The Fringe Worlds (10 page)

Angar looked down at a screen in front of him. “Yes, there were several small units missing, but again all supposedly taken by us.”

“He would have hidden them somewhere on the way.” Then the obvious answer popped into his head. “The asteroids. He hid it there.”

“There are millions of them, Sir.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why we need to get the driver to tell us where he hid the core. Where is the bastard now”

“They are being detained at the Ministry.”

“Detained Why”

The blood seemed to drain from Angar’s face. “They are awaiting the arrival of a Juirean Counselor for interrogation”

Juireans! Why did they care about this salvage

“When will the Counselor be arriving”

“Anytime now. The Ministry is making arrangements for the interrogation of the two mule-drivers, and of the one survivor.”

“Survivor What survivor” Riyad was upset that this was the first he was hearing of this.

“Yes, there seems to have been one survivor.” Then realizing his mistake, almost all the blood rushed from Angar’s face. “One of the beings from the hiberpods is alive.”

“What! Why wasn’t I told of this” Riyad literally leaped out of his chair. The facial recognition sensor on the vid camera followed his movement and kept him on screen with Angar.

“Apologies, My General. When we went aboard there were dozens of hiberpods. All the creatures were dead, except this one, evidently.”

Riyad stared at the captain for several long moments, while Angar shifted nervously, waiting for Riyad to say something. Finally, he spoke. “Where is this survivor now” His speech was slow and calculated.

“He, too, is being detained at the Ministry. But he is being held pending a murder investigation.”

This was the last thing Riyad had expected to hear. “What do you mean Explain yourself.”

“Last night, the survivor apparently killed two Rigorians in a challenge. Witnesses say it was unprovoked, that’s how two of them could be killed by a single creature.”

That’s not so unbelievable, not in light of what you’ve just told me, Riyad thought. Another live human being! And it didn’t take long for the abilities to manifest themselves. But that information he would have to deal with later. Right now he had a more urgent matter.

“Captain Angar, I’m giving you the most important task of your life. Fail this, and you will not have a life left.” Angar swallowed hard, his eyes wide with fear and anticipation. “The mule-drivers must be freed from the Nimorians, alive, and brought to me. If the driver is killed, with him will go the location of the computer core. You can use any of our contacts in the Gangs and in the Ministry to secure their release. Do what you must. And one last thing,” his voice lowered slightly, “if you cannot subdue the survivor without risking the lives of the mule-drivers, then you must kill him. Is that clear”

“Yes, Sir! I already have a major contact in the Ministry. I will learn what I can and stage an escape as soon as possible.”

“Keep me informed of all your progress.” Then Riyad cut the link.

Well this is just great, Adam thought, as he led the parade out of the office and down the stairs. The jail was in the next building over, and as they made their way there, Adam tried to think if there was any way out of his current situation. Again, being on an alien planet took away most of his options. Even if he could escape, where would he go He knew that he had killed the lizards in a fair fight, so he figured he’d just let things ride and see where they ended up.

Solid metal doors greeted them at the prison building and they entered into a processing room with high counters manned by grim looking natives wearing tan vests instead of the black ones the guards wore. The three detainees were herded through a security gate made of thin metal bars and taken down a wide corridor to a series of jail cells.

The familiarity of the cells once again amazed Adam; about the only thing that made this scene alien were the creatures themselves. The room was long, with ten cells along the right side. Each cell was lined with the same thin metal bars, running up from the floor to the ceiling with no supports running between them, and the cells were open to each other except for a wall of bars separating them. Inside each cell were two cots placed along each interior wall of the cell and then a sink and toilet set along the solid back wall. There were no windows to the outside. The three of them were the only occupants.

Adam was placed in one cell while Kaylor and Jym were locked in another. Once the gates were locked, the guards left.

Adam walked over to the sink and splashed some water on his face. Looking around, he found no towel, so he pulled up the sheet on one of the cots and dried off. Then he sat on the cot facing the cell of his alien companions, where the two of them were in an animated, yet hushed conversation.

