Legacy Ch7

Legacy of the Guardians

AJ Marks

Chapter 7

Ahmed, Jack and Joseph arrived at the hotel in Washington near eleven at night. Ahmed was a bit tired after sitting down pretty much all day. They had been able to get on board on the flights to an airport near Washington DC, but then they had learned that their meeting would be at seven in the morning.

"Ok, let's go to our rooms and meet down here at four-thirty in the morning." Jack said.

"Sounds good Jack, I'll see you two in the morning." Joseph said as he went to his room. They had decided to have Jack and Ahmed share a room, to both cut cost and a bit of security for Ahmed.

Ahmed walked into the room and quickly decided that sleep was the most pressing matter on his mind. Jack watched as Ahmed went straight to the bed and quickly shedding his clothes, climbed into bed and fell fast asleep. Jack shook his head, if only he could fall asleep like that, something he never had been able to do. Even when he was stationed aboard the Victory he had a hard time falling asleep quickly unless he was dead tired. Jack really was not that tired and decided to work some more and figured that he would not get any sleep this night.

Hours later Jack sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, stretched his arms and cracked his back. A glance toward the clock reaffirmed what he thought, it was about fifteen till four. He decided to go take a shower and shave that way when he was done Ahmed could get in.

He finished his shower and was in the process of shaving when Ahmed walked into the bathroom.

"Shower's all yours, I should be done here if you want to shave after your shower." Jack said to Ahmed, who looked quite alert for someone who just got up.

"Thanks." Ahmed said, they had decided that they would not be formal until they were at the White House.

By four twenty-five Jack, Ahmed and Joseph were all in the lobby in their US dress uniforms. Everyone had uniforms for several different countries around the world, as a person never knew where they would have to go. But everyone was issued a US military uniform for this type of purpose.

They grabbed a quick bit from a cafe that was open all night and make their way to the White House. They made it there early and were subjected to the usual pat downs and security that the secret service did.

After waiting a few minutes the president walked in along with a couple of people from his staff.

"General Ginal." President Bush said extending his hand. "I'm told you wish to talk to me?"

"Mr. President sir!" The general said shaking the president's hand. "Yes, its quite important and confidential. We need to talk to you in private." Joseph said nodding his head to the staff members.

"They have top level clearance." The President said not quite understanding.

"Mr. President, with all due respect, what your about to hear is not for their ears." Jack said.

"Ok, you've got my curiosity up." The President said, then turned to his staff members and asked them politely to leave, which the two of the men did leaving an advisor left. "Ok, what's up?"

"Mr. President, this is Admiral Jack Cave and Captain Ahmed." Joseph said introducing the two men.

"Admiral Cave? I'm not familiar with that name, what branch are you from?" Bush asked with some confusion.

"Not any that you're familiar with sir!" Jack replied understanding Bush's confusion.

"I take it you're going to enlighten me!" Bush said sitting down. "And I get the feeling that it's not going to be a short story either."

"That's correct sir!" Joseph said. "I'm not sure where to begin."

"How about why you are here?" Bush said.

"Ok!" Jack said as he, Joseph and Ahmed took a seat as well. Jack leaned forward and took a deep breath. "We believe that the person, or person responsible for the terrorist attacks on Tuesday were aliens."

"They were aliens, illegal aliens." Bush replied, not understanding what Jack had just said.

"Not illegal aliens sir." Joseph said. "We mean aliens, as in not human."

The President just sat there with a disbelieving stare for several minutes. "This is a joke right?" Bush said watching their faces for any sign of trickery. "General I've always respected your career, but this is really far fletched for even you."

"Perhaps we should start at the beginning Jack." Joseph said.

"Please do!" Bush replied.

"In the 1910's a plot was hatched by a race calling themselves the Skartians to conquer Earth and destroy us." Jack said starting the tale.

"As you know from history after the First World War there was some cultural changes going on. It was during our first world war that the Skartians first made contact with us." Jack said trying to recall the reports that he had read. "It was during the war that several Skartians were placed on Earth. They would, at first influence people, but later on they would start taking charge.

"It was quite by ascendant that we found the first Skartian. The military was one of the first to discover them. In a routine inspection by President Roosevelt a young guard walked into a Skartian trying to kidnap the president and take his place. The incident was kept top secret and the kidnapper was taken to a military and kept under highest security. An interrogation of the prisoner revealed that several top leaders had already been taken and replaced. Our intelligence agency quickly informed their counterparts in Britain, Canada, France, and Russia. There was reason to believe that they had already infiltrated Germany, Japan, Italy and Spain."

