New Neighbors

Chapter 28

Sally was still upset when she, and Linda, returned to the base. The Russians had been even more self-serving than the US, Japan and China were just as bad. The fact that they had caught agents was bad enough, but the non-caring attitude of the major nations had been insulting. Of all the agents they had captured only a very few had expressed any desire to return to Earth, after finding out that their families were welcome to join them. Sally and Linda had also recruited quite a few more people, mostly young college students who were in the upper 10% of their classes.

Sally was awaken the next morning by a message from the President wanting to know why all of the agents had not been returned and why the families of those missing had disappeared? Sally sent a "written" reply stating that those who elected to remain had requested that their families join them in their new adventure and life. Sally decided that to alleviate any further complaints to send the same message to each of the heads of state in all the countries that spies had been found. She also forwarded the messages to Cmdr Thomas so he would be aware of what was going on back on Earth and how she was dealing with the situations.

Since she was awake now she decided to go ahead and get started with the duties she had been neglecting while on Earth. As far as she knew Amy had not started the assault on the Empire or the Iberians yet. That meant that there still could be an attack on this system at any time, it was doubtful that the enemy would attack much once their home worlds were under attack. Of course the same could be said about this system, if the enemy launched an all out attack it would cause much hardship for the others out of the system as they would be worried about what was happening at home.

The first thing on her agenda was the commissioning of a new ship that had some of the abandoned updates applied. It was a two-seater and in addition to the usual equipment it had an experimental weapons pod that could serve as a bomb if needed to attack ground troops. It was just a fraction bigger than the standard two-person fighter but if everything worked as advertised it would be twice as fast and three times as deadly!

Sally had a very busy day. After the commissioning ceremony she had done a review of the newest recruits, caught up on her reports to Nate, looked over the patrol reports, and finally after 14 hours she had a chance to catch up on her personal correspondence to her brother and friends. Now it was time for her to try and enjoy a couple of hours of "Me" time.

MARS BASE

Nate and Cindy had just sat down to dinner when someone asked for permission to enter. Nate gave permission and a young girl entered the apartment. "May I help you?" asked Nate.

"Cmdr., This is my new android form. I wanted you and Cindy to see it first. Cindy had given me permission to have this made so I could be more mobile." Marcie said in way of introduction.

Nate was only slightly surprised, he had been informed when the construction was started, but had not said anything so as to allow Cindy and Marcie to surprise him. Marcie looked to be about 30 years old, Nate had assumed that she would take a younger form, but he had no complaints on what he saw. Cindy was surprised that Marcie had taken an older form; she had hoped that Marcie would choose to look about her own age. Sally and Nate were both surprised that Marcie was wearing the rank of Lt. Cmdr. But she quickly explained that AL had passed the instructions from Amy that the androids wear command rank and she didn't think it would be a good idea to wear full Cmdr rank, the same as Nate. Cindy asked Marcie to have a seat and talk with them while they finished eating. Marcie declined saying that they needed some quiet time together, besides she was still getting used to the android form and just wanted to get their opinion. Before she left, Marcie said she would report to Nate in the morning officially for her assignment.

ALPHA SECTOR

John was exhausted, he had been "talking" with the reptilian leader, Nightwalker, and Cmdr. Jones all day. The discussion had started with the reptilians wanting to trade more ore for food and equipment. It then turned to talking about ways to include the reptilians in the normal goings on in the Alpha system. The reptilians wanted to know if they could start a processing plant for the ore they mined. Nightwalker and Jones had thought that might not be a bad idea, it would give more of the reptilians something to do since they were not much for farming.

John decided to take a look at some more of the abandon upgrade ideas to see what they might be able to use when someone rang his doorbell. Opening the door John was surprised to see a young woman who looked very much like one of the girls he had a crush on before all this started back on Earth.

"Hello John, I'm Alexia. This is my new android form, or will be if you give permission for its construction. All of the other major AIs have taken android form and I thought it would be nice to be able to work amongst the people also." Alexia said.

John was stunned. "I assume that this is just a hologram of what you want since you asked for permission to have it constructed. But I have a question, where did you get the idea for this? You look like someone I knew back on Earth." John replied, motioning Alexia to enter.

Alexia explained that she got the form from an old scan done back when John and the original crew had first found AL. That the image obtained was very strong and she thought that John might like it. John said he appreciated the gesture but that seeing that all the time would be distracting. He suggested that Alexia come up with her own look, something that wasn't from a distant memory, but something original. Alexia agreed and the hologram vanished.

A short time later Alexia informed John that Amy had requested a conference with him, Jones, Nightwalker, Cmdr Thomas, and Sally for the next day. Amy wanted an update on what was happening in each of the sectors, and wanted to update them as to the time line for the assault on the Empire and the Iberians.