Christen turned to watch the men and women studying the screens in their new war chamber aboard the ship. The room buzzed with voices. People came and went. The screens changed with updated strategic plans, troop movements, resource lists, battle plans, likely evacuation plans for cities and towns, triage facilities, retrofitting information on aircraft carriers, land-to-air missile sites, and a million other details.

"We're going about this the wrong way," she announced.

Every eye in the room turned to her. Since turning Argale, she had that effect on people. She spoke, and they listened. Sometimes she found her position just a little intimidating. The fate of this blue planet she called home rested on their shoulders.

"We're reacting, and they expect us to react. If, instead, we act proactively, they won't anticipate it. This isn't an invasion movie; this is the real thing. The data we gathered from the Morgale ship indicated they would enter our space behind the moon, out of sensor range and our line of sight. This scout ship was the first of five that would arrive within five days of each other. They are here to test our defenses. To see what we got. What if we make them think that what we've got is a bigger problem than them?"

"What do you mean?" Marius asked, intrigued by the idea.

"Instead of meeting these forces with planetary defense systems, our two measly little spaceships, and a few modified weapons, we play dead. We finish the planetary defense systems to a convincing degree, then blow them to pieces. Turn the rest of the satellites into unrecognizable space debris that looks like the remains of an armada, and manufacture a few more bits that look convincingly like destroyed spaceships. We pick a few discreet locations on the earth's surface to turn into the remains of cities and stage an entire war."

Christen hesitated.

"We can go into hibernation mode in our shifted forms, something the Morgale cannot do, and neither could the Astor, which is why they needed hibernation pods. We all go underground as much as possible, leaving the planet's surface seemingly void of humanoid life.

"The Morgale ships won't be able to detect us. They won't come down to the surface if they don't know what contaminants might have been released into the atmosphere. Not until their science vessels arrive to start terraforming. We leave them a single pod floating in space with one of the dead crew. They will take the pod aboard to examine the body, decontaminate the outside, then store the pod itself in their cargo hold.

"We will leave just enough wiring to make the pod seem functional, filling the rest of the space with canisters of inactive nanobots and our virus. All the ships use the same frequency to lock their cargo holds. This code will activate the nanobots and release the virus into the air scrubbers as we did before. By the time the next ship arrives, all they will find is a single Morgale hibernation chamber with a humanoid creature."

Christen's plan seemed so far-fetched that everyone needed a moment to digest it.

"That could just be a brilliant plan," President Craig admitted.

"What guarantee do we have that our people will be safe?" President Liza Whitehead from Britain asked.

"A damn better chance than by trying to fight fire with fire. We lost people in the skirmish with the first ship. The only way we can hope to survive is by outsmarting these creatures. We just can't afford to bring them here, I don't trust them, and seven ships sound much better than two," President Mullen from Australia countered.

"We will put them in reprogrammed hibernation chambers in their cargo holds, taking the ones on the island on board the next ship. Then we'll take the ships, crew them with our own people, and hide them just out of sensor range with low-frequency beacons on a secure channel, connecting the ships to you," Christen suggested.

Suddenly, this seemed less like a battle they couldn't hope to win.

"If we were still human, this thing you proposed would be impossible?" Craig admitted.

"That is why we altered you. Your crime rate has dropped to zero. People are looking out for each other and working together. There are no more divides. The good of the many outweighs the good of the one. There is no more sickness, suffering, or hunger. Your prisons are empty because this new breed of Argale cannot harm each other, but we will fight to the death to protect one another from an enemy not of our race. We could not do any of this without cooperation," Christen admitted. "Three days remain to make this look convincing. We have people worldwide who are now much more than they used to be, so do you think we can pull this off?"

"Pull it off? It will be more convincing than the moon landing. We all have our natural skillsets," Craig told her.

"We'll see whose skills are superior," President Yomato from Japan countered, relishing the challenge.

Argale had a competitive nature but in a more playful manner than the sometimes cutthroat instincts they had as humans.

"Put your money where your mouth is," President Revco from Russia challenged both.

"From where I'm sitting, you're all talk," Christen challenged.

Her words caused a moment of silence and a buzz as the twelve presidents, who represented the Council of Unions, got on their phones to mobilize an entire planet.

"It is a thing of beauty, isn't it?" Marius asked of her.

"Astor had a population of a hundred billion people and was ten times the size of the earth with three inhabited moons in a system with 25 similar planets of different sizes. They didn't defeat the Morgal," she quietly reminded Marius.

"The Astor were not Argale. We'd lost the instinct to fight to the death for our people and our beliefs, while the Morgale became all about the instinct to fight to the death for what they coveted," Marius admitted. "These new Argale still have the human instinct to survive against all odds. It is that which the first Argale saw in them. We directed their energies away from each other and toward their future. I suspect the Morgale will find an enemy in this new race that it cannot defeat, even without our little virus defense."

"It will take a long time to defeat the Morgale. They will eventually rally and fight back," Christen predicted.

"Yes, but we will not hesitate this time. We made the humans Argale, but we have some of their traits too, and until I stand on Astor with the Morgale threat gone, I will fight with everything I have," Marius promised.

"And I will fight with you, Father."

Her promise made him glance at her.