New Neighbors

Chapter 25

Mars

Nate read over the report that Sally had sent on her attacker and was surprised that he was allowed to join. But that was Sally's decision and they could always use more men. Cindy had given him a brief outline as to what Sally had told her and he thought Sally may have just been right in her actions and speech. That speech would definitely shake things up back on Earth; it would give the governments something to think about. He drafted a reply to Sally's report and told her to be sure she had backup if she was going to do recruiting on Earth as she had suggested. He added that she needed someone like Sam to go with her, but Sam was in the Organo system with Amy. Nate had just sent his reply when the alert sounded.

The drones had detected an incoming group of ships that did not have the proper IFF codes. The group was composed of about ten ships, one of which was definitely reptilian. His picket ships were already enroute to the area, which was all the way across the system on the opposite side of the sun from Mars. There was no sign of activity in his area of space. Since Earth, and the Moon, were closer to the area he sent an alert to Sally to be prepared for trouble. Cmdr Thomas had the forces on Mars stand down for now, but left the alert level at higher than usual.

MOON base Charlie

Sally was waiting for something from Cmdr Thomas to indicate whether or not he would agree with her plan to go to Earth herself. She had already asked that the most capable female Marine closest to her own age be assigned as her bodyguard. Sally had also made sure that the closest Earth base to the area she wanted to visit first would have two stealth fighters in the area where she was going to be. Their response time was to be 30 seconds or less at all times. She would be in normal Earth attire, except for the subcutaneous transmitter implant, as would her "friend". The plan was for Sally and Linda, the Marine, to go to the area around LA first and interact with the youth there. She wanted to get a feel as to the general attitude of the people towards her and her friends.

Sally had just finished picking out her clothes when the first message came in from Nate. She had not even read it through when the Alert message came in. The first thing Sally did after reading the alert was to have the bases come to full alert and prepare for battle. The trip to Earth would have to wait. She also, unnecessarily, sent the alert to the centers on Earth, at least to the AIs of each, and the troops stationed there. As an afterthought, she sent a message to the US, Russia, and UN about the incoming ships and told them that she would let them know if things got rough. She had the Comm. center send a message to all leave personnel to report to the closest base and stand-by for orders. 

The first picket ship to arrive was one of the older PDF destroyers that had been upgraded. This ship was cloaked and approaching the area at minimal speed, so as not to show any type of profile - besides there were too many ships to take on single-handed.

From PS65 - All ships and all stations. PS65 contact. Group composed of five, repeat five, Destroyer class ships in arrow formation. Followed by large spherical ship approximately 2 km in diameter. Flanked by two Cruiser class ships. Last ship unknown class appears to be twice, repeat 2Xs, the size of standard Cruiser class. No jump points detected. Current course is directly towards the second planet not Earth. Standing by for support and orders.

Sally and Thomas both were thinking about this report when a second report came in

PS104 Contact. Confirm PS65 report as to number and designation of incoming ships. First destroyer should contact defense probe in 10 minutes at current course and speed. IFF negative at this time. Will try and get behind trailing ship before attacking.

CU6 On station. AI reports that signal traffic not Iberian or reptilian standard. Launching fighters to hold at 100km inside sensor ring. Readying missiles. Suggest Alert level 4 for assets in this sector.

PS104 First ship contact with defensive ring ship destroyed. Incoming ships not, repeat not, evading or defending. Request permission to hail.

Mars Base Command Hold fire. CU6 hail incoming ships to determine intent. All other assets hold fire Alert level 4.

CU6 to Mars Base  Contact made. Response not Iberian or reptilian. All incoming ships appear to be under AI control only. All remaining ships have halted, turned on all lights and sphere's docking bay opening. Recommend caution but suggest single shuttle to land. Awaiting instructions.

Sally and Thomas conferred with each other and agreed to send a single shuttle to the sphere's docking bay, accompanied by two fighters. It was a short time later when CU6 made contact and reported that sphere was a mining ship with approximately 500 workers in stasis. The Captain of the last ship was being revived by that ship's AI. Sally and Thomas both lowered the alert level for their areas to level 2.

