Published by Gecko Print Publishing (2018)
Copyright © 2018 by Martin McConnell
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews – without the express written permission of its author or publisher.
Don’t be a pirate.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
JACOB SWAN’S ELBOWS BORE THE HEAVY WEIGHT of a tired mind, suspended by frustrated fingers. The box laying on the desk appeared simple in design. A black cylinder ribbed with silver uprights evenly spaced around the circumference. The top was shiny black, and came to life with dozens of glowing alien symbols when powered up. Above those, a purple ball with a hole in the top for a one-inch antenna tube.
The tube had was shattered during the recent infiltration of the alien base, and all of his years at MIT could not help solve the mystery of how it worked. This was a new communication mechanism targeted at controlling any person or alien infected with the virus. Without the signal, they were mindless zombies. With it, they could accomplish anything, hostile or otherwise.
Air rushed in from the open door as someone entered the lab. A tiny figure moved in the corner of his vision. It could only be Jennifer Reyes, the head of R and D. She was the smallest person in the base, and walked with barely audible steps. He’d been crushing on her for the first few weeks, but she never showed any interest. Every communication between the two of them was stale and professional. She never flinched, not since the colonel gave her a talking-to about one of her progress reports.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Nothing. I tested some wire probes, but it’s not sending a radio frequency of any kind. The power supplied to the antenna is a high voltage pulse modulation of some kind, but it doesn’t make any sense as a radio signal. I did get the box to power up, I think I have their voltages figured out.”
“You didn’t find any other antenna tubes in the wreckage?”
“Nothing. The crafts must be using another method of control, maybe buried in the cockpit somewhere, embedded with the flight controls. The crash crews didn’t bring anything back that even remotely resembles this.”
Jennifer ran her pale fingers over the orb, dropping two inside the antenna holder. Beside the device on the desk was a broken glass tube with a round plastic device attached to the bottom. He was sure that the device held the secrets of the contraption. Her blond ponytail was pulled tight, as if she’d just gotten dressed. Even through the bulky suit, he could image the perfect shape underneath.
“Still working late?” she asked.
“Too tired to work. Mind is too busy to let me sleep. I know the colonel is going to want this thing operational, but if I can’t even figure out the transmission, then it’s useless to start deciphering the icons.”
“I have some thoughts on those. I have Rick and the squiddy ready for testing, along with an army of those red soldier things. Colonel Crabby Pants has been up my butt about security measures, even though I’ve told him over and over that the things are harmless without the controller.”
“The the human hybrid things are acting the same as Rick?”
She nodded. “Dumb as a post, and eating all of our food. We got enough of their biomass canisters to keep them going for a while, but Savage keeps stealing them for her research. I don’t know what she’s researching exactly, maybe spices to make the crap taste better.”
“Not a lot of faith in Dr. Savage?”
“Her job is to create a solution for the alien virus. It’s impossible. I don’t even know why they’re still hanging around over there. Doing autopsies and counting organs. Waste of time. But I guess the Colonel built the lab in the base, he wants to get the most out of it.”
“What about your lab?”
“Yeah, that. I’m kind of waiting on you and Savage to get me something I can use. They’re definitely deploying the virus as control mechanism. I’ve been over the video from the base raid a hundred times. They’re here to harvest biomass, and I suspect they want us to do the farming.” Her eyes drooped closed. “I hate to say it, Jacob. But everything pretty much depends on you. We can equip all the weapons we want. They aren’t going to do a bit of good once the infection starts. I’m surprised the monsters haven’t already deployed it. Maybe they have, just not here.”
“Maybe they’re waiting for something,” said Jacob. Talking strategy gave his mind a rest from the problem at hand, a tactic that spawned solutions from thin air in the past. Sometimes the best way to solve a technical issue was to focus on something else and let his subconscious chew on it. “They can already convert humans into red roid monsters. Why wait?”
“Dr. Savage doesn’t think those things started as human. Another idiot point for her. I don’t know why they’re waiting. Maybe there’s something wrong with the snake venom deployment. Seems to me they have everything they need for a takeover.”
“They might still be worried about retaliation.”
“Maybe. I don’t see how they’re going to get around that. The government gave them a pass for now, but it won’t last once they start infecting people by the millions. My new model says that they’re setting up deployment centers for the virus to infect the global population as quickly as possible in one burst, but the new orbital traffic that the Colonel gave me doesn’t match.”
“Orbital traffic?”
“One of his trench coat friends showed up with a pen drive full of data from tracking stations around the globe. We shut down their base in Utah, but it looks like they have several of these little research facilities. The outback in Australia, a rain forest base in Brazil, one in some Chinese mountain range, and a couple others. One of them in the desert in North Africa. There’s even been alien activity in the middle of Texas somewhere, but it looks like a much smaller operation. Hardly worth noting. If they wanted an infection to spread. . .if I was making it, I’d drop the equipment near a city at least.”
