Cain's Crusaders (5 page)

“So you have decided! That is wonderful,” Fex-Lor took the last long puff off his smokestick and then tossed the last remaining nub on the floor. Then he caressed Zin with both arms, holding him tight. “You need not worry about The Ma-Jor. He is on Uniss-3, or he was the last I heard of him. But that was only a week ago. I assume he is still there. Now, Zin, let’s get you unpacked. It will be so wonderful having you with me again.”

Zin pulled away and sat up. “I am afraid I will need a little time.”

“Why?” Fex-Lor was genuinely hurt. “I thought—”

“Yes, you thought right. However I must return to In-mar briefly to tie up my affairs there. I hope you understand? I shouldn’t be gone more than a month.”

Fex-Lor was suddenly beaming again. He climbed up off the cushion and helped Zin to stand. “I assume you do have at least an hour to spare before heading back out? I need something to hold me until your return. But then after that – off with you! The longer you delay, the longer it will be before you return … for good.”

A few hours later, Zin left the company of Fex-Lor Tenth and returned to his ship. After checking the coordinates for Uniss-3, he launched and then settled in for the six-day journey to the planet.

A quick drop to the surface, a few discrete inquires – and if fortunes smiled upon him – a confirmation of Ni-gel’s whereabouts.

He would then send a secure link with the information. Once the bonus was in his account, he would return to Surun … and to Fex-Lor.

In truth, Zin
was
attracted to the skinny Vinnerian – even if those of his own kind would find it appalling – but certainly not to the same degree Fex-Lor felt towards him. Yet, as always, Zin had other motives for joining with Fex-Lor. After the completion of this assignment, Zin had no guarantee of when the next commission would be arriving, or from whom. Granted, one-hundred thousand credits
was
a princely sum, yet not enough on which to retire. Fex-Lor was offering him stability and the chance to share in substantially more credits over time – plus a bonus of another kind.

Zin smiled, thinking of the conversation he had had with Fex-Lor. Indeed, it appeared as though his old friend had also made
him
an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Chapter 4

I
t wasn’t until the last day out from Pyrum-3 that the pain of the welts on Adam’s face and body had healed enough that he didn’t dwell on them constantly. Yet all it took was seeing his reflection in a mirror or shiny bulkhead to remind him that they were still very visible; lines of angry red forming a hilarious grid pattern over one side his body. He had hoped they would be less noticeable by the time they reached the base otherwise Sherri would be merciless in her ribbing. He could more-easily tolerate the cruel jokes from his fellow soldiers, but Sherri’s would be particularly biting. She just had a talent for such things.

Maybe another day would be all it would take – but that wasn’t likely. It seemed that their extremely rapid transit from Yaki back to Pyrum-3 would be his downfall….

The journey to Adam’s base took eight days, which in reality was about ten days faster than any other ship in the galaxy could have made it.

The bulk of the time savings came from the fact that the
Phoenix
did not have to travel the established long-haul space routes where the bulk of interstellar traffic took place. With the finicky nature of gravity drives, truly deep-wells could only be established when away from conflicting gravity sources, such as stars, nebulae and the like. The main space lanes of the galaxy were a rare mix of wide open spaces and just enough rogue dust to be gobbled up by the focusing rings and compressed to a point of critical mass required to establish the series of singularities that were at the heart of faster-than-light travel.

Without the interference caused by the wacky twisting of space/time within more densely populated regions, long-haul vessels could establish such powerful singularities that space for half-a-light-year surrounding their transit paths was disturbed by the gravity wakes.

To attempt such wells within a stellar system – or even
near
a star-cluster for that matter – would have been catastrophic. For one thing, the wells would have been overloaded by the abundance of stray matter near these objects, resulting in their unpredictable disintegration. And secondly, deep-transit wells could cause such havoc to the surrounding space as to actually change the orbits of many of the smaller bodies nearby. Therefore, once within a denser region of space, star-travel slowed to only a fraction of the velocities which could be achieved within the deep-space lanes.

