FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The week following the formation of 'Bro Force' was incredibly busy.

To start things off, on the flight down to Bogota, Jake and Hunter set to work on a PR video for the big cat.

Hunter vacated his doppelganger, much to the shock of the other members of the force who'd never seen it happen before. They thought something had gone wrong when the cat suddenly collapsed into a pile of cloth on his seat until Jake explained exactly what had happened. He also told them that it might be a bit strange for them for the next while because he'd still be talking to Hunter, but the cat wouldn't be in his suit, he'd be on Mars and Jake would be communicating with him through the drone.

Jake still had no control card with him so Hunter switched his display to the full image of what the tiny white drone following the tiger around his base on Mars was seeing, and they went to the break room to sit and talk about how best to approach producing the video that would tell the people of Earth the big cat's story.

"Our main goal is to try to get people on your side," Jake said, "We need to start by showing them that you're just like anyone else. You're not just an alien being with incredible power. You're also a sweet, wonderful guy who's trying his best to do what needs doing. We should start by using a lot of the footage from your terrific 'day in the life' video that you made for me. I found it fascinating and it showed the sort of pressure you've been under out there and how hard you've been working to make it all happen all by yourself. The people on Earth have only ever seen you in your imposing black doppelganger form. It will be good for them to see you in your beautiful, natural, furry shape to see what you really look like. That whole video you made for me would be a great way to start, really."

"That is good thinking my love. It would save us some effort since it's already done. What parts should I cut out?"

"I think just take out the parts that showed you making the dildos, or playing with yourself while you put the dildo of my cock up your ass, or where you showed your tablet that had me playing with myself that you used to masturbate with..."

Jake was interrupted as one of the men with him on the plane said, "Um, that video sounds like something I really need to see. Could we get the uncut version?"

Another of them men said, "Me too! Could we maybe get it as an inflight movie or something? We'll need to pass around some Kleenex first, though, for the mess that's likely to happen."

All of the men on the plane began to laugh, as did Hunter.

"You guys stay out of this," Jake said, chuckling, "Anyhow, Hunter, just take out anything sexual and leave absolutely everything else. I think even showing you smoking your spaceweed is a good idea. It might help get the younger crowd on board."

Suddenly it was Lt. Spencer's turn to pipe up and he said, "Dude! Spaceweed? What the hell is that? Can I get some?"

Hunter chuckled and said, "Tell him I'll be happy to send over a sample for him to try. My computer has deemed it safe for your biology."

Jake said, "Hunter says he'll send you a batch once we get settled, but only if you let us get this video done. Shipping usually takes a couple of days."

"Radical! I can't wait! I'll keep quiet now, bro, but if you guys need any help, I actually started college studying visual arts before my dad strong armed me into a different direction. I can totally help you produce your video."

Jake said, "Cool, that sounds good. Just let us get it roughed out first."

He addressed Hunter again and said, "The day in the life will be the perfect way to start to get people to know you. The way it ended, with you going back to sleep all by yourself out there on that desolate planet, listening to an American radio station to feel less alone, and then holding up your tablet to show the message of how lonely you've been, will go a long way towards winning over a lot of hearts out there. It really made me feel more strongly for you than ever, and I think it will make a lot of people out there feel for you and help them to begin to understand what you've been through."

Hunter nodded and said, "Alright, we'll start with that. What should come next?"

"Next you should tell the whole story of how your people came to be settling on Mars. Tell it exactly the same way you told it to me starting with your people's discovery of the coming death of your planet. They need to know just how much pressure you've been under and how important what you're doing here is. They need to understand your entire species is on the line, and they need to see the incredible effort behind it all and the sacrifices your people have made in order to come this far."

"Again, excellent thinking. We can actually do that quite easily as well. Everything we've discussed at any time since I sent you the display and audio devices can be retrieved by my computer and incorporated into the video. We'll simply use that entire conversation. They'll see me through the drone's cameras just as you saw when I told you that story. During any part of that conversation where you speak, they will see what the drone at your house was seeing, so you'll be in the frame."

"Perfect! Do you have any archival footage you could cut in? It would be great to show shots of the various ships while you were describing them when you told your tale of woe."

The tiger nodded and said, "Yes, my computer can intelligently cut several video shots of everything we discussed into the story in the appropriate places."

"Cool. I guess this is gonna be a lot easier than I thought it would be. Most of the work is already done. That whole story will once again get a ton of people on your side. I was amazed by the size of that undertaking. It was mind blowing the first time I heard it. My heart broke when you told me about the other seven engineers on your ship and the incredible sacrifice they made. You'll be winning a lot more hearts when they realize what you've been through and how you've managed to persevere through it all and get as far as you have. Right after that we need to switch to telling the story of what happened to your aerosol bacteria ships. After falling in love with you, with the story of your incredible struggle fresh in their minds, the people will be enraged by what the United States government did to sabotage you."

Hunter nodded and said, "Good. That should work. It will be quite a long video when it is all done, but I believe we have most of what we need. Let us fill in the gaps. Perhaps you could interview me right now and ask about the bacteria ships and we could get into the acts of your government, and then perhaps discuss our plans to salvage the whole operation, and then end with the story of how we ended up at the small town the people saw in the video."

Jake nodded and said, "Let's get to work then."

Jake proceeded to interview the big cat and they went over the details of how the US government had nearly caused the entire tiger race to be lost. Hunter told everyone of how the president of the United States had ordered the destruction of the aerosol bacteria ships that were critical to getting the atmosphere ready for all of the other ships that were on the way. The cat's rage was evident in his voice, though he was trying to restrain it, while he explained how he thought his entire race had been condemned to death by that one unprovoked action. He thought that the monumental effort and unimaginable sacrifice that so many of his people had made had all been rendered useless by the greed of the human government who did not want to share even a portion of their planetary system that they had absolutely no use for. Jake could feel the tiger's anger and he shared it, and something told him there would be a great many people who would feel exactly the same way once they heard the full story of what had happened.

They wanted to end the video on a more upbeat note so they added another video section where Hunter and Jake each told their side of the story of how they'd come to 'meet' through the Curiosity rover. Hunter explained how he'd been so terribly lonely and bored that when he stumbled upon the large rover, apparently dead on the sand, he'd decided to alleviate his boredom by trying to fix the robot up in the hopes that whoever was responsible for it ending up there would contact him.

Jake explained how he'd followed the cat's signs to drive the rover into the Martian base to safety, and how they'd begun the process of trying to communicate through the emoji arithmetic they developed. They talked about how they'd quickly and easily formed a bond of friendship as they collaborated on methods to begin to communicate better with each other.

They told how their feelings for each other had naturally grown beyond simple friendship as they got to know each other better and began to realize they were emotionally and intellectually compatible with each other, and how those stronger feelings quickly blossomed into full on love for each other when they realized how powerfully they were attracted to each other.

They spoke a bit about how their advancing methods of interacting with each other finally led to the development of the doppelganger suits that allowed each to join the other in a virtual way that extended to a physical presence on each planet.

While they spoke about how their love had grown, Hunter looked directly into the drone's cameras and said, "I want everyone out there to understand just how strongly I feel about Jake. For my whole life I have had to hide the way I am from my own people. They have not come to accept homosexuality in the way it has been accepted by many people in the human race. In my culture it is a serious crime to act on those feelings, yet I could in no way change who I am, so I had to repress my urges and could not safely seek out others like myself.

