Galaxy of Heroes

Capt. Casey entered the tallest skyscraper in Portgallos. It was the Founders Building—an imposing black tower that stretched into the heavens. It was the same building in which she had met Jod and his council on its top floor.

Capt. Casey rode a glass elevator upwards through the skyscraper’s hollow interior, past endless floors of habitations filled with human refugees from the Outer Galaxy. Up higher still, she passed countless floors of offices. Humans were busy at work, doing what she could only guess—building an empire for Verman Jod, she assumed.

Her elevator stopped at a trauma unit in the building’s hospital.

Capt. Casey walked down a white hallway past sleek medical cyborgs and boxy robotic machines that rolled from room to room. She found the door she was looking for and pressed her hand against a flat pad. The door slid open.

Grimes was propped up in a bed gazing out the window at the distant horizon beyond the sea. His head was bandaged. Genie ran her silvery hand through his spiky blonde hair, which stuck out from the bandages.

“Hello, Captain Casey,” Genie said.

“Hi, there,” Capt. Casey said. “Hey, how are you feeling, soldier?”

“I’ve been worse,” Grimes said.

His pale blue eyes still had their sparkle, even with half his face bruised and his head wrapped in white gauze.

“Jod told me I was going up against a Paltran,” Grimes grumbled. “I wasn’t expecting a Craaldan.”

“Where is Captain Spade?” Genie asked.

Capt. Casey explained that Capt. Spade had surrendered to Jod and the Craaldans.

“That fool,” Grimes said.

“He did it for us,” Capt. Casey said. “The Craaldans promised to leave us alone here if he turned himself in to them.”

“I know you are smarter than that, Mina,” Grimes said.

“Don’t talk like that, Joe,” Capt. Casey said.

“Spade will die, but he will be no martyr,” Grimes said.

“No, Joe,” she said. “That’s too painful to contemplate.”

Grimes rubbed his hand over his forehead. “He should have gone down shooting,” he said.

“I’ve found a house on the beach, Joe,” Capt. Casey said. “It’s not a pod, but a real house with open verandas that let the breeze blow in. You can watch the sunset every evening and hear the waves rolling up and down the sand. You and Genie can stay with me until you find a place of your own.”

“Thanks, but Genie and I are leaving Portogallos tonight,” Grimes said.

“There’s no need for escape now,” Capt. Casey said. “We can build a life here.”

Grimes turned his attention to Genie. “Do you think the Craaldans will honor the pact with Captain Spade?” he asked her.

“Nothing in their history, behavioral patterns or military doctrine would suggest it,” Genie said. “Honoring a pact is not in their nature.”

Genie turned her attention to Capt. Casey. “Captain Spade is clever and resourceful,” she said. “He has survived Craaldan captivity before. Perhaps he had a plan.”

“Don’t patronize me, Genie,” Capt. Casey said. “Jace knew what he was doing.”

Grimes turned his head and gazed out the window. “We tried negotiating with them, Mina. We tried fighting them. You know how it ends.”

Capt. Casey knew that Sgt. Grimes had suffered much in the defense of Heliac. He had survived cataclysmic battles in which humans had endured catastrophic casualties. Then, to be enslaved and brutalized by them.

Capt. Casey wished to believe with all her heart that this place would be different. She wanted Spade’s sacrifice to mean something. This could be the place where they could forget the past and be human again.

“This is a nice planet,” Grimes said. “But it’s in a bad neighborhood.”

“I wish the two of you would stay,” Capt. Casey said. “You are my only friends here.”

“I see the worst of the old human patterns emerging here,” Grimes said. “Greed, fear, the struggle for power. And this place isn’t some isolated outpost. It’s right on the Craaldan frontier. The humans here realize that nothing is permanent so they are without restraint or self control. I won’t be sticking around for the end this time.”

“So you two are just going to drift through the void for the rest of eternity?” Capt. Casey asked.

“Genie has located planets in the Calli Sector that appear Earth-like,” Grimes said. “We’re going to find a planet where we can settle down and have a few kids and live quiet lives. That’s what I want now. I’ve had enough of war and human intrigue.”

“I didn’t know you were the pioneering type,” Capt. Casey said.

“I wasn’t until recently,” Grimes said.

“The Calli Sector is at the end of the galaxy. The time and distance are so vast, Joe.”

“We are in no hurry,” Grimes said.

Capt. Casey sat in the hospital room with the sergeant and the cyborg and thought of arguments to make against their departure. She desperately wanted them to stay.

A medical cyborg entered the room and scanned Grimes’ head and gave him a clean bill of health. Genie and Grimes left the room with Capt. Casey following behind. They rode the elevator down together and then walked outside.

Capt. Casey felt an empty sadness as they rode a hover platform over the green mountains and down to the spaceport tarmac. They walked across the tarmac together to the hangar where a shuttle waited.

“I was on a freighter for twenty-six Earth-years once,” Capt. Casey said. “It was just me, a former Heliac Defense Forces Private First Class and a Paltran woman named Jek. After year twelve, I was so bored and sick of my crewmates that I thought I was going insane.”

“I won’t be bored,” Grimes said. “The schooner we bought has a zero grav racket ball court and an H2O tank I can swim in. It’s got this awesome entertainment lounge with a library of over 26 million video games. I could be out there a thousand years and still not finish every game.”

“You could finish approximately 438,000 video games in one thousand years if you were diligent,” Genie said.

“Do you know, Joe, why your mind is resistant to insanity on long voyages?” Capt. Casey asked.

“No, why?” Grimes asked.

“Because you’ve always been easily amused,” she said.

Grimes pulled Genie close to him. “When I get tired of playing video games, Genie is more than enough to keep me occupied.”

Genie smiled and gave Joe a kiss.

Capt. Casey rolled her eyes. “Genie, do really want to be stuck out there with this Neanderthal?”

“This may seem odd to you,” Genie said, “but when I was programmed to love Joe, my rational mind carried intense resentments toward him that I was incapable of acting on. But, when Joe gave me control of the programming that ruled my emotions, my rational mind became aware of something I hadn’t seen in him before. Unexpectedly, my thoughts and emotions aligned, and although Joe is infuriating at times and often boorish, my feelings for him have grown and I love him now more than ever.”

“You’re a lucky gal, Genie,” Capt. Casey said. “I’m jealous.”

Grimes and Genie stepped up into the shuttle’s door.

“I’m going to miss you guys,” Capt. Casey said.

“I will miss you, too,” Genie said.

Grimes jumped down from the door and gave Capt. Casey a tight hug.

“That feels good,” she said. “And Genie’s not trying to kill me.”

Grimes released his hug and looked Capt. Casey in the eyes. “Don’t get too comfortable here, Mina,” he said. “Have your escape planned and ready, OK?”

“I’m a big girl,” Capt. Casey said. “It’s you two that I’m worried about.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Grimes said. “Genie and I will be fine. You know, we might just be the last hope for humanity.”

“Now there’s cause for concern,” Capt. Casey said.

Grimes climbed back into the shuttle and put his arms around Genie. “You ready to roll, babe?” he asked.

“Let’s blow this lousy planet,” she answered.

The shuttle door slid shut.

Capt. Casey watched the small craft roll down the tarmac. The shuttle accelerated and shot upward and then zoomed away.