Gus

by Frank Carey

  ###

  Kel found himself in a room filled with metal spheres of all sizes and all had patterns, like those on his sphere, etched into their surface. Around the spheres walked an alien being Kel was not familiar with. It was tall, thin, with a long face and ears to match. It was dark in color with pale blue eyes and auburn hair tied back in three pony tails.

  The being stopped what it was doing when it looked up directly at Kel and stared at him. "Dammit!" the creature said as it threw something down on a table—a clipboard?—and ran out through doorway, leaving Kel to wonder what the hell just happened.

  Kel woke up...

  ###

  "Wow, that was different," Kel said as he opened his eyes. Floating in front of him was the sphere, while surrounding them were six beings from planets of the League, all wearing battle uniforms and all pointing weapons at the object. "Cuz, you OK?" a young Sokuhl asked. He recognized her even before he had a chance to read the tag on her uniform. It was his cousin, Nayla. "Hey, Nayla, I'm fine. I just have to learn to stop taking naps in here."

  "Doctor, I need to ask you to slowly get up and step away from the alien device," a large elf standing next to Nayla said. His tag read "Gen. Aymar," and he was the biggest elf Kel had ever seen. Kel was big, but this guy was bigger.

  "Yes, sir, General. Slow and easy," Kel said. He slowly stood, and as ordered, stepped away from the sphere-shaped device.

  "Do not be afraid. Help has been summoned," the probe said as it slowly moved into position above its box before returning to its resting place inside.

  "Doctor, how about we step outside and have a talk," General Aymar said as Nayla took Kel's arm and herded him toward the door.

  "Good idea," Kel said. Once he and the team were out in the hall, General Aymar sealed the door with a voice command.

  "That should keep it safe. Now, what the hell just happened."

  Kel explained. Meanwhile, Losira and Neta joined them. When he finished, he asked, "How did you know to come to my rescue?"

  "The sensors went nuts," Losira explained. "We watched on the lab's security cameras as an enormous amount of data was transferred between our computer system and the artifact. Before we could stop it, the probe began transmitting on a coded FTL wavelength."

  "What was transmitted?"

  "Our techs are still trying to decipher the signal with the Taggart's help. John thinks your dream was part of the message."

  "You mean I was actually talking to someone?"

  Losira nodded. "It seems to be the most likely scenario." She turned to her husband. "Royce, it that thing contained?"

  "Yes, My Queen. R-Sec has surrounded the lab on this floor with EMEF teams on the floor above and below. Gloria is sending over probebots equipped with psychic scanners to see if we can talk to it without using Dr. Hardy as a go-between."

  "And Dr. Hardy thanks you for that," Kel said. This got a grin out of General Aymar.

  "You're welcome, Doctor. My Queen, perhaps you and the good doctor could leave us to this nasty business,” the general said.

  "What my husband is suggesting is we should get the hell out of here, right, my love?"

  "Yes, My Queen. The Earth term is vamanos."

  "If no one minds, I think I'll stay," Neta said. Kel noted she had changed from her normal work dress into battle fatigues.

  Losira nodded. "Keep me informed. Come, Doctor, care to join me in a stroll?"

  "I would love to, milady," Kel said as he took the queen in arm and the two of them headed out of the area.

  ###

  Kel and Losira waited in the University's arboretum while Royce, Neta, and their people did their work. Around them, plants and animals from around the League went about their day-to-day activities nonplussed by the presence of visitors.

  Kel watched as a plant-thing chased a rabbit across a nearby clearing. "I didn't know they could move that fast?" he said.

  "You mean the thing or the rabbit?" Losira asked.

  "Both, I guess. Is the thing really hunting the rabbit?"

  "Yes. We try to keep a natural environment, so the predators and prey maintain the roles they had in the wild. Several species of plant-thing can move, and move fast, while others are more sedentary. Rabbits breed like rabbits, so to maintain a balance, we allow the things and other small predators free reign. Keep your eye out for a bobcat we call Cecil. He loves to swat visitors as they walk by his hidey-holes."

  "Amazing. I've heard that people actually collect plant-things."

