Star Force 12 Demon Star (45 page)

Giving myself an imperceptible shake, I forced a tight smile. “Yes, Cybele. What is it?”

“I know you have a meeting set up with the base commander here at the station.”

“Correct. If you could excuse me, I must get down to the main hatchway.”

Cybele followed me toward the bridge exit, as did Adrienne’s eyes. I was very aware of both of them, but I tried to pretend I was all business. Why did this girl have to choose now to make another play? If that’s what she was doing. Didn’t she know Adrienne was watching us both like a hawk?

“Sir,” she said quietly at the hatch, “I want to go with you. I think I can help.”

She made a grabbing motion with her hand. I looked at it, puzzled. It looked as if she’d just washed her hands, and there was a little soap residue left over.

Frowning, what she was really offering slowly sank in. I needed to convince the base commander as I’d done Captain Brody. Cybele, as she’d amply demonstrated in the past, was a master at convincing people of things.

I glanced back over at Adrienne. She’d turned away to her console again, and her shoulders seemed hunched. I’d seen that look before—she was pissed.

Heaving a sigh, I nodded to Cybele. “You can come along. I need all the help I can get. This is more important than I’ve been letting on.”

Not even Hansen knew the truth. My theories concerning Turnbull and a massive plot against Star Force were just that—theories. A three day old robot had convinced me, but he might not be reliable. As an assurance, I walked to Sakura’s compartment on the way to the main hatch.

“Sakura,” I said, tapping on her door until it opened.

“What is it, sir?”

I handed her a data chip. “Read this. Act on it if I’m arrested or killed. You’re one of the only people who might be able to stop it.”

She frowned at me then looked at the chip in wonderment. “Um…all right, sir.”

Striding away with Cybele in tow, I met up with Kwon next. He was in full kit and stood at the hatch, waiting.

“Really, Kwon?” I asked. “You think they’ll let me walk into the base commander’s office, technically under arrest, with a battle-suited marine at my side?”

“Better safe than sorry, boss,” he said.

“Yeah…well, thanks for the thought. But if they’ve decide to take me down, one more gun won’t help. My only hope is to convince them I’m right. Armament will only put them on their guard.”

Kwon gestured toward Cybele. “Why’s she going, then?”

I smiled. “Because these people need convincing.”

He caught on after a moment, and I heard his huffing laugh behind me as I walked off my ship and marched down the tube into the station.

“You convince those white-haired officers good, girl!” Kwon boomed.

Our marine escorts joined us at the station dock. They looked nervous. I was in my dress blues, and Cybele was in her bridge duty attire. We didn’t look dangerous, but they kept running their eyes over both of us anyway.

Then I realized something. Cybele was emitting pheromones. Nerves? No, the marines weren’t nervous. They were turned on. They probably didn’t know why, but they were definitely affected. My regular crew had grown somewhat accustomed to Elladans, and their power had waned during the trip. But for these boys, it must have been a shock.

Beauty, and a warm aura of invitation. Cybele was letting it all go, and she was enough to get any male’s blood pumping. Even I felt it, but I was too focused on the coming confrontation to be easily distracted.

By the time we reached the base commander’s office, my escorts needed a shower—a cold one.

The doors were real wood, not just smart metal taught to curl out of the way. That was a stylish addition. Real doors were considered cool, and all the top brass had them these days.

We were ushered inside, and the base commander stood to greet us. We saluted, but she didn’t return the gesture.

She.
Damn. The commander was a woman. I knew her as Rear Admiral Chen, and I hadn’t cared about her gender until now. Half of Cybele’s firepower was about to be wasted.

“Ensign Cody Riggs,” Chen said. “Fresh from the Academy and a long holiday in uncharted space.”

“Excuse me, Admiral,” I said, “but it was hardly a holiday. Have you read my report?”

“I’ve skimmed it. On the whole, I find it incredible.”

I could tell she didn’t mean “incredible” as in “cool” or “amazing.” She meant she didn’t buy it.

“I have evidence to back up every word in the report: video, audio, written logs and after-action summaries—”

“I’m sure you do,” she said, “but we don’t have to get into all that now. Another guest is about to arrive. Please sit down.”