“Hey,” Adam called out to them, “what just happened in there”

Kaylor and Jym ignored him.

“Hey, alien dudes!” This time he got their attention. “What are you two so excited about You’re not the one accused of murder.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Kaylor said dismissively. “I’m sure they’ll get it all worked out once they interview more of the witnesses from the tavern.” Then he turned back to the conversation with Jym.

Adam decided to use a different tact. “So what’s a Juirean Counselor”

This got both of their attention.

Kaylor moved closer to the bars separating the two cells. “Didn’t I tell you the Juireans rule the civilized galaxy Having a Juirean come here, to meet us — well there must be something very special about that ship you were on.”

“That’s not my area of expertise. Remember, I was just cargo.”

Kaylor looked annoyed, while Jym settled on the far away cot and sat down. “You don’t understand how serious this is,” Kaylor said. “The Juirean Expansion encompasses over 10,000 stellar systems. Juireans don’t bother themselves with every little thing that goes on in them, especially not way out here on the Fringe. I’ve been out in this part of the Expansion for almost 20 years and I’ve never even seen a Juirean in person.”

“I saw one once,” Jym interjected. “But it was at a big celebration on my world, and it was from pretty far away.”

Kaylor ignored the interruption. “A Counselor is only one step below an Overlord, and the only other level above that are the Elites, but they never leave Juir. I’ve heard that there are only about 10 Juireans in the entire Fringe. Do you see now why we are so concerned”

“I guess so. But you didn’t do anything wrong, either. So relax. It will all work itself out,” Adam offered, with a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

Kaylor placed both his hands on the cell bars, favoring his broken left arm, and hung his head slightly. “It also looks like they may take away our salvage.”

Adam could tell that the two aliens were really worried. “So, tell me more about these Juireans. How did they come to be the top dogs out here”

Adam’s reference to “top dogs” seemed to confuse Kaylor for a moment, as he appeared to be listening to the translator work through the reference. Then he sat on the cot and leaned back against the bars at the front of the cell.

“I have to say, the Juireans are not to be messed with. They control the technology and the manufacturing capacity of the Expansion. They also have the strongest weapons and largest fleets. They’re the ones who have tied the entire known galaxy together. The Juirean Expansion reaches from the other side of the Core, to this side of the galaxy and on to the Fringe at the edge of the Far Arm - the place where you apparently come from. There’s still a lot of galaxy to explore and eventually the Juireans will control it all.”

“That doesn’t answer the question about how they did it.”

“Well that goes back about 4,000 years ago and the Seven World Common Alliance.” Kaylor began. Adam could tell this was helping take Kaylor’s mind off of his situation.

“There was a complex stellar cluster with three dominate stars, and around them orbited seven habitable worlds. During certain times, most of these planets would come very near to each other, near enough that powerful telescopes could pick up the lights and signs of intelligent life on them. As each species evolved, their primary purpose became to contact their sister planets.

“Science and technology advanced very quickly on these worlds, as they bypassed the normal beliefs in religion and such that most other civilizations held. Knowing from the beginning that there were beings on other worlds made the belief in one god, or in their own uniqueness based on some divine creation, obsolete. My own world, as well as most of the others I’ve visited, still hold onto these ancient beliefs. These superstitions and restrictions slowed the progress of science by thousands of years. But not in the Common Alliance. While we were riding steeds and building our first wheeled carts, some of the races in the Alliance were already building rockets and developing wave transmitters so they could communicate with the other worlds.

“As the story goes, they soon began traveling back and forth between planets and sharing technology. The Klin, the Diphorians, the Oanneans were some of the first. They eventually set criteria for entry into the Alliance, the most important of which was that each planet must be united under one government before they would be offered full membership.

“The Juireans, according to these stories, were still divided and tribal at this time. But they, too, knew of the beings on their neighboring worlds and wanted to join them. But the other worlds considered them too primitive and warlike for membership. This made the Juireans mad. In fact, at that time, there were hundreds of city-states on the planet, and Juir was just one of them.

