by T. R. Harris
Cut off from his original exit point, Adam lowered his shoulder and crashed through a door on his right, trailing Kaylor and Jym behind him. They entered what was a large stock room, occupied by a solitary Nimorian, who alerted by the explosion, was running toward the same door Adam had just shattered. Adam continued barreling forward and crashed into the alien with enough force to send him flying backwards a good twenty feet. The unfortunate alien slammed into a stack of crates and fell limp to the floor.
Adam quickly scanned the room, looking for another exit. There was metal shelving easily thirty feet high lining the outer walls and stacked with boxes and other items, while the interior floor space was filled with several multi-level rows of stacked crates. At the far end of the room Adam spotted a second door. “Follow me,” he called out to the two panting aliens behind him.
More explosions rocked the building, along with deeper sounds of electric popping, apparently coming from larger flash weapons. The whole damn building is under siege. What the fuc—
Just then, four Nimorians – along with a trio of Rigorians – burst through the far door. They spotted the escapees immediately, and not knowing whether they were friend or foe, brought their long-barrel weapons up to firing position.
Proclaiming to be a foe, Adam chose to get off the first shots, yet before he could the seven aliens opened up with their more-powerful flash rifles. The air in the room erupted with a barrage of recklessly-aimed electric bolts in Adam’s general direction. He dove behind a stack of crates just as the first balls whizzed past. Even though the shots were high and wide, they continued to arrive in rapid succession.
Kaylor and Jym piled on top of him as they, too, dove for cover. Adam shoved them off and crawled to the edge of the crate he was behind. A quick glance verified that the guards were spreading out, moving towards them. He spotted one of the lizards about thirty feet away and in plain sight. He let loose with a bolt, striking the Rigorian in the gut. Another came right behind him and Adam fired again. This time he missed slightly to the right, but when he corrected his aim and depressed the trigger, nothing happened.
“Your charge is dry!” Kaylor yelled. Adam twisted a lever on the handle of the MK, dropping the spent charge pack to the floor. He pulled another from the holster belt and snapped it in. There no more packs on his belt, so he reached over and pulled two from Kaylor’s belt; it was obvious Kaylor wouldn’t be using them.
Performing a quick pop-up recon, Adam could see where a stacked row of crates to his right would provide a path on its second level and shielded from the view of the aliens.
“Stay here,” he said to Kaylor and Jym, then he slid off to his right, and in a single bound in the light gravity, jumped to the top of the first layer of crates, about six feet high. Moving quickly along this level, hidden by the upper layer of crates, Adam managed to get behind the two remaining Rigorians. Grimacing at the reckless act he was about to commit, Adam vaulted into the air and landed on the floor about ten feet behind the aliens. As they turned, Adam let off two precise shots, killing them both instantly.
The Rigorians carried long-barrel rifles of some kind, so Adam snatched one up – and dropped for cover just as the four Nimorians opened up on his position, with shattered pieces of wooden crating raining down around him.
Adam picked up a thick piece of the packing material near him, and after testing its weight, tossed the piece of wood high and to his right. As it landed, the Nimorians shifted their fire toward the sound. Adam stood – rifle stock pressed securely into his right shoulder – and found he was looking straight down a line of aliens, all in a row and looking to his right. Taking aim at the first one in line, he fingered the trigger.
A bright bolt of electric blue light escaped from the barrel of the weapon and struck the first alien in line along the front of his chest; the bolt then continued onto the second alien and penetrated the creature’s neck. Both went down. Two with one shot, not bad. A quick second bolt dropped the third Nimorian in line. As the fourth alien turned to watch his comrades collapse to the floor, the last thing he ever saw in this lifetime was an ever-growing ball of blue energy … heading straight for his face.
With the resistance neutralized, Adam darted between crates and back to where he’d left Kaylor and Jym. As he rounded the box and slid in beside them, Jym let out a high-pitched scream, while Kaylor’s eyes rolled back in his head and he nearly fainted.
