by T. R. Harris
He made the jump.
Afterwards, Arieel sat with her arms crossed, pouting.
“It does not look any different than our own,” she stated.
“I told you that. They’re all the same. I have no idea why there are so many, unless they serve some vital purpose in the scheme of things. Perhaps they balance out the energy throughout existence. Or perhaps they’re just here to confuse us.”
“If that is their purpose, then they are succeeding. Yet you can assure me we are in another universe?”
Adam frowned. “Yeah, I told you that. We’re in another universe.”
“Then release your beacon so we can get on to more important matters.”
“What matters?”
She smiled wickedly while licking her full, ruby lips. “I have never had sex in another universe. I find the prospect…stimulating.”
Adam’s jaw fell open slightly and he felt his face flush. “Then I must attend to my duties, my dear.”
“Yes, yes you must.”
The moment of truth came, when Adam tripped the controls that would take the exhausted lovers back to their home universe and galaxy. For a moment, Adam considered what a tragedy it would be if he and Arieel got trapped in this alien universe. It would have no Klin, no Robert McCarthy…just a new beginning for him and Arieel.
He felt a twinge of regret when the green fog covered the space outside.
Adam had compensated for the drift this time, and the Defiant appeared back in the Milky Way just outside the Pyrum system. He and Arieel were enjoying their quiet time together, so they took the long way back to Pyrum-3.
It’s when they neared the planet that their quiet reverie was interrupted.
The planet was under siege.
28
There were five ships in orbit around the once-tranquil planet of Pyrum-3, and a quick scan of their configurations made Adam’s stomach turn. There was a small Human Normandy-Class fast attack ship, like those used by Special Forces assault teams. There was also a Juirean Monitor, capable of carrying a fifty-being surface assault force. But what was most surprising: there were three Nuorean warships, and the big boys that made up the bulk of their estranged fleet. Adam didn’t even know they had a dog in this race.
None of the ships had fired on the others, not wanting to set off an intergalactic incident. Even the Nuoreans, who had been laying low since the Klin invasion, were reluctant to fire on ships from the Expansion and the Union. They had enough trouble hiding from the Klin.
“Begin evasive man-groovers,” Arieel cried out when the ships began to move.
“Man-groovers…oh.” Arieel didn’t know the Formilian word for maneuvers, so she’d tried to say the word in English. Unfortunately, translation bugs are only so intuitive.
“Don’t worry,” he said to Arieel. “They’re all here for the Defiant. They want her intact. No one’s going to open fire.”
The Defiant had caught the small alien fleet off guard. Adam scanned the vessels and detected activity in their gun turrets. He wasn’t worried. Give them a minute to identify the mysterious ship approaching out-system and they’ll stand down.
“You sound confident. Are these your true feelings or are you trying to deceive me?”
“No really. Watch.”
Adam steered the Defiant toward the Juirean warship. They came close enough to see individual viewports in the hull, and almost close enough to rub against the diffusion shields.
“You are being reckless. What is happening on the surface?”
That was a good question. The ship dove into the atmosphere as Adam contacted Riyad through his ATD.
Hey! Riyad shouted in his mind. Are you planning on joining the party anytime soon? You’re supposed to bring the booze. Seriously, do you know what’s happening down here?
I thought I’d let you fill me in. We’re on our way. ETA, four minutes.
Well, it’s been nice knowing you, but we may not last four minutes.
What’s going on?
Kaylor and Jym are trapped over in the hangar. The rest of us are in what’s left of the seashell. There are three separate forces. The Expansion is over on Malibu Beach. The Humans have The Strand and the Nuoreans are at The Wedge. So far, no one has fired on the hangar or the Nautilus, thinking the Defiant could in inside either one. But the residence and admin buildings…well, that’s another story.
Adam had set a deeper, faster course through the atmosphere after hearing the concern in Riyad’s voice. He and Arieel could see the island now, bringing into focus Riyad’s report.
