by T. R. Harris
About ten meters down, they began to hear voices, the translation bugs imbedded behind their ears deciphering the Hyben language.
“This is incredible!” someone was saying. “But can we keep them?”
“There was so much confusion there that I’m sure no one will be able to track who took them. I maintain we keep the credits and not say a word.”
“Thank all the Bello Gods! These credits will help—”
“You’re welcome,” Adam said calmly, stepping into the large cavernous room, MK-17 held at the ready.
The group of five Hyben all turned toward his voice, their mouths all forming perfect O’s of surprise. They were standing around a large round wooden table, now piled high with the credit-card-shaped Juirean money.
“I’m glad I could help. Now, I suppose, you owe me a favor…”
Adam had only been on Hyben for less than two days, and in that time he had not had the opportunity to see a Hyben female in person – although he had heard about them. A normal Hyben male was about a half-meter taller than Adam, but the females were easily twice his height and girth! They were bulky, shrimp-like creatures with three sets of two appendages each lining the front side of the thorax. As they all stood staring at each other in stunned silence, Adam finally had a chance to take a good look at a Hyben.
The three sets of appendages of a Hyben were divided into distinct types, with the bottom, shorter arms ending in two very sharp-looking claws. These were used primarily for feeding: cutting and pulling away meat and then stuffing it into an opening located between the two arms that looked like – well – like a giant vagina! As it turned out, the digestive system of a Hyben was completely separate from its speech and respiratory organs, which were positioned above the lower section of the thorax, in the place you’d normally expect to find them. But with this separation came the ability for the Hyben to feed while continuing to breath and speak. Adam had experienced about two dozen alien species in his time in The Expansion, and the Hyben were one of the most exotic yet.
The next set of arms above the claws were about twice as long as the lower appendages, and ended in tiny three-finger hands. The final set was placed high on the thorax and were about normal arm’s length. These ended with hands made up of two thumbs placed next to each other, and four normal looking fingers.
The head of a Hyben was conical in shape, with a small mouth, no discernible noses and with eyes that looked like black marbles simply glued to the skull. Occasionally, a clear eyelid would flick over the black globes, depositing a coating of a gooey fluid, which tended to flow down and crust on their hard-skinned faces.
The Hyben had long, articulated plates of hardened cartilage covering their backs, and oozing out from between the plates appeared to be the same viscous goo that lubricated their eyes.
Adam had researched the Hyben in the Library prior to his arrival on the planet, and he knew the natives required prodigious amounts of water each day to lubricate their various bodily systems. Their bodies then produced this thick fluid that drained from between their joints and accumulated on the floors of their chambers. The Hyben found this accumulation soothing on their feet and legs, and so made no attempt to rid their living quarters of this foul-smelling, mud-goo mix.
But for Adam, he now found himself standing in nearly five inches of putrid Hyben shit! Even if he had not just barged into the inner sanctum of the Hybens and taken them by surprise, Adam would have been stunned into a momentary inaction himself, simply by the disgusting scene before him—
“It’s them!” the small male cried out, “the ones who killed the Juireans!”
The large, dominate female began to move forward; Adam calmly swung the MK over in her direction and her movement stopped. There were two other females in the chamber, but they huddled together next to another, even smaller male.
The dominate male – the one with the blood-stained robe – stepped forward, addressing Sherri. “Why have you come here? I did as you instructed.”
“It’s okay,” Sherri said, soothingly. “We haven’t come to harm you – or to take away the credits. They are yours to keep.”
Adam noticed the three females look at each other quickly and began clicking their lower claws together. They appeared to be excited by Sherri’s statement.
“Then why are you here?” the male asked.
Adam stepped up to the table, lowering his weapon. “Like I said, I need you to do me a favor.”
“No! I cannot help you. You have killed Juireans. We cannot be involved with you in any way.”
Adam scooped up a handful of the credits from the table and let them fall back on the pile through his fingers. “You are already involved with us, my friend.”
The Hyben seemed to shrink smaller in size. “What do you want of me?”
“First of all, what’s your name?” Sherri said as she stepped forward, lowering her weapon as well. Even though the Hyben were much larger than the Humans, neither Sherri nor Adam had any real fear of them.
“It is Poul. My lumic-mate is called Rillia. The others are of no concern.”
“Pleased to meet y’all.” Sherri said with a grin – not a smile – which would have bared her teeth to the aliens, signaling an implied challenge. She continued: “In our conversation at Lann Hall, you mentioned you work at the shipyards, the ones located not too far from here. Is that right?”
Adam couldn’t read the eyes of the alien, being as they were simply solid black orbs, but he did sense a relaxation of sorts in the creature.
“Yes. I have been employed there for nearly ten standard years. Why is this important?”
“Good. What we need is a long-range linking device. We need to communicate with our ship so we can get off the planet.”
“No, I cannot help you. There is a communication center in the yards, but if I help you escape, then I will be complicit in your crime.”
