"Aaand CUT!" yelled the director.
With a sigh the cast and crew (in more ways than one) of the NTE Protector relaxed once more.
"Tell me that take was acceptable?" Alex said raising his eyebrows emphatically.
"Daney babey! Don't worry, we'll take that slip right out in editing no trouble." Alexander Dane's eyes focused to slits at this, but he fumed in silence. "OK people, that's a wrap, and I'm outa here."
With a familiar flurry the director dashed out with barely another word and most of the cast's eyes followed his departure with resignation.
"What do you think?" Jason muttered to Gwen as she pulled bits of Styrofoam 'debris' from her hair. "Natasha or Betty this week?"
"Jason, you're so out of touch. I'm sure it's a very essential business brothel... I mean meeting that he has to attend."
"Aaah, why didn't I think of that?"
A slap on his shoulder from his rib headed 'alien' cast member jolted Jason.
"Do you really want me to answer that Jason?" Alex said.
With a chuckle Jason slapped Alex on the back as they joined the other crew heading out to their respective rooms to change out of costume.
"Excuse me Mr Nesmith?"
Jason turned to see a short man in a rather worn tweed jacket.
"How did you get in here? Look autographs are on Tuesday if you could..."
"Mr Nesmith?" The man interrupted "I'm not a 'fanboy' or Questar or whatever."
"Questerion. It's pronounced Questerion Mr...?"
"Lang. Mr Obidia Lang. Call me Obby."
"Oookay. So... Obby... to what do we owe the pleasure?" Jason said with a practiced grin.
'Obby' looked around, and waited while the everyone except Jason, Alex and Gwen had left the set. Jason found that odd in itself. Why wasn't someone clearing up the set like they usually did?
"Mr Nesmith, I represent the Atlas Foundation and we wish to hire your crew."
"Look, we're in syndication right now and have some serious deadlines. I'm afraid I don't think we can fit in any specials at the moment."
Mr Lang smiled and straightened his short black hair idly.
"I think you might be interested in my offer Jason. Malthazar seemed to think you were our best bet so..."
"Malthazar?" Jason said, all humor lost from his voice as his eyes locked with Mr Lang
"Who the hell are you and where are you from?"
"Please, trust me I am human, mostly. Myself and the Foundation have been dealing with things along the lines of your run in with Sarris, though purely on Earth, for decades. Perhaps we should gather the 'cast' together and talk a little more informally? I'd like to see the reception room on the Command Section if you don't mind?"
The three cast glanced askance at each other for a couple of seconds before Jason shrugged.
"OK, Obby. Let's go 'on-set'."
Mr Lang smiled again and Jason got the distinct impression he knew all too well that the Command Section was NOT a set.
After a few minutes Obby and the real command crew of the NTE Protector (minus Laliari) sat around the oval table in the reception room. Tommy was just sitting down, arguing quietly with Alex.
"He's what? Oh come on, this is just some sort of Questerion thing right?"
"Trust me, this is more than that. Though where it's going...?" and Alex shrugged.
Once they were all seated Obby rested his elbows on the table.
"Thank you for meeting me like this. I know this is a little odd, but I felt secrecy was important. Your staff has gone home early by the way." he held up a hand at the anxious looks around the table. "No, nothing untoward going on. I just wanted to be sure no-one would butt in on this meeting. Gentlemen and Lady, I am here to offer you the command of the next Protector."
The stunned looks around the table lasted for several seconds.
"You have got to be kidding!" Alex Dane said pushing back in his chair. "We're ACTORS, not military! What, you expect us to beat the xenoforms of Belox 9 by giving a rendition of episode 8? Give me strength!"
"Wait up a minute Alex." Jason said, not noticing the annoyed look from Alex. "Obby. First, what do you mean by 'the next Protector'?"
Mr Lang stood up and pulled out a small crystal from his pocket and handed it to Gwen.
"If you could get the computer to display the file on that Ms Demarco?"
Gwen looked at Jason, Jason raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"Computer, display file from memory crystal in slot 72." she said, putting the crystal in a slot on the table.
