Target: Earth (Extinction Wars Book 5)

by Vaughn Heppner

  In my dazed state, I stumbled through the giant vessel. I’m sorry to say I got lost, me, the Galactic Effectuator. Finally, though, I oozed through a bulkhead and found myself staring at ghostly Plutonians on the mauler’s bridge.

  I wasn’t sure about the right way to do this. I was dull-witted, at best, but likely had the element of surprise.

  It was making me think I’d slain Orcus.

  That meant I had to wreak havoc on the enemy while I could. It would be best to free my old Lokhar friends from hypnotic domination. That meant killing the Plutonians. If I phased in, though, and used the blaster—

  In the dimmest ghost phase I could, I snuck up on a Plutonian. Then, I stood behind him, phased in, activated the force axe and hacked through the slimy body of the blob alien.

  The thing shrieked and squirmed like a salted slug. I hacked, turned and ran at the next nearest, doing the same thing to him or it. Maybe they were sexless, and divided in two like a cell in order to propagate the species.

  At that point, an alarm rang.

  I phased out, moving to where I figured the next blob was and phased in. Lokhar space marines in combat armor milled about. They seemed confused. Had they seen the Plutonians before this? Was the sight of the aliens confusing the tigers?

  I chopped another blob creature, and shouted in Lokhar, “Kill them. Kill them all!”

  I phased out as the tiger space marines opened up. They fired at me, the beams and rifle slugs passing through my ghostly form.

  That hadn’t worked the way I’d wanted.

  I looked around and told myself to really see what was taking place. What was I missing? What was so obvious—?

  I saw it then. The machine was as big as an old-style dishwasher from before The Day. A host of antennae sprouted from it. In ghost form, I witnessed a weird ethereal glow from it that zigzagged up the antennae and spread outward like sizzles of electricity. Two Plutonians operated the machine, constantly making adjustments and studying screens embedded in the thing.

  Several tiger space marines had their backs to the machine, guarding it.

  I phased fully out, moved to it and phased in, clicking on the force axe at the same time. With a swift chop, I smashed through the machine. Instantly, I phased out and moved far enough to reach a bulkhead.

  I ghosted up and saw a different scene than before. Lokhar space marines stood about dully, seemingly confused.

  The Plutonians slithered to weaponry and burned down the space marine tigers on the bridge. Then, it seemed, as if the blob creatures gestured and spoke to each other. Maybe they were deciding what to do next.

  Dents appeared at the main hatch. It seemed that more space marine tigers were trying to bash their way onto the bridge.

  I’d guessed right then. The machine I’d hacked had dominated or hypnotized tiger minds. But it took time for Lokhars to shrug off the mental dominance once the machine stopped sending its signals.

  It was time to get to the other vessels and chop more domination machines into smithereens before the Plutonians made the right decision about what to do next.

  -46-

  I took out three more domination machines on three other maulers. But that’s all the time the Plutonians gave me. By then, I was more than exhausted, moving on my last fumes of energy.

  I made it off the fourth mauler and started using the thruster pack to the fifth. I noticed an oddity the next time I ghosted up for a look-see.

  Maulers and other Lokhar warships were powering up their cannons.

  I phased in just enough to call Baron Visconti.

  “Creed?” he asked, staring at me on my visor-screen.

  “Can you think clearly again?” I asked.

  “I…I feel like I’ve been dreaming,” Visconti said.

  “You haven’t,” I said, “but alien creatures have been controlling your minds. Now, listen. I only have a few seconds. The Plutonians are going to pinpoint my position and blast the area.”

  “Plutonians?” he asked.

  “The dead slimy creatures you’ve found on your flagship, the ones that have been controlling you.”

  Visconti rubbed his forehead. “This cannot be happening,” he whispered.

  “Listen, you clown. Plutonians still control most of your fleet. They’re powering up their weapons. They’re going to destroy your freed ships. Fight back. Call the other freed mauler captains and ask for Earth Force help. There’s going to be a bloodbath unless you can think of a way to avoid it.”

