Invaders: Dreadnought Ocelot (Invaders Series Book 4)

by Vaughn Heppner

  I laughed aloud, the sound echoing in my helmet. Then, I became somber. I recalled Debby. She was dead. The vengeance I would enact because of that. The world would learn the dread of Logan Superstar. It would quake under the heel of my strength. I, Odin, King of the Viking Gods—

  I closed my eyelids, squeezing them, and then forcing myself to study the Odin Lens in my gloved hand.

  Quickly, I slid the lens into the barrel. It was the focusing device.

  The Ultimate Annihilator felt unbelievably heavy. It was like a weight on my soul. I had a burden now, a grave responsibility. I could destroy whatever I wanted. I needed merely to aim and fire.

  It was weird, but I had an image of myself as the great avenger of Earth. I would ride like, like—

  The dreamlike quality drained from my mind. I realized that Argon had been active while I assembled the great and terrible weapon.

  Now, however, I stood in a sidecar, a space sidecar. This sidecar was attached to an Antaran space sled. It was just like the one I’d used while traveling through the Asteroid Belt. Argon lay on the sled, his gloved hands on the bars as he expelled thrust. We headed toward the growing brightness of the GGS Dreadnought Ocelot.

  We must have brought the sled and sidecar up with us in the Soyuz capsule.

  In that moment, I felt godlike indeed. Argon had become like Hermes or Mercury, the messenger god in some of the old tales of the Greeks and Romans. I was like Lord Zeus, or Jupiter if one used the Roman name. We headed like American avengers on our space cycle.

  I liked that. I began to puff out my chest. “Hey, Nerelon Brontios,” I said. “Are you ready to die, you dickhead?”

  “No, Logan,” Nerelon replied, surprising me. He’d heard that? “It is you who are about to die, little gnat.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked, before I realized the Polarion had spoken through my helmet earphones.

  “You can still survive this,” Nerelon said in his deep, majestic voice. “I lied to you before. I can indeed revive Debby. I can do it through the Synthesizer. Take any woman you want. We will reshape her thinking and appearance, and you will have your Debby back.”

  He ought not to have said that. I remembered the Ailuros lookalike he’d sent to me. He’d torn out her eyes. That had been wicked. Did he think I wanted any part of that kind of power?

  With the Annihilator, I aimed at the approaching GGS super-ship. Normally, aiming at a distant object like that would have been impossible for a mere man. But the CCC in the Annihilator knew what I wanted and helped me aim exactly.

  “Anything you desire,” Nerelon said, sounding a little worried, it seemed to me. “I can give you whatever you want.”

  “That’s good,” I said, “because I want you to die, you bastard.”

  I pulled the trigger, and baby, that Ultimate Annihilator began to churn inside and shake, rattle and—a pure destructive beam shot out of the Odin Lens. That beam launched across space, and it hit the force field of the mighty GGS dreadnought. The field winked out, which almost disappointed me. I had expected something else, a prolonged, dramatic contest maybe.

  The beam struck the ugly looking Ocelot. The bright exhaust vanished and—

  “Logan, please,” Nerelon Brontios said. “You don’t know—”

  “I don’t know what?” I shouted. “What were you going to say?”

  There was a flash in space.

  “Logan,” a tiny-voiced thing said. “Logan, can you hear me?”

  “What is it, Rax?”

  “You can stop firing. You won. It’s over. The Ocelot and all its crew are destroyed. The Ultimate Annihilator caused their total obliteration.”

  With reluctance, I released my gloved trigger finger. The beam quit, and I felt a strange, tempting desire to turn the Ultimate Annihilator on Earth and watch it vanish, too. Destroying things was fun.

  “Logan,” Rax said. “The gun wants to keep destroying.”

  I found myself turning around. I felt Argon watching me from his prone position on the sled. If he rose to stop me, I’d kill him on the spot.

  “No,” I panted with horror. “I’m done with this.”

