 
Rebellion is in the Air

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Rebellion is in the Air

Copyright Philip R Benge 2018

Cover photo by Steve Jurvetson 2018

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.

Contents

Chapter One: Shipwrecked and Far from Home

Chapter Two: The Town of Carlton

Chapter Three: The Town of Serenity

Chapter Four: Back to Imperial Space

Chapter Five: Betrayal

Chapter Six: Rebellion

Chapter Seven: End Game

About the Author

Other Books by the Author

Rebellion is in the Air

Chapter One

Shipwrecked and Far from Home

The day had started just like any other day for Prince Johan Galliano, a tall herculean figure of a man with blond hair, deep blue eyes. He was heir to the throne of Malinia, an Earth size planet in the stellar constellation of Andromeda. He had been resting in the lounge of his family`s small spaceship, the Excalibur, it was parked in one corner of the main spaceport of the planet Zeta. He was on the planet with his father, who had gone to the court of emperor Sung-Li, he had wanted to complain about the new taxes and the new laws that had been brought in over the last year. The laws, the emperor had said, were essential to stamp out the growing level of violence committed by those who opposed his lawful rule, the new taxes were necessary to pay for the increase in the forces of law and order needed to counter the violence. He had not mentioned the welfare of his subjects, that was of secondary importance to Sung-Li, however, the growing unrest was directly related to the fall in their living standards, only he and his followers had seen their wealth rise, seen their way of life materially improve.

Johan had accompanied his father on this trip, although Johan had said he only wanted to visit the shops of this most modern capital city of the empire, situated within the planet Zeta, home-world of the emperor. At the moment he seemed distracted, he constantly glanced at the communications centre, almost as if he expected a call. Between the expectant glances he talked politics with his friend, Troy, a young man of medium height, black hair, brown eyes and a muscular body that matched that of his friend. Johan Galliano of course was a conservative monarchist, being a prince and heir to the throne of the planet Malinia, while his friend, Troy Defoe, was a staunch believer in democracy. Even so, they were friends and respected the right of the other to hold a different view to their own; however, Troy never missed the chance try to convert his friend over to his own point of view, seeing it as a miniscule chance to change the course of Malinia. One important thing known to both men was that Troy was sympathetic with the growing faction who were behind the unrest, however, Troy thought that Johan was oblivious to this fact. He met with them, they discussed the best way to change the empire from within, however, nothing of note was decided and acted upon. Lately, rebellion had been mentioned, however, as Troy had stated, firmly, without a space fleet to counter that of the empire, the losers of such an action would be the people. For the rebellion had no chance of succeeding, given the current state of the rebels' arms, and the emperor would crack down on the population, making their lot even poorer.

The ship`s communications centre suddenly did burst in to life, its loud screeching breaking in on their conversation, it was a friend of theirs calling, one that lived and worked at the court of the emperor, Sung-Li. It was their friend, Colane Majid, he had known the Galliano family ever since he was a lad, his family being loyal advisers to the court, and he had always been treated as one of the family.

"Johan, they have arrested your father, King Galliano, on charges of piracy and treason, they have also despatched a Hunter spacecraft to arrest you, you are also to be charged with treason against the empire, you must run or else you will be rotting in the dungeons of the empire before the day is out." Colane advised his friend.

"Colane, you know the charges are false, he would never turn to crime, and although my father would dearly love to see an end to the empire, he would never see it torn apart in a bloody civil war." Johan replied angrily.

"The truth does not matter Johan, and also, I have heard that Sung-Li would like to put Lord Carsten on the throne of one of the planets in the empire, as a reward for his loyal support over the last year, maybe he has decided upon Malinia." Majid began. "While Malinia may be a relatively new space colony of only three hundred years, it would surely keep Lord Carsten in riches for the length of his life. It would also help to consolidate Sung-Li`s grip on the empire, you must run now or face imprisonment and then death." Colane advised his friend and then rung off.

However, he had not rung off from fear of his call being overheard by one of the many spies that watched anyone and everyone above a certain rank or position, no, he had been ordered to cut the call short, after delivering the warning.

Johan quickly told Troy of the warning he had received while heading for the small bridge of the luxury space yacht, not a military craft but an unarmed ship of state. Troy imagined that Johan would have dearly liked to have gone to the court of Sung-Li and demanded that his father be released. However, that would have seen him imprisoned alongside his father, better to flee now and later, covertly, return to Zeta, and only then attempt to free his father. They were the only people currently on board the craft, so Johan sat in the pilot`s seat while Troy sat in the navigator's seat and they prepared the ship for immediate lift off.

Johan did not ask Troy if he wanted to go with him, firstly, they were very friends, and secondly, Johan had been brought up as the heir to the throne of Malinia, and so the thought as to whether he should ask permission of someone in his employ simply never entered his mind, in any case he needed him on this trip. As for Troy, well Johan was his friend and Johan needed his help. Johan, his mind working on his next move, turned to Troy and said.

"I will head for the local asteroid field, once inside there we can to hide out while we make plans to secure the release of my father."

Troy nodded in agreement, although he did wonder if being so near to the centre of the empire was the best place in which to hide, surely Sung-Li would soon find them, that is to say his Hunters would.

Unfortunately, the Enforcer, a Hunter spaceship, appeared over the far side of the spaceport and hailed them just as Johan fired up the engine. Knowing that his plan could no longer be considered as an option, Johan blasted out of the spaceport, and without asking permission from the control tower to lift off. Troy smiled as they broke law after law, soon they really would be outside the law, he thought. Unfortunately, the Hunter was in hot pursuit of their craft, and Troy thought that there was every chance of other Hunter spacecraft appearing on the scene, then they would be forced to heave-to. Their only chance was to jump in to hyperspace, for want of a better or more exact term. Just then they received a call on their radio.

"Excalibur, this is Captain Malik Raptor of the Hunter spaceship Enforcer, turn your engines off now or suffer the consequences of continuing to run from a duly appointed officer of the empire."

Johan looked a little sick when he heard Raptor`s voice over the radio, for one thing Raptor was very good at his job. However, luck was still with the two outlaws, the latest sub-space radio equipment was a top-secret technology that few people within imperial space possessed, or even knew about, the Hunter spaceships did though, they possessed this new technology. However, Johan knew Raptor, he knew that the Hunter captain was not about to share his bounty with another Hunter, they were safe for the moment. This meant, that when finally Johan took the Excalibur in to hyperdrive, the Enforcer could only follow it, it certainly would not call ahead to have ships waiting there to capture or destroy their quarry.

For the rest of the emperor`s subjects, should they want to contact another planetary system, the only way was to use the interplanetary mail system, any starship travelling in the correct direction was used for this task. Even so, it was a slow system of communication with no alternative. Sub-space communication for the rest of the emperor`s subjects was not possible, yet, messages sent through it tended to reach the recipient scrambled, making the system unreliable, and the greater the distance, the more scrambled your message.

**********

This lack of a reliable technology meant that the ruling bodies of Zeta`s space colonies were autonomous, to some degree at least, and fancy titles had become the norm, such as King or Prince being used by the local rulers and their direct descendants. Some of them enjoyed the permission of the locals, such as on Malinia, others were no more than warlords, who now only ruled by the permission of the Emperor. Space pirates had also made use of the slow speed in communications, which is why fifteen years ago, Sung-Li, when he had been merely the president of the federation, had announced martial law and brought in a new police force, the Hunters. As their name implied, they were essentially bounty hunters, as they were paid partly on results, and many pirates were finally enlisted in to their ranks. When the scourge of the space pirates, just ten years ago, was finally laid to rest, Sung-Li mounted a coup d'état and took control of Zeta and its colonies, and he became Emperor Sung-Li, and with the Hunters to back him up, the planets, who had no space fleet to call upon, quickly surrendered to his will.

**********

With the Excalibur blasting out of the spaceport, they had managed to build up quite a lead over the Hunter, whose engine chose this minute to stick in third gear, for want of a better term, making the captain swear as he gave chase. The engineer thumped his computer, for it was its programming that was causing the problem, but this had no effect, then he contacted Raptor.

"Captain, we can either turn the Stardrive off, and I can fix the computer manually, although that might take me some time, or, we can wait for the computer`s diagnostic program to finally fix the problem."

Raptor would not permit the engineer to turn off the Stardrive, for that would allow the Excalibur to escape. So, he ordered that the computer be allowed to sort itself out, this it took most of the remainder of the day to do. Finally, the computer spoke to the engineer.

"Full power is now available, please enter your required power output."

Raptor, on hearing that the computer had finally fixed itself, swore and then ordered full speed ahead, and now they steadily began to overhaul the slower space yacht.

As the Enforcer quickly closed the gap between the two spaceships, the Excalibur finally reached the systems heliopause. This is a point where interplanetary space meets the space that encompasses this planetary system, the point that marked the limit to this star`s influence. To have entered hyperspace earlier could have endangered the inhabitants by disrupting the space near to one of the planets. Johan now took the space yacht in to hyperspace.

They had been fleeing their pursuer through hyperspace for a day when the hyperdrive engine aboard the Excalibur began to complain. It had been due for service when they returned to Malinia, however, travelling at their maximum speed, normally only used due to an emergency, for so long, had caused what had been only a potential problem in to happening. Troy, who had been awake now for most of their flight and the preceding day, some thirty-six hours, woke Johan from his sleep to advise him of the situation.

"Johan, the hyperdrive engine has developed a fault in its cooling system, and it will soon breakdown if we do not return to normal space and carry out repairs. To wait any longer will be to see it become just so much scrap metal." Troy advised his friend.

With no other option open to them, Johan agreed, and they safely dropped out of hyperspace as they neared the next inhabited planetary system. Johan groaned, for he knew where they were, he and Troy had long been part of a covert reconnaissance team that had watched the inhabitants of the third planet out from the system`s star. What they had witnessed was a barbaric paranoid people, one who thought nothing of committing acts of violence or killing. He in no way saw the similarities between their technologically advanced empire and the people on this planet. Although, to be fair to him, each year warfare did break out somewhere on this planet, and the money that should have been spent to combat the planet`s diseases was spent on weaponry. Thankfully, the people of this planet had not yet perfected space travel, only getting as far as their planet`s moon, except for small robotic craft that had surveyed many of the other planets of the system. Thankfully, because they had perfected nuclear weapons with which they threatened one another constantly. Johan, amongst many others, had no wish to see such a people make interplanetary voyages. As these thoughts passed through his mind he voiced his fears for the future.

"Troy, I just wish that we had not be forced down on to that particular planet; our lives are in enough danger. However, it is the only one in this system that has a breathable atmosphere, what choice do we have."

Johan had been thinking about the emperor Sung-Li, and when he had finally decided to mount a coup against the leaders of the planet Zeta and its colonies. It had been after Sung-Li had read the earlier reports sent by the first survey mission to the planet, it detailed the actions of the natives on this planet in full, one named Earth by its inhabitants.

Soon their damaged craft was passing through the outer part of the system, with the Hunter close behind them and drawing nearer as every minute past. Ahead of them, a gas giant appeared on their forward view screen, one called Neptune by the inhabitants of Earth. Johan tried to increase his lead over the Hunter by using the moons of this planet, but to no avail, the posse of Hunters aboard the pursuing starship were cutting down the distance between them as every second past. The feeling of defeat almost overcame him when his computer called out a warning to him.

"My Lord the craft behind us has locked its weapon system on to us." The metallic computer voice informed Johan.

Johan swore and then called out an order to the computer.

"Helm Computer, evasion pattern Delta three."

Johan liked to think of himself as an adventurer, although he admitted to all and sundry that so far, he had done precious little in that role, now maybe he never would, he thought anxiously as he looked up at the view screen to look angrily at his pursuer. The computer seemed bereft of ideas, as the small starship continued to zigzag around the moons of Neptune, in a seemingly futile attempt to escape the weapons aboard the Enforcer, and for a moment they were no longer locked on to the Excalibur. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he veered sharply away from Neptune, leaving it far behind them. Johan took the Excalibur on a long elliptical journey in towards the system`s core, moving at a speed only dreamt of by the scientists of Earth. Soon they were approaching a ringed gas giant, the planet Saturn with its many moons, but the Enforcer was back behind them once again.

"My Lord, the craft behind us has once again locked its weapon system on to us." The metallic computer voice informed Johan.

Johan swore and then called out an order to the computer.

"Computer, evasion pattern Delta two."

The Enforcer fired a powerful energy bolt at them, one that would now miss his craft. Johan breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the day that his father had decided to upload a strategic defence program into his ship`s computer, it had been when pirate activity was at its worst. Unfortunately, his craft did not have any weapons to defend itself; all it had was speed, which unfortunately the craft possessed by the Hunters was easily matching.

Aboard the Enforcer, which was a member of the class of small pursuit crafts favoured by the Hunters, Captain Malik Raptor swore as his helmsman adjusted their craft`s course to follow their prey.

"Keep on his tail Taliesin; do not take your eyes off him, not even for a moment." Raptor ordered his helmsman who sat directly in from of him.

"Weapons` officer, arm one the Mk4 torpedoes and send it after Prince Galliano, take out his ship`s engine." Raptor ordered the cruel looking man sitting alongside the helmsman.

The Mk4 torpedo was an expensive weapon to use, but Raptor decided that this time it would be worth it, against such an opponent. The torpedo only possessed enough explosive power to damage their prey, not destroy it, but it was fast and ultra-smart compared to his other weapons. They needed Prince Galliano alive, if they were to return to claim their bounty, for if they caused his death then none of them would dare to return to the planet Zeta, or anywhere else within the Sung-Li galactic empire.

Emperor Sung-Li had been adamant on this one point, which he had made just before the Enforcer entered hyperspace. Sung-Li had made extensive plans, all of which included the Prince, and they did not include a cremation, not yet anyway. Raptor believed that the emperor planned a show trial rather than an assassination, to prevent the unrest within the empire from growing in to a full-scale rebellion. For Johan`s father was very popular, and his son`s death could give the rebellious within the empire the catalyst they needed to rouse the people in anger.

They had passed the multi-ringed planet in a moment, and even crossed the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, this had given Johan hopes of losing his pursuer within the atmospheres of one of the two planets ahead, however, the computer had more bad news for Johan.

"My Lord, a MK4 torpedo is swiftly overhauling us." The computer warned him in a voice that Johan thought sounded extra gloomy.

Knowing that he could not shake off such a weapon, Johan had to think fast, the answer came to him moments before the torpedo was due to explode against his vessel`s stern taking out the engineering department. He detonated the bolts holding the rear of his vessel, the Royal Barge, as he liked to think of it, it was used by his family to meet and greet and was supposed only to be detached within a space dock. It was situated above the engineering department, and to jettison it while in flight could be highly dangerous and was not advised by the manufacturers. The detonation sent the bulky unit tumbling to their rear, and with no time to steer around this large section of spaceship, the torpedo hit and destroyed the Royal Barge. Now unencumbered by this large mass, the space yacht leapt forward, more than matching the speed of the Hunter.

Troy Defoe had been on his way to engineering to check on a warning light that the computer had activated on the engineering console. As he had been given no warning of what Johan planned, he had been thrown off balance following the detonation of the bolts holding the Royal Barge. He had finally hit the deck when their speed suddenly increased and he totally lost his balance. For the inertial dampener had been temporarily thrown off line by the detonation of the bolts, their sudden increase in speed and the destruction of the Royal Barge just to the rear of the Excalibur. He anxiously called Johan on the intercom system, who explained what he had done and why, it was while he was explaining his action that Troy interrupted him.

"Johan, we were not totally successful, the explosion has caused some damaged, our sub-space engine is now playing-up, you can probably feel the vibrations up on the bridge, I do not know how long we have before it too breaks down completely and leaves us at the Hunters` mercy." Troy lamented.

Johan could indeed feel the vibrations, but at least they were not in the hands of the Hunters just yet.

"Just do your best down there Troy." Johan said by way of acknowledgment.

This event had given them some precious time though, and they were finally approaching Earth, Johan even had time to go into orbit around the blue and white planet. As soon as they were hidden by the planet from their pursuers, for the Enforcer was still some way away from the planet, Johan took the starship down through the planet`s atmosphere, this time having warned Troy of his intensions. Here, the spaceship was subjected to a great deal of buffeting, however the two men had flown through many other planetary atmospheres before and so both were strapped in, Troy doing so in engineering.

With the need to hide from his pursuers as well as the locals, Johan instructed the computer`s defence program to continue the flight, and the hoped-for landing, in the covert mode, and it was as the computer obeyed this command that Troy called Johan on the intercom.

"Johan, we are losing power and we simply do not have the time to carry out the necessary repairs, coming through the planet`s atmosphere exacerbated our problem, we are not going to make it down, we must abandon the ship immediately."

With time running out for them, Johan and Troy raced for the spaceship`s life boat, reaching it together, climbing in they ejected from the stricken craft. Their lifeboat took them down towards the North American continent speeding across the sky leaving a smoking trail behind them, visible to anyone in the vicinity. It landed on full automatics, all be it rather bumpily, but safely, in the state of Texas, their flight ending abruptly when the nose of their small craft dug itself in to a small hillock.

As the main part of their starship fell towards the planet, fate played a nasty trick upon them, the starship hit another bad patch of turbulence, which had the effect of knocking the faulty connection back online, and this gave the starship enough power to make a controlled landing. It had been much like thumping an old-fashioned piece of technology to make it work. The computer obeyed its last instruction, which was to take the craft down through the atmosphere covertly, this it did by heading towards a remote part of the continent that the lifeboat itself had landed. Unfortunately, it landed in Northern Canada which was going through a terrible winter storm, and here the craft shut down everything except the auto repair program. It was completely buried by this severest of snow storms, unseen by locals or aliens alike.

Johan screamed out in anger when the small computer that he has brought with him informed him what had happened, however at least it gave him the precise GPS location of the spaceship, which was near to the Great Slave Lake in the Great Northwest Territories of Canada. It had obtained this information from the one of Earth`s own GPS system of satellites. It also told him their present location, they were north of the town of Presido in the state of Texas and miles from the nearest town. Before leaving the lifeboat, something that was urgent if they were not to be captured by either the Hunters or the planet`s authorities, they put on backpacks. Each was filled with food, water purification tablets, personal hygiene equipment, a small energy weapon and finally a hunting knife. What it did not provide them with was something to trade with the natives, such as gold, Johan made a mental note to add some, should they be lucky enough to find their spacecraft before the locals or the Hunter did.

Luckily, both he and Troy were fluent in the English language, having learnt it for their previous mission, so they could pass as Americans from the north east coast. After hiding their craft electronically, to prevent the Hunters from immediately locating it, they climbed out of the lifeboat.

Johan looked around, at the country around them, he felt the cool breeze and felt a mixture of excitement and fear run through him as he looked at this new world. A world that he had never been on before, for he had only viewed it from afar when he had been part of the latest Zetan team to watch and report on the dangerous barbarians of this beautiful planet. Johan turned to look at Troy who was also taking in the view, and he wondered if Troy also felt afraid of what they would have to face. A trek of 3000 miles across a hostile land, possibly to the far frozen north, and with limited provisions and no transport. That is, if the auto repair system could not repair the craft, if it was able to affect repairs then it would travel south to their position. Troy`s face though did not show any sign of fear, it shone with an excitement for their future, he too had always hankered for adventure, now he would get it in spades.

Troy had set foot on this planet before, he had been part of a survey team that had lived on the planet for six months. It was here that Troy had got his love of Earth`s classic cars, having taken a Chevrolet Bel Air convertible back to Malinia to use in preference to the ultra-modern Malinian vehicles. He had finally converted it to electric propulsion, but not until he was fully conversant with the internal combustion engines of Earth. These thoughts had been running through his mind and it was now that Johan brought him back to the present.

"Come on Troy, we had better set out before the planet`s authorities come looking for us." Johan urged.

To which Troy merely nodded, and they then walked away from their last link to Malinia, except from each other of course. Apart from their possible arduous journey, there was also the problem of the Hunters, they would not give up their bounty quite so easily, and they would soon pick up their trail, this would be a dangerous journey. They had one other problem, one that they could do nothing about for now, their attire. They appeared to be escapees from a Star Trek convention, both dressed in light blue tops and black slacks that would denote them as science officers to any devotees of the television series. To further this similarity there was an emblem of a starship on the upper right side of their tops.

**********

In the Dallas radar tower, one of the radar operators had been sitting watching the radar screen while wishing that his watch was over, when he had seen a fast-moving object flash on to the top of his screen, continually losing height, make a controlled turn, and then disappear north of the town of Presido in Texas, where he assumed it had landed. He knew that there was a fair chance that it had come from outside of the Earth`s atmosphere which could mean that it was a UFO, he reasoned that it was not a piece of space junk as it had made a course correction before disappearing, towards the ground. After thinking about what he should do, for he was a fan of the television series the X-Files, and things always happened to radar operators on that show, he reported the episode to his immediate superior. His immediate superior watched the recording of the short flight, twice, looked at radar operator and then contacted the appropriate authorities, however, he did have some misgivings, it meant dealing with agents from one of the intelligence agencies and that was never advisable.

**********

Johan`s checked his small computer tablet which told them to walk east, where they would finally come to a road, unfortunately their way would take them ten miles along a very uneven trail, and to two spacemen, who were used to the level decks of their starship, the trail seemed to go up more than down. Luckily, it was just after sun-up, so they had more than enough time to get there before the sun set and the temperature dropped.

"Johan, do you think that there are any large carnivores around here?" Troy asked anxiously as the thought of what lay before them finally sunk in to his mind.

"Not too many Troy, not in this type of country, but if there are then we are armed, so we should be safe, even so we should use our energy weapons sparingly, for we must also worry about the Hunters, not to mention the locals, who also might not be friendly." Johan replied.

They stopped off at a pool, which was part of a long winding creek. Here they rested and had a drink, after adding a purification tablet to the water to ensure they did not come down with something, for they could not afford to become ill due to a local bug. They also ate some of their survival rations, which although lacking in taste did at least fill their stomachs and take away their hunger pangs. Finally, they reached the promised road and headed north along it, tired now and sweating even though the day had remained cool. With the sun already dropping towards the horizon, they accepted that they would have to sleep beneath the stars on their first night on Earth. The temperature began to fall and even though they each had a suitable environmental cover, they did not look forward to their coming night`s sleep. In answer to their unsaid prayers, they came across a vehicle with an owner`s head underneath the hood of the car, for the vehicle had broken down.

The driver seemed to be too engrossed in what he or she was doing to notice their arrival, so Johan decided to stop six feet away from the driver, for he did not want to scare whoever it was, and from this distance, he spoke to the driver.

"Excuse me but can we be of assistance, my friend here is familiar with that type of engine?" Johan asked.

The antiquated engine was familiar to Troy, his hobby of course was renovating similar vehicles back on their home planet, mostly Zetan, although a few were from Rigel, for an automobile museum. The owner of the vehicle, Sally Fielding, looked up in surprise and when she saw two quite presentable young men standing at a respectable distance away, her initial apprehension disappeared, however, she did have one question.

"Have you two escaped from a science fiction convention?"

"I am sorry, a science fiction convention?" Johan replied quizzically.

"Your clothing, that can hardly be your usual mode of dress; the local hard cases would immediately make a bee line for you." Sally replied looking from Johan to Troy quizzically.

Troy had been a little concerned about their clothing, Johan though, had thought that they were quite conservative, now he realised that they were not, and he racked his brain for a reasonable answer, however, it was Troy who came up with an answer.

"While we are both science fictions fans, these are not our clothes, I am afraid that our clothing was stolen while we slept last night, the thief left us with these outfits, we were forced to wear them, they are better than going naked."

"Well if you can get my car started I would appreciate it and then I will see if I can find you both some clothing that will not see you ridiculed by the local hard cases." Sally promised. "I am afraid that I know nothing about anything mechanical." Sally added as an afterthought.

"How is it that you broke down Sally, in the middle of nowhere?" Johan asked as Troy got to work. "By the way, I am Johan and my mechanically minded friend is Troy."

"Just bad luck Johan, I am on my way back home, I have been visiting my family in Presido for the weekend. How about you two, you sure do not look like Hoboes, not in those outfits anyway?" Sally asked finishing off with a smile.

"Well, Sally, we are, and we are not, we decided that we wanted to travel from the Mexican border to the Canadian one, and hitching lifts seemed the cheapest way." Johan replied having rehearsed this speech while they were walking.

"Well at least you have the coolest part of the year to start your journey; however, you may well regret that the further north you go." Sally replied.

The light had just about gone by the time that Troy finally managed to start the vehicle and Johan then asked Sally for a favour.

"We could really do with a ride, if you are travelling north, if not then a ride to the nearest town where we can hitch a ride that will take us north?" Johan asked when a delighted Sally Fielding got into her vehicle, an old Dodge that had seen better days.

Sally was very happy to give them a lift after Troy had made her engine purr like a pussycat, and as they drove north, Sally spoke to them, for she wanted to know more about them.

"What were you doing before you decided to throw it all up and travel?"

"Troy was a mechanic repairing classic motors, and I worked in the showroom, unfortunately, the owner of the garage ran off leaving a large amount of unpaid bills behind, so we were both unemployed. With very little money between us we decided to take the opportunity to travel around our country, earning enough to pay our way as we travel." Johan replied using the cover story, one that they had thought out on the way from the lifeboat.

"Well you're in luck, one reason why I am returning home is to help out my uncle, his mechanic Joe Maitland, and Joe`s wife Maureen, who ran the office in his garage, were killed in an accident. My uncle asked me to cut short my holiday and return home to help in the office, doing the paperwork, usually I work in the showroom. I have done it before when Maureen was off having her baby." Sally said and then added. "I am sure that my uncle would employ Troy, and with your experience working in the office Johan, you can help me."

"That sounds fine Sally, although when we have a bankroll we might just move on." Johan said to which Troy chipped in.