A hologram appeared above the table, solid looking, but looking somehow... fake. It seems the Thermians had also copied the special effects from the original series which employed painted overlays. The ship in the hologram looked impressive, but did not resemble the Protector in any way. It looked more like a cross between a naval warship and a NASA space station with eight huge cylindrical looking engines on the rear. More than anything it reminded Jason of an office block on it's side.
"This is our current ship design, and no this is not the Protector. This is the AFS Dauntless. It is an in-system defense vessel we use to guard Earth, one of three such craft. Her sister ships are the Indefatigable and the Ajax, but the Ajax is incomplete at present. We plan on using most of the Ajax's internal components already built, combined with items made from the emergency Fabricators on your Command Section and items that we can assemble ourselves to your specs. Basically we plan to build this. Image two Gwen?"
"Computer, display image two."
The display switched to an accurate rendition of the NTE Protector. Mr Lang walked around the table behind Fred Kwang to get close to the hologram and reached out.
"These specs are incomplete, read from your... ah, more public archives. We cracked your human built computers and I believe you transferred some files there? Anyway, if you consent to giving us your technical specs we should be able to complete this ship, our first trans-light craft, though we'll have to use your Command Section as several components here we can't reproduce at all. We've had some luck duplicating the different Particle Cannons but had to go with a fusion reactor rather than a Beryllium Sphere..."
"Wait wait wait a minute!" Jason said standing up. "You need our design to build this thing? That's why you need us to crew it? A trade?"
Mr Lang shook his head.
"No Mr Nesmith. Frankly the Foundation Council would much rather they assembled their own crew on an entirely military basis and simply pay you for the rights to use the data you have in your computers, even if that meant using our own equipment to build the bridge computer and sensor systems. Our factories most certainly are not up to Thermian standards in that matter. Honestly without the assistance of your Fabricators lots of small details on the ship would be vastly inferior to the vessel you flew. The idea to use you as the command crew for the new ship was mine. Perhaps I'd better go over some history of the Foundation? That may help explain things a little better."
"We were founded in England in 1919 to look into a large number of unidentified airships. Yes, back then the ones we got looked like zeppelins if you can believe that. The Foundation was set up separately from the government for several reasons; funding (we were supposed to at least partly find funding in the private sector), deniability if something went wrong, and of course privacy. We wanted all that 'weird' stuff away from normal government channels. Oh those were the days." Mr Lang blinked for a moment and Jason and Alex gave each other odd looks while he continued.
"At first it looked quite good. We identified many different vessels, realized they definitely were not from Earth and had even started classifying them into categories, though we had no communication with any of them. Then in 1922 the incidents slowed, finally stopping entirely in February 1923. Looking back the incidents seemed to have risen slowly over the nineteenth century peaking by about 1900 then slowly falling. Soon we found out why."
"Wait a minute." Jason interrupted "Flying saucers stopped in the twenties? What about Roswell? All the 1950's saucer stuff?"
"Please let me tell this my way. I'll get to all that in time. Where was I? Oh yes. The Al'thu-Sval. We later found that the other races that were looking Earth over at that time were basically scared off by the Al'thu-Sval. Basically they're Space Vampires."
"Oh good grief!" Alex groaned, throwing his hands in the air. "Surely you could come up with something better than that! That could have come right out of one of our old episodes!"
"I don't think we actually had any space vampires?" Guy Fleegman said cautiously "Although the G'donk makeup sort of looked a little like a reptilian vampire? Maybe."
"Reptilian vampire?" Jason said "What have you been smoking? I nearly made love to one of those G'donk! Er, Commander Taggart did I mean."
"Gentlemen!" Mr Lang said, banging on the table. "Look I know this is hard to believe, but if you asked someone out there to believe that you lot, the actors on a TV scifi show, had just saved an alien race from destruction, a race that mimicked your own TV show to save themselves from sociological and cultural decline... would you believe it?"
He glanced slowly around the table as the crew settled down once more.