Unfortunately, these main space routes were often located many hundreds of light years away from the most straight-line path to a destination. Even then, the transits were faster than navigating the more-densely populated interstellar systems using shallow-well generation.

Adam’s ship, on the other hand, could zip along the most direct path, whether it be right through the middle of a star system or not.
 
The secret lie in the
Phoenix
’ powerful array of multiple focusing rings and generators, which allowed extremely deep-wells to be created in close proximity to the ship – essentially at nose-length – that the effect of the wells on surrounding space was greatly reduced.

Adam knew it was a cliché, but the
Phoenix
– as well as her sister ship the
Pegasus
– were the two fastest ships in the galaxy!

Three years before, Adam and his fellow Humans had scouted a heavy-gravity world in a star system about ninety light years from Juir from which to establish their new base. The planet was called Pyrum-3 and it was populated by an intelligent species of bulky, four-legged creatures with two short arms, who looked a lot like the Minotaurs of Greek legend. Unfortunately, their three-finger hands limited their ability to advance very far technologically, and so they had never been fully incorporated into the Expansion, either Old or New. The natives were swift-moving beasts – like graceful steeds – as well as very gentle and passive.

Adam’s team had setup the small base on an isolated island on the planet, which guaranteed they would not interfere with the activities of the natives. The arrangement seemed to work out quite well, since it was simply the gravity of Pyrum-3 that the Humans craved and nothing more. Rated at Earth-normal, the surface gravity of the planet allowed the Humans to maintain muscle mass and bone density, while also enjoying the wide open spaces of a real world, and not the claustrophobic confinement of a gravity-controlled spaceship.

The island-base complex consisted of three main buildings, as well as a number of small utility shacks. The living quarters for the Force-One operatives were located in a conical-shaped wedge of polyurethane foam and steel-frame with over twelve-thousand square feet of interior space. There were nine separate apartments, complete with kitchens and private baths, and each offering wide picture windows overlooking the tropical green and blue waters surrounding the island. Each apartment also had an extended deck, where the Humans had placed lounge chairs and gas barbeques. Just because they lived on a planet twenty-thousand light years from Earth didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy the finer things in life….

A second, even larger building housed the
Phoenix
and her sistership, the
Pegasus
, along with all the required maintenance equipment and other assorted support facilities. Eighteen members of the Diaspolean race helped maintain the ships, even though they could only shuttle down to the planet from an orbiting station for work-shifts of nine hours at a time. The oppressive gravity of Pyrum-3 was just too great for them to tolerate any longer.

The third building contained the operational nerve center of the Force-One Enforcement Inter-Department (FOEID) of the New Expansion. Although the ‘official’ administration headquarters for the Force was located on Juir within the Intelligence Inter-department complex, it was from Pyrum-3 that the very few select agents of the Force operated.

And very few there were. From the original four Humans – consisting of Adam, Riyad Tarazi, Sherri Valentine and Lee Schwartz – they had added only two more operatives to their ranks in the intervening thirty-four months since the inception of the Force. They were Captain Mark Henderson and Sergeant-Major Jamal Dawson, expatriated Humans who had remained behind when the rest of Humanity had returned to the Far Arm of the galaxy. Both were former Army Special Forces, and brought with them a level of expertise Adam’s small band sorely needed. With no other SEALs remaining besides Adam, he found the comradeship of the Rangers to be very comforting.

Both Henderson and Dawson had arrived in the Expansion with the last surge of military personnel sent from Earth four years earlier. At that time, they had little more to do than drill and participate in ‘show-the-flag’ events throughout the Expansion. No one at that time seemed too anxious to challenge the Humans for leadership of the galaxy, so their military skills were never called into play.

When the time came for the Humans to return to the Far Arm, Henderson and Dawson still hadn’t satisfied their need for interstellar adventure. So instead of returning home, they remained on Juir serving in a private-security capacity until recruited by Adam and the
Crusaders
.

