Chapter 7

Mark woke up at his usual time, which was now while it was still dark outside, at least according to the faux windows.

The faux windows were neat, they had curtains on them to make them look more real, but no one ever closed them because you didn’t have to, it’s not like someone could look into the windows and see you.

He made his way to the washroom; Annabelle joined him shortly thereafter. Upon their return, Joe and Kat were waiting to start the 30 minute workout.

After the workout, they went for showers and then Maria and Sofia brought breakfast down, everyone ate their fill as they talked about what they had planned for the day.

For Mark’s turn, he informed everyone, “I’ve upped my wild goose chase timeline to return at 7:30, so I can help with the morning...”

At that very moment, Cricket screamed in his head, “You were right about the status quo changing! We just got contacted by the Atlanteans, they will arrive within the hour! I just got connected to their network and I’m regaining access to everything!”

The look of cringe on his face, coupled with the abrupt end to his sentence, had everyone looking at him to continue.

Mark shook his head and said, “ ... chores. Sorry Cricket just screamed in my head. Apparently, we are going to have some visitors from out-of-town today!”

Kat asked, “Are we going to have issues with those agents? Are they going to take you again?”

Mark acknowledged, “There’s a good chance the agents are going to show up, as they are back up on the ridge, but the visitors I’m referring to, are from WAY out of town! The Atlanteans will arrive within the hour.”

The girls were ecstatic at hearing that news.

Joe, however, wasn’t so sure, “Mark, this is exactly the trouble I didn’t want to happen! It’s not that I don’t trust the Atlanteans, if the girls are any indication, I will trust them, but the government guys could really make life difficult for us.”

Mark apologized, “I know and I am sorry, but hopefully the Atlanteans will have some input on the situation with the agents, so let’s just see what they have to say. We just need to get the word out, publicity will be our friend. Think about it from a business perspective, this ranch is about to become world famous ... the original, verified, point of first contact with beings from another planet!”

Kat smiled; knowing exactly what Mark just did. They could almost see the gears in Joe’s mind turning and the dollar signs in his eyes.

After breakfast, Annabelle, Jason and Sofia got ready for school. They wanted to stay and meet the Atlanteans, but common sense won out that they shouldn’t be here in case things went sideways with the agents.

Everyone helped pack the breakfast dishes into the pantry, where they took them back upstairs and put them into the dishwasher.

Joe and Mark got ready to go out and do the chores.

Cricket said, “You are now back at the ranch.”

Mark smiled and asked Joe, “You ready?”

Joe took a deep breath and nodded as they both walked out of the lodge toward the barn to do the chores.

Solara was laughing as she radioed. “The second your tracking signal showed you here, they all grabbed their binoculars. When you walked out of the lodge, they went absolutely crazy. It’s hilarious! They’re on their way down to the ranch, by the way.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later, two black SUVs were driving down the lane.

No longer having to check the fences sure sped up the turn out process, as Joe was in the Gator and Mark was turning out the horses.

The agents stopped in front of the barn, got out and demanded, “Mark Phoenix, come with us!”

Mark didn’t even look at the agents, as he continued turning out the horses that Joe was radioing for, “Not this time guys, you’ve wasted enough of my time and I’m not doing that again, I have work to do! This is harassment, you still haven’t told me what you’re even looking for, and my story hasn’t changed. If you have questions, just fucking ask them, but you’re not disrupting my family, my friends and my life anymore.”

The agent said, “We have orders to bring you in. We can do this peacefully or not!”

Mark thought, “Cricket, you have drones on every agent, right?”

Cricket replied, “Of course!”

Knowing everyone on the ranch was now wearing the new belts, and no one else was close to him, Mark felt confident as he taunted, “Well, I’m not going peacefully this time. What are you going to do about it?”

The agents drew their weapons and pointed them at Mark, but he just casually glanced their way, snickered and then returned to turning out the next horse.

The agents threatened again, wary that their target wasn’t showing any outward signs of concern, or of complying with their demands, but he wasn’t showing any signs of aggression either. He was just going about his work and ignoring them.

As Mark turned out the last horse, one agent approached even closer to Mark and demanded, “There! You’re done the chores, now come with us or we are going to have to do this the hard way.”

Mark laughed, “I’m not done the chores! We still need to muck the stalls. Grab a shovel and help, it will go faster! You guys should be good at shovelling shit!”

Since Mark still showed no signs of complying, an agent tried to grab him. Mark’s martial arts training allowed him to grab the man’s hand and spin around, twisting the agent’s arm and dropping him to his knees, while disarming him. Once his partner was down, one of the other agents took a shot at Mark.

The security belt either did its job or the agent missed, as Cricket stunned all the agents. Once they were down, Mark confiscated all their guns and put them on top of a locker. Then picked the agents up off the ground and leaned them up against a stall.

Improving their security, Mark asked, “Cricket, can you detect those kinds of weapons?”

“I can detect the explosive material with a simple scan from a drone.”

Hearing the gunshot, everyone in the lodge had armed themselves with rifles, but hadn’t left the lodge.

