Invaders

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Oh, this is even more distressing. I detect pursuit of you by…others not native to the planet.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “Aliens are coming. I think they’re shape-changing aliens.”

  “A moment, please. There seems to be a discrepancy in my receptors. How long have I…” He stopped talking as if something bothered him. Several seconds passed before he said, “It appears you are correct. Unguls are in pursuit of you. But that can only mean…”

  Once more, he stopped talking. I waited, listening to the Unguls, I presume, forcing the giant doors. If this person knew the name of the shape-changing aliens, did that make him an alien, too? It seemed likely, especially as he’d asked if I was human, an aboriginal of the planet.

  “This is becoming more perplexing by the moment,” he said. “I am unable to contact the fathership or raise my agent. How did you pass the auto-defenses?”

  “Dumb luck,” I said.

  “The odds of that are infinitesimal. I must have been right when I detected a residual malevolence at work here. The discrepancies in the situation are pressing me to the obvious choice. It appears I must break protocol and initiate a first level contamination. Quick, human, you must follow my voice.”

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “That is unimportant at the moment. We must act together for our collective benefit. I take it you wish to continue your existence.”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Then follow my voice. You will reach me soon. I have a means of escape—I cannot understand why my agent hasn’t returned yet.”

  “What agent?” I asked.

  “Pay no attention to my ramblings. But you must hurry if you hope to survive the Unguls. What is your name?”

  “Logan.”

  “Follow the sound of my voice, Logan. I will aid you if you agree to aid me.”

  “I already said I would.”

  He paused again before saying, “Excellent. I detect honesty in you, which would make you a man of honor.”

  “That’s me.”

  “Know that I also have honor. You can trust me. Now move, human. We have little time left.”

  He guided me with his voice, warning me when I was about to bump into an object. That finally bothered me, as he’d said earlier that he couldn’t see me.

  “If you can’t see me,” I said, “how are you able to warn me if I’ll ram against these various objects.”

  “I cannot presently see you in the visible spectrum. I do have a heat sensor, though, and a schematic of the portal area.”

  “Are you in any way connected with the Galactic Guard-ship?”

  “How do you know about that?” he asked sharply.

  “Unguls caught me before and spoke of it.”

  “I find this distressing indeed. I may have made an error. Are you one of their aboriginal tools perhaps?”

  “No way,” I said. “I killed Unguls to make my escape. They invaded my workplace. I’ve been trying to stop them ever since.”

  “What is your regular capacity?”

  “Uh…I’m a security guard, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Earth security?” he asked.

  “No. I work for a company on Earth, though.”

  “Then we have similar occupations, although of vastly different scales. I am here to thwart those like the Unguls and their superiors.”

  “You’re part of the Galactic Guard then?”

  He didn’t respond.

  “We’re helping each other, remember?” I said. “If you’re not part of the Guard, though…”

  “I understand your distress. Know that I am an advisor to a Galactic Guard agent. Trust me that it is not in your future self-interest to know more.”

  That made sense, I suppose. If the Galactic Guard had kept itself hidden from us so far, what would they have to do to me later to make sure I wouldn’t talk about them?

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “It is part of a serious crime against Earth,” he said.

  “So you’re investigating it?”

  “You have almost made it. Now climb up quickly. An Ungul combat party has almost reached this area.”

  I climbed onto what felt like a large steel pad, crawling to a disc-shaped object there.

  “You must pick me up and hold me,” he said.

  I rotated from on my knees, feeling the floor for him.

  “One, two, three,” he said. “One, two, three—”

  “Got you,” I said. My hands latched onto what seemed like a flat cell phone.

  “Stop,” an Ungul shouted from farther away. I could tell it was an alien because of the odd accent. “You must stop your evasion tactics at once.”

  I heard a strange humming and felt an even stranger sensation. Then, disorientation struck. I heard a garbled command. Heard what sounded like a disintegrator beam—

  Then, all sounds vanished. I felt nothing. It’s possible I floated in limbo. I don’t know how else to describe it. I felt as if I tumbled end-over-end but there was no more matter, nothing but—

  I slammed against a floor. I heard splintering and crackling, and I felt something break apart under me.

  “What’s going on?” I shouted.

  “It appears there has been a serious malfunction,” the flat device said. Was it a comm unit?

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “I must reconfigure my matrix. Please do not move from this location. There is a paradox at work, some malignant force threatening our continued existence. Unless we act with extreme circumvention, we might succumb to it, as well.”

  Afterward, he fell silent.

  -16-

  A nearly total weariness threatened to send me into oblivion. But I had to know what this “serious malfunction” meant. I rolled over crackling objects. Something about them freaked me out. I rolled faster and fell over an edge to land several inches down.

  I lay there for several seconds. Nothing dire happened, and I noticed it was warm in here. With painful slowness, I twisted out of the parka. Once I was free of its binding confines, I used the inner jacket and pressed it against my forehead to soak up the blood, then pulled a sleeve inside out and wiped my eyes. That made no difference to the situation. I still couldn’t see a thing.

