“OK, maybe more than a little.”
Hmph. We’re not the ones who came up with “Mutually Assured Destruction!”
“Even if I did believe you, and I could convince others, how exactly would we stop them? I mean, we barely have the ability to go to the moon!”
“The Puppeteers are extra-terrestrial, that much seems clear. They must have come in some sort of ship. All we need to do is reverse engineer their ships and we will have space flight. From there we need to find their base in system and destroy it.”
Tom got to his feet. “I need to talk to some people about this.”
The dead-pan delivery with which Mike announced this was perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the whole exchange. The prisoner just sat there, announcing the fate of the world as if he were making a prediction about the weather. Tom stared at him and then walked quickly out the room. Behind Mike the door to the interview room buzzed open. He got up to leave the room.
I thought that went pretty well.
Shut up.
* * *
“And why should we believe that the aliens are planning to attack with...rocks. Why wouldn’t they just try another invasion?”
Some sort of military type, maybe a general, sat in the room on the other side of the window opposite Mike. The general had his arms crossed. It didn’t look like he was buying Mike’s story.
“They may well try to invade again, but given what happened last time, I doubt that they'll do it."
I don’t think he is taking this seriously.
"Hmmm...it sounds like a standoff to me."
"Not quite: they're sort of insane."
Hey!
“Yes…” the general consulted some notes “…didn’t you also say that the aliens were trying to ‘save’ us from ourselves with their invasion?”
OK, look I already admitted that was a mistake. I mean, how many times do we have to over that one.
My guess would be 50 million. Replied Mike dryly.
You know, if we spend all our time on recriminations, who is going to stop the People from bombing your race back into the stone age.
OK, so you have a point.
“Well yes. But they seem to regard the whole invasion as crossing some sort of line – since they’ve already done that, they may as well go all the way.”
"Well...Mr. Smith, I'll take this into consideration."
Mike looked at the general.
"I don't think you’re treating this seriously enough."
"And you are wearing one of the enemy so excuse me if I don't accept whatever you say at face value. Can you prove any of this?"
Sigh
"You can watch for asteroids whose orbit changes."
"Well, perhaps that can be arranged."
"But by the time you notice something is wrong, it will be too late."
"Hmph."
The general left.
* * *
Tom was talking to Mike again.
"He didn't buy it.” Mike stated flatly.
"Well, we are including what you said in the scenarios we're planning for."
"Dammit Tom, that's just not good enough!"
"It will have to do, Mr. Smith." Tom said coldly.
“Tom, you gotta listen to me. The Puppeteers, these...these aliens...they don’t care about sunrises.”
“Oh please.” Tom was interested despite himself. It seemed like the first time Mike had shown any emotion of any kind.
“It’s true! They don’t understand sunsets, they don’t understand what a hug is or a flower or a song. They look at a mountain and all they can see is something to rip apart for its minerals.”
Tom was shocked to see a tear rolling down Mike’s face.
“They don’t care about love and they don’t feel a cool breeze or a cold glass of water when you’re too hot and they don’t even wonder why they’re here.”
Mike was standing up now and he had his hands on the glass between the two of them.
“They only care about what they can eat next. The only satisfaction they will take is turning this world into a world of puppets; and if they can’t do that, they will burn it to a cinder!”
“I can’t sit by and let them do that, Tom, and neither can you! While we have an ounce of strength, while we have an iota of will, we’ve got to try and stop them.”
The buzzer for the room sounded and two of men in isolation suits came in. They grabbed Mike and tried to drag him off.
“We gotta stop them Tom! You and me! Because there is no one else - these other people, they’re scared of them. They won’t listen. By the time they figure it out it may be too late. We gotta stop them...”
The door to the cell slammed shut. Tom sat there looking at the place where Mike had been.
* * *
A few days later, Mike found himself walking down a corridor with a person in an isolation suit. This was nothing new in and of itself, but the man who was leading him (following actually, so that Mike couldn’t slap a blob on the man’s back), told him to go down a corridor that he had never been down before.
Do you think they are going to “retire” us? Mike asked the blob.
Well, thanks to your outburst I think that is a possibility.
We’ve got to make them listen!
Yes, but that’s not the way.
Do you have a better idea?
On that point the blob was silent, as they continued down an unfamiliar corridor.
When they got to another door, the man instructed Mike to open it. It seemed to be a loading dock of some sort.
A familiar voice spoke from behind him: “I hope you’re being straight with me about the martians using an asteroid to incinerate the planet...”
“Tom!”
Tom was busy changing out of his isolation suit. He glanced nervously at the monitor cameras, hoping that the loop he had programmed them to play would hold up long enough for them to escape.
“Get in the back of this truck.”
Can’t we sit in the front?
Oh shut up.
Tom directed Mike over to an empty semi and closed the door after him. The truck left the loading dock and reached the checkpoint to the facility.
“Tom! What are you doing driving a truck?” The guard at the checkpoint asked.
