Invaders: The Chronowarp

by Vaughn Heppner

  Kazz and Philemon—there was going to be a day of reckoning with those two.

  The sub had narrow corridors and many hatches. People squeezed past us as the emergency klaxons continued to blare. The vessel felt smaller than it had looked outside in the blizzard. I imagine a good part of it was engine and ballast tanks.

  Finally, Jenna and I climbed some steps and moved into a larger, more open area. This must be the bridge. There were several consoles with computer screens. Sailors sat at those, carefully monitoring them. There was a bigger computer or chart table in the center of the area. A uniformed officer had his elbows on the table, with a lankier man looking on over his shoulder.

  “You can turn that off now,” the officer said.

  A sailor pressed a switch. The klaxons ceased. At that point, the submarine seemed abnormally quiet.

  “Is that him?” the officer asked.

  “Tactical Officer Bright,” Jenna said, “this is Logan of the Guard ship. Logan, this is Tactical Officer Carl Bright, commander of the Swordfish.”

  “You can call me Captain,” Bright said, sticking out his hand.

  I shook hands with him. He had a quick, tight grip.

  Bright was smaller than me and bristled with nervous energy. He struck me as a shortstop kind of person, the kind of man with natural quickness and decisiveness. He was wearing a cap with the CAU logo on it.

  “This isn’t a U.S Navy vessel?” I asked.

  Bright glanced at Jenna. She said nothing. Bright focused on me. “There isn’t a submarine around like this one.” I hadn’t taken him for a braggart. He seemed proud of this vessel. “It’s a diesel,” he continued, “but we mostly run that to energize the batteries. When we go electric, there’s not a quieter submarine on the planet.”

  “Is it fast?”

  “Fast enough,” he said, as if I’d insulted him. “We can hear better than any vessel around, and we can move to a location without anyone noticing. Zipping around like a speedboat doesn’t help in either of those maneuvers.”

  “What about firepower?”

  “We have torpedoes.” Bright turned to Jenna. “Why’s he asking me so many questions?”

  “He’s naturally curious.”

  “Doesn’t he realize he’s our prisoner?”

  “Is that what I am?” I asked Jenna.

  “Captain Bright,” she said without acknowledging my question. “I take it you’ve spotted the Guard ship?”

  “The emergency klaxons…” he said. “Yes. We spotted it. It’s moving fast, though—”

  “Can you put it up on a screen?” I asked, interrupting.

  Bright turned to stare at me. “What screen?” he asked.

  I made a vague gesture.

  “Come here,” Bright told me, indicating the computer table.

  I moved up to the edge of what would have been a navigational chart on a WWII submarine. He made a few manipulations on the table. The lines and underwater mountainous terrain it had been showing disappeared. In its place moved a small image of the Guard ship.

  “You do have a screen,” I said.

  Bright snorted. “This is a computer simulation of what our sensors saw several minutes ago.”

  I focused more closely. The Great White-shaped image of the Guard ship moved fast. I couldn’t believe Kazz and Philemon were running my ship. What had happened to Debby?

  “Where are they going?” Jenna asked.

  Bright nodded. “You’re right. The Guard ship is booking it somewhere. I believe they’re leaving the immediate area.”

  “Why were they down there in the first place?” I asked.

  “I was going to ask you,” Bright said.

  “I have no idea,” I told him.

  “Are you sure?” Bright asked.

  I glanced from Jenna to Captain Bright, to the taller officer behind him. They all watched me.

  “I realize I’m the great repository of alien knowledge,” I said, “but I don’t have a clue as to what Kazz and Philemon are up to.”

  “Who?” Bright asked.

  Jenna told him those were the names of the Neanderthal and the hominid.

  “We need more data,” Bright told Jenna. “We simply don’t know enough yet.”

  Jenna indicated me. “Ask him what you want to know. It’s time he told us a few things.”

  Once more, everyone stared at me.

