Back in his chair on the bridge of the Phoenix, after what seemed like weeks but was barely a few days, Jason watched Chief Anderson closely. He'd heard enough today from Mark to realize how much he'd been in the dark about what was really going on with G-Force vis a vis the Federation. But then, en route from the Detention Center to the Phoenix, the Chief had told him and Mark a very terse version of what total bizarreness had apparently gone down in the space of a couple days at Spaceport 5.
It sounded completely insane -an alien from another dimension, stranded in this one, had stolen their civvies, presumably had murdered Agent Hannah, and had put her body in Mark's bed to frame him -but it was a story that the Chief seemed to have pieced together from things Princess told him, things the Spaceport Security officials told him, and some sort of mysterious intel only he had. Oh, and there'd been some other alien from the same place, except that one helped Princess-
It was still all very frustratingly unclear to Jason. He'd have been complaining about this, were it not for the Chief's cold fury in the wake of having to bribe his two senior G-Force officers' way out of a jail cell they'd landed in for such sordid reasons.
Especially frustrating, and unnerving, was what the Chief had all-too-briefly mentioned about these aliens being shape-shifters who could both read people's minds and take on their exact appearances...
Princess. Had the Princess he'd been with the night before been an alien in disguise -not Princess, and not even remotely human? It was sickeningly plausible...
This had to be the worst day of his life, thought Jason -humiliation from all sides and the awareness now that he couldn't blame this all on Mark's history with Agent Hannah. Though Mark looked about as wretched as he felt, and no doubt he was equally grateful to be back in his uniform. Jason had never been more glad to have a visor that concealed most of his face, as it was surely mirroring the mess his thoughts were in.
He kept his eyes on the Chief and sat up straighter, trying to summon what vestiges of dignity he still had. The Chief was promising a "full story" about all the crap that had ensued in the last couple days and he was desperate for anything that might ease his confusion.
And this kept him from looking at Princess... Yes, it was easier right now to just keep his eyes on Chief Anderson, though he was all too aware of her presence on the edge of his vision.
If he had any scrap of comfort, it was that the alien shape-shifters were, according to the Chief, both dead. If he really had been duped by an imposter... -he shuddered- at least no one would ever know except him.
Really, he should have known without a doubt that it was too good to be true. Why would Princess ever want him?
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Five visored faces were all turned towards their Chief, all waiting to hear what he had to say. That was nothing new -a regular occurrence for many years- but now he was going to tell G-Force what he'd never told anyone except President Kane.
His heart was beating faster. Could it be... finally, that the tide was going to turn-
Stay calm. One thing at time, they need to know it all...
"Twenty years ago," he began, "Well before the war, when Spectra was only just beginning to be a concern to some in the Federation, I was returning to Earth from a conference on Riga. Rigan intelligence and security personnel were already harboring suspicions of long-term Spectran plans for aggressive expansion -even against Federation planets- and they'd persuaded me that this was something I needed to make sure the right people heard at the Federation Headquarters."
"Wise people, those Rigans," said Mark softly.
"Yes, and one of Spectra's earliest targets," agreed Anderson, "I was travelling in a small ship, piloting it by myself, and I decided to drop out of warp for a while, and put it into orbit around the moon of an uninhabited planet in the Procyon system, so that I could work on summarizing and organizing the data and intelligence I'd received on Riga to make it as effective as possible. I already had Kane in mind as my first target -he wasn't 'President Kane' back then, of course, but though he was very ambitious I respected him as someone who valued the truth -even when it was certain to be unpopular."
"You told Keyop and me, earlier, that you'd been doing scientific research," noted Tiny.
More attentive than he often seemed, Tiny was, reflected Anderson.
" I was also running some geological scans on that moon," he replied, "And the first rule in Security is to not reveal any more than is necessary."
"Yeah, and some people love following rules," said Jason, but he seemed to be glancing at
Mark.
