Clearly, the ship was our only way back to Earth.
Debby had continued walking toward me. She no longer smiled.
“That’s far enough,” Philemon said through a ship loudspeaker.
“What’s his game?” I shouted.
Debby hesitated, finally looking over her shoulder at the hovering Guard ship.
“Logan,” Philemon said. “Wave an arm if you can hear me.”
I waved an arm.
“Here is my proposal,” Philemon began. “You will open a way in the portal. I will leave and you will retain your life. Wave your arm if you agree.”
I did nothing of the kind.
“Here is my second proposal,” Philemon said. “I will kill your woman if you do not comply. Wave your arm if you understand that.”
I waved this time.
“Move to the portal controls,” Philemon said.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted, “Can you hear me?”
There was no response.
“I can act as a communicator,” Rax told me.
I lifted Rax to my mouth. “Hey, Philemon, can you hear me?”
“I can,” Philemon said through Rax’s speaker.
“What’s this about me operating the portal? You have to be out of your gourd to believe I can do that.”
“We both know that’s not the case,” Philemon said. “You went into the Arctic Ocean station just like you were supposed to do.”
“Oh yeah?” I said.
“I have thoroughly analyzed your character,” Philemon said. “I am an excellent judge of character and motivations, by the way. The Starcore refined that ability in me. It knew about some of the secret bases dotted about the planet. I also spoke to the Eshom while on the Arctic Ocean station.”
“Why didn’t you go into the special area of the station and use the Polarion teaching machine?”
Philemon laughed. “The Polarion restrictions would have self-destructed the base if I’d tried something like that. Your dealings with Argon and your use of a Polarion ring subtly altered you. It was a risk having you board the station, but it turned out to be an acceptable one.”
“Where’s the Eshom?” I asked.
“Incapacitated for now,” Philemon said. “That state will not last for long. We must move quickly.”
“I’m not going to operate the portal for you.”
“Your woman dies then.”
“That won’t gain you my cooperation.”
“I will hunt down the others and slay them one by one.”
“That won’t do it, either,” I said. “I may know how to use the portal, but I’ll never do it for you.”
“Then I’ll have to kill you and the others and let the Eshom continue to try.”
“It doesn’t know what to do?”
“Wrong,” Philemon said. “You’ve already see the results of its first test. It will continue to test for ages, if it has to. There are people in this world. The Eshom will use them up one by one if it must. So you see, Logan, your best bet is to let me leave. I will leave you with the Eshom. Kill it if you can.”
I thought about his offer. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you go, but you have to leave me the Guard ship.”
“I can’t trust you to go through with the deal,” he said.
“I can give you my word as a Galactic Guard…representative.”
Philemon chuckled. “The ship is my bona fides to a new life. I have studied the ship’s records. I am relatively unskilled in the Galactic Civilization. The Guard ship will be my skill, so to speak.”
“Surely the Starcore wants you to kill me.”
“I feel the desire, I admit,” Philemon said. “But I am a man. I think for myself now. I will grant you your life if you will do this single task for me.”
“I’m afraid I don’t trust you.”
“Then you and yours are dead, Logan. You must decide—”
The Homo habilis cursed hotly. The Guard ship abruptly turned, but not fast enough. The Eshom as an electrical energy creature zoomed up out of the sand. It shot fast for the Guard ship.
In an instant, the energy creature flowed through the ship’s outer armor.
“Philemon should have used the shield,” Rax informed me. “Now, I suspect it is too late for him.”
I stared upward. The Guard ship wobbled, wobbled again, and suddenly it came straight down.
Debby screamed, racing as fast as she could. I stood open-mouthed, watching. The ship dropped less than one hundred feet and hit the sand with a thud and metallic groaning. Debby reached me, launching against me so I staggered backward and hit the bole of a palm tree.
Debby clung tightly, weeping, with her face buried against my chest. As I put an arm around her, a hatch on the Guard ship opened and Philemon staggered out of the craft, looking as if he were drunk.
-62-
The small Homo habilis regarded Debby and me. I wondered why the Eshom had attacked Philemon. Did the Eshom hate Philemon for trying to use it? Had it gone slightly crazy in Sergei’s hate-filled mind?
Why would the Eshom give me the Guard ship? Why would it bring itself into range of my beamer?
“Logan,” Philemon said in a stilted way. “Logan, do you hear me?”
“Yup,” I called. I pried Debby’s arms from my neck and shoved her behind me.
“Do you see this, Logan?” The Eshom asked. The proto-man raised a small device with a red button. I had a bad feeling about that.
“I see it,” I said.
“With the single jab of my opposable thumb, I will detonate the Guard ship. That will be the end of it, and the end of your chances of ever returning to Earth.”
“I’m listening,” I said.
Philemon took several steps closer. “Let us make a deal. I desire for you to open the way to my homeworld.”
“You want to go home?” I asked.
“We both know I equivocated before.”
“You mean you lied,” I said.
“If that is the term you prefer.”
“It most certainly is,” I said.
Philemon nodded, stepping a little closer again. “If you aid me willingly, I will let you and all those you choose live charmed lives on Earth. If you make this hard…it will go harder for those you love.”
