 
Invasion Earth

A Story by

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Invasion Earth

Copyright Philip R Benge 2015

Cover Art courtesy of NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.

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Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

Invasion Earth

Contents

Chapter One: The Chapter Magentans

Chapter Two: Mars

Chapter Three: Earth

Chapter Four: The Texas Rangers

Chapter Five: ET is Really Here

Chapter Six: Petras Furling

Chapter Seven: Earth Retakes the Moon

Chapter Eight: President Mortise

About the Author

Other Books by the Author

Chapter One

The Magentans

The new science institute, was housed within a rather ugly modern building, one constructed of glass and steel and designed by an architect without any sense of beauty. It lay in the suburbs of the small city of Chryst, a city filled with old world charm that lay on the eastern seaboard of the large central continent of the planet Magenta. Inside this modern building, in a large room set on the top floor of the six-storey building, a man and a woman were looking at a large monitor set on the wall before them, they were astronomers, and they were working late into the night. The monitor showed a planet that was five light years away from their cosy little planetary system, the picture coming from the large telescope situated on the dark side of their planet`s small moon. Violently ejected from its planetary system, the nomad planet they were studying moved rapidly through space, although this would not be apparent to someone entering into the room and looking at the monitor, to them it would appear to be an average planet moving slowly around its sun. The two astronomers first noticed the nomad planet when it appeared at the extreme inside edge of a large red giant star, some three light years behind it, which had been their actual target some four weeks ago, now though that had changed, and tonight`s viewing provided their fifth batch of data. Up until this time this nomadic planet had been hidden from view within the large Boracic dark nebula, however, when it finally escaped from the nebula, the Magentan sun had hidden it from their telescope upon their tiny moon. It was only after it had moved clear of their sun that its presence in space became noticeable, and it was only luck that two astronomers were looking in the right place at the right time.

"Manse, its position in relation to Magenta has definitely changed since our first reading; it is now nearer to us than when we first sighted the planet." Pet Aryl cried out in excitement. Aryl was a young woman just out of university, with flawless grey skin and a petite body; she was not tall, even for a Magentan, being only four feet seven inches in height. Her very being exuded excitement, for she found herself in the middle of what could be a class A astronomical discovery.

"We have enough information now to map its expected trajectory; it should appear on the monitor in a moment." Manse Dahry replied in his usual calm voice while tapping in instructions to their computer. Dahry was used to such things, they seldom amounted to much in his experience, which was why he had not used the preliminary data collected over the last three weeks to work out a possible trajectory, even though his junior colleague had begged it of him.

On the monitor the map of the nearby area of space appeared, it showed the planet that they were interested in, and the nearby planetary systems including their own. Dahry`s calm instantly disappeared, to be replaced by a controlled panic. Pet Aryl was younger and she screamed out in fear as she saw the predicted trajectory of the rogue planet.

"Manse, the bloody planet is not just moving closer to us, it is speeding towards us, it`s heading for our solar system, in fact it`s heading straight for Magenta!" Aryl screamed in fear.

"Pet." Manse said in a slightly calmer voice as he attempted to check the rising panic in his young colleague, as well as in himself. "If you will check all the data that we have amassed regarding the damn planet, I will check out the computer program, to make sure that there is not yet another problem with the software, it would not be the first time that it has happened."

This fact calmed Aryl down; yes, for she already knew that the software had provided them with one or two shocks since its installation two years ago. Two hours later and they were ready to re-run the computer simulation; however, the results were the same. In one hundred years and a few weeks, the rogue planet would crash through their planetary system, and it would finish all life upon the planet Magenta.

**********

Twenty grey humanoid creatures sat around a long heavily polished table, it was set in a magnificent room adorned with photos of past Magentans of note. The creatures were small compared to humans, their average height only five feet tall; however, their technology was in advance of that of Earth. The Magentans around the table were the planet`s grand council, elected by the people for the people, or so the council told the people.

The people of Magenta had just begun to explore deep space, although without any notable success, but they were not about to discuss the massive costs involved, they were meeting to discuss the end of their world.

"Members of the grand council. Let me reiterate the problem facing our planet. Our scientists have discovered a terrible truth facing our planet; it faces destruction by the fast-moving rogue planet, the one that our astronomers discovered just two days ago." President Charlis stated in a grim voice.

"Mr President, we are all well aware of the problem facing us, what we want to know is ways to deflect this rogue planet away from our planetary system, we have one hundred years in which to accomplish it, surely our technology must be up to the task?" Councillor Stannis asked anxiously, Stannis was the oldest member of the council.

"I am afraid not Councillor Stannis, I have been told by the two astronomers who first located the rogue planet, Manse Dahry and Pet Aryl, that the mass of the planet is far too great. They estimate that it is the equivalent to two hundred planets of the size of Magenta, while the diameter of the rogue planet is thirty percent of the diameter of our sun. It is a very large gas giant, almost a proto star, so we would be unable to land on it, and it would simply swallow up any atomic weapons sent against it and ask for seconds. The other astronomers of Magenta are cross checking all this information, but unfortunately, their preliminary results are in agreement with those of Dahry and Aryl, however, the confirmation regarding the trajectory of the rogue planet will take another three to four months.

"I think that we can take it as read that their results will match those of Dahry and Aryl, don`t you Mr President? And why will it take the other astronomers so long to come up with their answer, it did not take Dahry and Aryl that length of time?" Consul Mortise asked grimly.

The councillors all looked to their president, waiting for an answer to the question asked by Consul Mortise.

"It will not, but to be absolutely certain of our facts I have despatched a starship to the rogue planet, it will follow the planet for a period of three months, they will report back their findings each month, and the trajectory of the planet will be a known fact. They will then release an automated drone, and this craft will relay information regarding the rogue planet for us long as the drone stays in operation." Charlis stated grimly.

"Why have our astronomers only just seen the planet, they have spent enough Magentan dollars over the last couple of decades, what with all the new space hardware they have acquired?" Mortise asked, his voice reflecting his concern at their people`s future, and his anger at the scientific community in general.

"It is unfortunate that it has come from that area of space that is comparatively barren. Much remains hidden within the large Boracic dark nebula, and the planet passed through that for a considerable length of time, hiding it away from our telescopes." President Charlis paused for a moment while he had a drink of water from the glass before him, then he continued with his briefing.

"I am given to understand that when it emerged from the nebula it was then hidden for a period of two months by our sun, only emerging now from behind its concealing disc. It is indeed unfortunate that in the one hundred years since our people acquired the star drive, our mercantile fleet has explored the other areas that are near to us, as they appeared to offer the hope of better returns. We would have got around to this area when the time was right; unfortunately, the costs incurred held us back, and we took too long to do so, although the end result would have been exactly the same." President Charlis replied, and as no one else chose to speak at that time, he continued speaking.

"I have thought over the problem before us, since it was first brought to our notice just four hours ago, and I have come to the conclusion that we must manufacture five small but fast automated space probes. They would then be sent out to the planetary systems, both near to us and further away, to search for a new home world for our people, and one which will not be in the path of the rogue planet. I spoke to the president of Magentan Space just an hour ago and he guaranteed that the first of the probes could be ready for launching by the end of the year." President Charlis declared, smiling at his council and awaiting their approval, which came, although a little muted, for the council was still in a state of shock, having finally accepted the facts.

One of the younger members of the council did not feel like complementing his president though, he was the first to shrug of the effects of what he had just heard, and his mind quickly provided him with a compelling alternate strategy.

"Why are we waiting on the automated craft to start our search for a new home world, when we would only be able to send them as they become available to us? We have a fleet of starships at our disposal, they may not be the ideal type of ship to search for a new home world, but we should use them while we build the starships that are up to the task. So, while I agree that we despatch automated craft, when they are ready, I believe that we should start the search now, a year is a long time to wait when the lives of our people, our civilisation, is at stake." Councillor Phairlis declared angrily.

Phairlis was a very ruthless man who would stop at nothing to succeed, today something was telling him that the presidency could be his, if he played his cards right. However, there was the question as to whether he wanted it right now, for with the present emergency, whoever was president was in for a rough ride from the citizens of Magenta. The longer a solution to the problem took, the more violent the repercussions. He would first have to assess if the time was right to push for the post, only if he decided that it was, would he then ensure that he was in the right place to take advantage of the opportunity, when it presented itself, no matter whom he had to tread on to get there. Today he was lucky, for his fellow councillors joined in with his demands, he did not need to show his hand, however; Charlis shouted them down.

"The automated probes will be able to travel further and faster, as they do not need to carry a crew, one which would require food, water, extra fuel, and also an environmental system to keep a crew alive. Furthermore, the probes will not need to return home to re-equip themselves with all that a crewed starship will need to ensure the crew`s continued survival. An automated probe would also be more cost effective, and at a time when the need to economise has never been greater. We could then use our remaining resources to much better effect." Charlis argued. Totally disregarding the argument put forward by Phairlis.

"I for one do not propose waiting for a year to pass us by, I will beg the owners of our large fleet of starships, large or small, to travel into deep space and begin the search. I will use my wealth to pay for their hire and provisions to see that it happens, rather than waste valuable time." Councillor Phairlis declared, and the wealthier members of the council declared that Councillor Phairlis could count on their fortunes as well. Phairlis had to work hard to stop the smile appear upon his face. 'How easy it was to get others to help propel you to your chosen goal' he thought.

"Councillors, I am forced by your generosity to agree with you, and I will go further, I propose that the government match whatever funds that are made available by private funds." Charlis said in a more conciliatory tone, for he saw that he had badly miscalculated and played directly into the hands of Councillor Phairlis, the most ambitious of his councillors.

"However, I propose that we commence the manufacture of the fleet of five fully automated space probes immediately, for I still believe that they will be our best option in the search for a new home world."

The grand council accepted the president`s proposal unanimously, and Phairlis was more than satisfied with his day so far, for the president looked less than satisfactory to his fellow councillors.

"When will we commence to build the armada that will be needed to take our people to safety, there are now two billion people on our world, it will take a vast number of ships, and many decades to produce them." Councillor Stannis asked anxiously.

"My dear councillor Stannis, we will be lucky if we manage to find places for just tens of thousands of our people, and even that will stretch the necessary resources of our planet, and our new home world. You and I will certainly not be amongst those who go; we will be far too ancient when the time comes, as will many of our citizens." Charlis replied sardonically.

Stannis looked shaken by the president`s statement, but when no one else came forward to protest, he sat back, and suddenly he felt much older, and much nearer to death.

Councillor Remat was another of the aged members of the council, Remat was a medical doctor first and a councillor second, and he had stayed quiet during the debate, but now he spoke. "There may be a way for more of our people to survive, by proxy that is, if we were to manufacture, say, three large space arks, they could carry up to one million embryos in cryogenic stasis, they could be unfrozen in phases and placed inside suitable hosts, once colonisation is under way upon our new home world. This will guarantee a much wider gene pool, and that will aid in the rebuilding of our civilisation."

Everyone within the room applauded his suggestion as a suitable compromise, one that Stannis was happy to agree to. The President and his councillors decided that the manufacture of three large space arks would commence as soon as suitable plans were ready.

**********

Within one month of the council meeting, the first starships were heading out into deep space in search of a new home world; they were a mixture of ore ships, mining ships, a freighter, a space liner, and even one space yacht. The fully automated deep space probes took over the task as they became available. The government however did not send any of their small fleet of military vessels to join in the search, ones used to police both the home planetary system and the nearby systems where private corporations were busy extracting the mineral wealth of the galaxy. They wanted these craft handy in case lawlessness began to raise its ugly head, as soon as the awful truth sank into the minds of the Magentan people.

The starships first began to make frantic searches of the nearby planetary systems not yet visited, however, they quickly realized that they needed to search planetary systems ever further away, and so the search dragged on. Thankfully, after five long years they finally managed to find six likely worlds that were close enough to Magenta to colonise. The five closest planets were not ideal, for only a limited number of colonists would be able to dwell upon them. The sixth world though, was quite similar to their own doomed world; its atmosphere and gravity being almost identical; give or take the odd pollutant. An automated probe had discovered the planet, and at a time when many Magentans had given up and could see only a premature death awaiting their descendants. Unfortunately, there were problems associated with this world; for one thing, it was seventy light years away from Magenta, a journey of twelve months for even their newest starships. However, there was an even greater problem with this planet, it was already populated, there were well over nine billion people living upon it.

**********

The president of Magenta immediately ordered the despatch of a cloaked starship, aboard the vessel was a team of scientists, there to make an initial investigation of the civilisation living on the sixth planet. Initially the investigation would be conducted from space, although a small reconnaissance team might be sent down to the planet if necessary. This starship was joined by a second ship, one sent by a small group on Magenta which was quickly winning more and more converts to an extreme agenda that promised the people of Magenta all that they hoped for, a new home world of their own, inhabited or otherwise, a group who called themselves the Chosen Ones. To this end, along with the crew of the starship they sent yet another team of scientists, there to amass a mountain of information that would prove that the sixth planet should belong to the people of Magenta. The leader of this new group, Orebetus Phairlis, and now elected to the rank of consul, a rank second only to that of the president, owned one of the daily newspapers of Magenta, and he published a continuous stream of managed information, information that was streamed back from his starship. The adjusted news gave them all the data they needed to unite the Magentans behind them, and to allow them to plan an invasion.

The majority of Magenta`s more moderate leaders wanted to concentrate on the other five planets that they had found, while they searched for a seventh planet, even though it might condemn their own civilisation to existing rather than growing. However, emotional arguments against this view soon swept the planet, arguments that were seized upon and vigorously supported by the Chosen Ones and their fanatical followers. President Mortise had replaced President Charlis, who had resigned following a long bout of ill health brought about by the crisis. Mortise realized that he needed to speak to the citizens of his doomed world in an attempt to quell the growing unrest, and he would do it on television. He would have to explain why the sixth planet was not under consideration as a new home world, for the information he was receiving back from the starships still in orbit about the sixth planet was not at all good.

"Fellow Magentans, if the civilisation already living on the sixth planet would have allowed us to share their world then all would have been well, however, following our reconnaissance from space your government has decided that this would be impossible. They are a mixture of paranoid cultures, and ones who are always at war with one another; if we put our trust in them then war would be the result with one faction or another. The only option open to us would be to wipe the sixth planet clean of the indigenous intelligent life form, an option being voiced now from all four corners of our doomed planet. It is a thing that only an evil and monstrous people could undertake, an option that I am quite obviously firmly against and will never authorise. Desperate we may be, but monsters we are not. An advanced civilisation such as ours would soon regret such an action, and we would come to see ourselves as abnormal, a hideously twisted species, we would finally self-destruct in an orgy of violence. And so, the search for a new home for our people will have to continue even further afield, our fully automated deep space probes will never stop looking, and if god wills it so, we will be successful."

The president looked very sad and exhausted by the end of his broadcast, for he felt that this would not be the end of the matter, and unfortunately, he was right. The Chosen Ones disagreed with Mortise, they believed that only the sixth planet would be suitable for the people of Magenta, and so they decided to force through their agenda, and win the sixth planet for Magenta. To this end, Orebetus Phairlis stormed into the presidential palace following the broadcast by the president and demanded to talk with President Mortise.

"Mr President, I am here to voice my protests regarding the content of your television broadcast regarding the sixth planet. To put the interests of a planet of barbarians before those of your own people is beyond contempt. I ask, no, I demand that you create a commission to look more fully into this most important matter before making your decision a final one." Phairlis demanded, his voice carrying to the furthest rooms of the building, and winning applause in some quarters of the palace. This applause carried back to an anxious Mortise and stressed his need for caution and advice.

"Consul Phairlis, I already know your thoughts on this matter; I for one do not need to hear your demands." Mortise replied angrily. "This is a matter for the full council and not just two of its members, however senior. If you want to raise this matter at the next council meeting, then I will be only too happy to listen to your demands." Mortise said and he stood up and confronted Phairlis, their bodies only inches apart, their eyes locked together in anger.

It was Phairlis who moved away first, for he had got what he wanted, the audience who had heard the heated exchange, and who would tell the worlds press of his determination to fight for his people over the matter of the sixth planet. He certainly did not want the confrontation to degenerate into a brawl that might lose him some of the more moderate of his supporters.

Oh, I will Mr President." Phairlis replied, fairly spitting out the last two words. "Do not think that the fate of our people will be left in your weak and feeble hands." Phairlis then turned away and stormed from the room.

Mortise looked after him; he knew that he would have to endure more from his consul before long, and that he would have to look for allies to stand by his side, the side of civilisation.

Consul Phairlis smiled as he walked down the stairs of the presidential palace, 'That went quite well.' He said softly, for it was for his own ears only. He smiled as he thought of how the president had reacted. 'The president still appears to have a little of his courage remaining, who would have thought it.'

In fact, President Mortise had just needed a little encouragement to show it, and a cause to fight for, unfortunately for the people living on the sixth planet he now had one.

As Phairlis left the palace, he went over in his mind his plans for the future, and for the future of those living upon the sixth planet. 'Yes, what I have planned should be acceptable to the members of the grand council, poor buffoons, as for Mortise; well he would have to follow along no matter what he thought privately, I will see to that.'

Many people watched in amazement, as he walked along with a wide grin upon his face, normally he was such a serious individual.

'But when to launch my proposal? Well, just before the next council meeting should be ideal. My television broadcast to the citizens of Magenta telling them of my plan to save many more of the people of this world. That will soon force the president`s feeble hands, and those of the council, as for me, I will not have to do anything.'

Phairlis was the owner of one of the major television studios on Magenta, a station that he had used to further his desires for power many times before, so getting approval to have his proposal broadcast to the people did not pose a problem. Moreover, he did use it to great effect on one fateful evening, just two days after his argument with Mortise, breaking into prime-time television to give them his stupendous news. Advertised for the past thirty-six hours as the final solution to their woes, he ensured a large viewing audience, for everyone on Magenta knew of the danger posed by the rogue planet and were eager to hear his broadcast.

"People of Magenta, as our beloved president recently informed us, the civilisation that lives on the sixth planet is paranoid, constantly at war, and no better than the barbarians that used to live here on Magenta during our dark ages, some many centuries ago. He is correct in this, as anyone would know who reads the daily articles printed in my newspaper, the ones concerning the people of the sixth planet. I designed these articles so that you will always be well informed about the sort of people living on the sixth planet. And why, so that when the time comes to choose between your life and death, your family`s life and death, you will be able to make informed decisions. These reports, carefully written by a dedicated team of investigators, have made me ask the question, why should their civilisation be allowed to grow, so that sometime in the future they can spread across the galaxy. It will be when our own civilisation will be stagnating upon the other five miserable and very inhospitable worlds. That we have found" Phairlis`s voice filled the homes of the citizens of Magenta. He paused now to allow his massive audience, almost all of the citizens of Magenta, to take in his opening salvo before continuing.

"As there is no immediate rush to colonise the sixth planet, I propose that our scientists create a concentrated version of the chemical Trichlorian, one that we can release into the drinking water of the planet. It will be a gigantic task, but we shall succeed, we will make all the people on the planet infertile and prevent them from reproducing, stop them from inflicting their barbaric presence on the universe. For each decade that passes, over one billion of them will die naturally, with no births to add to the population, the population on the sixth planet will all but disappear within seventy years. Our mass migration can then commence, and without having to handle the guilt of murdering nine billion people."

What Phairlis did not say was that he had no idea how effective this method would prove. How the Magentans would be able to ensure that the Trichlorian reached every corner on the planet before they came to the attention of the inhabitants, and the length of time dependent on using this method would leave little time to benefit many Magentans? However, there were other ways to rid the sixth planet of its indigenous population, ones that the president or the people of Magenta did not need to hear about. He for one would not wait for upwards of seventy years to cleanse the planet of most of its indigenous people. Once in orbit around it with his fleet, he would find an excuse to cleanse the planet quickly, then many more of the Magentan people would praise his name, when they began to move to their new home world.

"I have only one more thing to say to you all, the time to choose between your family`s life and death and that of your friends and neighbours is already upon us, choose well."

The viewers now watched as the studio darkened, leaving only the words spoken by Phairlis printed on their screens.

**********

A grim-faced president listened to Consul Phairlis speaking on television to his nation, and at a time when the protest marches by the citizens grew ever more in size and violence, and ever more frequent. United for only seventy-five years; he feared that the people of Magenta would remember old enemies, old scores, and that war would break out across the globe before the rogue planet finally destroyed Magenta. Whether it struck Magenta or plunged into its sun, the result would be the same, death for anyone living on their beautiful planet.

With the president that evening was his friend Doctor Mikel Baris, the planet`s leading medical research scientist, it was he who had found a way to greatly extend the life of Magentans, it was by cloning their bodies. As they talked over what Phairlis had said, the noise from a protest rally came through the partially open windows. The rally had started in the middle of the city, at the banks of the river that ran through it, and had finished at the presidential square, a march of just two miles. As the march progressed, the television viewers came onto the streets to join it, inflamed by what Phairlis had said on air, and solidly behind him. The noise coming from the protesters increased as they neared the presidential palace, and the peaceful protest march now turned violent, as a few specially chosen agitators chose this moment to strike. Two aluminium crossbow bolts crashed through two of the windows and flashing past the heads of Mortise and Baris, the crash of breaking glass startling them, but not as much as the two crossbow bolts. Glass from the broken windows was hurled everywhere, some finding its way to the two men, thankfully the crossbow bolts only found the solid rear wall. The two men threw themselves to the floor in fear for their lives, and stayed there until they were both sure that no more bolts were coming their way.

"My god, Mr President, his speech has turned them into a crazed mob!" Baris cried out in fear.

Mortise reached up and turned off the lights within the room, and then hugging the sidewall, he moved cautiously over to the side of one of the two large shattered windows, to look out at the scene below, Baris hesitantly went to the other broken window. The square, filled with the noise and demands of 100,000 citizens, was a scary sight for those within the palace. Some amongst the crowd carried protest banners with demands painted upon them, some of them wanting the president to go, while others demanding direct action concerning the sixth planet. '6th planet for Magentans,' or 'Out with Mortise, he is a Barbarian too,' or 'President Phairlis will look after us.' Mortise got the message, he would have to speak again to his people in an attempt to quieten the ever-growing unrest, and soon, before it made his cities burn.

The crowd was now moving towards the railings that surrounded the palace, and alarmingly, the palace guards who had been keeping the protesters at bay were now either moving back behind the railings, or if this was not possible, they were fleeing along the railings and seeking sanctuary at the rear entrance to the palace grounds.

"Is this some sort of treachery Baris?" Mortise asked in surprise at seeing such a well-trained force actually fleeing from mainly unarmed protesters.

"I believe it is Mr President, Councillor Marchland is your interior minister, this morning he publicly admitted to being on the council of the Chosen Ones; maybe he should be replaced by another minister, one who is not a Chosen One?" Baris suggested.

The crowd, now turned mob, were now at the railings, and only the actions of a dozen of the presidential guards, who appeared to have remained loyal to Mortise, prevented them from climbing over them. Looking down through the broken windows, Mortise and Baris watched as a member of the mob load another crossbow bolt into a weapon resembling a grenade launcher, and seconds later the bolt crashed through the last unbroken window. The weapon had shot the crossbow bolt with so much force that not even the strength of the double-glazed windows could prevent it from breaking through.

"Baris, that must be the weapon that they used before, simple but lethal, especially in the hands of an agitator." Mortise declared grimly.

Baris was becoming fearful for their life, worried what might happen if the mob burst into the palace. There was no telling what orders might have been given to them by the organiser of the riot.

"Mr President, where the hell is our police force, a full-scale riot is threatening the safety of their president and they are skulking elsewhere, probably watching the riot on the television," Baris complained.

Mortise glanced at across at his friend and then picked up the telephone and called Commander Denit, the most senior police officer within the capital city of Magenta.

"Commander Denit, where the hell are the police, there is a riot happening at the presidential palace, or hasn`t anyone told you?" Mortise asked.

"Yes, Mr President, and after watching Consul Phairlis on the television it really is not much of a surprise, but do not worry Sir, I have already despatched one hundred specially trained officers to ensure the safety of yourself and anyone else within the palace." Denit assured Mortise.

Even as Denit spoke, Mortise saw the riot police entering the square before the presidential palace. With the help of the remaining presidential guards, they began to push the rioters back, but not without some injuries to their men, for people amongst the crowd threw petrol bombs at the police officers, thankfully their riot shields protected them from the worst of the resulting explosive fires. Even so, the officers in the square below the president`s private rooms were getting fearful of the mob; however, it was the original peaceful protesters who finally decided the matter. Already unsettled by seeing their protest march highjacked by the agitators, they now chose to flee the growing violence. This movement of people out of the square left the agitators seriously exposed, and so the riot quickly fizzled out. Mortise turned away from the window in relief, just as the forces of law and order chased after the last of the agitators, who fled away down the streets and alleys that surrounded the square.

They arrested Captain Langer, the officer in charge of the presidential guards, just as the sun rose above the horizon. Information received from the few remaining officers who had remained loyal to the president told how he had instigated the cowardly act carried out by some of the presidential guards.

"If you want to be spared the ordeal of imprisonment, tell me now, who was behind your decision to flee your post last night, tell me quickly or else suffer the consequences?" Mortise demanded angrily.

Captain Langer looked shaken, for he had not expected this, he had assumed that Marchland would protect him, but he had seen the interior minister arrested by some of his former comrades. He told his president everything, of how Marchland had promised that he would be amongst the first of the new colonists on the sixth planet, and promoted to the rank of Commander. The new captain of the presidential guards led Langer away, to be held until Mortise ordered his release and dismissal from his prestigious post.

The presidential guards brought Councillor Marchland before the president; and Commander Denit now formerly arrested him. He chose to say nothing when he heard the charge, conspiracy to overthrow the legally elected president, and he remained silent all the way to his prison cell. He did not argue, for he assumed that Phairlis would soon have him released, or a lawyer would, one in the pay of Phairlis. He was wrong though, for he died two hours later when he fell down a flight of stairs inside of the Magenta central prison, an accident Mortise was told, by the prison governor, who also happened to be a friend of Phairlis.

Mortise spoke to his ministers at a hastily called Council meeting, and after hours of talking over their position regarding the sixth planet, he surrendered, they would do as suggested by Consul Phairlis, who was sitting opposite Mortise. Mortise had to stop himself from striking the man as he watched a cold smile of satisfaction come to the face of his Consul. Mortise would have liked to arrest his second in command, but unfortunately, he had no proof available to him to allow him to carry out this act. Instead, he advised the council that he would go on television that evening to inform the citizens of Magenta of their unanimous decision. That evening saw Mortise appear on every television channel on Magenta, appearing because he felt it necessary to obey the terrible demands of the people, demands that went against his own principles.

"People of Magenta, your government having listened to your pleas, we have bowed before your demands to proceed with the plan put forward by Consul Phairlis, even though I still have some misgivings about it. If we succeed in our aim then we will have won for our people a planet that is very similar to our own beautiful planet, which will be violently destroyed in the too near future. However, there are still problems with the method that Consul Phairlis has proposed to use.

Problem one is that before I can authorise the use of the chemical, our scientists will have to assure me that they have found a way to ensure that it will not have any effect on the other animal life on the planet; otherwise, we would be condemning our colonists to a new life on a barren world.

Problem two concerns the limited time scale involved, will we have sufficient time to move enough of our people to this planet, for this can only commence when the population of its inhabitants has fallen to a low enough number.

Problem three concerns the state that the planet will be in why we finally arrive. For war will almost certainly break out between the nations when they realise what is happening, followed by anarchy as the last desperate survivors struggle for power. However, at least one of our space cruisers will always be in orbit around the planet, if nuclear war breaks out it will destroy any missiles launched that carry weapons of mass destruction. We will send clones to the planet, they will look exactly like the indigenous people and speak their language. They should be able to ensure that germ warfare is never carried out, as by then they will have replaced most senior politicians and the senior echelon of their armed forces with more clones. In fact, they will be exact duplicates of the indigenous leaders and so will be in a position of power within the governments and armed forces of the 6th planet.

I sincerely hope that there will be a habitable planet waiting for us when we commence our migration, and that future generations understand the reasons behind this decision. That what we are doing is for the future of our children, and our children's` children, so that they might prosper and flourish. As for myself, what we are about to do to the indigenous population on the sixth planet will weigh heavily upon my conscience, and even more so upon my soul."

Although President Mortise had finally agreed to the proposal, he had refused to bury all of his own misgivings. One thought kept him sane, that one of his automated space probes would locate a new home world before the plan passed the point of no return. If not, then he still foresaw a time when their civilisation would tear itself apart as the guilt of their actions made itself felt upon their grandchildren.

**********

Many new starships were constructed over the course of the eight years following the discovery of the rogue planet. Now they were all completed, they, along with a myriad of smaller and older freighters, were shepherded across deep space by three new and very powerful space cruisers. They journeyed to the other five worlds discovered by their space fleet; already a few hardy Magentan were living there, ones who had journeyed to the planets over the years following their discovery. Their task had been to prepare the planets for a steady stream of colonists, these people had worked hard, and finally the planets were ready to receive the colonists. These worlds would slowly grow into thriving worlds, however, there would have to make many compromises to build a new life on these planets, for those chosen to go there. However, they had given the chance of life over death to their descendants, and the colonists thought the compromises worth making.

The majority of the Magentan nation would be forced to stay on their home world, and as the time of the destruction of their planet grew ever nearer, the people began to embrace a new religion, one that sped around the planet. It told them how the people would all perish when the rogue planet finally destroyed their world, only to be reborn on another world, a world fit for the new rulers of the galaxy.

The three giant arks were in the final phase of their construction, and as each one was completed, it journeyed to one of the five recently colonised planets. However, it would never land on any of these planets; instead, each of these starships would go into orbit around one of the new colony planets, and wait there until called upon to travel to their new home planet, when they eventually found one. These three starships carried the hopes of the Magentan nation within them in the form of one million frozen embryos, President Mortise prayed that they would find a new home world in which the embryos could be born in, Phairlis had no such fears, for he had found his new home world. However, that would all happen in the future.

During this time one of the automated space probes did find another suitable planet, unfortunately it had a space faring people living upon it, and before it could transmit back to Magenta, the space fleet of this world destroyed the probe, for the rulers of this planet were of a similar nature to the Magentans who backed Phairlis. Another of the probes developed engine trouble, just as it passed by a large red sun; it ceased its transmissions well before it plunged into the red sun.

That left only two remaining probes to carry on the task of exploring deep space, each one looking for the perfect world for the Magentan people, each one failing to do so, but still they carried on the search.

**********

President Mortise asked his friend Doctor Baris to once again come to his private study; he needed to speak to someone whom he knew that he could trust, and to whom he could ask to undertake a very perilous task. A favourite piece of music was playing, quite loudly, which made Baris look at his friend quizzically. Mortise managed a weak smile as he waved Baris to a comfortable chair near to his own.

"Thank you for joining me my friend, I have something to request to make of you, but first have a drink with me, it is a particularly good wine that I have been saving to celebrate my retirement, when that day comes. However, I now fear that I will have nothing to celebrate, only mourn." President Mortice said quietly to his friend. He then opened a bottle of wine and filled two glasses almost to the top.

The music meant that Baris had to strain to hear what his friend was saying, but he did not mention it, instead he wondered if his friend feared that an enemy might overhear them.

"It must be a grave request Mr President, if I need this much wine to help me to agree to it?" Baris said quizzically.

"It is Doctor, and made at a very important time in the lives of all Magentans." President Mortise said, and he took a large mouthful of wine before continuing.

"Doctor, I fear that we are making a terrible mistake by agreeing to Consul Phairlis`s proposal, but I see no way out of the situation that does not bring about the downfall of this government, and then see Phairlis being installed by the mob. If I remain in power, at least I can regulate our actions on the sixth planet, to some extent, and stop them from escalating to higher levels of malevolence. So, I have asked you here to beg a favour of you on behalf of our people and those of the sixth planet." Mortise explained grimly.

"Mr President, I immediately realised why you surrendered to the extremists led by Phairlis, and I stand firmly behind your decision. Now tell me, in what way can I assist you in your quest?" Baris replied quizzically.

"Some of the important posts amongst the Magentan starships now being readied for the trip to the sixth planet are still not filled. This is because I have asked those within our fleet to allow me to choose who I want to fill them, secretly, without anyone knowing of my involvement." Mortise began and he looked his friend in the eye when he continued. "Mikel, I want you to travel to the sixth planet with Consul Phairlis, and in the capacity as chief medical director, you would be in charge of not only all things medical, but also of the cloning program. When you get there, I want you to stop this genocidal madness in whatever way you find possible, or at least delay it until one of the automated space probes can find a new world, one devoid of any intelligent life, one which we can colonise without resorting to mass murder on a planetary scale." Mortise said grim faced. "Mikel, I have already asked others to help me in this task, to assist you, however, I need you there to oversee the whole operation, and so, will you do it?"

Baris was stunned by the president`s words, and he took a long moment to think the matter through before replying. "Of course, I will go, Mr President." Once he had accepted this impossible task, he felt better, if a little daunted by the nature of the task asked of him, for he foresaw the need for violence against other Magentans, if he was to be successful in the task set him. "You say you have asked others to help us stop this madness, may I know who they are?" Baris asked.

"The first person is a member of our special assignments squadron, Commander Petras Furling. He contacted me to tell of his own misgivings about the madness that Consul Phairlis wants to impose on us, and he too thinks that we attempt to stop it from going ahead. His squad have also agreed to fight with him, although they will all be operating in different parts of the planet. The other person is known to you, Redh Madr, a very competent individual who has long fought for the underdog." Mortise replied grimly.

"Redh Madr, I thought that he was on the council of the Chosen Ones, Mr President?" Baris asked quizzically.

"He is, at my request, even as they evolved we both saw that they would become a problem, and Madr agreed to my request that he join their crusade, as they call it, and they snapped him up because of who he is." Mortise replied with a slight smile appearing on his face.

"Then he is indeed a very valuable asset to our own crusade, however, how do you know whether you can trust Furling and his team, Mr President, he or one of his team could easily betray us to Consul Phairlis?" Baris asked quizzically.

"No, Doctor, of that I am certain, for Furling and I are old friends, we have often spoken on matters of local and national importance, I trust him as much as I trust you my friend. He has also guaranteed the loyalty of his team, and that is good enough for me." Mortise replied and smiling at Baris refilled his friend`s glass.

"In fact, you can speak to him yourself, so as to get a feel for the man, both Furling and Madr are waiting in the next room, come this way my friend, and meet two of the few sane people left on our world.

***********

The time for waiting was finally over for the Chosen Ones, now the time for action had arrived. One of the new space cruisers led a myriad of ships, new and old, towards the unsuspecting sixth planet; the crews aboard the convoy of starships were in cryogenic stasis for most of this time, only awoken as they approached the Sol solar system. Initially only those necessary to pilot their ships and man the engineering had been awakened, but the remainder of the Magentans, over four thousand beings, would be awakened as and when needed, this helped keep the drain on their supplies to a minimum. This group consisted mainly of scientists and the military, more of their race would follow, when necessary, but for now, they waited upon their home world, praying to god for his help in this terrible time. The fleet finally arrived in the Sol solar system and Phairlis decided to transfer from his private starship over to the space cruiser Constellation, which would be staying there until ordered to return home. As soon as they arrived, Phairlis began to give his orders.

