Galaxy of Heroes

The raised walkway was thick with humans. These humans of Portogallos were a mix of different breeds. The initial founders of the city were mainly refugees from the Heliac System, who now called themselves Portogallans. More recent arrivals were from the nearest, but still distant, human occupied planets of Meglos and Paltros.

Motley gangs of space drifters were now arriving in large numbers as word of Portogallos spread through the galaxy’s human populations. The space drifters were mostly wide-eyed and in awe. Most of them were experiencing gravity and a breathable atmosphere for the first time in their lives.

The massively built humans of Meglos towered like giants over the other humans, who all moved briskly over the crowded walkways. Genie walked amongst them, barely noticed in the diversity of human forms.

Large display screens were everywhere, bombarding new arrivals and longtime residents with promotions and advertising for various local commercial operations. The screens were mounted along the walkways and up on the sides of buildings, sometimes stretching across several floors.

A warm sea breeze blew in through the manmade canyons that were formed by the immense, tightly packed skyscrapers. The crowds moved with a purpose along the intersecting walkways that spanned between the black towers that extended endlessly upward into a pink and blue sky.

Genie sighted a few children moving in the crowd, which was out of the ordinary. The children appeared to have been conceived naturally, and not maturated in gestation clinics.

Quite a few of the humans on the walkways openly carried weapons. Pistols were strapped to hips and rifles were slung over shoulders. Some even carried primitive metal blades, which were more for show than anything practical for self-defense or attack.

Everyone on the walkways gave the lumbering Megalans plenty of leeway—the throng parting whenever a Megalan barreled past. The strength of the exceptionally large Megalans, whose thick frames bulged with dense muscle, was magnified here in the Earth-like gravity of this planet. The big humans, who had adapted over generations to a higher gravity planet, had a tendency to inadvertently destroy things they came into contact with—pulling doors off hinges, crushing furniture and smashing keypads with their thick fingers.

On the other hand, the humans from Paltros, a low gravity planet, were identifiable by their slender bodies, thin limbs and large heads. They moved through the crowds using a variety of mechanical prostheses that helped them compensate for the relatively higher gravity of Gallos.

Genie spotted several cyborgs moving through the crowd. Both male and female models walked alongside human companions.

A Paltran wearing an advanced form of body armor walked past. He was carrying a small Noctish female on his back. The fuzzy-headed Noctish woman turned her head and watched Genie as her armored human conveyor disappeared into the crowd.

The display screens were ubiquitous in this city. Genie began to notice two faces that appeared regularly on the screens. The faces were never on the same screen, but were competing for human attention against the backdrop of urban noise.

One of the faces was of a Paltran named Galazar who was enticing new human arrivals to his habitation buildings in which he was selling living quarters. He also offered a variety of recreational options, both on the sea and in the mountains. “Welcome to Gallos,” Galazar said, “where we can be human again.”

Some kind of large hybrid humanoid named Jod was selling human vices on other, often larger screens. Gambling, narcotics, and cyborg prostitution were the products Jod had on offer. Jod’s large face looked down from a massive screen on the side of a skyscraper. “Human urges have been suppressed during our banishment to the void,” he said. “But you are in Portogallos now. Indulge your desires at the Cyborg Bordelo.”

The screen then depicted a nude Heliac female moaning in ecstasy as she was serviced by a male cyborg with an idealized physique.

Genie’s attention was pulled away from the screens. To her surprise, she sighted a Craaldan walking along one of the intersecting walkways below. Seeing a Craaldan here walking in a crowd of humans was unexpected. The Craaldan, who was flanked by Megalan bodyguards, was not wearing a uniform of the Craaldan Fleet.

Genie tried to get a better glimpse of him, but lost him behind the interference of walkways and planetary transports that zipped between buildings.

She had never seen a Craaldan out of uniform before. Genie found it highly anomalous that the Craaldan made no effort to disguise his tall, wiry body, gray skin and yellow eyes from the humans around him. He walked without concern, hands clasped behind his back in the smooth gait of his species.

Genie was wearing a modified Craaldan Fleet flight suit. If Craaldans were present here, they might not take it lightly that she was in possession of stolen gear.

She reviewed in her memory banks the images she had captured of the Craaldan on the walkway below. She zoomed in on his face and determined that he was Lt. Zeth—the very same Craaldan from whom she had stolen the cruiser on Vanaria.

Genie followed Joe’s bootprints with her infrared scanner to a large nightclub downtown where a crowd of humans was assembled beneath a glowing sign that displayed the name of the club—Planet Jod.

A Megalan bouncer stood in front of the nightclub doors. His huge arms were crossed over his rippling chest.

Genie pushed her way through the crowd and attempted to enter the club. The bouncer’s oversized hand clamped down on her shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going, little missy?” he asked.

She could have easily snapped his thick finger and left him writhing on the floor in pain, but she restrained herself.

“I am a Gensecti cyborg,” she said. “I have been separated from my human companion.”

The Megalan bouncer used his meaty forefinger to tip up the brim of her cap. He looked at her face.

“Tetraillani construction?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

He looked her up and down. “Your companion is a lucky man,” he said. “He must be a high roller.”

The giant bouncer stepped aside and let her through the large nightclub doors.

“I wish I could afford one of those things,” he said, as she walked away.

Loud music pulsed through the dark club. Humans danced amid columns that supported a domed glass ceiling.

The Gallos moon, oblong and cratered, was visible in the pink sky through the dome.

Joe’s footprints faded on the damp tiles of the nightclub floor. She searched the crowd, scanning from face to face.

The humans were particularly energetic tonight. They danced unreservedly, and talked and laughed loudly.

Portogallos was a boomtown and everyone here knew it. They knew it was only a matter of time until the empires of the Inner Galaxy learned of its existence. The boom would end and the humans would either make a run for it or be enslaved. The humans here knew this night of freedom in this gleaming city was not meant to last.

She scanned the faces of these star-crossed creatures. This was a species unlucky enough to have originated from an isolated planet in a remote sector of the galaxy. Then, to be conquered by a civilization such as the Quotzel, as laughable as that might seem—a species known across the galaxy for its defeats, catastrophic blunders and general incompetence.

The Quotzel were the butt of jokes of more martial cultures, such as the Craaldans. The fact that the humans accepted the Quotzels with awe and wonder was an illustration of human backwardness and naivety.

The last time Genie updated her files, there were 140,368 humans left on the planet Earth. The Earth humans had been bred down into docile creatures kept around as a kind of biological relic.

But most of the humans here at this nightclub—from Heliac, Meglos and Paltros—were descendents of settlers from the Europa and Callisto colonies.

On thriving human outposts on Jupiter’s moons, humans fought back effectively and put up the only significant resistance to Quotzel dominance of the solar system. The Quotzel were eventually able to destroy the colonies on Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto, but not before a few thousand humans from Europa and Callisto escaped to the galaxy perimeter.

Joe was a descendent of those colonists, as were all the humans here tonight—and so too the human DNA used to construct Genie’s nervous system.

Genie walked through the crowd searching for him.

She sighted him and a sudden rush of endorphins flooded her neural nets. Joe was standing at the bar conversing with a human female.