Cain's Crusaders (9 page)

Kroekus shook his head, which sent a tsunami of fat around his massive neck. “You do indeed have a strange way of terming things, Adam Cain. But it reality it makes perfect sense. Whether biological – or as you suspect, artificial means – the Speaker of Formil does have powers, and the secret of how she does it would be of considerable value, as well as threaten the basis for their entire religion should the knowledge be revealed.”

“So they’ll blow her up rather than risk having the secret revealed? That just confirms my belief that it’s all a show.”

“Be that as it may, the Speaker is extremely important, not only to the Formilians, but also to the Expansion. Go to Formil, Adam Cain, find the Speaker and return her to the Temple – before she blows up, as you put it.”

Adam accepted the assignment, with conflicting emotions, and then cut the link with Kroekus. On one side, he couldn’t get the image of the naked Formilian out of his mind, but on the other was the fact that Sherri was really mad at him. She had to know he was just teasing her – didn’t she? Yet her reaction seemed to fit in well with the almost continuous bad mood she seemed to be in recently. Something was bothering her, and he knew he would have to get to the bottom of it – when he returned from Formil.

Let her go off to Belson and meet with Kaylor and Jym. The two aliens liked and respected her, and maybe playing a role in helping resolve the conflict between the Belsonians and the Expansion would make her feel better, more important. That was the hope, at least.

But now Adam had to concentrate on his current assignment, which seemed daunting on all levels. Nineteen days was not much time to travel all the way to Formil, investigate the kidnapping and then track down the perpetrators – if the Speaker was even still alive.

If ever there was a
Mission Impossible
, this one would definitely be in the running.

Later that afternoon Adam went looking for Sherri, but she wasn’t in her apartment. He finally located her in the hangar aboard the
Pegasus
with Riyad and Lee.

“So, have you downloaded the video of the alien slut to your personal computer yet,” she asked him while helping to load supplies onboard the ship. She and Riyad had no idea how long they’d be gone to Belson, so they were preparing for the long haul.

“Why are you being like this? Is it just because I called you out for letting Lee ride President Ka’lo?”

Lee and Riyad stopped what they were doing to listen to her response. Growing self-conscience, she grabbed Adam by the arm and pulled him into a side compartment. When they were alone, she turned to face him, her eyes glassy, bottom lip trembling.

“You’re such an asshole!” she yelled at him. “This whole thing is out of whack and all you can do is play games with me, or yell at me in front of the others.”

“What’s out of whack? And I didn’t yell at you; I just reminded you that you’re in charge when I’m gone. And I don’t care if the president is okay with us riding him like a god-damn donkey or not. It’s not the right thing to do.”

“The guy gets off on it! We enjoy it and so does he, so where’s the harm? And since when do you care a flying-f about aliens anyway –
unless they look like some freaking porn star
?”

“You know I was just screwing with you. Why are you so emotional all of a sudden? You used to be one of the toughest people I’ve ever met.”

“Well maybe I don’t want to be one of the
toughest people you’ve ever met
anymore. Maybe I don’t want to be a damn vigilante. And just maybe I’m tired of being the only woman out here.”

“Is that the problem?”

“You don’t understand how hard it is always trying to keep up with you and your macho buddies, and especially now that Mark and Jamal have joined the team, it’s all testosterone twenty-four-seven. You’re in your element, with all your male friends around. But you know how hard it is trying to fart and spit like the rest of you? Sometimes I’d just like to be pampered, treated with respect – treated like a lady! What the hell’s wrong with that?”

Adam was stunned into silence. When he had first met Sherri, she had just assassinated a former patron of his, the Castorian crime lord Seton Amick, and if he had been anything other than a fellow Human, she would have killed, too. She was tough and pragmatic, a survivor in her own right.

Through all their time together – in space and back on Earth – they’d been intimate on numerous occasions. He certainly
did
consider her in that way, and not just as one of the boys. She had to know that, didn’t she?

“Sherri, if I remember it has always been you who have shut us down. I’ve tried several times to have a more long-term relationship with you, but you always seemed to enjoy being the only woman aboard a ship full of men. I didn’t hear you complaining then.”