"Captain, please take the fleet into a parking orbit around the blue-green gas giant that the inhabitants of the system call Uranus, make sure that we are on its far side as seen from the sixth planet, whose inhabitants have named Earth. In this way our fleet will not be seen by any of their astronomers." Consul Phairlis ordered.

The Magentan space cruisers, and a few of the more modern starships, did possess cloaking technology, however it used a lot of energy, and so Consul Phairlis used it conservatively. However, the majority of the fleet did not possess this technology, and so they would serve only as bases upon which their people could wait until called to Earth, or one of the other inner planets of this planetary system.

The Magentans needed to ensure that Mankind`s end came in an orderly way, so as to ensure that the planet was ready for its new rulers, and not destroyed either by some nuclear holocaust or a particular nasty virulent disease, waiting patiently for new life forms to slay. Therefore, the government had consulted with the military and the scientists of Magenta to make a phased plan of campaign, and one that President Mortise could sign off on, not the genocidal plans of a lunatic. What plans Phairlis had made he kept to himself, only the future would reveal them.

During the first phase of the operation, some five months before the sailing of the main fleet, they had despatched a number of reconnaissance teams to the more powerful countries on the planet Earth, these teams would pave the way for the future invasion of Earth. They travelled to Earth in the Ground Attack Ship Magenta, constructed for just this sort of work, and it too possessed the cloaking technology. The Magentan reconnaissance teams were in cloned human bodies, fully adult, but with the mind of an alien transferred into them; this allowed them to walk freely amongst the humans. The human DNA necessary for cloning having been obtained earlier by the survey teams despatched by Consul Phairlis. The teams were to build a series of bases amongst the humans, and when the time came to put into operation the future phases of their plan, the Magentans would operate out of these bases, secure against the local intelligence networks.

**********

While the reconnaissance teams worked tirelessly on Earth, the rest of the fleet initially had other plans, they had begun phase two of the invasion. Phase two was the covert invasion of the other planets of the Sol solar system by the Magentan people.

"Captain inform the fleet that the space cruiser Constellation, the medical research ship Endeavour, and the cryo-storage starship Future, are now moving onto the planet known locally as Mars, phase two of our plan is about to be put into operation." Consul Phairlis ordered.

One minute later, the large space cruiser Constellation moved out of its orbit around Uranus, followed by the research ship Endeavour, and lastly the cryo-storage starship Future. Their destination was Mars, the Constellation and the Endeavour with their cloaking mechanisms switched on. Hidden by the cloaking mechanism of the Constellation was the cryo-storage starship Future. The clones who would operate the Mars base, and those upon the Moon, were aboard this craft, still 'unborn.' The Magentans who would have their minds transferred to the clones were also aboard the Future, their bodies frozen in cryogenic stasis, they would remain so until they were called upon to begin their designated task.

Chapter Two

Mars

It was the year 2075; Earth had now developed an EmDrive powered spacecraft that cut down the journey time between the planets. The international community had decided to build a permanent base on Mars, following their successful bases on the Moon, now that the journey time had been shortened to just ten weeks. Space suits were still necessary of course on either the Moon or on Mars, for on the Moon the temperature ranges from +123 to -153 degrees centigrade and the atmosphere is all but non-existent. On Mars, the temperature differences are not so extreme, but temperature can fall to -153 degrees centigrade at the poles, and the air pressure for all practical purposes is also non-existent.

There is also the problem of radiation; both from the sun and the cosmos, and at one time this would have severely restricted the time that Man could be away from the habitats on either world, now though the new space suits protected the frail human body from such harm. The new advanced space suits now meant that the teams on Mars could be away from the habitat for trips to the Valles Marineris or the massive shield volcanoes of Mars, or during the search for water, or most importantly Martian life, in any form.

To combat the problems associated with gravity on Mars and the Moon, they wore weighted clothing, the teams also exercised as much as possible, but even with these measures; the problems do not fully go away. There were also the health problems associated with the body`s internal organs, they too are affected by the reduced gravity on Mars and the Moon, and weighted clothing and exercise would not help keep these working efficiently, they only helped the body`s muscles and bones. This was one reason why each month there were rigorous checks on the health of all the crew. This ensured that health problems were caught before they developed into something serious. A moon shuttle travelled between the Earth and the Moon once a month; on Mars, it was to be once a year, exploring space in the late twenty first century was still a dangerous occupation.

**********

The spacecraft, Mars Colony One, was midway between Earth and Mars, everything was going as planned, and most of the crew were about to turn in for the night, only one of the two astronauts would stay awake to ensure that there were no problems. In the craft, as well as the two astronauts who were in command of the spacecraft, there were two engineers who initially were in charge of assembling the gigantic Mechano set awaiting them on Mars, one medical doctor, and three scientists, including one, Doctor Swenson, who was the leader of the new colony. Their first task was to prepare the living habitats for themselves and those aboard the larger Mars Colony Two, which had just now left Earth orbit on its way to Mars, aboard it, were two other astronauts and eighteen scientists. Six months ago, four supply ships had landed upon Mars, they carried everything necessary to ensure the colonisation was a success; they were parked on the cold surface of Mars patiently waiting the arrival of the Mars team.

Astronaut Johnny Pearson had almost completed his list of instrument checks when all of the screens on the small bridge blanked out for a second, and when they came back on they were full of interference. Astronaut Bob Willey was sitting him next to him and he complained loudly as the craft`s speakers came to life; however, it was not with information but with a loud crackling noise, he quickly adjusted the volume control and breathed a sigh of relief when he had brought the noise down to just a whisper.

"What the hell Johnny, Earth did not mention any Solar activity in their last report, did they?" Willey asked looking across at his friend, although he already knew the answer, for his friend and fellow astronaut would have told him if a solar storm was about to hit them.

"No, Bob, I think I might just have mentioned it if they had." Pearson said looking at his friend in disbelief.

"What the hell is wrong with our instrumentation, it has all gone haywire back here?" Doctor Swenson had appeared behind them, and from his tone, he seemed to be blaming the two astronauts.

"It appears to be communications and our external sensors that are mainly affected, Doctor, however, none of the systems seem to be totally unaffected by whatever is causing the problem." Pearson replied. "I am trying to find the cause of it now, but to tell you the truth I am baffled, it must be some sort of radiation. However, the internal monitors are not recording anything other than the usual background stuff, so I will have to get back to you after I have checked it out."

**********

On the bridge of the Magentan space cruiser, Constellation, Consul Phairlis looked up at the large view screen set forward and above the cruiser`s bridge, he was watching as the small Mars Colony One space craft unknowingly approached the giant space cruiser, Constellation. He smiled, for Phase Two was about to be put into operation, the launching of his fleet had been timed to allow the Magentans to intercept Mars Colony One at just this point in space. He wondered how the earthlings were coping with the interference his powerful space cruiser was sending their way, not very successfully he thought.

Captain Lorinson, captain of the Constellation looked quickly in the direction of his mission leader, Consul Phairlis, and then he called out to one of his officers. "Science Officer Malin, begin recording the data stream they are currently sending to Earth, especially the one regarding the health of the crew."

Five minutes later Lorinson turned to his weapons officer. "Weapons Officer Rephus, destroy the main communications array on the hull of their quaint little craft." Lorinson ordered.

Rephus smiled, this was the part he liked best, operating the ship`s main weapons, its Phasers. He now targeted the main communications array on the outer hull of Mars Colony One, and locked on to it, his fingers moved across the computer screen and touched the fire controls that immediately came to life; he then instructed the computer to fire a one-second low energy burst at the target. The secondary energy weapon aboard the Constellation sent a short bolt of energy between the two vessels, and it hit the communications array, destroying it instantly in a brilliant flash of light.

Within the space craft Mars Colony One, everyone not sitting down, or laying down on their space cots, was thrown violently against whatever solid object was in the way, bringing forth a multitude of oaths, as the destruction on the outer surface of their craft caused the ship`s computer to register the destruction.

"What the hell!" Astronaut Johnny Pearson exclaimed. "Bob, we must have been hit by one hell of a meteorite, have we been holed?" he asked his co-pilot.

"No Johnny, there has been no drop in our air pressure, but our communications are now definitely out, see here." Astronaut Bob Willey replied while pointing at the main computer screen before them. A short message had appeared on the screen. 'Communications are no longer available; it has been disrupted at the main communications array. Repairs to the system are necessary, if you require this facility.'

Meanwhile on the Magentan space cruiser Constellation, Captain Lorinson spoke to his Science Officer again. "Science Officer Malin, please take control of the Earth ship`s computer, ensure that Earth does not know when we operate the airlocks on their vessel, or of our sonic attack on their crew. Then replace the current health data stream of the Earth ship`s crew with the recording you made, we do not want Earth to worry unduly about the fate of their people. Tell me when you are done." This data was sent to Earth via a secondary communication`s array on the Earth spaceship and was linked up to the computer on the small craft.

"Yes, Captain, I am taking over their computer system now." Malin replied, and began his planned invasion of the Mars Colony One`s computers. Earth would register his intrusion as a power surge, however, apart from that Earth would only learn what Malin permitted them to know. Moments later Malin called across to his captain. "It is done Captain."

Captain Lorinson now turned to another of his bridge officers. "Weapons Officer Rephus, please have the intercraft sonic weapon send a twenty second burst across to the Earth craft." Lorinson ordered.

Weapons Officer Rephus tapped his computer screen and a message appeared on the screen. 'Warning sonic weapon is now ready for use.' Rephus smiled when he read the message, it was a particularly nasty weapon, but one that did not have to destroy the enemy`s hardware to bring them to its knees, Rephus now instructed the computer to operate the weapon.

The computer immediately sent him a warning message on his computer screen. 'Warning the intercraft sonic weapon will operate in five seconds.' The computer screen then began to count down to zero.

Rephus was an impatient man, and he wanted to swear at his computer for telling him what he already knew, but with so many senior men on the bridge, he dare not, not in front of the Consul.

The sonic weapon was in fact a computer program that used the victim`s own computer to send out a blast of sound at a certain frequency, one which the humans aboard Mars Colony One were about to experience.

On Mars Colony One, every speaker in the ship suddenly came to life; a deafening screaming high-pitched noise filled the entire craft with a mind-numbing sound. Even the speakers that Willey had turned down exploded with sound at full volume. The eight-person crew screamed out in pain and clamped their hands tightly over their ears in a desperate attempt to keep out the noise. Their faces twisted in pain, unfortunately, they found it impossible to stop the noise from filling their head with its message of agonising torture, unable even to look for the cause, all they could do was scream.

On the Constellation, Weapons Officer Rephus wondered how the crew were bearing up aboard the small enemy vessel, his computer had been pre-set to fire a twenty second burst of agonising sound within the spacecraft. It would be a living hell aboard the small interplanetary craft, and as Malin controlled their computer, he also controlled their speaker systems.

Science Officer Malin looked up at Lorinson. "Captain, my scans show that they are all unconscious." Thanks to Malin`s prior work, Earth never learnt of the sonic attack, back on Earth their own computers were telling them that apart from the radio silence, all was well aboard the small craft. Consul Phairlis smiled in satisfaction, for everything had gone according to plan, the next part of the operation could now begin.

"First Officer Tarlson, manoeuvre us so that we can connect to their airlock, then arrange to have the transfer tunnel connected between the two craft." Captain Lorinson ordered.

The space cruiser Constellation now manoeuvred until its main airlock was opposite the smaller one on Mars Colony One. Then the transfer tunnel moved out from the side of the larger craft towards the smaller craft. Once in position it clamped around the air lock of the Earth ship. Captain Lorinson now contacted his head of security.

"Send the boarding party across Commander Petravein."

A dozen men armed only with stretchers moved across the transfer tunnel, and after opening the airlock at the other end, they boarded the small craft. They now began to bring its crew back aboard the large space cruiser, the crew lying unconscious upon the stretchers; allowing the next part of the plan to begin.

The eight members of the crew of the Earth craft were brainwashed, and within a short time, they were fully under the control of the aliens, and with no memory of the agonising sonic attack.

**********

Back at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston, the operatives within the NASA mission control Center quietly panicked when they lost radio contact with the Mars Colony One spacecraft, although an outsider would never have known. Most of the other instrumentation aboard the craft was still working, constantly sending back data via a secondary system, it told them that the craft was still intact, that the air pressure was normal, and the computers and other systems were working. Their own instrumentation told them that the problem was to do with the main communications array, making contact with the crew impossible. However, they noted that the computer system that kept track of the individual crewmembers had not gone off line; the crew still seemed to be in perfect health. A few of the other minor systems had stopped sending their data; however, they put it down to the power surge that they noted only moments after the initial problem began.

NASA knew that the crew aboard the Mars craft had trained for just such an emergency, and would be putting this training into operation right now. If they could repair the fault, they would regain contact with Earth, otherwise the men and women of NASA would have to wait anxiously until the crew contacted them from the back up communications centre waiting on Mars, aboard one of the supply vessels. It meant more work for the crew but not too much, the descent in the Mars Lander was always going to be controlled by the two astronauts aboard the ship, the time lag between Earth and Mars was simply too long to allow Houston to be able to control the landing of the craft successfully.

**********

Before the crew of Mars Colony One returned to their small craft, they each had a sample of their DNA taken. On returning to their small craft they crawled in to their small cots and went to sleep; they awoke the next day to find that they could remember nothing of the last twenty-four hours. However, their mind conditioning meant that they disregarded this important fact, in any case, they appeared to be fine now, and so they went about their duties oblivious to their new allegiance. Malin returned control of the craft`s computers back to them, and all Earth noticed during this change over was a half second flicker on their monitors.

The next day Astronaut Johnny Pearson was sitting on the bridge when a pain shot through his brain, he fought back a scream, and just for a second, he saw the figure of one of the grey aliens dressed in a white laboratory coat leaning over him. He struck out at him, but his arm sailed through the alien, and then the figure disappeared, he was once again alone on the bridge. Breathing hard, he looked around to see if any of the others had noticed the episode, thankfully they were all too engrossed with other things. He wondered what NASA would have said if their communications were still operational, they would certainly have asked questions about his increased heart rate, and the sweat that had broken out all over his body. He was asking questions of himself, what the hell had happened to him, would it happen again at a crucial point in their landing upon Mars.

Anne Ross woke that night screaming, her screams waking all the others aboard the spacecraft.

"Anne it was just a nightmare, you`re ok." Maria Michelides said to her, she was the first person to enter the ultra-small cabin that Anne slept in, and the last to leave when they realized that everything was all right.

Anne held on to her friend`s arm, and when they were alone she told her friend of her nightmare. "Maria, it felt so real, I saw these aliens looking down at me, they had fixed some sort of a device around my head, and all I could hear was this high-pitched ear shattering noise."

"You read far too much science fiction Anne; from now on I would stick to the real thing." Maria advised her, but she could not hold back a smile. "Little grey aliens, you are lucky that you are already on Mars Colony One, because they would not have let you within a mile of it, if they thought you the type to see little grey aliens."

"Maria, why did you say that they were small and grey?" Anne asked quizzically.

"Aren`t they always small and grey, in all of the abduction tales?" Maria replied with a half-smile playing around her lips. "Why, is that how you saw them in your nightmare Anne?" Maria asked with a little giggle escaping from her mouth.

"OK, Maria, and yes they were the usual greys, I guess I just need to get out of this sardine can and go for a nice long walk, even if it is in a space suit." Anne replied with a laugh.

**********

The next two days went by quickly, now their whole attention was on the red planet that filled the view screen. Then came the time for them to move into the Mars Lander, this was potentially one of the most dangerous parts of their whole journey, the landing on Mars.

However, the Mars Lander did successfully land on Mars, with just the hint of a thump and a wobble as it hit the ground. After system checks the two astronauts immediately hiked across to the first of the supply vessels, surmounted by a gigantic parachute that had settled right on top of it. It took them thirty hard minutes to set up the communications centre, and then they contacted Earth to set Houston`s minds at rest.

The next task was for the crew to set about their business of readying the living habitat that comprised the sleeping quarters, the galley, the main living area, the stores and finally the shower and toilet area. The scientific laboratories were set apart from the habitat, for safety reasons, connected to it by a flexible tunnel.

Multi junction solar power cells provided the power to the colony; they constantly recharged a number of large rechargeable lithium ion batteries that provided the colony with ample power during the Martian night.

During the first Martian night, the Magentans brought up a small special operations command craft, one specially designed to create an artificial crater in the surface of whichever planet, moon or asteroid it was to land. It then landed within the crater, and the crater and the starship were covered with the Martian soil to hide it away from any inquisitive eyes. The Magentans used this craft as a base to control the humans and their contact with Earth.

The Mars Colony Two Lander arrived on schedule, and without any problems occurring to their mother ship`s communications array, however as soon as they arrived on Mars, the colony began to experience some interference with their radio communications. Solar flares were the cause, according to Earth, as some were erupting on the surface of the sun at that time. In fact, it was the Magentans who were causing the interference, and this now allowed them to use their sonic weapon again, this time against the Mars Colony Two team, who were then brainwashed, all the members of the colony were now under the control of the aliens.

The Mars team never realized what had happening to them, or what was happening to them in the here and now, their eyes failed to register, or just disregarded, the headsets packed away amongst their personal possessions, headsets that were in fact part of the mind scanning technology used by the aliens. They did not even realize that they put them on each night and stored them away each morning. Once a day, when they retired for the night, each of them had more and more of their personal memories identified by a mind scanner and recorded. A new batch of alien clones were being created aboard the Endeavour, the aliens were using the DNA taken from the earth people to make exact copies of the members of the Mars Colony team. It was these clones who would make use of the data stolen from the earth people on Mars.

Astronaut Johnny Pearson certainly never dreamed that anything was wrong; his mind dwelt only upon the wonder of being part of Mankind's colonisation of another world. It was while he was away from the habitat that his feeling of wonder ended for him. He was inside one of the two vehicles that they used to travel in when they needed to go beyond the horizon, the vehicles resembled a large Snow cat, but one whose interior was fitted out to resemble that of a camper van, and was called a Mars Cat by the team. He was on the way back to the habitat with three of the team's scientists; they had visited Olympus Mons, one of the large shield volcanoes on Mars. With him on the trip were Doctor Marlin Prentis, a geologist, Doctor Anne Ross, a botanist, and Doctor Alex McIntosh, a biologist. They had stopped for the night and Ross and McIntosh were already in their cots asleep, for it had been a tiring trip. However, the connection from the solar panels to the large rechargeable lithium ion battery was faulty. Pearson was the only one who was able to fix this particular problem, and he was almost finished, laying on his back while he tried to manoeuvre his hand around a support.

"I just need to finish up reconnecting the battery Marlin, and then I am going to sleep." Pearson said.

"Okay, Johnny." Prentis said as he pulled out two more sleeping cots, he also wanted an early night, so as to be fresh for the morning`s work.

Pearson reached for his screwdriver and looked across at the scientist, Pearson was normally careful around live electrical objects, however this time his attention was caught by a bright light in the sky.

"What on Earth is...?" Pearson cried out in pain, he had inadvertently touched the live positive terminal on the battery, and it now reminded him to be more careful by zapping him with 120 volts.

Pearson`s head moved up and away from the battery and collided even more painfully with the edge of the only table in the room, he screamed out in pain once again and slumped to the floor. He was not unconscious though, merely stunned, and he rubbed his head with his uninjured hand to try to alleviate that pain while blowing on his injured hand to try to lessen the pain there.

"Are you OK, Johnny?" Prentis called out as he scrambled from his cot.

Pearson got up from the floor and walked over to the small sink, there he turned on the tap and put his burnt finger under the cold water that poured out in a trickle. He had forgotten the bright light in the sky, which was in fact Jupiter, all he now thought about was sleep.

"Ah, that feels better." Pearson sighed before answering Prentis. "I am fine Marlin, I think; it was my own fault for not paying attention to my work. Go back to bed while I finish fixing the battery, only this time without the electric shock." Johnny replied, and five minutes later, he too was climbing into his cot.

They awoke to find the sky above this part of Mars exceptionally clear; it heralded an easy journey back to the habitat. They finally sighted the habitat just as the sun was setting, and as they neared the habitat Pearson stopped the vehicle and sat in the driver`s seat stunned, for now the sun was setting, one of the aliens was out and about. The alien was in a Magentan space suit, which was remarkably similar to the ones Pearson and Prentis used earlier that day. Therefore, it had taken Pearson a moment to realise that the person in the suit was small and grey.

"What`s up Johnny, why have we stopped?" Prentis asked quizzically, he was sitting up front with Pearson.

Pearson looked across at Prentis to ask him if he too saw the alien, but as Prentis made no sign of seeing it, Pearson asked his question in a different way. "The old habitat seems different tonight, I am not sure just how, just different." Pearson said while looking hard at Prentis for some sort of reaction to the alien.

"No, Johnny, it looks to be just the same old dusty place." Prentis replied. Pearson did not reply to his colleague`s answer, he was far too puzzled. 'Am I having a hallucination?' Pearson thought. 'Is this some kind of Mars madness that will slowly but surely affect the other members of the team?' The other two members of the team certainly had not mentioned seeing the alien.

Pearson parked the Mars Cat in its regular parking spot, and after putting on his space suit followed the others past the alien and into the habitat via the main airlock. Pearson could not help staring at two more aliens, who were inside the habitat, and now they noticed his stunned staring eyes, locked upon them as he walked through the airlock. Pearson shrugged off his space suit as soon as he was safely within the habitat, but for the moment, he dared not voice his alarm at what he was seeing, for he knew that his fellow team members would definitely call for the doctor. His indecision did not last long though; Pearson soon came to his senses and looked around for Doctor Marshall, the medical doctor who kept the team healthy. He finally saw him as the doctor walked into the main area of the habitat, and Pearson followed Doctor Marshall into the small clinic, because he needed to speak to the doctor about his 'hallucinations' urgently, for what else could they be?

The two aliens followed Pearson into the clinic, unseen by anyone else, including Pearson as they were directly behind him. Doctor Marshall had just sat down behind his desk, he looked up expectantly as he saw Pearson enter and close the door, Pearson almost choking himself as he suppressed the urge to laugh as he then saw the two aliens who had followed him in to the clinic.

"Doc, I think that I am going loopy, I can see little grey aliens, both inside and outside of the habitat, my god I can even see two of them standing beside me; you have got to help me!" Pearson exclaimed in a strained whisper, as if he did not want his fellow team members to overhear him just yet, although this was unlikely as the clinic was sound proof anyway, to some extent.

As Doctor Marshall looked up at him, expecting to see a smile appear on the astronaut`s face, for Pearson was known to be a jokester, the two aliens sprayed a gas into the small enclose space that made up the clinic and then moved forward to catch the falling astronaut. Doctor Marshall simply fell asleep at his desk, oblivious to everything that then happened within his small clinic.

Five minutes passed by with the two aliens sending a message to the command craft, and then another alien entered the small clinic, the one that Pearson had seen outside of the habitat. This made the confined space in the clinic seem all the smaller, almost claustrophobic, although the two earthmen did not notice. The third alien had brought along a portable version of the brainwashing machine. Part of the machine was a helmet that resembled those worn by a motor cyclist, even down to the visor. It had an electrical cable connecting it to the main part of the machine, a row of lights went across the front of the helmet, just above the face of wearer, and this told the operator how far along the program had reached in its brainwashing operation. The third alien now put this helmet, on to Pearson's head, the scene looking like something out of a Doctor Who episode. He then turned on the device with the flick of a switch, the helmet began to run its program, an angry and loud buzzing noise emanating from it, and they brainwashed the astronaut once again. Outside the clinic, the humans did not notice the loud buzzing noise, as the clinic was just about soundproof, they just continued with whatever they were busy doing. When Pearson woke up, sitting in the second of the chairs within the clinic, he remembered only that he had been passing the time of day with the doctor, which is what the doctor also remembered.

The incident with Pearson had been anticipated by the aliens, not particularly with Pearson, but with any one of the Mars team, they had discounted it as a major problem as whichever member of the Mars team managed to overcome their conditioning, they would soon make the fact known to the aliens, as Pearson had done.

In nine months, the clones would be finally ready to replace the humans who made up the Mars Colony, during these nine months the aliens whose minds were to be put into the clones would have to learn a new language, learn how to pass as their chosen human, and learn his or her history. They would then have their mind transferred to the clone, when it would then be 'born', out of the tank where it was growing aboard the Endeavour.

Over these nine months the Mars team carried out all of their tasks without any problems occurring, the people of NASA, back on Earth, were all highly delighted, for they had expected the odd problem to occur, but then the aliens were insuring that everything went like clockwork.

Finally, the clones were ready to replace the humans on Mars; President Mortise had insisted that the human colonists were to live out their days in a camp, on Magenta, rather than killed on Mars. Consul Phairlis, however, did not want the trouble of holding on to the humans, even in cryogenic stasis, and then using a valuable starship to transport them to Magenta. When the next Martian night arrived, each human ate their space rations, rations that contained a powerful drug that ensured each of them died. The dead humans were the first people buried beneath the Martian sands; however, no ceremony commemorated this historic deed. When the sun rose the next morning, the first Mars colony was now an alien stronghold. Phairlis sent a message to Magenta.

"The human colonists are ready for transport to Magenta, but will leave only when the storage area on the starship Future is full, as it is needed here."

Only a select few Magentans knew what had really taken place, for Phairlis was not yet ready to openly disobey his government, for that was for the future.

The new alien masters of Mars already knew that the earthlings had not yet discovered the secret of artificial gravity, but they had not thought about it. The clones did though; when they entered the habitat as the earthling Mars team, for unlike their own secret base the gravity in the earthlings' habitat was not equal to that on Earth, or on Magenta. They immediately complained to Consul Phairlis about having to put up with it up until the time came for the full invasion of Earth, Phairlis decided that as many of his people would be spending a considerable amount of time on both Mars and the Moon; the earthlings must discover the secret of artificial gravity.

Doctor Swenson was a renowned research physicist, and was part of the Mars Colony team, and Phairlis decided that the honour should go to him, although he was in fact an alien physicist now living within a cloned body. His fellow scientists back on Earth were astounded when their famous colleague miraculously discovered artificial gravity. Time magazine put his photograph on the front cover of their magazine, and printed an article telling of his career. The scientists of NASA took a little time to go over his paper, which came complete with the blueprints necessary to build a unit, and they finally concurred with their esteemed colleague. NASA had a prototype unit built, and finding that it worked beyond their highest expectations, they decide to send the prototype of the artificial gravity machine aboard the next supply ship destined for the next Mars team. It came to them, as a DIY kit, for assembly by the Mars team, the citizens of Earth now experience a feeling of well-being, they were indeed a space-pioneering civilisation, and Star Trek would soon be a reality.

**********

While the people of Earth were oblivious to the alien world that threatened their very existence, Consul Phairlis despatched additional cloned aliens to Earth to increase the number of bases from which phase three of his invasion would begin.

They needed to be able to purchase goods and property as citizens of the various countries of Earth that they were based in, and so they took with then a large supply of gold and diamonds to barter for the local currency. One such group was operating in the United States of America, their chosen base was to be in Texas, the city of Houston from here they would attempt to infiltrate and take over the NASA Space Center.

To make all of their future operations run smoothly, and without the chance of the authorities uncovering their presence, they kidnapped and brainwashed a leading accountant, for he would know what paperwork was necessary for them to become good American citizens. As he identified others who they would need to fabricate their history, both personal and for the IRS, so more people were brainwashed and made to work for the alien team. The identities of various dropouts were stolen and the victims disposed of, the operation was a complete success.

Soon clones would replace the accountant and the other humans who had helped, but that was for the future, all the aliens needed now was the necessary paperwork to allow the alien clones to purchase various properties, or to get employment in and around Houston and Austin.

A small-disused ready-mix concrete works set in the outskirts of Austin was one of the most important properties purchased. Here, they refined and produced the chemical Trichlorian Plus, and it was from here that its distribution would be undertaken, a chemical that would make all the men in Northern America infertile.

***********

Even while the foundations for phase three were being put into place, the next part of phase two of the Magentan invasion was about to proceed. It called for the small invading force to take over the bases on the Moon, with this in mind Consul Phairlis moved the space cruiser Constellation, along with the research ship Endeavour, and the cryo-storage starship Future, forward to orbit the Moon. The small outlying bases were the first bases taken, and no one noticed when contact was lost with them, for it happened at times. Mostly through system failures; caused by a multitude of reasons, but for no more than two hours at most, so the initial attack on each of the outlying bases was timed to last for just two hours, and so went unnoticed by Earth or Moon Base Central. The sonic weapon knocked the humans out, and then they were brainwashed, soon the off-world bases were all controlled by the aliens. They replaced the first of the personnel based on the Moon with clones, after nine months, when the clones were familiar with their new persona. There were no mishaps to the smooth running of the operation, as had occurred with Pearson, although the aliens did keep a close watch upon the Moon base personnel.

**********

It was late spring 2078 on Earth, the first of the clones who replaced the humans on the Moon were on Earth, meeting their 'families and friends' for the first time. It soon becomes apparent to their new families and friends that something was different about them, the wives and husbands were the first to notice it, and the number of broken marriages within the astronaut fraternity began to rise.

Chapter Three

Earth

It was mid-summer 2078; three years had passed by since the members of Mars Colony One and Two landed on Mars, the people of Earth saw it as a great leap forward for Mankind. Now the alien clones who replaced them were on Earth, and they had arrived back to a hero's welcome, for a replacement team had taken their place on Mars. They too were brainwashed in preparation for more of the cloned aliens to take their place. The Magentans now looked to initiate phase three of their plan to invade Earth, and so they began to expand their operations on Earth. Their aim was to take control of the space agencies, the military and politicians of Earth. The first target for the North American team was NASA, via the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

**********

Sally Jameson was a microbiologist who worked at the Space Center, a young woman held in quite high regard by her fellow scientists who saw her as a hardworking and very able microbiologist. She had been working at NASA for five years, ever since leaving Harvard University, and she had never regretted coming to work in such an exciting workplace. She was quite good looking, dressed as well as she could afford to, she took care of her appearance and got many a glance from passing males. However, Sally was thought to be a little strange by those who knew her, for she was a huge fan of anything and everything to do with UFO`S. She said that she once saw one in the night sky over Cape Kennedy, it was while she was on a short break there, however, no one else saw it, or at least admitted to seeing it. Privately, some of the pilots of NASA had also admitted to seeing unidentified flying objects, ones that appeared and disappeared at speed, however, they mostly never mentioned them; they liked their jobs too much to risk losing them. Sally`s belief in UFO`s, and that aliens from other worlds walked amongst them, had embarrassed her on more than one occasion. Once she imagined that the mailman was an alien, however, she later discovered that he was from Lithuania and not from Alpha Centauri. Thankfully, she had kept this thought a secret from everyone except her best friend, who teased her about it for months afterwards. This morning she was sitting in her laboratory talking to a colleague, Colin Braun, he was another microbiologist, one slightly her senior, but only by two months. Braun fancied her rotten; however, up until now he had been too shy to do anything about it.

Sally had noticed subtle changes amongst the people of NASA who were returning from the bases on the Moon, could they have contracted an alien virus? She wished that she had the nerve to say something about it, but surely her superiors should have noticed it by now, if they hadn`t then they would only ridicule her, she might even be sent to talk with a psychiatrist.

Sally noticed that Doctor Swenson displayed similar changes to the personnel who had returned from the Moon, and she mentioned it to Braun, fearing that she had stumbled on an unknown problem to do with humans living on another planet.

"Colin, have you noticed how Doctor Swenson seems to have lost that inner spark ever since he returned from Mars, in fact he seems to me to be just a little bored by his work now?" Sally asked while they enjoyed a coffee break, indulging in a coffee Mocha and a bagel together.

"Bored with his work, and lost his inner spark, what do you mean Sally?" Colin Braun replied quizzically, looking up, he found himself looking directing into her eyes, feeling extremely embarrassed to be caught looking at this picture of loveliness, he immediately fixed his own on his bagel. Sally smiled at this, if only he was not so shy she might even fancy him.

"Well before the Mars trip he was always willing to join in some of the weekend activities, go hiking, swimming, but now he works ever shorter hours and never smiles, and he only appears to have time for those who have been into space, it is almost as if he were a different person." Sally replied.

"Maybe the Mars trip took it out of him, or maybe it was his home life that suffered, not everyone is happy to be away from their partner for over three years, and anyway, lost his inner spark? He did just invent artificial gravity, and it was while he was on Mars, I hardly call that losing his spark. Maybe he is finding it difficult to top it, I mean it must be really hard for him to come up with a discovery even on a par with artificial gravity." Colin replied incredulously.

"I know that Colin, but it has been three months since he returned to Earth, and it is since his return from Mars that he seems to be more introverted, and he`s not the only one. The Mars trip seems to have changed Doctor Marshall, he too seems to be rather introverted these days; I hope it is not catching Colin, some sort of alien virus." Sally replied. She looked at Colin until she found his eyes." I am quite serious Colin; in fact, I have worried about it for some time now, I first noticed it on the people returning from the Moon." Sally added, and Colin of course examined what was left of his bagel.

"Colin, they may even have been affected by the high levels of the radiation outside of our cosy atmosphere." Sally stopped here to consider this, and having done so was about to continue with her supposition when she was rudely interrupted.

The interruption was in the form of a tall muscular laboratory technician, Ralph Mandelson, who had walked into their laboratory unnoticed, he had been listening to their conversation and growing more concerned the more that he listened to Sally. Mandelson had been employed by Swenson just two weeks ago, and in that short time Sally had felt rather uncomfortable whenever he had been around, not that he had taken much notice of her, however, he took notice of her now by including himself in their conversation.

"Doctor Swenson is one of the most brilliant minds of the twenty first century, Doctor Jameson, and I do not think that you should be casting aspersions about him." Mandelson interjected angrily.

"I was not casting aspersions on Doctor Swenson; I was merely worried about his health, and the health of others who have lived off world for an extended period of time. In any case Mandelson, when I want your advice, I will ask you for it, until then kindly mind your own business." Sally said. She was a little annoyed to have a newcomer talk to her in such a way.

"I just do not like great men, such as Doctor Swenson, being insulted, I would have thought that you would be grateful for the chance to work amongst such minds as he and many of the others here in NASA possess, rather than to sit there making rude comments about them." Mandelson replied.

Sally could see that her friend Colin was in agreement with part of what the technician had said, and this angered her even more, but she bit back an angry retort as she knew that Swenson was friendly with the technician, and she did not want this argument getting out of hand.

"Whatever, I cannot spend all my time arguing with you, please attend to your duties and allow me to get back to mine." Sally said by way of a rebuke, and she turned away from the technician and walked over to the laboratory table where her microscope was, she then peered into its eyepiece, dismissing him, but from the corner of her eye, she watched until Mandelson walked away.

Meanwhile, Colin had already buried himself in his work, he never liked to argue with anyone, and Mandelson looked too much of a handful to annoy. He now felt rather depressed, for he also realized that he had annoyed Sally by not siding with her, but really, why did she see these imaginary problems when she could not see how much he loved her?

In fact, Sally had not long broken up with her last boyfriend, and she had decided to forego any further close attachments for a while, maybe even forever. Years ago, after her first boyfriend had cheated on her; she wondered what life would be like as a nun, after each breakup the idea became ever more appealing.