"Imagine how it was for me when I began to know Jake and to see the type of person he is and then to learn that he is homosexual too. He is the epitome of the perfect male to me. He is kind and intelligent. He has a wonderful sense of humor. He thinks of others before he thinks of himself. He is affectionate and loving and he hides none of his feelings from me. He shares every part of himself with me. He is very strong and very big and so very male, and he's physically extremely appealing to me. I lust after him deeply, but it is his soul that attracts me the most and, ultimately, what has made me his for as long as he wishes it to be so.

"My people live very long lives and all I had to look forward to even when my epic undertaking was finally complete and my people were safely settled on Mars, was hundreds of years of loneliness and the continued denial of who I am. Because of Jake that has all changed. I can now look forward to hundred of years with the one and only mate I will ever have. He fulfills every need I have and more. He is more attractive to me than anyone could ever be and I love him more deeply than words could ever describe. In my heart and in my mind we are mates, and we always shall be, and that thought thrills me to no end. I love you deeply, Jake, and I always will."

Tears welled in Jake's eyes as he listened to the love his life bare his feelings to the world, and he said, "I feel exactly the same way, so we're even."

The tiger chuckled and Jake said, "I've never been in a situation where I had to feel ashamed of who I am or how I am, like there was something wrong with it. I came out when I was still a teenager and I never felt I needed to hide it from anyone. I've never actually truly fallen in love before, though, and I honestly wondered if it would ever happen. I wasn't sure if it was something that was wrong with me that might prevent it from ever happening, or if I just hadn't found the right guy yet. In my wildest dreams I never would have thought that my perfect mate wouldn't even be from this planet, or from my species, and that I'd have to look on Mars to find him.

"The moment I first saw you I was very much attracted to you, but it was when I began to get to know you that I fell head over heels. I love who you are. I love your personality and I love your playfulness. I love how intelligent you are and how thoughtful and generous to everyone you meet. I've seen how other people react to you and I know that they see exactly the same lovable, magnificent person I do. I can't tell you how lucky I feel that you're mine, and that you consider me yours. It's all I really need to be the happiest guy in the world. You're all I'll ever need. You're the perfect mate for me. I love you more than words could ever properly describe, Hunter, and I always will."

The tiger's doppelganger suddenly reanimated next to Jake on the plane and the two of them kissed and hugged and quietly held each other for a few moments while several of the men on the plane brushed tears from their eyes as they watched them with grins on their faces, and then they all broke out into cheering and whistles and applause.

After a long hug where Jake and Hunter each whispered a few more words of love to each other, they got back to work on their video.

They talked about the night they went out for the run that ended with Hunter saving so many lives on the bridge.

They wanted people to become more familiar with the doppelganger forms since that's what people on Earth were going to see if they ever bumped into them, so they sifted through the videos that were circulating on the Internet taken by various people who'd witnessed the events on the bridge, at the town picnic, and even the martial arts fight they'd engaged in. They primarily focused on clips that showed the two of them hugging and kissing, or laughing and just having a good time. They wanted to show people that the doppelgangers might be a force to be reckoned with, but they were also friendly and approachable, and no danger to anyone who wasn't out to give them a hard time.

The last part of the video was taken by Lt. Spencer right on the plane. Hunter reanimated his doppelganger there and he and Jake discussed what would come next while the Californian captured the conversation on video using his smart phone.

They explained that what they were currently undertaking was to find a part of Earth that would serve as a temporary home for Hunter's people. They were looking for somewhere remote and uninhabited so that they would not be displacing any existing human population, and they would try their best to avoid any imposition on any particular country in the process, except of course for the United States.

They explained how it was now expected that the American government would provide all that would be needed in terms of funds, food, fuel, construction materials, and manpower in order to get the new location ready and give the tigers the means to be self-sufficient going forward for as long as it might be needed.

Jake explained how nobody needed to be concerned about any additional tax burden brought about because of the high costs involved. He reminded everyone that nearly fifty five percent of the United States government's discretionary budget every fiscal year was consumed by the cost of running its military. That cost was now almost completely removed by virtue of the fact that absolutely no country in the world would be armed any longer, so none of them needed any military to defend itself. He reminded them that Hunter was not going to tolerate any sort of aggression from any country against another, so even though they would be completely disarmed, they would actually be safer than they'd ever been before. That would be the case for at least the ten years or so that the tigers would have to share the planet with the humans. They talked about the fact that they hoped that, given ten years to experience life that way, that the people of the Earth might pressure their governments to just keep things that way and not begin to build up arms again even after the tigers leave and the whole thing is completely resolved.

Jake explained how the United States government would likely have spent at least six hundred billion dollars over the next year alone to support its addiction to its military, and now that they'd been forced to kick the habit completely, they had a lot of extra funds to go around. Only a fraction of that would actually be needed to support the immigration of the tigers, so he expected some very serious tax breaks for the people of the United States going forward. The same should be seen throughout the countries of the world that had been spending largely on their military forces. It was time for the people to begin to think about other ways to spend those ridiculous sums of money. Perhaps it was time to truly end poverty, starvation, and homelessness forever all over the world. They would not even need to spend any of that money on research for the most part, since the tigers would likely be quite willing to share and would quickly catch the human race up to their level of technology in those areas where it would be safe to do so.

He also talked about how even the manpower required in order to provide everything the tigers would need could also be completely covered by military personnel who would otherwise find themselves jobless in the near future. Hunter explained that anyone who became involved in the efforts to set his people up on Earth would be extremely well compensated. He said that since he was responsible for the military personnel being forced to change careers, he would accept any who wanted to help out from that group first. If by chance more people would be needed than the interested parties from the military alone could cover, he would accept anyone else who was looking for an opportunity to do some good and help a race to bring itself back from the brink of extinction. He gave the address of a website where any interested party could send in their particulars and explain why they would like to get involved, and if they were needed, they might be asked to join the effort.

The last thing Hunter did was to ask anyone who might ever encounter their doppelganger forms to feel free to say hello to them. He talked about how much he'd been exploring the human culture and how he'd come to enjoy many parts of it and he was always happy to meet new people. He told everyone that his favorite music genres were grunge and pop punk, his favorite movies were martial arts and science fiction, and his favorite video game was Rock Band 4 on the Xbox One system. He invited anyone who played that game to look out for the Lonely Hearts Club band and to send a request to Sgt. Pepper or Ringo if they would like to play with the band some time.

To finish off the video, the cat said, "In closing, I would like to thank in advance those of you who will be assisting my people in any way to finally bring this epic undertaking of ours to a successful conclusion. I personally thank you, my people thank you, and most of all the many who have sacrificed their lives to try to make this dream come true thank you.

"My people are not that far different from yours. With the singular focus of saving our species finally completed, we will return our focus to simply living and loving each other. We will at last be able to spend our days testing our minds and developing our arts and pushing our technologies to new heights. We will likely be sharing all of those technologies with your people once we deem you are ready and can be trusted with them. Know that even if we don't hand it all over to you, we will most definitely be using our knowledge to help you achieve many of the things you have not yet been able to. You will enjoy completely free and clean sources of energy. We will teach you how to mine the asteroids and planets of your system for the resources you need in order to leave your planet untouched, and we will provide you the machinery needed to do it. We will help you to correct the imbalances your dirty industry has created in your environment to help your world heal from the damage that's been done to it.

