Last Species Standing

The Human Chronicles #20

T.R. Harris

THC

Tom Harris Creations

Copyright 2017

by Tom Harris Creations, LLC

All rights reserved.**

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Novels by T.R. Harris

The Adam Cain Saga

The Dead Worlds

Empires

Battle Plan

Galactic Vortex

Dark Energy

Universal Law

The Formation Code

The Quantum Enigma (coming Aug. 2020)

The Human Chronicles

The Fringe Worlds

Alien Assassin

The War of Pawns

The Tactics of Revenge

The Legend of Earth

Cain’s Crusaders

The Apex Predator

A Galaxy to Conquer

The Masters of War

Prelude to War

The Unreachable Stars

When Earth Reigned Supreme

A Clash of Aliens

Battlelines

The Copernicus Deception

Scorched Earth

Alien Games

The Cain Legacy

The Andromeda Mission

Last Species Standing

Invasion Force

Force of Gravity

Mission Critical

The Lost Universe

The Immortal War

Destroyer of Worlds

Phantoms

Terminus Rising

The Last Aris

The Human Chronicles Box Set Series

Box Set #1 – Books 1-5 in the series

Box Set #2 – Books 6-10 in the series

Box Set #3 – Books 11-15 in the series

Box Set #4 – Books 16-20 in the series

Box Set #5—Books 21-25 in the series

REV Warriors Series

Rev

REV: Renegades

REV: Rebirth

REV: Revolution

REV: Retribution

REV: Revelations (coming soon)

REV Warriors Box Set #1 – Books 1-3 in the series

Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

The Enclaves of Sylox

Treasure of the Galactic Lights

The Drone Wars Series

Day of the Drone

In collaboration with Co-Author George Wier…

The Liberation Series

Captains Malicious

Available exclusively on Amazon.com and FREE to members of Kindle Unlimited.

Cast of Characters…

Adam Cain:

Our hero. When the aliens abducted a Navy SEAL, they had no idea they’d bitten off more than they could chew. Now freed from his captives, Adam has spent the past twenty years making the aliens pay for upsetting his comfortable life back on Earth, earning him the moniker of ‘The Alien with an Attitude.’ With Humans evolving on a heavy-gravity world, Adam discovers he’s faster, stronger and more coordinated than most of the aliens he encounters, making him—and his fellow Humans—the creatures to fear throughout the galaxy. And now, through a series of challenges and missions, Adam and his band of loyal warriors defend both the Earth and the galaxy against a multitude of threats, both alien and home-grown. Join Adam and his intrepid band of heroes for their latest escapades.

Riyad Tarazi:

Another abductee by the evil aliens known as the Klin, Riyad was once a high-ranking freedom fighter/terrorist back on Earth. Once free to roam an area of the Milky Way known as the Fringe, Riyad deftly uses his skills to climb the ranks of the Fringe Pirates, before becoming their feared and ruthless leader. Then he meets Adam Cain—first as enemies, then as friends—and his whole life changes. Throughout the years, the two friends have saved each other’s butts more times than they want to admit. Now they’re the most-deadly Human duo in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Sherri Valentine:

Once a young and carefree veterinary student Phoenix, Arizona, Sherri took a fateful jog one evening and ended up like the others—as an alien abductee. Yet once she escapes, she goes on to make a very good living as an alien assassin, working for various cartels and criminal organizations in the Fringe. After hooking up with Adam and Riyad, she’s gone on to become one of the ‘Big Three’ Human heroes, known and feared throughout the galaxy. She’s beautiful, pragmatic—and deadly.

Kaylor & Jym:

These two aliens were dealt a strange hand of fate when they rescued Adam Cain from certain death aboard a booby-trapped Klin starship. Over the years, the pair of galactic scoundrels have accompanied Adam and the Humans on many an adventure, and in the process become Adam’s closest alien friends.

Copernicus Smith:

Passing himself off as a pragmatic starship repairman—specializing in servicing the Milky Way’s criminal element—Copernicus hides a secret which makes him one of the deadliest Human operatives in the galaxy. Affiliated now with Adam Cain, he’s become a vital part of the team, helping to round out its lethal effectiveness.

Arieel Bol:

Recognized as ‘The Most Beautiful Female in the Galaxy,” Arieel is the quasi-religious leader of the planet Formil. She’s also the mother of Lila, an immortal, mutant genius, who was the result of an inter-species union between her and Adam Cain—something the specialists said could never happen. Now as on-again, off-again lovers, Arieel and Adam are the only two beings in the galaxy carrying Artificial Telepathy Devices (ATD’s) implanted under their skin. These brain-interface modules enable the control of electronic devices, such as lights, doors, computers—and energy weapons—as well as telepathic communications between the two. Arieel’s arrogant, spoiled—and drop-dead gorgeous.

Contents

Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Epilogue

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Novels by T.R. Harris

Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude.

His story continues…

Prologue

Ninety ships were sent to the transit point.

It wasn’t a large contingent, simply because the Nuoreans couldn’t risk more ships than that. For over a thirty day, no re-enforcements had come through any of the landing points, forcing Master-Player Qintis Bondo (435) to begin formulating alternative game plans.

He was in contact with the survey fleet at the transit point, having laid a string of communication buoys along the way. Knowing that the forces of the Kac would locate most of the relays, he had duplicates laid along the path. The strategy worked. Once the natives found and destroyed a relay, they moved on to others along the line. All the while, the signal was simply switched to the backup relays and communications remained intact.

It was for that reason Qintis knew no transits had occurred. Now his forces waited another three days—the time it took the midpoint generator to recharge—on the off chance there had been some confusion as to the transit times.

Yet there was no confusion. This was the tenth missed transit; Qintis didn’t need any more proof that LP-6—Launch Point-6—was non-functioning.

Qintis also had the intercepted news broadcasts from within the Kac to factor into his conclusion, which celebrated the return of the player Adam Cain and his team from the Suponac Galaxy. They were being hailed as conquering heroes, presumably for destroying or damaging LP-6. He had to agree with that assumption, although the reason he sent his forces to the predetermined transit points was to learn if the damage was slight enough to be repaired in a timely manner. Qintis was ready to concede it was not.

This raised the second concern in his planning: What was to become of the remaining eight hundred thousand Nuorean players in the Kac? They were aboard the two thousand warships Qintis had under his command, hiding within this alien galaxy, awaiting re-enforcements. Yet if no re-enforcements were forthcoming…what then?

It was then that Qintis received the most-dire news of all.

Under the insistence of the Third Cadre players within his command, scouts were sent into the vast debris field of rock and ice that had accompanied Cain and his players back from the Suponac. It was there that conclusive evidence was attained that the debris was the remains of Nuor—the birthplace of his race. That’s when Qintis’ plans took a sudden turn.

He no longer had to devise game plans for challenges and victory against opposing Kac forces. He now had to plan for the survival of his fellow Nuoreans.

After the initial shock faded, Qintis realized the loss of Nuor was nothing more than an inconvenience. It had been centuries since the planet served as the true home of race. Now it was more symbolic, and only the home of the Grand and Qualifying Masters, along with the Third Cadre. However, at any given time, a fair number of these officials were off-planet; they would have survived to form a new government.

In addition, even the vast amount of data that ran the empire was preserved, backed-up through several redundant systems and stored on various planets throughout the Suponac.

Qintis had to thank Adam Cain for his lack of knowledge of how the empire functioned for the minor impact this event would have in the long run. If he had targeted one of the colony planets—where billions of Nuoreans lived who were more critical to the daily operations of the society—then the damage would have been more widespread and lasting.

As it was, the destruction of Nuor was more a psychological event rather than any great set back.

Also, unless Cain had managed to destroy all the launch points out to LP-6, there still remained a direct link to the midpoint between galaxies. After an appropriate time for grief and re-organization, his people would begin construction of a new gravity generator to link the two galaxies. It may be a hundred years or more before such a link was reestablished, yet Qintis knew they would not leave his players stranded in a faraway galaxy.

All he had to do was make sure his people survived long enough for contact to be made.

* * *

Qintis had already taken the first step.

Suspecting the worse, he moved his fleet to the very edge of the Kac, to a region he knew to be claimed by neither the Expansion nor the Human Orion-Cygnus Union. He located six planets in the area that met his requirements for gravity, atmosphere and level of technological advancement. Each of these worlds had advanced indigenous populations which had been integrated into the galactic community, if not into an empire. They had star travel and trade with other planets. This was important because the Nuoreans would need these races to provide them with sustenance, as well as industrial support.

The Nuoreans began with strategic firebombing from orbit of select population centers, resulting is a quick subjugation of the natives. Although the compliance of the natives was a necessity, this was also a test of the resolve of the empires of the Kac. The results were encouraging.

Although the conquered planets protested to the leaders of the Kac, the response quickly came back: Since none of the worlds were members of their respective empires, there would be no answer to the Nuorean’s aggression. Qintis helped this decision-making along by communicating to these same leaders, indicating that with their homeworld destroyed, all the Nuoreans wanted to do was to live in peace within their new galaxy. He further stressed that the Nuoreans had not come to the Kac to conquer, enslave or strip away precious resources from the natives of the Kac. Instead, they had come simply for the sport. And now that that purpose had been supplanted by the need to survive, the Nuoreans were no longer a threat to the galaxy.

As Qintis suspected, the leaders of the Kac were desperate for peace, and would sacrifice the six worlds to meet that goal. So the Nuoreans spread their forces among the conquered worlds, forcing the inhabitants to provide for their every need—including immunity challenges, yet on a much smaller scale and more pragmatic in nature. Nuorean life took on added significance, so the contests became more controlled. They were held more to retain skills and fitness rather than for societal advancement.

Qintis was amused at the gullibility of the Kac leaders. They surely had the power to crush his forces and rid their galaxy of the Nuoreans once and for all. Yet they allowed his people to exist—even to enslave the populations of six worlds—just so they could claim peace in their time.

And all the while, Qintis and his Nuoreans were simply biding time until the game resumed.

Yet even as Qintis was sheltering his people from the wrath of the Kac, there were forces within his command attempting to upset his plans.

* * *

“We cannot let this go unpunished,” exclaimed Third Cadre Master Janvis Decakus (784). His grey face had turned several shades darker as he spoke before the assembly, anger evident in his words and countenance.

“Master Janvis, revenge is not the way of the Nuoreans,” Lead-Player Yonin (984) responded. Qintis had selected Yonin to be the voice of the leadership, tasked with presenting his side of the issue. “We were simply overplayed by Adam Cain.”

“Overplayed!” Janvis exploded. “We are talking about Nuor. Its destruction was not part of a game.”

“Indeed it was,” countered Yonin. “Every action and reaction from the Kac has been the result of our initiating the game. And is not the Cadre’s presence within the Kac the direct result of you devising a similar fate for the Human homeworld of Earth, using LP-6 as the weapon?”

“You make it sound as if the destruction of Nuor was my fault.”

“Blame has nothing to do with it. This is how the Nuoreans exist. And within each game is an inherent risk. We live with this risk…or we die from it.”

First-Lead Radsii (231) rose to make a statement. All Nuoreans were allowed to speak at these assemblies. “I understand your feelings, Master Janvis, yet the damage to the race has been minimal. If we embark on a campaign of revenge within the Kac we may suffer real loss to our surviving players.”

“The game-master need not be involved,” Janvis said. “I will personally lead a force to track down and dispatch Cain and his mass murderers.”

“Do you honestly believe the Kac will not see your actions as representative of all Nuoreans?” Yonin asked. “As all have said here today, we too grieve for the loss of Nuor. Yet now we must think of survival first and foremost. The actions you propose would be too dangerous. Perhaps when re-enforcements arrive—”

“By then it will be too late,” Janvis growled. “The lifespan of Humans is even less than ours. Cain will be dead before re-enforcements arrive.”

Yonin looked around at the thirty-eight other faces in the meeting room aboard the battle-carrier 7. Some eyes met his; most averted them. “I believe both sides have made their presentations,” he announced. “Although the decision ultimately lies with Master Qintis, he has asked for this rare assembly to survey the feeling of his senior command. We shall now indicate a willingness to follow the game plan of Cadre Master Janvis or not. Proceed according to rank.”

The vote overwhelmingly favored Qintis and his desire to stay as non-threatening to the Kac as possible. Sending a team out to kill their most-famous and successful players would have only added a level of confusion and contradiction to the Kac leadership. Calls for the extermination of the Nuoreans would have been made, and it was uncertain which way the decision would fall. It was too great a risk for Qintis. He had to plan more long-term.

* * *

There were only one hundred Third Cadre within the Nuorean Kac population. They’d come to the galaxy to discern the exact location of the planet Earth for a gravity attack using LP-6. Now they were without mission and purpose—other than to address the wrong Adam Cain and his players had done to the Nuoreans.

So Qintis wasn’t surprised, when a few days after the meeting, Janvis and his Cadre raided the coffers of the confiscated wealth from the six worlds under Nuorean control and absconded with a portion of the credits. The amount taken was insignificant when weighed against the wealth of six planets, but it would serve Janvis’ purpose.

Qintis knew what the Third Cadre officer had in mind.

Janvis and his Cadre took seventeen small attack vessels and one transport and left Nuorean territory for places unknown. The word would soon go out, covering the entire galaxy. Since Nuoreans did not use credits—or money, as the Humans called it—Qintis had only a vague idea what impact it would have on the natives of the Kac. But he knew it would be noticed.

In the end, it would not be the Nuoreans who would kill Adam Cain and his players. It would be the natives of the Kac galaxy—what the Humans called the Milky Way—who would do it for them.

And the Nuorean leadership would plead impotence in the actions of this breakaway group of Cadre players, sparing the bulk of the population from retaliation.

It was a brilliant plan. Just as Janvis—and Qintis—had devised.

Chapter 1

Riyad Tarazi had spent most of his life looking over his shoulder, watching for people who might be watching him. By now it was habit, and as he sat with his back against the wall at a table in Jaclyn’s Tavern, in the Nimorian city of Gildemont, he noticed every creature entering the bar.

Jaclyn’s had special meaning for Riyad. He’s spent considerable time here during his days as leader of the Fringe Pirates. That was twenty years ago, and even though he had to believe none of his old cohorts were still around, he couldn’t take the chance of being recognized. He’d shaved his thick black beard in an effort to remain anonymous, yet not to avoid law enforcement this time. Instead, it was to save him from his adoring fans. That was one of the side effects of saving the galaxy from deadly threats…and on more than one occasion. Sure, Riyad wasn’t as famous as his buddy Adam Cain, but he did have his following.

And now that following had become a nuisance.

Since returning from the Andromeda Galaxy—with a third of the planet Nuor trailing behind—he and the rest of the team had been showered with praise and ceremony from one end of the galaxy to another. This had happened before, but not to this degree. As a consequence, the team dispersed, each looking for their little piece of solitude and anonymity.

Sherri and Copernicus took to a chartered sailboat and disappeared into the South Pacific back on Earth. The aliens Kaylor and Jym returned to their respective homeworlds to endure whatever celebrations awaited them there, while Adam took Riyad’s lead and shot off into space in a gifted luxury space yacht for places unknown.

In Riyad’s case, he sought out familiar territory, trying to recall memories from a time before he had responsibilities beyond his own selfish needs. The planet Nimor called out to him. It had been the unofficial base of the Fringe Pirates; even Angar, his second-in-command and successor to his leadership, was a Nimorian. Now, as he scanned the room, he could imagine it was in this very spot that Adam killed a pair of Rigorian thugs the day before Riyad met him—and his life changed forever. Two decades had passed under the bridge since then, and his experience and perspective had matured over that time, to take on more galactic proportions. He was now the second-most famous Human in the galaxy, admired—even worshiped—by an untold number of sentient beings, and from thousands of different species.

Not bad for a kid from the slums of Beirut, Lebanon.

* * *

Riyad rarely engaged in any of the illegal activities of his gang of teens and pre-teens. Rather, he was the mastermind, and because his capers were so successful, he drew a fervent and loyal following. His gang prospered, even in the unimaginable squalor and savagery of the city.

It was his talent for leadership that first brought him to the attention of the jihadists. At fifteen he was recruited into the ranks of the nascent Al Qaida organization. He left Lebanon for Afghanistan, before being sent to Florida for advanced training in chemical engineering. Afterwards, he was given his own cell to run. Throughout the years, Riyad climbed in rank, eventually becoming a legend among the freedom fighters for his cunning, attention to detail and phenomenal success rate.

Yet Riyad was never a true believer. Instead, he reveled in the planning and execution of elaborate operations. It was the journey that excited him, more than the destination. As a result, in his ten years as an international terrorist, he had only personally killed three individuals. They had been traitors to the cause, and he felt justified in their assassinations.

His operations, however, were a different matter. He felt a detachment from the death toll, taking as much responsibility for the casualties as a weapons manufacturer would for how its product was used. His product was the plan. What others did with it was of no concern to a younger, more pragmatic Riyad Tarazi.

Fortunately, he wasn’t like that any longer. He was older—just over fifty—and wiser. He saw things on a grander scale, and with the help of Adam Cain, had been forced to reevaluate his place in the universe, to the point where he could see how one person could make a difference. At least he could with a little help from his friends….

* * *

His friends at the moment were a pair of Human manufacturer reps out in the Fringe hocking their wares. They noticed Riyad the moment he entered the bar and glommed onto him immediately; it was rare to find another Human on Nimor these days. They didn’t recognize him, so he introduced himself as an indie merchant, just passing through the Fringe. The intoxicants flowed, and Riyad began to relax, lost within his artificial persona.

That’s when he noticed the two Rigorians enter the bar.

To Riyad, they stood out immediately, more so than normal. First of all, they paused to scan the other patrons within the dimly-lit room. This was unusual. Rigorians didn’t give a damn who was around; they’d dominate the scene wherever they went. But these two were looking for something—or someone.

Secondly, when their eyes fell upon Riyad and the trio of Humans, there was only the slightest hesitation before they averted their eyes. This was the final tell. Humans were the apex predator in the galaxy, and a definite challenge to the huge lizard-like beasts. As it was in the animal world, they would have made eye contact, if for no other reason than to acknowledge the presence of another killer in the room. But these savage creatures tried too hard to look unconcerned. And when they took seats at the bar, with a clear view of the Humans, the hair on the back of Riyad’s neck stood up. They weren’t here looking for his autograph. They had a more sinister purpose in mind.

Never one to let a bad situation come to him, Riyad lifted the glass of half-full intoxicant and placed it to his lips. He threw back his head and guzzled a large amount—before spitting it back into the glass. Then he turned to his new friends.

“I regret to say this, but I have to drain the lizard.”

The two men overreacted, buoyed by the quantity of alien alcohol in their systems. “Good luck with that!” one of them said. “I nearly puked when I went in there a while back. Now I’d rather go outside and piss on the sidewalk than go back in there.”

Riyad knew what he meant. Alien bathrooms of the public variety were a Human’s worst nightmare. First of all, they were unisex—whatever that meant in an alien society where it was often hard to tell one sex from the other. They also had every imaginable accoutrement, from raised toilets and urine troughs, to simple holes cut in the floor. The stench was indescribable, as a plethora of digestive systems did their thing, while producing a cocktail mix of paint-peeling gases and cast-off fluids.

Riyad left the table and staggered to the restroom, playing up his drunken state even more so for his surreptitious audience. Fighting back a gag, he moved to the back of the room and stood before a disgusting metal bowl covered in yellowish-green grime. A moment later, the two Rigorians entered.

One of the seven-foot tall lizards stationed himself by the door, while the other moved in behind Riyad.

“Tarazi…Riyad,” the alien called out.

Riyad glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s me,” he said proudly. “I didn’t think anyone would recognize me. Wait a minute and I’ll give you an autograph.”

“Autograph…what is that?” asked the Rigorian with a growl.

“A memento, something you can show your friends and family that you actually met me.”

Rigorians didn’t seek autographs, nor did they engage in hero worship.

“We are not here seeking such things!” the alien bellowed.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

Riyad glanced off to his left; the lizard by the door was drawing his MK-17. With his arms still pointed toward his crotch, Riyad activated the small laser weapon he held in his hand. It was battery-powered and good for a limited range and a two-second beam. But that was long enough for the red light to appear on the wall next to the alien’s head by the door, momentarily distracting him. As his head turned, Riyad shifted the angle slightly, sending the thousand-degree-beam slicing effortlessly through the Rigorian’s neck.

The alien behind him also had his weapon drawn, yet even if he pressed the trigger, Riyad would be upon him before the targeting computer could lock on. With the laser weapon now just an inert six-inch metal tube, Riyad clinched it in his hand and spun, placing a solid right fist against the side of the Rigorian’s long head. The alligator-like creature crumbled to the grimy, smelly floor. Riyad placed his booted left foot on the alien’s gun hand while dropping his right knee onto the bulbous chest of his assailant. He had his own MK-17 drawn and pressed against the side of the alien’s head.

Just then the door to the bathroom opened. Both alien and Human looked toward the portal

A four-eyed thing with crusty grey skin stood in the doorway. A pair of eyes looked to the decapitated Rigorian on his left, as the other pair took in Riyad sitting atop the other huge lizard, gun to his head. The gray alien took a step back and closed the door.

Riyad turned his attention back to the Rigorian.

“What the hell?” he said. “Why are you after me, my friend?”

“Friend?” said the alien, confused. The universal translation bug implanted behind the alien’s ear indicated Riyad had warm feelings for him, even as the other part of the sentence knew him to be a threat.

“Just tell me why you’re looking for me?”

“It is for the bounty.”

“What bounty?”

When the alien hesitated, Riyad pressed the barrel of the MK harder against his skin. “You know who I am; don’t test me.”

“The Nuorean bounty.”

Riyad was taken aback. “Why would the Nuoreans have a bounty out on me? And for that matter, why would you do anything the Nuoreans want you to do? They’re a threat to everyone in the galaxy.”

“We do it exclusively for the credits.”

“Yeah, I figured that. But why are the Nuoreans after me?”

“As I understand, they found evidence that you destroyed their homeworld of Nuor. They have now placed a galaxy-wide offer for the death of you and your team.”

“How will they pay for it?

“They may be limited in number—and without reinforcement—but they do have footholds on six worlds. They have confiscated all the wealth thereon, which is more than enough to satisfy my needs.”

Riyad’s mind was racing. The entire team was in danger, and with a king’s fortune offered for their heads. As pragmatic as most creatures are, there could already be an army of hired killers after them. He had to let the others know.

“Thanks for the information,” he said, flashing his trademark brilliant white smile at the Rigorian. In normal circumstances, this would have signaled a death challenge, but Riyad figured he and his alien buddy were beyond that. So he simply triggered his MK and splattered the Rigorian’s brain matter across the already filthy floor. He figured no one would notice.

Chapter 2

From seventy feet in the air, the pair of massive hammerhead horses didn’t look that imposing. Unfortunately, Adam Cain also knew that was an illusion

Hammerheads—that’s what he called them—and for good reason. The magnificent beasts were easily two ton in weight, with rippling muscles under a shiny coat of black hair. They had exceedingly thick necks required to hold up the knobby, triangle-shaped plates of bone resting on their foreheads—wide at the top and tapering to a point near their long snouts. A pair of large, black eyes extended on nubs at each end of the wide top, hence the hammerhead shark comparison.

Underneath the plate was a normal-looking horse-like snout and long mouth, with a row of rounded teeth used for grazing. The beasts also had a set of long, muscular arms extending from the torso, along with a pair of six-fingered hands, three nimble digits on each side of the wide palm.

Just a pair of average ten-foot-tall Centaurs, except for the plates of bone on their heads…and along with the fact that these two huge creatures were trying to kill him….

* * *

The planet was designated ES-341, and was a heavy-gravity world—by comparison—which made it less attractive for colonization by the mostly-lightweight members of the Expansion or the Orion-Cygnus Union. Yet it was just right for Adam. He’d come to the planet looking for respite from the constant ceremony and celebration that resulted from his most-recent saving of the Milky Way Galaxy—this time from the Nuorean menace. Here there were no admiring indigenous species to contend with, and he wouldn’t have to worry about losing bone and muscle mass as he would on a low-gravity world.

In reality, that wasn’t much of a concern anymore, not with the tiny tumor of immortal alien mutant cells residing within his skull, which were capable of altering his physical condition. That was another reason he sought the solitude of ES-341. He needed to learn more about his abilities and how to utilize them. As he’d experienced over the past six months, control of his abilities wasn’t the issue. How to summon them on demand was. It was one thing to have a surge of strength and energy, but not knowing if it would come when needed—and to what degree—was a bummer. Having that knowledge could come in handy as he planned his day.

So ES-341 was the perfect place to hang out for a while, away from the crowds of well-wishers and clingers-on, who just wanted to bask within the glow that was Adam Cain. He could also experiment with his super-human abilities without people knowing he had them.

As soon as he landed the small personal space yacht—which was itself a gift from a grateful Earth-bound trillionaire—he began to hear strange claps of thunder echoing through the towering peaks of the surrounding mountain range. It was springtime on ES-341, with a lingering of snow on the higher elevations. Otherwise the place was a study in all the possible shades of green; in the trees, in the grasses, and even the glowing aurora in the evening sky.

Each time he’d hear the booms, he’d look into a clear blue sky expecting thunder clouds. But there were none. Then two days later, with his curiosity piqued and a theory in mind, Adam set off through the pine forest looking for the source of the explosions.

He emerged from the tree line on the edge of a wide meadow of waving green grass, which terminated at a steep cliff falling off into a river valley far below. As he suspected, he came upon the huge horses, each sporting the crusty headplate and with eyes spaced three-feet apart along the edges. Adam watched in amazement as the huge beasts squared off, then charged at incredible speed toward one another before crashing their plates together like battering rams, sending a sharp report echoing across the land.

Yet the mighty collisions seemed to have no effect on beasts. Adam watched as they smashed together four times in rapid succession before stopping to graze in the meadow as if nothing had happened.

Adam didn’t know if this was a mating ritual or just a couple of young bucks blowing off steam. But after hanging around the spaceship for the past two days, he was restless—and curious. Throwing caution to the wind, he began to make his way through the knee-high grass toward the beasts.

A sudden shift in the wind delivered his scent to the horses. They stopped grazing and cast large black eyes in his direction. From under the plates, moist nostrils flared and sniffed the air. Slowly, the pair began to amble in his direction.

One of the beasts lingered at a patch of grass while the other continued up to him. Slowly, Adam reached out his hand and let the towering creature sniff at it. Then a long, mucus-coated tongue lashed out and licked his hand. Adam patted the huge head before running his hand along the headplate.

It was almost six inches thick, with the top side covered in rolling nubs and rough ridges. There were scars—trophies from past battles—and yet for all its imposing presence, the hammerhead centaur was docile, calm…and harmless.

That’s when he realized he’d lost sight of the second beast.

Adam heard a snort from behind. He turned and found the second centaur standing fifty feet away, facing him. There was something odd about the posture, as well as the steady gaze of the black eyes.

Adam looked back at the first horse, and as he turned, the huge creature lowered its head, smashing the triangular plate into Adam’s forehead.

Adam was sent to the ground, his vision nothing but stars and peripheral gray.

“Caphis, encase his arms,” Adam heard someone say. He blinked, trying to focus on the source of the sound. That’s when he realized the centaur was speaking.

The second beast ran up behind him and clamped its vice-like fingers around his arms. Adam was pulled to his feet, still groggy from the head-butt. He was also confused. What just happened?

The talking horse reached out with its own powerful hands and took hold of Adam’s legs. “Take him to the cliff,” the creature said to the other. They began to carry Adam toward the five-hundred-foot high cliff, with the river far below.

At this point, Adam Cain learned a valuable lesson about his new superpowers: They only surfaced when he was of sound mind and body. In his confused state, the mutant brain cells weren’t sure if he was in trouble or not. That didn’t come until his mind cleared enough to relay the message. By then, Adam was dangling over the abyss, his right leg in the grasp of one of the hammerhead horses.

Conflicted as to which muscles to enhance, Adam’s alien brain cells sent the command throughout his entire body. In a flash, he was able to perform a contortionist’s sit up, bending his body in two so his hands could grasp the incredibly strong arm of the centaur. His leg was released as the animal backed away from the cliff, swinging his arm wildly, trying to dislodge the Human. But Adam held on…until the huge horse-like creature kicked out with one of his front legs and planted a hoof in Adam’s chest.

Stunned and hurt by the powerful kick, Adam was thrown back on the muddy soil of the meadow. He tried to cough, but all the air had been expelled from his lungs. Instead he gasped, his hands on his bruised chest, hoping no ribs were broken. With his mutant abilities, he would heal faster than normal, but that meant days for broken bones, rather than weeks. It wouldn’t help in this situation.

Both of the horse-like creatures approached him, staring down with their large, black eyes, the tips of their headplates looking threatening and ominous. The plates took on a whole new level of danger when an eye-like orifice opened, located near the bottom of the plate. Adam was shocked when a slightly curved, needle-sharp, eighteen-inch long horn emerged.

He wasn’t expecting that. The beasts were dangerous enough without the horn. Now they were rhino-hammerhead-centaur-horse-like things. The way his day was going, the next thing he expected them to do was start breathing fire.

Instead, the two creatures trotted away, one on each side, until they were about fifty feet away. They turned, retracted their horns and stomped the ground, focusing their attention on the diminutive and muddy Human.

When the horses began their charge, Adam knew he was in some deep shit.

He felt a surge of energy in his muscles, and a heartbeat before the beasts crashed together—with him in the middle—Adam jumped into the air. The centaurs lifted their huge heads, following his upward movement, catching the bottom of his boots on the top of their bony headplates. With the added boost—coupled with the increase in his leg strength—Adam was flung into the air, soaring four times as high as his enhanced muscles could carry him on their own….

* * *

Now he was seventy feet in the air, having just reached apogee. Unfortunately, the laws of nature were not his friend, and what goes up must come down. A moment later he was falling back toward the two beasts below.

They shifted their positions, lining up on his falling body, as the needle-point horns reemerged. The centaurs weren’t content with just smashing him wafer-thin. Now they intended to gouge him with their rhino tusks, just for shits and grins.

There wasn’t much Adam could do to alter his fall. He tried streamlining, to create a surface where air could slide along, changing his course. He was—or had been—an experienced skydiver, skilled in HALO jumps with the SEALs, yet he didn’t have enough altitude to put any of his skills to use. In three seconds he would be on the surface, and impaled atop one of the headplates of a gigantic alien horse.

So he leaned forward and placed his arms out in front of him, Superman-style, and dove for the surface. As his hands reached the headplate first; he grabbed hold of the top edge, his super-strength able to bring him to a stop, balanced on his hands, on the head of the alien centaur. He scrunched up and dropped the rest of his body over the plate, his shoes clamping around the pointed end, with the sharp horn sticking out from between his legs and just shy of this groin. To an outside observer, it would look as though Adam had a tail made of sharp, yellowish ivory.

The centaur began to buck violently, shaking its head and prancing across the meadow. It tried digging the edge of the headplate into the soft, muddy soil, but nothing worked. Adam held on. Then the horse suddenly stopped bucking and stood for a moment, panting heavily. Adam felt something slide past his thigh. He looked down and saw that the horn was gone, returned to its hiding place somewhere within the massive head.

He knew what was coming next.

Adam whipped his head around until he spotted the second horse. It was already at full gallop, and heading straight for the head of the first horse.

With only a second to spare, Adam released the headplate and shifted position, placing his hands at the sharp tip with his feet on the wide end. Then he pushed with his feet and pulled with his hands, forcing the head up, exposing the vulnerable flesh of the thick neck to the centaur’s charging companion.

The second beast crashed into the first, but not plate-to-plate. The impact was brutal, if not fatal. Adam’s horse was thrown back, before it fell to a sitting position on its haunches. It let out a last fateful breath, before toppling over onto the muddy field.

Adam scampered off the huge body, while keeping an eye on the other centaur. It was standing a few feet away, mouth open, staring at the corpse of its companion. Then it snorted, and focused its dark eyes on the Human. It charged.

This time, Adam was ready. Just as the huge beast lowered its head to ram its prey, Adam stepped aside and grabbed one of the eye nubs as the horse raced past. Adam was pulled along with the creature, first dangling at its side before managing to hook a leg around the torso and climb on its back. His hands clamped onto the top of the rough headplate, finding holds in the nubs and contours.