“Don’t surprise us like that!” Kaylor scolded, his face now whiter than normal.
“Let’s go.” Adam commanded, ignoring him. Yet just as they stood, five more Nimorians entered the room through the far door. Seeing the bodies spread across the floor, they cut loose with new barrage of blue bolts in their direction. Once again, the trio dove for cover again behind the crate.
Now desperate for an alternative exit, Adam noticed a break in the metal shelving units lining the wall. He had an idea.
“Follow me, and stay low.”
Adam took off in a crouch, with the other two following close behind. They reached the break in the shelving and crowded in for cover, as splashes of blue bolts danced around them. With his back pressed against the wall, Adam struck the surface with his left elbow … and was relieved to feel the wallboard break. He had been hoping that this was an interior wall; the outer walls of the building were made of brick and he wasn’t sure he could break through those. But these thin, inner walls were a breeze. He smashed his elbow into the wall several more times until he had created an opening about three-feet wide. Next he pressed his full weight against hole … and suddenly fell through the wall and into another room. He landed on his back with his legs still in the hole, the flash rifle lying across his chest.
To his shock, two Nimorians had just sped past his position, heading toward the battle at the other end of the building, with weapons held firmly in the grip. They stopped and turned at the sound of the breaking wall behind them and immediately brought their weapons to bear on the creature lying on the floor, covered in white dust. Adam quickly rolled onto his right shoulder and fired his rifle twice. One of the aliens fell, but the other bolt missed its target. Adam fingered the trigger again, sending out another deadly ball of energy. Yet the other alien had already triggered his weapon releasing the bolt in Adam’s direction. Rolling onto his back, the bolt ripped across the front of Adam’s tunic, burning through it and exposing his chest and the angry red burn from where Kaylor had shot him two days before. His own shot found its mark, striking the guard in the forehead.
Adam jumped to his feet, while breathing a sigh of relief that he was still alive. He then reached through the hole in the wall and yanked Kaylor and Jym through. They all ended up in the middle of the corridor, coughing and covered in white dust and bits of broken wallboard.
There were several large windows set in the opposite wall of the corridor, with dim yellow light shining through. Adam crossed to the nearest one and smashed out the glass with the butt of the rifle. The window was large enough to crawl through, so Adam shoved Jym and Kaylor through the opening, before following himself.
Once outside the building, Adam pressed his back against the warmth of the brick wall and then with his left arm forced Jym and Kaylor to do the same. They were in the greenbelt area between two of the Ministry buildings, separated by about sixty feet. To their left a battle was raging, with two groups squared off against one another, firing from concealed doorways and from behind vehicles positioned outside the south entrance of the building.
The three escapees were fully exposed, with dozens of windows from both buildings facing the grassy area. Luckily for them, the sun was beginning to set, and deep shadows were beginning to fill the space between the buildings. The blue tunics both Adam and Kaylor wore – along with Jym’s dark green one – would help provide some camouflage, but at any moment they could be spotted.
To his right and about a hundred feet away, Adam saw the outer wall that enclosed the Ministry Complex. He turned to the aliens. “Sta
y low and close to the building,” he whispered, and then they set off for it, hugging the side of the building as they went.
If anyone in the buildings noticed their movement, they chose to ignore them in light of the intense fighting taking place at the other end of the building. They made it to the wall without incident.
Adam fell against the barricade and then surveyed each direction for guard towers. Seeing none, he stood and grabbed Jym by his tunic. “Trust me,” he said … and promptly proceeded to toss the much smaller creature up to the top of the twelve-foot high partition. Jym clung there, with an arm and a leg dangling precariously over each side. Kaylor was more cooperative, and soon he, too, had been hoisted atop the wall.
Adam then tossed the bolt rifle over to the other side, and with an easy leap in the light gravity, was able to reach the top of the wall with both hands propel the rest of his body over in one fluid motion. He landed softly on the ground below and then called for Jym and Kaylor, one at a time, to drop into his arms.
