Re: Unfinished Business (CC, Mature) Part 19 - 06/30/10
Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:44 am
Thanks to everyone who has been following this story. Its the strangest thing. I know exactly where this story is headed, I love the characters, and yet I find it so hard to write. Sigh, I certainly hope to get another part after this one out much faster than the last one. (2+months? Yikes!)
So I apologize and hope that I can get the next part out much sooner. Sorry guys.
keepsmiling7- Thanks.
fairyasylum-Thanks.
zaneri1- Thanks. I promise I will do my best to get another part out promptly.
Strawbehrry Shortcake- Thanks. I am so sorry about that. I will say that you are the reason I am posting this today though. I am on vacation as it happens, and promised to myself to get a part to every story I had out there done. But when I saw your bump and it has been so long.... I did this story. So thank you.
Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine and no infringement is intended
Unfinished Business part 20
Maria
Maria gingerly walked down the corridor from her rooms to where she knew she would find Alex.
He was sitting on chair he had dragged right up to Isabel’s Pod. He was playing a tune on a guitar. Something Maria hadn’t heard in years.
A melody he had made up once for Isabel. One that he had made at a dare Maria had made for him.
Maria had almost forgotten about it. She couldn’t help as the first and second tears slipped down her cheeks as she just watched him play.
It was quite likely it was the first time Isabel had ever heard it. Because not long after he had died. Maria herself had only played it a few times in memory of him, but she’d never had the heart to play it for Isabel. Certainly not after she had gotten married to Jesse.
She just couldn’t go up to him right now. She ducked behind the corner and sobbed. Cried for the love that had almost bloomed but had been snuffed out like a summer flower caught in an early frost.
Had she still been young, still been the adolescent who had dared one of her best friends to write a song for a girl he was trying so hard to not fall for…. Maria would have left him alone. Would have left him to mourn the tragedy that had struck him so early. Would have given him the time that he had so justly earned to spend with the girl who he had loved all his live.
One that he could not be sure would not choose the father of her child instead of him, despite all that had gone before, For Kyle had been there for her every step of the way, and he too was in a Pod not far from her.
But Maria was not the girl she had once been. She was an adult with the knowledge, the firm knowledge that life wasn’t fair. That sometimes responsibilities would get in the way of things that if the world were truly just there would be time to enjoy. But in the real world that time was precious, and the responsibilities could press so very hard.
And so she pulled herself together and walked into the corridor. Alex was talking softly to the Pod, his face a mixture of love, pain, and guilt.
Maria said softly, “Alex. Alex you need to pay attention to me. You don’t have time for this. Your work is not yet done.”
Alex didn’t look at her, merely ran his hands along the Pod his love rested in. “Who sent you? Was it Rain? Because I don’t have time to….”
“Alex. It was Amanda. She said you have things you need to do. That you need to be careful. That with you distracted like this our defenses aren’t working.”
“Maria, please… Just leave me be. Just give me a little time to be with her. Time outside of our dreams. I used to visit her you know. On those nights when she would remain in her dreams, when she would have nightmares. I did what I could for her. Comforted her as much as I could without letting her know, letting her know that I was alive.” He looked over at Maria, “I could have made all your lives so much easier. Could have told her who had killed her parents, who had murdered Jesse. That she didn’t need to fight her personal war.”
“Alex, is Amanda right? Are we vulnerable?”
Alex nodded. “I have a great deal of power. But right now, right now I am mostly bluffing. There are various groups on Antar that would love to come to Earth. They could bring several Cruisers and there would be little I could do beyond protecting the Moon. As long as they didn’t truly know where the power was coming, they couldn’t blockade me. But now, with the adjustments Serena is making…. They have to know where we are now.”
