by T. R. Harris
“That would be a prudent strategy. Make it so.”
Did you hear that, Kaylor? Adam asked through his ATD, now linked with the ghost program in the Najmah Fayd’s comm system.
I did, came the response in his mind.
Lift the ship and then jump. I’ll contact you with a location to come pick us up.
Does your ATD have the range? How far can we jump?
That will be a problem, Adam conceded. Slip back near the surface in two hours. I’ll contact you then.
Adam was on his feet, as were the other three Humans, flash weapons drawn from their ankle holsters. “Do you hear that?” he asked the others.
“What?” Sherri asked. “I can’t hear anything over the ocean and the fire.”
“It sounds like the exhaust from jet packs.”
“I can’t hear it.”
Adam looked hard at Nissi. “We’re not your enemy,” he said to the defiant female alien.
“You are not our friends either. You are…a problem.”
Adam turned to Afton. “What’s that way, along the bluff?”
“Open territory, out to the point. You can see it in the distance.”
Adam nodded. “Everyone get going,” he said to his team. “We just need to stay ahead of the Nuoreans for two hours. I’ll have Kaylor meet us at the point.”
Copernicus, Sherri and Riyad took off at a fast sprint into the dim light beyond the fire. Adam stayed behind with Afton.
“Are you going to be safe?” he asked the alien.
“Very unlikely, but I will deal with that.” He cast an evil eye at Nissi. “Hurry; I have seen the Nuoreans swarming tactics.”
No sooner had Afton spoke before Adam spotted a dozen or more dark figures descending from the galaxy-lit sky. It never got fully dark on Bancc-Bin, so the armored figures stood out clearly against the glow of the night sky.
Adam set off after the others.
Only a few yards beyond the fire pit, the terrain turned coarse, the rock-strewn top layer of a massive volcanic lava flow that formed the miles-long bluff jutting out into the ocean. Adam could see the others ahead of him, winding around narrow canyons, cracks in the flat shield flow that were slowing their progress.
Adam was approaching one of the crevasses himself. It looked to be about fifty feet across. As he drew closer, he figured this was as good a time as ever to test his new mutant abilities. A few feet from the abyss, he felt muscles surge in his legs, having received the message from the bundle of mutant cells lurking in his brain. He jumped, instantly feeling the awesome sensation of flying.
He landed on the other side with room to spare. Even in the light gravity of Bancc-Bin it was a world-record long jump.
Three dark figures landed in his path—Nuoreans with jet packs. Without thinking, Adam threw his body sideways and body blocked one of the aliens. Then he twisted in the air and landed back on his feet, squared against another. The alien was armed with an energy weapon in his right hand and a long narrow shield in his left. He struck at Adam with the shield, slamming it into his face and chest. Adam fired his flash weapon point-blank at the alien. The bolt hit the shield and was absorbed.
Momentarily surprised by the hand-held diffusion screen—he didn’t know something like that existed—he was struck from behind by the shield of the other Nuorean. He stumbled forward into the other one, causing all three to fall onto the sharp, obsidian rock covering the ground. The Nuoreans wore body armor, so they were unaffected. Adam was slowly transforming into a mutant, so he too ignored the cuts and bruises.
His new-found strength and quickness was enough for him to swarm over his two assailants, snapping necks and busting skulls before all was quiet. He looked across the landscape, where brilliant streaks of light flared out from flash weapons two hundred feet away. The other Humans were engaged in a battle of their own, up against what looked to be a dozen Nuoreans. After a moment, the flashes died away, and Adam could see his friends being surrounded and shackled by the dark figures.
Another light on his left caught Adam’s attention. It was a small aerial transport, maneuvering for a landing.
Adam was on his feet, watching his team being taken prisoner, and standing on the opposite side of a wide crevasse across from them. He ran off in the other direction, stopped and turned toward the dark pit. He had jumped one canyon…he could jump this one too.
Everyone on the other side was watching him—the Nuoreans included—wondering what he was doing. Then he took off at the fastest sprint his enhanced leg muscles could provide. He planted his right foot on the edge of the crevasse and launched his body into the air. A split second later he was fifty feet in the air, his legs running through empty sky, heading for the other side.
And he almost made it.
Even with his mutant cells working overtime, it still wasn’t enough. He dipped under the edge of the canyon and hit hard onto the flesh-cutting rock. His head bounced off something hard and he slid to his right, before beginning a long tumble down the rock face. Even though he could tolerate pain more with the changing he was going through, this was asking too much. His mind took over and he blacked out, moments before splashing into the cold surf at the base of the bluff.
The shock of the water stunned him awake. He fought against the surging current, before being lifted up and dropped against a solid wall of sharp rock. He struggled to stay above the surface but was pulled away again by a return wave. Three times in rapid succession he was lifted up and dropped, before finally surrendering to the relentless battering. He fell into unconsciousness once again, welcoming the warm arms of darkness and the soothing sensation of floating….
“Adam!” Sherri yelled. The Humans gasped when they saw his body disappear into the dark abyss of the canyon. Several Nuoreans raced to the edge, sending probing shafts of light far below. More aliens came forward, these carrying ropes. They began to make their way down the canyon face. Even if he was dead, they needed the body for proof.
