The Fringe Worlds

The Human Chronicles Saga Book 1

T.R. Harris

In this alien universe, WE are the Supermen!

Copyright 2011

by Tom Harris Creations, LLC

ISBN: 978-0-9858849-6-3

Edited by

Lionel Dyck

Sherry Dixon

Grammarly

And of course…

Nikko, the Grammar Dog

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

…the book that started it all

The Fringe Worlds

Book #1 in

The Human Chronicles Saga

Humans…

WE are the Supermen of the Galaxy.

The unique concept behind The Human Chronicles is what helped propel the series to the top of the charts since its introduction in October 2011. Since then, a total of twenty-nine books have been added to the Saga and with three continuing series, including The Adam Cain Saga, The Human Chronicles Legacy Series and the Human for Hire series.

All are available on Amazon.com

and in Kindle Unlimited.

Find out what the buzz is all about.

The adventures of Adam Cain await you.

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What readers are saying about

The Fringe Worlds…

This book is just plain fun. It's a light, easy and fast read; it doesn't mess around or waste words; and it doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. It's just a throw-down space fighting, barroom brawling, shoot-em up, tough-guys in the galaxy tale that anyone with a sense of humor and a love of sci-fi in the flavor of Douglas Adams will enjoy. – John Daulton

One of the best SF books I've read in a long time! Harris gives a concise story, efficient adventure and characters I cheered for! I can hardly wait for the next installment! – Genie233

A truly amazing piece of sci-fi literature that only has one flaw - once you start reading it, you cannot put it down, and that will make you reach the end of it rather soon. The story is extremely easy to read, amusing and leaves you hungry for the sequel. Read it if you look for entertainment that makes you feel better about yourself as a human. One of the best reads in the field of sci-fi that I have come across for years! – Urmas

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Novels by T.R. Harris

Human for Hire Series

Human For Hire

Human for Hire (2) - Soldier of Fortune

Human for Hire (3) — Devil’s Gate

The Human Chronicles Legacy Series

Raiders of the Shadow

War of Attrition

Secondary Protocol

Lifeforce

Battle Formation

Allied Command

The Adam Cain Saga

The Dead Worlds

Empires

Battle Plan

Galactic Vortex

Dark Energy

Universal Law

The Formation Code

The Quantum Enigma

Children of the Aris

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

Box Set #6 — Books 26-29 in the series

REV Warriors Series

Rev

REV: Renegades

REV: Rebirth

REV: Revolution

REV: Retribution

REV Warriors Part 2

REV: Revelations

REV: Resolve

REV: Requiem

REV Warriors Series Part 1 Box Set - The COMPLETE Series (5 books)

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.

Contents

Adam Cain…

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

And now…

Adam Cain…

Alien Assassin - Chapter 1

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Novels by T.R. Harris

Adam Cain…

…is an alien with an attitude.

Here’s why…

Chapter 1

Whoever designed this ship should be shot!

After all, with focusing rings so crucial to the operation of the gravity drive, Kaylor never understood why the designers had set them in the most difficult areas of the ship to reach. And this ring was for the main generator.

Frustrated, Kaylor felt another bead of sweat flow down his forehead and into his left eye. Cursing under his breath, he fought to regain focus while adjusting the gripper unit for one more stab at the stubborn focusing ring. Normally, fitting the device back into its cradle wasn’t such a chore, but the tool he was using was antiquated, and the gears kept slipping, allowing the ring to wobble. Just about everything aboard his ship was like that these days: old and desperately in need of either repair or replacement.

But Kaylor couldn’t complain too much about the condition of his ship, not considering the price he’d paid for her.

The FS-475 was an old cargo hauler he’d found drifting out beyond the Silean Sector of The Void, having been attacked, stripped and then discarded by the Fringe Pirates. He never learned the fate of the crew, content in the knowledge that the vastness of space was a very convenient place to hide the bodies.

After Kaylor was awarded the salvage, it took him three years to cull together enough spare parts to make the vessel space-worthy again. Then with confidence and bravado—and an operational ship he could call his own—Kaylor entered the office of his current hauler boss with a well-rehearsed demand for a substantial increase in his commission rate.

Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t go exactly as planned.

Kaylor entered the room as a senior pilot for a very large and well-connected shipping operation; he left as a freelance mule-driver with no contracts and all his savings drained by the repair of the FS-475. That was fourteen standard years ago, and even though most of the intervening time had been a struggle, Kaylor survived, if not living out his dream of fame and fortune among the stars, then at least making ends meet.

Now, if I can just get this damn ring back in place….

With his body contorted in the narrow access tube like some Castorian string-dancer, his challenge was to get the gripper over a protruding electrical conduit and around a blind ninety-degree bend…and do it all by feel. With a grunt, he reached forward again, both arms outstretched to their max—yet carefully—until he felt the tool contact the ring. With a push of the control button on the gripper’s handle, he heard a click as the clamps finally gained access to the coupling brace. Another press of the button and the welcoming whirl of the ring being tightened into place echoed throughout the access tube.

Kaylor collapsed on the hard metal surface and closed his eyes, his breathing labored and amplified by the metal walls. That was an ordeal, and one entirely of his own making.

A recalibration hadn’t been necessary, not with the ring out of focus by less than half a degree. But he did it anyway, in a foolish attempt to escape the mind-numbing boredom that came with transiting The Void. Now three hours later, he was exhausted and soaked in sweat, ensconced in the dim confined space of the third-level access tube, lamenting on the latest in a long series of bad decisions he’d made throughout his life.

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be his last.

His quiet reverie was interrupted when a phantom voice echoed around him. “Kaylor, you better get down here.”

“What is it, Jym?”

“I have a contact.”

Kaylor’s heart skipped a beat as he was hit with the ramifications of those four innocent words. Without hesitation, he scooped up his tool kit and began shimmying down the access tube. “I’m on my way.”

It was only a short distance along the generator corridor to the second level access ladder, yet it gave Kaylor time enough to conjure up any number of dire scenarios to the news Jym had just laid on him. To be in the vicinity of another ship this far into The Void was almost unheard of; the odds far beyond coincidence. And without the possibility of assistance from any planetary police authority, it also meant that the two of them were on their own against whatever threat this contact might pose.

Sliding smoothly down the arms of the ladder to the deck below, Kaylor half-sprinted the remaining distance to the open doorway to the pilothouse. Jym was seated at the nav console, engrossed in his calculations while visibly bouncing in his chair. Kaylor fell into the driver’s seat and began scanning the inset screen before him. There was a bright blip of light in the upper right corner, moving slowly at a diagonal toward the center. The blip was extremely bright, indicating that the ship was either very large or at full-drive. Either way, the contact was a threat.

“Any indication he sees us?” Kaylor asked.

“None. We’ve been dark while you’ve been working on the focusing ring.”

Fortunate for us, Kaylor thought. The only energy signature they would be giving off would be from the ship’s internal gravity wells, which were too weak to be detected this far out. He began to relax—a little—watching the distance between the contact and his ship increase steadily from the momentum they still carried, even without the generators fired up.

This might be okay—

Just then, the large blip separated into two smaller ones and began to expand into a shallow “V” formation. Simultaneously, Kaylor and Jym leaned in closer to their screens, looking for any indication of hostile intent. After a moment, they leaned back and shared a collective sigh of relief.

“How long until we’re out of range?” Kaylor asked, not taking his eyes from the screen.

Jym tapped the keys of the nav console. “About half an hour,” he reported, his voice half an octave higher than normal. Then he snorted and shrugged. “How about some Hildorian tea while we wait? I need something to calm my nerves.”

“Sounds good; I’ll keep watch.”

Kaylor suspected Jym was planning to drop a little blue pill into his tea. Knowing the emotional tendencies of his co-pilot, that wasn’t such a bad idea. In fact, Kaylor just might join him….

Thirty minutes later, Kaylor and Jym sat with their feet on their consoles, sipping tea and enjoying the light narcotic effects of the intoxicant. The two contacts were very close to the right edge of the view screen by now and in a few minutes would be out of range. That’s when Kaylor would fire up the generators and bolt out of the area. Only then would he let down his guard.

The two blips flared brightly—and disappeared from the screen!

In unison, pilot and co-pilot dove for their consoles, with Kaylor spilling the tea down the front of his tunic in the process. Ignoring the hot liquid, he began to prep the generators for power.

“Do you have them?” he barked.

“I’m working on it!” Jym feverishly tapped the keys of his console, causing two flashing red circles to appear on the screen where the contacts had last been recorded. “From the strength of the back-wells, it looks like they’ve come to a stop,” Jym said aghast.

“They didn’t change course with the back-well?”

“It doesn’t look like it. They’re dark … and just sitting out there.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Kaylor continued his preparations, yet resisted activating the generators, a move which would clearly announce their presence. Taking a chance that they could still slip out of range undetected, he hesitated.

Just a few more minutes. Still, why would—

Kaylor stopped in mid-thought as another blip appeared on the screen, this one carrying a massive gravity signature and entering out of the upper left corner of the monitor. Kaylor glanced at Jym, who stared back at him, his mouth half-opened. He shrugged, answering the silent question.

Then it all began to make sense, as a much smaller contact appeared on the screen, following closely behind the massive blip, in obvious pursuit. No words were necessary; they knew what was happening: Pirates!

“Three of them….” Jym announced to the room, letting his voice trail off. “I’ve never heard of that many pirates working together.”

“This took planning,” Kaylor commented. “Look at the grav-sig of that ship. It’s incredible! The only chance they would have to bring it down is by working as a pack.” After a few taps on his board, Kaylor gasped. “That monster is working at ninety-eight percent efficiency!” The FS-475 operated at seventy-five, max. “The generators would be worth a fortune—”

“If the pirates can catch it,” Jym said. By the ever-increasing gap between the large ship and its pursuer, it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen.

“They don’t have to catch it,” Kaylor countered. “They’ve already set the trap.”

He was right. The pursuing ship was herding the large target directly toward the two dark contacts. The outcome was inevitable, and in a few minutes the carnage would begin.

Fortunately, Kaylor and Jym would not be around to see it. Their momentum was just about to carry them out of range—and to safety.

Kaylor felt a pang of regret. The target of the pirate’s trap was a magnificent ship, possibly the most-advanced he had ever scanned. He’d never heard of ninety-eight percent efficiency being achieved—and besides the generators—what other treasures did a ship that advanced carry within her hull? Kaylor’s regret came from the fact that the outcome of the attack was a foregone conclusion. Three pirates—operating in concert—would bring down a ship that size with relative ease. After that, they would have all the time they needed to pick it clean….

Kaylor jerked upright in his seat, his eyes wide and focused on the screen before him. Jym was startled by the movement. “What is wrong?”

“I just got an idea.”

Jym frowned and cocked his head. “No…no you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did, and this will work!” He leaned forward and began programming the piloting computer. “Pull up the ship’s inventory. I need to know if we still have those satellite drones onboard.”

“You’re not thinking about doing what I’m thinking you’re thinking about doing, are you?” The sentence was awkward but accurate.

Kaylor swiveled his chair until he faced Jym. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” His face was animated, his voice full of excitement.

Jym had seen this look before, and it made him nervous. “We can’t take on three pirates. We’re a muleship, with no weapons to speak of…except for that pea-gun you installed last year. What do you propose we do?”

“Remember a few years back, when we used a drone as a decoy to slip out of New Regian with those Regulators after us? We’ll do that again.” He scanned the inventory list Jym had posted on his screen. “We have six drones onboard. We hook grapples on them, then fan them out on either side of the ship and set their front- and back-wells at maximum. To the pirates, we’ll look like a whole fleet of Rigorian warships, six of them, plus us in the middle. There’s no way they’ll want to take on seven warships.”

“And then what, we just glide in and pick up the remains?” Jym still wasn’t buying it. “What if there’s still some crew alive? We can’t claim salvage rights without the ship being a derelict.”

He had a point; Kaylor hadn’t figured on the pirates not finishing their kill by the time he scared them off. “In that case, we’ll get a reward from the ship’s owners.” But that wasn’t good enough. Then softer: “Or we’ll let the pirates have a little more time to dispose of the crew before we move in.”

“That is really being civilized of us!” Jym said sarcastically.

Kaylor’s temper flared. “We are not the pirates here, Jym! This is a tremendous opportunity—for both of us. One big score like this, and we won’t have to keep towing cheap cargos back and forth throughout the Fringe. This could set us up for life.”

“And what if the pirates don’t scare off? What do we do then?”

Kaylor turned back to his screen to finish the intercept calculations. Then half under his breath, he answered: “Then we’ll bolt out. We’re pretty fast…when not towing a string.”

“You’re going to dump the string!” Jym yelled back.

Kaylor had had enough. He turned to face Jym again. “Just prep the drones! And yes, we’ll dump the string if we have to; we can always come back for it later. Do you not get it? This salvage will be worth a hundred strings of smokesticks. Now get to work. We do not have much time!”

Although the pair had crewed together for a long time—and were more like brothers than shipmates—Jym knew Kaylor was the boss. Besides, he had been right more often than not. So with one last defiant sigh, Jym turned to his console and began prepping the drones.

“I hope this works,” was all he said.

Me, too, Kaylor thought. Me, too.

It was simply called The Void, an impossibly empty region of space approximately forty-eight light-years long and eighteen wide. Devoid of even the most basic nebulae, dwarf stars, rogue asteroids or comets, The Void had been vacuumed clean a billion years before by a wandering blackhole until now it existed as a literal desert in space.

Along its inner rim was The Fringe, a cluster of thirty-seven stars of various classifications and supporting twelve habitable planets, ranging from the heavy rock giant of K’ly to the wispy Dimloe, with its four-meter tall inhabitants known for their grotesque cannibalistic rituals.

Along the outer edge of the Void was the Barrier, a dense cloud of pre-stellar gas, aglow in brilliant hues of red, green and orange. Although beautiful to behold, the Barrier was just that, the defining line between the civilized galaxy and the Far Arm, with its untold millions of unexplored systems stretching to the very edge of the galaxy. Unable to be pierced by conventional scanners or optical telescopes, much of what lay beyond the Barrier was nothing more than rumor, myth or supposition.

The Void restricted the outward migration of civilization into the Far Arm, keeping that region of space a mystery to all but the most daring or foolhardy.

Along this frontier region of the Juirean Expansion was where true galactic pioneers plied their craft, comprised of merchants, miners and entrepreneurs, along with some of the most-vile criminals to ever exist. Life on the Fringe worlds was not easy, yet for some, it was all they knew.

The Fringe was where Kaylor and Jym eked out a meager living, hauling strings of often forbidden cargo from one port to the next while staying ever-mindful of the changing political climate of each individual world in the Fringe.

Case in point: Silean Smokesticks. The Sileans prided themselves on the smoothness and strength of the herb that went into their ’sticks. This trait made them a valuable and cherished commodity to the Rigorians, who used them in many of their religious ceremonies—or so they claimed. If that was the case, then the savage lizard-like Rigorians were some of the most religious beings in the galaxy, as they consumed smokesticks like candy.

The problem for Kaylor and Jym was that to get from Silea to Rigor meant crossing Li’Polan space, where anyone caught transporting or selling intoxicants faced an immediate sentence of death without recourse. So to avoid Li’Polan space, hard-working traders were often forced to endure a three-week-long transit of The Void, which left Kaylor swearing after each transit that it would be his last.

And yet on Rigor, ’sticks were worth a small fortune….

Having prepped and deployed the drones, Kaylor pulled the FS-475 far enough away from the range barrier so he could get a running start toward the pirates. The plan was to build up a pretty good head of steam, then go dark and coast in the rest of the way undetected. Then as they grew closer, he would fire up the wells and surprise the pirates. As he explained to a still-skeptical Jym, he didn’t want to give the pirates time to build up the courage to confront his phantom fleet. By dropping in at the last minute, he was counting on a spontaneous reaction and an instinctive flight to safety.

At the right moment, Kaylor dissolved the well and went dark.

At this range, they were too far out to see the pirates visually, but the overlapping circles on the viewscreen began to creep ever closer to the left edge of the screen. Timing would be crucial. If they fired up too soon, the pirates might have time to analyze their gravity signatures and see through the ruse. Yet if they waited too long, then the pirates might feel they had little choice but to stay and fight. As the distance closed—and the tension in the pilothouse grew—Kaylor was having second thoughts about his plan….

Within a few minutes, they had closed to within extreme visual range, and Kaylor and Jym got their first real-life look at their targets. In the center was a large disk-shaped ship, clearly ten times the size of the three oblong-shaped pirate vessels. One of the raiders had attached an umbilical to the large ship, while the other two sat out at a distance, like wild beasts waiting patiently for their turn at the carcass.

Burn marks were visible along the hull of the target ship, with one prominent line running up and across a bulging pilot dome at the center of the disk. The ship had very few viewports along the fuselage, yet the ones it did have were still lit from inside. Kaylor tried to keep his imagination from conjuring up visions of what must be going on aboard the large ship. Pirates didn’t take prisoners; there was no money in ransom, with life in the Fringe so cheap. So it was only the hardware they were after. Soft-flesh creatures were just an obstacle to an end, and Kaylor was letting the killing go on longer than necessary, and all for his own selfish goals.

Oh well.

The moment finally came; it was now or never. Either Kaylor was going to do this or not. Just then, a strange calm descended over him—a resignation of sorts—and he engaged the gravity-wells.

The effect was nearly instantaneous. The two outer pirate ships fired up their back-wells and streaked off in the opposite direction from Kaylor’s line of approach. A few moments later, the umbilical tore away from the third pirate ship as it took a wide circular path behind the large ship using its chemical drive.

Then the unexpected happened: The pirate ship continued its wide arc, ending up facing Kaylor and his phantom fleet, hovering motionless in space.

“He’s not leaving!” Jym shouted the obvious.

Kaylor stopped breathing as he stared at his screen. He could imagine him and the pirate captain looking directly into each other’s eyes, daring the other to act. Neither wavered.

As the seconds passed, Jym began to fidget, glancing first at his screen, then to Kaylor and then back to the screen again. Still, Kaylor stared.

Finally, Jym had had enough. He reached for his own pilot-stick, determined to change course if Kaylor wouldn’t—

Just then, the pirate ship moved coming straight for them.

Kaylor and Jym were frozen with fear, even as grips tightened on control sticks. Yet their petrified indecision was all the time the pirate ship needed to turn about and activate its gravity drive. It bolted away in the opposite direction, disappearing visually into an event horizon a split second later.

It took an additional moment for Kaylor and Jym to realize what just happened. When awareness hit them, the pilothouse erupted in a chorus of cheers.

Collapsing into his chair, Kaylor closed his eyes momentarily, the pounding of his heart drowning out all other sounds around him. The ruse had worked…barely. But now there was still a lot of work to do.

Their adventure had just begun.

The pirate ships were off-screen before the FS-475 powered down and slipped in next to the huge disk-shaped starship. Kaylor’s plan was to connect an umbilical access tube of their own and go aboard for a quick survey and to see if anyone was left alive, including any abandoned pirates. They would then attach grapples to the big ship and pull it away before the pirates worked up the courage to come back. There would be time enough for treasure hunting on the way to Nimor, where they would register the vessel and make the salvage official.

Jym opened the outer viewport blast shield so he and Kaylor could get their first look at the huge ship in natural light. It was huge, measuring easily five to six times the mass of Kaylor’s muleship, yet the configuration was all wrong. Very few starships were disk-shaped. It also had very few nodes interrupting the smoothness of the glistening hull. It was a beautiful ship, and Kaylor was salivating, thinking of the riches that awaited him inside.

So with childlike enthusiasm, Kaylor suited up and began the trek through the umbilical, anxious to start counting the Juirean credits he and Jym would earn from this magnificent salvage.

Chapter 2

Even though the scans indicated an atmosphere and gravity aboard the ship, Kaylor wore an environment suit as he crossed the umbilical. A working airlock met him on the other side, and once he was safely through, he raised the visor on his helmet and took in a deep breath of air. A strong trace of ozone met his nostrils, along with the distinctive scent of burning flesh. Even though the smell was offensive, he kept the visor open so he could hear better, cautious of any threats that might still linger within the ship.

He was in a wide corridor that curved off in both directions, following the gentle circumference of the ship. Proceeding carefully, he came upon two dead Jakreans a few moments later, their gray flesh burned in several spots and tunics stained with blood. He wasn’t surprised to find Jakreans aboard. They were the workhorses of the galaxy; semi-intelligent beings who followed orders and not much more. If instructed, they would defend a position, even if they had no military training or expertise. They were simply fodder, allowing more advance beings time to either flee or mount other defenses. Kaylor was sure he’d find more of the tiny gray creatures during his survey, and just like these, dead and smoldering.

Next, he came upon a wide window set in the wall to his right. On the other side was a vast room filled with row upon row of hiberpods. He’d never seen so many in one room, especially since suspended animation wasn’t necessary except for trans-galaxy journeys. Curious, he entered through an open doorway, only to find three more dead Jakreans inside, along with another being, this one taller and dressed all in silver. His head was large, with a long sloping forehead and a crest of long white hair. The creature had been shot in the back before falling on his side. Red blood pooled under the body, as a Magnis laser weapon remained in the grasp of the dead silver being.

At least he put up a fight….

Moving closer to the pods, Kaylor saw they were all occupied by creatures still hooked to the fluid tubes, yet oddly, each one he passed had a small, bloody puncture wound in the temple. All the pod canopies were open, and a quick count of the rows put the total pods at eighty. Moving quickly past the dead silver creature, Kaylor confirmed that each of the creatures in the pods had the same wound to their temples—the distinctive type indicative of the laser weapon held by the dead silver creature.

They had all been executed.

The creatures in the pods were Primes, mostly male, well-muscled and a little shorter than average height. Kaylor didn’t recognize the species, but that wasn’t unusual. With over eight-thousand Primes in the Juirean Expansion, he wasn’t expected to know them all. And these creatures had been intentionally killed, not by the pirates, but apparently by the ship’s crew. Kaylor had seen slave ships before, yet none carried their cargo in such elaborate facilities, let alone murder them all to keep them from falling into pirate hands.

“Are you seeing this?” Kaylor asked through his comm-unit.

Jym answered immediately. “This is strange. But you better get moving, Kaylor. The pirates won’t stay away much longer.”

Jym was right. Once they got the grapples on and slipped into a gravity-well, he’d have plenty of time to come back for a more thorough accounting.

He left the pod room and proceeded further down the corridor, passing three more dead Jakreans and two of the silver creatures. Everything was silent. There was no indication that anyone else was aboard—at least no one among the living.

A wide stairway appeared on Kaylor’s left leading toward the center of the ship. He cautiously climbed the stairs before reaching the ship’s command center, which was located in the central dome area he’d seen from outside. All the control consoles ran along the outer bulkhead, and opposite them was a large array of equipment modules and computers towering twelve feet high. Kaylor could see where one of the pirates’ plasma blasts had penetrated the command dome, slashing through a section of control consoles before being contained by sealing foam. The room was airtight now, and even some of the electronics still functioned.

He moved to one of the consoles and began a quick survey of the control units he could see. As it was with everything else he knew about this ship, they were some of the most sophisticated he’d ever seen. He turned his attention to the equipment bank behind him, his breath coming in gasps over the equally impressive navigation and life support units he saw. This was the motherlode. Not only were salvageable units here, but they were also the most valuable he’d ever seen. And he hadn’t made it to the generator room yet.

Then he froze, his gaze locked on a module within the equipment rack.

It was the ship’s computer core—the single-most valuable piece of equipment aboard—if one didn’t count the massive—and impossible to remove—gravity generators. The cores of interstellar command computers were some of the most sought after pieces of equipment, with a thriving black market adept at reprogramming them for subsequent resale at astronomical rates. In the case of normal derelicts resulting from pirate attacks, the computer core was the first treasure removed from the ship, so it was a miracle that this one was still here. And unlike gravity generators, the core was something Kaylor could easily haul back to his ship.

Kaylor stepped up to the rack and flicked the four securing latches at each corner of the three-foot-square module. He grasped the two side handles of the core and pulled the unit from its holder…just as the three steady orange lights in the equipment bank above the core turned yellow and began to oscillate from right to left. Before he could ponder why his comm sounded—

“Kaylor!” Jym shouted into his helmet.

“I know, I better hurry up—”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Pirates?”

“No. I’m detecting gamma-ray signatures.”

Kaylor froze in place. “Strong?”

“Yes. I think the source is right there in the room with you.”

Kaylor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Why would they have a nuclear device onboard?”

“It could be a self-destruct,” Jym offered.

“It just started?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t the pirates trigger it? Can you pinpoint the source?”

Kaylor let the computer core fall to the deck with a loud metal-on-metal thud and then began to frantically search the room, looking for any device that looked like a self-destruct indicator. Ten seconds later he grabbed the core and headed for the stairway. Jym’s words stopped him in his tracks.

“The source is about four feet behind you, somewhere in the equipment bank. And Kaylor, the signal’s getting stronger.”

To his right was the void left in the rack where the command computer had been. Bending down, Kaylor inserted himself into the opening and turned on his helmet light. Against the back bulkhead was a rectangular box with a lighted display. It was a counter, ominously clicking down numbers…

Kaylor knew Jym could see this, too. “Is this it?”

“I will run it through the Library,” Jym said, and a moment later, he came back on the line. “It is a self-destruct all right. A simple timer is counting down. When it reaches zero we will be nothing but a cloud of radioactive debris.”

“How long do we have? Can we get out of range in time?” Kaylor gritted his teeth. He was so close to the big score, and now it looked as though he’d have to abandon the salvage—

“No!” Jym screamed in his ear.

“What’s wrong?”

“At the pace of the countdown, the device will activate in less than seven minutes.”

Kaylor felt his face flush as his pulse quickened. It would take him five minutes just to get back to the ship. Even Jym would need seven minutes or more to charge up the generators to get away on his own. Escape was impossible.

As had happened before, that same sense of calm resignation swept through Kaylor. He sighed. “We’ll have to disarm it.”

There was a moment of silence on the comm-link before Jym spoke. “I am scanning the Library to see if there are any instructions for disarming such a device. Give me a moment.”

“A moment is all we have.”

Less than thirty seconds later, Jym spoke again. “I have something. The controls appear to be a simple degradation program. It says if we can reverse the contacts, the process should be reversed, adding time instead of subtracting.”

Could it really be that simple? Kaylor didn’t ponder the question. Instead, he inserted himself further into the opening until he was only inches from the control panel. He pulled a small tool kit from a utility pocket in his environment suit, and after removing a motorized screw extractor, set to work removing the outer panel to the timing device. The work went quickly, and soon he was looking into the guts of the control unit. There were wires and connectors and several circuit boards. “Which one is the timer?”

“Follow the leads from the display panel.”

“It is right here in front.”

Removing a gripping tool from the kit, Kaylor reached into the timing unit, past the maze of wires and to the circuit board beyond. Positioning the gripper, he was set to lock down the board when he felt an excruciating pain in both of his ankles—and was violently yanked out of the opening.

He flew across the room, landing hard on top of the command console, shocked and dazed, his ribs burning. As his senses returned, Kaylor was face-to-face with one of the Primes from the hiberpods—a male—and naked except for a sheet wrapped around his lower torso. This creature definitely was not dead. Instead, it glared at Kaylor, clenching his fists and baring teeth in a sign of open challenge.

Then he charged.

Raising his arm in defense, Kaylor managed to block an incoming fist from the insane creature. A moment later, the pilothouse was filled with Kaylor’s high-pitched scream, as his arm broke from the incredible collision. Waves of agony swept through him, before his environment suit injected a numbing med, providing at least a bearable level of relief from the pain.

But the savage creature wasn’t done. The crazed beast grabbed Kaylor by his suit and threw him off the console, sending him once again flying through the air and across the room. Through the haze of the pain and the drugs, Kaylor was amazed at the strength of the creature.

Falling hard to the floor, Kaylor experienced another spasm of pain, this time in his right shoulder. He rolled to his left and managed to pull his MK-17 from a side holster. He pointed it at his attacker, who to Kaylor’s surprise hesitated, staring at the weapon. But when no bolt erupted from the barrel, the creature pounced again.

Without a moment to spare, the targeting computer in the weapon locked onto his attacker. Kaylor squeezed the trigger. A ball of blue lightning flashed out of the barrel, striking the creature in the chest. The alien was thrown back against the control console, screaming in pain and swatting at its chest and the already-blistering skin and burnt hair. But he didn’t go down. The creature was stunned, but only momentarily.

Kaylor couldn’t believe the creature was still alive, but his shock soon turned to terror as his assailant pushed off from the console and leaped into the air—

Kaylor’s stomach rose up in his mouth, and he nearly vomited, as the internal gravity wells for the ship dissolved, leaving Kaylor—and his attacker—weightless and disoriented.

The charging creature was caught unprepared. The sudden loss of gravity left him airborne and flying through the pilothouse. He soared directly over Kaylor, yet even as he passed overhead, he still tried to reach down and grab him. The alien missed by a hair—and with his head turned back toward Kaylor—slammed into the opposite wall with a dull thud, striking a sharp protrusion on the bulkhead. He fell limp, with small droplets of blood filling the space around the drifting body.

Kaylor collapsed on the deck, bruised and broken, the medicine from the suit fighting a losing battle against the pain of his shattered arm. In the zero gravity, he began to drift upward slightly until the magnets in his boots activated, placing him in an upright position.

He became aware of screaming in his helmet. It was Jym.

“I am…I am all right,” Kaylor said unsurely.

“The bomb! Hurry!”

The bomb? The bomb!

Snapping to his senses, Kaylor fought through the pain in his broken arm and dove for the computer core opening. The timer was down to ninety-four, ninety-three, ninety-two. Twisting his head around, Kaylor found the gripper tool floating near the top of the opening. He snatched it out of the air, and then with his good right hand, quickly positioned it onto the circuit board. He pulled.

The board didn’t move. It was stuck.

“Try again!” Jym screamed.

