Chapter 57
Brian
Lizards

Brian enters the room unclear about what happened today. They were able to set the drone on Zelda and then later Becky informed him something odd seemed up, but at the time she was still trying to understand everything. He was unable to get back to her later as he went with Daniel to get the slushy, which is where he gave money to a veteran who wanted nothing from him. After that the meeting with Steven, Victor and again Daniel. The meeting was good, but something about it bothered him. He still wonders if Daniel is looking to seek revenge against him because of Robin. Then again, his work is exceptional and they work well together, except for the human trying to appear more prepared them himself during the meeting in front their superiors. His confusing relationship with Daniel is one he can't seem to truly understand. Lastly the meeting today where he found out that Steven and Victor liked the drone project. The drone project wasn't even real, it was subterfuge for his work to find out if he can use Beautiful Smoke as a safe zone for the, Doing Our Own Thing movement. Can this day get any weirder.

Kelly waves to him and Alex points to a chair, "Better sit down Becky found something pretty. . .ah, scary."

He sits down looking side to side to each of them, he hates the dark feeling hanging over him. "I heard something was up when I checked on her before my meeting with Victor and Steven." Brian sighs deeply. "Let me guess, Zelda is part of the growing resistance."

There is a look of shock on everyone. Becky with a stunned look asks, "How? I didn't tell you."

"Have you forgotten I am a Youth Leader. Reading people is part of the job." Brian moves his hand as if he was writing in the air. "Read, understand and manipulate."

Alex has a look of surprise, "Why would you want to make this the safe place where we will do some of our most important work. If the human resistance finds out they will either betray us or try and use us." He shakes his head, "Or both. We can't run away, we don't have enough people; no plans or training in areas we will need to take over the two ships and the codes needed to keep them from blowing up the ships after we do leave."

Brian leans back in the chair, "Look they are like a family to each other and protect one another. They also understand standing up for a cause or in our case, leaving. Javier is her husband, but I know he will understand and work with us. He has had a hard life and has had to do things he didn't want to do, and this may be a way for them do something they want if resistance is their goal. Nick, Nick is someone who understands ethnic difference and what the name Beautiful Smoke meant to those that began his family shop so long ago. He believes in people being one no matter what they look like, I am pretty sure I can use that."

Kelly is shaking his head, "You mean manipulate."

Alex holds up hand for everyone to remain quiet for a moment and the door opens and Aloohula and another trooper come through the door. He then motions to the wall where two folding stools are resting. They walk over and bring them up to the desk and sit down.

Aloohula nods his head to everyone, "This is Arai, Beytlo could not come."

Ari then nods his head to each of them, "Thank you for allowing Beytlo and I to join, Doing Our Own Thing. We like the not resisting, not fighting, just leaving." Arai smiles, "Although I image you want us troopers for protection, as somewhere there will be fighting, meaning the Regime isn't just going to say okay take a ship and just leave." He grins and winks to them.

The group chuckles and then Aloohula speaks. "I was able to get Arai the assignment tomorrow so when I join Brian for Beautiful Smoke tomorrow he will remain with Becky and Doug so they can do their work with less interruption."

"Good," Brian nods to Aloohula. "Before you arrived, I was talking about Beautiful Smoke and that after I speak to Nick he will understand our objective and he will assist us." He turns back to the others. "Zelda, I know you all believe she may be involved with the resistance and therefore will betray us. I do not think she would betray us intentionally. I honestly do not see her hurting those she likes, she has a caring nature." He then looks directly at Kelly, "Yes, I intend to manipulate them. It is the way it is, care must be taken."

It is not Kelly that speaks up, it is Alex, "I am sorry, but I worry that manipulation is not a good thing. It means that their trust with us later will be gone or at least questioned." There is some anxiety in his tone as he continues. "We intend to somehow smuggle one of our computers there and a device. If they give those to the resistance, we're dead. The Regime, no matter how many of us, will kill us all."

"Manipulation in the beginning. . ." Brian is interrupted by Becky.

"Let me show you the visual first before you finish." She turns to Alex and he begins the process of bringing up the prepared presentation. "Now we have cut it so that those things we need to discuss are seen, it is very long and we don't have the time." They watch Zelda going into the nursing home and immediately joining another woman. The two go down some stairs to the basement where three others are already sitting. The next clip is a shock, as the cameraman that the Regime is currently looking for is hanging up something on the wall.

"What!" Aloohula cries out. "You can't manipulate her, she is already aligned with him. She is likely given them all kinds of information that she has on us. This is insane!"

"I understand, that is why I worry that this plan will need to be dropped or altered. Let us finish," Becky says quietly.