"You may ultimately be able to transition to a state of never even needing to work and getting everything you need for free, just as my people have done for many centuries now. Machines will manage your farms and produce your food. They will process it and deliver it to you. They will make the things you need out of resources the machines themselves have mined or harvested. They will even construct your houses and make your vehicles, all for free. None of you need to worry about your jobs being displaced by machines, because you will no longer need jobs.

"We will also share anything we've learned regarding medicine and longevity enhancement that might be compatible with your biology. Any and all viruses are a thing of the past for my people, as are all forms of cancer and most degenerative diseases. I see no reason why any of our solutions wouldn't work just as well for you. Your world will become a much better place and your lives will become much simpler, allowing you to change your focus to each other and to bettering yourselves and to stop worrying about the future.

"All we ask in advance is that you help us in our time of greatest need. Thank you, and I wish you all the best."

Lt. Spencer then took over the job of final editing of the video.

Hunter provided him with several archival clips from his home world. They wanted to show the people of Earth that the cats were people too. They wanted everyone to really see that they have emotions and they love and laugh and they care about each other, just like the people of Earth do. The clips showed the tigers' children at play, and in school. They showed tigers engaged in various sports and leisure activities. They showed couples in love and families at play and older folks surrounded by their grandchildren. They showed some of their musicians performing pieces that were like intricate classical concertos played with instruments that were not entirely unlike the ones humans used, but just different enough to give the music an eerie, alien, yet hauntingly beautiful quality. Any clips they could find that best showed that the tigers were just like the humans were added.

At the end of it he also added portions of the videos that had been propagating throughout the Internet of the events on the bridge. He showed Hunter's doppelganger tossing the wrecks into the canyon, saving the people on the bus by pushing the tanker into the canyon, and then pulling the bus safely back onto the bridge. He showed the cat running from one wreck to the next to do anything he could to help those who were trapped to get out to safety.

He then added cuts from the videos taken during the picnic. He showed them playing cards and horseshoes with the older folks, joking around with the people from the town, and playing all sorts of games with all of the kids. Everyone would see the big tiger as he really was, a kind and gentle and caring person who loved to laugh and make others laugh. Someone who enjoyed life and the company of others just as much as anyone else.

The very last scene showed Jake and Hunter coming together with big grins on their faces at the end of their long martial arts fight and kissing each other and slipping into a loving embrace while the video faded to black.

The finished video was well over two hours long and once it hit the Internet, it spread like a firestorm to absolutely every corner. Within days nearly every human being on Earth who had any access to the Internet would likely have seen it, and it had also been picked up by major television networks worldwide and broadcast during prime time. Everyone had been interested in knowing the full story, and now they knew it all.

The website Hunter's computer was managing in order to get offers from people who wanted to help with the process of getting the tiger race settled in was inundated with applications. Within hours the number of people wanting to help had passed the one million mark and was still rapidly swelling with no sign of slowing down. It seemed like every able-bodied person from nearly every country in the world wanted to get involved in any way they could.

The fields in a questionnaire people had been asked to fill out enabled the cat's computer to begin by selecting anyone who was currently serving in any branch of the United States military first. It looked as though almost all of the needed manpower would come from that pool. Captain Wilkes's uncle, who was a general in the army, stepped up to take charge of the process. He would involve the Army Corps of Engineers and they would come up with a design for basic housing for the tigers following Hunter's guidance on how the tigers would like things to be arranged. They would then proceed to layout the infrastructure they would need and start construction as soon as a suitable location was selected by Hunter.

John's brother-in-law in Texas took charge of the food situation by organizing several cattle ranchers and pork producers and beginning to take stock and plan out how to deliver the livestock to their final destinations. They would assist with setting up the ranges and feedlots and the breeding programs to begin to increase the herds in advance of the tiger race's arrival so that there would be plenty of food available for them the moment they woke from stasis.

Jake and Hunter made several forays deep into the uninhabited sections of the Colombian jungles over the next several days and, as one of Captain Wilkes's men had pointed out, they quickly realized that they would likely find nothing better than what was available there. Within a week they'd found what they felt was the perfect location at the base of a long range of mountains in a rainforest area bordered by lush tropical savannas that would support huge herds of animals and offered a massive amount of space for the tigers to spread out.

At long last they were finally at a point where they felt they had all of their bases covered. Others had taken on the responsibility of making all of the necessary preparations for the arrival of the tiger race and construction would soon begin. Soon after that the herds would be transported in and setup. There were still many months before the tiger race's ships would begin to arrive, but there was so much work to do that there would barely be enough time to get everything ready, but there were more than enough people to get the job done.

With Hunter no longer playing a direct role in getting things ready for his people, he and Jake were once again able to simply relax, forget about the rest of the world, and simply enjoy each other for a short spell.

They had found they quite enjoyed camping in the jungle together. They would take one of the helicopters and go off on their own and find a secluded spot to pitch a tent for the night.

Tonight was no different. They'd flown to one of their favorite spots next to a waterfall that cascaded down into a deep pool, and they'd pitched their tent there to spend the night.

They crawled into their tent, but before they began to enjoy each other, Hunter told Jake, "I have a surprise for you. I'm going to switch your display mode to the drone that is following me and I'm going to disengage from my doppelganger so that you can follow me through my base."

"OK, go ahead."

Jake saw the doppelganger next to him in the tent suddenly collapse into a heap of cloth while Hunter stepped out of the sphere he was in on Mars. Suddenly, Jake's vision switched to what the small white drone that was following the big cat was seeing.

They'd been spending so much time together on Earth over the past week that it was sort of jarring to be so suddenly reminded that they still really weren't together at all. His tiger was still over forty million miles away on a different world altogether.

He watched as the cat made his way through the base until he came into a familiar corridor that Jake knew led to the hangar where Curiosity was located. He saw the tiger reach up and activate the door seal to open the door leading into the hangar, but even as he did so Jake noticed through the window on the airlock door that the huge hangar doors on the other side were also wide open, exposing the hangar to the Martian atmosphere.

"Hey! You aren't putting on your suit! Is the air breathable already?" Jake asked.

Hunter turned to look at the drone and grinned and said, "It is indeed, for longer and longer periods. So long as there is no significant weather churning the air and mixing the methane and ammonia down to the surface, the air is quite breathable. The computer has informed me that the weather in my location will be stable for quite some time, so I thought we might go out for a short walk."

"Fantastic! I wish I was really out there with you to enjoy the fruits of your labor. It must be great to see it all finally coming together. To actually be able to walk out of the base with no suit and not even any breathing apparatus."

"Yes, it is wonderful indeed to finally be seeing real results. Take a look..."

The tiger walked through the hangar and out onto the ramp and he pointed and the drone changed its focus from watching the cat to looking out over the Martian landscape.

Jake couldn't believe the change that had come over the place already. The location of the base must have been chosen so that it would be right next to what looked to Jake like an ocean, but might be a very large lake. The shoreline was no more than thirty yards away and the water looked fairly calm with light waves on it. The sky was an azure blue and the sun was nearly setting over the ocean. There were light, puffy white clouds floating across the sky being reflected in the water. It looked like a postcard photo of any coastal paradise, except for the fact that it was completely devoid of life of any sort. All it needed was some palm trees and a few birds flying about. Still, it was a hell of a long way from the barren, dusty, brown and red landscape with the dark sky that he'd seen before.

"I can't believe it! You have an ocean! The sky is blue! It looks fantastic!"

