GAIA: Rogue State (A Girl Power Novella) Read online

  “It’s good to see you too. I heard you and Starla had quite a time out in space.”

  “It was rather interesting. And quite beneficial for Starla.”

  Melanie nods. Kila had located Starla’s home planet, which she thought had been destroyed. The people were all gone, but Starla had found a hologram of her mother amongst the wreckage. “How have things been going here?”

  “It seems we’ve changed all those who desire it. My superiors indicate our presence will be severely reduced over the next three months.”

  “What about the machines?”

  “We will take them with us. I would like to keep some here, but it is far too dangerous given the state of your world governments. If given the chance they would use the machines as weapons to claim territory. As Peacekeepers we must strive to prevent that.”

  “That’s true. I suppose if we really need one, Alan Bass can make one.”

  “Yes. He is part of the reason I have been working here. We need to ensure these machines are properly disassembled before transport.”

  “You can’t use your magic wand to send them away?”

  Kila reveals very human-like teeth when she smiles. “You are referring to the human myths called ‘fairy tales,’ are you not?”

  “Mostly.”

  “Our staffs do not work that way. For one thing it would require a considerable amount of power to transport an object from Earth to one of our facilities.”

  “What about teleporting an object—like a person—from one location on Earth to another?”

  “That is possible, though we prefer not to use teleportation. It can be very risky and it requires a lot of concentration.”

  “But it is possible?”

  “Yes. You are not asking this in a purely theoretical sense, are you?”

  “No. There were a large number of disappearances recently. All at the same time and all in the same manner.” Melanie describes what she heard first from Sunny Moon and then her and Robin’s research. “Is it possible a Peacekeeper could be involved?”

  “What you are describing is not teleportation. The clothes would not be left behind in teleportation. What you are describing is miniaturization.”

  “Miniaturization? As in shrinking the people?”

  “Yes.”

  “So it’s possible they could still be there but too small for us to see?”

  “That is possible. I find it unlikely. There would be no reason to do that, not on the scale you are suggesting.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I cannot say. It does seem there must be Peacekeeper involvement—of our technology if nothing else. I will have to consult with the others.”

  “That reminds me, Diane found a lab in Australia. It seemed they were trying to get humans to use Peacekeeper staffs.”

  “That is impossible. A staff is coded to the user’s DNA. It would not work for another being.”

  “Is there a way to reset it?”

  “Not that I know of. I will have to consult with the others on the matter. I will report back to you with my findings.”

  “Thanks.” Melanie leans back in her chair slightly. “How are you adjusting to life on Earth?”

  “Some of it has been difficult. Your species has many unusual customs that seem to vary from nation-to-nation and even region-to-region.”

  “It can be confusing.”

  “Starla says I must learn to embrace this chaos if I am to remain here.”

  “Are you remaining here?”

  “It seems very likely.” Kila smiles slightly again. “I have enjoyed a number of your entertainments. ‘Movies’ and ‘TV’ as you call them. Your portrayal of alien life is especially amusing.”

  “It must be. Most humans didn’t even believe in alien life until Omega came along. There are still some who say the whole thing is a big publicity stunt.”

  “Humans can be quite stubborn. It is often a weakness, but sometimes a strength.”

  “That’s true. Stubbornness helped us defeat Omega. And help from you and the rest of the Peacekeepers—or most of them.”

  “We were only making up for our failure to learn of the Elders’ deception earlier. I hope there is not more deception afoot.”

  “We’re both hoping for that.” Melanie stands up and shakes the alien’s hand again. They aren’t as close as Kila and Starla, but it helps that Starla is also an alien even if she was raised on Earth. Melanie hasn’t seen anything in Kila’s yellow eyes or lavender elfin face to indicate she’s been lying; Melanie hopes if there are Peacekeepers involved Kila isn’t among them. Otherwise she’s going to learn the hard way just how stubborn humans can be.