Like the other horse, this one began to buck and jump across the meadow. Using his superhuman strength, Adam dug his heels into the ribs, hard enough to elicit a deep-throated groan from the hammerhead beast. Next, he pulled on the headplate, first to the right, then to the left. Each time, the horse changed course, unable to resist Adam’s commands. A few moments later, the creature calmed, resigned to its fate. Adam wasn’t going anywhere…and he was in control.

Adam turned the beast toward the tree line, and together alien horse and rider disappeared into the forest.

* * *

“You can talk, can’t you?” Adam asked on the ride back to his ship.

“Yes.” The voice was deep and solemn, mournful even.

“Sorry about your friend,” Adam said. “But you shouldn’t have attacked me.”

The beast remained silent.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

“I speak when I have something to say.”

“I didn’t know there was any intelligent life on this planet.”

“We are not from this planet.”

“Where are you from?” Adam asked.

“Jaqaret. You have never heard of it. It is far away. We have had not much contact with others, only the Nuoreans.”

It was Adam’s turn to snort. “You’ve had contact with the Nuoreans…and you’re still alive? That says something.”

“Yes, they honored our fighting skills, placing us against their warriors.”

“How did you do?”

“As expected. We may be large and powerful, but we are not skilled with tools of death. We prefer natural means.”

Adam rapped the headplate with his knuckles. “Like these?”

“Yes. But the Nuoreans move fast—like you. They were able to slice our limbs, rendering us helpless. Then we were slaughtered.”

“Yet you—and your friend—survived. And now you’re on this planet…trying to kill me. How did that happen?”

“If I tell you, you will kill me.”

“No I won’t. I promise.”

The beast shifted its head so one of the eyes could look back at him. Adam couldn’t read the expression, but he got the impression the hammerhead was trying to determine the truth in his words.

The beast snorted. “You will probably kill me anyway.”

“No, I won’t. Just tell your story.” Adam’s curiosity was piqued.

“The Nuoreans have learned a terrible truth, and they are very upset.”

“What truth?”

Again the head shift and the glare of the huge round eye. “Concerning you and your companions.”

“You know who I am?”

“Yes, you are Adam Cain.”

Adam pursed his lips. Damn, this galaxy is getting way too small.

“And what’s your name?”

“I am Caphis. The other was Kanan.”

“Again, I’m sorry.”

“It is accepted. We initiated the combat. We should have known not to challenge you. It appears your reputation is well-deserved.”

“I got lucky. Now go on, tell your story.”

“Kanan and I were part of a contingent of my kind selected for combat when they conquered Jaqaret. We impressed them so much that we were offered freedom for our kind if we would kill you.”

“The Nuoreans sent you to kill me? Why?”

“It is the information I referred to earlier.”

“What information?”

“The Nuoreans learned that you destroyed their homeworld. Since we all come from a homeworld, you can imagine their distress upon learning this truth.”

Adam was confused. The Nuoreans shouldn’t know…not unless they’ve made contact with Andromeda.

“Do you know how they learned about Nuor?”

“It was in the rock that you brought back from the other galaxy.”

Of course, Adam thought. There would be more than enough broken and frozen corpses in the debris.

“Now the Nuoreans have enlisted others to kill not only you, but all those who came back with you. Not all are doing it for noble purposes, such as me. The Nuoreans have offered an incredible amount of credits or other valuable consideration for the task.”

The pair had arrived back at Adam’s camp by now. The local sun had slipped behind the taller mountain peaks and the forest was becoming quickly engulfed in darkness. Adam slipped from the back of the huge beast, ready for any sudden movements, but Caphis remained calm, dejected.

Using his Artificial Telepathy Device embedded in the skin under his right armpit, Adam commanded the security lights on the sleek luxury starship to come on, bathing the campsite in a brilliant glow. Caphis bucked slightly at the sudden illumination before regaining his composure.

The door to the ship slid open; Adam stopped in the entranceway, turning back to the huge centaur. “I’m sorry about your people, Caphis. If you like, I believe you’ll fit in the cargo hold. I could help you get home.”

“The offer is appreciated, but we—I—have my own ship, one provided by the Nuoreans.” He lifted his arms and moved his fingers. “It is adapted to my particular form.”

Adam’s jaw firmed. “Listen, the only way to save your people is to eliminate the remaining Nuoreans from the galaxy. There aren’t a lot of them left.”

“Is that what you intend to do?”

“Yes, but first I have to warn my friends about the others trying to kill them. After that, I’ll see to it that the galaxy joins forces again to wipe them out.”

“That would indeed be a welcome outcome. Although my kind does not possess any great technology of note, we would welcome the opportunity to help.”

“I’ll pass that along,” Adam said. “For now, I have to leave. You’re free to either stay here, go home, or to a safe harbor until this crisis passes.”

The huge horse lifted his head and let his nostrils flair. “This world is covered in rich grasses and delightfully fresh water. It will be lonely, but I believe I will stay here for a while. Thank you, Adam Cain for sparing my life. You had no obligation to do so.”

Adam nodded, then turned and entered the starship. From the pilothouse viewport, he watched the magnificent beast amble off into the darkness of the forest. He waited to make sure Caphis was clear of the blast radius before he lit off the lifting jets and left the surface of ES-341.

He was on the CW comm before the ship reached orbit.

Chapter 3

“Apparently, Jaclyn’s isn’t a very safe place for Rigorians to hang out,” Adam said. It was meant as a joke, but he wasn’t feeling very jovial at the moment.

“Not when we’re in town, that’s for sure,” Riyad agreed. His image on the CW link didn’t show any humor, either. The two men had been comparing notes on their attempted assassinations for the past ten minutes, and with every revelation, their mood grew more depressed.

“I tried to contact Sherri and Copernicus, but they’re not answering,” Riyad continued.

“So did I,” Adam said. “I’ve got half the military population of Earth out looking for them. I just hope the assassins are having as hard a time finding them as we are.”

“If they’re still available to be found….”

Adam had been trying to avoid voicing the obvious: there may be a good reason why they weren’t answering. They could be dead.

“I’ll be contacting Kaylor and Jym as soon as I get off the link with you,” Adam said.

“Don’t bother,” Riyad said. “I got through to them. They’re safe now and surrounded by native guards in secure locations.”

“You already contacted them?” Adam frowned. “So where was I on your call list?”

“I figured you could take care of yourself, and it seems I was right.” Through the screen, Riyad flashed his trademark smile.

“Thanks for that, buddy. But I’ll feel a lot better if we were all together again. I can’t trust locals not to give into temptation. You know the Nuoreans are offering a boatload of money for our heads.”

The smile vanished from Riyad’s face. “So what’s the plan?”

“You get to Falqin and pick up Jym. I’m closer to Belson; I’ll get Kaylor.”

“And Sherri and Coop? If any race can’t be trusted when there’s a king’s fortune up for grabs, it’s our fellow Humans.”

“They’ll have to take their chances. Once the lovebirds realize what’s up, I’m sure they’ll take precautions. I’ll get them on a military transport off the planet as soon as they’re located.”

“Where should we hold up?”

“Formil,” Adam answered. “Arieel’s people aren’t as cutthroat as others. She’ll give us shelter.”

“And after that?”

Adam’s face turned rock-hard. “Then we go after the Nuoreans. Only when the source of the money goes away will we be safe.”

Riyad made a wry smile. “I like the odds: Six of us against two thousand Nuorean warships. Hardly seems fair.”

“All is fair, buddy…in love and war.”

“And killing aliens.”

“That’s an affirmative.”

Chapter 4

Sherri Valentine was lying topless on the deck of the eighty-foot three-master when the sky filled with half a dozen black helicopters. She scrambled for a towel to cover herself, as Copernicus came up from below to find out what the ruckus was all about. He was armed with an M-101 assault rifle and a grimace. He didn’t like surprises.

From across the bay, a V-hulled patrol boat split the calm, green water, heading for the anchored luxury yacht. There were armed sailors on the deck, with one manning a nine-eighty flash cannon. Coop gripped his rifle a little tighter. He wouldn’t go down without a fight.

“Ahoy aboard the Blue Oyster. Ahoy!” a voiced called out over a loud speaker. “Are you Copernicus Smith?”

Sherri had hid behind the center mast, but Coop was standing tall on the deck, brandishing the weapon. The helicopters had backed off, but were still hovering a half mile out in a circle around the yacht.

Copernicus nodded emphatically. “Yes! What’s this about?” he yelled.

The patrol boat bobbed to a stop off the sailboat’s starboard quarter. “We’re here to place you into protective custody.”

“Protective? Why?”

“You’re in danger.”

“Says who?”

“Adam Cain, sir,” was the unexpected reply. “You are to accompany us back to Papeete and then to Phoenix.”

Sherri stood up, holding a blue and white striped towel to her bosom. The cloth flapped in the wind, covering very little of her ample attributes. “What about the boat?” she called out. “We have a deposit.”

“We’ll take care of it, ma’am. Please gather what belongings you need. We’re coming aboard.”

* * *

Six hours later, the sub-orbital transport landed at the Orion-Cygnus military compound outside Phoenix. By that time, the pair had made contact with Adam by CW link and knew the seriousness of the threat. They requested—and were issued—body armor and weapons, along with a small cadre of loyal military personnel as guards, all of which they knew personally.

“We just got word that the Human equivalent of the bounty is eight billion dollars each,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Joshua Nolan.

Copernicus whistled. “Damn, for that much, I’d kill myself.”

“Don’t bother, sir,” said Nolan. “I’ll do it for you.”

“What a friend…thanks, colonel.” Coop eyed the Marine officer suspiciously. He was one of Sherri’s selections for the security detail, not his.

Nolan turned serious. “We have a Charlton-Class jumpship waiting in orbit, crew of twenty, all vetted.”

“Where is it taking us?” Sherri asked. She cinched the strap of her chest armor a little tighter, before pulling the MK-47 from its holster and checking the charge.

“Unknown, ma’am. Destination will be revealed once in a gravity-well.”

Sherri looked at the tall officer and frowned. “Ma’am? What’s that bullshit all about?”

“Just respectin’ my elders, Ms. Valentine.”

Sherri looked down at the weapon in her hand and then at the smiling officer. “It’s not wise to talk about a lady’s age, colonel, even if we have shared a pint or two at the local pub.”

“I would agree…if there were any ladies present.”

Sherri looked at Coop, who was watching the pair as they bantered, his mouth half open. No one spoke to Sherri Valentine like that. “It was before I met you,” she explained, answering the unasked question. She turned back to Nolan. “And although I wasn’t much of a lady that night, I sure was a woman. As I recall, you didn’t complain too much.”

“Not enough energy left to complain, ma’am.”

“This conversation is pissing me off,” Coop said, exasperated.

Sherri squeezed his arm. “Don’t worry, stud.” She smiled into his eyes. “You’re still the love of my life…for now.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Don’t worry, sir,” Nolan said. “She’s really not my type…except for that one night, of course.”

“You’re not coming with us, are you?” Coop asked the Marine officer.

“’Fraid so. On such short notice, there are only so many people we can trust. I’m one of them.”

“Because you screwed my girlfriend?”

“Once, sir. It was only a one-night stand.” Nolan looked down at a smiling Sherri Valentine. He was enjoying the game. “But oh what a night it was!”

Coop stalked away, leaving Nolan and Sherri to share a hearty laugh.

“Don’t worry, Josh, I’ll get around to telling him how you passed out before anything could happen.”

“And if I hadn’t?”

“Well, that will be my little secret.” She winked at him, before turning to catch up with a sulking Copernicus Smith.

“What do you mean little?” Nolan yelled after her. This trip is going to be fun.

Chapter 5

Although a Charlton-class jumpship was the fastest thing in the fleet, it still didn’t come close to the speed of a trans-dimensional starship. Unfortunately, the only such ship in existence had been too badly damaged returning from Andromeda to be repaired. Scientists and engineers were still rifling through the wreckage, however, trying to learn its secrets. They were getting close, but were still a few years away from having a working prototype.

As a consequence, it took forty-two excruciatingly long days to reach Formil. Along the way, the jumpship—designated the UFS Biddle—and its two escorts encountered three separate attempts to take out Sherri and Copernicus. Only the speed of the ship and the skill of the crew got them through the gauntlet.

LtCol. Nolan—the senior officer aboard—was furious. Someone had leaked their destination and course, yet with a combined sixteen billion dollars on the line for both Sherri and Coop, he understood why assassins would spread enough cash around until someone finally talked. So far, the seed money had been wasted. Yet as long as Adam’s team remained alive, the temptation was still there.

When the three-ship squadron entered the Formilian star system, they were greeted by a ten-ship escort. Nolan kept a keen eye on the alien ships, and it was only his naturally-suspicious nature that saved them again. One of the Formilian ships suddenly shifted course and sent a five-burst barrage of flash bolts at the jumpship. The shields of the Biddle were up the moment the energy surge was detected within the launch ports of the attacking vessel. The bolts were diffused, and the attack ship destroyed through a combination of Human and alien return fire.

The Formilians apologized profusely, promising to screen all other natives coming in contact with the Humans more extensively. Nolan let his temper vent, even as he trusted the aliens to keep their word. The Formilians were some of Earth’s staunchest allies. He knew heads would roll—literally—over the incident.

After landing at the huge Temple Spaceport, a caravan of armored transports left for the towering O’lac Government Building just north of the Temple Complex. They reached it without incident, even as Nolan, Sherri and Coop took a separate utility truck to the building, leaving ten minutes after the main caravan departed the spaceport.

Sherri was fit to be tied by the time the elevator took the trio to the twenty-ninth floor, where she met up with Adam, Riyad and the two aliens, Kaylor and Jym. Arieel Bol—the leader of the Formilian people—was there, as well.

Sherri exited the elevator first and marched up to Adam. Copernicus was behind her, and when he spotted Arieel, his mouth fell open and his eyes focused on the stunning alien beauty. He also ran into Sherri’s back.

She turned to her boyfriend, a look of resignation on her face. “Dammit, Coop, try to control yourself.”

He tried to stammer a defense, but it just came out as gibberish.

Sherri shook her head before turning back to Adam. “We have to do something about this,” she said, jumping right to point. “I can’t live like this.”

Adam smiled. “There’s not much I can do about Arieel—”

“Not that, you idiot, about everyone in the galaxy trying to kill us!”

“Oh…that.”

“Yeah, that! Hell, they even tried to take us out once we got in-system.”

“I sincerely apologize for that, Sherri,” Arieel said, stepping forward and offering her delicate hand. Sherri took it—although everyone could tell she didn’t want to. “I assure you, you are safe within this building.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”

Arieel looked askew at Sherri, trying to decipher the statement. In the end, she gave up. “If you will all follow me to the Grand Conference Chamber, there is an assembly of galactic leaders wishing to discuss your situation.” Arieel looked at Adam with concern in her eyes. After three days on the planet, this was the first time Adam had heard of this meeting being set up. It made him suspicious.

The entourage was lead down the wide corridor and to a room with an extremely high ceiling and a long, horseshoe-shaped table. Attendants were within the central open area, placing refreshments at stations along the table. Adam and his team took seats on the opposite side from a dozen aliens—and one Human. Yet it was the one grey-skinned creature on the other side of the table that attracted the most attention.

It was a Nuorean.

Adam wasn’t aware any diplomatic protocols had been set with the aliens from Andromeda, so his presence here was unusual. This creature was a representative of the race that had a galaxy-wide contract out for the death of Adam and his team. Yet here he sat, conversing politely with the beings to either side of him, one of which was a Juirean.

Coop sat between Sherri and Kaylor. He lifted a glass and looked at the contents. “Can’t rule out poison,” he said.

“It’s been tested,” Arieel said from across the table.

“And the escort crews were screened….”

The leader of the Formilians had no answer to Coop’s sarcasm.

The Human on the other side of the table stood, presumably to begin the meeting. Most of the others were too busy munching away on the food and guzzling the drink to give him much attention. Adam’s team was the exception.

“Captain Cain…and the others, I’m Ambassador Brandon Hale. I’m here representing the interests of the Orion-Cygnus Union. Seated here with me are also representatives from the Expansion and the other major affiliations within, including the Formilians, with Speaker Arieel Bol in attendance.” He turned to Arieel and nodded. “I thank you for sponsoring this meeting.”

“I’m glad to see you’re taking this serious,” Sherri blurted out.

“Indeed we are, Ms. Valentine.”

“Then what the hell is a Nuorean doing here?”

Hale was taken aback slightly by Sherri’s bluntness.

“Lead-Player Ensal Calondo has been a part of the advisory council for nearly three months. He specifically requested to be included in this meeting. His insights may help you understand better how complicated this affair has become.”

“Complicated?” Coop stated. “What’s so complicated about it? The Nuoreans have a bounty out on our heads and they need to lift it—now!”

Ambassador Hale shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that.”

“What not?” Adam asked.

“If I may interject?” the Nuorean asked, addressing Ambassador Hale.

“Of course, Lead-Player.”

Of course, Lead-Player! Adam was fuming, aghast at how the leaders of the Milky Way were acting toward the Nuorean. He was of a race that had killed millions of people in the short time since they invaded the galaxy. Now they were all buddy-buddy with the gray bastard.

“Mister Cain—”

“That’s Captain Cain,” Adam corrected.

The Nuorean had a momentary flash of anger, quickly suppressed. “Yes…Captain Cain,” the alien said with undue emphasis. “On behalf of the Nuorean leadership, I want to sincerely apologize for this unfortunate set of circumstances that has befallen you recently.”

“Circumstances?”

“Please, Captain Cain, let the Representative continue,” said Hale.

Adam leaned back in his chair and extended his hands at the Nuorean, palms up. Calondo looked at the gesture and paused, lost in its meaning. Adam didn’t help him with an explanation. Eventually, the alien continued.

“Captain Cain, you may not be aware, but the offer you mention for your deaths has been extended by a separate team of Nuoreans, and not from those under the control of Master Lead-Player Qintis (435).”

“What the hell does that mean?” Adam asked. “What separate team?”

“They are called the Third Cadre—”

“I know who the Third Cadre are,” Adam interrupted. He was enjoying the reaction from the Nuorean when he did. “They’re your Brownshirts, your intimidation squad.”

“I do not understand the reference,” Calondo replied. “There are four cadres within Nuorean society, these are the third—”

“Yeah whatever, just get to the point.”

Calondo scanned the others on his side of the table, looking for support against Adam’s rudeness. Unfortunately for the alien, the others were aware of Adam’s status within the galaxy and therefore had very little to say.

“My point—as you call it—is that we are not responsible for the actions of this renegade group or the actions they initiate. The cadre members have left Nuorean space and their current location is unknown to us.”

“Bullshit,” Riyad said, entering the conversation. As usual, the word bullshit completely confused the alien. He began to babble something before Riyad continued. “The Nuoreans do not have renegades,” he said. “You guys are unified like nothing I’ve ever seen—except maybe the Juireans.” Riyad flashed a wide, toothy grin at the Juirean representative. They were used to the Human’s nasty habit of making death-challenges when they didn’t mean it, so the situation didn’t escalate

“The Third Cadre is different,” Calondo replied. “They are more independent than the rest of our society.”

“And we’re supposed to believe they rebelled against their leadership just so they could have us killed?” Adam asked.

“The motivation does involve the destruction of Nuor, Captain Cain. We take that seriously.”

“Just as you were trying to destroy the Earth the same way.”

“Yet your world survives; mine does not.”

“Which is my point,” Adam said. “All the Nuoreans in the Milky Way would be upset about the loss of their homeworld, yet conveniently, it’s only this small group who decided to do something about it.”

“There were discussions, and it was decided that the risk of retaliation would be too costly.”

Adam looked at his fellow team members, then at Ambassador Hale. “You’re not buying this bullshit, are you?”

“Captain Cain, it’s not a matter of buying it or not. We have to believe things like this happen, even in Nuorean society. Therefore, we cannot condemn an entire race for the actions of a few.”

“You what? These are the assholes who invaded the Milky Way and began killing us for sport. That’s enough to condemn them, in my opinion. Even if it is some renegade faction sponsoring the bounty on our heads, the fact that the Nuoreans still exist in the galaxy would be reason enough to send everything we have at them.”

“There would be additional casualties,” the huge blue-haired Juirean Overlord countered. “There is no justification for that to occur.”

“Wait just a minute,” Adam said. “Is this a Juirean who’s afraid of launching an attack…because people might die? Are we in the Twilight Zone or what? What happened to the galaxy recently? What happened to your guts?”

“Your comments border on the incomprehensible,” said the Juirean. “Yet I believe you challenge the courage of the Juireans.”

“Not your courage, just your common sense.”

The Juirean rose from his chair.

“Please Ambassador Penasor,” said Brandon Hale. “These are emotional times. You have to understand the pressure Captain Cain and his team are under. I’m sure he didn’t mean to insult you personally.”

The eight-foot-tall alien continued to stare at Adam.

“Nothing personal,” Adam finally said. “It’s just that I’ve never seen a Juirean run from a fight.”

“We are not running!”

Somehow Adam’s attempt at placating the Juirean failed.

“Then why doesn’t the galaxy unite and crush these Nuorean bastards once and for all?”

“Because there is no need to,” replied a strange looking creature known as a Hyben. He looked like a huge shrimp, with two solid black orbs for eyes, a pointed head, and a segmented carapace that shimmered from a thin coating of lubricating fluid. “The Nuoreans have abided by the terms of the agreement we have with them. They have not engaged in any forays beyond their space—”

“Their space is space they took from others,” Copernicus Smith interrupted. “You forget about the six planets they’ve conquered.”

“Forgive me, yet I was speaking,” said the uppity crustacean. “As I continue: The fate of the worlds you mention is a fair trade for the peace their sacrifice has brought to the galaxy.”

“I’m sure the natives of those planets would beg to differ with you,” Sherri added.

“The planets have not been sacrificed,” the Nuorean countered, “as I amend the comment by my colleague with respect.”

Adam noticed how quickly the Nuoreans had adopted the political machinations of the sycophants in the room. Knowing the Andromeda aliens as he did, he was sure it was just a strategy they were playing out, and not a true conversion to a more compromising way of thinking.

“The populations have been integrated into Nuorean society and are being treated very well,” the Nuorean continued.

“I repeat, the natives may have a different opinion,” Sherri said.

“The point is, Ms. Valentine,” said Ambassador Hale, “the galaxy cannot risk another flare up of the conflict with the Nuoreans.”

“They only have a couple of thousand ships….” Copernicus pointed out.

“That is still a considerable force, and any action taken against the main force would result in thousands of more dead….” His voice trailed off.

“More than the six of us,” Adam finished the sentence.

“That is not what I was going to say.”

“But it’s what you were thinking,” Sherri said.

Hales face turned red. “You seem to be missing the point of this meeting.”

“What is the point of this meeting?” Adam asked. “To show us the door and say thanks for everything, but now you’re on your own?”

“No,” said Hale with emotion. “You have not allowed us to get to the point.”

He paused, expecting Adam or one of his team to say something. When they just stared at him, he continued. “We are willing to help…help you find the Third Cadre unit sponsoring the bounty.”

Adam looked at the Nuorean. “You too?”

“Yes, Captain Cain. Even before word of the offer got out, we have been searching for Master Janvis (784) and his Cadre.”

“No luck, right?”

“We have not located him as of yet.”

“Keep trying.”

“He will, Captain Cain,” Hale said, “as will we all. In the meantime, I implore you and your team to remain here on Formil under the protection of Speaker Bol and her people. Once the Cadre is located, we will then discuss within this advisory council an appropriate response.”

“And you still can’t say you’ll send in a fleet to destroy them?” Copernicus asked.

“There are only a hundred Third Cadre,” the Nuorean said. “You would hardly need a fleet to defeat them. And sending in such a large force would give my leadership cause for concern.”

“I don’t give a damn how big a force it will take, just so one is sent,” Coop growled back at the gray alien.

“First things first,” Hale said. “We must first find the Cadre, and I can assure we are doing everything in our power to make that happen.”

Adam continued to stare at the Nuorean. “I’m sure you are.”

Chapter 6

After the meeting, Ambassador Hale escorted Adam and his entourage to the palatial room in the royal bank of suites where Adam had been assigned. Arieel came with them.

“Again, I implore you to remain here,” Hale said to the group. “There is plenty of security and you’ll be safe here.”

“For how long…how long do we have to stay here?” Jym asked.

Hale looked down at the tiny bear-like creature. “Until we locate the Third Cadre.”

“And destroy them.” Copernicus added.

Hale hesitated.

“You’re going to call the Nuorean first, aren’t you?”

“We’ve discussed giving them a chance to resolve this crisis internally, at least at the outset. Then if a force is to be assembled to attack the Cadre we would prefer it to be a joint effort.”

“And while all this politicking is going on, we’re stuck here,” Sherri said, waving her hand around the room, “in this gaudy prison.”

“You could do worse, Ms. Valentine. Now please, do as I ask. Speaker Bol will have each of you assigned to equally opulent quarters for your stay. Until then, relax. You’re safe now.”

Hale made a quick exit before anyone could offer the next sarcastic comment. Although he was gone, that didn’t stop the remarks from coming.

“Safe?” Riyad said. “It’s more like sitting ducks. By now the whole galaxy knows where we are and the longer we stay here, the better the chance someone is going to make a move on us.”

Adam barely heard Riyad’s statement. Instead, he was concentrating on locating the visual and audio surveillance devices throughout the huge room. And there were plenty. He hadn’t been concerned with them over the past couple of days, but now he was. Through his ATD, he severed connections, keeping the conversation secret…at least for the time being.

“Riyad’s right,” he said, getting everyone’s attention. “The writing on the wall is pretty clear: we’re a problem that the politicians would prefer to go away.”

“That’s right,” said Sherri. “That two-faced ambassador almost came out and said it. It’s better to have six people die than thousands in another war with the Nuoreans. We regret to inform you, but you’re expendable.”

“Then we have to leave and take our chances in space,” Kaylor offered. He was an aging space merchant who never felt comfortable on a planet. He preferred the wide open space of space.

“I agree, my friend,” Adam said to the alien. He turned to Arieel. “What do you think? Is there a way out of the building without being seen?”

There was worry on the Formilian’s gorgeous face. “I am not sure, but I doubt it. We are on the twenty-fifth floor. There are only elevators and stairwells, both of which are traveled frequently.”

Sherri, Copernicus and the aliens were still dressed in battle armor, precautions for the trip from the starship to the O’lac Building. They were also armed, with both energy and projectile weapons. Colonel Nolan was armed to the teeth as well

Adam and Riyad had arrived two days before and came with their own small arsenal of weapons and armor. If need be, the team could make a break for the spaceport. That wasn’t something Adam had planned. He expected the allies to call up a huge fleet to crush the damn Nuoreans once and for all. Turns out he was naïve not to have factored political maneuverings into the equation. The Nuoreans were master game players, and Adam was learning this also meant in the political arena as well. Hale and his people were being played, and they were so blinded by the quest of a false peace that they would do anything to keep the illusion alive.

Copernicus had migrated to a large dining table laid out with food designed specifically to meet the culinary palettes of the four separate species in room. He picked up a piece of Human-style meat and smelled it before putting it back on the plate.

“Well there’s one thing for sure,” he began. “I’ll starve to death if I don’t get to starship where I can control the food prep. There’s no way I’m going to trust any of this stuff not to be poisoned.”

“I have been assured it is safe,” Arieel said in defense of her people. “Yet caution is the prudent path,” she conceded.

Adam’s communicator chimed.

“This is Ambassador Hale,” said the voice on the link.

“Yeah, I know. I recognize your voice. You just left here ten minutes ago.”

“I got a report your security cameras are down. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, must be some technical glitch. We’re fine. Thanks for asking.”

“Captain Cain, you have to understand I’m on your side,” the politician snapped back.

“It didn’t sound like that—”

“Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!” Adam was taken aback by Hale’s sudden outburst. “I didn’t call just to see how you are. I’ve just gotten word that a team of professional killers have entered the building.”

Adam sat up on the bed. The rest of the team sensed his change in mood. “How did they get in?”

“Someone opened the door for them.”

“So much for being safe and snug. Who are they?”

“I’ve never heard of them, but Overlord Penasor seems confident in their abilities, even going up against Humans.”

“Why are the Juireans helping others collect on the bounty?”

There was pause on the line. “They’re not coming because of the bounty” Hale admitted. “They’re here as part of a plan to bring this crisis to a close.”

“Are you part of this plan?”

“Not officially. I have recused myself from any—”

“Recused! Meaning you’re just going to sit back and let this happen.”

“I am warning you of the killers, you ungrateful bastard!”

“Well thank you very much, you backstabbing sonofabitch!”

Sherri pulled the communicator from Adam’s hand. “This is Sherri Valentine. What’s going on?”

She listened for a moment as Hale repeated his warning to her.

“We’re going to be leaving now,” she stated firmly. “Is there anything you can do to help us, or are you part of the problem?”

“I’ll do what I can, but sooner or later I’ll be cut out of the loop. I can tell you the assassins are coming through the western elevators.”

“That’s a start. Give us all the updates you can.” She cut the link. “Gear up!” she ordered. No one questioned her orders.

Adam retrieved his MK-47 and charge packs, along with a trusty Colt 1911 .45 caliber. Everyone in the room had gotten the message. Steely faces met determined resolve. Besides the four Humans on Adam’s team, they also had Nolan, Kaylor and Jym. Arieel watched in silence.

“If we can get to the sub-basement, there may be a way to reach the spaceport without traversing open streets.”

“What do you mean we?” Adam asked.

“I am coming with you.”

“Are you crazy? Half the galaxy’s trying to kill us. Besides, you’re the leader of the Formilians. You can’t just run off with us.”

“I have done it before,” she said with a smile. “I will be fine. If we make it to the spaceport, I will decide whether to go any further.”

“Okay; how do we get to the spaceport?”

“Through the catacombs.”

Sherri stepped up next to Arieel. “A little more detail, please.”

“There is a vast system of ancient tunnels, a thousand years old, that run under the Temple Complex. One such tunnel connects to the O’lac Building through an ancillary corridor. It is used for clandestine movement between the Temple and this building.”

“And these catacombs go all the way to the spaceport?” Sherri asked.

“They run parallel, not actually under the landing field. But that will be close enough. We will go unseen.”

Adam moved toward the door. “That’s the plan then. We take the stairs down to the basement and then through the catacombs to the spaceport. Everybody ready?” He scanned the stern faces of the eight people in the room. “Okay, let’s roll.”

They were in the luxurious guest quarters near the top of the skyscraper, where the corridors were exceedingly wide with carpets like sponge. The elevators were placed at the ends of the long hallway, along the outer walls of the building.

Adam wasn’t exactly sure which way was east or west, but he did know where the Formilian sun was, its setting brilliance revealed by large picture windows at the end of corridor to their right. Adam led the team left out of the room. The corridor was empty…until the door to the elevator they were heading for slid open…the eastern bank of elevators.

As the doors opened, four huge creatures emerged, barely able to move through the portal because of their massive size. Each was covered in thick black plates of armor and topped by helmets with bronze lenses hiding the faces of the assassins.

In one hand they carried round-barrel flash rifles with bulbous stocks, and in the other, two-foot long laser-enhanced swords.

Both Arieel and Adam locked onto the firing controls of the flash rifles with their brain-interface devices and severed the controls. The aliens barely hesitated after learning their weapons were inoperable before they took the four-foot long weapons in their gloved hands and positioning the inert weapons as clubs. The four killers were upon Adam and his people a moment later.

Flash weapons flared and Human-style ballistic guns fired from Adam’s team; both had no effect on the heavy armor. Bolts splashed and dissipated, as lead bullets ricocheted, tearing into the walls on either side of the corridor. Adam was the first to come in physical contact with one of the assassins.

The heavy flash rifle blurred through the air and hit Adam on his left shoulder. He was thrown to the side, crashing against the wall. He slumped over, appearing to collapse into near-unconsciousness. The huge armored alien bent over him.

Adam stood up, using the mutant strength surging throughout his body to lift the creature off the floor. He fell back, body-slamming the alien to the floor before dropping onto his chest and sending an elbow into the side of the killer’s helmet. The metal deformed, creating a reverse relief of Adam’s elbow.