With only one good arm, Kaylor struggled to reposition the gripper more to the center of the board before pulling again. This time it popped out. Kaylor quickly turned the board around, letting it float through the air before grabbing it by the tool again, this time flipped around. Three times in rapid succession, Kaylor tried to place the board back into the slot. On the fourth try, it snapped into place.

The counter—down to sixteen seconds—began to click upwards. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen….

Kaylor was in too much pain to celebrate his victory. His ribs burned, his broken arm screamed with pain, and his right shoulder throbbed in time with his rapidly beating heart.

“Are we going to live?” asked Jym’s equally exhausted voice.

“For a while longer.”

A few moments later, it was time to get back to work. Extracting himself from the equipment bank, Kaylor spotted the still unconscious creature drifting near the ceiling to his right. The number of blood bubbles hadn’t grown, so the head wound must have sealed itself, and the slow, rhythmic movement of the creature’s chest told Kaylor the beast was alive.

Kaylor grimaced, even more than he was doing from the pain, as he made a decision he hoped he wouldn’t live to regret. He pulled a connecting cord from his suit and fastened one end to a corner latch on the computer core. Then reaching up with his right arm, he took hold of a barefoot of the creature. He moved toward the exit, trailing the core and the floating creature behind him like a pair of bizarre, mismatched balloons.

“Set the grapples, Jym,” Kaylor commanded. “I’m on my way back.”

Chapter 3

Within the hour, the FS-475 was back in a gravity-well and half a million kilometers from the location of the attack, with the large derelict ship in tow. Kaylor found Jym in the aft cargo hold, cinching down the last of five cargo straps around the still-unconscious creature, now firmly secured to one of the workbenches in the room. Jym wasn’t taking any chances; he’d seen what this thing could do.

Kaylor wore a blue cast on his broken left arm and had placed a torso brace around his bruised ribs. Another dose of pain medication helped, but his arm still throbbed. In any event, he didn’t question Jym’s caution when it came to the alien.

When done with his task, Jym asked the question: “What are we going to do with it?”

Kaylor had thought about this while tending to his injuries. “I believe this is a male of the species, and he may come in handy,” he began. “This creature was cargo aboard the ship. He could be a witness to what happened, verifying that pirates attacked the ship, and not us.”

“Then why did he attack you? We weren’t the ones who attacked the ship.”

Kaylor let out a snort. “Well, only my ass was sticking out of the opening in the equipment bank. He probably thought I was one of the pirates.”

“Then we’ll have to convince him that you are not.”

“That should not be a problem if this thing is intelligent enough to have a spoken language. We also have to be on guard that he doesn’t go berserk when he wakes up. I do not know how civilized this thing is, but he acted like a wild animal when he attacked me.”

“You should consider yourself lucky that you’re not dead. Take a look at this.” Jym led him over to a computer screen set in the wall above a small work desk. Punching a few keys, he pulled up an image that Kaylor recognized as a transparency scan.

“Before I bandaged the head wound, I took a scan of the skull to see how deep the puncture went. Look at this…” Jym pointed at the image, to a section indicating the thickness of the skull. “The bone structure is extremely dense and thick. The wound is shallow, but the trauma caused a slight swelling in the brain, right here. It will go down, and there should not be any permanent damage.”

“So? That is good for him.”

Jym glared at Kaylor before switching images. “Since the skull structure was so thick, I went ahead and did a full-body scan, and here, look at the bones in the arm.” On the screen was a cross-section of what appeared to be an almost solid structure.

“That is a bone? It looks more like a metal rod.”

“No, it is bone,” Jym answered. “But look how thick it is, easily twice that of yours or mine. There is no wonder that your arm snapped like a twig when this thing hit you. And look at the muscle density. I would hate to go up against this thing—ever—even in full body armor.”

Kaylor studied the scan closer. He knew something about anatomy, since operating as an independent mule-driver on the fringe of civilization often meant having to fend for oneself from a medical standpoint. He also knew from these scans that only the most primitive of creatures had such a skeletal structure, animals closer to the lower end of the evolutionary scale. Yes, Kaylor had been incredibly lucky. And now he had brought this thing aboard his ship….

“Put a monitor on him. We need to be very careful when he wakes up.”

Jym and Kaylor were in the common area of the ship; Kaylor reclined on a couch, his injured arm resting on his chest, and in the other a ’stick, with its burning end quickly filling the room with a pungent cloud of dense, white smoke.

Jym was seated at the central table, gnawing on a piece of green Filiean bark. He enjoyed the sweetness and texture, savoring each strand peeled from the bark as if it was a sexual experience. Even his eyes were glassy, but that may have had more to do with the smokestick in the room than anything else.

It had been over three hours since the meeting in the cargo hold, and during that time Kaylor had taken a shuttle pod over to the big ship and brought back a nav computer unit, a set of calibration tools and a few other smaller treasures that he could easily stow in the pod. And now, they were discussing their game plan for the upcoming salvage claim.

Between ripping bites of the bark, Jym was complaining. “I am just pointing out: Reg Four will hang us if we are caught.”

Kaylor took another long drag off the ’stick and then blew the smoke into the air with a flourish. “I know what Reg Four says. If anyone asks, we will say the pirates must have taken the units before we got there. I just want to make sure we get something for all our efforts, even if the salvage is not awarded.”

Reg Four was the law governing interstellar salvage procedures and referenced the restriction stating no items shall be removed from a derelict until the salvage was registered and the proper chain of ownership investigated. Otherwise, it was simply an act of piracy. By removing the computer core—along with the other items Kaylor had stored in the pod—they were technically just as guilty of a crime as were the pirates.

“I have checked the charts,” Kaylor announced. “We will pass within a million kilometers of an asteroid belt once we get in the Nimorian system. I’ll send the pod down to one of the bigger ones. They will not find anything aboard the ‘475.”

Jym knew Kaylor would be careful; he just liked to complain. All they had to do now was keep the creature in the cargo hold from seeing any of the booty, and they would be home free.

As if on cue, Jym glanced at the screen on the wall above Kaylor, displaying the interior of the cargo hold. The creature was beginning to stir on the workbench. He was waking up….

Chapter 4

The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was a sickly cross between rotting garbage and bad breath, and he almost gagged. Yet as a dull consciousness returned, Adam fought with all his instincts to remember his survival training. First, he had to remain still, learning all he could about his surroundings from the smell and sounds around him.

The smell was strange—like nothing he’d ever experienced—but the sounds he heard were non-threatening, just the soft whirl of a ventilation system and nothing more.

Carefully, he opened his eyes, just a little, just enough to get a quick sense of where he was. It was a large room with crates stacked against the far wall and three rows of light fixtures set into the ceiling. He was on a hard surface, lying on his back. He didn’t sense anyone else in the room.

Next, his training told him to assess his physical condition. He knew his head was injured, not only from the dull throbbing of his left temple but the fact that he could recall flying through the air and striking a hard metal wall with more force than he could imagine. Then he became aware of the burning sensation in his chest, remembering a blue bolt of lightning flaring out at him—

The bastard shot me!

Trying to piece together the fragments of his dream/memory, Adam was at a loss to explain the sensation of flying he had experienced as he jumped at the thing in the blue tunic—and just kept going. He remembered losing all sense of balance, and…it was confusing.

Anger swelled inside him. Adam had no idea what was real or imagined as the memories exploded in his head, filled with images of the Afghan mountains, of a burning white light, and a soft bed with warm liquid flowing down his arm…

He awoke to find he was in a capsule of some kind, and when he pushed open the clear plastic canopy and sat up, he discovered he was in a large, curving room with dozens of long canisters just like the one he was in, each with its own clear, dome-shaped cover. From where he sat, Adam could see into six of the other canisters. Each held another person; four men and two women, all naked, all asleep with needles and tubes in their arms.

He looked at his arm. The needles had come out, and a warm, clear liquid was flowing from the tubes. He climbed out of the canister, feeling lightheaded, his bare feet finding a cold metal surface. He stumbled but caught himself against the side of the canister. His legs were weak, but he managed to regain his balance quickly.

Next came the most bizarre part of his dream/memory.

A high-pitched screech sounded to his left, and when he turned to investigate there was something he recognized from just about every science fiction movie he’d ever seen. The creature was about four feet tall, with a long gray head and large black eyes as big as pears. The thing was dressed in a one-piece gray jumpsuit and was yelling at him, gesturing with its impossibly-thin arms, in an obvious fit of anger.

Adam had seen enough. Grabbing a sheet from the canister, he turned on his heel and ran off in the opposite direction from the gray creature, wrapping the sheet around himself as he went. He was dizzy and confused, not knowing if this was a hallucination or reality. So he fled, running past rows of identical canisters, each containing a tranquil, sleeping person.

Exiting through a doorway on his right, he entered a wide, curving corridor. Adam sprinted left down the hallway until he came to a single door set in the wall to his right. There was no doorknob, just a small depression about halfway down the door. He placed his hand in the slot, and the panel slid silently into the wall on its own.

Adam slipped inside. It was a small utility room with a single recessed light in the ceiling. Shelves lined three of the walls, all filled with boxes of various sizes. He closed the door, and the light went out.

He didn’t panic. Darkness was his friend, giving him comfort from his living nightmare. He crouched down and tried to calm his breathing to hear if anyone—or any thing—was following him. Everything was quiet.

He remained in the room for several minutes, then just as he built up the courage to look outside, all hell broke loose.

It was an earthquake.

The floor heaved up before dropping out from under him. He landed hard on his shoulder as the room bucked from left to right. Boxes rained down from the shelves, and he covered his head with his arms before crawling onto the lower shelf for cover.

And then it was over. All was quiet again—for a moment.

He heard—and felt—an explosion reverberate throughout the entire building, followed quickly by the sounds of running in the corridor outside his hiding place. Strange electric popping sounds followed a few moments later, along with high-pitched screams of agony.

The popping sounds ended, but he could still hear movement outside in the hallway. He was in total darkness, yet mentally and physically prepared for the moment the light would pop on and the door open. He was a professional soldier; he was ready for action.

But the moment never came. Instead, different sounds came from the hallway, this time voices, and frantic ones at that. Adam didn’t recognize the language, but after half a dozen missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, that wasn’t unusual. Besides, what about the tiny gray creature?

People were calling out to others, accompanied by the sound of running on the metal floor, all to Adam’s right.

Then silence once again.

When all was quiet for several minutes, Adam slipped out of his hiding place in the shelving unit and felt his way in the darkness to the opposite wall where the door was set. Feeling the cold metal surface, he found the indentation again, and the door slid open, allowing light to flood in, temporarily blinding him. Recovering quickly, he stepped out into the corridor, listening intently for any signs of danger.

He knew people had run down the hallway to his right, so he turned left. After about twenty meters, he came upon a mound of sickeningly-burning flesh that had once been one of the gray creatures from before. He had seen some grisly things in times of war, but he never got used to the acrid odor of burning flesh and hair. A battle had taken place inside the building, and here he was unarmed and naked, except for a sheet wrapped around his waist.

He heard a noise as if a heavy box had hit the metal floor. He moved toward the sound, which came from the top of a wide stairway on his left. Climbing the stairs silently in his bare feet, Adam entered a large, circular room with what looked like a series of control consoles to his right, and to his left—it was the ass end of someone sticking out of an opening in a rack of equipment modules.

With angry determination, Adam wasn’t about to let this—whatever it was—fry him like it had the little gray things. No way, no how.

Chapter 5

Kaylor and Jym watched the monitor as the creature shook his head and opened his eyes, fury and fire inside the igniting his blue orbs. Noticing the straps holding him to the table, the alien began to thrash from side to side, doing his best to break free. Then a sound exploded through the speakers, loud and primal, as the creature let out an ear-piercing scream:

“Let me go, you, you bastards!”

Moments later, the crew of the FS-475 entered the cargo hold, Kaylor armed with a fully-charged MK-17 bolt launcher. This time it was set at level-one, rather than level-two like before. That would reduce the discharge to only five bolts, but he was sure—he hoped—that would be enough to stop the creature should the need arise again.

The creature’s brilliant blue eyes flared, watching them with a steady gaze devoid of fear, his mouth displaying double rows of long, white teeth, snarling in a blatant death-challenge. Definitely a meat eater, Kaylor concluded from the teeth, a thought which sent a shiver down his spine.

Approaching the bench, Kaylor rested his good hand on the grip of the launcher and tapped it gently with his fingers. The creature noticed the movement and appeared to acknowledge the fact that Kaylor had a weapon. Not so dumb after all, are you?

“Who—what the hell are you?” The creature asked in a deep, strong voice.

“I’m Kaylor, and this is Jym. Who are you?”

The creature cocked his head slightly. “I don’t understand. That doesn’t sound like Farsi.”

Kaylor and Jym exchanged a look before Jym moved closer to the bench and reached out a hand toward the creature’s head.

“Stay away from me, you stinking…hell, I don’t know what you are!”

Ignoring the protests, Jym pulled back the ear of the creature and felt the skin. Nothing—no trace at all. This thing truly was primitive.

Jym rushed from the room while Kaylor leaned against a crate and watched the creature. The beast stared back at him with a look of fierce defiance.

Go ahead and glare at me all you want, you animal, Kaylor thought. I am not about to let you get the best of me, not again.

The thing was just standing there, staring at him. By this time, Adam had accepted the fact that he wasn’t dreaming and that this was all too real. Even if it was a ruse, the makeup and special effects were far beyond anything the Taliban or Al-Qaeda could do. Besides, why would they bother? Terrorists weren’t known for their subtlety or sophistication.

So this was real, which meant this was a real alien standing in front of him.

The creature stood about his height, with pasty white skin that showed the pale purple trace of veins underneath. Its build was slight, yet proportional, even though it didn’t appear to be very muscular. Yet it was the face that was so—alien. The nose was extremely wide, with hardly a rise, and the eyes very narrow and set wide apart. The mouth was small with thin lips, and when it spoke, Adam noticed upper and lower rows of very small, slightly rounded teeth. There was very little hair on the head, grayish and mainly at the sides, wrapping around two very small, almost non-existent ears. And just below the ears dangled two, inch-long fingers of skin, for what purpose Adam was afraid to speculate.

The alien had two thin arms—one encased in what was clearly a cast—and terminating in normal-looking hands: four fingers and a thumb. Around the torso he wore a white wrap of some kind, fitted tightly over a light blue set of coveralls.

The overall effect was both alien and familiar at the same time. But whatever this thing was, it had him tied to a table—and that made this alien his enemy.

The smaller, hairy creature resembling a small bear, rushed back into the room carrying a box about the size of a ring case. It moved to the side of the table, opened the case and removed something. Adam struggled to move away as the alien reached toward his head; then, he felt a warm sensation on the skin behind his ear. The warmth quickly turned into a burning, stinging pain that quickly subsided. The small creature backed away.

“Can you hear me now?” The phrase caught Adam off guard, not so much for its content, but from the fact that the movement of the creature’s mouth didn’t match the words he was hearing.

Adam responded. “Yeah, I can hear you. You speak English?”

“Your language is in the Library, so obviously,” the bear-like thing said. Again, the non-synchronized mouth and sounds reminded Adam of watching T.V. with the sound slightly out of synch. It was unnerving.

“What the hell am I doing here? And what, what are you?”

The two creatures looked at each other, and Adam noticed a mutual reaction from both. The big one stepped forward. “I am Kaylor, and this is Jym.” The voice came over as strong and confident, if slightly higher-pitched than Adam’s. “Who are you?”

Alarms went off in Adam’s mind, and again his training took over. “Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Cain, United States Navy. That’s all I have to tell you.”

The big one—Kaylor—looked confused. “That is a very long name. Do you prefer to be called Petty, or Officer, or what?”

“No, petty officer is my military rank. Petty Officer 2nd Class. My name is Adam Cain.”

“Then greetings, Adam Cain.”

“You can call me Adam.” This is getting ridiculous.

Kaylor’s head bounced from left to right. “Very well, Adam, as for background, you are now aboard my ship...and you are safe.”

Adam jerked against the straps holding him to the table. “If I’m safe, then why am I tied down?” Then not waiting for an answer, Adam asked the most monumental question of his life: “Are you…aliens?”

The two creatures exchanged another look, and then the small one spoke. “If you refer to a being that is not from where you come from and is different from you, then I submit that you are the alien here, and not us.” The tone, even for an alien, was sarcastic and condescending.

Kaylor placed a hand on Jym’s arm. “To you, Adam, we would be aliens, yet the term does not have much meaning to us. There are so many other worlds and races that by your definition everyone is an alien. Where are you from?”

“I’m not tellin’ you shit! I saw what you did to those other…things.”

“I did not do that. I came aboard later—”

“He saved your life!” Jym blurted out.

If he had not already seen the tiny gray beings, Adam was sure he would have been in complete shock and awe with the fact that he was talking with two real-life aliens. But that moment passed, replaced now with seething, burning anger. He was a prisoner, and that was all that mattered.

He tried to calm down; he closed his eyes for a moment and took in a couple of deep breaths. He would have liked nothing more than to spend time trying to convince these aliens to release him, but that wasn’t possible, not now. When he regained his composure, Adam Cain had only one thing on his mind.

“Listen,” he began slowly, “if you don’t let me loose pretty soon and show me where the closest bathroom is, we’re going to have a real big mess around here.”

“Bath…room?” Again, the two aliens looked at each other, confused.

“Yeah—bathroom, restroom, head, latrine … whatever you call it here. I have to relieve myself, and I mean right now. I have no idea how long it’s been since I last went.”

The two aliens panicked, giving Adam the distinct impression they hadn’t planned for this. Kaylor spoke. “We cannot risk untying you; you nearly killed me before. Is there anything else we can do?”

“Like what, give me a bedpan? No, you’re going to have to let me loose, and I mean right now.”

“That is impossible.”

“Then, it’s going to get real messy around here real soon.” Adam couldn’t believe that at the most important moment in his life, all he could think about was going to the bathroom.

Kaylor stared at him for a few seconds before reaching a decision. He stepped away from the table and withdrew his weapon. “The MK is now set for a level-one bolt; this time, it will kill you. Do not attempt to attack either of us.” His head shook back and forth again, this time in the direction of Jym. The tiny bear-like creature stepped forward and began to loosen the straps.

Soon Adam was free, and when he jumped off the table, he was light-headed and still wearing the sheet he’d hastily wrapped around himself. “Follow Jym,” Kaylor commanded. “I’ll be behind you at a safe distance.”

Obeying, Adam was led out of the warehouse and into a narrow, dimly-lit hallway. He had a bounce in his step, prancing up and down with ease as he walked. About ten meters along the corridor, Jym slid open a door, and Adam stepped into what was a restroom of strange familiarity. There was a bank of sinks and even some dirty mirrors on the wall above them. Against another wall were two seats rising from the floor with holes on top. What do you know, aliens use toilets!

Adam quickly slipped past Jym and plopped down on the nearest seat, separating the filthy sheet as he did so. He looked over at the two aliens.

“Do you mind; how about a little privacy?”

“While relieving yourself? Why?” Kaylor asked.

“It’s just how we do it. Please.”

The two aliens backed out of the room and slid the door shut, at which point Adam should have been thinking about a way to escape. But first things first—he really had to go.

Once done, he looked around for toilet paper and a flush handle but found neither. All he spotted was a blue button on the wall to his right; he pushed it and immediately felt a warm sensation on his butt, followed by a small puff of smoke that was immediately sucked into a vent at the toilet bowl lining.

And that was that; he felt clean, and there was no residue in the bowl. Pretty neat, he thought. Advanced alien shitter technology.

Now it was time to get down to business. Adam surveyed the room for another door or a window, any avenue of escape. Then his gaze fell upon an image in one of the dirty mirrors, that of a gaunt man with a short, straggly beard and a twisted crop of longish, oily blond hair.

Is that me?

He moved closer to the mirror. It was indeed a reflection of him in the mirror, but now his formerly clean-shaven face displayed a two- to three-month growth of beard, accompanied by five inches of hair on his normally crew-cut head. As a sailor—and especially with his rating—he kept the hair on his head down to a minimum. Now look at him. He must have been unconscious a lot longer than he thought.

It seemed like only a few hours had passed since he was on patrol in the Kush, with Zack and Peanut and the rest of the men from his Team. And he’d lost weight, too—a lot of it.

His knees grew weak as another thought came crashing down on him: Maria and Cassie!

He broke out in a cold sweat and began to tremble violently. If he had been unconscious for what could be months—either in the warehouse or in that canister—then what was happening with his wife and two-year-old daughter? If he’d been captured—no, wait, abducted—then he would have been reported as missing-in-action, along with all that designation implied. He nearly collapsed before steadying himself with the sink.

What are they going through? My God, they must think I’m dead!

The door to the restroom slid open, and the tall alien with the gun entered. “That is long enough. Back to the—”

Adam spun around to face the alien, his eyes wide, bottom lip trembling. “My family—they think I’m dead!”

Kaylor gripped the weapon tighter, preparing for something that never came. Instead, Adam dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands. He looked up at Kaylor through glassy eyes, “You have to let me go. They can’t go on believing I’m dead—or even worse—captured by those savages.”

The alien Kaylor began to say something but stopped. He lowered his weapon; Jym moved up next to him. “What are you doing?”

“Let us all go down to the common room,” Kaylor said. “I believe we have much to discuss.”

Chapter 6

A few minutes later, Adam had regained his composure—to a point—and was seated at a table in the center of the common room, an area that resembled a combination mess hall and lounge. He was losing his mind, as the events of the past few hours came crashing down on him. A strange numbness filled his body, and he just went through the motions as he was led down a series of ladders and into the room. Even looking at the strangeness of the other two occupants of the room didn’t faze him any longer.

“Would you like something to drink?” the tall alien asked.

Adam simply nodded but was surprised when the creature placed a small box on the table in front of him. Adam gave him a questioning look.

After a moment, Kaylor reacted. “You truly are primitive,” he said with disgust. “It is a sampling box. We use it to test your blood to see what food and drink you can tolerate. Do you not have anything like this where you come from?”

“Nah, we just eat whatever doesn’t make us sick,” came Adam’s feeble reply.

Kaylor told him to stick his finger in the box; there was a slight prick of pain, and then the alien took the box away. He placed it in a slot above a table jutting from the wall, and a panel slid open revealing a glass of brownish liquid. Kaylor brought the drink over to the table and sat down opposite Adam. The smaller one—his name was Jym—was seated on a couch about as far away from Adam as he could get.

Still in a daze, Adam took the glass and sampled its contents. Not bad, kind of like Coke, even with some carbonation. The liquid burned a painful path down to his stomach, where it settled, setting off an explosion of gurgles and rumbling as he’d never experienced before.

“How long was I out?” he asked Kaylor once his stomach settled down.

“Not more than a couple of hours.”

“How about in that canister, where the other people were?”

“That I do not know. As I said, we came upon your ship later, after the pirates had attacked.”

Pirates? Ships? What was this … a Disney ride? But wait—

“You’re not talking about ships at sea, are you? We’re in space?”

Adam was beginning to recognize the alien’s look of confusion, and here it was again. “Of course, we are in space,” Kaylor answered.

“And this is another spaceship, different from the one I was on before?”

“Correct. The FS-475 is my ship. Mine and Jym’s.”

Adam Cain was in outer space, aboard a starship and in the company of a couple of real aliens. Well damn!

Sure, this was all fascinating, and under different circumstances, Adam might have felt more excited. But this was not the time. Instead, he cut to the chase. “I have to get back home. Can you take me there?”

“Where are you from?”

“Calif—I mean from Earth.”

Jym burst into laughter, or what Adam took as alien laughter. “You are from the planet Dirt? That is not a very creative name for a planet.”

Adam didn’t like this alien runt very much. “No, Earth…not dirt,” he snapped.

Kaylor stepped into the conversation: “The translation we’re hearing is dirt, soil, ground—things like that, but we can amend the translator to give your planet the designation of Earth if you wish.”

“Thank you. And speaking of that, how can I understand what you’re saying?”

“The translator bug—device—Jym placed behind your ear. Everyone has one, everyone except you. Your planet appears to be very primitive.”

Adam felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise from the backhanded insult, but he remained quiet. He watched Jym cross the room and sit down at a small desk. He punched the keys of an inset keyboard and began to read. Adam could see the writing on the screen, but he couldn’t read any of it. It was all Greek to him.

“Earth: the home planet of the Human race,” Jym began, “including the Afghanis, Americans, Armenians … whoa! There is a whole list of races that come from your planet.”

“Those aren’t races; they’re countries or people from those countries.”

“You mean your planet is divided into all these different groups? But you are all of the same species, correct?” Jym’s voice was again laced with condescension.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Adam took the last gulp of his drink. “Can you take me there or not?”

Jym turned back to the screen. After a moment of scanning the readout, he looked over at Adam. “Not feasible. Earth is rumored to be in the Far Arm, location: unknown.”

The words hit Adam like a punch in the face. “What does that mean…the Far Arm? Don’t you guys have charts or maps you can follow? And how can it be unknown if you know my language?” He felt panic growing in his chest. “Hey, I didn’t sign up for this. I’ve got to get back home!”

Kaylor took a deep breath. “Languages are assimilated into the Library without reference or source. Apparently, your planet has been visited before—as your presence here also testifies. Being in the Far Arm—which is a wilderness zone to us—means the location of your world has never been accurately determined. And if that is the case, then there is nothing we can do to get you back—”

“And even if we knew where it was, it would cost a fortune to take you there,” Jym added.

“This is bullshit!” Adam yelled.

The look of confusion crossed Kaylor’s face again. “I do not understand the correlation between a form of animal excrement and your current situation,” he said.

“Bullshit. Bullshit! It means this is unbelievable. As I said, I didn’t ask to be here, and I demand that you take me back!”

Kaylor stood and began to withdraw his weapon, yet before his hand reached the grip, Adam had the alien by the wrist. Kaylor winched in pain.

“Don’t even think about it.” Adam spat out between clenched teeth. “I don’t want to hurt you; I actually believe all this isn’t your fault. But I’m pretty pissed off right now, and I’m in a terrible mood.”

Kaylor fell back in the chair, placing his hands on the table in front of him. Jym sat at the little desk, stunned, his mouth agape.

Adam leaned in closer and stared into Kaylor’s eyes. “You don’t seem to understand, pal,” he began, “but I have a wife and kid back home, and they’re probably going through hell thinking I’m dead. And that’s something I can’t live with. Someone—somewhere—is going to take me back to—” He found the words hard to say. “Back to Earth.”

Kaylor bobbed his head back and forth again, a movement Adam now recognized as a nod of agreement. “We will do everything we can to help you, Adam Cain, but you must realize, we do not know the location of your planet, and our ship is not capable of finding it. The Far Arm is a mostly unexplored region of space.”

“What about that other ship, the other one you said I was on? They should know where Earth is. After all, that’s where they took me from!”

“All the occupants of the other ship are dead.”

“What about records, logs, computer disks, things like that?”

The alien appeared to shudder. “The computer core was stolen by the pirates. I’m afraid there are no other records.”

“Who are these goddamn pirates?” Adam slammed his fist hard on the table, denting it and sending a loud report throughout the room.

“We don’t know who they are,” Kaylor explained. “They are a menace to us in the Void and throughout the Fringe. No one knows who they are or where they come from.”

“Bullshit! Somebody knows.”

Kaylor hesitated, before saying, “No…no bullshit. All I can promise you is that when we get to Nimor, we will turn you over to the Ministry. Maybe they can help you.”

Adam leaned back in the chair, frustrated, pissed off and confused, with only a dirty sheet wrapped around his waist. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. What should have been the greatest adventure for all of humanity was rapidly turning into a freakish nightmare. If no one knew where he came from—and he could never return home—then he might as well be dead. After all, in the eyes of the military—as well as his wife and young daughter—he already was.

He sat with his eyes closed, in a room with two very smelly aliens, fighting once again to maintain control. As a Navy SEAL, he was supposed to know how to handle difficult situations like these, but the rollercoaster of emotions he was experiencing wouldn’t stop. Never in the training manuals did they cover how to cope with being abducted by aliens.

A wave of hopelessness swept over him. Maybe he should let Kaylor pull that weapon of his and blow his brains out. It didn’t matter anymore. At least then, the pain and confusion would go away. It would end his nightmare…and his memories.

But Kaylor didn’t draw his weapon. Instead, the tall alien motioned for Jym to follow him, and the two aliens left Adam alone in the common room to deal with his thoughts and despair.

Once back in the pilothouse, Jym spoke first. “That was close; we can never let him know about the computer core.”

“Agreed, but I believe we could use his testimony regarding the pirates and the salvage. But we have to be careful.”

Jym’s ears flicked wildly. “Agreed—that thing is dangerous. Did you see what he did to the table?” he said, as he paced the room. “We need to get rid of him as soon as possible. And can you believe he wants us to shuttle him to some unknown planet in the Far Arm! Crazy, I say. Does he think we are made of credits? I do not know how it is on his world, but everything has a price in the real galaxy.”

Kaylor let him vent; it was his way.

“Put him in number three and make him comfortable. We will be at Nimor in twenty hours. After that, he will be someone else’s problem.”

Chapter 7

In a daze, Adam was led to a room with a small bed and a desk set into a bulkhead. The desk chair was affixed to the floor and on the desktop sat a small monitor. Adam chose to sit on the end of the bed rather than at the desk. Jym handed him a blue tunic and a pair of slip-on shoes, similar to what Kaylor wore.

“I’ll bring you food in a while,” Jym said. “Until then, please attempt to rest and cause no disruptions.” Then the alien pointed out a small control panel near the door. “If you need more or less gravity, you can do it from here.”

This comment snapped Adam out of his stupor. “You can adjust gravity?”

“Of course.” Adam could tell Jym was tempted to make another comment about Adam’s primitive pedigree, but instead he said: “There are five individual wells controlling the ship’s internal gravity. You appear to come from a heavy-gravity world, so you may want to adjust it up a little. We will be on Nimor in about twenty hours.” The tiny alien then abruptly turned and left the room.

