by T. R. Harris
Eventually, the beast gained a grip on my right arm, and yanked me off his shoulders, throwing me on the top of the hard, stone desk. Expecting a follow up strike from the alien, I covered my head with my arms and bent into a fetal position on the desktop.
After a moment – and no hit – I opened my eyes. The creature was wobbling in the center of the room, covering his eyes with bloody hands. He was blind and in pain – my attack having done its job, at least for now.
And then as I slipped off the desk, my left hand found the cloth-covered Unity Stone. My hand closed around the object, and then I swung it like a club at the alien’s thick head. The huge beast spun to my right and fell face first onto the stone floor, landing with a prominent thud – and a fart. That’s right, the alien expelled gas as he went unconscious, and damn did it stink.
As I now stood over the supine beast, wrinkling my nose against the god-awful smell, I suddenly looked down at the statue I still held in my left hand, and I suddenly went weak-kneed.
What the hell was I thinking? I know diamond is the hardest natural substance in the universe, but what if it broke? It can break, right? After all, people cut and shape these stones all the time.
And what if it had? Then all my efforts up to this point would have been for naught.
I set the statue on the desk and felt through the cloth. I breathed a sigh of relief as the Unity Stone appeared to still be in one piece. I now took the time to carefully lower the statue back into its padded carrying case and secure the lid, thankful that I had just dodged a major bullet – and one I’d fired myself.
By now, the air conditioning system in the office was doing a half-ass job of clearing out the stubborn alien stink from the room, and my head was still throbbing from the blow I’d taken earlier. I’d survived that round. Unfortunately, there were another five rounds to go.
I took the alien’s flash rifle and recovered the Glock. There were five alien guards left, and even if I managed to neutralize them all, I still had an hour-long trek back to the Enterprise. I was sure that within that time the local Hyben authorities would be notified, at which point they might have a few questions for me and Miranda. Like what happened to four of their own in the hallway outside the office? They were all dead – I was sure – and it would be a little hard to prove that they were the aggressors, and not me. Besides, I didn’t have time to spend screwing around with the local Hyben police. My deadline was fast approaching; and here I was six hundred light-years from Sylox, and trapped in a room with an unconscious master-thief and five of her armed guards waiting outside.
**********
I heard Miranda moan; she was coming to. Regrettably, that was a complication I couldn’t deal with right now. So a strategically placed chokehold – a product of my Ranger training from years ago – helped to render her unconscious again, allowing me more time now to scour my memory to see if I could recall any more of Miranda’s thugs being of the same species as the hulk on the floor. I was almost positive he was the only one.
I knew I couldn’t call each of them into the office individually without someone growing suspicious, so there was no doubt that I would have to shoot my way out. Taking out five statically stationed targets in a burst attack wouldn’t have been too difficult for me back in the day. But I’d been out of practice for ten years or more. And besides, I remembered the guards as being spread along the perimeter of the vast room outside, watching the employees. Making five quick and accurate shots, at widely-spaced targets, would be a miracle, even when I was at the top of my game.
What I had to do was bring them all together in one place.
I moved to the door once again and cracked it open. It had worked once before, so let’s try it again.
“All of you get over here – we’re leaving.” My voice was really strained this time. I closed the door and gripped the Glock firmly in my hand. The flash rifle probably would have done the job, yet I felt more confident and familiar with the .45 caliber, 13-round, semi-automatic. I would come out blasting and see where the dust settled.
A moment later, I swung the door open and peered out. The guards had indeed clustered near the office exit, and when they saw me at the door they hesitated, thinking I was simply leading the parade out of the office. I don’t believe any of them noticed the weapon in my hand before I opened fire.
The sound of a Glock 21 going off in a confined space with solid stone walls was even more deafening than I had imagined – hell, the blasts even startled me! Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds, but when it was over, my ears were ringing and a sharp pain was focused in the space between my eyes. I stepped over the bodies of the five guards on the stone floor and found one was still alive. I hesitated shooting him because I didn’t think my head could take another echoing blast from the Glock.
I did it anyway.
**********
Now I turned to face the huddled mass of Ionin Design employees, all staring at me with terror on their faces.
“Who’s in charge here?” I asked.
When no one answered, I began to get pissed. “C’mon, I’m not going to hurt you. I just saved all of you from these creeps.”
“I am not familiar with the species creeps,” an elderly Hyben said to my right. He stepped forward. “Is that what they were? I thought they were a variety of species, and that their leader was a Human?”
“She is. Creeps is just a general classification for creatures like these, the ones who were causing you harm. I’m here to rescue you – and the Unity Stone. I’m one of the good guys.”
“Is that a unit of the Union Enforcement Corps – The Good Guys?”
“You could say that. But now I need to ask you a favor.”
“A favor?” The head of Ionin Design looked down at the pile of dead aliens and the ever-widening pool of red blood spreading out over the polished stone flooring. “You have caused quite a mess, and now you ask a favor. What is it?”