  I silently debated the options as I tried to figure out what was in my best interest. Jenna’s hard-eyed look reminded me that she thought I owed it to the U.S. to tell them everything. She could have a point.

  “All right,” I said. “Here’s what I know in a nutshell.”

  I gave them a quick rundown on Galactic history, as I knew it. I talked about the Starcore, Polarions and the Galactic Guard. I told them about the Min Ve privateers and the Ungul cannon fodder.

  “I could go into more detail,” I finished. “But that’s the core of what I learned six months ago.”

  Captain Bright nodded sagely. He’d never interrupted once, but had listened like a sponge absorbing facts.

  “Is this Argon alive?” Bright asked me.

  “I have no idea,” I said. “I think whatever Kazz told me about Argon is suspect. The Neanderthal just wanted to get to Philemon and grab the Guard ship while he was at it.”

  “Given their actions,” Bright said slowly, “I suspect those two once worked for the Starcore.”

  “I agree,” I said.

  Bright rubbed his chin as he stared at the computer table. Finally, he glanced at Jenna. “I might as well show him.”

  She’d crossed her arms and now looked away. I guess that was a yes.

  “I think we’ve found another ancient alien complex,” Bright told me. “Would you like to see it?”

  “Absolutely I would,” I said.

  “Good,” Bright said, “because that’s exactly where we’re headed.”

  -12-

  The Swordfish used battery power as it cruised under the Arctic ice. It was an odd sensation, thinking of being below it. I’d never gone under the ice caps before while in charge of the Guard ship. I’d never seen the reason for such a thing.

  The submarine dove deeper. The ship groaned like a thing alive as the increasing water pressure pushed against the sub’s sides.

  The Arctic Ocean was actually rather shallow as oceans went. It didn’t go down nearly as deep as the Pacific Ocean. Still, the Arctic held secrets. Captain Bright was bringing us toward one of the oldest on the planet.

  “We would never have found it if we hadn’t been tracking the Guard ship,” Bright informed me. “We’ve been tracking you for the last few months.”

  “How wonderful,” I said.

  “Do you have any idea of the treasure you were taking high and low?” Bright said.

  “Smiley has already given me the lecture,” I said, indicating Jenna.

  Bright glanced at her before grinning at me. “Jenna is a dedicated officer. We all are. After the aliens dropped those hell-burners, we had to do something. We couldn’t keep going on being primitive louts as alien visitors took whatever potshots they desired at us.”

  He had a point. I’d never taken the time to think that through. I guess I’d seen myself as one of those comic book heroes. You know the kind I’m taking about. A radioactive ant bites him and he gets the strength of an ant. I’d found an alien spaceship. It had been my ring, cape, tights and superhero identity all rolled into one. With it, I’d planned to keep protecting Earth from alien adversaries.

  Only this was the real world. It wasn’t a fantasy romp. One man with a Guard ship couldn’t reasonably protect the planet, especially not a freewheeling soul like me. I should have taken the Guard ship to the U.S. government. Except, would the politicians use alien technology better than I had? Wouldn’t the temptation grow on their part, the desire to take over the planet?

  Money has a way of corrupting people. Power does the same thing. Too much makes a person arrogant. I hadn’t wante
d to take over anyone. I’d been too worried about the rest of the world sneaking up on me and taking my prize.

  Instead of that, I’d let two proto-humans steal my ship. Maybe I should join the CAU and help them the best I could.

  The Swordfish dove even lower yet. Like Captain Bright had said, we weren’t racing, but we were getting there quietly.

  I told them about the Guard ship’s sensing gear. “If Rax is looking for you,” I told Bright, “he’s going to see you. We saw everything before.”

  “How would you know?”

  I shrugged. “If you’d been on the Guards ship…”

  Bright frowned. I don’t think he believed me. I think he loved his command. He was proud of the Swordfish, and he was determined to save our planet from more alien invasions.

  Seven degrees of latitude from the North Pole, the Swordfish reached a deeper underwater valley region.

