Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 21

Fortunately, when the crowd saw Mark and the other Federation personnel, they shifted their attention and focused their blame and anger their way. Mark ignored the shouts and accusations as he shouted his announcement while making his way toward the family, "We can help with the wounded, just get them to the medivacs. Everyone will be good as new in an hour or two."

The Federation personnel were running around the scene, but the volunteer medics weren't allowing them to do anything.

Mark reached the family and saw that Jason had been shot four times and Annabelle was pleading with the medic to let Jason go to the medivacs, but the medic just kept saying that STARS was on the way and he would be cared for in the city.

Mark finally made his way to Jason and the family and the medic wasn't going to release his patient, but this time the medic said, 'without the patient's or his parents consent'. So Joe and Kat almost yelled simultaneously, 'I consent'!

The medic just shook his head in disbelief and moved to another patient as the medical technicians moved in, they placed a stabilizer disk on his chest and pushed the button in the middle. The device glowed blue and after a few seconds, Jason was held motionless as he rose about 1 metre into the air. A single technician then glided him toward one of the medivacs.

The volunteer medics were all staring in awe at the hi-tech device, as the medics tending to the teacher, who also got shot multiple times, announced that they were losing her, so another technician handed a stabilizer disk to the volunteer medics, they placed it on her and pushed the button, then she was also guided over to a medivac.

Just as the STARS helicopter finally arrived, the volunteer medics said the worst injuries had been taken to the shuttles. As the helicopter medics turned to go retrieve the injured, a Federation tech came to tell Mark that Jason and the teacher, would be fully recovered in about an hour and a half.

Upon hearing that news, almost everyone started consenting for their children to go to the shuttles, instead of with the volunteers or even the helicopter medics. The medics all just stared in wonder as even the less injured kids were guided to the various shuttles.

One of the helicopter medics went and checked out the shuttles and saw the wounded were actually being cared for right there and talked to one of the Federation medical techs for a while.

The father of one of the boys, who was also one of the main outspoken people blaming Mark and the 'aliens' for everything that happened, was adamantly against his son going to the shuttles, despite that even the helicopter medics were suggesting he go to the medivacs, so the helicopter medics tended to him and then flew him off to the city.

Just after the helicopter took off, a car came to a screeching halt on the side of the street, temporarily halting the shouting and grabbing everyone's attention. The driver crossed the road and was telling everyone that they had found the shooter and driver.

The RCMP had found them a few miles out of town where they had crashed their truck. It was two local troublemakers that everyone seemed to know about and they were both strung out on drugs. The shooter had actually died, as the truck ended up on top of him when it rolled in the ditch.

Annabelle then explained who they were, "Junior, the boy that fired the gun, was a senior, but very much an outcast without many friends, and Tommy, his brother and the regional drug dealer, was driving the truck and likely supplied the gun."

With that news, the mob quieted right down as everyone realized the attack had absolutely nothing to do with the ranch, aliens or the added attention. Many of them started apologizing to Joe and Kat for jumping to conclusions, but unfortunately Joe and Kat had already seen their true colours.

Now that the crowd had settled down. The RCMP started collecting witness statements, as the reporters were also interviewing people. Elisha and Gerald were even there as they heard about the shooting during their drive out to the ranch.

After about half an hour the first patient emerged from the shuttle. It was a girl that had just been grazed or possibly caught a ricochet in her arm. The reporters, volunteer medics and parents rushed to see her. There wasn't a mark from the wound at all.

Over the next half hour, more of the lightly wounded started to exit the shuttles. Just like the girl, no one had even the slightest mark or wound on them, plus they were all given synthed clothes to replace anything that was covered in blood.

The volunteer medics then apologized for hindering the Federations attempt to help. It got Mark thinking of another way that the Federation could help... disaster emergencies. Mark didn't want to directly compete with the air ambulance service, despite the fact that they could do the job way better, more efficiently and were able to respond faster than the helicopters, even though they were considerably further away. He'd have to think on it and come up with a good delivery plan.

When Elisha asked Annabelle and Sofia what happened, Sofia just smiled and said Annabelle protected her.