“I need to get off the planet without the local authorities stopping me. Do you think you could hold off calling them for a couple hours? I think you owe me that much for saving your lives.”
“I believe I can accommodate your request—”
“Morick, pardon me,” said a voice along the front line of employees.
“What is it, Cruss?”
“I am extremely sorry, but I overheard your discussion with this alien, and I must inform you that I have just now called the Suforairee.”
“The Suforairee?” I had to ask, even though I already knew the answer.
“They are our local Enforcers,” said Morick. “I’m afraid there can be no granting of your favor now.”
I shrugged. “Oh well, you tried. Can you point me to a back entrance to the building, somewhere I can exit without being seen?”
“Yes, I can do that.”
“Good. I’ll be right back.” I went into the office and came out a few moments later with Miranda draped over my shoulder and the Unity Stone carrying case in my right hand. “Lead on, my friend.”
In the light gravity of Hyben – and from her own slight build – carrying Miranda was like having a sack of potatoes on my shoulder – even though I’ve never once in my life had a sack of potatoes on my shoulder. Morick took me down to the basement level using the elevator and then had us move quickly across the parking garage to another exit facing the back street to the building. He stopped next to a black transport with a too-shiny surface for the harsh conditions of Hyben.
“This is my personal conveyance. Please take it and make your departure. I will attempt to lead the Suforairee to another of the spaceports. For which are you destined?”
“The one to the north.”
“I will send them to the south. That should allow you time to acquire your spaceship.”
“There’s a cabbie – a public transport – waiting for me out in front. Can you tell him to leave?”
Morick looked past me to a flat-screen monitor on the wall of the garage. It was a s
ecurity monitor, and one of the split screen images showed the front of the building.
“We deal with many an expensive artifact, so the building is monitored closely. There does not appear to be a transport waiting in front.”
I just nodded, while slowly reciting: “The bastard.” The cabbie was long gone, and with nearly all my cash.
I placed the still unconscious and bound Miranda Moore in the front seat of the transport, and set the Unity Stone carrying case on the floorboard. I then turned to face Morick.
“Thanks for doing this. I hope you don’t get in too much trouble for helping me.”
“I shall not. Did you know that the Human wished us to break the Unity statue into various smaller pieces?”
“I know. That’s why I had to stop her.”
“The Unity is our greatest work, one we have boasted of for hundreds of years. I accept the fact that we would have eventually acquiesced to her demands, yet not before several of my employees had been killed, and possibly even me.”
“The Unity Stone is safe now, Morick. I’ll be getting it back to its rightful owners – if I can get off Hyben.”
“Then may luck and providence ride with you, Human. I suppose now not all Humans are evil.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” I said as I slammed the door in his face and flicked the ignition. I had an hour’s ride ahead of me, and my constant vigilance for the Suforairee would be exhausting. And my head was still pounding – both from the deafening sound of the shots I’d fired from the Glock and from the hit I’d taken from The Incredible Hulk.
Yet when all was said and done, my visit to Hyben had been a success. I had the Stone and I had Miranda, and with four days to make it back to Sylox.
That would teach them to mess with Jason King!
Chapter 25
Fortunately, the trip back to the spaceport was uneventful, and by the time I pulled the large black transport through the main gate I was feeling pretty good about myself.
My mood began to change for the worse, however, when I noticed the nervous look on the face of the guard who waved me through the gate. His bored and distracted manner shifted immediately the moment he moved up to the window and saw who was driving. As I pulled away from the gate, I saw him rush back into his shack.
Could the police already be here?
The spaceport was nothing more than a large expanse of open ground, with some large concrete slabs, but mainly just dirt. There were very few spaceships in the field, so it was easy to see if any activity taking place. Nothing; the place was as dead as when I left.
To the west of the main field were three distant rows of hangars, with the first row comprised of the smaller units, those that would fit the Enterprise. I raced across the spaceport toward the hangars, not paying any attention to designated roadways, just cutting across landing pads and leaving a growing cloud of sandy dust behind me.
When I reached the first row of hangars I slowed down and began to count the units I passed. Just as with all alien writing, I couldn’t read a lick of Hyben, but fortunately the imbedded translation devices we all had fitted behind our ears had a way around that. By simply chanting tanslate-KKL898 (KKL898 was my code), the device would pick up the electronic signal from any equipped sign, label or marquee and provide a verbal translation in my ear.
However even with this feature available, I didn’t need it to locate Hangar 13. I simply had to count as I drove the transport along the row of huge, articulated doors.
My blood pressure skyrocketed when I reached Number Thirteen – and found the door open and the hangar empty. I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car, shielding my eyes against the abrasive blowing sand and harsh afternoon light to scan the field once again.
My starship wasn’t there. Not in the hangar or on the field. I clenched my fists and could feel my heartbeat sound prominently in my ears.
What did those stupid port-jockeys do with my ship?
Now the panic on the part of the guard at the gate was understandable. Well, I was going to get some answers, even if that left the guard without any serviceable limbs once I was through with my interrogation—
Just then I heard a loud boom overhead, and as I looked up into the blindingly bright sky of Hyben, I saw a shadow coursing across the sky. My heart skipped a beat; it was the Enterprise, and she was coming in way too fast.