The alien screamed as the helmet crushed the side of his head. Huge hands fought to release latches on the neck so the helmet could be removed, yet it wouldn’t budge, the metal embedded in the skull locking the helmet in place. Blood oozed from the opening.

Adam scrambled on top of the alien’s chest. He bunched his fists and brought them down on the dark lens of the helmet. Glass shattered, planting shards in the black skin of the creature’s face. Solid black eyes glared at Adam, while basketball-size hands tried to slap him away. Adam remained where he was. The mortally injured alien gasped for breath, spitting out blood. The head wound would prove fatal a few seconds later.

Meanwhile, the rest of Adam’s team was engaged with the other three assassins.

Sherri and Copernicus had managed to dodge the flash weapon clubs, but now they were confronted with a nine-foot tall robot-looking thing with a four-foot long sword. Laser swords were long and thin triangular-shaped weapons that went from a six-inch-wide cross guard to a sharp point with an infused anode at the tip. Along each edge of the sword, a star-hot laser beam, the width of a hair, connected the tip with the hilt. The pair of glowing beams could cut through anything, which made them an extremely effective hand weapon, but also dangerous to the wielder.

Fortunately, the electronics within the swords were controlled by Formilian-built devices, so Adam and Arieel had disabled the laser beams. This left the laser sword as only a sword. In the massive hands of the assassin, it was still a lethal weapon.

Coop and Sherri separated across the hallway, splitting the alien’s attention. He swung the sword with one hand and the dead flash rifle in the other, appearing ambidextrous as he did. It was all the two Humans could do to stay out of range.

Then the alien decided to concentrate on Coop, figuring to take out the stronger male first, followed by the supposedly weaker female. That was a mistake.

As the huge beast turned sideways to Sherri, she pulled out her own version of the laser sword. This was an eight-inch long stiletto dagger. She activated the controls and the twin lines of glowing light appeared. With Human swiftness in the light gravity of Formil, Sherri slipped in behind the towering bulk of the armored alien and placed the dagger between his legs. She began to move the blade upwards, through melting metal and searing flesh.

This immediately got the alien’s attention. He spun around, but it was too late. Sherri’s blade was already in the process of splitting him open from behind, cutting through groin—she assumed, not knowing the alien’s physiology—and into his back. The creature went into shock from the pain and fell forward to the floor. Sherri didn’t stop slicing until she was halfway up the long back and the alien was still.

In the meantime, Nolan and Riyad were squared off with their own alien assassin. Realizing the futility of firing their M-101 at the creature, they were now engaged in a series of rolls and spins to avoid the dual threats from the alien’s flash rifle and sword. At one point, Riyad fell to the floor and rolled, taking out the legs of his assailant. The creature fell to the carpet, but it was still very much a danger.

The alien twisted to get a better angle on Riyad, and as he did, Nolan saw his opening. It literally was an opening, between two of the thick plates of armor the alien wore. Nolan thrust the long barrel of the M-101 between the plates and pulled the trigger. A dozen rounds entered the torso of the alien before ripping through the flesh and exiting out the other side, only to ricochet back into the body off the armor on the other side. The hot metal slugs splintered and spread even more throughout the body. It was like a meat-grinder inside the armor shell.

Three of the four assassins had themselves been killed by the Humans. The forth was lined up against the aliens in Adam’s entourage—Arieel, Kaylor and Jym.

The tiny bear-like Jym may be small, but he was quick and possessed of jumping abilities gained from his species evolution within the forests of Falqin. He sprang to the top of the nine-foot tall alien, wrapping his short arms around the alien’s helmet and blocking his view through the blacked out lens.

The assassin slammed his head into a nearby wall, trying to dislodge the pesky alien, but Jym held on. The armor-clad creature continued to wave his sword and flash weapon in a wild attempt to keep his assailants away until he could regain his sight. In a desperate attempt, the creature began to use the sword to chase Jym away, scraping the metal edge along the helmet. Jym eventually jumped to the floor.

And that’s when Arieel used her brain-interface Gift to reactivate the laser beams on the sword.

The huge alien killer sliced his own head off with his sword.

All four assassins were dead, and now the team stood in the quiet aftermath, panting and counting their blessings. The entire battle had taken less than two minutes.

Adam clasped Sherri and Riyad by the shoulders. “Good job everyone. That’s what I call teamwork.” He smiled. “After this, the rest of the trip to the spaceport should be a piece of cake.”

He was wrong.

Chapter 7

They were twenty-five stories up in the tall O’lac Building, a structure recently renamed for Adam’s fallen friend Trimen O’lac, the former First Corusant of the Formilian and officially Arieel’s late husband. He died fighting Aris robots a year before, during Adam’s attempt to locate and rescue his daughter, Lila, from the three-billion-year-old aliens. At the elevators doors, Adam contemplated his next move to escape the building.

He had an aversion to elevators, believing them to be small metal prisons should the enemy decide to stop them in mid travel. He preferred stairwells. In the light gravity of Formil, the five Human could almost fly down the stairs, but Kaylor, Jym and Arieel were another matter. So Jym jumped on Sherri’s back and Kaylor on Riyad’s, while Arieel wrapped her long, slender arms around Adam’s neck and snuggled her voluptuous body against his back and her legs around his waist. Her scent was intoxicating, even as her potent pheromones attacked his senses.

He knew Formilian sexual attractiveness—both males and females—had been programmed into the species billions of years ago by the Aris, as a means of enticing interspecies hookups in the hopes of creating the Alpha Being, a creature possessing immortality which the Aris could then transfer to themselves. It worked. The Alpha creature was Adam and Arieel’s daughter Lila. And although she wasn’t used by the Aris to achieve their ultimate goal, they did achieve their dream of immortality through the self-sacrifice of the former Sol-Kor queen, J’nae.

These thoughts raced through Adam’s mind as Arieel climbed on his back, and the team began the headlong descent through the stairwell.

They met dozens of aliens along the way—mostly Formilian—who struggled to get out of the way, else they be bowled over by the super-strong Adam Cain leading the way. His immortal mutant brain cells were working overtime, maintaining his enhanced abilities for a longer period than they’d ever been called upon before. Adam worried what affect this would have on his body when he returned to normal. Already he could feel his temperature soaring as his body operated at a level it was never meant to achieve or sustain. Hopefully, his accelerated healing capacity would protect him from any long-term effects.

Unfortunately, this particular stairwell ended at the main lobby on the ground floor of the building; the entrance to the sub-basement was through another door. When the team burst into the lobby, hundreds of creatures spotted them and stopped in their tracks, taking in the strange sight. Here were five creatures they recognized as Humans, with a blue-skinned Belsonian on the back of one, a small, furry bear-like thing on another, and their revered Speaker of the Formilian People riding on the back of another. If those in the lobby were scared by the sight, the strangeness of what they saw overrode the fear…at least for a moment. Before the team reached the entrance to the sub-basement stairs, there was a wholesale panic spreading throughout the lobby.

And then a flash bolt raced by, followed by another.

Adam glanced over his shoulder and spotted two aliens running across the marble floor lighting off flash weapons in their direction. They appeared to be a couple of non-Formilians, dressed in expensive attire devoid of any battle armament. Just a couple of opportunists looking to cash in on the reward, Adam reasoned. He was through the door and jumping down five steps at a time, hoping the aliens wouldn’t follow. He would hate to have to kill them.

As it turned out, he didn’t have to. Nolan did it for him. Bringing up their six, the Marine colonel sent a spray of M-101 bullets into the two aliens as they appeared at the top of the stairs. Eventually the word would get out that there would be a heavy price to pay for trying to collect the bounty on Adam and his team. So far, the message hadn’t been received. Not yet.

Five flights below the ground floor, they came to a secure door made of shiny metal. Arieel used her powers to unlock and open the door and the team rushed through to the other side. On its own, the huge panel swung shut behind them.

They were in a large room with a wide corridor running away into a gloomy darkness. The walls were made of metal, looking nothing like any catacombs Adam had ever seen or imagined, especially something that was supposed to be a thousand years old.

“These are catacombs?” he asked Arieel as she slid off his back.

“No. This is the connecting tunnel to the catacombs. If we had constructed the building over them, they would have crumbled from the effect. Follow me.”

Arieel led them into the dimly lit corridor.

Although she and the aliens ran as fast as they could, eventually they had to climb back on the Humans to make better time. Adam took the lead, his enhanced strength allowing him to move twenty yards ahead of the others before he had to slow down to let them catch up, even with Arieel on his back. That’s when he came to a barrier in the corridor made of metal bars running from the floor to the ceiling.

Adam picked up speed and momentum before lowering his shoulder, preparing for impact.

“Wait!” Arieel yelled.

Adam hit the barrier and the bars deformed, creating a near-perfect relief of his body. But the barrier didn’t fall.

Adam recoiled and fell to the floor, Arieel crushed beneath him. He rolled off her. “Are you okay?”

Arieel’s eyes were wide, her mouth in the form of an ‘O’. She coughed. “I will survive, with effort.” When she recovered, she glared at her former lover. “That was reckless!” she yelled. “The bars continue through the floor and into the ceiling for many feet. You cannot break through. They were designed that way.”

“So how do we get through?”

“Like everything else, I can activate the controls…if given the chance.”

Adam heard a whine coming from the right side of the corridor, where the barrier met the wall. The barrier began to slide to the left, but was stopped when the bent metal bars met the wall and couldn’t pass into the recess opening.

Riyad and Coop were at the narrow gap on the right side. They applied their combined strength to bend the bars a little more, at least enough for them to squeeze through.

“What the hell is this barrier doing here in the first place,” Adam asked out of frustration.

“It is here to separate the catacombs from the access tunnel to the O’lac Building.”

Adam could see that on the other side of the barrier the walls changed to ancient stacked stone, with an arching ceiling and a dirt floor. This was more like it. It even had the musty smell Adam expected from real catacombs.

They passed through the narrow opening and began to make their way down the long tunnel.

“How far to the spaceport?” Nolan asked.

“It is quite a distance. We will meet up with another tunnel that runs to the right. This tunnel, if we continue, will run under the Temple.”

Adam gripped his Colt 1911 in his hand as he began to make out figures in the dim distance of the tunnel. There were creatures down here—aliens—and not just Formilians.

“I thought you said we could make it to the spaceport without being seen?” he said to Arieel. “Who are these people?”

“I said we could proceed without being seen on the surface. And these are the homeless of Formil.”

“I didn’t realize Formil had any homeless,” Sherri said.

“It is true. Formilian technology is so popular and crucial to the galaxy that any Formilian who wishes employment can get it. Yet there are some who rebel against such conventions and choose to live independently.”

“Here in the tunnels?” Kaylor asked.

“Yes. And they have been joined by others who have migrated to Formil. We have attempted to clear them from the catacombs, yet they always return.”

They were passing scattered clusters of filthy creatures, who pressed against the stone walls and stared at them with wide, unblinking eyes. There was more light here, provided by a string of bulbs along the ceiling.

“This is where you move dignitaries from between the Temple and the Government Building?” Sherri asked, still confused.

“That is only upon rare occasions. The people in the tunnel are harmless.”

“My Speaker,” someone spoke as if on cue.

Arieel smiled at the female Formilian who had addressed her. Adam was shocked. Even though the female was homeless and dirty, she had a magnificent figure and perfect face. In other words, just your typical Formilian woman.

Adam sensed a flash weapon ahead. And as he expanded his awareness, he detected several more. He couldn’t tell if they were aimed in his direction or merely carried by the some of the inhabitants of the catacombs. He couldn’t imagine how the people in the tunnel would even know of the bounty or if they would recognize him and his team if they saw them. Still, he had to be on his guard.

Up ahead, the signature of one of the flash weapons moved. In his mind’s eye he saw it come up, from holster height to firing level. Adam severed the firing controls in the weapon.

He came upon a fiery-eyed alien of unknown origin, who glared at Adam as he walked past. The creature held the dead gun at his side, obvious frustration on his face. Fortune had presented itself seconds before, only to taken from him just as quickly.

Adam’s troubles didn’t end there.

It was like a wave moving throughout the tunnel, as dozens of communication devices activated. Adam looked at Arieel. She detected the electronic signals as well, and there were far too many for them to disable one at a time.

It seemed as though nearly all the homeless creatures in the catacombs had cellphones—or the Formilian equivalent of cellphones. The word was spreading like wildfire.

Adam Cain and his team were in the catacombs.

Chapter 8

Fifteen minutes later they were still in the main tunnel. It was becoming crowded, as the catacombs filled with new arrivals drawn here by the comm calls. Most of these creatures had better clothing and clean faces, along with communication devices and weapons. Adam had once reasoned that very few creatures would take up the Nuoreans’ offer of a bounty, believing that the bulk of the galaxy was more civilized and not killers at heart. Seeing the growing mob in the tunnels made him re-evaluate that thought. Adam and his people were aliens, and if these aliens had the same attitude he had on the subject, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill a creature that was not of their own species, especially for the promise of life-altering wealth.

Adam stopped when the tunnel became blocked by a wall of determined creatures. Arieel stepped in front of him.

“Please, do not contemplate this,” she cried out.

“My Speaker, we respect and adore you, yet you must not stand in our way,” said a Formilian male in the front row. He had an MK-17 held firmly in his left hand.

“You must not succumb to the will of the Nuoreans. They are manipulating you to do such an act,” Arieel pleaded.

“The reward is too great to be ignored,” said the male.

Adam stepped to the side of the tunnel and slammed his arm into the stone wall. The rock crumbled, sending a reverberation running along the corridor as dust and pieces of stone fell from the ceiling.

He walked up to the defiant alien holding the flash weapon.

“None of your weapons will work against us,” he said, leaning in only inches from the alien’s face. “And do you really want to meet us in hand-to-hand combat?”

The Formilian looked at the broken section of wall and then back into Adam’s burning eyes. He moved to the side, setting in motion a slow motion parting of the seas in the now-quiet mob.

Adam nodded at the alien before leading his team into the opening made by the separating crowd. Arieel placed a hand on the Formilian’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

Somehow the message was received, even as the hundreds of creatures in the tunnel remained silent. Adam and Arieel continued to disarm all the weapons they could detect as fast as they could, even though there were far more than they could handle. Fortunately, none of the creatures in the tunnel made a move toward them and the mob continued to open up.

That’s when a solitary figure appeared in the middle of the tunnel, dark and ominous.

With his enhanced eyesight Adam focused in on the figure.

It was a Human male, huge and muscular, wearing an armored vest and with a hulking CL-60 mini-gun on his waist, held by wide straps across his shoulders. A belt of 60-cal rounds dangled from the deadly weapon and coiled on the dirt floor of the catacombs.

“Cover!” Adam yelled as he dove to his right, tackling Arieel and Sherri and driving them into the startled crowd of aliens.

The gunman opened fire, filling the tunnel with an ear-piercing scream of supersonic ordinance that shredded the dozens of aliens. To Adam, it felt like someone had turned on a faucet, as he and the two females were drenched in hot liquid. But it wasn’t water; it was blood.

The crazed Human gunman sprayed the width of the tunnel with more heavy metal slugs. Riyad and the rest of team also sought cover within the huge mob. They dove for the floor, as the aliens still standing were cut down. There was no chance to fire back as the crush of bodies fell on them, providing cover, yet also restricting their movements.

With the gunman’s focus on Riyad and the others farther down the tunnel, Adam stood up and took the arm of a dead alien. He pulled the body from the pile and threw it at the Human assassin. Unfortunately, it was only half of an alien, but it worked to distract the killer.

He ducked as the bloody remains came at him. By then, Adam had another dead alien in the air and flying toward his attacker. Adam ran forward using his enhanced speed, while sending a constant stream of alien body parts at the Human gunman.

Adam crashed into the man, sending both of them to the dusty floor of the tunnel. The assassin triggered his weapon, sending a torrent of heavy slugs into the ancient stone ceiling. It began to crumble, sending a shower of rock down on the pair of fighters. Adam shrugged off the falling rock and laid a strong right fist into the jaw of the Human. That was all it took. Bone shattered and the neck snapped. The man was dead a second later.

Adam climbed to his feet, to be met a moment later by the rest of the team, all drenched it thick, red blood.

“Leave it to a Human to bring the biggest damn weapon he can carry to a fight,” Riyad said, half out of admiration, half out of regret.

“Hurry,” Arieel said, interrupting the quiet wake for the fallen Human. “The tunnel to the spaceport is just a head. There should be fewer people there.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say,” Sherri said.

The team ran off, leaving behind at least a hundred dead aliens, along with one nameless would-be Human assassin.

Chapter 9

It took half an hour to reach the spaceport. Adam and Arieel could detect a massive crowd carrying communicators and weapons clustered around the four starships, consisting of Adam’s luxury yacht, along with Nolan’s jumpship—the Biddle—and the two Human escorts ships brought from Earth, the Rutledge and the Skipjack. Josh Nolan, contacted his ship.

“Are you secure?” he asked his second-in-command, Major Duncan Turner.

“Yessir. All the ships activated their anti-theft features. No one’s gotten in, but that doesn’t mean they can’t just blow the ships to bits if they want.”

“Hopefully that won’t happen,” Nolan said.

“Yeah, that would be preferable.”

Adam came up beside Nolan. “Hold one, Mr. Turner,” Nolan said into the communicator. “I’ll be right back.” He muted the speaker.

“I’ll go on ahead and cause a diversion,” said Adam. “When the time comes, get the rest of the team to your ship.”

“And you?”

“I’ll be fine. Get ready.”

Adam turned to Sherri and Riyad. “Make sure everyone gets to Nolan’s ship. I’ll lead the mob away from the spaceport and then meet up with my ship.”

They didn’t need to ask how he’d do that; they just knew he would.

“Be careful, my friend.”

Adam called Arieel over. “Do your best with the weapons outside, there’re a lot of them.”

“I will.” She reached up and kissed him on the lips. He didn’t resist.

Then Adam Cain raced down the tunnel at superhuman speed.

* * *

Only a couple of minutes later, he was beyond the spaceport and paralleling the Temple Complex walls in the subterranean catacombs. He came to a set of steps leading up and figured this to be a way out.

It was dark when he emerged from the tunnels…but he wasn’t alone.

The main thoroughfare running between the Temple Complex and the grounds of the spaceport was crowded, either with people curious about what was happening at the spaceport, or with more would-be assassins looking to cash in on the bounty. Either way, he was spotted the moment he exited the small block chamber set in the wall of the Temple Complex. Creatures began to shout and communicators activated.

Adam sprinted across the road and into a field south of the spaceport. As with most airports, the area around the facility was kept clear of major development in case of a crash or mis-landing. It was the same on Formil. He had a clear field ahead of him, even as several aliens ran after him.

The boundary of the spaceport was a wire fence, and Adam could see the angry mob encircling the four ships of his small fleet. Word was spreading that Adam was in the field to the south and already large swaths of the crowd were peeling off and heading in his direction.

Just then, Nolan’s ship sent out a hot blast of chemical liftoff jets. The roiling cloud of white smoke engulfed several of the creatures who remained near the ship when the majority of the crowd left. Now they scattered, allowing Riyad’s group to make for the starship.

The rear landing bay doors opened and the team entered, moments before the doors closed behind them. The ship was airborne before the doors sealed.

The Biddle and the two escorts ships took to the air.

Nolan raced onto the bridge where Major Turner gave him a quick salute.

“Welcome back, sir,” the officer said, giving up the command seat.

“Thank you, Duncan. Helm, stay low over the city. We have a screen overhead waiting for us to bolt for space. Instead, head for the mountains north of here.”

A yessir greeted him, and the three-ship squadron banked over hard to the left.

“Do you see Adam?” Sherri asked as she peered through the forward viewport. “There!” she said, pointing and answering her own question.

He wasn’t hard to see; just follow the massive crowd and the occasional streak of a flash bolt. He was the tiny dot just ahead of the mob.

Just then, the luxury starship, which Adam had re-christened the A.C. Tobias, blasted off from the tarmac in its own cloud of white exhaust gas and flame. Adam had accessed the controls with this ATD and was guiding the ship to a landing directly in his path. The rear bay doors opened for him as well and he sprinted in without breaking stride. The vessel lifted off, leaving the hundreds of creatures chasing him defeated and disappointed—and broke. There would be no bounty collected today on Formil.

Adam’s small ship joined up with the other three skirting a few thousand feet above the surface, making for the towering mountain range to the north of the city. Ships in orbit would be changing position in an effort in intercept.

Nolan was on the comm with his escorts.

“Are you with us or against us?” he asked the commanders point-blank.

Immediately, Lieutenant-Commander Danny Hanson responded. “I didn’t join the Navy to get rich, sir. I’m with you.”

The other commanding officer hesitated.

“Simpson?” Nolan said.

“Sir, let’s end this here. All you have to do is set the ship down and we’ll do the rest. It’s a hell of a lot of money. We’ll all share in it.”

Nolan bit his bottom lip. “Don’t do this, Commander. It’s mutiny if you do.”

“Sir, I have fifteen men aboard this vessel. We’ve all decided to take our chances. It’s hard to turn your back on billions of dollars.”

“Even if it means killing the people who have saved the Earth on more than one occasion? That’s pretty fucking ungrateful if you ask me.”

“That may be, but we’ll get over it—”

Arieel had heard enough. Through her Gift, she accessed the computers of the escort ship Skipjack and went to work shutting down systems, including the chem and gravity drives. Nolan wasn’t aware of anything she’d done until he heard the frantic voices of people screaming through the speakers. They were losing control and the ship was falling, diving for the surface of Formil from an altitude of three thousand feet.

It was over a moment later. Cameras aboard the jumpship picked up the crash as a tiny puff of yellow and white to their rear.

Nolan looked at Arieel. She met his gaze with a calm detachment in her eyes. “You did that, didn’t you?” he said.

“I did what I had to do.”

“Damn,” was all he said.

Riyad walked up and put his arm around Arieel. “Not only beautiful, but deadly,” he said with a grin.

“There were fifteen Humans aboard that ship,” Nolan snapped back.

The smile vanished from Riyad’s face, replaced by a cold, hard countenance. “Casualties of war, Mister Nolan. They should have made better decisions.”

Riyad’s tone cut like a knife through the people on the bridge, punctuating the reality of their desperate situation. Riyad and his people were survivors. That had been proven many times over. There was no room for compromise or compassion. This was a game of life or death, with no gray area.

Nolan would have to accept that fact, or he, too, could become a casualty of war.

* * *

The small squadron entered a narrow mountain pass and gained altitude. Scanners aboard the jumpship revealed an opportunity to make for space. The ships turned noses up and a minute later engaged deep gravity wells.

The pursuit ships remained in normal space, knowing they couldn’t overtake the escaping vessels. In a couple of minutes Adam and his tiny fleet would be beyond the Formilian star system and out of their jurisdiction. Others would have to take up the pursuit.

Chapter 10

The four ships remained in deep gravity wells for two hours before dumping out and rendezvousing in a vast empty section of space, far away from any civilized planets. Adam’s team—along with Arieel and Nolan—took a shuttle from the jumpship over to the Tobias.

They gathered in the leather-appointed lounge area, where Copernicus Smith proceeded to raid the food processor. Soon he was joined by the others. The yacht’s modules were the best money could buy, as were the food stocks. For a moment, the team became distracted by the gourmet meals they consumed.

Eventually, the subject was broached.

“What do we do now?” Sherri asked, sobering up everyone in the room.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Adam said. “Question: How would anyone collect on the bounty? At some point the Nuoreans are going to have to reveal themselves in order to pay the assassins.”

“I volunteer Coop to sacrifice himself so we can track the assassin back to the Nuoreans,” said Riyad joyfully. No one laughed, not knowing if he was joking or not.

“Whatever it takes,” Coop replied. “Count me in.”

“Now there’s a selfless hero-type,” Riyad said, as his bright smile lit up the room.

“There may be another way,” Nolan offered. “Mr. Turner told me they picked up chatter that there’s been a change to the Nuorean’s bounty offer.”

“What kind of change?” Adam asked.

“Seems they’re now offering an additional twenty billion to whoever brings you in alive, Captain Cain.”

Riyad reached over and took Adam by the arm. “I got him, let’s go! I could use an extra twenty billion. But is that before or after taxes?”

“What about the rest of us?” Sherri asked.

“Sorry, still the eight billion each, and they only want you dead, not alive.”

“That’s a bunch of crap,” Coop said. “We should be just as valuable as Adam. I’m really hurt.”

“I know,” Riyad agreed. “It’s not fair.”

“Knock it off, you guys,” Adam commanded. “This may be our chance. If they want me alive, then they have to meet somewhere for the exchange to take place.” He turned to Nolan. “How’d you and your crew like to make twenty-eight billion dollars?”

“Twenty-eight?”

“Yeah, I assume the original eight billion is still on the table. When you turn me over alive, you’ll get the extra twenty.”

“And as the captain of the ship, I get a larger share, right?”

“That’s up to you and your crew.”

“You are not serious!” Arieel exclaimed, failing to see the humor in the Human banter. “You cannot voluntarily turn yourself over to the Nuoreans.”

“It will be fine, Arieel,” Adam said. “I have some nifty tricks up my sleeve.”

“Yeah, I was going to ask you about that,” Colonel Nolan said. “I’ve seen you do some strange things in the few hours I’ve known you.” He looked at Sherri for backup. All he got were furtive glances. “What? You guys know something!”

Adam raised his hand to get the attention of the room. “Plausible deniability, Mister Nolan,” he said. “The less you know the better.”

“Bullshit…Captain. Since I’m along for this ride, I’m in just as much danger as the rest of you. I deserve to be brought into the loop.”

Adam looked at the core members of his team, even the two aliens, Kaylor and Jym. They all nodded.

“Do you remember the mutant Panur?” he asked Nolan.

“Of course. He’s the creature who worked with the Sol-Kor, inventing all the things they used to nearly kill us all. He’s also supposed to be a friend of yours, which is something I never understood.”

“Panur’s not such a bad guy, just confused,” Adam said with a smile. “If the truth was known, you’d see he’s helped us out on a number of occasions.”

“Okay…what about him?”

“You know he’s an immortal mutant genius, right?”

“That’s what they say.”

Adam took a deep breath. “Well I have some of his brain cells in my head.”

Adam expected a different reaction. Instead, all he got was a blank stare from the Marine officer. “Yeah, so?”

“His brain cells are in my head.”

“Does this mean you can communicate with him telepathically?”

“No! It means I have some of his abilities.”

“Like what?”

Adam pursed his lips. “Like super strength, better and quicker coordination; even my memory is better…and I heal faster.”

“You do?” Nolan still didn’t seem impressed. “Why?”

“Panur’s brain cells control my body at times.”

“Have you become a mutant—an immortal mutant?” Nolan seemed to finally be grasping the meaning.

“No, I’m not a mutant. But the mutant cells in my brain are doing a pretty good job of taking care of me in times of need.”

Nolan looked at the faces of the others in the room. The only one expressing any shock was that of Arieel Bol. “You didn’t know about this?” he asked the Formilian.

“I sensed something was different,” she answered. “Our connection has been stronger, clearer.”

“What connection?” Nolan asked.

“We have Gifts—what you call brain interface devices embedded within our bodies. They allow us to communicate telepathically, as well as control electronic devices, such as flash weapons and other things.”

Now the Marine’s mouth was hanging open. Again he scanned the faces of Adam’s team. Then he smiled. “Damn…you guys really had me going,” he said. “But is this really the time to be screwing around? There’s a whole galaxy out trying to kill you…and me too.”

“It’s true,” Sherri said.

Since she and Josh Nolan had a past relationship, he took her comment more seriously. “C’mon! You expect me to believe this about mutant brain cells and brain interface devices? It sounds like some cheap science fiction story, and more fiction than science.”

“Really, Josh, it’s true.”

“Do any of the rest of you have super powers?”

“My great super power is being friends with Adam,” Riyad said with a wide smile. “It’s worked for me up till now.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Adam said. The two men bumped fists.

Nolan was silent for a long moment, his mouth still hanging open. When he closed it, his lips were just a thin line, displaying his frustration. “So you’re some kind of superman—literally. Can you fly and jump buildings in a single bound?”

“I’m still working on that. Give me time.”

“Bullshit! And even if it’s true, how does that help us in our current situation? You may survive, but what about the rest of us?”

“That’s why I believe we should follow Adam’s plan and allow himself to be captured by the Nuoreans,” Kaylor said, speaking for the first time. He was normally intimidated by a room full of Humans, even if he was a member of the team. He never fully trusted them not to suddenly go crazy and start ripping the place apart, including him and Jym.

Nolan looked at Adam. “You believe you can use your power to survive long enough to tell us where their base is located?”

“That’s the plan.”

Nolan shook his head. “There are only twenty Marines and sailors aboard my ship, and fifteen in the remaining escort vessel. Plus the eight of us. Forty-three total. And not to mention we only have three ships, and one of them is a damn luxury yacht.”

“I’ll have you know, the Tobias is equipped with the latest offensive and defensive weapons and countermeasures,” Adam said. “A trillionaire can’t risk a trip into space without being able to take care of himself.”

“But there’s a hundred Nuoreans—something called the Third Cadre, whatever that is.”

“It’s their elite fighting corps,” Copernicus explained. “We’ve gone up against them before.”

“A hundred of them?”

“Well, no.”

“But the forty-three of us will…because we have Clark Kent on our side?”

“Who is Clark Kent,” Jym asked.

Nolan pointed at Adam. “Him!”

“That is Adam Cain,” Jym countered. “I have known him for twenty years. I have never heard him referred to as Clark Kent before.”

Nolan stared at the tiny bear. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It means Adam is worth fifty Third Cadre,” Riyad said, again with a bump fist with Adam. “That more or less evens the odds. Plus we’ll have the element of surprise on our side.”

“Yeah, because no sane creature would attempt such an incredibly stupid plan.”

“Just get me in,” Adam said. “You may even be able to keep the reward.”

Nolan’s mouth snapped shut. He’d forgotten about the money.

“Okay, so how does our backup find us, once we hook-up with the Nuoreans?”

Adam turned to Arieel. “Do you know how to make a ghost ATD—Gift—within a ship’s computer?”

Arieel frowned. She’d been listening to the back and forth and still wasn’t sold on this being a viable plan. “I do not understand the question.”

Adam smiled warmly. So…he knew something about the Formilian brain interface device that even Arieel Bol didn’t. And she’d had hers since she was five.

“I’m able to create a duplicate ATD presence in a remote computer. It allows me to communicate—even take control—over vast distances. It becomes a mirror device linked to mine. It extends the range out to several light-years.”

“You must teach me how to create such a ghost—as you call it—although it sounds sacrilegious to me.”

“It’s fine, sweetie. I’ll create one in the backup ships, which will allow you to communicate with me even light-years apart. I’ll guide you into the Nuorean hiding place without them detecting a CW burst.”

“If you are still alive to do so,” Kaylor pointed out.

“I think the Nuoreans will want to take their time killing me. That’s the reason they’re offering more money for me alive than dead. They want to do it themselves. And knowing the Nuoreans as I do, they’ll want to make some big spectacle out of it. That should give me time to relay the location.”

“And then we all come in guns a-blazing?” LtCol. Nolan asked. “Sounds like a plan.”

Adam snickered. “I’m sure there will be a little more detail filled in before the actual operation gets underway.” He surveyed the faces in the room. Although no one protested the plan, the expressions were still those of grave concern. Adam was risking a lot putting himself out as bait for the Nuoreans. And none of them—including Adam—had a full grasp of just what special powers he possessed. To the person, they believed he could be killed.

So did he.

* * *

The next question that had to be answered was how do they contact the Nuoreans? The announcement of the bounty—along with the subsequent amendment for Adam to be taken alive—had come from a general CW broadcast to all reaches of the galaxy. Adam and his team figured a similar broadcast announcing his capture would stir the Nuoreans. It would also alert everyone else. Would others try to lure the Humans to a false rendezvous so they could take Adam themselves? Twenty-eight billion dollars in equivalent Juirean credits was a hell of a lot of money. Who knew what some creatures would do for such a payoff?

They started with a general broadcast then they waited.

As suspected, over a hundred responses flooded the CW relays. Meet us here, meet us there. Most of the broadcasts were crude and easily seen as frauds.

