Alien Agenda Read online

  The military would hunt him to save face with the alien invaders, and prevent the conversion of more cities into mass graves. At least, that’s what it would look like, and there would have to be casualties to make the operation look legit from space. The aliens were free to do as they pleased. And he alone was charged with stopping them. An impossible task, but with the new intel, he was starting to believe it was possible. That possibility died with those eight men and women killed near the alien base.

  When he looked up, he had crossed the commons area. He walked into the hallway leading to the labs, and charged through one of the doors. Jennifer Reyes was in R and D alone, staring into the big aquarium while chewing on her knuckle.

  “Alright. You’ve got five minutes,” said the colonel. “Fill me in.”

  “I’ll let them do the talking. Watch this.”

  She had the apparatus set up, and the microphone inside with the inhabitants of the tank. One was the white husk that used to be Rick. The other was an alien squid.

  “I have some phyto-chemical in that dropper above the squiddy. Watch Rick’s reaction.”

  He was sitting there in the same place as always. The captured alien was at the other end of the tank, soaking in a foot of water at the wet end. Its four leg-like tentacles were scattered out in the bath, and its two arm-like tentacles drooped into the water to join the others from their upturned joint. The alien body was shaped like a rocket with a modest pinch between the booster and nosecone. The head region was adorned with two large black eyes. Something dropped on it from the dangling tube. Its skin flashed white, and darted toward the glass wall, smacking against it.

  The colonel’s eyes returned to Rick, who was now on his feet, and stepping into the water. One arm wrapped around the squid creature while his other hand scooped water onto the wound.

  “I told everyone to grab an early breakfast,” said Jennifer. “But I knew something like this would happen. Somehow, Rick is communicating with the alien, but he’s not talking. He’s unable to speak. He still hasn’t said a word since he escaped Savage’s lab.”

  “What do we do?” asked the colonel.

  “Put them both in a holding pen. Give Rick the crayons and a microphone. Torture the beast until he talks. I think part of the communication allows one of them to feel the pain of the other.”

  There was no doubt in the colonel’s mind. This was not the innocent girl that he recruited from MIT. She had changed, and her inner sadist came out. Not that the colonel had any objection to interrogations, but that girl form MIT wouldn’t harm a fly. Something about being locked in this dungeon converted her, and she had no emotional regard left for the alien creatures. Maybe she just wanted it all to be over. Maybe she just hated calamari.

  “People are going to be in a bad mood around here in the next couple of hours. I’m not sure that involving Rick in information extraction is the best idea right now.”

  “Why? Because your racist friend is still holding on to hope that savage will cure his battle buddy? Nicole is never going to find an antidote for the virus. It’s attacking cells one by one and transforming human flesh into squid soup. Human retroviruses are years away from that kind of technology, maybe decades, and there’s no funding for it. Rick’s gone. Whatever that thing is, it isn’t human anymore. We can’t limit ourselves by ignoring him as an interrogation suspect.”

  “Yeah, well. We have a whole squadron gone too, and might loose a couple of helicopters before this thing is all over.”

  Rick had moved back to his normal sitting spot, dripping with water and again staring blankly at the sand like nothing happened.

  “The whole operation is falling apart.”

  “Maybe you should give another one of your motivational speeches.”

  “You’re more than welcome to torture the squid as much as you want, but do us all a favor and leave Rick out of the experiments for now.”

  “Can do. But you realize, it would be faster if you gave me the green light. Doesn’t matter, maybe he’ll draw something in the sand or start talking on his own. But you said any means necessary.” Her head cocked to the side, and her eyes narrowed. This wasn’t about her need for torture. Is was about him yelling at her for not making fast enough progress on the alien plan. His shouting may have turned her into a monster. Or maybe it was a bluff.

  “Do what you can. Leave Rick out of it.”

  “Yes, sir. He’s in it no matter what I do if they really share the connection. He’ll be able to feel everything. I’m just suggestion that we ask him the questions.”

  “Maybe you can figure out a way to block them from communicating with each other.”

  The colonel was back in the command center a few moments later. “How is it coming?”

  Jacob Swan hadn’t moved an inch.

  Stark spun about in his chair. “The pursuing craft broke off.”

  “Just make sure that our Hinds follow their snaky path back to the base. We don’t need anyone following them.”

  “Already done. Where did you go anyway?”

  “I had to take a piss.” He nodded toward the overweight engineer. “Has he moved or said anything?”

  Stark shook his head. “Not a whisper out of him.”

  “Jacob. Jacob!”

  “Sir.” He finally tuned in.

  “Come to my office. We need to talk.”

  The office itself was fairly clean, but there wasn’t much left to clutter it up. He’d burned most of the paper copies of personnel reports, and with all the computers in the base connected directly through the network, there was little need for extra drives and devices.

  “Take a seat.” The colonel marched around the wooden desk and sat comfortably in the leather chair. He stared at the bare plaster walls for a moment before starting. “What’s on your mind Jacob?”

  “They’re all dead.”

  “And you think that’s your fault?”

  “It is my fault. I should have investigated the map anomaly closer. Then maybe I would have known.”