"The last of the comets carrying the additional water arrived yesterday. Most of the moisture that saturated the atmosphere has fallen as rain and dragged down the Martian dust along with it, and the water previously frozen under the Martian soil has melted and bubbled back up to salinate the oceans and form the basis of the water table. The atmosphere is now completely thickened and the pressure is quite close to our home world, which is slightly greater than your own world at sea level, but not enough so you would likely notice it.

"The air will continue to be processed for a few years to get all of ammonia and most of the methane that still remain at the highest levels of the atmosphere, but it is now thick enough that the blue light is being scattered in the same way it is on your world, and was on mine. We'll be retaining some of the methane in order to maintain higher temperatures. It's an extremely effective greenhouse gas and it will make up for the fact that Mars is so far away from your sun. The methane held back in the thermosphere will keep the planet's temperature just as our home world was.

"Now that the temperature is close to its final balance, the weather has finally begun to settle into more normal patterns with less extremes. When things are calm like this, which still doesn't occur very often but will do so more and more as time passes, it is very much like the final state it will be in in another year or so."

Jake said, "It looks great. We get to live on the coast!"

The cat chuckled and said, "Yes, we do. We got dibs on the best spot on the planet. Once the greenhouse ships have been exposed, we can begin to enjoy the tropical paradise this part of Mars will become. You and I will spend a great deal of time fishing from a dock we'll build right down there on the shore. I hope you enjoy fishing as much as I do."

"I love fishing. I haven't done much of it since I went to work at JPL, but ever since I was a boy my dad took me out regularly."

Jake suddenly noticed a patch of green on the ground halfway down towards the shore and he said, "What's that over there? Have you planted something already?"

Hunter grinned and said, "Yes. You're looking at the first ever crop to be grown on Mars."

The tiger approached the green patch and Jake chuckled as he recognized what it was, "That's spaceweed! Why am I not surprised you chose that plant to be the first one to grow out there?"

The cat smiled and said, "It was the most logical choice. It is actually a very hardy and tenacious weed on our home world, so it has the best chance of survival out here in these not yet perfect conditions. It might even be able to withstand the occasional toxic storms that will still occur over the next year, but it will likely not live to maturity. The storms will occasionally be quite powerful still, and very long lasting. The amount of toxic methane and ammonia they will mix back down will eventually choke the plants out completely before the air clears again as the lighter gases rise to the upper atmosphere again. That is why I haven't bothered to plant any more than this small patch. It will never grow enough to be able to harvest before I will need to replant it again. I simply wanted to have something alive to watch grow out here. As the months pass the plants will live longer and longer before they finally succumb, but in eight or nine months I should finally get a crop that reaches full maturity."

"I imagine since you're right at sea level you'll get breathable air more often and for longer periods than the higher elevations, too, so even when you get your first harvestable crop, the atmosphere won't be completely safe for the greenhouse ships to be opened up, right?"

"Correct. It will be a few more months after my first successful harvest before the world will be safely ready to expose the greenhouses. It is wonderful to see this bit of life on the surface already, though, and well worth the small effort to nourish it artificially and replant it as needed to see how much further they progress the next time."

"I wish I had my control card. I'm dying to look around, but I have no control over the drone."

Hunter said, "I have brought you along with me, my love. I was hoping we might enjoy each other out here on the surface of our new world while the weather is agreeable. Let us make love on our beach for the first of many times."

The big cat unrolled the black cloth doppelganger of Jake and showed it to the drone, then he dropped it on the ground in front of him.

"Terrific! Let me bring yours outside. We'll need an open area since you're not in the sphere and we'll need to be able to sync up."

The tiger nodded and said, "Correct. Find a comfortable place with no obstructions. We'll limit our movements to just the small patch of dirt. Let me switch you back to your normal vision..."

Jake's view switched back to normal with the drone's feed being displayed in a small box within his field of vision. He grabbed Hunter's black doppelganger and carried it outside of the tent and found a nice open area with soft loam on the ground that they could roll around on comfortably and he put the bundle of cloth down on the ground and stepped back.

"Ready. Go ahead and activate your doppelganger."

"I will activate yours as well. One moment..."

Jake saw Hunter's black double begin to rise from the ground where he'd set it down, and in the display from the drone he saw his own double begin to rise up. After a few moments they were fully animated and Jake's doppelganger on Mars immediately moved to synchronize its position relative to Hunter so that it matched Jake's current position relative to the tiger's doppelganger. Once it was complete Hunter switched Jake's displays so he was suddenly inhabiting the doppelganger on Mars, with the feed from his own suit on Earth being displayed in a tiny window at the periphery of his vision. The computer also once again overlaid their textures on top of the suits so they looked like their naked selves standing out on the surface of Mars.

Jake grinned as he turned to look around at the incredibly transformed landscape. It still had a long way to go to look like a fully living world, but it was an awfully good start. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore and the feel of the light breeze, combined with the blue sky and the soft white clouds scudding around made it feel like it was ready already, but just needed some plants to spruce it up.

"It's so amazing to be standing out here looking at all of this change. It's funny to think that back when you first found Curiosity just over there around that big rock outcropping near the beach, I was in the process of taking an image once a day with the camera skewed just ten degrees so that after a bit more than a month I'd have a full 360 degree view of what might be the rover's final resting place. It looked so incredibly different than this. I was planning to knit the images together and use my VR headset to be able to stand in one place and look around and feel like I was really standing on Mars. This is a hell of a lot better than that. I certainly never imagined I'd feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, or the warm breeze blowing in off an ocean and the sound of the waves lapping at the shoreline. I really love what you've done with the place so far."

The tiger chuckled and said, "It's still missing a few things, but they're on the way," he moved towards Jake and slipped his arms around him and said, "Most of all it's still missing you."

Jake put his arms around the big cat's neck and said, "I certainly never imagined the Martian landscape having you in it either when I first started taking those images. My first ever image of you was nothing more than your shadow merged with Curiosity's, stretched out on the dusty Martian dirt. We've come such a long way from those early days screwing around with the rover. I can't wait to really be out there with you. We're getting so close. Only a few more weeks until the animal ships begin to pass by the Earth, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. The greenhouse ships have been passing your planet over the past few days. The last of them will be passing soon. In just under a month the first of the animal ships will reach their nearest point to you and I will be diverting one of them to come to get you."

"Speaking of the animal ships, did you go ahead and shut down the stasis fields on some of them?"

"Yes, did I neglect to tell you that? I had my computer do it shortly after we had that conversation. I believe you had gone off to raid the post exchange for our camping gear and I did it then. I felt there was no reason to put it off since every drop of antimatter counts at this point. Just as you suggested, I had it shut down three quarters of the ships from each of the species of animals that are on the way here."

"So will you be redirecting one of the ones that was shutdown to come this way to pick me up?"

"No, that would be unnecessarily disgusting for you. You see, one of the reasons our stasis fields are so effective is that they shut down absolutely all metabolic processes for all life forms in the fields range of influence. That includes any bacteria that might be living on the surface or inside of the more complex life forms we're trying to save. The animals on those ships are in a form of death that prevents them from needing any type of resource to maintain their metabolism. That's why we don't even need any air on the ships, other than what was present when the animals were loaded aboard. They won't need to breath again until we shut down the fields and revive them.