Confused, I did as she asked. Cybele sat awkwardly next to me.

“May I ask who—” I began.

Admiral Chen stood up again. She did so rapidly, as if a higher power were present.

“Please rise. Our guest has arrived.”

Cybele and I stood and turned around.

There, coming through those expensive doors, was none other than Grantham Turnbull himself. He grinned at me, and he nodded. When he looked at Cybele, however, he frowned.

“Who’s this?” he asked Chen.

“An attaché to Mr. Riggs, I gather.”

“I requested that—well, never mind. Riggs, let me shake your hand. This has all been a misunderstanding.”

He lifted a shiny hand. It looked as if he’d been sweating or maybe he’d just come from the lavatory and washed them.

Hoping for the best, I took a step forward and lifted my own hand.

But Cybele beat me to it. She reached out and clasped Turnbull’s offered hand with both of hers.

I had to give the girl credit for initiative. She was going to do her trick come hell or high water. I cocked my head, curious as to the effects.

Turnbull’s expression changed from one of affability to one of confusion. I could only surmise he was feeling the effects of Cybele’s embrace.

Could my troubles be over? In a single stroke? I dared to hope.

Then, everything took a very strange turn. Turnbull’s face transformed.

He went from confusion to anger, then to pain. His mouth sagged open—and it kept going. His lower jaw sagged down, down—to his chest, and lower still.

Admiral Chen let out a gasp. She came around from behind the desk, reaching for her sidearm.

My hand lashed out and gripped her wrist. She was nanotized like any active duty Star Force officer, but she couldn’t resist my strength. Her gun stayed in her holster despite the fact she used both hands and all her might to draw it.

I turned back to see how Cybele and Turnbull were getting along.

It wasn’t pretty. They were both melting. Returning to the shape they’d originally had before they’d sought to fool humans.

Turnbull’s lower face was sliding off his belly, merging with it. And that belly—it was rippling and convulsing as if he was about to lay an egg.

Cybele had lost some of her luster, too. Her hands had merged up with Turnbull’s. Instead of fingers, both of them had something that looked like intertwined snail-tails. They ran with glistening slime.

“What’s she doing to him?” Chen demanded.

“If I don’t miss my guess, they’re doing it to each other, Admiral,” I said. “These people are not human. They’re aliens, and they call themselves Elladans.”

“What are they?”

“Watch as their legs fold up and dissolve. They’re losing their rigid form. As best I can tell, they look like blobs—giant amoeba—in their natural state.”

“Why did you bring this thing to my office?”

“Let me remind you, please, that I only brought one of them. You brought the other.”

She relaxed her hand as the two Elladans, locked in some kind of mortal struggle, slipped into fleshy mounds on the floor. Their clothes had been shed, and they were bubbling.

“What the hell are they doing?” Chen asked in fascination.

“Either fighting or mating, I’d wager,” I said. “It’s kind of hard to tell which.”

“Get them apart. Restrain them. Guards!”

The marines came tramping in, and I quietly let go of her wrist. I was glad she hadn’t called them earlier. They had their laser rifles unslung and at the ready. I could tell they meant business.

“Which one is which?” she asked me, bending over the two struggling forms.

“The one with the service hat falling off…that’s my crewman. Her name is Cybele, remember?”

Chen looked at me then. “I think I’d better read your report after all, Ensign.”

I smiled. “I think that would be for the best, Admiral.”

-40-

The thing known for years as Turnbull was eventually extricated from Cybele. The two of them had been fighting, it turned out. I’d never seen Elladans physically fight—and I hoped I’d never see it again.

Cybele had spotted another of her kind immediately, while the imposter had failed to do the same. Probably he’d been slow to do so because he thought he was the only member of his species on our planet.

Later, Cybele, Adrienne and I sat around a small table in a pub on the space station. At first, Adrienne had refused to accept the news of her father’s death, but it had eventually sunk in.

She was drinking now, fairly heavily. I joined her at a more controlled rate.

“It’s insane,” Adrienne said for the tenth time. “My father’s been dead and gone—for how long?”

“Probably a decade,” Cybele said. “I’m so sorry, Adrienne.”