“All those places are out of reach from our helicopters, too.” A hopeless sinking feeling filled his gut.
“The colonel is working on something new, something secret. He hasn’t told me or John anything about it. Arrogant ass still thinks he can win this. I thought maybe he was making the whole thing up when we got out here, but he’s too committed for that. He’s serious about taking down the threat, no matter how impossible it is. We’re all going to die out here in this damn desert.” She paused with a twisted expression on her face. “I guess it’s better than turning into an alien zombie.”
“Secret?”
“I don’t know what it is.”
“Well, I know how he’s paying for it. He hauled off two of the alien motors and a bunch of bodies and loaded them on a truck. He’s selling alien technology for funding. No idea who he’s selling it to. Word around the campfire is that some of the stuff is going to Columbia.”
“Drug cartels? They have money I suppose.”
“Save us from aliens only to reign in a new drug war. Genius move.”
“Nobody accused him of being smart. Anyway, I need to get back to work. Let me know the second you figure something out. And if you can, take another snapshot of the symbols and send it to me. I want to see if they are changing at all over time.”
“Can do.”
She marched out without another word. The lab was empty. Maybe if he figured this thing out, she would notice him. His hand skulked toward another stick of chocolate. They were cheap, off-brand t
reats, but a nice consolation that was afforded after a surprise request from one of his engineers. He still couldn’t believe that the colonel actually granted it.
Colonel Ryan Crisp woke in a fantastic mood. Things were finally looking up for the project. The destruction of the alien base was the first step in stopping their activities on Earth, and his own underground compound, for the moment, had been converted into a research facility. The remaining troops keep up their training, while his top notch scientists and engineers struggled with the problem of using the alien’s mind-control virus against them.
He entered the command center, where Stark was in his normal spot behind the radar.
“Any contacts?” asked the Colonel.
Stark spun in his chair, looking better than he had in weeks. He had obviously snuck in some sleep last night. His black hair was spiked up, and he shaved this morning. “Nothing. Not a single contact in a week. I think the aliens gave up on Utah.”
“Excellent.” He thought about the day ahead. It was going to be busy. He would be meeting the General outside of Amarillo later to deliver the good news. They were one step away from having a weapon that could combat the alien virus indirectly, by stopping any and all activity on the planet. It wouldn’t stop their bombers, but he was certain another team was working on that problem somewhere else. For now, foiling the virus delivery was the principle concern. “I’m going to do my rounds. Want me to bring you anything when I come back?”
“I’ll probably need a coffee refill by then.”
“Done.”
He left the control room and crossed the hall into the galley for a quick bite of stale bacon and rehydrated eggs. Hot coffee warmed his chest, and a fresh cup followed him upstairs into the main compound. The good feeling began to fade as he emerged from the stairwell to an empty commons area.
He crossed the giant space, and glanced right to see the whole crew gathered around a big television in the rec room. “What’s all this?”
As soon as he entered, his heart fluttered. They were watching something unbelievable. A ticker ran across the bottom of a presidential address: First contact with an alien race announced. They’re here to help us stop the terrorist bombings, and achieve world peace.
“What’s going on?”
The president of the United States read from his teleprompter. “A great day for America, and for the world. Our new friends from above have helped us identify the source of the city bombings. A rogue military group, code name Operation Raindrop, has been bombing cities and carrying out nuclear tests. This isn’t going to happen on our soil, and plans are already underway to locate their launch site and take them out. If you’re a member of this group. I, well we, have four words for you. Your days are numbered.”
A squiddy appeared on the screen, making the same popping and clicking noises as the one in Jennifer’s lab. A caption under the huge black eyes delivered a message in English.
It’s time for Earth people to put away childish things, to stop fighting each other, and evolve. We are here to help the transition. Together, we can cure every human ailment, stop crime and war, and help humans to begin exploring the universe. We believe the human species is ready to make the transition, just as we did long ago.
Cheering and clapping from the attendees of the press conference roared from the television. In the small room, thirty or forty pairs of silent eyes turned toward the colonel, coated in confusion. They wanted answers.
“You’re all aware that this is complete shit.”
“What aren’t you telling us, Ryan?” asked John, the commander of the strike teams.
“I’ve told you everything,” he said. “This is just more lies so that they can calm the population before invasion. If anything, it means they’re closer to attack than we thought. Maybe you guys should get back to work.”
“You’re reaching,” said Jennifer Reyes. Her eyes flashed not in confusion, but anger.
He had plucked them from their lives and brought them here to fight an alien threat in secret, and this wasn’t the first time that his motives had been challenged. Now that jackass public speaker was announcing to the world that the monsters were friendly. Puppets.