Not as experienced in the ways of the alien galaxy as Adam, Riyad or Sherri, the two soldiers were more on the experience level of Lee Schwartz. Lee had been a Commander in the Navy at the time of the war, an aviator who had participated in Humanity’s initial thrust into Juirean space almost ten years before. The Human-Juirean war had culminated in the defeat of not only the Juireans, but also the Kracori and the Klin, thanks mainly to Lee’s command of the Human ‘Shadow Fleet’ and its attack of the Juirean forces off the double-star system of Falor-Kapel.

Even though he had participated in numerous battles during the war, Lee’s exposure to the alien-universe-at-large had been limited the controls of a Klin KFV-A spacecraft, not even seeing an alien in the flesh until he and the bulk of the Human forces had arrived on the ravaged planet of Juir.

So in reality, half of Adam’s small contingent of not-so-secret agents had very little experience interacting with alien cultures. Fortunately for them,
the Crusaders
were not tasked with performing subtle and sensitive diplomatic missions. Instead, they were the head-bashers, the last resort before the body bags where brought in. In this regard, Adam’s new recruits had all the experience the job required.

A day later Pyrum-3 expanded in the forward viewport until it dominated the scene. Adam was at the controls of the
Phoenix
, and he angled the sleek, delta-shaped spacecraft through the thick atmosphere, choosing to come in low over the myriad of tropical coral islands that dotted the vast gulf of warm green and blue water where his island-base was located.

As he neared his destination, he could see vast swatches of brilliant white sand forming a shallow shield around the island, before giving way to a ragged circle of reefs that protected an inner lagoon of crystal clear water. The island itself was dominated by the prominent peak of a long-dormant volcano, now completely shrouded in thick, green vegetation, and often dressed in low-lying, rain-filled clouds.

The scene reminded Adam so much of the South Pacific island of Bora Bora – or at least pictures he’d seen of it. He’d never been there himself, but had always considered the island to be the closest thing to paradise he could image. This was also one of the reasons he’d selected this location for his base. Anywhere on the planet would have fulfilled the basic need for appropriate gravity and atmosphere, but this island made life in an alien universe just a bit more tolerable.

Using chemical drive, Adam set the
Phoenix
down on the vast concrete landing pad outside the hangar building. Once the hot exhaust had dissipated, a contingent of Diaspoleans lumbered out of the building, some carrying small monitoring equipment. The poor creatures could never move comfortably in the gravity of Pyrum-3, something Adam had come to accept over the months. Unfortunately, he had not found another race of creatures who could fully tolerate the gravity of an Earth-normal world and who also had the skills for mechanical maintenance. Until that time, the Diaspoleans were it.

Soon a tractor would emerge from the expanse of the hangar and pull the ship inside, where the chemical engines would be refueled and new gravity generator power modules would be installed. The ship could be turned around for action in as little as five hours, but with no new missions pressing, the Diaspoleans could take their time refitting the ship. Besides, Adam wasn’t too anxious to head right back out, not without a break.

That was unless Sherri’s jokes regarding his checkerboard face became too much to handle.

Adam and Riyad commandeered a small golf cart-like vehicle for the short drive to their personal quarters. They slid up under the shell-shaped structure and took the elevator to the top floor.

All the apartments were of the same size and layout and the only thing that set them apart was where along the curve of the shell they were placed. As the ranking officer in the small unit, Adam should have logically chosen the center unit, the one whose deck was bordered by those from the apartments to either side. Instead, Adam chose the unit to the far left.

Even though Riyad’s adjoining deck was to the right of his, the view to the left was unobstructed, encompassing the vast ocean of gentle rolling swells, along with a parade of green, white and blue waters. This was Adam’s sanctuary. Having spent so much of his life back on Earth either on the ocean or the shore, when he gazed out on the sea of Pyrum-3, he was reminded of his real home.

The conflicted emotions he often felt while sitting in a padded lounge chair on his deck were not healthy. Most times, he was a basket-case of jumbled up homesickness and regret. He knew he didn’t have to stay here any longer than he chose to, and at any time he could bug-out back to Earth. And that was where the conflict often arose.