by T. R. Harris
But before that, it was purely for the sex.
On the fourth day out from Castor, Adam entered the stateroom carrying a package wrapped in white paper. Sherri was seated at the desk, listening to a translation of an item in the Library. It was always easier to just request a vocal translation of items on the galactic internet, rather than try to learn all the various written alien languages. The translator bugs imbedded behind their ears made reading a lost art, nearly to the point of extinction.
She noticed Adam when he entered. “What do you have there?”
Adam answered with a wide grin. “You’ve been out here longer than I have, so you may have already experienced this, but I think I have a real treat for you. Found these on Rigor.”
Adam separated the wrapping paper to reveal two thick slabs of richly-marbled meat. “I thought you might like a change from all the synthetic mush we’ve been eating. These are steaks – or as close as I’ve found to steaks out here.”
Sherri smiled back and raised her eyebrows.
Adam explained. “I was a Rigor a few months back and picked up the scent as those lizard-bastards were grilling up some of these. They come from a large grass-eater, something like a cow, but twice as big. Hell, it smelled like steak, looked like steak, and damn, if it didn’t even taste something like steak. So I bought up a supply and have kept them frozen for special occasions.”
“So this is one of those special occasions?”
“Well, it’s been a while since I had a date over to my place for dinner.”
Sherri laughed and patted his arm. “Well grill ‘em up big boy. Tonight we feast!”
The Rigorian meat was similar to beef steaks, yet not an equal match, but the two Humans didn’t care. They laughed between bites and shared more of their stories with each other, and – at least for the time being – forgot where they were.
Sherri explained that she had been raised on a small horse farm just outside of Owensboro, Kentucky, where her father raised Tennessee Walking Horses. Every year, her family would cart some of the horses down to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for the big Walking Horse Celebration there, where it was non-stop talk about horses, horses and more horses. Sherri hated it. In fact, she was of that rare breed that gravitated to the opposite of how she was raised. She hated the country and loved the city. She was ambivalent towards animals, while feeling that none of them belonged in the house, not even cats and dogs.
“So why were you studying to be a veterinarian?” Adam asked, confused.
“I guess it was just to please my family. I knew a lot about the field already, having helped my dad out with all the beasts running around our property. Did I mention I’m an only child? I might have slipped under the radar if I had a brother around.”
“Yeah, family can be powerful influence on a kid, good and bad.”
Sherri nodded. “And you followed in your father’s footsteps, and joined the military.”
“That’s right. But I never had any issues with it. I guess I always knew I would make it a career. As a Navy brat, I spent a lot of time growing up near the water. My mother died in a car accident when I was eleven and my dad raised me by himself ever since. He never remarried. He taught me to shoot even before I could ride a bike, and I always respected what he did for a living. He was Corpsman in the Navy, and he went off to Iraq with the Marines during Desert Storm and later to Afghanistan in 2004 as a senior enlisted. I joined in 2009 and went right into SEAL qualifications.”
“What was that like? I hear it’s really hard to become a SEAL.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s no cake-walk, but I had been training for it for most of my life. My dad had told me what to expect, and I had researched the SEALs extensively. I was probably better-prepared than most.”
“So I suppose your training comes in handy out here – in your line of work.” Sherri let out a small laugh and took another sip of the alcoholic drink the dietary computer had concocted. She seemed to be enjoying it immensely.
“You would think so,” said Adam with a tinge of disbelief in his voice. “But all the weapons here are different, and I’ve been operating solo for so long that most of my team maneuvers are pointless. Besides, none of these aliens have been much of a challenge.”
Then he cocked his head and looked at Sherri’s young, innocent face. “I guess the bigger question is how have you been so successful as an assassin, I mean with no formal training?”
She let out a snort. “It’s like you said: None of these things out here have been much of a challenge. And I guess it’s also a remorse kind of thing. I have never felt any remorse about killing these stinking aliens. Not an ounce.”
