When Earth

Reigned Supreme

The Human Chronicles Saga

#12

an Adam Cain adventure

by

T.R. Harris

Published by

Copyright 2016 by T.R. Harris

Edited by Lee Burton of oceansedgeediting.com

ISBN: 978-0-9913465-9-2

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. 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.

If you would like to be included on the master email list to receive updates and announcements regarding the series, including release notices of upcoming books, purchase specials and more, please fill out the Subscribe form below:

Subscribe to Email List

Email: bytrharris@hotmail.com

Website: bytrharris.com

Novels by T.R. Harris

The Human Chronicles Saga

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 (coming April 2016)

Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

The Enclaves of Sylox

The Drone Wars Series

Day of the Drone

With author George Wier

The Liberation Series

Captains Malicious

Contents

Prologue

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Epilogue

Prologue

“I want that entire galaxy sterilized, beginning with the planet Earth!”

“That is the goal, my Queen.”

“You do not understand. I want every advanced race destroyed, whether we collect the harvest or not.”

Councilmember Gori Bon shook his head. “You are correct. I do not understand.”

“Somehow the Humans of Earth have corrupted the incredible mind of my special offspring, Panur. It is now highly doubtful that the Colony will have his contributions in the future. This will cause us great harm over time. I am being strictly vindictive. I want D-441 wiped clean. Subdue their major worlds—all of them—and leave the population to wither and die if we do not have the harvesters to reap the crop.”

“You wish us to leave these crops to be ruined?”

“I care not for the harvest. We will get as much as we can, let the rest rot. There will be plenty of food brought back to the Colony, and other galaxies within that dimension we will reach. But for now I want this … this Milky Way to be a dead galaxy.”

Gori was thoughtful for a moment. “The limiting factor to the worlds we can consume has always been the number of harvesters within our fleets. It is such a momentous task to collect an entire planet worth of stock, especially before it rots…but if all you wish is for a population to be overcome by our pulse beams, that is a much simpler task. And as you say, we will still have the opportunity to take what we can with the existing harvesters. Still…it seems such a waste.”

“Let them rot, beginning with the Humans.”

“My Queen, you must value my counsel, since I have been allowed such access to you over the years.”

“And you make a point?”

“Yes…and it is that Earth will not be easy to subdue. It is the most closely guarded of all the advanced worlds in D-441. According to the history we have found, the planet has been attacked before, with devastating consequences. Hence, the population is in a state of continual guard. And then there is the possibility that the Humans may have the means to locate our transport portals. If this is the case, we may have limited resources available to accomplish your objective. By focusing primarily upon Earth, we may lose a fair number of our assets on a single target.”

“Yet if the Humans can be eliminated, we can build more portals.”

“Perhaps not. There is an unusual affiliation between the advanced races in D-441. I believe others will retain the ability to neutralize our ability to reinforce.”

“Are you suggesting we leave Earth alone?” The Queen’s voice boomed throughout the huge birthing chamber. Gori knew her elite guard would be alerted and might even suspect her to be in danger. He stepped back from the huge bulk of his supreme mother so as not to appear a threat should the guards react without consent.

“That is not what I am saying. All I suggest is that we attack Earth when the time is right and not press when it is not. Our priority should be to protect the existing portals and to build more. According to our Klin spies, it is now the objective of our enemies to close off all access to D-441.”

The Queen snickered, sending a stream of blessed fluid from her mouth into the collecting basins below her massive head. “Yes, the Klin. They are a strange race. They come to us offering to be our allies in exchange for immunity from attack.”

“They wish us to be the tool they need to destroy their enemies. They wish to reign supreme within D-441.”

The Queen’s smile grew wider. “Do they not realize that if I grant their wish they would rule over a dead galaxy? How satisfying would that be, to be the only surviving race of advanced intelligence in an entire galaxy?”

“It is obvious they do not believe we could harvest an entire galaxy of all advanced life. In normal circumstances, they would be correct. We would take a fair sampling and then move on. But with your new directive there will be nothing left for them to rule.”

“Or they believe we can be defeated, either by them or others,” said the Queen. “They could be waiting for that time to come.”

“They do not understand the time scale on which we operate. You, my Queen, have lived for over five thousand of their years. You will live many more multiples of that. D-441 will be conquered, either now or later.”

“You are correct, Gori Bon. Use the Klin to gather what information you can. Promise them…whatever it takes. If you see a point where they may become a threat to our operation, harvest them. I understand they built the first transport portal into their universe. Their brains should be of a superior quality.”

“There are very few of them, my Queen.”

“Then when the time comes, I shall place the harvest in my private reserve, to be consumed only on special occasions.” The smile vanished from the Queen’s face. “But now we must focus on overcoming the true threat in D-441, the Humans…and to a lesser degree the Juireans. I concur that it may be wise to bide our time for the right opportunity to strike Earth, yet let us begin stripping the galaxy of all who support and protect them. Let the planet stand alone against us. Then we shall see who will reign supreme in the Milky Way galaxy.”

Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude.

His adventures continue…

Chapter 1

Adam Cain held one Sol-Kor warrior around the neck while firing his MK-17 bolt launcher into the face of the other rushing towards him, leaving only the wriggling creature caught in his grip to contend with. The Sol-Kor were not used to being physically subdued—or at least this one wasn’t. He continued to struggle, refusing to accept that he was defeated. Adam needed information from the alien, but the effort was becoming intolerable.

Besides, the thing really smelled. Some other bad guy wandering around the battlefield might be more cooperative.

Flexing his powerful biceps, he felt alien’s neck snap and the beast grow limp. He let the creature slump to the floor before moving further down the hallway in search of more aliens to either kill or interrogate. Frankly, he didn’t care which.

This was the first trans-dimensional portal array to be attacked using information from Panur’s diamond-core detector, and the resistance here was proving to be more determined than he and his team had expected. Alien reinforcements had apparently arrived through the portal since the last intel update, so Adam and his seventeen remaining commandos had their hands full.

In pre-operation planning, Adam had argued for a simple orbital nuke attack on the array, but more pragmatic minds had prevailed. Admiral of the Fleet Andy Tobias and his cohorts wanted the facility intact—at least this one—so they could learn from it, since Human scientists had been unable to construct portal arrays of their own. It could even be used to launch a counterattack against the Sol-Kor in their home universe, if the opportunity presented itself.

For now, Adam’s goal was to shut down or gain control of every alien portal in the Milky Way galaxy, a total of nine at last count. Since Panur had completed his detector, another array had come online. Having analyzed what Adam and the Humans were attempting, the invaders were in a mad rush to get as many additional portals completed as possible. To that end, most of the large construction was now being done in the Sol-Kor universe, the parts then shipped in through another gateway, saving both time and alien-power. Already, allied forces had intercepted the supporting towers for another three arrays. And these were just the ones they’d found. There was no telling how many more were making it through to their final destination.

And that was what Adam needed to learn from these Sol-Kor warriors. Most of the defenders were drone workers who didn’t know much beyond their own particular job on the project, so Adam needed to find a bigwig, a Noslead or higher…

At an intersection further along the corridor, Adam ran headlong into four more defenders, these dressed in black armor. Without thinking, he dove across the floor for cover, startled as much by their sudden appearance as they were to see him. Fortunately for the outgunned Human, the Sol-Kor relied on targeting computers before firing, and the moment’s delay as their handguns locked on target was all Adam needed. Forgoing his own T.C., he released four precisely placed bolts at the enemy before even one return shot could be launched.

Still on the floor, Adam fingered his throat mic. “Beta squad, where are you?”

“Main control building, second floor,” came the rushed reply from the squad leader, Sergeant Jack Newsome. “The scalies have us boxed in outside the main stairwell and down the hallway. We’re keeping them at bay around a corner, but it’s a good bet they’re going to charge us from the stairwell. They’re also firing their damn mind-numbing beams at us.”

“How are you holding up?”

“Fine, mostly. The dampeners are working, but we’re still getting some badass headaches. Where are you, Cap?”

“I’m three floors above you. Lost my escort, so I’m alone. I’ll make my way down the stairwell and relieve the pressure on you from the top down.”

“Be careful, sir. There are a lot more of these bastards than we counted on.”

“Understood. I’m coming up on the stairwell now. Be looking for my influence.”

“Roger that. Newsome out.”

When Adam carefully opened the door to the stairway and glanced in, he was confronted immediately by a press of alien bodies filling the room. There had to be fifty of them standing on the stairs and platforms, preparing to take on Sergeant Newsome and the other fifteen members of his squad. They weren’t looking in Adam’s direction, waiting their turn to engage the enemy below. The Humans wouldn’t stand a chance once the Sol-Kor charged, willing to sacrifice a fair number of their strength to take out the commandos.

Adam could feel the effects of the Sol-Kor mind-suppressor beam, if to a lesser degree. Like the rest of the strike team, he was wearing a compact neutralizer on his utility belt. The tiny device formed an effective screen around him in all directions, keeping him and the rest of the Humans from falling completely under the beam’s influence. However, it couldn’t protect them from the aforementioned migraine-like headaches.

That was a problem. In some cases the headaches were so severe the men became impatient to finish off the defenders just to make the pain go away, resulting in fatal lapses in judgement.

Adam had landed with a force of one hundred and twenty. He was down to just seventeen, and still the site was not secure. The control building was the last holdout, but it was also where most of the defenders had retreated. The damn place was swarming with the gray scalies.

After slipping back into the corridor outside the stairwell, Adam checked the power reading on his MK. He’d run out of ammo for his M-91 carbine about thirty minutes earlier. All he had left was the damn plasma bolt launcher and its hybrid power pack. The upgraded charge box did give him twenty shots rather than the standard ten, but he only had four bolts left on his current pack, and only one spare remaining.

He replaced the existing pack with the fresh one, and then placed his black-bladed KaBar combat knife between his teeth for easy access. Once the bolt launcher drained, he was pretty sure some good old-fashion hand-to-hand combat would be called for in the crowded stairwell.

Adam reminded himself that these were just aliens—like so many who had come before—and if he just kept a level head, even fifty of them were no match for a combat-trained Human.

With that thought in mind, he took three quick breaths…and then barged through the doorway.

His aim was true with the MK as he laid bolt after deadly bolt into the backs of the aliens at point-blank range. The dead tumbled forward, falling on their comrades further down the stairs. Within seconds, his pack was drained, the bodies of the dead now blocking his access to the rest of the stairwell. Wild return bolts rose up from the lower levels, ricocheting off the metal walls and striking the still-living or wounded Sol-Kor on the stairs. Below him, a large number of the bastards were still alive and dangerous. Getting to them was now the problem.

Adam tossed the useless plasma weapon aside, took the vicious combat knife from his mouth, and jumped, landing heavily on top of the mass of Sol-Kor warriors below. Most of them were already dead, so he rolled over and further down the mountain of alien bodies, his blade lashing out and finding compliant flesh along the way.

Screams of excruciating pain echoed off the walls of the stairwell.

Adam’s movements became a blur as panicked defenders fought to get out of the way of the mad, tumbling Human. Scaly hands grabbed for him, to which he instinctively reacted with savage swipes of his blade. More often than not, the tender flesh and brittle bones of the light-gravity creatures succumbed to the razor-sharp weapon; hands were severed completely from alien arms, accompanied by more agonizing screams.

Still, their numbers were incredible, and Adam soon found himself pressed against the hard metal of the stairs with about a dozen aliens on top of him. A plasma bolt then lit up the stairwell, impacting his combat vest with a sizzle. Most of the level-two bolt was absorbed, but at this range some of it did manage to reach his skin. It burned, but didn’t penetrate.

Adam let out a primal scream of his own, while at the same time embedding his blade into the neck of the nearest alien above him. He ripped it out sideways and directly into the chest of another, and kicked out, sending a Sol-Kor fighter tumbling over the railing and down four flights to the hard deck at ground level.

The stack of aliens began to lighten as he used knees, elbows and a free fist to engage, slashing wildly with the blood-covered knife. Having seen the Human survive a point-blank plasma bolt, most of the Sol-Kor were staring at him, wide-eyed, mesmerized by his fluid and deadly movements.

Then a tipping point was reached. The rapidly dwindling number of alien defenders realized they were fighting a losing battle against their rabid opponent. There were other Humans in the hallway outside the stairwell, and many chose to confront them rather than this crazed killing machine.

Ten of the aliens raced through the doorway on Sergeant Newsome’s level, only to be met with a barrage of flash bolts, as well as hot lead from the few commandos who still had conventional ammo for their assault rifles.

That left only five aliens in the stairwell. They were armed with bolt weapons, yet to a creature not a single one fired, backing away as Adam stood up straight, rolled his shoulders and threw out his chest. He was painted completely in the red blood of the aliens, all but for the cobalt blue of his eyes, which were surrounded by a sea of brilliant white. He grinned, baring his pure white teeth in a display of savage ferocity, conveying to the aliens what most of them already took a smile to mean: a death challenge.

With their comrades being cut down outside, the five aliens realized they had no other choice but to rush the crazed animal. In unison, they charged.

At this point Adam’s motions came instinctively, without thought or remorse. He dodged a fist while running the serrated edge of the combat knife across the side of an exposed neck. Next, he spun around to slide in behind two of the attackers, planting his blade deep into a spine while wrapping an arm around a head and pulling away quickly, snapping a neck.

Only two remained. Their seven-foot-tall bodies pressed him against a cold metal wall. The handle of his knife had been slick with alien blood and he’d lost it in the back of his last victim. Strong hands sought to hold him. He twisted his wrist and freed his right arm, and followed up with a balled fist to a scaly, gray temple, feeling bone shatter and the life flow from his victim.

Only one remaining. Adam swept his right hand over the arms of the creature, freeing himself while sending the alien to his knees, writhing in pain. The Sol-Kor warrior looked up at him with pain on his face, yet with defiance in his eyes.

“You will never defeat us, Human,” he growled. “We are too many…and you are just…food!” The alien reared back, opened his mouth, and clamped down hard on Adam’s thigh, sinking long, sharp teeth through his pants and into the flesh of his leg.

Adam cried out, while running his hand down the face of the alien until he reached the eye sockets. He pressed, penetrating deep, like fingers into a bowling ball.

The alien screamed—momentarily—then Adam’s fingers reached his brain and the creature fell silent and limp in his grip.

********

Adam was still leaning against the wall, completely covered in blood and gripping the head of the dead alien with his fingers, when Sergeant Newsome and two other commandos entered the stairwell. He was panting, teeth bared in a display of crazed animal savagery, when one of the commandos activated his combat camera and began recording.

“If ever an image captured the legend of Adam Cain, this is it,” Sergeant Newsome whispered. The other men just nodded, expressions of both fear and concern on their faces.

Adam met their expressions with one of his own, one of steel-jawed, clenched-teeth determination. He released the head of the alien and took a step toward the open-mouthed non-com.

“Mission accomplished,” he reported.

Then he pushed past the men and exited the stairwell, leaving the bodies of forty flesh-eating aliens in his wake, victims of a futile attempt to challenge the Human race for superiority of the Milky Way galaxy.

Chapter 2

 “You know the video has gone viral,” Riyad said, with humor in his voice. “In fact, I think Central Command is using it for propaganda purposes, hoping it’ll make it back to the Sol-Kor.”

“That’s not going to stop those animals. They don’t give a damn about themselves, just about your girlfriend, the Queen.”

Riyad unleashed a full-on smile. “Yeah, I think she really had the hots for me. If you and Q’uel hadn’t showed up when you did, who knows where our relationship might have gone.”

Adam was getting in the mood of the banter.

“You’ve always preferred tall women.”

“But not one the size of a school bus!”

 “Yeah, she was a lot of woman, even for an alien. And damn, she could have used a little make-up now and then.”

Riyad leaned back on the couch and placed his hands behind his head. “Lebanese men prefer women to be more natural than are your painted-up Western ladies. But alas, it was not to be. However…we’ll always have Paris.”

“What are you two scoundrels talking about?” Admiral Andy Tobias asked as he entered the officers’ lounge aboard the Mount Rushmore.

“Lost loves and regret. What else?” Riyad answered in a sing-song voice.

“Not Sherri again?”

Both Adam and Riyad looked at each other and burst out laughing. “Not hardly,” Adam proclaimed. “More of the alien variety.”

“Arieel?”

Now the two men shared a look of mutual male lust. “Now that’s another story. But no, we were talking about the Sol-Kor Queen.”

Tobias’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding. From what you told me—”

“Relax, Andy, we’re just winding down,” Adam said. “So what’s the latest?”

“Not good.” Tobias moved to the counter along the bulkhead and poured himself a cup of black coffee. “Another two portals have come online in just the past three days. The Juirean and Rigorian fleets took out three of the old ones, but we’re not making much headway. And the aliens—meaning the Juireans and the others—suffered heavy casualties during the attacks.”

“Why don’t they just nuke the bastards?” Adam asked, his frustration showing.

“Each race wants their own portal to go along with ours. It’s some sort of balance of power thing apparently.”

“Don’t they know the scalies are still trying to send units through the one we control? It’s a constant battle to keep that one secure. It won’t be any different for the ones they capture.”

Tobias snorted. “You know what it’s like trying to reason with aliens.” The admiral sat down in a worn leather chair and flung a long, thin leg over one of the arms.

“Kind of like trying to reason with Humans, I would imagine,” Riyad said.

Tobias took a swig of his coffee and immediately pushed the mug away, blowing across the surface for a couple of seconds. “You know there are people who want to reopen negotiations with the Sol-Kor. They still believe they can talk their way out of all the casualties we’re taking. And now with these new portals, they feel we’re fighting a losing battle trying to cut off access to the galaxy.”

“You don’t believe that, do you, Admiral?” Adam asked.

“Of course not. Besides, I’m with you now in believing the SK would never live up to any agreements, but I also wouldn’t put it past them to say or do anything to gain an advantage. If they can delay things long enough to saturate the galaxy with portals, then we’re toast, literally.”

“What about their existing fleets?” Riyad asked. “I know they have to keep a lot of their force in reserve to defend the portals, but they still have half a dozen harvest fleets roaming the galaxy.”

“They’re not roaming anymore, Riyad. A major concentration is chewing up planets within the Union, and we don’t have enough ships available to protect whole planets and take out their portal arrays at the same time.”

“I see your problem, Andy,” Adam said, a frown clouding his face. “If you concentrate on the portals, billions of creatures die. And if you allocate forces to the defense of these planets, then the scalies build more portals…and then more people die.”

“I’m coming down on the side of taking out the portals and stopping their access to the galaxy, but I’m telling you, boys, politically that’s becoming harder to defend with each new planet that gets attacked. The alien bastards aren’t even harvesting most of these worlds. They simply knock out the population and leave them to die.”

Adam sat up a little straighter. “How long has that been going on?”

“Just recently. We assumed they were harvesting these worlds, at least taking some of the people away. But we’re finding that only about one-in-five planets is being harvested, and then only marginally.”

“So they’re killing trillions of creatures…just to kill them?” Riyad asked.

“It’s a new strategy on their part. Needless to say, it’s causing quite a stir back on Earth, as well as in the Expansion, although most of this scorched-earth campaign seems to be taking place within the Union.”

Adam looked over at Riyad. “Looks like your girlfriend is really pissed off.”

“Nothing like an alien scorned.”

“What are you talking about? Did you and the Queen have some kind of affair when you were over in her universe?”

“If we had, she wouldn’t be doing all this today. I’d have her eating out of my olive-colored hands and lost in the depth of my dark, sensual eyes.”

Tobias stood up and placed his empty coffee cup on the table next to the chair. “I don’t know about the two of you, but I think I’m going to be sick.”

He turned crisply on his heel and left the room.

Riyad looked at Adam and flashed him one of his trademark smiles. “Some people just can’t handle the truth.

********

A week later, the Mount Rushmore was en route to the next TD portal at the head of a fleet of warships tasked with destroying this particular array. Thanks to the heroics of Adam’s commandos, the scientists and the politicians had their portal, so the rest of them were expendable.

Yet when Adam returned to his stateroom after a long day of operation prep, he immediately sensed a presence in the room. He felt the wall for the light switch, remaining at the open door until he had fully surveyed the cabin. The man sitting at his small, fold-down desk didn’t make any move to conceal himself. He looked back at the stone-faced officer with an amused smile.

“You knew I was here,” the man stated.

“Just had a feeling. Now who the hell are you?”

The man didn’t get up. “I’m Stephen Monroe, Captain Cain.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

The man snickered. “I would hope not. If you’ve heard of me, then my usefulness would be over.”

“You’re some kind of JUDS spy?”

Monroe shook his head. “A spy would denote someone seeking information by clandestine means. No, I’m more on an operative, tasked with making certain things happen without a lot of people knowing about it.”

“Semantics, Mr. Monroe. What are you doing in my stateroom?”

“It should be obvious. I have a mission for you—and your friend Riyad Tarazi—should you choose to accept it.”

“I suppose a burning fuse is going to cut across the screen now.”

The man looked genuinely confused.

“Mission Impossible, the movies…the TV show?” Adam said. “Never heard of it?”

“I’m afraid not. Perhaps it was before my time.”

Adam felt very old at that moment.

“Okay, son…so who do you work for and why are you coming to me?”

“I work for the Security Enhancement Division of the Joint Union Defense Service.”

“Never heard of it. Even if I had, you should know my return to active duty is only temporary.” Adam moved to his bed and sat down, all the while keeping an eye on the thin man across the room. “My job right now is to track down and destroy all the Sol-Kor portal arrays. I don’t have time for any new missions, no matter how mysterious the invitation. What I do is the most important job there is to keep the galaxy safe.”

“There is another way, a way to bring this war to a screeching halt just like that.”

“And how is that, Mr. Monroe?”

“By cutting off the head of the snake.”

“The Queen?” Adam shook his head. “I was told by a very reliable source that that won’t work. They’ll just hatch another one.”

“Of course, Captain, but what do you suppose they’ll be doing in the interim as this new queen is hatched and grows to maturity? Do you know how long that will take, and what sort of education a new queen needs before she’s ready to start calling the shots?”

“That I don’t know.”

“Neither do we. But one thing is certain, it will take time. And you see how the Sol-Kor operate. They don’t do squat without direction from their queen. What do think they’ll be doing while the new queen grows up?”

Adam was quiet as he tried to work out the answer. The honest truth was he didn’t know. However, like Monroe said, it would take time.

“I imagine they’d be in a state of flux for a while. That’s my best guess. And anything your people say is also a guess.”

“No argument there, Captain Cain. But put yourself in the place of the SK and not think about what we would do. In a normal society, there are plenty of capable people who could step into the leadership role at the drop of a hat. Not the Sol-Kor. It’s our…guess…that the SK will put most of their operations on hold, at least those not crucial to the survival of the Colony. All these attacks taking place without harvesting should come to an end. Their current strategy seems to be more of a punishment rather than a way to acquire food. That has to be a personal decision made by the current queen. If she’s out of the picture, then the vindictive nature of the attacks should go away. In any event, it certainly couldn’t hurt the war effort to take out the Queen.”

Adam looked around his tiny stateroom. He’d left some of his uniform parts scattered about earlier, but an attendant had come in and stowed them away. Everything seemed in order, safe and secure. It didn’t take much imagination to see that the mission Monroe was proposing could be a one-way street. Was he willing to take the risk?

However…it did have merit.

“Okay, say your mission to assassinate the Queen is a go, how do we do it? Send a ship through the portal we control? You know it’s as well guarded on the other side as it is on our side. Then if a ship could survive long enough to make it into clear space, we have absolutely no intelligence about, well, anything on the other side.”

“We propose a more direct approach.”

“Explain.”

“The portal at your house.”

“I thought it burned up?”

“No, sir. Fire crews arrived in time to save it. There was a little damage, but that’s been repaired.”

Adam shook his head. “Panur said it couldn’t open up between universes. He did some weird shit to it that stopped that from happening.”

“That appears to be the case. We’ve been trying, but so far no luck.”

“Okay, so what’s your plan?”

“The Klin.”

“What about them?”

“They came through your portal. How did they do that, and where do you think they came from?”

“Probably from the portal they have aboard the colony ship.”

“Exactly.”

“And your point is?”

Monroe leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs. “We believe the Klin are working with the Sol-Kor, feeding them intelligence and other information about the galaxy and our military actions. This belief is based on an almost uncanny avoidance of our sentry units by the most recent shipments of array parts entering the galaxy. It’s obvious they’ve been tipped, and Klin fingerprints are all over this new dynamic. They insist on sitting in on all strategy meetings even though they have no major force invested, just a token ship included in every task force.”

“The portal in the SK universe that linked to the Klin ship was destroyed.”

“They could’ve rebuilt it by now. And that portal was located where, Mr. Cain?”

“The Queen’s Chambers.”

“Bingo.”

Adam was silent for several seconds as he thought through the mission parameters: Use his portal to enter the one on the Klin colony ship, make a quick transfer over to the SK universe—right into the heart of the Queen’s Chambers—take her out…and then extraction.

“You’ve been there before, Mr. Cain,” Monroe said to fill the silence. “And according to your after-action report, it was only because of Panur that you didn’t take out the Queen at that time. It could be done again, and this time without any interference.”

“They’ve probably added several more layers of security around her since the attack.”

“Undoubtedly, and that’s why we need you and Mr. Tarazi. The two of you know the lay of the land, at least better than anyone else we could send. And this wouldn’t be a rogue rescue mission like last time. This would be fully-sanctioned and supported. You’d go in with skilled backup and armed to the teeth, which, according to what I’ve heard recently, is how you prefer it.”

Adam knew the video that was circulating didn’t show him holding his combat knife in his teeth, but his after-action report did mention it. Monroe seemed to be the real thing, at least as far as having access to classified documents.

“I’ll have to talk with Riyad.”

“Of course. And I hope the tender feelings he’s expressed for the Queen won’t interfere with the mission.” There was a wicked smile on Monroe’s face.

So the bastard’s been listening in on our conversations. Adam returned the knowing smile. In war one became very pragmatic and determined; very few things were off limits, including privacy. Adam knew it went along with the territory. Still, part of him was bothered by the intrusion.

With the Sol-Kor now indiscrimanently destroying entire planetary populations without harvesting, Adam agreed it felt like a personal reaction by the Queen. Her son—Panur—was gone, probably for good, and she was blaming the Milky Way galaxy for her loss. With the SK fleets concentrating on the Union, obviously she was holding the Humans more responsible than others. If she wasn’t stopped, her hatred could eventually lead to the Earth being sterilized, just like all the others.

Adam could see the need for such a mission, but launching from aboard a Klin starship added an incalculable degree of danger. Sure, there was a good chance he and his team could get through. It was getting back home that would be the issue. Any escape route would be closed off within seconds of the team’s passage into the SK universe.

Yet with the Union controlling a full transport portal, there could be a way. The strike team would need to acquire a starship. But then there was no telling where the matching portal was on the other side, if it even worked that way. Or could any large portal be linked to the one on this side? And if it could, then how exactly was that done? It would require gathering intel…

Monroe let Adam think, but after about a minute he stood up. “I assume by your silence and look of concentration that the mission is a go?”

“There’s a  lot of unknowns, questions that won’t be answered until we’re on the other side.”

“That’s why you and Mr. Tarazi are the perfect leaders for such an operation. You’ve proven time and again you can adapt, improvise, and overcome.”

“That’s a Marine slogan, Mr. Monroe, from back in the day when we had Marines. In the SEALs we used to say, ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.’”

Monroe laughed. “I’ve read your jacket, Captain Cain, and hearing that now I can see why you’ve been so successful throughout the years.”

“Yeah, rules are for saps. I prefer to make things up as I go along, no matter what others say is the proper course of action.”

Adam got up off the bed as Monroe approached. The two men shook hands.

“Good luck, Captain.”

It was a simple sentiment, but Adam sensed the not-so-subtle meaning: Monroe believed this to be a suicide mission—just as Adam did. But if it could stop the slaughter of trillions of intelligent creatures, then it would be a sacrifice worth making.

He just hoped Riyad would see it the same way.

********

“So, do you miss her?”

Riyad looked at Adam with a frown. “Who…Sherri?”

“No, the Queen.”

“Oh, her…every lonely night, my friend. My thoughts are consumed by her. But, honestly, I think we need some new material if we’re going to take our act on the road.”

Adam laughed. “Yeah, on the road…again. That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

Riyad and Adam were in one of the many ready rooms aboard the Mount Rushmore, taking an inventory of their gear, preparing for the assault on the Sol-Kor portal array. This one was scheduled to be a nuke attack, but in the event that it didn’t come off, Adam and his strike force had to be ready to go. This time there would be over five hundred ground troops, not the hundred and twenty like before. Hopefully they wouldn’t be needed.

Riyad set an assault rifle down on the bench and turned to his friend. His eyes narrowed, his bushy eyebrows nearly joining as a frown carved his dark forehead.

“Why did the hair just stand up on the back of my neck?”

Adam’s answering grin was…well, goofy.

Riyad cocked his head and his eyes widened when he understood. “That’s a suicide mission and you know it.”

Adam wasn’t surprised his friend had been able to not only read his thoughts but immediately conceptualize the mission before a word of it had been spoken. Riyad had spent a lifetime in the planning and execution of missions just like this one. All it took was the mention of the Queen—the target—and Adam’s silly grin—confirmation—for Riyad to know.

He sat down on a nearby metal bench and stared at Adam. “It would have to be through the Klin portal. It was linked to the Queen’s Chambers before, and the scalies have probably rebuilt the portal on their side by now. But how do we get into the Klin ship?” His eyes grew wide again. “The one at your house. It must have survived!”

Adam nodded, not only for confirmation, but also for the admiration he felt for Riyad at that moment. His powers of deduction were truly amazing.

Riyad pursed his lips and shrugged. “It makes sense that they would want the two of us to lead such a mission. But as straightforward the entry may be, I’m at a loss as to how we could get out? I hope you have some ideas about that.”

“I’m working on it. So…are you in?”

“Are you kidding? I get to live out the fantasy of nearly every guy who’s had a bad relationship. I get to kill my ex…and get away with it—hopefully.”

Adam laughed. “I’m sure that line of thinking goes both ways, buddy, maybe even more so from the opposite side. Don’t you know that every breakup is the man’s fault?”

“That’s what I’ve heard…far too many times.”

“I just hope you don’t have second thoughts when the time comes to pull the trigger.”

“It will be difficult, for sure, but I’ll do my best to resist the inner conflict for the good of the mission.”

“Far out, dude. Now let’s go bag ourselves a queen.”

********

Andy Tobias, Admiral of the Joint Union Defense Service fleet, was livid upon hearing the news that his two most competent officers were leaving the ship. He insisted on knowing why, and as he held position at the very top of Union military leadership, nothing was held back.

His bluster didn’t last long once he realized the significance of the mission and the prospects for a safe return by the team. If anything went south, there would be no black helicopters in the night coming to their rescue. But what could go wrong? They’d just be isolated in a completely foreign universe swarming with trillions of flesh-eating aliens, and more than likely with every escape route shut down the moment they appeared.

“You’re going to have to make it to a transport portal, one of the big boys. That will involve commandeering a starship. And take plenty of backup batteries for the beam neutralizers. No telling how long you’re going to be over there—”

Adam grasped Tobias by his shoulder. The man was losing weight at an alarming rate, probably from the stress of command. At least that was Adam’s hope. Tobias was sixty-eight years old, and although he could still go up against men half his age, time had a way of defeating even the strongest warrior.

“We’ll be okay, Andy. I promise. The Sol-Kor won’t be expecting this, so we’ll have the element of surprise on our side.”

Andy shook his head. “I have every confidence you can achieve your primary mission. It’s what happens afterwards that I’m worried about.”

“I think it’s the Sol-Kor who should be worried, Admiral. You know how deadly a trapped animal can be. We’ll deliver a little shock and awe on their asses and see what they think about that.”

“You be careful. You too, Riyad. I’ve grown rather fond of you bastards over the years.”

“Don’t go all mushy on us, Admiral,” Riyad said. “Your strength and bullheadedness has been a constant throughout the years. Just promise to kick our butts if we don’t make it back alive. That should be incentive enough for us not to get ourselves killed.”

Andy nodded. No other words were said, just some hugs and handshakes. Then the pair left.

********

Andy Tobias stared at the closed door of his cabin for a long moment afterwards. He’d spent a lifetime in military service, with countless men under his command providing the ultimate sacrifice, but this was different. If ever there were two men he could call true friends, it was Adam Cain and Riyad Tarazi.

He chuckled. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the mission, the Sol-Kor were in for quite a surprise. A storm was coming their way, and the scaly bastards had no idea how strong and destructive it was going to be.

Chapter 3

The team would consist of only twelve men, not because there was a lack of skilled volunteers, but because of the constraints placed on them by the size of the trans-dimensional portals.

The one from Adam’s garage had been moved to a large hangar on the grounds of the closed Travis Air Force Base outside of Vacaville, California. The opening was only six feet wide, which would allow for two fully-armed and equipped commandos to pass through at a time. During trials, all team members could make it through in five seconds. That didn’t sound like long, but they had no idea how much notice the Klin would get when their portal suddenly activated. Adam had only used the device once, a year ago, and he couldn’t remember if there had been a warmup period. All he knew was that the portal had opened and through it he could see another dimension. The gateway had stayed open for the duration of the rescue mission, right up to the point Panur destroyed the portal on the Sol-Kor side of the doorway.

Adam and Riyad arrived at Travis two weeks before the jump-off date. The enigmatic secret agent Stephen Monroe was already there and neck-deep in the preparations.

“How long have you been planning this operation?” Adam asked as he looked down a long table displaying various items the team would take with them into the Sol-Kor universe.

“From about two minutes after you brought Riyad back from the other side.”

Riyad lifted one of the tiny red pills that was included in the inventory. “And this will allow us to breathe the toxic Sol-Kor atmosphere?”

“That’s right. One every sixteen hours.”

“Hope we won’t need more than one each. If so, well…something’s gone terribly wrong.”

“You’ll have a hundred pills each…just in case.”

“What’s in them?” Adam asked.

“I wish I knew. The good thing about our current state of cooperation with the other races united against the Sol-Kor is that we now have access to some incredible technology from a hundred different top-tier worlds. Some excel in electronics, like the Formilians. Others are chemical wizards. The ones who made the pills were able to analyze the SK air from traces left at the first portal array—the one built by the Klin. From there they figured out what our systems would need to counteract all the negative effects. Just to be up-front, I’m told there will be a detox period when you get back, so don’t plan any big celebrations for at least thirty-six hours afterwards.”

“That’s good to know,” Adam said. “You hear that, Riyad? No booking the late-night talk show circuit for the day we get back.”

“I’m okay with that. Let the anticipation build. Should command a higher appearance fee.”

Moving along the table, Riyad snatched up a rubber mask, placing his hand inside to balloon it out.

“No friggin’ way! This won’t fool anyone.”

“It’s not designed to be a real disguise, just something that at a distance will allow your team to pass as Sol-Kor.”

The rubber mask, complete with gray scales and all, did have the face of an SK, but there was no mistaking it was just a mask.

“You’ll also go in wearing lightweight replicas of the black Sol-Kor armor, but it’ll be reinforced for real effectiveness against flash weapons. Coupled with the masks, this should provide a second or two of uncertainty if faced with a threat. Hopefully that will be enough time for you to neutralize the situation.”

Adam picked up a mask of his own. “Don’t worry, Riyad, this should help. If we’re being observed from a distance, these should be good enough. And in any close encounters they should give us a split-second advantage before the natives discover the truth…and we neutralize the situation, as Mr. James Bond just said.”

Monroe smiled. “You’ll still go in with your assault weapons. The individual gear packs will be slimmed down and disguised as part of the armor. Back-up ammo and other essential supplies will be in two self-propelled carts going in with you.”

Adam surveyed the items on the table and shook his head. “Stephen, you do realize this mission is about as sloppy and jerry-rigged as it can get?”

“What choice do we have? We can’t very well tip our hand by sending in drones or other unmanned reconnaissance units for a look-see. The moment we did that they’d slam the door shut and we’d have no way in.”

“They’re going to do that anyway,” said Riyad. “Leaving us with no way out.”

“We’ll need to secure the portals, both on the Klin ship and in the Queen’s Chambers. If that fails, then we’ll just have to find another way,” Adam said.

“They’ll be a second team that will follow you into the Klin ship. It’ll be their job to maintain control of the portal for as long as they can. Also, keep in mind the portal controlled by Tobias. Your men will have the link information with them. All you have to do in that case is secure a starship and then locate a transport portal that will allow you to program in a new set of coordinates. For the two of you, pulling off something like that will hardly work up a sweat, right?”

Adam tried to stay positive about the mission, but it was becoming harder by the minute. “I hope your confidence in our abilities will be warranted. I would really hate to disappoint you.”

“Then don’t. Just get over there, waste the damn Queen, and then hightail it back to the good ol’ Milky Way.”

Riyad slipped the loose-fitting rubber mask over his face. The eyes were cut out and the mouth had a wide slit running the length of the artificial lips. “That’s the plan, my friend.” His words came out muffled by the mask.

Monroe looked at Adam. “I’d say that’s an improvement.”

“Roger that. Now how about we get this show on the road?”

Chapter 4

Adam wasn’t too concerned with the first stage of the jump. Even though there could be upwards of twenty thousand of the silver-skinned aliens aboard the Klin colony ship, they weren’t known for their fighting skills. Adam’s team should be able to gain entry and secure the portal before the Klin could stop them.

That’s where the mission would enter the realm of the unknown. Were the Klin actually working with the SK? And if so, were they linked to the Sol-Kor universe through a rebuilt portal in the Queen’s Chambers? If the answer was no, and there was no accompanying portal into Sol-Kor Land, then the team would beat a hasty retreat back through the Klin portal to Travis.

But if it did link with the SK universe…well, things would get very exciting from then on.

Each stage of the mission had its “go, no-go” points, although only the first stage offered them a clear exit strategy. With each successive “go” after that, the team would fall deeper and deeper into the realm of the unknown.

Besides the breathing pills, other alien scientists had improved upon the basic  beam neutralizer to form a continuous belt of countering waves each team member would wear around their waists. Four compact batteries, plus eight spares each, would give them protection for up to thirty-six hours of constant beam bombardment. They would also carry an ample supply of high-strength aspirin to help fight off the inevitable beam-created headaches that could affect reasoning and concentration.

In addition to what each commando would carry on their person, two self-propelled equipment carts would go in with them, each ladened with extra weapons, ammo, and other provisions. How long the carts could be attached to combat operations, no one knew. But it wouldn’t hurt to take extra everything with them, at least initially.

Adam had been on too many small strike missions to count, but never had he faced one with this many unknowns. This wasn’t how they normally operated in the SEALs. Traditionally, every detail was known, each move choreographed. At least that was the goal. The unexpected always happened, but that was also planned for. For this mission there would be very little redundancy—extra supplies, but that was about it. And they would be operating with no firm timetables. The situation would be fluid from the moment they stepped through the portal.

