Galaxy of Heroes

Capt. Casey rode a hover transport through downtown Portogallos, zooming through the city corridors, skimming over bustling streets and zipping between walkways.

The hover transport shot out of the city and then along a sandy beach lined with newly built human habitations. She circled around over the jungle and then alit on the roof of a two-story bungalow that overlooked the sea.

She stepped off the hover transport and then walked down a stairwell into the dwelling. She walked over the cool tile floor to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water.

This home was a dream, but returning alone to an empty bungalow only pulled her down further into the dumps.

Genie and Joe were gone. She realized she would never see them again.

And Jace.

As much as she hated to admit it, she missed him acutely. It pained her to think of him suffering, even though she had often wished for it.

She knew that Jace was most likely dead by now.

All those restless years searching one corner of the galaxy to the next, and he never found his Dr. Zander.

Capt. Casey looked out from her airy living room at the view of the sea. It was beautiful outside—just the kind of day that had filled her fantasies during all those eternal voyages through the void.

“This is what you wanted, Mina,” she said to herself. “It’s what you’ve always wanted.”

She wanted to believe that Jace had sacrificed himself to the Craaldan Empire for a greater good. She prayed it hadn’t been in vain. A tear formed in the corner of her eye. She wiped it away.

She stepped outside into the warm air. She vaulted over the rail of the veranda and landed barefoot in the warm sand. A small 15-foot boat was propped against the wall of her bungalow.

She dragged the boat down the beach and pushed it out into the waves. She hopped aboard and gunned the engines, shooting forward, hopping over the oncoming swells.

The small, open boat skipped as it sped across the violet water. She savored the sea air and the warm sunshine.

High above in the clear pink sky, a line of glowing spacecraft descended toward the spaceport beyond Portogallos. The city’s gleaming towers receded behind her as she accelerated toward the horizon—the tops of the towering structures eventually disappearing into the distance as she traveled out of sight of land.

She cut the engine and the boat slowed to a drift. The little boat rocked gently against the breeze and swells.

The silence out here on the open sea was heaven.

She stripped off her black jumpsuit and leaned back and absorbed the sunrays on her naked skin.

Way up in the cloudless sky, hundreds of reptilian creatures with rigid wings circled lazily on warm updrafts. She knew the creatures were enormous, but they were so high up that they looked like seabirds, maybe like the ones humans used to see while sailing on the oceans of ancient Earth.

This planet was better than Earth, she thought. Primitive humans had ruined that planet, but this one was still in a natural state.

Humans had come far since leaving Earth, in both distance and development. Humans had progressed to such an extent that it was almost as if she were a different species than the humans of Earth. She had about as much in common with them as they had with an australopithecine.

On Earth during those last days, science had become debased by false theories promoted by well-financed propagandists and cults of personality.

But on Mars, a scientific renaissance had arisen due to sheer necessity. Great leaps forward were made in physics and engineering. And in the field of biology, the scientists of Mars had mastered the genetic code and conquered disease and learned how to extend the human lifespan indefinitely.

Capt. Casey had recently turned 100 Earth-years old, but her body could outperform that of any elite Earth athlete. She was well-muscled and had smooth skin and a drop-dead figure.

Her body had suffered severe wounds in Craaldan attacks, and it had been bombarded with radiation and subjected to all manner of extreme conditions on numerous hostile worlds. On countless occasions, she had survived death-defying scrapes. The physical abuse she had been subjected to would have killed any Earth human, but she was still alive and looked great.

She wasn’t perfect, like Genie. But then, she was fully organic, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Capt. Casey stood up and dipped her hands over the side and splashed the warm, salty sea water over her hair. She ran her wet hands through her cropped, black hair and looked out with dark eyes at the white-capped sea.

She recalled days similar to this on her home world of Nebas in the Heliac System.

