Alien Revelation

  ALIEN

  REVELATION

  Tony Ruggiero

  WWW.DRAGONMOONPRESS.COM

  Alien Revelation

  Copyright © 2007 Tony Ruggiero

  Cover art © 2007 Christina Yoder, Dragon Graphics

  All rights reserved. Reproduction or utilization of this work in any form, by any means now known or hereinafter invented, including, but not limited to, xerography, photocopying and recording, and in any known storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without permission from the copyright holder.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  For Greg and Sarah,

  thanks for keeping the dream alive.

  ALIEN REVELATION

  Part One

  MIND TRAP

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Life is a series of events, or in some cases obstacles, that besiege us in our path. The key is to face them head on and in many cases, the problem diffuses itself…or it explodes in your face. Either way, it’s over.”

  Greg Carlson

  Leumas stared at Copolla’s emotionless eyes as his enemy continued repeating the words “to become.” He thought about the things Copolla had stated in their conversation and how it opened a whole realm of potential dangers. He wondered how much more detail he could get out of Copolla and if he would have the opportunity to use it. Dead men don’t talk.

  Leumas refused to lose hope about a possibility arising for escape, although the odds of that were virtually nonexistent at this point. He was overdue in reporting back to the council, which probably meant another mission would be launched to find him. But if he had succumbed so easily, what chance did the others have? Worse yet, if Greg came after him he would—

  Leumas suddenly realized that was exactly what Copolla probably wanted. Damn it, I’ve got to do something!

  “Copolla,” he said, hoping to arouse him from his stupor. “I know Greg’s father turned against you when he decided to stay on Earth. I won’t believe he was still…”

  “Before there was one,” Copolla slurred the words as if he were drunk.

  This reinforced Leumas’s growing belief that the procedure Copolla had undergone to develop his influencing ability had caused both mental and physical damage.

  “Then there were four,” he said with more clarity, as he seemed to slowly rise from the depths he inhabited. “Are you good at riddles, Leumas? I like riddles. You haven’t figured this one out yet, have you?”

  “No, Copolla. I don’t have the knack for figuring riddles, I guess.” Leumas realized Copolla was referring to the notes again. He wanted to stay on the previous subject about Greg’s “becoming,” but Copolla’s mind was so erratic, his behavior so unpredictable, that Leumas had no choice but to let him ramble.

  “Let me help you then. ‘The one’ refers to me. ‘The four’ are my two agents and their earth females. Can you figure it out now?” he asked, with a childish innocence that made Leumas’ flesh crawl.

  “Why don’t you just tell me about what I was asking earlier?” Leumas pressed. “About your agent and—”

  “Shut up, you fool!” Copolla screamed at him. “I am trying to answer your question.”

  Leumas, taken aback by the abrupt change of mood, fell silent.

  “Where was I? Yes, the four. The next part is ‘now there are three.’ Do you know who the three are?”

  “No,” Leumas answered neutrally, fearing to set off another outburst from this wild creature.

  “That’s myself, Greg and Sarah—the three,” Copolla said proudly. “ ‘If the reunion is a warm one, then all will be right, but if not, all will end and the one shall be as it was.’”

  Leumas still could not comprehend what the madman was talking about.

  “I see you still don’t grasp it,” Copolla sneered. “Still beyond your comprehension, I suppose. Well, let me explain it to you. If Greg and his woman refuse to join me in my little conquest, I shall kill them both and destroy that scum planet he is currently on. I really don’t care about the woman. She is insignificant to the whole plan, and I will probably just kill her anyway after a while.” The matter-of-fact tone he used sent chills over Leumas’ body.

  “Greg would never agree to join you in any such insane—”

  “Insane? No, not really. I just look at things from a different perspective than everyone else does. I think he might follow me quite willingly.”

  “I don’t think so,” Leumas insisted.

  “Perhaps if you knew the whole story, you might possess a different opinion,” Copolla suggested. “Would you like to hear more, my friend? Hmmm?”

  Leumas needed to know more, but he hated having to play this madman’s game of “Guess what?” to get it. Copolla obviously had another bombshell to drop on him and wanted Leumas’ full attention when he did it.

  “Just say please and I will continue. I have time and so do you,” Copolla said in a sickening-sweet voice.

  Leumas tasted the sour stomach acids that had lurched into his throat. He fought to maintain control.

  “Well, Leumas? Do you have anything you want to say?” Copolla taunted.

  “Please finish the story,” Leumas said between teeth clenched to keep him from saying anything else.

  “Very well then.” Copolla smiled, obviously satisfied he had gotten this pitiful response from Leumas at a very high cost to his pride..

  “Earlier I alluded to the fact Greg’s father was still under my control when he supposedly accepted the assignment to Earth with the intention of escaping me. Everyone assumed it was to have him spy on Earth, to see where past plans to undermine the society had gone so wrong and so on and so on. Well, that was only part of it.”