Adam turned to the eleven anxious faces of his team. Many years ago, after the first Juirean attack on Earth, Human military units had been reorganized into a more uniform, global force. Ranks had been redistributed. The Army, Marines, and Air Force retained their enlisted designations—with a few exceptions—while the Navy secured the officer ranks. No one was happy with this arrangement, especially the generals or the chiefs. Most higher-ranking non-coms were switched to warrant officers, where the designation of chief still applied. And any officer with an existing rank was grandfathered in. But the changeover had come nearly a decade ago, so most of the old soldiers had faded away by now, and the new boots didn’t know any difference.

They were also under one central military command, that of the Joint Union Defense Service, or JUDS. Within the corps, there were also civilian specialists under the office of the Union Technology Corps, or UTC. The strike force included two such men, Specialist Juan “Joey” Garcia and Specialist Adrian “Wizard” Kaczynski. They were the portal experts, tasked with the almost impossible job of hacking into alien portal controls and finding appropriate ingress and egress points for the team.

Adam was glad someone else had that responsibility. He wouldn’t have the first clue where to even begin figuring something out like that.

Besides Adam, the team had two line officers, Lieutenant Fred “Rock” Johnson and Ensign Ronald “Mac” MacTavish. Johnson was a short black man, barely scraping five-foot-six, but as his call-sign suggested, he was built like a rock—nearly neckless, with bulging muscles that required his uniforms be custom tailored.

Mac was from England, and had bucked the higher ups in order to sport the curving handlebar mustache he was so proud of. He claimed it had something to do with his pagan religion. As to why he should be allowed to grow it, Adam suspected he got the pass because he was a distant relative of the Queen of England, who still maintained an honorary position in the former United Kingdom. Retaining some traditions was necessary. It allowed Humanity to hold on to a past and a perspective that, for all intents and purposes, had ended with the Juirean attack on the planet twenty years earlier.

The rest of the team was rounded out by tough-as-nails special ops specialists, including: Sergeant First-Class Mike “Conman” Connors, navigation, weapons, sniper; Corporal Eddie “Neo” Anderson, pilot, sniper; Sergeant Anders “Birdman” Drake, surveillance, drone operation, sniper; Master Sergeant Javier “Hotlips” Hernandez, weapons, sniper; and Sergeant Alex “Ace” Harbison, sniper.

There was also Riyad Tarazi, designated a “specialist” during his time on active duty, and given the nickname “Flash” by the team. He earned the moniker not from any exceptional speed he exhibited, but rather because of the blinding white of his teeth. Some of the men had even gone so far as to fabricate a wrap-around plastic sunshade to cover his mouth, saying it was necessary so as to not reveal their position during covert operations. The shade was secured in Riyad’s pack, unbeknownst to him. 

Each team member would go in weighed down with nearly seventy pounds of gear, secured in black fabric MOLLE packs that blended with the armor outfits they wore. None of the active-duty soldiers seemed to notice the added weight. They were the modern-day equivalent of SEALs and Rangers, young, tough men who ate, slept and breathed this stuff on a daily basis. These packs were actually lighter than what they were used to. And once in Sol-Kor space the lower gravity of their homeworld would then reduce the pack weight to a little over fifty pounds.

If anyone was feeling the effects of the gear packs, it was the two old men on the team, Adam and Riyad—particularly Riyad. He was almost fifty years old, and had never gone through special forces training, at least not in a true military sense. His early training came through his affiliation with various terrorist organizations, beginning when he was in his teens. Even then, he hadn’t had any real physical and tactical training in almost thirty years.

A few of the more physically fit members had taken on the burden of some of Riyad’s pack, so that he only had about fifty Earth-pounds to carry, at least initially. That would drop to around thirty-seven on the other side of the portal. To his credit, Riyad didn’t let pride get in the way when he accepted their help.

Adam, on the other hand, took the full load, although he too was way over the hill and out of shape at forty-six. He figured he could handle the burden for the short term. In their most optimistic mission assessment, they’d simply waste the Queen and be back through the Klin portal in time for lunch.

They would know soon enough.

********

“Captain Cain, are we going to do this or not?”

It was Lieutenant Larry Johnson asking the question. Adam looked at him and nodded. “T-minus five minutes, L.T. You have Bravo squad…along with Mr. Tarazi.”

Earlier, Adam had pulled the young officer aside and tasked him with keeping an eye on Riyad. The old man of the team had spent the most time within the Queen’s Chambers, and because of that he was a valuable asset to the mission. Otherwise Adam would have left him behind. Now he worried for his friend.

With a quick nod, Johnson acknowledged the silent understanding between him and Adam. Riyad was his responsibility; he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him.

“Okay, men…positions.”

The team lined up in twos, Adam and Corporal Neo Anderson taking the lead. Riyad was in the back half of the line, three pairs up from where the two equipment carts would bring up the rear, the last two commandos gripping the elevated handles with small electronic controls built into the bars.

For the initial phase of the operation, technicians had been able to trace the last link made to Adam’s portal through the laptop computer Panur had used as a controller. The equipment the mutant used to build the portal turned out to be very basic and straightforward; it was the programming within the computer that left the Milky Way scientists in the dust. Fortunately, destination coordinates and a recorded data stream had been easy to retrieve. But beyond that they didn’t have a clue what ninety percent of the programming meant.

In spite of that, the scientists had assured Adam and Riyad they could open the link with the Klin portal. Whether or not that portal was actually the one aboard the Klin colony ship was one of those “on-faith” assumptions they’d been working with from the beginning.

“Thirty seconds,” Adam called out. He looked to his right, to where secret agent Stephen Monroe was standing twenty feet away with a serious expression on his thin face. There was no tally-ho, no thumbs-up from him. He was worried, just like everyone else. If the mission failed, the war for control of the Milky Way would continue with the same intensity and desperation as before. Eventually, the good guys might even be victorious. But the strike team would be trapped within a sliver of existence only an atom’s width away from where they stood, isolated in a reality completely foreign to the Humans, and there would be no one on the other side to mourn their fallen bodies. There was a good chance they were destined for a Sol-Kor dinner table somewhere, possibly even that of the Queen herself.

“Open the gate!” Adam ordered.

The scene through the once transparent doorway suddenly changed to show what appeared to a still-life image of a dimly lit room with walls lined by banks of sophisticated electronic equipment. The scene didn’t stay static for long, as various devices displayed either steady or flashing lights of multiple colors. Panur’s gift to Adam had indeed linked with another portal, and now the time had come for the moment of truth. Adam didn’t take time to study the image to see if he recognized it as the portal room aboard the Klin ship—it didn’t matter—it was the only portal they were linked with. It would have to do.

Without hesitation, both he and Anderson rushed through the doorway, weapons pressed to their cheeks, short-barrels attached to their M-91 assault rifles in preparation for CQC—close quarters combat.

Mission Reign Supreme was underway.

Chapter 5

The first thing Adam noticed upon stepping through the portal was that his assault pack suddenly felt a lot lighter. This came as a relief, but not as much as when he realized he’d been in this room before. It was the portal room aboard the Klin colony ship, which was actually a converted CW comm room that Panur had adapted to create the TD portal—a feat he accomplished in only thirty hours the year before.

And the room was empty.

By twos, the team rushed in, sentries taking up positions at the room’s only door, placing microphones against its metal surface, listening for any movement in the corridor outside. The two UTC specialists trained in portal operation, or at least what was known of it, moved to the control bank and began hooking cables to the handheld computers they had with them. Their movements were fluid and confident, and soon data was scrolling on the screens. A Klin-to-English translation program had been installed on the devices, although most of the data coming over was just numbers.

Adam moved up next to where the men were punching keys on the computers.

“Report,” he whispered.

“Pulling up a log of recent portal activations,” Joey Garcia reported. “There’s been a lot, and not just to your portal, Captain.”

“That’s a good sign. Can you pinpoint the location of the matching portal…or portals?”

“Not from this, but there’s only three addresses. We know yours. The other two are unknowns.”

“Pick the one used most often, Mr. Garcia.”

“Aye, sir.”

A faint click was heard…and the team froze.

Adam looked to the door, where Ace Harbison was listening through earphones while holding up his arm, bent at the elbow with a balled fist. Someone was approaching.

Ace circled his hand and pulled the microphone from the door. The team vanished from line-of-sight of anyone entering through the door…just as a louder click was heard and the door slid open.

A squad of Klin dashed through, their bodies encased in a shimmering haze of blue light, and armed with Xan-fi flash rifles. The shimmering came from diffusion shields, which normally didn’t come in such compact size to be worn by an individual. But the Klin were the most-technologically advanced creatures in the galaxy.

The aliens came in blasting.

This was what Adam had been afraid of. The portal must have been monitored from somewhere else aboard the ship, and the unauthorized activation had prompted a security response—more than likely supplemented by video surveillance of the room as well. This became obvious as the aliens placed accurate flash bolts to where the Humans were semi-hidden.

Adam’s team was well positioned to cover the doorway, and armed with projectile weapons whose deadly fire ignored the electronic shields the Klin wore—which were designed to absorb flash bolts, not hunks of ballistic lead.

Despite the video surveillance and their overwhelming numbers, a dozen alien bodies were shattered by a near point-blank barrage of gunfire, cooling suppressors on the barrels keeping the sound of the weapons to muted puffs. The Klin fell in piles on the deck before their leaders realized the futility of a head-on assault.

“Get the portal open, Garcia! They’ll use explosives next.”

“Where to? Travis, or…”

“SK-Land!”

“Yes, sir. Activating the portal!”

The image inside the portal—that of the hangar at Travis—wavered and then disappeared, to be replaced with a view of a much larger room, dimly lit but not empty. Several gray-skinned Sol-Kor turned from workstations or stopped in their tracks to look at the now-activated portal.

“Cover!” Adam yelled, and then he bounded through the opening, flicking his weapon to automatic as he did so. He placed his aim on several of the SK’s near the portal and depressed the trigger. Alien bodies twisted in wild spasms and fell to the floor.

Then there was gunfire all around him as half the team entered the new universe and began cutting down the natives with deadly precision. The Sol-Kor in the room were unarmed, and ran for the room’s two exits. None of them made it.

Adam glanced back at the portal. The backup team at Travis, tasked with securing the Klin portal for the duration of the operation, would be unable to enter the colony ship until Adam relinquished control of the portal back to Travis. With the battle taking place in another universe, Adam didn’t see that happening. The fourteen men waiting in California would have no link to the Klin ship.

The ammo carts came through the portal next, with Riyad and Johnson bringing up the rear. They entered backwards, firing into the Klin portal room with no let-up, while the rest of team concentrated on keeping any of the Sol-Kor from escaping the huge room and raising the alarm.

“Watch out!”

Johnson jumped, tackling Riyad and sending both of them tumbling to the side of the open portal. A millisecond later, with a swish a small missile shot through the portal, trailing a plume of white smoke behind it. The missile struck the far wall of the Sol-Kor portal room and exploded, the damage isolated to the equipment bank it hit, plus a couple of unfortunate SK’s who were running by at the time.

Another missile streaked through, followed by another. Both hit the floor and skidded before they, too, impacted the far wall.

“Conman, take out the portal! We can’t leave it open. They’ll just keep firing missiles in here if we do.”

Connors cocked the underbarrel grenade launcher on his assault rifle and aimed it at the base of the Sol-Kor portal. With a poof, the subsequent explosion blew the metal frame to pieces and the image of the Klin control room disappeared—as did their most direct means of escape.

The room suddenly became deathly quiet. All the Sol-Kor were dead, only the Human assault team left breathing in the foul, alien air. Adam did a quick headcount—all his men were accounted for, and with no apparent injuries. He pointed quickly to each exit and the team separated into halves, each taking a doorway.

Adam looked around the room. This wasn’t where he’d entered a year before, which didn’t bode well for the mission. He accepted the fact that they were in the Sol-Kor universe, but were they in the Queen’s Chambers, only in another portal room after the last one was destroyed? Or were they worlds away from their intended destination?

Reality began to take hold. It was only him and his other eleven Human commandos up against a trillion Sol-Kor, and on their home turf.

At least we caught them by surprise…all one trillion of them!

The thought came out lacking his usual bravado.

********

Each member of the team wore high-tech wrap-around visors that were a soldier’s dream come true. They polarized instantly to ward off flash attacks, could switch to infrared and heat signatures with a voice command, and even contained limited range radar/motion detector capability up to twenty meters in the open, or easily within a single room. They also constantly provided heads-up displays of video feeds from various sources, along with relative gravity readings, temperature, and atmospheric conditions. They were compact enough to be worn constantly, even with the gaudy Sol-Kor masks over their heads—though none of the team was wearing one at the moment.

 Adam took out a small, articulated video camera from his utility vest, and as another team member cracked open the door, he extended the camera outside.

Every member of the team saw the same image in their visor, and it made their hearts sink.

A row of buildings across a wide street, and a hazy brown, cloud-dotted sky high above. This meant they were not in some large portal station within the vast Queen’s complex. They could be anywhere in the Sol-Kor universe.

Adam handed the camera to Anderson and then slumped back against the wall, contemplating their next move. At least the image showed the street to be quiet, no apparent alarms sent out, prompted by the noise of the brief battle within the building—at least not yet. That was good news. The bad news was that without being in the Queen’s Chambers, the mission suddenly shifted from an assassination to an extraction—their own extraction from an impossibly hostile environment.

“Drake,” said Adam through the mic on his visor. “Find a way to the roof and launch a drone. We need to get some idea where we are.  Ace, Mac, go with him and set up a high nest. It’s a pretty good bet someone is going to get the word about this portal going down, so we should be expecting company. Kaczynski and Garcia, check the equipment to see if you can get any information about our location and other portals in the area. The rest of you take up positions near the exits and keep the cameras operating. Maintain a clear killing field for anyone entering, although our main objective at this time is to find targets to interrogate.”

The team moved out, just as Riyad slipped in next to Adam and sat down.

“Well here’s another fine mess you’ve got me into.”

“What can I say, Ollie…it’s what I do best.”

“Hang in there, my friend. At least we have our health.”

“For a while longer—”

“Captain, Drake here…I found an opening to the roof. Getting ready to launch the drone. Patching video through to our visors.”

“Very good. Let’s see where we are.”

The advanced mini-drone, equipped with a high resolution zoom video camera, shot up into the air, beaming back an aerial view of their immediate surroundings. The cluster of uniformly spaced and identical buildings continued for ten blocks in all directions before giving way to a more open landscape to magnetic east. Drake panned the drone around until it faced west…and here the image changed to something much more interesting.

The vast expanse of the largest spaceport any of them had ever seen. The wide-open landing field stretched nearly to the horizon, before a series of towers—small and insignificant from this distant—rose up along the far boundary. Ranging placed the buildings at over eight miles away. The massive spaceport was a beehive of activity, a cloud of vessels landing and taking off in a chaotic frenzy.

Adam could see huge harvesters, hundreds of them, along with thousands of beamships. There were several huge beam platforms—giant square boxes equipped with gravity drives—which carried multiple batteries of the Sol-Kor blue pulse beam emitters, designed to place the populations of entire worlds into mindless stupors, suitable for eventual harvest. Everywhere, streams of service vehicles moved among the giant starships, looking like lines of ants invading a discarded sugar cube.

Further investigation found an unbelievably large expanse of massive buildings fading into the distance south of the spaceport, with dozens of fifty-yard-wide conveyor belts stacked with uniform crates feeding into the complex. Huge cargo trucks were moving from the harvesters to the conveyor assemblies, dropping their loads in a dance of robotic efficiency before circling back around for another load.

The massive complex had to be the processing center for the raw food being brought in from multiple universes. From here, the finished product would exit the complex in an equally impressive display of choreographed efficiency, to be distributed throughout the Colony.

With a trillion hungry mouths to feed, this had to be just one of countless spaceport processing centers scattered throughout Sol-Kor space. Where this one was located was what concerned Adam the most.

Drake switched the view to the north, and Adam heard an audible gasp from the members of his team.

Beyond the grounds of the wide spaceport, a sloping plain rose up to meet a towering bluff, capped by a high ridge that the drone sensors placed at an elevation of a thousand meters above their present altitude. Adam had been on dozens of alien worlds in his time, but he had never seen something that looked this alien, this ugly and foreboding.

Atop the ridge, seemingly built haphazardly out of various sized blocks of a mottled black and gray, rose a series of raggedly-shaped pyramids. The arrangement of their blocks followed no logical, symmetrical pattern except to form the basic shape of a pyramid. The structure appeared to be off balance and with huge gaps along the edges, giving the whole thing a craggy, disorganized look, as if blocks were added when needed and without regard to placement or aesthetics.

Several of these pyramids bordered the ridgeline, with one taller than the others, even as its neighbors challenged the main structure for supremacy. Each structure staircased down to almost the base of the ridge before another grouping of blocks began to grow upwards to form the neighboring pyramid.

The image zoomed in as close as it could, and Adam and the team could see more detail within the row of craggy pyramids. Each structure was connected to the one next to it by a series of tubes, and even from this distance they could see pods moving within. In addition, they could make out windows and doorways on the individual building blocks. Drake sent the size estimates of the blocks to the team via the HUD, and they found that most blocks measured four hundred feet across and one hundred feet high. The peak of the tallest pyramid was placed at seven thousand and eight hundred feet above the altitude of the drone.

A quick count along the ridgeline found eighteen such pyramids before the row ended as the mountaintop fell away.

“Drake, zoom in on the stuff at the base of the bluff,” Adam said.

The image shifted, and it only took a split second for the team to realize what they were looking at: gigantic piles of trash, one at the base of each pyramid, streaming down the mountain and accumulating along the sloping plain. Each pile had to be a thousand feet or higher, and covered by a cloud of native birds feasting on the incredible smorgasbord of refuse.

Drake noticed movement at the base of a pile and panned the drone in that direction. The distance was pretty far, yet the camera was able to pick up a huge convoy of black trucks cycling along the base of the mountains of trash. Following the line of trucks away from the pile led to another huge complex of structures just northeast of the team, huge columns of black and gray smoke billowing from half-mile-tall towers—a power plant, fed by the massive accumulation of trash indiscriminately dumped down the mountain from the huge pyramids above.

At least they’re recycling, Adam thought. Yet it was the casual disregard for the surrounding environment that sobered him up. The Sol-Kor were pragmatic, single-minded creatures. They only cared for their Colony and the need to feed their massive numbers. Planets of raw material were to be exploited, up to the point where all utility had been exhausted. Then it was time to move on.

Was this Kor, the Sol-Kor homeworld? Or somewhere else? And if was Kor, then was the Queen sequestered in one of the ugly pyramids lining the ridgetop?

If not, then where the hell were they?

“Listen up,” Adam announced, his words picked up by the visor and transmitted to the rest of the team. “We need a hostage. Drake, bring your drone in over the street outside the building and find us a pedestrian, or even a car coming down the street. With this much activity, there has to be someone we can have a talk with.”

With a dizzying movement, the image on the left side of his visor swung along the street outside the grayish-blue building they were in. Immediately they saw individuals moving along a wide sidewalk lining the street, as well as vehicles, though not as many as one might expect with a population as large as the Sol-Kor’s.

“Two targets approaching—east side, fifty meters,” Drake reported.

Adam jumped to his feet, followed closely by Riyad. He pulled out the rubber mask from this utility vest. “Time to see if these things work,” he said to Riyad. “You care to join me?”

“I was afraid you’d say that, but why not? Beats sitting around here on our asses.”

The two men slipped the rubber masks over their heads. Their visors smoothed out the material around the eyes but then the rubber sank dramatically down to the mouth and chin, giving them both the look of having incredibly prominent cheekbones, more than that of most Sol-Kor. Light reflecting off their visors through the open eyeholes made the sockets glow. They tucked the trailing material into the collar of their black armor and turned to study each other.

And burst out laughing. Nearby members of the team joined in, with someone commenting over the comm, “You gotta be shitting me! That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Maybe the shock value will play into our hands?” Riyad said. “I’d stand gawking if anything like the two of us came close.”

“Get serious,” Adam said, before letting loose with another snicker. “The two are about half a block away. We’re going to have to cross the street, grab them and get back here without being seen.”

“I have a better idea,” Riyad said.

He moved to one of the two smaller doors located to each side of a large rollup panel. Watching the image on his visor, he waited until the natives were nearly parallel to the door before opening it. He leaned outside.

“Could you come here? I need your help,” he yelled out. The Sol-Kor voice synthesizer he was equipped with sent out the statement from tiny speakers located on each side of the visor. Both Adam and Riyad had heard the Sol-Kor speak their native language, and they had to give kudos to the developer of the synthesizer program. It sounded spot on.

The two creatures across the street stopped and looked in Riyad’s direction. That’s when the image on the drone revealed they were not Sol-Kor. They were aliens of comparable height—approximately seven feet tall—but definitely were not Sol-Kor. Their skin was much paler, missing scales, and they had four arms instead of two. Adam had seen similar alien design like this before, two main arms and hands, except with a smaller set below the others as well, used primarily for feeding a second, lower mouth than the one on the head, which was used exclusively for breathing and speaking.

The team tensed, wondering if these new aliens would understand what Riyad said. Then the two creatures obediently crossed the street and approached the open door without hesitation.

Riyad stepped back into the shadows and let the two aliens enter, before shutting the door behind them.

Swift, strong Human hands grabbed the tall aliens, pulling the longer set of arms behind them to be secured with nylon ties. The two smaller arms and hands were secured in the front with the same binds.

They were frisked and then moved further into the room and placed on hard mats that rested along a twelve foot long bench, the Sol-Kor equivalent of a couch.

To Adam’s surprise, neither of the aliens put up the slightest resistance, nor did they express any shock. They simply complied without any emotion at all. Adam grimaced, thinking they were probably mindless drones, maybe not even capable of speech.

“Do you understand me?” he asked, after removing his mask, his voice still that of a Sol-Kor.

“Yes,” the two creatures said in unison, also in Sol-Kor.

At least that’s a relief, Adam thought. “You’re not Sol-Kor. What race are you?”

“We are Salifens,” they said again, also in unison.

“Only one of you speak at a time…you.” Adam pointed to the alien to his right. “What planet is this?”

“Kor.”

Adam looked over at Riyad and smiled. Then he turned his attention back to the alien. “Where is the Queen?” he asked, wanting to cut right to the chase.

“The Queen?”

“The Sol-Kor Queen.”

“I do not know such things. My tasks exist within this complex most of the time.”

“What do you do?”

“I carry things. The Salifens are stronger than our masters, so we carry things.”

“Your masters are the Sol-Kor?”

“Yes.”

Adam frowned. He was under the impression the Sol-Kor ate every advanced race they came upon. This creature could speak and form coherent sentences, making it intelligent enough for the Sol-Kor dining table. So why were they not consumed?

“How is it that the Sol-Kor have...slaves? Do you understand the concept?”

“Yes. We are subservient to our masters.”

“Why haven’t they eaten you?” Riyad asked, giving in to his own curiosity.

“On occasion they do, yet I understand we are not to their liking, not unless there is no other food available. Otherwise, we carry things.”

“Why aren’t you carrying anything now?”

“We have already carried boxes to our destination. We are now returning to carry more.”

“What do you carry?”

“Boxes, crates.”

“What’s in the boxes and crates?” He already knew the answer before he asked the question.

“I do not know. That is not important.”

Adam and Riyad walked away, out of earshot. “Dumb as a rock, both of them.”

“They may know more than they realize,” said Riyad. “They’ve seen things, even if they may not know what it meant.”

Adam nodded. They returned to the aliens.

“The structures on the hill, is that where the Sol-Kor live?”

“Yes, most of them.”

“Is there one of the structures that seems to be more important to the Sol-Kor?”

“More important?”

“Yes, do they travel there more often than to the others?”

“The one in the middle,” offered the other alien, speaking for the first time. The other creature nodded.

“Have you—either of you—ever been there before?”

“Yes,” they said in unison. And then the main alien, having sensed the course of the inquiry, said, “I carry things there and back.”

“Of course you do. Can you show us how to get there?”

“Yes.”

Adam turned to Riyad again. “That was easy.”

“If we want to get in through the front door.”

“It’s a start, and we already know where the spaceport is if we can’t locate a portal inside the pyramid.”

“Did you see the size of that place—and the spaceport? You are one fatal optimist, Mr. Cain.”

“It pays to keep a positive mental attitude.”

“Since when…and especially coming from you? I’ve known you for far too long to fall for that bullshit.”

“It’s a start,” Adam conceded. “But we are still going to need a Sol-Kor hostage eventually. These guys will only get us so far.”

********

Fifteen minutes later, Adam and Riyad were huddled over a video playing on a small tablet computer. “Does any of this look familiar?” Adam asked.

Riyad studied the line of misshaped pyramids and shook his head. “I know Vosmin landed at a really large spaceport and then placed me in a truck. It was after dark, and then we entered a tunnel. I didn’t see anything outside after that. He didn’t seem to be trying to keep anything a secret, figuring I was just a talking Happy Meal. I wish I could be of more help.”

“So the structures could be fed by a series of underground tunnels. I don’t see any roads climbing up the mountain. That has to be it. Was the tunnel you entered at the spaceport, or outside the gates?”

“We only went a short distance before entering. There were windows in the truck, but it was more from the echoes outside that told me we were in a tunnel. I do know that we eventually stopped and the truck was lifted up, probably on a huge elevator.”

“That makes sense. The tunnels go under mountain, and then all the traffic gets lifted up to pyramid level. Better than having a whole series of switchbacks hollowing out the mountain. That also means individual vehicles are allowed in the tunnels,” Adam pointed out. “That could help. We commandeer a truck of our own and drive in.”

“We need to find a tunnel entrance, one leading to the main pyramid,” Riyad added.

“Heads up, Captain,” Drake announced over the network. “A truck just pulled up outside.”

“Ask and ye shall receive?” Adam said to Riyad.

“More likely dumb luck.”

“Positions!” Adam ordered. “How many in the truck?”

“Two,” Drake reported. “They don’t seem to be in a hurry. One of them is carrying a case.”

“Could be technicians coming to check out the portal. Open the door as they approach. Stay in the shadows.”

********

Five minutes later, two Sol-Kor natives were seated next to the Salifens, similarly bound; however, unlike the more compliant Salifen hostages, one of the Sol-Kor had suffered a broken arm in the scuffle that resulted from the team sweeping in and grabbing them. Since then, he’d had been shot up with Human painkillers, which had already taken away all his suffering and replaced it with a narcotic high, demonstrating that the SK’s had a much lower threshold when it came to drug tolerance—at least when it came to Human drugs. The other Sol-Kor was perturbed by the drug-induced antics of his partner, and was doing his best to make him stay quiet.

He was fighting a losing cause.

“I can sense the quality of your flesh even from here,” the drugged out alien was saying. “I must have a sample.” He leaned over and bared his long, sharp fangs in the direction of Mike “Conman” Connors. The sergeant-first class slapped him away, sending the alien’s eyes wobbling, while the smile remained on his scaly face, the pain of the hit failing to register.

Adam glanced around when the room became bathed in brilliant sunlight by the opening of the huge paneled doorway. Juan Garcia had donned his Sol-Kor mask and was pulling the truck into the building. The moment the tail cleared the doorway, the panel rolled back down.

Adam turned back to his Sol-Kor hostages. “What are you doing here?”

The sober alien stared at Adam with fierce defiance, remaining silent. The other one was much more talkative.”

“There was an errant reading from within. We came to solve the problem. It is what we do.”

“Silence, Milok!”

“Be nice,” Adam said. “Let your friend talk. You are Milok, right?”

The alien appeared to gush at the mention of his name. “Yes, I am Milok Dosnin. I am a second-level gauge adjuster, assigned to the one-eight-eight technical section. Power readings have been fluctuating at this facility and I—we—were sent to recalibrate.” The alien laughed. “I see now that the fluctuations are not equipment-related.”

“And who are you?” Adam asked, addressing the more stoic alien.

“I will not tell. What have you done here, and who—what are you?”

“You haven’t seen our kind before?”

“No, I have not.” He glanced at the other aliens next to him. “Why have you bound the Salifens? They are of no threat.”

“Yeah, I kinda noticed that. Nice guys, though, just like Milok. You, on the other hand, I don’t like much.”

“I do not care what you like or do not like…”

Adam motioned to Ace Harbison. “Take this one behind the truck. Make sure he doesn’t interfere as I have a talk with my new friend, Milok.”

“Aye, sir.”

A wild look of concern came over the alien’s face. “Milok, do not tell them anything!” It was the last sentence he spoke before the strap from a utility belt wrapped around his head and across his mouth. The smaller Human lifted the seven-foot-tall Sol-Kor from the bench with ease and carried him behind the truck and out of sight of the other native. With a dull thud, Ace sent the creature into a deep, involuntary sleep.

“That’s better,” Adam said. “Now it’s just the two of us.”

Milok looked around the room at all the alien faces staring at him. “Yes, plus all the others.” He then looked at his oddly-hanging right arm. “I believe it is broken,” he said. “A replacement technician must now be sent, as I cannot fulfill my duties. If the injury is severe enough, I will be of no use to the Colony and I will be recycled. However, I find it odd that I have no sensation in the injured appendage.”

“It’s a miracle, Milok. Now, will you answer a few questions I have?”

“I will, even though I do not know why.”

“That doesn’t matter. Now, first thing, is the Queen in the tallest structure on the ridge?”

“My Queen? In all her reverence, my mother, the creator of all?”

“Yes, one and the same. Is she there?”

“Of course.”

“Where in the structure?”

“In her chambers.”

“I realize that. But where is that within the structure?”

“Please do not be disappointed, but I do not know. She is in her chambers. She is always in her chambers, yet I have never been there.”

“You haven’t heard anyone talk of such things?”

“No, why would we speak of such things to each other?”

Adam shook his head, trying to clear it of the absurdity of the alien’s attitude. “How about tunnels to the mountain? Where is the nearest tunnel from here leading to the central pyramid?”

“K-R42.”

“Where is K-R42?”

“Where it has always been.”

“Which is where?” Adam clenched his teeth, straining to keep his frustration from showing in his voice.

“Baseline, third left from here.”

Where is Baseline Street?”

“Where is baseline…oh, I understand. It is the course outside this structure.”

The team had done a quick job of rounding up the bodies of the dead Sol-Kor from their entry through the portal, and now Milok’s gaze focused on the pile. “Are you going to kill me, too?” Even though the question was of the gravest nature, his tone was that of casual curiosity.

“No, of course not,” Adam said with a smile. “We’re friends.”

“Did you kill Kanoc?”

Adam looked toward where the truck sat. “No, he’s just sleeping. He seemed very upset.”

“That is understandable. We were not expecting to find such a…a—”

Suddenly, the eyes of the alien turned to circles and the gray of his face scales turned ashen. He inhaled sharply and toppled over, falling to the floor. The two other aliens watched with expressionless detachment.

Hernandez, one of the two trained medics on the team, rushed to the fallen alien. He turned him over and ripped open his dark red shirt. Already Adam could see a bruising of the skin in the middle of his chest.

Hernandez took a stethoscope and placed it on the alien’s skin. “His damn heart exploded, Cap. He’s toast.”

“Ace, how’s the other one?”

Harbison poked his head around from behind the truck. “Sorry, sir. Not familiar how much force to use on these guys. Doesn’t look like he’s going to be waking up anytime soon.”

Adam pursed his lips before issuing orders.

“Check out the back of the truck. See if we can all fit in.” Then he turned to the two surviving aliens. “I want the two of you to go with this person.” He motioned to Anderson. “He wants to show you something near the back of the room.”

The creatures stood up. Adam looked to Anderson and gave him a curt nod.

“Understood, sir,” Neo said.

Adam went over to the truck, with Riyad at his side.

“A wise decision, my friend,” Riyad said.

“They’re collateral damage. Can’t have them telling their masters anything they’ve seen or heard in here. Other Sol-Kor are going to discover this scene, and probably before we find the Queen.”

“Then perhaps we should destroy the evidence.”

“A fire?”

“That would slow them down some, having to sort through the ashes before putting two and two together.”

“Chief Foster, you and Connors place charges where they’ll do the most damage, Place the bodies in more natural positions. Don’t make it look too obvious.”

“Yes, sir. C’mon, Mr. Connors. Bring your toys.”

The back of the truck was opened to find an array of electronic equipment and spare parts. The team—along with the two equipment carts—wouldn’t fit in without some of the items being removed, so Adam had his men set to work emptying out the back. In a couple of minutes they were ready to go.

“I’ll drive. Mac, you’re in the passenger seat with your M-101. The rest of you in the back. Mac, we’ll be wearing our masks.”

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

MacTavish was a big man, and although the masks were designed to fit all the team members, Mac was the exception. He struggled to get the rubber hood over his visor and around the back of his head, requiring Adam to step in and help. Finally the mask was in place, fitting so snugly the shape of the visor was evident.

Adam grimaced. “Riyad, you know how to handle an M-101, don’t you?”

“If I say yes, I’ll have to wear the mask again…”

“Can you or not?”

“Give it to me, Mac,” Riyad said. He took the long-barrel sniper rifle from the relieved ensign. Mac’s mask came off easier than it went on, even though the visor came with it. He fished the plastic device out of the twisted rubber and placed it around his huge head. With a grunt, he moved to the back of the truck.

“You owe me,” Riyad said to Adam.

“Relax, it’ll be fun. And you’ll get to take in the sights on the way to see your girlfriend. I’m sure she’ll be just as excited to see you as you will to see her.”

“We’re all set here,” reported Chief Warrant Officer Marsh Foster.

“Set the timers for five minutes. Everyone aboard. Riyad, care to get the door?”

Riyad slipped the Sol-Kor mask over his head. “I repeat, you owe me…big time.”

“A beer at Hamilton’s in San Diego when we get back.”

“You know I do not drink…though in this case I’ll make an exception.”

With a wink, Adam hopped into the driver’s seat of the alien truck and grabbed the central steering stick. “Head ‘em up, move ‘em out!”

“Hee haw!” came a call through his visor.

“Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…”

“C’mon, you guys are too young to know that!” Adam exclaimed as he pulled the truck out into the sunlight of the planet Kor and turned left.

“At least one of us is an ancient history buff, gramps.”

“Ancient? And gramps…who said that?”

There was silence on the comm.

Adam turned to Riyad seated next to him. “I don’t get no respect!”

Chapter 6

The alien truck was electric. It hummed along the road at a blistering twenty miles per hour, apparently its top speed. Adam headed in the direction the stoned Sol-Kor technician had indicated, seeking out the entrance to the underground tunnel into the mountain to the north.

The street was wide, with other vehicles appearing now and then. The commandos had moved about a half mile down the road when an explosion reverberated behind them, and Adam glanced back to see a billowing ball of fire climbing into the sky.

“That should keep them busy,” he said to Riyad, who was watching the growing inferno from a side-view mirror.

There were very few Sol-Kor on the streets, and the ones they did see appeared to be moving from buildings to vehicles, or the reverse, hurrying off on missions of vital importance to the Colony. Everything the Sol-Kor did was for the good of the Colony, so there were no leisurely strolls down the sidewalk on a warm, spring day. But now the fire was attracting attention, and dozens of natives were emerging from the rows of identical buildings to stare at the inferno.

Adam soon reached a major crossroad, one with more traffic, most heading to the right. Adam turned here, and five minutes later a looming back rectangle could be seen in the distance. The entrance to the tunnel grew larger the closer they got, until Adam could see that the opening was huge, easily measuring a hundred meters across and fifty high. There was a large parking area to each side of the road, with hundreds of uniform vehicles parked in neat rows.

Sol-Kor mobile transportation seemed to consist mostly of two basic designs: a truck identical to the one the team was in, and a smaller, car-like vehicle about the size of an SUV. Along the outer perimeter of the parking lot, Adam saw a third type—a massive truck with four sets of double tires and with what looked to be refrigeration units taking up the roof of the thirty-meter-long cargo cabins. Meat haulers, Adam guessed, used to carry the remains of intelligent creatures to the dinner tables of the Sol-Kor.

Adam entered a line of traffic made up mostly of trucks such as his, along with a few of the large meat haulers. There was also a stream of pedestrians entering and leaving the vast tunnel opening, and as his truck left the bright light of day and entered the artificial light of the huge tunnel complex, he found out why.

A large station to the left of the four-lane road disappeared into the distance of the vast cavern. At least eight wide tracks guided dozens of bullet-shaped passenger pods to and from the station. Hundreds of Sol-Kor were crowding aboard. With a swoosh, each loaded pod shot off into its assigned tube, headed for the mountain ten miles away.

********

The traffic crawled along. No stops and starts, just a slow and steady movement deeper into the tunnel. Two lanes to Adam’s right contained traffic leaving the mountain, also at the same, steady pace.

He was careful to maintain distance and speed with the flow, thinking there might be an autopilot function somewhere on his dashboard that allowed the other vehicles to move with such precision. He didn’t dare glance down to look for the control, knowing he’d probably run into the truck in front of him if he did.

But soon it became apparent that his speed and spacing wasn’t what was attracting the most attention. It was their masks.

In the lane to the left, trucks matched their speed, or moved along slightly faster, causing a slow parade of drivers and passengers to glance over in their direction. It wasn’t unusual to see three Sol-Kor abreast, just as it was in Adam’s cab. What made most of the aliens in the other vehicles do a double-take was the fact that all three of the Sol-Kor in Adam’s truck looked identical.

When the rubber face masks had been designed and manufactured, no one had thought to give them a variety of looks. Every mask was the same, even as most Sol-Kor had very distinctive and unique faces.

Fortunately, the interior of the tunnel was dim, but the passengers in the other trucks were not more than fifteen feet away from Adam most of the time. To further shield his face, Adam rested his elbow on the window sill and cradled his head in his hand, trying to look bored and uninterested.

Riyad and Chief Foster also noticed the unwanted scrutiny and turned their heads to the right, where the passing traffic going in the other direction was zipping past at a relative speed of around thirty miles per hour, too fast to notice anything about the three people in the black truck.

At one point, both lanes heading into the mountain became synchronized, and a two-person truck remained directly across from Adam for several minutes. With occasional glances to his left, Adam noticed the passenger couldn’t take his eyes off of him, the alien’s scale-covered forehead plowed with a perpetual frown.

“We need to look for a way out of here,” Adam said to the other two men in the cab, the movements of his mouth shielded by the mask. “This guy’s going to raise the alarm any time now.”

“I think we’re screwed,” Riyad replied. “I haven’t seen any of the trucks change lanes, and we’re on the inside. At this pace, we could have another half an hour or more to go.”

“What can the guy do, Captain?” Chief Foster asked. “I don’t see any communications equipment in the truck.”

“That’s a good point, except when we reach our destination he could really raise a stink,” Adam said. “Dammit, if we were just in the other lane, we could pull off. I keep seeing doors along that far wall. There’s probably a parallel service corridor running the length of the tunnel. You know…these trucks must run out of juice eventually, and mechanical things have to go wrong now and then. Heads up, everyone. I’m going to try something.”