“Alex, I know you. You weren’t Liz, you didn’t plan out your whole life. But surely you have a plan for this? Surely there is a way you can protect the Earth.” Maria was over at his side now, worry plastered across her face. Visions of all her friends and coworkers, ground under the heel of some alien invader…
Alex sighed. “It all depends on Jimmy. If he lives, then yes. Yes I do have a plan. Your Stephanie is safe here, and so is Zan. Max has saved Claudia, although it was close. But Jimmy doesn’t have anyone to protect him. And the forces that killed Isabel know that he is Isabel’s son. They will want him dead, Maria. And if he dies I will have to wait to see if another group forms in the next generation. If the potential for a true Royal Four comes to pass.”
“Royal Four? But isn’t that was Michael, Max, and the others were?”
Alex stood and set the guitar aside. He sighed and looked again at Isabel. He then looked around at the hallways of the complex he’d had such a role in the development of. “They were, but then Max died….”
“But you brought him back, surely that would mean that he was still here? I mean he had the Seal and all.”
Alex fondly brushed her cheek, his smile was a little forced. For the last thirteen years or so, Michael has technically been the King. It was his Seal that Max bore ever since he wrested it away from Michael. His had already been passed and lost. Lost when he killed himself trying to save Wheeler from old age. That is why Earth has been so peaceful since then. There was no real threat from Earth. When you add that the Granolith had been returned to Antar, well Earth was just a poor backwater. Also the hybrids had a failsafe built into them. It wasn’t deliberate when they were created, but it was there never the less. The Gandarium which binds their Antaran souls to their human clone bodies breaks down. Its one of the reason I knew that I would need Pods for all of them.”
Alex crooked a finger for Maria to follow him. He continued, “But Max proved that a human could indeed bear a Seal. The body that he lived in had indeed been Wheelers.”
“So Claudia and Abby aren’t really Max’s? Their that nasty old man’s?”
Alex smiled and shook his head, his grin was less forced and more real this time. “Max rebuilt him from the bottom up. It was the only way to fully reduce the age of the cells using the technique that Max uses to heal. There are ways, better ways to reduce and recover from the aging process. But they are slow and time consuming. So Max was Max, only without any of the enhancement built into the hybrids. It was why he could get sick, why he was weaker. The full details are complicated, but yes he was Max. But he was entirely human.” He continued to walk down the corridor, headed for some room Maria had not yet seen. “You have no idea how much that absolutely fascinated Khivar. That an Antaran soul could exist inside a human body, that on that level at least we were not so different.”
Maria just followed, quietly listening.
“That is one of the reasons he ended up recreating me, or rather giving me a body. My mind and my soul were already stuck in that damn crystal. Tess really had no clue what she was doing when she used it to magnify my intelligence. That more than her mind warping is what killed me.” Alex shuddered. “Do you know what it was like to be inside of a piece of alien computer hardware? I still don’t remember it all, but it was alien. My thoughts and my memories of it….” Alex shuddered again.
Both of them stopped in front of a large doorway. Alex placed his hand on a spot on the wall and as a handprint formed on it.
Maria followed him in. It was similar in some ways to the mock solar system that Serena had displayed in her chambers. It seemed so very real.
“This is my command center, Maria. This is where I am going to be stuck for the next day or so. I am going to need you to stay here on the Moon. It will be hard, because I am sending both Stephanie and Zan back to Earth. There if we are lucky they will meet up with Claudia and Jimmy and bring the Granolith to the Moon.”
Maria turned to him as said, “But you just said the Granolith was sent to Antar by Tess!”
Alex waved a hand and a chair formed for him. He sat and looked up at her a bright smile on his face. There is a second. And its in Roswell.”
-------
Jimmy
Jimmy was dying. It wasn’t totally hopeless. There was still a small chance.
But one by one the possibilities began to vanish. They no longer existed for him, because in those worlds he was dead.
Agent Donovan moved over to check on him. “Oh God, kid, we need to get you to a hospital.”
Jimmy had been right about him. And unfortunately right about his partner. On a routine check he had shot Jimmy. Only his foreknowledge had kept it from being fatal. But no matter how much you know, you still can’t dodge a bullet in an enclosed place.
Agent Donovan had come to his rescue, had even knocked his partner out.
