Ana

CH 31

After everyone was rested, they returned to the main projector to work out the final details of the plan. They were all surprised at how quickly Ana put together the presentation and in no time, it was ready. Tom checked with the others to see if they had any last minute changes and then he told Ana to let Tiger go live.”

All around the world, on the internet, on TV, on radio, and on all cable stations, Tom’s game character appeared. Ana had rendered him such that he looked and acted like a real living human down to the smallest detail and mannerism. Even Tom found it difficult to believe this was complete fabrication. He would have bet anything that the man who was obviously about to speak was human in every way as he cleared his throat and glanced to his notes quickly before opening his mouth to talk.

In each major language around the globe, he said, “Hello, my name is Tiger. I come to you now to tell you something that no government would want you to know, but yet, you must be told.”

He paused for a moment then continued. “A few months ago I discovered an abandoned alien spaceship. I found the craft to be fully functional and simple to operate. At first, I was unsure of what to do. My initial thought was to alert the authorities and let them decide how best to utilize it. However, after a great deal of deliberation, I came to realize that the ship and its associated technology are too powerful to be put into the hands of any one nation as I fear the knowledge would be horded only to enrich that one country.”

“The world’s wealth is already sickeningly unbalanced and I refuse to make that worse. Therefore, I have begun to form a crew under my command that will work with leaders throughout the world to find ways to use this new knowledge to the betterment of all nations. We will act as stewards to usher in this new age so that even the poorest of humanity will benefit.”

The stoic figure of Tiger paused again. Then his eyes narrowed and he leaned forward slightly. “To accomplish this, we must all devote the resources at our control to protect this enterprise and ensure that hostile powers do not ruin this epic opportunity to improve the lives of every man, woman, and child on the planet.”

“To provide stability and security of those tasked with overseeing this historic transfer of knowledge, I will commit the vast resources at my disposal to protect, not only those that join my crew, but also the families of those brave individuals. Therefore, any hostile act toward me, my crew, or their families will be dealt with quickly and forcibly as we did two days ago when the United States military sent its troops in a misguided attempt to capture a member of my crew. This led to the unfortunate death of several brave solders that were only trying to fulfill the orders of their inept leaders. For that, I am sorry. However, I blame those who would risk innocent lives to take for themselves what belongs to all.”

“I beg all authorities to make no further hostile acts toward my crew or their families so that further loss of innocent lives can be avoided. However, if any such action is made, I will track down the ones that gave the order and eliminate them as I did to Frank Tairov, the man that ordered the attack on my crew member and had previously ordered the interrogation of her father that led to his untimely death. Frank Tairov has been executed. Please let him be the last.”

“We hope for a peaceful transfer of knowledge to all nations, but we need your help to make that a reality. Now rejoice in the coming of a new age of prosperity.”

With his last word, the image disappeared and all channels went back to their scheduled programming.

***

This was Heidi’s 10th day on the moon, although the idea of a day was starting to lose its meaning. She sat in her room next to a small holographic table she was using to read CIA communications provided by Ana. With most of the original Project Red Book officers now incapacitated, her former colleagues had grown careless and were using what they thought were secure systems to communicate. However, only completely isolated computers and communication systems were safe from Ana. From what she was seeing, panic and hysteria were rampant in the CIA now as they raced to prepare for the alien threat.