Rem Man: “Operation Vostok”

By J. Wayne Stillwell

Operation Vostok is the second episode in the REM Man saga. Adam Johnson is now a special operative for the director of Homeland Security. He uses his extraordinary abilities to combat evil and keep the world safe. His government handlers use him for missions where national or global security is at risk.

The story begins in Pennsylvania where, between missions, Adam lives a middle-class life running his father-in-laws business. He goes on trips alone from time to time. His wife, Joan, doesnt ask questions. She knows REM Man is serving his country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546257615

J. Wayne Stillwell

J. Wayne Stillwell is a native of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and currently resides in Richmond, Virginia. After serving thirty-four years as a naval officer, he completed a second career as vice president for an R&D company. He is currently an independent consultant and fiction writer. He received his BS in electrical engineering from Purdue University, master’s degree in physics from the Naval Post-Graduate School, and completed the executive development program at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published articles in navy journals and authored his first science fiction book, “Xetonian Trades,” in 2003. A second edition of the same book, “Xetonian Trades I, The Seeding”; “Xetonian Trades, The Augerite Hordes”; “Xetonian Trades III, The Reapers”; his first romance novel, “Ten Months,” and a short human interest story titled “Bus 22” were published in 2013. “Xetonian Trades IV, Infinity’s Gate” was published in 2014. This book is another story about how intelligent life in the Milky Way deals with love, war, and interplanetary intrigue. He and his spouse of forty-six years, Bernadette, have two sons, John and Matthew, and four grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2018 J. Wayne Stillwell. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/24/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5762-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5760-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5761-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018910124

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Disclaimer

Author’s Preface

Glossary of Terms

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Epilog

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the hero’s, in and out of uniform, who protect our neighborhoods, educate our children and defend our way of life.

Disclaimer

This story is a fiction contrived and created from the mind of the author. Any reference to persons living or dead is purely accidental and unintended. Planets, counties, and cities referenced in this book are a mix of real and imaginary places but nothing in this book ever happened in the real world.

Author’s Preface

The first book in the REM Man series, titled Night Quest, was published in 2016 by Authorhouse. It is a fast paced chronical about mind control, dream states, alternate realities and the transformation of U.S. Navy Commander Adam Johnson into an experimental super human they named REM Man.

Night Quest began with Commander Johnson experiencing nightmares and discovering his conscience and un-conscience minds had flipped. While awake, he was in an endless day mare; while asleep, he was in complete control.

He soon discovered he was not going crazy. His mind had been altered by a criminal syndicate run by rogue human scientists on Earth and alien technical officers from the planet Zector. The syndicate planned to pacify and control the world.

The aliens used a rare element from their home planet, called Bersilium, to alter Commander Johnson’s brain in a way that allowed reality to be generated and experienced in his sub-conscious brain. He could now function exactly like an awake person during REM sleep and do things that can only be done in our dreams, e.g., fly, be invisible, run as fast as a horse, place himself anywhere instantly or have the strength of twenty men.

Johnson was a military officer so he reluctantly obeyed orders in the beginning but when he realized he was involved with an evil and fake government organization, he rebelled. With the help of friends in and out of the government, he destroyed the syndicate. The world came to know him as REM Man.

Night Quest ends with peace returning to Earth and the aliens abandoning their mission. The current status of Earth to the Zectorian Technical Service is ‘Earth requires further maturation prior to integration’.

Operation Vostok, is the second episode in the REM Man saga. Adam Johnson is now a special operative for the Director of Homeland Security. He uses his extraordinary abilities to combat evil and keep the world safe. His government handlers use him for missions where national or global security is at risk.

The story begins in Pennsylvania where between missions, Adam lives a middle-class life running his father-in-law’s business. He goes on trips alone from time to time. His wife Joan doesn’t ask questions. She knows REM Man is serving his country.

Glossary of Terms

Adam Johnson – Retired Naval Engineer and program manager. Involuntarily recruited into the Night Quest project in 2021 as a test subject for chemical brain alteration studies and as a living beta site for validating mind control software and protocols. He is married to the former Joan Simpson and they have two sons. The world knows him as REM Man and he currently lives in Pennsylvania.

Admiral Hart – Commander of Navy Task Force 2. His mission was to destroy the WDC operations base in Antarctica and prevent their execution of Operation Vostok.

AGD - Alien Global Defense, AGD for short, is an agency under the Director of Homeland Security. AGD has three divisions; Extraterrestrial Surveillance, International Intelligence and Counter Alien Operations, referred to as A-1, A-2 and A-3 respectively.

Aide – Rank held by Zectorian Technical officers trained in the pacification and colonization of planets. The most important levels, Major and Minor Aide, is given only to technical officers capable of exercising super powers during REM sleep.

Alpha-5 – Call sign for the Zectorian troop ship that transported Zectorian REM Soldiers from their base in the Alpha Centauri star cluster.