“They’re short handed so they asked me to pitch in. Either that or trying and find someone else with a clearance.”
“Alright, but I’ll have to clear this.”
Are we there yet? The alien asked in a peevish mental tone.
No!
As it turned out Tom actually had been asked to drive a truck to pick up supplies for the facility. They eventually waved him through without searching the payload area carefully (Mike hid under some old blankets).
Eventually, the truck stopped and they got out.
Tom looked at Mike. “OK, we have one truck that will be reported stolen very soon, two guys who are wanted by every police organization on the planet, and one alien blob which most of the planet wants to see dead. We will be branded as traitors to everyone and everything and thanks to some new tests, it will be very difficult to go walking around with that alien on your back.”
“So what’s our next play?”
“We visit the nearest mental ward.”
“I know what you mean.”
“No, I’m serious, people with mental disabilities are the best suited to help us out. For whatever reason, the Puppeteers can’t wholly control someone with mental issues. We need to go in and “recruit” some of them.
Tom narrowed his eyes: “We are not starting a new invasion.”
“We’ll only need 10 or 20 people.”
“And we are not going to make any new slaves.”
“To be able to bypass security screenings, the human partner will have to remove the puppeteer. During that time they will be in complete control of themselves. If they want to jump ship at that point they are f
ree to do so.”
“Great, so what do we do with this little team?”
“We acquire a space ship.”
“A space ship?!”
“We can’t stop the Puppeteers from bombarding the Earth from the surface – we’ve got to get into space to do that.”
Tom massaged his face with his hands “How did I get talked into this?”
“Flowers and sunsets, remember?”
* * *
Mike and Tom walked into the hospital wearing some scrubs they had brought. When they got to the area reserved for mental patients Mike immediately noticed someone sitting in the waiting room.
"Alice!"
"Mike...you're a nurse?"
She has worn a Puppeteer before, she may be able to help.
Thanks for the hot tip.
"No look." Mike stepped closer and whispered to her. "I've found a way to get our friends back, but this is a one-time chance: you have to make up your mind right now."
"You're not talking about screwing are you?"
This is neither the time nor place for dalliance.
Can't you read me any better than that?!
Your feelings for this woman are mixed.
Not that mixed.
"No! I'm talking about...about getting back a Puppeteer" Mike hissed.
Comprehension dawned on Alice's face.
"Can you get me one?"
"Who is this?" Tom interrupted.
"Who is this?" Alice interrupted in turn.
"Look, we don't have time for this." Mike turned to Alice again. "Do you know anyone else here that you can, you know, trust? Someone who would appreciate..."
Alice stood up.
"Walk this way."
And we don't have time for comments either!
You are no fun at all.
Thanks to Alice, the team grew by 5 "recruits" from that one visit.
* * *
The plan was to hotwire a ship and then stop the aliens before they launched an asteroid bombardment of the Earth. Unfortunately, the Puppeteers were in a much stronger position. They had ships capable of traveling from Earth to any other point in the solar system in a matter of weeks instead of months or years.
The basic problem with this approach was that there were no ships to hotwire, at least no ships that they could get to.
The aliens had left several spacecraft behind, but all of them had been impounded by the various countries that they had been left in. What’s more, from what Mike’s team could tell, it appeared that each of the ships were being dismantled in order to reverse-engineer the technology behind them – even if they could get to one of these ships, they would have to put it back together again before they could use it.
Mike reasoned that the aliens probably had some ships left and that they would try to reconnoiter the Earth before bombarding it. Therefore, the team focused on a way to detect the ships when they entered Earth’s airspace.
There was good reason to believe that the aliens possessed some sort of stealth technology that rendered them radar invisible; but the ships also gave off some sort of “hyper-waves” that could be sensed. The team’s project was to create a “hyper-wave decoder” that could sense alien ships and report their location.
Their break came when a detection device, actually a bunch of blenders and some computers jury-rigged together, detected a flying saucer. According to their calculations, the aliens had landed about 50 miles South of the city. Mike’s people were not sure if the ship had been detected by radar. Mike’s team went out to meet them.
* * *
They stopped the cars a quarter of a mile from where the thought the ship had landed: a remote, woody area. Walking a bit further on, fait light could be made out through the trees.
This was the dangerous part.
Taking off their shirts, Alice and Mike raised their hands and had their Puppeteers form an “X” over the front of their bodies before they continued to approach the site. As they got closer the light grew stronger and a definite humming could be heard.
Just when they were almost near enough to catch a glimpse of the craft someone close behind them yelled out “Stop!”
Mike and Alice froze.
“Get down on your knees!”
Mike and Alice knelt and waited. After a short while someone came up behind them and sat down with his back facing Alice. The man also bore a Puppeteer and went into a “conference” with the one on Alice’s back.
After a few nervous moments, the guy got up and said “They’re legit!” To Mike and Alice: “You two can get up and approach the ship.”
