by T. R. Harris
When Panur hesitated, Adam simply crossed his arms and leaned back against a workbench, glaring down at the four-foot tall alien. “Lay it on me. I’m sure that whatever you’ve done will be fine…it’s just I don’t like anyone messing with my stuff.”
“I do apologize if I’ve overstepped my boundaries, yet once I reveal all I have done, I’m sure you will be very grateful. Or maybe not, considering your reaction to the TD portal.”
Adam shrugged.
The mutant alien wasn’t used to having his inventions so easily discounted, and his anger matched that of his host. After a tense moment, he continued: “As I’ve mentioned many times before, gravity-well engines are very inefficient and consume far too much energy, so I added a secondary warp field—”
“You screwed with my engines? What the hell were you thinking? The Pegasus was fine just the way she was.”
“Yet I have made a substantial upgrade.”
“Again without permission.”
“You are being unreasonable, Adam Cain!” Panur barked. “Even the Sol-Kor do not possess this technology—you should feel privileged to be the only being in any universe with such a propulsion system. Yet you complain even before you know all the facts.”
“You are one obnoxious and arrogant alien,” Adam growled.
“The same can be said of you!”
The two creatures faced off in a glaring contest again. This time Adam blinked first.
“Dammit Panur…just tell me what did you did to my engines.”
“I converted them into what I call dimensional phase shifters, which is a hybrid system employing wormhole technology and a refined gravity drive. Theoretically, it should increase your maximum transit velocity by a factor of three.”
“Theoretically? You mean you don’t know…hell, does the damn thing even work?”
Panur’s eyes grew wide. “Forgive me, Mister Cain, but to me the word theoretical is merely a place-keeping term I use prior to confirmation. I have never achieved less than a ninety-six-point-two percent success rate on anything I have built. You must remember, I am the most intelligent being in the universe.”
“I haven’t forgotten. You won’t let me forget.”
Adam looked around at the interior of the hangar and noticed a whole array of new parts and equipment scattered about. “So where did you get all the stuff to upgrade the engines…and also to build a TD portal in my garage?”
“I admit, I did have to acquire additional items and construction tools, many of which were quite difficult to locate here on Earth.”
“And I’m sure they also cost money.”
“You are correct, and a rather large amount if I understand Human credits properly.”
Adam’s anger resurfaced. “You didn’t hack into my bank accounts, did you?” Financially, Adam was pretty well off these days—thanks to his celebrity—yet he wasn’t that rich. A knot formed in his gut.
Noticing the panic sweep over the Human’s face, Panur quickly replied, “Calm yourself, Adam Cain. I used my own credits. Your finances are untouched and intact.”
Panur’s answer only made Adam more confused. First of all, he didn’t know the alien had any of his own money. And secondly, if he did, where did he get it?
Anticipating the next question, Panur continued. “In your absence I made a visit to the city located not far from here.”
“You went into South Lake Tahoe?”
“More correctly, the city of Stateline.”
“Need I ask why?”
“To engage in your games of chance—gambling, you call it—although I must say the experience wasn’t very challenging.”
“And you won, of course,” Adam stated rather than asked. “How much?”
“Six million, nine hundred eight thousand…before I was restricted from participating any longer.”
Adam’s jaw fell slack. “You won over six million dollars—how?” he stammered.
“By calculating the odds and then employing progressive betting. I would have won much more, but I was only allowed approximately twenty minutes per establishment before being asked to leave, and then it took nearly a full day for your law enforcement personnel to verify that I had not cheated. I believe the fact that I am not of this planet made them very suspicious of my gains. And as a point of contention, they also made some rather rude remarks regarding my biological pedigree.”
“Can you blame them, about questioning whether you cheated or not? Those games aren’t designed for people to win. Just the opposite. And now you’ve gone out in public and caused a scene,” Adam scolded. “What about the Sol-Kor? You say they have spies everywhere, even on Earth. You do know there are security cameras throughout the casinos?”
“I took precautions,” said Panur with a devilish smile. “Please observe.”
As Adam watched, the pale skin of the alien began to turn several shades darker. Yet as remarkable as his chameleon-like transformation were, it was when he grew in height—increasing by nearly two feet in a matter of seconds—that Adam was truly impressed.
“How the hell did you do that?”
“It’s related to how I can regenerate the cells within my body, allowing me to live as long as I have. I simply manipulate the amount and pigmentation in order to transform my appearance. It will be nearly impossible for others to recognize me. As an added precaution, I also carried false documents.”
Panur resumed his normal appearance.
“It was still a risky move,” Adam pointed out. “If what you say is true, the Sol-Kor will pay any price to get you back.”
“Yes, they are accustomed to my inventions—and are most-appreciative, unlike some other creatures I know. The Queen will be quite focused on reacquiring me.”
“If you keep taking chances like you just did, that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.” With a sigh, Adam stepped over to the alien and placed a hand on his thin shoulder. “The upgrades you’ve made to the Pegasus are fine. Thanks. And if there’s anything else you have to tell me, let’s save it until the morning. I’m exhausted and I’m going to bed.”