  Even as I said that, my phase suit beeped a warning. Lokhar targeting computers had a lock on me. It was time to go.

  “Good luck, old friend,” I said. “It’s been great knowing you. I hope you figure it out in time.”

  With that, I phased out. I did it even as red graviton beams stabbed at me. They flashed where I had been in phase, passing harmlessly through my ghostly form.

  It was time to go home. I wouldn’t be able to call for a time. I had to hope Diana and her admirals knew what to do. I had to hope N7 had spoken to her, and I dearly hoped that I could find the domination machine forcing Ella and Rollo to do Orcus’s bidding.

  Time… What a joke. Most of the time we think we have all we need. Then, something bad happens, and time becomes the most precious commodity in the universe.

  As a kid, I’d wasted years of my life playing video games. I’d wasted even more of it in the classroom listening to my PC teachers blabbering about a lot of crap most of the time, with the exception of Mr. Glen, my history teacher in eighth grade.

  Now I’d run out of time. I flew home with my thruster pack, ghosting up and witnessing a vicious space battle being fought at extremely close range.

  The Plutonian-controlled OT vessels fired on the free but sluggish OT maulers that nominally belonged to Baron Visconti. At that range, no one missed. Getting off the first shot was critical.

  Once, I dared to phase in and warn Luna Central. Was it in time?

  The next ghost up, I saw Luna silo-launched missiles crash against the Orange Tamika Fleet. It was carnage of the worst sort. Instead of augmenting our force, the OT Fleet was forcing Luna Command to use up their precious missile supply.

  I phased out again and continued for the Light Cruiser Thistle Down. It was a long and lonely flight out of phase. I was too mentally exhausted to think much. The time passed as a painful blur. Finally, moving on automatic, I reached our captured Lokhar vessel, which had moved onto the other side of the Moon from the Orange Tamika Fleet, using the cratered object as a beam-shield.

  I stumbled through the light cruiser’s bulkheads and finally reached the GEV. I took off the thruster pack—I’d shed the used-up fuel tanks a lifetime ago. Then, I unlatched the seals and crawled out of the phase suit.

  I stood there with my eyes closed, utterly spent. A child could have gutted me.

  The next thing I knew, someone shook me as I lay in bed—I had no idea how I’d gotten here.

  “Leave me alone,” I whispered.

  “Creed. You have to wake up, Creed. What happened out there?”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  The shaking continued. I had the feeling it would never stop. My teeth rattled. My neck hurt—I opened my eyes, peering up at Rollo.

  “Get out,” I whispered.

  “You screwed up, Commander. The Orange Tamika Fleet went crazy. They opened up on each other. Luna Command helped them destroy ships. Missiles slammed home and ignited at pointblank range. What was left of the fleet took off.”

  “What?”

  “The Orange Tamika Fleet fled Luna, fled Earth and our battlejumpers. The fleet is heading out system in the direction of a seldom-used jump gate. They’re spraying masses of gels behind them, I guess in case the battlejumpers decide to fry ‘em with the heavy lasers.”

  “Good riddance to the Lokhars,” I mumbled, rolling the other way to go back to sleep.

  “No, Creed,” Rollo said, pulling me back to face him. “We need the Lokhars. Ella convinced
Diana we can go after them and plead with them to return. We need their ships.”

  “Plead?” I asked, waking up more, peering at an earnest Rollo Anderson.

  “Whatever we have to do to get the Lokhars to come back and help Earth,” Rollo said.

  “You want to plead with the Lokhars to stay?” I asked.

  “Do you have trouble hearing me, Creed?”

  “Just a second,” I said, closing my eyes.

  “Can’t you wake up? What’s wrong with you? Where are your phase suit and the force axe?”

  The questions jarred. How could Rollo know about the force axe? I hadn’t told anyone about it. What’s more, Rollo would never plead with any aliens, no matter how much he needed their help. The First Admiral had a pathological hatred of all aliens. He was almost Plutonian in his xenophobia.