"Unless we can find a reason to stay longer." He said looking at their attractive driver.

Johan looked across at his friend and scowled, for not only did they not have any identification, they were lacking the necessary papers to obtain regular work. Should the local law come calling their long trek could be cut very short and at best they would be run out of town. However, Sally liked the idea and said.

"That would be nice Troy."

Giving Troy a big smile that set his pulse racing.

Chapter Two

The Town of Carlton

They soon arrived at the small town of Carlton, and Sally parked in front of her uncle`s home, a house that dated back to the late 1800`s. Getting out of the car they walked up on to the porch, here Sally opened the door and called out to her uncle as she entered the house, with Johan and Troy following on behind her. Her uncle had been in the kitchen, he and his wife came into the front room to greet their niece.

"Sally, thank you for cutting short your holiday, I will make it up to you when we get things straight." Richard Tombs said moving to her and kissing her cheek while eyeing the two strangers dressed in what he assumed were Star Trek outfits, making them appear a little weird and possibly dangerous.

"That is okay Uncle, Aunty, let me introduce my two white knights, they came to my rescue when my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, Troy here is a mechanic looking for work and Johan knows his way around an office."

Sally then told her uncle and aunt the story that Troy and Johan had spun her and explaining why they were dressed as they were.

"Good to meet you two men, especially as you were able to get that old Dodge of Sally`s going, one day she will have to buy a newer model. Now tell me where you were working prior to losing you jobs?" Tombs asked.

Tombs was a good judge of people, and he immediately took to the two strangers before him, but there was something about them, something that they were not telling them.

"We hail from the outskirts of Houston, Mr Tombs." Johan replied and not volunteering anything more than this short answer.

Tombs noted the lack of detail, however, they appeared to be good men, and he needed a good mechanic now, although he knew where he could lay his hands on one, he would not be available for another week.

"Are you bent on travelling, or are you willing to work long term?" Tombs asked to which Johan replied before Troy could get them in to a mess.

"Just until you can find a replacement to work for you full time Mr Tombs."

This answer left Sally feeling disappointed. The two men had said that they were thrown out of their last job, however, now they appeared to be Hoboes, forgetting that they had said they now wanted to travel the length of the country.

"Okay Johan, Troy, can you start tomorrow morning?" Tombs enquired feeling that he had been right; these two men were holding back something important, something that had turned them into Hoboes. "I can supply you both with overalls, and Sally here can buy you jeans and shirts to replace your stolen clothing, you can repay me out of your first week`s wages."

**********

Miles Parkinson had left the regional offices of the DIA, the Defence Intelligence Agency, two hour earlier, with him was his partner Robert Short, now they were heading north out of Presido in a helicopter, travelling over land that was semi-arid desert. They had been given rough co-ordinates for a possible UFO landing site, their information having been supplied by the radar station of Dallas international airport. After an hour of searching their luck changed.

"Look over there Rob, some type of craft has crash landed; if the radar guys are correct then we have a real UFO on our hands!" Parkinson exclaimed pointing to the left of their craft. "Pilot, land on that nearby hill, we do not want to destroy any evidence, not if this one is for real."

Their pilot smiled as he took them down on to the requested landing site, and once down all three men climbed down from the helicopter and ran towards the crashed craft. They approached with their levels of excitement rising with each second, for up until then, they had believed that they would find nothing out here apart from the odd rattlesnake. They stopped ten feet away from the craft, both agents had their automatic pistols out as they looked over every inch of the craft. Seeing no signs of danger, they moved forward to find the UFO appeared to be in good condition. They stopped at the craft`s door, after completing one circuit of the craft, and looked at the panel set in to the hull of the craft, and to one side of the door. On the panel was a painted rectangle, within the rectangle were two squares, and within the squares were what they assumed were alien words. Something caught Parkinson eye and he exclaimed.

"On the floor Rob, there is a footprint! It certainly was not made by us, look at the design made by the sole of the shoe. We may have found the first ever footprint of an extra-terrestrial."

Rob took a photograph of the print and then said.

"Are we going in?"

"Why not, get ready Rob; I will press the top square."

His actions were stopped when the sound of three helicopters took their attention away from the UFO and towards the approaching craft. The helicopters hovered some fifty feet away and soldiers now began to abseil down towards the grounds, accompanying them were two civilians, who waited until their helicopter hovered just inches above the ground before jumping down. With their passengers gone, the three helicopters moved away and landed on a flat area of ground some 300 feet away from the other helicopter. While the soldiers fanned out the two civilians walked over to Parkinson and Short.

"I am Director John Adams and I have been put in command of the UFO, you two men will stay to work directly under me." He said by way of introduction. "We will now proceed to inspect the inside of the craft, initially using a small drone which my assistant, Agent Hughes, will operate."

Hughes pulled a large backpack off his back and on opening it, took out a small drone, which he put on the ground between him and the UFO. Then he walked towards the craft, but Parkinson called out a warning.

"Sir, before you proceed any further, be careful not to walk over the footprint in front of the door. When the forensic boys arrive, they will need to make a cast of the footprint by the door."

"Good work men." Adams said as Parkinson moved back out of the way.

The two agents could see that there was a small camera attached to the front of the drone. Hughes now took out a remote-control device, and after turning it on, he made the drone rise off the ground.

"Which ever of you is Agent Parkinson; please press the upper square within the large rectangle." Hughes said. "But as you said, be careful not to tread on the footprint."

Parkinson reached out gingerly towards the door, only to receive a light electric shock that caused him to cry out in pain and retreat from the craft without opening the door.

Adams scowled, we will have to wait for the scientists to catch up, they should be here shortly, not telling Parkinson that they had anticipated that some sort of defensive measure had been set to delay their investigation of the craft.

One hour later and the area had been enclosed in a large green tent, which had an airlock to allow entry into it. A cast had been made of the footprint, the scientists taking all sorts of readings on various devices, and finally the head scientist, Doctor Manfred Mann, approached Adams.

"Director, the door on the craft is the outer door of an airlock, before we open it everyone who is to remain within the tent should get into an environmental suit. This is in case the aliens breathe a gas that is toxic to humans." Mann said and added. "This is also to prevent any of us becoming ill due to the presence of any alien germs. When everyone is suitably dressed, we can proceed to open the door, as we have nullified the electrical defence measure."

Upon hearing about the chances of a toxic gas being behind the door, Parkinson was now happy that the electrical defences on the craft had prevented him from opening the door. The scientists were already dressed in environmental suits, and soon the DIA agents were similarly dressed.

This time Agent Short was asked to attempt to open the door to the airlock by pressing the upper square, and with everyone else well clear of the door, he now walked towards the craft, dressed in an environmental suit. Once he got there, he moved his hand slowly towards the panel and then he pressed the word within the upper square.

There was a light whirring sound and then the door popped open to reveal the inner door of the airlock, to one side of Agent Short, a scientist in a similar suit and attempted to collect some of the air from within the airlock and then he moved over to the instruments set on a nearby table and here he set to work. He was establishing whether the air within the airlock was breathable by humans, or not, and looking for the presence of alien germs or viruses.

"There was no air within the airlock Director, just our regular Earth air that rushed in when we opened the door. That whirring sound must have the craft cycling out the air, we will have to try again when we enter the craft."

Adams looked across at agents Short and Parkinson, all thought of using a drone gone, and he said.

"You two got here first, the honour should go to the both of you."

The scientist rushed forward with a large flask.

"Fill this with air from the interior of the craft, we will need to test it before we remove our suits."

Agent Short took the flask and nodded. The two agents, both still dressed in their environmental suits, were not sure that they wanted the honour, not when it could be dangerous, and they too wondered about the drone. However, what else could they do but obey the director, so with Parkinson leading the way they entered the small airlock and pressed the top drawing on the panel next to the inner door. Behind them the outer door closed with a solid humph, making the two agents spin round in panic. Then the craft`s computer cycled the air back in to the airlock and only then, from behind them, did the inner door open with a hissing noise. Before them was a small single space with six seats set pointing towards the bow of the lifeboat. They breathed a sigh of relief when they found it empty of any green one-eyed monsters, and Short removed the lid of the flask and filled it with the alien air. Then he moved back into the air lock, followed by his partner and pressed the open-door drawing. This made the cycling procedure start again and they had to wait a while before they were standing back on terra firma and telling the director that the craft was empty.

Just then, one of the soldiers' ran up to the director, having donned an environmental suit, it was Lieutenant Morris, and in a steady voice he said.

"Director, we have found two sets of footprints leaving the area." About to proceed, his eye caught sight of a footprint by the door of the craft. "It is a match for that one over there sir." He then proceeded in a flat voice. "In that case I expect that we have found the prints left by one of the three men who found the UFO."

"No, Lieutenant, as far as we know that print was left by an occupant of the UFO, so please have your men follow the trail, I will get the helicopters in the air to search the ground ahead of you."

However, Adams would be surprised if they came up with anything, for the aliens had a good head start on them, his other plan of action was to set up roadblocks on all roads out of the park and to swoop down upon the local towns. His people would say that they were searching for foreign spies, ones who had murdered a security guard while in the act of stealing top-secret papers; this would allow them to question the locals about any strangers that they may have encountered.

**********

The Hunters were on Johan and Troy`s trail too, they had taken six hours to find the lifeboat, and they only managed this by having their computer sift through all the radio traffic of the continent of America. They had deduced that this continent was the likely landing site of their prey, for they had watched the Excalibur fly around the far side of the planet and not seen it appear again. Finally, they heard talk of a possible UFO in Texas, USA, a craft thought to be a lifeboat. They arrived in the area, their craft in full stealth mode with the special chameleon camouflage hiding their craft from all but the most persistent of searchers, to find that the US military had sealed off the area.

"We will never find them with all of the barbarians searching for them, therefore, for the moment we will let the barbarians work for us." Captain Raptor said to his crew before turning to the communications officer. "Marat, keep track of all the communications the barbarians send or receive. Trace their headquarters, then have the computer listen in to all their communications regarding their search for the crew of the lifeboat. Also, see if they have any idea where the main body of the Excalibur is, their ancient radar systems must have detected its descent through their atmosphere."

Leaving Marat to listen in to all the DIA communications, the Enforcer headed for the nearest inhabited town, and with the sun setting behind a distant mountain range, they hid within a cloudbank over the town of Carlton. Captain Raptor could not see how his prey could have managed to travel further than this small town, so he decided to search it until he found Prince Johan, or Marat told him that the barbarians had shifted their search elsewhere. He landed the Enforcer just outside of the town, camouflaged and with just a skeleton crew to ensure that its presence was not reported to the planet`s authorities by a passing human. With the ship`s security attended to, Raptor led a small search party into the town.

Keeping to the shadows at first, due to their strange clothing, and if Johan and Troy were Star Fleet personnel, then Raptor and his crew were Klingons, complete with body armour to prevent the percussion weapons of Earth from injuring them. Raptor soon realised that he needed to equip his crew with more conventional attire, if they were to blend in, and to this end they broke in to a clothes shop, however, unknowingly, they tripped the silent alarm. Turning on a light so that they could find the correct attire he harried them to make speed.

"Quickly, before someone investigates the light, all of you change in to the sort of clothing that the locals are wearing."

Raptor and his crew quickly dressed in jeans and shirts, finally adding boots, Stetsons and leather belts, but even as they finish dressing, a police cruiser pulled up outside the shop, its red flashing light warning even alien criminals to the danger posed by the occupants of the vehicle.

"We seem to have attracted the attention of the local law enforcement, slip out the back while I attend to them, return to the Enforcer." Raptor ordered. "De`at, you stay with me, set your weapon to stun, the barbarians will think that we used some sort of stun weapon against them, I do not want them suspecting that the extra-terrestrials on their precious planet are dangerous, it might just cramp our style."

Two deputies attached to the local sheriff`s department walked towards the front of the shop, they wanted to look inside the brightly lit shop for the reason behind the silent alarm going off. Seeing them Raptor said.

"Okay De`at, let`s take them out."

The curiosity of the two officers was met by two whistling bolts of energy exploding through the glass window, the energy bolts hitting both officers and stunning them. The smiles on De`at and Raptor`s faces soon turned to frowns, for they heard the sound of two more police cruisers approaching the shop.

"Come on De`at, before we become embroiled in a full-scale battle."

With those words Raptor and De`at ran back to join the other Hunters. To stay to enjoy the battle would not only alert the authorities to their presence, it would allow his prey to escape in the confusion, if they were somewhere within this small, and to him, backward town. On reaching their ship, Raptor decided to wait until the next day before looking for his prey, when the local law was no longer searching the empty streets for signs of whoever had shot their men.

Back in front of the clothes shop, Sheriff Miles was standing at the doors of an ambulance as two paramedics tended to his men, who had both recovered sufficiently to tell of the attack upon them.

"They must have used some sort of Taser on us Sheriff, all I remember is the glass breaking at the same moment as I felt this terrible pain all over my body. I am afraid that that is all I can remember until coming around just now." Deputy Boles reported.

Deputy Francis had a similar tale to tell, and there, Sheriff Miles left it, only one thing bothered him, the broken window. There was not any sign of it, or even any cracking in the glass to show where the two Taser bolts had crashed through, instead there was a large uneven hole in the window, and the glass appeared to have been subjected to some sort of heat? He also wondered how the Taser bolts had kept on going after crashing into the plate glass. Finally, why were there no tell-tale marks on either of his deputies to show that they had been hit by a Taser?

**********

Johan and Troy had spent the night in the loft above the garage, sleeping in two camp beds and knowing nothing about the excitement of the night. Richard Tombs met them in the garage after Sally had given them breakfast; he wanted them to start work on an old Ford that had ignition problems. While Troy looked under the hood, Tombs asked Johan to sweep up and help his friend with the manual work, and both saw the humour in their present situation.

One minute after Tombs had left them to get on with their work, the owner of the only other garage in Carlton entered the garage. He had wanted the Tombs garage closed, which he thought it had, after he had arranged for the Tombs` mechanic to have an accident, one in which the mechanic and his wife had died. With his hired muscle beside him, he spoke to Troy, seeing Johan as one fit only to sweep up.

"Boy, the people of this town do not take kindly to strangers waltzing in here and taking our jobs, you had better leave town now, or else me and Eddie here will run you out." Joseph Martinet threatened.

Troy slowly turned around, looked Martinet in the eye, and said quietly.

"Boy, I was told by Mr Tombs that they are no other mechanics in Carlton, and as for the people of the town that I have met, well they have been down right friendly. So, I am going to have to stay here, and if you and your tame goon here want to make anything of it, then take your best shot, but I warn you, it might be your last."

Martinet grew angry very fast and turning to Eddie Reynard, he said.

"Eddie, teach this boy a lesson in manners."

Reynard moved forward and aimed a punch straight at Troy`s head, which had it landed might well have taken it off Troy`s shoulders, but it did not touch base, it just threw Reynard slightly off balance. Troy immediately retaliated by hitting Reynard hard in the stomach, which doubled the local over so that he was just rightly placed to take a hard punch in the chin that sent him staggering back.

Martinet seeing things not going according to plan, moved forward to grab Troy from behind, however, he had forgotten about the fourth man in the garage, Johan, who had moved with him and just as Martinet made to grab a hold of his friend, Johan grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Anger flared on Martinet`s face for a moment, to be instantly replaced by one of stunned surprise, for Johan had hit him hard on the chin. Martinet staggered back into an advancing Reynard, their momentary tangle allowed Troy a free shot, he hit Reynard hard, putting him down on the floor, and when Martinet saw an angry Johan advancing upon him he retreated, and fell over Reynard, who had been regaining his feet. It was now that Tombs walked back in to the garage and seeing the two locals laying spread-eagled upon the floor, both nursing bruised faces he demanded to know what was going on.

"I will tell you Uncle." Sally answered.

For she had seen everything from the small office at the rear of the garage, where, unseen by the two locals, she was working.

"Mr Martinet and his tame goon threatened to run Troy and Johan out of town, if they did not leave voluntarily. When Troy refused, Martinet and Eddie attempted to use violence, unfortunately for them, Troy and Johan seem handy with their fists as well as with their hands."

Martinet knew when it was time to retreat, and so he and Reynard disappeared quickly through the open garage doorway, his plans having failed, he knew that he would have to think more about the situation.

"I will speak to the sheriff about those two men, they will not get away with threatening my employees." Tombs promised.

"We would rather you forgot about it Mr Tombs, the sheriff might look too closely at us sir, one of the creditors of the garage where we worked decided to take it out on us, as our employer had run off without paying any bills. I am afraid that we had an argument, and I hit him, and the last time that we saw him was when he was heading for the sheriff`s office, and they are very good friends." Troy explained.

Tombs looked at the two friends and simply nodded, however, he knew when he had been spun a line, these two men were hiding something, something that his niece might know about, but he would leave it lie for the moment.

**********

At about the time of the attack on Troy, out on the highway, and miles from Carlton, Director Adams was talking to Agent Hughes.

"The aliens must have got a lift away from the area Colin; we need to move along the highway in search of them and their human helper."

It was now that Adams received a report of the attack on two deputies in the town of Carlton. He smiled when he had finished reading the report and said.

"Colin, we are heading for the town of Carlton, tell everyone to break off the search and head for the town. Here." He said passing over the report. "You can read this report as we drive there."

**********

Two hours later, Johan was standing by the entrance to the garage when he spotted two of the Hunters; they were dressed in their new clothes and were searching the town for Johan and Troy. However, Johan knew them by sight, so he hastily moved inside and quietly closed the garage door, the lack of light making Troy look up angrily at his friend and ask.

"What gives Johan, I need the light to work?"

"There are two of the Hunters out there; I imagine that the town is full of them." Johan replied.

"So, we just lay low, they cannot know that we are in this town, if we are careful they will move on to the next town." Troy said.

"I am not so sure Troy, who knows how far they will go in their efforts to locate us, or who they will hurt in their search. Martinet and Reynard will be only too delighted to tell them where we are, if asked, the Hunters will not need to use violence on those two. The Hunters would risk a lot to capture me, go to any lengths, and they will kill anybody who gets in their way. No Troy, we must look for a way to leave town unseen."

"Leave town, you cannot Johan, we need Troy!" Sally exclaimed loudly, she had entered through the back-door unseen by either of the two friends, however, she had only heard the final part of the conversation.

Johan and Troy turned in surprise at her words, stunned at first, Johan finally decided to tell their new friend the truth about their identities, and when he had finished Sally exploded.

"You must think me a fool if you expect me to swallow that story. In any case, you are not going anywhere Johan, the town is full of DIA agents searching for two foreign spies, they say that they murdered a security guard and made away with some top-secret documents. Tell me the truth Johan, they are searching for you two, you are not ET, you`re Russian spies." Sally declared angrily.

"If we were Russian spies Sally, we would not have stopped off here to work for your uncle; we would have killed you and stolen your car. Think about it for a second, we need money to get us to Canada and our starship, Russian spies would already have money, they could also phone home for assistance, not hang around waiting for the DIA to arrive, and they would certainly not need to work to pay for their escape." Johan argued while trying to contain his growing anger.

Sally was silenced by his argument, but only for a moment.

"Prove it then, show me something that will prove that you are in fact from another planet."

Johan moved first, he pulled out his energy weapon, setting it on high power he aimed it at an old rubber tyre and fired his weapon. A bolt of energy whistled through the air, the tyre immediately glowed and then disappeared. Sally looked at the place where the tyre had been with her mouth hanging open, then she turned to the two men and said.

"You really are from outer space!" Sally exclaimed "But then, what you said earlier made sense Johan, you would have to be the worst pair of Russian spies imaginable to act as you two have. And of course, the DIA want to hide your real identities from the public, they have done it before." Sally reasoned aloud while thinking about Roswell and the many stories that had arisen about aliens and UFO`s.

She admonished herself when the X files television series also popped in to her mind. Then an awful thought flashed into her mind and she voiced it.

"Johan, Troy, when Martinet hears the story about the two spies, he will immediately tell the DIA about you, he will not care if you two are the people that the government are after, or not, he will bring them here, you must leave immediately."

Troy walked over to Sally and looked into her blue eyes, he was feeling bad about having to go, he would also have liked the chance to get to know her better, instead he had to run, to help his friend escape from just about everyone on this backward world.

"I am sorry Sally, I have fixed the Ford, and as for the Chrysler, well now it just needs an oil change, your father should be able to do that."

Sally liked Troy, and she too wished that he could stay, however, all she said was.

"I know a back way out of town that the DIA may not be watching, there is also a place on the outskirts of town where you can lay up until dark, it is your only hope, get your gear together and then you had better follow me."

It took but a minute for them to return with their backpacks, for they had them packed always, ready for instant action. They then followed her to the back door of the garage; however, on opening the door she came to an abrupt halt and then hastily closed the door for she saw two men in black suits walking towards the garage, and she knew instantly that they were government men.

"New plan, the DIA are coming this way, you had better hide down in the root cellar."

Sally led them behind a workbench and pushed a large wooden crate out of her way, to reveal a trap door, which she opened.

"They will never find you down there; only me, my aunt and my uncle know about it, there is a light switch at the top of the stairs, now hurry please before the agents arrive."

Johan and Troy climbed down the aged wooden ladder, and then stopped for a moment to allow Johan to turn on the light, then they continued down in to root cellar, the 40w bulb lighting up the collection of old car parts and rusty tools that had all seen better days. Sally was closing the trap door even before Troy`s head was fully clear. Sally then pulled the wooden crate back in to its original position, on it she laid out a set of shiny spanners, to show that the crate was used as an auxiliary workbench.

In the root cellar neither Johan, nor Troy, were particularly happy to be trapped down there, for there was no way out except up the ladder that now had a large crate resting on top of it. Johan was remembering how Sally had thought of them as Russian spies; one thought now rampaged through his head, had she tricked them in to climbing down in to the root cellar, so that she could hand them over to the DIA. This thought faded as time went by, for the DIA did not appear at the top of the ladder, and now guilt replaced it, guilt at doubting someone who had risked her own freedom to help them.

**********

With the arrival of the DIA agents in Carlton, Raptor was panicked in to returning to his starship, with the agents of the DIA almost stumbling upon Raptor and his crew as they hastily withdrew. Once back aboard the Enforcer, he slumped down in to his command chair, however, he allowed himself only a second to rest, then his mind turned to ensuring that they were not discovered. Although he could easily escape in the Enforcer, if they were seen, to blast off would announce to the world that aliens really did exist, and this one fact would make the emperor very angry. No, they would lift off during the hours of darkness, when the locals were mostly asleep, they would also be in full chameleon stealth mode. They would move to a new location in Texas, one not far away, certainly close enough to react, should Prince Galliano be found by the barbarians.

He also believed that discovering the starship Excalibur could become vital to his chances of locating his prey, so he ordered his communications officer to work harder at finding it. Marat soon called across to him.

"Captain I have just intercepted a message sent to another unit of the DIA, one that has been ordered to conduct a covert search in Canada, a country north of this one. They are to search for an UFO, it occurred to me sir, could we not despatch two drones, one to keep track of the barbarians here in Texas and the other to conduct our own search for the Excalibur in Canada."

"Your brain is functioning well today Marat." Raptor replied before turning to his second in command. "Craton, do as our communications officer suggests, launch two covert drones in the early morning, one is to be a long-distance drone, it is to be kitted out in full search mode, send that one to the place called Canada. The second drone is to be used in the tracking and surveillance mode, that is to watch over the DIA here in Carlton, so that we can move out of their search area."

The Enforcer had always made use of drones, and with excellent results, and especially when their prey was in hiding, so they kept several them with an equal number of attachments; they had helped make the captain and his crew wealthy men and women.

**********

In Carlton, Martinet, on being questioned by agents of the DIA, immediately realised that the two strangers could be the spies, and if not, well it would seriously inconvenience them and provide some payback. Therefore, he happily informed the DIA director about the two strangers, and where they could be found. Adams immediately put agents back and front of the garage, and then he moved in, and only moments after Sally had finished spreading out the spanners on the wooden crate. Adams walked in to the garage, his eyes darting all ways, and on seeing Sally, he asked.

"Is the owner or chief mechanic present?"

"Not at the moment, but perhaps I can be of assistance to you Mr....?"

"I am Director Adams of the defence intelligence agency, and I have been informed that two strangers were hired yesterday by Mr Tombs as mechanics, and that they were working here this morning. I need to talk with them regarding a case upon which I am working."

"They were here this morning, that is correct Mr Adams, unfortunately, neither of the two men are here now, in fact I was wondering just where they were when you entered, you see they should be working on the Chrysler, the customer is hoping to collect it this evening." Sally replied quizzically.

Sally`s face now took on a look of concern as she watched as agents began to search the workshop and the office, and it was now that Tombs entered the garage, he had heard about the search for two strangers and had hurried back to check on his niece.

"Mr Adams, this is Mr Tombs, my uncle, he is the owner of the garage." Sally said introducing her uncle to the DIA director.

After an exhaustive search of the premises, including the loft where the two men had slept, and after interviewing Sally and Tombs for an hour, Adams left after advising them both not to leave town. Two agents were left outside to watch the premises, while Tombs finished the work on the Chrysler, by changing the oil, late. After the owner of the Chrysler had arrived to collect his car, Tombs returned to his home.

Sally stayed behind to tidy up, for the agents had made a mess while they searched for clues, almost tearing the garage apart. The sun had set; however, it was too early to release Johan and Troy, and as no one was about, she decided that it was time for her dinner. However, first she unbolted the rear door to the garage, for she would need to enter using this door later that night, then she turned off the lights, walked out through the front door, locking it, and then she headed for home. After dinner she decided that her new friends would need more help than they had requested. First off, they required references, to enable them to obtain work elsewhere, therefore, using the garage headed notepaper, she typed up two references. The one for Troy saying as to how he was a first-rate mechanic, the one for Johan just saying that he was a good worker, then she signed both letters. Next, she got some food together, for she thought that they must be feeling hungry by now, and finally she settled down to wait until the town quietened down.