  I ripped my arms off the Ultimate Annihilator, and I plucked the Odin Lens out of it. Like that, the compulsion to keep destroying stuff vanished. I’d broken the connection between them and me, and then between them.

  “Logan?” Argon asked through my helmet speakers.

  “Yeah,” I said, feeling sleepy.

  “Congratulations, mortal. You did it. You defeated the most powerful Polarion of all, and you did it without destroying your soul.”

  I blinked at Argon.

  “I know how you feel. I can never fire the weapon again,” he said. “If I do, I will never be able to stop.”

  “What about me?”

  “It is the same. You have used it, and now, you can never use it again or you will become the Ultimate Destroyer.”

  “Heavy stuff,” I muttered.

  “We will have one of the International Space Station personnel dismantle the rest of the weapon.”

  “Huh?”

  “I have changed course,” Argon said. “We’re heading there.”

  “We’ve won? We really killed…your brother?”

  “Yes. Unfortunately, we also annihilated the GGS vessel. The Galactic Guard will likely not be coming to Earth any time soon. Your world was in the Ocelot’s jurisdiction. It will be many years before a new dreadnought takes up the Ocelot’s old post.”

  “So now what happens?” I asked.

  “That is something you and I will have to decide.”

  -53-

  Argon and I made it to the International Space Station just in time for Ailuros to teleport us back down to the subterranean T-chamber near the Great Machine. Argon had left her in the chamber for just this eventually.

  In his spacesuit, Argon lumbered to the controls, gently hip-checking Ailuros out of the way. After tearing off his gloves, he teleported down the space sled in pieces. I dragged them off the dais to make room. He also brought the Ultimate Annihilator, manipulating the machine so the tube, stone and circuit appeared separately. I’d carried the Odin Lens in a case, so we already had it here.

  It was strange. I took off my helmet in time to see Argon and Ailuros stare at each other. Argon had removed his helmet. Could they communicate telepathically? I wouldn’t have put it past them. How long had it been since they’d spoken or seen each other like this?

  “Argon,” she finally said.

  “Wife,” he replied.

  He held out his arms to her. She bit her lip and looked away, and she noticed me staring at them.

  “What are we going to do with him?” she asked.

  “What do you suggest?” Argon said.

  “Kill him, as he laid hands upon me.”

  “Yes,” I said, speaking up in my defense. “I knocked her out because she wanted to maim me.”

  Argon held up a single open hand toward me, forestalling.

  I wanted to say more, but I got the message and held my tongue.

  “Wise,” Rax whispered barely loud enough for me to hear.

  Argon stared at Ailuros. Slowly, she approached him. He held out his arms again. She lowered her head and entered his embrace. He hugged her. She lifted her face up to him, and he kissed her.

  “I’m not sorry about any of this,” she said.

  “I know,” he said.

  “But…”

  Argon arched a single eyebrow.

  “Maybe we can discuss it later,” she said softly.

  He nodded, and he released her. She moved behind him and no longer seemed interested in me.

  “Your world is safe from the Ocelot and Nerelon Brontios,” Argon told me. “The rest of us will be leaving shortly. We will use a portal to go quietly. I do not think any of us will be coming back to Earth soon.”

  “What about—?”

  “A moment,” Argon said, interrupting me. “I’m not finished speaking.”
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  I nodded. It sounded like he was saying goodbye. Maybe he wanted to leave us “mortals” some last instructions, though.

  “Ailuros will return the Prometheus Stone to the ziggurat,” Argon said. “A few others will accompany her in order to take care of the High Sliths, in case they wish to thwart her. I will carry the Odin Lens, taking it to a world unknown to you. The Celestial Cybernetic Circuit is another matter. I will not leave it here, but it will go…elsewhere.”

  “That leaves the shell of the weapon,” I said.

  “It will remain on Earth.”

  “Uh…do you have a suggestion where it should go?”

  “If it were me,” Argon said, “I would put it somewhere down here.”

  I nodded. That sounded like a good idea.

