Galaxy of Heroes

“Be gentle,” Capt. Spade said.

Spade was reclined in a collapsible mesh chair beneath an expansive tree. The tree’s green and blue leaves fluttered in the breeze that blew in off the violet sea on this balmy afternoon.

Genie looked down at Spade’s face as she inserted an eyeball into his empty eye socket.

“Ouch!” Spade exclaimed.

“The pain is temporary,” Genie said.

She delicately attached the final connections of the Tetraillani constructed eyeball to Spade’s optic nerve.

“The procedure is complete,” she said.

Spade rubbed his new eyeball. He blinked and looked out at the sea. “Wow,” he said. “Excellent. You definitely are amazing, Genie.”

Spade stood up from his chair and walked down to the waterline. He stood at the water’s edge and focused his new eye. He could clearly see the oblong moon of Gallos that was setting on the horizon.

“Hey, Jace,” a female voice called out.

Spade turned to see a woman standing in the sand. She was wearing a black jump suit and black work boots and had an M-2 pistol strapped to her side. Behind her in the distance were the slate towers of Portogallos.

“Nice day for a walk on the beach,” Spade said to her.

“Everyday on this planet is a nice day for a walk on the beach,” she answered.

“It’s good to see you, Mina,” Spade said.

“I wish I could say the same for you,” Capt. Casey said.

“You look great, as usual,” Spade said.

“I didn’t think I would see you back on Gallos so soon,” she said.

“I won’t be here long,” he said.

Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey walked down the sandy beach together.

“How’s the Star Rover?” Spade asked. “Still running on all cylinders?”

“Roger,” she said. “Were you able to salvage the Red Wrath?”

“Roger that,” he said.

“I miss that old battle wagon,” she said.

“Maybe I’ll take you for a ride sometime,” he said.

“Hey, listen,” she said. “I came to tell you that people are looking for you here.”

Capt. Casey recounted her meeting with Jod and his Board of Directors.

“He said he is forming a government and a militia,” she said. “For some reason, he really wants to talk to you.”

“About what?” Spade asked. “He doesn’t even know me.”

“I know,” Capt. Casey said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“I wonder what he wants,” Spade said.

“Verman Jod is a businessman with investments to protect. He’s here selling every human vice imaginable—gambling, narcotics, prostitution, lurid entertainment—as if he were some unscrupulous 21st century Earth tycoon. Somehow he knows you were a fighter pilot. I’m not sure what he wants with you, but my guess is that you’ve been up to no good in one of his establishments and you rubbed him the wrong way, and he is trying to find you and bring you to justice.”

“I’ve been good here, Mina, other than a minor tussle or two,” he said. “It’s the Craaldan Empire I’ve been having my run-ins with lately. But that doesn’t matter one way or the other. I’m leaving this planet as soon as I get a crew together.”

“Where are you off to now?” Capt. Casey asked.

“The Malafax System.”

“Dr. Zander is in Malafax?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Spade said.

“You’ll never let him go,” she said.

“I could use a good copilot,” Spade said.

“I’m sure you could,” she said.

The two captains stopped and gazed out at the sea and at the moon on the horizon. Cumulonimbus clouds drifted in the breeze.

Overhead, large reptilian creatures with rigid wings circled lazily on an updraft. A few hundred meters out, an enormous scaly animal breached the surface of the sea and blew out a cloud of mist through a blowhole on the top of its giant, knobby head. The massive animal let out a low mournful moan before it slowly slipped back beneath the waves.

“It’s nice to breathe fresh air and walk on a beach on a planet with normal gravity,” Spade said.

“It’s wonderful,” Capt. Casey said.

Several spaceships glowed brightly high up in the sky as they streaked down into the planet’s atmosphere. The sky above the towers of Portogallos was busy with traffic as ships arrived at and departed from the spaceport beyond the city.

“It’s too bad,” Spade said. “It’s human luck that a planet like this would be in a sector that the Craaldan Empire is expanding into.”

“I’m hoping they leave us alone here, for the time being anyway,” she said.

“Don’t count on it,” Spade said. “We just had a run in with a Craaldan interstellar destroyer in the Turqouis Nebula. The 8th Craaldan Fleet is in this sector and I think they are out for blood.”

“All good things must come to end,” Capt. Casey said.

Spade and Capt. Casey walked up the sandy beach and back under the tree where Genie and Grimes were leaned against the tree trunk, watching them.

“The gang is back together,” Grimes said.

“It’s a regular reunion now, isn’t it?” Capt. Casey said, eyeing Genie warily. “Is your robot going to behave?”

“You be nice, Captain,” Grimes said.

Capt. Casey, Spade and Grimes reacquainted themselves and talked about old times as Genie observed. In their banter, they discussed voyages to faraway planets and narrow escapes that almost cost them their lives. Genie watched them with curiosity as they recalled with emotion the times the four of them had shared zooming around the Inner Galaxy. Genie felt a certain almost human nostalgia for those times, even as she marveled at how they had ever managed to survived them.

“Genie and Sergeant Grimes are preparing to depart Portogallos for the Calli Sector tomorrow,” Spade said. “We’re planning to celebrate their departure with a few drinks.”

“The Calli Sector?” Capt. Casey asked. “Are you planning to escape humanity forever?”

“We sure are,” Grimes answered. “We don’t plan on coming back.”

“We reserved a table for the pit fights tonight,” Spade said. “Why don’t you join us? Just like old times.”

“I’d like that,” Capt. Casey said.