Yet it was one that came out of the general direction of the Nuorean settlement in the galaxy that got their attention. It didn’t call for a direct rendezvous. Rather, it asked that the ship carrying Adam follow a route to another point, where further instructions would be provided. It was broadcast only once, not like the others that kept pleading for Nolan and his ship to meet them.

The team decided to follow the broadcast toward Nuorean territory.

Adam never believed that the Cadre had rebelled against the Nuorean leadership and gone rogue. That was not what Nuoreans did. A destination close to or within Nuorean space made sense. He began to make preparations.

It was decided they would take the small escort ship called the Rutledge, named after Adam’s old friend from his Navy SEAL days, Master Chief Geoffrey Rutledge. The faster jumpship and luxury yacht would be the backups. Nolan and fifteen of his most-loyal crew from the Biddle crew transferred over to the Rutledge, while Adam’s team took the Tobias. The rest of the sailors and Marines were in the jumpship.

Adam met Arieel in the aft computer maintenance room aboard the escort vessel. She fell into his arms instantly and smothered him with kisses. The overruled Human male was surprised, but he didn’t resist. Things escalated from there.

It had been a while since he enjoyed the pleasures of the creature commonly referred to as The Most Beautiful Prime Female in the Galaxy. He certainly couldn’t dispute the claim, and he had more evidence to go by than simple press reports and surveys.

When they eventually separated, the lovers were out of breath and sweating.

“That was unexpected,” Adam panted. He’d never been able to keep up with her sexually, but his new mutant abilities had been triggered by the passion. Now he beamed with pride from his increased stamina and mutant version of Viagra-times-ten.

“I…too, am…” Her voice trailed off. “That was…different.”

“Better?”

“Different, yet welcomed. Was that an example of your new abilities?”

He gave her a mischievous smile. Then he sighed. “I didn’t bring you here for that, Arieel. I have to show you how to create the ghost in the computer.”

“Yes, you must do that. How long will it take?” she breathed, pressing in close to him again. She certainly did have a strong sex drive. Apparently all Formilians did.

It had also been a while since Adam created a ghost ATD, and with Arieel distracting him, it took him longer than he remembered, but eventually he got it installed. It was essentially an echo of his device residing in the inner workings of the computer system. He would install one in the yacht’s system as well, before having Arieel place one of her own in the escort ship. That way they could communicate with each other without the possibility of the contact being noticed or traced.

After they were done, it was still another half an hour before they left the computer room.

Chapter 11

Adam, along with Nolan and his fake capturers, left the next morning, following a track that hopefully would lead them to the Nuoreans. They changed from their uniforms into civilian clothing so it wouldn’t look like a military operation should contact be made with the Nuoreans.

Nine hours later they reached a point in space where they could line up on the provided coordinates. By then, a veritable traffic jam had developed along the course, as a dozen ships of a dozen different designs were there as well. They’d picked up on the blanket broadcast from the Nuoreans and got here as quickly as possible. The line of ships was separated by several light-years, but it was obvious all the starships were headed in the same direction, and pretending to be the one carrying Adam Cain.

The pretense was only until the actual ship carrying Adam could be identified. Then the vultures would pounce. Each of the imposters wanted to grab Adam and turn him in; they would watch and wait until someone tipped their hand.

The tense parade continued for two days before Adam got tired of the game. Using the new-found mutant intelligence he didn’t even know he had, he was able to create a burst signal and sent it to the closest ship trailing them. Within the signal was a file, and when opened, it revealed a holograph of Adam. The file was also designed to link up with the comm system of the ship and send another transmission into space.

The plan worked perfectly. The signal was received, the file opened, and before the ship’s occupants knew it, they were broadcasting the image of Adam Cain. Like a pack of hyenas attacking a fallen gazelle, a dozen ships in the line changed course and zeroed in on the broadcasting vessel. The hapless victim broke the line and raced away, chased by the others. In moments, only Nolan’s ship remained on the track. The others would eventually realize their mistake. By then they’d be too far behind to catch up.

Another day passed before a dormant beacon suddenly came to life along the track. A pre-recorded message came through, transmitting the source code for Nolan’s CW equipment. Continuous Wormhole communication theoretically couldn’t be traced, yet the originator of the transmission could be identified through the unique signature of the amplifier.

Nolan sent out an answering signal, confirming his identity. A second later another transmission came through, giving him a new heading. He ordered the course correction. They were in contact with the Nuoreans now—and the aliens knew his was the ship with Adam aboard. How long this leg of the journey would continue was anyone’s guess, although they were sixty light-years from the unofficial boundary of Nuorean space, where the six worlds the aliens had conquered were located. Using the belief that the Cadre was located within this region of space, they were two days out at the most.

Thirteen hours later another beacon sprang to life in the emptiness of space along the course. This one relayed a live message from the Nuoreans.

* * *

Nolan stared at the grey-faced alien as they sized each other up. It was the Nuorean who spoke first.

“You are a Human.”

“And you are a Nuorean.”

“Adam Cain is a Human; you claim to have him in your custody.”

“We do,” said Nolan confidently.

“You would turn over a member of your own species to face certain death?”

“If you know anything about Humans, you know that’s not unusual. When can we get our money?”

“That will come. First we need proof that you have Adam Cain.”

“Of course.” Nolan nodded to his comm officer. A view of Adam in a room, lying on a cot, was transmitted to the Nuorean.

“That is not proof. The image could be a recording or it could be false. I demand you bring him to your bridge so I can see him in real time.”

Nolan nodded to another member of the bridge crew who raced from the room. In the awkward silence, neither party spoke. Three minutes later, Adam was hustled onto the bridge, his wrists shackled and chains on his legs. Two of Nolan’s crew held him by the arms.

“Bring him closer to the camera. We have recognition capabilities,” said the alien.

The Humans complied and thirty second later the Nuorean nodded. “As far as we can tell, that is Adam Cain.”

“I told you it was. Now can we get our money?”

“Only upon delivery.”

“Where, when?”

“I am sending new coordinates. Follow them precisely. We will make contact again in two of your days.” The alien broke the connection.

Adam straightened up as his guards unfastened the shackles.

“That worked,” he said.

“Does this mean we really get to keep the money?” one of the crewmen asked.

“Let’s not count our chickens, Mister Howell,” Nolan cautioned. “But if we do, that will be one hell of a re-enlistment bonus.”

“Excuse me, sir, but re-enlistment my ass. I’d be a free man after that.”

* * *

Adam contacted Arieel through the ATD ghost program and filled her in on what just happened. The two backup ships were five light-years behind and paralleling their course twenty degrees above their ecliptic. They were also following a zig-zag path, so if detected, they would be appear to be on a different vector than Nolan’s ship.

You still believe this will work? Arieel asked in his mind.

We’ve made real progress. Hopefully the Nuoreans will be so blinded by their hatred for me that they’ll let us through. They may be master game players but they are pretty naïve in some areas.

I will relay this information to the others. Please be careful.

Careful is my middle name.

I thought it was David.

It’s just an expression, my dear.

If there is one advantage Humans have over all other creatures in the universe, it is your method of code-speak. Only your own species appear to understand fully what you mean.

That’s not always the case, believe me. I’m breaking the connection now. We’re getting close, Arieel. This should be over fairly soon.

Chapter 12

“Captain!” the bridge officer yelled at LtCol. Nolan, using his generic title as commander of the ship. “I have contacts dead ahead. They just appeared.”

“Evasive actions!”

“Sir, four more, to starboard and port. They have us boxed in.”

“Captain Cain to the bridge,” Nolan called into his comm.

Adam was there twenty seconds later.

“What’s going on?”

“Six ships have us surrounded. They popped out of dark status,” Nolan reported, frustration in his voice.

“Identity?”

“Nuoreans.”

Adam was afraid he was going to say that. They were only six hours beyond the last beacon point, barely into the two-day transit the Nuoreans had mentioned.

“Power down, Colonel,” Adam said. “They’ve obviously been waiting for us. Let’s see what they want.”

“They want you, Captain,” Nolan pointed out.

“Then you better get me shackled up again. Let’s make this convincing.”

“This screws up our plans. The backup can’t get here in time. And if the transfer takes place in space, we’ll never learn the location of their base.”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Remember, the Nuoreans don’t know what I’m capable of.”

Nolan laughed. “According to you…neither do you.”

All Adam could do was shrug. The Marine officer was right.

* * *

One of the Nuorean ships maneuvered in for an umbilical hookup with Nolan’s ship, while the others stayed off at a distance. The five aliens who entered the ship appeared to be in distress.

“Adjust your gravity downward!” ordered the Nuorean in the black uniform with three yellow stripes on his left breast.

Nolan complied.

“What’s this all about? We haven’t deviated from the course you gave us.”

The alien breathed a sigh of relief as the internal gravity lessened. He gathered his composure before answering. “Nuoreans are master strategists, Human. We can detect deception in the actions of others. We believe Adam Cain is not your prisoner; instead he is directing the game.”

“You’re wrong. He’s our prisoner. He means nothing to us. All we want is the money.” Nolan tried to remain as defiant as possible. The actions of the Nuoreans were unexpected, but they made sense. This could be a test.

“Bring me Adam Cain.”

“He’s already on his way.”

As if on cue, Adam appeared on the bridge, shackled as before. But now he tried to act defiant himself. It would be what the Nuoreans expect him to do.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked the Cadre officer.

The Nuorean considered him for a moment before smiling. “You are making demands? I have not had experience with Humans before, yet I have heard of you. I even took part in the survey of your home planet, preparing for its destruction.”

“And how did that end up?” Adam asked. “Oh, yeah, it was Nuor that was destroyed instead. I understand the Third Cadre used to live there. Was any of your family and friends there when I blew it up?”

The alien’s fist seemed to come at him in slow motion through the lens of his new mutant abilities. Adam was glad to see they appeared when they did, because he had to put on quite the act that he was hurt by the powerful blow. He stumbled backwards, to be caught by the two Human guards behind him.

“If I was not under orders to bring you to Master Janvis I would kill you now myself.”

“Without a challenge match?” Adam asked after working his jaw back and forth, making sure nothing was broken. It was all part of the act. “That would be a waste.”

“Are you going to take him?” Nolan asked. “What about our money?”

The Nuorean looked at the Marine with obvious anger and frustration. “Will you cease with the demands for your payment!”

“It’s what you agreed to,” Nolan countered. “If the galaxy finds out that you won’t pay, then you can forget about the others being killed.”

“And how will the galaxy find out…if you’re dead?”

Nolan swallowed hard. The alien had a point. “They just will. Everyone knows we’re bringing Cain to you, and the reward is gigantic. If we don’t come back—and boast about all the money we made—they’ll figure it out on their own. No one will take the chance of collecting the bounty, figuring you’ll just kill them when they try.”

“There is no exchange required for the others, just proof of death. Your argument has no merit.”

“Yeah, but,” Nolan stammered. “If you renege on one payment, why wouldn’t you on another?”

“Human, cease! You will get your payment. It is of minimal consequence to us, although apparently not to you.”

“We survive on money. It’s why we do everything.”

“It is not the way of the Nuoreans. We are above such petty things.”

“We aren’t.”

The alien was at his wits end. He stared at Nolan for a long moment before ordering his support troops to take Adam through the umbilical tunnel to his ship. He turned to leave.

“Wait—” Nolan called out.

“You will follow us,” said the alien abruptly. “I do not have your payment with me.”

Nolan bit off his next statement. He looked around at his bridge crew and saw nothing but big eyes and wide grins. It looked like they really were going to collect the bounty. And they might even live long enough to spend it.

* * *

Adam contacted Arieel again through the ghost program and gave her the latest news. He would lose contact with her once Nolan’s ship separated by about a half a million miles from the Nuorean vessel he was on. She could still track the tiny fleet as it made its way to the Nuorean hiding place through Nolan’s ship, just Adam wouldn’t be able to communicate with her.

She freaked out knowing he was now in the custody of the Nuoreans. He reassured her he was fine and that they had elaborate plans for him—as was the way of the aliens. They wouldn’t simply execute him. They would make a game out of it.

He was taken to a room aboard the Nuorean vessel and placed under guard. Workers were still installing a lock on the door, since none of the rooms had them. This was a Nuorean ship manned by Nuoreans. There was no need for locks…anywhere.

Once the caravan got underway, Adam felt an emptiness within his mind as he lost contact with the ghost program aboard Nolan’s ship. He also scanned the Nuorean vessel and found he had no connection with any of their electronic devices. They didn’t use Formilian controllers and other Milky Way-based technology. His ATD would be useless in this situation.

But he still had Panur’s residual powers. They would be his ace-in-the-hole when the real game began. Adam wasn’t scared, at least not for himself. He was concerned, however, for the others. Once they reached the hidden Cadre base, he would have to carry most of the load. He smiled. He was okay with that. It just meant a higher score for him.

Chapter 13

Adam didn’t see much of their destination planet, not until they landed, and then just enough to know that it was arid and flat and the settlement the Third Cadre had set up looked more temporary than permanent. He figured the Nuorean renegades were just playing a part in a larger game and would be returning to the main force—as soon as Adam’s team was dead. Seeing that all the players in the game were rushing to the same place, the outcome would be known fairly soon.

The settlement consisted of a series of seven windowless pre-fab metal structures placed in a crude ‘S-shape’ running north to south. Support modules were attached to the outside of the buildings, providing air conditioning or heat. It was mid-day when they arrived and it was pretty warm; however, Adam didn’t know what the night held in store. Each building was connected to its neighbor by curved roof tunnels. Another building, four times larger than any of the others, was set off to the west and across a narrow field. A number of small warrior-class starships were scattered about to the east, having landed more or less where they pleased on the dry, flat landscape, yet far enough from the buildings as to not cause damage from their landing and take-off jets.

Nolan landed the small escort ship about two hundred yards from the nearest building. The atmosphere was Human-compatible, with gravity a little lighter than Juirean standard. He left five of his fifteen-man crew aboard the ship and brought the other ten with him to meet the small Nuorean entourage standing near the cluster of buildings.

Adam caught sight of the meet-up just before he was hustled inside the building. He was taken to the second building on the north side of the row and placed in a room with a lock. The Nuoreans were expecting him, so they were ready.

* * *

All the Nuoreans wore black uniforms with yellow stripes on their chests, either one, two or three. They were also armed with impressive-looking flash rifles of an alien design, along with projectile handguns strapped to their waists.

“I will take you to the treasury where you can collect your payment,” said one of the Nuoreans with three stripes on his shirt. He seemed annoyed serving as the Human’s guide. Nolan got the impression he would have preferred to meet them in the arena. That was the true measure of a Nuorean’s worth.

They were led to the larger building set off from the others. The Nuorean three-striper simply opened a wide door and stepped inside, with no additional security required to enter the so-called treasury building.

It was dark inside the interior until an alien turned on the lights.

There was a collective inhale of breath from the eleven assembled Humans, the result of seeing the massive pile of…well, stuff, in the center of the room. It covered fifty-feet in diameter by twenty high, and consisted of gold and silver objects, along with other trinkets and paraphernalia of all kinds. It was not what Nolan had been expecting.

“What’s this?” he asked his host.

The Nuorean waved impatiently at the pile. “It is the wealth we brought with us, a small portion of the confiscated items from the worlds we have inhabited.”

Nolan stepped up to the edge of the pile and picked up a golden vase. “This is what you expect to pay us with?”

“Yes. I sense you are not satisfied.”

“Satisfied? Hell no!” He held up the vase. “How I am I supposed to know how much this is worth? And I don’t even know if it’s real gold. And if it is, twenty-eight billion dollars of this shit would fill a dozen starships. Don’t you have any Juirean credits or even Human dollars-chips around?”

“What we have is what you see. If you do not want it, then leave.”

Nolan’s men had also moved to the pile and were digging through it frantically. One of the men held up some beige credit chips.

“These look like money,” the young Marine said.

Nolan took a chip. It was unlike any he’d ever seen. “What are these?”

The Nuorean came closer. “They appear to be the credits used on one of our conquered worlds. There should be many more.”

“Then they’re worthless to us.” Nolan threw the chip back on the huge pile. “We can’t use credits from an isolated—and conquered—world.”

The Cadre officer was frustrated. “The worlds we inhabit had trade with your empires. I know they had a substantial amount of compatible credits. You will just have to find them.”

“Colonel! I found a Juirean cen-chip,” said one of his men, holding up a blue chip.

Nolan sent him a stern frown. The Nuoreans were not to know they were a military operation.

Fortunately, the Cadre officer either didn’t hear the sailor’s words, or he didn’t grasp the meaning. He turned to his other troops and motioned for them to leave the room.

“You have twenty planetary hours to collect your payment. Take what is owed and leave the rest.” He turned and left the room.

Nolan’s men were staring at him with wide eyes, wondering what to do next.

The man with the Juirean chip handed it to his commanding officer. A cen-chip was worth about sixteen dollars on Earth. It would take a hell of a lot of them to equal twenty-eight billion dollars, more than his small ship could hold. And if they attempted to take the bounty out in gold and silver artifacts, that would be even worse.

He held out his hands, indicating the massive pile. “Dig in,” he said to his men. “Try to find all the credits and dollars you can. It’s obvious we’re not going to be able to carry anything close to twenty-eight billion dollars in the ship, but every little bit helps.”

He didn’t have to ask twice. His men dove into the pile with reckless abandon.

For his part, Josh Nolan leaned against the inner wall of the metal building, letting his men do the sorting while he tried to think. His mission was to help Adam Cain take out the Nuoreans who had placed the bounty on the heads of his team, and at the same time deny them the source of funds that was financing the reward. The source was right in front of him, and rather than destroy it and lift the contract, his men were greedily rummaging through the pile trying to get their piece of a very large pie.

There was no doubt that there was enough wealth in the room to make good on the bounty. But it would take a moderate-size freighter to get it all out, and then years of selling off the items before the wealth was liquid enough to be used.

Yet that was not what they’d come for. Nolan knew he could take his ship above the surface and launch a series of cannon bolts at the building and either melt or burn up the entire cache. He snickered. If his men would let him, he thought. And from the look in their eyes and the manic way they were digging through the pile, he very much doubted they would.

Hell, even Josh was in awe of the potential life-altering wealth in the room.

But he had a mission to accomplish.

Or did he?

Adam Cain had devised the plan himself, in order to get himself captured by the Nuoreans so he could work his mutant magic on them. That was done. Cain was in a nearby building being held by the Nuoreans, so technically, his job was done. There was the vague follow up plan to have the backup force arrive and use their combined force to fight and defeat the hundred or so Third Cadre warriors. But there was no formal plan for how that was to happen. Cain would lead the way when the time came.

Josh could see that his men were making smaller piles of what appeared to be Juirean credits. The currency was accepted across the galaxy, even on Earth. The piles were impressive, each already a couple of feet high. Honestly, Josh had never seen so many credits in one place. There had to be several million dollars in each of the smaller piles, and they’d only just begun the sorting process.

Josh leaned his head back and banged it against the metal wall several times. What was he to do? His men certainly wouldn’t let him abandon the money, and with every additional million added to the stacks, he doubted if they would be willing to risk their lives in a fight with the Nuoreans when they could simply fly away from here rich men.

The Marine lieutenant-colonel was mad at himself. He’d placed his men—once all dedicated military personnel—into a situation which they weren’t equipped to handle. Even if they would obey his order to cease and desist, he would feel shitty giving it. Fifteen years in the service had come down to this, a complete breakdown of military order and protocol, and all because of a big-ass pile of unimaginable treasure.

Joshua Nolan came to a conclusion. He had short-term and long-term goals before him. In the long-term, he had to help Adam Cain and the others survive the bounty placed on them by the Nuoreans. In the short-term, he had a fortune to collect. He rolled up his sleeves and approached the pile. If he and his men could clean out the Nuoreans treasury, the aliens would have nothing left to offer the galaxy for the heads of the other team members. That was one way to help the cause. It also wouldn’t hurt his financial prospects.

Josh dove into the pile.

Chapter 14

With Nolan’s ship on the surface of the arid planet and not too far from the cluster of buildings, Adam was able to reconnect with Arieel through the ghost program. He was told Kaylor and Jym had a bead on his location and the two backup ships were on the way. She asked about Nolan and his men, and whether they were in position to strike at the Nuoreans when the rest of the force arrived?

Adam honestly didn’t know. He was locked away and Nolan hadn’t been by to see him, if that was even allowed. Hopefully the Marine officer had located the stash of money the Nuoreans were using to sponsor the bounty, and plans were underway to destroy it.

Yet even with the money destroyed, the Cadre still had to be eliminated. If not, then they would just gather more wealth from the conquered worlds and start the whole thing over again.

Riyad and the others would be at the planet in twenty-two hours, if they didn’t run into any sentries. Adam described to Arieel the layout of the compound so she could relay it to Riyad. He was the best strategist in the group; he’d find a way to make the biggest impact and hopefully cut the Nuoreans force down to a reasonable size before the main battle began. Seeing how exposed the compound was, that shouldn’t be a problem. Obviously, the Nuoreans weren’t expecting an attack.

After breaking off with Arieel, Adam leaned back on the hard pad of the narrow bed they’d given him in his windowless prison room and stared at the ceiling. He had no doubt he could escape, but he would wait for Riyad’s arrival.

Now all he had to do now was make sure he survived the next twenty-two hours.

* * *

Adam wasn’t surprised when the Nuoreans rousted him from his rest and brought him into a main meeting room in the complex of metal buildings. They couldn’t let their prized captive languish in a prison cell without parading him around a little. Besides, he hadn’t been introduced to the top dog yet. That time had come.

The Third Cadre three-striper who had taken him from Nolan’s ship was in the room, along with easily a dozen other aliens, each carrying expressions of extreme hatred toward Adam. He couldn’t blame them. As far as they knew, this was the creature who destroyed their homeworld. Adam pumped out his chest a little more at the thought. How many people could say they’ve destroyed a world and killed billions of creatures? Seeing that his victims were aliens intent on conquering the galaxy and killing untold trillions of people, he felt justified in his warped sense of pride.

Another senior Cadre officer was seated at a long table. Two other officers flanked him. The officer from the ship shoved Adam in front of the table.

“I present you with Adam Cain, Master Janvis (784).” The Nuorean from the ship looked Adam up and down with a condescending scowl. “The destroyer of worlds is but a mere mortal of plain definition.”

“This mortal creature killed Master Azon in the arena, Lead-Player Crans,” said the officer seated at the table. “He may appear weak and unskilled, yet that is just an illusion. This beast also invaded our galaxy and spent time roaming our space destroying facilities and even worlds. He is not to be taken lightly.”

The still-standing Nuorean seemed agitated by his superior’s countering remarks. “Then why not challenge him now? Let us move him to the arena and be done with this.”

“Patience, Crans. His time will come—”

The ground beneath the building began to rumble and Adam recognized the signs of a ship landing outside. The seated Nuorean smiled at Adam.

“I am Master Lead-Player Janvis Kallen-Noc (784),” he said, ignoring the landing of the starship. “I am the ranking Third Cadre player in the Kac…and now, as far as I know, I may be the leading Cadre in all of existence!” He laughed. No one joined him. “Yet before you so ruthlessly destroyed my homeworld of Nuor, I was part of Master Azon’s team tasked with providing accurate survey measurements for your world of Earth. I had already transmitted the data to the Suponac and was only moments away from watching your world shattered to dust…when something unexpected happened. As a master player, I commend you on a game well-played. Yet as a member of the Nuorean species, I despise you from the very depths of my being. It is a dichotomy of feelings I struggle with even at this very moment.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam said with gushing sincerity. “If I’d known the troubles my actions would cause…I would have done them anyway and twice on Sunday.”

The Nuorean frowned. “I had the opportunity to study a few Humans on Nuor before I made the transit to the Kac, so I am aware of your cryptic, often confusing manner of speaking. Continuing, I believe I understand your meaning. Your light concern for your present situation is simply a defense against the inevitable. I find it quite pleasing that it was members of your own race who turned you over to me. Your race has once again proven how primitive and dishonorable you are.”

“It should also frighten you.”

The Cadre leader cocked his head. “Why so?”

“If we’d do such a nasty thing to a fellow Human, just imagine the shit-storm we’d bring down on you, just another stinking alien.”

Janvis looked to each side at the other officers next to him. “The beast tries to provoke us,” he said. “It’s as if he has a death-wish. Do you, Adam Cain? Do you wish to have your life ended sooner, rather than later?”

Adam decided to back off on the insults for a while. He still had a day to go before Riyad arrives. But toying with the alien was so much fun….

“I don’t believe that’s up to me,” he said, accompanied by an abrupt change in tone.

“No it is not. And fortunately, it’s not up to me, either.”

A commotion came from the other side of the room, behind Adam. He turned and saw another entourage of aliens enter. The Nuorean at the phalanx wore a high collared tan shirt and half cape of shimmering gold on his shoulders.

Janvis rose—as did the others—as the new alien approached the table.

He moved up next to Adam and studied the Human with an amused look in his brown eyes. He was about Adam’s height and build, but older, as far as he could tell. Even then, the rippling muscles under the form-fitting shirt spoke of an experienced warrior with hundreds of victories to his name. Nuoreans advanced through wins in the arena, making the higher ranking—and oldest—the most-deadly of their race.

“Adam Cain, you are honored by the presence of Master-Player Qintis Bondo (435), the leader of the Nuorean forces in the Kac.”

Adam couldn’t help himself; he laughed out loud. “Sorry,” he said, waving his hand at the alien. “But Bondo? Your name is Bondo.”

The Nuorean frowned at him, failing to grasp the reason for Adam’s reaction. “Yes, that is the name of my blood-team. Yet I am referred to by my first—Qintis. Why do you laugh?”

Tears flowed from Adam’s eyes. “Like I said, I’m sorry. It just struck me as funny. Bon…do!” Adam formed the syllables with exaggerated movements of his lips. Eventually he gathered his composure. This wasn’t helping him live long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

“You will address me as either Master-Lead or Master Qintis.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Adam said. “If I do, can I live longer?”

“You appear to be in good spirits, Adam Cain, especially for a creature destined for death.”

“Hey, Qintis, we all have to die sometime…even you.” Adam meant it. He hadn’t expected the head honcho of the Nuoreans to be here. This was going to make the coming slaughter that much sweeter.

Adam looked from Qintis to Janvis then back to Qintis again. “So I guess the renegade story was just that, a story.”

Qintis moved to the other side of the table and sat down. He motioned for Adam to sit as well. The audience in the room remained silent, yet attentive.

“It is a story still believed by most Nuoreans in the Kac. But once you and your players are dispatched, Master Janvis and his Cadre will be welcomed back as heroes to their species, having killed those who destroyed our homeworld.”

Adam nodded. “That makes sense. We were welcomed back as conquering heroes ourselves, having destroyed the homeworld of the creatures who were trying to kill us.”

Qintis shook his head. “The people of the Kac understand us not. We came never intending to kill all of you. We came only seeking sport and challenges. All creatures in the Kac had a chance to defeat us in fair combat. That is hardly the actions of a conquering enemy.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen your fair play, Master Qintis. It’s only fair when you know you can win. And what of the Third Cadre? If I hadn’t taken action, it would have been my homeworld crushed to dust, and all because we Humans could kick your ass in the arena.”

“That is the job of the Third Cadre, to identify and manage Jundac species. Humans were the exception rather than the rule in our games within the Kac. The vast majority of others would have been given more consideration.”

“And now everything has changed,” Adam pointed out. “Now your once-proud race is hiding away in a forgotten corner of the galaxy with the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head.”

“That did not translate, Adam Cain.”

“It means you spend every day expecting a massive weight to come crashing down on you. And believe me that time is coming.”

Qintis smiled. “You speak of your easily manipulated officials—politicians you call them. There will be no massive weight crashing upon us. Your people will vacillate and compromise until it is too late, until a link is reestablished with the Suponac. You must know you did not destroy my race with your actions. Instead, all you have done is given us more determination to come back to the Kac. And now that we know of a weapon of incredible power that cannot be countered, the next time we come it will not be for sport exclusively. Nuoreans normally do not engage in acts of revenge, yet you, Adam Cain, have taught us a new way of thinking.”

Adam was silent, taking in the words of the Nuorean leader. If the aliens from Andromeda did return, they could arrive in person after sucking a dozen prominent worlds over to their galaxy and killing trillions of souls. Their gravity beam weapon can destroy worlds, and they have the means to rebuild the midpoint generator faster than the allies could build one of their own. It was only a matter of time before the Nuoreans returned.

Adam fought his overwhelming feeling of guilt by noting that he didn’t invent the world-destroying weapon or envision its use. The Nuoreans—and specifically the Third Cadre—did that. If he hadn’t acted, they would have used the weapon first. And they’d still be using it, with all the creatures in the Milky Way under Nuorean rule.

“So what happens now?” Adam asked, growing weary of the game he was playing with the aliens.

Qintis looked at Janvis and smiled. “As you suspect, your death will be a grand spectacle, allowed to be shared by all the Nuoreans in the Kac. That is why the terms of your bounty were amended. The others can live or die for all I care. They were merely players in your game. You were their master. And it will be you who will pay the ultimate price for what you did to Nuor.”

What did he just say? “Did you say the others can live?”

“They can live or die, it matters not.”

“So you’ll lift the bounty?”

Qintis looked confused. “I did not say that. I said it matters not either way.”

“If you let them live, I will go peacefully and play whatever games you want.”

The confused looked remained on the alien’s face. “You will play our games whether you want to or not. You have no bargaining power, Adam Cain. It is insanity for you to even think otherwise.”

Adam’s gnashed his teeth. “I was just trying to help.”

Qintis shook his head. “The reward will stand. It’s just that when one of your teammates is terminated, there will be no wide-spread celebration or pronouncement. It will just happen. However, in your case, we may declare a holiday for all time to celebrate your death. Yes…it will be a glorious death.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”

Chapter 15

Fortunately for Adam, the Nuoreans weren’t ready to initiate their grand plan for his death—at least not yet. He was taken back to his room and locked in, which gave him time to prepare his assets for the coming conflict.

Nolan had been a ghost since coming to the planet. It had been eighteen hours and not a peep out of the Marine officer. Adam knew the Rutledge was still on the surface; he could sense its presence and he was still able to contact Arieel aboard the Tobias. With the ship so close, Adam began probing around in the circuits, trying to locate the comm systems. As he lay on the cot, his arm across his forehead and appearing to be at rest, his mind was activating the programs and converting his thoughts into speech.

“This is Adam Cain.” His voice boomed from the speakers on the bridge of the Rutledge. He could sense a portable comm device in the room, so he knew a crewman was aboard. “Just speak into the 1-MC, I’ll hear you.”

A moment later, a skeptical voice appeared in his head. Is this really Captain Cain?

“Yes it is. Who am I speaking with?”

This is petty officer Mike Pettit…sir.

Adam remembered the young sailor. He’d spent a few days aboard the ship with Nolan’s crew, and his enhanced mutant memory allowed him to easily recall the petty officer second-class. “Very good, Mister Pettit. I need to speak with Colonel Nolan. I sense he’s not onboard.”

You sense…is this really Captain Cain, or is this some kind of Nuorean trick?

“It’s me. If I recall, you’re from Indiana—Evansville, right?”

How do you know that?

“We spoke once on the mess decks, remember? You had something that was supposed to be biscuits and gravy. You said it looked like stew.”

There was a pause in his mind before Pettit responded. You remember that? Adam felt a sense of awe in the man’s voice; the great Adam Cain remembered a conversation with a lowly enlisted man. He was flattered.

Colonel Nolan is not onboard; he’s in the warehouse.

“Is that where they keep the money for the bounty?”

Yessir. We’ve been hauling loads of the stuff to the Rutledge for several hours. It’s turned into a real job. We’re working in shifts now.

Adam was angry. His backup force on the planet was so engrossed in collecting their money that they’d forgotten all about him.

“Listen, Mister Pettit, I need you to get Colonel Nolan now. Bring him back to the ship so I can talk to him.”

Yessir. Give me ten minutes.

* * *

Seven minutes later, Petty Officer Pettit was back on the line.

Colonel Nolan is presently unavailable, Captain Cain. Pettit’s voice was shaking. He will contact you when he can. I’m sorry.

