She reached the tall grass that had grown up under Brobdignag, and stood a moment on wobbly legs to catch her breath and settle her stomach. In the darkness she could see the dim lights of the Quonset Hut that housed the soldiers set to guard this alien relic. Jaimie made her way through the untrammeled grass. Fireflies became agitated as she walked, and began to flash their mating call around her, surrounding her with swirling lines of light. She spit gnats out of her mouth. No human had disturbed this fenced off area in over a year.
Jaimie came to the fence and pulled some wire cutters from her back pocket. She began clipping the chain link fence, making more sound than she had hoped. Each snip of her wire cutters seemed amplified by the silence and the darkness that surrounded her. There was nothing she could do about the sound though, so she continued on, hoping that she would not be discovered too soon.
“Who the hell are you?”
Jaimie was startled by the voice that came from the dark. She sensed rather than saw a man on the other side of the fence, maybe ten feet away. It was one of the soldiers stationed here on guard duty. Jaimie had made only a few cuts in the fence, not nearly enough to make her way through.
“I’m stuck here, trying to get out,” said Jaimie, hoping the voice of a young woman would put the soldier off guard.
“I don’t think so ma’am,” said the soldier, “what’s that on your back? Is that a weapon?”
So the soldier can see me, thought Jaimie. She deduced that the soldier must be wearing night vision goggles.
Jaimie raised her hands and started to back away from the fence. “You don’t understand…”
“Halt!” said the soldier, and Jaimie could hear a gun cocked in the darkness.
Jaimie pretended to panic. “Please don’t kill me!” she screamed, as loud as she could.
“Can it, lady,” said the unseen soldier.
Lights came on in the Quonset Hut fifty feet away. It was not much light, but Jaimie had gotten used to getting by on a lot less these last few minutes. The soldier reacted to the sudden light by turning his head slightly, and reaching up to adjust his night vision goggles.
Too late the soldier realized his mistake. Jaimie reacted instantly, swinging the rifle off her back and into position, dropping to one knee in the grass. The soldier raised his weapon in panic, but Jaimie fired first. A beam of white light erupted from her rifle, like a flashlight being turned on and then off. The beam hit the soldier, passing through the chain link fence, and the soldier fell backwards, illuminated only by the light from the window of the hut.
Three more soldiers exited the building, dressed in their underwear, carrying pistols and weapons. One of them had the presence of mind to grab a camouflaged army issue helmet. Jaimie fired three more times, and each soldier fell in turn, without ever firing a shot.
As the last soldier fell, the first soldier suddenly sat up. Jaimie watched the soldier carefully, waiting for evidence that the Aierta Projector had functioned properly and formed a copy of an Aierta consciousness inside the mind of the soldier, and not just given the soldier a dose of lethal gamma rays that were sure to cause cancer and death.
“Who are you?” asked the soldier carefully. The other three soldiers were also starting to rise. Not wearing night vision goggles they were forced to peer past the chain link fence and into the darkness to see the dimly lit teenage girl wielding the large heavy piece of alien designed weaponry.
“I am Jaimie Karasik, Aierta Commander,” said Jaimie, “I have converted you to make war upon the Earth.”
The soldier with the night vision goggles nodded his head. “Excellent. I am eager to serve, Commander.”
The other three soldiers nodded in agreement as Jaimie smiled.
Hours before Jaimie’s conversion of the four soldiers in New York, Susan made her decision regarding Captain Tr’ter, Onalark the alien Wonder Hero, and the Aierta detector. In the private conference room she spoke with all the members of her team and General Rumpole.
“For what it’s worth,” said the General, “I’ve been directed to inform you that representatives from the United Nations and the President of the United States both feel that capturing or killing these Aierta is of the highest priority. They’ve made raids into government installations all over the world. We’re talking billions of dollars in research and countless lives lost.”
