CHAPTER TWELVE
SECOND PLACE IS THE FIRST LOSER
President Sinclair asked to speak with Tobias. He wanted to put an end to the fighting and bring things back to when they first arrived.
The Qadarians arrived on a mission of peace, but the recent attacks showed them the kind of people those on Earth were.
Besides, protesters continued their attacks all throughout the night, led by the words of Howard. What the aliens left of the curing tents were destroyed.
Tobias knew that they would never be welcomed here. They would be ostracized any time they showed their face.
After a meeting with the captains of the other ships, it was decided. The humans were afraid of them. Now, they would give them a reason to be afraid.
Inside the cube, Chloe doubled her usual morning run. By now, everyone was running, even Francis and Helen. Most only ran the one lap. Michael and Wayne ran the extra lap with her.
It was Sunday as usual for Pastor Dennis. He gave his sermon after breakfast as he had the week prior.
Tobias instructed Levi not to let those inside the cube know of their impending doom until the time was right. Those twenty-four had done no wrong. They had fully cooperated with the Qadarians.
After the sermon, Levi addressed the group.
“Good day, all. Today, I want to talk about something everyone experiences. A few days ago, we wanted to know about your successes. Today, we would like to know about failure in your lives.”
“I saw an ad on TV for gold coins at a ridiculously low price,” Francis said. “For the past ten years, gold prices were skyrocketing. Since I had no Social Security, I had to prepare for the future.
“You know the saying, ‘If something looks too good to be true, it probably is’? Well, this was just that, and I ignored it.
“When I went to get cash for them, I was told the gold was fake. I was the victim of a scam. When I called the company to get my money back, I was told the number was no longer in service. I felt so foolish.”
“As a teacher, you want all of your students to succeed,” Scott said, “but there are some you just can’t teach.
“There was one in particular I remember, Hunter Broughton. He had the ability to write, but not the passion. I worked with him to find his passion. I tutored him.
“In the end, he simply refused to turn in the work on time. I had no choice but to fail him. Two quarters later, he dropped out of school.”
“Last year, I ran in my first New York City Marathon,” Chloe said. “I had been training for months, since I had never run that distance before.
“I was running a nice pace. Then, around mile fourteen, I twisted my ankle. I was in a lot of pain. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t put any weight on it.
“Months of preparation for nothing. I wanted to finish this race so bad, but I had to be help off. I was in tears.
“Thankfully, I didn’t let it get me down. I continued to train and did finish it this year.”
“That reminds me of my basketball career,” Marc said. “I had big dreams for my future. I knew I was never going to play in the NBA. The odds of me getting drafted were astronomical.
“I wanted to use my skills to help me get an education. I wanted to become an architect. I was all set to go to Central Michigan to get my degree.
“Then I got hurt and got my scholarship revoked. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to school. I had no other choice but to get a job.
“Since I couldn’t design buildings, I figured I could build them. I still want to go to school to get my degree. I just need to save up the money for it.”
“A friend of mine talked me into entering the Toughman Contest,” Christian said. “I’ve never been much of a fighter, but at my size, he said I would be tough to knock down.
“I watched a few UFC fights and played quite a bit of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out in training. I was psyched for my fight.
“Thirty seconds into the first round, I took two shots to my jaw and dropped like a sack of potatoes. The next thing I remember, I was back in the locker room, checking to make sure all my teeth were still in my mouth.
“I decided to stick to Punch-Out. I haven’t been able to beat Bald Bull yet.”
“Ever since I was a little girl,” Cassidy said, “my mom had entered me in beauty pageants. And every time she entered me, I took home the first place trophy.
“Then, I entered the Miss Teen Toronto pageant. I did everything I usually did, sang the same song in the talent portion and gave the usual answer in the Q&A portion.
“And I left with the second place trophy. My mom made me feel so worthless. She said I lost my beauty, that I would never win another pageant again.
“And I believed her. She made me feel so miniscule that I never worked up the nerve to enter another pageant again.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Cassidy. You are stunning,” Marc said. “Mothers can be cruel sometimes, especially those stage moms.”
“I know. Every guy I’ve dated has told me the same thing.”
“I’m not trying to date you. I’m just saying as a friend. You are first place in my eyes.”
“You’re so sweet. Thank you.”
“I know what it’s like to be runner-up,” Travis said. “We made it all the way to the championship game my junior year.
“We had outplayed them all game, and still we trailed by four points late into the fourth quarter. I was leading us down the field for the touchdown that would win us our first-ever state championship.