"If the fields are shutdown with no revival process, they truly will be dead and they will not suffer in any way. However, with the fields shut down, the bacteria will automatically come back to life and continue their own metabolic processes, including those involved in the process of putrefaction, so the carcasses will immediately begin to decompose. The animals will have been rotting in very enclosed spaces for a month before you finally crack open that ship to empty it out. It would be a most unpleasant experience. I've held one particular ship back that contains the food animals that have pods most compatible with your body, and I will keep its fields running until it lands to pick you up. I will only shut it down then, so that we will only need to remove dead carcasses, but they will not have begun to rot yet. As I explained before, the reduced mass from the removal of the animals combined with the savings from shutting down the stasis field for the rest of the trip will provide the antimatter needed to lift the ship back out of the gravity well and bring it the rest of the way to Mars."

"I can't wait. It's so achingly close. We just need to get through a few more weeks."

Hunter smiled sadly and said, "Though I am anxious to have you here with me, I am not looking forward to you boarding that ship in one sense. You will be in stasis for over a month on the trip over here. For the first time since you came into my life, I will be completely alone once more. I will miss you terribly, my sweet man."

Jake hugged the big tiger harder and said, "I'm sorry. It'll be so easy for me. I'll go to sleep, then suddenly wake right back up and there you'll be, helping me out of my pod. I hadn't thought about what a trial it would be for you. At least you won't be quite as alone as you were before. You'll still have Lt. Spencer to smoke some weed with, and the rest of Bro Force to keep you company. Maybe you could drop down and visit the Seegers too and spend some time with them while I'm away. They'd love that I bet. Joe should be home by now."

"That's a wonderful idea. I would love to spend more time with them. Joe hasn't come home yet or I would have heard from Ed, but I'm sure it won't be much longer."

"Joe's in the army, so he might have actually put his name in at your site for a position to help out with the preparations. You should check for it and make sure he's accepted if that's the case."

"Yes, good thinking. I'd hate to remove him from his family again so soon, but it would be for a good cause and I'm sure they would understand."

"They'd be thrilled, and so would he I'd guess. You should give him a position right by your side. He can help keep you company while I'm in transit. It'll help you pass the time, too, if you stay heavily involved in the process of getting everything ready. You'll be surrounded by people who care about you, so you really won't be nearly as lonely as you were before. Just stay as busy with that process as you can."

"I'm not sure that I'll be able to do that for long. The first of the greenhouse ships will be arriving here not long after you lift off. I will become very busy at that point. I've already recalled all of my imaging swarms and the drone controllers from the belts. I want them to begin arriving here shortly after the greenhouse ships. It will be a massive undertaking to move all of the antimatter from those tens of thousands of drones into the greenhouse ships, and we'll have only six months to complete the job before the antimatter the ships currently have runs out, so I'll need to get started right away. Even with your help once you arrive here it will be a struggle to get it all done in time, but I would like to save every last one of those ships if possible."

"So you have no eyes in the sky above the Earth anymore?" Jake asked, "You've recalled all of the imaging drones that were in orbit?"

"I've kept a sufficient number of them to keep a very small swarm going. It will not have anywhere near the visual acuity of a full swarm, but it will be sufficient to monitor the ongoing disarmament process. It will of course mean that the swarm will be constantly on the move as it circles the Earth to observe the various countries, but I suspect there will be no further problems, so they might not be needed at all. I can still spare a few of the drones from the swarm for any disciplinary action that might be required."

"Where's the last swarm now?"

"It is currently over China."

"Why is it over China? Is something happening there?"

"No, it has simply been making the rounds, as it were, in order to check on each of the countries of the world to try to spot any signs of anyone not following my demands. That's largely going to be the swarm's mission from now on, but I'll soon be dispatching it to your Washington DC temporarily. I will be lowering it into the atmosphere to make a few further demands of your government. Gladys's brother Hank has asked that I have them provide any sort of large scale transport that might be used to begin to move the herds of animals over to Colombia as soon as possible to get them fully established and to begin breeding them before my people arrive. We'll also need a great deal of transportation capacity to handle all of the construction supplies that will be needed. I'll be asking your military to withhold any suitable transport trucks, aircraft, and ships from destruction, so that we might use them."

"Good thinking. We should be able to get all of the equipment we'll need from them."

Hunter nodded and said, "Indeed. Now, enough shop talk."

The big tiger reached down and picked Jake up under his knees and under his arms and cradled him and nuzzled him briefly before setting him down on the soft Martian soil on his back.

The cat then put his knees down on either side of Jake and grabbed his hands and lifted them up over the man's head and leaned in and rubbed his furry cheek lovingly against Jake's face. He kissed his man on the lips and then extended his long, warm tongue into Jake's mouth and they necked for a long while as their passion for each other began to build.

Hunter reached down between them and took Jake's hard cock in his big paw and began to stroke it while he humped at the man's belly and rubbed his own throbbing cock against him.

The tiger moaned and whispered, "Why is it that I can never quite get enough of you? Each time we're together my desire feels stronger than the time before. I believe my love for you has not yet reached its peak."

Jake grinned up at him and said, "I feel exactly the same way, so, once again, we're even."

The big cat chuckled and then he worked his knees back until his face was level with Jake's crotch and he moaned as he moved in and began to nuzzle and kiss the man's big balls. He turned his face sideways and rubbed his furry cheek up and down the length of his lover's penis while Jake sighed at the wonderful sensation of the cat's soft fur brushing against him. He put his hands down and began to stroke the top of Hunter's head and raised his hips a bit to rub his cock harder against the tiger's face.

The cat could sense Jake's desire and he turned his face back in and slurped the man's penis into his mouth. Jake moaned as he thrust himself upward again to drive his cock right down the tiger's throat until his pubic bone bumped up against Hunter's muzzle. The cat began to make swallowing motions that squeezed at the big head of Jake's penis and the man moaned more as Hunter brought one of his paws in to begin to gently play with Jake's nuts to give him more sensation to work with. He extended a big finger down under Jake's balls to begin to work his anus at the same time.

Jake moaned more urgently and brought his knees up and outward to expose his hole more and Hunter immediately pressed hard to insert the finger that had been teasing the tight pucker right inside his man. The fantastic sensations from Hunter's ministrations drove Jake into a rutting frenzy as he put both hands on top of the tiger's head and began to grunt as he thrust his hips up hard at the cat's face.

Hunter increased the suction and each time Jake thrust his cock down the tiger's throat he would swallow hard a couple of times before Jake pulled back again, only to thrust harder at his lover's face while his ardor began to grow out of control.

Hunter could already feel the pulsing of Jake's anus as his orgasm rapidly started to build. He began to work his finger in and out of Jake harder and faster, while working his big balls and sucking his cock down as deep as he could.

Jake planted both feet on the ground and thrust harder than ever while pulling the big tiger's head down onto him and he grunted and held the position and then cried out as the powerful orgasm smashed into him and the first big spasm caused him to spurt the first long volley of semen down Hunter's throat. He gasped at the power of the sensation as he pulled back, then felt another surge of electricity course through him as he thrust upward again and shot another rope of cum into his lover's mouth.

Again and again he bucked against Hunter's face as his body was pummeled with the powerful waves of his orgasm until finally he began to slow down and he stopped. The big tiger continued to suckle his lover's cock and worked his anus until he felt the pulses die off completely and he knew Jake was finally spent.

The cat let Jake's cock slip from his mouth, then he went back to kissing it and nuzzling it and softly rubbing his cheek against it again. He moved his mouth down and kissed Jake's big balls and licked at them, then he inserted his tongue in the space between the big sack and the man's inner thigh and he lapped at him urgently as his own ardor began to build.

