Solarans 1: The Gift From Aquarii

by Don Koch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  # A half hour later on the Ship #

  Andy had called a general meeting of all Solarans that were able to attend. "As most of you know, we ducked a major bullet today. Many of you participated in the investigation and partial dismantling of a nasty terrorist group. That has been giving a lot of people fits. Unfortunately, that bit of work is not yet completed. There are seven more groups out there preparing to strike. Aston is going through materials we gathered today to pin down where the rest of these groups are now. Their targets are all in major cities and are timed to maximize injury to the people of those cities. We need to stop them cold. To do that, we are going to divide up into teams. Fortunately the timing they have is spaced far enough apart that we can get this done nicely with five teams. Team leaders are from the original primary implant recipients. The rest of the primary implant holders will distribute amongst those 5 teams. That will give us at least 6 primaries on each team. We have at least 12 secondary implant recipients available. Aston will tag all that we find with location, and no harm settings initially. I think for this exercise, we will use a desert location to deposit them. There is a particularly nasty section of the Saharan desert in southwestern Libya with no one around. Aston will guide you with your coordinates. We are going to retrieve about 10 of those 20-man containers that the terrorist army used. We will have plenty of water there and after we gather them all in, we can distribute them where we need to. We just want them all out of the way until we can collect them all. Aston will provide the specific assignments. Heavy movers are going to need a light charge to move the containers. As soon as those are in place, we start.”

  “We are going to start with the locations with the earliest schedules and that means Berlin, Barcelona, London and Amsterdam. If you need backup for any reason, ask for it. Aston will be trying to anticipate where help might be needed. Our real concern right now is that we can do a complete identification with action before these yahoos realize that we are on to them and try to advance their schedule. For this reason we need to take them quickly and move on to the next group before they have a chance to get suspicious. Aston tells me that he has identified about 60 % of the European group so that should be a reasonably clean takedown. As soon as we have a 100% identification on any group, they will be disarmed and taken out immediately. If that happens, one of the take down teams should check in with local law enforcement to see what they want done with them and make the transfer. Ask those folks to keep this all quiet for about twelve hours so we don’t alert the bad guys that something is going on. Ok, let’s go have some fun.”

  Several of the new primary implants took care of the containers and everything was ready. Ten minutes later, Aston indicated that the Amsterdam group had been 100% identified and tagged. The assigned team went in and completed the takedown within 10 minutes. In another 10 minutes, all of the group were in custody in Dutch facilities with amazed Dutch police handling the aftermath.

  About the time that was completed, Aston gave the green light for the Berlin and London groups. The takedowns were equally quick. Janie asked if she could make the contact with law enforcement. She went and appeared before her favorite London Desk Sergeant, Lee Adams. He immediately said. “Ah lass, we are going to have to stop meeting like this. Actually no, it is always a distinct pleasure when you show up. What can I do for you today?” She explained what was happening and what she had for him. “Blimey, these chaps will never seem to learn that you are not folks to fool with. We would be more than pleased to take them off your hands. I need about 5 minutes to make appropriate arrangements.” He was good to his word and described the arrangements that had been made. She indicated that all 19 of the terrorists that she would turn over were currently confined to a container that was sitting in the Libyan desert and would be delivered in the next ten minutes. Then Sergeant Adams said, “Lass, I really appreciate what you Solarans are doing for us and the world, but I have to admit to some personal curiosity. Why me? I am nothing special or anything unusual. There are dozens like me in London, Why me?”

  Janie assumed her true persona after having Aston blur her appearance on the cameras in the station and said, “Sergeant, this is my real appearance and I ask that you not describe me to anyone. Currently I am a blur to all your cameras and to anyone that might see me. My voice is likewise blurred over. You were my choice because you remind me very much of my Uncle Lee. He was my favorite uncle and some creep shot him while doing the same job you are doing. You remind me so much of him that it is difficult to distinguish between the two of you. So you remind me of fond memories of him. I also want to give you a gift if you wish to accept it. We use a tag system that identifies the individual tagged and where they are located. It also has some features that we would like you to have. The first of these is the ability to communicate with us freely that exceeds that function you already have. In your line of work that could come in pretty handy since no one will know you are in communication with the Solarans. The item I most want you to have is the tag setting with armor. This makes you bulletproof, knife proof, explosion proof and a bit more. I do not want to see another ‘uncle’ taken away from me because some criminal or terrorist has nothing better to do at that moment. Perhaps that is a bit selfish but the Commander, my future husband and my family all agree with me. My Commander says you are a man to be trusted. So the Solarans as a group and I personally would be honored if you would accept this gift.”

