Twelve
The K-101
“Commander, incoming signal from the planet.”
“Yes?”
“Text signal, sir, it reads ‘Green File.’”
“Good. Inform the hangar bay to ready an infiltration pod, and have Senior Lieutenant Akillistrak stand by for orders. I will be in my quarters; I must update the Imperium.”
“By your command.” The bridge crew responded instantly; in a few moments, the cloaked Grugell frigate slowly began to slide inwards, towards the system’s one inhabited planet.
“Sir,” the SubLieutenant on the Scanning console called out, “A ship, in high orbit; scans indicate a heavy cargo ship.”
Commander Kadastrattik walked over to examine the tactical display, recognizing at once the typical huge disk-shape of a human cargo hauler. “Fine. We’ll leave it alone. They’ll never know we’re in the area.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Kadastrattik looked around his Bridge once more; the crewmen were all attending to their duties with typical Grugell scrupulousness. Nodding once in satisfaction, he left for his private stateroom to contact the Imperium.
The Tide Pool
The alarm buzzer went off at 0600 local, as it had for the last two months since the explosion.
“Junior?” Mike called.
“Mrfff. Come on, Dad, I was out late.” Mike Junior rolled over in his bed, across the suite from Mike’s. “I took Maria out dancing, didn’t get in ‘till after two.”
“We’re going back to Mountain View today, son. Best get up and moving; the Convention is going to resume after lunch. The two new delegates got in last night.”
Mike Junior buried his face in his pillow.
The older Mike showered and dressed quickly, donning his gray jacket from the first day of the Convention. From the bottom of his trunk, he pulled a small leather case. He opened it carefully, almost reverently, and inspected the contents minutely. Everything looked in order. He removed the rig from the case and belted it at his hip, where the hang of his jacket concealed it nicely.
There, he thought. I guess I’m ready.
He walked over to his bed, grabbed a pillow and chucked it at his son’s head. “Come on, Junior, we’re burning daylight.”
Mountain View, the Conference Center
While Bob Pritchard had expected the two Project Directors, another arrival due in a few more days from Earth – shipped on the cargo ship Cachalot – was the biggest surprise he’d been handed in some time. Still, the Conference Center was repaired, rewired, and ready; the Convention was to resume just after lunch today.
Two kilometers down the coast
In the shade of a tall boulder that jutted from the grass behind the beachfront dunes, two figures met. One was tall, rail-thin, and the other shorter, stockier. They spoke in low tones, even though there wasn’t another sentient creature within a kilometer. The clandestine nature of their joint enterprise and the risks inherent in the daylight meeting were not lost on either party.
“Are you sure this is a safe place to meet?”
“As safe as any. Are you ready to take the next step?”
“Yes, all my pieces are in place.”
“Good. Don’t do anything until you hear from me.”
“All right, but this is a dangerous business. My expenses are running several times higher than I’d anticipated.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be compensated more than adequately.”
“That’s another thing, you know. When, exactly, am I going to be ‘compensated?’ I’m fronting a lot of the costs of this operation myself.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get everything that’s coming to you, and soon.”
“Soon, he says. Are you sure you want me to go ahead with this? These people aren’t stupid, you know. It won’t be hard to figure out that you people are behind all this.”
“That’s not your concern,” the tall, thin figure said to the shorter one.
“It’s damned well my concern if I get caught,” the shorter figure replied.
“Then, I’d advise you to not be caught.”
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Humans become extremely stupid in the future.
Humans are extremely stupid in the present.
They elected a Libertarian president.
Same as it ever was…
Is that different than now?
That’s the tough part of running Businessman-type assets – they need to be smart enough to procure the intelligence that you want, but also stupid enough to not understand how expendable they are. It’s a very tough balance.
Translated: You’re gonna get fucked.
I’m guessing exposed right about the time the cloaked ship is.
OK, here’s my problem – this is saying the Grugell have been smart enough to entice treason against the entire species, not just a country or even an entire planet. That’s an incredibly stupid human, but worse, where did the Grugell make this contact? And for a species that isn’t very subtle, how did they suddenly develop this knack for subterfuge?