With the witching hour approaching, Sally put on her warm winter coat and then returned to the garage, ensuring that she was hidden from the view of the two agents, to ensure this she walked along the back alleys to the rear entrance of the garage, and entered through the unlocked rear door. Once inside she took off her coat and then she moved the wooden crate to one side, and she was just about to raise the trap door, to release Johan and Troy, when Martinet and Reynard, both armed, entered through the unlocked door at the rear of the garage. With the lights off, and Sally being partially hidden behind the workbench, they did not immediately see her, not until she accidently knocked one of the spanners off the crate and on to the floor, where is rang good and loud, scaring both Sally and the two men. Martinet, on seeing Sally, put down the petrol can that he was carrying and pulled out a hand gun, which she could just about see in the pale moonlight coming through the side window.

"Don`t make a sound Sally, and then we will not be forced to hurt you, I have a silencer on my weapon, those two agents outside will not hear a thing."

None of this was true, but in the dim light, Sally could not see if his weapon was equipped with a silencer or not. Reynard moved forward, sat her down in a wooden chair, and then tied her to it. Martinet walked to her side and said in a quiet voice.

"Where are the two Russian spies Sally, we know that they are here somewhere, or at least you must know where they are hiding out?"

"The two men my father hired left earlier today, I do not know why they left, nor where they were headed, they did not even leave a note, I am extremely angry with them for leaving us without a mechanic once again."

Then Sally noticed the petrol can, but before she could ask about it, Martinet slapped her face hard.

"You`re lying Sally, you have them hidden somewhere, but no matter." Martinet said.

Tears sprang to Sally`s eyes, because of the pain and the shock of the attack upon her person. However, looking again at the petrol can on the floor, fear began to spread through her body.

"Why have you brought a petrol can?" She bravely demanded to know.

She opened her mouth to scream when Reynard forced a dirty hanky into her mouth, and he was just about to tie it when a wooden mallet hit him on the head.

Martinet spun around, his gun searching for a target, just as Johan brought a heavy steel spanner down on his gun hand, the gun dropped to the floor, but no one within the garage heard it, all were too engrossed in what was happening. With his fist feeling as if it were broken, Martinet cried out fearfully.

"Please, do not hurt me; I think my wrist is broken."

Troy had taken the dirty handkerchief form out of Sally`s mouth, and then cut the ropes tying her to the chair.

"Are you okay Sally, did they hurt you?" Troy asked anxiously.

"I am fine, but what about these two, they will tell the DIA everything?" Sally asked looking at the floored Reynard and the whimpering Martinet.

"They must have a car, we will take them with us, don`t worry about them, or our safety." Johan answered while he tied Martinet up, ignoring the man`s injured wrist, which was probably only bruised in any case.

Troy now took the men`s wallets from them explaining to Johan and Sally.

"They have made us run before we received our pay, it is right that they should recompense us, we will need some money to escape far from all of our enemies."

He then pocketed their money, and any other paperwork that they had on them, including their driving licenses, explaining.

"We can use their driving licenses, we only need to insert a couple of photographs of ourselves, they might pass muster at a glance, especially at night."

Sally also thought it only right, so she did not complain about his action, instead she once again opened the rear door of the garage to peer out, she knew where the agents were out front, sitting in their car and shivering in the cold winter air, however, out back the way was not only clear, but she also saw that Martinet had parked his car there. She ducked back inside and while donning her warm winter coat, she said to her two new friends.

"They drove here, their car is parked outside, Martinet should have his keys in one of his pockets."

Troy soon found the car keys, and as he and Johan had already put on their own survival gear, over their new Earth clothes, they did not feel the cold as they carried the two locals through the back door and put them in to the trunk of the car. It was a tight fit but neither Johan or Troy was bothered. They Johan put the petrol can on the floor by the rear seats, and Sally handed them the food that she had brought with her and the two references. With Sally to act as their guide; Troy drove them through the back streets of Carlton. Driving with the headlights of the car turned off was risky, another car could easily hit them, they could even hit a pedestrian, or of course the local law could stop them. However, none of these possibilities occurred, and due to Sally`s local knowledge, they dodged all the DIA roadblocks. Sally told Troy to let her out as they cleared the town limits, exiting via a narrow alley that continued along a dirt track that ran North through the countryside.

"Call me when you get to your next stopover, and I will tell you what the DIA are up to here in Carlton and of any other things related to you." Sally said handing over her phone number and a phone card so that Troy would not have an excuse not to call her.

"I will Sally and thank you for everything." Troy replied.

Sally looked at Troy and smiled at him, wishing that he could stay, and that Johan would go on alone, but she knew that was not going to happen, so instead she offered them more help.

"You should be able to drive without lights for some time, just do not go too fast, the track bends to the north east and it will bring you to a minor road, turn right and it will lead you to the railroad." Sally explained before asking. "What about Martinet and Reynard, they will put the authorities on to you as soon as they get free?"

"We will think of something Sally, quite what I cannot say." Johan replied, and Troy now smiled up at her and said. "Thank you once again for your trust Sally, and your help, without you we would have struggled to get out of Carlton, look after yourself, I will remember you always."

With that they drove off in to the dark, both Johan and Troy were fearful of capture by either of their enemies, they feared that they would never win through, however, they were not about to surrender just yet, to either side.

"I am sorry Troy, we should not have stopped in Carlton, it was too close to our lifeboat. It was also the most likely place for any Hunters to commence their search." Johan said angrily. "I should have thought of that."

"We needed the time and space to think, it gave us that, now we know better, which brings us to the question of our prisoners, what are we going to do with them Johan? They are clearly a danger to our wellbeing."

"As you say Troy, they are a real danger to us, alive, and to answer your question I have come up with a few solutions, none of them perfect." Johan replied. "We can kill them, leave their bodies in the front seats of the car and then set light to it, but that way may well set the civil authorities after us and it also makes us the evil aliens. Or we can kill them and dump their bodies, and hope that they are not found; however, if they are, then once again the civil authorities will come looking for us and again we are the evil aliens. Next, we can leave them tied up, but when they get free that will also have the authorities dogging our every move until they catch us, but at least then we are the good aliens. Troy, I am open to any ideas that you may have, and at least we have a few hours of darkness in which to think about the question." Johan said and then added. "After which, the car will become too hot to use, as our problems in the trunk may well have been missed by that time and the civil authorities will be looking out for their car."

"Maybe we should release them before we reach the railway Johan, keep to the moral high ground, for if we kill them it will eat away at our souls through the rest of time, and once we have killed, the next time will be all the easier to justify." Troy said.

Johan looked at his friend and knew that he was morally right, and he also knew that his friend would not countenance their killing now that he had raised the subject, however, Johan thought, Troy was wrong, it would be safer to kill them in the short term and then to hide the bodies. The death of two such men would not trouble his soul, in fact he would be doing this backward planet a favour.

"Troy, as we do not know when the next train will come along, we cannot let them go until we have that information, so they will have to travel a little further with us."

"Yes, you are right Johan, it is a fit punishment in any case, neither man can be termed good." Troy replied grimly. "I am sure that they would have beaten Sally badly and maybe left her to burn in the garage."

They soon arrived at the railway line and they decided to follow it until they came to a section where a freight train was sure to slow down to a speed that would allow them to jump on to it. However, first they had to deal with their two prisoners, men who might have left Sally to die when they torched the garage, with the blame being put on squarely upon the shoulders of Johan and Troy.

Johan parked the car in a clump of trees, to make its detection all the harder and he said.

"Troy scout out the neighbourhood alongside the track, see if there is anyone around, I will check on their bindings, to ensure that they do not escape too soon."

Troy headed for the railway track, with Johan`s eyes following his every move, and when he was far enough away, Johan pulled out his energy weapon and opened the trunk.

"Time for us to leave you two boys, unfortunately, I cannot allow either of you live to tell on us."

Martinet and Reynard begin to struggle with their bonds, neither man could cry out because of the gags forced in to their mouths.

"You planned our deaths, and you probably arranged the deaths of the mechanic and his wife, so it is morally right, even if Troy would disagree with my action."

Johan raised his weapon fired it, twice, the short flight of the energy bolts reducing the amount of sound, and, Johan hoped, prevent it from reaching Troy. Johan now drove the car further in amongst the trees, not stopping until it was buried almost by a large bush. After locking the car and fighting his way out from under the bush, Johan ran after Troy, to ensure that Troy did not find out what he had done. He soon caught up with Troy, who was on his way back.

"There is no one around." Troy reported.

Just then a train whistle broke the quietness of the morning.

"There it is Troy, get ready to jump on to the flatcar, but be careful, we don`t need any injuries now that we are getting safely away."

The freight train slowed down for the tight bend, as they had hoped, and the two friends leapt down from a point just six feet above it, landing cleanly upon an empty flatcar.

"Time now Troy to climb into a box car, otherwise we stand a good chance of being seen and kicked off the train, that or arrested. In any case. It's too damned cold out here."

They were in luck and were soon sitting on a crate within a box car, heading west out of Texas, through New Mexico and in to Arizona. Here they were finally able to eat the food that Sally had prepared for them, along with a bottle of beer each.

They were soon joined in the boxcar by an old timer, Jedidiah was his name, who always travelled in this fashion, that is, without the need to waste the small amount of cash that he had, and he had never managed to acquire a large amount, to spend it on such mundane things as tickets.

"Where are you two men heading, if you don`t mind me enquiring?" Jedidiah asked.

"North, we got a hankering to visit Canada, never been there before so we thought we would head up that ways." Troy replied sociably.

"It is cold up there this time of year, but if you are determined friends, then you are on the wrong train. Get off at Serenity and get a north bound train there. Check at the Amtrak office, ask them for a timetable for Chicago, they will give you one for free, it will tell you which train to hop on to, right helpful they are in Serenity."

Feeling better than they had done for some time, they slept until Jedidiah woke them.

"Serenity is this stop friends, get out this side here." Jedidiah said pointing to the left-hand side. "The other side will bring you out on the platform, and then the local law will see you and run you out of town, the deputies of Serenity do not take to the likes of us. Vagrants or Hoboes is what they call us, and they can be a might rough, depending upon how they feel at the time."

Chapter Three

The Town of Serenity

Johan and Troy slipped off the freight train as it slowed down before entering the town of Serenity, deciding that discretion was the better part of Valour, and they walked in to town along a dusty track that served one of the nearby ranches. As they entered the outskirts of town they saw a sign hanging above a large warehouse, it said, The Houseman Emporium. Thinking that they could procure work there, they went through an open door entering a warehouse filled with boxes and crates. Set at the front of the warehouse was a small office, and as the door to it was open, they knocked on it as they walked in. A stocky middle-aged man looked up as they entered.

"We are new in town, and we are looking for work Sir, are there any jobs going here?" Troy asked.

The stocky man was Richard Houseman, the owner, he looked Johan and Troy over, and as they looked to be strong, and more importantly, he had a good feeling about them, he asked.

"Can one of you drive?"

"I can drive anything sir, as long as it has wheels." Troy replied.

"Got a driving licence?"

"Yes sir." Troy.

Troy dug out a battered old wallet from his jacket pocket, a wallet that he had taken off Reynard back in Carlton. He pulled out his driver`s licence, that also belonged to Reynard, but with a photograph of himself now inserted in place of that of Reynard. It was a photo cut out of his own identity card, and he passed it over to Mr Houseman.

Houseman hardly glanced at the licence before passing it back and asking.

"Got any references?"

"Yes sir." Troy said passing over the letter typed out by Sally back in Carlton.

"Seems all right, why did you leave?"

"You know how it is sir, the owner got to thinking that his daughter fancied me, and he wanted her to marry a gentleman, so he told me to leave, what could I do, at least I was provided with the letter." Troy said spinning Houseman the story he had worked out on the freight train.

Houseman looked across at Johan and after a second asked

"What about you, can you talk?"

"Yes sir, when it is necessary." Johan replied smiling.

"A quiet sort eh, that is fine by me, I cannot abide someone talking just to hear their own voice. Okay you are both in luck, times are good, and I need a driver and a loader, you are both hired, you can start at seven tomorrow morning, got your paperwork?"

"No sir, does it matter?" Troy replied looking a mite anxious at the question.

"No, I suppose not, but it will mean that you will be paid only when I have a need of you, and certainly not when you are ill."

Troy assumed that it also meant that they would be paid the minimum, but then they only needed enough to pay rent, food and train fare north, when they had saved enough to get them to Canada. They still had the money they had taken off Martinet and Reynard, and that was another reason why the minimum wage was fine.

"Can you direct us to a cheap boarding house sir?" Troy asked.

Houseman looked back at Troy for a moment, and then directed him to Ma`s Boarding House, it was set just behind the Amtrak ticket office.

They were soon sitting in their room, it was comfortable, clean and with inexpensive but solid furniture, as one would expect in a budget boarding house.

"Johan, I will call Sally, see how things are going in Carlton, see if she has learnt anything about the Hunters and the DIA." Troy said as he rose from one of the two hard chairs in the room and made for the door.

Johan looked after him anxiously, if the two men had been found it could strain the relationship between the two friends, however Johan would stand by his action.

Using the phone card that Sally had provided him with, he called her, and she answered after only three rings.

"Sally, it is Troy, we have just arrived in the town of Serenity, and thanks to your references we have managed to find employment already, me as a driver and Johan as my helper."

"That is great Troy, you will soon have saved enough money to pay for your train tickets north, in fact I am slightly confused about that, why don`t you travel up now?"

"We need to time it right Sally, to arrive in the area where our craft is located just as the thaw is setting in, so that we do not have to hang around up there." Troy explained.

"Troy, Martinet and Reynard, they have not returned to town yet, I expected to see them back by now." Sally said.

"Maybe they are staying home, afraid that Mr Tombs will complain about them, they did tie you to a chair and slap you hard. There is also the large can of petrol that they brought with them, they were not carrying the petrol around for the exercise, they meant to use it."

"I suppose so, though I can hardly complain about that, can I? They might arrest me for helping two Russian spies escape from the law. Oh, the DIA have gone and all is peaceful here, Uncle has found a mechanic, he is arriving tomorrow afternoon."

So much was left unsaid, just in case someone was listening in, and with the phone card running out Troy said he would phone again, when he had more news.

**********

The DIA had not gone away, they had simply spread their agents amongst the towns north of Carlton, Adams was of the opinion that they would head for Canada and the UFO, if the two missing men who had worked at the garage were in fact the aliens they sought. If so, it meant that they needed funds to make their way north, this meant that he should be able to find them amongst the temporary low paid workers in these towns. In fact, Adams was looking at a railway map, tracing the most likely route and pondering over each town that he came to, no, they would jump a few towns, to escape his attention. Where would they stop, El Paso maybe?

Raptor was of the same opinion as Adams, and he was simply listening in to all the calls received at the headquarters of the DIA, for they had the numbers and the resources.

**********

Troy and Johan turned up early the next morning, eager to make a good impression on Houseman, who smiled when he saw them and soon had them delivering a lorry full of crates around the local district. A week goes by without any trouble, from the locals, the DIA or the Hunters. However, it was too good to last and as the second week started, the Hunters arrived in the town of Serenity.

It was late afternoon and Troy had finished for the day, however, it was now that he saw the Hunters strolling along, casually looking in the windows of the shops that lined main street. However, in reality, there was nothing casual about their actions. At least one of them stood still, looking along the full length of the street, before continuing his casual stroll, as another Hunter stopped and scanned the street. Troy had been lucky, for he had stood aside to allow a young mother to precede him out of a shop, and instead of being visible to a searcher, he was hidden by the relative darkness of the shop`s interior. Trapped inside the shop, Troy knew that he had to act fast, for the shop keeper, Mr Trilby, would notice him loitering and come across to enquire as to why he was hanging around the doorway of the shop. Turning around he said to the Trilby.

"Sir, do you have a back way out, there are some men out there who would attack me if they caught sight of me?"

Trilby stopped what he was doing and really looked at Troy, almost getting inside of his brain as he thought about the matter. Trilby then walked over to the door, and when he saw no sign of the law, just a small group of muscular looking men walking along main street, he said.

"Follow me Sir."

Trilby led the way to the rear of his small shop and opening the back door said.

"This will take you to Aunt Betty`s rooming house, I did see you and your friend checking in there?"

"Yes, we arrived here some nine days ago, looking for and finding work." Troy replied.

Troy took his leave of Trilby, after thanking him, and walked hurriedly along the narrow alley and in to the rooming house. Smiling at Aunt Betty, as she was known to everyone, he went up to Johan`s and his room and when inside, and with the door shut, told Johan that they had company, the Hunters.

"We had better leave town Troy, before they catch us, that or they kill one of the locals, which will make it tricky for anyone who is not a local."

Troy frowned for to do so would increase the problems that were dogging their tracks.

"If we do so Johan, we will not have any references to give to future potential employers."

"Better that than me a prisoner and you dead, no Troy, it is time to leave, only this time we travel up to the snow-line and far away from the searchers."

Troy decided to call Sally, to tell her that their space happy friends had arrived and that they were about to leave town. Sally was not listening to him though, instead, she demanded an answer from Troy.

"Troy, tell me the truth, was it you or Johan who killed Martinet and Reynard, or was it a team effort, because they have just been found dead in the trunk of their car, it was hidden up by the railroad tracks, which was your intended destination?"

Troy was stunned by Sally`s question and for a moment was only able to blurt out an answer while in shock. "What? Did you say that they are dead? Sally, they were alive when I last saw them, I left them with..."

Troy was unable to finish the sentence, because he had left them alive with his friend.

"You left them with Johan." Sally finished for him. "Well, Troy, your buddy is a murderer, he killed them with his ray gun and decided not to tell you. However, there is now a nationwide manhunt for the two of you, led probably by the DIA and with your bounty hunting friends not too far behind. They are probably listening in right now with some fancy alien gizmo, which is probably why they just arrived in Serenity, they know that you are there." Jean said angrily.

"I am sorry Sally, there must be another explanation, Johan is not like that." Troy said in defence of his friend and then added a thought that had sprung in to his mind. "I know, the Hunters must have found them, they killed them after extracting everything that Martinet and Reynard knew." Troy replied in panic.

However, even to him this sounded lame, as it did to Sally who said.

"Yes, Troy, they found a car hidden beneath a hedge that just happened to have the two men locked inside the trunk, two men who knew your travel arrangements. Please, Troy ditch your murdering friend before he kills someone else and gets you hung alongside of him."

"Sally, I have to go, I will call you when we arrive at our next stop. By then I will have asked Johan if he did kill the two men, bye."

Troy put the phone down and stood there for a moment, too shocked to move, then a truck horn sounded almost on top of him, bringing him out of his reverie. Johan was standing by a greyhound bus, it would take them out of town, in fact Troy only just caught it. When they were in their seats, Johan turned to Troy and said in exasperation.

"Troy, you do realise how urgent it was for us to get out of town."

His voice low, almost a whisper. Troy turned to look at his friend, his friend the murderer? He now asked himself. He could hardly ask his friend now, not in a bus full of people when one incautious word could see them arrested. No, the question would have to wait until they were alone.

However, Director Adams had been busy that morning, he has spoken to all of the sheriffs served by trains heading west of Carlton, the direction that the freight trains were going when the two fugitives had most likely skipped town and boarded a freight. He asked them to set up road blocks out of all the towns served by the railroad. Serenity being such a town, although it was at the edge of the circle drawn by Adams on his railroad map. The local law had been happy to help out the DIA, they might need their assistance one day. The train stations were visited by the DIA, although without a photograph of the fugitives it was difficult.

The first that Johan and Troy knew about it was when the bus came to a stop. There were two deputies manning the road block, and while one of them walked around the outside of the bus, looking up at the bus full of passengers, the senior man stepped up inside the bus.

He did not expect to find the two fugitives, they were probably miles away, heading for one of the major cities in which to get lost in. However, the sheriff had told him to check all outgoing traffic and he was not about to make his boss angry. After speaking to the driver, he began to walk down the aisle of the bus, however, he merely smiled at the first few passengers, an old couple in their sixties and a young woman by herself. He stopped to look at a married couple, looking to ensure that the woman was in fact just that. Walked past a pair of senior citizens, casually wondering if this was the correct term now. He stopped when he came to a seat occupied by two men in their twenties and asked for their ID.

Further along the aisle, Johan`s mind was working at double speed. He knew that with only their false driving licenses to show as identification, he and Troy were in deep trouble. Not only would their driving licences not pass close inspection, they were in the names of Martinet and Reynard. Johan pulled out his energy weapon and set it on its lowest setting. Seeing this, Troy pulled his weapon out, he does not need to change the setting on the weapon, for his was always set on its lowest setting. With Troy sitting on the aisle seat, Johan told him to take care of the deputy inside the bus while he attended to the one outside, who was approaching their window.

Troy stood up and moved in to the aisle, getting the attention of the deputy whose hand reached for his weapon, but he was too slow, for Troy was already firing his own weapon. A low power whistling noise filled the bus as the energy bolt sped towards the deputy, striking him in the chest. The deputy slumped to the floor as screams and yells filled the interior of the bus. Meanwhile, Johan had fired through the glass window and taken out the second deputy.

In the midst of all this, Troy and Johan pulled their bags down off the rack, and with their weapons pointed at the passengers and the driver, Troy said.

"Your cell phones please folks, please drop them in my bag as we walk past you. I promise to leave them in the deputies' car when we dump it, so you will get them back. Oh, and please do not delay us, an energy bolt, even on a low setting, does hurt."

Only then did they gingerly step over the deputy. Troy looked at the frightened faces and said.

"The two deputies are okay, they are merely stunned, we will not hurt you if you follow my instructions and do not attempt to get in our way."

With a bag full of cell phones, they walked past the driver, Johan reaching out and taking the keys out of the ignition as he went, and then he said.

"We will drop these on the road half a mile further on, all you have to do is go for walk, from the size of you driver, I should think that a little exercise will be good for you."

With that they exited the bus and walked across to the deputies' car where they quickly threw their bags on the back seat and then drove away at speed. Johan dutifully dropped the keys of the bus out of the window when he reckoned that they had passed the half mile mark and after two miles Troy pulled over and said.

"Dump the cell phones Johan, they can be traced, the longer we have them with us the more of a threat they will become."

"To hear is to obey my lord." Johan said and immediately got out of the car and emptied Troy`s bag of the cell phones.

Johan got back in to the car and Troy sped off at high speed, determined to put as much space between them and their pursuers.

"This is all your fault, Johan, if you had not murdered Reynard and Martinet, the law would not be combing the state of Arizona for us." Troy said accusingly.

Johan, who was in the passenger seat, looked shocked, he assumed, rightly, that Sally had told his friend of his actions and he now attempted to defend his action of murder.

"First off Troy, those two pieces of scum had intended to murder Sally and then hand us over to the DIA. Murdering them, as you put it so piously, prevented them from putting the law on to us."

Here, Troy interrupted Johan.

"Well, Johan, that did not work out as you expected, did it, the law is certainly on our tail now, and we will have to dump this car soon and, in a place where it will not be easily found, because the people back there will soon flag down a passing vehicle. Then the sheriff`s department will have the whole of this corner of Arizona looking for us and if we are not careful they will certainly catch us."

Troy took their stolen car off the highway and headed north west along a country trail, hoping to find somewhere to lay up, but he was not hopeful. Johan stayed silent as their vehicle sped along, leaving a trail of dust behind it. He recognised that he had fouled things up, however, he could think of no other option that would not have placed them in exactly the same position. Finally, he said.

"I am sorry Troy, I did not think that the world would have missed that slimy pair, obviously I did not take the DIA in to account. They would use anything, no matter how abhorrent, to get back on our trail. I promise not to take such an action again without first obtaining your agreement."

Troy glanced over at his friend and said.

"Let`s get out of this jam first Johan, before we worry about the future. As I said, we need a change of vehicles, and new ID`s, otherwise we will be at the uncertain mercies of the DIA before the day is out."

Johan was quiet for a moment, while his mind raced, then he said.

"As you say Troy, we need to hide this vehicle somewhere that will give us at least twenty-four hours grace. However, the police are looking for two men travelling together. If we can get hold of a motorbike, which I know you can ride, while I continue to use the trains and buses. We can pick a suitable destination and meet up there."

"Sounds good Johan." Troy replied, his voice showing that his usual good humour had returned, for he knew that they could not afford to be at war with themselves. He then added. "We are near to a small town, I checked out a map of the immediate area before we left Serenity, just in case. We can use the local photo booth for our driving licences, all we need then are the licences."

"We can go to the local bar, find us some drunks and feed them drinks, assuming we have enough money. Then when they leave we go with them and roll them, then we can take a driving licence for you and some sort of ID for me." Johan said.

Troy looked at his friend for a moment, thinking that Johan had taken to a life of crime with ease, to contemplate rolling a drunk was absolutely foreign to Troy. However, they would not need to hurt them, not if their victims were drunk enough, and they probably would not even miss their ID`s for some time. There was also a good chance that he and Johan would not be blamed when the men found that their ID`s were missing, they would simply believe that they had lost them. So, he said.

"Fine, let`s check the deputies map for a nearby lake, one not too far from the town, if we are lucky we can maybe lose the car in the lake."

With Troy sounding happier, Johan smiled and pulled out the map, it showed the town.

"Here is the Troy, the town is called Jasonville, and it has a lake near to it, in fact we should hit it in about ten minutes. Troy, things are about to go our way."

Moments later, they heard the wail of a siren, turning, Johan saw that the law had caught up with them.

"There are two deputy sheriff cars behind us Troy and there are probably more ahead, they will probably attempt to block our way, we are desperately in need of a miracle, that or an idea."

