The Tactics of Revenge (15 page)

“We can’t just sit back and do nothing, and the closer they get to Juir, the less chance we’ll have to save Adam.”

Tobias leaned back in his chair. “We’re open to suggestions, Sherri. But we’ve just spent the last eight hours racking our brains for an idea, with no luck.”

Sherri turned to Kaylor. “Do you know anyone in this part of the galaxy who could help us?”

Kaylor’s head bobbed side to side. “The answer is no, unfortunately. My world is located in Sector 12 and I spent most of my time in the Fringe. I am not at all familiar with this part of the Expansion, and neither is Jym. Out here we are just as lost as you.”

“What about the other teams?” Sherri asked Tobias. “There were four us operating, each with our own ship.”

Tobias pursed his lips and shook his head again. “They’re too far away to be of any help. Besides, after completing their missions, they’re on their way back to the Fringe, all except Riyad’s ship. I’m afraid we’re on our own.”

There was silence around the table for several minutes as each of them were lost in their thoughts. And then Jym suddenly spoke up.

“They’re going to have to stop for recharging on the way to Juir. Trick them into letting you
super-beings
aboard so you can rescue Adam.” Even though Riyad could hear the condescension in the small, bear-like alien’s voice, he knew he meant no insult. Jym was simply prone to speaking his mind without hiding any of his emotions. It was a habit Riyad found perplexing, given Jym tiny stature. He wouldn’t have lasted an hour in the neighborhoods Riyad grew up in, not with that attitude.

“Jym is right!” Kaylor said. “They are single ship traveling without support. The trip to Juir is long-range, even for a Class-3. Their generators will have to be recharged, just as ours will have to be if we pursue beyond a month or so.”

Riyad shook his head. “My Exitor has not been recharged since we left the Fringe,” he countered. “And it won’t have to be even if we returned there today.”

“Yes, but the journey to Juir is twenty times farther than it is back to the Fringe. That is why we needed a Class-5 to make it all the way to Earth. And Earth is closer to the Fringe than the Fringe is to Juir.”

“Then that seems like our best option,” Tobias said, his mood improving dramatically. He turned to face Jym. “Way to go Jym – great idea.”

Jym just shrugged and turned back to his monitor. “Just makes sense.”

Sherri was literally bouncing in her chair. “So when will they have to recharge – and where?”

Kaylor began to finger the datapad sitting on the table. “I need to find out the maximum travel range for a Class-3 between charging, and then locate the major recharging stations between here and Juir. It will take just a minute.”

Tobias and Riyad began to talk with each other. “Class-3’s
can
land on planets, but it’s frowned upon,” Riyad stated. “They tear up too much landscape when they come in on gravity drive, and they burn up most of their fuel landing chemically. More than likely they’ll opt for an orbital recharging. Either way, we’ll have to disguise ourselves as a recharge crew to get aboard.”

“Agreed,” Tobias said, his analytical SEAL mind beginning to work through the details. “Do you know anything about how a recharge crew operates?”

“Not a clue.”

“Hey you two!” Sherri said emphatically. “You’re not going in without me.”

Riyad smiled back at her. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Besides we can certainly use your skills in a fight.”

“There could be a problem,” Kaylor said looking up from his datapad. “Undoubtedly the Juireans onboard will be able to recognize a Human when they see one After all, they are at war with your race.”

“He’s right,” said Tobias. “The disguise will have to go beyond just walking the walk and taking the talk.” All eyes then fell on Kaylor. He noticed it immediately.

“What’s wrong,” he asked nervously.

Riyad stretched his trademark grin at the alien. “It would really help if you could be part of the rescue team, as a way to distract the Juireans from us when we board.”

“No! No, I cannot be part of this. I will fly the ships and offer advice, but I am not a warrior – especially not against Juireans! The normal compliment of a Juirean Class-3 is over ninety beings. Ninety against six – if you include me and the two other Humans you have on Riyad’s ship. Even with that, my assistance would not make a difference.”

“Sure it will,” Andy Tobias said. “All you have to do is get us in past the front gate. We’ll do the rest.”

“What gate? Where is there a gate on a starship?” Kaylor was genuinely confused.