Unfortunately that Agent hadn’t been alone. The Special Unit had spent years hunting down Isabel and Kyle. They were not about to risk the possibility of one of their spawn escaping, and had a firm and hard learned experience on just how hard killing a hybrid could be.
Overkill was not a problem in this situation.
It had taken one unnecessary fire fight before Donovan had started to listen to Jimmy. But now the Agent had a firm belief that Jimmy wasn’t lying that he knew what was going to happen.
Jimmy coughed, wiping his mouth. A trace of blood. Not a good sign. “There are snipers on the roof. And at this point they would shoot you too.”
“So what do you suggest? That we just sit here and wait for them to kill us?”
Jimmy closed his eyes. He didn’t want to die. He had a very firm grasp at the possibilities he had in front of him. He very much want to live.
But at the same time, he wasn’t sure how they could possibly survive this. Maybe, maybe it was time to give up. He looked over at Agent Donovan. The man had a wife and two children. In most futures, a third would be conceived within a month of this if he survived. Most likely a girl. Someone who would look a tiny bit like Abby. A person who would not exist if Donovan died.
Jimmy place a small hand on the Agent’s arm. “Just go. They might question you. You might lose your job. But it you walk away, you WILL survive today.”
Agent Donovan looked down at him, “Can’t do that little buddy. I was told to protect you, and that’s what I am going to do. I just wish they didn’t have a suppressor on my cell phone, I could at least let someone know what was going on. Maybe then we could get this straightened out. Because you are just a kid, and this, this is simply way too much.”
Jimmy smiled up sadly as the man firmly made his decision, easily cutting his chance of survive by more than fifty percent.
The building shook. Something was happening. He couldn’t see it. But something was changing the odds. Something that was like Alex, something that could shadow its effects on his visions of the future.
Gun fire. Lots of gun fire.
One by one the guns stopped firing.
Jimmy’s foresight was going nuts. He simply couldn’t predict what was going to happen more than seconds from the present.
Silence.
“What is it kid?”
Jimmy said the truth, half hopeful and half frightened. “I don’t know.”
The door was torn off the hinges by what looked like a man from one of his comic books.
Agent Donovan raised his gun to shoot….
Jimmy said, “No, don’t. He’s friendly. Don’t kill him.”
Donovan’s hands shook but he held his fire.
The face plate on the armor whisked up.
In his wildest dreams he had never expected…. “Dad?”
Max shouldered past the stunned agent and pressed his hand on Jimmy.
Jimmy gasped as he felt the healing energy soar through him. He hugged the armor. “I thought you were dead!”
Max lifted him into his arms, “You should know you can’t keep a good man down.”
Jimmy felt as the possibilities leapt back into the world. He nodded. He had seen this before, and there was really no guarantee when it would strike him down. He could have five or ten or even twenty years before it became truly malignant. By which time it would be inoperable. There had been nothing he could do about it in any case.
But his father…. His father could heal almost anything.
It would take only a few minutes to heal the pre-cancerous mass. And it would seal Donovan to his family.
It felt so good to help people…..
--------
Michael-
Michael got out of the helicopter wearily and walked toward the damaged business’s door. He could feel his Danny in there. His soldiers set up a perimeter.
Oddly there were several news teams already on the site, and the police were still questioning people in the area.
One harried police officer jogged up to them. “Excuse me but this is not a military matter. This is outside of your jurisdiction and you will have to leave.”
Michael smirked at him, “Well I would claim it’s national security, but it’s closer to planetary security. But I am not really here to mess with your investigation. I just need to get a few children from the building in front of me.” He took a quick look around at the destruction. “What exactly happened here?”
The police officer looked very tired and discouraged, “Supposedly a metal man dropped from the sky and attacked that building over there. A tiny bit later he walked out the front door, turned invisible and flew off.”
Michael winced. “I hate to imagine that report. If we find anything we’ll let you know.”
Michael winced as a tiny weight hit his leg. He looked down to see his son. A tired Abby Evans was following close behind, a bit shy at all the tall men surrounding her.
