The Dominion of Man: The Seduction

This is a story I've started. I'm not sure how it is going to end up. This is a different view of a twenty third century Earth that has been conquered by an alien race. This story is through the eyes of Jev Bakkus.

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“It’s great, basic training is all that. Robert even said that it was fun,” Arik Bynum told Jev Bakkus.

Sixteen year old Jev thought that being ordered around and put through those physical demands would not be fun. It was Jev’s idea of hell. He thought that his friend had gotten enticed by his brother’s notions of service. Jev’s father had always spoken well of service and of his wish that he had joined during the Arcturus Campaign, but he hadn’t. It was talk, patriotic talk. Besides, Jev doubted that he could make it; that he could make the physical and mental challenges.

“I bet he wasn’t saying that when he came out of the nightmare box,” Jev retorted.

“That’s all hokum about it eating your brain Jev! You’re a real ass to believe that. Of course it is scary. They are training for the unknown, stuff that a man can’t imagine.”

Jev looked up the small trail. The two had imagined a lot along these tree lined paths. They had played here since their early teens. They would not do so anymore, Jev felt. They had played Arcturians and Imperials as well as riding their hoverbikes down the trail, always further. But Arik was committed. Jev really didn’t understand it. There was opportunity here in Westernport. Arik was good in making things. Jev wished that he would stay. He didn’t understand Arik’s drive but he knew that it was there.

“You’ll miss it Arik! You’ll be back,” Jev told him.

Arik smiled and shook his head. “I’m going to make a career out of it. You do three decs and you get a pension and Imperial Citizenship.”

“Citizenship doesn’t seem so important,” Jev said. “I mean most people don’t even use it. It doesn’t mean anything here on Earth. I mean my dad makes a good living and has everything he wants.”

“A citizen Jev!” his friend exclaimed. “Don’t tell me that it doesn’t mean anything when you know that it does.”

“What if…there is another war? You won’t live to see anything then.”

Jev got back onto his hoverbike. Arik did likewise. Jev was a little ashamed at the condition of his battered old machine. Arik had worked part time as a molecular fabricator until he had been able to save up for his newer, faster hoverbike. Jev had tried for a job at the fabricator. But he lacked Arik’s savvy when it came to putting things together. If he only had a chance! It would be tough enough as is to get into college. They kicked their bikes into motion.

“We beat the Arcies. Who is going to take on the MedaV’dan?” Arik answered. “There hasn’t been a war in almost a dec. All that stuff about some powerful race out there who is stronger than men—it’s all garbage! I stayed at my brother’s star base. You should see our ships Jev! You would if you joined with me.”

“I’ll stay here. I’ll make it. I’ll be somebody someday, you’ll see.”

Jev felt that there was truth behind his words even though he had meant them as nothing more than empty defiance. Arik laughed. Jev wanted to say more, but his friend was accelerating away. In a sense he was speeding away from everything. Jev knew that.
**********************************************
Mister Enderrsen stared out at each of them. Jev blushed and drew his eyes away from the angelic, shapely form of Mauryn Teller. He felt Enderrsen’s eyes settle upon him. The elderly history teacher must surely have been around to teach Jev’s grandparents, so old he was. Jev breathed a mental sigh when the old man’s eyes went past him.

“Tell me Mister Cremin: was there freedom on Earth before the MedaV’dan?” Enderrsen stuck out a thin hand and pointed at Tyler Cremin. There was a long uncomfortable silence. Jev dared to glance at Cremin. The two had been in a locker room fight once. Jev had lost. He was enjoying watching the self righteous Cremin squirm.

“Well yeah…yeah sir…no,” Cremin stumbled.

“Is it yes or is it no?” Enderrsen asked in his deep creaky voice. Arik used to imitate Enderrsen’s voice exactly. It had been a source of amusement for them on several occasions.

Jev giggled along with several others of his classmates. Cremin had picked on several of them. He watched Cremin point at his studymate. The little computer and textbook was the source of much of their daily hell, Jev’s included. The silence grew.

“Mister Cremin it is just a small computer. It isn’t going to answer for you. Did you read the assignment or didn’t you?” More silence.

Kelana Fontane raised her hand. Enderrsen nodded at her. Kelana was not as pretty as was Mauryn, but she was smart. Everyone knew that she would be going somewhere. He glanced again at Mauryn. Too bad that she had never spoken a word to Jev, he thought sadly. He had secret daydreams where he and Mauryn became a loving couple. But even the plain looking Kelana wouldn’t give Jev a second glance. Why would the beautiful Mauryn do so?

“We ruled ourselves but people were like slaves then,” Fontane answered. “The different rulers told everyone that they were free but they really weren’t. The rulers controlled everything.”

“We could have changed that,” Enderrsen retorted. This was why so many people didn’t like this class.

His history lesson had explained exactly what Kelana had just said. Jev knew: he had read the assignment. But rather than accept the answer, old Enderrsen was going to turn it into one of his discussions. Jev slouched down in his seat. This was where Enderrsen would seek out victims for his questions. He looked at each of them.

“We had choices in spite of the propaganda. This very land used to be home to one of Earth’s greatest democracies. But then they came and changed all of that.”

Enderrsen’s instructional board lit up. The students, sitting in tiers assembled in a rough semicircle with Enderrsen and his desk at the center were treated to an image of man’s first meeting with the MedaV’dan. Jev shivered at the now familiar image of Advocate N’Roul’al: the dark yellow skin that looked almost golden, the long mane of copper colored hair and the eyes. The eyes that were a solid, luminescent glowing green, like some undersea creature, these were the eyes of those that had conquered man those many centuries ago. The advocate looked ageless and powerful.


“N’Roul’al’s presence was all that it took for primitive man to surrender,” Enderrsen said. Yeah, Jev thought, that and the fact the MedaV’dan could blast a whole planet to dust.

Jev looked at the image of the men of that time. Their dark jackets and weird neckwear marked them as important people. He remembered that one of them had been the president of North America. He looked again at N’Roul’al. No one even knew if that was the advocate’s right name. The MedaV’dan were said to be able to mentally speak with one another. They had told men that their names were their souls, whatever that meant.

Enderrsen turned to another victim. Jev started dreaming about Mauryn again. She was wearing a pretty garment that showed her smooth bare legs. If she would only notice him! He would love her and care for her as no on else would. He fantasized of her seeing him and of her secret love for him. His revelries were broken by a hard nudge from an elbow.

“Mister Bakkus, good to see you back with us,” Enderrsen said. There was a wave of laughter. Jev felt his face get hot. “Are we free under MedaV’dan rule Mister Bakkus?”

“Yes sir, the citizens vote on things. Everyone can pretty much do as they want.”

“Citizens appointed by the MedaV’dan. Before the empire everyone had a vote. Wouldn’t you like to vote Mister Bakkus?”

“I, a…I don’t know….sure sir. Well I can’t…” Jev sputtered. He didn’t want to confess his fear of military service.

“A good thing for us that you probably won’t ever do that, Mister Bakkus,” Enderrsen said. “Maybe there is something to limited franchise.” Jev didn’t know what that was but he smarted from the insulting tone nonetheless.
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Helane Bakkus put Jev’s plate down before him. Jev was happy to be at his parent’s small home. He was not happy that the summer was coming to an end. Jev ate at the family table while his parents sat in the family area. His father was fixated on the latest speedball game. It was Cincinnati and New Singapore. Jev just wasn’t into it. He had tried sports but had just never succeeded. He wondered if that made him a failure before Gedrik Bakkus. His father cheered.

“Those New Sing guys are fast!” his father roared. “I don’t think they should be in the league. Their gravity there is heavier. Reminds me of when I worked the Centauri build.”

Jev wanted to groan but he did not. Actually he liked his father’s story about building space colonies. At times he wished that his parents had stayed out there instead of returning to Earth. Jev had met a few colonials at his parent’s summer camp. They were not boring and stodgy like so many at his school seemed to be. But his parents had returned to be with their families.

“Even the hand tools weighed a few stones!” Helane said, finishing Jev’s father’s story.

“Well it seemed that way,” Ged said.

“And speaking of stones Poppy would like you to mow his lawn this weekend,” Helane told Jev.

“Mom!” he started sourly, “it’s almost the end of summer! Poppy has an autobot. Why’s he need me?” he asked.

“The AI is broken,” his mother answered. “It’s all manual. You can at least do that.”

Jev started to argue but then thought better. Arik had been gone almost a year. Normally the two would have been off exploring. They had taken the Atlantic Tunnel to Europe last summer and biked through the old nations. Jev had felt like a real explorer. Except that he knew that this land had been crossed a million times. There was nothing new to find, no mysteries to uncover. His friend Arik would be seeing those firsthand, out among the stars. Perhaps some time with his grandparents would ease some of Jev’s turmoil.

“Yes, cut some grass or do something.” Ged spoke in between chews. “You are old enough to get a serious job. Laying around in your room and reading isn’t a job!”

“Ged, what about an apprenticeship with your company?” his mother unexpectedly asked. “Jev is a smart boy. You said that he could work at Underseas. You said that Wil Farouk’s kids got jobs there. Why can’t you help Jev?”

His father sighed. “It isn’t that simple Helane. We have full crews. It’s hard to get an opening.” He watched his father, usually the winner in family arguments relent a little. “I’ll see what my gang manager says. Will that work?”

Helane nodded. It pleased his mother. It did not please Jev. He believed that the word was, placate. Jev had heard it all before. He could not get an aircar because his father did not help him get a license. Likewise there was no credit posting for the university from his parents. There would be no job. He was an only child and Jev had suspected that Ged had been particularly hard on him because of that. Jev ate quickly. He now wanted to go to Poppy’s. His grandfather understood him.
*********************************************
The hoverbike created a small windstorm behind it as Bakkus raced along the path taken by ancient steel transports. Some of the metal tracks had been preserved as part of a memorial. Jev fondly recalled racing across such a bridge, a museum piece with Arik. He spied another biker racing toward him. Could it be?

Arik Bynum was as close to a brother as the only child Jev had. He had missed his old friend and their adventures. A smile was on his face as his old friend grinded to a halt stirring up a storm of dirty black earth and gravel pellets. Bynum looked the same as the last day that Bakkus had seen him. That had been almost a year ago.

“Did they kick you out?” he asked Bynum. “I heard they do that to males that are total perverts!”

Bynum laughed. “Admit it Jev: you wish that I liked other boys so that you could be my boy.”

“I’ve got your boy,” Jev retorted. He laughed. “When did you get back?”
“My ship docked last night,” Arik answered. “Mom had a big thing for me, even dad stopped by.” Bynum smiled at him. “What’s say we get a bottle and catch up on everything that I’ve missed?”

Jev was instantly downcast. “I have to mow my granddad’s lawn.”
“Hey it is on the straight,” Arik replied. “I have to see my sister-in-law, anyways.”

“I thought that she was with Robert at a star base?” Jev asked in reply. He also remembered that Lindel Bynum had a very nice looking body.

Arik shook his head. His brown hair was cut in the severe military fashion. It was the first time that he had noted any change in his old friend. Bynum had always kept his hair short but not that neatly cut as it was now. He could see that his old friend was confused and hesitant about answering. Jev supposed that Arik’s older brother and his wife must be having problems. Shy Jev was almost eighteen and had not yet experienced that sort of a thing.

“I don’t know,” Arik answered at last. “She’s staying with my sister and Pater. Want to meet down at Galen’s…say twentyish?”

“Yeah, I should be done by then,” he answered.

“As slow as you are Jev; you probably won’t even have the thing started!” His friend laughed, righted his bike, told Jev that he’d see him later and then rocketed off.

A smile was on Jev’s lips as he watched his daredevil friend race in and out of shaggy bushes and shrubs. He was going about as fast as Jev could manage on a straight downhill run. But Jev always held his bike straight. He could never have darted among obstacles like Arik was doing. Jev set his bike in motion. Poppy would be expecting him.

***************************************
“It’s really something Jev,” Arik explained.

The two, much to Jev’s surprise, had spoken mostly of the goings-on at and around Westernport. It wasn’t until they arrived here, at the banks of the Potomac River that Arik spoke of his military adventures.

“We got our space training aboard an old Caesar class battle wagon. Remember the Devastator?” Bynum continued. “It’s really tight and cramped. Two of my squadmates died in an airlock accident. Well, one lived but she was brain damaged. There was nothing for her except to put her down. There’s no room for second chances Jev. It’s not finishing school.”

It sounded dreadful to Jev. Yet there was something in his best friend’s demeanor when he spoke of flying past Saturn’s rings, emerging out of the multi-dimensional vortex and seeing Sol as a distant star. For every unpleasant experience that Arik spoke of he related ten more that were amazing and exciting. Arik was changed but the change was inside.

“So you’re off to college?” Arik asked. One strange thing was that Bynum didn’t seem interested in recruiting him any longer.

He had applied to Northeastern but his application had been rejected. Jev hadn’t topped their standards for the schools’ molecular engineering curriculum. He had taken upper math classes but not enough to help him. That was okay as he didn’t have the crowns needed to afford the housing. He had barely squeaked under the requirements for his local college prep school.

He nodded. “I am.” Jev should have been glad that Arik wasn’t pressuring him to join. He was not.

It was almost as if his old friend was telling him that he wasn’t good enough. Maybe Bynum thought that he couldn’t make the physical challenges. It shouldn’t matter but it did. Jev had begun wondering what was past this world. At the rate that he was going he wouldn’t even be able to afford a starliner journey in this lifetime. He kept pressing his old friend for stories of his journeys.

“Look I just touched the tip of it all!” his friend answered. He was clearly frustrated. “It’s what you make of it. It’s strange and it can scare the crap out of you. We did land survival on Rigel. They have these little furry things, look like flying squirrels. They can piss out an acid that melts through steel. Then again it’s…incredible. There is always something new! I met a colonist on Rigel: the chum had a castle Jev! He had built a castle for his family to live in! No one could do that here on Earth!” His friend upended the bottle of liquor that they had brought with them. He passed the gin to Jev.

“I’m going colonial Jev,” Arik declared while Jev drank.

Jev nearly choked. “That’s a load Arik! You might go career but no way would you do that! Your mother would never stand for that.”

Bynum shrugged. “I don’t know if I’ll go career Jev. I mean I like it and it’s the life for me…but either way, career or not, I’m going colonial after I’m done in the service.”

Jev laughed. “You want one of those colonial girls. I heard stories about how they are.”

Arik laughed in turn. “Well, some of the girls—and men are pretty loose. But then again so are the hostess corps men and women. But really they aren’t much different than people here.” Jev’s mother had been a hostess. Most of those married imperial troops. Helene had instead met Gedrik Bakkus while his father was building the Centauri star base. Jev briefly wondered what his life would have been like had she married an imperial. His friend looked up into the dark night sky. “Well, they are different!” he said, changing his stance.

“Huh, what do you mean?” Jev asked.


“I mean they still follow the MedaV’dan Covenant,” his friend explained. “But Jev—they are free out there. People can make their own lives on the colonies.” Arik sighed. “I saw one.”

“Saw one what?” he asked.

Arik paused for a long time before answering: “A MedaV’dan,” he answered.

Jev gasped. He shook his head. Few humans had really ever seen their masters. An advocate came every five years near Horizon Day to select a new Supreme Commander. Jev hadn’t even watched the last installation. He had been fifteen then and his fantasy novels had held more excitement. Of the MedaV’dan men knew little.

The aliens had two arms ending in human looking hands that boasted the standard five fingers. Early man had determined, through primitive surveillance equipment, that the green eyed aliens breathed, emitted body odors and had heart beats. But that was all that was known. They were said to exist both here and elsewhere. Jev wasn’t sure what that meant. He asked his friend to tell his story.

“It was a sprite,” he explained. Men had assigned the aliens their ranks to help them differentiate with whom they were dealing. What positions the MedaV’dan really held were known only to themselves. Jev knew that sprites were supposed to be the lowest of the MedaV’dan. That and obviously the fact that advocates were higher was the extent of his knowledge concerning the aliens.

“He came and talked about how the empire of men was growing. He said that one day we would be like them. It was like he was there and not there. It’s true when they talk that you see the whole thing in your mind.”

“C’mon now!” he protested. Jev thought that his friend was now joshing him. He had heard those stories but had put it down to tall tales that had gotten bigger over time. Arik smiled at him. “If you ever saw one you would know.” The implication seemed to be that Jev would never venture far from home so that he would never see an alien.

“Give me that bottle Jevo,” Arik demanded. He wore a smile on his lips. Jev passed it to his friend. “Is old Creaky Enderrsen still teaching?” he asked. Arik did an excellent impression of the stodgy intellectual. The two boys laughed.

Looks pretty cool. Is your American Empire story a prequel to this story?

No, as they used to say in the Monty Python show: and now for something completely different.

Didn't like at first reading...

Um, I didn't like this tale at first reading, but felt I'd missed something. I had. Sorry. It is a lot deeper than it looks...

Reminds me of AC Clarke's classic 'Childhood's End' in some ways, a half-forgotten 'What-If' ST fan-fic in others...

What if ET's near-bloodless take-over really was 'for our own good' ?? The 'Elves' put an end to the petty wars ? Use their mental powers to sniff out the moidering fanatics and mind-comb them unto apologetic tears ??

IIRC, that FanFic had the Vulcans keeping Terrans on a very short leash. Enterprise-X didn't fly, the 'Federation' was a Vulcan Dependency etc etc...

Of course, it could all end in tears...

More, please ??

Cool... Very interesting...

Yeah, it's kinda like "Childhood's End", "The Course of Empire", "City of the Tripods", etc. It's a common trope. What's important is how the author tells the tale. So here's waiting and seeing.

“Two crowns fifty,” Jev told the man. It was actually a boy of about his age. The boy’s group looked to be students from the teachers’ academy. Did the man have that many crowns or had they put it all together for a party?

The boy proffered the coins while turning to nuzzle his male companion. Jev’s shyness had kept him away from such companionship. Perhaps he should try the same sex. He just wasn’t sure. He pushed the expensive extraterrestrial brandy and whiskey toward the partiers. They took up their bundles while Jev made change for them. The man’s partner whispered something to his friend while nodding at Jev.

“A tip for you my man,” the customer told him while giving his hand a dismissive shake. Jev thanked them for the six silver pennies. The man laughed and put an arm around his boyfriend. The other couple was a girl and a boy. She was slim and pretty. She shot Jev a look over her shoulder as her boyfriend guided her out of the door. Jev blushed and turned away. The group departed.

He looked around the spirit shop and remembered that he was supposed to bring out some beer to be chilled. He looked at a monitor that displayed the goings on outside and saw that no new customers were inbound. He watched the college students board an expensive aircar. Jev headed back to the stockroom and proceeded to carry out several cases at a time. It helped that Jev had been going to a cheap gym.

Fat as a child, Bakkus had slimmed down during his early teens. He had been proud of his skin-and-bones shape until he realized that that was part of his lack of strength and athletic ability. He had started at the old gym almost six months earlier. The machines were old and didn’t even have molecular monitors to record muscle development. Yet he was improving. Jev could see that in the everyday tasks that he performed.

“Being a merchant is a proud following Jev,” his boss, Martin Wiley announced.

Wiley was in his early eighties. A recruit in the Imperial Service he had been blinded during an attack early in the Kev’ac campaign. The enemy’s use of a radiation enriched corrosive gas had dashed any hopes that cloned eyes could give Wiley back his sight. The nerve ends had been completely destroyed. Instead he relied on ocular implants that sent messages to his auditory nerves. Wiley could see in the same way that creatures that relied on sound could. Jev looked into Wiley’s eyes, so real looking that it was easy to forget that they were fake.


“I’d like another chance at the university!” he complained.

“I’d like to help you Jev but their decisions are usually final. And it’s not like they bend for anyone just because of who they are in the community.” Wiley shook his head. He had a full head of thick sandy colored hair that was only beginning to be touched by gray.

“I guess so, Martin,” he answered. Jev didn’t think that the Tyler Cremin’s of the world had such problems. He had seen a databit about his old classmate’s acceptance into Northeastern. Jev didn’t think that Tyler could tie his own shoes much less design structures in space.

The storekeeper shook his head. “I hate to say it Jev. You are a smart boy. But university classes take a lot of work, even for smart boys.”

“I studied!” he snapped. It was a lie. Jev’s mathematics’ instructor had told him as much. Things had come easily for Jev in finishing school. He had thought that college would be the same. But he had soon found himself being befuddled by calculus and programming classes. Daydreamer Jev’s dreams and ambitions hadn’t matched his ability.

Martin laid a friendly hand on his shoulder. “Of course you did. I know that Jev.”

Some more customers came. These were older people seeking out wines made from the fruits of alien berries. His boss took over the sale. Jev went back to the mundane tasks of shop keeping that he supposed hadn’t changed much for thousands of years. He did like watching Wiley ply his trade. His employer could sell a bird an air transport ticket he believed. The older crowd soon left. A case of wine was nestled under the arm of one of the men. The wine weighed more than the four crowns quarter that Wiley had liberated from them. Perhaps sales, was Jev’s path.

He enjoyed the interaction with most of the customers. One of them, a girl from his finishing school graduating class had, according to Martin, showed an interest in him. Jev had choked when it had come to asking her out. He hadn’t driven his clunky old groundcar past Mauryn Teller’s house in some time. But he still thought of her. Maybe one day he’d get up the courage to ask Lizzette out. She probably already had a boyfriend and would laugh at Jev. He turned his thoughts to something else as Martin ran through computer data on his day’s receipts. Squeals and subsonic pulses translated the day’s crowns, thrones and pennies into something that Martin could grasp.

“Martin, how come…why haven’t you…” he stumbled for the words.

Wiley smiled. “Talked to you about the service? Your mother would kill me for one,” Wiley plunged ahead without waiting for Jev’s answer. “You have to decide to join. I don’t mean run to an induction center. I mean it is a decision that you come by. I was almost married at your age. One day I looked up and saw everything that my life wouldn’t be if I did that. I loved Ariel. But I realized that I wanted something else out of life.”

“Jev…you are almost twenty. You are past the prime age, but so was I.”

“I…always thought that it was…because you…”

“Were blinded?” his boss finished Jev’s ramblings. Martin chuckled. “I was an idiot. If not for an actual conquest then I might have made my thirty. When the Kev’ac launched the attack my optio was screaming his head off for me to get my battle helm on. But I couldn’t read the scanner as well through my helmet’s filters.” He shook his head. “Stupid and blind and it was all my fault.” He laughed.

“It is almost Christmas Jev. I know that you don’t celebrate that old holiday but my family did and so do I.” He reached into his smock and pulled out four crowns. Martin smiled. “Your Christmas bonus,” he said.

Jev started to thank him until he held up a hand. “Listen Jev, the service isn’t about taking a space cruise or bagging a beautiful woman. You’ll do all of those things, most men do. The service is about becoming a bet—changing. Most boys stay home these days. There is nothing wrong with that. Citizenship just means that you get to vote for a fool or even be the fool yourself. Do you think that it means anything?”

“No,” Jev answered after awhile. That was Mister Enderrsen speaking. Jev did admire those men and women. Neither prideful looking nor foolish there was still something about their quiet dignity.

Martin laughed. “I’ll close up. Why don’t you have some fun for the evening?”

Jev agreed and thanked him. He gathered up his heated jacket bid Martin a goodnight and wished him a Happy Christmas. He had never understood anything about the myth of some fat man flying a sleigh in order to rescue some child from a barn. But it seemed harmless and old Wiley was generous. Jev headed out into the cold night.
*****************************************
“Twenty-one eh?” the…corporal asked.

Jev felt stupid. He had seen portrayals of the service in holo stories but he knew about as much about the real Imperial Service as he knew about butterflies. He could point and say that there was an orange one, but he knew not what type it was. He looked around at large wall sized holos of star cruisers and images of men and women in training. Corporal Hogata didn’t seem to see him except as bits of information on his paper thin databoard.

Jev surveyed the office and the images until his gaze returned to the induction NCO. Jev realized that Hogata wasn’t much older than he. Yet the black and silver uniform made the short, thin, Hogata seem resplendent. He knew that the white stripes on the corporal’s high collar denoted rank. Jev had no idea what the silver hash marks on Hogata’s left sleeve meant. A large silver design over the corporal’s right breast pocket, showing the cross and crescent told Jev that Hogata was in the medical branch. But a badge showing crossed lightning bolts over the NCO’s left breast meant something else. Of that Jev was sure.

“What brings you here,” the corporal asked. He finally looked up at him. “Jev Bakkus,” he added.

“I’m…well I’m looking at the careers the service offers,” he answered.

“You mean you want to go career and do thirty or you are interested in the technical trades that we offer?” the NCO asked abruptly.

Jev gulped: career, no way! “I was looking at the power room—”

“If you want to be a power tech you’ll have to show that you have the cognitive ability. You’ll be tested for that.”

Jev barely listened as the corporal explained how he would be tested mentally and physically. About how only five out of ten people completed basic training and of those five only three completed technical training. He had prepared the phony reasons for his visit. Jev thought back to last week.

Martin Wiley had sold his inventory and jumped to a pleasure colony. He had announced his intention shortly after that Christmas. The spirit shop and Jev’s job was gone. The new store owner sold clothes. Jev was about as fashion coordinated as a stone. There was no place for him. He had finally found a job operating and cleaning janitorial bots. It paid little and was dirty.

He had had his cantankerous groundcar to take him to the Baltimore-Richmond Metroplex where his job was. That was until last week when the near dead vehicle had skidded off of an icy road and into a tree. It had been late at night. The lone patrol officer that had come upon the accident had cited Jev for the poor condition of the vehicle, told him to have the wreck removed and had sped off. Jev had found himself looking at a fine that would effectively wipe out his meager savings. The only luck was that he had been only a few klicks from home. He had called for a ride but his mother had explained that Ged had to get his rest. She had to be at her work soon and could not come out for him. Poppy, for some strange reason had sworn off driving years earlier. Jev had no friends he could have called.

It had been a frigid winter night. The freezing drizzle had started after the first klick. His jacket heater had shorted after he had slipped and fallen and ripped his coat on a tree limb. That was just at the halfway point. By the third klick Jev was soaked to his skin and shivering. He had stopped and screamed, no more, into the dead, cold night air. He had then made it home. That he had nearly died from exposure in this age of wonders had not really irked him. It was his wretched condition that had finally driven him past some mental boundary.

“Homo or hetero?” the NCO was asking.

“Uh, hetero,” Jev answered. He had finally seen a prostitute when it seemed that he was not going to lose his virginity through an act of love. Jev had had an embarrassing accident when the fiftyish woman had stripped. She was a licensed professional but he knew that she had been laughing behind those saleslady eyes.

“You’ll be tested for that too,” Hogata remarked.

The interview finished. The fast talking Hogata explained his next move to him in what was the most detailed concise instruction that he had ever heard. He would take a jump shuttle to the Pitt-Columbus ‘plex. There he would be given a thorough induction physical and pre-indoctrination. Jev wasn’t sure what the latter was. He did know what a physical was. He asked Hogata about it.

“A lot of people want to wear the black,” the officer explained. “Lot’s of pretenders in these worlds. I’ll be honest: we look hard at you flatlanders.”

“Huh?” he asked.

“I was born on Hera,” the corporal said. “Sixty percent of the service is made up of colonials. Flatlanders—I shouldn’t have used that word like that and I’m sorry Mister Bakkus. It’s a colonial term that refers to those that stayed on Earth.” He smiled for the first time. “But, it’s on the straight. If you are service material then that is it.” He stood up. Jev seemed to sense that he should too. The NCO extended his hand in the ancient custom. “Good luck Bakkus.” He still did not know what a pre-indoctrination was.

Jev stood shivering. The training instructors were circling the group, making humiliating observations about the recruits and backing them up with hard swats from their batons. All of Jev’s crazy ideas, Arik’s talk of the awe he had felt at seeing a MedaV’dan sprite had gone away, just like his clothes. The naked group of recruits stood in formation. The instructors had had them take off everything. A girl in front of Jev was sobbing softly. Jev was so frightened that her nudity meant nothing to him. He was as scared as she.

“You’ll be issued overalls. Wear those until you are weeded out and sent home!” an NCO barked. “Tomorrow is your inbrief and first day of being eliminated. As I call your name step forward and get your personal items. Step back then, stay at attention and be silent!”

They each received their bundle. Their trainers trotted them down a walk, bundles in hand, personal items left behind on the ground in front of where the hoverbus had deposited them. It was broad daylight. They were run past a formation of black uniformed recruits. Jev heard laughter from them. Well, they had not been eliminated, he thought. Their tormentors led them into a building, up some stairs and into a large open room. Cots lay every which way. Garbage was on the floor. They were told to clean up their new home, line up the bunks, and get showered and ready for inspection.