All but one of the destroyers had been either killed on disabled. The AI on the remaining destroyer had initiated contact with the AI of CU6 and surrendered. The AI of the last ship had reported that it's captain would be available in about 30 minutes to meet with a representative of the fleet. It was an hour later when the captain of CU6 called to report that in fact these ships had left their port headed to rescue a stranded ship and to start mining operations in this system about 500 years ago. The captain was not aware that the ships had been sabotaged and lost in space for 500 years. The AIs had only recently been able to do enough repairs to correct their course after losing the beacon they were to home in on. The ship they were looking for had been captained by a Captain Tuvok. CU6 requested further instructions and reported that the stasis chambers were operating minimally and might fail at any time.

Thomas agreed to send a transport ship to the location with maintenance personnel and medics. The two picket ships and the cruiser were to remain there until the transport arrived then CU6 would escort the remaining ships to Mars Base. On Mars Marcie had noted the name of the lost captain and immediately notified AL of this incident so he could relay the info to Amy.

Alpha System

John had had a restless night the voices kept coming back, and some woman had a real busy and loud night. John met Cmdr Jones, Nightwalker, and Mary for breakfast and the morning report on activities during the night. The only thing that had happened was that a reptilian being held on the base had become aggressive and agitated during the night and had to be sedated. John asked if he could have a closer look at the reptilian prisoner as the only one he had seen was dead. Jones took John to see the prisoner before it was transferred to the reptilian holding area.

As soon as John got close to the cell he could hear the same primitive thoughts he had heard the day before. John tried an experiment in that he opened his mind to that of the reptilian. After a few minutes he asked Jones when the last time the reptilian was fed; from what he was able to understand the beast was starving. and had an injury to it's right "arm". John explained all this to Jones who looked very surprised at this news. Come to find out no one had tried to feed the beast. Jones told John this as he ordered some food for the "lizard man". John suggested raw meat, so that was what Jones ordered. Once the meat arrived, John took the meat to the cell himself, the whole time sending quieting and calming thoughts towards the reptile. As soon as John got in front of the cell the lizard got excited but did not lunge at John. John switched his thoughts to one word "Friend" as he carefully placed the meat in the cell. As soon as John was back away from the cell the lizard grabbed the meat and practically swallowed it in one bite. John suddenly sensed new thoughts, "more, friend, hurt" coming from the lizard. John gave the being more meat and once again it swallowed it quickly. Jones was amazed at what he was seeing.

"Cmdr, I want to try something else. Get me a hand-held auto-doc and a couple of calm guards with stun guns, and a little more meat please." John said very quietly and as calmly as he could.

Once the items, and the guards, were there John once again approached the cell with meat. The lizard man seemed quieter, he just stood there as the cell door was opened slowly and carefully. Leaving the door open John entered the cell, sending the thoughts "food, friend, help". John carefully handed the meat to the lizard man who took it just as carefully and started to chew on it. Then John pointed towards the limb that he had sensed was injured and held out his hand again. John was able to slowly reach out and touch the injured limb, then carefully pass the auto-doc over it. The scan showed a minor break in one of the bones and indicated that it could heal that easily. John slowly passed the device over the limb again and let it heal the break. The thoughts coming from the lizard man were relief and "friend help". Then everyone was surprised when the lizard man spoke one word with difficulty "Friend" and pointed at John.

"Can you understand what I am saying?" John asked the lizard man.

"Understand, friend" was the halting reply.

John held out his hand again and said "come with me" both verbally and mentally. The lizard man followed John out of the cell quietly and peacefully, until it saw the guards. It didn't rush the guards but did jump in front of John so as to stand between John and the guards, in a protective manner. John, without really thinking, mentally shouted "DON'T!", both the guards and the lizard seemed to freeze right where they were. Jones, as well as everyone else, just stared. Several buildings away an upset female lizard guarding her nest was just about to attack a settler but stopped suddenly, as did the settler who was readying his weapon.

"Everyone be still and do not do anything. I think we may have a breakthrough here." John said quietly, and with not a little excitement in his voice. Once everyone had relaxed a little John once again started leading the lizard man from the cell area and outside the building. The sight of the lizard man walking behind John caused quiet a stir once they were outside. It was all John could do to broadcast calm thoughts to everyone around. As soon as they got in the sunlight the lizard man stopped and just stood there with his eyes closed. John could hear the word "warmth" coming from the lizard and stood still also. Jones approached John very carefully, being very wary of the reaction of the creature.