Adam reassured the young sailor that it wasn’t his fault. He told him to relax and that it was okay. Then after breaking contact with the Rutledge, Adam got up from the cot and walked to the door of his room.

One thing he’d noticed from his ATD probe of the surrounding set of buildings and equipment: they were not of Nuorean origin. All the pre-fab buildings and other systems were from the worlds they’d conquered, and even these planets used Formilian technology. This included the lock on his door.

It was simply a matter of Adam scanning the controls and activating the release switch and he was able to slowly open the door and look into the outer corridor. The hallway was empty, not even a single guard standing outside his door. This was a major weakness of the Nuoreans; they were overconfident in their own abilities and often underestimated those of their opponents.

Adam left his cell and made his way to the main exit door for the building without being seen. There were only a hundred Third Cadre sponsoring the bounty, and some of them were in starships, patrolling the system or in orbit above the planet. That left a relatively few in the compound. It was also night time on the planet, and the Nuoreans had already adapted to the local conditions. Most of them were asleep, figuring their prized captive was safely and securely locked away.

So Adam simply strolled into the dimly lit compound and toward the one source of abundant light—the huge building Adam concluded had to be the warehouse Petty Officer Pettit had mentioned.

He could see a steady stream of sailors and Marines ferrying loads of storage containers toward the Rutledge, which was located on the other side of the chain of buildings. The Humans enlisted the use of four-wheeled forklift-like haulers the Nuoreans had brought with them to help construct the settlement. There was a frantic nature to their actions, as loaded vehicles raced from the warehouse, and empty ones returned with the same urgency.

A departing vehicle nearly collided with one returning when the driver noticed Adam approach the building. Both forklifts came to a stop, followed by another pair. Soon the entire working party had come to a complete halt, with the crew staring at Adam as he entered the building.

LtCol. Joshua Nolan stood next to a series of mounds made up of thin plastic credit chips. They were of various colors, signifying denomination, and included both Juirean and Union chips. The Marine officer had a datapad in his hand, frantically making entries. He was shaking his head.

“A problem, Colonel?” Adam said from behind the officer.

Nolan nearly jumped out of his clothes. He turned at the sound, instantly recognizing the voice.

“Captain…what are you doing here?” he stammered. He looked past Adam toward the door, to see if any Nuoreans had escorted him to the warehouse.

Adam looked at the still huge pile of confiscated items filling the center of the large room. “I was getting lonely sitting in my cell and thought I’d come looking for some company. I thought we could grab some dinner, maybe take in a movie.”

Nolan’s shocked expression was priceless—and infuriating.

“I’m sorry, Captain, but the Nuoreans only gave us twenty hours to sort and load the money. As you can see, it’s not an easy task.”

“I thought your task was to help me defeat the Third Cadre.”

“We are. If we can move most of this stuff out of here, they won’t have the money to pay the other bounties.”

“And how’s that coming?” Adam’s voice was as cutting as a razor’s edge.

Nolan gave up the pretense. “Honestly, really slow. We’ve been sticking all the credits we find in every crack and crevasse aboard the Rutledge and it looks like the most we’ll be able to get out in time is around ten billion dollars’ worth. And then we’ll have a weight problem.”

Adam took Nolan by the arm and led him to a corner of the warehouse, out of earshot of the others, who by now were standing like statues, waiting to see what was going to happen.

“Riyad’s going to be here in less than four hours,” Adam said barely above a whisper. “Are your men going to help in the coming fight or not?”

Nolan’s delayed response spoke volumes. He looked at the anxious faces of his crew. “You have to realize, these men are beyond the point of simply obeying orders. They see themselves as fabulously wealthy, and I doubt they’d be willing to risk their lives…for such a narrow cause.”

Adam raised his eyebrows. Damn, that was harsh. “I realize there are only sixteen of you, but without your men—and the Rutledge—the odds of us defeating the Cadre go way up.”

“I understand you’re capable of taking out fifty of them all by yourself,” Nolan snapped back. “What do you need us for anyway? And look, you just waltzed out of your holding cell without even batting an eye.” The Marine waved a hand toward his men. “You can’t blame them. They’ve never seen so much wealth before.”

“And neither have you.”

A vein pulsed in Nolan’s neck. “No, I haven’t. But it’s beyond that now. I couldn’t get these men to stop what they’re doing even if I wanted to, and at this point, I don’t.”

Adam smiled, which made Nolan even more nervous.

“You’re forgetting one thing, Mister Nolan.”

“What’s that?”

“I can control the Rutledge with my mind. It’s of Human design, which means most of the systems have Formilian technology. And my ghost program gives me even more control. If I want to, I can ground your crew here, and when the fighting starts, whose side do you think the Nuoreans will place you on? Your mutinous crew won’t have a choice but to fight.”

Nolan’s mouth fell open. “You…you wouldn’t.”

“What…force your men to do their job?”

“They’re only people, Cain. If you weren’t some kind of mutant freak you’d be doing the same thing!”

Adam considered smashing the Marine’s head into a million pieces, but he held back…at least for the moment. He thought of his next move. He could still use Nolan’s mutinous crew.

“Fuck it, Nolan. You can keep your damn money. Just do me one little favor.”

Nolan was both shocked and angered by Adam’s statement. “What?”

“When you lift off with all your well-earned booty, lay a couple of cannon bolts into this building. At least that will help put a wrinkle into the Nuorean’s plans.”

Adam was expecting the Marine officer to enthusiastically agree, a compromise for his treasonous act. Instead, he hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” Adam asked.

“If we do that, then the Nuoreans will come after us. With an overloaded ship, we might not get away.”

Adam was getting better at summoning his mutant powers on demand; he felt the surge of strength course through his body. A moment later, he had Nolan by the neck and lifted a foot off the floor. He didn’t squeeze hard enough to kill the man, just to suspend him in air.

Nolan’s crew was unarmed—they also didn’t know about Adam’s superpowers. They raced to their commander’s rescue, only to have the first couple of them laid out on the floor of the warehouse, unconscious from lightning quick hits from Adam’s free left hand. The rest backed off.

“You spineless piece of shit,” Adam growled at Nolan. He let him go. “Fine, take your money and go. I don’t need help from people like you. You disgust me.”

Nolan’s men helped him to his feet. “We’re not as bad as you think,” he said, rubbing his bruised neck. “We’re just doing what any normal Human would do.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

As Adam turned to leave, Nolan spoke again. “We’ll see what we can do about destroying the rest of the treasure,” he offered. “It will depend on how many Nuorean ships are in the area.”

“I suppose you want me to thank you?”

“No…I just want you to understand.”

“Don’t hold your breath, Mister Nolan. Besides, I’m not the one who’s going to have to live with the knowledge of my back-stabbing bullshit for the rest of my miserable life.”

“Don’t worry about that, Captain Cain. We’ll have ten billion ways to deal with the guilt.”

* * *

Adam left the warehouse and returned to his cell. It took another hour before his body returned to normal. His mutant brain cells wanted to hold onto the anger for as long as they could.

He contacted Arieel and filled her in. Riyad would need to know about the loss of Nolan’s men and ship to modify his plans. He wasn’t only losing sixteen skilled combat fighters, but also the use of the Rutledge. Adam was tempted to disable the ship, but he wouldn’t know at that point which side the crew would fight for. It was bad enough facing a hundred of the Nuorean’s best fighters, but to add sixteen deadly Humans into the mix could be tragic.

If Nolan’s timetable was correct, he would leave the planet two hours before Riyad arrived. Whether the warehouse was destroyed at that point—and the Nuoreans in a fit from the attack—was another unknown in the planning. Adam was almost to the point of taking Nolan’s advice and simply set out to kill every Nuorean in sight. After all, the whole reason for allowing himself to be captured was to place this deadly hornet within their camp.

He was also glad to see how easily he’d summoned his super strength in the warehouse, without even having a high-intensity physical confrontation taking place. Anger seemed to be a trigger as well, and at this point, Adam was angry all the time, frustrated that Nolan had taken most of the fun out of the coming battle.

Chapter 16

Eventually a pair of Nuoreans came to the warehouse and told Nolan to stop his activities. At that point, he and his second-in-command, Major Duncan Turner, went to meet with the main Third Cadre officer. Josh had met him a couple of times over the past day, once when he came to the warehouse to view the sorting process, and another in the field between the buildings.

It was early morning and the Nuoreans were stirring. A few were in the field practicing with swords, while other groups of three or four jogged around the buildings, getting their juices flowing for the day. It was two hours before Riyad Tarazi and the rest of the backup force would arrive, so Nolan knew the Nuorean’s day was about to get a lot more complicated. A dark foreboding filled his heart as he entered the building and was granted a meeting with the Nuorean leadership.

Janvis—followed by some numbers Nolan couldn’t remember—was seated at a bare table, flanked by the other three-striper from his ship. His name was Damnic, or something like that. Nolan didn’t care. He just wanted to do what he had to do and leave.

There were another three Nuoreans in the room, seated along a side wall. The one in the middle wore a gold cape and an amused smile, like he knew something Nolan didn’t. Josh didn’t question the alien’s attitude. He probably did know something the Human didn’t.

“We’re ready to leave,” Nolan began, as he and Turner stood before the table.

“Was your recovery efforts satisfactory?” Janvis asked.

“Enough. We were not able to recover the full amount, but enough.”

“And why not all?”

“Time…and space limitations on my ship. But I’m not complaining,” he quickly added.

“That is good that you are not complaining.”

Nolan took a deep breath and looked over at Turner before returning his attention to Janvis. The two Marines had discussed this and were in agreement. “There is one other thing I need to tell you.”

Janvis frowned. He said nothing.

“Adam Cain is planning an attack on this facility. In a couple of hours a support force will arrive led by Riyad Tarazi and other members of Cain’s main team. There are also Human Marines and sailors with him.”

Janvis pursed his lips and looked to the Third Cadre officer next to him. “And how is Cain planning to carry out such an attack? He is locked within an adjoining building, quite secure.”

“He has certain…abilities, which are beyond normal,” Nolan said, much to the surprise—or amusement—of the Nuoreans.

“Yes, we have heard rumors of these abilities. So you confirm they are real?”

“Yes, yet I don’t have any details about what they are. It’s just that I’d be very careful around him.”

Now Janvis looked to the Nuorean seated along the wall. “Mister Nolan—I believe that is how I address Human males—I appreciate this information. It is quite fortunate that you have made this disclosure, for it may alter the plan we have for not allowing your ship to leave the surface.”

The words hit both Nolan and Turner like bricks to the face. They weren’t going to be allowed to leave? Josh tried to understand why he was so impacted, and concluded it had to be the money. He was a Marine officer; mission failure was always a possibility, but his distress was beyond that. He had so much to lose—as did all the others. Could that be it?

“You’re not going to let us leave?” he whispered.

“I said that was our original plan. You must understand, Colonel Nolan, we have suspected such a plan from the beginning. It was too much of a coincidence that Adam Cain would be captured and turned over to us by members of his own race, and obviously members of your military, based on your bearing and habits. And you should know we have been tracking Tarazi’s approach for several days. The simple ruse of alternating directions does not change the configuration of the ships repeatedly detected. We estimated the timetable for the attack based on the arrival of these ships. We also figured you and your ship would play a part in the attack. That is why you would not be allowed to leave.”

Josh and Turner glared at the Nuorean. All their efforts over the past twenty hours had been wasted. And now his admission of an impending attack was nothing more that the rantings of a traitor.

Janvis held up his hand. “Do not look so distraught. Your revelation of Cain’s plans has bought your freedom.”

Nolan’s jaw fell open. He didn’t speak.

“That’s right. It is now obvious that you are not part of Cain’s loyal team or even a true warrior of the Human race. At one time you may have considered yourself as such, but not anymore. Your obsession with the wealth of your culture has proven stronger than loyalty and duty. We Nuoreans find such action reprehensible, yet useful in this situation. So go, take your wealth and flee. I find it unimaginable that you can live in peace from this day forward; a Nuorean never could. But you are a Human. I’m sure you will find no difficulty living with your betrayal.”

He waved his hand and two guards hustled Nolan and Turner from the room.

* * *

In the growing heat of early morning on this unnamed world, Josh felt like throwing up. Duncan rushed off toward the ship; Josh followed, his movements numb and rote as he entered the ship and took his position on the bridge.

When he just sat there, staring into his lap, Turner took over and ordered the lift-off. He wanted to get off the planet and out of the system before the Nuoreans could change their minds.

Exhaust smoke billowed up to obscure the forward viewport, causing the ship to rumble and shudder. It took twice as long for the sensation of movement to come to those on the bridge. The ship was incredibly heavy, and they had to reach twenty miles into the sky before activating the gravity drive.

Nolan tried to relate the slower-than-normal lift-off to the fact that they had nine-point-six billion dollars’ worth of various galactic currencies aboard. The thought was supposed to lift his spirits. It didn’t.

First Cain and now the damn Nuoreans. Did everyone see him as the rotten, soulless creature he now envisioned for himself? He firmed his jaw, letting anger replace the feelings of guilt and shame. Screw them! Screw them all! They’re just pissed because they aren’t billionaires—like me and my crew. That’s right…screw them all.

Chapter 17

Adam felt the ground rumble as the Rutledge lifted off. He still had control of the ship—if he wanted. The next few minutes would tell the tale of whether Nolan would do at least his small part in the coming battle. Would he destroy the warehouse…or not?

Fifteen minutes passed before Adam’s anger had fully manifested itself. A starship of the Geoffrey Rutledge class would be nearing the orbit of Jupiter by that time if they were in the Solar System and just left Earth. And still no explosion, no demolished warehouse full of life-stealing bounty treasure.

Moments before he lost contact with the Rutledge, Adam contacted Arieel. His report: No explosion, no disruption on the surface. I’ll soften the target. T-minus ninety-minutes and counting.

* * *

Luckily there weren’t a lot of loose objects in the pilothouse of the luxury starship A.C. Tobias, otherwise Riyad would have broken even more than the few he did. As he scrambled around the small space, looking for more things to throw, his anger only grew stronger. Why the hell aren’t there more things to break in this goddamn place!

Sherri and Copernicus sat on a plush observation couch placed at the rear of the compartment, hoping none of the objects were sent in their direction. They were just as mad and frustrated at Nolan’s betrayal, and at the moment, were living vicariously through Riyad’s manic actions.

For their part, Kaylor and Jym were hiding away in the galley. They knew how volatile Humans could get—and also how their frail bodies wouldn’t stand a chance against an out-of-control Earthling.

“You about done?” Sherri asked when Riyad stopped to huff and puff, having failed to find anything new to throw.

“We needed the Rutledge. It was sitting right there in the middle of the camp. Now we have to sneak up on them. You know how hard it is to sneak up on planet?”

“We can come in on their blind side,” Copernicus Smith offered.

“Three strategically placed ships in orbit and there is no blind side. They’ll see us coming from any direction.”

“All right then,” Coop barked back, “we give up all hope and surrender to the gray aliens instead. Just get it over with.”

Riyad froze in motion. When he moved again, he rushed over to the couch. “That’s a great idea, Coop!”

“Fuck you, smartass.”

“No, I’m serious. Where’s Arieel? We need Arieel up here.” He leaned in closer to Sherri and Copernicus. “Okay, here’s how it’s going to play out…”

* * *

“Do the Humans take us for fools?” asked Master Cadre officer Janvis (784). “They have already tried this ploy on us before.”

“And as far as they know, it worked,” said Qintis. “They have obviously been in communications with their other starship; that is how they know of the wealth it’s carrying. “ The Nuorean leader laughed. “Knowing the morality of the Humans, this new story may even be true. The weak beings apparently will do anything for wealth, including betrayal of their own kind.”

“I cannot believe it, Master Qintis.”

“Then don’t. Prepare for the deception. If it comes, you will be ready. If not, then I say we kill all the Humans, both from Cain’s team and the others. I’m growing tired—and disgusted—with their disloyalty and betrayal, even if it benefits our side.”

“A wise plan, Master. I will prepare the Third Cadre for battle.”

Chapter 18

“We did not request the other members of Cain’s team to be brought to us alive,” said the three-stripe Cadre officer on the view screen. “You will be due the reward when they are dead.”

Lieutenant Aj Chaudhory had been prepped for this response. “That’s true, yet we were told there might be more reward for them alive. Then you can kill them yourselves in the arena. That should be worth a bonus.”

“If you bring them to us alive, that will happen, and without additional reward. Why do you believe you would be due more?”

Chaudhory wasn’t prepared for this. “Because,” he began, “you will have no need for the rest of the money? The bounty is for the killing of the team. Once that’s over, the money will just be…extra. We’ll help take it off your hands.”

“It is not a burden to us. It is simply taking up room in a warehouse.”

The lieutenant didn’t know what else to say. What could he?

Luckily, the Nuorean let him off the hook. “Very well. Approach the planet. You have permission to land, but I will have to check with my superiors as to the disposition of the remaining treasure.”

Aj snapped out of his reverie and beamed. “Thank you! Thank you very much. We’re an hour out. Thank you again!”

The Nuorean frowned, moments before he cut the connection.

* * *

Riyad moved up next to the young officer. “You did great Mister Chaudhory. Prepare for immediate dust-off upon landing.”

“Aye, sir.” The Marine officer straightened up and nodded. Battling aliens was what he was trained for. He was more comfortable with an M-101 assault rifle in his hands than trying to deceive some gray thing over a comm link. He rushed from the room. He had six men with him who had shuttled over from the Rutledge. The other fourteen commandos of the combined Marine and Navy force were still on the jumpship, also preparing for the landing assault. Chaudhory and his men would be those pretending to have Cain’s team in shackles.

Sherri was left alone on the bridge with Riyad. Everyone else was getting ready.

“They’ll have to be pretty gullible to believe this.”

“They just gave us permission to land.”

“Or permission to steer right into a hail of flash cannon bolts.”

Riyad tried to assure her with one of his trademark smiles. It didn’t work, probably because he was having trouble believing it, too. “The Nuoreans love to play games, even when they know it’s all bullshit. They think they can out maneuver their opponent by letting them believe they’re in control. We already know we’re not in control, so that puts us…in control.”

Sherri frowned, and then laughed. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense…to you.”

“It sounded better in my head.”

“Most things do, sweetie. For my part, I’m ready for some action. It’s been far too long since I killed an alien that I’ve almost forgotten how to do it.”

“It’s like riding a bike. A very deadly and bloody bike.”

Sherri smiled. “You sure know how to sweet-talk a lady.” She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. It’s what ex-spouses did on occasion.

* * *

As the Tobias drew closer, Arieel reached out through the ghost program and contacted Adam. He was a little skeptical of the plan, but agreed there was no other way for the two ships to approach the planet without a fleet of Nuorean attack vessels being sent out to greet them. It was one thing being tough-as-nails Humans, capable of defeating nearly any alien in the galaxy. It was another having your spaceship zipped open to the cold death of space. Not much you can do at that point…but die.

Adam had to believe the Nuoreans suspected a set-up, and would be ready to act the moment anything went screwy with the landing or at the first signs of hostility; therefore, he would have to create a distraction.

It’s safe to say Adam Cain was ready for some action. Even under normal circumstances he would feel the same. But now he had a whole menu of mutant superpowers to call upon, he was anxious to start bashing some heads.

There were eight Nuorean ships in orbit, and they watched as the jumpship and the Tobias slipped into the atmosphere. The smaller luxury space yacht made the smoothest landing any of the occupants had ever experienced. That was expected of a ship that cost nearly a billion dollar-credits to build. Adam often wondered what the original owner would think about the name change he’d made, but since the ship had been transferred to Adam’s ownership, he felt he had the right. Besides, he preferred A.C. Tobias over Bezos. It just had a better ring to it and more meaning to Adam.

The ships would be on the surface in two minutes. Adam moved toward the door of his room-slash-cell and tripped the locking mechanism. It was time to go to work.

However, this time when he looked out in the hallway, he was greeted by the smiling face of the Cadre three-striper Crans, along with six armed sentries.

“Are you planning on leaving us?” asked the alien.

Adam smiled back. “Actually, I thought I’d go on a crazed killing spree, starting with the seven of you.”

“You should know, Adam Cain, we are quite prepared for your rumored—”

Adam’s fist came at the alien faster than his vision could register. There was nothing held back, and the force of the hit was enough to smash the three-striper’s head into an unrecognizable pulp. But Adam wasn’t through with him. He took hold of the body and threw it down the hallway, bowling over three of the guards, even as he tore into the other three with a savage whirlwind of fists, elbows and kicks. By the time he moved onto the three on the floor, he had armed himself with one of the alien flash weapons and proceeded to fill the corridor with a blinding series of flash bolts. He scooped up three other flash rifles and slung them over his shoulder.

If there truly were only one hundred of the Third Cadre on the planet, that number was now down to ninety-three.

Adam felt the rumbling of the Tobias and the jumpship landing. He moved down the hallway toward the exit….

Chapter 19

Almost before the smoke cleared, the aft cargo bay doors opened and Lt. Chaudhory led the five prisoners down the ramp of the Tobias, guarded by his six troops and accompanied by an unrestrained Arieel Bol.

A squad of Nuoreans waited for them, all armed to the teeth and weary of the prisoners.

The members of Adam’s team were shackled, and the aliens rushed up and took custody of them and checking their binds. Satisfied, they let the entourage pass and make its way toward the line of metal buildings a hundred yards away.

The Biddle took a few seconds longer to land and when the smoke cleared, a squad of Nuoreans rushed out to the aft cargo door. They had their flash weapons at the ready when the door began to slowly drop down to form a ramp.

But there were no Humans in the open bay.

A UFV JU-12—the jumpship—is a vessel two hundred feet long with two stubby wings to assist with atmosphere landings. And unknown to the Nuoreans standing at the rear of the ship, it also had an emergency escape hatch under the bridge where ten commandos had just exited, armed with M-101’s and grenade launchers. They split into squads of five and made their way along the fuselage toward the aft end.

The Humans and Nuoreans spotted each other at the same time; however, the Humans were ready to initiate the battle. They opened up, cutting down the six Nuoreans before the aliens could get off a single flash bolt.

The squads then joined up again and made a mad dash in the light gravity for the closest building. A hot rush of grey smoke obscured their run, as the Biddle lifted off and made for space. It was met by the Tobias, with both ships tasked with keeping the Nuoreans in orbit occupied and prevented from helping their Nuorean comrades on the surface.

At the first sound of battle, Arieel released the shackle controls on the team. Freed from the restraints, Sherri, Riyad and Copernicus tackled their alien escorts, smashing heads and confiscating weapons. Lt. Chaudhory and his six men sprinted for the row of buildings, producing small handguns from under their civilian clothing. Flash bolts danced around them, and one of the Humans went down from a level one bolt to the head.

The main force of Nuoreans were located at the ends of the ‘S-shaped’ row of seven buildings, which were connected to each other by thirty-foot long half-round tubes, like Quonset huts. The commandos from the Biddle were three building away and hiding in the space between the buildings, while Riyad and his team was in the space between the third and fourth building as counting from the south.

Just then, a brilliant barrage of deadly level-one flash bolts began to slam against the buildings and into five more of the Humans.

“It’s coming from the desert, across the landing field!” shouted one of Choudhury’s men. Riyad looked across the dusty plain and saw a row of Nuoreans appear from a dry wash about three hundred yards away. There were easily fifty of them in the line.

“Where the hell did they come from?” Sherri asked. “Not counting the Cadre in orbit, there should have only been about sixty left on the surface. Counting the other groups shooting at us, that’s over a hundred.”

Arieel had picked up a flash rifle from one of the fallen Nuoreans and was trying to return fire. She was game, but not a very good shot. She used her Gift to contact Adam.

Where are you?

I’m in the second building, to the north. There’s a line of Nuoreans around the first building firing at you. I’ll see if I can take them out.

There are more to the west, coming out of the desert. About fifty of them.

Fifty? Adam thought of the Nuorean leader Qintis. He was probably still on the surface and would have come with support troops of his own. They were also expecting the attack.

Nothing I can do about them now. Let me clear your position to the north.

Adam moved back into the building where he’d been held captive and moved its length to the tunnel connecting it with the first building. He didn’t see any Nuoreans, either in his building or the tunnel. They could all be outside.

He entered the first building in a sprint, his flash rifle leveled, ready for anything he saw. What he wasn’t ready for was the explosion.

The entire building went up in flames, shattering the thin walls and turning the entire structure into a smoldering heap of heat and smoke. Adam was thrown into the air from the concussion, along with hundreds of pieces of jagged metal. He remained conscious, although he didn’t want to. His vision was nothing but smoke and fire. He felt his clothing on fire and smelled the burning of his hair and skin. He landed on the rubble, followed by several heavy sheets of scorching hot metal.

It had to be his mutant brain cells keeping him alive. He had been in the center of the building when it exploded, just as the Nuoreans planned. Now, as he lay nearly crushed by the debris, he began an assessment of his injuries. Nothing appeared to be broken, probably the result of his enhanced strength and durability. But his hair and skin were another matter. He could sense severe burns—second and third degree—over most of his body. Yet surprisingly, he didn’t feel any pain, just a strange tingling sensation.

He lifted the metal panels from atop him and let them slide to his side. There was smoke everywhere, yet he was able to see. It was as if he had a form of x-ray vision, but he knew he didn’t. It was just an acute awareness, thanks to his mutant enhancements.

He looked down as his right arm. The clothing was burned away and his skin blistered and black. It was also changing right before his eyes. The black turned to a raw pink moments later, and the puss-filled blisters dried up. His skin was back to some semblance of normal within thirty seconds, even though the hair on his arm was gone. He felt his head; he was bald.

He took a deep breath and felt a surge of energy flow through his body. He had survived the explosion with little consequence. He figured that would come as a surprise to the Nuoreans.

His weapons were gone, as were most of his clothes. His shoes were still on his feet but his shirt was gone. His belt had managed to hold his pants in place, although both pant legs had burned away almost up to his crotch. He felt around. Everything else down there seemed to be intact.

He picked up a four-foot-square piece of metal, intending to use it as a shield. It came in handy ten seconds later, as he climbed over the crest of the debris pile and into the view of the Nuoreans. Adam held up the shield in a savage show of defiance. His exposed bare-chest and rippled six-pack, all covered in soot and sweat, only added to the exhibition. He raced toward the line of aliens before any of them got over the shock.

He hit the line like a fullback, swinging the metal shield from side to side. Four Nuoreans went down before the flash bolts came in. He was hit by two of them, but they barely slowed him down. He held the shield up and deflected two more energy balls, before he tossed the sharp metal sheet like a Frisbee. It spun through the air before slicing through two of the enemy.

Adam relieved a dead alien of his weapon and began to open up. There had been about twenty Nuoreans at the start of his attack. Three now ran off into the desert. The Nuoreans weren’t cowards, but they did subscribe to the axiom of ‘live-to-fight-another-day.’

Adam contacted Arieel.

Don’t go in the buildings! he commanded. They could be rigged to explode.

Are you all right? Were you close to the explosion?

A little, but I’m okay. The Nuorean force to the north has been neutralized.

The ones in the desert are closing in.

Can you get through the connecting tunnels and to the other side of the buildings?

Not without breaking through. Why?

See if you can get to the large building across the parade field. Can you see it?

No. Let me talk to Riyad.

* * *

Riyad listened to Arieel’s report. His team was between two of the main buildings, their backs against the metal thirty-foot long connecting tunnel. He was just about to lead the team through a doorway in the side of south building. Now he told them to hold off.

He banged the metal of the tunnel with his elbow. Then he got an idea.

He pulled out one of the four small laser weapons he had tucked in his waistband. He was saving them for the Nuoreans; he really loved what the thousand-degree beams did to flesh, even if the duration was for only two seconds. Now he had a new purpose for the tiny weapons.

He stepped back and activated the pencil-shaped device. A red beam appeared, terminating at the wall to the connecting tunnel. He had to work fast, cutting first up then over. He got half the job done before the battery gave out. The second laser did the trick. He kicked on the metal and it fell inward.

“Everyone inside.”

A moment later, he was cutting an exit hole on the other side of the tunnel.

When he poked his head through, it was greeted by a series of bolt splashes from the aliens at the south end of the row of buildings. Answering bolts came from the north. Riyad saw Adam crouched down in a pile of debris from the fallen building. His cover fire was helping, but it wasn’t enough to clear the way to the warehouse.

Suddenly, rounds from M-101 were added to the mix. The six remaining commandos from the Biddle had made their way around to building number one and were climbing over the rubble pile, shooting across the parade field at the aliens south of Riyad’s position. The fifty or so Nuoreans from the desert were at the buildings now, and pouring hot plasma bolts through the hole Riyad had made in the connecting tunnel. The team couldn’t stay here. They had to make a break for the warehouse.

Riyad reached down and took Jym by the straps of his armor vest. Coop and Sherri took Kaylor by the arms, and the three remaining Humans with Lt. Chaudhory delighted in grabbing hold of Arieel anywhere they could.

Everyone raced off for the huge building fifty yards away.

* * *

When Adam saw Riyad break for the warehouse, he stood up and charged forward, closing the gap between him and the Nuoreans to the south with an unbelievable display of raw speed. He zigged and zagged, avoiding bolt streaks with ease. The commandos behind him cut for the warehouse as well, while Adam drew frantic fire of the aliens.

Two more commandos were lost, but the rest of them made it to the building. Once inside, Adam slammed the door shut, and then with sheer strength, pulled one of the forklift-like vehicles over in front it.

“Blast firing holes in the walls to the west and south!” he yelled. His orders were obeyed, but only after a brief moment was taken to gawk at the still impressive pile of treasure in the center of the room.

“Is this the bounty?” one of the Marines asked.

“Yeah, and you’ll be buried in it if you don’t move your ass!” Adam barked.

The team moved to the indicated walls. Concentrated fire from the M-101’s opened up ten-inch diameter holes where barrels were thrust through, and the battle continued. The Marines and sailors were incredible shots, a lot better than the aliens. The Nuoreans specialized in ritualized arena combat called Sandica. They weren’t very good with rifles and hand guns.

But the Nuoreans did have one advantage: there were a lot more of them than there was of Adam’s team. He was down to his original six team members, plus seven remaining Humans commandos. The Nuorean force from the desert was still fully intact, and adding their numbers to the twenty or so remaining aliens from the buildings, placed the odds at seventy against thirteen—and Adam’s team was trapped inside a building, a building which could be easily destroyed by a cannon bolt from orbit.

He thought about his two starships that had streaked for space. They were going up against as many as fifteen or so Nuorean fighters. The loss of Nolan’s men and his ship was really having an impact. If they were here, it might have been just what it took to turn the tide of battle. As it was, Adam wasn’t feeling too confident right about now.

Chapter 20

The Biddle and Tobias reached orbit without an issue, but now they were inside a beehive of tiny two-man Nuorean fighters coming at them from every imaginable direction. The shields were holding, and slowly but surely, the pesky little starships were being taken out of commission.

Lt. Darrin Drake was in the pilotseat of the Tobias, with Sergeant Larry Bond and Petty Officer Gregory Collins at other stations inside the plush pilothouse. They were each skilled commandos, but at the moment, they didn’t have a clue what to do next. Fortunately, they didn’t have to know. It seems that in a billion-dollar luxury starship with all the bells and whistles, the owner wasn’t expected to concern himself with such mundane activities as defense of the ship. Artificial Intelligence, along with some of the fastest, most-advanced computer systems in the galaxy, did that for him. All the three-man crew had to do was strap-in and hold on.

The Biddle was another issue. The jumpship was built for speed, not for heavy combat. Its shields were adequate, but nothing special, and the four banks of flash cannon were slow to recharge. Major Ryan Drummond was in command, and it was all he could do to keep the ship moving and dodging the incoming bolts. His fire crew had taken out two of the fast and heavily-armed Nuorean fighters, but he was also aware that the over-the-top A.C. Tobias had splashed four—and it wasn’t even a military vessel.

“Major, we need to protect our port flank. The shield is just about at capacity.”

Ryan twisted the ship around in an attempt to bring the Biddle more head-on to the attackers. The maneuvering gravity well would suck up most of the bolts coming straight on. The enemy would then try to get behind them or come from the sides.