  Was I blind or could there be another explanation?

  I fumbled in the parka pockets until I found the flashlight. I clicked it on while holding my breath. The light shone brightly. I exhaled with relief. It had just been dark in here.

  I shined the light around…

  It looked like I was in some kind of compartment. There was a small dais with strange discs on the ceiling directly over discs on the bottom. I pushed up to my knees, still holding the parka against my bleeding forehead, and froze in disbelief.

  I saw what had crackled earlier. It was a man-sized skeleton. There were bits of material around it, a strap holding an ancient pouch and several rusted devices. What freaked me out the most about the skeleton was that it had a tail, well, a skeleton of a tail, anyway. I don’t mean it had a prehensile tail. That was a tail. The dead creature on the teleport dais—

  I thought I must have teleported from the excavation site in Greenland to wherever this place was. If I were going to bet, I would say I’d made it onto the Guard-ship. The reason the Guard-ship had never left Earth was that the Galactic Guard agent had died the last time he or she had teleported. Given the brittleness of the bones and the almost nonsexist clothing, the dying had been countless millennia ago.

  It was warm enough that I stripped off the rest of my clothes. I was a mass of black and blue bruises.

  I could no longer fight my exhaustion, so I rolled up the parka, lay my head on it and promptly fell asleep.

  ***

  I had no idea how long I slept. I woke up by slow degrees, aware I’d had nightmares. Upon fully waking, I remembered everything that had happened to me so far.

  It had become pitch-black in the chamber. I fumbled in the
dark for my flashlight, found it and clicked it—off. I’d forgotten to turn it off before I’d fallen asleep. I’d slept long enough to drain the batteries.

  That was just great.

  “Hello?” I said, in the darkness.

  I felt the stillness of a tomb around me. For a wild instant, I wondered if the Guard-ship was buried deep underground. Just how long ago had the Guard-ship landed on Earth?

  I recalled the Egyptian-style hieroglyphics I’d seen on the walls. I remembered the Neanderthal men and women and the smaller hominids in the glass cylinders. That had all been in a giant underground complex in Greenland. Who could have built that? During historical periods, Greenland had been ice-filled. Was I supposed to believe people would have first dug into the ice and then drilled underground? Either our scientists didn’t really understand the past or the Guard-ship had landed on Earth a very long time ago.

  So far, everything I’d seen in Greenland under the ice and seen on the Guard-ship pointed to extreme age. What had caused me to sense a powerful intellect while I’d viewed the glass cylinders? I still didn’t like thinking about it or them.

  “Hey,” I said, hating the darkness and my continued helplessness. “How long does it take to reconfigure your matrix, anyway? Do you hear me?”

  Apparently, he didn’t hear me. Maybe it was time to force him to listen. I gathered my resolve, crawled onto the dais and soon felt the brittle bones.

  I tried to leave them as I found them. Soon, I picked up the flat cell phone-like object. I let my fingers rove over it as I searched for controls. It was smooth, all of one piece.

  I used my fingernails, trying to find anything I could tear apart. I—

  Something slid to my left. I heard the noise as a distinct sound. Blinding lights snapped on all around me.

  I cried out, throwing my hands in front of my eyes.

  “Do not fear,” the device said. “I am dimming the lights to their lowest setting. I take it you can see now?”

  “Yes,” I said, peeking from between my fingers.

  I took my hands from my eyes, able to open them all the way now that he’d dimmed the lights.

  I’d heard a hatch slide open. A round object the size of a vacuum cleaner floated into the room. It was silvery, with antennas sprouting from the top along with a short and ugly tube that was pointed right at me.

  “What is that?” I asked, indicating the round thing.

  “That is a Mark III Mobile Ship Defense Unit,” the device said. “It is aiming a flamer at you.”

  “You don’t trust me now that I’ve helped you?”

  “I have taken a precautionary measure, nothing more.”

  I studied the device in my hand. “You’re a computer, aren’t you?”

  “That is a primitive-level assessment. But it shows you have a rational side. I am grateful for that. I am a sentient crystal entity from Rax Prime, trained as a Galactic Guard Advisor Unit.”

  “You’re saying that under this sheathing of metal you’re a piece of crystal?”

  “Sentient crystal,” he said.

  “You’re alive?”

  “That is what it means to be an entity.”

  “How can a piece of crystal be alive?” I asked.

  “You have a biological bias, a primitive failing, I’m afraid.”

  “I’m not trying to insult you. I’m…trying to understand all this.” My gaze slid to the bones with the skeleton tail, the bits of fabric around it and rusted tools. “Was that your agent?”

  “That is my present speculation, as well. There are serious incongruities, however, for that to be true. The first is the seeming age of the bones, which would indicate a long passage of time.”

  “When did you come to Earth?” I asked.

  “I do not believe Galactic time measurements would have any meaning for you.”

  “I suppose they wouldn’t,” I said. “What was happening on Earth when you landed?”

  “We are temporary allies, human. Thus, the less you know, the less the Guard will have to scrub from your memories later.”

