by T. R. Harris
Adam and Sherri knelt to the ground. The net was heavy, but Adam’s instantly-activated mutant strength was able to handle it. He huddled over Sherri to keep most of the weight off of her, as a group of assorted aliens came out of the purple shadows and stood on the edges of the net, holding thick wooden clubs in their hands, ready to pounce.
Do we need these people? Sherri asked.
No. I think they’re just here to relieve us of our valuables…and possibly our lives.
Adam took hold of the net and pulled the ropes apart. The material frayed and the metal cord snapped. He tore open a section so he and Sherri could stand up.
The half-dozen assailants looked at each other, surprised and confused at what just happened. One abandoned his club and reached for his weapon. Adam shook his head, appearing defiant and unafraid. The attitude was understood—even flash weapons wouldn’t be enough against the Humans. A moment later all six of the aliens ran off in six different directions.
“Let’s get to the spaceport,” Adam said, disgusted. “It’ll take time for word to get back to the Klin—if at all. And this place is too much of a shithole for my tastes.”
Ten minutes later they approached the Juirean ET, only to find an alien lying unconscious on the broken tarmac with another crouched beside him. The one on his knees looked up at the pair of Humans.
“He was only curious; he meant no harm to the ship.”
“There’s a sign posted,” Adam barked. “It should have scanned your translators and displayed the information in your native language. What part of Stay the Fuck Away didn’t you understand?”
Sherri went to the unconscious alien and felt around for a pulse. It took a moment, but she eventually found it. “He’ll be okay. He’s just stunned.”
The other alien rose to his feet. “You are Adam Cain,” he stated.
Adam’s shoulders slumped. Damn, isn’t there anywhere in the galaxy where I’m not recognized? It’s hard to be on secret missions when everyone knows your face.
“I have spent much time in the inner Expansion,” the alien continued. “Your image is displayed quite often during the broadcasts.”
“What do you want? I’m sure you’re not here just to admire the spaceship or to get my autograph.”
“I have received word that you seek information about the Klin. I may have such information…for a reward.”
“If your information is worthy, you’ll get a reward. What do you know?”
“Andahar. It is a planet eight light-years from here. It was once a manufacturing center for the Klin.”
“It isn’t anymore?” Sherri asked.
“From what cargo merchants say, the Klin took over the manufacture of their robots before abandoning the planet over three standard years ago.”
“Why haven’t we heard of this?” Sherri asked.
“The population survived, yet they fear a return of the Klin…or worse. They do not wish to have a force of Expansion military come to their world to learn of the Klin, to be considered traitors for their conscripted service. They fear reprisals from both the Klin and the Expansion.”
“Where are the Klin now?”
The creature frowned. “They are in the Expansion, from what the broadcasts say.”
“You haven’t seen any around here?”
“As you know, the Klin do not reveal themselves often. They do not go for casual walks on other worlds so all can see.”
Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out three hundred Juirean credits. He handed them to the alien. “Here you go, smartass. Thanks for the info. Now you and your buddy get out of the lift-off radius.”
Sherri had the rear airlock activated through her ATD and was already making her way to the pilothouse. Adam was a step behind her. They watched as the first alien helped the other to his feet and then practically dragged him away from the ET. Two minutes later, the ship was in the upper atmosphere, leaving the strange purple shading behind.
Fire up the engines, Riyad, Adam signaled. We’re going to a place called Andahar.
So when do the Klin show up and take you to their leader?
Give it time, Mr. Tarazi. The game has only just begun.
10
Three excruciatingly boring days later, Sherri and Adam were about to kill each other. The cockpit of the ET was only forty feet in diameter with a single fold-down cot in the back near the airlock, requiring the two-person crew to sleep in shifts. There was an alien-designed grooming station—with no privacy—and a small food processor serving just the basics. And except for the solid deck below their feet, where most of the electronic components stored, the entire arrangement was open to the eerie emptiness of space. It was like living in a fishbowl with stars as the curious watching their every move.