I shook my head, eying the self-destruct switch in his small hand. “I can’t betray humanity.”
“To defy me will cost you everything, and I will still open the portal to my world. It will simply take me longer.”
“Forget it,” I said.
Philemon stepped another few feet closer. His eyes seemed to burn with the molten silver color.
“Why do you continue to resist me,” Philemon said. “I always win in the end. I am the superior life form. My kind will always rule you lesser creatures of flesh and blood. It is the law of evolution.”
“That’s an outdated law, I’m afraid.”
“Logan, Logan, Logan,” Philemon said, coming closer yet.
That finally bothered me. What was his—?
I sensed motion behind me. I turned, saw the rock coming for my head and dodged hard. The rock caromed off my shoulder. Debby let go of it. I staggered away from her. She leapt at me with her fingers rigid as she tried to rake me with her fingernails.
I doubted this was her idea, but rather, the Eshom mind controlling her. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I hit her. I pulled my punch. I hated myself for doing this, but I clocked her hard enough to put her down and out.
“Sorry, babe,” I said. “I hope you forgive me when you wake up.”
I turned around, and found Philemon aiming a beamer at me.
“Now we come to the time of truth,” the Homo habilis said. “Now we will discover—”
A ray of hot energy gushed out of the jungle. It struck Philemon square in the chest. He shouted in pain, dropping the beamer and the self-destruct box. The ray burned into his body, causing smoke to rise and blood to spill.
It also caus
ed a nauseating stench.
Philemon staggered back, howled, used his hands to try to block the beam and fell backward, dead, slain by a beam weapon from someone hidden at the jungle’s edge.
As the dead Homo habilis struck the white sands, the Eshom oozed out of the charred body.
I raised my beam weapon. I aimed it at the flickering energy creature. I pressed the stub and sent a ray of power at it.
The Eshom sparkled crazily. It no longer flickered. It swirled around the beam, which continued its arrow-straight journey beyond.
“Wave it around,” Rax said.
I waved the beam around in tiny circles.
The sparkling of the Eshom intensified.
My weapon clicked then, and the beam quit in an instant.
I swore under my breath. I couldn’t believe it.
Instead of coming after me in vengeance, the sparkling Eshom moved in a disjointed fashion toward the stone portal.
“What’s it doing?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” Rax said.
Jenna stepped out of the jungle’s edge. She had the beam weapon I’d given to Sergei earlier. She twisted the end, no doubt putting it at the highest setting. She tracked the Eshom and pulled the trigger.
Another hot ray of power struck the Eshom. The sparkling intensified. The flickering creature regarded her. Its eyes were molten silver.
The beam burned hot and pure.
The molten color of the eyes weakened.
“Keep firing,” I shouted.
I doubted Jenna needed any prodding. She’d been willing to sacrifice herself to stop the alien menace. Field Agent Jenna Jones of the CAU continued to beam the Eshom.
The sparkling turned into bigger brighter motes—and suddenly, the energy of the Eshom exploded like a Fourth of July firework, but without the sounds.
It was gone for the moment, anyway, maybe dead. No longer a menace, but who knew for how long?
-63-
Sergei was alive but had lost blood and didn’t seem to know where he was. He lay in a cot aboard the Galactic Guard ship.
I was back inside. So were Rax, Jenna and Debby. Kazz was still on the loose, though.
Rax had analyzed each of us. I’d given Jenna pills for her headache. I’d given Debby a cold compress to put against her swollen jaw and pills for a headache. Sergei wore clean bandages around his chest. I also informed him that special surgery on Earth could remove a small explosive device in his brain.
I’d introduced Jenna and Debby. They’d smiled, but didn’t seem to like each other much. Each of them had looked at me questioningly.
“Jenna is with the CAU—”
“I know who she is,” Debby told me.
“Debby was in Far Butte six months ago,” I told Jenna.
“I read her bio,” Jenna said.
“I’m his girlfriend,” Debby told Jenna. “Right?” she said to me.
I must have been too slow to answer.
“Oh that’s just great,” Debby said. “You slug me in the face—”
“Hey, wait a minute,” I said. “You tried to brain me with a rock to the back of my head.”
“Because the Eshom was controlling me,” Debby shouted. “You were going to let Philemon kill me. What kind of boyfriend are you, anyway?”
“All right,” I said. “That’s enough. We’re stuck in some Twilight Zone world and I doubt any of us knows how to get back. Is that right, Rax?”
“I am troubled,” Rax said.
“I’m going to be in the piloting compartment,” I said. “You three should stay here. I need to think this through, and each of you has gone through hell.”
I left before Debby could accuse me of anything more, and before Jenna could shoot me any more looks with that hurt expression. I needed time to sort this out.
We had to get back to Earth, if that was possible.
I entered the piloting compartment and sat down in my old chair. For a while, I hadn’t thought I’d ever get to sit in the chair again.
I set Rax in his slot. Then, I took us up.
“Do you think we can use the portal to take us somewhere?” I asked.
“Quite possibly,” Rax said. “This is a remarkable discovery. The people on this island are highly interesting, as well. I suggest you take evasive action, however. Another emitter is targeting us.”