Sally decided that she would have been more careful when she voiced her concerns about any of her colleagues. Had she known that Mandelson was close by she would not have spoken on the subject, for he struck her as a typical toady, a typical Stasi informer from the now defunct East Germany. Mandelson was in fact one of the first of the aliens to be given a cloned human body, sent there to spy on the humans.

Available cloned bodies were still in short supply due to problems aboard the Endeavour, problems manufactured by Doctor Baris; he had secretly adjusted the mix on half of the clones while they were still growing in their birth tanks and killed the growing body. The chemical had dissipated soon after their death and so he felt safe from exposure, and anyway, he was heading the team that was looking into the matter. Even so, he had stopped this method of sabotaging the clones, as amongst his team looking into the problem he had two very able scientists in it, ones who might catch him out should he persist.

**********

Mandelson kept a covert watch on Sally after his argument with her, it was not that he considered her a danger to the invasion, far from it, but she was a minor annoyance, and one that he was there in Houston to stamp out. To help him in this task, he wanted to get his hands on her smart phone for just a few moments, so he watched for her to put her smart phone down and forget about it while she busied herself with her job, the opening came just three days after their argument. It was moments after speaking to her parents that Sally did just such a thing, she remembered something important, an experiment that she was conducting was coming to fruition and she needed to be on hand. Moving away from her smart phone her attention was now fully on her microscope, even Colin Braun was busy elsewhere. Mandelson moved quietly up and took out of his pocket a hand-held computer of alien manufacture, he set it on top of Sally`s smart phone and waited for five seconds, he then picked his small computer up and sauntered away. He now not only had a list of her personal contacts, but he had downloaded a program into her smart phone, one that would allow him to access her phone from anywhere in the world.

**********

Over the next week or so, Sally saw other former members of the Mars` team, and her earlier thoughts did not change, there was definitely something peculiar about them, for they all appeared to be rather introverted now, except for when they were talking to their fellow astronauts.

The other thing that struck her as odd was the number of new appointments amongst the staff at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston, for as usual, expenditure had always to be justified to the oversight committee, and new staff on such a scale was not normal. As with Mandelson, she found that she could not take to any of them, she found herself watching out for them, following them with her eyes until they had gone. One other thing she now decided, she would keep all small talk for when she was away from the Space Center, away from the newcomers. She immediately thought of the mailman, well maybe he was from Earth, but what about the newcomers to NASA, they certainly had the odour of Extra Terrestrial about them, maybe Doctor Swenson and the others had been abducted and their minds changed by a fiendish alien mind bending machine?

**********

Christmas came and went, and Sally vowed to forget her fears and buckle down to work, but then the initiation of phase three of the alien invasion plan had not yet begun.

**********

Consul Phairlis sat at the end of a long table that was within the briefing room on the space Cruiser Constellation; he was addressing the senior members of the Chosen Ones, his own grand council.

"Greetings my friends on this auspicious day, for today Phase three commences, and our focus of operations will now be the humans on the surface of planet Earth. We will dramatically increase the number of humans brought under our control, and then replace them with clones, when available. The number of clones is limited now; however, it will greatly increase when our two new clone ships arrive from Magenta. This phase will allow more of our older generation to make a new life for themselves as humans, and on the planet that is to become the new home world of our people. Already we are in control of this entire planetary system, except for the third planet, with the launching of this phase; we will begin to bring this planet also under our control." Phairlis loudly declared to his audience. He smiled at his audience, only a few of them knew of his plans, these phases decided upon by the government of Magenta would indeed be useful in the long term, but his own plan was to reduce the population of Earth in the short term.

One member of this audience was Doctor Baris, he too was applauding this opening speech, but all that had occurred in this planetary system appalled him, he viewed the future operations with even greater concern, and fear. The time was not yet right to try to bring a halt to the murders of the humans, but it could not be far off. He pulled his thoughts back to the present as Consul Phairlis resumed his speech.

"We are now going to extend our teams of agents in all of our four main bases, in America, China, Europe and Russia. First, we will send invitations inviting the senior space agency people to a free weekend at one of the luxurious health spas, ones that we have set up near to each of the four space agencies. Then we will invite the senior members of their space teams, then their military, and finally their politicians, to enjoy a free weekend at these luxurious spas. We will brainwash all of them, and when our clones are ready, we will replace them. Then it will be time for us to move on to the other nations of this world, and our goal will then be in sight. Any attempt at a counter attack by the humans will be led by our own people, and it will of course fail."

**********

The New Texas Health Spa sat on the outskirts of Houston, the staff had all been called in a week before the grand re-opening to find that the new wing had been finished, it was a large prefabricated unit of two floors, although the staff only knew of the one floor, the other was hidden away under the ground. The staff were all given a welcome glass of champagne to celebrate the grand opening, they were all feeling happy after the holidays, with high hopes for their futures now that the new wing had been added, but they did think it strange that the press had not been invited. Five minutes later and the staff were all lying drugged upon the carpeted floor of the new reception area, and then brainwashed, using a fiendish alien mind bending machine. Thankfully, for these humans, clones would not replace them, the aliens simply needed to ensure that none of their staff became another Sally Jameson, although as yet she was still unknown to the Chosen Ones.

It was one week later that members of NASA`s senior staff began to receive their invitations to take a free week end break at the Texas Spa, a luxurious health spa by any standards. Normally only those who could afford its very expensive rates enjoyed its luxurious amenities, however, the NASA people enjoyed its luxurious amenities free of charge, as payment by a patriotic owner for all they were doing for the United States of America.

They entered the health spa feeling tired from their work, but a little excited by all they had heard about the many facilities offered by the spa, they returned to NASA brainwashed and part of the alien`s invasion force. Clones were already being prepared to replace them, all that kept the humans alive was time.

Sally Jameson soon noticed the change in her colleagues, the one who had received the invitations to the Texas Health Spa. Yes, the alien virus could have spread to the other workers of NASA, but then why hadn`t she caught the virus. No, she reasoned, maybe it was not an alien virus that was behind the change in the people working for NASA, maybe it was actual extra-terrestrials who were behind it! She had already voiced this fear privately, to herself when she had noticed all the new ancillary workers employed at NASA, should she now speak to Colin about voicing her fears to the FBI.

Apart from those who had travelled to Mars and the Moon, only the more senior staff were invited to the health spa, she was too junior to warrant the interest of the aliens, so far. She decided to forget her decision to say nothing about her fears when at work, she had to speak to Colin about it, but only after ensuring that they are alone. Unfortunately, unknown to Sally most parts of the Johnson Space Center were now covered by hidden CCTV cameras. The people operating the CCTV cameras were a mixture of alien clones and humans who had been brainwashed, and the cameras they watched followed anyone who had ever thought that something was wrong with the people at NASA. Mandelson having overheard Sally, they considered her a security risk, if only a minor one, until now.

"Colin, you must have noticed the way everyone is acting after they return from the health spa, surely it is not only me?" Sally asked of her friend. "They act a little like Doctor Swenson and Doctor Marshall, you know, rather introverted, although they do not appear bored with their work, unlike the Mars team, and those from the Moon. No, they are just rather lethargic, a little slower, and they take forever to accomplish the smallest of tasks." Sally explained urgently, keeping her voice down to a whisper.

"Sally, I am sure that it is all in your imagination, sure they are tired; they are working hard planning the trip to the Jovian moons, with all of the recent advances Mankind is now really going to places where no man has ever been before." Colin said dismissing her fears and getting back down to work.

Sally looked daggers at her friend and walked away angrily, it took her ten silent minutes of fuming before she could even think about resuming her work, and finally able to forget, for the moment, her fears. She did not notice the car following her home that evening, but after watching a spy movie on television that night, the next morning she was even more alert for aliens. She was sure that a grey Ford Moray followed her to work. She said nothing about it to Colin, who would simply laugh at her fears. However, on the way home that evening she saw another car following her, this time to her home, this was a Chrysler Rapide, and when she was finally standing safely behind her front door, with the door locked and bolted, fear began to eat into her. Unfortunately, this fear grew, for as she was preparing her dinner she noticed that some of the packets of the ingredients were out of their usual spot on the shelf. Her apartment had been searched, shocked she sat down to steady her jangled nerves while wondering whether she should use the ingredients, were they safe? However, she was not sure of her facts; could her mind be working overtime on her fears? Anyway, the next day neither the Ford, nor the Chrysler made an appearance, and no other vehicle followed her to or from her home.

That same morning an alien clone was just starting his new job; luckily, he was also receiving a wage from his alien superiors, for his Earth job was rather low paid, he was a security man working for the city of Houston. He sat all day looking at the CCTV monitors spread across a wall in front of him, he was bored, he much preferred to drive his second-hand Ford Moray, it had been a new experience for him, and one that he had enjoyed. He would hand over to one of his colleagues for the evening shift; he too complained that sitting behind the wheel of his Chrysler Rapide was more fun than sitting in front of a bank of monitors. However, they both had to admit that working here allowed them to snoop on so many people, all of whom were of interest to their leaders.

It was just over a week after this, on a Saturday, that Sally received her invitation to spend a free day at the Spa. She had just finished her breakfast when the mailman delivered her mail; she found the invitation when she opened her mailbox on the way to the shops, for her pantry was in need of a supply shuttle trip. When she saw the name of the spa on the envelope she flipped out, fear quickly ate its way into her stomach, she wondered whether the aliens had found out about her fears, would they now take active steps to stop her, if she did not go to the spa to be brainwashed?

She rushed round to Colin`s small apartment to discuss it with him. "Colin, why send an invitation to me, I am but a small cog in the vast wheel of NASA, they must have heard me talking to you about my fears?" Sally said anxiously, scolding herself for speaking about it at the Space Center.

Colin looked at the invitation and scowled. "Hmm, the workers only get a day while the bosses get a whole weekend, it doesn`t seem fair. Look Sally, you are getting yourself worked up over nothing, all the bigwigs in NASA have been to the spa and now maybe it is time for us smaller cogs." Colin explained in as reasonable a voice as he could muster, he was a little annoyed with Sally, for she had dragged him from his bed while still bleary eyed.

"Colin!" Sally exclaimed. "Do you really expect me to believe that load of twaddle, they know, whoever they are, and I am in real danger, who knows you could be next." Sally almost shrieked; her voice had been rising ever since she had arrived there, and Colin fully expected one of his neighbours to complain about the noise soon.

"Colin." Sally almost begged. "You have to come with me to the FBI offices, I know one of the agents there, we went to Harvard together, please Colin, it is urgent, I need you by my side." Sally implored him.

A warm glow rushed through Colin on hearing these words, 'she needed him by her side,' he repeated the words to himself, but on seeing the quizzical look upon Sally`s face, as she waited for him to come out of his dazed state, he quickly brought his mind back to her request. He could see that Sally was truly worried, and he thought that her FBI friend might get her to see sense, so he agreed, at least he was able to spend some time with her out of work, why it was almost a date, she had even confessed to needing him.

"Ok Sally, you call him while I get washed and dressed, see if he is at work today, if he is then I will drive you over there to speak with him." Colin agreed.

Sally`s friend was there, he was finishing up a report and had hoped to spend the rest of the weekend doing nothing, however, he remembered Sally and agreed to see her. He remembered her as a good-looking woman, if a little weird, one who worked hard with little time for play. He had thought of asking her out for a date at one time, however, he had not done so, apart from being just a little weird she was also too much of a nerd even for a computer geek like him. He wondered if she had changed much, probably not from the sound of it, seeing spies hiding amongst her test tubes.

One hour later saw Colin driving Sally over to the main office of the FBI in Houston, Sally had not seen Richard Mallory, to stop and speak to him, for almost five years. They had met at Harvard where they had become friends; he had studied computer science and had gone on to join the FBI. Sally had seen him occasionally as he walked towards the FBI offices, but only when she had been driving by, and so she had never resumed their friendship. As they drove, neither Sally or Colin noticed the car following them, the driver was Mandelson, he also found the vehicle that he was in very quaint, but even so he quite liked the experience, the earthlings had some things that would help him to forget Magenta, and the family that he had left behind. They were gone from him forever, for he was now a human, even if the body had grown in a tank, while his family were Magentans. However, as with many of the other clones who were not super scientists, he had been an aging soldier on Magenta, here on Earth he had a young strong body again, and the promise of a long life ahead of him.

On Magenta only the mega rich and the indispensable were able to make use of the new technique of cloning, it was far too expensive for the ordinary citizen, and in any case the government had never formerly legalised cloning, they feared a population explosion. The rogue planet had changed all of that for the lucky ones who were part of the initial invasion force.

**********

As soon as Sally and Richard had gone through the usual greetings, she told her old friend of her suspicions, although she refrained from saying that E.T. was involved, just yet.

"Richard, a large number of those who have returned from Mars, or the Moon, no longer have the time for a coffee break, they never stop in the corridors for a chat. They have also formed a clique, they speak together behind closed doors, almost never in the corridor as they used to. NASA is not a world of introverts and secret cliques, it is full of enquiring minds who go out of their way to meet and talk with others about science, any science, it does not matter which. Worst of all Richard, the work seems to bore them, bore them Richard, how when many of them are now working on the Jupiter project. I tell you they are acting strangely, there is definitely something the matter with them." Sally declared just a little fearfully. "And another thing Richard, the work of the senior echelon within NASA, those who never travelled off-world is suffering too, and it is since their little trip to the new health spa. They are lethargic; they start work much later, and finish much earlier." Sally declared.

"And someone, a technician named Mandelson probably, has told them about my fears, which he must have overheard when I mentioned them to Colin, for now they have sent an invitation to me, to visit the spa!" Sally exclaimed anxiously.

"Look Sally, first you say that your colleagues do not have time for a coffee break, and then you accuse them of working shorter hours, which is it?" Mallory asked a very annoyed Sally. He did not wait for her to answer though; he carried on with his demolition of her silly little fears, as he thought of them.

"In any case what you are describing is simply impossible; it would be far too vast an organisation, it would be impossible for any foreign government to be able to run such a large-scale network, especially unnoticed by one of our intelligence agencies." Mallory said, finishing almost apologetically when he saw her face fall.

However, Sally quickly recovered; she stood up and glowered at Mallory. "So, you refuse to do anything about it Richard, even though I have given you convincing reasons to act?" Sally asked, almost stamping her foot down in anger at his dismissive attitude towards her.

Seeing her down, then angry at him, made him feel a little off balance and then rather guilty, he had dismissed her fears out of hand, something, he felt, an agent should never do, so Mallory made a strategic retreat. "Ok Sally, I`ll tell you what, I will take a covert look around the Spa with my partner, on Monday, he is off somewhere with his girlfriend until then." Mallory said hurriedly in an effort to placate one angry woman.

Mandelson was parked a little further along the road, his people possessed a lot of very advanced technology, he had used just a little of it to access Earth`s mobile phone networks, and then he had accessed Sally`s smart phone and turned on the microphone. He listened into everything said, he heard Sally tell Mallory of her fears and the reasons behind them, he also learnt the name of the FBI agent, and where he would be on Monday. Mandelson then made a call to her phone, and when Sally took her phone out of her handbag, Mandelson used its camera to take a picture of Mallory, he now knew what the agent looked like, and this would make it easier to take him when he turned up at the spa.

In the FBI building Sally apologised for inadvertently taking Mallory`s photograph, her smart phone must be playing up, either that or she had inadvertently pressed the wrong button. She wondered if she should put him on his guard regarding the E.T. involvement, but surely, his investigation would expose them, whether terrestrial or not she argued, and so she kept her suspicions to herself. Anyway, if she mentioned aliens at any time, then he would have laughed at her, and then refused point blank to help her.

**********

"Tell me again Richard, just what are we doing here?" Tom Ballinger asked as they pulled into the car park of the luxurious New Texas Health Spa in Houston.

"Tom, it will only take an hour or so, anyway I promised Sally Jameson that I would take a look at the place." Mallory said apologetically.

"Well she sure must be a looker Richard." Ballinger replied with a grin.

"She is quite pretty Tom, no ten, more of a seven, but she is quite cute, unfortunately she is just a little too strange for me, and definitely too much for you." Mallory replied with a knowing look upon his face.

Unknown to the two agents, a camera was following their every move, Mallory was immediately recognised, it followed the two men into the foyer of the spa, and plans for Mallory and his colleague were put into operation. The two men had no idea that they were recognised, and as FBI agents, and they entered the foyer full of confidence in their abilities as experienced agents. They walked up to the reception desk, an attractive redheaded woman was sitting behind it, and she smiled at the sight of the men, her green eyes beaming out a welcome.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" The redhead asked. Her voice was low and husky, nothing remotely wrong with her Mallory thought.

"We would like to have a tour of your facilities, before we decide whether to spend a whole day here." Ballinger replied. As he looked at the receptionist, he too now felt that the day was not wasted.

"Of course, gentlemen, I will call our assistant manager, Ms Parsons, she will be glad to show you around." The redhead replied, her smile fixed upon the two agents, and making them forget just why they had come to the spa.

A tall young blond woman in her twenties came through a pair of doors and greeted the two agents; she smiled at them, and after the usual introductions led the two agents through the Spa showing off all of its amenities, although the eyes of the two agents saw only the beautiful woman who was their guide. They saw nothing unusual about the place, just as the two agents had expected, it was a health spa. Finally, they were approaching a room at the rear of the spa, Parsons opened the door and stood back to allow the two agents to enter before him. They walked into a massage room, two massage tables were in the middle of the room and two quite beautiful female masseurs looked up and smiled when they saw the two agents standing there. The two agents looked appreciatively at the two women, who both wore the shortest of hot pants, and they did not see Parsons pull out a dart gun from her bag, that she had left just inside the door. However, they heard the soft noise as the dart gun fired two darts at them, one after the other, each of the agents felt the sharp pain as the darts penetrated into the rear of their necks. They turned back towards Parsons with a quizzical look upon their faces, and then they fell heavily to the floor, unconscious. They spent the rest of the morning in the executive massage room, lying flat upon the two massage tables, and with their heads inside the fiendish alien mind bending machines.

**********

The two agents returned to the FBI building on Tuesday, however, Mallory delayed calling Sally until Wednesday.

"Sally, it`s me, Richard Mallory, I called to tell you how I got on at the spa. I went along to check out your Spa with my partner on Monday, and we watched the place for two days without seeing any sign of foreign spies. We even spent the last day enjoying its amenities, so as to fully check out the staff, your fears are groundless Sally, if I was you then I would take up their offer, it is simply a fantastic place."

"What bothers me is that they may have taken you and your partner to be just plain Joes, unworthy of their attention," Sally said, her fears still not stilled.

"You would be right Sally, however, my partner told them that we were FBI agents during the morning, while we were enjoying a massage, so you see, had they really been engaged on brainwashing anyone of importance they would have also brainwashed us, wouldn`t they?" Mallory asked.

His question seemed quite reasonable, and finally Sally believed his explanation about her silly fears, well almost, for she still harboured some fears that she was right. However, she knew that she has been wrong before, so she decided to go to the spa, but before registering she would have a look around the spa, just to check it out for herself, see if her fears were correct or just the fears of a silly young female, as she assumed Richard probably thought of her. If she were wrong then she would be able to enjoy all of the fantastic amenities that it boasted about in its brochure.

Taking a day off from work she arrived early as planned, she parked on the road rather than in the car park, in case they were watching for her arrival. Sally could see that there was a receptionist busy in the foyer so she hid behind a bush, biding her time. She timed her entry just right, for the receptionist took a moment while the foyer was empty to walk into a small walk in cupboard behind the reception desk, she was in there to pick up some more leaflets, ones extolling the wonders of the spa. Sally seeing the coast was now clear quickly but stealthily walked into the Spa, unnoticed by anyone, for the security guard had chosen this moment to use the toilets, the gods had decided to come down on her side for once.

As she walked around the main building of the Spa, she came to a room with a no entry sign on the door. 'Well Sally, if you are going to find anything alien around here it will be in a no entry room, not in a room used by the normal customers.' Sally said to herself, and quietly opened the door that led into the special massage room and stepped inside.

Hearing footsteps approaching, and feeling embarrassed in case she was caught snooping in a place where she was not supposed to be, she quickly closed the door and ducked behind a screen meant for clients to change out of their clothes. Two cloned aliens and a human walked into the seemingly empty room, they were talking in English as the clones were speaking to a human male, of course Sally just heard two Americans, and to her surprise, her friend Richard Mallory.

"Sally Jameson will be here soon, her appointment is for 10.00 o`clock, you will meet her Agent Mallory, to ensure that she is put at her ease. You will bring her here by an indirect route, go via the swimming pool and the sauna, that should put her completely at her ease, when you finally get to the door to this room, tell her that this is the changing room, when she enters she will then cease to be a problem?" One of the clones instructed the FBI agent.

"Yes, I am to put her at her ease and then lead her to this room by an indirect route." Mallory replied. "And then she will cease to be a problem." Mallory added, sounding rather moronic.

"Good, then you had better return to the foyer, just in case she is early." The same clone ordered.

When Mallory had gone, the second clone spoke. "Why do we not just release a virus to clear this planet of its inhabitants, it would be a much simpler and easier option, then we would not have to associate with these cavemen." The second clone complained.

"Because you fool, with all the dead bodies covering this world, the planet would be a seething mass of bacteria, and I for one do not want to live on such a world, now get back to work." The first clone said angrily.

Sally was utterly shocked, the people at the spa really were aliens from another planet, she was right; aliens were indeed walking amongst them. She also realized that she was correct about the fate that had befallen her friends and colleagues, they had indeed been brainwashed, this was why everyone was acting differently, and that was the future that they had planned for her, so that she would cease to be a problem! Even so, she would have expected some sort of attempt to fight against it; all she had heard from Richard Mallory was blind acceptance of his orders. Mallory`s moronic condition only lasted while he was receiving his orders from his controller, otherwise he appeared to be quite normal.

Sally waited behind the screens until the two aliens had left the room, and then she returned to the corridor that led into it, she remembered an open window there, moments later and she had climbed out of the window and fled the scene of her worst nightmare. She was lucky that morning, for no one had noticed her as she sped across the lawn, and she was soon back at her car, she got in and sighed with relief, then she turned on the engine and pulled away. She decided to head towards home, the pace of her heart beat slowly dropping to a more normal rate. As she drove, she saw a roadside diner ahead and decided that she badly needed some caffeine to steady her jagged nerves; she pulled in and ordered a coffee mocha, together with a slice of apple pie. It was now that Sally decided to call Colin, ask him for some advice; she quickly pulled her cell phone out of her handbag and called him. Colin flipped out after she had told him some of the things that she had overheard, and about Mallory, but she did not mention the E.T. connection, not yet.

"Sally, do not worry, you stay where you are and I will drive straight over to the diner, once I am there we can discuss the best course of action. I will be there in ten minutes." Colin promised in what seemed to Sally to be a concerned voice.

Unfortunately, for Sally, Colin had also received an invitation to the spa, he had decided to go the day before, but had not said anything to her, as he knew that she would have gone into her full conspiracy mode. When Sally had not shown up at the spa, his controller had contacted Colin and told him to contact Special Agent Mallory, should Sally contact him. When she had done just this, it activated the part of his mind that was under the alien`s control.

He had faked his concern, and he arrived at the diner fifteen minutes later, with Richard Mallory. Sally`s luck had not run out though, as he was five minutes late she had been looking out for Colin, and so she saw the two men as they got out of Colin`s car. Fear bit deeply into Sally`s vitals as she realized that not one but both of her friends had been taken over by the aliens, but she did not allow this fear to paralyse her, she walked quietly into the ladies, it was empty, she now climbed out of her second window of the day. She knew that she had only seconds to escape, she rushed round to her car and jumping in started the engine, thanking her garage for servicing the car the week before, for the car started without any effort. She then pulled back onto the road and sped away through the busy Houston traffic; she was making for a large supermarket, where she would make use of its car park to make yet another call.

Chapter Four

The Texas Rangers

She now did what she should have done so very long ago, she called her Uncle William; Captain Will Rogers was in the Texas Ranger Division, commonly known as the Texas Rangers. He worked out of the Divisional Headquarters of the Texas Rangers, in Austin; he was a member of the Special Operations Group. Sally quickly gave her uncle the highlights, leaving out E.T. of course.

At the other end of the phone Will Rogers listened patiently to his niece, a little surprised by what she said, however, as he had not seen her for some time, four months to be exact, he told her to come over to Austin to tell him again, in person, about her fears. To disregard such information given to him by an intelligent person would be the height of folly, so even though he knew his favourite niece held a few odd views, he thought there might be something that needed investigating. Sally instantly agreed to drive over, happy that someone had finally taken her serious enough to speak to her about it.

It had just started to rain as she left the car park of the supermarket, and extremely heavily, so she put her wipers on, but soon had to adjust their speed to their higher setting. She did not see the Chrysler Rapide do a rapid U-turn and follow after her, the driver had been on the way to a garage, to have some repairs to his car carried out, he now put these off until tomorrow. His commander had just sent out a general instruction, if anyone sighted Sally, he or she was to eliminate her immediately, he knew her and her car by sight, and he saw her exit the car park. Sally was heading towards the highway that would take her to Austin; the easiest way was via the ring road, so she took a left and instantly regretted it, for this road was awash with water, so she cautiously applied her brakes to slow her speed. It was only then that she saw the Chrysler Rapide, she was just about to shrug it off as a coincidence, for there were many Chrysler Rapide`s in Texas. She noticed the vehicle was moving up fast behind her, and then she noticed the large automatic pistol in the driver`s hand. Ahead was a very sharp left that would take her where she was going, but by a long detour, as the Rapide moved ever closer, the automatic pistol already turning in her direction, she swung sharply across the pursuing vehicle and took the left safely, just. The alien clone was taken completely by surprise by her violent manoeuvre, and swore loudly as he automatically braked sharply to avoid crashing into the side of Sally`s car at a speed that would certainly have injured him, for he never wore his seat belt. His car was already beginning to aquaplane in the deep water, because of the sudden use of his brakes, and his faulty ABS system, now as he turned the wheel sharply so as to follow her, his position got worse. He narrowly missed writing off his car as it slid towards a fire hydrant, but he missed it and finally came to a stop when his car slid into a parked van on the right-hand side of the road. The alien clone did not stop to exchange insurance details; instead, he turned his vehicle around and made to drive back to the turning that Sally had made. However, he had not had that much practice driving on the busy roads of town; he did not look right as he moved across to the opposite side of the road. A fully loaded juggernaut was driving much too fast along that side of the road, and it ploughed into the side of his vehicle, pushing it along and killing the alien instantly.

Sally heard the crash and wondered about it, she glanced quickly in her rear-view mirror and saw it was empty of Chrysler Rapides, and large automatic pistols. She glanced back several more times over the next mile before relief found its way into her mind, then she started the 165-mile-long drive to Austin, it took her over three hours, with just one pit stop along the way.

Once she got to her uncle`s office she told him everything, of how a foreign country was working against the USA, of how Richard Mallory, an old Harvard friend, was now an enemy agent, of Colin Braun, and finally of the senior NASA scientists and the administrative personnel who worked in Houston. She did not mention the Chrysler Rapide, if it had been involved in an accident then good, assuming that no innocent parties had been hurt, but she did not want to become embroiled in the matter, she had enough on her mind already.

Although Will thought along the original lines that Mallory had spoken of, how the organisation that Sally spoke about was far too massive to be viable, he still held to his original view that there might be something in her fears. He realized that Sally possessed a vivid imagination, but she was not a cretin, so he decided to take her story to Major Matias Hernandez who commanded the Special Operations Group. Hernandez also thought that her story sounded a little fantastic; however, as Will was taking his niece seriously he decided that they had no choice but to investigate her story.

"Will, as you know Sally better than the rest of us, maybe you ought to check out whether there is something in Sally`s story, or, if she is mistaken in her fears." Hernandez said and then turned to Sally. "I am sorry for voicing a doubt about your story, Sally, but even you must accept that it does sound a little over the top, a little Hollywood."

Sally smiled at Hernandez but kept her thoughts to herself, and with the preliminaries over Will took Sally back to his desk, for he saw a look of annoyance appear in her eyes because of Hernandez`s words, before it was quickly smothered.

After getting his niece a coffee, he sat Sally down to talk over their plans for the future. "Sally, we will need to speak with one of the people who you think has been affected in some way, and depending on how that goes will determine just how we proceed from there. If we do suspect him of being brainwashed, then at some time in the future will need to have our psychiatrist check the person over, to see if there is any sign of the person having been hypnotised; or even brainwashed as you fear." Will explained.

"I suppose either Colin Braun or Richard Mallory would do, Richard is the FBI agent, however both men were part of the aliens` scheme to kidnap me, to stop me from telling my story." Sally replied.

Will assumed that Sally had meant foreign agent when she had said alien, but thinking back to some of the other times he had met her, he did wonder, just for a guilty moment, if this would turn out to be just another flight of her imagination. However, he was willing to spend tomorrow and maybe the next day looking into it, he thought that he should have a feel for the case by then.

Will gave Sally the keys to his house, and she left him to finish what he had to do while she made dinner for the two of them. She dropped by a large supermarket and purchased the necessary ingredients and then drove on to her uncle`s house to prepare their dinner. They did not speak about her fears that evening; instead, they watched the television.

It was late the next morning that saw Sally and Will heading to Houston, and once in the city of Houston, Will made for Colin`s apartment, for Will had decided to have a look around it, covertly, before meeting with Sally`s suspect. Although he did not have a warrant, as Sally had Colin`s spare key, they would be able to search it without Colin finding out, and it offered them the chance of finding out whether Colin was indeed an enemy agent, assuming that he was foolish enough to leave such proof laying around his apartment. However, they found nothing unusual in the apartment, a few scientific journals, a pile of books on microbiology, a PC, a virtual reality helmet that Colin used with his computer games, there was nothing out of the ordinary anywhere in the apartment. Although they had come up empty handed, Will decided to conceal a small camera with a built-in microphone; he put it inside of an air vent, one that gave them a view of the front room, including the computer screen.

"Sally, it might not be safe for you to return to your own apartment tonight, you could be in danger from whatever group has taken an interest in you, instead we will book into a motel on the outskirts of town." Will told her. "We might as well leave speaking to Colin until tomorrow morning; tonight, we can watch to see if he gives us any leads via our hidden camera."

"Thank you Uncle Will, for spending time on my story, for installing that camera, which must be breaking the law, I really do appreciate it." Sally said, and then she stood on tiptoes and kissed her uncle on the cheek.

"That`s OK Sally, and the camera is quite legal, assuming your friend is a member of a terrorist squad." Will said with a smile playing across his face.

Sally was happy to go along with whatever her uncle wanted to do, and so after they had both settled into their rooms, Sally went next door to her uncle`s room where they sat on Will`s bed to watch Colin`s apartment through their hidden camera. It was early that evening when Colin returned, and he immediately turned on his computer and connected up to the internet. He then entered an obscure chat room that neither of his watchers were familiar with, although truth be told, neither of them had much use for such things.

"John, I have nothing to report this evening, Sally has still not returned to the laboratory." Colin told the unknown man named John.

"Colin, we now know that Ms Jameson has returned to Houston, she was accompanied by an unknown man. Tonight, after midnight, Agent Mallory will come to your apartment, you are to accompany him to Ms Jameson`s apartment and gain entry using the spare key that you have, if she has returned to her apartment then the two of you are to bring her to our headquarters for conditioning. She will be of use to us spreading disinformation about alien conspiracies." The man named John ordered.

Sally gasped in surprise, with a little fear thrown in for good measure. "Kidnap me, and how on Earth did they know that we are in Houston, Uncle Will?" Sally asked fearfully.

"Do not worry about them kidnapping you Sally, I will keep you safe, and look on the bright side, we now have some proof of criminal intent, for now it's only against you, but it points to something much larger, it certainly warrants further investigation. As for how they know about our return to Houston, well we might have been seen by one of their agents as we drove through town." Will said reassuringly.

"Ok Uncle Will." Sally said with a little less fear showing in her eyes. "So, what is our next move?" Sally asked with a little excitement now making an appearance in her voice, for now the authorities had proof of a large conspiracy.

"I will get an arrest warrant and then we will arrest Colin and Mallory when they enter your apartment, do not worry Sally, it will soon be over." Will assured his niece.

Will called Major Hernandez and told him everything, Hernandez congratulated Will on his speedy result and put a call through to the Ranger office in Houston, he asked them to get an arrest warrant for one Colin Braun and Special Agent Mallory, on a charge of conspiracy to kidnap. He would also arrange for Colin`s internet use to be checked, so that they could trace the man named John.

Will went to the Houston district headquarters of the Texas Rangers and met three other Rangers, then they went together to the street where Sally`s apartment was located. Will had one of them wait inside of Sally`s apartment with him, while the other two men were hidden outside the apartment block, they would follow Colin and Mallory in at a discreet distance, when they came to call.

**********

It was a little after midnight when Special Agent Mallory and Colin Braun drove from Colin`s apartment block towards the street where Sally`s apartment was located, they did not speak, Mallory choosing to keep his attention on the job at hand. As they neared the turning that would take them into the street, Mallory decided to park his car two blocks away and walk the remaining distance, a six sense was warning him of danger.

The street was not a well-lit one, and the two Rangers sitting in their parked car did not see the two men walking towards them on the other side of the road, but Mallory saw them when the headlights of a passing car lit them up like beacons in the night. He knew lawmen when he saw them and he saw them now, ones who were waiting near to Sally`s apartment, he stopped Colin and told him of the change in plan.

"Braun, something is wrong, we will scrub tonight`s operation and reschedule it for another time." Mallory told his accomplice in crime.

"Why, what is the problem Mallory, we have been ordered to complete a task and we should do just that?" Colin declared confidently.

"Go right ahead Braun, and give my best regards to the two lawmen sitting almost outside your girlfriend`s apartment." Mallory retorted.

Colin went quite pale, he slowly edged backwards, and as Mallory turned to walk back to his parked car; Colin joined him.

"I will take you back to your apartment, Braun, tomorrow morning you must go off to work, I will report in tonight regarding the watch being kept on Sally." Mallory said.

**********

When the two kidnappers did not show that night, Will realized that something must have happened to change the plans of the two men. He therefore returned to the motel and knocked on the door of Sally`s room, to see if she were still awake, she was, for she could not sleep due to the excitement bubbling up inside of her.

"Sally, Colin and Mallory did not show up, something obviously occurred to change their plans. Mallory is an experienced FBI agent and may have smelt a rat." Will said to a worried looking Sally. "Do not worry though, I will take my team with me in the morning and arrest Colin as he leaves his apartment. We will charge him with conspiracy to kidnap you, for now it will be a holding charge, to allow us time to interrogate him, and maybe I will have our psychiatrist speak with him. As for Special Agent Mallory, he will have to wait, but when Colin talks then hopefully we will have enough to arrest him too."

Will then retired to his room to get some rest before the morning`s work, but first he left a message for Major Hernandez, to let him know what was happening in Houston.

Colin was arrested as he left his apartment the next morning, he was taken back to the Ranger`s office in Houston and put into an interview room where Will interrogated him.

"Now Colin, you understand that you have the right to have a lawyer present?" Will asked.

