Invaders: Dreadnought Ocelot (Invaders Series Book 4) Read online

  I had surfed before, and there had been one time a towering wave had picked up my board and rocketed us toward shore. I had balanced on the board with everything in me, afraid that if I fell, the roaring wave would dash me against the bottom sand and crush me into smithereens. Later, while drinking beer, I had decided that that had been the surfing ride of my life.

  Today, in a different realm and with a different board—the CCC inside the sphere—I hurtled down the portal lanes, riding and shifting as never before. The device helped me make fantastic calculations, guiding me as the priest had suggested. I passed many possibilities as I hurtled toward Earth. I felt hot and cold, tall and tiny, as if a dreadful force tore me into particles and then remade me heavier than neutroium armor. The sensation of a vast distance pervaded my being as I traveled for dear old Earth.

  At the moment, due to the Celestial Cybernetic Circuit, I had a perfect sense of the passage of time. But it was hard to grasp mentally for long. It seemed like an eternity now, as if I traveled from one side of the galaxy to the other, from a single dimensional realm past thousands of others. In that moment, I had become the Flying Dutchman of the meta-quantum tube-dynamic lines.

  The shudder, the ethereal shock wave smashed through other portal exits. I realized a failsafe should have turned off the doom world’s portal, but the failsafe had failed. Now, many portals in many places would expel the fireball’s dreadful impact energy.

  Due to the CCC, I also realized that like a sniper’s bullet in real time, I headed straight for a barrier that was the result of the Great Machine. Sand had strengthened the barrier. I knew because of the CCC. I also knew that I would smash against the barrier and die like a bug on the windshield of a speeding Harley Davidson motorcycle.

  Thus, I surfed the ethereal tidal wave, sinking back on it as it were. I needed the shock wave to smash the barrier for me. I would slip through a crack in the barrier, hoping one developed, in any case.

  As I did this—the CCC through me, really—I saw a strange and ominous thing. It was an oval object: a portal carrier. Inside the portal carrier were Gigantopithecuses, and Ailuros!

  I didn’t know if she was a captive or not. I did—I strained in this speeded time. And I recognized the signature of a fellow Ultimate Annihilator part. Ailuros and Nerelon’s pets had gathered the third and final piece, lacking only the shell of the weapon itself.

  I realized several things at once, even though I can only describe them one at a time. I had mentally melded with the Celestial Cybernetic Circuit because of the proximity of the Prometheus Stone. I could speak for the CCC, even though I was not technically it. I saw the brilliance of the former Polarion ruler of the doom world, how she had calculated future events. She had erred in several of her calculations—

  None of that mattered at this moment. Instead, I analyzed at bewildering speeds, recognizing so many variables at once that I cannot articulate them in level two thinking. I had a choice of how to do this and chose the one with the highest probability. It would entail awful risks on my part and possible death. But I was the Probationary Associate Galactic Guard candidate. This was my jurisdiction, my responsibility and my home, damn it. I would have to take a chance on Jenna—

  I recognized her life-sign signature on Earth. I would have to send Rax to her.

  Ailuros in the oval carrier had found the third piece, the Odin Lens or the Baleygr Orb. In Old Norse that meant, “The one with the flaming eye.”

  Did the oval carrier’s nearness to the barrier at this precise time have anything to do with the shock wave from the doom world?

  I gave that a high probability.

  The wave hit the Great Machine’s barrier. I thought to hear the grind of a thousand gears. A Polarion ray from the carrier also struck the barrier. Like me, the oval carrier had strange properties to operate in this realm at heightened speeds.

  The wave and ray made a breach in the barrier, and the oval carrier went through, disappearing from the ethereal tube-lane.

  I could no longer hold back. At terrific portal velocity, I headed for the closing breach.

  In those cosmic fractions of seconds, I came up with a complex plan of action against my enemies. I would not remember the plan when I shrank to my normal level-two intellect—I knew this, and had, I believed, already calculated for it. I would lose my fantastic brilliance in less than microseconds. With my momentary augmented intellect, I set up and foresaw countless things. Could my old, unintelligent self be able to trust this brilliance later? I guess I would find out.

