Invaders: The Chronowarp

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I have SEAL divers who will help you reach and explore the underwater site,” he said.

  “How did you manage to finagle that?”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter how.”

  “I bet I can guess how you did it,” I said. “You made some phone calls, left the captain’s body and entered someone important. You left them later and returned to the captain. I bet entering and leaving him the way you did is eating him up from the inside. That’s why he looks like crap.”

  The captain pursed his lips. “You make uncommonly astute guesses. That tends to substantiate your Polarion connection.”

  “I’m a wizard. What can you say?”

  “I have calculated the possibility of success by solely relying on the SEAL divers. I have come to believe that Polarion-induced insight will be required to achieve the feat. That means I need your cooperation. If you help me in this, I will help you regain the Guard ship.”

  “Now you’re talking,” I said. “How are we going to do that?”

  “First, I will need the chronowarp. Setting up the conditions after that will be a straightforward process.”

  “So, let’s get started.”

  “Your adversaries may try to stop you.”

  “Good point. I’ll need weapons.”

  The captain smiled, which pulled at his tired facial skin.

  “One last thing,” I said. “Will you be joining the expedition?”

  “Not this time,” he said. “I have a few loose ends to attend to here.”

  I think what he meant was that he was deathly afraid of going underwater. That seemed like one of the best ways to kill an Eshom. Maybe that’s why Kazz and Philemon had torpedoed the Swordfish when they had.

  “One thing, Captain,” I said. “I’ll agree to this provided you allow Jenna onto the submarine.”

  “What submarine?”

  “Come on,” I said. “If I’m going to explore the Persian Gulf, you’re going to get me assigned onto an American submarine. I want Jenna on that sub with me, or you can forget the whole deal.”

  “I will not allow her to go into the water.”

  “Fine,” I said. “But I want her on the sub with me. And I want you to clear her name with the CAU.”

  It was the least I could do for Field Agent Jones.

  The captain studied me through the bars. His eyes turned the molten silver color. I had no idea what that signified. At last, as his eyes returned to their normal color, he agreed.

  I didn’t realize it, but the countdown to Armageddon had started.

  -44-

  That night, I had a troubling dream.

  In the dream, I was back in the Arctic Ocean station. I stood before the Eshom’s glass tube, watching the creature flicker. As the head moved like a dancing flame, I stared into the silver molten-colored eyes. Just like the first time, I felt an abyss-like hunger, an awful devouring sensation that knew no end.

  It reminded me of an old myth of Thor and Loki, two Viking gods on their journey through Giant Land. A cunning giant there pitted Thor and Loki against various opponents. One of the opponents had challenged Loki to an eating contest. The Viking god ate like a hog, but he could not beat fire. A giant had personified fire in the story.

  Fire devours. That’s its nature. The Eshom was like fire, only it consumed humans.

  I woke up in a cold sweat.

  In the dark, I stumbled to the sink, remembered I had some bottled waters and fumbled around until I twisted off a cap. I guzzled water, sitting on my cot with my bare feet on the floor.

  I rarely had nightmares, although I almost always dreamed.

  “Yeah…” I said softly to myself.

  I burped, wiped my lips and lay on the cot.

  In the Arctic Ocean station, I’d sensed malevolent desire from the Eshom. It had wanted to bring its brethren to Earth so they could feast on humanity. The next time I’d met it—here in Iraq—the Eshom had become oh-so-reasonable. It now claimed to hate our world, hate the coldness and wetness everywhere.

  Sure, I’d sensed the lies, but I’d also half-believed them. How could I have been so gullible?

  I stared up into the darkness, pondering that. The Eshom was an energy being. It entered people. It took them over. It had been able to draw Jenna and Tony to it while it had been sealed in the tube.

  “You idiot,” I whispered to myself.

  Surely the Eshom had been weak from the many millennia in the tube. Since then, it would have had to feed. Scratch that. Since gaining its release, it must have gorged itself. It must have grown considerably stronger again. It might have become even more cunning in the process.

  This last time, as it controlled the Army captain, the Eshom had shown greater delicacy, greater finesse with its…mind control techniques. It had fooled me enough with its mind powers that I’d shown it the probable location of the chronowarp.

  I’d be damned if I was going to swim down there and retrieve the chronowarp for the murderous, body-snatching alien.

  “Think, Logan,” I whispered to myself. “How can I beat this thing?”

  My brow furrowed as I lay in the dark. I’d been reacting too much lately. I hadn’t really developed a plan of my own. That was partly because I didn’t fully understand my enemies’ plans.

  I wondered if the Polarion machine had set a few fail-safes in my subconscious. Had the machine strengthened my mind against the Eshom? The creature hadn’t been able to possess me in the Arctic Ocean station. Maybe that had forced the Eshom to work more smoothly, use more subtlety, against me now. Of course, the creature hadn’t been able to possess me before I’d gone under the machine.

  There was another problem. Kazz and Philemon had to have been doing something all this time. The question was, what had they been doing? What was their angle in all this?

  It seemed as if Kazz, Philemon, or both had entered the Arctic Ocean station before we had. I suspected that one or both of them had spoken to the Eshom. They’d had enough sense to leave it in its tube…

  What did those two want?