Looking across at Johan and swearing softly to himself, Troy turned off the road, simply by crashing through a fence, and in to a large area of grass land that seemed to go on for ever. With the deputies staying on their tail, and the chance of a helicopter turning up, Troy did not give much for their chances of staying out of the hands of the DIA for much longer. Then as they crested a hill he saw ahead of them a herd of cattle, they were Brahmans, the most common breed to be found in Arizona, turning to Johan he said.

"Johan, as soon as we are through the cattle, use your energy weapon to spook them, we might yet escape them if the fates are with us."

Troy drove straight through the centre of the herd, horn blaring to get them stirred up and to begin the process. As they passed the last of the cattle Johan used his weapon, and the loud whistling caused by the energy bolts speeding through the air, and the explosions when the bolts struck a tree, the ground or a water trough, sent them stampeding away from the cause. Therefore, by the time the first of the deputy sheriff`s vehicle neared the herd, they were now impassable.

Keeping his foot pressed down on the gas pedal Troy smiled, for they had left the deputies, fuming, far behind them. The deputies were explaining to the angry manager of the Crazy M ranch, John Fuller, who had been working nearby and who had arrived at speed when he heard all of the noise, just who had caused his cattle to stampede.

Troy knew though, that their lead would be short lived unless their luck continued to hold, and they still needed to find somewhere to dump their vehicle where it would not be found, even if that meant leaving them on foot. Troy turned off the grass on to a hard, dusty track, hoping that by doing so they would cease to leave a trail, for they had flattened a lot of grass in their bid to escape. The trail took them towards a line of hills, the hills commenced just off the track, and was covered by trees that swept up the nearest hill and ran along its full length. Unseen by them, a ranch house and buildings lay just on the other side of the hill.

"If we find a suitable place, we will pull in under the trees and dump the car there. Tonight, we can make our escape on foot, I reckon that we should reach the town of Jasonville by dawn, assuming that we are not in the local jail by then." Troy said, taking charge of the situation.

Johan noticed this, but let it go, as he agreed with what his friend had said, why start an argument. They had just got out of the car when they heard a voice, it was coming from the trees.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in a deputy sheriff`s car?" Josie May Fuller, the manager`s daughter demanded to know.

They spun round to see a vision of beauty looking down upon them from up on the hill, and the instant that Josie May saw Troy, her insides melted.

"Can I be of any help to you MR...?"

"The name is Troy, and yes, I am urgently in need of your help." Troy replied while flashing a smile at Josie May. "Would it be all right if we leave our ride here, I am afraid that the owners will be missing it soon and them finding it would get me in to an awful mess of trouble."

Johan could see that the young woman had taken an immediate a shine to Troy, rather than him, which irritated him, but he pushed this feeling down, seeing as how it seemed to be working to their advantage and he said.

"We had a little brush with the local law and had to get away fast, so we borrowed their vehicle. However, I do assure you that we are harmless, we just cannot afford to get caught, please say that you will help us."

However, Josie May had not listened to him, her heart and mind belonged to Troy, so she said to him.

"If I was you Troy, I would push it a lot further in under the trees, there is a notch in the hillside just here, no one will see it if you put it in there, especially if you were to cut down some of the undergrowth to use as camouflage."

"As my friend said Ms, we are normally harmless, unfortunately, there is something that the authorities want, namely us." Troy said and then added. "Ms, is there some place where we can talk, alone. I can then tell you the whole story, it will show to you that we are not the bad guys, the authorities are."

Josie May smiled coyly at Troy and decided that he was no danger to a young woman and so she said.

"There is a place, my grandfather`s nuclear fallout shelter, it`s laying forgotten and overgrown quite near, not even my father remembers it. I do though. I have cleaned it up and furnished it with some old furniture that pop threw out to make way for the ultra-modern furniture that my ma wanted. I use it when I want to be alone."

After helping the two men to hide the deputies` vehicle, she led the way deeper in to the trees where the light dimmed considerably, she took them down a flight of steps which were concealed behind a gigantic slab of rock. At the bottom she unlocked the heavy metal door and led the way in to the shelter.

"Make yourselves at home boys, we have clean drinking water laid on, coffee, snacks, even an inside toilet." Josie May declared proudly. "And you Troy, can tell me everything."

Troy decided to tell the truth, it had aided them with Sally, why not with this vision of beauty. First though he said.

"If we are to be friends, if I am to confess everything to you, should you not at least tell me your name?"

"My name Troy, is Josie May Fuller. I am twenty-one, unmarried and at the moment I am attending the Arizona state university in Tempe, studying science and technology, now you know everything about me. Why don`t you tell me a little about yourself, especially as to how come the authorities are after you. I can tell that it cannot have been anything too bad, so what was it, are you behind on your taxes?"

"No Josie May, the last time that I checked I was fully paid up. No, it's something much more exciting, and very secret. Which is why the authorities are out looking for us." Troy began. "Josie May, what I am about to tell you might seem unbelievable, but I do have the proof on me. Josie May, Johan and I are aliens from another world."

Troy and Johan expected disbelief, however, what they got was laughter. Finally, when Josie May finally got control of herself, she said.

"Ah come on boys, I am not some green kid from a hick town, you have to do better than that, that is if you expect me to help you."

Troy understood her reaction, so he pulled out his energy weapon, turned the setting on to full power, the better the result, the better the proof, he reasoned. Then he fired the weapon at an old glass vase, an energy bolt whistled across the room and enveloped the vase, an instant later the glass disappeared. Josie May turned to him, then back to where her vase had been and finally back to Troy. Stunned, she declared.

"You destroyed my vase; my aunt gave me that."

"I am sorry Josie May, but you asked for proof, and we have more, Johan show Josie May your computer."

As Johan opened his bag and pulled out his computer, Josie May said.

"Look spaceman, we do have computers here on Earth, what is so special about your one."

Johan showed her their computer, the writing on it was in the language of Zeta.

"Russian is it, tell me that you`re not Russian spies on the run from the FBI, tell me Troy, that cannot be true?"

"Josie May, since when did Russian spies carry ray guns, we are from the planet Malinia, the Emperor, who lives on the planet Zeta, sent some bounty hunters to arrest us on a trumped-up charge of treason. They have already arrested King Galliano, Johan`s father, so we ran. We had to bail out of our spaceship as it developed engine trouble, it is why we are now on Earth. Now, not only do we still have the bounty hunters after us, but also the DIA and the local law. You have to help us, we need a place to hide out until the heat dies down. Then we can leave, our spaceship has a self-repair facility, it will soon have finished repairing our spaceship`s engine. We can then either travel up to Canada, where it crashed landed, or have it come find us, however, that would alert our enemies, so maybe our going up to Canada is the safer bet."

Josie May wanted to believe him, it was the more exciting option, however, she then recalled hearing about two fugitives being sought for the murder of two Texan business men. So, she asked quizzically.

"Since landing on Earth, have you travelled through the town of Carlton?"

"Yes." Troy replied. "Why?"

"Because the law is looking for two Russian spies who killed two business men recently, that is why." Josie May replied.

She now wondered if these two strangers were in fact murderers, and the thought had her close to panic. Troy looked angrily across at Johan, which Josie May saw, so she thought, Troy was not a murderer, it was Johan, she had been correct. Troy now answered her.

"The two men owned a garage in Carlton, Josie May, they had just attempted to burn down the local competitor, the Tombs garage, with a young woman tied up by them to be left inside it to burn and die. We saved her life and tied them up. We could not hand them over to the police because of the DIA, something that their would-be victim knew, for she had already forced us to tell her why the DIA were after us." Troy broke off here and Johan now told the rest of the story.

"Josie May, Troy wanted to leave them alive, however, I asked him to scout out the railway line while I attended to the two men. However, if they went free, I knew that they could have returned to Carlton and tried once again to rid themselves of their competitor. They also knew that the DIA were after us, therefore, on freeing themselves, they would have reported our travel plans. So, I decided that the death of two slime balls, would be murderers and arsonists, was no big deal."

Josie May considered all that she had heard and then said.

"If you are ET`s, then how come you look exactly like us? I mean a real ET should at least have green hair, or bulging eyes, something, well alien." Josie May complained.

"I believe it is because our creator, your god, wanted it so, maybe as a gigantic laboratory experiment, to see if one group could become more like him, instead of having a tendency to kill." Troy replied.

"Well, Troy, I feel let down, you could at least have retractable antennae, but I suppose your ray gun will have to suffice." Josie May protested.

Johan had almost laughed on hearing Troy`s words regarding a universal creator, for he personally had never possessed a belief in one. However, to have laughed at his friend`s words might have been perceived as a put down by Troy, and in front of the pretty girl, well Troy was only just getting over him murdering the two humans. Moments later he was relieved that he had kept silent and kept his mirth to himself, for Josie May said.

"If you two 'Aliens', believe in a creator, as you call him, then you cannot be evil, so you can stay here for as long as you want, no problem. One more thing though, as a final check, give me the young woman's telephone number, so that I can check out your story."

Minutes later and Josie May was speaking to Sally Fielding, and after a long talk, she was satisfied, as was Sally, for she had not thought that Johan might have killed to save her life, which in truth he had not, he had just spun a line to get himself out of trouble.

Minutes later, Josie May left the fallout shelter, she meant to spend the rest of the day with her father, to make him happy and to allay any suspicion, should the authorities arrive and ask if she knew the location of the aliens. She could truthfully say that she had spent the day with her father, well part of it, and her father would not contradict her, not wanting to bring trouble down on his family.

**********

Aboard the starship Enforcer, the communications officer Marat had continued to listen in to the telephone calls to the DIA headquarters, and to any calls made by Director Adams. He had smiled when he heard Director Adams order his men to proceed to Rycot County, which would be their next location. However, with all of the activity around and within it, they could not approach too closely. This inactivity made Marat bored and he complained.

"How much long are we going to spend here Captain, searching for them at a distance, never able to just go in and take them. We could be making imperial credits back home, lots of them."

"We stay here for as long as I say Marat, not when you get bored. In any case, the emperor is paying for our time, not a lot but even so the bounty on Prince Johan will make our inactivity worth the effort. There is one other point that you have forgotten, the DIA said that Prince Johan`s craft made a controlled landing, and very soon, its auto repair system will have repaired the craft, then they will call it to come collect them."

"In that case, why do we not simply wait for them in the asteroid belt, when they leave this god-awful planet we can take them without any fuss?" Marat suggested.

"We might just do that, but only when we know that the Excalibur is on its way south."

**********

After their search parties failed to find the two aliens, Director Adams believed that Troy and Johan were being hidden by someone within Rycot County, but who could it be? He decided to ask the local sheriff, Pat Masters, to have his deputies join his search teams in a door to door search within the main town of Jasonville. Outside of the town the search parties were engaged in searching the ranches and their buildings, between them Adams reckoned they would find the two aliens. The reason given was the same as Adams used in the town of Carlton, they were searching for two spies in the pay of the Russians, who had killed two business men in their bid to escape justice.

Within the town of Jasonville, while the door to door search was being conducted, Josie May was in town shopping. Impressed by what she saw, she stopped to talk to deputy Richard Ryan, an old friend of hers and a would-be spouse, if Ryan got his way.

"What gives Richard, why all the work, has the sheriff lost his badge or something?"

"We are searching for those two Ruskies, Josie May, the ones who caused a ruckus out at your place, the Crazy M ranch. Have you noticed any strangers out on the ranch since then?"

"No, Richard, except for all the lawmen combing the area, but even they have gone now."

**********

With time on their hands, Troy decided to talk politics with Johan, they never got really serious, never angry, it was just to pass the time of day.

"Johan, since we have been on Earth, have you noticed that most of the people we have met and spoken with have all favoured a democratically elected government. On the worlds within the imperial area of space, there are only a comparatively small number of people who are happy with our ruler, or even the system of government that has come to be the norm on the planets, and that is only after the creation of the empire."

"Are you saying that my father was a harsh ruler?" Johan asked angrily.

"No, of course not, he was one of the better of the hereditary rulers, but the point is, he was not elected, none of them were. However, the new laws that Sung-Li has created have taken away even more of our freedom, as have the new tier of officials, who have increasingly made their presence felt, especially the governors of the planetary systems that have not been colonised but are worked by miners."

Johan nodded his agreement and unlike before, he replied grimly.

"I agree Troy, that the present system is flawed, for my father has been imprisoned and we are outcasts, however, I would not change everything about it. For instance, we no longer suffer from the constant raids upon the planets and our spacecraft by space pirates."

"Johan, that is because the emperor and the planetary rulers have already taken anything worth stealing, in the new taxes that he has imposed on the people." Troy replied heatedly.

Johan smiled and replied.

"Now that is not correct Troy, they no longer raid our planets and spaceships because the space fleet destroyed them under the leadership of the then General Sung-Li."

"Okay, Johan I agree that I was being a little unfair, even so..."

"Even so, Troy, I do agree with what you say, our peoples` money is being syphoned off by the emperor, and why, to allow him and his cronies to live in luxury. Troy, you are correct, we do need a new leader to replace the emperor, one who works for the people and not for himself."

Johan was quiet for a moment; however, Troy was too stunned to speak.

"The new leader Troy, would have to be someone who the people could trust, who would guarantee their freedom by putting it in to the statute books. Troy. you are correct when you say that democracy is important for the wellbeing of the people, whether they live here on Earth or back in our Federation. In fact, I believe that something should be done urgently to bring democracy to the planets within the old federation. Troy, I also believe that we would be wrong to leave it to others to bring about a change in our system of government, sometime in the distant future. We must return to imperial space now and fight for what we both believe in. We should talk revolution to the citizens, enlist those who believe as we do, ask them to join us in a crusade against the injustice we all face. We must all rise up against the emperor, the war lords and any who want to keep the people subservient to them. We must destroy the Empire, fight to bring democracy to all of the planets of the old Federation and create a system that benefits all of its citizens, not the few."

Troy was amazed by this sudden change in his friend, moments ago he was defending parts of the present system, now he was advocating open rebellion. However, he felt that he should offer him some advice.

"You simply cannot go up to someone and talk revolution Johan, that would get us both killed, you need to meet people who are their natural leaders, ones who feel as we do, they will know who to trust and who would run to the emperor to inform on us."

"It is easy to say that Troy, but I do not know who these natural leaders are, do you?"

"Johan, I would first suggest that on our way back, that we stop off at the moon Centaur, my uncle Regan is currently living there. He is respected by many of the miners who work on both on Centaur, the asteroids in that system and also in other systems. He could arrange for us to visit as many habitations and speak to the miners, and in safety. We could listen to the people, speak to them about our desire to bring back democracy, to restore the old federation. I also know other people who are increasingly anti the Empire, and who want to be free. They in turn might want to enlist, they might even be able to bring others with them who are sympathetic to our cause. That is if you are serious about fermenting a revolution. Remember, you have lost your crown, the democratic process will not see you get it back, although, you might earn a position in whatever new order was to replace the empire. However, you should consider first that without a space fleet that is superior to the one at the disposal of Sung-Li, your hopes of attracting serious followers are zero."

"I have considered that Troy and I have some ideas which I need to mull over before speaking about them, enough to say that I believe that they will negate this objection."

Johan smiled, their return to Malinia might be slow, he thought, however, it would be in triumph, one that would see him rise to the very top. Johan then said that he needed to sleep, so he called an end to their discussion, in fact he wanted to think on all that had been said between the two friends, and to plan the future. Troy also tried to catch a few hours rest, for he did not know when their next chance to sleep would appear, they could easily be on the run this time tomorrow.

They woke when Josie May dropped by, she told them of the county-wide search that was being carried out, and all because of them. She then mentioned that the weather had made a turn for the worst, it was raining heavily and would continue to do so until well in to the following day.

"Will they search your ranch Josie May?" Troy asked.

"As you were first seen here, then yes, seeing as there has not been a sighting of you anywhere since then." Josie May replied. "However, this shelter is well hidden, so I would not worry, they should overlook it."

Just then Johan`s computer gave a discreet beep. Turning it on he saw that he had received a message from the Excalibur.

"Our spaceship has fully repaired itself Troy, it could get here in within five hours, sooner if we wanted it to break the sound barrier."

"How is the weather up in Canada?" Troy asked.

"I can tell you that." Josie May replied. "The whole country has been blasted by a snow storm that is also affecting the northern states of the USA."

"Then it is time to leave Troy, the weather means that we can bring the Excalibur here without the risk of detection. Initially, the snow storm will hide it, then if it is still stormy here, we will leave undetected." Johan declared joyfully.

Josie May pouted, she did not want to see Troy leave, but how could she entice him to stay? She took her leave of the two men and sheltering underneath a large umbrella, went in search of the local law.

Within the shelter, Troy was a little concerned about Johan`s plan.

"Johan, the Hunters will detect our spaceship, whether it is raining or not and as soon as we leave Earth, they will attack us."

"I do not believe so Troy, I have had another message from the Excalibur." Johan said triumphantly. "There has been an intense coronal mass ejection on the surface of this system`s star and it is now sending millions of supercharged particles that will slam into Earth. We can make our escape in the confusion."

**********

What Troy did not know was that the Excalibur had also relayed a recall that the Enforcer had received from the emperor. He had decided to hold a military review, one to celebrate his birthday, he called all of his warships and the Hunters, back to Zeta, including the Enforcer, much to Raptor`s surprise. The recall happened to coincide exactly with some intelligence that the emperor received, however, he kept this to himself, however, he was feeling decidedly happy. The recall had been sent using the brand new sub-space communications system that only a small number of vessels possessed. So far, the space fleet of Zeta had been issued with this updated communications system, also the Hunter spacecraft, the emperor`s private spaceship and one other spaceship, which was on a secret mission for the emperor. However, the recall meant that they would in fact, have a carefree trip back to imperial space.

**********

Unknown to them, Josie May was trying to prevent Troy from leaving, which was why she was speaking to deputy Robert Carling.

"Rob, have you caught the two fugitives yet, or are we all to be murdered in our beds as we sleep?"

"They are not psychopaths Josie May, they are Russian spies, you are quite safe in your bed, however, if you want me to come by and tuck you in tonight, and then watch over you, just in case, I am willing to take on the task? Who knows, they may have stayed on the farm, waiting for the law to leave, they could even have been watching your comings and goings." Carling replied knowing that there was no chance that she would accept his offer.

"No, Rob, if you say that we are safe, then I believe you." Josie May replied and then added. "You know Rob, you may be on to something, I have felt eyes watching me, they could still be on the farm as you say, waiting for the law to leave before moving on."

"Okay Josie May, I will notify the DIA, they have more men than us local boys, I`ll have then post a couple of men by your ranch house for a couple of days. They can watch over you, keep you safe, the lucky boys."

"Would you Rob, that is awfully kind of you."

"Kind enough for you to go to the barn dance with on Saturday?" Carling ventured.

Josie May looked at him from under her long eye lashes, smiled and said. "Okay."

On returning home, Josie May first stopped off at the shelter, where she gave the two men a warning.

"Troy, you be careful, there are a couple of DIA agents stationed right above you, so please be sure not to make too much noise."

Then she walked home, passed the none existent agents, who only turned up two hours later and who parked themselves in the barn, where it was a little warmer and a lot drier. She needed to do some more figuring, to prize Troy away from his friend, the murderer. Little did she realise that time was now against her, for although Troy and Johan had been a little downhearted to hear about the two DIA agents, as Johan said.

"If the craft arrived here at 03.00 hours, then we could be aboard it before the two agents realise what is actually happening." Adding. "This is especially so, if the agents and the deputies looking for us really believe that we are just penniless Russian spies. They will not be looking up at the skies, not in this weather, which as Josie May said, is forecast to go one throughout tomorrow morning."

"I agree Johan, for the DIA will not have detailed any of their senior agents to stake out the ranch, no, at that time in the morning they are more likely to be asleep in their beds."

So, it was agreed, they would head back towards imperial space, early the next morning, Therefore, Johan instructed the Excalibur to lift off in the snow storm, to travel below the radar level and time its flight to arrive at their current position at precisely 03.00 hours.

Chapter Four

Back to Imperial Space

It was still raining hard at 02.55 hours when they crept out of the old nuclear fall-out shelter and up the now slippery stone steps. They searched the trees around them for signs of the agents, however they did not see anyone, in any case the rain would have sent them scampering for their vehicle. So, they headed for the rendezvous point and they were both soaked to the skin by the time they reached the open grassland, which was on the other side of the wooded hill from the two DIA agents. They stared up at the rain filled skies, searching for a sight of the Excalibur and then they saw it. It was approaching from the north, low down, almost skimming over the top of the long grass and it was practically silent. It had got a fix on their position from Johan`s computer and was coming straight towards them. It landed just feet away from them, the outer airlock door opening to receive them. Seconds later and they were aboard the Excalibur, the airlock closed behind them and the craft lifted off and flew up in to the rain filled clouds. Johan had programmed the spaceship to do just this, it had been as the Excalibur approached their position, so that they would not be delayed. It hovered within the dark rain clouds while Troy and Johan, with a trail of water following on behind them, entered their cabins and dried off their hair and faces and then changed in to a clean set of clothes. Once more they resembled star-trek officers.

Their journey back to imperial space started with a trip across the orbits of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets of the sol solar system. Then they arrived at the heliopause and here Johan took them in to hyperspace, they were finally heading at speed towards imperial space and whatever danger it held for them. Johan now produced the imperial message ordering the Hunter spacecraft back to imperial space. He made it appear as if this was the first that he too had heard of it. Even hearing this news, Troy was surprised that the Enforcer had obeyed the order for so minor a reason, however, he would not have been surprised to find that it had all been a ruse, one designed to bring them out of their hiding place. As they neared the edge of imperial space, Johan asked.

"We are about to begin our search Troy, for people who are brave enough to risk the wrath of the emperor, ones who will join us in our crusade to free the people of the empire from the reign of terror in which we all live under."

"As I said Johan, my uncle lives and works on the moon Centaur, it orbits a rocky planet in the Cygnet planetary system. He has been an ardent advocator for a greater amount of democracy, even when the federation ruled over the colonies, since the emperor took power he has quietened down some, lest he be imprisoned, but his political views have not altered, age has just made him a little wiser."

"On to the Centaur, with luck Troy, we will find plenty of supporters who will wish to join us on our crusade against evil." Johan replied.

"Only if you can tell them Johan, how you will destroy the emperor`s space fleet." Troy said.

Johan merely smiled and said.

"You must wait and see Troy and be prepared to be surprised at what I have to tell everyone."

Soon their spaceship was cruising deeper in to imperial space Troy never quite knowing if a Hunter would appear to arrest them, however the excitement of what they were about to embark on kept his worries buried, for the moment anyhow. They finally entered the Cygnet planetary system, their destination the moon Centaur and with the prospect of finding friends there. Troy was looking forward to meeting his uncle, for although they were fond of each other, their work had kept them apart for some time.

Regan Defoe was an independent miner of the crystals that helped power their starship and all the other such spaceships in the galaxy. He could have been a wealthy man; however, he spent his credits as soon as he earned them, either on himself or on his family and friends. Smiling as he thought of his wayward relative, Troy called his uncle on the radio.

"Uncle Regan, it is Troy, Johan and I would like to visit for a few days, is it permissible?"

His uncle would have heard about their hasty departure from imperial space, he would also realise that his nephew was asking if any imperial troopers were currently on the moon or maybe a Hunter spaceship. Two minutes flew by, but then their communications centre crackled and then his uncle answered his call.

"Troy, come on down, we were only talking about you last night, wondering how you were. You know the coordinates, touch down in the same spot that you left from the last time that you were here. Remember, Troy, your last departure point, and come in careful like, the terrain can be very tricky up there."

"We will be with you within the hour Uncle, out."

Troy stared thoughtfully at the communications console, noticing Troy`s thoughtful expression, Johan asked.

"Is everything all right Troy, no problems with our visiting your uncle?"

"I am not sure Johan, why would Uncle Regan want us to land near to the highlands, they are ten miles from his house, why not a little nearer?"

"It is a little strange, but maybe a freighter is parked on his landing pad, although that would hardly explain the distance." Johan replied.

"It certainly is strange; the terrain is no worse than the rest of the highlands. No, he must have visitors, ones that might take an unhealthy interest in us." Troy replied as he input the coordinates in to the NavCom.

Not taking any chances on their personal safety, Johan took the long way down, skimming over the surface of the moon and approaching the landing site from the far side of the coordinates, as seen from Regan`s homestead. The area around the designated landing site was rocky, deep gullies cut through it making it dangerous to drive across and tricky to land their small space yacht. No one was in sight and Regan did not arrive in his moon buggy until two hours later. After donning their space suits, they walked across to the buggy, which was the size of and resembled a large Sno-Cat. After greeting each other Regan explained the secrecy.

"You already know that the emperor has appointed governors to rule over the planetary systems devoid of a habitable planet, the Cygnet system is just such a one. There is only this moon, and it does not have an atmosphere, and the system`s asteroid belt that are suitable for mining, therefore, up until now, we have been free of bureaucracy. Now the new governor visits every mine as often as he can, about every two months given the number of mines that are spread around the system. You`re lucky, he is finished with Centaur for another two months, he left as you arrived."

"Just how large is his entourage." Johan asked.

Regan turned to Johan and said.

"Perhaps the term governor is a little too grand Johan, he is more like an accountant who also sends reports on us all to the Sung-Li. His entourage consists of a woman who cooks, cleans and is his night time comfort. An engineer to keep his starship in good condition, a geologist who ensures that the miners do not cheat Sung-Li of his taxes and two large bodyguards."

Regan now turned back to Troy and asked.