It was a mess. Most of the once-majestic alien palm trees had had their fronds blasted off, and the picture-perfect crescent beaches—all three of them—were now broken with footprints, spent ammo and black landing boats sitting cockeyed in the gentle surf. There was also a greasy film on the waters of the shallow channel between the island and the mainland.
Yet the most obvious damage was to the once spectacular living quarters building and the admin center next to it.
The shell-shaped apartment structure was a sick memory of its former self. The building had a thick central pole running up the center where each of the floors radiated from. It couldn’t collapse, but every floor had suffered such severe damage that structural pieces hung from cross supports like ornaments on a nightmarish Christmas tree. There was evidence of flash bolt damage, but most had been caused by the Human’s ballistic weapons. The building next to the living quarters—the Administration Building where the team once had offices, comm equipment, and a number of sophisticated computers—it was gone, now just a pile of smoldering ruins.
In contrast, the huge hangar building next to it was completely intact, without the signs of a single bolt hit or bullet hole. The same held true for the bulky orange-colored freighter dominating the landing field at the east end of the island. This told Adam a lot about the objectives of the attack. He would use that to his advantage.
He set the Defiant down directly in front of the crumbling apartment building.
The moment the starboard hatch opened, Adam and Arieel made for the building and the boxy base from which the once-elegant seashell-shaped structure rose. The walls were thicker here and had become the last refuge for the three Humans.
Adam slipped in next to Riyad, while Arieel was flanked by Sherri and Copernicus, each armed with M-80 assault rifles. The more advanced M-101 hadn’t been introduced when the base was active, so ‘80s were the largest caliber weapons they had.
Adam poked his head around the corner of a shattered wall and scanned the beaches on the south half of the island.
The island was about a mile-and-half long by one-half wide. Behind the three buildings and facing north, was a rough shore made up of jagged corals. The land was elevated here, which is why the buildings had been constructed here.
On the west end was a small peninsula jutting out into the ocean. To the south of the prominence was a small crescent-shaped beach which Adam had designated Malibu years ago. Using his mutant-enhanced eyesight, he could make out an assault group of about twenty Expansion Special Forces on the beach. A Juirean Guard appeared to be in charge, barking orders as a medium-size inflatable boat was just then running up on the beach. A menagerie of aliens began to lift green-colored boxes from inside the boat. When they broke open the crates, long-barreled projectile weapons were inside.
“You disabled the flash weapons?” he asked Riyad at his elbow.
“All we could; you know the Nuoreans use a different technology. Another problem, most of the illustrious Human commandos have learned how to quickly reconnect the contacts, so anything we do to their weapons is only temporary.”
“It looks like the Expansion troops aren’t as savvy. But they just had a literal boatload of automatic weapons delivered, apparently courtesy of some mutual armament agreement that could come back to bite us. And what about our fellow Humans? What’s their story?”
Riyad chanced to stick his head up a little higher to l
ook over the wall. Nearly all the firing had stopped after Adam landed the Defiant. Commanders on the ground and in space were reevaluating their attack plans.
“The Humans and Expansion troops arrived about twenty minutes after the Nuoreans,” Riyad reported. “They were surprised to see each other, but so far haven’t fired on each another—just us! As far as our Human brothers go, they have The Strand staked out. There’s about twenty-five of them. They came over in Zodiacs from the mainland.”
Adam had named the half-mile long stretch of pure white sand on the south side of the island The Strand, after the strip of land that connects Imperial Beach to Coronado Island in San Diego Bay. Back in the day, the SEALS knew the place intimately, using the beaches of the original Strand for training—and torture—of recruits. Memories of the cold morning surf sent shivers down Adam’s spine.
“That leaves the Nuoreans. What the hell are they doing here?”