Annabelle explained, "Just as everyone was leaving the school, this jacked up 4x4 truck drove by slowly with Junior in the box holding onto the light bar, he turned, held up a gun and started firing into the crowd. Sofia was near me and I was wearing my belt, so I turned and made sure she was behind me. Jason must have thought he was wearing his belt too, as he actually tried to protect the teacher, which seemed to be their primary target."

A little over an hour later, all the gunshot patients were up and walking around. Mark thanked all the medical techs for taking care of everyone and said that they could return to the Poseidon whenever they were finished.

The reporters swarmed Jason and the teacher, when they emerged from different shuttles at the same time.

The teacher said, "Junior was one of the seniors and he had been getting more aggressive in his attempts to start a relationship with me, despite that I'm married. Earlier today, he tried to force himself on me, I kneed him in the groin and reported him to the principal, who expelled him." Just then she saw Jason and acknowledged, "Jason probably saved me by tackling me to the ground once the shooting started."

After the reporters got their minute with the teacher and Jason, Elisha asked Mark for an interview and the other reporters that remained gathered around.

Elisha started out the interview, "This is Elisha Romanson with a Global News Special Report from Caroline, Alberta where a shooter fired upon teachers and students just as school was letting out. I'm here with Mark Phoenix, the King of the Atlantean Federation, who was among the first responders. Mark how did you get here so fast?"

Mark answered, "I was actually just leaving Calgary, when I got a call about the shooting. I pulled over and called the Commander of our orbiter and told him to dispatch medivacs to the high school. I then called a shuttle to come pick me up."

"You came from Calgary, the medivacs came from orbit and you still got here before STARS?"

"Of course, versus a helicopter, our shuttles are much faster, plus they offer better medical care than anything on the planet."

"So why did you help?"

"We were called because friends were involved, but we helped because we could! The Federation is all about peace, prosperity and protection."

"Weren't you just told to leave the country?"

"No, we were ASKED to shut down our office in this country. The Canadian government is spineless when pressured by foreign governments, plus the federal government has shown time and again, that they don't care about the West, so they were probably taking offence to the fact we were helping Calgary and Alberta first."

"So what about your businesses?"

"We have closed the office down as they requested, it's now just a bare lot."

"And the security systems in the schools and all around Calgary? That sense of security was gaining a lot of support, it would've likely prevented this tragedy here today."

"Those systems will still stay in place and the businesses will continue to operate, our office just won't be in Canada. Now we are free to work around the world, since we can't appear to favour anyone."

"Having that system world wide would almost bring world peace!"

"Exactly! Everybody always says they want world peace, but no one really does anything about it. We aren't everybody!"

"So what are you going to do?"

"We're in the process of relocating now and those plans will be announced tomorrow. Until we are settled, I'm not going to try and predict the future."

Elisha then finished off the segment.

Since it was already supper time, they went to the Harvest Diner, a block north of the school. It was a decent meal and the conversation stayed fairly light and casual, but Joe and Kat seemed a bit morose.

After supper, Elisha and Gerald booked themselves rooms at the Caroline Motel, which was just beside the diner, as the family got in their trucks to drive back to the ranch. Mark had to go get his truck, so Maren flew him back to his truck and then she returned to the orbiter.

On the drive back, Mark got to thinking about what to post on the website regarding the relocation.

Eventually he came up with...

'Due to political pressure from foreign governments, we have been asked to leave Canada, because we appeared to be favouring Calgary, Alberta and other nations were jealous. It was bullying of this sort, that was leading toward all out war, that caused the Atlanteans to leave Earth in the first place. However, circumstances have changed and WE WILL NOT BOW TO BULLYING this time around. We WILL BE reclaiming our place on this planet by rebuilding our ancestral home of Atlantis, almost exactly as it was over 3,000 years ago, before most of your countries even existed. Stay tuned for further developments and updates.'

A little over an hour later, Mark got back to the ranch and everyone was already in bed. So Mark climbed into bed and soon fell asleep with Rayven and Annabelle cuddled up to either side of him.

Cricket made the update to the website just after midnight, since it was being announced today anyway.