Behind her was Claudia Evans, holding herself with more poise he had ever seen from her. She still radiated command. “Uncle Michael. What are you doing here? Did Father send for you?”
“Your father is….” He couldn’t say it. Because he had seen Maria. He knew that Max would be up and around soon. He might not be able to come back, but he would be alive.
Claudia smiled, “Don’t worry, Uncle Michael, I know. He already returned. He is off to get Jimmy.” Her gaze turned hard, “Or avenge him.”
“Then you know that even if they kill him he will still be okay.”
Claudia shook his head, “His Seal will pass, and we will have to wait possibly until a new generation before we can assemble a Royal Four. And Michael, that would be a tragedy, not just for us, but for all of Earth.”
“Right.”
There was a loud rumble Michaels soldiers took up defensive positions as a suit of power armor landed heavily in the parking lot. Nestled in his arms was a healthy and excited Jimmy.
The face plate dropped, “So Michael. Whose side are you on.”
Michael looked at his old friend. A man he hadn’t seen in years. “Earth’s.”
Max set down Jimmy, who ran to the other children. “That works for me. Tell your men to stand down. And I will let you in on what is going on.”
Claudia chirped in, “Dad, we have the company plane waiting for us at BMI. So we are ready to head to Roswell.”
Max smiled at his daughter. “Change of plans, honey. Transport will be provided. It’s inbound now, should be here in about twenty minutes. I also have clearance to inform your superiors. Alex will be contacting them shortly.”
The police officer walked up bravely, “Halt, I need to take you in for questioning.”
Max waved his hand toward the police officer. The dust rained from where his gun had been. “Sorry, I don’t have time for that. Trust me, it will all make sense to you soon enough.”
Michael shrugged apologetically to the policeman, “Tough luck.”
The officer merely stared at the bits that rested near his boot. “Yeah.”
Michael followed Max into the damaged building, waving his men to follow him.
------
Across every television channel and radio channel on Earth.
“Greetings my fellow humans. My name is Alexander Whitman, and our world is about to head into an era of unprecedented potential good and unfortunately potential danger. For you see we are not alone in the universe…..
So I apologize and hope that I can get the next part out much sooner. Sorry guys.
keepsmiling7- Thanks.
fairyasylum-Thanks.
zaneri1- Thanks. I promise I will do my best to get another part out promptly.
Strawbehrry Shortcake- Thanks. I am so sorry about that. I will say that you are the reason I am posting this today though. I am on vacation as it happens, and promised to myself to get a part to every story I had out there done. But when I saw your bump and it has been so long.... I did this story. So thank you.
Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine and no infringement is intended
Unfinished Business part 20
Maria
Maria gingerly walked down the corridor from her rooms to where she knew she would find Alex.
He was sitting on chair he had dragged right up to Isabel’s Pod. He was playing a tune on a guitar. Something Maria hadn’t heard in years.
A melody he had made up once for Isabel. One that he had made at a dare Maria had made for him.
Maria had almost forgotten about it. She couldn’t help as the first and second tears slipped down her cheeks as she just watched him play.
It was quite likely it was the first time Isabel had ever heard it. Because not long after he had died. Maria herself had only played it a few times in memory of him, but she’d never had the heart to play it for Isabel. Certainly not after she had gotten married to Jesse.
She just couldn’t go up to him right now. She ducked behind the corner and sobbed. Cried for the love that had almost bloomed but had been snuffed out like a summer flower caught in an early frost.
Had she still been young, still been the adolescent who had dared one of her best friends to write a song for a girl he was trying so hard to not fall for…. Maria would have left him alone. Would have left him to mourn the tragedy that had struck him so early. Would have given him the time that he had so justly earned to spend with the girl who he had loved all his live.
One that he could not be sure would not choose the father of her child instead of him, despite all that had gone before, For Kyle had been there for her every step of the way, and he too was in a Pod not far from her.