  “And how long would it have taken you to notice that the base was under water?”

  Jacob swallowed hard. Black-framed glasses would have completed the Internet gamer look perfectly. That scruffy beard, the round head. “I don’t know. Probably forever.”

  “And we don’t have forever. Whatever the squiddies are doing here on Earth, they have a plan, and every plan comes with schedules and deadlines. Our job is to interrupt those plans. By any means necessary. I’m sure they aren’t happy about having to replace their front door, and we have a map of their caverns. That’s more than we can hope for at the moment.”

  “But the men. My mistake got them killed.”

  “Yeah, well, sort of,” said the colonel. He leaned forward, and propped his elbows on the desk. “But who ordered the mission?”

  Jacob’s eyes fell. “You ordered it based on my intelligence about the structure.”

  “But I ordered it. If someone dies on this base or in action, it’s on me. Nobody else can have that responsibility.” None of you sissy fucks could bear it.

  “But—”

  “No butts. No worries. Get the hell out of here, take the day off. Go to the rec room or sleep it off. Whatever you have to do to get your mind right. And then get to work on the captured ship. Have you guys figured out how those engines work yet?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Well, that’ll give you something to do, so you can take your mind off this disaster. I need you working at 100 percent. We need to tear that technology down. We need to figure out the clues to why they’re here, and what it is they’re doing here, before it’s too late. Don’t quit on me, son.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Nobody could have figured out that base layout better than you and your team. We may never have found it. Don’t blame yourself for shit that doesn’t concern you. And the next time John takes a stab at you, just tell him to fuck off.”

  A hint of a smile appeared. “Yes, sir.�
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  “Alright, get out of here. And close the door behind you.”

  The boy hefted his bodyweight from the chair.

  “And Jacob.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “On your way out, tell Stark that short of our little ant hill being overrun with squiddie invaders, I’d prefer not to be bothered until the choppers get back.”

  “I’ll tell him.”

  As soon as the bolt latched, the colonel rubbed his forehead hard, nearly peeling the outer layer of skin off. What the fuck are we gonna do now?

  Everyone gathered in the commons area for the daily update. The whole base was unsettled and hungry for an answer to why eight of them were suddenly missing. The normal lab and engineering work had been put on hold.

  The colonel stared at John, sitting with crossed arms and waiting for an opportunity to rip into someone. He had been doing mercenary work for almost two years before Operation Raindrop went active.

  The rumors floating around at that point could have been anything, and Colonel Crisp was too caught up in his infiltration plan to linger and probe for the pulse of the base. People were going to talk, that’s what they were good at. Nothing could really be done about the gossip. There was no point trying to stop it.

  “Jacob Swan,” he said. “You’re first. Status update.”

  “As everyone knows by now, the alien base is flooded. We’ve updated our mapping procedures to account for this, and recompiling all the data. The visual layout that we’re getting still doesn’t look right. While a lot of the base is underwater, portions aren’t. There may be flooding different rooms at different times for any number of reasons. I sent some of the data over the R and D for further analysis.”

  “Which I received,” said the tall, dark haired beauty Nicole Savage in her Spanish accent. “About an hour ago. We don’t have any conclusions on that as yet, but the aliens are definitely capable of breathing underwater, provided there is a high concentration of dissolved oxygen. Jennifer ran that test earlier.”

  “Test?” asked the colonel.

  The tiny blonde sat up straight and spoke with intent. “I dropped squiddy back in the tube where we had it locked up before, and flooded it.”

  “Thought I told you not to kill him.”

  “I was prepared if it started struggling. No chance of it dying, but perhaps a torture methodology it would respond to. Anyway, it showed some concern as the tank was filling, but it didn’t make any effort to escape. It seemed content as long as the dissolved oxygen levels stayed high enough, which required the addition of pressure to the tank. It did bob toward the top at regular intervals to gasp for air. I’ve been playing with the temperature controls as well. Cold water dissolves more gasses, but affects comfort level.”

  “Fine,” said the colonel, wondering how he managed to miss that test. “Jacob, what else do you got?”

  The engineer continued. “We’re making progress on the propulsion system. It’s definitely some kind of controlled fusion reactor, depending on your definition of controlled. We can tune the exhaust cone now. Once we hooked it to a power supply with the right voltage, the metal in the jet cones morphed on its own. The engine changes shape for maximum efficiency automatically, though there may be programming possible from the alien computers to tune it in flight for more thrust when needed. The material itself is now under investigation. It’s not metal, but some kind of super polymer that can resist the intense engine heat. We should be able to get spectroscopy results soon enough.”

  “It looks like metal,” said the colonel. “And it pings when you strike it.”

  “There’s metallic compounds in the polymer, no doubt, but it isn’t a refined steel or anything of the like. It’s not an alloy. It’s definitely a polymer.”

  “Some kind of metallic plastic?” The alien tech got weirder and weirder.

  “You could say that, colonel.”

  “What about the weapons?”

  “They don’t work underwater. We tried both variants. The little plasma balls explode once they’re formed. All we did was make a mess and destroy one of the recovered weapons.”

