Invaders

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Did the Unguls successfully storm the white ship?” I asked.

  “I lost visual of the fight,” Rax said, “but what I saw leads me to believe the Unguls failed. The Far Butte humans stormed the enemy position, slaughtering the Unguls as they set up their heavy weapons. I could replay what I recorded so you could see for yourself.”

  “Not just yet,” I said. “Did the humans kill all the Unguls then?”

  “Eighty percent of the Unguls died, while roughly twenty percent of the humans perished. At that point, a second team of hover-assisted hominids struck Station 5. I focused my concentration on the new battle. The hover-riding hominids must have taken a long detour and seemed to have avoided the orbital vessel’s scanners. Perhaps they used a cloaking device to do so.”

  “The hominids overran Station 5?” I asked.

  “That is correct,” Rax said.

  “So, the Starcore’s hominids control the Western Sunlight Station?”

  “Negative,” Rax said. “Once the hominids slaughtered the last Station 5 Unguls, the Organizer destroyed the installation with a hail of orbital rods.”

  “Those things are proving to be pretty handy for the Min Ve,” I said.

  “They are the perfect weapons to use against the aboriginals of primitive planets, as they leave no sign of alien interference. At best, the aboriginals put it down to the ‘gods’ sending an unusual number of meteors. In fact, I suspect certain ancient folklore—”

  “Are you telling me Station 5 is in ruins?” I asked, interrupting him.

  “Affirmative,” Rax said.

  “And the Starcore’s white ship is out of phase again?”

  “That is my suspicion,” Rax said.

  “You don’t know?”

  “I have been unable to scan the region to confirm my suspicions.”

  I blinked at Rax. “So, we’re right back where we started.”

  “That is false,” Rax said. “I have been analyzing your tale and have come to several interesting conclusions. The Starcore is possibly baffled at this point in the affair.”

  I ran a hand across my face, turned around and started telling myself to calm down. Getting enraged at Rax wasn’t going to help me. I had to think carefully…just as the Polarion had suggested I do.

  “All right,” I said. “Lay it on me. What do you have?”

  “I have begun to suspect that Debby was the Starcore’s biological linkage,” Rax said. “The crystal must have united with her—”

  “That’s totally wrong,” I said, heatedly. “She broke me out of jail, remember. She went to Parker—”

  “Please, Logan, bear with me. You must stop interrupting me as I speak. It is very annoying and time-consuming.”

  I grunted a monosyllabic answer.

  “Debby has remained young,” Rax said. “That is one point. At his place outside town, the biker Parker lived like a hog in a pigsty.”

  “Why does that matter?” I asked.

  “Recall what you told me about Far Butte. It was pristine. That makes perfect sense. We crystals abhor a mess. We yearn for symmetry. According to you, Parker has beer and whiskey bottles strewn about his property. He has dog skeletons lying around. His home is a mess. That would indicate Parker isn’t completely controlled by the Starcore.”

  “Well, that destroys your point right there,” I said. “The others of Far Butte were under deeper control, proving—”

  “They were mindless slaves,” Rax said. “The Starcore acted in union with its chief biological units. It united with them, allowing them more of their former personality.”

  “Is this mere logical deduction, or are you accessing ancient memories concerning the Starcore?” I asked.

  “The latter, of course,” Rax said. “I have come to suspect that the Starcore humored its two chief biological units. It is also possible it was running a deception campaign against you for reasons of its own.”

  “I hate that idea,” I said, sitting down. “But that doesn’t mean you’re wrong.”

  “I would also like to point out that while trapped at Far Butte you had a flimsy plan for storming onto the white ship. The fact that Parker so readily agreed to the plan also leads me to my conclusions. Moreover, there is the fact that Parker survived the robot sheriff. That is a damning piece of evidence.”

  “Why did Debby let me into the torture chamber then where I freed the Polarion?”

  “Yes,” Rax said. “That is an oddity. It causes me to question a few of my assumptions. Perhaps Parker was the Starcore’s focus all along. Maybe Debby was the focus until Parker arrived. Parker or the Starcore decided to keep Debby afterward.”

  “Why would either of them do that?”

  “I could think of any number of reasons,” Rax said. “Perhaps the chief one is the obvious one. Parker liked the curve of Debby’s legs. Did she not say that Parker likes the girls?”

  I glowered at Rax for a moment and then looked at the sea outside the Guard-ship’s window. The crystal’s thinking seemed so convoluted, so twisted.

  “The Polarion took Debby,” I said.

  “Precisely,” Rax said. “That is the telling point to my belief concerning her. I believe he did so in order to bait the Starcore. I believe the Polarion knows more about the ancient crystal than anyone alive.”

  “So what do we do next?” I asked.

  “I imagine you are against leaving Earth as the Polarion suggested,” Rax said.

  “That doesn’t even deserve an answer.”

  “I thought you might feel that way, even though the critical element is to destroy the Starcore. Everything else is secondary to the main goal.”

  “That’s where you’re dead wrong,” I said. “Saving Planet Earth is first. Rescuing Debby is second. A distant third is destroying the Starcore and lastly, stopping the Organizer.”

  “You are I are at cross purposes then,” Rax said.

