Riyad had planned ahead in the eventuality that his base on K’ly would one day be attacked. He’d practiced this strategy countless times in his other life, with backup safehouses for backup safehouses. He never planned an action without having a fallback.
His planning had paid off about nine months ago, when 16 Juirean light battlecruisers dropped out of deep gravity wells a couple of million kilometers off the planet. He’d only lost five ships that day; 23 others made it safely to his backup base on Dimloe.
The base on Dimloe was small and crude, carved out of the side of a mountain and overlooking a vast field of sulfur-spewing geysers. There were other parts of the planet that were more hospitable, but they were also more densely populated. Until he could find a more permanent location for his pirates, he chose to keep a low-profile. The setting up of the new base, and the licking of their wounds, also provided his pirates with a diversion from their normal activities, which fit well into Riyad’s current state of mind.
At the time, Riyad was only devoting about a quarter of his attention to running the pirate organization. The rest of his energies were spent trying to locate the Klin.
He would be on-planet only for the day, meeting with his second, Belfor Angar, to settle a conflict between two of his captains. He spent the bulk of his time aboard his ship in orbit around the planet, more comfortable and secure in the gravity the ship provided. Besides interrupting his research into the Klin, dropping down to the planet was such a physical inconvenience.
His captains were fighting over an equitable split of the booty from a merchant ship they’d recently attacked. It wasn’t a lot of credits, and these trivial tasks were beginning to really piss him off. Angar should have been able to settle this without his input. He had more important things to do.
Ever since Angar had pulled his unconscious body from the Klin starship just moments before it exploded, Riyad had counted that fortunate incident as a sign from God that he was destined for greater things. Even though he had been only seconds away from learning the location of Earth, without Angar’s intervention, he would have died on the ship that day, taking the knowledge with him.
But he did manage to get a clue. Ecliptic Plane Minus 4, Section 21. One-half of the coordinates needed. But with only half, he was still able to produce a graphic slice of the Far Arm, 4-degrees below the ecliptic and section 21 out of 92. It was something, but not much. He had effectively narrowed his search down to about a million stars.
So he decided to take a different tack. Since Riyad firmly believed the Klin were building an army of Humans to confront their mortal enemies, the Juireans, they must be devoting all this time and energy because they saw something in the Human race that was unique and substantial, something that could counter the power of the Juireans. Having survived for almost seven years in this alien universe, Riyad believed he knew what that “something” was.
It has to be our strength, he often chanted to himself. After all, he had used his superior strength — and coordination — to defeat numerous challengers in the past. He had even coined the phrase “Human-Supermen,” if only to himself — and with the only other Human he’d encountered, the now-late Adam Cain. Adam had died aboard the Klin ship, along with his two alien companions when the ship blew.
Too bad, Riyad often thought. Together we could have made a formidable duo.
So using logic to track the Klin, Riyad reasoned that for the Humans to maintain their strength superiority, they would have to be housed at a location with a substantial gravity, just as Riyad himself did by staying aboard his ship. He also reasoned that trying to train and maintain an army of Humans aboard gravity-controlled spaceships would have required a fleet too large to be hidden for very long.
No, it would have to be a planet, and if they were indeed hiding in The Fringe, that narrowed the possibilities considerably.
In fact, his former pirate base of K’ly, along his current base of Dimloe, were the only two candidates out of the twelve habitable worlds in The Fringe that even came close to Earth-like gravity. Their high gravity was also the reason Riyad had chosen them as his base of operations — much to the consternation of his crews. The added gravity did, however, keep his crews itching for more action off-planet, just so they could escape the punishing affects of the higher-than-normal gravity.
But even then, these two planets could only muster about eight-tenths of Earth’s gravity. That was not a lot of difference, but over time, the weakened gravity would take its toll on the muscle systems and bone density of his fellow Humans, and diminish their effectiveness as a fighting force.
Of course, there were numerous other candidates to be found in the non-habitable worlds of The Fringe. Three of these actually had gravity right at Earth-norm, as best as Riyad could determine. Two of these were close-in rock worlds, scorching hot on half their surfaces, and frigid cold on the other. Still, technology allowed for vast underground colonies, so he wasn’t ruling them out completely.
But one planet in particular held the most promise. It was just outside the habitable zone in the New Regian system, and was called Zylim-4. It was cold, with barely an atmosphere, but it supported a flourishing uranium mining industry that was sequestered well below the surface.
And so it was decided, that once he dispensed with his most immediate chores as head of the Fringe Pirates, Riyad planned to pay a visit to Zylim-4…
Captain Belfor Angar meet Riyad’s shuttle at landing bay five. The trek from his quarters to the bay was only about half a kilometer, but already he was exhausted. The blasted gravity on this stinking excuse for a planet was beginning to take its toll, both on him, and on his fellow pirates. When one is constantly tired and out of breath, one tends to become very irritable, and fights among the renegades were becoming more frequent as the weeks went by. Angar knew the reason why General Riyad had picked Dimloe as his alternative base of operations. It was great for Riyad — even though he still spent very little time on-planet — but it was torture for his pirates.
The General wore a permanent scowl these days, accented by the crimson scare that cut across his forehead and split half his right eyebrow. He had acquired the mark in the battle aboard the Klin starship, just moments before Angar had pulled him to safety. Seeming more and more distracted as the months went by, Angar knew Riyad was troubled by something. He was delegating more of the responsibilities of running the pirate organization to him, and unfortunately, the results were not in Angar’s favor.
Five years ago, when Riyad had first assumed the reins of the organization, there had been a marked improvement in attack strategies and their resulting profits. Everyone was making money, and the every-growing ranks of pirates would do anything for their beloved leader.
Not so anymore. Since the Juirean raid on K’ly, Riyad had changed. It seemed as though running the Fringe Pirates was more of a nuisance to him, and he spent most of his time aboard his ship, engrossed in research.
“How long is this going to take, Captain?”
Angar hid his frustration with Riyad; he knew that at any moment, Riyad could literally rip his head off. “Not long. There is a piece of gold ornamentation that is worth most of the bounty. Mnnlee insists he should get it all since he initiated the attack. Jolaa disagrees.”
As they walked to the meeting hall, Riyad appeared to be even more upset than normal. “How have you proposed settling this?” he growled at Angar.
“I suggested a trade,” Angar answered between gasps for breath, as he struggled to keep pace with his fast-walking leader. “Mnnlee to give up some of his take so he could keep the entire ornament.”
“And?”
“Captain Mnnlee says he should have it all to begin with, so giving up anything is unacceptable to him.”
Riyad stopped in his tracks and stared at Angar. “Unacceptable? To him?” Angar shivered in the presence of the stare. Then Riyad resumed his stride.
In the hall, the two captains sat at a large wooden table surrounded by a couple of dozen or so of their crews. It was an amazing menagerie of creatures, many not from The Fringe, but drawn to the frontier sector of The Expansion in search of wealth and freedom. Like pirates everywhere, they each carried a rebellious gene within their make-up that made it virtually impossible for them to exist in normal society.
Riyad Tarazi was one of them, even if he had never actually been a pirate back home on Earth. He had, however, gravitated to the more radical of views, more-than-likely the product of his Muslim upbringing in the slums of the Gholeiry municipality in southern Beirut. Not as fervent a believer as some, Riyad found more satisfaction in the leading of men and the formulation of strategies, rather than religious devotion. Even in the games they would play as children in the streets surrounding the ruins of the Camille Chamoun Stadium, he was seen as a natural leader and a master tactician. The willingness of the simple-minded made his fellow street urchins easy converts to
