**********
Over the next week or so Sally saw other former members of the Mars` team, and her earlier thoughts did not change, there was definitely something peculiar about them, for they all appeared to be rather introverted now, except for when they were talking to their fellow astronauts.
The other thing that struck her as odd was the number of new appointments amongst the staff at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston, for as usual, expenditure had always to be justified to the oversight committee, and new staff on such a scale was not normal. As with Mandelson, she found that she could not take to any of them, she found herself watching out for them, following them with her eyes until they had gone. One other thing she now decided, she would keep all small talk for when she was away from the Space Center, away from the newcomers. She immediately thought of the mailman, well maybe he was from Earth, but what about the newcomers to NASA, they certainly had the odour of Extra Terrestrial about them, maybe Doctor Swenson and the others had been abducted and their minds changed by a fiendish alien mind bending machine?
**********
Christmas came and went, and Sally vowed to forget her fears and buckle down to work, but then the initiation of phase three of the alien invasion plan had not yet begun.
**********
Consul Phairlis sat at the end of a long table that was within the briefing room on the space Cruiser Constellation; he was addressing the senior members of the Chosen Ones, his own grand council.
“Greetings my friends on this auspicious day, for today Phase three commences, and our focus of operations will now be the humans on the surface of planet Earth. We will dramatically increase the number of humans brought under our control, and then replace them with clones, when available. The number of clones is limited now; however, it will greatly increase when our two new clone ships arrive from Magenta. This phase will allow more of our older generation to make a new life for themselves as humans, and on the planet that is to become the new home world of our people. Already we are in control of this entire planetary system, except for the third planet, with the launching of this phase; we will begin to bring this planet also under our control.” Phairlis loudly declared to his audience. He smiled at his audience, only a few of them knew of his plans, these phases decided upon by the government of Magenta would indeed be useful in the long term, but his own plan was to reduce the population of Earth in the short term.
One member of this audience was Doctor Baris, he too was applauding this opening speech, but all that had occurred in this planetary system appalled him, he viewed the future operations with even greater concern, and fear. The time was not yet right to try to bring a halt to the murders of the humans, but it could not be far off. He pulled his thoughts back to the present as Consul Phairlis resumed his speech.
“We are now going to extend our teams of agents in all of our four main bases, in America, China, Europe and Russia. First, we will send invitations inviting the senior space agency people to a free weekend at one of the luxurious health spas, ones that we have set up near to each of the four space agencies. Then we will invite the senior members of their space teams, then their military, and finally their politicians, to enjoy a free weekend at these luxurious spas. We will brainwash all of them, and when our clones are ready, we will replace them. Then it will be time for us to move on to the other nations of this world, and our goal will then be in sight. Any attempt at a counter attack by the humans will be led by our own people, and it will of course fail.”
**********
The New Texas Health Spa sat on the outskirts of Houston, the staff had all been called in a week before the grand re-opening to find that the new wing had been finished, it was a large prefabricated unit of two floors, although the staff only knew of the one floor, the other was hidden away under the ground. The staff were all given a welcome glass of champagne to celebrate the grand opening, they were all feeling happy after the holidays, with high hopes for their futures now that the new wing had been added, but they did think it strange that the press had not been invited. Five minutes later and the staff were all lying drugged upon the carpeted floor of the new reception area, and then brainwashed, using a fiendish alien mind bending machine. Thankfully, for these humans, clones would not replace them, the aliens simply needed to ensure that none of their staff became another Sally Jameson, although as yet she was still unknown to the Chosen Ones.
It was one week later that members of NASA`s senior staff began to receive their invitations to take a free week end break at the Texas Spa, a luxurious health spa by any standards. Normally only those who could afford its very expensive rates enjoyed its luxurious amenities, however, the NASA people enjoyed its luxurious amenities free of charge, as payment by a patriotic owner for all they were doing for the United States of America.
They entered the health spa feeling tired from their work, but a little excited by all they had heard about the many facilities offered by the spa, they returned to NASA brainwashed and part of the alien`s invasion force. Clones were already being prepared to replace them, all that kept the humans alive was time.
Sally Jameson soon noticed the change in her colleagues, the one who had received the invitations to the Texas Health Spa. Yes, the alien virus could have spread to the other workers of NASA, but then why hadn`t she caught the virus. No, she reasoned, maybe it was not an alien virus that was behind the change in the people working for NASA, maybe it was actual extra-terrestrials who were behind it! She had already voiced this fear privately, to herself when she had noticed all the new ancillary workers employed at NASA, should she now speak to Colin about voicing her fears to the FBI.
