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Jake was feeling morose as he was driven out to the airport to board the flight to Colorado. He felt like he'd been robbed of the last couple of blissful weeks he'd been looking forward to spending with his sweet tiger before having to move to Colorado Springs, and it was at least in part because they'd gone out for that run.

Why was it he couldn't seem to resist taking unnecessary risks in his life? Why couldn't they have just stayed inside and screwed around or something? How did he ever come to the conclusion that it was a good idea to go out in public with a huge, black, tiger-shaped nano-tech doppelganger in a track suit running alongside him?

In the end he supposed he should be happy that they'd done it, and especially proud of the love of his life. Hunter had saved quite a few people on that bridge. Most of them would have died if the two of them hadn't been out for that run so that Super Space Cat could come to their rescue. He couldn't regret the fact that those lives had been saved, so he supposed he couldn't really regret going out for that run, even though it had ended with the government being alerted to the fact that an alien was running around near the JPL grounds.

When he'd arrived at the airport and he met up with the rest of the team, he tried to get more information about whatever project it was that they felt the aliens might have caught on to that had brought on this heightened state of alert and the coming lock down in the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker. Curtis Mathers, the leader of the alien response team, had suggested the aliens might have tracked the transmissions back to JPL, which suggested that something was already out there in space and actively being controlled from JPL that they didn't want the aliens knowing about. Jake wanted to know what it was. If there were already rockets out there actively moving to some target location, his tiger needed to know about it so he could try to see if there was anything he could do to protect himself and the terraforming process that was underway to save his people.

He knew full well Hunter was listening through the audio devices in Jake's ears, and so Jake was trying to get anyone in the know to say anything that might give them more information and would act as a warning to the cat. He wasn't sure what the tiger could actually do, given the fact he'd already said his people not only have no weapons of any type, they also don't even have any type of active defenses. Still, if they could find out what exactly the threat from the humans was, the brilliant cat might find some way to defend against it.

If the project Rick had been working on at JPL was a preemptive strike on the cats' ability to launch asteroids at planets, as he'd once heard rumors of, then it wouldn't harm the process of getting Hunter's people safely to Mars, so it wouldn't be a major concern. The cat was finished with that part of the process and probably wouldn't be bothered much if the humans expended their weaponry on destroying that capability. Still, with advanced warning he might be able to move the drone controllers if he wanted to save them. Perhaps those drones could serve some other useful function down the road and it might be best to keep them all intact if possible.

The team lead had been completely tight lipped and suggested to Jake that he not ask any further questions on that subject. Curtis's tone suggested that Jake might get himself into trouble even just for prying, so he kept quiet for now.

He saw another group gathering around Rick on another part of the tarmac and they were just heading to the plane to board it, so Jake figured his best bet might be to try to get the goods straight from the leader of the team responsible for the project. He just needed to get Rick alone somewhere so he could try to get him talking about it. There would be no chance to talk about it on the plane, of course, since everyone else was around them in close quarters, so instead, once aboard and settled into his seat, Jake closed his eyes and slept for the entire flight.

Hunter was tired too from the workout of their long run, the excitement of the events on the bridge, and the wonderful release as he took his man from behind while he was on his hands and knees on the grass in the woods, so he also curled up on his bed and went to sleep.

Jake had been so tired that he even slept through the landing and he had to be elbowed awake when it was time to get off the plane. He sleepily grabbed his go bag from the overhead compartment and followed everyone out.

They were hustled into several different vehicles that rushed them directly to the Cheyenne Mountain bunker.

Even as they arrived, armed escorts ran up to the vehicles and rushed them over to the security post at the entrance to the bunker. It was like they were afraid the aliens might target them with some sort of laser beam from space at any moment and they needed to get underground immediately. They were being hot potatoed along from one armed guard to the next as if none of the men wanted to be caught standing next to the targets when the aliens struck.

As they approached the security checkpoint Jake suddenly realized he had Hunter's second doppelganger suit and the little white, ion pulse jet driven drone at the bottom of the bag under his clothes. His heart began to beat fast as he wondered what would happen if they searched it and found alien technology in there. He had never intended to bring the bag into the bunker. He'd never imagined they would end up going straight in. He thought he'd simply be taken to a motel and installed there. He had put the items in his go bag only to be certain he wouldn't leave them behind by accident. They were intended to be used in the motel room to keep him physically connected to his tiger while he was away from home.

His mind raced to try to think of what he could do. Should he try to pull the alien tech out of the bag and toss it into a dark corner somewhere before going inside? It was too late for that, really, and someone would likely find it before long anyhow. Alien technology found right next to the nuclear bunker that was going to be dedicated to defending those who were studying those same aliens would most definitely escalate the already tense situation even further in a hurry.

Jake was being hustled forward at a steady pace along with all of the other people from both Curtis's and Rick's teams. He couldn't think of any valid excuse to just suddenly run away into the dark to toss the items in the woods and then come back. It would be difficult to explain why he suddenly bolted off into the darkness at this critical point when they were trying to rush the teams into the bunker to protect them.

As he looked ahead he realized why he was being hustled along so quickly. The security checkpoint was in effect being bypassed in the rush to get everyone inside the bunker to safety as quickly as possible. They were passing through a metal detector that some people were even occasionally setting off, but nobody was being stopped. He supposed it was understood that all of these people belonged here, and that there was some threat that required them to be brought inside on the double. He should be safe, but it didn't ease the tight knot of anxiety in his gut.

He tried hard to look completely nonchalant about the whole thing as he approached the checkpoint, but that got him thinking that they would probably see that he was trying too hard to look casual, and that might cause them to stop him and check his bag and find that he was trying to carry alien technology inside of a secured military installation. His mind of course quickly entered a nearly terminal loop of trying not to try so hard to look casual, so that it wouldn't show that he was trying, which itself took some trying, which made him think he was probably looking more and more like he was trying really hard not to be noticed, which of course they would notice. It all caused him to start to break out in a sweat of panic as he got closer to the armed men at the checkpoint.

It turned out of course that he'd had nothing to worry about. Nobody gave him a second look as he reached the checkpoint and the unusually sweaty tall man was simply waved on through. He walked through the metal detector and didn't even set it off, so he was in the clear.

Both teams were led through the complex to a location that had several cots in the open. Each cot had a footlocker and a very tiny table next to it. This would be his 'home' for the foreseeable future. At least until he and Hunter could find a way to calm everything down so they would end the lock down and maybe Jake would be relocated to a motel in Colorado Springs as originally planned.

Curtis came around and let everyone know that they were completely safe down here in the bunker and they had nothing to worry about. He informed them that both his team and Rick's would be working more closely together now and that Rick would need to be in the room when Curiosity's link finally came back up so he could stay on top of any developments from that point forward, so they'd moved the operation into a larger room that was right nearby. He pointed out the room they would be working in, which was just down the hall from the open area with the cots.

The team lead also said that it was unlikely anything was going to happen tonight, so they should all hit the sack and get some rest.

Jake opened his footlocker and simply dropped his go bag into it and then he climbed onto his cot and rolled onto his side as the lights in the room were dimmed down.

He could hear soft snoring in his ears that he knew was coming from his sweet cat over on Mars. Hunter had neglected to break the link between them before he'd fallen asleep and Jake no longer had his control card with him to do it himself. The quantum entanglement the devices used to communicate could not be blocked in any way, so even while deep inside the guts of a mountain that was shielded from all types of electromagnetic radiation, Jake could still hear the sound emanating all the way from Mars that right now was music to his ears in this unfamiliar place. It made him feel warm inside and much more comfortable to know that he still had that connection to his wonderful tiger, despite the unpleasant situation he was currently stuck in.

He and Hunter would still be able to talk to each other, but Jake would have to find a private place to do it from now on, so it might be difficult given the shared sleeping accommodations, and all the other shared facilities like the showers, exercise rooms, washrooms, cafeteria, work space, and so on. In any case, the first thing he should do if he got the chance was to tell Hunter to make sure the link between them stays up at all times from now on so the cat could hear anything important going on at this end.