"Wait, you mean the leaders of the Axis Power were actually alien impersonators?" Bush asked.

"In a way, yes. They would kill the person that they were replacing. For example, one of the worst human that people know of was Adolf Hitler was actually an alien." Jack told him. "The Skartian that replaced Hitler was very good. He used our own nature against ourselves. He isolated groups and then went about killing them off in large numbers, the Jews were just the beginning of his plans.

"We realized that during the second world war from a German defector that Hitler was in fact not human, but a Skartian. At that time very few knew about the Skartians and at first his story was dismissed until it Churchill heard the story. Outwardly he said that the German was crazy, but secretly he met with the German and Churchill explained everything we knew about the Skartians to him. When he went back to Germany he started a resistance group to oppose Hitler and his group.

"The Allies were able to keep the rest of the world in the dark about the alien invaders and there was a reason for it. The leaders knew that if word got out about how much we knew about the aliens then they would invade us with their own troops. Towards the end of the war we made contact with a race called the Ilderians. With an agreement they help us develop a space fleet and help us out until we were able to fight back without any help. That took about fifteen years. The Skartians did not know that we had acquired technology that allowed us to fight them in space yet, so they had continued to try to infiltrate the high commands of several third world countries.

"At the end of the second world war there Taft and Stalin had secret meetings about what to do with the war that was still going on against the Skartians. Both men knew that the war would require troops, material and money to sustain. It was actually Stalin that proposed the idea of a cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. A war that was not fought but a state of readiness and buildup, not unlike the buildups before the first and second world war would provide the funds, material and troops that would be needed."

"What about telling the public?" Bush asked.

"The reports of the day indicated that the people of the world were still not ready to know about a race from space, and they feared general panic among the less developed world governments. Troops were recruited from all over the world, and a select few people who knew about the war donated money. There was also a couple of copyrights that we owned through the fake company that we developed to hide our operations from the world." Joseph answered knowing a bit more about this subject than Jack would have.

"So there is a fake company posing as a cover for this war?" Bush asked them.

"I wouldn't say fake sir." Joseph said. "The company does exist and does manufacture products, pay taxes and employ people who do not know a thing about the other aspect of the company."

"Let me ask, is the war over?" Bush asked.

"The war, we thought, ended about 1988 and it took a couple of years for us to shut down the cold war, because we thought that we no longer needed the funds." Jack said. "But recent events have proven us wrong."

"What happened?" Bush asked.

"Within an hour of the attacks on the world trade canter an invasion fleet was engaged by our forces and defeated. We believe that the leader of the attack on New York is either being brainwashed by the Skartians, or is a Skartian himself." Jack said.

"This is unbelievable!" Bush said out loud. "This is a nice story but I have to go back to reality now."

"Mr. President." The advisor said. "They are telling the truth."

"Its not a joke?"

"No sir, I'm the only advisor to the president to know, there are also a few in the secret service that know. They are protecting you not from people but from a Skartian." The advisor replied.

"So in short the cold war was a cover for the war against the Skartians?" Bush asked.

"Yes sir!" Jack replied.

"Has any other president since Taft know about this?"

"Only one." Jack said. "It was during our blackest time of the war. We thought that we might lose the war and so we developed the Cuban missile crisis."

"The Cuban missile crisis was planed?" Bush asked.

"Most major events of the 'cold war' were planned. It was usually as a distraction for the public." Joseph replied.

"So did Kennedy know?" Bush asked.

"Yes, he knew for about five seconds." Jack replied. "Moments before the Skartian who replaced him killed him."

"Who told him, the only people with him were his wife and the mayor of Dallas." Bush said.

"No, that was a Skartian, Kennedy was already dead. It was after that that we allow some members of the Secret Service to know about the Skartians and the war. We realized when he arrived in Dallas that there had been a switch and we set up an assignation." Jack replied. "The cover up wasn't very good, but it was the best we could do in a short period of time. The body that was examined in Dallas wasn't Kennedy, but the body in Washington was Kennedy. We tried to kill the Skartian the same way as the Skartian had killed Kennedy, but we failed in some aspects, that's why so many people are looking for a government conspiracy. Just for a side note, Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill Kennedy, and he didn't die at the police station, that was a cover up. Oswald actually died as a fighter pilot five years later while fighting the Skartians."

"Unreal, so what do you want with me?" Bush asked. "And why are you telling me know."

"We feel that the war is back on, and need your help to shape that fight here on Earth." Jack said. "We need the US to keep this war on terrorism going until we can settle things down with the Skartians."