Amy – Executive assistant to Sam Throckmorton, head of the World Domination Cartel (WDC). Loneliness and her attraction to REM Man allows him to compromise her and turn her into an unwitting double agent.

Barron’s Dairy Farm – Farm located 30 miles south east of Chicago where the Zectorian troop ship ALPHA-5 landed in preparation for the destruction of Chicago.

Bersilium – Rare element found in limited amounts on the planet Zector in the Andromeda Galaxy. Bersilium has the ability to alter intelligent brains in a way that allows reality to be generated and experienced in the sub-conscious brain.

Through a quantum mechanical interaction with the forces of nature, a person with a Bersilium altered brain can generate String Waves allowing themselves to be anywhere and do anything they can imagine while in REM sleep. Similar to Opium based pain killers, Bersilium is addictive.

Bruce Showalter – REM Man’s undercover alias while trying to infiltrate the WDC.

Della – Registered nurse recruited into the Night Quest syndicate. She discovered their evil intent and befriended REM Man. She married Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Peters.

Doctor Freeman – General Practitioner and Phycologist who ran the Night Quest syndicate’s sleep clinic in northern Virginia where human subjects were field tested. He is now serving 25 years to life in prison.

Dusty – REM Man’s A-3 handler, located in Pittsburgh, PA.

Frank Ford – Served on the President’s National Security Council (NSC) for six years and worked for a strategic think tank in Washington, D.C. He helped REM Man defeat the syndicate. He won the Presidency as an independent in 2028.

HVAC – Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning.

Jeb Saunders – FBI analyst who worked with REM Man when he was a young FBI intern and later became a field agent. He helped REM Man expose the syndicate in 2022 and is currently head of the FBI.

Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Peters – Marine officer in command of the detachment sent to assault the Night Quest Operations Center on Syndicate Mountain in 2022. He married Della in 2024 and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 2025.

Maximum Sanction – License to use any means necessary to achieve mission objectives, including termination of life.

Minor Regulan Brander – Zectorian technical officer in charge of Zector’s version of Manifest Destiny which is to pacify habitable planets with intelligent life and then integrate them into the Zectorian empire.

Nano Nukes – Also known as Micro Nukes. Football size or smaller fission or fusion bombs.

Night Quest – Canceled covert government project whose mission was to understand and control the un-conscience human mind. Its official purpose was to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and develop methods for extracting intelligence from enemy captives without using torture.

Night Quest Syndicate – Group of rogue doctors, scientists and technicians working on the Night Quest Project who conspire with aliens from the planet Zector. The aliens share brain alteration and control technology with the syndicate for the purpose of developing human super soldiers who could help them take over the Earth. The syndicate created REM Man.

Phillip Dillon – Director, Homeland Security.

Phonona – Alien name for the Andromeda galaxy where the planet Zector resides.

REM sleep – The deepest phase of sleep and is characterized by Rapid Eye Movement.

Regulan – Zectorian equivalent of a U.S. military flag officer.

Ronald Saunders – Jeb Saunders nephew. He is a nuclear physicist and a consultant to A-3.

Roof Top Mesa – Location on the Planet Zector of the only known source of Bersilium.

Sam Throckmorton – Night Quest syndicate director. Given immunity in return for his assistance in destroying the Night Quest syndicate. He then establishes a new alliance with Zectorian technical officer Vallamine and her mate and forms the WDC.

SCIF – Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. The situation room in the west wing of the White House is a SCIF.

String Theory – Theoretical concept in physics where particles are assumed to be a one-dimensional strings with essentially no cross section. Similar to particles, strings have vibrational states that can mimic the nuclear weak and strong forces, and electromagnetic and gravitational forces. Some scientists suggest that string theory could be the mathematical construct that brings the Unified Field Theory together that Einstein worked on for decades. Physics based on a "Unified Field’ theory would give intelligent life control of infinite energy.

String wave – Millions of coherent one-dimensional energy strings vibrating at various frequencies. They can be produced by a Bersilium modified brain. Such a brain has control of its host body at the quantum mechanical level and can, through String Waves, create physical effects and realities as varied as dreams themselves.

Succinylcholine – A powerful medicine that causes short term paralyses in the human body.

Vallamine – Zectorian Technical Officer who in 2022 lead the invading alien REM Soldiers in a failed attempt at world domination. Currently mated with the alien Minor Regulan Brander and continues to execute missions for Zector in the Milky Way and other Galaxy’s.

Vostok – The name of the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica and the Russian research station located above it. Also, the code name used by the WDC for their pacification of Earth mission.

WDC - World Domination Cartel. A secret criminal organization committed to taking control of Earth using asymmetric methods.

Andruko – Rockledge Industries Plant manager in Sumy, Ukraine and a WDC operative.

Zector – Home planet of the Zectorian people located in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Chapter One

Place: Ligonier, Pennsylvania

Date: May 13, 2029

The weather forecast for Thursday, 13 May, 2029 was good, a high of 58 degrees with a slight breeze and partly cloudy skies. Retired Navy Commander, Adam Johnson, was doing what he did most mornings when the weather was pleasant, enjoying a cup of coffee on his patio. The predawn glow from the eastern sky was not yet bright enough to produce shadows but was sufficient for him to see everything in his back yard.