Jake had been rushed out of his house so hurriedly that he now had no smart fabric suit of his own, no sensor sock, no control card for his display lenses, not even his tablet or laptop, or even his smart phone that he suddenly realized he'd forgotten on the charger at home. The only things he had were things he really shouldn't have at all while inside the bunker, and that he and Hunter certainly wouldn't be able to take advantage of in this place. It was an unnecessary risk to have those items here since they couldn't even be used. He'd have to make sure nobody ever saw the black second skin suit with the big tiger tail on the back of it, not to mention the dangly bit at the front and the even more personal one up the backside, or the tiny white drone made of technology that doesn't yet exist. If anyone ever found those, he'd have a lot of explaining to do while they hauled him off to some federal prison somewhere.

For now, Jake was still extremely tired, so he allowed himself to drift off to sleep again with the comforting sound of his lover's snoring in his ears.

Jake woke very early the next morning. There were already a few others moving about. Likely everyone was having trouble sleeping in this strange environment, knowing they were effectively buried under a mountain of rock, and not knowing how long they would be here.

He was still wearing the same clothes he'd had on during their long sweaty run the night before and he was fairly certain he must be extremely offensive to anyone who might get too near him, so he opened his footlocker and then the travel bag inside it and fished out a change of clothes.

He still remembered where the facilities were from the tour they'd taken the team on a while back, so he made his way to the communal shower room. There was nobody else in there, so he decided he should take a chance and try to contact Hunter.

He quickly undressed, then moved under a shower head and turned on the spray to add a bit of noise to cover his voice, and he turned to face the entrance to the showers so he could watch for anyone else coming in.

He could see the feed still coming from the white drone in the cat's room, but it was dark. Hunter must still be sleeping.

"Hunter, can you hear me? I need you to wake up."

Nothing happened for a moment while Jake began rinsing himself under the spray and getting himself good and wet and tried to look like his only reason for being here was to shower, while he waited for his cat to respond. He kept watching the entrance to the shower room while looking over at the small window showing the feed from Mars.

He suddenly heard shuffling and the sound of Hunter doing his usual, long, cat-like stretch as he began to wake up. "Good morning, my love," the cat said, "I see you are in the shower. Are you able to speak? Has there been any excitement yet?"

Jake spoke in a very low voice and said, "Not yet. There likely won't be any until the link to Curiosity comes back up. I haven't had a chance to speak to Rick yet, but I want to try to find out from him what it is his team's been up to that they think you might have tracked back to JPL. If they're worried that you've tracked a live control transmission, that mean's there's something going on out there right now that they don't want you to know about or interfere with. We really need to find out what it is."

"What do you think it might be? Do your people have weapons that could reach me here on Mars?"

"Yes, sort of. They could easily have put up a few rockets by now with nuclear warheads on them. Even at best speed I would think they wouldn't be able to reach Mars for at least a month, though. But I don't know when they might have launched them. You and I never really talked about it in detail since we finally started communicating, but before you brought the link back up on the rover I'd heard rumors about the possibility of them sending nuclear weapons over there and putting them in orbit in case they might ever be needed. They also intended to put some at one of the Lagrangian points facing Mars. Those would be to intercept any incoming asteroids in case you launched some at Earth."

"What?! Why would we ever do that?"

"I've told you how nervous and paranoid our government is by default. The fact that you could do that to us was the first thing that crossed their minds when they saw what you were doing to Mars to get the magnetic field restarted."

The big cat grunted and said, "Your people are indeed barbaric if their first thought about that process would be how to use it as a destructive weapon. My mind would have never gone there, but now that you mention it, I realize I am not quite as defenseless against your people as I thought I was. I simply need to look at the possibility of using existing tools at my disposal in different ways than originally intended. Where is this Lagrangian point you mentioned? Perhaps an extremely lengthy volley of asteroids launched at it would force them to quickly expend their ammunition and it would no longer be a threat."

"No! The last thing you should do is threaten them in any way, even if only to disarm them. We don't know what all they've been preparing, so if you tried a move like that they might attack with whatever else they have available that might already be in place. There's no way they could have placed nukes in orbit at Mars yet, there hasn't been enough time for them to get there, but you mentioned there are other ships that will be passing near Earth. They might try to take them out if you show yourself to be a real threat. The ships loaded with bacteria already passed, so the atmosphere should at least finish being processed, but I think you said the next thing would be the greenhouse ships."

"Yes. If they were to destroy those, then our animals would have nothing to eat when they arrive and would all die, which in turn would mean my people would have nothing to eat and they would all perish when they arrive. The entire process is still in a very fragile state and they would have many opportunities to prevent its successful completion as all of those ships pass by your planet. You are right in that I must ensure that I give them no reason to become aggressive against me. There is too much at stake. I will not make any moves whatsoever to appear to be any more of a threat to them. We must find a way to placate your government as quickly as possible. We cannot allow them to interrupt the process at any point or my entire race will be at risk."

"Yes, we need to get some diplomacy going right away," Jake said, "I think your suggestion from last night would be the best way to start. We can't afford to wait for the air to completely clear. I think you should disconnect your amplifier from the backup telemetry system and connect it to the main one instead. I can help you if you're still nervous about damaging it. They'll detect the moment the link comes up and I'll be called over to start scripting whatever commands they want me to. I'll start by sending a script to take images in an endless loop. I'm not sure what they'll want to do first, but in order to hide the fact that you and I have been in touch all this time, I need you to act as though this really is the official 'first contact' that they've been waiting for."

Hunter said, "They've heard my doppelganger speaking in your language, so they know I can communicate now. There would be no point trying to recreate the long process you and I went through to begin to communicate. We still won't have any direct way to exchange audio or video, but perhaps we should go straight to the drawing method we used at the start. If you aim the camera straight at me like it was at first, I can hold up a tablet with some sort of message in English that tells you to look down. You can act surprised that I've lashed a tablet to your robot, and a drawing implement to its manipulator. That way our line of communication will open up immediately and your people will be able to speak to me. They'll have you script the robot to draw the messages from them on its tablet, and I'll simply reply with my own tablet."

"Perfect! The first program I wrote that sets up my computer with a print driver that converts drawings to plots for the rover is still on my personal share at JPL. All the exchanges we've done since then are on my laptop, so there's no danger they'll see those if they're watching when I go poke around my file shares at work. I can tell them how I was working on the plotting scripts while waiting for the link to come back up in the hopes of finding some way to get you to make the arm capable of drawing. We'll both sort of be telling the truth so it will be easier for us to be convincing. At least that way we can more quickly get to the point where you can say 'We come in peace'."

The big cat chuckled and said, "That sounds like the words from that wonderful old movie we watched on your television."

Jake said, "Yup, that's right. I think a version of that line was first used in the movie 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. If you say something that sounds familiar and comforting to them before you say anything else, it should ease tensions a fair bit. If they ask you how it is you came to learn the language already, you can make up a story about how you became interested in us after you discovered our robot on Mars, and you sent a probe over to learn more about us after Curiosity lost its link because of the storms. Just tell them your version of a robot probe is a bit more sophisticated than ours, and it comes in the form of a black version of yourself that you can use to interact directly with our world. Tell them you used it to gather enough information from here to teach your computers our language. If you stay vague enough about how that all happened, they'll buy it. They already know about the doppelganger, so I think it would really help if you tell them what it is before they even have to ask about it. They'll see you aren't even trying to hide anything and again, it will make them more at ease."

"Yes," Hunter agreed, "that should work. I would explain that the black doppelganger is nothing more than a benign probe sent to explore the location that the original communications from the rover originated from and that is the reason it was sighted near your JPL."

"Yes, good thinking. Tell them exactly that. You wanted to communicate with us right away through the rover, but the link went dead. You decided to send one of your own robots over here and it took it this long to arrive here on Earth. If you explain to them that you triangulated the source of the radio signals sent to Curiosity, which the amplified transmitters on the main channel are still sending while they try to get a link back to the rover, they'll suddenly realize they were jumping the gun when they thought you were onto their other project. If they believe that, then they'll think their secret of whatever rockets they've launched is still safe from you. It might convince them to stand down from high alert and I might even be released from the bunker eventually and can go live in a motel as originally planned, and we can get back to being together again. In fact, if you quickly work out with them that you can offer them a better means of communication than the rover, they'll let me off completely and I can go home. I'll still always be linked to you even then, so I can coach you along through all of your interactions with them from that point on if you like."

