“All I’m saying Daughter, is that we have to be very cautious. In the meantime, I have a plan to get The SIX out of our hair permanently. I’ll brief you later when all of the details have been worked out. For now, rest… and just… watch your back,” he cautioned her.

“Keep me informed Daddy, and you be careful too. I love you.”

“Goodbye Natalia, I love you too,” he said perfunctorily.

U.N. Secretary-General Niobe Anan rose to greet her distinguished visitor with a grace that belied her age. She had chaired the United Nations for over five years now and had represented Tanzania in the General Assembly for fifteen years before being elected to her current post.

“Good morning Mr. Ravensclaw, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” she smiled.

“Good morning Madam Secretary-General. I’m afraid that this isn’t a social call, although the pleasure of your company is always welcome. We have a mutual problem, you and I…” he paused for effect.

“The world has many problems,” she countered, “of which we would obviously share a few. Could you be a bit more specific?”

“To be very precise, we have six in common,” he said with a frozen smile, “The SIX to be specific. However, I may just have a solution to this particularly irritating group.”

“Really now Mr. Ravensclaw,” Madam Anan feinted, playing her hand extremely close, as a matter of course. “The SIX have done a lot of good for my country and for all of Africa. Why should I consider them a problem?” she asked.

“They have also ignored U.N. resolutions, reshaping the political and social landscape of the world as they see fit and ultimately undermining the U.N.’s authority,” Ravensclaw scowled. “I seem to recall the last member state that tried to do that and the U.N.’s reaction to it. Come now Madam, do we have to bring up the lessons of history? Perhaps even in the media?” His threat was overt and the Secretary-General was well aware of the power this man wielded, however she was not about to concede the win based on his command and certainly not without a volley or two of her own.

“Let us for a moment accept your theory that The SIX pose a real threat to planetary security. How do you propose we deal with it? All armed forces responses to them have thus far been ineffectual, to say the least,” the Secretary-General pursed her lips. “Only those terrorists in Washington have been able to defeat them, and we don’t deal with terrorists,” she reminded him sternly, the game back in her court now.

“Oh I suggest nothing as crude as violence Madam,” he rallied smoothly. “A simple subterfuge to lure them to where they can be contained is surely more palatable. They have such an over-inflated sense of justice that they will even be willing to walk into a trap if you ask them politely enough. With the correct set dressing and a seeming willingness on the U.N.’s part to aid them with their endeavours, they can be bottled up safely where we can keep them from interfering in the affairs of humankind completely,” Nathanial smashed his point home.

“And just what will this cost the nations of the world Mr. Ravensclaw? This containment?” she sensed a drop shot coming.

“It will be relatively cheap on a global scale, a few billions, of which Ravensclaw International will gladly pay half,” and he knew he had aced it when the Secretary-General steepled her fingers and said,

“This intrigues me Sir, pray do continue…” Game, set and match Nathanial thought mischievously to himself.

Greg was trying to relax in the living room of the AERI when Hestia walked in. The rest of the inhabitants of the house had left him to his brooding for the past two weeks. Hestia called him out of his reverie.

“Excuse me Daddy, but you wanted to know when the European authorities contacted us?” she reminded him.

he cursed mentally.

Greg willed the ACM into casual work clothing and activated the video link.

“AERI, Greg Howard here,” he answered professionally. The screen clarified into the face of an officious man in a badly cut suit.

“Oh, Dr. Howard, allow me to express my condolences on the events of two weeks ago. The loss of the research centre is keenly felt.” Greg cut him off sharply.

“The lab and factory can be replaced. Quite frankly it’s the people I’m concerned with,” Greg replied, a little too discourteously perhaps.

“Yes, of course,” the bureaucrat responded obsequiously. “The good news is that most of those who were employed at AERIE are safe and well. We regret to inform you that we did find only one of the staff that was at the compound that day alive, however. The other three were pronounced dead on the scene. Miss Betina Becker is in serious but stable condition in the ICU of the Biel Hospital,” the man reported.

“Will she recover?” Greg asked with deep concern.

“The doctors believe so, but the prognosis for her mobility is still being questioned,” he referred to a paper in front of him before continuing. “Her spine was broken in several places. And there was a badly burned corpse found that had been decapitated, however we cannot as yet identify him in your employee records. It may have been one of the intruders. Professor Jonathan Tyler and another unidentified woman were also found dead.”

