Invaders_The Antaran

by Vaughn Heppner

  Beran shook his head. “The Director never visited the underwater site.”

  “I don’t mean to dispute you, sir, but Jenna told me the Director did.”

  “I realize that,” Beran said. “Hasn’t it occurred to you yet that Jenna was lying to you?”

  I thought about that, soon shaking my head. “I don’t think that’s true.”

  “I know. You don’t realize how deeply this goes. There is a hidden foe, Logan. I would have easily succeeded by now, but a keen mind opposes me, a mind of deep cunning and precision.”

  “Jenna Jones?” I asked.

  Beran snorted with derision, shaking his long head.

  I leaned back in my chair, considering the implications. “Was the Kazz that blew up in the desert the same one that showed up at Friday’s Station?”

  “I have no way of verifying that or not,” he said.

  “Okay…” I said. “Who is this hidden person? Do you know?”

  “I have my suspicions, but I won’t say just yet.” Beran crossed his legs in the other direction as he regarded me. “However, that is neither here nor there just now. I still want the chronowarp. Will you help me acquire it?”

  “Would you be interested in making the swap I proposed?” I asked.

  “I can see the possibility of it,” Beran said slowly. “Know, Logan, that a dominie of the Antares Institute never breaks his word. If you deliver the chronowarp to me, I will retrieve your woman from the Saturn Station and return her to you.”

  “What happens after that?” I asked.

  “I hook the chronowarp to the Antarctica Portal and enter the Polarion Paradise.”

  “What about us?”

  “Naturally, first I shall insist that you leave Antarctica.”

  “That’s not what I meant, but that’s no problem. We’ll leave Antarctica. What about the Earth after you return from the paradise?”

  “Once I have what I need, I will leave the Earth and humanity to its own devices.”

  “That sounds reasonable enough,” I said. “Why couldn’t you have spelled it out like that in the first place?”

  Beran’s eyes seemed to glow with fierce emotions. He clearly did not like the question, and that told me the answer. He must have come up against a dead end. Why, then, hadn’t he put me under the mind probe? I knew there had to be a good reason.

  “If Jenna has the chronowarp,” he said, “where do you think she would hide it?”

  I thought long and hard, and I had a suspicion. It seemed pretty obvious the longer I thought about it.

  “You’re a man of your word?” I asked.

  “No,” Beran said. “I am an Antaran dominie of my word. That is an infinitely greater thing.”

  I nodded. “Okay, Lord Beran, I’m going to trust you. I think the chronowarp is somewhere in the Utah salt flats.”

  Beran’s eyes gleamed with avarice. He jumped to his feet and started for a hatch. Then he paused, turning back to me.

  “Hurry,” he said. “You’re coming with me.”

  -29-

  It occurred to me as I boarded a floater in the hangar bay that I had become altogether too reasonable regarding Beran. I rubbed my forehead, thinking about that.

  Why would a few days, maybe a week in solitary change my mind about Beran? Yes, I’d been badly burned. I’d seen Kazz die horribly, at his own hand. Well, if Beran was correct, at the hand or mind of another.

  It would seem this other had used Kazz to attempt to kill Beran. That attempt had fizzled miserably. The protective nimbus—the great modifications—had saved the dominie’s life.

  I stood near Beran as the floater left the hangar bay and crossed the dark moonscape. We had twenty or so Tosks along and the usual equipment.

  I carefully analyzed my thoughts regarding these past days. When had I reached the conclusion to play ball with Beran?

  I almost snapped my fingers. What had I been thinking? Beran had drugged me. Oh, I imagine the green drink had aided against infection and pain from the skin burns. But it must have also supplied my mind with a—I don’t know—a play-nice drug.

  However, even knowing he’d drugged me didn’t change the idea of getting Debby back and laying low afterward. Yeah, I know, I was the Earth’s marshal. But what did it matter if Beran went to the Polarion Paradise? Surely, the ancient Polarions were all dead by now. Surely, they would have come back a time or two if they all lived in paradise.