"So, what brings two outlaws to our fair moon, if you are here to hideaway, then your starship will be a sure give away. Not all the miners are loyal to their fellows, the ones who work a poorer mine are not against taking the emperor`s bribes. He will know that you are here before long, or at least in this sector of space." Regan began. "Although long distance communication is about to change for the worse, for I have heard that Sung-Li has finally hit upon a way to send messages via sub-space. One of his scientists came up with it, it uses a form of Morse code. I hear that he has already despatched the necessary software to his minions, that is the Hunters, soon the governors and his army of informers will likely have the ability to send encoded messages without the need to despatch a starship. It is a little cumbersome, as a gap of two seconds has to be inserted between each beep or squawk, to ensure that the message does not become scrambled within sub-space and messages are probably kept short for speed of operation. Although, I assume that complex messages will be possible, as the computer will encode any such message and also input the required gaps, although sending one will take much longer. I am told that they send the message via a tight beam signal, so that the message is delivered to the correct planetary system, although how well it works as the distance increases I do not know. As soon as he receives the encoded message regarding you, the computer will quickly restore the message and Sung-Li will despatch a number of Hunters to our system. Troy you would have trouble in escaping them if you stay here too long."

Troy was worried by what he had heard, Johan though looked more annoyed than troubled, however, he did not comment on the matter, Troy did though.

"We will have to get hold of the software, such technology could make or break many a good man and his plans. However, in answer to your previous comment Uncle, we are not in need of a good hideaway, we have just left one, however, we gave it up to return to imperial space. Uncle, Johan and I are looking for recruits to join our new democratic army, we are going to drive Sung-Li and his cronies out of his empire and replace him with a federation based on democratic lines."

To say that Regan was stunned would be an understatement, it took him a long moment to reply to this and that was after staring hard at Johan.

"Well, I must say that I am surprised to hear that you are willing to give up your position, your crown, but good on you. I, and many of the others, will be happy to follow you if it means bringing the empire down, assuming that you have spacecraft, weapons and an army. There is already talk amongst the miners of making some sort of protest against the new taxes, however, no one wants to be the person to lodge the complaint, in case the emperor makes an example of them, so you will be well received. Bear in mind Johan, the people here are not fools, you will need a good plan if you are to have them join you, they will not follow you otherwise. I will speak to those who I know can be trusted, but only on the understanding that you say nothing to anyone, not without my say so. As I said earlier, we have a fair number of miners who would not hesitate to report you to Sung-Li, it would certainly pay more than many earn in mining."

"We will be careful Uncle, we must all be careful, until the moment comes to strike, then we will tell the galaxy that we are here and in a very loud voice."

"There is something else Troy, something that I only heard yesterday." Regan said. "The emperor has replaced the officers of one of his space cruisers, the Chaser, and replaced them with people loyal only to his money and his might. Word is he going to do the same to the other five cruisers. With their backing he will be undefeatable."

"The answer to that Regan is simple, we must begin our rebellion before he completes his plan, we need at least three of those spacecraft, and their trained crews, if we are to be victorious, more if possible." Johan said grimly.

The following night a covert meeting was held in Regan`s dome and Johan opened it.

"We asked you all here to talk rebellion. We want you to join us in a rebellion against the empire, against Sung-Li. You have all probably heard of me, I led a squadron of federation fast attack spacecraft against the space pirates before Sung-Li betrayed the federation and made himself emperor. I enjoyed considerable success which I promise I will duplicate in this new war against a major criminal, the emperor, Sung-Li. Following this meeting I will embark on a tour of imperial space to find free people who will join us in this quest. There are already men and women out there, revolutionaries, who have been planning and plotting, I know their names and they are ready to join us in our crusade against the empire." Johan began.

While it was true that he knew some of the names of the people he had just mentioned, he did not know where to find, if he did then so would the emperor, and by now they would be dead. He did not mention this though, instead, he said.

"I hear that you are planning to send a deputation to Sung-Li with a list of your complaints. My father did that and the emperor threw him in to a dungeon deep beneath the ground, he will do the same to your representatives. Any of you who want to join us on our crusade, but require weapons, you will get them, I will see to that, I will also supply provisions, transport and safe places to lay up in. Tonight though, I want to hear from you, what initial concerns you have that may prevent you from doing what is right?"

In answer to this request, Regan asked Johan a question.

"Sung-Li has six heavily armoured space cruisers and thirty Hunters, how will you defeat them, because until you can tell us how, I for one will stay at home."

"Thankfully, many of the crews and officers aboard the cruisers have been part of our space fleet for many years, therefore, many of the officers and crew on five of the cruisers will look with favour upon our rebellion against the emperor. They have only stayed their hand this far because of their fear of spies, that and the fact that they did not have any land forces to take out the emperor`s minions." Johan said and then added. "I know this because I know many of the officers and men on board the cruisers, I have served with them." Johan cried out and then turned, looked at Regan and said.

"As for the sixth cruiser, you have just informed me that it is already loyal to Sung-Li, so, it is already lost to us. The longer we wait to deal with Sung-Li, the more cruisers will fall in to his hands and the stronger he will get, until he is unbeatable. However, I believe that for the moment, a very short moment, the space cruisers can be ignored as a threat, for although as I said, he has plans to replace the officers and crews with those loyal to him, it is not easy to find such people, it takes years to train them, I personally know that. To negate his plan, we must begin our rebellion before he has secured the loyalty of another one, or else we are lost before we have begun." Johan belted out before speaking in a more levelled tone.

"Of course, we cannot take even the assistance of the other cruisers for granted, not unless we keep to the moral high ground, if we mimic the empire`s cruelty, it might turn the remaining crews against us."

The men and women of Centaur were giving him a fair hearing, many had cheered his words, partly because they agreed with them and partly because they knew and respected his father. King Galliano was felt by all to be a just and able man, this feeling was now transferred to Johan, and he would enjoy it for as long as he respected them by answering any of the concerns that were raised that night. A lesser reason was that the emperor had made him an outlaw, a folk figure to the miners. The reason given by Sung-Li was that Johan had committed treason against the people, a much-used reason of Sung-Li that was, now, never taken seriously. One of the miners at the meeting, Maric Legion, a young man who had many friends and supporters, was not so easily swayed and he stood up and asked a question.

"The cities on the colony planets must be full of willing recruits, why start your drive for recruits amongst the outer planets?"

"I intend to restrict our warfare against the cities within the colony planets to just taking out the leaders who back the empire, wherever they can be found. I do not intend to become embroiled in a number of planetary wars, that would lead to too many deaths. For this reason, I began my search for an army here, where there are hard tough men and women whom I know I can despatch to the colony planets to wage war upon any leader or security officer who supports Sung-Li." Johan replied to some applause.

"While we are sent away to fight on the planets, what do you intend to do, sit back here and watch?" Legion said contemptuously.

Johan smiled and said to the young miner.

"No, my friend, I will lead our space fleet against the empire, I will battle to deny space to Sung-Li and in doing so allow the colony leaders who believe as we do to openly come out against him."

"What space fleet, all you have is a space yacht that appears to have been damaged in a skirmish." Legion scoffed.

Johan`s audience was falling in behind the young miner and Johan knew that he had to win them over now, or not at all. He had told Troy to be prepared to be surprised, the time had now come to back up his words with a few facts.

"Before I allow you to risk your lives, I will already have the agreement of most of the officers and men of the space cruisers to come over to our cause. As for the Hunter spacecraft, I have a plan to deal with them, however, I will only say to you all that you do not need to worry too much about them. To lay out our plans could be to see the information leak out and then we would face defeat at the very beginning of our rebellion."

Legion seemed to accept this, however, he then asked another question.

"You say that you are going to leave the cities alone, except for their principal leaders Prince Johan, what I want to know is how you intend to handle the security men, the state police, the militia, who appear to be loyal to Sung-Li. Each of the colony planets must have a fair number, after you take out the principal leaders, will these people accept the new leadership or will they mount a coup and seize control. If so, where are your soldiers, trained for street fighting, coming from, the few marines that are on the space cruisers will be busy on Zeta?"

"Mr Legion, I agree that it will take time, overthrowing a regime such as Sung-Li`s is not easy, however, cut off from Sung-Li, with no outside help coming to them, and the certainty that we will come for them if they resist the will of the people, I believe that most of them will yield without a fight." Johan replied. "I intend to send a small hit team to take out any who seek to mount a counter coup, they will be backed by the fast attack spacecraft operated by our own people. None of the planets possess the necessary military equipment to go up against them craft and our hit teams will link up with the local dissidents to bring any action to a quick and lasting solution."

Troy was not so sure, although he agreed that if Johan`s plans as regards to the space cruisers and the Hunters came off, victory would be theirs, but he also feared that there would also be a fair amount of blood spilt on all of the planets. For he knew that Johan did not know any of the revolutionaries that fought secretly against the emperor, that was an outright lie and without them the rebellion would be bloody and drawn out.

However, Johan finally felt that the meeting was going well, and he felt able to lay out some of his initial battle orders.

"For those who will join me in overthrowing the empire, there is much work ahead for you. You must vote for section leaders, they will command small teams of guerrilla fighters, ones who will be sent to the chosen colony where you will operate. Once there, you will be met by members of the revolutionary group who many of you will have heard talked about. They have already made detailed plans to rid the planet of all of its leaders and their minions who follow the emperor, they simply lacked numbers. I will inform you as to which colony just days before the rebellion starts, I will also organise transport and arms for you. You will also require sub-leaders, you, together with your elected section leaders, must also select the most able amongst you to fill these positions. Watch out for spies and be careful to only speak rebellion within your domes, to ensure that the emperor`s minions do not learn of the rebellion through careless talk."

"One more thing, which I cannot stress too much, please do nothing more than what I have asked of you, not until you have heard from myself or Troy. Centaur is only the beginning of our recruitment campaign, we have many more moons, planets and asteroids to visit before we will be ready to fight."

The meeting had gone well for Johan, he had won over the hearts and minds of many a person present at the meeting. Troy was surprised but one thought kept repeating within his head, as long as his words were not just so much hot air. On the following night, they held another meeting, this time on the other side of the moon Centaur, this one arranged by people known to Regan and so they were free of anyone thought to be suspect. However, Troy thought that word must soon get back to Sung-Li, even if they were only suspicions that something was going on in the Cygnet planetary system. However, the local governor still did not return to Centaur and this in itself surprised him, as he said to Johan, who replied.

"Troy, do not look for trouble where it obviously does not exist, as long as you track the governor`s spaceship he cannot catch us in the act."

"Then I had better stay glued to our scanner screen, should the worst happen, then I can warn you and we will be away before they even realise that we were here." Troy replied wearily.

One month later, after many space flights and even more meetings, Troy was sitting on the bridge of the Excalibur, they were on a large asteroid in the Mantel system and he was engaged in watching the scanner screen. Troy was concerned about his friend's attitude to the security regarding their planned rebellion, for Johan seemed to behave as if this was all a game, and they, merely players.

They had managed one meeting a day, following a gruelling regime of space-flights, evading the governors and answering so many questions, that it left them exhausted. More meetings were planned within this system`s asteroid belt, again organised by Regan who knew so many miners in so many planetary systems. Of course, there was always the problem of this system`s governor suddenly making an appearance, for his spaceship was armed and the Excalibur was not. When the governor was in their immediate vicinity, relatively speaking, Troy spent many hours tracking the course of the governor's spaceship, a slow inter-planetary craft that lacked the facility for inter-star travel. However, still no Hunter spacecraft arrived on the scene, could it mean that his fear of betrayal was unfounded, Troy wondered, that even the poorest miner would not take Sung-Li`s gold if it meant that the rebellion would not then happen.

One senior member of the, almost mythical, revolutionary force that Johan had often mentioned to the miners, the astronauts and the workers on the space stations, was Galicia Hearn. A woman of fifty years, heavily built and who worked with her sons and daughter, on the asteroid M1901, which was within the Mantel planetary system. They had been invited to a meeting, and she was impressed by what she heard. She immediately sought him out after the meeting and spoke with him.

"Prince Johan, I was very impressed by what you said tonight, I heard your name mentioned previously, regarding your time in the space fleet, which is one of the reasons why I came to the meeting, to meet a man capable of anything."

"Thank you, Ms Hearn, in that case, I hope from what you yourself have just said, that you and your family will join our crusade?"

"We may at that Prince Johan, it is partly that which I wanted to speak to you about, you see I am part of a group of likeminded individuals, and I believe that they too would like to meet you too. However, there is one point that I must raise with you before the meeting can take place, you said in the meeting that you had the backing of a group of revolutionaries who have been planning rebellion for some year, Prince Johan, that is not true."

"No, Ms Hearn it was not true, however, I knew that it would be and here you are." Johan said and then smiled at Galicia who surrendered under the gaze of a Herculean figure.

"Can you meet our group in one week`s time on the planet Rigel, we have a house there on an estate just on the outside of the small town of Largo?"

"I would be delighted Ms Hearn."

"Excellent, I will contact you Prince Johan, on your arrival at the town, land near to the lake, that way we cannot miss seeing your vessel land." Galicia Hearn said and then turned and left.

**********

Johan was excited at the prospect of meeting Galicia Hearn and her friends, for he wondered if they would turn out to be the mythical revolutionary group that they had heard tell of. However, Johan and Troy had another engagement already arranged before they travelled to Rigel. Therefore, they travelled to one of the larger asteroids, R1847, in the Ranger planetary system. They were in the middle of a meeting arranged by a friend of Troy`s, when Troy, who was aboard the Excalibur, noticed two new arrivals in to the planetary system, who they were he did not know, but he watched them carefully as they came ever nearer and listened for any radio traffic, which soon came.

"Prince Johan, greetings, we are Hunters and we have heard about your planned rebellion and we want to join you in your bid to destroy the empire."

Johan had appeared on the bridge of the Excalibur following the end of the meeting and heard the strange request, and to Troy`s amazement Johan agreed. On their arrival at the asteroid, strangely, they took up station alongside the Excalibur and offered their protection against any craft loyal to Sung-Li. They did not ask any questions regarding the plans for the rebellion, which Troy found odd, they did not even ask how the preparations were proceeding. He also wondered why Hunters, people loyal only to themselves, would come across to their side when the outcome of the rebellion was unknown.

**********

As Johan had agreed to meet Galicia Hearn and her friends in a week`s time on the planet Rigel, she had sent out a signal, using the same system used by the emperor, except, one of the conspirators was the manufacturer of the emperor`s communications system. He had discovered how to send oral messages that were not scrambled by sub-space. Hearn cut her recording of Johan`s speech to just the relevant parts, then she added her own message. The oral message was then compressed by her computer and finally, sent. When it reached its destination, software that accompanied the transmission automatically expanded the message. Therefore, when the recipient was notified that a message was awaiting him, by his computer, he was able to listen to it without any sub-space distortions or scrambling. She had asked her fellow conspirators to gather on the planet Rigel, one of the oldest of the colony planets and situated approximately in the middle of the empire, here they could meet and speak to Johan. Their arrival at the space port would go unnoticed by everyone, for the ancient capital city of Rigel was always crowded and the people of the empire flocked to the planet to gaze upon its wonders. It was where the federation had been born, where it met to discuss the present and the future. However, Sung-Li preferred his own planet Zeta, with a modern capital city with glass and steel buildings that stretched up to the sky. Five days later the conspirators met at a small lake-side estate, which one of them owned, it contained a grand old house which they occasionally used for their meetings. The whole group listened to the full recording of the meeting held by Johan, the following discussion took them longer than the meeting, much longer, for their security was a serious matter, to all of them. At last they came to a decision, to go ahead with their agreed meeting with Johan. Finally, they thought, their time had arrived, the end of the despotic empire was, almost, within sight.

**********

The day before they were due to travel to Rigel, Troy spoke about the two Hunter spacecraft.

"Johan, we cannot allow the two Hunters to travel with us on such a momentous meeting, ask them to remain here, otherwise the conspirators may detect them and not turn up, fearing a trap."

Johan pondered for a moment on Troy`s advice, and then agreed, so they travelled to Rigel alone. On meeting the mythical group of revolutionaries, Johan told them what he had accomplished so far. He had the promises of six large teams of crusaders, as he called them, who would travel to the major colony planets to assassinate the leaders who had come out against any form of democracy. He had two more teams of crusaders who would travel to the two space docks, one was above Zeta and the other was above Rigel. He believed that five of the space cruisers would come over to their side, if they were seen as offering freedom and not the dictatorship offered by Sung-Li`s empire. This was assuming that they struck before Sung-Li trained more officers capable of handling a cruiser. Using some of the crews on the five cruisers, he had also formulated a plan to take control of a large number of the Hunter spacecraft, depending upon how many were at the space port on Zeta at the time of the rebellion.

The conspirators were very impressed and after just a short time discussing the present situation with Troy and Johan, the conspirators decided to join them in their crusade. As a joining fee, they offered them their ready-made organisation, which included a number of detailed plans that would allow them to strike at their enemies on the colony planets. They also offered their own teams of highly trained men and women whom they termed freedom fighters. They also had safe houses, both on and off the colony planets and more importantly, they had transport, starships. They then told the two friends of a new secret weapon, their new technology which allowed them to communicate orally through sub-space at speeds undreamt of before then. Troy was ecstatic, for the rebellion was no longer just conjecture, it was really about to happen. Everything necessary was in place, they had a network of agents, safe bases, transport, an army, all they needed was a space fleet and Johan was about to attempt to procure one. Troy found that he could not dampen the ardour of the conspirators, even when he informed them of the latest imperial communications breakthrough, for they knew about it, they manufactured it. Using it as a starting place, the conspirators had designed their own system, and it was more advanced, technologically and much faster.

With the necessary updates to his communications system installed, over-riding any previous software, Johan used the new technology to send a verbal message to Captain Rice Kantile, captain of the space cruiser Defiant. Kantile was an old colleague of Johan`s from his days with the space fleet.

"Rice, this is Johan Galliano, I guess you heard that I am no longer welcome at the court of Sung-Li, well I am back in imperial space with an army of loyal troops and all we need are some space cruisers to make our rebellion succeed. I am still light years away from Zeta, however, as you see, I am able to send you a verbal message. Software downloaded on to your computer means that you can reply to this message, if you and your fellow captains want rid of the emperor, let me know a time and place where we can meet to discuss our next move."

The following day Johan received a reply from Kantile, he and the other four captains of the space cruisers had agreed to meet Johan, however, they had not agreed, as yet, to join him in his rebellion. Johan knew that if they were loyal subjects of the emperor, it was their duty to inform Sung-Li of the contents of the message. This would mean that he would be walking in to a trap, however, he refused to believe that Kantile would take such an action, or any of Kantile`s colleagues.

Troy and Johan took the Excalibur to the Ryjack system, which was devoid of habitable planets, however, there was a small number of miners there, living beneath the radar so that, as yet, a governor had not been given charge of the system. This was why it had been chosen as the meeting place. When the Excalibur arrived, they saw the space cruiser Defiant in orbit around an icy minor planet a little larger than Pluto. Kantile immediately called them on the radio, which worked fine over such distances.

"Greetings, Johan, come alongside the Defiant and we will send out our docking tube to attach around your airlock."

They were soon walking on to the deck of the space cruiser, a junior officer greeted them and escorted them along to the briefing room, standing around a highly polished table were ten senior officers of the Zetan space fleet. Each captain had brought along his first officer, for if they agreed to aid Johan, they would need these men to back them to the hilt. After the initial introductions they all sat down, Kantile, as the host, spoke first.

"The Defiant embarked from the space dock to check out its hyperdrive engine, it seems our chief engineer felt that there was something wrong with it. As for the others here." Kantile said indicating the other officers around the table. "No one other than their senior officers still aboard their vessels know of their location and with luck we will be back before anyone realises that they were missing from their vessels."

Troy looked at Kantile quizzically and said to him.

"That is a little risky isn`t it, what happens if the emperor calls for one of them?"

"If anyone asks, they will be told that we needed to get away from our vessels and have taken a day off to enjoy Zeta." Captain Charteris of the cruiser Repulse replied.

With this question answered, Kantile asked Johan to open the actual discussion. Johan looked at the ten officers seated around the table, for the empire to fall each of these officers had to agree, or none would, for otherwise any who chose not to join the rebellion would surely notify the emperor about this meeting. As far as Johan was concerned, these officers were the empire, they had only stayed their hand so far, because they would have needed the backing that Johan now offered them. The officers may think that they knew one another, however, they realised that no one really knew what was in the mind of another, especially that of Prince Johan`s. He looked serious when he began to speak, for rebellion was a serious matter, especially when no one at the meeting was sure, as of that moment, who they could trust.

"Thank you for trusting us this far, for nothing is beyond the emperor or his minions, even the use of agent provocateurs to test his senior officers." Johan began and then continued.

"I had no choice but to put my trust in you, without you there is no rebellion. But enough of this, you want to know what I can bring to the pot, well I am about to tell you; however, I will not name any names until you have agreed in principle to join me in ridding the galaxy of Sung-Li." Johan smiled now and continued.

"I have a secret army of trusted people who will take down the minions of the emperor, that is, the leaders and their senior followers on all the colony planets as well as Zeta. However, we will not land troops en-masse, that would see too much blood spilt, it will be a war of the assassination of individuals. I personally will provide our people with energy weapons, including long range sniper rifles, I have them ready for dispersal. I also have enough private money to pay for provisions for these ground attack troops, the people who are to take out the minions of the emperor. We have transport, safe bases and long range secure communication, as we have demonstrated. Finally, I have a plan to hijack the Hunter spacecraft en-masse. So, what do you say, yes, you will join us in ridding the galaxy of the emperor, or no, if you are comfortable with the present situation."

Johan and Troy were then asked to leave the room while the ten officers discussed their options and just one hour later they were asked to return. The ten men looked up as they re-entered the room, they looked serious, were they going to refuse Johan? Kantile then told them of their decision.

"Johan, what you ask is fraught with danger, for so many things could go wrong, however, as you said, if we want to change the current order we must accept a little danger, so yes, we will join you in your crusade against evil."

Johan sighed with relief and said.

"You have made the correct decision gentlemen, for all of our people, except those who currently are in the pay of Sung-Li. We cannot waste any time, our plans could be discovered at any time, I propose that we go ahead in seven days' time. At two hours before dawn Zetan time, so that Captain Fargo can take back control of the Chaser, I assume that there are still those who are loyal to their old captain, and that they will open the main airlock to allow you entry?"

Kantile nodded and then said "Yes, Johan, there will be no problem in liberating the Chaser."

Troy now saw that Johan had withheld a lot from him as Johan continued to outline his plans.

"I believe that there are sixteen Hunter spaceships currently parked at the Zetan space port, I suggest we throw an overnight party and lure as many of their crews to it, we can ensure that they do not return to their craft. As for whatever remains of their crews aboard the spacecraft, I further suggest that we turn up with a coach and ask them to help their comrades back aboard. As soon as the airlocks are opened then we take the control of the vessels. We will need sixteen crews comprising of at least a pilot and an engineer, they must be ready to board our new fleet of sixteen fast attack craft, they can take off and rendezvous up at the space dock where we can give them their assignments." Johan said laying out his plan before the ten officers and Troy. "The remaining Hunters are in pairs on the six colony planets, these I will arrange to be destroyed while they are on the ground. If any Hunters survive our initial attack, knowing the breed, they will soon offer their services to us as we will have the only space fleet in existence."

Kantile and the others smiled and then Captain Forger of the cruiser Swiftsure said.

"Sounds so easy when you outline it aboard a space cruiser, however, we will all have to be on our toes if we are to pull it off, so many things could go wrong. Certainly, the new crews of the Hunters will have to be ready to react to any emergencies that spring up during the first hour of the rebellion and they will, it is the way of things."

Hours later the two spaceships parted and went their ways, Troy was happy, the rebellion was on, nothing could stop it except betrayal. During the days following the meeting, the ten officers of the space cruisers, and later their crews, felt restless, impatient, both for the rebellion to begin, and for its victorious end. All shore leave had been cancelled, to stop careless talk spreading word of the rebellion to the many ears that listened and especially listening to every indiscretion uttered by people who had imbibed too much alcohol.

As for the conspirators, they too felt impatient for the rebellion to begin, fear ate away at some of them, had they been wise to put their trust in so many, would it end with their imprisonment. These fears were forgotten for most of the time, for there was so much to organise, their highly trained teams needed to be prepared, transport had to be moved in to place, weapons gathered and distributed. Johan`s private army of miners and astronauts were feeling the strain of waiting, as were the colonists who were known to the miners and had agreed to join the rebellion.

Chapter Five

Betrayal

Once again, they were on the moon Centaur, and it was here that they finalised their plans, Troy was out talking to Regan while Johan was all alone on the space yacht. Johan had just finished recording a long and very detailed message. It detailed the rebellion in full including dates, times, number of rebels involved, mode of travel and their targets. As he listened to the message, prior to sending it, the ship`s computer sprang to life.

"There is a message for you My Lord, it is from the Emperor. It came in using the old system, however, I was able to translate it using the new communications system`s translation mode which incorporates a decipher program."

Johan had programmed the computer to only inform him of any messages waiting for him when he was alone on the starship. He remembered the last time that he had spoken to the Emperor, and what Sung Li, had said to him.

_"Rebellion is in the air Prince Johan, we must crush it or it will come in to being and crush us. Give me their heads and you will be my Heir Apparent. While I live you will reign over all of the planets in my name, when I die you will reign in your own name. However, your father will attempt to stop us, first we must send King Belvedere Galliano to meet his maker. Give me evidence that will convince the Grand Council that he is a traitor to my empire, call it a gesture of your good intentions towards me." Sung-Li had smiled as Johan sunk to his knees and said._

_"So be it my Emperor."_

Johan looked across at the computer and said.

"Play the message computer."

The emperor`s voice then filled the bridge.

"I have sent you two Hunter spaceships, they should be with you now, have no fear Prince Johan, you can trust them, they do not know anything of our plans, however, they have my personal orders to obey you, whatever orders you may give them. As for your mission, send whatever data you have acquired, send it to me now. Do not wait until you have gathered all of it, for there is much work to be done before I can make use of it. Be careful, Troy is no fool, take care until you finally return to Zeta, then we will crush the traitors and ensure that our rule lasts far in to the future."

