Target: Earth (Extinction Wars Book 5)

by Vaughn Heppner

  I’d say not very.

  Well, anyway, the Curator seemed to have gone about this in a roundabout manner. Did the old boy hope I’d take the bait?

  Yeah. I’d say he knew his Effectuator. Still, if the Curator had made these rules, I had to use my wits to do this right in order to keep my boss in the clear with his boss, or his own conscience, in any case.

  Well, then, it was time to use my Effectuator skills to save Jennifer and defeat the Plutonians.

  A thrill swept through me. I was going home. I felt almost giddy. What stopped the feeling was the realization that Jennifer had gone to these Plutonians. They likely lived in a different dimension, which was why the Curator’s all-seeing-eye chamber couldn’t reach them.

  How could I find out about these Plutonians? I snapped my fingers. I clearly had some effectuating to do, some sneaking around and poking my nose—and my eyes—where they didn’t belong. That meant I had to re-watch the globe showing me Jennifer’s reading choices in the Library. Then, I had to break into the Library and read those items.

  All that should prove easy enough for an Effectuator of my skills.

  It was time to get started, because this mission was going to take a heck of a long time.

  -6-

  My eyes snapped open as a klaxon wailed in the distance. At the same time, a coffin-like lid slid open, exposing me to cold ship air and a nearby bulkhead.

  What was going on?

  Then I remembered. I’d gone into suspended animation—I glanced to the left at blinking red numbers. They helped focus my thinking.

  Back on the Fortress of Light, I’d gone to the globe and watched carefully. Later, I’d broken into the Museum’s Library, reading what I could find about Plutonians and First Ones. Afterward, I’d broken into various lockers, borrowing Effectuator equipment along with some special items. Lastly, I’d taken my goodies and gone to the hangar bay, choosing my Galactic Effectuator Vessel or GEV for short.

  After leaving the Fortress of Light and passing through the protective force field, I’d been fair game for the Ve-Ky and other bloodthirsty aliens hot to break into the Curator’s home.

  Getting away clean, I’d set up an AI navigation controller. Finally, I’d lain down in the stasis tube for a long sleep. According to my GEV’s chronometer, that had been a little over two years ago, Earth time.

  With a groan, I sat up, causing life-support tubes to rustle all around me. I was naked, and it was freezing in here. The klaxon was making my headache worse than ever. I must have come out of stasis too fast.

  Was I near Earth, then?

  The klaxon continued shrieking, and suddenly, I’d had enough of it. I ripped off the life-support tubes attached to my body. That wasn’t the right way to rehabilitate back to normal bodily functions after a two-year freeze. But the klaxon not only annoyed me, it said I’d run out of time and likely options, too.

  I gathered my resolve even as it slammed home that I’d been out for two entire years inside an automated stealth ship, slipping through one FTL portal after another, straining to cross 27,000 light-years to reach Earth in time to save it.

  The klaxon changed pitch to one of greater urgency. It took me a second to figure out what was going on as the headache spiked between my eyes. I knew that sound. Intruders had forced a breach into the stealth ship. That necessitated the intruders being able to see the GEV.

  I clutched my head, squeezing it. Damn the headache and the noise.

  I should be on the galactic fringe near the Solar System, one of the least technologically developed regions of the Milky Way Galaxy. Yet given that, how had such primitive sensing gear detected my GEV?

  Several possibilities came to mind: Holgotha, a Jelk still running loose, one of Abaddon’s surviving Kargs or maybe even Jennifer and her Plutonians.

  With a groan, I climbed out of the stasis unit and moved to a locker. I donned my silver-colored, metallic-like uniform and slapped a blaster against one hip and a force blade against the other, shoving my feet into combat boots.

  I moved out of the chamber, staggering unsteadily, but made it into a different room. I looked around and said, “Lights.”

  The chamber flickered on. I went to a screen as it began to activate.

  For a moment, I saw my reflection in the screen. I had a heavy beard and mustache and long shaggy hair. The stasis wasn’t perfect, it seemed. The hair made me seem like an old-time mountain man from American frontier times or a mini-me Curator. I’d have to shave the first chance I had.