  “Look,” I said. “I’m not dumb. That complex in Greenland must be ancient. Those bones are ancient. That means you must be ancient, too.”

  “Did you not hear me when I spoke of incongruities? The most pressing is the apparent passage of time regarding my agent’s remains. Whatever else you believe, we did not land on Earth in your dim past. We came…”

  “Yes, you came,” I said, trying to pry it out of him.

  “Do you recall that I spoke of a malignant will earlier?”

  “I sure do. I think I felt it before, too.”

  “While that is interesting—your sensing of it—that is not germane to our present dilemma. I suspect this evil agency caused the odd situation regarding my agent.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “There is a mystery regarding your planet, one the Guard intends to solve. Unfortunately, the Unguls have complicated the situation by breaking Galactic Law, entering a prohibited zone and landing on a banned planet. I suspect their superior—”

  “It’s someone called the Organizer,” I said.

  “That is an alias, I assure you. But it speaks well of your intentions that you relay the information to me. I appreciate this.”

  “So why is Earth a banned planet?” I asked.

  “I am proving garrulous, a fault of sentient crystals, I’m told. If I had motive power like one of you biological units… Enough,” he said, as if to himself.

  “So what are we going to do?” I asked.

  He didn’t respond.

  “We can’t just let the Unguls roam around the underground Greenland complex.”

  “Before I do anything,” the unit said, “I need to understand what happened to the Guard-ship and to my agent.”

  A red light flashed on a panel. Several lights in a pattern played along the unit in my hand.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I have come to a conclusion,” the unit said. “We are in danger in this place. I must move the ship as soon as possible. But… Human, will you continue to assist me?”

  I stared at the unit, the metal sheath that supposedly held a “living” crystal inside. I’d definitely seen humans, Neanderthals and smaller, apish hominids in glass cylinders in the Greenland complex. I’d learned Earth was a banned planet in a forbidden zone. The Galactic Guard was real and these shape-changers, the Unguls, sounded like some kind of criminal organization, maybe like a Galactic mafia.

  “I’ll help you,” I said. “But I want to know more. For instance, what was that place? What was with all the glass cylinders under the Greenland ice? Why did they hold hominids, and why did I sense a malignant intellect?”

  “You have great curiosity, I see. That speaks of high intelligence on your part. Know then that my agent and I learned this landmass was once called Thule.”

  “Thule is a name from ancient Greek legend,” I said.

  “It is from an even older civilization than the ancient Greeks, I assure you.”

  “Are you talking about the Antediluvians?” I asked.

  “Logan,” he said. “Instead of exchanging data, we should be acting. A suspicious power-drain is taking place in this location. We must move the ship as quickly as possible.”

  “Sure,” I said. “How are we going to do that?”

  The ugly nozzle on the defensive robot retreated into the smooth metal. A cover snicked into place over it.

  “First, we must go on a reconnaissance mission,” he said. “It will entail risk and involve physical adjustment on your part. Otherwise, I cannot see you surviving the various encounters. Since I may need your help for a prolonged period, I desire that you remain intact for as long as possible.”

  “What kind of adjustments are you talking about?” I asked, not liking the sound of it.

  Instead of answering, the living crystal must have caused the discs above and below me to glow with power. I felt the same dis
orientation as before, and everything disappeared from sight.

  I was teleporting somewhere—right back to the excavation site under the ice in Greenland I suspected.

  -17-

  “I urge you to remain silent,” the unit whispered.

  I found myself in total darkness again, unable to see anything. Cold hit me immediately, and I realized I was naked. I’d forgotten to put my clothes back on before teleporting. I lacked the flashlight, the raygun—everything except for the sentient crystal in my hand.

  Normally, I would have berated myself for something so stupid. Instead, I realized the extent of my exhaustion.

  A clang sounded in the distance, startling me.

  “What was that?” I whispered.

  “I suspect it is more Ungul interference,” he said softly. “We will have to move quickly.”

  “Unguls,” I said. “So we’re back in the underground Greenland complex?”

  “We are indeed.”

  “Why is it dark this time?”

  “Yes. That is interesting. Perhaps the Unguls have caused a blackout.”

  “Look,” I said. “We have to teleport back to the ship.”

  “There is no longer enough power for that. We must find energy cells and another way to the ship in order to bring the cells to the engine room.”

  “But I don’t have any clothes, any shoes or socks. I’m going to freeze to death before we get very far.”

  “Oh my,” the unit said. “You are right. That is my error, I’m afraid. Let me think…think… Yes. I will have to accelerate the timetable. Are you familiar with right-left, forward-back directions?”

  “Sure. I was in the Marines once.”

  “I do not understand your answer.”

  “The Marines are like the Galactic Guard, only tougher.”

  “That is impossible, as Earth creatures are frail by nature.”

  “I got this far, didn’t I?”

  “I concede the point in your favor. Let us begin.”

  “Wait,” I said. “If you’re going to guide me in the dark, I’d like to know how you can see all of a sudden—unless you were lying to me earlier about not being able to see.”