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Jake, Hunter, and John Seeger headed down the highway towards Peterson Air Force Base, where Hunter planned to procure one of the military's helicopters. They were all destined to be destroyed anyhow, so they may as well put one to a final good use. The intent was to fly it down to Colombia, making refueling stops along the way as needed, in order to check out possible locations for Hunter's people to settle when they arrive.

The drive was going to be at least an hour and a half and John had been curious to hear Hunter's story, so they gave him a brief synopsis of the events that had led up to them eating at John's son's diner. He was upset to hear about how his government had acted and was happy to have been able to help in some small way by giving them a motel room for the night.

"I can't believe the president wrecked things for you that way," John remarked, "I swear, I didn't vote for him, so you can't blame me."

Hunter chuckled and said, "Very well, I will leave you out of any retribution I might engage in later on."

"Thank God for that. I used to think I could handle myself just fine in a scuffle, but after watching you two fight, I think I'll stay out of any scraps involving you."

"You have nothing to be concerned about. Your president and his immediate staff are the ones I hold responsible for the damage to our terraforming process, so you certainly have nothing to worry about, nor do any others of your people."

"I figured that. I was just kidding around. Is there anything you can do to fix what he did?" John asked, "You said you're planning to save your people by landing them here on Earth, but can you save any of the plants and animals from your world?"

"That's a good question," Jake said, "I was wondering that myself. We haven't really talked about it since Cheyenne Mountain. The greenhouse ships are next on the roster to show up. Is there any way you can save any of them? You said there was no way to generate the antimatter you'd need to extend the stasis for your people, and not even enough for the animals that are on the way. I remember you telling me it takes a lot less antimatter for the greenhouses than for anything else. Are you going to be able to make enough of it to keep them running?"

"Not exactly, no. It takes a comparatively negligible amount of energy to keep plants and insects in suspension and that is all that sleeps in those greenhouse ships, but I would not be able to produce enough antimatter to make them last more than a month longer at best, when what we need is something closer to a year. Still, I believe it will be possible to save them all by another means."

"That would be fantastic! The plants and insects would be the key to making everything else work, wouldn't they? That would at least guarantee that Mars will someday look like your home world and will be ready to take any animals you might be able to save."

"It is unlikely we could save the animals. The antimatter needed for them is significantly greater. I would already be draining my available sources completely in order to save the plants."

John asked, "Couldn't you just release your animals here on Earth in the same place you decide to settle your people? They need to eat anyhow, right? Then you could bring them over to Mars later on, when your plants are settled in and ready."

The tiger nodded and said, "It is one possible approach, but I would prefer to avoid it if it were at all possible. It would be very dangerous to your world. I would prefer not to do any permanent harm to the Earth if I can avoid it. We cannot possibly predict what will happen to the balance if we introduce animals that did not evolve there. It would be very risky to allow any of the plants, insects, or animals from my world to be released into the wild on your world. It could be disastrous to the indigenous flora and fauna, or even to the animals from my world. It would be impossible to collect every last one of them up and bring them over to Mars when it is ready anyhow, so some of those animals would be left behind to continue to ravage your world and completely change the balance."

"So the plants might be saved, but the animals will be lost?" John asked, "That seems a shame."

"It may be unavoidable." Hunter replied, "But, if we can save the plants, then at least Mars will have the semblance of our home world. We could then begin to select appropriate animals from your world to begin to populate ours. With none of our own animals left to interfere with them, they should do fine. Our plants will be compatible with the biology of the animals from your world. Even saving our plants will come at a cost that might put the rest of the process in danger, though."

"How so?" Jake asked.

"I will basically need to scrounge antimatter from any source that I might be able to utilize in order to stretch out the stasis of the greenhouse ships for at least one year. In that time the lowest levels of the atmosphere should be sufficiently processed to keep the plants alive, since the influence of the atmosphere processors is strongest by far at ground level, then weaker as you move higher into the atmosphere."

"You said it would take 'years' longer to process the atmosphere now that the bacteria ships were destroyed," Jake said, "Why is it just one extra year now? Did something change?"

"Not exactly, I was just not thinking it through quite thoroughly enough. I had been considering how much longer it would take to fully process the atmosphere, but after giving it more thought I realized that the highest layers of the atmosphere do not need to be ready before the plants and animals could be released at ground level. You see, both ammonia and methane are lighter than air, so if they still exist in quantities in the higher levels of the atmosphere, they will stay up there and not endanger the life below.

"The atmosphere processors can continue to function for the additional two years it will take to convert the entire atmosphere even while we have plants and animals living on the surface. The processors create a vortex that sucks the higher atmosphere down to be processed, and exhausts the converted, breathable air out the bottom. Over time that bottom layer will grow and displace the toxic upper layer higher and higher until it is finally fully processed. We only need to wait long enough that the bottom most layers of the atmosphere that are involved in the weather are completely made up of the final balance of air, and that they have displaced the toxic methane and ammonia high enough that they can no longer mix down in the toxic storms that will occasionally break out over the next year.

"Because the air at the bottom layers of the atmosphere will have a near perfect balance, the plants can be released in just one year. By then the troposphere and stratosphere will be in good shape, and only the two higher layers of the atmosphere will still need more processing, but because they will be above the weather in the mesosphere and thermosphere, and cannot in any way mix down into the lower atmosphere, the life on the surface will be safe. The plants themselves will accelerate the process of reaching precisely the right balance of gases in the atmosphere at the lowest levels and I could immediately begin releasing animals into those ecosystems to begin producing carbon dioxide to complete the cycle, if we could find a way to save them. It would require that we keep the animals in stasis for at least another nine months, since it will still be three months before they arrive here. That would take a huge amount of antimatter though, so it's more likely that we will need to use animals from your world."

Jake said, "Still, it's awesome that you might be able to save the plants and insects. That would be a huge step towards making Mars just like your home world. So, how will you keep the greenhouses in suspended animation for a whole year longer? Where will you get the antimatter from if you can't produce it?"

"Much of what I'll need is in the ships themselves and was earmarked for use when they deployed upon their arrival. I can save that antimatter with some modifications to their deployment process, and I may need your assistance to make it work."

Jake said, "I don't know what I could possibly do, but you can be sure I'll do anything I can."

The cat smiled and said, "I had no doubt of that."

"So, what would have to change? How will you deal with the greenhouse ships now?"

