Alien Assassin

by T. R. Harris

  Then Sherri stepped forward and looked at the two aliens. “You know them?” she asked Adam.

  He grinned. “Yeah, this is Kaylor and Jym, the two aliens I told you about who saved me from the Klin ship.”

  “Aliens?” Jym said. Adam patted him on the shoulder. He could tell Jym was still sensitive about being called that.

  “What are the two of you doing here?”

  Kaylor looked suspiciously at both Riyad and Sherri, and then sat back down on the cot. Jym did the same. “We were on a run off New Regian when a Juirean cruiser tracked us down and brought here.”

  “Why’d they do that?”

  Adam saw Kaylor’s jaw tighten. “All they kept asking about was that blasted computer core again. We told them we didn’t have it, that the other Juireans took it. They kept asking if we had accessed any of its data. We kept saying no – until they threw us in here. I’m afraid they are going to use torture on us next if we don’t tell them what they want to hear.”

  “But how did they even know who you were? I thought all the records were destroyed?”

  “I don’t know how,” Kaylor kept eyeing Riyad, watching the pirate as he moved to the only sink in the room and began to wash some of the dust off of his face. Sherri waited her turn to do the same. “But they found out somehow. What are you doing here?”

  “It’s a long story, but let’s just say the Sileans may not be too happy with what we did to Kroekus’ headquarters…”

  “Kroekus!” Jym screamed. “You haven’t upset Kroekus, have you?”

  “Upset might be on the milder side of things,” Riyad said stepping up to stand next to Adam. “I’m assuming he’s still alive.”

  “Now you have Kroekus after you? And here we are again in a cell…with you!” Kaylor’s temper flared, but he quickly calmed down when the third Human stepped up in front of him.

  Adam shook his head. “Don’t worry about Kroekus. What are the Juireans doing here – and why so many of them?”

  “I can probably answer that,” Riyad said as all eyes fell on him. He went on to quickly relate the story of the battle off Dimloe and his subsequent arrival on Silea.

  “So there were more Humans?” Adam asked, stunned by what he heard.

  “I told you so,” Sherri said. “Those strange men I first met did not seem right. Could they be the same ones who fought the Juireans?”

  “No doubt,” Riyad said. “But their leader blathered on about how they were the ones running the show and only using the Klin for their own purposes.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Adam stated. “Something’s not right here.”

  Sherri stepped next to Adam and squeezed his arm. “You know what we have to do. We can’t stay here much longer. We have to get to Zylim-4—”

  “Zylim-4?” Riyad blurted out. The other two Humans turned towards him, shocked by his intensity.

  “”You’ve heard of the place?” Adam asked.

  “Well, yeah. It’s a mining colony. Radiation everywhere, that’s all.”

  Adam studied Riyad’s face for a moment before turning his attention back to Sherri. “Yeah, we’ve got to get out of here and back to my ship. Once the Juireans find out who we are, and track down the Cassie 1, we’ll be trapped here on Silea.”

  “So what’s the plan, Admiral,” Riyad said sarcastically.

  Adam shot him an angry look. “Well, I supposed we could do the old ‘you hide in the rafters,’” he nodded to Sherri, “while the two of us fake a fight to attract the guards, then we over-power them’ plan. I’ve seen it work in the movies dozens of times.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kaylor inquired from his seat on the cot.

  Adam turned to him. “Just stay where you are and watch. Be ready to move when I say so.”

  “We’re not going with you this time!” Jym protested.

  “So stay here, and let the Juireans torture you to death. It’s all the same to me.”

  Then he turned and nodded to Sherri, who effortlessly jumped up and grabbed one of the power conduits that trailed across the ceiling. She wrapped her legs around it and clung there, looking down at Adam, smiling.

  Then Adam whirled around, and landed a powerful right cross directly on Riyad’s chin. The pirate fell back against the wall and slid down to the floor. And then Adam was on him. He pulled Riyad’s face close to his. “That’s for strapping a bomb on my ankle and then trying to kill me.”