Joe also heard the gunshot and drove back to the barn in the silent Gator. He cautiously entered the barn, only to see Mark standing there with the four agents leaned up against a stall with their guns on a locker.

Joe radioed in that Mark was OK and that it was safe to come out.

Kat collected the rifles so they could store them back in the gun locker, as Jason went to get the truck so they could go to school.

Annabelle ran out to the barn and gave Mark a hug and a kiss, before hopping in the truck and driving off to school.

Mark then picked up the agent’s weapons, carried them over to their SUV and put them in the back.

Mark instructed Cricket, “OK new rule, anybody approaching the ranch, not by the lane or trailhead will get an audible warning of ‘This is private property! Please leave the area immediately!’ and make sure drones patrol the trailhead. You should be able to tell ranch guests from strangers by their horses.”

Joe suggested that maybe they should put a sign at the entrance prohibiting weapons?

Solara then spoke over the radio, “I’ve already put a sign at the entrance, Joe. By the way, the Atlanteans are here!”

With the hiss of thrusters, a small shuttle uncloaked and started folding its wings up as it landed on the driveway.

The shuttle itself was about the size of one of those long wheelbase high top vans, except wider at the bottom with the thrusters and wings, and the entire front was like a glass bubble similar to a helicopter. It appeared to have tinted windows down the sides and up over the top. With the landing gear down, the floor was probably just more than a foot off the ground, but the ramp opened down for ease of access.

Two beings exited the shuttle. One was a beautiful woman with long white hair, and the other person was a tall, muscular looking creature that reminded Mark of a satyr. He looked like he was providing security for the woman.

Feeling it was his duty, since he owned the ranch, Joe stepped out of the barn as the security guy put his hand on the weapon strapped to his right thigh. Joe extended his hand and said, “My name is Joe Henderson, and on behalf of everyone at Henderson Ranch ... Welcome to Earth!”

The security guy relaxed a bit at Joe’s greeting, and the woman said in a very formal tone, “I am Ambassador Liyana and this is Sergeant Gyges of the Atlantean Federation, we are pleased to meet you as well.”

Liyana was a lithe human looking woman, about 5-foot-8 with long white hair. She appeared to be in her late 20s/early 30s and was wearing a flowing white dress, partly covered by an official looking blue robe, connected at the neckline by a clasp with the symbol of Atlantis ... a stylized ‘A,’ with the cross line missing.

Gyges was a muscular-looking guy with dark-brown skin, golden eyes and two big brown horns, like a ram, sticking out from his head. He was roughly 6-foot, wearing a blue tactical jacket with military markings and black tactical cargo pants with the weapon strapped to the side of his right thigh, and black tactical boots.

The girls had come out of the lodge, also worried about Mark after watching the scene via a drone. They each gave Mark a kiss and hug when they saw he was OK.

Joe then introduced everybody.

Liyana then spoke to the girls, “On behalf of the Atlantean Federation, our sincere apologies for leaving you stranded here for so long. We have sent many ships in the yahren since your disappearance, but we could not locate you. Yet passing by this planet today, we detected your communications beacon transmitting from this location. Is there some place we can talk?”

Kat suggested they could use the lodge, so the girls led Liyana into the lodge, as Gyges stayed with Joe, Mark and Kat as they returned to the entrance of the barn to watch over the men in black.

Within a few minutes, the agents started coming around and immediately started threatening Mark about what he had done and to return their weapons as one guy was trying to contact someone.

Cricket said, “I’m blocking any outbound communication signals from those guys.”

Mark just said, “There’s a sign at the front gate saying we prohibit weapons, so unless you have an official warrant for my arrest, I’m afraid you guys are shit out of luck!”

Just then they saw Gyges walk over to stand next to Mark. Their eyes went wide, and they were suddenly speechless.

Gyges asked in a deep booming voice, “What’s going on with these guys?”

Mark explained, “They suspect me of something, but won’t tell me what it is! The last time they abducted me and took me to a detention centre and kept me, against my will, for over two months. Then they released me after I swallowed some sort of tracking device and as soon as I showed myself here this morning, they came in and tried to abduct me again. Only this time when they drew their weapons and tried to shoot me, we were ready and disarmed them.”

Joe looked at Gyges and added, “We don’t want any trouble, we just want to work our ranch and keep our friends safe!”

Gyges realized, by friends, Joe meant the trade representatives, so he said, “So by befriending a few lost beings, these guys have been harassing you?”

Kat jumped into the conversation. “Exactly! The girls just wanted a place they could feel safe, they don’t want to hurt anyone, they just want to live free. They aren’t bothering anybody and have been tremendously helpful around the ranch, so we’re proud to have them.”

The agents continued to lean against the stall, as everyone else stood around, waiting for the debriefing to finish.

“You can’t hold us prisoner like this!” One agent finally demanded.

Mark said, “Who is holding anyone prisoner? Do you see anything holding you here? You can leave whenever you want!”

“Then give us our guns and we’ll go!”

Mark replied with a smile as he waved his hand around. “Unfortunately, I no longer have your weapons as you can see. The sign states at the front gate, we prohibit weapons, so automated security protocols disarmed you. Sorry!”