  "Ciara is one of the foremost collectors in the League. She is one of only a handful of people licensed to breed all species including snapdragons."

  "Snapdragons?"

  "A semi-sedentary species that breathes fire."

  "Sounds like my kind of plant."

  "Kel, your physiology is... was unique until the people of Nest revealed themselves. Even so, information about the Basili is only now making its way to the physicians of the League. Tell me, do you really breathe fire?"

  Kel smiled, then let loose with a puff aimed at the clearing. A stream of flame shot out of his mouth flamethrower style only to dissipate fifteen feet away. Several plant-things stopped and applauded with their leaf tendrils.

  Losira stared in shock. "How?" she choked out.

  Glands on either side of my throat spray a fuel-oxidizer mist into the air stream as I exhale. The result is a napalm-like substance that actually ignites inside my mouth. Luckily, my saliva acts as a protective coating. I can use the same saliva to dissolve handcuffs."

  She just stared at him. "You truly deserve the name dragon," she said.

  "I do what I can."

  Alarms sounded before the Queen could continue. Losira took out her comm and activated it. "This is Losira. Report!"

  "My Queen, this is Ventosian Space Defense Force Commander Teal. A ship of unknown configuration and origin has entered Ventosian airspace and is on a direct route to your location. It is not responding to IFF requests, nor is it obeying our instructions to divert to Station One."

  "Have fighters been dispatched?"

  "Affirmative, My Queen. A flock of gyrs is on an intercept course... Wait a minute... We have incoming IFF signal. The ship has identified itself as the Tegan Transport Shevna..."

  "Ah, the mysterious Tegans, founders of the Tegan Commonwealth. Lucien's been dealing with them at the behest of the Arctillans. Arctillus is on the fringe of Tegan space and that makes the Malroth nervous. Commander! Let the ship through but maintain surveillance."

  "Ma'am?"

  "Let it through, commander. If I'm not mistaken, it plans to land on the roof above my position. I want an honor guard of Minotaurs to greet our Tegan friend."

  "Aye, aye, mistress. Teal out."

  She looked at Kel. "Let's get to the roof to meet our visitors."

  ###

  Kel and Losira made it to the roof just as both the Minotaurs and EMEF Team 8 were setting up a perimeter. "Royce, what about the sphere?" Losira asked.

  "Team 6 relieved us. It's not going anywhere unless we let it. We monitored your call with Teal. Are you sure about this, My Queen?"

  "As sure as I can be under the circumstances. It's too much of a coincidence this ship arriving after the sphere revealed itself."

  They were interrupted by the alien ship landing in the center of the roof, if landing could be used to describe what they were seeing. The ship had six legs which acted as landing gear. It landed more like a fly lighting on a window sill than a shuttle landing on a deck. It bounced a little as the engines wound down.

  The Shevna was big, much bigger than a battle shuttle. It bristled with gun emplacements on the sides, top, and ends. The engines looked too large for a ship its size, they would look appropriate on a corvette-class vehicle.

  "That's a transport?" Kel asked while surveying the ship's armament.

  "A transport with enough firepower to take on a cruiser, yet its small enough to land on a building roof." Royce noted.

  A h
atch on the ship's side opened, allowing a being to walk out onto the roof. "That looks like the person I saw in my memory," Kel said.

  The being looked at Kel and hurried over to him while over a dozen weapons tracked his movements. "You! What have you done with my probe?"

  Kel said nothing, much to everyone's surprise. Instead, he stood there with his arms crossed while his tail 'watched' the newcomer like a snake would watch a fat mouse.

  "Are you deaf? Say something!" the visitor demanded.

  "First, what good would yelling do if I was deaf. Second, we haven't been properly introduced. My name is Dr. Kellen Matu Hardy, Historian. And you are?"

  "Ship's Master Negrue of the Tegan Commonwealth. Now, where is my probe?"

  "Downstairs, locked in my lab. Now, look around. Do you see those big creatures with horns?"

  "Yes, I see them."

  "Those are weapons. The horns and tail of each one are equipped with high-power lasers. Two of those are now downstairs, standing over your probe. They are under orders to fire on the device in three minutes unless we signal them to hold their fire. Understand?"