“It’s a figure of speech, Kaylor. Don’t sweat it.”

“Don’t sweat what? This is getting far too complicated!”

The three Humans looked at each with looks of exasperation. Finally Riyad spoke up.

“At least we’ll have some time to bone up on how to pass ourselves off as a recharge crew. That part shouldn’t be too hard. Any luck with locating a charging station, Kaylor.”

It took a moment before Kaylor could shake the concerned paralysis that kept him staring at the Humans. When he was able to function again he looked down at the datapad.

“Since I do not know when the Juirean was last recharged, I have to assume a maximum range on a fresh recharge. That puts the planet Cesnick as a logical destination. If they must do it sooner, then there is only one this side of Cesnick, and that would be Zinnol. If the Juirean does not want to push their range, then a recharge at Zinnol will get them all the way the Juir without a problem. But I’m still not comfortable assisting you in boarding the battlecruiser.”

“How far are we from this planet Zinnol?” Tobias asked, ignoring the alien’s continued protests.

“It will take the Juirean fifty-two days to get there. At maximum drive, we could be there in forty-eight. We will have to recharge ourselves before we could continue any further.”

Tobias smiled at everyone at the table, a big toothy grin that caused Kaylor to tense up. The SEAL had not been around aliens long enough to know that baring ones teeth was a sign of challenge. That realization would come with time – or an accepted challenge. Those kinds of lessons were hard to forget.

“It looks like we have a plan,” Lt. Tobias pronounced proudly. “Progress is being made.” He then placed a hand on Sherri’s. “We’ll get him back, I promise. I’m not accustomed to leaving any of my team behind in the hands of the enemy. This will just be your basic extraction operation. A piece of cake.”

Sherri grinned back at the big bear of a sailor, yet with a look of sadness in her eyes. For all their boasting and bravado, she was hoping they wouldn’t be too late.

Chapter 30

The trip to Zinnol just underscored the realities of interstellar travel. Nearly two months of being cramped up in a metal tube, interacting with the same people day in and day out, began to take its toll on the five occupants of the
JU-224
.

After the first ten days of learning all they could about recharging procedures, the planet Zinnol and their tentative assault plans, the remainder of the time was spent trying to find solitude from the others aboard the ship. The two aliens, Kaylor and Jym, seemed to better handle the boredom and cramped living conditions; after all they had spent the better part of their lives dealing with the time and distances involved in moving between the stars. The three Humans, on the other hand, were beginning to grate on each other’s nerves.

Lieutenant Andy Tobias stayed in contact with Riyad’s Exitor trailing the Juirean battleship. Aboard the ship were Navy Master-Chief Geoffrey Rutledge and Petty Officer First Class John Tindal, two of the SEALs who had accompanied Adam and his force from Earth. During the four strikes that team had made on Juirean recruiting meetings, Riyad and Tobias would alternate with the two SEALs to make the hits. However, for the three attacks Adam and Sherri had conducted, the two Humans were the only ones involved in the actual strikes. Kaylor and Jym simply manned the Exitor while Adam and Sherri were on-planet –
killing Juireans
.

Kaylor had cranked up the well-intensity for the
JU-224
and plotted a course for Zinnol which would get them to the planet four days before the Juireans, while at the same time avoiding the warship as they drew near the planet. The energy required did deplete their own modules, but their final destination
was
a recharging station. Replenishing their own energy levels once they reached Zinnol would be the first priority.

Needless to say, by the time the
JU-224
entered the Zinnolean stellar system, its tiny crew were climbing the walls, ready for some action. The fact that Adam’s rescue would be the result – hopefully – was a welcome bonus.

Riyad’s ship,
The Secura
, had confirmed that the Juirean ship was indeed headed for the planet. Throughout the trip to Juir, the Juirean warship had made a number of small course corrections toward Zinnol. About seven days before reaching the planet, Tobias sent the order for Rutledge to beat feet for Zinnol ahead of the Juirean and to meet the rest of the assault team at the main energy facility on the planet.

Exitors were small enough to land on the surface without too much difficulty, and there was an unbridled excitement aboard each ship when they finally joined up above the planet and began a slow tandem chemical descent for the sprawling, armpit of a city called Ragnor Lin.