"Good, that will be perfect. I will do it just as you suggest," the big cat said, "It should calm things and get us on the right track to diplomacy. Still, I would like to learn more about this other project they've been working on, my love, if there is any way we can do it. Now that I know what your people are like I'm becoming a bit nervous and paranoid myself. I cannot let them interfere with my preparations to make Mars ready for my people. I need to know what else it is they're up to."

"I want to know too. I'll do what I can to find out what it is, but at the very least, if they really believe you don't know about it, you should be a lot safer from them because they won't feel their project is threatened."

"Excellent! I have been feeling some trepidation about this first contact with your people, but I now feel that we have an approach that might work. I am on my way to freshen up. I have not showered since all of our activities yesterday while I was inside the suit, and I would like to wash my matted fur before I make my appearance in front of your robot's camera. I will go from the shower room to the hangar with your robot in it and begin the work of switching the amplifier from the backup circuit to the main one. Will you be ready?"

"It would be even more convincing if I wasn't ready," Jake said, "Just go ahead and do it as soon as you're ready and when the link comes up, they'll rush to find me."

"Alright, I will do that."

Jake felt a lot better knowing they had a way to approach the first contact that would immediately disarm the situation. It would only get better from there when the tiger begins to explain to them the whole story of what's happening with his people. The human governments should settle right down once a dialog is opened and Hunter explains to them that the only reason the humans haven't been officially contacted yet is because there are no officials from the tiger race who are awake yet to do it. There's just one lonely engineer who's doing his best to keep it all together out there.

Before long all of this alien response crap would be behind them and Jake could go home and he and Hunter could continue their wedded bliss until the animal ships arrive to carry Jake away.

He started to shower in earnest and he turned to face the wall to get soap from a dispenser there while he watched the cat's progress through the base in the small window to the left of his vision. He could see the cat was passing through the exercise room to the showers. He and Hunter had regularly showered together after their workouts ever since the cat had first sent the small white drone over to Jake's house. They'd spent as much time together as they could ever since then, and Jake loved that they could at least still share this one private moment together even while he was stuck in the bunker and surrounded by strangers.

He bent over a bit as he reached down and began thoroughly lathering up his feet and legs and moved up from there. He was working up a lather around his privates when he said, "It sucks that we're not at home anymore, but at least we get to have our morning shower together like usual."

"Jesus Christ, Jake! Are you talking to your fucking penis now?"

The shock of the loud voice made Jake literally jump up into the air and he nearly fell on his ass on the wet floor of the shower as he spun around to see his boss, Rick, walking naked into the shower area towards another of the stalls.

He suddenly heard Hunter erupt into gales of laughter way over there on Mars as he saw the predicament Jake was suddenly in, and Jake started to turn beet red as he remembered exactly the words he'd just said while Rick was walking up behind him. His boss thought he was telling his penis how happy he was they could shower together like usual. He felt embarrassed at being caught sounding crazy yet again, and he actually felt a bit of anger at his boss for making him feel that way.

"For the love of God!" Jake shouted at Rick, "You really need to quit sneaking up on me when I'm doing totally insane things like that!"

Rick asked, "Are you and Little Jake getting lonely for home already? We just got here for crying out loud. I see you were getting ready to soap him up really thoroughly. Should I leave you two alone together to work things out?"

Jake chuckled and said, "You've been working on your humor some more! That was actually pretty funny."

Rick raised an eyebrow and said, "I wasn't joking. Should I just go?"

Jake said, "No, you don't need to go. I'll leave Little Jake to himself for now. We'll work things out later."

"I'm really worried about you, Jake. You've been acting strange ever since this whole thing started. Are you gonna be OK? It's like you're starting to crack or something. Does Little Jake talk back to you? That would be a sure sign."

Jake chuckled again. Even when his boss wasn't joking he was pretty good at humor. Something suddenly occurred to him and he said, "Wait, hold on a minute, you still aren't joking? If you were being serious, then why did you call my penis 'Little Jake'? Does that mean you normally call yours 'Little Rick'?"

Jake looked down at Rick's privates as he suddenly realized he'd never seen his boss naked before. He was a bit surprised at what he saw and said, "Holy shit! You should really be calling him Big Rick! Hell, maybe even Big Bad Rick!"

Rick smiled, but said nothing.

Jake said, "Come to think of it, now I'm feeling more than a bit insulted that you think mine should be called 'Little' Jake."

Hunter said in Jake's ear, "I'll hear none of that! You are wonderfully well endowed, my love. Little Jake has given me nothing but the utmost pleasure and satisfaction each and every time I've had the pleasure of playing with him!"

Jake chuckled as he realized the cat was likely going to latch onto that reference and use it a lot from now on. He wished Hunter wouldn't talk in his ear while he was trying to hold a conversation with Rick, though. It would feel too natural for Jake to immediately respond to the voice that Rick can't hear, and Jake would only sound more insane.

Jake said, "In case you're wondering, the air was really cold as I was walking into the shower, so I suffered extreme shrinkage."

Rick looked down at his own big tool and then back up at Jake and said, "Yeah, looks like I did too."

Jake rolled his eyes and said, "No need to brag. We can't all be so lucky as you."

"Don't feel bad, Jake, I'm sure you're quite normal down there," Rick said, "I'm sure once you get aroused it grows quite a lot."

Hunter chucked and said, "I had no idea you humans were so obsessed with size. I find mine is too large and I much prefer your small one if it makes you feel any better."

"It doesn't, and it's not small. It's above average in both length and girth for a human," Jake said in reply to Hunter's comment.

Rick said, "Uh, well, I'm sorry to hear it doesn't grow any more than that." He glanced down at Jake's flaccid penis and added, "I hate to break it to you, Jake, but if it doesn't even get any bigger when your aroused, that would definitely mean you aren't above average. Not even close."

Jake said, "Huh?" then he realized he'd been answering Hunter but Rick thought he was talking to him, which was the only rational conclusion for him to reach since they were the only two here. He became frustrated and just said, "Can we please change the subject? And if you don't mind, I'd appreciate you not telling anyone you've been catching me talking to myself, either. I don't do it often, but I've done it off and on my whole life, so it's not that I'm suddenly losing it. I'm just acting as I normally do. You have nothing to worry about."

"OK, if you say so," Rick said, "So long as you're not hearing voices in your head talking back to you, I suppose it's alright."

Jake heard the voice inside his head say, "He seems like a reasonable fellow."

Jake just cleared his throat and said nothing more as he silently sent a wish to Hunter to please not say anymore until they were alone again.

Rick got under the spray in the stall next to Jake and asked, "So, did you hear about that black tiger that was seen at the accident last night?"

"Yeah, that was a hell of a freaky thing! I haven't heard any details, but it sounds like he was a hero out there. He saved a lot of lives."

Rick said, "I don't know about that, but what the hell was he doing so close to JPL? I panicked when I heard about it. I was the one that called everyone in and got us sent over here. I think that thing found out what we're working on and was on its way over there to put a stop to it. We didn't know we were being watched. We had no idea they were already here on Earth. That thing is still out there somewhere. God only knows what it's been up to, or what it might do next."

Jake saw his opportunity and said, "Yeah, it's a good thing you acted so fast. What is it you're working on that's got you so nervous?"

Rick said, "Sorry, Jake, I really can't talk about it in detail. I just finished up one project a while ago and had started pushing on this next one just after it."

"We're all on the same team now, more or less. I doubt you'd get in trouble or anything if you told me. What project did you finish already? Was it successful?" Jake asked. He was trying to get absolutely anything he could out of Rick while they were alone. If he pushed enough, maybe his boss would give up something Hunter could use.

"It was pretty cool. It took a lot of effort to get it set up on such short notice. It went off perfectly though. I really shouldn't talk about it."