  “Wrong again,” I said. “You’re the advisor unit. I am the decider. Your job is to advise me, not to try to set the agenda.”

  “Logan, I am a Galactic Guard Unit Adviser. Surely, you see that my first allegiance—”

  “Why are we arguing?” I asked. “We can’t get at the Starcore because it’s likely out of phase again. We can’t do anything to the Min Ve if he stays in orbit. The only one we can affect right now is the Polarion, provided he’s somewhere in Greenland.”

  “That is logical, as far as it goes. But why would we try to stop the Polarion, as his goal is the same as mine?”

  “Maybe it’s not a matter of stopping him, exactly,” I said. “Maybe he’ll need help, and he’s too proud to know it. The Starcore captured him once. Maybe it will do so again.”

  “That is an interesting point.”

  “You’re darn right it is,” I said. “So, our next step should be to go back to Greenland, preferably to the underground site.”

  Rax was silent for a time. Finally, he said, “I strongly advise against having me teleport you there.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We need to scout the place first. Why not send your spy drone over there?”

  “I suggest we refrain from that. The Organizer spotted my previous drone and beamed it out of the sky.”

  “Do you have a spare drone?” I asked.

  “I have one backup unit. I am loath to simply toss it into the furnace.”

  “Do you have another way of spying?”

  Rax was silent again, although not for as long. “I do,” the crystal said. “Before we do anything else, though, we need to refuel the ship.”

  “Roger,” I said. “Let’s get started. You can tell me the rest along the way.”

  “Logan, I must warn you. I will not work directly against the Polarion if he is actively attempting to destroy the Starcore.”

  I let that sink into my brain and nodded.

  -44-

  I sat at the Guard-ship’s controls, cruising through the depths back toward the Hawaiian Islands. It was much like last time as I avoided
any underwater sensor devices—mostly American—and submarines. I did notice more U.S. naval activity. The vessels headed east toward China and North Korea. Were they headed for a military showdown?

  I had to put that out of my mind for now. I already had too much on my plate.

  After we reached a location that put the Earth between the Min Ve orbital vessel and us, I took us nearer the surface.

  “This is good,” Rax said.

  I tapped a control, launching a buoy with a line to the Guard-ship.

  “I will begin monitoring,” Rax said.

  The crystal hacked into sophisticated spy satellites. It took Rax ten minutes before he was fully integrated with the NSA, Chinese and Russian systems.

  I waited. He had explained this method during the cruise. It had its own dangers, the biggest was that one of Earth’s tech people would discover Rax’s piggybacking. According to the crystal, it was a way that “primitive” people could infer alien interference.

  “This is evidence that you are correct concerning the Polarion’s location,” Rax said. “There is greater activity at the Greenland site than I’d imagined there would be. Look to your left and you will see what I mean.”

  A screen maneuvered into place beside me, switching on so I saw four different camera angles. Each angle was from a different spy satellite. I saw snow and ice—

  I leaned closer, spying the former Greenland ice canyon. There were fresh machine-made tracks on camera two and several armed hominids picking through the destroyed Ungul warehouse on camera four.

  “What spy satellites are observing this?” I asked.

  “The Chinese and American,” Rax said. “I have already begun to cause different signals to reach the Earth receivers. They will no longer see what is really happening in Greenland. In fact, I will cause malfunctions in all line-of-sight satellites. It is better this way.”

  I wondered what the Chinese and Americans made of the hominids for the few moments they had seen them. Maybe they would believe the hominids were small men in furry parkas. What would they think about the destroyed warehouse in the middle of nowhere and the radioactive levels from an exploded hell-burner off the Greenland coast? What if instead of believing that each other had exploded a nuclear weapon, some Chinese and American intelligence agents had already concluded there was alien activity in Greenland? Wouldn’t a superpower want to get hold of extraterrestrial technology for their side alone? What would each side do if that were the case?

  “Are there any Chinese or American troops heading toward Greenland?” I asked.

  “That is an interesting query,” Rax said. “Give me a few moments for study.”

  As Rax did his thing, I kept watching the four camera angles. As I did, I spied a small hover zipping across the snow. I would have liked it to zoom in so I could see who was driving it. Before I could get to that, something small and fast from above zeroed-in on the hover.

  “Another orbital rod,” I whispered.

  The rod headed straight for the hover. The driver appeared to look up and raise his left hand. It glowed, creating a buffer between him and the space-launched missile.

  The rod slid along the curvature of the buffer, slamming into the snow and exploding with released kinetic energy.

  The hover lifted as if riding an out of control energy wave. The driver clung to the hover’s controls. I was surprised the machine hadn’t already burst apart. Then, I noticed the same glowing buffer but now at the bottom of the hover. Finally, the driver brought the hover level with the ground again. He sped toward a dark opening.

  Two more times, an orbital rod should have annihilated him. Each time, he did the glowing-hand trick, deflecting the rod. Finally, the hover zipped into the underground opening, disappearing from sight.

  “Did you see that?” I whispered.