She turned away from him and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Times change, you jerk. People grow up.”

“What are you saying; do you want something more now, between the two of us?”

“Hell no! I mean I don’t know. I’m just so damn lonely, and every time you head out on a mission I know you may not come back. That doesn’t leave a lot to build a relationship on. And what if something did happen to you? I’m not interested in anyone else on the team, so that leaves any potential replacements twenty-thousand freaking light years away. Talk about being isolated and alone!”

“Do you want to go home?”

“It may come to that.”

“It’s not the same back there, you know?”

“Yeah, but at least there would more
people
there – real people, and not these almost-people we seem to spend most of our time killing. Even if I did join one of the crews looking for other races in the Arm, I’d be with more of our own people – and closer to home.”

“Well shit, Sherri, thanks for laying all this on me right after I get back from one mission and fixing to head out on another. What do you want me to say?”

“You can start by telling me how much you don’t want me to go!”

“You already know that.”

“Do I? You’ve never said it before.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes, you stupid, stupid man, haven’t you ever seen a sappy chick-flick before? We want to
hear
the words now and then.”

“All right … I don’t want you to leave. It just wouldn’t be the same around here without you.”

“That’s the best you can do … that I’ll be
missed
?”

“Sherri, I care for you more than any other woman I know—”

“You don’t know any other women – at least not Human women – so that’s not saying much.”

Adam swallowed hard, trying not to lose his temper any more than he already had.
What does she want from me?
“Sherri, you know about Maria. Her death was pretty devastating.”

“Oh god, not that again? It’s been almost eleven years. You really need to move on.”

“I tried to – with you. Remember Lake Tahoe? Two months and you were gone, and then I didn’t hear from you for another three years.”

“Well I’m here now. I came all the way back out to Juir, and not just so I could play superwoman and squash some alien bugs along the way.”

“If you came out here to be with me, you sure did have a funny way of showing it; a night here, a couple of nights there. You have to be the hardest woman in the entire galaxy to get close to!”

Sherri was quiet for a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts. When she spoke again, her voice had calmed. “You’re right, of course. That’s why I said everything is so out of whack, out of sync. We don’t belong here, Adam. It was different when there were more Humans around. Now there are only six of us, and you have your buddies to confide in. I have no one.”

“Listen, babe, I would really like to spend more time talking to you about this, but I really have to go….”

Sherri opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it.

“Kroekus says if this woman – this Formilian – is not found and returned to her homeworld within nineteen days, then there’s going to be major war that will cut off Formilian technology to the Expansion. He says that will probably mean the end of the whole damn thing – the end of the Expansion. So you may get your wish about going home whether you like it or not. If the Expansion collapses, we’ll have nowhere else to go but back to Earth.”

“Then you better go.”

“Will you be here when I get back?”

“That depends. I may still be on Belson.”

“You know what I mean.”

“We’ll see. It’s obvious we both have a lot to think about.”

Some of us more than others
, Adam thought.
I have a pretty good idea of what I want. I hope she can figure it out for herself.

They embraced in the small compartment and then Adam placed a hard, wet kiss to Sherri’s lips. She seemed to melt into him, attempting to turn their bodies into one. When they separated, Adam could see the hurt in her eyes. She was first and foremost a woman, and she needed the intimacy and support of other Human beings around her. Adam wanted that, too, yet he was more of the mountain-man breed, the type of person who could go into the wild for months – if not years at a time – and never feel lonely. But he also knew that that time was coming to an end. He’d eventually get too old to play
Flash Gordon
anymore.

He just wished that the Earth hadn’t changed so much, and that fame hadn’t found him. Maybe the two of them could find a little island off the Florida Keys somewhere, where they could be anonymous, forgotten?

“Wait for me, Sherri,” he said as they left the compartment. “I really do want us to work this out.”

“So do I, you asshole. I really do. But I can’t keep going like this.” And then she disappeared into the depths of the
Pegasus
.

Riyad poked his head around a corner. “Are you okay, my friend?”

Adam shook his head. “You can’t live ‘em … and you can’t sell them off to Silean slave-traders.”