Although flash cannon bolts were ballistic in nature, they were still influenced by the various gravity singularities in the area. It was possible for bolts launched from behind or the side to be caught in the well’s pull, essentially steering the deadly balls of plasma right up the ass of a starship. The trick was sending the bolts out at the right angle. And the damn Nuoreans seemed to have that part down pretty well.

Ryan was constantly changing course and even killing the gravity-well at times to keep the bolts from following them through space. His head was spinning as the compensators were a split second too slow in overcoming the inertia created by some of his radical maneuvers.

Over all, it sucked being engaged in the space battle. Ryan and his men were surface soldiers, not spacers. They were doing the best they could, but it may not be enough.

The Tobias suddenly swept into view, something that was dangerously close in space distances. A quick series of small plasma bolts streaked out from the nose of the ship and scorched the ass of a vectoring Nuorean fighter. The alien ship exploded before it could unleash a near-point blank shot on the Biddle.

“Thanks, Mister Drake…I owe you one.” Ryan said over the comm.

“Teamwork, buddy. You’d do the same for me.”

Ryan snickered. “Yeah, looks like I picked the wrong ship to command. What are you guys doing over there, sipping tea and eating buttered pastries, while the rest of us do all the real work?”

“Hey, it’s tough duty, but someone has to do it. Honestly, Ryan, it’s pretty weird sitting here letting a computer do all the fighting. Makes me nervous as hell.”

“Understood. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get back to…surviving.”

“Good luck with that.”

Just as Ryan cut the link he felt a deep rumbling throughout the ship. He turned to his damage control officer.

“We lost the aft shield,” reported the E-6. “Took a bolt in the launch bay. Pressure holding…for now.”

“More incoming, sir,” the scanner operator reported. “They’re smelling blood.”

Ryan was the helmsman aboard the ship, gripping the control stick and essentially learning as he went along. He pulled the stick over hard to his left and applied a deep gravity-well. The ship entered the event horizon and disappeared from the battlefield for a moment. He spun the ship around and jumped back in, this time about two million miles from the Tobias and the main conflict. He wasn’t about to leave his friend to face the enemy alone.

That’s when the generator gave a dying surge and fell silent. The maneuvering well evaporated and the ship lost internal gravity.

“Shit! Where are the Nuoreans?” he yelled out across the bridge.

“Closing.”

Ryan activated the chemical jets, which was like using a water pistol to fight a four-alarm blaze. It didn’t do much. He could maybe get to a hundred thousand miles per hour, while the aliens were coming at him at three-quarters the speed of light.

“There’s an asteroid field bearing one-one-zero, sir,” reported the young sailor at the nav computer. “We might make it in time before the Nuoreans get here.”

“Thank you very much, Mister Easterly. Steering one-one-zero, up three.”

The Nuoreans would have to slow down to follow them into the asteroid field. Coming in with gravity-wells intact would pull into too much deadly debris to make for a safe passage. Ryan just might have a chance.

Three of the tiny fighters were closing fast. They would be upon them in less than thirty seconds.

“New contact, bearing three-two-nine! It’s…it’s one of ours.”

“The Tobias?”

“No sir…it’s the—”

“Good morning, Mister Drummond,” said the voice of LtCol. Joshua Nolan. “Thanks for leading the enemy to us. We’ll take it from here.”

The Rutledge came out of the asteroid field on chemical power before cutting in the gravity drive for a shallow maneuvering well. The Rutledge was smaller than the jumpship, but it wasn’t damaged and its flash cannon batteries were fully charged. A few seconds later, the Nuoreans crashed into a wall of flaring energy bolts that incinerated the three vessels in distant puffs of light.

Ryan turned the Biddle and slid in next to the small escort vessel.

“I thought you bugged out on us, sir,” Lt. Ryan Drummond said, rather sarcastically.

“Yeah, sorry about that. We’ve had a change of heart. Seems we’ve been shamed into doing the right thing.”

“What about the money?”

“We just got through stashing a large portion of it on one of the rocks out here to lighten the ship—”

“That’s not what I meant, sir.”

Nolan laughed. “We’re going to share it among all the crews. We’re a team after all, right?”

“That’s what I thought. Just glad to have you back, Colonel.”

Nolan was offline for a moment before returning. “Looks like most of the Nuorean fighters are out of the fight. The Tobias sure is a vicious little ship. It looks like she’s bolted back to the planet.”

“What next, sir? We’re pretty banged up. It would take us years to reach the planet on chem drive.”

“Find a large rock in the asteroid field and lay low. We’ll come back for you later.”

“Yessir. What are you going to do?”

“I’m heading back to the planet; I owe Captain Cain a favor.”

“A favor?”

“Yeah, I’m going to destroy the warehouse where the bounty money is kept. It’s what he wanted me to do—”

“Sir, a new contact!” shouted the nav officer on the Biddle.

Ryan thought the remaining fighters had bugged out, heading for the outer fringes of the system. There couldn’t be more than a couple left.

“Wait one, Colonel. We have a new contact.”

“We’re seeing it too. Damn!”

“Sir?” Ryan didn’t understand Nolan’s reaction until he moved to the nav computer and took a look at the contact.

“Is that a battle-carrier?” he asked the petty officer at the station. He already knew the answer.

“Affirmative sir, all three miles of the freaking thing.” The man leaned in closer to his screen. “And it just gave birth to a hundred new contacts, designated mid-size attack vessels, crew of ten, cannon batteries, nine. They’re coming this way.”

Ryan slipped into the pilotseat. “Colonel, you gotta go. We can’t outrun them.”

“Get into the asteroid field. They probably won’t spend too much time looking for a wounded ship in there. We’ll make for the planet and get Captain Cain. “

“Sir, we could guard the money for you…if you tell us where it is.”

“Good try, Major. But if you don’t know where it is you can’t lead the Nuoreans there. We’ll come back for it when all this is done. Nolan out.”

Chapter 21

The thing about hand-held flash weapons is that they consist mostly of heat and electricity. As such, they’re very effective against living creatures, but not so much against metal barricades. The Nuoreans were aware of this drawback and when Adam and his team took shelter inside the warehouse, they switched to small caliber ballistic weapons.

These guns didn’t have the impact of an M-101 round, but they did have enough penetrating power to perforate the thin metal walls of the warehouse. Copernicus took a hit to the shoulder. With Sherri’s help, he wrapped a shirt from one of the fallen commandos around the wound and secured it with a utility belt strapped over his shoulder and under his armpit. Then he returned to his firing hole and continued the battle.

In the meantime, Kaylor and Jym were driving the other three forklifts to the firing positions. The shooters positioned themselves within the super structure of the vehicles, which provided some cover from the shots coming through the walls. With each new hole created, a ray of light entered the warehouse and struck the huge pile of shiny, precious objects. Golden light danced throughout the room.

Adam knew they had to get out of the building; the Nuoreans wouldn’t let them stay here for long before lobbing explosives their way. They’d blown up a building earlier in the fight, so they had the explosives. Some may be placed in the other buildings, which could be repurposed to take out the warehouse. It was only a matter of time.

Throughout the battle, Adam kept testing his ATD to see if he could make contact with his ships fighting the Nuoreans in space. He was in serious need of an emergency evac. But so far, neither of the ships was within the half million mile range of his ATD. Hell, they may have been destroyed for all he knew. In that case, Adam’s luck was rapidly running out on this nameless world in the middle of nowhere.

As was expected after having such a moribund thought, Adam sensed a familiar presence in his mind. It grew stronger, and soon he recognized the ghost program within the Tobias’ computer system.

He channeled his thoughts though the ship’s comm system.

“Tobias, come in!”

Captain Cain, glad to hear you, sir. What’s your status?

“Shaky. We need immediate evac. Where are you, Darrin?”

Closing on the planet. ETA five minutes.

Adam gnashed his teeth. He hoped they would last another five minutes.

Sir, I have other news.

“What’s that?”

There’s a Nuorean battle-carrier at the edge of the system and it just sent out a hundred fighters our way. They’re about fifteen minutes behind us. Oh…and Colonel Nolan is back. He and his crew had a change of heart. He’s coming in behind me.

Adam fell back against the stack of priceless objects. The Nuorean leader Qintis must have brought the massive battleship here. The aliens had been expecting a breakout all along. This was part of their plan all along.

And now Nolan—that fucker—was back. Good. He could use the help. Then Adam amended his thought. For what? What could Nolan—or any of them for that matter—do against a Nuorean battle-carrier?

“And the Biddle?”

Taking refuge in an asteroid field. It was damaged in the initial fight and now’s only on chem drive.

The Tobias was the smallest and fastest ship in Adam’s tiny fleet. It would reach the planet first.

“Mister Drake, bring the Tobias down on the east side of the large building beyond the row of smaller ones. It’s the only one of its kind. We’ll evac from there. Have the Biddle provide cover.”

Yessir. But Mr. Nolan said he has a favor to do for you first.

“What’s that?”

He said he’s going to destroy the warehouse building, whatever that is?

Adam jumped to his feet. “No! Belay that Mister Drake. Relay the message to the Rutledge. Do not fire on the warehouse!”

Sir?

“We’re in the warehouse!”

* * *

The others in the warehouse heard Adam yelling to himself. They knew it wasn’t some psychotic breakdown. There was a problem.

Riyad looked away from his firing hole. “What’s up?”

Adam looked around the room until his eyes fell upon the forklift he’d placed across the main door to the building. He ran for it.

Just then something hit the roof of the warehouse and clattered a few times before coming to a rest.

“Take cover!” Adam yelled.

No one had time to do more than cover their heads with their arms before the explosive blew a twenty-yard wide hole in middle of the roof. Metal debris rained down on them, but since the area of the room directly below the explosion was filled with a huge pile of treasure, no one was seriously hurt. However, the next grenade would reach the interior of the building.

Adam gunned the forklift and made for the eastern wall of the warehouse. He pushed the clunky electric vehicle for all it was worth before dropping his head and barreling into the wall. The thin metal gave way, ripping an opening large enough for the machine to plow through. The narrow, four-wheeled vehicle carried enough momentum with it to race onto the rocky soil before it began to wobble. Adam jumped before the forklift toppled over. He rolled once, came up on his feet and rushed back into the building.

Seconds later the area outside the warehouse was bathed in an incredibly hot blast of fire and smoke. The interior of the warehouse filled with the acrid cloud, growing in density within the confines of the building until it was almost impossible to see.

“Over here, everyone out. Go! Go! Go!”

Everyone made for the rip in the wall, abandoning firing holes but taking their weapons with them. Adam sat with his back against the inner wall next to the opening, counting people as they rushed past. Riyad was the last in line. Adam saw him grab a double-handled gold canteen-like thing from the pile before rushing to the opening.

Adam frowned.

“It’ll look good over my fireplace,” Riyad explained.

He rushed past Adam, who leaned into the opening and yelled. “You don’t have a fireplace, dickhead!”

“With this, I can buy one!”

Adam was behind him and through the open rear bay doors of the Tobias a moment later. Lt. Drake had landed the ship a little closer to the warehouse than Adam expected. Of course, the sailor may not have been expecting Adam to have already knocked a hole in the wall. Either way, he was grateful when the ship began to lift off almost as soon as his foot hit the landing ramp.

“Hold on!” cried out.

The ramp was going up, but so was the ship. The Tobias belched out another torrent of gas and flame and angled for the sky. Those in the cargo bay grabbed for whatever they could to keep from falling out the back. Adam kicked out and took hold of the leg of a packing bench, his body sprawled out and his legs dangling in the air toward the rear of the ship.

The door was only half closed when Arieel flew past him. With his quickened reactions Adam reached out and grabbed her long, black hair with his free hand. She screamed from the pain before her hands managed to reach up and grasp his wrist. It lightened the pressure on her follicles, but not much. He continued to hold on until the door closed completely and the internal gravity kicked on. Both bodies fell hard to the metal deck.

“That really hurt!”

“Not as much as a long fall to the surface.”

“Maybe, but I will never have the opportunity to compare that to the pain I did experience.”

Anger flared up in him, until he caught sight of Arieel’s heart-melting smile.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

He looked around the landing bay. There wasn’t much left of Adam’s powerful assault force, and most of those were weary and worn, with half suffering injuries of some kind.

Sherri walked over to where Adam sat on the deck. She took the index finger of her right hand and rubbed in along the bare skin of his chest before placing it to her tongue.

“Yum,” she said with smiling eyes. “I love a man who just had most of his clothes blown off. And I kinda like the bald look.”

Adam had forgotten about that. Now he was embarrassed, sitting in full view of his team in a pair of scorched short-shorts and not much else. He felt a change of subject was in order.

“There’s a Nuorean battle-carrier in the system—you know, one of those big three-mile long bitches. There’re also a hundred fighters bolting this way. Everyone find someplace to strap down. Kaylor, Jym, to the bridge with me. We may need some fancy flying to get us out of this mess.”

“So that was the frying pan?” Sherri inquired, pointing toward the deck and the planet below. “And now we’re in the fire?”

Adam smiled, his teeth exceptionally brilliant against his soot-stained face. “I know how easily bored you get.”

Sherri pursed her lips and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for keeping my feelings in mind. That’s all I ever wanted.”

Adam and his alien friends left the cargo bay in a sprint. They weren’t out of the fire yet.

Chapter 22

Lt. Drake was more than willing to give up his seat to Kaylor. The Belsonian was the best pilot onboard, with the possible exception of Adam when he was under the influence of his mutant brain cells.

Jym took over the nav station while Adam found a third work console that didn’t carry a designation. He asked the computer to give him weapons control and a sexy voice in English confirmed his request. He knew the ship could be guided by voice command if he wanted. At this point he trusted his abilities more than the computer’s.

“This ship is incredible,” Lt. Drake commented, his voice dripping with admiration. “We hardly had to do anything.”

“Glad to hear it,” Adam said. “But now we have a hundred enemy vessels closing on us. Not sure if the program can handle that.”

“I am fully capable of repelling a force of that strength,” an indignant voice came through the speakers.

“We’re not here to repel boarders, but to get the hell out of here.” He couldn’t believe he was arguing with a computer.

“Get me Colonel Nolan on the line,” he ordered the computer.

A split second later Nolan’s voice came over the speakers. “Captain Cain, let me begin by saying I and my crew are willing to suffer whatever consequences you deem appropriate regarding our prior acts. They were insubordinate and illegal as far as I’m concerned—”

“You are aware of the shit we’re in, aren’t you, Colonel? There will be time enough for repercussions if we live through this.”

“Yessir.”

“Where are you?”

“About a thousand klicks on your six. What are your orders?”

“We have to exit the system as soon as possible. Are all your systems functioning?”

“They are.”

“Good, follow me. Kaylor, best track away from the Nuoreans.”

“Coming to one-eight-zero, up forty.”

“There is something out there,” Jym said from the nav screen. Everyone froze.

“What is it?” Adam finally asked when the little bear didn’t volunteer further details.

“I…I do not know.”

Reluctantly, Adam asked the computer for an analysis.

“Unknown gravity signature. I am displaying it on the main screen.”

It was two dots of light against the black background of space. The contacts were representations of the energy readout and not actual lights in space. Still, they were strange. The dots appeared to be circling each other, but not in a spiral. As they spun in closer, they would speed up and then fly away, only to slow and return again. The dance formed an infinity shape of light.

Everyone on the bridge was mesmerized by the almost hypnotic pattern. And then the stars disappeared.

“What the hell?” Adam said in a whisper.

“It’s a ship, Adam,” Jym reported.

He had to take the alien’s word for it, because it was like no ship he’d ever seen. It was made of a black matte material that refused to reflect the starlight around it. It was also incredibly huge.

“Computer, reduce magnification.”

“There is no magnification. This is a live view.”

“Kaylor, watch out!”

The Belsonian pulled back on the stick, racing up along the long fuselage.

“Distance to target, twenty miles,” Jym reported. “The ship is over six miles long.”

“Something new from the Nuoreans?” Lt. Drake asked.

“They do like to make their ships big,” Adam responded.

Lights began to flicker, along with controls and monitor screens.

“What’s happening,” Adam asked the bridge.

“We’ve contacted…a diffusion shield,” Jym replied, astonishment in his voice.

“This far out? It can’t be.”

“Yet it is. The shield is drawing away our power. We—”

Jym didn’t have to say anything else. The ship went dark and dead in the water.

Diffusion shields absorb energy from flash bolts and then bleed the electricity back into space. Having come in contact with such a screen, all active energy aboard the Tobias was drained from the ship.

“We’re twenty miles from the surface of the black ship. DS’s can’t be created that far out,” Adam protested.

“Unless they can,” said Jym, ending the debate.

With a dead ship, they lost internal gravity, compensating fields and life support. The tiny luxury yacht began to bounce along the invisible energy field, with every jolt felt aboard the ship. The monstrous ship was moving through space, and eventually the Tobias came to the end. It drifted off in space behind the dark vessel, as the crew stared out the viewport at the largest set of gravity generators they’d ever seen. They towered five hundred feet high, and there were six of them. They would have to be big to move something this large—and they were.

A few seconds later all they could see of the black ship was the cloaking of stars as it made its passage through space.

Systems began to come back on as battery backups kicked on. It would still take several seconds for full power to be restored.

Sherri and Riyad had made it to the bridge, beginning their journey in the dark before the lights came back on.

“What the hell is that?” Sherri could see the black object transiting the starfield.

“Some new super weapon from the Nuoreans,” Adam answered.

“Then why didn’t they fire on us?”

“Too small of a target possibly.”

Adam used his ATD to try to contact Nolan’s ship. The CW comm was still down. If the Rutledge had contacted the diffusion screen as well, they would need time for their systems to recover. He couldn’t detect a signal of any kind. If the computers were down, his ghost program would also be out of order.

“I have intermittent nav scans available,” Jym reported. “The Nuorean fleet is turning toward the black ship. Adam…they appear to be in attack mode.”

“Against their own ship?”

“Obviously, it’s not one of theirs,” Riyad pointed out. “And if not, then who the hell are they?”

The ship’s computer felt Adam and the rest of the crew would like to watch the battle taking place outside the ship, so she placed a magnified view on the main screen for all to see.

The Nuoreans were engaging, sending dozens and then hundreds of powerful cannon bolts at the black ship. The unknown craft didn’t deviate from its course. Instead, something very strange was taking place.

As the roiling balls of plasma contacted the impossibly distant diffusion shield, they were absorbed by the screen. This was expected. What happened next wasn’t.

Chapter 23

The huge, black starship appeared on the Nuorean threat screens from inside a strange, double event horizon.

The techs had never seen such a gravity signature before. It was like two deep voids in space, close to one another, and causing a confined rippling effect on the surrounding space that effectively cancelled out ninety percent of the gravity wave. Something this large and powerful should have had a more widespread influence, but this one didn’t. And what made this particular gravity well even more unique was the fact that it was created by a spaceship over six miles long.

The generators required to create singularities deep enough to transport such a large vessel would have to be enormous, and from the look of the ship, they were. But the reduced signature meant the mighty warship could slip into an area with very little warning and be upon its prey before anyone knew it was coming.

Such as it had just done to the Nuoreans.

First-Lead Axn Kallen-Noc (1203) was called to the combat center aboard the battle-carrier 9 to watch the transit of the dark spaceship through the system. He immediately attempted contact with Master-Lead Qintis on the surface of the Third Cadre refuge planet. He knew a battle was taking place there and wasn’t sure if contact was possible at this time. That’s what his ship was there to guarantee—that the contest would result in a Nuorean victory.

The introduction of this behemoth into the battle changed all his assumptions.

His curiosity concerning the huge starship grew more pronounced when scouts reported that there were no trailing support vessels, just the massive ship, alone and on a direct course for the 9. As a master player, Axn understood game strategy. He knew an enemy wouldn’t intentionally breach an adversary’s stronghold unless they had a reasonable expectation of victory. Besides, a vessel of this size—the largest Axn had ever seen—constituted a major investment of workforce, technology and material. The forces of the Kac would not risk such an investment on an unsure gambit.

Therefore, Axn recalled two-thirds of his attack force, leaving only a third to engage the huge ship. He had another two hundred ships in reserve, but he wasn’t willing to commit them until he knew what he was up against. At the same time, he informed his other three support ships that they would be leaving the area. Once the strike force reported back, he could always amend those orders.

In the command center, Axn took control of the attack. “Probing at first,” he said. “Feel them out.”

A series of confirmations came to the bridge of the battlecruiser.

A moment later, Axn leaned over in his chair. He didn’t do it to see better, but rather from the unexpected nature of what he saw on the viewscreen.

The first of his ships opened fire on the black ship, the balls of hot plasma racing toward the impossible-to-miss spacecraft. Diffusion screens flared an iridescent blue—as was expected. What wasn’t expected was the distance at which the bolts contacted the screen. It was almost ten times farther out than normal screens would be placed. Not only that, but Axn noticed a faint double glow closer in as residual energy bled to other screens.

The alien ship had three distinct diffusion shields, one stacked upon the other.

Axn had never seen this before; in fact, he had no idea how this could be done. Yet it was possible, as his eyes testified.

His concern grew deeper. The diffusion shield—which was designed to absorb the energy from plasma bolts and bleed it back into space—was still glowing, up to the point that the blue light moved laterally away from the center of the ship before arcing back like a miniature stellar flare to connect with the forward and aft sections of the black ship. As this was happening, the second diffusion screen began to glow strong and bright. Axn knew instantly that the energy from the plasma bolts was being rechanneled to the secondary screen, and as his ships fed more bolts into the outer screen, the inner screens would only grow stronger.

“Stop firing,” he ordered through the comm. All they were doing was making the defenses of the black starship more formidable.

He also noticed something else. Whereas most diffusion screens were essentially flat panels of energy, positioned to protect the most-vulnerable sections of the ship, the glow from the alien screens extended in a contiguous fashion around the entire vessel. There were no breaks, no openings where precise bolts could possibly slip through. In its current configuration, the alien ship was impervious to attack.

“Advanced force, break off attack. Return to fleet. Third Squad, proceed to surface of planet to evacuate Master-Lead Qintis.”

On the screen, Axn watched as six ships broke away from the main force and took a different vector. The remaining twenty-seven ships in his attack force began evasive maneuvers, changing course and taking four distinct paths out of the system to meet up with the 9 in the space between systems.

So far, the black ship hadn’t made any offensive moves; they didn’t need to.

Just then ten thin energy signatures appeared from the ship. They were extremely powerful and continuous. Axn turned to his tac officer.

“Analysis?”

“Forthcoming,” said the First-Level Lead-Tech. “Laser beams, my lord,” he reported a moment later.

Axn looked back at the screen. Several more lines of light were flashing out in a myriad of directions, tracking his departing attack squadron. Nineteen of his ships went offline.

“Execute emergency evasion,” he ordered, but he already knew it was too late.

Axn shook his head, confused by this new wrinkle in the game he and his people were playing with the inhabitants of the Kac Galaxy. Lasers were seldom used in space combat, for the simple fact that to create beams of the proper intensity required more energy than could be produced within a starship. Even battlecruisers like the 9 lacked the capacity. The preferred weapon of space combat was the ubiquitous flash cannon, which fired concentrated balls of plasma shot out using railgun technology. They could travel at three-quarters light and were ballistic in nature. This may sound impressive, but for starships in maneuvering gravity-wells, even this was considered slow. So barrages of leading bolts were sent out, predicting the course of the enemy vessel and flooding space with their deadly presence, hoping to catch the influence of an enemy gravity-well.

Lasers were a different matter. The star-hot beams could travel at near the speed of light and be adjusted to track the movement of a starship. And that’s just what the black ship was doing. Within a minute, his attack force was gone.

Axn leaned back in his chair and summarized the brief encounter. Besides the impenetrable screen around the ship, the aliens also had a weapon system with incredible range and power. He sighed. The enemy could have destroyed his ships long before they got within firing range. Instead, they were allowed to approach, either to demonstrate the black ship’s invincibility, or to test their systems. Either way, it confirmed his earlier belief: The aliens knew they would win even before the first bolt was launched. He had been wise to order the retreat.

An hour later, the 9 was in open space between systems. Axn ordered the three major ships in his fleet to enter deep gravity-wells and bolt toward the six worlds that constituted Nuorean space. He was confident the black ship wouldn’t follow; they didn’t need to. The Nuorean systems within the Kac were well-known, even sanctioned.

This had been a test—a very successful test—of the enemy’s new super-weapon.

At that moment, Axn (1203) was glad he wasn’t the leader of the Nuorean forces in the Kac—that honor fell to Master Lead-Player Qintis Bondo (454), who by then had been rescued from the Third Cadre planet. That rescue still made Axn third-lead, instead of second. Even then, he would eventually be called upon to help devise a response to the black ship, and at the moment he was at a loss as to even speculate a solution. And if one couldn’t be found, then the Nuorean’s time in the Kac—what the evil Humans called the Milky Way—was quickly coming to an end.

Chapter 24

Eventually communications were reestablished between all three ships in Adam’s fleet. Neither the Tobias nor the Rutledge was in any condition to come to the aid of the Biddle, which was still hiding in the asteroid field near the edge of the system. Even if they were, there was still the matter of the huge black starship prowling the system.

When the Nuoreans bolted for their sanctuary worlds, the alien spacecraft made a long, looping turn and headed back toward the Tobias and the Rutledge. Gravity drive focusing rings were still charging aboard the ships, so all the crews could do was watch and wait with nervous anticipation for what was going to happen next. They’d seen the powerful laser beams take out a third of the Nuorean attack force, as well as the glowing triple set of diffusion screens. The Nuoreans broke off their attack almost as soon as it began, realizing the futility of their actions. And they had a hundred fighters plus a battle-carrier.

What could Adam’s two barely-serviceable starships do against that?

The fact that both Human ships were still in one piece gave some aboard a smidgeon of hope. After all, didn’t the saying go: ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend?’ Adam was hoping they’d just found a new and extremely powerful friend.

There was another fact that gave him hope. As the black ship changed course and approached Adam’s two ships, he detected countless systems aboard the ship of Formilian—or at least Milky Way—design. Since so much of Formilian technology had been pirated by now, nearly everything built in the galaxy was compatible to his ATD. This meant the huge ship was of local design, and not from some distant galaxy or another dimension. Adam had already been there and done that; he wasn’t looking forward to a replay.

Fortunately—possibly—his questions would be answered soon. The Tobias was being pulled into an incredibly huge landing bay by magnetic grapples. So far the Rutledge wasn’t being towed in. Nolan kept his ship in near-dark status, hoping the mysterious behemoth would ignore him. As the Tobias disappeared into the belly of the beast, he got his wish—sort of.

The black ship created a deep gravity-well, with the same narrow configuration as when they first detected the vessel. Then it popped out of normal space and entered the fringe of an event horizon, leaving conventional physics behind.

What it didn’t leave behind was the Rutledge. The tiny ship came under the influence of the deep gravity-well and was taken along for the ride…wherever that may lead.

* * *

To Adam’s surprise, the landing bay of the huge ship was empty of any other starships or shuttles. It was large enough to carry hundreds, and as they witnessed from outside, this was only one of six such bays. Now the Tobias sat small and insignificant in the center of the cavernous chamber.

Once the room was sealed and atmosphere returned, Adam had to wait another fifteen minutes for the temperature to climb to a comfortable level; it took a lot to heat such a large room, especially one that had recently been open to the chill of space. He went to the main exit hatch and looked back at the anxious faces of his team and crew.

“No use putting it off. These guys are our new allies. And seeing what they did to the Nuoreans, I think we need to be gracious guests.”

The concerned looks on the faces indicated his little pep talk didn’t have the desired effect. So he turned and undogged the hatch, before stepping out into the warm and slightly humid chamber.

Although there was only one starship in the landing bay, it wasn’t truly empty. Along three walls were stacked hundreds—if not thousands—of metal boxes, each about four feet square. Their surfaces were uniform and carried no labels or markings of any kind. They were stacked to the ceiling, and from an angle, Adam could see there were twenty rows extending out from the walls.

Without closer examination he was at a loss as to what the boxes contained. If they were food stocks, then there was enough to support the population of a small city for ten years or more. Weapons, possibly, but what kind? The black ship used lasers against the Nuoreans. Besides, there could be a couple hundred thousand of the crates aboard holding over a million weapons. Where were the soldiers who would use them? Even a ship this big couldn’t carry that many troops.

The rest of the Tobias contingent joined him on the latticed deck, silently gawking at the sheer size of the room and the vast number of stacked crates. Adam could see through the glass panel into the control room for the landing bay. There was no one up there looking down at his motley crew. In fact, the whole place was as quiet as a tomb, without even the ubiquitous hum of the gravity generators. Was this a fully-robotic ship, with no living crew aboard? If so, then why build it so big?

“Please proceed to the second airlock door on your right,” a voice directed them from hidden speakers. It could have been a computer speaking; one couldn’t tell these days.

“Are you automated?” Adam asked as the entourage approached the door.

The panel slid aside.

“I assure you, Adam Cain, I am quite real.”

He was also a Klin.

Chapter 25

In another time, Adam would have shot first and asked questions later. But with his new mutant powers, he didn’t feel compelled to act so impulsively. Sherri, however, wasn’t so conflicted. It took a sudden surge of his lightning-quick reactions to grab her hand before she could level the MK-47 at the alien. Adam would have liked nothing more than to see another dead Klin at the moment, but now he needed answers.

“Cool it, Sherri.” Adam growled.

She wasn’t having any of it. She struggled against his firm grip to free the weapon. “What are you doing? It’s a fucking Klin!”

“I know, and he saved our life. Don’t you want to know why?”

“So he can kill us himself, isn’t that obvious?”

“To the contrary, Ms. Valentine. I only wish for a constructive dialogue,” said the seven-foot tall alien with pure white hair and silver skin.

“And then you’ll kill us.”

“Possibly, but are you not at least a little curious what we Klin have been up to for the past several years? I am willing to be quite open with you.”

“Because you’re going to kill us afterwards.”

The shiny alien smiled.

Adam didn’t like that at all. Not one little bit.

* * *

“Please step into the foyer…all of you.”

The Klin stepped aside to allow the seven members of Adam’s team plus the four commandos to enter a spacious area beyond the airlock.

A boxy robot on double tracks moved up next to the Klin. It wasn’t your super-sleek automaton, designed to look like a Prime with a head, eyes, arms and legs. Instead it was rather gaudy, with a box-shaped torso and a series of attachments, gripping tools and obvious weapons placed haphazardly on the skin of the machine. There was a small round dome on top made of a dark glass-like material. Adam could see a rod spinning on an axis inside.

The Klin placed a slender, silver hand on the dome atop the five-foot-tall robot.

“Before we proceed, let me introduce you to the AN-9 automated assault module. I do this to inform you of the futility of direct action against me or any of the systems aboard the ship. Every eventuality has been considered, otherwise I would not have brought you aboard the ship.”

The Klin looked with pride at the robot. “The AN-9 is the most-advanced automated fighting module in the galaxy. Within its internal computer is programmed the strengths and weaknesses of almost ten thousand species, along with strategies and capabilities to subdue them all. There are thirty-eight specific weapons incorporated into the AN-9—including long-duration laser devices—which can be used individually or concurrently with other systems. It moves on tracks which can transition to bipedal locomotion for climbing and transiting uneven topography. It can move at seventy of your miles per hour and operate unilaterally or in conjunction with coordinated maneuvers involving hundreds of identical units. Oh…and it carries its own form of both electronic diffusion screens and magnetic repulse shields, designed to negate your ballistic weapons.”

The alien stopped to admire his prized possession.

“It is an amazing piece of machinery, and much more effective than anything the Klin have developed before.” He looked at his guests and smiled. “But I am getting ahead of myself. My name is Senior Fellow Siminous Cannin. I am the master of this ship. And if you expect to see others of my kind aboard, you will not. Only I control the entire vessel, with help from my AN-9s and other automated systems, as you will see. Now, let me take a survey.”

The alien pulled out a datapad and stepped up to the closest person in front of him. He smiled at Adam and then moved to Sherri. He looked down at the pad and then back to Sherri’s ‘if-looks-could-kill’ gaze. “Affiliated,” he stated.

