As he swept around to make what he hoped would be the last shot on the Juirean cruiser, he was beginning to think that joining the battle may not have been such a good idea after all. Even if the Klin did succeed in driving off the Juireans, they would be back, and in more strength than before. But his own forces would never recover.
Riyad’s whole world had changed over the past hour. He had easily lost over half his ships, ships that would be virtually impossible to replace. And the crews! It would take him years to bring together enough of the unique beings that made up a gang of pirates; you couldn’t just pick them up on any planet. Pirates were a rare breed, and now their numbers had been decimated. It would be a long time — if ever — before they would be the feared Fringe Pirates again.
And even though it looked as if the Klin might prevail in this battle, this was just the beginning of the war. The Klin had proven that they could take on a superior Juirean force. The Juireans would learn from this engagement…
Just then, Riyad saw four of the Klin ships disappear from his screen. And as he lined up for the final shot on the stricken Juirean ship in his sites, the Juirean cruiser itself let loose with a bolt of its own aimed at a Klin ship on his wing. But instead of turning to face the oncoming bolt, the Klin ship actually flipped up, exposing its vulnerable underbelly. The bolt impacted the hull and penetrated straight through, as if the diffusion screen had been deactivated! The ship exploded on his right.
Distracted by the explosion, Riyad overshot his target. He banked left and headed toward the smaller second moon of Dimloe. Something was happening here that he didn’t understand. He needed time evaluate. The Klin, and his own forces — what was left of them — had the Juireans on the ropes. But now they appeared to be intentionally throwing the fight!
David Sidwell’s jaw dropped as he witnessed the first of his fleet turn belly-up and accept the bolt from the Juirean battle platform. His mood then turned to panic as he saw four more of his surviving ships suddenly flare bright on the tact screen and disappear.
Opening a communication channel to the surviving members of his fleet, David barely got out the first syllable before he felt the burning sting of the beam from a miniature laser weapon enter his back just below his neck. He slumped in his chair, and felt the life begin to drain from his body. Then a figure moved into his line of sight. It was Kyle Ross, looking as calm and emotionless as ever — and holding a laser weapon.
David’s eyes just looked at him, as his mouth tried to form the word “Why?” But no sound came out.
“You have served our race well, Mr. Sidwell. Now it is our turn to take over.” Ross watched as the gray glaze of death filled the eyes of David Sidwell, before reaching over to the comm console and opening a channel to the Juirean fleet.
Fleet Commander Siegor had lifted out of his seat and moved closer to the battle screen. He, too, had seen the tide of the battle turn, but he only saw it in relation to the blue, red and green circles on his screen. His forces now outnumbered the Klin easily two to one. He could count nine, then eight, then seven of the remaining Klin ships. And many of the smaller green ones had already bolted out of the area.
Just then his communication officer called out to him. “Commander, we have a transmission coming in from the Klin!”
“Aloud!” Siegor commanded.
“To the Juirean commander. We are offering ourselves for surrender. We have one remaining battleship. It is my flagship. Please do not fire upon it.”
“Cease action!” he called out.
Siegor had his victory. Now he would have his prisoners.
Riyad picked up the same communication just a last stray bolt from a Juirean cruiser struck the aft section of his ship. His generators went offline, and he felt the sickening surge of weightlessness overtake him and the remaining five crewmembers on the bridge. Reluctantly, Riyad pressed the survival beacon on his command console. All he could do now was wait to see if the Juireans would honor an offer of surrender in the case of his ship, too.
Chapter Twelve
The Juireans did honor Riyad’s surrender code, and seven hours after the conclusion of the battle, an armed shuttle secured itself to his airlock and a squad of heavily armed beings came aboard.
There were four Juireans and two other beings Riyad did not recognize. Once they were satisfied that Riyad and his five crewmembers were unarmed, they were all shackled and transported to the Juirean command ship.
A green-maned Juirean Guard stood stoically in the loading hanger, holding a datapad and scanning each prisoner as they went by with another hand-held device. Riyad’s crew exited first. They were scanned and then lead off to a section of the hanger some fifty meters away. The Guard then scanned Riyad, barely looking at him as he did so. Suddenly he looked up from his pad and eyed Riyad up and down. And then after tapping something into the pad, he called for several of the other guards to remove him from the hanger and take him to the holding cell — with the others.
And as Riyad was leaving the hanger, he chanced a glance back at his crewmembers — just as they were shot to death by the Juirean Guards…
The holding cell within the Juirean starship was simply at large stateroom with a segregated grooming area and a single bed. There were six guards armed with flash rifles in the corridor outside the room, and once they removed his shackles and shoved him in the room, they shut and secured the door behind him.
Inside the room was the last thing Riyad ever expected to see. Milling around near the center of the room, with a few sitting on the bed, were at least dozen or so Human beings! He was stunned. In the past seven years, he had only seen a total of four other humans — the three on the slave ship when he was first taken, and then Adam Cain. Now here was a whole soccer team worth of Humans.
And no one was paying him any special attention.
Riyad moved into the room and approached the first grouping of men. They stopped their conversation and turned to look at him with blank, emotionless expressions.
“Hello, my friends!” he said, taking the hand of the nearest man and shaking it vigorously. The man just let Riyad do it, with no return effort on his part. “I’m Riyad Tarazi. I am so glad to see so many of my fellow Humans.”
A tall, red-hair young man, looking to be about twenty-five or thirty stepped over to the group and pulled Riyad aside. He looked seriously into Riyad’s eyes. “I am Kyle Ross. I am the leader here. Who are you?”
“Like I said, I’m Riyad Tarazi. I’m from Lebanon originally, but I’ve been out here for almost seven years. How many other Humans are there in your group? Do you know the way back to Earth?”
Ross grabbed his arm, squeezing it tightly, and shoved him against the wall. Then leaning in closer, Ross said, “You are not of our group. You are a native. You are not supposed to be here.” His voice was a growl, and Riyad noticed several other men as they moved in around him.
“No, I am not one of you. I was with the Fringe Pirates who fought with you against the Juireans.” Riyad was growing nervous. These were other men, other Humans, so his strength advantage was gone. He would have to be careful.
“I was not aware there were any Humans with the pirates,” Ross stated as Riyad noticed him relax a little. “I apologize. It’s just that I know all the surviving Humans and you were not one of them. You could have been a spy for the Juirean scum.”
“I’m no fucking spy! I was the leader of the Fringe Pirates, and I sent my crews up to help you.”
Ross nodded, and several of the other men moved in closer still. “Now it begins to make more sense. We have noticed how much more effective the pirates have become over the past several years. Were you responsible for that?”