I zoomed low as a purple bolt of power sizzled past the Guard ship.
“Why are they firing at us?” I shouted.
“That is not the present issue,” Rax said. “We must collect Kazz. The Neanderthal will undoubtedly know how they reached this place.”
“Good point,” I said. I’d already spotted him on a scanner. “You know,” I added. “Why don’t we teleport him up.”
“That is an excellent suggestion,” Rax said. “It will only take a few minutes to fix the machine. You will find the spares in the aft compartment.
“Right,” I said, getting up. “Let’s get to this.”
-64-
We evaded the stone-built beaming station long enough to fix the teleportation machine. I brought Kazz onboard afterward.
With a gun aimed at him, I indicated the handcuffs at his feet.
“If you’re suicidal, by all means, charge me,” I told Kazz.
“Neanderthals do not have the human weakness of suicide,” he growled low in his throat.
“Then put the cuffs on.”
He tried, shaking his head afterward, “The handcuffs are too small for my wrists.”
He did have thick wrists, but I hadn’t thought them that thick. This was a dilemma.
“Rax,” I said, “summon Sergei.”
Jenna showed up instead. She looked at Kazz, raising her eyebrows. “He looks dangerous.”
“No more than me,” I said, wondering why I felt compelled to say that.
Kazz kept his mouth shut. I still had the gun centered on his wide chest.
“I need a tranquilizer,” I said. “Make it a heavy dosage.”
“For him?” Jenna asked.
“Yes,” I said. “What’s wrong with Sergei? Why didn’t he come?”
“He’s asleep. Besides, I’m the field agent in charge. You’re just temporarily in charge as the Guard officer.”
“Look,” I said. “About Debby—”
Jenna held up a hand. “You don’t have to explain a thing.”
I glanced at Kazz. The bastard seemed to be grinning. I wanted to shoot him. I think he sensed that, as his grin disappeared.
Jenna retreated. The hatch closed.
“Women trouble?” Kazz asked.
“Neanderthals never have those, either?” I asked.
“All the time,” Kazz said. “We’re born womanizers.”
“With an ugly mug like that?” I asked.
He maintained his stoic poise.
“Ask him,” Rax prodded me.
I debated how to go about this. I didn’t want Kazz to know he had any bargaining power.
“Ask me already,” Kazz said.
“Ask you what?”
“How we got here. How you can get back.”
“All right,” I said. “How?”
“First I want a guarantee,” Kazz said.
“You’ve got to be kidding?”
“Why?” he asked. “Isn’t your life worth it?”
“Sure,” I said. “I guarantee… What are you asking for?”
“A full pardon,” he said.
I thought about Hap. A full pardon hadn’t been worth much to him.
“Sure,” I said.
“Not from you,” Kazz said. “You’re nothing but a wandering bum.”
“Watch your tongue.”
“Do you want to get home or not?” Kazz asked.
“If you figured it out, I’m sure I can do the same.”
“I doubt it,” Kazz said. “Philemon was a genius. All his kind were.”
“I don’t buy that.”
“Homo sapiens bigotry,” Kazz growled. “
You think your kind is the king of the heap. It’s false. There are Neanderthals, Homo habilis, Ulaacons and many more out there. Philemon’s kind is among the smartest. The Starcore had an advisory unit of them.”
“Look where that got it,” I said.
“The Starcore almost ran the universe for a time.”
The hatch opened, and Jenna stepped in with a hypo.
“I’ll take a full pardon from her,” Kazz said. “If the CAU will guarantee me freedom, I’ll tell you how we got here.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said.
“Logan…” Rax said softly.
“You’re not going to tell me I should listen to this?” I asked.
“I would,” Rax said. “As he says, it will save us time. If we wait too long, the natives here might pull more surprises.”
I glanced at Jenna, and found myself nodding. I looked back fast at Kazz. He’d stayed right there. Maybe he was right about the Neanderthals lacking suicidal tendencies.
“What’s this about a pardon?” Jenna asked.
“If I help you get back to Earth,” Kazz said, “I want a full pardon for all my supposed crimes.”
“I can’t grant you such a thing,” she said.
“That isn’t what Philemon told me.”
“What did he say?” I asked Kazz.
The Neanderthal kept silent.
“What did Philemon say?” Jenna asked softly.
“He said CAU field agents can give pardons for full cooperation.”
“Is that right?” I asked Jenna.
She nodded.
“Son of a gun,” I said. “How did Philemon learn that?”
“He knew a lot of things,” Kazz said. “As I said, he was a genius.”
“Yeah, right,” I said.
“He knew how to trap you and take your Guard ship.”
I felt the heat rise in me.
“He knew how to calculate what others would do,” Kazz added. “He even outsmarted the Eshom. That was difficult.”
“How did you learn about the ancient Sumerian site?” Jenna asked.
“That’s privileged information,” Kazz said. “I think only your Director should hear that.”
“Can we get home without his help?” Jenna asked me.
“I don’t know,” I said. I didn’t want to ask Rax in front of Kazz.
Invaders: The Chronowarp Page 23