Jev worked furiously while several NCO’s berated and instructed them. Just an hour ago he had been in North America bidding his mother a tearful goodbye. His father had been working. Now he was at the Imperial Service’s largest training base in Eastern Europe. The sun was growing wan in the small slits that were excuses for windows. The recruits finished, showered and dressed. The NCO’s soon concluded that they were all mental defectives. They led them to a dining place nonetheless. Jev ate very little.

They were introduced to Training Sergeant D’taglia. They stood, first at rigid attention for awhile and then in a relaxed posture while D’taglia told them that most of them would be sent home because they weren’t good enough for the service. He expected none of them to survive the physical rigors and certainly no one of them had the mental acumen. D’taglia remarked on how surprised he was that they even managed to catch the correct shuttle from their homes.

Their instructor turned the topic of homes into a discussion of inbreeding. He suggested that most of their parents shared chromosomes. He asked several of them, Jev included, nasty and suggestive questions about their mothers being their fathers’ sisters. When Jev had stammered an answer D’taglia had remarked that that was proof of retardation resulting from incest. One of the recruits had grown angry. D’taglia had asked the boy if he wanted to fight.

The youth, a heavyset boy with dark skin had accepted. The recruits had gathered around the two fighters. Jev wished that he had shown that kind of courage and stood up to the brutish NCO. That was until D’taglia had delivered several quick kicks to the black youth. The last one was a full roundhouse to the head that had sent the boy reeling. Several of the recruits had caught him before his head could hit the hard floor. D’taglia asked if there were anymore takers. There were none.

Their instructor finished by telling them all that they were going to have an early day. Every day would be early for them. He gave them all a last chance to back out, get their things and return home. Jev had reckoned that about fifty recruits were in the large bay. Five of those stepped forward.

“Your gear is downstairs in stowage,” D’taglia told them. “The rest of you that were foolish enough to stay, get to bed!” He turned to the group that had elected to leave. “You will all be home in few hours.” Jev thought that his tone was almost kindly. D’taglia led the group out. As he did so he warned those who had elected to stay they were being monitored.

Jev shucked his coverall. They had been told to sleep in only undershorts and shirts. He climbed under the single thin blanket as the lights went out. There was some noise as the former civilians settled in. A harsh voice boomed out of a concealed speaker warning them of harsh punishment unless they quieted down. Silence slowly seeped into the large bay. The only sounds were some stifled sobs. Jev’s was among that sad chorus.

“Psss,” the girl on Jev’s right hissed softly. He jumped when he felt her hand. She untangled his blanket and after fumbling around found his hand and squeezed it. “Be stone cold like a Meda,” she whispered softly. Her lilting accent was that of a colonial. “They are trying to crack you. Just let it roll off. Take it on the straight mate.”

Jev remembered her as a plain looking girl. Her plain brown hair had been cut severely short. She was short and quite stocky but the female curves had been there. She squeezed his hand harder as another sob came unbidden to his lips.

“My name’s Tanzy Artrex. What’s yours?” she asked. He told her. “Jev that is a nice name,” she said. “You relax Jev. Do what the trainers tell you, keep your ears open and no matter how scared or mad you are don’t let it show.” Jev jumped when the speaker voice boomed out again. His fear was there but with Tanzy’s help he had a grip on it.

“Nighters Jev Bakkus,” she whispered softly as she released his hand. “This isn’t an invite for you to jump me. But we’re friends.”

“Thanks….nighters…Tanzy.” Jev’s mind was slowing down. He fell asleep.
*********************************************
Recruit Basic Jev Bakkus slid along the darkened conduit. He wanted to tap his suit jets and fly through the expanse. But that act had cost more than one recruit their lives. This mangled section of the Caesar class Devastator had been specifically set aside for recruits to practice repairs in zero gravity. Jev was on the last month of his training. He was happy.

Jev had feared zero gee. He had gotten sick during the two times that he had experienced it; first as a child at a Fun Day Amusement Park in the gravity chamber and second during his pre-indoctrination for Imperial Service. The first episode had resulted in Ged never taking his only child Jev to another park. The second had nearly cost him any hope of being accepted by the Imperial Service. But those two luckless events had had one thing in common: both times Jev had had the incredibly bad luck to sail face first through someone’s hurl. That had in turn set off his nausea.

Left on his own Jev had taken to weightlessness like a fish to water. That had allowed him to work harder in areas where he was weak. He had also excelled with a repair laser. Jev reached out and tugged on his line to slow him down. He reached into his carrying pouch, retrieved the plastic coated repair order, checked his position and stopped. He turned slowly until his helmet light fell upon the damaged conduit.

Looking back, this entire section reminded him of the Tower of Terror where Tanzy Artrex had fallen. He smiled as he mentally reread the letter that she had written to him. She had nearly died in the fall through the training edifice that was meant to teach recruits how to cope inside of a twisting metal structure such as a ship. As it was she had missed graduating ground training with Jev’s squadron. But her spinal replacement was complete and she was healed and back in her second month of training. Jev pulled his laser out, examined the damage and inputted the correct settings into the device.

A voice, the ship’s captain, or someone playing that role, told him that the repair was critical to their survival. Jev acknowledged the transmission while cutting into the power coupling. He had already ensured that the power was off. He was to reroute this section so that the Devastator’s main drive section would have start up energy. He went about the task while he thought about Tanzy.

The tough little colonial had been the nearest thing to a girlfriend that Jev had had. She had been his support through the grueling ordeal of the first level of basic training. She had helped many others besides Jev but she had kissed only him. It had been a blow to them all when she had been medically eliminated. He was glad to see that she was recovered. But he was sad too: he would be heading for his first assignment by the time that she got to the Devastator. Jev closed up the dead control panel. The live one lit up. He carefully brought the power online. The main indicator showed an increase and then suddenly dropped off.

Jev swore. He thought furiously. There was another access one hundred meters to the left and up. That was probably the purpose of this exercise. He sealed the connections here, flipped over and made for the auxiliary access. Jev nearly had an accident in his suit. He had almost ran face first into another suited individual. His light played over the frightened face of someone. Jev identified the rank on the suit as that of an optio. She was soundlessly screaming at Jev. He got his external comm plug and shoved it into the woman’s suit. He noted that she was pinned in the support girders. How could that have happened!

“—supply is running low!” she emphatically proclaimed to him as her voice came over his helmet.

“Optio, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m out here having a smoke you fool!” she spat and sighed in frustration. “I was on the damage assessment team. I came back to check on this area and the tension support let go. I was an ass and told my mates that I’d already checked back with control! My radio was smashed and they don’t know that I’m out here!”

Radio, Jev thought! He quickly switched over and called control—nothing. He tried again. The optio rudely informed him that this section had once been struck by a Kev’ac deassociator. Parts of it had null pockets. Jev vaguely remembered a bulletin about that. He had put it in the back of his mind after he had not run into such an area during his six months. Besides, his comms had been working. He took out his torch and cut away the restraining beams. The optio, who identified herself as Sandra Marxs, pulled away.

“My supply is running low! We need to get to a safety station!” Marxs exclaimed. She looked at her wrist readout. “I have less than two minutes! I need to tap your supply!”

Jev helped her make the switch while informing her that he had to complete the exercise. “It’s training you idiot!” Optio Marxs sighed. “Alright, I’ll go with you. Wait a minute, what’s happened to your supply?”

His own readout showed a forty percent loss of air. That wasn’t possible! There would not be enough air for him to take the NCO to the repair area and then to a safety station where she could replenish. It had been drilled into him: obey his officer’s commands. He had been ordered to complete this task. They had told Jev to treat this like a real wartime repair.

“We have less than three minutes to get to a station!” she exclaimed.

“I have to do the repair!” he retorted.

“It’s an exercise you idiot!” she started dragging him along. Jev quickly uncoupled the shared air supply. What to do?

“Optio, I can’t disobey an order!”

“I won’t make it back! I’ll die! This is real you farging recruit!”

Jev was crippled by indecision and panic. He looked around. What was this stupid optio doing out here? Why hadn’t her team reported her missing? He had to obey the captain’s orders. That was paramount. But if he stopped to save her he could not do that. He checked his readout. If he joined their supplies they would have just enough time to get to a relief station.

Jev had only minutes. He grabbed the optio and pulled her along toward the section that needed repaired. She protested. He told her that orders were orders. Jev helped her mate their two supplies while he pushed along with her in tow. He didn’t have time to explain things. The two hauled up short at the auxiliary power junction controller.

“You’ve killed us both!” she cried. “We have a minute of oh-two. We’ll never get back!”

Jev worked furiously. He restored power. This time things worked. He checked and verified the panel readings and then used his torch to cut away one of the old bottles of fire suppression propellant. Marxs was actually slapping at his suit. She was screaming obscenities at him. Jev reached down and yanked out the manual plug—silence. Their supply was exhausted. He knew that they wouldn’t die right away. Their exhaled carbon dioxide would build up and eventually kill them. Given the small amount of breathing room, that wouldn’t be long. Jev pulled Optio Marxs along through the conduit, the bottle under one arm.

She latched onto his suit. That freed his hands up enough to reach into his gadget pouch and retrieve a universal valve. Jev fitted it onto the bottle’s top. Jev was starting to feel like he was out of breath. Carbon dioxide poisoning; he knew that his instructors had a technical name for it. Jev stopped by a blowout hatch.

He opened a small panel next to the square hatch. He hoped that it worked. Jev locked his boots against a strut and twisted the handle. The hatch trundled open slowly and silently. Jev saw the sharp points of the stars. They were growing fuzzy. He pulled the optio through the opening and out into space. Jev found the crew section of the Devastator. The repair had been done on the ship’s starboard wing that had housed part of the MD engine and the weapon bays.

Jev held the bottle tightly in his grasp. Marxs must have realized what he planned for she wrapped herself around him. It vaguely occurred to him that he needed to compensate for her added mass. He fired the bottle. Devastator’s main personnel airlock grew for a blur to something distinct as the pair made the six hundred meter traverse. His radio should work!

“Control, control this is Recruit Bakkus,” Jev started. “We are emergency EVA, two souls, zero oh-two.”

“Board at the main lock recruit,” the voice directed. Jev saw light as the large hatch parted. He remembered to start braking. The well lit lock was becoming a blur. He felt the impact of a badly timed rendezvous. He felt sick. Everything was black.

“I gave him an injection for the headache,” a voice announced as Jev’s eyes fluttered open. He saw a stern looking officer in the powder blue of the Imperial Medical Corps looking down upon him.

His training NCO, Optio Karlin Tsao was standing off to the side with a tall black female optio. She looked familiar. They were both giving him looks of consternation. Jev looked around him. He guessed that this was the medical bay. Jev tried to steer clear of hospitals so he had bypassed the detailed tour that had been offered for that facility. Tsao walked over to Jev’s bedside as the medical officer stepped away.

“How do you think that Bakkus faired on his character exam Optio Marxs?” he asked the black woman. Jev gulped: the dreaded character check.

Jev had faced a series of hurdles since joining. Pre-indoctrination had mostly consisted of physical challenges; mostly his adaptation to weightlessness. The nightmare box had projected an illusion of Jev’s fears directly into his mind. Parasitic worms boring into Jev’s body had nearly sent him into a screaming frenzy. But he had forced himself to come to grips with the fact that it was an illusion. He had had an embarrassing accident in his pants. Far from being a disqualifier the act was held as a badge of honor among some. Jev could laugh about it now. But the character exam was supposed to be later.

Most recruits faced that upon arrival at their final assignment. No one knew what it was or where it would be given. Jev shuddered when he realized just how he had been duped. Tsao’s facial mix of Nordic and oriental features formed into a malicious grin. He nodded at Jev.

“Your psych profile suggested that you were at that level, Bakkus,” he informed Jev, obviously gleaning Jev’s thought.

“Sir, I don’t understand…” Jev trailed off.

“Your fix was unique but not new. Had you disobeyed orders and brought poor Marxs here to safety you would’ve passed.”

“What if…”

“What if you had left me out there to suffocate?” Marxs asked. “Then your butt would have been put to mast, you would probably have been flogged and then dismissed from service. Quite honestly I thought that was what was going to happen, Bakkus.” Jev noticed how enticing her figure was. Not exactly professional but he had had little time to think of girls during the past months.

“But obeying the captain’s orders is a prime instruction,” Jev protested.

Tsao sighed and shook his head. “We want you to obey orders Jev Bakkus. But if that was all the Imperial Service needed then we’d just operate with battlebots. We want you to think. Obeying orders is a prime duty. But common sense needs to be applied. The empire isn’t at war. Completing the exercise was important but so was saving a life. You showed us that you can think. You’re not the first one to rescue the lady and kill the tiger but you are among the few that have.”

Jev sat up slowly. True to the doctor’s word he had no headache. He did feel pressure there and he was still a bit woozy. Tsao let him stand on his own. Jev’s head was clearing. He asked what passing the test meant.

“You’ve passed your tech and now your character exam,” Tsao explained. “I zipped the results on the last MDT. You’ll get orders by February.”

“I’ll be in casual status for a month sir?” Jev asked. Casual status sounded nice but those poor recruits that were waiting for either discharges or their next assignments ended up being given some of the dirtiest and boring tasks imaginable. Jev was not looking forward to that.

“Don’t fret Bakkus,” Marxs interjected. “I drew an assignment to the Sobolev. Centurion Marceau needs a training aide.” She gave him an appraising look. “I think that I’ll put your name in for that.”
****************************************
Guilt plagued Jev Bakkus when it occurred to him that this had probably been the best month of his short life. Guilt because his parents’ and Poppy’s letter were filled with the sorrow they felt over his leaving. Poppy had not supported him at all until the very end. Poppy had hugged him at the spaceport, just prior to his leaving for tech training aboard the Devastator. He had told him that he was proud and hoped that he would find what he was looking for. Jev’s letters back had spoke of how much he missed home and life in Westernport. Yet the truth was that he did not miss it all that much. He was enjoying himself.

Sandra, Optio Marxs had indeed referred him to Centurion Marceau for duty as a temporary aide. The centurion had placed Jev in a trainer capacity working with new recruits. He had also shown Jev how to work a cargo bot. And more importantly he had been teaching him flight ops. Marceau had reminded him that a diversity of knowledge was necessary in the Imperial Service. To that end Jev had soloed in a Wolfen space fighter. The Wolfen was old and had been replaced by the Vandal but it was still a kick in the pants to fly. Jev was busy but extremely pleased.

It had also helped that Sandra had taken a liking to him. She had treated him to a congratulatory drink and dinner right after he had recovered that day of his exam. The thirty nine year old optio seemed amused by his straight laced manner. Marxs had had a week before she would take a Paladin class corvette on her way to her assignment aboard the Conqueror class space control vessel Sobolev. She had turned Jev into her project in that week. Sandra had also ensured that Jev was no longer a virgin.

It had been great and wonderful but Marxs had told him that it was just in fun. The two would be friends unless one day he was in her chain of command. Jev had been a little disappointed but he also felt closer to those in this profession. Sandra had shared some of her experiences and knowledge with him while she had shared herself. He was different. Jev no longer saw a boy looking back from the mirror at him. He saw a young man.

Jev was showing three raw recruits how to manually guide a cargo bot. He liked strapping on the big exoskeleton, tramping across the cavernous bay in it and picking up weight that no human could pick up without assistance. Two of his charges were doing well, better than he had on his first trial. The third charge, a boy from the Jovian Colonies had tripped and fell once and dropped his load of bonded steel beams twice. Jev cringed and hid his frustration.

“Cass, it is just like walking,” he admonished the trainee.

“Sir,” the pink skinned red haired answered. Jev mentally cringed at the honorific. “I just get tired pulling this thing around. I trip.”

“Don’t pull Cass, push, walk with it just like you walk to the mess hall. You just dropped your fork. Now…pick it up before anyone realizes that you’re going to pick it up off the floor and eat with it. Don’t think about it, just do it.”

The boy thought for a second, looked at the load of wrapped beams, stooped down in the massive endoskeleton and picked up the steel in the huge claw like mechanical hands. He walked easily this time. The jerkiness that Jev had seen Cass exhibit before was easing. Jev saw a brief look of triumph cross the colonial’s face.

“Once more around the bay and then we’ll call it quits,” Jev announced. He led his recruits as he had ordered, finally ending up at the bot charging station. Jev shucked the mechanical suit and went about prepping it for the next person.

“Remember to walk naturally Cass,” he told the Jovian. The colonial promised him that he’d try. Jev hoped that today’s training stuck with him.

Jev was anxious to finish up and hit the junior enlisted crew lounge. He had been worried that the senior recruits and corporals would not accept him. As it turned out, more than a few of those had drawn casual assignments such as Jev’s. The only issue seemed to be Jev’s status as a ‘flatlander’. Many of the colonials had odd notions about Earth.

They would ask Jev if he had grown up in six meter square apartment with three other families. Was it true that everything was rationed? Did people need special passes to use the bathroom? Did people wait in lines for even the simplest of items? Most of the questions were harmless and fit the pattern for people that had grown up in wide open spaces. Some had been meant to rile him. But Jev took the teasing as part of the group’s acceptance of him. He had never thought of the Earth as crowded.

He knew that his city had once been composed of several smaller towns about the time that the MedaV’dan had landed. After the aliens had shown men gravity manipulation it wasn’t long before gigantic land cargo cruisers were leaving from the mountainous region of Jev’s home. Mister Enderrsen had once explained that that had been the primary role of those little towns before the twentieth century and for part of that turbulent century; the role of a port for continental North America. After the MedaV’dan the little towns had grown again until they had adopted one name: a name that reflected that area’s importance as once again, a primary port for North America. But Westernport had never seemed crowded to Jev.

He had once read an article in an e-newsmag as part of his pro/con argument paper for language and logic class. Jev’s L & L instructor had given him a barely passing grade on the paper that was to have contrasted the pros and cons of Earth’s growing population in this age of technology and growth. He recalled the scholarly and confusing article’s name: Shrinking Opportunities. Jev didn’t think that the Earth was crowded. It was just hard to advance when a person was number three million, five hundred thousand of five billion. That hadn’t made sense when he had written his paper. Sitting in the enlisted lounge aboard the Devastator, speaking to colonials, it all made perfect sense.

Jev stalked through the cruiser’s twisting corridors. Six months earlier he would become lost when he ventured thirty meters past his quarters. Now he was familiar with much of the old warship. He took a rolling walkway along the central shaft until his section came up. Jev stepped off, boarded a lift that took him up five decks. He got off and took a short jog to the right. He came up short when he saw that the door to his quarters was open.

A young man of about Jev’s age was lying back on the room’s top bunk. His uniform tunic was open and he had shucked his boots. He was reading a databoard and hadn’t noticed Jev standing outside. Jev took a cautious step into the room. The man looked at him and tossed the board aside.

“These Caesars are big bastards, not as big as a Conqueror but enough to get lost in!” he proclaimed as he jumped down. His accent could place him anywhere from Australia to Proxima.

A little shorter and chunkier than Jev with a head full of wiry black hair, the man stuck out his right hand. “Dragan Slade,” the man announced as he shook Jev’s hand. The hash mark on his collar identified him as a recruit like Jev.

“Jev…Jev Bakkus,” he replied. He had become accustomed to having his own room and was a little vexed.

“I took the top bunk, mate,” Slade said. “Looks like you were all comfy in the bottom one. Anyway it’s all temporary. Look’s like we’ll be shipping out together.”

“Huh?” he asked.

“I thought that you knew…anyway I was told to bunk here. Your centurion…Marceau.” he continued, making the centurion’s name sound like Marsow. “He told me to doss here since we’d be shipping out at the same time.” Slade must have read Jev’s confusion. “You haven’t heard.” Jev shook his head.

“I shouldn’t say yea or nay then mate,” Slade said.

Was it possible? The centurion was quite busy. “What ship?” he asked. “I mean if it’s true,” Jev was careful to add.

“The Nix Olympica,” Slade answered.

Nix Olympica, Nix Olympica, he couldn’t associate that name with anything. He shook his head and then he had a brief mental flash of a vessel that had been docked here when his squad had been brought here. It couldn’t be. Jev had worked hard and had just known that he would be put aboard an Arthur; an Arthur such as the General Baxter that had brought Jev here to 61 Cygni. The kilometer long Baxter that itself looked like one mighty blast rifle. It’s proud weapon section ahead of a narrow rectangular stock that housed the ship’s power section. But not a Ptolemy, for Jev recalled that was what the Olympica was: a Ptolemy class supply vessel.

Slade smiled sympathetically at him. “After basic on Rigel I know how you must feel.”

“Running farging supplies?” he asked. His voice was bitter. He shook his head. Jev decided that he needed to seek out Centurion Marceau. He bade his new roommate a good day and left hastily.

A smell of rotten cabbages assailed Jev Bakkus’ nose. The small group of himself, Dragan Slade, and their new section leader floated along one of the Olympica’s zero gravity stowage access ways. This stinking scowl didn’t even have complete artificial gravity! Only the command, power and crew quarters were so blessed. Their section chief, Optio Bennet Shav, a slightly pudgy man in his middle fifties seemed quite proud of his ship, despite the smell.

“It’s the ag pod,” Shav told them.

The Nix Olympica, slightly longer than an Arthur, was more or less just a longish rectangular main section that housed the crew, power section and controls. Like most spacecraft built by men the main housing was pockmarked with domes, cubes and all manner of piping, radiators, power cells, and arrays. But out flung from that section were two rows, one atop the other, of saucer shaped pods. Each pod, their relative bottoms flattened was about two hundred meters in diameter. They were all attached to the Olympica at the end of cantilevered supports. Eight pods, two rows of four were stacked on each side of the Ptolemy.

“We’re pretty lucky when you think about it. We can have fresh fruits and vegetables anytime. Remember, on an Arthur or even a Conqueror if you get sent on an extended cruise they break out the protein, carb and fiber pastes.”

Shav’s comment led Jev to believe that the friendly optio could see through him and saw his displeasure. Jev remembered advice that Sandra had given him. He bit his tongue and promised himself that he’d keep an open mind. The trio floated to the ship’s small armory. Shav stopped them, warned them to right themselves as they were about to enter an area of gravity.

“There’s a reporting station right here,” Shav said and pointed. “Remember to check in if you are on EVA. I know, I know they taught you safety procedures but this is a real working imperial ship. Lot’s of techies dawn a suit and go out; especially when they think the fix won’t take but a minute and it’s right near to the lock.” Shav wagged a finger at them. “You lads remember: when you’re out there no one can see you. It would be a perfect hiding place except unless the primus orders us to multi D.”

Jev gulped. He had heard the stories about people that were outside when a starship entered the multi dimensional vortex. The explanation given to Jev in first school had been of a twisting of the fabric of space time of the ship itself. Once started, the twisting sustained itself long enough for a ship to take advantage of it and use it for travel. The space time within the ship was unaffected. Those looking out with scanners and through transparent metal windows saw a maelstrom of color. But those doing EVA work were actually subjected, like the ship traveling through the vortex, to other dimensions. Those human minds could not comprehend that swirling vortex that caused one to exist both forever and not at all. Those few luckless individuals usually died. It was said that some had lived and were driven insane by the experience. Jev was shaken out of his grim revelries when he realized that Optio Shav had moved onto another topic in reply to a question from Dragan.

“Primus Huff is who he is.” The optio shrugged. “A commander either accepts his job as a support officer or he’s miserable. It’s no secret that the primus was in line for an Executor class. He lost out and here he is.”

The two new recruits were on their way to meet their new commander. A week after Jev had received the crushing news; the Olympica had docked and picked up their new crewmembers. Jev had been given quarters that he shared with Slade. Circumstances had caused the two to become friends. They had met a few crewmen. Most of those had duties and had passed the new recruits by. Jev hoped that he would fit in here. The few talkative crewmen that they had met had told them that the primus was a hardcase who liked to bust new recruits out of the Imperial Service. Shav led them to the entrance to Primus Martin Huff’s office. He buzzed for admittance. A voice acknowledged out of a small speaker. The door slid open.

They stepped forward and saluted. “Optio Shav reports primus,” Shav announced. Huff nodded at them from behind his desk. He returned with a weak salute.

“The new hires I see,” the primus declared. He pushed back in his plush chair and warily eyed Jev and Slade. Primus Martin Huff was short, shorter than Jev by half a head. He had dark blue eyes and head full of thick brown hair that nearly bordered on red. The eyes were set off by a pronounced aquiline nose. Quite apart from his commander’s antique Earth name it was evident from his accent that Huff had grown up on Earth; probably in Europe Jev guessed. Huff did not smile.

“Shall I leave sir?” Shav asked.

“No, optio, I want to review next week’s maintenance schedule with you afterwards. This won’t take long.” He looked sternly at them.

“I can generally tell if I like someone when I first look at them.” When Huff’s eyes landed on Jev, Jev sensed that he was one of those people that the primus had decided that he disliked. “If I don’t like them it is probably for good reason. They are a shirker or a malcontent. This is a vessel of the Imperial Service. Although we hold a support role that mission is as essential as any.” Jev didn’t need to be an empath to hear bitterness in Huff’s tone.

“I’m a believer in the lash for minor corrective action. For more serious breaches you’ll be dumped off at a star base and then sent to a penal work colony to finish your term. You’ll do your duty aboard Olympica and do it well. Just because this is not a combat vessel is no reason for second rate performance. You’ve both been assigned to Optio Shav’s section. He’s a good NCO. Listen to him and you shouldn’t be back before me. Now, do you two have anything for me?”

“No sir,” Jev and Slade mumbled back with a poor chorus.

“Dismissed then!” their new commander snapped. The recruits saluted smartly, did an about face and left Huff’s office. They were quiet as they made their way to their new quarters.

“Did…you get the impression that he didn’t like you?” Jev asked Slade.

The colonist laughed. “Mate, no one likes me. That’s why I’m here:
according to the arbiter I need to have a social conscience. He said that I could get one in imperial service or else as a slave in the mines. The mines of Spica Prime aren’t good places Jev.” Slade grew serious. “He is just testing us Jev.”

They rounded a corner and went past the crew bulkhead that marked the entrance to the crew section. A group of men and women, dressed in next to nothing nearly collided with them. The group had sunglasses pulled back resting atop their heads. They were all wearing sandals or flip flops and the men in the group were burdened with large coolers. They looked at Bakkus and Slade and laughed.

“New meat!” one of the men proclaimed with a thick accent. A small cigar dangled from his lips. His blond hair was neatly cut and tapered. He unlike the others was wearing his sunglasses over his eyes. He extended a hand. “Vlad Komarov,” he continued by way of introduction.

“Uh…Jev Bakkus,” he announced. Slade likewise introduced himself.

“Bakkus, Bakkus,” Komarov said as he stroked his chin. “You’re doing power room watch starting Monday.”

“Better wear your lead undies recruit!” one of the girls said. The group laughed.

Komarov chuckled. “Don’t worry Bakkus. We don’t plan on allowing you to run the entire power grid. Watch is a good way for you to start pounding manuals and preparing for your practical tests.”

“It’s so farging boring that he’ll be pounding something else,” one of the other men proclaimed.

“You’d know Miguel! Weren’t you caught doing that in there?” Komarov asked.

“I don’t need to do that! I’m man enough get satisfied by someone,” the black haired youth retorted.

“Yes…yourself!” one of the girls chimed in.

“Err…how do you know my schedule Vlad?” Jev asked.

“Corporal Komarov is Bennie’s personal foot massager,” Miguel answered.

Komarov shot Miguel a look that said that he had had enough bantering. “I am Optio Shav’s admin corporal, among other things. I saw you two gentlemen’s names on a roster.”

“What about me corporal?” Slade asked.

“We’re off duty chum,” Komarov said. “You can call me Vlad. But for you Mister Slade, you are to start in environmental. Corporal Watanabe will have you cleaning bio filters or some other glorious mission.”

“All hands stand by for multi-dimensional entry,” a female voice announced over the ship’s loudspeaker system.

Much to Jev’s surprise and then amusement the entire group put their sunglasses over their eyes. The girls twittered and laughed as the speaker voice repeated the announcement. The entire group then hooted. Thy removed their glasses after that and laughed.

“It’s subtle,” one of the girls, a tall blond explained. “You can feel the ripple during the twist. You’ll see after a few months.”

“Let’s get going Vlad!” another of the girls demanded. “Next thing you know the primus will figure out a way to close the beach.”

“A beach?” both Jev and Dragan exclaimed.