  None had ever returned. Thus, there must not be any Polarions in the paradise. Let’s even suppose that Beran found a few fancy trinkets out there. That wasn’t like aliens trying to mess with Earth, mess with people. It seemed to me that Lord Beran would at least go back to the Antares Institute to boast to all his friends what a great star he’d become.

  The point was that Beran would leave Earth, and I’d have Debby back in one piece.

  I glanced at the piloting Tosk. The werewolf-like creature totally focused on the piloting screen. I glanced at the Tosks waiting with their beam carbines. Beran had let other Tosks die on a whim. I needed to remember that.

  Now I knew what my conscience was trying to remind me. What about the Director? What about the miserable way Beran had treated the man? I’d vowed to kill the dominie for that. Seeing the Director horribly misused had made me furious. Why wasn’t I furious anymore?

  It could only be because the dominie had drugged me. He’d drugged me like teachers in grade schools drugged the boys because they acted too much like boys and the teachers wanted more girls.

  I’d always hated this practice. America needed its boys to be boys so they would turn into men.

  I cocked my head. Why did America need men?

  This time, I snapped my fingers. Because, by and large, men protected society. It was their age-old duty, and modern social justice warrior ideals didn’t change that. If the men didn’t grow up to be good American men, they would be too weak to defend America from the world, from the bad guys out there.

  I told myself that’s what had happened to me. I was becoming like a weak drugged-up drone. Drones didn’t protect their country from invasion. Drones just did what drones did best, lounge around and watch while Rome burned.

  Well, baby, I wasn’t going to be a drone, a castrated weakling.

  You are one right now, I told myself. You’re helping Beran do whatever he wants to do on Earth because all you’re thinking about is Debby. Are you even thinking about Debby, or just thinking about getting your girl back so you can have fun with her?

  “Is something wrong?” Beran asked.

  I shook my head.

  “We are almost ready for transfer to Earth,” he said.

  “Great.”

  “Your voice inflection is different.”

  “That’s nerves, I suppose.”

  “Are you having second thoughts about this?”

  “Nope,” I said.

  “You will soon have Debby in your arms,” Beran told me. “You will soon be free of the collar. You can then do whatever you wish with your life.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said, lying through my teeth. I now knew without a doubt that the drug had robbed me of something essential.

  I used to wonder about that, about what would happen if someone made me weak. I figured I would remember what I thought in my free days, and simply follow that through force of will. But now that I was here, the force of will was difficult to generate. I needed some of my old emotions to give me the energy to hate Beran.

  Ah… Debby used to get on me for saying I hated something. She said that wasn’t nice and that it framed my mind the wrong way.

  I hate Beran, I hate Beran, I hate Beran, I chanted over and over in my mind. If Debby was right, I would soon start feeling the hate. I needed that hate about now. I needed a counteragent against the drugs I’d sipped like a fool this past week.

  “We’re transferring,” Beran informed me.

  The floater vibrated, and we appeared on the Utah salt flats at night.


  I stood beside the dominie, silently chanting my hate litany, trying to drum up some genuine feelings. It wasn’t working yet. The moon’s rays cast the salt flats into a beautiful silvery paradise—

  I shook my head as I growled low in my throat.

  “That is unseemly behavior,” Beran said, turning to me. “You are acting agitated. That is unusual.”

  “Why,” I snapped, “because you’ve drugged me?”

  A silence fell between us. I closed my eyes. Why had I said that? Probably because I’d been chanting to myself too long that I hated Beran.

  “You are having second thoughts,” he said. “That is a pity, as I was ready to give Debby back to you.”

  “Look,” I said. “You have to promise me you won’t hurt any more Earthlings.”

  “I must do this?” Beran asked lightly.