Adam began to alternately slow down and speed up, at the same time looking down at the control panel and flailing his arms about. The truck behind him even tapped his rear bumper at one point before backing off. Then he sped up again as Adam did as well.

But then Adam repeated the entire process several times.

By now the curious passenger next to them had continued in his lane unabated, so Adam began to weave the truck in the lane while inching ever-closer to the left lane. After a few moments, the message was received that the black truck was having trouble with its motor. Vehicles in the neighboring lane eventually backed off and let Adam move over. The entire maneuver was completed in silence, since the Sol-Kor trucks apparently didn’t have horns; however, this didn’t stop the occupants of the other trucks from expressing their discontent with arm gestures of their own.

Once in the left lane, Adam pulled over onto the wide shoulder and up next to the gray concrete wall lining the tunnel. He limped along, continuing with the jerky motions until he reached one of the doors spaced uniformly along the corridor. There he stopped.

The shoulder was wide enough to allow service vehicles to race along to assist any disabled trucks, so the team had limited time to make their move. Adam opened the truck door and slipped out, moving quickly to the doorway. As it was with most—all—Sol-Kor doors he’d experienced to date, this one wasn’t locked. He opened it and stepped inside.

As suspected, this was a wide and unobstructed service corridor running off in both directions parallel to the roadway. But there was more. Along the ceiling, huge tubes, air ducts, electrical conduits, and massive fans were set high in the ceiling. Adam saw that the corridor was actually a tunnel within a tunnel, looping high over the traffic tube to connect with a similar corridor on the other side.

There was no one around and plenty of room for the team to move within.

He went back to the truck and pulled it around until the tail end was at the doorway. The position looked odd, but after the team had disembarked and entered the service corridor, Adam repositioned it quickly before being the last man to enter the passageway.

“Be on the lookout for any security cameras. I haven’t seen any, but that doesn’t mean they’re not here. Sorry, but we’re going to have to wear the masks, just in case. Conman and Ace, take point. When we come upon any Sol-Kor, take them out and hide the bodies. I figure we have about a five mile jog ahead of us. In this light gravity, we should be able to make good time. Bring the carts. They should be able to keep up. All right, let’s move out.”

The adrenalin coursing through his body as a result of the light jog made Adam feel much better. The repetitiveness of his strides was slightly hypnotic—a runner’s high—and he felt a renewed confidence come to him. The episode in the truck had made him nervous, and feel trapped. Now he felt more in his element, with the M-91 assault rifle cradled in his hands and a team of highly-training special ops warriors around him.

Occasionally, the team did encounter Sol-Kor service personnel. They would appear out of recesses in the corridor, or would already be working there, and stop to gawk at the strange cluster of creatures coming toward them at what appeared to be an unbelievable speed. In the lead, Connors and Harbison cut them down with pinpoint bursts from their rifles, long before the aliens could grasp what was happening. The men in the back of the squad would hustle the fallen bodies back among the many pipes and equipment blinds along the way, before rushing to rejoin the formation.

All told, the team dispatched sixteen Sol-Kor during the half-an-hour jog. They made good time, aided by the light gravity of Kor.

Then up ahead the corridor spread out into a vast cavern, and the wall to the right gave way to show the long line of trucks coming and going along the roadway. The two traffic directions separated. The line Adam had been in entered another tunnel, and he could see it began a slow climb along a huge circular path.

The team fell back into the maze of air ducts and other assorted pipes and tubes.

“So no elevator,” Adam said to Riyad, who in spite of the light gravity was still panting heavily.

“Vosmin may have used a priority access. That’s all I can think of.”

“Makes sense. It also probably took you directly into the Queen’s section of the pyramid. Do any of you see anything that looks like an elevator large enough to hold a truck?”

Several negatives were heard through his visor, although the men pointed out the large bank of pedestrian elevators directly in front of them. Besides seeing where the line of traffic fed into the spiraling tunnels leading up and down the mountain, they also found where the passenger pod station was located. Dozens of the pods were being loaded and unloaded by what appeared to be thousands of Sol-Kor, along with quite a few of the Salifen slaves.

The twelve Humans each now sported their rubber Sol-Kor masks—including big-head Mac MacTavish. The place was swarming with Sol-Kor, and with the flaw in the mask’s design having been revealed, it wouldn’t be possible for them to move from their hiding places without raising the alarm.

“The service corridor must move up as well as along the traffic tunnel,” Adam noted. He looked up and saw the huge maze of electrical and environmental equipment disappear into the blackness above him. He’d noticed a slight incline during the drive into the mountain, so even though the ridgetop was estimated to be a thousand meters above the portal building, it couldn’t be more than three or four hundred from here.

He looked around at the absurd sea of identical and expressionless Sol-Kor faces looking at him. “We’re climbing,” he said. “Each of you take what you can carry from the supply carts—they stay here. And hurry, the trail of bodies we’ve left behind won’t stay hidden forever.”

With military efficiency, the team divided the contents of the two equipment carts among themselves. In the light gravity, the men were able to carry more than they could on Earth. But now they had a two thousand foot climb to navigate, up pipes, tubes, and conduits, all with extra weapons, rations, and ammo sacks dangling from every strap on their integrated black Sol-Kor armor MOLLE packs.

As the men began to climb, already with their metal weapons clanging against metal tubes, Adam thought it would be a miracle if they reached the top undetected. Fortunately, the maze of equipment was far enough away from the activity of the service level that coupled with the sound of thousands of creatures and the echoing hum of the electric trucks, the noise was pretty well masked.

About thirty meters up, they entered a separate, dedicated shaft for the equipment. There was very little light here, but the night vision feature in the visors took care of that. Adam had also allowed the men to remove their Sol-Kor masks. Without them they could see better, and it would reduce the prodigious quantities of sweat the men were dealing with in the confined space. The shaft was hot and humid, making handholds slippery and treacherous. It wouldn’t pay to have one of the men lose his grip and fall to the bottom. With Adam in the lead, they took a very slow and cautious route up, taking nearly an hour to make it to the top.

The shaft ended at a massive equipment room, with a dozen twenty-foot-diameter fans whirling above them, feeding the air ducts. The electrical lines converged and joined at huge, gray metal boxes that stood twenty meters high by ten wide, humming with a steady cycle, a relatively few dials and gauges spinning on their faces.

The team spread out, covering the wide area, relieved to have their extra loads now supported by the hard metal deck.

Riyad’s dark skin was glowing red, sweat pouring from where his tight crop of jet black hair met his furrowed forehead. “Damn, I’m showing my age,” he panted from next to Adam.

Adam was also red-faced and sweating. “Aren’t we all, buddy.” He looked around the room. “I wonder where the hell we are.”

“That’s easy,” Riyad replied, attempting a feeble smile. “We’re at the base of a gigantic alien pyramid that looks like it could house twenty million of the buggers, and somewhere within it is one extremely well-guarded individual we’ve come to kill.”

Adam nodded. “That pretty much sums it up.” Then to the team: “Listen up, we’ll set up a temporary base here. Have some rations and rehydrate. Riyad and I will scout beyond here and find a way into the pyramid. Lieutenant Johnson, you’re in charge until we get back.”

“Don’t I get to rest, too?” Riyad asked.

“No rest for the wicked, dude. Besides, at our age, all a rest would do is cause our muscles to tighten up and make us want to take a nap.”

“A nap? Now that does sound appealing.”

“Don’t give me any ideas. Let’s go.”

Chapter 7

Moving along the long row of electrical transformers, Adam and Riyad came upon a wall that defined the limits of the large equipment room. A double doorway—unlocked, of course—led to a wide corridor with a glassed-in control room about ten meters down from the door.

The two men glanced around the huge window and saw a half dozen creatures inside. To their surprise, they were all Salifens. Adam was confused, thinking that with a trillion Sol-Kor, wouldn’t there be enough of them to cover all the jobs within the Colony? Obviously not. Perhaps the task of conquering galaxies took more alien-power than even the Sol-Kor could provide, leaving the more mundane jobs to be covered by their slave race.

It would be impossible to pass the control room without being seen; many of the Salifens sat facing the window. Yet having experienced the simple-minded creatures before, Adam wasn’t too worried. The Sol-Kor masks over their heads, Adam and Riyad strode confidently in the room and up to the nearest alien.

All the Salifens stopped and turned in their direction.

“I am Milok Dosnin,” Adam announced, using the name of the drugged-out Sol-Kor who had died from an overdose of Human painkillers earlier in the day. “I and my associate are wearing these masks to hide our identity since we are on a very secret mission. Do you understand?”

As was the habit of the Salifen, they all answered at once. “Yes.”

“Who is your leader?”

The aliens looked at each other, confused. Then the one closest to the Humans said, “You are.”

Taking the lead, Adam nodded. “That is correct, and I now appoint you as the voice of the Salifen in the room. No one else speak. Is that understood?”

No one spoke.

“No one speaks, except you,” Adam clarified, pointing at the standing alien.

“Yes, I understand.”

“That’s better. Now, I will be testing your knowledge of your surroundings. It is important that you answer honestly and in detail.”

“Honestly…I do not understand the word.”

“Just answer me in detail.”

“That I understand.”

“Is this room located at the base of the largest pyramid on the mountain?”

“Yes.” The alien hesitated before realizing he was to provide more detail if he knew it. “M-1, it is referred to.”

Adam nodded. “Very good. Are you familiar with the Sol-Kor known as the Queen?”

“I have heard the term before…I have not seen such a master.”

“Do you know where the Queen is located within the pyramid?”

“I do not know.”

“Is there an area of the pyramid that is restricted to only certain of the Sol-Kor?”

“There are several.”

“Where are they?”

“There is one two levels above, and then more at the top.”

“How would I reach the top?” And then he added, “Without being seen by other Sol-Kor?”

The mouth of the Salifen fell open. “I…I do not understand. If you wish to reach the top, there are transports that will take you to the restricted areas. I do not know how you could do so without being seen by other masters.”

“I understand,” Adam said. “Where is the nearest transport located that will take me to the top of the pyramid?”

“L-191.”

“Where is L-191?”

The alien blinked several times.

“Can you show me on a map?”

“Yes.”

The alien turned and approached one of the display screens in the control room. He tapped a key and a diagram appeared. Adam and Riyad leaned in close. Acquiring a map to the entire pyramid would be a godsend.

The Salifen pointed to a block of rooms at the bottom of the screen, then traced his finger along until stopping at a solid black block. “This is L-191.”

The elevator—if that’s what it was—was located down the corridor on the same level, past another twenty or so rooms of comparable size to the control room.

“Can you zoom out—show more of the pyramid?”

“Of M-1, yes?” A few taps and the entire shape of the structure was now displayed, although it didn’t do the Humans any good because now interior detail was lost.

Adam pointed to the pinnacle of the shape. “This is restricted area, even for the Sol-Kor?”

“Not all Sol-Kor. You asked about most Sol-Kor.”

“And we can reach it by entering here, at L-191?”

“That is the closest access point. There are others.”

“You have been very helpful…and you have passed the test,” Adam said. The creature displayed no emotion at the announcement. “Now I will order you—all of you—not to mention our presence here or the questions that were asked. It is part of our secret mission and you are forbidden to speak of it. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” said the alien. Adam looked at the others in the room. They all stared back at him with blank expressions.

Adam shrugged and then nodded for Riyad to follow, and then they left the room.

“Let’s see what this L-191 is all about,” he said.

“I can’t get over how gullible the Salifens are,” Riyad commented.

“Just be thankful they are.”

The rooms they had to pass were marked by closed doors, with no other glassed-in control rooms along the way.

But halfway down the corridor, a Sol-Kor appeared from one of the doorways, and after just a casual glance in their direction, turned away from the two Humans. But then as he continued down the hallway, his pace began to slow, until he eventually stopped and turned to face them.

Adam and Riyad continued to approach the alien.

“You…you are not of the Colony,” the native managed to say, then Adam placed a lightning-quick right jab into the center of his ribcage. The creature exhaled sharply, his eyes wide. He staggered backwards, while Riyad raced around behind and caught him before he fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

The native was too concerned with breathing to protest when Adam scooped up his legs and he and Riyad hustled him through the next doorway down the corridor. As was expected, there were other Sol-Kor in the room, and they stopped what they were doing when the trio entered.

It was an office of some kind, and all the aliens in the room—five of them—were seated at four-legged tables with monitors atop them. Three of them stood.

Adam and Riyad lowered the alien they were carrying to the floor and turned to the room, swinging their M-91 assault rifles from behind their backs. They fired from the hip, spraying the room with deadly lead projectiles. The muzzled short-barrels were greatly muted, but still it was heard in other parts of the room. Two more aliens appeared from a side room and quickly met the fate of their brothers.

Adam and Riyad split up, moving to each side of the room, clearing adjoining rooms of hostiles before meeting back up in the main room.

Adam flipped one of the desks on its face and pulled it towards the door. He ordered Riyad to stack several of the dead on the underside of the table, held in place by the two legs at one end. Then he opened the door and looked out into the corridor.

“Lean the table against the door.”

Riyad obliged, seeing what Adam was attempting to do.

With the table propped against the open door at a forty-five degree angle, the two Humans moved back into the corridor before Adam closed the door behind him. An accompanying thud was heard as the heavy table slammed to the floor on the other side.

“That should keep anyone from getting inside, unless they’re really determined.”

“You do know we’re leaving quite a trail behind us. Once the bodies start being discovered, the Sol-Kor will put two and two together and beef up security around the Queen.”

“That’s why we have to act fast. Get back to the others. I’ll continue to the elevator and secure it. Get the men here as fast as you can. So far I haven’t seen any Sol-Kor with weapons. We may have to fight the rest of the way, but this tip-toeing around is pissing me off.”

“Now that’s the Adam Cain we all know and love.”

“We’ll see how all this turns out. Now move!”

********

Adam was alone in the hallway, M-91 assault rifle in his hands. He hugged the right wall until he came to a wide opening with a bank of elevators. Two Sol-Kor were waiting at the doors, and they turned when they sensed his presence.

“Fuck it,” Adam said under his breath, and opened up with the rifle, placing two quick shots center mass into each alien. The door to the elevator then opened; inside were four more Sol-Kor.

Without hesitation, Adam rushed forward, bathing the inside of the elevator with gunfire. The elevator car was huge, capable of holding a dozen or more of the tall aliens. Adam grabbed one of the dead by the collar and threw the body across the entrance, keeping the door from closing. He pulled the other two dead aliens into the car, after which he ducked inside and assumed a lookout posture to the right of the doorway.

From here, since the elevator was set slight off to one side of the large room, he could only see about ten meters down the corridor he’d just traversed. He dropped to one knee and brought the stock of his rifle up to his cheek as he heard movement coming from that direction.

Lieutenant Rock Johnson came briefly into view, before quickly ducking back for cover.

“Clear!” Adam called out. Then the entire team raced from the corridor towards the elevator.

Adam moved aside, and within three seconds the elevator was full of sweaty, foul-smelling Humans. Adam grimaced. If the trail of dead Sol-Kor didn’t give them away, the smell surely would. He pulled the dead alien away from the doorway.

“Where to, Captain?” Johnson called out.

“The top.”

There were three rows of white push panels, each with strange symbols on them. Johnson lifted a small table computer to the array and pressed a button. The image was absorbed by the device and the translation program quickly deciphered the symbols. Even then, it didn’t help much. They were names, along with other labels, but no numbers. Taking a guess, the officer pressed the first panel on the first row.

The door slid shut…and then promptly reopened.

Johnson shrugged, and then pressed the bottom-most button in the third row.

This time when the door closed it remained so, and the car began to move upward.

“What’s the plan, Captain?” Johnson asked.

“Taking a wild guess here, but I’m assuming the Queen will be at the top of the pyramid. This ride should end at a restricted area, so the aliens we find there should be armed. When the doors open, we go in blasting. Riyad and I have been here before, so we’ll be on the lookout for anything familiar. They won’t be expecting us, so that’s our only ace in the hole.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said,” commented Sergeant Alex “Ace” Harbison from back in the crowd of commandos.

 “How do you know it was a she who said it, Sarge? We know how confused you can get at times.”

“There are some things that are hard to mistake—”

“Knock it off,” Adam commanded. He glanced at the panels on the wall of the elevator car and noticed them lighting up at each floor they passed. They were quickly approaching the last one. “Get ready. We’re almost there.”

The team separated to each side of the door, pressing against each other so as to give anyone outside the elevator a clear shot. When the car bumped to a stop, the door slid open smoothly.

From his vantage point crouched down to the right of the door, Adam immediately spotted four Sol-Kor, two seated at utilitarian tables and two others standing nearby. The two standing had holstered flash weapons on their hips.

The Human rushed the room, making short work of the four guards. To the left was another cluster of desks with about a dozen Sol-Kor spread between them. The bulk of the team split off and rushed this part of the room. Two of the aliens managed to get off two flash bolts—neither impacted the commandos—and within five seconds of the elevator doors opening all the hostiles were down.

Adam glanced up and noticed what looked to be security cameras at each corner of the ceiling. He took them out with bursts from his weapon.

“Someone’s monitoring those cameras. Time to move.”

Fortunately, there was only one main exit from this room, and it was through a pair of tall glass doors with an extremely wide corridor beyond. When they tried the glass doors, they were locked—a rarity among the Sol-Kor, but what one would expect within the chambers of the Queen. The men stepped back and took aim.

From the results of the initial barrage, it was evident the glass was intended to be shatter-proof—for the first burst. The cracked and splintered material gave way to a second round of hard lead slugs.

The team rushed through just as two squads of aliens rushed from side rooms, weapons ready. Their first flash bolts were wild, though a few struck the commandos, doing little damage to the reinforced armor they wore, which was just the opposite result their M-91 fire had on the unprotected bodies of the defenders. Even fourteen guards were no match for the charging Humans, and the team soon left the carnage behind, moving further down the passageway.

Riyad was next to Adam. “These corridors look familiar, if only because of their width. But this could be anywhere.”

“I agree. Here!” he yelled, ducking into a side room where a number of unarmed Sol-Kor were quickly cut down, all except for the one Adam shoulder-butted to the floor. Sitting down atop the alien’s chest, Adam placed the hot barrel of his weapon against the scaly skin of the creature’s face. The Sol-Kor jerked away from the hot metal.

“Where is the Queen!” Adam yelled at his captive, unambiguous as to the alternative for not answering.

The creature frowned. “The Queen…she is not here.”

The confused look and spontaneous response made Adam believe him. “Where is she?”

“In her chambers, where else?”

Adam burned the alien again with the barrel of his weapon. “Okay, smartass, where are her chambers?”

“My name is not smartass.”

“Where is she!”

“Below…as she has always been.”

“Where below?”

Sensing another touch from the hot barrel if he responded with the obvious, the alien provided more detail: “She is at ground level—but you will never penetrate.”

“Why are her chambers at ground level?” Adam asked, confused and not the least bit upset with himself for assuming the Queen would be at the top of the pyramid.”

“The chambers are what all other parts of the M-1 is built around. Without my Queen, there would be no M-1.”

Adam felt a sour taste in his mouth. “That makes too much sense,” he said to the alien. ”I should have thought of that. Is there an express elevator to her chambers from here?”

“Express…I do not understand.”

“Is there a quick way to get from here to there?”

A defiant look now came to the face of the alien. “I believe you wish her harm, so I will say no more. You can kill me, but I will n—”

At such close range, Adam was bathed in the alien’s blood, something that had become common in the life and times of Adam Cain.

He stood up. “Sorry, guys, but we have to go back down.”

All of the men had heard the brief interrogation within their visors, and as Adam removed his visor to wipe away the alien blood, they exited the office and began moving back to the elevator.

A soft alarm could be heard now, a slow, cyclical wailing that was so soft as to be almost silent. It seemed to be coming from very far away.

“Maybe the alarm is sounding in the Queen’s Chambers and not all the way up here?” Riyad offered. He notice the sudden grimace on Adam’s face. “Don’t blame yourself, my friend. I would have made the same guess. For Humans, we always prefer the top of anything.”

“But we have to look at this place as a hive. The Queen will be at the very center, or if not, then the most-protected part. She’ll be at the very center of the pyramid, and—as I just learned—on the first floor.”

“So much for the element of surprise,” Birdman Drake said over the comm.

“Drake’s right,” Adam said. “But we still have superior weapons and fighting skills. Just be judicous with your ammo. There’s a lot more targets here than we have bullets.”

They were back in the elevator lobby and no other Sol-Kor had come in. “There are four elevators. Let’s split up and take two of them, stagger our arrival at the bottom. If the first squad runs into trouble, the second should be able to help. Load up.”

Adam was surprised the elevators hadn’t been locked down, until he realized that the Sol-Kor, especially within their main hive and on Kor, had very few security concerns. There was no crime within the species, and any other aliens on the planet were mindless slaves, hardly a threat. The Sol-Kor simply didn’t have to make security arrangements, at least not throughout the bulk of the structure.

But they did when it came to their queen.

As Adam had guessed, when the elevator car reached the ground floor and the doors slid open, fifty flash bolts splashed off the back wall. It was here that the first men fell, as Specialist Juan Garcia and Master Sergeant Javier Hernandez bought the farm. Even with their enhanced armor, bolts to the head were very hard to overcome.

Adam was in the first car and did his best to spray the corridor with gunfire. The makeshift shelters behind the Sol-Kor’s ubiquitous table-desks proved to be very little defense against the M-91’s heavy 7.62mm slugs.

Then Adam heard the plop of a canister grenade launched from the underbarrel attachment of an M-91. The resulting explosion slowed the incoming fire to a trickle, and when the second elevator car arrived with Riyad and the other half of the team, they met little resistance before moving quickly into the room to silence the last of the defenders.

They were once again in a large security room, from which two solid doors led to places unknown. Fifty dead Sol-Kor littered the floor, thick smoke hanging near the high ceiling as a result of the grenade explosion.

Adam turned toward the tall and wide double metal doors set in the right wall. There were no other doors like these along the hallway, so Adam assumed these had to lead to someplace important. He cocked the grenade launcher on his weapon.

“Fire in the hole!” he yelled. The resulting explosion and concussion knocked several of the Humans to the floor, but they managed to crawl away before a second grenade struck the thick metal barrier. It took four more hits from other members of the team before the doors became a mangled mess.

Flash bolts burst through the thick smoke surrounding the doorway immediately. The team returned fire, six more grenades, and the bolts through the jagged opening ceased.

Neo Anderson and Wizard Kaczynski were the closest, making them the first through. Gunfire erupted on the other side; a grenade exploded, and thirty seconds later all the commandos were on the other side of the breach. The smoke wasn’t as thick here, even as the floor was littered with the bodies of over a hundred dead Sol-Kor.

The team moved down the hallway.

Adam and Riyad turned to each other. They had both noticed the ornate sconces on the walls, and the presence of padded benches along the way. They’d seen this before—in the corridors of the Queen’s Chambers.

At a wide intersection, Adam looked to the left as Riyad looked to the right. “I don’t believe it,” said Adam. “Look!”

Riyad rushed to his side and slid down until he too was seated on the tiled floor. Then he glanced around the corner.

“You would think they would have repaired the damage by now, the lazy bastards.”

“Looks like they did some, but not all. At least now we have a trail to follow.”

At the far end of the left branch of the corridor, where it met a crossing hallway, the wall was littered with black dots, bullet holes from their last battle here, when Adam and a team of brutish Q’uel warriors had come to Riyad’s rescue. Defenders had placed a barricade at the end of the corridor, and Adam vividly remembered as Dravis, the captain the Q’uel’s championship Drunage team, had charged headlong into a Sol-Kor defender, smashing him against that very wall—literally popping the SK’s head off his neck.

Down this corridor and to the left was the Queen’s private quarters—her birthing station—from where the entire Sol-Kor race spewed forth.

Adam stood and jumped into the connecting hallway—and then immediately dove back into Riyad’s lap. A barrage of a dozen brilliant flash bolts whizzed by a breath later.

“Looks like déjà vu all over again,” he said to Riyad as they untangled. “They’ve set up a defense in the same place.”

“But this time you don’t have the hard-headed Q’uel to run cover for you.”

“That may be so, but we have the next best thing.” He lifted his M-91 and patted the underbarrel grenade launcher. “Say hello to my little friend,” he said in his best Scarface imitation. “Mac, Anderson, how many canisters do you have left?”

“Plenty, Captain. We got more than our fair share of the extras from the carts.”

“Good. That’s what I thought. Light up the end of this passageway. Blow the shit out them.”

“Yes, sir!”

The two men made it to the other side of the intersection before the defensive line was set up. They took turns popping around the corner and firing grenade after grenade down the hundred-foot-long corridor. They’d sent three each when Adam ordered them to stop.

Other than the popping of metal walls and the crackling of small fires, there was silence.

Adam looked around the corner. Through the thick smoke he could see bulging metal walls scorched with black streaks, a smoldering pile of what had once been furniture from the makeshift barricade, and the shattered remains of several Sol-Kor, the number impossible to determine from the multiple body parts covering the floor.

“Move!” Adam ordered, and the team raced down the corridor, sliding on the smooth metal floor into defensive positions at the next intersection. No return fire came from either direction.

Chapter 8

Admiral Andy Tobias was ready to go. He’d been planning this since before his two favorite sidekicks had been whisked away to pursue some harebrained operation in a faraway universe.

Now it was Andy’s turn to join the party.

After screening captains and crews for loyalty and dedication to the cause, he’d only asked for five ships to be assigned from each of the allied fleets. He now had a total of one hundred twenty-five attack ships ready to go, crewed by skilled warriors from eighteen distinct races, all committed to the plan and raring to go.

Tobias had always planned on attacking the Sol-Kor home galaxy. As a student of military history, he was quite familiar with the Second Punic War and the story of Publius Cornelius Scipio. Between 218 and 201 B.C., the Romans were getting their asses kicked up and down the Italian peninsula by an upstart Carthaginian general named Hannibal, and it was only a matter of time before Rome herself would fall.

The Roman general Scipio devised a plan to relieve the pressure on Rome. He would attack Carthage directly. The strategy worked. The panicked leaders in the North African city recalled Hannibal back from Roman territory, thereby saving Rome from certain defeat.

Hannibal’s army was eventually defeated on the sand-swept plains outside Carthage, cementing both his and Scipio’s names into the annals of military history.

Tobias had no illusions of following in Scipio’s footsteps, but he did intend to shake things up a little. With control of a trans-dimensional transit portal, he would place a fleet of warships within Sol-Kor territory, showing the Queen that his galaxy wasn’t just going to sit back and let the scalies call all the shots.

However, his true objective was to do all he could to save his friends by giving them an escape route from the SK universe.

Both sides had been passing unmanned reconnaissance drones through the portal, seeking information on the other’s strength and intentions, so Tobias knew the SK were building up their forces on the other side. He also had a pretty good idea that the buildup was not to provide a defense of their universe, but to launch an attack to regain control of the Human-side portal. After all, who would imagine that the upstart aliens on the other side would even contemplate an invasion of Sol-Kor space?

That would be crazy.

So Andy Tobias would follow in the immortal words of the famous Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu: “Attack your enemy when he is unprepared, and appear where you are not expected.”

If Adam’s strike team was able to assassinate the Queen, Andy’s invasion might cause even more alarm within a society already in disarray. Would that prompt an immediate recall of units, at least until the situation could be assessed and stability returned?

That would be more than he could hope for. Yet there was still only a slim chance his friends could actually accomplish their mission—at least its primary objective. Whether they could make it back safely to friendly territory had always been the operation’s biggest question mark.

The admiral’s own operation had been kept under wraps. Fleet Command would never have authorized such a mission. The ships of his tiny invasion fleet were needed elsewhere. His stripping of units vital to the defense of both Union and Expansion worlds would be seen as a very serious dereliction of duty. The politicians, who were facing mounting pressure to provide even more defense of their member worlds, would not see the logic in the plan. They’d find a ready scapegoat for their own failed policies by claiming the lack of resources was a result of rogue officers like him.

Of course, keeping a fleet of one hundred twenty ships off the books wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Essential supplies, munitions, even correspondence back home were hard to keep secret. Fortunately, Tobias had another fleet nearby comprised of over five hundred ships, made up mainly of Union forces tasked with guarding the portal against the impending Sol-Kor attack. He also had ships serving sentry duty around some of the nearby Union worlds in order to keep the SK harvesters as bay. Most of the needs of his new fleet were seamlessly siphoned off from his main force.

On the day of his personal invasion, Tobias had ninety percent of his main fleet away from the portal on other assignments, and issued orders to the various unit commanders individually, so no one of them would notice the drawdown of defenders. Meanwhile, he began to move his clandestine invasion fleet into position.

He knew the launch date of Adam’s operation, so he set his for the same time. If everything went smoothly for Adam, his team could—theoretically—find the Queen’s Chambers in a matter of minutes, do the deed, and then get out the way they came in. But if their exit was blocked, Tobias wanted to be in position to send a message to Adam, giving him an alternative escape route.

Andy had no illusions he could hold the ground they would gain from the invasion, yet he might be able to hold it long enough for Adam to make his way home.

A few days earlier, Tobias had turned over command of his flagship to Admiral Akira when he sent the Mount Rushmore off on another assignment. Now he stood on the bridge of the fast-attack battleship, the Winston Churchill, preparing to open the portal and move his forces through.

Tobias was counting on the element of surprise to give his fleet the upper hand. However, he also had another surprise up his sleeve for the scalies. Union and Expansion scientists had learned the secrets of Panur’s passive suppressor beam defense, and all of the invading ships were equipped with the system. The Sol-Kor relied on the beam almost exclusively as both a defensive and offensive weapon. As a result, their ships were traditionally lightly-armed and shielded. This limitation was overcome by the sheer numbers they could deploy. It was estimated that over a thousand ships were stationed on the other side of the portal.

A part of him wished he could be on his Sol-Kor counterpart’s command deck when his ships began flooding into SK space. Seeing the expression on his face would be…priceless.

********

Even though his attack fleet was readying for a journey through a TD portal, the bulk of the admiral’s units were still two light-years from the doorway. He ordered all the ships to be brought to full power, with the deepest wells they could generate, aligned as close to one another as possible without causing well-overlap.

Through an expansive, three-sided viewport aboard the Churchill, Andy watched as the steady points of light from distance stars changed to red, white, and blue streaks along the starships’ path, while battery crews sat ready to engage an enemy who was still a universe away.

They would activate the portal at the last second and have his deadly fleet bolt into SK space already deep in gravity wells and at maximum speed. For a fleet on station and not expecting such an attack, Andy’s gunners should have a field day—at least initially.

The bridge crew was silent, watching their screens as the target point on the nav screen drew closer, fingers hovering above execute buttons in nervous anticipation.

The portal popped into existence.

The white, glowing rectangle in space measured six thousand by four thousand miles, which was a very small target to hit when traveling at several times the speed of light, and especially when the opening was subject to an establishing variable of a hundred thousand miles. The nav computers adjusted the fleet’s flight path by a fraction, and a moment later the Churchill was rushing through the darkness of another universe, and right in the middle of a huge mass of enemy starships.

Before Tobias could truly take in the scope of the battlefield, his crew was unleashing powerful plasma bolts at the Sol-Kor ships along their path. In the rearview mirror—the aft-mounted camera and monitor located on the bridge—Sol-Kor beamships were exploding, their shields failing to activate in time to buffer any of the initial bolts.

Then more of his invaders entered the fray.

The enemy vessels were now alerted; shields were raising and suppressor beams activating. To Andy’s amusement, most of the Sol-Kor ships began to maneuver within the battlefield at an almost lackadaisical pace, trusting their blue pulse beams to neutralize the invading starships.

When all of Andy’s attack force was through the portal and continuing to split off to follow assigned flight paths through the bulk of the enemy fleet, it didn’t take the SK’s long to realize their beams were having no affect whatsoever. Rudimentary defenses were hastily assembled, and limited-range plasma bolts began to flare out. The shields on Andy’s units could withstand several direct hits from these low-energy weapons. What they couldn’t overcome was a hundred ships concentrating fire on just one set of shields.

He began to take casualties, losing a dozen ships before the SK numbers could be pared down to a reasonable level. Andy’s units continued whipping in and out of the mass of SK vessels in a series of two large loops, angled at forty-five degrees from each other. At the center of the battlefield, his units would be within three hundred thousand miles of each loop, bolts firing in all directions from his ships. The Sol-Kor units caught between the two loops lasted the shortest time; those outside were kept at bay by the continual use of covering fire.

Then the loops would shift slightly, placing another group of SK ships within the primary kill zone.

The battle lasted nearly two hours before the last remaining SK units fled the scene. Andy lost thirty-eight ships, but by computer estimates the enemy had lost nine hundred eighty-two. Not a bad kill ratio.

He deployed his remaining units to form a huge bubble around the portal array. Ground units swept down to the base planet and an hour later had secured the array. He had feared the SK would destroy the portal once the battle was lost, but it seemed destroying portals was not in the Sol-Kor lexicon, figuring it was only a matter of time before they could retake the facility.

Andy left the bridge and moved to the CIC, where he joined a tech crew at a CW comm station.

“We know the SK’s use CW communications, but of an advanced nature,” said Master Chief Rachel Potter. “I’m hoping our systems can link so a message can be sent to Captain Cain.”

“Any luck so far?”

“The sync waves appear to be close, but I can’t guarantee they’re close enough. We’ve been sending the alert code for the past fifteen minutes, but unless he responds there’s no telling if we’re just broadcasting into open air or not.”

“Send a test link.”

“Sir?”

“I’ll have one of our ships head out about a hundred light-years. Try to link with it using the Sol-Kor relay stations.”

“That might give an indication as to whether or not our signal is linking with the relays, but it still won’t tell us if the filters are working.”

“I understand that, but first things first.”

“Yes, sir. Sounds like a plan.”

Tobias nodded to a hovering Navy commander, who rushed off to a nearby station to dispatch the test starship. It would take approximately four hours for them to get on station. It would also place the ship well outside the protective sphere of allied warships.

Tobias left the CIC and went to his away cabin. He sat at his desk, knowing that within minutes—once relays were laid between the Milky Way universe and the Sol-Kor universe—a flood of angry calls would be coming through. Most would be demanding his head on a platter.

That would be fine…as soon as Adam, Riyad and the rest of the strike team were safely back in their home universe.

Until then, Andy Tobias wasn’t going anywhere.

Chapter 9

Riyad motioned to the right down the connecting hallway, then clenched his teeth and shook his head. “I believe they put me in a room down this way until it was time to meet the Queen. I hope I’m remembering this correctly. I wasn’t paying too much attention, since I figured I was dead meat at that time.”

“You’re doing fine,” Adam said from his side. “And if I remember, the door to the Queen’s Chambers is to the left. It was a large, double-panel affair made of wood.”

“The Q’uel sorta turned that into kindling, if I recall.”

“They’ve had time to replace it. We’re going to the left,” Adam announced. “The door to the Queen’s Chambers is about fifty meters down on the right. Anderson, MacTavish, take point. Hug the walls. Now move out!”

The team had only moved ten meters or so along the hallway when they came under fire again. The defenders were far down the corridor and with no cover, but still they came rushing forward anyway, intent on sacrificing their lives if it meant saving their queen. Adam’s lead men dropped to the floor, and using their superior range, sniped the advancing defenders with little effort. Soon, the rearmost defenders were having trouble making it past the fallen bodies. They dropped behind them and began firing level-one bolts at the Humans.

“Screw this!” MacTavish yelled out. He cocked the M-4 grenade launcher on his M-91 and sent a canister into the barricade of alien defenders. Then he sent another, followed by a third.

The hallway erupted in a torrent of fire, smoke, and ear-shattering noise, unrecognizable pieces of alien bodies flying toward the Humans. The men were up and running forward even before the last of the blasts echoed away. The walls had been blown open at one place, revealing burning and smoke-filled rooms beyond, many with panicked natives coughing and choking as they sought to find a safe exit. But the only way out was the very hallway where the explosions had originated. The natives in these side rooms became easy targets for the advancing Humans.

“This should be it!” Adam yelled out to Riyad as they came to a tall, arching set of double doors in the wall to the right. No other doors were along this side of the wall, and none this large. But they weren’t made of wood any longer.

Within seconds, nine Human commandos were stationed to each side of the doorway. Adam frowned when he took the count.

“Who are we missing?”

“Drake, sir,” Chief Foster answered. “Caught one a couple of corridors back.”

“Damn,” Adam said. Then he steeled his effort. “Okay, this is it. The Queen’s Chambers are on the other side of this door. It’s a huge room with columns. She should be near the center, behind a partition possibly. No mercy. We go in blasting and take her out.”

Adam reached out and tried the door handle. It wouldn’t move.

“Good,” he said. “Just means we’re going to have to blow it rather than waltz right into whatever’s waiting on the other side.” He smiled. “A powerful explosion is always a pretty good distraction.” He turned to Kaczynski and Anderson. “Set two charges, one on the door and one down the corridor a ways. We’ve seen how these walls can be breached. Let’s give ourselves an alternative entrance and a crossfire position.”

A minute later, everything was in place. The men moved back down the hallway and took shelter inside one of the rooms they’d cleared earlier with a grenade explosion.

Adam nodded.

Even with several baffles between them and the explosion, the concussion was incredible. Two of his men were knocked off their feet. Then, their visors over their eyes to shield against the acrid smoke filling the hallway, the men rushed down the corridor, Adam in the lead.

Light streamed into the hallway from where the main door had once stood, as well as a second location a little further down. Adam took aim at the first shaft of light, and dove headfirst into the Queen’s Chambers. Through a cloud of billowing smoke, Adam spied at least fifty armed Sol-Kor soldiers forming a line three aliens deep facing the main doorway. They were still recovering from the effects of the blast when, in a panic, Adam began spraying the line with automatic weapons fire. He was soon joined by others, and as had happened in the hallway outside, piles of dead defenders began to form.

The Sol-Kor first concentrated their defensive fire at the main entrance. But soon confusion spread through their ranks, as more within their ranks were being cut down along the line than should be. The room was still clouded with smoke, and the aliens struggled to see where the extra incoming fire was coming from. By the time they realized, they were down to only a dozen or so.

“Grenade!” MacTavish cried out. Adam ducked, covering his head with his arms, just as a powerful wave of heat and pressure rushed over him. When he looked up, only a few defenders remained, and these all had wounds of some kind.

‘Dammit, Mac! Not every situation calls for a grenade.”

“If God didn’t intend us to use grenades, he wouldn’t have provided me with a  shitload of the little bastards…sir!”

Adam shook his head before jumping to his feet. “Secure the openings. Keep anyone from entering.”

He scanned the room. The Queen had been in here before, behind a series of thick columns and a thin, fabric barrier. Riyad and Adam rushed further into the vast chamber while the other seven men took up sentry posts.