Twenty bucks says that Grugell intel made the initial contact through the Grugell former commander/restaurateur from episode 1.
While I would generally consider that plausible, it doesn’t follow from the Grugell as depicted. And he would’ve given them far better intelligence on the defenselessness and location of the home world.
Oh, and there’s the small problem of how he ever would have communicated with them.
Temporal dead drops.
The message time travelled to be discovered in a cache set to be drcyptable after a certain date.
There’s no possible way that a culture like the Grugell would not have a somewhat functional foreign intelligence apparatus.
Ah – but this is the first sentient species they’ve encountered; ones that can not only fight back, but win. That’s a big fucking shock to a species with the arrogance the Grugell are portrayed with.
“ones that can not only fight back, but win.”
Reminds me of the old Poul Anderson Sci-fi novel The High Crusade, where the aliens got so used to rolling over their opposition they didn’t know how to handle badass medieval knights.
I very much enjoy this whole conversation.
*impressed, non-sarcastic golf clap to the thoughtful audience*
Translated: You’re gonna get fucked.
100%. Just like the last pair of patsies.
how did they suddenly develop this knack for subterfuge?
Given their culture, I’d guess that they have a long experience with intrigue, backstabbing and duplicity as means for advancement. Your point about how they made contact with multiple willing traitors still stands.
There was s still the one Grugell on earth, who could very well have become a double agent.
Agree on the personal characteristics, but this is a singular imperium. Now, perhaps that is the result of conquest/unification of the Grugell home world, but that doesn’t translate into them being smart enough to figure another species and how to subvert them versus just rolling them up (which was the initial approach that failed). The idea of a human being treasonous is the hinge here, not that the Grugell would know how to induce it.
Not to be critical, but the Grugell are basically humans in rubber suits. I would assume that they’d use one of the classical methods of inducing a source – Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego.
Reverse lizard/human suiting? LMAO
Yeah, I’m being pedantic about what we know, which is so little of course. That’s why I made the point about the human who is treasonous – that’s the believable part (aside from the stupidity of putting your faith in an alien race you know nothing about).
Particularly here’s what any human knows within the context – you are making promises to me when you got your asses handed to you by a bunch of our most primitive living frontier dwellers. That’s not a ringing endorsement.
Humans become extremely stupid in the future.
Selective breeding.
What if I told you liberal safety culture created this situation?
But let’s say that domestic automakers somehow start churning out all the “very small, very cute” cars Trump wants. They’d still have to find buyers brave enough to drive them on dangerous U.S. roads, alongside far larger vehicles that are likely to crush them on impact.
Have you ever heard of Ralph Nader or Joan Claybrook, miss prissy Streetsblog writer?
Many golf carts in this zip code, driven by both locals and visitors.
Yep. In Florida they mix with traffic. So what? The safety nannies can f*ck off. I was in San Francisco watching people on motorized push scooters mix with traffic. This is no big deal.
I say cut off all safety and engineering regs and build whatever anyone wants. Even Jolly Old England has more liberal regs for cars.
Also if somebody offered a $15K mini truck, I would probably get it. Bravery has nothing to do with it. I am already considering a Polaris Slingshot, you can get older low mileage ones for around $17K, and those are bereft of safety equipment. Thankfully.
Let me buy one of those miniature Japanese brand pickups or vans that the rural mailmen around here like to use but new with lefthand drive and I’ll be on it like white on rice.
Has the author ever seen a motorcycle in public?
Re: Chef Klomastinik,
How many people would be able to tell where a particular planet was? Even if he had a chatty customer, would he know how human maps worked?
Most people can’t tell you where a particular country is today.
The marooned sailor – understands the technology to sail back to civilization, but lacks the tools to do it.
It’s in the same place it was yesterday.
Based on a corner-of-eye misreading of NA’s comment, I will now refer to Klomastinik as Colostomy.
