Nemesis 1: Revenge Is Best Served Hot

by Saxon Andrew

  Nemesis

  Revenge is Best Served Hot

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Coming Soon…

  Books by Saxon Andrew

  Introduction

  Grant looked at Cinny and smiled, “I’m taking you out to dinner tonight.”

  Cinny’s eyes immediately narrowed as she jerked her head up from the scanner readouts, “You’ve never taken me out to eat. Matter of fact, you’ve never asked me out for anything.”

  “Don’t make more of this than it is. When I was on Roundabout picking up supplies, I overheard two Grats talking about a restaurant on Lovely. They said the best meal they’ve ever tasted was served in a restaurant there.”

  “Grats hate everything.”

  “I know, I know; so it has to be good. I thought we’d drop in and try it out.”

  “Is that a good idea?”

  “We won’t be there long. I’ve placed a reservation and requested the meal be ready by the time we arrive. We should be in and out before anything serious happens.”

  Cinny smiled, “What should I wear?”

  “Black.”

  “So you’re not sure about it.”

  “I’m never sure about anything. The dish is called Galaxy Awakening.”

  Cinny stood up, “What time?”

  Grant looked at the monitor, “We should be there in three hours.”

  “I’ll be ready in two.” Cinny stood up and left the small bridge singing as she skipped out, “Grant’s asked me out, Grant’s asked me out…”

  Grant shook his head and set the coordinates for just outside the planetary system where Lovely was located and activated the star drive. The ship broke into normal space and he activated the main scanner. Ummm…twenty ships around the planet but only one was a warship. Grant pulled the view of the warship in closer and saw it appeared to be powering up to leave orbit. He looked up and said, “Notify me if any other warships arrive. Also keep track of the one in orbit.” The edge of the scanner display turned white indicating the computer had heard the command and was operating. Grant walked off the bridge and headed to his quarters to shower and clean up. If any warships arrived he would cancel the reservation and try again later.

  • • •

  Three hours later, Grant and Cinny walked out of an alley around the corner from the restaurant and moved toward the entrance. Both of them were dressed in black suits that fit them like a second skin. The only ornamentation on them were two gold buttons on each sleeve. As they arrived at the door, Grant tossed a small black ball into the potted plant just outside the door. The doorman opened the door for them and Grant saw him look at them with a strange expression. Cinny looked at him, “It appears he hasn’t ever seen our species.”

  “I guess.”

  The Head Waiter greeted them and was just as surprised as the doorman, “Uhhh, may I be of service?”

  Grant smiled and handed him a metal coin, “We have a reservation now against the back wall. Our meal should already be prepared.”

  The Head Waiter stared at Grant for a moment and then touched his electronic tablet, “Ah, here it is. If you’ll follow me please.”

  He led them to a table against the back wall as two servers came out of the back of the room and placed their meals on the table. Both of them noticed that everyone in the restaurant was staring at them and speaking to each other in whispers. Grant sighed; it appeared no one had seen his species before.

  Grant looked at Cinny and was amazed at how pretty she was. Her cinnamon colored hair was tied up and she looked stunning. He smiled and allowed her to take the chair against the wall. She took her seat and immediately dove into her plate. Grant pulled his chair out and paused. He felt a vibration in his ear and he pressed one of the buttons on his left sleeve. An image appeared in his mind and he saw six armored vehicles come roaring up outside the entrance, come to a stop, before a group of armored warriors began jumping out as they ran toward the restaurant. They had to have been close when they arrived. He shook his head, “Cinny, we have to go; company just arrived.” Grant whipped around and pushed a button on his right sleeve and his armored helmet appeared over his head with the faceplate activated as he raised the needle blaster that appeared in his hand and shot the first six warriors that burst into the room. He said over his shoulder, “WE NEED TO LEAVE!”

  Cinny was shoving food in her mouth as fast as she could and said, “You have got to try this! It’s incredible!”

  Grant looked over his shoulder and saw Cinny shove the last bite into her mouth with a huge smile. He shot four more warriors and said, “Take my place.”

  Cinny stood up, raised her blaster, stepped away from the back wall and began a continuous fire at the warriors coming through the front entrance. The patrons in the restaurant had hit the floor and many began crawling toward a wall out of the line of fire. Grant raised the faceplate on his helmet and began wolfing his meal. She was right, this was incredible. “Grant, more of them are coming in the back entrance. We should go!”

  Grant shoved the last bite in his mouth and said, “uuuu ead th way.” Grant lowered his faceplate chewing as fast as he could and stepped up beside Cinny. He started firing as Cinny turned and ran toward the steps leading to the second floor twenty yards to their right. She arrived at the top of the stairs in less than a second, knelt, and began a covering fire for Grant. He was up the steps in an instant and took over firing at the Yellow Armored Warriors that were rushing into the restaurant. The Patrons were crawling as fast as they could to jump out of a front window where they had thrown a chair through the plate glass.