"What if I need to contact you?" Bush asked.

"Then contact me." General Ginal said. "Also, Admiral Cave or myself will be the only ones who will contact you, so if anyone else tries to contact you, deny any knowledge about this."

"I can handle that." Bush said, still a bit unbelievingly. "So Admiral is he your bodyguard." Bush asked gesturing to Ahmed.

"Actually no Mr. President." Jack replied. "Captain Ahmed here has volunteered for a mission to capture Osama bin Laden for questioning. He thinks that his brother knows where bin Laden is hiding. We'll use that information to do a raid and hopefully capture him and bring him to Independence Station for questioning and to find out if he is a Skartian or not."

"So the people will never know what happened to him?" Bush said.

"Only if he turns out to be a Skartian, then we will turn him over to the world courts for crimes against humanity, the same way that the German and Japanese leaders were put on trial at the end of World War Two. Every one of those men who were given the death sentence was Skartian. The entire trial was phony and allow us to dispose of the bodies and a warning for those who we didn't capture." Joseph said. "If he is human then we will keep him and you'll find out that he had died."

"So we won't be left in the dark about what happened to him?" Bush asked.

"No, you will eventually get justice." Joseph said. "Right now there is a council on the Galactic Council deciding what to do with the Skartians, they have been quite aggressive lately and many members are worried."

"Right now we have the best chance to defeat the Skartians and keep them contained, but because we are still considered to be less technically advanced the other races still view us as inferior." Jack said. "There are some races, like the Ilderians who see we are the only ones who are keeping the Skartians contained, if we should fall, there is no race that can defeat them."

"That may sound arrogant, but we have the same fire in battle as the Skartians have, and that also scares several races." Joseph said.

"I do have one other question." Bush said having thought about what the two men had said. "How did you keep the casualties a secret?"

"That was the hardest part." Joseph replied. "But when there is a war on, losses are unavoidable. We were able to hide the losses in the wars of the cold war. The Vietnam War provided a great way to account for the American losses, other third world countries were easier, and usually we didn't have to report anything. However we recruit people from all over the world, at the highest point in the war we had about six million soldiers and workers. That's less than half a percent of the world's population at the time. And because they were recruited from all over the world there was very little concern for people wondering what was happening."

"I bet language is a problem." Bush commented.

"Actually we have translators to help with that." Jack said. "Captain Ahmed doesn't speak a word of English but can communicate with you through a translator. That allows us to have people from all over the world on one ship and not have to worry about language."

"Amazing, its like Star Trek." Bush replied.

"Well, the creator of Star Trek was part of the defense force, and a lot of the proceeds from the movies and shows are owned by us. Gives us some more spending money." Joseph said.

"Ok, lets see if I have everything correct." Bush said. "You are going to infiltrate the captain here and fid out where bin Laden is hiding. Then your going to capture him and find out if he is one of these aliens or not." Bush looked at the nodding heads for conformation before continuing. "Then, if he is an alien, you will return him to earth to stand trial." Again nodding of heads. "What if he isn't an alien, what will you do with him?"

"If he isn't, we'll just show him the truth, and let him make up his own mind." Jack said. "But regardless of what he decides he will not be coming back."

"And you want me to start a war, or continue a war against the terrorists." Bush said.

"Yes, we will be able to use some of their attacks to cover up our losses." Jack said. "I know that that sounds indifferent, far from it. We are trying to allow our race to grow and explore space at their own pace, not be pushed into it." Jack said and the President seemed to understand.

"I'll see what I can do." Bush said. "Do I have any allies in congress?"

"There are a few who where in the war and have been elected to congress, but I can't tell you who they are." Joseph said.

"Understandable." Bush said standing up and walked over to Ahmed. "Well captain, good luck to you." Bush told him shaking his hand.

"Thank you sir!" Ahmed said while shaking the President's hand. A few moments later the three men walked out of the door and back to their hotel room.

"When do you think you can start?" Jack asked Ahmed after they had reached their hotel room.

"I was thinking about that, and I can start any time. It's just a matter of getting back over there, but that shouldn't be to much of a problem." Ahmed said.

"We'll get you fitted out back at the base and then drop you in a base near your hometown." Jack replied.

"They built a base in the Middle East?" Ahmed asked a bit confused.

"Yeah, it's only been operational for a couple of years, but we decided that we needed a base in the area." Jack replied looking at the room service menu. "Its a good thing we did. What do you want for lunch?"

End Chapter 7

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