  “What about the big plasma cannons?”

  “That might be the good news, colonel. The second you’re underwater, you’re safe, assuming they don’t blast enough to bring it to a boil, but that would take quite a few shots for even a small pond. I have a feeling that they flood the landing bay, or perhaps the whole base to ease landings. The craft we recovered don’t have much in the way of landing gear, at least nothing we could find in the wreckage. They would have to drop the level to bring a floating craft into the base. Once the base seal is broken, there should be plenty of air to breathe down there. After looking over the data again, my guess is that only certain areas are flooded.”

  “Very well. Dr. Savage, Miss Reyes. Can humans survive in the alien environment?”

  “Rick’s surviving in it,” said Jennifer. “What’s left of him.”

  John’s face flashed red.

  Nicole responded. “The biggest difference we found in their air is a high concentration of oxygen. It shouldn’t hurt the guys, but a fairly simple breathing apparatus can minimize the risk of toxicity. I can get you the specs for what we would need to equip an assault team, but for a short mission, I don’t think they should have any problems.”

  “Any progress on the virus?”

  “None,” said Nicole. “We can identify the protein code now with some certainty, so I can technically test for it, but it activates so quickly that the test won’t help anyone infected. It could help us to identify which aliens are infected and which aren’t. Maybe we’ll find a species of alien that doesn’t pop positive, and that’ll tell us what that master race is, assuming there is one.

  “Similar protein sequences were found in the alien blood as well as our infected patient. The snake venom contains an identical match to what we found in Rick’s blood, and it was obviously the source of the infection. The snake’s DNA carried a slightly different pattern. All of the alien samples are similar, including whatever Rick’s DNA has become, and they are all from off-world. The aliens brought it with them.”

  “So what’s the verdict?”

  “In English?” She winked. “It’s possible that the squiddies have some kind of symbiotic relationship with the virus. And the virus is bonding with humans in similar fashion. It’s evolving to blend better with our genetics. Like any virus, it’s going to find a way to spread, so the bug itself is probably doing a lot of the work for them. It can invade human and animal cells and change the genetic makeup, probably to turn any host into a suitable breeding environment.”

  “So it isn’t an attack strategy?”

  “I don’t think so. The virus appears to be a new type, which forms a symbiosis with the host instead of killing it. Much like bacterial fauna that thrive inside our bodies. It’s a strange microbe.”

  Jennifer Reyes interrupted, shaking her ponytail. “The virus has screwed up Rick’s biology, and his mind.” She bit her lower lip.

  “Well,” said John. “Out with it. How exactly has it messed up his mind? You’re saying he isn’t Rick anymore, right?”

  The colonel nodded toward her, urging her to continue.

  “No,” said Jennifer. “Rick is gone. He can communicate directly with them now, and ceased talking to us. The virus is some kind of mind control mechanism. It has to be, but the extent that it works at is still unknown. I think the virus is the real alien threat, and these squids are simply its minions.”

  “Dr. Savage?” asked the colonel.

  “It’s possible they put an adapted virus in the snake venom. I can’t see how the protein code could mutate fast enough to have one version in the DNA, and another in the venom. There shouldn’t be any DNA in the venom at all, but it’s there. Venom sacs typically collect fluid byproducts for use as poisons, not biological components like amino acids and nucleic chains.”

  “And by the way,” said John. “How are you com
ing on synthesizing some anti-venom?”

  Nicole glared at him. “Without changing every cell in his body back to its original encoding, he can’t be cured. We’d literally have to find a substance that would attack that single grouping of proteins while leaving everything else in his body alone. And his cells are already copying the new sequence.” Her eyes dropped shut. “I can’t fix him.”

  John’s temper could no longer be contained. “How were the others fixed then? The ones in St. Louis?”

  “I think it was a previous version of the virus, and their bodies rejected the protein. That isn’t the case with Rick.”

  “John,” said the colonel. “What’s the status of our attack forces?”

  “Three birds, three pilots, sixteen souls ready for the meat grinder. I’m moving Bishop to Strike Team Bravo, and I’ll take command of the next assault team myself.”

  “John?” asked Jennifer.

  “What?”

  “Meet me in my lab after the base briefing. There’s something you need to see.”

  Normally, it wouldn’t be anyone’s business but the department heads, but with an operation this size, you couldn’t keep a secret if you wanted to. With the media and the government telling lies about the actions of Operation Raindrop, the whole crew needed to stay informed and reassured. The gathering of soldiers, scientists, and even galley cooks deserved to hear everything. They needed to hear it. They needed to know that what they were doing was right, and the policy on secrecy within the compound was now a happy memory.

  It was a hard decision to make, but he intended on keeping his promise of full disclosure.

  “Out with it, Jennifer,” said the colonel. “Time to let everyone know.”

  “I can prove that Rick isn’t himself anymore, and that he’s sided with the alien in the containment tank.”

  The R and D lab had never been so populated. The two tank inhabitants sat quietly, staring at nothing in particular, and unfazed by the sudden influx of visitors. The colonel wasn’t sure if Jennifer’s idea was a good one, but at least now everyone would know the truth.