“Please make arrangements with Professor Tyler’s family to have his remains sent to them… AERI will pay for all funeral and transportation costs. Once you have identified the deceased woman, please do the same. As for the second male body…” Greg paused for effect, “…at that hour, there were only three AERIE staff on site. Should someone step forward to claim the body, then you may have a lead on the people who were behind this cowardly act, otherwise just do what you regularly do with a John Doe,” he took a deep breath and began his instructions again. “All of Miss Becker’s medical costs will be paid by AERI. When she is well enough to travel, she is to be given the option of coming here to Canada for rehabilitative therapy, although that will remain entirely her choice. Let her know we are thinking of her and that I will visit as soon as possible,” Greg finished courteously.

“As you say Sir… once again, my condolences.” The video link cut off and Greg breathed a heavy sigh of despair.

“Hes? I’d like to speak with Julian. Can you ask him to come in here please?”

Trish asked with concern.

his anger burned dangerously like a white-hot poker.

she suggested.

Greg said cryptically.

Julian walked into the room before Trish could ask Greg what he meant.

“Greg, I’m so sorry about what happened in Biel. You have lost so much, and so… suddenly,” Julian commiserated.

“And I intend to mourn them both Julian. But right now I need your team of AIs to begin infiltrating the business of The Council of Twenty, with special emphasis on the Ravensclaws. I need them stripped of all access to their money and income sources. I want them to be investigated by all governments… everywhere. I want their assets seized and sold off at fire sale prices. I want the same thing done to them that they have done to so many others in the past,” Greg was calculatingly cold.

“Greg, I’m sorry, but you’re starting to sound like Nathanial Ravensclaw,” Julian replied with bitterness and disgust. Greg looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes.

“Julian…can’t you see? We have to make sure that there is never such a concentration of power in so few hands ever again. If we manage to strip them of their money… their shields in essence, then maybe the law will be able to punish them for their crimes against humanity,” Greg buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know how else to do it but to use the very methods that they use themselves. Julian… Father… can’t you see that they have to pay? Not just for Rumi and Jon, but for everyone that they’ve ever hurt or destroyed,” Greg sounded unhappily determined.

“Yes Greg, I can see that Son. All I’m saying is don’t let your thirst for vengeance destroy you and all that you believe in. I pulled you into my war and I don’t want to lose you and Tricia. Damn you Greg Howard… don’t make me mourn the loss of another family,” Julian replied with some heat. Greg gathered the older man into a hug and with a sob, started weeping onto his shoulder. Julian just let him cry out his anguish and didn’t deny him the comfort he needed.

The U.N. Security Council didn’t realize that it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Nathanial Ravensclaw. If any member had even guessed there were others present under Ravensclaw’s control, they certainly kept it to themselves, primarily out of self-preservation. No, it was a definite given that The Security Council would vote any way that Nathanial wanted, however the world had no idea he was holding all the cards. The Secretary-General had presented them with a startling plan to contain and control The SIX. Lure them to the U.N. Moon base and strand them there. After four years of continuous operations, the base was a self-sustaining entity now and once evacuated, would be a perfect prison for beings that could not be held in any earthbound captivity. The resolution passed unanimously and the plans for the evacuation of the station personnel got underway. The bait was simple: a faked transmission that the Moon base was under attack by the enhanced terrorists and then the general assembly would pass a resolution begging The SIX for their help. The nations would supply transportation and whatever else The SIX needed but, once they were in the base, the transport would be recalled. The plan could be easily managed and it would effectively trap the so-called ‘heroes’. It was foolproof and would be inexpensive as well. Besides, they weren’t killing them after all, simply marooning them, so consciences could remain clear.

Nathanial Ravensclaw watched the proceedings from the monitor room at Hammer base. He was still upset over the loss of Firefall but the world could be just as effectively controlled with five Super Soldiers as with six.

Nathanial thought caustically.

A wry grin curled the corners of his mouth as he pondered his newly found power.

He decided that it wouldn’t be necessary to actually send any of his precious Hammers to the Moon, the intelligence communities of the world’s ‘sovereign’ nations would be able to come up with a convincing deception. And now it appeared that Greg Howard might still be alive. That fool didn’t even have enough smarts to shield his communications. He smiled a satisfied smile and started planning what to do with the very last obstacle to his agenda, AERI and its irritating creator.

At Langley, Virginia and in the black ops departments of the other members of the world intelligence community, preparations were underway as to the faking of an attack on Lunar one. It wasn’t the first time that they’d had to come up with convincing fakes either... false flag operations as they were commonly known. Many of the world’s space programs were fabricated out of pure necessity due to the increasing costs of keeping up with the technological aspects of the missions. The encroaching civilian space programs had forced the set-up of the International Space Station and Lunar one in the first place. The sheer magnitude of cost to keep the public in the dark about extraterrestrials was staggering enough without sending manned missions to other planets. Now there was a real challenge to be handled and they all dug into it with glee. By the end of July 2010, a scrambled transmission was received from Lunar one. The Moon base personnel had long since been evacuated to the ISS and were being surreptitiously transferred back to Earth in ones and twos on regular shuttle flights disguised as civilians. The media had a field day with the images and broadcasts, especially the one where the terrorists cut off all communications abruptly. The public around the world began demanding that the U.N. do something, exactly as Ravensclaw had predicted they would. The motion to call The SIX in for help was furiously debated by The General Assembly but public pressure finally forced the passing of a resolution. The call went out to The SIX and now the world waited to see if their heroes would respond.