Mark woke up looking at a perfect bare pink pussy with silky smooth thighs beside his cheeks. He soon felt another wet pussy engulf his cock in its warm depths.

Feeling obliged to partake of the sweet nectar in front of his lips, Mark let his tongue explore the tasty pink folds. His hands found their way around to spread open the delicious treat before him.

Annabelle was enjoying his ministrations while Rayven was repeatedly impaling herself on Mark's cock, getting closer and closer to her release. Rayven moaned, got off and laid down, Annabelle quickly moved around and Rayven started cumming in her mouth almost immediately.

As Annabelle continued to suck the last of Rayven's cum out of her cock, Mark got to his knees and sank his cock deep into Annabelle's wet pussy. It didn't take but a minute or so of sliding in and out of her warm slit before he was erupting cum deep into her.

Sated, all three went to the showers and then went out to meet everyone else for breakfast. No one felt like doing the workout this morning.

Joe and Kat still looked depressed as they all sat around the table, so Mark said, "I'm truly sorry, if this was because of me."

Joe looked at him and said, "We don't blame you at all, we blame the short-sightedness of uneducated people with the soapboxes that everyone seems to listen to. We saw their true colours yesterday and despite the fact that they have all apologized, we no longer feel welcome here."

Mark said, "Remember how I said we were going to build a new Atlantis? Well, you're welcome to relocate there and build a new ranch, obviously you won't have boarders like you do here, at least right away, but who knows? The thing is you wouldn't really need to have much cash flow to keep the ranch running. You would be welcome to still raise the horses, offer riding lessons and do trail rides. In fact you'd have a monopoly on the island and could go wherever you wanted!"

Joe raised his eyebrows, "That actually doesn't sound like a bad option right now!"

Then after a pause he asked, "So how big is the island? Is there going to be room to do trail rides?"

Mark had a big smile on his face, "Lots of room! Atlantis is about 560 kilometres from north to south and about 380 kilometres east to west! Although it may take a while until people trust us enough to visit."

There was a collective "Whoa!" from everyone there, then Annabelle shouted, "Show us!"

Mark put down the holocube and turned it on. Atlantis truly was magnificent, especially with the statues of the kings around the perimeter, the mountains, the forests, the rivers and the infamous Acropolis. The holocube even showed the floating terminal on the south east side.

Joe was staring in awe at the island and Mark could see he was looking at one of the larger meadow areas on the south side of the island near the Meteor Plateau, and he said to no one in particular, "It definitely has potential!"

Mark just smiled and agreed, "Yes it does!"

With smiles on their faces, Mark and Joe went outside to do the chores.

"Can we even sell the ranch? It's got all the alien material in it?" Joe asked as they walked to the barn.

"Maybe everyone will have learned their lesson from this? Are you sure you really want to sell all this?" Mark asked, thinking maybe Joe was overreacting.

Joe stopped and gave him a serious look, "You've known me a long time Mark, all I want to do is live the western lifestyle at my own pace, taking care of the horses and putzing around on my ranch. This event has only proved that any friendships, that we thought we had, are only skin deep. Without proof, they immediately blamed us for what happened! Sure it may be a while before people come to Atlantis to book trail rides, but who knows... maybe Atlanteans will want us to board horses and go on trail rides? If we can live our lifestyle in peace, I really don't care where it is!"

"It sounds like you've pretty much made up your mind. Well, then maybe start thinking about how you want your new ranch laid out. Keep in mind, the climate will be tropical, so you probably won't need a big heated barn!"

Joe asked again, "Can we even sell this ranch with all the alien stuff on it?"

Mark said, "I'm pretty sure Cricket or Solara could revert everything back to the way it was, before all the upgrades. Then we'll just need to get rid of the security system, comm array, tunnels and we should probably move the cargo ship to Atlantis."

The chores were done fairly quickly and just as Joe and Mark had grabbed fresh cups of coffee in the lodge, Elisha and Gerald pulled up.

Elisha hopped out of the van before it was even stopped, sprinted to the lodge, leaped the stairs onto the porch, pulled open the door to the lodge and shouted, "You're rebuilding Atlantis! That is so cool!" as everyone laughed.

