The Last Star Warden - Tales of Adventure and Mystery from Frontier Space - Volume 1

by Jason McCuiston

  “Yes,” King continued. “I know that’s all you want. To go back to your own world, to be among your own kind, to be a part of your own society. It must be a living hell for you here. You are surrounded by what you can’t help but consider a galaxy of mental degenerates, constantly bombarded with sensory input that doesn’t suit your physiology, exposed to customs that must seem barbaric and silly. No matter what planet, moon, or station you set foot on, you will always be ‘the alien.’ You will always be imprisoned, after a fashion.

  “It must get tiresome, if not downright depressing. Tell me I’m wrong, Quantum.”

  The alien swallowed. “You are not wrong, Commandant King. Not entirely…”

  “Then help me build the machines I want, and we can work together to find a way to get you back through that black hole and back to your own kind.”

  When the Mechtechan leaned its head against the padded gurney and its rarely seen eyelids shut for several moments, King knew he had finally won. He had broken the alien, and he would get what he wanted. Just as he always did.

  ---

  After the horrors of Tartarus, Hogan’s cell wasn’t quite as offensive as the Warden had first thought it to be.

  Still, the rancid smell caused Ilsa to take a step back when she opened the door. “Are you sure about this? I think it’s a bad idea.”

  “Of course it’s a bad idea. It’s a terrible idea. But it’s the only one I’ve got.” The Warden turned and called into the darkened cell. “Rise and shine. I’ve got a job for you, Hogan.”

  The disheveled former lawman shambled into the hallway, covering his squinting eyes with one hand. “Warden? Is that you?”

  “It is. I owe you one for giving me that light. I might not have made it out of Tartarus without it. But right now, I’m afraid I need another favor.”

  The inmate smiled, revealing his ruined teeth. He blinked repeatedly until his eyes adjusted to the hall’s illumination. “It does get pretty dark on this ship. They’ve had us on lockdown since we tossed you down there. No light…” Hogan licked his dry lips. “What can I do for you, Warden?”

  “I’d like you to help me start a riot.”

  Hogan’s jaw dropped. He looked to Ilsa for confirmation. “What?”

  “You could call it a coup d’état. We’re overthrowing King. Jericho is already out of the picture, but we’ve still got thirty guards to overcome.”

  When Hogan grimaced, Ilsa tapped her wrist chrono. “Don’t worry about the blasters. I’ll take care of those. It’ll just be man-to-man.”

  The Warden clarified. “Armored men armed with stun batons. That’s why I need you to pick the strongest and most reliable of the bunch. We can’t afford to let everyone out. As soon as King is in custody and we have control of this ship, we are turning everything over to Star Cav.

  “You will all still be prisoners, but I can promise you that I’ll do everything in my power to see that you get the humane treatment you deserve. Perhaps even get the U.P.C. to convene a committee on prison reform.”

  Ilsa added, “And I will testify on behalf of those wrongfully incarcerated at King’s direction. Hopefully, I can undo some of the wrongs I’ve been a party to.”

  Hogan grinned, puffing up his chest. “Well, it’s been a while since I busted some heads. Can’t promise I’ll be any good in this fight, but I’ll damn sure give it a go.”

  The Warden smiled. “Good. Now, who can we trust?”

  Hogan laughed. “Not a soul, Warden. Not a soul. But I know a few guys who’ll count it a blessing to get a fair crack at the screws, even if it means dying.”

  The Warden shook his head. “I guess that’ll have to do. Come on.”

  ---

  It took King a moment to realize the Mechtechan had lost consciousness. Another moment to realize it wasn’t breathing. The next moment panic set in.

  “Cosmos!” King jumped from the hover chair and looked from the alien to the med-kit, unsure of what to do. “The booster! I should have checked the medical chart. The nanites are programmed to accelerate cell repair in creatures from this dimension!”