But Maria was not the girl she had once been. She was an adult with the knowledge, the firm knowledge that life wasn’t fair. That sometimes responsibilities would get in the way of things that if the world were truly just there would be time to enjoy. But in the real world that time was precious, and the responsibilities could press so very hard.
And so she pulled herself together and walked into the corridor. Alex was talking softly to the Pod, his face a mixture of love, pain, and guilt.
Maria said softly, “Alex. Alex you need to pay attention to me. You don’t have time for this. Your work is not yet done.”
Alex didn’t look at her, merely ran his hands along the Pod his love rested in. “Who sent you? Was it Rain? Because I don’t have time to….”
“Alex. It was Amanda. She said you have things you need to do. That you need to be careful. That with you distracted like this our defenses aren’t working.”
“Maria, please… Just leave me be. Just give me a little time to be with her. Time outside of our dreams. I used to visit her you know. On those nights when she would remain in her dreams, when she would have nightmares. I did what I could for her. Comforted her as much as I could without letting her know, letting her know that I was alive.” He looked over at Maria, “I could have made all your lives so much easier. Could have told her who had killed her parents, who had murdered Jesse. That she didn’t need to fight her personal war.”
“Alex, is Amanda right? Are we vulnerable?”
Alex nodded. “I have a great deal of power. But right now, right now I am mostly bluffing. There are various groups on Antar that would love to come to Earth. They could bring several Cruisers and there would be little I could do beyond protecting the Moon. As long as they didn’t truly know where the power was coming, they couldn’t blockade me. But now, with the adjustments Serena is making…. They have to know where we are now.”
“Alex, I know you. You weren’t Liz, you didn’t plan out your whole life. But surely you have a plan for this? Surely there is a way you can protect the Earth.” Maria was over at his side now, worry plastered across her face. Visions of all her friends and coworkers, ground under the heel of some alien invader…
Alex sighed. “It all depends on Jimmy. If he lives, then yes. Yes I do have a plan. Your Stephanie is safe here, and so is Zan. Max has saved Claudia, although it was close. But Jimmy doesn’t have anyone to protect him. And the forces that killed Isabel know that he is Isabel’s son. They will want him dead, Maria. And if he dies I will have to wait to see if another group forms in the next generation. If the potential for a true Royal Four comes to pass.”
“Royal Four? But isn’t that was Michael, Max, and the others were?”
Alex stood and set the guitar aside. He sighed and looked again at Isabel. He then looked around at the hallways of the complex he’d had such a role in the development of. “They were, but then Max died….”
“But you brought him back, surely that would mean that he was still here? I mean he had the Seal and all.”
Alex fondly brushed her cheek, his smile was a little forced. For the last thirteen years or so, Michael has technically been the King. It was his Seal that Max bore ever since he wrested it away from Michael. His had already been passed and lost. Lost when he killed himself trying to save Wheeler from old age. That is why Earth has been so peaceful since then. There was no real threat from Earth. When you add that the Granolith had been returned to Antar, well Earth was just a poor backwater. Also the hybrids had a failsafe built into them. It wasn’t deliberate when they were created, but it was there never the less. The Gandarium which binds their Antaran souls to their human clone bodies breaks down. Its one of the reason I knew that I would need Pods for all of them.”
Alex crooked a finger for Maria to follow him. He continued, “But Max proved that a human could indeed bear a Seal. The body that he lived in had indeed been Wheelers.”
“So Claudia and Abby aren’t really Max’s? Their that nasty old man’s?”
Alex smiled and shook his head, his grin was less forced and more real this time. “Max rebuilt him from the bottom up. It was the only way to fully reduce the age of the cells using the technique that Max uses to heal. There are ways, better ways to reduce and recover from the aging process. But they are slow and time consuming. So Max was Max, only without any of the enhancement built into the hybrids. It was why he could get sick, why he was weaker. The full details are complicated, but yes he was Max. But he was entirely human.” He continued to walk down the corridor, headed for some room Maria had not yet seen. “You have no idea how much that absolutely fascinated Khivar. That an Antaran soul could exist inside a human body, that on that level at least we were not so different.”
