Nemesis 1: Revenge Is Best Served Hot (2 page)

Cinny stared at the monitor, “That planet has a lot of commercial traffic.”

“The computer has been listening to our conversation. It knows what we’re looking to accomplish and selecting a planet without space travel would be a waste of time. It chose the optimal planet for us to see if our suspicions are accurate.”

Cinny stood and went to replace her blaster; the one she had used in the restaurant needed to be recharged. Grant said, “Pick me one up, too.” Cinny nodded as Grant tossed his blaster to her as she disappeared from the bridge. She came back and handed Grant a blaster. He tapped the side of his black uniform and a blaster holster appeared. He took the new one and put it in the holster on his right hip. It disappeared into the fabric. Cinny smiled and said, “You’re not as hard headed as you once were.”

Grant smiled, “That’s why I chose my name, to remind me that I’m not the only egg in the nest. You kept saying my head was as hard as granite, so Grant was the right name. Your name was easy.”

“I guess. My hair is cinnamon colored. I wonder if we ever had other names.”

Grant sighed, “I don’t know if either of us will ever know; are you ready?”

“How do you want to do this?”

“I don’t want to take the ship down to the planet. We should each take a scooter and if we find anyone, you can take them with you. I’ll cover your exit.”

Cinny thought a moment and then nodded, “I guess I appear less intimidating than you.”

“You’re smaller. However, you’re right. They will probably struggle less with you than me.” Grant stood up and followed Cinny to the ship’s landing bay.

• • •

The Werstag sat down at his table in the bar and took a sip of his drink. He looked around and kept a careful eye on everyone near him and the entrance; his species was small and he knew others might see him as an inviting target. Catching him would pose a problem if anyone approached him. He was looking for work on a commercial freighter but had struck out so far. Most of the Captains he approached laughed at him. He was too small to handle large loads and it appeared everyone had an engineer to maintain their engines. He leaned back against the wall and saw two beings walk through the entrance a few moments after he sat down. He almost spit his drink out…but then he forced himself to recover and show no emotion. He looked away from the two and took another sip of his drink.

• • •

Cinny used her sub-vocal microphone, “Ten of the patrons lifted their communicators as soon as we entered.”

Grant nodded, “I notice more than fifty start talking on theirs when we walked in here. We should have parked closer. It took too long to get here.

“This is worse than I thought.”

“They’re not the one that interests me, Grant.”

“I know, I saw his reaction as well. Do this; go to the back of the room toward the restrooms and I’ll order us a drink and take them toward the entrance. I’ve seen that species before and they’re pretty fast.”

“Don’t let him get out.”

“I won’t; just be ready in case he darts toward the back.” Cinny nodded and asked a waiter where the restrooms were. The Gregle pointed toward the rear of the room and Cinny turned and walked toward them. The Gregle lifted his communicator as soon as she walked away.

• • •

Whippet watched the female walk toward the restrooms and knew that route was now cut off. He started to run for the front entrance but saw the male had ordered drinks and kept his eyes on the room as they were delivered. He had to be armed and he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. His apprehension mounted as the male walked toward the front entrance and set the drinks down on a table. He then turned his way, smiled and pointed at him to come and join him at his table. OH NO! He was out of his seat in an instant and headed toward the back door. Just before he arrived he was brought to a sudden stop by a hand that grabbed his neck as a blaster was put in his face. The male arrived behind him a moment later.

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

Whippet was too frightened to speak. The male’s eyes narrowed, “There’s company arriving outside.”

The female kept the blaster in the small creature’s face and pulled a gold colored rope out of her black uniform. She put it over Whippet’s head and said, “If you move more than fifty feet away from me, this necklace will blow your head off your shoulders. Nod if you understand!” Whippet saw the gold rope start glowing and he quickly nodded. The female smiled, “Try to keep up.” In an instant the two were out the back door and Whippet ran as hard as he could and was losing ground. He knew how fast his species was but these two were even faster. The female slowed several times for him to catch up. They turned a corner in an alley and the male and female climbed on two small machines that came down to the street from the roof of a building. The female pointed to the seat behind her and he shook his head. “That’s fine, you will die as soon as we lift off.”