  With the plan in place, I started setting the conditions. I took the box holding the Prometheus Stone and hurled it ahead, timing it for a precise location on Earth. Then, I grabbed Rax, doing to him what Argon had done before, and hurled him ahead, sending him, hopefully, to Jenna of CAU. Lastly, I took the pulsating sphere holding the Celestial Cybernetic Circuit, throwing it ahead to a place Jenna would find in time.

  With the CCC’s absence, the great breadth of higher knowledge and understanding began dissipating at once. I zipped through the collapsing breach, and then my understanding of this realm vanished.

  Before I could reach good old Earth, I must have lost consciousness, for I did not recall slowing down enough to exit an Earth-situated portal. I went inert before I could complete what I had set out to do…

  -40-

  By slow degrees, I became aware that I was no longer drifting in the ethereal, malleable realm that lay between the portals. I might have known what that region was called while connected to the CCC. That knowledge had dissipated. I was simply Logan again, a slightly enhanced, former U.S. Marine with delusions of semi-Galactic Guard status, one who guarded his planet against all alien comers. If I had spoken arrogantly while united with the CCC, I apologize for it.

  A terrible weariness filled me. The CCC that had helped guide me home had supped from my energies and from the Prometheus Stone. The two worlds I’d walked had also taken their toll. My time on the hidden Asteroid Belt station had been grueling as well.

  I realized that I was lying on a polished floor. That floor trembled ever so slightly as a distant noise—The Great Machine! I must have indeed reached Earth coming in through a portal deep in the subterranean realm under Utah and parts of Nevada. Here, the Great Machine labored to protect the planet and galaxy against the Shadow Dimension. Here, too, Sand ruled with his ubiquitous nine-foot robots. Maybe I could explain to him what was going on and gain his aid.

  At the moment, I lay in the dark, exhausted physically, mentally and spiritually. I had been through the ringer, as they used to say. I had taken a long detour to reach home. Had Jenna and the others successfully made it back?

  Wait a minute. I had seen Jenna on Earth, hadn’t I? I had done something, although I couldn’t quite remember what.

  I wanted to ask Rax some questions, but I was too damn tired. I almost groaned because my spine hurt and muscles felt twisted and spent, but my sixth sense warned me to remain quiet.

  I tried opening my eyes but realized they had already been open. It was pitch-dark, adding to my certainty that I was deep underground…and in a building or edifice. The air wasn’t stale, but…I heard marching, those wearing boots as if from the other side of a wall or heavy door.

  “Rax?” I whispered.

  He did not answer.

  “Rax, are you awake?”

  There was no reply. Perhaps the long journey to our Earth had stunned him.

  I tried shifting my position and almost cried out at the sharp pains in my muscles. I’d played football in my youth, and had felt similar pains after a hard, pounding battle of crashing against others during a football game. This felt many times worse.

  A heavy door opened into the chamber, admitting diffuse light, but to my dark-adjusted eyes, it was blindingly bright. I also heard the mechanical laboring of the Great Machine. I remembered that sound from when I had been trying to stop Lord Beran of the Antares Institute.

  I groaned when I turned my head—
moving my neck muscles—and squeezed my eyes shut. The pain—I had to ignore it. I had to accustom myself to the light. If these were Sand’s robots—

  Although it was agony, I brought a hand before my eyes and allowed a crack between my fingers. Then, I slowly opened my eyes. My reward was a pounding, spiking headache.

  So be it.

  I concentrated, hearing apish speech. I had the feeling they must have been talking for some time. I hated the gibberish on a primordial level, and seemed to have heard it before. Oh, of course, of course, I’d been facing Gigantopithecuses for some time. Why had I momentarily forgotten?

  Someone threw switches that caused whomp sounds. Illumination grew from overhead lamps. They had to be fifty feet above me. Just how big was the chamber?

