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

With the Governance Council’s authorization for the solar system-wide raids on any group or individuals associated with Respect Hausa, Admiral Shan, finally, had the legal and practical powers to go after Tellmondonians and non-Tell’s that were always on the fringe of Sol society.They often came from the more intellectual quarters—the Physical Universities, the downtown cafés in the cities throughout Erth, many of the artificial habitats that freely floated between the zones controlled by Mars’ space-powers and the regions of space close to the Asteropian asteroid field.

Oddly, those same educated citizens had followed Respect Hausa as if he were a cult figure!The movement saw the Visitors as near-divine beings that would bring Humanity to a level of Aquarius; where Tellmondonians and other humans throughout the solar system that were not ethnically Tell’ could all co-exist.That was the good aspect of Respect Hausa’s movement.As for the abduction of the Visitors’ Seeds…

That very same day, after the Governance’s Prime Governor Valerio showed up for the Members’ virtual meeting with him and the Respects of Asteropia, Admiral Shan had convened a meeting with her core officers of the Governance.They already had been monitoring those very same Tell’s and their sympathizers for years.So it was relatively easy, then, to connect which groups of them and individuals were actual disciples of Respect Hausa and which groups and individuals were simply sympathizers that did not take it as far as abducting the Visitors’ Seeds…

Indeed, over the next several days that passed since the Members voted for the Sol-wide raids, the Visitors had struck again!That time, it was on a few of the developed asteroids within the Asteropian belt.Along with the accompanying pyrotechnics of the arrival of the Visitors,Hundreds of Tellmondonians had flashed out of Asteropia’s cities and towns located within several asteroids!Admiral Shan’s crew had guessed that the Visitors began to zero-in onto those who had kidnapped the Visitors’ Seeds, and it was their turn, again, to grab from the humans!But, in the end, without any kind of context to the situation with the Visitors flashing about the Sol system, it was still just guesswork.

For that matter, Admiral Shan was still not completely sure about concluding that what they called “Seeds” really were the Visitors’ offspring or not!The irony was it was her—Reshma Shan—during her reconnaissance to meet Respect Hausa at one of Pacificalis’ spaceport’s section, that had jumped to the conclusion that the tiny piece of metal-like object that the Respect had was a living being!Back then, it seemed like, to the admiral, that Respect Hausa was lying about the Seed, actually, being some probe sent by the Visitors.Lied, so he could trick Admiral Shan to believing that the Seed was just a probe?

That elusive question kept coming back to her:what did it profit Respect Hausa and his followers by abducting the Seeds?Whether or not the minute Objects were infants of the Visitors or, perhaps, some device?What was so important to the Respect and his ‘Hausanite’ disciples about the Visitors that they were all willing to get abducted by the Visitors or put into Governance prison for several years?And, of course, since none of them were talking to Governance authorities throughout the solar system, that made the system-wide raids necessary.

At least, to most non-Tellmondonians.

The raids were done quickly, relative to space-travel.Partially due to 23rd century high-speed ships; partially due to the redeployment of tens of thousands of Governance troops to most of those distance-markers scattered throughout Sol after Captain Modune of The Justifierand his team had zeroed-in on one of those markers, believing it to be some decoy of what Sol citizens later called the Visitors.The redeployment of so many troops as a blanket strategy was, at first, a controversial move by the Governance’s Council chair, Xi Zehan.The monetary cost, the perception by many Sol citizens that those same troops could had been used for more day-to-day practical conflicts throughout the solar system…but with the new policy of the raids on Respect Hausa’s disciples, the politics of that redeployment played well for Chair Xi, and there was talk of her, possibly, running to replace current prime governor, Henrick Valerio!

With the on-going raids of the Hausanites throughout Sol for over a week, by then, Admiral Shan was assigned a top-class war ship—Gravity’s Pull!Or, colloquially, Gravity.It was one of the Governance’s special space liners that were designed to virtually explode to its top speed in, literally, three seconds!So fast were those liners, the ships were able to escape any of Sol’s planetary gravity wells in those three seconds…hence, Gravity’s Pull.

The ship’s thick anterior was one big blunt instrument that extended back about a thousand feet until the ship’s backend sharply narrowed into a virtual sword!Such design was more for those occasions when Gravity traversed in the densest planets of the solar system, and aerodynamics were more of an issue.

Up to that point in the implementation of the Raid policy, Governance troops had recovered over 50 of the 100 or so Seeds.In just over a week’s effort, executed throughout the entire solar system, the on-going policy was considered a success!But none of that mattered until Admiral Shan and the Governance government found out a way to contact the Visitors and return their offspring back to them!

That line of thought had opened up questions as to how Respect Hausa and his disciples captured the Visitors’ Seedlings to begin with!Of course, after the admiral had arrested Respect Hausa over a week ago on Pacificalis Island, she had already asked him that very question…he had either responded with a polite, ‘I can’t answer that,’ or go into some speech about how the Visitors would impart their advanced societal ways upon Humanity!Hausa’s two young body guards, Sahurell and Astro’hope, merely followed his lead.Admiral Shan had figured that the Respect and his Hausanites must have had some doctrine of action, because of the many disciples the Governance troops had detained in Sol, almost every one of them responded the exact same way that Respect Hausa and his two guards did when the admiral interrogated them at Headquarters!

Almost all of the disciples…

“She’s who,” Shan said, surprised that such an elderly man would even have a girlfriend at all, much less one in her twenties!The admiral was doing a daily check of the Gravity, making her rounds at each level.She had taken the 2D call on her comm as she kept her stride; looking about her crew and their ship.

“Respect Hausa’s girlfriend, Ma’am,” First Lieutenant Tanya Hu repeated furtively over the comm.The admiral had requested First Lieutenant Hu to be reassigned from Headquarters to work with her on Gravity’s Pull since she was one of the closest staff to her.“And, Admiral…she’s not even Tellmondonian!”

Admiral Shan shrugged to herself; yet walking her rounds of the ship.“That doesn’t surprise me…isn’t that what Hausa’s all about:the brotherhood of Humanity and oneness with the blessed Visitors and all that…between you and I, Tanya, I’m actually sympathetic to his ideals!I just don’t think humans should worship the damn things.”

“No arguments from me on that point, Admiral!”

“Which team detained her,” Admiral Shan asked while taking herself out of the main traffic area of the ship’s walkway she was on.

“Cadet Jordan Tye, was the arresting soldier, Ma’am.”

Shan thought for a second.“Isn’t he from our ship?”

“That’s the beauty of it, Admiral…she’s in Gravity’s detainment hall and she was just processed!”

They both shared a smile after First Lieutenant Hu linked an official Governance arrest picture of the young woman.She was disheveled from battling Governance troops from apprehending her.The telemetry identified her as Mary Brushwell; student at one of Mars’ Physical Universities; from a middle-class background, her family originally from New York City back on Erth.

“Pretty,” Shan said absent-mindedly.“How do we know she’s telling the truth about being Hausa’s primer?”

A shrug from Hu.“One of the other disciples detained told Cadet Tye, from what he told me…I suppose we could verify that during the interrogation phase.Ma’am, you’d be surprised how our team—“

“No,” the admiral cut in after a thought.“I think I want to have a try at her...and I think I have just the friend to help back me up.”