“Break out your shorts chums!” Komarov commanded. “Nudity is okay of course but not allowed in the primary sections. We’re off to the hydroponics pod.” He looked at a hairy wrist where his watch might have been. “You have two minutes to get changed and come along—or not. Since you’re consigned to this gulag you might as well get to know the rest of the inmates.”

******************************************
“It’s called the long face boys and girls,” Dragan Slade announced. Jev sat across from his roommate as the colonial raked in what had to amount to two crowns. Jev reminded himself again not to play poker with his friend.

“We’ll see next time, Drag,” Miguel O’Hare retorted. He made Jev’s friend’s name sound like the word drag instead of the long sounding vowel. “Deal the cards.”

In all fairness the feisty corporal had done about as well as Dragan. Jev waited while Recruit Mara Kayden shuffled the cards and started the deal. Whereas Tanzy Artrex had been curved and pretty Mara was just plain. Her mop of straight dark red hair was cut in an almost boyish fashion. She was a friendly girl and she had volunteered to tutor Jev in practical anti matter reactions. Jev took up his cards. He was thinking about quitting so that he could get some extra rack time in for tomorrow. He was to be tested on his use of the molecular bonding tool. This game seemed to be owned by Dragan and Miguel anyway. Nothing, Jev thought as he looked down at the abysmal hand. He decided to throw a silver penny in nonetheless.

The recruit lounge held few visitors on this night. Jev saw Darex Shawder drinking by himself at the bar. Poor Darex had failed an armory drill, drawn a mast and received five lashes for his failure. Near to a wall that displayed a picture of a combined human and MedaV’dan fleet sat the tavern’s only other inhabitants. A male foursome of newly minted corporals shared a table. They were drinking and carousing and heedless of anyone else.

“I was down at the seniors’ lounge running a report to Centurion Frankel,” Kayden said. “I tell you Miguel that they are worried about the Sliln.”

O’Hare snorted. “The Sliln, if they exist are just another group of aliens like the farging Arcturians. Anyway they always have war scares. It keeps everybody on their toes!”

“Do you think it’s really right for us to conquer races just because they aren’t human Miguel?” she asked. She looked around, obviously inviting Dragan and Jev to comment on her question as well as O’Hare. Jev had always suspected that the idealistic little Mara had a different outlook on things. He was a little shocked to hear this kind of an opinion from her despite her curious nature.

O’Hare looked at his cards, took a breath and sighed. “Let me consult the unseen,” he said, invoking the name of the supposedly disembodied minds that represented the Core, the ruling class of the MedaV’dan. O’Hare looked across the lounge in a mock trance like state for a few seconds and then continued: “Yes—the MedaV’dan decides who we fight. Anyway the Arcturians were told not to interfere at Rigel. All those planets and they did that anyway. The MedaV’dan had to smack them to make an example.”

Few humans could even pronounce the name of the reptilian inhabitants of that world. Jev had remembered the open guffaws of laughter when Creaky Enderrsen had tried doing so. It seemed pointless anyway. The reptiles had resisted right up until the end. The Battle of Arcturus had resulted in the massive destruction of their homeworld. Enderrsen had said that the civilization of thirteen billion had, overnight been reduced to fewer than five million. The reptilians had made a play to become a power. Unfortunately that was a game that the MedaV’dan had been playing for a long time.

“An entire war reduced to a sentence,” Mara said. She shook her head.

“Hey if you want to throw your lot in with the lizards, go ahead,” Miguel said. He placed a bet. “I heard they like human women—they say that they taste like chicken!”

“I’ll take three cards,” Slade said in between chuckles. “I think that Mara would taste better than chicken.” Jev watched his friend wince from a well place kick from Kayden.

“You’ll never find out,” she said with a smirk on her face. She took just one card. Not a good sign, thought Jev. He considered folding.

“Listen, our people said that the lizards could never have developed deassociators on their own. Now, I’ve heard that razelcratz about them eating people. But we annihilated them; what would you expect? The teams that did land there…well you heard the stories.” She looked back at her cards.

Jev folded. “What stories?” he asked.

“A few that were captured said that some race told them to attack us first or we would destroy them. Some unknown—advanced race that gave them plans for a weapon that even threw the Medas back for awhile.”

“Let me guess: the Sliln?” his friend Dragan asked. The last players cast their final wagers.

Mara nodded. “The Sliln,” she answered.

“Mara, no one was talking about them until this last year. You know that plenty of lizards were captured and put into brain cookers right at the end of the war. None of them had anything to say about mystery aliens.” Miguel smiled and laid down a straight.

“Well, where did the word come from?” Jev asked. He hadn’t heard anything about a new race.

Mara wrinkled her button nose in disgust and threw down her cards. “Two pair! I should have known better with the luck I’m having tonight!”

“Can’t speak for the Imperial Service but I heard it almost two years ago in a rec hall at New Queensland.” He frowned and put down three of a kind. O’Hare smiled. “A gaggle of traders were drinking and whoring. They were back from way out and were talking about how they were trading for pharma with some kind of intelligent slugs. These slug things mentioned being contacted by a race called Sliln. I thought that it was rot. Growing up on a frontier planet you see these guys come down. They invent all sorts of stories for a piece of skin.” Slade’s frown changed into a smile when he laid a pair next to the three of a kind.


“You are a real bastard Draggo,” O’Hare declared.

“My mum used to say the same thing!” Slade retorted.

“Sliln or no Sliln I’m going to call it a night.” Jev declared. He pushed back from the table. Kayden did likewise.

“I’ll walk back with you if you don’t mind Jev?” she asked.


He shrugged his shoulders and got up. Dragan and Miguel decided to stay for one more round. The two said their goodbyes and wished Jev luck on tomorrow’s test. Jev looked again at Shawder and hoped that he would pass. It was said that the lash didn’t hurt as bad as did the humiliation of having it done.

“You’re going to be fine tomorrow Jev,” Mara said.

“I guess it’s just a case of nerves. Seeing Darex take that beating didn’t help,” Jev said. Darex had started whimpering and crying after the third stroke. They continued through the long passageway to the crew section.

“You’ll do fine Jev,” Mara said. “You’ve taken to spacing well for a…”

“For a flatlander?” he asked, completing her sentence.

“I don’t think of you like that Jev,” she said. They stopped at the entrance to Kayden’s quarters. “You are a natural at this. You’ll do fine tomorrow.” She keyed in her access code, opening her door.

Jev sighed. A lot of frustrations had built in him. “It’s just that—all my life I’ve had to work ten times harder to get what most people are just given. I know that sometimes I didn’t apply myself but a lot of times I did and it just seemed like I got no where. Some people just sign their names and boom there it is!”

“You better relax Jev!” Mara warned him. “If you are all screwed up inside you will fail. You’re a good soldier Jev, relax and be yourself.”

“I’ll try,” he replied in a downcast tone.


“I could help you relax,” Mara said. She bent forward and kissed his mouth. Jev was surprised but he quickly became an active participant with Mara. He hugged her while pushing her into her quarters. He backed away when it seemed like she was pushing him away. Mara reached past him and punched the door close panel. She no sooner did that than she was fidgeting out of her green duty coverall. Jev did likewise.

Yup, it has shades of Starship Troopers !

“I don’t think that Kiley is looking well,” Helane Bakkus told her son. His mother held up the friendly Dachshund up to her vid pickup. Jev missed the friendly dog as much as he did any of his family. Kiley’s ribs were showing. That did not look good.

“Poppy is doing well. He finally got his bot repaired.” His mother smiled slyly. “I think that he is trying to date that one neighbor…Helen? I think that you used to talk about her.” His grandmother had died when Jev was just a baby. It had been a tragic death considering that most people lived into their early one hundreds. Nanci Grays had been thirty five when she had died.

“We’re really sorry that we couldn’t make it out to Alpha Cent to see you.” His mom said. Jev slouched down in his chair as her e-vid continued. “Ged wanted to visit Tan Nelson and Kaylin. They bought a little place in South America. We wanted to go to Alpha but you know it’s a two day MD hop. Ged wanted to see Tan and then he is really busy at work. He says that the first domes are complete. Don’t know if I’d want to live underwater!” She smiled and laughed. “We all miss you Jev. You should be up for leave soon.” She seemed to about to finish the letter.

“Oh! Martin Wiley wrote us! He says that he will try to find your service addy and write you. He dumped that girl at the colony. Now he’s dating some young boy! I never knew that he went both ways. All those years I worked for him too. Well he’s happy and that is all that counts. Miss you Jev!” She blew a kiss at her pickup. “Love you!” The screen went dark and then was replaced with the crest of stars and crossed lightning bolts over an image of Earth that was the seal of Earth’s Imperial Service.

Mara shuffled around on their shared bed. They had decided to share quarters almost four months ago. “Why didn’t your parents come to see you? We laid over at Alpha for a whole week,” she said to his back. Jev swiveled around and looked at her. She looked up at him from her weapons’ applications exam manual. Kayden was fresh off of duty and was dressed in only panties and an undershirt.

“They were busy Mara. Dad worked with Tan Nelson for a long time. He used to come to our camp.” Jev shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “I guess I’ll see them on my next leave.”

“Your mom didn’t have anymore kids. That must have been hard for them,” Mara said. Jev grew uncomfortable. After Jev’s birth, his mother had been afflicted with rare condition that had rendered her sterile. Jev always wondered if that was why his father was the way that he was. Mara must have sensed his discomfort for she changed the subject:

“You can tell them the news about your promotion, Corporal Bakkus.” She smiled at him, put her databoard down and walked over to him. She sat down in his lap and kissed his cheek. He put an arm around her. Mara had made corporal and then so had he.

“It’s too bad that you drew extra duty tonight,” she declared and added a sigh.

“I guess I’m now officially Bennie’s new personal foot massager according to Miguel,” Bakkus said. “Optio Shav has a bundle of supply reports for me to work on. I see why Vlad liked that job though. I can’t get over how much material is in the pods.”

She kissed him again; this time on the lips. “I miss Vlad. He was a good soldier and a lot of fun. I’m surprised that he opted out.”

He kissed her back. “He told me that he always did what was expected of him but that he just didn’t like this life,” Mara added. She got up out of his lap. He stood up and threw on his black duty blouse. It was routine work for him for today.

She helped to make sure that that the high collar was straight. She brushed at the second new hash mark that was there. “The primus didn’t exactly help things. That farging flatlander, just because he didn’t get a battle command he ruins things for everyone else!”

“Remember me…Mister Flatlander?” Jev asked.

“You’ve never acted like that. On the straight; you’d make a good commander Jev.”

Jev had four more years left on his term. He had no plans to go career. By next year his mastery of physics and the mechanics of space travel would allow him a better choice of careers when he returned Earthside. He looked at Mara. She had been born on Earth but her parents had emigrated to Rigel when she was two. They hadn’t yet discussed what would happen when their respective terms were over. Jev thought that he had a better chance of seeing the MedaV’dan homeworld than moving up through the ranks to a command. No one had ever gone to their masters’ world. Or if anyone had they had never returned to tell anyone about it.

“Let me concentrate on this corporal business first,” he said. “Opy Shav wants me to run a molecular survey of the aft cargo struts. Some of those have war material in them that dates all the way back to the war with the Arcies. We just lug it around because no star base commander is willing to take it.”

She kissed him. “The exciting life of those of us in the Imperial Logistics Corps!” she cried. Kayden giggled and then grew serious. “Any idea of what they put in number two?” she asked.

He shook his head. “It’s a bio storage vessel according to the manifest. Opy told me that he’d skin me if I even asked about it again. I heard that Miguel was guarding it. It can’t be too much don’t you think? They’d put it in the hold of a control ship if that was the case.”

“I suppose that you’re right,” she agreed. “It makes for good stories though!” She smiled seductively and gave him a smoldering stare while running a finger where his collars met. “If you finish up early Opy will give you a good mark. And I’ll give you something better.”

Jev smiled and kissed her deeply. “I’ll do my best Corporal Kayden!”

They said goodbye and then Bakkus left and headed for the aft section of the Olympica. He enjoyed his time with Mara. Slade had gotten his own compartment out of the deal and he seemed quite happy with that as he and O’Hare had teamed up as the Nix’s resident Lotharios. Mara had told him that they were going through as many women as they could.

Things were good for the most part. Jev boarded a travel tube for the aft pods. Few of the crew liked taking the tubes as they were areas of zero gravity. That didn’t bother Jev. Besides the little tube’s acceleration reduced the amount of time that one was weightless. He was happy with his advancement and happy with Mara. He started the little tube out and allowed the acceleration to press him into the tube’s soft seat. For the most part except that Jev was coming to grips with the fact that this ship wasn’t the best assignment.

Mixing with crews on Hera he had seen how most of them were happy and boisterous. More than a few of them would resort to bare knuckles to defend the honor of their ships and commanders. Those were not only the crews of proud Executors, Arthurs and Conquerors but even of sister Ptolemy’s. Jev had always thought that the Nix’s morale was a result of its mission. But that was not the case. His loss of apparent weight told Jev that the tube was slowing to a halt.

He propelled himself out of the tube and rolled forward as he transited to artificial gravity. Jev looked down a long corridor that was the pod arm personnel tube. Lit with only essential lighting it was a dark and spooky pit that reminded Jev of the old tunnel through one of the mountains of his home. Ancient men had run electric vehicles atop metal tracks through the carved tunnel. Jev thought of Arik. The two had played along the bones of those old tracks.

He hit the lighting switch. The one hundred and twenty meter corridor burst into light. Jev ascribed the faraway point that was the pod attachment point. He stopped by a service locker, removed the scanner and shouldered the big detector across his back. He thought of Bynum while he proceeded along the corridor’s walkway. His friend was probably a senior corporal, perhaps even a sergeant. Arik had been selected for the battle troop echelon.

Those thus selected sometimes bypassed optio for the rank of sergeant. Although superior in rank, sergeants seldom questioned the decisions of optios, the Imperial Service’s technicians. They were by regulation unable to reverse a technical order given by an optio. An optio might become a sergeant, but a sergeant that had never been an optio would revert back to being a corporal if he was busted. Jev wondered what path he would take as the walkway led him along its path. He probably wouldn’t be in long enough to make optio much less choose between that and a combat assignment.

Jev wasn’t startled when he heard footfalls. He had been detailed along with Sergeant Kieran Onizuka on this task. He liked the staunch and quiet Onizuka. The sergeant was due to take an exam for the rank of centurion. Onizuka hoped to get a command assignment from that if he was successful. Jev liked him because of the senior NCO’s; Onizuka was one of the few that spoke to new troops as if they really were people. The two men grabbed a walkway to the storage unit. Onizuka yawned.

“These farging exams are wearing me down corporal,” the sergeant complained. “On the straight, it makes me think I should never have gone career.”

“Was it hard…I mean being a flat—Earther?” Jev asked.

“I won’t break your head for calling me a flatlander, corporal. I spent my entire adult life living down that name. It’s all just colonial razelcratz; just their way of welcoming us to the show.”

“What…made you stay in?” Jev asked.

“You are trying to decide what you want to do; is that it?”

The older soldier smiled. His head full of close cut black hair was starting to thin in the front. Jev envied his physique. Bakkus did what was necessary to maintain physical standards but he did not go past that. But then again, being a sergeant, Onizuka had experienced combat. He had told Jev that he had missed the Arcturian Campaign, being assigned instead to a rear guard unit.

“Do you want to go career Bakkus?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know sergeant.”

“Call me Kieran. It’s a breach of protocol but God willing I’ll be of off this scowl in another month.” He sighed.

“I don’t know, is probably the best answer a new soldier can make. At some point you’ll decide. You’re an Earther just like me. It’s hard for us getting used to this life. You go from some make work, flunky job on Earth to all of these responsibilities aboard a starship. Do you think that any of your finishing school chums are responsible for getting foodstuffs out to some dome colony before people starve?” Jev shook his head. He couldn’t visualize Tyler Cremin doing anything that didn’t benefit Tyler Cremin.

“Is it religion that helps you deal with everything?” Jev’s family had had little to do with that topic.

“Everyday is fun for me,” Onizuka replied. “It isn’t about dealing with anything corporal. Back on Earth I’d probably be some minor tech or assistant manager somewhere. Where else does someone get paid to have this much fun?” He had added that with a grin on his lips.

“But you asked about religion. I don’t know. I was bedmating with a guy and he took me to services with him one day. I liked everything about the…the ceremony, the cleric in his robes dispensing hope and good advice. You should go sometime. Are you rooming with Kayden or is it more?”

“It’s turned into more,” he answered. “Well…I’m not sure.” Jev was fond of Mara. But they had spoken little of any future together.

“Another good answer; bedmates are nice but in the service all too many times they go their separate ways. But the point I was getting at is that there is nothing wrong with giving religion a try. You and her should go sometime.”

“I just never thought much about religion ser—Kieran. I mean after men submitted to the MedaV’dan didn’t most of Earth’s major religions fold up and come together all as one?”

The belt dumped them off near to the storage pod’s maintenance section. Onizuka laughed. “Kind of hard to insist that Allah, God or whatever you want to call him is the Supreme Being, when supreme beings land on your lawn. Religion is a lot about faith and those inner questions. The Cleric Corps is there to help you think about those things.”

The voice of Centurion Maria Harkness, Huff’s first officer and one of the people aboard Nix Olympica that made life tolerable boomed out of the overhead speaker. She announced that the freighter was exiting multi-dimensional. She had no sooner said so than Jev’s insides felt that peculiar sensation gotten from multi-dimensional shifts. Jev and Kieran decided to listen in on the command circuit while they placed scanners over sections of deck plating. Tubular projections shot out of the scanners like metallic snakes. They contacted the deck where the living metal, driven by nanobots interfaced and became part of the floor. The analyzer units looked much like mechanical spiders that were feeding on Nix. Those little robots would look for stress fractures.

It was a rescue! Jev was both thrilled and surprised. Space was huge. He recalled his L & L instructor once telling them that ancient man had made up stories about space exploration that had made the distances seem no farther than the next town. That was far from the truth and rescues were normally only conducted when the exact position of those seeking help was known. Jev had heard of no such MD transmission from an endangered ship. Yet Centurion Harkness was busily instructing the battle troops to prepare shuttles for a rescue. The chances of just coming upon someone that needed help were probably higher than the chances of a person being struck by lightning—all the time.

“It could be a free trader,” Kieran remarked. Jev had heard stories of those rugged men and women from Arik and then Dragan. “He’s damned lucky if it is. The chances of pinging a starship in MD are few and none.”

Yet here they were. Jev was trying to remember the systems that were bypassing in multi dimensional. There were just too many. Harkness confirmed that the signal was from a free trader. He wondered if he would get to meet the traders. The scanner issued a squawk. He peeled himself away from the command net viewer. There was nothing to see anyway—not yet. His scanner was detaching itself. The readings looked normal for the fifty year old freighter: old and tired. This arm would be replaced at the next overall. The lights went out.

Jev froze. He fished into a pocket and withdrew his hand torch. Onizuka’s was already shining forth. The silence was overpowering. Bakkus had grown use to the noise of environmental fans and the hum of electrical equipment. A power outage was one thing; this silence meant something worse. His inner ear told him that the artificial gravity was cut. Jev shined his light around, found and emergency equipment locker and propelled himself off the deck toward the locker.

He stopped, righted himself in case gravity returned and opened the locker. Jev retrieved a spacesuit and put it on while thinking of what was happening. Onizuka was doing likewise. Was this one of Huff’s cruel and pointless exercises? Why was everything dead? Emergency lighting had finally started. He fitted the suit, powered it up and tried the command net. There was silence. He tried several other channels; nothing. Jev recalled some advice from Sandra Marxs. He accessed the older maintenance network. Much of that was hardwired throughout Nix’s structure.

“What’s going on?” he asked the sergeant.

“I don’t know,” Onizuka said. Jev floated aside as the older man keyed in an access code and released the electronic lock for the weapons. He fished out a blast rifle and handed Jev another. “I’ll deal with the frazzle over breaking a gun seal. This whole thing is farging strange.”

Jev was doing the last checks on his suit when he heard cries of mayhem. It took him a few seconds to realize that this was not some kind of a random failure. Stations all over the ship were reporting. There was some kind of fighting! This had to be one of the primus’ games. Jev thought quickly. There were procedures for this but no one took them seriously. No one could board a starship. The sergeant ordered Jev to follow him. Jev tapped his suit jets and proceeded toward the manual docking station along with Onizuka. The large blister was up relative of where he had been when the artificial gravity had been working.

Procedure told him to verify that this was real. Jev really had no idea of what he was doing. It helped when the sergeant confirmed that he was doing the right things. The manual control station sat atop the mighty docking arm. Jev looked around wildly while more voices told him that actual intruders were trying to cut through the airlocks. Jev stared out of a transparent metallic port. This was probably a stupid farging exercise! There was nothing out there except the blackness of space. He looked out of the other side: the same thing. It was black.

It was too black. Kieran tapped his shoulder firmly and told him to look again. Jev realized that a shape was blotting out the stars. It was large, he thought. Either that or it was right over the pod. The shape looked like a roughly hewn stone. Jev somehow gleaned that it was not an asteroid. But it was unlike any ship that he had ever seen. More voices announced that an unseen enemy had swept through the command center.

“What do we do sergeant?”

“Repel intruders corporal. Keep your visor open for now and strangle your transponder.”

“But sir—”

“I know that it’s not procedure. But no one has ever boarded a ship before. Something smells here and it’s not the ag pod.”

Jev followed orders. They could hide in the pod below, but what about the crew? What about Mara? Lights showed from the blackened tunnel of the passage. Someone was approaching and they did not have Imperial Service transponders in their suits. Onizuka told him to stay calm but be ready to shoot.

“If this is one of that bastard Huff’s exercises then he just farged himself. We’re perfectly authorized to shoot suspected intruders under spaceways law. I hope that it’s an exercise even though one of our mates might be killed.” Jev followed his reasoning. The alternative was that an enemy was boarding their ship. “If things get bad remember to hide in plain sight Jev. Swing your visor corporal.”

Whoever was sailing down the corridor was not part of the Nix’s crew. His helmet filter screened out the worst of the energy discharge. Onizuka was firing back. At least his torso was still firing. The sergeant had been sliced neatly into two. Another shot of bluish energy took Onizuka’s helmeted head. Jev panicked and made for the airlock. Jev didn’t know how much time he had as he engaged the lock’s manual system. Probably not enough he thought. The hatch slid open. Jev entered and cycled the manual controller. It seemed to take forever. He had extinguished his helmet light. The lock’s pressure dropped. Jev felt his suit grow stiff. The outer lock hatch slid open. Jev went outside the Nix Olympica. It was probably the most stupid thing that he had ever done in his life. The outer hatch slid closed behind him.

Jev stared into the small ports. He made out a figure in a strange looking spacesuit. A small slit was all that the person or whatever had to look through. The protruding snout of the helmet set Jev in mind of an ancient knight. Jev pulled his face away quickly. It wouldn’t do to be seen. He remembered warnings about being nearly invisible out here. That was what Kieran had been trying to tell him. He jetted along the pod’s surface toward the cargo lock. He turned briefly and beheld the ship that he had seen earlier. It was easily the size of the Olympica, probably more. Jev thought of tribal arrowheads when his mind tried to compare the unknown to something familiar. He realized that he was shivering as he replayed the image of Onizuka’s death in his head.


He slid along the skin of the pod while listening to a dwindling number of conversations. He knew some of the voices. Jev wondered how Mara was doing. He heard Optio Shav’s voice. Jev was realizing that whoever had boarded the Nix had known in advance what they were doing. That meant that suit communications were probably being monitored. Jev switched in a rotating frequency key and responded.

“Is this my foot massager?” Shav asked.

“It is,” Bakkus answered. Shav must have heard some of the junior enlisted scuttlebutt. “I was on assignment where you had directed me. Some visitors showed up.”

“I know how shy you are. Stay that way! Our new friends like the weather where they are at. They might leave if it changed. Forward of section forty two and aft of nineteen, that much I must tell you.”


Change the weather? What did that mean? They were wearing suits. Jev could depressurize that section but what would that accomplish? Then he remembered that several of the lock releases and override controls were there on the Nix’s skin. If Jev set those properly those compartments would open to space. Even a suited man, or whatever, would be blown around in the resulting storm when those space doors opened all at once. But what to do about that ship he asked himself. How much time did they have?

Jev remembered the briefings that he had received in basic. Attack: that was the key to winning. He had thought that such lectures were stupid. Those were things that belonged in the realm of the strategos and marshals, not Jev Bakkus’. Without really thinking about it he made for the cargo lock’s personnel entrance. The attacking ship was launching small pods from two large open bays. Maybe he could do something about that.

The Nix Olympica’s KEW launchers, the ones that Jev could see were mostly molten ruinous heaps. No wonder the primus wasn’t fighting back: there was nothing to fight back with. The Nix’s dozen or so of spatial charges would more than likely hurt the freighter as much if not more than it would the attacking ship. Jev slowed his pace, turned about and decelerated so that he was stopped next to the small lock. He cycled through. The pod’s interior was dark.

Jev used the glowing emergency strips that marked the cargo pod’s open navigable space. He had a good memory. He hoped that that memory was now working. Jev brought himself up short beside a cargo sled. For anyone using night vision equipment the sled would be a big target, but he needed the cargo mover. He engaged the sled but was careful to move slowly and to stay to the near to the towering racks. He found what he wanted. His helmet chrono said that ten minutes had passed since he had left the Nix’s interior. It felt like it had been ten hours.

Jev found what he had been looking for. Thankful for low gravity he used handlers to help him load four, thousand kilo devices onto the sled. A few voices filtered over the net while he worked. The intruders were bent on securing cargo pod two. He heard Corporal O’Hare’s orders and realized with a sense of dread that they were being pushed back. Hold on Miguel, he thought. Jev guided the now cumbersome sled over the walkways and to the cargo lock. Thirty minutes had passed. How had the enemy gotten aboard so quickly?

Jev manually worked the big cargo lock. All he needed was for it to be opened a slit. He guided the weapons into the lock and then closed the inner lock. The intruders held the forward section from command up to pod two. The crew was holding the crew section and part of the power section. The intruders controlled part of the power section in the aft but that was it. Why none of the million safeguards and command overrides that Jev had been told existed had worked he did not know. Poor Sergeant Onizuka’s last words about this incident were haunting him. Something did stink. Jev cycled through.

He remembered Opy Shav going on and on with war stories as he had shown Jev the contents of this pod. He had stopped and told Jev about how easy modern weapons were to use. Shav had used these devices that Jev was now calculating to send into the alien ship’s hold, to illustrate his point. He removed the separator that was the trigger between the reaction section and plasma core of the zone cutter; just as the optio had shown him.

So named because the device’s purpose was to clear a land zone for whatever purposes the ground troops needed it cleared for. The large devices, looking like storage drums, when activated, would generate a razor thin, razor sharp force field network. Anything in the field’s two hundred meter range would be cut into pieces no more than a centimeter square. The Imperial Service had quickly learned how useful the devices were as antipersonnel weapons. Jev had the range and the time. The cutters were set. Jev keyed in the emission time and fired the sled’s small rockets. If nothing changed they would go off almost inside the enemy lock in ten minutes.

Jev fishtailed, found the forward section of the freighter and fired his suit thrusters. He guided himself on instinct rather than cold mathematics. He had no time even to use the suit’s computer for that. He would have to ‘eyeball’ it. He could hear Opy Shav, Sandra or even Mara telling him that eyeballing was a quick way to die. Nix’s hull was coming up fast. Jev reversed and slowed. He grunted as he slammed feet first into the freighter’s side. Not too bad, he thought as he went to work.

Jev opened a service panel and commenced to working on the airlock system. It helped that he had been on an inspection team for this section just two weeks earlier. He shorted some junction boxes while reworking logic circuits. Jev chuckled slightly when he realized that he should be remembering this so that he could write a manual of what not to do. He finished and rocketed over to the next command box. He felt rather than heard the explosion of metal fragments against his suit. Someone was on to him!

Jev stopped, spun around and fired his blast rifle. The visible particle emission should at least keep the shooter wary. He contacted the hull and went skittering along the metal finally stopping near to the box. He opened the lid. Jev looked past that to where a dot hung illuminated in space. He extended his arm, sighted the rifle and fired. Jev immediately ducked and went about the work of destroying the freighter’s system of airlock safeties. He jumped when first there was a flash and then another. Jev wanted to do more but he sensed that time had run out. He hit the lock override.

Looking up Jev saw expanding sphere’s of molten metal. The lighting in the enemy ship’s bay was flashing intermittently. Jev saw torn up debris around the lock. He looked down as a suited figure was ejected out of the Olympica. It was one of the intruders. He recognized the helmet. Jev sighted along the rifle and fired again. This time, there was no doubt that he had hit his target. The attacker, his molecules disrupted and vibrated, burst apart. Jev fired at several others that had been caught in the maelstrom created when the airlocks had opened.