Adam looked around at his surroundings; again familiar, yet strange. His mind knew he was so far away from anything native to him to be unimaginable, and yet here he was, alive, in relatively good condition and in the company of two aliens who didn’t appear to be a threat to him. Yet all of this didn’t help his overall situation or his attitude.

He went to the control panel by the door and touched it. The panel lit up. There was a digital scale with a cursor—again familiar—and when he moved the cursor up, he immediately felt a weight pressing down on his body. The sensation quickly passed, so he moved the cursor up a little more, with the same effect. One more adjustment and he felt as if the pull was a little more than what he was used to. With nothing to compare it to he went simply by feel.

It suddenly occurred to him that maintaining his strength advantage in this alien environment could come in handy. He already knew he was much stronger than Kaylor and Jym, and that if he didn’t keep that advantage it could spell trouble. Not being familiar with their technology or customs it may be the only thing he had going for him. So he cranked the cursor up even more and felt the corresponding pressure on his body.

He returned to the bed and fell back on the soft cushion, resting his head on a pillow he propped against the bulkhead. He began to take inventory of his predicament.

The first thing he had to do was get his mind around the reality of the situation. As much as the physical, his mental condition would play a major role in determining if he survived or not.

He chuckled; just moments before he didn’t give a damn whether he lived or died. Now he was thinking about how to survive. The Human spirit was indeed resilient.

Adam Cain was a twenty-six-year-old E-5 in the U.S. Navy and a member of the elite DEVGRU group, which most of the Team and media still referred to as SEAL Team Six. In his SMU – or Special Mission Unit – he was classified as a sniper and weapons expert, even though nearly everyone in his unit carried the same designation. He was on his fourth excursion in-country, this time on a recon of the rugged mountain area between Afghanistan and Pakistan known as the Hindu Kush, following a lead on a Taliban commander who had taken credit for a recent bombing of the US Embassy in Kabul. That was when his reality had been suddenly jerked out from under him.

Adam’s future in the Navy was looking bright. He had just completed his advanced sniper instructor training and had also taken the First-Class exam the month before. He felt confident that he would make E-6, since SEALs were a pretty dedicated group of sailors. Adam Cain was no exception to that rule. If he made E-6, then there was a good chance he could come back to Dam Neck, Virginia, as an instructor and thereby reduce the number of overseas operations.

Seven months ago, he and Maria had bought their first home, located in a quiet cul-de-sac off Lynnhaven Parkway in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was a small three bedroom, two bath brick home, with a one-car attached garage. More than anything else, Adam had bought the home for the garage, where he kept his mint-condition 2006 Mustang GT under a blue canvas tarp.

His daughter Cassie had just turned two, and every time Adam left on a mission, he felt guilty leaving Maria on her own, what with the new house and the terrible-two’s all at the same time. But if he made First-Class he could apply to be an instructor, guaranteeing him at least three years in Hampton Roads. And with the war winding down, it could possibly be even longer.

Adam’s father had been career Navy as well and was extremely proud of his only son. David Cain lived in Northern California—Monterey to be precise—and he and his son exchanged emails nearly every day, at least when Adam wasn’t off on a mission somewhere or in advanced training. His mother had died when he was four in an auto accident.

The thought of his father sent a spasm of pain through Adam’s heart. By now his dad would have accepted the fact that his son was dead, more than likely taken captive and tortured to death by the Taliban. Since Adam knew his body would never be recovered—and no publicity extracted from his capture—that would be the only assumption people could make. After all, his Teammates would never have left his body on the battlefield…if there had been a body to recover.

In addition to his immediate family, Adam enjoyed a large circle of friends and other more-distant relatives, who by now would be mourning his death. Most of them knew what he did for a living, even if the odds of being violently killed were much higher living in Chicago these days than it was spending time in a combat zone. However, death was always a possibility, even though most of his people chose not to dwell on it.

Damn! His future was—or had been—pretty set. Adam had always been a man of ambition and purpose, but his goals had never been to travel into space and meet aliens, at least not outside of his childhood fantasies. Now—in a matter of what seemed like hours to him—his entire life had turned inside out. All his friends and loved ones were suffering from his supposed death, and yet here he was, very much alive but unable to prove it to anyone.

Lying on the bed aboard the alien spacecraft, assessing his situation, Adam Cain knew he needed a plan. It would give him purpose…and hope. From the practical side, it was obvious he could overpower the two aliens and commandeer their spaceship. But then what? He didn’t know how to fly it, and more importantly, he didn’t have any idea where to go if he did. Space, after all, was a pretty big place. That course of action was out of the question, at least for the time being.

Also, he believed that what Kaylor said about other aliens being able to help him was more a way of pacifying Adam’s anger rather than any real possibility. They would probably have the same excuses Kaylor and Jym had.

Adam felt the blood drain from his head as he struggled against the onset of yet another anxiety attack. He had been trained to overcome and survive the most harrowing of situations—but this was ridiculous. How was one supposed to prepare for something like this?

Returning to Earth was now his only priority, but it was a lot more challenging than making his way back to friendly forces after becoming separated from your teammates during a mission. He was light-years away from his home; his family thought he was dead … and—well damn—his prospects weren’t looking too good.

The simplest solution would be to give up and hasten the inevitable.

Adam closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. When he opened them, he felt a strange wave of relief come over him.

I can either live or die; after all, what do I have to live for? In reality, it doesn’t matter what I do. Everyone I know thinks I’m dead already, and I’m in a universe where I’m the alien! The only thing that matters now is getting home, and if I can’t do that, then who cares what happens to me? I’m like the walking dead….

Adam realized that not caring—really not caring—about whether you live or die can be very liberating. And unfortunately for those around him, if he didn’t care about himself, he cared even less for anyone—or anything—he encountered along the way.

Chapter 8

Riyad entered the communication room as an underling prepared the link. He sat in front of a large monitor and nodded to the tech. An image appeared on the screen; it was the interior command room of Captain Angar’s ship. The Nimorian was facing him but talking with someone off screen. As soon as he noticed the link had been established, he straightened up and gave his full attention to Riyad.

“General Tarazi, sir, we have a solid link.”

Riyad loved the title of ‘General.’ Out of all the possibilities available, he chose this one for himself, and it sent a thrill down his spine nearly every time he heard it. Of course, he realized he commanded a fleet of pirate ships—not land forces—but he was the only one who seemed to notice the inconsistency. However, looking at his subordinate on the screen, the thrill quickly passed, and he sent a steely stare at his senior captain.

“So what happened? I understand you had the ship completely under your control but then gave it up.”

Angar shifted nervously in his chair at the directness of the question, but then quickly regained his composure. “In my defense, I was the last one to bolt out. There was nothing I could do by myself, not against a fleet of Rigorian warships.”

“And yet it ended up not being a fleet at all.”

“That is correct, my General. It was a deception. But we had no way of knowing that at the time.”

Riyad took a deep breath. “But Captain Angar, you know as well as I, that the Rigorians are not that aggressive against us. Also, we have never encountered them that far out in the Void.”

“Again correct, my General. But when Jiden and Meldeon left, I had no choice but to follow.”

“The two of them will be dealt with.” Riyad stated acidly. “So where is the ship now?”

Angar glanced to his right, and then turned back to Riyad. “They are just now entering the Nimorian system. They should be making planetfall in about six hours. We could attempt to catch them, but we will not be successful.”

“Please tell me you were at least able to secure some treasure before you gave up the ship?”

Again, Angar shifted in his seat. “Unfortunately, no. There was no time, and the only cargo we could readily see appeared to be a room full of Primes placed in stasis.”

Even through his anger, this news piqued Riyad’s curiosity. “Was it a slave ship?”

“Hard to tell, General. The Primes were all in good condition and contained in very sophisticated hiberpods. There were around seventy to eighty of them in the room.” Angar hesitated before continuing. “And all had been recently killed by the onboard crew.”

Riyad was taken aback by the last comment. “Killed, all of them? Why?”

“Impossible to tell, but it appeared they had been killed at about the same time we disabled the ship.”

“What species were they?”

Angar grew even more nervous; Riyad noticed the body language. “What is it, captain? What’s the problem?”

“Well, my General,” Angar began hesitantly, “they appear to be of the same race as you.”

Riyad was sure Angar saw the look of total shock sweep over his face, and even though his mind was exploding with a thousand questions, he knew it was important to maintain his composure in front of his underlings.

“Can you confirm this information, captain?” he managed to say, hoping that the timbre of his voice didn’t give away his excitement.

“I saw them with my own eyes. I have no doubt. You are the only other one of your species I have ever seen…until today.”

Riyad remained silent for a long moment, digesting the information. He had always suspected that this day would come. Now this changes everything.

“Captain Angar, I have new instructions for you,” Riyad began evenly. “By my orders, you will have Captains Meldeon and Jiden return to K’ly. Then you will proceed to Nimor, and secure that ship’s computer core and bring it to me immediately.”

Angar looked stunned. “But General, the ship will be locked down until the salvage is settled.”

“Do you think I care about that? We’re pirates, after all; we don’t go by the rules. Contact our allies in the Ministry. I want to know everything about that ship and where it came from. And Captain Angar,” Riyad leaned in closer to the screen, “no one else is to get that computer core except us—no one. Don’t screw this up again.” And then he cut the link.

Riyad rushed out of the comm room and proceeded quickly to the forward section of his ship. As he neared his quarters, he felt the welcoming increase in gravity, a consequence that kept most of his crew out of his private sanctuary.

He entered his quarters and shut the door. Too excited to sit, Riyad paced the room, nervously.

Humans – and lots of them!

He had not seen another Human…for how long now? Six years, maybe longer? And here was a ship carrying dozens of his kin. Granted, Riyad had been more than a little surprised to learn they had all been killed, but once he thought about it, it made perfect sense.

The aliens must know of our abilities.

This could also be the reason they were transporting the Humans in stasis. After all, look what Riyad had done with the Fringe Pirates—and he was just one Human. Imagine how hard it would be to transport dozens of conscious Humans aboard one ship. Yes, these aliens definitely knew the capabilities of the Human race and they had taken the only sensible course of action.

But the question had to be asked: What were they doing with that many Humans aboard their ship? And where were they taking them?

Mentally, Riyad shrugged off the questions. He was only obliquely interested in the answer, as just a curiosity. What he really wanted to know was how did they know the location of Earth in the first place?

Within the computer core of that ship would be the Holy Grail of his existence for the past six years – the coordinates to his homeworld!

And quite possibly the realization of a plan he’d been cultivating in his mind for a very long time….

Riyad Tarazi had challenged the ship’s captain for his position after having been a crewmember for only three months, but that had been time enough for him to learn the operation of the ship, as well as the pirate hierarchy aboard.

The captain was a Fil-nipon—not even a native of The Fringe—but he was tough and strong and had been part of the pirate community for almost twenty years. It had been a duel, and by this time Riyad had no doubt as to the outcome. The captain’s weapon had not even cleared its holster by the time Riyad had placed a level-one bolt through the creature’s chest.

And now, according to pirate law, Riyad Tarazi was the Captain.

Nine months later, Riyad’s next challenge was for the supreme command of the pirate organization. Those nine months had given him even more time to study how the pirates operated, and how their rag-tag operations could be greatly improved—under the right leadership, of course. At that time, the Fringe Pirates were just a loose-knit group of privateers, with no real purpose other than their own individual gain. They didn’t operate as a unit—and considering their numbers—if they did they would be a force greater than that of any single planetary military this side of the Juireans. Riyad figured they would do much better under his leadership…and only the senior captain stood in his way.

The pirate leader was a Rigorian named Kymore and he had already heard of Riyad’s prowess with a bolt weapon. So when he accepted the challenge for leadership he did so with one condition: it was to be a physical contest and not one with weapons. Riyad accepted his terms without a second thought.

Rigorians were the toughest, strongest and meanest natives of the Fringe, giant lizard-like creatures, with scales for skin and double rows of razor-sharp teeth lining a protruding, foot-long snout. In all the history of the Fringe, no other being had ever bested a Rigorian in hand-to-hand combat, so as the day of the contest neared the Rigorian captain was feeling confident about his chances.

Yet once again, Riyad had studied his opponent before making the challenge. As both parties believed, the outcome was never in doubt. Only one would be correct.

On the day of the challenge, a crowd of several hundred pirates gathered in a field near the K’ly city of Calaa. A stage had been built where they would fight; it was a festive and jubilant occasion for all in attendance.

Kymore began the event by loudly proclaiming his superiority with a series of loud grunts and howls, while prancing around the stage showing off his size and quickness. Riyad stood off to the side and let the lizard do his thing.

And then the fight began.

As Kymore attacked, Riyad easily slipped around each of his initial thrusts, and then after a minute or so of dancing around the stage, he placed a swift kick to the alien’s side. The kick knocked most of the air out of Kymore’s lungs and brought a look of startled confusion to his yellow eyes. Riyad then slipped in quickly behind the pirate and placed a solid blow to the back of the lizard’s head. Kymore fell forward onto the stage. There was stunned silence from the crowd before the Rigorian quickly rolled over and regained his footing.

There was an even greater look of concern on the alien’s face, and for the next few seconds, Riyad pummeled the pirate leader with lightning-quick rights and lefts, sending a spray of blood from the creature’s mouth that reached the closest pirates next to the stage. And then—simply as a display of his superior strength—Riyad stepped in and hoisted the seven-foot tall alien above his head and threw him into the front row of stunned pirates, all in perfect Hulk Hogan fashion.

A dozen pirates fell into a heap below the Rigorian; they recovered and forced Kymore back onto the stage, against the wishes of the pirate leader.

During his time with the pirates, Riyad had heard where other challenges for leadership had ended simply with the demotion of the current leader and not his death. This didn’t make sense to Riyad; after assuming his new position, he did not want any lingering loyalties for his predecessor or grumblings for his return.

So for the finale, Riyad grasped the massive jaws of the lizard and pulled them open wide. With arms rippled in bulging muscles, Riyad pressed harder, continuing to separate the teeth-lined mouth until the bottom jaw broke free from its securing ligaments and muscle. Kymore let out a piercing, blood-curdling scream and fell to his knees, his bottom jaw dangling limply from his head. The crowd was silent.

Then with ceremonial bravado, Riyad stepped behind the Rigorian. He took a brief moment to survey the hushed crowd…and then drove his right fist all the way down into the lizard’s skull, killing him instantly, and thereby assuring Riyad that there would be no challenges to his leadership for a very long time to come.

That should get their attention. Riyad knew pirates were like a pack of wolves, subservient to the alpha male, and at that moment the alpha male of the Fringe Pirates was the Human Riyad Tarazi.

He was now the Pirate General.

While Riyad paced his quarters, recalling his ascension to the leadership of the Fringe Pirates, he nodded his approval for the actions taken by the mysterious aliens aboard the transport ship. Yes, they had been wise to assassinate the Humans rather than have them fall into the hands of the pirates. After all, they couldn’t afford to have dozens of super Humans out wandering the galaxy, causing all kinds of havoc, now could they?

Chapter 9

Over the 20-hour transit to Nimor, Adam and the two aliens had very little contact. Jym had dropped off some bland tasting food—yes, it tasted like chicken—and then left without saying a word.

During this time Adam was able to get some rest—however fitful and haunted—and he even managed to find a shower in the ship’s only restroom. He dressed in the blue tunic and then waited in his room for the next hammer to fall. He didn’t know what form this new shock to his system would take, but he was about to make landfall on an alien world where it had been decided Kaylor and Jym would turn him over to another group of aliens. After that, who knew? Even though he’d only been aboard their ship for a few hours, Adam felt a strange familiarity with them and his surroundings. What this new alien world held in store for him would be just one more shock to his already frazzled system.

Kaylor allowed Adam to join them in the pilothouse as he released the alien spaceship into an orbit above the planet Nimor. Another alien—short, hairy and husky—came aboard with an entourage of assistants and Kaylor led them through a quick inspection of his ship. The burly alien then had Kaylor sign some paperwork and left, indicating that his crew was going aboard the big disk-shaped ship to start the salvage inventory. The completed survey would be transmitted to the Ministry in about three hours, Kaylor was told.

Jym opened the exterior shield to the pilothouse viewport, allowing Adam to gaze out at the vast and brilliant alien world below them. It looked very similar to Earth, with shimmering blue seas and ruddy brown land masses, all dotted with patchy white clouds casting dark shadows on the surface below. This world didn’t have as much landmass as Earth, just a modest-sized continent to the north and a large island to the south. He didn’t know if there was more land on the other side because they didn’t seem to be moving around the planet while in orbit – they call it geo-synchronous, he believed.

Jym asked Adam to strap into a seat next to him and then Kaylor began the descent to the planet’s surface.

Adam was struck by the fact that he felt no sensation of falling—or any movement at all for that matter. He simply watched as the features on the ground grew larger until he could make out the cris-cross pattern of a city below. As they dropped closer, the ship slid over toward a large open area populated with spacecraft of different shapes and sizes. As they descended, Adam was amazed at how large the area was, and how massive some of the ships were close up.

His view was suddenly obscured by a dense cloud of dust that billowed upwards past the viewport. And then he felt a slight bump.

“Prepare yourselves, I’m dissolving the well,” Kaylor announced to the room. Adam felt light-headed as a good portion of his bodyweight melted away.

Jym noticed Adam’s reaction. “This planet’s gravity is about three-quarters that of standard. I’m guessing that would make it a little more than half the gravity of your homeworld. You should get along fine here…if you don’t stay too long.”

“We’ll see,” was all Adam could muster.

The three of them left the pilothouse. Kaylor announced that Jym would be staying on the ship while he and Adam went into the Nimorian city of Gildemont and to the Ministry Compound to register the salvage. Adam noticed Kaylor was wearing his weapon around his waist.

“So what’s this place like?” he asked the alien.

“It is not the roughest place in the Fringe, but close. The Nimorians—like most of the races in the area—have only been members of the Expansion for about twenty years, so they still have a lot of tribal factions who go by their own rules. The Ministry is more of a suggestion rather than any real planetary authority. They have a compound not too far into the city. All I want to do is get the salvage officially registered and then we can leave. It will take a couple of months before any resolution is decided.”

“What does that mean?”

“Simply bringing in a derelict ship does not convey ownership rights. The ship will have to be matched against any missing vessel reports, and then if the rightful owners come forward we’ll get a salvage reward of ten-percent of the ship’s value. If the owners cannot pay, or no one comes forward to claim the vessel, then we will be awarded full ownership. That all takes time, but once we file the salvage, our rights will be protected.”

“That makes sense.” Adam said. “So this is a pretty big deal for you?”

“It could definitely be worth the effort … eventually.”

They were standing before a door set in an outer wall of the cargo hold; Kaylor pushed a button on a small control panel and the door slid open. Warm, dry air rushed in, smelling sweet and fresh. Adam hadn’t realized just how stale the air in the ship had been. This was refreshing. They stepped down a metal ramp that extended from the ship, and soon Adam Cain set foot on an alien world.

“That’s one small step for man…” he said softly.

“What did you say?”

“Oh nothing … at least nothing that’s important anymore.”

It was a pretty good hike through the forest of alien spaceships parked in what Kaylor told him was a modest-size and rundown spaceport. Even so, Adam found it fascinating. All around them there was a menagerie of exotic creatures; tall ones, short ones, disgusting looking things and even some that were kind of pretty. They all went about their business without giving Adam or Kaylor a second glance. Eventually, the pair passed through a gate with a bored-looking blob of a creature manning a rusting metal booth, seeming to not even notice their passing.

The sun was warm on Adam’s skin and it helped loosen the tense muscles in his neck, muscles that had been knotted up a lot more than he realized. The humidity was low and it actually felt a lot like the climate of his native Southern California. A slight breeze stirred brown dust, adding a musty smell to the landscape as they proceeded down the side of a dirt road toward the city proper. Adam found it all incongruous; starships and dirt roads, high-tech combined with low-tech.

Adam was also aware of the light gravity of this world. On Earth he weighed in at around a hundred eighty pounds; here he was just over a hundred.

So can I jump twice as high? He certainly felt he could. The feeling was exhilarating.

So he thought he’d experiment. Falling back slightly behind Kaylor as they walked, Adam crouched down on his haunches and then sprung upwards with all the effort his leg muscles could muster. Up he went, easily soaring as high as Kaylor was tall, which was close to Adam’s height of six-foot-one. The alien was startled by the sudden movement and jumped back, placing his hand on the grip of his weapon.

“Why did you do that?” Kaylor yelled, concern plastered on his pale blue face.

“I just wanted to see if I could.”

“Heed this advice, Adam: Don’t go showing off around here,” Kaylor said, leaning in close to Adam’s smiling face. “Most of the inhabitants here are barely out of the trees and they will take most actions as a challenge.”

Adam continued to smile. Yes, it might be better to keep any of his special abilities close to the vest for now. First, he had to size up the locals; he had done this before on numerous occasions during his Navy career. Just be cool until you learn the local customs.

They were soon in the town and walking on a wooden sidewalk past storefronts with glass windows. It was so Old West that Adam had trouble remembering he was on an alien planet. However, all it took to shock him back to reality was for a hairy, rodent-looking creature to walk out of a doorway on its two hind legs.

Adam was disappointed to see numerous wheeled vehicles moving along the road—no hovercraft or anti-gravity machines. The vehicles were very similar to small SUV’s, and they even appeared to be obeying traffic rules rather than running around all helter-skelter. So much for his first impressions of an alien civilization….

Regarding the Ministry complex, Kaylor wasn’t kidding when he’d called it a Compound. The official government headquarters for this planet was nothing more than a sprawling arrangement of buildings all sequestered behind a massive four-meter-tall stone wall, with one large opening guarded by four gruff-looking creatures a little shorter than Adam. The alien guards were covered with a black coat of hair or fur and wore leather-like vests and pants. They were of the same species as those who had come aboard Kaylor’s ship earlier—Nimorians they were called—and they carried long-barrel weapons, along with sidearms like the one Kaylor wore.

Kaylor informed one of the guards that he was here to register a derelict salvage, and without so much as a second glance by the other guards, was directed to Building Five. So far, everything Adam had seen on the surface of Nimor was of this same nonchalant—even uncaring—attitude. No one seemed too concerned with security or protocol.

Building Five was built of red brick and stood four stories tall, as were all the buildings within the compound. Adam and Kaylor entered through double glass doors and were directed to the second floor, Room 12. Inside the office was another black-haired creature—obviously the natives to this world—who directed them to take seats on the other side of his wide, metal desk.

“I am Fredic Dess,” the hairy creature stated in a deeper-than-expected voice. Adam still wasn’t accustomed to the unsynchronized movement of lips-to-voice, but after a moment of conversation he tended to ignore it. “You are the ones who have brought in the Class-5 salvage?”

“Correct. I am Kaylor Linn Todd and this is Adam Cain. He was cargo aboard the ship and the only survivor.”

Dess turned his attention to Adam. “Are you a slave?”

“Hell no!” Adam protested, caught off guard by the question.

Kaylor placed a hand on Adam’s arm. “There were eighty of his species aboard. You’ll see in the survey that they were being transported in sophisticated hiberpods and in good condition, so definitely not as slaves.”

Dess regarded them both for a moment, and then grunted. He wrote something on a form. “How did you come upon the derelict?” he asked without looking up.

“We picked up a strong gravity wave in the Void and went to investigate. There were three pirate ships surrounding the derelict and they left the area as we came on the scene.”

Dess looked up. “They just left? You pilot a cargo-hauler, is this correct?”

“Yes, yet we, eh, made ourselves out to be more than just a cargo-hauler using some surplus satellite drones we had aboard. We didn’t want to leave the ship to the mercy of the pirates. In the Void, all peaceful transports have to look out for one another. It seemed like the right thing to do.”

Again Dess grunted. “And you had nothing to do with the attack that disabled the ship and killed the crew?”

“Correct; this being here will testify to that.”

Dess looked at Adam. “Is this your testimony?”

“All I know is that the ship I was on was attacked, and then after a battle onboard, the attackers left in a hurry. Then Kaylor showed up.” Adam looked over at the blue-skinned alien. “He saved my life.”

“How is that?”

“I was the only one left alive on the ship. If Kaylor had not chased off the pirates, they would have eventually found me and I’d be dead by now, just like everyone else. And if not that, then the power would have failed and I would have died from the cold or lack of atmosphere. Yeah, I guess he really did save my life.”

Dess turned his attention back to Kaylor. “What were you doing that far out in the Void?”

“We were transporting a string of smokesticks to Rigor.”

Dess nodded, and Adam got the distinct impression that he and Kaylor had just shared an unstated moment. Then the bureaucrat asked: “Have you removed anything from the subject vessel prior to registering the salvage with this authority?” It sounded like an official question.

“Nothing has been removed; I know the law.”

Dess scribbled some more on the form and then punched a button on his desk. A keyboard rotated out of the top and he began to transcribe the information from his paper form into the computer. It took several minutes to enter the data, during which time he didn’t say a word or acknowledge Adam and Kaylor’s existence. Adam followed Kaylor’s lead and sat patiently waiting for Dess to finish his typing.

“The survey will be completed in about an hour,” Dess spoke suddenly. “Return here at Day4 and I will give you a copy and the registration documentation.”

And that was it, the interview was over.

But Adam wasn’t done.

“Wait a minute, what about me? I need someone to take me back to Earth.”

The bureaucrat stared back at Adam with a blank stare.

“Kaylor said you could get me back to my home, to my planet—”

“I said he might be able to.” Kaylor interjected.

“Where are you from?” Dess asked.

“Earth, I’m from the planet Earth.”

“Dirt? What kind of name is that for a planet?”

“Yeah, we’ve been through this before. Can you get me there or not?”

Dess tapped a few keys on his keypad. “This planet Earth is rumored to be in the Far Arm,” he said after scanning the screen for a moment. “I will stop right there; there is no one, official or otherwise, who can return you to a world located in the Far Arm.”

Adam felt as if an elephant had just sat on his chest. He broke out into a cold sweat and turned to Kaylor, pleading. “You said—”

“I’m sorry Adam. I told you the Far Arm is mostly unexplored territory. The computer doesn’t even have a location for your homeworld. It would be impossible to find it without specific coordinates.”

“What would it take to get me to the Far Arm?”

“First of all, you would need a long-range starship, Class-4 or better, and then probably several million credits.” Kaylor answered. “But you would need to know where you are going first, otherwise you could spend a thousand years jumping from system to system until you found the right one. What is the lifespan of your species?”

Adam didn’t like Kaylor’s tone. He stood up, hovering over Kaylor. “It’s a lot longer than yours … if you keep feeding me bullshit!”

“What was I supposed to tell you … that you’re probably stuck here for the rest of your life with no chance of getting home? Would that have made you feel better?”

Dess slapped his hand down on his desk, getting their attention. “Take this outside of my office. This subject has nothing to do with the Ministry.”

Kaylor didn’t say another word to the official, but instead quickly ushered Adam out of the room. Once in the hallway, Kaylor turned to him.

“You better come to terms with your situation, Adam Cain. No one is going to take you back to a planet with an unknown location, especially in the Far Arm.”

“But I was abducted, kidnapped. It’s not fair!”

“No, it is not, but this is not my problem.”

“Then you should have left me on that ship—” He stopped suddenly and his eyes grew wide. “The other ship!”

“What about it?”

“It’s been to Earth.”

“Yes, but the computer core is missing. There is no way to find where it has been.”

“But the people who own the ship would know; the people who may come to claim it!”

Kaylor recoiled. “If the ship is claimed, then you could talk with them about its travels. You must stay here and wait to see if the ship is claimed,” Kaylor declared.

“You mean you’re not going to wait here yourself?”

“No, we will come back later, if and when the salvage is awarded. We have a cargo string to recover and get to its destination.”

Scenarios began to run through Adam’s mind, and none of them good. What would he do here if he stayed on Nimor? How would he survive? “You can’t just leave me here,” he finally said. “You also said it could take a couple of months for the claim to come through. What if no one ever comes to claim it?”

Kaylor was silent for several moments, deep in thought. Then he stood up a little straighter and stared intently into Adam’s eyes. “This is against my better judgment, but I will let you stay with us—at least until the ship is claimed or the salvage awarded—if you cause us no more problems. Two months at the most. After that, you are on your own.”

Adam didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. It was obvious he wasn’t getting home anytime soon. He also had no money or even a way of earning any in this alien universe. He was grasping for anything even remotely familiar. Staying with Kaylor and Jym would give him time to think, as well as acclimate himself to this strange, new universe. He nodded. “Thanks, Kaylor. I’m sorry I keep flying off the handle, but I’m pretty screwed up right about now.”

“I don’t quite understand the phrasing,” Kaylor said, “but I believe I understand what you mean to say. I can only imagine how strange all of this must seem to you. But if you remain calm—and stop flying off the handle—things will get better. Jym and I will help you get through.”

Chapter 10

Adam and Kaylor left the Ministry Compound and headed back into the rustic, Old West town just as the sun was setting. Kaylor explained that they would take one of the wheeled transports back to the spaceport, but first he wanted to stop off at a tavern he knew of—a bar—and have a drink. Never one to pass up the opportunity to throw one back—especially after the day he was having—Adam didn’t resist.

Kaylor stopped at a doorway with a placard hung on a post, written in a scribble Adam couldn’t even begin to decipher. The alien pulled open the door and quickly disappeared inside. Like a baby duckling, Adam followed.

The interior of the bar carried such a foul odor that Adam almost gagged as he stepped inside—which was a reaction he was coming to expect every time he came in contact with a new set of aliens. It’s as if none of them have a sense of smell! The bar was dark inside, as was to be expected, and populated with a circus of creatures far more exotic and gritty-looking than the cantina scene from Star Wars. Also, there were no dancing girls or music playing, just the deafening cacophony of discordant alien voices and the clinking of glasses on wooden tables. There was also a heavy haze in the room, and to Adam the smoke smelled vaguely familiar, yet combined with alien sweat and breath, the pleasant scent was easily lost in the mix.