Except for birds chirping good morning to each other and fluttering down to the ground looking for worms, it was quiet and peaceful. He knew that soon the sounds of dogs barking, cows bawling for their morning feeding and roosters announcing the arrival of a new day would fill the air.

He liked his back yard. It was nothing special but it was large, almost a half-acre. He scanned the lawn. What he and his spouse Joan called grass, was whatever nature decided to grow; Ryegrass, various fescues, Crab Grass and a mixture of weeds. No matter, it was green and looked okay when mowed.

Joan was a gardener with a green thumb. She had fenced off a 50 by 100-foot section of the yard for what she called her English Tea Garden. With raised beds, Butterfly Bushes and Knock Out Roses along the fence and a Jasmine covered entrance arbor, it made a charming addition to an otherwise boring yard. The Johnson house enjoyed the fruits of her labor year around - fresh produce in season and from Mason Jars in the winter.

As he sipped his coffee, he pondered the new normal he was living. He was a super hero in a sense. Although the public was aware of REM Man’s existence; his missions and specific ties to the government were classified President’s eyes only.

Adam took another sip of coffee. His thoughts drifted back in time. He remembered the power and money hungry Sam Throckmorton and Doctor Freedman, who along with his alien accomplices from the planet Zector created the Night Quest syndicate. He shivered thinking how close the syndicate came to taking control of the world. Visions of past day mares, the death of their dog Heinz, his transformation into REM Man, and the bloody battle on Syndicate Mountain in Westernport, Maryland passed through his mind’s eye.

He thought about Della, a nurse, who helped him destroy the syndicate, a woman he could have easily fallen in love with but didn’t. Then there was the alien female Technical Officer he made love to during a REM sleep visit to Zector. She came close to killing him. He hated what the syndicate had made him into, but the past could not be changed.

He dumped his now Luke warm coffee on the grass and headed for his truck. It was time to check materials and tools to make sure he had everything he needed for the three service calls Joan had scheduled for the day. He felt fine as he left for his 8:00 am appointment but halfway there he was overcome by a sense of fatigue.

Maybe I’m coming down with something, he thought.

His HVAC business was generating good revenue and his family seemed to be happy. The economy in south west Pennsylvania was stable with unemployment at 4.6% and the Pittsburgh Steelers were predicted to make the playoffs. The world was at peace and there had not been a terrorist attack in two months. Everything was going well but he just couldn’t settle down and was having reservations about his decision to take over his father-in-law’s business.

After what he and Joan had been through in 2022 with the Night Quest Syndicate and then serving the country as REM Man, living in a small town where the excitement most weeks was going to Tony’s Pizza on Friday night for a few beers was difficult.

The HVAC business was a money maker for sure. There was enough each month to give 10 percent to his in-laws, and the rest of the profit, when added to his Navy retirement, provided them a very comfortable life. Never-the-less, he was restless.

Joan on the other hand was content. She was living in the house she grew up in, the boys were finishing high school and the oldest would soon be attending Penn State. With the boys now being able to take care of themselves, she was enjoying her freedom.

On most days, the gym, a massage, shopping, working in the garden and enjoying a drink with Adam before supper was her routine. Three or four times a year she went to the beach or a casino with some of her high school girl friends or with Adam. Life was good for her.

Adam was finishing his last service call when he again felt fatigued. He looked at his watch, it was almost 4:00 pm. He pulled a small syringe filled with 2 ccs of stimulant from his breast pocket, twisted the cap off and injected himself. His doctor told him to use one of the syringes when feeling tired. He felt better almost immediately.

I need to go to Bethesda and get more syringes from Doctor Tharman, he thought.

Adam had been wondering for a number of years why he sometimes felt fatigued, even after a good night’s sleep. Being in complete control during REM allowed him to interact with the world, or just lay in bed and enjoy deep sleep. Chronic fatigue should not be an issue.

Moreover, he was not used to dealing with health issues. He grew up in the country in a house with no central heat and drinking water from a shallow well.

His teenage years were spent working on a Dairy farm. A cold house made it hard for bacteria and viruses to thrive and sandwiches eaten with manure under his fingernails washed down by well water made for a strong immune system. Being sick was not something he was familiar with.

He looked into the large side mirror of his work van. He was forty-four years old and looked thirty. He always had a baby face and a clear complexion. He stuck out his tongue. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for but didn’t see anything that bothered him.

What the hell is going on. I should call Tharman, he said to himself.

What he didn’t realize was that he was an addict.

The syringes didn’t contain a prescription stimulant, they contained a powerful mixture whose main ingredient was a brain altering chemical called Bersilium. His Homeland Security doctors had been studying Adam’s health and performance since 2022 and had discovered a number