The visual begins again with a blond female who walks up and introduces herself as Julie. She talks about the Visitors, however, some of her details are to them quite outrages. Arai even chuckles, but then frowns as she continues. She points to the drawing of what their people are supposed to look like and is pointing out different areas on the drawing. Now they all start laughing and even Aloohula can't contain himself. The one named Julie keeps referring to them as lizards though and the smiles end and the confusion begins to appear on their faces as they not only listen, but watch the belief on the human faces.

Arai looks stunned, "What! Who is that supposed to be?"

Kelly gazes at each of them, "If I had a throat like that and it had to be pushed in to look more human." He shakes his head fearlessly, "I would be choking or already be suffocated right now."

"Yes we are lizards," Brian shrugs, "That is what they see."

Aloohula has lost his happy grin and appears angry and makes a sound that comes out like a growl, "I know we Dahax have large crests and we wear our helmets a lot to keep us from looking deformed. Trust me, I would even think I was deformed if I looked like that."

Brian begins to laugh so hard that everyone turns to him, "Sorry my cheeks hurt. Look at the profile one. They must think our faces are made of sponge. Our faces are as flat as theirs." He begins laughing again. "Sorry, I just find it funny."

Becky is giving Brian a look as if he was an idiot, "What is wrong with you? They think we look like monsters. They have exaggerated everything about us?"

He understands how his friends feel, the need by humans to make them appear as monstrous animals, hurts his friends looking at the drawing. However, this could work to his benefit and he can't hide the growing smirk.

"Why do you think this is so funny?" Alex asks with a frown.

He touches his face and runs a finger down his neck. "I have no crests, my mouth is like theirs, you feel my nose you know that it is. . ." Brian shrugs, "Like theirs."

Kelly looks shocked, "You may be a Whipelli, but you would still look like a monster to those people. Your Beautiful Smoke family will find a gun and kill you as fast as they can. Why, because you're a monster. A green, slimy, red eyed, lizard; even though we aren't monsters."

Brian looks towards Aloohula and then to Becky, "That individual saw something different and fear told him what we are and how we look. He saw something and then adapted it to what he wanted to see. Just fear." He is still smiling as he looks to Alex, "Would you able to get my entry profile for when I was registered for this little trip. I want the one showing a frontal and one side view. The ones showing my true self. I don't have it available to me, they don't want our true faces on our device."

"Sure, but why? You're not planning something bad, never mind. It will just take a minute, I have full access to that information." Alex turns to his computer and after a couple of minutes he turns back to Brian. "Okay, I have it, I can print them and that way you don't have to worry about having it caught on your device, just use your magic boot hiding place. Again, why?"

"I think it is time for those humans chosen to know who we truly are. Yes, please print it," Then Brian bites his lower lip for a moment before a smile comes to him. "Can you print the visual of the monster on the wall?"

"Ah, yeah." Alex looks uncertain for a moment, then terror is written on his face, "What are you doing? You're not going to show them any of that. It will be like please turn us into the Regime or kill me right now! Let's have a little torture. Yeah, I am monster kill me! Should have known you were wanting to do something stupid."

However, Aloohula is smiling once again, "I like it!"

Arai looks at Aloohula completely surprised at what Aloohula has said, "You like it!" He points only at Brian, "You said these people were weird. This is crazy, I agree with Alex, what little we heard from the visuals those humans are what is the word. . ." For a moment he pauses and raises a finger. "Racists. We aren't allowed to use speech that would belittle them, but as soon as they think they know what we look like they immediately say vulgar and cruel things. This in just the shortened visual we saw. Yeah, you guys are weird and really naive."

Aloohula smacks his knee, "NO! I said weirdly smart. Strange, crazy and weirdly smart. I agree with Brian those humans are just afraid and they are saying things to make themselves feel better. Is it right, no, but what the Regime has done to them, to the Youth Corp, to us; it isn't right either." He turns to Brian with a slight smile and asks, "So then you gonna have them feel your face and do sort of a comparison?"

"You know it!" Brian says grinning, "Not to worry I won't let them touch you." He then turns to the others, "Now that is manipulation."

"Just crazy," Alex says as he hands Brian the visuals. Then he looks to Arai, "Too late you know. Your now stuck to us like it or not."

Arai smiles. "I guess, I wouldn't have it any other way. I guess, we are creating a new path in life, up to us, how and where it goes." He looks down for a moment and when he looks up he has a slight smile, "Just Doing Our Own Thing."

They all laugh and then talk for a bit and make plans to meet and discuss how things go with the humans tomorrow. A joke about how they hope they weren't currently talking to a couple of corpses, meaning Brian and Aloohula, goes surprisingly well.