  Negrue squinted at Kel. "You wouldn't dare."

  "We'll know in two minutes and thirty seconds."

  "Fine. What do you want to know?"

  "What the hell is going on? I found that thing inside an artifact from a planet we call Cerberus. How the hell did a modern probe get inside a ten-thousand-year-old artifact, and why was it put there?"

  "Did it look like this?" He showed the device to Kel. On it was an image of a statue.

  "Yes. That's it, though now it's in pieces."

  Negrue nodded. "I assume you experienced a number of dreams?"

  "You could say that."

  "Sorry. The probe is programmed to use any compatible sapient brain as a comm device by eliciting emotional responses from the subject's..."

  "Victim's..." Losira noted.

  "Right... From the subject. This facilitates establishing a psychic link between the subject and receivers set out around the commonwealth. Unfortunately, even using your gateway, the nearest receiver is too far, so it resorted to using old-fashioned methods, namely a comm system."

  "Your probe used a League comm system?" Royce asked.

  Again, Negrue nodded. "It's also designed to hack into computer systems. It probably used Dr. Hardy's voice print and passwords to get into the system."

  "Wait a minute!" Losira said. "The Tegan don't have this kind of tech."

  "That's correct. I don't work for the Tegan Commonwealth. Perhaps we should go have a talk?"

  "Copy that," Losira said. "General!"

  Royce snapped his fingers and four members of R-Sec broke ranks to form a box around Negrue. They led him inside as the others followed.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Losira, Royce, Kel, and Negrue sat down at a conference table while the R-Sec guards waited outside. Kel poured tea for the Queen and Royce before pouring one for himself and showing it to Negrue. The young Tegan used his device to scan it before accepting a cup. Once settled, he got down to business. "Where's Murph?"

  "Murph?" Royce asked.

  "The probe's name is Murphy. All our probes have names in lieu of code designations."

  "And who are we?" Losira asked.

  "We are part of a family-run business with a diversified portfolio of services..."

  Kel looked to the heavens for help. "Smugglers? Crime syndicate? Gun runners? Pirates?"

  "Kel!" Losira admonished.

  "Yes, actually. We're also into manufacturing all manners of death including energy weapons, slug throwers, chemicals, and biologicals."

  "What?" Losira whispered.

  "We don't kill people. We just make it easy for others to do so." Noticing Royce reaching to his hip, the Tegan reached into his vest. "This is a force blaster," he said as he withdrew a stylus which he handed to Royce. "I could blow a tunnel to the outside with that beauty. How many do you need? I can supply you a thousand in a week."

  "This is a blaster?" Kel said while turning it over in his hand. "Computer, confirm..."

  "Sir, be very careful with that. I suggest you put it down and step away from it until bomb disposal arrives," the computer replied.

  "Computer," Negrue said as he removed his wrist chrono and placed it in the middle of the table. "Analyze this." He tapped on the timepiece.

  "Warning! Nuclear device detected in Conference Room Three. Emergency..."

  "Computer, belay that," Losira ordered. "That is safe, correct?"

  "Yes. All of our products are safe until programmed to be otherwise, all that is except one."

  "I knew it," Kel said. He leaned back to stare at the ceiling. "Something got loose, didn't it?"

  "Yes. The samsar. Murph was aboard a ship transporting a samsar from a planet called Crylos to a Stitch customer in deep space. The shipment never arrived and we've lost contact with the lab where the weapon was built. That's why I risked coming here through that gateway."

  "I don't understand." Losira said.

  "Mother went too far with the samsar. That thing is an abomination. Once unleashed, it will kill everything around it, not stopping until a planet or station is sterilized. When it's finished, it goes dormant until more life arrives, then it starts the pattern over."

  "Your mother?"

  "Yes, Phylus Negrue, founder of the Negrue Syndicate. Do you know anything about Tegans?"

  "No, can't say that I do," Kel replied.

  "Lots of males, much fewer females. Females are prone to berserker mood swings while males do all the scutt work. Luckily, few males have the honor of mating with a female."