"Come on," Jake said, "You can't tell me it was pretty cool, then not tell me all about it. You know I love cool shit. We're all in this bunker together now. Do we really need to keep everything secret from each other still?"

Rick thought about it a bit, then he said, "I guess you're right. I can at least tell you about that one since it's completed. One of the probes that's stationed at L1 that's used to study the sun for solar storms spotted something a while back. It uses filters so it can see fairly well without being blinded by the sun. The scientists noticed there were a whole bunch of specks approaching from the sun side that looked like they were headed for Earth. They couldn't tell what they were at first, but they were sure they were artificial, they were pretty close, and there were hundreds of them. They alerted the government, and of course they immediately thought it might be an invasion force from the aliens or something."

Jake heard Hunter snort and then chuckle while the big cat showered at his end. It suddenly occurred to him how interested Rick might be to learn that in a sense, he wasn't just showering next to Jake, he was also showering with the very alien he was so worried about.

"Telescopes were trained on them to get a closer look and we saw they were definitely some sort of large box-like ships. Their engines were facing our way and they were decelerating fairly hard. We studied the trajectory and compared their speed and estimated mass to their thrust levels and we determined that whatever they were, they would slow down almost to a stop right at Mars if they kept going as they were. We sent our data off to a team of scientists that have been studying the terraforming process and they said right away that this had to be something to do with that, but they didn't know exactly how these ships would be used or what they might contain. They suggested we try to crack one open and see what's inside it."

Jake's heart began to beat a bit quicker as he realized this must have been the cause of the loss of communication from one of the ships that Hunter mentioned happened. Even as he thought it, the big cat shouted, "How dare they?! They are the ones responsible for the bacteria shipment that I lost! Do your people have no respect whatsoever? What would possess them to intentionally damage one of those ships? What if they were carrying some of my people?! Your government is truly despicable in how it approaches things, Jake. I must tell you that I am becoming somewhat angry with them."

Jake completely agreed with Hunter and he faced Rick and quite loudly said, "You had no idea what was in those ships, but you busted one open? Just like that? What if there were people in it?! You would risk possibly killing someone just to find out what's in the ships? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Rick looked taken aback once again and put a hand up and said, "Calm down, Jake. There's no way that planet's anywhere near ready yet. There's no plant life, no animals, and no way any population could be supported by it. We knew that whatever was on those ships, it wasn't the aliens. At least, that's what the scientists told us. Besides, the president was the one who ordered the go ahead. You know how he is about aliens of any kind. He's as xenophobic as they come. He's really been on edge. He's giving everything we do top priority right now and he's taking the lead on any decisions being made. He knows we're helpless if the aliens make a move on us, so we need to find out anything we can that might give us an edge."

Jake tried to calm down so he wouldn't piss Rick off enough that he would just walk away from the conversation and he asked, "So, did you manage to find out what was in the ship?"

Rick smiled and said, "Yes. It took no small doing, either. We had only a few days to prepare and we had to quickly get a small robot with sensors and sampling capability out there as quick as we could. The robot we cobbled together was nothing more than a box with flaps that had scoops that could extend and grab samples of whatever it flew through and retract them back in and seal them up to bring back. Luckily, with so many private sector companies in position to send rockets out, we were able to get one more up there in a hurry. We sent up a rocket to intercept one of those ships and hit it with a shaped charge to crack it wide open. Then it launched our little robot in to see what it could find.

"There was no way we could send up sensors sophisticated enough to deal with everything they might find, so the robot just had basic stuff like cameras, radiation detectors, robotic samplers, and pretty much anything else we could think of cramming on there since we didn't know what we were dealing with. The robot started taking images and filling its samplers with any liquid, gas, dust, or whatever might have spilled out of that ship. Then the robot was dropped into the ocean by parachute so the scientists could pick it up and study whatever it found. It all came together without a hitch."

Hunter began to rage in Jake's ear and he winced as the tiger yelled, "Those idiots! If their little trick had ruptured the antimatter containment that ship would have vaporized! It could have destroyed other ships around it and they too might have vaporized in a chain reaction that would have likely destroyed every last one! The atmosphere would not be ready in time for the plants without that bacteria, Jake! The plants would die without the right balance of gases in the air! The animals would die without the plants! My people would die without the animals! This is insane! Your scientists are irresponsible and dangerous! I see now that my people are in greater danger from yours than I imagined. I cannot risk them doing any more damage, Jake. I'm heading to the drone control room. I'm going to launch a barrage at your Lagrangian points in case they really have placed weapons there as you said they might."

Jake forgot Rick was there for a moment and said, "Wait, just calm down a minute."

Rick looked at him strangely and said, "I am calm, Jake. Anyhow, they retrieved the samples and the scientists were pretty quick to determine the ships are loaded with bacteria. They speculated what it was for and then tested it on a mixture of ammonia and methane and they found that it eats that shit up like candy and spits out carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen along with a few other gases. Isn't that incredible? They think those aliens might actually breath the same air as we do!"

Jake was watching the feed from the white drone that was following Hunter and he could see the cat marching through his base towards the drone control room. He had to stop him from launching those asteroids somehow. There's no way that wouldn't escalate immediately into a mess they could never come back from. He couldn't talk to the cat openly with Rick in the room though.

"Yeah, that's wild," Jake said, "It would be pretty cool if they breathed the same air as us."

Rick shook his head and said, "That's not what the president or the rest of the government thinks. They went absolutely ape shit when they found out. It means they're compatible with Earth, Jake. They could easily take it from us if they ever wanted to. They don't like that idea at all. At least while they thought the aliens breathed methane there wasn't much chance they'd have any interest in our planet, but now it looks like they could actually use it."

"Why the hell would they want to use it? Why would they go to all the trouble of terraforming Mars if they were just gonna take Earth?"

Rick shrugged and said, "I don't know, but anyhow, one thing that bacteria sample did for the scientists is that it really opened their eyes to the way the process might work and how fragile it all might be. They now think that there's probably going to be phases of ships passing by with everything Mars will need to become livable. Because of the timing of their arrival, our planets have done another half orbit around the sun so instead of arriving right at Mars, everything will probably be passing the sun, then right near Earth before it can go on the rest of the way to Mars. It gave them a bunch of ideas about how we can put a stop to them even being able to get a foothold out there."

Jake saw Hunter suddenly stop walking in the small feed in his display lenses and the big cat said, "Ask him how they might do that, Jake. I need to know."

Jake was getting scared. Hunter's voice sounded different than he'd ever heard it before. It had sounded like the big tiger's anger had been building towards a rage, but suddenly he was completely calm and his voice became deep and nearly monotone. It was a menacing voice and it made Jake think that the cat might suddenly be having thoughts about doing whatever it might take to defend his people from the humans, even if it meant pummeling them back into the stone age using asteroids. He had to find some way to convince the cat to calm down again so they could proceed with the diplomatic approach they had discussed earlier, but Jake was becoming more than a bit hot with his boss, too, and he couldn't keep quiet about it.

"Christ, Rick, you really have to tell them to stop all this shit. Shouldn't we try to talk to the aliens first? Find out what their intentions are? Don't you think even just damaging one of their ships was a huge risk? It's like a preemptive strike against them! It's like an act of war! All of this crap is what could lead to exactly what the government is afraid of! The aliens will be forced to act even if their intentions were originally benign!"

Rick shrugged again, and he said, "They're keeping awfully quiet. Why is that? We know they can speak English now, even though the first one we saw in those images was just flashing numbers at us. Was all that prime number bullshit just a trick to make us think they don't really know anything about us and make it seem like they wanted to try to talk to us? Meanwhile they were sneaking in the back door to spy on us. That black tiger was speaking clear and fluid English according to all the accounts. Why did they try to hide that fact? If they can speak to us so effectively, why haven't their people tried talking to our governments to let us know what they're up to? It's all pretty shady, Jake."