"Nevertheless, secrecy can outlive its necessity," continued Anderson.
Especially if everything was about to change...
"What is significant is that, while in orbit around that moon, my ship's instruments suddenly began producing aberrant readings like nothing I'd ever seen before -with a radiation signature detected that was inexplicable -that is, until I saw it-"
"A hyperpod?" asked Princess.
"Yes," he said, "Like the one we have on board now. It seemed to be drifting aimlessly, and I had no idea what it could be. I had just enough room in my ship's cargo hold, though, to bring it on board."
"Did you figure out how to make it open up?" asked Princess.
"Eventually..." said Anderson, "I'm guessing that you had help with that today?"
"Yes," she said, "And how to pilot one too -I would never have succeeded today without his help."
Yes, thought Anderson. Him...
"Once I did get the hyperpod to open, and looked inside, I saw there was a puddle of what seemed to be a liquid crystalline substance -but it was moving and flowing around the hyperpod's interior. I had never been so baffled in my life as to what it could be, but also never so intrigued -I could tell that there was somehow purpose to the puddle's movement and shape-changes. And then, very suddenly, it began to flow directly towards me. I nearly fled the cargo hold in terror, but yet I didn't... I just had to know. I reached towards it instead, meaning to just touch it briefly but the puddle encased my hand. That made me panic -I tried to free my hand, but I couldn't -it wouldn't let go. And then my head became filled with... a barrage of incomprehensible ideas and images. I lost all sense of time-"
"He was reading your mind," said Princess, "And trying to communicate with you."
"This has happened to you too?" said Mark, now staring at Princess.
"To all of us, I think," she said, "Except Tiny and Keyop. Agent Hannah, in the disco that first night -I know now that she wasn't the real Agent Hannah. She was one of these liquid crystalline aliens, and anyone she touched, she could read their minds."
"Princess is correct," continued Chief Anderson, "All our memories and knowledge are stored in our brains, chemically, at the molecular level. These aliens, through contact, can decode and, in essence, 'read' our minds. The longer the contact lasts, the more they can read, but I believe that what they learn first is whatever is most recent or most intense in our thoughts and memories. I think that the substance they are made from actually mimics, or copies, the chemical structures they detect in our brains- the substance they are made from, it can actually become... anything."
"Even Agent Hannah -even me!" said Princess, scowling.
Mark and Jason both shifted slightly in their chairs.
"This alien 'Agent Hannah' that you encountered," said Chief Anderson, glancing at them and Princess, "She made physical contact with you while at the disco?"
"Yes," said Mark, with another shift, "She was, um... flirty, and at one point she had her hands on my legs, while I was sitting at the bar -before I could move away from her."
"The pants you were wearing were your civvies, then?"
"Uh... yeah," said Mark.
Mark seemed oddly uncomfortable -Jason and Princess too now seemed fidgety. What was that all about? Meanwhile: back to the matter at hand...
"She touched me too," said Jason, "Later. She had a friend with her at the disco, a guy with dark hair and a thin mustache -he told me he had something 'interesting' that he wanted to sell. I made plans to meet him the next day and see it, but, uh..."
This was interesting. Chief Anderson quickly moved to a console and brought up an image of a man from the data archives -a man with dark hair and a thin mustache. He moved the image to a view screen.
"That's the guy!" said Jason.
"He seems familiar," said Princess, "Who is he?"
"His name is Barzok," Chief Anderson told them, "And you were all shown his image some months ago during that mission to prevent Spectra from polluting the waters of Federation planets with salt. Prior to his failure in that scheme, he'd been the key man in Spectra's inter-galactic slave system and heavily involved in espionage for the Spectran Empire. Federation Intelligence lost track of him after that-"
"How did you know, then, that he was guy I just met at the disco?" asked Jason.
