For a moment, no one in the room moved, and then suddenly there was surge toward the table where Poul stood. Whether it was out of a sense of duty, or of survival, Poul quickly began to place stacks of credits into the eager hands of the other occupants in the hall. He continued to pass out the chips as fast as he could, his actions maintaining a delicate balance between hysteria and panic within the noisy crowd of wide-eyed creatures.
These credits would help, Poul thought — for a while. But then he would have a decision to make. He could continue down his current path, or he could try to find another line of work, one not associated with Juireans or the weapons of war. In light of the encounter he’d just had with the Human beast, the latter path seemed like the most-sensible — and healthy — to follow….
Chapter 2
Adam Cain and Sherri Valentine barreled their way through the angry and confused crowd of aliens outside the hall, heading for a back alley they’d scouted earlier. It wouldn’t be long before the authorities would arrive and put an end to Adam’s Robin Hood-like generosity with the Juirean credits. But in the meantime, the quest for the free credits would turn the once-passive crowd of potential recruits into a raging mob of desperate individuals. If they were lucky, it would be hours before peace would be restored, and by then the two Humans would be well on their way off the planet.
The killing of Juireans was always a dicey affair, and there was the possibility that all traffic off the planet would be halted once the killings were reported. So the day before, Adam had had the small shuttle craft they’d acquired from General Angar placed on the back of a transport truck and driven to an open field not too far from Lann Hall. Adam couldn’t risk leaving the shuttle at the spaceport. Locating it in the nearby field, away from any formal flight restrictions, would give them an opportunity to get off the planet, even if all the spaceports were locked down.
It was well into Day18 by the time they made their way to the field, but there was still plenty of light from the nearby streetlamps, as well as from the three moons of Hyben. The shuttle was sitting to the far left edge of the field, looking conspicuous and out of place, and as they sprinted across the field, Adam began to notice that the shuttle didn’t look quite right. As they drew closer, the reason soon became apparent.
The main hatchway for the shuttle was missing, as were the rear chemical jet ports; even the electronic code box for the entry hatch was missing, with only bare wires dangling from the opening. The craft itself was sitting cock-eyed on the ground, with one landing gear unit missing. And to top it all off, there was even some graffiti sprayed on the surface of the shuttle.
The craft had been stripped and tagged!
The two Humans entered the shuttle to find even more disappointment inside. The entire pilothouse was one cavernous room of missing modules and orphan wires — even the pilot and co-pilot seats were gone.
Adam and Sherri stood in silence, shoulders slumped, mouths agape. Here they were on a planet in Sector 16, two hundred light years from The Fringe, and their only ride off the planet was now an empty hulk of useless metal. And to add to that, they had just killed five Juireans, along with an untold number of their bodyguards, and soon the entire planet would be looking for them.
Sherri looked over at Adam. “Here’s another fine mess you’ve got me into,” she said, half-mockingly.
He returned her gaze and flashed a wide smile. “Look on the bright side: we still have our health!”
“Yeah, but for how long?”
Adam just shrugged, and then the two of them quickly moved to the aft section of the shuttle, to the ship’s sole berthing quarters. Fortunately, most of their clothing was still there; apparently, the shrimp-like Hybens had no need for Human-tailored clothing.
After quickly changing out of their blood-soaked cloaks and tunics, Adam and Sherri searched the shuttle for any of their back-up weapons, but found none. The thieves had done a very thorough job. Adam was mentally kicking himself for letting this happen, although he knew he had locked the shuttle’s hatch when they departed for Lann Hall earlier that afternoon. Yet the economy on Hyben was tough these days, and the natives desperate. This desperation only added to their resolve.
“What now, my Captain, my Captain?” Sherri asked, as she checked the power charge on her MK-17. She had two surplus power packs, and that was all — except for her lethal projection blade. Adam had a blade of his own, plus an MK with four packs, and the flash rifle with two extra power packs. None of their weapons would last long in any prolonged battle.
“It’s obvious we have to find another ship to get back up to the JU-224. And the Hyben and Juireans will be watching for any ship trying to depart-”
“And since you announced your name for all to hear, I think the J’s will be quite anxious to get their hands on you,” Sherri added.
“Yeah, that probably wasn’t such a good idea.”
The name of Adam Cain had circulated rapidly throughout this side of The Expansion, which was all part of the propaganda campaign the Humans had devised a couple of months back. Already, there were three other teams doing exactly what Sherri and Adam had done that evening: infiltrate Juirean recruiting meetings and strike fear in the hearts and minds of the potential recruits. During their strategy meetings back in The Fringe, it had been concluded that the Juireans would definitely have the resources to produce a sufficient number of warcraft to go up against the Human fleet, but if they couldn’t find recruits to man them, then their numerical superiority would be nullified.
Already, Kroekus’s spies in the other parts of The Expansion were reporting that Adam’s strategy was having an effect. The Juireans were finding it extremely difficult to secure recruits from the more affluent Members of The Expansion, so recently they had begun to concentrate their efforts on the poorer worlds, ones where the risk of going up against the Humans was outweighed by the need for financial survival. Hyben was one such world.
Yet with all the success of the propaganda campaign, it did require Adam and the other teams to travel deeper into Juirean territory, far away from any support or possibility of rescue should any unforeseen events take place — such as having your shuttle stripped by alien gang-bangers!
Adam knew the Humans could never survive going up against a unified coalition of Expansion planets, so their only hope was to keep as many of the Members as neutral bystanders as possible. And even though the strategy was working, Adam also knew that his tactics would soon have to change. The Juireans were traveling with more and more bodyguards these days, and as his terrorism activities continued, the Juireans would continue to increase the security surrounding the meetings until infiltration would become impossible. Adam and his Raiders would then have to resort to more indiscriminate methods of disrupting the meetings, such as bombings. Yet that would surely cause civilian casualties, which would jeopardize the relations the Humans were trying to forge with other Members of The Expansion.
Adam was walking a fine line between his role as a terrorist and as a soldier. His only salvation would come with quick and decisive Human victories against the Juirean fleets. If so, then the simple reality of the situation would go a long way to deterring any mass volunteer efforts to man the Juirean ships. The recruits would be simply too scared to volunteer — no matter how much the Juireans were willing to pay.
It would be then that Captain Adam Cain, USN, could return to waging war the way he had been trained — straight up and in your face — and not with all this clandestine shit.