"The original plan was simple," the tiger explained, "The greenhouse ships would each settle into place on the surface of the planet in clusters. Areas near the equator would get the jungle plants and insects. The ships containing the deciduous trees would land in more northern and southern climates. The ones carrying forests based more like the ones where we are now, made of evergreen type trees primarily, will set down in the mountainous areas. Desert areas would get the appropriate ecosystems as well, and areas suitable for grasslands in the mid-latitude will get clusters of the ships that contain the plants and insects that inhabit the broad, sweeping plains from our world. There are even some specialized ships that are filled with water and contain the plants that grow in the shallower parts of our oceans along with the plankton that makes up the bottom of the food chain much like the insects in the other greenhouses. Those will still deploy as normal when they arrive as they are much more tolerant and there will be enough air right at the ocean's surface to keep them healthy. All of the greenhouse ships of course are also populated with the mix of bacteria that naturally existed on our world that enable the necessary functions of decay and decomposition in order to convert death into food for new life to keep all of the ecosystems healthy."

Jake said, "So the ocean ones are deployed as normal, but that still sounds like a hell of a lot of ships yet that you need to deal with for the land based ecosystems."

"There are a great many of the greenhouse ships, yes. Enough to immediately provide every variation of ecosystem from our world that the animals could have settled into and lived off of as soon as they arrived. The vast majority of the surface of Mars would still be barren, obviously, but since the conditions of the atmosphere and the climate would be right, the ecosystems would quickly begin to spread out through natural means to eventually cover the whole planet. Saving all of those greenhouses would go a long way to salvaging the entire planetary engineering process, and it should be possible."

"Sounds like you'd need a hell of a lot of antimatter for that many greenhouse ships to stretch out the stasis for a whole year. How can you do it?"

"As I said before, the stasis field for the plants and insects uses a nearly insignificant amount of antimatter compared to living animals. The ships were actually one of the biggest users of our original antimatter stores, but that was simply due to their outrageous mass. Each weighs millions of tons and the amount of energy to accelerate them halfway and then decelerate them the other half, was more than any of the other ships used even for their inefficient stasis fields.

"With the greenhouse ships, a very small amount of antimatter goes a long way towards extending the stasis period. One way to get the additional energy needed would be to reduce the amount of antimatter the ships will consume when the stasis fields finally shut down and that would come from the modifications to the deployment process I mentioned earlier.

"The greenhouse ships were built in space and they have massive glass dome enclosures to let our star's light through. We used them to grow the ecosystems with the plants and insects of the various zones for many years while they floated out in space. The intent was to have them fully established and ready to support life by the time we initiated their stasis fields and launched them towards Mars. When each of those ships settles into its final position on the planet, those massive glass dome enclosures were meant to separate and lift off to be ejected right into space and directed towards the sun. We would reuse the large glass domes by integrating them into a new antimatter generator that we would be constructing after my people arrived and settled in."

"I was wondering how you managed to generate as much antimatter as you would need for this whole project since the stuff is so hard to make. So you had something right out in space near your sun that produced it?" Jake asked.

"Yes, that is correct. We constructed several massive generators that orbited very near our star where the light and the solar winds are most concentrated. Those machines focused the light using huge lenses, and the vast energy produced by converting that light to electricity was used to trap and accelerate the particles in the strong solar winds near the star using massive scoops that funneled the particles of the winds into huge electromagnetic ring accelerators. The particle accelerators created a steady stream of extremely high energy collisions that released a great deal of antimatter that we trapped and collected. Each of those rings was large enough to encircle your entire country, and there were dozens of them constructed in orbits around our star. The process of creating antimatter in any large quantity takes a humongous amount of energy. You really need the power of a star to do it efficiently. That is why I cannot produce much at all right now. I would need the massive collectors and generators that we will be building near your sun, but we cannot build those until our huge fabricators arrive with my people at the end of the migration, and even then it will take decades to get them constructed and completely functional."

"I see," Jake said, "so back to what you were saying. If you don't eject those heavy domes like you'd intended to, the antimatter you save will keep the stasis going in the greenhouses for longer, right?"

"Correct. The process of ejecting the glass domes into space required many ion pulse drives to be installed around the perimeter of each greenhouse that would all fire and lift each dome into orbit, and then move it over to a close orbit around your sun. Moving that much mass out of the gravity well of Mars would consume a considerable amount of antimatter that was calculated and included in the pool stored in each of those ships. My computer has estimated that if we do not fire those ion drives at all, the antimatter saved would be enough to keep the plants and insects in stasis for an additional six months. That would already get us half way to our goal of an additional year."

"Fantastic! But, how would you deal with the glass tops then? Have you got machines that you could use to lift them off and just set the glass aside somewhere? Or if you don't have machines, could you make some?"

"I do not have any machines that could perform that function, no. I don't even have the means to fabricate any such machine. That sort of complex fabrication is not possible with the equipment I have. I cannot even fabricate anything as complicated as a drone with what I have. In order to do that, I would need our large fabricator ships that I mentioned before. Those would not be needed until my people arrived, so that function has actually been combined into the ships that are carrying them.

"The idea was that once they awaken they would begin to fabricate the infrastructure they would need to setup new homes and all of the machines we would need to make our lives easier, and then begin to fabricate the much larger equipment that would be needed to get us fully back to where we were at our own home world from a technology perspective. The engineering ships like the one I arrived in were fitted with only a basic fabricator that could be used to make any parts that might be needed to repair any other equipment that might fail along the way. After I met you, I was happy to discover they could also be used to make dildos."

John laughed and said, "You sure aren't shy with your words, Hunter."

Hunter said, "Not usually, no. I made a replica of Jake's penis for me to play with on Mars before we found better ways to engage with each other. I made a replica of my own penis for him, too, and sent it over. It was my understanding that homosexuality was accepted in your society. I suppose the details of it might be more than you care to hear. I hope I didn't offend you."

John said, "You don't need to worry about offending me. I have no problem with your sexuality. My youngest, Joe, is gay too. I accidentally opened a plain brown package for him once when he was still living at home. In all fairness, it was addressed to 'J. Seeger' so I thought it was something for me. It had quite a few interesting toys in it. I was tempted to keep them for Gladys and me to have some fun with, but I figured he'd spent his own hard earned money on them, so I gave them up. Anyhow, I didn't mean to interrupt your discussion. It's all really interesting to me. You said you can't make machines to move the domes, so how will you do it?"

"One thing my simpler fabricator can produce in large quantities is the smart fabric I've used to make our doppelgangers, the black suits you see before you that conform to the shape of our bodies and bind to our skin. That technology was a late development for my people and we hadn't had much time to work with it to see what it might best be used for before we needed to launch ourselves on our long journey. We felt it might be a flexible and useful tool for the planetary engineers to have on hand, so we made our engineering ships' fabricators capable of producing the fabric in bulk. The strength of the doppelganger I've made with that fabric has proven to be quite impressive."

"I'll say," John remarked, "I saw those videos someone made of you on that bridge throwing those wrecked cars and that big tanker of fuel around like they were nothing. You saved a lot of lives on that bridge thanks to all that strength. Those videos spread like wildfire through the whole world. The things you did to save those people were incredible, and the things you said while you were doing it showed the world the kind of person you are. People were excited to know there was a real live super hero out there. We already knew you were one of the good ones even before you came to our town. I saw your demonstrations at the picnic, and I watched you two fighting on the street with your suits, too. It was amazing!"

