They had gotten the loan of a satellite to keep an eye on the Immortals; so they had a good idea of where they went and what they did. Sophisticated surveillance allowed the gradual tracing of the network of mortals that the Immortals were using to get things done and get information. It was hoped that they would be able to piece things together in time to stop whatever they were planning.

Urter had been very forthright in what he wanted; humans and Antarians so badly damaged that it would be centuries before they could go anywhere again. He intended to destroy most of the ships in parking orbit around the moon, just in case. They would take a few just to have them. But causing that much damage on earth meant using earth weapons; and that meant Nuclear Missiles of the two main powers, Russia and the US. Now how to do this was what would take preparation and planning. They could just seize the ships with boarding parties and send most crashing to the moon; and the rest to ram and destroy the shipyards and asteroid mining facilities.

First they had to figure out which one to go after; Russian or US. That took observation and acquisition of information. Jerrold Matthews was intrigued by the premise; the fact that hundreds of millions would die mattered little to him. They were mortals and therefore expendable. He assigned the tasks of finding the needed information to his designated assistance for such matters, Alexander Worthing, one of the immortals that had been with him the longest. Alexander believed in the simple fact that virtually everyone can be bought; and if one cannot be there is always another that can be.

The US Missiles were controlled from Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Quite a bit of information was available publicly. The Russian system called Perimeter was also in a mountain in Russia. So Jerrold ordered Alexander to find out more.

The sophisticated surveillance allowed them to start to identify the mortal assistants and employees to the immortals, but it was a slow process.

Meanwhile they tried to figure out the ultimate goal and thus what tools they would use.

"OK. They want the planet we are looking at. To get it they have to stop us from going there. So that means destroying our ships." This from Michael.

"They would also have to destroy the space docks around Mars and the asteroid mining complexes that their materials come from. They have to destroy both the ships and the means to make more." This from Alex.

"So we have to protect both. What is the threat and what can we do to protect against it?" Max mused.

As the discussion turned to how to do that, Liz was thinking. From the briefing Larek had given them long ago, she remembered that there really were not any warships that anyone knew about. Interstellar ships were terribly expensive and tended to be small due to that. And have little if any armament.
"Max, I do not think that is the whole threat."

They all looked at her.
"To destroy the ships and complexes would require hundreds of nuclear weapons; they would have to make them. No ship known carries any kind of weapon that could seriously damage such large ships or complexes. I think it is more likely that they would find a way to order the ships to crash themselves on the moon; and commander some to send them crashing into the complexes and shipyards."

Alex slowly nodded. "That makes sense. It is not like those ships could not be boarded as they currently are. We can put a kind of locking mechanism on the hatches but then a shuttle crew could blow a hole in the side of the ship and gain entrance that way. So we need to completely disable the ships so they cannot be used in that way."

That was agreed upon and also Alex and his nerd herd would look into putting together some kind of missile defense system for the shipyards and mining complexes.

A few days later as the first information started to come in, Alexander updated his lord.

"We have been able to gather already a large amount of information about the American system and location. We are looking to get more specific information soon. The Russian system will take more time; but we are optimistic that some carefully handled bribes should take care of that situation."

Jerrold nodded and told him to get along with it. So far so good.

While this was going on, the debate in the UN was also going on about who was to have sovereignty of the new planet that would become mankind's first colony. As was to be expected, the debate was long and rancorous. The poor countries wanted to have it; the rich countries pointed out that the poor countries could not even organize what they had let alone a colony. The poor of course maintained that they were being held down by the rich ones. It would not end soon.

The preparations for leaving earth were somewhat leisurely compared to the first time getting there; and this time there was no pressure.

It had only taken one week for one of Alexander's operatives to come across a former officer who had worked at Perimeter and bribe him enough to get most of what they needed. He was not part of the security system, though, so they needed one of them. He had a convenient car accident days later.

Interestingly enough, it was proving much harder to find a senior enough officer who had worked at Cheyenne Mountain recently enough and could be bought. So Alexander was looking into the possibility of kidnapping one and using torture to find out what they needed. He ordered a group to start looking at the possibility while pushing the other ones to find a buyable officer.

Jerrold looked at the briefing on the Perimeter system. In some ways it looked harder to get into then what the Cheyenne system did; after all they had tourists going into NORAD on a daily basis while Perimeter was a closed area. But it was beginning to look like the so called closed area might be easier to break into.

