Extinction (Extraterrestrial Empire Book 1) Read online

  “It has to do with my enhanced telepathic powers. They’ve agreed to hold at the normal telepathic perimeter. If you slow down, they’ll match speed.”

  “Swann, if I see any tricks at all, I will blow us both up. I’m not leaving the wormhole. That’s our insurance.”

  Swann put his right hand on his head, thumb and ring finger touching his temples, and closed his eyes in thought. He then opened them. “I confirmed the intentions of an EBE-C3 communicator being, and it replied that they’ll comply with no ‘tricks’.”

  Karr called into navigation and ordered that the Aurora slow down to a minimal speed. It still maintained the wormhole with a small margin. The other ship did the same and kept the promised distance.

  Karr was surprised that the aliens complied. What was so dangerous on GEN-6 that the all-powerful Grey C3s wanted to talk? Why were they willing to take the risk? Karr could wipe them out with the self-destruct. They’d have no time to escape with a three-second countdown. Getting out of the wormhole took at least ten seconds, unless you wanted to explode your own engines.

  The issue had to be one of a grave nature, but was it one that really concerned Earth Command, or was it just a ploy? Karr made his decision and put the Aurora on full alert. He also had security monitor Swann around the clock, so if the Greys had taken him over, security could take out Swann first. Karr knew that Swann knew this, too, but that wouldn’t stop the Sec team.

  Dealing with people and aliens who could potentially take over your mind was an overriding concern in the construction of the Aurora. This really was a war of the mind. Karr went to the bridge and got ready to talk to the most powerful and evil alien race ever discovered. Something in Karr made him wonder: What in the hell could be at the GEN-6 base that would have this powerful race so scared?

  You now face a new world, a world of change. We speak in strange terms, of harnessing the cosmic energy, of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy.

  —General Douglas MacArthur, Oct. 8, 1955

  9

  _________

  Circinus Virus

  Ace walked back to the Control Room. Tucker joined him, but neither spoke as they carefully hustled back through the GEN-6 hallway. It was only a two-minute walk from the Break Room to the Control Room, but there were corners to turn, and that required caution. Ace extended his gun camera and searched ahead before each turn. Looking out at the corners was big for Ace, especially now. In a sense, it was the corners that drove his life, for there was a major turn he’d missed, an important one—the death of his mother.

  Checking the corners brought all the guilt back, and even though Ace didn’t foolishly expect life to be fair, he didn’t expect it to be evil. Even though his mother’s death was almost a decade ago, he couldn’t make peace with himself. Ace knew that people would get old and die. It was natural. Planets would do the same. So would the Sun and stars, when they got old. But his mother had been fairly young, only fifty-nine. She’d missed checking a corner. She missed seeing a doctor who could have fixed a minor heart issue.

  If she’d found out about it a little earlier, she’d probably be alive. She’d been addicted to cigarettes and was a frail woman, but otherwise, she appeared healthy. She had an unknown heart issue—but Ace knew about it before she did, and that’s what was killing him. Even though Ace was usually away on some mission for the marines, he’d usually stop by for the holidays. But one day, his commander gave him a special mission and rejected his request for holiday leave. Orders were orders.

  Somehow, back ten years ago, Ace felt something wasn’t right with his mother. He knew from just a short holiday phone call that she was sick—even though she didn’t know herself. He wanted someone at home to take her for a checkup. His sister thought he was nuts and overreacting. Not believing in telepathy or premonitions, Ace accepted the opinion of his sister, believing that he was just having feelings of guilt. His leave was delayed only a couple weeks, but she died a week after that phone call. A heart attack killed her. If she’d gone to a medical facility when he wanted to take her, he might have saved her life. Ace never forgave himself.

  Walking back to the Control Room, Ace promised he’d save Janice in spite of the asshole Tucker. Ace knew Tucker only cared about the alien biological weapon and would surely sell out Ace and the team. Hell, he’d probably sell out his own mother, if the lying lizard had one. Ace looked at Tucker, who seemed callous and cold. It reminded Ace of the asshole that brushed off his unscientific concerns for his mother’s health during the Special Ops mission, forcing him to miss his scheduled leave back home. Ace didn’t even get to see her before she passed. A military flight home was delayed.

