by T. R. Harris
Adam saw Kaylor turn even paler than normal – while Jym simply went ahead and fainted.
Chapter 24
Two hours later, Adam was handcuffed and walking across a narrow metal plank in the umbilical corridor connecting the Counselor’s private shuttle to the Klin starship. At the end of the plank, the group entered an airlock, and soon Adam found himself back in the same wide, curving corridor he had been in only six short days before.
Technicians had reestablished gravity, atmosphere and temperature within the ship, and even the air smelled like it had been disinfected, countering the stench of the dead bodies left by the pirates.
As he passed the wide window to the hiberpods room, he felt slightly nostalgic. He noticed that all the pods were all empty now, the dozens of dead Humans having been removed for disposal – or for who knew what else.
They soon passed the wide stairway leading to the command dome and kept going. The party continued along the corridor, until it intersected with another corridor that cut through the center of the ship under the command dome. There were numerous doors on either side of the corridor, and Adam reasoned this must have been the living quarters for the crew.
A wide door slid open to his right, and the guards hustled them through, following the Counselor in his flowing and colorful capes.
The room they entered was long and narrow, with a large viewport at the opposite end. There was a living area off to the left, complete with a bed and working desk, partitioned off with half walls from the rest of the room. Along each wall were displayed colorful and strangely brilliant pictures that appeared almost to be alive. They were advanced 3-D images or holograms of some kind, and depicted landscapes of rolling hills, towering mountains and tranquil, azure blue seas. One picture was of a large obelisk surrounded by manicured grounds. And within all the pictures were numerous beings – all the same tall silver creatures he’d seen when he’d first awakened on the ship. They were smiling and some were even holding children. Adam recognized the images immediately for what they were. These were scenes of home.
Adam noticed a figure standing near the photo of the obelisk, with his back to the group. A billowing crest of blue hair covered the head and cascaded down the back and over a long purple cape. Without turning, the Overlord spoke: “This is an image of the Eternity Monument on Klinmon. It was destroyed nearly four thousand years ago … but still they remember.”
The Overlord turned, and Adam was immediately struck by the impossibly deep blue color of his eyes. They were almost hypnotic. The Overlord’s face was similarly shaped as that of the Counselor’s, but it appeared to have fewer creases around the eyes. A young Juirean? Adam wasn’t sure, but thought it was a good bet.
The Counselor had taken a seat off to the right of the simple desk that was set near the rear viewport. He remained silent, as he waited for the Overlord to guide the conversation.
The Overlord swept his arm around the room. “This is all Klin. We are all standing in a memory, an ancient memory that has now been brought back to life.” The Juirean’s voice was almost singsong as he appeared enraptured by the moment. “This is living history. The Klin should not exist – but they do.”
He walked over to the group and stopped in front of Adam. “They not only exist, but they appear to be thriving.” The smell of the Juirean was of thick body odor, and his breath was a little sour. Adam did his best not to wince – at least not too much.
The Juirean continued. “I am Overlord Oplim Ra Unis and the four of you are all responsible, in one way or another, for this great moment in Juirean history. Because of your actions, I will be remembered forever in the chronicles of the Juirean people.”
He walked over to the desk and leaned against it, facing the group. From the tone of the conversation, Adam almost felt as if the Juirean wanted to thank them for what they’ve done. Was that even possible?
He continued: “But do you know how close I came to not making this moment a reality?” His voice lowered. “Just having the Klin ship, without knowing the location of the Klin hiding place, would have caused more problems than it solved. It would simply have confirmed that the Klin still exist, and that they have advanced technology developed over thousands of years, technology and capabilities completely hidden from The Expansion. The result would have been Klin sightings all across the galaxy, a mass hysteria that would have undermined the Members’ confidence in the Juirean Authority.”
Then he stared at Kaylor. “And you – you had the computer core from the beginning.”
Kaylor’s eyes grew wide with terror, as Jym tried to slip in behind him, hiding from the steely gaze of the Overlord.
At that moment, a communicator on the Counselor’s belt buzzed, distracting the Overlord momentarily. The Counselor quickly answered; he whispered into the device and then stood and moved next to the Overlord.
“My Lord, the technicians have tried all they can to decipher the information from within the core, but there is a compatibility issue. They believe the core must be linked to its original system.” There was a slight concern in his voice.
The Overlord firmed his jaw, and then instructed the Counselor to have the core transferred to the Klin ship immediately. He stood silently for a long moment, looking into the room without seeing. All the others stood silently, shifting nervously. The Overlord was used to doing things in his own time.
Finally, he took a deep breath and said, “Now you see why we have purged all evidence of the discovery of this ship. The only beings that know of the ship’s true identity are here in this room. Only after I have learned the location of the Klin hiding place, and purged The Expansion of their plague, will I let the rest of the galaxy know what I have done.”
After being confined to a small room near the Overlord’s chambers for an hour or so, the four prisoners were eventually herded up to the command dome where the Overlord and his Counselor were waiting. The core had arrived and technicians were preparing to install it back into its original slot within the equipment tower. Adam noticed Riyad separate himself from him and the two aliens, to stand closer to the Juireans. The rest of the room was crowded with guards and various service technicians.