“I hear you,” Adam nodded. “I’ve never thought I was a cruel man, but I feel very little attachment to any of these things out here. I’ve thought that it’s just because they aren’t Human, but I also didn’t go around killing every animal I saw on Earth without remorse, and they weren’t Human, either. I think it’s the whole alien thing. At least a dog on Earth is native to Earth, and I think subliminally I feel a kinship with the dog, but not to any of these things. It may sound simplistic, but until you’ve experienced it, you can never be sure how you’ll react to something truly alien.”
“That could be true,” Sherri said, furrowing her brow. “I’ve also met a few aliens I would call friends, and some of them even ended up dead. Still, I can say I didn’t feel any great sorrow when they did.”
Adam thought of his two closest alien ‘friends,’ Kaylor and Jym. Although the total time they had spent together had only been less than a month, Adam thought that he would at least feel something if they died. But then he thought of Seton Amick. He had actually spent more time around the Castorian crime boss than any other alien. And when he died, all Adam could think about was the loss of a revenue stream.
Adam shook his head, trying to clear it of the conflicts he felt. He knew he couldn’t be too hard on himself. Humans – including him and Sherri – had only recently been exposed to the reality of alien beings. Until humanity had a chance to fully acclimate itself to this new reality, it was understandable for his kind not to understand their conflicted emotions.
Adam noticed Sherri’s eyes beginning to close and her head droop forward across the table from him. She had consumed more of the beverage than he, and was apparently feeling it. Their night had been a success – and a reprieve. In the morning, they would arrive on Silea, and begin the next chapter in his quest for a way home. It seemed like such an impossible task, but just the fact that he had survived in this alien reality for over nine months – and Sherri for over three years – gave him added hope.
Yes, Humans were resilient – and hard-as-nail bastards, even if there were only two of them against the entire galaxy. He laughed softly to himself, and in his slightly inebriated state, thought, I hope we don’t make too much of a mess out of the galaxy. ‘Cuz I’ll be damned if I’m going to clean it up!
Chapter Eighteen
They entered the Silean system on the fifth day out from Castor. Adam had been to the planet several times before, including twice with his old buddy, Seton Amick.
Silea was an exciting place, and a haven for the lawless in The Fringe. In its vast, open-air markets you could buy anything, whether legal or illegal, and this was all by design.
Long ago, the powers who ruled the planet had decided to go along to get along, so on Silea, just about anything went. Here they grew the most potent intoxicants in the Sector, traded the most blatant rip-offs of Juirean technology – and even had the largest slave-trade anywhere in The Expansion, according to rumor.
Yet everyone on the planet knew their days were numbered. As the Juirean Expansion grew beyond The Fringe and the Barrier, they knew the Juireans would soon begin to enforce more restrictive regulations on their activities. It was just a matter of time.
So, at least for the time being, the Sileans traded and produced at a fever-pitch, trying to make as many credits as possible in the time they had lef
t.
Silea’s population numbered in the billions, with thousands of cities, towns and hamlets spread across its four major land masses. It was also one of those exotic-looking planets from space that Adam enjoyed to visit, looking like a shining blue, white and green ornament set against the blackness of space.
Adam and Sherri’s destination was the capital city of Dargor. The city was sprawling, with no buildings reaching higher than four stories. Adam never learned why Sileans didn’t build taller structures; it was just the way they wanted it. The result of this particular brand of urban planning was cities that stretched for a hundred kilometers in every direction, limited only by the rise of mountains or the boundary of the sea. And Dargor was the largest.
The city was serviced by no less than twenty-two spaceports. Five of these ports were major hubs, while the remainder were smaller and reserved for the most-notorious contraband Silea offered.
Adam chose one of the minor ports. Even though the Juirean transponder on his ship was deactivated for his arrival on Silea, the ship itself might still attract too much attention at one of the major hubs. At these minor ports, no one paid much attention to anything that came or went.