When Liyana and the girls made their way back to the barn, it shocked the agents to see so many species of aliens all at once, then they started threatening about harbouring illegal aliens, and that they should be handed over to the authorities.

Mark said, “Like I said, you are not prisoners and can leave anytime you want. Although, if you want a more complete report, stick around, listen and maybe even talk to them, rather than trying to force people to do what you want.”

“They aren’t people, they are monsters!” Another agent exclaimed.

Mark looked at them sternly and answered. “What classifies them as monsters? Is it just because they look different? They are sentient beings and have done nothing to cause anyone any harm. They have conducted themselves with civility, kindness and common sense, which is more than I can say for you. The way you people are carrying on, with reckless regard for basic rights and freedoms and trying to do everything by force, rather than simply asking, I would classify you as having far more monstrous behaviour. You guys could do with some education—stick around!”

At that, everyone left to walk back to the lodge where it was a bit warmer. The agents hopped in their SUVs and tore out of there like their pants were on fire.

Joe looked depressed. “Something tells me they are going to come back in force! This kind of trouble we don’t need. This could ruin the ranch!”

Mark asked, “Liyana, what made you guys show up now, after all this time, and what are your plans with this trip?”

Liyana explained, “We showed up because we were passing through this region and detected a communications signal from a ship that crashed here a dectahren ago. We are not sure why it started working, as we have been by here many times since it crashed, but it is broadcasting loud and clear from this location. As for our plans for this trip ... this was totally unplanned, but after talking with the girls, and some of them not wanting to leave you and the ranch, I’m considering following an optional mission for this planet.”

Mark was curious now. “What is your optional mission for this planet? If it’s OK to ask that?”

Liyana said, “When we picked up the signal, they gave us orders to come here, recover the ship and the representatives, or their bodies, and return them to Atlanterra and then eventually their home planets. A standing optional mission for this planet is to establish an embassy in the hopes of Earth someday joining the Federation and allowing us to move back to our ancestral world.”

Joe piped in with a smile. “Hey, I like the optional mission!”

Mark nodded in agreement. “I like the embassy idea too! In fact, I’d highly recommend we get some TV crews out here and get the word out. Public knowledge of your existence, will make it a lot tougher for those secret agencies to operate.”

Kat suggested, “Or we could just broadcast this live using social media and then cross-post it to other social media sites. This will probably go viral in no time, whereas a local TV station will record, edit and then broadcast later. It would eventually go viral, but it’ll take longer, plus who knows what kind of reach those government agencies have.”

Kat then turned to Liyana, “Do you have a speech prepared for establishing the embassy? Or do you need time to write one?”

Liyana said, “There is already a prepared speech. We’ve been thinking of opening an embassy here for centahren, so anytime a ship comes by this planet, they have the speech. I don’t think I’m going to use it though, I have a better one in mind.”

“Great! I’ll get my phone.” Mark said, but Kat then interjected. “No, I’ve got my phone right here, plus I’ve got more contacts than you do, including several news, radio and TV people. I’ll do the broadcast, then we can all share it.”

Kat pulled out her phone and checked the charge on it, while Liyana went into the shuttle to prepare.

Kat suggested, “Everyone turn off your phones, or put them on silent. The biggest downside to doing a live broadcast is that we only get one shot at this!”

That really was the first time Mark noticed that, since he had moved out to the ranch, he rarely even touched his phone anymore. His closest friends were right here at the ranch and all of his new friends didn’t have phones, so he just didn’t miss it at all. When he was doing IT, he literally lived with his phone in his hand, or at least within reach.

After a couple of minutes, Liyana emerged, with Gyges following and carrying a blue bundle in his arms.

Liyana stated to the group, “A security detail will be here in a few microns.”

She nodded when she was ready, so Kat started her live broadcast by saying, “This is Kat from Henderson Ranch, we have made history here today as we have just contacted beings from another planet! This is so awesome! The ambassador has a speech she wants to make to the planet, so here she is.”

She then panned around showing the shuttle and the various aliens, then back over to Liyana, who began delivering her speech.

“People of Earth, I am Ambassador Liyana of the Atlantean Federation. We are the descendants of the Earth society you knew as Atlantis. We left this planet thousands of yahren ago, but we visit Earth regularly to observe its evolution, and to update the information we use in our education system. The unique scenario that has brought us to Earth today involves these five Federation citizens.”

Liyana gestured toward the girls, standing on the porch. Kat panned to show the girls, then returned to the ambassador.

“They were offered food, shelter, protection and friendship, after being stranded here for 10 yahren. The people of Henderson Ranch looked past the physical differences, and treated them as equals and friends, in fact they have endured abduction and harassment to keep them safe. It is people like them that have prompted us to establish an embassy so we may open communications with Earth, hoping someday our planets can share trade and tourism ... or even more.”

Liyana then nodded to Gyges, who stepped forward, unfolded the Atlantean flag, bowed and offered it to Joe, as Liyana continued, “On behalf of the Atlantean Federation, we are proud to offer our flag to the people of Henderson Ranch, as a symbol of our gratitude. May it fly above your land as a symbol that this ranch is friends with and now under the protection of the Atlantean Federation.”