  He flipped the upright gurney into the horizontal position, then raced to the control panel. His fingers fluttering across the virtual keyboard, King hurried to pull up the medical data as quickly as possible. “No, no, no, no, no…”

  He was so close to finally getting what he wanted. Technology that would not only allow him to be the master of this galaxy, but also give him inroads to others. And he may have just killed that glorious future with the absent-minded application of a hypo. King growled through clenched teeth. “Why did I do that? Just goes to show that mercy is never a good idea…”

  The Mechtechan’s medical scans filled the holo screen. King skimmed the information. “Damn. Got to get him to sickbay.” He tapped the command that undid the gurney’s automated tethers. He was halfway to the supine alien when he heard shouts and the sounds of battle outside the interrogation room.

  He looked up at the monitor displaying the outer corridor to see the Last Star Warden leading a mad rush of over a dozen ragged inmates in an assault on his armored guards. For a moment, he couldn’t understand why his men weren’t using their blasters. Then he saw that his first officer, Ilsa Braun, was with the rioters.

  “The inconstancy of women…” King drew his sidearm. The one issued to him by Star Cav many years ago, and thus not subject to penal-facility kill codes.

  ---

  The Warden entered the long corridor leading to the interrogation room alone. “I heard you guys were looking for me.”

  The armored men at the other end of the hall jumped to attention, raised their blaster rifles. Their helmed heads swiveled, looking to one another for the next move. They had been ordered to protect the alien, but they had also been ordered not to kill the Star Warden if he turned up.

  The Warden walked straight at them, his steps getting quicker the closer he got. He was almost on top of them before one of the men shouldered his weapon with the intent to fire. When the carbine hummed and gave a dry click, the guards knew they were in trouble.

  The Warden hit the mass of men like a thunderbolt. He knew they were just doing their jobs and were not responsible for the travesty of justice he had seen on this ship. At least not entirely. Still, he had a lot of aggression built up, and the sentries stood between him and the man who was responsible.

  More importantly, they stood between him and his friend.

  At least four guards were incapacitated before those in the rear ranks drew their stun batons. The Warden retrieved one of the devices from a downed sentry, turned it on the next man in the pack, and prayed Hogan and Ilsa weren’t dawdling. He tried not to think too hard on the fact that he, a career lawman, had just pinned his hopes for success on freeing over a dozen convicted felons.

  A baton connected with his ribs and the Warden recoiled. Pain and nausea swept through his body, muscle spasms threatening to topple him to the floor. Deflecting the next strike with the haft of his weapon, the Warden spun the attacker into the path of another baton’s strike. Still another weapon came over this falling opponent, grazing the Warden’s left shoulder.

  A gloved hand caught him as he staggered back in agony.

  Gasping for air, the Warden smelled the horde of filthy inmates just before they hit the broken line of sentries with a high-pitched, banshee-like scream. Hogan was in the lead, a recovered stun baton in each gnarled fist.

  The Warden turned to see Ilsa smiling as she pulled him out of the thick of the fray.

  “You’ve done your part, Warden. Let these men blow off some steam.” She gave him a wink. “Besides, if too many of them are still on their feet at the end of this, we might have another kind of problem on our hands. Hogan could start a riot for real with his experience and charisma.”

  The Warden frowned as he caught his breath. “I take your meaning, but I got these men into this fight. I’m not leaving them to it.” Pushing off from the wall, he launched hims
elf back into the battle.

  ---

  King stood facing the door. He had locked it, but Braun could override the passcode. His lip curling, he only hoped she would be the first one through the door. He would put a bolt in her belly. “And while she bleeds out, I’ll put two in the Star Warden’s smug, handsome face.”

  “Do you really think he is handsome?”

  King turned to see the naked blue Mechtechan towering over him. There appeared to be no evidence of the torture which King had inflicted upon it in the past several days. No missing parts, no scars, not even a single bruise or blemish.

  “I suppose there is a certain symmetry to his features which most humans find appealing. However, I must confess, you all look terribly similar to me.”

  “I—I thought you were dead…” King heard himself gasp the idiotic words as he raised the pistol.