Whippet saw the two lift their scooters off the ground and the gold rope around his neck started vibrating. He shook his head, sprinted toward the female, and jumped on the seat behind her. She lifted the scooter and said, “You may want to throw that bomb and blaster away. If you still have them in a moment, I’m going to drop you.”

Whippet held on tight to the female and saw they were accelerating at high speed into the atmosphere. He blew out an angry breath and threw the pocket bomb and blaster away. He saw twenty military grade attack craft flying toward them but they were falling behind. He saw a force field was around the small flying machine and then he saw a warship above them in orbit moving at high speed to block their escape. He shook his head and knew it had the advantage. He looked to the right and saw the male press a button in the middle of his handlebars and a huge missile came out of the bottom of his flying device. It was three times larger than the device it emerged out of. The missile ignited and flew away at an unbelievable velocity. He watched it home in on the destroyer, which immediately began evasive maneuvers. It failed. The missile hit the warship and a massive explosion rocked the ship. The ship appeared unharmed for a moment and then it exploded in a blast that lit up the night side of the planet below them.

He heard the female say, “You didn’t have to use one of those.”

“Check out the opposite direction.”

The female looked to the far left and saw the forty large battleships appearing in space. “You’re right, we have to turn that way to escape.”

Whippet saw the battleships go to full thrusters and start moving in at maximum thrusters. It was almost mesmerizing to watch them move through space and he couldn’t take his eyes off them. Then the two scooters exited the planet’s atmosphere as their star drives activated. They disappeared a brief moment before a hundred heavy blaster beams ripped through space.

Whippet watched as the two small fliers emerged into normal space and moved toward a small red colored ship hanging in space about ten miles away. It wasn’t as small as he thought. As they moved closer he saw that it was about three hundred feet long and had a hull that was covered with irregular shapes. Just before they entered the landing bay, he saw the structures were blaster emplacements and missile launchers. He found it hard to believe that the small blaster barrels and missiles could do much damage to a warship. Then he remembered the large missile that emerged from the small device that the Male was flying.

The scooters landed and were magnetically pulled to the deck. Cinny stepped off and looked at the Werstag. She tried not to smile but couldn’t help herself. The Werstag had a coat of red fur and its hands and feet could best be described as dainty. It had a narrow snout with a black nose on the end of it and eyes that were solid emerald green except for black pupils. It stood about three and a half feet tall and she knew it had incredible reflexes. She had seen a Werstag step out of the way of a blaster bolt on the first planet where they had been attacked by the armored warriors. His species was known for its speed.

“What are you smiling at?”

Cinny slowly shook her head, “It’s surprising how fast your species is.”

Whippet’s left upper lip went up, “Especially since we’re so small.”

Cinny nodded, “Especially because of that.”

“Why did the two of you force me to come with you? I’ve never done anything to you!”

Grant looked at the small being, “Everyone in that bar didn’t recognize us; you did.”

Whippet stared at Grant for a moment and then turned to Cinny, “He does get right to the point doesn’t he?”

Cinny laughed, “Subtlety is not a part of his demeanor. However, he’s right. You were the only one in the place that was shocked but not surprised by our appearance. The others knew about our image but you’ve seen one of our species before.”

Whippet slowly shook his head, “How could you possibly know that? I didn’t make much of a reaction.” The two stared at him and Whippet said, “How?”

Grant said, “Ten raised their communicators to contact someone. They didn’t know what we were but they knew our image. Your reaction told us that you knew what we are. How did you know?”

Cinny said, “Let’s take this to the bridge and continue this conversation.”

Whippet watched them leave the landing bay and felt the gold rope around his neck start to vibrate. He quickly ran after them. Cinny looked over her shoulder and said, “My name is Cinny and this is Grant. And you are…?”

