33

'Colonel Smith! Hold yourself together!' yelled the general. 'You haven't been right in the head ever since that alien broke out!'

The colonel glared at him. 'You didn't see what I saw, okay?! Those aliens are more powerful than we thought! The nerve of that boy to look at me like that! Ugh!'

'Which boy? The friend of that Airi girl? Did you have her followed, by the way?'

'What's the point? She's not going to cooperate! And I don't want that loony alien boyfriend of hers coming after me, anyway!'

'You look scared,' said the general with an amused grin which infuriated the colonel more.

'I'm not scared! I'm just... concerned!' said the colonel. 'About the technical disadvantages we may be facing in the light of that gun-melting thing!'

'So should we just nuke their planet, then?' said the general lazily, lighting a cigar.

The colonel thought for a few moments. 'I think so. But how do we make sure we don't get any opposition over this from the public?'

The general looked at him approvingly. 'First time I'm seeing some sense in you! — I'll have to thank that alien fellow when I next see him, haha!'

'In jail, I hope,' grimaced the colonel. 'Or better still—'

'Please, I'm thinking!' said the general, puffing out a cloud of smoke. 'Hmm, what to do... what to do...'

After a few minutes, his eyes lit up. 'Yes! I've got it!' he said, sending ashes flying as he shook his cigar. 'That should work...'

The colonel looked at him questioningly. 'Well?'

'The people already have a bad impression of aliens thanks to that spy and all the rumours we spread,' said the general. 'But despite that, there are still doubts, and no one is really sure what to think of them...'

'And thanks to that girl, people have begun to raise questions about us instead!' said the colonel crossly.

'Now, we've already built something solid enough,' mused the general. 'But the last straw to really sway the public's opinion would be... if aliens waged war on us!'

'Excuse me?' said the colonel with a frown. 'Are you suggesting we endanger ourselves and—'

'Patience!' smiled the general through another puff of smoke. 'Of course we're not going to wait for an actual attack to tell that to the people... we will fake it ourselves!'

The colonel's eyes widened in surprise.

'And that,' continued the general, 'should be quite enough to get people riled up for a proper war against them! Then, we'll send the A-Unit to Planet X!'

'But,' objected the colonel, 'our mens' lives will be in obvious danger if they are sent unprepared for whatever the aliens respond with! Like I said, they're more powerf—'

'Oh, come on, a soldier's purpose is to die, right?' said the general with an evil glint in his eyes. 'So they'll die, what's so wrong with that? They'll be heroes! And when that happens, people will definitely be enraged enough to want those aliens' destruction; and then we'll—' here he winked— 'very regretfully, of course! — be forced to nuke their planet and colonise it, take their people hostage and treat them as we wish; no one will care, no one will object! In fact, they'll encourage it!'

'Wow! What a plan!' exclaimed the colonel excitedly, standing up and saluting him. 'You really are brilliant, General!'

'You bet I am!' grinned the general. 'From here on, I guarantee you that those aliens are finished,' he said, rubbing his remaining cigar in an ashtray. 'Finished!'

*  *  *

'Are you sure this will help?' said Kenji, walking with Airi towards the office of 'The Daily Truth'.

'It's the only thing we can do now,' said Airi. 'This newspaper is known for publishing things no one else does! And the first serious report on aliens and related military involvement was written by a reporter who works here!'

'Well, you said that the same writers wrote something completely different a few days later!' said Kenji.

'Maybe they were contacted by that colonel, too,' shrugged Airi. 'But I think, unlike the other editors, they can be convinced to publish what we wrote, if we only try hard enough.'

'Okay, let's go,' nodded Kenji, and they both entered the building.

'Excuse me, I'd like to speak to that reporter, Ryan, please,' said Airi.

'He's the sub-editor now,' grinned the reporter she had asked. 'That alien story got him places! And to think he couldn't even get it published here orginally!'

'Wow, that's amazing,' smiled Airi, and she made her way to the sub-editor's office with Kenji and went inside.

Inside was a young man who looked somewhat overwhelmed as he looked through a sheaf of papers on his desk, shaking his head.

'Excuse me,' said Airi nervously. 'You're Ryan, aren't you?'