The aliens from Andromeda were holed up on a small beach bordered by a split of land to the west and a rocky crag to the east. Adam called it The Wedge, after the infamous strip of sand at the south end of Balboa Island in Newport Beach. Prevailing winds and currents forced waves to climb to impressive heights before crashing down on the small strip of beach—and fearless body surfers—next to a long, rocky jetty extending out into the Pacific. Like its namesake, this small beach received the most surf on the island and was the most dangerous to tread. The Nuoreans had seen it as the closest approach to the landing field and the hangar. But now, between the surf and Kaylor and Jym shooting at them from a side door in the hangar, the Nuoreans were getting battered.
“Yeah, speaking of the Nuoreans, you’re going to love this,” Riyad began. “They came down first and made an announcement over a loudspeaker.”
“What did they say?”
“They said they are here for the trans-dimension space vehicle. But then they went on to explain how they needed the ship to make contact with Andromeda—they called it the Suponac—so they can be rescued.”
Adam pursed his lips. “I see. A little too much information? I suppose after hearing their perfectly good rationale for wanting the ship, you agreed to turn it over to them?”
“I might have…if I hadn’t shot the speaker through the forehead with a round from an M-80 air-cooled, semi-automatic assault rifle.”
Adam shook his head. “Is that any way to engage in interspecies diplomacy and goodwill.”
“Bite me!”
The two Humans ducked behind the wall when bullets began to zing around them. The Expansion troops had their new ballistic weapons out and were taking potshots at them. They had a better angle past the bow of the Defiant. The Humans to the south had their aim completely blocked by the TD-ship, and they weren’t taking any chances hitting the thing. They’d come too far to damage it now.
But they also wouldn’t sit idle much longer. Sooner or later they would rush the ship and attempt to take control.
Adam thought of his next move. His team of ATD-equipped defenders had done a good job of confounding the attackers by disabling their flash weapons, but that stalemate was rapidly coming to an end. The Nuoreans, knowing now that the TD-ship was not in either the hangar or the Nautilus, were moving up the beach. There were more of them than any group, around fifty. Nuorean-built flash weapons couldn’t be overcome by the ATDs, so they were sending dozens of bolts into the hangar where Kaylor and Jym were hiding. Adam wasn’t ready to start killing Humans, or even Expansion troops….but he had no qualms about wasting some Nuoreans, especially when it could save the lives of his two alien friends.
“Keep the others off my back,” he said to Riyad. “I’m going after the Nuoreans.”
“Alone?
Adam smiled before tapping his forward and then the area below his right armpit. “Yep, just me and my little friends.”
Adam slipped past the others, moving to his left and the east side of the building. Scanning the expanse of sand between him and the first Nuoreans, he took a deep breath and was rewarded with a surge of mutant super-strength. He ran, faster than any observer could comprehend, and smashed into a group of five aliens startled by his sudden arrival.
They were knocked off their feet like bowling pins. Some dropped their flash weapons, yet it was the one who dropped his ressnel—his fighting sword—that Adam was most interested in. He scooped up the fallen weapon and slashed out, slicing deep cuts in the chests of two of the aliens on the sand. A third received a straight thrust through his upper torso.
The other two were getting to their feet. Adam’s attack had happened so fast that the Nuoreans had no idea what hit them. Then they saw Adam standing over the bloody bodies of three of their comrades. Anger flare in their eyes—until the point they realized Adam had sliced completely through both their necks with one strong swipe of the ressnel. There wasn’t much fire in their eyes when their heads toppled over and fell to the sand.
Flash bolts were exploding around him, as other nearby Nuoreans noticed his attack. Fortunately, the aliens weren’t very good shots; they never used flash weapons in the arena.
With the ressnel still in his hand, he conjured up a thin cushion of air under his feet and a swirling column of sand-filled wind around his body. He rose off the beach, sweeping only a couple of feet over the heads of the confused Nuoreans. As he flew, he reached down with his sword and severed the heads of a dozen aliens, the blood spray becoming caught up in the tornadic column of air around him. In seconds, his entire body was covered in blood…alien blood, the best kind.