  Argon cocked his head, finally signing. “You did well, Logan. You’ve proven yourself a resourceful agent. I endorse your remaining on Earth. Now, I lack any authority in the Galactic Guard. The highest officials there no doubt suspect there are living Polarions in the universe. But we are not in communication, as none of us wish to deal with them. Still, I suspect those officials would agree with me in suggesting that you maintain your anonymity here. You’re going to face some hard decisions in the next few days. I suggest that you gather the last agents of the Counter-Alien Unit. Chose a new director and decide who should run and maintain the Great Machine.”

  “You want me to rule Earth?”

  “On no account,” Argon said. “I suggest you refrain from that in any way. Your world isn’t ready yet to face the truth of Galactic civilization.”

  “It’s too late for that,” I said. “Freaking meteors took out two huge cities. The nuclear-armed nations launched most of their ballistic missiles. The International Space Station people saw us vanish. Spooks everywhere know about us and about the Ocelot, and that includes some hardcore hombres and too many elite soldiers.”

  “Logan, surely you are not so naïve to believe that governments admit the truth to their peoples. There are endless cover-ups on a daily basis. This will simply be another one.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “The media is expert at diverting people to other things,” Argon said.

  “What are you saying?”

  “The Great Machine must remain hidden. Now that Sand is gone, someone must take his place. It strikes me that CAU personnel would be the best choice for doing that. CAU must learn to recruit choice individuals from everywhere. You have some special tools for doing that, and for wiping memories if you must.”

  I swallowed hard. That sounded like a big job, a heavy one, full of terrible responsibility. I didn’t think I was the right man for the job. Fighting aliens was one thing. Being a bureaucrat running a hidden organization…I didn’t want any part of that.

  Argon cocked his head again. “Ah. It has already begun. I must leave sooner than I thought.”

  “What’s begun?” I asked.

  Argon’s brow furrowed. Abruptly, he marched to the T-panel and manipulated it quickly.

  The dais began to glow. Seconds later, Jenna and a few other CAU personnel appeared. One of them was bleeding from the shoulder. It looked like a bullet wound.

  “Logan,” Jenna said. “We need a doctor. Morris is hit.”

  I stared at her in disbelief.

  “Chinese and Israeli commandos attacked us,” Jenna said. “I thought we were goners until we teleported here.”

  “Why did they attack you?” I shouted.

  Argon chuckled.

  I whirled toward him. “You think that’s funny?” I shouted.

  “Study your world’s history,” Argon said. “It will give you a clue as to why they attacked. Now, we’re leaving.”

  Of course. They wanted the alien tech for themselves. “What should I do next?” I said.

  Argon collected the boxed Prometheus Stone, the CCC and the Odin Lens. Then, Ailuros and he ran to the T-dais. A second later, they disappeared to who knows where.

  “Jenna,” I said helplessly.

  Two of the CAU agents had laid Morris on the floor.

  I stared at Morris for a long moment and finally made a decision, hurrying to the T-dais.

  “Do you know how to use this thing?” I asked Rax.

  “I have been studying it,” the crystal replied. “Yes. What do you want me to do?”

  -54-

  The Chinese and Israelis weren’t the only ones to make a grab for the control of alien technology. They were merely the first. Other nations’ spies and elite soldiers got into the act, too.

  Argon’s reference to history made sense later. I think he meant WWII. Back then, most of the world’s nations had joined in order to fight Nazi Germany and militant Japan. The leaders of England, France and the United States had most definitely not trusted Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union before that. During WWII, Stalin and the others appeared to be best buds. America shipped massive amounts of war materiel to Russia so she could keep fighting the Germans. Most people know the story. Germany and Japan lost, and the alliance between Russia and America almost immediately become strained. Truman and company dropped the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan partly in order to show Stalin that he’d better be a good boy or else.

  Stalin didn’t listen, though, and raised the Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe. That was the beginning of the Cold War between the former WWII allies.