  The world was an evil place, run by force—by people who considered that force made things right. Somehow, Ace wished there was a better way. As a Big Gun, there was no man on Earth with more strength, but somehow the power of the mind was making Ace wonder about real power. With Kiya seeing all kinds of things that happened, including the spiders, the worm, and the clusterfuck, Ace was starting to believe that the strange powers of the mind would someday equal—if not become more important than—his enhanced body. Maybe those powers were already more important?

  Ace carefully turned around the last corner and entered the Control Room. He looked over at Kiya, who was holding Janice’s head. “Is she okay? What’s goin’ on?”

  “She’s fine now, but had some kind of massive, split-second migraine. We need to get her to the infirmary”

  “I agree.” Ace walked over to Jimbo, who was at the Alpha Console. “Did you get in touch with the scientists?”

  “Sure did, but those guys are all fucked up. They had to leave the north base and went west as the crazies somehow followed them north. They remotely locked the crazies up in the north and are now going south, to get away from the EBEs coming in from the west. They were in a hurry to get into the south. They needed me to unlock the south in a hurry.”

  Kiya looked at Jimbo and frowned. “Why would they need you to unlock the south?”

  “The security mechanism was controlled from here in the Control Room.”

  “But then how could they have used the security locking mechanism to lock the sick scientists in the north?”

  Jimbo blankly stared at everyone. “I don’t know. Maybe they did it from here and moved west. The man was in a rush to get into the south, with aliens coming and all.”

  Ace walked over to the terminal. “Let’s get a security camera shot of the north and get a look at the crazies. See what they’re up to. Where are the security camera vids?”

  Kiya pushed Ace aside. “Let me, I was trained on the GEN-6 Alpha screen simulator.” Kiya typed in some commands. “That’s strange. All the location sensors for the comm were shut down. You can’t even tell where the SOS came from.” Kiya opened up a connection into the security grid and connected. “The security cameras in the west and south are shut off. The one in the north is still intact … I’m gonna try to connect into it.”

  A video display with a time stamp popped up. It showed a laboratory where fifteen or so people were working. Some were sitting at consoles. A few were talking near a map of the base, and one was even laughing at something. A couple of others were drinking JoJo. A few slept on makeshift beds.

  “These people don’t look crazy,” said Kiya. “But the comm line is down. Wait, I think I found a bypass … yes, I did. Gimme a second. I think I can patch us in to one of the terminals being used. I got it!”

  A woman’s face on a vid terminal popped up. At first, she looked shocked, but then smiled and spoke quickly. “Hi there! Are you from the rescue team from Earth Command?” she asked excitedly. Soon after asking the question, a bunch of scientists circled around her. They all looked anxious.

  “Yes we are. But first, I want to know. Are you the healthy scientists, and is there a way for you to confirm that?”

  The woman laughed. “I don’t know if there�
��s anyone truly ‘healthy’ working at this base or how I can confirm it on video. We’re running out of food and water, so we had to ration those items. Everyone’s stressed out and wants to get the hell out of here. The work here is over. It’s unanimous that we’re all finished with this job. Seeing that none of us initially knew what our job was until we got here—but we can get into that later, if you have the clearance. Anyway, I speak for everyone when I say we’re done working here, and we told Earth Command and BOT. I assume you’re our ride outta here?”

  “We are,” said Kiya. “But what about the sick scientists? We’re going to have to try and find a way to bring them back.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” said a grey-haired man next to the woman.

  “Who are you?” asked Kiya.

  “I’m Doctor Mitchell. I’m in charge here, and I can tell you those ‘sick’ scientists are dangerous. They’re being taken over by the Circinus virus. It’s moving into stage two, and we need to get the heck out of here before that completes. You can’t save them.”

  “If you guys are the healthy scientists, then who the hell did Jimbo talk to?” interjected Ace.

