I ka pau ʻole a ma hope loa aku

by elfinblue

Author's Note: Sorry about the wait! The real world sucks. Here's the next installment. Thanks for reading and I hope you like it. I will try not to make you wait so long for the next chapter.

Chapter Fifteen: Enterprise

"Kono called me."

"Let me guess," Steve said. "'Did you really get kidnapped by aliens? Oh, my God! You got kidnapped by aliens! We leave you alone for five seconds and you get kidnapped by aliens!' Right?"

Danny nodded. "Followed by twenty minutes of hysterical laughter. She called you too?"

"Oh, yeah."

They had tried to keep a lid on the investigation as much as possible, but after Danny's kidnapping and very public rescue rumors were rampant. The governor had downplayed the situation at a press conference, stating simply that, "the events that took place at Ala Moana State Park last evening were part of an operation being carried out by the Five-0 Task Force. I'm unable to go into specifics because it is part of an ongoing investigation. I will say, however, that we do not believe the Earth is under attack by extraterrestrials at this time."

Naturally, her words were taken by UFO enthusiasts everywhere to mean that the government was covering up the fact that the Earth was under attack by extraterrestrials.

"What in the hell is going on here?" Lou Grover growled.

Steve, Danny, Lou, and Jerry were crowded into Danny's Camaro, Lou and Jerry filling the back seat, on their way to Kamekona's for lunch. Grace and Will had decided, surprisingly enough, that being left in charge of the computers at Five-0 headquarters was cooler than going out to eat with their dads. Danny had promised to bring them something back, but the way the parking area in front of the shrimp truck looked, that might be easier said than done.

Steve, who was-naturally-driving, circled until he spotted an SUV pulling out. He spun into the vacant parking spot and the four men extricated themselves from the small car and stood for a moment staring at the crowd that was swarming their friend's establishment.

"You know, we should have expected this," Jerry said. "That video of Kamekona's helicopter pushing the UFO into the ocean has gone viral." There were actually over a dozen videos of the encounter, taken from the beach or from surrounding boats on cell phone cameras. One, in particular, though, was taken with a high-resolution video camera and caught all the action, from the time the UFO appeared until the fire department had finished getting Danny free from the drone. Because it had been taken from a distance, there was no sound and nothing on the video to betray the fact that the UFO was a fake.

"If you didn't know what was really going on, you'd probably be right in the middle of that crowd yourself," Danny observed.

Jerry nodded. "You're right. I would be."

"Well, hell. Are we gonna get any lunch out of this?" Lou asked. "I'm hungry."

"We could still go do pizza," Danny said. "I suggested pizza."

"No," Steve said. "Come on. I want to see what's going on."

Pushing their way through the crowd, they found Kamekona being interviewed by a reporter from one of the island's midday news shows.

"Did you really battle a UFO with your sightseeing helicopter?" the pretty, well-dressed young woman asked.

Kamekona caught sight of the Five-0 team and quirked an eyebrow at Steve as he answered her.

"I can neither confirm nor deny," he said solemnly. He was wearing a t-shirt with his face peeking out of a Jedi robe and the name Obi Wan Kamekona on it. The shrimp truck now sported a cartoon drawing of Kamekona's helicopter battling a UFO, and the helicopter in question, parked nearby, now read, "Kamekona's Island Tours-Defending the Galaxy since 2017."

The reporter followed Kamekona's gaze and immediately turned to meet the group that was just arriving. The camera operator turned with her as she spoke into her microphone. "And here we have the entire Five-0 Task Force." She shoved the mircrophone into Steve's face. "Commander McGarrett, what brings you here today?"

"The government's here to shut us down!" Someone in the crowd yelled. "They're trying to silence us. We'll never be silenced!"

"Are you here to try to shut down this gathering?" the reporter persisted.

Steve shrugged. "I'm here for shrimp."

