"In case we don't all make it back..." began Alice.
"It's been good working with you too," said Mike.
"I was going to say that you still haven't given back my copy of Alice in Wonderland so you might as well consider it a gift," finished Alice stiffly.
Mike shook his head and trudged towards his ship.
The four of them left the station and headed for the approaching force.
"Target ships attacking others, the aliens aren't as good as we are at improvising,” Mike reminded them.
They waited in the field of asteroids, hoping some of the aliens might fall prey to a mine, but no such luck. The aliens broke formation and attacked, with four concentrating on each of the PD craft.
"Dammit, there's too many of them!" Gupta complained. "Even when I get a hand-off, I can't take a shot without getting fried."
"Keep at it," Mike told them, "we've got to hope for a break."
After a few minutes, Alice came on the channel.
"If one of us drew a bunch of them off toward a mine, and then we detonated it..."
"It would take out whoever was in the bait ship."
"I think the aliens know this is too evenly matched. We might be able to take out more than 4 of them at once."
Mike considered this.
"OK, I'll...what are you doing, Alice?!"
"Hey, it's my idea."
Alice had taken a turn that left her wide open. Eight enemy craft pursued her.
"And there are eight ships coming after me. We gotta jump on this!" Alice barked at the station: "Base command, get ready to blow mine 427 on my mark!"
"Alice, don't do it, let me..."
"Mark!"
There was a brilliant flash of light. Alice and her pursuers were engulfed in the blast. The enemy paused in their assault -- even they had not expected this.
A black mood descended on Mike - he did not remember opening fire but a short time later he was aware that base command was desperately trying to get his attention.
"Hold your fire! We need more ships!"
The ship in front of him exploded in a fireball.
"Oops."
When the dust settled, the aliens had lost their entire flotilla of 16 ships. PD had lost Alice's ship, and one other had sustained minor damage. The Guided had captured 2 others. The rest had been destroyed.
* * *
Mike didn’t remember much of the next few hours – he suddenly noticed that Tom was talking to him. He realized that Tom had been there for quite some time.
“She went out the way she wanted, and she took 8 of them with her.”
Mike put his head in his hands.
“She was a pain in the ass. Some days I thought the only reason she stayed on was to annoy me.”
“What?” Tom said, taken aback.
“I miss her.”
“Me too.” Tom said after a while.
So do I.
“Why do you think she had to go off and die like that? I mean, why didn’t she let me do it?”
Tom thought for a while.
“Did you ever consider that she cared for you?”
“What? She never showed it.”
“There are other ways than sleeping with someone.”
Mike glanced at Tom.
“OK, so that’s true, but she also acted like a jerk most days.”
“She’s also dead because she took a bullet for the team.”
“Yeah.”
Mike got up and headed back to his bunk.
* * *
Interrogation of the captured pilots revealed that, while the loss of so many ships was a definite setback, the aliens were far from harmless. On the other hand, the Puppeteers did not send out any more sorties.
A week after the engagement, Major Sterling approached Mike.
“It appears that you made quite an impression on the enemy.”
“How’s that?” Mike asked.
“They’re asking for a cease-fire.”
Mike raised an eyebrow. “That should be welcome news, especially after where we were a week ago.”
“True, but they have conditions.” Major Sterling crossed his arms. “They want you to negotiate for the humans and they want negotiations to take place at their base.”
Mike stared. “This must be a trick.”
“I agree.”
“But I think we should talk to them anyway.”
“Also agree. Please come to the comm center at 18:00 hours.” The major walked off.
That means 6pm.
I knew that.
Mike met Sterling at the comm center at the appointed hour.
“I’m going to talk to them first.” Sterling said.
Actually I think I should do the talking.
“My blob thinks that it should talk with them first.”
“Duly noted.” The major turned to a subordinate. “Stevens, open a channel.”
“Yes sir.”
The view screen displayed the image of a middle aged man.
“We asked to talk to Mike,” the man said.
“Well, you’re talking to me.”
The other man sighed and continued. “We also want to talk here, not using a communications channel.” The man held up a hand before Sterling could cut in. “What would it take to make this happen?”
“I don’t know, what have you got?”
“How about if we throw in a couple of ships?”
Major Sterling glanced at Mike, who was equally surprised.
“Make it six ships.”
“Three.”
“Four, but we get the ships first.”
“Done.”
Sterling closed the channel.
“Don’t tell me that you are actually thinking about doing this?” Mike asked him incredulously.
“I doubt very much they’ll follow through.” Mike looked at him. “Besides, if they do, we get four more ships.”
It’s a reasonable exchange.
Nobody asked you.
I’m just saying.
* * *
To everyone’s surprise, the Puppeteers made good on their promise. The ships were delivered a week after the conversation without any tricks or traps. Later that day major Sterling approached Mike.
