“That’s ridiculous! Sure EMS stations were instructed to build alliances and entice Humans into joining Friends For Friends groups to collect intel to avert further subversion. We offered them powerless positions within OECs. But that was as far as it went. Inducting Humans so they could later assist us by killing each other? If that was the plan, I had no knowledge of it. But none of that now is even remotely important. As we’ve both learned, EMS stations all around the world are to be raided, personnel deemed compromised. I’ve learned Earupitan Troops are to be deployed immediately, that no more testing is necessary. Hundreds of atomizer domes will be assembled, then reassembled . . . moving from one township, or city, to another. Globally, Phase III translates for both marshals and Humans alike. Both are slated for a quick and efficient termination.”
I saw desperation in Vogthner’s eyes—as well as in the eyes of the marshals standing below us. God, I want to rub all their lizard noses into this bizarre turn of events.
“We’re out of time!” Karen shouted from the top of the ramp. I turned, seeing her and Donny looking more than a little anxious. Then Matt joined them—all three had ear pucks hovering over one ear. Karen glanced up to the sky, her brow knitted together.
I said to Vogthner, “Any minute now an attack force will arrive here . . . Shredders and Crushers full of troops.”
He glanced down at the watchful faces just below us. “I have zero doubt that they . . . we . . . will all be executed.”
“And you’re asking me to blindly trust you? Trust the same aliens that tortured and killed Humans for two years?”
“Yes. We are at your mercy.” I took in the chancellor with the bloody bandage around his head and his torn and rumpled business suit.
“We’re out of time, Brian!” Karen shouted.
“Tell your marshals to hurry. Climb back in their HovTs and go to my ranch. They can park in the barn. Don’t make me regret trusting you, Chancellor.”
“I won’t . . . and thank you!”
Karen and Wright, our other pilot, were heading down the ramp. “Now, Brian! We have to go!” she exclaimed.
We ran for the awaiting Shredder crafts. HovTs were already leaving the compound. Behind us, I heard the Crusher’s big engines coming alive. Damn, I’ve cut this way too close.
chapter 37
I engaged the Shredder’s lift thrusters and watched as the outer landscape fell away below me. Karen and Wright, each within their own craft, were also ascending. But the Crusher below had yet to make a move. Perhaps Jhally wasn’t as much up to the task as he’d promised.
I heard Karen’s voice in my ear: “You want us to stick around, or should we head out?”
“No, you two get going. I’ll hang around till that Crusher is aloft and en route.”
“Copy that, Earhart RTB . . .”
“Wright RTB . . .”
I smiled at their use of standard U.S. military lingo for return to base.
I watched as Karen and Wright’s Shredder engines went hot. Both crafts shot away—supersonic bullets gone in a blur of motion.
I put my own Shredder into a low-holding pattern. What the hell is taking them so long? I contacted Jhally, hoping he’d placed an ear puck at his own ear by this time. “Jhally . . . you copy?”
It was then I noticed Donny below, sprinting away from the Crusher ship, across the compound, toward the atomizer dome.
“Donny . . . what are you—”
Somewhat out of breath, Donny’s voice broke in, “We need to snatch back another crew member.”
“Why? What’s wrong with the captain?”
“Fucking imbecile . . . Stroph . . . he almost killed him. Twisted one of his ears right off his head. Guess there was a misunderstanding.”
I found that strangely funny and laughed out loud. I banked into a slow turn, seeing Donny, along with a Gap crewmember, now running in the opposite direction, heading back toward the awaiting Crusher. Right then, something else occurred to me. “Hey, Donny?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you clear the other three Crushers? Ensure that no one was onboard those three ships?”
“Affirmative. Each was cleared—no one on board.”
Finally, Jhally had the Crusher lifting off. “Come on . . . move it!” I said under my breath.
The vessel’s ramp was still in the process of closing as the ship rose higher and higher into the air. I got a quick glimpse of both Humans and Gaps, tightly packed together, within the Crusher’s hold area. As the ship’s big engines fully thundered to life, the Crusher headed off toward the south.
Time was up. I had zero time to dillydally here. But I realized I’d be leaving behind three military vessels—for the most part, still operational, ready for the Gaps to later use against us. This was war. You don’t leave military ordinances behind for the enemy. I circled twice more, trying to recall the specific instructions Jhally had given me for deployment of the two gravity-disruptor cannons via the HUD. Now activating the weapons system, which interfaced directly with the onboard AI, I watched as the virtual bounding box locked onto the first of my intended targets—the Crusher craft, three hundred feet below me, was now highlighted in bright red. I deployed the forward and aft undermounted weapons systems and selected a destructive level of two (out of three), then manually triggered the firing of both cannons. My Shredder shook as the cannons fired—immense energy blasts struck the selected target. Mid-ship, the Crusher folded in upon itself. The damage inflicted was somewhat less than I’d anticipated. Clearly, these vessels were designed to withstand a big hit. Still, I saw enough damage that I was fairly certain the Crusher would be inoperable and of no further use to the Gaps. One down, two to go.
My ear puck crackled. I heard Karen’s exasperated voice, “You better not be anywhere near that compound, Brian.”