Adam was in the pilot seat, while Sherri dozed on the cot. They hadn’t spoken in twelve hours, not after their last meaningless flare up. Although his mutant brain cells allowed him to recall every word of the argument, he still didn’t understand what it was about. But it was enough for him that all the huffing and puffing had tired Sherri out to the point where she fell asleep. For all he cared, she could stay in the cot for the next two days until they reached Andahar. In fact, it would be better if—
The inertia compensator saved Adam from smashing headlong into the forward glass of the canopy when the generators suddenly wound down and the ship dropped out of the deep gravity-well. A Hollywood special-effects team would have added the sound of screeching tires to the scene, but in the vacuum of space there was only silence after the generators shut down.
“What happened?” Sherri asked from behind the pilot’s station.
Adam scanned the controls. “We just passed through a damping field; it knocked us out of the well.”
“So just some random damping field, or was it something intentional?”
“Since I’ve never heard of a naturally-occurring damping field, I would have to say the latter.”
“Finally…something to do around here.”
Riyad, we just hit a damping field. Looks like the Klin are nearby.
I’ll back off. We don’t want to get caught in the same thing.
“Okay…there they are,” Adam said as contacts popped onto his proximity screen. “Damn, nine of them. They appear to be the smaller attack saucers.”
“I hope they don’t attack first and ask questions later.”
“Good point. Maybe we should slip into our environment suits just in case.”
A few minutes later the pair was suited up and watching as a squadron of Klin-style spaceships surrounded the ET. Small rockets flared out from a pair of the alien ships—two each—and struck the bulky gravity generators flanking the small crew pod. Cables were attached to the rockets, and as soon as barbed spikes sank into the hull of the ET, the ships pulled away, taking the generators with them.
Alarms sounded within the pod as several prominent cracks snaked through the canopy. Sherri and Adam grabbed canisters of sealing foam and began spraying the cracks. That stopped most of the outflow, but not all. Adam took a quick inventory. There were two extra air tanks for the spacesuits, and about fifteen minutes of atmosphere in the pod. He looked out at the starships outside, hovering about two hundred yards from the ET, wondering what they would do next.
Sherri was watching the aliens, too. “That was rude,” she said. “And now that they’ve made a mess of our ship they better hurry up. We don’t have a lot of reserves.”
“If they wanted us dead they would have launched a couple of bolts into us by now. As to why they ripped the generators off, that was rather impulsive.”
A small shuttlecraft pulled away from one of the Klin ships and moved towards the ET. It came at an excessive speed, causing the Humans to lean back in their seats when the hull slammed into the forward canopy, splintering the glass even more. Escaping air fractured the glass the rest of the way, and soon Adam and Sherri were sitting in the command chairs, the cockpit exposed to open space, and a shiny
silver hull intruding only a few feet away.
The Klin ship rotated around, until an airlock hatch was exposed, an amber light on the control panel.
The two Humans released safety harnesses and made their way in the zero gravity over the mangled remains of the control station. Adam gripped a holding bar next to the hatch while taking Sherri in his other hand. Sherri pulled back on the release latch.
The door slid open and the pair climbed inside the small airlock. The hatch closed automatically and air filled the room. The inner door opened, and two space-suited Klin, each holding advanced MK flash weapons, greeted them with a wave of the handguns, calling them into the interior of the small shuttle.
The ship sped away from the broken remains of the Express Transport, leaving Adam questioning how the Juireans would handle the news that their precious starship was in ruins…and whether or not they’d hold him responsible. Knowing the Juireans, that was a given.
Riyad, can you hear me? Looks like we’ve made contact.
Great. Not sure where you are exactly, but we’re ready to follow your lead.
Good. We’ve just docked with a larger ship. We should be heading out soon.
11
But that wasn’t the case.
Two hours later, the squad of Klin starships was still in the same place, refusing to move.