Twenty meters further into the smoke, they spotted the barrier. Adam motioned for the two of them to separate and come at the location from opposite sides. Riyad fell to his belly and slid around the partition, weapon cradled in his hands and pressed against his cheek. Adam came in on one knee, also with his weapon glued to his cheek, ready to fire.

But there was no one behind the partition.

The two men exchanged looks. It had been their understanding that the Queen seldom left her chambers, and from the look of things the last time they were here, she hadn’t in quite some time. Now the area behind the partition was empty; however, there was evidence that she had been there recently. A soiled hammock-shaped canvas hung between the arms of a rusting metal support apparatus, and two metal basins on the floor were filled with a thick yellow liquid with a crust forming over the top.

Adam winced. This device had to be some sort of support cradle for the ugly, smelly body of the Queen of the Sol-Kor, and from the look of it, once she was it, she had remained there for what could amount to centuries—or until the time the building was attacked and her life threatened…

“She can’t be far,” Riyad said as the two men met near the twin basins. The smell rising up from the containers forced them to move away and back around the partition.

Gunfire suddenly erupted from the other side of the room. With no time to spare, Adam and Riyad ran deeper into the room, looking for any evidence as to where the Queen had been taken. It was a pretty good bet she didn’t waddle off on her own, so there had to be a way of carrying her, and that should leave tracks.

“Here…in the dust.”

Adam ran up to where Riyad was pointing. The Queen herself was a study in poor grooming, and her attendants didn’t do a very good job of keeping the floor of her chambers dirt free either. A set of wide tracks, almost impossibly wide yet running parallel to each other, ran straight and obvious towards a broad, empty wall.

“Some kind of emergency exit?” Adam said. “Now I need some of Mac’s grenades.”

The two men ran up to the wall before setting off in opposite directions to see if they could locate a control mechanism for the hidden panel. The tracks ran right up to barrier, so there was no question whether or not this was the right place.

Out of frustration, Adam rapped on the wall with his knuckles. It sounded hollow and soft, like drywall.

Adam lifted his weapon, switched it to auto, stepped back, and fired. Even with the suppressor, the sound was deafening this close to the target. The wall was perforated along a line, one cut diagonally from top to bottom, another cut in the opposite direction, both lines forming an “X.” Light from the other side could be seen through the perforations.

Adam lowered his shoulder and charged for the center point of the “X,” crashing through in a shower of white, powdery dust, tumbling forward on the shattered debris. In the brief moment before he fell, he noticed several figures in the room…and then a fiery hot ball of light hit his right side. His armor was designed to ward off level-one flash bolts, but this one came at such close range that the armor melted, allowing the plasma to reach his inner clothing and then his skin.

He rolled, and when he attempted to lift his weapon he discovered his entire right side was searing with pain and virtually useless. A shadow formed over him, and through watery eyes Adam looked up to see a tall Sol-Kor standing over him. The creature wasn’t wearing the traditional black armor of a soldier. He was dressed in what amounted to a loose-fitting, dark brown dress. The alien stood over him, gripping an oversized flash weapon aimed directly at Adam’s head. The beast smiled.

And then his head exploded, and the roar of the gunshot echoed back out into the Queen’s Chamber.

Riyad walked up to him and offered a hand.

“Any lasting damage?”

“Nothing permanent, but I have to say…I prefer the headaches to this. Don’t get me wrong, I still have the headaches, but this is much worse.”

The two men focused their attention on the massive figure in front of them—the Queen of the Sol-Kor—all Jabba-the-Hutt thousand pounds of her—and that was measured in the three-quarters gravity of Kor, not Earth’s.

A line of Sol-Kor surrounded her, protecting her, made up mainly of attendants and government officials—yet none of them were armed.

Adam was in a rotten mood, and Riyad wasn’t feeling much better. The two Humans lifted their weapons—Adam using mainly his left arm, favoring the right—and took aim at the Queen of the Sol-Kor.

A year ago, Adam had stood in this exact same posture, cradling a weapon, ready to pull the trigger and end of the life of the five-thousand-year-old leader of the Sol-Kor Colony. But then Panur had rushed in and blocked his shot. With his weapon once again aimed directly at the mother of the flesh-eating invaders, he was sure no such interference would happen again—not this time.

The Queen was a unique creature among the Sol-Kor, easily standing twice as tall as the normal male and ten times as wide. As a result, the protective ring of government officials around her couldn’t come close to shielding her body completely. In addition, she was on a motorized cart, guided by her long hands on short arms. Now she spun the cart around to face her two assailants.

Panicked attendants crowded between the Humans and their Queen.

“Stop!” the Queen commanded. “Protection is no longer necessary. Leave us now.”

“My Queen!”

“Do as I command.”

After the briefest hesitation, the cluster of bureaucrats scampered away, but not before sending Adam and Riyad a look that was unmistakable. You may kill our Queen, but you will not live long beyond the act.

Adam stepped closer to the Queen, whose beady eyes glared at him with a universal look of hatred and contempt.

“I remember you,” she said. “You are Adam Cain. And you are Riyad Tarazi.”

Riyad looked at Adam and nodded. “She even pronounced it right. I’m impressed.”

“You will find that I am not like the rest of the Sol-Kor,” she continued. “I have been alive for a very long time, and like my very special son I have learned many things. To that matter, I believe it was the two of you who corrupted the incredible mind of Panur, causing him to abandon the Colony.” And then her hideous face attempted a smile; a stream of yellow bile drained from her mouth. She looked directly at Adam. “And as I understand it, he has also absconded with your own offspring, Adam Cain, with plans to father a master race of mutant geniuses.”

The Queen reveled in Adam’s shocked expression. “Yes, I have my information sources; however in this case it came directly from Panur. He has chosen to stay in communication with me, if for no other reason than the bond we have built over five thousand years.”

“But not strong enough to keep him here.”

“We shall see. He and his new mate have plenty of time to change their minds.”

“Will he still be interested in returning to the Colony without you around?”

Again the sickly smile. “It is obvious how little you know of Sol-Kor society.”

Adam felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. The Queen noticed his expression change.

“You do not realize what you have done, do you?” The Queen actually patted her hands together in a display of childlike giddiness. “Oh, this is even more enjoyable than I imagined it.”

“What are you rambling on about?” Riyad asked, growing impatient with the conversation, especially with at least a thousand armed Sol-Kor soldiers on their way.

“Since you will not live much beyond this moment, I will explain. You have come to kill me, believing that by destroying me you leave the Sol-Kor without a leader, even though you know eventually a new queen will rise up to assume my position. This thinking only shows how little you know of the Sol-Kor.” Her gaze shifted from Human to Human. “The last time you were before me and threatened my life, an amazing thing happened. Since this had not happened in several thousand of your years, even I was surprised.”

“When what happened?” Adam prompted.

“In my moment of anxiety—even as I was unaware—my body excreted a special enzyme that permeated among my most recent lays. Hopefully it will come as a disappointment for you to learn that there are now thirteen other female Sol-Kor, one of which shall become the next queen in the event of my death.”

Adam and Riyad looked at each other. “A new queen was expected. This isn’t news to us.”

“Perhaps not, but only because you do not realize the full impact of this news. Because of the birth of these females, I searched my memories until I could recall two other occasions that this has happened. In each of those prior cases, the females were destroyed when it became apparent that a new queen would not be required. Yet in this case, they have been allowed to mature and grow, and at an accelerated pace. You have come here believing my death will save your universe. It will not, as a new queen is nearly ready to assume control of the Sol-Kor.”

“Growth may be one thing, but experience is another. We’ll take our chances with a rookie queen.”

“I understand your statement, even as you do not realize the significance of mine. Your race obviously has no concept of a term called genetic memory. With the welfare of the Colony at a critical juncture during the succession of queens, we carry the unique ability to pass along a certain level of memories within our genetic material. This gives the new queen the natural ability to lead the race and help it survive immediately upon succession. It is nearly a certainty that you will end my life within these chambers, yet within the thirteen females who will compete for leadership of the Sol-Kor, a large portion of my memories will be retained. My body may die, yet my awareness will survive. My most-recent memories will be lost, yet those up until the birth of my replacements will survive. I have been the longest-living queen in Sol-Kor history, so my memories are expansive and will allow the new queen to assume my role seamlessly. Attendants will fill in the most recent gaps, including what has happened to my beloved offspring Panur. At that point, my campaign to sterilize your galaxy will continue, even as I have instructed my staff to do so until the time the new queen assumes her position.”

The Queen scanned the sour expressions on the faces of the Humans. “I find gratification in seeing on your faces the realization that your lives will be sacrificed for nothing. When last you were in my chambers, I was very concerned for my prospects of ever seeking revenge against the two of you. How could I have ever expected that you would return to the Sol-Kor? Yet here you are. My essence will continue, yet yours will end here, far from your universe, far from your homes. So you see now that I do not fear my death, since I know my awareness will live on in—”

Adam unleashed a torrent of automatic gunfire into the bloated mass of the Queen, sending red blood and thick yellow bile cascading to the tile floor, forming a small wave of goop that lapped at the boots of the two Humans. Riyad reacted a split second later, adding his own hot lead to the mix. Two seconds and it was over, the lifeless body of the Queen slumped over in her cart, supported by straining side panels.

“Nag,” Adam whispered.

“Bitch,” Riyad added.

Tarazi stepped a little closer to his partner. “My friend, we did it. We have killed the Queen of the Sol-Kor.”

“The current queen.”

“So…where do you suppose they keep these queens-in-waiting?”

“Up top—”

A rain of flash bolts came from behind. The other seven members of the assault team were sprinting for their position. With news of the Queen’s assassination coming instantly to the troops outside—probably monitored by security cameras—the Sol-Kor had no reason to hold back. They rushed headlong into the room, releasing a hail of bolts and sacrificing their bodies. Hundreds more were waiting in the wings.

All the commandos dove through the hole Adam had made in the wall, and soon the entire nine-man team was running toward the opposite side of the smaller chamber. A relentless pounding came from wall separating this room from the main chamber as bolt after bolt impacted the barrier. The wall gave way as the wave of Sol-Kor defenders breached it without breaking stride.

The small room ended at a huge metal doorway, large enough to allow for the passage of the Queen. The team rushed through, and then stopped to push the door shut. In a panic, they looked for a locking mechanism but failed to find one.

“Don’t the damn Sol-Kor believe in locks!” Adam yelled.

He turned quickly as gunfire erupted behind him. Some of the team had fired on a group of robed officials hiding in this new room.

“Hold up!” Adam yelled. “Grab them. We need information.”

Gunfire behind him again, this time toward the huge metal door, he turned to find Riyad and two other men firing at the supporting frame of the doorway. It was beginning to deform, dropping several thick metal bars over the edge of the door. The door banged as a weight hit the other side, and surged inward before being stopped by the metal bars.

Adam could hear groans from the other side, as dazed Sol-Kor recovered from running headlong into the door. There was only a moment’s reprieve, however, until bolts began hammering against the metal.

The team corralled three of the officials, and manhandled them down a long corridor leading to…Adam had no idea—further into the interior of the giant pyramid, not doing them any good in finding a way out. He had a pretty good idea where the trans-dimensional portal room was in relation to the Queen’s Chambers—he’d made the trip before—but the further they traveled down the maze of corridors, the harder it would be to find their way back.

And that was assuming the portal had been rebuilt.

But now he had another problem on his mind. Was it possible to locate the other thirteen Sol-Kor females, one of which was destined to become the new queen? If not, even if they managed to beat all the odds and make it back to the Milky Way, the effectiveness of the mission would be virtually nil.

“Connors, see what you can do about collapsing the corridor behind us. The rest of you help out.”

Three of the men turned and unloaded a series of grenade canisters into the ceiling and walls of the corridor behind them, aiming a safe distance away. Wallboard and metal caved inward, and within seconds the way behind them was blocked, at least enough to require an alternative route to follow. Of course, as far as Adam knew, there could be a corridor running parallel to this one, causing no delay at all for their pursuers. They were operating blind.

They continued running, turning corners and firing at several shocked Sol-Kor when they happened upon them. When the sound of pursuit began to fade away, Adam lowered a shoulder at a side door and smashed it open. “Post sentries. I’m going to have a conversation with the prisoners.”

He was in a large room filled with rows of desks. Several Sol-Kor ran for a distant exit, even as half of them were cut down by fire from his men. Grabbing the closest Sol-Kor prisoner by his brightly-colored robe, Adam pulled him close.

“Where are the other females? Are they at the top?”

An old Sol-Kor frowned at him. “I will not reveal such to you—”

With a spasm of pain on his right side, Adam pointed the barrel of his M-91 at the prisoner next to this one and pulled the trigger. At such close range, the thin-boned native was cut nearly in half, spraying blood on everyone within a six-foot radius.

“I’ll ask you again: where are the other females?”

“I will gladly sacrifice my life—”

Adam sent a bullet into the alien’s foot…which turned out to be a mistake. The creature was in such pain and shock that he failed to scream out. He passed out instead.

“Dammit!” Adam yelled. He turned the weapon on the last conscious Sol-Kor prisoner.

“It will do you no good even knowing the location of the Royal Zygotes,” said the alien.

“The what?”

“The females.”

Adam shook his head. “Then why not tell me?”

“It would be a betrayal of my duty to the Colony.”

“But if you tell me, then we’ll spend more time in the building, giving your troops more opportunity to kill us. If not, we’ll make our way to the extraction point and escape.”

“You cannot escape.”

“Of course we can. You don’t think we’d go through all this trouble without having a way out, do you? We’re not like the Sol-Kor. We want to live.”

“If you remain in the building you will die.”

“Exactly! So you see, telling us where the females are—the Royal Zygotes—will get us killed. You will be a hero for telling us…so we can get ourselves killed.”

“Your logic is…odd.”

“Can you dispute it?”

“I am not of the class to be able to reason it out completely, yet initially your argument appears to make sense.”

“So tell me where to find them. If you do, it will be like you killed us yourself.”

“I do wish you dead.”

Adam smiled. “So there you have it.”

The alien stared at him with a furrowed brow of gray scales. Then he made a short nod. “They are above us, as you have suggested, at the pinnacle.”

“How do we get there from here?”

“There is a lift at the end of the corridor outside, also a series of stairs if the lift is not working. They are in the nursery.”

“You are a testament to the greatness of the Sol-Kor Colony. Your actions here will be remembered.”

“That pleases me—”

However, the two hot slugs sent into his belly didn’t.

“Let’s move!”

********

At the end of the corridor, the team ran into another dozen SK defenders. They made quick work of them, even though Adam lost Ace Harbison in the engagement—his primary sniper. Like the others, he took a flash bolt directly to the face, which wasn’t very pretty, especially since it was the Sol-Kor equivalent of a level-one bolt.

Reluctantly—as they had with the other fallen—they took his weapon, ammo, and gear, and moved into the elevator.

To Adam’s chagrin, the elevator wasn’t working. A new set of protocols must have been put in place following the unimaginable events taking place within the pyramid. A long, hard-fought slog up the stairs was their only option.

For Adam, this was déjà vu all over again—another Sol-Kor stairwell in another Sol-Kor building. He’d barely survived the last one. He seriously doubted his chances this time around.

Having been alerted to the Human’s movements, the Sol-Kor were positioning defenders at the various exits from the stairwell. The pinnacle atop the Queen’s pyramid was a hundred stories above them—and a Sol-Kor story was about ten meters high.

The M-4 grenade canisters ended up being their best offensive weapon, lobbed into the exit doors at each level they passed. The explosions shattered the SK’s hastily-organized defensive lines and allowed the Humans to climb higher up the pyramid. Soon Adam could hear the sound of pursuit coming up from below. A few strategically-dropped hand grenades quieted their six rather quickly.

Panting from the exertion of scrambling up so many flights of stairs while carrying a full pack, Adam’s last grenade burst cleared their path to the top floor. The men fanned out into the same large reception area they’d been in only forty minutes earlier, and proceeded to clear it of the few hostiles who had moved in to start the cleanup. Even though they’d been warned of the approaching aliens, many of the Sol-Kor chose to stay and fight, armed only with flash handguns, no high-powered rifles.

They didn’t last long against the angry and desperate Humans.

The shattered glass door leading to what Adam now knew to be the nursery was clear of defenders, so the team hustled through and down the corridor.  On this level—the nursery level—there were very few guards, especially after the team’s last visit here, and what guards were there retreated down a series of hallways in a frantic effort to protect whatever was down that way. The team followed, more than happy to be led to the nursery.

The commandos picked off as few guards as was necessary, leaving some to continue the tour. Abruptly, the hallway opened into a vast chamber with a domed ceiling and several glassed-in cells along two opposite walls. The guards found little shelter here, and the commandos cut them down in the center of the room.

Adam and Riyad moved up to the first cell and peered in.

A creature resembling a much smaller version of the Queen was inside, although this one was still strong enough to move around on her own two legs. Its double segmented body was better proportioned, and the head—though still small for the size of the body—was more natural looking.

What shocked Adam and Riyad most was the look in the alien’s eyes—cold calculation and intelligence, and coming from a creature that was only a year old.

The young queen contender moved closer to the glass barrier, her voice coming out of embedded speakers in the wall below the window.

“I recognize you. You are Adam Cain and Riyad Tarazi. You are my latest memory, so very strong and vivid. If you are here, the Queen is dead.” The head nodded to the side and in the direction of the other cells. “Now I and my sisters must begin in earnest to fight among ourselves to see who will rise victorious to become the new queen. Yet you intend to destroy us all. That will not be possible. Our chambers are impervious to outside attack, made to protect us from ourselves and from premature battle. So, Humans, your coming here will end in frustration—as well as the loss of your lives. More sons of the Queen will come here to protect us. You will all die.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone keeps saying,” Adam said. He and Riyad stepped back and leveled their M-91’s at the glass window and fired.

The material chipped yet didn’t break. The men looked at each other and then fired again. Still no breach. The alien on the other side of the window could be seen smiling slightly.

“Take cover! Fire in the hole!” Adam called out. The team fled to the farthest points in the room as Adam cocked his M-4 grenade launcher and released one of his last canisters. The blast was incredible, the heat and concussion spreading throughout the large room. It was almost too much for Adam and his men to bear without adequate shelter.

When the smoke cleared, Adam smiled.

The window had cracked in several points, with a meter-wide opening in the glass. The creature on the other side of the glass wasn’t smiling anymore. She backed away from the window, her eyes wide.

Adam strolled leisurely up to the broken window. “So much for impenetrable cells,” he said. He stuck the barrel of his M-91 through the hole and pulled the trigger, ending the life of one of the Royal Zygotes. One down, twelve to go.

Anderson and Riyad moved up beside him. “We can’t very well blow open every cell, not with us in the room,” Anderson said. “Besides, I don’t think we have that many canisters left.”

“Company’s coming!” Kaczynski called from the entrance to the nursery. There was no cover in the room, and with only one way in or out.

“Stand back,” Adam ordered. And then he set about shattering the rest of the glass window with bursts from his assault rifle.

“MacTavish, four of us are going in here. Once we’re in, take out another window and then the rest of you take shelter in the cell. I don’t want us all to be in the same cell. We’ll provide cover from here.”

Moments later, another massive explosion filled the room, and the life of another baby queen came to an end. MacTavish and three other commandos climbed into the cell. Now the team had cover, and pretty substantial cover at that—all except the gaping openings the windows once filled.

Battle was joined. Enemy flash bolts streaked through the air. Adam’s men, from opposite sides of the huge, round chamber, did their best to keep the Sol-Kor soldiers at bay. With no cover inside the open expanse of the room, the SK failed to gain any significant ground, yet with each sacrificial foray, more bodies fell to help form covering mounds for the slowly advancing natives, and the Humans were burning through their ammo at an alarming rate.

It was a given that there were a lot more Sol-Kor than there was ammo for their weapons, making it only a matter of time before they were overrun. Adam felt sick, considering how they’d only managed to kill only two of the thirteen young females. After the team was gone, a new queen would be crowned, and the assault on the Milky Way would continue unabated. Coupled with the excruciating headache he was suffering from the blanketing suppressor beam, it almost made him vomit. He had led his men to a literal dead-end, and with nothing lasting to show for it. They were going to die, right here and in a far-away universe, alone and—

Chapter 10

A tremendous quaking shook the building; the domed room was engulfed in a thick cloud of choking white dust. Adam and his men fought for breath, placing portable respirators over their noses and mouths as the visors they wore struggled to see through the dense haze.

“What happened?” Riyad cried out, barely visible although he was right next to Adam. Carefully, Adam stood up and looked over the sill of the broken cell window. He couldn’t see much, but then his view began to clear, and as more of the dust cloud was sucked upwards, he got a pretty good idea of what had happened.

The roof at the far end of the dome had collapsed, opening the room to the outside of the pyramid. The falling debris had blocked off the entrance to the nursery, either obstructing the advance of the Sol-Kor, or burying them under tons of rubble.

“Everyone, take what grenades you have left and pulverize those glass panels. Here’s our chance to take out the other females. Call out your intentions!”

“Kaczynski…fire in the hole…cover!” And then a massive explosion.

Adam rose up from the wall of the cell. “Cain firing. Cover!”

And so it went, with commandos calling out just before unleashing their grenades.

“We’re out down here,” Lieutenant Johnson called out from the cell with Kaczynski. “But we’ve opened six of the cells.”

Adam and the men in his cell had shattered the windows on four of the other cells on the other side of the room, leaving only one cell intact. By now, most of the cloud from the collapsing roof had vented through the huge hole in the ceiling, though it remained full of the residual smoke from the grenades.

The men climbed out of their hiding places. Adam sprinted across the room just as one of the females burst through the shattered window of her cell and landed on the floor in the middle of the room. She carried a look of shock and worry on her ugly face, her movements confused and unsure.

She might have been a worthy adversary for her sisters, but to the eight remaining Human commandos she was a symbol of all the terror and tragedy that had befallen the Milky Way galaxy. Adam wasn’t the first of the men to unleash hell on the alien. Her body was shredded by no less than twenty-five rounds from their M-91’s.

“There are still ten left to kill. Let’s not overdo it, okay?” Adam said over the din of more gunfire. Others on the team were firing through broken windows at the trapped Sol-Kor females, and soon only the one intact cell remained.

The team gathered before it.

The last Sol-Kor female, sensing that something was wrong, moved from the back of the room toward the glass. She studied the bloodied and bruised Humans dressed in faux Sol-Kor armor, all in various stages of degradation.

“You appear to be out of explosives,” she said as none of the men aimed their weapons at the glass. “It only takes one queen to keep the race going. I will be that queen.”

An idea was growing in the back of Adam’s mind, and as soon as he let the frustration of the moment pass, the answer came to him. He smiled at the queen.

“It’s not over until the fat Sol-Kor bitch sings,” he said. He stepped away and climbed over the huge pile of debris blocking the entrance to the nursery, to where a dozen Sol-Kor warriors had been buried. A scorched and bloody arm was projecting out from the rubble, still gripping the handle of a Sol-Kor flash weapon. Adam reached down and pried it from the alien’s cold, dead hand.

The commandos knew what was coming, and they bailed for the farthest open cell from the one with the living queen. The female watched with concern as Adam stepped up to the glass.

“What are you doing? The discharge from that weapon cannot penetrate the window.”

“Not its individual bolts,” Adam said as he gripped the metal barrel of the weapon and bent it easily using his Human strength. “But an overload of the charge pack has been known to create quite a wallop.”

The flash gun was already at the highest setting, and the power indicator showed a sufficient charge. Adam casually fingered the trigger and then set the now-whining device on the ledge of the window. He took a moment to smile at the alien, before sprinting for the far cell, diving headfirst through the broken window just as the high-pitched squeal reached a crescendo.

The weapon exploded with all the force of an M-4 grenade.

Adam’s ears were still ringing when he poked his head above the window sill. The explosion had done even a better job than the Human grenades. The entire window was now missing, its frame nowhere to be found.

The team rushed to the cell, weapons ready. But the blast had smashed the last queen of the Sol-Kor against the back wall, deforming her head into a hideous mass of flesh and bone, deflating the bulbous body, leaving a puddle of red and yellow slime on the charred floor.

The men could preserve their ammo with this one.

The gathering of Humans stood silent in the rapidly dissipating cloud of the explosion, listening to the still falling roof debris from the collapsed dome, each lost in their own thoughts. They had accomplished their mission—and more. It had always been assumed that another queen would take the place of the old one, but now they could see a time when the Sol-Kor would be sterile, unable to reproduce. It was a sobering thought that a race of a trillion individuals could be set on a path to extinction, and all because of what a handful of Humans had done this day.

The other sobering thought was that they were all going to die. The Sol-Kor would eventually make their way inside, and with barely a hundred rounds left between them, the commandos wouldn’t last fifteen minutes in another all-out assault.

Something fell from the roof and hit Adam in the head, breaking his reverie. His side still burned and the pounding headache from the continual bombardment of the Sol-Kor stupor beam was barely tolerable. Now this rain of debris from the ceiling…

Adam looked up. It was early evening on Kor. The sky above was turning a dull reddish brown from the setting sun and the pollution in the air. He sensed Riyad standing next to him, looking up as well.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Riyad asked.

“It’s a stepped pyramid, isn’t it?” Adam said. “So why not take the steps down to ground level?”

The rest of the team now caught the spirit. “We’re going to need a way to get up there,” Chief Foster said. “Anyone still have their grapples?”

Each team member carried a small, compressed-air-propelled grappling hook and cord. It was small, with a range of only thirty meters, but that would be plenty to reach the top of the shattered dome.

Five of the eight remaining team members still had grapples. The thin cords were strong enough to hold them, but they weren’t made for straight-up climbing—rather for assisting with scaling walls and other barricades.

Neo Anderson was the first to attempt a shot. He took aim through the opening and then pulled the string at the end of the air canister. The dart-like metal hook shot out and through the opening, trailing cord behind it, and he began pulling it back in, hoping the three-pointed hook would catch on something outside. After a few seconds of pulling, the hook reached the opening and fell to the floor.

“Try over here,” Riyad said. “It’s closer to the edge of the dome.”

The chief was next, and his hook also failed to find purchase. Kaczynski tried after that, and this time his hook caught something. He gripped the cord, testing it to see if it could support his weight. The hook held.

“Okay, get up there as fast as you can, and take the other grapples with you,” Adam ordered. “And hurry, I’m sure the Sol-Kor have something like a helicopter, and may be planning to get at us through this same hole in the roof.”

Donning government-issued gloves, Kaczynski started the arduous task of climbing the thin cord. It bit into his hands, even with the gloves, but he managed to make it to the top of the dome, some twenty meters above, after about a minute of effort. He disappeared over the edge, and a moment later two other lines came cascading into the room.

Riyad and Chief Foster grabbed them, and with Adam and Rock Johnson holding the ends taut, they began to climb. Anderson and Connors teamed up on Radzinski’s third line.

The forty-three year old chief warrant officer made it to the top several seconds ahead of Riyad, and then reached out to help the old man over the edge.   

Four men were now on the roof, with another four to go.

MacTavish stepped up to a line next, grabbing it with his gloved hands. Adam looked at the two-hundred and fifty pound hulk of a man and grimaced.  “I hope the cord can support your incredible mass of lard, Ensign.”

“You know it’s against regulations to insult another officer on account of his weight, sir.”

“So report me.” Adam grabbed the line to hold it tight.

With a grunt, Mac began the climb. He was definitely strong enough for the task, and with the light gravity of Kor assisting, he made it to the top with little effort.

Connors and Johnson went next, leaving Adam the last to leave the nursery.

On top of the dome, Adam was accosted by a strong, chill wind sweeping over the dark pyramid, seven thousand feet above the vast plain below. From here he could clearly see the huge spaceport, as well as the true expanse of the Sol-Kor settlement, its lights just now snapping on as the sun sank lower. Off in the far distance he could see other lines of settlements, undoubtedly even more pyramids to house the vast Sol-Kor population.

The roof was pitched at a dangerous angle, forming the very peak of the structure, its surface slick with dew and the accumulated droppings of native birds. The commandos gripped the edge of the broken opening, seeing where huge panels of metal had been warped by the collapse, and where the grapples were attached.

Adam couldn’t see where the curving dome ended, not from where he lay, his black armor and pants now caked in white guano. He reached out and took hold of one of the cords. “I’ll slide down and see how far it is. Luckily, in this light gravity we may be able to drop down to a flat roof below.”

With gloved hands, Adam began to slide down the side of the filthy dome. It was made of metal and offered no footholds along the way. About twenty feet down he could finally see where the curved structure met the top of a rectangular building block, one of thousands that made up the pyramid. The blocks came in various sizes, giving the building its jagged, uneven look.

Unfortunately, the end of the cord dangled a good twenty feet above the roof of the block.

“We’re going to have to drop,” Adam said through his visor comm. “Doesn’t look to be too far, not in this gravity. I’m letting go.”

Adam slid along the metal surface for a few feet until the roof dropped off. He flew off the dome and hit hard at an angle on the level surface. His side erupted in pain again, as did his right shoulder when he tumbled forward. He rolled a couple of times to break his momentum, ending up only eight inches from the edge of the block. He glanced over. It was another fifty foot drop to the next roof.

“Okay, I’m down. Bring as many ropes as you can. We’ve got quite the journey ahead of us.”

One by one, the rest of the team made it to the rooftop, each now sporting a two-tone look of bird shit, white in the front, Sol-Kor-armor black in the back.

“Can we make that jump without ropes?” Riyad asked. “It would be faster.”

“Possibly, but we’d risk breaking or spraining something. Let’s use the ropes first.

The grapples weren’t designed for multiple uses. No way to unhook them from below. After the first four blocks, they were out of cord.

“There’s some conduit over here,” Connors called out. The team rushed over.

Four thin metal tubes ran down the side of the block below them, and they could see where this pattern continued all the way down. “Way to go, Conman. That’s our ticket.” Adam patted the man on the back. “Now, you first.”

The eight commandos had nearly a hundred blocks to negotiate, and before they were halfway down the sky filled with flying vehicles similar to huge quadcopters. At first the activity centered around the dome atop the pyramid, but then soon shifted when it was discovered the Humans were no longer trapped inside the nursery.

Arrows of light danced across the black pyramid. A few moments later the area above them drew the attention of the flying machines. Their black cords had been discovered hanging from the upper blocks. The Sol-Kor dropped down lower along this line, looking for the fugitives.

Lightning-quick, the team raced to the far end of the block they were on, and finding another set of conduit at the corner, began to scamper down another face of the block, a shorter face, far from their original line of descent. To their relief, the Sol-Kor continued searching desperately along the original line, shining their lights and hovering close to the building until they moved further down, below where Adam and the team were hunched at the base of the conduit run.

Windows and doors opened on each block, and troops flooded the roofs of the blocks below them. The Sol-Kor were becoming more frantic, more desperate, as the prospect of losing their beloved Queen’s killers began to sink in. More lights came on within the structure as thousands of Sol-Kor poured out of the doorways to fill each level of the stepped pyramid.

Adam crawled to the ledge and looked over. Most of the activity was concentrated below, all the way to ground level. Fortunately, the Sol-Kor assumed the team had made it further down the pyramid than they had, but that wouldn’t last. Once they weren’t discovered below, the aliens would come looking for them on the higher levels.

Adam pressed himself against the dirty surface of the block as a hovercraft shot overhead, sending up a cloud of brown dust around him. It spun around and settled in a wide area.

“Get ready,” he whispered into his comm. “I’m going to provide a distraction.”

The craft whirled to a stop, and then the canopy opened. Four huge Sol-Kor climbed out, dressed in black armor and carrying heavy flash rifles. Lying on his stomach, with his own black armor facing up, Adam was shielded by the shadow cast by the lights below that were now bathing the pyramid. Suddenly he stood and raised his hands, the front of his armor displaying white to the Sol-Kor.

“Don’t shoot! I surrender!”

The four Sol-Kor were caught off guard, and it was a miracle that in their panic they didn’t open fire. They all turned toward Adam, which gave the rest of the team the opening they needed. They rushed up from behind and planted KA-BAR combat knives into the soft flesh of the alien necks, above the collar of the armor and below the skull.

The men swarmed over the hovercraft.

Adam shook his head. “It’ll be tight,” he said. “Drop the armor and MOLLE packs, keep the beam neutralizers. Time to get to know each other better.”

“That’s not to say this thing can even take off with all of us aboard,” said Mac MacTavish. “I’ll stay behind and cover you from here.”

“Bullshit, Ensign. Now get in!”

It was indeed a tight fit. Although four, fully-equipped Sol-Kor had fit in the cockpit, eight Humans, with their rifles and ammo packs, made for a very intimate grouping. Adam pulled the canopy down, having to stretch to reach the latch. Then with Ensign MacTavish pressed against his back and his knees nearly at his ears, he held the control stick against his chin while he pressed the start button on the propeller blades.

He’d never flown a Sol-Kor hovercraft before, but as it was with all things Sol-Kor, the controls were very basic—just a control stick, and a throttle on the left armrest. Even then, with Rock Johnson’s hard, over-muscled body pressing against his back, he had very little range of motion to move the control stick, and as the over-burdened craft lifted begrudgingly off the block, it skidded forward and impacted the small lip lining the roof.

Adam spun the stick to his right, attempting to keep the hovercraft on the roof, at least until he was sure it could remain airborne should they fly off the edge. But the craft slid sideways until half of it was over the edge, then it began to topple over.

Adam pressed the throttle all the way forward and heard the answering whine of the electric motors as they reached full power. The four-bladed craft slid off the roof and began falling, even as gyros fought to level it out.

Adam threw the control stick to the left and the hovercraft angled away from the building, barely clearing the edge of the next block below as it continued to sink lower and at an ever-increasing pace.

Clear of the closest pyramid blocks, and descending at about a twenty-degree pitch, the propellers were doing all they could to support the load, but it wasn’t going to be enough to break their fall. The craft did possess small wings, and as they gained speed they began to bite into the air, but it only slowed them some and added a small measure of maneuverability. Adam angled the copter further away from the steps of the pyramid, seeing that at their present course they would at least miss the sides completely.

Still, they were falling, not flying.

The ground of the ridgetop raced up toward them and Adam aimed for the edge of the tall cliff. There were huge boulders embedded in blocks of concrete, support for the huge mass of the pyramid, and it was obvious any contest between the rocks and the hovercraft would go decisively in favor of the rocks.

Everyone gasped as the craft skidded past the towering boulders and entered clear space again, dropping like a rock.

As with all good things—including escapes—the Human’s rapid descent from near the top of the huge pyramid eventually came to an abrupt halt. All light was blocked out as the hovercraft buried deep into a gigantic mountain of trash and biological refuse. A putrid odor filled the cockpit as they sank lower, accompanied by the ear-piercing whizzing of a blender on steroids as the hovercraft’s propellers minced up huge amounts of Sol-Kor crap all around it. Eventually, the electric motors overloaded and shut down and the craft vibrated to a stop, embedded under several meters of the most foul-smelling stuff any Human had ever encountered.

Adam reached for the canopy latch.

“No, don’t!” someone yelled. “I’d rather die right here than in that pile of alien shit.”

“The longer we stay in here, the worse it’s going to get,” Adam said. And then he sprung the latch.

The canopy didn’t move, at least not on its own, not until several strong arms pushed outward, displacing some of the mushy brown pile on top. A flood of rotten smelling liquid flowed in, carrying with it soaked cardboard, plastic strips, and chucks of brown stuff that no one wanted to consider its origin.

Adam struggled to stand up, fighting to form an opening in the pile above him. Then, finding a foothold on the side of the hovercraft, he pushed upwards, and using his hands, arms and legs, literally swam upwards in the sea of the trash, until his hands found cool air. His head broke the surface, and he took in a deep breath, followed immediately by his own foul contribution to the ungodly mass of refuse.

All around him, heads began to pop up, covered now in brown, gooey clumps of who knows what. Each man in turn repeated Adam’s stomach purging, overcome by the incredible stench and the putrid taste invading their mouths.

Soon the eight commandos were all on the surface of the mountain of trash, on their backs and staring up at the stars up in the sky.

“Tell me again how this is better than dying?” asked MacTavish.

“I don’t believe anyone said that,” another of them answered.

“If someone had, it would have been a bald-face lie.”

Rock Johnson sat up and looked down the sloping pile of trash at the brilliantly-lit expanse of the spaceport below. “I take it that’s our destination.”

“It’s the only way home, Lieutenant,” Adam said. The base of the trash mountain was a good five hundred feet below. He could see rows of black trucks pulling up to huge bulldozer-like heavy equipment that methodically filled each dump with a single scoop before another truck pulled forward. “Maybe we can hitch a ride with one of those trucks. Otherwise it’s going to be a long walk.”

Chapter 11

The team rolled, slid, and tumbled down the side of the trash pile before eventually reaching the base near one of the bulldozers. From here they could see how truly huge the things were, larger than anything found on Earth, even the behemoths the size of a house and featured in the Guinness Book of World Records. They were also automated, as were the black trucks coming and going. The haulers appeared to follow tracks embedded in the road, forming a continuous loop of vehicles feeding the power plants at the east side of the spaceport. Control towers dotted the landscape to the south, standing two hundred feet tall and with glass tops. From here, monitors kept track of the trash convoy and loaders, ready to deal with any breaks in the routine.

The Humans were too small to be noticed among the mountains of trash and the titanic equipment, but as the trucks were gigantic, none of them could see how they could be commandeered. Their wheels were two stories tall, and there appeared to be no such thing as a cab on them anywhere. They just moved into position, received their single load, and then moved off thirty seconds later.

Adam and the team ran up under the nearest truck, being careful not to end up under one of the massive tires.

“There’s a ladder!” Adam yelled over the roar of its massive electric motors. “I’ll see if I can reach it.”

He took a running jump, and in the gravity of Kor managed to leap up the fifteen feet necessary to grab the dangling ladder. With the rest of the team jogging along below him, he swung up until he could reach the next rung. As he did, a sharp pain spasmed in his side. He lost his grip and fell, crashing to the hard, concrete road with a thud.

“That was graceful, Captain,” Connors said as he helped his commanding officer to his feet. “Let me try.”

The younger, more athletic sergeant first-class made the leap easily, and scampered up the ladder, looking for a release. As suspected, this was a retractable ladder for a small control room used for individual steering in the case of service or a breakdown. Connors dropped the ladder to ground level and the remainder of the team hustled up and into the tiny cab.

When the ladder was pulled up and the door to the cab closed, all the men looked around at each other and wrinkled their noses.

“Maybe we should leave the door open,” Connors suggested. There was unanimous agreement.

The cab was in the center of the underbelly of the huge truck, with monitoring screens and a small steering column set before the single seat in the compartment. The monitors were off, leaving the room with no interior light. Chief Foster pulled a small flashlight from what was left of his utility vest and turned it on. He slipped a red filter over the lens and then set the light on the console in front of the driver’s seat. The light would be impossible to see from outside unless someone was standing directly below.

