THE PEACE KEEPERS

by Tom Tryst

  He realizes, with some embarrassment at his outburst, that it is for the benefit of Humanoid 37 out in the hall. “I’ll give Charles a call. He can help.”

  Sherry quickly leaves, noting where the ‘droid is standing, then hurries down the hall to Tabitha’s apartment. Humanoid 37 pays no attention to her. She steps inside as soon as the door opens, saying nothing.

  She nods at Sherry and Victor. “The card game starts at 2100.”

  Victor says nothing, but looks at his watch, noting it is 2010.

  All know exactly what they are to do. They have fifty minutes to find the locations of as many ‘droids as they can, then by 2100 hours be in position to quickly take out as many as they can. The one unknown: when one android is neutralized, will this alert the others? Or the ships above?

  The element of surprise will allow them, working in pairs, to take out three. The next three could be a shoot out.

  The three couples, several minutes apart, go for evening walks in the growing dusk, walking easily arm-in-arm. They remain silent. Each has their issued weapons in their jacket pockets, loaded, with the extra nine charges in bandoliers across their chests. At five minutes before the hour, they have located three of the six ‘droids. The fifth must be checking one of the apartment complexes. The last two would be watching the farms and the perimeter road.

  No one can say a word. Victor had briefed them on some military hand signals. He and Tabitha position themselves halfway between two of the droids, signaling Charles and Carol to position between two others. Humanoid 37 has fallen in step with Daniel and Sherry, staying some twenty yards behind.

  At 2100 sharp, Daniel hears “Now. Now. Now,” over his communicator. Both he and Sherry turn, weapons in hand. Daniel centers the red laser beam on the ‘droids chest and fires. There is no sound. The ‘droid freezes in mid-stride, its momentum pitching it forward and down with a heavy thud. At the same time, Victor and Tabitha each target their ‘droid and fires. Charles and Carol do the same. All three of their targets had been standing. Nothing happened.

  Panicking, Tabitha is about to fire again, but Victor holds up a hand to stop her. He approaches his target cautiously, weapon aimed at its head. Its arms are relaxed at its side. Tentatively, Victor reaches out to check for the protective field. He touches the ‘droid, then gives it a push. It topples.

  All go into combat mode, sheltering where they can. There is one more ‘droid in the village. They don’t know where it is. The sudden neutralization of their three comrades might have put it on alert. If so, it will start looking for them. All they can hope is that their headgear will keep their location unknown to it. All wait.

  Late diners are coming out of the dining hall, unaware of what has just gone down. Soon, two spot one of the downed ‘droids, talking excitedly. Daniel catches their attention with a wave of his arms, signaling silence and waving them on. They hustle off. Daniel and Sherry run toward the dining hall, pushing another couple back inside, and motioning all those inside to lie down.

  Within a minute, the fourth Peace Keeper appears at the top of the stairway to the upper floor of the apartment across from the dining hall. From its position, he can see two of the fallen androids. As it starts down the steps, Victors targeting beam appears on its chest. It continues forward and then down, tumbling to the base of the stairway.

  More agonizing minutes pass as they wait for the other two on patrol. Daniel is beginning to think the sudden shut down of the four ‘droids has gone unnoticed by the others. They may have to seek them out.

  Victor drags the first ‘droid he had neutralized out into the middle of the main road, signaling others to take positions. They have just taken cover when the first jeep drives into view and rolls to a stop along side the fallen ‘droid. Daniel has the closest shot and takes it out as it bends over his fallen comrade. It falls forward, remaining motionless.

  One left. Anxious minutes pass as all watch the road leading from the farms, watching for the last ‘droid. They hear the second jeep coming from the opposite direction, but it stops a hundred yards away. In the growing darkness, they can’t see the ‘droid inside.

  Daniel looks across the expanse at where Victor had been crouched at the corner of a building, looking for some sign. He is gone.

