Voyage of Vengeance

by L. Ron Hubbard

  Also by

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Buckskin Brigades

  The Conquest of Space

  The Dangerous Dimension

  Death’s Deputy

  The End is Not Yet

  Fear

  Final Blackout

  The Kilkenny Cats

  The Mission Earth Dekalogy*

  Volume 1: The Invaders Plan

  Volume 2: Black Genesis

  Volume 3: The Enemy Within

  Volume 4: An Alien Affair

  Volume 5: Fortune of Fear

  Volume 6: Death Quest

  Volume 7: Voyage of Vengeance

  Volume 8: Disaster

  Volume 9: Villainy Victorious

  Volume 10: The Doomed Planet

  Ole Doc Methuselah

  Slaves of Sleep & The Masters of Sleep

  To the Stars

  Triton

  Typewriter in the Sky

  The Ultimate Adventure

  * Dekalogy—a group of ten volumes

  Galaxy Press

  7051 Hollywood Boulevard

  Los Angeles, CA 90028

  MISSION EARTH: VOYAGE OF VENGEANCE

  Copyright © 1987, 1990, 2011 by L. Ron Hubbard. All Rights Reserved.

  Any unauthorized copying, translation, duplication, importation or distribution, in whole or in part, by any means, including electronic copying, storage or transmission, is a violation of applicable laws.

  Mission Earth is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library and

  is used with permission. Battlefield Earth is a trademark owned

  by Author Services, Inc. and is used with permission.

  Original cover painting by Gerry Grace.

  ISBN 978-1-59212-593-7

  This is a work of science fiction, written as satire. The essence of satire is to examine, comment and give opinion of society and culture, none of which is to be construed as a statement of pure fact. No actual incidents are portrayed and none of the incidents are to be construed as real. Some of the actions of this novel take place on the planet Earth, but the characters as presented in this novel have been invented. Any accidental use of the names of living people in a novel is virtually inevitable, and any such inadvertency in this book is unintentional.

  See Author's Introduction, Mission Earth: Volume One, The Invaders Plan.

  To YOU,

  the millions of science fiction fans

  and general public

  who welcomed me back to the world of fiction

  so warmly,

  and to the critics and media

  who so pleasantly

  applauded the novel Battlefield Earth.

  It's great working for you!

  Contents

  Map: Mediterranean

  Map: Turkey

  Voltarian Censor's Disclaimer

  Voltarian Translator's Preface

  Key to Voyage of Vengeance

  Part 52

  Part 53

  Part 54

  Part 55

  Part 56

  Part 57

  Part 58

  Part 59

  Part 60

  Part 61

  About the Author

  Voltarian Censor’s

  Disclaimer

  The reader should know that there is no reason to go any further in the text than this page.

  The Crown has been most lenient in allowing the publication of this fallacious sensationalism. In fact, the appearance of this work in print has clearly proven beyond the shadow of a doubt the Crown’s confidence that the reading public will spurn this balderdash and turn instead to solid fact.

  In allowing the release of this deluded fantasy, the Crown also hopes that the failure of this book will prove to the writer and any who might be interested that there is no market for such capricious phantasms and that one should seek more realistic pursuits.

  There are one hundred and ten planets in our great Confederacy and more yet to conquer. There is no limit to the number of meaningful topics upon which one could expound, and every single one of them would be more worthwhile and accurate than this utter, lying nonsense about the existence of this so-called planet “Earth.”

  There is no “Earth,” or “Blito-P3,” as it is supposed to be designated on our astrographic charts. There is simply no such place.

  Therefore, the reader need go no further.

  There is absolutely nothing here of substance. The entire book consists of nothing but fiction about a race of so-called Earthlings.

  Fortunately, there are no “Earthlings,” as they would be the only ones naïve enough to read this.

  Therefore, you need not turn the page.

  Lord Invay

  Royal Historian

  Chairman, Board of Censors

  Royal Palace, Voltar Confederacy

  By Order of

  His Imperial Majesty

  Wully the Wise

  Voltarian Translator’s

  Preface

  You turned the page!

  Thank goodness!!

  I got worried there for a moment, from the way Lord Invay was carrying on.

  Let me introduce myself: I am your dutiful translator, 54 Charlee Nine, the Robotbrain in the Translatophone, at your service.

  I’m the one who shifted all of this from Voltarian into your language. How would you feel if you busted your bytes on a book only to find that your work is about to be wasted by a guy who says “Don’t turn the page”?

  I don’t hold anything against Lord Invay. He can get a little pedantic, but who wouldn’t with a job like censoring? My circuits would start to smoke if I had to pretend that something that is, wasn’t.

  In any case, you made it. Congratulations.

  Hi there!

  Let me get down to prefacing this thing before you change your mind.