  Orcus, I told myself. Rollo Anderson was still under the thrall of Orcus’s mental domination. My best friend knew these things because Orcus—in some manner—must have enlightened him. That meant the cloned First One must still be alive.

  I had a terrible feeling that also meant that Orcus was on the GEV.

  -47-

  I groaned as I sat up. All my muscles felt stiff.

  “What’s wrong with you, Creed?” Rollo asked.

  “Where’s Ella?” I asked.

  “She’s been trying to contact Baron Visconti and find out what went wrong. This is a disaster.”

  I eyed Rollo. He was even more out of character than he’d been before. Did that mean greater mental domination than earlier? I deemed that likely. That didn’t have to indicate Orcus was aboard the GEV. In fact, that struck me as false the more I thought about it. The cloned First One would have slain me as I slept if he was here. No. It seemed—

  “Oh, shoot,” I said.

  “What’s wrong now?” Rollo asked.

  “I left my kit in the other room.”

  “Do you want me to get it?”

  “No. I need to get up, move around.” I climbed to my feet as I said that and moved like a rusted robot.

  “Why are you so stiff?” Rollo asked.

  “I’ll tell you in a minute.”

  Rollo stared at me, and something happened in the back of his eyes. He grinned nastily. “Nice try, Commander. But it’s not going to work. You found out, didn’t you?”

  I faced him, saying, “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I don’t believe you. You know…you know…” Rollo shook his head. Then he clutched his head with both hands, groaning.

  I cocked my right arm and hit him on the chin. I must have hit him harder than I realized, as the blow catapulted my best friend off his feet. He cracked the back of his head against the deck upon landing. I’d just wanted to stun him for a second. Instead, he began to snore. Despite my exhaustion I rolled him onto his side and into the recovery position.

  Then, since he was out, I stumbled from my quarters. How much time did I have left? Was Orcus—or were the Plutonians—pumping greater power through the domination machine? Did that burn out a subject’s mind faster, or did that make the process more discernable to the subject so he could actually resist it? If someone lightly blew on the back of a person’s neck, that might make the neck tickly and annoy the person enough so he rubbed his neck. But if someone blew as hard as he could on a subject’s neck, the process would be obvious enough so the person would know what was going on. That’s what I think had happened to Rollo a moment ago.

  Even so, the Plutonians, or Orcus, surely knew how the domination machine worked. Could it have been a command surge of some kind, an error? Maybe the good guys had gotten a small break for once.

  I reached the GEV control chamber and locked the hatch behind me. Then I activated the AI. I began a tedious process of querying my computer, trying to find the location of an unusual machine installed while I’d been in the stasis tube.

  After ten minutes of questioning, I became convinced there wasn’t such a machine on the stealth ship. So I queried the AI about the OT Light Cruiser Thistle Down.

  Then it hit me. I knew where the domination machine must be. I didn’t have the energy to don the phase suit, and I didn’t want to sprint to the light cruiser’s bridge. Instead, I used my GEV’s takeover process and sent several Thistle Down missiles at the derelict heavy cruiser we’d brought with us from Tau Ceti. We’d also towed the heavy cruiser with a tractor beam, pulling it behind the Moon with us.

  The enemy reaction was fast. Alarms rang in the GEV. My comm board lit up.

  I pressed a switch.

  Ella’s partly disheveled face stared at me from the screen. “What are you doing, Creed? This is your doing, right?”

  “Wait for it,” I said.

  Ella did no such thing. At her orders, Thistle Down’s PD cannons destroyed the first missile. The next missile slammed into the heavy cruiser, smashing through it, although not with annihilating fury, as the warhead failed to explode. The built-up velocity used kinetic-energy destruction against the badly damaged heavy cruiser. The third missile did likewise. Somehow, that initiated interior explosion. Like mini-volcanos, eruptions appeared all over the heavy cruiser’s hull.

  That was fine, maybe even good. I hadn’t armed the warheads because I hadn’t wanted nuclear explosions to reach here. The interior explosions might have been enough to destroy the domination machine because the heavy cruiser was already in a precarious state of disrepair.