Look what those dastardly Republicans are up to next – another government shutdown!
Ok, The Hill actually did say “Democrats”, for now.
It worked out so well for them last time.
Oh no, please stop.
What is amazing to me is the amount of shit the government collected here – pictures of Prince Andrew in the UK, not at Epstein’s island. And what is the crap about “unclassified”? None of it should be classified, as that pertains to national security information. If there is classified information – then the disclosure of that fact ought to be what gets attention; and who classified it, and when, and under what pretext.
That jumped out at me too. Why is there so MUCH of it? Did they confiscate every photo anyone near him ever took? Why?
DOOOOOOM
For example, if the high court accepts EPA’s argument that the agency lacks authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act because climate pollution doesn’t endanger the public through direct exposure, that could end carbon regulation under the statute.
“[N]o future EPA would be able to regulate [carbon dioxide] or anything else that does not endanger health or welfare when people or things are exposed to it,” said Holmstead.
No more fabricated hobgoblins with which to frighten the gullible? What’s a nanny to do?
Carbon dioxide is not pollution.
Plant food.
🥳
Not what CA says. Back when they won their suit to regulate it, a CA pol went on TV and proclaimed he was looking forward to a day CA was free of CO2. I was also looking forward to that day, but I understand what that means.
I don’t give a fuck what CA says.
So get Congress to pass a law that directs the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide. Oh wait, there isn’t enough support for that? Point proven.
But THE CLIMATE PRIESTHOOD HAS SPOKEN!!!!!
They can go compost themselves.
the survivors said the Justice Department failed to redact all names and photos while being overzealous in shielding other materials.
That makes my head spin.
Anonymous accusers get nothing, especially credibility.
Those 18 survivors should have no expectation of redaction/privacy at this point.
They expect to cash their checks anonymously.
Victims. Victims (at best?). Why do I keep hearing “survivors?” Did folk die there? They weren’t getting POW treatment.
but new with lefthand drive
I had a right hand drive (real) Mini a long time ago. It was kind of a pain in the ass.
Where I live you could have gotten a side gig as a mail carrier.
Has the author ever seen a motorcycle in public?
That’s different.
And- I’d venture to say it wasn’t the manufacturers who “pushed” consumers into ever larger, ever more expensive vehicles as much as it was salesmen working on commission.
A lot of neat cars aren’t here because they couldn’t meet arbitrary (debate me if you think otherwise) safety and emissions standards. Suzuki totally withdrew from the market prior to launching their new cars partly due to regulatory headwinds.
Any so-called “economy” car here now is over $25K and is complex as a starship. Thanks, government assholes.
The 2025 Nissan Versa S was available at under $19k. It was discontinued. This is the last model year.
Why do I keep hearing “survivors?”
They were held hostage in luxurious private resorts, don’t you understand?
They weren’t standing out on street corners turning tricks. But they were being used by a collection of rich men who most likely treated them like party favors to be used and disposed of. They are likely to carry some emotional baggage from those experiences. I think “survivor” is an an exaggeration, but I don’t hate it being used here.
We know, know, of exactly one that had sex with Epstein, and zero about anyone else.
The 2025 Nissan Versa S was available at under $19k. It was discontinued. This is the last model year.
And if you went to the dealer to kick the tires on one, it’s likely the salesman would take you by the elbow and steer you toward something bigger and more expensive.
“That might seem nice for running around town, but how are you going to get the kids and all their stuff to Grandma’s house for Christmas in that teensy little thing. Come over here and bask in the awesomeness of this Armada (which puts a whole lot more money in my pocket than that puny Versa).”
rich men who most likely treated them like party favors to be used and disposed of.
And my suspicion is they were overwhelmingly ornamental. Who knows? I certainly don’t but until these so-called survivors come forward with documentation and proof, I’m going to consider this a tale of prurient fabulism.
And my suspicion is they were overwhelmingly ornamental.
I expect many men treated them as ornamental. Bill Clinton, however, I expect he expected more.