The last time Adam was in this room was when Kaylor had shot him, and the wound on his chest – as well as the one on his head from the collision with the bulkhead – still had not healed completely. Adam noticed that Kaylor and Jym were becoming ever-more agitated, almost panicky. They had been petrified with fear for quite a while now, but this was something different.
The technicians lifted the core and struggled to line it up in the opening in the equipment tower. Then it slid in. Immediately, three steady orange lights above the core opening changed to yellow and began to flash in sequence.
Kaylor and Jym literally ran for the exit, but were quickly subdued by the guards. The twos Juireans didn’t notice the commotion; instead, they had turned their attention to the command consoles as a screen in front of them suddenly flashed to life. A technician sat down at the console and began to type on the keyboard before him. Data began to stream across the screen. The Juireans leaned in closer.
Adam was curious, too, but of course, he couldn’t read any of the data. What really piqued his interest, however, was how strangely Kaylor and Jym were acting….
“There!” the Overlord yelled, pointing his finger at the screen. “Stop,” he commanded to the technician. “Surrender your seat and leave the room.”
When the seat was empty, the Counselor slipped into it. Only the two Juireans could now see the screen. They began to read intently.
Kaylor grabbed Adam’s sleeve. “We have to leave!” he whispered to Adam.
“What? We can’t leave.”
“But we have to!”
Adam shrugged off Kaylor’s grasp and returned his attention to the Juireans. If they learned the location of Earth, they might reveal something Adam could use later – if there was to be a later. He couldn’t read the screen – even if he could see i
t – yet he could listen in on their conversation.
“Amazing.” the Counselor was saying. “Annan.”
“Yes, but that is not what concerns me the most,” said the Overlord. “Look what it says about these Humans….”
Both the Juireans turned to look at Adam and Riyad, who in unison backed away quickly, trying to look as innocent as possible. Did the Juireans look … scared? Adam thought. Then they turned back to the screen.
“There! That’s it—” the Overlord said.
A heartbeat later, Riyad shoved a shoulder into Adam’s chest, sending him crashing into Kaylor, Jym and the guards behind them and they all tumbled to the floor in a heap. Next, Riyad kicked the Counselor in the ribs, and grabbed the much-taller Overlord around the neck from behind, pulling him backwards.
Guards rushed into the room, weapons drawn, but Riyad swung the Overlord in front of him for cover and the guards hesitated. The pirate backed further into the room, almost disappearing from Adam’s view due to the curvature of the disk-shaped starship. Then with his free hand, Riyad reached down and flipped his belt buckle inside out, revealing the trigger device for the ankle bombs! He grinned at Adam – and then pushed a button on the device … at the same time he ducked around the equipment tower.
But nothing happened.
A few seconds later, Riyad peaked around the corner, with the Overlord still firmly in his grasp. Adam had regained his feet, and seeing Riyad’s dark eyes staring at him, he smiled at the pirate while pulling up his pant leg and revealing a bare ankle.
A look of exasperation came over Riyad’s face, but then a toothy smile stretched across his face. Riyad gave Adam a wink, and then moved back out of sight, dragging the Overlord with him.
Guards rushed past Adam, nearly knocking him over, and went to help the Counselor to his feet. Others headed after Riyad, who had exited the command room through a secondary doorway.
Adam felt a strong tug on his arm. “Come Adam, we must go – now!” Kaylor had an absolutely terrified look on his face.
Using the confusion left over from Riyad’s abduction of the Overlord, Adam sent an elbow into the jaw of the one remaining guard standing between them and the stairway out of the command room. He scooped up the guard’s weapon and the three of them bounded down the stairs and into the wide corridor. Three more guards ran past them and up the stairs, ignoring them completely. It seemed that rescuing the Overlord was of a greater priority than subduing the three of them.
And so they ran, back down the corridor, past the hiberpod room and into the umbilical tube. The hatch to the Counselor’s ship was still open and they shot through it, Adam leading the way. Finding no one aboard, they quickly located the pilothouse and Kaylor fell into the pilot’s seat a seat, punching buttons as he did so.
“What the hell’s going on?” Adam yelled, as Kaylor fingered a switch that closed the outer door to the ship. Next, Kaylor grabbed the control stick and sent the craft tearing away from the umbilical.
“The bomb!” Jym answered.
“What bomb?”
Kaylor cranked the stick to the left and Adam could see the large Klin ship began to shrink away quickly.
“The nuclear bomb that’s aboard the Klin ship,” Kaylor said, as he switched the screens to an aft view. The Klin ship was now about the size of the full moon and rapidly shrinking as the distance between the two craft increased.
“There’s a nuke aboard the ship? How do you know?”
“The core was hooked to a self-destruct mechanism,” Kaylor explained. “When I removed the core originally it activated the countdown. I was trying to disarm the bomb when you attacked me.”
“So, why is this a problem now? You obviously did deactivate it.”
“The lights,” Kaylor said, not taking his eyes from the view screen. The Klin ship had disappeared from view by now. “Before I removed the core, the lights were orange. When I removed it, the lights turned yellow and began to oscillate, just as they’re doing now.”