  “Indeed,” Rax said. “Before we delve into the meaning of the activity, I should inform you that I have discovered an American naval task force heading to Greenland. It contains two aircraft carriers—”

  “Forget about that,” I said. “If the Starcore is out of phase, I’m guessing it isn’t sending or receiving any more personnel to or from Greenland. That would mean the little hominids checking out the destroyed warehouse are on the Polarion’s side. Maybe the Polarion was driving the hover. The driver’s actions just now sure seemed godlike.”

  “I am playing back the hover image just before the first orbital-rod strike,” Rax said.

  On camera two, the hover image expanded. A white-haired man was driving the vehicle. He was wearing the star patterned one-piece. Was that the Polarion I’d rescued from the torture table, or was that another Polarion freed from his Greenland stasis tube?

  “Focus on the hand,” I said.

  “This is the best I can do,” Rax said.

  The image had become grainy, so it was difficult to tell. The raised hand began to glow. After that, the image blurred considerably.

  “What did he activate that caused his hand to glow like that?” I asked.

  “Unknown,” Rax said.

  I drummed my fingers on the top of the screen.

  “Maybe we should use your nuclear device on the orbital vessel,” I said. “I’d rather help the Polarion than the Min Ve.”

  “I agree,” Rax said. “Unfortunately, a shield blocks a teleportation beam. This is well known.”

  “Does that work both ways?” I asked. “I mean, does the Min Ve have to lower the privateer’s shield in order to teleport Unguls onto the surface?”

  “Yes. Do you suspect the Min Ve will do this?”

  “Don’t you?” I asked.

  “That is a logical possibility given the new evidence. But we do not know when the Min Ve will lower his shield. There is also a time-lag element involved in the equation. I would have a better chance of placing the nuclear device if the Guard-ship were nearer to the privateer. The odds of success would climb even higher if the Guard-ship was in orbital space when we made the attempt.”

  I studied the screen showing the four satellite images. The alien privateer was in orbital space and would stay there for who knew how long. The Min Ve would continue to do what he’d been doing. I had to stop him from dropping more hell-burners or from using orbital rods against the American carriers. I couldn’t just stand by while that happened.

  “Right,” I said. “It’s time for us to make our play.”

  I strapped myself into the piloting chair and began pressing tabs at Rax’s instructions. Soon, acceleration struck as the Guard-ship blew out of the water. We roared for space. It was a heady feeling to realize I was now entering an elite group of Earthmen who had piloted a space vehicle.

  We lofted for orbit while the alien privateer was on the other side of the planet from us. In that way, we shielded ourselves from the Min Ve.

  “This is not good,” Rax said.

  My teeth rattled as we continued to climb. “What’s the problem?” I shouted.

  “The Min Ve has begun destroying all satellites,” Rax said. “If he does, we will no longer be able to watch the Greenland site to time our nuclear-device attack against the privateer. That means I will have to risk using Guard scopes.”

  I might have said something regarding our bad luck, but the shaking had become too violent for me to speak. Therefore, I endured.

  -45-

  Weightlessness made my stomach churn. The Galactic Guard-ship had reached orbital status as we moved around the blue-glowing curvature of the most beautiful sight in the galaxy. The oceans and continents spread out below us as we headed away from Australia toward Asia at an angle. Cloud drifted in places. We were much higher than the Learjets had flown. This was true space. I wondered what was going on in Greenland. What would happen if the white ship came back into phase and the Starcore sent robots and humanoids to the ancient Thule facility?

  I couldn’t worry about that just yet. I had to adjust to this new environment as fast as I could.

  “What happened to our ship’s g
ravity control?” I asked.

  “We are attempting to act like space debris,” Rax said. “That mandates weightlessness. The privateer’s sensors would instantly pick up any gravity-control emanations if we used them. That is why we are drifting now, no longer under acceleration.”

  “That makes sense. Are you scanning the privateer?”

  “Not yet,” Rax said. “The orbital vessel is not yet in sight. When I do scan the ship, it can only be with passive sensors. Otherwise, I will give away our position.”

  “Can’t they see us anyway?”

  “Space is huge, Logan. We are tiny. As long as we keep our power usage to a minimum, it is unlikely they will spot us while they are concentrating on the surface.”

  I nodded, rubbing my stomach, trying to get it to settle down.

  The minutes ticked away as our ship drifted through space. Ten minutes passed, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five—

  “I have extreme visual contact,” Rax said finally.

  I looked out our window first. All I saw was the curvature of the Earth and the vastness of the star field. The Sun was presently behind our planet. I studied my screen next. It showed an outline of a cloaked orbital vessel.

  “Is the privateer’s shield up?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Rax said.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked.

  “We wait for our opportunity,” Rax said.

  That was always the hardest part, the waiting. But I was beginning to learn that waiting was one of the components of space combat. The greatest similarity on Earth would have been WWII carrier-aircraft combat. Back in the old days, the Japanese and Americans had had long, drawn out carrier battles. Each side had sent out squadrons of planes, searching for the enemy. The carrier commanders had had to do a lot of waiting, even in the middle of a battle. The key to that had been judging distances and remaining hidden in the vastness of the ocean.

  Space was even bigger than the oceans. It took time for a spaceship to maneuver into position. It would take time for missiles to reach their target.