  The Sergeant had tears in his eye and said, “Lass, it is I who would be honored to accept this gift. I hope to do this justice.”

  Aston noted that the gift had been applied. Janie told the Sergeant that it was in place and that he would be invited to her wedding and transported there but could not talk about it. He said, “Mum’s the word lassie and thank you.”

  “Well, I have some prisoners to deliver. Talk to you later Sergeant Lee.”

  “Make that Uncle, lass, make that Uncle.”

  “Later Uncle Lee.” And she disappeared.
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br />   The Barcelona group proved to be a bit more difficult to fully identify but this too was done well before the scheduled time for their attack. Each of the groups was captured and the authorities all agreed to keep things quiet for at least 12 hours so that groups in other countries were not alerted.

  San Francisco proved to be the easiest takedown. That was completed before the New York City group was identified. Nevertheless the New York city group was the next one rounded up. DC was turning out to be the most difficult since there were actually three units in that group meaning 41 persons to round up. The units each had a separate target. There was a ceremony at the Capitol, a major league baseball game and a major event at the Lincoln Memorial. The actual suicide bombers were all identified and Andy gave the go ahead to bring them in.

  An hour later all of the clean up groups were captured and disarmed.

  Andy and Pat appeared in the office of the Director of the FBI indicating they would like to speak him. The Director was miffed that they could just enter his office anytime they wanted. Sensing this, Andy said, "Director, before you get on your high horse, let me ask you, how many terrorists you have stopped today?"

  "That sort of action takes time and intel."

  "Agreed Director, how many."

  "None."

  "Director, in the past 24 hours, our Solarans have prevented 16 suicide bombers from taking anyone with them, prevented another 80 from detonating by capturing and disarming them, captured another 78 individuals whose role was to terminate the suicide bombers if they did not carry out their mission, captured the leadership of the terrorists organization commanding this effort along with a high tech laboratory that we totally destroyed. We are currently rounding up another 64 that have not been activated. The suicide bombers had targeted 10 major cities in the world including San Francisco, New York City and Washington DC. The attacks in those cities would have been devastating. Since you appear to feel that we are wasting your time we will take the issue and the prisoners captured to the President who does appear to have time to listen. You can explain to him why you do not. Good Day." Andy then teleported to the White House and communicated with the President telepathically,

 

  Andy and Pat appeared in the President's office and the President asked, "Does this visit have anything to do with an attack on the event at the Lincoln Memorial coming up tomorrow morning?"

  "Yes it does."

  "I am definitely all ears."

  Andy went on to give the description of events of the past day, the take down of the organization and the less than welcome session with the FBI Director. "The attack on DC was far more extensive than the rally at the Lincoln Memorial. It was also to target the Capitol building and the Stadium. Our Solarans are still searching those locations for explosives and terrorists. We do have 85 prisoners in custody from the intended attacks in the USA. We need to know where you want us to deposit them. Currently we have them in containers in the Libyan Sahara. They are definitely ready to talk."

  "Would it be possible for you to deliver them to Quantico? They have facilities to handle that number and to interrogate them."

  "We can do that. How soon can they be ready?"

  "I think about 20 minutes. We will mark the locations for delivery of the containers with large white X's on the ground. As for the FBI Director, I think we are overdue for a change over there. His handling of issues generally has been having a demoralizing impact on his organization. Experiences similar to yours have occurred on several previous occasions and enough is enough." He picked up his phone and said, "Mary, call the FBI Security officer and tell her that I want the Director escorted to my office in 15 minutes. Tell her I want his access codes removed along with personal items. I want a full security change of codes so he cannot get into any FBI files." He hung up the phone. "Well Commander, again we are indebted to you. I hope that there is someway we might return the favor."