  After that, the real ‘mock’ fight began. They punched at each other, yelled and cursed, and overturned cots, basically anything to cause as loud a ruckus as they could.

  After a few seconds, the bolt on the door slid aside and the heavy metal door swung open. Two Silean guards, armed with shock-sticks, entered and rushed toward the two men fighting on the floor. As they passed below Sherri, she let loose with her legs and swung down, striking the two guards in the back with her feet. That was all that was needed. The two lighter-weight aliens flew hard into the concrete wall of the cell and collapsed.

  Adam and Riyad rushed over quickly and disarmed the guards, and then the three Humans moved to the door, Adam with a shock-stick on one side, Riyad on the other. Then Adam turned to Kaylor and Jym. “You coming?”

  After only a moment’s hesitation, they lifted from the cot and ran to the door.

  Adam had paid special attention to the route they took inside the building as they were led to the cell. So outside the cell he turned left in the hallway and led the group to another closed door at its end. This door was not as secure as the cell door, and when Adam opened it, he was instantly confronted with three uniformed Sileans, who stopped in their tracks with shocked looks across their faces.

  Not bothering to shock them with the electrified rod, Adam simply used it as a club, and in a moment the three guards lie unconscious on the floor. None of these guards carried bolt weapons either, just more of the shock-sticks.

  The five escapees ran down the now-deserted hallway until Adam passed an open door on his left. He stopped abruptly, and the other four crashed into him, like some scene from a Keystone Cops movie. Recovering, Adam backtracked to the room.

  As he entered, Adam saw the window, large and displaying the outside ground-level of the building. Hoping the glass wasn’t shatter-proof, he hefted a chair from behind a desk and threw it into the window. The glass shattered, and then using the shock-stick, Adam broke away more of the glass so they could all simply step through the opening and onto the grassy ground outside.

  No alarms sounded, so they moved quickly through the dark shadows of the Silean night until they reached the main street running along the front of the building. There were several transports parked along the side of the street, including a decent-sized panel truck-looking vehicle.

  They moved to the truck and Adam tried the driver’s side door. Luck was with them; it was unlocked. All of them quickly jumped in, Adam in the driver’s seat, Riyad riding shotgun, while Sherri and the two aliens climbed in the open rear cab.

  Adam had never hot-wired an alien truck before, so he leaned down to look under the dashboard. Then Riyad reach over and pressed the start button directly above Adam’s head. Adam heard the electric motor begin to whirl. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, until Adam grabbed the center toggle and pressed it forward.

  They were on their way to the spaceport and the Cassie 1.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ransin stood before the large monitor in an office of the Silean Security Center and shifted nervously as Giodol addressed him. He wasn't particularity nervous about speaking with Giodol; they had had a working relationship for several years now. It was the large, blue-haired Overlord behind him that made him nervous. This would be Lord Yan’wal, whose reputation was known throughout the entire Expansion.

  The raid on Kroekus’ headquarters had gone more-or-less according to plan, and the Humans had been extricated unharmed. They had been placed in a cell with the two other beings from Adam Cain’s past, and had even
managed to pick up another Human somewhere along the way. It was obvious the female was the other one from Castor, the second assassin who had checked into the rest facility with Cain. What her contribution would be to the plan remained unknown. All Ransin knew was that she was a Human, and therefore a major threat.

  “Where are the Humans now?” Giodol asked.

  “They are heading for the Juirean shuttle and should be arriving there momentarily.”

  “Good. So your plan for their escape was a success. My congratulations, Ransin.”

  The Juirean agent did not know what to do at this juncture, so he figured honesty would be his safest route. “My Lord, I cannot take credit for the escape. My procedures had not been put into place before the Humans were able to escape on their own.”

  Giodol stared at the agent for a long moment, as Lord Yan’wal moved up beside him and closer to the screen. Then the senior Overlord spoke. “So we were not able to contain the Humans for more than a few minutes in the central lockup building before they escaped, without our help, and seemingly with little effort?” Yan’wal tone was as cold as ice.