  There is no doubt that the ‘droid sees his two downed comrades and is alerting the ships above. If they have the ability to beam more down, they will be in trouble. They would be quickly overwhelmed. He prays Wright and his men are doing their thing with the spaceships.

  The jeep starts rolling slowly forward. All Daniel sees is the bright red spot through the windshield, where the driver would be sitting. Then he sees Victor step out, weapon raised. The jeep continues slowly, headed for the other jeep. But it fails to stop, bouncing over one fallen ‘droid, then thudding into the other jeep.

  Victor walks casually to the crash site. Neither jeep has much damage, but the driver is neutralized. The others join him.

  “That was too easy,” Victor says with a smile. “But there’ll soon be more who will probably know what’s going on. We have to find them before they find us.”

  Daniel motions to the sky above them. “You think they know what’s happened?”

  “I’m sure they were in communication. Question is, are they in constant communication or just periodic checks,” Victor reasons. “They’ll know sooner or later.”

  The sound of the crash has brought others onto their overlooking balconies. Daniel yells at them to get back inside and lock their doors, while the women quickly herd those inside the dining outside, sending them back to their apartments. Charles clears the tavern.

  They go into lock-down. Now it is up to the six to protect them. All they have on their side is the fact that the ‘droids can’t know who or where their enemy is located.

  Victor has recruited two more men, one of them being his friend Bill Reilly, and quickly briefs them. They soon have the last two helmets, glasses and weapons.

  With all the citizens secured in their apartments, the eight have to make a choice: do they go looking for others or wait for them to come for them? With no idea of where reinforcements may appear, they chose to hunker down at the center of town, where they can see the Peace Keepers coming from any of the four directions. Hopefully, they can pick each one off before their places of concealment are discovered.

  Daniel keeps looking up in the direction where he knows their controlling spaceship is located, half expecting some indication that it is being destroyed. He sees nothing.

  Victor has taken command of the military part. The weapons work. They didn’t need a second shot, so he positions them strategically along the main street so that they will have the best coverage for any arriving reinforcements. They might have a long wait.

  An hour passes when the cell phone Col. Wright had left him rings. “Sorry, I took so long to get back to you,” his voice apologizes.

  “What’s happening?” Daniel demands.

  “Hell if I know for sure,” is the response. “I’m still getting briefing from command. But apparently, the ‘droids we didn’t destroy, were all beamed up. We can’t find any left.”

  “What about the ships?”

  “We had weapons trained on all of them, but we can’t tell if they worked.” His voice paused. “But they’re all gone.”

  “Destroyed?”

  “I don’t think so. I think they just moved out of range.”

  “Then we’re still in trouble.”

  “Looks like. Look, I’ve got a lot of calls to make. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, keep alert. Get your ex-soldiers briefed and turn security over to them. Whoever is on guard wears the helmets and keeps the weapons. Good luck.”

  The phone goes dead even as Daniel mutters, “Thanks a lot!”

  They spend the next hour smashing in the heads and torsos of the six ‘droids to assure they are inoperative, then build a large bonfire and toss the six into the roaring flames. By the light of morning, there is
only glowing embers left - and melted metal.

  There will be no breakfast, for all have locked themselves into their residences. By lunch, Daniel has a handful of cooks report to the kitchen to prepare box lunches and drinks to deliver to all. The farmers are advised of the conditions and assure Daniel that they can take care of themselves, refusing his order to come into the safety of the village.

  Sherry is relieved to be able to remove the headgear. Her first act is to wash her hair. But she knows that a ‘droid could now know her involvement in the rebellion. If they return, they will kill all involved. Over their lunch, she voices her concern for their situation.

  “We only have the eight weapons,” she points out. “There’s no way we can fight them off if they come in numbers.”

  “Honey, Col Wright advises that so far, there isn’t a ‘droid anywhere on earth. Looks like they split.”

  “They’ll be back,” she insists.

  “Maybe not. They claimed they would leave when we were able to take care of ourselves. We rebelled. My guess is they just gave up on us. Why would they continue to try to help us when we fought them?”