“But why would the self-destruct activate when the core was returned?”
“Because I reversed the controls. The device now thinks the core has been removed – again. We have about seven minutes to get to a safe distance.”
Without further comment, Adam joined Kaylor and Jym in their silent vigil at the view screen….
Chapter 25
Riyad pulled the struggling Overlord through the side door to the command room and dragged him down a hallway. Although he was unarmed, Riyad did have the most valuable hostage in the entire Fringe. The guards would not risk hurting the Overlord in an effort to save him.
Riyad had planned for the ankle bombs to go off and take out most of the guards. Then in all the confusion he could have easily slipped away with the Overlord virtually unseen. But that didn’t happen, and now he had to come up with a new plan on the fly.
From the reactions of the two Juireans, he was sure they had learned the locations of both the Klin hideout and of Earth. Now key to his entire future was held firmly in his strong right arm. He just needed to have a few moments alone with the Overlord.
After that he could dispose of the Overlord and fight his way off the ship. A piece of cake!
Guards could be seen cautiously moving down the hallway toward them, safely keeping their distance, when all of a sudden the ship rumbled, and Riyad felt an explosion vibrate through its metal structure. Almost immediately, the sounds of plasma bolts filled the air; the guards seemed confused, as some stayed to watch the Overlord, while others broke off and disappeared down the hallway.
Just then a stream of high-intensity electric bolts shot over his head from behind and in the direction of the guards. The soldiers returned the fire, and Riyad now found himself caught in the middle of a firefight.
He dragged the Overlord through a doorway on his right and threw him to the floor. There was a battle going on in the hallway, and this could be his only opportunity to interrogate the Overlord. Riyad straddled the Juirean, grabbing him firmly around the neck. The eyes of the Overlord were wide and angry as he struggled vainly to escape, yet Riyad was able to keep the him pinned to the floor without too much effort.
“You found the location of Earth – give me the coordinates.” Riyad demanded, squeezing tighter on the alien’s neck.
The Overlord tried to shake his head, but Riyad’s grip restricted the movement.
“I will not,” the Overlord managed to say through gritted teeth.
“Then I will crush the life out of you with my bare hands. You have about two seconds to tell me!” He squeezed even tighter.
“Yes! Ecliptic plane … minus 4, section 21 …” While his heart began to race, Riyad loosed his grip slightly, allowing the Juirean to speak more freely. He almost had it—
Just then, Riyad heard a strange scraping sound on the metal floor of the hallway outside the room. The sound grew louder and Riyad looked over at the open doorway – just in time to see a small, puck-size disk come sliding up and stop at the doorway.
Riyad’s eyes grew wide – it was a grenade, like those his pirates used when boarding a hostile ship!
He rolled off the Overlord and further into the room … just as the bomb exploded.
A hot searing pain flash across his right side before being replaced by a cold, comforting blackness….
Counselor Deslor found the unconscious Overlord in a side room, bloody but alive. Guards swept in and helped their leader to a nearby couch, just as he was regaining his senses.
“Where are the Humans?” he asked the Counselor through the spasms of pain.
“I do not know. We are searching the ship.”
The Overlord reached up and grabbed the Counselor’s cloak. “Open a link to the Fleet Commander – now!”
“Of course, my Lord. But shouldn’t you receive medical assistance?”
“Only after I speak with Giodol.”
The Counselor spoke to a guard, who then hurried out of the room. Moments later, a tech arriv
ed with a portable transmission unit. He placed the device on a table at the end of the couch, and after a few moments, stepped away so the two Juireans could operate the communicator. Deslor sent everyone out of the room.
********
The pain woke Riyad from his blissful sleep; he became aware of people around him, and he opened his eyes to find he was lying across a console chair in the pilothouse of a shuttlecraft. Through groggy and filmy eyes, he could see Angar seated at the controls, with the blackness of space displayed through the front viewport in front of him. Riyad’s entire body ached and suspected his right arm was broken from the throbbing pain emanating from that part of his body. He groaned and instantly several people were at his side, helping him to sit up in the chair.
Angar turned to face him, a large, satisfied grin on his face. “I’m so glad to see you’re awake, My General,” he said. “The meds should make you feel better.”
“Where am I?” Riyad managed to force out of his dry throat.
“You’re in a shuttle. We’re almost back to my ship.”
“How…how did I get here?”
“We rescued you.” Angar’s voice was proud and animated. “I brought a boarding party and pulled you out. You are safe now, My General.”
Memories began to surface in Riyad’s mind, and he soon remembered sitting atop the Juirean Overlord, hearing him recite the coordinates of planet Earth – and then an explosion!
“You idiot!” Riyad screamed at Angar, as loudly as he could manage.
Angar recoiled with shock. “My General, is something wrong?”
Riyad managed to stand, cradling his broken right arm in his left. Between gritted teeth and spasms of pain he answered the question, “Of course something’s wrong. I was about to learn the location of my homeworld – until you interfered!”
Angar’s jaw went slack and his eyes wide. He didn’t know what to say, so Riyad stepped into the silence. “Turn around; we have to go back.”