The Nuoreans were panicking and for a variety of reasons. First, they had Jym and Kaylor picking them off as they stood flatfooted in the open trying to come to grips with the impossible events taking place around them. Secondly, Adam was still sweeping over their positions, whacking off heads and laughing as he did so. Many hesitated advancing farther towards the hangar. Others turned back to the beach and their waiting boats.
That’s when Adam soared higher into the air, and with a wave of his right hand, sent a class-five hurricane force wall of wind racing over the beach. All five boats that had delivered the Nuoreans to the island were caught up in the torrent and thrown out to sea, along with ten or more of the aliens. Adam finished off the others a few seconds later.
Caught up in the bloodlust of the moment, Adam swept next across the island to the Expansion troops. Everyone—including Adam’s team—stood stunned and overwhelmed by what they just saw him do to the fifty Nuoreans. A few of the Expansion fighters recovered in time to send a few rounds from their Human automatic weapons at him. Whether the bullets were deflected by the column of air around him—or they were just bad shots—none found their mark.
Calling forth another huge gust of sand-filled wind, Adam sent this one straight into Malibu Beach. Alien warriors were swept up in the current and thrown into the water beyond the shore. Their landing boats joined them, many capsized and sinking.
Adam flew over The Strand next.
The Human commandos seemed to have no qualms at trying to take out the former SEAL with blasts from their weapons. A few of the rounds grazed Adam’s arms and legs, but his mutant healing powers numbed the pain and set to work repairing the damage.
In a blur, he flew lower, targeting a line of eight-inch-long barrels aimed into the sky. He sliced off the tips of five weapons with his ressnel before the commandos could dive for the sand. Adam didn’t want to kill them, but they sure did want to kill him.
He flew higher, five hundred feet or more, and hovered, glaring down at the confused ranks of the Humans. Some were still firing, yet the farther he moved from their positions, the more effective his surrounding column of air was at keeping the bullets bay.
He began to concentrate, gathering up energy to form another huge wall of air to be sent against the Humans this time. He was angry and frustrated. All he was trying to do was find a way to save the galaxy from the Klin. That’s why he took the TD-module. And that was why no one was going to
take the Defiant away from him. Not until he found the—
A huge flash and accompanying sonic boom blasted the island from above, rattling teeth and sending a series of high-frequency waves rippling over the surface of the channel.
All eyes turned to the heavens as a brilliant egg-shaped orb of white light suddenly appeared through a rip in the sky. The light from the object was blinding and its heat could already be felt on the surface. It was a brilliantly glowing orb, silently dropping to the surface of Pyrum-3.
It touched down at the center of The Strand, instantly turning the sand to glass. Slowly, the radiance began to fade, but before it had completely cooled, the skin of the object cracked open along a centerline.
Adam still hovered a few hundred feet above the beach, covered in blood and brandishing a ressnel sword in his right hand, with a perfect view of the object below. He wasn’t surprised when first Lila, and then Panur, emerged from the glowing egg-shaped spaceship.
Arieel squealed and ran forward. Lila turned toward the sound and then headed off to meet her, at a more dignified walking pace. Mother and daughter embraced.
The mutant Panur walked up the beach, unconcerned with the Human commandos at his back, each armed with deadly M-101 assault rifles. He didn’t need to be. All were standing with their mouths agape watching the surreal scene unfold before their eyes.
Adam dropped down a little so he could get a closer look. Panur was dressed in a fashionable silk business suit—albeit small to fit his four-foot tall stature—and he also had a mustache. Adam didn’t know he could grow a mustache. The alien never had a trace of hair on his body before. But this was Panur, the five-thousand-year-old alien mutant genius from the Sol-Kor universe. He could transform his body into just about any shape…so why not grow a mustache?
The alien stepped up until he was just below Adam. He looked to one side of the beach and then the other, taking in the scene like a curious tourist.