“Whippet. Is this rope still active?”

“It is.”

“Just checking.”

They arrived on the bridge and Grant looked up, “Provide our guest…”

“You mean prisoner!”

Grant looked at him and smiled, “Prisoner with a chair.”

A chair rose out of the deck in front of the two command chairs. Cinny looked at the small Werstag and said, “Where have you seen my species?”

Whippet stared at the two and after a moment decided that he really had no choice. The rope around his neck removed all possibility of escape. “I flew on an old commercial transport with a human.”

“Human?”

Whippet looked at Cinny and his eyes narrowed, “Your species call themselves humans.” Cinny looked at Grant and saw him say the word slowly. “I was hired to replace the human as chief engineer. The old bucket transported agricultural products from Guden to Amelrox. Tom worked on the ship for three years before I showed up.”

“Tom?”

“Tom Lavaroix.” Whippet stared at them for a moment and said, “The two of you don’t know anything about your species, do you?”

Grant blew out a breath, “No, we don’t. And if you’ll tell us what you know, we’ll remove the rope and drop you on the planet of your choosing.”

Whippet saw the anticipation on their faces and he slowly shook his head, “You might not want to know.”

Cinny said, “Why not?”

“Because the planet where your species lived was blasted into rubble about seventeen years ago. Tom was the pilot of an attack fighter during that battle and received radiation burns on the entire left side of his body. The reason I was hired to replace him was that he was dying with cancer.”

“I thought cancer was treatable?”

“Not back then. And no one knew your species or how to treat them. I only had a little over a year before Tom died.”

Grant stared at Whippet, “Please tell us what he told you.”

Whippet lowered his head and then looked them in the eyes, “Tom was one of the kindest and honest beings I have ever met. Toward the end, the pain was becoming too much and I made him talk to me to take his mind off it. It was during those days that he told me about Earth.”

“Earth?”

“His home world. He said his civilization had just started exploring the stars when they encountered a rather nasty civilization that didn’t want competition. He said that the higher ups in the Military said that the civilization really wanted their planet to settle and that humans would have to go. A war broke out and raged for more than a hundred years.”

“Do he say what civilization was attacking…Earth?”

“It’s the same one that sent those battleships at the planet where you picked me up.” Grant looked at Cinny and then whipped his head back when Whippet said, “That civilization has been passing out flyers with a picture of a human male and female on them for the last fifteen years. They want to eradicate your species pretty badly. The reward is huge for anyone that reports seeing one of your species.”

Cinny said, “Go on.”

Whippet slowly shook his head, “Tom said that Earth was close to developing weapons that would end the war.”

“What sort of weapons?”

“Tom said they were top secret but heard from other members in the military that animals were being genetically altered to use against their enemy. He also said that a warship had been built that was the most powerful weapon ever built.”

“What happened?”

“They weren’t allowed enough time to complete them. Their enemy must have learned about the developments, sent every warship in their arsenal, and attacked the planet in force. More than a half million enemy ships were destroyed but one of them made it through the defenses and crashed into the planet with a planet buster. Tom says the entire planet went up in flames. Every living thing on it died.” Whippet paused and saw the two’s sadness. He continued, “Tom says the surviving warships jumped away and gathered out in open space between galaxies. They decided to attack the Government Planet of their enemy. Tom was injured during that battle when a battleship exploded close to his small ship. Of the two hundred thousand Earth ships that attacked, more than half were destroyed by the planet’s defenses. But one of them made it through and the engineer ruptured the reactor holding more than six tons of antimatter. The planet ceased to exist. Tom says the surviving human warships scattered to find another place to start over. Tom’s ship was so damaged he couldn’t follow them. He jumped away and managed to land on a civilized planet in another galaxy. His ship was beyond repair and he found a job working on a commercial transport.”

Grant and Cinny were silent. Whippet said, “You two don’t look like you’re related.”