Hunter nodded and said, "I have been giving some thought to making modified versions of the doppelgangers for Jake and I to use here on Mars when he gets here. Doubling or even tripling the density of the fabric and even greatly increasing the size of our doppelgangers may be necessary for what I have in mind, but I have the means to do that."

"Jake's going to Mars to be with you?" John asked, "That's wonderful!"

The cat grinned and said, "It is indeed. I look forward to it immensely."

The tiger turned to face Jake in the back seat and said, "You will have arrived here long before we need to begin to remove the domes, so we'll do the chore together. We will both be in the ambulator spheres, and inhabiting doppelgangers much larger than us. They will act as massive amplifiers of our own strength, far more powerful than the ones we have there on Earth, and they could quite literally do any of the heavy lifting we need, including simply manually lifting those domes and putting them aside to expose the ecosystems within them once the stasis fields are shut down. It will work."

"That sounds absolutely cool!" Jake exclaimed, "I would get to be a giant walking around on Mars!"

The big cat chuckled and said, "Indeed. I've already instructed my computer to begin producing the second skin fabric in large quantities in preparation to make the new doppelgangers, one for each of us. The larger I make them, the greater their stride and their strength will be, and the more easily they could manipulate excessively large objects. We could simply run from one greenhouse to the next, shutting down their stasis fields and lifting the domes off and setting them aside to expose the plant ecosystems to the air and sunlight. I have a few drones here that are similar to the delivery drones we've used, but much larger. We can use them to quickly move our deflated giant doppelgangers from one location to another on the planet quickly, to enable us to deal with every single dome on the planet. The antimatter that would have been used to carry the massive domes up and out of the gravity well will not be needed, so we can use it in advance to stretch out the stasis time for six months before we begin to remove the domes. We would simply continue to run the fields until all of the available antimatter is finally drained rather than keeping some to fire the pulse drives on the domes."

"OK, so that's how you could save enough energy to extend the stasis for six months, but you said you needed a year. Where does the rest of the energy come from? Can you produce enough antimatter to cover that?" Jake asked.

"No, I can't. In order to get the full year, I will need to scrounge, as I said before, and it will put me somewhat at greater risk from your people. It was one of the reasons why I needed to completely disarm your governments. In order to get the extra antimatter I will need, I will have to nearly completely disarm myself. I will have to recall my imaging swarms, as well as the massive drone controllers at the belts and all of the drones they contain. There is a significant amount of antimatter in those devices that I could liberate and use for the greenhouses. There should be more than a sufficient amount to do the job, with a bit left over."

"So if there's some left over, why not save some of the drones for your own protection?"

"If your people are never informed of the fact that I've dismantled all of the devices that I would have been able to use as weapons against them, they will not know that I've lost the capability to bring down the scale of destruction that I've promised would happen if they misbehave. I should never need to engage in that level of destruction, and I'm not even sure I could bring myself to do it if I had to, so I won't need to keep many drones to protect myself. I will certainly keep a few, though. Perhaps enough to retain one small imaging swarm in order to keep watch over your people and ensure they are behaving."

John said, "All this talk of disarming yourself sounds like something I shouldn't really be hearing, but I'm happy to know you wouldn't destroy all of us if you could avoid it."

Hunter said, "I trust you completely, John. I know you are a good man, and I believe you have seen that I am a good person too. You can trust that I would never do anything to harm your people in any way if I could avoid it. I do need you to keep anything we've said to yourself."

John nodded and said, "Don't worry. You and Jake are two of the best as far as I'm concerned. Listen, I know there's really nothing I can do to help in all of this, but if you ever think of any way I could, don't hesitate to ask. I think if more people knew what you were like and knew your whole story, they'd all get on board to help in any way they could."

"That is encouraging to hear. We may in fact need the help of many humans in the future. We will have millions of mouths to feed when my people arrive. Somehow we have to get food to them. As I said before, my preference would be to not introduce any of our animals to your world or they might destroy the natural balance in unrecoverable ways. My computer has determined that your animals would make excellent food for us. We will need to find some way to get sufficient quantities delivered to us, so that we may begin breeding them for ourselves."

John said, "I might actually be able to help at least a bit on that front. My brother-in-law, Hank, he's Gladys's brother, is a pretty big cattle rancher in Texas. He's got a lot of contacts in the industry. Maybe he could help somehow. I'll give him a call and at least get him thinking about the problem. I think our government owes you big time for what they did to your people. Maybe they could be made to pay by providing what you'd need to become self sufficient."

Hunter said, "I would greatly appreciate anything you could do to help me, John. I would be deeply in your debt. I've given your mayor a means of contacting me. Perhaps after you've talked to your brother you could let me know if he has any ideas."

"I'll do that," John said.

Jake excitedly said, "I just thought of a way you could save your animals!"

Hunter turned to him and said, "That would be quite an important achievement if we could do it. What is your idea, my love?"

"It just occurred to me while you two were talking about 'millions of mouths to feed'. If you stick to feeding your people only what they get from here on Earth, that means you'd need just a fraction of the animals from your world that are on the way over, right?"

Hunter nodded and said, "Yes, that's correct. The number of food animals being sent over was calculated to include the quantities that would be required immediately to begin feeding our people, as well as sufficient numbers for them to continue to breed successfully even under the pressure of being used as food."

"Exactly, and that means that the lower parts of the food chain had to be in greater numbers to feed the higher parts of the chain, right?"

"Yes, all the way to the bottom. It is a pyramid that is quite wide at its base. What are you proposing?"

"How long before the animals will arrive there?"

Hunter said, "It will be just over three months. They were meant to arrive a month after the greenhouse ships, which will be passing your planet in just a week or so and arriving here in a bit under two months. By that time the aerosol bacteria was meant to have made its full pass through the atmosphere, reproducing exponentially as it settled through the layers, consuming all of the ammonia and methane so that by the time it reached the bottom it would have fully converted the two lowest layers of the atmosphere and then died of starvation and settled into the soil to enrich it. Now that the atmosphere processors will have to do all of that work at a slower rate, we'd still need to keep the animals in stasis for nine more months after their arrival."

"What if you shut down the stasis fields of the majority of the animal ships right now, while they're still three months out?" Jake asked, "If you shut down half of the ships, that would mean at least three months more of stasis for those that remain if you just transfer the saved antimatter from the dead ships over to the ones that are still running once they arrive there. If you shut down the stasis fields for three quarters of the ships for each type of animal, then that would mean you'd get three times that amount of stasis out of the remaining ones, or nine more months, wouldn't it? Since it'll be three more months before they arrive, tacking nine more months of stasis onto the ships that are still running the fields would total to one year. You'd have less animals, obviously, but you'd still have some from each species and they could just start reproducing naturally to start bringing their numbers back up."

