Star Glory (Empire Series Book 1) Read online

  The captain tapped the green oval. It turned yellow. The hatch swung inward. A voice sounded from beyond.

  “Beware the gravity transition change,” said a voice that sounded mechanical.

  The four suited Marines floated past the captain, their legs pulled up to their chests in preparation for a downward drop. Which happened a foot past the rim of the open hatch. I saw what the captain saw. A yellow-lighted space beyond the hatch looked empty. The Marines moved away and to either side of the hatch.

  “Captain, gravity registers at 70 percent of a gee,” called Owanju. “Nothing live in this chamber. We are covering, sir.”

  “Understood.”

  The captain copied the legs pulled up movement of the Marines and pushed his floating body forward. He dropped to the floor of the chamber and moved to the left. Morales, Bjorg and O’Connor followed him. Then the rest of us floated forward past the hatch rim, dropped, adjusted to the feel of the lighter gravity and stepped to one side so we were out of the way of incoming people. I scanned the chamber we stood in. It was five meters wide by ten meters long and four meters high. On either side of the chamber were racks from which hung various types of vacsuits. Some storage boxes stood where the deck met the bulkhead. The metal was red colored. It seemed these aliens liked red. Behind me Warren closed the entry hatch.

  “Captain, hatch is closed,” my friend said.

  “Good. Master Sergeant Jenkins, come down the tube and join us. I want you ten with us before we go further.”

  The fourteen of us waited long minutes. Nothing spoke to us. Nothing live showed in the space beyond the inner airlock hatch that had a small porthole in its middle, plus the green oval in its middle. The thud of boots behind me said the first combat suited Marine had reopened the outer hatch, floated through and dropped to the floor.

  “Major, entry security detail is ready,” Jenkins said, her voice an interesting mix of male assertiveness and higher toned female speech. “The boarding tube hatch is closed. Sir.”

  I stood at the far left side of the airlock chamber. Which was now crowded with twenty-four humans, fourteen of them in eight foot tall combat suits. Major Owanju stood before the inner airlock hatch.

  “Major, open the hatch,” the captain said, sounding calm and relaxed.

  “Opening.”

  The major’s gauntleted fist tapped the green oval. Its color went to yellow. It swung inward. Moving in with the swing of the hatch was the major, followed quickly by his three Marines.

  “Humans!” yelled a voice that came over my shoulder translator tube. “There is no threat here! Enter to trade or leave.”

  The captain followed the four Marines into the room beyond. Bill and Warren ran to the open hatch and jumped through it, able to move a bit faster than the suited form of Jenkins. Who quickly followed. Morales followed the big sergeant. I ran quickly and followed the Farm Deck boss. Behind me came several suited Marines, followed by Cassie, Oksana and Evelyn. The remaining Marines came after them, based on what my super sensitive ears told me. I did not look back to confirm what my hearing had detected. Instead, I focused on the creature in front of us, at the far end of a large chamber that resembled a human warehouse.

  A raccoon-like being stood before us. Tall as Cassie, it was covered in gray fur with black stripes running from its triangular head down to its thick tail. While it had two tufted ears, two short legs and two arms with clawed fingers, the rest of it was alien weird. Three red eyes ran across its forehead. A narrow slit below the eyes seemed to be a nose or air entry. Below the nose slit was a triangular jaw filled with long yellow canines. One of its hands held a round disk that it now looked up from. From its shoulders hung leather straps that went down and connected to a leather belt at its waist. From the belt hung pouches filled with pieces of metal that looked like tools versus weapons. Then again, who knows what an alien hand weapon looks like? But what now stood before us was definitely a carnivore predator, based on its teeth and the bright warning colors that the science of aposematism said were a declaration of danger to any other predator.

  The captain stepped past the line of Owanju, Jones, Osashi and Khan. Who had their laser pulse rifles aimed forward, though not directly at the being that faced us. Our captain walked forward slowly, drawing closer to the furry alien. The rest of us followed him.

  “I am Captain Neil Skorzeny, commander of the heavy cruiser Star Glory, which is now attached to your station. The being Tik-long said it was willing to trade with us. We are here to trade.”