Since returning to imperial space, Johan had sent Sung-Li many messages, short ones that gave his position and status using his former communications system. He would use the new technology to send the information on the document to Sung-Li, but only when his task was complete and not before, as Sung-Li wanted. In any case, he was almost done. His thoughts returned to his last meeting with the emperor.

_"I want you to be a rallying point for all the disaffected, to do that we must make the empire believe that you are my enemy. You will tell my subjects that you want to cast me from my throne and as they rally to you, you will inform me as to who they are." Sung-Li ordered. "When we have all of their names, we will execute them."_

_"You realise My Emperor, that I will be universally hated when they find out that I betrayed them."_

_"Do you want to bow down before another, not be my heir apparent, just be one who is universally loved by the people?"_

_"It will be as you say My Emperor, I will return home to furnish you with everything that you require."_

Johan`s thoughts then turned to his father and how he, Johan, after thinking about how he should go about his task, came up with an answer and had offered the following advice to the emperor.

_"Raise the taxes of all the people who live on the colony planets, tell them it is to pay for the protection they currently receive free, protection against pirates and revolutionaries. When they begin to complain, limit their freedom to travel around imperial space. Tell them that it is to stop the growing number of people who are turning to crime. This will be enough to have my father come to your court to complain in person to you My Emperor. I will have previously provided you with_ _recorded conversations between my father and myself, carefully edited so that on the conversations my father will be seen to be a traitor_. _"_

These recorded conversations were between his father and himself, carefully edited so that on the conversations, he praised the emperor while his father said many things that he would never say to anyone other than his closest family members. His father was not part of any rebellion, he never would have been, he was against war because of the suffering and death that it caused.

Johan had one problem, if he was to complete the task set him. He did not know anyone who could be on the point of rebelling, his circle was all loyal to Sung-Li and were happy with the status quo. His time in the space fleet meant that he knew the senior officers aboard the space cruisers, however, they were far to wise to join a rebellion without a certain chance of victory. On talking to the emperor about this problem, it was decided that Troy`s past meant that he would know some of the lesser members of this rebellious element. Johan would have to trick Troy in to leading him, unsuspectingly, to the more senior members. To make this happen the emperor had formulated a plan. It was simple, Johan must be chased by Hunters, who would be under orders not to kill them, on pain of death. They would be temporarily marooned, and here Johan would hatch a plan with Troy to return to the home world and overthrow the empire. On the way back, they would contact anyone known to Troy, Johan would then send their names and locations back to the Hunter shadowing them. When they had enough names, they would kill or imprison the individuals. Johan had agreed to all this because obviously, he secretly desired his father`s crown and the destruction of anyone who wanted a more democratic society. Obviously, because otherwise why would he have aided the emperor against his father, no, he saw dictatorship as his way to procure a comfortable future, with unlimited power, for himself.

Unfortunately, the Hunter primed for this job fell down and broke his leg, just minutes before the plan unfolded. Therefore, when the call came for him to arrest Johan, the Hunter named Malik Raptor took it and it was his spaceship that set off to arrest Johan. Unfortunately, for Sung-Li and Johan, Raptor did not know about the plan, nor could he be trusted to abide by it, if he was belatedly informed of it, or keep its details to himself. No, he was noted for his republican beliefs, his views bordered on anti-imperialist, however he was the best Hunter in the empire, whose main interest was in the bounty that he received for his prey, therefore, he was tolerated. With his plan starting off badly, Sung-Li depended on fate to bring Prince Johan back to the empire in accordance with their plans, if not, then Sung-Li would look for another with whom to offer his empire.

This elaborate plan of the emperor was only known to a very few people, for he remembered the traitor Anton had been warned hours prior to his would be arrest, and that Anton had successfully fled to a secret hiding place, still unknown. There was also the other traitor Rycovitch, he had been rescued from a Hunter spaceship, by people still unknown, and that had been bringing him to the palace for interrogation. His location too was still unknown.

Johan was finally satisfied with the document, his computer compressed the verbal message and sent in through sub-space to Sung-Li who would hear the voice of Johan, a piece of information that had been withheld by the conspirators.

**********

What Johan did not know was that the conspirators had held some information back, for security reasons, any message sent to Sung-Li had to have a code added to it, otherwise the message would be diverted to the conspirators, which is what happened.

Listening to it they felt a deep sense of disappointment rush through them, luckily, they could ensure that Johan did not live to attempt to betray them again. The message however, did prove that Troy was not in on this dastardly plan to stop democracy returning to this portion of the galaxy for centuries to come. They immediately despatched two of their number, Margarita and Talin, to speak to Troy, to tell him of the treachery that Johan planned.

They arrived on the moon Centaur and invited him aboard their spaceship, which had landed on the edge of a large crater, where they could not be overheard or disturbed, by Johan especially.

"I simply do not believe you, Johan would never act in such a way, Sung-Li has imprisoned his father, he even despatched a Hunter after us who almost killed us." Troy cried out in anger mixed with disbelief at the way the conspirators were acting towards his friend.

"Troy, we too found it hard to take in, however, once we listened to the recordings, ones which we replayed many times, we were forced to one conclusion, Prince Johan is Sung-Li`s creature." Margarita replied. "There is no other interpretation that can be put on to his message to Sung-Li."

It was time to play the recording of the treacherous message and even after hearing it, Troy`s first impulse was to disbelieve it.

"This could easily be computer generated, what proof do you have that this message came from Johan?" Troy demanded to know.

"You are wrong Troy, for two reasons. First, our communications system only plays back the message using the voice of the sender. Secondly, to ensure that no deception is involved, a video recording is made, however, it is only sent if the recipient is one of the seven conspirators. No one except the seven conspirators know of these safeguards, except for myself, Talin and now you Troy. I am sorry Troy, but it was Johan who sent the message." Margarita replied glumly.

Troy was now shown the video the recording, and he now had to acknowledge that his friend was a traitor, an enemy to everything that Troy and the rebels believed in. It certainly explained why Johan was not worried about security, he had no need to worry.

"Sung-Li and Johan must have set out to lure everyone out who wished to see the empire fall. Johan used our friendship to winkle the others out, knowing that in the end he would have to kill me, or be killed. The crews of the space cruisers, the miners, your group and many more have been betrayed, we all fell under his spell. Thankfully we can ensure that these recordings will never get in to the hands of our enemies. To fool us all, Johan was forced to design a rebellion that could work, if we were brave enough to see it through to the end, not stop to mourn those who died on the way." Troy said coldly.

"What he did not foresee was that someone would not fall completely under his spell, your group held back vital information, information that will see him executed as a traitor." Troy added grimly.

"We need a leader new Troy, someone people will trust, or the rebellion will wither and die, who should it be, Captain Kantile?" Margarita asked.

"No, no one must know that our leader was a traitor to all that we hold dear, Sung-Li`s man otherwise they will back out, even Captain Kantile. I will lead us in the traitor`s name. We have the plan, the resources, the emperor has no idea that his schemes have been discovered, he even thinks that victory is his bar the shouting. Let us show him what it is like to lose everything." Troy said thinking about his lost friendship and swearing to get even with Sung-Li.

"We cannot fail our people, Margarita, Talin, this is our only chance and it is a very good one, in four days' time we fight, until then I will use the computer to speak for Johan, it will be his voice that they hear, but my words. You two will have to do much more than was originally planned, remember to tell anyone who wants to see Johan personally, that he is too busy ensuring that the rebellion succeeds, if they must talk to anyone, then I will have to do." Troy said and then added.

"You had better tell call Galicia and the others, to inform them of this change in our plans, we do not want them revealing, inadvertently, that our glorious leader is a traitor. Now, I will exterminate that creature, he is resting in his cabin probably, the future, for us, will begin then."

Troy walked back in to the Excalibur, took off his space helmet, walked along to Johan`s cabin and knocked on the door while calling out. "Johan, are you awake?"

"Come in Troy, what is up?"

Troy opened the door, his energy weapon in his hand and said to a surprised Johan.

"The message you sent to Sung-Li, it never got to him, to send a message to the emperor, using the new system, you have to add a code. Johan, why?"

Johan smiled and said.

"I wanted it all, all or nothing, that is how it was. You Troy, you are like the majority of the emperor`s subjects, willing to take what life ekes out to them. I am different, I take what I want, with both hands and I am happy to use either an energy weapon or a lie, whatever it takes."

Johan looked at the energy weapon in Troy`s hand and pointing at it he asked. "Are you going to use that?"

"This?" Troy asked innocently.

Troy fired the weapon, it was set on maximum power, the whistle of the energy bolt as it crossed the short distance filled the room, almost deafening Troy. Troy stood there, tears streaming from his face and he said, in the quietest of voices.

"Yes, Johan, I am going to use it, because I cannot allow you to live. In any case, the people would tear you limb from limb, when they found out how you planned to betray them, after our glorious victory."

Troy gazed down at his friend`s lifeless body, the energy scorch mark across the front of his shirt and he said.

"I guess that I never really did know you Johan and now that I do, well I do not like what I see. You were the enemy of everything that I believe in."

There was another problem, the two Hunter spaceships who had supposedly come over to their side, Troy did not trust them and following the discovery that Johan was a traitor, he distrusted them even more, obviously, Sung-Li had sent them to Johan to use as he saw fit. He could hardly leave two-armed fast attack craft behind their lines, if they were covertly working for the emperor, so he called Regan and asked him to come by to discuss a problem that had arisen.

It took a few minutes for Regan to put his space suit on and then he walked across the rocky landscape to the space yacht. Entering, he took off his space helmet and asked what the problem was that needed his advice. Troy began by telling him about Johan`s betrayal of them and then of his plan to deal with the two Hunters.

"I always thought that Johan`s attitude was a little strange, now I know why, he was playing a part, one that he probably enjoyed right up to the moment that you shot him." Regan said on hearing about his nephew`s treacherous friend and then added.

"Are you okay Troy, it must have been a bit of a shock finding out that your best friend was your worst enemy."

"It was Uncle; however, I am all right now, it just made me more determined to rid the galaxy of Sung-Li." Troy replied.

"Well. You can rely on me to take out the two Hunter spaceships, they will not live to see the empire fall." Regan promised. I will return early tomorrow morning, when everyone is asleep, then we can dispose of the traitor`s body. In the meantime, he can stay in his cabin, he should be safely out of view there."

Putting on his helmet, Regan left to make arrangements for the disposal of the body, there was an extremely deep hole in his mine, one that he had covered for safety, now he would uncover it.

**********

Captain Malachi was the commander of one of the two Hunter spaceships that had falsely proclaimed their allegiance to the rebellion, even though, officially, the rebellion had not yet been proclaimed. Shortly before his death, Johan had asked him to call by later in the evening, he wanted to talk to him regarding the rebellion, therefore, Malachi knocked on the closed airlock of the Excalibur, and asked permission to enter. On being granted permission, he was met by Troy, who was packing for his imminent departure, they stood at the entrance to the small galley.

"Where is Prince Johan. He asked if I would come by this evening to discuss my part in the rebellion?"

This threw Troy, however, he quickly recovered.

"He will be back in a moment Captain, please sit down, would you like a drink?"

"Yes, please, some dramata please." Malachi said as he sat down on one of the galley chairs that were around a small table.

Dramata was a strong alcoholic drink much favoured by the space fleet, they had a bottle in one of the many cupboards, however, Troy moved towards the door while saying.

"Of course, Captain, I will get a new bottle from the stores."

As he went through the open doorway Troy began to pull out his energy weapon, However, something in Troy`s attitude warned Malachi, who suspected that Troy was lying, he was wondering why as he pulled out his own energy weapon. Troy turned to see an energy weapon pointing at him, it was set on its maximum setting while his own weapon was only just coming out of its holster.

"What is this, engineer, was I invited over to your vessel so that you could execute me?" Malachi asked quizzically. "I demand to be taken to see Prince Johan."

"Okay, Captain, he is on the bridge, please come this way." Troy replied in a fearful voice.

Troy led the way towards the small bridge of the Excalibur, with Malachi following close behind him, Troy stopped suddenly and Malachi stumbled in to him. Troy turned swiftly around pushed the energy weapon away from him, it was now aimed at the upper hull of the spaceship. Bringing up his knee forced a groan of pain from Malachi who responded by hitting Troy hard in his side, which Malachi repeated until Troy`s free hand pulled out his knife which he drove straight in to the Hunter`s heart, Malachi`s now limp body slumped against Troy. He felt the warm wet blood on his knife hand and felt a feeling of revulsion, Troy knew that he had to kill the remainder of Malachi`s crew, would he be up to it. Luckily, there were only two aboard at the moment, he had seen the other two crewmen walking over to one of the local bars in search of women and alcohol. Troy washed his knife and his hands, the blood on his uniform would have to wait until he had more time. Thinking over his plan he decided to call Regan.

"Uncle, will you come over to the Excalibur quickly, I am in deep trouble, again."

As soon as Regan arrived, Troy showed him the dead Hunter captain, told him why he had killed him and his proposed plan of action.

"This is bad Troy; your deadly response could lead to more questions which will then necessitate more such responses. However, it is done now, we must hope that when we have killed the captain`s crew, that no one else will arrive asking their whereabouts, or that of Johan." Regan said anxiously.

"I am sorry Uncle, I could not think of any other action to take, not with the fate of the rebellion now in my hands."

"Neither can I, Troy, as you say, the future of our people is in your hands, you cannot afford to be soft." Regan apologised while shaking his head in sorrow. "I should not have blamed you, for the fault lies with another. As soon as Johan betrayed us, he had to die, and his death led on to this one and now to that of the captain`s crew. You certainly could not have kept Johan as a puppet, had he escaped all would be over, including the lives of our friends and family."

Troy put on his space suit and followed Regan over to the nearest Hunter spaceship, inside were the two members of crew who they had to kill. The airlock was unlocked, they only had to open the door, slip inside and fill the chamber with air. As they opened the inner door of the airlock, a call came.

"Is that you Captain, you were a long time, the prince wanted you to hold his hand or what?" A crewman`s voice asked.

Troy and Regan did not reply, they followed the voice to the galley where a man and a woman sat drinking a hot beverage. The woman looked up as Troy killed her, the male crew member died less than a second later. The killing of the woman drove a dagger deep in to Troy`s conscience, however, Regan seemed unaffected by the killing of a female Hunter, she would have happily killed them, if she had been given a second`s chance to pull her weapon out.

Troy and Regan moved the bodies of their victims in to the ship`s hold and then waited for the return of the missing two crewmen. Their deaths were also quick and although their deaths screamed at Troy`s conscience, outside of the Hunter spaceship nothing was heard, as even loud cries for help cannot be heard in a vacuum. They moved these two bodies in to the ship`s hold, followed by that of Malachi, but not Johan, his death would be kept a deadly secret from anyone else until after the rebellion was over.

"I know of three men who can pilot a ship of this size." Regan said. "I will send for them, they can take the Hunter out of imperial space and wait for the rebellion to begin."

Two hours later and the Hunter spaceship lifted off from the moon and its departure was followed by a spurious message to the other Hunter spaceship. Malachi had left on a mission given to him by Johan. Troy hoped that this would keep the remaining Hunter ship on the ground until the day of the rebellion, when Regan would eliminate this threat.

**********

With Regan`s agreement to take care of the second of the enemy spaceships, assuming that it stayed on the ground, Troy was free to travel to the planet Zeta. One of the freedom fighters took him as a member of his crew on a small freighter that made regular runs between the planets. This time they would be taking cargo to Zeta, along with Troy and two rebels who had been tasked with protecting him by the conspirators. On arrival at the space port, Troy was waylaid by another freedom fighter, the conspirators` senior agent on Zeta, and Troy was taken up to the space cruiser Defiant. Just as it seemed that they had successfully got away with the disappearance of Johan, for it was R day-4, Captain Kantile asked Troy.

"Troy, I want to speak to Johan, he is the leader of the rebellion and I want him to tell us that all is proceeding as planned."

"He is on Rigel." Troy replied. "He is on a secret mission, however, Captain. I know every detail of our plans and I am keeping track of everything and everybody. Captain, I can assure you that everything is going according to plan. I would give you an up to date breakdown of it, however, I believe that the less people in the know, the less likely it is that word of the rebellion will leak out to the authorities."

Kantile wanted to push it, Troy Defoe was just the engineer of a space yacht, while he was a space cruiser captain, one who had brought the fleet over to the rebellion, however, something stilled his tongue. This engineer had grown in stature since their last meeting, and Troy was correct, the less people in the know, the fewer breaches possible. Troy returned to the planet where he was taken to the conspirator`s house to discuss their plans and to prepare all of their members for the rebellion.

Chapter Six

Rebellion

The day agreed upon for the start of the rebellion drew ever nearer, however, there was much to prepare before that day. The small assassination teams had to be transported to their various planets, once there, they were met by freedom fighters, weapons, that Johan had purchased, were handed over and then the small teams, normally numbering no more than ten, but usually three or four, were taken to safe houses to await R-Day.

**********

On the emperor`s home planet, Zeta, four days prior to R-Day, a tour ship arrived at the space dock, there it unloaded two hundred tourists from the colony planets Malinia, Croesus, Virga and Trist, seemingly there to enjoy a well-earned holiday. Many of them were miners who had been transported to the planets so that they could arrive at Zeta on a tourist ship. False papers had been hurriedly prepared, using the details of citizens of the colony planets who were thought to favour the empire. Their program called for them to spend five days touring the sights of Zeta before travelling on to Rigel to take in its old-world charm. However, in reality, all of them were there to take out the emperors` henchmen, and if possible, Sung-Li himself. The space cruisers could have targeted his palace from space, however, Troy was reluctant, as yet, to take this action, for the palace employed many workers. He knew many of them, they were only there to earn a living and so feed their families, they were not supporters of Sung-Li, only the rich oligarchs of imperial space were. Troy was there to take out the emperor, he would be given half of the 'tourists' to aid him in this endeavour, all armed with energy weapons. The other 'tourists' were divided in to special operation teams of various sizes on to accomplish specific tasks against the Zetan oligarchs and security people.

One such special operations team was met by Brandt Coln, a freedom fighter, his team comprised of three other people. Chast Zars, a young woman who had long prayed for the chance to revenge the savage beating on her friend, a beating that had left her a shadow of her former self. Ian McCants, a well-built man who no longer wanted to be polite to the Oligarchs. Swed Paterson, a young man who thought that people should be free, not ruled over by gangs of thugs.

Coln took them to his house which was within a poorer area of the capital city, Marzon. Here he showed them to their rooms, one which the two men would share and a small room with a camp bed in it for Chast. He gave them food and drink and then they spent the remainder of the day talking about their homes, their families and their dreams. The next day everything changed, the stresses returned, they were now active rebels, part of the conspiracy, not friends or even acquaintances brought together by chance, for after breakfast Coln spoke to them about their mission.

"Your cover is simple, you are tourists, you will gaze awestruck at everything shown to you, you will smile, be happy, even laugh. The moment for fear to raise its terrible head has not yet arrived, today we will take a leisurely walk around the most opulent of neighbourhoods, Soudaville, the inner core of Marzon. We will be led by a fellow rebel, Tillerson Leese, he is a small-time operator in the tourist industry and luckily, for us, he only takes his customers around Soudaville. You will see the exterior of the palace, the exteriors of the ministries, no one is allowed inside except for those who work there, or those who have business to conduct. Even so, we will rub shoulders with the powerful and the rich as they rush about their business. One word of warning, do not mention the rebellion, do not even obliquely refer to it, do not criticize the emperor, his ministers, his agents, the police, especially not the security forces or the Hunters. In short, do not criticize anything or anyone."

Just then Tillerson Leese, known to his friends as Tilly, arrived in his roomy vehicle and after introductions he whisked them away to Soudaville. They made frequent stops to gawp and gasp, or to take coffee at a swanky and expensive road-side cafe. Tillerson was well known for his guided tours around Soudaville, they were used to his frequent stops as he pointed out this or that ministry, this or that senator, lawyer, newspaper tycoon or statue.

They spent the next day mostly resting, although Coln did take them to a firing range to try out their weapons. The evening before R-Day, they spent at a restaurant, although they were only allowed one glass of wine each. Then they returned to Coln`s house and had an early night, though sleep was hard to come by and it was not until the early hours of the morning that any of them finally found a little shuteye.

The day prior to R-Day, Coln told them their target, Xavier Queel, the current Vice chancellor, he was the man that Johan was to have replaced, for Sung-Li had begun to tire of Queel, who in any case was only useful as a fall-guy. Sung-Li used him to inform the populace of any unpleasant new laws or taxes. Queel lived within the capital city, within the opulent parish of Soudaville, which was the area that also encompassed the royal palace. To live there you had to be an oligarch or a servant who lived in, a vassal as most people termed the position. However, Queel was an oligarch, thanks to his position and the graft that he thought was due his elevated status. Coln next went on to tell them of the dangers they would have to face.

"The only way for us to take out Queel will be when he walks from the ministry underground carpark to his office. His own residence has too much security, unless we used a rocket launcher which we could never buy or steal. His car is armour plated, and there are too many security stations between the car park and his office. Now for the bad news, some of us may not survive the attempt, therefore, we must accept that fact, get passed it and carry out our task. Accept that you are already dead and if you come out alive, then that will be your bonus prize."

Coln always tended to focus on what could go wrong, rather than to think positive. Therefore, he did not notice that the mood within the room had dropped far below gloomy, it was touching rock bottom as Coln continued.

"We will all be armed with energy pistols, set them on the high setting, anyone attempting to stop you will be armed or at least your enemy. I will also carry fragmentation grenades, you will carry smoke grenades, we will use these only if necessary. You are probably wondering how we will be able to enter a high security carpark, I will tell you." Coln said to an audience still stunned from his earlier words and expecting worse to come.

"I was given this task because I am on call to go to the carpark, should any repairs to the various vehicles become suddenly necessary. On R-Day I will supposedly receive such a call, however, in reality, it will be Tilly who calls me. One of our more technically minded people has already hacked in to the ministry computer and set it so that we can use their computer to make telephone calls, internal or external. Using it, Tilly will notify security to expect my arrival with three new employees, you are being shown around. I will arrive there promptly, and do not worry, for I will supply you with the necessary papers. Tilly will be following behind Queel on his way here, he will call us just before Queel`s vehicle arrives. You, Ian, will stroll across to the security man to introduce yourself, wait for Queel`s vehicle to pass through security and when you hear us taking out Queel and his security people, you will take out the security man. You will then destroy any written records of our arrival, Tilly will delete the CCTV records on the computer. If all goes well, we will be away before they know what has hit them."

The mood amongst the other three had risen slightly, for focusing on Coln`s last sentence, they saw that the chances of escaping alive from the car park were indeed possible. They knew the area, both from maps and from walking around it. They knew the carpark from the diagrams that Coln had made during the calls that he has made to it. They knew where danger lurked, both in the form of the state police and the security people. They knew the only possible time to launch their assault, if only it had matched the optimum time when they could escape the area with the most chance of finding a safe space in which to lay low, rest and most importantly, have the time to think. Unfortunately, they would escape in to the rush hour and the security people would arrive at the crime scene quickly, brought there by the sound of energy weapons firing.

**********

On the planet Rigel, four days prior to R-Day, a group of ten operatives, untrained in the ways of combat, had landed at the space port, they were met by Jennean Dregardo, a young woman who was trained in the use of an energy rifle and covert movement, she was a freedom fighter. She took them out of the city in a small coach and on to the main highway, the change was marked by the windows turning opaque, at least from the inside. She finally stopped her vehicle and told them what their tasks were.

"You will be armed with energy pistols, the duty of two of you will be to protect me, it will be my duty to assassinate one of Sung-Li`s henchmen. The remaining eight will also be split up in to four teams of two, your duty will be to protect four of my colleagues who have their own targets. Revere Chablis and Sancho Reese, you will be my protectors, the rest of you will stop on the coach, I will drop you off to your assignments later. Revere, Sancho, this is your stop, please follow me."

She led them in to a small cottage, opening the front door with a magnetic key, once inside she led them up a narrow staircase and showed them their rooms. Once they had put down their cases, she said.

"I am Jennean Dregardo, remember that, for if any one calls, you are to tell them that you are my distant cousins from Merrett, it is a small town on the other side of the planet. Now make yourselves at home, there is food and drink in the kitchen, the bathroom is on this floor on the right of the stairs. I will be away for the remainder of the day, so please do not fret at my late return."

With that she returned to her vehicle, she did not introduce herself to the others, they were all on a dangerous mission, and the less they knew the less they could reveal, if they were unlucky enough to be captured alive. She drove the remaining eight operatives away, the journey through the countryside lasting for ten long hours until finally she was back at her house. She parked her empty vehicle in a barn-like building behind the house, she would not need it again. She had handed the eight operatives over two at a time as she arrived at the houses of four other freedom fighters, none of the operatives able to see or know the names or whereabouts of the other four teams, it was better that way, for all concerned.

The next morning was three days before R-Day, and after giving her two guests breakfast, she led them down in to her cellar, they did not see a wine rack, or a collection of old furniture, they saw a firing range. She pulled out two energy weapons from a box and after giving the weapons to them, she said.

"Using an energy weapon is quite simple, as you can see there are two settings on your weapons, low and high power. For the moment we will set them on low power, however, in the field, I want you to set them on high, because any human target will be an enemy."

Sancho looked a little scared to be handling the weapon, however, Revere seemed quite calm. The two operatives, now freedom fighters, did not say anything by way of acknowledging her orders, they just nodded their heads and waited for her to continue.

"Now you turn your weapon on by sliding this over to on." Jennean said showing them on her own weapon.

"First though, ensure that your finger is not on the trigger, otherwise you might accidentally kill someone." She instructed. "Watch as I gently touch the trigger, you can see a red point of light appear on the target, it is that easy to hit what you aim at." Jennean looked across at Revere and said.