  "That is not why we do what we do Mr. President, but it would be nice if we had better cooperation instead of resistance when we are trying to save lives. We are also disappointed that your people continue to try to find us. If you are successful in that attempt, our help will stop. I would suggest that is not in your best interest. You might want to also tell your power brokers to back off or become a target. This is not an idle threat."

  "I am coming to understand that. I think I can smooth your way on the cooperation issue and I wish there were more like you."

  "There are more than you might think, Mr. President."

  Andy and Pat left and returned to the ship. The cells in Chicago, Seattle, Brussels and Milan had been dismantled by teams led by Gus and that agreed with the captured records. The remaining prisoners were deposited where directed. The rest of the new trainees returned to the ship. Andy gathered them all into the main room and noted that it had been an unusual day and recapped what they had learned. A large number of the recent recruits indicated that they intended to phase out of their current jobs to spend more time at Solaran work. Andy encouraged them to do so with plausible reasons so that they did not call unusual attention to themselves.

  Chapter 18 - Under Construction

  # Juneau #

  # Friday, July 15 #

  Josè had advised that they were having some difficulty with the trenching for the water and sewer pipes since the island was mostly rock. Janie suggested using something similar to what she had used on the tank in Iraq for demonstration purposes. "It does not use very much power and would actually be easier to excavate than to compress. If they can mark out exactly where they want the trenches to be and the depth, we could do that in a matter of a few hours. We can even backfill when the pipes are in place. This is actually a good training opportunity for all of our new primary implant Solarans."

  Andy reacted, "Excellent suggestion Janie. It will give everyone a chance to fine-tune control of their capabilities. Josè, how soon can you have the surface marked out so we can see where the trenches need to be?"

  "All of the trenches have survey markers in place but those are not as visible as you might need. One thought that I had was to use a number of those devices they use to paint lines in parking lots. The ones used for highways are too big and cumbersome, and the trucks could not handle the terrain. The small ones that look like overgrown self-propelled hand tractors might be just the thing. I also know where we can get a bunch of them for a period of time."

  "That would definitely do the trick. We can help with transporting them to the site. Those could also be used to mark where the compound buildings will be placed. That would be very helpful in placing things where you want them."

  "Once those things are on the island, it should only take a few days to mark things out and then the Solarans can work their magic. I will get back to you as soon as I have firmed up use of them. "

  # An hour later #

  "Andy, I have identified 40 machines that we can borrow for a week. We also have been provided with a supply of paint in white, yellow and blue. This is all located at the Mexico City base and is ready for transport. I have also identified 12 prisoners who are familiar with their operation so we do not have to bring anybody in. They are ready to go any time."

  "Ok , we will gather some folks and get the stuff moved. Lets us know how you want the machines distributed and where."

  A short time later all of the lining machines had been delivered to the site and the prisoners familiar with the machines were instructing others in their use. In less than an hour, the lining operation was underway. The twelve prisoners acting as instructors were also acting as foremen. They indicated that the job would be finished by the following day. Josè commented that they were all tired of living in tents and were being cooperative in getting the construction moving. They wanted to get into something more solid than a tent.

  # Isla Ma
ria Magdelena #

  # Monday, July 18 #

  Andy broadcast a mental message to all Solarans.

 

  The trenching took two hours to complete.

  # Isla Maria Magdelena #

  # Wednesday, July 20 #

  Josè asked the Warden of the prison at Isla Maria Magdelena to have all the prisoners gathered at one spot for an announcement. He asked Andy to deliver him to that spot so as not to reveal his own ability to make the transit without assistance. A small platform and loud speaking system was set up so all could hear. Andy, the Warden and Josè appeared on the stage at exactly 10 am. The Warden introduced Josè who then made his statement. "You all know why you are on this island. You have through your own actions forfeited your right to live among the people of Mexico or anywhere else for that matter. Many of you are here with a life sentence, others for a very long time. Some of you may eventually be considered for parole but that will require that you have learned useful skills that can be used on the outside. Given that, how do you like living in tents?"