New Neighbors

Chapter 26

Organo System

Amy and Jake had finally decided to live in the same quarters. They were just waking up when AL called to say he had several messages for Amy. AL was told to bring them to Amy's quarters if they were important, else she would see to them later in her office. It was a few minutes later when AL rang the doorbell and was told to enter.

"Good morning Amy and Jake. These messages from Cmdr Thomas, Cmdr Jones, and Sally came in while you were sleeping. While they were not marked urgent I thought you should see them as soon as you awoke." AL said.

Sally

Hello Amy and Jake,

Just a short message to say that I miss you. We have had a small problem come up on Earth but I will take care of it. It seems that some people want to try and take over a couple of our centers to gain access to the technology they think is available. I have also been informed that there have been a couple of attempts at infiltrating one or two of the special troops we have stationed on Earth. Will check closer and let you know what I find.

Cmdr Thomas

Admiral Ward,

I know that Sally has already sent you a message about the small problem on Earth with the centers. I am enclosing a taped speech she made to the UN. I found her handling of the situation very appropriate and to the point. I therefore offer my recommendation that the stance put forward be continued. To give you a nutshell view of the solution Sally went to Earth, to the UN, and addressed them. She had her audio adjusted so as to sound like Ted. She basically told them in no uncertain terms that they needed to get their act together or be left to their own defense. I have approved the second part of her plan in that she will go to Earth, with appropriate escort, undercover and talk with some of the young people to try and increase recruitment. Please don't laugh too hard when you watch the video, I almost choked on my supper when I saw it.

Amy, Jake, and AL watched the video, twice. After seeing it, Jake's only comment was "way to go Sally". Amy, after she quit laughing, agreed and said that sometimes diplomacy didn't work you had to get someone's attention in a strong way, in order to make a point.

Cmdr Jones

All remains quiet here in the Alpha system. The new comm. setup that John brought back is great. I don't understand it but it really works well. Our AI has taken the name Alexia, after John objected to seeing himself as an avatar. Nightwalker has really turned this place around. There are very few problems that he can't handle, like the idiots that won't leave the native lizards alone and get bitten. I have started to expand the stasis complex as we keep getting more of those SuLak troublemakers here. The reptilian compound is basically quiet as long as we keep a show of presents. Nate sent me a copy of that speech that Sally made, boy did she hand it to the UN. Hope everything is going okay for you where you are. Good Luck.

"Well everything seems to be going okay back home at least." Jake said after they had read all the messages.

It was a couple of days later when AL came to Amy and told her that Sol was under a full alert, and that Marcie would keep him updated as to what was happening there. This news upset Amy and she asked AL how long it would take to get to Earth if the need arose. AL told her about a week. It was several hours later when AL gave Amy the latest update from Marcie about the Sol system. He also told Amy about the captain's claim to be searching for Captain Tuvok, this really got Amy's attention. As more information was relayed to AL via Marcie the details became clearer. Beside the 500 miners in stasis, there were only about 30 other humanoids left alive in the alien fleet. All of the remaining ships were AI controlled only as all crew had been killed by the sabotage. Hearing this, Amy had AL send a message to Marcie to be relayed to Thomas and Sally to keep the miners and all other personnel in stasis until the ships could be checked out completely by their people and AIs.

It was the next day when Thomas sent Amy a message about the situation and what had been found out.

Admiral,

We have had the ships checked by our people, the only problems we found was related to the sabotage. All remaining ships have surrendered to our AIs and have refused to take more than minimal orders from their crews. I have personally spoken with the Commanding officer of this fleet and he has asked to be allowed to join forces with us, he is rather upset someone would try and blow HIS ship up. We have 3 destroyers with damage, 2 cruisers without battle damage, 1 mining ship with 500 miners in stasis and no battle damage, and 1 maintenance ship with no battle damage. Space dock indicates destroyers ready in two weeks, cruisers ready in one week, mining ship no estimate due to size, and maintenance ship ready in one week. If we awaken crew, not miners, from stasis will need 50 bodies to crew maintenance ship, and full complement for other ships.