Centurion Harkness’ voice came through his helmet. They were winning! The sudden loss of pressure had created the ripple of confusion that had been needed to reverse the fight. Jev jetted for a lock. Enemy or not he was going back into the ship. He slowed and stopped before a solar collector. One of the attacker’s in the seamless black suits was firing at him. Jev fired back. He was pinned here! A shudder ran through him when he heard Harkness warning the crew about a multi-dimensional entry.

Farg it! He was going to make for any open lock. Jev fired his thrusters and shot toward where the sniper was. He watched the hull of the Nix pass beneath him as if it were moving while he was immobile. Jev fired again at the speck of a sniper. The lock was coming up! He twisted, fired braking thrusters and snaked into the lock. He felt the twist in his insides.

Jev’s eyes fluttered open. He smelled the scent of strong disinfectant overlaid with an awful smell, like he imagined as the odor of burned, spoiled pork. Jev also smelled a hint of vomit. He did not need to see the nurse, dressed in powder blue to know that he was in the dispensary. The nurse, a man not much older than Jev stopped, looked toward him and nodded.

“Number five is awake,” he told his recorder unit. The nurse looked overtop Jev. “Vitals are good, this one will live.”
“Wha…”

“I’m not a farging info service soldier!” the nurse snapped and then moved on. Jev lay back. His mouth and throat were painfully dry. A few seconds later the nurse returned. He helped Jev to a sitting position. He gave Jev a water bottle.

“Drink slowly, corporal,” the nurse told him in a gentle voice. Jev swallowed. The water was the sweetest tasting liquid that he had ever drunk.

Jev looked around for the first time since he had awoken. To his right a woman lay sleeping. Her right arm lay exposed over the blanket. It was covered by a healing nano sleeve. He looked to his left. The patient there, a man of about his age, was stirring. Jev thought that he looked okay until he started thrashing. Jev turned away when he saw that the left side of the man’s face was burned severely. He thought that he could see bone through the remainder of the man’s charred blackened skin. Medics gathered around the burn victim. The nurse hastily handed him the bottle and joined the effort on the burn patient.

“Part of the weapon fire penetrated the skull,” an authoritative voice among the group announced. Jev recognized one of the Nix’s senior surgeons. The man, a centurion, shook his head. “He’ll never be fully functional. Give me one cc of permasleep.”

Jev gulped as the doctor administered the man’s final drug that he would ever receive. The horribly burned man’s thrashing slowed. His unintelligible cries of agony abated. The group of medics stepped back.

“Nurse Arnax, mark the time and let’s get moving. We still have some that are salvageable.”

They covered the disfigured corpse much to Jev’s relief. He was left alone. That was horrible. Jev started to recall the last few seconds before he had entered the airlock. That had been an eternity ago—literally. Jev had been partly outside when the ship had gone multi-dimensional. His mind had rejected nonexistence. He could not comprehend what that was. He knew that he had not existed and that fact gnawed at him.

He had been out there a long time. Maybe eternity was an exaggeration. Jev didn’t know what that was. He supposed that a cleric could explain it. Jev had had the time to analyze every aspect of his short life, several times over. His mind knew that it had happened and yet he also knew that only a few seconds had passed from the MD twist until the lock had closed behind him. Jev had stared out into the maw of madness in those few seconds. He had been a part of it. Jev shuddered. Somehow his mind was putting a protective blanket over it. Jev fell back into uneasy dreams.
******************************************
“Slade was a real trooper!” Mara exclaimed. “Him and three chums from environmental forced their way to pod two. Miguel and his troops burned down the fargers before they could get in there!” She jostled Jev’s elbow. “You okay Jev?”

“Huh?” he asked. He nodded and looked past her at the other inhabitants of the enlisted lounge. The foursome was sitting at exactly the same table as they had on that night many months ago, when he and Mara had first partnered. The crew was fewer. Almost a third of them had been killed in the attack.

“I think that you should see Doc de Sade again,” she said jokingly. Behind the joking though, there was real sincerity. She knew that his nights had been filled with dreams. She had twice found him staring aimlessly out of an observation port at multi-dimensional space.

“The last time that I saw Doc Devers,” Miguel O’Hare began, referring to the doctor by his real name, “he had me bend over for that exam. He put one hand on my shoulder and then another! He must have a special device that checks the rectum!” They all chuckled at Miguel’s crude joke.

“Any progress at finding remains?” Dragan Slade asked Mara.

“None,” she answered. She took a sip of beer and wiped at her mouth. “No trace of DNA and nothing of those fancy suits.” She shook her head.

Jev had seen surveillance footage of the attackers in their black form fitting spacesuits. The material, whatever it was, must have been armored. The imperials’ blast rifles had been barely sufficient against them. Jev’s opening of the airlock system, although it had obviously shaken the boarders, had not been the thing that had stemmed the tide. Miguel’s squad’s sudden and decisive thrust out had been the determining factor in throwing the invaders back. Whether Jev’s zone cutters had damaged their ship, no one knew. Jev remembered seeing a flash from there and the debris.

“Come on Mara,” Slade said. “Is this more of that rot about us getting what we deserve?”

“Don’t you think some nonhuman aliens haven’t seen what we’ve did and considered that they might be next?” she asked him. “I’m surprised at you Draggo. You are out there in the colonies just like me.”

“Space is huge Mara,” he retorted. “Those aliens had access to millions of other worlds. Look at how many aliens that have fallen because they wanted to horn in on some world that the MedaV’dan had already set foot on. You can save that liberal proselytizing for another time. The Arcies committed suicide. So did the Kev’ac.”

“Prosel what?” Miguel asked, shaking his head in confusion. Jev knew that Slade hid a keen intelligence behind the mask of a clown. “Mara has never charged anyone. She gives it up for free!” They all laughed. Jev’s was forced.

Jev looked past them. They seemed like computer generated actors in a holoplay. No one now seemed real to him. He wanted so badly to go to an observation port and to look out. He hadn’t understood it, not at first. But now after these last three weeks he thought that he did: he was being called. That was probably part of his insanity from the MD exposure. Slade was snapping his fingers before Jev’s face.

“It is battle fatigue Mara,” Slade told her.

“I’m just tired from nav watch,” Jev protested lamely. It was a lie. He saw Mara’s dubious stare.

“Everything on schedule Jev?” O’Hare asked.

They had all been tasked to do things that normally sergeants or centurions would do. That was necessary to fill the vacancies left behind from those that had been killed. Jev, worried that he was going to fail basic space navigation had instead aced the exam. Between that and a recommendation from Optio Shav, he had been assigned to the helm. Really, it was a formality as Centurion Harkness checked each one of his twist calculations. Harkness had taken over as commander after the death of Primus Huff.

“We’ll be at Aurelia Star Base in a week, six hours and fourteen minutes,” he answered with a sheepish grin pasted on his face. Mara seemed satisfied that he was better. Miguel groaned.

“What?” Slade asked after downing a mouthful of beer.

“You know that the inquisitors will be debriefing us,” he explained.

“We didn’t do anything so, so what?” Mara snapped. “We defended the ship. The primus would take the downfall but he already opted out thanks to one of the invaders.” She seemed confident and yet Jev knew that she was fearful. The Inquisitor Corps was nothing to tangle with.

“Poor Huff,” Slade said while shaking his head in sorrow. Harkness had told the crew that Huff’s wife had been dying of a rare disease. That had been a big part of the reason that his attitude had turned harsh.

“If there’s anything to what the clerics say then he’ll be with his love in some afterlife. I’ve heard that naked girls fly around on gossamer wings there.” Dragan laughed and took another drink.

“Flying out of your reach chum,” Mara chided him. She clapped her hands together. “We have a little time. On the straight: what’s say we hit the beach with the beta shifters tomorrow night?”

Miguel slapped a hand down upon the table top. “The best idea you’ve had lately Mara! Let’s do it!”

Jev did his best to join in and feigned enthusiasm. He wanted to look out into the maelstrom. It was a want so bad that he thought that he understood what addiction was. No wonder those poor souls were put down. Jev believed that he was truly mad.

Aurelia was hot, wet and miserable. The Nix Olympica had put into orbit less than two days earlier. They had secured their stations and shuttled down yesterday. After a night’s rest they were told to go to a dark gray cubical building and wait there for their debriefing appointments. Jev could think of no more dire a looking place. Yet a friendly base services centurion had told Jev that the building was just an empty facility that was used mostly when the sector commander wanted to conduct war games. The inquisitors had headquarters on Earth and Alpha, but mostly operated out of a grip everywhere else.

Jev was sweating despite the room’s coolness. He had did nothing wrong yet what would happen if they found out that he had been caught outside during the twist. Jev remembered basic training. He needed to stay cool and answer the inquisitors’ questions. Jev looked at his chrono. He had about ten more minutes. He sat rigidly in one of the sterile room’s only three chairs. Not even a picture hung on a wall.

“Bakkus,” a voice snapped.

Jev came to attention and tried to answer. His throat was dry and course. The inquisitor, part of a team of two, eyed him up and down with cold grey eyes. Jev saw the officer’s gold badge: an armored fist holding an ancient scale. Jev knew that inquisitors had no rank save that of their position. They were nominally equal to a legate. But given a legitimate investigation it was said that they could question even a strategos or marshal. The short officer bade him enter the room beyond. He followed Jev after he went.

Another legate, this one a tall man with iron grey hair curtly ordered Jev to sit in the lone chair that was in front of the desk. Jev did as ordered. He knew that the equipment on the table was there to pickup, analyze and record his physical responses. The legate identified himself merely as Smith. The officer that had come for him did not give a name.

“There’s water if you want it,” Smith said as he looked down at his databoard. “Corporal Bakkus,” he added. Jev was grateful and accepted a bottle from the nameless inquisitor. He drank and handed it back. “Let’s get started. This won’t take long.” Smith’s tone was warm. It might have been Poppy, inviting him for a cool drink after Jev had finished his chores, so familiar was and pleasant was Smith’s tone. “Tell me everything that happened on that day of the attack. Specifically, we’d like to hear about when you came on duty. Remember that the equipment is active.” He smiled. “But you have nothing to fear. I can tell that by looking at you corporal.” The nameless officer stood behind Jev and grunted.

Jev started at first haltingly. His voice was quaking. Gradually though, the quaking subsided as he spoke. They just wanted to know the same things that Optio Shav and Centurion Harkness had wanted to know. The inquisitors became more attentive though as Jev spoke of the death of Sergeant Onizuka and Jev’s flight to space.

“Onizuka ordered you to the lock?” the nameless inquisitor asked in a sharp voice.

“Yes sir—well no sir, not specifically. He had told me to hide in plain sight. That was our way of talking about—”

“I know that it means EVA corporal!” Jev jumped. The inquisitor’s mouth had been right next to his ear. He could feel the officer’s breath. “He also told you to defend your ship.”

“The corporal did as ordered,” Smith said. He was looking at his instruments and not at his fellow inquisitor or Jev. “That was a squad sized force that came down the pod arm. Bakkus did right.” Jev was relieved. “Tell us what happened out there Corporal Bakkus.” The relief vanished.

Jev nervously told of his conversation with Shav. How he reentered the pod and got the zone cutters. He spoke about his work on the lock system and of nearly being shot by a sniper. Jev related how Harkness must have regained control of the drive and about how he boarded the ship just before the twist. The nameless one was standing right behind Jev.

“We have details on your recollection of what you saw,” he said. “You wasted time on those field weapons, corporal. Why didn’t you just sabotage the locks?”

“That…that ship was out there sir. I…just…thought that a distraction was needed.”

“Or were you wasting time so that your allies could seize the pod?”

“What?” he practically squeaked.

“You are holding something back corporal,” Smith announced. Smith leaned back in his chair and gave Jev an appraising look. “Have you heard the word Sliln?”

“Yes sir, in the lounge, it’s all razelcratz.”

“You’re a liar Bakkus!” the nameless one proclaimed. “An imperial starship merely shuts down in space. How did that happen unless the enemy had some help?”

“Sir, they would need codes,” he implored. “I don’t know any codes! I’m just a corporal! I mean, I didn’t know any codes then.”

Smith looked at his instruments, sighed and shook his head. “A primus is dead, along with a hundred and fifty crew. An imperial vessel was attacked and we don’t even know by whom.” The kindness was gone out of his voice. “And you sit before us lying.”

“Stand up!” the nameless inquisitor ordered. Jev did as he was told.

“You are making things hard on yourself corporal,” Smith said. Jev was aghast when the standing officer laid out a personnel restraint field around him.

“Sir I didn’t—I’m not a—”

“What you are is a traitor!” Smith suddenly spat. “Take off that uniform!”

Jev started to protest but thought better of it. He peeled down to his underwear but was told to shuck that. He stood before the inquisitors naked and humiliated. He was told that the field would prevent him from moving and that they would return. Jev started to protest his innocence until Smith silenced him.

“We’ll return shortly Bakkus. You better have your story on the straight!” the tall inquisitor told him. His tone was menacing. The two departed.

True to their words Jev was practically immobile. He was frightened. If he told them about his exposure to multi-dimensional what would happen? That was probably what their scanners read. Jev was trying to conceal his experience. What if he told them? Insane people were, under the Covenant without rights. What would happen? These two would surely do something terrible. Jev had heard stories about people being experimented upon: the insane and criminals. His eyes grew moist. The door opened again. Jev looked. It was not the inquisitors. Jev’s bowels let go. The reek of his own waste nearly caused him to vomit.

Their movement was like that of a recorded holo where the motion would be stopped and then continued at a later point. The tallest of the duo, a male—it was a fury! The fighting captains of the MedaV’dan, the fury’s long mane of copper colored hair was pulled back into a ponytail. His partner, a female sprite wore her hair almost shoulder length. It was cut neatly and straight where it ended. Both of the aliens examined Jev like some bug under an analysis tool. Their luminescent green eyes showed nothing. Their lips were moving. Jev heard the fury as if he was behind him. The sound was strange, out of sync with the alien’s lip movements.

“You saw something interesting,” the MedaV’dan stated. Jev blinked and gawked. The voice seemed to modulate as the alien spoke. “Tell us about it.”

This wasn’t real! Everything was strange, out of kilter. Jev started to repeat his explanation. But he did not relate his story as he had to the inquisitors. He relived the attack. Onizuka lost his head and Jev escaped out of the airlock. He sent the sled full of cutters toward the alien ship. His vision stopped there. Jev felt like some tool. The aliens were magnifying and examining writings on the bay’s interior. Jev sensed an agreement between the two, like a confirmation. He was sabotaging the lock system again. The sniper nearly killed him a second time. He was scrambling for the lock. Jev tried to stop thinking.

The fury pulled him along as one would pull him along by the hand. Except that the alien was pulling on Jev’s mind. The twist, again he was there looking into madness. The alien stopped. Jev was left out there again. He was all alone. No, someone else was there this time. The sprite looked coolly at him.

“Tell me…Jev Bakkus, why does one day seem longer than another?” Her face was without emotion, yet Jev felt—humor.

“I…time…I suppose,” he answered. “I mean how we see it.”

“You’ve seen it. Your mind contained the experience.” Her voice was no longer disjointed. Jev realized that she was in his mind. He wanted to stop her. “How a species views time determines how far they’ve evolved. You are troubled. I can help you.”

Jev had a hard sense of when and where he was. He was standing naked in the interrogation room. The MedaV’dan had released the restraint field. Yet his mind was elsewhere. A MedaV’dan man and woman looked down upon him. He realized for the first time that the powerful aliens smiled as did humans. The alien woman unsnapped her garment and bared a breast. Jev realized that it was not him. He was looking through the eyes of the sprite.

She was a little girl playing beneath a field of stars so dense that the night sky cast a pale imitation of daylight. Jev realized that only seconds were passing in the room as he saw her attend school, fall in love, have sex, leave her parents’ home to become an explorer and her journeys through space. She was telling him her name, MedaV’dan style. Her ship happened upon a blue world.

The aliens surveyed the world from space, pleased that they had discovered a species not unlike themselves. She looked on as ships with sails crossed the oceans. Rows of men lined up across from one another on battlefields and shot as a group as was the style of warfare in that day. They wore many uniforms. A bearded king stood beneath a tree and delivered a speech over what had been a great battlefield. She was there disguised as a human and watching. The MedaV’dan left surveillance devices on the Moon and departed.

Jev mentally assigned her a name: Kaelyn. He sensed that she was both amused and pleased by that. They left Earth. Kaelyn went to a MedaV’dan colony and mated. Kaelyn in turn gave birth to a boy and a girl. The couple parted after the children were grown. The sprite then engaged in numerous battles with several nonhuman aliens. In one horrific battle Jev saw an entire inhabited world incinerated. He saw her return to Earth to see the submission of mankind to her people. The centuries after that seemed like a brief excursion. Only minutes had passed and yet he had lived her entire life. Jev was puzzled.

“You cannot affect time Jev Bakkus,” the fury told him. “You can change your perception of it. Your mind is capable of separating distinct and contradictory elements.”

“I saw your name Jev Bakkus. The female—Mauryn, you loved her and had a family with her.” Kaelyn said.

He felt his face burn with embarrassment. “I…it was just a daydream…a fantasy!”

“Do not be distressed. You saw my soul Jev Bakkus. There is nothing to hide. I merely said it to show you an idea. You lived an entire life with her. Yet time passed by you at a far slower rate than that created—perceived by your mind.”

“I have shown you how to adjust to what happened to you.” Jev remembered Kaelyn’s own trial in multi-dimensional space. Apparently exposure was a rite of passage for the aliens.

“I can’t be the…the only human…” he trailed off weakly.

“You are not the only one Jev Bakkus. You are among the few however,” the fury told him. “You have helped us on this day. You may go in peace from here Jev Bakkus. You may not say to anyone that we were here.”
Kaelyn stepped before him. “We shall assist you in leaving.” She touched his forehead with the palm of her hand. It was warm and dry.

“Are you okay chum?”

Jev gawked at the centurion. The older man was seated behind the counter that Jev was standing before. He looked down at himself and gasped. He had on his uniform! Jev looked around. The inquisitors were no where to be seen.

“I’m dressed!” he blurted.

“More’s the pity,” the centurion said as he eyed Jev and licked his lips. “I like them young and tall.” Jev blushed. He was flattered but also firmly heterosexual. He chuckled. They had tested him for that.

“I’m…sorry, just a little confused, centurion,” he said.

“I’d be confused too with orders like yours,” the smiling NCO said. He handed Jev a data crystal and a paper document.

“Huh,” was all he managed to say.


“Transfer to a combat echelon with a long layover on Earth. On the straight, that is a sweetheart deal.” The centurion’s brow knitted as examined a databoard. “Funny though: you got here almost before your orders did.” He shook his head absently in thought. “Probably came through the sector commander. Well, whether they came through Marshal Polander or Allah it really is about the same for you.”

Jev examined the document. He was bewildered but being here beat being tortured by inquisitors any day. He signed the centurion’s databoard after reviewing his orders. He was indeed to go to Rigel for combat survival and arms training after a month layover on Earth. He wondered what had happened as the centurion made small talk. He too had been born on Earth. Jev grew curious. He wanted to ask a question and figured only one way to do it.

“Sir…how did I get here?”

The centurion blinked, laughed and then gave Jev an appraising look. “You walked corporal. Look chum, Marshal Polander doesn’t take kindly to troops being baffed while in uniform. If you’re drinking then go change and sleep it off. If it’s narcos then take a counter drug.”

“I’ll do that sir!”

Jev took his orders and left. He walked out into the rainy Aurelian night. His interview had started around fourteen hundred. Jev looked at his chrono. It was almost twenty. He reckoned that the inquisitors had had him for an hour. How long the MedaV’dan had been with him he did not know. Jev’s mind was ablaze as he walked back to his billet. He saw the building where his interview had taken place. It was two blocks away. How he had gotten to the administrative building he did not know. As the centurion had said he had walked, but Jev had no recollection of that.
****************************************
“Bugs—I hate them!” his grandfather exclaimed. Kelso Grays examined the leaf of a young tomato plant with some dismay.

Jev thought that his grandfather was looking well. He had put some weight onto his sixty seven year old frame. His head full of black hair had thinned some but as yet showed no grey. Jev thought that Poppy’s weight had a lot to do with Helen Crawford’s cooking. Crawford was a few years younger than Poppy but not by much. She reminded Jev of Sandra Marxs. The two shared the same skin color but more than that both of them shared a happy, boisterous attitude. Jev thought, what a contrast, since Poppy had inherited almost ghost white skin.

Crawford laid out food on patio’s small table as the two men finished up in the garden. Poppy complained and left for the shed to find an herbicide. Jev fondly remembered working in Poppy’s garden plot as a young boy. Jev took a sip of beer as he sat down. He was happy to be here but also sad to leave his friends.

The regulars, Dragan, Miguel and of course Mara had all been excited for him over his orders but there had been sadness. Mara had taken it hard. She had confessed a desire that whatever happened that the two of them might have a future. Jev loved Mara, but he came to understand Onizuka’s last words: she was a good bedmate but Jev wasn’t looking for more right at this instance in his life. He did not picture himself a colonist. Yet, Mara had accepted the fact of his assignment. That was life in the Imperial Service. The others had accepted it as well. Much to Jev’s surprise the normally wisecracking O’Hare had broken down and shed a few tears at Jev’s going away party.


“He misses you Jev,” Helen told him.


Jev sighed. He missed the earth and Westernport. But since his return he had realized something: he didn’t miss his old life here. He noted that Tyler Cremin was celebrated on the local infonet. He was the captain of Northeastern’s speedball team and more surprising to Jev, he had made academic honors. Mauryn Teller had gone to the teaching academy, following her parents’ footsteps. There was little other news about her. That told Jev that she was probably just another student. Jev wished them both well. His life had taken a different direction.

Jev looked past Helen toward where Poppy was digging through his shed and cursing. “I wish that Uncle Kevin would stop by more often. I know that he’s got a good job on Alpha Cent, but it would Poppy feel better if he would come to Earth with the kids more often.”

Kevin Grays, his mother’s brother, brought his wife and three children to Earth about once a year. Jev had always looked forward to seeing his cousins. It was only after his experiences in the service that he saw how isolated his grandfather was. Kevin should have come to Earth more often but he simply did not. That was the reality.

“I’ve asked him about having children with me Jev,” Crawford told him in a voice meant only for him to hear. Jev’s open mouth was all the reply that she needed. She told him to close it before Kelso saw him.

“Isn’t—I mean aren’t you…”

“I’m sixty one Jev. My kids are grown and both of them went colonial. It’s not unusual for women my age to have more children.” She sighed. “I’ll admit that I’m not looking forward to parenting again. But from what the experts say, I have another ninety or so years left.”

She reached across the table, took his hand in hers and squeezed. “It would be nice to have your blessing Jev. You are the only grandchild that stopped to visit Kelso. He loves you and misses you. But I think he’s beginning to understand that you are moving away from us—him.”

Jev felt anguished. He wished that he could be here for his family. But he had a new life that he loved. Maybe this was the answer. He looked at Helen, nodded and smiled. People sometimes had two, even three families. When the MedaV’dan had landed the average human lifespan was somewhere around seventy. Now, more than two centuries after the submission men lived until their mid one hundreds. Jev supposed that Poppy and Helen’s plan wasn’t unusual. But facing the reality of it was hard. Kelso Bakkus returned to the table.

“I don’t need to be an empath to see that Helen has told you our plans.” He smiled, stooped over and hugged Jev. “Having an infant aunt and uncle won’t be so bad Jev.” He clapped Jev on the back. “At least they won’t be able to beat up on their nephew.”
*************************************
The crowd at Galen’s hadn’t changed by much. Jev remembered one man, slightly older than Jev that had hung around there since Jev had been old enough to go there. After some drinks he’s go about methodically hitting upon every girl in the tavern. After that he would hit on the men. Jev supposed that there was some success with the method but he had no wish to try it. Right at this moment he was pleased to just drink and take in the bar’s quaint, homey atmosphere.

It was past midnight. The tavern’s crowd was illuminated by a combination of subdued LED lighting and quaint, antiquated neon lights. Several billiard tables dominated the rear of Galen’s while a few modern table games like hoverstrike took up the front right hand of the place. Jev took a sip of gin and flat tonic water. He decided that this would be his last. His father and mother were going to camp tomorrow and Jev wanted to ride along.

He needed to relax. Primus Huff had forbidden his soldiers the use of the electronic teacher, preferring instead to rely on rote memorization. The device was a derivative of the brain scanner, or as it was more popularly referred to as: the brain cooker. Jev had indulged one of the machines during his trip to Earth. His new assignment called for him to be several months ahead in math and physics. Jev had accessed the device, first using it at its recommended speed and then turning it up past the safe range. The MedaV’dan sprite Kaelyn had shown him how to mentally step out of time so that he could apply his mind at a different rate. He had decided to try that. He had succeeded but the effort was fatiguing.

Jev’s mind had filled with theory and application. He had spent nights in the transport’s library not only soaking up knowledge but using it to solve textbook problems. He knew that he was no genius. The aliens had given him no magical gifts such as the heroes of his fantasy novels would get. Jev’s perception of time had simply been altered and he had been shown how to affect that. A diligent college student could do as he had done. Jev drank up.

“Jevo Bakkus!” a voice roared. “Corporal Jev Bakkus!” the now familiar voice added. He turned and was shocked to see Arik Bynum standing behind him.
“Farg it! Arik…what are you doing here?”

“Same as you chum…taking leave.” Bynum smiled and saddled up onto the stool beside Jev. “Your glass is empty, what’s wrong?”

Jev smiled. He was happy to see his old friend, happy to speak with someone that understood. “Nothing’s wrong, on the straight, nothing’s wrong.”

“What about going colonial?” Jev asked Bynum.

It was early morning on the banks of the Potomac River. The two men passed a narky back and forth. Jev hadn’t laughed this hard in some time. But after the humorous reminiscing and jokes the two had fallen to the discussion of serious matters. Jev was shocked to discover that his friend was leaving the service. Bynum looked at him and shook his head.

“Plenty of jobs back here.” Arik sighed and looked skyward. “I thought that I was going to stay but some of the things that I seen. You know that the Arcturians have ships again? We stopped one of them in some garbage razelcratz system. We were told that it was pirate activity. I think that the poor fargers were just mining. My primus, he was on a fast track for legate. He couldn’t wait to get the lizards into cookers.”

“Well…were they pirates?” Jev absently swatted at a mosquito.

“They raided some of our outer bases, sure. But there are free traders that do that too. Do you think that we would stick humans into cookers Jev?”

“Well chum…they tested them on humans.” Jev remembered how Primus Huff had made them watch a holodoc about how brain scanners were developed. Jev had pitied the test subjects. The worst of criminals to be sure, Jev had squirmed as their knowledge had been removed from them, agonizing second by second. Jev agreed that humans would probably not be put to that, except for felons. But then again most human pirates were given field court-martials that usually resulted in executions.

“I dunno,” Bynum said. His words were becoming slurred. “I think that…that our sins are catching up to us. You know about sins Jev?” Bakkus nodded. He had taken Onizuka’s advice and gone to services. “Some people say that these Sliln are an alliance of aliens. They see what we’ve did and they plan to stop it from happening again.”

“I don’t know, Arik.” Jev shook his head. “I mean the galaxy is huge. Every time I heard this in the crew lounge I would think: how is it that all these aliens are coming against us? There are plenty of planets. Anyway everything I read says that the Arcturians tried putting a base on Rigel. The Kev’ac attacked imperial ships at Alpha. I mean we’ve been on Alpha since almost the time that the MedaV’dan conquered us. If it belonged to the Kev’ac don’t you think they’d….say something?”

“I don’t know!” his friend roared in frustration. He took some more of the cigarette and then handed it back to Jev. Jev inhaled deeply. “Okay, why is it that the Medas are so desperate to find other humanoids? They came from somewhere near the center of this galaxy. You’re right: space is big. Why did the MedaV’dan work so hard to find a race that was like them?”

Jev remembered his vision of their arrival here. They were pleased to discover man. He didn’t know why. Jev had always accepted the notion that besides being large, space was also sparsely populated. Sure there was life on other planets. Most of it was in Petri dishes or climbing trees or swimming through an ocean. A few had made it to the space faring stage, but that was very few. If not for the MedaV’dan perhaps men wouldn’t have made it.

“They’re explorers Arik. They’ve explored lots of worlds. Maybe finding some…some younger version of themselves was something they wanted to do.”

“Maybe they’re like Romans Jev.”

“Huh?”