“I repeat, where is your team?” asked the leader of the Klin, a tall creature with silver skin and wearing an equally silver uniform. It was hard to distinguish where the skin ended and the clothing began.
“I told you, it’s just the two of us. We’re on an independent scouting mission. No one else could fit in the Juirean spaceship.”
“You are Adam Cain; you always travel with an entourage of assistants.”
“Hey, we’re not his assistants,” Sherri protested. “We’re…colleagues.”
“And where are your other colleagues at this moment?” The Klin directed this question at Sherri.
“Hell if I know. Probably back on Formil, trying to figure out a way to kill you…all of you.”
Riyad! Adam called out in mind.
Here.
I need to you get on a CW link with Formil and have someone create a fake news broadcast about you meeting with Arieel today in the O’lac Building.
Eh, why?
The Klin aren’t taking us anywhere until they’re sure you’re not following us. They don’t believe it’s just me and Sherri out here.
Got it. Give me a minute.
Adam turned his attention back to the Klin. He and Sherri were huddled together in the small landing bay aboard a Klin KFV-A, a small, circular-shaped attack vessel Adam hadn’t seen in over a decade. He didn’t know they still used them. Yet this particular clan of Klin was the last of their kind; they were probably been down to their last reserves—or had been until this new offensive began. Then, according to Senior Fellow Cannis—the sole Klin aboard the huge black ship he’d been taken aboard—the aliens cannibalized some of their Colony Ships to make the first black starship and an army of robots. After that they enlisted the help of an unsuspecting race as their new partners in crime, promising them co-leadership of the galaxy in exchange for the planet’s manufacturing might. Those were the Andahareans, or whatever they called themselves. But then in typical Klin fashion, once the factories were pumping out tens of thousands of killer robots a day, the machines turned on their makers.
Riyad came back into his mind.
Arieel just sent a link to Formil. We rigged a little welcoming ceremony in the captain’s quarters; just a brief grip and grin. Hopefully it will add a little visual realism to things.
Good thinking. Let me know when it hits.
Unfortunately, the news broadcast wasn’t the only thing hitting that day.
Adam watched with curiosity when the lead Klin placed a metal glove over his right hand and forearm. He wore a thin grin on his face as he stepped up to the Humans. “Your reputation is well known within the Klin, Adam Cain. For your knowledge, I was aboard the colony vessel that you used to travel to the Sol-Kor universe and back. I knew well some of my kind you killed that day.”
Adam eyed the metal glove. “Your Pleabaen will be pissed if you harm his prize captive.”
“If you ever receive an invitation to meet my leader, perhaps. Yet I have been instructed not to bring you near until the location of your colleagues is revealed. Yet, in the interim….”
The alien pulled back his glove-shrouded hand and laid a heavy blow to the side of Sherri’s head, catching both her and Adam off guard. Her head wobbled and her eyes crossed, while a trickle of blood drained from her nose.
Anger swelled within Adam, and he flexed his mutant-enhanced muscles in preparation for an attack.
No! Don’t. Sherri said in his mind. I’m all right. Just surprised.
Tell that to your bleeding nose.
Sherri wiped the blood away, before staring the Klin in the eyes and licking the red liquid off the side of her hand. “Thank you, sir. May I have another?”
Veins in the Klin’s neck began to pulse, and he pulled his arm back again to grant Sherri her wish.
“Stop!” Adam yelled. “Just check with your contacts on Formil. I’m sure you have them. See if Riyad and the others are there. It shouldn’t be too hard to do.”
The Klin eyed Adam with unbridled hatred, but he held back from delivering another hit to Sherri’s head. “I will do that, yet I will not spend much time in verifying what you say.” He then looked at Sherri and her still bleeding nose. “Savages, barely evolved. I would not be faulted for killing you both, as you attempt to escape.”
“We’re not trying to…oh, yeah,” Adam remarked. “That would work.”