  The activated screen warranted my attention, as it showed three suited intruders with heavy caliber pulse rifles. They were moving down one of my empty ship corridors. The three were big, loping along like NBA stars, and wearing what looked like Lokhar suits and weapons.

  That was interesting.

  I manipulated the controls, changing the camera feed. Soon, I spied three Lokhar heavy cruisers. They were large triangular-shaped vessels I’d know anywhere. They surrounded the flickering stealth ship, each of the heavy cruisers projecting a green-colored tractor beam, holding my GEV like a fly in a pyrotechnic web.

  I manipulated the panel some more, zooming for a close-up of one of the heavy cruisers. I swore when I recognized a purple symbol. Each heavy cruiser sported identical insignia. The three military craft belonged to the Purple Tamika, a political-religious-clan affiliation. The Purple used to run the Lokhar Empire, had run it until I’d slain Emperor Felix Rex Logos many years ago in a duel inside Holgotha. Orange Tamika had taken charge after that. The Orange had liked humanity and me. The Purple hated both of us.

  Could the invading tigers know they’d stumbled onto me?

  I called them tigers because Lokhars looked like giant, upright tigers. They were nasty aliens with a predatory mindset and a highly religious nature. Could Center Race aliens have contacted the Purple Tamika Lokhars and given them the tech to spot my ship? Were Center Race aliens breaking the rules and playing politics out here in the fringes? Or was this Jennifer’s doing, or maybe even the Plutonians?

  No, I doubted the last. I’d read a little about the Plutonians. They were so highly xenophobic they made the Kargs seem like church greeters. Thus, I doubted Plutonians had aided Lokhars in any way.

  I turned the scan inward again. There were more Lokhars swarming aboard my ship. They were all suited and armed, space marines, if I remembered correctly.

  How had the heavy cruisers spotted my stealth vessel? That was supposed to have been impossible.

  I shook my head. The how didn’t matter right now. What was I going to do about them?

  My GEV wasn’t a fighting ship, although it had a few armaments. It was big for one person, but nothing compared to the heavy cruisers. If the tigers aimed their ship weapons on my vessel, they should have no problem destroying it in time.

  I let out my breath. Could I negotiate with the tigers?

  That seemed like a bad idea given our history.

  Did that mean I had to kill the Purple Tamika tigers, using Effectuator means?

  I finally saw the reason why primitive Lokhar battle-tech had spotted my ship. One of my stealth generators had malfunctioned. The failsafe that was supposed to wake me in that event had also failed. That indicated Center Race alien manipulation of some sort.

  I narrowed my eyes as I studied the intruders. They began to fan out throughout the ship.

  Once the tigers knew they were dealing with old Commander Creed, they would no doubt view it as righteous karma, believing the Creator had given me into their hands so they could torture me to death. I could possibly use the flitter to escape. But that would mean the end of my plan to save Jennifer and the Earth.

  I hadn’t broken my oath and raced to the galactic fringe so a bunch of Purple Tamika tigers could get advanced core tech.

  It was time to take care of business the way I’d learned to do working for the Curator.

  -7-

  I sprinted down a corridor and almost pulled a hamstring doing so.
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  But there was no more time to allow my muscles to warm up. I had to get the action started before the intruders reached the inner sanctum of my GEV and made it impossible for me.

  In case any of you are tempted to feel sorry for the tigers, don’t. The Purple Tamika Lokhars had come to Earth many years ago and nuked and bio-terminated 99 percent of the human race. One thing I’d learned since then, the universe was as brutal and ruthless as ocean life. The bigger, faster and more aggressive fish ate the smaller, slower and more easy-going fish.

  If I turned soft and tried to do this any other way, the human race and my former lover would die. Now, I’m not inherently bloodthirsty, although some people might think so. If you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone. But if you try to exterminate my species, don’t be surprised when I come out swinging next time you show up.

  Did that mean I thought I was going to defeat these Lokhars?