They were in a not-so-green greenbelt area about ninety feet wide between the wall and a road running parallel to the Ministry Complex. Beyond the road were several streets heading away from the Compound and lined with buildings of various heights and design. A short distance to their left was the nearest street intersection; several clusters of creatures had gathered there, looking in the direction of the Ministry, curious at all the explosions and gunfire taking place. In the gray light of dusk, none of the spectators had noticed the three escapees scale the wall, so Adam grabbed the rifle and led them in a sprint for the cover of the nearest building.
Crouching in a darkened entryway, Adam noticed both Jym and Kaylor panting heavily, trying to catch their breath. Out of shape aliens, Adam observed. Go figure!
Inside the Ministry Complex the sounds of the battle could still be heard, but they were growing less intense. Adam pulled Kaylor near. “Which way is it to the spaceport?”
Kaylor pointed to their right. “That way,” he panted. “It is about twenty minutes away by foot. Perhaps we should find a transport for hire?”
“You want us to call a cab?” Adam shot back. “I have a better idea.” He handed the rifle to Kaylor and then took off in a sprint down the street.
Along the road were parked several of the native wheeled transports, with a number of aliens of various shapes and sizes milling around them, chattering and pointing toward the Ministry. Near the end of the row of vehicles, one of the drivers had climbed out of his car and was standing at the open door, looking toward the Compound and the rising column of black smoke, now easily visible in the late afternoon sky. Adam moved up behind him and then used both his hands to grab the alien by the back of his shirt and the seat of his pants. He tossed the startled creature high into the air; he landed hard about ten feet away in a patch of bushes at the side of the street.
“Get in!” Adam yelled, as he slid into the driver’s seat.
Of course, Adam had never driven an alien car before, but he had observed how it was done during the drive to the Ministry Complex earlier that morning. In the center console was a joystick with a flat handle on top, and once Jym had climbed in the back and Kaylor into the front passenger seat, Adam pushed the stick all the way forward and with purpose.
But nothing happened.
He pushed it again … still nothing.
Then Kaylor calmly reached over and flicked a switch on the dashboard.
The vehicle suddenly lunged forward, sideswiping another car before Adam could throttle back and steer back into the center of the road. Embarrassed, he glanced over at Kaylor and flashed a silly-looking grin. “Oops!”
Adam quickly got the feel of the controls, and soon they were racing down the road and toward the spaceport. Most of the traffic on the road was heading in the opposite direction, towards the Ministry Complex, so they made it back to the spaceport in less than five minutes.
Barreling through the main gate, Adam half-expected to come upon a contingent of Ministry police waiting for them; after all, they couldn’t outrun radios or telephones – or whatever they used on this planet. But no one of authority seemed to be present, not even the incredibly-bloated alien at the guard hut. However, there were other creatures in the spaceport, but most were scurrying about in a frenetic panic, readying their ships for liftoff. They paid no special attention to Adam’s speeding vehicle.
News of the raid on the Ministry Complex had spread rapidly, and even though no one knew exactly what was happening, very few in the spaceport were willing to wait around and find out. Like true mariners everywhere – whether at sea or in space – they preferred their chances off-land during a time of crisis, rather than as sitting ducks stuck in port.
Adam pulled back on the joystick and the car skidded to a halt at the base of the ramp leading up to the cargo hold of the FS-475. Kaylor jumped out and ran to a covered panel set in the skin of the spaceship. Flipping it open, he punched in a code and the door to the cargo bay slid open. The three of them ran up the protruding ramp and into the ship.
As Jym secured the door and retracted the ramp, Kaylor and Adam hurried to the pilothouse. Jym was only steps behind.
“How long until we can take off?” Adam asked, as he sank into a seat and began to fasten his safety harness.
Both Kaylor and Jym were frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers. “When on-planet, I always keep one of the main generators humming, just in case we have to bolt-out fast,” Kaylor answered. “Even then, it will still take about five minutes before we’ve built up enough compression to pull us up.”