"I do not need a lawyer, I have done nothing wrong, tell me why am I here?" Colin complained, indignation being the first thing that Will noticed, not fear or guilt.

The brainwashing by the aliens left Colin unaware of his new allegiance, he was totally unaware of the things he did when under the influence of the aliens, normally Colin was the same person that he had always been, quiet, honest and a patriot, if a little lethargic now.

"Colin, we have a recording of you talking to a man named John, he ordered you to kidnap your friend Sally Jameson, you are being charged with conspiracy to kidnap her. If you do not want to spend the rest of your life behind bars then I suggest that you cooperate with us." Will said in his quiet friendly voice.

"I do not understand what you are talking about, I do not know of anyone named John, and why would I want to kidnap Sally, I love her." Colin replied, anger now making its first appearance in his voice, and upon his face.

Will now turned on the computer that sat between the two men, and he played back the relevant parts that he and Sally had recorded.

"John, I have nothing to report this evening, Sally has still not returned to the laboratory." The Colin on the computer screen told the unknown man named John.

"Colin, we now know that Ms Jameson has returned to Houston, she was accompanied by an unknown man. Tonight, after midnight, Agent Mallory will come to your apartment, you are to accompany him to Ms Jameson`s apartment and gain entry using the spare key that you have, if she has returned to her apartment then the two of you are to bring her to our headquarters for conditioning. She will be of use to us spreading disinformation about alien conspiracies."

Colin`s mouth dropped open as he looked and listened to the recording. He saw himself sitting before a computer, his computer inside his apartment. Fear filled his voice now, fear and utter bewilderment. "But that is not me, it cannot be, someone is trying to frame me." Colin finally managed to say.

"No one is trying to frame you Colin, Sally Jameson and myself made this recording; we sat and watched you agree to kidnap Sally, your friend, the person that you say you love. Is that what is behind this, you could not tell her of your love so you decided to kidnap her, is that it Colin, you are some sort of sexual predator." Will`s voice was now loud, he slammed him fist upon the table and almost screamed at Colin. "Tell me Colin is that the truth of the matter, that you are a sexual predator?"

Colin did not reply, he could not reply, he just sat there, as the recording played in a loop, very bewildered, unable to find an answer that would even satisfy himself.

Miles away from the Ranger headquarters, an alien sat looking at a computer screen, what was displayed on the screen told the alien of the raised pulse rate of one of their human agents, using the GPS facility in the transmitter buried beneath Colin`s skin they found out that he was within the Ranger`s Office. They immediately assumed that one of their slaves had been taken by the enemy, so they sent a message to the implant in Colin`s chest and made it self-destruct.

Colin screamed as a pain shot through his chest, then he collapsed against the table and slid down to the floor, dead. Will immediately called for a doctor, but it was too late to do anything for Colin. Later that day the autopsy found that Colin had died from a heart attack, one that may have been caused by an unknown foreign object fitted in Colin`s chest, one near to his heart.

**********

Will returned to the motel where he told Sally of her friend`s death, and how he had died, she turned away from her uncle and buried her face in her hands, she stood and sobbed, sobbed for her friend while feeling her own guilt at being the cause of Colin`s death. Had she got to know him, as she knew Colin had wanted, maybe married him and had his children, then she would never have seen the aliens in their midst, and Colin would still be alive, her screwball ideas had killed him, just as they had destroyed many of her past relationships.

Will went to her and put his arms around her to comfort her, Sally turned and buried her face in his chest and cried. Finally, she recovered enough to listen to her uncle, to hear what was to happen next. She was to be taken back to her uncle`s house in Austin, there she would stay until the case became a little clearer, and it would be strictly off limits for her to contact any one lest her new address got back to the enemy. She was forbidden to turn her cell phone on, lest the enemy agents trace her through the GPS fitted into every such phone, she even had to take the battery out.

Will drove Sally over to her apartment where she packed a couple of suitcases with essentials, and then they left Houston, they also took what was left of the implant back to Austin, to allow the Ranger`s forensic department to have a look at it. First though he dropped Sally off at his house, and then he went to see Major Hernandez, together they watched the video taken in Braun`s apartment and then the recording of the interrogation, and finally Major Hernandez looked at the implant.

"Will, if I had not seen the recording that you made of Braun speaking to his controller, John, I would have said that Colin Braun was innocent of all charges. Let`s go and see our forensic department, see what they think this piece of metal is." Major Hernandez decided after looking at the implant through a magnifying glass, but seeing nothing other than a sliver of metal with some faint markings on it.

Doctor Carlson was soon looking at the small foreign object through the lens of his microscope; he saw an oblong shaped piece of metal with burnt out microchips embedded within it.

"I have no idea who made this piece of equipment Major, but I can tell you that it was a highly sophisticated piece of equipment with extremely small microchips built into it, now it is simply rubbish, it is totally burned out." Carlson said.

"Will, your niece has certainly brought us a case, just what sort I still do not know, or care to speculate on, but obviously there is a clear case for action. I should order the immediate arrest of Special Agent Richard Mallory, but first I will call the deputy director of the FBI in Washington DC, tell him what we have and what action we propose to take." Hernandez decided.

"Major Hernandez, Special Agent Mallory is a spy, by contacting the FBI we may be warning other spies hidden amongst their ranks, and they may warn Mallory of our interest in him?" Will said anxiously.

"Will, we do not know if there are any more spies within the FBI, only that your niece has stumbled onto an interesting case, but by speaking with their Washington office I am sure that we can keep what we have found a secret." Major Hernandez said confidently.

After speaking with Deputy Director Task of the FBI, the deputy director demanded that Major and Will travel to Washington DC on the evening flight, so as to present their evidence directly to him, and before they took any action against one of his agents.

Will first drove over to his house to collect another overnight bag, filled with a new set of clean clothes, and he told Sally where he was going. While sitting with her uncle within his small kitchen diner, Sally now took a moment before he left to wonder how her uncle was getting along outside of his life in the Texas Rangers, so she spoke to him about it, although in truth it was to try to get her mind off her dead friend.

"Uncle, how is your romance getting along with Maria?" Maria Martell was his on-off girlfriend.

"Not too good at the moment Sally." Will replied sadly. "She is dating a baker, he can devote much more of his time to her then I ever did." Will said sadly and hoping that Sally would change the subject, which she did not.

"Uncle, you can hardly be surprised, your chosen profession means that you can hardly give any woman much of your time, your job is your life." Sally said, her mind had now dropped out of the normal thought mode and she was repeating thoughts as they entered her mind, and without vetting them.

"Which is exactly what Maria said, but she understood, it is just that she has decided that she needs a better life than the crumbs that I threw her way." Will replied sadly before deciding that attack was a much better defence.

"Enough about the ruins of my love life, yours is no better." Will declared good-naturedly.

"You are quite right Uncle, my ex-boyfriends have either been bastards or losers, the only good man I have ever known was Colin, and I treated him as if he never existed, my god, if only we could go back in time to rectify mistakes." Sally said wistfully, tears once again threatening to slip down her cheeks.

**********

On their arrival at the FBI offices in Washington later that evening, they went up to the office of the deputy director of the FBI. After showing the evidence to him, Sally`s statement and the video taken in Braun`s apartment, Task sat for a moment before coming to a decision.

"OK, I agree that Special Agent Mallory should be brought in for questioning by the Rangers, but it is all hearsay, you have no direct evidence incriminating my agent. Because of this I insist that two of my agents from the Washington office accompany you, Major Hernandez, on tomorrow`s early morning flight to Houston.

The Rangers` presence in the Washington office of the FBI soon had all the tongues wagging, and one of the agents was intrigued when the deputy director asks him personally if he knew Mallory, as he had worked for a time in the Houston office. The agent was soon speaking to his old friend Tom Ballinger in Houston, who had been working late, asking him what he knew about Richard Mallory; and what were the Texas Rangers doing in Washington asking about Special Agent Mallory.

The Ranger`s interest in his friend activated the part of his brain controlled by the aliens, and so Ballinger returned home and immediately logged on to the same chat room that Colin Braun used. He now informed his alien controller of the Rangers` interest in Mallory, his controller ordered Ballinger to collect Mallory, and for both of them to report to the health spa where they would be taken to a safe location.

**********

On the alien space cruiser, which was in a geo-stationary orbit around the moon, Consul Phairlis was once more talking to the leaders of the Chosen Ones.

"My friends, you are all concerned about the young women Sally Jameson, concerned that she knows too much, and that she has even managed to persuade the authorities, the Texas Rangers to listen to her. Listen when I tell you that she knows nothing, our agent amongst the FBI has informed me that the authorities are just off on one of their yearly spy hunts, they will never admit that intelligent alien beings walk amongst them. For those of you who worry about the least little thing, let me set your minds at rest, our commander for the continent of North America has moved our centre of operations to our second base in Texas, as we planned to do when we purchased it. Let me assure you that this is nothing to do with Sally Jameson, as I said before she is a mere insect. Should the Rangers take it into their heads to search the health spa they will find nothing suspect, only what is to be found in any other health spa. There is certainly nothing that could lead them to the new base, so the health spa will carry on as usual, although I have arranged for more security measures to be put in place." Phairlis said, and smiling at those seated before him, he too sat down.

"She may be an insect, but one that requires swatting, I want our agents on Earth to finally rid us of the problem that is Sally Jameson, send the order out now; kill her." Councillor Jorman, the second in command of the Chosen Ones demanded.

"We tried and failed, losing an agent in the attempt, now I fear that a further attempt on the life of Ms Jameson would surely lend credence to her words, and we cannot allow that to happen, in any case, as I previously stated she is a mere insect, one that buzzes a lot but is of no consequence. She is thought of as an intelligent woman by her friends and colleagues, but one with very weird and wonderful fantasies, none of them to be taken seriously." Phairlis replied.

"Consul Phairlis, surely we can make her death look like an accident, I fear that you under estimate the danger that she represents to our plans, if we do not rid ourselves of the danger, now, then we will regret it, and the blame will fall entirely upon your shoulders, mark my words." Jorman`s threat hung there for only an instant before it was swept it aside from an unexpected source.

"I will say this only once, fellow members of the council, to threaten her life again, to kill her now, when she has told the Texas Rangers everything that she knows, would be foolish in the extreme, it would only bring about that which we wish to conceal, that aliens do in fact walk amongst them." Redh Madr stated evenly, coming down unconditionally on their leader's side. Many of the other council members also agreed with his statement, and so Sally`s life was safe, for the moment anyway. Had they known that Sally had told the Rangers only the barest details, they would definitely have sided with Jorman.

**********

At that very moment the alien commander of the North American continent was walking around a private mental health clinic in Austin, Texas, it had few patients and even fewer staff. The patients that they did have were all female, and had been dumped there by the local authorities, the reason being was that the clinic offered terms that could not be refused. Now the alien commander was looking for more patients from the cities further away, again with the same bargain basement charges, knowing that no one cared too much about the level of care that these patients received. The women capable of child bearing lived and received excellent care, the other patients, mostly the elderly, did not. The clinic was run by alien clones, although they also employed a few human doctors and nurses, but ones who had been brainwashed.

The real aim of the clinic was to bring some of the aliens` embryos out of cryogenic stasis, just a few initially, it was to see how they coped with the germs, viruses and bacteria present on Earth. The clones had almost no problems at all, but the doctors wanted to see how very young Magentan children would cope. They had carried out trials on the Endeavour with excellent results using human females. Kidnapped and brainwashed, they carried the embryos for nine months and never complained. This would be the final test if successful, and would allow Phairlis to move rapidly ahead with his own plans. It would also mark the commencement of phase four, which was the phase that would see an infertility chemical added to all of the world`s water supplies, a chemical that had not yet been perfected, although trials of it were being carried out in another facility in Austin.

***********

In space, the aliens that were in orbit around Uranus were becoming restless, the ones brought out of cryogenic storage, and they wanted the invasion to proceed a lot quicker, they had not signed on to sit inside of a space craft looking at a gas giant. They had read between the lines of the document compiled by Phairlis, the one listing all of the plans agreed by the government for the invasion of the sixth planet, and expected Phairlis to make the invasion move a lot quicker. They now began to exert their own pressure front upon him.

In answer to their pressure, Phairlis sent a soothing message. "Have patience my friends, but soon you will be free to roam around the sixth planet, for I too tire of this farce."

**********

On the planet Earth, Sally was also feeling decidedly bored, hiding away in her uncle`s house in Austin, and so she decided to go for a stroll to break the monotony of looking at four walls, that or daytime television. After watching daytime television, she was now considering the advantages of suicide over becoming brain damaged, and so a walk was more preferable. However, now that she had escaped the confines of her uncle`s house, as she walked the quiet back streets of Austin, she felt a little fearful of encountering one of the aliens, or even one of the humans who had been brainwashed. It was while her mind was taking time to dwell on this that she noticed Doctor Carlisle, an eminent NASA scientist, he had been one of the scientists who had been aboard the Mars Colony Two space craft, and he had returned to Earth along with Doctor Swenson. He was walking on the other side of the road from her, and luckily going the same way as she was, so he did not notice her. She was just about to turn around and hurry away before he did see her, for she had long assumed that the whole Mars team had been brainwashed and were now spies working for the aliens, either that or they had been replaced by alien clones, the option that she now most favoured. Just then, Carlisle turned into a yard within which sat a two-storey commercial building. Sally looked across at the place, the repainting job on the fence around the yard was poor, for she could see the old paint at the very top of the fence that the decorator had left unfinished to give the site an unimportant look. Positioned on a large corner piece of land, the building looked relatively small, and much of it appeared to be unused. Through the open door that Carlisle had used, Sally saw a large yard meant for deliveries and some storage; the buildings were on the other three sides of the area. Walking past it Sally noticed an old sign painted on the sidewall, it told her that the place had one been used to provide ready-mix concrete.

She wondered about his reason for going there, of course he could just be dropping by to see an old friend, or a relative, but she refused to believe that. If she were right in her thinking that all the Mars colony team had been replaced by aliens, then he would not have a friend or relative to visit, would he? Sally crossed over the road and walked slowly back to the door through which Carlisle had entered. Looking in she saw a yard filled with large bags of something she assumed were to do with the building trade. There was no one about, save a security guard sitting just behind the door. Although she did not know it, the security guard was a human, one who had been brainwashed, the aliens would have preferred to exchange him for a clone, however, there were not enough of them to go around.

Excitement coursed through her veins when she saw that the security guard seemed to be more asleep than awake; she thought that she could easily enter unnoticed, and she really needed more information regarding the aliens if she were ever to make others believe that their world was in danger. No sooner had the thought entered her mind than she acted upon it, she quickly but quietly entered into the yard, ducking down out of sight of the guard until she was hidden by a large stack of the bags which all bore the name Houston Cement Works. She came to an open window, through which she could see Carlisle talking to two other men, who although she did not know it were clones. She hastily moved back out of view before one the men saw her, from her position near to the open window Sally could hear everything they said, and luckily, they spoke in English, for the aliens wanted to be fluent in the language. She eagerly listened to the conversation while keeping an eye on the yard, to ensure that she was not seen by whoever else working in the place.

"Carlisle, we need those results urgently, we have identified all of the delivery points in North America and are now ready to commence delivery. However first we need you to confirm that the latest version of the chemical is effective against the earthlings, especially after the chemical has been immersed in water for an extended amount of time." Clone 1 asked.

"You have been testing the chemical for two years now; surely you must have some idea as to the operational effectiveness of it?" Clone 2 demanded to know. "Tell us now, what is the amount of Trichlorian Plus required per one thousand gallons of water, and how often should we add top up doses? With this information we can proceed with the field tests in some of the remoter areas of this continent."

The two aliens waited impatiently for their fellow Magentan to supply the necessary information, as did Sally listening equally impatiently outside of the window, for she feared discovery for every moment that she lingered inside the factory yard.

"At the moment the dosage is high, too high for it to go unnoticed for the length of time that we require to be of use to us, I need more time to improve its effectiveness or we will fail." Carlisle replied angrily. "I might be able to refine the chemical enough by the end of next month, but not before. As for when it will be necessary to add more of the chemical that is dependent upon the amount of water used each day. I have sent a detailed graph to your computers detailing everything that you will need to know."

Clone 1 was not happy. "You will have to tell Consul Phairlis about the delay, and your excuses as to why the chemical is still not ready for delivery, because I will not be the one to tell him." Clone 2 nodded vigorously in agreement but did not add anything.

Sally decided that she had heard all there was to hear and was turning to leave when she heard a door open, and then she heard someone walking across the yard. She could not see the person, but whoever it was would soon see her. She moved back behind a pallet of cement bags and crouched down; she hoped that she would remain hidden until the person had gone. The person was a man and he stopped to look in the open window through which Sally was getting so much information. He only had to turn and look down to see her, Sally was afraid now, really afraid, for these people here really were aliens, and if she were caught then she would either be killed, or tortured, or brainwashed, and she did not really relish any of the three alternatives. The man did not turn around though; instead, he opened a nearby door and walked into the building, no doubt to join the three men. However, Sally`s luck was not improving, as she had hoped when the man entered the building, a woman appeared at the top of a flight of steps at the rear of the factory yard, she could see Sally crouching behind the bags of cement and foolishly called out to her.

"Hey you, who are you and what are you doing snooping around the yard?"

Luckily, for Sally, the newcomer did not instantly realize what Sally was up to; else, she might have come down the stairs without alerting Sally to her presence. Sally jerked round to look up at the woman and almost froze, as fear made its presence felt, but it was the fear that made her turn and flee. The security guard in his shed woke up now and looked around when he heard the woman call out, and seeing Sally he made to leave his office. Luckily though for Sally, in his haste to get up his leg caught the leg of his chair and he tripped over it, and he fell hard against the door jam, his hand saving him from injury but slowing his response. However, by the time that Sally had reached the doorway in the perimeter fence through which she had entered, the woman was down the stairs and half way across the yard, and with the guard close behind her. Sally flew through this open door and ran for her life; the angels appeared to be on her side for a bus had just stopped to let off a passenger. Sally jumped aboard just as the door was closing, her pulse rate was in the danger zone by this time and her eyes were open wide in fear, however, the bus driver did not notice, he was too busy ogling the latest Ford Mustang that had just turned into the road from up ahead.

At the open door to the factory yard, the woman looked after her, memorising the face of the intruder, and as the bus pulled away, she returned to the office with the security guard to go through their computer in search of their mystery woman. It took them just five minutes to identify Sally.

"What did she overhear?" The woman asked, for she was supposed to be in charge of security at the yard, she now feared that she might soon lose this job.

"We were talking about Trichlorian Plus and how much dosage is required, but we never mentioned reservoirs, of that I am certain." Carlisle replied anxiously.

"She already knows who we are, it will not take her long to realize just what we were talking about; we should report her snooping to Consul Phairlis immediately." Clone 1 declared anxiously.

"She is a weirdo, no one takes her seriously, and if the authorities did come here what would they find? Nothing but a second-rate cement works that is on its last legs. The laboratory and the Trichlorian Plus are safely concealed in the sub levels of this factory, they will never find them; they are too well hidden." The woman remarked contemptuously.

Their contempt for humans meant that they did not report the incident to Consul Phairlis, who might at least have decided to increase security at the factory, he may even have decided to move Sally up to the top of his hit list, to either kill her or brainwash her. As it was nothing happened, and unknowingly Sally enjoyed another reprieve.

"Getting back to the Trichlorian, is there not a danger of it sterilising all animal life on the planet, leaving nothing here for us to eat?" Clone 2 asked anxiously.

"No, the water has to be heated up to a temperature of at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat together with the water causes a molecular change in the chemical, and it is only then that it acts as a sterilising agent." Carlisle explained patiently.

"So, when the water is used to make a hot drink, or when it is used in cooking a meal, it actually sterilises the consumers, all animal life will be unharmed if they do not eat a meal that has been boiled in water?" Clone 2 replied.

"Yes, and this has been one of the reasons behind the delay in producing the chemical, but we have now solved that problem. Now we are working on creating a new version of the Trichlorian Plus in a much more concentrated version. We are well on the way to finding the answer to this problem, I need three, maybe four more weeks, that's all, and then the chemical will be ready for mass production." Carlisle enthused to those around him.

**********

Sally got off the bus at one of Austin`s shopping malls and immediately headed for a coffee house, she needed the caffeine in it to yet again help calm her jagged nerves. There she could sit in safety so that she could go over all that she had heard, and before she forgot any of it, she would make a few notes. She pulled out a small Apple tablet and began to input all that she had heard. The name of the chemical was Trichlorian Plus, she had never heard of it, but it sounded like a chemical of some sort, and according to what she had heard, one that needed diluting in water. She quickly googled the word, but as she had thought, the word was not known to the World Wide Web. What else had she heard; they had spoken about using it against earthlings and in amounts of thousands of gallons. Oh My God, they must have been talking about reservoirs; they were going to poison all the people on Earth! Sally immediately pulled out her cell phone to call her uncle, but she did not call her uncle, she stopped to think for a moment, something she had not done since catching sight of Carlisle.

She knew that she could only use her phone in a real emergency, her uncle had advised that to leave it turned on could allow the enemy to find her using the GPS system on her cell phone. She could have used a public phone, but a thought had just occurred to her, she needed more before she bothered him again, she would return to the factory during the early morning, when all the staff would have left and she could snoop around at her leisure. Instead of calling her uncle, Sally returned home and broke out her laptop, she needed to use Google Earth to see if it showed a way in which she could enter the factory, short of breaking in, something she had never done and had no idea how to go about it. Google Earth showed a scalable wall that ran from around the garden of the house that backed onto the factory. From there she could jump down into the yard and attempt to gain entry into the factory, assuming that it was not alarmed.

Early the next morning Sally woke up to her uncle's alarm clock ringing, and she quickly washed and dressed in her jogging clothes and trainers, they were dark in colour and might hide her body in the shadows, should it become necessary. She only allowed herself a glass of water and a biscuit, there simply was not enough time to bother making anything hot, in any case her nerves were a jangle and she wanted to be off, not waiting for her coffee to cool sufficiently to allow her to drink it without burning her mouth.

Before she left she wrote a note for her uncle, she told him everything that she had heard, and her thoughts on what it all meant. If she did not return then her Uncle would know the reason why, and come looking for her. With this important item out of the way she walked into her uncle`s garage via the door connecting the garage to the house, moments later she was sitting in her car and driving towards the old cement works.

Sally parked in one of the nearby residential streets and walked the rest of the way, seeing no one along the way; finally, she came to the garden wall along which she hoped to gain access to the rear of the yard. Checking that no one else was in sight, she began the task of scaling the six-foot high wall. She took a run up at it and leapt upwards, her hands getting a hold on the top of the wall, luckily, she was able to find enough footholds in the old wall to help her, and she was finally able to push herself up to finally sit on top of the wall. She only allowed herself a quick moment to get her breath back before she began to edge along the wall, just a little fearfully, for she had never been one for heights, even ones of only six feet. She finally came to a place where she would be able to climb down a sturdy looking storage rack within the old factory yard; here she listened for any sign that the place used guard dogs during the night, hearing none she climbed down the storage rack. When her feet touched the ground Sally again stood silently, and a little nervous, for she had never broken the law before, but nothing broke the silence of the night. She then moved over to the rear of the building and began to try the doors and windows there in the hope of finding one open, she was in luck, she found a window left open; Sally assumed it was to allow some fresh air in, for the day had been uncomfortably close. Even so, she had to struggle to clamber up the wall to access the window, which in any case was not that large. She thought that she must have looked a sight, her legs waving outside of the building while she struggled to pull her body through, luckily, using a nearby desk she did not need to fall in; she merely wriggled her slim body through the small window.

Finally, she was standing inside of a room, the door to which was open, Sally moved across to it and after listening for signs of life, carefully peered around the door, there was no one in sight. She pulled out a torch that she had had the foresight to bring along, and quickly exited the office; she walked along the corridor that turned away from the rear of the building and took her to the very front overlooking the yard. Unfortunately, there was not a plan, or any signs on the wall to tell her where to go, she had to resort to checking out each door, as she searched for the manager`s office. After ten wasted minutes, she was back at the front of the building, standing in the room where the Carlisle and the other two men had stood and talked. Sally investigated the draws of the desks within the office, but found only paperwork to do with the cement; she felt crushed by it, all the hard work had provided her with nothing to show for it. It was now, as she turned to retrace her steps to the open window at the rear of the building, that she heard a noise. It was coming from along the same corridor that she had meant to walk along, it was a soft whirring noise, and then a few moments later she heard the voices of two men, they were coming towards her. Sally quickly ducked back inside of the office and hid beneath one of the desks, her heart was racing and she was in fear once again of discovery, and all the pain that it would lead to, why had she not awaited her uncle`s return.

"I just need some fresh air, Dario, to look up at the night sky and try to find our sun; I guess that I am feeling just a little homesick." The first man said quietly.

"Well I am not homesick, moving to this planet has given me a young body, and if I had stayed on Magenta I might have been dead by now." The second man replied in an equally quiet voice. For it had been drummed into them ever since leaving their home world, the importance of keeping a low profile on a world full of paranoid enemies.

The two men walked out into the yard and stood there looking up at the sky, however, they could not see their home sun. At this time of the day, their own sun was still well below the horizon, and in six hours' time when it had risen, the sun of this planetary system would be shining down upon Austin. After five minutes taking in the night air the two men turned and re-entered the building and walked back down the corridor, Sally followed them, pulse racing, and of course feeling very fearful. The two men turned a corner and Sally heard the whirring noise again, then the silence returned.

She hurried forward to see an empty corridor before her, she crept forward and peered into each of the rooms that led of the corridor but found nothing, she swore very quietly, it was obvious to her that somewhere along this corridor there was a secret door, but where, she quickly thought over her options. Should she stay, hidden in one of the rooms that would give her a clear view of the corridor, or should she return home and wait for her Uncle Will to return home, and then they could return later with a full squad of Rangers to seek out the hidden panel? Even though she was exhausted, both from the stress of her breaking and entering, and also the obvious danger that she had put herself in, she decided to wait for another of the aliens to show her the secret of the hidden panel. She did not want to risk looking a fool in front of a squad of Rangers, if they came here and failed to find the hidden panel.

Sally decided to hide in the room that was at the junction of the two corridors, here she could see down the corridor in which the two men had disappeared. Her vigil dragged on, and her backside was going numb sitting on the hard-tiled floor, Sally sat partially concealed behind a door while she waited for another alien to show up. Just as she decided to get up from the floor to stretch her legs, and give comfort to her backside, she heard the same whirring noise that she had heard before. She tensed up and closed the door over a little until there was just enough of a gap to see the corridor in front of her. Within the dimly lit corridor, she saw the door of the janitor's cupboard open, and then a shaft of light lit up the area directly in front of it. She watched as two men walked out of the cupboard, they were carrying a large plastic barrel; and this they manhandled along the corridor, going in the direction of the yard. As soon as they were out of sight, Sally left her room and hurried along to the janitor's cupboard, she opened the door very slowly, which had swung shut, and peered in.

"Oh My God." She mouthed silently, for she was looking at the inside of an elevator. On the wall were two buttons, each had an arrow painted on it, one pointing up and the other pointing down, the aliens she realized were below ground. She now almost had enough to report to her uncle, but she realized that she needed just a little more. How were the aliens able to call the elevator from this level when the elevator was sitting on the sub level? There was only one-way to find out, it meant exposing herself to a small amount of risk, but she could not help that. She pressed the down arrow and stepped back. The elevator door duly closed and she could once again hear the whirring noise as the elevator now descended. Sally chose a new viewing point, the room opposite the janitorial cupboard and with the door just open; she waited there for the return of the two aliens. If they wondered too much about why the elevator had descended they might decide to search the sublevel for an intruder, she just hoped that they would not search this floor before she had made her escape.

Ten minutes went by before Sally heard the two men returning, their footsteps echoing slightly in the empty corridors. One of them, the fairer of the two aliens, swore, when he saw that the elevator had returned to the sublevel. Sally could just see his hand as it reached out and slid the light switch within the janitor`s cupboard aside, and she watched as he then reached over to press a button. Moments later she heard the whirring noise, and she was shocked to see the janitor`s cupboard rising upwards to be replaced moments later by the elevator door, which opened outwards. When the elevator descended yet again, Sally quickly exited her viewing room and hurriedly escaped from the building, via the open window through which she had entered. She did not hear any noises coming from the interior of the building, so she assumed that the two aliens had not pondered on the matter of the elevator, soon she was sitting in her car and ten minutes later she was back within the safety of her uncle's house.

**********

Back in Houston the next morning, Will accompanied the two FBI agents to the apartment of Richard Mallory, but they did not get an answer when they knocked at his door. One of the FBI agents, Special Agent Michael Murphy, pulled out a set of lock picks and soon had the door open, and he then entered the apartment with Will and the other FBI agent, Special Agent Adrian Gordon, following behind him. They found Mallory to be out and his car to be missing from out front. Murphy put a call in to the Houston office of the FBI, but he found out that Mallory had called in sick. Will swore loudly, for had they arrested Mallory when Will had wanted to, instead of consulting with the FBI, he would not be missing now.

"We should talk to his partner, Special Agent Ballinger, to see if he can tell us anything." Will said.

"Before we do that why don`t I call the Houston office again to see if he is there?" Murphy said and on calling the FBI office he found that Ballinger too had called in, he needed a personal day off to attend to a sick relative.

They then drove round to Ballinger's apartment but found him missing.

"He might be visiting his sick relative." Gordon offered by way of an answer.

"He may be, but it is one hell of a coincidence, we need both of their apartments watched and a nationwide alert put out for the two agents." Will demanded. He was beginning to get rather annoyed with the situation.

"I will call our deputy director and fill him in; he will probably put out a general call for Mallory and maybe even Ballinger. With that taken care of we will spend the rest of the day waiting in Mallory`s apartment, to see if he returns, if he does we will take him back to the FBI offices here in Houston, and then call you." Murphy replied, annoyed at having to waste a day waiting around to see if the missing agent would return to his apartment.

"At least there was a good supply of coffee back there." Gordon added.

"I will have Ballinger`s apartment watched by a couple of Rangers, if he returns he may be able to help us." Will said rather glumly.

After arranging for a watch to be put on Ballinger`s apartment, Will headed back to Austin, it was during the drive that many strange thoughts ran through Will`s mind. There was something nagging him about this case, it did not seem right, was he looking at it from the wrong angle. Then as before when he had been baffled by a difficult case, he experienced a flash of insight, it appeared before him like a motion picture, he could see it clearly now. This case had originated because of Sally`s interest in the people returning from Mars, and then the Moon, could their antagonists be real life aliens, ones from another world? Will could not believe that this idea had popped into his mind, but then another thought entered his mind. Earth had lost contact with the Mars Colony One spacecraft on their outward journey, and did not re-establish contact with them until they had arrived at the planet Mars, could it have started during that time when the craft was out of contact with Earth. All the eight people on Mars Colony One spacecraft were Americans though, if this was when they were brainwashed then surely, it must have been real life aliens, little green men from Alpha Centauri? Will reasoned that for it to have been one or more of the American crew behind the brainwashing, well it would be an even crazier notion. He decided that he needed to speak to his niece about these crazy thoughts, and the sooner the better. Was she keeping something back, something that she felt she could not mention?

**********

When Will finally returned home, that afternoon, Sally was extremely glad to see him, to tell him of her adventure and to ask him a question.

"Uncle, how is the case proceeding, have you got anywhere yet?" Sally asked almost immediately after they had sat down.

"Not yet Sally, Special Agent Mallory and his partner Ballinger are now missing, the FBI are mounting a nationwide search for Mallory and hopefully his partner." Will replied, and before Sally could ask another question, he quickly asked one of his own.

"Sally, are you holding any information back from us, maybe because you are afraid to mention it in case you were laughed at?" Will asked, looking directly at her to see how she responded to his question.

"Anything Uncle, what do you mean?" Sally replied evasively, looking anywhere but into her uncle`s eyes.

From her actions, Will knew that he was correct, and he now told her of the wild theory that had occurred to him, regarding the little green men and such.

Sally openly sighed with relief and then she told him everything. "Yes, Uncle and how, I did not tell you before because I thought that you would dismiss my whole story as pure science fiction, but as you have asked, I will tell you everything. First off when I was at the health spa in Houston I did hear something else, something that I knew no one would believe, so I did not dare to mention it." Sally replied. "One of the two men who were with Richard Mallory, asked why they did not release a virus to clear Earth of its inhabitants, the second one replied that with all the dead bodies covering the Earth, the planet would be a seething mass of bacteria, and he did not want to live on such a world." Sally said, looking up at her Uncle to see how he took the revelation, and as he seemed to take it rather well she continued.

"Uncle even I could not believe it; this was not just me imagining things it was really happening, it is why I finally called you. You should also know that there are many new faces working at the Johnson Space Center, and while this might be normal, these people are not."

She then handed him a list of all the people she knew who she thought were now acting strangely. "These are their names and the department they are in."

She then took a deep breath and launched in to what else she had learned.

"Uncle, there is also something else that you should know." Sally said, and Will turned his head slightly to look into her eyes, for by her tone he knew that she was not about to tell him about a trip to the mall.

"Yesterday, I felt a little bored sitting here all alone with only the television for company, so I went for a walk." Sally began and then told her uncle all that occurred, of following Carlisle into a run-down commercial yard, of what she had overheard while hiding within the yard, and of her nocturnal return trip to the yard to look around the buildings, and what she had uncovered.

"Uncle, I heard two of the men speaking, and what they said was this. 'I just need some fresh air, Dario, to look up at the night sky and try to find our sun; I guess that I am feeling just a little homesick.' To which the second man replied. 'Well I am not homesick, moving to this planet has given me a young body, and if I had stayed on Magenta I might have been dead by now.' They were aliens Uncle, real life aliens." Sally exclaimed.

Will sat there in shock; his niece had turned into an amateur sleuth, one that took risks bordering on the insane, and one that provided him with more data than any of his experienced Rangers. However, he was still in a state of shock when he replied to his niece.

"Sally, do you have a death wish or something, why on earth didn`t you call me, they could have killed you and I would never have known?" Will said angrily.

"I did, Uncle, I left you a note telling you everything, look here it is." Sally declared handing him the note, Will glanced at it but was still as mad as hell at his niece`s recklessness.

Sally then explained why she had taken such risks. "I needed to be sure Uncle Will, to be sure that there was something to find before I wasted your time; and also made myself look ridiculous in the eyes of Major Hernandez, surely you understand that?" Sally cried out.

"Ok, Sally, I guess I do understand that, and you did find something, just promise me that next time you will call before putting your life in danger, OK?" Will replied, his anger dissipating, for he knew that he would have done exactly the same thing in her place.

"OK, Uncle, I promise." Sally said, feeling much better now she had told her uncle everything that she knew and suspected about the alien presence on Earth, and of their invasion plans. She felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her, now someone better suited could protect the people of Earth, and she could relax, a little.

The thought that the aliens might have killed her had occurred to Sally last night, sitting there now, with her uncle, she thought about it again, remembered her fear once again. How it had bit into her vitals when the two aliens had appeared, and she had been forced to hide beneath a desk. So, she took a deep breath of air, and feeling better she waited to hear what her uncle had to say about all that she had told him.

