Ham Tyler got up at two a.m. the next morning. While Donovan had the raid on Diana's mother ship and Robert Maxwell had the diversion attack on the Visitor's security headquarters, he was in charge of the real attack. A full dozen hot air balloons with red dust payloads would be launching just before dawn local time under his command. There were also a half dozen other groups around the LA area that he had already given balloons, helium and red dust to. As long as Donovan and Martin didn't blow up the planet, the war was won. He proceeded to walk down the halls of what had been the officer's quarters, banging on the doors and grinning his head off. "UP! UP! Everybody up!" Today was going to be a great day.

He stuck his head in Donovan and Julie's room. "Up and at 'em Gooder! We've got lizards to kill!" Tyler laughed when he saw a rather delicate hand reach out from underneath the blankets and flip him off before he continued on. Maxwell was already up and he was getting his daughters out of their bed when Tyler checked on him. Robert waved in his general direction and continued to try and wake up Polly. Katie was already up, bouncing on the bed beside her sister.

Several doorways later Tyler poked his head in Robin and Harmony's room. He wasn't surprised to see a blanket hanging down that bisected the room between the two beds, nor was he surprised to see that Martin and Willie were there wrapped around their ladies. What did surprise him was that they were all still asleep. He had been loud enough to wake the dead. "HEY! Everybody up!" He stalked over to the end of the blanket and pushed it aside, only to find that Martin was pointing his laser pistol at him. "Times a wastin' kids," he grinned and turned around and left.

Robin grumbled something into her pillow but started getting out of bed. Martin spent a short moment relishing the memory of beating the Human to a pulp but then sighed and joined Robin in getting dressed. He really didn't like Tyler but Donovan trusted him and he had helped Robin during her pregnancy, so he'd put up with the man when he had to. He finished putting on his uniform and turned to help Robin with hers.

This was going to be a hectic morning even if everything went perfectly. The three prong attack here in LA was planned for nine in the morning, but those who were dispensing the red dust into the atmosphere had at least five hours of hard work to do before that. It took time to prepare, load and launch each hot air balloon and many smaller groups were loading tiny amounts of red dust into thousands of smaller balloons that they would release at nine. Those balloons would burst once they reached a certain height, releasing the red dust.

Those who were attacking Visitor Security Headquarters actually had the easiest job of the day, although it was much more dangerous than handling the red dust. After being resistance members for more than a year, they had learned the hard way how to conduct a raid on a Visitor target. They were now very good at it and everyone was well aware of what their jobs were.

Naturally those who were making the early morning raid on Diana's mother ship had the most dangerous and difficult job of all. Sneaking on board the mother ship was the easy part of that raid. Martin already had clearance to bring the freighter on board, or rather the freighter captain that only existed in the mother ship's computers did. Once they were on board they would be splitting into two groups, one heading directly to the bridge and the other would be dumping the freighter's cargo of red dust, which had been loaded last night, into the ventilation system. The first group would leave the freighter with hopefully enough time to reach the bridge before the synchronized attack began.

Martin was knocked out of his musings by a sharp pain in his arm. Instinctively he hissed and grabbed at his arm, right where the Battle Bride mark was located. The pain wasn't his, he realized. It was Philip's and the pain had woken Elizabeth. 'Daddy?' she cried, worried about the pain.

'It's all right sweetie,' he soothed. 'Your Uncle Philip just got married. The pain comes from a part of my people's marriage ceremony. Usually a person getting married takes medicine to keep from feeling the pain but your Uncle Philip wanted me to know that he was married. I can feel when he gets hurt and he can feel when I get hurt. That was how he found out that I got married to your Mom.'

'Ok Daddy,' Elizabeth thought. She could feel the pain easing right away so her Uncle Philip had to have taken medicine for his arm. 'Are you and Mommy coming to get me soon?'

'Very soon sweetheart,' Martin sent. 'We're coming to get you this morning. Don't let Diana or anyone else know. You might see some people falling down and clawing at their faces or throats. Don't worry about it. We're putting something into the air of the mother ship but it won't hurt you.'

'Will it hurt you Daddy? What about Uncle Willie?' Elizabeth worried. She knew the difference between Visitors and Humans and had a pretty good idea that whatever her parents were going to be putting into the air would only work on Visitors.

'Your Uncle Willie and I are going to be taking medicine to make sure that it doesn't hurt us. Try to go back to sleep, it's going to be a very busy day,' Martin said before returning his attention to his surroundings.

Elizabeth sighed as she felt her daddy's attention turn away from her, but she knew that if she needed him her daddy would be there in her mind in an instant. He was always there when she needed him. She wouldn't be able to go back to sleep though. Today she was going to go home.

She got up out of her bunk and put on her uniform. It was just like the ones that the adult visitors wore. Diana didn't like it when she wore human clothes. Elizabeth thought that both human and visitor clothes had something wrong with them. The visitor uniform kept her warm in ways that human clothes didn't, but human clothes were much nicer to look at and move around in. They also came with real pockets instead of the belt pouches that didn't have anywhere near enough space for anything or the vest that sort of made an open sided hiding place in the front and back. She missed her pockets, especially when she wanted to carry something, like now.

Elizabeth looked around the small area that Diana had given her. She couldn't take the hairbrush with her, besides the one that Mommy had was much nicer and didn't pull her hair the way Diana's did. She had the two books she had been given, but they were rather big. She turned Father Andrew's bible over in her hands for a moment before attempting to stuff it into the front of her uniform. It didn't make too much of a bulge but it was obvious that something was there. She shrugged. It wasn't like Diana didn't know she had it. Then she placed the visitor book in the back of her uniform. That actually fit better as it was flatter than the bible, although it was larger.

Satisfied with the arrangement, she looked over her blocks. They were the last thing that she wanted to take with her, but she had no idea how she was going to manage that. They were far too bulky to carry or to hide. Sighing she sat down and began to build yet another city. It would be some time before her parents arrived, and even if she couldn't take the blocks with her when they came, at least she could play with them one more time.