“How is everyone?” Adam asked, having finally found the time to catch their breath—even if they weren’t keen to take in too much of the foul air in the cramped cabin.

“You seem to be the one most injured, Captain,” Lieutenant Rock Johnson answered. “Besides a few cuts, bruises and burns, the rest of us are still functioning, even Flash.”

Riyad looked around at the rest of the team and displayed his namesake smile.

“Dang, man, put a shade over that thing,” Conner gibed. “We don’t want the hostiles to spot us.”

“Speaking of the hostiles, this truck is headed for one of the power plants, not the spaceport,” Rock pointed out.

“Once we get closer to town, we should be able to find more suitable transportation,” Adam said. “Let’s take the time to service our weapons and inventory supplies and ammo. This thing ain’t over, not by a long shot.”

********

The incredibly slow trek to the power plant was grating on the commandos by the time they slipped down the ladder and sprinted toward a row of dimly lit buildings just outside the grounds of the power plant. Several of the ubiquitous Sol-Kor trucks were nearby. Adam figured one of them would do nicely to get them into the spaceport.

As would be expected when the population was a trillion, there were Sol-Kor everywhere, but most looked single-minded in their movements, going to or from their destinations without interaction or hesitation. If a Sol-Kor exited a truck and headed for a doorway, by God that’s what he did, with no looking around, no stops for a cigarette, no chatting with a comrade.

This made it easy for the team to target a likely truck and speed off without being seen. Adam was in the driver’s seat, and after checking with the team found that only three of them still had their Sol-Kor masks with them. He wasn’t one of them, so he took Mac’s mask without a word of protest.

“Keep the damn thing,” the big officer said. “I’m never going to wear it again, even if it kills me.”

“What is it with you, Mac? You got a death wish or something?”

“It’s not a wish…just impatience. Sometimes I just wish I’d get it over with. Life is becoming a real bother.”

“Hang in there a little longer, will ya? I may need your incredible mass to block a flash bolt before this is over.”

“It would be a pleasure, if I was certain the damn thing would kill me. With my luck, all it would do is piss me off.”

“Get in the back,” Adam ordered. “And please, don’t infect the rest of the team with your cheerful attitude. We’ve got enough to deal with already.”

Having studied Drake’s video surveillance, and after seeing the lay of the land from on top of the pyramid, Adam had a fairly good idea how to get to the spaceport.

A wide, traffic-filled roadway lined the spaceport access, major entrances midway along each side. They would take the road along the north face of the spaceport, the one facing the mountain. The other entrances and exits appeared to be designated more for service or cargo, while this one was for general traffic.

He was counting on the facility having minimal security, since this was the main spaceport for Kor, and staffed primarily by natives and the subservient Salifens. He was the only one in the cab, and hid his M-91 between him and the driver’s side door, just in case. He had no idea how this was going to go down, since he’d long discarded his black Sol-Kor armor, and the rest of his clothing was in tatters and covered in a variety of foul-smelling stains. At least in the cab he could lower the window and get some fresh air. The men in the back didn’t have that luxury.

The team had also long since lost their communication visors in the sea of trash, so Adam had no way to communicate with them in the back. There was, however, a small pass-through window from the cab to the back, and it was open now, with Riyad sitting on the other side.

“Here,” said Riyad, passing a swath of black cloth through the opening. “Wrap this around your neck. Leaving the mask dangling around your shoulders isn’t going to fool anyone.”

“Thanks. What’s this from?”

“You don’t want to know—let’s just say one of the men will be free-balling it from here on out.”

“No frickin’ way! You expect me to wrap this around my neck?”

“Hey, it smells better than the rest of you. This is no time to get prissy.”

“Fine, just don’t tell me whose it is.”

“I’ll save that for the talk show circuit once we get home.”

Riyad extended his hand through the opening and gripped Adam’s shoulder.

“I never thought we’d make it this far, my friend. Thank you.”

“Like I said earlier, it ain’t over yet.”

“That’s true, but I’d rather have no one other than you leading the way home.”

“Aw, shucks, Riyad. Is this the softer side of Flash Tarazi?”

“Just wanted to say this…while I have the chance.”

“Don’t you lose faith too. Mac is hard enough to deal with.”

“I’m not losing faith, just thinking that we can only cheat fate so many times. And for the two of us, we’re way over our quota of lucky breaks.”

“No argument with that. But you and I both knew the odds of us making it back alive were slim to none. We’ll keep on fighting. Even if it all comes crashing down, at least we can say we’ve really fucked up the Sol-Kor for a very long time, even more than we had hoped for.”

Riyad smiled. “Yeah, they must be freaking out about now.” And then the smile vanished. “Unless the bastards know something we don’t.”

“You sure can be a buzzkill, Mr. Tarazi. And here I was expecting to meet my maker with a smile and a spring in my step.”

“It’s just that there’s so much we don’t know about the Sol-Kor.”

“Relax. They’re basically very simple creatures. If it hadn’t been for Panur, they would have either eaten themselves into extinction or have been confined to just a few systems and a lot fewer numbers.”

“Yes, we do have your son-in-law to thank for our current situation.” Seeing the grimace on Adam’s face, Riyad smiled. “Too soon?”

Chapter 12

Drasic Reol stepped over and around the various piles of still-smoking debris to survey the damage caused to the Royal Zygote nursery. His despair was complete when he found all thirteen females were dead. His knees grew weak and he staggered to a nearby wall to support himself.

A High-Noslead reached out an arm to assist him but he brushed it aside. “I will be fine. It is the dust in the room that is affecting me.”

Drasic could see on the face of the officer that he did not believe his explanation. He straightened and walked across the room to the blown-out window of the last cell. The body of the female was an unrecognizable mass of bloody flesh. He closed his eyes momentarily and chanted a silent dedication. The bodies would be processed and fed to the Applying Council. He knew the consumption would have no magical effect on the members, even if some believed it would. Still, they would feel elevated above the current crisis as receivers of the sacred flesh of the females, possibly to then better face the tragic reality of the events of the day.

As the High Chancellor of the Applying Council, he had been in his chambers adjacent the Queen’s when the attack occurred. He had been confused at first, refusing to believe that such a thing could happen. And yet he had been in the Pinnacle Mount at the time of the last invasion. The circumstances leading to that event were clearer to follow: a Noslead had brought a Human to Kor, and then another Human had come to his rescue, with the inexplicable assistance of Panur—that diabolical mutant the Queen so favored more above her other sons.

Yet this event was different.

Only moments before he had received confirmation that the beasts from U-5 had entered through a portal in the Farm and found a way into M-1. From there, multiple reports traced their movements: from the nursery, to the Queen’s Chambers, and then back to the nursery. Now they were not to be found, having escaped through the roof of this very room.

This had been a deliberate attack on the Queen and her Zygotes. Never had such a thing been attempted. And yet so few of the beasts had caused such massive devastation. That was the one aspect of the event that worried him the most. Several fleets of Sol-Kor were operating in U-5, and although Drasic found the thought to be inconceivable on the surface, perhaps they had made a mistake by venturing into the universe of the Humans?

Considering what had taken place within the Mount this day, it was now almost a certainty. With the size of the multiverse, the Humans should have been left alone.

Drasic looked through the hole in the roof and at the Sinnis Star Cluster high above. It was a familiar sight, a significant symbol in the sky above Kor. The Cluster had been one of the first harvests when the Sol-Kor expanded from their local area, thanks to Panur’s unexplainable genius. Now Panur had deserted the Colony, and the Most-Revered Queen was dead, along with her Zygotes.

Drasic sensed the presence of the High-Noslead next to him. His name was Rolic, or something like that, and he was of an intelligence level to realize the significance of what had taken place here. What must be going through his mind now as the very future of the Sol-Kor faced this unfathomable abyss? Even now, those of a particular mind level would be looking to him for a solution. Vast numbers of others would accept things as they happened, even if that meant the extinction of the Sol-Kor.

Drasic turned to the officer. “You will secure both the nursery and the Queen’s Chambers. Give access to only those with the highest level. News of these events must not be circulated until I decide to release it.”

“Yes, My Chancellor.” Then the High-Noslead looked into the cell again. “May I ask a question?” he asked.

“No, you may not, yet I will give an answer. The race will survive. There are contingencies, even for something as tragic as this.”

“That is reassuring.”

The Noslead was wise not to ask what such contingencies would entail. At the moment, Drasic Reol had no idea.

Chapter 13

A long line of vehicles was entering the spaceport through the main gate. There was security, but more for accounting than any real screening. Along each lane of traffic a glassed-in box contained a cadre of Sol-Kor seated at monitors and key panels. They seldom got up from their seats.

Adam kept his hand along the side of his head, shielding the mask from any undue scrutiny, even though he had learned by now to take the farthest lane to the left, where no one would be moving along next to him.

There was an indicator light on the station to his left, and it changed to an amber color as he approached. It would turn white before any of the traffic in front of him moved forward. He stopped next to the security post, staring ahead, his heart pounding ever faster for each second the light didn’t change.

A voice called out from a speaker on the station.

“You’re registration number does not match access status.”

Adam still had his embedded translation device—as did all creatures within a galactic empire in the Milky Way—and what was known of the Sol-Kor language had been programmed into the device. The problem: without his visor, he couldn’t answer back.

He remained staring ahead.

“You do not have access,” the voice in the speaker said again.

The truck he was driving could only move at a modest twenty miles per hour. Making a break for the flight line would be comical. On Kor, all his men could run faster than twenty miles per hour. He was pretty sure even the baggage carts could move that fast.

The seconds ticked by.

There was movement in the cab. He glanced right and saw a visor lying next to him. He reached out and snatched it up, transferring it to his left hand just below the window level.

“This is a special delivery,” he said quickly.

Tiny speakers on the edge of the visor broadcast his words in Sol-Kor.

“What cargo?”

Adam took a chance. “It does not concern you. This is High-Noslead business.”

The light switched to white. Adam sent the truck forward and through the gate.

He followed a path to the left, one that passed through a short tunnel and emerged along the inner perimeter of the vast tarmac. Outer lanes were dedicated to food conveyors.

He held up the visor and spoke over his shoulder. “Someone back there is going to get a medal for this!”

“Thank Mac for that. The last time he pulled a mask over his head he removed the visor and stuck it in his pants.”

Adam looked at the amber plastic device and dropped it, wrinkling his nose. “What is it about you guys and your crotches?”

“Relax, Captain, we’re not the only ones in here who smell like a cesspool.” Adam recognized the voice of Ensign MacTavish.

Riyad appeared at the pass-thru. “That was kind of ballsy.”

“These creatures operate on a tier system. Those on the lowest level—like gate monitors—won’t question the actions of someone higher than them. At least that was what I was betting on.”

“So what now?”

Adam pointed into the sky. “See that? It’s a whole stream of ships leaving the surface. I say we grab one of these beamships and join the parade.”

“In that case, we have to make sure Anderson makes it aboard. He’s the only one qualified to fly one of those things.”

“I want a pay raise!” Neo Anderson called out from the back of the truck, having heard Riyad.

“Tell you what, Neo. We get aboard, I’ll give you a seat right up front, with a nice view of the Sol-Kor universe.”

“And popcorn?”

“Yeah, whatever makes you happy.”

********

Adam turned off the perimeter road and entered the main part of the landing field. Most vessels they could see were the gargantuan harvesters, yet getting closer they did spot a number of the ubiquitous beamships parked among the giants.

Numerous other vehicles were crisscrossing the field; none appeared to be the smaller type of truck the team was in. Luckily no one came to question them, and Adam was able to drive right up to a beamship without incident.

There were several workers outside the ship, and the main hatch was open. With his mask still in place, Adam circled the ship once to check if any other Sol-Kor were on the other side, but the only ones visible were near the hatch. The truck slid past the entrance, then stopped and began to back up.

The Sol-Kor stopped what they were doing to watch the truck, confused but not alarmed. That changed when the back of the truck flew open and simultaneous puffs of suppressed rifle fire cut them down where they stood. Then, with MacTavish in the lead, the team rushed into the beamship. Adam and Riyad brought up the rear, entering the starship to the sound of additional gunfire both forward and aft of the entrance. Voices called out:

“Bridge secure.”

“Engine room secure.”

“Completing sweep.”

A moment later, confirmation came through that the ship was under control of the commandos, with four compliant prisoners under watch in a back stateroom. The bodies of the dead Sol-Kor from outside were carried in and the hatch secured.

With beamships the main enemy vessels in the Milky Way, they knew quite a bit about them, and the team set about checking fuel levels and preparing for liftoff. Ten minutes after the first Human entered the hatch, the ship was powering up.

Adam was on the bridge, sitting in the standard command chair and still feeling the effects of the painkiller stimulant he’d been given to help with the injury to his side. Sergeant First-Class Anderson was in the pilot seat, with Wizard Kaczynski operating the nav computer.

“There’s a definite departure pattern,” the tech specialist reported. “We’re not going to have clearance, but once we’re up it would be wise to blend in with the other departing ships.”

“Make it so, Mr. Anderson. You may engage as you wish.”

“Yes, sir,” said his pilot.

Beamships used a very efficient, Panur-designed lifting system that produced a minimal amount of backwash, allowing vessels to land and take off in much closer proximity to one another than did Milky Way starships. So with very little disturbance, the beamship left the surface of the spaceport and glided along about a mile up until it joined the parade of other ships leaving the planet.

Immediately, the comm links came active as the port’s control center questioned the unauthorized departure. Adam had Connors open the link and then scrape his fingernails over the surface of the microphone. Every time a challenge came through, he would do it again, making it appear as though the challenge was being answered. By the time they reached orbit, the challenges had stopped. Hopefully, ground control had logged equipment failure as the reason for the lack of communication.

Riyad hobbled up to the command chair and leaned a weary body on an armrest. “That was easy, Captain Cain. It’s about time something was.”

“Yeah, just a walk in the park.”

“You know they’ll find the truck and put two and two together. There’s probably a transponder aboard which will allow them to track us.”

“Connors, did you hear that?”

“Yes, sir. Already on it. We captured a few beamships back home so I have a pretty good idea where to find it.”

“Make it quick, Mike, it looks like we’re in a pack of about a thousand beamships, all headed in the same direction.”

“Could be headed for a portal,” Riyad pointed out.

“Now that’s a good point. Maybe we can get back home by passing through a gateway with an alien fleet.”

“If they’re headed for our universe at all.”

“There you go again, dickhead, being a buzzkill.”

“Hey, don’t get me wrong. Any universe will be better than the Sol-Kor universe, if you ask me.”

“Another good point.”

“I think I’ve found the transponder,” said a pair of booted feet sticking out from under the comm console. Just then the entire bridge went dark. “No, that’s not it.” The lights came back on. “Let me try this one.”

The bridge crew held their breath. When nothing happened, they exhaled.

Connors extricated himself from under the console. “Sorry about that. I’m pretty sure the transponder is disconnected now. Either that or I activated a self-destruct.”

Anderson whipped around in Conner’s direction. The tech met the pilot’s look of concern with a smile and glanced at his diver’s watch. “We should know in five…four…three…”

“Screw you, Mike!”

“Damn, Anderson, are you saying a badass dude like yourself is afraid of a little self-destruct bomb? What a pussy.”

Adam smiled. “Okay, knock it off. I’m glad you’re all feeling good enough to screw with each other. Now, Mr. Kaczynski, how about you and Mr. Tarazi try to rustle up some charts, something that’ll tell us where we are and where we’re going. Mac, see if you can find something for us to eat. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m so hungry I could eat the ass out of a yak. Connors, go aft and check on the chief and Mr. Johnson with the prisoners. And someone, anyone, find out if the showers on this tub are working!”

Chapter 14

Admiral Andy Tobias grimaced when he saw the last message was from the president of the union himself. He took the notepad from the enlisted man and dismissed him.

Michael Osbourne wasn’t a man Tobias would call a friend, but he was someone the officer could respect. Sure, he’d fallen for the misguided hype from his former science advisor, Jack Hardy, when it came to the whole portal detector episode, but since then he’d gone out of his way to curry the admiral’s favor. Andy was sure he was just being pragmatic, since Andy knew the dirt on how hard the president had tried to stop the mutant from completing his work. Now the diamond-core detector was guiding allied forces to portal after portal, giving the defenders of the Milky Way galaxy at least a fighting chance against the invaders. Without the detector, the galaxy would have been overrun months ago by dozens of completed arrays and tens of thousands of enemy warships and harvesters.

But now Tobias was up to his neck in trouble and the cagey politician saw this as an opportunity to silence the obstinate senior officer once and for all.

Andy left the bridge and adjourned to his away cabin located between the CIC and the command bridge. He didn’t want the crew to hear the browbeating he was about to take from the leader of the Human stellar empire.

Comm relays had been strung through the open portal and into the Sol-Kor universe, so all Tobias had to do to link with Earth was input the secure access code.

When the image of the president appeared on the tiny screen, he glared for a moment before turning away and telling unseen people off-screen to vacate the room. A moment later his face came back square on the screen, changing to an ever-deepening red the longer he stared at the officer.

“Just what the hell are you doing, Andy? You know you’ve already lost over two hundred men in an effort to save a handful—at the most. In what universe does that make sense?”

“Mr. President, if Cain and his team can accomplish their mission, we may be able to gain the upper hand and put an end to the entire conflict. I felt that in light of the significance of their mission—as well as their chances of making it out alive—every effort had to be made to assist them.”

“By sacrificing even more lives on the off-chance Cain may find his way to your portal? As you’ve inferred, the chances of them getting out are slim to none. In war, men are often called upon to die for the greater good. That’s the nature of the game. I’m sure Cain and his men knew that going in. Have you ever thought they may elect to go out in a blaze of glory rather than even attempt to come back?”

“I have, Mr. President, yet I believe I know Cain and Tarazi well enough to say that would be their last choice. My men are trained to do all they can to get their team out of harm’s way and back on friendly ground before giving up all hope.”

Osbourne shook his head. “I suppose ordering you back into this universe would fall on deaf—and insubordinate—ears?”

“Sir, we control an alien portal in the Sol-Kor universe. Strategically, that’s significant. Even if Cain doesn’t make it back, it wouldn’t make sense to surrender ground we’ve already taken.”

“And what if they counterattack with overwhelming force?”

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes, Mr. President. Right now I have screening units out that will warn us of any fleets heading this way. The Sol-Kor may help you get your wish, Mr. President, but not without a fight.”

Osbourne slammed his fist on his desk. “My wish? My wish! I’m the goddamn president of the Orion-Cygnus Union, Admiral! My orders are not wishes. My orders are commands, and at the moment you are in violation of a direct and lawful order from your commanding officer. I could order those around you to place you under arrest, or worse, to dispatch you with extreme prejudice for your insubordination and traitorous endangerment of my military forces.”

Tobias met the president’s fiery glare with one of his own. “I have hand-selected the members of my task force, Mr. President, so any such orders would also fall on deaf ears. At that point your only option would be to send Union forces up against other Union forces, and this at a time of war and after we have captured a vital enemy asset. Your actions would be seen as political, vindictive, and non-strategic. You should also know, I’ve already placed within the media stories detailing my side of the story, which will be released should any action be directed against us. So be forewarned, Mr. President, Cain and Tarazi—and even myself—are a lot more popular throughout the Union than you are. Watching as you try to justify your actions to the empire would be quite amusing.”

Osbourne’s face was redder than Tobias had ever seen it. He didn’t know why the man hadn’t yet exploded with a heart attack or stroke. “You arrogant son-of-a-bitch! You know this isn’t over. I didn’t make it to where I am by being a lightweight pussy when it comes to a fight. I also have my resources, and I can play just as dirty as you can…even more so. Compared to political in-fighting, military confrontation is nothing. Watch your back, Tobias. Your days are numbered.”

The president blinked several times at the unexpected smile on Andy’s face. “I agree, Mr. President, and in politics the actions of your opponents are seldom advertised or carried out over a vast battlefield for all the galaxy to see. Most times they occur in backrooms and in secret. Even as we speak, your actions—now, and in the past—are most definitely being watched and scrutinized. You say my days are numbered. Well, rest assured, Mr. President, so are yours…so are yours.”

Chapter 15

“We have a hell of a lot to learn,” Riyad said to Adam after an impromptu meeting had been called, which also included Rock Johnson and Warrant Officer Marsh Foster. The four men were in an all-purpose room aboard the stolen beamship, seated around a utilitarian table, the staple of Sol-Kor interior design and décor.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Adam agreed.

Each man had his mini-computer tablet out and was making lists of the things they needed to know in order to carry the mission to the next level. So far the list included such things as portal security, operation and programming, location of said portals, security within convoys, as well as the destination of the current convoy. Other categories included food sources, fuel requirements of the beamship, and atmospheric adjustments.

“Any luck getting the air balanced to sometime we can breathe?” Adam asked the chief. “Our pills won’t last forever.”

“I have every confidence that we can. I just haven’t figured out how. The damn aliens don’t seem to have any manuals lying around. Funny, they must assume anyone working aboard a beamship would know how to operate it.”

“Their simplicity is our challenge,” Riyad said. “They’ve never had to design anything with diversity in mind, or even for the less-qualified of their kind. Either you cut the mustard or you never set foot on a ship.”

“Language is another thing, Captain,” added Lieutenant Johnson. “None of us can read it. So even when we pull up data on their computers, it’s all gibberish. We really need to get the prisoners to cooperate.”

Adam had already met with the four surviving Sol-Kor, but so far he’d been unable to get much out of them. Granted, he’d only spent a few minutes in the interrogation before other matters took priority. But now it was obvious the aliens were a vital resource that had to be tapped. That was the reason for the meeting. Specific intelligence was required, the priority of which was being decided by the four men in the room.

“What if this convoy does transition to another universe, and it’s not ours?” Riyad asked. “Once we get over there, it may take two jumps to get back home, rather than the one we know it takes from here.”

“Can we go directly from another universe to ours, bypassing this one?” Chief Foster added. “We just don’t know.”

“Another thing,” Johnson began, “although we can understand what they’re saying to us over the comm, we can’t keep up with the microphone scratching ploy every time someone tries to contact us. The challenges are becoming more frequent the further we get from Kor. The other convoy ships are getting suspicious. Eventually they’ll send a ship over here to fix our broken comm system.”

“Those are all good questions,” Adam conceded. “What about us separating from the convoy and heading out on our own? Any thoughts on that?”

“That may be an option, if they’ll let us go,” Foster said. “So far, this particular convoy hasn’t had any ships peel off, as far as we can tell from the nav computer. Everyone seems to be of a single mind and with a singular destination.”

“Which is where?” Adam asked.

No one offered an answer.

Adam scanned the long list of unknowns on his screen and then stood up. “Chief, get us some good air, but isolate the aliens’ quarters if you can so we don’t kill them. The way I see it, we need both operational and practical information. We need to know more about this ship, as well as where we’re going and how all that works. I’m going to talk with the prisoners again, this time one at a time. Mr. Johnson, bring the young one—the one with the deformed scales—to my quarters. It’s time to make these bastards talk.”

“Oh, and, Chief…” Riyad began, flashing his trademark smile. “Take an inventory of the body bags aboard. If Adam is going to question prisoners, I’m sure we’re going to need them.”

As Adam left the room, he flipped Riyad the bird.

********

Although the Sol-Kor were all from one mother, they did come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with most able to be distinguished by distinctive facial features. The alien with the series of deformed scales on the left side of his face would probably be considered ugly in Sol-Kor society, if any females existed to make that determination. As it was, except for the Queen they were all males who could care less about such matters. But it did help Adam tell the prisoners apart.

Rank within Sol-Kor society was limited to only a few levels, yet the captain of a beamship did rate his own cabin, and Adam had taken the room for his own. Now he was seated at the cabin’s basic table with the scar-faced alien seated across from him, unshackled, only the two of them present. The last surviving tac visor was resting on the table, ready to broadcast Adam’s words.

Adam could tell this alien was younger than the others. His hair was a darker black, his body more lean, and his scales a richer gray than the others. The eyes were also a giveaway, as they displayed more apprehension, more fear.

“Do you know what has happened to your ship and the remainder of the crew?” Adam asked in a soft voice.

“You have taken control and killed the other members, all except for those who remain aboard.”

“That’s correct,” Adam nodded vigorously. “Now, I imagine you have a lot of questions of your own, so please, interview me—ask me questions—and I will answer them. Would you like that?”

The alien frowned. “I do not know if I would, since I have no experience in such matters, yet it would appear to be a strange request. As those who have control of the ship, would not you be the one to ask the questions?”

“Normally, yes. But I know you must be curious and have a million questions you’d like to ask.”

“I surely cannot imagine a million questions for you. I can barely formulate one or two.”

“Then ask me your one or two questions. I will answer truthfully.”

The Sol-Kor was quiet for several moments, confused by the seemingly illogical turn of events.

“Do you intend to kill me…and my brothers?”

“No, I do not. If I had wanted you dead, I would have done it back on Kor.”

“Who are you? I have never encountered a food stock such as you.”

It was Adam’s turn to frown. “You haven’t? You haven’t seen others like me, either alive or dead?”

“I said I have not.”

“I am of a race—a food stock—known as Humans. We come from the universe where the Sol-Kor are fighting the inhabitants of the main galaxy.” Adam made this a statement rather than a question. The confusion on the alien’s face spoke volumes.

“Fighting…against food? No, we are not fighting—” Then his eyes grew wide. “You speak of U-5! I have heard the stories of such a conflict taking place, of non-compliant crops which require additional subduing beyond their individual worlds. I have not substantiated these stories, yet they are persistent.”

“Now you know the stories are true. I belong to one of those rebellious food crops fighting against the Sol-Kor.”

“From U-5? How can that be so? What are you doing here?”

“We came to kill your queen.”

Adam learned then that color could drain from Sol-Kor scales. The wide-eyed look of shock also added to the impact of his statement.

“That cannot be true! Why would you want to do that?”

“She has come to our universe and is killing—harvesting—countless intelligent beings. We consider action against the Queen an act of self-defense.”

“Yet the Colony must survive. We must eat to survive.”

“As do we all. But we aren’t destroying entire worlds populated by advanced species to do so. The Sol-Kor have invaded our universe. We are fighting back against this invasion. If your Colony was attacked, you would do the same.”

The young alien was confused. His eyes darted to and fro as his mind tried to work through the strange concept he had never thought of before. “Yet we only seek food…for our survival.”

“And in the process you are killing trillions and trillions of thinking and feeling creatures, beings with homes and families, and with thousands of years of history behind them. Just look at yourself. You are a living, intelligent creature, with a will to live and aspirations for the future, much like the food you consume, but for them all that is now gone. Imagine what it would be like if another species harvested the Sol-Kor? How would you feel about that?”

“Yet my Queen…why would you wish her harm? She is not doing the harvesting.”

“She ordered it. She is the supreme being in the Colony, and as such she is responsible for what’s happening in U-5, as you call it.”

The alien shuddered. “You…you have not killed her already, have you?”

“We did what we had to in order to save our own people from extinction, just as you would. In fact, as you destroy our worlds, you say you’re doing it to survive? We take actions for our survival as well. So you see, Humans and Sol-Kor are a lot alike in that respect.”

“Did you kill her or not!”

“Yes. We did.”

It was a full twenty minutes before the alien regained consciousness. In the interim, Adam placed him on a hard mat resting on a metal platform that served as a couch in the captain’s quarters. His eyes began to flutter open.

“Are you all right?” Adam asked. “Would you like some water…or food?”

Still in a quasi-sleep, the Sol-Kor looked around the room before refocusing on Adam. “I am without need at this moment. What happened?”

“You passed out when I told you we killed your queen.”

The damn creature nearly passed out again, but this time Adam didn’t have the patience to let him slip away completely. He was careful to only lightly slap the alien. Still, it was probably a little too hard.

“Why did you do that? I am posing no threat,” the alien exclaimed while rubbing the scarred side of his face.

“Sorry. I was just trying to keep you from passing out again.”

“By striking me? How would that serve your purpose?”

“Well, you didn’t pass out, did you?”

The alien blinked. “No, I did not. This is so strange—”

“What’s your name?”

Without thinking, the alien answered. “Harix Disen 33428.”

“Nice to meet you, Harix. I’m Adam Cain.”

Harix suddenly pushed himself up until he was seated on the couch, with his back against the metal wall. “You killed my Queen! How could this have happened? She has been the leader of the Colony for…forever.”

“Let me present you with an uncomfortable fact, Harix, something the Sol-Kor obviously haven’t learned yet: There will always be someone stronger and more dangerous than you. Until now, the Colony has never encountered such a species—such a food stock—with these traits and abilities. Now they have, and you have just suffered the consequences for challenging us. And this is only the beginning. If the Sol-Kor continue to invade my universe, we will destroy the entire Colony. Do not doubt me when I say this, Harix. If we can come into your universe and kill your queen, then be assured, we can destroy everything you know…here and everywhere.”

“But the Colony is…is large. I have many brothers.”

“That’s true. But look at us. We are few, just a handful of alien invaders to your universe. Yet we have killed your most precious queen. Imagine what an entire galaxy of creatures like me could do? No, Harix, we can and will destroy the Colony…unless you help us.”

Again, the alien was taken aback by Adam’s sudden shift in the conversation.

“Help…you? And you will spare the Colony?”

“That’s right, Harix. Just think, by helping us you will be known as the Sol-Kor who saved your entire race. You will be a hero.”

“What is a hero?”

“Someone who’s revered and honored for doing a great and noble deed.”

“Yet you killed my Queen. I cannot possibly help you. You are my enemy.”

“That’s also true. But if you don’t help us, we will proceed with our plans to attack the Colony.”

“Yet you will forgo such action if I help you?”

“Correct.”

“What sort of help do you seek?”

“Information mainly, such as how to operate this ship more efficiently, and where it’s headed.”

“I do not know where it’s headed. I can tell you we were preparing to leave in a convoy when you came aboard. I do not know if you have joined that convoy or not, not without seeing the charts.”

“If you help us, you’ll see the charts. Just think, Harix, by helping us you help the Sol-Kor. How difficult of a decision can this be to make?”

“Information…all you seek is information?”

“Information, and your guidance. We seek your wisdom, knowledge, and experience. Creatures like us, Harix Disen, with the capability to kill your queen and destroy the entire Colony, will now defer to you.”

“Harix Disen 33428.”

“Yes, of course. Will you save your Colony by helping us?”

The alien studied Adam’s eyes for several moments before answering. “I will help, unless I see where my actions could cause harm to the Colony.”

“Fair enough.” Adam walked over to the table and picked up his tablet computer. “First of all, how do we control the chemical mixture of the atmosphere aboard the ship?”

Chapter 16

Harix used his influence to get two of the other prisoners to cooperate. The one who refused was locked away in a box in the supply room, with a small opening for food and water, and allowed bathroom breaks every five hours. Adam would have preferred to throw him out an airlock, but that would not have gone over very well with the other Sol-Kor.

“The ship is headed for Master Portal Two, and then U-3.”

Adam grimaced. “Once we get to U-3, can we take a portal from there to U-5 directly, or do we have to come back to this one?”

“I do not understand.”

“What don’t you understand?”

“Your question. I do not understand your question.”

Adam stared at the alien, trying to figure out a clearer way to get his message across. “Once we are in U-3, can we get to U-5? Isn’t that clear enough for you?”

“Master Portal Two is tuned only to U-3.”

“And the portals in U-3, where are they tuned to?”

“To the Kor universe. We refer to it as Home, but it is U-1 on the charts.”

Chief Foster was listening. “So each master portal is linked to only one universe?”

“That is correct.”

“And how many master portals are linking to each universe?”

Again, the look of confusion on the alien’s gray face. “I do not understand your question. Master portals are just that, master portals.”

“So only one master portal for each universe?”

“That is why they are called master portals.”

Prior to the meeting, Adam and the rest of the Humans had taken turns showering and dressing in modified Sol-Kor uniforms. They smelled better, if their outfits did fall baggy and unkempt on their bodies.

Adam took a small tablet computer from a utility pocket in the Sol-Kor uniform. It had a small stylus that could be used to draw lines on the screen. He held it so that Harix could see the screen and began to draw. He drew a vertical line, and then placed a circle on the left side of the line. Then on the right side he drew several circles and connected all of these to the one on the left side of the line.

“All these circles represent the Sol-Kor portals in my universe,” he said, tapping the screen on the right side of the line. “Are you saying all these portals are linked to only one master portal in your universe?”

“That is correct. It would be inefficient to have several portals all tuned to the same universe, each requiring staffing, maintenance, and dividing up the transit fleets. It is better to enter and exit a universe from a central location.”

A startling realization came to Adam, and from the looks on the faces of the other Humans in the room, they saw it, too.

“Tobias!” Riyad said.

“Exactly,” Adam responded. “I wonder if he realizes what he has on the other side of his portal?”

“How could he? We all assumed there were multiple portals on this side feeding all those on ours.”

“There’s another thing, Captain,” Chief Foster began. “If each Sol-Kor target universe is linked by only one master portal, it would make sense that all harvests are being shipped back to a central location for processing, like that huge complex by the spaceport on Kor. If that’s true, then why not locate all your master portals as close to the processing facilities as possible?”

Adam turned to Harix. “Are all these master portals close to Kor?”

“You can tell how close they are by the transit time it is taking us to reach Master Portal Two.”

They had been in space for five days.

“How much longer before we reach it?”

“Not long—tomorrow sometime.”

Adam turned to the other Humans. “So Andy’s portal is only six days from Kor.” He looked hard at Harix. “Do you know the location of the master portal to U-5?”

“I only operate in U-3. I do not have that information.”

“Would your brothers know?”

“They are like me, assigned to only one universe.”

“Could you locate it if you had access to the navigation computer?”

“I may be able to locate the master portals, but I would not know where they are tuned.”

“Why not?”

“Why not what?”

“Why couldn’t you tell from the computer?”

“Because that information is not part of the navigation programs. Each section of the Colony assigned to a particular universe knows where that portal is located and where it is tuned. There is no need to know the others.”

“Excuse me, Captain,” said Chief Foster. “But if there are only four universes beyond this one where the Sol-Kor operate, and the one for U-3 is designated number two, wouldn’t it stand to reason that Master Portal Four would be the one to the Milky Way?”

Adam turned to Harix. “Did you understand that question?” he asked sarcastically, knowing that his tone of voice would be missed by the alien.

“Master Portal Two is its designation. That is why. I know not why it was assigned that number.”

“How many universes do the Sol-Kor harvest?” Riyad asked, seeking confirmation of the information they had been lead to believe was true.

“I do not know. That is not my concern. I’m concerned only with the welfare of the harvesting fleets within U-3. Why would you assume I would know more beyond my responsibilities? Owning such knowledge would be counterproductive.”

“Can you pull up the locations of all the master portals in your universe?” Riyad asked.

“I can. However, I just said I know not of their destinations.”

“That’s fine. Leave that to us.”

Once the alien had provided the Humans with the list of master portals, Adam had Connors take him back to his cabin. When he was gone, Adam, Riyad and the chief huddled before the screen.

“I see six master portals,” Riyad said. “Either that means the Sol-Kor have invaded more universes than Panur let on, or else our friend here is wrong about only one portal supplying each universe.”

“Maybe Panur was wrong?” the chief said.

Both Adam and Riyad looked at each other. “That’s not the case, Chief, but that also doesn’t mean he was truthful in what he told us. He was always operating by his own rules.”

“So what do we do, begin a systematic check on each portal on the list until we find the one Andy’s in control of?”

Adam nodded at the chief. “What else can we do? They’re all clustered in the general area.”

Riyad tapped the screen. “We know this one is number two, which is linked to U-3. Do you suppose there’s a logical progression along the line? U-5 is newer than U-3, so it would naturally be further away, maybe along here.” He used his finger to circle the portal locations near the end of the line, beyond number two.

“That’s as good a plan as any,” Adam said. “I also have to believe that our friend Harix may not have all the information regarding the portals. The Sol-Kor are too deliberate not to have backups. That could be the reason there are more than four arrays; Harix just doesn’t know better. For the time being, let’s go along for the ride. Once we get to MP2, we’ll slip away and continue along the line.”

“If they let us go,” Riyad pointed out. “And if we’re not traced to this convoy over the next twenty-four hours.”

“You just can’t leave well-enough alone, can you, Mr. Tarazi?”

“Being a buzzkill—as you call it—carries with it a heavy burden, my friend, yet one I take seriously. You would expect nothing less.”

Chapter 17

Drasic Reol was the High Chancellor of the Sol-Kor Applying Council. He had been selected for the post when he was only nine standard years old, when aptitude testing placed him in the top one-tenth of a percent of all the Sol-Kor for intelligence and analytical ability. Forty-eight years ago, he had replaced the aging former High Chancellor, and from then had served as the second most powerful being in the Colony. Following the assassination of the Queen, he had assumed complete leadership authority, although he did so with mixed feelings.

Having spent so many years on the Council, he was used to dispensing orders and directives from the Queen. That was why it was called the Applying Council—its members were tasked with applying the Queen’s wishes to the rest of the Colony. Now he was the one making the decisions, as well as having to issue the applying orders. He felt he was up to the task, yet until he experienced it first hand, he wasn’t sure.

The meeting taking place in his chambers was one of those tests.

The High-Noslead before him had some very important information, and Drasic was having to modify his thinking process as he listened. He not only had to absorb the information, but he had to come up with a course of action to provide to the security officer.

“An unauthorized mainship left the spaceport,” the Noslead was saying. “Although we have failed to locate the ship’s transponder signal, we believe it may be traveling with a convoy that left around the time of the assassination destined for U-3.”

“A convoy typically consists of eight thousand ships,” Drasic stated. “Of those eight thousand, there are normally five hundred mainships, along with the harvesters and beam platforms. How difficult will it be to query each of the mainships in the convoy?”

“That is already underway. Most vessels have already responded, although six are experiencing communications breakdowns. This is common within such a sizeable fleet.”

“And of the ones who have responded, how confident are you of their authenticity?”

“Virtually certain, High Chancellor, so we are concentrating further inquiries on the remaining six. Of those, four have responded with the proper codes, while one is completely out of communications, with another attempting to communicate, yet there are issues with their link.”

“Instruct the security units to isolate and stop the mainship that has failed to respond in any way. Be cautious, High-Noslead. These may be the creatures that killed our Queen. I would like them taken alive for interrogation. I must learn the extent of the threat they pose to the Colony.”

“Very wise, High Chancellor. And if this ship proves to be controlled by Sol-Kor, I will direct the force to the other ship with the defective communication link.”

“Excellent.”

When the officer remained standing before him, his eyes narrow and intense on the new leader of the Colony, Drasic questioned him: “Is there more, High-Noslead?”

“Nothing of an operational nature, High Chancellor. I am just curious as to what happens now? News of the Queen’s assassination…along with the Zygotes…will soon spread. There will be many more asking this same question, and as the lead security officer for the Colony, I suspect there could be panic among the population. Was a marker passed on to the new eggs?”