Will now repeated the pertinent facts back to Sally. "Ok Sally, first off they need the results urgently, as they have already identified all of the delivery points in North America and they are ready to commence delivery of the chemical. Secondly, they need confirmation that the latest version of the chemical is effective against us, especially after its immersion in water for an extended amount of time. Thirdly, they need to know the amount of Trichlorian Plus required with each one thousand gallons of water. They also need to know when a top up will be required. They are about to proceed with the field tests in some of the remoter areas of America, is that everything Sally?" Will asked his niece.

Sally took a moment before replying, running everything through her mind. "Yes Uncle, but the dosage may be too high for it to go unnoticed for the length of time that they need. Carlisle needs more time to improve its effectiveness to ensure that they do not fail. He mentioned that he might be able to refine the chemical enough by the end of next month, but not before." Sally reminded her uncle.

"Sally, we need to speak to the Major about this, and yes you are right, it does sound as if someone wants to poison us all, and if it is ET, then maybe the target is the Earth rather than just the US. However, I do not want to mention E.T. just yet, not until we have more proof that they exist." Will said to his niece, who nodded her acceptance of his decision.

Almost immediately some of her elation died away, for E.T. was to remain a secret; however, it did not fade away entirely. Sally had long realized the seriousness of the alien presence, but hearing someone else speak of it had made her head spin, but only just a little, for now she knew the fight would soon be taken to the aliens, their invasion plans were no longer a secret known only to her.

**********

The next morning, at ten o`clock, when the early morning paperwork had been done, Will and Sally knocked on the door of Major Hernandez. "Good morning Major, do you have half an hour to spare, Sally and I need to talk to you about a serious matter; it looks as if Sally has indeed stumbled upon one of our militant crackpot groups, and a rather dangerous one at that." Will said to his commanding officer who looked quizzically at his officer for a moment before nodding his head and asking him to continue.

Will then told Major Hernandez of Sally`s two visits to the run-down commercial building in Austin, and some of what she had overheard and seen there.

Major Hernandez listened carefully, hardly believing that the young woman before him had had the guts to go all Nancy Drew, or that she could stumble across a conspiracy when trained officers could not hear even a trace of a rumour regarding the matter.

"You do realize Sally, that you broke the law when you entered the building early that morning?" Major Hernandez asked a perplexed young woman who had gone to see Hernandez regarding a much more serious matter than trespassing on private property.

"Yes of course I do, but I felt that I had no other option open to me, and it paid off Major, in spades." Sally retorted. "Didn`t it, and thank god that I did break the law, for otherwise god only knows how many people might have died otherwise." She replied angrily.

Major Hernandez smiled at Sally following her rebuke of him; as he looked from Sally to Will while he quickly went over all that he had heard; he soon came to a decision. "Ok Will, we will mount a raid on the buildings tomorrow morning, at eight when it opens." Hernandez now turned to Sally.

"Sally, I believe you, I really do, but this is your chance to come clean, if this is really just a figment of your imagination tell us now and I will not rebuke you." Hernandez said looking rather apologetic for still having doubts.

"If only it was Major Hernandez, it would mean that my life could get back to normal, and that I could go back to NASA, and back to a job that I really do love." Sally replied with a sad smile on her face.

"Then we shall pay this group of dangerous madmen a visit, and stop their mad scheme before it even begins." Hernandez promised, believing all that Sally had said, for he now saw the sincerity of her words, both in her voice and upon her face.

Major Hernandez then contacted his two sergeants to have them arrange for twenty Rangers plus the two sergeants to be on hand for an early morning raid, and to stress upon their men that secrecy about the raid was most important, as usual. Hernandez`s sixth sense was telling him that he had not been told the whole story, but he trusted Captain Rogers, and so decided to wait and see how the strange case unfolded, to see if there was another dimension to it.

Will headed for his desk, for as usual there was still the normal case load demanding his attention, Sally decided to spend some time at the shopping mall, but Ranger Margery Phipps accompanied her, so as to ensure her safety.

**********

Twenty-two Rangers were asked to take part in the raid, they assembled at the Ranger`s headquarters at six in the morning, they had been told that they were going to raid a drugs factory, for the present that is all that they needed to know. Major Hernandez felt that it was safer to conceal the real target, just in case the villains heard about it through careless talk. Will knew the real reason, a reason that not even Major Hernandez knew of, and he still felt a twinge of doubt, was Sally just a delusional science fiction fan or someone who had found herself caught up in a plot that was much stranger than fiction, as his sub conscious told him.

Will entered the factory grounds from the rear, using the same route that Sally had used, Major Hernandez came in the front door following Clone 2, the supposed manager of the factory, who turned up moments after the Rangers. As soon as the door had been unlocked, ten Rangers leapt from a van parked in front of the door.

"What the hell do you think you are doing officer?" Clone 2 protested as he was bundled inside, a search warrant pushed into his hands. They held him firmly against the inside of the front fence and searched him for weapons.

"The keys to the building, hand them over." Hernandez demanded, and moments later, he was opening the door to the building.

Five of the Rangers entered the building after him, while the others, they waited for any other staff to arrive; and they so did in the person of Clone 1 who when arrested looked accusingly at Clone 2, as if to say I warned you.

Inside the building, Will and five of his team joined up with Major Hernandez and his Rangers, the others on Will`s team had been detailed to search the upper floor of the main building.

"It appears to be all clear within this section of the building, Will, take the keys and have Sergeant Royston search the other buildings, and then bring Sally here." Hernandez instructed.

While Royston climbed the staircase on the other side of the yard, Will went to where Sally was waiting, she was in the Ranger`s van with two other Rangers to protect her, they would stay there to ensure that the team was not taken by surprise, should a sufficiently large enough force of the enemy arrive. Will escorted Sally into the yard, and as she entered, she glanced at the two men held by the Rangers.

"Those are the two men who spoke to Carlisle; I firmly believe that they are aliens." Sally said quietly to her uncle, just before they entered the building.

When they met up with Hernandez he moved back to allow Sally some room. "Well this is your show Sally; show us how to operate the elevator." Hernandez said to her, and indicated the janitor`s cupboard.

Sally stepped into the cupboard and reaching out her hand, she moved the light switch to one side, revealing the call button. "You press this button Major Hernandez and it brings the elevator up to this floor." Sally replied in a steady voice, however she did not press the button, she left that for Hernandez to do, when he was ready.

Royston now arrived to give his report. "Major, the entire factory area is empty of any further suspects." He said in a quiet voice.

"OK, Sergeant Royston, secure the buildings and the yard; please ensure that we are not taken by surprise by anyone entering from the back, as Captain Rogers and his team just did. The upper level is already being searched by five Rangers belonging to Will`s team, use some of them and bring the rest back here for use as back up." Hernandez ordered.

Hernandez now moved Sally back into the corridor and then he pressed the call button; they all heard the whirring noise as the elevator began to move up from the basement. Ten pistols were aimed at the janitor's cupboard as it moved slowly upwards; it was soon replaced by the closed elevator door, which slowly opened. The Rangers were ready for anything, and they all breathed out in relief when the elevator door opened to reveal an empty space. The Rangers and Sally all remembered to breath normally now as they prepared for the next stage of the raid.

Will entered the elevator with his team of five Rangers, and when ready, weapons pointing at where the door would re-open, Will pressed the down button and then the elevator slowly descended to the basement and the concealed laboratory. The door opened to an empty corridor, Will moved out with his team and took up defensive positions, all except the last Ranger to leave the elevator; he pushed the button to send the elevator back up to the ground floor and Major Hernandez. Now it was the turn of Major Hernandez and three of his team to enter the elevator and descend to the basement, and if necessary to back up Will and his men. Two Rangers were left behind to stand guard by the entrance of the lift, they were also ordered to protect Sally, should anything unforeseen occur. They would escort her down to the lower level when ordered to; for Sally was their scientific expert.

The first thing Hernandez heard when the elevator door opened was the sound of an explosion, Will and his team had been just about to move out when they surprised another of the alien clones, this one was armed. He snatched his weapon out of its holster and fired at Will, thankfully the clone had not had time to aim, an energy bolt whistled by Will`s arm and exploded in the wall behind him making him flinch and duck down. Will immediately returned fire with his .45 Colt automatic pistol, however, the clone had quickly moved back into the room that he had just vacated, Will rushed forward to the now closed door of the room and prepared to enter, just then Major Hernandez arrived.

"Major, there is at least one man in this room and he is armed with some sort of fancy energy weapon, it is highly effective in close quarters and very powerful."

Hernandez had seen the damaged wall and nodded in agreement, wondering just what sort of weapon had done so much damage to the concrete wall.

"Ok, Will, but let`s blow the door off of its hinges, it should lessen the risk of one of us being killed, then we will lob in a couple of tear gas grenades, see if we cannot finish this one off without anyone being killed."

Hernandez beckoned to one of his team, Nancy McIntyre, a young woman with a liking for explosives. "McIntyre, lose the door for us." Hernandez ordered.

Will then spoke to one of the men belonging to his team. "Wallis, get ready to lob a couple of tear gas grenades into the room, after McIntyre does her stuff.

Nancy McIntyre now moved forward and pressed a small amount of explosive around the two hinges of the door, and then she did the same to the lock. Finally, she inserted the detonators into the soft explosive and the Rangers moved well back and covered their ears.

"Here goes Major." Nancy called across to Hernandez and then she flicked a trigger switch and the door was flung into the room accompanied by a soft explosion, the new explosive was more human friendly, if any explosive could be ever said to be so.

An energy bolt whistled through the now empty doorway to explode against the wall, proving to them just how dangerous it would be to storm the room. Will beckoned to Joe Wallis, who moved forward towards the open doorway and fired his grenade launcher, twice, in two different trajectories; he had sent two tear gas grenades into the room that held the man who had fired upon them. The Rangers hurriedly donned their gas masks, and then, from within the room, they heard two people coughing and stumbling around the room. Will rushed forward with his team and moments later came back into the corridor dragging two very sorry looking alien clones. Will handcuffed the clones and charged them with attempting to murder a Texas Ranger.

"The raid is going well, let`s hope it continues in that direction." Will remarked to Hernandez.

The raid certainly proved that the people here had something very valuable to protect, or hide, and that they possessed weapons as yet unknown on Earth. However, the weapons` fire had alerted the other alien clones in the basement; they quickly went for their own weapons and then they rushed out to see just what was happening. The lead clone stopped as soon as he saw the Rangers, he then opened fire, sending an energy bolt whistling along the room to strike Ranger Rodriguez in the chest, where it exploded killing him instantly, his body, thrown against the wall, slid slowly to the floor. The other alien clones immediately opened fire upon the Rangers, three powerful energy bolts whistled towards the Rangers, one of them burning the arm of Will as it whistled by him, before exploding against the wall. Ranger Miles was not so lucky, he took an energy bolt to his head and he could not even scream out in pain, he simply fell to the floor, dead. The last bolt of energy exploded against the light switch, short-circuiting the electrical supply and throwing the corridor into darkness.

Will`s burnt arm was hurting him, however, he did not let it stop him from doing his job, he joined in as the Rangers returned fire against the four alien clones, shooting blindly down the corridor, two of the clones were hit and fell unconscious to the floor. The two remaining alien clones fired their powerful weapons once again, aiming from the flashes of gunfire. Thankfully, the Rangers had fallen back into cover immediately after firing their weapons, for a number of energy bolts whistled by their positions to explode against the far wall.

They however had a perfect target to aim at, the origin of the terrifying beams of energy whistling towards them, whistling as it destroyed the air that it passed through. The Rangers all opened fire again, and they smiled grimly when they heard the groans of pain coming from the other end of the corridor.

When no returning fire was forthcoming, Will pulled out his powerful flashlight and turned it on, taking care to conceal as much of himself behind a handy doorframe, what the bright beam of light showed him was the bodies of four men laying crumpled upon the floor, the firefight was over.

"Wallis, follow me along the corridor to collect their weapons, the rest of you remain under cover until we are certain that there are not any more of them about to continue the fight." Will ordered.

The two Rangers moved forward, the way being lit by the beam of light coming from the flashlight in Will`s hand. They quickly picked up the four energy weapons and then handcuffed the four aliens, not bothering to check as to whether they were alive or not.

"Ranger Davis." Hernandez called out in the dark. "Take the elevator up and contact headquarters, tell them we need three ambulances and a couple of doctors to see to the dead and the wounded." Hernandez ordered grimly. "When you have done that, tell them to arrange for an electrician to come here, we need him fast, and have them send some portable lighting until the electrician can repair the lighting system. Oh, and tell Royston to send down four of his Rangers."

"Right away Sir." Davis replied. He had pulled out a flashlight, and using it headed back to the elevator, leaving his colleagues to finish checking out the rest of the basement.

Major Hernandez looked at the energy weapon used by their antagonists; he could hardly believe that such a weapon even existed, never mind that it was in the hands of a group of crackpot militants.

The remaining Rangers first checked on their two downed comrades, but they were both dead, as they already knew. They allowed themselves a short moment to grieve for their dead, men who they had known and liked, then using their flashlights they continued their search of the basement. It revealed no other alien clones but it did reveal eight human test subjects, five men and three women; kidnapped and then experimented on, to test an improved version of Trichlorian Plus. However, when they were questioned they could tell the Rangers little, for they had all been unconscious when they had been brought into the laboratory, and the aliens never spoke in English when in earshot of one of the humans.

Sally was still waiting by the elevator when the ambulance people brought up the bodies of the two dead Rangers, she could not check the tears as she saw them, for they had died because of her, because of her belief that alien invaders were amongst them. Sally went down into the basement only when Major Hernandez knew that it was safe, and when the ambulances had taken all of the dead and wounded away. The basement area had lighting now, portable lighting units had been brought over from the Ranger`s headquarters, showing all the scorch marks made by the energy weapons, and the bullet holes made by the weapons of the Rangers.

She rushed to the side of her uncle when she saw a doctor attending to his wound, but Will assured her that it was just a burn, and not a bad one at that. Sally felt partly responsible once again as she watched as her uncle`s arm was creamed, and then wrapped in special burn bandages to stop any infection from taking hold. All these injuries and deaths, she felt each and every one, she hoped that there would not be any more, for her conscience was already having a hard time coping with the deaths and injuries that had happened so far.

Now that she was finally down in the basement, Sally found the she was unable to help Major Hernandez that much, not immediately. For it would take quite some time to go through all the chemicals that they found, and then test them to see what the aliens were using them for, but she offered her services, if they thought that she could be of help, they did, and she was asked to package samples of everything that she regarded as important. The Rangers' forensic department came by half an hour later to help their new colleague package up the many chemicals found in the laboratories that led off the dimly lit corridors. Finally, the electrician arrived and she sorted out the shorted-out electrics, and the lighting was soon restored to make their work all the easier.

With all of the evidence that he now possessed, Major Hernandez was able to put out a call for the arrest of Doctor Carlisle. However, unknown to them Carlisle had seen the Ranger presence at the factory; he waited at the far end of the street to watch the operation so that he could give a full report to his superiors. One of his colleagues, Lana Mullins, was also lucky, for she walked around the corner just seconds later and bumped into him. Together they witnessed the arrival of the ambulances, saw the dead taken away, and also saw the wounded taken away with a Ranger escort, four of the clones were still alive, the two dead ones would go to the city morgue and undergo an autopsy.

"Come, Lana, we should get to the clinic as soon as possible, otherwise we may be seen and arrested, and neither of us can afford for that to happen, can we?" Carlisle said grimly.

Lana smiled at the scientist, no she thought, that would certainly put a crimp on her plans.

Chapter Five

ET is Really Here

Aboard the space cruiser Constellation, Consul Phairlis stood in his cabin reading the message from the clinic in Austin. Captain Lorinson stood anxiously by the door, anxious, as he knew what was in the message.

"How in hell`s name could the Rangers have found out about the chemical factory, the only one to have the latest batch of the formula, tell me that Captain, how?" Phairlis demanded to know of the captain of the space cruiser. Phairlis`s face had taken on a shade of light pink as anger took over his normal calm exterior.

"Carlisle has told us further on in his report Sir." Lorinson replied

When Phairlis found out that Sally was to blame for the calamity he almost exploded. "Her name goes to the very top of our kill list; send a message to our agents on the planet instructing them to arrange for her death, immediately." Phairlis screamed.

"Of course, Sir, I will have your order sent to our team in Texas immediately." Lorinson then turned to the internal intercom system, a device fitted in various parts of the ship including the state room currently occupied by Phairlis, he called his communication`s officer and gave him the new orders regarding Sally.

"It is lucky that the latest batch of the chemical was brought aboard the ship last night. Have its chemical formula sent to Magenta and tell them that they will have to take over the production of the Trichlorian, just in case any other problems arise. To have it shipped out from Magenta will delay us, but only by a year at most." Phairlis ordered, his anger abating somewhat and allowing him to think more clearly.

"Now, Captain, what about Carlisle, the American authorities may also have learned about him, he must be moved immediately to one of the other factories to carry on his work, have the attack craft Magenta pick him up as soon as possible." Phairlis said, he was then silent for a moment, he was mulling over a suitable response for this setback, finally he decided, they would make a suitable retaliatory act, and one that would make the earthlings pay for their attack on his people.

"Captain, I have decided that we need to rid ourselves of some of the pests that are troubling our agents on the planet, I am about to call a meeting of the council, meet me there in an hour`s time, and bring Commander Greer along as well, we will need his expertise over the next few days."

Within one hour, the full council of the Chosen Ones had assembled, and with them were Captain Lorinson and Commander Greer, a member of the Special Assignments Squadron who operated from the attack craft Magenta.

"I have called you all here so that I can inform you of how I propose to proceed following the attack on the chemical laboratory. Once again, that female scientist Sally Jameson has been the cause; therefore, I have put her to the top of the list for those we need exterminated, urgently. Captain Lorinson has already told our operatives on the sixth planet to make it a top priority." Phairlis said to mutters of approval from around the table. "I am sorry for not listening to you before regarding that troublesome woman, but I will not make that mistake again." Phairlis vowed as many of his council smiled at his words and some even had derisory thoughts about their leader's earlier decision regarding Sally Jameson.

"In addition to this action I am implementing a new phase of attack against the humans, this will be phase five. This will be against the senior officers of the Texas Rangers who work in Houston and Austin, especially Austin, as they are spearheading the attack on us. There is even a chance that the senior members of this organisation may believe Sally Jameson as regards our presence on their planet, especially after the raid on the commercial buildings and its secret laboratory in Austin, one that we thought was so well hidden." Phairlis declared angrily.

"In case you are wondering about phase five, phases one to four were all planned before our invasion force left Magenta, and they had been agreed to by the government of Magenta. Phase five though is all mine, and our new invasion plan is also mine, and it will deviate greatly from the original, shortening the time that our people will have to wait to enjoy their new home world." Consul Phairlis declared, and there were no derisory thoughts about this, only wide smiles and applause, for they had all wondered when Phairlis would shrug off the constraints of the Magentan government, now they knew.

Phairlis now turned to Commander Greer. "Commander, you have an idea on how we should retaliate, please tell the council." Phairlis asked.

Commander Greer smiled at Phairlis and came to his feet so that everyone sitting around the table could see him. "Yes Consul, I do. I have already made plans to cover many situations, and the one that I have chosen for this one calls for the blame to fall upon one of the many crackpot groups who live in the United States." After outlining his simple plan, the council voted unanimously to accept it.

**********

The next day the sun was shining in Houston, and with the slight breeze blowing through the city, its citizens felt quite happy with their lives. One of them, a motorcycle courier, pulled up outside of the large Mormon Temple; here a tall, pale looking man handed him a parcel.

"It is important that you take this to headquarters of the Texas Rangers immediately, here is fifty dollars, keep the change, if you can delivery it within ten minutes the sergeant at the desk has promised me that he will give you another fifty, so hurry." The man said.

The courier did wonder why the man had waited for a courier to arrive, if it was so urgent, but figured that it just might be fatal for the man to be seen entering the headquarters of the Texas Rangers, anyway he could do with another fifty, so he accelerated away and chose the quickest route available to him.

The courier was walking up to the desk within the headquarters of the Texas Rangers when the bomb exploded, the powerful explosion was heard all over the city, the Ranger headquarters in Houston was no more, just broken concrete and steel. Of the men and women who worked there, they all died; there was not even one survivor.

In the city of Austin, a courier was pulling away from a church, rather than a Mormon Temple, but he too had a parcel, he too was in a hurry to get to the Ranger`s office and collect a further fifty dollars, unfortunately for him the traffic was slow due to road works. The courier decided to cut down a narrow alley, it would take him out of his way but he would still be able to get to his destination in time to collect the fifty-dollar bill. That was until he pulled out sharply into the busy traffic on the road at the other end of the alley.

John Wilson had been a lorry driver for thirty years, tomorrow he was due to start his vacation, he had booked into one of the plush hotels in Las Vegas. Having had to book an early flight, one that was due to take off at dawn the next morning, he wanted to finish off today`s drops and get home early, so he was in a hurry. The many road works around town were not helping him so he was overtaking the vehicles ahead of him at every opportunity, he did not see the motor cycle courier suddenly pull out of the alley, he was too busy looking in his rear mirror and screaming obscenities at the driver behind him, the one he had just cut up.

As for the motor cyclist, he did not have a chance, he was knocked flying off his bike, and although shaken he was more angry about seeing his bike crushed beneath the wheels of the heavy lorry. His anger did not last all that long, his parcel had come loose and slid beneath an oncoming bus, when the wheels began to crush it the bomb exploded, killing or injuring anyone with fifty feet of it.

Major Hernandez was sitting at his desk going through the reports regarding the raid on the laboratory when Special Agent Fellows of the FBI called on the telephone; it was just five minutes after the first bomb explosion, the one in Houston. Fellows and Hernandez were old friends, having met on another case last year.

"Major Hernandez, I have some bad news for you, there has been a terrorist attack against the Ranger`s headquarters in Houston, Major, it was one hell of a powerful explosion, I do not think that there will be many survivors." Fellows said grimly.

Hernandez was stunned for only a moment, he was about to inform the agent that he would come immediately, when he heard the second bomb detonate, it went off seventy feet further along the street and broke every window with the Ranger`s headquarters. Glass showered the office, but somehow, he escaped with just a few minor scratches, but he was stunned for a moment, he certainly could not answer Fellows` anxious barrage of questions. Fellows had heard the explosion over the phone, and now feared the worst. Finally, Hernandez regained control of his emotions to answer Fellows` questions.

"My god Special Agent Fellows, they made an attempt here too, we seem to be OK, it exploded prematurely further down the street, only god knows how many people were killed in the attack, look, I have to go now, I will call you back. I will inform Chief Randall immediately about the Houston attack, please keep me updated about it."

Hernandez immediately put the building on terrorist alert, and he then informed every one of the bomb attack in Houston, he did not need to tell them of the one in Austin, for they had all heard it. However, he did warn them to be alert for another attempt, both within the building and outside. He then sent out a warning to the other Ranger offices and finally he found the time to call Chief Randall, who had already heard about the attack, he asked Hernandez to come straight to his office.

"The group behind the two explosions Chief, it must be something to do with the raid on the terrorist laboratory in Austin, we hurt them bad and they are taking their revenge on us." Hernandez said to Chief Randall, the man who was in overall command of the Rangers.

"I agree Matias, but who the hell are they, and why have we only just found out about such a dangerous group?" Randall demanded to know.

"I do not know Chief; I asked myself the same question. I should be hearing something back from my team shortly; I will update you when I can." Hernandez promised.

"Matias, I have asked the FBI to handle the initial investigation into the bombing in Houston, from the reports that I am receiving not many of our people could have survived the explosion, and we simply do not have the manpower to investigate both attacks. In any case, if you are correct about the perpetrator, then you and Captain Rogers are already looking for the bastard behind both bombings. Find them Matias, and when you do let me know so that I can be in on the kill." Randall ordered grimly.

Hernandez and Randall left it there for the moment, and Hernandez went directly to the site of the bomb crater and took over the investigation, all round him, he saw the dead and the wounded, and he said a silent prayer, for both the many people who had been injured or had died. He also took a moment to think about their families.

Thankfully the paramedics were soon there in force, as were the fire brigade, for they were needed to cut the victims of the atrocity from out of the many vehicles that had taken the brunt of the blast. Hernandez stood there staring at it, wondering how an intelligent person could inflict such a terrible act upon the innocent people of his city, finally he tore his eyes away from the sight and left it to the forensic team to provide him with a lead. He was going to talk to the men who he had arrested the night before, and demand some answers, because his sixth sense was telling him that they knew who was responsible for this attack. He also called Will, and told him to collect Sally, and for both of them to come to his office, immediately.

**********

In Houston, the FBI were investigating the attack on the Ranger office, as requested by Chief Randall, although, the Rangers who were relatively OK, were assisting in the task of finding those responsible, and each of them working 24 hours per day to track down the terrorists.

The other district headquarters of the Rangers sent as many people as they could to assist, but they too were stretched. There were the cutbacks in the workforce due to financial restraints, and of course their normal workload, and a few were working on the ET case, checking up on Sally`s list of people. Will had re-organised the list so that the names were under the subjects' location, and he then sent only those names applicable to each of the Ranger headquarters, asking them to run a security check on the people. Not that any of the Rangers would not have put their normal work to one side to search for the bombers. However, Will had stressed the importance of checking into the people on the lists that he had sent out, although, he had kept the reason behind the request a top secret. Major Hernandez knew nothing about the lists, but then many initial investigations went on without him being updated daily. Therefore, the FBI handled the initial investigation into the Houston attack, with help from Homeland Security.

The FBI were happy to help out the smaller law enforcement force, with Special Agent Fellows of the Houston office finding himself leading a major investigation. When he saw what remained of the Rangers` headquarters, and looked on as the bodies of the dead Rangers were dug out of the rubble, he had to take a long moment off to get over the terrible sight; it looked more like a war zone than the peaceful city of Houston, Texas.

His attention was immediately drawn to a motorcycle belonging to Express Couriers. A police officer had found it; the motorcycle was within the window display of the shop opposite to the Rangers office, blown there by the force of the explosion. Special Agent Fellows wondered if Express Couriers could help throw any light on the pressing need to discover just who had delivered the explosive device to the Rangers Headquarters. Therefore, he went to call on them, glad to leave the blood, and the torn and twisted bodies, behind him.

"FBI." Fellows announced, showing his card to an elderly man behind an old wooden desk in the small dirty office that was Express Couriers. "Special Agent Fellows, are you Mr Bright, the owner of this firm?" Fellows asked.

"Yes, I am, Special Agent Fellows, how can I be of help to you?" Bright asked rather apprehensively, immediately feeling guilty of at least some small misdemeanour he may have committed.

"Did you send one of your people to the Texas Ranger headquarters this morning?" Fellows asked grimly, his eyes boring into those of Bright.

Bright had heard about the bombing and sweat broke out upon his face, he had done nothing wrong but even so, this large looking officer seemed particularly grim, if a little pale. "Yes, Special Agent, we did have one of our boys deliver a parcel to the headquarters of the Texas Rangers, it was a new customer, a Mr Brown. Johnny, my driver, is he all right, I mean I heard about the explosion on the radio, and Johnny has not called in since he picked up the parcel. It was from a guy at the Executive Rooms, it`s the building right next to the Mormon Temple." Bright said fearing the worst, both for his driver and himself.

That was all Fellows got from him, the request for a courier had come in over the phone and Bright could only say that it was a man on the phone. Fellows drove over to the Executive Rooms but the woman on the desk said that no Mr Brown was staying there, which was just as Fellows had expected. Fellows had spoken to Major Hernandez earlier that day, he now called him to bring him up to date, Hernandez was about to interrogate the two alien clones when the call came through. Fellows told Hernandez the little that he had found out, how he thought that the bomb may have been sent by a courier directly into the Ranger`s District Headquarters, and that it had been picked up from outside the Mormon Temple.

"Have you any leads about the group behind the attack." Hernandez asked.

"No, Major, it could have been any of the many militant groups that have sprung up." Fellows replied.

"You may be correct, Special Agent Fellows. However, I believe this case is associated with another case that we are working on. Look, I cannot speak about it over the phone, drive up to Austin when you get time and I will fill you in. I can say that your Deputy Director Task knows a little about it. Hmm, maybe the two of you should come here to Austin; I will call him, because I think the situation could get worse." Hernandez said thoughtfully.

"I will check on the CCTV cameras near to the Mormon Temple first Major, and also whether we have found any of the bomb fragments, although that will probably mean sorting through and disposing of all the rubble that once was a building. I will call you later today to let you know when I can come over to see you." Fellows replied.

"Twenty minutes later and Fellows received a call from Deputy Director Task, he was to hand over the command of the investigation to a senior officer, however, he was to continue looking into the CCTV angle and push ahead with the search for any bomb fragments. However, Special Agent Tom Rails would now be in overall command, he would be in Houston tomorrow, sometime, after visiting Austin and meeting up with Major Hernandez.

*********

The two alien clones who had been taken prisoner by the Rangers, together with the two who had been shot, all died suddenly from a heart attack, and before Hernandez could talk to them again, although they had stayed silent up until now, refusing to utter a single syllable. It was much later that day when the medical examiner, Doctor Rollins, brought the autopsy reports up to Major Hernandez, and personally, for he had many interesting facts to reveal, Will and Sally were in the major`s office when Rollins entered it.

"Major, Will, Sally, the autopsies of the six men that you sent along revealed a piece of metal in their chests, and implanted very near to their hearts. I heard about the implant that killed Colin Braun and so I spoke with Doctor Carlson, we both checked and it was the same implant that killed four of the men, your bullets killing the other two, although they too had the implant within their chest, and their implants also self-destructed. However, there is another interesting point, one that is far more important, it concerns the internal organs of these six men, they were not in the usual position for a human, some were on the opposite side of the body, and some were in a higher or lower position. If that is not enough I have even more to tell you, the men were all in remarkable poor health, except that is for their teeth, and I did not find even one filling in any of their teeth. If I had to make a guess, I would say that there is a real chance that these people were not humans, but clones, although I have no idea who has the know-how to produce such a thing. There is one other mystery, the clones appear to have been created to live only a very short time, they had all been in danger of dying over the next two years, the destruction of the implant merely hastened their deaths." Rollins informed the Rangers, who were unsure how to take his report, only Sally did not appear surprised by the report.

Will looked across at Sally and saw her smiling to herself, for she knew that they now had more proof that indicated that aliens really did exist, the alien invasion threat was for real; it was a Hollywood nightmare come true. However, the information regarding the clones` short life span was hard to understand, for would an invasion force build a clone to fail after so short a time?

Doctor Rollins did not give the two Rangers time to digest this information, instead he continued with another report connected to the clones.

"This is a preliminary report regarding an unknown chemical that was found in the blood of the rescued people, the people were in good health but following a suggestion by Sally." Rollins said, and he looked across at Sally and smiled. "We checked all of the test subjects for fertility problems, on checking we found them all to be infertile. The patients have never experienced any trouble before as regards fertility; four of them even have children. This proves a huge chunk of Sally`s tale, it is my belief that the chemical has never been manufactured in this form on Earth, and I can envisage no reason to do so, except in total warfare." Rollins stated and then pulled out another file.

"Now this final report was compiled by Sally, but she wants me to read it to you." Rollins said looking at the two Rangers who merely nodded. "In it Sally states that she will need to go through the many written documents that we found in the laboratory to see how this chemical was manufactured, unfortunately there are a great many such documents. All of the documents are in English, although poorly written, as if it were not the first language of the writer, and this has made it rather difficult to read. Sally did find some small traces in the laboratory of the chemical found in the test subjects' blood, although not very much. However, we did find many of the sacks of the chemical Trichlorian Plus, and it is similar in composition to the one found in the test subjects' blood, but the form that it was found in, it could not cause infertility, nor is it a poison. As the terrorists spoke of Trichlorian Plus, I believe they alter it before it is able to cause infertility, or to act as a toxin. That is the end of her report, although Sally will continue reading the notes and let you know as soon as she has found the answer to the puzzle." Doctor Rollins said, finishing off the reports on the laboratory.

Having listened in full to Doctor Rollins, both Major Hernandez and Will said they needed to re-read the reports, because they were left a little baffled by parts of what they had heard, and Major Hernandez was momentarily unsure just where to go with it. Aliens, he thought, what the hell? It was now, after Rollins had departed, that Will spoke to Hernandez regarding his own thoughts on the case.

"Major, this case originated because of Sally`s interest in the people returning from Mars, after the first trip, and then the Moon, Sally thinks that we could be talking about real aliens, ones from another world, and after listening to the autopsy reports I now believe that she is right. If I remember correctly Major, we lost contact with Mars Colony One spacecraft on their outward journey, and did not re-establish contact with them until they arrived at the planet Mars, I now think that it could have all started during that part of the journey. All the eight people on Mars Colony One craft were Americans though, if this was when they were brainwashed then surely it must have been real life aliens, little green men from Alpha Centauri?" Will argued, now knowing how his niece felt when she uttered such preposterous things, he could not believe that he had even suggested it. "For it to have been one or more of our own men behind the brainwashing, well it is an even crazier notion." Will declared.

Hernandez sat there stunned while his most able officer talked about aliens attacking the Earth, had he fallen asleep and this was but a dream. Hernandez shook himself and attempted to listen harder to whatever Will was suggesting.

Will looked across at Sally, asking for help to convince Major Hernandez about the alien presence on Earth. As Doctor Rollins had already done the hard work by giving his autopsy report, and her Uncle had given his views on the matter, she knew that it was her turn now; she had to tell him all that she had kept secret from him, for fear of ridicule.

"Major, one of the two men who were with Richard Mallory at the health spa asked a question that made my blood turn cold. He asked why they did not release a virus to clear Earth of its inhabitants, the second one replied that with all the dead bodies covering the Earth, the planet would be a seething mass of bacteria, and he did not want to live on such a world." Sally said in a quiet voice "At the time even I was left in a state of disbelief, but it is true Major, there are aliens walking amongst us."

She then handed him a list of names. "You should also know that there are a lot of new faces working at the Johnson Space Center, and while this might be normal, these people are not."

Worry bit into her stomach, worry that Major Hernandez might just laugh at the two of them and throw them out of his office. She then handed him a second list of names.

"That is a second list, it is of all the people I have met who I suspect could be either alien clones or have been brainwashed in some way to allow the aliens to control them." Sally said to a stunned Texas Ranger.

"There is also what I heard during my night-time visit to the laboratory, as I told you before I saw four men there. Two of them spoke, the first one said, 'I just need some fresh air, Dario, to look up at the night sky and try to find our sun; I guess that I am feeling just a little homesick.' To which the second man replied. 'Well I am not homesick, moving to this planet has given me a young body, and if I had stayed on Magenta I might have been dead by now.'

Major Hernandez looked down at the lists in his hand and then looked at Will and Sally. "Sally, these lists are rather extensive, I see that you have compiled it under three headings, Mars, The Moon, and finally Houston, if the people listed here have all been taken over by some foreign agency, it means that the real number of people who have been taken is probably far larger. Are you sticking by these lists?" Hernandez asked, still refusing to believe in E.T.