Silea was one of those Fringe worlds with a Juirean-standard gravity, putting it at about three-quarters that of Earth’s. Both Adam and Sherri reveled briefly in their sudden weight loss, but both knew they couldn’t stay here for any prolonged period. In fact, it was during the trip to Silea that Sherri had revealed her greatest fear to Adam. It was of premature osteoporosis. Women were always more prone to the loss of bone mass during their lives, and since Sherri didn’t have a ship of her own in which she could regulate the gravity, she feared that her time on these weaker-gravity worlds would cause her to develop the condition sooner than normal.
Adam had assured her that she was always welcome aboard his ship, and that he’d even crank up the gravity to above normal just to help reverse any damage which the past three years may have caused – if that was even possible. He wasn’t an expert on the condition, but he did get the impression that Sherri’s pre-med education gave her a deeper understanding of what she was up against. Even though she was appreciative, Adam could still sense the worry in her.
But after five days under what was as close to Earth-normal gravity as Adam could provide, Sherri, in particular, was enjoying the added bounce in her step.
Outside the gates of the spaceport, Adam rented a small transport to take them into the city and to the office of Kroekus. The crime boss was simply the most-powerful person on the planet outside of the government – which meant he actually ran the whole damn place. There wasn’t a category of trade that he wasn’t involved in, and his network spread to every part of The Fringe – and beyond. Kroekus was so far up the criminal hierarchy ladder from Seton Amick – and especially Kunnlar Bundnet – that the two now-deceased crime lords barely registered on the scale compared to him.
Kroekus and his family had been running things on Silea for over a thousand years, to one degree or another. For the long-living Sileans, that was only about ten generations, yet no family in the history of Silea had lasted as long in power. And Kroekus wasn’t about to lose it now.
So when the assassin Sherri Valentine showed back up at his door, he was cautious, especially in light of the fact that another Human was with her. Kroekus was very aware of what Sherri could do just by herself. But two Humans in his anteroom caused him to set his security at max and to activate the diffusion shield surrounding his desk.
Sherri displayed a wide grin as she entered the office, doing her best not to display too much teeth. This necessity for harmonious existence within the alien society was one of her hardest habits to break; it went totally against her natural instinct. She had always been known for her beautiful smile. Yet it was to counter the instinctive reactions from the aliens that she now struggled to contain her tight-lipped grin.
“My friend, Sherri,” Kroekus greeted amicably. “What brings you back in my presence?” He came around his desk to briefly embrace her, and then quickly moved back to his seat behind the desk. Adam noticed Sherri cringe slightly as the bloated and smelly alien hugged her, yet she didn’t protest. Kroekus did not greet Adam, but eyed him up and down once he was back behind the desk.
“First of all, this is my friend Adam Cain. I have finally met another of my kind.”
“That must be very gratifying for you,” Kroekus replied, with no emotion in his voice. The alien continued to look at Adam. “But I have to admit, I know of your companion.”
Adam knew it. There were so few professional assassins in The Fringe with his track record, and even fewer Human assassins. He would have been disappointed if Kroekus wasn’t aware of him.
“You were responsible for the recent demise of Bundnet on Hildoria,” he stated flatly. “And you, my dear Sherri, for Seton Amick. And now the two of you have joined forces, having each killed the other’s employer. I find that rather amusing – and disturbing.”
“All of that was simply a coincidence, Kroekus,” Sherri said quickly, trying to calm the crime lord’s concerns. “We did not know of each other’s existence until after the hits.”
“Still, the meeting of two of the sector’s most prolific and efficient assassins – who just happen to be of the same race – I find that cautionary at best.”
