by T. R. Harris
“Why the rush?” Adam asked. He wanted to save Lila just as much as the next guy, but there was something Panur wasn’t telling them.
All eyes were on Panur, all except J’nae’s. She was already at the control station.
Begrudgingly, Panur continued. “Have you wondered why the Aris were so anxious to take Lila—why she was the trigger for their awakening?”
Adam shrugged.
“Consider our prior conversation. The Aris are seeking to avoid evolution—yet still live forever. The only way they can do that is to become truly immortal—like Lila.”
“They want to…use her, learn from her—or what?” Adam asked.
“I don’t know,” said the mutant. “But whatever they do, it will involve some violation of Lila. I find that prospect difficult to accept.”
“Me too,” said Adam.
“As do I,” Trimen added.
Sherri cleared her throat for effect. “We still have the little problem of the Nuoreans. You promised to help.”
Panur leaned back in his chair. “Yes, I did, and I have. Adam is free.”
“But now we’re rushing off in a stolen enemy warship to the other side of the galaxy,” Riyad countered, “on a trip that will take us a couple of months just to get there. In the meantime, the invaders are bringing in more units to the Milky Way with every intention of eventually making all of us pieces in their games of life or death. I hate to say this, but Lila is just one person. And what if the Aris do find the Fountain of Youth in her? Would that be such a bad thing? And you have to admit, we don’t have any idea if we could stop them even if we find her.” He paused to look into the faces of Adam and Trimen. “We have to have priorities, at least in the short-term. Let’s deal with the Nuoreans first, then we go after Lila.”
Now all eyes turned to Panur again. Adam had a pretty good idea J’nae didn’t give a damn anymore, now that she knew the Aris weren’t three billion years more advanced than before. Only Panur needed convincing.
“I will give you thirty days, after which I go and J’nae with me. You will then have to face the Nuoreans alone.”
“That’s what we’d be doing if you went after her now,” Sherri said. “So thanks. It’s better than nothing.”
“Now that a consensus has been reached…what do we do?” asked Trimen. He—like Adam—was torn between his personal priorities and duty to his race and galaxy. But Riyad made sense.
Panur stared off into space for a moment before answering. “As with any flood—be it water or invaders—it’s always best to shut off the supply first, after which the cleanup can begin. Seeing that we are currently heading farther into the Radis Spur, let us see if we can find that source, if only to inform your forces for further action. Will that satisfy your priorities?”
“It does mine,” Riyad said. He turned to J’nae. “Can this ship establish comm links with the Expansion or the Union…or anyone on our side?”
“The Nuoreans are interconnected among all their units, with communications monitored by a central command. If we attempt contact, they will know. Our location will be revealed and the information we relay become known.”
“This ship seems to be the problem,” Adam concluded. “We need to find another one, and something built in this galaxy.”
“If we could locate such a vessel, I could modify it for limited trans-dimensional hops. That would quicken our journey to Incus,” Panur offered.
“You can’t modify this one,” Trimen asked.
“Not without a supply of compatible native parts from other Nuorean vessels,” J’nae answered.
“So we need to find a nearby shipyard with a good supply of Milky Way parts and pieces.” Riyad concluded. “What’s around here? I thought this place was sparsely populated, with just a bunch of low-life drug dealers and gun runners killing each other for sport.”
“I do not have access to any local information,” J’nae said, “not in this vessel.”
“Another reason to find a replacement,” Adam said. “Do you have any navigational information at all?”
“Very little. What there is has been fed from the central command.”
“This is weird, flying blind in our own galaxy. Okay, let’s start making sweeps of some of the more promising nearby star systems. There has to be life around here somewhere, and someone with a map we can borrow.”
Chapter 15
He’d come to the Radis Spur for his health, not to stick his neck out just to have it sliced in two by some alien’s ceremonial sword. This new race of invaders—the Nuoreans—were proving they didn’t give a damn what species you belonged to or whether or not you’d aligned with any of the galactic empires. They’d take anyone captive to play in their silly alien games.
Copernicus Smith was having a hard enough time dealing with the locals. These guys were badass hombres—gunner runners and drug pushers—and he’d spent over a year getting them to trust him. Along the way he’d broken about a dozen major laws proving his cred—and now the Union big wigs want him to throw it all away and go out looking for these aliens from Andromeda.
But as they say, his job wasn’t to reason why, just do and die. It was that last part he was having a problem with.
The entire region was in abuzz with news of the Nuoreans. Although the Spur was the badlands of the galaxy, it still had CW communications, so they knew of the alien raid on Formil and the missing head-mutant, Lila. They’d also heard of the ill-fated battle between Milky Way and Andromeda forces and rumors of how the aliens were grabbing people to play in their life-or-death games. And now his crews and clients were reporting that there was an almost-continuous train of new alien ships chugging in from the outer regions of the Spur.
Dutifully, he’d passed along these reports to his handlers. But now they wanted him to go out and take a look for himself. And if that wasn’t enough, they also wanted him find out how they’re getting in…and shut it down. That’s all. Just a walk in the galactic park.