They took seats near the center of the room at a table with one of the small blood-sampling boxes affixed to its center. Kaylor poked his finger inside, pulled it out and then rotated the box over to Adam. Without protest, Adam let the box take a sample. In a few moments, a waiter came over—another of the burly natives—and Kaylor ordered drinks for the two of them. Adam was also starving, but he decided to wait until their drinks came before mentioning anything to Kaylor. Drinking alien liquor was one thing. Eating alien food was a whole other subject.

Adam scanned the room, fascinated by the reality he was now experiencing. In a far corner, he saw a group of the skinny gray creatures like those aboard the big ship who ended up getting fried by space pirates during the battle for the ship. There were six of them, all huddled together and looking nervous.

Not too far from the tiny gray creatures sat another group of patrons; four huge lizard-like beings, all dressed in black leather and wearing bandoliers across their barrel chests. Even from where he sat, Adam could hear them carrying on, obviously drunk, and with the numerous empty glasses covering their table testimony to their state of inebriation.

There’s some in every crowd, Adam thought, the loud-mouth and the arrogant drunks.

Adam turned to Kaylor, who wasn’t paying attention to any of this. Instead his gaze was fixated on another creature seated at the bar, a being of the same race as he, yet smaller and with smoother features. Adam watched as Kaylor’s nostrils flared, sniffing the air.

“Stay here,” the alien commanded as he stood from his chair. “I will be back.” Kaylor then made a beeline toward the other alien at the bar.

Adam watched transfixed as the two members of Kaylor’s species met and began to size each other up. It was all kind of creepy, as they smelled each other up and down, and then began to rub their necks together, making contact with the inch-long fingers of skin dangling from under their ears. Then the weirdest thing happened. Kaylor undid his pants. The female turned her back to him, while Kaylor grasped her waist and attempted to mount her…right there in the bar.

Before the pair could get too engrossed, the bartender came over and angrily yelled something at them. Frantically, the two alien lovebirds hurried out the front door, leaving Adam sitting at the table alone, confused and more than a little embarrassed.

Holy crap! What was he supposed to do now, just sit there or follow?

With no experience to guide him, Adam attempted to look as nonchalant as possible, propping one arm up on the back of his chair and crossing his legs. When the bartender brought the drinks, Adam quickly snatched up his glass and took a long, healthy swig, expecting a cola-tasting drink like he had aboard Kaylor’s ship. Tears welled up in his eyes, as the potent liquid, tasting of pure alcohol, blazed a trail of fire all the way down to his stomach. Adam tried not to choke; that would have completely destroyed the air of masculinity he was trying to project. Instead, he blinked several times and swallowed hard to dispel any lingering traces of the demon liquid in his throat. When he was somewhat recovered, he continued to scan the room with a silly grin on his face, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

The lizard-like creatures in the corner caught his attention again, this time as a frail, rodent-looking thing passed too close to their table. The big lizard in the middle reached out and grabbed the rodent’s tail and pulled, causing the big rat to fall back into the group. The lizards feigned anger and slapped at the rat’s head several times before the biggest of the bullies kicked the rodent back into the room, sending him crashing into an empty table nearby. The other lizards laughed hysterically, cancelling out all other sounds in the room. Penitently, the abused rat rose to his feet, righted the table, and then scurried off without comment or a glance back at his tormentors.

It was then that Adam noticed the big, dominant lizard was staring at him. Their eyes locked for a moment, before Adam looked away quickly. A few seconds later, he chanced a glance back, only to find the lizard was still staring at him, a slight grin now curling the edges of the creature’s elongated snout. This was getting uncomfortable, especially without Kaylor around to narrate the scene.

It was with infinite relief that Adam saw Kaylor reenter the tavern a few minutes later. When seated, Adam leaned forward, “What was that all about?”

The confused look returned to Kaylor’s face before understanding came to his pasty features. “You mean the mating? Does your species not mate?”

“Of course we do, but not so fast and in public—at least not as a rule. Who was she?”

“I do not know,” Kaylor said dismissively, lifting his drink and taking a gulp. “It doesn’t matter; we see so few of our species out here that we need to take advantage of all encounters.”

“So you just jump each other whenever you meet, just like that?”

“I do not see why you are so shocked. If another of your kind showed up you would do the same.”

Adam had to think about that for a moment, but he was distracted from his thoughts when he noticed the large lizard-creature was still staring at him.

“Who are those things in the corner? One of them keeps staring at me.”

Kaylor didn’t look over as his voiced tensed. “They are Rigorians. I would not engage with them if I were you. They are the meanest, strongest creatures in the Fringe. Their clan is also the largest and widespread, and they know it.”

“Yeah, they seem like real assholes.”

“Graphic, but accurate, just be careful around them. They know they are the top of the order here, except, of course, the Juireans.”

Adam looked over at the lizard. Concerned that his furtive glances might be sending the wrong signal, Adam decided to defuse the situation before it got out of hand.

Kaylor was still talking: “Whatever you do ….”

Adam flashed a big, toothy grin at the lizard—

“… never bare your teeth at them. They consider that a life-challenge.”

The big lizard jumped to his feet and marched over to Adam’s table. Standing a good seven feet tall, the yellow eyes and long snout were truly intimidating. Adam leaned back in his chair, looking up at the towering beast—just as Kaylor fell off his.

“You, creature!” the Rigorian called out. “You challenge me?”

“Nah, it was just a misunderstanding,” Adam blurted, his voice cracking as he spoke.

“Yes, you challenge me. I therefore challenge you!”

The tavern fell silent as Adam stood up, slowly so as to not spook the lizard any more than he already was. “Listen, I don’t want to fight you. Like I said, it was just a misunderstanding.”

The Rigorian placed his hand on the butt of this weapon; noticing Adam was unarmed, he cocked his head toward Kaylor. “Give him your weapon.”

Adam sent Kaylor a look as if to say what the fuck when the alien began to unbuckle his holster without so much as a word of protest. He handed the holster to Adam. “What are you doing? I’m not going to fight this thing!”

“But you have been challenged,” Kaylor stated flatly. “You will either fight, or he has a right to shoot you dead where you stand.”

Adam raised his eyebrows. So either I fight … or I die. That’s not much of a choice.

Taking a deep breath, Adam reluctantly took the holster and strapped it around his waist. At least this was something he was familiar with: a weapon at the ready and an enemy before him. This was basic … and it was something he was good at.

The lizard turned and walked back to his group as a path was cleared of patrons and tables between the Rigorian and Adam. There was more chatter in the room, as the reality of the situation spread rapidly throughout the bar. There was even some betting going on. Adam didn’t want to know what odds he was getting, but he was sure they weren’t good.

Adam moved out from behind the table, giving himself a clear line of sight to the Rigorian. Kaylor moved up beside him and removed the weapon from the holster. “Have you ever fired an MK-17 before?”

Adam shook his head.

“Of course you have not.” Kaylor displayed the weapon to him. “You must follow this procedure to fire the MK: Withdraw the weapon from the holster, bring it to level, and when the targeting computer has locked on you will feel a slight vibration in the grip. You can then pull the trigger and your target will be struck. I have set the weapon at level-one. That is the maximum setting. It will produce a concentrated bolt, but you will only have five shots per charge. It was set a level-two when I shot you. That produced a larger, more diffused bolt, but it gives the shooter ten shots instead of five. You will need a level-one bolt to kill the Rigorian, but you will also need to be very precise with your targeting.”

He returned the weapon to the holster and then stepped away. But then as an afterthought, he stepped forward again and raised his arm. “This is my weapon,” he announced to the room. “I will be reclaiming my property after the challenge is satisfied.”

Adam leaned in towards him, “You don’t sound too confident about my chances.”

Kaylor shrugged, and then moved away, putting more distance between Adam and himself.

Adam turned his attention to the Rigorian. He was about to ask how this was supposed to go down when he saw the lizard’s hand move quickly toward his gun. The Rigorian grasped the grip and began to draw the weapon from the holster….

Oh shit … it’s happening!

Without thinking, Adam reached down and withdrew the MK-17 from the holster. The weapon was light in his hand, and in a single move he aimed it at the lizard and instinctively depressed the trigger. With a flash, a tiny, brilliant ball of blue light shot out of the business end of the MK impacting the left shoulder of the Rigorian, spinning him sideways. Adam fired again; this time the shot struck the thick neck of the lizard, nearly severing the head from the torso.

There was another movement; the Rigorian to his right had pulled his weapon and was bringing it to bear on Adam. Shifting his aim slightly, Adam let loose with another shot; this one found its target center mass in the lizard’s chest.

Not taking any chances, Adam swung the weapon to the left, lining up the other two Rigorians in his sights. Each had hands on their weapons, but they quickly pulled them away, now staring down the barrel of Adam’s gun.

It was only then that he felt a slight vibration coming from the grip of the alien weapon.

Adam chuckled, an expression that made the two surviving Rigorians shiver with fright. The fight had taken less than three seconds … and only now the computer was telling him it was okay to fire.

“Take off your holsters,” Adam demanded of the two remaining Rigorians.

“What?” one of them said. “We’re not taking—”

Adam rushed forward, before jamming the barrel of his gun into the neck of the taller, defiant lizard. “Take off your goddamn weapons—or I’ll take off your heads!”

In unison, the Rigorians unbuckled their holsters, letting them fall to the floor.

“That’s better. Now get the hell out of here,” Adam ordered.

Without looking back at the fallen and bloody heap of flesh that was their dead companions, the two surviving Rigorians dashed from the tavern. Adam picked up the two sets of weapons. When he turned back to the room, he noticed how deathly quiet it was, with dozens of pairs of wide eyes staring at him. Taking advantage of the stunned fear, Adam returned to his table, lifted his drink and threw it down in a single gulp. He turned to an equally-stunned Kaylor.

“Pay up; we’re leaving.”

Outside in the early evening glow, Adam and Kaylor walked silently back to the spaceport. Kaylor didn’t ask for his weapon back and chose to stay about half a pace behind Adam on the way to the landing field.

Entering the ship, Kaylor retracted the loading ramp and secured the door, after which the pair made their way to the common room.

As they entered, Jym turned from his computer console—and nearly fell off the chair when he saw Adam.

“What is he doing here?” the bear-like alien blurted out; Kaylor silenced him with a firm shake of his head.

Adam was so jacked up that he didn’t sit down. Instead he dropped the two sets of weapons on the table and began to pace back and forth between the couch and the table. “I didn’t want to fight him—you know that,” he finally said.

Kaylor stood near the doorway. “You had no choice.”

Regaining some of his nerve, Jym pressed the subject: “What happened? You’ve only been gone about two hours—”

“Adam just killed two Rigorians in a life-challenge at Jklena’s Tavern.”

“He did what? That’s impossible.”

“No, it is not,” Kaylor countered. “It was the most remarkable thing I have ever seen. Then he disarmed two more and forced them to leave the tavern in exchange for their lives.”

Stepping forward, Kaylor held out his hand to Adam. “Let me have the weapon.”

Adam stopped pacing and looked into Kaylor’s eyes. A tense moment passed before Adam began to unbuckle the holster. “No, keep the holster on,” Kaylor said.

Surprised, Adam obeyed and handed the weapon to the alien. Taking the MK-17, Kaylor popped the power cartridge out of the handle and handed the weapon back to Adam.

“Let me see you draw the MK again. It is disarmed, so just draw and shoot, like you did before.”

Doing his best John Wayne imitation, Adam whipped the gun out of the holster, raised it and pulled the trigger. He heard an audible gasp from Jym.

“What’s the big deal?” Adam asked. “I’ve always had pretty quick reactions, and I’m a damn good shot. It’s my job.”

After a moment, Kaylor answered. “You should not be able to do that. I have never seen anyone draw a weapon as fast as you. Also, you did not use the targeting computer. How is it that you can hit a target without assistance?”

“Well, that part seemed pretty silly. Why do you have to wait for a computer to tell you when to shoot?”

Kaylor persisted. “You should not be able to hit a target without assistance. If you do, then it is simply luck. Yet what I saw today was not luck.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but we don’t use targeting computers on our handguns. We do with missiles and rockets and things like that, but not with handguns or rifles. Besides, he was only about twenty feet away. I’d have to be blind to miss at that range.”

Jym coughed. “I don’t mean to spoil the moment, but what about the salvage?”

Kaylor seemed relieved by the change the subject. “It has been registered. We are to go back tomorrow at Day4 for the final inventory and receipt.”

“And him?” Jym nodded toward Adam, who was practicing drawing the MK-17, and getting faster every time.

“The Registrar said he couldn’t help him get back to his planet…so I said he could stay on with us until the owners show up for the claim or the verdict on the salvage is rendered. The hope is that the owners could tell him where his home is located.”

“But that could be months from now! You mean he is to remain here for all that time? You can clearly see how dangerous this thing can be.”

“I told him two months—”

“Hey, I’m right here in the room,” Adam said.

“We’ll put him to work, doing something,” Kaylor continued. “But I could not leave him on-planet without any resources.”

“It looks like he can take care of himself,” Jym countered.

“If killing is an occupation….”

Adam turned toward the arguing aliens: “Listen up you two; I’m not going to be any trouble. I’m a hard worker and a fast learner, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me so far, really. I just need a little time to figure out what I’m going to do.” He took a few steps toward Jym. “Remember, from my perspective, it’s only been about a day since I was back home, and without ever dreaming that I’d be here and going through all this shit.” Now he leaned over the seated alien. “Besides, this is your reality, not mine. So how ‘bout it, Jym…why don’t you cut me some slack!”

Jym had recoiled from Adam as the diatribe grew more impassioned. Now he recovered slightly. “Understandable, Adam Cain, even as I am not used to someone disturbing our routine. If Kaylor wishes you to stay, then it is surely the same for me.”

“That’s better,” Adam said forcefully. “Now can we all try to get along?” And with that last plea, Adam took off the holster and handed it back to Kaylor. But then he gathered up the two other weapons he’d taken from the Rigorians and left to return to his room. He had a lot of thinking to do….

Chapter 11

Overlord Oplim Ra Unis was having a terrible day. He had just received a report that tax revenues for the Fringe were down seventeen-percent and that the mining operations on Castor were stalled because of a delay in having a new drilling unit shipped in from Sector Seven.

But what frustrated the young Overlord the most was the reality that his superiors back on Juir would not care. To them, the Fringe was so inconsequential—such an afterthought—that they treated the region as a bonus to all their other operations. So no matter what Oplim did, he would never be noticed.

And that was why so many of his colleagues in the Juirean Authority had been shocked to learn Oplim had requested the Fringe as a duty assignment. With such a vast and growing Expansion—and so few Juireans available to fill vital posts—he could have had his pick of any of a dozen Sectors. Yet he chose the Fringe.

Oplim closed the file on his computer, leaned back in his chair and stared out through the huge plate-glass window that made up the entire right wall of his office. Before him lay the urban expanse of Cyol, the city on the planet Melfora Lum where the Juireans had established their sector headquarters some twenty-odd standard years before. It was the largest city in the Fringe with skyscrapers and traffic routes, even elevated arrow trains that shuttled the inhabitants to and from their daily tasks. The planet offered a temperate climate, ample farmland, and even the gravity was nearly that of Juir. But it had been Oplim’s hobby—indeed his obsession—that had brought him to Melfora Lum, and out to the very edge of the civilized galaxy.

So when his secure computer link had buzzed a few moments before—and he read the attached file—his heart began to race, his breath coming in shallow gulps.

Could this be it? Could this be what he’d come all the way out here to find?

Oplim had traces on all communications throughout the Fringe, including vidcasts, link transmissions, ship chatter…and even salvage registrations. Search parameters were entered and any hits, even the most obscure, were correlated and weighed against all known databases.

This hit came from a salvage that had been registered on the planet Nimor. Oplim had received the information only milliseconds behind even the bureaucrats on the planet, but unlike them, he was privy to information they were not.

The configuration was correct, the technology consistent, and even the dead occupants coincided with the archives. This was definitely a Klin ship. At last he had proof!

For over twenty standard years, Oplim had tracked every credible sighting, report, rumor or myth regarding the elusive Klin. Within his program, he had noted each of these, no matter how vague, no matter how reliable. And then, after so many years, a pattern began to emerge.

As the Juirean Expansion grew larger, the locations of the most recent reports moved inexorably farther out, away from the more populated regions of the galaxy. It was obvious what was happening: the Klin were moving. And now there was no place to go beyond the Fringe, not unless one risked the unknowns of the Far Arm.

It had been a remarkable gamble on Oplim’s part. After all, many in the Expansion didn’t even believe the Klin still existed, and to be labeled a Believer did not sit well with the Elites or the Juirean Council. Besides, with a whole galaxy to govern, most Juireans had neither the time nor the inclination to pursue fairy tales. The Klin had been eradicated four thousand years ago during The Reckoning, and to most Juireans, they were a dead race.

And yet here was a Klin ship, a living relic of a time long forgotten.

Oplim watched the video the survey crew had taken, and even though the ship itself was not conclusive evidence—after all, it had been nearly four millennia since anyone had seen a Klin spaceship—it was the bodies onboard that made the find conclusive. Evolution does not work so fast that in four thousand years a species would not be recognizable. The Juireans had plenty of records that showed what a Klin looked like…even a dead one. And there were definitely dead Klin aboard the derelict starship.

Yet finding hard evidence that the Klin still existed wasn’t enough for Oplim. If the Klin still lived they had to have a base of operations somewhere. And more-than-likely it was right here in his sector.

Oplim scanned the report until he found what he was looking for—and then he slammed his fist down hard on his desk He was afraid of this; the ship’s computer core was missing. That core would hold the location to the Klin hiding place.

Reading more detail, Oplim saw where it was reported that the Fringe Pirates had attacked the ship and then removed certain items, including the core, before abandoning their kill. He read with disbelief—as well as a little admiration—how a pair of lowly mule-drivers had tricked the pirates into running away, unfortunately before they left with the core.

But wait, what was this? He read further. There was a survivor! Not a Klin, but another creature who had been aboard the Klin ship at the time of the attack. The vids were both informative and confusing. There had been eighty of these creatures aboard—Humans they were called—and they had all been assassinated by the Klin, all except one. And he was currently on Nimor.

Oplim’s mind quickly assessed the situation and then formulated a plan, as Overlords had been trained to do for thousands of years. Tapping the communications tab on his desk, he commanded that a secure link be established between himself and Fleet Commander Giodol Fe Bulen.

Commander Giodol was surprised to receive a link directly from the Overlord; he answered immediately.

“Commander, where are you at this time?” his Overlord asked without preamble.

“We are near Silea, my Lord, showing our force to the natives,” he answered. With no real enemies in this part of the Expansion, the tiny Fringe fleet was used primarily for intimidation purposes, as a reminder of the power of the Juireans.

“I have a vital assignment for you,” Oplim stated. Giodol perked up. He was tired of simply showing the flag to these backwater beings. “I need you to launch an assault on the pirate base at K’ly and extract information from all the captives.”

Giodol was stunned. Was he hearing his Overlord correctly? This was real action, and against the only menace—if minor—within the region. The Fleet Commander was aware that recently the pirates had become much bolder and proficient with their activities, even going so far as to stage raids on planetary cities. They also appeared to be working better as a unit, rather than as independent ships with no real organization governing their actions. Now the young Overlord was finally going to take action against them. “Of course, my Lord, I will do as you wish with enthusiasm. It is time we subdue the pirate activities—”

The Overlord continued, interrupting: “Yesterday a vessel was attacked by three pirate ships in the Void, near the planet Nimor. The pirates fled with the ship’s computer core. That is what you must recover, commander.”

Giodol was surprised by the assignment. This was something different than punishment for the pirates’ sector-wide activities.

“Commander, you are authorized to use whatever means necessary to recover the core.”

“Was it removed from a Juirean ship, my Lord?” Giodol asked, seeking a reason why this particular core would be so important to the Overlord.

“No, it was not, but that is not your concern. Just bring me the core as soon as it is recovered.” The Overlord broke the link.

Giodol stared at the blank screen for a few seconds more, wondering why the Overlord was acting so strangely. Oplim had come to the Fringe only two years before, while Giodol had been here for ten. He had experienced no particular issues with the young Overlord in that time, and even now, this was not an issue he would dwell upon. The Overlord must have his reasons. And we’re Juireans; we never question the motives of another Juirean.

Giodol knew the location of the pirate base on K’ly; it was one of the most-poorly kept secrets in the Fringe. It’s just that no one had ever taken the initiative to launch an assault against the base. Now he had a mission, a purpose, and as he had told the Overlord, he would accomplish his assignment with enthusiasm.

After breaking the link with his Fleet Commander, Oplim opened a new one with Counselor Deslor Lin Jul on the planet Castor. Deslor was one of three Counselors assigned to the Overlord, but by far his favorite. He also shared Oplim’s belief in the existence of the Klin.

Once the link was established, Oplim spent the first few minutes briefing Deslor regarding the Klin ship and the actions he’d set in motion against the Fringe Pirates. The Counselor, too, was ecstatic.

“I need you to go to Nimor and interview the mule-drivers,” the Overlord ordered. “They are not to spread any information regarding the ship, is that clear?”

“Perfectly,” Deslor said. “I assume you have put a lock on all references to the ship and its recovery?”

“Yes; all files have been blocked from dissemination. After you have interviewed the parties on Nimor, I want you to bring the ship—and the survivor—to me here on Melfora Lum. This creature has had direct contact with the Klin. We must know the connection between the Klin and …” he looked down at his notes, “… these Humans. How long before you can get to Nimor?”

“I can be there in seventeen hours.”

Chapter 12

The next morning, Adam learned that Day4 meant four hours after sunrise on Nimor. Everyone was in a better mood this morning—even Jym—as the three of them crowded into a transport cab for the trip to the Ministry Compound.

There was a marked increase in activity in the compound this morning compared to the day before, with literally dozens of the hairy creatures scurrying about with obvious purpose.

Adam had convinced himself that the ship’s owners would soon come to claim their property. His internal chant was cathartic, if comprised primarily of wishful thinking.

As he sat in the back of the transport, he proudly displayed the MK-17 bolt launcher he wore on his hip. He felt much better being armed in this strange, new environment. As a military man, his weapon was his best friend. He’d even found a ribbon of leather in the cargo hold which he used to tie the bottom of the holster to his lower thigh to keep it from riding up when he drew the handgun. This allowed him to quicken his draw even more.

In addition, Adam was experiencing a slight superiority complex, based on the reactions he’d witnessed from Kaylor and Jym the day before. They made him believe that he’d accomplished something pretty spectacular against the yellow-eyed lizards. It also meant that if this was the best these aliens had to throw against him, then he didn’t have much to worry about. Adam kept playing the fight scene over again in his mind, and each time he realized he’d never been in any real danger from the lizard-things. The speed of their draws was like watching it in slow motion, and even if they had equaled him in drawing speed, they would have stood there for a second or so before firing, waiting for the damn targeting computer to do its thing.

Was this how they all did it? If so…then damn!

Adam followed Kaylor and Jym as they entered the brick building once again and took the stairs to the second floor. The building was packed, but the office of Fredic Dess was empty, except for the ubiquitous bureaucrat.

Dess was especially friendly this morning, much more cordial than the day before, however he did start the conversation with an apology. “I am terribly sorry, but I must insist that you remove your weapons and place them over there.” He indicated a table set against the left wall, next to the second door to his office. “We have a dignitary arriving today and we have instituted new restrictions for today only.”

Even though Adam was just getting used to his new sidearm, he obliged, as did Kaylor; Jym was unarmed.

Once they were all seated in front of the desk, Dess leaned back in his chair and locked his gaze on Adam. Without warning, seven black-vested guards burst into the room from both entrances, each pointing their long-barrel weapons at him. Adam jumped up from his seat, but after a quick assessment, he sank back into the chair with a sigh of resignation.

“You—the Human known as Adam Cain—are to be detained pending investigation of the unprovoked death of two Rigorian Primes yesterday late-day,” Dess announced to him.

“That was self-defense.” Kaylor countered, much to his credit. Adam remained silent, surveying the armed guards.

“That is not what the witnesses relay. A Council will be convened to weigh all the evidence.”

Adam leaned over closer to Kaylor. “I thought you said there wasn’t much law around here,”

“I was present,” Kaylor said, ignoring Adam. “The Rigorians initiated the challenge. It was a fair fight.”

“Two Rigorian warriors dead in a life-challenge against a single being?” Dess shook his head. “I am not a judge, but I find that hard to believe. He will be held within the Compound as we investigate.”

It was then that Kaylor noticed the guards were also pointing their weapons at him. “What are you doing—?”

Dess cut him off. “And the two of you are also to be detained, pending the arrival of, and the questioning by, Juirean Counselor Deslor Lin Jul.”

Adam saw the look of utter shock on the faces of his two companions, a blood-draining mask of terror different from any previous expressions Adam had witnessed.

“A Juirean Counselor is coming here…to see us?”

“That is correct. The Juirean Authority has taken over the case of your salvage. It is no longer under local jurisdiction.”

Kaylor started to say something before nearly choking. Once he regained his voice, he asked, “When will the Counselor be arriving?”

“He will be here later today, approximately Day10. You will be held here until his arrival.”

“But we have not done anything wrong.”

“Immaterial. I am only following orders.”

“But we are not going anywhere. Why can we not leave and return when he arrives?”

“That is not my decision to make. Take them away.”

Chapter 13

Riyad Tarazi had just finished a rigorous workout when the link came through from Angar in Gildemont. Bare-chested, he wrapped a towel around his shoulders and opened the link.

“What do you have to report?”

Angar was seated before a computer screen in what appeared to be a planet-side room, not aboard his ship. “The Ministry has completed their survey, and the computer core is not on the ship. The report says the pirates took it.” His tone was incredulous.

“Well, seeing that it was your crew who went aboard, do you have it?”

“No sir, absolutely not!” Angar cried out in his defense. “We didn’t have time to do any salvage before—well—before we left.”

“Then the bastard mule-drivers must have it.”

“The report indicates that his ship passed a cursory inspection.”

“They wouldn’t keep it aboard. They probably took other things as well.”

Angar looked down at a screen in front of him. “Yes, there were several small units missing, but again, all supposedly taken by us.”

“They would have hidden them somewhere along the way to Nimor.” Then the obvious answer popped into his head. “The asteroids; they hid the core there.”

“There are millions of them, sir.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why we need to get the drivers to tell us where they hid it. Where are the bastards now?”

“They are being detained at the Ministry.”

“Detained, why?”

The blood drained from Angar’s face. “They are awaiting the arrival of a Juirean Counselor for interrogation”

Juireans! Why did they care about this salvage?

“When will the Counselor be arriving?”

“Very soon; the Ministry is making arrangements for the interrogation of the two mule-drivers as we speak…along with the one survivor.”

“Survivor? What survivor?”

Realizing his mistake, the rest of the blood drained from Angar’s face. “There seems to have been one survivor. One of the beings from the hiberpods is alive.”

“A Human…is alive? Why wasn’t I told of this?” Riyad nearly flew out of his chair, while the facial recognition sensor on the vid camera followed his movement, keeping him on-screen with Angar.

“Apologies, my General. When we went aboard there were dozens of hiberpods. All the creatures were dead—except this one, evidently.”

Riyad stared at the captain for several long moments. Angar shifted nervously waiting for Riyad to say something. Finally, he spoke. “Where is this survivor now?” His speech was slow and cadenced.

“He is also being detained at the Ministry. But he is being held pending a murder investigation.”

This was the last thing Riyad had expected to hear. “What do you mean, Angar? Explain yourself.”

“Early the prior evening, the survivor apparently killed two Rigorians in a life-challenge. Witnesses say it was unprovoked, that was how the two could have been killed by a single creature.”

That’s not so unbelievable, not in light of what I’ve just been told, Riyad thought. Another Human, and it didn’t take long for his abilities to manifest themselves. But that was information Riyad would have to deal with later. Right now he had a more urgent matter.

“Captain Angar, I’m giving you the most important task of your life; fail this and you will not have a life left to live.” Angar swallowed hard, his eyes wide with fear and anticipation. “The mule-drivers must be freed from the Nimorians and brought to me. If the drivers are killed, then the location of the computer core that I seek dies with them. You can use any of our contacts in the Clans and in the Ministry to secure their release. Do what you must. And one last thing,” his voice lowered slightly. “If you cannot subdue the survivor without risking the lives of the mule-drivers, then you must kill him. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir! I already have a major contact within the Ministry. I will begin planning for the rescue as soon as possible.”

“Keep me informed of your progress, Captain Angar.” Riyad cut the link.

Chapter 14

Well this is just great, Adam thought, as he led the parade out of the office and down the stairs.

The jail block was located in the next building over, and on the way, Adam tried to think if there was any way out of his current situation. Being on an alien planet took away most of his options, and even if he could escape, where would he go? He knew he was innocent of the charges against him; after all, he had killed the lizards in a fair fight. As the entourage approached the four-story brick building, Adam decided to let things ride and see how they played out, even though he had no idea how fair alien justice would be.

Solid metal doors greeted them at the prison building. They entered into a processing room with high counters manned by grim-looking natives wearing tan vests instead of the black ones the guards wore. The three detainees were herded through another security gate made of thin metal bars and taken down a wide corridor to a series of barred jail cells.

The familiarity of the cells once again amazed Adam. About the only thing that made this scene alien were his escorts. The room itself was long, with ten cells along the right side. Each cell was made of the same thin metal bars as the security door, running up from the floor to the ceiling with no parallel supports between them. They were all open to the other cells except for a wall of bars separating them. Inside each cell were two cots, one placed along each side wall of the cell, and with a sink and toilet set along the solid back wall. There were no windows to the outside. All the cells were empty.

Adam was placed in one cell, while Kaylor and Jym were placed together in another. Once the gates were locked, the guards left.