Kamekona came over right behind her. "Hello, my fine friends!" He put an arm around Steve and turned them both to the camera. "Even the Five-0 Task Force knows that Kamekona's shrimp truck has the best shrimp in the galaxy. And, today only, if you bring in a picture of a UFO, you get 10% off your order!"

The cameraman gave the reporter a meaningful look and tapped his wristwatch.

"And there you have it," she said. "From Kamekona's Shrimp Truck, this is Megan Entwhistle reporting."

"Howzit, my little haole?" Kamekona asked Danny. "How do you feel? You look decidedly more vertical than the last time I saw you."

"I am, thank you. And I'm starved."

"I got it," Lou said, wading through the bodies towards the shrimp truck.

With the camera off, Megan Entwhistle turned to Steve. "Off the record, Commander. What can you tell me?"

"Off the record?" Danny asked, drawing her attention.

"Yes. Absolutely."

He beckoned her closer and she leaned in so she could hear him better while Steve shook his head and rolled his eyes behind her back.

"This is top secret," Danny stage-whispered.

"Okay."

"The garlic shrimp is really shrimp scampi in disguise."

5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0

"Our aliens' financial backer doesn't know that we've captured one of their drones," Danny said.

They'd taken their lunch back to headquarters once it became obvious that there was no way they were going to get to eat in peace on the beach and now they were sitting around Steven's office munching on shrimp and discussing the case. Their new "interns" were eating out in the common area, loathe to leave the smart table now that the coolest computer on the island was at their command.

"He-or she-doesn't know about it, or the aliens are hoping he or she doesn't know about it," Lou agreed.

"I'm not sure I follow," Jerry admitted.

"Think about it," Steve said. "That UFO was convincing from a distance, but there's no way it would appear to be real under close scrutiny. The aliens, for want of a better term, have to know we captured it. Even if they weren't aware of it when they lost control of the drone, it's all over the Internet. So why stick a guy in an ET suit and send him to the hospital to try to kill Danny? I mean, they have to know we're onto them. So why maintain the facade?"

"Because," Jerry said slowly, "they don't want their backer to know the game is up?"

"That's the only explanation I can think of."

"But how could the backer not know as well?"

"Maybe it's someone who's not Internet savvy," Danny suggested. "Or who they don't think is Internet savvy. These aliens, by the sound of them, are all in their early-to-mid-twenties. It's not unusual for young people to view members of the older generation with disdain, especially in technological matters with which they don't have a great deal of experience."

"I just don't understand this," Lou said. "They're basically theater geeks, you get that, right? A bunch of dumb kids making bad movies. They started out with kidnapping, escalated it to the point where they were willing to kill Jersey here, and they're ready and apparently eager to commit an act of terrorism. How does this even happen?"

"From what our prisoner has told us, they seem to think that they have some kind of artistic license to do whatever they think they need to do in order to make their movie." Steve's phone sounded and he glanced down at it, then raised it to his ear. "McGarrett." He listened for a minute, then chuckled. "Really?...Yeah, okay. Thanks! I'll look forward to seeing it."

He hung up and the others looked at him expectantly. He turned to Jerry.

"Remember that UFO video you showed me?"

"The flying saucer over downtown Honolulu? That defied the laws of physics? Sure."

"That was a buddy of mine in Naval Intelligence. He's figured it out. He's sending me the explanation." He glanced down at his phone. "And it's here. Let's go put it on the big screen."

They went out to the main room, where Grace and Will were running the sketches of Danny's "Man (and Woman) in Black" through a facial recognition program. Danny went to stand by his daughter.

"Is it just me or is it a little unnerving how quickly these kids have picked up on operating our equipment?"

Will shrugged. "It's pretty basic."

"They're gonna take over for you, Danno," Steve teased. "You're becoming obsolete."

Grace leaned into him, a full-body hug without taking her hands off the table. "It's okay," she told him loyally. "You're good at other things."

"Awww," Steve and Lou teased.

"Oh, sure," Danny said. "Poke fun. I happen to think it's a good thing that my wonderful, darling daughter is a considerate and generous soul. And...and...I appreciate that she is kind to me, especially considering no one else is."