“You know, the Romans, remember Creaky Enderrsen telling us about the Romans? They conquered the Eurasians. Remember him talking about Emperor Hitler?”

Jev’s drug addled mind worked through the fact that his friend was confused. He stepped away for just a few seconds. He was sitting in Enderrsen’s classroom. He recalled perfectly the time that Arik was speaking of. He also saw what his friend meant. Nothing from his exposure to Kaelyn told him that. Then again nothing said that his friend’s theory was false.

“You think that they’re running around recruiting humans because they are some kind of galactic conquerors?”

Arik nodded. “Maybe we just need to talk to the aliens Jev, instead of killing them. Anyway,” he started and then took a swig from one of the beers that the men had brought with them. “Anyway I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. You’ll find out Jev. You’ll see.”

Jev wasn’t sure. He had grown up listening to this sort of talk. He had ignored it most of the times. People like Creaky; even Mara could hold and express contrary opinions. It wasn’t like the inquisitors came for them. Why bother? Most of humanity was doing well. During his time in multi-dimensional space he had seen that his unhappiness was not the product of Tyler Cremin, or the lack of opportunity on Earth. It was from Jev. He wanted something, something more from life. The MedaV’dan weren’t evil. No, it didn’t add up for Jev. He shook his head and agreed with Arik. He didn’t want to pick an argument with his old friend. Jev flicked the last of the cigarette into the river.

Jev strapped his kit over his shoulder and readied himself to attack the enemy base camp. Strictly speaking this was an exercise in strategy. Jev’s platoon was conducting itself much as a platoon of men might have two hundred years ago. Yes, Jev had made platoon leader, much to his surprise. It had helped that he had exercised his body on the way to Rigel as he had exercised his mind on the way to Earth. Jev finalized his plans with his flankers.

He had been here on Rigel for almost nine months. Orders had arrived for Bakkus. He was to join the crew of the Paladin class corvette Goshawk. This training and his new ship was a far cry from the safe, mundane duties that he had assured mother and Poppy that he performed. He just lacked the heart to tell them the truth. Especially after his father had professed how proud he was of Jev. It was rare praise.

“We’ll send the lead section down the gully after the diversion. Remember to time out the charges.”

“No radio control sarge?” his platoon corporal, Tom Maddux asked. Jev was still a corporal. But for the purpose of this simulated battle he was a sergeant. Jev was a simulated sergeant with a very real, very mean and demanding legionnaire to which to report.

“Let’s go back to basics Tom,” he said. “Kristin will take out their pickets. After her signal we move. Remember to stay loose and stick to the plan but on the straight, remember that plans change.”

“Will do sarge!” the corporal snapped.

There mission was to attack and destroy an enemy fire base. Situated at the bottom of a wooded valley the base’s commander, another student had arrayed a very good set of defenses. It was by the book and tough. Jev’s only plan was to throw away the book. Right now Recruit Kristin Talley was in the process of acquiring the enemy pickets in the sights of her sniper rifle. At his signal she would shoot. He ordered the majority of his platoon to proceed down to the valley floor. Jev looked toward where Talley lay hidden. He motioned for her to fire.

Jev started down a hill in a flanking position. Three of his squadmates went with him. They moved along slowly and methodically. Jev slowed when he saw the stunned bodies of three defenders. This was no ‘play dead’ simulation. When Talley’s laser rifle fire had hit them, a personnel stunner device was activated. Jev made sure to stop and check them nonetheless. Assured that the enemy was immobilized he moved on. His three followers stayed behind. Jev got down and crawled as he neared the valley floor.

There were shouts and cries as his squad fell squarely onto the enemy base. The defenders were doing a good job holding. Jev saw several of them consolidating behind some hastily made fortifications. He started picking these off. Panic set in on them. When their version of Tom Maddux managed to rally them that is when Jev fired his single grenade. Jev heard their cries of agony as their stunners put them down. He had experienced a stunner and knew how they hurt. Jev weaved out of hiding and rushed the fortification.

The main body of his squad was acting as the decision arm. They were to have attacked the defenders at their central point thus cutting them off from the outlying portions of the base. Jev and his flankers would move in among the confusion. Jev picked off two more defenders while feeling pleased that he might actually be succeeding.

Combat training was intensive. Jev had thought that much of it would be simulated exercises such as this. He had not been prepared for hours of lecture about the theories of Morgan, Okuda and Von Clausewitz. Jev had even dived into the writings of the MedaV’dan Ship Master T’Karnoi. The Imperial Service had no service academy. Legionnaire Isley, the training officer that Jev was assigned to, had told Jev and the rest of his initial cadre about a time on Earth. It was a time when rank was bestowed to youngsters based on how well a parent knew a government official.

The Imperial Service had turned its face to such procedures. Rank was earned by a combination of ability, time and experience. A good example was Centurion Harkness. She had been transferred from the Nix Olympica to a combat ship. Jev had been surprised to see her on his way to Rigel. Harkness had explained that she had come up as a recruit and then an optio in the engineering spaces. In order to serve on a combat vessel she was required to complete combat survival training. Right now he knew that his old first officer was a continent away completing her arctic training.

Jev swept through the encampment’s hastily contracted living quarters. From there he moved through a partially buried mess hall. The smell of something wonderful wafted up from a pot on a cook stove. Jev stopped, removed the lid and saw a tasty looking stew cooking away. He looked around guiltily, took up a spoon and dipped it in the pot. Him and his squad had been in the field almost a month. Against his better judgment he sampled the stew. It was delicious. He put the spoon down and moved on.

“It looks like a clean sweep sergeant,” Maddux told him as he joined up with his main group.

“It sure does,” he responded while counting the ‘dead’ defenders and reconciling against what his scouts had said was here. Jev was coming up short.

The ground exploded around him. Jev fell to the forest floor as attackers came up out of piles of dead leaves and dirt. He heard squeals of agony and knew that some of his platoon had been hit. A voice declared that the tide had been turned. Jev fired at an attacker while barely missing being shot. Several enemy troops, denoted by a subdued gray camouflaged uniform leveled their weapons at him. Jev surrendered.

“Well I’ll be!” a familiar voice declared. “It looks like a Jev Bakkus! What a bloody rare find.” Jev found himself staring up into the smiling face of Dragan Slade.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, astonished to see his old friend.
“Capturing your pathetic bum, old chum,” Slade answered. “My orders came almost a week after your transport left.”

Jev returned a rueful smile. Explosions rocked the ground. Slade threw himself down as several of Slade’s troops opened fire on their confused mates while the latter were running for cover. Six of Dragan’s soldiers were not what they seemed. Two of them had on uniforms that did not fit them, almost as if they had been borrowed from someone else. Jev got up off of the cold ground. His ruse had paid off.

“I would have planned better if I knew that it was you!” Slade declared as he put his hands behind his head. “I gambled against you. You always were a sneaky bastard Jev.”

“What do you mean?” Jev asked. “You were the one that used your platoon to lure us in here.” They both spotted their instructor team coming out of the forest.

“You both wasted people to achieve your goals,” Legionnaire Isley declared. The two friends snapped to attention and saluted the instructor. Isley was a short dark haired man whose curly hair had started graying much sooner than it should have. “Innovative thinking to be sure but would you sacrifice your people like this for real?” He didn’t wait for an answer.

“It costs the Imperial Service something like thirty thousand crowns to train you young fools. Hopefully you’d both employ battlebots in the decoy roles here.”

Slade’s trainer, a centurion, made similar observations about Dragan’s solution for the exercise. The two older soldiers informed them both that they would have a weekend liberty. Both students had finished the difficult course. Random training events like this were just a way of keeping them on their toes. Their trainers released them and departed.


“You’ve been here all of this time and you never farging wrote or sent me a comm?” Jev asked his old friend. Tom Maddux joined them. Jev introduced his platoon corporal.


“You’re following this fellow?” he asked Maddux. “Ah well, someone has to be around to make heroic suicidal charges.” Slade chuckled.

“I actually got sent to your backyard Jev—Earth,” Slade told him. “I was to do survival on your African Continent. I was there for about six months and then transferred here. It was all razelcratz but according to the admin cent they wanted me here for my follow-on assignment. Corvettes do most of their trolling out this way.”

“You got an assignment to a ‘vette?” Jev asked excitedly.

“You guys in your little popgun ships,” Maddux interjected. “You should transfer to a real fighting ship!” Jev knew that Tom had orders for the Admiral Glenn, a Hurricane class space control vessel.

“The Salamunga,” Slade answered. “I tried sending you a comm quite a few times. I think they went through the multi-dimensional black hole! Anyway chum I was anxious to hear about your encounter with the inquisitors. Did you hear the rumors about a MedaV’dan scout showing up about the time we were being interviewed?”

Jev had been intentionally obtuse about his interview with Smith and his unnamed associate. Not only because of his encounter with the MedaV’dan after but because of the sheer embarrassment of what the inquisitors had did to him. His chums would have added things up and figured that he was lying about something. He had had a difficult time as it was keeping his exposure to multi-dimensional a secret from Mara. He had convinced her that his strange behavior was the result of seeing Onizuka killed.

“It was crazy,” Jev said. “I hadn’t heard about the scout ship.” That was the truth. “Anyway you got orders! What happened after I left?” Jev wanted to change the subject.

“You future space marshals ought to have this conversation over some alcohol,” Maddux interjected.

“Well Jev, you’re a poor soldier but you make up for it with the excellent staff that you pick!” his friend exclaimed.
**************************************
The lounge was in a tent at the end of the encampment. Actually a thriving tent city the small base where tactics and woodland survival were taught had all of the modern amenities. The instructors had maintained it like this in honor of training camps past. Despite its rugged appearance it was a comfortable place.

Jev, showered and changed into a fresh civilian clothes, met Slade at the lounge tent. The interior was noisy and filled with smoke. Most of the trainees segregated themselves by rank. Jev saw a few of his cadre there. In one corner a group of weather beaten legionnaires and centurions were drinking and playing cards. Jev recognized them as the few trainers that mingled with their charges. He and Dragan got drinks and then found a table.

“On the straight, things fell apart after you left chum,” Slade told him. “Half the bloody crew was reassigned. All of the Ptolemy’s are going for major refits; seems that they were all supposed to have a disruptor field and two particle cannons all along. Some bright fellow in procurement figured that since freighters never see combat that the empire could save a few crowns.” Slade laughed. “Do you know the last thing that went through that bugger’s mind Jev?”

“No what?” he asked in reply.

“A bullet!” his friend exclaimed. Execution styles in the Imperial Service varied. The ancient ceremonial bullet through the head was a favored method when an example was to be made.

“Anyway the crew is tossed asunder.” Slade gave him a look of hesitation. “I don’t know if it’s a bother but Mara and Miguel became an item.”
“What?” Jev was aghast.

“Sorry chum if—”

No, no,” Jev cut him off. Slade must have thought hat Jev was hurt. He was more surprised than miffed. “We parted as friends. It was just an arrangement. I’m just surprised about her and Miguel.” Kayden had expressed misgivings about O’Hare and the way he conducted himself.

“Miguel needs someone like her. Face it Jev; she’s going to end up being a chubby little colonial wife watching over a parcel of children and teaching or practicing medicine or some such. Miguel may be a prowler but he’s looking for someone like that.”

“I never saw that,” Jev said truthfully. “I never figured her for a lifer but that’s only because of her politics.”

“Mind if I pull up a chair?” Centurion Maria Volnikov asked. The black haired blued eyed NCO was Slade’s trainer. They invited her to sit down.

“I’ll cut to the chase,” she said as she lit up a fragrant Rigellian
cigarette. Jev had last smoked one of those on the banks of the Potomac River with his friend Arik. He liked the narcotic effect but not the burning sensation in his throat and chest. “Isley was saying that you two were shipmates on a freighter. We ran your psych profiles and you make a good team.” She looked at Jev. “You were scheduled with four other grunts for the Goshawk.” She turned to Slade. “Two of those met with an unfortunate training accident. Anyway Slade, I can bump your orders to Goshawk instead of the Salamunga. You’re an overage on the Sal. But your body is needed on Goshawk.” Jev was pleased that his old friend might be joining him. He said nothing, not wanting to pressure Slade.

“Well centurion, Bakkus here is a danger to others as well as to himself. He bears watching. I believe that I’ll accept.”

“You are both idiots as far as I’m concerned. But that’s good and will settle the body count at admin. I’ll put you down Corporal Slade.”

“Anyway it’s only about a year and half,” Jev remarked.

A knowing look appeared on Volnikov’s face. “You mean your enlistments?” Jev nodded. She smiled and shook her head. “You might opt out, human nature is fickle. But the sad reality my poor clumsy troopers, is that your profiles both suggest that you are lifers. Didn’t you ever stop to ask yourself why the Imperial Service was bestowing all of this training on you when you are going to be gone in a year or so?”

“But I’m going back home!” Jev cried.

“Psych tests are pretty extensive Bakkus. I’m sure as the time draws closer you’ll make up some rationalization to stay: no jobs on your Earth, family problems, you want to see the galactic center or some other reason.” She shook her head took a drag off of her cigarette and offered some to them. Jev took a drag to be polite. He passed it to Dragan.

“I’ve been thinking about that, about doing another term,” Slade confessed. “I thought that I was just a little crazy.”

“There’s still time,” she said. She laid a databoard before Slade. “Go ahead and thumb the receipt of your change of orders.” Slade reviewed the change and seemingly satisfied he pressed his thumb into the board’s surface. Volnikov bid them both a good liberty and left them alone.

Slade laughed. “I’m pleased to be crewing with you again chum!” Jev laughed and returned the sentiment. Dragan grew serious.

“The reason these billets open up on corvettes is that there are a lot of fatalities. There’s still a big pirate threat out there and then there is just the unknown. Well old chum we are poking our beaks right into the unknown.”

“Not exactly a spot I’d pick for a holiday,” Corporal Dragan Slade told his mates.

Jev Bakkus agreed as the group composed of him, Slade and Recruit Gustav Tao overlooked the spaceport of this dry airless world. Orbiting Van Maanen’s star, a white dwarf, the world was catalogued simply as Van Maanen 4. It was known to its frequenters as Dry Gulch. The brown soil was an almost dead covering for a world where vegetation was sparse and animal life even less. The distant sun cast a cold light onto the planet’s surface. Slade handed Jev back his binoculars. Jev looked once again at the sprawling port.

Primus Felix Arroyo had, after hearing of scuttlebutt concerning Slade’s assertion that free traders had mentioned the Sliln at least three years ago, had decided to send the three newest members of Goshawk’s crew to this rock to investigate that theory. Jev’s stomach had tightened when he had been brought before his new commander to learn of his mission. But part of Imperial Service was comprised of representing the empire’s interests. One of Jev’s instructors had referred to each of them as the mailed fists of imperial authority.

Jev, lying crouched behind the crest of this hill, the cool desert wind causing him to shiver, felt like anything but an armored fist. They were to enter the makeshift port town and find out whatever they could about the Sliln. Jev had wondered why the primus would give newcomers an assignment like this. Tao had suggested, correctly Jev thought, that Arroyo wanted the new arrivals out of his hair while Goshawk searched through several systems that had been targeted by Imperial Intelligence.

Jev liked his new ship but he immediately saw that it was short staffed. The primus was a likeable commander that had refused promotion to legate so that he might remain with the small hunter killer corvettes. He had told the three new soldiers that he was sending them off for training. They had been receiving training on weapons and flight aboard ship. Most of it was given by machines; simulators and teaching machines. Human crewmembers had little time in which to train new people.

Jev looked over the port again while his mates changed into civilian clothes. Slade had said that going into the port town in uniform was a death warrant. It wasn’t that the traders disliked the imperials. They just wanted their freedom to operate. Slade explained to Jev and Tao, another soldier born and raised on Earth, that the traders were a rough bunch. They simply resented authority despite relying on that authority to fight pirates. The huge port below was filled with those types of people.

Larger than many ancient Earth cities had been before the metroplexes, the port’s space was largely dominated by free trade vessels. Most of the trade ships were, like the Goshawk, five hundred meters long. A very few were larger while many more were smaller vessels of fifty meters or less. The latter harkened back to the first designs built by men under the supervision of the MedaV’dan. The former were older vessels: the first built solely under the hand of humans. Jev scrambled down the embankment and shucked his uniform in exchange for his civvies.

“We’ll sneak in by that hill on the eastern quadrant,” Slade said. Though almost equal in rank save for the difference of a few weeks, Slade had been put in charge of the team. His experience as a colonial had been the deciding factor according to Centurion Patrick Griffith. “We’ll join the dock workers. If it’s anything like home then they always need dock monkeys to load and unload. That way we can walk out into the town proper and mix right in.”

“What about ID?” Tao asked. He was a little taller than Jev’s lean six foot frame and had no vestige of his Asian heritage left. Tao would have looked right at home in one of Jev’s Nordic hero fantasy novels.

Slade laughed. So did Jev who had had some exposure to colonial life via port calls. “Chum if anyone asks you for an ID give them a look like they’re round the bend. Do not flash your imperial ID or even a library disk! That’s a sure way of waking up with a cut throat. In fact you should have left your ID back in the shuttle.”

“I did,” Tao answered. “This is only my third time on a colony world and one of those was Rigel for training. Alpha Cent was a lot like home. It’s just hard adjusting to a place that isn’t…that doesn’t…”

“They mostly follow the law Gus,” Jev interjected. “They are just a little…eccentric.” The trio scrambled down into the valley careful to keep in the shadow of a low ridge.

Jev was sweating by the time they rounded the hill an hour later. The three had made small talk about their experiences aboard their ship. They had all felt like they were underfoot. It had helped that the five hundred meter long corvette’s design was a scaled down version of the old Caesar class. Jev, Dragan and Gustav had had an easy time finding their way around. Jev had been assigned duties in navigation. Slade had gone to the engineering spaces while Tao had been assigned to the weapons and tactics. Night fell as they stepped onto the port’s makeshift walkway.

Jev thought that his old friend was right: no one had really noticed them until they were well into a throng of people. Several barkers stood outside of the walled slips to where their ships were grounded. They were haranguing the passersby’s looking for workers. Jev looked up at each of the ships. He really had no idea to start. Slade suggested that they make for a smaller freighter; one that had landed within the last hour when Jev spied something. He stopped and stood transfixed.

“Mate, stopping and gawking isn’t a good farging plan!” Tao hissed into Jev’s ear.

“This one,” Jev spat out hastily. “Let’s see if we can get aboard this one.”

“What’s so bloody important about her?” Slade demanded.

Jev walked over to the entrance. He looked up again at gaping maw of the freighter’s underbody stowage area. Men and women were using exoskeleton cargo handlers and antigrav sleds to load cargo. A group stood around the slip’s entrance. The leader, a plain, older woman, puffed away on a pipe while scowling at Jev and his companions.

“We’ve got enough crew to jockey freight!” she cried. “We don’t need any port monkeys. You move along,” she told them.

“You boys!” a voice cried from across the alley. “I can use some strong backs over here!”

“Come on Jev,” Slade said in a gentle tone while laying a hand on Jev’s shoulder to guide him away.

“It’s the same writing Dragan!” he whispered to his friend. He shook his head.

Emblazoned inside the freighter’s hull was the same strange script that Jev’s MedaV’dan interrogators had been so interested in. Part of it had been covered by metal flake but Jev had tried to imagine it as something routine of which his imagination had made into something that it wasn’t. He couldn’t come up with anything but that script.

“What writing?” his friend asked, clearly thinking that Jev had lost his mind.

“Nothing,” Jev answered lamely. “I remember seeing a freighter like this on Alpha.” If he said more it would lead to questions. Jev took seriously the MedaV’dans’ moratorium about informing others about his encounter with them. Jev hadn’t reported alien lettering in his after action report. His friends would wonder how he knew and why he hadn’t said anything after the attack.

“Do you want work or are you standing around with your thumbs up your—”
“Yes ma’am!” Jev barked.

If he couldn’t board the freighter with the script on its hull he’d settle for working across from its landing pad. Jev led the trio over to where a short, portly woman stood. She was a full head and a half shorter than Jev. That head was covered by a thick mop of greasy, curly black hair. Although quite obese, Jev couldn’t help but notice the musculature on her tattooed arms.

“Pretty boys,” she said as she looked them up and down. Her accent had a certain oriental quality to it. “Some of my crew walked off for another ship. I’ll pay you the dock monkey rate and don’t expect a penny more.” She unsheathed a long, wicked looking knife. “If your fingers go on the freight for anything but moving it then I’ll see to it that you don’t have those anymore.”

They all nodded that they understood. The woman admitted them to the landing pad. Jev recognized a battered old Connor class freighter. It was just under two hundred meters long. The old freighter had a small, habitable dome and power section. Out flung from that was two large cylindrical cargo carriers that made up the length of the freighter. At almost forty meters in diameter the sectioned off tubes could carry a variety of cargo cheaply. It had been the bulwark for man’s expansion into space during the twenty first century.

The big woman, Marla Tingen, turned out to be mistress of the ship, the Dunedin. She had a crew of just thirteen, enough to watch the antimatter reactor and operate the other ship’s systems. Tingen traded exotic foods and beverages, bringing her wares to solar miners. In exchange she loaded up on the higher of the chemical elements that they had mined. Tingen brought many of the elements, from Spencerium to Annan 7, to the Earth and the colonies where hungry manufacturing industries gobbled up the rare elements. These elements were highly unstable which explained to some degree why Tingen had trouble retaining crewmembers.

Bakkus, Slade and Tao soon found themselves detailed to go to another slip and jockey several thousand kilos of containers back to Tingen’s ship. She had exchanged her last cargo for almost a hundred thousand crowns. Out of that she had purchased foodstuffs from another trader. Paying her crew and the costs of maintaining the Dunedin left the mistress roughly five thousand crowns. Tingen rubbed that fact into the men. All this they had learned while shoving antigravity sleds around and jockeying cargo with exoskeletons.

The three worked until early morning. Antigravity merely made it possible to lift heavy loads. Those cargo containers still had mass. By the time that they had shoved in the last container Jev was thoroughly tired and sore. They had discovered only a little about the freighter across the walkway. There had been little time for small talk. Tingen gave them each three thrones for their work. Much to Jev’s surprise she invited them to clean up and have breakfast with the crew.

“They wouldn’t hire us across the way,” Gustav Tao said in between bites of sausage.

“The farging Sanderson Consortium,” Tingen’s navigator groused. He was a small man who looked to be in his late eighties. Jev also suspected that he was a former imperial soldier.

“What’s that?” Jev asked innocently. He was seated in the small galley along with Tao and Slade. The Dunedin’s crew sat all around them.

“The question for the ages chum,” a young girl answered. She was wearing a battered old Imperial Service work coverall. “They come out here in brand new Zeniths and come back from the deep with all kinds of material.” The girl looked at Tingen. “What would you say mistress; half a million crown cargos?”

Tingen agreed. “At least; you see the thing is; we all wonder how Sanderson came about and what kind of a group can spend that much on big freighters. A brand new Zenith runs between ten and fifteen million crowns.” She sighed. “You’d think that whoever was behind Sanderson was someone that is public. They aren’t backed by any of the big trade alliances.”

“Where do they trade at?” Jev asked.


“Funny you bring that up,” Tingen said. “Sela said that they go deep. They go way deep. Handsome Harry heard one of their mates in the canteen once. This chum was boasting that he had been as far as Deneb.”

“That’s another thing about Sanderson,” the old navigator interjected. “Locked up in these tin cans for months and when they ground they don’t associate with anybody.”

“They just don’t associate with you Miller,” the young girl in the raggedy coveralls told him. The crew laughed.

“Okay, okay Miller isn’t a bad sort Sela. You should take a tumble with him before judging him!” Tingen exclaimed.

“Miller is too much for her mistress!” another of the crew added.

The laughter subsided. Tingen looked across the table at them. “Miller is right boys. Every trader I know, unless it’s some farging weirdo or hermit, hits the canteen, the rec center, the cathedral or Easy Alley after they ground. Handsome Harry was lucky to spot one of the Sanderson people at a bar. Maybe that chum craved the alcohol or some narco.” Slade had explained on the way to the port that traders assigned one another nicknames. It was usually the opposite of whichever attribute the name described.

“Damned lucky he made it back from Deneb,” Miller declared in a soft voice. The entire crew fell silent after that.

“All the way out to Deneb?” Slade asked. He was clearly astonished.

“The big, white super giant sun, that’s the one,” another of the crew answered. “He made it back too.”

“A twist like that must have cost a few hundred thousand crowns in antimatter,” Slade said. Besides being dangerous when one considered just how far they had gone, Jev thought. No rescue ships would look for them and no one would think to look out that far if anything happened. “On the straight, that is something crazy to do. Besides the money from whatever data he collected did he get anything?”
“Some rare elements from a solar scoop,” Tingen answered. Harry said that he hung around until he observed a Zenith twist into the system a few weeks after he got there.” Tingen rested her chin on her balled fists. “Harry is no fool. Fools don’t live long in this business. He hid and scoped the Zenith from a spy drone he planted on the first planet. Harry says that a second ship rendezvoused with the Sanderson freighter. They had passed out of VID and all that Harry got was an infrared reading on a horizon shot.”

“Any idea of who they rendezvoused with?” Jev asked.


“Only that it was a big bugger of a ship,” Tingen answered. “One thing that I trust is Harry’s equipment. He sides doing repairs and installation of sensor systems. Even from an infrared reading he calculated that it was a little over a kilometer long.”

“A warship,” Sela mumbled.

“You don’t know that Sela!” Tingen barked. “Anyway people are nervous enough with all of this Sliln talk.” The mistress turned talk away from that subject, diverting it to Jev and his companions instead.

The story weaved by Slade; that of three space farers, or space bums as the slang went that jumped rides on different vessels soon wore thin. But it held up. The mistress was clearly puzzled about why three young men would bum their way out to be dock monkeys. Jev sensed that the woman was still skeptical of their story until he told her that all three had just mustered out of the service. Tingen just seemed to accept them after that. It was not unusual for ex-servicemen to wander after their terms ended. She asked them about their experience. They spoke for awhile longer. Much to Jev’s surprise Tingen’s gruff exterior dropped away. She offered all three bunk space while Dunedin was here. They looked at one another and then accepted. It was as good a base as any.

It occurred to Jev to ask: what if Primus Arroyo left them stranded? What if Goshawk was destroyed in a pirate encounter? This was their third day at Dry Gulch. Arroyo said that he would return for them in two weeks. Unless something changed then Jev thought that their commander would be very disappointed with their findings. The Sanderson Consortium ship had lifted off this very morning. Where it had gone was anyone’s guess.

Multi-dimensional space was unique to each ship that entered it. The energy required to alter space was immense. It had occurred to MedaV’dan scientists of old that if warping space was not possible then perhaps the nature of the matter comprising a ship could be changed. They had, after centuries of study, developed the method of twisting matter so that it enter a different quantized state. Ships did not warp space. They themselves were warped so that they could cross great distances. So it was that there was no known way to track a vessel once it had gone multi-dimensional.

“Did you find anything out?” Jev asked Slade as his friend entered their small quarters.

“The Zenith’s crew went into the business section the night before last. They stayed together for everything. I talked to a skin trader. He told me that they would stand outside and wait if one of their mates had to use the can.” Slade sat down beside Jev on his bunk. “What is it about that ship Jev?” He could see his friend’s suspicion.

“Just a feeling I guess. Anyway they are the strangest that we’ve found out here. That’s what our orders were: look for anything strange.”

“That’s true. Has Gus had any luck?”


Jev chuckled. “At finding out anything about the Sliln, no, in bedding Sela, yes,” he answered.

Slade laughed. “He’s accountable for his time. Did the mistress invite us to crew?”

Jev shook his head. “I was just thinking that that was why Mistress Tingen was being so generous towards us. I almost hate to say no. These traders work their butts off but I can see that it’s well worth it.”

“Trading is a hard life Jev.”


“So is the Imperial Service.” Jev took a breath. “Maybe your trainer was right about us staying in. Sometimes I wonder what I’m going to do after I get out. I know that there will be work for me. But do I want to operate some machine all day or tell a bunch of people how to work? Sit in an office and record facts and figures all day?” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Tingen’s gruff voice burst out of the intercom. “Everyone to duty stations! My dock monkeys, you’re either on this crew or planetside. You have about two minutes to decide.”

Jev and Dragan ran through the old freighter’s narrow passageways. They almost ran headlong into a disheveled Gustav Tao. Tao was throwing on a vest over his bare chest. Sela stood framed in the entrance to her quarters. She was zipping up her coveralls. Jev told them to hurry as he and Slade raced by. Dunedin was a tight network of narrow, padded passages and stairways. The three soldiers were soon in the ship’s bridge near the center of the habitat section.