"Because," said Chief Anderson, frowning in recollection, "I had to visit the detention center, to bail out you and Mark, and this entailed much discussion with the security personnel there. In this way I learned they had just discovered another murder victim, in addition to Agent Hannah -the real Agent Hannah who'd been planted in Mark's room. They were pleased when I was able to both identify this new corpse for them and provide information on his background with Spectra. 'No one will care this guy's dead' was the classification he then received from the security personnel."
"So what Barzok had, that he wanted to sell -what you sent us to Spaceport 5 to investigate," said Mark, putting some pieces together, "Was it-"
"A hyperpod? Yes," said Chief Anderson, "It's the only explanation that makes sense. Let me continue to explain what happened twenty years ago. As I said, the liquid crystalline alien read my knowledge and memories, and used them to take on a human shape of a very generic-looking middle-aged man with silvery hair, and then he was also able to talk to me. That was how I learned that he was from an entirely different dimension, and that somehow his ship -the hyperpod- had torn through space/time and been stranded, powerless, in our dimension. His alien race, from what I could surmise, are all extremely ancient by our standards, but he is one of the very oldest. All knowledge and memories that they acquire, they never lose, as over many eons, they expand and grow their 'matrix' -that was the word he used for it- wherein it is all contained."
"And... you helped him?" asked Keyop, "He called you... friend, today."
"Yes, I drained the power cells of my ship till they were barely able to maintain life support, but I made it possible for him to relaunch his hyperpod to return to his dimension. I then had to issue a distress call and wait for a rescue ship from the Federation -all quite embarrassing, as I had to pretend to be an inept space-traveler rather than admit what I'd really done to drain my ship's power. But it was worth it in the end -so very worth it."
He paused, glancing around at the Phoenix and then at all five of his G-Force Team.
"Before departing," he continued, "The alien insisted on giving me a gift, to show his gratitude. You see, he gave me a piece of himself; he severed part of his very substance and left it behind with me."
No one spoke at first, but then Princess did.
"It's in our civvies, isn't it?" asked Princess, "That how they're able to transmute -you used the substance in our civvies."
Now the others were all moving, running their hands over their uniforms, seeming both awed and appalled.
"That's why the other alien was calling me a thief," added Princess, "And trying to steal all of our civvies -she thought we'd somehow stolen them, murdered one of her fellow aliens."
"No doubt," said Chief Anderson, "Though she would also be able to increase her matrix, and therefore her scope for knowledge and power, but absorbing the substance from the civvies into herself and-"
"Is this," blurted Mark, "Is this why there's only five of us? Did making our transmuting civvies use up all of the substance?"
A wave of "aha!" ran through the Team. At last, they knew the truth...
"You now know what only I and President Kane know -yes," said Chief Anderson, "The substance from that alien is what made it possible for me to create uniforms that can transmute, always fit perfectly, repel bullets, and have capes that will stiffen during soaring and flight and then relax after. It's what makes it possible for you to achieve the whirlwind pyramid. It's what makes your vehicles able to transmute as well, and without the substance, the Phoenix wouldn't be able to become the Fiery Phoenix. Without the substance, none of it would be possible."
No one spoke; they were all letting this revelation sink in...
"And," he finished, "the substance is also in your cerebonic implants. I have to confess I don't truly know how it works; it was a slow process of trial and error, in everything I created with it. I only know that when it works, it does work. The speed and quality of the interface -requiring only thought- and the power you're all able to draw from your implants -that wasn't possible until I tried using some of the substance inside the implants. All I can say is that it somehow just became what I needed it to be, even if I didn't know what that was."
"Wow," said Mark, shaking his head, "Let me see if I've got all this straight... So Barzok somehow found a hyperpod -the same way you did- and then he..."
"Most likely," said Chief Anderson, "And Agent Hannah might have been with him. Ever since I'd found a hyperpod, I've had Zark's monitoring beacons, all throughout space, set to search for the same energy signature that I'd detected when I first found the stranded pod. Just recently, I got a reading -sent solely to me- that the same energy signature had been detected near the Carinae asteroid field. This was followed shortly by some intel that someone was trying to sell something 'interesting' at Spaceport 5."
