"Visitors' Arrival: Book 3 of the LUNAR SERIES."

SOL GOVERNANCE’S HEADQUARTERS.PACIFICALIS ISLAND…

The emergency situation with the Visitors meant that Admiral Shan was pretty much grounded on the island of Pacificalis.Several days ago she was scheduled to be on the continent of Europe for a conference on global economics and its ties to the solar system-wide politics of the Governance.Such a heady subject also included the military, given how a populace adversely behaves when that population does not have basic needs.But before that, she had just finished a weekly meeting for Governance top officers…that was when she first learned of the Visitors from Cadet Grainger.Her life, indeed, the entire solar system, was never the same after that.

Director Morelli Tuun and his crew out on Pluto; Captain Joden Modune and his elite team from The Justifier, in the municipal base of Tombaugh on Pluto; and, now, Director Robert Baptise and his crew out on station Watcher 2—the closest abductions to Mars and Erth by the Visitors yet!There had been, yet, another virtual meeting of the Governance’s Members after Director Baptise’s and his people suffered the same fate as the two other Governance groups.The abduction of the 90-thousand-plus military installation of Watcher 2 was all-together different from the others!Even by 2217, humans had not settled the region of space around Pluto that much.The watch station, Number 7, on Pluto’s moon Charon, was staffed with only a few thousand personnel for the very reason of Pluto’s neighborhood being sparsely populated and extremely distant from Sol’s core.But an entire asteroid-sized base, with a crew of nearly 100-thousand?And all abducted in, literally, a matter of seconds…?

But there was something a bit different in the Watcher 2 abductions besides the population size…the space station’s Sentient recordings went blank like the other abduction-events, but before they did, the vids throughout the station showed that Watcher 2 was in battle-mode!Director Tuun’s crew in the land station on Charon were the first abducted, and, hence, the team’s posture in the vids suggested that they were not in battle-mode.As for Captain Modune’s non-declared mission aboard The Justifier—sent to scout out Tuun’s situation—theirrecordings showed them in a more investigative posture.Of course, the vids also had the audio and telemetry to go with the images, so it went beyond mere guess-work.But when all the recording instruments blank out simultaneously throughout a whole base, it was still hard to construct exactly the context of events.

Indeed, another difference with space station Watcher 2 was its own records.The vids did have Watcher 2’s crew called to station-wide alert, but this time the records were “cut,” versus a simultaneous blanking out like the situation with Watcher 6 on Pluto and the Justifier’screw!In the last meeting Admiral Shan was in, they had come to the conclusion that someone had manually disengaged the recordings in station Watcher 2.Someone with knowledge of the asteroid-sized space station’s comm-systems and artificial neural-network…the records had stopped up to the time that Director Baptise had been contacted by Commander Assan of the branch-base on one of The Asteropia’s asteroids.Even the 2D records had abruptly stopped.Later, both holographic and 2D records blanked out as one continued watching.

It was a change in the patterns, in regards to the Visitors phenomenon.To Admiral Shan, that could either be a good sign, in that the Sol Governance’s defenses were working against the Visitors.Or, perhaps, they were simply adapting to the Governance’s fight against them…

The admiral was going from one meeting to another.She decided to grab a snack from one of the food-kiosks when she got a call from Cadet Lisa Watson.

“Cadet Watson,” Admiral Shan responded tautly as she unsheathed her snack and looked at the device; walking through a crowded lobby and toward a floor-lift, “make it quick…I’m about to meet with—“

“Respect Hausa wants to speak with you,” the young woman said, almost furtively.“And you, only, Admiral!”

By that time, the admiral had stopped in the lobby.She thought for a long time as she chewed her snack.“Why the hell does he even want to meet with Governance people at all?He still thinks of the Governance as one big, solar system octopus with Erth as its head!”

The cadet was shaking her head.“Don’t know, Ma’am…he said he’s on the Island.”

That caused Shan to jerk with surprise!“You mean, on Pacificalis…now?”

“Yes, Ma’am!In fact, I have him on-wait for you…I figured, it must’ve been important enough!”