"Thank you. Well, in August 1923 they arrived. We had agents across all of the then British Empire and got some news of several incidents, sightings mostly, of a single, small, unknown 'airship' that moved in a similar impossibly fast fashion as previous UFOs had. It was described as spherical, dull silver and featureless. We thought that aliens had been leaving our world, and now were being proved wrong. We started to rapidly organize a meeting to attempt to greet these newcomers to our world. Thankfully we did not get that organized in time. Our organization was terribly naive back then. On August '23 the Sval ship found an ocean going vessel in the Atlantic that it found interesting. Later examination of their records show they believed it to be some kind of local transport and were considering hauling people off it for dissection... shortly before the HMS Indefatigable fired off a broadside of their main guns at it."
"They mistook a warship for a transport?" Fred asked, grinning.
"Yes, they were incredibly arrogant and naturally didn't think anything this primitive world could throw at them would even dent them, thus did not engage their Electron armor. Six, 10 inch, armor piercing incendiary shells smashed most of their engineering section away and the wreck plunged into the Atlantic. It stayed afloat for a few minutes and some of the crew did get off. The Indefatigable picked up one of the crew, and their marines had a terrible time restraining him, despite him being half drowned. The others swam ashore, or simply drifted ashore unconscious and waited till their bodies repaired themselves. They are a very hardy species."
Mr Lang walked around the table as he spoke and now paused directly opposite Jason.
"It took us a total of seven years to finally catch all of the crew, and at great cost to our agents... myself included."
Jason glanced back and forth from Fred to Obby.
"You... you were one of those agents? You seem a little spry for a Ninety year old?"
"Hundred and fifteen actually, and yes I had a run in with one of the Sval that left me permanently scarred. No, in case you were wondering they do not bite you to make you a vampire. They mostly seem to drain energy from their victims by simply gabbing hold of you and not letting go. However we did later learn that they had a technological means to turn other sentients into their servants. They had lost most of their equipment and were testing locally built equivalents (most of our early hardware was based on salvaged versions of their stuff) and tested some of their systems on me when they captured me. At the time we thought possibly an effort to make new slaves out of humans. It was, of course, based on their biology and the results were... unpleasant, and needless to say I did not turn into their slave."
Obby coughed slightly, fingering his collar before continuing.
"Anyway, that is old news. The Sval, as I said, had scared away most of the other races nearby. They were fairly advanced and the rough equivalent of mobsters in the galactic community. Once we dealt with the remains of their crew we pretty much had the Earth to ourselves once more. Naturally by this time we had amassed a large amount of advanced technology, small stuff the Sval had salvaged from their craft before swimming away, as well as things they built here on Earth, and our connection with the British government was... somewhat distant. Frankly those in power that did know about us had either left their jobs or died and it was a simple matter to sever ties with England completely and go independent. You see the Foundation had decided that no single government on Earth should hold such power as we were amassing. The following years of World War Two pretty much proved that to us. We aided the allies a little here and there, (not as much as I would have liked) but mostly held back. You might gather that the Foundation has a somewhat separatist view of themselves, but their goal is still primarily the defense of Earth from aliens."
At this Lang paused, seemingly gauging the response to his speech.
"OK, and then in the fifties?"
"Well, Once other races started probing this area of space and weren't repulsed by the Sval they began investigating once more. We're aren't sure if there were more Sval ships in the neighborhood apart from the one that crashed, but no more were seen after that. Perhaps they simply assumed we were too much of a risk and moved on? Anyway, governments around the globe began to set up organizations of their own to find out about the new aliens turning up, Project Blue Book etc, but the Atlas Foundation had a head start and had the captured Sval equipment. We basically ran rings around them, still do. We don't affiliate ourselves with any government but have built two space warships to defend the Earth and were building a third when we learned of the Thermian's visit. Their means of transport eluded us unfortunately or we might have been able to help out, but in the last month we have deciphered the encoding of your vox's and made contact with Malthazar." At Jason's worried look he held his hands up, smiling "Don't worry! We didn't break your little secret. They still think the NSEA is real etc. Though the Foundation wanted to be more open with them I persuaded them otherwise. We needed the Thermian's help, but they have not been as forthcoming as I might like. It seems they are leaving this area of space and are looking for a safer place to live. Can't say I blame them frankly."
Leaning over the table Mr Lang stared at Jason.
