However, even the best human was at a disadvantage against an A-C. Stephanie sent Lizzie flying through the air. Jeff and Siler both started for her, but she landed in Thomas Kendrick's arms. He put her down. "Get into the ship," he said nicely. "You, too," he said to Siler. Who looked at me. I nodded. I wanted Lizzie safe, and that wasn't going to happen if Siler wasn't holding onto her.

Kendrick didn't step any closer. "Stephanie, is this really the way you want to tell someone that you like them?"

She stared at him. "I . . ." For a moment, she didn't look vicious, triumphant, haughty, supercilious, or anything else like that. She looked like a young woman who was looking at what she wanted but could never have.

"Do we shoot her?" Jerry asked. "Camilla's on board with us, by the way, and she really wants us to."

Stephanie spun and ran off at hyperspeed, leaving her motorcycle, her crossbow, her family, her crush, and the android she'd made to love her behind her.

Looked at Jeff. Who was watching his niece with one of the saddest expressions I'd ever seen him have. "No," I said quietly. "No kill order. Let her go. Tell Camilla we'll find her. I promise."

Looked at Kendrick. He looked sad, too. "When I first met her, I thought she was beautiful but too young for me. And I never gave her another thought in that way." He shook his head. "What a waste."

Jeff gasped and grabbed me. "The android's going to explode."

Looked at Crystal's body. "Not that I can tell."

"Not that one." Jeff turned me toward the Kendroid. "That one."

Sure enough, the Kendroid was jerking and blinking in a way that indicated the self-destruct was about to go off. "You can fight it!"

He looked at me and shook his head. "I don't want to. You're right. I'm not real." He looked at Kendrick. "He is. He's who she wants."

"But you're who she has."

Jeff tried to drag me away, but I pulled out of his hold and stepped closer.

"Thomas," Jeff said, voice steady, though I heard the concern, "get into the ship and don't let anyone else out."

"You could have killed all of us at any time. When you kidnapped me, and right now. But you didn't. That's not your programming. That's you."

He shook his head. "I'm not real."

"You're as real as you want to be."

"Let me die."

"Only people who are alive can die."

"Why do you care?" he wailed.

"I'm asking that question, too," Jeff said quietly and urgently. "It's time to go, baby."

"I care because you want to be a person, and I think that you can be. I care because people like Stephanie and Cliff and Trevor and Antony Marling and all those like them don't. That's my weakness, according to everyone. That I care, and I care about people who maybe I shouldn't."

"You said I'm not a person."

"You weren't. But the first step in becoming a full android person is the acceptance that you are an android, and the realization that, if you do it right, it doesn't matter. You're still you."

The Kendroid's shaking slowed a bit. "But I'm him, too."

"You don't have to be. You don't have to be what Stephanie made you to be. You can be yourself and make your own choices. I promise that you can, TK."

He stopped shaking. "I like that name." He smiled at me. "I'm going to keep it."

"Come into the ship with us, and we'll help you."

The Kendroid shook his head. "I don't know if you can trust me. And until I know that you can, I'm not going to let you trust me."

"Works for me," Jeff said, as he picked me up bodily. "Don't explode on your way out," he called to the Kendroid over his shoulder as he ran us into the ship that we could now see.

We got in and the hatch was raised. Jeff didn't let me go until it was closed. "Put me down. Please."

He did and I headed for the command center at a run. It was easy to find-just headed for the voices.

Got there as we were raising up and ran to the terminal Tevvik was at, which was the one Jerry had been manning. Shoved past Wruck and Tito to get to the screens. "Let me see the ground." Tevvik switched the view to below.

The Kendroid was standing there. He looked up and waved. Then he got onto the motorcycle and rode off.

"Do you believe that he knows you're watching?" Tevvik asked.

"Yeah, I believe he does."

CHAPTER 98.

"WHERE TO, COMMANDER?" Hughes asked.

Almost answered but stopped myself. Looked up at Jeff and smiled at him. He gave me a very personal smile, then turned to Hughes. "We need to get to Raven Rock and get everyone there out."

"Yes, sir," Hughes said. He relayed the order, but not before he winked at me.

"You did well," Wruck said quietly. "I realize the others may not understand why you tried, but Benjamin and I do. And we both thank you for it, in our own ways."

Hugged him, hugged Tito, then headed over to Jeff.

Spent the time waiting to get there, which wasn't all that long, showing Jeff around the ship. He was as impressed as the rest of us. "I think it's a fantastic war machine, baby. But I'm worried about what we're going to be facing when we get back. It's been seen on TV by the entire world by now, I'm sure."

Queen Renata had joined us midway through. "My people would have conquered the entire galaxy with a ship such as this. I know what you fear, Jeff. This is a dangerous thing."

"It doesn't have to be. But I have no idea how to make it seem cuddly, either."

Evacuation of Raven Rock took some time, due to having to double-check who was where and who was missing. But Raj and Uncle Mort made sure that Nadine and Colette got Jamie and Charlie to us right away.

We each hugged both of them, then Jeff took Jamie and I took Charlie and we all cuddled together for a little bit.

While we were waiting to get everyone loaded and confirming those considered missing in action, who were going to be presumed dead via superbeing for this crowd and dead due to classified reasons to their loved ones, we went looking for Lizzie and Siler. They were in what appeared to be a dining area in the ship and were in the same parental clutch that we were.

"I should bawl you out for that attack," Jeff said, as Lizzie looked up at him a little guiltily. "But I'll save it, since I know you'll listen to it as much as Kitty would, which is to say not at all."