He loved Jake so much he would often begin to get the urge to eat him up. He turned his face to the side and kissed at Jake's inner thigh and began to nip at him gently, then turned his head and gently bit the other thigh. He could feel his passion growing rapidly to uncontrollable proportions.

He placed both of his big paws under Jake's knees and lifted them up and forward toward the man's chest to fully expose his anus and Hunter dove in and jammed his tongue hard into his lover's warm, tight rectum. He moaned as he began to work Jake's hole hard in order to relax it more while his lust for him grew. He longed to taste his man, and to smell the essence of him, but for now he just wanted to fuck him, hard.

He lifted his head and moved his knees forward to place the head of his big penis firmly against Jake's sphincter while hooking Jake's legs onto his big shoulders.

Jake could sense the big cat's urgent need and he knew from experience that when Hunter was like this, he was a lot less careful. Jake took a deep breath, then he began to slowly let it out as he pushed to open himself up even as the big tiger roared and thrust hard at his lover. Jake felt the familiar fire as his hole was forced wide and the big cat's organ invaded the man's rectum once more. The pain ramped up slightly as the rough back edge of the tiger's huge cock head rubbed against the myriad of sensitive nerve endings at Jake's anus, but it went down quickly as the head passed in and Jake's sphincter closed more to grab onto the cat's thick shaft.

Jake stayed as relaxed as he could to keep himself more open while Hunter began to build up a rhythm and rutted harder and harder against his man. Jake never had to wait long when the big cat was this deep in the throes of his passion. Hunter grunted and thrust and panted as he fucked Jake harder and harder, lifting his muscular, furry butt up and then flexing his spine as he thrust his hips back in to ram his cock as deep into Jake as it could go and his big furry balls smacked against Jake's ass.

The rhythm continued to grow to its peak and then he suddenly thrust forward so hard he pushed Jake along the ground slightly as he roared long and loud and the first huge gush of his warm semen rushed up his long shaft and out into his man. He paused briefly, then pulled back and grunted as he slammed himself fully into Jake again and another long spurt of cum squirted out.

He thrust and humped while moaning and groaning as he pumped every last drop of his massive load of cum into Jake. At last his humping slowed as the pulsing of his orgasm died away and he finally collapsed on top of Jake, completely spent.

The big tiger lay quietly on Jake for a few moments breathing heavily while the last bit of his seed oozed into his mate, then he gently pulled out and rolled off to the side and put one of his big muscular legs over top of Jake's legs, and put one of his big arms across Jake's chest as he moved his face in and kissed his cheek and nuzzled him affectionately.

"I'm so sorry, my love. I cannot control myself when my desire for you is so strong. I was too rough."

Jake said, "No, you were just fine. I've told you before, you don't need to worry about me anymore. I can't tell you how amazing it feels to have you completely lose yourself because of your desire for me. I don't want you to ever feel you have to hold yourself back."

"Good, it would be difficult to do so. I cannot wait until I have you really here with me. As wonderful as it is to enjoy you through the second skin, I long to taste you and revel in the scent of you. I'm afraid my passion will grow to new heights then, and you really will get a work out like nothing you've experienced yet."

Jake chuckled and said, "Bring it on, you sexy cat. I can take it. I might keep the suit on though, and keep the strength and self defense modes engaged just in case."

Hunter said, "That might be a good idea, at least for the first few times. I already lose myself nearly completely from the attraction I feel for you, but all of that combined with your scent will cause me to enter a rutting frenzy that I truly will not be able to control even if I wanted to."

"That will suit me just fine. Like I said, don't worry about it. It's what I want."

The big tiger nuzzled him more as he purred and said, "Good. It's what you'll get."

They cuddled for a while, basking in the pleasant glow after their intense and satisfying release.

Jake noticed Hunter scratching at his side, and Jake himself felt an itch on his back that he couldn't quite reach. Lately the doppelganger suits had been getting to be more and more irritating to both of them. They had to take longer breaks from them each day. When it got to the point where they were conscious of their scratching, they knew it was time to take the suits off for a bit and give their skin a break.

They'd finally found that the only true relief they got after a long stretch with the suits on, was to spend the whole night sleeping without them in order to let their skin shed dead cells and breathe normally and feel things naturally through their nerve endings without the unnatural connection that the nano-fabric made when it fused to their skin. It wasn't quite as enjoyable as a night spent snuggled up together, but it was safer than sleeping with it on just to enjoy each other more, and then taking it off during the day and leaving Jake vulnerable while they moved around in the world where there were other people and possible unknown threats.

Jake said, "I'm getting itchy in places I can't reach. I think I'd like to get naked and go over to wash under the waterfall, then hit the sack in the tent. I'm bushed."

Hunter said, "Me too. I'll take a quick shower and then go to bed for a much needed sleep. Allow me to disengage us both fully."

The tiger disengaged Jake's suit and the black tiger doppelganger beside him went limp at the same time. He stripped completely out of his suit and put them both inside the tent, then he went over to the pool and waded into it and under the waterfall while the soft evening light faded towards night.

He watched Hunter go into the shower in the window in his display lenses and they both washed together, in a sense, like they normally did.

At last Hunter went off to bed and Jake crawled back into the tent and lay on top of his sleeping bag. It was so warm in this climate normally that he preferred to sleep naked and uncovered, provided the tent was free of biting insects, which it normally was since they always kept it zipped up tight to keep them out.

In no time at all he heard heavy snoring coming from Mars, and he smiled. It always comforted him to hear his tiger snoring in his ears whenever they weren't connected physically by the doppelganger suits. They were many millions of miles apart, but the sounds of his lover sleeping deeply made him feel that connection he needed, and it lulled him towards sleep.

Just as he'd slipped nearly completely to sleep, he felt the annoying sting of an insect biting him hard on the neck. He sleepily began to reach up to swat at it, but his arm never quite made it. It suddenly felt heavy and he was overcome with an extreme lethargy that he couldn't fight, so he let it take him over and drag him down to sleep.

He woke some time later with a pounding headache and, try as he might, he couldn't seem to focus on where he was or what had happened last. His brain was not firing on all cylinders and it refused to respond to any of Jake's attempts to get it to wake up.

He groaned loudly as he tried to move and couldn't, and it resulted only in searing pain crashing through his skull.

Suddenly he heard Hunter's voice in his ears say, "Jake! My love! At last! It has been days! Where are you? Where have they taken you? Can you tell me what you're seeing? I have been trying to switch my displays to see through your eyes but I see only blackness. You've been taken! When I re-inhabited the doppelganger after our sleep you were not there! Please, you must help me to find where you are!"

Jake's head was spinning and he tried to open his eyes to see where he was, but they resisted his attempts. He felt very groggy and it seemed like he didn't have full control of his muscles yet. He couldn't move, but he didn't feel any restraints. His muscles just weren't responding. He tried to speak, but all he heard come out was another groan.

He heard an unfamiliar voice say, "I told you to up the dosage, you idiot. He's starting to come around. His body will start to build up an immunity because we're keeping him under so long. Give him another shot. We can't afford to have him conscious until we get him safely stowed away in his permanent hole in the ground."

"Who's the real idiot? You know we can't talk around him. The cat will hear until they can deal with the audio tech. That won't be for another day or two."

"Fine. Shut the fuck up then."

"I will if you will."

