Invaders

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I still don’t see why you can’t teleport-grab Debby after making the sonic penetration of the shield,” I said.

  “With the shield hindering me, I no longer have a fix on her location,” Rax said. “It is easier to deposit you inside than to grab her, as you say.”

  “Sure,” I said, as I climbed onto the transporter dais. “Are you ready?”

  “Give me a moment,” Rax said. “I must adjust for our continued velocity. Analyzing…analyzing… Logan, prepare for teleportation.”

  I stood on the dais, clutching the rifle harder than ever.

  “Three…two…one…” Rax said.

  Nothing happened. The room did not begin to fade.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked.

  “I have enough time for a secondary try. There was an unforeseen surge of power to the enemy’s shield. Logan, I suggest we abort—”

  “Make the transfer!” I shouted, wincing at the echo in the helmet.

  “I would like to lodge my protest—”

  “Now, you bastard,” I shouted. “Transfer now.”

  “Two…one…zero…” Rax said.

  I thought the crystal’s second attempt had failed, too. Just as I began to speak again, the chamber began to fade.

  -49-

  This was the strangest teleportation of all. Everything faded from view, I could feel myself stretching and the world around me seemed faint. It solidified, grew fainter again, staying that way far too long, and finally solidified once more.

  I found myself floating several feet away from a large moving girder.

  “Warning,” Rax said.

  The girder struck me, knocking the wind from my lungs as a loud crack sounded from the helmet. An immediate hiss made the helmet foggy up and down along the length of a hairline crack. The crack zigzagged across the helmet, making it difficult to see perfectly, like wearing a pair of fogged sunglasses.

  I clutched onto the girder, trying to get my bearings.

  “Given the rate of oxygen loss,” Rax said, “our timeframe has changed from three hours to one hour.”

  “Doesn’t this thing have a patch kit?” I asked.

  “It does,” Rax said. “But a helmet patch would negate the suit’s stealth function. We will likely need the invisibility more than the excess time. However, our margin for error is rapidly dwindling.”

  “Are you saying I have to listen to this constant hiss the entire time I’m out here?”

  “Affirmative,” Rax said.

  “What about the fogged faceplate?”

  “Do you have any visibility at all?”

  “That’s not the point,” I said. “This is my first time spacewalking. Not being able to see—”

  “Logan, we have no more margins for error. Thus, we must change our tactics. We do not have time to exchange opinions with each other.”

  “Right,” I said. As I clung to the giant girder, I looked around.

  We were in the upper part of the Min Ve privateer. As I’d said earlier, the spaceship was really a maze of girders with modules and engines seemingly placed at random.

  Thrust presently glowed blue from two rearward engine modules. A third module had terrible rents along the sides. The gamma and X-rays from the last missile must have done that. There were other damaged modules, as well.

  The two good engines presently propelled the privateer around the Earth in an orbital pattern.

  I counted nine good modules, what Rax referred to as living quarters. There were four engine modules and seven huge cargo modules.

  “Where’s Debby?” I asked.

  “Pull up the display pad if you would,” Rax said. “It is on your left pectoral.”

  I found it, detached the pad and watched as Rax activated it. He put up a schematic of the privateer.

  “The red-colored module is the transporting area,” he said.

  I studied the display pad and then looked around at the privateer. I soon found the targeted module.

  “She’s in there?” I asked, tapping the pad.

  “Logan, you are drifting.”

  I grabbed the girder again.

  “Use your boots,” Rax said. “Magnetize yourself to the metal.”

  I shifted position while turning on the magnets of my boots. The first time, I found that I couldn’t yank my boots off the girder.

  “You have the boots at the highest setting,” Rax said. “Do half that rate.”

  It took a minute before I got the hang of it.

  “This is an inauspicious beginning to the commando mission,” Rax said.

  “You said we don’t have time for negative comments, remember?”

  “You are correct. Let us proceed.”

  “Let me ask again,” I said. “Is Debby there?”

  “I am unwilling to use the suit’s sensors just yet,” Rax said. “That would undoubtedly give away our position.”

  “The only other way is to go and look inside the module.”

  “Therefore, we must go there now,” Rax said.

  I judged the distance. “Right,” I said. “How do I use the thrusters?”

  “The thrusters use cold propulsion,” Rax said. “But using them will likely also give away our position. I suggest you walk there.”

  I studied the maze of girders. I’d have to walk across a module or make a detour to get to my location. I asked Rax about that.

  “Walking across the modules could create telltale sounds. I suggest you make the detour.”

  I laughed sourly. “Do you hear the helmet hiss? That means we don’t have any excess time. We’re going to have to make an educated gamble. I can’t run along the girders because I don’t have the knack down yet. I don’t dare waste time, either. So I have to use the sensors to pinpoint her or use the thrusters to fly to the targeted module. Which choice presents the least risk?”

  “Give me a moment please,” Rax said. “I have many considerations to calculate.”

  The seconds ticked away as my nervousness increased.

  “The thrusters seem like the best choice,” Rax said. “However, they take delicate precision to use correctly. Clearly, you lack any skill in the art. This will be clumsy flying at the best. At the worst—”

  “I know,” I said. “All our options are lousy. But beggars can’t be choosers. Let’s get started. Any pointers?”

