Earth

2027

Without waiting, she pushed out of her seat and rushed to the officer who handed her a phone.

"Put it on speaker," General Price said.

"Madam President?" Rory gripped it tight. "I'm here with Price and Theo."

"Did you recognize the woman in the video?"

"No. I didn't know everyone in the program."

"We have had very complicated talks about you, Rory. I have had very complicated briefings. Even as we speak, I have advisors throwing a fit in the hall over my call to you. But here's what I know. We did not hold any people from Lumiea hostage and you did not help us cover it up."

"Yes, Madam President."

There was a moment of quiet. "I'm the Commander in Chief during a time of war–the likes of which we have never faced and that we prayed would never come. You're the woman our enemy sent to us in advance of her arrival and yet you claim you don't want to harm us. I have difficult decisions ahead of me. This one, however, is easy. You've lived with us on this planet for ten years. If you've ever told us the truth, if you've ever cared about us, then help us. Now, before it's too late. I'm asking you to tell us everything you know."

Rory clutched the phone. Theo and General Price both stared at her.

"I know one of the generals we saw is your husband," she said. "I know what I'm asking. I'm asking it anyway, because I believe our planet is worth saving, and that you're capable of doing what is right."

She swallowed hard. "If Vehru asks me to choose between Jace and my child or Theo and Earth, you want me to choose Earth. That's what you're asking."

"Yes." President Saito did not hesitate. "It's an easy decision to ask you this, because while I could be wrong about you, if I am right, then you're one of the hopes that we have against Vehru. I don't know what choices you will face. But yes, I'm asking you to please choose the two billion innocent children living in our world."

Who could make a choice like that? Her kid or everyone else's? Vehru had her son and she'd take full advantage of that fact.

Rory had lost against Vehru once before, back when she'd lived on Lumiea as Aeryn, but she could not lose this time. She was not willing to choose between a planet and her family.

"I'll tell you what I can. Unfortunately, there's some things I can't tell you, Madam President. Not unless you want me to sabotage efforts to fight against Vehru. You cannot afford to trust me. I understand that. So, you'll have to wait to see if I'll prove you right or wrong."

Rory would not give up another home to Vehru and she would not let her have her family.

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Dozens of videos were popping up online. Meanwhile, there'd been no success in locating Vehru or any of her generals. Unless Price had simply lied to her, which was possible.

She needed to talk to Jace. Not just because she had to know what had happened over the last decade and what he was planning, but because now that she'd seen him, he was all she could see.

Rory's head was swimming. On top of everything that had been thrown at her today, memories swept over her like a rushing river.

She and Theo sat in the conference room still, now with the news playing, while General Price handled matters that he most certainly was not going to share with them. Though one video had claimed that Rory helped the government with the cover-up, another, supposedly from whoever had helped the anthropologist escape, said the opposite. That he'd worked high up in the program and knew for a fact Rory had no knowledge of the other prisoners. That as far as she knew, she truly was the only one. Worse, the reporter who supposedly conducted the interview had not issued a statement or even left her home. Her friends and family weren't talking yet either.

Meanwhile, information seemed to be coming from all sides.

She looked up as a commercial ended and a reporter began talking. "Government officials have referred to the videos as deepfakes and urged social media platforms to remove them entirely or label them as misinformation. Still, questions have been raised as to why suddenly so many of these videos are surfacing, and whether there is any truth to these claims about a mystery which has baffled our world for the last ten years. Who is Rory and where does she come from?"

"They need to get on top of this," Theo said. "They'll be afraid of the panic caused by releasing information, but it'll be worse when Vehru shows up on everyone's screens, or soldiers step foot on our streets. A lot of us pushed for a controlled release of information about the AI to help prepare for an attack like this. General Price pushed for it. We were too slow to act."

She closed her eyes, unable to digest all of the information. "I thought there was some program to help prepare for more disclosures about my people."

"Yeah, well, that's not enough. They were supposed to contain this too. We've been cut off from information about all their plans, but I know from conversations over the years that we have been working tirelessly on defense strategies for things like this. The AI must be killing us in this cyberwar. But it's exactly why we pushed for declassifying information and disclosing more to the American people."

Theo flipped to another news station.

"The President needs to address the nation now about Vehru," he said. "She can't wait. It's been two hours and who knows what is coming in the next two. It didn't have to be this bad. After we found out about the Replica, we were warned that we weren't prepared to face a sophisticated disinformation campaign like this. But no matter how many disasters happen, we always say never again, and then we ignore experts who warn us." He groaned bitterly. "I guess the next time aliens invade Earth, we'll listen. They were so busy preparing our weapons and tightening up our cybersecurity but why weren't they defending our minds?"

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He turned to another channel.

A reporter on the screen stood outside of a large home. "We're live now outside of Senator Thompson's home where he has been spending the weekend with his family. In minutes he will deliver a statement to address the viral clip that authorities have labeled as a deep fake. The recordings, which officials believe to have been rendered by an AI, follow a conversation between several senators, including Senator Thompson, as they discussed the government's program to cover-up information about a planet called Lumiea, where supposedly Rory comes from."

When the senator walked out onto his lawn, he raised his hand.