  I chuckled as I palm-opened a sealed hatch, stepped inside and locked it behind me. Lights snapped on, revealing a chamber tightly packed with high-tech gear.

  I slid into a chair and began typing like crazy on a touchscreen, activating an unusual computer. This was state of the art, center of the galaxy tech. I donned a headset and leaned back, my thoughts now controlling the machine.

  This was delicate work, as I didn’t want to broadcast any discernable signals the tigers might intercept too soon.

  It took precious time, but finally I began activating the Killer Claw’s beam batteries. The heavy cruiser’s big guns trained on one of the other Lokhar vessels.

  A light on my panel blinked.

  This was interesting. Someone on the Killer Claw was attempting to regain control of the heavy cruiser’s beam weapons. Using the helmet, I double-checked the guns. They were warming up, radar locking onto Heavy Cruiser Glorious Rage.

  Would you look at this? Someone over there had a brain. They were attempting to cut power to the cannons.

  I ran through a Lokhar security check.

  As I did, beams flashed from Glorious Rage and Steel Fang, hammering against the beam cannons of Killer Claw. That was damn fast work and fantastic targeting on such short notice.

  Something else caught my attention. The cannons fired red rays. I did a fast check. Yup. Those were graviton beams, the same as the Kargs had used on their moth-ships. The Lokhars must have decided after we defeated the Karg-Jelk Super Fleet ten years ago to use the enemy’s technology.

  I couldn’t worry about that now.

  Using my headset, I abandoned the Killer Claw’s graviton weapons. They weren’t going to last long against such heavy and deadly fire at pointblank range. Instead, I gained control of the heavy cruiser’s engine core computer. I found the self-destruct sequence, started it and melted any possibility of countermanding the order.

  I shifted my concentration to the Glorious Rage, taking over its beaming cannons.

  The primitive computer technology didn’t have a chance of standing against me.

  I changed the targeting parameters, added a butt-load of power and concentrated on Heavy Cruiser Steel Fang. Before anyone over there knew what was going on, heavy beams pounded against the Steel Fang, creating a hull breach in no time. I kept the beams hot, pouring through the opening. They smashed down interior bulkheads, swept through living quarters and life-support equipment and finally struck a stock of T-warheads. Nuclear explosives, in other words.

  “Whoa,” I said under my breath. I wasn’t trying to commit suicide, just destroy their heavy cruisers.

  I redirected the beams just in time, leaving the heated warheads alone.

  If one of the tigers were smart, he’d contact me and threaten to blow all of us to kingdom come unless I stopped destroying their heavy cruisers. But nothing of the sort happened.

  I could have shut off the tractor beams altogether, but surely someone would notice that. Instead, I retargeted the tractor beams, having them each latch onto another heavy cruiser. Adding power to the tractors beams, I had them pull each other closer.

  Mine was the smaller vessel by several magnitudes. Plus, there had been three beams on one puny GEV. That had held my ship in place. Dragging each other closer was slow, hard work due to the heavy cruisers’ greater mass. It might even overload the engines.

  That would be okay as long as I wasn’t still around.

  I used the last tractor beam, switching polarity, turning it into a presser beam. That one gave my GEV a hard shove, moving me away from the doomed heavy cruisers.

  After a fifteen second push, I changed polarity again and used it against a different heavy cruiser.

  That was all I had time to do. I ripped off the headset, letting it drop to the deck.

  Tigers had found the inner sanctum. I knew, because one of them used a portable beam weapon against the hatch, beginning to cut through in order to get to me.

  This was about to get personal.

  -8-

  If I’d had time to prepare, I could have made this a simple job. I had weapons and exotic suits for regular Effectuator work. For eight long years, I’d gone on Intelligence-type missions for the Curator.

  Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. The Lokhars had caught me napping, literally.

  I waited in the control room, letting the GEV drift farther away from the tractor-beam tugging heavy cruisers. All the while, a blue spark burned through to my side of the hatch. It must have been white-hot on their side as a pulse beam burned out a tiger-sized outline. Soon, one of them would kick the outlined shape down so they could storm in here.

