Mike drove out of the city until he came to a secluded spot, double checked that nobody could see him, and pushed two buttons in his car. The first button deactivated the holographic projection that made it look like a car in the first place, and the other sealed the vehicle and activated the life support system. The steering wheel folded away and was replaced by a flight stick and a set of touch screen panels. He pulled up the navigation panel, selected Earth’s moon, and fired up the engines. A quick check of his scanners showed no aircraft within visual range, so he lifted off the ground, tilted his nose upward, and hit the throttle. The small spacecraft shot into the sky with hardly a sound and when he cleared the atmosphere, he activated another engine that propelled him to a speed only possible in space. The course he had set took into account satellite orbits in order to avoid being seen. Constant monitoring of his screens showed that he hadn’t been spotted, and within an hour, he was in low orbit over the moon, heading for the dark side.
The entrance wasn’t easily seen from orbit and were it not for the lock his navigation system had, he would have missed it. He flew down into a large crater and when he got fifty feet off the surface, a door opened and he flew into a large air lock. He stayed in a hover until the door closed behind him and a few seconds later a green light on his panel told him the lock was pressurized and he was clear to enter the facility. A door in front of him opened, and he flew in, found a marked landing area, and set down.
He exited his ship and took a corridor toward the control room for the facility. Through an observation window, he could see a room filled with cylindrical pods, stacked several high and going as far as he could see. He noticed that every one of them had a green light on one end, indicating that it was occupied. He wasn’t sure how many there were, but it had to number in the thousands. At the end of the corridor, he took an elevator up to the control room and entered.
“Glad you could make it,” Jack said, “Would you like a drink? None of that Earth junk either. I know how that affects you.”
“I believe I will have something from home. It’s been so long.”
Jack poured a couple glasses and motioned for Mike to have a seat.
“I had forgotten about the reduced gravity here. It feels somewhat unsettling.”
“We never got around to installing artificial gravity. Too much expense for the nature of the facility, and how long we will need it. The trick is to not spend too much time here, or to keep up a good exercise regimen. The reduced gravity is not good for the muscles.”
“If you wanted to talk here, I gather it’s to avoid any unwanted eavesdropping?”
“Precisely. There are times where you don’t mind someone listening in, but this is not one of them.”
“I take it the other day was one of those times. You could have told me in advance.”
“I wanted the conversation to be believable.”
“We were speaking our language.”
“Yes, we were, and I left some sets of ear buds there for them to find. A look at the video shows that they found them and used them. The kid recorded everything on his phone, thinking he was so slick, and now he’s no doubt told Walter.”
“And what exactly is the advantage to telling them? They wouldn’t figure out our plans.”
“I have reason to believe that the girl has contacted them. With her help, they’ll figure it out sooner or later.”
“But why go ahead and tell them?”
“Because what they have been told is not what we’re planning. You haven’t heard from home?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Then let me be the first to tell you that our war against the Draxians is over. The planet capitulated last week and is in our complete control. We have no need for further deployments there and can now focus our attention elsewhere.”
“That is certainly good news. Where is the unfortunate planet to be our next target?”
“Why, you just took off from it to come here.”
“I thought Earth was not on our list. Their combined military strength is formidable.”
“Yes, it is, but the American military has just developed something that might sow the seeds of their own destruction, and our blonde friend has been kind enough to steal some of them for us.”
“Would this be the device she used on the airplanes?”
“It would be. I have made some modifications and equipped it on our cruisers and a smaller version on the mechanized soldier suits. Their planes and tanks will be useless. One hit and we can either disable them or take control of them and use them for our own purposes. You might have noticed that we have a good number of soldiers ready to deploy as soon as the new suits get here, which should be on the next transport.”
“When is that?”
“They’ve already left. They should be here within a couple days. They’re bringing more soldiers, two million suits, and a fleet of cruisers to provide air support if needed.”
“Is that enough troops to take all the capitals? You remember that this planet is made up of several sovereign governments.”
“We will start with smaller cities. Take them over and show the rest of the world how futile resisting us would be, and the capitals should surrender without much more fighting, if they value the lives of their people. We will start with cities like Cincinnati and Milwaukee, and similar cities in other countries. Those cities will fall easily and when the rest of the world sees our strength, I expect total surrender within days.”
“Why has this planet all of