Adam walked over to the sink and splashed water on his face. Looking around for a towel that didn’t exist, he pulled the sheet from one of the beds and dried off. He sat on the cot facing the cell of his alien companions, where the two were in an animated, yet hushed conversation.

“Hey,” Adam called out to them, “what just happened in there?”

Kaylor and Jym continued their conversation.

“Hey…alien dudes!” This time he got their attention. “What are you two so excited about? You’re not the one accused of murder.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Kaylor said dismissively. “I am sure it will all work out once they interview more of the witnesses.” He turned back to his conversation with Jym.

Adam decided to use a different tact. “So what’s a Juirean Counselor?”

Both the aliens stopped talking.

Kaylor moved closer to the bars separating the two cells. “Didn’t I tell you the Juireans rule the civilized galaxy? To warrant a Juirean coming here to meet us, there must be something very special about that ship I found you on.”

“That’s not my area of expertise. Remember, I was just cargo.”

Kaylor looked annoyed, while Jym settled on the far away cot and sat down. “You don’t understand how serious this is,” Kaylor said. “The Juirean Expansion encompasses over eight-thousand stellar systems. Juireans don’t bother themselves with every little thing that goes on within them, especially not way out here in the Fringe. I have been out in this part of the Expansion for almost twenty standard years, and I have never seen a Juirean in person.”

“I saw one once,” Jym interjected. “But that was at a big celebration on my homeworld, and it was from pretty far away.”

Kaylor ignored the interruption. “A Counselor is only one step below an Overlord, and the only other level above that are the Elites—but they never leave Juir. I have heard there are only ten Juireans in the entire Fringe. Do you see now why we are concerned?”

“I guess so. But you didn’t do anything wrong, either. So relax; it will all work itself out,” Adam offered, with a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

Kaylor placed both his hands on the cell bars—favoring his broken left arm—and hung his head slightly. “It also looks like they may take away our salvage.”

Adam could tell the two aliens were worried. “So, tell me more about these Juireans. How did they come to be the top dogs in the galaxy?”

Adam’s reference to top dogs confused Kaylor for a moment, as he listened to the translator work through the reference. The alien sat on the cot and leaned back against the bars at the front of the cell.

“First of all, the Juireans are not to be taken lightly. They control the technology and manufacturing capacity of the Expansion. They also have the strongest weapons and largest fleets. They bind the entire known galaxy together, and their Expansion encompasses the other side of the Core, and into this side of the galaxy and the Fringe, at the edge of the Far Arm—where you apparently come from. There’s still a lot of galaxy to explore, and it is believed that eventually the Juireans will control it all.”

“That doesn’t answer the question about how they did it.”

Kaylor leaned his head back against the bars of the cell and closed his eyes. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a moment before opening his eyes again and staring at the ceiling. “I have never encountered a being before who has not heard of the Juireans. Yet if you insist, I will tell you the history, as much as I know it, seeing that we have nothing better to occupy our time. You may actually gain a better insight into our dilemma with this information. First of all, you must go back about four thousand standard years ago and to the time of the Seven World Common Alliance.” Kaylor began. Adam could tell this line of conversation was helping Kaylor take his mind off of his current situation. It was doing the same for Adam.

“The way it began, according to the stories, was that within a small stellar cluster of four dominant stars, seven habitable worlds orbited within close proximity to one another. This was long before interstellar travel and gravity drives, yet during certain periods their orbits allowed most of these planets to come very near to one another, near enough that powerful telescopes could pick up the lights on their surfaces along with other signs of intelligent life. As each species evolved, their primary purpose became making contact with their neighboring planets.

“According to the stories, science and technology advanced very quickly on these worlds, as they bypassed the normal beliefs in religion and such that most other civilizations hold to be true. With the natives of these planets aware from the beginning that other intelligent life existed, the belief in one god—or in even their own uniqueness based upon some divine creation—was an obsolete concept. My own homeworld of Belson—as well as most of the others I’ve visited—still hold onto these ancient religious beliefs even to this day. Studies have shown that such superstitions and restrictions tend to slow the progress of science by thousands of years. But not so in the Alliance. While my people were riding steeds and building our first wheeled carts, the races in the Alliance were already constructing rockets and developing wave transmitters in an attempt to communicate with the other worlds of the cluster.

“In a relatively short time, some of these races began traveling back and forth between their planets and sharing technology. The Klin, the Diphorians and the Oanneans were some of the first, establishing the rudimentary Alliance. They eventually set criteria for entry into their organization, the most important of which was that each planet must be united under one government before they would be offered full membership.

“The Juireans, according to these stories, were still divided and tribal at the time, yet they, too, knew of the beings on their neighboring worlds and wanted to join them. Yet the other worlds considered them too barbaric and warlike for membership. This made the Juireans mad. In fact, at that time, the planet where the Juireans come from was called Axlus, and it was made up of hundreds of city-states, with the city-state of Juir being just one of them.

“But then a leader arose on Axlus, a Juirean citizen named Malor, who began a concerted effort to unify the planet. After a long and bloody campaign, he eventually succeeded, and changed the name of the planet Axlus to Juir in honor of his home. When he was done, the Others arrived.”

Kaylor stretched, giving himself some relief from the hard metal bars against his back. Seeing that Adam was paying attention to his lecture, he continued.

“By then, the Alliance consisted of six of the seven worlds in the cluster. Even though Juir was united now, they were still not granted full membership in the Alliance. The other civilizations still considered them too violent and belligerent. This caused an incredible amount of anger within the Juirean population, since they had killed millions of their own kind to bring about the unification that had been required for membership. This was the time Malor devised a plan to bring the Juireans to power.

“At the time, the Klin and the Oanneans were in a minor struggle for control of the Alliance, and Malor convinced the Klin that they could utilize the Juirean’s militaristic abilities to provide protection and security for the Klin, a race who had never had to fight before, either among themselves or against others. At the insistence of the Klin, the Juireans were eventually granted full membership in the Alliance and given complete access to all the technology the coalition had to offer. This was a mistake—but not if you listen to the Juireans tell the story.”

Adam could tell from the tone of Kaylor’s story that he had no love for the Juireans. Adam was finding the story fascinating. Here was a tale of real galactic conquest by real aliens. This was better than any movie or science fiction novel.

Kaylor continued.

“Juireans live for a very long time, often a couple of hundred years or more. And over the fifty years or so since Malor had unified the planet—and were still denied full membership in the Alliance—the Juireans had developed an intense hatred for the other members of the association, especially the Klin, whom they considered responsible for this insult. Once Malor and the Juireans gained access to the Alliance technology, including the newly-developed gravity drive for interstellar travel, they attacked. To the Juireans, this is a time of immense pride and accomplishment in their history, and they celebrate The Reckoning as their most hallowed accomplishment. Throughout the cluster, the Juireans decimated the other races, who, as with the Klin, had never developed an advanced military force or fighting skills equal to that of the Juireans. Yet the Juireans focused the brunt of their revenge on the Klin. They sterilized the Klin homeworld of Klinmon and exterminated the race.”

“Not all of them!” said Jym.

“What do you mean?” Adam asked.

Kaylor answered for him. “What he means is that there are accounts—rumors really—that some of the Klin escaped and went into hiding. The tales say that the Klin will someday rise again and vanquish the Juireans…and reclaim the Alliance as their own.”

“You don’t believe that?”

“It’s been almost four thousand years and there has never been any verifiable proof that the Klin still exist.”

“They’ve been to Fulqin!” Jym countered.

“Fulqin is Jym’s homeworld,” Kaylor explained. “Nearly every race has their myths.” He turned to Jym, “Admit it, no one has actually produced a real Klin for the vids, now have they?”

“They are just being cautious.”

“Go on,” Adam said to Kaylor.

“Once the Juireans had conquered the Alliance, they set about bringing other worlds under their control using the new gravity drive. Soon wars were breaking out across the galaxy, and the Juireans found themselves assaulted on all sides.

“By this time Malor had died, and the Juireans went through a series of ineffective leaders until Arolus Ra Un came to power. He was a strong and fearless leader who decided that the best way to bring unity to the warring factions of the Alliance was to give them all a new purpose, something to fight against, other than themselves. So he built the Mass.”

“What was that?” Adam asked.

“As the name suggests, it was a massive fleet of ten-thousand starships, that fanned out in all directions across the galaxy, conquering worlds through force, intimidation or politics. Some races resisted, but none were able to hold out for long. The Mass lasted for five hundred years, until it became so large and unmanageable that the Juireans had to stop to catch their breath. By this time, the lust for power by the Juireans was fairly well exhausted, and they found that the task of governing all the worlds of the new Alliance almost too much to bear.

“So they retreated briefly, letting thousands of systems fall back to their pre-contact existence. As it turned out, this caused more harm than good. Once most of these worlds had experienced the wonders of the Juirean technology—stolen from the Klin, I might add—they longed for more. Regional wars were fought for what was left by the Juireans. I know this to be true, because my homeworld was involved in one of the bloodiest and most-protracted of these regional wars.”

“What happened next? Obviously the Juireans didn’t stay quiet for long.”

“No, they didn’t,” Kaylor agreed. “They came out with a new strategy: The Expansion. Realizing that a galaxy is too big for one race to control, the Juireans allowed for regional alliances, as well as individual planets to petition for entry into the Expansion, yet still retain a high level of autonomy and self-rule. Through this strategy the Juireans were able to gain control over thousands of additional worlds by giving the local authorities more freedom, and all in exchange for their allegiance, as well as a tribute paid to the Juireans.

“The strongest of these local authorities gained access to the most technology, yet the Juireans had learned from their past. To this day, they maintain strict control of the technology, only doling out bits and pieces, and never the means of production. In fact, the Juirean culture these days is built almost entirely on managing their Expansion and the manufacture of the technology.”

“Sounds like a pretty reasonable thing to do,” Adam said. “These Juireans don’t sound that bad.” As soon as Adam finished his statement, the look of disgust on the faces of the two aliens told him he didn’t have all the facts.

“How can you say that?” Kaylor asked, scorn in his voice. “The Juireans are heartless animals who have stolen everything they have from others.”

“Sorry,” Adam said. “It just made sense. How else are you going to govern a whole galaxy?”

Kaylor shook his head, a dismissive gesture toward someone who knew no better. Then he continued: “Since they are only one race, the Juireans insist that the ultimate authority in the Expansion is always left to a Juirean. To keep their population high, they have breeding factories; they don’t have traditional mating pairs like most races. Children are analyzed for ability, and then separated at an early age to be trained to perform various tasks within the Juirean structure.

“Like I said earlier, at the very top of their hierarchy are the Elites, followed by the Overlords and then the Counselors. Below them are the various administrators and technicians. The Overlords are the governors of the Expansion, along with the Guards, who run the military side of their society. But the Juireans are the sole arbiters of their actions. No other race, only other Juireans, can even question the decisions of an Overlord. The Counselors are more of the regional administrators, answerable only to the local Overlord. Located at the very edge of the Expansion, the Fringe has very few Juireans of any classification. We are not that important to them.”

“And that’s why you’re so concerned about this Counselor coming today?” Adam said. “I can see that drawing the attention of a Juirean—let alone a Counselor—must mean there’s something very strange about that spaceship I was on.”

Kaylor bobbed his head, yet it didn’t take an alien body language expert to read the worry on his face. “And you know nothing more about the ship or where it came from?”

“How could I?” Adam answered. “You know I come from some backwater world that doesn’t even have space travel—not real space travel like you have. Hell, we’ve only been to our own moon a few times. I honestly have no idea where the ship came from, or why I was even aboard.”

“But there were eighty of your race in the pods. That must mean something?” Jym said from the faraway cot.

“Hell if I know. Remember, to me I’ve only been awake in your universe for about two days, and already I’ve been shot—by you,” he pointed at Kaylor, “been in a gunfight with two crazed lizards, and then arrested for murder. To top all that, back home they think I’m dead, and all the people I know and love have already put me six-feet under. Damn, this adventure is getting off to a great start! I wonder what new discoveries tomorrow will bring?”

Kaylor grunted. “At least you will not have to face a Counselor.”

“That may be true, but you do realize that my chances of meeting the owners of that ship are now virtually nonexistent? The Juireans are taking over, and if that’s the case, then I’m truly fucked!” With that outburst, Adam slammed his hand hard against a bar of the cell. His eyes widened as he saw it had bent outward by an inch or so.

He looked over at Kaylor and Jym to see if they had noticed, but they hadn’t. Adam shifted his position on the cot until he was seated like Kaylor, with his back against the front bars. He stretched out his legs on the cot, placing his left foot against another bar of the cell, and then using the bars behind him as a backstop, began to push with his leg. With some effort, he felt the bar begin to give.

He stopped pushing and looked again at the two aliens. Jym had fallen back on his cot, while Kaylor was staring straight ahead, toward the rear of the cell, lost in thought. Adam wasn’t sure why he wanted to keep his latest discovery to himself, but he felt he had to. He had no doubt he could easily separate the bars enough to slip through. Of course, the bars on this side of the cell simply led to another cell, but he knew he could also bend the front ones just as easily.

Adam reclined more on the cot until he was staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open, his mind clicking. Now that he knew he could escape from the cell, he was at a loss as to what to do with the knowledge. This whole planet—hell this entire alien universe—was a prison for him. Without a workable plan of action he was still screwed, and without enough knowledge or experience about his surroundings to even begin to formulate one. However, as the mantra went: He would adapt, innovate and overcome…when the time came. Of that he was sure.

Chapter 15

The next few hours passed without much interaction between the prisoners, yet they all sat up when a commotion came from the processing room. The door to the cell block opened and a flood of creatures entered.

Kaylor and Jym jumped to their feet, while Adam remained seated on his cot.

A dozen or more Nimorian natives entered, followed by five of the nasty-looking lizard creatures Adam knew now to be Rigorians—like the ones he’d killed the night before. Their eyes locked on him instantly, and Adam knew that the news had spread quickly about the deaths. He smiled back at the glowering aliens, which only seemed to agitate them more.

After the lizards, the Juirean entered. Adam reasoned this had to be the Juirean because of the deference granted him, as well as the fact that he was about a foot taller than anyone else in the room, even the seven-foot-tall Rigorians. Adam quickly noticed, however, that most of the Counselor’s added height came from his magnificent mane of yellow hair. It flowed from his wide forehead and puffed out on top for a good foot, before cascading halfway down his back. The Juirean’s swarthy complexion stood out in stark contrast to the light-colored hair, allowing the alien’s face to remain slightly obscured and mysterious; a long, angular face that tapered down from the wide forehead, past a simple, normal looking nose and smallish mouth, to culminate at a pencil-thin chin thrusting out from the narrow jawline. Adam couldn’t tell much about the creature’s physical build since he was draped in several layers of flowing capes of greens, blues and reds. It all made for quite the spectacle.

The Juirean’s dress and demeanor was created for show and intimidation, and even though Adam wasn’t that impressed, it appeared to be working on the other aliens in the room.

The Juirean Counselor stepped closer to the bars of Kaylor and Jym’s cell and took a screenpad from one of the Nimorians. After scanning the screen, he locked his steely gaze upon Kaylor. “You are the salvager?” His voice was extremely strong and projecting, something Adam reasoned came from centuries of being at the top of the food chain throughout much of the galaxy.

“Yes…yes, I am, my Lord” Kaylor stammered. In the brief time he’d been with Kaylor, Adam had never seen him this nervous.

The Juirean cocked his head slightly to the right. “Bring the two of them. I will require a room without listening devices or imagers.”

The Juirean then moved to Adam’s cell. Adam remained seated on the cot. The Nimorians—and especially the Rigorians—went ballistic, demanding that he stand before the Counselor. Adam just flashed another big, toothy grin at the lizards, causing the crowd of creatures outside his cell to erupt into a near-riot.

“Silence!” the Juirean commanded. It still took a moment for the Rigorians to cease their chatter. Adam remained seated.

The Juirean spent a few moments looking Adam up and down before he abruptly turned to his right and headed for the exit. Then just before disappearing through the doorway and without looking back, the Counselor barked out a command: “Bring him too.”

The three prisoners were escorted to a smallish room in the same building, furnished with a solitary desk set near the center. Chairs were brought in for Kaylor, Jym and Adam, while the Juirean slipped into a massive chair the Nimorians placed behind the desk. He signaled for everyone except the four of them to leave the room. Adam didn’t question the Juirean’s confidence in being left alone with the prisoners. After all, who would dare accost a Juirean?

Adam glanced over at Kaylor and Jym, each looking as if they’d just pissed their pants. They sat hunched over slightly, occasionally daring a furtive glance at the Juirean.

Without ceremony, the Counselor began speaking: “There will be no salvage awarded for the derelict spacecraft,” he stated bluntly. This got Kaylor’s attention. “The ship is being confiscated by the Juirean Authority, and all records of its discovery have been purged from the Library.”

“Forgive me, Counselor,” Kaylor said feebly, “but we have a legitimate claim. Why can we not receive a salvage, or at least a recovery fee for our efforts?”

“That ship is of unknown origin and therefore is to be taken to Melfora Lum at the demand of Overlord Oplim Ra Unis. You will provide all data regarding the location of the find, including the vector from which the ship arrived, the circumstances of its recovery, as well as any observances once you entered the vessel.”

Kaylor appeared crestfallen. Adam knew he had placed so much promise on the salvage…and now it was being ripped away from him. Even so, Kaylor did not offer any resistance to the Juirean’s request—order—and began reciting exactly what had occurred over the past two days.

Damn! Has it only been two days since all this started? The thought made Adam very tired.

While Kaylor droned on, Adam noticed that the Juirean kept looking at him. Their eyes would lock for a moment before the Counselor would casually return his attention to Kaylor. Yet once Kaylor finished with his deposition, the Juirean turned his full attention to Adam.

“What were you doing aboard the ship?”

“I don’t have any idea,” he answered. “Like I’ve been telling everyone, I was kidnapped—abducted. I woke up in one of those pods not knowing how I got there or why.”

The Juirean stared at him for several seconds before speaking again. “You did not interact with any of the ship’s crew or owners?”

“The only living creature I saw was one of those little gray things, until Kaylor showed up.”

“And where are you from?”

“I’m from the planet Earth.” Adam waited for the expected comment about dirt, but it never came.

The Counselor spoke: “Why would the owners of the ship transport your kind aboard? Does your planet have relationships with them?”

“No…I don’t think so. We haven’t had any confirmed contact with aliens—with other races—even though there have been a lot of stories.”

“Your people should believe the stories,” stated the Juirean, an edge of sarcasm in his tone.

“I suppose so.” Adam was getting tired of this meaningless banter. “Listen, I just want to get home. I’m not interested in any of this bullshit or any of your politics. I didn’t ask to be here and I couldn’t care less about whose ship that is and where it came from. We are not a star traveling species—”

“Then why were eighty of your kind onboard the ship? What value are you to its builders?”

“You’re not listening to me, pal. I…don’t…know.”

Adam saw the veins in the Juirean’s neck begin to twitch; he was sure the alien had never been spoken to like this before. But he didn’t give a damn. This obnoxious blowhard was just another flamboyant, self-important bureaucrat on some kind of power trip.

“It is decided!” the Juirean announced without warning. “You will be transported to Melfora Lum to be interrogated by the Overlord himself.” Next, he turned to Kaylor and Jym. “And the two of you will be subjected to a brain cleansing to erase all memory of your recent encounter with the derelict ship.”

Adam was too pissed off to notice the look of panic that swept over the faces of his companions. “We have done nothing wrong!” Kaylor cried out. “We promise we will not say anything about this.”

“I can guarantee you will not. Guards!” A squad of armed Nimorians entered the room. “Take them back to their cells, and then arrange an immediate link with the Overlord,” The Counselor continued to glare at Adam as he and the other two prisoners were removed from the room.

Adam smiled back at him…and then winked.

A few minutes later—and in another room in the Ministry—Fredic Dess listened in on the conversation between Counselor Deslor and his Overlord, reporting on the results of the brief interrogation with the mule-drivers and the Human. He couldn’t believe what he heard.

Klin! Could this be true?

Whether true or not, this information would make him rich! Angar had promised to pay handsomely for any information regarding the prisoners and had already provided the pirate with the location of the detention center, as well as instructions on how to best affect a rescue. This was so much more.

He fingered the communication device and Angar answered immediately….

Chapter 16

The moment the cell door closed and locked, Adam was planning his escape. He was desperate now, determined to do anything necessary to avoid accompanying the yellow-haired Juirean to yet another alien planet, with more banal questioning regarding something he knew nothing about. But he would need Kaylor and Jym’s help, and at the moment he didn’t have any idea how much help they would be.

Kaylor had fallen back on one of the cots in his cell and was laying there, staring at the ceiling. Jym was on the other cot, balled up in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and giving off soft whimpering sounds.

Adam moved to the bars separating the two cells. “Listen up you two,” he hissed. “We’ve gotta get out of here. There’s no way I’m going with that son-of-a-bitch.”

Kaylor continued to stare at the ceiling.

“Snap out of it! I need the two of you to pay attention.”

Kaylor cocked his head slightly in Adam’s direction. “It is no use. We can do nothing at this point.”

“Bullshit! What was he talking about in there, about some sort of a cleansing?”

“A brain cleansing,” Kaylor said. “They are going to erase our memories. It is supposed to be selective, but I have never heard of a perfect cleansing. We will probably lose several years of memories, and then others who have had it done are never the same.”

“Then we have to get out of here while we have a chance.”

Kaylor looked at him as if he was crazy. “Do you not see where we are?”

“I can get us out of here. But then we need to get off the planet, and that’s where you come in.”

Kaylor sat up and Jym stopped his whimpering. “How…how can you get us out of here?”

Rather than tell him, Adam would demonstrate. He moved to the front of his cell, braced his back against the left side bars, and pushed against a front bar with his right leg. After a few grunts, the bar began to move. Next, he shifted sides and pushed on another bar until he had a separation wide enough to squeeze through.

Jym and Kaylor stood near the bars of their cell, staring in disbelief. “What are you?” Jym asked.

“Never mind,” Adam said as he moved over to the bars between the two cells. Bracing himself against the cell wall as he had done earlier, he bent the bars wide enough for the two aliens to slip through into his cell.

The aliens hesitated.

“Stay here and have your brains scraped clean, or take your chances with me,” Adam said. “The choice is yours.”

Soon the three prisoners were outside the cells and in the corridor. The processing room was to the left, so they hurried down the corridor in the opposite direction. Adam had no idea what was beyond the door at the other end of the cell block, but he was willing to take his chances. The only plan he had was to make it back to Kaylor’s ship and get off the planet. With so few options available, doing something was better than sitting in the cell and waiting to be whisked away by the Juireans.

At the door, Adam motioned for the two aliens to remain silent while he tested the handle. It was unlocked. He opened the door a crack, just enough to see two Nimorians sitting at a desk, one gnawing on some food, while the other typed on a keyboard.

After taking a deep breath and firming his resolve, Adam burst through the door. He was on the natives before they could react, catching the typist with a vicious right cross to the alien’s chin. In a spray of blood and shattered bone, his fist tore through thin flesh, the aftermath looking like something out of a horror movie.

Jesus Christ, I just ripped off half his face!

Next, he brought his left elbow across his body, striking the other Nimorian on the back of the head. Again there was a cracking of bone and a spray of blood. After wiping the alien gore on his tunic, Adam removed the sidearms from the guards and strapped one around his waist. He tossed the other holster to Kaylor…who let it fall through his hands and onto the floor.

“Pick it up, dammit, and put it on!”

Kaylor obeyed, his mouth hanging open as he surveyed the carnage around him. Adam shrugged; casualties of war as they say.

The three escapees were in a large foyer area, with a flight of stairs on the left leading up, and a long deserted hallway leading away from the desk. At the far end of the corridor was a set of double glass doors with natural light streaming in from beyond. With an MK-17 in hand, Adam hurried down the hall. Kaylor and Jym did their best to stay up.

Halfway to the double doors, three black-haired Nimorians appeared through a side entrance, nearly colliding with Adam. They panicked and went for their weapons. Adam calmly placed three quick bolts of blue fire into them as he sped past, barely breaking stride. In this case, the weapon’s targeting computer never did vibrate, as it found nothing to lock on to.

What a worthless piece of shit, Adam thought.

Just then, the entire building was rocked by a violent explosion. The double doors at the end of the hallway shattered inward as clouds of black smoke billowed into the hall and toward the trio. Screams and yelling was heard all around, interlaced with a cacophony of electric popping sounds.

Cut off from his original exit point, Adam lowered his shoulder and crashed through a door on his right, trailing Kaylor and Jym behind. They entered a large stock room, occupied by a solitary Nimorian, who alerted by the explosion, was running toward the same door Adam had just shattered. The Human continued barreling forward, crashing into the alien with enough force to send him flying backwards a good twenty feet. The unfortunate alien slammed into a stack of crates and fell limp to the floor.

Adam scanned the room, looking for another exit. Metal shelving, easily thirty feet high, lined the outer walls, stacked with boxes and other items, while the interior floor space was filled with several multi-level rows of stacked crates. At the far end of the room Adam spotted a second door. “Follow me,” he called out to the two panting aliens behind him.

Another series of explosions rocked the building, along with deeper sounds of electric popping, apparently coming from larger flash weapons.

The whole damn building is under siege. What the fuc—

Just then, four Nimorians—accompanied by a trio of Rigorians—burst through the far door. They spotted the escapees immediately, and not knowing whether they were friend or foe, brought their long-barrel weapons up to firing position.

Adam chose to get off the first shots, yet before he could, the seven aliens opened up with their more-powerful flash rifles. The air in the room cracked with a barrage of recklessly-aimed electric bolts in Adam’s general direction. He dove behind a stack of crates, just as the first balls whizzed past. Even though the shots were high and wide, they continued to arrive in rapid succession.

Kaylor and Jym piled on top of him as they, too, dove for cover. Adam shoved them off and crawled to the edge of the crate they were behind. A quick glance verified that the guards were spreading out, moving toward them. He spotted one of the lizards, about thirty feet away and in plain sight. He let loose with a bolt, striking the Rigorian in the gut. Another came right behind and Adam fired again. This time he missed to the right, but when he corrected his aim and depressed the trigger, nothing happened.

“Your charge is depleted!” Kaylor yelled. Adam twisted a lever on the handle of the MK, dropping the spent charge pack to the floor. He pulled another from the holster belt and snapped it in. There were no more packs on his belt, so he reached over and pulled two from Kaylor’s; it was obvious the alien wouldn’t be needing them.

Performing a quick pop-up recon, Adam saw where a stacked row of crates on his left would provide cover on its second level, shielded from the view of the aliens.

“Stay here,” he said to Kaylor and Jym. He slid off to his right, and in a single bound in the light gravity jumped the six feet to the top of the first layer of crates. He scrambled to the next level up. Hidden by the upper layer, Adam worked his way behind the two remaining Rigorians. Grimacing at the reckless act he was about to commit, Adam jumped from the crates, landing ten feet behind the aliens. As they turned, Adam let off two precise shots, killing both aliens instantly.

The Rigorians carried long-barrel rifles, one of which Adam snatched up just before dropping for cover. The four Nimorians opened up on his position, sending shattered pieces of wooden crating raining down around him.

Adam picked up a thick piece of the packing material near him, and after testing its weight, tossed the piece of wood high and to his right. When it landed, the Nimorians shifted their fire toward the sound. Adam stood and took aim, with the rifle stock pressed securely into his right shoulder. He hesitated only a moment after finding he was looking along a line of aliens, all in a row and looking to his right. He sighted on the first one in line and fingered the trigger.

A bright bolt of electric blue light escaped from the barrel of the weapon, striking the first alien in line across his chest; then the bolt continued onto the second alien, penetrating the creature’s neck. Both went down. Two with one shot, not bad. A quick second bolt dropped the third Nimorian in line. When the fourth alien turned to see his comrades collapse to the floor, the last thing he saw was a growing ball of blue energy, heading straight for his face.

With the resistance neutralized, Adam darted between crates back to where he’d left Kaylor and Jym. As he rounded the box and slid in beside them, Jym let out a high-pitched squeal, while Kaylor’s eyes rolled back in his head as he nearly fainted.

“Do not surprise us like that!” Kaylor scolded, his face paler than normal.

“Let’s go.” Adam commanded, ignoring him. Yet just as they stood, five more Nimorians entered the room through the far door. Seeing the bodies spread across the floor, they cut loose with a new barrage of blue bolts in their direction. Once again, the trio dove for cover behind the crate.

The word was out concerning their location, and soon the aliens would overrun their position. Now desperate for an alternative exit, Adam spotted a break in the metal shelving units lining the wall. He had an idea.

“Follow me and stay low.”

Adam took off in a crouch, with the aliens following close behind. They reached the break in the shelving and crowded in for cover, as splashes of blue bolts danced around them. With his back pressed against the wall, Adam rammed the surface with his left elbow. The thin wall material crumbled, producing a small hole. He was hoping this was an interior wall; the outer walls of the building were made of brick and he wasn’t sure he could break through those. But these thin, inner walls were a breeze. He smashed his elbow into the wall several more times until he had an opening about three feet wide. Next, he pressed his full weight against the hole—and a moment later fell through the wall and into another room. He landed on his back with his legs still in the hole, the flash rifle lying across his chest.

To his surprise, two Nimorians had just sped past his position, heading toward the battle at the other end of the building, weapons held firmly in their grip. They stopped and turned at the sound of the breaking wall and immediately brought their weapons to bear on the creature lying on the floor, covered in white dust. Adam rolled onto his right shoulder and fired his rifle twice. One of the aliens fell, but the other bolt missed its target. Adam fingered the trigger again, sending out another deadly ball of energy. Yet the other alien had already fired his weapon releasing the bolt in Adam’s direction. Rolling onto his back, the bolt ripped across the front of Adam’s tunic, exposing his chest and the angry red burn from where Kaylor had shot him two days before. His own shot found its mark, striking the guard in the forehead.