“I’ve been thinking about this meeting the Puppeteers want…”
“Yes, I think I’ll go.”
“What?!”
What?! demanded Mike’s Puppeteer.
It seems like the honorable thing to do.
Discretion is the better part of valor, you know.
Major Sterling boggled for a second but recovered. “That’s brave, but there’s no need to do that.”
“They’ve got me curious – what could be so important that they’re willing to give up four ships?”
“Well, you’ve got me there.”
“And if they are actually interested in peace that would be a major victory for Earth.”
“Also true.” The Major hesitated, but Mike cut in before he could say anything.
“I think I should go alone on this one.”
Mike and Sterling looked each other in the eye for a bit, and broke eye contact at the same time.
Does this mean I can stay behind?
No.
“Actually I was going to say that if you want to try this crazy stunt, you should go alone.”
“Thanks for offering to go with me.”
Sterling looked puzzled. “I didn’t offer to go with you. But there is one thing.”
“Yes?”
“Take the worst ship we have – I don’t want to lose something good to the blobs.”
* * *
Next day, Mike found himself heading for the Puppeteer base in one of the ships that had been damaged in the engagement.
By the way, you don’t have to thank me for going with you.
Oh, thanks for going with me.
You’re welcome.
The ship groaned omin
ously. Mike tapped his fingers. The ship sped on towards the alien base. After several hours, Mike was feeling on edge.
I spy, with my little eye…
You don’t have any eyes. Mike informed the alien irritably.
Just trying to lighten the mood, the Puppeteer thought in a hurt mental tone.
Any idea why they want to talk to me?
Don’t you mean ‘us?’
Right, why they want to talk to us?
Well, I doubt they want peace – I mean, they could have done that over a comm channel. They must either want you personally out of the way or there really is something they want to impress on you.
Any idea what they want to show us?
Nope. I think they just want you dead.
Mike was about to say “Don’t you mean ‘us?’” but sighed instead.
We’re getting close.
Mike brought up a display of the alien ship.
Well, is there anything you can tell me about the base from here?
Yes.
Well?!!
It looks like they are still making repairs.
‘Still?’
I have these memories that are surfacing now. The ship was damaged.
How? We didn’t hit it.
I’m not sure. When we get closer see if you can get a better look at the other side of the thing.
The comm unit signaled an incoming call. Mike opened a channel and saw the same man that Sterling had talked to.
“Hello, I am Gideon.”
“I’m Mike.”
The other man frowned. “I already knew that. Dock at bay 7 - your Puppeteer should be able to supply you with the required procedures.”
The channel closed.
Damn. Mike’s puppeteer said.
Yeah, not very talkative, was he?
No, I mean the ship.
What about it?
It’s been badly damaged.
Now that Mike was paying attention, he saw what looked like the result of a large explosion on one side of the ship. On the opposite side was what looked like a hole where something massive had gone through. There were several teams of people engaged in repair.
Mike’s ship docked with the station. When they got to the other side of the airlock, the man from the comm was there. “Good afternoon.”
“Hard to tell out here.”
“There is that. We thought you might appreciate a short tour of the ship before we got down to business.”
“Thanks.”
Gideon showed them around the craft. Despite the damage, Mike estimated that there were several hundred people currently living on it. Gideon made a point of showing Mike that there were several operational workshops, all of which were busy.
“As you can see, this is where we are assembling some new ships.” Gideon pointed out.
“That’s a ship? It’s not even round like a flying saucer!”
Gideon looked pained.
“That’s because they are still working on some of the internal mechanisms. There – you can see them working on the control room.”
“If you say so.”
Gideon grimaced “Trust me.”
“And those, those thingamajigs – what are those things on them?” Mike pointed at one of the workers who appeared to have a large spider-like thing crouching over him.
“That is a symbiotic exoskeleton. It gives the wearer incredible strength and dexterity that they would not normally have. All controlled through the wearer’s Puppeteer.”
“It looks like a spider.”
“Superior strength and dexterity,” Gideon said through gritted teeth. It seemed like he was about to explain further when he seemed to deflate. “Come on, we can skip the rest.”
Mike shrugged and followed Gideon.
Finally, they came to a large room in the center of the base. Unlike the rest of the craft, this area did not have artificial gravity. When Mike saw what it contained he understood why. It was a single, giant Puppeteer.
The thing was more than 30 feet across, roughly spherical, with pseudopods continually forming and being reabsorbed.
The Elder, Mike’s Puppeteer told him.
Thanks for telling me ahead of time.
There was something blocking my memory of this.
Like the one that keeps you from being able to recall where you guys are from?
Exactly.
“I am the Elder,” A stentorian voice informed him.
“Thanks, I already knew that.” Mike thought for a second “How are you able to talk? You don’t have a mouth.”
“There is an interface that I am using to communicate with you.”
Sure enough, there was a gizmo with speakers, half way down the chamber.
