Dulce Truths

“Shit, guess I’m not the only one that hasn’t slept in 24 hours!” Bobbie says with a laugh, elbowing David beside him, who only frowns.

Carl steps forward then. “You men deserve a rest — you’ve earned it.” He turns to the Dutchman. “That goes for you too, Ellis. Can’t have you falling down dead on us now!”

Ellis gives an uneasy smile to that, and nods as Carl claps him on the back. The men in the room begin to get up and then filter out, most heading to the barracks for sleep, a couple hard-cores hitting up the mess hall for some chow first, maybe a workout.

“I’ll turn-in in an hour or so,” Ellis says to Carl as he starts for the door as well. “First I want to question a few of those female escapees.”

“Be my guest,” Carl says with a shrug, and then watches Ellis walk out.

4 — Leaks

Ellis gets out into the hallway and is glad to see his son standing there. Mark is talking with some of the men that he’d fought with, but at the sight of his father he says his goodbyes and the group breaks up, the other men heading to the barracks. Ellis nods as he approaches.

“Lookin’ a little tired there, dad,” Mark says, narrowing his eyes a bit but flashing a smile as well. Ellis forgot how bright and vibrant that smile was. It’d been ten years since he’d seen it, ever since Mark had gone off-world with the Sirians.

“Feelin’ a little tired too,” Ellis replies, giving a half-hearted smile.

“I bet,” Mark says with a laugh. “With the mission and the planning, I bet you’re pushing more than 24 hours.”

Ellis only frowns to that, then reaches out and grabs his son’s arm. “We need to talk,” he says, glancing this way and that to make sure no one’s close enough to listen.

“What is it?” Mark says, alarm in his voice.

“Well, first of all…” Ellis says, glancing around one more time, then satisfied that no one is there, he focuses in on his son, “…what was with that Sirian ship back there at Dulce?”

Mark sighs. “Long story. What do you know of the off-world political situation as it currently stands?”

“Well,” Ellis begins, “we know most of the treaties between the humans and the Grays have been broken, the same with the treaties between us and the lizards. But then we’ve known that since ’75, just as we’ve known of the Grays’ expansion into the various underground bases that used to be solely our own.”

“And what of the disturbance in relations this has caused?”

Ellis shakes his head. “We know nothing of that.”

Mark nods. “The Grays took advantage of the chaos created from the events in ’75 to invade and conquer several of the older underground colonies. Apparently this has led to quite the fight in the Ashtar Collective, with many of the humanoids and the hybrids splitting off to join the Andro-Pleiadean Federation.”

“That drastic?” Ellis says.

“It gets worse,” Mark replies. “Ego is now being compressed in on itself. It's imploding on itself, and we’re finding huge pockets of incredible negativity, not only here, but in other parts of the galaxy as well. On Sirius B, for instance, there’s a terrible civil war going on right now. In Perseus, there are 21 systems getting ready to go to war in a battle between the Orion Group and the benevolent races of the Andromedan Council.”

“Damn, how’d things get so dicey?”

Mark shakes his head and lets out a sigh. “Something in the universe is speeding up, dad… but we don’t know what it is, where it is, or how to stop it.”

“God?” Ellis asks, and Mark shrugs, saying, “Could be.”

Silence falls for a moment as both men think on that, then Ellis speaks again.

“They’re still focused on non-intervention, right?”

Mark nods again. “Nothing to worry about there. It’s the Reptilians and some heartless humanoids that’ve joined them that we need to worry about. Together they’ve joined the interventionists of the Draco-Orion Empire.”

“Great,” Ellis says with a sigh and a long eye roll.

“There’s more,” Mark continues. “The Sirius-B system — aside from Arcturus and our own Sol group — has been shaken badly by this split between the two opposing Ashtarian factions. The division we see on Earth because of events in ’75 has expanded well beyond the stars. The Pleiadean-backed Sirian humanoids and the Orion-backed Sirian Reptilians have never been at each other’s throat as much as they are now.”

“You make it sound like what happened at Dulce four years ago is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“It is. What happened down in that base caused a chain reaction that’s rippled across this whole sector of the galaxy. Before ’75, the Reptilians had been invited to the peace talks in Telos, an act of good faith, sure, but a clear signal as well that the humanoids wanted to put the past behind them, and move forward in a peaceful and productive way.”

Ellis scoffs. “It’s that peace that might’ve scared the damn lizards more than anything.”