"Now what?" Jones asked.

"I'm not sure. But we need to take advantage of this. I think we might be able to gain an advantage over the rest of the reptilians if 'Sleezy' here can get the attention of the head fellow in the reptilian compound." John replied.

"'Sleezy'? Who is that?" Jones asked.

"That is as close as I can come to pronouncing his name." John said pointing at the lizard man. With that he once again started leading Sleezy towards a shuttle that Jones had waiting to transport the reptilian to the compound.

The flight to the reptilian compound was uneventful once John explained what was happening to Sleezy, that he was being taken to be with his comrades. Once they were at the compound, John had Sleezy to walk out first after explaining that John didn't want any of the residents to attack him. Sleezy seemed to understand and as soon as he was outside the shuttle he made a loud sound and assumed what appeared to be a defensive stance protecting John from the approaching reptilians. John asked the guards to remain inside the shuttle while he stood just outside in plain sight. A group of about ten reptilians approached and a conversation ensued in their native language. One of the new arrivals tried to get to John but Sleezy just knocked him back rather vigorously. Sleezy pointed to John and said something to the others that didn't sit too well with them. Then Sleezy picked John up and carried him back into the shuttle, and pointed to one of the weapons. Sleezy then said "protect friend" and waited quietly. When Jones shook his head no, Sleezy turned around and started back out. When John tried to follow he was stopped by a large hand on his chest and Sleezy shook his head no. They all watched as Sleezy beat the stuffing out of the biggest lizard outside and took a tree limb away from him and turned on the rest of the reptilians. After loudly vocalizing something to them, one of them left in a run; the rest just kind of squatted down at Sleezy's feet. Sleezy looked back at John and held out his arm. John had finally gotten the knack of understanding Sleezy's thoughts enough to understand "Captain come see friend" in the guttural language of the reptilians.

It was about an hour before a large group returned, with one of the biggest lizards John had ever seen in the lead. The group stopped about 20 yards from the shuttle and a small lizard man ran up to Sleezy and started talking to him. John was able follow along with the conversation, just barely. John explained that the Captain wanted to talk but didn't want to risk being captured again or shot. John then told Jones he was going to try something and to be prepared for possible trouble. John asked Sleezy what the captain's name was, Sleezy asked the runner then and John picked up on that. John told Sleezy to tell the runner to return to the captain and ask him to come forward and meet them halfway, alone and unarmed. The two of them would do the same. The message was delivered and the "boss" came forward slowly, John and Sleezy did the same.

When the three of them were about 50 feet apart, John held up his hand towards the "boss" and stopped. Working through Sleezy, John told the "boss" that he was there to see if the captain, or any of his men needed anything like medical help, more food, or such. John was surprised when the captain spoke slowly.

"Human, what trick is this? You turn my sergeant against me? I hear you in my head like the others before you." the captain said.

"Unlike the others before me I mean you no harm. I will not try to make you do things that you shouldn't or don't want to do. If you will allow it, I will have my superior join us and maybe we can help each other and get you and your men back to your homes." John said both verbally and mentally.

"I will meet with him. If you tell the truth then why do you speak in my head?" the captain replied.

John turned and asked Cmdr Jones to join them, carefully. Then John did the best he could to explain that they were not aware that the captain, or his men understood the language of humans. The captain seemed satisfied with this answer. After Jones had arrived John did the introductions and to the surprise of both the guards and the lizard men, the four of them sat down on the ground together. After about an hour the captain and Jones nodded to each other and Jones and John returned to the shuttle while Sleezy and the captain returned to their own men.

As soon as the shuttle lifted off, Jones called his base and requested that large quantity of raw meat be sent to a specific spot in the compound. Jones and John talk all the way back to base. It seemed that they had reached an agreement with the reptilian captain and had gained much insight into what had happened to the reptilian race at the hands of the Iberians and SuLak's. This information would be passed on to Amy.

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