Zinnol was located in a yellow star system consisting of eleven planets, of which only Zinnol was habitable. The system sat isolated from any nearby clusters, providing just the right mix of void and interstellar matter for the optimal functioning of passing gravity-drive starships. Zinnol had served as a crossroads for most of the traffic in this section of the Expansion for nearly a thousand years, although never during that time had it attained any great wealth of its own. Instead the planet’s population consisted of menagerie of transient beings, most just passing through hoping to make a quick fortune in the energy trade. But like so many others throughout history, most of their hopes and dreams went unfulfilled. What resulted on Zinnol – and Ragnor Lin in particular – was an incredible spread between the rich energy monopolies and everyone else. The dregs who remained as a semi-permanent population fed on the transients, running scams, engaging in robberies and often resorting to murder in their efforts to survive another day.

Riyad had made planetfall on over a dozen different worlds in his eight years in space, so even though Zinnol was bland and unimpressive from orbit, he didn’t really care. It was just another place other than Earth – and it didn’t even have a souvenir magnet he could buy to place on his refrigerator.

Throughout the years, Riyad had steadily built up a reckless self-confidence regarding his superiority to every new species he encountered. He knew this habit could be dangerous because somewhere in the galaxy there had to be a creature who could kick his ass. The fact that he had not encountered this being to date didn’t alter the possibility. Yet no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that it was better to be prudent than sorry, he still couldn’t make himself come to respect aliens of any kind. Maybe once he met a real challenge from them, he might change his mind. But until that time, he remained callus and unafraid when making a new planetfall.

Andy Tobias, on the other hand, always found landing on an alien world an occasion for celebration. It didn’t matter whether the world was a stunning beauty or a dust ball like Zinnol, Tobias could always be found in the pilothouse, his eyes wide and unblinking, a grin spreading his face, watching the planet grow in the forward viewport. Riyad tolerated the younger man’s enthusiasm as best he could. In a way his reaction was understandable, in another perplexing.

Tobias was an experienced Special Forces officer who had operated in nearly every corner of the planet Earth. He was constantly traveling to foreign countries and encountering other cultures. Making a new planetfall was very similar to this, in Riyad’s opinion. Yet to the American, every landing was still exciting and awe-inspiring.

Riyad sat in a rear seat in the pilothouse of the
JU-224
, studying the expression on Andy’s face, in a way wishing he shared that same child-like enthusiasm for new people, places and things. Yet from an early age, Riyad’s entire demeanor and personality had been one of pragmatic detachment. He used people as a means to an end, rarely developing any deep feelings for other living beings. In a way, he was the perfect space traveler. Nothing shocked him, nothing impressed him. All that mattered were the missions he executed, which to him were more like games, to be planned, played and scored. His survival – often at the expense of others – was how he determined the final score.

Lately, however, Riyad had spent a lot of time around others who lived their lives more magnanimously, at service to others. Again, he could understand their motivations. What he couldn’t do was relate. Riyad Tarazi, native of Lebanon, terrorist by training, warrior by choice, was dead inside. This he acknowledged; this he accepted.

And now here he was, descending toward another alien world, inhabited by beings he didn’t give a damn about. He was once again on a mission, and undoubtedly, aliens were going to die during its implementation. Riyad tried to make himself care. As usual, it just wasn’t happening.

Chapter 31

The two Exitors landed about three hundred meters apart in a tremendous cloud of red dust. An electrostatic charge ran through the main viewport of the
JU-224
keeping the dust from accumulating on its surface, and when the cloud dissipated, the occupants of the pilothouse got their first glimpse at the surface of Zinnol.

It was nearing dusk, and a dull yellow light cast deep shadows on the dozen or so other starships parked randomly about. Beyond the monochromatic landscape, Riyad could make out a jungle of rusting towers, supports and other rigging of the energy generators about five kilometers away. The red dust was on everything, stirred by small dust devils dancing here and there. Now that the ships had landed, a number of beings were beginning to move about the spaceport once again, nearly all wearing hats and with cloth bandanas covering their mouths and noses, resuming their duties, tending to the ships in the port.