“What is it mistress?” Slade and Jev asked almost as one.

There was an annoying repeated tone echoing through the bridge. Jev recognized the sound of a scanner echo. He was also experienced enough to read that the freighter’s scanning suite was pinging something—something that was big. Jev took his eyes from the data screen back to the knowing stare of Marla Tingen.

“For a few cast off loaders you chums are pretty bright.” She nodded at the display. “That big bastard just twisted in, a few minutes ago. Twelve hundred bloody meters long; that isn’t a pirate and it’s not sending an imperial military beacon. We’re flipping switches to get off. You’re welcome to cast your lot in with us. I don’t know what that fellow’s intentions are but I’m not staying around to see if they’re hostile.”

“Can you make it in time, mistress?” Slade asked.

“We’ll barely be off before he’s in weapons’ range—if they use anything like the imperials use. If they have better stuff—we’re screwed. And I’m not talking about a pleasant afternoon romp.”

“Maybe they’ll peaceful,” Tao interjected.


Tingen shook her head. “MD comms are jammed. Don’t know any chums that would do that.”

Communications through multi-dimensional was far easier than sending a ship. An enemy couldn’t jam MD space. They could send a field out that would strangle an MD transmitter at the source. Tingen was right: no one would willfully jam a multi-dimensional transmitter unless they were planning on something more drastic.

Jev’s mind raced. He let his mouth lead. “Mistress…we aren’t ex-soldiers. We’re imperial soldiers that were sent here to investigate rumors about the Sliln.”

“Shutup Jev!” Slade hissed.

“Well, that makes sense at last,” Tingen observed. She eyed Slade. “Don’t worry shorty. I shant cut anything off of you. But the offer stands: unless you have a battleship lying about somewhere.”

“We have a shuttle and a fighter,” Jev told her. None of them had finished flight training but they had all completed simulator ops. Yet Arroyo had deferred to Jev’s slightly better experience in that regard and allowed him to use a practically decommissioned Wolfen that was due to be off loaded from Goshawk for a new Vandal. Jev had flown that down while his companions had flown a shuttle.

Tingen sighed. “Against my better judgment, you little generals take one of the land speeders. Maybe if they see your aircraft they’ll think that reinforcements are just round the bend. Tell me that there are reinforcements just round the bend…please.” Jev shook his head. “Okay then—git! If you wreck my speeder I’ll want the fifty crowns for it!” She hitched a thumb at them.

They got. They scrambled through the tangle of corridors to the landing bay. Tao stopped when he saw Sela Cassen. He stopped and kissed her. Jev and Dragan skidded to a halt.

“They’ll be plenty of time to polish your missile Gus!” Slade exclaimed. Tao pushed Sela away and came up behind the two.

“She’s alright,” Gus declared as the trio entered the landing bay. Jev keyed in the opening cycle while Slade engaged the speeder’s antigrav.

True to Tingen’s word she had wasted no time. Jev jumped in the speeder’s passenger compartment as Slade floated by. Jev was pressed back into his seat when Slade fired the car’s propulsion jets. Dunedin was already at least ten meters off the ground. The speeder’s limits were sorely tested as Slade put it on the ground under full thrust. The cool wind of Dry Gulch blew over Jev’s face. Dunedin was a distinct dot among a group of dots in the sky: other escaping ships. Jev watched as one of the port’s plasma launchers belched forth a salvo.

“That isn’t going to do anything—”

Jev had started to tell Slade and Tao how ineffective the plasma salvo, a weapon designed to repel fighters and small ships, was. He instead gasped and grabbed a hold of his seat as Dragan slewed the vehicle away the landing strut of a freighter right into the path of a concrete wall. The colonial slewed the speeder again throwing Jev hard against the left side of the craft. Jev looked over. He could have reached out and touched the wall with his hand so narrowly had Slade missed it.

“Farging backseat driver!” Slade roared at Jev. A grin was on the colonial’s lips. Jev realized that he was laughing uproariously. So was Jev. He was living!

They cleared into the open desert and made plans. Jev would fly the old fighter positioning himself like the scout for an attack group. Slade and Tao would take the shuttle out of jamming range in the meantime. None of them had any illusions that they could save Dry Gulch and its inhabitants. Especially if this unknown ship was preparing an orbiting dust off for the port below. Slade gunned the speeder to a stop. Off in the distance the port’s plasma guns blazed forth sending out salvoes. Jev suited up and climbed into the Wolfen’s cocoon like interior.

He was sweating profusely as he engaged the fighter’s fusion packet reactor and put on his helmet. “On the straight chum, that’s a farging battleship up there. Don’t try to engage it and be some hero of the empire!” Slade’s voice warned.

“I don’t plan on a posthumous medal Draggo,” Jev answered as he pointed the Wolfen skyward and accelerated away. “Don’t you either. I’d have to go to Spica and marry your sister if you died!”

“That’s it! No farging flatlanders in the Slade line!”

The Wolfen was shaped, unlike the spherical Vandal, like the claw of some crab or lobster. The rear section contained the fusion reactor and thrust package. The pincers contained the fighter’s particle cannons and antimatter packets. A single spatial charge was carried in the fighter’s belly. The pilot sat at the back of the claw. It was a wicked looking craft but Jev knew that Dragan was right: going up against a battleship was suicide.

“Going to scrambler code omega chum,” Slade announced. Jev looked to his right. The sleek shuttle was just a few meters away in formation. Jev keyed in the code.

They had all thought it but no one had said it: someone had to have given the unknown enemy Nix Olympica’s access codes. Inquisitor Smith had been correct. No one could simply shut down a freighter like that. Even Legionnaire Simms, their section leader, had advised them to reset comms if they engaged in battle. He had said it only as a friendly warning. He had not said that it was because there may be traitors among them.

“Looks like we can do a gradual climb and stay out of their scanner cone,” Jev said. “Look out in case they have fighters, Dragan.”

“Will do chum,” Slade said. The accelerated and climbed. The pale white sky soon gave way to the black. “Going silent Wolf One—good hunting!” his friend announced.

Jev peeled away. He crested the depressing world’s horizon. His field scanner returned a large target. The onboard computer filtered the readings and presented a silhouette to Jev on the control panel’s small viewscreen. Jev gasped. It was the same type of vessel that had attacked Nix Olympica. He was thousands of kilometers away and couldn’t even see his enemy with his bare eyes. Radio calls on standard sublight carrier frequencies blared into Jev’s ears. The attacker was closing on the port. The people on Dry Gulch were frightened. The enemy must not be buying Jev’s fighter as the vanguard of an imperial assault force. He accelerated towards the ship.
*************************************
Jev flew a spiral approach making an occasional jink towards random vectors. His mind’s eye faded back to that fateful day that the Nix Olympica had been attacked. What the MedaV’dan had forced him to do, he now did willingly. He recalled everything in sharp detail. He saw what might be weapon emplacements. Jev saw a way to close in on the big ship. He would hide in plain sight. Jev flew the Wolfen like a madman, straining his gravity harness as he closed on the ship. Particle beams and kinetic weapon tracers narrowly missed him.

The enemy ship filled his vision as Jev closed. The heads-up display told him that he was less than thirty meters from the ship. The collision warning was blaring in his helmet. How he had not heard that before this he did not know. He palmed the warning to off. Jev slowed, used manual tracking to acquire what he thought was a weapon pod and ejected an antimatter packet toward it. He did not stay to look for damage. He cruised down the vessel’s arrowhead like shape doing as much harm as he could.

He remembered where the airlock was. Maybe this wasn’t the same ship. But it had the same layout. Jev found the lock. He fired a combination of antimatter packets and particle cannons at the lock door. This time he saw a silent expulsion of gas and molten metals. Jev followed up that volley with his only spatial charge. He tore away mindful that he was exposing himself to sure death. His infrared scanner told him that the charge had exploded. Once again Jev flew like he was insane. This time he was doing so only through desperation. He had had no plan to escape.

Jev saw a ship emerge from multi-dimensional. He had seen the vortex like effect only once before. A virtual shower of rainbow colored light exploded before him. The mighty shape that formed and filled his vision was legendary. Jev knew from his studies that the MedaV’dan warship was almost two kilometers long.

Shaped basically like his Wolfen, the MedaV’dan ship had a glowing sphere nestled between its two great pincer arms. The prow stuck out from the arms like the head of some great spear. That part was glowing. Jev pulled hard away. His helmet filters barely contained the light as the MedaV’dan ship fired its primary weapon. He pivoted his Wolfen. Jev stared in fear and awe.

What would have cleaved a lesser ship into two and incinerated the halves merely caused an eruption. The enemy ship fired. Jev looked at one of his visual displays as two balls of solid glowing white material struck the MedaV’dan ship. Pieces of the great alien ship erupted into molten fragments. Jev accelerated hard for the other side of the planet. His rear visual pickup recorded another blast of MedaV’dan weapon fire. It also recorded a dot of light. Jev slammed the ship hard away. Too late, warnings sounded and lights flashed. Jev rocketed across the crest of Dry Gulch. An explosion erupted that was like a new brief sun.

Jev’s last sight of the battle of the behemoths was of the victorious MedaV’dan ship emerging through the expanding fireball that had been the enemy. He turned to controlling his Wolfen as it bit into the upper atmosphere. He took some deep breaths and used his gift of stepping out of time. He recalled the simulators that dealt with partial control, partial power out landings. Jev relaxed and used the atmosphere, careful to nurse his hull temperature as he fell toward Dry Gulch’s surface.

Somehow he managed to slow the fighter to atmospheric speeds. Jev was pleased with himself as the altimeter told him that he was less than a hundred meters off the ground. He would be okay! Jev started a slow powered descent to landing. A warning tone blared and the fighter’s power died. The ground rushed up at Jev.

The crash had not been as bad as Jev thought. Once he had thrown up in his helmet he felt better. He unsealed the fouled covering while fumbling for the canopy eject. He then vaguely realized that the canopy was gone. Jev threw his helmet onto the desert floor, unstrapped and crawled out of the mangled Wolfen. He wiped at the vomit on his face and neck and walked away. After several minutes he had no clear idea where he was walking too. Jev collapsed. Darkness overtook him.

A harsh light woke Jev Bakkus. A small boat settled a few meters away from him. Jev, still shaken but awake rolled up and drew his sidearm. A voice told him to drop the gun, that he was okay. Jev pointed the blast pistol defiantly toward the light.
“Okay, okay I surrender chum!” a voice cried. Jev confused, did not let the pistol waver.

Recruit Gustav Tao walked out of the light along with Dragan Slade and Cranston Miller. The Dunedin’s navigator laughed and made light of Jev’s poor condition. He suggested that Jev had probably soiled himself. Bakkus laughed heartily; then he wept and laughed some more.

“Yup, he’s alive!” Gus exclaimed. “Too bad, I wanted his bunk.”

Jev rushed forward and pounded Slade and Tao on their backs. Even the navigator Miller joined in with the soldiers. Jev recovered his composure and they caught up on recent events. All of them had seen the MedaV’dan ship which had then twisted out after dealing with the attacker. No matter where the conversation went, it returned to the sighting of the MedaV’dan.

Slade and Tao had gotten out of jamming range and confirmed a good signal. They had then sent multiple sitreps and calls for help. They had been considering a dodge for one of the outer planets when the MedaV’dan had arrived. Quick thinking Dragan had then sent out a standard radio call for Dunedin. They had gotten in touch with Mistress Tingen and made plans to link up with the freighter. The alien attacker was a heap of radioactive particles by then. The MedaV’dan had left shortly after that. An hour later, safe in the freighter they had commenced a search for Jev, sure that he was a very noble, very brave, very stupid and very dead imperial trooper.

Thanks to Dry Gulch’s nearly dead condition and the lack of habitation over most of the planet it hadn’t taken long for them to locate the debris of Jev’s Wolfen. Three hours after the enemy warship’s sudden arrival and the pitched battle and the arrival of the MedaV’dan Jev was recovered. Dry Gulch was safe and freighters were already returning. Two Arthur class ships were less than two days away.
*************************************
“Not bad,” Primus Arroyo told the three soldiers. His combination cabin and office was one of Goshawk’s larger accommodations.

Arroyo was a slight wiry man whose pate of close cut black hair was receding from his forehead. He had a thin moustache. Despite his size he had never been beaten in shipboard martial arts competitions. He fingered his high collars as he studied the trio. The silver crossed daggers of a primus were proudly displayed there.

A portrait of an ancient warrior hung on the wall behind the primus. The portrait’s subject had a fierce bearded face. Jev had learned that the portrait was of someone named Rodrigo Dìaz, a hero of Arroyo’s homeland. A sword hung beneath the portrait. The single name Tizona was inscribed beneath that.

Arroyo, much to Jev’s surprise offered them all a drink. Jev almost refused, remembering the cruel traps planted by Primus Huff. A dig from Slade’s elbow persuaded him to accept his commander’s hospitality. Arroyo poured a brown drink out and bid them to be seated. They sat down, crowded across the small desk from Arroyo.

“This is not the first time that I’ve heard of the Sanderson Consortium.” Arroyo held out a data crystal as Jev sipped at a heady, fragrant liquor. “Imperial Intelligence has been watching them for pirate activity.” Arroyo put the crystal down and laced his fingers together. “But now this,” he said.

“Traders can tell some tall tales. I recall some when I was in your boots, many decs ago now. But the name Handsome Harry is known to me. I’m also acquainted with Marla Tingen.” Arroyo unlaced his hands and drummed his fingers on his desk. “I trust Harry. He was an imperial technician, a very good one. He has a good name at the ports.” He leaned forward and eyed all of them. Jev felt a coldness in his stomach despite the warming effect of the liquor.

“Deneb is a long way out. We’d twist past the safe point. We may not make it back. I’ve contacted command and gotten the authorization to scout it out. We’ll pick up extra fuel, foodstuffs and arms at star base. For something like this I’m taking volunteers—interested?”

Jev gulped. “Yes sir!” he cried. The others had joined him to make a chorus.

“I thought that you would be,” Arroyo said. “It’s going to be a six month trip—one way. We’re basing this on second hand information. That’s not good but it appears that we may be at war—the installation at DX Cancri was attacked. The attack coincided with the timing of the attack against Dry Gulch. There were no survivors. It looks like an unknown enemy has declared war. I don’t have to tell you what that means.”

Jev was frightened, not for himself but for his family. An enemy that apparently came from no one knew where, that no one was sure of why they wanted to make war. It put the empire on the defensive. That was why command was dispatching a ship on the words of a colorful trader. There was little to nothing else to go on. The nature of space warfare was such that there could be no warfare without the knowledge of whom and where your enemy was. The Arcturians hadn’t been defeated until one of their scout ships had been captured and the location of their homeworld gotten from their computer and confirmed when the crew’s brains were cooked. Jev asked about the defenses around Earth and the colonies.

“We’re tightening those up corporal,” Arroyo said. The primus’ mask of command dropped for a moment. “We all have family and friends somewhere Bakkus, Tao and Slade.” He looked at each of them as he spoke. “The empire’s forces are on full alert and the MedaV’dan have already responded by sending battleships to Earth, Rigel, Hera and Spica.” He sighed.

“Let’s hope that the defenders can hang on. If we’re successful at finding the position of an enemy base or even their homeworld then we’ll make them tremble!” Arroyo accented his point by slamming his fist down onto the desk top.

The primus thanked them all for volunteering while reminding them each to get their affairs in order. He then asked if they had any questions. There were none. He rose and dismissed them. The soldiers put their empty glasses down, stood up and rendered a formal salute. Arroyo returned it. Jev remembered the same courtesy turned into a sloppy, dismissive gesture from Primus Huff. The trio turned to leave.

“Stay behind Bakkus,” Arroyo said. Jev wondered why he was singled out. His mates left. Slade shot him a reassuring grin over his shoulder before exiting into the passage beyond. The door closed.

“Sit down and relax corporal,” Arroyo said. Jev did as ordered. The primus was examining the databoard that was before him on his desktop. “You reported minimal contact with the enemy ship.”

Jev tried to stop from gulping but could not. He thought about remaining silent but decided that that was not the best idea. “Sir, it’s not like I accomplished anything. It wasn’t the regulation course of action.”

“No, a suicidal charge is not that. But as your records show you can use your best judgment when the need arises. Radar shows that the enemy slowed after you began your attack run. They were probably fine tuning their final orbit. Or maybe you slowed them. We’ll never know. A reluctant hero—very well,” Arroyo said. “The service needs fighters—not glory hounds. Your actions were stupid on the face of what happened but you had no way of knowing that help was right there—did you?”

“Sir?” he asked in reply.

“Radar also shows that you veered away from the MedaV’dan’s entry point. You veered away at just the right second to avoid a collision.”

“Sir…I figured that I was dead. I took a random course.”

Arroyo sighed. He seemed dubious of Jev’s explanation. “That’s plausible. Okay, a few things Bakkus: Legionnaire Simms recommended restricting you from further flight training. I’ve decided to overrule him. The simulator is about you being upside down, naked and on fire while being asked to describe the seventy six virgins and remember the exact fusion packet shutdown sequence. It’s good training but you showed that you have the right stripe out there two weeks ago. I want you in an actual Vandal during our time at star base.”

“Yes sir!” he answered. Jev was pleased about that. He was happier that the primus seemed to accept his explanation of what had gone on during the fight. Jev had replayed the jink over and over in his mind. The clear sense of impending disaster if he did not turn away that had been in his mind.

“Are you planning on going career Bakkus?” Arroyo’s question surprised Jev like the report of some ancient pistol shot.

Poppy was starting a new family. It was almost as if Jev was being written off by his loved ones. No, he was still considering going career, was what Jev was thinking. “Yes sir, I’ve decided that I want to go career,” was what he told the primus. He was aghast to hear his own words, as if spoken by another. He was even more surprised at the conviction he felt at those words.

“Good,” Arroyo said. “I’m reassigning you to Centurion Matsui’s section. He’ll billet you in duties more appropriate for a sergeant. He’s short there anyway. You’re eligible for the exam next year. I recommend that you use our twist time to study. You might make it the first time—if you live.”

Arroyo asked him if he had any questions. When Jev answered in the negative his commander dismissed him for the second time that afternoon. He departed and made his way back to his rack. Unlike the Nix the only large sleeping quarters were for the command staff. The rest of the crew was each assigned a private rack where they shared facilities with three other soldiers. Space aboard Paladins was limited. Slade was assigned to Jev’s quarters along with a senior corporal. The fourth rack was empty for the time being. Jev was off duty and was looking forward to some sleeping time.

Jev stripped off his uniform and showered. Corporal Linder’s lid was closed meaning that she was probably in there asleep. Jev dried, put on clean underwear and climbed into his rack. He closed its lid and cooled the chamber. Jev picked up a databoard and picked out where he had left off in the novel. He would study as he had promised the primus. But just not right now he thought. Jev read until he grew sleepy. That wasn’t long.

Jev couldn’t figure out what time period he was looking at. The light was made by gas lanterns. Was that the early twentieth century? A sheaf of posters lay on the nightstand beside the bed. The poster that was open proclaimed that someone named Lee had been defeated at Gettysburg. That sounded like one of the leaders in the Second World War. Jev couldn’t remember. He didn’t care. Lying before him on the bed was Mauryn Teller. She was naked. She smiled and gestured for him to come.

Jev climbed onto her and kissed her mouth. He let his hands roam over her body. She did likewise with him. Her voice called his name. It didn’t sound like Mauryn. Jev bent to suck and lick at her nipples. Mauryn let out a moan of passion. He looked up at her face. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open. Jev bent forward to kiss her mouth. Mauryn’s eyes fluttered open. They were luminescent green without pupils. Jev gasped. He sat up, striking his head against his sleeping chamber’s padded ceiling.
******************************************
Jev had enjoyed his brief stay at Hera. The Earth-like world was the third planet of the Tau Ceti system. It had been settled almost immediately after the submission, which made it one of man’s oldest extra solar colonies. Jev remembered that his recruiting corporal had been a Heran. Jev had been there once before as a crewman of the Nix Olympica. He and Dragan Slade and Gustav Tao had decided this time to use their precious free time to tour the sites rather than staying around the rec facility as they done had before.

Jev and his friends had stood upon the slopes of Olympus, the tallest known mountain thus far discovered on any terrestrial type world. At just over eleven thousand meters the sight was awe inspiring. The trio had taken a flitter to the summit. They had stood, in breathing equipment upon the frozen summit and looked down. From there they had visited the undersea colony of Neptune. Jev had only then realized the great undertaking in which his father was involved in the building of Earth’s first undersea colony. They had then returned to base for training. Jev had realized that their brief tour had been why early man had dreamed of space exploration: the opportunity to see new vistas.

Hera also gave Jev the opportunity to catch up on his letters to home. Ged was still at Underseas. He was happy there but already looking at a maintenance job on one of the space stations. His mother was happy but Jev detected a note of sadness over Poppy’s decision to have more children. Kelso Grays had followed the ancient customs and married Helen Crawford. Jev felt remorseful that he had not received a holo of the ceremony or even a holo informing him of the fact. Speaking with a cleric Jev was informed but comforted little with the knowledge that the long lives of men came with a cost. His family was moving on while Jev seemed to have no family of his own. Jev began to realize that the Imperial Service had become his family.

He had been rejoined with part of that family: Tanzy Artrex was picked up as part of Goshawk’s crew; the colonial that had helped Jev through the first and most brutal portion of basic training. She was a newly minted corporal who had made her marks aboard the Executor class Imperia. Jev had been happy to see her and still happier that she would be joining the crew.

Primus Arroyo had indeed kept Jev’s last charge to himself. Jev had been debriefed about what he had seen. This time there had been no inquisitors. Command was primarily interested in whatever weapon the unknown enemy had used on the MedaV’dan. Not since the war with the Arcturians had a weapon inflicted any damage on a MedaV’dan vessel. Whatever the glowing orbs were it was established that they were not molecular deassociator technology. Jev’s flight recorder had been busy. The legate that had reviewed the data and interviewed Jev had raised eyebrows at the replay of Jev’s attack but had remained silent on that issue. Jev suspected that Arroyo had said something to the woman.

Jev had been given the helm for Goshawk’s departure and multi-dimensional insertion. That was all the reward that he felt was necessary in payment for his attack upon the enemy over Dry Gulch. He also knew that the honor was earned. The sergeants, legionnaires and centurions treated Jev as a member of the club. Jev swore that he would work hard not to let then down. Jev’s shift had ended. He had stopped in the ship’s library to study after a hard workout at the gym. Jev’s eyes were growing tired after a few hours.

“Legal authority of the NCO and officer at a time of war,” a familiar voice proclaimed. That was the topic that was boring Jev out of his skull. Something smelled of musk and flowers. Tanzy Artrex laid a friendly hand onto Jev’s shoulder. Jev looked up into the pert, pretty face of his old friend from basic. Her dark brown hair was cut short.

Jev saved his place and shut off the databoard. “This sergeant’s stuff: on the straight, they want a chum to learn to be a marshal!” He chuckled at his exaggeration. “I wonder what a real marshal has to study.”

Tanzy sat down opposite Jev in one of the small library’s comfortable padded chairs. The two had renewed their friendship but little else. Jev supposed that he wished that there was a little something extra with Tanzy. The truth of the matter though was that he had just been too farging busy for a relationship. He was also still disturbed over the vivid dream that he had had about Mauryn Teller. He had no illusions about some coupling with the MedaV’dan that he had named Kaelyn.

Their masters looked human and may have shared human physiology but there the similarities ended. The MedaV’dan were long lived. The aliens were also an old race. They had developed their minds so that they utilized all of their capacity. Not like in one of Jev’s fantasy novels where the heroes and villains could use their minds to levitate or to set objects afire. Jev had gleaned how Kaelyn could splinter her mind so that she could deal with many things at the same time. The MedaV’dan could accelerate or decelerate or even freeze their sense of time so that they could turn their minds to solving a problem.

The alien masters could affect the minds of others on a limited basis. Jev was not sure but he believed that the MedaV’dan harnessed the power of suggestion to a degree of which man could not yet conceive. It wasn’t fantastical. Even Jev had once taken advantage of a bored entry clerk by suggesting that she had already completed his data. The girl, a civil servant was tired and at the end of her day. Jev was processing through port control on his last Earth leave and wanted to move along. Jev, sensing the girl’s mood, had facilitated her own belief that she was finished. It wasn’t magic, just a few well placed words.

“Hello chum,” Tanzy said. She had reached down and was squeezing his leg just above the knee. Jev shook his head and smiled.

“Guess I’m tired from all this studying and the duty load.” He was lying and doing a convincing job of it he thought. She took her hand away. Jev was disappointed that there wasn’t something beyond a friendly touch. He stifled a yawn.

She laughed. “I’d say that I’m boring you but I’m tired too. Primus Arroyo doesn’t accept second rate work. Neither did Legate Krueger. He was just in the shadow of Colonel Chandrahan most of the time.”

“Oh that’s right: Imperia was the flagship of a battle group.” Jev had gone over the Imperial Fleet composition and order of battle in the last section of the sergeants’ manual. “That must have been something!”

She sighed. “We’re both tired Jev. Why not have an Irish coffee and I’ll tell you the thrilling details of making theatrical appearances so that new sector commanders could be ushered in among fireworks.”

He agreed that that sounded fun. Jev led her through the corvette’s narrow passageway to the ship’s only junior soldier lounge. Not as spacious as the Nix’s watering hole the lounge, informally dubbed ‘the hole’ by the crew, was alive with pride filled banners and plaques that was a living history of the ship. It was a sharp contrast to the sterile regulation duty lounge allowed by Primus Huff. Jev and Tanzy found two open seats around the small bar. They ordered coffees and fell to talking of what had gone on in their lives since basic.

Tanzy had stopped writing Jev after she graduated from the first phase of basic training. Like many recruits she was busy with the more mentally intensive second phase. Tanzy had gone straight to combat training after phase one. Jev had started bedmating with Mara about that time. Tanzy was pleased and sad that he had found someone, if only for a short while; sad, because she too had taken up with someone. Tanzy had been heartbroken when they had both received orders to different vessels. But such was the nature of relationships in the service.

“Do you miss her Jev?” Tanzy asked of Mara as they each ordered another drink.

Jev shrugged his shoulders. “In a way, sure,” he answered. “But I found out afterwards from Dragan that we would never have been a permanent couple. I…think that I was leaning towards career even then. Mara wanted the life of a colonial wife.”

In fact Miguel O’Hare had recently sent a holo to Slade informing him, much to the shock of Jev’s friend that he and Mara had both opted out and planned to marry. Jev had been equally surprised. Jev had watched the letter with his friend. In it, a very pregnant Kayden had expressed her love for both Jev and Slade. Jev was trying to imagine wisecracking Miguel as a father. He chuckled inwardly as he thought of what kind of life their children would have. The letter had, in Jev’s mind also closed the book on that chapter of his life.

“I could have mated permanently with Mariska,” Tanzy said. Jev was a little taken aback. He supposed that he had fixed her as being hetero. She saw his look and laughed.

“According to my psych profile I could go either way. I never saw myself with another girl until I met Mariska.” Tanzy sighed. “Don’t let it put you off Jev Bakkus. I’m not looking but that’s because I’m still a little hurt.” She looked at him and licked her lips. “But when I do start to look—don’t forget me.”

Jev smiled. They had switched to shots of Rigellian Whiskey. He raised his tumbler. “To the Imperial Service, the burr in our collective asses.” She hoisted her glass and touched his.

“Absent friends,” she said. She looked directly into his eyes. “Speaking of which…did you lose any in the attack?”

He sensed that she met the Nix Olympica. He nodded. “A few,” he replied simply.

“We heard about it. I thought; imagine that. Jev Bakkus gets into a battle and he’s not even assigned to Combat Command. Really chum, you’ve seen things that I never did.”

“Not too much,” he said. Jev was being evasive but then he decided that what was called for was honesty. “I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I was doing a structural check that day; me and a sergeant. Sergeant Onizuka made sure we were armed right away. The next thing I knew they came down the support arm and started firing.” Jev shook his head. “He was dead just like that. I barely made it to the lock.”

“You went EVA?” Tanzy asked.

Jev continued with great trepidation. “They were closing and there were a lot of them. If I had stayed in the control center I would have been killed.” He shook his head. “Yeah, I went EVA. I sent some old field cutters toward an open lock.” Jev chuckled mirthlessly. “I doubt it did any good but the gist is that our combat troops repulsed them and Centurion Harkness—our first officer got control of the helm and twisted out.”

“Whew!” she exclaimed. “Good thing you weren’t outside!”