  I almost tried to jump him. I remembered the blue nimbus in time. I had a feeling it would snap on if I actually landed a real hit. I had to keep cool. I had to remain free, if I could. I had to stop acting like an idiot and actually use my head.

  Beran sighed.

  “I’d hoped this would work, Logan. The truth is that the mind probe is a tedious affair. It has a forty percent chance of success. Oh, I’ll get information, but it might not be the correct information. The rest of your brain will be useless after a strong probing. Thus, it truly is a measure of last resort.”

  “You drugged me,” I said.

  He shrugged.

  I clutched my head. It was overly dramatic, but I wanted my freedom. I’d become sick of Beran, sick of the moon base and sick of hanging around these werewolf-like creatures. Why couldn’t the Tosks rise up against Beran? What was wrong with them?

  The floater grounded against salt. The hatch opened, and Beran moved toward the opening. He made several chopping gestures and guttural remarks.

  Two big Tosks flanked me. Each werewolf-like creature grabbed an arm. Then, they forced me to follow the dominie out of the floater, down the ramp and toward the hole in the ground that used to be CAU Headquarters.

  -30-

  Beran floated effortlessly through the open ruins, using his baton to shine a strong light at the innards.

  The two Tosks and I took the torturous route, climbing down over twisted debris, wrecked furniture and dirt. Other Tosks followed, warily trying to watch everywhere at once in case someone attempted to ambush us.

  Soon enough, Beran shouted orders from where he hovered.

  Tosks jogged forward, shouldered their carbines and bent their shoulders against beams, heavy furniture and other blocking items. Metal groaned. Wood creaked, and things crashed as the Tosks hurled them aside.

  Beran alighted onto the floor, shining his baton-light down various empty corridors. It took us a solid two hours of painstaking effort to reach what seemed to be the bottom of CAU.

  Ten sweaty Tosks—they stank horribly—panted as they leaned against corridor walls. My two guardians still gripped my arms. Beran had moved ahead of us, shining his bright light on the floor. I didn't know what he was searching for, but there was clearly nothing else down here.

  “It’s not my fault,” I called out.

  Beran swung around, shined that light in my face and seemed to approach me. I squeezed my eyes shut against the bright light.

  “What isn’t your fault?” the dominie demanded, finally diverting the light.

  I opened my eyes. The air was stale down here, and the place seemed oppressive. Was that because we’d come down so far or was there another reason?

  “We hit a dead end,” I said. “It was just a guess on my part about the chronowarp, you know? I don’t want you to take that out on Debby. I wasn’t trying to trick you. I really thought the chronowarp would be down here.”

  Beran searched my face for several seconds. “Do you truly believe I am that dense?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Beran swung the baton-light about. “Can’t you sense it? My Tosks do. They’re frightened.”

  “I don’t sense anything,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “Don’t you feel a…weight against your spirit?”

  I must have shown my surprise, because I did feel something. I’d been feeling it, but just chalked it up to a case of the nerves after two hours of toil.

  “I see you do sense it,” Beran said, as he nodded. “But it seems that your surprise is genuine. I find that interesting.”

  “You know,” I said. “I’m tired. I’m sick of these Tosks holding my arms and I’m mad at myself for letting you drug me so easily.”

  “That’s nonsense. You were in my custody for over a week. What would you have eaten if you’d avoided every food or drink in fear of what I’d put in it. Yes, I fed you drugs. You had no choice in that, so why berate yourself over it?”

  “Habit,” I said after a moment’s thought. “But why…I don’t know. Why are you trying to cheer me up?”

  Beran turned away and seemed to freeze. The Tosks straightened and glanced at each other as he became absolutely motionless. They brought up their beam carbines and seemed more wary than ever.

  I tried to rip my arms out of my guard Tosks’ grip, but they were having none of that. One of them gave me a warning growl. The other painfully tightened his hold.

  Abruptly, Beran inhaled deeply and opened his eyes. He turned to me, giving me his superior grin.

  “Your trick failed,” he said.