Riyad smiled. “I just happen to know a former Silean slave-trader. Just say the word and I’ll make the arrangements.”

Adam poked him in the chest. “Just take care of her, you pirate. She’s very fragile right now.”

“And you are as strong and hard as granite. You’re not fooling anyone, Adam Cain – no one at all.”

Chapter 7

A
dam left ten hours later without seeing Sherri again. He set a course for Formil, a journey that would take the souped-up spaceship of his four days to make. That would only leave fifteen days to accomplish his mission, if it were even possible.

His first day out was spent sitting before a computer screen and digesting all he could learn about the
Speakers of Formil
. What he learned was fascinating, yet only served to support his belief that the Speakers were nothing but a bunch of frauds.

And it had all started with a female named
Lorilie Bol
two thousand years before.

By the time the Juirean Mass arrived in the Formilian star system, the natives of the third rock from their star were already very accomplished engineers and scientists.

In fact, it seemed that the very next thing the Formilians discovered after fire was how to make electric batteries. From here they began to build primitive circuits and communication devices, using pre-historic light bulbs to illuminate the caves of their distant ancestors.

The Formilians began the worship of all things having to do with electricity, even naming their two main gods
Mislin
and
Sufor
, representing the magnetic poles of positive and negative. By the time the Juireans arrived, the Formilians were far more advanced than even the Klin had been at the time the Juireans destroyed their race – a time referred to by the Juireans as
The Reckoning
.

The Juireans were still very primitive at the time, having stolen most of their technology from other races, including the gravity drive they used to spread their will across the galaxy. Yet in one of the most unusual and fortunate events in galactic history, the Juireans and the Formilians formed an informal alliance. The Formilians were given unprecedented freedom and autonomy, and in return the Juireans received the exclusive rights to nearly all the Formilian technology and devices.

One of the first contributions the Formilians made to the galaxy and to Juirean expansionism was their invention of the translation bug. Prior to this, communication between races had been a very difficult and time-consuming affair. The Juireans insisted that all conquered races learn Juirean, which in some cases was physically impossible for an alien race to accomplish. In other instances, the nuances between languages caused fatal misunderstandings among negotiators and diplomats. In one classic case, the mistranslation of a single phrase resulted in the deaths of over a million natives at the hands of the Juireans.

When the Formilians revealed the translation bug to the Juireans, the tiny devices became the single-most important tool – besides the gravity drive – for opening up the galaxy and allowing it to be capable of being ruled by a single race – the Juireans.

And the lead scientist involved in the development of the universal translation device was a Formilian female named
Lorilie Bol
.

As Adam continued his research, he soon found this was where the story began to morph into the theater of the absurd.

As an integral part of the functioning of the translators, the Formilians also invented the first universal internet – the
Library,
as the aliens called it. Its initial use was as a way to help store the myriad of languages found throughout the galaxy. As a new language was assimilated, often into something as small and simple as a single translator bug, this information was then piggybacked from one translator to another until it reached the Library. From here the language would spread like wildfire throughout the galaxy, where it would then filter down to each individual translator.

Since those early days, the process had changed only slightly. Now most languages were stored in the Library and downloaded to individual translators as soon as a new language was recognized. Even the translators had their memory limits, and as more and more languages – as well as dialects of various languages – were discovered, it became impossible to store all languages in every individual translation device.

So the Library grew, providing more and coverage across the galaxy, and including information far beyond simply alien languages.

And it was also on Formil where the main servers of the universal internet were located.

But this is where the story of Lorilie Bol, the First Speaker, begins to emerge.

Almost as it was with Buddha contemplating the meaning of life under a tree for forty days and forty nights, Lorilie Bol began to demonstrate to anyone who would stop and watch how she had suddenly gained access to the very powers of the gods themselves. She would travel the land, controlling a variety of electronic devices, none of which could have been rigged ahead of time. Later, she began to conjure up balls of white hot static electricity, and in one famous parable, used the balls to defeat a rabble of violent non-believers who had come to vanquish her.

Over time, her reputation grew and her fame spread. Vids now broadcast her amazing feats around the globe, and then to other worlds within the sector.