“Are the rest of those people down the road yours?”
“Yes, they also have Puppeteers.”
“Tell them to stay put for now.”
“Gotcha.” Mike spoke into a walkie talkie.
That was all in the way of introduction the two got from the guard, who put his shirt back on and strolled back into the woods.
Mike and Alice came into the clearing. The ship was an oblong disk with a mirror-like surface. Three people were in front of an opening, standing back to back in a conference. After a moment they broke contact and one of the men came forwards. Forgoing all pleasantries the man merely turned around, offering his back for contact.
Alice and Mike took the hint and joined in.
This was a moment of truth for the project: it would never occur to a Puppeteer that another one of their kind would lie to them. On the other hand, it was not clear to Alice and Mike that a Puppeteer would or even could lie for them.
What’s the situation? queried the captain’s Puppeteer.
This group is what is left of the invasion, at least that we know about. Alice’s Puppeteer answered.
Mike’s Puppeteer, a bit put out that Alice’s got in the first word, added: yeah.
We’ve been dodging Planetary Defense and other humans for the last couple of months. Where have you guys been? Queried Alice.
Before Mike’s could even add anything the captain played back the situation from the Puppeteer’s point of view. Mike felt the upset of the aliens over the reversal of the invasion. There was a sense that everything had gone wrong and that there was no hope now. The looming dread that he felt grew as he pictured ships launching asteroids at the Earth.
Surely there is another way.
There is no other way…if we are to save these creatures we must do this. Mike sensed that the captain’s Puppeteer felt conflicted over this plan.
The captain seemed to rally.
Perhaps with your group and the new infiltrators that we’ve brought we can turn the situation around again.
The captain seemed to feel that meeting Mike and Alice was a stroke of luck. The conflict that he was feeling provided enough cover that the captain did not sense the danger his group was in.
The captain broke the link and got up. With a word from Mike and a nod from the captain, the two infiltrators followed Alice back towards the woods. From the link Mike knew that ship had a total of 6 people: the captain, an engineer, 2 people who worked as crew and doubled as security, and 2 others who were intended as infiltrators.
Mike desperately tried to think of something to buy time.
“Nice weather we’re having.”
“What?!”
“I said the weather we’ve been having...it’s been nice.”
“Why are you talking about the weather?”
“Oh, sorry. Second nature - trying to blend in as a human you have to keep babbling to appear polite.”
The captain frowned and then nodded.
“Great ship too. How many miles do think you have on it?”
“Look, would you stop babbling?”
“No, no - your expression and gestures are all wrong. If you want to pass as a human you’re going to have to show more emotion. How long have you been cooped up in that thing?”
“Well, given that I’m flying a ship and not trying to ble
nd in, I don’t think my social skills...”
“Don’t underestimate the humans - that cost us the first war.”
The captain frowned but relented. The two fell into an impromptu lesson. The ship’s engineer and co-pilot drew closer to hear as well.
“Wouldn’t this be faster if we just had a conference?”
“No, these are all muscle skills – besides, you need feedback from someone else to find out if you can pass.”
Just then shots rang out from the woods. Mike’s forces were engaging the sentries. The captain turned to look at the first shot and Mike took out a taser and pressed it to the captain’s neck. After a short jolt, he collapsed. Mike got between the entrance to the ship and the others, his taser held at the ready.
The men looked at the taser, looked at Mike’s face, turned and ran into the woods. When push came to shove, Puppeteers really did prefer to run rather than fight.
Mike waited for the outcome of the fight. Tom had been training them in simple tactics that could be used to subdue a ship crew and it looked like it had paid off. When the dust had settled, all 6 from the ship were accounted for. The two sentries were dead, while the other 4 crew members had been captured.
Mike’s team had lost 2 people. The real prize: the ship and crew who could fly the thing, had been obtained.
Tom came through the woods, sporting an M16. “So how did we make out?”
“Complete success, though the cost was high. I think with the right persuasion we can get them to teach us how to fly this ship, and perhaps more important, where the Puppeteer base is.”
“The hell we will!” the captain shouted from where he was tied up.
“Well, his puppeteer might not approve, but after liberating him from his host the man should be more than happy to help us out.
The captain went back to grumbling. It sounded something like “I knew I should have sounded the alarm when he started talking about weather!”
Tom looked at Mike: “So now what?”
“Well, the way I see it, we can hand the whole thing over to the Planetary Defense, and hope that they make good use of it, or we can try and use this ship ourselves.”
“I like the idea of handing the whole mess over to PD.”
“It definitely has a lot in its favor, but I also learned from a little conference with the captain here that things are not going so well in the “let’s invade the Earth again” camp. It seems like the folks who want to throw a few rocks our way are winning the debate.”
“If we wait around for PD to do anything we might be too late.”
“Wonderful.”
Tom looked dejected and glared at the flying saucer. “So what do you think?”