Galaxy of Heroes

“Why are you so eager?” Grimes asked.

“We are in need of finances if we are to voyage to the Calli Sector. There are Craaldans present in Portogallos. Governor Zegra may have trackers here as well. I will watch your back while you retrieve the money owed to you by Captain Spade. Get up. Let’s move, soldier.”

“Okay,” he said. “But don’t get any funny ideas.”

He got out of the bed and dressed himself.

The two of them stepped into the glass elevator that ran down the outer wall of the hotel. They rode the elevator down, gazing out beyond the gleaming towers at the shimmering sea.

Genie walked beside him on the crowded walkway and then through a breezy portico that led to a casino tower downtown. The large glowing sign above the casino read “House of Jod.”

The casino was dark, noisy and crowded with humans. Bright, colorful lights flashed in the dimness as humans tried their luck at an endless variety of gambling machines. Megalans stood like giants above the throng. Paltrans moved through the casino using their mechanical contraptions. Attractive cyborgs—both male and female versions—mingled, delivering drinks and offering up their services. Down a long, dim, high-ceilinged hall, humans sat around card tables, attempting to relieve their competitors of cash.

Genie scanned the faces at the poker tables.

“There he is,” she said.

“Where?” he asked.

She pointed out Capt. Spade, who was seated at a poker table with a Paltran and three Portogallans.

“You stay behind me and keep quiet,” Grimes said. “I’ll do the talking. Just watch my back, OK, babe?”

“Roger,” she said.

Grimes approached Spade’s table, with Genie following behind.

Spade puffed on a cigar as he studied his cards. His black hair was slicked back. He was wearing his gray flight suit, and a patch over his right eye. A scar ran down his cheek from under the patch.

Spade looked over at the Portogallan seated across the table, who threw his cards down. “I fold,” the Portogallan said.

Spade squinted his good eye and examined the cards in his gloved hands.

“It’s your call, slim,” Spade said to the Paltran seated across the table from him.

The Paltran studied his cards intensely through his glowing red spectacles. He held his cards close to his chest with his long, slender fingers. The Paltran’s arms were wrapped with spindly metal prostheses, and his torso was encased inside a robotic breastplate.

“What’s the matter, Galazar?” Spade said. “Gravity got you down?”

The Paltran—Galazar—lifted his cards with the aid of the bionic prosthesis. He examined his hand again through the red glow of his lenses.

He looked up at Spade, and then at the large pile of chips in the center of the table, and then slowly placed his cards face up on the table. “Straight flush,” the Paltran said, without expression.

Spade looked him in the eye—or the spectacles, rather. He then placed the ace of spades face up on the table. He laid down the king of spades, the queen, the jack and then the ten.

“Read ’em and weep,” Spade said. He scooped in the pile of chips and packed them into cargo pockets.

“You’ve cheated me,” Galazar said.

“Thank you for the game, gentlemen,” Spade said, rising to his feet.

“Zong,” Galazar said. A large Megalan man walked up to the table. “Seize him,” Galazar ordered.

The Megalan named Zong stepped up to Spade. Zong wore a black suit with a skinny gray tie. The large man had dark eyes and white hair that was gelled back. He reached down and clutched Spade by the collar, lifting him up off his feet. Zong’s expression was calm and businesslike as he gripped Spade by the throat.

“Easy now, big guy,” Spade choked.

Spade cocked his gloved fist and punched the Megalan squarely in the nose.

Zong dropped Spade, clasping his large nose with his oversized fingers.

Spade landed on his feet and sprinted for the door.

Genie took off at a sprint after him. She ran through the crowded portico and caught up to him as he emerged out onto the walkway. Humans scattered behind them as the big Megalan barreled through the portico in pursuit.

Genie, still running, scooped Spade under her arm and slung him over her shoulder. She fired her propulsion boots and rocketed straight up into the air.

Zong lumbered past and then skidded to a stop, looking up as his target disappeared above the city’s towers.

Grimes chased behind on the walkway. “Genie!” he shouted as he watched her zoom away.

The big bodyguard spun around with fire in his eyes. He charged toward Grimes.

Grimes turned and ran from him, as if fleeing from some kind of enraged megafauna.

Zong ran full-bore, pulling back his massive fist, intending to plant it squarely in Grimes’ back.

Grimes dove to the ground and rolled as Zong’s big fist grazed him.

Zong rumbled past and then slid to a stop. He turned and faced Grimes, who hopped to his feet and stood his ground on the portico.

Grimes adopted a fighting stance.

“Ranger, huh?” the Megalan said.

“Yes, sir,” Grimes said.

“Don’t call me sir,” Zong said. “I work for a living.”

The Megalan rushed at him and clinched him by the front of his shirt. He lifted Grimes up off his feet.

Grimes grasped the Megalan’s collar and applied a cross-collar choke, but the big man’s neck was too thick and heavily muscled for the choke to have any effect.

With a flick of his wrist, the Megalan flung Grimes through the air. Grimes twisted around and landed on his feet, only to see the bigger man charging at him.

He ducked a punch and then swept Zong’s legs, knocking the giant man to the ground. Grimes quickly mounted him and landed quick strikes to his face.

But this only angered the Megalan, who threw a punch from his back that caught Grimes square in the chest, sending him back-flipping through the air.

He was dazed by a hard landing.

The Megalan laughed. “I’ve got my Ranger tab, too,” Zong said.

“A Megalan Ranger?” Grimes asked.

“Roger that,” Zong said. “Trained by the Heliac legend himself, Lieutenant Colonel Greg Skyles.”

“Skyles?” Grimes said. “He’s alive?”

“I’m level 16 combatives qualified,” the Megalan said.

“Level 16?” Grimes said. “Damn. I’m level 12.”

Grimes and Zong circled around the portico, sizing each other up as a crowd formed around them.

“You don’t look like a soldier to me,” Grimes said. “More like some gangster’s meathead.”

“The only armies on Gallos are private ones, my friend,” Zong said.

The Megalan lunged in for the knockout strike.

Genie landed with a crunch behind Grimes, with Spade still slung over her shoulder. She grabbed Grimes by the back of the collar and fired her propulsion boots, rocketing upwards between the buildings.

Zong’s big fist missed its mark. He looked up as Genie jetted away.

She shot up through the skyscrapers and emerged into the pink sky high above the mountain ridge with Spade over her shoulder and Grimes dangling by his collar from her hand.