Hunter looked surprised as he thought about it for a moment, then a very wide grin spread across his face and he shouted, "You've done it! It is a very clever solution! Why did I not see it myself? With my people eating the food on Earth instead of the animals we've sent over, the pressure on the food chain here will be non-existent at the top! We would only need a fraction of the animals, and then we simply need to give them time to reproduce into the numbers we'd need to feed my people going forward. It would salvage the entire operation, and it would only require extra time to make the planet ready for my people! I love you so much, you sweet, brilliant man! Were there more room in this small vehicle I would climb over this seat to give you the biggest hug of your life!"

Jake chuckled and said, "You know you would have thought of it before long yourself. You're smarter than I am you gorgeous cat..."

Hunter interrupted him and said, "No, my love, I believe we're even," and he winked at Jake.

Jake chuckled again and said, "Fine, but that still means you would have got to the same solution yourself eventually. You just haven't had enough time to think about it yet. I think it should work. It'll mean the finished Mars will still be exactly the way you intended it to be We'd just need to keep your people off of it for quite a while to let the animals reproduce to fully populate the world."

"It will work perfectly," the big cat agreed, "As you said, since my people will already be living and eating on your world, we can simply extend the time they stay there enough to give a very small number of animals sufficient time to breed and reproduce and recover their numbers into larger herds. The full ecosystems of plants and insects will already be there to support them. We can simply treat all of Mars like a wildlife refuge and keep it off limits to my people until it has the populations of animals needed to sustain them. With the apex predators absent, the lower parts of the food chain will flourish. It will even give more time for the ecosystems to spread out and cover the barren parts of the planet more completely.

"Mars may not be ready for my people for an additional ten years or more after the atmosphere is ready, but it will be as much like our home world as we hoped it would be when it is finally complete. We will have succeeded in saving absolutely every species of plant, insect, and animal that we originally intended to from our home world. Your solution is absolutely perfect in that it keeps the ecosystems of both of our worlds uncontaminated from each other. All that will be required to make it work is that your planet will have to play host to my people for at least a decade to ensure enough time for the food chain on Mars to expand enough to support them."

John said, "After what our people have done to yours, I think a decade is not too much to ask at all. The whole thing should be on the US government's dime if you ask me."

"Agreed," Hunter said, "though I will allow my peoples' leaders to negotiate that with your people. I will definitely expect your government to provide the food we'll need to get us started at the least. I will need to somehow make those arrangements in time for my people's arrival here so they have something to eat when they awaken. Then my they can deal with your government going forward."

"I think your government should be in a pretty good position to negotiate with ours," Jake said, "Once they wake up, they'll hold all of the power you do. It's something that worries me a lot, given what you told me about the history of your government and the things that happened a thousand years ago."

Hunter nodded and said, "This is where our final problem lies. Our greatest concern has actually flipped from helping my people to survive, to helping yours survive after my people awaken. Your people may be in danger if my people deem they need to be punished in the usual way for the crimes they've committed."

"Do you have any ideas about how we can protect the humans from the wrath of the tigers?" Jake asked.

"I have given it some thought, yes. It is in fact part of the reason I've decided to use up my drones to save all of the plant ships. It will, in effect, nearly disarm me, as I said earlier, but that also means that it will have disarmed my people. They will not have all of those highly maneuverable antimatter bombs at their disposal. That alone will not be enough, though. They would still be a great danger to your people."

"How so?"

"As I said before, the more sophisticated fabricators that would be used to build up the infrastructure for my people once they arrive are a part of the ships that carry them. As soon as they awake they will be able to begin fabricating much more effective local antimatter generators along with drones, and they will be able to quickly produce enough quantities to create weapons they could use to eliminate your people. It doesn't take much antimatter to do a great deal of damage as you've seen, so they won't need the massive antimatter generators that will orbit the sun to wreck your world, they would only need smaller generators sufficient to power small drones."

"Is there some way you can stop that from happening?" John asked.

"There is, but I would in effect be committing a serious crime against my people and would become a traitor to them. My own life would be forfeit when they eventually come over to Mars and can bring me to justice, but I believe I have no choice. It is the only thing I can do. I would essentially need to use my computer to lock my people out of all of the functions of the ships that carry them, and even all of the technology that I currently have at my disposal, like the computers themselves. I would effectively be stripping them of every last bit of our technology, including the ability to create any more of it. They would essentially be left to fend for themselves, or to request aid from your people in order to help them survive. It would mean that my own people, while they are on Earth at least, would only have access to the same levels of technology as your people can make available to them. My people would, in effect, be completely at the mercy of your people. I would most certainly be made to pay for that at some point, but I think it would be the only way to make your people safe from mine.

"I have already sufficiently threatened your people that I believe if I tell them to, they will step up and help my people in any way they can to avoid any retribution from me. I will most definitely be retaining a sufficient number of drones to lay waste to any force that might attempt to threaten my people, so they would be safe enough. It should work. It would have the added effect of making my people grateful to yours for their aid when one of their own robbed them of their advanced technology and left them stranded on Earth. It might begin to help them to forge a path towards friendship with your people."

"So that's why you suddenly decided to take it upon yourself to disarm the entire human race," Jake said, "You wanted to level the playing field! If your people can't use their fabricators to create their advanced technology, and my people are no longer armed with nuclear bombs or even their vast collection of conventional weapons of war, then neither side can really hurt the other in any significant way!"

"Precisely so, my love. I needed to set it up such that my people would be safe from yours, so that I could disarm them safely, which would in turn keep your people safe from mine. The playing field, as you say, has been leveled, and in effect you and I will be co-rulers of both of our races and the only ones truly holding the power and all of the advanced technology, and we will rule them safely from Mars while we watch over it and nurture it to full health."

Jake said, "This is incredible! Here I thought your Mars terraforming plans were in nearly unrecoverable shambles, but now it looks like you can salvage the whole thing, and we'll be able to do it all without harming the Earth's ecosystems in any way whatsoever! You've even figured out a way to ensure that our people can't harm each other while yours are forced to stay here, and your peoples' gratitude towards mine might even lead to them becoming friends! You've got it all figured out! You're absolutely brilliant, Hunter!"

"Thank you, my love. I do believe we're even."

John laughed and said, "You are. You're the two smartest scary black demigods I've ever run into for sure. I don't think there's anyone else I'd trust with the kind of power you're talking about other than the pair of you. I can't believe I'm sitting here in my pickup truck with the two most powerful people on the planet. You'll be the only ones with a real say in what happens from now on! You could really make some interesting changes if you wanted to."

