The Fringe Worlds

by T. R. Harris

  His situation seemed hopeless. Getting back to Earth was his only priority. But this wasn’t like trying to make your way back to friendly forces. He was light years away from his home, his family thought he was dead and — damn, his prospects weren’t looking too good right about now!

  He could just give up and hasten the inevitable. Or.he could learn to survive in this alien environment and bide his time until a solution could be found.

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

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

  Adam realized then and there that not caring — really not caring — about what happens to you can be a very liberating experience. And if he didn’t care what happens to him, he definitely did not care what happens to anyone - or anything - else he encountered.

  Chapter Eight: Riyad Tarazi

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

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

  Riyad loved the title of “General.” Out of all the possibilities, he had chosen this one for himself, and it sent a thrill through his spine nearly every time he heard it. Yes, he knew he commanded a fleet of pirate ships, not land forces, but he was the only one who seemed to notice the inconsistency. Looking at his subordinate on the screen, the thrill quickly passed, and he sent a steely stare at his captain.

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

  Angar shifted nervously in his chair at the directness of the question, but then quickly regained his composure. “In my defense, I was the last one to bolt out. There was nothing I could do by myself against a fleet of Rigorian warships.”

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

  “That’s correct. It was a deception. But we had no way of knowing that at the time,” he countered.

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

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

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

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

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

  Again Angar shifted in his seat. “Unfortunately, no. There wasn’t time and the only cargo we could readily see appeared to be a room full of primes in stasis.”

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

  “Hard to tell. The primes were all in good condition and in sophisticated hiberpods. There were around 70 to 80 of them in the room.” Angar hesitated before continuing. “And they had all been recently killed by the ship’s crew.”

  Riyad was taken aback by the last comment. “Killed All of them Why”

  “Impossible to tell. But it appeared they had been killed at the same time we were attacking the ship.”

  “What species were they”

  Angar seemed to grow more nervous than he already was. Riyad noticed his body language. “What is it, Captain What’s the problem”

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

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

  “Can you confirm this information, Captain” he managed to say, hoping his voice didn’t come across as too excited.

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

  Riyad remained silent for a few moments as he digested the information. This changes everything!

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

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

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

  Riyad rushed out of the comm room and proceeded quickly to the forward section of his ship. As he neared his quarters, he felt the welcoming increase in gravity, a consequence that kept most of his crew out of his private sanctuary. It was also the reason why he spent so little time on-planet anywhere.

  He entered his quarters and shut the door. Too excited to sit, he began to pace the room nervously.

  Humans! And lots of them!

  He had not seen another human for how long Six years or so. And here was a ship carrying dozens of his kin. He had been more than a little surprised to hear that they had all been killed, but once he thought about it, it made perfect sense.

  The aliens must know of our abilities. That was also the reason they were transporting the humans in stasis. After all, look what Riyad had done with the pirates of the Fringe, and he was just one human! Imagine how hard it would have been to transport dozens of conscious humans aboard one ship. These aliens definitely knew the human race and had done the only thing that made sense.

  But the question had to be asked: What were they doing with that many humans aboard their ship Where were they taking them

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

  Within the computer core of that ship would be his answer — the coordinates of his homeworld! The Holy Grail of his existence for the past six years! And even, possibly, the realization of a fantasy he had been developing for all that time.

  Riyad Tarazi had challenged the ship’s captain for the position having only been a member of the crew for three months, but it had been long enough for him to learn the operation of the ship and the pirate hierarchy.

  The captain was a Fil-nipon, not even a native of the Fringe, but he was tough and strong and had been in the pirate world for almost 20 years. It had been a duel, and by this time Riyad had no doubt about the outcome. The captain’s weapon had not even cleared its holster when Riyad placed a level one bolt through the creature’s chest.

  Now he was the Captain.

  Nine months later, Riyad had challenged the pirate leader for his supreme position within the ragtag structure of the organization. The nine months had given him time to study how the pirates operated and how their system could be improved. They were just a loose-knit group of renegades, with no real purpose other than their own personal gain. Riyad figured they could do better under his leadership.

  The pirate leader, a Rigorian, had hea
rd of Riyad’s prowess with a bolt weapon, so he accepted the challenge — as long as it was a physical contest and not with weapons. Riyad had accepted his terms.

  Rigorians are the toughest, strongest and meanest natives of the Fringe. Giant lizard-like creatures, they had scales for skin and razor-sharp teeth lining a protruding, foot-long snout. In all the history of the Fringe, no one, other than another Rigorian, had ever bested a Rigorian in one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat.

  Again, Riyad had studied his opponent and the outcome was never in doubt.

  On the day of the fight, a crowd of several hundred pirates had gathered in a field near the K’ly city of Calaa. A stage had been built where they would fight.

  The Rigorian began by loudly proclaiming his superiority and prancing around the stage showing off his size and quickness. Riyad just stood off to the side and let him do his thing.

  Then the fight had begun. Riyad easily slipped around each of the alien’s thrusts, then after a minute or so of dancing around, he placed a swift kick to the Rigorian’s side that knocked most of the air out of him. Then Riyad swung around behind him, placing a quick blow to the back of the lizard’s head. The alien fell forward onto the stage, but quickly regained his feet.

  There was a look of shock and concern on the Rigorian’s face, and for the next few seconds, Riyad pummeled the pirate leader with rights and lefts that brought prodigious amounts of blood flowing from the creature’s mouth. Then simply as a display of his strength, Riyad hoisted the alien above his head, spun around a couple of times, and threw the Rigorian into the front row of the crowd.