  That’s what I was waiting for.

  Finally, the blue spark reached the point where it had begun. I’d already stepped to the side. I counted to four—

  Bam!

  An armored tiger foot smashed the outlined section, causing the heavy metal to clang against the deck inside my chamber.

  I shot the first tiger trying to rush in. He fell backward into the corridor. I pressed a tiny button on a grenade and pitched it through the outlined hole. A violent explosion and a heavy crump told me the grenade had succeeded. I heard armored tiger bodies thudding against the bulkheads and deck. One poor sod blew in through the outlined opening. His silver visor aimed in my direction as he landed prone on the deck.

  I tapped the trigger on the disrupter. That burned through the visor and fried his head. Some of it leaked out as mush onto the deck.

  I leaped over his body into the corridor. Most of the combat suits were shredded, and red, Lokhar blood poured from their wounds. I shot two of them who stirred.

  Kindness didn’t motivate me. I couldn’t have cared less if they suffered. I just wanted them dead so I could get on with it.

  If you’re coming into this story on the tail end of things, you might believe I’m a homicidal maniac. I suppose if you’ve been along for the entire ride, you might think that, too. But it wasn’t so. The Purple Tamika Lokhars were bad guys, bad tigers.

  I didn’t feel that way about the Orange Tamika. Some of my best friends were Orange Tamika tigers. But like I said earlier, the Purple Tamika tigers had attempted human genocide many years ago. They’d set the rules of engagement, and I had a long memory when it came to that.

  I stalked the corridors of my ship, shooting the intruders. Soon, I made it to an equipment room. I donned a silver suit, activated the suit’s force field and became the Angel of Death to the intruders. Earlier, a stray shot could have killed me. Now, none of them had a chance.

  In short order, I cleared the GEV, saving one unconscious sub-commander and spacing the rest, who were already dead.

  After securing him, I raced to the master controls. Luckily, the GEV had already slipped far enough away from the heavy cruisers. One of them had already blown, sending hull armor spinning against the others.

  Now, the other two warships died violent deaths, blasting hard radiation, heat, shredded Lokhars, metal and all kinds of debris in all directions.

  I’d already moved far enough away in the GEV
that my ship was spared any damage.

  A quick scan of the nearby stars showed me that I was deep inside the Lokhar Empire. That meant I still had hundreds of light-years to go before I reached Earth.

  I didn’t have time to think about that now. Instead, I donned a Zero-G work-suit and space-walked outside. I repaired the broken stealth generator. I had to bring a repair bot out to help me. Soon enough, we’d fixed it.

  Other bots patched the hull breaches. Soon, I reactivated the stealth generators, rendering the ship invisible again.

  It was time to talk to the Lokhar sub-commander in order to get a quick Intelligence report on the local scene.

  -9-

  Sub-commander Tal Feng was strapped into an interrogation chair with a harsh light shining in his eyes. The Lokhar space marine was a big old boy, a foot taller than I was and maybe weighing four hundred and fifty pounds of solid tiger bones, muscle and gristle. He had bloodshot eyes, singed fur on his torso and a bloody bandaging cloth around his left thigh.

  I’d stripped him of everything but a pair of purple trunks. There was no need to interrogate him nude.

  I’d given the sub-commander an injection earlier. Addling the subject’s brain was much easier and more productive than torturing him for information.

  I’ve never been a sadist. I wanted to learn things, not beat up on a defenseless Lokhar, even if he was a Purple Tamika bastard.

  I pulled up a stool in front of him, settling into position.

  “Hello Sub-commander,” I said in the Lokhar tongue I’d learned long ago.

  His head wobbled unsteadily as he tried to focus on me. The harsh light made it difficult but not impossible for him.

  “You’re a tough soldier, Tal Feng.”

  “You…?” he slurred, as recognition stirred in his squinting eyes.

  I hadn’t expected that. “Do you know who I am?” I asked.

  “Yes…” he said. “You are the Evil One’s imp.”

  “Wrong. Guess again.”