  “Yes, My Lord. Humans appear to be very resourceful.”

  “Humans nearly destroyed my entire fleet!”

  “I meant no disrespect, My Lord,” Ransin said quickly, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. He knew his skin colors would be shifting wildly, as they did when he was nervous. “We have ample tracking devices on the shuttle and will be able to follow them to their next destination.”

  Yan’wal turned to Giodol. “Have the battle force shadow the Humans without revealing themselves. I know they will seek out others of their kind. We must be ready when they do.” Then he turned back to the screen. “Agent! Do not lose them.”

  “No, My Lord. I will not lose them.” To Ransin’s immense relief, the screen went dark.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Adam and his group made it to the Cassie 1 without incident, at which time Kaylor went ballistic.

  “What about my ship? I can’t just leave her!”

  “Where is she?” Adam asked as he slipped into the pilot seat.

  “In orbit. They brought us down in a shuttle.”

  Adam thought for a moment. “Good, we’ll pick her up on the way. We can always use more room, and the workshop you have aboard will come in handy.”

  Kaylor had no idea what Adam had in mind, but he was happy just to learn that his precious FS-475 was not going to be abandoned. Besides, his whole life was aboard that ship.

  They rendezvoused with the FS-475 within ten minutes of reaching orbit, and Adam maneuvered the Cassie-1 over the aft access port. Once the seal was secure, the five escapees transferred to the much larger ship. Adam told Kaylor their new destination.

  “Zylim-4! Are you crazy?” the alien protested. “That place is so radioactive it’s about to achieve critical mass just sitting there.”

  “That’s where we’re going, nevertheless.”

  “Why there?”

  Riyad and Sherri had just entered the pilothouse. Adam nodded at Sherri and said “There’s something we have to check out. It could be important.”

  Kaylor set about programming in the coordinates, then turned and began stroking the two fingers of flesh that protruded below his ears. “If my nodes dry up from the radiation, it will be your fault.”

  Adam had no idea what he was talking about, so he simply ignored him.

  Riyad stepped forward.

  “So? Why Zylim-4?” he asked. He preferred not to tip his hand at the time, and relay his own beliefs about the planet.

  Adam closed to within inches of the pirates face. “I want to make one thing perfectly clear: this situation is completely different from the time you and your goons got the drop on us before. You may have been some big-time terrorist back in your prior life, but here, I have no doubt I could take you.”

  Riyad held out his hands. “I have no doubt either, my friend. You are younger, stronger and more traditionally-trained. At the time of our prior association, we were both in a completely different reality. Now we must operate as a team.”

  “Nice words, Tarazi. But all I have to go by is your past record. I don’t trust you. I know what your ultimate goal is, and as we get closer to finding a way home, I know you’ll do whatever it takes to make your fantasy come true. And if that means stabbing us in the back, you’ll do it. You’ve done it before.”

  Riyad brought his hands up into a prayer position and nodded. “I agree with you, if you only go by our brief encounter months ago. But things have changed. My pirate fleet is destroyed; I have no money and no resources. I am now at your mercy, as well as that of your lovely lady friend,” he said, nodding at Sherri. “I will not be a problem. Rather I can be an asset. But you still have not answered the question. Why is Zylim-4 so important?”

  Adam stared back at Riyad. There was a long pause, as Adam weighed the option of trusting him or not. Finally, he bit his bottom lip and nodded.

  “When we get there, I’m going to need all the help I can get. I have no choice but to trust you. However, I will be watching you.”

  “Perfectly understandable, my brother.”

  Then addressing everyone in the room, Adam began, “Zylim-4 is where Sherri was brought when she was first abducted by the Klin. It’s some kind of major base or processing center, and according to Sherri, there are a lot of those weird people there, like the ones you talked about, Riyad – those who committed suicide.”

  So I was right! Riyad thought. Zylim-4 is the base. And it was gravity that led him there…

  Aloud, he said, “That’s amazing. They must surely know the location of Earth.”