  I thought about what those two wanted. They wanted to go home. But they couldn’t go home in the Galactic Guard ship. It was more of a space shuttle than a starship. Could they have made a deal with the Eshom? Could the Eshom have tricked those two bastards with a deal, planning to double-cross them the entire time?

  It seemed as if the portal was a second method of traveling between planets. I wondered if portal-to-portal travel had been a uniquely Polarion method. Would the Eshom and Kazz and Philemon willingly work together to fix a portal so they could all leave Earth? Or would they leave only to return with reinforcements to conquer the Earth?

  Where did that leave Hap?

  As I lay there, I studied Hap’s situation from one angle and then another. As crazy as it sounded, I was beginning to think Hap might be the most trustworthy of the three different alien groups. Hap was a treacherous mercenary, but I was beginning to believe he didn’t belong with the others. That’s why they’d used a missile to knock down the space plane.

  I felt like I was finally getting a handle on the right course of action. I needed the Galactic Guard ship, and I needed Rax. More than that, I had to stop the Eshom from bringing reinforcements to our planet. The best way would to be to kill the energy being.

  It would be next to impossible. Yet, realizing what I had to do made my eyelids droop. I’d had the nightmare because my subconscious had been trying to tell me something. That the Eshom had lied to me, and that I had to kill it before it could open a portal. Now that I knew what I had to do, I could go back to sleep.

  Tomorrow…I would have to surprise the Eshom. I began devising methods as sleep dragged me back down.

  -45-

  The next morning, after a last briefing with the captain—he assured me that Jenna was fine and would be along shortly—the sergeant and his men escorted me outside. There, we climbed into the back of a helicopter equipped with pontoon landing gear.

&
nbsp; I looked around for Jenna. As I did, the rotors began spinning faster.

  “Hey,” I shouted over the helo noise. “Where’s the field agent? She’s supposed to join us.”

  The sergeant eyed me. I wondered what he was thinking. Did he believe I would try to jump him? There was something odd about him, something different from the previous times. I looked for a silver color in his eyes. But I didn’t believe the Eshom had entered the sergeant, or was in him right now, in any case.

  “Did you hear me?” I shouted.

  The thick-necked sergeant nodded slowly, almost insolently.

  The rotors spun even faster as the helicopter lifted. What was this, a double cross?

  I peered at the receding compound. Could the Eshom have misunderstood me? I found that impossible to believe. Did the creature think I’d do what it wanted if it wouldn’t play ball with me?

  “Better tell your captain I’m not going to do a thing for him,” I shouted, “as he broke his word regarding the field agent.”

  “He won’t want to hear that.”

  “I don’t care what he wants to hear. We had a deal.”

  The sergeant sneered. “Hold onto your shorts. The field agent will be there when we land.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “A helo left earlier. She was on it. The captain told me she’s going to meet you on the patrol boat.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?”

  The sergeant shrugged.

  I finally got it. The sergeant had changed his opinion about me, or the Eshom had changed it for him. Before, I’d felt indifference. Now, the sergeant actively if quietly disliked me.

  The helicopter continued to gain altitude and speed. Twenty minutes later, we left Iraqi airspace and flew over the Persian Gulf. Soon, I saw an oil tanker in the distance.

  I replayed in my head what the sergeant had said about a patrol boat. I’d thought we would use a submarine to reach the ancient site. I guess I was wrong. But if we used a patrol boat…how would we physically get to the underwater site? I hope no one thought I’d don scuba gear to swim down. It struck me then. The Eshom had spoken about SEAL divers. Of course he expected me to dive. How could I have forgotten that?

  Did my forgetfulness prove the Eshom had been tampering with my mind? That angered me. How could I screw the alien and get away with it?

  I watched the water passing below. I’d been a Marine, trained to storm a beach under enemy fire. I’d never trained to swim underwater with scuba gear.

  I sat back as dark thoughts swam through my mind. What would the Eshom do once it realized I was working against it? No doubt, the creature would seek to kill me.

  I glanced at the muscular sergeant. Could I tell him an alien energy creature possessed his captain? Sure, I could tell him. It wouldn’t do me any good, though.

  Too soon, the helo started down. I looked outside again, seeing a small patrol boat waiting down there for us.

  Soon enough, the pontoons struck the water. A rubber dinghy edged toward us.

  “This is your stop,” the sergeant shouted.

  I took a deep breath and slid toward the door…

  ***

  I was about to raise a stink about Jenna. She hadn’t been in the dinghy or on the patrol boat. My armed escorts took me down a narrow corridor to a small cabin. As I stepped through the hatch, I saw Jenna peering out a porthole.

  As the hatch closed behind me, she gave me a cool glance. I wasn’t sure why.

  I began to check the room, searching for bugs. She must have realized what I was doing, but just watched. Finally, I began to accept that if there were bugs, I wouldn’t be able to spot them. I joined her at the porthole, opening it, smelling the salt breeze and leaning near her—

  She jerked away.

  I grabbed an arm, pulling her close. “Listen to me,” I whispered.