  “Be gentle with the trigger throttles. Remember, the faster you go, the harder you will have to brake at the end of the flight. There is negligible friction in space. It will be easy to injure yourself if you fly too fast.”

  “That makes sense,” I said. “Here goes.”

  “Wait,” Rax said. “You must demagnetize your boots before you begin.”

  “Roger that,” I said.

  I shut off the magnets on my soles, shoved off with my legs, and let myself drift to get the hang of it. I took a deep breath.

  “I forgot to mention,” Rax said, “you must turn on your internal gyro-stabilizer first.”

  I decided to view this like a military jet. With Rax’s help, I made a preflight inspection. There was more to this than I’d realized. Finally, I was ready.

  I gently squeezed the throttle trigger. A slight push shoved against my back. I twisted around and saw a trail of white hydrogen exhaust. That was the propellant. It was like having a can of Raid on your back, pressing the nozzle to give yourself motive power.

  Fortunately, the white trail rapidly disappeared.

  I focused on the selected module. Then, I forced myself to look around. I remembered reading about WWI dogfights. Most of the shot-down pilots never saw the enemy because they didn’t look all around all the time. I started looking around now. It was strange flying past the girders and various modules. The aliens were in there. Maybe one of them already had me on his screen.

  I exhaled, shook my head and wondered if I should have turned on the stealth equipment. When I asked Rax about that, he explained that that would be a waste of suit energy as long as I was using
the thrusters.

  Finally, the selected module neared.

  “You must twist around,” Rax said, “so your thruster is aimed at the module.”

  I tried twisting around, and had to ask Rax the trick to doing it. His explanation failed to make sense right away. By the time it did make sense, the module was rushing toward me at what seemed like ramming speed.

  I twisted, grunted and finally viewed my backward flight on the display pad. I used the thruster, but squeezed too much hydrogen spray.

  “Stop, stop,” Rax said, “or you will send us back to where we first appeared.”

  Twisting and grunting, I faced forward again. I felt as if I was moving in slow motion. It seemed to take forever for us to close the final few feet to the module. I did not feel like a ninja commando. I felt like a lead-footed beginner.

  “You have the element of surprise,” I whispered to myself.

  Finally, the bulkhead was almost within reach.

  “Get ready,” Rax said.

  I did, but it still felt as if three linemen slammed me at once. I crashed against the module, the wind knocked out of me again. Fortunately, I kept the helmet from crashing against the module, preventing the crack from lengthening.

  “You must ease your boots onto the bulkhead,” Rax said.

  He had to tell me three times before I got my bearings.

  I put the boots at one-quarter magnet strength. As gently as I could, I put my sole down. Despite my best effort, at the last moment the magnet pulled my boot down by surprise. It must have caused a clang inside the module. Outside, I could not hear a thing, as sound did not travel in a vacuum. I did manage to put the second boot down more lightly.

  “Where’s the hatch?” I asked.

  Rax told me.

  I walked across the module as quietly as possible. It was hard to know if I was making noise inside or not. Since I couldn’t hear anything, I had to trust that I was doing it correctly. The module walking should have been easy. My thighs soon burned at the effort of pulling my boot free and making sure the soles didn’t land too hard on the bulkhead.

  At last, I reached the hatch, out of breath and sweating as the suit’s air-conditioning system blasted me with cooling drafts. During the walk, I’d been doing some hard thinking.

  “Rax,” I said. “This isn’t going to work. I don’t know how to use your suit efficiently. I’m already out of breath.”

  “I have been analyzing our chances,” the crystal admitted. “Watching you in action has led me to the obvious conclusion that they are rapidly dwindling to nothing. You are green in space and need extended practice. Normally, a Guard commando—”

  “Let’s skip the history lesson,” I said. “I need to think.” I was going to follow Argon’s advice.

  “You are wasting precious time.”

  “Shut up, Rax. Let. Me. Think.”

  “As you wish,” the crystal said, almost sounding sullen.

  I stood outside the hatch to the privateer’s transfer module. I’d already been in it once when the Jarnevon had teleported me up to their ship from Far Butte.

  I studied the girders, the modules—the good ones first and then the damaged ones. I thought about the Greenland-privateer battle. We still had to stop the greatest menace of all—the alien Starcore. Could I race through these modules invisible with the too-tight stealth-suit?

  No. I didn’t have the energy or the training to do that. The ninja idea had looked good in theory. In practice—

  “Scratch that,” I whispered to myself.

  The answer came to me in a flash from my subconscious. Maybe Argon had buried the idea there. I don’t know. Like most great ideas, though, it erupted full-blown like Athena from Zeus’s forehead.

  I had to keep using my greatest asset—the Galactic Guard teleporting tech. In order to give it full scope, the privateer’s shield had to go. I did not have the firepower to batter down the privateer’s shield. But maybe I could surprise and rush one module, hopefully an empty one.

  “Rax,” I said. “Which module would I have to knock out in order to short-circuit the ship’s shield?”