“I accomplished all I could in the time allotted, yet there are many more improvements I could make—with your permission, of course.”
“In the morning, buddy. And since you don’t sleep and I do, please try to keep the noise down to a reasonable level. Don’t go building any Godzillarific mega death-ray kind of thing either without letting me know first.”
“That I promise,” Panur said as the pair left the hangar and headed along the forest path towards Adam’s huge log home. “Now that you are here, I will brief you on all my future projects.”
“Groovy,” Adam said with a weary smile.
Confusion crossed Panur’s face—briefly—before his near-perfect recall summoned up the urban definition for the term. “Yes, groovy…dude,” he said, finishing the phrase as his memory dictated.
The pair parted ways, Adam to the house and his beckoning bed, while Panur returned to the detached garage to see what more trouble he could get into.
After all, the night was still young.
********
“That’s him, without a doubt,” said the square-jawed, uniformed officer as he watched the security feed from the casino. “He changed his appearance somehow, but that’s Panur.”
The other man in the room wasn’t so sure. “This creature is taller and with darker skin.”
“I’ve seen this before. The damn thing can change its shape,” replied the stern-faced commando. “That’s how we lost him in Key West. Besides, we tracked him back to Cain’s place after leaving the casinos. There’s something going on between those two that makes me nervous.”
“His papers have him listed as a Crionean.”
“What the hell’s a Crionean? That’s a new one.”
“Some obscure race from the other side of the galaxy. His passport was in order.”
“So how do you explain someone—anyone—winning so much money in an hour
and a half?”
“But that’s not why we’re tracking him, Cap.”
Captain Victor Noone, U.S. Army Special Forces Assault Group Alpha, studied the frozen image of the alien on the screen. “I wish it was. I’d sleep better at night in that case.”
The other man shrugged. “The team’s in place, just waiting your call…” He trailed off. “Are you sure we can even do this?” Lieutenant Steven Thomas asked. “This is supposed to be some kind of super-alien, like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”
“It’s not a question of if we can, Lieutenant, it’s that we have to. You’ve seen what the Sol-Kor can do. This may be our only chance of saving the Human race.”
“Cain’s not going to like this.”
“Tough shit. The stakes are too high to let him get in the way. And if it comes down to it, I choose the survival of the species over the life of any one individual, even if that person is the famous Adam Cain. Saddle up, Mr. Thomas. We move out in fifteen minutes.”
Chapter 2
Adam was asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow…but he wouldn’t remain that way for long.
He wasn’t sure if it was a vibration he felt or a hum he heard, but he was jolted from his slumber, straining to identify the source of the interruption. It seemed to be coming from the garage.
Adam fumed, convinced that Panur must have activated the TD portal—and against his specific orders not to do so. Dressed only in boxer shorts, he slipped out from under the covers and started searching the darkened room for his shoes.
That’s when the entire right side of his house imploded.
It takes a lot to knock down a log home, especially one built of thirty-six inch timbers with twenty-foot-long steel rods threaded between them. Yet the force of the massive explosion did a decent job, sending several tons of round cedar logs and pillars tumbling in and crushing the bed Adam had been in only seconds before. Then the roof gave way, freeing two huge crossbeams to cascade down from their crumbling supports.
Adam dove for the bedroom door, slipping through just as one of the huge logs slammed against it. Like a house of cards—not logs—the structure began to crumble, yet even as he ran for the nearest exit he recognized the whoosh of flash weapons discharging outside, along with a torrent of traditional automatic machine gun fire. There was a battle taking place on his property, and his precious mountain home had just become its first fatality.
As a former Navy SEAL, Adam was never far from laying his hands on a weapon. Most of his arsenal was locked away in his gun safe; however, he also had a fair assortment of smaller handguns, knives, and even a couple of MK plasma weapons stashed throughout the house—just in case. Without even noticing from where, he suddenly had a SIG-Sauer .45 semi-automatic pistol in his hand and was sprinting for the kitchen and the door closest to the garage—just ahead of his pancaking home.
Outside, a brilliant mountain moon lit up the forest, aided by the fire engulfing the east side of his garage and the blinding flashes of energy weapons streaking through the night. He slipped in behind a huge granite boulder set next to the path leading to the garage and assessed the battleground. His brand new Escalade SUV was a crumpled mass of twisted metal in the driveway, having been caught in the crossfire between two forces, one inside the garage and the other in the forest. The flash bolts were coming from the garage, the echoing gunfire of traditional projectile weapons from the tree line.
He could see the combatants positioned in the forest—Human, dressed in black and green camo combat fatigues and with military-grade weaponry. Bodies were scattered around. It appeared the commandos had already taken quite a beating.
Their prospects turned worse when a pair of truly massive aliens suddenly burst from the open garage door and charged the Humans’ position. An onslaught of precise gunfire ripped into the creatures, yet they kept coming, seemingly impervious to the damage being caused to their bloodied bodies.
