by T. R. Harris
“Stop your bickering!” J’nae commanded. “I have made my offer. What say you?”
“J’nae, why do you want to give up something that the Aris have spent billions of years seeking?” Lila asked. “You are immortal, and now you wish not to be?”
“I did not ask to be immortal,” J’nae snapped back. “I was created this way, fully developed and with a purpose of which I had no say.”
“You were to save the Sol-Kor,” Panur countered. “You were to give them a different path that would not be so destructive of other lifeforms. Was that not a noble cause?”
“I was reviled by universes of creatures, simply for my status as Queen of the Sol-Kor. But that is not the only issue. It is also the lack of change I fear, the lack of evolution. I will remain as such for all eternity, with no prospect for advancement or transition to other levels of existence. Have not others like the Aris existed before? Where are they now? And where are the last of the Aris who stayed behind? Not all died. A few are somewhere else, experiencing another plane of awareness which I will never see.”
“Merging with the Aris will not give you that new awareness, will it Nunki?” Panur asked. “Once absorbed, her cells will have no individual identity.”
“That is correct. The dominate cells will reign.”
“Although I cannot argue against the will of the individual,” Panur said, “I wish you would reconsider.” He looked at Nunki. “You do not have to sacrifice yourself to save us.”
“It is not a sacrifice, rather liberation. Either I continue within an existence that will make me only more frustrated and angry through time, or I will have it come to an end, here and now. Yet with my way, I help the Aris achieve their goal, while saving you, Lila and…even Adam Cain.”
Nunki moved toward J’nae. The blue halo moved with him even though neither being could physically contact the other. “Of course the Aris agree. We have calculated that only a single immortal is needed for our transition. Be it the Apex Being—or you—it makes no difference.”
The halos disappeared from around Adam, Lila and Panur. They remained around the others, protecting them from harm—which Adam so desperately wished to inflict.
“Go now, Panur,” said J’nae. “You have fulfilled your mission and saved Lila. She has always been your priority, while I was only an experiment.”
“That’s not true,” said Panur. “Yes, you began as an experiment yet you developed a soul and a personality. You became a person to me.”
“I appreciate that, but now go. The Aris and I have work to do.”
Lila lifted Trimen’s body in one arm while leading Adam from the room. Panur joined them a moment later. “Nunki has shown me a quicker way to the surface,” he said. “We shall be away in minutes.”
Chapter 18
The trip back to the Najmah Fayd was quicker than the journey to the interior of the space station. The trio quickly entered the ship, and with a fair amount of reverence, placed Trimen’s body in the aft service bay. Then they rushed to the pilothouse and lifted off, Panur at the controls.
Adam slouched at the weapons console, his head resting in his right hand. He had lost another of his good friends; not the level of an Andy Tobias, but close enough. This was becoming commonplace, possibly a consequence of his reckless lifestyle, as well as the passage of years. The odds were stacking up quickly against him and his friends.
The mutants left him alone, but after a few minutes, Adam noticed Panur hadn’t entered a light-speed gravity-well. Instead, he was blasting through space in a shallow well until even letting that evaporate. The ship was coming to a stop.
Adam turned to Panur and Lila. They were in the pilot and co-pilot seats, respectively. He was about to ask them what was going on when a bright light began to filter in through the forward viewport.
Adam left his seat and went to investigate. Through the viewport he saw one of the glowing Aris starships heading for a rendezvous with the Najmah Fayd. With having been left out of so many plans and strategies recently, Adam saw this as just one more surprise he wasn’t going to like.
“What the hell’s going on?” he asked the mutants, in no uncertain terms.
Lila came up to him. “I am sorry father, but Panur and I will be leaving you here.”
“What does that mean? Where are you going, or more correctly, what are you going to do with me?”
“You are to stay here, aboard the trans-dimensional starship, while Panur and I take the Aris ship.”
“To where?”
“That I cannot tell you.”
Adam looked past his daughter to the grey mutant in the pilot seat. “This is all your doing, isn’t it? You’re trying to take her away from me again.”
“It was my choice, father,” Lila countered.
“Why? You were in charge of a galaxy, respected and admired. Not only that, but we need you, more now than ever. You can’t just run off again, especially not when we’re fighting the Nuoreans. I’m counting on you—and Panur—to help get us through this mess.”
“The mess is yours to solve, Adam,” Panur chimed in, which only made Adam more upset.
“How can you be so callous? You know what a serious situation this is, and the two of you are vital to helping us save the galaxy from the Nuor.”
“It’s not our problem,” Panur snapped back.
Adam looked at Lila. She was born in the Milky Way, and the two bloodlines she shared were in serious danger from the invaders from Andromeda.
“We need you, Lila. We need your strength, your stability and your intelligence.”
“The galaxy has all it needs to defeat the Nuor,” she stated. “And as far as the galaxy needing me, they do not. Even in the short time I reigned, I was taken for granted. As an immortal, my counsel was institutionalized, a crutch for all the use. That may have been what you wanted, but it wasn’t what I wanted. Imagine how mundane my life had become dealing with the trivial concerns of the bickering races? The challenge was far below my capacities, definitely below my level of interest.”