  “Ancient rock lies down here,” Bright informed me. His right index finger traced the underwater valley on either side of the dot of the submarine. He tapped a yellow dot on the screen. “Do you see this?”

  “Hard to miss,” I said.

  “No,” he said. “It has been very easy to miss. We’ve sensor painted it because we’ve already recorded its readings. The process is complicated. I wouldn’t expect you to understand the technical jargon.”

  “Of course not,” I said.

  “There was no insult intended.”

  “Don’t worry about him,” Jenna said. “He has a giant ego. It could take a little bruising.”

  “About the yellow dot…” I said into the ensuing silence.

  “We know it isn’t composed of metal,” Bright said. “It’s some kind of ceramic/plastic compound.”

  “Is that possible?”

  “Frankly, not as far as we know,” Bright said. “I suspect it’s this Polarion technology you spoke about. The place must be incredibly old.”

  “How can you tell?”

  Bright looked up at me. “Who built it?”

  I shrugged.

  “No, no,” he said. “You shouldn’t pass over the problem so swiftly. Presumably, the Russians or the Canadians could have built it, or even us. We could have put something down there, that is.”

  “Why not an old shipwreck?” I asked.

  “The composition demands something else,” Bright said.

  “Meaning, if it’s not relatively new—”

  “It has to be incredibly ancient, from the time of the Polarions.” Bright cleared his throat. “Normally, I would not subscribe to such outlandish conceits. The hell-burners and your Guard ship have changed my mind. The reality of the Homo habilis has shattered all my old beliefs.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “I believed in the theory of evolution as it was taught to me in high school and college,” Bright said. “I accepted the idea of millions of years of evolutionary development as apish precursors slowly climbed the evolutionary ladder. A Homo habilis would by necessity be less intelligent than a man. Philemon’s existence proves the Homo habilis had high intelligence.”

  “Philemon was strange. I’ll agree to that.”

  “No, no,” Bright said. “The Starcore, the Polarions, the Neanderthals and hominids in both camps, they show that early human history was much different than what we were taught. It was fundamentally different.”

  “I suppose,” I said.

  “We must presume some of the ancient alien crews escaped onto our planet during the prehistoric era.”

  “Fine,” I said. “What does that have to do with the ancient complex coming up?”

  Captain Bright rubbed his hands. “I don’t know, but I’m eager to find out. This is about more than protecting our planet. This is discovering the early history of humanity, the real history.”

  His enthusiasm was infectious. I found myself wanting to enter the ancient complex. Then I remembered Greenland.

  “This isn’t a lark,” I warned him.

  “Of course not,” Bright said. “We have a possibly short window to get into the complex. It would be a terrible idea to attempt entering it with the Guard ship out there. We’ve seen that the Guard ship has left the immediate area. We’ve been waiting for that. Now, we must attempt to go inside—first, by scouting out the perimeter.”

  “It looks like we’re already pretty deep down,” I said.

  “Yes. Entering the complex will undoubtedly be hazardous. Only a small cadre should scout it the first time.” Bright turned to Jenna. “Do you still insist on going?”

  She just stared at him.

  “I would love to join you,” Bright said.

  “That’s out of the question,” Jenna said. “You’re the captain. You must remain on the submarine.”

  “Will you take him?” he asked, pointing at me.

  “No,” I said.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “I’m not a deep sea diver,” I said.

  “We’ll be in a bathyscaphe,” Jenna said. “I doubt the complex is airtight after all this time.”

  “And if it is airtight?” I asked.

  “Then it will be much too dangerous for us to enter the first time. This will be a scouting mission only.”

  “Why do you need me for that?”

  “You’re coming,” Jenna said. “You’ve seen the Polarions and all kinds of other marvels. I would have expected a more adventuresome spirit from you.”

  “I’m not crazy about being so deep down here in a tiny bathyscaphe with the Guard ship out there somewhere. That’s especially true given that they might have already been inside.”

  “That’s why we must go.”

  “It could be a trap,” I said.