Nebas was the most Earthlike of the three hospitable planets of Heliac. Those three planets–Smythe, Nebas and Jing, named after the ship captains that first landed settlers on each–were all roughly Earthlike in size. Smythe was arid and hot and the closest of the three to the Heliac sun. Nebas, where she was born and raised, was cooler than Earth, but pleasant enough. Jing was icy and cold with a thin atmosphere. Fortunately, out beyond Jing, the Heliac System had a second, smaller sun that kept Jing hospitable enough for humans.

As a ship captain, Capt. Casey often traveled to each of the three Heliac planets and always enjoyed the cool air of Nebas the most. It was a pity the Craaldans had to destroy that wonderful system and all that humans had built there.

But here, this planet of Gallos put Nebas to shame. Gallos was magical–too magical to last, she thought.

She thought of how differently things were unfolding here. The humans of Heliac were determined to protect themselves from attack. They had built an ordered and disciplined society.

But on Gallos, disorder reigned. It was as if the humans here realized that all the discipline, training and preparation in the galaxy would not stop the inevitable Craaldan onslaught.

The people here knew that they were just too developmentally behind the civilizations of the Inner Galaxy and could never hope to catch up. There was no reason to even try.

So in this benign climate with no martial motivation, the humans here had decided to indulge their vices while they could. And Verman Jod, like a greedy profiteer from ancient Earth, was too eager to gratify them if it served his own ends.

Capt. Casey had believed that humans had evolved beyond such petty behavior and weaknesses, but Portogallos was proving that this was not the case.

There would be no repeat of the Heliac experiment here. This was a place to enjoy while it lasted, and then make a run for it when the walls caved in.

Capt. Casey strapped a utility belt around her waist. She dove head first over the side of her small boat and into the sea.

She swam down deeper and deeper, kicking downward to dark depths.

Golden beams of sunlight glowed and refracted in the clear water. Warmth gave way to cold. Beneath her was inky blackness. Above was light. She floated motionless, deep down where darkness met the light.

In the quiet weightlessness, she sensed motion beneath her. Something big was moving swiftly upwards from the dark depths. She could make out a shadow rushing up to her.

It was something enormous. A monstrous behemoth slithered upwards through the water as fast as a torpedo. She saw its large reptilian head—as big as a battle tank. Two huge eyes were focused on her. A gaping mouth revealed teeth like sharpened tombstones. Capt. Casey reached in her belt and pulled out a small cylinder. She pressed the top of the device, which emitted a piercing sound, although inaudible to her.

Just as the leviathan was upon her, it abruptly turned away as if deflected off a wall. Capt. Casey was hit by a swirling wall of water that pushed her back several meters and spun her around in powerful eddies.

The enormous creature slowly dove back down several hundred meters, and then cruised away. Capt. Casey followed above, swimming over the giant animal, studying it.

It had a huge, scaly body ringed with four paddle-like fins. Its long, flat tail snaked through the water. Stretching from its torso was an extremely long, thin neck that ended in its monstrous head.

A school of a dozen smaller, fish-like reptilian creatures cruised alongside the torso of the giant beast. Capt. Casey felt as if she were a tiny bug swimming above this scaly colossus. She watched as it slowly descended between glimmering columns of golden sunlight.

Despite its size, she knew this giant marine carnivore had a brain the size of a nut. She observed it keenly before realizing that her lungs were desperate for air. She kicked upward and pulled for the light. She broke the surface, gasping the warm, life-giving oxygen.

Capt. Casey pulled her nude form back into her boat. She felt exhilarated to have seen such a primitive creature close up. She wished someone had been here with her to share the experience.

She imagined Joe with her—his scarred and muscled torso gleaming in the sunlight—a sparkle in his pale blue eyes as he recounted how he had saved her from being eaten by the giant beast.

Or Jace—his black hair slicked back as he flashed his cool smile—teasing her about her willingness to let the monster swallow him whole.

Even with all their faults, which often drove her up the wall, both men had been wonderful companions. Both had stolen her heart.

But there had been something about Genie that they couldn’t resist. Their weakness for that cyborg pained her.