"Isn't it just as likely that they really didn't know anything about us or our language when we saw those first images? They've had time to learn our language since then, haven't they? I'm sure their technology is far enough beyond ours that it would handle something like that fairly easily if given a bit of time. We were cut off from Curiosity just as we were getting started communicating with them, so maybe they sent a probe over here to check us out! It doesn't mean they're any kind of threat. It might just mean they're curious!"

Rick was finishing up his shower and heading for the racks of towels and he said, "Just relax, Jake. Maybe what you're saying is right, but we have no way of knowing. We can't afford to wait to hear from them directly. It's too bad we lost the link to the rover or we might know something by now. Maybe it will come up before much longer and we can sort some of this shit out with them. Anyhow, I need to go. Try to calm down and not go any further off the deep end. I'll see you around."

As soon as Rick was out of range Jake said, "Please, Hunter, you have to calm down. Let's stick with the plan. Switch that amplifier to the main circuit on Curiosity and let's open up a dialog right away! If you launch anything at those Lagrangian points, I can guarantee you it won't end well for anyone! I need you to trust me, and stick to what we discussed. Please?"

The cat stopped and thought about it for a bit and said, "Alright. I do trust you, my love. I know you're nothing like those people. I know you've taken my peoples' plight to heart and you want only for us to be successful in our goal. We will try it your way. It won't take long for me to make the change to get your robot transmitting on the main circuit. I'll get started on it right away."

"Thank you, Hunter. We need to be careful, but once you've got them convinced your people are no threat, things will improve, I promise. I doubt my government will ever completely drop its paranoia, but at least they won't be so likely to act preemptively again and will be more willing to give your people a chance to show us you're not going to be trouble for us. Get in front of that camera and stand there and smile again and let's get this 'first contact' of theirs underway."

"I will do as you say. I must warn you, though, I will not under any circumstances allow your people to put my race at risk. I will be sending drones to these Lagrangian points of yours and if I find weapons there, I will expect them to be removed by your people, or I will deal with their removal myself."

"Fair enough. Let's just assess the situation and try to approach things diplomatically."

Jake got out of the shower and toweled off and got dressed. He threw his dirty clothes in the footlocker for now until he could find out how he could go about getting them cleaned.

He wandered over to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. He saw Rick and Curtis sitting together, but the look both of them gave him made him decide it might be best to just eat alone for the time being. Obviously Rick must have been discussing the fact that Jake seemed to be adamantly against the precautions the humans were taking against the alien threat.

He watched the feed coming from Mars and could see Hunter in the hangar working on the rover. Before long the tiger said, "It is done. The link will come up in approximately three minutes when the radio signal reaches Earth."

Jake was nervous, but he was actually quite hungry so he began to eat quickly to try to get as much down as possible before he'd be called away. He didn't quite have the time to finish before someone rushed into the room in a hurry and made a beeline for the team lead's table and talked to him excitedly for a moment. Curtis then looked over at Jake and waved him over.

Jake got up and walked over to the table and the team lead said, "It's on, Jake. The link just came back up. We need you in the control room right away."

They all headed straight to the room they would be using to work with the rover. Rick came along too. He'd told Jake that day out on the JPL grounds that he was jealous that Jake would get to be involved in the process when the communications started up again. It looked like he'd get his wish after all and would get to be there in those moments of the true first contact with an alien race.

Jake sat at the computer and logged on.

"Start by sending it the same sort of script you used before, Jake," Curtis said, "We need images back to see what's going on out there. We can't be sure one of those aliens is even there right now."

Hunter said in Jake's ear, "I am in position and ready. I will smile and wave and hold up my tablet with a message that simply says 'Hello people of Earth. I hope that you are not in any way alarmed by our presence in your system. I assure you that our intentions are completely benign. I am pleased that we can finally communicate. Please direct your robot's camera downward. I have modified it so that you may send messages back to me.'"

Jake nodded, knowing the tiger would see him doing it through his own display lenses. That message would be the perfect way to start things off.

He quickly brought up a scripting tool and put together the commands to get Curiosity to start taking images in a loop again, but this time he set the delay to just five seconds. If he stuck to a medium resolution it should give the rover sufficient time to compress and send an image before it had to take another.

After the morning's discussion that had angered Hunter so much, Jake was antsy to get things moving quickly. He didn't relish the long delays between images and he figured it was best if they came as quickly as possible and they could just discard the redundant ones between messages from the tiger. The cat still didn't quite sound like himself and seemed to be on edge. They needed this to go smoothly.

He sent off the script and waited. He wouldn't even tell the others in the room about the script he'd prepared for plotting his drawings with the rover's arm until Hunter sprung the surprise to show them that he'd prepared Curiosity to be able to draw on the tablet.

Before the first image even arrived, a man in uniform entered the room and said, "Gentlemen, I need to interrupt you for a moment."

Curtis looked over at the officer in surprise and said, "Colonel Nichols, is something happening?"

Once he heard the name, Jake recalled this man from their tour of the bunker. They'd met him briefly and he was introduced as the one in charge of the installation.

The colonel said, "Yes, I've been informed that the rockets are in range. The president has decided to proceed. He doesn't want to give the aliens any chance to set up their colony here. That sighting last night has him spooked. I'll be placing the installation on high alert and several military brass will be joining us in the bunker in case the aliens retaliate."

Rick sighed and said, "Shit. I was hoping he'd give us more time. Is he going ahead with both?"

Colonel Nichols nodded and said, "Yes, both. He's in his bunker and he's got the football. He's pressing the button as we speak."

Curtis said, "It's too bad he couldn't wait a bit longer, but I guess it's just as well. The aliens obviously haven't been above board with us, so it's not like we could trust anything they say now. If we're going to bargain with them, we need to do it from a position of strength."

Jake didn't like the sound of any of this and he quickly became nervous as he asked, "What the hell are you guys talking about?"

Rick looked at Jake, then at the team leader of the response team. Curtis just shrugged and nodded and said, "It's not really a secret anymore. He'll find out before long. We're all gonna be stuck in this bunker for a long time now."

Rick told Jake, "We moved some small rockets to the Lagrange points. They're finally in position and ready. If the aliens try to launch anything at us we'll be ready to intercept. That put us into a position to be able to act first and not have to worry about a retaliation. There are a few bigger rockets on their way to the belts loaded with massive nuclear warheads that put the Tsar Bomba to shame, but it will take quite a while for them to get there."

Jake became more alarmed. The Tsar Bomba was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated in human history. He asked, "So why does the president need the 'football'. Isn't that the briefcase he uses in case he needs to launch nukes? If the rockets still have a long way to go, why is he pushing the button?"

Rick nodded, "All of the warheads we're using are tied to the nuclear football. The president's the only one authorized to go ahead. We had some other rockets ready to send to Mars to put nukes in orbit there, but once they found out what was in those bacteria ships, they decided to destroy them. If they can stop enough of that bacteria from reaching the planet, they say it will take years longer to be ready and the aliens won't have breathable air when they get there. Neither will their plants or their animals. The rockets have been accelerating hard after those ships, and the ships were slowing down, so it was just a matter of time before they came together. They're in position now. There are three twenty megaton warheads in a spread that should take out almost all of those ships. It leaves us with no warheads left to put right at Mars, but we shouldn't need anything there after this. This way we aren't really harming the aliens themselves directly, just stopping their attempt to colonize here, at least for now. If they want into our solar system, they'll have to ask us first. If we can work things out, we might let future shipments of bacteria pass."

"Is the president fucking insane?" Jake raged, "How the hell can he justify doing that?"

"It's a bit extreme if you ask me, but they did come into our system without asking. It was all being setup as a precaution and the rockets were launched a few weeks ago, right after we cracked that ship open and found out what it contained, but with that sighting last night, the president went nuts. He and the joint chiefs went into an emergency meeting right away to discuss whether the aliens should get a chance to settle, or if we should put a stop to it while we still could, and force them to settle somewhere else. I think the fact that the black cat that was spotted last night was actually seen slinking around so close to JPL was probably the clincher. That thing could destroy the installation and break the link to those rockets and the president would lose his chance to do anything at all to them. I imagine to him it was a matter of use it or lose it, so he used it."