“You’re the one who assumed that position. You insisted.”
“I was needed at the time to bring peace to the galaxy and a new level of cooperation. That has changed now with the introduction of the Nuor. The galaxy is united against a common enemy, and united you will defeat them. What happens after that will be up to you.”
“But you could rule again. The galaxy will follow you.”
“The galaxy only followed me because of fear. They knew of my powers and the futility of direct action against me. That is no way to lead. It is a false type of leadership.”
Adam knew Lila had made up her mind, and if there was one thing he knew about mutant geniuses, you couldn’t win an argument with them.
“What will you do?” he asked. “Go on to start your race of immortals? I think the Aris have a head start on you.”
Panur answered. “The Aris have been driven mad by their obsession. Every race survives through evolution, through growth. It’s called progress. They are setting themselves on a path of stagnation and even more insanity.”
“By becoming just like you—and Lila. Does that mean you, too, will stagnate, become insane?”
“Possibly, yet natural-born immortals better understand the realities of our existence. We can be patient, whereas the Aris are not, contrary to what they say. Yet even true immortals need projects. I chose to help the Sol-Kor, and it filled my time for the first five thousand years of my immortality. Lila and J’nae are both relatively new to immortality. J’nae couldn’t cope with the possibility of never changing. Lila…she has me to help guide and comfort her. Together we will find our path. Granted, it will be only temporary within the overall scheme of things, after which we will seek other challenges. Who knows, eventually we may chose a destiny similar to J’nae. But that is tens of thousands, possibly millions of years in the future.”
“And father, that is another reason I must go. All I know now will eventually withe
r and die before my eyes. My mother and you—even the world of Formil—will eventually die. For my own sanity, I cannot be around to experience such loss.”
“But that’s in the future. Don’t you want to enjoy life while you can?”
“It is inviting, however, my memories—and sorrows—last forever. To involve myself even more with the affairs of galaxy—and with the loves I know or will know—would be counterproductive. I would only have those sorrows to carry with me…forever.”
“You’d also have the memories of love and joy.”
Lila reached out and took Adam by the hands. He felt an unnatural warmth, knowing that microscopic layers of skin were melding together, making the contact more intimate than would be possible between two mortals. “I left once before, yet came back when I was needed. I am still young and not as firm in my resolve as Panur, so who knows? I may come back at some point. After all, nothing lasts forever.”
“Except me, Lila and a few Aris,” Panur added in a lame attempt at levity.
“What about me? Surely you have some grand plan for me.”
“You will continue being Adam Cain, the reckless and noble scoundrel with more luck than any one man can expect or deserve. If anyone, the galaxy needs you. You will go find your friends and save the day. It’s what you were born to do.”
Adam was weak with grief and sorrow. He had rescued Lila just to lose her again. And now the weight of responsibility for the galaxy pressed down on upon his shoulders. Sure, he shouldn’t feel as though resolving the Nuorean crisis was his task alone. But someone had to take responsibility, and Adam always seemed to be the one in the front row with his hand held high saying, ‘Me, me!’
“Any hint as to what I should do next?”
Panur had maneuvered the Najmah Fayd next to the Aris ship and mated with the transfer hatch. He stood from the pilot seat and stepped up to Adam and Lila. “It’s time to go. As for you, Adam, find Riyad and Sherri. Once you do, your path will become clear. Come, Lila.”
Lila fell into Adam arms and hugged him tightly. Then abruptly she broke away and rushed from the room without looking back. Panur and Adam looked at each other before Panur spoke.
“Like she said, nothing lasts forever. Situations change and priorities get rearranged. Until then…later, dude.”
And then it was Panur’s turn to leave.
A minute later the glowing Aris starship streaked off into the vacuum of space, leaving a trail of light that quickly faded. Adam turned back to the silent control room and sighed.
“Now what?”
Chapter 19
Adam was pretty adept at the controls of the Najmah Fayd—the famous TD-starship capable of transferring between universes with the press of a button. It also meant he could travel vast distances by first jumping to another dimension then re-entering the Milky Way at another point. The whole thing took a couple of minutes, and he could find himself thousands of light-years away in another part of the galaxy.
His first priority was to get as far away from the Aris—and the memories—as he could. He plotted a jump, and a few minutes later he was at the entrance to the Kidis Frontier near the planet Woken.
He’d been out of touch for a while, so the first thing he did was tap into galactic news broadcasts to the get the latest on the war with the Nuor. A lot had happened over the past two weeks, most of it good. The allies had recently defeated a Nuorean fleet using a suppressor beam platform and now the aliens were running scared, avoiding every engagement they could. Maybe the crisis wasn’t as serious as he thought. But then he heard how the invaders were consolidating their forces as they reworked their strategy. And they were all headed for the Fringe.
Adam knew a lot of people in the Fringe, including his two best alien friends Kaylor and Jym. He scanned the CW links for their location, and after several tries, found an old acquaintance who knew of the relationship and wasn’t afraid to give him their contact information.