  “What for? You’ve betrayed humanity.”

  What had they told her? “Hey,” I said. “Were you in trouble with CAU?”

  She stared at me if I’d contracted leprosy.

  “The Eshom told me it had engineered trouble for you. I told the creature it had to clear you. Then, I wanted it to bring you here.”

  “Why?”

  “The Eshom believes I can help it find an ancient device, a chronowarp.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It can do things to time. Don’t ask me how. The Eshom needs the chronowarp to help it open a portal to its homeworld.”

  “That’s how you’ve betrayed humanity. I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

  “Listen. The Eshom can twist minds. I think it tricked me earlier. It probably also tricked Dr. Hassan.”

  “Who?”

  “That doesn’t matter. Last night, I realized the Eshom had screwed with my mind. I was going to help it find the chronowarp, but not any longer.”

  “What?” she said, staring at me as if her eyes could sprout lasers and pierce my soul.

  “We’re going to have to make a break,” I said. “The Eshom isn’t here, so we can probably pull this off. I have to get you back to CAU. Maybe you can spread the word about it. You’re right that we have to stop the Eshom before it can reach the portal machine with the chronowarp.”

  “Logan…” she hesitated. She searched my eyes as if the weight of the world rested on her. “Logan…” she said again.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You have to find the chronowarp,” she said.

  I closed my eyes for just a moment. Of course, the Eshom had worked on her. I should have known it would do that.

  “Weren’t you listening to what I just said?” I asked.

  “Yes. But you have to find the chronowarp anyway.”

  I opened my eyes to stare at her.

  “Do you trust me?” she asked.

  That was the point. I most certainly did not. “You’re going to have to do better than that,” I said.

  Jenna peered around the room until she finally seemed to come to a decision. “You have to go through with your part. It may be the only way we can trap the Eshom.”

  Is that how the Eshom had tricked her? I shook my head, half admiring the devious nature of the alien.

  -46-

  “I wish you would trust me,” Jenna said, exasperated.

  “I wish I had the Guard ship back.”

  “Look,” she said. “I know the Eshom got me in trouble with CAU. It called the director and entered him. I have no idea how it got the director’s name, but it did. After that, the Eshom left the director, entering someone else. Luckily for us, the CAU has tried to come up with every possibility. We’ve game-played the scenario of a mind-dominating alien. CAU developed several safeguards against such an attack. For one thing, we have psych profiles on everyone, including the director. Whenever someone acts out of character, CAU shrinks go to work.”

  That seemed like a difficult process to implement.

  “The short version is that someone noticed the director’s odd pronouncements about me,” Jenna said. “I’m a red flag person in this case. That means everything about me has to pass double and triple checks.”

  “You’re trying to convince me that CAU knows about the Eshom?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How could they have possibly learned about it?”

  “I made a report.”

  “You never had an opportunity to do that.”

  “I did it yesterday,” Jenna said. “The sergeant guarding you was my go-between.”

  “Jenna…” I said.

  “I know what you’re thinking, but the Eshom hasn’t tricked me. I’ve already spoken to another go-between. I’m not going to tell you who just yet.”

  “The sergeant was a trap.”

  “No,” Jenna said. “I would have been able to tell.”

  “The Eshom takes over an individual and reads his mind. The Eshom would have seen the CAU fail-safes in the director’s thoughts. The creature would know all abo
ut the psyche profiles, if that’s even true.”

  “It is true.”

  “Don’t you get it? The thing is a mind reader. It’s using you.”

  Jenna finally looked worried, but shook her head a moment later. “I don’t think so. You’ll have to trust me on why I believe that.”

  This was hopeless. Why was I even bothering to argue with her?

  “Suppose I believe you,” I said. “Are you saying CAU wants me to find the chronowarp for the Eshom?”

  “That’s right.”

  “That’s a fantastic plan,” I said sarcastically.

  “No. We won’t let the Eshom actually get it. We’re going to move in and grab the chronowarp before the Eshom can get hold of it.”

  “Do you realize how tricky that would be?”

  Jenna became earnest. “CAU decided this is the right time and place for such a deception. Think about it, Logan. Why did the Polarions put the Eshom in the Arctic Ocean station to begin with? Because the station was underwater. Notice that the Eshom isn’t joining the search. Water is the reason.”

  “When were you going to tell me all this?” I asked.

  Jenna shook her head. “We thought you’d thrown in with the creature. I’m only telling you this to keep you on target. Your idea of misleading the Eshom… That will only make it suspicious. CAU has a few ideas about how to capture a pure energy being.”

  I looked out of the porthole. It would be crazy to trust Jenna. She’d relied on one individual to pass along critical information. Was I supposed to believe the sergeant had tricked the Eshom?

  Before I could do more, the hatch opened. A tough-looking sandy-haired man held onto the handle. He was wearing the bottom part of a wet suit.

  “It’s time,” he told me.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Your guide below,” he said.

  “Come on,” I told Jenna.

  “She stays here,” the diver said.

  Jenna grabbed one of my arms. “I’ll be fine,” she told me. “Remember what I said,” she whispered. “This is critical.”