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Chapter 5 - Crash
A few months passed. The rebels against the invasion - KJ, Konnie, the Midgetman and other members of the Midget government, and Tez - hung around each other, got to know each other, and made up stupid nicknames for each other. The Reiak were slowly beaten back from Midgetan, and when the crasher was finally turned off, the ships gratefully left without firing once. KJ, not wanting to be caught unprepared again, spent his time planning for the next attack. The spy satellite had proved to provide insufficient notice, so KJ had hacked (with a bit of help from Programmer, who really was good at his specialty) into a Reiak government network. Still, he could never have been fully prepared for the knowledge of which planet was next on the list. KJ didn't want to tell the rest of the resistance, in some sort of half-hope that if he ignored the invasion, it might never happen, but when the broadcast of the invasion plan was shown on Reiak public television, he felt he might as well break the news to the rest of the gang by showing them the broadcast.
"Konnie, Tez, I have something to show you," KJ gloomily yelled into the hallway. The Ailu sauntered into the room as a loud crash sounded in the basement. Konnie cringed. Having six legs, the cyborg hadn't quite gotten the hang of stairs yet. She focused on KJ, who lethargically pressed a button on the portal that connected them to the Imperial Place. The boy had been acting depressed for the past few days, but Konnie didn't bother trying to figure out why. KJ was too weird to understand fully. "Yo, Midgetman," KJ said into the portal, not bothering to yell.
"Hold on," came the reply. After a few seconds, the Almighty Midgetman was launched through the portal and slammed into the wall opposite, creating a slight vaguely Midget-shaped dent in the plaster. "Spring-loaded chairs," the Midgetman explained, giving a thumbs-up. "They really brighten up the office."
Tez walked into the room, straightening the olfactory spike that folded between his eyes, which had been kinked in the fall. "You know, I've heard that inclined planes are a very good way to get from one level to another," the Spydr suggested.
"Mm," droned KJ, starting up the computer and then slumping down onto the desk.
"Also elevators."
"We'll discuss it later," KJ mumbled. He halfheartedly poked the control pad, which lit up electric blue.
"Y'know, KJ, you're really, really depressing," said Tez, raising a claw to accentuate the point.
"Look, KJ, you've even depressed Mr. Chips-for-Brains over there, and he's practically an inanimate object," Konnie pointed out, jabbing a thumb in the direction of Tez. "Could you quit radiating emotions and get to the point?" That was one of the major annoying things about humans - they communicated their feelings so well. If they were upset, soon you were upset too.
"Right," said KJ, straightening up and pressing a few fingers to his forehead. The Elemental xarranged a few of his neurons to activate his dopamine circuits. KJ didn't like doing this - it was basically the equivalent of using dope, just without having to process the chemical - but he needed the mood boost. He tapped the control pad and the monitor unfolded. KJ selected the media player icon and the news broadcast expanded to fill the screen.
The same Reiak that had announced the Midgetan invasion - or at least one with the same sort of freckle-like green flecks framing its dusky-orange face - was standing at a podium in front of a projector wall. He shifted anxiously, inquired into his headset as to whether or not they were on the air, and began his presentation. "We were... ah... forced to withdraw from Midgetan due to... lack of... supplies," the Reiak buzzed nervously. The spokesperson was obviously lying, and looked slightly drugged. Being a high-ranking commander, he had probably burned off the anxiety of fighting a losing battle with unprescribed medication. "But we're going to start out on another planet while we get... restocked."
"Restocked with fresh new troops who have no idea of their impending watery fate," quipped the Midgetman, straightening his neck and tilting his ears backward.
"The new planet... it's..."continued the Reiak, his nervous buzzing converted through the translator to a stutter. "It's called... Earth"
"So that's what's been bothering you, KJ!" said Konnie, realization hitting her. "You think something bad'll happen to your planet. But it was pretty easy to defend Midgetan - why would Earth be any harder?"
"We humans - well, I guess I can't really say we - the humans are prouder and more suspicious," KJ explained. He sighed and shook his head. It was an inopportune moment for this to happen, but KJ suddenly realized that he wasn't considered human, which made him feel even more miserable and alone. "They'll think they can fend off the invasion by themselves, and they won't trust us when we offer help. They'll think we're enemy agents. Plus, human government is known for its inefficiency. Millions would die before we could do anything."
"Why'd you say you can't say we?" asked the Midgetman, head cocked. "Were you human once or something?" There were so many awesome possibilities of KJ's origin, mostly having to do with experiments gone horribly awry and secret government projects...
"I thought I was, but it turns out I'm just some sort of alien plasma thing in a human body... or something. I don't really know." Yet another mood drop.