Soon, Kaylor’s pale face, with the faint tracks of purple veins just below the skin, was on the screen. He didn’t seem excited to see the Human, but it wasn’t because of anything Adam had done.
“We are being inundated with Nuorean warships,” the Belsonian reported. “At first, there was talk of resisting, but then the numbers became so great.”
“How many do you think?”
“I have heard as many ten thousand warships, maybe more.”
Adam whistled, which made his alien friend frown. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever whistled before in Kaylor’s presence. “Where are you now?” he asked.
“Castor. The underground cities here seem safer than those on the surface of other worlds.”
“You’re not in the FS-475?”
“No, there is very little space travel now, not with the Nuorean’s practice of stopping ships and commandeering their crews for their games. Even Angar and his Fringe Pirates are grounded to a certain degree, even though they have sided with the locals and are helping to provide guidance and warnings concerning fleet movements.”
“The Nuor are doing their games again?”
“Yes, in fact on a much larger scale. Do you remember the planet Qidos?” Kaylor asked.
“Yeah, one of the minor worlds in the Fringe, towards the edge, if I recall. Not much there. Why?”
“The Nuoreans have taken it over and built hundreds of their combat arenas. They have the fights going day and night. That is where the main concentration of their forces lay.” Kaylor’s expressed turned even more serious. “And Adam, they appear to be particularly interested in Humans, searching local worlds for all they can find.”
“What are they doing with them?”
“Castorian labor crews—and others—are rotated to Qidos for the construction on a daily basis. They come back to report that the Humans are simply being warehoused. Very few are scheduled for the arena, although special facilities appear to be under construction near where others of your race are being quartered.”
“Have you heard anything about Sherri, Riyad or Copernicus?”
“Copernicus? Why would I hear of him?”
Adam smiled, remembering how Kaylor and Jym had been caught up in the spy’s nefarious activities a couple of years ago. He went on to explain how Coop was really a deep-cover operative working for the Union and was tasked with locating the elusive Klin when all the shit came down. Now he was working with Riyad and Sherri to locate a new Nuorean entry point into the galaxy.
“I find that hard to believe,” said Kalor after Adam was through. “He sold us to the Klin. It was not until ten days later we were rescued, making it quite possible we would have died within that time. Even if he was looking for the Klin for noble purposes, it seems we were expendable in his efforts.”
“So true, my friend,” said Adam, “but right now he’s on our side and with Sherri and Riyad.”
“A fleet just arrived from the Kidis, which you say is where the entry point was rumored? A battle was lost there a short time ago, before the one employing the Sol-Kor suppressor beam. This fleet may be the victors, now joining the others.”
“They could be with them, and being moved to where the other Humans are being held.”
“It would make sense.”
“I’m coming to Castor. Don’t leave.”
“We have no intention of leaving; it would be too dangerous. Yet you are weeks away. By the time you arrive, the situation may have changed.”
“I’ll be there in two days.”
“How?”
“I have the Najmah Fayd, the trans-dimensional starship.”
“The one which allows travel to the Sol-Kor universe?”
“One and the same.”
“Are Jym and I to join in your latest adventure?”
“That’s up to you. But I could always use the help, especially from people I trust.”
“I appreciate your confidence, Adam. Please include us. We do not want to sit idle as others fight our battles. I will contact Angar, if you wi
sh.”
“Having a force of notorious space pirates on our side couldn’t hurt, either. Thanks. See you in two days.”
Chapter 20
“It’s a massive force, Admiral, which seems concentrated around one planet in the Fringe. With the three completed beam platforms, plus a hundred beamships, we should be able to cover enough space to make a pretty big dent in their operational strength.”
Admiral Nathan Smith looked at the Lt. Commander with skepticism. “What kind of strength of our own could we muster if we attacked at the soonest?”
“Six thousand ships…possibly.”
“That’s it?”
“Fighting units are at the lowest they’ve been in years, sir. After Cain’s crusade, the Juireans were just about depleted, and we weren’t that much better. Then for the year afterwards, there wasn’t any great urgency to replace them, not with Lila Bol preventing all major conflicts in the galaxy. When the Nuoreans showed up, we weren’t prepared. And they’ve also taken a toll on what reserves we did have.”
Smith looked at his datapad. “Six thousand would be about seventy-five percent of our existing units—and that’s across the entire galaxy. That’s a lot to risk in one engagement.”
“But with the beams we wouldn’t need even that many. Look at the last engagement, sir. We could have done the same with only a hundred ships—after the beamships got through with them. It was just a matter of moving throughout the battlefield and destroying enemy ships. I wish I could have been there.”
“That was the first engagement, Commander, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Nuor, they don’t make the same mistake twice.”
“How can they stop us? It’s only been a couple of weeks. There’s no way they could have figured out what happened and then done anything about it. I say we strike now before they do.”
His young adjutant was right. But so was the admiral. There was a narrow window of opportunity to act. The Nuoreans were master game players, strategists of extraordinary ability. So it wasn’t a matter of if they would find a counter to the suppressor beams, but when.