Jev almost lost control. “So you didn’t see any action?” he asked in an attempt to change the subject.

“There wasn’t a war!” she answered. “We would go to some star base, launch an assault force for exercises and that was it. Really it was a bunch of boredom and boot polishing.” Tanzy smiled. Jev remembered what had caught his attention about the tall willowy colonial.

“Remember that chum in our troop from Alpha?” He nodded. “He was a recruit on Imperia with me. Remember how he always had a knack for putting his foot into it?”

The two talked into the late evening. Morning was only a few hours away they headed back to their respective racks. Jev stopped by Tanzy’s cubicle. He leaned in and kissed her cheek as one might kiss a friend. She kissed him back in the same manner. He was about to back away; instead he hugged her and kissed her mouth. She kissed him back, moaning softly as she did. A passerby interrupted them. They stepped away from one another.

Jev cleared his throat. “Sorry, that just came out.”

She smiled at him and looked toward her cube. “It’s late, not tonight. Are you on alpha shift again?” He nodded. “Tomorrow then?” she asked. He smiled and agreed. Jev turned away and headed for his bed.

“Scanners and weapons stand ready,” Primus Arroyo ordered.
Jev’s commander was seated at the center of the bridge just behind the weapons officer’s and scanner technician’s seats. A holographic tactical display floated near the front of the bridge. Jev sat in a portside alcove behind Centurion Davis, Goshawk’s senior helmsman. Jev had been allowed to monitor the multi-dimensional entry to the edge of the Deneb system but had had to take an observer’s seat for the rest. Primus Arroyo was taking no chances and had his most experienced soldiers in key positions.
Jev sweated despite the lowered temperature in the command center. He remembered being shown bridge surveillance footage showing the results of the first Arcturian deassociator attacks against imperial ships. The images had looked normal until a sudden rippling had appeared. Immediately after that the individual bridge crew had dissolved, literally floating apart into nothingness. Those luckless soldiers had been struck right after dimensional twisting into an Arcturian system. These moments after the twist were the tensest.
“Reading all clear!” the scanner tech announced. “Radar, laser, and infrared all clear sir. Going to long range scans.”
Jev breathed a sigh of relief. Davis chuckled. “Now comes the fun part: we zig and zag into this system. Makes me wish that we had some kind of magic sensor system like in the classic fantasy novels,” Davis said.
Jev chuckled. He had read many of those and understood from where the older man was coming. Those fantasy crews could scan a whole star system in a matter of seconds. The truth was that star systems were huge complex affairs. If the Goshawk’s multi-dimensional engines malfunctioned right now, at the edge of this system, it would take months before their sublight gravity drive could get them to an inner planet.
“Contact!” the technician barked. Jev tensed. His head snapped around to see Arroyo patiently waiting for a more detailed explanation. His commander’s calm helped Jev settle down. It also helped that he could use the gift of the MedaV’dan and step away from this moment.
“Well Miss M’Binga?” the primus asked.
“Sorry sir, I was finalizing the results.” The dark skinned woman spoke up as she kept her eyes glued to her screens. “I spotted a metal fragment roughly eight hundred thousand kilometers in. A closer examination of refractives shows a network of these laid at intervals of several million kilometers.”
“Surveillance sats,” Arroyo said.
“That’s my guess sir.” M’Binga swiveled in her chair and faced Arroyo. “As you guessed sir they are positioned exactly where normal imperial procedures would have had us twisting in to.”
“Someone has been reading our books,” Arroyo said to no one in particular.
Classified books, Jev thought. Were there spies buried in the Imperial Service? Jev remembered that ancient man had referred to such people as moles; those same varmints that had plagued Poppy’s gardens throughout much of Jev’s young life. Jev wondered at how a human could throw in their lot with aliens. Men had tried trading with the Arcturians prior to the war. Besides the language barrier the intelligent lizards seemed to either object or not understand the customs of men. The ancient fantasy novels’ presentation of men instantly finding common ground with aliens was proven wrong.
“Very well, outer planetary debris and dust should hide us—if their instruments are no better than ours,” Arroyo said. “Maintain alert posture and conduct intensive scans with all instruments. We’ll plan to twist in further in two days.” Arroyo studied the tactical holo. “The ninth planet is a gas giant. Doctrine would call for us to twist in to that just outside of the outer moon’s gravity well. We’ll twist into position just behind the third planet instead. According to the trader’s claim the he saw activity about the first planet. We’ll be in position to see that and twist out if all is not right.” He looked around at all of them. “Alpha shift is dismissed.”
************************************************
They had stayed there for two days as the primus had ordered. The crew had conducted in depth studies of the system from afar. Its single habitable world, many times more distant from its huge sun than was earth in its orbit, seemed to be just another rock. It was habitable only in the sense that if one had a choice between landing there or dying in space then a landing was a good option—only barely. Higher surface radiation would soon kill an unprotected human. After seeing no activity they went multi-dimensional, emerging near to the third planet as Arroyo had wanted.

Goshawk rested near to the surface of the third planet, a small world that just barely met the qualifications for that title. They had been here a week. Their only observations were routine. Arroyo allowed his small scientific staff, a few optios that held advanced degrees, the chance to study the giant white sun. There was little for the crew of a ship of war to do.

Jev was probably in the best shape that he had ever been in his life. He made his way back to his rack after a hard workout. His right side still gave him grief: a parting shot from yesterday evening’s martial arts training. Primus Arroyo had conducted the training. Jev had learned a lot even if it was at the price of some pain. His cube was empty. Slade had told him to meet him at the hole for drinks and was probably already there. His other mates were at their duty stations. Jev weighed the choices of either drinking with Slade or catching up on his sleep. He supposed it all hinged on if his bunk was occupied. Jev cautiously opened the lid. Tanzy Artrex was not there. She had been—a lot lately.

Jev enjoyed her company. He was even beginning to believe that he loved Tanzy. With Mara there had been the friendship that only those thrown together by military service can know. The sex had also been good and had been a relief for both of them. But that was, at the end of it, all that it had been. Jev knew that it was different with Tanzy. He remembered Onizuka’s words of caution however. Couplings in the service sometimes came to sad endings. Still, it was hard for him not to love her. He had confessed his exposure to multi-dimensional to her. It hadn’t taken her long after that to figure that something had happened to him on Aurelia.

It hadn’t taken her long to pierce together the rumors about a landing by the MedaV’dan and Jev’s interrogation. It was hard to keep anything from the girl. Tanzy had sworn to keep his secret. Jev had felt a terrible sense of guilt and betrayal over his confession to her about meeting their masters. He had remembered the aliens’ commands to him and had always thought that he would take the details of the meeting to his grave. Jev found a hastily scribbled note in the bunk’s coverlet. Tanzy would be pulling a double duty shift that evening.

Jev started to change when the alert klaxon sounded. His command center duties were secondary during actual combat. Jev hastily closed the lid and ran towards the power room. That is when the klaxon died and the primary lighting went dark. Jev’s inner ears told him that the artificial gravity field was gone. He retrieved a hand light from his belt and quickly found the nearest weapons’ locker. He picked out a blast rifle and a set of body armor. It was like living the attack on the Nix all over. Jev propelled himself through the passageways toward the power room. Part of him wondered why any enemy was trying to capture an imperial warship.

There had been much conjecture about the Nix being used as bait for the unknown enemy. Tanzy had quietly brought up that proposition to him after his confession. Jev remembered that the MedaV’dan had seemed pleased by their confirmation. Almost as if they had been looking or fishing for a certain result. Earth’s masters had become more like allies, or so it had seemed until these doubts had been brought out in Jev. Jev slowed down. He pirouetted in the zero gravity, using the maneuver to put on the sturdy body armor. Just in time Jev heard a solid metal on metal sound.

He stopped and leveled his rifle to where he believed that the borders would come through. Emergency lighting came back. A section of the hull turned black and vanished in the red glare of the emergency lighting. Once again armored figures wearing peculiar helmets swarmed onto the ship. Jev waited while the fourth invader from whatever ship or boat that was attached to corvette swam aboard. He used the MedaV’dan’s gift of stepping away. Jev saw exactly the perfect shot placement for the ambush. These particular invaders encountered the empire’s enhanced blast rifle fire.

Jev was shocked to see the attackers explode into nothingness. It almost looked as if they had been hit by a deassociator. It certainly wasn’t the damage that the rifle should have inflicted. Jev had little time to think about it when the lights came back on. One of the armored attacker’s head moved around like the attacker too was startled. Jev engaged his armor. Its little nanobots wrapped him in a protective sheathing. He fired squarely at the enemy’s knight like helmet. This time he missed. Jev’s mind raced using the MedaV’dan’s method.

He pushed away heedless that he might be shot. Jev realized that this was a trap. It seemed as if he had had a week to think it through. The gravity came back. Jev hit the deck hard, thankful for the armor. He rolled up in a ball and tumbled around a corner. Another soldier was crouched back there. He recognized him as a recruit from one of Earth’s polar colonies. Jev turned and leveled his rifle. Blue lightnings filled the corridor where the boarders were trying to enter. Two of them were caught by blue bolts. They did not explode into nothing. Jev felt the twist.

He peered around the protection of a bulkhead. The two intruders were covered in black soot. It was the broken down material of their spacesuits Jev realized. That was what the blue bolts had been: the residual effects of an electromagnetic pulse field. The EMP field had been generated to shut off their armor. Jev seized the arm of the other soldier.

“The primus will want them alive!” he cried as he sprang out and rushed headlong at the boarders. The soldier, Jev remembered his last name, Kirinsky, charged out behind Jev.

One of the intruders aimed a pistol at Jev and let out a loud hiss. Jev weaved out of way and kicked out with his left foot. His would be murderer’s gun went flying. Jev realized that his opponent was an Arcturian. He had seen hundreds of holos showing the face of the empire’s last enemy. Jev, turning his rifle into a club swung the butt end into the lizard’s head. The creature hissed and snapped at Jev’s arm. He turned and saw Kirinsky aim his blast rifle at the creature.

“No! Don’t shoot!” he commanded. The Arcturian rushed at Jev.

He sidestepped and landed a kick into its right leg, sending the alien crashing to the deck. Jev gasped as Kirinsky engaged the other intruder. The lizard had withdrawn a knife and was attempting to slash at the recruit’s unprotected head. Jev’s opponent almost recovered. Jev pushed his astonishment down long enough to slam the butt of his rifle into the back of the Arcturian’s head. The alien went limp on the deck.

Jev was about to help the recruit when Kirinsky deflected the attacker’s knife hand and seized its arm. Jev heard a harsh crunching sound, like a wet branch breaking. The boarder let out a ululating scream and uttered words in a language unknown to Jev. Imperial soldiers, among them Dragan Slade joined Jev and his mate. They swarmed over the apparent Arcturian and shoved it hard against the side of the passageway.

“So this is a Sliln?” Slade asked while jamming the business end of his blast pistol into one of the alien’s breathing holes.

The lizard let out a hiss. It started to convulse. Jev, realizing what was happening, told everyone to get the alien to the infirmary. The captured soldier’s eyes bulged and started bleeding. Its head, arms and legs twitched madly. The imperials backed away and let the lizard go. Blood spouted out of the alien’s mouth as it collapsed in a heap. Medics pushed past the group. Jev saw that the other Arcturian had suffered a similar fate.

“Another boarding!” his friend spat. “I think that the primus was ahead of them on this one,” Slade added.

Jev considered the sudden loss of power, the loss of lighting. It was the same as that day on the Nix Olympica. There had to be a saboteur. Jev looked at the lizard lying on the deck. He saw that it had on a dark green uniform beneath the remains of its nanoarmor. There was an arrangement of three gray, interlocked circles over the right side of the alien’s chest. A single yellow line went through the circles. Jev noted that the other Arcturian wore a similar uniform. Jev looked around him.

“If these are the Sliln…then,” Dragan trailed off weakly.

“Then the Arcturians are still a threat,” Jev concluded: a threat that was probably unsuspected by Earth or the MedaV’dan.

*****************************************
Life aboard Goshawk had turned tense after the attack. Primus Arroyo had announced that they had definitely been sabotaged prior to the attack. That meant that an enemy spy or spies was among the crew. The captured attackers were all dead. The Arcturians had been positively identified as members of that race. Arroyo’s trap had worked. He had told all of them that intelligence had begun suspecting that enemies were hiding among imperial troops.

To that end only a few staff officers and NCO’s were trusted with vital computer access gateways. This time there was positive evidence that someone had introduced malicious codes into the ship’s computers in order to shut down their systems. This time Arroyo and his handpicked crewmen had been aware. The only thing that was not known was why the enemy had tried to board and capture Goshawk rather than destroying it. More importantly they did not know who the saboteur or saboteurs were. Arroyo intended to find out.

They had returned to Deneb. This time the primus had abandoned a stealthy approach. He had ordered Goshawk to maneuver and destroy every spy buoy that could be located. They had obviously spotted the ship. Arroyo hoped that they had not sent details about the destruction of the big ship from which the boarders had come. Arroyo’s trap had been complete.

Within seconds of powering back up Arroyo had ordered Goshawk away under maximum gravity drive. But he had not done so before ordering the launching of two massive plasma bombs. Caught at close range, whatever force fields the attacking starship possessed were not active. A few seconds after ordering Goshawk to multi-dimensional the bombs along with the suspected Sliln warship had erupted. Arroyo had sent a dispatch of the events and was ready for the second phase.

“These Zeniths from the Sanderson Consortium are probably a conduit for intelligence for our enemy. I intend on staying here another month. I’d like to capture one of those freighters. Their crews might not be inclined to suicide,” Arroyo had told Jev. Any humans caught dealing with the Arcturians might wish that they were dead. He had also told him that Jev was rated as safe: the results from his interview with the inquisitors.

That was why Jev found himself as acting section leader to Legionnaire Claudette Wong. That task normally fell to a sergeant. Their platoon had been sent to Deneb Prime’s only moon. The small splinter of rock had been the home of Jev and his platoon for the past two weeks. They were supported by two Vandal fighters and a three assault shuttles. Their hastily constructed shelters were built into caves in the rock’s interior. So far the mission was cold and boring.

Their boredom ended early in the morning of the fifteenth day. Jev eyed the surveillance shot of the stately Zenith class freighter as it completed its second orbit. The freighter reminded Jev of an old style submarine. Its command center and living quarters lay in a conning tower that sat atop the massive roughly rectangular tube that was the cargo hold. Was it here to rendezvous with the same battleship that had jumped Goshawk?

The primus was taking a big chance. It was a chance with their lives. But no one had ever told Jev that Imperial Service was safe. His audio implant was silent in his ear. The freighter would soon come across the planet’s horizon. The Vandals would greet the ship. Jev’s assault shuttle would follow their disabling strafing run. If all worked well his platoon would soon take the ship. He hoped that Tanzy would be okay. She was in Sergeant Wong’s section.

He heard a single command over the battlenet. The Vandals were powering up for launch. They each carried a heavy pulse field missile as well as the typical spatial charges and a small deassociator packet. The fire and forget weapons were augmented by the Vandal’s kinetic energy gun. That was what Arroyo hoped to use to stop the Zenith. Starships were equipped to deal with electromagnetic pulses. The new pulse wave technology, the one’s that had broken down the enemy’s armor, was far more effective.

But the real damage would be the pierced and depressurized sections when the Vandals completed their runs. Those were the points where the platoon sections would board. Jev busied himself by throwing on his armor. The troops of his section lined up for inspection. He felt out of place; as if he were a bad actor that was appointed to play a part bigger than he. Jev centered himself using the MedaV’dan techniques. This was his duty. The troops in his section knew that he was charge. He believed that he had earned their respect.

“Everyone’s checked their partner,” Jev said as he walked up and down the line. “We’re set to board at the aft crew housing section. We’ve all had hypno training on the layout of a Zenith. Remember that we want prisoners. We go in showing that we mean business. Shock them into surrender right away!”


Jev proceeded down a tunnel made habitable by the application of a fibrous sealant. His section followed along with that of Sergeant Pates’. The tunnel led to a flexible makeshift airlock that connected to the shuttles. Jev ordered his troops to engage their armor. The fast acting nanoarmor wrapped itself around his extremities. Jev much preferred this over the bulky suits issued by the logistics corps. He took a deep breath and confirmed that his breather was working. External readings projected by micro projectors crossed his eyes. Infrared and night vision flashed on and off as his system went through its checks. Jev waited while his troops fastened themselves into quick release webbing. Satisfied that all was well he did likewise.

The Vandal pilots reported that the freighter was holed. It did not go to multi-dimensional which seemed to be a good indication that its crew could not do so. The shuttle pilots reported that they were launched and closing on the Zenith. Jev felt exposed, wrapped in a cocoon that could be shot up like some dummy training target. Goshawk was hidden, taking up a position once again near to the third planet. If one of the Arcturian ships appeared then Arroyo would escape with what little intelligence he had already collected.

Jev still wondered whether the Arcturian reptiles were indeed the Sliln. That seemed like a good explanation; a way to hide their identity. He still had problems with that idea. He had taken strategic warfare classes on Rigel. How could a civilization that had been practically exterminated rebuild so fast. Certainly not in the Arcturus system itself where an imperial monitoring station was in place. Had enough of their warrior class escaped and taken the industries of war to another world? Jev felt that he would soon learn the answer. Jev did a radio check with his section and then checked in with Pates and Wong.

Long slow minutes passed. Jev visited the other-mind as the MedaV’dan called that part of the mind that sensed time. He willed it to move quicker. Jev mentally reviewed the interior specs of the Zenith and his section’s route of attack. Jev felt the impact of a harsh combat docking. A cold sense of dread filled him. He had splintered his mind as a young MedaV’dan might do. Jev hadn’t even realized that he was doing that. Jev hit the quick release mechanism and ordered his troops to do likewise. What had happened? What was happening to him?

The hatch sprang open. Jev went from weightlessness to normal Earth gravity. His infrared instantly acquired a figure. Jev fell into a crouch and fired his hand stunner. He saw an older woman scream and topple over. Jev fired a canister of mumble gas down the corridor. His section poured out behind him. Jev weaved down the passageway. He saw a large man lying on the deck. His arms, legs and head twitched. Drool ran down his chin. He was speaking nonsense in a soft unintelligible voice. The effects of the nerve agent so dubbed mumble gas. Jev detailed one of his soldiers to put the man into restraints.

Legionnaire Wong reported that her troop was docked and entering the ship. Jev’s visual motion detector picked up movement at the end of the corridor. Jev held out his right arm and selected blast rifle. The small particle weapon discharged a beam that blew through the metal of the bulkhead and caught whoever was hiding there. A man staggered screaming out into the imperial solders’ field of vision. His right side was aflame. Jev shot him with the stunner. Reports were pouring in from Wong’s sections. They were winning!

Jev led his section from living quarter to living quarter. Some of the freighter’s crew decided to fight while others thought better of it. Jev ordered his recruits to treat those that gave up politely yet with caution. For those that fought he afforded them no quarter. Jev saw death up close and personal when a large man bounded out of a closet.

Jev heard the impact of the slug from the old style pistol when it struck his helmet. The big muscular man shot again. This time the bullet went past Jev. Jev fired the stunner. The man’s face twisted in agony and rage but the stunner did not knock him unconscious. Jev was momentarily amazed. During training on Rigel all of them had been shot by stunners to let them know how it felt. Jev remembered the sense of feeling like every part of his body was being stung by bees. Jev switched to his blast rifle and fired without hesitation. He guessed that the man had shrugged off the stunner blast using his great bulk. That did not help him against the rifle’s particle beam. His look of rage was erased in the second that he realized that he was dead. Jev’s blast had turned what was left of the man’s torso into a smoking heap. The corpse fell to the deck.

“We have the ship!” a voice proclaimed into his implant. Jev was puzzled. That had sounded like Tanzy. Where was Legionnaire Wong or her section chiefs? It was possible that Wong’s comm was down. He acknowledged the information.

They seemed to be in control. Jev did an external sweep while his troops reported in. This section of the freighter was secured. Pates reported that his section was also under imperial control. The sergeant’s section was commencing secondary sweeps designed to find hiding places. Jev ordered his people to do likewise. The time, projected onto his retinas, told him that the battle had taken six minutes. Jev walked back out into the corridor. He ran his armored glove along a section of the passageway. Within seconds an image of what was behind that wall was projected onto his eyes. There was no motion; no army of Arcturians crouched in hiding or anything else that appeared dangerous.

“Bravo-poppa one the captain has surrendered,” Wong’s voice announced over Jev’s audio implant. “Section leaders this is an epsilon-lima-alpha situation. Be at ease and let your troopers breathe.”

That seemed a little hasty to Jev. A warning voice niggled at him, telling him to ask more questions. But what to ask, he thought. He heard Pates giving the order for his troops to unmask. Jev hesitated briefly and then did the same. He remembered him and Arik’s summer trip to Europe. Reckless Arik had sped his hoverbike over a hill that was way to steep for that. Jev had followed right behind his old friend, even while remembering that that part of Germany was known for steep drop offs. The two had become guided missiles, barely avoiding being beheaded by low hanging branches. The warning voice that had spoken to him then was speaking now.

The foul stench of burnt flesh assaulted Jev’s nostrils as his nanoarmor helmet retreated into his collar and breastplate. Two crewmen were being led down the passageway at gunpoint. Jev recognized the older woman that he had stunned when his section had first boarded. She didn’t look dangerous. Jev wondered again why humans were helping Arcturians, as surely as that must be what was happening. The corridor lights pulsed. A high pitched whine caused him to engage his armor. The deck rushed up at him.

Jev’s face hurt. He was nauseous and felt as if he had been given a pain reliever. His eyes fluttered open. He was in a small room lying on a bunk bed. It was someone’s quarters. A few holos of a man and woman holding hands in various romantic settings dominated the small room’s back wall. A desktop was tilted out from the wall across from the bunk. It looked much like the working desktop on an imperial vessel. Tanzy Artrex sat in a seat by the desk. She wore a comfortable top cut just below her small breasts and a short skirt that revealed her legs. She was reading off of a databoard and it took her a few seconds to realize that he was awake.

“Awake at last,” she told him. She grinned mischievously at him. “You always slept too much Jev.” She put the databoard down.

“Where,” he croaked.


She stood up, went to a service alcove and drew a glass of water. She handed it to Jev. Tanzy stopped and stroked his hair while he drank. She mentioned that she had been worried about him and how she did not want to see him hurt. Jev sat up slowly and drank. Tanzy sat a small trash receptacle before him.

“Sonic stunners, they sometimes cause a person to be sick for a few hours after. Go ahead and throw up if you have too.” She leaned over and kissed the top of his head. She wheeled the chair over and sat down before him.

“You are in the quarters of the man that you incinerated Jev. Don’t feel bad: it was your duty. Tivaal knew the risks as well.” She looked at the holos and sighed. “His mate will take his death hard.” Jev noted the presence of a little boy and girl in one of the holos. He didn’t want to ask Tanzy if they had had children.

“How do you know?” Jev asked.

Tanzy took a deep breath and looked away from him. She turned back and caught his eyes. “In the simplest terms, I know because Tivaal was Sliln, as am I.”

His head pounded, still Jev laughed out loud. “Okay, okay, where is Dragan hiding? This has all been funny but…” the laughter died in his throat when he saw the downcast look upon her face.

“I’m so sorry Jev,” she said. A chime sounded. Tanzy looked to the door as it slid open. A man was standing there bearing a tray.

“How’s the black shirt?” he asked her.

“I don’t know if he’s up for lunch but I’ll take whatever you’ve brought,” she said.

The man walked in all the while glaring at Jev. “So this is what Tivaal and the rest died for?” He shook his head. “You better be worth it.” He pointed at the holster strapped to his belt. “If you are thinking of anything then this will be a real short trip for you.”

“Alec!” Tanzy cried.

“These imperials aren’t being forced to help the Medas Tanzy! They’re willing accomplices! Don’t be naïve. This is just the type of thing that would exterminate a whole race!” He stared at Jev as if he wanted Jev to do something.

“Alec, humans don’t know any better. They never had the chance. I know Jev. He is a good, kind man. That’s part of what this is about.” She looked from Alec to Jev. She reached out and put her small hand onto his. “We want you to see something different Jev.” She nodded at Alec. “Leave us please.” The man departed.

Tanzy came and sat beside him on the bunk. She must have read his astonishment, betrayal and confusion. She squeezed his hand. “I’m not going to sprout mandibles out of my mouth. I’m as human as you are Jev Bakkus. You know me outside—and inside. Look at me.”

He did with hesitation. “Let me tell you a story Jev,” she said as she looked into his eyes.

Hundreds of Earth years ago Tanzy’s people; they called themselves Arekai she explained. Sliln was a word in her language that roughly meant ‘alliance’. Hundreds of years ago they had fought the nuclear war that humans had avoided. Their world had become a burned out husk. Healing had come slowly. But among the field of suffering a single flower had grown. That flower was the theory that led to multi-dimensional travel. That had allowed the Arekai to go out and colonize and exploit the vast resources in their system. Jev had asked her where that was exactly. She had merely chuckled demurely in reply.

Their world on the way to recovery, Tanzy’s people had sent out robot probes. One of those, traveling a great distance had twisted off course. That was the most incredible fortune ever from a malfunction. The Arekai had been amazed to discover a race that looked like they did. The distances were great and their ships primitive. Yet despite that they had crossed the great expanse to see this anomalous race called man.

“We orbited Earth during your Second Global War. Those explorers were heartbroken to see that the people that were like us were in the process of killing each other off.”

“Wait—wait,” Jev interjected. “Tanzy…you weren’t…I mean how old…”

“I’m the same age as you Jev, twenty five. I was born on Rigel. My parents are part of a generational infiltration team. I have been to T’muur, the home of my people, the Arekai, twice.” Her pretty face showed anger. “We don’t have the long lives of the great masters,” she said. Tanzy put an ugly emphasis on those last words.

Her face grew pleasant again. “My people that went to Earth still bore the effects of the Great Holocaust. Our life expectancy at that time was in the fifties. We who’ve come to the Earth colonies are lucky. Even now it is fortunate when one of us lives past a hundred.”

“Those explorers of old were happy that you humans survived. The government of my Arekai made an important decision back then. They decided to help humanity. We knew that landing and giving you technology immediately would have been a mistake. As it turns out that decision was fortunate in another aspect: Earth was conquered. We were not.”

“We started sending teams in after 1950. Your rapid advancement and the social upheavals that you have been wrongly told were disastrous were of our doing. We helped with your technology and along the way we tried to help you unlearn prejudices and ancestral hate. And then we were incredibly lucky—again.”

Jev was reeling from the revelations that she was making. He wanted to reject them. He wondered if he had gone crazy after all after the twist and that all of this was some kind of psychotic fantasy. Part of him hoped that that was the case and not what Tanzy was telling him. Almost everything he had been raised to believe was in question. She told of the arrival of the MedaV’dan on Earth.

Arekai ships had managed to escape unseen. They had had to strand their infiltration teams. They had counted themselves lucky that they hadn’t been discovered by the MedaV’dan; that Tanzy’s planet had not been forced to submit as early humans had done. Those marooned teams had gone on to form the seed of what she called a resistance. Jev cackled hysterically when he thought that old Creaky Enderrsen might be an Arekai agent.

She grinned. “What’s funny Jev?” He told her. “Who knows?” she asked rhetorically. “I don’t even know how many teams that there are. Our infiltration cells are carefully formed and can be isolated in an emergency. “But certainly many humans have spoken out against this abomination without our bidding.” She held out half of a sandwich to him while taking a bite from the other half. He didn’t want to accept it but noises from his stomach said otherwise.

“So what happened? What are you going to do to me?” he asked in between bites. The nausea was wearing off.

“To your platoon?” she asked. “We put them off after stunning them. We managed to access the antimatter core and twist before the primus could jump us. I hope they make it back Jev. No matter what you may be thinking; we aren’t the enemy of men. We are the enemy of the MedaV’dan. We don’t want to figure into whatever dominion of humans…of men that they think they are the head of.” She smiled sadly. “I’ve come to love Dragan and the rest of them as much as you.”

She sighed. “We aren’t going to do anything to you Jev.” She got up, went to the desktop and punched some commands into the computer terminal that was there. “I’m sorry Jev but you don’t have access while you are on this ship.”

A holo projection formed over the table top. It only took a few seconds for Jev to see that it was the Nix Olympica. He put the rest of his sandwich down when he realized that the images were taken by the attacking ship: the Sliln who had killed Kieran Onizuka, among others. He realized that he was looking at an image of himself. He gulped when he saw how narrowly he had escaped the sniper’s beam. The image grew as the multi-dimensional vortex formed around the ship. He wanted to look away. Jev didn’t want to see his entry into multi-dimensional. Tanzy stopped the holo. She came to him and hugged him to her. He didn’t push her away.