“That was when I threw that interception. I saw my receiver open in the end zone. What I didn’t see was the safety waiting for me to throw so he could swoop in and steal my moment.
“I couldn’t forget about that senior year. By week three, I got benched. I never got that starting role back. When we finally won the state title, I felt so useless. I knew I was the reason we lost junior year, and my not playing was the reason we won my senior year.”
“When Ruth and I were married,” Dennis said, “we talked about having kids. A few years later, I was so delighted when she told me she was pregnant.
“Delight soon turned to sorrow. A few months later, she miscarried. We took that as a sign from God that we weren’t meant to have kids.
“She wanted to be a mother in the worst way. I asked God to answer our prayer for a child. He sent me the answer.
“Northwest Bible has a mission in Tartu, Estonia. We went to visit that mission. Among the places we visited was an orphanage.
“There was one little guy we just absolutely fell in love with, an eight-year-old named Jaan. We wasted little time in asking about adoption. He said he wouldn’t go with us unless we also took his eleven-old-brother Kristjan.
“If we could, we would have taken all those kids home to have Jaan. But we could only take him and his brother.
“We thank God every morning for bringing these two angels into our lives.”
“For years, I entered my strawberry rhubarb pie in the county fair,” Tracy said. “And for years, I took home the blue ribbon.
“Then one year, for some reason, I tried a different recipe, for very berry pie. I used blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. No blue ribbon. In fact, I didn’t win any kind of ribbon.
“I went back to my famous strawberry rhubarb the next year, but it never won the blue ribbon again. Last year, I stopped entering altogether.”
“Months after the accident that left me paralyzed,” Wayne said, “I tried working with my therapist to try to walk again.
“I tried on my own. My legs just wouldn’t move. I tried electronic stimulation on my legs. I was able to take a few steps with the parallel bars, but my arms were doing most of the work. The minute I moved away from the bars, I was helpless.
“I was told of an experimental procedure that could reestablish the connections to my legs. They also told me there was a chance that it could fail and ruin any progress I had made. I felt it best to steer clear of regressing.
; “Until two weeks ago, I never thought I would ever walk again. Thank you Qadarians for giving me my legs back.”
“My very first credited acting gig was for a sitcom called ‘Welcome to the Five’,” Jessica said. “I was thirteen and played the middle child in a family of five.
“I loved the concept of the show. I felt like this could be my launching pad to a long future.
“Unfortunately, the critics slammed the show. The network put us in the same timeslot as CSI and The Office. We were dead in the water before we could even get a following.
“We lasted four episodes before we were cancelled. I was devastated. For months, I tried getting auditions for a different show. No one would hire me.
“I gave up on television, but I never gave up on acting. Thankfully, the director of Switched at Birth took a chance on me, and the rest is history.”
While they were answering Levi’s question, the Qadarians began their first attacks. They didn’t target military bases. They didn’t target civilians. Instead, they targeted power plants, anyplace that generated power.
They wanted to cripple the world. They wanted to establish that they were the dominant being.
The Americans counterattacked. They launched thousands of planes and hundreds of tanks to attack the Qadarians.
But they were no match for the superior technology the Qadarians possessed. Each ship was made from a strong metal, once not found on earth called herculium. It was strong enough to withstand shells and missiles. They could not penetrate.
Some of the Qadarian attack craft fired electromagnetic pulses to disable the planes rather than kill the pilots. The planes dropped like flies. Others used beams of intense energy to destroy. The tanks melted like butter to their rays.
Howard decided to take his fight to the highest power, President Sinclair. He drove from New Jersey to Washington, bringing his megaphone. He stood outside the White House and led his protest.
“Peace is no longer an option. They have declared war on us. We must use every means possible to drive this parasite from our planet.
For an hour, he kept ranting. He refused to back down when approached by aides. He refused to back down when approached by guards. Even when he was arrested and taken away, he still preached his message.
Based on the attacks, not by Howard’s words, President Sinclair reluctantly declared a state of war. Every National Guardsman was called to active duty. Military bases all over the world were put on red alert.
Meanwhile in the cube, the twenty-six were treated to a pizza dinner. There were cheese pizzas, pepperoni pizzas, veggie pizzas, meat lover’s pizzas, and pizzas with everything. There were breadsticks, Pepsi, Coke, and Diet Coke.
By midnight, two-thirds of the cities in the United States slept in pitch blackness. And the Qadarians continued to destroy the remaining power plants.