  Quantum knocked it from his grasp with the ease of disarming a child. “As I wanted you to think, Commandant. I determined that I had gathered sufficient data from this experiment, and it was time to end it.”

  King backed away from the freed alien. “But… but I know I hurt you. I cut away parts of you.”

  The Mechtechan moved gracefully, shadowing him. “Mere biological matter. Even without benefit of the booster hypo, which I recommended you give me, I would have fully recovered in due course. As I hope you are now well aware, Commandant King, my race is far superior to yours in every conceivable way.”

  “Y-you recommended?” King struggled to understand. “You influenced my mind!”

  “Subliminal communication.” The rangy Mechtechan stalked him around the room like a hunting feline. “It is typically only useful for observing members of other species, determining their individual personalities and subconscious proclivities. However, I have long suspected that its use might be made more proactive through the in-depth study of an individual. Hence, this experiment.”

  The alien’s pitch black eyes blinked, and the tiny mouth smiled. “I have been studying you very closely over the past few days, Commandant, and your mind, your very identity, is an open book to me.”

  King moved the gurney between himself and the Mechtechan. Struggling to swallow down his growing fear, he tried to reason with the thing. “But we can work together, Quantum! We can send you home!”

  The alien tossed the gurney aside and grabbed King by the front of his tunic, lifting him until his jackboots left the floor. “Ah, yes. Another of your false suppositions, Commandant. I told you that you were not wrong in your argument for my isolation and misery, at least not entirely.”

  Quantum drew King close, eye-to-eye. “Yes, I do wish to return to my own world and be among my own kind. And yes, the vast majority of this universe’s inhabitants are significantly less advanced than myself, and many—such as yourself—can be ‘barbaric and silly.’ But I do not find it a ‘living hell’ as you put it, and as you now see, my physiology is more than adequate to deal with any stimulus your dimension can provide.

  “But the primary reason I do not find this universe ‘tiresome’ or ‘downright depressing’ is that even if I am always ‘the alien’ on every planet, moon, or station in this universe, I have a friend who does not consider me so. To the Star Warden, I am a brother.”

  King’s mouth worked but no words came to mind. How could this thing be considered a friend, much less a brother by any human being?

  “That’s right, and brothers take care of one another.”

  King turned his head to see the Star Warden standing in the interrogation room’s opened door, Braun and a handful of tattered and bloodied inmates behind him. All wore satisfied, smug looks on their detestable faces.

  The Warden turned a warm smile to the Mechtechan. “Sorry it took so long. Are you okay?”

  Quantum’s fully-restored antennae wiggled, the big black eyes shining. “I am very well, my friend. Just ending a rather educational experiment here.”

  “Please,” King said to anyone who might listen. “Don’t let it kill me.”

  “Kill you, Commandant?” The alien dropped him to the floor. “I am sorry you would ever think such a thing of me. No, sir. I believe it high time justice finally came to Hulk 13, which means you must stand trial for your crimes.”

  ---

  A week later, the Ranger VII left Fort Dawn, the Star Cav space station above Priam Four, and made for the nearest Einstein-Rosen bridge. Hulk 13, along with the flotilla of warships that had responded to Ilsa’s S.O.S., remained docked on the installation. A military tribunal had convened to take testimonies and gather evidence for the pending U.P.C. investigation into the misdeeds aboard the prison ship.

  The implicated staff were being held in custody to await trial.

  “Well, I think Stanislaus King is going to find himself on the other side of the penal system for the rest of his life.” The Warden sighed, grateful to be done with the experiences associated with his time on Hulk 13. “And I believe Kal Hogan will have his sentence commuted to time served. But one thing is for sure, that prison ship will be retired, and the inmates moved to more humane facilities.”

  “Are you concerned about the fate of Officer Braun?” Quantum asked. He and the Warden sat in the command chairs of the ship’s small bridge. “She is facing rather severe penalties if she is not acquitted of the charges against her.”

  The Warden shrugged. “I gave them my testimony, telling them how she helped me recover after my time in Tartarus, and how she was instrumental in overthrowing King.”