The trio of Humans was shackled and then herded into the back of the aerial transport. Sherri tried her best to catch one last glimpse out the back before the door closed, but aliens swarmed in and blocked her view. She looked at the faces of her companions. Riyad and Copernicus stared back with stern, angry expressions. They had all run over the rocks making up the large lava shield and knew them to be loose and razor sharp. The bluff was made up of a hundred feet or more of the flesh-ripping material. Add to that the pounding surf below, all cast in the dull glow of Andromeda, and hope was in short supply.
In their depression, none considered the incredible height Adam had reached with his leap. If they had, they would have chalked it up to the light gravity of the planet. All they were thinking at the time was that no one could have survived such a fall.
Sherri slumped on the bench seat, her body held in place by netting on the bulkhead. The craft lifted into the air and made a steep turn. She tried to focus on the here and now; sadly, Adam’s fate was already sealed. She wondered if he contacted Kaylor before he fell, or did the Nuoreans get to the spaceport first? And even if Kaylor did get away, they had no way to contact him. Without the ship, their mission to destroy the midpoint generator was a bust.
And now there was the minor issue of them being prisoners of the Nuoreans—master warriors with more fighting skill than the Humans had ever faced.
She squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn’t about to cry—not in front of the aliens—but she was certainly filled with enough hate to firm her resolve. At that moment, Sherri Valentine vowed that she wouldn’t go out like this, not without taking a few of the grey bastards with her.
Jym spotted the incoming Nuoreans just as Adam was giving his warning. They were approaching in ground transports, as well as in two small destroyers in the atmosphere, directly above them.
The generators were already charged—Kaylor had a habit of doing this, even on the surface. It made for quicker getaways.
“Hold on!” he yelled at Jym. The two mu
leship-drivers had worked together for enough years that their actions were as one. Jym was already strapped in at the weapons station, ready for liftoff.
But Kaylor didn’t send the ship skyward. Instead, he sent it skidding along the dirt and asphalt surface of the landing field, churning up reddish dust in the dim light of night on Bancc-Bin. The field was illuminated by the light from the galaxy, plus a few lights set along the perimeter, and within seconds the ground was shrouded in a glowing pink cloud of swirling powder. He moved the ship from underneath the destroyers and launched it on plumes of grey and white chemical exhaust, which only added to the smoke screen.
When five hundred feet off the surface, he jumped the ship.
He already had a location programmed in, and a moment later the Najmah Fayd appeared above the moon of one of the gas giants in the outer Bancc-Bin star system. Kaylor pitched the nose toward the surface, settling into the dark shadow of a small crater. He immediately cut power, sending the ship into dark mode.
In the dim galactic light filtering in through the viewport, Kaylor looked at his friend Jym. Their expressions of concern mirrored each other. They would wait here for the two hours Adam asked them to, before quietly making their way back to the planet.
On the off-chance that Adam’s ATD could reach this far, Kaylor sent out a call. “Adam, can you hear me? Adam, come in if you hear me.”
Even if he was within range, Adam Cain was in no condition to answer his friend.
98
“The Human ship has escaped the planet.” Morlon regretted the report to his leader, but he didn’t hesitate to make it. It was reality, and reality is what future strategies were based on. He watched the reaction of the Grand Master on the comm screen. He didn’t appear very pleased with the news.
“And the Humans?”
“Three are in custody.”
“Who’s piloting the spacecraft?” Rodoc asked.
“Unknown.”
“Adam Cain?”
Now Morlon smiled. “No, Master. The local informant has identified Adam Cain as being with the other three Humans at the time the ship lifted, in a residence along the coastal bluff. Our forces report he attempted to jump a wide crevasse and fell to his death on the rocks below.”
“I want proof, Morlon.”
“They are searching for the body now. It is still night on the planet, and the surf is high. They will stay with it until the body is found.”
Rodoc stared hard at his Third Cadre officer. “Did the ship…vanish, as you earlier suggested?”
“Yes, Master. It was barely off the surface—with our ships posted above—when it simply disappeared. No trace signatures of movement within a cloaking shield.”
“Then you could be right about this being something more. How do we stop such a vessel from reaching LP-6 when we cannot track its movements?”
“I have a plan,” Morlon said without hesitation.
“Make it a strategy, Morlon. I need assurances.”
Morlon nodded. “The informant told us the Humans were seeking a navigational computer for the Suponac. This makes sense. The Humans have no knowledge of our galaxy. They apparently do not even know the location of Nuor.”
“That would be to our advantage, I would imagine, Commander.”
“I suggest—strategize—that we let the Humans know the location of the transit point for LP-5, which is their gateway to the LP-6 control station…their ultimate destination.”
Rodoc studied the face of the Cadre officer before responding. With his player’s instincts, the Grand Master already saw the possibilities, as well as the risks. “We control the time and location when the alien ship will appear, and then be ready when they arrive.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Yet can we guarantee success? We have yet to stop the ship, or even track it. And destroying the vessel would steal away our chance to learn its secrets.”