  Dr. Mitchell looked alarmed. “Did you speak to some of the infected?”

  “I found an SOS,” said Jimbo. “The location sensor was down. The person had really long, dirty-looking hair, a guy in his late twenties, early thirties. He said he needed to unlock the south security doors to enter.”

  Dr. Mitchell shook his head in horror. “We locked them up in the south. They wanted the security lockdown taken off so they could get out of the south containment. We had them all locked up in secure rooms. Now they’ll have complete access to the South’s facilities. You need to lock down that section, and now!”

  “It’s too late,” said Ace.

  “Why would they want to leave if they’re sick?” asked Janice. “Why wouldn’t they wait for us to take them back for treatment?”

  “They don’t want treatment. Their minds are being taken over by the virus. It’s basically an alien life form with genetic memory. The human bodies are their new containers. The testing here was flawed … I’m sorry. I’m gonna need to talk to the captain of the Aurora.”

  Ace frowned. “You can’t. They had to leave as they were being attacked by an EBE-C3 mother ship.”

  “God help us all,” said the scientist, shaking his head again. “You must use the Alpha terminal there and lock them down. If you don’t trust us, keep us locked down, too. But whatever you do, you can’t let them get loose. There’s too little time to explain. Please lock this facility down, and now!”

  “Do it,” said Ace.

  Kiya frantically typed away. She connected to the lockdown protocol. When she did, her screen changed to a video feed of the long haired man. She looked at him and he looked at her.

  “You must be the team from Earth Command,” said the man.

  “We are,” said Ace.

  “And you have a ten thousand-man ship in the area.”

  “We do,” said Ace, not wanting to disclose that it was now far away, in a fight or blown to bits.

  “Excellent. Those bodies will prove useful. You will evolve into something great. Assist us and the transition will be painless.” The screen went blank. With a beep, the security lockdown codes reset. Kiya typed to reset the security lockdown codes, but it was too late. The whole base was open.

  “Shit, everyone is free to move! They unlocked the whole complex and I can’t lock it down.” Kiya furiously continued to type away. “I got the environmental controls … wait, they have control of environmental in the south … I have control on the rest of the grid. I also have cameras … I’ll patch this into the security control system LISA. We can then access it via our comms. I’ll try to shut them out of the other systems. I got it. They’re out.”

  “Great job, Kiya,” said Ace, still thinking about the infected man’s words. The bodies will prove useful? What the fuck. Did this crazy man think he’s going to infect the whole Aurora? “Genetic memory?” he wondered out loud. “If they have other viral strains, they can use it to infect more people. They all might be clones with the same memory.”

  “It’d be a great way to create an army,” said Jimbo. “All robotic clones.”

  Ace hadn’t thought about that. Maybe this was an army. But for what war? That reminded Ace of something. “They’ve opened up this whole base. That means those EBE-C3 Greys are free to roam, too. Do we know where they went?”

  Kiya got up. “No, but I have remote access through LISA. We don’t need to stay here. I can get video and other data through the comm patch. I’ll run a scan.”

  “Good. Jimbo, help Janice walk. Let’s get to the infirmary.”

  As they got up, Jimbo pulled Ace aside to speak privately. “I’m not so sure about Janice. I know you wanna help her, but she could be infected. She could end up infecting us all.”

  “Jimbo, I know. But I think this virus has something to do with that worm. I wanna get her to the infirmary and have Kiya check her out. It might help us in fighting these other idiots.”

  “I hate to say it, but we should get the non-infected scientists outta here and blow this joint. It’s too fucked up. Plus, I know about those EBE-C3s. I was trained at Area 51 on that shit. Those guys will get into your head if you’re not careful. We should blow them up with the infected and be done with this shit.”

  Ace looked over at Big Jimbo, thinking about the secret mission briefing that said it was hard to get into Jimbo’s nano-tissue brain and virtually impossible to telepathically enter Ivan’s metal-plated, dual-personality noggin. That’s why he chose them. Jimbo was correct, and in any other situation he would have agreed. But it just felt wrong to take out Janice without trying something.