It had been two years since Copernicus left the Kidis Frontier, content to set up shop about as far from Earth as he could, with the intention of never running into the vengeful Adam Cain or Riyad Tarazi ever again. The super-secret intel service he worked for had supplied him with the resources and a decent legend to do just that. His new base-of-operations wasn’t as pretty or tropical as his last one—in fact he was right in the shit with all the other bad boys—on the planet Crisen-Por and the city of Grack. Hell, the planet wasn’t even on the standard navigation charts. But the criminal elements knew the place, and now they came to him for starship repair services and spare parts, accepting him into their fold out of necessity. A good mechanic was always welcomed, even if he was a Human.
Copernicus did most of the repairs himself these days, while sending his crews out to scour the Spur for derelict starships. Parts were hard to come by this far out, so they had to make do with what they could find floating in space. Since arriving, Radis Repair Services had filled a needed niche in the local economy, making Copernicus Smith a local favorite among the eclectic mix of personalities in Grack and other establishments in the Spur.
But now everyone was running scared. The bad guys didn’t have a place to go to avoid the invaders—they were wanted beings in the Galaxy proper. Most just cut back on their operations, staying close to the settled star systems and their host planets. Even Copernicus recalled his crews. It was too dangerous for them to go bolting through space these days, not until the crisis cooled down.
Although the main alien transit route was only twenty light-years from Crisen-Por, none of the enemy ships had blessed them with a visit. In fact, none of the local worlds in the Radis had been hit. The aliens appeared to have other locales in their sights, those farther into the galaxy.
********
Copernicus was out in his shipyard, bundled against the cold and taking a quick mental inventory of what he had available for his mission of clandestine discovery. He had a working cruiser—a Belsonian D-
4. It was about five hundred feet long with dual generators capable of reaching seven-light. Not bad, but it also left a pretty bright grav sig in its wake. It also required a crew of three to run it.
He also had a Vessin Fracker, a small survey vessel about fifty-feet long. It had a single generator—that wasn’t good—but it was stealthy and could be crewed by one.
Then there was the Castorian G-8. That would probably be it; one-person operation, dual gens, but could only operate at four-light. That was fine. The slow speed reduced the sig, and it was more important for him to stay out of trouble than to run from it.
Of course, he would add a couple of extra flash cannon and upgrade the circuit breakers—as command had recommended. The primary weapon of the Nuoreans appeared to be a bolt of condensed electricity that overloaded normal breakers. All allied ships were in the process of having the heavy-duty breakers installed.
The local sun was setting and there would be snow overnight. Copernicus pulled his coat a little tighter around his shivering torso. In the morning, he’d have his crews install the extra flash weapons and stock the ship with food and ammo. He’d leave right after that.
A strong whip of wind assailed the skin on his face not covered by his thick, black beard. God I missed the planet Liave-3.
********
“Boss, you better get in here. There’s a ship entering the system and everyone’s freaking out.”
Copernicus heard the voice in his ear as he walked back to the repair shack. He didn’t respond until he’d entered and shut the door, preserving the radiant heat from the small generator in the corner.
He removed his coat and stepped over to his second-lead—a Simminon named Lopis Drun—seated at a hodgepodge of comm equipment placed on a board with boxes for legs.
“What’s the big deal?”
“It’s a Nuorean ship.”
Copernicus tensed. This was the moment they’d been expecting. Copernicus shrugged. Maybe it was a good time to get out of town.
“You said a ship. There’s only one?” He leaned over to study the screen detailing the path of the starship. The locals maintained a pretty extensive early-warning system, insurance in case the Expansion ever decided to crack down on their operations. All the affiliated groups shared the information.
There was just a single blip moving into the system, approaching Crisen-Por.
“Any communications?”
“No…not even sure if they could link to us if they wanted. I haven’t heard of that happening.”
Copernicus noticed the modest intensity of the grav signature. “Hell, it’s not even one of the big ones. Pretty bold coming in here alone.”
“Who’s going to fire on them? That might draw more attention to us.”
Copernicus placed a hand on the shoulder of the thick, double-horned creature, looking more like a blue-tinted devil than the gentle giant he was. “There’s a lot of firepower in the system to deal with the threat—if it is a threat. We better lay low and see what happens.”
“Roger that.”
It had taken Copernicus nearly a year to train Lopis to speak with more Human-like slang. He was coming along nicely. It made Copernicus less homesick when he did.
********
Two hours later, Copernicus was just finishing his second cup of decaf and sitting with Lopis when the Nuorean ship made orbit and circled the planet a couple of times without attempting landfall. Then it hovered above the city, finding something on the surface that piqued its interest.
“Here it comes,” Lopis announced. “Heading for the city.”
About fifty ships owned and crew by the criminal element of the region had left the planet an hour earlier, taking up residence just outside the orbit of Crisen-Por’s only moon, watching and waiting. None were in an offensive posture. They were getting ready run, not fight.
Copernicus wasn’t worried. He was just one person out of a population of over two-hundred thousand in Grack. If the aliens wanted players for their games, there were plenty of other diverse species available for the picking other than the planet’s solitary Human.