“I have been studying the reports of the ship’s appearance at the LP-6 entry point,” Morlon continued. “The alien vessel was in the area for over ten minutes before it disappeared. On Bancc-Bin, it lifted and jumped in a matter of seconds. I believe the teleportation drive is disabled for a longer period when the ship transits through an LP singularity. It affects our standard drives…why not this new technology?”
“Are you further suggesting we allow the Human vessel through the transit to LP-6? That would place them just where they want to be.”
“Yet if I’m right, they will be susceptible at that point. And making the offered transit would be an impossible-to-dismiss opportunity on their part.”
“If we can stop them at LP-6; it is a risk.”
“A calculated risk, Master. When the Humans first arrived in the Suponac, our forces were not expecting them. This time we will be ready, and have ample units waiting at LP-6 to disable the vessel. I will also send ships through the LP-5 transit point with them, to form a compression point at LP-6. As they appear, we close the trap. The prize will be ours, as play concludes.”
“The game sounds…stimulating, Morlon. We play the Jundac Humans, with both a high chance of success and a challenge factor worthy of our planning. However, the Humans could—should—sense a trap.”
“Of course, yet from my research, Humans are arrogant and believe in their own myth. They—like us—will see this as a challenge.”
“Perhaps, but Morlon, if there appears even the slightest chance the Humans could fulfill their mission, the ship must be destroyed, regardless of the technology it holds. Is that understood? We cannot risk losing LP-6.”
“I understand. And I will be on station awaiting their arrival.”
“Do not underestimate the Humans, Morlon. Others have before, with tragic consequences.”
“Adam Cain played a role in those tragic events, Master. He is no longer a factor.”
“I would have more confidence in your statement if we had a body to view. Do not stop looking until you do.”
A splash of cold salty water snapped Adam awake.
He opened his eyes slowly to see a brilliant, cloud-streaked morning sun rising fifteen degrees above the horizon, reflecting vibrant orange on the shimmering sea below. He smiled, thinking how beautiful it was.
His next reaction was a laugh. Here he was pressed against a slab of rock, a bed of barnacles biting into his skin, his right foot wedged in an opening and unable to move, his clothes in tatters and stained in blood from the numerous cuts he’d suffered throughout the night…and he could still admire a beautiful morning sunrise.
He rested against the rock for a while longer, taking in deep breaths of thick ocean mist. The tide had receded leaving him atop a rock fall about ten feet above the surf. Not much of his clothing remained, and sometime during the night he’d lost his shoes. His bare right foot was stuck in an opening in the rock, sharp points tearing into water-logged flesh with every tiny movement.
His mutant cells helped lessen the pain, and a quick survey of his exposed arms showed a rash of red dots where once open cuts had been. He didn’t heal with the speed of a Panur, but as he’d observed before, this was far better than the old way of doing things.
He shifted his head to look at his trapped foot. The ankle didn’t feel broken, but it was wedged in there pretty tight. He bit his bottom lip and took a deep breath. It was time to test his new found tolerance for pain.
Adam pulled, groaning gutturally as layers of skin were ripped away on the prickly barnacles. His bloody foot appeared, leaving trails of red liquid coloring the shallow pool of ocean water trapped in the opening.
He pushed off the rock and sat up.
“Damn,” he said to the vast ocean. “Now what?”
He rested for another thirty minutes. By then his foot had stopped bleeding and the open cuts were beginning to close. Strength was returning, but slowly. He stood up and tested his injured foot. He could put weight on it, but the ankle was badly sprained. Walking barefoot on the sharp rocks was another challenge, but he had
no choice. He looked toward the top of the craggy bluff, trying to identify a path to the top. He had to get off the beach before the tide came back in, and the only way was up.
Adam moved gingerly on the rock, closer to the cliff, trying his best to ignore the new cuts on his feet. The climb wouldn’t have been too hard…if he wasn’t barefoot.
Suddenly he ducked into a shallow crevasse in the cliff face, slicing his shoulder open on a razor-sharp piece of lava in the process. Two Nuoreans were making their way along the rocky beach, heading his way. They were armed with flash rifles slung over their shoulders and pistols in holsters around their waists. They scrambled from rock to rock with ease and confidence, but more aware of their footing than what was in front of them. They were looking for a body, not an adversary.
Adam took a loose rock in his right hand and prepared himself. They would be on him any second. Unfortunately, the Nuoreans weren’t traveling side by side. The trailing alien was a good twenty feet behind the other.
When the first alien came parallel to his hiding place, Adam jumped out and slammed the rock into the gray-skinned face, leaving the rock embedded in the crushed skull. He caught the slumping body in his arms, removing the flash pistol before letting the corpse fall to the rocks and off the side into the surf. Before the other Nuorean could react, Adam took aim and placed a bolt square into his face.
Adam rushed to the dead alien and removed his shoes. They fit—if a little big. Next he took off his uniform jacket, flash rifle and holster. A moment later, Adam was dressed, armed and ready for the climb up the cliff.
He scanned the beach for more aliens. They were there, but farther away, looking out at the sea or into crevasses in huge rock boulders deposited on the shore from the bluff above. They weren’t looking for him per se…just his body.
