“You can dispense with the ‘sir’ Lee. We’re all family here.”
Lee was caught off-guard by the comment, and knew instantly that something very serious was in the works.
“Lee, I’m going to tell you a story and you must promise to keep it strictly top secret. Can you do that?”
“Of course, sir!” Here it comes-
“Good.” Admiral Allen walked over to a cabinet and opened the door. Inside was a small hotel-size refrigerator. Allen opened it, pulled out two Coronas and used a bottle opener to pop the tops. He handed one to Lee. The hot desert air of western Nevada was a boom for the sale of beer in the region; luckily most of the beer-brewing companies had not suffered in the Juirean attack.
“First of all, if you’re like the rest of us, you’ve had your suspicions about the Klin and the Juirean attack on the Earth — the fact that the Klin first said they couldn’t stop the attack, and then a few hours later, they do. That’s beginning to raise a lot of eyebrows.”
Lee nodded. He was no idiot; the chain of events was just too close for the Klin story to be believed. But if they could have prevented the attack — and didn’t -
well that raised a whole new set of concerns….
“Lee, it’s the belief of the President and Admiral Keller that the Klin have orchestrated the entire Human-Juirean conflict, and that they have placed spies and surrogates among us to help further their plans.”
Lee’s mouth fell open and his eyes grew wide at the sudden bluntness of his uncle’s comment. Even though the same unformed suspicions had been percolating around in his subconscious for many months now, Lee had refused to put them into any credible order. But now the Admiral had slapped him right in the face with them-
“I can tell from your silence that you are either stunned by disbelief, or you concur with our conclusions.”
“Eh, yes, sir. I’ve had my concerns as well,” Lee stammered. And then it dawned on him: “And the Saviors are their spies!”
“Yes — and no,” Allen said, before taking a long swig from the Corona. “It seems that the Saviors are not what they say they are. In reality, they are Human, but they are not from here. It turns out they were all born off-planet and raised by the Klin from birth. In fact, they’re called 2G’s by the Klin, for Second-Generation Humans.”
“Damn, that explains a lot!” Lee said. “They don’t seem to know fuck-all about sports, or how to play cards — about nothing really.”
Nate Allen smiled. “It seems that you can raise a Human in an alien environment to turn out to be only quasi-Human, at best,” he said. “Without the day-to-day social interaction with other boys and girls, the Saviors — or 2G’s — have missed out on the some of the essential ingredients that makes us truly Human — like all the games of Cowboys and Indians we play, as well as the natural competition that takes place among men and women as we grow up. It’s what gives us our drive. The 2G’s have no interest in sports, or girls, or anything else that makes us uniquely Human. They may have been taught all the fact and figures, but that’s where it ends. It seems you can’t train a Human to be Human, just to act like one. That’s something you need to experience firsthand. And that’s where the Klin missed the boat.”
“So Tim was not born on the Earth — that lying motherfucker!”
“Don’t blame him, Lee. Remember, all he knows about us — and of the Earth — is what the Klin have told him.”
“Yeah, but he’s a threat to the war effort. He works for the Klin, and now you say it’s been the Klin all along who allowed a billion people to be killed.”
Allen came around his desk and sat on the front edge, facing Lee. “The 2G’s are a concern, but not the major one. Our main threats — even more so than the Klin themselves — are the Converts.” Lee could tell from the tone that his uncle capitalized the word ‘Converts’ when he spoke.
“Who are they?”
“They’re actually native-born Humans who have joined the Klin voluntarily, and who don’t advertise their existence like the Saviors do. They are the true spies and infiltrators, and since they were born on Earth — and are as Human as you and me — they are almost impossible to spot.”
Lee shook his head, and without asking for permission, rose and pulled two more Coronas out of the refrigerator. After handing one to the Admiral, he sat back down on the leather couch and took a long swallow off the fresh, cold beer. “Excuse me, sir, but what the fuck is going on here? What are we involved in?”
“I’ll tell you, Lee, it’s a cluster-fuck of major proportions,” said Allen. “It seems that we’re smack dab in the middle of a galactic pissing match, and we’re being played by both sides. Our so-called friends are really our enemy, and our main opponent in this war is a galactic empire with over 8,000 planets on their side. If it weren’t for the seriousness of it all, it would be laughable.”
“So what are we to do now, arrest all these 2G’s — as you call them?”
“That we cannot do. The Klin may suspect that we know of their complicity in the Juirean attack, but we don’t want to advertise that fact to them. Arresting all the 2G’s would simply reveal the Klin as our real enemy and would only cause more problems. If the Klin decide to withdraw, we’d be sitting ducks for the Juireans. And who knows, the Klin just might attack us themselves at that point.”
“So why am I here, Uncle Nate?”
Allen stretched a wide grin at his nephew. “We need you to turn the 2G — Tim Carlson — over to our side. This has already been done on numerous other occasions around the world; it’s one reason we know so much about what the Klin are up to. Tim Carlson is a pilot-” Allen held up his hand to stop the protest about to erupt from Lee. “-not a very good pilot, I agree, but he knows the Klin systems better than just about anyone else. Admiral Keller and I have found that most of the 2G’s are actually innocents in this galactic chess game. They didn’t choose to be born off-planet, and are as much victims of the Klin’s plot as we are. And we’ve noticed that most of them are actually starving for attention and acceptance by their peers — just like everyone else. Just imagine being dropped into a foreign country with no friends or family. You’d do just about anything you could to be accepted by the natives, and I don’t mean as some circus side-show, like they are now.”
“So what, you want me to become his buddy; maybe set him up on a date with my sister?”
“With Carla?” The admiral laughed out loud. “Hell no! We want him on our side, not running back into space and into the arms of momma-Klin! I don’t think he’s man enough for that one. Not yet.”
“It was a rhetorical question, sir!” They both shared a good-natured laugh.
“But seriously, Lee, we need him to feed false reports to the Klin about the progress of our own shipbuilding efforts, and also to identify any Converts he may know of. The President and Admiral Keller are in the process of compiling a list of all the 2G’s and Converts, just in case we have to use it. And as far as we can tell, the Klin are not aware of our operations at Nellis. They think our only shipbuilding programs are at the East Coast facilities and with Boeing. We need to keep them believing that.”
Allen could tell from Lee’s frown that he didn’t know what he was talking about. “I’m sorry, Lee. I keep forgetting you’re not part of the inner circle — until now. Let me fill you in.
“As you’re already aware, the Klin spaceships are pretty sophisticated, but they seem to be missing certain basic capacities and capabilities — namely having to do with their weapon systems. This is understandable, since the Klin don’t seem to be very experienced at waging war. They may be sly, back-handed bastards and political manipulators, but as far as hard-as-nails warriors, they seem to be missing the killer instinct, and their technology shows it.