Jake heard some rustling and then he felt a jab in his neck that felt just like the bug bite he thought he'd felt before.

The desperation in Hunter's voice was evident as he asked, "Who's there with you, my love? That is the first time I've heard any voices at all since you were taken. I've only been hearing muffled sounds of movement and the engines of various vehicles. Please! You must try to focus! I cannot find you! I am going mad with worry! They've threatened to..."

Whatever it was they'd injected into him made Jake feel like his brain case was being filled with hot lead and the tiger's voice trailed off as he was dragged back down into the darkness.

Some unknown amount of time later he began to wake again, but this time it seemed a bit cleaner, as though he'd been dosed with something to counteract whatever had been keeping him unconscious.

There was an intense ringing in his ears and his head was pounding, but other than that he felt much more alert than the last time.

"Are you fully back with us, Mr. Smith?"

He opened his eyes and blinked against the brightness of the room. In fact, it was quite dim, but his eyes had gone unused for so long that they had difficulty adapting at first.

In time the room came into focus. He was strapped tightly into a chair. Sitting across from him was a severe looking man he didn't recognize. He looked around and saw that he was in what looked like an interrogation room. There was a mirror on one wall and a camera mounted on the ceiling in one corner.

"Where am I?" he croaked, "What the hell happened?"

"You've been captured and taken into custody."

He cleared his throat and asked, "By who exactly? Who are you?"

"That's of no consequence. Rest assured that you will be treated in accordance with your rights. However, as a traitor to your country, you've given up most of the rights and freedoms you were entitled to before."

That at least told Jake that he was in the custody of the United States government. This was not good. They must have grabbed him while both of them were out of the suits and asleep. It was the only way they could have done it without Hunter's doppelganger tearing them to pieces.

They should have been more diligent and maybe not had Jake out of his suit at the same time Hunter was. Certainly not while Hunter was asleep and couldn't help him. Who would have thought they would catch him out in the middle of an uninhabited jungle though? They should have been safe.

He wondered if the tiger might still be listening. Hopefully he wasn't subjected to the same loud ringing Jake was experiencing right now. In any case, he felt he should at least try to get some information to the tiger. Anything he could learn might help.

"Where are we? How long have I been out?"

"You've been out for over a week. You apparently started to come around a few days ago thanks to the incompetence of the men who've been moving you, but we've managed to keep you under since then. We're in a military interrogation room at the moment. You don't need to worry about exactly where it is. It's not your final destination anyhow and you won't be here much longer. You've been moved around quite a bit since you were captured in order to make it impossible for your alien boyfriend to locate you. We needed to wake you up for a short time in order to ensure there would be no permanent brain damage from the drug we've been using that has been keeping you effectively in an artificially induced coma all this time."

"Where are you taking me?"

The man chuckled and said, "If what you're fishing for is information to feed the alien, I'm afraid you're wasting your time. The lenses in your eyes were removed as soon as you were taken. We weren't sure exactly how you were speaking with the alien, but we realized it must be something in your ears. It took our scientists a bit of time to locate the nano machines that were processing audio for you, but they were found and removed yesterday. Your eardrums were slightly damaged in the process, but they'll heal. The ringing you're probably hearing should fade away over the next few days. Your friend can no longer hear anything you hear, nor see anything you see."

Jake couldn't believe what he was hearing. His only link to Hunter had been severed. He could only imagine how insane the big tiger was going right now, not knowing where Jake was or if he was OK. If Hunter thought they'd killed Jake or hurt him in any permanent way, his retribution would be something the world would remember forever, assuming there was any world left.

"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how much power Hunter has? The amount of damage he could do? If you hurt me in any way, even I don't know what he might do."

"So we won't hurt you, then. In fact, that was made clear to him right up front. You'll be treated fairly and humanely, but only so long as he makes no attempt to get you back and doesn't attempt any sort of retribution. So long as he plays along and does as he's told, you won't be harmed in any way. We'll be setting up a live video feed so that he can see you and know that you're in good shape at all times, but not until we reach our final destination. For now, I'm recording our little conversation," he pointed to the camera in the corner at the ceiling, "so that he'll know you're fine and haven't been harmed in any way. It's not a live feed, so don't bother trying to send him any message. If you do or say anything that we feel is suspicious, we'll simply cut that part out before we send him the video of this interview."

"What the hell is it you want from him?"

"For starters, we'll be keeping our military. What any of the other countries do is of no concern to us, but the United States will not be destroying its hardware or dismantling any part of our armed forces. Secondly, we will not be footing the bill in any way nor providing any of the necessities for having his people settle in Colombia."

"What the fuck? The president is the one who made it necessary for them to settle there in the first place! That piece of shit should be paying out of his own pocket for fuck's sake!"

"We'll cut that little rant out," the man said as he adjusted his position in his chair, then he said, "Our government admits its culpability in the destruction of the alien ships that were meant as part of the planetary engineering process, but it was simply a misunderstanding brought about by the lack of communication from the aliens. Had they been up front about their situation we would have been willing to consider giving them Mars, at least on a temporary basis."

Jake snorted and said, "You actually think Mars was yours to give? It doesn't belong to the United States government. It doesn't even belong to the human race! No one has ever set foot on it, except for Hunter. By rights that would make it his and his alone. You had no right to interfere in any way. I hope you aren't planning any other sort of interference. Hunter loves me, but his entire species is on the line. If the only way to ensure their survival is to carpet bomb humanity out of existence, he'll do it. He can't put me above his whole race."

"Don't worry. We have no intention of interfering with anything at this point, except perhaps the immigration of his people, and only in a small way. As I said, our government admits its culpability, so it feels responsible for ensuring the survival of the aliens. We will make sure they have a place to stay while the process of engineering Mars completes, but it will not be in Colombia. In exchange for helping them we'll expect something in return."

"Let me guess, all you'll want is all of their technology, right?"

"Is that so much to ask for ensuring their entire race survives?"

Jake chuckled and said, "You mean for not ensuring their destruction. They would have survived just fine if the US government hadn't interfered. In less than a year they'd be landing their ships on a fully prepared planet and living happily ever after, if it weren't for the pesky humans. In fact, if you hadn't interfered right now by grabbing me and placing demands on Hunter, his people would have got along just fine by settling in Colombia as planned. Everything's already been arranged and was going smoothly. They'd be living a comfortable life in surroundings very similar to their home world for however long they would be stuck here. Let's call a spade a spade. What you're saying is you'll let his species survive, if they give you what you want. It's outright extortion. It's tantamount to threatening to kill them if they don't go along, and it would leave Hunter with no choice but to wipe us all out to protect his people."

"We'll cut that part out of the video too." The man paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and said, "Regardless of how it came about, the current state of things is that the aliens need a safe haven and we're willing to provide it. In return we'll expect them to share their technology with us."

"It's interesting how easily you throw around the word 'share'," Jake said, "Tell me something, will you 'share' what you learn from Hunter's people with the rest of the human race, or will that be just for the United States, and maybe its allies? Though, I suppose with that sort of power, you wouldn't need any allies."

"What we would do with it is our concern, not yours, or his for that matter. We'll also be demanding a portion of Mars for the human race as well. Since the planet will be compatible, it would only be fair that we get a part of it, since its located in our own planetary system. It would be a way to ensure the human race's survival in case of any cataclysm that might happen to Earth."

"That actually sounds reasonable, and I'm willing to bet they would have given the humans a piece of Mars if we asked nicely, even without holding anything over their heads."