“I understand your concerns, High-Noslead Fanso. Testing is still underway of the recent lays, but I can assure you the integrity of the Colony is secure. I have assumed temporary leadership as I have been trained to do. The Colony will experience no major disruption, although I admit the population will mourn the loss of our Eternal Queen. Yet we are Sol-Kor. We are organized and disciplined. There may be isolated instances of concern, but it will not be widespread, not when continuity is maintained. As the Noslead of Security, you must not overreact to the situation. The aliens who committed this act will be caught or killed. Whatever conspiracy or further action the beings from U-5 are planning, we will stop them.”

“I have reports of the master portal to U-5 yielding to the control of the Humans. Through it, a larger invasion force may enter.”

Drasic laughed. “That is a matter for the military, Fanso, yet be assured the Humans cannot mount a large enough force to threaten the Colony. Unlike you, I have seen all the reports from U-5, and I know they are few in number and resources when compared to the Sol-Kor.”

“Yet a small number of them did kill our Queen.”

Drasic’s face grew rock–hard. He glared at his subordinate. “That was unexpected. From now on the Humans will not be underestimated and the Colony will be better protected. To that end, the security of Kor and the Governing Complex are your responsibility, High-Noslead Fanso. I would suggest you concentrate your thinking on your job, and let others do theirs.”

“Of course, High Chancellor. Forgive me, it is just that this is such a unique time in the history of the Sol-Kor. I am having some difficulty grasping this new reality.”

********

 After Fanso left, Drasic found himself repeating the High-Noslead’s last words. “I am having some difficulty grasping this new reality.”

A thin smile came to Drasic’s face. He was feeling the same.

Although he—like all the Sol-Kor—had been assigned his present position, he was nevertheless a unique member of the Sol-Kor race, with a more universal perspective of the Colony and its function. He could see the larger picture, and his superior intelligence allowed him to speculate on what the future might hold for his people. Mostly these were mind games, and he had been playing with such scenarios since long before the Queen’s death.

Now everything had changed. Without an heir-apparent to replace the Queen, Drasic was suddenly faced with the seemingly impossible task of finding a new direction for the Sol-Kor. His past mental scenarios were being resurrected, and one-by-one he was finding most of them to be completely unworkable.

The main problem he faced was procreation. The Queen was the only female in the Colony. Unless Drasic could find a way to stimulate the cache of young eggs awaiting fertilization to produce a suitable replacement queen, the race was destined for extinction.

Drasic lived in a small enclave off the Queen’s Chambers and had been confused by the strange noises of the attack unfolding. By the time he reacted, the killers had already dispatched the Queen, and when they moved on to the Zygotes, he was caught off-guard. These young females were the backups, the guarantee that the Colony would continue should anything unforeseen happen to the Queen. Now they were dead as well.

Never in his scenarios had he imagined such a circumstance…

He was distracted by a flashing light on his computer screen. Although he understood the basics of how such devices operated, there were others who had more specific training. If the light didn’t cease, he would call them in. But then he leaned in closer and noticed the light was spelling a word. It was very small, but readable. It spelled: Important.

Drasic’s computer was highly secure; any unauthorized communications would be met with severe consequences. He clicked on the obnoxiously blinking word, anxious to discover its source and deal with the perpetrator accordingly. Punishment for this breach would go far beyond customary means, as he was determined to make up for his feeling of helplessness in the current crisis.

Yet instead of a reaction of anger, Drasic found himself being jolted back in his chair by the image that appeared on his screen. He recognized the smiling creature immediately, wondering for the moment whether this was a live broadcast or not.

“Panur! This is highly unusual,” Drasic called out. A moment later, when no direct response came from the screen, he realized it was a recording.

“High Chancellor, if you are watching this recording it is because a catastophic event has taken place within the Colony, an event which I have foreseen for many centuries, however uncertain as to when it would take place.” The image on the screen hesitated, allowing for the viewer to grasp the meaning of Panur’s introduction. Drasic sat quietly even as his heart raced. What was the meaning of this recording, especially coming at a time like this—an event the mutant had foreseen?

“The Queen is dead,” Panur said next. The thin smile on his face vanished. “As you—through your current rank—and very few others are aware, the Queen was my mother as well, so, High Chancellor whatever your name, we are brothers, and as such we would both be mourning her passing. I do not know the circumstances of her death, although I have a near certainty that it was not at the hands of the Sol-Kor, precipitated by her failure to the Colony. Outside forces must be responsible, in which case the Colony is facing the gravest threat in its long history. Yet even I cannot imagine an enemy strong enough to oppose the Colony, not in a traditional manner. Therefore, it must have been from a more clandestine action that our Mother has been killed. Not only that, what has triggered this embedded recording is also from the inconceivable reality that there has been no successor produced for the Queen.

“I must be honest with you. I amended this recording at a point. I do not know at which point you are watching it, so I do not know whether this amendment came within recent times or much later. I made this new recording following a recent—in my time—event where beings from another universe infiltrated the Queen’s Chambers and attempted her assassination. Only through my efforts was her life spared. As the current High Chancellor, you should be privy to this information, even if you must use secure methods to find references to the event I cite.

“This hostile act came at the hands of race of beings from U-5 called Humans. The circumstances leading to their near-successful assassination of the Queen are inconsequential at the time. However, in its aftermath, I have concluded that another such attempt could be successful. Knowing the size of the Colony and what it would take to defeat us, I have concluded that only another targeted assassination attempt could be the cause of my Queen’s death. And having had recent experience with the Humans, I would not be surprised if her death came by their hands. They are a most remarkable race, even if they do not recognize so. They must not be underestimated.

“Now I return to the purpose of this recording. Without the Queen or any of her Zygotes to carry on the procreation of the Sol-Kor, the race is destined for extinction. There is no avoiding this. I have attempted in the past to stimulate the lay of the Queen to produce female Zygotes, but have been unsuccessful. Even with my genius, I was unable to decipher the mystery of the required chemical to produce such an offspring. I’m sure I could have isolated this chemical if I had been there at the very moment it was excreted. Yet in my lifetime the Queen produced only two other batches of Zygotes, plus the batch that resulted from the Human’s assassination attempt, and without invasive surgery on the Queen I was unable to find the solution.

“I’m sure that at this moment you are feeling very overwhelmed, if not impotent, by the reality you and the Colony now face. In addition, the fact that you are seeing me in a recording rather than in person means I am no longer with the Colony, which in itself is a significant event which opens itself up to a multitude of questions. But I leave that for another time. The most pressing issue is how do we—both you as High Chancellor and I, as the Colony’s leader of technological innovation—how do we save the Colony?”

Panur’s image froze on the screen as he gave time for his words to impact the viewer. Drasic had been High Chancellor during the past crisis with the Humans, so he knew this recording was relatively recent, within the last standard year as a matter of fact. The mutant’s presumption that the Humans might be responsible for future attacks on the Colony and the Queen was indeed prophetic. And yet implied within Panur’s last statement was the notion that he had a solution to the current crisis. Drasic’s heart raced even faster as he waited nervously for the recording to continue. Although the High Chancellor resented and despised the odd creature, he was willing to listen if it meant saving the Colony from extinction.

“Now that I have your attention, let me preface the next part of this recording with an assumption: You will not like it.” Panur smiled. “Knowing this will be true, it is perfectly within your power not to follow my recommendations and come up with your own solution. Just let it be known that whatever solution you may think will work, it will not. If you believe yourself to be of an equal intellectual level as I, then by all means follow your own path. Wherever I am, I will gain much satisfaction in seeing the Colony die as a result. However, if you wish for the Colony to survive, you will follow my recommendations exactly.”

Again Panur hesitated, but only for a moment.

“Good, so let us proceed. You are to journey to M-32. You may not even be aware of this settlement. It’s on Kor, in the southern hemisphere. It is small compared to M-1, yet within its walls you will find salvation for the Sol-Kor race. Now, I will give you more information on what you will find in M-32, and how this all came to be…”

Chapter 18

Two days after viewing Panur’s recording on his office computer, the High Chancellor of the Applying Council took a private flying vehicle to the southern part of the planet, to a place where savage storms racked the area constantly.

Drasic had indeed never heard of M-32. Upon researching the pyramid community, he found that all official settlements ended with M-28. The other four were secret locations that had been unknown to him until he had asked. Then all information was provided. He found it interesting there were secrets kept even from him, even if the secret was maintained by simple lack of disclosure than any overt attempt to mislead or misdirect.

As the flying craft neared M-32, the structure jutted up from a bleak, white landscape, resting atop a small hill, its steep, black pinnacle standing out as sharply as a brilliant light would in the dark of night. Its construction was of typical stacked design, its black blocks covered in a perpetual coating of snow. As a result, most windows were closed off, and no support settlements existed in the immediate vicinity.

Only forty-eight hundred Sol-Kor occupied the desolate pyramid, themselves providing support for the facility’s illegal activities. Drasic had researched this before coming. He had been unaware of the regulation; the Sol-Kor maintained a very thin book of rules and regulations. The race existed in a very narrow and efficient manner, and had for centuries without the need for new or extensive laws or guiding documents. Yet one had been written several thousand years ago, and survived to this day. Only the mutant would have had the capability of violating the regulation, and apparently he had.

Drasic was leery of the claims Panur made in his recording. Even if they were true, he still wasn’t sure what to do. In his frustration, he cursed the mutant for putting him in this position. In one way, having forces and events beyond his control was a simpler solution; he could not be held responsible for making the wrong decisions. Granted, the ultimate fate of the Sol-Kor would be tragic, yet it would play out over a long period. But if he chose to follow Panur’s path, the position of queen would be compromised, at least when it came to tradition, and it would be left to him to help guide the Council in the right direction.

He landed on a platform near the top of the windswept structure, the craft needing to be secured against the wind before he could be allowed to disembark. His face scales shivered as he rushed the short distance to the open doorway and into the warmth of the pyramid. There he was greeted by the Administrator, a Level-One intellectual named Kanos Limfor. The elder Sol-Kor seemed unashamed by his position. Drasic assumed he had to know the illegality of his actions, yet he began the tour with pride and confidence, having been reassured by Panur that if the existence of the facility were ever revealed it would be in a major crisis, one for which their work here would help overcome.

For his part, Drasic would withhold judgement, at least for the time being.

“I appreciate the tour, Kanos, but I would like to see the cell now.”

“Yes, of course, High Chancellor. I just thought you would appreciate the background into our research here, in preparation for the moment.”

“I have found the tour enlightening, Administrator, up to a point. You must realize I have not made a final determination in this matter.”

Kanos’ expression was one of surprise. “Did not Panur explain?”

“He did, in a recording.”

“A recording?”

“Yes, the mutant is no longer with the Colony.”

This news came as a shock to the Administrator. “He cannot be dead, that is impossible. What has happened?”

“He is on a sojourn, as far as anyone can tell. He may return to the Colony, as he has in the past, or not. In any event, we are on our own at this point.”

“I understand now, High Chancellor. And I understand how impossible this may be to believe. By all means, let us go to the cell.”

It took the small entourage ten minutes to reach the lowest levels of the pyramid, even below the visible base of the structure and deeper, into the very rock of the mountain on which M-32 rested.

The corridors were dark, dank, and moldy.

“There is very little need to come down here, so we don’t,” Kanos explained, noticing Drasic’s expression.

“Food, water?”

“Seldom needed, but supplied when requested.”

Drasic was about to ask a follow-up question when Kanos stopped at a huge metal doorway. He keyed in a security code and the massive door swung open. The High Chancellor was disappointed when this only led to another chamber, dimly lit, yet with a huge viewing window set at the opposite end with a pale yellow light flooding the security room.

The Sol-Kor officials approached the window.

To his amazement, what Drasic saw inside looked to be a small yet comfortable-looking living quarters, including a bed, toilet facilities, and a workstation, as well as a computer monitoring screen.

Drasic looked at Kanos. “A computer?”

“Yes, Panur insisted.”

A figure moved from the shadows near the bed and walked confidently up to the window.

Drasic was mildly shocked by what he saw. It wasn’t what he had expected.

It was an obviously female creature, yet with a thin layer of pale scales covering her face. As it was with the Sol-Kor, the scales on the exposed arms had long since evolved to near microscopic size, allowing for a smoother, softer look.

Drasic had seen the females of a thousand other species, the majority being very similar in look and size to the males, only with subtle differences. By contrast, Sol-Kor females didn’t resemble the males at all, being huge creatures that most outsiders would consider to be an entirely different species.

This thing could pass for a Sol-Kor male, yet with the same subtle, gender-specific differences that were found in other species...

The creature’s laughing eyes revealed her amusement at Drasic’s reaction.

“Not what you were expecting?” the creature said.

“You do not resemble traditional Sol-Kor females.”

“That is because I am not traditional, and I am not completely Sol-Kor either.”

“Yes, I understand Panur provided part of your genetic makeup.”

“As did your queen—while she was alive.”

Drasic tried to recover from his shock before the creature would notice, but it was too late.

“You’ve likely kept the news from being disseminated, but the only reason you would be here is in the event of her death,” explained the creature. “Although I have many abilities you have yet to discover, it didn’t take any exceptional deduction to come to that conclusion.”

Regaining his composure, the High Chancellor fought to keep the upper hand in the conversation. Too often in the past he had been utterly defeated by Panur whenever the two of them got into an argument or a differing of opinion. He wasn’t about to let the same thing happen with this abomination.

“Panur seems to believe you could help the Sol-Kor in our time of need. What do you think?”

“I think you should start accepting that I am also of the Sol-Kor, if only half.  And I would appreciate if you would call me by my name. I am J’nae.”

“That is all very interesting, yet you still haven’t answered my question.”

“There is no need to play your games of power, High Chancellor Drasic Reol. Yes, I know who you are. I have access to the newsfeeds, as well as all the records of the Sol-Kor. It’s also how I’m aware that news of the Queen’s death has not been allowed to circulate. And now to answer your question: Yes, I can help. I was created for just such an event. Now it is time I be utilized.”

Drasic studied the small creature and shook his head. “I should have known this would not be workable, especially coming from Panur. How can you possibly take the place of our Beloved Queen? How can you produce the eggs necessary to maintain the Colony? Just looking at you I see that you would be incapable.”

“In the traditional manner, of course. Perhaps we should wait for Panur—”

“Panur will not be here.”

“Why is that? He has come for every other interview I have had.”

“You have had other interviews?”

“Yes, with other High Chancellors, five to be exact.”

“Five…how old are you?”

“Just over six hundred standard years.”

Drasic was shocked. In his recording, Panur had not mentioned this.

“You said it yourself, part of my make-up came from Panur. I have inherited his powers of self-healing.”

Drasic shook his head again and turned to the Administrator. “This will not be feasible,” he said in desperation. “The change would be too drastic, and this…thing…is too alien.”

“Yet the survival of the race…?”

“We will find another way, a more Sol-Kor way.”

“There is no other way, you fool!” The voice booming from speakers on the wall reverberated throughout the security room. Drasic turned back to see J’nae standing only inches away from the glass. He stepped closer himself.

“You are an abomination, the product of a wild experiment by an insane mutant. Indeed, you are a mutant yourself. The Sol-Kor would never accept…this…as our new queen.”

“Then you will all die.”

Drasic was livid—and scared. For the past few days he had held out hope that the mutant Panur had actually found a solution to the crisis facing the Sol-Kor. Now he knew that was not to be. His race was on the edge of extinction, all one trillion of them, and the reality of it was becoming more than he could bear. He was trembling, sweat forming on his brow and flowing down his face along the lines of his gray scales.

He caught sight of the steely gaze from the mutant female on the other side of the glass. It held no sympathy for his plight. He shuddered even more. Those eyes were colder than space.

“You will release me, Drasic Reol. You will allow me free rein to save the Sol-Kor. It is your only option.”

“What?” He was barely listening, lost in his own thoughts.

“I said release me…now. Or I will do it myself.”

Kanos Limfor rushed away from the cell with his two attendants. Where are they going? He watched them as they ran for a panel set in the wall. They were opening it and reaching inside.

He was showered in flying glass—striking the bare skin of his face, peppering pinpoints of pain all across his left side. He instinctively ducked as larger pieces of glass fell on him. He was on his knees as a brilliant flash of light erupted from the other side of the room.

The High Chancellor remained on the floor, covering his head and face with his arms. There was movement all around him. He saw another flash, and heard screams.

As quickly as the turmoil erupted, it came to an end, and all was quiet. He risked opening his eyes and looked up. What he saw turned his blood to ice.

The mutant J’nae was looking down at him, out of her cell and in the security room, the fire in her eyes even more intense than before. He chanced a look away and spotted the twisted and torn bodies of Kanos Limfor and the others. One hand—severed from a body—still gripped a flash weapon.

“Stand up.”

On weak knees, Drasic obeyed. He stood before the mutant, his sight impaired by blood flowing into his left eye. He wiped it clean.

“I did not want to do this,” J’nae said. “All I wish is to save the Sol-Kor, my people, from extinction. You cannot comprehend, High Chancellor, but I have waited for over six hundred years to fulfill my destiny. I was bred for a reason, for this reason, and this reason only.”

“But…but how can you save us? You cannot produce young like our Queen, like the queens of the past.”

“Exactly. That is why I am so valuable.”

Drasic was no longer afraid. If he was to die, then let it happen here. He would find that preferable to watching his people wither and die off slowly, with no way to replace the fallen.

“Do what you will with me, but I will not cower before you,” he said.

“I do not expect you to cower. I expect you to assist me. I will need your help.”

Drasic shook his head. “How is it you expect to save the Sol-Kor? What is this illusion you are living with?”

“It is no illusion. Through me the race will experience a new direction, a rebirth. In the past we have been vulnerable to these very circumstances. I will now make it possible for the Sol-Kor to live on without that threat ever arising again.”

“Explain yourself.”

The mutant smiled. “Now that is a better attitude, High Chancellor. I shall explain. Within me, I have the ability to select the sex of my offspring. In addition, my children, if I desire, can reach maturity in as little as six years. I will save the Sol-Kor by breeding an entire generation of females, all capable of producing even more females. And since a quarter of Sol-Kor males are capable of producing sperm, there shall begin a new phase in Sol-Kor evolution, one based on the species continuing through millions, and then billions of unions, rather than all being produced from one source. Surely you can see the logic in such a future? It is how nearly all other species across the multiple universes have survived and continue to survive.”

“But that is not the Sol-Kor way. We…we need our Queen.”

“You shall still have a queen—in me. I will be the female who not only gives birth to this generation of Sol-Kor, but I will plant the seeds that will give birth to all generations to come.”

There were benches in the room, one on each side of the room. Drasic staggered over to the nearest and sat down. He wiped more blood from his face. There was so much to think about, so much information to absorb and to contemplate.

He regarded the bodies and then the broken security window in the cell. The mutant J’nae stood nearby, watching him.

“You are curious,” she said. “In your new queen you will not only have a superior intellect but a superior being all around. I am stronger and faster than all the Sol-Kor males. I cannot die, so our race will have guidance and leadership from now until the stars burn out. And where Panur was the leading mind of the Colony, that will now be me. You will no longer have to rely on him. All his great inventions and developments will continue…through me.”

J’nae came to stand in front of him. “Drasic Reol, you must realize that at this time the Sol-Kor are attempting to dominate minor portions of only a few universes, such a miniscule slice of existence that it does not even register. With my leadership there will be nothing to stop the Sol-Kor. Over time we will become even greater than before. We will become the dominant lifeform in the universe.”

“What of the Humans?”

“The Humans?”

“Yes, the creatures who killed my—our—Queen.”

J’nae smiled while nodding. “Yes, what of the Humans? Panur told me of them when last he visited. I got the impression he liked them, as one would a pet.”

“Those pets managed to enter our universe, infiltrate M-1, and assassinate the Queen and all her Zygotes. And following that, they have managed to escape Kor.”

The smile vanished from J’nae’s face. “This is indeed intriguing information. I shall have to investigate these Humans further. In the meantime, High Chancellor, it is your task to get us to M-1 and introduce me to our people. While you do that, I will see about these Humans. They will not be allowed to return to their universe. They must pay for their deeds.”

“We are getting closer to finding them. It is only a matter of time before they are either captured or killed.”

“Please have at least one of them survive, Drasic. I would welcome the opportunity to study their abilities.”

“Panur says not to underestimate the Humans.”

“You fear them?”

“I fear the results I have seen.”

J’nae smiled again. “Let me assuage your fears, High Chancellor. Bring me the Humans and I shall show you just how insignificant they are, as individuals and as a race.”

“As you wish…my Queen.”           

Chapter 19

“The convoy’s slowing down. Looks like the portal array is dead ahead.”

“Very good, Mr. Anderson.” Adam felt an itch on the back of neck. Over the past few hours beamships had been zipping in and out of the mass of the convoy, not following any particular course. The communications challenges had also grown more frequent and fervent. Adam had moved the stolen starship gradually toward the outer edge of the massive fleet, preparing to make a run for it if need be. Even if no hostiles approached, they were fast approaching the time when they would leave the fleet rather than follow it through the portal and into another foreign dimension.

A fight was coming.

“Units lining up for an approach, Captain,” Connors called out from the nav station. “They’re being subtle about it, but there’s definitely a noose tightening around us.”

“This was expected,” Adam announced to the bridge crew. With only eight men left in his team, they were all in the room, stern-faced and square-jawed.

“Any place we can hide once we break away, Mr. Connors?”

“Doesn’t look like it. There’s only one stellar system ahead of us—the one with the portal—and just open space around us for about four light-years in any direction.”

Riyad stepped up to Adam’s command chair and leaned in close. “Maybe we waited a little too long to make our getaway,” he whispered.

“When you’re surrounded by five thousand alien spaceships…when has there been a better time? And unfortunately, we’re in a clone of the rest of these ships, so we have no advantage there. I was hoping we could have delayed the inevitable until most of the fleet was through the portal and in another universe. That may not be the case now.”

“Hopefully the bulk of the fleet will have schedules to meet and won’t join in the pursuit,” Chief Foster offered.

“Mr. Johnson, how much of an initial thrust can we expect out of this piece of shit?”

“As we’ve experienced in battles back in the Milky Way, these ships aren’t true warships. They rely on their beams to subdue an enemy, so speed isn’t a necessity, and neither is powerful weapons. We’ll crawl out of here at barely twenty light.”

“Movement, sir,” Connors reported. “They’re circling around in front of us.”

“Ready on weapons, Mac. They’ll probably try bombarding us with their beams before engaging. Might as well give them what they’re expecting.”

“Play dead?” Riyad asked.

“While limping away on autopilot. If they figure we can’t mount a defense, then maybe the rest of the fleet with continue on with their mission. Then once we get enough separation, we’ll blast our way out and head for the stars.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“It’s a gift.”

Riyad frowned. “You know our dampening belts are just about out of juice. We hadn’t planned on being here this long. This will be our last gasp using them.”

“So let’s make it count. Mr. Anderson, on my command steer left forty-five degrees relative at full power. Once the beams hit, reduce power by fifty percent and begin a slight rotation. Make them think we’re all off in la-la land. Ready…execute!”

The star field through the forward viewport streaked away to the right, and then steadied up. “Here they come,” Connors reported.

“How many?”

“Ten of the scaly bastards.”

The Humans aboard the stolen starship felt the onset of pressure headaches as the Sol-Kor pulse beams hit. Anderson slowed the ship, and then the star field outside began to wobble, in sync with the slow spin he was creating.

“They’re slowing, Captain,” Connors reported. “Half are peeling off and returning to the convoy.”

“That still leaves five of the bastards. ETA to contact?”

“They’re a cocky bunch, aren’t they?” Connors said. “And taking their sweet ol’ time closing on us. We should be a couple of light-years from the fleet by the time they reach us. I estimate contact…eight minutes.”

“Get ready on the weapons, Mac. Anderson, gun it as soon as we engage. We’ll fight our way out of the area.”

The next seven minutes crawled by, until the first two beamships were within weapons range.

Connors was shaking his head. “No screens yet…idiots.”

“Be thankful for that, Mike,” Adam said. “Wait until all five are in range. Then raise the shields and fire.”

“Problem, sir,” Johnson said from his place at weapons control next to MacTavish.

“What’s that?”

“Only four weapons banks, two starboard, two port.”

“Do the best you can, L.T. Hopefully our shields will hold until we can target the fifth ship.”

“Thirty seconds until they’ll all be in range.”

“Get ready, men. It’s going to get rough from here on out.”

“As if it’s been a walk in the park until now,” someone said from another section of the bridge.”

The seconds clicked off—and then…

“Shields! Fire!”

Brilliant pulses of light lit up the bridge through the viewport, accompanied by simultaneous jerks as bolts of plasma erupted from the weapons batteries. The bolts closed the distance in a split second, each battery unleashing a circular spread to catch any fast-reacting pilots from escaping.

The alien ships were displayed on the main screen as graphic representations, since they were still out of visual range. The onboard computers simulated the bolts contacting the unshielded hulls of the first four beamships, showing them passing cleanly through the relatively thin metal skin. Pressure explosions blew out, star-hot plasma filling the ships, incinerating everything in its path. Within ten seconds of initiating the battle, four enemy ships were dead in the water.

Lieutenant Johnson now focused his attention on the remaining beamship, but it was too late. Shields had been raised, and the next barrage of bolts sent out from the Human’s captured starship was absorbed by the energy grid of the enemy vessel. Return bolts flared out, impacting the shields on their ship as well.

And then the chase was on.

Anderson sent maximum power to the gravity generators, pulling the ship forward at maximum acceleration. The gravity wells created by beamships were of a lower intensity than were the Klin-designed propulsion drives, but they operated on the same principle. Adam’s stolen vessel slipped just inside the event horizon, pulled ever-forward by the series of miniature blackholes created by the generators. Space around the ship wasn’t as distorted as it was with Klin drives, and the men on the bridge could clearly detect the Sol-Kor ship trailing behind them, matching their speed exactly.

“Anyone else coming to the party, Mike?”

“It looks like it, Captain, but they’re pretty far off. And all things being equal, they won’t catch up to us…unless we run out of fuel first.”

“Mr. Anderson, bring us over toward that system off to starboard. We don’t want to get too far off track to check the other portals. We might be able to find some cover there.”

“Unless that’s a Sol-Kor stronghold as well.”

“Damn, hadn’t thought of that. We are in their neighborhood, after all. Keep a sharp eye out for any far-off gravity sigs. We may have to alter course if we find any.”

“All seems clear, at least for now.”

“Good. Time to the next array along the line?”

Connors checked his readings. “Seven hours at our present speed, and then about seven hours each after that.”

“We’re almost there, boys. One of these other portals is the doorway home. Stay frosty.”

Chapter 20

The stolen beamship entered the space of a small yellow star with their single pursuer only forty-eight seconds behind. So far, no other enemy gravity signatures had been detected within the system, which seemed odd for being this close to Kor.

There were six major planets in the system, including four gas giants and two rocky worlds closer in. Long range scanning showed that the second planet from the star was an Earth-like world, complete with blue oceans, white clouds, a magnetic field, and an atmosphere that could support Human life. As they sped closer, Connors became curious enough to aim the long range cameras toward the surface. What they saw at first was encouraging. There were cities and huge communities scattered throughout the more temperate latitudes.

In order to evade the enemy beamship. Anderson skirted the atmosphere and swung around to the far side of the planet, losing sight of the other ship, if only momentarily. That’s when they got their best look at the cities far below.

This close in, they saw a different picture. The cities were dead, just vast ruins that looked to be thousands of years old, covered with overgrowth, with only their tallest, strongest spires still recognizable. Instantly, the crew knew what had happened. This world had been harvested, probably among the first to suffer such a fate when the ravenous Sol-Kor left their home planet to seek food in other star systems.

That was why no Sol-Kor bothered with this system. It had already been picked clean and discarded, billions of sentient beings having been consumed.

Adam’s temper flared. He knew the Earth was destined for same fate if the Sol-Kor had their way. The aliens were relentless, their numbers too great. They would succeed eventually if something wasn’t done to stop them.

“Let’s make a stand here,” he said to the room. “Besides, we can’t make too much progress surveying the other portals with that asshole on our tail.”

“Any ideas how, sir?” Neo asked.

“Once we get down in the atmosphere, gravity drive goes away for all intents and purposes. Then it’s just pilot skill that matters.”

“Gee, thanks, sir. It’s not like I’ve a lot of experience in one of these ships.”

“The Sol-Kor are basic and unimaginative, and I’m sure they’ve never played a video game in their lives. Let’s rip up some sky and make them regret getting up this morning.”

“Do Sol-Kor sleep? I don’t recall if they do or not.”

“They’ll take the long nap after we’re done with them,” MacTavish said from his weapons station.

“Find us some deep canyons, Mr. Connors, someplace we can show them what real piloting is all about.”

“There you go again,” Anderson said. “Nothing like putting pressure on me.”

“Relax. You’ll do fine, Mr. Anderson.”

“Come right forty degrees,” Connors said. “In about five hundred miles there’s a large rift or river valley. Should be a lot of canyons in there.”

The pilot cracked his knuckles and gripped the steering column with both hands. “Here we go. I’m reducing speed to lure the bastard in. Keep our ass shields up, Mac. I plan on drawing him in real close. And by the way…they call me Neo!”

Adam grinned, recalling another time in a faraway universe. The Matrix had always been one of his favorite movie series. Obviously it was Anderson’s as well.

Moments later, the beamship dropped between two craggy cliffs made of stratified red, brown, and gray rock. At this point the canyon was about a mile wide, but the sides closed in rapidly to only a few hundred yards across. Then a rogue stone spire appeared on the left side, just around a sharp bend.

The enemy beamship had fallen out of orbit and followed the Humans into the canyon having found it nearly impossible to track the ship from above with it deep in a relatively narrow crevasse. They slowed as the opening narrowed, but as Neo jerked the column to the right and had to back off himself to avoid hitting the outcropping, the enemy ship gunned it and closed to visual weapons range. They fired.

“Crap!”

The flash bolt impacted the rear screens; it was absorbed, but not before transferring some of its kinetic energy to the forward motion of the Human’s ship. They surged forward, directly toward the side of the canyon.

Neo turned the ship on its side just as they felt a jolt on their right. Mac had fired into the side of the cliff—not more than thirty meters away—and the reciprocal push from the flash bolt helped shift the craft sideways more than the engines alone were capable of doing. It was just enough. They missed the jagged rocks by the skin on their teeth, sending out a blinding cloud of red dust behind them.

“Thanks, Mac. That was some quick thinking.”

The big officer was too busy to reply, planning for more course-altering flash bolts should they be necessary.

The canyon widened, and the pair of spacecraft dropped down, skimming over a wide, brown river. The path of the waterway had carved the canyon, and it soon began to meander back and forth through a series of sharp turns. Neo was getting the feel of the ship now and seemed to be enjoying pitching the vessel back and forth around the turns.

“You’re losing them!” Adam shouted.

“I thought that was the idea.”

“If we do that, they’ll just pop back into space and wait for reinforcements. Let them think they can finish us off here.”

Anderson visibly pouted. “Sir, yes sir.”

He slowed, allowing the Sol-Kor vessel to come within firing range again. This time the bolts missed as Neo continued his swinging motion back and forth across the canyon opening.

“Did any of you see the movie Independence Day?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, I did…I think,” Mac answered.

“Me too,” Connors answered. “On one of the oldies stations.”

“How about you, Neo?”

“Can’t say I have. What about it?”

“In the movie this same thing is happening, and then they come to a sheer cliff. Hero goes vertical and the bad guys slam into the side of the cliff.”

“Sounds like fun, but what’s to guarantee we can go vertical enough to avoid the same fate?”

“Mac’s flash bolts, that’s what. Load up, Mr. MacTavish. As we draw close, unleash some bolts at the sides of the cliff. Stir up some dust so the scaly bastards behind us won’t be able to see.”

“Roger that,” Mac replied. “Now all we need is a cliff to steer them into.”

The one thing a Grand Canyon-like, six hundred kilometer-long river canyon has a lot of is an abundance of sheer cliffs. After one particularly radical turn, the team spotted one such barrier further along the riverbed. Their view of it became blocked at another turn, but they knew it was coming, just before the river shifted abruptly to the left.

The ship buffeted to the left and right as Mac began bombarding each side of the canyon with flash bolts. In space, these small shifts in position from the reciprocal force of the bolt launches were not an issue, but in the narrow confines of the canyon they could be catastrophic. Fortunately, each jolt to one side was quickly compensated for by another to the opposite side, and Neo was able to maintain some semblance of steering control.

The onslaught of bolts striking the red clay and rock of the cliffs was shrouding the canyon in a thick cloud of red dust. The enemy craft had closed on them and was matching the stolen beamship’s movements to keep from impacting the canyon walls.

Then Adam saw the cliff dead ahead. They would be on it in three seconds. “Now, Mac!”

This time the released bolts were forward and down from the path of the ship. The resulting reaction, along with Neo pulling all the way back on the stick, sent the beamship on a hockey-stick path upwards, toward the white clouds above. The bolts struck the cliff wall beside them, plunging the ship into its own cloud of red dust, obscuring their view.

Breathing stopped, as the commandos weren’t certain if they would clear the top of the cliff. Even as they rose higher, more dust, rock and debris was drawn from the wall, and then even more as the soil near the summit became looser.

Then they burst out of the cloud, already several hundred meters above the high plain surrounding the deep river canyon. Breathing resumed.

On an exterior camera, looking straight down at the rapidly shrinking canyon below, the men witnessed a thunderous explosion rivaling a small nuclear blast. A cloud of fire and rust-colored dust climbed skyward, chasing the fleeing starship, but they were traveling too fast to be caught.

From this vantage point, they saw where an entire section of the cliff face had been blown out, forming a wide semi-circle in the side of the canyon. As they climbed higher and further away, the cloud below them began to dissipate, with no pursuit emerging from the red haze.

“Great job, everyone!” Adam cried out.

None of the men acknowledged his compliment. They hunched over their controls or consoles and took in several deep breaths.

Eventually, Neo Anderson did reply: “I know the good guys are always supposed to win these things, but it was still pretty intense from where I sat.” He craned his neck to look back at Adam. “What now, sir?”

“Let’s find a place here to power down for a while. Let them think we were also destroyed in the crash. If we head back into space, we’ll be a lot easier to spot.”

“In one of those old cities?”

“Sound good. Should be plenty of places to hide. Once we cut power we’ll be impossible to find. Mike, lead us to the closest one.”

********

Fourteen minutes later, the stolen beamship was gliding through wide, overgrown avenues of a once thriving metropolis, appearing to be several thousand years old. This world had been teeming with an advanced civilization around the same time mud huts were being constructed along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates in ancient Mesopotamia. Now the creatures who built this vast city—and thousands of others—were gone, victims of the Sol-Kor’s insatiable appetite. And considering how advanced the race appeared to have been at the time, the invaders probably savored the exceptional quality of the native brain matter as they feasted on the billions of doomed souls.  

The demise of this race was a tragedy in its own right, but Adam knew they were only one of literally millions of other worlds sterilized by the Sol-Kor. What magnificent contributions could these people—and so many others like them—have made if only given the chance to survive?

The gravity on this world was near what would be termed Juir standard, or about three-quarters Earth. As a consequence, the natives were probably taller than Humans, and their buildings reflected this. Adam soon found the remains of a huge covered stadium. A section of the ancient roof had caved in eons ago, and Neo guided the ship through the opening and set it down at the far end of the field, nearly lost in the overgrowth of tall weeds.

They quickly powered down, reducing their energy signature to virtually zero, undetectable unless an enemy starship was a hundred meters or less directly overhead. As the generators wound down and fell silent, the strike team got their first chance to relax after six long, harrowing days.

Chapter 21

Adam was the only one on the bridge, the rest of the crew having gone aft for food or sleep, when it dawned on him that they had left Earth only six days ago—and five of the six days had been spent in space, sitting on pins and needles as part of a fleet of five thousand enemy starships.

Stunned by that thought, in the dim light of the bridge, Adam had time to reflect and think back to his days as a Navy SEAL. Even then he’d marveled at the sudden changes of venue he and his teammates went through on a regular basis, something no ordinary civilian could comprehend. On so many occasions he’d be called away at a moment’s notice from his home in Virginia Beach to board a cargo plane or jet destined for some foreign war zone. The team would routinely strike out on their missions—some lasting only a couple of days, others for several weeks—and it was the shorter missions that jolted his senses the most. He could be shopping at the Lynnhaven Mall one day, get called out, and be back four days later, having traveled halfway around the world to end the life of some bad guy, or save the life of another. To the people in the mall around him, they couldn’t conceive of  the visions he carried in his mind as he scanned the clothing racks at Penney’s, or the tastes, smells, and feelings he’d experienced only hours before.

Now here he was in another universe—as inconceivable as that might sound—in a city built five thousand years ago by a race of dead aliens, attempting to avoid death or capture by yet another alien race. After twenty years of adventures among the stars, Adam still found it mind-boggling.

 “Here, take this.”

Adam was jolted out of reverie by Riyad’s voice next to him, and he nearly fell out of the command chair.

Riyad began laughing hysterically. “The big, bad Adam Cain almost crapped his pants. Jumpy, are we?”

“Don’t sneak up on someone like that!”

“Sneak? I’m carrying two M-91 assault rifles. I’ve been banging them against the metal walls all the way up here. That would hardly qualify as sneaking.”

Adam looked at the rifles. “What’s going on?”

“I’m going outside to stretch my legs. Thought you might like to tag along.”

“Why the weapons? This is a dead world.”

“Never leave home without it, that’s why. The advanced species may have been wiped out, but not the lions, tigers and bears, oh my. You coming or not?”

********

The air outside was amazingly fresh, the result of thousands of years of having no industrial pollution escaping into the atmosphere. The landing jets had burned away a patch of the overgrowth around the ship. Beyond that, terraced rows of deteriorating seats climbed toward the crumbling ceiling of the amphitheater. The pair of Humans found an opening in the wall surrounding the playing field and began to carefully climb the cracked concrete steps to higher ground.

It was good to get out and stretch his legs, and the air was incredible, reminding him of his Lake Tahoe home, what was left of it. He knew he’d rebuild—eventually—but not before the Sol-Kor crisis was over. In a fit of melancholy, he punctuated the thought with: If ever…

“You know,” said Riyad, “I’ve been thinking about what we’ve learned about the portal distribution in Sol-Kor space.” They reached the highest level in the stadium and paused to look down on the alien spaceship below, completely out of place in the soft light of the arena. Through dozens of cracks in the stadium’s ceiling, rays of yellow light extended to the surface, like glowing support pillars for the dome.

“What about it?”

“If there’s only one portal on this side supplying our universe, all we have to do is take out the master portal and there’d be no way for the SK to reach us. And Tobias controls a portal on our side.”

“So he mounts an invasion, takes out the array, and then gets back before the door closes?”