Jake could hear a low growl that began to build slowly into a deafening roar. Hunter was going ballistic.

"Is there anything you can do?" Jake asked without thinking. He was ignoring the others in the room now and talking directly to the tiger, "Can you stop them? Can you save those ships?"

Jake heard the big cat grunt and then he heard the sound of something metallic breaking. He saw in the feed from the drone that was following Hunter that he was using his powerful muscles to tear the main arm right off of Curiosity in anger. The rover represented the human government to the cat, and he was pissed at them.

"How can your government do something like this? What sort of people are they?" the cat raged.

Jake heard Hunter grunt again and then he heard banging and clanging as he watched the huge tiger beating on the rover again and again using the big science packages on the end of its own arm as a bludgeon. He heard something metal hit the floor and bounce along it as parts began to break off the robot, then more grunting and banging, and more tearing of metal while the huge, muscular tiger raged on.

"Calm down!" Jake shouted, "Think! There has to be something you can do! Can you move those ships? Can you speed them up to get them clear of the warheads? Slow them down even, if you can! Anything to separate them from those rockets and move them to a safe distance! The rockets won't be maneuverable! Get your ships clear and they won't be able to follow!"

The tiger began to calm down and as Jake watched the feed, he saw him turn and run to the door of the hangar to go back into his base. "I'm not sure that there is time to do anything, Jake. But you are right. I must try. You must convince your people to stop what they are doing before it's too late!"

Everyone was already looking at Jake in shock at his sudden outbursts. Just then the computer beeped and the first image came in from Curiosity. It showed a smiling tiger with one paw raised in the peace gesture with the message Hunter had said he would send. The image showed the state of the hangar three minutes ago, so there was no sign of what all the noise had been about yet.

"Mr. Smith, what exactly are you shouting about?"

Jake realized there was no time to lose. He had no choice but to come clean. "Listen, you guys have it all wrong. The black tiger that was seen last night is completely harmless! He's a sweetheart! I know that, because I've been living with him for weeks! I was with him last night! He risked everything to help those people on the bridge! They'd be dead without him! Now look what it got him! You fucking maniacs are gonna destroy his whole race! You have to tell the president to stop!"

Rick said, "What the hell are you talking about, Jake?"

"Those times you heard me talking to myself, I wasn't really doing that. I was talking to the tiger on Mars."

Rick shouted, "Holy fuck! You're telling me a goddamn alien was listening to everything we said this morning?"

Curtis went pale as he listened to the exchange and he asked, "Are you serious, Mr. Smith? You've been working with this alien? Is that how they've learned the English language so quickly? What other information have you been feeding him about us?"

Jake heard alarms going off and for a moment he couldn't tell if they were coming from his side, or Hunter's, then he heard the cat make a sound of distress and he began to run even faster down the hall he was in.

"Answer me, Mr. Smith!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Jake yelled at the team lead, "Hunter, what's going on? What are those alarms?"

The cat had arrived at the same control room he'd used for the drones at the belts and he began flipping displays into different modes, then finally he groaned and banged at the screen with both fists and his head went down. "They are gone."

"What's gone?"

"The ships with the bacteria for the atmosphere. They are all gone."

"Oh my God, no!"

In a defeated voice the cat said, "Your people's dirty weapons wiped most of them out. Some of those left suffered a breach of their antimatter containment and the blasts vaporized all the rest. There are none left, Jake. The atmosphere will take at least two additional years to be ready now. The atmosphere processors cannot work any faster than that. The plants will die when they arrive. The animals will die following that. My people will die."

Jake saw Colonel Nichols pick up the phone and speak into it. "I need armed security in room 12b, now. I'm placing a man under arrest for treason."

The computer had been beeping every five seconds and it beeped once again. Everyone looked over as the image that came up on it showed an incredibly angry looking tiger coming towards the rover. Five seconds later it beeped again and another image showed the cat with the front part of the rover's arm in his hands. He was clearly in a rage and he was using his powerful muscles to swing the arm with the scientific instruments and the writing implement strapped to the RAT over his head like he was about to bring it down hard on the rover.

Another image came and they could already see a broken part from the rover out on the floor and the image was crooked as though the mast had been hit at least once. The big, muscular cat was only partially in the picture but they could see him swinging the arm at the robot again with all his might. There was no image after that. An alarm went off indicating the link with the rover had been lost. That last blow must have landed on the transceiver unit.

Curtis gaped at the raging tiger in the images and said, "He's destroying our rover! What's going on over there? Does he know what we've done already? Those images are from three minutes ago!"

Jake ignored the team lead's exclamations. He was temporarily stunned into silence at this turn of events. In a blink it had all turned to shit. They were so close to finally opening up a diplomatic dialogue. Why had they waited so long? Why didn't they get the idea sooner to have Hunter switch the amplifier to the main transceiver and bring the link back up?

In the end it was their selfish enjoyment of each other that had caused this. They should have taken it all more seriously. Mars was not going to be ready for Hunter's people when they arrived, and it was in no small part because of them. They should have been thinking harder about doing the responsible thing and starting up the diplomatic talks even if it would mean they would lose their alone time with each other.

The cat had raged and wrecked the machine that had started it all for them, and Jake couldn't really blame him. In his anger the tiger had torn off the rover's arm and beaten it to death with it. In an ironic twist of fate it appeared that the cat had killed Curiosity, instead of the other way around.

Jake saw Hunter turn and lean back against the bank of displays and slowly slide down until he was sitting on the floor, head down, and saying nothing.

Jake's heart went out to the cat. He'd been through so much and had sacrificed so much. His people had all sacrificed so incredibly much, and had put in so much effort. They'd put everything they had into this one bid to save themselves, and it had all fallen apart because of a paranoid and ultimately greedy government that was not willing to share any part of what they felt the humans owned.

Jake's rage began to build as he turned on Rick and shouted, "You fucking bastard! You killed them all! A whole race of people!"

Rick's eyebrows went up as he said, "What do you mean? We just screwed up their colony plans. They'll have to find somewhere else to live, or at least bargain with us if they want something of ours. They can probably have Mars if they ask nicely, but I suspect the governments will want something pretty significant back in return. Maybe if they offer up all of their technology so we're on completely equal footing it will all work out."

Jake's voice got even louder as he stood and shouted, "No, you fucking idiot! Mars wasn't just a colony for them! It was the only hope for their whole race! You fucked it all up! You killed them all!"

In the small window in his display lenses, Jake saw Hunter get back up and begin to move. "Hunter, are you OK? Where are you going? Is there any way to fix this?"

The tiger said nothing but just kept walking. He saw him go into the exercise room and he approached the ambulator sphere. He stopped outside of it and began to put on his black suit.

"Hunter, what are you doing?"

The tiger spoke calmly, but his voice sounded like he was almost dead inside as he said, "I believe I told you once that my people do not have any form of a correctional system. We do not levy fines or give warnings. We make no attempt to rehabilitate those who've shown themselves unworthy of living among us. It is the reason why there is no crime among my people. There is but one punishment for any crime, and that is death. Your people have committed the most grievous of crimes against my own. Those people in that room with you are the first that I will deal with, but I will find all of those responsible and mete out the only justice they deserve."

Jake's heart began to pound in his chest. The muscular tiger was fully dressed in his suit and going into the sphere and Jake suddenly realized that he'd accidentally brought one of the doppelganger suits right into the bunker with him.

"Hunter, please. What they did was wrong, but they were only following orders! They had no choice!"

As the cat stepped into the sphere and closed it and began to power up his system he calmly said, "Everyone has a choice, my love. They could have chosen to disobey those orders, but they did not. I have heard it in their voices. They believe in what they've done."

"No! They thought it was just a colony! They thought it would just mean your people would have to go live elsewhere instead, or negotiate with the humans for a place in the solar system! They didn't know they were wiping out your whole race! Please, you can't just kill them in cold blood!"

Rick said, "Jake, who the fuck are you talking to? Are you hooked in with that alien right now?"

Jake said, "Yes, and he's been listening the whole time. He knows what you've done. Their people have only one punishment for any crime against them, and that's death. I think you should probably run, Rick. All of you should."