He stepped over to Copernicus. After a moment looking at the pad, he looked up with surprise. “Copernicus Smith! Indeed. This is a surprise. We had dealings with you in the past. As it says here, you sold us Adam Cain and Riyad Tarazi.” The jubilant expression disappeared with the alien’s next comment. “That encounter forced the destruction of one of our six remaining Colony Ships. More than that, the twenty thousand Klin lost that day was a fifth of our remaining population. Can you imagine what it is like for your race to be so close to extinction…and then for that to happen?” Cannin looked down at the pad again, and in a very stern voice declared: “Affiliated.”

The next person in line was Lt. Chaudhory. After a moment, the alien said ‘Unaffiliated’ and asked the Navy officer to step aside.

He came to Arieel next. Again, he looked up with surprise. “Arieel Bol, the Speaker of the Formilians? I see the affiliation with Adam Cain; I just had no idea you would be here. Welcome.”

* * *

The alien continued the process until he had all of Adam’s team and the other affiliates on one side of the foyer and the four Marines and sailors on the other. Then he nodded to the robot.

Four bright red beams of light shot from the body of the robot. The duration was only fraction of a second, but it was enough for the precisely-aimed lasers to burn holes into the hearts of the commandos. Their expressions didn’t register the attack, as they collapsed to the deck.

Adam’s people rushed to their fallen comrades, jumping into action performing CPR and other emergency life-saving techniques, but there was nothing they could do. Hearts had been penetrated and the holes cauterized. The men were dead before they hit the deck.

Adam surged to his feet, feeling the overwhelming influence of his mutant superpowers. A strong electrical current flashed out from the robot, striking Adam in the chest. His body spasmed, locking his muscles in place. He toppled to the floor, conscious but unable to move.

His team was on their feet and facing a tense standoff with the Klin and his killer robot.

“Please calm yourselves,” said the Klin. “He has only been stunned. The effects will wear off in sixty-five seconds.”

Adam had news for him: he was already fully recovered. But he remained on the deck, not wanting to reveal any of his latent powers until he knew what he was up against.

“Why did you kill them?” Sherri screamed, tears of anger and sorrow in her eyes. Her hand was on the butt of her MK-47, but she held back from drawing it, her eyes focused on the ugly metal box next to the Klin.

“They were superfluous, too much of a risk without any purpose.”

“What…what?” Sherri stammered. “But…you didn’t kill us.”

“No, you are valuable to the Klin. They were not.”

The Klin and his faceless robot stared down the angry six-person mob. Nobody moved.

Then Arieel stepped forward. “If you don’t mind, I would like to attend to Adam.”

Cannin nodded.

Both Arieel and Sherri knelt down, checking Adam’s pulse and pulling back his eyelids. Sherri took hold of his hand and he squeezed it lightly, letting her know he was conscious.

“Is there a place we can take him? His breathing is shallow; he needs care.”

“He is unharmed and will regain consciousness in fifteen seconds,” said the Klin. “We have extensive files on Human physiology. The weapon used on him was calibrated to produce a given result. It did. There is no need to move him.”

Adam waited the requisite time before waking. He was helped to his feet.

“As I said, no damage.”

Adam glared at the Klin. “What the hell are you doing? First you rescue us from the Nuoreans, and then you start killing us. What’s that all about?”

“We did not rescue you from the Nuoreans. We merely staged a test using the Nuorean forces, and your captivity was a bonus to the operation. Originally, I was transiting to the main Nuorean concentration. When I heard of your capture, I amended the plan. The test was still conducted…yet now I have the famous Adam and his entire team under my control.” He waved a silver hand at the ragged row of Humans and aliens. “For the Klin, today has indeed been one to remember. As it will be for you, as well.”

“If you don’t kill any more of us,” Riyad said, flashing his brilliant smile at the equally brilliant alien.

“That, Mister Tarazi, will be up to you.”

Chapter 26

Senior Fellow Cannin summoned another three of his boxy robots and had them escort Adam and his team to four staterooms within the huge ship. The machines had specific orders as to who to place in each room. Adam drew Riyad; Kaylor and Jym were together; Copernicus and Arieel in another. Sherri was placed in her own room. She glared at Copernicus before the doors closed. He held up his hands as if to say, ‘I had nothing to do with it.’ He ducked into the room with the voluptuous alien and the door slid shut.

Adam waited a moment to do an ATD scan of the room before speaking.

“Klin…in a ship like this. This ain’t looking too good for us, Tonto.”

“What do mean us…paleface?”

“Yeah, you wish. Keep it up. Human-hating aliens hate all Humans, no matter their skin color.”

“Where’s your sense of humor, Captain Buzzkill.”

“I guess I’ve never been a fan of Klin humor…or hospitality. Remember the last time we vacationed at Club Klin? No hot water and the buffet was shitty.”

“Look on the bright side…there’s only one of them.”

“And Robby the Robot. Don’t forget him.”

“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”

“Wrong robot, wrong movie.”

Riyad and Adam sighed in unison. They’d done their part to act brave and macho. Now reality was setting in.

“Anything interesting happening in your brain?”

Adam knew what he meant. “Most of the systems I detect I can influence. I could probably even unlock the door. But until we know the lay of the land a little better, I think we should stay put. If the Klin wanted us dead, they would have sent lasers through our hearts, like the others. I think one Klin killing the famous Adam Cain Team would rob the rest of the silver bastards of a good time. They’ll make a big deal out of it.”

“For once, I’m glad it’s not the Riyad Tarazi Team.”

“Why? They’ll probably kill me last.”

Riyad fell back on one of the beds and locked his hands behind his head. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

* * *

After spending an appropriate time joking about their eventual demise, Adam laid back on the other bed in the room and called Arieel on his ATD.

I was led to believed your friend Copernicus was in a relationship with Sherri? the over-sexed alien began in a mental huff. He is not acting as such!

Adam smiled. Relax, Arieel, he’s harmless. Just slap him on his nose and he’ll behave.

Adam sensed the confusion in Arieel’s mind. He changed the subject. Have you been probing any of the systems aboard the ship?

Yes I have. The problem is not gaining access, it is in the number of them.

And the robots? I did a brief scan earlier. I don’t know if the Klin did it on purpose, but the inner workings are a mess.

Arieel was finally on his wavelength, having put the frisky Copernicus Smith out of her mind. Yes, it would appear to be haphazard, but I believe that has been planned. Each system, from weapons to motion to internal cooling is on its own circuit. I’ve traced ninety-one separate functions within each unit. It would take far too long to identify and disable each one.

I agree, Adam thought. But there has to be some central controller, something that feeds all those parts.

The central computer is a feeder unit, proving data to each system, which is then held inside smaller internal databases within the individual units. Using an analogy, you could cut off its head and the unit would still function.

Arieel was more proficient with her Gift than he was with his ATD, but he did have the advantage of his added mutant genius, limited as it was. He couldn’t believe there wasn’t a kill switch that could be flicked to shut down the robots. He would have to do a deeper probe using his mutant abilities. Arieel may have missed something.

Okay, sweetheart, Adam thought. Keep trying. I’ll try as well. Maybe between the two of us we can come up with something.

And what of your friend? He is exceedingly handsome, and I do have my needs. Yet I fear Sherri would not understand the dynamic.

Adam was amused by the alien’s openness. But that’s how Formilians treated sex; it was separate from love and affection. Their urges were always there and not to be ignored or suppressed. Yet Arieel had a point. Although he believed Sherri’s feelings for Copernicus weren’t that deep, it would still hurt her to know that her current lover had succumbed to the charms of the alien sexpot—just as Adam had.

Then he mentally laughed. By his estimates the team was living on borrowed time as it was. Any hurt feelings wouldn’t last too long.

Still….

You’re right, Arieel, Adam thought. You’re Sherri’s friend, so I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.

I agree. It is unfortunate we were not put together in a room.

Adam had to disagree. If that had happened he wouldn’t be trying to figure a way to escape….

Chapter 27

Seven hours passed, during which time water and processed food was brought to the Klin’s guests. As Adam probed the robots and the other systems of ship with ATD—appearing calm and contented on the bed—Riyad was going stir crazy.

“Dammit, Adam, do something,” Riyad pleaded. “If not, then open the door and let me.”

“So you can get yourself lasered? No way,” Adam replied. “Then where would I get a new sidekick…Sidekicks-R-Us?”

“Now that’s low, my friend, especially since I always considered you my sidekick.”

Adam sensed the arrival of two AN-9s at the door. He sat up on the bed, alert and serious. Riyad noticed Adam’s change in mood and understood instantly. He moved to the wall next to the door.

Adam shook his head at his friend. “Careful,” he cautioned.

The door slid open.

The robots had voice capabilities, but they could also relay communications directly from their master, Senior Fellow Cannin. “Adam Cain, would you and Mister Tarazi please accompany my friends to the bridge. Ms. Valentine will also be joining us. It is time we talk.”

Adam had been expecting this. Those in power often felt the need to boast to their captives. It was S.O.P. for tyrants and megalomaniacs. Adam welcomed these little episodes because that’s where he gained most of the knowledge needed to defeat them. But after seven hours locked in the room, he was beginning to worry that Cannin would break the cycle.

Sherri met them in the hallway. She looked at the closed door to the room with Coop and Arieel. “They’re not coming?”

Adam kept the ribald joke to himself. “Apparently not,” Adam said, sensing Sherri’s anguish.

The robots began to move down the corridor, one in front, two to the rear, running parallel to each other, herding the Humans along.

Besides the rooms they were in, the prisoners had only seen the landing bay, an elevator and a corridor within the huge ship. Adam was able to hack into various computer programs and pull up schematics, so he had a working knowledge of the layout, but he didn’t have a sense of the place. That came from actually walking the hallways and experiencing the various compartments—and the bridge was the premier compartment aboard the ship. He would learn volumes by being there.

The elevators aboard the six-mile long ship were driven by air, and shifted from vertical to horizontal with ease. Still, it took three minutes before the doors slid open and presented the passengers with a jaw-dropping view of the largest bridge Adam had ever seen aboard a starship.

Senior Fellow Cannin was the only person present.

“Please enter,” said the Klin. Then he laughed. “There is plenty of room.”

The three Humans walked up to the tall, slender alien, while the three robots took up sentry posts near the elevator door. Adam knew every move they made would be tracked by the killer bots, more-than-likely with infrared targeting beams already locked on their hearts, or electro-shock wands ready to zap them at the slightest infraction. This was neither the time nor the place to make a move. Besides, Adam had information to gain, and the over-confident alien was anxious to spill his guts.

“I have brought the three of you here—”

“Why not the rest of us?’ Sherri interrupted, still agonizing over Arieel and Coop.

With a slight grin, the Klin regarded her for a moment before answering. “Because you are the three Humans who most played a role in disrupting a very long and complicated sequence of events set in motion by the Klin. Now, with no further interruptions, I will give you some background as to the new plan of the Klin—more of an amendment, actually,” Cannin said

He stepped over to a control station. “At each of these consoles you see an integrated module. This is my crew, all automated, highly-skilled and efficient. As you can tell, this ship wasn’t originally designed for the modules, but rather for a living crew. That changed when we lost twenty thousand of our fellow Klin a few years ago.” He cast cold glare at Adam and Riyad. It quickly passed.

“Fortunately, even tragedies such as that often result in new paths, better ways of thinking.”

“We call it a ‘silver lining,’” Sherri offered.

The Klin perked up, seeing the irony in the phrase. “Indeed, a very appropriate expression. As it turns out, it forced us to look for alternatives.”

Cannin moved to the expansive viewport along the forward bulkhead of the bridge. He remained with his back to his guests as he spoke. “In the past, we were forced to enlist the help of other races in our plans, seeing that our own numbers were so small. These included the Kracori…and the Humans. As you know your history, that did not work out very well for us.” Cannin turned to face the bridge. “Automation was the answer. Each of these integrated modules can do the work of ten crew, and much quicker and more efficiently. And the AN-9s, they are equal to a hundred standard combat units each. With a new strategy forced upon us, we have effectively multiplied our numbers by a factor of many thousands, with more being added every day.

“These automated units also have one added feature, which we Klin value above all else. They will not rebel against us. On two separate occasions, our surrogates sabotaged our efforts precisely at the time we were to take our rightful place as leaders of the galaxy. That betrayal came at a great cost, taking the Klin to the brink of extinction.” Cannin glared at the Humans. “That time is past. The Klin are now stronger and more advanced than ever.” He waved his hand to indicate the room they were in. “This is the most-powerful starship ever built, and all it risks is a single living Klin. Imagine a fleet of such vessels and the damage it can do to the Expansion, and all guided by a handful of Klin. Never before in the four thousand years of our exile have we been in a better position to fulfill our destiny.”

“You have a fleet of these ships?” Riyad asked.

The Klin stepped closer and grinned. “No, we do not.” Adam was surprised by the admission. “We do not need them. Instead, we have found efficiency in automation. This ship and the initial AN-9s were built at the expense of one of our remaining five Colony Ships.” He smiled. “And until recently, we did enlist the assistance of another surrogate race to build more of our robots and other starships. That affiliation no longer exists.”

“What did you do, kill them?” Sherri asked with dripping sarcasm.

“No Ms. Valentine, we did not kill them.” He pointed to the AN-9s along the wall. “They did. Once there was an ample supply of AN-9s on the manufacturing world, they simply killed their overlords and began creating more of their kind with even more speed and efficiency. There are now a hundred thousand such units being produced every day, along with two other warships in final construction.”

Adam did some quick calculations. Damn!

Then something dawned on him. “The crates in the landing bay….”

“That is correct, Mister Cain.” The alien nodded to the robots.

One rolled forward. With swift and silent efficiency, all the external accouterments disappeared into hidden compartments; even the dome on top cycled over and retreated inside. The box body then descended on the tracks, absorbing the runners into the body of the robot as well. Five seconds later, the AN-9 was nothing but a four-foot square metal box.

Adam’s mouth fell open at the revelation. Cannin smiled.

“Yes, you are correct. There are three million, one hundred ten such units aboard.”

“What are you going to do with them?” Sherri asked.

“Conquer a galaxy, Ms. Valentine, what else?”

“It’ll take a lot more than three million,” Riyad countered.

Cannin frowned at the Human. “Did you not hear me? We are producing more, and at an accelerated pace. It seems no entity can make AN-9s as efficiently as other AN-9s. And as we progress in our conquests, more manufacturing facilities and raw materials will become available. I assure you, we have done the calculations. We will have more than enough to conquer the galaxy.”

“We’ll fight back,” Adam said, defiantly.

“Yes, we know.” Cannin pointed to the AN-9s. “There has been an incredible benefit derived from creating weapons from machines. Unlike with our prior surrogates, who were limited to what they could achieve both physically and mentally, we were able to create our magnificent new surrogates limited only by our imagination and intellect. We studied all the tactics, capacities and strengths of our enemies, and built machines to defeat them. These robots are not merely substitute fighters, they are better fighters, superior fighters. Again, we have done the calculations.”

“I think you misplaced a decimal point somewhere,” Adam said. “It still won’t be enough. We’ll figure a way to defeat you.”

Cannin laughed. “That may very well happen, Adam Cain; as there are always unexpected scenarios which may appear. However, you and your friends will not be part of those calculations.”

Riyad flashed his trademark smile. “Which brings us to the coup-de-grass. What’s going to happen to us?”

The Klin wasn’t confused by Riyad’s bastardization of the phrase. “First, you will witness the inaugural implementation of our master amendment, how we intend to conquer the galaxy. However, your witnessing of this event is only a consequence of my taking you prisoner, and for no other reason. After the battle, I will bring you to the main Klin concentration, where Pleabaen Gadis Sumlis will decide your ultimate fate.”

“Gadis Sumlis?” Adam inquired. “I don’t think I’ve killed him yet, not like the other Pleabaens I’ve met.” Adam smiled like the Cheshire Cat.

“Yes, I am fully aware of your history, Mister Cain. Yet be assured, the Klin now calculate everything before we act. Your fate was already decided even before I changed course for the Nuorean planet. Now return to your rooms. I will summon you again in two days, when we arrive on station for the coming battle.”

Chapter 28

LtCol. Josh Nolan was wondering if the mystery ship was ever going to reach its destination. The Rutledge had piggybacked on the black ship’s gravity-well for nine days, and even though the huge vessel was out of visual range at over a half million miles away, the strange vortex the ship was caught in remained constant.

That changed suddenly, when normal space popped into existence outside the forward viewport. The Rutledge, however, continued to be drawn forward, this time from its position on the opposite side of a small braking-well the huge ship had created to slow it down. If the bored and brain-numbed bridge crew hadn’t snapped into action as fast as they did, the Rutledge would have fallen head-long into the deadly maw of a miniature black hole.

Creating its own braking-well, the Human warship essentially skidded to a halt in the emptiness of space, barely a hundred thousand miles from the invisible singularity. When the deadly gravity source disappeared, Nolan sent his ship moving forward again, before cutting power and drifting in the rest of the way to the black ship.

The huge craft was using a maneuvering-well, and the Rutledge was able to approach the rear of the ship in dark status. And now, as the monstrous vessel loomed ahead, Nolan was doing his best his trying to figure out what to do next.

Eventually he had the Rutledge match velocity with the behemoth before ordering a series of small gas bursts to move them even closer. Then with precise docking maneuvers, the Rutledge made gentle contact with the alien starship.

“Bennett, Jong, grab some magnetic anchor cables from the cargo bay. Then suit up and meet me at the aft airlock.”

“Sir, are we going to—”

“Yes we are. Now go.”

“Can’t I just hire someone else to do it for me?” asked petty officer Victor Jong.

Nolan turned an evil eye on the enlisted man, before he saw the amused grin on the man’s face. With all members of the crew theoretically being multimillionaires, Josh believed him…at first.

Once outside the Rutledge, the two Marines and one sailor stood on the exterior of their ship, staring out at the incredible expanse of black starship spread out before them. They’d never been this close to something this big in space. It was both awesome…and terrifying.

The men set four cables to the Rutledge and then made their way onto the surface of the black ship using magnetic boots. They had no problem finding places to secure the cables, and soon Nolan’s two assistants were heading back to the airlock.

Nolan remained outside, moving slowly along the hull of the black ship. His breath was taken away by the overwhelming size of the gravity generators, and he marveled at the hundred foot long spike that ran out the back, which Josh had seen draw in the combined energy from a hundred flash bolts. There was a similar antenna at the forward tip of the ship.

He came to a large seam in the hull and recognized it as half of the door to a landing bay, a landing bay larger than anything he’d ever seen. Along the side of the towering panel were three small airlocks. These were used by tow and maintenance crews, as well as for access to shuttles and other vessels too small to warrant the venting and subsequent pressurizing of the large interior compartment. Each opening cost time and money. Often it was more effective just to shuttle over and dock with an airlock.

It would be through here that Nolan and his commandos would gain access to the interior, if they didn’t trip alarms by activating the airlocks. Josh wasn’t ready to test it, not just yet. He would need a lot more information on what was on the other side of the airlock before he was.

Chapter 29

Adam sensed the Klin ship drop out of the deep gravity-well. It had been two days since the meeting with Cannin; the alien would be calling them to bridge soon.

That’s when he felt Arieel in his mind.

Do you feel that? the Formilian asked.

What? He was so distracted with his research into the operation of the AN-9 robots that he didn’t know what she was talking about.

I do not know…a presence.

Adam could feel it now, and he knew instantly what it was. It’s the ghost program in the Rutledge. They must be close enough for us to read the signal.

But how? We have been traveling for nine days. They could not have followed the Klin ship.

Adam reached out and accessed the remote program, then fed the contact through the ship’s 1MC. Nolan was in his mind a moment later.

The Marine officer gave them a quick rundown of what happened, after which Adam told his story. Nolan lit off on a cussing tirade when he learned that he was attached to a Klin ship, and that the evil aliens were holding Adam and his people prisoners. But he really lost it when Adam told him about the four men the Klin had executed.

“Calm down, Colonel,” Adam said. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. Besides, Cannin’s robots are everywhere, and until I can figure a way to disable them, we wouldn’t stand a chance against them. These things were designed to kill Humans—and every other race in the galaxy.”

Where are we going? Nolan asked after regaining his composure.

“Some world in the Expansion I imagine, where Cannin can deliver a statement regarding the power of his starship.”

And he has over three million of those killer robots aboard that you talked about—thought about…whatever? How does he plan on deploying them?

“Unknown, but one thing is sure, he’ll have to open the launch bay doors to do it.”

And we blast them when they come out!

“All three million of them, Colonel, and while the Rutledge is being cut to pieces by defensive lasers? Like I said, let me and Arieel work on the robot problem. They’re made of Formilian technology so there has to be a weakness I can exploit—”

Formilian technology is the best in the galaxy! Arieel protested in his mind.

I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that we have access to their various parts and pieces with our…Gifts.

Oh…of course.

“Josh, stay put. Cannin said he’d call us again when we reach our destination. It looks like we’re there.”

And we’re supposed to just hang out here and hope no one spots us?

“The Klin ship is pretty automated. If they haven’t spotted you by now, they probably won’t. Just hang tight…and thanks for coming for us.”

Nolan stammered you’re welcome, although he’d already told Adam how they’d been sucked along with the gravity-well against their will.

“For now just chill, Mister Nolan,” Adam said. “But be ready. It’s going to get pretty hairy here pretty soon.”

* * *

In the two days since his last meeting with Cannin, Adam had made a lot of progress analyzing the AN-9s operating system. There was a kill switch after all, but not what he’d been hoping for. It simply cut off the robot’s awareness. All the weapons systems would remain active, just the robot wouldn’t be able to detect any threats around it.

He also learned that each robot ran periodic diagnostics on all its systems which would detect Adam’s messing around with the AN-9’s brain. This happened every five minutes, and each bot was on a different schedule, depending on when it was first put into service. The maximum any machine would be down would be five minutes, and that’s if Adam caught it just at the right time. And with multiple robots on scene, units could start coming back online at any time…and begin shooting.

However, there was one encouraging bit of information Adam found while digging around in the programming with his mutant superpowers. The robots used flash weapons. In fact they were their preferred weapon system. It made sense. Nearly all creatures in the galaxy were susceptible to flash bolts, either level two or three. Only certain species—such as Humans, Q’uel and Juireans, among others—could resist bolts at that strength. Juireans bought it at level one, as did most Humans, if struck in the right location. The hard-headed Q’uel would laugh off a level one bolt and just keep charging.

The AN-9s knew all this, and made accommodations. For Juireans, the level on the bolt launcher would be cranked up to the highest setting. For Humans—being a major threat to the Klin and unpredictable, even when injured—they either got the laser, the stun gun or hot lead. The Q’uel would get lasers, if the time ever came when Klin and Q’uel met.

Yet the Klin were practical as well. Lasers were an incredible drain on the power reserves of the AN-9, so they would be used sparingly. The same with ballistics weapons which required physical slugs to be expelled. The robots could only carry so many rounds, so these weapons were also reserved for rare occasions. That left flash weapons as the go-to device. They were easy to use and quick to recharge, and would be effective against all but the toughest creatures in the galaxy.

And Adam Cain knew a secret about flash weapons. With just a simple disconnect of the firing controls using his ATD, the energy fed into the weapon without an accompanying shot would result in a fairly sizable explosion. AN-9s had formidable exterior defenses, but Adam was betting they couldn’t survive an internal explosion the size of a hand grenade.

The problem—again--came from the diagnostic test. It would detect a severed connection and repair it, making the weapon active again. Also, Adam could only create an explosion while the weapon was in use, and before the AN-9 ran a diagnostic.

How all this new knowledge would be applied in a practical situation was the other problem. He didn’t have a clue.

Chapter 30

As expected, Adam was summoned to the bridge a few minutes after speaking with Colonel Nolan. But it was only he who was summoned.

“When more than one Human is in a room, they tend to engage with each other, building confidence and courage. I have no time for such games,” Cannin explained when Adam asked why only him. He couldn’t argue with the alien. His observations were spot on.

Adam looked out the forward viewport and saw the shimmering arch of a planet below. He also noticed streaks of flash cannon fire coming at the black ship, along with the accompanying glow of the impossibly-far-away diffusion screen. Cannin was seated at the command chair, his head propped up by a long, silver arm, looking bored.

“Where are we? Adam asked.

“Anbor-Namin, have you heard of it?”

“One of the regional capitals of the Expansion, right?”

“That is right.”

Adam walked up to the large glass window. “You do realize we’re under attack, don’t you?”

Cannin lifted his head and waved an impatient hand at Adam before cradling his head back in the palm. “It matters not. I must wait for a sufficient number of flash bolts to be absorbed before engaging the long-range lasers. Even then, I will have nothing to do with the targeting or firing sequence.”

Adam looked down at the beautiful world below, appearing very much Earth-like, with just the right combination of brown and green landmasses and sparkling blue seas, all dotted with fleecy white clouds. The planetary defenses were making one hell of an effort to take out the black starship. Apparently word had gotten out about what happened in the nameless star system with the Nuoreans. The locals had assembled a pretty sizable fleet to face the dark menace, but so far, to no avail.

“Why Anbor-Namin?” Adam asked, still watching the one-sided battle taking place outside.

Cannin sighed, but explained. “For many years—and especially after your daughter took over the Expansion—the empire has been governed more as a confederation of local groupings rather than one monolithic organization. There are fifty-four regionally-affiliated groups. Anbor-Namin is the capital of one of them. It controls almost two hundred local worlds, making it one of the largest. The Klin presence here will provide a very public exhibition of the Klin’s strength and abilities.”

“I’m sure it will. There’s an entire fleet attacking and you’re sitting here about to fall asleep.”

“This is just the beginning. I need the lasers charged so they can cover the AN-9 landings.”

Adam turned back to the alien. “So this isn’t just a demonstration of the ship’s abilities. You’re going to invade the planet?”

Cannin frowned and lifted his head from his hand. “Of course, that is the purpose of my being here, to set in motion the Amendment to the Klin’s Grand Plan. We wish to conquer the galaxy, not simply scare it with a show of unstoppable power.”

“What if they acknowledge your power and want to surrender?”

Cannin sighed deeply. He really had been about to fall asleep before Adam entered the room.

“My mission is two-fold. First: suppress the forces sent against me. Second: reduce the number of insignificant species we will later have to contend with.”

Adam recoiled from the statement, hoping he had misunderstood the meaning. “You plan on exterminating entire species, as in genocide?”

“Every race has a word for it, but it is all the same,” said Cannin, sounding bored. “There are far too many races in the Expansion…and in your tiny Union. Those who do not serve a purpose to the Klin will be eliminated. I am surprised you react this way. It is a common-sense strategy.”

“You’re surprised! What the hell’s wrong with you? You want to rule the galaxy…by killing off entire species.”

“The Klin do not wish the leadership of the galaxy in order to rule it, Adam Cain. We wish only for justice, a reckoning for what happened to us long ago. As a consequence, we do not wish to become part of the community of civilizations. We wish to be a civilization unto ourselves, and without the fear of extermination we have lived with for so long.” Cannin sat up in his chair, feeling Adam was missing the point. “The Klin do not feel we have a better way of governing or answers for all the concerns of ten thousand unique races throughout the galaxy. We do not care about the other races. We have nothing in common with them.

“Granted, at another time, when we had to use surrogate races in our Grand Plan, we had to mirror the ambitions of others. So many species in the galaxy wish nothing more than to lord over others. Now that the Klin have the means to subdue an entire galaxy without the help of others, we do not have to concede to the greed and insecurity of partner races. In an ideal future, there would be no beings other than Klin. It would be a simpler, more peaceful galaxy if that were the case.”

“So when all this is done, you expect to be the last species standing?”

“That is a very good way to describe it, as I would expect from a Human. Then you understand?”

“I didn’t say that.” Adam moved closer to the alien; Cannin didn’t seem the least bit threatened, not with the two AN-9s standing guard. “Hey, I’m the last one to criticize you for hating aliens,” Adam said. “I’ve made a career out of it. But I also don’t advocate going around killing everyone just because they’re in my way. All you’ll do with this new strategy of yours is piss off a lot of people.”

“My translation device is the most-advanced in the galaxy, so I understand your slang expression.” Cannin dismissed Adam’s concerns with another casual wave of his hand. “The welfare of other races is of no concern to the Klin. Perhaps if we had not been so callously dismissed by the galaxy, we might feel differently. But even while it was the Juireans who betrayed us and destroyed Klinmon, it was the rest of the galaxy who helped the evil aliens keep us running and hiding for all these years. We owe the galaxy nothing but our scorn.”

Cannin noticed powerful beams of light streaking out to destroy the attacking ships. He smiled.

“The world below is now to become the first world in a long line of such to be effectively sterilized by the Klin. And you, the great Adam Cain, will witness it firsthand.”

A large monitor on the portside of the bridge came to life. It showed a launch bay, not the one with the Tobias in it, but another filled completely with the four-foot-square boxes that were the AN-9 robots. Conveyor belts on the deck were moving huge stacks of the boxes to the open bay portal—and dumping them into space. Adam knew this was happening in all six launch bays, launching millions of the killer robots toward the planet below.

Adam turned a questioning face to Cannin.

“They will freefall for most of the way to the surface,” the alien explained. “Their exteriors are made of a titanium composite that can withstand the intense temperature. Parachutes will then deploy thirty seconds before landing. The AN-9s will be fully functional and ready for action before reaching the surface.”

“That’s why you didn’t have any shuttles or other landing craft in the landing bays.”

“That are not required.”

“What about recovery?”

Cannin shook his head. “There will be no recovery. Subsequent invasions will be with new units. The AN-9s on Anbor-Namin will continue to fight until they can no longer locate adequate recharging facilities and their batteries run dry. However, they can operate at maximum level for six days, even without recharge. They are also designed to utilize a multitude of various charging options to extend their operational life. As you see, we have thought of everything.”

“Well, not quite everything.”

Though his ATD, Adam flicked the kill switch in the two AN-9s near the elevator doors, effectively blinding the killer robots. At the same time he felt his mutant powers kick in. He moved to Cannin and took him by the throat, lifting him effortlessly from the command chair.

The alien was shocked. He struggled against Adam’s grip, all the while glancing at his silent sentries.

“Call off the attack, Cannin,” Adam growled. “Call it off or another Klin dies…namely you.”

“I cannot call it off,” the alien choked his reply. “It is all run automatically.”

“Bullshit. The Klin are too much into control of everything. You’re not about to let a bunch of machines have all the fun.”

“How…how?” Cannin stammered.

“Like I said, you didn’t plan for—”

It was only through Adam’s uncanny and enhanced situational awareness that he noticed one of the AN-9s turn toward him. It was the first movement either robot had made since he flicked off their brains.

Adam threw Cannin to his left, just as a tight red laser beam emerged from the robot. The beam was aimed at Adam’s heart, but it punched through Cannin’s right leg instead. This gave Adam time to mentally enter the AN-9 and flick the switch again.

Cannin was screaming from the pain, sitting on the floor, holding his leg and rocking back and forth. There was no blood, since the heat of the laser had cauterized the wound.

“Relax, you’ll be okay,” Adam barked over the wailing of the alien. His eyes were locked on the second AN-9. He had the five minute countdown set on the first one, but the other one could come alive at any moment.

There, a tiny vibration of the boxy torso. Adam entered the brain and flicked the metaphorical switch. Now both robots would be harmless for four minutes twenty-nine seconds and counting, according to Adam’s enhanced mental clock.

He turned back to the whiny alien.

“Shut up!” Adam ordered. “You’re acting like you’ve never been shot by a laser before. Trust me, you’ll get used to it.” Adam thought back many years ago when he’d been shot by a color-shifting alien on a planet he couldn’t even remember the name of anymore. He hoped he hadn’t been such a little pussy about it back then, not like Cannin was being now.

“You are insane, Human!” the alien yelled. “You can do nothing to stop the attack or damage this ship. It will function even if you kill me.”

Adam had had about all of the Klin he could handle “Oh, really?” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Let’s find out.”

A moment later, Adam let the limp body of Senior Fellow Cannin slump to the deck. “You’re welcome,” he said. At least now the alien wasn’t in pain any longer. Adam had done his good deed for the day.

Adam checked his mental clock. He had two minutes before the first robot would come back to life. He rushed into the elevator. At this point, time was his new enemy.

Chapter 31

The damn Klin warship didn’t have stairwells, only elevators. Adam hated elevators, at least on a tactical level. Once inside and shooting along, he scanned the ship for the location of the other AN-9s. To his surprise, there were only eight left on the ship, after millions had been dumped on the suspecting planet below.