  A dozen pirates fell into a heap of alien flesh, but they soon pushed the Rigorian back onto the stage.

  During his time with the pirates, Riyad had heard where other challenges for the pirate leadership had ended simply with the demotion of the current leader and not his death. This didn’t make any sense to Riyad. He did not want any remaining loyalties to the former leader or grumbling about his return.

  So for the finale, Riyad grabbed the massive jaws of the lizard and pulled them open. He continued to spread them wide until he felt the bottom jaw break. The creature let out a blood-curding scream and fell to his knees, his bottom jaw dangled limply straight down from his head. The crowd was stunned into silence.

  Then Riyad ceremoniously moved behind the pirate leader, took a moment to survey the crowd, then crashed his right fist all the way down into the lizard’s skull.

  That should get their attention, he thought as he looked out at his pirates.

  He was now the Pirate General!

  As Riyad paced his quarters, recalling his ascension to the leadership of the Fringe pirates, he nodded his head. Yes, the aliens had been wise to assassinate the humans. After all, they couldn’t have dozens of humans wandering the galaxy, causing all kinds of havoc, now could they

  Chapter Nine: Nimor

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

  Adam actually got some rest and even found a shower in the ship’s only restroom. He dressed in the blue tunic and waited in his room for the next hammer to drop. He didn’t know what it would be, but he was about to make landfall on an alien world. Kaylor and Jym would then turn him over to other group of aliens - and from there, who knew Even though he’d only been aboard their ship for a few hours, he did feel a strange familiarity with them and his surroundings. What an alien world held for him would be just one more shock to his system.

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

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

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

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

  And then they were down.

  “Prepare yourself, I’m dissolving the well.” Kaylor announced to the room. Instantly, Adam felt light headed and he could feel the weight of his body melting away.

  Jym noticed Adam’s reaction. “This planet is about .75 of standard. I’m guessing that would make it a little more than half the gravity of your world. You should get along fine here.”

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

  The three of them left the pilothouse and Kaylor told Adam that Jym would stay on the ship while the two of them went into the Nimorian city of Gildemont to the Ministry Compound and register the salvage. Adam was surprised to see Kaylor was wearing his weapon around his waist.

  “So what’s this place like he asked.

  “It’s not the roughest place in the Fringe, but it’s close. They’ve only been members of the Expansion for about 20 years, so they still have a lot of tribal factions who go by their own rules. The Ministry is more of a suggestion here rather than any real authority. They have a compound not too far from here. All I want to do is get the salvage officially registered, then we can leave. It will take a couple of months before any resolution is arrived at.”

  “What does that mean”

  “Simply bringing in a derelict ship doesn’t convey ownership rights. The ship will have to be matched against any missing vessel reports, and then if the rightful owners come forward, we’ll get a salvage reward of 10 percent of the ship’s value. If the owner’s cannot pay, or no one comes forward to claim ownership, then we will be given full ownership. That all takes time, but once we file the salvage, our rights are protected.”

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

  “It could be worth the effort, eventually.”

  They were standing before a door set in an outer wall of the cargo hold. Kaylor pushed a button on a panel and the door slid open.

  Warm, dry air rushed in, smelling sweet and fresh. Adam hadn’t realized how stale the air in the ship had been. This was refreshing. They stepped down a ramp that projected from the ship and soon Adam set foot on an alien world.

  “That’s one small step for man,” he began softly.

  “What did you say”

  “Oh nothing. Actually nothing that important anymore.”

  It was a pretty good hike through the forest of alien spaceships parked in what Kaylor said was a modest-sized, rundown spaceport, but Adam found it all fascinating. There was a menagerie of creatures all around, tall ones, short ones, disgusting looking things and even some that were kind of pretty. They all went about their business not giving Adam or Kaylor a second glance.

  They eventually went through a gate with a bored looking blob of a creature manning a rundown metal booth who seemed not to even notice their passing.

  The sun was warm on his s
kin, but nothing like the Hindu-Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. The humidity was low and it actually felt like his home back in Southern California. A slight breeze stirred up brown dust and they proceeded down the side of a dirt road toward the city proper. Adam found it all incongruous; starships and dirt roads. High tech and low tech.

  He also seemed to revel in the light gravity of this world. On Earth he weighed 192 pounds, so here he was just over a hundred.

  So can I jump twice as high, or run twice as fast he asked himself. He certainly felt like he could.

  So he thought he’d experiment. He fell back slightly behind Kaylor, then crouched down and jumped. Up he went, easily soaring as high as Kaylor was tall, which was close to Adam’s height of six foot one. Kaylor jumped back, placing his hand on the handle of his weapon.

  “What did you do that for” Kaylor yelled.

  “Just wanted to see if I could.”

  “A word of advice: Don’t go showing off around here. Most of the inhabitants are barely out of the trees and will take most actions as a challenge.”

  Adam just smiled back at him. Yes, it might be better to keep any special abilities close to the vest for now. First he had to size up the locals. He had done this on numerous occasions during his Navy career. Just be cool until you learn the local customs.

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

  Adam was also disappointed to see numerous wheeled vehicles running up and down the road. No hovercraft or anti-gravity machines. These were very similar to small SUV’s, and they even seemed to be obeying traffic rules rather than running around all helter-skelter.