Chapter 1
This story is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, including but not limited to Robert A. Heinlein. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
* * *
Previously:
Earth is invaded by a race of creatures that have the ability to control a human being like a puppet on a string; hence they are called “Puppeteers” or “Puppet Masters.” Physically, the aliens resemble puddles of mercury, hence the other name for them: “The Blobs.” The aliens are capable of reproducing by dividing in two, though this puts a strain on their host. Because of this, and because a person “hosting” a Puppeteer is very difficult to distinguish from a normal person, the invasion spreads at an exponential rate.
Mike, a 24 year old man who suffers from depression, is “converted” while having lunch at a Burger King. Unlike most hosts, he finds possession to be a positive experience largely because the presence of the alien seems to cure his depression. Alice, a woman with bipolar disorder (manic/depressive), has a similar experience.
Scientists in the US government discover that the aliens are very sensitive to encephalitis, a disease that infects the central nervous system. The condition is spread from the host to the Puppeteer, where it proves to be almost 100% fatal. The US unleashes a virus that effectively wipes out the alien presence, though it also results in about 50 million human deaths worldwide.
Mike finds that, without the presence of the Puppeteer, he sinks back into depression. As a result, he volunteers with the Planetary Defense agency to be a host to an alien, so that humanity can gather additional information about the Puppeteers. PD is an organization that the world’s governments have formed to combat the alien menace in the wake of the invasion.
Once again, the alien’s presence causes Mike’s depression to go into remission. The Puppeteer also informs Mike that the remaining aliens are likely to try bombarding the Earth with asteroids before invading again. Mike’s efforts to alert PD of the threat are met with scorn however, causing Mike to try to persuade an officer named Tom to help him. Tom believes Mike and the two of them escape from PD custody in an effort to try and save Human civilization.
Mike recruits other people with conditions similar to his own and meets Alice again. “The Guided,” as they like to call themselves, resolve to hijack an alien spacecraft and then to use it to stop the aliens from bombarding the Earth. The first part of the plan is successful; the team manages to capture a scout craft that was attempting to reconnoiter the situation on Earth. It is at this point that we pick up the story.
* * *
Mike, Alice and the Captain hurried aboard the ship. The captain led them to the cockpit. As they entered it, Mike stopped.
“There are no controls.”
The room contained a strange-looking pilot’s chair but no controls that Mike could make out.
“It’s all done through your Puppeteer.”
“What?!”
“The ship controls all interface through a Puppeteer – it stops the locals from commandeering a vehicle!”
Do you have any idea how to fly this thing?
I hope it’s easy to learn.
“Crap! This whole adventure is for nothing if we can’t get into space.”
Mike turned to Alice.
“Does your Puppeteer know anything about flying a spacecraft?”
“Only if it’s like driving a car.”
“Nuts!”
Mike rubbed his face. “Just great…the whole of NORAD is probably going to come in for a visit in a few minutes and we’ve got no clue.” He looked up. “Strap me in.”
The captain looked dubious. “I thought you said you didn’t know how to fly one of these things.”
“I’m going to take a crash course.” The other two looked at him sharply. “OK, bad choice of words.”
Mike took off his shirt and sat down in the pilot’s chair. Immediately, he experienced a sense of vertigo. He had the weird impression that he could “see” in all directions.
“Maybe this is easier than it looks.”
The ship lurched into the air. Alice and the captain fell into the seats adjacent to the pilot’s.
“Maybe we should ask for directions!” Alice yelled.
Great job so far! Mike mentally shouted at his Puppeteer.
One more comment like that and you’re going to be flying home.
I am flying!
Oh, shut up.
Alice and the captain desperately grabbed for their seatbelts and a soft “ding” sounded throughout the cabin. Alice looked at the captain questioningly.
“I think that’s the fasten seatbelt notification thingie.”
“Good thing we already have them buckled, then.”
The ship flipped over and starting flying upside down.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Alice yelled.
“No!” Mike yelled back.
“Well OK then.”
The ship flipped over again and swerved to the right.
“Aren’t we attracting attention with all this…this…” Alice waved a hand towards Mike.
“Oh don’t worry,” the captain said mildly “this ship absorbs radar waves. We should be very hard to find.”
“What if someone found us anyways?”
“Then that display would show the enemy ships that were tracking us,” he said flipping on a holographic display.
“You mean like those two there?”
“Oh shit! Mike, we have…”
“I see them!” Mike shouted.
The funny thing was that Mike did “see” them through the sensors of the ship. It looked like a couple of fighter jets were closing in on them. Focusing on them for a second, the two planes came into sharp focus.
“Oh great,” complained the captain. “Any chance of us going unnoticed just went down the tubes.”
“Why’s that?” asked Alice.
“Nincompoop here just used an active scan on our friends. If they were suspicious before, now they’re sure.”