  Maybe he was letting his emotions screw him up. As a professional, he couldn’t let that happen. He looked over at Jimbo. “She’s been with us for a while now. If she’s contagious, we’re already infected. I think that syringe has something to do with her infection. Here’s the deal: If you see anything strange or you think her mind is compromised, put a bullet in her. You have my permission.”

  Jimbo nodded his head, regretfully. “Thanks, Ace.”

  The two regrouped and got back together with the team. They met up with Ivan, who was talking to his toy bear, Yogi, about noises in the walls.

  “Ivan, you and I are taking point. We’re going to the infirmary,” ordered Ace.

  “We should get moving. Yogi said he’s hearing sounds in south. Not good.”

  “The crazies are loose and they’ve been taken over by some kind of virus. Shoot to kill if a scientist approaches and doesn’t halt.”

  “Will do, Ace.”

  Ace walked over to Kiya. “Try to patch us back into that, Dr. Mitchell.”

  Kiya re-routed controls and with a little persistence had one low bandwidth security vid and comm channel linked. “The resolution is poor but you’re online, Ace. Not sure how long it will last.”

  Dr. Mitchell was front and center of his terminal looking flustered. “Are we okay?” he asked.

  “We gotta problem,” said Ace, looking into the grainy vid. “The sick scientists are loose. I’m going to the em in the infirmary and I need your help. We have a sick team member that needs assistance.”

  Mitchell shook his head and waved his hands. “No way! I’m not taking a chance of getting into a skirmish with those EBE-C3s or those infected scientists. Come here and get us safely to your ship. We can better help her there.”

  “No, I need you at the infirmary. She got stabbed with some kind of needle and she’s sick.”

  “A needle? I don’t like it,” continued Mitchell. “I’m staying here.”

  Ace walked over closer to the vid comm and put his face directly in front of the cam. “If you don’t meet me at the infirmary in the next fifteen minutes, I will go back to the ship and ask our captain to execute Plan B, which, by the way, I hear is the destruction of this base from space—to c
ontain any loose virus. So, if you’re not well enough to assist me at the infirmary, well, it makes sense for you to stay here. We’ll leave the base now.”

  Mitchell’s jaw dropped and color slowly left his face. “I’m fine. I will meet you at the infirmary in fifteen minutes. Then get me and the healthy scientists out of here—please!”

  “Meet me, help me, and it’s a deal.”

  “I’m leaving now,” said Dr. Mitchell. “God help us all.”

  The team moved quickly through a long tunnel connecting the East Sector to the North Sector. At the beginning of the North Sector was the infirmary. The entrance hallway had a strong smell of antiseptic and something similar to mortuary embalmer’s formaldehyde. There were also sounds of humming motors, like in old refrigerators or fish tanks.

  As Ace and the team entered the actual infirmary, they stopped and stared, their mouths dropping open like fish waiting for a hook. There were two rows of vertical glass tanks containing the bodies of mutated animals. Bubbles came from the bottom, similar to a home aquarium. As Ace inspected the first, he saw the naked, floating bodies of the local indigenous, low-tech humanoid race, the Nomads. They had an overbearing forehead, similar to Cro-Magnon man, but all body hair was shaved off. Further down the line, in the second set of glass tubes, were large spiders. A few included the mutated spiders with human, Nomad-type heads, similar to the one Jimbo shot.

  At the end were two wider tubes containing tall, EBE-C3 Grey aliens. They had tubes connected to their stomach with cables and wiring attached to their heads. Bubbles rushed up, moving the bodies in a wavering pattern. They looked like an alien grey fish sleeping in a tank. The skin resembled that of a shark. In a way, they look at home in the fish tank, thought Ace.

  “I guess this is the reason our Grey friends landed on the west side. Kiya, were you able to get a lock on them from the Security Link?”

  Kiya looked at her comm and then pulled out a TekPad. “I’ve put in a few electronic gates, and it appears that they’re heading south toward the sick scientists.”