It is beautiful. Five Quasing are incubating two right now. We have birthed the first of our kind on this planet!
Enzo’s eyes traced the swirls circling around a large membrane that pulsed with a white light so bright that it was difficult to look straight into it. Yet, if he focused, he could make out the shapes of five separated individual blobs attached to each other. And in the very center of the combined form, two smaller membranes orbited each other. It was a celestial sight, and to Enzo, further proof of the Quasing’s divinity. He ordered the lights dimmed and for half an hour, just stood there and watched the kaleidoscope of Quasing incubation. Suddenly, one of his aides rushed to this side and grabbed him by the arm so forcefully it took Enzo by surprise.
“How dare you!” Enzo hissed.
“Apologies, Father,” the aide said, panicked. Then he pointed at one of the television screens on the side wall where a press conference was taking place. Then, one by one, every screen in the lab changed to that channel. Enzo’s face turned white.
On the screen, two United States senators stood behind a podium and addressed dozens of reporters on live television.
“My name is Senator James Wilks,” the man said. “As you know, there was an attack on our nation’s capital a few days ago and I was presumed dead. As you can see, I am very much alive. I bring ill tidings to the American people. There is a conspiracy in this world that affects all of us. It is foreign, and when I say that, I mean extraterrestrial.” The bank of reporters began to mutter. He held up hands. “I have evidence.”
The other individual, a good-looking older woman, spoke. “I am Senator Mary Thompson, and I too was a victim of the reckless brutality. Make no mistake, it was a coup d’état by this same group that my colleague Senator Wilks speaks of. Except the attacks and the conspiracy go far deeper. There have been aliens in our midst since the dawn of humanity. You see, I have one of them in me, and we have the technology here to prove it.”
What have those fools done?!
Enzo could only stare at the screen, frozen in shock. The world as the Quasing knew it had just collapsed.
The air ambulance transporting the survivors of Imelda’s Song landed on the helipad of the Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii at three in the afternoon. None of them had slept much since the fight at the ship nearly two days ago. Well, none except for Roen and Ray. Both were in medically-induced comas.
The survivors of the freighter were picked up by the remnants of Stephen’s air support, which had been redirected to search for them when Dylan had sent the distress signal out. The search and rescue teams had looked for the better part of a day and were about to call off the search because of the increased presence of the Chinese Air Force canvasing the same area. Luckily, a large explosion on the freighter in the middle of the night had pinpointed their location. The Prophus were able to get their people out minutes before the Chinese teams got there.
From there, it was a race to an airspace that the Chinese would not yet dare violate, regardless of their Genjix allegiance. Jill was waiting for them on the helipad as the medics unloaded everyone and rushed them to the emergency room.
The prognosis from the doctors weren’t good. They gave Roen less than a twenty-five percent chance of pulling through his injuries. He had spent a day clinging onto debris in the ocean with half a dozen broken bones and severe internal bleeding. Several of his injuries had festered and he was severely dehydrated. If Roen wasn’t going to survive this, Jill was determined that her son would see him one last time.
Jill swallowed the lump in her throat as the doctors lifted him onto the gurney and rushed him down the hallway. She ran alongside him, holding his hand as they weaved in and out of traffic. Dylan had taken over security and an entire squad of Prophus operatives were clearing the path for them to the operating room. Once the doctors and the nurses were there prepping for surgery, she was barred from going inside and ended up waiting just outside in the lobby.
Two hours later, Louis and Lee Ann arrived with Cameron. She rushed to her son and held him tight, tears flowing down both their faces as she told him how much she missed him. He didn’t know what was going on, and part of her thought it might be cruel to bring him to his father’s death, but she also knew that was what Roen would have wanted. It hurt her to know that Cameron was not at his father’s side until the last moment. They both deserved to have this and it was a lesson Cameron needed to learn.
“Jill,” Lee Ann said, giving her a hug. “What happened? Is he going to pull through?”
She dug face into her mother’s shoulders and wept. “I don’t know. It’s too early to tell. They just went in a while ago.”
Louis joined in on the hug and squeezed her tight. Then he pulled back and stared at her. “Why are you carrying a pistol?” he asked, looking wide-eyed at the holster half-hidden beneath her vest. Then he looked around at the half dozen Prophus agents standing watch. His eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?”
It is time.
Jill wiped the tears from her eyes and exhaled. “We better sit down.”
Then she told them everything, from the moment she met Roen to the incident at Monaco to the time she went to basic training to when she was positioned with Senator Wilks. She kept the Quasing out of it. That would require a lot more explaining to do. For now, her parents wanted to know about her and Roen. She was about to tell them about her work on the Hill with the Senator when something to the side caught her eye. Wilks was on the television. Her face drained of some of its color as she pointed at the screen.
“Isn’t that your boss?” Louis asked.
She nodded in silence. Everyone in the room watched Wilks and Thompson detail not only the conspiracy of the Prophus and Genjix, but the technology of the Penetra scanners. The conference went on for another hour as Thompson laid everything out in the open, from the crash landing to how the Quasing had influenced humanity for thousands of years to their civil war to how they had infiltrated every aspect of human government. The conference would have gone on much longer had the FBI not interrupted it and taken them both away.
Jill knew this was coming, but she was still unprepared for it when the full brunt of reality smacked her in the face. After years of hiding the Quasing from the world, it was now all out in the open and she felt starkly naked.
“Shit just got real.”
No shit.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you swear.”
If this is not the most appropriate time, I do not know what is. Also, that is also because you do not understand Russian.
Lee Ann turned to Louis. “Were they just talking about what I think they’re talking about?”
Louis only nodded with a dumbfounded look on his face. “This is a prank right?” He turned to Jill. “That’s your boss. What’s this…” his voice trailed off as he looked again at the guards standing about.
Jill nodded. “I’m one of them, Dad.”
And then she told them about Baji and about the Quasing. There was too much to tell in one sitting, so she chose the important and less frightening aspects of her life as a Prophus. She was halfway through when a young operative walked up to her and bowed.
“Mrs Tan,” he said. “Lieutenant Jackson Riley, naval intelligence. I’ve been sent from Command.”
“For what,” Jill said sharply.
“In the event that Mr Tan does not pull through. I have been assigned to Tao. I just wanted to introduce myself in case the worst happens. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“He’s still alive!” she snapped. At that instant, Jill wanted to claw his eyes out and punch that old hag Keeper in the face. Her husband wasn’t dead yet and those vultures were already circling his spoils. But after taking several moments to compose herself, she knew it had to be done. It wasn’t this young man’s fault. He was just following orders. She thanked him and watched as he took a seat at the other end of the room. Then they all sat down and waited.