Hunter said, "I suppose we could, come to think of it. Perhaps I should leave my people over there on Earth even longer than necessary. It might be a good idea to keep them exposed to the human culture for as long as possible so that they might absorb some of its better features. If my people want my permission to come across to their own planet in a decade or so, perhaps I will at the least require them to change their stance on homosexuality."

John chuckled and said, "Now you're thinking. Joe would just love you two. I wish he would have been able to get home before you left. Do you know any others of your people who are gay, Hunter? Maybe you could hook Joe up with one of them. I would be thrilled to welcome one of your people into our family."

The cat said, "No, I do not. I'm certain there must be others, but among my people it is best kept to ourselves and not acted on in any way. Perhaps when they've lived among your people for a time, others might get the courage to come forward. Who knows?"

Hunter paused for a moment and it almost looked like his suit locked up, then he put his paw on John's shoulder quickly and said, "Stop here, John. I've just been informed by my computer that a large group of vehicles is arriving at the air base from the other side. We're nearly there. I don't want to put you in harms way. We can go the rest of the way on foot."

"Are you sure?" John asked, "I don't mind taking you the rest of the way. We're still over a mile out."

"I'm sure. You've seen what these suits are capable of. We'll cover that mile in a very short time. The men in the vehicles my imaging swarm is seeing are likely only there to begin the process of moving the equipment as I've ordered, but I can't be certain. It's possible that your government has learned of our location and movements, and has determined that the base is our destination. There could be trouble, and I doubt Gladys would appreciate me getting you involved in any way."

John nodded and pulled over to the side of the road.

"Thank you very much for the ride," Hunter said, "I wish you and your wonderful family all the best."

John smiled and said, "Best of luck with the whole ruling the world thing. I'll let you know through the mayor if Hank can help in any way with the food situation for your people."

Hunter nodded and said, "Thank you, John. I've already asked Ed to inform me when your son Joe arrives. I would very much like to meet him."

John grinned and said, "He would absolutely love that! Hopefully I'll get to see you again then. You two be careful out there."

Jake and Hunter exited the vehicle and waved one last time as John turned it around and headed back down the highway.

Jake asked, "What's going on at the air force base? Did the vehicles stop there?"

Hunter said, "Yes. I see no signs of them preparing for a fight. They don't appear to be aware that we're approaching. They are simply moving out in groups towards the aircraft that are parked along the airfield. I believe it's as I surmised. They are likely beginning the process of disarming the base. I've engaged our strength enhancement mode just in case. Let us go and make sure they leave a helicopter for us."

They began to jog down the road towards the base.

"So you're still planning on taking a helicopter?" Jake asked, "Are you sure we don't want something longer range? It's a long way to Colombia."

"We will need to make several refueling stops along the way. I suppose it might not be ideal. It will help us in the type of terrain we'll be dealing with, though, so I think it will be worthwhile even if it takes us a little more effort to get there. It will be much easier to be able to make a determination from the air while we look around for potential areas to settle my people. Even the detailed images from orbit aren't quite as good as seeing it with your own eyes as you move about over it. I think a helicopter would suit us best."

Jake said, "I would think going all the way there by helicopter from here would mean at least eight or ten stops for fuel in several different countries, and it would take days to make the full trip. The more stops we make, the easier we'll be to track."

"That is true, I suppose. I suspect it would be quite difficult to hide our location successfully in any case if your government really wanted to locate us. Most likely they already knew where we spent the night last night, even though I only allowed the release of the videos when we left town. What is it you think they might do? How does tracking us help them? I've been trying to avoid it, but only because I'm not fully versed in your government's capabilities so I thought it was a wise precaution and primarily to protect the peace of the town while we stayed there."

"I don't really know what they could do, to be honest. If they tried anything, you could wipe them right out. They can't risk hurting me, or they'd have to deal with a real angry cat."

"Just so. I can't really think of what they might do either. Perhaps our minds aren't devious enough to see the possibilities. We need someone who would be able to think along the same lines as your government leaders in order to better guess what they might try. Do you know anyone that evil who could help us?"

Jake laughed and said, "No, I definitely don't know anyone as evil as our government."

"Well, we'll keep our eyes open for someone. In the meantime, let us not worry about it too much."

They continued to run until they came to the unmanned security checkpoint that marked the entrance to Peterson Air Force Base. They smashed through the gate and continued on in.

The base was huge, with many large buildings. They continued down the main road until they saw the large airfield off to the side. It backed right onto the Colorado Springs airport and they shared the same air space. There were several very large aircraft there along with a wide array of smaller jets and transport planes. They turned towards the field and as they approached they saw several uniformed men come from around the other side of a building who stopped in shock when they saw the pair approaching.

Jake expected some sort of "Halt! Who goes there?" type of reaction, but the men simply stared and said nothing.

Another man came behind them and said, "What's the hold up?" He then noticed what his men were staring at and he shouted, "Holy shit! It's them!"

The excited officer ran straight towards Hunter and Jake and when he got to them he said, "It's you! I was just watching the videos of you guys that are all over the Internet." He held up his large smart phone to show them and it was a video of their long and intense martial arts fight earlier. "Someone put up videos of your fight and a bunch of videos of you two at a picnic yesterday. They're spreading like wildfire. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, they're all crashing off and on from overload from everyone wanting to share them with everyone else. I've never see the Internet go so insane! You two are the most popular couple in the world right now. I can't believe you're right here! What are you guys doing here?"

Jake said, "We came to borrow a helicopter."

Hunter said, "I disagree, my love. Borrowing implies an intent to return it."

Jake chuckled and said, "All right, we came to take a helicopter then."

The big cat nodded and faced the officer and said, "Could you direct us to the best helicopter you have?"

The man said, "We're not big on helos here. We do have a couple of Pave Hawks right now. They were in the process of passing through on a transport plane when the place got evacuated a couple of days ago when you made Cheyenne Mountain go poof, so they're still here."

"Can you give me the full designation of that particular model of helicopter so that I may learn to fly it?"

The man looked at Hunter a bit strangely and said, "They're MH-60G Pave Hawks. They're special ops, search and rescue helos. They're a variant of the Black Hawks."

Hunter said, "One moment..."

His doppelganger froze for a few moments, then came back and said, "Good. That will work perfectly. Can you show us where they are parked?"

The man smiled and said, "They were being carried aboard that C-5 back there. That really huge plane. They're still in the belly."

Hunter looked where the man pointed and said, "They are inside that large craft?"

"Yes, they were being transported into the field. The helicopters only have 500 miles range, and that's only because these have a fuel tank extension. They need to be transported to wherever they'll be carrying out their operations by a longer range aircraft. I think these helos were going overseas."

"I believe you called that large plane a C-5, is that correct?"

The man nodded and Hunter said, "One moment..."

The cat's doppelganger froze again. When it came back to life Hunter turned to Jake and said, "That large aircraft would get us to our destination with no stops. We could land at a major airport in Bogota and fly out in the helicopter from there to scout locations."