  "Luckily?" Royce asked.

  "Mating happens once, then the female kills the male, or should I say she tears him limb from limb."

  "Oh my gods," Losira said. "Your race is advanced. Can't something be done?"

  "Sure. Training, meditation, medication. The problem is easily fixed except many of the females look forward to it. My sire was Mother's seventh mate."

  Kel examined his claws. "Not to sound insensitive, and I do feel for you, but I have a bigger problem."

  "Yes, doctor."

  "Murph was with the shipment containing the samsar, correct?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "So it stands to reason that both Murph and the samsar are on the same planet, correct?"

  "Yes, unless they were separated, sir."

  "When did the ship carrying Murph and the samsar disappear?"

  "About a year ago. We've been looking for it, but the probes have limited range and the LMC is a big galaxy. Sir, tell me about your dreams."

  Kel told him.

  "Damn, why didn't I think of that. I need to see Murph immediately.

  Kel looked at Losira, then Royce. "With you permissions, My Queen, General."

  "Take him. I don't like where this is going," Royce said.

  "Kel, Sheila will be fine," Losira noted.

  "I hope so," Kel said as he stood up and showed their guest out the door.

  ###

  Negrue ran inside the lab before the door was fully open.

  "Where is it?" he asked while pulling out his scanner device.

  "In here," Kel said while walking to his office and opening the door as the guards stepped back.

  Negrue picked up Murph and held it while running his scanner over it.

  "I was right, dammit. The transport crashed on the third planet of the star system containing the lab. No wonder we couldn't find it. It was hiding under our very noses."

  "Care to explain?" Kel said in a calm voice, one which belied his inner turmoil. His feeling of dread was growing in leaps and bounds.

  "The dreams you experienced were coded messages containing a record of what really happened and the location of the event itself. Cerberus, as you call it, is a long-dead planet that my family has been pilfering for years. Collectors love the artifacts, which we ship all over the commonwealth. Occasionally, we include a weapon in the mix. Cerberus
is the third planet of the system while the lab is out in the System's OORT cloud."

  "So, what happened?"

  "One of the crew opened the wrong box and let the samsar out. It looks like the ship crashed in the middle of one of the cities. A hundred of the crew survived long enough to seek shelter in a nearby building, but the samsar got to them as it was programmed to do. Murph lost track of the weapon after it finished killing everyone."

  "So, there is a weapon down on Cerberus, waiting to kill anything living that shows up," Kel said.

  "Yes, that pretty much sums it up. Thank the gods that the planet is deserted."

  Kel looked at Losira and Royce. "We need to recall the expedition. They're in grave danger."

  "Expedition! You have people on Cerberus? No, you can't recall anyone until I can call in more probes," Negrue said, emphatically. "The first thing you have to do is destroy any ships you have on-planet and in low-orbit. The samsar is smart. The damn thing is a cloud of nanorobots programmed to infest any spaceship, or its cargo. That's how it spreads. All you need is one bot to get loose and you'll have a whole weapon inside of three days. I'm sorry for the team you have on-planet, but that thing can't be allowed... Grumph!"

  Negrue was interrupted by Kel's hand squeezing his throat shut as the young Negrue was picked up off the ground and held at Kel's eye level. "My wife and unborn daughter are on that planet. If you think for one moment that I am going to allow them to die, then you are truly delusional."

  "Kel, let him down," Royce said from behind a pulse rifle. Kel absentmindedly reached over and crushed the weapon's barrel with his free hand before returning to the matter—person—in hand.

  "Dr. Hardy!" Losira said as she pushed her concerned husband out of the way. "Put him down, gently!"

  Kel lowered him to the ground, then released him, saying nothing, just continuing to glare at Negrue as the young pilot coughed.

  "Look, I didn't make the damn thing; I just retrieve the damn probes. Look, let me get back on my ship so I can call the home office. They'll send a cluster of probes to take care of the samsar."

  "And how long will that take?" Kel growled.

  "A week, maybe two..." He stopped when Kel crushed one of the many heavy, ceramic coffee cups strewn about the lab. "Let me make a few calls," he stammered while Kel continued to glare.