The Klin commander left the shuttle bay but returned an hour later, a disgruntled look on his face. A few minutes before, Adam had felt the gravity generators kick in. The ship was moving somewhere, hopefully to the hiding place of the remaining Klin.
“I still have my suspicions,” said the Klin, “yet it has been verified that Riyad Tarazi is on Formil. Our data shows that you seldom travel without him. As a result, I have been ordered to take you to bring you forth. You will stay here in the shuttle bay. Sustenance will be provided. We have extensive data on the nutritional requirements of Humans. Unfortunately, the food will not kill you.” The alien appeared agitated, and before he left, he leaned in closer to the Humans. “I do not understand why I am not allowed to dispose of you now? It would be simpler—and safer—in my opinion.”
“You can’t deprive your superiors of their simple pleasures,” Adam replied. “Now be nice to us, otherwise I will complain to the management about your poor customer service.”
The alien didn’t use the metal glove this time to strike Adam across the face. It was humorous, however, to watch the normally non-violent Klin hold his hand in pain afterwards. Adam didn’t react to the hit; instead he gave the commander a full-tooth grin. “Was that as good for you as it was for me?”
The frustrated and hurt alien literally growled at Adam, another atypical Klin reaction.
Riyad, we’re on our way. Stay close.
We’ll try, came the mental reply. But without the ghost program in the ET, your signal is kinda weak. Arieel’s doing her best to keep a line on you. We may have to move in a little closer.
It’s your call. Just be careful. The Klin commander is already suspicious.
12
Adam’s mutant brain cells kept pretty good track of the time it took to reach their destination. It came in at just under five days, which was a long time to hang out in the KFV-A’s landing bay, sleeping on stacks of thin blankets, eating the most basic of Human-compatible food, and having to be escorted to the single grooming station aboard the ship every time they had to go to the bathroom.
Most conversations took place by way of their ATDs, since there was a good chance the room was bugged. They spent most of the time probing the controls of the Klin starship, identifying relays and choke po
ints just in case they had to take over. The ship carried a crew of twenty-five, of which half was made of up of the once-ubiquitous Jakreans.
The four-foot-tall gray aliens, with the pear-shaped heads and huge black eyes, were the thing of science fiction novels and hundreds of alien abduction stories. That was probably because the Klin used them back in the early days to help build a Human army to fight the Juireans. The tiny creatures could tolerate the gravity of Earth better than their masters and they were obedient and loyal to a fault. In fact, it was probably a Jakrean who placed a stun bolt in Adam’s back the night he was kidnapped.
Since the debacle that was to become the Klin’s attempt to use Humans in their proxy war with the Juireans, Jakreans had fallen out of favor with the Klin. The Kracori couldn’t stand the whinny little creatures and refused to have them on their ships. And when the need for Human abductees waned, the Klin stopped using them altogether.
Until now. Adam reasoned it was because of the reduced population of the Klin. There had once been more of them, but after the battle of the Dysion Void—where five Colony Ships were destroyed making their faithful escape through a barrier of stellar debris, they had more need for the semi-intelligent creatures to do their basic chores.
The Klin robots—the AN-9s—weren’t designed for everyday tasks. They were killers first and foremost. So the presence of the gray aliens made sense.
It also meant Adam could take down the entire crew in a matter of minutes if need be.
Fortunately, everyone behaved themselves and the alien spacecraft made a landing on a planet with standard Juirean gravity. Sherri and Adam remained locked in the landing bay, unable to view the new home of the Klin.
According to estimates, there were five or six remaining Colony Ships. The population of the two that were sacrificed to build the first black ship and the initial AN-9s had to be moved somewhere; they wouldn’t all fit on the remaining CSs. Adam was anxious to learn the location of the planet. Traditionally, the Klin never ventured far from each other, meaning the surviving Colony Ships were probably in the system somewhere. That would make them easy targets for a fleet of either Expansion or Human warships—preferably both. One massive and decisive strike would be all it would take to end this current threat to the galaxy.