Maria just followed, quietly listening.
“That is one of the reasons he ended up recreating me, or rather giving me a body. My mind and my soul were already stuck in that damn crystal. Tess really had no clue what she was doing when she used it to magnify my intelligence. That more than her mind warping is what killed me.” Alex shuddered. “Do you know what it was like to be inside of a piece of alien computer hardware? I still don’t remember it all, but it was alien. My thoughts and my memories of it….” Alex shuddered again.
Both of them stopped in front of a large doorway. Alex placed his hand on a spot on the wall and as a handprint formed on it.
Maria followed him in. It was similar in some ways to the mock solar system that Serena had displayed in her chambers. It seemed so very real.
“This is my command center, Maria. This is where I am going to be stuck for the next day or so. I am going to need you to stay here on the Moon. It will be hard, because I am sending both Stephanie and Zan back to Earth. There if we are lucky they will meet up with Claudia and Jimmy and bring the Granolith to the Moon.”
Maria turned to him as said, “But you just said the Granolith was sent to Antar by Tess!”
Alex waved a hand and a chair formed for him. He sat and looked up at her a bright smile on his face. There is a second. And its in Roswell.”
-------
Jimmy
Jimmy was dying. It wasn’t totally hopeless. There was still a small chance.
But one by one the possibilities began to vanish. They no longer existed for him, because in those worlds he was dead.
Agent Donovan moved over to check on him. “Oh God, kid, we need to get you to a hospital.”
Jimmy had been right about him. And unfortunately right about his partner. On a routine check he had shot Jimmy. Only his foreknowledge had kept it from being fatal. But no matter how much you know, you still can’t dodge a bullet in an enclosed place.
Agent Donovan had come to his rescue, had even knocked his partner out.
Unfortunately that Agent hadn’t been alone. The Special Unit had spent years hunting down Isabel and Kyle. They were not about to risk the possibility of one of their spawn escaping, and had a firm and hard learned experience on just how hard killing a hybrid could be.
Overkill was not a problem in this situation.
It had taken one unnecessary fire fight before Donovan had started to listen to Jimmy. But now the Agent had a firm belief that Jimmy wasn’t lying that he knew what was going to happen.
Jimmy coughed, wiping his mouth. A trace of blood. Not a good sign. “There are snipers on the roof. And at this point they would shoot you too.”
“So what do you suggest? That we just sit here and wait for them to kill us?”
Jimmy closed his eyes. He didn’t want to die. He had a very firm grasp at the possibilities he had in front of him. He very much want to live.
But at the same time, he wasn’t sure how they could possibly survive this. Maybe, maybe it was time to give up. He looked over at Agent Donovan. The man had a wife and two children. In most futures, a third would be conceived within a month of this if he survived. Most likely a girl. Someone who would look a tiny bit like Abby. A person who would not exist if Donovan died.
Jimmy place a small hand on the Agent’s arm. “Just go. They might question you. You might lose your job. But it you walk away, you WILL survive today.”
Agent Donovan looked down at him, “Can’t do that little buddy. I was told to protect you, and that’s what I am going to do. I just wish they didn’t have a suppressor on my cell phone, I could at least let someone know what was going on. Maybe then we could get this straightened out. Because you are just a kid, and this, this is simply way too much.”
Jimmy smiled up sadly as the man firmly made his decision, easily cutting his chance of survive by more than fifty percent.
The building shook. Something was happening. He couldn’t see it. But something was changing the odds. Something that was like Alex, something that could shadow its effects on his visions of the future.
Gun fire. Lots of gun fire.
One by one the guns stopped firing.
Jimmy’s foresight was going nuts. He simply couldn’t predict what was going to happen more than seconds from the present.
Silence.
“What is it kid?”
Jimmy said the truth, half hopeful and half frightened. “I don’t know.”
The door was torn off the hinges by what looked like a man from one of his comic books.
Agent Donovan raised his gun to shoot….