"Now Revere, you can take the first shot, stand here and point your weapon away from anything killable or explosive, in here the floor will do. Now in a moment I will tell you to turn your weapon on, aim it at the target and fire your weapon, but I want you to be sure to gently squeeze the trigger, otherwise you will pull the barrel away from the target and hit the wall or the ceiling. Do that when we are in action and it could get us all killed, especially if your target has a weapon of his own. Understand?"

Revere nodded as she inspected her weapon, setting the weapon to low power. She had fired one before, she had taken some lessons on the asteroid, where her family mined precious metals. It was while she waited for the transport to arrive, the one that brought her to Rigel, her operational area. She had no problems using the weapon, the empire had killed her brother, now she would take her own revenge.

"Okay Revere, let us see how good you are." Jennean said.

With the weapon aimed at the floor near to the target, Revere turned the weapon on, then she lifted the barrel up and aimed it at the centre of the bullseye, she gently touched the trigger and was relieved to see the red light appear close to the bullseye adjusting her aim she gently squeezed the trigger and a bolt of energy whistled across the room the burn a hole in the target and then explode against the thick metal plate that was positioned two feet behind it.

The two operatives practised many times more, when they were familiar with their weapons, Jennean had them progress, they now had to show what they could do if an opponent arrived on the scene. There were now three targets, one central and one either side. With their weapons held down by their sides they had to react quickly to her cry of enemy to the left, or right or in front, and they still had to hit the target. They only stopped when they were reasonably proficient with their weapons, not before. It was time for a cold drink of Rigel beer, a light meal and a short rest, they had earned it. After, Jennean took them outside, but not to practice with their weapons, it was to see how they did when crawling from cover to cover, for their target lived in a large stately home surrounded by lawns and gardens. Their knees were sore by lunch time, even though they had been provided with knee pads. Finally, Jennean called time out and they sat in the grassy meadow and relaxed.

"You will both be glad to know that teams of operatives across imperial space are also in training. We will all be going up against trained soldiers and security personnel at exactly the same time, with luck they will be bored from months of inaction, that is our only advantage, that and surprise. As for us, we will not be bored, scared yes, determined to ensure that our own particular mission is successful, yes, no matter what happens afterwards."

Sancho smiled and asked.

"About that, do we have a survival plan for afterwards?"

It was Jennean`s time to smile as she looked at the two young people sitting on the grass in front of her.

"Yes, we do Sancho, if we manage to escape from the estate uninjured, which we should do. Unfortunately, due to security concerns, I will only be able to tell you about it in the minutes before we launch our attack, sorry about that."

"No problem, knowing that there is one in place is all that matters." Sancho replied.

"When will you tell us our target, not minutes before I hope, we need time to talk about it?" Revere asked.

Jennean smiled at the young woman and replied.

"We will go over our plan of attack the night before, then you can ask as many questions as you like and make any suggestions that may occur to you. One thing, this operation has been in the planning stage for over a year, ever since our principal target moved in to his new home, we believe that we have thought of everything, I will be very annoyed with myself if you notice anything that I have not already thought about."

Jennean then added.

"I am part of a conspiracy that began long before Prince Johan appeared on the scene, although he brought something that we lacked, the ability to forge an army of followers, people like you. Until now, we have had to wait, refine our plans and go in to training, we are all quite fit. Waiting was the hard part for us, wanting to do something, take down an oligarch, destroy a Hunter spaceship. However, to have done so would have alerted the authorities, it might have resulted in bringing the whole organisation down. Patience was indeed a virtue, for not going off half-cock, soon we will see the empire fall."

That night, after dinner, one that Jennean made, they talked about Prince Johan and how they admired him for giving up his throne and fighting for democracy, for only the seven senior conspirators knew about Johan`s betrayal, plus Margarita and Talin. They even touched on Troy, the space fleet and of cause the Hunters, finally they went to their beds and slept, for their day had been busy.

**********

The rest of the days prior to R-Day were similar until it was the eve of the rebellion and Jennean laid out a map showing the house and a second map showing the small estate that surrounded the house and the countryside beyond. Jennean then told them what they would face the next morning.

"Our principal target is the senator of Rigel, one Halcion Cardell, a hard-line supporter of Sung-Li and his empire. The house has grounds around it that are enclosed by high walls, however, there will be no need for us to scale the wall and risk the free roaming attack dogs from finding us, I will use a large tree growing just outside of the wall as my view point. We will move in to position just before dawn where we will wait for our main target to leave the house and walk towards his vehicle. My high vantage point, which I have sat in many times, provides me with a good view of the front door to the house, the place where he always parks his vehicle and the space in between. I shall take him out using my long-range energy rifle, all you need do is guard the area around the tree and watch out for anyone paying undue attention to the tree and us. I shall expect you to take out any snoopers using your weapons set on the lowest setting prior to my first shot and full power afterwards, for there is never any way to determine friend or foe nowadays. Any questions?"

"About what you have told us, no, but you have said principal target at least twice, who will be our other targets?" Sancho asked.

"Apart from his security team, who will come looking for us, his personal assistant is a particularly nasty piece of work, I will attempt to take him out as soon as his sadistic master is dead."

"When do we make our getaway and if we are successful, will we then set out, whenever it becomes possible, on another bug hunt?" Revere asked.

"We will make our getaway within seconds of my first shot, or when our targets are finally made secure by their security team, we need to as the state police would soon be swarming all over the area. In answer to your second question, yes, there are plenty of parasites just waiting to be exterminated. However, you must realise that it will become progressively more difficult as soon as the bugs, as you refer to them Revere, realise that we are out to exterminate them and their kind."

They spent the rest of the night, chatting, drinking non-alcoholic beverages and studying the map, so that they each knew every inch of the small estate and the house itself. Sancho had one question.

"You say that you sat in the tree quite often, wasn`t that dangerous, I mean to do it once could see you spotted to do it many times could warn them of your intentions."

"I crawled across the countryside outside of the estate, my stomach skimming the ground, my butt kept well down. I spent many an hour listening and watching, only then did I climb the tree. My perch is hidden by an overhanging branch which gave me the space to see our target but made me invisible to his security people, as I dress in camouflage clothing. I only left the tree after I had ensured that no one could see me, that I was all alone."

"You are a true professional Jennean, I am sorry for voicing my fears."

**********

On the eve of R-Day, Stardrive, one of the smaller firms that supplied the space industry, had invited guests to the promotion of the firm`s first civilian space yacht, it was held just inside the perimeter fence of the Zetan spaceport. Thankfully, the threatened rain storm had not arrived, it was now due when the workers would be on their way to work the following day, R-Day. The day had been busy, however, it got busier, for Stardrive had held a party that started at sunset and continued during the hours prior to midnight, which most of the invited guests attended. As R-Day arrived, the party carried on during the first three hours of the morning. It had ostensibly been organised by Stardrive, however, Troy and the freedom fighters had taken charge after the exhibition finished at sunset. The security was lax, purposely and more and more of the Hunter crews began to join in the celebrations, with free drinks they celebrated the early morning hours away. The hours past swiftly for the celebrators, most of the invited guests had left when a disguised Troy and his team began to add sleeping draughts to the drinks that the Hunter crews downed. As these took effect, Troy and his team covertly carried the sleepers in to one of six small coaches parked behind the large marquee to sleep the remainder of the night away. As the sun threatened to rise, Troy turned on the air conditioners within the coaches, the air blowing over the sixty-three sleepers was filled with gas to prevent their guests from awakening prematurely.

**********

With R-Day here, the rebels felt a mixture of excitement tinged with a fair portion of fear, wherever they were in imperial space and whatever their task. On Zeta, the task of the rebels may have been massive, however, Troy felt that the success of the teams of operatives around the rest of imperial space was just as important. Even so, Troy was aware that the rebellion depended upon what happened on and in orbit around the planet. He felt a heavy weight on his shoulders, for the rebellion also depended upon him doing the task that should have been carried out by Johan.

In space, the emperor could rely on only one of the heavily armoured space cruisers, the Chaser. Captain Kantile was with the team tasked with taking back the space cruiser, with him was the cruiser`s former captain, Leon Fargo, who was in charge of the operation, his officers, who had also been relieved of their duties and a company of marines. The time on the space dock was just before dawn, a second company of marines had just taken control of the space dock, now the only messages leaving it would come from the rebels. Kantile and his team found to their relief that their way was not barred to the Chaser, Petty officer Malik Teague of the Chaser had come through for the rebels. Their only opponents were the new captain, his officers and the security team that had accompanied him when he had taken command of the space cruiser. Members of the crew had already taken control of the security office and its duty personnel. Captain Fargo and two of his officers soon arrested the new captain, the marines arrested the new officers together with the off-duty security team. As for the remainder of the crew, most of them welcomed their former captain back with open arms. Any that were known to favour the emperor, were removed from the starship by the marines and taken to an aging freighter the Starbright, once there, they were imprisoned for as long as hostilities continued. In ten minutes the rebel alliance held the sixth space cruiser, unknown to anyone within Imperial space.

As for Troy, his immediate attention was focussed on the Zetan space port and the sixteen Hunters parked haphazardly around it. Their task was to take control of the space port, ninety rebels, consisting of both marines and ships` crew, were due to arrive from the six space cruisers, they would be sent down in shuttles from the space dock to land there just four hours after midnight. Troy`s task was to covertly take control of the space port, before the shuttles arrived, this task he accomplished with the help of the two rebels who were his personnel protection and ten of the 'tourists' who had arrived on the tour ship.

The few early morning workers were arrested as they arrived and locked away within the security section of the administrational office block. Troy now awaited the arrival of the six shuttles, the first he knew of their arrival was when the slipped out from beneath the dark rain clouds that covered the sky over the capital city. They landed with hardly a sound and the officers waited for Troy`s orders. His first order was to have twenty of the ships` crew posted to security duties, to ensure that word did not get out to Sung-Li about what was happening, the others would be used to seize control of the Hunter spacecraft. This had to be done just prior to sunrise, before anyone realised that something was amiss and before the rebels openly declared war upon the empire. The sky now was full of dark rain clouds that chose this moment to burst. Troy hoped that the storm would work to their advantage, anyone passing on their way to work would not stop to look, all would go unnoticed by them as they hurried through the rain, head down underneath an umbrella.

He knew that the odds were in the rebel's favour, for more than half of the Hunter crewmen were missing from their spaceships, having gate-crashed the party organised by Troy. They were in the six coaches that were about to set off towards the Hunter spacecraft. The gas had been turned off and the windows of the vehicles opened to blow whatever was left of the gas away. Only then did teams of five marines, three pilot officers and three ships` engineers enter the six coaches. From within the administration offices, where it was dry, Troy contacted the first of the six Hunter spaceships nearest to the coaches, speaking to the bleary-eyed crewman that answered his call.

"Open your airlock Enforcer." Enforcer was the name of this spaceship. "We are returning your captain and crew to you, be prepared to assist in carrying them aboard."

He repeated this conversation to the next five spaceships as the coaches set off towards these six spaceships. On arriving, a marine, dressed as a port official, banged on the airlock and demanded to be let in. As soon as the airlocks were opened, the port official asked the two remaining crew, Helmsman Taliesin and Communications officer Marat, to help carry their people aboard. They looked out at the rain and swore at their drunken crewmates. Then, as they boarded the coach, Marat felt that something was wrong, and it was not the rain beating down upon the roof of the coach, he turned to the port official, to ask an, as yet, unformed question. However, the marine immediately sprayed Marat and Taliesin with a quick acting gas supplied by the conspirators, it stopped all resistance and allowed the marines to drag the two men to their seats.

This system generally worked, however, if the remaining crew members would not help, then marines rushed in and gassed them. The crew were then dragged from the spaceship and carried on to the coach. They were replaced by two young officers who would prepare to take the ship up in to space, when the time came. The procedure was carried out until they taken control of all sixteen Hunter spaceships. The coaches, full of the Hunter spaceship officers and crew then drove over to the aging freighter Starbright, which had left the space dock and landed at the far side of the space port. The prisoners, still groggy from the gas, hung over from the alcohol and the sleeping draft, and still aboard the coaches, were driven aboard in to the ship`s hold, this would be their quarters until the rebellion was over. The doors, except for the main door, had been welded shut, their stay would not be pleasant, however, they were not pleasant people. The freighter then blasted off for deep space, where it would stay until after the rebellion was over. Any attempt to seize control of the freighter would see the main hold filled with knockout gas. On board the freighter, to keep control of the prisoners, were twenty angry miners, all armed with energy weapons, the crews would not escape.

Finally, those currently on security duties were taken aboard the Hunter spaceships and their new crew lifted off from the space port and took the new additions to the rebel space fleet up at the space dock. The space port was left to Sung-Li, the rebels simply did not have enough people to hold it until the rebellion was over. The space port was quiet now, even the rain had let up for a moment.

**********

Although still early, the commuters driving past the space port were annoyed that the rain had slowed the traffic. Through the rain streaming down their windows, they noticed the unusually early activity, on reaching their destination some even commented upon it, others were too busy drying their hair and hanging up their wet coats. This gossip was swiftly converted in to rumour and it reached the palace, all be it amongst the workers within the administration level, however, they mainly complained about the weather, not the workers at the space port.

In his luxury suite of rooms within the palace, Sung-Li was silently swearing at Johan for not returning his call. He believed that Johan was on Rigel, for on the eve of R-Day, one of the conspirators, purporting to be Johan, had sent him a signal from Rigel. His message had been short, 'My Emperor, I am almost ready to send you the complete list of names, places and the itinerary of the rebellion, I will send it to you tomorrow. I have set the date of the rebellion, it is due to commence in twenty-eight days' time, only by then will every traitorous member know their part in it'. Sung-Li swore at the thought of the traitors, certainly he knew some parts of his empire would back a rebellion, and some openly so, if it was properly organised with a better than even chance of succeeding. After the rebellion had been killed at its birth, he would choose one of these to demonstrate his power and his anger.

The rumours were not to reach Sung-Li, reality, and the weather, beat them.

**********

On the planet Zeta, Brandt Coln and his team drove in early through the rain to Soudaville, parked their vehicle and waited for Tillerson Leese to call them so that they could drive in to the underground parking at the ministry and carry out their task of assassination. Leese soon called Coln`s cell phone.

"Brandt, you are good to go, I have notified security to expect your arrival with three new employees, good luck."

"Thank you, Tilly, we are moving off now, we will be there within three minutes. You take care my friend." Coln replied as his insides began to twist themselves in to tight knots.

He then turned to the others.

"We are moving off, next stop the underground parking garage at the ministry, we will arrive there in minutes, do not worry, everything is going smoothly. Here are your necessary papers." He said handing them their ID`s for the present task.

Coln then started the engine and proceeded on to the parking bay while talking calmly to them.

"You already know your new names and details so just act nonchalantly and everything will proceed as we planned it. Tilly will be following behind Queel on his way here, he will call us just before Queel`s vehicle arrives."

They reached the ministry and Coln drove down the slope in to the underground parking area, stopping at security.

"Morning my friend, we are here to carry out repairs on a Zagreb MPV registration MP191Z." Coln said to the security man and handing him his ID.

The security man glanced at it, at the three people sitting within the vehicle and then after opening the barrier waved them through, he did not ask to see the other three ID`s, for he was seeing what he expected to see. He just said.

"This floor, far end on the right."

Coln drove round to the vehicle and said.

"All out, we have to look as if we are working, there are CCTV cameras everywhere."

Just then Leese called them again.

"Brandt, he will be with you in one minute`s time."

He then rung off as Coln turned to Ian and said.

"You, Ian, will stroll across to the security man to introduce yourself, wait for Queel`s vehicle to pass through security, it will be here in less than a minute, you know the model and registration. When you hear us taking out Queel and his security people, you know what to do."

Ian was already moving towards the security man, on reaching him he took out a cigarette and offered the security man one saying.

"Do you have a light, that lot are all health conscious?"

Just then the black ministry car with Queel inside appeared, the security man saluted and opened the barrier, the large black car moved through without so much as a thank you or a wave. The security man took the offered cigarette and pulled out a lighter, as he lit his own cigarette. the sound of a voice filled with terror filled the parking area.

Coln and the others had been peering in to the engine of the MPV when the large black vehicle pulled in just across from them. The driver and the two other security men got out first, they glanced at the workers and dismissed them from their minds. Then Queel got out of the vehicle and made to walk towards the elevators, this was when he saw the energy weapons in the hands of Coln and the others and he cried out in fear. The security men turned to look for the danger even as Coln killed Queel and Chast and Swed took out the security men, Chas thought that all was going along so easily, Coln was just too old for this line of work. Coln knew better though.

"Quick, back in to the vehicle, we are out of here."

As he said this Ian was stunning the security guard, the guy seemed okay and, in any case, he would keep his first murder for someone who definitely deserved to die. By the time they reached him, Ian had raised the security barrier and taken the written records of this morning from off the security man`s desk. And then they were heading up the slope and escape, unfortunately, as just as they were about to pull out in to the street, they found to their dismay that it was filled with slow moving traffic. Coln stopped the vehicle on the slope and said to the others.

"Quickly now, we have to walk from here, Tilly will be waiting for us on the top of the Zeta Tower, we thought that there would be a fair chance of traffic at this time of the day, so we are escaping by helicopter."

They quickly got out of their vehicle and hurried through the rain that had returned with a vengeance. They did not run though, even though they were getting soaked, that would attract attention to them from the ministry security who must be already searching for them, in any case, the Zeta Tower was just around the next corner.

**********

In deep space, Regan Defoe was tasked with taking out the Hunter spaceship on R-Day, at sunrise Zeta standard time, using covert methods, as he did not possess any other means. The Hunter had taken off the night before, following a brawl at the local bar, its captain had thought it advisable. This had meant that Regan had to radically alter his plans at short notice, for one thing he had to send Johan`s space yacht to take station near to the Hunter, he did so using a sophisticated remote-control device.

Regan began just five minutes prior to sunrise on Zeta when he sent a message to the spaceship.

"This is Prince Johan." Regan`s computer generated voice said. "The time for your departure is almost upon us, link up with my space yacht using the main airlock. Once you are aboard, I will give you a copy of a document that you must hand over to Emperor Sung-Li, it is most urgent, please do not delay."

Five minutes later, Regan heard a docking tube connect to the hull of the Excalibur, however, he was not aboard the space yacht, which was in orbit around the moon Centaur, he was in his habitat on the moon. He was though, watching what was happening through the security cameras on the space yacht, which were transmitted down to him. Ten seconds later and the stardrive aboard the space yacht blew up, destroying the Hunter spaceship. His part in the rebellion was not over though, the system`s governor might come by to investigate the explosion, if he noticed it. There was also the chance that a spy amongst them might report it to the governor, either way he would have to stay vigilant until law was restored to imperial space, soon to be renamed federation space, if all went well.

**********

On the planet Rigel, a team of ten operatives were tasked with capturing or destroying the two Hunter spaceships parked within the space port at R-Day at sunrise Zeta standard time. The same action would be occurring on the other five colony planets. They had arrived five days prior to R-Day and spent their earlier mornings in a hotel overlooking the space port. Sunrise on Rigel was six hours before the sun rose on Zeta, however, if the two Hunter spaceships were taken out at Rigel sunrise, there would be no way that word could be sent to Sung-Li about the event in time to influence the outcome of the rebellion. For only the two Hunter spaceships had the new communications devices on Rigel, and with the ships in rebel hands then word could not get out to the other parts of imperial space.

Over the next few days the early morning routine was the same for the two Hunter spaceships, one man from the Hammer and one woman from Sword slipped out of the craft and went for an early morning jog together, it was always just after the sun rose over the horizon. They stayed away for exactly one hour before returning to their respective spaceship. During the time that they were away, the captain of the Sword took a slow walk in to town. Returning with a bag filled with jam doughnuts, whether they were all for him or he gave some away, the watchers did not know or care. His slow morning walk meant that if they were to attempt to capture the two craft, the attempt would have to happen just as the two joggers first appeared, otherwise, later on in the morning, the captain might interfere. To make an attempt at a later time was impossible, there were too many people about who might intervene on the crews` behalf. The only alternative would be to destroy the two craft, but even a fast attack craft was relatively large, they would need a powerful explosive, and lots of it, if they were to succeed.

"We could use liquid oxygen, if we could find enough of it to take out both spaceships and two tankers in which to transport it to the space port." Malin Gees suggested.

Malin was young, eager and spoke before thinking about the problem, however, the others were grateful for the opportunity to mull the suggestion over.

"Here on Rigel we could easily get enough liquid oxygen to fill two tankers, a surprise attack while it was still dark would work, we would need two escape vehicles to get us away before the tankers blew. The downside is that we would need to steal the oxygen and the tankers early in the morning, even then we might be caught before completing our task." Rymes Station replied.

"Therefore, we only use liquid oxygen is a last resort." Jonah Morton decided.

Morton was the commander of the team and so his decision was considered final by most of the team.

"No, I think that unless anyone can come up with a fool proof plan, then we go with capturing the two craft and then leave Rigel in them. We have two pilots amongst us and the rest of us know something about spaceships. Okay everyone?" Morton said.

No one disagreed, they could think of no sure-fire solution that was more suitable to the chosen one.

"Good then I will now tell you how we will proceed."

The plan seemed fine, and they settled down to go over it, to ensure that none of them screwed up. Therefore, when R-Day arrived, they were ready. The sky was clear as they left the hotel, one hour before the sun rose, a cool breeze making itself felt through their summer clothing. The capital city never received that much rain during the year, relying on two large desalination plants to supply them with water, those and a long canal that came down from the mountains and across the desert that stretched passed the city. Turning off the main road as they neared the space port they slipped down a side alley, here they were hidden from passers-by. It was at the rear of the port administration building, which was where they needed to be. They quickly climbed over the perimeter fence, there to keep children away from the spaceships, and walked casually over to a line of vehicles. There was no rush now, for to do so would be to attract attention. They walked along the line of parked vehicles until they came to ones belonging to the cleaning department. Two rubbish utility vehicles were parked there, splitting up in to two, five-person teams, they climbed aboard, being keyless vehicles, it was easy for them to hack in to them and start them up. Then they drove off towards the two Hunter spaceships. The night shift saw them moving across the space port and remarked that the sun had only just risen and the cleaning department was already up and working, miracles did happen, then they went back to their card game.

Arriving at the spaceship, the two teams began cleaning up around the spaceship, from the short time that they had staked out the spaceship, the two keep fit fans should appear within the next five minutes. Four minutes went by very slowly, the ground around the spaceship had never been so clean. Then one and then the other airlock showed signs of opening, two of the women amongst the rebels moved forward towards the airlocks, they would not appear threatening to the joggers. Then the airlock opened and the two joggers appeared. Quick as a flash, two darts flew silently through the air, the joggers did not even cry out, they simply slumped in to the arms of the female rebels.

From behind the women four rebels entered the spaceship and had soon incapacitated the remaining crew members, the rebel alliance had increased it space fleet by two fast attack craft. After carrying the Hunter crew out of the spaceship and laying them up against the port`s utility vehicles, the two spaceships lifted off from the space port and took up a geostationary orbit above Rigel. Here, they contacted Troy and reported their success, on five other colony planets, reports flowed to Troy, some with a similar tale of success, some of the destruction of the spaceship on their planet, some of the partial success. However, even the partial success prevented the Empire of using the craft and over the following days even these spaceships were again attacked and the damage inflicted upon the spaceships making their use impossible in the short time.

**********

Elsewhere on the planet Rigel, Jennean, Sancho and Revere moved in to carry out their assassination, taking up their positions at exactly the same time as the team at the space port. However, a full-scale assault on the house was impossible, due to the security measures in place within the house and grounds. They also realised that when the time came to fire on their targets, that they would be at a disadvantage, their targets would have already been notified about the terrorist action at the space port.

Their principal target was Senator Halcion Cardell, a hard-line supporter of Sung-Li and his empire. Jennean slung her energy rifle over her shoulder and quickly climbed up her chosen tree. From her vantage point, she looked over high walls, across the grounds, to the front door of the large house. The free roaming attack dogs were already up and moving around the grounds. One hour later, but much earlier than normal, a large luxury vehicle left the garage, which was just next to the house, but not attached, and pulled up in its usual parking place in front of the front door, the kill time was near.

On the ground beneath the tree, Sancho and Revere were watching out for any security guards, or, anyone else approaching the tree in which Jennean sat and waited, however, all was quiet on this side of the wall.

The front door of the house opened and Senator Halcion Cardell walked out, from this action, Jennean realised that Cardell did not believe his life to be in any danger, that he thought the attack at the space port was of a criminal nature. Jennean`s finger was on the trigger, her attention centred on the telescopic sights of his rifle, then she swore, Martell Malik, Cardell`s personal assistant, got in between them, masking Cardell as he walked towards the expensive looking limousine. Then Cardell was bending down, out of sight, he was getting in to the vehicle with Malik hurrying round to get in to the limousine on the other side. The limousine moved off here, but Jennean still kept her rifle sights on the vehicle, it would drive round in a half circle before heading straight for the front gates. Then she had Cardell in her sights and she immediately fired, for she knew that she only had a split second and then he would be gone until the following morning. The high energy bolt whistled through the air and struck Cardell, killing him instantly, the driver of the limousine put his foot down and the car drove around to the rear of the building and stopped with a scream of breaks. Jennean then targeted the two security guards, however, they had begun to move in to cover and then returned her fire. Knowing that time was no longer on her side, she scrambled down the tree and ran with the others for their vehicle. Getting in to the driver`s seat, Jennean drove off at speed, her two allies searching behind them for any sign of a chasing vehicle.

"We will drop off this vehicle and take to our evasion route in five minutes, to continue on in this one will be impossible as the state police will soon be swarming all over the area."

"Won`t they trace you through this vehicle?" Revere asked anxiously.