“Again, you make it sound so simple.”

“Let’s hope he waits until we’re through before he does that. Otherwise we’re screwed nine ways to Sunday.”

“What exactly does that mean, anyway?”

“It means my dad had a million offbeat sayings that now I’ve got polluting my brain.” Then he turned serious. “There’s no way Andy could realize what he has. Up until a couple of days ago, we figured each portal on our side had a matching one over here. Who would’ve guessed the Sol-Kor would put all their eggs in one basket?”

“And he’s probably just waiting on the other side, thinking we can make the jump from any number of TD portals on this side.”

“Maybe we could take out the portal just before we pass through, set a timer and then beat feet for home.”

Riyad laughed. “Sure, the eight of us going up against the one central portal leading to any entire universe. I’m sure the one on this side is proportionally larger than their little satellite stations in our galaxy.”

“Riyad, my old friend, after all these years I’d thought you’d come to realize that size doesn’t matter.”

“You mean the size of the team, right?”

“Whatever. What I mean is that—once again—we have the element of surprise on our side.”

“Surprise can only go—”

They didn’t see the net falling from above until it draped over their heads. Then the edge was pulled out under them, tripping them, coarse rope wrapping tightly around their bodies. Adam fought to bring his M-91 around from behind him, but it got caught in the rope of the net. Riyad wasn’t haven’t any better luck.

Several dark figures hovered over them, just as thick, black shadows descended from above. Something hard struck Adam in the head. He fell on his face to the dirt covering the concrete landing. Another barrage of heavy blows followed. Two of the clubs shattered, but there were enough backups to complete the job.

His vision turned from blurry to black, and he heard a strange grunting…just before passing out.

********

As always, the first thing Adam noticed upon regaining consciousness was the smell. It was sickly sweet, but also smoky. Through his eyelids he could see light in the room, but not much. He assessed his injuries before opening his eyes. Except for an excruciating headache, lessened he was sure by the pain meds still in his system as a counter to the injury to his side, he appeared to be unharmed.

He narrowly opened his eyes.

The reaction was immediate and substantial. Several creatures began scrambling around the low-ceiled room, grabbing long clubs from along the walls and cradling them menacingly in thick, filthy hands.

Their attention shifted to Adam’s right, as Riyad was also coming to. A quick count placed their captors at fifteen or so, and they weren’t Sol-Kor. That was the good news. The bad news was that two of the creatures, who he assumed were natives of this planet, had their M-91’s and were curiously fiddling with them.

“I’d be careful with those. They can kill,” Adam said, knowing his words would be incomprehensible to these creatures. It was a pretty good bet the bulk of their ancestors had been harvested long before translation devices became the norm.

Adam pushed himself up into a sitting position, his hands tied in front of him. Rookies. No one ties hands in front anymore. This information could come in handy.

“You okay?” he asked Riyad.

He nodded, although the deep frown on his tanned forehead said otherwise. Blood caked the right side of his face.

Adam turned his attention to the natives. He had been wrong about the natives. They weren’t exceptional tall, but slightly shorter than Humans and with stocky builds. They were remarkably Human-like, with the requisite four-fingered hands with opposable thumbs, indicative of advanced species; two eyes, two arms, and two legs. They wore animal skin wraps around their waists and ponchos over the torso. The men were unshaven, while the few women in the room had long, greasy hair.

They looked like a tribe of Neanderthals.

One elderly native stepped forward. He had a calm demeanor and unafraid eyes.

“Sil-ka,” he said, pointing to Adam.

Adam knew immediately what he said, and shook his head emphatically. “No sil-ka. Human.”

“Sil-ka. Sil-ka!” Then the native flattened out his right hand and began to slide it through the air, lowering it slowly to the ground.

Again Adam shook his head. Although his hands were tied he was still able to mirror the hand signals. “Sil-ka ship, no Sil-ka.” He balled a fist and then struggled with the rope binds to bang it against his open palm. “Human…” He clenched his teeth in a display of animal anger. “Sil-ka!” He continued to hit his other hand until he bent forward and placed his hands on the ground, opening his balled fist and turning it palm up, the universal single for death—or at least he hoped it was universal in this universe.

The old native stood back, his blue eyes scrutinizing Adam.

Another native pointed at the two Humans and began rambling in their language. The older creature barked back before shoving him aside. Then he looked hard at Adam and Riyad again.

Eventually, the gray-haired native pursed his lips. With a look that could only be described as disappointment, he stepped up to Adam. “Cala…no…sil-ka.” He spoke the word no with emphasis. He was a quick study.

This time Adam nodded. He motioned with his tied hands at Riyad and himself. “No sil-ka.” Then he extended his hands forward, palms up and open. “Friends,” he said.

“They have no friends,” a voice said from the shadows.

Adam and Riyad jerked their heads in the direction of the voice. Two more natives had appeared at an entrance, each holding an emaciated Sol-Kor by the arm.

The alien was hustled in and placed on the ground next to the leader, who without provocation lashed out and kicked the SK in the side. The captive buckled over before painfully regaining his posture.

The native spoke to his prisoner. The Sol-Kor then turned to Adam. “He wants to know who you are, and why you have come in a Sol-Kor spacecraft.”

“Tell him we killed the crew and stole the ship from Kor.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes it is. Now tell him.”

The Sol-Kor talked with the native back and forth for a while. “He asks if you caused the explosion at the canyon earlier.”

“Yes, we did. It happened when we destroyed another Sol-Kor spaceship that had been following us. Tell him we are his friends.”

“They do not trust outsiders.”

“Can you blame them?” Riyad said. His eyes still looked pained and uncertain. He might have suffered a concussion during the attack. Adam needed to resolve this quickly and get him back to the ship for medical care.

Five minutes later, the bindings had been removed from their hands and the two Humans moved to recover their weapons. The natives pulled away and said something to their leader.

Adam addressed the prisoner. “Tell him we need those back. They are what we use to kill Sol-Kor, and they are dangerous unless you know how to use them.”

The Sol-Kor prisoner didn’t speak, prompting Adam to step over and plant his own booted foot into the alien’s side. He was careful not to hit him too hard, but even then he cried out in pain and fell over, remaining there with his eyes squeezed shut.

“Tell him!”

The prisoner began to speak. When he was done, the leader yelled at his underlings and the weapons were handed over. The safety on his rifle had been turned off; he quickly set it again.

“You don’t look too good, Riyad. I think they really did a number on you.”

“You may be right. Everything’s spinning.”

“Hang in there a little longer.”

Adam turned to the Sol-Kor. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you do a good enough job the first time you came to the planet?”

“We monitor this world periodically. My crew and ship were captured. I am the last survivor.”

Adam smiled. “These creature obviously have a long memory.”

“Yes, they do. They apparently relate past events through songs and stories. They are aware of what happened here, and who did it.”

“Serves you right. Hopefully, when your usefulness is gone, these creature will have you for dinner.”

“They didn’t eat the other members of my crew. They made sport of them.”

“And why are you still alive.”

“I am of an intelligence class that has been trained to speak their language. As I said, we monitor this world. Eventually the population may grow to the point where a second harvest would be possible, especially since this planet is so close to Kor. But who are you? I have not seen your stock before.”

“We’re Humans from U-5,” Adam answered. Then his smile turned even more sinister. “And you may find this interesting: we have just killed your Eternal Queen and all her Royal Zygotes. There are no more female Sol-Kor to carry on your species. The Sol-Kor—unlike the natives of this planet—are destined for extinction. How do you like them apples?”

The Sol-Kor stared at Adam, silent for several seconds. “This is not true.”

“Sorry, bub, but it is. We stole the mainship from Kor after wasting the bitch. And now we’re about to return to U-5 victorious, while your disgusting race begins its long slide into oblivion.”

 The native leader was watching his prisoner carefully, noticing the look of terror on his face following Adam’s indecipherable comments. He said something to the SK.

When he didn’t answer, the native kicked him in the ribcage again. This time the Sol-Kor barely noticed. He continued to stare at Adam.

The leader yelled again, and finally the SK spoke, but without taking his eyes off Adam.

When he was done, it was the native’s turn for his jaw to hang slack and stare at the prisoner. He turned to Adam, a glint in his eye. He closed his mouth and grinned wide, stepped up to Adam and grasped his forearms, opening his mouth to say something but found it difficult to form the words. Then it came, the words as clear as day.

“J’nae…friends.”

********

Before Riyad and Adam were escorted back to the beamship, the Sol-Kor prisoner had fallen completely catatonic. When he failed to respond to kicks or verbal abuse, the native leader concluded he had lost his usefulness. With a single sweep of a long, hard blade made of polished metal reclaimed from a bygone era, he lopped off the alien’s head. The body—minus the head—was unceremoniously dumped in the street outside the building the natives called home. Adam didn’t see what became of the head, but he was sure there was a trophy room around somewhere where it would be prominently displayed, hopefully along with hundreds more.

Adam, Riyad, and the native entourage—along with their leader—entered the huge stadium at ground level and emerged on the playing field through a side entrance. The escorts left them at the sidelines, watching with weary eyes as the bulk of the team rushed up with weapons at the ready.

“Hold your fire, Chief,” Adam ordered. “They’re friends. Now get Riyad back to the ship as soon as possible. He’s suffered a concussion.”

The team rushed off toward the ship, leaving Adam to turn to the small gathering of natives standing twenty yards away. He saluted them. They looked at each other, confused. Adam just smiled and then turned away himself. He knew word of the Queen’s death would circulate around the planet, and maybe then the natives of this lovely world would begin to rebuild their society. In any event, Adam was sure the natives of the planet would outlive that of the evil Sol-Kor.

Poetic justice played out over five thousand years.

********

Lun Szy watched the aliens as they returned to the Sol-Kor ship, knowing that a meeting would have to be called among the Scribes. If the Queen was indeed dead, and the Sol-Kor sterile, this could be a major turning point for the Hal’ic people.

The escorts disappeared back into the dark corridors of the stadium, and once out of sight of the Humans, Lun removed the rough animal hide tunic and pulled the softer status robe from his pouch. Others around him were wiping the grit from their faces and replacing their own garments. A portal was nearby that would lead them below the surface, to the hidden chambers of the Hal’ics. The population would welcome this momentous news. It had been long in coming.

Lun hoped what the Humans had said was true. It had been five thousand years since the evil Sol-Kor had harvested their planet, and in all that time the survivors had remained hidden, knowing that the eaters could come again. With that veil lifted, could his people now return to the surface, to resume the civilization they maintained within the lower depths? Lun was cautious, yet hopeful.

Probes would be sent out to verify the information. Soon he would know the truth.

Chapter 22

“This one is different from the portals on our side.”

Admiral of the Fleet Andy Tobias frowned at the technician. “I know it’s a helluva lot bigger. Is that the extent of it?”

“No, sir. The control center is multi-faceted and more complicated than what we’re used to.”

“Can you work it or not?”

The tech was an ITC Specialist Senior Class, the highest there was. He matched the admiral’s frown. “We can turn it on and open an portal. With the current settings it’s linked to the one on our side, the one we control.”

“So what’s the problem? I thought that’s what it’s supposed to do.”

“It is, but from the look of things, it may be able to link with multiple portals.”

“In our universe or this one?”

“I don’t know, just that there’s control programming that suggests this one is capable of a lot more. The portal we control on the other side has just one location program installed. Here, I not only see a dozen specific entries, but the potential for adding hundreds more.”

Andy’s heart began to pound harder in his chest. “Are you implying this array is some kind of super array, a master TD portal?”

“There no other reason for having such redundancy or computing capability, not if all you want to do is link with only one portal. We know what those arrays look like.”

“Can you locate the other arrays they have programmed in?”

“Not yet. It’s still pretty much Greek to us for the most part, but we’re making progress.”

Andy nodded. “Very good, Mister Patel. Keep working on it.”

After he left the control complex, Andy returned to the shuttle he’d taken to the surface of the array planet from the Winston Churchill. He excused a comm tech and sat down at the console himself. He programmed in a CW link code and waited for the signal to cycle through the relay that had been set up in Sol-Kor space near the open portal. The delay was only slightly longer than normal, and soon an image appeared on the screen, the image of another JUDS officer a universe away.

“Andy, I wasn’t expecting your link,” said the officer, a look of concern on his face. “We’ll have to keep it brief. The whole Union is out for your ass, or at least the pinheads running things.”

“I understand, Evan, and I certainly wouldn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize your career.”

Rear Admiral Evan Benson was one of Andy’s oldest friends, and was commander of the Union Intelligence Service—essentially what had once been the CIA. Andy had contacted him through a secure backdoor comm-link, one that should be completely unmonitored, especially considering Benson’s job. But with the political turmoil in the Union, all prior associates of Andy’s were probably under surveillance.

“So what’s up?”

“Do you have an accounting of the SK activity at their other portals, the ones not controlled by either us or the Expansion?”

“I do. We have the locations of eight under SK control, monitored by drones and other methods.”

“Anything unusual over the past couple of weeks?”

“Unusual, what do you mean?”

“Their activity level—any change?”

“I don’t know. Let me check.” Andy waited as Benson pulled up the latest data on his office computer. It didn’t take long before he was back on the link.

“How did you know? There’s been a complete lack of portal activity over the past eight days, at least as far as we can tell.”

“At all the locations?”

“Yep, which looking at the timeline report is completely out of order. Up until then they’d been flooding the galaxy with reinforcements. They know we can track their portals so they’ve been stacking the deck in their favor. Andy, you obviously had some idea what I’d find. How?”

“I’ve been talking with the techs over here at the portal we control in Sol-Kor space, and they seem to believe this may be some kind of super portal array.”

“One that can control all the others?”

“Maybe not like that, but a central point linked to all the others in the Milky Way.”

“Holy crap, do you know what you’re saying?” Benson exclaimed. “We always assumed there was a matching array on their side for every one here. But if there’s only one—”

“And we control it.”

“I repeat—holy crap! This could be the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for. This is great news!”

“Yes…and no.”

“What do you mean?”

Andy blew out a breath. “It means that if this is their only way into the Milky Way, then they’re certainly not going to let me keep it for long.”

“Then blow up the fucker!”

“Then I cut off the only way for Cain and his team to make it back to our universe.”

“I thought they were going to use the portal in the Queen’s Chambers, like before?”

“The mission was launched six days ago, Evan, and they’re not back yet. I have to assume that part of the plan is a bust.”

Evan Benson eyed his long-time friend, knowing his feelings for Adam Cain. “It could also mean the mission itself failed. Have you considered that? And if that’s the case, how long are you going to wait before doing what you know you have to do, especially in light of this new information?”

“That will be up to the Sol-Kor. So far they haven’t made any attempt to retake the portal, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. It’s a given they have a lot more resources to throw into the effort than we have to keep it.”

“Maybe Osbourne will give you more support, once he learns that you have?”

Andy shook his head. “No, he’d order it destroyed just to force me back over to his side where he can deal with my traitorous ass as he sees fit. Damn, Evan, we barely had enough units to take the portal in the first place, let alone defend our position against an overwhelming force.”

“It sounds like your mind is pretty well made up, buddy.”

Tobias’s gaunt face nodded while looking off-camera. “You’re right,” he said after a moment. He looked back into the sad eyes of his friend. “I’ll place the charges, but hold off until the alien bastards leave me no choice.”

“Andy, Cain’s mission was designed to stop the Sol-Kor by cutting off the head of the snake. He may have done that, we don’t know. But one thing we do know—and evidenced by the data—we could accomplish the same thing simply by blowing up the damn portal array. If Cain was in command, he’d do it.”

“I know, Evan, you plain-speaking sonofabitch. I don’t even know why I called you in the first place?”

“Because you miss me, that’s why,” Benson said with a forced smile. “Just blow the thing. Then when the galaxy learns what you’ve done and its consequences, it’ll be pretty hard for Osbourne to prosecute the officer who won the Sol-Kor war for our side. I’ll do what I can to make sure the word gets out.”

“I appreciate that, Evan, but for now keep it under wraps. I’m still going to give Adam as much time as I can. Then I’ll blow the crap out of this place.”

Chapter 23

Adam and the team remained on the planet for another twenty-four hours before venturing back into space. Even then they went slowly, employing the shallowest gravity well capable of reaching orbit. Then they powered down again and monitored the surrounding system, looking for any trace of enemy beamships still lurking around.

When nothing was detected, Adam ordered Neo Anderson to resume course for the next portal array in line.

A cautious twelve hours later, the stolen beamship showed up on-station only to find a huge TD portal array—larger than any they’d even seen—yet with a low-level of activity surrounding it. Array command challenged the beamship when they entered the system, and after employing the scratching microphone technique again, they slipped away without being followed.

It was on the journey to the next array that things got really interesting.

“It could just be a convoy heading for another galaxy,” Riyad said, as the team huddled before a mass of contacts on the nav screen. The alien Harix was with them.

“Can you tell if that’s the case?” Adam asked him.

“This fleet is twice the size of a harvesting fleet. And the contact intensity is different.”

“Explain.”

“These lower readings indicate smaller ships than harvesters. Over three-quarters of a harvest fleet is made up of harvesters. That’s why it’s called a harvester fleet.”

The alien had become used to Adam fawning over him, even if his compliments weren’t sincere. Adam kept up the charade so Harix would spill his guts about everything he knew. Still, at times the alien went overboard.

“So a bunch of smaller ships,” Riyad said, confused. “Is that a problem?”

“These carry the signatures of mainships and other suppressor vessels.”

“Designed to fight, not to harvest,” Adam stated.

“That would be correct.”

“Thank you, Havic,” Adam said. “You’ve done well. Now please return to the others.”

The alien beamed at the Humans before being escorted back to the makeshift jail aboard the beamship. He might be cooperating, but Adam still didn’t trust him, and wouldn’t allow him to roam the ship on his own.

When Harix was gone, Adam looked at the others. “This looks like our portal, boys, and either the SK are gearing up to retake the ones we’ve captured in the Milky Way, or all these warships are on the way to beef up their forces through the portals they still control.”

“Why can’t we just merge with the fleet and pass through to our side?” Connors asked. “We’d be just one of ten thousand ships. Then once we’re over, we quietly slip away.”

“That’s our only option, even though we could end up anywhere in the galaxy.”

“At least we’ll be in our universe.”

“Such a massive gravity signature was easy for us to spot this far out. Let’s hope they haven’t paid too much attention to a single ship four light-years away. Mr. Anderson, move us in closer. Connors, be on the lookout for any hostile action. We definitely can’t afford to have a fleet that big on our tail if we’re found out.”

Mike Connors was right. With ten thousand Sol-Kor ships in the fleet, including an estimated eighty-two hundred beamships, one more joining up didn’t raise any alarms, or at least as far as they could tell. But then the complexion of the fleet changed the closer they came to the location on screen for the next portal array.

The massive grouping slowed, and then began to divide up.

“What are they doing?” asked Riyad.

Adam shook his head.

“I can tell you what they’re not doing,” Connors blurted. “They’re not heading straight there. They seem to be encircling it.”

Adam’s jaw fell open. He stood up from the command chair and Riyad, who had been leaning against the right armrest, pulled away. “What’s wrong?”

“A lot…or nothing. I don’t know,” Adam replied. “But I tell you one thing, you don’t encircle a strategic location that you have under your control, only those you don’t.”

“You think Tobias has control of the portal on this side?”

“Possibly. Why else would the SK be positioning themselves like this? As a master portal, they would have access to any of the gateways in the Milky Way, including all those they still control. They could pass right through without slowing down.”

Adam turned to Adrian Kaczynski, the last UTC specialist on the team. “You have the CW contact info for the admiral?”

“Yessir. I have it memorized.”

“If we open a link from here, could the SK trace it?”

Wizard Kaczynski grimaced. “I don’t see how they couldn’t. There are comms filling space as we speak, but one beamed to an unrecorded address would probably set off alarms. It would in our fleets.”

“Mike, can we get ahead of the SK, get to the portal before they do?”

“Jesus, Captain, we’re about two-thirds back right now, and they’re establishing a no-man’s-land around the portal planet of about half-a-light. We’d be shot out of the air by either party if we attempt to cross. And that’s assuming we’re allowed to accelerate through this traffic to take a lead position. If we attract too much attention, they may turn their beams on us.”

Adam grimaced. Their beam neutralizing belts had gone dry two days ago and were now useless against the Sol-Kor’s main weapon against them.

“We have to get through,” Mac MacTavish said softly. “Otherwise we’re fucked.”

All eyes turned to Adam. He hated this part of command, when the truly momentous decisions had to be made.

“They’re going to retake the portal—if Andy truly is in control and doesn’t destroy it first. There’s no way he could stand against a force this large.”

“Captain, we have to try,” Mac said, desperation in his voice. If Tobias destroyed the portal before they could pass through, they’d be trapped in the SK universe forever.

Adam nodded. “Mr. Johnson, get the CW code from Wizard and have it ready. If we can’t make it through to the leading edge of the fleet, we’ll call Andy and let him know what’s coming his way. The bottom line is we can’t let the SK control the portal array. We may have to destroy it ourselves if Tobias can’t.”

Adam heard Riyad laugh. “There you go again,” Riyad said with a wide smile. “If Admiral Tobias and his entire fleet can’t destroy the portal, then dammit, the eight of us will just have to do it ourselves.”

“You see a problem with that?” Adam asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Not at all. I’m just wondering why we even have to bother Andy and his starships in the first place.”

“C’mon, Riyad, we can’t do everything ourselves. Occasionally we do need to leave some of the glory for others.”

He addressed his pilot. “Begin a slow but steady maneuvering closer to the leading units, Neo. But don’t box us in. We may need a clear path out of here if the shit hits the fan.”

********

Neo did an incredible job of moving through the cloud of enemy vessels without attracting any attention. Now they were along the front line of a large section of the fleet that had moved to port before fanning out to cover the quadrant.

“I’m picking up chatter, Captain,” Lieutenant Johnson reported from the comm console. “They’re reporting at least a dozen scout ships have been detected, all scrambling back toward the array planet.”

“Well, that confirms it. Andy’s in charge.” Adam felt sick to his stomach. He knew his old SEAL commander had taken the portal array as a means of providing the team with a way back home in case their other options fell through. He had no idea how many lives it had cost, but it had to be more than twelve—the number of people originally in Adam’s team. In the end, the attack on the SK portal would turn out to be a coup, one that could end the war right here and now. The aliens would undoubtedly build another array, and with the coordinates would be able to make contact with all the arrays still active in the Milky Way. But by then—without constant reinforcements—all the Sol-Kor portals in the galaxy could be either destroyed or captured.

The only thing that could screw up the incredible stroke of luck Tobias had fallen into was if he elected not to destroy the array, leaving it intact, hoping that someday Adam and the team would make it through. Unless Adam could make a mad dash for the portal right now, he couldn’t leave Andy with that option. The array had to be destroyed. Period.

“Sir, we’ve got company.”

Adam rushed over to Conner’s nav console. Riyad was already there.

“What’s happening?”

“Well, they were challenging the hell out of us, then it suddenly ended about ten minutes ago. I was hoping they’d just let it go, but it looks like the bastards have put two and two together.”

“They may have also received a warning from Kor and the other fleet to be on the lookout for a rogue beamship with a busted comm unit,” Riyad said.

“They’re definitely taking notice,” Connors continued, “even moving a few units into the buffer zone ahead of us.”

Adam stood up straight, continuing to stare at the nav screen. He was half a light-year away from the gateway that could take the team home. Yet for all intents and purposes it could be a million light-years away. He needed to either order a full-on rush for the portal or a mad dash from the fleet. He knew the Sol-Kor commander’s priority would be to secure the portal, not splinter his fleet in pursuit of a lone beamship.

“Plot a course out of here, Neo. Mr. Johnson, I’m going to need that link.”

Two simultaneous “Yes, sirs” filled the bridge.

“Plotted.”

“Link ready to be initiated.”

“Get ready, Neo. Once the transmission is traced back to here, that’ll be it.”

“Do it, sir,” MacTavish said. “It’s more important to save home than it is to save us.”

“Thanks for that, Ensign. All right, Rock, do it!”

“Link open. Waiting for contact.”

On a screen to the left of the huge forward viewport, an image suddenly appeared, the gaunt face and bald head of Admiral Andy Tobias.

“No time, Captain,” he said hurriedly. “Get your ass over here as fast as you can. Give me your coordinates and I’ll send out cover units.”

“That won’t help, Admiral. They’re already on to us. We’d never make it and you’d lose even more good sailors on our behalf.”

“Bullshit! Now that’s an order. Bolt out from wherever you are. We can provide an escort.”

“Negative on that, sir. We’re going to stay. So go ahead and blow the array. I assume by now you know what you have?”

“Some main portal, it looks like. Is that true?”

“The only portal, sir. There’s only one for each universe the Sol-Kor have invaded. You take out this one and our universe is safe…at least until they build a new one. By then you need to have all the ones on your side taken out or under your control.”

“With the help of your detector, that’s happening as we speak.”

“It’s not my detector, Andy.”

“Close enough.”

“Blow it, Andy. Do it now.”

“I will, but first…mission status?”

“The Queen is dead, as are all her replacements. The Sol-Kor are sterile.”

“That’s some damn good news, sailor. Hopefully in light of that, they won’t try to rebuild the portal. They won’t need as much food as their population dies off.”

“Captain!” It was Connors yelling from the nav console.

“Neo…execute! Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yessir!”

The image on the screen of Admiral Tobias flickered once before coming back on. “So that’s it, Adam?”

“I guess so.”

The admiral’s eyes shifted to Riyad standing next to Adam at the command chair. “You and the team get as far away from Sol-Kor territory as possible. Find a quiet little planet somewhere with a population of hot alien babes and live out your lives in bliss. That’s also an order.”

“Now that’s one I’m willing to follow,” Riyad said. “And, Admiral, take out those other portals. Don’t take the chance that the SK’s will forget about you troublemakers in the Milky Way.”

“I’m going to cut the link now so you can’t be tracked. Oh, and be looking for one of the largest explosions this side of a supernova. I planted so many nukes on the array planet I’ll be surprised if the damn ball of rock doesn’t break into a trillions pieces when I press the button. I want to make sure there’s nothing left for the alien bastards to work with.”

“We’ll be looking for it. Good-bye, Andy. Live long and prosper, as they used to say.”

“Same to you, Mr. Cain. Hooyah!”

Adam just nodded. The screen went blank.

“Whoa! Thar she blows!”

An external camera was aimed at the distant dot that was the array planet, and now the entire team looked at the screen on the right side of the viewport. A brilliant flare was growing in size and intensity. At this distance, the time it took the cluster of nuclear explosions to expand high above the atmosphere seemed to be running in slow motion. Even on extreme magnification, the ball never got larger than a half dollar on the screen, but what the white point of light represented was enough to cast the entire bridge crew into silence.

No one spoke for a full minute, not until Chief Warrant Officer Marsh Foster entered the bridge with the alien Harix at his side. He had been monitoring the bridge activity from a station near where he was guarding the prisoners. Now he felt compelled to join the others in their moment of shared grief.

Adam felt completely drained. His mission had been a success, yet his team would not be returning. Sometimes that’s how it went. The cause was worth it, he told himself. The Sol-Kor would die, their entire race would wither and fade away. And during the long years it took for that to happen, the Milky Way would be safe, thanks to Andy Tobias and the difficult call he had just made.

Tobias had done what he had to do, Adam knew that. But damn, they were so close!

“Is that the master portal to your universe?” Harix asked, noticing the dejected looks on the faces of all the Humans.

“What?” Adam asked, having tuned out everything but his melancholy thoughts.

“I asked if that is the master portal for U-5?”

“It was. Not anymore.”

“Then you must be disappointed,” Harix said.

“Disappointed? That’s like the least of the emotions we’re feeling right now.”

“I suppose now you will be returning to Kor.”

The alien’s statement made Adam shudder. “Kor? Hell no! Why would we do that?”

“I assume you still have a desire to return to U-5.”

“We do, but if you’re implying we try to find the portal in the Queen’s Chambers again, forget about it. There’s only eight of us now, and after the damage we caused the last time we were there, I doubt we’d get very far.”

“Is that how you entered the Sol-Kor universe? I have never been told.”

“No,” Adam relied, impatiently. “We came through a smaller portal, one near the spaceport.”

“In the Farm?”

Adam could tell Harix spoke the word with a capital “F.” It seemed significant.

“What Farm?”

“The Farm where you entered my universe.”

“We didn’t enter through a farm, just a small portal, one just big enough for individuals to make the transit.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“That’s a first.”

“A first what?”

“Never mind. Why do you call it the Farm?”

“Because that is what it is called.”

“A farm of what?”

“Buildings.”

Adam was getting frustrated. “Yes, there were a lot of buildings that all looked alike. Dozens of them.”

“That is the Farm.”

“Yes, we’ve established that. What’s in the friggin’ Farm?”

“Personal transit portals.”

All the stunned and dejected Humans on the bridge now took notice of the convoluted conversation taking place between Adam and the alien.

For his part, Adam stared dumbfounded at Harix. “I’m afraid to ask the next question.”

“Why?”

“Because I think the answer would make me sick.”

“Then do not ask it.”

“What the hell, I’ll ask it!” Riyad yelled. “Do each of the buildings in the farm contain a trans-dimensional portal?”

“Yes. That is what the Farm is for. It contains small units used for movement between my universe and others. You said that was how you arrived on Kor. I assumed you knew. Why did you not select another portal from within the Farm to return to your universe? There are over two hundred to choose from.”

Adam closed his eyes. “And that is why I’m going to be sick.”

********

“Excuse me, Captain, but does this mean we have to go back to Kor?” Lieutenant Johnson was voicing the question on the minds of the rest of the stunned strike team.

“‘Fraid so, Mr. Johnson.”

“I don’t think we’re going to receive too warm of a welcome.”

Adam smiled. “At least they won’t be expecting it.”

“So there’s a couple of hundred portals in those other buildings,” Chief Foster said. “Who knew?”

“I should have, Chief. Looking back on it now, all the buildings were the same. It makes perfect sense, or at least enough to have warranted a search of the surrounding buildings.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Adam,” Riyad spoke up. “I think we were all hoping to get out through the portal in the Queen’s Chambers—which we never had a chance to locate.”

“Well, the good news is we have a way home,” Corporal Neo Anderson said with a buoyant spirit. “And like the captain said, who would be expecting us to return to the scene of the crime? After the admiral blew up that big-ass portal, I was feeling a little…well, challenged, but this is the way of Special Ops. If we ain’t given a way out, we take one.”

 “It’s either that or we find a quiet little planet somewhere in this universe to conquer.” Lieutenant Johnson looked around at the rest of the team. “Let’s think about that for a minute,” he said. “A virgin planet, full of weak-kneed aliens. Hell, we could be kings!”

“Did you say a virgin planet…or a planet of virgins?” Anderson asked.

“Either or, Mr. Anderson.”

“Okay, knock it off.” Adam said. “Anderson, get us a plot back to Kor. Mr. Johnson, Mac, Marsh, and Riyad, my cabin. Let’s get a plan going. We’re about six days out, and it’s a guarantee things back on Kor are going to be crazy. Maybe we can use some of that crazy to sneak back in.”

“Otherwise, it’s guns-a-blazing,” Riyad said, flashing a brilliant smile.

“As Rock said: either-or. Now, let’s get to work.”

Chapter 24

J’nae sat with an amused smile and watched as the gathering of High-Nosleads and other ranking officials of the Applying Council shifted nervously in their seats.

In Drasic’s opinion, they were all in a state of shock, many refusing to meet the eye of the their new mutant queen. He had just spent the last hour explaining everything he knew about the current crisis and the salvation J’nae was offering their species. The twenty-two officials at the big round table had been privy to the true nature of recent events, and as a consequence they’d had time to imagine the worst for the future of their race. Now Drasic had arrived with this creature—this mutant—and had presented her as the answer to all their problems. They were in shock, but most realized the impossible situation they were in. And here was a female—the only female—with Sol-Kor blood in her veins, promising not only to save the race,  but to also bring even more prosperity—and more food—to the Colony.

The process by which she would do this was abhorrent to everyone seated around the table. Infecting the race with a female element was, well, incomprehensible. This was not how the Sol-Kor did it. They knew this was the norm throughout all the universes they’d experienced, even their own, yet the Sol-Kor were different, and it was this difference that made them great. Now Drasic was suggesting they become like all the others, and with this abomination as their leader.

 But what choice did they have? For the past few days every Sol-Kor at the table had truly believed their race was doomed. The High Chancellor himself had verified the mutant’s credentials, explaining how another mutant—the legendary Panur—was responsible for her creation.

“You may not have liked Panur, yet you must admit his contributions allowed for our advancement into space, and into other universes. In his genius, he also planned for this very eventuality.”

“Panur abandoned us for the creatures in U-5,” said Councilmember Tryani, seated a few chairs away. “And now these same creatures—his favorites, his pets—have successful assassinated our Eternal Queen. I have my suspicions that the mutant may be behind this attack.”

“That is ridiculous, Councilmember Tryani,” J’nae said. She had long since memorized all of the top forty-thousand Sol-Kor officials, so she knew all the names around the table. Earlier, she had made a few brief statements, answers to questions directly addressed to her. Now she was ready to exert her newly-bestowed authority. “Each moment of the assassins’ activities has been traced precisely, and it is obvious no input was needed from Panur to execute such a plan. Rather, it came about from an overabundance of confidence on the part of everyone seated at this table. You could not foresee such a thing happening, wrapped up as you are in your belief that no one would dare confront the Sol-Kor on their homeworld. This race—these Humans—not only accepted your challenge, but they came with only twelve of their kind and they did, indeed, assassinate the Queen. Panur did not foresee these specific events, just the possibility that the Queen may die at some point, and without any Zygotes to take her place. It was wise to plan for such an event, and this wisdom resulted in my creation. You, Councilmember Tryani, should be grateful.”

“We all realize we face, J’nae—is that correct, your name is J’nae?” This was High-Noslead Winox Al speaking, the Nos of the Sol-Kor military forces.

Drasic noticed the mutant bristle at the question regarding her name, knowing Winox had questioned her as a display of disrespect. The High Chancellor had not had a chance to warn the others of all the powers and abilities J’nae possessed. He was hoping the mutant would not see the need to demonstrate them at this time.

“Winox Al, you are correct. Panur gave me the name J’nae as a tribute to his long lost homeworld. I assume everyone at this table know that Panur was the offspring of the Eternal Queen. And since I am a product of both him and the Queen, I am just like all Sol-Kor, with some notable exceptions.”

“And what are these exceptions you mention?” Winox asked. “We all acknowledge that you are a mutant, which in that statement reveals that you are not like all the rest of the Sol-Kor. Our Queen was a unique member of the race—given tremendous responsibility to not only perpetuate the species but also to guide us with her wisdom and intelligence. Yet she was not a mutant. Do you also possess such wisdom and intelligence that we can also honor you with the title of queen? Simply arriving here and stating so is not proof enough, at least not for me.”

“It has already been acknowledged that I cannot reproduce such as the former queen, but hopefully, even with your limited intellect, you realize that her way was not a sustainable path for the Sol-Kor. Eventually some tragedy would have befallen her. I am setting the Sol-Kor on a new path, a more secure path. And yet I am not just a vessel for this change. I also possess the intellect of Panur, which even you should accept was superior to the Queen’s.”

A nervous murmur spread around the table. “As you can also see,” J’nae continued, “I am more mobile than the Queen, and I am much stronger, stronger than any male Sol-Kor.”

“How can that be?”

The words had barely escaped Winox’s mouth before J’nae had moved from her seated position to be standing behind the startled military commander. Drasic held his breath as the long, slender fingers on the mutant’s hands began to grow, extending out five times their normal length to encircle the thick neck of the High-Noslead.

He fought against the increasing grip, yet was held firmly in his chair by J’nae’s immoveable force. “I regret this, Winox Al, yet it is evident a demonstration must be made in order for me to gain the respect of this gathering, and you appear to be mocking me in uncertain terms. Yet please take comfort in knowing that your death will help stabilize the current crisis and bring about a new and brighter future for the Sol-Kor.”

It was over a second later. The head of the High-Noslead fell over the back of the chair, dangling at an impossible angle.

J’nae scanned the faces in the room. “I expect there will be no more questioning of either my abilities or of my authority. And also be forewarned, I possess Panur’s ability for rapid cell regeneration. I will be your queen far longer than was the Eternal Queen—a title we will certainly have to amend in light of her present condition.”

********

J’nae requested Drasic remain in her chambers after the others had left. There was no doubt in her mind, or that of the High Chancellor’s, that her message had been received and understood. She was the new Queen of the Sol-Kor, and Drasic had the impression that the mutant desperately wanted everyone to know that this was a good thing, even if they couldn’t see it at the moment.

“What is the latest information on the Queen’s assassins?”

Her face grew hard when she sensed Drasic’s hesitation. “I detect from your expression that all is not well on this front?”

“Forgive me, my Queen, but the situation has been fluid and only now is more definitive information being provided.”

“Go on.”

“As you know, I sent a large fleet to the U-5 portal to retake possession, yet the Humans have since destroyed the array…and rather thoroughly as well.”

“That is unfortunate. However, that was not my question.”

“There are reports that a mainship made contact with the Humans at the array just prior to it being destroyed. This craft then escaped the area before it could be stopped.”

“Did it pass through the portal prior to its destruction?”

“No, my Queen. It is still in Sol-Kor space.”

J’nae smiled, which served to only confuse Drasic. She was silent for a moment.

“The assassins sought out the portal as a means of returning to their universe, yet they did not make it through before it was destroyed. Therefore, they will have to find another way of returning to U-5.”

“But that was the only staging portal for that universe. There is no other way for the stolen mainship to pass through.”

“High Chancellor, the Humans did not enter our universe in a spaceship. They entered through an individual portal located within the Farm.”

“Yes, and that portal was destroyed as well.”

“It is but one of many in the Farm.”

“Yet the Humans sought out a starship to make their escape from Kor. They must have had a reason for doing so.”

“Is it not obvious to you, Drasic Reol?”

“What, my Queen?”

“Why they absconded with a mainship?”

“To exit our universe for their own.”

J’nae closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I can tell that ruling the Sol-Kor will try my patience.” When she reopened her eyes they conveyed a look of sadness. “Is it not obvious to you that the Humans were not aware of the other portals within the Farm? They have no knowledge of our universe except for the very short foray they made here a year ago. As outsiders, why would they even suspect there were more portals in the area?”

“I now understand your logic, my Queen. That makes sense.”

“I’m glad you concur.” Drasic picked upon on the sarcasm in her tone. “Now the Humans will seek another alternative for their journey back.”

“Yet you just said they are not aware of the other portals in the Farm.”

“Not yet, but eventually they will learn—must learn. They are a resourceful lot.”

Drasic shook his head. “Even if they learn of the other portals, they would not risk a return to Kor.”