I would like to recommend that we accept the Commanding Officer's request to join. No evidence found of telepathy by special scans as directed by Marcie. AI records show no evidence of tampering found. Once again there was a SuLak involved. I await your instructions.

After reading this report, Amy asked that Ted, Kate, and Jake join her and ex-councilman Tuvok for a meeting to discuss this development. Once everyone was present she had them each read the message and give their opinions.  Amy had already checked the computer database for the PDF and not found any reference to this "rescue mission". Tuvok asked if they had the captain's name, maybe there was something under that listing. Amy hadn't thought about that angle, so she asked AL to see if he could get Marcie to get that information for them. Ted was of the opinion that the more ships they could use the better. Jake and Kate said the more allies the better. As they discussed the matter between themselves, AL told them that Marcie had been able to obtain the captain's name and ship registration number. There was no record of either in the PDF database. Kate commented that what they really needed was a way to access the Empire's computers, but that even that might not have the information they needed. It was decided to accept the request to join. Just as the meeting was breaking up Amy got a message from Jones.

Admiral,

We have had an interesting development here. It seems that John has come down with the same affliction that hit you and some of your crew. While adjusting to this, he found a way to get us some very large reinforcements for our ground forces and for the mining operations. It seems that once our reptilian guests are separated from their controllers they become rather upset with the controllers and want to go back home to live. We have found out that basically they are a peaceful race that work many mines and some of them are basically farmers, not soldiers. We have about 300 who are mining in their own area and have produced several tons of raw ores that they want to trade for medicine and different food stuffs. John has suggested that if any of you are still afflicted, that seems to help them accept you and they will talk about their home world and the way things used to be before the "evil humans" and "nasty insects" came calling and enslaved them. The leader here has said they will do whatever it takes to return home and is sure that if he could talk with any of the others you run across he can convince them to help also. It seems that he is related to some high official back home. Thought you might like to hear about this for what it is worth. Please see the attached Alexia encoded file, cousin AL should be able to decode easily.

Cmdr Jones

Amy had AL decode the attachments and everyone watched as first John explained what had happened and then a very large reptilian took his place and asked that they be allowed to return home. Next was a file that allowed for basic translation of the reptilian language to English. A final file gave the coordinates for the reptilian home world and a couple of outposts. AL had already incorporated the last two files into his database so they would be available whenever needed. He also had the AIs on the other major ships add the files to their knowledge base.

All were shocked, for if what Jones and John had said was true then they might be able to use the reptilians against the Empire and the Iberians. This was too much to digest in one setting. Amy suggested that they think about this new development overnight and meet again in the morning to see what each of them thought. With that the meeting ended and each of them returned to their own assignments and duties.

It seemed that Kate and Ted had the same idea as they both arrived at the reptilian holding area within minutes of each other. After conferring with each other they each selected a "subject" to try and communicate with. Sally selected one of the few females that were being held, and Ted selected the one that seemed the most curious about things. It was a couple of hours later when the two of them compared notes on what they had accomplished with their subjects. As they were parting and getting ready to leave, Amy showed up to try the same experiment. After a couple of awkward seconds they all laughed at the situation. Amy just asked if their efforts had been successful and that she expected a full detailed report in the morning for the rest of the command staff.

SOL

Thomas and Sally both received the message from Amy that the captain's request to join had been approved, and that they were to precede with the repairs and trying to recruit enough crew for the maintenance ship first. They would have to deal with the destroyers later. The destroyers were put in space dock by the moon and the other ships were escorted to Mars for repairs, and to awaken the occupants. Included in the message was a warning for neither of them to attempt what John had done at this time., it was too dangerous unless they had someone very strong in that ability.

The next day Sally and Linda went to Earth to start Sally's covert mission to recruit more young people and find out what the general opinion was about her speech at the UN. Sally had thought to start in the LA area, but changed her mind to start in the Midwest area.

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