"Thank you for coming. I know many of you have heard recordings of my voice and the voice of several other senators. The FBI has released its preliminary assessment that these are recordings which have been created by AI. I've spoken with President Saito regarding the recording, as well as other authorities, and expressed to them my desire to confirm to the American people that this conversation never took place. You've heard from several senators on this topic already, all denying the events of the recording." He paused for a long moment, making Rory tense. "The truth is that the conversation did take place. There have been threats on my life–attempts–to coerce my silence. But I–"

A spray of dark red burst from the side of his head and his eyes went unfocused. A single loud shot pierced the air. Screams blared from the television speakers as his body slumped onto the grass. Rory pushed back from the table and gasped. The camera swooped as the crew clearly fled for safety.

"Oh my god." Theo covered his mouth.

The reporter's face flashed back on the screen as she spoke breathlessly, rushing into a nearby home. "We're taking refuge inside this home as we wait for authorities to arrive." Her voice shook. "I can confirm now that Senator Thompson has been shot. His condition is unknown, although…" The woman sucked in a breath. "The wound was to the head…" It looked as if she would say more, but her stare cut off-camera, and then the view swooped to the window, showing the flashing lights of police cars.

"There's no program." Theo looked away. "Oh god. There's no program, right? That can't be real."

"This is Vehru," Rory said. "She did something to him. Maybe threatened his family. Then she had him killed. I'm telling you, it's her. She's inciting panic and confusion."

General Price opened the door, his face pale.

"I need to issue a statement." Rory said it before he could speak. "And I'm not asking for permission this time. You can help me do it, or I can find another way."

He spoke as if he didn't even hear her. "We're fighting against blackouts and crashing servers. Bots are spreading messages claiming that it's the government trying to cover up what's happening with the aliens and hide that we're under attack. We've successfully defended against most of the cyberattacks, but a million people in New York City just lost power." His face looked haggard. "President Saito will address the nation in thirty minutes. She's going to tell America about Vehru and your people. Eleven other leaders will be delivering addresses at the same time. They've decided it's time."

Though Rory had known the world would have to learn about the truth soon, knew they needed to, it still took her breath away.

"Then I really need a camera," she said. "I need to tell the world I remember now."

"You think anyone will believe you?"

"I think it's a mistake to not say the truth when lies are spreading all around. Are you getting that camera or not?"

He watched her for several seconds. "It'll have to be approved."

"Then get it approved. If you can't, I'm finding another way."

While the country prepared for the president to address the nation, Rory sat in front of a small tripod that held a phone. Maybe she should have done this the right way with a camera crew, but she couldn't stay in this room anymore waiting on a crew to come. There was too much work to do.

So Rory told the world her story through the camera, as much of it as she could, at least. Whether anyone would believe her or even see an unaltered version, she couldn't know. She just had to try.

When she'd finished, her chest ached for all that Earth stood to lose and she tried to find words to help whoever would listen. "You're going to experience things soon that you thought you never would. While this is happening, you'll be inundated with videos, stories, and claims that are all conflicting. Reality is under attack. Anything on a screen can be manipulated."

Rory looked into the camera with her chest tight.

"I'm saying this now in real life, but there's no way to prove that unless you're in the room with me seeing and hearing it for yourself. I don't want to frighten you. But you need to understand that the threat we face is not simply a violent one. Commander Vehru will do everything she can to convince you to hand Earth over to her. She wants you to hand your families over to her." Tears shone in her eyes and she did not try to hide them. "Whatever you do, whoever you choose to believe, just remember, this is not her planet. It's yours. She will never be as invested in it as you are. As someone who has lost my home, I can tell you, it is not something you ever want to give away."

She breathed in deeply and looked over at Theo before continuing. The words of a man who had died long ago returned to her. A man who had decided that she and Jace were too dangerous to leave alive after seeing what he was willing to do to protect her. He'd said that he wasn't fighting for Lumiea, but for Earth.

Rory needed to prove him wrong. They didn't have to be a danger to Earth. They could help. But the look in his eyes in the moments before he detonated the explosive haunted her and the worry that maybe it would have been better for them to die that day.

"Commander Vehru is going to wage military attacks across the planet that she will justify with claims of liberation. Don't believe her. Keep yourself safe. Watch out for your families and your neighbors. Unite to hold onto your world."

President Saito approved the release of the video three hours later, after she'd already told the nation about the threat which had arrived on Earth. There'd been disagreement about whether to cut Rory's line about the military attacks. In the end, they'd seen the cost of hiding the truth from the people, and had heard just how loudly Vehru could speak in the vacuum of everyone else's silence.

In her address to the nation, Saito had been so convincing that Rory was tempted to believe there was hope. No planet had ever escaped the clutches of the Ephemor Federation. Not one. Earth could not do this alone. She wasn't even sure that Earth could do it with the help of people from her planet who were willing to fight. But the best chance of defeating Vehru and the Federation came in the words of the rebel, Petrin, almost twenty years ago. If the conquered planets could link together, then maybe they could win.

Familiar.

Rory had had this thought before.

As the fallout of the day's events played on the news–the senator's assassination, the blackouts, the videos, the revelation to the world about the coming threat–Rory searched her mind for the plans they'd been making. If only she could tell the terrified people stealing food to stockpile and boarding up their homes that they weren't alone in this. For now, she'd said all that was safe to say to them. And while there were those who gathered together in their living rooms or churches or temples, while some held onto one another with hope, Rory heard the reports of what fear had already started to do to the people of Earth.

It was only the very beginning. Things would get so much worse from here.