  ***

  At the edge of the jungle, Diane hears a woman’s scream. She has to grab Pierce before the woman can rush out of hiding. “You’ll get your fool head blown off like that, love.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m really not good at this, am I?”

  “You haven’t had the training.”

  “Very true—”

  “Now is the time we need to be as quiet as possible.”

  Diane’s relieved Pierce only nods at this. Diane takes out her binoculars to survey the situation. There’s a clearing ahead of them, the ground turning hillier, with less vegetation. On a small hill sit at least a half-dozen military trucks. The markings have been taken off, but those half-tons aren’t used by construction companies or farmers, that’s for certain. She zooms in to see a white man in camouflage gear armed with an AK-47. Mercenaries by the look of it. They could be clearing out the villages at the behest of some local warlord. Or they might see a chance to make some profit selling human flesh.

  Another white man in camouflage steps into her view. Diane turns up the magnification as high as she can. She’s seen this man before. It’s not much of a surprise to find him here, back up to his old tricks again.

  Diane gets to her feet. She takes off the holsters for her TEC-9s, handing this to Dr. Pierce, who acts as if it’s a live snake. “Go on, take it. The rest of my gear too.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I know the bloke in charge of this mess. I’m going to see if I can talk sense into him. I don’t come back by nightfall, you use my gear and get back to civilization to call for help. The GPS in there should make it easy to find your way back—”

  “You want me to go back by myself?”

  “I don’t want that, but there’s a chance—admittedly a small one—I can end this without bloodshed. That would be the best thing for your friends. It’s what Melanie would want me to do.”

  “But—”

  “You’ve made it this far, yeah? Shouldn’t be too hard to do it in reverse.” Diane leans down to put a hand on Pierce’s shoulder. “You’re a tough old bird—even if you talk too much.”

  “That’s very kind of you to say.”

  “It’s the truth. You came here knowing full-well how dangerous it was. That makes you a hero in my book.” Diane hates having to make a speech like this, but it’s the kind of motivation Pierce needs so she won’t turn into a blubbering heap who ends up food for the snakes or jackals or whatever else. “You can do this.”

  “I could help you—”

  “The best way for you to help is to get word to my boss if I can’t. Her name is General Melanie Amis. A-M-I-S.”

  “Amis. Like the writer?”

  “Don’t ask me, love. Only reading I do are instruction manuals for weapons.”

  Pierce holds out her hand for Diane to shake. “Good luck, Diane. I will pray for you. The Catholic god and the local ones.”

  “Thanks. I’ll need it.”

  Diane tries to look as casual as possible as she emerges from the jungle. She still has the Desert Eagle in the small of her back in case things go south. She expects they will, but there’s that small chance she might be able to get him to see reason. At his core he’s a businessman, like she used to be. For the right price he might agree to let all of his prisoners go and Melanie has
the diplomatic connections to offer him far more than he’s likely to get from his employer.

  She makes sure not to look back into the jungle. She doesn’t want to give them any reason to look back there, where Pierce is hopefully still hiding. That woman might be a naïve do-gooder who talks too much, but she’s not a bloody fool; she should have the sense to stay hidden so long as Diane doesn’t give her away.

  Even from this distance she can sense someone aiming at her. From this far it would be a difficult shot, but not an impossible one, especially for her. She certainly made more difficult ones in her career. She just hopes they don’t have itchy trigger fingers.

  To help eliminate this possibility she holds up her arms in surrender. It’s a pity she doesn’t have a white flag to wave. She could have broken off a stick and used her bra; they’d probably have gotten a kick out of that. It’s much too late for that now.

  No one shoots her. As she nears the top of the hill she sees him waiting for her. He hasn’t changed much in a decade, probably thanks to those alien machines. His bald head looks an egg dyed pink from the sun while his red beard would be worthy of a Viking.

  One benefit of the alien machines is his rotten teeth have been fixed. They look almost like a movie star’s when he smiles. “Major Giordano, I presume?”

  “Hullo Outback. You still going by that moniker?”