Curtis laughed and said, "What exactly does he intend to do about it? As you said, we were following orders. Surely he can't hold that against us personally. We're inside a mountain, regardless. We're safe from him here. If he even tries to launch asteroids at this bunker, we'll be able to intercept them and stop them. Even if we can't, it would take weeks for them to reach here so we'd have plenty of time to evacuate. Even as we speak there are rockets heading out to the belt to destroy those asteroid launchers. It'll take time, but they'll get there eventually and blow that weapon to bits. Your alien friend can't reach us in here."

Jake saw that the feed from hunter had gone black, then suddenly he heard a crash from somewhere outside the room and a loud roar, then the feed showed the area with the bunks they'd slept on. He realized Hunter was inhabiting his doppelganger now, and he'd just broken out of the footlocker. He was inside the bunker, and he was out for blood.

Jake shook his head as he looked straight at Curtis and said, "You're wrong about that. He's already in here, and he's coming for you."

There were shouts of alarm, and mayhem began to break loose as he heard Hunter's voice that was now coming from his doppelganger shout, "Where are they?! Where are the murderers of my people?"

Jake heard crashes and more shouts as the cat began to grab at cots and throw them around in his rage and his desire to destroy anything and everything around him, while anyone caught in the room with him scrambled to get out of there as fast as they could.

Jake ran quickly to the open door. Just as he got to it and looked out and saw the raging doppelganger, two men armed with semi-automatic pistols emerged from another hallway. They were likely the ones who'd been called in to deal with Jake. They saw the black apparition and didn't hesitate to raise their weapons and each fired a shot.

To Jake's amazement he saw the doppelganger's black skin instantly stretch out towards the incoming bullets as though someone were inside the suit and was pushing a narrow dowel out from within it, and the fabric was stretching along with it. It was like the sensors in the fabric detected the projectiles and it quickly reached out to meet the bullets half way and then pulled back along with them while pushing hard against them to absorb all of their energy without any shock to the suit. By the time the fabric was fully back to its normal position the bullets had come to a complete stop and simply dropped to the floor.

The huge demon cat began to advance on the men and they opened fire continuously. Again and again different spots on the suit stretched out to slow the bullets to a stop and the cat finally reached the first man and took his weapon in hand and crushed it into a ball of metal. He then cracked the top of the man's head with the ball and he fell limp and unconscious to the floor and the cat dropped the wrecked pistol.

The other man turned to run but the enraged doppelganger grabbed him and lifted him up. He reached up and grabbed the weapon from the man's hand, then threw him across the room. He hit the far wall and fell to the floor in a daze as the tiger crumpled his weapon into a ball and dropped it to the floor as well.

The black cat looked over and saw Jake standing in the doorway and began to advance towards him.

Jake moved to block the door and put his hand out and said, "Please, Hunter, you're not a murderer! You can't do this!"

Curtis and Rick both ran towards the door to look out to see who Jake was speaking to, and both of them went pale and backed up a bit as looks of stark terror came over their faces.

"You are correct. I am no murderer," the black demon cat then pointed at Rick as he said, "But those men are, and I am here to bring them to justice. I love you, Jake, and ordinarily I would abide by your wishes, but these men must pay for the death of my people."

Jake's mind raced. There had to be some way out of this mess. What these men had done was wrong, but in their hearts and minds Jake was fairly certain they weren't intentionally killing an entire race of people. If he could just get Hunter to understand that.

"Please, Hunter, I love you too, and I can't watch you do this! I've known Rick for years and he's really not a bad guy. You don't understand how it is with humans. We're trained to follow orders. These men were following the orders of others higher up who aren't even in this bunker. You heard what was being said in here. You know they honestly didn't understand they were killing your entire race! They just thought they were setting you back a bit and forcing you to negotiate!"

The cat slowed to a stop and thought about Jake's words, but he said, "That does not matter. It is not how things work with my people. Their involvement in the crimes against my people may have been only cursory, but that makes them no less guilty. They have killed my entire race. They must pay for it with their lives. The others you spoke of will pay as well." He looked past Jake at all of the other men in the room behind him and in a growling, menacing voice he said, "Consider yourselves lucky that I do not make your entire race pay with their lives. Your families and loved ones may yet live, but you will not. I condemn you to death, just as you condemned my people to death."

An idea suddenly came to Jake. The tiger's people were not dead yet. There wouldn't be enough antimatter to keep the inefficient stasis fields going until Mars was ready, but maybe there was another way to save them. What if there was still an option for them?

"Hunter, listen, I just thought of something. What if your people don't have to die? What if they can be saved?"

The black doppelganger's head turned toward Jake and asked, "How do you mean? The planet won't be ready."

"Yes, that's right, Mars won't be ready for them, but Earth is ready right now. You've already done the research and you know I would be comfortable over there, so that means all of your people would be perfectly comfortable here. You said I could eat your food, so that means your people could eat our animals too. I know your people's philosophy would normally prevent them from interfering with another living world, but I'd say the humans have forfeited their right to be left alone, wouldn't you?"

The cat thought about it for a bit and then he suddenly seemed to stand up straighter as he realized Jake was right, his people were not yet lost. It didn't matter that the plants would not survive when they reached an unfinished Mars. It didn't matter that their food would have nothing to eat and would die, leaving the cats themselves with nothing to eat. There was a whole world of food available for them right here on Earth.

The cat's voice suddenly sounded much more like himself as he said, "You are right, Jake! Why did I not think of it? The ships will be passing not far from Earth on their way to Mars! I can redirect them there at no additional cost of antimatter! You are brilliant! We can do it!"

Curtis said in a low voice, "Mr. Smith, I don't think you're in a position to negotiate that sort of deal. Perhaps you should leave it to those who are. I am the official representative of our government here. If you could ask your friend there to stand down, we may be able to come to some agreement."

The doppelganger turned its dead eyes on the man, and in his most ominous and menacing voice yet said, "You are the one who is in no position to negotiate. None of your people are. I am the only one of my people technically alive at this moment, and as such I am the one you will have to deal with. I am the one who will 'negotiate' with the human race.

"In fact, there will be no negotiation whatsoever. I can tell you that now. You're people will simply be informed how things will proceed from this point forward, and if you do not do as instructed, I can assure you that the consequences will be dire beyond anything you might have yet imagined.

"There is only one human that I trust implicitly and he is likely the only one I will ever trust. I trust him with my own life, and even with the lives of all of my people. Jake Smith is the only one I will listen to. If he feels I need to adjust my approach going forward, I will do as he asks, within reason. At this particular point in the process, though, I have no intention of standing down. It is the rest of you who should stand down.

"Jake has saved your lives, for the moment, but you will need to leave this place. I will give you only the one warning. All of your people must vacate this facility, or perish. I give you four hours. You must evacuate the surrounding communities as well. Do it quickly. I am in no mood to spare any lives, but I feel it is best not to kill innocents if I can avoid it. Understand this, despite the fact that Jake Smith has given me an option other than the simple destruction of your entire race as punishment for your crimes, the crimes were committed, and you are in fact guilty. If humans must die in the process of convincing your people that you are in no position to bargain, then so be it. I will kill all of you who get in my way, without hesitation.

"I am going to begin our 'negotiations' by giving your people the only thing they seem to respond to readily, a show of force. This facility is forfeit and I will destroy it to show your people what I am capable of. If you are still here when I vaporize this place, so be it. You have four hours to get to a safe distance."

The black demon cat then turned to Jake and said, "Jake, come with me. It is time to leave this place."

The colonel suddenly spoke up and said, "You aren't going anywhere. I'm in charge of this facility, and I won't let you destroy it."

The cat suddenly exploded into a rage again and shouted so loudly everyone in the room cringed and the walls shook, "You won't let me?!"

The doppelganger began to advance again but he didn't even bother to try to get past Jake, he simple walked straight towards the cinder block wall of the room they were in and walked right through it like it was nothing. He advanced on the colonel, who was quickly backing away with his hands in the air as if to plead for mercy. The cat grabbed one of his arms and lifted the man into the air like he was nothing but a rag doll and shouted, "Do you wish to live?!"