“Why did you need to bring me here? Couldn’t you have just talked to me via the videophone?”
“That will become apparent with time.”
Mike considered this.
“So now that I’ve seen you, can I go?”
“We want peace with the humans.”
“You’ve got a strange way of asking – PD thinks that even if you are serious about a cease-fire, it’s just a ploy to gain some time.”
“The invasion was a mistake. It was an act of desperation.” The Elder writhed disconcertingly while saying this.
“I’ll say - it cost 50 million people.”
“The plague was unleashed by humans, not by us.”
“True enough, but the alternative was to remain under your control.”
“Not exactly, it was an extremist faction that wanted to seize control of the Earth.”
“Oh please, that was the work of some ‘extremists?’”
“Yes and no.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The Elder formed a bunch of small sub-blobs, which orbited about the creature for a bit and then were reabsorbed.
“Do you see how we are able to divide? To form sub-units from the whole?”
“Yes.”
“When my mind is divided over some issue, I can put the idea into the sub-units. The whole is once again harmonious and the sub-units can pursue the idea.”
“But you let them invade the Earth.”
“Yes – we were trying to save you.”
“From what?”
A holographic image formed, showing a group of lizard men, complete with rifles.
“Oh please…you can’t be serious!”
The Elder seemed to expand and then shrink.
“We knew you would react that way! If we are going to save humanity, the entire planet is going to have to put everything behind stopping the lizards. You people can’t even agree on global warming – how are you going to get everyone to work together to fight some lizard men that you don’t even believe exist?”
He has a point.
Nobody asked you!
“Look, 50 million people are dead – Alice is dead – couldn’t you have at least tried to talk to us first?”
“As I said, the invasion was the work of extremists. We were…desperate.”
“Explain.”
The Elder was silent for a while, writhing about, then it resumed. “As you may have guessed, we did not evolve naturally. We were created to exist symbiotically with another race.”
“Over one thousand of your Earth years ago, the race that created us built this ship and set out to visit your solar system. During the voyage here, the ship was hit by some sort of highly dense object.”
“What, a black hole?” interrupted Mike.
“Silence!” The Elder thundered. After a bit of agitated movement, the Elder continued.
“The initial strike killed most of the crew outright, the rest died in the ensuing attempts to repair the ship afterwards. The ship’s reserves of atmosphere were destroyed – while they were able to repair the hull breaches, they slowly died of asphyxiation.”
“We are better suited to life in space than they were, so many of the
Puppeteers survived where their hosts did not. But this presented its own problem.”
Mike waited, but the Elder did not continue.
“Well? What happened?”
“You must understand that we are not meant to exist without a host. During the rest of the trip to your solar system we went…insane.”
“Let me get this straight – you went crazy because you didn’t have anyone to control?”
“We were not meant to control others, we are supposed to help our hosts!” The Elder thrashed about angrily. “When we came to your system and saw the situation we decided that we could not risk losing our only chance for new partners. It was the wrong decision.”
“And you expect me to believe this story?”
The Elder was silent for a time. “There is one way to be sure.”
“And what’s that?”
“Your partner could merge with us for a time. Focusing on what we have said, it should be able to determine whether what we have told you is true.”
“That sounds crazy,” Mike said.
At least that part is true.
He could also try to exert control over you.
That is also true, but it’s a risk we’ve got to take.
How’s that? That thing is desperate! I’m not going to risk you just to see if this fairy tale is true!
Mike felt a rush of affection and amusement from his Puppeteer.
Thanks for the thought, but don’t you see that we must know if the Elder is telling the truth? We’re talking about the survival of the human race! If we can contribute in even a small way towards saving the Earth that will help atone for what my people have done to yours?
Mike chewed that over.
I’m not saying that I like you, Mike thought. It’s just that I don’t want to be depressed again.
Of course.
Look, couldn’t we get someone else to do this? I mean discretion and valor and that sort of thing?
And who else would you ask to take this risk?
Mike sighed. “If you hurt my friend I will personally rip this station apart.”
‘Awwww.’
Don’t push it.
The Elder extruded a tentacle which it slowly snaked towards Mike. Mike’s Puppeteer, in turn, flowed over his arm so that he appeared to be wearing a long, metallic glove. When the tentacle was close enough, Mike reached forward and…contact.
The Elder was telling the truth, that much was clear. It was ancient, incredibly so, with memories going back for thousands of years.
The Creators, as the aliens termed those that created the Puppeteers, were a slight, elfin race of humanoids with insatiable curiosities. For hundreds of years the Puppeteers served them – the memory had an almost legendary feel.
Then came…the incident. Out of nowhere the ship was hit by something. The initial blast killed most of the inhabitants – Creator and Puppeteer alike. The loss of the Creators had transcended mere pain: the Puppeteers appeared to be unable to think clearly without their hosts.