"And Barzok was," said Jason.
"Yes," said Chief Anderson, "It seems most likely that he discovered the stranded hyperpod-"
"And the alien inside it," said Princess.
"I'm beginning to suspect," said Chief Anderson, "that the first person to make contact with the alien was Agent Hannah, though, not Barzok. Agent Hannah did very recently escape from Federation Detention Center #86, and she couldn't have done that without assistance. My guess is that Barzok was her assistance and he was bringing her back to Spaceport 5, outside Federation jurisdiction, when they discovered the hyperpod."
"So the alien became her -mimicked and copied Agent Hannah- and then..." said Princess, frowning.
"She was probably also the person who murdered Hannah too," said Anderson, "Barzok was found dead -shot in the head- inside a garage vault containing a small ship known to be his. The Spaceport security personnel said there was... unpleasant physical evidence that someone had been held prisoner in one of the storage lockers inside the ship's cargo hold for at least a few days."
"Poor Hannah," whispered Princess. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
"The alien that I knew, he only ever seemed wise and one with deep integrity," said Chief Anderson, "But clearly this other, younger alien was of a far different character."
"So how did the Spectrans get involved in all this?" said Jason, "That ship that blew up -where'd it come from?"
"I must assume," said Chief Anderson, "That I was not the only one intrigued by the rumor that something 'interesting' was for sale at Spaceport 5, and that a Spectran ship also came to look into it. Many Spectrans would recognize Barzok and Agent Hannah (in this case, the alien posing as Hannah), and most likely she struck some kind of deal with the Spectrans to be able to leave Spaceport 5 and take her hyperpod with her."
"Someone like her," muttered Princess, "She'd fit in very well with them... So at the disco, she must have drawn enough knowledge out of Mark and Jason to realize we had civvies made with the... substance. That night, I don't remember anything after getting back to my hotel room and getting in the shower..."
She looked oddly sad for a moment, but continued.
"This morning, I woke up feeling groggy, like I'd been drugged -and there was a needle on my nightstand. And she was in my room -looking exactly like me and wearing my civvies."
No one said anything -Mark and Jason were still as statues- so she continued.
"I was able to sneak up on her and hit her hard enough in the head to knock her out. That's when I realized she had Mark and Jason's civvies with her too. I couldn't reach either of them using my wrist communicator, so I tied her up and went to try to find them. I went to Mark's room first, just in time to find security personnel taking Hannah's body away -they told me Mark and Jason had been arrested."
"So the alien posing as Hannah -or perhaps Princess- had been able to infiltrate all of your rooms?" asked Chief Anderson, "What kind of door locks did your rooms have?"
"Voice-activated," said Jason, looking very glum.
"And if she'd touched you at the disco," said Anderson, "She might well have been able to imitate your voices well enough to be able to fool the doors' locks."
Mark's shoulders were sagging slightly too. As well they should feel ashamed! This mission to Spaceport 5 had nearly been an utter disaster for the entire Federation.
"And I know now," added Princess, "How my look-alike that I'd tied up was able to escape from my hotel room -and she took Mark and Jason's civvies with her. She must have just... changed shape. There was a dead woman, missing her clothes, in my room's closet too. When I next encountered the female alien, it was in that luggage cart room where you and Tiny and Keyop found me. She looked just like the dead woman and she was wearing a hotel uniform. She'd managed to grab my arm and pull me in there; she had a gun and was going to shoot me."
"Didn't like... getting hit on head?" asked Keyop.
"She did not like me, that's for sure," said Princess, clenching her hands, "She also still wanted my civvies -she called me a thief, and stupid..."
She briefly glanced towards Mark and Jason. They were looking at the floor, though.