I only had a moment to drag Miranda and Unity Stone from the transport before the Noreen II came screeching across the thin concrete outside the row of hangars. Sparks flew and bleached pieces of concrete were thrown into the air as the metal skids scraped and tore along the surface. The ship was designed to drop straight down for a landing, not come in horizontally like an airplane. And now it was skidding along the ground – and heading straight for me.
The red radiant hull of the Noreen II smashed into Morick’s transport, sending it hurdling into the air before the nose of the ship came crashing into a closed hangar door a few down from Number Thirteen. I had ducked into the open interior of my hangar when it became obvious that the starship was going to land very close, and now I could feel the heat radiating off the hull as the Enterprise came to a rest a mere twenty feet from where I hid.
I gritting my teeth in anger as I saw the prominent dent left in the front quarter panel from the ship’s impact with the transport. The nose was also buried a good six feet into the other hangar, so I could only imagine the damage caused to that side of the ship. As you can imagine, I was ready to kill someone – anyone.
I didn’t have to wait long.
The side hatch of the Enterprise slid aside and the two Hyben port workers jumped out. They shielded their faces as they ran from the ship, lucky their clothing didn’t ignite from the intense heat the ship still carried from its rapid descent through the atmosphere. They were coming my way.
As the first one ran through the open entrance of hangar thirteen, I reached out a strong arm and grasped the frayed edge of his uniform. The cloth ripped, but he still fell on his back, looking up at me with wide, panicked eyes.
“They were shooting at us!”
This caught me off guard. “What?”
“They were shooting at us,” the Hyben repeated.
His companion now stopped in front of me. “We’re really sorry we took your ship,” he yelled, gasping for breath. “But you said you’d be here for two days. Please call off your ships before they kill us.”
“What ships? Who’s shooting at you?”
“The ships – three of them – in orbit. We only wanted to take a bolt out to the moon and back. We didn’t mean to cause any harm.”
“How did you get it to fly? It was supposed to be in ground-mode only.”
The one standing pointed to the Hyben on the ground. “He did it! He knows how to circumvent such controls. Blame him.”
“You came with me, Soris! You are just as responsible.”
“Shut up!” I commanded. “I don’t care about you taking the ship, only about those who were shooting at you.”
“They are not with you?”
“No, they’re not.”
Both Hyben looked at each other, and then the one standing turned to me and said, “Then it looks as though you have enemies coming this way.”
“They followed you?”
“Yes. Fortunately, your ship is smaller and more maneuverable through the atmosphere, so we got here first. But the others will be here within ticks.”
“Shit!” I bent down and picked up a still groggy Miranda Moore and the Unity Stone case. “Are the keys still in the ignition?” Both aliens nodded.
As I ran out of the hangar and toward the Enterprise, I yelled back at the port workers. “I’m going to expect a full refund of my docking and hangar fees because of this!”
I didn’t hear the reply – if there was any – as I became distracted by the scorching heat the closer I got to the entry hatch. It was all I could take as I darted into the ship and hit the close button on t
he wall next to the door.
Some relief came once the door closed, but not much. The interior was now contaminated with the heat from outside, taking the temperature inside the Enterprise to easily one hundred-thirty or more.
I threw Miranda on the sofa and the Unity Stone case into a small storage compartment near the refrigerator. Next, I cranked the air conditioning up to max while slipping into the pilotseat. The engines were already primed, so all I had to do for liftoff was to send a tremendous blast of lifting chemical flame out the bottom of the ship, knowing that the resulting fire would leave the skin of any nearby hangars burnt and blistered. If the two Hyben port-jockeys had moved from behind the hangar’s metal walls, they would be incinerated.
I didn’t wait around to check their status. Instead I arched the Enterprise into a forty-five degree incline, and in less than five seconds I had already reached the nearest puffy contrail left earlier in the sky when the ship had entered the atmosphere. I then fully-engaged the gravity drive, something that was not recommended this close to the surface.
Fortunately, I was far enough away from any ground structures that I achieved a clean gravity-well and shot out into space.
Chapter 26
The hull must have cooled instantly in the vacuum of space, because it suddenly became icy cold inside the ship. I turned down the a/c and then checked the proximity sensors. Whoever had shot at the Hyben – thinking it had been me at the controls – would be streaking for the surface, and not expecting the Enterprise to turn right around and head back into space. At least that was what I was counting on.
Sure enough, I picked up the other three ships below me and vectoring toward the spaceport. Their signatures indicated that they were of similar size as the one that had attacked me on the way to the planet – the lightly-armed escort ships of the Linoreans. They were small enough to land on the surface, yet too large to make radical course corrections within the atmosphere. I was bolting past the Hyben moon by the time my three pursuers had managed a long, arching journey back through the atmosphere of Hyben and into space. However, once they had cleared the atmosphere, they, too, engaged their gravity drives and set off after me.