  I spied bulky, silent machines around me. I looked down a lane. Beyond an open area floor, maybe fifty feet across, was a great stone portal, a semicircle of inert stone. Beside the portal were more machines and giant wall screens.

  If I were to guess, I had hurtled out of the portal and slid across the floor to stop back here among the biggest machines.

  I could not see the open door or the people marching and grunting at each other, as the machines I lay amongst blocked them from sight.

  With the greater light, I regarded myself, seeing that I was wearing tatters and no longer possessed the Polarion rifle. I imagine it had ripped away at some point in the odyssey. Despite the agony to my shoulders, I reached down and felt the waist pack. To my horror and shock, Rax was not in it. I kept feeling around, but he was quite gone.

  Had I lost Rax while journeying through the portals?

  I kept feeling the waist pack. I had Ailuros’s former dainty blaster and a dagger I’d gotten somewhere during my journeys.

  With an intense effort of will—making the headache pound worse, putting splotches before my eyes—I rolled over and struggled up to my hands and knees. I panted and gagged, doing so as softly as I could. I heaved and vomited gruel onto the polished floor, feeling prickling sweat slick me.

  I wiped my mouth, panted more and waited to see if I would vomit again. When I didn’t, I began to crawl down the lane until coming to the front machine.

  The ape grunts grew more insistent. I also heard slaps, the crack of bone and thumps. I waited. There were more grunts and then a normal groan of pain.

  Before I could ease around to look over the situation, the machines around me began to hum. After a moment, I realized the hums drowned out the grunts and slaps. That should also drown me out to them.

  I used the machine’s side for support, working to a standing position. Sweat bathed me. My mouth had become bone dry. I had to be dehydrated. Even so, I was upright, leaning against the vibrating machine.

  Sliding along its edge, I peered around it. The glow from the activated portal mingled with the overhead lights, giving me excellent illumination.

  I shuddered upon spying three huge Gigantopithecuses. They held sparking shock batons, occasionally touching a man writhing on the floor, zapping him.

  I recognized the Polarion, Argon. He looked as I’d seen him before in Greenland. He was big, white-haired and obviously well built in his silver-colored, skintight uniform. He was ancient, a superman of sorts. He did not seem like a superman right now, as the giant apes shocked the crap out of him, making him twist and writhe.

  I had heard slapping and beating, the crack of bones. I craned out just a little, seeing two more people, possibly Polarions. They did not move, but lay on the floor as if dead. Ah. A pool of blood leaked from each cracked skull, telling me I was right about them being dead. Those two had white robes with blue lines around the waist.

  The apes grunted as they gibbered to each other.

  Argon closed his eyes, panting and sweating. I noticed a black band around his head and black bands around his wrists. Did they nullify some of his godlike powers? Was that why Gigantopithecuses could use him so cruelly?

  Was I going to just stand here and watch them torture and kill Argon? Why was he whole again? Might he have gone through the Synthesizer on the Asteroid station? What were the giant apes doing down here in Sand’s realm, anyway? Had Nerelon Brontios taken over down here? Had Nerelon destroyed all of Sand’s robots?

  I dug in my waist pack and pulled out the blaster. I hoped it still worked after all my portal journeys.

  I wasn’t in any shape to fight, but the Gigantopithecuses would likely find me in time anyway. And if I could free Argon, maybe we could work together and figure something out. Thus, as I leaned against the humming machine, I set the blaster on high, targeted the first great ape and squeezed the trigger…

  -41-

  A concentrated milky beam shot out of the blaster. At full power, the beam struck the back of the nearest Gigantopithecus. He was a big sucker like all of them. He roared, throwing up his huge arms, staggered and then collapsed onto the floor.

  I retargeted, beaming the next until he, too, dropped.

  The last one turned ponderously as he adjusted his shock baton, aiming it at me. A sizzling line leapt from the tip and struck my blaster.

  Instinctively, I hurled the red-hot weapon at him. For its small size, the blaster still had heft, and thus sailed at him.