On Island SIX, the team had finished healing their wounded bodies, but their wounded spirits proved much harder to mend. Their sense of purpose and invulnerability had been shattered when the enemies had defeated three of them so quickly and then left them to face the destruction of a city and the derision of the public. Sarida and David were almost always together now as she seemed most able in helping him regain his sense of self-worth. They were also very much in love and this development had cheered up the rest of the team slightly. By this point, they had almost completely given up on their codenames and uniforms. It seemed to make no difference to anyone anymore. Theo was rarely around and Nikoli would just spend most of his time in the gymnasium, pushing himself harder and harder, often to the point of shutdown. Carina worried the most about Steven though. He would spend days on end in the monitor room, absorbing more and more information and trying to trace the origins of these self-styled villains who had destroyed the capital of his country and almost killed him in the process. Oddly enough, when he came bounding out of the monitor room this time though, he looked almost happy.

“We’re needed!” he shouted, pumping his fist in the air. David looked up at him from the couch where he was sitting with his arm around Sarida.

“What is it now? Did some world leader get an ouchie on his knee? Wants us to kiss it and make it all better?” he asked sourly.

“Maybe I should rephrase that David…” Steven began again. “The U.N. is calling for us to save the personnel of Lunar one. They’re under attack by the same people we fought in DC.” he stated more carefully.

“And…” David waited for the other shoe to drop.

“We’ll have full cooperation and sanction for this mission and sanction from them from here on in… no strings man... just go and save the base and its people,” Steven concluded triumphantly. Carina leapt to her feet.

“This is fantastic! It’s just what we need to regain the fire in our bellies! We’ve been sitting around here for months now moping and just feeling sorry for ourselves. Now we have another chance to do what we gathered for in the first place!” she burst out. Sarida eyed David who still had a troubled look on his face.

“What’s wrong Sweetie? Cari is right. We need this mission for our own sake as a team and the world needs The SIX more than it ever has in the past,” she smiled.

“I don’t know Sari…” David remained sceptical, “…it seems out of character for those beasts to attack Lunar one. There’s too little opportunity for collateral damage on the Moon. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but there seems to be something more under the surface here, something that we’re just not seeing yet,” he sighed heavily. Nikoli stepped into the ready room from the gym where he had been listening.

“David, think what you want,” he stated, “but I have friends at that station and even if the U.N. is more concerned about their precious investment in the base, I care for the fate of the people trapped up there with those animals. I’m in, even if you’re not!” he announced emphatically. David stood up.

“I agree Niki, we’re all going, but we have to be completely on our guard. This smells of something greater than an attack and rescue mission. There’s real danger here… I sense it in my gut. Steven, recall Theo… The SIX will answer the world’s call.”

Trish sighed and pushed herself away from the interface terminal she’d been working on. The preparations for the attack in the virtual world of the global net had been proceeding frustratingly slowly. Just tracking the assets of The Twenty was nearly impossible. There were so many false leads and dummy corporations to be examined and discarded, but the surprisingly satisfying thing was looting the dummies and redistributing the wealth down to the masses around the world. Minor amounts of funds were appearing in the bank accounts of nearly everyone on the planet, a hundred here, a thousand there… and while most people were honest enough to question the irregularities, the banks simply confirmed that the accounts were correct and overall the world seemed a little happier. It was like being Robin Hood, robbing from the corrupt rich and giving to the deserving poor. Greg had been feeling better of late too. The actions they were undertaking were just nibbles on the shark’s fin it was true, but the shark hadn’t seemed to notice it… yet.

