Puppet Chapter 6

Puppet Chapter 6

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 Denver.  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, a faint light could be made out through the trees.

This was the dangerous part.

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 blend 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, the Puppeteers really did prefer to run rather than fight.

Mike waited for the outcome. 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?”

“I think we should grab the opportunity that we have here and try to infiltrate the alien base.”

“That sounds pretty crazy.”

“Well maybe not as nuts as it sounds. Consider: the aliens are expecting a short stop on the Earth. If we hand over the ship to PD it could take weeks before they get something ready, and they may not even launch an assault."

Mike held up a second finger. “We have the captain’s cooperation...”

“In your dreams!”

“...at least after we get his puppeteer off him so the aliens will have less of a reason to think things might be wrong.”

Mike approached the captain with a taser. "Your choice, you can get off him voluntarily, or we can shock you till you leave."

"You wouldn't dare!"

Mike reached behind the captain and gave the Puppeteer on his back a little jolt.

"Alright! Alright! Just wait a moment!"

The Puppeteer flowed off the captain's back and into a trash bag that Mike supplied for it. He handed the bag off to Tom, who held it like it contained an annoyed cobra. The captain looked disoriented, but gave a shaky thumbs up.

Mike raised a final finger "We have a unique group of Puppeteer-controlled experts in alien infiltration ready to go and perform the mission.”

“What if you all get captured or killed?” asked Tom.

“We leave the 2 infiltrators and the engineer behind and hand them over to PD. We lose the ship, but PD learns a whole lot more about the alien’s technology.”

“But if we succeed, he can learn a whole lot about the disposition of their forces in the solar system. We may even be able to sabotage a base or two. That could buy a whole lot more breathing time for PD.”

“You make a good case, but I’m going with you.”

“I think you would be more useful explaining to PD our little AWOL stunt and perhaps the hijacking of an enemy flying saucer.”

“Wonderful. While you and the lady go gallivanting off into space I’ll just sit around and try to clean up the mess!”

Mike became serious: “No, Tom you’re humanities last hope if this crazy plan doesn’t work. You gotta make those dinosaurs back at Head Quarters understand the threat they are facing. You have information that could mean the difference between survival for the human race and annihilation.”
“You’re also the only sane person who tried to understand what was going on with me and that believed in what I was trying to do. Believe me, I want you on this mission, but you have got to stay behind.”

Tom looked dubious, but relented. “If you get killed out there, I’ll be very upset with you!”

Mike smiled. Alice, Mike and the captain scrambled aboard the ship. The ship’s door shut.

One of the other members of Mike’s team approached “Do you think we should stand back when the thing takes off? Heat and all that sort of thing?”

Tom turned to the other guy “I honestly don’t know.”

The ship began to emit light and a wind blew up out of nowhere.

“On second thought, let’s seek cover!”

The ship lifted into the air, slowly at first, but with increasing velocity. It was heading almost straight up.

“I only hope they know what they’re doing.”

Chapter 5