  Cinny darted down the corridor at the top of the steps with Grant right behind her. The steps were blasted by the yellow armored warriors’ who were firing heavy duty shoulder blasters and they were forced to use their armor to jam their arms into the walls to climb to the second level to continue the pursuit. The number of warriors in the restaurant was now more than a hundred and they continued to pour into and around the building.

  Grant waited at the end of the corridor and shot the first warriors to turn the corner. Cinny pressed a button on her sleeve as she changed the setting on her blaster and blew a six foot wide hole through the wall. She took a step back and dove through the hole as she yelled, “COME ON!”

  Grant shot three more warriors coming around the end of the corridor and then turned and ran toward the hole in the wall. He leapt through it and twisted in midair. Cinny maneuvered the scooter and he landed on the seat behind her facing behind them. He fired continuously at the hole in the wall as she pushed a button on the handlebar. The scooter shot away from the building as warriors appeared at the hole in the wall and started firing at them. Grant looked around as the scooter blasted vertically and saw blasters being fired at them from the street as well as more than fifty military transports dropping in from orbit along with thousands of space fighters flying patrol over the restaurant. The force field around the scooter was flashing continuously as Cinny activated the scooter’s thrusters and hit the boost. The small scooter shot by the fighters vectoring in on them so fast they had no time t
o respond. The scooter was out of the atmosphere in less than five seconds and they saw ten giant warships holding orbit above the planet. They ignited their thrusters and began targeting their heavy lasers toward the small scooter. Cinny activated the star drive and the scooter disappeared as fifty heavy laser beams shot through the space they occupied a moment earlier.

  The scooter appeared beside their small ship in an instant and Cinny entered the port that the computer had opened for them. The ship jumped away as Cinny looked over her shoulder at Grant, “That was a wonderful meal. Thank you so much for allowing me to share it with you.”

  Grant shrugged, “We missed dessert.”

  “Oh well.”

  • • •

  A huge being wearing yellow armor entered the restaurant and looked around assessing the damage. He shook his head at the damage done to the building and saw the owner screaming at one of his officers. He thought about shooting him but decided to ignore him instead. He saw his helmet monitor illuminate and he activated it, “They made it into orbit and escaped.”

  The being snarled as he pulled his blaster and shot the owner. This ambush had been planned to the last detail. The Grats had been paid to set the trap; the government of Lovely had agreed to it but with the provision that only the restaurant would be damaged. All of the patrons were members of their military and had on armor under their clothes. He looked at his status screen and saw that twenty of them had been killed any way but that’s the risk you take.

  He should have taken out the male when he was near the Grats…but the order was to kill them both. Now he was going to have to start all over again. He turned and walked out of the building. Even the poison put in the meal had failed. They should have died immediately but it was clear it did not faze them in the slightest. The entire operation was a huge waste of both time and wealth. The damages were going to be high and he expected the Principal was going to be displeased at what had happened. He sighed and walked out of the front entrance.

  Chapter One

  Grant sat on his control chair and replayed the restaurant attack on the main monitor. The ball scanner he had thrown into the bush had recorded everything that took place and relayed it to the ship’s computer. He shook his head at the magnitude of the effort used to kill them. Cinny entered the bridge and took a seat next to him. Grant took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, “This was an elaborate trap.” Cinny nodded. Grant stared at the screen and said, “It had to start with the Grats I overheard.”

  “I don’t see anything else that could have put it in motion.”

  “Why is this yellow armored species so hell bent on killing us? They seem to appear anywhere we go lately.”

  Cinny shrugged, “Well, they won’t tell us. Everyone we’ve managed to capture committed suicide before we could question them.”

  “I think you’ll find this interesting.”

  Cinny watched as a Lovely Government transport arrived and an official stepped out. A large warrior in yellow armor walked up to the official and started talking with him. Cinny’s expression turned sour, “Were you able to record that conversation?”

  “No, the blasts of the transports landing drowned it out. It’s clear the government was in on this.” Grant turned to Cinny, “Someone really wants us dead. To involve the Lovely Government in this had to cost them a huge sum.”

  Cinny nodded, “I keep wondering how those yellow armored slugs keep finding us.”

  Grant shrugged, “Someone has to be contacting them wherever we go. I suspect they’ve put out bounty posters on every planet in this galaxy to contact them if we’re seen.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “I have no idea. We’ve only been out of the Monastery a month and they showed up two weeks ago.”

  Cinny nodded, “That’s true but that was the first time we dropped down to a planet. They may have started immediately if we had visited a planet earlier.” Grant shrugged and nodded as he continued to look at the recording of the attack. “Let’s drop in on a planet and take one of them.”

  “Do what?”

  “Let’s drop in on a planet we’ve not visited and grab one of those that is calling them in. It shouldn’t be too hard to see them do it.”

  “I don’t want to believe it but I’m starting to believe the temple might have something to do with this.”

  Cinny shook her head, “It’s not their style. They keep a low profile and this would be over the top for them to pull it off. I think this Yellow Civilization must know something about us that we don’t.”