Mark laughed, "Well, at least someone visits the website!"

Cricket then informed Mark, "Actually, the website averages over 100,000 unique visitors each day. Although last night it spiked shortly after midnight, we've received almost a million unique visitors in the past 8 hours!"

Elisha said, "It's not just me, everyone is talking about it. You seriously don't know?"

Mark shook his head, "No, I just mentioned it during the interviews last night, so I thought I would post it on the website before bed last night, to kind of drum up interest before making the official announcement."

"Well, you've certainly drummed up interest! Can I interview you for the official announcement?" Elisha asked, with longing in her eyes.

Mark said, "Sure! The website is already going viral, so if the interest is that high, I'm sure, whenever this airs, it'll go viral fast enough."

Gerald got all setup with his camera, and after the countdown on Gerald's fingers Elisha started the interview.

'This is Elisha Romanson with a Global News Special Report. I'm here with Mark Phoenix, the King of the Atlantean Federation. Mark, news has been spreading fast regarding an announcement you made on the Federation website last night. Is it true you're going to be rebuilding Atlantis?'

'Yes, it is true. Foreign governments have bullied the Canadian government to kick us out because they felt we were favouring Canada with our technology. If we go anywhere else, it would just appear that we are favouring them. So our solution was to reestablish our own place in the world and what better way to do it than to rebuild our original home... exactly the same size and location as it was when we left in 1,138 BC, although we won't be rebuilding all the buildings, aqueducts, etc.'

'Wasn't it destroyed by earthquakes and volcanos or something? Why would you rebuild it where it might get destroyed again?'

'Atlantis wasn't destroyed by an earthquake or anything. From what I've read since I became the King, what happened was when we were leaving the planet, we tried to destroy all traces of our technology and existence to prevent others from getting it. Like just recently, when we deconstructed the office building in the city, we left no trace we were ever there. Unfortunately back then, the technology still had a few glitches and it destabilized the island, which reduced it to a quagmire of muck, until the currents spread everything around and it settled.'

'So you know all about Atlantis then?'

'Well I know what I've read, but we know pretty much everything! It was our home and we have pretty meticulous records. When the idea of rebuilding Atlantis was proposed, I originally thought of just building a floating island, like the business hubs on Atlanterra. However, floating likely wouldn't convey that we have come home and we are here to stay!'

'So where was Atlantis?'

'In all honesty, it was pretty much exactly where many people thought it was... in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.'

'So are most of the legends of Atlantis true then?'

'Some of them are, but many of them are fabricated. Like us going to war against the Athenians, that was just them wanting our technology, so they made up stories about us attacking them, even to the point of having their own people stage attacks on themselves to bring others over to their cause. We are peaceful and didn't want to fight anybody, so we decided to leave, that's when we accidentally destabilized our island.'

'What about the circular city, is that real?'

'Yes, Acropolis is real and we are rebuilding it, in structure anyway. We will recreate some of the original buildings located in the central ring for tourism and history purposes, although they will be a bit more modernized on the inside.'

'What other features will you be recreating?'

'Not much else to be honest, we're wanting to leave the island as natural as possible. About the only other ancient features we'll be creating are the statues of the past kings that protect the island, updated of course for all the kings in the past 3,000 plus years.'

'Will the rest of Earth be able to visit Atlantis?'

'Of course! We are here to stay. We'll have an airport, a seaport, golf courses and resorts to accommodate tourists and we'll be relocating the embassy from orbit down to the island. It will be full Federation living on Earth. There's also a lot of citizens from other planets in the Federation that will likely come to live there too.'

'So how soon can we go to Atlantis?'

'Well, unlike our previous construction demonstrations, this one is being done slowly and carefully, so as to minimize the impact on the underwater ecosystem in that area of the ocean. To protect the construction process, we'll broadcast a construction zone perimeter around the island and we'll be starting to patrol the 200 nautical miles zone around the island and making sure ships and submarines steer clear until they update their navigation charts, but I think the island will be ready for occupancy within a week or so.'