Apart from those who had travelled to Mars and the Moon, only the more senior staff were invited to the health spa, she was too junior to warrant the interest of the aliens, so far. She decided to forget her decision to say nothing about her fears when at work, she had to speak to Colin about it, but only after ensuring that they are alone. Unfortunately, unknown to Sally most parts of the Johnson Space Center were now covered by hidden CCTV cameras. The people operating the CCTV cameras were a mixture of alien clones and humans who had been brainwashed, and the camera they watched followed anyone who had ever thought that something was wrong with the people at NASA. Mandelson having overheard Sally, they considered her a security risk, if only a minor one, until now.
“Colin, you must have noticed the way everyone is acting after they return from the health spa, surely it is not only me?” Sally asked of her friend. “They act a little like Doctor Swenson and Doctor Marshall, you know, rather introverted, although they do not appear bored with their work, unlike the Mars team, and those from the Moon. No, they are just rather lethargic, a little slower, and they take forever to accomplish the smallest of tasks.” Sally explained urgently, keeping her voice down to a whisper.
“Sally, I am sure that it is all in your imagination, sure they are tired; they are working hard planning the trip to the Jovian moons, with all of the recent advances Mankind is now really going to places where no man has ever been before.” Colin said dismissing her fears and getting back down to work.
Sally looked daggers at her friend and walked away angrily, it took her ten silent minutes of fuming before she could even think about resuming her work, and finally able to forget, for the moment, her fears. She did not notice the car following her home that evening, but after watching a spy movie on television that night, the next morning she was even more alert for aliens. She was sure that a grey Ford Moray followed her to work. She said nothing about it to Colin, who would simply laugh at her fears. However, on the way home that evening she saw another car following her, this time to her home, this was a Chrysler Rapide, and when she was finally standing safely behind her front door, with the door locked and bolted, fear began to eat into her. Unfortunately, this fear grew, for as she was preparing her dinner she noticed that some of the packets of the ingredients were out of their usual spot on the shelf. Her apartmen
t had been searched, shocked she sat down to steady her jangled nerves while wondering whether she should use the ingredients, were they safe? However, she was not sure of her facts; could her mind be working overtime on her fears? Anyway, the next day neither the Ford, nor the Chrysler made an appearance, and no other vehicle followed her to or from her home.
That same morning an alien clone was just starting his new job; luckily, he was also receiving a wage from his alien superiors, for his Earth job was rather low paid, he was a security man working for the city of Houston. He sat all day looking at the CCTV monitors spread across a wall in front of him, he was bored, he much preferred to drive his second hand Ford Moray, it had been a new experience for him, and one that he had enjoyed. He would hand over to one of his colleagues for the evening shift; he too complained that sitting behind the wheel of his Chrysler Rapide was more fun than sitting in front of a bank of monitors. However, they both had to admit that working here allowed them to snoop on so many people, all of whom were of interest to their leaders.
It was just over a week after this, on a Saturday, that Sally received her invitation to spend a free day at the Spa. She had just finished her breakfast when the mailman delivered her mail; she found the invitation when she opened her mailbox on the way to the shops, for her pantry was in need of a supply shuttle trip. When she saw the name of the spa on the envelope she flipped out, fear quickly ate its way into her stomach, she wondered whether the aliens had found out about her fears, would they now take active steps to stop her, if she did not go to the spa to be brainwashed?
She rushed round to Colin`s small apartment to discuss it with him. “Colin, why send an invitation to me, I am but a small cog in the vast wheel of NASA, they must have heard me talking to you about my fears?” Sally said anxiously, scolding herself for speaking about it at the Space Center.
Colin looked at the invitation and scowled. “Hmm, the workers only get a day while the bosses get a whole weekend, it doesn`t seem fair. Look Sally, you are getting yourself worked up over nothing, all the bigwigs in NASA have been to the spa and now maybe it is time for us smaller cogs.” Colin explained in as reasonable a voice as he could muster, he was a little annoyed with Sally, for she had dragged him from his bed while still bleary eyed.
“Colin!” Sally exclaimed. “Do you really expect me to believe that load of twaddle, they know, whoever they are, and I am in real danger, who knows you could be next.” Sally almost shrieked; her voice had been rising ever since she had arrived there, and Colin fully expected one of his neighbours to complain about the noise soon.
“Colin.” Sally almost begged. “You have to come with me to the FBI offices, I know one of the agents there, we went to Harvard together, please Colin, it is urgent, I need you by my side.” Sally implored him.
A warm glow rushed through Colin on hearing these words, ‘she needed him by her side,’ he repeated the words to himself, but on seeing the quizzical look upon Sally`s face, as she waited for him to come out of his dazed state, he quickly brought his mind back to her request. He could see that Sally was truly worried, and he thought that her FBI friend might get her to see sense, so he agreed, at least he was able to spend some time with her out of work, why it was almost a date, she had even confessed to needing him.
“Ok Sally, you call him while I get washed and dressed, see if he is at work today, if he is then I will drive you over there to speak with him.” Colin agreed.