  “Working…” Rax said. “Working… I have it. You would not need to enter a module at all. Do you see the central node to your right?”

  “Just a second,” I said. I tore the display pad from its pectoral location, switched it on and had Rax pinpoint the node on the ship schematic. Yes. I could see it now.

  “That is one of the shield generators,” Rax said. “If you rendered it inoperative, it would take several minutes at least for the Min Ve or his crew to reroute the other nodes. In essence, the privateer would lack a shield during that time.”

  “All right,” I said, snapping off magnetic power to my boots. “I have a change of plans…”

  -50-

  I used my spacesuit’s thrusters to maneuver toward the central node. I was finally getting the hang of thruster flying.

  “Don’t get cocky,” I warned myself.

  I could space-maneuver better than I had at first. That didn’t make me an expert. Whenever I thought that I was the cock of the walk, I usually made my worst mistakes. But when I took pains in what I was doing, I usually did a good job.

  Today was the time to take great pains.

  “Warning,” Rax said. “Enemy combatants are exiting a hatch. They are suited and armed. We must assume they have spotted us and are taking action.”

  My heart hammered. This was just what I needed. I’d been getting ready to twist around in order to put myself in a braking position.

  “Where are they?” I shouted.

  “You must remain calm.”

  “Just tell me where they are?” I shouted.

  “To your lower left,” Rax said. “I spy five suited adversaries. They are unlimbering weapons.”

  I activated my suit’s stealth function.

  “That will not work,” Rax said. “They will see us as soon as you begin to brake.”

  “I’m not braking just yet,” I shouted.

  “In that case you will either crash into or miss the central node altogether.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “Now shut up for a moment so I can think.” I grunted and twisted, turning so I faced the enemy. Then I squinted, scanning the strange spaceship, looking for my foes. “I can’t see anyone,” I said.

  “Precisely,” Rax said. “They are wearing dark suits. I doubt you will spot them visually. You will need the display pad for me to point them out to you.”

  “My helmet’s visor should have a heads up display,” I said. “Even I know that much.”

  “Criticizing Guard apparel—”

  “I’m freaking out, Rax. Let me bleed off my nervousness without turning everything into an encyclopedic explanation.”

  I used the display pad, having Rax pinpoint the enemy flyers. I finally saw them, and I saw streaks of dark hydrogen spray now. The enemy flyers squirted the spray in tiny bursts. That was clever, showing their better vacuum-combat training.

  If my rifle had a more sophisticated targeting scope, I might have tried taking them out. Yet doing so would likely render me visible to them. Their survivors could target me in turn.

  I slapped the display pad onto my pectoral and put the rifle in its shoulder harness. I wouldn’t need either of those for this. I twisted around so I faced the direction I was traveling again. I wasn’t going to worry about the five enemies just now. Instead, I detached a magnetic mine from the suit. I set it, watched the central node coming up…coming up—

  I threw the mine at the node. I ripped a second mine off the suit and did the same thing.

  “Are you ready?” I shouted.

  “Explain your tactic,” Rax said.

  “I’m going to use the thruster. I have to move or I’m going to hit the central node.”

  “The others will use your hydrogen-spray trail to target you.”

  “I know,” I said. “So we have to time this just right. The mines are nearing the node. You’re goin
g to have to ignite them at the right moment. I’m hoping the shrapnel doesn’t kill me.”

  “I am beginning to perceive your idea.”

  “Good,” I said. “Once the privateer’s shield goes down, you have to find Debby pronto. Once you do, you’re going to teleport me to her. I’ll kill anyone around her. Afterward, you teleport us back to the Guard-ship.”

  “It is a simple plan,” Rax said.

  “Yeah,” I said with a dry tongue. “Well, here goes. It’s been good knowing you, Rax.”

  I pressed the trigger throttle. Spray thrust from the pack. I jetted upward in relation to the rushing-near node. A second later, I detached the straps of the thruster pack. I shoved it away.

  “That was foolish,” Rax said. “How will you slow down?”

  Three red rays beamed at the thruster pack. One enemy ray barely missed me—my position had shifted slightly from my hurling the ballast that was the thruster pack away from me.

  For every action, there was a reaction. That was Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

  I flew past the node. “Blow the mines, Rax,” I shouted. “Do it now!”

  I twisted back to look. Two bright explosions showed me the igniting mines. Some of the blasts and shrapnel struck the central node, taking it out.

  Red rays beamed once more. Some of the rays struck space junk. The others missed me, which was all that really mattered.

  “Is the ship’s shield down?” I shouted.

  “Yes,” Rax said. “You were successful.”

  “Have you pinpointed Debby?”

  “I am scanning….scanning… I have found her, but there is a problem. It appears the Jarnevon is in the same chamber with her.”

  “That doesn’t matter,” I said. “You’re going to teleport me into that chamber. First, I have to know this, though. Can you bleed off my velocity during the teleportation?”

  “Indeed I can, Logan. I had already foreseen the need and calculated the process. It will be a tricky—”

  “Great!” I shouted. “Are you ready then, or are you going to jaw about it all day?”

  I finally began to fade.