  “That’s my hope, but according to you and Sherri, these other Humans are more foe than friend.”

  “So what’s your plan for getting us in? Zylim-4 is an inhospitable place, as Mr. Kaylor has alluded. All the living facilities are deep underground and secure. And then there’s the radiation.”

  Adam turned away from Riyad and stared out the front viewport. “That I haven’t figured out yet. But once we get there, we’ll be going up against other Humans, not the normal wimpy aliens we’re used to – present company excluded, of course. I will need to count on all of you.”

  “Don’t worry, my friend. We are all on the same team now. And you will find that I can be a very good team player.”

  After a few hours of planning, Adam called a meeting in the cargo hold of the FS-475.

  “Kaylor and Jym have been doing some research on the internet – I mean the Library – and have found quite a bit of information regarding Zylim-4 and Locin-Annan. I’ll let Kaylor fill you in.”

  Kaylor sat at the small desk with the monitor embedded in the bulkhead above it. A schematic appeared on the screen. “Locin-Annan is a community of miners and support staff of about 5,000 beings. It’s now located primarily to the right of the main dig where uranium ore has been extracted for about fifty standard years.” He highlighted a large bulb-shaped area to the left of Locin-Annan. “This large cavity is where a very productive vein of ore was mined until it dried up about twenty years ago. Then along this long shaft leading to the area, a cave-in occurred fourteen years ago. Since then, it appears no one has bothered to reopen the passageway.”

  Adam stepped up to the desk and pointed at the large cavity. “This is where I believe the Klin and Humans may be hiding. This area is over ten football fields in size, with numerous offshoots. Also, when the mine was operating, there were sleeping quarters, power facilities, storage buildings – and even a small hospital before they closed the place.” He smiled over at Sherri.

  Kaylor then highlighted a round area between the settlement of Locin-Annan and the now-deserted cavern. “This large area here was the open-pit mining area until it, too, dried up. The mining companies installed a large air-lock in the lowest part of the pit. This is where Adam believes we should set down. Off of the airlock are various passageways leading into the settlement to the righ
t, and the cave-in area on the left.”

  “What I propose,” Adam said, taking over, “is simply a fact-finding incursion. Essentially, we are going in blind, but we’ll go in prepared. And we’re not on a rescue mission, if this is indeed where the abducted Humans are being kept. We simply do not have the resources for a rescue. What we’ll be looking for is the central computer room.”

  He lifted a small box. “Kaylor has these small comm-units for all of us and they’ve been set to a dedicated frequency. Since the gravity will be a problem for Kaylor and Jym, they will stay behind in the 475 and monitor any activity.”

  Adam then moved to one of the work benches in the hold where he had laid out a whole variety of weapons and other paraphernalia. “Throughout the months, I’ve been collecting as many weapons and other tactical gear I came across – you never know when something might come in handy.” Again he smiled over at Sherri, who beamed a large one back at him. “I have fourteen MK-17’s, two ’27’s, six flash rifles, a dozen slide grenades, four smoke canisters and five pressure suits, which I’ve rigged with one-time diffusion shields.”

  “What are those,” Sherri and Riyad asked simultaneously.

  “That’s a little invention of mine that will keep a level-one bolt from frying you. But the thing to remember is they’re only good for one bolt.”

  Adam then turned to Sherri. “I need you to try and remember everything you can about your escape from the hospital and your movements to the warehouse.”

  She furrowed her brow. “It’s been a while, but I’ll try. I do remember sneaking down a long corridor and finding a huge elevator. I got in and looked for buttons, but all I found was a single panel. I pushed it, and the elevator moved. When the doors opened, I was in a huge chamber with another corridor leading off to the right.”

  Adam moved back to the desk and studied the screen in the wall above it. The old hospital area was located in the main excavation chamber. He traced a line down the leading corridor, the one with the cave-in. Directly above it was another tunnel running diagonally toward the airlock. “So you could have gone up here and entered this other tunnel. How far did you go down this one before you came to the warehouse?”