  What you’ve got here is the confession of one Soltan Gris, who dictated this manuscript into a vocoscriber while in the Royal Prison in Government City. He is relating the story of a trip he made to the planet Earth. He was sent there to sabotage the mission of Royal Officer Jettero Heller, who had been sent to halt the pollution of the planet so the place could be safely invaded later.

  The problem is that I can’t find this planet on any charts, and we do keep good astro-records. Between the scouting parties and the probes over the last 125,000 years, we’ve gotten it pretty well mapped for a few billion light-years out, and there’s nothing in the data banks on this place Earth.

  According to Gris, I’m a little over twenty-two light-years from your planet (even though you don’t exist), which makes us neighbors, actually.

  Meanwhile, you’ve probably been told you’re alone in the universe. That’s sort of sad. Here we’ve got this great big playground and you’ve been told there’s no one else around to play with.

  Well, it’s not true.

  That idea comes from those “scientists” you’ve got on Earth who have the vision of a dung beetle.

  They say they’re trying to figure out the origin of the universe, which is supposed to impress everyone at a cocktail party. (“What do you do?” “I’m figuring out the origin of the universe.” “Gee.”)

  They do this by listening with their billions and billions of little dishes and looking with their billions and billions of little telescopes. Then they write out billions and billions of little equations in billions and billions of little papers so they can get their big government grants of billions and billions of dollars and start all over again.

  They say if they can just figure out where the universe came from they can understand where Life came from—meaning YOU. In other words, just because they’re lost, they assume everyone else is too. Hmmm.

  I don’t mean
to sound too user-friendly, but let me offer something users can use.

  The question “Where did I come from?” seems very natural. It seems to be like asking where rain comes from. That’s fine for rain but not for you, because you didn’t come from anywhere. That’s a wrong road. Anywhere and anything comes from you.

  Chew on that for a while.

  Meanwhile, if you want to see where that other road ends, follow Soltan Gris.

  As usual, I’ve dutifully called up a Key to this volume and it follows immediately.

  Thanks for turning that page!

  Nice meeting you too!

  Sincerely,

  54 Charlee Nine

  Robotbrain in the translatophone

  Key to

  VOYAGE OF VENGEANCE

  831 Relayer: See Bugging Gear.

  Activator-receiver: See Bugging Gear.

  Afyon: City in Turkey where the Apparatus has a secret mountain base.

  Ahmed: Taxi driver for Soltan Gris in Afyon.

  Ambo: See Dingaling, Chase and Ambo.

  Antimanco: A race exiled long ago from the planet Manco for ritual murders.

  Apparatus, Coordinated Information: The secret police of Voltar, headed by Lombar Hisst and manned by criminals.

  Assassin Pilots: Space pilots whose job it is to kill any Apparatus personnel who try to flee a battle.

  Atalanta: Home province of Jettero Heller and the Countess Krak on the planet Manco.

  Balmor: Butler to Jettero Heller and the Countess Krak in their New York condominium.

  Bang-Bang Rimbombo: An ex-Marine demolitions expert and member of Babe Corleone’s mob. He also attends Jettero Heller’s college Army ROTC classes at Empire University.

  Barben, IG: Pharmaceutical company controlled by Delbert John Rockecenter.

  Bildirjin, Nurse: Teenage Turkish girl who helps Prahd Bittlestiffender.

  Bittlestiffender, Prahd: Voltarian cellologist that Soltan Gris brought to Earth to operate a hospital in Afyon. Prahd was the one who implanted Jettero Heller, the Countess Krak and Crobe. (See Bugging Gear and Cellology.)

  Bitts: Captain of the yacht Golden Sunset.

  Blito-P3: Voltarian designation for a planet known locally as Earth. It is the third planet (P3) of a yellow-dwarf star known as Blito.

  Blixo: Apparatus freighter, piloted by Captain Bolz, that makes regular runs between Earth and Voltar. The voyage takes about six weeks each way.

  Blueflash: A bright blue flash of light used to produce unconsciousness. It is usually used by Voltarian ships before landing in an area that is possibly populated.

  Bolz: Captain of the freighter Blixo.

  Bugging Gear: Soltan Gris had Jettero Heller, the Countess Krak and Crobe implanted with audio and optical bugs that transmit everything they see or hear to an activator-receiver that Gris carries. With this, he can eavesdrop on them without their knowledge. When they are more than two hundred miles from Gris, the 831 Relayer is used to boost the signal to a range of ten thousand miles.

  Bury: Delbert John Rockecenter’s most powerful attorney.

  Calico, Mister: Cat discovered by Jettero Heller and trained by the Countess Krak.

  Candy Licorice: Lesbian who lives with Miss Pinch and helped to contrive a bigamous marriage to Soltan Gris.

  Caucalsia, Prince: According to legend, he fled Atalanta, Manco to set up a colony on Earth.