The Lunar one incident had not gone unnoticed, but The U.N. seemed to have handled the matter satisfactorily. The SIX had yet to respond, but Greg and Trish trusted them to do the right thing. Greg had flown to Switzerland in the middle of August to see how well Betina was recovering. There had been a tearful reunion in the hospital room but she seemed to be on the mend. Betina was cheered by the fact that Greg had already started to rebuild the AERIE and that reconstruction of the facility was well under way. Greg made his offer to Betina to come and complete her recovery and rehabilitation at AERI and was not at all surprised at her immediate acceptance. The doctors believed she would be well enough to travel in perhaps three months time. Greg finally departed, telling her that she could supervise the rebuilding of AERIE from her hospital room on two conditions: one, that she didn’t let it interfere with her recovery, and two, that she put equal amounts of time into her physiotherapy as she did to the management of the Institute’s re-genesis. Betina gratefully agreed to the conditions and told Greg that she looked forward to visiting him at his home in Canada. The day nurse hustled Greg out then by telling him that her patient required rest in order to heal. Greg waved goodbye to Betina and left the room and the hospital with tears forming in his eyes. That had been a difficult day for Greg although he hid it well. He visited the site of AERIE and nearly wept when he saw that nothing of the original remained to show that three dedicated people had once called it home. He resolved to rename the facility in Jon and Rumi’s honour. The name Tyler–Takahashi Alternative Energy Research Institute, Europe would grace the gates of the new facility that was already beginning to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. No one would ever forget Jon and Rumi, not if he had anything to do about it. Attending their funerals had been among the most difficult things he had ever done. Before leaving Biel that evening to catch his flight out of Geneva, Greg had made one more stop at the potter’s field where unclaimed bodies were buried. He located the grave of the villain known as Firefall and spat on it before turning and stalking away. Somehow that one symbolic act made him feel a whole lot better and even more determined to do the same thing at least six more times.

The SIX arrived at the United Nations Plaza in September of 2010 to meet with the subcommittee in charge of the Lunar one rescue operations. Dreamwalker remained on edge and was even more than his usual taciturn self. Sarida had confided to Carina that he had been having troubled sleep over the last few days and it was affecting his mood just as much as the upcoming mission was. They were quickly escorted through the gauntlet of media and soon found themselves in a large conference room. They took their assigned seats and the meeting got underway. The chairperson cleared her throat and began.

“On behalf of the United Nations’ Space Exploration Committee and The General Assembly, I’d like to thank you all for agreeing to assist us in our rescue efforts during the Lunar 1 crisis. My name is Lydia McKenzie, and I’m the Committee Chair,” she introduced herself formally. “As you can see by the monitor behind us, and although all communications were cut by the…” she paused for emphasis, “…enhanced terrorists, the data links and life signs monitors show us that most of the base personnel are still alive. We have no idea if the terrorists are still present at the base and that is why we so desperately require your help.”

“And in return you guarantee The SIX’s U.N. sanction will continue beyond the completion of this mission and we will become free agents without any political interference, correct?” Dreamwalker asked coolly.

“We have the document drafted to your specifications, Dreamwalker. If you will all simply read through it and then sign the last page of the contract, we are most anxious to begin preparations for the mission directly,” McKenzie replied. The team quickly scanned and signed the document, which in turn was duly signed by the committee members. All was now in hand, but The SIX did not yet realise just whose hand they were now in.

“Very well ladies and gentlemen, if you could transport yourselves to the Kennedy Spaceport, the mission can begin in earnest,” she concluded. Sidestep opened a portal through which the team stepped, along with the Committee Chairperson. They arrived instantly in the lobby of the main administration building of NASA’s Kennedy complex where they were greeted by both the heads of the civilian and military space programs.

“Greetings people, Ms. McKenzie, it’s an honour to finally meet you all in person. My name is Bob MacDonald and I’ll be your liaison for this mission. We have the next generation of space shuttle prepped and ready for takeoff as soon as you all have your pressure suits on,” he said. Nikoli was impressed.

“The U.N. is loaning us the X-97?”

“Only the best for our ‘heroes’…” Bob smiled. “She’s fully flight tested and her sister ships are under construction now. The 97 series will give us the ability to move beyond the Earth’s orbit operations and we expect they will be the workhorses of the 21st century. Your bird has been renamed Hero in your honour. If you would all just follow me please?” Turning down an adjacent hallway, Bob indicated for them to follow. They were escorted to the suiting room and left in the hands of the clean room technicians. Roughly three hours later they emerged into a waiting room where they rejoined their hosts and the U.N.’s representative.

“If everyone is prepped and ready, we’ll take you to the Hero. She’s ready for launch whenever you board. Everything is strictly automatic but you’ll need someone at the controls for backup purposes,” MacDonald paused, “I would assume that would be you… Mr. Cossack?” he groped for the proper way to address the big man. Nikoli nearly leapt out of his pressure suit. He had kept as low a profile as possible, but he was once again at the Cape and amongst fellow cosmonauts and astronauts where he was hard to miss.

“Yes, I will act as backup commander and pilot for this mission, thank you. We would prefer that no one other than our team members be involved with this flight,” Niki requested. The mission commander nodded his acceptance and guided them towards a waiting bus.

“Alright then, if you would all board the ship, we’ll begin the countdown at T minus thirty minutes.”

To Be Continued