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the admiral thought as she quickly swallowed the last of her snack.“Well, where is he?”

“I’m sorry, Admiral, I didn’t—“

“It’s ok, Watson…patch him through, but I want you to tag our conversation before you disconnect from the line…just in case.”

“Understood, Ma’am.”

The monitor of Admiral Shan’s device winked from the young cadet to an image of an old man, around his seventies; his face etched with time, and his hair cut short, but for a very long braid that was decorated with beads and wrapped around the Respect’s thin neck…the nationalistic Tellmondonian that Respect Hausa was, he kept with the cultural traditions of the Tell’s from Erth’s moon from more than 220 years since its inception in the early days.A time when several of Erth’s counter-cultures had banded together with their wealth and resources to clandestinely build a brand new world deep under Luna’s regolith.

“Dayshine, indeed, Admiral Shan,” came the voice of a cultured man, despite his tribal look.It came across as contrived, especially given his conflicting history with the Governance.The greeting was from the time of near-ancient space age travels; when the society of Tellmondo was founded deep within the surface of Erth’s moon.Back then, Tellmondo’s citizens stumbled into the habit of the salutation, upon periodically going to the Moon’s surface and seeing natural sunlight.The cultural practice continued, long after the Tell’s established permanent lighting in the city-sized, underground cave.

“Respect Hausa,” she replied professionally, despite herself.“This is highly unexpected…I can only assume you are contacting me because it has something to do with the Visitors—“

“Ahh, yes…our blessed Visitors.”He said this with no irony.Word had gotten around the solar system that most of the Tellmondonians had favorably viewed the arrival of the Visitors!Indeed, some had seen them as deities; others had seen the Visitors as messengers from a god or gods…a few of the Tell’s were a bit more agnostic in the whole phenomenon.

“Forgive me for pulling you away from your tasks, Admiral,” he went on.“But, as is the case for most things political, you are the person in position who acts upon the Governance’s policies.Time is of the essence, and I did not want to waste time in contacting the more senior Members of the Council.”

“Well, I can certainly understand that…I was told you are on Pacificalis,” the admiral said as she scooted herself to the side of the lobby; getting out of the way of running cadets and officers and others in walking-meetings in the lobby.

“Indeed…the spaceport.As you have guessed, my business, here, is vital and I think will be helpful in dealing with our blessed Visitors.”

Admiral Shan had a thought.“You couldn’t simply had called me on a secured communique?”

The Respect shrugged a bit as he made a face.“I suppose I could have.But what I was given can only be appreciated in person, dear Admiral.”

Admiral Shan froze.“Respect…were you given something by the Visitors?”

“Yes…”She waited to hear more information from him.But the elderly man gestured with the jutting of his chin that there were others with him off-vid.“I think it would be best if you came and met us out here, Admiral Shan.”

She thought for a bit.Respect Hausa had a reputation in the solar system for being a bit odd in personality, but everyone knew him to be a no-nonsense kind of person.He would not have trekked all the way from the asteroid field to Erth if he had not felt it was necessary.

“Where in the spaceport are you,” she finally said; regretting that she would have to re-arrange, yet, another meeting due to something else coming up.

“One of the private hangars, closer to the outer perimeter...nine-point-four.”

She was nodding her head.“Ok, I’ll have to do a bit of arranging first.And I don’t want people to recognize me.The public and other officers might get panicked if they see an admiral rushing about in the spaceport!”

“That would be wise, Admiral Shan…until then.”

After his image blinked from her comm-device, Admiral Shan called up Cadet Watson.“Cadet, did you record my conversation with the Respect?”

The admiral could see the young woman refer to a terminal bank to her side, then look back up.“We got it, Admiral.”

“Good.Share it with all of the Council Members—I don’t want to get chewed out for not getting them involved soon enough, like the first time with the Visitors!Then have First Lieutenant Hu contact me…I want her to assemble a small team and meet me at our main hangar.And, Watson…tell Hu and the others to dress in their street clothes.”

Shan could tell the cadet wanted to ask why, but she was trained enough to simply confirm the order and contact Cadet Grainger.