"We are not holding anything over their heads, Mr. Smith, we're simply offering them the support they need in order to survive until their planet is ready, and we're asking for compensation in return."

"OK, so if they say 'no thanks' to your offer, and they go ahead with Colombia, what then? Are you saying you won't interfere with that? They really don't need any of the support you're offering. I'm sure they could get animals from anywhere, and construction materials, and manpower, so what if they just ignore your 'generous' offer of help and go ahead as planned?"

"I'm not certain what would happen then. You seem to be operating under the assumption that the rest of the world would be ready to cover the costs of helping the aliens. The Colombians might not be so amenable if they find out we have leverage over the alien. They are most likely only going along with allowing millions of aliens to move into their territory because they feel they have no choice. What would they do if they realized they did have a choice? In any case, even if the alien turns us down and goes to the Colombians and they allow it, we will not be releasing you. We can't afford to do that, or we'd be back under the alien's thumb. We won't allow that to happen. That means he no longer can dictate what anyone does any longer. He'll know that if he tries anything against us, or any of our allies, like Colombia, we may have to hurt you."

"If you hurt me, then he'll go insane and destroy you fairly thoroughly."

The man chuckled and said, "Then I suppose we can think of it as a form of mutually assured destruction. If he tries to damage us or our interests in any way, we'll damage the one thing he seems to value more than anything else, you. Obviously we also know that if we damage you, he will seek retribution, so we'll leave you unharmed if at all possible. So long as both parties know that neither can act first safely, we'll be able to maintain an enforced level of detente. It's exactly what allowed the world to survive the long and dangerous years of the cold war.

"He will be watching this video, as I mentioned before. At least, those parts of our discussion that we leave in. This will be one of those parts. I have no problem with him knowing that if he tries anything against us when he sees that we've halted the process of disarming ourselves, we'll have to start cutting pieces off of you. Perhaps we'll start with the parts between your legs that he seems so fond of. We won't stop until he stops. He'll have to come to understand that if he wants you to stay whole, he'll have to relax his demands on us. He'll have to remove them entirely, actually. As I said before, since the United States is responsible for the disarray of their planetary engineering process, we're willing to give them a place to stay. It will be on US soil and they'll be restricted to camps."

Jake laughed and said, "Concentration camps? Are you fucking crazy?"

The man shrugged and said, "It's the only way this can work. We need to restrict them to a few easily managed locations. They will not be allowed to mix into the human population in any way. They will not have direct access to any of their advanced technology. Though, if there is something they desperately need that only their technology can provide, we would be willing to produce it for them if they hand their technology to us to enable us to create it for them."

"Have you even thought this through? Once his people land here, they'll have the power he has. They won't give a rat's ass if you kill me outright."

"Our analysts have determined that the only logical course for him is to remove their own technology from them if he wishes you to live and if he wishes no harm to come to the human race that he seems to have become enamored with. That would have been the case even without our interference with the plans for Colombia. If they get the power, then, as you say, they won't give a rat's ass about you, so they might kill you themselves. They'll kill us too, of course. He would know that the only way to keep you and his new friends at that little town you visited safe, is to cripple his own people's ability to harm you, which of course removes their ability to harm us. It's pretty obvious that he's the only one we really need to deal with, and so long as we have you, we have the only real bargaining chip we need."

"You're walking a hell of a fine tight rope. I hope you've got really good balance. I'm pretty sure he once told me that if any harm ever came to me, he'd kill anyone who was in any way involved, twice if he could manage it."

The man chuckled and said, "I would expect no less. In reality, we don't really have to do anything except hold you. We'll only harm you if he forces our hand. If all we do is sit here for the next year, doing nothing, then there's nothing he can do. He can redirect his ships to any place he chooses. We can't stop that. Whether his people will emerge in safety, or in chains, or even alive at all, is somewhat up to us, though. He'll have to realize that he can't save them and you both, unless he comes to the bargaining table. The best solution for him now is simply to do as we ask. Our request is in no way outrageous. If he does as we ask, you will live, and his people will survive and have a place to stay until Mars is ready for them. They will share their technology with us and our own people will prosper."

"You fucking ass, they would have shared their technology with us anyhow and you know it. You just don't like the fact that they would have shared it with the whole world, when what you want is for them to share it only with the United States. I personally hope he chooses to just let you kill me. I sure as hell wouldn't trust you with the power to contain and use antimatter. It would be crazy. He can't let you have his technology. The human race has a fuck of a lot of growing up to do before it could be trusted with it."

"We'll cut that part out of the video, obviously. It's not important for him to know what your opinion on the matter is. He only needs to know our stance. We've said enough already. We only needed him to see you alive and well, and to help him understand the position he's in. We'll do this again when we reach our destination."

"How long will that take? Where are we heading? Go ahead and cut it out if you want. I'm just wondering."

"You don't need to know anything. It won't take more than a few more days I'm sure. We can't move in any obvious ways because it might be detected by that 'imaging swarm' he spoke of. We know he's down to just one of them."

"How do you know that? How the hell did you manage to grab me anyhow?"

"We know about the satellite swarm for the same reason that we were able to 'grab' you. Luckily for us, you're both creatures of habit. You've been watched closely by our own satellites. We knew you were heading to Colombia. We tracked your movements closely once you got there. It didn't take long to see a pattern emerge. The two of you would often go off by yourselves to a favorite spot to spend the night together to engage in whatever disgusting activities your type gets up to. We had covert operatives hidden in the jungle surrounding your favorite spot for a while, waiting for any chance to present itself.

"The walls of a tent are pretty thin to begin with, but a parabolic microphone makes them non-existent. They listened to you asking where his imaging swarm was, and we knew his reply since you repeated it back to him. We knew he wasn't watching from overhead so he couldn't see us take you, and he wouldn't be able to track our movements until long after we'd removed you from that location, so he had no hope of ever finding you again. All we needed was a chance to move in, and he gave it to us when he exited his 'doppelganger' and you took your own suit off. They waited for you to fall asleep, and they moved in and drugged you and took you away. It was quite simple really.

"They left the suits behind, obviously, or he could use them against us like he tried to do with the three drone rockets we got from your house. We took out your lenses immediately since that was easy enough, so at least we have that bit of his technology to examine. We stopped at a location equipped with a surgical suite along the way to deal with the audio portion of his technology and that's likely being studied quite closely as well.

"The bottom line is that you're completely cut off now. He'll never find you again. You'll likely be with us until the day you die of natural causes, since letting you go would mean losing any leverage we had, so you'd best get used to the idea that any freedom you had is gone forever. The maximum penalty for high treason is death, so I suppose in a way you should consider yourself lucky."

Jake shook his head and chuckled and said, "Yeah, I'm a real lucky guy. You should consider yourself lucky I'm strapped into this chair right now. You can also consider yourself lucky if Hunter never finds out who you are, or who any of your friends or relatives are, or you might get a taste of what a tiger driven mad might do."

The man shrugged as he stood and moved towards Jake.

He pulled out a syringe from his pocket and said, "It's time for you to nap for a few more days. Enjoy your rest."

There was nothing Jake could do, so he didn't even struggle while the man jabbed the needle into his neck again.

All he could do as the drug quickly began to turn his thoughts into slowing rivers of molasses that became stickier and more muddled by the second, was to send out a silent prayer that somehow, some way, Hunter would find him and come to his rescue.