“And then a leader arose, Malor the Great, who began a concerted effort to unify the planet. After a long and bloody campaign, he eventually succeeded. And when he did, the others arrived.”

Kaylor stretched, giving himself some relief from the hard metal bars against his back. Then seeing that Adam was actually paying attention to his lecture, he continued.

“By then, the Alliance consisted of six of the seven worlds. Even though Juir was united now, they were not granted full membership. The other civilizations still considered them too violent and belligerent. But Malor had a plan.

“At the time, the Klin and the Oanneans were in a minor struggle for control of the Alliance, and Malor convinced the Klin that the Juireans could use their more military-style abilities to provide protection and security for the Klin, a race who had never had to fight before, either among themselves or against others. So the Juireans were granted full membership and given complete access to all the technology of the Alliance. This was a mistake, but not if you listen to the Juireans tell it.”

Adam could tell from the tone of Kaylor’s story that he had no love lost for the Juireans. Yet Adam was finding the story fascinating. Here was a tale of real galactic conquest by real aliens. This was better than any movie or sci-fi book.

Kaylor continued.

“Juireans live for a very long time, often a couple of hundred years or more. And over the fifty years or so since Malor had unified the planet — and they were still denied membership in the Alliance — the Juireans developed an intense hatred for the other members of the Alliance, especially the Klin, whom they held responsible for this insult. So once Malor and the Juireans gained access to the Alliance technology, including the newly-developed gravity drive for interstellar travel, they attacked.

“To the Juireans, this is a time of immense pride and accomplishment in their history. To this day they still celebrate The Reckoning, as they call it. They decimated the other races, whom similar to the Klin, had never really developed a military or a killer instinct, I guess you would call it. Yet the Juireans focused the brunt of their revenge on the Klin. They sterilized the Klin home world and exterminated the race.”

“Not all of them!” Jym finally spoke up.

“What do you mean” Adam asked.

Kaylor answered. “What he means is there are rumors, stories, that some of the Klin escaped and went into hiding. The tales say that the Klin will someday rise again and vanquish the Juireans.”

“You don’t believe that”

“It’s been almost four thousand years and there has never been any verifiable proof that any Klin still exist.”

“They’ve been to Fulqin!” Jym countered.

“Fulqin is where Jym comes from,” Kaylor explained. “Nearly every race has their myths.” He turned to Jym, “Admit it Jym, no one has actually produced a real Klin for the transmissions, now have they”

“They’re just being cautious.”

“Go on,” Adam said to Kaylor.

“Well, once the Juireans had conquered the Alliance, they set out bringing other worlds under their control using the new gravity drive. But soon wars were breaking out all over the place, and the Juireans found themselves assaulted on all sides.

“By this time Malor had died and the Juireans went through various leaders until Arolus Ra Un came to power. He was a strong and fearless leader who decided that the best way to bring unity to the warring factions of the Alliance was to give them all a new purpose, something new to fight against, other than themselves. So he built The Mass.”

“What was that” Adam asked.

“It was a massive fleet of 10,000 starships that fanned out in all directions across the galaxy, conquering worlds through force, intimidation or by politics. Some races resisted, but none were able to hold out for long. The Mass lasted for five hundred years, until it became so large and unmanageable that the Juireans had to stop to catch their breath. The lust for power by the Juireans was fairly well-exhausted by this time and they found that the task of governing all the worlds of the new Alliance was almost too much to bear.

“So they retreated briefly, letting hundreds of systems fall back to their pre-contact existences. As it turned out, this caused more harm than good, they soon realized. Once most of these worlds had experienced the wonders of the Juirean technology - stolen from the Klin, I might add - they longed for more, so they fought regional wars for what was left by the Juireans. I know this to be true, because my home world was involved in one of the bloodiest and most protracted of these wars.”