“Leaving momentarily.”
Within another minute I’d targeted and disabled the other two Crusher craft. I found myself constantly checking my HUD for incoming bogies, knowing I was really pressing my luck at this point. Hell, within moments, even seconds, I could be up against ten expertly piloted Gap Shredders. Ready now to hightail it away, my eye caught sight of another potential target—the atomizer dome. It, too, had to be destroyed, or, at the very least, disabled.
Locking onto this far larger target, I selected level three, the most powerful gravity disruption level. Banking left then right, I swung onto the final approach vector. Moving my sightline from the virtual HUD representation before me, to actual visuals up through the ship’s canopy, I noticed the adjacent—and all too close by—prisoner pens. Hundreds of Gap soldiers stared up at me, watching the Shredder as it came around on its final run. Throttling forward, I started my descent. Just prior to giving an order to fire, I altered the gravity disruptive setting from level three back down to level two. Far better than those Gap prisoners deserved, but the thought of stomping life out of hundreds of unarmed aliens just didn’t sit right with me somehow. I fired both cannons.
“Damn it, Brian . . . you’ve got incoming bogies . . .” Karen yelled into my ear puck. I checked my HUD. Sure enough, it was lit up with aerial intruders coming in fast. With no time to view the extent of damage I’d inflicted to the dome . . . or to check on the current state of the Gap prisoners below, I jammed the virtual control ball all the way forward. G-forces thrust me back hard into my seat.
chapter 38
I raced my Shredder, keeping low through the middle of town, even below the treetops. Old-school thinking, probably, that flying below radar levels would somehow benefit me. But no one used radar in this day and age. Least of all the Gaps, I chided myself. Then I remembered our Shredders task beam geo locator units were disabled, so maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t being tracked. I reached out to Mike Post for an update.
“Go for Mike . . . what’s up, Brian?”
Relie
ved to find he was utilizing our new closed-comms system, I asked, “Have the Gap marshals arrived at the ranch yet?”
“Everyone’s here, I think. Except you.”
“Can you pull their HovT TBGUs? The less anything can be tracked—”
Mike cut in, “Bro, this ranch of yours is completely dark. Told you, I handled that. Looks like a black hole down here as far as the Gaps are concerned. Even their military shouldn’t be able to track anything within the perimeter of your property lines. TBGU signals are completely dampened. If a military ship does a flyby directly overhead and gets a visual . . . well, that’s a different story. Then we’re fucked.”
“Copy that.”
—————
Upon arrival at my ranch, I found the XL5 Crusher, along with the two other Shredders, had set down in the pasture, while a line of HovTs was disappearing into the back of the barn. No matter what Mike said, I didn’t like having our newly formed squadron of Gap ships exposed out in the open like this. I re-circled overhead, keeping an eye on my HUD’s tactical display. Tracking the new arrival of military vessels back at the dome compound, I knew I’d cut things way too close.
I set down next to Shredder Three, the one Karen had piloted. Entering the barn, I found a mass of activity. Hundreds of people, along with Gap marshals, scurried about. With multiple voices shouting out, the noise level was extreme, although not quite mayhem yet. Somehow, there was a crazy kind of order to things.
A full head taller than everyone around him, I spotted Stroph. Weaving my way through the throngs of people, I reached him and tugged on his sleeve. “Stroph! Hey, Stroph!”
He stared down looking ready to backhand me, but then smiled. “Captain Polk!” he exclaimed, placing a heavy hand on my shoulder. My knees almost buckled under the weight.
“Um . . . where is Jhally? And the prisoner, General Chiv?” I asked.
“I’ll take you. Come!”
He led me toward the east side of the barn, where the corrals were located. Both mares had their heads lowered over their stall doors. Several Gap marshals were patting their necks, scratching behind their ears. I looked down into both enclosures and noticed ample hay distributed on the ground for them to munch on.
Standing by several stalls farther down were Jhally and Karen.
“There you are!” Karen said, as we approached.
Then I noticed General Chiv, sitting on the ground in one of the stalls, his hands and feet bound. As his bruised and bloodied face angled up toward me, his eyes were nearly swollen shut. I almost felt guilty about it.
“He’s not talking. He’s clammed up again,” Karen said.
I spotted Mike Post running toward us. Out of breath, he joined our group. “Hey, Brian . . . I really need to talk to you.”
“Okay, give me a minute.” I approached Chiv and knelt next to him.
“I do not care what you do to me. I will not help you. Kill me if you must. I am done assisting the enemy.” He then eyed Stroph, who lurked menacingly at the entrance into the stall.
“You sure about that?” I asked Chiv.
“Yes. I am ready to die for his Eminence.”
Stroph grumbled something behind me. “Speak up, Stroph. I don’t think the general here quite heard you.”
“I said you should let me tear his arm off . . . let me beat him to death with it.”
Karen said, “Come on! Haven’t we had enough of that sort of thing?”
Perhaps she was right, but desperate times often called for desperate means. But then, taking a different tact might also work just as well. “So what do you want? We have an expression here on Earth . . . The world’s your oyster. So, General Chiv, let’s say you could have anything you want . . . the world’s your oyster?”