  The three red eyes of the raccoon-being blinked. Then each eye moved independently, scanning everyone in the big warehouse room. They focused back on the captain.

  “My designator is Wick-lo,” it said, its jaws moving up and down as it spoke. A pink tongue formed barks, grunts and growls that were translated to English. “I am Prime Assistant to Decider Tik-long. It is my duty to convey you to meet him. Why do you humans carry what my sensors say are weapons?”

  I had a side view of the captain. His expression was as neutral and unmoving as when he had confronted Nehru. “As I warned Decider Tik-long, we humans are deadly beings. We always carry weapons with us whenever we visit places not controlled by us.” He gestured to the rear. “Ten of the white-suited humans, whom we call Marines, will stay in this chamber as entry security. They will prevent any lifeform or robot from accessing my ship. Four Marines,” he gestured to Owanju. “Will be my personal guard. They go where I go, enter where I enter, see what I see and are ready to protect me and my assistant humans from any harm. If you object, tell Tik-long we will not trade with him. And he will lose valuable items.”

  The creature’s three red eyes all focused forward. It was clear it had binocular vision when it wished, in addition to chameleon-like sideways vision thanks to its mobile eyes. Its jaws opened. “How many humans will exit this chamber with me?”

  “Fourteen,” the captain said. “Four Marines, myself and my assistants, who have special knowledge relevant to trading we wish to do with Tik-long.”

  The raccoon who called himself Wick-lo turned away and walked quickly toward the oval outline of a hatch. “Follow then. But be warned. Other raiders who move about this base also carry weapons. If you attack them, humans will die.”

  “I am warned. Perhaps you should warn them that anyone who attacks a human will be injured, or die quickly,” the captain said calmly. “We are more than our weapons. We destroyed two Empire vessels that attacked us. We now seek ways to kill more Empire vessels.”

  “Then you have come to the right base,” Wick-lo said, reaching up to touch a green oval. The hatch, which was the size of a garage door, swung outward. “Follow.”

  We all followed Wick-lo and the captain. Major Owanju and the Marine named Osashi flanked the captain. Or so I saw based on his name that ran across the top of his armored backpack. Behind the rest of us the other two combat suited Marines brought up the rear. They were Jones and Khan, or so said the black letters emblazoned above their chest sensor packs. In the middle walked Cassie, Oksana, Evelyn, Morales, Bjorg, Bill, Warren, Chief O’Connor and myself. I moved to the right side of our central group, wanting to be on the outer edge. If I had to fire my .45, I wanted to avoid hitting a friend. To my left Bill and Warren did the same. Bill had pulled his laser pistol and held it aimed down, while Warren rested his right hand on his holstered .45. The women looked at us, shook their heads, then put their hands on their own semi-autos. Clearly they wished us to know they were as prepared to defend our group as we were, macho habits be damned.

  We entered bedlam.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Shock hit me. Sounds, smells, images and weird-tasting air assaulted me. If I could have pushed away the crowd of aliens passing before me, I would have done so. Instead, my brain did its thing since I was too shocked to shut down its auto functions. One hundred and forty-seven beings were within a hundred meters of our group. They walked, trotted, hopped, slithered, flew and swung from ceiling fixtures a
nd pipes. They passed from left to right, following a wide hallway to somewhere. More arrived from the left and others disappeared to the right. Wick-lo paused, then hopped forward quickly when a space opened in the group of passing aliens.

  “Follow.”

  Even I was too shocked to react. But the major wasn’t. He jumped after the raccoon-being, landing behind him with a loud clank. His arrival startled nearby aliens, who moved back and away. Osashi now grabbed the captain by his waist and jumped to join Owanju. The rest of us ran ahead and fell into a tight group behind the three of them. Khan and Jones ran after us and took up position directly behind us. Aliens moved all around us. Ahead Wick-lo moved in short hops. The captain, Owanju and Osashi followed at a determined pace. Ignoring the aliens for a moment I saw the infrared glows of everyone, except for the suited Marines, were brighter than usual. And no wonder. I looked around, mentally inventorying the shapes, smells and sounds of busy-acting aliens.