Adam jumped to his feet, lucky to be alive. He reached through the hole in the wall and yanked Kaylor and Jym through. They stood in the middle of the corridor, coughing and covered in white dust and bits of broken wallboard.

A row of large windows ran along the opposite wall, with dim evening light pouring through. Adam crossed to the nearest panel and smashed the glass with the stock of the rifle. The window was large enough for them to crawl through and a moment later they were outside the building. Adam pressed his back against the warmth of the brick wall and with his left arm forced Jym and Kaylor to do the same. They were in a greenbelt area between two of the Ministry buildings, separated by about sixty feet. To their left a battle raged, with two groups squared off against each other, firing from concealed doorways and from behind vehicles positioned outside the south entrance of the building.

The three escapees were fully exposed, with dozens of windows facing the grassy buffer zone between the buildings. Fortunately, the sun was setting, and deep shadows filled the space. The blue tunics worn by both Adam and Kaylor—along with Jym’s dark green outfit—provided more camouflage, but they could be spotted at any moment.

To their right and about a hundred feet away, was the outer wall to the Ministry Compound. Adam turned to the aliens. “Stay low and close to the building,” he whispered, and then they set off for the wall.

If anyone in the buildings noticed their movement, they chose to ignore them in light of the intense fighting taking place at the other end of the building. The trio made it to the wall without incident.

Adam fell against the barricade and then surveyed each direction for guard towers. Seeing none, he stood and grabbed Jym by his tunic. “Trust me,” he said…and promptly tossed the much smaller creature up to the top of the twelve-foot high partition. Jym clung there, with an arm and a leg dangling precariously over each side. Kaylor was more cooperative, and soon he, too, sat atop the wall.

Adam threw the bolt rifle over to the other side, and with an easy leap in the light gravity, reached the top of the wall with both hands before propelling the rest of his body over in one fluid motion. He landed softly on the ground below and then called for Jym and Kaylor—one at a time—to drop into his arms.

They were in a not-so-green greenbelt area about ninety feet wide between the wall and a road running parallel to the Ministry Compound. Beyond the road were several streets heading away from the complex and lined with buildings of various heights and design. A short distance to their left was the nearest street intersection where several clusters of creatures had gathered, looking in the direction of the Ministry, curious about all the explosions and gunfire taking place. In the gray light of dusk, none of the spectators noticed the three escapees scale the wall, so Adam grabbed the rifle and led them in a sprint for the cover of the nearest building.

Crouching in a darkened entryway, Adam noticed Jym and Kaylor panting heavily, trying to catch their breath. Out of shape aliens, Adam observed. Go figure!

Inside the Ministry Compound the sounds of the battle could be heard, but they were tapering off. Adam pulled Kaylor near. “Which way to the spaceport?”

Kaylor pointed to their right. “That way,” he panted. “It is about twenty minutes away by foot. Perhaps we should find a transport for hire?”

“You want us to call a cab?” Adam shot back. “I have a better idea.” He handed the rifle to Kaylor and then took off in a sprint down the street.

Along the road several of the native wheeled transports were parked, with a number of aliens of various shapes and sizes milling around them, chattering and pointing toward the Ministry. Near the end of the row of vehicles, one of the drivers had climbed out of his car and was standing at the open door, looking toward the Compound and the rising column of black smoke, now easily visible in the early evening sky. Adam moved up behind the alien, and with both his hands, grabbed him by the back of his shirt and the seat of his pants. He tossed the startled creature into the air, sending him crashing into a patch of bushes at the side of the street.

“Get in!” Adam yelled as he slid into the driver’s seat.

Of course, Adam had never driven an alien car before, but he had observed how it was done during the drive to the Ministry Complex earlier that morning. There was a joystick in the center console with a flat handle on top, and once Jym had climbed in the back and Kaylor into the front passenger seat, Adam pushed the stick all the way forward and with purpose.

Nothing happened.

He pushed it again. Still nothing.

Kaylor calmly reached over and flicked a switch on the dashboard.

The vehicle suddenly lunged forward, sideswiping another car before Adam could throttle back and steer into the center of the road. Embarrassed, he glanced over at Kaylor and flashed a silly-looking grin. “Oops.”

It didn’t take long for Adam to get the feel of the controls, and soon they were racing down the road toward the spaceport. Most of the traffic on the road was heading in the opposite direction, towards the Ministry Compound, so they arrived at the spaceport in less than five minutes.

Barreling through the main gate, Adam half-expected to come upon a contingent of Ministry police waiting for them, since it was impossible to outrun radios or telephones—or whatever they used on this planet. But no one of authority seemed to be present, not even the incredibly-bloated alien at the guard hut. However, there were aliens in the spaceport, but most were scurrying about frantically, readying their ships for liftoff. They paid no attention to Adam’s speeding vehicle.

News of the raid on the Ministry Compound had spread rapidly, and even though no one knew exactly what was happening, very few in the spaceport were willing to wait around to find out. Like true mariners everywhere—whether at sea or in space—they preferred their chances off-land during a time of crisis, rather than as sitting ducks stuck in port.

Adam pulled back on the joystick and the car skidded to a halt at the base of the ramp leading up to the cargo hold of the FS-475. Kaylor jumped out and ran to a covered panel set in the skin of the spaceship. Flipping it open, he punched in a code and the door to the cargo bay slid open. They ran up the protruding ramp and into the ship.

As Jym secured the door and retracted the ramp, Kaylor and Adam hurried to the pilothouse. Jym was only steps behind.

“How long until we can take off?” Adam asked as he sank into a seat and pulled his safety harness across his chest.

Both Kaylor and Jym were frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers. “When on-planet, I always keep one of the generators active, just in case we have to bolt-out fast,” Kaylor answered. “Even with that, it will take about five minutes before we have enough compression built up to pull us up.”

Adam didn’t have any idea what the alien was talking about, but he sounded convincing. So for the next few minutes, as the two aliens went about their pre-flight chores, Adam nervously peered through the open viewport and across the ever-darkening spaceport, expecting at any moment to see the streaks from electric balls of energy or hear the sharp blast of an explosion.

Instead…there came a blast of white smoke as the chemical engines fired off. The ship lifted into the sky, the rumble of the rockets shaking the hull with deafening squeals and creaks. And then a sickening feeling of vertigo came over Adam as the ship’s gravity-well engaged and overrode that of the planet’s own attraction. Then without any sense of movement on their part, it was as if the whole spaceport moved away from them at incredible speed. The city fell away quickly, followed by the surrounding land and then finally the planet itself.

They were back in space, and to his surprise, Adam began to relax. But not Kaylor and Jym.

As the spherical shape of the planet became more pronounced, and the bright layer of atmosphere grew thinner, the two aliens were staring intently at their viewscreens, Kaylor’s forehead furrowed with deep creases.

“What’s wrong?’ Adam asked.

“Two other spacecraft have slipped in behind us,” Jym answered.

“From the surface—”

“No,” Jym interrupted. “They were already in orbit.”

“What are you going to do?”

Kaylor leaned back in his seat. “Nothing for the moment,” he said. “They’re not closing on us, just holding back, following.”

“Where do we go now?” Adam asked.

Jym whipped his furry head around in Adam’s direction. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you broke us out of the Ministry!” he barked. “I don’t have any idea where we can go—”

“I have a suggestion.”

The new voice came from behind them, from the doorway to the pilothouse.

In unison, three heads spun around. A tall, dark figure stood in the doorway, holding a bolt weapon aimed in their direction. More creatures stood behind the figure, each with their own weapon pointed into the room.

Leaning into the pilothouse, the speaker handed Jym a piece of paper.

“What is that?” Kaylor asked Jym.

Jym looked up from the paper. “It is the coordinates of the Kyllian Asteroids.”

For his part, Adam hadn’t heard any of the exchange, nor did he notice the look of shock on Kaylor’s face at the mention of the Kyllian Asteroids. Instead he sat in stunned silence staring at the creature in the doorway.

It was a Human.

Chapter 17

“You must be Adam Cain,” the Human said. He stepped further into the room, coming within six feet of Adam. “I am honored to meet you. I am Riyad Tarazi.” Then he turned to the creatures behind him and nodded.

Adam was shocked into inaction and offered no resistance as Riyad’s troops swept into the room and disarmed him, along with the aliens. Then the dark-haired Human turned to Jym. “Enter the coordinates into the auto-pilot, and afterwards, let’s all go up to the common room for a friendly chat.”

The man—Riyad Tarazi—led the small party up the corresponding ladders and to the lounge area of the ship, during which time Adam had a chance to get a good look at him. He was right at six-feet tall, heavily muscled and with tight, jet black hair and a full beard. His eyes were dark, as was his complexion, and if his name didn’t already give it away, the accent was unmistakable. Riyad Tarazi was of either Arab or Iranian descent.

An odd apprehension filled Adam, although he couldn’t quite explain why. Here was another Human, someone just like him in this strange, alien universe. He should be overcome with joy, yet all he saw was a threat. And remarkably, it was a threat greater than anything he’d yet encountered.

Jym and Kaylor sat on the couch as Riyad took a seat at the table; Adam chose to stand. “Come, sit my brother,” Riyad said, offering a seat at the table, while the four other creatures with Riyad fanned out around the room, maintaining their vigil with weapons ready.

Reluctantly, Adam sat down.

Leaning forward, Riyad reached out and grasped Adam’s arm. “I am so pleased to see you, Mr. Cain.” The words sounded sincere, and his incredibly bright smile was disarming. “I was wondering if I would ever see another Human again. Later we must talk at length about our adventures. I’m sure we have much to share.”

Then releasing Adam’s arm, he turned his attention to Kaylor. “But first things first.” He

locked his dark eyes on the pale alien. “You have something that belongs to me, and I want it back.”

Kaylor tried to appear more upset than scared, yet with little success. He sat on the edge of the couch with a stern look on his face. “Who are you to come aboard my ship with weapons upon us? I do not know you, and I’m sure I have nothing that belongs to you.”

Riyad smiled. “Oh, I’m afraid you do. As a matter of fact, you took it from me a few days ago after my men spent considerable time and effort setting the trap. And after muddling up my plans, you managed to abscond with the one thing that had more value to me than all the other riches aboard that alien ship—the computer core.”

What did he just say?

Adam turned to Kaylor. “Is that true? You have the computer core? Why didn’t you tell me!”

“That’s exactly right, my Human brother,” said Riyad. “That one item is more important to us then they could possibly imagine. So he didn’t tell you he hid the computer core somewhere in the asteroid belt on the way to Nimor?”

“No…no he didn’t.” Adam gnashed his teeth. “And why the hell not?”

“I could not tell you.” Kaylor pleaded in his defense. “We are not allowed to take anything from a derelict until the salvage is awarded. It was for your own protection.”

“That’s bullshit! Why did you take it?”

“As I told you, it can take months for the salvage process to go through, and then there can be counter-claims and other disputes. I wanted to make sure we would have something of value for the risk we were taking—”

“So you chased away my captains and took my prize.” Riyad rose from his chair and walked the short distance over to Kaylor. Then in a move almost too swift to see, he lifted Kaylor by his tunic and pinned him against the bulkhead, the alien’s feet dangling a foot off the floor. “And now with your lie, the damn Juireans think my pirates took the core, and they will not rest until they get it!”

Riyad released him, letting Kaylor fall to the floor. Afterwards, the pirate walked casually to the food counter, pressed a few buttons, and returned to the table with two drinks in hand. He sat down, placing one of the drinks in front of Adam. Kaylor timidly returned to the couch.

After taking a long gulp of his drink, Riyad leaned back in the chair and propped his booted feet on the table. “Neither of you know the significance of that spaceship, do you?” he said to Kaylor and Jym. “Well, let me inform you.” He took another long swig of his drink. “The ship you so brazenly took from my men….” He paused for effect. “Was a Klin starship.”

The two aliens—plus Adam—let their jaws fall open at the revelation.

“Klin! Are you sure?” Jym had found his voice.

“Positive, my little friend. And now you understand why the Juireans have interceded and why your lies have put me and my men in such a dangerous predicament.”

He waited for the full impact of his disclosure to sink in, and then he gave a subtle nod to his guards. They fell upon Kaylor and Jym, holding them down on the couch as metal straps were locked on their ankles. It only took a few seconds before the guards resumed their silent vigil.

“What are you doing?” Kaylor yelled, as he grasped at the foreign object attached to his leg.

“Each of those bracelets carries a small explosive charge,” Riyad said. “It should be small enough not to cause any widespread structural damage to your ship, but definitely strong enough to blow off your legs—and undoubtedly bring about your untimely and very agonizingly-painful deaths. I have taken this action to guarantee that you will cooperate with my demands.” He took another gulp of his drink. “The two of you will now recover my computer core and hand it over to me. If you do this without any resistance, I will release you and send you on your way unharmed. If not….” He pulled a small black box out of his pocket. “All I have to do is press in a code and you will not live to see another day.”

Riyad seemed to revel in the look of horror on the faces of the two aliens. Then after finishing off his drink, he asked, “Have I made myself clear?” The terrified aliens nodded emphatically.

“You do not have to do this,” Kaylor said. “The computer core has caused us enough problems.”

“Good,” said Riyad. “Then we have an understanding. I just want to make sure I have your full cooperation for the duration of our time together.”

Adam was surprised at the drastic action Riyad was taking. He wanted the information from the core as well, but this seemed pretty extreme. Kaylor looked at him. “Adam, is there anything you can do to help us? I did save your life on that ship—”

“Yes, but you lied to me. I didn’t want to take the core from you; all I wanted to do was to learn the location of Earth. After that, I didn’t give a damn what you did with it. And as far as you saving my life, I believe I just kept the two of you from having your memories scraped clean by the fucking Juireans, so why don’t we call it even?”

Despite the harshness of his words, Adam never considered himself a particularly cruel person, but at that moment all he was feeling was anger and frustration. For the past few days, he’d been riding a roller-coaster of emotions; one moment believing he had a real chance of getting home and back to Maria and Cassie, and then the next having his hopes crushed underfoot and replaced with nothing but bottomless despair.

And Kaylor had the computer core all along.

He locked eyes with the blue-skinned alien. “Just get the core and everything will—”

Adam felt something tight on his ankle, and when he jumped from the chair, he saw Riyad bent over under the table. Adam backed away and looked down at his leg. A bracelet was fastened on his ankle as well. “What the hell, Tarazi!”

The guards moved in, placing the barrels of their weapons only inches from Adam’s head. Riyad leaned back in the chair, a look of satisfaction on his face. “Sorry, my friend, but you are an extremely dangerous person. I cannot take the chance that you will not attack me or my men. This is also for your own good.”

“My own good; how do you figure?” Adam placed his foot on the chair and began to examine the device. It was a simple black metal band with a small box about the size of a cigarette pack welded on it. There didn’t seem to be any access to the box or latch on the band.

“Mr. Cain, we both need the computer core to get home, and as a consequence, I may have to do some pretty nasty things to get the cooperation I need. I don’t want you to grow a conscience. Besides, you’re a Human and I could certainly use you in a fight, if it comes down to that. I just want to make sure you’re on my side, if and when that time comes.”

Adam was a SEAL and an underwater demolition expert. He knew explosive devices, along with a fair knowledge of how to disarm them. But this was not the time to reveal this information to Tarazi. Besides that, he certainly wouldn’t be allowed to disarm the device—even if he could—while in the same room with the pirate and his guards.

What he needed to do was put this Riyad Tarazi character at ease. The pirate thought he had the upper hand and considering the fact that the ankle bomb was made of alien technology—of which Adam knew nothing—there was a pretty good chance he was right.

Adam sat down. “Listen Riyad, I don’t want to be any trouble,” he said softly. “I just want to get home, just like you. Promise me that once you get the core that you’ll keep your word and take these things off.”

“As one Human to another, you have my word.”

Regrettably, that statement didn’t make Adam feel any better.

Chapter 18

No longer feeling he had to keep all the players under constant guard, Riyad allowed everyone to return to their routines; to clean up, go to the restroom if needed, and to get something to eat. In five hours they would be at the asteroid belt, so the two Humans departed for Adam’s cabin where they could have a more private conversation.

As they entered, the first thing Riyad did was crank up the gravity to a more respectable level. He said to Adam, “I rarely leave my ship because of the gravity issue. K’ly—the planet where my pirate base is located—is a little more than three-quarters Earth’s gravity. If I spent too much time there, I’d grow weak and lose my edge.”

Adam sat backwards in the chair, resting his arms on the back and facing the bed, which Riyad had claimed. The pirate leader propped pillows against the bulkhead and leaned back, stretching his legs out and locking his hands behind his head.

“There, Mr. Cain, now we are both comfortable, so let’s catch up.” He flashed a wide grin. “So where are you from? You’re an American, right?”

“And you’re Middle Eastern.”

“Lebanese originally, but I spent most of my adult life in Pakistan, and even some time in your country, Florida to be precise. So please tell me, Adam, what year and day is it back on Earth? I have been out of touch for such a long time.”

Adam was surprised by the question. “I’m not quite sure. I don’t have any idea how long I was asleep on the…the Klin ship. But the last day I remember was October 23rd, 2011.”

“Ah ha!” Riyad exclaimed. “I was so close! I had no way of telling time—Earth time—that at one point, years ago, I counted what I figured was a minute then set a device to count off the intervals. I figured it was around 2011, but I was off by about four months or so by my calculations. Not bad for an estimate, wouldn’t you say?”

“How long have you been out here? And how did you end up being the leader of the space pirates?” Adam really wanted to know.

“I’ve been here about six years, and I’m sure my story is very similar to yours. I was in the mountains near the Afghan-Pakistani border when I remember seeing a bright light…and then nothing. I woke up aboard a spaceship of some kind, but certainly without the fancy accommodations you had onboard the Klin ship.” He flashed his bright smile again, revealing a set of impossibly white teeth. “I was in a cell—a cage really—with three Humans and several other creatures. The conditions were horrible; we slept on straw pads and drank filthy water. The food was alien, and without the computer testing for compatibility like you have here. We were sick from food poisoning for several days. Two of my fellow Humans died during the trip.

“We were transferred to another ship after being sold—I believe—to a group of smugglers. After about a week, we landed on a planet and were sold again. Not taking too kindly to the idea of becoming a slave, I fought back and started a mini riot right there on the auction block. My one remaining Human companion—a gentleman name Ashbar from India—was killed in the riot. I survived, and instead of becoming a slave, I caught the attention of one of the pirate captains in the crowd. He was impressed with my fighting skills and offered me a place in his crew. Unfortunate bastard.” Riyad said with a wicked smile, as if sharing an inside joke.

He stopped his story and narrowed his eyes. “You must know by now, my friend, that we Humans have certain advantages over most of the other creatures out here. In fact, I understand you defeated two Rigorians during a duel your first day on Nimor. That is no easy task.”

“I didn’t pick that fight! They challenged me,” Adam said in his defense.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong; I’m not being critical. I’m just pointing out a fact. In the six years I have been out here, I have found creatures who are faster, stronger and tougher than we are. Some even exhibit remarkable intelligence and coordination. Yet none combine all these traits into one being as we do. Out here, we are the supermen. No, we can’t fly, and we can certainly be killed by their weapons. But none of the creatures I’ve encountered can stand against us in a fair fight.”

“What about the Juireans?”

Riyad pursed his lips. “I’ve never met a Juirean before, but from what I’ve heard, they could be a problem. But I also heard how tough the Rigorians are, and both of us have made easy work of them. Yet I have to admit, I have been trained at combat and considered to be an accomplished warrior where I come from.”

Adam tensed. His one advantage over his fellow Human was that he didn’t know Adam’s profession or skill-set. In fact, Adam was beginning to believe Riyad might have been a terrorist back on Earth.

“You were in the military?” Adam asked, attempting to pull more details out of the conversation.

Riyad laughed. “I guess you could say that. As an American, I’m not sure I should tell you, but for a while I was a face in a deck of cards that your military carried with them in Iraq.”

Adam couldn’t play ignorant any longer. “You’re a terrorist!” Adam tried to display as much shock and outrage as possible.

“I was a freedom fighter,” Riyad corrected without a trace of indignation. “My cause was just, and I have no regrets fighting the infidels who invaded our lands and killed our women and children.” His cadence was nearly musical in nature. Adam felt Riyad was reciting a standard line. It was strange.

“Why do I get the sense that you don’t believe that anymore?” Adam asked.

“Well, my friend, look around you,” Riyad said with a sweeping motion of his hand. “You can’t tell me that your belief in the Christian god hasn’t been shaken over the past few days? It’s hard to maintain your faith in light of the reality we find ourselves in.”

“You mean with all the alien life in the galaxy? I was never that strong of a believer in the first place,” Adam offered.

“Oh, don’t be mistaken, neither was I. That’s why I was a leader in the movement, and not one of the common foot soldiers. The honor of becoming a suicide bomber is reserved for the youngest and most-devout of our faith. The only time you’d see one of the senior commanders take his own life—to meet Allah and our seventy-two virgins—was if he had no choice in the matter.”

“By the way, we got Osama,” Adam interjected, just to pick the scab.

“Captured?”

“No, shot dead…and in his pajamas.”

“That’s a shame,” Riyad said, with little emotion. “But he was more of a figurehead in the movement rather than our true leader. You do know he was not the one who planned the attack on your country? He was just the money man and helped supply some of the manpower for the attack.”

“We got Khalid Sheik Mohamed as well.”

Riyad shrugged. “We all knew the risks we were taking. But that is all in the past now, my friend. We have both been shown a new future for our planet, as well as for the Human race.”

“What do you mean?”

The pirate leaned over onto one elbow. “Mr. Cain, the Klin have plans for us; why else would they be transporting eighty Humans through hostile territory unless we’re important to them. The Juireans have learned that the Klin still exist, and they certainly will not let the Earth remain unharmed knowing that the Klin find us of value.”

“What do the Klin want with us?”

“My guess is they’re aware of our abilities. There’s no telling how many of their ships have made the journey to and from Earth over the years, bringing Humans to some unknown destination, just as was your destiny.” Then he grew very serious. “I believe the Klin are building an army…of Humans.”

Adam had to admit he’d been wondering why Humans were aboard the Klin ship. “Why?” he asked. “So we can fight against the Juireans?”

“That would be my guess.” Riyad laughed and leaned back on the pillows. “And they couldn’t have picked a better race for the task. We are pretty proficient killers; just look at what we do to our own kind. Imagine what we could do against an alien enemy.”

Adam shook his head. “You come from a different culture, one that doesn’t value life as much as we do,” Adam countered. “I don’t think we’re as blood-thirsty as you believe.”

“Bullshit, Mr. Cain! We’re as blood-thirsty as they come. You’ve only been out here for a few days, and how many aliens have you already killed?”

“This isn’t a goddamn video game, Tarazi; we’re not keeping score!”

“Of course we are,” Riyad shot back. “It’s us against them; it’s always been that way. The only variable is who we determine to be us and who we designate as them. When we’re faced with an enemy, we tend to put aside our so-called humanity and treat them as non-Human, just objects to be eliminated and not deserving of life. It’s all a matter of perspective.”

“I think you’re wrong,” Adam said, shaking his head. “We may fight, but the killing is something normal people regret.”

“On the contrary, let me prove it. Take your so-called normal person, someone who works in a convenience store and who later joins the military. He’s trained and sent out to kill other people—other Humans. When he comes home he’s celebrated, and able to sleep peacefully at night, content in the knowledge that his killing was justified. He may have killed dozens of his fellow Humans, yet no one considers him to be a murderer.

“Now take that same man and have him walk into an office building and indiscriminately kill a dozen people. Now he’s the most-vile of creatures, a mass-murderer, to be scorned and ridiculed, the basest of our kind.

“So you see, Mr. Cain, when you kill in war it’s different, and yet in both of my scenarios, wives, children, mothers and fathers have all had their lives shattered by the same event. It all depends on which side you’re on as to whether the killing was a form of self-defense or simply murder. That’s why you Westerners call us animals and savages, because you think we kill indiscriminately, without cause. We are not. We are at war, and that makes all the difference, at least to us. So returning to my original premise, if we treat our own kind—mankind—in such a callous and arbitrary manner, then the act of killing aliens…we wouldn’t give that a second thought, and we’d feel no remorse in doing so.”

“I thought you said all of that was in your past – my friend,” Adam grunted.

“Forgive me, but old habits die hard. I apologize for my rant, yet you must agree my points are valid.”

Regrettably, most of what he said was true. As a Navy SEAL, Adam never concerned himself too much with the enemy he’d killed in combat; in fact, he never gave it a second thought—until now. Granted, he had seen some horrific things on the battlefield, and that had upset him to a degree. The burned and maimed bodies, the bloody, dismembered corpses, the vacant, hollow eyes of the dead, that he had trouble getting used to. But score one for the good guys, was how he often justified his missions. It was them or us, just as Riyad had said. And to agree with another of Riyad’s points, when he killed the Rigorian lizards—as well as the Nimorians guards in the security building—he’d felt no remorse in doing so. It had been like stepping on a bug….

Riyad studied Adam’s face as he went through his mental exercise, a sly smile on his face. “You know I’m right,” the pirate stated. “For the Klin, we would be the perfect warriors.”

Adam shook his head. “This is not our war, Tarazi. I’m really sorry that the Klin were screwed over by the Juireans thousands of years ago…but talk about holding grudges! But we have no motivation to fight the Juireans.”

“Not yet. However, once the Juireans learn of our importance to the Klin, they will come down on us with everything they have. And then it will be our fight.”

Damn it! This asshole keeps coming up with good points! Adam shrugged. “So what can we do about it?”

“For starters, we can keep the computer core out of the hands of the Juireans.” Riyad sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, suddenly very animated. “We have a great opportunity here, an opportunity to bring to our homeworld the gift of the universe.” Riyad’s eyes grew wide, even manic. “Imagine what a power we could become if we had the technology of the Juireans, of star travel and of energy weapons. With our skill at waging war, we could direct our talents toward other enemies, and not at our fellow man. We’ve never been able to do that before; we’ve never had an enemy outside ourselves. If given the opportunity, Humans could become the new force in the galaxy!”

This line of thinking sounded oddly familiar. In fact, it was what Kaylor had told him about the early Juireans, those who had built the ten thousand spaceships just so they could redirect their own primitive, warlike nature against outside enemies, real or perceived. And Riyad was saying that Humanity should follow the same path as the Juireans.

Adam studied the terrorist as he spoke; he had an almost insane look on his face while describing his vision for how Humans should enter the community of civilizations within the galaxy. Is this what Adam would have imagined? He had never put much thought into it, having never been that big of a science fiction fan or visionary thinker. Yet he hoped Riyad’s way would not be the only way, where Humans would be introduced to the galaxy as a savage horde of war-mongering beasts, spreading out among the stars like a plague. Of course, Adam was being a little melodramatic in his assessment, but on the other hand, he also knew the dark side of mankind. He wasn’t sure if Humanity was ready for the universe. Not yet.

“Let me ask you, Riyad,” Adam said, “why do we have to go out as a force at all? Why not go as friends, as partners with the other races in the galaxy?” Even as he spoke the words, he knew they sounded hollow.

Riyad smiled back, almost a sympathy-smile for an innocent child. “I don’t know what kind of life you had back in America, Mr. Cain, but I do not hold such a naïve view of our fellow man. I have seen incredible injustices done by man towards man—”

“And often in the name of religion, I might point out,” said Adam angrily.

“No doubt, but that doesn’t change the fact that we—as a species—have survived and spread across our planet by killing our own kind and taking land and possessions from others. And that, my friend, is the only way we will spread across the galaxy as well. It is simply our nature. And now we have the opportunity to direct that natural aggressiveness against creatures other than Human.”

The hidden truth behind Riyad’s speech suddenly hit him. “With you as our leader, I suppose?”

Riyad stared back at him for a moment before answering. “And why not; someone has to lead and I have more experience dealing with the aliens than anyone else.”

It was all clear; this megalomaniac wanted to return to Earth as its ruler, using the advanced technology of the Juireans to make it happen. Then he would lead mankind in a galactic holy war that would cost millions, if not billions of Human lives. He would create enemies where none existed before, just to turn mankind against the aliens. It was one thing to defend oneself against a real enemy. It was quite another to instigate a war just for one’s selfish ambitions. It may very well come down to Humans defending themselves against a Juirean threat, but the way Riyad made it sound, he would provoke a war just so he could become the savior, the hero of any such conflict.

Then Adam burst out laughing, as the absurdity of the conversation dawned on him. Riyad recoiled slightly. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Are you frickin serious? Just look at us,” Adam began. “We’re two measly Humans, sitting in a room aboard a starship, thousands of light-years from our home—and seriously talking about leading our planet in a galactic war against an alien empire spanning thousands of worlds. When did we enter the Twilight Zone? What the hell, Tarazi? We probably won’t survive the next few days, let alone long enough to return to Earth and lead the Human race on some holy crusade against an alien empire. You have to be crazy to think like that.”

Riyad jumped off the bed, his jaw locked, veins pulsing in his neck. “You’re wrong, Mr. Cain! Humans have a destiny that must be fulfilled, and believe it or not, the events of the next few days will determine whether or not we fulfill that destiny. I will get the core, and I will find my way back to Earth. Then we’ll see which one of us is crazy!”

Riyad stormed out of the room, leaving Adam wide-eyed and stunned at the pirate’s reaction. It was surreal. But then Adam figured it wasn’t the first time Riyad Tarazi had been called crazy.

Chapter 19

With Riyad gone, Adam had his first opportunity to seriously inspect the bomb strapped to his ankle. The strap was melded together leaving no latch of any kind, and the box with the explosive was seamless as well, leaving no way to gain access to the interior.

The only solution Adam could see would be to cut the device from his ankle. But what could he use, and was the metal even capable of being cut? He tried bending it and found the metal to be malleable. That would make it easy to slip a cutter between his ankle and the bomb. He spent the next fifteen minutes rummaging through his stateroom looking for anything he could use to cut through the band, but with no luck. What he needed was something like a flexible pipe-cutter, a length of serrated wire that he could use to file through the metal.