"She would have shot me, I'm pretty sure, if the other alien hadn't suddenly appeared in the luggage room -he could teleport himself, just like how he got me on board the Spectran ship He got the gun away from her, but then she did... whatever it was she did to him that left him dying. And then, it seemed like she suddenly knew how to teleport too -she disappeared, with Mark and Jason's civvies."
"But you got them back," said Tiny. "I think I was the first of us, this time around, to meet the alien guy. There was a guy on the Phoenix, back at Center Neptune, with silvery hair. He was dressed in a mechanic uniform but was poking around the controls for the fiery Phoenix. Not too long after that, President Kane suddenly showed up and wanted us to bring him to the Carinae asteroid field -except it wasn't really the President at all."
"Think... I saw a silvery-hair guy at... Federation Headquarters, before you," Keyop said, looking pleased, "He saw the Chief... in new vid, and said 'Anderson.'"
"If he was aware that one his own kind had been trapped in our dimension, as he had once been, I'm not surprised he came looking for me first," said Chief Anderson, "And if only I'd met him before I left Earth, things could have been far simpler. But a mere handshake probably would have been enough for him to find the knowledge of my current whereabouts in Kane's mind and then later to take on his appearance to fool Tiny and Keyop into bringing him all the way out here."
"He was a hero indeed," said Princess softly. "He saved me at Spaceport 5 and again on the Spectran ship, saved me from her."
Her voice became harsher than Chief Anderson had ever heard it.
"I'm glad she blew up along with that ship!"
No one spoke; even Mark and Jason were still oddly silent, for them. Morose, really.
But Chief Anderson tried to recall the last time they or Princess had looked truly happy.
A long time... too long. The war had gone on for far too long, and they'd been far too young to become the senior officers of the Federation's elite combat team. His conscience had never let him forget that every time he saw the tension, the weariness, the bitterness, ever deepening in their eyes.
They'd been burdened with a near-impossible task, so much had been demanded of them -all five of them.
But now...
"Everyone," he said, "You have to realize now how everything has changed."
He couldn't keep the excitement from his voice; they all looked up at him now.
"You see, there was only five of you because I only had enough of the alien substance for there to be five of you. Now, I have the substance of an entire alien -not just a small portion."
"But... he's dead," said Princess.
"Yes, his knowledge and thoughts are gone -deleted, in essence- from his substance, his 'matrix.' But the substance of which he was made is still the very same substance that I had when he severed and gave a small piece of himself to me twenty years ago. I'm sure of it!"
Now they all looked stunned, mouths open.
"And," he continued, "We also have the hyperpod -I'm willing to bet that it's also composed of the same substance, or at least partly composed of it."
"So," said Mark, "So..."
"What will this mean?" asked Princess.
"Yeah," echoed Tiny. Keyop burbled, eyes wide as saucers.
"Could there be more of us now -more than just the five of us?" said Jason.
Chief Anderson thought back to his earliest efforts, so many years ago, at creating a fighting force to defend Earth from Spectra. He'd been able to do it then; he would surely still be able to do it now -he remembered enough and had learned so much in the years that followed.
"I will be able to equip entire new G-Force teams -ships, vehicles, weapons, uniforms, cerebonic implants. All of it! Just imagine, say two or three new teams, tripling or quadrupling the effectiveness of G-Force. And that would just be a start. Jason, Princess-"
The second and third-in-command fixed their eyes on his.
"You might want to give serious thought to how you'll feel about being promoted to Commanders of your own new teams. You've got the experience, and you've earned it."
"Me?" Princess said, and for an instant she looked panicked. But only for an instant, then her face glowed...
Glowed with hope.
Jason was grinning widely. Tiny was laughing, saying "Wow," over and over. Keyop kept burbling.
Mark was quiet, lost in thought, but finally spoke.
"We're going to win the war now. This will turn the tide -we can win, we're going to win!"
He stood up from his chair; then they all did.
"G-Force!" yelled Keyop, finally able to speak, "G-Force!"
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