"Hold on," the officer said, "This is a US military aircraft. I don't think the Colombians would appreciate you landing it at one of their civilian airports. I don't think the United States Air Force would appreciate you just taking off with one of their transport planes, either."

"May I ask your name?" Hunter asked.

"I'm Captain George Wilkes."

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, George. My name is Hunter and this is Jake. You've already indicated that you know who we are, and we've told you why we're here. May I ask exactly why you're here?"

"We're here to start getting organized to move all of these aircraft to the central location in Nevada for destruction, as you've demanded."

"In a sense, you could say that that makes every aircraft here my property, wouldn't you agree?"

The man chuckled and said, "I suppose it would, yes. I guess you can do pretty much anything you want with them, really."

The big cat nodded and said, "Just so. Is the C-5 fully fueled and ready to go?"

"Yes, it was fueled up as soon as it landed, but..."

"Excellent. I'll be taking it, then. Come along, my love."

Jake smiled at the captain's stunned expression as he followed the big tiger across the airfield.

The other men followed behind, and Jake saw a couple of other groups of men approaching.

They reached the massive cargo plane and Hunter asked, "Is there anything inside that plane besides the helicopters?"

The captain said, "Yes. There's a couple of JLTVs and a Cougar 6x6."

The tiger said, "One moment..." He froze briefly again, then came back and said, "We have no use for those and they would only serve to lessen the C-5's range by adding unnecessary weight. Wait here a moment, Jake. I'll open the nose."

The cat went around to the left side of the plane and popped open the side door at the front that pulled down into a stairway that led up into the plane. He disappeared into the plane.

Captain Wilkes looked over at Jake and asked, "Your friend there is a big, black, incredibly well hung, alien tiger, is he actually a pilot too? How the hell can an alien from outer space fly an American helicopter? And the transport planet is more than a handful for even the most experienced pilot. Does he really know how to handle a C-5 Galaxy?"

Jake nodded and said, "He does now, yes. He can pretty much do anything he puts his mind to, sort of."

"But, he needs a full crew to fly that thing. We normally crew it with six. He'll need a co-pilot and navigator and flight engineer at the very minimum. This thing is not a toy that some weekend pilot can handle."

"I'm pretty sure I can fly a C-5 now, too, so I can be his co-pilot. His computer can do the navigation and anything else. It'll keep us right on track."

The man raised one eyebrow and looked at Jake like he was nuts.

"Listen, you don't need to worry about it," Jake reassured him, "We can handle it, really. If you're uncomfortable about all this, or if you think it might get you in trouble, go ahead and call someone. If it makes it easier for you, just think of this thing as a big hunk of garbage. Who cares what happens with it? It was just gonna be destroyed anyhow."

The captain chuckled and said, "I don't need to call anyone. Frankly, this is about the coolest thing that will likely ever happen to me. You guys are more than welcome to anything you need out here. We'd be happy to help in any way we can, too. We're not particularly in love with our government right now. Our loyalty's not exactly the highest its ever been."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"It's sort of your friend's fault," the man quickly put up a hand when he noticed Jake tense up a bit, "but I'm not saying I blame him directly. Several of these men you see around you are air force pilots. They're all officers. The others are highly trained tactical aircraft maintenance crew and load masters and some specialize in ground operations. We're here because we're everyone that's needed to handle these bigger planes and we've been assigned to clean out this base. With all of the equipment getting destroyed over the next month, we've already been notified that we'll all be out of work when it's all done. You could almost say that we've been ordered to make ourselves redundant, and it's leaving a bad taste in our mouths. There won't be an air force anymore, so they have no need of any of us. This was what we trained for most of our lives, so most of us don't really have any other skills."

"Shit, I'm sorry. That sucks."

The captain shrugged and said, "It's just bad luck really. The army's not fully disbanding. There will always be a use for grunts. It's those of us whose only skills are operating hi-tech equipment that's not even going to exist anymore that are out of a job. I suppose there might be some opportunities flying commercially, but that will be a lot of pilots vying for just a few jobs. Most of us would just walk away right now to try to get a head start, except we know what would happen to the country if this equipment doesn't make it to the disposal area. They're already paving massive runways out in the middle of the desert. Flying this shit out there is the last thing on our plates, then it's the unemployment line for us."

"I hope you guys understand that Hunter, the big cat, didn't intend for anything like that. Because of what our government did to him and his people, we have to find a place for them to live temporarily here on Earth. There's no way they could do that unless the human race is disarmed. I think you can understand why he wouldn't feel safe otherwise. He's a really great guy. He didn't mean to cause you any trouble."

The captain nodded and another of his men, who sounded like he must have grown up on the California coast, came forward and said, "Bro, you don't need to tell us that. We've all been watching those videos so we've seen what the cat dude's like. We heard the big announcement he made. There's all kinds of rumors about what really went down. Our president nuked their ships for fuck's sake! If I was that cat, I woulda nuked Washington DC right back at least. Tiger bro is showing some serious restraint if you ask me."

Jake chuckled and said, "Like I said, he doesn't want to hurt anyone. It's not his style. He made a mountain disappear to make his point that he could make the whole fucking world disappear, but he doesn't mean anyone any harm. He just wants to finish his job of getting his people safely to Mars. Now that the US government fucked that up, the tigers will have to spend some time on Earth while they wait for Hunter to finish getting Mars ready for them. His whole fucking species is in his hands and he's under a shitload of pressure."

"Dude, I know all about pressure. I'm not in the air force because I wanted to, even though I turned out to be pretty good at it. My old man made me. I just wanted to run a dive shop and smoke some weed."

Jake chuckled at the typical California attitude of the young officer.

The man continued, "Seriously, bro, that cat dude finally did the impossible, he brought peace to the whole fuckin' world! There's no way that could have ever happened without him. Now I just need to get this shit finished, and in a month I can go and look for a good spot in Long Beach to set up my dive shop!"

Jake suddenly heard the loud whine of large electric geared motors and the giant nose separated from the front of the humongous plane and began to slowly flip up to expose the inside.

Right at front of the cargo hold was a large, tan colored, six-wheeled armored truck. That must be the '6x6' the captain mentioned. Hunter was standing at the side of it and slapped another large button on the inside wall of the plane and the loading ramp began to tilt down towards the tarmac.

"We don't need this truck, my love. Could you please help me put it over there out of the way? There are two smaller trucks behind it we'll need to move as well. Behind those are two helicopters. We may as well keep them both in case we have any mechanical difficulties with one of them."

Jake said, "Sure, no problem."

The Californian said, "Let us help you out, cat bro. We can get those trucks off there for you."

Hunter smiled down at the man and said, "It's very kind of you to offer your help, but we can manage much more quickly by ourselves, thank you."