"This new planet... um... we're using... a new approach." The Reiak gripped the podium tightly and began to rush through the rest of his speech. "We sent out several - no, more than several - a bunch of specially trained infiltrators out onto Earth. They've assumed the form of humans - the dominant species, humans - and they've dispersed themselves throughout the population."
"Wait..." said KJ slowly, sitting up straight and leaning into his chair. "I didn't know anything about that part."
"I'm just wondering," said Tez, tilting his head, "How good is this super secret spy satellite of yours anyway? All it's picking up is KZK News 3."
"It was the only one that didn't get shot down by Reiak defense systems," KJ explained.
"The infiltrators will ingrain themselves into human civilization, slowly rising into government positions. We're starting in one of the most powerful countries of Earth - the United States of America. Soon all of the human political figures will in fact be Reiak. Their world will become ours without anyone's suspicion aroused!" As before, the camera zoomed out from the panting Reiak's face to the large cheering crowd, although their cheering was not quite as loud this time. KJ sat staring wide-eyed at the screen. Slowly, he tapped the control pad and the screen folded into the wall.
"Maybe you should've told us earlier," commented Konnie.
KJ shoved the chair back from the desk and spun around. "All right. We need to get moving. Midgetman - get packed. Bring your warmest clothes. And a hat - one of those wool ones that you can pull down over your ears. A hydrogun, too. You can bring along two of your most trusted personnel - we've got the room, and need the backup. Tez - program a portable portal to go to your favorite hunting grounds. Konnie." KJ fished around in his pocket and threw the Comet's chip-key to the Ailu. Konnie caught it deftly and hurried down the hall. "As for me..." KJ xmanced a large wad of assorted American cash. "I'll be prepared."
The Comet hovered over the North American continent, Konnie at the controls. KJ paced the bridge nervously, while Tez played a Midget game similar to Jenga with Weaponsmaster, who the Midgetman had opted to bring with him to Earth. Scientist, the other specialist that had tagged along, was staring out of the window at the sphere of blue, green, brown, and white below them. He wasn't exactly one of the Midgetman's most trusted personnel, but he had pleaded to go along on the trip. To save another world... Who could resist? The Midgetman himself was staring at the many gauges and devices that lined the Comet's control pad, trying to guess what each one did before flipping on his translator to reveal the answer.
"We're going to land in Washington DC, the capital," KJ said, although he had stated his plan quite a few times before. He did it mainly to comfort himself. "After that, we'll try and alert the central intelligence agency. Hopefully, we'll be able to convince some authority figures of the coming invasion." He didn't sound too hopeful.
"What's that?" asked Scientist absentmindedly, pointing out the window to a dark purple smudge against the starred sky. "Some kind of space station or something?"
"Oh, hey, did you find Mir?" asked KJ, going over to the same window. "No, that's not it. That's..." KJ squinted at the window, then cursed. "It's a Reiak ship! Konnie, get out of their weapons range!"
"Aye-aye, sir," said Konnie, swerving the ship around and zooming towards the West Coast.
"Ooh! They're hailing us!" said the Midgetman excitedly, pointing to a blinking green light next to the viewscreen.
"Don't answer it!" KJ replied, resuming his pacing. "We don't want to be identified!"
"But I wanna be hailed!" said Weaponsmaster. Since the engineer's back was turned, Tez casually poked a crucial rock out of Weaponsmaster's neat little rock tower.
"Yeah, well, we can do that later, when there's no one trying to kill us," responded Konnie, pointing the ship upward to get some diagonal space between them and the Reiak. Suddenly the ship stopped.
"I think the Reiak are sending out some sort of signal pulse thing," said the Midgetman, craning his neck upward to look at some of the other devices. "Nope. There it goes." The various signal lights flicked off, as did the rest of the controls. The cabin's lights went off, and a hissing sound filled the cabin.
"That's the emergency oxygen supply," said KJ. A blue flash lit the room, and the ship's occupants could see that they were all suspended in midair except Tez, who had managed to cling to one wall. The rocks from the Jenga-ish game were scattered about the cabin. KJ xstored the oxygen ahead of him to provide a path of least resistance with which he could fly to the controls. "I'm activating the emergency manual system now, but the ship's computers have crashed - and so, probably, will the ship. I'm not sure why."
The artificial gravity came back online, and the gang all fell to the floor - except Tez, who was still clinging to the wall. Tez clawed the wall, but it was useless - his entire body was stuck to the side of the ship. Except his head... which was coated in magnet-resistant lead. "Say, does this ship have an anti-magnetic coating?" the cyborg asked.
KJ cursed loudly as the ship plummeted downward, its computerized antimatter engine useless.
From the TV room of a badly treated and shabby house, a man watched the sky from a window. A patch of starless night streaked downward into a nearby forest, barely visible. "Finally," said the man, his face breaking into a smile.
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