  “No sense changing it. ‘Course you changed yours, didn’t you?”

  “Didn’t have much choice, mate.”

  They used to be the same height, but now Outback—also known as Reggie Hogan—is a half-foot taller than her. He crushes her in a bear hug. It’s not entirely cordial as she feels one of his hands yank the Desert Eagle from the small of her back. “Ah, Diane, you haven’t changed. Inside, at least.” He holds the pistol up for her to see. “You don’t trust an old friend?”

  “Hard to know who to trust these days.”

  “I suppose it is when you’re working for the other side. Hard to believe my good mate Darrien Giordano is carrying a badge.”

  “Darrien is dead. It’s Diane now.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. How’d you like your balls back?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Let me show you.”

  Chapter 7

  There are at least two-dozen women dressed in rags in the camp. They’re shackled together to make sure they can’t run off. To make sure, a dozen men with AK-47s are watching them. There aren’t any tents, but then Outback probably isn’t planning to stay here long.

  “It’s a pity you didn’t get a chance to see me after that machine changed us all into cunts,” Outback says.

  Diane can see it in her head: Outback had probably turned into a young Amazon with long, fiery red hair and breasts each bigger than Diane’s head. “I’m sure it was something.”

  “Thought I’d go crazy every time I looked in the mirror. You probably felt the same, didn’t you?”

  “At times,” Diane admits. She had wanted to put a bullet in her head so she wouldn’t have to see this adorable face that looks so much like her sister Danielle’s would have if she’d lived long enough. “I’m getting used to it.”

  “I ought to thank you and your new friends for disposing of that Omega bloke.”

  “I didn’t have much to do with that.”

  “Just as well you took down Geiger and that riff-raff.”

  “I was glad you weren’t part of that riff-raff.”

  “That comic book villainy isn’t for me. I’m more interested in money. Like you used to be.”

  “I’m still interested. This government job has a decent paycheck. Plus the health benefits are the mutt’s nuts.”

  “There’s more money to be made in private contracting these days, especially with so many others out of the game. You and me could make enough to buy Australia for ourselves.”

  “I’ll leave that for you.” Diane stops to gesture at the prisoners. “I’m here about them. How much will it take for you to release them?”

  “Afraid I can’t do that, not even for my old mate.”

  “Whatever they’re paying you—”

  “It’s not about money. Not this time.”

  “I thought you were a businessman.”

  “I am, but this is bigger than all that. I said you could get your balls back. Don’t that hold no interest for you?”

  “I get my balls back, I go to jail.”

  “Only if they catch you.”

  “Not much of a bet given who they’d send after me.”

  “Apex Girl?”

  “Or Midnight Spectre. Maybe the Velocity Family. Maybe all of them.”

  “Or maybe even your girlfriend? Hard to see you and Ion Man as a couple.”

  “Her name is Tonya and it’s none of your damned business.”

  “You must really like her to get so angry.”

  Diane knows he’s baiting her. He wants her to take a swing at him. All she’d do right now is break her hand. Even her garrote wouldn’t be that much use right now. She couldn’t reach his neck and even if she could it’d be like trying to strangle a tree stump. “She saved my arse. That kind of thing brings people together.”

  “I saved your arse and you didn’t try snogging me.”

  “You never saved me from anything I couldn’t have gotten out of on my own.”

  Outback shrugs. “Maybe you’re right. Aren’t you the least bit curious what’s going on here?”

  “Won’t matter. As soon as the Super Squad gets word of it they’ll have you in Gitmo with the others.”

  Outback says nothing. He walks over to one of the trucks and then lowers the gate. When he yanks off a tarp, Diane sees what she’s been dreading: one of the machines Alan Bass designed to turn the women of the planet back into men. This is one of the rural models that could turn a woman into a man or a child into an adult.

  “Where’d you get that?”

  “We have our ways.”

  “You either stole it from a Peacekeeper or one of them gave it to you. The fact we don’t have any aliens here probably means the latter.”