But then the ship changed course. Copernicus and Lopis leaned in closer to the screen. The alien ship was heading toward the north side of the city. Radis Repair Service was located on the north side.
A minute later, Copernicus leaned back in the chair and grimaced. That’s what I get for running a starship repair service.
The alien craft set down in the service field next to the shipyard, stirring up a thick cloud of landing exhaust under the glow of floodlights and the shimmering moon above.
The bastards need my help, Copernicus thought. Maybe that would keep him from being taken captive, out of gratitude—and in lieu of payment. He had no illusions the invaders were going to pay for his services.
“Stay here,” he said to Lopis. “But be ready. If things get dicey I’ll need backup.”
He put his coat on and pulled the fur-lined hood tight over his head. Next he placed an MK-17 bolt launcher in the large right hand pocket and donned his gloves. It was nearly ten below outside, but that was no guarantee things couldn’t heat up in a hurry.
He stepped outside, ignoring the frigid blast of cold on his minimally exposed face. The modest-size starship was cooling rapidly in the atmosphere, popping and creaking with the best of them. Copernicus neared the main exit hatch and waited for the occupants to appear, resigned to the simple fact that he had no idea what was going to happen next.
********
“There appears to be quite a few potential vessels in the field,” J’nae said, studying the video monitor. “A being is waiting at the outer hatch.”
“You know we have no money to pay for a starship,” Sherri pointed out to those on the bridge. Adam wasn’t worried. He still had one of the flash weapons from the Nuoreans they’d killed back at the Grand Arena. They’d also found an armory within the ship, with a variety of other devices, some of unknown use or utility.
“Then let’s not spend too much time negotiating,” he said. “The place looks pretty run down, but this area is a hotbed of crooks and miscreants. I’m sure they’ll fight if they have to. We’ll take over the shipyard and then pick the best vehicle we can as fast as we can.”
“I will lead the way, if you wish,” said Panur. “I could use a good flash charge if things go awry.”
“That’s fine, just don’t go out of your way to get shot. You know how you guys heat up when pumped full of all that juicy plasma.”
“Just one bolt? Otherwise I’ll have to tap into the generators for a recharge.”
Adam smiled at the little gray mutant. They had quite the history together, with much of the alien’s Human-like personality having been drawn from Adam’s mannerisms. He was still the deadliest creature in existence, but he did have his moments.
Panur had fashioned a simple one-piece tunic out of a Nuorean uniform he’d found aboard. He didn’t need anything extra to protect him from the outside cold. The hatch cracked open and Panur presented himself to the being waiting patiently outside, huddling close to the hull for warmth.
“Greetings,” said Panur. “We wish to discuss the purchase of a new starship. Are you the proprietor?”
********
Copernicus studied the short, gray alien. So this is a Nuorean? I thought they’d be taller.
“Yes, I am the proprietor,” he answered. “You said you want to purchase a starship?”
Another figure, dressed in a thick coat and carrying an energy weapon of alien design, pushed past the gray creature and pressed the barrel of the pistol into Copernicus’s ribs.
Coop’s hands were still in his pockets, his right gripping the MK-17 hidden inside.
“Yeah, maybe purchase wasn’t the right word,” said the creature, humor in his voice. “More like we’re here to take one of your starships.”
“Like hell you are!”
Copernicus pulled the MK from his pocket and brought it to the alien’s head. The creatu
re was just as quick, placing his own weapon against Coop’s forehead for effect. A tense standoff ensued, until the two combatants shifted their attention from the barrels of the weapons to their faces only inches apart.
“Smith!”
“Cain!”
********
Adam shoved the traitorous starship mechanic away, sending him tumbling to the ground. Both their weapons remained aimed at the other person.
“What the hell are you doing here?” the two men spoke in unison.
Riyad joined Adam outside, the barrel of his weapon also pointing at the figure on the ground. “At least there won’t be any remorse about stealing one of his starships. The way I see it, this dung-eater owes us…big time.”
Panur hopped to the ground, ignoring the cold. “I take it you’ve met? Isn’t this a small galaxy?”
“Too small,” Adam growled. “So Smith…what are you going to do with that MK? Think carefully before you answer.”
Copernicus let go of the pistol, letting it dangle on his trigger finger. “If I shot you it would probably just piss you off.”
“It always has in the past.”
“Before you kill me, let me explain.”
“Explain what?” Riyad asked.
Copernicus smiled. “Who I really am.”
Chapter 16
“That’s a bunch of bullshit!” Adam yelled. “You expect us to believe you’re some kind of galactic James Bond, and that everything you did to us was under orders?”
“Who is James Bond?” Lopis asked. The alien was sitting across the room under the watchful eye of four huge Juireans. Copernicus was on a torn leather couch, still wearing his coat, with Adam and Riyad standing over him.
“Look, he’s sweating,” Sherri pointed out. She’d only met Copernicus once before, at a restaurant on Worak-nin a little over two years ago.
“That’s because it’s hot in here. Let me take off the coat.”
“Go ahead. Just don’t try anything,” Adam said.
“Like what? There are twelve of you against the two of us.”