  A meter to my right hopped something that resembled an armadillo crossed with a kangaroo. Its inner fur was brown while its plated outer body had stripes of red and black, a clear aposematic warning. Its two hands held a box whose top was blinking in various light combinations. On my left slithered something that resembled a Komodo dragon, except it walked on two legs. Its skull had eyes circling its entire head. Sharp canines filled its mouth. Its scaly skin was gray with spots of red and yellow, much like the plated skin of Tik-long. Behind our group lumbered a six-legged something that resembled a black-skinned hippo, except this alien had a head at the front and one at the rear. Both heads had mouths full of vicious-looking teeth. On its back moved tentacles that might be its version of hands. To one side of it lumbered a red-furred something that resembled a mountain gorilla, except it had an extra pair of arms at its waist in addition to shoulder arms. It wore a close-fitting outfit that shone with a silvery metallic sheen. Beyond the gorilla-being pranced something that resembled a yellow-feathered ostrich, except this creature’s head was bald, it had two red eyes set in binocular mode, and a mouth full of omnivore teeth. Just below its long neck were two arms covered in brown fabric that ended in gloves. Its three-fingered hands each held square tablets that it glanced at now and then. Looking away from this group and forward, I noticed a green-furred bear-like alien who resembled a polar bear or a tall grizzly. It wore a yellow jacket, short pants and carried a tube the size of a shotgun. As it strode forward, the clawed hand that held the tube swung forward and backward. My eyes quickly noticed a yellow electrical nimbus glowing at each end of the tube. Which perhaps explained why other aliens gave it plenty of clearance. While the green-furred bear did not have the red, yellow, black and white colors that were obvious aposematic warning colors, its canine teeth, black nose and clawed hands and feet made clear it was an apex predator.

  “Look at that critter!” Warren said, pointing to the left.

  I looked. Something that resembled a gray boulder rolled along the wide hallway. But its skin was flexible, as if it were soft, like jello. As it passed below ceiling light strips, they dimmed. When it passed by, the lights brightened.

  “It’s an energy absorber,” Cassie said quickly. “It doesn’t need a mouth. It just absorbs nearby emissions of energy.”

  “Where’s its eyes and hands?” Bill muttered, holding his pistol at the ready as we walked after the captain, Owanju and Osashi.

  “Who says other life forms have to have hands?” Evelyn murmured from my right. Her freckled face was bright with excitement. As she talked, she glanced from side to side. “That rolling boulder doesn’t have hands. Or eyes. Or feet. Yet it is here. Which means it is the apex of evolution on its planet. Otherwise it would not have gone into space and ended up here.”

  Something that resembled a Crown-of-Thorns starfish ambled along just beyond Evelyn. Its dozen flexible arms held its center upright. A large blue eye peered ahead from what looked like a dome head. While its arms were thorny like the Earth starfish, each arm ended in six flexible fingers. I recalled from a class at Great Lakes that starfish were called radial lifeforms, in that they have neither front nor rear, but relate in all directions. And this creature seemed fine with breathing air, assuming it has a breathing mouth somewhere. Maybe it lay under the head and hidden by the two meter high arms.

  “You are right, Evelyn.” I gestured at the starfish alien. “That alien has no hands, too many legs and just one eye. Makes me wonder what its spaceships look like.”

  She chuckled. As did Cassie and Oksana. Chief O’Connor gave me a sideways look that said “Young folks! What are you gonna do with them?”

  “Look up,” called Lieutenant Morales as she strode ahead of us.

  We all looked up.

  A group of six aliens who resembled lemurs or macaque monkeys swung from pipe to pipe, avoiding the risk of being trampled by larger aliens. One of the brown-furred aliens had a tiny version clutching its furry belly. Or her belly, assuming it was a mother. And assuming this troop of swinging aliens had male and female genders.

  “Looks dangerous to me,” grunted Bjorg as he strode along beside of Morales.