“Don’t make me turn this ship around!” warned Mike.
“What happens if they fire on us?”
“Well, if I were flying that wouldn’t be a problem…”
Just then a klaxon sounded in the cabin.
“Does that mean?” cut in Alice.
“Yup.”
“Maybe if I do a barrel roll…”
The room spun. The three of them were pushed down into their seats.
“OK, bad idea.”
“Break right!” yelled the captain.
The ship swerved to the left. Fortunately the missiles were heading to the right and exploded harmlessly away from the ship.
“You said to break right!” Mike shouted at the captain.
“Yeah, well, nobody’s perfect.”
“We’d better lose these guys before they fire again.”
The klaxon sounded again.
“Oh never mind.”
Just then the ship swerved upwards and started accelerating. The three of them were pushed back into their seats.
“Can this thing outrun those missiles?” Mike asked.
“You know, I’m not sure.”
The ship shot upwards through the atmosphere. The missiles closed.
“Maybe…” the captain looked thoughtful “…maybe you should launch counter measures.”
“How do I do that?!” The missiles were less than a mile and closing.
The captain shrugged “I dunno, you just do it.”
The ship lurched.
“There ya go!”
The display showed the missiles veering off from the ship to chase another blip that had appeared. Then a flash of light and the blips disappeared.
“Glad I figured that one out in time!”
Actually, I was the one who figured that out.
There’s no way I’m telling the others.
“It was probably your blob,” Alice observed.
If it were possible, the Puppeteer would have smirked.
“I think we lost them.” Mike observed. Sure enough the display no longer showed the two fighters, or anything else for that matter. The ship continued to climb into the night sky. After 10 minutes another “ding” sounded throughout the cabin.
“Let me guess,” said Alice, “now we can take off our seat belts.”
“You know, you can thank me for the escape…” Mike said without much hope “…if you want to of course.” The other two stared at him. “Oh, never mind.” Mike said grumpily.
* * *
Mike’s plan was to capture a station that the Puppeteers were using to mine deuterium.
Deuterium, hydrogen with an extra neutron, can be used as fuel for a fusion reactor. It can be found naturally among the hydrogen atoms in water. It’s just a question of sorting it out and having enough water. The Puppeteers had found a large ball of ice and were mining it for the substance.
Without the station, Mike hoped that the Puppeteers would be unable to use their heavier ships to tow asteroids to the Earth. With some luck, the aliens would not have noticed that the scout had been captured. With even more luck, Mike’s team would be able to capture the station without the Puppeteers knowing about it – they could then try to capture other ships that came to the station to refuel.
Mike explained his idea to the captain and Alice.
The captain was clearly impressed. “You know, that’s not a bad plan!”
“Nice to know you think so.”
Alice smirked.
“I think so too.”
“Good.”
I think we should try to negotiate with them.
Really?
Nah, actually I think we should kill ‘em all.
“Of course if you’re wrong and the Puppeteers do notice that something’s up, we probably won’t be able to capture the station. What then?”
“Then,” Mike said reluctantly, “we ram the station and hope we do enough damage that the heavies can’t refuel.”
The other two were silent for a time.
“You did leave those others with Tom, right?” Alice broke in.
“Yeah.”
“So, you know, when you get vaporized, the human race is going to have some chance.”
Mike glared at Alice.
“Don’t you mean if we get vaporized?”
“Oh, right, slip of the tongue.”
Alice thought a moment.
“Are you sure you don’t want to try ‘take me to your leader’?”
“Look, do you have a better plan?”
Alice raised her hands and stopped talking, though her face reddened.
Actually, a variation on her idea…
Shut up.
Mean.
Mike turned to the Captain.
“Are you sure this is the only fueling station they have in the system?”
“Pretty sure, though their home base probably has a reserve of deuterium.”
“One thing at a time.”
Alice excused herself, saying she needed to visit the toilet; though Mike could hear her laughing after she left.
“How long until we reach the fueling station?”
“A couple days.”
“Good.”
* * *
As Mike’s ship approached the base, the Captain hailed the station.
The guy on the other end of the link sported a beard that looked like it could host a colony of mice.
“Heading in for refueling and maintenance on the ship.”
“Whatever. Use docking bay 5.”
The station chief cut the connection.
“Friendly, isn’t he?” Mike commented.
“Yeah, that’s about par for the course,” commented the Captain. “The blobs aren’t much for protocol and pleasantries.”
“Will they search the ship after we dock?”
“Nope - they don’t see humans as a threat.”
“Here’s hoping.”
The ship was not searched. In fact there wasn’t even anyone to greet them when they docked.
“Is this normal?” Mike asked while looking around the empty docking area.
“For them, yeah,” said the Captain.
“We come in peace,” put in Alice, while checking her weapons.