  “I was hoping you’d be more impressed.”

  “I’ve seen these before. My girlfriend built them, remember?”

  “Then you know how they work. I hit one button and you get your balls back. I hit another and you’ll end up in an old age home.”

  “Why hit either one? I didn’t come here to fight you. I came to get your prisoners back.” Diane looks back at the line of girls. All of them female. Many of them wear raggedy clothing a few sizes too big. She thought that was just the poverty of the village, but now she realizes there’s another reason. “You have a second machine, don’t you? Or one of those ray guns Stanford designed. You used it to make them come quietly. Then one of your friends bombed the village to wipe out any evidence.”

  “Top marks for you, Diane.” He reaches into his pocket for what looks like a pink hairdryer. First Major Carrie Dalton and then Clownface had used one of those, both of them completely daft. “I use this on you and you’ll turn into a wee little thing, probably about the age your sister was when she died.”

  “How’d you get one of those?”

  “My new employer can get almost anything you can think of.”

  “The Peacekeepers. You’re working for one of those bastards.”

  “Top marks again.” He holds up the pink weapon. “It’s time to decide.”

  None of the options hold much appeal. Becoming a man again will make her a target for the Super Squad or any other law agency—including GAIA. Becoming an old woman will land her in a home, where nurses will have to change her diapers and mop up her drool. Not electing either of those she’ll become a little girl, a poor imitation of Danielle; one look at herself then would probably drive her insane. She could try to escape, but with so many guards she won’t make it and then the prisoners could very likely die.

  Diane hangs her head. “If any part of you is still my friend then p
ut a bullet in my head. I’d as soon you end it for all time.”

  “That’s right heroic of you, Diane.” He pats her gently on the cheek. “Much as I might enjoy seeing you as a wee thing or a tottering old dame, you’re much more valuable with your balls back.”

  “You son of a bitch. I’m not going to help you even if—”

  A beam of blue light hits her before she can finish. Diane drops to her knees, pain lancing through her entire body. It’s as bad going from a woman to a man as the opposite way was. She presses her eyes closed so she won’t have to watch her breasts disappear and her penis reappear. From the sound of seams tearing she does know she’s getting bigger, probably back to Outback’s height.

  It’s over after a minute. Diane—Darrien again—lies on the ground, panting and wheezing. Outback bends down to whisper, “There’s my old mate. Seeing you as a cunt was enough to make me retch.”

  “Fuck…you.”

  “That’s no longer possible, my friend. You know I don’t stand for buggering.”

  Two men heft Darrien to his feet. With his head hanging, he can see he really is a man again. He’d always thought that would bring relief, but instead he thinks of everything he’s about to lose: freedom, GAIA, Melanie, but Tonya most of all. “You…bastard.”

  “No worries, mate. We’ll get you right in the head soon enough.”

  Outback steps aside. Darrien sees a thin black girl wearing a tribal mask that gives her the look of some ancient beast. In her hands she wields a black metal staff—a Galactic Peacekeeper staff. As she shouts something in her native language, she whirls the staff around. Finally she screams as if having an orgasm and brings the staff down on Darrien’s head with surprising gentleness.

  The moment the staff touches his head, electricity crackles through his skull. He lets out one final scream before he passes out.

  Chapter 8

  Only a handful of people in the world can get into the subbasement of Grant Laboratories. Melanie is one of those select few who has the access. First she has to submit to a retinal scan, a fingerprint scan, and a voice analysis. Once all those check out, the elevator proceeds to take her down.

  After the alien invasion—and with her newfound importance to the president—Melanie convinced the US government it would behoove them to put more funding into research of alien technologies. The result is the underground laboratory run by Dr. Alan Bass, also known as Velocity Man. As someone who’d seen his fair share of alien technology and as one of the smartest people on the planet he was the natural choice to head up the lab. Since he already worked at Grant and didn’t want to move his family, the subbasement was cleared out and fortified at taxpayer’s expense.