The Tactics of Revenge (22 page)

Sherri bumped into him. “Having fun yet?” she asked panting heavily, both from the exertion as well as from the thrill of battle. Her blue eyes alight with a fire from inside, a look he had seen before, back on Melfora Lum when they’d blown the communication tower. Sherri appeared to get an almost sexual thrill out of combat. He considered her for a moment. Could she be his perfect match? Maybe – if they lived through all this shit.

He smiled at her, “This is what I live for, babe. Now, let’s go run up the score!”

They moved off with the rest of the team, firing at any alien they saw. The targets became fewer and fewer as they moved further aft, either because they were killing them all, or that aliens had decided to hide rather than fight the Humans. By now, probably all of the Juireans were dead, leaving only the various alien recruits. These hapless souls had signed up for the pay, not from any great hatred for the Humans or any overt loyalty to the Juireans. Now that the assault team was returning from Juirean-Country, the recruits were now looking out for numero uno.

The Humans reached the auxiliary control room and found the room empty. The Humans quickly shredded the control consoles with bursts from their MP7’s, so that even if technicians could repair the damage, it would take them weeks to do so. The Humans would be long gone by then.

Five minutes later, the team was back in the generator room, with Kaylor waving at them from his position on the second level. The Humans sprayed more bullets about the room, being careful not to puncture any of the generators or energy modules while they were still onboard. It wouldn’t pay to be irradiated just as they were leaving the Class-.

The ship was now effectively disabled and out of the fight – and it would remain so for a very long time.

Mission Accomplished!

The team moved back to the shuttle through the main umbilical and Kaylor slipped into the pilot seat. He keyed a communication button. “Jym, come in. We’re on our way to you.”

“May the Gods be revered,” Jym’s voice screeched though the speakers. “Is Adam Cain with you?”

“I am, Jym. Thanks for asking.”

“It
is
the reason we came here,” the tiny alien stated flatly.

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t disappoint you.”

“Have I upset you in some way?”

“Nah, just glad to hear your voice.”

“Docking in ten minutes, Jym,” Kaylor said, interrupting. “Open cargo bay doors.”

“Already done and waiting for you.”

Chapter 41

The recharge shuttle slipped into the cargo bay of the
JU-224
with barely a meter to spare on the side. Since the vessel was of special use and design, once the team had offloaded, they disabled the communications on the shuttle, freed the original recharge crew and let them take it back down to the planet. In half an hour they would be out of the system and heading for the Fringe.

Once safely away, the team met in the common room to hear Adam’s story of his capture and imprisonment. Sherri had to fight back the tears as she looked at the scar on Adam’s left check, near the jawline. He had suffered the injury while in the jungles of Hyben, leading the Juireans away from her. As his story went, Adam was treated for the wounds to his leg, side and face and then allowed to heal up – before the Juirean Guard Jydle began torturing him, just for the fun of it.

The Juirean had read his dossier and had concluded from it that it had been Adam who had been responsible for the deaths of Overlord Oplim and Counselor Deslor nearly three years before. But on top of that, he also believed Adam had lured the Juirean fleet to the planet Earth, where they had suffered their greatest military defeat – ever. So in Jydle’s opinion, this insignificant little Human was the cause for more Juirean death and destruction than since the time of the Klin Deception. That event had brought about the Unification Wars on Juir, and the deaths of millions of his fellow Juireans four thousand years before. Now Adam Cain had unleashed the greatest threat to Juirean existence since the founding of their civilization.

Yes, torturing the Human was cruel and uncivilized, even for a Juirean. Yet, according to Jydle, it would be his only chance to exact his own limited form of revenge on the Human before being assigned his fate at the hands of the Council. Jydle wasn’t about to let an opportunity like this pass him by.

“It looks like I’m the one who got the last laugh, however,” Adam said, summing up his story with the execution of Jydle. “I had a pretty good idea that either you would rescue me, or I’d find some other way to escape. And when I heard that the ship was stopping for a recharge, I knew it was now or never for the rescue part. Thank you all,” he said sincerely, fighting back his own emotions. “You risked a lot to save my sorry ass.”

Sherri took his hand and squeezed it hard. “Hopefully our part in this war is coming to an end. Kaylor’s been monitoring the war reports on the newscasts, and it looks like we’ve taken over the Fringe and the next two sectors already. There’ve been three major battles, and we’ve won them all. Once back in the Fringe, we should be safe.”

“Good,” said Adam, smiling at all the others assembled in the room, including Kaylor and Jym. “I’m sure we could all use a very long vacation—”

Adam saw Jym suddenly lean forward from his position at the auxiliary control station in the common room. It wasn’t a full pilot’s station, but he still had access to all the ship’s monitoring systems.

“What is it, Jym?” Adam asked. All the others in the room suddenly looked his way.

“I just picked up large gravity wave just at the edge of our monitors. No, actually it is three of them.”

“What direction are they traveling,” asked Kaylor as he moved up behind his co-pilot. “Parallel to us, same direction.” He turned his head to look up at Kaylor. “From the refinement, they look to be Klin signatures.”

Adam joined the aliens at the station. “What are they doing this far into the Expan—”

Suddenly, alarms sounded throughout the ship, as the automatic evasion program took over. All those in the common room were thrown to the left from the inertia as the ship jerked to the right. Jym clung desperately to the control console and pulled himself back into the seat. “We have an incoming bolt from directly behind us. Impact –
now!”

The ship whipsawed violently as a deafening roar rose up from the aft section of the ship. Adam felt his stomach rise up in his throat as the gravity wells dissolved and weightlessness overcame his senses.

“All drive and gravity systems are offline!” Jym yelled. “We are powerless to evade or withstand any subsequent hits.”

As the eight beings in the room grabbed onto anything they could to keep from floating away, they all waited for the final blow, for the bolt that would penetrate the hull and send them all to oblivion. But as the seconds turned into minutes, nothing happened. After about three minutes, they all began to crawl their way through the weightlessness toward the pilothouse, switching from handhold to handhold as quickly as possible. Five minutes after the attack, they all drifted into the bridge.

Through the forward viewport, they could all clearly see three very large disk-shaped spacecraft, sitting off their forward bow, lit only by the glow from the distant Zinnol star and the conspicuous portholes ablaze on their silver hulls. They were about half a kilometer distant and making no further hostile moves.

Kaylor pulled himself down into the pilot’s seat and strapped in. He scanned his instruments. “The shot was apparently designed to cripple us – which it did quite effectively. We are at their mercy.”

“Can you contact them?” Tobias asked, now drifting above Kaylor. “Find out what they want?”

“I can try—” Kaylor was cut short when a light flashed on his console. “They’re contacting us!” He flicked the switch.

“This is Ship Master Ludl Vizon, of the Klin. Your vessel has been disabled and all occupants are ordered to transfer to the center Klin ship once your personal belongings have been secured. Use your ship’s shuttle for the transfer. You will have fifteen minutes to leave the ship, after which time it will be destroyed. Do not bring weapons of any kind with you. If you do, the perpetrators will be immediately executed. You have fifteen minutes from now to leave the ship.”

The transmission ended; everyone in the room looked at each other, with all eyes eventually focusing on Adam.

“If they wanted us dead, they would have blown us to vapor. I say we gather our things and get the hell off the ship.”

“Aye aye, sir,” said Lt. Tobias. “Just grab what you can and let’s all meet at the cargo bay in ten minutes. It’s going to be harder to maneuver in zero-g, so don’t waste time with a lot of personal shit, just the essentials.” He then made eye contact with Tindal and Rutledge. “And no weapons; I think they’re serious about that.”

Everyone nodded and then began swimming out of the pilothouse and toward their individual quarters. When Adam reached his quarters, he found most of his belongings were still there from when he had been part of the
JU-224
crew several months back. He snatched a pillow from mid-air, pulled off its slipcover and began cramming clothing and his toiletries into it. He didn’t have very many other personal items aboard the ship, leaving the few things he did have back on Viemon-2 in the Fringe.

He was the first one to reach the cargo bay, but by the time he had opened the shuttle door and floated into the pilothouse, everyone else was there – everyone except Jym. Kaylor keyed a comm button. “Jym,
where
are you?”

“Almost there,” came the reply, his voice having been picked up by the ship’s internal microphones.

“Do you want to pilot, or me?” Kaylor asked Adam.

“I’m already here. Everyone buckle in. I’m blowing the bay doors as soon as Jym gets here.”

On queue, Jym drifted into the room, towing with him two large bags, both as large as he and bugling through their sides. Everyone just looked at each other and shook their heads.

Adam keyed the emergency egress control and the double cargo bay doors exploded outward, propelled by the rush of escaping atmosphere. Adam initiated the chemical engines and the shuttle shot out into space; almost immediately the tiny internal gravity-well engaged and all aboard felt the welcoming and familiar sensation of muscle control return to their bodies.

The shuttle was only about three hundred meters away when the Klin ship on the right flared an electric-blue bolt of electricity at the
JU-224
. The bolt streaked out from the Klin ship and impacted Kaylor’s ship directly in the pilothouse section. The viewport burst, first inward from the bolt, and then outward with the sudden escape of air. Then a second bolt followed the first, penetrating deeply into the ship through the hole made by the first shot. Explosions began to flash from inside the ship, through the portholes and through numerous additional hull breaches, yet the ship didn’t explode. It was now simply a useless shell of metal, drifting in the infinite vastness of space.

Adam steered the shuttle toward the center Klin ship and swept underneath the large disk. A gaping lighted opening greeted him, and he maneuvered the shuttle up into the interior of the starship. Once inside, he slid the shuttle over onto a smooth metal floor as the double hatch doors to the landing bay began to slide shut. By the time Adam had cut the chemical drive and dissolved the internal gravity, the doors to the bay were secure and atmosphere was filling the large room.

None of the Humans or aliens had been aboard a Klin ship this large before, and they all craned to look through the viewport at the room outside. It was huge, with several smaller shuttles lining the outer wall of the circular room, with the access port they’d entered through located at the very center. Once atmosphere was restored, several large creatures entered the landing bay, each armed with a flash rifle. They were scaly-looking things, with heads disproportionally large for their bodies. A dozen of them lined up outside the shuttle’s side entrance and waited. No Klin were to be seen.

Adam looked around at the others in the pilothouse. “Well, let’s go see what they want. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re offering to give us an express ticket back to the Fringe.”

They stepped out onto the surface of the landing bay, Adam in the lead, with Sherri close by his side. The line of aliens just stood there, weapons leveled at them, before a tall, thin creature dressed all in silver appeared from the left side. The Klin stepped up to Adam with a look of mild amusement on his narrow face.

“Adam Cain,” he stated confidently. And then he looked around at the others, “As well as Riyad Tarazi and Sherri Valentine. This
is
an unexpected bonus. We were only expecting Mr. Cain to be the prize.”

“What’s this all about?” Adam asked. “I thought we’re supposed to be on the same side.”

The Klin grinned. “Oh, I think we all know what the real truth is regarding that matter, Mr. Cain. And even though our two races are publically allies in the current war with the Juireans, you, and your companions in particular, have never fully subscribed to that belief, now have you?”

“So what do you want? You’ve gone through a lot of trouble to get us here.”

“All in good time, Mr. Cain. But first let me say this…” The Klin looked around at the rest of the creatures in Adam’s entourage, “We are all quite impressed with your escape from the Juireans. A Class-3 battlecruiser is not an easy target to assault, especially with so few combatants. Your companions
are
quite remarkable and capable, Mr. Cain. We were ourselves preparing to liberate you from your Juirean captors, either alive or dead. And now your friends have saved us the trouble.”

“You still haven’t answered the question, asshole,” Tindal said from behind Adam. “What are you going to do with us?”

The Klin considered the fiery young petty officer for a moment and with that same bemused looked on his face. “First of all, I’m taking all of you to a place very few Humans even know exists. Once there, my three prizes will meet with the Pleabaen – what you would consider the leader of the Klin.” And then he looked straight into Tindal’s eyes. “As for the rest of you, you are of no value to us. Your fates have already sealed.” The Klin turned to the guards. “Take them to their cells, and please put these three together,” the Klin said, indicating Adam, Sherri and Riyad, before abruptly turning away and leaving the landing bay.