The man looked up. 'Yes... what is it?'

'Well... you were the first writer who took aliens seriously before anyone else did,' said Airi.

Ryan shrugged. 'Yeah, that was me...'

'You also mentioned the military and their plans, but you only did that once...'

'Well, they reached out to me almost immediately, and I decided it wasn't such a good idea to continue that, after all,' said Ryan, looking somewhat guilty.

'And afterwards,' said Kenji, 'Your writing seemed to more focused on strange, unbelievable traits of aliens that I have no idea how you could have known without meeting one...'

Ryan sighed regretfully and leaned back in his chair. 'I was... scared, I guess. When those military men talked to me and Sandy, I felt very anxious, and when they offered us a way out, we took it at once. We deceived ourselves by saying that it was verified information we were writing; but... they were all lies; and deep down, I think we both knew it. I was too confused at the time to realise what I was doing, what they were making me do...'

Ryan buried his face in his hands for a few seconds before he continued with another sigh. 'I failed as a journalist, to tell you the truth,' he said disappointedly. 'This isn't what I wanted to be! And that's why this new post, and all the honour and glory I've been getting... I feel like I don't really deserve it!'

Airi gave him a soft smile and looked him in the eyes. 'You are a true journalist, there is no doubt about that! I am certain now that I came to the right person...

Ryan looked up. 'What do you mean?'

'The reason why I'm here,' said Airi, 'is that I have an article no one else is willing to publish; a truth no one else is letting me expose; something I am sure only you will understand the importance of!'

'Show me, what is this?' said Ryan curiously, scrutinising the papers Airi had handed him with his sharp eyes. '"Mission: Love"?'

'It's an article that me and Kenji here wrote together,' said Airi. 'The last time we worked on a project together, we topped the class. This time, maybe we can change the world...'

Ryan read the first few paragraphs keenly, before looking back up suspiciously. 'This article is written in two points of view: yours and an alien's! How can this be?!'

'Everything is already explained in there!'

'Look, Miss... Airi, this is journalism, not fiction! You narrate how you met an alien and what your first impressions were of him, and then we get the same incident from his point of view, and so on! While it's certainly very interesting, surely it can't be real!'

'But it is,' said Kenji earnestly. 'Because I am that alien!'

Ryan stared at him; at the unnaturally green hair, the odd-coloured cut on his arm that had previously been hidden, and the strange glimmer in his eyes, before he realised that he was telling the truth. He looked down at the article again and read it from start to finish in silence while Airi and Kenji waited patiently.

'I didn't know...' muttered Ryan, as he finished reading and put the papers back on the desk. 'I didn't know that aliens — no,  Zeljari! — could be so friendly and capable of human-like emotions! And moral, as well! A true love story between a human and an alien... it's fascinating... and it could definitely sway hearts and prevent the great catastrophe that lies ahead!'

'Catastrophe?' said Kenji anxiously.

'Yes,' said Ryan sadly, before calling out to the empty doorway. 'Sandy! I know you're there! You haven't changed a bit!'

A young woman entered the room, turning off the recorder in her hand and smiling widely at the three of them. 'I couldn't help but overhear everything,' she said sheepishly, sitting next to him, 'and I figured if it's about love and peace, perhaps we could both publish what these two have to say!'

Ryan grinned and shook his head. 'You're impossible, Sandy! But I guess I love how persistent you are! And you're right... this isn't about getting an exclusive, this is about world peace, so, go ahead and read this article, while I show them what tomorrow's breaking news was supposed to be!'

Kenji's eyes widened as he looked at the draft for the next day's news. 'This isn't true! My father promised not to attack unless humans initated it!'

Ryan took it back sadly. 'I figured. It's fabricated! Some new evil strategy of the military, I suppose... and every newspaper is going to print this tomorrow —' here he smiled slightly. 'Except us, right, Sandy?'

'Right!' grinned Sandy, her eyes darting through the article. 'Gosh, this is really good, you two! Way to go!'

'Thanks!' said Airi and Kenji at the same time.

'It's done,' nodded Sandy as she finished reading. 'Ryan, we're going to respond to all this propaganda with the truth! And we're going to counter hate... with love!'