What was more interesting was the Dead Hand; the doomsday system that the Russians had put together in the 1980's and had never deactivated. It was a system of sensors that would tell Perimeter that nuclear weapons had detonated on Russian soil; and that would trigger immediate missile launches. This had potential.

Alexander sighed and put down the report of the latest efforts to get intel on Cheyenne Mountain. They had found a lowly security specialist in deep debt due to gambling and had been able to buy him. But what they had found out was disappointing. But really came as no surprise to Alexander once he had learned the basics of the American System. To retarget the missiles to strike American soil would be difficult and more than likely ensure no launch was done at all. The security features at the mountain would make it difficult for even shapeshifters in the form of senior government officials or generals to gain admittance. They would have to be able to fool people while talking to them; which was unlikely.

A few days later he was much more cheerful as he read the report of a midlevel security officer that had been bought off as regards Perimeter. It was beginning to look like this was the way to go. Unquestioned obedience had been drilled into the security officers; so someone that looked like a senior general and his aides would be able to get into the control system. There the Dead Hand features could come into play; it brought down the launching of the rockets to one man; and that position was accessible once you reached the core of the control area. Better yet the information had been verified that all of the Antarian and Granularian settlements were already targets. Even the ones on Russian soil. A triumph of paranoia, certainly.

Jerrold listened to Alexander and thought for a while.
"I agree. Well done, Alexander. We will go after the Russians. We need to verify all this from additional sources as you have recommended. Commence immediately."

Joe Dawson and Methos had decided to bring in the council on the idea of hidden Immortals; and they had jumped on it right away. The Council had built up a lot of contacts over the years in many nations; and most of those were with the military or security forces. And the intelligence services. Those contacts were being milked and were starting to produce dividends.

"It looks like they are definitely trying something in Russia. Just what is still unknown. But they are putting resources into digging into the Russian military and intelligence services."

Max, Liz, Michael, Alex and the Antarian security service reps were listening to the report that Methos had put together.

Liz pondered all of this.
"We know they want to destroy or capture the ships; destroy the mining complexes and shipyards. So why are they looking at putting such time and resources into finding more about Russia?"

Micheal shrugged. "That is what we have to find out. Obviously it is part of their plans somehow."

One more meeting was arranged; this time the Granolith was sure they could get close enough to hear details.

"My lord wishes to inform you that they have the necessary information to commence the planning."

"My Liege will be pleased. We will notify you of the next meeting; it will be soon."

"That was all?" came from a frustrated Michael.

"That was all that was said. But we now know we can get close enough to overhear without being caught. So the next meeting should furnish more than enough information for us to begin to respond to the threat."

Max and the others looked at each other as the intelligence personnel left the meeting.
"Michael, we have to be patient."

"I think we are just sitting back and waiting and that is not the way to go. We need to go right at them and take them out; the Aliens and the Immortals. Wipe them clean. THAT will end it all."

Liz looked around and saw that most of those in the room agreed. And frankly so did she. But Max wanted to wait, and she had to respect that decision.

The surveillance and other intelligence gathering was shaping up into something that was not good at all. The continued and concentrated effort to get information on the Russian Missile control systems was very worrying. And as rumors of a 'Doomsday' switch continued to gather support, Liz was beginning to think that they could not wait.

Max was very conflicted due to the presence of both Aliens and Immortals in this mix. Keeping the Immortals secret was so important to him personally that he was very reluctant to take action until it was necessary.

Michael was especially irritated at Max's hesitation. They knew who was involved, they had a pretty good idea now of what their intentions were. And it was something that had to be stamped on HARD.

The Immortals were of the opinion they needed to take some heads.

Liz found herself in the very middle of it all. As the Immortal's 'Queen' and as Max's Queen.

Jerrold had made the decision that they would target Perimeter. That was agreed upon with the Aliens. They would at the same time send boarding parties one after another to the ships in orbit around the moon. It would take time and would have to come after the Missiles launched. Once the missiles were launched Earth would be a wasteland from both the immediate effects and radiation fall out.
Liz and the Immortals had planned to confront and behead their opponents; but the real problem was getting the Aliens. Finally Alex came up with an idea.
"We know where their ship is in orbit, right?"

"Yes."