“Why not, High Chancellor? You would not be expecting such to happen. Even now you deny the possibility.”

“Yes…but…” He stopped, unable to form a cogent rebuttal.

“Have news of the portal destruction at the Farm released for wide distribution. Mention the purpose of the Farm. If the assassins do not learn of the Farm on their own, then let us hope they are monitoring our comm channels. Make it appear to be a request for technical support to rebuild the device.”

“Yes, my Queen, even though I still believe the Humans will not risk a return to Kor. They may seek transport to another universe, one further from Sol-Kor dominance.”

“They may indeed. But for now we will assume they won’t. They appear to place a higher value on individual life than we do, and seem very determined to return to their universe. If it were the Sol-Kor who committed the assassination of the Human leader, our team would have gladly accepted their fate and not even bothered to return. Achieving the goal of the mission would have been enough for a Sol-Kor. That is why we are superior to the Humans when it comes to battle tactics. They inject too much emotion into their decision-making. Now go, make the preparations. And, Drasic, allow them to land, but don’t make it too obvious. Let them into the Farm, then I will deal with them personally.”

Chapter 25

The traffic around Kor was surprisingly light, something the team ascribed to having most of the alien starships out looking for them, or comprising the massive fleet that was undoubtedly still in the vicinity of a radioactive ball of rock that had once been Master Portal Four.

When Harix learned they were going back to Kor, he was ecstatic. He figured the chances of the Humans being either caught or killed would be greatly increased once they arrived, so he cooperated with requesting landing permission rather than the scratching microphone method of communication they been using for the past two weeks.

To Adam’s delight, they were granted permission to land and assigned a spot almost on the other side of the conveyor ramp and fence from the cluster of cookie-cutter buildings known as the Farm. In hindsight, he should have known the area was a portal farm. It would have made a world of difference. The team would already be back on Earth and toasting their success, with Riyad making the talk show circuit, milking this latest adventure for all it was worth.

There was a transport truck assigned to the landing zone for the use of the crew as they went about their tasks on Kor. It was night on the planet when they landed, with just the right amount of shadow to allow the team, along with Harix, to load into the truck and begin the short journey to the Farm.

They exited the spaceport grounds through a small side entrance, and five minutes later were humming down a street bordered with long, light-blue buildings. As a precaution, Adam had UTC specialist Wizard Kaczynski brief all the team members on how to program a personal portal for the return to the Klin colony ship, just in case they became separated or Kaczynski didn’t make it out alive. Unlike the huge portals used for ship transport between universes, these smaller units were capable of tuning into similar devices, unless programmed otherwise. The only unit on their side they had an address for was the one aboard the Klin starship.

The portal back at Travis was for limited uses, yet the Klin portal could be used to move between universes. It had already been used for that purpose twice before. All it had to do now was hold up for one more trip.

“So how do we decide which building?” Adam asked Harix. The alien was driving, with Adam and Riyad in the passenger seat holding flash weapons on him just in case he decided letting the Humans return to their universe wasn’t to the benefit of the Colony after all.

“I do not have much knowledge of the actual layout of the Farm, but I am an electronics technician, and have been here for parts and other technical input. Most of the portals are used to travel within the Sol-Kor universe. The hybrids are fewer. They are arranged in a specific area. Do you recall where you came in?”

“It was a few blocks from the main tunnel leading to the pyramid, if that helps,” Adam said.

“Yeah, it would also be close to the burned-out building,” Riyad added. Without an aerial view the damaged building would be hard to find, and simply driving up and down streets looking for the charred remains would take time.

“I have a decent idea where that section would be,” Harix said. “We are fortunate there is little traffic in the region this evening. We should be only ten rows or so away.”

Adam watched as the alien’s eyes darted from side to side. He was looking for something, and Adam had a pretty good idea what it was.

“Please, Harix, don’t do anything stupid. You’ve been a big help up until now. I’d hate to have to hurt you.”

“Why would you say such a thing? I have been very cooperative.”

“It’s just that you’re looking for some police or military personnel, someone to report us to.”

“How could you know that? Can you read my thoughts? I was not aware of this skill you possess.”

“Well, I can, and don’t you forget it.” Adam looked at Riyad. They both fought the urge to burst out laughing.

“I just want you off my planet and out of my universe,” Harix said.

“Believe me, so do we.”

“Look…there is a damaged building! Could that be the one from which you entered?”

Since all the buildings in the Farm looked alike—except for this one—Adam could see that they had indeed come full circle; they were back at the starting point of their Sol-Kor mission. Through the opening at the back of the driver’s cab, Adam spoke to the team.

“Saddle up. We’re pulling up to a building three down from where we came in. There’s light coming from under the doors, which means someone’s probably home. All the other ones around here are dark, and finding an active portal would be preferred to starting one up from scratch. We go in quickly but quietly. We only have about a hundred rounds left between us, and then it’s the flash weapons or the grenades, neither of which were designed for stealth. One more operation, men, and we’re home—or at least aboard a Klin ship. First one back gets the location to Travis dialed in. Then off we go.”

There were a number of bright smiles visible in the dimness of the truck. The mission was almost over.

As the truck came to a stop, Adam took a moment to look up and down the street. This one did appear to be the only building with lights on inside. Traffic had been light while landing, as was the street traffic. And now most of the portal buildings were as dark as a well. He had been expecting a lot more activity in the wake of the Queen’s assassination. But maybe this was how the Sol-Kor were dealing with the tragedy. Maybe they were already limiting their activities, trying to figure out how to get by without a queen.

None of this mattered. On the other side of the wall was a trans-dimensional portal that could get them home. At the moment, that was all Adam cared about.

He slipped out through the passenger side door, followed closely by Riyad, who stashed Harix in the back of the truck with binds on his hands and feet. Four of the commandos had already taken up positions on either side of the closest small door to the truck, Adam and Riyad joining Chief Morse and Wizard at the other.

As it was with most—if not all—Sol-Kor doors, they knew these would be unlocked. With a nod from Adam, the team flung them open and entered the building.

About a dozen Sol-Kor techs, dressed in dark green tunics, were taken by surprise. As it had been with the first portal room, these natives were also unarmed, yet they still bolted away from the invaders, many heading for the precious controls to the solitary portal that sat near the center of the vast, open bay.

The Humans cut them down with precision shots before any of the SK’s could damage the controls. After a judicious use of their limited ammo, all the aliens were down, and Kaczynski moved to the main control panel. Without hesitation, he began to enter data.

And that’s when the pulse beam hit.

The batteries on their beam neutralizers had gone dead about days six ago, and with no way to recharge them, every Human suddenly stopped what they were doing and  began to sway. Weapons went slack in their hands, until four of them lost their grip and the metal rifles clanged to the floor.

The two side doors to the building opened again, but this time a flood of black armored Sol-Kor entered, each cradling flash rifles in their arms. They moved quickly throughout the room, shoving the compliant Humans to a group near the inert TD portal.

Then another set of Sol-Kor entered, with one standout exception.

Adam fought hard against the nearly intolerable headache and watched with a blank expression as this odd creature approached the cluster of addled Humans. It was definitely a female, and yet with all the traits of a Sol-Kor. She was very tall, with longish yellow hair, and a finer coating of scales on her face. Her skin was paler than the gray of the males, and reminded him of the pasty color of…Panur. Then he noticed the eyes: wide, with pure black pupils, unlike the gray of the males. Again, the eyes reminded him of Panur.

Along with the rest of the team, Adam wobbled about, not remaining in one place, but also not moving too far in any one direction before wobbling back. He moved further to the back of the pack, just in case his act wasn’t convincing enough. With this creature in the mix, he couldn’t take anything for granted…

Including his belief that the Sol-Kor were sterile, destined for extinction.

Somehow they’d conjured up another female—yet she didn’t look anything like the other females of their race.

The one thing that really set his heart to sinking…all the males in the room were deferring to her, treating her like…like their queen. Could this mean his mission had failed? Could this creature be capable of carrying on the species, in spite of all his efforts?

He had a million questions for the female. But at the moment he had to do his best to keep up the charade.

********

Below his right armpit, Adam could sense the artificial telepathy device under his skin emitting a slight warmth as it worked overtime to counter the effects of the Sol-Kor mind suppressing beam. No one knew of his replacement ATD, at least no one on Earth.

He had agreed to another device after Arieel insisted he have a new one embedded. His original had been removed by Panur and used in his diamond-core portal detection device. He had been glad to be rid of the thing, but that changed when it was discovered that he and Arieel shared a daughter. Where once the Formilian Speaker had protested his acquisition of her planet’s most precious Gift, Arieel now pleaded with him to have another installed, hoping Lila would contact him at some point and she would be able to tap into the conversation and convince her daughter to return home to Formil.

Now Adam was counting his lucky stars. He knew the rest of his team was gone, just mindless drones to be herded around as the Sol-Kor saw fit. He was their only hope. That was if this strange female didn’t have the ability to see the truth. Huddled in the back of the group, he averted his eyes from her scrutiny.

“So, Drasic, my plan has succeeded. We now have the killers of the Eternal Queen, and mostly alive. I shall find immense pleasure in interrogating these aliens to learn even more about them than Panur has told me.”

Panur! This female knows of Panur. Was he back with the Sol-Kor. Did that bastard help them capture his team?

“Shall I move them to M-1?” asked a Sol-Kor dressed in the fancy garb of a governing official.

“No, I will begin the questioning—and the testing—here.”

“Testing?”

“Yes. I wish to test their capabilities. Panur spoke often how unique these creatures are, yet he failed to mention in detail what makes them unique. Move the rest of them to the other side of the room, and then bring that big one to me. I shall remove the beam from his consciousness so I can begin my study.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

Queen! There it was. The Sol-Kor had a new queen. Even though he was feeling distraught over the failure of the mission up to this point, Adam again counted his lucky stars. He’d already killed one Sol-Kor Queen, and now her replacement was in the same room with him. Sure, there were also about fifty Sol-Kor warriors in the room, and he was unarmed and suffering from a massive pressure headache, and the rest of his team were completely useless…

But other than that, all he had to do was figure out a way to kill her…

********

The first Human the new Queen chose to interrogate was Ensign Ronald MacTavish. He was the largest man on the team and closest to the size of a Sol-Kor—a Sol-Kor teenager. Adam could clearly see and hear what was going on twenty meters away, aided by the echoes coming off the metal walls.

The Queen had ordered all the Sol-Kor out of the room except for a token force of five armored guards. They stood off a distance and she nodded to one of them, who then fingered a small control pad he was holding in his hands. Mac blinked rapidly several times before he shut his slack mouth and focused on the strange creature standing two meters in front of him.

“I have had the opportunity to learn your language over the past few days, so feel free to speak,” said the Queen.

Mac regarded her for a moment before scanning the large bay and locking his attention on the cluster of numb-looking Humans. “Dammit, you got us, didn’t you?”

“Yes I did. You apparently had some defensive capability at one time during your adventure. Not any longer, it appears.”

“Lucky for you.” He looked the Queen up and down. “You’re something new. What are you?”

“I am the new Queen of the Sol-Kor.”

“Bullshit. You don’t look anything like a Sol-Kor bitch.”

“You said it yourself—I’m something new. I am a hybrid, you would call it, with abilities far beyond any prior queen—as well as any Sol-Kor male. I am called J’nae.”

Mac shifted his eyes to the five armed guards. “Are you saying you’re a better fighter than these creeps—J’nae? That wouldn’t be saying much.”

The Queen didn’t respond.

“So we’ve been caught, and the scalies have a new leader. I’d say we’re pretty well fucked.”

The Queen smiled. “Scalies? I like that description—for the males of course. Mine are much more subtle.”

“Yeah, you’re real sexy, but you do know that I have nothing to live for now, so what happens next I can’t be responsible for.”

“Are you saying you’re going to attack me?” The smile remained on her face. The guards didn’t react, not knowing the language. Even so, she turned and ordered them to hold their ground, no matter what. “There, now it is just the two of us. But before you do what you have in mind, may I ask you a few questions?”

“You can ask. It doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

J’nae nodded. “I can see now why Panur has spoken so highly of your race.”

“That albino mutant, Cain’s friend?”

“You’ve heard of him?”

“Sure, he’s the one who built the portal detector that’s allowing us to shut down your access to my galaxy.”

“And he helped coordinate this most-recent attack on the Colony.”

“Not that I know of. That was all our idea. And until you showed up, we thought we’d pulled it off. His eyes narrowed. “Hell, we still may.”

“You mentioned a name: Cain...”

Adam tensed. He saw Mac make the slightest shift in his eyes towards the group of Humans. J’nae noticed.

“Cain is with your group,” she stated.

“No, he’s back at base. He’s the one who planned the mission. And he’s probably planning a lot more as we speak. Next time they’ll be coming for you—if you’re still alive.”

“Ah, Human, you are an interesting race, even though you display your thoughts on your exterior. Cain is among the other Humans. I will seek him out, as you say he is your leader—”

Mac jumped. He was a huge man with incredible fighting skills, and in the light gravity of Kor he was on J’nae in the blink of an eye. The pair collapsed to the floor, and the guards reacted by instinct.

“Hold!” J’nae yelled from under MacTavish. They froze.

Even though Mac was a large man, J’nae was still taller than him, if not wider. He looked odd sitting atop the gray-skinned alien, swinging blow after heavy blow at her exposed head. Her long arms lay out to both sides of her body, offering no defense, so he just kept hitting her, sending her head twisting to one side and the other.

Adam shuffled over a little closer, trying to see through the thin screen of the nervous-looking guards. They could see their Queen being viciously struck, yet had been ordered not to interfere.

The robed Sol-Kor raced up to the disturbance. “Stop him!” he cried to the guards.

“We have been ordered otherwise.”

“You…you have what?” He looked to the ground and the pair of combatants. He stood up straight, a look of understanding on his face.

Mac was getting tired. He had given the Queen his best, as evidenced by the blood spraying off his knuckles with each savage blow. His attack slowed; he took more time to aim his hits, using only his right fist while his left arm rested.

J’nae showed no lasting signs of the attack. Her face would deform momentarily before returning to normal a split second later.

“I guess…this isn’t…working,” MacTavish panted. He stopped hitting her.

“I’m afraid not, yet it was better for you see for yourself than to take my word for it.”

“Yeah, I would’ve still attacked.” Reluctantly, the Human crawled off the Queen and stood up. He was coated in sweat, his hands bloody pulp.

J’nae also stood.

“So you’re like the other mutant, Panur?”

“Only more.”

Adam cringed. So much for his backup plan. Now he began to think frantically how he could save his team.

“I have to say, those were very powerful hits you applied. I can see how a normal Sol-Kor could not stand against them. This is a result of your planet’s gravity, as well as your propensity to war. Your skills and power would be a very substantial force to overcome. But now, let us return to your leader, Cain. You say he is not within the surviving eight of your party, yet I know now that he is. Please point him out to me.”

MacTavish wrinkled his nose and grimaced. “Yeah, I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. I have a pretty good idea that now I’ll be killed, and I’m okay with that. I’ve been looking forward to this moment for a very long time—too long, in fact.”

“You would rather die than give me an answer, knowing that I could have my way with the remaining seven Humans anyway? You will have gained no advantage by remaining quiet.”

“That’s not it. At least I won’t be the one to betray my comrades, or my race. It’s a personal thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

J’nae looked at Mac for a long moment before responding. “No, I would not understand. But I am lacking in exposure to certain interactions and firsthand knowledge in real-time. Yet I am a quick learner. What is your name?”

“Mac, Mac MacTavish.”

“Well, Mac, I would have enjoyed getting to know you better. Your race has a certain brashness about it that is not found among the Sol-Kor. Males of my race would also sacrifice their lives for the good of the Colony, yet they would do so only because that is what’s expected of them. You seem to do it out of a genuine desire to do the right thing.”

“You are a quick learner.”

“Thank you…but now Mac MacTavish, I regret having to do—”

“Stop! I’m Adam Cain!” Adam didn’t realize he’d said the words until they were already out.

Both Mac and J’nae looked at him with startled looks. Neither could figure out how he could speak with the suppressor beam blanketing the room.

“Another interesting happenstance,” J’nae said. She and Mac walked over to him, but not before the formally powerless guards descended upon him and hustled him out of the pack of Humans and escorted him to the approaching Queen. The three  of the guards remained with the other Humans, securing their hands, just in case some of them were also immune to the effects of the pulse beam.

“Dammit, sir, you know this will only get us both killed,” Mac said, trying not to ask the obvious question.

J’nae stepped up to Adam. “How is it that you can overcome the pulse beam? You appear not to be wearing a neutralizer.

“Lucky, I guess. Not all of my kind are so susceptible.”

“I believe Mister MacTavish used a term earlier which seems appropriate: bullshit. I have read all the reports. Other than by artificial means, the beams cannot be denied.”

“Eeerr…wrong! You will find there are millions of my people who you cannot subdue, and then they’ll slaughter your invaders and smash your harvesters if you ever try to take Earth.”

The robed SK was still in the room, stunned into silence by the events taking place. J’nae now addressed him. “Drasic, you must admit, these Humans are wonderful creatures, so full of life, purpose…and creativity.”

“They are dangerous, my Queen, perhaps not to you, but to the rest of the Colony. Why do you play with them?”

“Because even in my few days of ruling the Sol-Kor, I have grown bored. The Colony will continue—thanks to me—and it will do so without any variety or…surprises. Perhaps as more females are introduced into the fabric of life that will change, and I will grow less bored. But for now, I must find stimulation where I can.”

“You sound like Panur,” the Sol-Kor named Drasic said.

“I take that as a compliment.”

She turned back to Adam. “Panur is your…friend?”

“We’ve met.”

“And you are still alive. That is a testament to your…entertainment value. That would be the best way I can describe it.”

“We were more like partners when it came to finding ways to destroy the Sol-Kor. He’s completely abandoned the Colony, preferring us over them. Maybe you should too.”

J’nae laughed. “And give up being the leader of the race of beings who will eventually dominate all universes? You are interesting, but not that interesting!”

Adam smiled back. “At least I tried.”

J’nae turned to Drasic. “Bring this one to M-1. Place a tracker on him and then quarter him near my chambers. I wish to retain him as a pet.”

“And the others?”

She looked at the glowing interior of the active trans-dimensional portal in the center of the room. “Have this device reprogrammed to where the Humans originally came through. Then cut up their bodies and hurl the still warm and bleeding remains through the portal. That should leave a lasting impression for those on the other side.”

Sensing the tension in the bodies of the two Humans near her, J’nae warned: “Let us not have a repeat of the last episode. There may be two of you, but the results will be same…and I may feel compelled to take a more active role in my defense. If I did so, it would not end well for you.” She looked at Adam. “Guards, take this one out and place him in a transport. Return the big one under the influence of the beam, and then call in a carver to do a masterful job of piecing the Humans. Come now, Drasic, let us take my pet and return to M-1.”

Mac went to move again, but this time he was hit instantly with the pulse beam. His forward momentum sent him tumbling over his feet, falling face-first to the floor. The guards lifted him, revealing a bleeding nose, probably broken. The blank expression on his face showed he didn’t much care.

Strong arms grabbed Adam and hustled him out of the building. He was tossed into the back of a huge non-truck transport and the Queen slipped in next to him. Drasic sat in the seat next to the driver, and the vehicle quickly sped away.

Chapter 26

There were only three guards and two techs left in the large bay after the Queen departed. The carver was due in half an hour.

In the meantime, it took the two techs a few minutes to pull up the data that had been processed through the Farm’s computers to find the location where the destroyed portal had been linked. They placed no significance on the terms Klin, or Milky Way galaxy, knowing only that it was some place in U-5, manned by allies of the Sol-Kor.

They opened the portal, and the hazy image switched suddenly to show a small room with a bank of sophisticated comm equipment climbing a far wall. There were two beings seated at the console, one with shimmering silver skin, the other dressed in a pale blue uniform, with its back to the portal. The techs didn’t pay much attention, at least not at first.

********

ITC Specialist David Carpenter felt a strange tingling on his back and turned to see that the portal had become active. Through the doorway he saw a large room, dimly lit, with a few creatures spread out at a distance from the opening. Immediately, three other members of his team rushed from the other side of the doorway and looked in.

When David went to join them, they could see further into the other room. There were Sol-Kor there…and Humans!

He whipped around to the console again, placing the barrel of his M-91 assault rifle against the head of the Klin prisoner. “Don’t do a thing to break this link or I’ll plaster your brain all over the console.”

From behind him, Corporal Dennis Samuels could be heard calling into his comm unit. “It’s open! The damn thing is open!”

The creatures on the other side of the portal suddenly took notice of the gaggle of observers standing to each side of the doorway, a universe away. Samuels saw the expression on the Sol-Kor seated at a console against the far wall. A look of shock came over the alien’s face as their eyes met, before he quickly turned back to the console.

Without thinking, Samuels rushed through the portal, his weapon leveled at the back of the Sol-Kor tech. He pulled the trigger, sending sparks skidding off the floor as his initial aim came in low. He readjusted and perforated the back of the Sol-Kor tech up to the base of his skull.

There was another alien seated next to him, and Samuels cut him down with a shift of his gaze.

That’s when a burning flash of light hit him on his right side. He fell to the floor, the pain intense, his vision blurry.

There was more gunfire, matched by stabbing flashes of light. Then the loud report of other M-91’s overwhelmed the number of flashes, and everything fell quiet.

Someone was at his side; he was being helped up. Through his watery vision he saw several of his men in the room. They were helping others toward the portal.

The quiet was interrupted by more flashes of light and more discharges of the M-91’s.  Then he was back through the portal and shuffled off to a far corner of the now-crowded room aboard the Klin colony ship. He felt a pinch, and looked up to see a medic hovering over him.

People were yelling…and a bolt of lightning flew into the room. It hit another man, but his armor reflected most of it.

“Shut it down! Shut it down. We’ve got ‘em. Shut it down!”

Another explosion filled the room, and before his vision gave out fully, Dennis saw the portal control console shatter from a hit by an intense flash bolt.

Then all went dark. He couldn’t remember why he was lying down, or why everyone was shouting. He just knew he felt no pain, none whatsoever. And he smiled, thinking how nice it would be to sleep…

********

Captain Mike Meyers surveyed the damage to the portal room. The controls were toast, so they wouldn’t be using the gateway for a retreat back to Travis anytime soon.

Although six of his men had been injured—none fatally—the best news of all, they had recovered the strike team from the Sol-Kor universe.

As soon as the commandos were through the portal, the influence of the alien pulse beam had vanished. Meyers’ team was equipped with neutralizers—as a precaution—and it had paid off. The room on the other side had been bathed in the beam, and that’s when Meyers and the rest of them got their first taste of the excruciating headache the alien weapon produced, even with the shields in place.

Initially, they had been able to subdue the resistance on the other side of the portal, and thanks to the heroic efforts of Corporal Dennis Samuels, it remained open long enough for the rescue to take place. But the position soon became untenable, as nearly fifty armed Sol-Kor had swarmed into the room.

Meyers had called for a retreat, and then a shutdown of the portal on the Klin side. Their long wait had paid off. The team was home—or at least in their home universe—what was left of them.

********

Lieutenant Fred Johnson was seated with Meyers, surrounded by the rest of the strike team, all except Ensign MacTavish, who had been taken to a makeshift sickbay aboard the occupied section of the Klin starship, suffering from mild shock and a broken nose. The captain was being bombarded with a dozen questions a second from the rest of the team, the overwhelming inquiry being, “What just happened?”

“Relax, Lieutenant,” Meyers said. “I’m going to tell you.” He looked around at anxious faces staring at him. None seemed to be happy with where they were, only concerned.

“After you guys went through the first time, and the Klin took control of the portal room again, the backup team was cut off from entering and securing the site. We didn’t know what to do at that point, or whether you’d made it into Sol-Kor space or not. Eventually, some of us got the balls to try it again, but this time with the purpose of securing the portal on the Klin ship. We figured if we could do that, then maybe we could either launch a rescue mission or another attempt on the Queen. But the first priority was to secure the portal.”

“That’s where we are, on the Klin ship?” Johnson asked.

“Yep. They weren’t expecting a second try, so we caught ‘em flatfooted. We’ve been here three days now, having established a perimeter that covers about a tenth of the alien ship. You know these are huge, round starships, with upwards of twenty thousand Klin aboard? Well, since not too many of these silver-skinned assholes are trained at fighting, we took the initiative and spread out beyond the portal room, grabbing as much real estate as we could in the process. They’ve been fighting back ever since, but we just keep bringing in more personnel from Travis. Hell, we may eventually take over the whole damn ship.” Then the captain shrugged. “With the portal room in shambles, that’s about our only option, besides calling in outside forces. They should be able to triangulate our communications to find the colony ship. Either way, it’s going to take a while before we can get you guys back home.”

A vein on the thick, muscular neck of Fred Johnson began to pulse. He looked at the men around him: Connors, Kaczynski, Anderson, Foster and Tarazi. “So this is it…us and Mac in sickbay?”

“That’s all that was in the Sol-Kor portal room.”

“When we got hit by the beam, we can’t remember anything that happened after that, but Captain Cain was with us then.”

Sensing the dread among the survivors of the strike team, Meyers placed a hand on the shoulder of the other officer. “Sorry, LT, I don’t know what happened to him—”

“I do!”

All eyes turned to the doorway, where the huge bulk of Mac MacTavish stood, complete with a thick white bandage over his wide nose. The skin under both his eyes were black and yellow, and he had a chipped front tooth. “She took him.”

“Who took him?” Meyers asked.

“That new queen.”

“They have a new queen?” Johnson burst out.

“Sorry, LT, but the mission was a bust. They’ve got some super queen now, a mutant like Panur. And she’s one tough bitch.” He held up his bandaged hands. “I beat the hell out of her and she didn’t even blink. I don’t think she can be killed, just like Panur.”

“What about Adam?” Riyad called out. The pulse beam had hit him particularly hard, intensified by the concussion he’d suffered on the refuge planet. He was just now regaining his senses.

“Yeah, that’s the weirdest thing. He didn’t seem to be affected by the beam, and when the Queen was about to waste me, he stepped forward. She’s taken him back to the pyramid to be her pet, or so she says.”

“He’s still alive?”

“For now, I guess. Until she gets bored of him.”

Riyad turned to Captain Meyers. “Can you get us back over there, over to the Sol-Kor portal room?”

“Highly unlikely. The bolt really did a number on the control panel. From what I understand, that alien Panur built this device, so not even the Klin could rebuild it, assuming they would.”

“We have to go get him, Riyad,” Johnson said. All the men in the strike team voiced their agreement.

“How?” Meyers asked. “We barely know how to dial a number in them, let alone how to rebuild a broken portal.”

“I know someone who does.”

“Who?”

“Panur.”

MacTavish moved into the room and sat down, still groggy from his injury and the drugs in his veins. “I may not know much, but I do know he’s taken off for places unknown…and according to rumor, with Adam’s daughter. Is that right?”

“Close enough.”

“So how do you expect to find him?”

“I don’t know, Mac. All I know is that if we want to get Adam back from the Sol-Kor, we have to find Panur.”

All the team roared, “Hell yeah!” All except for MacTavish.

He pointed out the obvious: “And get the mutant to help us. That won’t be easy.”

“Now look who’s the new buzzkill king in town.”

Epilogue

Fleet Admiral Tobias shook his head for about the hundredth time in the past fifteen minutes.

“Where would you even begin?”

“Formil,” Riyad answered. “Mac said Adam was immune to the Sol-Kor pulse beam even without a neutralizer belt. That means he’s had another telepathy device installed.”

“How will that help you locate Panur?”

“Not sure that it will. But it does mean Adam’s had contact with Arieel, and she may have some way of contacting her daughter, maybe through a psychic connection or something like that. I don’t know.”

“The Formilians rely on science for all their magic, Riyad, not anything supernatural.”

“Maybe so, but I have to start somewhere.”

“Well, you’ll have all the help I can provide, even though that may not last much longer. Osbourne is still plenty pissed at me.”

“You’re a hero all over the galaxy, Andy…almost as much as me and Adam.”

“Yeah, but he’s being a baby about it. On the surface he’s all accolades and congratulations. Behind closed doors he’s still seething. I wouldn’t put it past him to try something really underhanded to get back at me.”

“Something a politician might try?”

“Exactly.”

“Then you should really watch your back, Admiral.”

“As we speak. But back to you—who are you taking with you?”

“No one at first, but Lieutenant Johnson has set up shop at Travis, putting together a new strike team in case I get lucky.”

Tobias stood up, followed by Riyad. The two men shook hands.

“Good luck, Riyad…and hurry. From what Mac said, this new queen could grow bored of Adam at any time and toss him down into that giant mountain of trash you told me about.”

Riyad shivered. “I still have nightmares about that one.” His expression turned serious. “And, Admiral, the Sol-Kor aren’t going away. You’ve cut off their access to the Milky Way, but they have a new queen every bit as smart as Panur. She’ll figure some way to get back in.”

“Well, if you do find Panur, see if he can help us with her too. If anyone can figure out a way to kill an immortal mutant alien, it’s another immortal mutant alien.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will. Now go find Panur…and rescue Adam Cain.”

The End

And now a preview of

A Clash of Aliens

The Human Chronicles #13

coming mid-April 2016

Adam Cain was pissed.

J’nae, the Queen of the Sol-Kor, hadn’t come by to see him in nearly two weeks, and when she finally did, she arrived with two, five-foot long broadswords in her hands.

“I wish to test your prowess with these weapons.”

Adam knew for a fact that the Sol-Kor didn’t use broadswords, so he was at a loss as to where she’d even found them. But he wasn’t going to complain. At least she still found him relevant enough to make the effort. If she grew bored of him, or found that his usefulness had been exhausted, he’d wind up as an appetizer at the next royal banquet. At that point, the most he could hope for was that she’d experience an explosive bout of Montezuma’s Revenge as a result.

Of course, after this sparring session, he may still end up on the buffet table, as finger-food in convenient bite-size pieces.

He took the offered shiny metal sword by the plain leather hilt. In the light gravity of Kor, the weapon was surprisingly light. “I wasn’t aware the Sol-Kor used such weapons,” he said as he took a couple of practice swings to get the feel of the instrument. Training with broadswords was not part of the regular SEAL regime.

“They are not, yet I was allowed to practice with them during my own captivity. They help to develop coordination and spatial awareness, and from the archives we have available, there are countless references to these swords used as weapons of war throughout Human history.”

“Not for the past thousand years, J’nae. You may be very disappointed in my skills.”

“Or so you say.”

Adam cringed at the accusation in the Queen’s statement. After first being taken captive, J’nae visited Adam often, either spending hours in conversation—she did most of the talking—or sparring with him on occasion to test the limits of Human endurance and combat skills. Initially, he’d laid back, just to keep her guessing, and ended up paying a terrible price for doing so.

Sensing his strategy, J’nae wailed on him relentlessly to the point where he had to defend himself for real. She’d already experienced a Human fighter—when Ensign Mac MacTavish had attempted to beat her senseless back at the portal building in the Farm, so she had a pretty good idea what a Human could do.  And as she did with Mac’s earlier attack, she shrugged off Adam’s, as well.

Those earlier bouts had been pure fist-a-cuffs; now she was bringing in exotic weapons to test him further.

He noticed that the sword J’nae retained for herself contained no protective gear, being just as sharp and deadly as his. The only difference came not from the weapons, but from the combatants. Adam could be killed, while J’nae couldn’t.

As the pair separated in the wide space of his living quarters, Adam wondered how far she would let this go? Was she intending on ending his life here and now, or did she still believe him to be entertaining and useful? He was soon to find out.

J’nae struck first, whipping her sword into a short circle and coming at him from his left side. The movement was swift, yet he managed to counter the strike with a clash of ringing metal before backing away.

Next the Queen’s sword came in low, again sweeping in toward his body, this time in an upward motion. He continued from his previous parry with an arc of his own, and again the blades met. The Queen was easily within range of his body, and each blow came with such speed and intensity, that if not blocked, he could have been sliced in two.

 J’nae didn’t appear to be playing around.

Out of desperation, Adam now took the initiative. He was just as fast and strong as the alien, at least what she was displaying at this point, so he came at her with moves to her left and then to her right, forcing her to retreat. She countered with a stabbing strike at his mid-section, from which he jumped back and sucked in his gut to avoid being speared. Still, the sharp blade managed to slide across his left side, slicing through clothing and a six-inch length of skin. He grimaced in pain, yet didn’t bother to look down at the rapidly growing blood stain on his garment. The Queen was already moving in for the kill.

She came in high this time, and it was all Adam could do to lift his sword in time to meet hers in a classic ‘t’ formation. The force of the blow sent him to his knees.

Yet as the Queen let the momentum of her strike carry the blade further to her left, Adam was presented with a clear view of her right side mid-section. He thrust his own blade forward, before feeling the clash of metal on metal again, along the ringing tone of J’nae’s sword sliding along the top edge of his and right up to the guard of the hilt. The two warriors were now only inches apart, with the Queen’s intense and animated face glaring down at him, a wicked grin on her face.

Then Adam looked toward the end of his blade, and found it buried half way into the belly of the Queen. She was also looking at the point where the metal disappeared into her body, just before lifting her sword and ramming the butt end of the hilt into Adam’s exposed forehead.

He fell on his back, stunned, losing the grip on his sword. He lay there, completely at the mercy of the Sol-Kor Queen.

J’nae took a step back, but rather than deliver the killing blow, she stood up straight and smiled. Then with her free hand, she gripped his embedded blade and slowly pulled it from her body. No blood appeared, and as soon as the pointed tip was visible again, the wound was already healed. She tossed the blade aside, hearing it clang against the stone floor of his quarters.

A tense moment followed, as Adam wondered what she would do next.

But then the Queen flipped her own sword with a twist of her wrist and planted the point onto the stone floor, resting her right hand on the end of the grip.

“That was…stimulating, Adam Cain. I thank you for that,” she complimented. But then her eyes narrowed. “Yet as I suspected, you retain much more skill with such a weapon than you originally let on. You Humans are indeed devious creatures.”

Adam shrugged. If he was considered skillful with a broadsword, then that wasn’t saying a lot for the competition she’d been facing. Yet deep inside, Adam let his macho ego have its due; if he’d been up against a normal opponent, he would have come out victorious. Not bad for a rookie broadsworder.

J’nae looked to the wide swath of red on his shirt and pants. “I will have someone attend to you.” She turned abruptly away and strode toward the door. Yet just as she reached it, she paused. Turning, she returned to where he lay, and reached down to recover his sword from just under the edge of the elevated pad he used as a bed. She smiled at him for a moment, before turning and leaving without another word.

********

After the medical attendant left, Adam lay on his bed, shirtless, with a large, white bandage on his wound. He stared up at the high ceiling, analyzing what just took place, to see if any conclusions could be drawn.

It had been a month and a half since he’d been placed in his rather palatial prison next to the Queens Chambers, within the ugly, black pyramid the Sol-Kor referred to as M-1, the seat of government for the Colony. He was fed regularly, allowed exercise time and even granted limited computer access so he could keep his mind stimulated.

After the remainder of his strike team had been unexpectedly rescued from the portal building, Adam was the sole Human left in the Sol-Kor universe. At first, he didn’t know if that was good or bad. Fortunately, rather than take her frustrations out on him at the loss of the team, J’nae had shrugged off the incident, choosing to focus her attention and curiosity on Adam. In those early days, the Queen came by often, but recently, the visits had become less frequent, as affairs of state took priority over playtime with her new pet.

And Adam wasn’t so much concerned for his own welfare—he could handle whatever the Queen had in store for him.

Who he was really concerned about was the rescue team.

He held out no false hope that Riyad and the others would simply write him off and not even bother mounting a rescue attempt. He wouldn’t, if the roles were reversed. And although he had no idea how he would pull it off, knowing Riyad, Adam was ninety-nine percent sure that a second team of Human commandos would soon enter Sol-Kor space, but this time tasked with bringing him back home.

To that end, men were going to die, and the least Adam could do was make their mission worthwhile…by staying alive until they arrived.

That…or find the way home himself, before any more lives were lost on his behalf.

Adam now divided his time between exercising and surfing the equivalent of the Sol-Kor internet. An English-to-Sol-Kor language program was provided for him, so he found his surfing expeditions to be quite enlightening. There was nothing on the computer of tactical value—at least as far as the Sol-Kor knew—but every bit of information helped. Who knew what tidbit would provide the spark for a plan? And so when he wasn’t beating himself up with his extremely strenuous exercise regime, he was on the computer looking for anything that could be used to his advantage.

With the gravity of Kor as light as it was, Adam had to work hard to maintain his strength and muscle mass. His natural Human abilities were his ace-in-the-hole, and if he let his body acclimate to the local gravity, he’d lose that advantage.

His watchers couldn’t understand his devotion to the routine, until he explained it had to do with religion. They left him alone after that, although still failing to see the significance in his efforts. He was okay with that. Most of the Sol-Kor were dumb as rocks, even though there was a segment of more-intelligent SK’s he had to be on the lookout for.

And the Queen was the most intelligent of them all.

She was another Panur-like creature, similar to the five-thousand year-old mutant alien, who was the byproduct of the former Queen and another alien race. In fact, from what Adam had learned, J’nae had been created in the same manner, only using Panur and the Queen—his mother—for the necessary DNA material. This incestuous union—done in genetics labs, of course—had produced another super-mutant. Like Panur, J’nae had regenerative cells, allowing her to have already lived six hundred standard years before assuming her role as the new Queen. She was also extremely fast,  unbelievably strong and with a photographic memory and perfect recall.

Although he often took a beating during the sparring sessions with the Queen, the one thing he’d learned was that her own blows were not much more powerful than a strong Human male could deliver. To the native Sol-Kor, she was Superwoman, yet if it wasn’t for the fact that she couldn’t be killed, Adam was sure he could take her in a fair fight…if there was such a thing as a fair fight against an immortal mutant alien.

So now, as he lay on the bed contemplating his future, two things became abundantly clear. One: If he was going to defeat the Queen, it would have to be by other than physical means. And the other: She couldn’t be outsmarted, either.

With that reality staring him the face, Adam smiled, feeling relief when the line of thinking left him with only one option—other than waiting for the rescue team to show up and get themselves killed.

He was going to have to escape on his own.

And the sooner the better. He was sure Riyad wasn’t sitting around twiddling his thumbs. It was only a matter of time before his best friend made the fateful mistake that could cost him his life—along with the lives of all who followed him.

And Adam Cain couldn’t let that happen.

If you would like to be included on the master email list to receive updates and announcements regarding the series, including release notices of upcoming books, purchase specials and more, please fill out the form below:

Subscribe to Email List

Email: bytrharris@hotmail.com

Website: bytrharris.com

Novels by T.R. Harris

The Human Chronicles Saga

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 (coming April 2016)

Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

The Enclaves of Sylox

The Drone Wars Series

Day of the Drone

With author George Wier

The Liberation Series

Captains Malicious