  Grant stared at her and finally nodded. “Let’s do this. We’ll go to another galaxy and pick a planet at random. We’ll go to a local drinking establishment and see what we find.”

  Cinny looked up, “How many galaxies around us have civilized planets?” A star map appeared on the monitor and Cinny shook her head, “It appears they all do.”

  “Cinny, intelligent life is as common as planets. Why do you keep expecting to find a galaxy without it?”

  “I don’t know. I just wonder where we came from. It’s clear from the reaction we get wherever we go that no one else has seen anyone like us before.”

  Grant nodded, “Well, we’ll just have to keep looking.” He paused and said, “They might be acting surprised because they do recognize us.” Cinny’s eyes narrowed as he looked up, “Find us a civilized planet in another galaxy that doesn’t have a warship above it.” The monitor began rapidly changing views and then a planet appeared on it. “Take us there.”

  Cinny stared at the monitor, “That planet has a lot of commercial traffic.”

  “The computer has been listening to our conversation. It knows what we’re looking to accomplish and selecting a planet without space travel would be a waste of time. It chose the optimal planet for us to see if our suspicions are accurate.”

  Cinny stood and went to replace her blaster; the one she had used in the restaurant needed to be recharged. Grant said, “Pick me one up, too.” Cinny nodded as Grant tossed his blaster to her as she disappeared from the bridge. She came back and handed Grant a blaster. He tapped the side of his black uniform and a blaster holster appeared. He took the new one and put it in the holster on his right hip. It disappeared into the fabric. Cinny smiled and said, “You’re not as hard headed as you once were.”

  Grant smiled, “That’s why I chose my name, to remind me that I’m not the only egg in the nest. You kept saying my head was as hard as granite, so Grant was the right name. Your name was easy.”

  “I guess. My hair is cinnamon colored. I wonder if we ever had other names.”

  Grant sighed, “I don’t know if either of us will ever know; are you ready?”

  “How do you want to do this?”

  “I don’t want to take the ship down to the planet. We should each take a scooter and if we find anyone, you can take them with you. I’ll cover your exit.”

  Cinny thought a moment and then nodded, “I guess I appear less intimidating than you.”

  “You’re smaller. However, you’re right. They will probably struggle less with you than me.” Grant stood up and followed Cinny to the ship’s landing bay.

  • • •

  The Werstag sat down at his table in the bar and took a sip of his drink. He looked around and kept a careful eye on everyone near him and the entrance; his species was small and he knew others might see him as an inviting target. Catching him would pose a problem if anyone approached him. He was looking for work on a commercial freighter but had struck out so far. Most of the Captains he approached laughed at him. He was too small to handle large loads and it appeared everyone had an engineer to maintain their engines. He leaned back against the wall and saw two beings walk through the entrance a few moments after he sat down. He almost spit his drink out…but then he forced himself to recover and show no emotion. He looked away from the two and took another sip of his drink.

  • • •

  Cinny used her sub-vocal microphone, “Ten of th
e patrons lifted their communicators as soon as we entered.”

  Grant nodded, “I notice more than fifty start talking on theirs when we walked in here. We should have parked closer. It took too long to get here.

  “This is worse than I thought.”

  “They’re not the one that interests me, Grant.”

  “I know, I saw his reaction as well. Do this; go to the back of the room toward the restrooms and I’ll order us a drink and take them toward the entrance. I’ve seen that species before and they’re pretty fast.”

  “Don’t let him get out.”

  “I won’t; just be ready in case he darts toward the back.” Cinny nodded and asked a waiter where the restrooms were. The Gregle pointed toward the rear of the room and Cinny turned and walked toward them. The Gregle lifted his communicator as soon as she walked away.

  • • •

  Whippet watched the female walk toward the restrooms and knew that route was now cut off. He started to run for the front entrance but saw the male had ordered drinks and kept his eyes on the room as they were delivered. He had to be armed and he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. His apprehension mounted as the male walked toward the front entrance and set the drinks down on a table. He then turned his way, smiled and pointed at him to come and join him at his table. OH NO! He was out of his seat in an instant and headed toward the back door. Just before he arrived he was brought to a sudden stop by a hand that grabbed his neck as a blaster was put in his face. The male arrived behind him a moment later.

  “Why are you in such a hurry?”

  Whippet was too frightened to speak. The male’s eyes narrowed, “There’s company arriving outside.”

  The female kept the blaster in the small creature’s face and pulled a gold colored rope out of her black uniform. She put it over Whippet’s head and said, “If you move more than fifty feet away from me, this necklace will blow your head off your shoulders. Nod if you understand!” Whippet saw the gold rope start glowing and he quickly nodded. The female smiled, “Try to keep up.” In an instant the two were out the back door and Whippet ran as hard as he could and was losing ground. He knew how fast his species was but these two were even faster. The female slowed several times for him to catch up. They turned a corner in an alley and the male and female climbed on two small machines that came down to the street from the roof of a building. The female pointed to the seat behind her and he shook his head. “That’s fine, you will die as soon as we lift off.”