His gaze combed through the crowd in search of black hair, but she wasn’t present. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to see Dr. Savage, or why her opinion suddenly mattered so much.
“It’s all bullshit. Turn it off and get back to work. I’m meeting with the general this afternoon. I’ll get this sorted out.”
He walked out before they could respond. His morning had been unsettled by a new aggressive move by the alien scum. They had just rolled out their propaganda machine, and from here out, things could only get worse. Maybe they had made a new threat to world governments. Maybe they squeezed the general about the operation. Maybe they were just pissed that he succeeded in demolishing their little underground compound in Utah.
Propaganda in warfare was hardly new, but he wondered how the hell the squids got the operation name. Nobody knew about the mission. Not the president. Not congress. Just himself and the general. Announcing it on public television was either a direct threat, or some kind of coded message meant as a warning.
Whatever was happening, he needed to figure it out fast, but there was one stop to make first. He burst through the doors of the lab, where Nicole Savage was standing around a monitor with four researchers beside her. The sound of the president concluding his address came from the computer speakers.
“It’s a crock of shit,” he said.
Nicole turned toward him. “I know,” she said in her Spanish accent. “They brought that virus, and there’s nothing good about it. Their way of ending war and disease is to infect us with slavery and servitude.”
“At least someone around here is on my side.”
“What do you mean?”
“Most of the crew is in the rec room plotting a mutiny as we speak.”
“They’ll get over it, Colonel. All they have to do is head down to Jennifer’s lab and see Rick. They will realize it’s all lies.”
“I hope your right.”
“When are you leaving to meet your General friend?”
“In a while. Going to take Stark coffee first, and fill him in. Any progress on your research?”
“I isolated a new gene code from the red soldiers that we captured at the alien compound. The guys were right. They started as human. I ran a test with the rats. The new version of the virus, forty-eight hours after injection, changes the hemoglobin in their blood to hemocyanin.”
“English, Savage.”
“It’s either converting their blood from the red kind to the blue kind, or generating the blue kind while purging the red.”
“And that’s bad, right?”
“Very bad. Makes it even harder to stop the virus. We’re not going to find a cure. I’m sorry.”
“Anything valuable that you’ve learned from them?”
“The skin is tough. I think the virus is purging the heme—the um, red part of the blood, and using it as a skin hardener.”
“Scab skin?”
“Iron oxide foil. It’s not exactly armor plating, but that red color is from the deposit, and it gives the new skin more resistance to abrasion. I’m giving up on the virus, other than charting each mutation as we recognize them. If Jacob doesn’t get the mind controller working, then our soldiers need the best data they can get for combat. With your permission, I’d like to sacrifice a couple of the live ones for munitions testing. We should be able to figure out the best kind of weapons to use against them, and exploit any weaknesses.”
“You want to torture them now?”
“I hate harming any living thing. But if we’re going to fight a war against the monsters, we need to know the best way to take them down. Maybe the virus, while strengthening certain aspects of biology, is also weakening other parts. If that’s true across the board, for mammals as well as the alien troops, then we can take them down quicker, which means less f
irefights and better survivability for our guys in the field. I want to start with concussion waves. I’m sure Jacob has a few speakers laying around over there, and his team can whip up whatever we need.”
“Sounds like a plan. Start on it whenever you’re ready. Keep me informed.”
“I will, Colonel.”
He turned for the door.
“Colonel.”
His neck twisted to bring her beautiful bronzed skin into view. She didn’t have her hair pulled back this morning. It draped over her shoulders, just as she appeared when visiting his office for their nightcap in the evenings.
“Good luck today with the general.”
“Thanks.”
He flipped the laptop open, surrounded by the bare concrete walls that separated him from desert dirt. Stark had his coffee, and there was something the colonel needed to check. The room was decorated only by a world map stuck with a scattering of colored pushpins. A black window appeared, opening a secure channel to the outside world. He stabbed at the keys. Even though he never learned proper typing, he was incredibly proficient tapping out what he wished to say.
We still on for the meeting today?
He stared at the blinking cursor while taking a sip of coffee. The general didn’t take long to answer. The old man was still waking up bright and early.
We are. Tell your team to stay put. Leave as soon as you can, and let me know when you get to A-town.
“Tell my team to stay put?” He pondered over the odd communication for a moment. This was starting to look more and more like the incident in Africa. Troops had been deployed on the ground, and a congressional oversight committee decided that they weren’t important enough to bring back, due to potential fallout from US involvement in the conflict. At the time, he was told to sever all communication with the soldiers.
He placed his response carefully, just in case someone else was watching the wire.
Have you located the enemy splinter cell?
This was a reference to his own team, but he figured the general would understand the purpose of the question. He was fishing to see how soon they would come after his facility, assuming they could find it.
Invasion Page 1