"Yes, Major Hernandez, but it is not a foreign agency at work here, it is an extra-terrestrial presence on our world. I wished with all my heart that I was not sure of my facts, but I am, and yes the number of affected people must be far greater, for it must also include those who went to the Moon, and to Mars, from all the nations who participated in the program with the US." Sally replied grimly.

"Major, I really believe that we are faced with an invasion from space, the aliens that we have for so long written about are here, and they are not friendly." Will now added, backing his niece who smiled across at him to thank him. "The energy weapons, the differences in all of the bodies that Doctor Rollins autopsied, and last of all, Sally`s own testimony, all these things point only one way. For any other reason to be true would be even more out of this world, pun intended." Will said, feeling that the facts that he had re-stated supported his summing up.

Major Hernandez was stunned by all that he had been told that day, and it took a long moment to decide on what his reply should be to Will and Sally. He knew that Will had been a little worried about involving the FBI in their case, however, Deputy Director Task had assured them that after a full investigation, the other Houston agents were not involved with Mallory, and he decided that it was time to put their trust in them.

"Will, after finding the energy weapons at the laboratory, and then hearing Doctor Rollins` autopsy report, and finally listening to the two of you, I am forced to agree with you, there is a chance that E.T. might really be here. We need to tell Chief Randall everything, let him decide how we should proceed. I feel that we need to inform the FBI, they have the nationwide resources to not only track down the names on Sally`s list, but to also seek out any more of the laboratories or regional headquarters in the US. The time is also coming when we will have to tell the other nations on our planet of your fears." Hernandez said grimly. Hernandez knew that this case had brought about an end to their old world, and started a terrifyingly new one, one filled with so much danger and uncertainty.

Chief Randall was stunned as he listened to his senior officers, and then Sally, however he could not argue with the forensic or medical evidence, and try as he did, he could not fault Sally`s story. Although he did ask for twelve hours to think over what he had heard and read.

**********

While Will and Major Hernandez were busy dealing with a case where extra-terrestrials were the villains, the normal investigation into the explosion in Austin went ahead. Sergeant Royston was working on the laboratory angle, and its money trail, however, it provided them with no further clues. The manager was also the owner of the factory, and the trail stopped with him, for he had paid cash to the previous owner of the property. Hernandez finally had the time and the labour to send two men out to check on the couriers in Austin, to see whether the aliens had used the same plan as they used in Houston, maybe they could get some sort of a lead from this. Later that day he chased the forensics team for any of the bomb fragments, but they were still searching the area around the bomb crater, and it covered a large area.

**********

The next morning Chief Randall, Will and Major Hernandez met up with Special Agent Rails at the Austin divisional headquarters of the Texas Rangers, and after the preliminary greetings, Rails got straight down to business.

"Before you fill me in on your own theory gentlemen, I have some forensic and other information to give you. Special Agent Fellows has been busy in Houston; he has just informed me of the following. First off, the forensic team have found traces of an unknown substance in the ruins of the Rangers` office in Houston, it could be the explosive used by the perpetrator, however, they are still trying to identify what sort of substance it actually is. I have asked him to send a sample of it to your forensics' people, to see if your investigation comes up with the same substance. And secondly, he has not got anything off the CCTV cameras near to the Mormon Temple; they had all been disabled, showing that the perpetrators are not fools."

"Thank you, Special Agent Rails, we will also keep you informed of any future developments." Chief Randall replied.

With the preliminaries over Randall handed over the next part to Hernandez and Will. Will told Rails about their case, of the Texas Health Spa, the laboratory in Austin and what they had found there, the conversations overheard by Sally, the six dead men, four of them killed by their own side because they had been taken prisoner, the energy weapons, the autopsy reports and finally the preliminary forensic reports.

"Special Agent Rails, everything that we have told you must be treated on a need to know basis, we have no idea as to the full extent of the alien infiltration." Hernandez warned the FBI agent. "I know it is hard to believe everything that we have told you, but believe me when I say that it is an E.T. invasion from outer space, one that we are only just getting our heads around."

Rails sat there open-mouthed, he wanted to say 'pardon, excuse me but are you three round the twist' however, what he did say was more diplomatic.

"Gentlemen, it all seems a little hard to believe, just how much do you trust this Jameson woman, as she is the only witness you have that connects this case to ET, otherwise it is just another bunch of militant fruit cakes, surely?" Rails asked. He looked and sounded very sceptical about the ET connection and Will jumped in just a mite angrily before Hernandez could reply.

"Sally Jameson works for NASA, Special Agent Rails, she is highly intelligent. We also have a recording that confirms that she was to have been the victim of a kidnapping by this group, two FBI agents have gone missing, and both suspected of involvement in this attempt. The chemical that we found in the secret laboratory certainly confirms part of her story. But please take your time, for I am sure that ET will call Time Out just for you." Will got up from his chair and walked to the far end of the office so that he could get control of his anger, and Rails sighed with relief, for he had thought that Will had stood up to make it easier to hit him.

Will had thought about doing just that for a second, but instead he continued with his verbal attack on the FBI agent. "And in case you did not understand the autopsy report on the six men found at the laboratory we raided, they were not human, so unless you want to put this all down to Fu Manchu, an alien presence on the Earth is a very logical assessment, Special Agent Rails." Will declared angrily

Major Hernandez sought to ease the tension in the room. "Special Agent Rails, there are also the energy weapons, nothing like them exists on Earth, they will take some explaining away, because if the Russians or the Chinese made them, this country is in real trouble." Hernandez argued. "We have also had more time to work on this case, and believe me, we would not cry alien if we did not have a reason to do so. If you want to have some of your people look into other likely suspects, then please do, you have the manpower. However, we believe that we have found the group behind the two attacks already, so forgive us if we chase after real life aliens."

Rails now attempted to apologise. "I am sorry to have angered you, and I do have some news that should meet with your approval. Tomorrow morning, I am going to lead a raid on the Texas Health Spa, turn it inside out in a bid to find proof of any wrongdoing. Chief Randall, you are more than welcome to send someone along, if you would like to, to ensure that your theory is treated with respect. The raid will commence at 8 am." Rails said, smiling at the Rangers in an effort to mend broken fences, however, he still refused to believe in the ET connection, nor would he until the FBI`s own forensics' department and medical examiner had looked at the evidence and agreed with the Rangers.

"I will thank you." Randall replied. "Will, you can go along, it is your case."

Will look across at Chief Randall, and then at Major Hernandez. "Thank you Chief, I appreciate that, and if there is anything to find, do not worry Sir, for I will find it. I will also take Sally with me; she has been there before as you know, and might just be able to help in the search, she certainly seems to have a feel for the enemy." Will declared, turning to look straight at the FBI agent.

"That is fine Captain Rogers, oh Chief Randall, would it be OK if people from the FBI forensics' department and our medical examiner came along to look at all the evidence that leads you to believe in an E.T. presence here on Earth?" Rails asked, hoping that his request would not anger the Rangers any more than they already were.

"Of course, Special Agent Rails, and the sooner the better, so that we can all get onto the same page. To facilitate that, why don`t you take this file, in it is the evidence that Ms Jameson and our team have amassed regarding our extra-terrestrial foe, and it has finally convinced Captain Rogers, Major Hernandez, and myself, of their presence here on Earth." Chief Randall replied with a smile, he then handed the FBI agent an envelope. "However, please treat it as top secret, not for general consumption amongst your agents."

The first thing that Rails did on leaving the Rangers` office was to put a call into Special Agent Fellows. "Special Agent Fellows, I want you to set up a raid on the Texas Health Spa for 8 am tomorrow morning. However, do not reveal the exact location of the raid. Your team may have been cleared of being involved with Mallory and Ballinger; however, I do not want to take a chance on those two men hearing about the raid through the old comrades' network." Rails ordered. Rails caution was because he did not want a charge of incompetence levelled again the FBI.

"Right, Sir, understood, oh by the way, just what are we searching for?" Fellows asked.

"For any evidence that a militant fruit cake group are operating out of the spa, I will advise the team of this when we meet outside of the spa. Oh, and the Rangers are sending Captain Will Rogers, he will be there to see if there is anything there that could be of help in their own investigation." Rails said before adding a rather sarcastic comment. "Oh, and he will be bringing along a Ms Sally Jameson, it seems she might be able to offer some insights, seems she met ET once." Rails rung off then leaving Fellows just a little confused as to why Rails had mentioned ET.

Rails then called the local forensics' department of the FBI, and after being put through to the woman in charge, he appraised her of the situation and requested that she send a team, along with their medical examiner, to Austin, to check over the evidence and bodies appertaining to this strange case.

**********

Consul Phairlis was pleased when he was told of the successful attack on the Rangers Headquarters in Houston, however he was less than pleased when told that the attack on the Austin headquarters had gone wrong, however he decided to hold back on a second attempt to destroy the Rangers` headquarters for the moment. For he did not want to push the authorities into believing Sally Jameson, that an alien invasion force was about to wipe the whole of Mankind off the face of the planet. He was not yet in a position to destroy them without the government of Magenta stepping in, no matter what he told the council of the Chosen Ones.

Phairlis did wonder just how much the authorities of the United States actually believed, the clones working at NASA had heard nothing, which could mean that the earthlings were still looking for a foreign spy ring, one from one of the other nations of Earth. He decided that he needed an answer to that particular question, so that he could plan his next move against not only the planet Earth, but also President Mortise. One of the senior Rangers in the city of Austin would provide him with his answer, or the FBI agent who had arrived to look into the Houston bombing, the one mentioned by Mallory, or the troublesome Sally Jameson, Phairlis smiled, yes her. He would call Mandelson and alter his instructions, he was to kidnap Jameson, not kill her.

**********

It was later that evening, when Sally`s eyes were very tired, that she finally found the notes that gave her the answer. The water that the chemical Trichlorian Plus was diluted in must be heated to 150 degrees Fahrenheit to change the chemical`s composition and in doing so activate it, and only then would it affect the fertility of the user, she immediately called her uncle with the news.

"Uncle Will, thank god we got onto them when we did, a week later and the Trichlorian Plus could have already been in our reservoirs, god knows how many people would have been affected." Sally said uneasily.

"I do so agree Sally, I will take your findings to Major Hernandez immediately, we appear to have stopped it for the moment, but they may have other supplies of the chemical. If so, they may not wait to concentrate the chemical still further. We will have to arrange to have all of our drinking water checked for signs of the chemical, and we will finally have to alert the world to this problem."

It was even later that evening that Ranger Davis found the courier who had been used to deliver the explosive device to the Ranger`s headquarters in Austin, however once again there did not appear to be any leads. The motorcycle courier was the only person to see Mr Smith, the customer, and he was dead, as for CCTV evidence, during the crucial ten minutes the cameras did not operate.

Earlier that same day the FBI forensics team, along with a medical examiner, arrived in Austin, and later that evening, to Special Agent Rails` surprise, they began to come up with the same answers as Doctor Rollins and Doctor Hans Carlson. They too agreed that the six dead men could indeed be alien clones, for what would be the point of a foreign power going to the expense, and the bother, of cloning spies, when they could just as easily use their own people?

It had just turned midnight and Special Agent Rails was in a small bar near to his hotel, he was talking to Special Agent Furling about the results, and other things appertaining to the case.

"Furling, we have two possibilities, the first is that the Rangers are correct, E.T. is launching an invasion, or the second possibility is that a foreign power has gone to the enormous expense of cloning an agent, something that is supposedly not yet possible, so as to mislead us, should their agent be apprehended." Rails said. He then looked across at Furling for some response to his words.

"The Rangers actually think that aliens are invading us Sir, are they mad?" Furling responded in disbelief.

"Earlier today I said much the same thing Furling, and even now I find it very hard to even consider such a thing, never mind believe, but before you give me your answer you had better read their reasons for believing in extra-terrestrials." Rails then handed Furling the report that Hernandez had given him. "You should also know that our own forensics' department and medical examiner concur with their Austin colleagues. In any case, whoever or whatever our enemy is, they are a serious menace to our people's survival, we will have to be in a state of constant readiness, or else we will wake up one morning to find that all of our people are infertile." Rails said grimly.

**********

While Sally had sought to convince the authorities in the US that there was an extra-terrestrial invasion underway, in the People`s Republic of China, what was thought to be a very different type of threat was taken more seriously. The local people soon noticed the alien clones, for the aliens had trouble blending in to the different culture. The locals reported them to Counter Intelligence as Western spies. One problem for the aliens was that very few of the clones could read or write the Chinese language, for it was totally alien to them. The Chinese authorities allowed the strangers some slack, and when it became clear that the strangers were acting against the government by subverting senior police officers, along with people working in local government and of course the space agency, the authorities struck.

The clones knew the importance of staying out of the authorities' hands, especially with the implant embedded in their chests, and near to their hearts. When it became clear to Consul Phairlis that his Chinese operation would need a different line of attack, he ordered the termination of all clones going through a period of stress. Those that survived were picked up by the Attack Craft Magenta and sent to the base on the planet Mars for the moment.

The Chinese authorities never knew who the agents were, they supposed that the US was behind them, but unfortunately, for the Chinese people, they had angered Consul Phairlis who vowed that he would make them pay for it later.

**********

The alien clone given the task of co-ordinating the task of kidnapping Sally Jameson was Ralph Mandelson, he had driven over to the clinic in Austin to ask for help. Lana Mullins, the former head of security at the factory that the Rangers had just raided, was seconded, and she was all too willing to assist him. Later that night Ralph Mandelson got a call from Special Agent Ballinger, Ballinger had been told that Sally would be in Houston, and maybe at the health spa, which he believed could be the location of a raid being planned by the FBI the next morning. Mallory and Ballinger had a mole within the ranks of the FBI; they had successfully fooled one of the agents into believing that they were working deep undercover investigating a crackpot group of scientists working for NASA. The agent was an old friend of Special Agent Fellows, and Fellows had allowed himself to gossip to the wrong person.

Ralph Mandelson and Lana Mullins hurriedly drove to Houston and the health spa, arriving early that morning; they soon came up with a plan to rid the planet of the troublesome Sally Jameson. First, they would kidnap her, then torture her, then wring every bit of information out of her, and finally kill her.

The aliens had a busy few hours ensuring that there was nothing in the health spa to prove that it was an alien base, and that in fact it was in fact just a normal health spa. The Houston command centre was beneath the health spa, and the brainwashing machines were now set up there. Although plans were being made to move the command centre to another location, one that was nearby, and one that was more secure, being unknown to even Sally. However, this untimely raid delayed plans to the move by at least a month, to ensure that the Rangers did not set up a surveillance unit following the raid.

**********

When the FBI raid began, it appeared to have caught the employees of the Spa completely by surprise, as it would have done had the employees not been brainwashed humans or alien clones. The place was thoroughly searched by the agents of the FBI, with Will taking a backseat, for he was there only as an observer. When the search was all but over, and nothing found to warrant the search, Sally feeling rather depressed decided she needed a rest, she was near to a door that led out into a garden area, and she remembered seeing a garden bench just outside of the door. Thinking that there was no danger, she told her uncle where he could find her, and then she headed for the garden bench and a rest. She was feeling a little down, had they found the necessary proof here, then even Special Agent Rails would have had trouble ignoring it.

Sally had just reached the glass door that would lead into the small garden area, and she was just about to open it when Lana Mullins and Ralph Mandelson suddenly appeared behind her, they had come from another of the aliens` hidden doorways. Mullins had an energy weapon in her hand, although it was a different weapon to the deadly energy weapons that the aliens had used in the laboratory, this one was smaller, lighter. Mandelson though was unarmed, relying on his strength against a mere human female. It was Mullins who moved forward first, her intention was to put an arm around Sally`s neck and to drag her inside the secret part of the spa. However, just as she began her move Sally saw the two aliens` reflection in the glass door that she was about to open, recognising both of them instantly, she quickly turned to meet them. She immediately let fly with a vicious uppercut to Mullin`s chin that knocked the alien woman back into the secret doorway, stunned by the unexpected attack she barely managed to stop herself from falling through the doorway and down the stairs that led down to the secret level.

'Those self-defence classes have really paid off.' Sally mused as she then turned to meet Mandelson, who seeing Mullins dealt with so very easily, had rushed forward to immobilise Sally before she could call for assistance. However, Sally was not finished just yet, she swiftly kicked him in the crutch, making him fall to the floor in agony, Sally followed this up with a punch to Mandelson`s throat, making him fall backwards croaking in pain. Sally then rushed past him and went towards the female alien, who was already shrugging off the punch and moving her weapon towards Sally. Sally though had closed the gap before Mullins could swing her weapon sufficiently to enable her to use it against her. Sally grabbed at the hand holding the energy weapon and the two women struggled furiously for possession of the weapon. The alien woman was now desperate to finish this fight before help arrived to aid the Earth Woman, and so she grabbed a large chunk of Sally`s hair and yanked it hard, causing Sally to twist to one side while groaning in agony. However, Sally was not done fighting yet, she was wearing heels today, and she raked one of them down the leg of the alien woman, making her scream out in pain and break off her own attack. Somehow, while Mullins fought through the agony shooting through her leg, Sally was able to yank the energy weapon from the alien woman`s grasp, but Mullins was not finished yet. Her hands grabbed a hold of Sally`s body and turning slammed Sally`s body against the wall, stunning her, Sally could see nothing but stars. Mullins smiled, her face becoming a mask of evil, she pulled Sally to her and her arms enveloped Sally`s body in a bear hug, and then she began to crush Sally`s body, forcing the air from her lungs and filling her body with so much pain. Sally feared that she was seconds away from death, her ribs were in danger of being broken, she had almost blacked out, when in the struggle to stay alive the energy weapon fired, both women stood still for a moment, then the pressure on Sally`s pain wracked body eased, and the alien woman slumped to the floor. Sally fell to her knees and looked at the alien, as she gulped down large amounts of air, she was now very worried about Mandelson, fearing an attack from him, she looked up, her eyes searching for and finding him, the energy weapon in her hand raising in his direction. Mandelson had been just about to recommence his attack, instead he now slowly raised his hands in a signal of surrender; however, he knew that his life expectancy could now be measured in hours, maybe even minutes, when his superiors found out that he had been taken prisoner by the earthlings.

Sally gulped down another deep breath of air and then in a very loud voice she cried out very loudly to her uncle, not knowing exactly where he was at the moment. She hauled herself to her feet, trying to get her breath back, wondering how the woman came to possess such strength, but she then realized that the woman was yet another clone, and that the clones all probably possessed it.

Hearing the loud call from his niece Will thought that she was in some sort of danger, he turned away from Rails and ran towards her voice, with Rails and Fellows in pursuit.

When he came upon Sally he was amazed to see her with another version of the alien energy weapons in her hand, he quickly took in the scene. A man was standing with his hands raised, he had a look of desperation on his face, and sprawled upon the floor was a woman who looked to be badly injured, maybe even dead, for she had a large ugly looking scorch mark on her clothing.

"Are you OK, Sally?" He asked as he pulled out his own weapon to cover Mandelson while checking on the woman, but he found that she was alive, thankfully, he thought, his niece would not have to go through the agony of knowing that she had killed someone.

Agents Rails and Fellows now arrived with four more of the FBI agents, and Sally quickly told them all what had taken place. Rails looked over at Mandelson and waiting for him to argue against Sally`s version of the truth, but Mandelson did not dispute the facts, for the energy weapon in Sally`s hand would be impossible for him to explain away.

Will looked across at the hidden doorway, at the flight of stairs leading down to another secret underground level. Rails felt suitably stunned by it all, and even silently apologised to Sally and Will, he was now almost a believer.

Fellows looked at Will in disbelief, at Sally, at the woman lying unconscious upon the floor, and Sally`s prisoner, finally he looked over at the secret underground level. Then he pulled out his cell phone and called for an ambulance to take away the alien woman, he delegated two of the FBI agents to go with the woman to the hospital. He then ordered the other two FBI agents to put handcuffs on Mandelson and hold him on a charge of attempted murder. The agents quickly followed his orders, but they too looked a little surprised by this sudden turn of events.

Rails was about to ask Sally to make a full statement about all that had occurred, but seeing how upset Sally was, following the sudden attack on her, Rails decided that the statement could wait, until she was feeling up to it.

Will now remembered how his other prisoners had suddenly died, murdered by remote control by their masters. "Special Agent Rails, you need to get this man to a hospital, now, he has an implant near to his heart, and it will kill him if it is not surgically removed, and quickly." Will informed the FBI agent and then turned to Mandelson. "That is so, isn`t it." Will enquired.

Mandelson had been thinking about this problem ever since Sally had got the drop on him, now he had to make a choice, live or die. "Yes, you are quite correct Ranger, even now someone might well be about to terminate me. Oh, and do not forget about my friend who is about to go to the hospital, she too has an implant, so she too is in danger" Mandelson replied in a cold voice devoid of any emotion. He had decided to allow the fates to decide his future.

Rails and Fellows looked slightly unsure, so Will then reminded them how his last five prisoners had died suddenly, killed by the implant self-destructing. Rails now decided to act, and he had Fellows, together with the two other agents who were holding Mandelson a prisoner, take the male prisoner to hospital to have any implant found in the man`s body immediately surgically removed, and to also see to the injured woman.

"Be careful of him, it may not be evident to you but he is very strong, take no chance with him." Sally warned the three FBI agents, who simply nodded. She saw that they had not taken her warning seriously, so she spoke again.

"Agents, that woman nearly crushed the life out of me; if this weapon had not fired then I would be lying dead upon the floor, and with every one of my ribs broken."

"OK, Sally, and thanks, I will take extra care with our charge." Fellows replied with a smile. He then remembered the female prisoner and contacted the two FBI agents with her, he then warned them too, requesting that they handcuff their prisoner as a precaution.

The sight of the energy weapon had shaken Rails, as had Sally`s words, however, the secret underground level now underlined everything that Sally had said about the people who worked here at the spa. He now intended to search it, thoroughly, he left five agents above ground; there to ensure that no one took them surprise, they were also instructed to see to the safety of Sally, who once again had been forced to remain by the door.

Down below were four alien clones, they had not seen Sally battle two of their people, but they did see and hear Will and Sally`s conversation with the FBI agents after the battle. They quickly contacted Consul Phairlis, whose anger quickly exceeded all known limits. On being told that Mandelson and Mullins were in the Ranger`s hands, he instructed the commander of the Houston complex to terminate them both before they could be interrogated. Phairlis then instructed the commander to send him the CCTV footage of that day, and finally to turn on the building`s self-destruct, he did not want the Ranger`s to find any other evidence that might prove his people`s existence.

The self-destruct device was something hurriedly added to all the alien complexes around the world, one of the new security measures put in place following the capture of the Austin laboratory. The commander quickly went to his computer and within thirty seconds has sent a message to the implant in Mandelson and Mullins to self-destruct, however he did not wait for the confirmation; he simply did not think he had the time. He then sent all of the morning`s CCTV data up to Phairlis, so that he could carefully go through it to see what had gone wrong, he also arranged for the real time video recording to be streamed straight up to the Constellation so that Phairlis could witness the destruction of the spa. Next, he went into the self-destruct program on his computer, and after entering the password that allowed him to set it, he instructed the computer to wait for five minutes before detonating the large bomb hidden beneath the computer. Now he and his three colleagues hurriedly left the doomed complex by an escape tunnel, just as the FBI agents entered his control centre, the tunnel took the aliens to a nearby house owned by them. Once they arrived there, they rushed to the garage attached to the side of the house, and getting into a vehicle that was made ready at all times, they quickly drove away, heading for the clinic in Austin, and prayed that they would escape without any further problems.

**********

Mandelson lived long enough to hope for a long life, and then he died, he was still with Special Agent Fellows when he did so, just as they were entering the main hospital that served the Houston area, Mullins was already dead by then.

**********

In his cabin aboard the Constellation, Phairlis sat before a bank of monitors. On the main one, he watched as he skimmed through the video recording showing the Houston command centre`s final minutes. He smiled joyfully when he saw Mullins attack Sally, however, he sat back in amazement when he saw Sally handle Mullins without seeming to even pause for breath, and when she took out Mandelson he was both angered and amazed by it. He watched the brief struggle between Mullins and Sally and felt better, until he saw the result. He screamed when he saw Mandelson arrested by the earth woman; his body slumped back in his chair, his eyes now showing signs of bewilderment. "No, I do not believe it!" he screamed out in anger, "What the hell is she?"

The complex had been found and taken, and all because of Sally Jameson. However, his anger turned to grim satisfaction, for soon, he would witness the destruction of the complex, and he hoped that it would take the damned woman with it. He sat watching what was happening on another of the monitors, waiting for the stream of images to stop, this would tell him that the bomb had detonated, His eyes stayed fixed to the figure of Sally as she recovered from the sudden attack upon her. 'Soon, Sally Jameson, soon.' He silently mouthed.

**********

Special Agent Rails and his team spread out to examine the small command centre, there were only a dozen rooms, and most of them were for sleeping or cooking.

"We will leave the computer for our technical guys to look at, Captain Rogers, but apart from that there seems to be little else to find."

Just then, one of his men found the two brain bending machines, for they did far more than merely brainwash the victim, and he called out to his superior who rushed off to look at a something positive at last. Will stayed behind for a moment for a quick look at the computer console, and he tried for some good old emotional relief, he kicked a waste bin, which flew through the air to strike the door of the unit beneath the computer. Unfortunately, in his haste to depart the doomed complex the commander had failed to lock the cupboard, and it now swung open following Will`s attack on it. Will glanced down and saw a large device within the cupboard; and upon the device was something that looked like a timer, although it was in the alien's numeration system, and it appeared to be counting down. Will groaned and then screamed out a warning to all within the command centre.

"Everybody out now, this place is rigged to blow, and at any moment now. Out, out."

Rails rushed back into the command centre and looked at where Will was pointing, and then he too took up the call to evacuate.

"Everybody out. Now." Rails ordered.

One minute later and everyone was back on the ground floor, Phairlis was seething when he saw Will grab Sally`s arm and pull her out through the glass door opposite as he told her of the bomb. They had all just about made the grounds around the health spa when the timer reached zero, and then a massive explosion destroyed the lower level, showering them all with debris. Sally though was fine, for her uncle had thrown her to the ground and covered her body with his own. After the explosion, they slowly stood up and watched as the upper level collapsed to cover the remains of the basement command centre.

A later search of the ruins found nothing much at all, for everything of importance had been destroyed, further proof that Sally and Will had sought, of an alien presence on their planet, was proving elusive. It came as no shock to them when they heard of the death of Mandelson and Mullins; it was just par for the course.

One piece of positive news made this disappointment go away, the DNA tests carried out on the six dead men had finally come back, they proved without a shadow of a doubt that the men were definitely not human.

Chapter Six

Petras Furling

Councillor Jorman called the council of the Chosen Ones together, he was worried that their invasion was quickly losing steam; he immediately went on the attack.

"Consul Phairlis, we have suffered a number of reverses recently, and in reply all we have done is kill a few unimportant humans. Our Chinese venture failed miserably, our Houston command centre raided, and is now a pile of ashes, and the humans have taken our factory and chief research centre in Austin. More importantly is the fact that that Jameson woman must have provided the Texas Rangers with an impelling reason for them to raid the two buildings, and our agents on the planet tell me that she even knew of our secret laboratory. If so then I believe that the use of the Trichlorian Plus will fail, for they will soon be testing all of their reservoirs and lakes to ensure that it does not enter the food chain. Professor Carlisle tells me that the effects of the chemical can easily be neutralised by adding another chemical to the water supplies, something their scientists will soon discover now they know what to look for. Following the autopsies made upon a number of our operatives, the subsequent autopsy reports must have provided interesting reading for the authorities. If they did not believe of our presence on their planet, then they must do so within the next few days." Jorman stopped here for a moment for his words to sink in, and then he continued. "Tell us how you propose to get us back on track Consul Phairlis, or resign your position as leader of our group; and allow another to take the helm, to lead us to victory." Jorman demanded, and from the grunts of approval his words received, it appeared to Phairlis that many others agreed with Jorman.

"Members of the council, I agree that I owe you all an apology for allowing the Jameson woman to run free for far too long, we should have neutralised the woman long ago. However, the human agents we instructed to do the task messed up the task and she escaped to the safety of Captain Rogers and the Texas Rangers, now there is no point in killing her, for she has told the authorities everything that she knows. As for my retirement, I am not only the figurehead behind our party; I am also the only one of you capable of winning the planet for our people." Phairlis now sat down, and a smile came to his face as many more of the council applauded his words.

He had successfully beaten off a move to replace him, but he knew that he would have to do better if he was to win his dissenters back.

"Consul Phairlis, if the infertility chemical is unlikely to work, then we need another way to rid the sixth planet of the indigenous population, are we now to assume that we are going ahead with our original plan, namely bacterial warfare?" Councillor Jorman demanded to know.

"Councillor, I will use whatever weapons are necessary against the cavemen, and as their numbers decrease we may even turn our energy weapons upon the survivors." Phairlis informed his grand council. "I am in the process of formulating a new plan of campaign, it will be ready to put before you in just a couple of days, until then please be patient, I promise you that it will be worth it."

**********

Three days later and the alien commander in Houston, Texas, had completed the move into his new headquarters; it was set up beneath the New Texas Steak House, an expensive and very swanky restaurant set in the suburbs of Houston. He just hoped that the new chef, who had been brainwashed the week before, was as good as his Facebook site stated.

**********

Increasingly worried by the changes in her husband, Debra Pearson, the wife of astronaut Johnny Pearson, began to worry about their future together. He was no longer tolerant of minor mistakes made by her or others, and their sex life was different, it now seemed to be more a task for her husband, he was not worried about her anymore, it was simply wham bam thank you mam. He stayed out late talking to new friends that he had made, while she stayed at home crying. Little did she know that she too was down for the fiendish alien mind bending machine, and that morning. Johnny was driving her to the plush New Texas Steak House, supposedly for a treat, normally she would have been over the moon about it, but just lately his new domineering attitude had really begun to scare her, she could not even settle down to think of what the restaurant had to offer.

"Debra, just do as I tell you and we will get along fine, ok." Pearson said angrily, they were talking about their relationship once again, well he was telling her how she should act; she did not have a choice in the matter.

Debra really flipped at this, and as her husband stopped their car at the traffic lights, she boiled over. "Fuck you Johnny; you can stick your orders."

Debra opened the door before Pearson realized what she was doing, and she almost leapt out from car, she ran quickly into a large department store and disappeared, knowing that he could not follow for a while, not until he had parked his car, but by then she had decided to be long gone.

Pearson looked after her angrily, but he was not overly bothered, she would return home, and then she would make the trip to the restaurant while she was unconscious.

Debra rushed through the large store and out into the mall attached to it; sitting down on a bench, she pulled out her cell phone and in tears she called her best friend. "Mary can we meet up, I really need to speak to you, Johnny and I had a blazing row, and I left him." Debra sobbed out.

"Oh baby, do not worry, I will be right there, now tell me, where are you?" Mary Willey asked.

"In the mall, but let's not meet here, how about the small diner on South Main Street."

Ten minutes later and Mary Willey pulled up at the diner, and she saw Debra waiting outside. One minute later, they were sitting at the counter while Debra told her friend how her life was falling apart, and how her marriage was over.

"Debra, your life seems strangely familiar, Bob is no fun anymore, and he has also arranged for us to dine out at the New Texas Steak House, tomorrow, strange they did not arrange for us to go together."

**********

The alien area commander for Houston sent a message to Petras Furling, instructing him to watch for Debra Pearson, as she had run away from her husband after an argument. Furling worked in the CCTV control centre in Houston. He soon found her on one of the CCTV monitors, and he watched as she walked quickly down South Main Street to a small diner where she met up with Mary Willey. The identification of the two women was no problem, for he had the pictures of all those associated with the clones and brainwashed people on an alien hand held computer, so finding out the identity of Mary Willey presented him with no problem at all. However, he did not report his findings to the area commander, instead he redirected the CCTV camera to look at another part of that street, and he then took an early break and went to meet them. For if they were taken, he knew that brainwashing would follow, and nine months later her death, when replaced by a clone, should the supply have finally caught up with the demand. He had decided to take a stand that day and begin his battle to save his people from turning into the vilest of beings, mass murderers on a planetary scale.

Furling knew what the problem was; he had seen the results when the marriages of other clones had almost disintegrated. It was because the clones felt nothing for their human partners, this had almost led to the exposure of the alien infiltration, and more than once, when the clones, injured by their partners needed medical attention. This was why the partners were now being brainwashed, and were down to be replaced by clones, this was the reason behind Debra and Mary`s trips to the new restaurant.

He arrived at the diner less than five minutes after the two women had entered it; he found them still seated at the counter. He approached them and in a quiet voice that would not carry to the other diners spoke to them.

"Mrs Pearson, Mrs Willey, I am glad that I have found you two together, for I must advise you not to go to the restaurant with your husbands, if you do so you will regret it." Furling began.

"Regret it, why, and who the hell are you to tell us what to do?" Mary Willey demanded to know.

"It is a long story, look can we move over to the far booth, what I have to tell you is not for the ears of the other diners, please?" Furling asked his hand indicating the empty booth at the far end of the diner.

Mary Willey and Debra Pearson looked quizzically at one another and then Mary decided. "OK, why not, today cannot get any worse than it already is." She said, not knowing just how bad it was going to get.

When they had moved to the booth, Furling began to explain why he had spoken to them, and of their own very real problems. "Although I cannot know for sure, I can guess, you are both probably wondering why your husbands are both acting so strangely, well I will tell you, they are no longer in control of their actions." He lied a little, for initially they may not believe the truth, but one thing is certain, he had their attention now.

Debra looked at him, quizzically. "Pardon? Do you even know my husband?" Debra asked angrily, and just a little fearfully.

"I know of him Mrs Pearson, and I know why you ran away from him, you find him a little strange after his return from Mars don`t you, I will tell you why in a moment, first I have to get you to trust what I have to say to you both." Furling said.

What he was saying now was making the two women`s blood run cold, fearing him rather than trusting him, even so they waited impatiently to hear what he had to tell them.

"First I will show you both something, do not cry out or bring attention to us, it could be dangerous to all three of us if you do." Furling warned.

With that, he produced a thick iron bar from beneath his jacket and bent it, much to the surprise, and relief, of the two women, who both had wondered what he was going to show them.

"Is that it, a circus trick?" Mary asked, contempt fairly dripping from her mouth.

Furling smiled and handed the bent bar across to her, she took it and found herself holding a short piece of steel, no more than 18 inches long and about 1 inch in diameter.

"That is some circus trick Mary, I would be really surprised to see it duplicated." Debra said, clearly impressed.

"Listen both of you, I only did that to impress on you that I am different from normal men, in fact my body was cloned and my consciousness transferred into it from my own body. I am an alien from another world, many of my people are also here on Earth, and they want to steal your planet away from you. Like me they are also clones, some of them have replaced humans without anyone noticing."

Debra had been drinking her glass of white wine when he told her this, what he had said sent her into a coughing fit, sitting next to her Mary tried to hide an attack of the giggles, bringing everyone's attention to them.

"Listen, I do not have green blood, or a scaly backbone, this body was made to blend in with human bodies, the only difference that I can show you without an MRI scanner is how strong I am." Furling argued quietly.

"Look, let`s say we believe you, why are you telling us this, you`re an alien right, one of the bad guys according to you?" Debra asked after getting control of herself.