“Of course we didn’t know who you were then. Our agents in the service figured that whatever unfortunate that had gotten caught out there had been given permasleep. But then the inquisition of the crew and then the MedaV’dan had come!” She let him go but stayed pressed up against him. “We found out that they had interrogated you. That isn’t something that happens to most humans Jev. The name Jev Bakkus was of interest to them so you became of interest to us Jev.”

“Hey—you set this up from basic?” he asked, clearly skeptical.


She chuckled. “We can’t predict the future. My mission was, like many others to penetrate the Imperial Service. After your…incident your name was filtered down through the cells. Did anyone know of this Jev Bakkus?” Tanzy grinned. “I remembered you.”

“Figures,” he said. “So all of this…to kidnap me?” he asked. His tone was bitter.

“Jev, Jev, no…yes we wanted you. Few humans have had any contact with the Medas. Yes, you are of intelligence value—and you survived a twist! But…this isn’t an act Jev Bakkus. True, I was sent to befriend you.” She stood up and looked down at him. “But now…I love you Jev Bakkus. I have for awhile now. Please, I know you are disappointed. I know that you could say some cruel things. Please don’t.”

“What do you want me to say?” he asked. He was angry and bitter.

“Nothing, give us a chance. We are going home, to Arekai. See how our species lives in freedom. See for yourself Jev.”

“What if I want to go home…my home?”

“You’ll be questioned and put on a ship. Remember that if you go back you will probably not be treated pleasantly.” She sat down and hugged him. “Whatever you decide…I’ll wait.”
***************************************************
Eight long months in the Zenith had passed. Jev had been allowed to work out in the gym and stroll with Tanzy in the cargo hold. He had resisted her for three of those eight months. Then one night the two had gotten into a spirited debate in Jev’s room. It had been over the merits of the MedaV’dan, whether they were good or the monsters that Tanzy insisted that they were. They had argued. They had made love after that. The argument had remained unsettled.

Few of the crew had befriended Jev. Many of them treated him like he was a mental defective, incapable of understanding what they did. One exception had been Penrod Cruck. The happy go lucky Arekai infiltrator had a streak of rebellion in him. He also enjoyed narkies, a brand of Rigellian narcotic cigarettes. Captain Christman had forbidden his crew anything more than an occasional alcoholic drink. Jev had become a lookout for Cruck. That was how he had accessed the maintenance computer and found out where T’muur was located. He had also pushed poor Penrod into believing that he had not seen Jev accessing the computer.

He had been able to guess at, not read the man’s mind. Jev had been able to see everything: the facial ticks, the sweating, and the confusion from the narky. Jev had given the man an open door to not betray a friend; for so he had called Jev. Cruck had taken it. Jev had laughed at first, laughed at how easily he had pushed the man. Then he had shuddered. What had happened to him?

The shuttle flew down until it was engulfed by the great globe of the green world below. Tanzy sat next to him, squeezing his hand. He looked over at her and grinned. They had made peace again last night, in bed. The argument was the same: were the MedaV’dan really so bad?

“Look, Enderrsen’s been making these ridicules anti-empire statements since…since my dad was a kid!” he had told her. “The patrol never came and arrested him and tied him to the public post. He never went to jail. Most humans have it good! MedaV’dan rule isn’t so bad.”

“You’ll see Jev,” she had retorted. “Do you think that the Arcturians feel that way?”

“Tanzy, they started it!”

“No Jev, the MedaV’dan provoked and threatened them. I only hope that there are not mass torture sessions on Arcturus if and when Primus Arroyo made it back. The ones that are aiding us are what’s left of their warriors. The monitoring station on Arcturus should have seen that no one went in or out.”

That argument had ended in Jev’s bunk. This day Tanzy’s constant rebuttal of, ‘you’ll see’, would be realized. The shuttle slowed and descended. It described a lazy arc over a great city. It could have been any modern human city. Tanzy leaned over and whispered into his ear.

“If we mated we could live anywhere here. Our population is not even a third of Earth’s.”

She had spoken those words in her language. Jev understood it and could speak Falud moderately well. He had had months to learn; months to spy for the empire and months to fall deeper in love with Tanzy. Jev decided to keep an open mind. He remembered one of Optio Shav’s colorful sayings: stay rigidly flexible in the service. He was doing so but it had come with a cost. Jev had developed the other-mind, the splintering that the MedaV’dan practiced, to keep secret his goals and the information that he had and would collect. He was frightened by that. Also there was the doubt: what if he stayed here? What if Tanzy was right?

“What’s that off in the distance?” he asked in the same tongue. Jev saw what looked like a mighty junk heap. Twisted metal and broken stone was strewn over many kilometers.

“The ruins of Gaitaln, the first city to be hit by the bombs,” she answered. Fifteen million n’Arekai died in an instant. The rival nation waited until survivors came out of the subterranean belts before detonating their second warhead.”

The ruined city was lost from view as the shuttle dropped toward the landing port. Jev could make out individual buildings and even advertising banners. Except for the off color schemes and the alien letter symbols the sight below him could be any Earth metroplex. The pilot grounded. Tanzy looked over at him and then kissed him. Jev got up and walked to the hatch. The two dour and silent security officials that had met them on the freighter stood before the hatch. They both wore dark blue jerseys covered by a lightweight black jacket completed by black slacks. They looked at Jev.

“Where’s he going to go to Thraumel?” Tanzy asked one of them. She gave Jev a look, full of trust. “Please Jev…an open mind?” she asked.

“She’s right,” he told them. “I don’t know where in space I am and I don’t know this planet. From what Tanzy has said there aren’t too many of you that would take in an imperial.”

“You’ve been injected with a nanotransmitter,” the one named Thraumel told him. “We can find you if you are stupid enough to try anything.”

“I just want to see the sights,” Jev said. He looked at Artrex. “Someone told me to keep an open mind. I’ll do that.”

The hatch slid open. The air was warm but held a hint of cold. Jev guessed that it was fall or early spring like conditions. The guards parted. The other one that had been silent bid Jev and Tanzy a good day. Thraumel scowled at his partner in disgust. He stepped out onto the surface of T’muur. Tanzy’s small hand was in his.

Excellent update, sir ....

Now Jev has a chance to check on the folks that's soo easily infiltrated Earth and causing grief & mayhem to the Mav'D....

Fleet Leader Aalen Dovaul sat opposite Jev and Tanzy Artrex. Jev had come to understand that a fleet leader was akin to a terran strategos. The Arekai followed the human convention of first and last names. Dovaul was a tall, slim man roughly in his fifties. His appearance had shocked Jev once he had been told of the leader’s age. Gray hair and wrinkled skin didn’t appear on Earth humans and colonials until their late eighties, even early nineties. Dovaul was a likable, friendly man. Jev suspected that that was because he had been tasked to enlist Jev’s loyalty.

“Our food seems to agree with you Jev,” Dovaul told him while Jev chewed up a bite of the crunchy, meat covered food that reminded of nachos. “We appreciate everything that you’ve told us about your encounter with the MedaV’dan.” Jev watched him clasp his hands together. He had noted that the Arekai shared most of the human gestures.

Jev swallowed and shrugged. “I told Tanzy about it. I really think that they were just looking for information about your ships.” Jev had used the other-mind to conceal his knowledge of their homeworld and of his recently acquired freakish mental abilities.

He hadn’t told the Arekai anything new. Jev had discovered that they were using imperial equipment. He suspected that they had a brain cooker but were satisfied with the surface scans they had performed on him. At least he hadn’t ended up in a cooker—yet. So many things were missing. Jev looked around him. Spring had turned to a warm summer during the two months that he had been here. The outdoor café had become a favorite of his and Tanzy’s. He looked up and down the well ordered street. One of the missing things was the Arekai dislike for the MedaV’dan; the reason for it. Jev had come to believe that it was not from ignorance but rather from familiarity.

Somehow the Arekai had more knowledge of the MedaV’dan than their official story conveyed. Jev had put together things that he had learned here, with what he had read from the mind of Kaelyn. He had learned from his Arekai interrogators that they had known of the MedaV’dan much earlier than Tanzy had intimated. He knew that she hadn’t lied to him. She just had not been told the entire truth. One of Jev’s interviewers had let slip that the fact that they had contacted a MedaV’dan ship almost three hundred years ago. That was a hundred years earlier than he had been told by Tanzy.

“What do you think of our world Jev Bakkus?” Dovaul asked.

“It’s almost like a different Earth culture,” Jev answered honestly. “Me and Arik Bynum—he is an old friend—me and Arik once went through a part of Europe that was mostly settled by people from Africa. Arekai reminds me a lot of that.”

In truth T’muur was much like Earth. Ruled by a council, Jev was still a little sketchy on how or even if they were elected. The humans of T’muur seemed be more tolerant of criminal behavior. Crime on Earth was addressed under the Covenant. Punishment was swift and public. Ged had, like many fathers, taken young Jev to the public square to witness that firsthand. Jev wasn’t sure if the human method worked. He wasn’t sure if the Arekai’s method of reeducation worked either. Public speech wasn’t censored here but neither was it censored on Earth. Jev had seen and read the Arekai’s news of the day. It seemed to be uncensored yet it had an odd quality to it. Jev had thought that it was almost like a presentation instead of information. Perhaps just a difference in style he had thought.

Matrimonial arrangements were different on T’muur as well. The Covenant had prescribed monogamy onto men. Whether it was hetero or homosexual hadn’t mattered; just that there was a two parent unit to raise children. The Arekai didn’t seem to have that convention. Jev wasn’t sure if that meant anything. Once again he lacked a frame of reference from which to make a decision. He had mentally reviewed many of his classes from finishing school through college. He had the MedaV’dan gift of memory but it was only as good as the recorder on which it was viewed. Jev had spent too much of that time daydreaming of a better life, of bedding Mauryn Teller, and of having a wonderful career that furnished him everything. The only thing that he vaguely recalled was that single parent homes had been a norm for many Earth cultures and man had done okay—or at least it had seemed that way.

“It’s early to ask you to join us Jev. But I hope that you’ve considered that,” Dovaul said. “We are just like a sundered group of humans. Your culture might have been much like ours—except for the monsters. They denied you the freedom of choice Jev.”

“Jev isn’t responsible for what happened on old Earth fleet leader,” Tanzy protested. “I hate to think what would have happened if the MedaV’dan had come here right after the war. We might have given up just as easily.”

“Fleet leader,” Jev started. “I’m still a little surprised at dealing with all of this. You mentioned me joining you.” He felt Tanzy squeeze his hand when he said that. “It just…I mean what could…what could someone like me do? I’m just a soldier.”

“I’m glad that you asked!” Dovaul cried. He seemed genuinely happy that Jev might be turning. “We have infiltrators. We have turned many native Earthers against the empire. Jev—we need Earth in order to defeat the MedaV’dan. We need your ships. The truth is that we just don’t have enough.”

“Your ships are better sir,” Jev retorted. “Primus Arroyo only destroyed that battleship because they were trying to board us. If they had stood off then Goshawk wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“We wanted you Jev. That is the reason that all of those Arekai were killed. Arroyo must have sensed that we wanted prisoners. We need people like that. But your ships, coupled with ours could turn the tide against the MedaV’dan. Don’t underestimate humanity’s abilities Jev. Two of your Executor class ships destroyed one of our cruisers off of Spica. You’ve become a power. You are just aligned with evil and don’t know it.”

“We wanted to wait Jev. Part of the reason this war has started was that we could no longer watch while men, while our species was used as a tool for murder and conquest,” Tanzy interjected. “We wanted you to throw off the chains yourself. There’s still a growing movement on Earth to do that.”

A commotion sounded from up the street. Jev heard voices; angry and horrified voices. Jev saw a thin, bedraggled stick like man hobbling up the street. He thought that his left foot was bandaged until closer inspection. The foot was horribly deformed. The man was dragging it as he went. He passed by two couples at the end of the café. One of the women in the party cursed the man and threw a glass at him. The slight night breeze pushed the man’s odor toward Jev.

“It’s only some old bum,” Jev muttered.

Derelicts and those that just withdrew from productive society existed on Earth. They were tolerated, even a fixture in some communities. Jev remembered Old Steve. He was a likeable man that enjoyed drinking. The patrol would roust him on cold nights but other than that he was left alone. Jev had not thought to inquire about people like Steve and how the Arekai treated them. The occupant of a ground car swerved toward the cripple. The fender bumped the man, almost knocking him down.

“A boitaav,” the fleet leader spat. Jev could see that even Tanzy was confused. “Sorry Jev. They are throwbacks—mutants that live in Gaitaln. The fools refuse to be resettled!”

“This treatment seems kind of harsh sir,” Jev commented. Internal security forces showed up. They began hustling the unfortunate into the back of their groundcar. They were not gentle.

“Come now, Jev,” Dovaul said. “You come from a society that experiments on the mentally ill and criminals.”

Jev agreed and relented. He was just not used to seeing citizens treated like this. If a Westernport patrol officer were to beat up old Steve like that then it was likely that the human cop might well get jumped by an angry mob. Jev was also finding it hard to square the supposed enlightenment of the Arekai with this. He mentally shelved that.

“If you want our ships then you need colonels, legates, ship commanders. I’m just a corporal sir.” Tanzy squeezed his hand again. He had glanced at her during the derelict’s struggles. She too had been shocked. He could tell. He remembered that she had only come here twice during her life.

Dovaul seemed to Jev to hesitate, and then he plunged ahead: “We have enough infiltrators in your fleet to seize a whole squadron. If—if we would do that it would have to be at a key time. Say that there were uprisings against the government on Earth. Every able bodied soldier on our side increases our chance for victory. I can’t say when it will happen. This war has pushed the issue.”

“What if I agree and then return home and tell the inquisitors everything?”

Dovaul’s face hardened. “We know you are still looking for answers Jev Bakkus. You aren’t with us; hence the nanotransmitter. If you do change your mind then…you’ll be scanned. We’ve managed to enhance the Imperial Service’s neural scanner. I believe that you call them ‘brain cookers’. Our version won’t erase your mind Jev. But it is not pleasant. Once that is complete then we’ll know if you are sincere.” Dovaul sighed. “As long as you are looking for answers then all is well, even if that takes the remainder of your life. But be warned Jev: if you try lying to us then your interrogator we’ll subject you to a full scan: erase your mind.”

Jev could either remain here, unscanned, for the rest of his life or switch allegiances and submit to the scan and leave. Neither choice appealed to him. He had kept an open mind as he had promised Tanzy. So far he saw planetary events presented in a way that almost appeared to be propaganda. That subject had been covered in detail in his Language and Logic class on Rigel. That time he had paid attention. Now there was this insight into how they treated these…boitaav. Jev decided that he needed to investigate further.

“You’re right fleet leader,” Jev agreed. “I have…conflicting loyalties. I’ll admit that. I need some more time.” He looked over at Tanzy. “I’m worried about what my family on Earth might think. But…but I might start a family with you.” She smiled broadly. He shook his head. There was that prospect. He did love her and didn’t know what he would do if he decided to escape.

“It’s all right Jev!” Dovaul cried. “I don’t need a neural scanner to see the honesty in what you just said. It’s natural to be confused. We’ll give you all the time that you need Jev Bakkus.” He told Jev that he would see him again in a month.

Jev agreed. What else was he to do? He momentarily looked skyward. He saw the great vista of the Milky Way there. He believed that he might be in the outer arm. Jev thought of his parents and Poppy and Helen. What if this was all a lie? What if Sliln ships had already incinerated his Earth as part of their war against the MedaV’dan? Jev wasn’t sure of anything except one thing: in this conflict Earth was in the middle. He prayed to whatever Supreme Being that the clerics pushed that his family was okay; that Earth was okay. Dovaul departed.

Jev got up and took Tanzy’s arm. His shadows were there but out of their normal field of view. Perhaps they trusted him somewhat, perhaps they just knew the couple’s routine. He knew that they were there. Jev had stepped out of time and saw. He had seen everything. Jev wondered how much of his humanity was taken each time he did that. He walked Tanzy toward the small park that was in this neighborhood. Once there they found a stand of bushes. He took her in his arms after stepping behind the flora. Tanzy’s skirt and blouse were off in seconds. So were Jev’s clothes. He lay on her afterwards.

“I want to go to Gaitaln Tanzy,” he whispered into her ear.

“What,” she cried, clearly aghast at the notion.

“Quiet,” he whispered and put a finger to her lips. Jev knew that their observers usually stayed back when he and Tanzy had had sex. How far back he didn’t know. He hoped that they thought that there was nothing to hear.

“Listen, you said to keep an open mind. Are you? You said that you came here once with your parents and once alone. You obviously didn’t know about these n’boitaav.” Jev had to hold back the giggles when he realized that he was about to quote Creaky Enderrsen. “Someone once said that a society is judged by how it treats its weakest members. Nothing here...I’m sorry nothing here is…on the straight.” That was it! That is how he had felt and yet not been able to crystallize those feelings. “I want to see what these…outcasts think.”

They got up and dressed. “How?” she asked.

“We’re going to that resort you’ve been telling me about. It’s nearby to the old city. I don’t know but give me some time.”

“It’s dangerous Jev,” she protested. The protest was mild. Jev could see that her curiosity was piqued. He also thought that she too was having some misgivings. Jev reminded himself that generational infiltrator or no; Tanzy had lived among Earth humans for most of her life. He reached out and took her hand.

The transmitter was after all a small machine. Internal Security had counted on its small size making it impossible for Jev to find it. Jev had once again cast aside his humanity to see if he could use his stepping out of time to examine his body. He had nearly screamed when he had suddenly turned inside out. He had calmed down a little when he realized that his flesh was on the right side. What he had seen was the other-mind’s examination over every facet of his body’s operation. The little robot was nestled comfortably in the crook of Jev’s arm.

The time at the resort was one of the best he had ever had. Jev had almost forgotten what he had determined to do. He was lost in Tanzy, realizing the things that he had missed in his young life. The couple swam and skied on the lake during the day. At night they enjoyed the company of other vacationing couples. This was a life that Jev had fantasized about. But it was not his life. He had sworn an oath to the empire. Jev, who had never finished anything in his life, intended to finish this. The shock from the shaver was painful. It had also disabled the bot.

Innocent Jev had been more than happy to see the physician. It hadn’t taken long for him to realize that the Arekai healer was part of the team sent to spy on them. He had feigned embarrassment and asked Tanzy to wait outside while the doctor had admonished him for using an appliance that was clearly broken. Jev had pushed hard on the physician. He pushed him into injecting Jev with the same burned out nanobot that had been removed. Jev had taken the vial containing the working one and pocketed it, so intent on injecting Jev with another working tracker, the doctor was easily tripped by Jev’s suggestions.

The resort’s pet scael’t hadn’t even known that it had eaten the transmitter. Jev knew that the nanotransmitter would eventually work its way out of the large rat looking creature. What he would do then Jev did not know. He was also fearful that a device was implanted in Tanzy. He now guessed that that was not the case. Otherwise the couple would not now be walking through the scorched ruins of the great city.

It smelled. It smelled of cold rock and sulfur. Jev’s throat was dry. There was no grass, no bushes, no trees or even a weed. That was why Jev was curious as to where the pall of smoke that littered the sky was coming from. No people were anywhere to be seen. Jev and Tanzy continued by stealth. They had entered that way and Jev intended to stay invisible. They were five kilometers into the city. It had been silent at first but as they drew closer to the city center they heard a deep throbbing sound.

They had discovered the source of the pounding after another kilometer. Jev and Tanzy peered down onto the scene from a pile of bricks that were all that was left of some building. Jev took a sip from his canteen and then handed it to Tanzy. She refused it. She instead stared intently down onto the cleared off remains of the block below.

“You should drink,” Jev advised her.

“The sick…children,” she answered. Her tone was mournful. “They’re slaves Jev!”

“Yeah,” he agreed, switching to English. He was having a difficult time restraining his anger. “This is why so many of the products are cheap. I’m no marshal but I’ve been curious as to how exactly T’muur recovered so fast. Remember when you took me to see that holodocumentary about the war?” She nodded. “All of those bombs fell for almost half a year. Maybe I should have paid more attention in school. But I did pay attention in my classes on Rigel. That was a lot of megatons Tanzy. Creaky Enderrsen used to say that my people used to talk about being nuked back into the Stone Age. How did the Arekai get out of the Stone Age this soon?”

The answer seemed to be beneath them. Several starved and dirty children and teens, Jev thought that they were lucky if the oldest child was twelve, were working together. They were loading crates full of disassembled agribots. If a child slipped, an overseer would race over and prod that child with a wand. Jev guessed from the ensuing screams of agony that the wands produced pain. Another group was in the process of unloading metal supports and metal sheets. Raw material Jev figured. Jev made her take a sip from his canteen.

“I can’t believe that they are doing this!” Tanzy cried.

“We really don’t know what they doing Tanzy. Remember that the empire enslaves criminals. You told me to keep an open mind. It’s tough but I’m doing that.” He had been seething but spending a subjective lifetime in multi-dimensional space had taught Jev patience.

“Jev—we—your empire, the MedaV’dan Covenant specifically addresses decent treatment for children. The adults—maybe they are prisoners or outcasts, whatever the fleet leader called them, but not their children.”

Jev watched a bedraggled group of workers enter the loading area. He plotted out a meandering path that led in the direction from whence the workers had come. He motioned for Tanzy to follow him. Jev trusted in her imperial training that she would also act as rear guard. The two skirted furtively among the ruins. There were signs now of habitation. Pieces of cast off cloth, bits of tools and the shards of broken cups and plates littered the ground. Jev gestured for Tanzy to stop. It was dusk. A large block building that appeared to have been built from random pieces of rubble lay ahead of the couple.

A few younger children played among the piles of debris while tired adults trudged past them. A group of large tubes stood off away from what Jev guessed was the living quarters for these poor people. Smokestacks—Jev did remember that they had been common on pre-MedaV’dan Earth. These stacks were working in full force, creating the acrid smell in the air. The throbbing here was deeper. Whatever manufacturing was being done was probably right under their feet. Jev watched a group of children peel away and make for a dark opening in the ground.

“My mom always made me come in the back after I’d been playing,” Jev remarked. “What’s say that we follow them in there?”

“Jev…we aren’t armed. The way that these people are treated; it will be dangerous for us to go down there.”

He smiled. A sense of bravado that he knew was hollow and flimsy. “We’re soldiers of the empire. Well—I’m a soldier of the empire. We’ll do okay.”

Tanzy threw him a smart salute. “Yes we will.”

*********************************************

The entrance had led to a crèche. A few stray children, catching sight of the couple had run screaming. Jev and Tanzy had put up a fight. They had agreed not to use lethal force, so that although they faired well, in the end they were overwhelmed. They were brought before a short thin man. He was mostly skin and bones but his demeanor was of a person who is in charge.

“So you are two citizens curious to see how the boitaav live?” he asked them. Jev noted the harsh intonation that he had put on the word ‘citizen’.

Jev used the other-mind to examine the large chamber. Torches and fireplaces belonged in holodramas, not as a real means of light and heat. Yet here they were doing both in what Jev surmised had been an old underground boarding area. Children and adults sat along rows of dilapidated, broken old seats. Those in earshot stared listlessly at Jev and Tanzy. Their interrogator sat behind a large podium, such as a judge might use.

Jev shrugged. “I’m not a citizen. I’m Jev Bakkus, a soldier of the MedaV’dan Empire,” Jev declared. There were a few startled gasps and some guffaws from those gathered around. The judge as he had come to think of their inquisitor looked at Jev as if Jev was insane.

“Pleased to meet you sir!” the judge got up and issued a mock bow. “Why…you are probably here to liberate us!” The old man sat back down, cackling all the while. He sat back. The laughter died as he looked at Jev and Tanzy.

“You are probably sick curious people,” the judge spat. “I am Hyea Daskar. I am caretaker of this subunit.” Daskar got up. A dirty man wearing thin rags declared that Jev should be killed. The way that the man looked at Tanzy implied that she would be spared—and probably raped.

“Silence, Gomaek,” Daskar snapped. “There will be no killing. We’ve heard of the MedaV’dan. Legend says that the Haarmel captured one of their ships. Just a legend I suppose.” Jev’s curiosity was piqued. “I don’t suppose that you have an army of the god men in orbit to free us?”

“I was brought here because I was questioned by the MedaV’dan. Your people are—”

“The Haarmel are not my people! They are the reason for this!” Daskar held his arms aloft to indicate the entire chamber. He took hold of a small girl who was absently prodding at an insect. Her face was horribly disfigured. “They tell you that this is from mutations don’t they? Once, when we didn’t make the quota her mother was brought out and made to watch while her face was burned with a torch!” He spat on the floor before them. He walked up and pressed his face up to Jev’s. “We are not Haarmel fool.”

“Haarmel was the name of some of the people that formed this nation,” Tanzy said. “I don’t understand. I never knew about any of this Jev! I don’t think that my parents did either.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “You have to believe me Jev!”

“Haarmel was the name of those from the country. After the bombing they welcomed the Jomqua invaders with open arms. They held city dwellers responsible for what had happened. Here at Gaitaln we were the financial center of T’muur. Paletor was the government center.” Daskar laughed bitterly. “We were told that we had to fix the damage that we had caused. Eight generations later and we are still fixing!”

Daskar calmed down. He escorted Jev and Tanzy on a tour of the underground city and factories. Jev knew that he hadn’t accepted Jev’s explanation of who he was. Daskar, Jev believed, merely wanted to shame what he thought of as two Haarmel by showing them what was going on. It was brutal. Jev, a human born on Earth was ashamed just because he had eaten food that was denied to these poor people.

Jev had been horrified by the use of the wand, or stim, Daskar corrected him, on children. But when one took into account the reprisals from the government it made sense: horrible and twisted though that sense was. Less than a third of boitaav lived past fifteen. The cities were guarded as Jev and Tanzy had observed while sneaking into Gaitaln. But even if all boitaav escaped then all that awaited them was the hostility of the Arekai. Daskar hated this life, despised the misery and death but did what he could to survive and to help his people do likewise. Jev subtly pushed the boitaav leader to speak of other things.

Daskar told of the legend of a ship flown by god like aliens with luminescent green eyes that had landed in one of the cities. N’boitaav of that time had known that the Arekai were sending ships to the stars. The legend stated that the god men had been lured here after a random contact in deep space. They were lured and then captured by primitive Arekai. Jev pressed Daskar for the location of the landing but the old leader was not sure. They followed the boitaav through a twisting maze of tunnels.

“I’ll put you fools out by the eastern garrison. The soldiers made a sweep of all of our young recently.” Daskar’s words were choked with sadness. “My granddaughter, they are probably—no, I can’t say more. Suffice to say that they’ll be distracted.” Cool night air wafted over Jev’s face. They had reached the tunnel’s hidden exit. “Be off my fools. Think about all that I’ve shown you and have the decency to stop it.” He turned and went back the way that he had come.

Below them about three hundred meters away in a slight depression sat a network of reinforced bunkers. Searchlights played over the blasted land that lay beyond the bunker’s walls. Jev figured that there were probably a slew of electronic detectors out there in addition to the lights and eyes in the guard towers. Jev guessed that Daskar wouldn’t have put them off here unless some of his people had made it through. But then again maybe not, he thought. Jev studied the scene with the other-mind.

“Where do we go now?” Tanzy asked.

“We could probably sneak back to the resort. I have the bad transmitter in me.” He shook his head. “I want to do something about this!” His fists were balled at his sides.

“Even if we could do something they’d probably take it out on these people,” Tanzy said. He could feel anger from her tone. “But how much worse could it get Jev?”

“There’s a path between those two laser webs. It runs along that line of bushes so we’ll have some cover there. At the point between the old creek bed and that outcropping of rock there are buried pressure sensors. There’s a half meter wide path between them. There’s an infrared sweeper running but it looks like some of the sensor elements are burned out. It probably isn’t reading anything.”

“Jev…how did you…”

He was a long time answering. “Something more happened to me out there during the twist.” Jev took her hand. “I’m scared Tanzy. I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

She shook her head and then kissed his cheek. She looked past him. “I see the landmarks.” She was speaking English. “I believe that that leads to one of those bunkers. Why, Corporal Bakkus are you proposing that we attack?”

“I am,” he answered. “That camp looks to be housing a platoon size force. There is also a flier down there. From what Daskar said these troops are probably nothing more than prison guards. We’ll pick off the bunker guards there.” He pointed to their expected entry place. “We’ll try and find the armory killing as many of them as we can in the process. We’ll keep it quiet until we find some weapons that go boom.”