Dan and Shola (on hold)

Chapter 1 - Going to Shola

Dan was sitting on the couch when his phone rang and he had to frown. The ring code indicated it was from Mr. Hawke and that usually meant trouble. Dan answered the phone. "I am retired you know." He tried not to sound grumpy but was somewhat. "To what do I owe this honor?"

Dan and his family had been following the news and knew that their colony had been found by aliens and had been informed of that when one of the alien's ships appeared in their space. That had been interesting since virtually every nation had gone to their equivalent of Defcon 5. Dan had to admit that it had scared the hell out of him and that was saying a lot. Everyone had been tied to the screen for the following week before things started to calm down.

Once the Sholan's had arrived and had started to broadcast everyone was shocked since the aliens were felinoids. That had caused a furor in many of the communities and the religious nuts went crazy. Dan, Nang, and the kids had talked about them and their general reaction was that they were cool looking and had neat clothing. The people in the small town were a mixture ranging from interest to dislike and distrust.

Over that last week or so there had been a number of riots as well but they had been dealt with. All of his friends were safe and they had stayed inside for the most part. Mick's company was working overtime on anything they could find out about the Sholan's. Since his computers were connected to a number of government systems everything he found was filtered to the rest of the team. They knew that there was a great deal that wasn't being told to the public yet including the colony being invaded and the Eureka being picked up and arriving at the colony years earlier than was planned.

All that flashed through his mind as he waited for Mr. Hawke to speak and he was already frowning heavily at the wall as he spoke.

"I know that Dan and you know that we have the right to call you back under extenuating circumstances and you are being recalled for a mission." Mr. Hawke knew how Dan would react but he had everything they needed for this and to be honest the chances of his making it were slim. Joe was too old, Eric definitely wouldn't work, Jim they couldn't locate and Mick had more connections than you could shake a stick at. He listened to the silence for a moment. "I also have a signed document indicating that after this mission you can never be called on again. You should have a copy in your e-mail and fax."

Dan's face hardened as he listened and heard the fax started up. Before replying he walked over and looked at the fax and everything looked official. "So what do you want?" His voice was hard as he talked.

"I am sending a plane to pick you up. We need to discuss this in private. You only need to pack for a couple days for the moment. Depending on how things play out we will go from there." This was going to be a moderately long mission if things work out. He would be well compensated for it but he wasn't going to be happy.

"Fine, when will the plane be here?" Dan got some additional information and then hung up and snarled at the phone before going and finding Nang and letting her know he was going to be gone for a while. He was angry enough his eyes had changed and were a light amber at the moment. "Don't know what they want and won't till I talk to Mr. Hawke." Nang frowned and said something in Thai and Dan laughed. "Exactly what I was thinking love. I will let you know what is going on as soon as I know."

~~~

The flight was long and boring but once in New York he was taken to the office and was quickly brought in. Mr. Hawke waved him to one of the chairs as he stood up and walked around and settled down in a chair across from Dan and slid a folder across the coffee table. "I know that Mick has been keeping you up to date on most of what has been going on with our first contact but there is some information that you don't have."