  He poured himself a glass of whiskey and stared at the bottle for several seconds. He returned his gaze to Leumas as he drank deeply, gulping the entire glass at once, then placed it on the table, wiped his mouth with his fingers and then carefully licked them clean, his eyes never leaving Leumas.

  “Would you like something to drink?”

  “No, thank you,” Leumas said.

  “All right, where was I? Oh, yes, the plan. My scientists had been tasked with conducting a very close examination of the Earth subjects after the last fiasco with that Adolf Hitler. They made some interesting findings that garnered my interest. Almost by accident we learned Terran DNA has a very interesting inactive strand in it.

  “Further study showed it could possibly be combined with Zirean DNA to produce a hybrid. We felt very certain the result would probably possess certain characteristics extremely beneficial if harnessed and used by the right group…or individual. There is a subconscious trigger required to activate it. I believe the term they used to describe it was ‘time-phased’ or something like that. Very subtle and hard to detect, but there.”

  “What kind of characteristics?” Leumas asked cautiously. “You’re talking more than just being able to influence, aren’t you?”

  “Influencing is only the beginning,” Copolla crowed. “There is so much more to it: more power and the ability to expand control throughout the galaxy with merely a thought. I wanted that hybrid. I would have it before anyone else realized what was going on. Greg’s father carried a little special package inside him compliments of my scientists and, of course, unknown to him.”

  He bent closer to Leumas as if he were going to let him in on a secret. Leumas instinctively lean
ed back as far as he could without falling off the bed.

  “Part of the influence I interwove into his mind was to ensure he would breed with an Earth woman as soon as possible. The best part…” Copolla chuckled. “The best part is that when he did breed, he would be delivering my seed, not his. Mine! My offspring would be the hybrid!”

  Leumas’ cheeks flushed a deep red as his anger at this incredible story rose to a fury. “Greg is your son? It can’t be,” he shouted. “You’re making all this up!”

  “Tests can be performed, but I care not about what you believe,” Copolla said flatly. “The process was not really that difficult, and Greg’s father never knew what had been done to him. As far as he was concerned, Greg was his son and that was exactly the way I wanted it to be, for a while, anyway.”

  Leumas asked the next logical question. “And what about Sarah? Is she your daughter?” He winced, dreading the response.

  “She was the control for the experiment,” Copolla said, waving his hand in the air as if dismissing the thought as trivial information. “The other agent was unaffected in that sense. She is a secondary matter that can be dealt with at my leisure. Her only power is the mental capacity to block some forms of influence and to communicate with Greg telepathically; a mere trivial ability compared to what he shall become.”

  “Once this information gets out, everybody will be trying to do the same thing,” Leumas argued. “Then what? Even if Greg sided with you, which I am sure he won’t, it would be a short-lived advantage. It doesn’t make sense to go through all of this.”

  “That would be the case if the DNA strand still existed in the Terrans. But it doesn’t anymore.”

  “What have you done?” Leumas asked.

  “We launched an observation satellite around Earth, or at least that is what the official reports recorded. It emitted a low-frequency radiation pulse that, over the years, destroyed the inactive DNA strand in question in every living creature on the planet. With the exception of a relatively small group, no one else on Earth has it any longer. Except Greg and Sarah.”

  “You sick bastard,” Leumas said. “You crazy, sick—”

  Copolla rose from his chair with sudden quickness, grabbing Leumas by the throat with one massive hand. In his other hand, he held a weapon at Leumas’ temple. “Another comment from you and I will kill—”

  Copolla stopped and tilted his head at various angles, like a dog hearing sounds at a level imperceptible by humans. Achieving verification of what he detected, he laughed as he pressed the point of the weapon harder into Leumas’ head.

  “Smile for the camera,” he whispered, then slowly released his hold. Leumas gasped for air and fell to the floor.

  “It won’t be much longer now,” Copolla said. “Not long at all until our family reunion.” Then in his thoughts he sent, ::Isn’t that right…Greg?::

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Why is it that the things we hold the most precious in life always seem to be the ones that we are in jeopardy to lose?”

  Greg Carlson

  “I have to go to Acuba to get Leumas,” Greg told Vague, who now physically stood in Greg’s quarters. “He’s in the hands of a madman who will certainly kill him. We were sure he was crazy and dead two years ago. We may have been wrong about him being dead, but we’re still sure about him being crazy. I have to get Leumas out of there.”

  “I would recommend against it. It’s too dangerous and you have things you must do yet,” Vague countered. “There are many more things at stake you need to be concerned with.”

  “Things? What things?” Greg asked, frustration evident in his voice. “You talk in circles and mysteries and it’s starting to drive me crazy.” He turned away for a moment to hide his expression.

  “Look, Vague,” he began more calmly as he turned back. “I can feel you’re here to do me good and to help me, but if you won’t tell me anything, how can I believe you or make a decision on what to do to help Leumas? All you tell me is that you are ‘going to make me see.’ You have to tell me something more in order for me to make the right decision.”