  “You still think it was a humanitarian intervention?” she asks.

  “I don’t know,” he confesses. “I keep thinking about the fate of the some five billion people they transported. They claim they don’t kill, so what happened to them? Were they taken for slave labor? They were far from the cream of the crop.”

  “I think they’re all dead,” Sherry admits softly. “Why would they use the dregs of our society to colonize another world? It doesn’t make sense. What if homo sapiens were considered a dining delicacy by the rest of the universe?”

  “You don’t think they’re through with us, do you?”

  “Not for a minute!” she snaps. “If we don’t develop a defense against them, we’re doomed.”

  “I hope you’re wrong,” is all he can say. He has his own doubts.

  Chapter Eleven

  Commissioner Baker awakens to urgent knocking at his bedroom door. It seems to him he just got to sleep, a feeling verified when he glances at his bedside clock: 2335 hours. The knocking gets louder as he hurriedly slips into his robe. Still half asleep, he wonders why Humanoid 99 just didn’t come in to wake him. Before he gets to the door, it is thrust open and one of the Secret Service agents enters, a cell phone to his ear.

  He momentarily interrupts his call. “Sorry to wake you, Sir. But something very serious is happening.” He speaks quickly into the phone, then puts it away.

  “I just got to sleep,” Baker grumbles. “It better be important.”

  The agent nods. “They’re disappearing!”

  Baker is about to ask who ‘they’ are, then realizes 99 isn’t at his post.

  “The Humanoids,” the agent advises. “Here at the White House, every one of them are gone. One moment they were there, the next they’re gone. The same thing seems to be happening around the globe.”

  Baker lets this sink in, then asks, “What about the ships?”

  “Trying to find out. The airways are flooded with reports. Some are reporting firefights with the aliens.”

  Without dressing, he hurries down to the basement Ready Room, where a few others have already gathered. Agents are monitoring the dozen screens, each from a different part of the country as well as one from Germany and one from Israel.

  One of his Cabinet members rises to greet him. “The same thing seems to be happening around the country. There’s a few reports of men taking out some of the Peace Keepers, that they developed some kind of weapon that neutralizes them. But most are experiencing the same as us; they’ve just disappeared. All at about the same time.”

  An agent speaks up, “Denver is reporting that the ship above them is losing altitude and moving west. They may be in attack mode.”

  Systematically, they attempt to contact other Governors. The airways are crowded, but when they get through on each hot line, the story is the same. All the Humanoid Peace Keepers are gone. Most report that the ship above them has moved and is no longer in sight.

  Over the next two hours they are getting a better picture. The Vice-Commissioner and all the Cabinet Members are now present, each assigned to make contact with a section of the globe. Not a single Peace Keeper can be seen. All the space ships are gone; no visual sightings or radar readings.

  Pasadena Space Center reports they tracked an object passing over at a lowering altitude, then it passed out of range over the Pacific. It was traveling too slow to be a meteor. They believe it was a spaceship.

  At 1000 hours, Commissioner Baker meets with the fragments of their prior government. They have had no communication with the Universal Council, essentially leaving them without a governing body. The Central Computer appeared to still be functioning, but without the Peace Keepers to interpret, it is worthless.

  The Commissioner has a better picture of the situation. “Starting at 2300 hours last night,” he begins his address. “A group forming a small resistence group, initiated a global-wide coordinated attack on the Peace Keepers. They claim they have disabled and destroyed many of the Peace Keepers with hand weapons they developed. They also claim they have a means of blocking the androids from reading their minds. At the same time they were taking out the Peace Keepers on the surface, they deployed weapons that were supposed to be able to destroy the orbiting spaceships. Those they targeted simply disappeared, but then they realized that many disappeared without being fired upon. The feeling is that The Universal Council has left the earth - at least for the time being.”

