainly been spending a lot of time together this last week. I hope the situation within your family has nothing to do with me.”

  Dr. Holmes didn’t feel like discussing the profound disturbance caused by Hastelloy. Instead he got out his pen and paper and sat ready to take notes once more. “Yesterday you finished with your subordinate, Valnor, ascending to the throne of the Roman Empire as Caesar Augustus; no small feat. Can you continue from there? What happened next to you and your stranded crew?”

  Hastelloy’s eyes snapped wide open in surprise at the question. “What happened? Prosperity. The Roman Empire served as a guiding light for the world to follow for nearly a thousand years. All my crew and I needed to do was stand aside and make sure nothing interfered.”

  “A thousand years is a long time,” Jeffrey marveled. “You must have done a stellar job.”

  �
�Considering the Alpha threat on this planet was reduced to a formless relic holding Goron’s life force, the task was not terribly difficult. Yet, either from my own incompetence or Goron’s brilliance, he still found a way to completely unravel the marvelous work we achieved.”

  “Oh this should be good,” Jeffrey prompted, thankful to be pondering events of the past rather than worrying about the danger Hastelloy supposedly posed in the present.

  **********

  “Why, oh why, do I listen to your council,” Alaric hollered at the wooden chest holding the sacred remains of his Gothic lineage. “We were prospering as a people up north, why did we need to come south and provoke the Romans?”

  “Correction, you managed to get by up north, but even that meager existence was being threatened by the Huns coming West from greater Asia,” a haunting voice that seemed to emanate from every corner of the small tent replied.

  Alaric recalled the first time he heard the voices of his ancestors speak to him. He fell to his knees and buried his face in the dirt in reverence. With this latest defeat, the mystique of their presence had tarnished to the point that Alaric now had the nerve to challenge their divine guidance.

  “We could have withstood a disorganized barbarian horde invading our fortified territory,” Alaric countered. “Instead you insisted I lead our people against an established empire that has not lost a battle, let alone a war, for nearly a thousand years.”

  “The campaign is but in its infancy,” the whimsical voice responded.

  Alaric turned away from the chest and shook his head defiantly, “The campaign is lying on its death bed. No sooner had we crossed the Danube River did we encounter a Roman army to stop us. A professional army unbeaten for generations arrayed against my collection of farmers and their families, and I decide to attack? What lunacy!”