Adam had never seen these particular beasts before—if he had, he would have remembered. They were true giants, measuring easily ten feet tall and surely weighing a ton or more each. They wore basic black pants that reached to mid-calf on their tree-trunk thick legs, along with burnished metal chest plates covering their upper torsos. Then to Adam’s relief, one of the giants keeled over, overcome by the dozens of bullets penetrating its tough hide.
At least they can be killed. And with that thought, Adam glanced down at the solitary handgun in his hand and winced. Although this won’t do much good…
Suddenly, a massive hand grabbed his right arm and tossed him into the air. He landed hard on the other side of the pathway, before rolling to his left and coming up with the .45 aimed at his Goliath-like attacker. He opened up, emptying the entire fifteen-round magazine into the alien. The charging beast ignored the shots and planted a thick fist onto Adam’s left shoulder. He rolled with the punch to lessen the impact and was up and at the creature’s side in a flash, unleashing his own series of solid blows to the alien’s exposed mid-section.
As it was with most aliens—big or small—Adam was much quicker than his adversary. Yet the beast took Adam’s hits in stride, and instead of succumbing, used its catcher’s-mitt-sized palm to sweep a powerful slap across Adam’s face. The Human absorbed the blow with relative ease; however, the first slap was followed quickly by another, and then another.
“Will you knock it off!” Adam yelled at the creature. But the thing just kept slapping, sending him a step back with each impact.
That’s when Adam decided to go for broke.
With the alien towering above him, he had a clear shot at the junction where the legs met the groin. Not knowing the creature’s anatomy—or even whether it was male or female—Adam took the shot anyway, sending his bare foot directly up and into the “V” where—hopefully—the beast’s family jewels were located.
Adam had tried this maneuver on extraterrestrials before. It worked about fifty percent of the time.
Fortunately, this was one of them.
The giant let out an ear-piercing scream, before buckling over and grabbing at his private parts. Without hesitation, Adam picked up a basketball-size boulder from along the walkway and brought it crashing down on the back of the creature’s thick head. It dropped to the ground with a decisive thud.
Free of distractions, Adam looked to his left and noticed that the Human force was down to only a handful of desperate survivors. The lone attacking giant had done a number on them before eventually succumbing to the commando’s relentless automatic gunfire. Yet plasma bolts were still streaking out from the garage.
That was when Adam saw something within the flickering light inside the building that made him gasp. The image was gone a second later, but the impossibility of what he thought he saw sent him scrambling to the side of the garage, oblivious to the gunfire splintering the thick logs that made up the structure. Instinctively, he ducked down as a series of lead rounds traced a path just above his head, but then he fell on his belly and crawled the rest of the way until he could look around the corner of the open garage door.
His stomach drew into knots when he received the confirmation he sought.
It was a Klin, with its distinctive body of shimmering silver skin encased in a black exo-skeleton contraption, allowing it to move more easily within Earth’s oppressive gravity. Further back was another Klin, along with three more of the ten-foot-tall giants.
A glowing ball of light arched out of the garage and landed in the middle of the remaining Human combatants. A brilliant flash followed, along with a fiery explosion and concussion. The powerful blast threw Adam away from the doorway and against one of the granite boulders, knocking the air from his lungs. A moment later, he looked to the spot where the Humans had been positioned and could detect no movement.
He staggered back to the garage door, falling again on his belly, unarmed and unsure what to do next. By then, the Klin and their surrogate muscle had retreated further into the building and away from the
burning eastern wall, no longer concerned with an attack from outside. Standing next to the TD portal, the Klin appeared agitated, waving their mechanically-enhanced arms and shouting commands to the giants. A search was being ordered.
Panur’s not in the garage! Adam realized. And if not, then where the hell is he?
The Pegasus!
Adam jumped up and moved quickly along the side of the garage, avoiding the lancing flames, until he reached the dirt path that led to the starship hangar. As he sprinted over the tiny rocks and pine needles on bloody feet, he glanced back and saw the three giants emerge from the garage and head his way.
The beasts were large and strong, yet they weren’t very fast, and Adam reached the hangar well ahead of them. The side hatch to the starship was open—it had been closed earlier—and he barreled straight through, bouncing off a facing bulkhead before turning to his right and stumbling into the pilothouse.
Panur was seated at the co-pilot station, appearing calm and composed.
“I was expecting you thirty seconds ago,” said the tiny alien. “In another twenty I would have launched the ship myself.”
Adam ignored him, and had already pressed the chemical liftoff control button before dropping into the pilot’s seat. When nothing happened, he panicked and slammed his fist down on the ignition once again. “What the hell?”
“You don’t need the chemical thrusters any longer,” Panur explained.
“So how do we launch?”
“Like this…” Panur grasped the control stick and pressed a button on the right side of his panel. The move was met instantly with a thundering crash from above, along with a swooshing sound as outside air swept over the hull of the accelerating Pegasus II.
“We just crashed through the roof of the hangar!” Adam cried out.
“Your delay in arriving did not afford me the opportunity to open the canopy. I did not want to give away my position to the Klin—or to the Humans—before you arrived.”