The colonel began to struggle, but the incredible strength of the doppelganger held him fast in mid air like he weighed no more than a feather. He realized the black demon could crush him like a bug in an instant. A dark stain immediately began to spread from the colonel's crotch and down the legs of his pants as his bladder let go and he quickly said, "Yes! Let me live!"

"Do you wish me to spare the lives of everyone in this facility and the surrounding community?!"

"Yes, of course!"

The cat then set the man down and growled, "Then you will not only allow me to leave, you will escort me. Jake will be coming as well. You will stand in front of me as we proceed to the exit. I can stop the bullets of your pathetic weapons with no effort whatsoever, but I think I would enjoy watching them pass through you first. If any harm comes to Jake, I will tear the flesh from your bones, and then kill everyone in this place with my own teeth and claws, and then I will wipe out your entire race to make way for my own. Am I clear?"

The colonel became very pale as he realized just how stupid he'd been to even think he actually had any power over what happened to the bunker any longer, and he simply nodded.

The tiger's doppelganger then said, "If you wish to remain unharmed, you will ensure that none of your people try to stop us, and you will have them open the blast doors of this facility immediately. You will inform your people that Jake Smith is now the single most important human alive, and that should anything happen to him, your entire race will be forfeit. You will order the evacuation of this place and every soul within a ten kilometer radius around it, and you will do all of that without hesitation and without question!"

The colonel nodded again, but just stood there shaking in fear and stinking of his own piss.

"I believe I said 'without hesitation'," the big cat warned.

The colonel ran to the phone and picked it up again. He gave the order for the emergency evacuation of the bunker, the air base and all of Colorado Springs. He then informed whoever was on the other end that he would be escorting someone out of the bunker, and nobody was to try to interfere. He warned them that the entire human race was at risk if anything happened to Jake.

When the colonel hung up the phone, Hunter's black ghost walked up to him and said, "Lead the way."

The colonel hurriedly escorted them all the way to the exit. There were several armed men gathering outside with weapons at the ready.

The cat stepped forward and said, "I have the ability to kill each and every one of you along with your commander here with no risk whatsoever to me. If you would not like me to demonstrate that ability, set your weapons down now and disperse."

The men stood fast, and the cat wasted no time and began to move towards them.

The colonel shouted, "I order you all to stand down! Do as he says! Drop your weapons and leave! We're evacuating the bunker and the base. I need men to start the evacuation of Colorado Springs immediately too. We only have four hours to get every living soul out of here to safety. Get to work, now!"

The men quickly dropped their weapons to the ground and turned to run back to their vehicles to follow their orders.

The cat turned to Jake and said, "Are you ready to go, my love?"

Jake smiled at the black tiger and nodded.

The doppelganger picked him up in its arms, and began to run at astonishing speed down the road and up into the forest along the base of the mountain.

The tiger continued to run for hours while in quiet contemplation, and Jake felt a bit strange being carried in his arms like a two hundred and fifty pound, hairy, bear-like 'damsel in distress' who'd just been rescued from the evil king's castle. It had been a hell of a turn of events and neither one of them had anything to say while they each thought of what the future might hold now and the doppelganger continued onward, chewing up the miles.

He wasn't sure how much ground they'd covered in that time, but it had to be a hell of a lot.

The tiger followed along the base of Cheyenne Mountain then turned away from it and kept on running tirelessly. Eventually he began to climb up another low mountain and then stopped.

They turned and looked back and Jake saw they had a vantage that clearly showed Cheyenne Mountain off in the distance.

The muscular black demon cat set Jake down gently and said, "I have been monitoring the entire area with some of my imaging swarms. It appears they took my warning to heart. There are long lines of vehicles full of people that have been evacuating the area for the past several hours. They are all gone now. I see no more movement there. It is time."

"Time for what?" Jake asked, "Were you serious about destroying the bunker? What can you do in such a short time? I thought you had no weapons. I suppose the asteroid launching drones could do some serious damage, but it would take weeks at best for you to launch an asteroid all the way over here and it would probably be intercepted by one of the rockets at L2 anyhow. What is it you plan to do?"

"As I mentioned to you before, my love, I simply need to improvise and use other tools that are at my disposal in a different way than was ever intended. There is one more piece of my technology back there in that bunker, Jake. You brought it in with you."

Jake thought about it and realized he must be talking about the little white drone that was still in his footlocker at the end of his cot. "You mean the video drone?"

The black doppelganger nodded and said, "Do you recall what I told you would happen if the antimatter that powered it were converted to energy, even though it was just a microscopic amount?"

Jake's heart began to beat fast as he remembered what the cat had said, that it would leave a crater the size of a small city! He nodded.

"I will cause it to overload and breach its containment. Please cover your ears and brace yourself, my love. You are about to hear the loudest thunder clap you are likely to ever hear in your entire life. The explosion will be fairly clean as the expanding wave of antimatter annihilates with the matter it encounters, but it will make quite a noise when the atmosphere rushes in to fill the void left behind. Close your eyes tightly as the release of energy will be blinding."

Jake jammed his fingers hard into his ears and closed his eyes tightly. In just a brief moment there was a flash so bright it was as if his eyes were still wide open and he was staring right at the sun. Then the tiger said in the pickups in his ears, "It is done. You may look, but keep your ears firmly covered until the shock wave passes."

Jake opened his eyes and was shocked to see that the entirety of the landscape around the bunker and the mountain that had contained it had simply vanished! The whole thing had been replaced by a deep, perfectly spherical bowl more than a mile across.

He could see the trees of the forests all around the bowl violently leaning in towards it with such force that several were being torn right out of the ground and tumbling end over end as a huge volume of atmosphere was suddenly rushing in to fill the void of all of the molecules that had been annihilated by the release of the antimatter.

He saw dust and rocks and debris and acres of dirt come crashing into the center along with trees that were being torn up and dragged along. The whole mess smashed together with such incredible force that it exploded back outwards again as a shock wave raced outward and a massive plume of dust and dirt began to climb high into the sky.

The trees that had been left standing were now bending outward again as the massive shock wave spread outward across them from the center and began to dissipate only when it was at least a half mile out. The sound of it continued to travel outward, though.

He still had his fingers firmly in his ears when at long last the Earth shattering thunderclap created when all of that atmosphere rushed in and smacked together finally reached them. Jake could feel his body compress and vibrate with the incredible sound of a mountain-sized bang. The rumbles dragged on for quite a while afterward but then everything settled down completely.

Cheyenne Mountain was gone.

As Jake stared in awe at how such a massive volume of the world could suddenly be made to stop existing with such surgical precision, he realized that the cat was not only armed, he was extremely well armed.

He was happy that he'd found a way to calm the tiger down and possibly save his people, because it was quite obvious to Jake that Hunter could, with very little effort, destroy the entire human race if he was of a mind to. He didn't even need to fling asteroids at it in slow motion from over a hundred million miles out. He had plenty of ammo right here, already in place and ready to go.

Jake remembered what Hunter had told him about the imaging swarms that he'd used to photograph Jake from orbit that first time. They were made up of thousands of drones in each swarm, and he seemed to recall the tiger telling him that there were 'several' swarms. Each drone in the swarm was a few times larger than the little white one that had just caused a mountain to vanish. Each of them were powered by antimatter. There were many thousands of them up there. Likely enough for the cat to make every single human city in existence, no matter how big or how small, vanish in a flash, and he would still have ammo left to do it all over again.

He was awed by the amount of destructive power that was readily at the hands of the big cat, and it was all right up there just above the sky, ready to be used anyplace, at any time, because it was the power source of a smart drone that could be directed to fly anywhere at high speed and with great precision. They were all made of materials that couldn't even be detected in any way by human radar, and small enough that they couldn't even be seen until it was far too late.

The entire planet was at the angry tiger's mercy.

There was no one Jake would trust more with that sort of power than Hunter, but he realized the cat had an entire race hanging in the balance and he would do whatever he needed to in order to keep them safe.

The human race had better be very careful what it did next.