"Forget that for the moment Debra, look friend, are you trying to tell us that our husbands are replacement clones, is that what you are leading up to, and if so where are our real husbands?" Mary asked angrily, her voice rising and once again attracting the attention of the other people in the diner.

"Perhaps we should speak about this later, at my apartment; I can drive you there, as I know how to dodge the CCTV cameras." Furling suggested. Worried by all of the attention that they were attracting.

"CCTV cameras, what are you talking about?" Maria asked quizzically, this time a little quieter.

"We have taken over your CCTV control centre, how do you think I found you so easily?" Furling replied. "If you were to take most routes away from here, my people would soon find you, and then..." Furling did not finish his sentence, he did not have to, for they both remembered what he had said earlier, and just thinking about it sent a chill through Debra.

Mary had wondered how he had found them; she looked at Debra and both of the women thought over the matter for a moment before Mary replied to Furling's suggestion.

"Ok Pal, we will go with you, you have successfully freaked us both out so that we need somewhere to hideaway, somewhere to talk this out between ourselves. First though, where are our two husbands, are they ok?"

Furling sighed and looked at the two women before him; he really did not want to answer this question, especially here with so many people nearby.

"Debra, Mary, your husbands never returned from Mars, they were captured there and the two men that you now know as your husbands took their place." Furling said very quietly.

"Are you saying that our husbands are still on Mars, is that it?" Debra asked incredulously.

"Yes, Debra they were taken aboard a starship and put into cryogenic stasis for transport at some time in the future to the planet Magenta, however, Mary, Debra, there is something that you should bear in mind." Furling hesitated here, wondering how to carry on, but he finally decided to come straight out with it. "The leader of the invasion, my leader, is a ruthless man, a very cold man, who may..." Furling broke off here, once again just a little unsure how to phrase what he had in mind.

"He may not bother keeping his prisoners alive, he may simply kill them." Debra finished for him, tears coming to her eyes, but she succeeded in holding them back, for the moment.

Mary sat there too stunned to say anything, and Furling decided that they should leave before either of the women broke down and made a scene, and that could be fatal for the three of them.

Furling stood up and helped Mary to her feet, Debra managing to stand without his help, both women were in a partial state of shock and were still struggling to take in all that Furling had told them. Feeling a little relieved that he had surmounted this problem, and had successfully managed to convince these two women to listen to him, he urged them to leave the diner.

"Come on we should find somewhere safer to talk, you never know when one of my side might walk by and see the two of you. I will drop you off at my apartment and then I must return to work or they will come looking for me, I will be home later this evening, then we can talk more."

"Before we go, tell us one more thing, why did you say we would live to regret going to the restaurant?" Debra asked quietly, her voice quavering just a little.

"Because that is where they will brainwash the two of you, if they catch up with you, with luck that will be the full extent of your ordeal, but you could be replaced by clones, should it become necessary." Furling replied to a hushed audience.

He then rushed the two women out of the diner, stopping only to pay the bill, the woman behind the till looking at the three of them and giving Furling a quizzical look as she took in the state of the two women.

"I just had to give them some bad news." Furling explained to her and he almost dragged Mary and Debra from the diner. Five minutes later Furling dropped the two women off at his apartment, leaving them he returned to work, for he could not afford to go missing, for then one of his colleagues would come to his apartment in search of him.

Mary and Debra looked at each other as the door closed behind Furling, and neither of them said a word for a moment, then Debra voiced what both women were thinking.

"Could Johnny and Bob still be on Mars, have we been living with a couple of alien clones and only now found out about it?" She asked incredulously.

"Up until today I assumed that Bob was space happy." Mary said, tears threatening to fall once again. "But an alien?" She said looking straight at her friend.

Up until this moment she would have ridiculed such a suggestion, but Bob was very different from the man who had gone to Mars, and like Johnny with Debra, Bob really did not seem to love her any more. The two women decided, against their better judgement, to stay at Furling`s apartment, and while he was gone they talked over all what Furling has told them. Deeply shocked by everything that he had said to them, they wondered about him. Was he simply a crazy, but then, as they had both said, they had been worried before he had arrived.

"Debra, if we are going to be away from home for more than a day then we need to take a few clothes with us." Mary said, and after a moment, Debra nodded her head in agreement.

"We should both stay together, just in case either of our husbands is home; we will go to your place first Debra, and then mine." Mary decided.

"How do we get back in hear, when we return?" Debra wondered.

"We slip a little tape over the latch and just pull the door closed, this is a fairly safe looking apartment; it should be all right." Mary replied, and she raided Furling`s medicine cabinet and found a box of sticking plasters.

The two women took a taxi to the diner and here they picked up Mary`s car, then they drove to Debra`s house and she quickly packed two cases of her clothes and other personal things. As they were about to leave they heard someone enter the front door of the house. The two women looked at each other in fear as they heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and then a voice.

"Debra, have you finally returned home, because let me tell you, I am pretty mad at you for running out on me." Johnny Pearson said angrily.

He walked in to see Debra cowering against the bed, and swearing he walked quickly towards her. "Johnny please don`t." Debra cried out in fear, for her husband had raised his hand, and he slapped her, hard, Debra fell to the bed crying, a red mark on her pale face. Pearson raised his hand to strike her again; he did not though, for Mary appeared from behind the door and struck him hard on the head with a heavy vase.

Pearson dropped to the floor, amid a crash of the broken vase that now littered the ground around his fallen body.

"The bloody bastard." Mary said angrily." Do you know what Debra? I am beginning to believe our handsome spaceman." Mary said to a stunned friend who now really broke down in tears, for her husband had never attempted to hit her before today, and a thought flashed into Debra`s mind, just momentarily, had it been her fault that he had struck her?

Mary grabbed a hold of one of the suitcases and looking at her friend saw the indecision in her eyes. "Don`t you dare excuse him Debra, nothing is your fault, the bastard deserved it." Mary said angrily.

Debra looked at her friend and nodded slowly, she then grabbed hold of the other case and they quickly left the Pearson house and drove over to Mary`s house where they packed two more suitcases. Then they drove back to the only safe place they knew of, Furling's apartment, here they talked over the strange situation that they had found themselves in, they were still talking when Furling returned home with news for them. He noticed the red mark imprinted upon Debra`s face but did not mention it immediately.

"Mary, they are looking for you as well, they do not seem to be very concerned though, probably because they do not believe that the two of you know anything." Furling said to a very startled Mary Willey. Just then, the alien machine that looked very much like a smart phone sprang to life; Furling pulled it out of his pocket and looked to see who was calling him.

**********

In orbit above the dark side of the Moon, the space cruiser hung like a large grey monster, one eager to start the task of cleansing the Earth of all intelligent life. Aboard it, Doctor Baris read a message given to him by a young ensign. Despair mixed with fear filled his heart as he thought back to the conversation that he had had with President Mortise; it had been just after agreeing to help him save the people of Earth from a genocidal attack by his own people.

"Two more starships will join your mixed fleet of starships, they will be of the Endeavour class, however they will not be there to tend to the crew members of the fleet, they will be there simply to manufacture more clones. It is then that you must strike Doctor; the utter destruction of the Endeavour together with the two new ships will put the invasion back ten years. The other operatives on the sixth planet will then contact the authorities of that planet and help them to locate and arrest all of the clones that have already landed. With the knowledge that an evil alien force wants to take their planet away from them, the rightful owners will be able to join forces and successfully prevent any further attempts at invasion." President Mortise had said, more in hope than belief, for he also believed that the people of the sixth planet were too barbaric to act together. "Making our own people redouble their efforts to find another more suitable home world."

The message from the ensign had told him of the arrival at the planet Uranus of the two new clone ships, the time of waiting was almost over, now he must act. He did wait though, for the time of day designated night aboard the Endeavour, then he headed down to the starship`s holds, here were the medical supplies necessary to manufacture the clones aboard the Endeavour, here too was a large crate simply marked Doctor Baris, laboratory equipment. However, it did not hold laboratory equipment; it held a powerful explosive device large enough to destroy the Endeavour, and everyone inside her. He passed few members of the crew on his way to the ship`s hold, and as each one walked by he felt like a traitor, worse, a murderer, one responsible for all of the Magentans that must die because of him. On reaching the number two hold, it took him but a minute to locate the crate. He now pulled out a remote-control device, he set the explosive charge hidden within the crate to detonate in thirty-six hours, and this would give him time to activate the explosive devices stored aboard the two new ships, the Saviour and the Swift Response. Agents working for President Mortise had smuggled the explosive devices aboard the three craft, Baris hoped that that they would work, although a part of him hoped otherwise. The timers aboard the three starships could only be set now, to have set them a year or more beforehand risked a security sweep finding them, even now there was a chance that the one on the Endeavour could be found by a simple routine security sweep.

Baris took a flight aboard the Magenta to Uranus, ostensibly, to check in with the two medical teams and offer any advice that they might require. On reaching the first of the clone ships, the Saviour, he found the medical team there were quite up to the demands of the task set them. He stayed the night aboard the clone ship Saviour, and as on the Endeavour he slipped down to this starship`s hold to activate the explosive device, this time it was set to detonate in twelve hours` time.

He finally went across in a shuttlecraft to the second of the new clone starships, the Swift Response, and once again, he easily managed to slip away unnoticed by the medical team on board. Standing in front of the third crate Baris saw that he only had to set this final timer to detonate in ten hours, just then a crewman walked into the hold.

"Excuse me Sir, can I be of assistance?" The young crewman did not know Baris but the doctor had an air of authority about him, and so the crewman had asked his question politely.

"I am Doctor Baris, crewman, I am just checking each crates content`s list to ensure that all the correct medical supplies have been sent, I will be done in a minute." Baris replied. His heart was thumping away now, as he waited for the young crewman to leave and not become suspicious.

"That was done before we left Magenta, Sir; it was found to be correct." The young crewman said helpfully.

"I like to check everything for myself; it ensures that any mistake is corrected sooner rather than later." Baris replied and looked down at the list, hoping that the young crewman would now disappear, which he did.

Baris looked after the retreating crewman, his conscience pricking him again at the thought of the young man dying in just ten hours` time. A young man who may not even like the thought of the genocide planned for the people of Earth.

Baric quickly put the fate of the young crewman from his mind and pulled out his remote-control device. Once more, he activated the explosive device, and after setting the timer he strolled back up to his colleagues, he did not want to die alone. He certainly did not want to live after killing so many of his people, no matter that they were going to be party to the genocide that would soon begin on the planet named Earth. He now attempted to salve his conscience again at the thought of six hundred lives suddenly blotting out, but how would he feel when nine billion on the planet Earth simply died with only the odd whimper, surely the mathematics behind his decision made sense.

He walked into the recreation room and bought a large alcoholic drink, he needed it, and more, to drown the loud voice in his head accusing him of mass murder. It was while listening to a group of scientists that he learned about Phairlis`s proposed plan to move the invasion along a piece, he heard it while speaking to the head scientist about the problems that could occur before the clones were finally ready to accept a mind. The scientist had accompanied Baris from the Endeavour; he was a member of the council of the Chosen Ones.

"I was speaking with Consul Phairlis just before I came here, and from what he said I believe that he has finally decided to release a virus on the planet Earth. It is of Earth origin, but I have modified it somewhat to allow it to weed out some of the natives, don`t worry though, should you need to set foot on the planet, it will become benign after twelve of their months. The Clones and the humans that we have brainwashed of course will all be inoculated against it, as will the Magentans on the planet Mars and those on the moon of Earth. It is one reason why I came with you on your trip, to give the senior staff in orbit around this blue-green gas giant an update concerning our future plans, that and a supply of the vaccine, just in case it becomes necessary."

The scientist did not shed a single tear for the many humans who would die, or the anguish felt by the survivors. The loud voice of Baris`s conscience was immediately squashed, he immediately hurried up to the cabin allocated to him, he needed to pack, he could no longer allow himself the luxury of dying, he needed to board the Attack Craft Magenta that was even now making ready to return to the Moon.

The attack craft Magenta took Baris back to the Constellation, where he had the use of a small cabin, although his main cabin was on the Endeavour, however, today he needed to survive the coming explosion aboard the Endeavour so that he could act upon the information that he received aboard the Swift Response.

**********

The Endeavour had moved nearer to the space Cruiser Constellation during the night and the Captain was just about to order his helmsman to use the port thrusters to push them further away when the explosive device detonated. The explosion destroyed much of the large starship; unfortunately, it also threw large pieces of the Endeavour at the Constellation, which only had their defence shields set to ward of micrometeorites. One very large piece impacted upon the outer hull that protected the engineering department, the hyperspace engines went off line immediately when a supporting beam crashed through it. The bridge of the space cruiser fared no better when another huge piece of debris crashed into it killing four of the bridge crew who were still working there. Captain Lorinson was luckier; he had been sitting in his cabin resting.

Internal security doors slammed shut throughout the starship locking its crew in and preventing precious air from escaping. The only light available came from the red emergency lighting, for most of the power was off throughout the starship, unfortunately, only some of it was temporary. The hyper drive, badly damaged, would take over a year to repair, for the only spare parts available for damage on such a scale were on the planet Magenta. The sub light engines were also damaged and it would be days before a temporary repair was made, even then the starship would not be able to move at anywhere near its top sub light speed. The hyper drive engine powered the energy weapons and the shields, so they were also off line; and for a year at least. They had ten small fighter craft to use, should Earth become aware of their presence, and they would be the starship`s main defence, for the cloaking device was also powered by the hyper drive engine.

Finally, those engineers who had survived the disaster were able to close off any part of the ship open to space, now the rest of the crew who had survived the tragedy could move freely about the ship and begin to effect repairs where needed, and if possible. Thankfully, there were more than half the crew left alive, unfortunately those who died were amongst the most needed, now that the ship needed repairing.

Consul Phairlis had been one of the survivors, resting in his cabin when the Constellation shook and the lights went out aboard the once magnificent space cruiser. The members of the council of the Chosen Ones had also survived, except for the one who had died aboard the starship Swift Response.

Phairlis was one of the people waiting to be released; when the security door was opened, he went in search of Captain Lorinson, to demand to know what had happened. Lorinson was a much-stressed man when Phairlis finally found him; he was standing on the emergency bridge. Even so, when he saw Phairlis stride in he turned to give him a quick update.

"Consul Phairlis, you are here to know what happened, before I give you a quick report let me assure you that the ship is secure, we are all safe." Lorinson said grimly.

"It is good to hear Captain, but what the hell happened, were we hit by an asteroid?" Phairlis asked.

"No, it was the Endeavour, for some reason it exploded and in doing so it badly damaged us. We are without hyper drive, which means that our weapons no longer work, no do we have our cloaking ability, or a defence field, and I am reliably informed that we cannot repair the drive without a great many parts that must come from Magenta."

Phairlis stood there stunned for a moment but he quickly recovered. "Why can`t we just take the parts we require from one of the other starships in orbit around Uranus, surely we can make them work." Phairlis asked quizzically.

Lorinson smiled at this. "I have already asked our new chief engineer to look into it, however, he is not that experienced, and the chief engineers aboard the other ships are not of the first rank, so we will have to wait and see." Lorinson replied.

Just then, a young officer came into the small room with a message. "Captain we have received a message from the Magenta." The officer said hesitantly. "The two new clone ships, they were both destroyed in two mysterious explosions."

When Phairlis heard about the destruction of the other two clone ships, he went very quiet for a moment, and then he screamed out his anger, and he was not surprised when Councillor Jorman called for the council of the Chosen Ones to assemble to discuss the future, for he too had heard of the disaster. When the council met Phairlis quickly took over the meeting, he told them about the destruction of the three starships and updated them regarding the state of the Constellation. The other members, when they heard that the disaster had encompassed four of the fleet`s most important starships, all erupted in anger, demanding action by Phairlis against whoever was responsible, Councillor Jorman was the most strident.

"This act must have been committed by a Magentan, a traitor who has put the interests of a planet full of cavemen above the future of our people, and I for one want to know just what you are going to do about it, Consul Phairlis?" Councillor Jorman demanded in a loud clear voice.

Phairlis looked from Councillor Jorman to each of the others of the council of the Chosen Ones, silently thanking Jorman for what a historian could easily have thought a pre-arranged question. He stood up and looked grimly at his councillors.

"Members of the council, I will tell you who was responsible for the traitorous act and then I will tell you what I intend to do as regards my plans for the future of our urgent mission." Phairlis stopped here to ensure that all would be hanging on to his every word.

"The premier traitor behind this is our very own President Mortise, purposely going against Parliament`s lawful decisions and his own promises to our people. Of course, he was not here to actually to press the button, no, what he did was to send one or more of his flunkies here to do that, and without a thought for the many Magentan lives he snuffed out." Phairlis cried out in anger. "In one act of sabotage he thought to set the invasion back by at least ten years. However, he forgot to take me into account when he made his devious plans, and I am not a man to be taken lightly." His voice boomed out to the assembled leaders of the invasion.

"Members of the council of the Chosen Ones, we will now rely upon the humans working at the water treatment plants, the ones who have been brainwashed, rather than clones, to ensure that we do not lose these ten years, ones that we can ill afford, time would then become our enemy. However, to rely solely upon these humans may well reduce the number of our people able to come to this world. To ensure that this does not happen, and to ensure that our invasion is a success, I am now going to lay before you a new plan, one forced upon us because of the actions of a group of heinous traitors, not mine, the blame must lie with them, not us." Consul Phairlis stopped here to pick up his glass of water, each council member had one set before him or her; he drank it all down and then refilled his glass from one of the jugs on the table before continuing, his voice now getting louder as he raged against the saboteurs.

"We held off ridding the planet of its intelligent life by other means to salve the conscience of others, but it has been these same liberals who have attempted to stop the invasion from happening, to sentence our civilisation to obscurity, or worse, oblivion." Consul Phairlis screamed in anger, the eyes of every council member on him as their own anger grew, seemingly affected by his 'righteous' anger.

"Now though we will move our operations along a little quicker, a new phase is about to go into operation, phase six, for we cannot afford the delay that the destruction of the three clone ships has brought about. I will now take full command of the invasion; no longer will I obey the orders of our traitorous president." Phairlis screamed, spitting out the last word, happy to have an excuse to initiate his planned use of the virus against the people of Earth, rather than to use it clandestinely.

"I have had our scientists develop a new strain of one of the sixth planet`s diseases, in case it became necessary, the people of this planet designated it H5N1, but H5N1 was mild compared to the new strain, the new strain will rage for twelve months before mutating into a harmless strain. Our people on the sixth planet, both the clones and those humans who have been brainwashed, will be immunised against the disease, as for the rest of the planet`s population, they will just have to take their chances along with their neighbours." Phairlis broke off here. Clearly exhausted by the vehemence of his attack he slumped down in his chair.

"Where will the attack start, across the whole planet, or only in one country?" One of the councillors, Rhed Madr asked quietly, secretly aghast at what the Magentan people were about to do.

"In a country designated China, a country that has had similar outbreaks before. From here we will spread the disease westwards through Indo-China and on through the Indian sub-continent, however, with so much air travel throughout the planet I would expect the disease to spread worldwide." Phairlis replied, slowly recovering from the fervour that his speech had generated within him.

"It will also be a revenge attack against the Chinese government for their murderous attack on our people." This comment went over well, for they had felt that a retaliatory strike was their chosen right for the Chinese atrocity, as they saw it.

"When will this new outbreak start?" Rhed Madr asked.

"I am told that the new strain will be available in sufficient quantities by tomorrow evening, so the virus will be given to a strike force of Magentans, not clones, and taken down in the attack ship Magenta tomorrow night. After spraying one of the larger towns with the virus, the Magenta will return to orbit and await until the time is right for the disease to spread westwards. The end of the human race is imminent, within five years few of them will be left, the remainder we will exterminate. Then we will send in clean up teams to clear up after them. Our people can begin to move here within ten years from today, by then we must have the planet ready for its new inhabitants." Phairlis replied.

**********

Ordered to find the traitor who had destroyed the three starships, the head of security began to compile a list of all those who left the Endeavour aboard the Magenta, and journeyed back to Uranus, the list was very short, and one of the names was Doctor Baris, and a call was put out to arrest him. Unfortunately, by the time that Baris heard about it, it had been too late to send samples of the virus and the vaccine to Petras Furling.

Baris was in his cabin aboard the Constellation, he was composing a message to Furling. 'The three clone ships have all been destroyed, along with the people who worked on them; this should set back the cloning program by at least ten years. The space cruiser Constellation is also damaged, although I do not know the extent of the damage to it, if I can I will update you as regards the Constellation`s condition. There is also one other thing that I must tell of, Consul Phairlis is about to...'

Baris was interrupted here when an app activated on his computer, he had a message awaiting him from a secure device. Baris sighed, for he had wanted to finish the message to Furling and then rest for a moment, but instead he obeyed his master, his computer, and after inserting a password, his screen displayed the message.

'You are about to be arrested for destroying three of our starships and severely damaging the Constellation.' That was all the message had to say, no secret escape route, no farewell from a friend, just the bare facts. Baris immediately deleted the message and then sent one back to the sender.

'There are a number of phials hidden in the number one hold; they are in a small box hidden in the dead letter tree. Three of them contain a sample of the virus that Phairlis is about to use against the earthlings, and the other phials contain the vaccine. You must ensure that all get into the hands of either Sally Jameson, or her uncle, Captain Will Rogers of the Texas Rangers, both are capable people who will ensure that the contents of the box get to the appropriate authorities. Goodbye and good luck.'

Baris had hidden the phials minutes before he returned to his cabin, now it would be up to someone else to get them to Earth, for as he had feared, he would not get the chance to, not from the sound of all the feet marching towards his cabin.

Security Officer Commander Petravein pulled out his electronic master key and attempted to open the cabin door, but for some reason his master key would not provide him with access, so he knocked at the door of Doctor Baris`s cabin.

"Doctor Baris, open the door to your cabin and allow me to come in."

However, Baris did not answer or comply with his demand; instead, he smiled, rather sadly. 'Well President Mortise, I have done my part, the rest is up to you.' He hastily transmitted the incomplete message to Furling, and then he pulled out a phial of clear liquid and swallowed it, moments later he fell to floor, dead.

Outside the room, Petravein heard the noise of the body hitting the floor, he knew what it meant, and he took out his energy weapon and fired it at the locking mechanism of the door. The resulting blast swung the door open to reveal the dead body of Doctor Mikel Baris.

**********

Down on Earth, the massive explosion directly behind the Moon followed later by two more explosions from behind the planet Uranus, baffled the leaders of Earth. NASA sent a message asking Moon base command to investigate the explosion; the aliens in the Moon command centre acknowledged the message and then pondered on a suitable answer that would also explain the blasts behind the planet Uranus.

**********

Petras Furling read the message on his small alien computer, it was from Doctor Baris, it told him of the destruction of the three clone starships, and the damage to the space cruiser, Furling noticed that the message was incomplete and the thought that Doctor Baris might now be dead immediately flashed into his mind. He has seen enough of Consul Phairlis to know that he would not take this setback without striking out at someone, probably the people of Earth, was this what Doctor Baris wanted to warn him about, another bloody strike against the humans?

Furling was quiet for a moment, he realised that the time had come to contact the authorities on Earth, to assist them in their fight for survival. He had heard of Sally Jameson of course, and how she had gone to Austin to enlist the help of the Texas Rangers, maybe he should take the two women and head for Austin, and so he broached the idea to Debra and Mary.

"Debra, Mary, as I see it you have three choices, you can return to the two men posing as your husbands and be brainwashed." Furling began.

"I do not think so Furling, I like my brain just how it is." Mary said a might angrily at his words.

"Yes Mary, I do agree with you, which is why I have two more choices to put to you both." Furling replied.

"OK, Furling, tell us, just what other options do we have open to us?" Mary asked. Her anger wound down a mite as she acknowledged his words.

"OK then, your second choice is that you leave here and either return to your families, that or hide away using a new name. However, there is a big chance that the two of you will then be seen as a security problem by my people, they will assume that as you have both gone into hiding that you must know something, and that you must be dealt with." Furling explained, continuing with his choices.

"Yes, well we do know something now, thanks to you." Debra said angrily, not daring to ask just how the aliens would deal with them in case it was even worse than she imagined. "So, what is the last of your choices, because let me tell you my alien friend, the first two just suck."

Furling looked at the two women and gave them a weak smile. "Well if I had not told you the future awaiting you, then you Debra would be enjoying what they had planned for you in my first choice; and you Mary would be doing just that same thing tomorrow. However, my third choice is for the three of us to drive over to Austin and contact a NASA scientist, a Sally Jameson, and her uncle Will Rogers, who is a captain in the Texas Rangers. Sally has been fighting my people for some time now, and with some success. Once there, you will not be a security problem to them, because you will have told the Texas Rangers everything that you might know" Furling explained.

"Why do we have to travel to Austin, surely the local FBI office would suffice." Debra asked.

"Because Sally Jameson and Captain Rogers believe that an extra-terrestrial invasion is actually happening, and the FBI do not, they would simply throw you out, seeing you as two weird women, and then my people would be on hand to take you prisoner. I also believe that some of the agents in the FBI have been brainwashed, and they would soon tell my people just where they could locate you."

"OK, spaceman, give us a moment to think about it." Mary said, and to this request, Furling nodded and went through to the kitchen to give the women a little privacy.

"Well Debra, as I see it we actually have only two options open to us, we either believe our alien spaceman or we do not, either he has told us the whole truth, so help his little alien god, or he is a mad Texan." Mary said in a low voice so that only her friend would hear them.

"To put it another way Mary, are our two husbands just human violent jerks or are they murdering alien clones?" Debra replied softly. "His story is so out of this world that I am tempted to believe him, because Johnny has certainly not been chasing after another woman, of that I am certain, he just seems to be spaced out, pun intended." Debra said, offering her friend a weak smile.

"If we disregard his advice then it could be really dangerous to our health, if we go along with it and find out he is a nutter, then I will show him this." Mary said, and she pulled out a small automatic pistol from her handbag that brought a gasp from her friend.

With no clear idea as to how to proceed, Debra and Mary decided to take the lesser of the two evils and put their lives into the hands of the tall handsome man who was, according to him, an alien clone.

"Ok, Spaceman, we will go with you to Austin to meet the Ranger and the scientist from NASA. Tell me, can I take my car, we collected it from the diner while you were away at work?" Mary asked lightly.

"You went to collect it from the diner, did you not realise that that was both dangerous and foolhardy; no, I guess not, what I have told you is rather out of this world." Furling began. "However, in answer to your question Mary, no you may not take your car, they will easily be able to trace it, you must both come in my car, they will not be looking for it for some time, and luckily I am off work until Monday." Furling said firmly.

"What does it matter if they do trace us, you said that we should be safe as soon as we reach the Texas Rangers in Austin." Mary said angrily, her limited belief in this stranger disappearing quickly.

"Yes, Mary, but we do need to get there first, if we take your vehicle then they will get onto us before we reach the highway, and we will all be dead well before we reach Austin. They will track us using the CCTV cameras and call their operatives in Austin to stop us." Furling explained before asking. "Is that how you got the red mark on your face Debra?" Furling asked. "On your trip away from my apartment."

Debra smiled a little sadly and then told Furling everything that had happened since the last time that they had seen him. Then the two women looked at each other and silently agreed. "OK then Spaceman, we will need to transfer our bags into your car, you can do it, seeing as how you can bend steel rods, and no doubt leap tall buildings." Mary quipped and threw him her car keys "It is the Honda parked right outside the door to your apartment block.

Furling turned quite pale as he took in this information. "We need to leave here now, before they trace your car to me. You can drive my car Mary while I move yours somewhere else that will not lead them directly to me, we can stay overnight near Austin, in a motel." He said anxiously.

Mary and Debra looked at each other and a look of understanding flashed between them, they shot up from the settee and fled the apartment, Furling followed, after picking up an overnight bag that he had kept packed ready for emergencies. He shut the door behind him and then double locked it, anything to delay any investigation that their actions may have already set in motion.

Furling drove along the streets that he knew did not have CCTV cameras, and he parked Mary`s vehicle in a small underground car park whose cameras had not worked for at least ten years. He then moved Mary out of the driving seat of his vehicle and took over, and then he drove off towards Austin.

After a couple of hours, for Furling took the route devoid of CCTV cameras whenever possible, they found a cheap motel just off the highway and took a couple of rooms for the night. The next morning, they finished their journey, finally arriving just after nine that morning, Furling decided to park in the street behind the Rangers` headquarters. Furling turned off the engine and then pulled out his small alien computer; he used it to call the Texas Rangers, asking for Captain Will Rogers.

"Will picked up his phone as soon as it rang, for he had been expecting a call from Special Agent Fellows, he had left a message asking for an update into his investigation of the two bomb blasts in Houston, instead he heard an unfamiliar voice.

Captain Rogers, my name is Petras Furling, I am an alien clone and I am here in Austin with the wives of the two astronauts of the Mars Colony One spacecraft, they are seeking protection from their two husbands, who as you may know are also alien clones. In exchange for protecting the two women, I will offer you some very valuable information that will assist you in defeating the planned invasion of your planet." Furling said.

Will, thrown for a moment, wondered if this was one of his fellow agents, or even one from the FBI, playing a joke on him. However, he decided to treat the caller as a real-life alien. "OK, Mr Furling, then we should meet, where are you at this exact moment?" Will asked.

"We are parked behind your headquarters, come to the rear door and you will not only be able to see us but you will be able to verify that we are who we say we are, say in ten minutes, that should allow you time to use your computer to track down photographs of the three of us." With that, Furling rang off.

Will soon had the names of the two women and minutes later their photographs, for their husbands had both reported them missing the night before, it was only because of whom the two men were that the police took them seriously. Pearson had told the police of the attack upon him when he had entered his home, and that his wife had seemed scared of something or someone moments before the attack. Will now put in the supposed alien`s name and found a driving licence with a photograph belonging to a man with that name, and who lived in Houston, Texas.

Major Hernandez had reacted to the wave that Will had given him, and he had come across to look at the three photographs that Will had printed out. "Who are these three people, Will?" Hernandez queried, and Will then told him of his phone call.

"A hoax?" Hernandez wondered.

"If it is then it will cost them, and whoever is behind it, a great deal." Will responded.

"OK, let`s go ask them in, but have them checked over for any hidden explosive device before they get anywhere near the building.

A dozen Rangers left the headquarters building and took up positions that would allow them to target the three suspects at all times, if they did indeed show themselves, and should one of them appear to have an explosive device, then they could take whatever appropriate action seemed necessary.

Will and Major Hernandez went to the rear door of their headquarters building, and on opening it, they saw a car parked some sixty feet away from them. As soon as Will stepped out of the building, the people in the vehicle opened the doors and stepped out too.

"Put your hands on your heads and walk towards me, all of you." Will ordered the three people standing by the car. He could see that the people were who they represented themselves to be, unless of course they were all clones?

Furling and the two women were a little taken back by their reception, but they then caught sight of all of the weapons trained on them and obeyed the command without questioning it. They had just reached the centre of the car park when Will called out again.

"Lay face down upon the ground with your hands stretched out before you."

Mary and Debra looked at each other anxiously but Furling reassured them, for he finally realized that the three bomb explosions must have spooked the Rangers. So, moments later, lying flat out upon the hot tarmac, they were searched for weapons, explosives and remote-control devices, when none were found, apart from their smart phones, which were taken off them, they were allowed to enter the Rangers` headquarters building. They were then escorted to one of the interview rooms.

"What the hell was that all about?" Mary demanded to know.

"I am sorry to have put you through that, but after the three bomb attacks on us, we had to be sure that you were not carrying a fourth explosive device, either willingly or otherwise. Mr Furling did say that he was an alien clone, and we now believe that it was alien clones who were behind the attacks." Major Hernandez explained by way of an apology.

They had now been joined by Chief Randall, who had come down on being informed by Hernandez of their three guests. It was Furling who spoke first.

"Chief Randall, Major Hernandez, Captain Rogers, you now know who we are, now let me tell you why we are here. As I told you on the phone, I am an alien clone, one similar to the ones that you recently autopsied. I have brought Ms Pearson and Ms Willey here for your protection," Furling said, and he then explained why he had brought the two women with him.

"I have not come here empty handed, for I have on me three lists, and some very important information. The first list has the names of all the humans who have been brainwashed within the United States, the second is a list of my people, the clones that is, the third list has the addresses of all our command centres in North America on it. Now of course we can do nothing for the humans who have been cloned, for the human versions are more than likely dead by now, however, the people who have been brainwashed, well that is another matter entirely."

Furling then told the two Rangers all about the brainwashing of important, and in some cases unimportant individuals, and how to wipe it from the person`s mind.

"As well as the two lists of those affected and who live in the North American continent, there is also the list of the many bases being used by my people, you will notice the one in Austin that up until now you did not know about." Furling said to three now very interested Rangers as they noted the name and address of the clinic.

"However, my team are working in nine other countries around the world, and they have compiled their own lists, these can be sent to us, you only have to ask, otherwise they can be handed over to the intelligence agencies of the countries affected, after you have notified the agencies and brought them up to speed."

Will and Major Hernandez quickly scanned the list Sally that made, and then the new list that Furling had handed to them, they immediately saw that many names were on both of the lists.

"You should first attend to the humans who have been brainwashed, for if you arrest the clones first then the humans will be killed, as my people attempt to wipe away all trace of their presence here on Earth. Their deaths will come about in the same way that you must now be familiar with gentlemen?" Furling explained.

"By making their implants self-destruct, yes we are familiar with that Mr Furling, your people are very cold blooded." Major Hernandez said accusingly.

"Yes, Major, some of them are, as too are some of your people here on Earth." Furling retorted.

Hernandez smiled thinly as he accepted the retort. "Yes, Mr Furling, as you say, so are some of our people, but your civilisation is supposed to be more advanced than ours." Major Hernandez said; his voice still filled with latent hostility.

"Maybe we can proceed, Mr Furling." Will said, growing impatient with the other two men. "Tell us, just how do we treat the humans who have been brainwashed?

Furling turned to Will with an apologetic smile. "Of course, Captain Rogers, first the victims must be sedated, for if their heartbeats rise appreciably their implant will send this information to my people, and when they realise their location then they will cause the implant to self-destruct, and then your people will die." Furling explained. "While sedated the implant can be removed, and the treatment of the patient can only then commence. This is done by sending a low voltage electric shock into the affected person`s brain which will begin to rid them of the brainwashing. However, in most cases the patient will still need some psychiatric help to finally rid them of the brainwashing, and that might take some time." Furling explained.

Major Hernandez`s head was spinning after listening to Furling, even though Sally had told him earlier that she thought that many of her colleagues may have been brainwashed, or even cloned.

"Mr Furling, is this the important information that you mentioned earlier?" Will asked.

"No, it is not. Just prior to leaving Houston I received a message from our Doctor Baris, he told me that the original clone ship, plus two that had just arrived, had all been destroyed by him, the clone ships are where my people create people such as myself. This single act of sabotage by Doctor Baris will have stopped any further clones being created for at least ten years. He also stated that the only Magentan space cruiser within seventy light years of Earth was also damaged, however Doctor Baris broke off his transmission suddenly, and I fear that my people may have killed him." Furling said grimly.