  At that point, the sizzling line struck me. I’d been in agony earlier, but now pain as I’d never known surged through my body. I collapsed onto the floor, shouting at the top of my voice. An explosion somewhere—the agony quit as I lay panting. I never wanted to feel such pain again. That meant I should beg and plead with the great apes—

  Anger washed over me—the hell with that! It was time to renew the attack. From where I lay, I raised my head.

  The three massive apes were on the floor, the one likely blown down from the exploded blaster. One groaned and began to stir and struggle upright. The other two lay dead.

  I had a choice. Risk everything and possibly face the pain again or—I scrambled upright before I realized I’d chosen. The knife was in my right hand. I stumbled and staggered toward the stirring Gigantopithecus. He seemed much more sluggish than I was. Maybe he saw me coming. He was many times my size, but maybe there was something on my face—payback for killing Debby!

  He stretched a huge hairy arm for his shock baton. The long, thick simian hand clutched it. He rolled to his side, eyed me, raised his baton—

  I drew my arm back to throw the knife. Before I could, Argon roared as if he was berserk and launched himself at the Gigantopithecus. As the baton hummed and began sparking, the majestic Polarion crashed against it and absorbed the full brunt of the discharge.

  That enraged and emboldened me. My staggering stumble lengthened into a half sprint. I was unsteady, but getting more determined by the second.

  The baton-wielding ape jerked his shock rod out from the stiffened body of the curled Argon.

  I was sprinting now, straining to reach the ape. The Gigantopithecus seemed stunned as he stared at Argon. Then, within the time of a blink, the giant ape must have realized I was coming for him. He aimed the baton toward me and did something, but nothing happened.

  The giant ape seemed peeved, shook the baton and dropped it, reaching for another.

  I reached him before he could crawl far enough, and I threw myself at him.

  The Gigantopithecus was massive, many times my size and normally far, far stronger. I had an equalizer—a knife—and had taken combat knife training in the Marines. He swung at me, and might have finished the fight right there if he had connected. I slipped past the monstrous moving fist, snaked the blade in and sawed at his throat. He tried to grab me, screamed—

  Ape blood gushed, soaking me.

  As he sagged, I wriggled free just in time. He began thrashing, his death throes, I presume. If he’d gotten hold of me even in the end, I doubt I would have survived his crushing grip.

  In truth, I had just been lucky, taking on a creature that could surely outwrestle an enraged grizzly bear.

  I wiped blood out of my eyes, studying
the other two. They were dead indeed, so I didn’t have to cut their throats, too.

  Argon opened bleary, bloodshot eyes. He was still alive. I had thought he was dead. He couldn’t move, but he stared at me.

  I managed a smile. It must have been a ghastly sight. Yet, Argon nodded ever so faintly, seemingly relieved.

  I swayed as a final exhaustion swept over me. The fight and baton shocks had taken everything I had left to give. The knife clattered onto the polished floor. I retched once again, although nothing came up.

  Before I fainted and maybe broke some teeth because I couldn’t close my mouth in time, I carefully lowered myself to the floor, stretched out and shut my eyes.

  I hoped to heck Argon woke up first. Then, I no longer had any thoughts on the matter, as a blackness descended over me and I conked out cold.

  -42-

  This coming to in a strange place was getting old. I shifted and sensed that I was floating somewhere. I inhaled and exhaled, hearing bubbles around me.

  That was too much. I opened my eyes and found myself in an aquarium the size of a small room. I wore a helmet-like mask over my face, one with a glass visor so I could see out. A tube was attached to the helmet-mask. With my gaze, I followed the tube as it snaked out of the aquarium to an outer machine.

  I inhaled again, tasting good clean oxygen. This was a breathing tube.

  I examined myself, finding that I was floating and that I was stark naked. There were scars on my torso, arms and legs that I did not recognize. Maybe the Gigantopithecus had wounded me earlier during our fight. There was nothing else in the aquarium with me. I craned my head, looking up. A cover was in place. I couldn’t possibly swim to the top and climb out.

  A feeling of claustrophobia struck, but through an effort of will, I restrained it.

  The water was warm, and I had a feeling it contained some sort of healing property. I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty—