Alien Assassin (18 page)

Ignoring his pain, Riyad pushed with all his might and shoved the body off of him. Then he sat up. He was in a dimly-lit room, at the edge of a pile of corpses, smelling of feces, vomit and decay. He pulled himself from under the bodies covering his legs and stood up as best he could.

His ribs burned, his head throbbed and his legs were shaky. He fell against a metal wall and tried to take several deep breaths, but the stench in the room was too much for him to bear. He vomited.

He had to get out of the room…and quickly.

There was doorway not too far to his left, and as he crawled along the wall toward it, he swore that if the door was locked, he’d beat it down with his bare hands. But it was unlocked, and once through, he slammed it shut and slipped to the floor, his back pressing against the door. The air in the corridor was stale and warm, but at least it didn’t smell of death.

He knew the room he’d just left was filled with the corpses of his fellow Humans. He’d seen a lot of dead people in his day, and he knew the smell of death. They were all dead, and appeared to have been so for several hours, if not days.

Once his head had cleared, Riyad struggled to his feet and cautiously began to move up the corridor to his left. He had no idea what part of the Juirean flagship he was on, but reasoned it had to be some aft cargo bay just so the stink wouldn’t permeate the rest of the ship. Refrigerating the bodies would have helped, but if they had, then he would never have awakened from his unconsciousness.

All was quiet, and it wasn’t long before he came to end of the corridor, and a closed door. In his beaten condition, he knew he wasn’t the force he was accustomed to being, but he would just have to do his best. What he needed was a weapon, so he pressed the release button on the wall to the right and surged into the room.

It was a small command bridge, and it was unoccupied.

A wave of relief spread through him. So he wasn’t on the flagship anymore. In fact, this was a small shuttle, and from the ring of stars he could see through the viewport, it was in a well.

He sat down in the pilot seat – much to the relief of this aching body – and scanned the controls; just standard issue. He punched up the flight information and set the data to be relayed audibly.

After a minute he reclined further back in the chair and smiled. So this was an unmanned shuttle, taking the Human bodies back to Melfora Lum for autopsy. The crazy bastards had committed suicide – all except for one. And his body had been thrown in with the rest.

Riyad’s grin grew wider, as he began to believe that maybe there was a God after all, even way out here, and that Allah must be looking after him. He was alive – barely – and now he had a ship.

A plan gelled instantly in his mind: His pirate organization was in shambles, so he couldn’t go back to that. But he could take the ship he was on to Silea, recover the five million credits that he had stashed there over the years, and then lie low for awhile. The credits could buy him another ship on the black-market, as well as a new identity.

Then he would continue to follow his leads, and without the responsibilities of running a pirate organization.

During the past few days, Riyad had managed to collect a fair amount of intelligence, not the least of which was the fact that there
was
a thriving Human community in The Fringe. In addition, he didn’t believe half of what that lunatic Kyle Ross had told the Juirean. He knew his race and his planet, and there was no way that Earth was preparing for an imminent battle with the Juireans. It had to be ruse, a deflection from the truth, and from the real Klin base. It’s what he would have done.

It was a simple task to reprogram the nav computer for Silea instead of Melfora Lum, and once that was done, Riyad searched the ship for weapons, food and accommodations. The trip to Silea would take seven days, just enough time for him heal and get some of his strength back. He cranked the ship’s internal gravity up to a reasonable level and wolfed down some mush for energy. Then he jettisoned the rotting bodies in the cargo bay. The trip would be long, and he certainly didn’t want them stinking up the place.

Aboard the
UN-444
, Interim-Overlord Giodol stepped into stride next to Lord Yan’wal as the Senior Overlord made his way to one of the myriad of meetings that made up the majority of his day. “The Human has set a course for Silea. Your plan appears to be working.”

“Good. That creature is our best link to whatever conspiracy is underway. Be sure that our agents do not lose him on Silea.”

“Yes, My Lord. And there is more.”

Yan’wal did not stop, but cocked his head toward the junior Overlord.

“Our agent on Castor placed a tracker on Counselor Deslor’s shuttle. It left the planet about nine hours ago, and appears to be heading for Silea as well.”

Yan’wal nodded. “So both of the Humans who were aboard the mystery ship are heading for Silea? This must be more than a coincidence. I have ordered another forty ships to the Sector to replace the ones lost off Dimloe. Send ten of our current ships to the area near Silea and have them wait there in the event they are needed.
 
I do not believe we have seen the last of these Humans. And I will need more confirmation before I believe the Klin have had very little to do with this situation.”

“Yes, My Lord. And by the way, I have tracked down the two beings who originally brought the Klin ship in for salvage. There is evidence that they had the ship’s computer core for a period of time before Lord Oplim obtained it.”