  “Maybe so,” Morales said softly. “But they—”

  The mother primate missed the overhead pipe she was reaching for. A nearby primate grabbed her left arm, preventing her from falling. But the jerk of being grabbed by a fellow primate shook loose the baby primate. It fell, a low shriek sounding. It landed just ahead of Wick-lo. The raccoon-being stopped hopping, reached down, grabbed the baby and tossed it into its toothy mouth. A sharp crunch ended the baby’s squeaks.

  “It killed the baby!” cried Evelyn.

  Shock filled me. The troop of six brown-furred monkeys kept swinging along from pipe to pipe, not stopping. The mother primate glanced down, blinked brown eyes, then followed her fellows. No other nearby alien acted surprised.

  Wick-lo pulled loose the baby’s hips and small legs from its blood-reddened mouth. “Tasty.”

  A sigh came from the captain. “The small primate belongs to an intelligent species. Do you always eat intelligent people?”

  Wick-lo’s hopping gate resumed. It stuffed the remains of the baby primate into one of its waist pouches. “I eat only those who lack the intelligence to survive in this station. The small one lacked the ability to hold tight. It fell. I ate it.” The raccoon-being looked back to Captain Skorzeny. Its three red eyes fixed on him. “Eating it removes its genes from the genome of those Makmaks. Their species will grow more intelligent as a result of having lost the small one. Do you not understand biological evolution?”

  “We humans understand biological evolution. We also understand the value of a complete planetary ecology. We no longer hunt unintelligent creatures,” the captain said. “When we eat meat, it comes from domesticated animals. No human eats another human. Nor would we eat an intelligent being like that small primate.”

  “You humans are strange,” barked Wick-lo. “Life in Warm Swirl does not allow for weakness. The Empire of Eternity rules everywhere, except here and along the part of this star arm that its vessels have yet to reach. Survival depends on being deadly and unrelenting in one’s struggle to live. You humans showed you understood that when you killed the raider ship. There is no difference between eating a careless being and killing an attacking ship. Survival is what matters.”

  “We agree that survival is what matters,” the captain said, sounding irritated. “And to survive we wish to obtain the means to destroy Empire vessels. How much longer before we meet Decider Tik-long?”

  “We are nearly at its access tube. Which is here. Follow.”

  The raccoon-being turned left down a side hallway. It was smaller than the wide thoroughfare that was crowded with scores of aliens. This hallway was indeed tubelike, though its overhead was just three meters up. The suited Marines cleared it by a foot. Wick-lo stopped before a wall that blocked travel along the access tube. A red oval blinked in the middle of the wall.

  “Prime Assistant Wick-lo arrives with f
ourteen humans,” it said in a rapid sequence of barks, growls and groans. “Entry admission code lak-12-nonagen-mok!”

  “Your admission code is accepted,” came a mechanical voice from the overhead. “Make your company aware that my sensors detect their weapons. Any use will result in a death response from me.”

  This sounded like some kind of an AI.

  “They are advised,” Wick-lo said. It reached out and tapped once on the red oval. The oval turned green. The metal wall slid to one side, disappearing into a thicker wall. “Follow and be non-violent.”

  “We are always peaceful with those who are non-violent with us,” the captain said, following after the raccoon-being.

  Owanju and Osashi flanked him on the left and right. The rest of us followed after them.

  Greenery struck my eyes. Life smells hit my nose. My ears heard the rush of flowing water. To the left and right rose green-leafed trees, red-leafed trees, brown shrubs, scattered clumps of what looked like grass, and over it all curved a dome roof of clear glass. Or clear quartz. Or something that allowed in the light from the yellow star. Ahead of us lay a small hill of brown dirt and gray rock. Surrounding the hill was a circle of blue water that flowed swiftly. White caps showed where the water tumbled over rocks. Behind the hill were more green and red-leafed trees. A quick look up showed a large world above us. This must be one of the clear-roofed domes we had seen as we approached. That it belonged to Tik-long was evident from the fact that he sat atop the hill. In short, a red lobster-centipede stared down at us with four blue eyestalks, his lobster mouth open, green tongue visible. The yellow and black spots on his red armor plates shone bright under the yellow light that glowed from tubes which circled the room. No one else was in this chamber. Wick-lo hopped forward, stopping at the edge of the moat.