Steve sent a file to the smart table. "Here," he said. "Quick, play this file before it's drowned out by the sound of tiny little violins playing My Heart Bleeds For You."

Danny gestured to his partner. "You see what I put up with."

The file came up and the UFO video began to play in silence. After a few seconds a voice spoke over it.

"This is the video you sent me, as it's been making its rounds on the Internet. I've muted the sound, as it's irrelevant. After detailed analysis, I believe the group who made the video and whom we can hear talking are the innocent bystanders they appear to be. As you can clearly see, this is a three-dimensional object flying in actual proximity to the buildings surrounding it. We can tell that by the reflection that appears on the windows of the office building nearby when it flies low enough. The question is how it's able to move quickly over a long distance and then fly off at an astronomical rate of speed.

"In order to get a better idea of what's going on, I began by lightening the video, as you can see here."

The image on the screen grew lighter and they could now see the washed-out shape of the UFO inside the circle of lights that defined its edges.

"I believe the key to this is that the stunt was done in low light against a cloudy sky. In the lightened video you can see that the body of the UFO is painted the same color as the clouds. It comes in, flies around for a few minutes to attract an audience, then drops low enough to be reflected by the windows of one of the tall buildings, thus establishing that it is a physical object. Then it climbs back into the sky and apparently disappears, immediately reappearing almost 1,000 yards away. In fact, it neither moves nor disappears. It simply goes dark and, at the same time, it begins to project an image of itself at a distance, using the clouds as a movie screen. In this image, which I got by changing the lighting on a still taken from the video, you can clearly see the unlighted UFO still in place and a ray of light connecting it to the image that has appeared at a distance. Then, it simply moves the image while simultaneously shrinking it to give the illusion that it is disappearing at a high rate of speed. The whole thing is an optical illusion, undoubtedly created using a drone disguised to look like a stereotypical UFO."

The file ended and Jerry sighed.

"Sorry, Jer," Steve said. "I know you were hoping that the one in the video was still real."

"Yeah. Oh well."

"So let's think about this," Danny said. "You're the aliens. You've made a deal with some mysterious backer who has fronted you a large amount of money. I'm thinking, at this point, it's got to be at least several hundred thousand dollars. Your end of the bargain is to deliver the materials for dirty bombs and the Ocean's Eleven intel to allow him to use them. You have failed at getting the Ocean's Eleven project, attracted the attention of the authorities, lost some of your assets-namely the UFO that tried to kidnap me and the one our guest downstairs rode up to my hospital room last night-and one of your co-conspirators is in custody. What do you do now?"

"That depends on who they're more afraid of," Will said. The adults in the room all turned to look at him.

"Go ahead," Danny told him.

"If I'm more afraid of the cops, I cut and run and try to get as far away from Hawaii as I can before they figure out who I am. But the backer probably knows who I am already. So if I'm more afraid of him, I'm going to try anything I can think of to finish off my end of the bargain. I'd go after the Ocean's Eleven project again."

"But they know it won't work," Jerry objected. "They know we know they're not really aliens."

"They know we know they're not really aliens," Steve said, "but do they know that we know that they were after the Ocean's Eleven project when they grabbed me? Because if they don't know that we know then they wouldn't know that the Navy knows what we know that they don't know and now they know that I'm not Jacobson, which they didn't know but they don't know if I know that they thought I was even though I do know and..." He stopped, a perplexed look on his face. "I've confused myself."

"Babe," Danny said. "You've confused everybody. No, wait. I get what you're saying. You think Will's right and they're going to go after the project again. But you said it yourself. The Navy is on alert and if they try it they'll get caught."

"Caught, yeah," Steve said. "But who would we catch? Probably just one or two more low-level actors like Boog Martian, or whatever he calls himself. We want the whole gang, and their backer too."

"So what do you suggest?"

"I think we need to set a UFO trap."