  Quantum made a scoffing sound. “I suppose that would be true, had I not already been in control of the situation.”

  The Warden glanced at his friend with a raised eyebrow. “And how was I supposed to know that? Next time you embark on a psychological research experiment, let me know, will you?”

  “Of course. Although in this particular case, it was a spur of the moment decision.”

  “I didn’t think you were fond of those.”

  Quantum’s mouth curved into a smile. “You must be rubbing off on me.”

  The Warden laughed. “Well, where to now? Draconus Prime, perhaps?”

  Quantum looked out the forward view screen and was silent for a moment. “No.” His antennae twirled. “Not just yet. I believe there are many more pirates and outlaws in the Frontier that require our immediate attention.”

  The Warden typed in a set of coordinates on the nav computer. “Ever heard of a gang called the Silver Knuckles? I hear they like to work the Sigma Prime system.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  The Ranger VII’s thrusters released white atomic fire, and the silvery sleek ship darted across the infinite void, en route to the next adventure.

  Earth Day

  “I may just kill the next space pirate on sight.”

  The Last Star Warden looked up in surprise. Though Quantum had been a soldier in the Mechtechan interdimensional invasion force, the Warden had never heard his friend express such a bellicose sentiment out loud. “Something bothering you?”

  Quantum slid into the Ranger VII’s copilot seat, his short antennae drooping. His oversized, shiny black eyes were narrowed, his undersized mouth flat. “Ever since we came through that wormhole ten months ago—as you reckon time—it has been nothing but one drama after another. Alien overlords, haunted space stations, outlaw gangs, rogue military units, illegal corporate experiments, and… space pirates. Where does it all end?”

  The Warden smiled. “I think you’re right. We need to take a break.” He pulled up a display on the ship’s console. “As luck would have it, we are just in time for the big Earth Day Festival on Nu Terra V.”

  Quantum raised one dubious antenna. “A human celebration?”

  The Warden set course. “You’ll love it. Nu Terra V was settled by refugees from the Sol system’s last internal war some seven hundred years ago… Eight hundred, I have to remind myself… Anyway, the first colonists were survivors from all the various warring factions, so
when they established their new world, they started a tradition to commemorate the best of their old one.

  “Earth Day became a time to celebrate the brotherhood of humanity, a time to embrace one another as friends and family, and a time to put away all the foolish, selfish things that divided human beings. The celebration eventually grew until the Earth Day Festival on Nu Terra V was legendary throughout the galaxy.”

  Quantum leaned forward, intrigued. “And what kind of festivities might this celebration entail?”

  The Warden leaned back and crossed his hands behind his head, fondly recalling the Earth Day he had attended—over a century before by the calendar, but a mere decade ago according to his memory. “Well, there’s the food, for starters. Folks make tons of their best recipes to share with everyone, and I mean everyone. Then there’s the music: some of the most beautiful songs sung on every street corner by whole choruses of complete strangers. There’s pageants and plays, parades and ballroom galas. Families give each other gifts, travel to visit distant kith and kin, gather to enjoy fine meals, play games and tell stories, and generally have a grand old time.”

  Quantum’s glum expression gradually melted. “Sounds… interesting.”

  The Warden’s smile widened as they passed through the Einstein-Rosen bridge that would take them out of the Frontier and into the fringe of the Civilized Worlds. “You’ll love it.”

  ---

  “Are you certain this is Nu Terra V?”

  The Warden checked the coordinates in response to Quantum’s question. And in response to the strange planet they observed through the ship’s GlasSteel canopy.

  A blockade of huge ships surrounded a highly-industrialized world covered in massive stretches of urban development. The corporate freighters glimmered with enormous holographic billboards along their metallic hulls. These vigorous animations advertised all manner of goods, from tasty treats to top-end luxury ships. At a glance, the advertising campaign appeared to be the first line of battle among three uber corporations: Deeznu, Kronos-Wagner, and Argonaut.