  “What trick? What are you talking about?”

  Beran made a harsh noise.

  My Tosks shoved me forward as they followed me. The others lined up, ready to march to who knew where.

  Beran took several steps toward the last wall. He didn’t look at it, but swept his beam over the floor. He seemed to be searching for something.

  Beran halted, with the beam centered on the ground. The Tosks slid past him, aiming their carbines at the spot on the floor.

  The dominie made another of his harsh growls. My guardian Tosks released me. I massaged my biceps, giving each of my guards a dirty look.

  “Logan, check the floor.”

  I thought about telling him off, but shrugged instead. I stepped up to the baton-light and studied the floor there.

  “No,” Beran said. “Get down on your hands and knees and feel around.”

  I gave him a funny look. He seemed serious. With a second shrug, I did as he bid. To my astonishment, I soon felt—I moved my hands along what might have been an iron rod about an inch off the floor. I couldn’t see the rod, but I could sure feel it.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “Precisely,” Beran said. “Explain what you’re touching.”

  I did.

  The blue nimbus snapped on around Beran. “Tug it,” he said, his voice sounding as if it came from far away.

  I kept staring at him. He feared some sort of trap, a bomb, perhaps. That seemed reasonable after what Kazz had done. Thus, he’d set up his protective shield. But what about the rest of us down here?

  “Tug it,” Beran repeated. “I think it will unseal a hatch.”

  I laughed bitterly and almost told him, “You can come and tug it.” Then I thought, What the Hell? and pulled, but nothing happened. So I pushed. The rod moved smoothly, and I heard an ominous click.

  -31-

  Here’s the one piece of anticlimax. No bomb detonated. We all survived the rod’s movement and the click.

  I heaved a sigh of relief as sweat dripped from my forehead. I scrambled up afterward, as a visible hatch appeared like on a submarine. The hatch moved upward and stopped once it reached a ninety-degree position.

  “What do you see?” Beran asked.

  I peered at the hole in the floor, saw the beginning of a steel ladder, again, like that on a submarine.

  “Not much,” I told him.

  Beran made a harsh sound. A moment later, a Tosk handed me a flashlight.

  I grumbled under my breath, clicked on the flashlight, stepped beside the hol
e and shined my light into it. As far as the light shined, I saw the ladder going straight down into what seemed like a long steel tube.

  I explained all that to Beran, who stood waiting, still surrounded by his blue nimbus.

  “What is your belief?” he finally asked me.

  “Not much about this,” I said. “It’s a secret path to a hideaway. I guess the chronowarp is down there.”

  “There is much to this place that you are not considering. For instance, it is summer now.”

  “Yeah…” I said. “So what?”

  “What do you suppose it is like here in winter?”

  “Colder, I guess.”

  “Yes, true,” Beran said. “It also rains outside. It rains heavily in the mountains.”

  “Lots of rain,” I said. “Got it.”

  “You still do not comprehend what I’m driving at. Let us try another tack. How do you suppose all the salt was deposited on the flats above?”

  “Didn’t think much about it,” I admitted.

  “Water flows to the lowest point. Water flows here during the winter rains but especially in early spring. After the water evaporates, the salt remains. That means that much of the salt flats are covered with a lake during spring. It is an extremely shallow lake, but a lake nonetheless.”

  I frowned, shrugging, not seeing what he was getting at.

  “I realize that CAU has advanced technology,” Beran said. “I do not believe, however, that the technology would easily allow them to build such an underground facility out here under a lake. Especially not a large and complex facility that has deep secret hiding locations even farther underground.”

  “Are you saying CAU Headquarters should flood in winter and spring?”

  “Most assuredly it should flood.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What does it signify to you that this place is here?”

  “I know exactly what it signifies. I’m astounded that you do not.”

  “You’re the Antares dominie. I’m just a dumb jock human.”

  “Think, Logan, truly think, and see if you can decipher the clues.”