  Almost immediately, as if to clarify the situation, the comm board lit up again, this time with calls from Luna Command and Earth Central.

  “There were enemy munitions aboard the heavy cruiser,” I explained. “They exploded so I think we’re safe from any Trojan horse attacks.”

  Police Proconsul Spencer appeared on the screen next. “Do you have any idea why the Orange Tamika Fleet went insane?”

  “As a matter of fact I do. A handful of Plutonians controlled each vessel—they had installed domination machines on each. I took out a few of the machines, some Lokhars regained their independence and the Plutonians overreacted against them.”

  “You expect me to believe such nonsense?” Spencer demanded.

  “Give me a half hour,” I said. “Then I’ll explain in greater detail to you in person. Oh, by the way, tell Diana she’d better expect a three-cruiser Plutonian assault soon.”

  “Through a dimensional portal?” he demanded.

  “That’s it,” I said.

  Spencer searched my eyes, finally nodding. “I suppose that makes sense—the Orange Tamika Fleet wasn’t our ally. The Lokhar ships would have attacked us as we attacked the Plutonians.”

  Spencer had a properly suspicious mind and therefore saw these things faster than others would.

  “You’ve nailed it,” I said.

  “And your people?” he asked. “Were they affected by this domination machine?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to determine. I’ll know soon.”

  “A machine was on the heavy cruiser you just destroyed?”

  “That’s my guess.”

  “Yes,” Spencer said, nodding. “I understand. It was cleverly done on their part.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But I also think they made an error.”

  “Oh,” Spencer said. “How’s that?”

  “I’ll tell you once I’ve cleared up the situation here.”

  “Don’t take too long, Creed. I’m not willing to give anyone much leeway this near to Earth.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I said, “as that’s my own thinking.”

  -48-

  I’d guessed right. The enemy domination machine must have been on the heavy cruiser. When Rollo came to from my sucker punch, he was mortified by what he’d been doing and saying these past days. Ella felt the same way.

  “Orcus must have gained control of us in the Tau Ceti System,” she said.

  We were in the Light Cruiser Thistle Down’s bridge heading for Earth orbit with the battlejumpers parked there. The other light cruiser r
emained in Moon orbit, a remote-controlled vessel under Luna Command.

  “That doesn’t seem right,” I said. “Wouldn’t Orcus have plundered the GEV in that case? He never did, which implies that he never had the opportunity.”

  “I think he could have,” Ella said. “But the plundering action would have been too much for the mind machine to overcome in us.”

  “You’re referring to the domination machine?”

  “That. I think Orcus must have had a Jelk-like mind machine. I checked myself soon after…regaining my will. My brainwaves were subtly different from a test I’d taken several years ago.”

  “Wouldn’t altered brainwaves be an effect from the domination machine?”

  “Possibly,” Ella said. “I still give it a higher probability that Orcus first altered our minds in order to make us more receptive to the domination machine. I put you in the stasis tube, as you were near death. That part is correct. Thus, you never received the first alteration because you were too weak to undergo the process. Perhaps that’s why you were able to resist the domination machine so easily.”

  I’d undergone some intense training while in the Curator’s service that made me even more unlikely to fall prey to such forces, but I didn’t bother saying anything about it.

  Instead, I asked, “Why would Orcus want me alive instead of dead?”

  “Maybe Jennifer ordered him to keep you alive.”

  “But Jennifer hates me.”

  “Exactly,” Ella said.

  “Oh. You mean Jennifer hates me so much that she wants to make me pay the hard way for what I did to her.”

  “She wants to torture you just as Abaddon tortured her.”

  I shuddered while thinking about that. Most times, I put her terrible ordeal out of my mind. I didn’t like to think what Abaddon had done to twist Jen. She’d been such a sweet girl, and now she was a murderous harridan hatching devilish, genocidal plots.

  Once more, I resolved to save her. Yet, the more I tried, the more it seemed to move out of reach. For instance, couldn’t Orcus have installed latent commands in our minds? Well, in their minds.