The cargo hold!

Yet just as he was leaving the cabin to make his way aft, the door slid open and he found himself face-to-face with Jym, looking frazzled and nervous.

Startled, it took Jym a moment to collect himself before saying, “We are nearing the asteroids and the pirate wishes you to come to the pilothouse right away.” Jym was numb with fear, the bomb on the alien’s ankle freaking him out, as it would anyone.

Adam followed Jym to the pilothouse, which was packed with people. Riyad didn’t acknowledge him as he entered, so Adam leaned against the far wall, next to the doorway.

The outer viewport shield was open and Adam could see out into the darkness of space. If there was an asteroid belt out there, it could’ve fooled him. He couldn’t see a single thing outside except for the blaze of stars off in the far distance. There was no great conglomeration of spinning rocks, looking like giant potatoes and all in close proximity of each other, like he’d seen in the movies. As it was with most things he’d experienced in this strange universe, he was disappointed.

Riyad stood behind Kaylor, who was busy working the control stick of the ship. And then Adam thought he saw something off in the distance. It looked like a dim flare that grew brighter by the second. A minute later he could make out a small cylinder, with its far end spitting an occasional burst of white gas. It was an elongated, pod-shape vessel, approaching on chemical power.

Riyad looked back at Adam, no kindness in his gaze. “You have weak thoughts, Mr. Cain,” he said to him. “You will always be weak, a man without vision.”

Ouch. He’s still pissed at the crazy remark, Adam thought, as he smiled back at the pirate. You just wait until I get this bomb off my ankle, you asshole. Then you’ll see just how weak I really am.

Kaylor had the pod next to the ship, and by robotics, moved it into the cargo hold. Everyone left the pilothouse for the large room at the rear of the ship. Kaylor entered the small craft and emerged a few moments later carrying the elusive computer core.

Once again, Adam was disappointed. The almighty computer core everyone was so enamored with was a relatively plain looking metal box about three feet square. But even though it didn’t look that impressive, Adam found himself growing more excited about the information the box contained. In one form or another, it would reveal the location of Earth; whether or not Adam could use that information to get home remained a mystery.

Kaylor brought the box over to the workbench with the computer screen imbedded in the wall above; Jym stepped up and began connecting cables to the device. Soon the lights on the face came to life and Riyad moved in closer. Everyone began to focus on the screen in the bulkhead as Jym typed feverishly on the keypad on the workbench.

Symbols began to appear on the screen. Adam couldn’t read alien, so unless there was a translation function, he would never be able to decipher the data.

Riyad was just as distraught as Adam. His eyes were wide, his jaw was set. He grabbed the back of Jym’s tunic, “What is this crap?” he yelled at the sweating alien.

“Forgive me,” Jym pleaded, his voice shrill, “but the data appears to be encrypted, or else there’s a compatibility issue with our system.”

“Don’t mess with me, you rodent!”

“No, no—I cannot make it work! It must be hooked into a compatible module to be decipherable.”

Riyad released Jym and began to pace the room, with all eyes on the pirate. Then he stopped and faced Kaylor. “Take us back to Nimor; we have to get aboard the Klin ship.” Then turning to the guards: “Secure the core. No one is to get near it except me. No one.” He looked directly at Adam as he spoke the last words.

Everyone left the cargo bay after that…everyone except Adam.

Chapter 20

It’s an impossible task to sneak up on someone using gravity propulsion; with the right sensors your ship can be detected from millions of miles away as you approach. So when the Juirean Fleet arrived near K’ly, alarms sounded at the pirate base and crews scrambled for their ships.

Pirates live life on the edge, constantly looking over their shoulder for any real or perceived threats. But their major concern was that one of the more ambitious governments in the Fringe would one day attempt to gain political points by attacking their home base. As a result, escape plans were formulated and drills run until crews could have their ships away and in a gravity-well within ten minutes of an alarm.

Now like roaches when the lights snap on, twenty-three pirate craft bolted into space and raced off in a myriad of directions, following predetermined courses designed to make it nearly impossible for an attacker to catch more than a few of the stragglers. Practice makes perfect, and for the others—well the outcome was not so perfect.

Captains Jiden and Meldeon were on perimeter duty when the Juirean Fleet appeared, their current assignment a temporary punishment for their cut-and-run abandonment of the ship they’d attacked a few days earlier. The real price for their cowardice would be paid when General Tarazi returned from Nimor….

Stationed about one-and-a-half million miles from K’ly and in the plane of the stellar ecliptic, the two ship’s captains spotted the massive gravity signatures moments before those on the planet below. Immediately on a link with each other, they discussed their options. Their first impulse was to cut and run, just as their comrades were in the process of doing on K’ly. But then they hesitated. They had been fooled before by this type of action, and how would General Tarazi react if they fell for the same ruse a second time?

So they stayed, charging up their weapons, battle crews at the ready in case the threat was real this time.

One can only imagine the captains’ shock when sixteen Juirean battle cruisers—the entire Fringe Fleet—came into extreme visual range and fanned out over an arc of ten thousand miles so as to avoid overlapping wells. Turning to run, the pirate ships didn’t make it far before multiple bolts of intense plasma energy struck them from behind, taking out their maneuvering ports as well as most of their generator capacity. Unable to create the necessary gravity-wells, the ships remained in real space, drifting together, as two large battle cruisers slid in beside them and activated magnetic grapples. The rest of the Juirean fleet continued toward K’ly.

Jiden and Meldeon kept their links open as they expressed confusion as to why the Juireans didn’t simply blow them to atoms. But they were alive, and that had to count for something. Deciding that resistance was futile, the captains instructed their crews to stand down and allow the ships to be boarded without a fight.

It’s a mistake to assume that a fleet of Juirean starships was manned solely by Juireans. In fact, out of the fifteen-hundred beings occupying the fleet, there was only one Juirean aboard, and that was Fleet Commander Giodol Fe Bulen. Once the pirate ships were secured, their two captains were brought before the Juirean in his spacious stateroom aboard his Class-5 flagship.

Two heavily armed Rigorians forcefully dumped the captains into chairs before the commander, who remained seated behind a massive desk, casually stroking a rare MK-47 high-velocity bolt launcher resting on the desk.

“I want information,” Giodol began slowly. “Three days ago, a group of pirates attacked a ship in the Void near the Nimorian system. Do you have any knowledge of this action?”

The two captains looked at each other, then back to the Juirean. Meldeon spoke first: “There are a number of pirate ships here, my Lord. We are not aware of this particular attack.” Both aliens shifted nervously in their chairs.

The Juirean bore a dagger-look at the pair. “Are you sure? You have not heard anything of this attack?”

“Nothing, my Lord,” Jiden offered.

The Juirean nodded. A moment later he lifted the MK-47 and sent a stun bolt into Jiden’s chest. The captain was thrust backwards by the blast, sending chair and occupant tumbling to the floor. Hurt, but not severely injured, he righted the chair and sat down, his eyes wobbly from the strong electric shock he’d received.

The Fleet Commander took the ’47 and dialed up the charge by three clicks before placing the weapon back on the desk. He returned his attention to Meldeon.

“Again, I will ask the question—”

“Yes! Yes, we know of the attack.” Meldeon blabbered. “We are two of the three captains involved. But we were only following orders, my Lord.”

“That is not important. What is important is what you took from the ship before you departed.”

The captains looked at each other again, frowning. Jiden grimaced through spasms of burning pain. Captain Meldeon spoke again, “My Lord, we took nothing from the ship. We did not have time. Captain Angar had just finished his sweep for survivors when we were…when we departed.”

The Juirean cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “You took nothing? Are you sure?”

It was Jiden’s turn to plead their innocence. “Captain Angar went aboard, not us, but we know he did not take anything. We all expressed frustration at having nothing to show for our efforts.”

The Juirean nodded. “That’s very interesting. My concern is for anything that was removed. And you both say there was nothing?”

The captains nodded emphatically. The Fleet Commander sighed, then lifted his weapon again and blasted a hole through Meldeon’s forehead. The level one bolt was clean and tight; Meldeon slumped down in the chair, his head falling forward.

Captain Jiden began to tremble uncontrollably, his eyes wide with terror, saliva flowing from the corners of his mouth. The Juirean stared at him. “I’ll ask the question again: Was anything taken from the ship?”

“No my Lord! I proclaim as such. We took nothing!” He began to sob uncontrollably.

“Now, now captain, pirates are not supposed to cry,” Giodol said soothingly. “I believe you. I just had to be sure.”

Jiden sat up a little straighter and wiped the moisture from his face. “Thank you, my Lord. I am telling you the truth.”

“I know you are.” Giodol then shifted his weapon and placed a bolt through Jiden’s chest. He pressed a button on his desk. “Open a link to the Overlord—immediately.”

Chapter 21

Moving quickly throughout the cargo hold, Adam looked for anything he could use to cut the bomb from his ankle. The cargo bay was filled with a plethora of tools, however, mostly robotic. From his brief time with the aliens, he had noticed they weren’t very coordinated, and this carried over to their use of tools. Nearly everything was automated.

But then he found it—a roll of thin wire with a corrugated edge. Taking a length of the wire, he threaded it between his ankle and the strap and gripped the ends with a couple of cloth rags. With determination, Adam began to saw back and forth against the strap.

It wasn’t long before metal dust began to accumulate on the chair. After about a minute of labor he could see the wire making progress, cutting into the edges of the strap. This was going to work.

He stopped the sawing.

It was too early in his captivity to chance having Riyad learn he’d escaped from the ankle bomb. Besides, Kaylor and Jym were still wearing theirs. He’d have to make sure the two aliens were also free of their bracelets before he took any action against Tarazi and his pirates. He would pocket the wire for now, and then formulate a plan later.

Adam returned to his cabin. The journey to the asteroids had taken five hours, so they should be returning to Nimor in another three. In the meantime, he had a lot of thinking to do.

Reclining on the bed, Adam ran the conversation he’d had with Riyad back through his mind. So we’re the Supermen of the galaxy? Funny, he didn’t feel like one; however, he did admit that any preconceived notions he had about alien superiority had been completely dashed by now. There was little out here that impressed him. Sure, they could travel between stars and did have some pretty neat energy weapons, but beyond that, just about everything else was a big letdown, including the almighty Juireans.

So was it possible Riyad could return to Earth and conquer the planet using alien technology? Adam decided the word conquer probably wasn’t right. After all, what good would it do Tarazi to inherit a planet ravaged by war?

His plan would be subtler. All he had to do was allow the Juireans to learn of Earth’s existence and its importance to the Klin. Then after offering himself up as the most-qualified person to defend the planet against the alien threat, he could simply be appointed leader of the world. That would satisfy his ambition. But what of the fate of Earth?

Could one planet stand against the combined might of the Juirean Expansion? Not likely, even with the help of the Klin. In fact, Adam had no idea who or what the Klin really were. Were they friend or foe? Would they simply use the Humans as fodder to further their own need for revenge, and if so, were they any better than the Juireans?

These were serious questions for a twenty-six-year-old sailor from California.

Adam laughed. Was he really taking this line of thought seriously? Could the activities aboard this tiny spaceship over the next day really have an impact on the future history of the planet Earth, and possibly of the entire galaxy?

Damn! This is some heavy shit.

Adam closed his eyes. When he did, a vision appeared, that of his wife Maria, her dark eyes filled with tears, her bottom lip trembling. She had tried to remain strong on the day he left for Afghanistan on his last fateful mission. But no matter how much one prepared mentally and emotionally for the moment, it never turned out as planned. This last time had been especially hard, as if they both sensed this mission was different.

Adam opened his eyes in an effort to erase the vision; this line of thinking was too painful to take.

He stared at the ceiling, with no idea how things would work out. But he did know one thing for certain: He had to get home. If there was any way possible, he would find it. And if Riyad Tarazi had plans for involving Earth in a galactic war—a war which could bring harm to Maria and Cassie, as well as to everyone else who was important to him—then he would have to be stopped.

His thoughts were interrupted by an announcement over the ship’s intercom, “General Tarazi, to the pilothouse immediately!” It was one of the alien guards calling him.

Curious, Adam left his room and went to the pilothouse as well. He arrived the same time as Riyad.

“What is it?” the pirate leader demanded, anger and disgust on his face and in his tone.

“A link has been received from your command ship. The K’ly base was attacked by the Juirean Fleet!”

Adam saw Riyad’s dark face grow a few shades deeper as veins in his neck began to protrude. Kaylor and Jym entered the room just then. Riyad spun to face them.

“See what your lies have done! The Juireans think we have the core and now my base has been attacked. This is all because of you!”

Adam expected Riyad to draw his weapon and execute the aliens on the spot. Instead, he turned to the guard. “Any word on the damage?”

The guard was listening on a headset. “Initially only five ships are unaccounted for. Your emergency evacuation plans were successful. The fleet is regrouping at the backup location.”

“Who did we lose?”

“Filor, Caporian, Jiden, Sim and Meldeon,” the guard reported.

“Jiden and Meldeon…good,” Riyad said aloud. Then to the guard: “Send Captain Angar’s ship to the rendezvous point with orders to coordinate all survivors. Backup supplies and weapons are to be distributed. And send out perimeter guards immediately. The Juireans will not rest until they have what they seek—and they did not find it on K’ly.”

He turned to face Adam, fire in his eyes. “If you—or your alien friends—give me even one more problem, I will kill you all without a second thought.”

Adam had no doubt he meant what he said.

Chapter 22

Adam spent the next couple of hours with Kaylor and Jym in the common room, sipping on carbonated drinks and chewing on some sort of granola-tasting cake. The aliens were scared to the point of incapacity; Jym had even vomited a couple of times, producing such an incredible stench in the air that Adam almost followed suit.

Although he could sympathize with them, Adam was also disappointed in their total lack of courage in the face of danger. Were these the same aliens who had scared the pirates away from the Klin starship? He knew he had a showdown coming with Riyad and his guards, and he dreaded the thought of having to rely on these two for help.

A guard appeared at the door and summoned them to the pilothouse.

“Take your seats,” Riyad demanded of Kaylor and Jym. “We’re at Nimor. Now take us to the Klin ship.”

Kaylor was fighting the urge to say something. Finally he summoned the courage to speak. “The Ministry and the Juireans are probably still looking for us here. We have not been gone long,” he said nervously.

“That’s why we can’t waste any more time. Just get us in and out as quickly as possible.”

Kaylor and Jym grew quiet and serious. Through the open port, Adam could see the planet sweep into view, still impressed by the sight of another planet from space. But then the aliens began to frantically work their controls, while repeatedly checking the view screens.

Riyad noticed their actions. “What’s wrong?”

“The Klin ship…it is not there.” Panic filled Kaylor’s voice.

Riyad moved closer, until he was looking over Kaylor’s shoulder. “What do you mean it’s not there?”

“These are the coordinates. It is where we left it in orbit by direction of the Ministry.” Kaylor was near hysterics. “Honest! This is where we left it.”

Riyad straightened up and stared out the viewport. “The Juireans have taken the ship away,” he stated without emotion.

Adam spoke up. “Where did they take it?”

“Probably to Melfora Lum,” Riyad answered without turning. “That’s the Juirean headquarters in the Fringe.” Adam could tell that the terrorist was working multiple scenarios through in his head, as was he. They had the computer core, but it would do them no good without the Klin ship. And now that ship was headed for the Juirean stronghold. How difficult would it be to get in and out unscathed? Adam was the rookie here; he had no idea.

Riyad turned to one of his guards. “Have the core transferred to my ship.” He then turned to Adam: “I don’t like you, Mr. Cain, and I certainly do not trust you. But I’m also not going to leave you here either. You’re coming with me.”

“What about us?” Jym screeched.

Riyad glared at him with a look that sent Jym recoiling into his chair. “The two of you are the reason I’m in this mess in the first place. I’m afraid I don’t have very good news for—”

A brilliant blue light filled the pilothouse. All eyes turned toward the viewport just as three spacecraft appeared in front of them. A massive blue bolt of energy deflected off one of the hulls. An elongated craft swept into view from behind the FS-475 and cut across the bow. A bolt of energy erupted from its pointed tip, targeted at the three approaching warcraft.

Simultaneously, three return bolts shot out from the attackers, striking the side of the elongated ship. Adam saw two of the bolts slide off the hull, even as the third one scorched a path across the forward third of the ship.

Riyad turned to Kaylor. “Do you have any weapons on this tub?”

At first Kaylor didn’t understand the question, but soon it dawned on him. “Only a 45-ML launcher. It cannot puncture a battle hull.”

Adam knew the fourth ship was Riyad’s ride. He also knew the ship was doomed. It had sped off to the right and was barely visible when the three attackers changed course towards it, letting loose with another barrage of blue balls of plasma as they turned. This time all three bolts penetrated the hull, and the ship exploded in a giant ball of yellow and green fire. Adam was astonished by the sudden evaporation of the explosion, as the great fireball flared briefly, and then vanished, as if sucked up by a giant vacuum. Yet even from this distance, Adam could see pieces of the ship flying off in all directions.

Riyad stood stoically as the scene unfolded before him. The guards in the room appeared visibly shaken. That had been their ship, and now all of their shipmates were dead.

The three attackers changed course again and Adam saw bright flashes erupt from their sterns as they maneuvered closer to Kaylor’s ship. From their casual approach vector, it was obvious that they did not intend to fire.

A buzz sounded in the pilothouse; Kaylor reached forward on his console and threw a switch.

“This is the Nimorian Ministry Forces,” a voice announced through hidden speakers. “You will cease resistance and prepare to be boarded.”

All eyes turned to Riyad.

“Do as they say,” he commanded.

“What about the core?” Adam asked. “Are you going to let the Juireans have it?”

A mischievous expression crossed the pirate’s face. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll just have to take this fight to another venue.”

Chapter 23

The FS-475 was flooded with a myriad of aliens, all consumed with a determined purpose. They placed Riyad and his pirates in one of the extra staterooms under guard, while sequestering Adam, Kaylor and Jym in Kaylor’s stateroom, also under guard. Pilots were brought in, and the ship set on a course for Melfora Lum, a trip they were told which would take four days. After that, everyone settled into a tense routine. Food was brought and bathroom trips supervised. Adam and Riyad had no contact for the duration of the trip.

While in Kaylor’s stateroom, Adam was able to remove their ankle bombs, much to the relief of all, especially the aliens. But now the question became: What to do with them? They hadn’t seen the trigger device removed from Riyad, but that could have happened by now. Bottom line: the bombs could go off at any time, either by Riyad or the aliens as they studied the detonator.

The solution came to Adam during one of his bathroom runs. He hid the bombs in a towel and deposited them in a trash bin in the head. Jym then asked for permission to dump the trash, and thereby jettisoned the bombs into the vastness of space.

A profound mood change was seen in Adam’s two alien companions after that—at least until the point they remembered they were on the way to meet a Juirean Overlord…a being who would decide the ultimate fate of them all.

The moment came when everyone was summoned to the airlock off the ship’s cargo bay, and four of the passengers—Adam, Riyad, Kaylor and Jym—were transferred to a smaller shuttlecraft for the journey down to the surface of Melfora Lum. Riyad’s fellow pirates had disappeared somewhere along the journey to the planet….

Through the shuttle viewports, Adam saw a sprawling city sweep up from below, complete with skyscrapers, paved roads and abundant traffic. Now this was more like it, Adam thought. This was a lot different from the Old West version of an alien city he’d experienced at the Nimorian city of Gildemont.

They landed in a parade field next to a massive pyramid-shaped building easily measuring half a mile on each side. It soared sixty stories tall and shimmered a golden yellow color as the bronze-glass walls reflected the light from the setting Melforean sun. The prisoners were herded into the building under the watchful eye of no fewer than fourteen guards.

Everyone entered a large elevator; Adam once again marveled at the familiarity of it all. It was a normal-looking elevator, yet he imagined the mechanism for moving the car up and down was probably a lot more high-tech than cables and pulleys. At least he hoped it was.

They entered an extremely large office a hundred feet square and lined with numerous full-size statues of exotic alien creatures, all garbed in bright uniforms and holding a variety of weapons. Oversized plants filled the interior of the room, and the entourage had to wind their way through the forest before coming upon a massive desk carved from a single stone crystal. The desk was smooth along the front and back, yet each of the opposing sides featured ornate carvings depicting various animals, all with savage, threatening expressions. The scene was clearly designed to intimidate.

Behind the desk sat the Juirean Counselor Deslor Lin Jul. He wore a slightly amused expression as the four prisoners were placed in chairs before the desk. This time the Rigorian guards remained in the room, their beady yellow eyes unblinking as they never shifted their gaze from the prisoners. Adam could tell the guards were of a different caliber than the ones on Nimor. These were pros.

As he waited for the Counselor to begin speaking, Adam wondered when they would be meeting the Overlord. After all, he’d already seen this movie.

Then the interview began.

The Juirean informed them that he was aware of Riyad’s identity as the pirate leader, and then took note that he and Adam were of the same race. This piqued his curiosity.

“I see I now have two of you, one a pirate captain and the other proclaiming ignorance as to how he came to be aboard the derelict starship. Does that seem inconsistent to either of you?”

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Adam said. “We know it was a Klin ship.”

The Juirean was surprised. “So you know?” He seemed visibly upset. It was obvious this information was not for public consumption. Someone back on Nimor must have leaked the information…unless Adam knew more than he was letting on.

“And this makes it all the more unlikely that you are simply an innocent victim of an abduction, with no knowledge of how or why you came to be aboard a Klin spacecraft.”

He turned to address Riyad. “And you, of the same race, are the accomplished leader of the Fringe Pirates and apparently quite adapt at our way of life. So which is it? Are you a primitive race, with no knowledge of the existence of the Expansion, or are you skilled warriors, as evidenced by your position with the pirates and your recent escape from the Nimorian jail?”

Neither Adam nor Riyad answered. Instead Riyad tilted his head toward Adam and said, “So this is a Juirean? I’m not impressed.”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Adam replied emphatically.

The Juirean bristled. “Play your games as you wish, but I should tell you, we have recovered the Klin computer core.”

Adam’s gut tightened. Before being boarded, Riyad hid the core within Kaylor’s ship, hoping the Juireans still believed the pirates had the core. And then when—not if—they escaped, he would recover the core and match it up with the systems aboard the Klin ship. In fact, Adam and Riyad were both quite ecstatic about getting both the core and the Klin ship back in close proximity to one another. Now the mission had taken a turn for the worse.

“That is correct,” the Juirean said smugly, watching the expressions of the two Humans. “Your pirate captains were quite effective in convincing us that the pirates never did have the core. That left only the two of you,” he said, addressing Kaylor and Jym. “After that, we did not have much difficulty finding the core aboard your ship during the journey to Melfora Lum.”

Damn! Now the Juireans are going to learn the location of Earth, Adam thought. Where does that leave me?

As if on cue, the Juirean spoke, “All of you are to be transported to the Klin ship for an audience with the Overlord. He is quite anxious to meet you,” he said, addressing the two Humans. He turned to Kaylor and Jym. “As for your fate, I have no idea what plans he has made for you.”

Adam saw Kaylor turn even paler than normal…while Jym fainted.

Chapter 24

Two hours later, Adam was handcuffed and walking across a narrow metal plank in the umbilical corridor connecting the Counselor’s private shuttle to the Klin starship. A moment later, Adam was back in the same wide, curving corridor he had been in only eight short days before.

Technicians had reestablished gravity, atmosphere and heat within the ship, and even the air smelled disinfected, countering the stench of the dead bodies left by the pirates.

As he passed the wide window to the hiberpods room, he felt a pang of nostalgia. He noticed that all the pods were empty, the dozens of dead Humans having been removed for disposal—or something else.

They passed the wide stairway leading to the command dome and kept going, continuing along the corridor until it intersected with another passageway that cut through the center of the ship under the command dome. There were numerous doors on either side of the corridor, and Adam reasoned this must have been living quarters for the crew.

A wide door slid open to his right, and the guards hustled them through, following the Counselor in his flowing, colorful capes.

The room was long and narrow, with a large viewport at the opposite end. A living area was off to the left, complete with a bed and working desk, partitioned off with half walls from the rest of the room. Along each wall were displayed colorful and strangely brilliant pictures that appeared to be alive. Some form of advanced 3-D images or holograms, Adam reasoned, depicting landscapes of rolling hills, towering mountains and tranquil, azure blue seas. One picture showed a large obelisk surrounded by manicured grounds, and within all the pictures were numerous beings, the same tall silver creatures he’d seen aboard the ship a week before. Yet unlike the corpses he saw then, these creatures were smiling, with some even cradling children in their arms. Adam recognized the images for what they were. These were scenes of home.

Adam noticed a figure standing near the photo of the obelisk, his back to the group. A billowing crest of blue hair covered the head and cascaded down the back and over a long purple cape. Without turning, the Overlord spoke: “This is an image of the Eternity Monument on Klinmon. It was destroyed nearly four thousand years ago…yet still they remember.”

The Overlord turned, and Adam was immediately struck by the impossibly deep blue of his eyes. They were almost hypnotic in their purity. The Overlord’s face was similarly shaped as that of the Counselor’s, but it appeared to have fewer creases around the eyes. A young Juirean?

The Counselor took a seat off to the right of the simple desk that was set near the rear viewport. He remained silent, waiting for his superior to guide the conversation.

The Overlord swept his arm around the room. “This is all Klin. We are standing in a memory, an ancient memory that has now been brought back to life.” The Juirean’s voice was singsong as he appeared enraptured by the moment. “This is living history. The Klin should not exist, and yet they do here.”

He walked over to the group and stopped in front of Adam. “They not only exist but appear to be thriving.” The smell of the Juirean was of thick body odor, and his breath was a little sour. Adam did his best not to wince—at least not too much.

The Juirean continued. “I am Overlord Oplim Ra Unis, and the four of you are all responsible, in one way or another, for this great moment in Juirean history. Because of your actions, I will be remembered forever in the chronicles of Juirean lure.”

He walked over to the desk and leaned against it, facing the group. From the tone of the conversation, Adam felt the Juirean wanted to thank them for what they’d done. Was that even possible?

The Overlord continued: “Yet do you know how close I came to not making this moment a reality?” His voice lowered. “Just having the Klin ship, without knowing the location of their hiding place, would have created more problems than it solved. Simply confirming the continued existence of the Klin was not enough. And to know they have advanced technology developed over thousands of years—technology and capabilities completely hidden from the Expansion—would have produced mass hysteria, undermining the Members’ confidence in the Juirean Authority.”

He stared at Kaylor. “And you…you had the computer core from the beginning.”

Kaylor’s eyes grew wide with terror. Jym tried to slip in behind him, hiding from the steely gaze of the Overlord.

A communicator on the Counselor’s belt buzzed, distracting the Overlord momentarily. The Counselor quickly answered; he whispered into the device and then stood and moved next to the Overlord.

“My Lord, the technicians have tried all they can to decipher the information from within the core, but there is a compatibility issue. They believe the core must be linked to its original system.”

The Overlord firmed his jaw, and then instructed the Counselor to have the core transferred to the Klin ship immediately. He stood silently for a long moment, looking into the room without seeing. The Overlord was used to doing things in his own time.

Finally, he took a deep breath and said, “Now you see why we have purged all evidence of the discovery of this ship. The only beings that know of the ship’s true identity are here in this room. Only after I have learned the location of the Klin hiding place and purged the Expansion of their plague, will I let the rest of the galaxy know what I have done.”

After being confined to a small room near the Overlord’s chambers for over an hour, the four prisoners were eventually herded to the command dome where the Overlord and his Counselor were waiting. The core had arrived and technicians were preparing to install the unit back into its original slot within the equipment tower. Adam noticed Riyad separate himself from him and the two aliens, to stand closer to the Juireans. The rest of the room was crowded with guards and various service technicians.

The last time Adam was in this room Kaylor shot him. The wound on his chest—as well as the one on his head from the collision with the bulkhead—hadn’t had time to heal completely. He had now come full circle in a life-altering fantasy—a tragedy, really.

He noticed Kaylor and Jym becoming ever-more agitated, almost panicky. They had been petrified with fear for quite a while, but this was different.

The technicians lifted the core and struggled to line it up in the opening in the equipment tower. It slid in and immediately three steady orange lights above the core opening changed to yellow and began to flash in sequence.

Kaylor and Jym ran for the exit but were quickly subdued by the guards. The two Juireans didn’t notice the commotion; instead, they had turned their attention to the command consoles as a screen before them flashed to life. A technician at the console began typing on the keyboard and data streamed across the screen. The Juireans leaned in closer.

Adam was curious, too, but of course, he couldn’t read any of the data. What really piqued his interest, however, was how strange Kaylor and Jym were acting….

“There!” the Overlord yelled, pointing his finger at the screen. “Stop,” he commanded to the technician. “Surrender your seat and back away.”

Only the two Juireans could see the screen. They began to read intently.

Kaylor grabbed Adam’s sleeve. “We have to leave!” he whispered to Adam.

“What? We can’t leave.”

“Yet we have to!”

Adam shrugged off Kaylor’s grasp and returned his attention to the Juireans. If they learned the location of Earth, they might reveal something he could use later—if there was to be a later. He couldn’t read the screen, but he could listen in on their conversation.

“Amazing.” the Counselor said. “Annan.”

“Yes, but that is not what concerns me the most,” said the Overlord. “See the reference here about the…Humans.”

Both the Juireans turned to look at Adam and Riyad, who in unison backed away, trying to look innocent. Did the Juireans look…scared? Adam wondered. The aliens turned back to the screen.

“There! That is it—” the Overlord said.

Without warning, Riyad shoved a shoulder into Adam’s chest, sending him crashing into Kaylor, Jym and the guards, causing all of them to tumble to the floor in a heap. Next, he kicked the Counselor in the ribs, and grabbed the much-taller Overlord around the neck from behind, pulling him backwards.