"Right you are," I said without any guilt at all.

Jeff grinned and kissed me. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Mommy," Jamie said, "this ship is so pretty!"

"Is it?" Looked around. Hadn't thought of this as attractive, other than in a saving our lives more than once kind of way.

"It is. Can we ride in it some more?"

"Not sure about that," Lorraine said, as she and Joe came in.

"I'm all for it," Joe said. "I like this ship."

"Hey, just realized that you guys don't have the wires sticking out anymore."

"Nope," Randy said, as he and Claudia joined us. "Tito had them burned off. Didn't hurt, we still seem okay."

"Other than I think we may all have to move to Kitty Land," Claudia said.

"No, I don't think so." Elaine, Raj, and Chuckie joined us. Christopher, White, Reader, and Tim came in right after them. Fortunately, it was a big room. With no signs of actual food. Which was a pity, because I was hungry.

"Why not?" Jeff asked. "I'm pretty sure there's going to be a call for my impeachment or resignation after this. And the less said about how we've left Camp David the better."

"Rohini and the rest of the Planetary Council may be able to assist with that," White said.

Reader nodded. "We talked to them while we were underground. The Shantanu are even better at reconstruction than A-Cs are."

"It's more than that," Elaine said. "Fritzy was at the White House, and he's been handling things in coordination with Serene."

Raj nodded. "The evil alien attack that was attempting to kill the President and all of the Planetary Council was thwarted."

"Nice spin," Jeff said dryly. "How do we explain the President of Iraq and the Prime Minister of Israel?"

"Mossad will handle the situation with the Prime Minister," Leah said, as she, Jakob, and Oren came in. We were back to our usual room filled to Marx Brothers capacity. And this was a pretty big room. "And what's left of the Iraqi mission is willing to corroborate our stories."

"Which are?" Jeff asked.

"That there was an assassination attempt on your life," Chuckie said. "Before the alien attack. All agencies are determining if it was a coordinated attack or not and will, of course, be working with other world intelligence agencies."

"Oh, of course." Jeff's sarcasm meter was definitely heading for eleven.

Chuckie was unfazed. "Prime Minister Harpaz was injured protecting the First Lady and is in a coma. We'll have Dulce see if he's a salvageable android or if he's going to have to be destroyed. And President Samara was killed protecting your children."

Managed to refrain from saying that this was hilarious, since he'd tried to kill them. Only managed it because said children were right here. Go me, Mom of the Year.

"That's going to fly in political circles, let alone with the regular people?" Jeff sounded as skeptical as I felt. "And it's somehow also not going to finally make the Middle East cohesive by making them all declare war on the United States?"

"Yes," Chuckie said. "Because the truth-that Israel was being led by an android and Iraq by a literal monster who tried to blow up your child-is worse for both countries than this story. I still have the candy bomb, and they know about it. In this spin, their leaders are tragic heroes. They'll stick with it. And their people will, too."

Heard a throat clear behind us and turned to see Alexander there. "Sorry to intrude," he said, "but I feel that you're all missing a very key opportunity."

"Excuse me?" Jeff asked.

Alexander smiled and looked at me. "A common enemy is so very helpful when your families are fighting, don't you find?"

The light dawned. "You want us to blame this on the Z'porrah."

"Yes."

"But they didn't do it," Jeff said.

"If they could have, they would have," Drax said, as he arrived. Figured Hughes had taken over his part of the flying. "The Z'porrah are all of our enemies. You've had their spies here. Those spies affected your people. Who's to say that this is not due to the Z'porrah?"

"He has a point, Jeff. I can easily make the case for LaRue being a focal point for all of this, including Stephanie and Trevor the Tinkerer."

Alexander came over and put his hand onto Jeff's shoulder. "Instead of looking at this as a disaster, cousin, why not look at it as the opportunity it is?"

"Opportunity for what?"

Alexander smiled. "World peace."

Opened my mouth, but Chuckie put up his hand and I shut up. "He's right, Jeff," Chuckie said. "The world has been different since the first Z'porrah attack, but because we didn't choose to capitalize on it, we're still mostly where we were prior to that attack-carefully at each other's throats. This kind of event can tear the world apart. But, if it's handled properly, it can be the event that brings the world together."

"The cohesion may not last," White said, as Gower came in and nodded to him. "But Paul has been speaking with several key religious leaders around the world, and the consensus seems to be that if we're being dragged into the galactic community, then we'll go as Earthlings, not as disparate races and nationalities, and that includes we A-Cs. I assume that the political world will follow, in part because we are in this lovely ship that, according to our Navy pilots and Air Force Captain, could take over the world all by itself."

"That was fast."

Gower nodded. "The talks have been going on since the Planetary Council came, Kitty. They were just at a need-to-know level. And none of you needed to know."

"I feel the love," Jeff said. "But how do you convince the common man that this is a good idea? How do I tell the people of this world that they're safe and we're on their side?"

"We'll figure it out, Jeff," Gower said. "We always do."

As he said this, Oliver and Jenkins came in, trailed by Vance and Abner. "I'd love to take pictures," Oliver said. "Only my cameras are all destroyed. As are the poor people on my team."

"You told them to run," Jenkins said with a sigh. "I wish mine had listened, too."

"We listened," Vance said loyally. "Mister Joel Oliver's never wrong."

"Does the hero worship make him sick, or just everyone else?" Abner asked.