Jake walked up the ramp and grabbed the truck at the front where he found two winch points that would be attached to the frame. Hunter went behind and grabbed on there. The two easily lifted up the truck and started to make their way down the ramp as the men crowded around gasped and then burst into spontaneous applause like it was some sort of show being put on for them.

They carried the large truck over to the grass beside the tarmac and set it down and the men began to cheer like they'd accomplished something incredible.

"That was amazing!" the captain exclaimed, "I saw what the big cat did in that video when he saved all the people on the bridge, but seeing it with my own eyes is something else. That truck is heavily armored! It weighs over seventeen tons! You guys picked it up like it was made of paper!"

Hunter smiled and said, "Yes, as you can see, though your man's generous offer of help is much appreciated, it's not necessary. We can manage quite well on our own."

The captain thought for a moment and said, "Are you sure? You obviously can handle the heavy lifting, and Jake here says you can fly no problem, but what about ground ops?"

The tiger said, "I'm uncertain what you're referring to."

Captain Wilkes said, "Those helos in there are unfueled for starters. They're always transported dry. You'll need to fuel them up. What about the C-5? If you guys want to go anywhere else after you get where you're going, that will need to be serviced and refueled too. If you want to be safe, you'll also need to know how to deal with air traffic control and runway operations. You'll need to set your radios to the various tower frequencies and get clearances along the way. Can you do that?"

Jake suddenly realized what the captain was angling for and he smiled and said, "Is this a job interview? If so, you're hired!"

The captain chuckled and said, "Guess you figured me out pretty quick. I'm not really in love with my employer right now, like I said. I could help you guys out with the logistics. I'm sure some of my men here would want to lend a hand too. We'd sure as hell have some interesting stories to tell our kids at least. Lieutenant Spencer here," the captain indicated the future dive shop owner, "is the best crew chief I've ever worked with. He's trained for the biggest birds like the C-5 and he can handle the helicopters too. We've got the perfect mix of skills among all of the men you see here to do everything you might need."

Jake said, "But you'd be in deep shit with the air force. We would only be needing your help for a month or so, then I'm getting off this rock and heading to Mars, so there won't be much point for us to have a presence here anymore. Coming with us means you'd be going AWOL. What would happen to you when you went back home?"

Hunter suddenly interrupted and said, "Nothing would happen to them, or whoever did anything to them would have to answer to me. I believe George is actually making quite a bit of sense. It hadn't occurred to me how complicated it might be to manage these aircraft. I hadn't even considered the logistics of weaving ourselves into the rest of the air traffic out there and dealing with fuel and getting landing and runway permissions so we don't endanger any other traffic, not to mention maintaining these sophisticated aircraft without the benefit of a fabricator. If we do intend to check out Southeast Asia and other locations as well, we'll need to refuel the C-5. We'll also need to refuel the helicopters quite frequently no matter where we use them. Perhaps it would help us to have a flight operations crew. I can ensure these men are fully compensated in your currency. In fact, their compensation should be at least enough to care for their families for a few years while they find another career for themselves."

Jake could see all of the men suddenly muttering excitedly among themselves. He thought about it a bit and realized they might have jobs for a lot longer than just the month if they want them.

"Something else just occurred to me," he said, "Settling your people down somewhere won't be all that straightforward either. They'll need a lot of help. I bet a lot of people in the air force might be willing to go and help them out. We need to find some way to transport all of the animals your people will need. Food, fuel, and materials for construction will all have to be delivered to them from the United States, since they'll be the ones on the hook to provide it. There's gonna be a hell of a lot of work to do. We'll need a hell of a lot of men to do it. Maybe we could demand that the US government provide troops for the cause, and compensate them highly for it."

He saw several men nodding and Lieutenant Spencer said, "Count me in, bro! I might get enough cash to buy my dive shop!"

Another man stepped forward and said, "Count me in, too. I could always use any extra income I could scrape together. I'd really like to join you guys right now if that's OK. I can think of at least one way I can help. See that gigantic KC-767A over there? That's what we use for aerial refueling. It can extend the range of the C-5, and even the Pave Hawks can be refueled from it in mid air. If we bring that along, we'll have a little air force of our own that can go anywhere, no matter how far. The KC-767 only just went into service late last year and me and a couple of the other guys here are one of the few crews that can manage it."

Hunter became excited and said, "That sounds helpful indeed!" He turned to face the captain and said, "George, could you please talk to your men to determine who else might be willing to join us? I will need to speak briefly with each of them in turn to ensure that I like them enough to have them come along. At the very least, anyone who joins us will have to have no problem with the fact that Jake and I are deeply in love with each other. Anyone who has difficulty accepting homosexuality would most certainly not be welcome. I have been hiding my sexuality all of my life and now that Jake has helped me to bring it out in the open, I have no intention of ever keeping it hidden again. My deep love for him will always be evident for all to see."

Captain Wilkes said, "Sure. Let me have a quick meeting with the men."

Jake and Hunter stayed back while the airmen moved away and gathered around the captain to talk. After less than a minute several of them took off at a trot and hopped into a jeep to drive away. Others broke off into groups and ran further out into the air field, one group towards the KC-767, and another towards a couple of fuel tanker trucks.

The captain approached them, grinning, and said, "Wasn't much of a meeting. Every last one of them wants to come along if you'll have them all. I think if you turned any of them down they'd be really disappointed. They're pretty damned excited. I sent some off to go and raid the PX for any useful gear they can find in case we need it, and they'll clean out the commissary for food to start up a stockpile for us, and the others will deal with getting the refueling plane filled up and ready to go. If you clear all of the men to join you, we'll have enough of a crew for all the aircraft, the ground operations, logistics, and even KP. You won't have to worry about any details at all. Just tell us where to go, and we'll deal with the rest. As for your sexuality, you've got no concerns there. Nobody has an issue with it. I know for a fact a couple of them have screwed around with their own sex before, occasionally, just for variety. I know it because it was probably me they were screwing around with."

Hunter clapped his big paw on the captain's shoulder and said, "Wonderful! It was most fortuitous that we happened upon you here, George. I realize now that it would certainly have been a bit of a struggle otherwise. I was not thinking beyond simply flying the aircraft. As you've pointed out so well, there's much more to it than that. It seems we'll have it all well covered now."

Captain Wilkes said, "The only thing we won't be able to handle is getting clearance when we arrive where we're going. Bogota, was it?"

Jake nodded and said, "We're going to Colombia first. Bogota should do if the C-5 can land at one of their major airports. We're gonna be scouting for a good place to put Hunter's people when they arrive. We need somewhere that can support a population of a few million spread out in a jungle setting. Since there will be so many to feed, I think we'll need to look for good grazing land too for big herds of cattle. After Colombia he wants to check out the Amazon basin and Southeast Asia."