“Were they able to access any of the data?”

“We cannot be sure. We do know that our technicians on Melfora Lum could not. Our techs transported the core to the Klin ship, just before it exploded.”

“What are your plans for these beings?”

“I have sent a ship to intercept them with instructions to bring them to Silea. Possibly having them meet with the original Humans again might reveal more information.”

“That sounds reasonable. I approve.”

Then the Senior Overlord stopped and looked directly at Giodol. “And once our new forces arrive, Lord Giodol, I want this Sector locked down. We have underestimated the threat from these Humans for the last time. Once the two Humans meet up on Silea, along with the salvagers, I want them covered. They
will
lead us to their cohorts. These creatures are fanatical, Lord Giodol. They will not hesitate to take drastic measures to protect their secrets. We must be very careful not to reveal our agents, or the fact that they are being tracked.”

“Understood, My Lord. I have my best agent leading the operation.”

Yan’wal’s stare turned into a glare. “It will take generations for the Juirean culture to get over the debacle at Dimloe, and this happened under
my
leadership. I will not let a group of savage aliens, or the lack of competency on the part of my own forces, damage my record any further. Is that understood, Lord Giodol?” Then he turned and walked away from his stunned subordinate.

Chapter Seventeen

During the five-day journey to Silea, Adam and Sherri had come to an understanding. Yes, they
would
sleep together, simply to enjoy the touch of another Human being, but that would be as far as it went, at least for the time being. Yet, if the trail to Sherri’s lost Human colony proved to be a bust, then they would revisit the whole relationship thing. If return to Earth was impossible, then they would stay together and try to forge whatever modicum of a life they could manage in this strange, alien universe.

But before that, it was purely for the sex.

On the fourth day out from Castor, Adam entered the stateroom carrying a package wrapped in white paper. Sherri was seated at the desk, listening to a translation of an item in the Library. It was always easier to just request a vocal translation of items on the galactic internet, rather than try to learn all the various written alien languages. The translator bugs imbedded behind their ears made reading a lost art, nearly to the point of extinction.

She noticed Adam when he entered. “What do you have there?”

Adam answered with a wide grin. “You’ve been out here longer than I have, so you may have already experienced this, but I think I have a real treat for you. Found these on Rigor.”

Adam separated the wrapping paper to reveal two thick slabs of richly-marbled meat. “I thought you might like a change from all the synthetic mush we’ve been eating. These are steaks – or as close as I’ve found to steaks out here.”

Sherri smiled back and raised her eyebrows.

Adam explained. “I was a Rigor a few months back and picked up the scent as those lizard-bastards were grilling up some of these. They come from a large grass-eater, something like a cow, but twice as big. Hell, it smelled like steak, looked like steak, and damn, if it didn’t even taste something like steak. So I bought up a supply and have kept them frozen for special occasions.”

“So this is one of those special occasions?”

“Well, it’s been a while since I had a date over to my place for dinner.”

Sherri laughed and patted his arm. “Well grill ‘em up big boy. Tonight we feast!”

The Rigorian meat was similar to beef steaks, yet not an equal match, but the two Humans didn’t care. They laughed between bites and shared more of their stories with each other, and – at least for the time being – forgot where they were.

Sherri explained that she had been raised on a small horse farm just outside of Owensboro, Kentucky, where her father raised Tennessee
     
Walking Horses. Every year, her family would cart some of the horses down to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for the big Walking Horse Celebration there, where it was non-stop talk about horses, horses and more horses. Sherri hated it. In fact, she was of that rare breed that gravitated to the
opposite
of how she was raised. She hated the country and loved the city. She was ambivalent towards animals, while feeling that none of them belonged in the house, not even cats and dogs.

“So why were you studying to be a veterinarian?” Adam asked, confused.

“I guess it was just to please my family. I knew a lot about the field already, having helped my dad out with all the beasts running around our property. Did I mention I’m an only child? I might have slipped under the radar if I had a brother around.”

“Yeah, family can be powerful influence on a kid, good and bad.”

Sherri nodded. “And you followed in your father’s footsteps, and joined the military.”

“That’s right. But I never had any issues with it. I guess I always knew I would make it a career. As a Navy brat, I spent a lot of time growing up near the water. My mother died in a car accident when I was eleven and my dad raised me by himself ever since. He never remarried. He taught me to shoot even before I could ride a bike, and I always respected what he did for a living. He was Corpsman in the Navy, and he went off to Iraq with the Marines during Desert Storm and later to Afghanistan in 2004 as a senior enlisted. I joined in 2009 and went right into SEAL qualifications.”

“What was that like? I hear it’s really hard to become a SEAL.”