“Not to mention that we still have no idea what they’re planning to do,” said Kalomo, “All we know is that this Jaime Karasik is pulling together technology and she has the labor force of the spratsis to use it. The Wonder Computer has come up with over one hundred likely scenarios, covering everything from teleporting mini-nukes into major cities to constructing a giant robot. The fact is, we don’t know what they’re planning, or what they’re capable of.”
“If we accept the help of Captain Tr’ter, there’s a good chance that we’ll be delivering one of these extremely dangerous Aierta into the hands of the Untime Grindcase Consortium,” began Susan.
“And they are very bad people,” finished Matt.
“So,” said Susan, “it all comes down to how much we trust Onalark, Wonder Hero Electric.” Susan looked at her teammates, hoping for some insight.
“He seems nice enough,” offered Jay. Theodore snorted a short laugh at that, annoying Susan instantly. Jay looked embarrassed.
“The Wonder Computer confirms what little we know about him,” said Kalomo, “He was a recipient of Cassiopeian technology nearly sixteen hundred years ago. His team, his planet, his star system and his entire galaxy fell to the Hole of Holes about a thousand years ago. But after that there’s no more information, because his home world’s Wonder computer was lost.”
“So now he’s working for the Consortium,” said Matt.
“Working to take them down,” corrected Jay, looking Theodore’s way. Theodore declined to comment. He seemed almost bored by the conversation.
“So he says,” countered Matt.
Susan rubbed her eyes with her hands, trying to think. She weighed what she knew and came to a decision. She looked at her team and summoned her Wonder Armor sans helmet. One by one Susan’s team followed her lead, summoning their Wonder Armor. Theodore was last.
“Our mission is to protect the Earth,” said Susan, “We need these Aierta stopped. I say we trust Onalark, and if this decision someday turns around and bites us in the ass, we’ll deal with it then. Cool?”
Susan looked each Wonder Hero in the eye, to be certain that they were indeed “cool.” Theodore was sporting that annoying smirk he had been developing over the last few months, but seemed willing to accept the decision. Jay and Kalomo nodded, and Matt simply smiled, as if relieved to no longer have to shoulder the burden of command.
“Let’s do this then,” said Matt.
Without another word, Susan led her team from the conference room to the roof of the Wonder Base, to tell their alien visitors that they would be working together. General Rumpole, alone in the room, smiled. For the first time in nine months he felt as if the world were finally in safe hands. The Wonder Heroes, he thought, were back.
If the waving stalks of his sensor array were any indication, Captain Tr’ter was pleased with Susan’s decision to accept his help in locating the Aierta. Not one to waste time, the Broccloid starship captain instructed his Chief Engineer B’shat to begin assembling the Aierta detection device on the roof of the Wonder Base. Susan hesitated when she learned that the detector would need to be patched into the Wonder Computer, she had no wish to compromise Wonder Hero security protocols, but both the Wonder Computer and Kalomo’s scans indicated that there was no danger in doing so.
After about an hour’s work, requiring the help of Theodore, Kalomo and Tr’ter’s first officer, M’took, B'shat announced that he was ready to turn the detector on. At a nod from Susan Tr’ter indicated that B’shat should do so. B’shat waved his arm like appendages through the holographic control panel, and the machine hummed
to life. A three dimensional hologrammatic Earth appeared floating above the detector. All eyes and sensor stalks were fixed on the globe as it slowly rotated before them.
“No Aierta detected,” said the Wonder Computer.
Susan looked over at Onalark, who had pushed a couple of deck chairs together and was pretending to sleep. He smiled.
B’Shat’s sensor stalks waved in annoyance.
Captain Tr’ter waved his sensor stalks, and an almost angry voice was filtered through the Wonder Gauntlet translation matrix. “Is the machine configured properly?”
“Yes, Captain,” said B'shat, “I don’t understand why it is not working.”
“Perhaps there are no Aierta on this planet to detect,” said M’took. Susan had come to think of the first officer as female because of the way the translator configured M’took’s voice. She wondered if the Broccloids had gender identities the way humans understand them.