One of the lieutenants who'd stayed behind with the captain said, "If you're looking for a place like you described, you probably won't need to go any further than Colombia. It's probably the best you're gonna find. There's lots of jungle there that's not really inhabited. They've got a really big cattle industry too. There's huge tropical savannas. Lots of open country right next to the rainforest jungles. My family's from there originally. I can even speak the language. A lot of the guys speak Spanish fluently."

Hunter said, "Excellent! I must say this is all quite unexpected." He turned back to the captain and said, "You needn't worry about clearances or permissions. I will have one of my swarms descend on your capitol to send the message that we'll be using some of the equipment and that your men have joined us and I'll have your government immediately contact the Colombian government and enter a discussion of how they will be compensated by your government for anything we might need. My other doppelganger will be dropping down from orbit to speak directly with anyone who needs extra convincing.

"I assure you, George, that you and your men will be quite well compensated for your efforts. Needless to say you'll have my undying gratitude as well, and that of my people once they arrive. I wonder, would you have any thoughts about how we could arrange to get more of your military on board to help us? It really will be quite an undertaking to get my people settled when they arrive. We could use a great many men to come to our aid. I could deal with your government directly myself, but I would prefer to get tangled up in that mess if I can avoid it."

The captain nodded and said, "My uncle's a general in the army. I could have a word with him. He's got friends in the Army Corps of Engineers and building infrastructure up from nothing is right up their alley. He could get the ball rolling. Nobody in the military is gonna have much to do after the month is up and the hardware is all gone. They might all be looking for work. I think there might be a lot of interest if it means more income for their families."

The tiger nodded and said, "It's only fair that I provide it for them since I've taken away their chosen career path. There will be plenty of work for anyone who wishes it, and it will be considerably less ugly and dangerous than warfare. There will be work for many years to come in fact. As I said, I can quite easily make the arrangements to have them quite well compensated by your government. Well enough that they will never even need to pursue any other career once they are through if I push hard enough, and with this suit's strength enhancement mode, I can push quite hard indeed. They will have all they need to care for their families. Perhaps you could let your uncle know that as well, and have him spread that word through your military in case it helps anyone make the decision to help us out."

"Maybe we should work on some sort of video for you," Jake suggested, "You could explain exactly what's been happening. Tell the story of your people. Let them know about all of the sacrifices you've made to get this far. It's an incredible story and anyone who's not on your side after hearing it wouldn't be the kind of people we'd want on our side anyhow. Once they've heard all of it, and they're told exactly what the US government did to sabotage you, there would likely be a groundswell of support coming from every corner."

Hunter said, "Excellent thinking, my love. We should work on that immediately. It wouldn't do to make any demands on your people without at least informing them fully about the situation. It could greatly help our cause."

Captain Wilkes said, "You'll have plenty of time for that on the flight to Bogota. We've got several pilots certified for the C-5 so we'll have no trouble crewing it. You two can just relax and be passengers."

Jake said, "That sounds great. I'm really glad we bumped into you guys." He turned to Hunter and said, "Looks like you've got your own air force now, honey. That makes you the new commander in chief."

Lt. Spencer said, "Whoa, gnarly! We should call it a bro force! Kitty bro will be our commander in chief!"

The cat chuckled and said, "I think not, thank you. I have no intention of being commander in chief of anything."

He turned to the captain and said, "I mean no disrespect, but even you will always be simply 'George' to me. There will be no ranks among us. Everyone will simply be expected to help out in any way they can or they'll be asked politely to leave. You needn't see me as any sort of commander. I'm simply an engineer and not much different from anyone else."

The captain chuckled and said, "I'm guessing you haven't looked at yourself in a mirror lately if you think you're not much different. In my mind you'll always be the commander in chief of Lt. Spencer's little bro force. Anyhow, if everyone is just expected to help out in any way they can, maybe you two could start by putting that Cougar right back where you found it in the plane. We might find a use for a heavily armored vehicle designed specifically for ambush protection some time. No point leaving good equipment behind."

Jake smiled and said, "No problem. Come on, 'kitty bro'. Let's do as the man ordered."

"It was just a suggestion," the captain corrected, "in case you wanted to help out."

The big tiger chuckled and said, "I like you already, George. We'll do as you 'suggested' immediately. We'll help out in any way we can. We wouldn't want anyone to ask us politely to leave."

Jake and Hunter moved the Cougar back up into the belly of the plane while several men went up to the cockpit of the Galaxy to begin to get it ready to fly.

Jake went off to find the head and relieve himself before the flight while Hunter went into the planet to go back and check out the helicopters.

A couple of hours went by before they were ready to take off. Jake had gone to find the PX to see if he might see anything else that might come in handy on their trip. He found the other men there and they gathered together as much camping gear as they could find. They couldn't be sure if they'd ever have beds to sleep in so everyone would need decent sleeping bags at the least. He wanted to put a kit together for him and Hunter that they could take out with them in the helicopter too. With all of these men around they wouldn't have much privacy anymore, except when they went out in the chopper, assuming they didn't bring anyone else along. It might be nice to camp out once in a while and enjoy each other in private.

They all finally made their way back to the C-5 and Jake laughed when he saw Lt. Spencer up on a cherry picker just finishing up a paint job he'd been putting on side of the plane with several cans of spray paint he must have liberated from the PX. In large letters it now proudly announced itself as "Bro Force One" with a huge LGBT rainbow flag painted next to it.

Hunter emerged from the plane and saw Jake laughing and came over to have a look. The tiger smiled as he looked up and asked, "What nation does that flag represent, my love?"

"That's the gay pride flag. It represents gay people everywhere and we use it to let everyone know that we're proud of who we are and have no intention of hiding it."

The big cat immediately ran over to where Lt. Spencer was getting down off the crane and Hunter grabbed him into a hug and said, "What a wonderful choice of insignia for our aircraft! Thank you for adding such a welcome touch to what was otherwise an ugly military machine!"

The Californian was grinning from ear to ear as he hugged the big tiger back and said, "No problem, kitty dude. You said you were out and proud so I figured you'd want everyone to know it."

Jake smiled as he watched them. It seemed everywhere he went Hunter was making new friends easily.

His faith in the human race was buoyed by what he'd seen of the big cat's reception so far. He hoped it would be this easy everywhere they went.

They spent a bit more time raiding the commissary for any non-perishable food they could find to stock the big plane with as much as they could in case they ever needed it.

At last the men who were not actively flying the two aircraft boarded the Galaxy and went up to the top level where all of the passenger seating was located and strapped in.

Before much longer the gigantic plane was rushing down the runway and then climbing into the sky powered by its four powerful jet engines, and the KC-767 took off shortly after to follow them.

The next leg of their adventure would find them landing in Bogota, Colombia in eight or nine hours.

With luck they would find everything the tiger's people needed for a temporary home there, and Hunter and Jake could then just relax and kill time until he could jump an animal ship to Mars.