Yet the genius of Lorilie Bol came not only from what she could do, but how she used her powers to
reinforce
the beliefs the people already held. Nearly the entire population of Formil worshiped the gods Mislin and Sufor, and knew that their creation – electricity – could be used to power any number of devices. To the Formilians, the development of a new device that could utilize the power of the gods was a gift, not only to the Formilians, but also to all the creatures in the galaxy. Without these devices, the will of their gods would go unfulfilled.

So the Formilians invented, built and manufactured countless electronic devices in an on-going attempt to please their gods, which Adam figured was far better than human sacrifice….

And now with Lorilie Bol, the people of Formil had found a
living being
who could directly utilize the power of the gods. She was herself an electronic device, a living device who could communicate directly with the gods. So Lorilie Bol became
The Speaker, the Giver of Life and Light
.

The Order of Light on Formil had been in existence for a thousand years before the time of Lorilie Bol, yet in her the Celebrants found a point on which to focus all their worship, all their mysticism. They installed Lorilie Bol as their
Supreme Celebrant
and reserved this prestigious position for only the direct female offspring of the First Speaker.

Even for such an advanced race of scientists and engineers, their religion flourished, especially now with a living personification of their gods. And the basis for what they worshipped could be seen all around them – in the lightning in the sky, in the static electricity in their hair and in the currents that powered their devices. The Formilians saw no conflict between their science and their religion. To them they were one and same. The worship of
Electricity
just made sense.

And so the traditions remained intact for another two thousand years, through thousands of Speakers and throughout all the tumult of galactic affairs. The Formilians survived, and as Adam could see, had made themselves into one of the most-vital entities in the galaxy.

Yet if Adam couldn’t find their precious Speaker within the next fifteen days – a creature embodied in the lovely and sensual Arieel – all this could come to a tragic and violent end.

The day before arriving on Formil, Adam made a quick CW link to Sherri aboard the
Pegasus
. Their last conversation still haunted him, and he wanted her to know that he was thinking of her. She seemed only half-interested in speaking with him, apparently still conflicted about her own feelings.

Adam knew how she felt. Living out among the stars in a galaxy of aliens and alien ways was very unsettling. No matter how glamorous it all sounded, people need familiarity to be comfortable, to feel grounded in their reality. For Adam and Sherri – as well as the rest of the Humans on the team – every day brought another jolting shock to the system, when one moment you could be speaking to a 600-pound ball of alien jelly, and the next galloping through a meadow on the back of a real-life centaur. Nothing in one’s upbringing could fully prepare you for this, no matter how many George R.R. Martin novels you’ve read or how many episodes of
Star Trek
you’ve seen. Reality would trump fiction every time, and for going on fourteen years, Sherri and Adam’s reality had been the stuff of fantasies … as well as nightmares.

Maybe it was time for a break? For three years Adam and his team had been fighting an uphill battle to preserve the Expansion, and for what? Earth had backed away from the rule of the Expansion, not wanting to be bothered with the headache anymore. Even if the whole damn thing fell apart, Earth wouldn’t care. Very little of what happened in the Expansion affected the Humans in the Far Arm.

So why should it concern Adam? He was sure there were plenty of isolated places within the growing Human Empire where he and Sherri could find some peace and quiet.

At least for a while….

But Adam also knew himself well enough to know he was not the type of person who could remain still for very long, even if his current crop of adventures had grown somewhat dull and predictable: land on a planet, find the local bully, and then show him who’s boss.

Was it that Adam sought greater challenges, greater villains? As he wandered the quiet corridors of the
Phoenix
, alone in his thoughts, he wondered just what kind of person was he? Was he such a cliché as to be part of the classic
yin-yang
equation? Could he not exist without an equal and countering evil to fight against, and if so, wouldn’t this make him an accomplice to such evil, allowing it to exist just to give meaning to his own life?

Or was he just getting bored with playing superman?

“Thanks, Sherri, thanks a lot!” he announced to the empty corridor. “You sure know how to screw with a guy’s head. You couldn’t be content with just keeping all this crap to yourself? No, you won’t be happy until I’m just as screwed up as you are.”