  There were endless historical examples about this kind of thing. Alexander the Great’s officers fought some of the greatest military campaigns and battles in history. They did so as a band of brothers. Once Alexander died, though, most of the brilliant officers started backbiting and maneuvering against each other. They split Alexander’s huge empire into various parts, creating kingdoms for themselves and marching phalanxes at each other while using the tactics Alexander and his father Philip had taught them.

  The point of the history lesson was that when a great danger arises threatening many, men often band together. Once that mighty danger passes, the band dissolves, and the leaders of the various sides consider how to grab the most power before the other guys do.

  The powers or nations of the world had united against Nerelon Brontios and the Ocelot. Those threats were gone. Now, men and women lusted after the alien technology they’d seen. If nothing else, they wanted to grab it before the other countries got hold of it before they did.

  Did such actions make those people evil? Sometimes, it did. Sometimes, those actions indicated that those people were stupid and shortsighted. What would I have done in their place?

  I don’t know. I wasn’t in their place. I believe I had a better idea of what was out there, though. But how could I control the situation? How could I arrange it so things went back to normal or as normal as could be managed?

  What happened was this: With Rax’s help and Jenna’s suggestions, I teleported every CAU agent I could find down here with us. That gave me less than one hundred people. I told them the situation. Jenna backed me, while Rax told me about the memory erasers Sand had in storage.

  The giant robots appeared to have used those on certain people throughout the centuries.

  Anyway, after a big speech, I asked if anyone wanted out. Three people did. We experimented on them using the memory erasers. I’m sorry to say that we wiped the first man’s mind blank. He died a day later. The second time, we got it right. The same happened with the single woman who was tired of all this and wanted to rest.

  Afterward, I ordered them into isolation cells. We would watch them for a time, and then put them into cities with easy government jobs.

  I had a plan for taking care of that part of the problem.

  After that, the rest of the CAU agents began thinking and making suggestions. If this wasn’t a team effort, I knew it wasn’t going to work.

  With Rax’s technical knowledge and aid, Sand’s surface scanning technology and the experimental teleportation machine, we caused every alien artifact or Polarion item to disappear fro
m sight and reappear down here. We wanted to make sure the world’s spymasters and elite soldiers had nothing to fight over.

  Afterward, Jenna’s picked team monitored the news outlets, trying to gage the world’s reactions to all this. The major media outlets had already turned to different topics. A horribly destructive hurricane in the Philippines was the main story. That would indicate most of the major world government leaders wanted to suppress interest in alien dangers and technologies.

  The internet was different. There, millions of people speculated on what had really happened. Some of the sharper bloggers had figured out the truth. Luckily, although many commentators on the blogs believed them, they didn’t believe them enough to do anything about it.

  The greatest threat appeared a week later, and it was only a chance scan that had picked it up.

  -55-

  The immensity of the subterranean realm of the Great Machine awed me. As I’d often said earlier, it was under Utah and parts of Nevada. I had been using a leftover Antaran flyer, traveling from one end of the state-sized area to the other.

  Before he was destroyed, Sand had collected an impressive amount of alien machinery. Fortunately for us, a few of his robots had survived. I’d spoken with the leader, and he’d agreed to continue servicing the Great Machine. He told me, though, that he would soon need help.

  As I flew tonight, I felt more than ever like Atlas of legend. He had been a bad titan, put to work after losing a war against the gods. He’d held the sky upon his shoulders. The crushing weight of the job was his immortal punishment.

  Sand had done so much, collecting the necessary lubricants and spare parts to keep the Great Machine running all the time for thousands of years. It would take thousands of people to do what Sand and his robots had routinely done every day. Maybe it was time to repair the robot-making machines. A robot rebellion would always be a latent threat, however.

  “Logan,” Rax said. “Your comm light is blinking.”

  “Oh,” I said, noticing it on the dashboard. I turned on the comm.

  “Logan, Jenna here,” she said. “There’s a problem, a big one. I need a decision.”