Guards rushed into the room, weapons drawn, but Riyad swung the Overlord in front of him for cover and the guards hesitated. The pirate backed farther into the room, almost disappearing from Adam’s view due to the curvature of the disk-shaped starship. Then with his free hand, Riyad reached down and flipped his belt buckle inside out, revealing the trigger device for the ankle bombs. He grinned at Adam, before pushing a button on the device. He ducked around the equipment tower.

A few seconds later, the Human peeked around the corner, with the Overlord still firmly in his grasp. Adam had regained his feet, and seeing Riyad’s dark eyes staring at him, he smiled and pulled up his pant leg, revealing a bare ankle.

A look of exasperation came over Riyad, but then a toothy smile stretched across his face. Riyad gave Adam a wink, and then moved out of sight, dragging the Overlord with him.

Guards flew past Adam, nearly knocking him over, rushing to the aid of the Counselor. Others took off after Riyad, who by then had left the command room through a secondary doorway.

Adam felt a strong tug on his arm. “Come Adam, we must go—now!” Kaylor had a terrified look on his face.

Using the confusion left from Riyad’s abduction of the Overlord, Adam sent an elbow into the jaw of the one remaining guard standing between them and the stairway leading from the command room. He scooped up the guard’s weapon, and the three of them bounded down the stairs and into the wide corridor. Three guards ran by and up the stairs, ignoring them completely. Rescuing the Overlord was a greater priority.

So they ran, down the corridor, past the hiberpod room and into the umbilical tube to the Counselor’s shuttle. They shot through the tube and into the smaller craft. Kaylor led the way to the pilothouse, falling into the pilot’s seat, punching buttons as he did.

“What the hell’s going on?” Adam yelled. Kaylor fingered a switch that closed the outer door to the ship. Next, the alien grabbed the control stick and sent the craft tearing away from the umbilical.

“The bomb!” Jym answered.

“What bomb?”

Kaylor cranked the stick to the left and the large Klin ship began to shrink away.

“The nuclear bomb aboard the Klin ship,” Kaylor answered. He switched the main viewscreen to an aft view. The Klin ship was now about the size of the full moon and rapidly shrinking as the distance between the two craft increased.

“There’s a nuke aboard the ship? How do you know?”

“The core was hooked to a self-destruct mechanism,” Kaylor explained. “When I originally removed the core it activated the countdown. I was attempting to disarm the bomb when you attacked me.”

“So, why is this a problem now? You obviously did deactivate it.”

“The lights,” Kaylor said, not taking his eyes from the viewscreen. The Klin ship had disappeared from view by now. “Before I removed the core, the lights were orange. When I removed the unit, they turned yellow and began oscillating, just as they did again when the core was re-inserted.”

“But why would the self-destruct activate when the core was returned?”

“Because I reversed the controls. The device now thinks the core has been removed—again. We have about seven minutes to get to a safe distance.”

Without further comment, Adam joined Kaylor and Jym in their vigil at the viewscreen.

Chapter 25

Riyad pulled the struggling Overlord through the side door to the command room and down a hallway. Although he was unarmed, Riyad did have the most valuable hostage in the entire Fringe. The guards would not risk hurting the Overlord in an effort to save him.

Riyad had planned for the ankle bombs to go off and take out most of the guards. Then in the confusion he could have easily slipped away with the Overlord, giving him time to force the Juirean to reveal what he had learned. Now he needed another plan.

From the reactions of the two Juireans, he was sure they had learned the locations of both the Klin hideout and Earth. Now the key to Riyad’s future was held firmly in his strong right arm. He just needed a few moments alone with the Overlord. After that, he could dispose of the Overlord and fight his way off the ship. He snorted. A piece of cake.

Guards were cautiously moving down the hallway toward them, keeping their distance. Then the alien ship rumbled. Riyad felt an explosion vibrate through the metal structure, followed closely by the sounds of plasma bolts filling the air. The guards were confused, as some stayed to watch the Overlord, while others broke off and disappeared down the hallway.

Just then a stream of high-intensity electric bolts shot over Riyad’s head toward the guards. The soldiers returned fire, leaving Riyad and the Overlord in the middle of a firefight.

He dragged the Juirean through a doorway on his right and threw him to the floor. A battle was raging in the hallway—between whom, he had no idea. But this could be his only opportunity to interrogate the Overlord. Riyad straddled the Juirean, grabbing him firmly around the neck. The Overlord’s brilliant blue eyes were wide and angry as he struggled vainly to escape. Riyad was able to keep him pinned to the floor without too much effort.

“You found the location of Earth…give me the coordinates!” Riyad demanded, squeezing tighter on the alien’s neck.

The Overlord tried to shake his head, but Riyad’s grip restricted the movement.

“I will not,” the Overlord managed to say through clenched teeth.

“Then I will crush the life out of you with my bare hands. You have about two seconds to tell me!” He squeezed tighter.

“Yes! Stop….”

Riyad lessened his grip on the Juirean’s neck. “Talk, damn you!”

“Ecliptic plane…minus 4, section 21….” Riyad’s heart raced. He almost had it—

It came as a strange scraping sound on the metal floor outside the room, growing in intensity as it drew closer. Riyad looked to the open doorway, just as a small, puck-size disk slid up and stopped in full view.

His eyes grew wide—it was a grenade, like those his pirates used when boarding a hostile ship!

Riyad rolled off the Overlord, pulling the huge body over him—just as the bomb exploded.

Counselor Deslor found the unconscious Overlord in a side room, bloody but alive. Guards swept in and helped their leader to a nearby couch.

“Where are the Humans?” he asked the Counselor through the spasms of pain.

“I do not know. We are searching the ship.”

The Overlord reached up and grabbed the Counselor’s cloak. “Open a link to the Fleet Commander—now!”

“Of course, my Lord. But shouldn’t you receive medical assistance first?”

“Only after I speak with Giodol.”

The Counselor spoke to a guard, who hurried out of the room. Moments later, a tech arrived with a portable transmission unit. He placed the device on a table at the end of the couch, and after a few moments, stepped away so the two Juireans could operate the communicator. Deslor sent everyone from the room.

The pain stirred Riyad from his blissful slumber. He became aware of people around him, and when he opened his eyes he was lying across a console chair in the pilothouse of a shuttlecraft. Through groggy and filmy eyes, he saw Captain Angar seated at the controls, with the blackness of space displayed through the front viewport. Riyad ached all over and suspected his right arm was broken from the throbbing pain emanating from that part of his body. He groaned, and instantly people were at his side, helping him to sit up in the chair.

Angar turned to face him, a large, satisfied grin on his face. “I am so glad to see you are awake, my General,” he said. “The meds should make you feel better.”

“Where am I?” Riyad asked.

“In a shuttle and almost back to my ship.”

“How…how did I get here?”

“We rescued you.” Angar’s voice was animated, his joy obvious. “I brought in a boarding party and pulled you out. You are safe now, my General.”

Memories began to spark in Riyad’s mind. He soon remembered sitting atop the Juirean Overlord, hearing him recite the coordinates of planet Earth—and then an explosion.

“You idiot!” Riyad screamed at Angar, as loud as he could manage.

Angar recoiled with shock. “My General, is something wrong?”

Riyad stood, cradling his broken right arm in his left. Between spasms of pain he answered the question, “Of course something’s wrong. I was about to learn the location of my homeworld—until you interfered!”

Angar’s jaw fell slack and his eyes wide. He didn’t know what to say, so Riyad stepped into the silence. “Turn around; we have to go back.”

“But General, we…we cannot—”

“Do it, dammit! Do it now!”

Angar sat in the pilot’s seat and cranked the stick over. The star field changed ahead of them, but they were too far out to see the Klin. Riyad stood weakly behind the pilot seat, overflowing with anger. He was so close. The Juirean had been in the process of telling him where his home was located. He had half the coordinates: Ecliptic minus 4, sector 21. Another second and he would have had it all.

The link to the Fleet Commander was established and Giodol watched his screen as the Overlord and Counselor Deslor crowded together so they could both be seen by the Fleet Commander. “Are you injured, my Lord?” Giodol asked, seeing the bloodied and battered Overlord. This was unheard of. Never in his memory had anyone struck a Juirean, let alone injured one as badly as his Overlord.

“Listen to me, this is important.” the Overlord said. “The Klin exist!”

The Commander’s mouth fell open as his eyes grew wide. “Are you sure?” He was so shocked by the statement that he abandoned all decorum with his superior.

“Yes, Commander, it has been confirmed. They have a secret base in the area. But that is not our biggest threat.”

“What … what could be worse?”

“It is a race of beings called Humans. I will give you the coordinates to their home planet. Then Commander, you must assemble your fleet and—”

Giodol’s screen went blank, no static, no ghost images. He pressed the controls to regain the link, but nothing happened. After a few more tries, he called in a technician. Another few minutes went by while the terrified alien tried in vain to reestablish the connection. Finally, he had to tell the Commander that there was nothing wrong with his equipment.

There was simply nothing left to link to.

The blast first appeared as a tiny, yet brilliant dot against the distant star field. Adam and his two alien companions watched in horror as the dot grew to fill half the sky. They turned away to shield their eyes, before the viewscreen darkened to lessen the light intensity within the pilothouse.

A nuclear explosion in space is quite different than one within an atmosphere. The fire is not as intense from the lack of oxygen to feed the flame, and there’s no shockwave from the compression of air. But the radioactivity from the explosion created an almost perfect sphere of light, as the force expanded outward, equally in all directions. Yet what was most startling to Adam were the bolts of electric blue and yellow lightning shooting out from the point of origin. It reminded him of one of those static electricity globes he used to see at Spencer’s Gifts. The ribbons were beautiful and filled most of their view, traveling away on their own, while slowly losing intensity as the minutes fled.

Chapter 26

Riyad cradled his shattered right arm and fought the wave of nausea flowing through his body. He had no idea what just happened to the Klin ship. Had it been destroyed from the outside, maybe by the Klin themselves? Or was there a bomb aboard, a booby-trap of some kind? Either way, he was beyond anger, literally shaking from hatred for all things alien.

His vision had been so real, and he had been so close. Riyad Tarazi, ruler of the planet Earth! And now his vision had evaporated in an instant, along with the computer core and the Klin ship, all in a fireball of splitting atoms and radioactive debris.

Through the viewport, he watched as the last remnants of the explosion dissipated into the nothingness of space above Melfora Lum, creating sparking ribbons of blue and yellow radiation.

And then there was nothing, just the myriad of steady lights dotting the blackness of space.

But that’s not exactly true, Riyad thought, as a glimmer of an idea swelled up from his gut. I know the Klin exist, and they not only know the location of Earth, but I sincerely believe they’re building an army of Humans…and somewhere right here in the Fringe.

With a newfound determination borne of hatred—as well as his lust for power—Riyad swore he now had a new purpose in life. He would round up the scattered remains of his pirate fleet, and then spend every waking hour, every ounce of his being, on the singular quest of finding the Klin hideout and their Human army.

Riyad Tarazi would make his vision come true. He knew now that it was possible. He would find the Klin, and he would return to Earth. And from that moment on his homeworld would never be the same….

On the other side of Melfora Lum, Adam stood at the viewport of the FS-475, watching the last remnants of the nuclear blast evaporate into ribbons of sparking blue and yellow electricity. He couldn’t believe it. He had been so close to finding his way home.

In reality, he didn’t care what happened to the Klin—or to anything else in this nightmare universe for that matter. All he wanted to do was go home.

Now what was he supposed to do?

Kaylor and Jym stood behind him, not knowing what to say. Adam finally spoke without turning, “Well, my friends, I guess I’m stuck here now. There will be no joyous homecoming for Adam Cain in the foreseeable future.” He turned to face the aliens. “But it looks like the two of you are off the hook. The Juirean did say no one else knew about the ship and the Klin other than a small handful of people. Now most of them are gone—all except us.”

There was an awkward moment of silence before Kaylor asked: “What will you do, Adam Cain?”

Adam shook his head. “Good question. If I’m going to be here for a while, the first thing I need to do is find a way to make a living. The two of you can’t carry me forever.”

Kaylor nodded vigorously, much to Adam’s surprise. “What were you trained to do on your planet…on Earth?”

Adam thought for a moment. He knew the long answer, but the time didn’t seem right to go into detail. Finally, he answered: “I was a trained killer.”

Kaylor and Jym recoiled from the answer. They had their suspicions, and now it was confirmed.

Seeing the disgust on the faces of the aliens, Adam explained. “I was in the military…a warrior I guess you would say.”

This appeased the aliens, before Jym blurted out, “Maybe you can go to work for the gangs—as an assassin!”

Kaylor jabbed him in the ribs, shooting him a stern look.

But Adam wasn’t offended. In fact, he gave them both a sly smile.

“So … I could kill aliens for a living? Now that’s something I could get used to!”

The End

And now…

The first chapter in

The Human Chronicles #2

Alien Assassin

An Adam Cain Adventure

Adam Cain…

…is an alien with an attitude.

His story continues…

Alien Assassin - Chapter 1

Adam Cain had an alien to kill.

Yet before he set out on the mission, his training dictated that he take inventory of his equipment and check his weapons….

Adam was in a pressurized hotel room in the Hildorian city of Jaxas with a full array of energy weapons and other tactical gear spread out on the bed. Although the tactics and strategies from his Navy SEAL training had very little carryover to his present occupation, the habits developed during his military years were hard to break. So with methodical precision, Adam went down the mental checklist while steeling his resolve for the mission.

His formidable weapons cache ranged from the standard MK-17 and XF flash rifle, up to his prized MK-47 High-Energy Bolt Launcher. The ’47 had cost him nearly an entire commission, but it was well worth it. As the top-of-the-line for plasma handguns, the weapon boasted a standard level-one charge of twenty bolts, and its targeting computer carried the fastest rating in its class. Personally, Adam never used the targeting assist, but just carrying the ’47 often gave those out to challenge him second thoughts.

Honestly, Adam didn’t care if they made good with their challenges or not. He would kill anything that walked, slithered or crawled in this god-forsaken galaxy. In fact, Adam often called himself The Exterminator and felt as much remorse when he made a hit as The Orkin Man back home did when he wiped out a colony of termites.

Adam lifted the ’47, feeling its weight and the comfort of the grip. All his pistol grips were customized, as was the stock on his Xan-Fi flash rifle. With over eight thousand species in the Juirean Expansion, weapons manufacturers had to provide an extensive selection of grips and stocks to fit the variety of hands, tentacles and even robotic nerve attachments of their customers. Fortunately, human-style hands were quite common. Still, each of his weapons had custom-formed grips, molded to fit his hands exactly. Adam Cain was a professional and nothing but the best would satisfy him.

For the past three days, he had wriggled into the uncomfortable pressure suit to scout his target. His name was Kunnlar Bundnet, and he was a high-level gang leader who had offended an even higher-level gang leader sometime in the past. Now he had to pay the price. As it was back on Earth, most gang hits were within and between the gangs themselves. Adam didn’t care. As long as they paid, he would kill. It was the only thing he was good at.

Satisfied that all was in order, Adam packed up the tools of his trade and placed them in one of the two backpacks on the bed, while reserving the ’47 for his oiled leather holster. Next he strapped the clear plastic breathing cup over his nose and scooped up the other knapsack from the bed. Lastly, Adam Cain placed the camouflage boonie hat atop his head—the trademark of his SEAL persona—and cinched up the cord under his chin.

It was game time.

His target lived in a fortified compound on a hill about thirty klicks outside of town. Adam drove the rented transport to within a kilometer of the house, and after applying streaks of black and green grease to his face, slung the flash rifle across his back and secured four slide grenades to the MK’s utility belt. Then with the small knapsack secured across his left shoulder, he set off for the compound, covering the remaining distance in about a minute, through a combination of jogging and long leaps in the weak gravity.

In fact, gravity was an integral part of his attack plan. Rated at just .69 of Juirean-standard, Adam estimated the gravity of Hildoria to be a little less than half that of Earth’s. That was one of the reasons the atmosphere was so thin and the air pressure too low for him to function without the light pressure suit. It also produced a native population that was well-over seven feet tall with barrel chests. Apparently it required huge lungs to inhale enough oxygen to survive.

The singular yellow sun had set by the time Adam reached the compound, and a murky darkness descended on the landscape of thick woods and bristled bushes. The compound itself, however, stood out like a beacon, illuminated by dozens of floodlights, and patrolled by no less than twenty heavily-armed guards on both sides of the surrounding wall. The place was hard to miss.

His sources had told him Bundnet may have been tipped-off regarding the impending hit, and the activity at the compound confirmed it. Adam wasn’t concerned; now it came down to whether or not this would be a surgical strike or an all-out scorched-earth campaign. Factors on site would determine which.

Either way, The Exterminator would get paid.

Crouching in a clump of bushes at the tree line, Adam watched as the first set of guards covered their route, their flash rifles held casually at their side. Once they passed, Adam dashed off to a point at the wall that was his best point of entry. Leaning against the warm stone surface, he estimated the height of the barrier to be about five to six meters.

Now comes the fun part.

Adam jumped straight up, enjoying the brief sensation of flying as he easily reached the top of the wall with his outstretched arms—a move that would have made any NBA center green with envy. Then in a quick, fluid motion, he swung himself over the top and dropped—essentially in slow motion—to the ground below.

Alarms blared as motion sensors were tripped. Adam scrambled to a dark patch of trees and vegetation and lay on the cool, moist ground between the wall and the house. More guards rushed toward the clearing, each armed with flash rifles, their huge size and puffed out chests creating a menacing scene.

Adam took the small knapsack from his shoulder and released the binding cord, opening the pouch. With angry growls, two furry creatures—looking like large squirrels with spiked tails—sprung from the bag and ran off into the opening. The guards spotted the animals almost immediately and began chasing after them in a vain attempt to corral the elusive creatures.

As planned, one of the guards placed a communicator to his mouth, and a few seconds later the alarms fell silent. The obedient rodents continued their flight to freedom across the opening, with the guards following closely behind.

In a low crouch, Adam took off for the house. Without breaking stride, he leapt to the top of a small pagoda-like structure and then onto the roof of the main building. Slipping behind a tall chimney stack, he waited a few moments to see if he’d been spotted. Satisfied that he was unseen, he proceeded along the roof until he came upon a large skylight made of numerous individual glass panes. A dim light filtered up from a single source in the room below.

Adam peered over the edge and saw a large bedroom below, with an expansive bed set to one side, and a dresser and wooden writing desk butted against opposite walls.

Kunnlar Bundnet—his mark—was seated at the desk, leaning forward slightly with his arms resting on the desktop.

Suspecting the skylight frame would be wired for security, Adam removed a roll of tape from his bag and quietly covered one of the glass panes with a large ‘X,’ leaving a small rise of tape at the center. Next, he took a pen-laser—a special one with a muted tip—and silently cut through the glass along the edge of the frame. Next, he lifted the glass away by the tape handle and set it to one side.

Adam Cain withdrew his MK-47 from its holster and stood up. Then after taking a deep breath, he stepped into the skylight opening.

He landed with a muffled sound, crouching on one knee and pointing his weapon at Bundnet’s back, fully expecting the crime lord to spin in his chair toward the sound…but he didn’t move.

Adam approached the alien, weapon pressed against his cheek, sighting along the barrel. Still the crime boss remained motionless. At the side of the desk, Adam leaned over to look at Bundnet’s face.

The large, beady alien eyes were open, with a look of sheer terror frozen in the yellow orbs. And across his neck was a smooth razor cut, filled with dark, coagulated blood that had soaked into the front of his gold and green shirt.

He was dead.

But what surprised Adam the most…he was not Bundnet.

Another presence was in the room—

Adam dove to his left, just as a bolt of electric blue plasma slammed into the desk, sending splinters of wood trailing after him. Rolling on his shoulder, Adam came up on one knee just as a large, boxy figure appeared out of the shadows near the door to the bedroom. He leveled the MK-47 and fired. A shimmering film of blue light quickly enveloped the figure before dissipating. It was a diffusion screen, a device that fed on low-level energy bolts. Shots from his ’47 would be unable to penetrate the shield; he needed something larger—like the flash rifle.

But before Adam could un-sling his rifle, the large figure stepped further into the room and stopped. He made no threatening moves, so Adam stood up to face his attacker.

It was Bundnet, very much alive and encased in a mechanical exo-suit, an MK-17 leveled at Adam. The crime boss was smiling.

Hildorians often wear exo-suits when off-planet to help compensate for the heavier gravity they encounter on nearly every other world in the Fringe. The suits are mechanical transports, attached to the limbs of the wearer, providing added strength and mobility for their brittle-boned bodies. They also carry their own power supply, to which Bundnet had linked the diffusion screen. Because of their need for an external power source, the shields are impractical for personal protection—unless one has an exo-suit handy.

“So you are the assassin Amick sent to kill me?” Bundnet’s voice was rough and gravelly, and Adam noticed how the movements of his mouth didn’t sync with the words he heard, an effect of the translation bug Adam had implanted behind his right ear.

Adam remained silent, yet he jerked his head around at the sound of metal shutters clamping over the windows to the bedroom, effectively trapping him in the room with the mechanically-enhanced Hildorian crime boss.

“As you see, I have been expecting you,” Bundnet said. “I have my sources as well, and I can assure you there are plans underway that will leave Seton Amick paying a very steep price for sending you against me.”

Adam heard the servos whine as Bundnet stepped forward, until he was only a few feet from the Human. With the alien nearly eight feet tall to begin with, in the exo-suit he was a truly intimidating figure, towering over Adam by a good three feet or more.

“I have prior knowledge of you,” the alien continued, confident in his control of the situation. “At times, I have even considered enlisting your services for my own ends.”

“You should have,” Adam said. “You would’ve lived longer.”

A look of confusion crossed the alien’s face. “You appear not to realize the hopeless position you are in, assassin. I am speaking with the already-dead, and I have options as to how I will bring about your demise. I can either shoot you…or I could rip you apart limb by limb and revel in your agony. I believe I prefer the second option.”

Adam smiled, which didn’t fit into the Hildorian’s vision he had of this moment. Here we go again, Adam thought. Then aloud he said, “Bring it on, asshole!”

Against the diffusion shield the bolts from the weapon in Adam’s hand were useless, so instead of firing, he reeled back and heaved the gun at the huge mechanical contraption only a few feet away. Since the weapon carried no electrical charge of its own, the MK passed effortlessly through the screen and struck Bundnet’s hand with the force of a sledgehammer, knocking the alien’s weapon away.

Bundnet roared with anger and pain, as he lurched forward while swinging his right arm, the exo-suit adding quickness and agility. It wasn’t enough. Adam easily blocked the blow before stepping forward and lifting the entire mechanical/alien contraption off the floor and tossing it to his right. Automatic balance controls allowed the unit to remain upright, but now Bundnet was twisted around with Adam behind him.

But rather than attack, Adam simply waited for his opponent to regain his bearings and spin around. The smile was gone from Bundnet’s face.

“You missed,” Adam mocked through a wide, toothy grin of his own.

The Hildorian growled, displaying a double row of long, sharp teeth. He lunged again, but this time managed to clamp a mechanical hand onto Adam’s left bicep, creating a spasm of pain throughout his arm and up to his shoulder. In defense, Adam reached across with his free hand and violently ripped the clamp from his arm, breaking the thin metal from its joints.

Bundnet screamed, as his own flesh and blood hand—attached to the mechanical appendage—twisted and bones snapped. Out of desperation, the alien countered with a swipe of the other mechanical arm, catching Adam hard against the side of his head. He dropped to his knees, temporarily stunned. Bundnet stepped forward and planted his metal-encased left leg into Adam’s chest. The Human was sent flying backwards in the light gravity, falling heavily against the wooden dresser next to the bed.

Bundnet ran forward.

Adam pushed off the dresser…and the two combatants crashed into each other in the center of the room. Adam scrambled to the top of the suit’s metal frame and began ripping at the upper cage above Bundnet’s head. Metal bars broke from their joints as Bundnet’s mechanical arms flailed wildly, attempting to pull Adam from atop the cage.

After a moment, Adam dropped down behind the exo-suit and ripped the power cords from the battery pack.

The servos fell quiet, and the alien crime boss found himself trapped in the suit, unable to operate it with his own feeble strength. He stopped struggling and watched as Adam casually moved back in front of him.

Adam shook his head. “You don’t have any idea what you’re up against, do you?” The alien’s bottom lip trembled. He didn’t answer.

“This is what I do: I kill aliens for a living. And I’m very good at it—”

Adam reached out and clamped his right hand around the alien’s neck. He squeezed, feeling—and hearing—the crunch of bone and cartilage as Bundnet’s windpipe collapsed. In another moment…it was over.

Adam Cain—alien assassin—had fulfilled another contract.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Adam gathered up his backpack and recovered his MK-47—just as he became aware of the wailing of alarms outside the building. How long they’d been sounding he couldn’t tell; his mind had been on other matters.

He didn’t panic. Although the guards were aware of his presence, all Adam had to do now was get out of the compound….

The windows of the bedroom were shuttered and the exterior walls of the building made of stone, leaving his only escape route through the bedroom door. Gripping his ’47 firmly in his right hand, he flung open the door—and came face-to-face with two guards, just as shocked to see them as they were to see him. With lightning-quick reactions, Adam blasted the first alien through the chest with a bolt from the MK, while simultaneously swinging his left fist at the second guard. To his surprise, his fist sank all the way through the guard’s skull and exited out the back side, effectively hooking the alien’s head onto Adam’s forearm, all in a bloody spray of brains and shattered bone.

Damn! What else could go wrong?

Just then a shower of bolt-streaks filled the hallway, as another group of armed guards appeared to his right. Adam needed a new exit strategy….

One of the advantages of living on a low-gravity world was that construction didn’t have to be as strong and sturdy as it did on a heavy-gravity planet. Even though atoms were atoms everywhere in the universe, the strength of the compounds and building materials varied from world to world. What Adam had discovered about construction on Hildoria—and Bundnet’s house in particular—was that everything was essentially built of material about as strong as balsa wood and popsicle-sticks.

So he jumped across the hallway—through the blaze of energy bolts—and with little effort smashed through the opposite wall, dragging with him the dead alien still stuck on his arm.

After stumbling through a fallen metal shelving unit, Adam discovered he was in the kitchen area of the building. He ran off between rows of preparation tables, still saddled with the alien corpse on his arm. At that moment, he recalled the words of Riyad Tarazi—the Human leader of the Fringe Pirates—who had told him Humans are the supermen of the galaxy. As he feverishly tried to dislodge the lifeless guard from his arm, Adam was pretty sure Clark Kent never had to deal with a problem like this.

Eventually, the bloody body slipped from his arm. Adam holstered the ’47 and pulled the flash rifle from across his back. He whipped the weapon around and sprayed a barrage of bolts at the guards entering through the hole in the wall behind him. He continued the sweep, blasting more holes in the walls, cabinets and other aliens—kitchen staff he reckoned—in a full circle around him. The sights and sounds were deafening, of crumbling ceiling panels, burning wallboard and wailing creatures. Fires flared up, from grease, gas, fabric and burning wood. It all added to the confusion Adam was hoping to create.

He was out of the kitchen a moment later, blasting his way across a large dining area. More guards came rushing headlong into the hall, causing Adam to wonder how many of them Bundnet had on the grounds. There seemed to be a lot more than when he’d surveilled the compound over the past few days.

Oh well, just more score to rack up….

Adam felt a heavy thud hit his back. He flew forward and fell, sliding face first several feet on the polished stone floor. He’d taken a bolt to the back but was relieved to find that his makeshift diffusion screen had saved him. Plasma weapons fired balls of concentrated electricity, and Adam had fashioned a series of wires sewn onto the exterior of his pressure suit. Not as strong or long-lasting as a full-fledged diffusion screen, his experiments had shown that the electric charge would dissipate along the wires, heating them up and melting the wires, but also lessening the impact of the bolt. The concussion still knocked him off his feet, but that was about the extent of the damage. The drawback: the wire mesh was only good for one bolt. The next one could prove fatal.

He rolled on his back as he slid along the floor, aiming his flash rifle between his legs at the three guards behind him. His aim was true, and the bolts from the powerful energy rifle had a devastating effect on the thin-boned Hildorians. He was on his feet a second later and running for the main exit from the house.

The ornate, double front doors were made of metal, so instead of barreling through them, Adam jumped and crashed through the thin glass transom window above the doors. The seven remaining guards stationed on the landing outside weren’t expecting this. As he soared over them, they did their best to follow his flight with their weapons, but like most aliens, their shots came slow and several feet behind.

Landing softly on the brick walkway leading to the entrance, Adam rolled once and came up on one knee. With the flash rifle married to his chin, he sent a stream of bolts into the guards, literally ripping them apart at close range.

He remained in shooting-stance, scanning the front of the building, his movements and those of his rifle acting as one. When satisfied there were no further threats facing him, he rose to his feet.

Even through the crackling of the fire taking hold within the building, there was a strange silence. No creatures stirred, and if any were left alive, they chose to stay indoors and face the fire, rather than the deadly Human outside. It was a wise choice.

His boonie hat was still held in place by the snug cord under his chin; he pulled the hat down a little tighter and shouldered his rifle. After a slight nod, he turned and strolled casually down the long driveway, his solitary silhouette illuminated by the lashing fire now fully engulfing the building behind him.

Mission accomplished.

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Novels by T.R. Harris

Human for Hire Series

Human For Hire

Human for Hire (2) - Soldier of Fortune

Human for Hire (3) — Devil’s Gate

The Human Chronicles Legacy Series

Raiders of the Shadow

War of Attrition

Secondary Protocol

Lifeforce

Battle Formation

Allied Command

The Adam Cain Saga

The Dead Worlds

Empires

Battle Plan

Galactic Vortex

Dark Energy

Universal Law

The Formation Code

The Quantum Enigma

Children of the Aris

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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Rev

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REV: Rebirth

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The Enclaves of Sylox

Treasure of the Galactic Lights

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Day of the Drone

In collaboration with Co-Author George Wier…

The Liberation Series

Captains Malicious

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