“More likely the Aierta are shielded,” said Onalark, his eyes still closed, “Think about it. The Aierta have conscripted a fair number of spratsis into service. The Wonder Computer could easily have located these rats by their unique and alien bio signature, unless the Aierta are using some sort of advanced shielding.”
“He’s right,” said Matt, “the Aierta are probably using some form of Geheimite sensor jamming, like they did in North Carolina.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Jay, “I was ready to kick some ass.”
“We wait,” said Susan, as Onalark nodded and went back to pretending to be asleep. “Eventually this Jaimie Karasik will come out of hiding to make one of her raids for equipment or resources. At the very least she’ll need to feed the spratsis. When she does, the Wonder Computer will let us know. In the meantime, we wait.”
Given the order to wait, Matt followed Onalark’s example and dropped into a deck chair and closed his eyes.
“How can you sleep at a time like this?” asked Jay.
Before Matt could reply Onalark answered for them both. “You do this kind of thing long enough you learn to relax and rest when you can,” said the large alien, “There’s going to be plenty of opportunity to get yourselves killed soon enough.”
“You’ve been a Wonder Hero for sixteen hundred years,” said Kalomo, sitting on a deck chair next to Jay, enjoying the open, starry night, “You must have seen it all.”
“I have not seen it all,” answered Onalark, “it’s a big universe, and getting bigger all the time, but I’ve seen some amazing things, that’s true.”
“Still, you’re over sixteen hundred years old,” continued Kalomo, “Your people must have extraordinary lifespans.”
Onalark smiled. “Not too much longer than yours, I’m sure.” To Kalomo and Jay’s confusion, Onalark said, “Oh. You don’t know, and why should you, after all?”
Matt seemed to have an inkling of what Onalark was going to say, but Jay and Kalomo had no idea. “The Wonder Gauntlets,” said Onalark, “make you immortal.”
Kalomo coughed. Jay said, “Say what?”
Onalark smiled that wide smile the team now realized meant roughly the same thing as a human smile. “The gauntlets prevent disease and repair our injuries, but also prevent aging. Wonder Heroes can only die in battle.”
As Matt, Jay and Kalomo took this in, Onalark’s mood grew darker. “The Cassiopeians don’t tell you that, of course, when you agree to wear the gauntlets. It’s presented as a way to defend your world, and to save lives. There’s other stuff they don’t tell you, you know. You cannot have children. The gauntlets make you sterile.”
Kalomo looked at Matt, and Matt shook his head, so he swallowed his question. He was about to mention Matt’s niece, Cassie Stillman, the three-year-old daughter of the former Wonder Heroes Shadow and Light, Jeff and Terry Stillman, but held his tongue.
Onalark continued, “My mate, she wanted children so badly. It was like a hole in her chest, that feeling of being incomplete without offspring.”
Jay said, “But Cassie…”
Kalomo jumped in, cutting Jay off. “…opeian technology is such an interesting topic that it could keep us up all night and I need to get some sleep.”
Onalark shot Kalomo a look but did not press.
Kalomo stood up and stretched. “Come on Jay. Let’s get to bed.”
“What?” said Jay, “I was just asking…”
Kalomo leaned in close and whispered “Jay, shut up, and follow me.”
Jay was bewildered, but decided to let it go. He followed Kalomo to the elevator, complaining in hushed tones. Onalark watched them go, and turning to Matt, said, “You can tell they’re married.”
Matt nodded, then smiled, but did not contradict Onalark’s assumption.
As the conversation on the roof was underway, Susan caught up to Theodore on the second floor of Wonder Base, in the green corridor outside Danielle Walker’s empty suite.
“Theodore!” said Susan, “Wait! I need to talk to you.”
“No time Susan, I need to get some shut eye.” Harlan manipulated Theodore’s body and continued on his way, rounding the corner into the red corridor before Susan could grab him by the shoulder and spin him around to face her.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” said Susan in exasperation.
“Is that the way the new team leader addresses us peons now?” asked Harlan, feigning anger. He swatted Susan’s hand away. “Keep your hands off me.”
