The Rigellian voice sounded like they all did, kind of wavering, like he was underwater or something. “It is confirmed. The commander of the Saurian legion has failed us. He teleported away with an Earth agent.”
Claver shut down the unit and turned slowly to eye me. “I’m not just suspecting you of lying now, McGill. This is much worse. I’m suspecting you might be telling the truth!”
I shrugged. “As God is my witness, Armel is working with us now.”
“How does that change things?”
I examined the ceiling of the comms hut. “Well now, a genius like yourself might be able to figure out this riddle. You’ve got a man who was, until recently, working for the Skay in Province 926—”
Claver stood up suddenly. “As their local enforcer! He’ll have the codes! Dammit, I never should have trusted that French snake!”
He threw me out of the place and made several more desperate calls. After about ten long minutes—during which I learned that there is no creature among the stars less interested in conversation than a couple of gorilla-dog-men—he finally reemerged.
“That could have gone badly,” he said. “Earth can’t be allowed to fly ships through our borders. Skay command has been alerted, however. The codes will be changed. Oddly, I’m in your debt, McGill.”
“Yep—and it’s time to pay-up.”
“What?”
“You said it yourself: you’re in my debt.”
Claver laughed. “And what is it I can do for you, McGill?”
“Send me home, of course. A quiet transmission through the deep-link. Maybe a revive upstairs in that VIP lounge they’ve got for that purpose up at the top of Central. That’d be nice.”
“You heard about that place, huh? All right, as you’re useless and fairly harmless… and you did me a turn, I’m willing to do just that. After your legion ships are met at the border of 926 and blasted out of the sky, of course.”
I blinked at him. “Uh… what?”
He laughed and slapped me on the cheek several times—hard. “Did you really think I was going to put a lollypop in your mouth and scoot you out the door like a scamp that’s been shop-lifting comic books?”
“Sorta… yeah.”
“That’s not happening. When Earth’s fleet hits the border and is turned back—or better yet is destroyed—I’ll give you a private back-rub if you want one. Until then, you’re my least welcome guest. Take him away, Rover.”
* * *
Six long days passed after that. I ate paste, watched the waves through some rusty bars, and teased the dog-men as best I was able. During that entire time, none of them so much as lifted his leg and pissed in my face. They did snarl, now and then, but they obviously had orders to avoid my enclosure.
I’ll tell you, I was a sorry sight. Here I was, the late great James McGill, a prisoner of dog-people. What a grim fall from grace for a man like me.
Abigail never even came to visit, despite my constant asking for her. Either the dog-boys didn’t get the message, or she had reasoned that it was best for her not to come and see me. She might have felt sorry for me and either killed me or let me go.
It was on the sixth day, however, that everything changed. It was about noon local time, as best I could estimate, when the whole camp came alive. A weird siren began to wail. It didn’t sound like a traditional horn-sound. It was more of a deep moaning, like someone had caught a sea-dragon and begun to viciously twist its monstrous tail.
I could tell it was a warning sound from the reaction of everyone in sight. All the dog-men, the squids, and even the occasional Vulbite starting racing around. They kicked up sand and rocks in an all-fired hurry. There were some gun emplacements and missile stations along the beach, and they moved to man these as quickly as possible.
Looking up, I didn’t see anything. Shifting my gaze out to sea, I found that it was empty, too. Even the horizon was bright and clear. A few scudding clouds maybe, that was about it.
Squinting and shading my hand with my eyes… what was up there? On the horizon? A gray shape, lurking just above the clouds? Could that be…?
Yes, it was a ship. A big one in low orbit.
“Hot damn,” I said to myself. “They finally got here.”
-37-
Dominus had arrived. Confirmation came when a loud speaker made an incomprehensible announcement that rang out all over the base. Then, the missiles started flying.
Seven missile pods. That’s what I counted. They were set along the island’s highest ground, like bumps on a gator’s back. Each one opened with a spreading flower of metal, rolling back their blast shields. Twin missiles on every platform swung with precision and released two big flaming meteors. Seven pairs arced into the sky side-by-side and roared away to the west. They raced up and up to meet the big ship malingering in orbit.
“A front-row seat to an invasion,” I said to nobody. “Cool.”
Small footsteps crunched on the sand. Panting, Abigail stopped at my cage and looked inside. I could have grabbed her and maybe strangled her—but what would have been the point to it?
“McGill? What’s this? That ship is invading our planet!”
“Yep. Just like I said. Now you know I was telling you the truth.”
“But we warned the Skay. They should have changed the codes by now.”
I nodded. “Maybe they did. I only see one ship—maybe the Skay got the others.”
All this talk of more ships was horse-hockey, of course. There had never been more than one ship, and it had slipped through the gates long ago. But, from her point of view, I’d been