My girl looked at Cybele with bleary, angry eyes. “Your kind killed my father.”

“Yes, the agent probably did. But I didn’t send him out. Many Elladans died back on our homeworld. Millions, in fact, and we don’t blame you.”

Adrienne was struggling with the truth. I couldn’t blame her. She turned on me next.

“You slept with this thing,” she said, jabbing a finger toward Cybele, “this killer alien. I don’t think I can ever make love to you again.”

I winced, but I played it straight. “That’s up to you. I hope to have a future together. But no one has to decide any of this now. We all need to heal and to think clearly again.”

Adrienne swiveled her head back toward Cybele, who drew back a bit. She waggled her finger at the Elladan.

“You should show yourself. You should look like a bag of snot. See how many dates you get then, bitch!”

I reached out and pushed down Adrienne’s hand. “She doesn’t mean it,” I told Cybele.

“Yes, I do!”

After about twenty more minutes, the anger shifted into despondency and tears.

“I can’t believe that bag of protoplasm taught me how to drive!” she cried. “I’m sickened. Was he influencing me all that time? Molding me for a purpose?”

“Maybe,” I said, “we’ll never know.”

That was a lie, of course. It all seemed obvious to me in hindsight. The agent wanted to rule Earth, and every ruler needs competent-looking heirs. He probably planned to kill Adrienne and her sister eventually, replacing them with offspring of his own.

Looking back, I could well imagine why both the girls had graduated with perfect attendance and been enrolled in the best of schools. To my knowledge, neither had ever gotten less than an A in any course. With a mind-warping father heading the family, the achievements seemed less incredible.

But when the girls had gone off to college, he’d lost some of his power over them. That’s when I’d stepped into the picture, upsetting his plans.

“Cybele,” I said, “explain to her what the plan was. How an Elladan came to be on Earth.”

“We have ansibles, just as you do,” she said. “That’s a classified secret, and I’m breaking Argos’ orders by telling you.”

“An ansible is a communication device,” Adrienne said. “So what?”

“Yes, one capable of connecting two points for transmissions…but…we were able to develop the technology further than you have at this point.”

I gestured for her to keep going. Adrienne up-ended her drink, guzzling until I gently pushed the mug down again.

“You see,” Cybele said, “I don’t know everything. These are secrets that aren’t available to all Elladans. What I do understand is that we’ve been able to use the ansibles to create tiny rings. We can connect one of our rings to any of the others in existence.”

Adrienne threw up her hands and let them flop back down. “Then why not just roll a fleet through on top of Earth and conquer us?”

“You don’t understand. These rings are very small. Only about like this.”

She formed her fingers into a circle about three inches around.

“That’s it? How can anyone get through that tiny—oh.”

She’d figured it out on her own, but I decided to jump in and explain further.

“Elladans have no bones. This agent was able to slip through a ring back on Elladan and transport himself to one of our local rings. They bring a tiny life-support bubble with them and hibernate until they reach a planet.”

I turned back to Cybele. “How many such agents are there in the cosmos?”

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “I have no idea. The program was abandoned some time ago as none of them ever returned. But apparently this agent almost managed to complete his mission.”

“Why not help him?” Adrienne demanded. “He’s your kind. Your flesh. Why attack him the way you did?”

Cybele looked ashamed. “I like humans. We’re not all monsters. We’re not all the same. One of you might be a serial killer of children—does that mean every individual on Earth is a fiend?”

Adrienne glanced at me angrily when Cybele mentioned “liking” humans.

“You’ve proven that much to be true,” she said. “I hate you, Cybele, you know that?”

“Yes, I’d gathered…”

“But,” Adrienne went on, “you did the right thing here. You kept Cody from touching the agent’s hand. You outted my father’s imposter—his killer.”

She looked like she was going to cry again, so I handed her the mug. She took a big hit and sighed.

The conversation went on. It was colorful and varied. Adrienne declared love, hate and every emotion in between to both of us.

When we were about to leave a shadow fell over the table.

He was a big man, bigger than I remembered. It had been so long since I’d seen him.

I jumped up and hugged the stranger, who hugged me back. The two women looked at us in confusion.