Susan was taken aback by Theodore’s anger, but pushed past it. “You let an alien spaceship through our defenses, without consulting anyone. That’s not like you Theodore.”
“How do you know what I’m like Susan?” said Harlan through Theodore’s mouth, “I’m a Wonder Hero. I can do whatever I want.”
Susan frowned. This confrontation was becoming too confrontational. Calming herself she said, “We’re a team, Theodore. We don’t make these kinds of decisions on our own.”
“Wow, Susan, power went right to your head didn’t it? You’ve been in charge for what, like two hours?” Harlan raised Theodore’s arm straight out. “Heil, Susan!”
Susan frowned. Theodore was being impossible. “We need to find some way to work together, Theodore.”
Harlan gave his reply some thought. In his room was a computer terminal with a program he had been working on for the last nine months, a computer program that would turn over all the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Wonder Base, as well as the Wonder moons, orbiting space defense energy weapon platforms, over to his control. With one keystroke Harlan would be able to end this charade, kill the Wonder Heroes a second time, and reveal himself to world. The only reason he had not done so already was because of the sudden appearance of the alien Wonder Hero Onalark, and the Broccloid crew. He had decided to play the role of Theodore a little longer, and see this latest little adventure through, but if Susan insisted on pressing him…
Harlan used Theodore’s face to smile. “Susan. If I’ve seemed a little off lately, it’s because, well, I think you know.”
Susan thought she knew where Theodore was going with this. She sighed. She would have avoided it forever, if she could, but it looked like they were going to have this conversation right now. “You’ve never been completely honest with me, have you Theodore? The day we first met, here at the Wonder Base, with all that talk about being a hero, doing the right thing. You inspired me then, you know.”
It was all Harlan could do not to laugh in Susan’s face. This was too delicious. He wished Theodore could hear this, see the woman he loved in such emotional pain. It would have ruined him, but there was so little of Theodore left now, less than one percent of his memories and personality remained, and even that was rapidly on its way towards being completely purged. Harlan had not heard from Theodore for hours. Soon everything that Theodore Studebaker was would be gone, and all that remained would be Harlan Flicker, reborn.
“You’ve changed,” continued Susan, unaware of the truth b
ehind the eyes of the man she was confessing to, “I thought it was just the stress of being a Wonder Hero, we all felt that, but there was something more. I began to sense that you weren’t the man you pretended to be when we first met.”
“That’s not fair,” said Harlan through the mouth of Theodore.
Susan wiped a tear from her eye before it fell. “Maybe, but then I found out about how you hacked your way onto the list to be a Wonder Hero, and I realized that you hadn’t changed. You were never honest with me from the beginning.”
“So you took up with Walter,” said Harlan, wanting to hurt her.
“What?” said Susan, the mention of Walter’s name brought up painful memories. “Walter had nothing to do with us…”
“That’s bull, Susan,” said Harlan, “you two were an item before you knew anything about my past.”
“That doesn’t change anything…”
Harlan/Theodore scowled. “You say I played you? You were playing me. You made poor Theodore think a girl like you could be interested in a guy like him, but when rich playboy Walter Watanabe came along you were on the back of his motorcycle so fast I thought you used the teleporter.”
A thousand answers jockeyed for attention in Susan’s mind. She found herself speechless.
Inside, Harlan danced, reveling in Susan’s rising hurt and anger. Her lips pursed so tight they were turning scarlet, and tears threatened to stream down her face. Harlan’s smile broadened. “Screw you, Susie. You don’t get another chance with me just because your idiot boyfriend got himself killed.”
At that moment all Susan wanted to do was summon her Wonder Armor and knock the smirk off Theodore’s smug face. She watched as Theodore turned and walked away. Susan said nothing, but a tear streaked down her cheek. She felt weak and foolish. Her voice cracked with emotion as she said, “We’re still a team. We have to find a way to work together.”
Theodore/Harlan shrugged and continued towards his quarters and his date with destiny. “No, Susan. We don’t.”
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