  Jenna seemed more disgusted with me by the moment. I felt as if she was just about to say, “Forget it then.” Instead, her features hardened. “You’re coming with us. There will be no more debate. The fate of the world could rest on what we do.”

  That was too grandiose. At this point, I just wanted to free Debby and Rax and swing my fists against the treacherous Kazz.

  -13-

  Field Agent Jones hadn’t been kidding.

  At the back of the Swordfish was a small hangar bay. In the hangar bay was a giant bathyscaphe that looked like nothing so much as a wrecking ball that lacked a chain. But it was hollow instead of solid, with a special glass window, and would wreck nothing but possibly our enemy’s plans.

  A bathyscaphe was a special kind of submersible craft made for especially deep dives. In the past, some bathyscaphes had gone down attached to chains or cables. A few had been mobile. We would be mobile, although we couldn’t operate with any speed.

  Jenna opened the only hatch. The glass window was part of the portal. She crawled through it, followed by her two guards.

  The first guard was Tony Pei, an Italian-American of the silent variety. He had dark hair, a scar on his forehead and athletic grace most men would envy to the depths of their hearts. He’d been the snow-cat driver, and he seldom spoke.

  The second guard was named Mouse. He was slimmer, but with the kind of rawboned strength that won most bar fights. He’d been a SEAL before joining CAU, and his eyes were always moving. I don’t think he liked me. Tony didn’t seem to care one way or the other. Mouse obviously liked Jenna but pretended he didn’t.

  They were both hard cases of the old school. They mostly used their actions instead of words.

  I crawled in last.

  I noticed a few things about the bathyscaphe right away. It was damp in here. That gave me the feeling that it wouldn’t be watertight or airtight. That was just great. It also stank. There were four seats, placed back to back one with another so they faced each of four directions. Each seat had a console. That’s all the room this thing had. There were controls above, to the sides and even at our feet.

  “We’re leaving the Swordfish in this thing?” I asked Jenna.

  Mouse sat to my left. He sneered at me, but said nothing.

  Soon enough,
Jenna shut the hatch. She and the others buckled in. I figured I might as well do the same.

  The three of them went to work, turning on screens and other machines. After that, they began going over a checklist. It got tiring fast.

  Finally, the bathyscaphe lurched.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Relax,” Jenna said. “You’re safe.”

  “Does anyone else believe that?” I asked.

  She stared at me. I could see she was pissed about something.

  “Okay. What?” I asked.

  “Stop already,” she said.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Your act,” she said. “It’s old. You…” She waved her hands. “You beat the Starcore. You destroyed a Min Ve privateer. Stop acting like a coward. No one buys it. If anything, you’re a daredevil.”

  “You make a good point,” I said.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to lull us. You’re hoping we think you’re as stupid as you sound. Then, we’ll drop our guard so you can do something incredibly selfish.”

  “That’s not a bad plan,” I said.

  She made a disgusted sound under her breath and went back to work.

  “Why do you do that?” Mouse asked me quietly.

  I turned his way. He had a mean mouth and an air of real toughness.

  “You want to kiss me?” I said.

  “Keep it up,” he told me.

  “Hey, you think you’re bad?” I held out my hand. “Let’s thumb wrestle.” I wriggled my thumb. “See what you got?”

  He sneered and went back to working on his console.

  Five minutes later, the bathyscaphe lurched again. Then, it dropped several inches. That made my teeth clack together and made me nip my tongue. I clenched my teeth together, enduring the pain.

  “We’re in the launch bay,” Jenna announced. “Three…two…one…zero…” she said.

  Nothing happened except that I heard a rushing sound I didn’t like. It seemed to get a little wetter in here. I saw a drop hit the floor in front of me.

  My stomach tightened. Then, it really knotted as I saw water sloshing before the window. Jenna had said the window was supposed to withstand incredible pressures. It would not shatter, at least not until the metal crumpled around it. Still, seeing water rising made me realize the outer compartment was flooding.