Adam didn’t have any idea what Kaylor was talking about – but he did sound convincing. So for the next few minutes, as the two aliens went about their pre-flight chores, Adam nervously peered through the open viewport and across the ever-darkening spaceport, expecting at any moment to see streaks from electric balls of energy, or hear the deafening blast of an explosion.
Instead … there came the sickening feeling of vertigo as the ship’s gravity-well engaged and overrode that of the planet’s own attraction. Then, without any sense of movement on their part, it was as if the whole spaceport moved away from them at incredible speed. The entire city below them fell away quickly, followed by the surrounding land and then finally the planet itself.
They were back in space, and to his surprise, Adam began to relax.
But not so Kaylor and Jym. As the spherical shape of the planet became more pronounced, and the bright layer of atmosphere grew thinner, the two aliens were staring intently at their view screens, Kaylor’s forehead furrowed with deep creases.
“Is everything okay?’ Adam asked.
“It looks like two other craft have slipped in behind us,” Jym answered.
“From the surface—”
“No,” Jym interrupted. “They were already in orbit.”
“What are you going to do?”
Kaylor leaned back in his seat. “Nothing right now,” he said. “They’re not closing on us; just holding back, following.”
“So where do we go now?” Adam asked.
Jym whipped his furry head around in Adam’s direction. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you broke us out of the Ministry!” he barked. “I don’t have any idea where we can go—”
“I have a suggestion.”
The new voice came from behind them, from the door to the pilothouse.
In unison, the three of them jerked their heads around, only to find a tall, dark figure standing in the doorway, bolt weapon aimed at them. More creatures stood behind him in the passageway, each with their own weapon pointed into the room.
Leaning into the pilothouse, the speaker handed Jym a piece of paper.
“What is that?” Kaylor asked Jym.
Jym looked up from the paper. “It is the coordinates of the Kyllian Asteroids.”
Adam didn’t hear any of the exchange, nor did he notice the look of shock on Kaylor’s face at the mention of the Kyllian Asteroids. In
stead he sat in stunned silence as he stared at the creature in the doorway.
It was another Human – and he was smiling and staring directly into Adam’s eyes!
Chapter 17
“You must be Adam Cain,” the Human said. He stepped further into the room, until he was about six feet from Adam. “I am honored to meet you. And I am Riyad Tarazi.” The man then turned to his backups and nodded.
Adam was shocked into inaction and offered no resistance as Riyad’s troops swept into the room and disarmed them all. He then turned to Jym. “Enter those coordinates into the autopilot … and then let’s all go up to the common room for a friendly chat.”
The man – Riyad Tarazi – led the small party up the corresponding ladders and to the lounge area of the ship, during which time Adam had a chance to get a good look at him. He was right at six-feet tall, heavily muscled and with tight, jet black hair on his head and full beard. His eyes were dark, as was his complexion … and if his name didn’t give it away, the accent was unmistakable. Riyad Tarazi was of either Arab or Iranian descent.
An odd nervousness filled Adam’s senses, although he couldn’t quite explain why. Here was another Human, someone just like him in this strange, alien universe. He should have been feeling overwhelming joy at the moment, yet all Adam could see before him was a threat. And remarkably, it was a greater threat than anything else he’d yet encountered….
Jym and Kaylor sat on the couch as Riyad took a seat at the table; Adam chose to stand. “Come, sit my brother,” Riyad said, offering a seat at the table, while the four other creatures with Riyad fanned out around the room, maintaining their guard with weapons ready.
Reluctantly, Adam sat down.
Leaning forward, Riyad reached out and grasped Adam’s arm. “I am so pleased to see you, Mr. Cain.” The words sounded sincere, and his incredibly bright smile was disarming. “I was wondering if I would ever see another Human again. Later we must talk at length about our adventures. I’m sure we have much to share.”