Adam knew they were being watched, with probably half a dozen bolt launchers aimed at them at that very moment; a being of Kroekus’s caliber doesn’t reach and maintain his level of power by being stupid. Adam was beginning to doubt Sherri’s clout with Kroekus, and unless the tone of the conversation shifted quickly, Adam would soon be looking for an exit strategy – and his weapon had been confiscated by the various layers of guards leading to Kroekus’s inner sanctum. It would not be easy, and the tell-tale shimmer in the air as Kroekus returned to his chair indicated a diffusion screen between them and the alien. What had he been thinking, allowing himself to walk right into the killing-field?
But Sherri didn’t seem as tense. Instead, she spread her hands out in front of her, palms open – a gesture of peace in many societies, including alien, apparently. “I have come back to you to ask for your assistance. I need to learn the identity and location of the surviving crewmember of the ship that first brought me to Silea.”
Adam saw Kroekus relax a bit – not much, but some. “I’m sure that if that creature still lives, she would not be that anxious to see you. For what purpose do you seek this information?”
“We are attempting to learn how we came to be here,” Sherri said, honestly. “Both Adam and I are of a race that is not part of The Expansion.”
Kroekus displayed a surprised look on his round face. “I don’t know why I should find this information shocking. Your abilities have been beyond the ordinary. That was the main reason I freed you from the prison and set you in the Games in the first place.” Then Kroekus displayed what could only be called a Silean smile. “You made me a lot of credits during your time there, and I have to admit, even more since I set you on your current career path. Are you trying to say you are attempting to leave The Fringe and return to your homeworld?”
“If that is possible, that would be our goal.”
Kroekus seemed to relax even more, while a curious look crossed his face. “So there is a whole planet of beings like yourself, with your particular talents.” The big alien looked directly at Adam. “That could be…interesting, to say the least.” Then back at Sherri: “And you think tracking down the being that brought you to Silea can provide information about where you came from? How can it be that the two of you do not know?”
Adam decided not to sit quietly any longer. “We were taken against our will,” he said forcefully, much to Kroekus’s surprise. Adam knew Kroekus was also active in the slave trade. “All we want to do is get back home. It’s as simple as that.”
Kroekus pursed his purple lips. “That’s quite understandable. A being’s homeworld can be a very powerful attracti
on for a species. But in my position here on Silea, I have seen very few of your kind come through the slave trades. Why do you think you were taken in the first place, if not to be sold in our markets?”
Adam did not want to reveal his suspicions to the crime lord. If he knew of Adam’s belief that an army of Humans existed somewhere in The Fringe, he might not look upon Sherri and himself as simple curiosities, but rather as threats. So instead: “I have no idea why aliens do what they do.” He noticed Kroekus bristle slightly at the word ‘alien.’ Damn, he knew better than to antagonize these creatures, unless of course, it served his purpose.
Sherri stepped in quickly to defuse the situation. “Kroekus, we mean no disrespect,” she said. “All we want to do is find our way back to our homeworld. Our race is not as advanced as is yours, and we do not possess space travel or knowledge of the galaxy, such as you do. We are much more primitive.”
Kroekus was silent for a moment as his attention slowly returned to Sherri. “Yes, your race may be so successful at killing simply because you are so primitive. You may not belong among us permanently until you mature more as a species.”
From his position of power, Adam knew Kroekus was used to saying whatever came to his mind, no matter how insulting to others his thoughts may be. Adam didn’t care. Deep down, he knew the alien was probably right. So he held his temper.
“I believe I can help you,” Kroekus said finally. “The records of your arrival and arrest sit with the Silean Security Force.” Then he attempted a grin. “I have access to these records, of course. Let me get the information you seek.”
The fat alien then struggled out of his chair and left the room. Sherri and Adam stared at each other, trying to remain silent while containing their excitement. They both knew they were still being watched, so they sat as patiently as possible for the five minutes it took before Kroekus returned, carrying a data chip.
“You are in luck,” Kroekus said, standing behind his desk. “The crewmember is still alive and resides here, in Dargor. She never flew again after the incident, and it seems your actions over that day ruined the sorry creature for life. Be cautious when approaching; I’m sure she will not want to see you again.”