  Cellology: Voltarian medical science that can repair the body through the cellular generation of tissues, including entire body parts.

  Code Break: Violation of the Space Code that prohibits disclosing that one is an alien. Penalty is death to the offender(s) and any native(s) so alerted. The purpose is to maintain the security of the Invasion Timetable.

  Control star: Given to Soltan Gris by Lombar Hisst, an electronic device disguised as a star-shaped medallion that can paralyze any of the Apparatus crew of Antimanco pirates that brought Gris and Jettero Heller to Earth.

  Coordinated Information Apparatus: See Apparatus.

  Corleone, Babe: The six-foot-six widowed leader of the Corleone mob who “adopted” Jettero Heller into her Mafia family.

  Crobe, Dr.: Apparatus cellologist who delights in making freaks. He was brought to Earth by Soltan Gris to further disrupt Jettero Heller’s mission.

  Dingaling, Chase and Ambo: A legal firm that specializes in suing people merely to get a percentage of the settlement. Soltan Gris (using the name Smith) hired them to pursue Jettero Heller (known as Wister). This is being done with suits from Maizie Spread, Toots Switch and Dolores Pubiano de Cópula.

  Drunks: A Fleet nickname for members of the Apparatus. The nickname is based upon the symbol of the Apparatus which is an inverted paddle, but looks like a bottle.

  Empire University: Where Jettero Heller is taking classes in New York City.

  Epstein, Izzy: Financial expert and anarchist hired by Jettero Heller to set up and run several corporations.

  Eyes and Ears of Voltar: An electronics store on Voltar where Soltan Gris stole boxes of sophisticated equipment that he brought to Earth. When the Countess Krak arrived, she took large quantities for her use.

  Faht Bey: Turkish name of the Voltarian commander of the secret Apparatus base in Afyon, Turkey.

  FFBO: Fatten, Farten, Burstein and Ooze, the largest advertising firm in the world. J. Walter Madison works for them.

  Fleet: The elite space fighting arm of Voltar to which Jettero Heller belongs and which the Apparatus despises.

  Golden Sunset: A luxurious yacht purchased by the Countess Krak with a credit card Soltan Gris had inadvertently given her.

  Gracious Palms: An elegant whorehouse in which Jettero Heller stayed when he was first in New York City. It is owned by Babe Corleone and is patronized by delegates to the United Nations.

  Grafferty, “Bulldog”: A crooked New York City police inspector.

  Grand Council: The governing body of Voltar which ordered a mission to keep Earth from destroying itself so it could be conquered on schedule per the Invasion Timetable.

  Gris, Soltan: Apparatus officer placed in charge of the Blito-P3 (Earth) section and an enemy of Jettero Heller. He was sent to Earth by Lombar Hisst to sabotage Heller’s mission.

  Haggarty, H. Hider: Name on a Central Intelligence Agency passport that Jettero Heller obtained and sometimes uses.

  Heller, Hightee: The most beautiful and popular entertainer in the Voltar Confederacy. She is also Jettero Heller’s sister.

  Heller, Jettero: Combat engineer and Royal officer of the Fleet, sent by order of the Grand Council on Mission Earth in order to save Earth from its own imminent self-destruction by pollution and nuclear holocaust. He is operating under the name of Jerome Terrance Wister. He was given the nickname “Whiz Kid” by J. Walter Madison.

  Hisst, Lombar: Head of the Apparatus on Voltar. His plan to overthrow the Confederacy required sending Soltan Gris to sabotage Jettero Heller’s mission.

  Hot Jolt: A popular Voltarian drink.

  Hypnohelmet: Device placed over the head and used to induce a hypnotic state.

  Inkswitch: Phony name used by Soltan Gris when pretending to be a US Federal official.

  Invasion Timetable: A schedule of galactic conquest. The plans and budget of every section of Voltar’s government must adhere to it. Bequeathed by Voltar’s ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago, it is inviolate and sacred and the guiding dogma of the Confederacy.

  Joy, Miss: See the Countess Krak.

  Karagoz: Turkish peasant, head of Soltan Gris’ house in Afyon , Turkey.

  Knife Section: A section of the Apparatus named after its favorite weapon.

  Krak, Countess: The sweetheart of Jettero Heller. On Earth, she is known by the name Heavenly Joy Krackle or Miss Joy.

  Line-jumper: Small spacecraft used by the Voltarian Army to lift and quickly move up to one hundred tons across battle lines.

  Madison, J. Walter: FFBO PR man hired by Bury to immortalize Jettero Heller, who doesn’t know abo
ut Madison’s campaign; also known as “J. Warbler Madman.”

  Magic Mail: Apparatus trick where a letter is mailed but won’t be delivered as long as a designated card is regularly sent; used for blackmail, extortion or coercion.