"Disguise a nuke as space debris and let it drift close to the ship and then detonate it. They have no shields and the pulse would cripple them just like any other electronic system."

"First we have to get a nuke."

"That is not a problem."

Liz looked at Methos.
"What do you mean?"

"The Russians have a fair number that would be easy for US to pilfer."

Liz took a deep breath. "OK, make preparations to do so. But do not go for the bomb until I say so."

"It will take a few weeks to set up anyway."

Liz told Max what they were planning. He sighed.
"I hate the thought of having anything to do with those things but I have to admit it would solve that problem. Now for the Immortals."

"That is my job Max."

"Liz."

"I am for all intents and purposes their Queen. Of course it is my job."

It did take several weeks during which it became very clear what the Aliens and Immortals were going to do. Liz and Alex looked over what they had been able to find out about Perimeter and shuddered. The fact that it was still operational was obscene. Liz quietly made the decision that Perimeter was going to be destroyed as well.

Jerrold was satisfied with the preparations to seize and use Perimeter. But he was less happy with the plan to also seize the Alien ship. They would have to grab the small shuttle but they would still have to find a way to get onboard the ship then they would have to find a way to figure out how to run it. The more he thought of it the more he realized they would have to forget about it and instead use one of the Antarian ships. So he ordered Alexander to find him some disaffected Aliens that they could use and then discard later.

Max blinked as he looked at his Antarian Security Chief.
"You have identified humans trying to suborn Antarians?"

"No Your Majesty, Granularians. And they appear to be making progress."

Max had to think on that; but it made sense. There were Granularians not happy with the way things were being done; mad that it appeared He was running everything. So it should not be surprising that the Immortals, and he had no doubt they were the ones doing it, would be trying to get insurance just in case. The fact that they were Granularians who had been pilots and engineers of the ships just underscored the situation.

Alexander was quite pleased; in a relatively short time they had been able to contact and basically buy a number of Aliens who were experienced in operating the large ships. They would only need one. Already they had a dozen they would be able to use. And there were shuttles that could be seized on Earth.

Jerrold listened to the report. He shook his head; he had been a fool for even trying to rely on the other aliens when he could buy his own. He directed Alexander to move ahead with the arrangements. And they would go to Plan B, which he had been working on from day one. Backup if they were unable to use the first group of aliens.

Liz had given Methos the word to go after the bomb; and with the help of an Antarian shuttle and some Antarian mind work, they had gotten one that was quite large; a Megaton sized H Bomb.

Alex had worked on a shielding system with the Granolith; the alien ship would not sense what was coming.

Liz had asked the Granolith as a failsafe to ensure that the plan worked; if necessary it would destroy the alien ship itself. Unfortunately that would attract a lot of attention and it would not be a good thing; but Liz felt they had to be sure. Max had agreed on the failsafe.

Max was hesitating, wanting more confirmation on what exactly the plans of both the sides were doing.

"Max we know enough. The threat is too big to wait. We have to move."
Michael was frustrated.

"We have to make sure that no one suspects about Immortals."

Liz gave the order to deploy the bomb; Max was too worried and she needed to take action.

Jerrold looked at his people. "We move in 48 hours. We will take Perimeter and set it off; then take the shuttle our Aliens have quietly gotten control of and seize a ship."

Alexander looked at him. "My Liege, what about the other Aliens?"

"Simple. We inform the Antarians that the ship is going to attack the Roswell site. A very nice diversion while we do what we need to do."

Liz was trying to get some other work done while thinking about what was going to be happening very soon in orbit. Then something began to niggle at her; she blinked and concentrated. Then moving almost as a automaton she quietly headed out to where the message had been displayed on that wall.

"Queen Elizabeth you must move now. Gather your warriors. Quickly."

Methos looked up as the phone rang. Grace answered it. Then paled and said "Understood." Methos was already up and moving to her as she turned.
"The immortals are moving. We have to take action now."

Liz had the Granolith beam in all those she had chosen. Duncan, Connor, Methos, Richie, Constantine, Cassandra, Annie, Sean, Amanda.

She looked at them. "The VOICE has told me the Immortals are moving now; we have to take them down."

At that moment the wall glowed again. "Go here." Then there were a set of numbers. Methos quickly recognized them. "Latitude and Longitude."

The wall glowed one more time. "NOW."

Liz took a deep breath and told them. "Let's get to the Granolith NOW."