  There is applause and cheering from the small crowd, some of whom are displaced former Senators and Representatives. Baker waits them out before continuing. “However, the spokesman for this resistence group doesn’t think they have left us for good. They think they will return with a stronger military force. I tend to agree. Therefore, I am reinstating all the military branches with orders to continue their work on developing a global defense. I am also reinstating all government Branches and Departments to the pre-invasion status. They will co-govern with current staff until the details are worked out. We will work as a unified unit. We have to start governing ourselves, and the sooner, the better.

  “I will address the citizens at 1800 hours, our time, to explain the situation. The rumors are rampant. We are already urging all citizens to continue their lifestyles as they have been under the alien rule, to give us time to reorganize. I am declaring tomorrow a national holiday to give everyone a chance to settle down - or celebrate. I fear the worldwide transition won’t go smoothly. The aliens had total coordination. We won’t. I have no illusion that we will continue this communal system. I also know that there will be a lot of chaos going back to a monetary system of world trade.

  “By maintaining the current status quo, we will be able to organize a coordinated defense. This will be the United States of America’s priority: to be ready when they return.”

  “What do we do now?” Janet asks her husband David, as the sun rose ending a long night. They had both been part of the resistence, but not one shot had been fired. When they set out, not a Peace Keeper could be found. They spent a long, cold night on guard.

  “A lot of people are asking that question,” David replies. “I’m trying to get hold of Daniel, but all lines are busy. They may have gotten wind of our plot and simply left for now. They’ll probably be back - with reinforcements.”

  “So we have to keep wearing these helmets?” she bemoans. “They are so heavy! And my head itches!”

  “For now, we better. If they return and we don’t have them on, they will be able to pick us out. The courthouse is our gathering place. We can organize a watch. One man in the bell tower can see almost the entire town. If he sees a Peace Keeper, he can give alarm by ringing the bell. We’ll put the helmets back on and go back into defense mode.”

  “It’s not over, is it?” she asks plaintively, eyes becoming teary.

  He sadly shook his head, “I’
m afraid not.”

  By morning, rumors in the Compound are running rampant. Those who saw the action that evening are relating their stories. The entire community is soon aware of the absence of the Peace Keepers.

  Daniel had his staff make contact with all the farming families, telling them to come in for breakfast, that there would be a briefing at the dining hall at 0900. He now has a good picture of the situation after a briefing with Col. Wright. They will soon have the Army camp reactivated with former military. For the time being, every serviceman who had been on active duty at the time of the invasion is officially back on duty. Some will remain at the military facilities, but most will be assigned to work with the current local law enforcement agencies in keeping the peace.

  To the dismay of Tabitha, that means that Victor will have to live at the camp, as will the handful of soldiers who have remained with the community. They are promised more of the hand guns, but the helmets are still in short supply. As anyone in a military uniform would be an immediate target for the Peace Keepers, they will continue to wear civilian clothing. Those with a weapon, which they are beginning to call ‘phasers’, after the popular Star Trek series, will keep them concealed.

  The duties of the once-called Global Warming Advisory Group, have once again changed. With their sophisticated computer communication system, they will now have the chore of assisting in the reorganization of Federal, State and local governments, especially when it comes to coordinating government activities with the other world governments. The fear is that the governments of the world will go back to their old ways - the ways that created the critical and devastating changes in climate. And that included their own government, who, of all the world governments, had done the least to reduce pollution - even though they were the heaviest contributor.

  Tabitha couldn’t help feeling that they would have been better off with the Peace Keepers still dictating Earth’s activity. They had stabilized the population to half of what it had been and stopped armed conflicts across the globe. Whenever she thought about the five billion people who had been ‘transported,’ she rationalized that most were those undesirable ones who had caused most of the world’s problems. The sudden disappearance of all the many thousands of Peace Keepers convinced her that the Universal Council was capable of relocating matter; perhaps all those people had been moved to other worlds as the aliens had insisted. She considers their abrupt freedom as temporary, simply waiting for the retaliation by the aliens.