Adam spoke up, “Listen, Poul, all we need is a communicator. Just get us in the yards and show us where it’s located. That’s all you have to do. And then you can go in peace and return to your happy home.” He was sure the alien wouldn’t pick up on the sarcasm embedded in his remark.
The Hyben looked back at his mates. They all began to debate the issue back and forth, as Adam and Sherri waited patiently for a decision. Adam knew he was going to get his way; he just needed to let the aliens come to the same conclusion.
As he waited, Adam looked around the alien chamber. There were several large holes dug in the opposite wall – maybe a couple of dozen or so – and for the first time, he saw several large heads sticking out of them, watching. This was where the offspring lived, and from the look of the holes, most of them were unoccupied. Adam knew the Hyben were prolific breeders; he began to wonder: Why so many empty chambers—?
“It is decided,” Poul announced suddenly, shaking Adam from his thoughts. “I will take you to the shipyards and show you the communication center. But I cannot be involved in helping you make any communications off the planet. That assistance could possibly be traced back to me.”
“That’s fine,” Adam said. “Just get us in – we’ll do the rest.”
“Let me change my robe, and then we can leave. The yards are only about ten minutes from here by foot.”
The trio left under the cover of night and headed down the deserted streets, winding their way through the numerous mounds of dirt and mud. But the moment the door to Poul’s chambers closed, his lumic-mate Rillia picked up the home’s linking module and began to enter in a number.
“Who are you linking to?” asked one of the nin-mates.
“I am notifying the authorities,” Rillia stated without emotion.
“But you should not do that,” the other female protested. “Then mol-mate Poul will be captured, and possibly even killed.”
Rillia set the comm device on the table. “We have credits enough for over two standard years, and with one less mouth to feed, they could last even longer. By that time, elder-
newvin Kiiax will have matured, and mol-mate Poul will no longer be necessary.”
Rillia could see the two nin-mates look anxiously at each other, their nin-claws clicking approvingly. She knew the younger females were attracted to their younger brother, and the idea of a vital, young mol-mate soon made them forget all about Poul. They continued to click and converse as Rillia retrieved the communicator and completed the link. Poul had served his pod admirably for many years, but now it was time for some new sperm to be introduced into the pod. And Kiiax was just the depository the females desired.
Chapter 6
On his way to the shipyards, Adam couldn’t shake the feeling that he and Sherri were still knee-deep in some shit.
Even if they were able to contact Kaylor, he still couldn’t conceive of a scenario where the alien could land the Exitor-class starship on the planet and then manage to leave the planet without the whole might of the Juirean forces in this Sector crashing down upon them. The only alternative Adam could think of would be to contact Kaylor now, and then lay low for a while until the fervor died down. If they could stay hidden for that time, the Juireans would assume that they had somehow managed to get off the planet and would then allow the normal shipping routine to return to Hyben. Kaylor could make his landing then.
If Adam had planned for such an eventuality, he might have devoted more time to studying up on the planet Hyben. As it was, he had only a done cursory amount of research, and mainly to see what advantages he and Sherri might have on the planet in regards to gravity, native strength and coordination – you know the superman stuff.
As usual, it appeared that the two Humans would find no challenge in the shrimp-like natives. Of course, that conclusion didn’t take into account all the other creatures who resided on the planet. Even though Hyben was located only two hundred light years further into The Expansion than The Fringe, it seemed that the closer one got to the more senior members of The Expansion, the more homogenous the populations became. So the Hybens themselves wouldn’t be a problem, but who knew what other challenges might present themselves from the other aliens on the planet?
It wasn’t long before Adam began to notice the silhouetted outline of the sprawling shipyard complex. As would be expected, the compound was vast, covering over a thousand acres, and dotted with massive hangers, sky cranes, staging docks and landing fields. The term shipyard, however, was a misnomer. Even though the facility did service smaller starships at their surface compound, its main clientele consisted of Class-3’s and larger, ships that normally did not make landfall. As such, during its hay day there had been a constant stream of shuttles flitting back and forth between the yards and the ships in orbit, bringing with them new equipment, supplies and repair crews. At one time, over two hundred separate sorties per shift would ferry workers from the surface to the starships, making this particular facility the busiest in the five Sectors that made up Region Six of the Expansion.
As the two Humans and their Hyben guide neared the main security gate, Adam pursed his lips in disgust at this recent misfortune. If the shipyards were still in full operation, he and Sherri could have easily stowed away aboard one of the shuttles and escaped from the surface. Yet now the yards lay nearly deserted; no shuttle had departed the facility in nearly a month, and the interstellar behemoths that had once dotted the sky far above, had all since departed, leaving the shipyards as a virtual ghost town.
Yes, the Juirean warcraft were gone now, off to join their sister ships for the first head-to-head conflict with the Humans, while most of the commercial vessels had also left, seeking the relative safety to be found further into Juirean territory. And even though the Juireans were busy building more starships, the fact that Hyben was so close to The Fringe meant that these new ships may never call upon the planet. Even if the impending battle did go in the Juirean’s favor, the facilities on Hyben were stuck in no-man’s land. If the Juireans prevailed, then their forward military bases would be moved into the Fringe. If they didn’t succeed against the invaders, then the Sector could be easily overrun by the advancing Humans.