“I don’t know whether to be more afraid of them or us,” Mike said dryly.
The three of them crept through the deserted hanger bay. They came to an airlock that led into another section of the base. Alice went to one side, the captain to the other, both had their tasers ready. Mike rushed forwards, kicked the door, and rebounded off of it.
“That was stupid,” observed Alice.
Mike glared at the captain. “You could have told me that these things didn’t work that way!”
“You didn’t ask.”
Just then the airlock opened and a bored looking person stood in the entrance.
“Did one of you guys just knock?”
“Uh, yeah, that was me,” Mike said while getting to his feet.
“Well, you don’t have to. Next time you can just come on through…idiot.”
Mike tasered him.
Alice and the captain rushed into the next room, but found it empty.
Mike noticed that the Puppeteer of the crewman he had just tasered was making a mad dash for the next door. Of course, “mad dash” is a relative term. This one had managed to move perhaps a foot since Mike had tasered the crewman.
“I think this one is trying to get away,” Alice yawned. “We’d better stop it quickly.”
Mike glared at her, but scooped up the Puppeteer and put it in a trash bag that they had brought along. The Puppeteer continued squirming around in the bag, which Mike handed to the captain.
The captain, in turn, was not at all happy with this and held the bag out at arm’s length.
“Are you sure these things can’t control me through the plastic?”
“Well, nothing is certain. I mean, it might slip through and…eat your brain!”
“Shut up, Alice,” Mike said irritably as he recharged his taser.
Alice looked miffed but stopped making any more comments.
The three of them headed for a doorway leading out of the room, again taking up their positions.
Mike opened the door this time instead of kicking it, which made Alice look somewhat disappointed. The door led into a passageway, which was deserted.
Room after room proved to be empty until they came upon the crew quarters. The three of them burst to find 4 crewmembers. One was reading a magazine, 2 were sleeping and the last was playing a video game.
The one reading the magazine didn’t even look up before Mike shot him with his taser. Alice took out the one playing the video game.
“Damn you…I…was…on…the last…level!” The video game player said before he lost consciousness. The sleeping crewmembers had not even woken up, though one of them did turn over and started snoring.
After dealing with the 4 people, the trash bag of Puppeteers was getting rather full.
“Where are we supposed to put these things?” The captain said, anxiously holding onto the writhing bag.
The three of them were making their way through some sort of lab. Mike stopped, eyeing a large jar.
“Here, give me that.” Mike took the bag and dumped its contents into a jar. “Hey, check this out!”
The five separate Puppeteers had merged into one, large Puppeteer.
Did you know you could do that?
Well, now that I see it, it makes a kind of sense.
Is that a yes or a no?
Mostly a yes.
Mike capped the jar before the giant Puppeteer could escape. He turned to the other two.
“I don’t suppose either of you knew about this?”
“I did!” volunteered Alice.
Mike rolled his eyes and continued out of the lab.
They cleared each room in the station. The crew showed little more resistance than the ones they had already encountered, though they were almost out of trash bags.
Closing in on the control center, Mike drew Alice and the captain in for a quick huddle.
“I have a feeling that the chief may put up more of a fight than the rest of them.”
The captain looked dubious.
“So be ready for anything. Remember, we must succeed!” Mike thought of doing one of those “go team” sort of things but decided against it.
The three of them rushed into the control room to find the chief asleep at his desk. As they approached he opened one eye.
“What are you jerks doing?” was all he managed before Mike tasered him.
* * *
Securing the station proved to be that easy. Running it was also pretty simple – the few functions that required a Puppeteer were easily performed by Mike and Alice. Even better, the rest of the aliens did not seem to have a clue that anything had changed.
A week or two after the “Coup,” as Alice called it, they had a meeting in the mess hall.
“Hello! You are all free from the influence of the Puppeteers.”
A bit of a cheer went up among the people.
“Now a burning question in everyone’s mind is what we do next. A lot depends on what the Puppeteers do. If the Blobs decide to bombard Earth, they will need a lot of fuel. That’s where we come in.”
“When a ship comes through, we capture it and liberate the crew. With luck, the blobs won’t notice until most or all of the heavies are out of their control.”
“And what do we do when they notice?” asked one of the station crew.
“They may simply turn tail and run or they may gear up for a war. One thing is for sure: whatever they do, we must destroy the mining operation before letting it fall into the pseudopods of the Puppeteers. We must give Earth more time to prepare.
“So we can’t expect anything from Planetary Defense to help us.”
“No, I’m afraid not. If anyone is going to stop the Puppeteers, it will have to be us.”
Mike was surprised at the reaction to this statement: the crew cheered. Instead of having an ally in their Puppeteers these people had been hosting tyrants who didn’t give a damn about whether their host lived or died. The chance to strike back at their tormentors proved to be a powerful motivator.
Chapter 2
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