He looked at me, seemingly baffled by the question.
“I see it this way,” I said. “We need certain information from you, and we need it fast. The physical location of his Eminence’s mate, or wife, or whatever you call her. You have three choices. Choice number one: I’ll just kill you, and be done with it. Choice number two: I’ll let Stroph pull off one of your limbs then beat you with it until you talk. Or choice number three: you tell me what you know and maybe you get something out of the deal. Besides just letting you go, of course, what other choice, or option, would you like to propose?”
Stroph grumbled something indecipherable behind us.
I said, “You’ll have to wait, Stroph. The general can select any one of those three options.”
Karen entered the stall, arms folded over her chest. She looked impatient.
“Brian, I really need to talk to you,” Mike urged again.
I nodded back, my attention on Chiv. He seemed to be pondering over his choices.
“A mate.”
“A mate? What does that mean? A mate?” I asked.
“He wants one of the females on that Habitat ship,” Karen said.
“Really?”
“Ask him,” she said.
“You want a wife . . . is that it?”
Chiv nodded. “There are so few females, and so many males.”
“Well . . . two males are needed for every female, I do know that much. But even so, the proportion’s still off, but . . .”
“I want a guarantee that if you are successful, I’ll get a wife.”
“Screw you,” Karen said. “Did it ever occur to you that females ought to have a choice in the matter?”
“Fine. I guarantee you will have a place in line for a mate. Agreed?” I asked. Glancing up at Karen, I shrugged apologetically. She merely shook her head, rolling her eyes at me.
Jhally and Mike stepped into the stall. All of us stared at General Chiv—waiting for him to come to a decision.
“Eminence, Overlord Skith’s mate is already here on Earth. But she is well protected. Much security surrounds her,” Chiv said.
“Where?” I asked.
“On the island you refer to as Cuba. Earupitans prefer warm, humid, conditions.”
“Cuba is a big island. Whereabouts?” Karen asked.
Outside a small town, called Viñales. There are subterranean caves there, called the caves of Viñales.”
“She’s living in a cave?” I asked surprised.
“Do not besmirch our maiden sow!” the general barked out.
I was curious what he meant by that, but I’d have let it go for now. “So, what kind of security are we talking about?”
“The Royal Guard . . . two hundred of the Earupitan’s most elite fighting force. Also, no less than twenty Shredders have been committed to her safety. The island of Cuba is very well guarded.”
“All that to protect a lone Gap female?” Mike asked.
“Gap is a derogatory term,” Jhally interjected. “And probably not the best way to phrase things to someone you’re asking help from. And a Maiden Sow is not just any female Earupitan . . .”
I said, “General, you’re going to have to help us get onto that island.”
“Impossible!”
“I’ll give you an hour to come up with a few ideas.” I stood up, blowing out a breath. I was tired and not feeling particularly optimistic about things.
“Damn it, Brian! Look, the whole planet is being invaded . . . again!” Mike said, sounding more desperate than I’d ever heard him. “I’ve been up in that Crusher’s command center . . . getting familiar with all the tech. Suddenly, their display feeds . . . they came alive! I watched more ships than you can count exit those huge Situational Command Ships up in orbit. It’s a major deployment.”
We all stared at Mike.
Mike continued, “It’s that Phase III thing. Hundreds, if not thousands, of their landing forces are on the way here. You know, more domes to be assembled . . . Humans to be exterminated . . . all on a massive scale!”
“You c
ould have mentioned this a little earlier, don’t you think?” Karen chided.
“One more thing, Brian,” Mike said, a tad more upbeat.
“What’s that?”
“Remember that big robot, back at the dome compound?”
I nodded, not fully paying attention, my thoughts pretty much now occupied with visions of Cuba and the caves of Viñales—not to mention the innumerable invading Phase II space craft.
“Well, I think I can control it . . . like . . . remotely. That is, if you didn’t destroy the thing.”
I glared at Mike, growing annoyed. “What are you talking about? Who cares about the damn robot? And no, but I probably should have destroyed the thing.” I pondered on that a moment, remembering how easily the robot destroyed the M1 tank. Killed Titus and his crew, along with so many other Humans. “You’re telling me we can take control of it . . . all the while locking the Gaps out from using it?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Mike said, smiling and looking triumphant.
I nodded, even though I felt I was still missing something.
Mike said, “What kind of damage do you think a mechanical beast like that could do once it’s unleashed upon that same compound? This time under our control?”
chapter 39
I mentally pictured the compound. For certain, the captive GAP soldiers would have been released from their pens by now. How long would it be before that atomizer dome was back, one hundred percent operational? How long before new ground forces were dispatched to round up every last one of our local Castle Rock humans?
Mike mumbled something I missed.
“Say that again, Mike,” I said.
“I’m going to try something . . . hold on,” he said, calling up his ear puck HUD. Its quasi-transparent display covered his head and upper torso areas. “I’m going to cross-couple our HUDs together.” He glanced up, checking to see who was still standing around in our group. A moment later, Karen, Jhally, Mike, and I, as well as Stroph—were all standing together within a large heads up display.
The Hidden Ship Page 20