Using his enhanced brain power, he mentally pulled up a schematic of the ship and plotted the location of the killer robots. He was relieved to find that none were guarding the prisoners. Yet there was a small cluster between the guest quarters and the landing bay where the Tobias was stored. That could be a problem. He tried to figure another away in, but it seemed the robots knew the layout of the ship, too, and had blocked the only access to the hangar.

Arieel, can you hear me?

Yes! I am here. Are you well? I sensed it when you were taken away. I feared for your life.

So did I, Adam admitted. But for an update, Cannin is dead and the planet we’re orbiting is under attack by the robots.

The Klin is dead, and the attack continues?

Yeah, it’s all run automatically. There’s no way to recall the robots. At this point, all we can do is get off the ship before the robots learn of Cannin’s death and come looking for us. I need you to unlock the doors and get the team to a place I’ll convey to you mentally.

Of course. I can detect you moving throughout the ship. We will meet you at the designated location.

Thanks. I’ll let you know if I detect any of the AN-9s coming your way. See you soon.

Adam was sure that as soon as the two robots on the bridge regained their awareness, they would notice their dead leader and send out the alert. The one thing—the only thing, really—Adam had going for him was that the ship was originally designed to carry Klin, and only Klin. Because of this, there was very little internal security aboard. Unless the AN-9’s can track him by his heat signature, there were no security cameras to record his movement.

Adam was controlling the elevator with his ATD, moving it along to a point close to where Arieel was leading the team. He reached it without incident, and a few moments later reunited with his friends. There was no time for pleasantries.

“Down this corridor and to the left are a pair of AN-9 sentries guarding the entrance to the landing bay. We have to take them out.”

“I thought they couldn’t be taken out?” Copernicus said. This was the first physical contact Adam had had with him in nine days, since he’d remained locked in the room with Arieel for the duration of the trip. But Arieel had kept him up to date. She had also told Sherri, Riyad, Jym and Kaylor what was going on.

“There is a way.”

“You can disable their awareness sensors,” Arieel offered, stealing some of Adam’s thunder.

“You can? That’s great,” said Sherri.

Adam grimaced. “It’s not that simple. They can repair the damage at just about any time, so they require constant monitoring to catch them just as they come back online. But there’s another way, a more permanent solution.”

“That is even better news,” said Kaylor. He and Jym had been kept in the dark for the bulk of the trip to Anbor-Namin and were only now learning what they were up against.

Adam looked at his blue-skinned friend. He placed a hand on the alien’s shoulder. “Yeah, it is great. However, I’m going to need you and Jym to give me a hand.”

Jym recoiled in fear, backing away and pressing his small body against the metal wall of the corridor.

“Not literally, Jym,” Adam barked impatiently. “Damn, I thought by now you’d understand Human-speak better.”

“There is no need to be rude, Adam,” replied the alien. “Just a statement like that coming from Human, I can never be sure.”

Adam sighed. “All right, this is the plan.” The team huddled up. “AN-9’s have flash weapons, and they’ve been programmed to use them against the majority of species in the galaxy, including our two friends here. As you know, I can disable the firing circuits in the weapons, causing an overload and a pretty sizable explosion. I figure that should be enough to permanently disable the robot.”

Kaylor cut right to the chase. “That would require the weapons to be in use at the time.”

“Exactly.”

“Firing…at us?” Jym added.

“Exactly.”

Now the fear really took hold of the small Falqin bear. “Then you must provide us with protection, armor.”

The new grimace on Adam’s face didn’t help his sales job. “The problem with that is the robots will detect the armor and select another weapon system with more power.”

“I will do it,” Arieel announced, stepping forward, while proudly throwing out her ample chest. “I am of the class that is susceptible to flash bolts. I will draw their fire.”

“I can’t let you do that. I need your abilities with your brain interface device.”

“You cannot allow her to volunteer…because she can be killed, just like us!” Jym reasoned.

“Trust me, Jym” Adam said. “Have I ever allowed anything to kill you before?”

Kaylor looked askew at Adam, while Jym appeared lost in thought.

“Okay, we will do it,” Kaylor said.

Jym looked up at him. “We will?”

The Belsonian placed a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder. “As he said, he hasn’t gotten us killed yet.”

“It only takes once,” said Jym. His shoulders slumped as he surrendered to the inevitable.

With that out of the way, Adam led the two aliens down the corridor to where it met with another cross hallway. “The robots are in that large open area where we first met the Klin. As soon as you step into the intersection, they’ll see you. Run down the corridor to the right, letting the AN-9s keep you in sight. I’ll be inside their systems and ready to act as soon as they…well, you know.”

“Stay focused, Adam,” Kaylor advised. “It is our lives at risk.”

“And very special lives they are.” He placed hands on the shoulders of his alien friends. “Okay, get ready. I’ll give you the word.”

Jym looked back at Adam in a panic. “What…oh.”

Adam pursed his lips and shook his head. “All right…go.”

The two aliens followed his instructions. They entered the intersection of the corridors, stopped and turned to look toward the landing bay foyer.

The two boxy robots were about forty feet away. Their bodies had to spin around to bring the flash weapons to bear. Kaylor and Jym turned and ran away in the opposite direction.

Adam had the firing circuits identified. Now he severed the connections. A moment later it happened.

The normally square torsos of the AN-9s bulged out, forming near-spheres atop the running tracks. Several side panels on both robots burst out and the domes on top shot upward, smashing into the overhead and shattering in a thousand pieces. Flame and smoke erupted like geysers from various opening in both machines and the attachments that had not been blown off fell limp to the sides of the deformed metal balls.

Adam stepped out from behind the corridor wall and smiled down the hallway at his handiwork. He turned toward Kaylor and Jym twenty feet farther down the corridor.

“That worked—”

The explosions were incredible, originating in the foyer area and sending a wave of heat, fire and concussion racing through the confined space of the corridor. Once again, Adam’s enhance mutant powers saved him. The blast hit him in the back, burning clothing and flesh and throwing him forward.

He was at Kaylor and Jym a moment later. The aliens were spared most of the effects of the explosions, partly from distance, partly by the shield formed by Adam’s charred body.

As the dust settled, the rest of Adam’s team rushed to his aid, and to that of Kaylor and Jym. Adam was on his belly on the still baking-hot deck, half of his body naked and covered in black blisters. Coop and Riyad helped him to his feet.

After having his clothes blown off on the nameless Nuorean planet, he’d dressed himself with new garments after boarding the Tobias. Now his backless and smoldering shirt fell to the deck, along with the front of his pants. This time, not much survived, not even his shoes.

Copernicus helped him out. He took off his shirt and offered it to Adam.

Sherri and Arieel shared a glance at each other; Coop’s six-pack abs and light covering of black hair on his chest was nothing to sneeze at.

For his part, Adam took the shirt, and instead of putting in on conventionally, he took the long sleeves and tied them around his waist, covering his private parts as best he could. An awkward moment passed between members of the team.

“Are you all right?” Sherri asked, breaking the silence and stepping up to look at Adam’s rapidly healing back. Arieel and Riyad had moved to Kaylor and Jym to check on them.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. How are my two friends?”

Arieel looked up at him. “They are fine, only a few superficial burns. Was that supposed to happen?” she asked, referring to the major blast that had ripped the corridor to shreds. Metal walls were buckled and crunched like an accordion, while electric wires sparked and water dripped from broken pipes in the overhead.

“They must have had some self-destruct mechanism,” Copernicus surmised.

Adam turned to survey the damage. “This will attract the other AN-9s. There are still six of them onboard.”

“It’ll take some effort getting through that,” Copernicus noted, pointing down the hallway.

“We’ll have to,” Adam said. “It’s the only way to the landing back. Let’s hurry. The robots are coming.”

Chapter 32

Five minutes later the team was in the shattered foyer outside the landing bay. Despite the damage and his near-death, Adam was relieved to learn that the AN-9s could be destroyed. That would help with his future planning…if he had a future.

The team stared through the huge observation window in the landing bay control room. The control center had been built to sustain the force of an out of control starship entering the bay and had therefore come through the explosions relatively unscathed. But what had the team staring in stunned silence down into the huge chamber…was the sight of the A.C. Tobias—Adam’s obscenely expensive luxury starship—lying in pieces on the deck of the landing bay.

The robots had made mincemeat of the ship, using lasers to slice it into dozens of pieces.

But Adam didn’t have time to lament the death of his ship. The other AN-9s were closing in. He contacted the Rutledge through his ATD.

“Nolan, where are you.”

The Marine officer sounded perturbed when he answered within Adam’s mind. “Where would we be? Still stuck on the ass of the ship. We tried to get inside after all those boxes got dumped, but the doors closed before we could do anything.”

“You’re lucky. But now we’re going to open the doors. Get in as soon as you can. Some of those killer robots are on their way and they have lasers that can cut the Rutledge to shreds.”

“And you want us to come inside?”

“That’s right, Colonel. Now get ready.”

Adam looked at the control panel for the huge bay doors. There was a bulky gray-metal module blocking where the controls would normally be accessed.

“Jym, can you get the doors to work?”

The tiny alien was still shaken from the explosion. He stepped up to the console and stared at the module. “I cannot, not with that unit attached.”

Adam pushed Jym aside and moved to the right side of the three-foot-long metal box. He slammed his left arm into the side of the unit. His added strength bent the metal box but didn’t break it loose. His second hit sent the module flying across the room, requiring Riyad and Coop to jump out of the way before it crashed into the wall between them.

Adam and Jym surveyed the console. The automated unit had been hardwired into the panel. Now orphan wires sparked while others dangled lifeless.

“There,” Adam said.

“What?” Jym asked.

“Make it work.”

The alien stared at Adam for a long moment…before getting down to work.

Jym had been literally born aboard a starship, and grew up scampering around the inner workings of dozens of models. He knew every system and how to fix it. Now, according to Adam internal clock, he had about two minutes, forty seconds to perform a miracle.

The alien’s delicate hands joined wires together and rerouted others. Occasionally a spark would pop and Jym would yelp as he contacted live wires. But eventually, he stood back with a small electric unit in one hand and a wire in the other. He placed the wire to a contact.

Atmosphere was purged from the huge chamber and the outer bay doors began to cycle open.

Adam patted Jym on the back. “Well done, Jym. You just saved us all.”

With the doors only a third of the way open, the Rutledge raced into the large chamber and skidded to a stop on the metal deck. Jym removed the wire from the contact and the doors closed.

“Everyone get to the airlock. Be ready to move when the bay pressurizes. I’ll disable the robots. It will buy us a little time, but not much.”

Jym placed the control module on the console and moved to toward the exit. Everyone froze when the huge pressure doors in the bay came together—and then suddenly started to open again.

“What the hell, Jym?” asked Copernicus.

Jym returned to the module. He disconnected the wire and the doors closed again. The chamber began to pressurize for a second time.

“The door controls are damaged,” Jym reported. “They will require constant manipulation.”

“What does that mean?” Sherri asked, panic in her voice.

“Making contact once opens and closes the doors. Another contact reverses the sequence. Someone will have to manually make the necessary contacts to maintain integrity and to allow for the ship to exit.”

The team was frozen in place, looking at the tiny bear-like alien.

“Don’t worry,” Adam said. “I’ll stay and do it.”

“Like hell you will!” Riyad exclaimed.

“No really. I’ll get out in the escape pods.”

“What escape pods,” Sherri asked incredulously.

“Remember, this ship was originally built to carry only Klin. You don’t think they’d forget to provide for emergency egress to save their miserable silvery hides, now do you? There are several hundred pods lining the hull. I’ll get out in one after you’re gone.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine.” Adam smiled at her. “Now everyone go. The bay is just about pressurized.”

The team rushed from the room. All except Sherri. She stood in the doorway, looking at him, sadness on her face. The smile fell from Adam’s face. He nodded. Sherri reluctantly turned away and left the room.

A few seconds later, Adam watched as the team scrambled across the deck toward the open hatch of the Rutledge. He saw Nolan at the doorway, and when Sherri went to enter, he grabbed her by the arm and said something to her. She glanced over her shoulder and both she and Nolan looked up at Adam in the control room. Sherri pushed past and entered the ship.

Nolan gave him a sharp salute a moment before he entered the ship and dogged the hatch.

Adam pulled the wire away from the contact and then touched it to the module again. Atmosphere was sucked from the room and the doors began to open. The Rutledge was already up and moving even before the doors opened all the way. It slipped through the narrow opening with only feet to spare on each side.

Adam let the control module fall to the deck. The wire fell away and the doors to the bay began to close. He left the control room door and headed toward the starboard side of the ship.

Chapter 33

Adam had been right about the AN-9s; they arrived on his tail a moment later. There were three of them. He disconnected their awareness scanners and they rolled to a stop and sat there, unable to see walls or other objects—including targets.

Then one of them reactivated and took off after Adam.

He was monitoring all this on his ATD. He couldn’t afford to have one of the robots sneak up on him and fire a laser beam his way. He was sure his limited mutant abilities couldn’t reattach or regrow sliced off limbs. At least he wasn’t willing to test his hypothesis.

Adam wasn’t lying about the escape pods; he’d noticed them during his survey of the ship’s layout. They were placed along both the starboard and port sides, along two levels. The other feature about the Klin ship he noticed was that there was a wide buffer corridor running along all levels next to the outer hull. This essentially allowed for the creation of a hull-inside-a-hull, allowing crews to move between pressurized compartments and repair damage to the exterior hull with relative ease. It was an elaborate design element, and only possible because of the huge size of the ship. Smaller ships couldn’t afford the wasted space.

It was along the outer bulkhead of the ring corridor where the escape pods were located. Adam slapped an emergency control pad and a panel slid aside. Within was a teardrop-shaped pod with a long, sloping glass panel covering most of the top side. The capsules were designed to carry as many as three Klin, with enough life support to last two weeks or longer. They also had tiny jets, used for escaping the pod tubes and limited maneuvering time once in space. The canopy was already open.

Adam jumped inside and pulled the lid shut. There was plenty of room for just him. The internal controls activated automatically—which caused Adam’s heart to jump.

The one thing he’d failed to tell Sherri and the others: The pods would be picked off like skeet targets by the ship’s short-range defensive lasers if the AI of the ship suspected them of carrying fugitives.

Fortunately, the controls of the escape pods were fairly simple; they had to be to keep them effective and accessible during a crisis. Adam was able to activate the launch controls for dozens of other pods, and soon, a cloud of tiny, jet-powered modules were shooting from the skin of the black starship.

As he expected, a dozen thin rays of light reached out to meet the departing pods. At first, the lasers were able to keep up with Adam’s release of the pods, but soon they became overwhelmed by the sheer number of capsules being launched.

Looking out into outer space from the pod launch tube, Adam remembered the assault on the Klin warship had stopped. Once the long-range lasers had been charged by the incoming flash bolts, the deadly beams of light destroyed most of the attacking fleet. The survivors retreated out of range, and without new cannon bolts feeding the weapons, the long-range beams ceased to function.

The smaller, short-range beams suffered from the same malady. They took incredible energy to operate, just not as much as the larger beams. As Adam watched, the frequency of the beams decreased. They weren’t dead, just recharging. He saw his opportunity and launched.

Adam was pressed back in the cushioned cradle as the pod raced away from the looming hull of the Klin ship. He continued to launch more pods to confuse the lasers that still functioned.

Two bright beams lit up the interior of his pod as they targeted a pair of tiny jets flaring off to his port side. That was close, but even as the tense seconds passed, Adam noticed a sprinkling of twinkling lights beyond the range of the lasers. Dozens of pods had reached safety.

But then the lights began to blink out.

At first he didn’t know what was happening. By reality dawned on him, it was too late.

* * *

Under normal emergency procedures, the Klin would have deactivated the outer diffusion screen before launching their escape pods. In this situation, however, the screen was still fully active, and Adam was about to come in contact with it twenty miles out from the surface of the massive black starship.

As the pod passed through the shield, all power was sucked away, leaving the capsule dark and the jets non-functioning. Adam felt the circulation vent; no moving air was felt. The pod was dead in space, and without sufficient backup energy reserves for a reboot.

Adam leaned back in the chair and let out a deep sigh. The pod was designed to hold three adult Klin, so the interior would hold a certain volume of air even without resupply. He was also pretty sure his mutant brain cells would allow him to survive longer than a normal Human under similar circumstances. But how much longer, he had no idea.

He opened some nearby compartments and found food, water and thermal blankets. The blankets would come in handy; it was already getting cold inside the small pod without the life support system operating.

He reached out with his ATD in an attempt to contact the Rutledge, and that’s when he discovered his brain interface had also been affected by the diffusion shield as well. He’d never physically encountered such a screen before; it made sense that all power—from all electronics—would be affected.

Adam tried to relax. Perhaps the ATD would recharge somehow. It was a truly remarkable device, so he couldn’t count that out. Otherwise, he was in for…well he didn’t have an answer, at least not one he wanted to dwell on.

He glanced off to his left and at the large, glowing crescent of Anbor-Namin, taking up much of space below him. At least he’d have a nice view…as he died.

It was then that his heightened awareness noticed something strange about the planet below. It was growing bigger.

His tiny escape pod had been captured by the gravity of the planet and he was being drawn in, eventually to enter the atmosphere.

Adam unfastened the safety harness and sat up. He pressed his face against the glass canopy of the pod, looking to each side, trying to get some idea how fast he was falling. It was noticeable.

This is just great, Adam thought. At least it’ll be over quick.

Adam had no idea if the pod was rated for a planetary landing. Why would it? The huge Klin ship was never designed to land on a planet, so the escape pods would be used primarily in deep space.

Adam wrapped the glass canopy with his knuckles. It seemed thick enough, if it was made of the right stuff. And the exterior, what was it made of?

He fell back in the seat again. “Even if I do survive the entry,” he said aloud, “without any systems working to break the fall, I’ll just splat on the surface. After that, , let’s see if all the King’s precious little brain cells can put a pulverized Humpty Dumpty back together again?”

Chapter 34

Speed became apparent as he reached the upper levels of the atmosphere and gained some perspective. Streaks of white raced across the canopy and he began to feel the pod rocking back and forth. The white streaks were soon replaced with ribbons of flame.

The interior was scorching hot, testing the limits of his mutant tolerance. His lungs felt like they were inhaling fire and his eyes burned as any trace of lubrication evaporated. Yet even through his agony, his mind stayed sharp, if distracted. He noticed that the tiny pod didn’t tumble, but instead seemed to catch the thickening air mass and begin a more nuanced entry, rather than a head-long fall. This was encouraging. The Klin didn’t need to design their pods to be aerodynamic, not unless they intended them to be used for atmospheric reentry….

The long canopy was facing upwards, towards space, so Adam couldn’t tell how close he was to the surface. But there was one thing he was sure of: He was falling a lot faster than what would be classified as a soft landing. Unless the capsule transformed into a glider, he was still heading for the preverbal sudden stop that punctuated most long falls from great heights.

Then it happened. At first he didn’t understand why, and he was in no condition to look a gift horse in the mouth.

A parachute deployed.

The pod was thrown into an upright position, with the narrow point aimed downward and the parachute attached to the thicker part above Adam’s head. It had to be a barometric switch, he reasoned, set to trip the parachute mechanically upon reaching a certain air pressure. For once, Adam was thankful that the Klin calculated for every possible outcome.

He was in a standing position, able to look out the canopy at the approaching landscape. He was near a large city, currently in a state of conflagration. Although much of it was still intact, Adam could tell from the size and frequency of the flames whipping into tornadic funnels above the city that it was a lost cause.

Just then, a sudden gust of wind spun his tiny pod around. Racing toward him was the facade of a burning skyscraper.

He only had a second before the pod crashed into the building, shattering the canopy and spearing him with dozens of shards of glass. Blood covered his bare chest, face and legs before his mutant healing powers stopped the flow. But what sum total of injuries he was to suffer from the landing on Anbor-Namin, that was still to be determined.

The unseen parachute above caught on something and ripped away, allowing the pod to tumble backwards—once, then twice—before it crashed to the ground face down in a pile of broken and smoldering debris.

Adam was still strapped in the chair, but now his face was only a few inches from the ground. He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He was on the ground—and although the pod was toast—his body was still relatively intact.

Then something moved outside the crushed capsule. Adam could see a sliver of light on either side, and that’s when he saw the treads of an AN-9 roll up beside the pod. Adam remained motionless, holding his breath for as long as his mutant brain cells allowed.

Six minutes passed before the robot grew bored and moved on.

He waited another five before unfastening the harness and letting his body fall the short distance to the hot, black soil of the planet.

He was trapped under the broken pod, but using his super strength, he braced his back against the pressure seat and pushed with his bare legs and feet. The tiny craft lifted away without too much effort, and with it riding on his back like a turtle’s shell, Adam chanced a look outside.

This part of the city was in utter ruin. The AN-9s must have entered here first and were now systematically moving through the city destroying everything they saw. Adam pushed the pod away and stood up, getting his first full view of the devastation.

To his surprise, there were still hundreds of people on the burned out streets. But most were battered, bloodied and bruised, with empty looks of confusion on their alien faces. The natives were the most plentiful species—gaunt-looking creatures in their own right, with huge, six-inch wide fans growing out of each side of their narrow heads. There were other species here, too, including an eight-foot-tall Juirean Guard with half his green mane burned off. He noticed Adam and stopped to stare for a moment. There was no hatred in his eyes, or accusation. After a moment, he broke his gaze, turned and staggered away.

With Anbor-Namin one of the regional capitals of the Expansion, Adam guessed the population had to be in the billions. Even three million AN-9s couldn’t kill them all, not before their batteries ran dry. But they could kill enough to send the planet back to the stone age.

Cannin had mentioned his robots could operate for six days between charges. They were also capable of tapping into local energy sources for the recharge. Theoretically—until they destroyed all the power plants—the robots could operate for weeks.

Adam was startled by a tremendous rumbling vibration. He looked down the long avenue just as a fifty-story building half a mile away toppled over. It wasn’t burning or appeared to be damaged in any way. It was just falling. Then through the billowing cloud of dust, Adam noticed the glow of laser beams and he understood instantly.

The robots had cut away the supports for the building, causing it to fracture and fall. Thousands of creatures were probably inside the building, seeking shelter from the killer robots outside. Collapsing gigantic buildings full of people was a very efficient way of multiplying the kills.

Flash bolts erupted from a side street. A crowd of terrified creatures ran into Adam’s view, followed by a trio of AN-9s, coming down the street in a configuration he’d never seen before. The rolling tracks had split apart and were now serving as legs, complete with knee joints and footpads. The robots easily climbed over fallen debris and the twisted remains of alien cars and trucks, following their targets.

Adam concentrated on the AN-9s, trying to access the firing controls of the flash weapons. But there was nothing there. He was shocked back to the reality that his ATD was down. He’d had the device for so long that he felt a deep sadness upon its passing. He’d also come to rely on the device more than he should have.

In his reverie, Adam almost missed it when one of the AN-9s noticed him. A laser beam lashed out in his direction. Adam jumped on mutant-enhanced legs, landing across the street before the robot could retarget. He rushed into a still burning building.

More beams penetrated the smoke-filled room he was in, but the AN’s aim was off. Adam was moving too fast for it to get an accurate lock.

The lasers stopped, replaced by a barrage of metal slugs piercing the gloom. Adam dove behind a fallen concrete column just as bullets raked the other side of his hiding place…until Adam heard the gun click several times, out of ammunition.

This was his chance.

Adam burst out into the street, holding a two hundred pound chunk of broken concrete in his hands. The AN-9 was recharging its laser batteries and it was out of live ammo. Adam lifted the concrete block—just as an incredible surge of raw electricity struck his bare chest.

Unlike the first time Adam had been struck with the electric stun charge, he knew what was coming. He held his ground and didn’t fall. Instead, he allowed his mutant cells to absorb the energy and spread it throughout his body.

Although the robot could absorb energy bolts and deflect metal rounds with its magnetic repulse field, it had no defense against a crazed superhuman slamming a two hundred pound block of concrete onto its head. The dome on top crumbled, as did a pretty good portion of the AN-9s internal volume. When Adam brought the block down for a second time, the robot fell silent.

But it was still deadly.

Adam literally flew through a blown out window in the building he’d been hiding in. He reached the other side of the fallen concrete column just as the AN-9’s self-destruct bomb went off.

As the smoke cleared, he leaned back against the smooth surface of the fallen column. That’s one down, he thought. Only three million, three hundred nine to go.

That’s went Adam heard the voice in his head.

It was Arieel.

Her mental voice felt low and depressed. She was calling out his name, over and over, in a slow cadence.

Arieel! Can you hear me?

The force of her mental response actual hurt. Adam! Is it really you?

Yes it’s me!

Where are you?

In the city…a city. Where are you?

We are gliding over an open area. The robots fire at us if we get too close. Why have you not been answering my calls?

The escape pod passed through the diffusion shield of the Klin ship, draining my ATD.

Yet it is working again.

Yeah. I just got zapped by a robot. It must have recharged the damn thing. I guess Formilian technology really is the best in the galaxy.

Damn right! Arieel said. Adam sensed her mental smile, as she adopted Human–speak to make her point.

Can you lock onto me?

Yes I can. I will have Colonel Nolan steer toward your location immediately.

I’ll move out of the city so you can make a safer pickup. Just keep tracking me.

We will. I am so glad you survived.

Likewise, I’m sure.

* * *

Adam was now able to scan the local area for hostiles, and there were plenty. He also found they were firing their flash weapons. Even knowing some friendlies would die from the self-destruct bombs, Adam set about severing a number of firing circuits in the AN-9’s flash weapons. At least the killer robots wouldn’t survive to kill thousands more. A dozen explosions sounded around him.

When the area was clear, Adam set off toward the south end of the alien city. He ran barefoot over broken and sharp debris, allowing his mutant healing powers to keep him going. He didn’t have an accurate measure of his speed, but he figured he had to be running at close to a hundred miles per hour. Take that Usain Bolt!

He left the city and entered an area of suburban communities that had been left relatively unscathed throughout the invasion. The Klin killers were concentrating on the larger population centers, at least initially. He came to a large park, once covered in green grass, now being coated in a fine layer of soot blown in from the burning city. He waited for the Rutledge to arrive.

Epilogue

Two months later Adam and his team were once again in the conference room near the top of the O’lac Building on Formil, facing the same cast of characters as before…minus the Nuorean representative, of course. The invaders from Andromeda were persona non grata again, having had their leaderships’ role in the whole bounty-affair exposed. In light of the new crisis facing the galaxy, no one paid much attention to the Nuoreans anymore.

Adam was both frustrated and disappointed that he was here, once again defining a new threat to the leaders of the galaxy. It amazed him that something as large as a galaxy could actually have threats. Then he recalled all the hysteria involving over-population, oil shortages, global warming and other such catastrophic threats that supposedly endangered the Earth. In reality, the planet was never in danger, only to the creatures who occupied a very thin layer of dirt on the surface. The planet would get along just fine. It was the people who had the problem.

That was the same in the galaxy. It was the thousands of civilized worlds that were threatened by the Klin genocide. Even then, at first the concept seemed ridiculous. How could one race exterminate so many others? Adam was there to convince the power-that-be that it was a very real possibility.

“Are their robots really that effective?” asked the Castorian representative. Adam was too frustrated and impatient to bother with trying to remember their names.

“You saw the aftermath of Anbor-Namin,” Adam chided. “That was the first test of their machines. Although a billion people survived, the planet is a mess. Its cities are gone, its means of production, its infrastructure. The natives weren’t exterminated, but it will be decades—if not longer—before they’ll want to have anything to do with galactic affairs again. They’re going to be much too busy rebuilding their planet. And if there’s one thing I know about the Klin, they will adapt and improve. This is just the current version of their killer robots—the AN-9. Imagine what an AN-20 will be capable of.”

“But can the Klin really expect to attack eight thousand worlds, and that’s just in the Expansion? The logistics would be unimaginable.” The speaker was a blue-skinned creature with three sets of arms. Adam had seen his kind around, but he didn’t know what they were called.

“They’ve already attacked one, then the black ship left orbit and disappeared into a deep well, to go back where big black invincible warships go after destroying a planet. But it will be back. In the meantime, the death toll on Anbor-Namin will be near three billion. You know how many Klin were lost in the battle?” Adam asked. He held up his middle finger as an answer. He was sure most of the aliens at the table weren’t aware of the other meaning of the gesture. “One. Just one…and I killed him. Not someone in the defensive fleet or on the ground. So, yes, I believe they can. And the Klin are extremely patient. It may take a thousand years for them to fulfill their Grand Plan, but they’ll keep working at it, planet by planet.”

Adam looked at the Juirean Overlord at the table. “Why the hell did you guys have to go piss off the Klin in the first place? Bad move. Bad.”

It was a rhetorical question. Which was good; the Juirean remained silent.

“So what do we do, Captain Cain?” asked the Human Ambassador, Brandon Hale.

Adam locked a cold stare onto the politician. He still owed Adam and his team an explanation why he led them to the elevator with the four armored assassins….

“The Klin’s major weakness is their cockiness.” Adam knew that for half the attendees, the term wouldn’t translate. He didn’t care. “They truly believe their machines can’t be beat and that their strategies are perfect.”

“But you just said they adapt to situations,” Hale countered. “You only adapt when your strategy doesn’t work…and you accept that fact.”

“That’s right,” Adam conceded. “But the Klin are slow learners in that regard. Since their plans are set decades in advance, they’re like trying to turn an aircraft carrier, slow and wide. We have an opportunity to knock the wind out of their sails.”

“Spare us the bromides, Captain Cain,” the ambassador said. “What can we do?”

“Two fold. First, use the Formilian brain-interface technology to build a whole new defensive network geared at penetrating the inner workings of the Klin robots. They can’t be defeated from the outside—”

“Nuclear devices,” said the Castorian.

Adam shook his head. “The robots operate within major population centers. You’d be wiping out millions of innocents and contaminating their planets for generations. The Klin know this. That’s why they didn’t build behemoth killing machines that would make easy targets.”

“And your second point,” Hale asked.

“We find where the Klin are hiding.”

“We have been looking for them for four thousand years,” said the Juirean, sarcastically.

“We’re just going to have to do a better job,” Adam countered. “They’re coming out of their shell, sticking their heads out to build robots, massive warships and to destroy worlds. That has to leave a trail.”

There was an unexpected quiet around the table as the politicians considered their options. They really didn’t have very many. They could send the largest fleet ever assembled against the black ships of the Klin and they still couldn’t destroy them. The more you fire on them, the stronger they get. And if you don’t fire, they simply go about their business and invade more planets. A new approach was needed, one using good technology to overcome evil technology.

For Adam, finding the remaining two hundred thousand Klin and wasting them was the best answer. And if given the chance, he wanted to lead that effort.

Considering that he was The Great Adam Cain, he was sure he’d get his way.

The End

Next Up:

Invasion Force

The Human Chronicles Saga #21

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Novels by T.R. Harris

The Adam Cain Saga

The Dead Worlds

Empires

Battle Plan

Galactic Vortex

Dark Energy

Universal Law

The Formation Code

The Quantum Enigma (coming Aug. 2020)

The Human Chronicles

The Fringe Worlds

Alien Assassin

The War of Pawns

The Tactics of Revenge

The Legend of Earth

Cain’s Crusaders

The Apex Predator

A Galaxy to Conquer

The Masters of War

Prelude to War

The Unreachable Stars

When Earth Reigned Supreme

A Clash of Aliens

Battlelines

The Copernicus Deception

Scorched Earth

Alien Games

The Cain Legacy

The Andromeda Mission

Last Species Standing

Invasion Force

Force of Gravity

Mission Critical

The Lost Universe

The Immortal War

Destroyer of Worlds

Phantoms

Terminus Rising

The Last Aris

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Box Set #5—Books 21-25 in the series

REV Warriors Series

Rev

REV: Renegades

REV: Rebirth

REV: Revolution

REV: Retribution

REV: Revelations (coming soon)

REV Warriors Box Set #1 – Books 1-3 in the series

Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

The Enclaves of Sylox

Treasure of the Galactic Lights

The Drone Wars Series

Day of the Drone

In collaboration with Co-Author George Wier…

The Liberation Series

Captains Malicious

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