  Greg watched as Vague lowered his head and turned. He paced a few steps in a very small circle, apparently considering what he had been asked. He made a complete circle and then returned to face Greg.

  “Greg, you have only begun to realize your powers. All things happen for a reason, you know that, right?”

  “Sure,” Greg answered.

  “The only thing I can tell you about my people is… Well, think about the organization you represent, the United Council for Developing Worlds. The group I represent is quite similar in purpose, but yet different. It’s very difficult to explain.”

  Greg watched as Vague was silent for several seconds again.

  “Let me use a comparison to explain,” Vague began.

  “Go ahead.”

  “You have rules about influencing worlds,” Vague said. “You keep your presence secret until that world is ready to learn of your existence.”

  “Yes, to prevent the shock of the existence of another alien race, so to speak.”

  “Let’s think of my organization the same way. I am here to help you develop in a way to help the worlds you represent. In essence, it’s the same mission under a similar pretense.”

  “How old is your race?”

  “It’s been so long, even they don’t remember. Instead of forming physical bodies from elements, we are pure energy. We know no physical bounds. This physical shape before you is for your convienence—to assist in communication. .”

  “That’s amazing,” Greg said. “What about your…”

  “No. I can tell you no more. I have gone out on a limb, so to speak, too far already. You will have to trust and believe in me from what I have told you and shown you so far,” Vague insisted.

  “And what you’re trying to teach me—this moving or traveling in my mind—this will help me in leading the council?” Greg asked.

  “Yes. But it is more than just traveling through space. It may…” Vague paused, as if rehearsing his next words. “We are not sure how far it can go, maybe even take you through time? You have some limited ability to see into the future, but if you haven’t had your doubts yet, you will. The time line you are seeing is based on everything remaining relatively constant. You should know from your own mathematical laws that few things involving a living entity are constant. To believe what you have seen must happen is a grave error.”

  “I think I understand,” Greg said. “And, yes, I’ll admit I’ve had my doubts somewhat about the precognition. I can’t even control it; it comes and goes as it pleases. In fact, the last time I had a glimpse that made any real sense was over two years ago when I assumed the leadership of the UCDW. Since then, it’s been bits and pieces.”

  Greg paused, as if remembering the day with a certain relish for a few seconds, and it was then realization struck. “So you must be here for a specific reason. You know something is going to happen. What? What is going to happen? You must tell me.”

  Greg looked into Vague’s face, searching for some emotion or expression that might reveal something.

  “All I can tell you is that if you are not prepared for what is coming,” he stated, looking Greg directly in the eyes, “then Earth will be destroyed. You are the only chance to prevent it—if you are prepared to meet the challenge.”

  *****

  Sarah arrived at the UCDW compound and was met at the shuttle bay by Reveb. She couldn’t help but be amused as she replayed Greg’s press conference in her mind. She had to commend him for his ingenious plan of acting a little crazy; he had done an excellent job of destroying Ray Schume’s credibility. The attitude of people around her had changed considerably.

  “He’s changed, you know,” Reveb said. Sarah jumped at the sound of his voice. “I saw it in his face the other day,” he added, before she could respond.

  “Who?” Sarah asked as she regained her composure.

  “The Leader.”
r />   “He has a lot of responsibilities now,” Sarah pointed out. “It would change anyone to have that much—”

  “No, it’s more than that. He, himself, is changing. His mind…” Reveb ended the conversation as they reached Greg’s quarters. Sarah stared as he hurried down the corridor and out of sight.

  Sarah found Greg sitting in his chair, coffee cup in hand as he gazed out the window. It was in these moments she wondered where his mind was. He was spending so much time thinking and planning, he had little time for anything else.

  “Ahem,” she said to get his attention.

  Greg turned his gaze from the window toward her. At first, he seemed distant somehow, his eyes unfocused, but his disposition changed quickly.

  “Hi there, lady,” he said as he came to greet her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

  “Hmmm, I don’t know if I’m safe around a crazy guy like you,” she teased.

  “I’ll be fine as long as you’re part of my rehabilitation.”

  “Cute.”

  “Thank you. Can I get you something? Coffee?” He indicated his cup. “Fresh and just the way you like it.”

  “Sure,” she said, as her eyes searched his face.

  Physically, he looked tired. In his eyes she could see there was great emotional stress, but she would wait until he was ready to tell her. She wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked toward the kitchen.

  “What’s up with Reveb?” she asked instead. “He’s acting very weird and says you’re ‘changing.’ Specifically your mind, he said. Is there something this girl should know before she considers a long-term relationship?”

  “Too late for that. We’re in for the long haul, sweetheart.”

  “No, really,” Sarah insisted. “It was very strange.”

  “He’s a strange individual.” He chuckled. “He came in the other day, and I was really deep into thought and didn’t hear him. He came up to me and shook me and I guess I didn’t acknowledge him for a while. He got nervous when I finally looked up at him. He gave me one of the strangest looks I have ever seen—or, at least, one of the strangest looks I have ever seen from him, considering his usual bland expression.”