Jimmy said, “No, don’t. He’s friendly. Don’t kill him.”
Donovan’s hands shook but he held his fire.
The face plate on the armor whisked up.
In his wildest dreams he had never expected…. “Dad?”
Max shouldered past the stunned agent and pressed his hand on Jimmy.
Jimmy gasped as he felt the healing energy soar through him. He hugged the armor. “I thought you were dead!”
Max lifted him into his arms, “You should know you can’t keep a good man down.”
Jimmy felt as the possibilities leapt back into the world. He nodded. He had seen this before, and there was really no guarantee when it would strike him down. He could have five or ten or even twenty years before it became truly malignant. By which time it would be inoperable. There had been nothing he could do about it in any case.
But his father…. His father could heal almost anything.
It would take only a few minutes to heal the pre-cancerous mass. And it would seal Donovan to his family.
It felt so good to help people…..
--------
Michael-
Michael got out of the helicopter wearily and walked toward the damaged business’s door. He could feel his Danny in there. His soldiers set up a perimeter.
Oddly there were several news teams already on the site, and the police were still questioning people in the area.
One harried police officer jogged up to them. “Excuse me but this is not a military matter. This is outside of your jurisdiction and you will have to leave.”
Michael smirked at him, “Well I would claim it’s national security, but it’s closer to planetary security. But I am not really here to mess with your investigation. I just need to get a few children from the building in front of me.” He took a quick look around at the destruction. “What exactly happened here?”
The police officer looked very tired and discouraged, “Supposedly a metal man dropped from the sky and attacked that building over there. A tiny bit later he walked out the front door, turned invisible and flew off.”
Michael winced. “I hate to imagine that report. If we find anything we’ll let you know.”
Michael winced as a tiny weight hit his leg. He looked down to see his son. A tired Abby Evans was following close behind, a bit shy at all the tall men surrounding her.
Behind her was Claudia Evans, holding herself with more poise he had ever seen from her. She still radiated command. “Uncle Michael. What are you doing here? Did Father send for you?”
“Your father is….” He couldn’t say it. Because he had seen Maria. He knew that Max would be up and around soon. He might not be able to come back, but he would be alive.
Claudia smiled, “Don’t worry, Uncle Michael, I know. He already returned. He is off to get Jimmy.” Her gaze turned hard, “Or avenge him.”
“Then you know that even if they kill him he will still be okay.”
Claudia shook his head, “His Seal will pass, and we will have to wait possibly until a new generation before we can assemble a Royal Four. And Michael, that would be a tragedy, not just for us, but for all of Earth.”
“Right.”
There was a loud rumble Michaels soldiers took up defensive positions as a suit of power armor landed heavily in the parking lot. Nestled in his arms was a healthy and excited Jimmy.
The face plate dropped, “So Michael. Whose side are you on.”
Michael looked at his old friend. A man he hadn’t seen in years. “Earth’s.”
Max set down Jimmy, who ran to the other children. “That works for me. Tell your men to stand down. And I will let you in on what is going on.”
Claudia chirped in, “Dad, we have the company plane waiting for us at BMI. So we are ready to head to Roswell.”
Max smiled at his daughter. “Change of plans, honey. Transport will be provided. It’s inbound now, should be here in about twenty minutes. I also have clearance to inform your superiors. Alex will be contacting them shortly.”
The police officer walked up bravely, “Halt, I need to take you in for questioning.”
Max waved his hand toward the police officer. The dust rained from where his gun had been. “Sorry, I don’t have time for that. Trust me, it will all make sense to you soon enough.”
Michael shrugged apologetically to the policeman, “Tough luck.”
The officer merely stared at the bits that rested near his boot. “Yeah.”
Michael followed Max into the damaged building, waving his men to follow him.
------
Across every television channel and radio channel on Earth.
“Greetings my fellow humans. My name is Alexander Whitman, and our world is about to head into an era of unprecedented potential good and unfortunately potential danger. For you see we are not alone in the universe…..