Galaxy of Heroes

Sgt. Grimes shot a sidelong glance at his cyborg companion who was giving him that look she always gave right before something really bad happened.

Their flight from Meglos had ended when one of Governor Zegra’s trackers shot out the starboard engine of their Craaldan Five Cruiser with a lucky blast from a pulse cannon. The damaged cruiser was now adrift in the Altiva Cantos asteroid belt—a broken ring of rocks that circled the binary star that centered this system. The cruiser drifted as mountain-sized asteroids spun ominously outside the cockpit window.

“Of all the galaxies in the universe, I get shipwrecked in this one,” Grimes said.

“The trackers are closing in on our position,” Genie said. “Governor Zegra may once again steal you from my grasp—if we’re not crushed by an asteroid or blasted by these trackers first.”

A squadron of Megalan ships had pursued their cruiser and had nearly run it down, but Genie dove the ship into this asteroid belt, which no prudent pilot would have entered voluntarily.

Genie sat in the pilot’s chair examining the Craaldan readouts on the display panel. Her sleek female form was unclad. Genie’s body had no need for clothing to keep her warm on cold spaceships. Clothing was something she wore to conform to social norms, of which there were none on this stolen, empty ship.

Grimes, on the other hand, had scavenged and torn up some oversized Craaldan trousers and an undershirt, which provided him with a rough fit.

“Don’t you worry, Genie-baby,” Grimes said. “Your shiny cyborg bottom is in good hands with me.”

Genie rolled her eyes. “Your good hands do nothing but get my shiny cyborg bottom in trouble.”

This human was always getting her into the most impossible situations, she thought. Who did he think he was kidding? But at least she had him back, which, come to think of it, was a miracle in itself.

Governor Zegra, for all her size and strength, was no match for Genie—at least not one-on-one in a fist fight. But the Governor had the resources of a planet at her disposal, and her trackers were relentless. All Genie had to work with was a badly damaged Craaldan cruiser and an enlisted man who was once a Ranger in a former life.

The Megalan ships scouted the edges of the asteroid belt, scanning for the drifting cruiser. The dark ships were getting alarmingly close to the cruiser’s position.

If Genie fired the cruiser’s one remaining engine and they made a run for it, the trackers would either run them down and capture them, or pulverize them with their pulse cannons. Knowing Zegra’s mood upon their departure from Meglos, Genie guessed that the Governor had given the order for pulverization. And the trackers knew she and Joe couldn’t hide in this asteroid belt much longer.

Grimes sat reclined in his chair with his feet up on the control console. His spiky blonde hair was still mussed from their hasty escape from Meglos. His pale blue eyes gazed calmly at the massive boulders spinning close to their damaged vessel.

“You seem relaxed,” Genie said.

He put his hands behind his head and leaned further back in his chair. “Everything is going to be all right, Genie,” he said.

“Is that so?” she said.

“Hey,” he said. “It’s me, your hero, Sgt. Joe J. Grimes.”

She rolled her eyes again.

She wondered what their fates would be if Governor Zegra’s trackers were able to recapture them. When they had first landed on Meglos, Zegra had taken an immediate liking to Joe. It wasn’t often that a Heliac Ranger visited this sector of the galaxy. Zegra was infatuated with his military experience. And she had a thing for men, of all shapes and sizes, and Joe had become something of a prized collector’s item to her.

The Governor’s attentions had driven Genie crazy with jealousy, and finally to violence. Genie now regretted pulling her punches and not killing Governor Zegra when she had the chance. Instead, for her reticence, she had been captured and the good Governor had sentenced her to an eternity of hard labor in the uranium mines of Vanaria.

“So how will my hero, Sgt. Joe J. Grimes, get us out of this mess?” Genie asked.

“Genie, baby, I got us out of the last mess, didn’t I?”

“Excuse me?”

“Just give me a second,” he said. “I’m working on a plan to get us out of here.”

He stared up at the cockpit ceiling and closed his eyes. It looked to Genie as though he were about to doze off.

She reviewed the circumstances that had landed the two of them here in an asteroid belt in this remote sector of the galaxy. The events zipped through her memory banks as she sat in front of the control panel.

How could Joe possibly think he got them out of the last mess?

Genie would still be toiling away in the cavernous depths of that awful moon if that Craaldan lieutenant hadn’t shown up out of the ether with this ship.

And this ship could be the source of more problems.

The Craaldans weren’t known for letting their equipment fall into enemy hands, especially such things as cruisers. Craaldan Expeditionary Troopers would most certainly come after it.

However, even outnumbered and outgunned, the cruiser was far superior to any human spacecraft. Genie had absorbed direct hit after direct hit and would have evaded Zegra’s squadron of trackers, if only a lucky shot hadn’t diverted her from making a clean break.

Even damaged, this Craaldan Five Cruiser was a top-of-the-line warship.

If she and Joe ever managed to get out of the asteroid belt and past Zegra’s squadron of trackers, they would certainly have Craaldan goons to worry about.

Genie looked over at Joe. His eyes were closed. He breathed calmly and deeply. He was snoozing.

How could he doze off when they were facing imminent death?

Anger smoldered in her organic systems.

A flashing red light on the cruiser’s control console alerted her to the fact that a tracker’s scanner had zeroed in on their position. The tracker’s dark ship skirted the edge of the asteroid belt and closed in for the kill.