Sally`s friend was there, he was finishing up a report and had hoped to spend the rest of the weekend doing nothing, however, he remembered Sally and agreed to see her. He remembered her as a good-looking woman, if a little weird, one who worked hard with little time for play. He had thought of asking her out for a date at one time, however, he had not done so, apart from being just a little weird she was also too much of a nerd even for a computer geek like him. He wondered if she had changed much, probably not from the sound of it, seeing spies hiding amongst her test tubes.
One hour later saw Colin driving Sally over to the main office of the FBI in Houston, Sally had not seen Richard Mallory, to stop and speak to him, for almost five years. They had met at Harvard where they had become friends; he had studied computer science and had gone on to join the FBI. Sally had seen him occasionally as he walked towards the FBI offices, but only when she had been driving by, and so she had never resumed their friendship. As they drove, neither Sally or Colin noticed the car following them, the driver was Mandelson, he also found the vehicle that he was in very quaint, but even so he quite liked the experience, the earthlings had some things that would help him to forget Magenta, and the family that he had left behind. They were gone from him forever, for he was now a human, even if the body had grown in a tank, while his family were Magentans. However, as with many of the other clones who were not super scientists, he had been an aging soldier on Magenta, here on Earth he had a young strong body again, and the promise of a long life ahead of him.
On Magenta only the mega rich and the indispensable were able to make use of the new technique of cloning, it was far too expensive for the ordinary citizen, and in any case the government had never formerly legalised cloning, they feared a population explosion. The rogue planet had changed all of that for the lucky ones who were part of the initial invasion force.
**********
As soon as Sally and Richard had gone through the usual greetings, she told her old friend of her suspicions, although she refrained from saying that E.T. was involved, just yet.
“Richard, a large number of those who have returned from Mars, or the Moon, no longer have the time for a coffee break, they never stop in the corridors for a chat. They have also formed a clique, they speak together behind closed doors, almost never in the corridor as they used to. NASA is not a world of introverts and secret cliques, it is full of enquiring minds who go out of their way to meet and talk with others about science, any science, it does not matter which. Worst of all Richard, the work seems to bore them, bore them Richard, how when many of them are now working on the Jupiter project. I tell you they are acting strangely, there is definitely something the matter with them.” Sally declared just a little fearfully. “And another thing Richard, the work of the senior echelon within NASA, those who never travelled off-world is suffering too, and it is since their little trip to the new health spa. They are lethargic; they start work much later, and finish much earlier.” Sally declared.
“And someone, a technician named Mandelson probably, has told them about my fears, which he must have overheard when I mentioned them to Colin, for now they have sent an invitation to me, to visit the spa!” Sally exclaimed anxiously.
“Look Sally, first you say that your colleagues do not have time for a coffee break, and then you accuse them of working shorter hours, which is it?” Mallory asked a very annoyed Sally. He did not wait for her to answer though; he carried on with his demolition of her silly little fears, as he thought of them.
“In any case what you are describing is simply impossible; it would be far too vast an organisation, it would be impossible for any foreign government to be able to run such a large scale network, especially unnoticed by one of our intelligence agencies.” Mallory said, finishing almost apologetically when he saw her face fall.
However, Sally quickly recovered; she stood up and glowered at Mallory. “So, you refuse to do anything about it Richard, even though I have given you convincing reasons to act?” Sally asked, almost stamping her foot down in anger at his dismissive attitude towards her.
Seeing her down, then angry at him, made him feel a little off balance and then rather guilty, he had dismissed her fears out of hand, something, he felt, an agent should never do, so Mallory made a strategic retreat. “Ok Sally, I`ll tell you what, I will take a covert look around the Spa with my partner, on Monday, he is off somewhere with his girlfriend until then.” Mallory said hurriedly in an effort to placate one angry woman.
Mandelson was parked a little further along the road
, his people possessed a lot of very advanced technology, he had used just a little of it to access Earth`s mobile phone networks, and then he had accessed Sally`s smart phone and turned on the microphone. He listened into everything said, he heard Sally tell Mallory of her fears and the reasons behind them, he also learnt the name of the FBI agent, and where he would be on Monday. Mandelson then made a call to her phone, and when Sally took her phone out of her handbag, Mandelson used its camera to take a picture of Mallory, he now knew what the agent looked like, and this would make it easier to take him when he turned up at the spa.
In the FBI building Sally apologised for inadvertently taking Mallory`s photograph, her smart phone must be playing up, either that or she had inadvertently pressed the wrong button. She wondered if she should put him on his guard regarding the E.T. involvement, but surely, his investigation would expose them, whether terrestrial or not she argued, and so she kept her suspicions to herself. Anyway, if she mentioned aliens at any time, then he would have laughed at her, and then refused point blank to help her.
**********