Just then, a call came in from Special Agent Rails. "Major Hernandez, I have just received a report from the White House regarding some trouble in China. The report is a little sketchy but it states that there was a purge of many of those associated with their space agency, and of the local authorities in their locale." The call was on speaker so Furling also heard it. Will looked across at Furling who returned his gaze, for this report went some way in corroborating what he had been telling them. Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities did not have the information that the Rangers now possessed, and so they had decided to kill any who appeared to be an enemy agent, and not treat them as the victims they were.

Chief Randall thanked the agent for updating him, and he now asked Rails to come to their headquarters, because they in turn had something to tell him, something that he did not want to speak of over the open airways. It would be another two hours before Special Agents Rails arrived, and they used the time to put Furling through a body scanner, what it told them merely confirmed Furling`s words, that he was most probably an alien clone, for his internal organs were in exactly the same places as the six dead men.

On seeing this, Will asked an urgent question of Furling. "Mr Furling, should we not remove your implant, before your people decide to kill you?"

Furling smiled at him. "No, it will not be necessary, for I do not have an implant. All the usual information that is supposed to come from my one is false, a small computer that I left hidden within my apartment in Houston provides them with it.

"What about your life expectancy, our medical examiner has told us that the six dead clones only had a short life expectancy, within another year, or two at most, they would have all been dead?" Will asked with a weak smile appearing upon his face.

Furling was shocked to hear this, but decided to put a brave face on it. "My team and I were some of the original clones that were created by Doctor Baris, he knew our purpose in coming to your planet, and I believe that he would have insured that we had a normal life expectancy for a clone, approximately one hundred years." Furling replied.

When Rails arrived, and was sitting down with a coffee in his hand, they told him their news, and then introduced him to Furling and the two women. After listening to more tales about an alien presence on Earth, he looked very tired indeed, but he attempted to shrug this off.

"We had better bring the people from Homeland Security into this, and then do as Mr Furling suggests, begin the task of removing all of the implants from those who have been brainwashed, and finally deprogram them. We must set up a surveillance on all those suspected of being clones, until all of our own people are safe, and then we can move in fast and take the clones into custody. As for the alien off-world bases, and their starships, that we will have to leave to the military." Rails said grimly, he seemed to have aged by twenty years since he had entered the Ranger`s headquarters, the proof of an extra-terrestrial invasion was now too much for even him to disregard.

Rails returned to Washington to speak to Assistant Director Task, who sat equally stunned while listening to everything he was told. He then arranged a meeting with Homeland security, the C.I.A. and the President of the United States to co-ordinate a plan of campaign. Chief Randall, Major Hernandez, Will and Sally were also part of the meeting, along with Petras Furling. After much disbelief, Rails produced the results of the body scans and the autopsy reports, however it still needed the Chinese report and Sally`s own story to finally convince them that all that the people of the world were facing an unprecedented threat to their very existence.

The Special Forces within the military assisted the civilian authorities, one week later, they attempted to apprehend and sedate all the humans who were on the first list. This comprised of the victims of the brainwashing machine, and the ones they managed to locate had their implants surgically removed. The hard work of deprogramming the victims could then proceed at leisure. Some work places were almost empty of workers, such as at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston, many of the people who were left there were clones, and the Special Forces swiftly moved in and arrested them before they could run. Hurriedly transported to a local hospital, a body scanner checked their internal organs; it showed which people were in fact clones, and which were not. The bodies of the clones were seen to be the same as the six dead clones; their implants were quickly removed before their area commander could send a killing message to the implants. The clones now found themselves imprisoned in a top-secret facility, guarded by a full infantry company. They released those found to be humans, to return to their homes with a warning to say nothing of what had occurred.

They also found in some of the properties attached to the bases, a number of small grey aliens, they had come to Earth so as to be able to walk upon a planet once again, something they now regretted.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to keep such a nationwide raid quiet, and although the media was prevented from mentioning it, the alien commanders in North America finally found out what was happening from one of their clones working in the news industry, and who had managed to escape before the authorities came for him.

**********

Phairlis snarled when told of the operation mounted against them in Northern America, and he immediately ordered the area commanders to terminate every one of the humans who had been brainwashed. However, he was too late to call for such a pointless exercise, he succeeded in murdering only five people, killed in the alien`s usual way, by remote control. These killings however only served to alert the authorities to the fact that that their enemy was aware of what they were doing. Phairlis now demanded to know of his area commanders just how all of this was able to happen, and without them hearing squat about it.

He forced his anger down, hidden deep beneath the surface, and spoke to the assembled council of the Chosen Ones. He blamed Sally; once again, for this major setback in one of their key areas, he then explained how he had planned twin attacks on the people of the sixth planet.

"I have chosen Special Agents Mallory and Ballinger of the FBI, whose whereabouts are currently unknown to the authorities, and who I have decided will not be terminated just yet. Their task, I have ordered them to kidnap Sally Jameson, and then to brainwash her into telling the authorities that she had made the alien invasion up. She will tell them that she was in fact working for the Russians, and that the clones had been 'born' there, in Russia. This, I assure you, will cause confusion and distrust amongst the governments of the sixth planet." Phairlis declared confidently. Unfortunately, he did not know about Furling, or the contents of the other two lists.

"The second part of my plan of attack is the delivery of our new mutation of the virus designated H5N1, it has already been released over China, just one hour ago. However, in the light of recent developments the release was over a much larger area. The Chinese government will immediately blame the Americans for an act of aggression against their people; the resulting tension will turn all eyes away from us while the Americans try to convince the Chinese that we were in fact the aggressor. Tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, of the people living in Indo-China will die before the virus mutates once again into a harmless one. In one month`s time we can decide where the next major outbreak will occur."

This was clearly in violation of his government`s ruling that their people not indulge in mass murder or genocide in this fashion, Phairlis had cut his team adrift from his people.

**********

Earlier that day the attack craft Magenta flew in across the South China Sea, it was heading for the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Within this highly populated area is the large city of Guangzhou, and just now most of its population was sleeping, further south are the cities of Macau and Hong Kong, an estimated population of 40 million live within the delta. The attack craft flew inland for just a few minutes before turning south and it was now, as it approached the city of Guangzhou that it began to release the virus.

**********

Mallory and Ballinger planned well into the night, and it was nearly two in the morning when they finally came up with a plan, of sorts. They would stake out the house of Will, and when he left, they would move in and kidnap Sally.

Will was part of a nationwide team to launch a co-ordinated attack on the command centres of the alien headquarters, and any of the many clones who had not been taken in the previous raids within the US of A. He left a relieved Sally who was now looking forward to returning to Houston and the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center; she hoped that it would not be too empty of the other workers. She was just finishing with a few household chores when Mallory and Ballinger entered through the open back door, open to allow the early morning breeze in to cool the house.

"Sally, how good to see you again." Mallory said to her.

Sally looked up in surprise, startled by the two agents' sudden appearance; this was something that she had not anticipated. She saw the ugly looking automatic pistols in their hands and knew that for the moment resistance was useless, only death would follow such an action.

"So, Richard, how nice of you to come calling." Sally said in a calm voice that did not reflect how she was feeling. "Who is your friend, Special Agent Ballinger is it; I heard that the two of you were thought to be still working together?" Sally said turning to look at the other agent.

"Enough small talk Ms Jameson, we need to be on our way." Ballinger said as he moved towards her.

Sally backed up until the solid kitchen wall stopped her from retreating any further. "Well do not let me delay you any more gentlemen, I am sure that you have much to do." Sally said coolly, but fear was now biting into her vitals.

"Oh, you are coming with us Ms Jameson; now move it or I will hit you so hard you will still feel it next week." Ballinger threatened, Sally looked to Mallory for protection, but he only offered her an apologetic look.

"Guess you had better obey my partner Sally, he did not get that much sleep last night, and it is making him rather cranky." Mallory advised, but then he moved forward, grabbed her by the arm, and they dragged her from the house.

They forced her into a large Ford MPV; Ballinger took the wheel while Marriot got in beside her, his pistol pushed painfully into her side.

"Look, Richard, you are two big brave men, both of you armed with nasty looking handguns, do you really need to push your weapon into me so painfully, I am hardly in a position to escape from you, am I?" Sally pleaded.

"From what I heard there is a real need, you stunned one of our agents and captured another, and they were both armed with nasty looking handguns, so for the moment why don`t I just leave it digging in your side." Mallory replied, his polite manner now gone, all that remained was a thug, somehow a switch had flicked over and there was no sign of her friend.

Sally wondered if the brainwashing was not able to keep the real person from showing through, not forever, but its appearance was certainly not strong enough to stop her friend from kidnapping her. She slumped back in her seat and looked out of the window, they were soon in the country, and then they turned off down a dirt track, ahead was a rickety old building, and it was here that Ballinger stopped the vehicle.

"We have arrived Sally, get out." Mallory ordered flatly. Standing beside her, Ballinger had opened the side door to permit her to exit the vehicle; he then moved away from the vehicle, with his pistol pointed at her stomach.

Not seeing much point in arguing, just yet, Sally got out of the vehicle and strolled over to the porch of the building, which to her surprise was not as flimsy as it had first appeared; beneath her feet, she felt solid wood, this place had been built to last. Ballinger moved past her to open the front door of the building, inside Sally saw a relatively clean room, and to one side she saw one of the fiendish alien mind bending machines, it had a chair next to it, awaiting its next victim. She almost fainted as she realised her fate, just as the battle was swinging towards a victory for the good guys, the aliens were going to brainwash her, how fair was that? Well there was no way she would allow that to happen without a fight.

She allowed them to push her further into the room, head down and giving every appearance of defeat, or at least acceptance of her fate. Her eyes followed the two automatic pistols, with both of them out and pointing her way she still could not do anything but obey.

"We might as well get it over with Richard." Ballinger said and walked across to Sally, and holding her arm in a painful grip marched her over to the evil looking machine.

Sally stumbled and would have fallen heavily into the machine, if Ballinger had not stopped her, she silently cursed him as he now steered her safely around the machine, she had hoped to damage the machine. From the way Ballinger was looking at her, he had obviously realised that.

"Sit down." Ballinger demanded and went to force her down into the chair when she hesitated to obey him.

Sally brought her knee up sharply into Ballinger`s groin making him groan in pain, his grip on her arm loosening. She pushed him away while grabbing a hold of his pistol; she violently pulled his pistol from out of his hand as he fell to the floor heavily. Sally began to turn around while dropping down out of the way of any bullet that might be about to speed her way. It was then that she felt the end of Mallory`s pistol push into her head.

"Give me the gun now, Sally." Mallory ordered, for he had anticipated that she would attempt to resist, he now reached over and took the gun out of her hand. "OK, now sit in the chair Sally, don`t worry, it will soon be over, and it is only painful for a moment." Mallory said gently, mister nice guy was back, even if he was still under the control of the aliens.

Ballinger was getting to his feet, looking angrily at Sally, from the looks he was giving her he intended to get some revenge before the day was out. Mallory handed Ballinger his weapon back. "Cover me Tom, while I tend to the lady." Mallory ordered.

Mallory now lashed her arms and legs to the heavy wooden chair while Sally fumed in anger. "Richard, you must be in there somewhere, it is me, Sally, your friend, help me, please." Sally pleaded, but it was no use, he took no notice of her.

With her no longer a threat, Ballinger moved across and slapped her hard across the face, her head snapped around and she felt tears spring to her eyes, but she was determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Sally turned to him and looked at him with disgust plainly written upon her face.

"If you can hit a defenceless woman when you have been brainwashed, just what sort of an agent were you?" Sally asked contemptuously.

"Put the helmet on her now Richard, let`s convert her, and be sure to give her a really long conversion, we do not want to disappoint the lady, I am sure that she wants to enjoy the process to the full."

Ballinger stood looking down at Sally as Mallory pushed the helmet over her head, then Mallory armed the device, however, he never managed to push to convert button.

The front door slammed open just as Will burst in from the rear, his colt .45 aiming at Mallory. Mallory fingers never moved the few inches to start the conversion process, a bullet slammed into his arm stopping him. Mallory stepped back a pace, the pain seemed to break through the brainwashing, for his face registered astonishment as he looked down at Sally. Then his brainwashing took over and he reached down once again for the button, Will had never lowered his pistol, he fired again, the bullet slamming into Mallory, it hit the agent right in the centre of his heart, his body slumped to the floor, dead.

Ballinger too was dead, he had attempted to fire at the Rangers who had stormed in through the front door; instead he went down with four bullets in his body.

"Uncle Will am I glad to see you." Sally sobbed as Will released her from the chair. "How on Earth did you find me?" She asked, her whole body trembling from what could have been.

Will smiled at his niece. "I forgot my wallet, so I had to return home to get it. I saw you being forced into their vehicle and followed at a distance while calling up a team of Rangers." Will replied.

"But how come they did not see you, they were trained FBI agents?" Sally asked.

"I put an implant of my own into one of your shoes, just in case something like this happened, so that I could find you, so I just kept back until they stopped." Will replied.

**********

The authorities in the United States of America now began to arrest the people suspected of being an alien clone. Taken to a hospital, a body scanner checked their internal organs; it showed that their bodies too were the same as the six dead clones, and those taken in the raid on the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston. They now realised the time has come to contact the foreign intelligence agencies and start the hard task of making their story believed by all of the nations on Earth.

Furling contacted his team of nine remaining agents; the tenth one had worked in China. He ordered them to send him the list of the brainwashed people in their countries, along with the alien clones and their bases. This information came up on Will`s computer, and after scanning through it, Will then emailed it back to the intelligence agencies of the respective countries.

When told of the alien invasion, the Chinese government did not believe the Americans, and they immediately put their armed forces on heightened alert and sent their fleet to sea. World War three was now a real threat, and to try to prevent it from destroying the whole of Earth, President Chambers sent the Vice President to China to try to convince them of the truth, failure he told the Vice President, was not an option, not this time.

**********

However, given all that had happened over the last few days, and the time taken to get the list of brainwashed or cloned people to the various foreign intelligence agencies, the alien commanders soon discovered just what was happening. Phairlis was more than just angry knowing that he had lost all of his agents working in the United States of America, he screamed out his rage at the communication`s officer who brought him the bad news. However, he did have enough time to alert all of his local commanders in all the other countries around the world. They immediately issued orders for the clones and the humans who had been brainwashed to report to the local headquarters urgently to receive further orders.

It was soon after this that the area command centres found themselves under attack from the local military. Those clones who were still inside one of the centres had to decide whether to attempt to fight their way out, or to surrender, after ensuring that the local commander did not cause their implants to self-destruct, usually by killing him, their other choice was to die fighting to the last man. Across the nine countries that had alien bases, the decision was a mixture of the choices, mostly depending on how the clones thought the local authorities would treat them. However, many clones escaped, picked up by the attack craft Magenta, and they were taken to the safety of the Moon.

It was not the same for the humans that had been brainwashed; ordered to remain in the local command centres until the crisis was over. Therefore, when the authorities raided the centres they found themselves trapped. If the clones chose to escape or to fight, then the humans were a part of it, with only a few surviving. If the clones decided to surrender then the humans lived, for the authorities would not have taken kindly to the mass murder of their people.

The major police raids across the globe finally managed to convince the Chinese government to hold off; they pulled back their fleet and stood their massive armies down, while they looked further into the matter.

**********

The virus was spreading very fast within the heavily populated Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, with the hospitals hopelessly deluged by the number of cases. The authorities had no choice but to enforce martial law, and all civilians ordered to wear facemasks, and only allowed out to buy food. It was an attempt to halt the spread of the virus; however, it did not work, for the cases of those infected grew sharply.

Redh Madr, sent by President Mortise to act as a sleeper, with orders to operate only when necessary, decided that the time to act had arrived. It was seeing the many deaths due to the virus that made Redh Madr commit himself, for he could not stand by any longer and see so many innocent people die. He soon heard that Doctor Baris had committed suicide, rather than be taken prisoner and interrogated, and this helped to convince Madr that his time had also arrived. He must somehow get all the phials containing the disease and the vaccine to the authorities on Earth, Baris had told him that he could trust Sally Jameson or her uncle, so he decided that the United States of America was to be his destination.

With this in mind he sat at his computer terminal and expertly hacked into the ship`s defences, first he targeted the sonic weapon and added a sub routine that would make the weapon self-destruct as soon as it was turned on. For his next piece of sabotage, he went into the part of the computer that operated the starship`s sensor array, and here he deleted a huge amount of instructions, lastly, he inserted a virus into the ship`s main computer that would operate in one hour`s time, to destroy anything that he may have forgotten about. He knew that he had endangered himself, if they discovered his act of sabotage before he got away, but he thought the gains outweighed the risk to his safety.

Madr now walked calmly down to the flight deck aboard the Constellation, no one stopped him to talk about the damage to the starship, it was as if the gods had kept the way clear of people so that he could complete his task without any interference. There were ten small spacecraft parked there, a team of engineers surrounded one of them, they were repairing it, its engine was firing at low power, Madr smiled, for he knew that the noise would more than cover his own activities. On the wall furthest away from the engineers were the controls to the force field that prevented the air from escaping from the flight deck into space. This technology allowed the cruiser`s complement of fighters to land or take off without the need to drain the flight deck of air. Madr attached a small amount of explosive to the controls, and then he set the timer for five minutes. With the preliminary work completed, Madr climbed into the cockpit of one of the other small craft, the one furthest away from the technicians. He believed that as he was a member of the council of the Chosen Ones that no one would question his action, they would assume that he was merely having a look at the craft, and in this, he was correct. Madr had flown similar craft in his youth, and he had no trouble in powering the craft up, he looked about him, no one had noticed him yet. He now hit the craft`s hover button, and the craft lifted off the deck, still no one had noticed, it was due to the noise of the craft under repair. He now hit the power button and the engine roared into life, now the technicians noticed him, but before they could stop him Madr took the craft through the light force field. The Constellation was in orbit around the Moon, meaning that he had a flight of at least an hour before he reached Earth, worried about pursuit he brought the engine up to full power; the acceleration pushed him back into his seat until the inertial dampeners kicked in. Almost one hour later and he was finally nearing Earth, his scanners showed him that six craft were in pursuit of him, but twenty seconds later he was dropping down through the Earth`s atmosphere, unfortunately with the other craft preparing to follow.

"American air force, I am an alien in need of your assistance, I have with me samples of the virus attacking the Chinese people, I also have samples of the vaccine needed to rid you of this alien made virus. My people have sent six attack craft after me to stop me from giving these lifesaving medicines to you, help me, please." Madr pleaded desperately.

Six of the latest F40 Stealth aircraft were deployed, they arrived on the scene just as the attacking craft began to fire at Madr, they were ordered to assist the alien craft under attack, which they did successfully by destroying three of the attacking craft before the others retreated. When the three surviving craft reached the Constellation, they found that the force field had been sabotaged, and that all of the starship`s computer systems were down. They were forced to head for the main Moon base and land there; unfortunately, they would be unable to refuel their craft until they returned to the Constellation.

Madr landed his craft at the Nellis air force base, and immediately voiced his urgent demands.

"I need to talk to Captain Will Rogers of the Texas Rangers or to Sally Jameson, the NASA scientist. Then I need to talk to General Powers, I have urgent information about the alien starship in orbit around your moon. It is a matter of your nation's security, please do as I ask or many lives will be lost."

The officers, the personnel and the scientists were astonished as they listened to this small grey alien speak in perfect English, and it took them a moment to respond to his request, the commanding office of the base being the first to recover. He knew a little about the current emergency, and of the alien connection, so he had Will contacted. As the situation was said to be so very urgent by Madr, and because the pentagon had insisted when he informed them of the alien`s demands, Will was flown to Nellis in a fast jet. Once there Madr greeted him and handed over the samples of the vaccine and the virus, Will stood there just a little stunned, both by the vaccine, and because he was speaking to a real-life alien.

Will had one of each of the samples sent to Area 51, for security, before despatching the other samples to the CDC in another fast jet. Once they received the samples, they contacted the Chinese authorities by a secure landline and informed them that half of the samples were on their way to them. The samples were flown to China in a F40 stealth aircraft that hugged the ground for security reasons, and was refuelled along the way to ensure it got to its destination as soon as was possible.

Madr next visit was to see General Powers and President Chambers, the American president, who wanted to speak with their alien guest. The Chinese ambassador was also present, to prove to the Chinese government that aliens were indeed behind their present troubles. Chambers did not know how to feel, due to this incursion, they now had the proof that Will and Sally had been looking for, proof that an alien invasion was now a real-life threat, and one that the other nations of the world were forced to recognise. However, an alien invasion was not something to feel relieved about, which was why he had asked Madr to come to Washington to advise them on the situation, and to offer any advice that he had on how to proceed. Madr insisted that Will be one of his escorts, and with a senior member of the alien leadership now with him, and as an ally, Will asked about the short life span of the clones. Madr only took a moment to think over the curious question, but then he smiled.

"Unknown to the people of your planet you owe our Doctor Baris a great deal. Not only did he destroy the only three clone ships in existence, thereby stopping our people of sending even more clones to your planet to replace human beings, but he even ensured that most of the clones that did reach this planet would die prematurely. Unfortunately, he is dead now, for my people finally got on to him, however, his last act was to ask me to bring the vaccine to you."

Chapter Seven

Earth Retakes the Moon

After the usual greetings were out of the way, Madr repeated to the assembled company of how much they owed to an alien, Doctor Baris.

"My friend not only destroyed the three clone ships, severely denting the invasion plans, but badly damaged the space cruiser Constellation. His final act before his death was to tell me where he had hidden the phials of the vaccine and the virus; his final thoughts were of your people." Madr said grimly.

This explained to the people standing in the Oval office the cause of the bright flashes behind the Moon and behind the planet Uranus.

"Mr President, Ambassador Lee, you must launch an all-out attack on the space cruiser Constellation, and before my people can repair any of its offensive or defensive hardware. You should also take out the attack vessel Magenta." Madr now turned to the Chinese Ambassador. "Ambassador Lee, you should know that it was the attack vessel Magenta that was used to spread the virus that is currently causing so many deaths in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone."

Lee turned away so that the Americans could not see the mixture of emotions that flooded to his face, when he had them under control he turned to speak to Madr.

"The people of Earth have few spaceships available to them, but all of them are unarmed, do you have any suggestions to make my friend, so that we can succeed against your more advanced ships."

Madr smiled, for the ambassador of a nation that his people were trying to annihilate, to refer to him as a friend, meant a lot to him, and he nodded at Lee to try to purvey this.

"Yes, Ambassador Lee, I do have some." Madr then turned to face all four of the men sitting in the Oval Office, for Will had also attending the meeting.

"Your two nations, plus any other nations that you can trust to keep the planned attack a secret from any of my people, must fit your most powerful missiles to your space shuttles. Then you must attack and completely destroy both the space cruiser Constellation, and the attack craft Magenta. You must launch the attack before my people can ready their defences. They possess six of the small ships that I used to come to Earth, and the Magenta has a small energy weapon fitted on the underside of the craft. Until the repairs to the hyper drive are made the Constellation is defenceless, its main weapon`s system, and its shields, will not function. They do have a sonic weapon which is very effective, however, when I left the Constellation I disabled it, hopefully they will not notice this until they try to use the weapon, and then it will explode." Madr said grimly, for his words told of the deaths of more of his people.

"If you are successful then the invasion could be put off indefinitely, if not for ever." Madr declared confidently. "Oh, your people will find the cryo-storage starship Future parked near to the other two craft; it is unarmed, and unless it attempts to interfere can be safely left out of the attack."

Chambers thanked Madr for his help; help that he knew must have caused him much soul searching. Many of the aliens would see Madr as a traitor.

America, Russia, China and Europe all decided to follow the suggestion put forward by Madr, they fitted guided missiles to eight Moon Shuttles and launched them within a week; with the eight craft was the craft that Madr had landed in, flown by an American astronaut who had not been taken by the enemy.

They launched from the opposite side of Earth to that which the Moon was currently shining down upon; then they drifted in space, some 250,000 miles away from their planet, with all their systems turned off. Furling had made this suggestion, for he too was brought into their confidence. He had also said that with the limited systems still working aboard the enemy craft, they would be able to get much closer this way, before the enemy finally noticed them. The plan worked, the Magentans had their few systems still available to them, all based on the near side of the Moon and pointed towards Earth, not into space.

The cryo-storage starship Future was found to be sitting on the surface of the moon, as was the attack craft Magenta. It was only the recently repaired sensor array on the Constellation that saw the nine approaching craft, and even then, the crewman manning the console did not notice them immediately, for they gave off such a small electrical signature, and the fleet from Earth was by then in firing range.

Aboard the lead American shuttle, the commander heard the Constellation alert the crew of the Magenta, he immediately alerted his small fleet and accelerated towards the alien starships.

"Lieutenant Carlson, fire off two missiles at that big bastard, it must be the Constellation."

Behind him his fleet, which had been moving along Indian style, so that the aliens would have little for their lookouts to see, now fanned out so that all eight of the shuttles could bring their weapons to bear on the alien craft. The two Chinese Moon Shuttles charged ahead and targeted the attack vessel Magenta, which never managed to lift off the surface of from the Moon, seconds later four missiles struck the alien vessel, it exploded in a massive ball of fire; no one survived the attack.

The other Shuttles targeted the Constellation, which was still powering up its sub light engines, before it could move away it too exploded in flames. The destruction of the major vessels of the enemy fleet made the allies rejoice, however, the battle was not over, not yet.

They were not the only craft that the enemy possessed, three fighter craft appeared over the horizon of the Moon, and as soon as they were in range they fired their energy weapons, shuttles were sluggish compared the fighters and two were hit, a European shuttle and the other American craft. The European craft was hit amidships, and only its size prevented it from disintegrating, even so it lost engine power and began to fall down to the surface of the Moon. The American craft was struck towards the rear of the craft, and its engines exploded in a brilliant ball of flames.

The three fighters rushed through the line of shuttles and began to turn to launch another strike at their enemy, one that had destroyed so many of their comrades. As they did so, an energy bolt struck the lead craft destroying it instantly, Captain Boone, a descendant of the famous Daniel Boone was flying in the fighter that Madr had stolen. He flew behind the shuttles to permit them to attack the larger alien craft; and low over the surface of the moon, and because of this, he had gone unnoticed by the alien pilots. He now targeted the next in line of the alien fighters; it immediately broke sharply to port with Boone on its tail. The last alien pilot gave chase, targeting Boone. However, his craft too exploded in a ball of fire when struck by two missiles fired from the two Russian craft. The battle now was essentially over, only one alien fighter remaining, and minutes later, it crashed into one of the Luna craters, for it had run out of fuel.

Preparations were already being made to retake the Moon, this complete victory made it all the easier. President Chambers called on all of the aliens on the Moon to surrender. Earth now trained it Earth based missiles upon the Moon bases, together with those remaining on the shuttles. Weapons systems were not permitted on the Moon; and with the Constellation guarding the bases they were not considered necessary by the aliens. The aliens on the Moon, on seeing their only space cruiser destroyed immediately surrendered. Three large transport spacecraft transported the necessary troops across to the Moon, they landed them in batches around it, soon all the aliens were under arrest, transported back to Earth, and there they were imprisoned, pending their war crimes trial.

However, the planet Mars was much further away from Earth, it would take careful planning and more spacecraft than Earth currently had, ones suitable for the long journey to Mars, before that planet could be retaken.

Chapter Eight

President Mortise

President Mortise was in a very happy mood, it was due to an event that began one year ago, it was when news had come in from the admiral in command of the Magentan space fleet, Admiral Tennant. He had informed Mortise that one of the automated spaceships had found another planet, one remarkably similar to their own, and one that appeared to be uninhabited. The automated craft had launched four small drones through the planet`s atmosphere and tested the air, the water and the soil, all were found to be good.

This news was kept a secret, until a manned starship had checked it out; Mortise feared that if the news got out prematurely then Consul Phairlis might decide to launch an all-out attack on the peoples of Earth while issuing a unilateral declaration of independence. With the space cruiser Constellation, nominally under his command it could mean the deaths of many Magentans, if Mortise wanted to come to the assistance of the people of Earth. Admiral Tennant had agreed with his thoughts, and he had ordered his personal staff to say nothing about the new planet. The officers and men of this branch of the Magentan space fleet were all loyal to the admiral, and so the most secret of secrets never got out. Tennant had immediately ordered the space cruiser Galaxy to investigate the newly discovered planet. A preliminary report regarding the planet told Mortise that the planet was all that they had hoped for, and more.

It was now that reports began to trickle back to him about the many setbacks met by his invading forces, finally he heard about the destruction of the three clone ships and the damage to the Constellation. Mortise almost danced with joy, but instead he sat down and lamented the loss of his friend Doctor Baris, and all the other innocent lives lost in the incident. He pushed this aside and immediately ordered the starships in orbit around Uranus to head for the new planet, named by him Salvation. He informed them that although the new planet was 130 light years away from the planet Uranus, it was a sister planet to Magenta and that it was uninhabited, they would be met there by the three space Arks and an armada of freighters carrying everything a new colony world would need.

Many of the people aboard the starships in orbit around Uranus were happy about this, following the many setbacks in the war against Earth. It was also the day when two Magentan space cruisers arrived, one day after the space battle above the Moon had occurred. The Nebula and the newly launched Super Nova, for Admiral Tennant, at Mortise`s request, had already despatched them to replace the Constellation, as he had feared that the officers aboard it would soon fall under the spell of Consul Phairlis. Not wanting to risk the wrath of the president, or the captains of the two space cruisers, the waiting starships had begun the long journey back across the galaxy towards the planet Salvation. A freighter, carrying essential supplies, would meet them halfway.

Admiral Tennant now sent an order to the space cruiser Nebula, he told them to pick up all the clones in the Sol solar system, to collect the Magentans on Mars and the Moon, and take them to the new home world. The clones would receive newly Magentan cloned bodies, as soon as the necessary equipment and medical expertise could be assembled. He also ordered that all the captive humans were to be returned to Earth, unfortunately, of course, there were not any to be found. One minute later and they heard about the battle of the Moon, and everything changed.

Phairlis and council of the Chosen Ones had moved to the starship Future prior to the battle above the Moon, because it offered them more comfort than that found aboard the Constellation. After the battle of the Moon, and with the arrival of the president`s forces, Phairlis knew that this phase of the invasion was essentially over, he now put into operation plans that did not include the Magentan people.

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It was only then that Madr heard what was happening; it was via his communications system on his stolen spacecraft, it had relayed it to his small personal computer. He had set this up before finally leaving Nellis with Will, unfortunately due to the virus that he had put into the Constellation`s computers, it was only now, with the arrival of the space cruiser Nebula, that he heard what was happening. However, now the Nebula had arrived Madr sent a message, via the Nebula`s communications system, to President Mortise, and he gave him a full update.

Mortise was not surprised by what he learned from Madr, and he ordered the space cruiser Nebula to provide him with a full list of any craft still under Phairlis command. The list was very short; it consisted of the cryo-storage starship the Future. He then instructed Admiral Tennant to order the space cruisers Nebula and the Super Nova to find and board the starship Future, and once secured they were to await further orders, however, the starship Future was not to be found.

The Nebula approached Earth, but only after Captain Revere called ahead and told of their peaceful intentions. The Nebula had collected all of the aliens based on the planet Mars and Revere told President Chambers that the planet could now been returned to the people of Earth. Revere now asked if he could travel down to Earth to talk peace. Chambers agreed to meet him at the White House, with him were representatives from China, Russia and Europe, as well as the secretary general of the United Nations.

Revere was told to land his spacecraft at Washington Dulles International airport; however, he parked his space cruiser in space and travelled to Earth in a small shuttlecraft. Revere was accompanied by two of his officers and they were met there by the American secretary of state, a helicopter transported the party to the White House Lawn.

Madr was not at the meeting; however, he was at the White House. Before the meeting began, he had warned his new friends that some of the clones might still be roaming about free on Earth, although their life expectancy would not be long due to the work carried out by Doctor Baris. However, a more important item on their agenda would be to find out the whereabouts of Phairlis and the council of the Chosen Ones. They were thought to have taken the cryo-storage starship Future and brought it down to Earth during the battle for the Moon. A search for them had so far found no sign of them.

As soon as the meeting began, Captain Revere requested that the alien clones captured in the raids, both on the Moon and on Earth, along with any Magentans, be released; they would be picked up and transported to their new home world by the starship Nebula. He regretted the loss of life of the humans, particularly Phairlis`s senseless murderous act against the ones who had been replaced by clones, for he had been under orders to keep them alive and transport them to Magenta, there to live out their lives.

In the interests of inter-galactic harmony, the leaders agreed to this request, although they demanded reparations to be paid to the families of those who had died. Captain Revere had no choice other to agree, and he thought it a cheap price to pay for inter-galactic harmony. And so, the invasion of Earth was over, and the space industry on Earth took a great leap forward, for part of the price for peace was space technology.

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Phairlis and some of his followers had indeed been forced to flee to Earth in the starship Future, even while the battle of the Moon was still happening, Phairlis could see that the cavemen had beaten him and there was no other option open to him. The spacecraft flew in over the South American Continent and found sanctuary beneath the large, and deep, Lake Titicaca in the Andes mountain range, here they planned their own future, living inside one of remaining empty clones that Phairlis had kept hidden aboard the starship Future; the clones were amongst the last created by Doctor Baris. They hid here safely concealed from both worlds, ready to re-appear when all was quiet, they planned to live a good life, for with their alien knowledge they would be able to prosper. They would be aided by the clones still hiding away on Earth, and who were already making their way to them, ones who preferred to stay on Earth rather than return to Magenta, where they would be born in new Magentan clones. Phairlis saw the cities and infrastructure on Earth as a better bet for a comfortable future, he planned to take over the government of one of the smaller countries and from there, build his new life. For the council of the Chosen Ones could not return home, Mortise would immediately have them arrested for their use of the virus against the Chinese people.

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Petras Furling and his team asked to be allowed to live out their lives on Earth, for their reception back on Magenta, or even Sanctuary could be unpleasant, as many of their people would consider them traitors. President Chambers was very happy to agree to this, and decided that they should live in Texas. However, Redh Madr went home aboard the Nebula, for life, as a small grey alien on Earth did not appeal to him. Sally Jameson went back to work at NASA, where many new staff were taken on to replace those who had been murdered. The lives of all those touched by the invasion was changed forever, and Sally`s colleagues no longer thought of her as a little weird.

The End

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About the Author

I was born in London, England. Like most of the world, I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills, so I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. My wife and I have a son who is now married to a lovely wife and they have five children of their own. Since retiring to the Greek island of Crete, I have finally found the time and the energy to write some full-length Science Fiction stories.

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Other Books by the Author

Colonies of Earth Series in Order

Galaxy Spies

Time Storm

Rebirth

Trial by Ordeal

Horror Stories

Strange tales; three short mild horror stories

The Vampires of Cymru-- coming soon

Rob Hinds Black Magic Stories

Kidnapped and Bound for Hell

The Satanists

Dreamscape

The Return of the Bitch from Hell

David Charlton Stories, a Science Fiction Series

Rescue Mission to the Stars

The Treasure of Altaraus

Return to Mazere

Other Science Fiction Stories

Quasar

The Venetou

Invasion Earth

Lost and Far from Home

Journey to the Stars

Rebellion is in the Air

Short Children`s Stories

Three Journeys of the Scary Kind