It was obvious to all that the good times on Hyben had passed, and not until the war was concluded, could the people and affairs of the planet return to any semblance normalcy. And then, no one could tell at this time if it would be under Juirean or Human masters.
Entering the shipyards proved to be a non-event. With so little activity taking place behind the security walls, the guard at the gate simply looked at Poul’s ID and waved them all through.
The comm center was located in the main administration building, near the center of the complex. Adam was grateful for the assistance of the Hyben, because all the buildings in this section of the compound looked the same, with their only distinguishing characteristic being signage on each written in Hyben. In Adam’s nearly two years in space, he had never bothered to learn any particular written alien language, not with the translation bug and the Library audio functions providing reliable conversion to English.
The buildings in the shipyards were of universal design and construction – boxlike such as would be found on Earth – not the dome-shaped structures of the native Hybens. During the fifteen minute walk to the admin building, the Hyben began to chatter. He told them that he was one of only a few employees left in the complex, but that he was working half-shifts, primarily keeping the automated systems running in the yards. At one time, over twenty-five thousand Hyben and other races had worked at the facility. Now it was down to about a hundred.
They entered the admin building without incident and took an elevator to the ninth floor. The communications facilities took up the top three floors of the building, and here they found more security.
As they approached, three bored-looking Hyben uncurled their articulated back shells from the customized chairs they sat in and stood to face them. Adam couldn’t tell from the solid black eyes if there was any suspicion in their expressions, but he did notice all three carried MK’s strapped around their lower torsos, the grips on the weapons oddly shaped to accommodate the three fingers of their mid-arms.
“Stop,” one of the guards commanded. “What is your business here?”
Poul stepped forward. “We are here for a recalibration of the comm signals. Just routine—”
His comments were interrupted by an alarm that suddenly began blaring from a speaker on the wall next to the security station. One of the Hyben placed a portable communicator to the side of his head and appeared to be listening intently. The other two creatures began to withdraw their MK’s.
Adam was the first to react, as the flash and ping of three quick electric bolts shot out from Adam’s MK-17. The three Hyben fell to the floor, traces of smoke slowly wafting into the air from the bolt-holes burned in their chests.
Poul turned, his tiny mouth once again forming a perfect ‘O.’ “What did you do that for? I could have got us through.”
Adam shifted the MK and sent a level-two bolt into the speaker on the wall, quieting the alarm, although he could still hear more alarms off in the distance. “I think they’re on to us; that didn’t take long. Now who do you think could have warned them about our coming?” Adam stared straight at the Hyben.
“Only my mates knew—”
“Never trust a woman with a pile of money sitting on the table,” Adam said with a smile, looking over at Sherri.
She frowned back at him, “It seems women everywhere are just as dissatisfied with their men as they are back on Earth. Can’t blame ’em for being pragmatic.”
“But why would they report me? They are my mates!”
Sherri looked at Poul, “Maybe you should have brought the credits with you – for insurance. Looks like you’re expendable, Poul.”
“Come on, we don’t have all night.” Adam shoved the still-stunned alien down the hallway. “Find us a terminal.”
“I’ve only been up here a few times, but I think there are some units at the end of the hall.”
They entered
a long room with three rows of bench tables running the length of the room. At intervals along them were dozens of monitors and linking terminals, but not all of the terminals appeared to be operating. The lights and monitors were lit at only three stations.
Adam slipped onto an oversized chair with an open back, designed to allow for the tail of the Hyben to fit over the seat. Before him sat a basic comm unit; he punched in a specific set of frequency numbers and pressed the activate button.
“Alpha Team to Watchdog. Alpha Team to Watchdog, come in.”
There was no response. He looked up at Sherri, who was standing next to him, with a concerned look on her face. “Alpha to Watchdog, come—”
“Adam, is that you? I mean, Team Alpha, is that you?” Adam could hear Jym’s high-pitched stammer through the speakers. “Eh, this is Watch – eh – dog.”
Adam just shook his head. “It’s okay Jym,” he said into the microphone. “If anyone’s listening, I don’t think they’re going to be fooled.”
“Sorry. I’m not used to some of the terms you want me use. Are you all right? I’ve not picked up your proximity beacon.”
“Yeah, and you’re not going to either. The shuttle is out of commission and we’re stuck here.”
“Oh no!” Jym was always susceptible to fits of excitability. “We’ve been monitoring the reaction to your attack and the planet has been locked down! How are you going to get away?”
“We’re not – at least for the time being. I need you and Kaylor to lay off the planet for about a week – let’s make it six standard days – until things blow over down here. Then come down to our original landing port. We’ll meet you there.”
There was a slight hesitation on the link before Jym’s nervous voice came back on. “I am confused. What must blow over? Is there a storm on the surface? I’m not seeing any on my screens.”