"And this brings us back to you. Malthazar seems willing to share intel on the local area, but his recent experience with other races has left him... unwilling to trust us without knowing more. One thing we would like you to do is contact him and ask for data on the various races nearby and possible threat levels. We think he will trust you. We don't want to run into another Sarris out there on our first mission!"
"Ourfirst mission, right?" Jason said pointedly.
"I would hope so, yes. Look, I'll be frank with you. The Foundation Council is not happy with this but I have a great deal of sway there and I'm forcing the issue." From the way Obidia paused Jason got the feeling he was leaving a lot out. Not comforting! "But the only way they'll let you command the Protector 3 is... with assistants."
Alex winced and glanced at Jason as he spoke.
"These assistants, would they perchance be the original crew your council wanted to run the ship?"
Mr Lang stood back up and his expression became more serious.
"Actually, yes."
"And, hypothetically, would these crew, oh I don't know... be actually trained to run the ship?" Alex continued.
"Look, Mr Dane. I'm aware that you are actors and not starship personnel, but you have already proven that you work well together, can cope with the unknown, and have experience with the technology involved. Frankly there is another issue. Your 'assistants' are mostly military in background from all across the globe but are not... well versed outside military matters. I'm worried that no-one on the proposed crew... I mean your assistants, has any diplomacy skills, is interested at all in relating peacefully with beings they might meet, or has much in the way of background in science fiction either. Our history with aliens has been a rather violent one in which we not only have been barely holding our own, but also desperate to not let the public in on it for fear of making a mass panic."
"You want us," Alex said, staring out of the corner of his eye at Jason "to be diplomats? You don't suppose you could actually get someone trained in that? Maybe... not actors?"
Hands slammed to the table and everyone jumped.
"OK, let me lay this on the line for you. This is my last chance to derail what I believe is the Council's worst mistake in the Foundation's history. I've used every last favor I have to get you lot to be in charge of the ship. This is the only chance I have. Do you accept?"
"Hey, I'm in." Fred said, popping an M&M in his mouth.
Jason looked around the table, first at Gwen.
"I have been working on the computer." she said slowly, pondering for a moment longer. "OK, I'll help."
Alex frankly looked stunned at her response, but Jason, then the rest of the crew, turned their gaze to Tommy.
"So, I guess I'll be working with some hot shot NASA pilot? I can live with that."
Then on Guy.
"Who'll be my... assistant? A marine?" he said, but his nervous expression got more self conscious as he glanced around at the others. "Oh come on. I'm no soldier!"
"You're a security officer," Jason put it, "Besides, I've seen you practicing with the Nebulizer pistols, you probably could show the guy a thing or two."
"Just as long as this doesn't end up as a flashback episode." Guy said tiredly. "I hate flashback episodes!"
All eyes then landed on Alex.
"I can't be a scientist! I'm schooled in drama, not physics!"
"But Alex, Lazarus was more than just a science officer, he acted as our ambassador with aliens in... a lot of situations" Gwen winced, Thankfully out of sight of Alex "and besides, you know that science console pretty well by now."
"Glorified sensor tech?" He muttered, then continued more loudly. "For god's sake Jason, I am not wearing this annoying headpiece for a damn five year mission!"
Alex grimaced, lurching out of his seat and leaning over Jason with a foul expression. Jason looked back up pleadingly at him.
"Well, I think, even if we are dealing with Malthazar... we can..." He turned to Gwen, willing her to help out.
"Mr Lang, how soon will we have to board the Protector 3?" Gwen asked.
"If everything goes as predicted and your Fabricators help as I hope, then probably about two months."
"Fine," Gwen said, "I think we can assume Malthazar is still watching the show, so all we have to do is introduce a plot device, right? Something happens to Lazarus to... make him look more human?"
"Yeah!" Jason said, picking up from Gwen. "Some sort of anomaly, you fight a human rebel or something, and cast him into the anomaly but get caught yourself... then blend with him. It could work?"
"And I won't have to eat beetles?"
Gwen and Jason shake their heads.
"I'm sure more human tastes can be worked into the story line."
Alex slowly moved his gaze nervously around the table.
"We're seriously going to do this?" He said, finally ending up looking at Jason. "You know what happened last time. We nearly died."
"But this time we'll have guys who have been in space helping. Come on Alex, it'll be great!"