"No Revere, for you see, this car belongs to my aging uncle, he will take it off us, he will see that it is washed and cleaned inside and out to ensure that nothing of us will be found. As for us, we are going pot holing down an extensive system of caves." She announced delightedly.

"Another of our people is an expert caver, he will meet us at the entrance of the cave system and we will submerge for the next two days, emerging in to the grounds of my uncle`s house. That particular entrance is unknown to all except our caving expert, my uncle and me."

"Two days in a dark damp cave, how delightful." Revere said cringing.

"It sounds better than playing chase with the security boys or the state police, who I hear, on Rigel at least, the upper echelon owe their positions to the emperor." Sancho remarked.

They came to a gentle halt before a wire fence, two men stood in front of its dilapidated gate, the elder one rushed forward to give Jennean a hug asking.

"Did all go well Jenny, are you all right?"

"Yes, Uncle, all went as planned, I shot him as the car turned around, a perfect window shot." Jennean replied.

Ricardo Stewer, the caving expert, moved forward and said.

"Let`s get going, or your uncle will be caught driving his car."

Jennean knew what he meant by these words, the state police would hold and interrogate anyone found in the neighbourhood, not a very nice experience at the best of times, however, for one of her uncle`s years, it could prove fatal.

"Ricardo is correct, goodbye for now Uncle, drive safely."

Jennean watched as her uncle drove away, why had he been so determined to take part in the assassination? However, she knew the reason why, he blamed Cardell for the death of his wife, and so he wanted to be a part of the evil man`s death.

Turning away she followed the other through the gate, that Ricardo locked behind them, and in to the small cave that was hidden behind a large green shrub.

Ricardo fitted them all out with everything a good caver required, a hard helmet with a light built in to it, warm clothing, knee pads, a sleeping bag, a bag full of food each and water bottle each. As for him, he had all that plus ropes and tackle.

"It will be hard going for you two, unaccustomed to caving on a planet as you all are, seeing as you are asteroid miners where gravity is much easier on the muscles. However, we have time on our side, so we are going for safety first and last. Okay, put your caving attire on, pack your own things up because we are taking them with us. This is just in case the authorities come snooping, they will find nothing this side of the cave system, Jennean`s uncle and I got a lift here from another of our supporters, so there is no vehicle topside to find and trace. You have five minutes then we leave, we need to get down below fast, before the state police get this far in their search for you."

Five minutes later and the four rebels were starting down in to the cave system. They were lowered by Ricardo down a deep hole in the floor, through which they could hear weird sounds, when they were all safely down, he abseiled down and then pulled on the rope and it tumbled down to them, for they were exiting elsewhere.

Elsewhere, Jennean`s uncle had arrived home and was washing the vehicle with soapy water when the local police arrived. They all knew him and so greeted him with jokes, these were the hard-working police, not Sung-Li`s paid lackies, after a hot drink and a slice of cake they departed. He carried on with his work, after the outside of the vehicle was clean he set about the tyres, the underside and finally the inside, soon it almost looked new, but then it was aging, like its owner, and almost, for man and motor, was not too bad.

**********

On the planet Zeta, Coln and his team were seen escaping, Vegan, a sharp-eyed security woman saw them abandon their vehicle and disappear around the corner and she followed them, phoning her office to have them send backup. She took only seconds to call it in and then she rushed off in pursuit. As they pushed through the doors of the Zeta Tower, Vegan pulled out her weapon, they were the terrorists who had just killed Minister Queel and his security men, she would have no trouble with her conscience if she had to kill them. Vegan burst through the doors to see the ones on the nearest elevator closing. Running across to the elevator next to the one in use by Coln and the others, she pressed the up button, and she was glad when the doors opened immediately. As she entered, two security men piled in beside her and hit the button marked Heli-pad, they had been approaching the Zeta Tower when she called in. The elevator shot upwards at speed and after what seems like a lifetime to Vegan, it finally came to a stop and the doors opened. There before them was the Heli-pad, and on it was a helicopter that was lifting off, the rain lashed by its rotor blades was hurled at the three agents. The agents aimed their energy weapons at the helicopter and Dalglish, the senior agent amongst them, a tall aging man who was almost bald, but with a full beard, called out loudly to the pilot.

"Land it or lose it."

The helicopter pilot looked across at them terrified, however, Coln was not about to be taken alive, he fired at the security agents, narrowly missing Vegan, the pilot had no choice other than to continue lifting off. He was sure that the agents would not return fire, it would send the helicopter crashing down in to a street full of traffic.

Talon, the youngest agent amongst them, was never noted for his brain or his humanity, he sent bolt after bolt crashing in to the pilot, the helicopter and its rotating blades. Vegan watched as the pilot died, then the terrorist who had fired at them. Finally, she watched as the helicopter disappeared from view, moments later she heard the explosion that marked its crashing in to the ground by the Zeta Tower. The whole building shook as the three security agents ran to the edge of the roof top to look down at the carnage beneath them. Four vehicles were destroyed, others badly damaged, glass littered the street, it had once been the windows of the Tower and the buildings opposite. Screams reached their ears as people staggered around, either injured or in shock. No one exited the cars hidden by the bulk of the helicopter, they were dead.

Dalglish spun round and jabbed his energy weapon in to the nose of Talon, who had been laughing up until that moment. For a moment the woman thought that Dalglish was about to fire, something that she personally would have applauded, however, the senior agent finally regained control. The rain beat down upon them, running down their faces and through any opening it could find, soaking their bodies, however, neither man noticed it, both was furious with the other. Dalglish wrenched Talon`s weapon off him, spun him around and pushed him against the low wall around the roof top and then handcuffed him.

"Agent Talon, you are under arrest for the murder of whoever was in the vehicles down there, plus the maiming of the injured and the destruction of..."

The agent ran out of words here, strong emotions threatened to overcome him, making him very dangerous, something Talon noted, so he wisely said nothing. Dalglish pulled his prisoner upright and they walked slowly back to the elevator with the young agent finally complaining loudly.

"What is up with you man, I took out those terrorists, they just assassinated Minister Queel and some friends of mine."

Dalglish stopped at the elevator, turned and said grimly.

"We do not know who else you killed, maybe it was the emperor, who knows, I certainly do not."

The young agent`s face turned white as they entered the now open elevator, however he recovered fast.

"They could have escaped to kill again, maybe the emperor next time." He protested.

"They could not have escaped, we could have called up a Hunter, they would have been in pursuit of the helicopter in minutes, until then we could have tracked them ourselves from the roof of the Tower." Dalglish retorted angrily.

They returned to the ground floor in silence, where they were greeted with shocked silence within the Tower and screams and the sound of something exploding outside of the Tower.

On return to headquarters, Agent Dalglish was reprimanded for losing control of the operation, Agent Talon was transferred to the covert murder squad and Agent Vegan was told to take the remainder of the day off. No one of importance had died, the resulting traffic jam had been a nuisance, but when news of the rebellion reached the ears of the emperor and the security people, it was forgotten, they had more important tasks to occupy their minds. Those who knew that the space fleet and the Hunter craft were all in the hands of the rebels knew that it was all over bar the killing, however, many did not have this information and they continued fighting.

Chapter Seven

End Game

Jennean and the others on Rigel, or the other planets within imperial space, were but mere cogs in a massive, living beast that grew as its victories increased. Their colleagues took out many of Sung-Li`s supporters over the next five days, making the ruling class, that is to say Sung-Li`s paid flunkies, fear for their lives. When the populations of the colony planets heard what was happening, how space was now controlled by the rebels and of the lack of violence used, unless you happened to be one of the ruling class, they took to the streets, to celebrate. On the colony planets, in the many asteroid belts that had supplied many of the rebels, the rebellion was all but over, it had been a success.

On R-Day, on the planet Zeta, the state police and the security forces were stretched to breaking point because of the number of assassinations that had left the ministries without many of their senior men. Sung-Li finally realised that something was happening, the many assassinations of his senior men, his inability to contact any of his spaceships, he now feared that Johan had put the rebellion in to operation, with himself as the new emperor.

Within the district of Soudaville, Troy was in command of twelve special operation teams made up of eight operatives each, almost half of the 'tourists' that had arrived on the tourist starship. Their target, Sung-Li, his senior court officials and his security people. Their place of operations the palace of Sung-Li, which was a two-storey building built in the shape of a cross with the imperial quarters in the very centre of it. They had struck soon after the Hunter spacecraft had lifted off, and before the workers had arrived for the morning shift, thereby reducing the risk to innocent people being caught up in any firefight that erupted. Drenched to the skin from the storm, which showed no signs of abating, they had silently taken out the normal security guards at the four entrance points of the palace, using their weapons set on their lowest setting, however, they knew that as they progressed in towards Sung-Li, they would encounter trained professional resistance.

Four of the teams were moving along the four main ground floor corridors, each of them led along one leg of the cross and headed inwards towards the inner sanctum. The further they proceeded, the more resistance they would meet, compressing the enemy forces inwards until they surrendered, well that was the plan. Four of the other teams were on the floor above them, having got there by ascending the staircases set at each entry point to the palace. The final four teams were guarding the four entrance points of the cross, they were the strategic reserve. The teams moving along the corridors came across the cleaning staff as they progressed, and allowed them to leave the palace unharmed, but thus far no one else.

Overall, Troy was amazed at the success that the rebels were having, men and women who, he thought, possessed secrecy, courage and nerves of steel, but who were untrained in the ways of urban warfare. In the palace, each team leader had a radio with which to keep in contact with the other teams, to prevent them from firing upon each other. Troy and his team were moving slowly along the wide northern ground floor corridor, each room that they came to had to be searched for possible enemy forces. They could not be outflanked as the windows of the rooms did not open and had heavy metal grills on them, this was a security measure that Sung-Li had brought in, he was worried about intruders.

Their nerves had already been stretched, now they were at breaking point. They were approaching the inner palace that only the few ever entered, except for the workers of course. Ahead of them was a security point and he thought that he detected movement beyond it, so he and his team moved in to whatever cover they could find. Far off they could hear the evil whistles of energy bolts, high energy ones, as they destroyed the air they sped through before destroying their target. Troy knew that one or more of the other three teams were fighting for their lives, as his team would soon be called on to do. Just then a call came in from the Southern ground floor corridor.

"Troy, they are too well armed, we will need to fall back unless you can reduce the pressure on us."

As Troy replied he heard three explosions that must have been very near to his caller.

"Hold on for as long as you can Marchant, help is on the way."

Troy called his reserve teams on the radio, unfortunately he only had four such teams, the guards at each entrance, he now realised that he could have done with ten times that number.

"Reserve one, the ground floor Southern corridor needs reinforcing, get there fast, they are in danger of being taken out. Reserve, two take the upper Southern Corridor, reinforce our team there, attempt to relieve the pressure on the ground floor southern team. Teams three and four, reinforce our people who are in the Eastern and Western ground floor corridors, push like hell and I will see you all in the inner palace."

With his reserves gone, Troy turned anxiously to his team, cursing Johan for betraying him, what did he, Troy Defoe, know about inner city warfare, he was only a space yacht`s engineer, not an experienced warrior.

"I guess we will have to push likewise, but first." Troy said calling up his secret reserve team.

"Captain Kantile, this is Troy Defoe, I need to rattle the defenders, or we will lose too many brave patriots fighting our way through to Sung-Li. There should not be many innocents in the inner sanctum, if any, let Sung-li know that you are on our side."

Five seconds later they heard the loud whistles of a salvo of very powerful bolts of energy, it was followed by a series of loud explosions from the direction of the inner sanctum, Troy rose to his feet and said.

"Follow me team, their attention will be elsewhere."

Troy and his three brave rebels rushed along the corridor, passed numerous closed doors, firing at the security position and beyond. Three security men threw their arms up in surrender, the attack from the space cruiser had crushed all resistance out of them. With this position under their control, their own position was stronger, however, they were now encumbered with three prisoners. Just then, from behind them, Sergeant Gallio Trabant of the space fleet marine corps called out.

"Troy, if you are ahead of us please do not fire, I am Sergeant Trabant of the marines, we are here as your reinforcements."

All the stress that had been weighing Troy down fell away and he called back along the corridor. However, the sound of energy bolts exploding against something tangible meant that he had to call out louder than he would have wished.

"Come ahead friend, we are in need of succour."

Moments later and Gallio arrived, followed by nine marines.

"Troy, we have been ordered to assist you in any way possible."

"We could sure use some extra hands." Troy replied before turning to his three rebels.

"I reckon that you could do with a rest, tie our prisoners` hands behind their backs then take them out of here, hold them in the security room at the exit to this corridor. You are now my strategic reserve, rest up for I will undoubtably need you."

The three rebels did not know whether to be relieved or angry at being replaced, in any case, they followed their orders. Troy then turned to Gallio and said.

"Have four of your men check out the rooms back there, we have not had the time to see if they contain the enemy, as for you Sergeant and the rest of your squad, follow me. good men could be dying up ahead."

Troy led the way forward until they came to a junction, ahead was the inner sanctum, to either side the way led to the other corridors on the ground floor. Just then a call came over the radio.

"Troy this is Marchant, we have reached the ring road, the inner sanctum of the palace appears to be unguarded, thanks to our space fleet."

"We too have arrived at the ring road Marchant, how many men do you have?" Troy asked.

"There are fourteen of us left, I lost two before your reinforcements turned up." Marchant replied.

Then two other voices joined in, East and West had arrived at the lower ring road.

"Stay where you are, my team will check out the ring road, just to ensure that the enemy is not hiding there."

Just then the sound of energy bolts reached them, coming from the street outside of the palace complex, the state police and other forces loyal to Sung-Li were trying to break through the mass of citizens who had encircled the palace. The whistles of energy bolts mixed with that of the voices of angry citizens. For a moment Troy was worried that his people would be attacked from the rear, then he heard the loud sound of energy weapons screaming down from the sky, seconds later they were followed by a call on the sergeant's radio.

"Sergeant Trabant, inform Troy Defoe that forces loyal to Sung-Li attempted to break through to the palace grounds, the energy weapons of the Defiant stopped them, you rear is in no danger. Four fast attack spaceships are now stationed above the palace complex, the rebellion in the capital city is over bar the capture of Sung-Li, we have won this part of the war."

The marines broke out in to cheers; however, Troy knew that whoever had been on the other end of the radio had been a little premature, the forces of Sung-Li would not cede the capital city without a lot more bloodshed. Seconds later and a flurry of energy bolts exploded all around them, injuring two of the marines and one of the women in Troy`s party. Swearing loudly, Gallio's turned to one of his men.

"Use the grenade launcher Cargill, take them out."

Cargill quickly sent four grenades hurtling down the corridor in to the inner sanctum, and before the loud explosions had stopped echoing along the corridors, Gallio called out to his squad.

"Let`s finish this off now, move out."

The marines rushed off in to the inner sanctum, their weapons firing as more marines arrived to reinforce his team. With the extra ten marines Troy contacted his other three teams.

"We are coming around the inner ring road, I will lead a team round to the western corridor, the rest of the marines will head for the eastern corridor, look out for us."

With that Troy led half of the marines' westwards and the corporal in command of this new squad of marines led the other half eastwards. Soon after Troy met the corporal at the southern corridor, they had encountered no enemy forces, they had been chased away by the Defiant`s weapons and those carried by Sergeant Gallio Trabant, who had just re-joined them. Only the inner sanctum was left to explore and Troy led the marines in to it and there Gallio said.

"They are either dead or long gone, although we did catch this one here."

This one here was a senior advisor of Sung-Li, he had been unable to escape after a heavy wooden beam had struck him as a result of the Defiant`s attack on the inner sanctum. Fear was in his eyes when he saw Troy, who looked at the advisor with contempt in his eyes. The man trembled in fear and pleaded with Troy.

"Mercy Mr Defoe, I am an innocent, I never harmed anyone, you know that."

"Shut up Martello." Troy said and then he called the teams on the first floor of the palace.

"This Troy Defoe, the ground floor corridors are ours now, what is happening up on the first floor?"

"Troy, this is Renton up on the southern upper corridor, the corridors up here are clear, we are about to enter the inner sanctum." Renton said and then added. "We have not had any casualties, the space fleet sent them running for cover."

"Good, we have lost enough good men and women. Please there Renton, until you receive reinforcements, I will send them up to you now." Troy ordered and then turned to Marchant.

"Take your people up to Renton, check everything is okay and then move out with the four upper teams in to the inner sanctum."

As Marchant left with his team Troy turned back to Advisor Martello

"Do not attempt to tell me what I know to be false Martello, you were content to serve him when he was all powerful, you are guilty of many crimes against the people. Now, talk or I will be forced to execute you as an enemy of the people. Tell me, where did they all go?"

Shaking, Martello pointed at a large wall unit full of pictures of the emperor.

"There is a secret tunnel behind the unit, here if you help me up I will open it."

Troy looked across at the marine nearest Martello and said.

"Help him up please marine, Sung-Li is getting away."

With the marine`s assistance, Martello limped across to the unit and pressed a concealed lever, the unit immediately swung out towards Troy who moved over to look along the long tunnel.

"It is probably booby trapped Gallio, you had better get the bomb disposal team in to check it out for mines and the such like." Troy said and then turned back to Martello.

"Where does the tunnel come out, tell me quickly and I will have you taken to a hospital, play dumb and you will go to your grave."

Trembling with fear, Martello immediately told Troy everything that he knew.

"The tunnel comes out at Senator Vernon`s house, although actually the emperor owns it, the exit is in the cellar of the house, behind an old bookcase, however, he will probably have arrived by now, he used a small vehicle in the tunnel, specially left there to hasten his departure, should it become necessary."

Troy despatched a fast attack spaceship to the far end of the tunnel, with orders to kill Sung-Li on sight, the Cruiser Defiant also sent a further squad of marines down by shuttle craft to head for the senator`s house, with orders to arrest anyone still on the premises. Troy then returned his attention to Martello.

"Sung-Li is no longer the emperor, he is the traitor Sung-Li, the arch villain, remember that Martello."

Martello vigorously nodded his head as Troy asked.

"He surely is not planning on remaining at the senator`s house Martello, he must realise that we will pursue him, tell me, where is going from there?"

Advisor Martello looked more composed, he now realised that his life was not in danger from the engineer, however, he knew that when Prince Johan arrived, he would not be so soft, for he knew the real Prince Galliano, so he said a little belligerently.

"Swear to release me, engineer, and I will tell you, for I think that you are a man of your word, otherwise there will be no point in spilling the beans, Prince Johan will order my death out of hand the moment that he sees me, to prevent me from telling you all that I know about him."

Troy looked angrily at the advisor, this man did not deserve to be released, many better people will have died that day, why should he be allowed to scuttle away to hide beneath a rock. So, he said to the advisor, who was trembling once more as he saw the look in Troy`s eyes.

"I promise that you will only die if you do not tell me the final bolt hole that Sung-Li has planned for such an occasion as this, now tell me or I will throw you to the people of Zeta."

Martello quickly told Troy of Sung-Li`s final destination, for he knew that he could expect no pity from the people, only a painful death. His eyes wide with terror, he said in a tremulous voice.

"He is going to the Quran cave complex, he thinks that he can hide within its massive cave system, once there he can bargain with you, and he will have bargaining chips, innocent citizens, taken down there by force."

Troy contacted Captain Kantile, for with his limited freedom fighters he did not know who else to contact.

"Captain, it is Troy again, I have reason to believe that Sung-Li is heading for the Quran cave system, he may have some hostages with him, can your force spare any more men or should I round up some of the citizens to march on the caves?"

"You again Troy, where is Prince Galliano, why is he not in charge of operations on the ground, the people would follow him?" Kantile asked quizzically.

"Tonight, Captain, tonight I will tell you all, send a shuttle down at midnight, by then everything should be quiet down here." Troy replied. "Now tell me, what can you do about the Quran cave system?"

"We are stretched pretty thin up here, we will be your eyes in the sky but you will have to attend to Sung-Li. Tonight, Troy, at midnight, and you had better have a bloody good answer to my question."

With that Kantile rung off, it was just as a unit of the miners turned up.

"I have been told that you are in charge, is that correct?" Tullis Matlock asked loudly.

Matlock was big, strong and armed with an energy weapon, his eyes glowed brightly, he finally realised that the empire had fallen.

"How many troops can you count on, we are going after Sung-Li." Troy asked.

"I have everyone who survived the attack on the palace plus one hundred more, all armed with weapons that I took from the security guards." Matlock replied a little quieter as if he was awed by his next task.

Just then Sergeant Trabant appeared out of the tunnel, one that he and his men had checked out personally.

"The tunnel is clear Troy, we can use it, it should be quicker than trying to move about above ground, it is a madhouse out there, everyone is out on the streets, word has gone around about the overthrow of Sung-Li." Gallio said breathlessly, having run back along the tunnel in search of Troy.

Troy smiled and turned to Matlock.

"Bring all of your men here immediately, we have an urgent need of them."

Matlock turned around and called out in his loud voice.

"Oberon, bring them along, we are going to war against Sung-Li himself."

As the corridor echoed to cheers and well over one hundred pairs of footsteps Troy turned back to Gallio.

"How many marines do you have, as the man said we are off to war."

"Including myself, eighteen, the rest are busy elsewhere Troy. You must have realised Troy, that staging a rebellion with so few soldiers was madness. Mind you Troy, how we were victorious I do not know, but by god we won, we won." Gallio cried out joyfully.

Troy and the others smiled and joined in with his cries of joy, then Troy reminded them.

"We have won the major battle, Gallio, however, many smaller battles will be taking place around federation space for days to come. Thankfully, we have the fast attack craft, they will make a difference, and the people will come out on our side, especially when they hear of the overthrow of Sung-Li, they will make a difference. The politicians and the security forces will either surrender or be crushed underfoot, their weapons will not cow the people, not with the space fleet to aid them."

The rebel army marched through the long tunnel, overhead lights lit their way and they emerged in the cellar of Senator Vernon`s house, from here it was a short walk to the Quran cave system. As Troy expected, the door to the cave system was shut and locked, outside of it a group of civilians were complaining, as soon as Troy arrived with the marines, they rushed across to tell him on mass why they were there.

"Quiet, the lot of you." Troy ordered before turning to an elderly couple.

"Perhaps you might tell me Sir, just why you are all here?"

The man began to explain.

"Security men suddenly arrived here, screaming and a shouting at the people, they began to round up everyone in sight, we were only lucky because we saw what was happening and ducked down and hid in the car park, otherwise we would have been dragged down there complaining."

"Okay sir, can you take a guess as to how many people were dragged down there?" Troy asked.

"Oh quite a few, maybe one hundred and that includes quite a few children."

"Did anyone see Sung-Li enter, if so how many supporters did he have?" Troy now asked.

A woman pushed through the crowd and before answering she turned to the crowd and said in a loud voice.

"You see, I told you all it was Sung-Li himself, but you all scoffed."

A large amount of muttering met her words and feeling that she was vindicated she then turning back to Troy and said.

"Sung-Li had a fair few people with him, I recognised many a politician and even a few television people. Together with the security men who forced the citizens to enter the caves I should say he has at least two hundred, and most of them were armed."

A man now pushed his way to the front and asked.

"Where is Prince Johan, we were told that he was in charge of the rebellion, why isn`t he here?"

"I am in charge here sir, my name is Troy Defoe. When we have captured or killed Sung-Li and his supporters, the leaders of the of the rebellion will talk to everyone on Zeta and the colony planets. Right now, I can tell you that we control the Hunter space craft and the six space cruisers, the captains of the space fleet, together with the legendary conspirators will appear on television as soon as they are able. Now you must excuse me, there are many supporters of Sung-Li to apprehend, although many have been executed by the forces of the rebellion. The rebel force, apart from the space fleet consists mostly of the space miners and the conspirators` freedom fighters." Troy explained and then added.

"If anyone wants to help the rebellion, we need food and drinks for the troops here. The task before us will see many good people die, the least we can do is to make their last time on Zeta comfortable. Now those who want to help in this way, please set about this task now, as for anyone else, please go home and turn on your television set."

With that Troy turned back to Gallio who was about to blow open the door to the cave system. Gallio in turn turned towards the mass of people and called out to anyone near.

"The door could be booby trapped, when we blow the door it might trigger a larger explosion. I advise everyone to stand well back, and that goes for our troops as well."

There was a hasty withdrawal, the marines pushing them further and further back until everyone was some 200 yards from the door. When Gallio detonated his explosive device, by remote control as he had retreated to safety too, the result was deafening, for the door had been booby trapped, the resulting explosion stunning all except for Gallio, who had been anticipating such an explosion.

The marines and Troy led the way back to the now jagged open mouth to the cave system, with his troops following on close behind. Looking at Gallio, Troy said.

"We need a few drones here before we go any further. Sung-Li may have hoped to take us unaware, but thanks to you Gallio, he did not succeed, however, he may have left a few surprises further on."

"We could also do with a couple of expert cavers, we should put a call out on both the radio and the television, until they and the drones arrive all we can do is guard the entrance." Gallio advised.

Troy nodded his agreement and then turned and called to Tullis Matlock.

The large heavy rebel came across and looked enquiringly at Troy who asked.

"Tullis, we need some remote-controlled drones with built in cameras, can you send a dozen of your people out to bring some back. If the shop is locked they must contact the owner, if he is not nearby or available, they can break in. However, they must leave two men behind to guard the premises until the owner returns."

Troy then contacted Kantile.

"Sorry to bother you again Captain but Sung-Li has holed up inside the Quran cave system, could you contact the media and tell them we need some expert cavers to assist us, you had better add that it will be dangerous work."

"Will do Troy and turn on your radio in one hour`s time, we are going on the air, Mirtron Pallas, who is nominally in charge of the conspirator, will explain what has been happening, he will also mention you Troy, saying that you are one of the driving forces behind the rebellion and that you currently have got Sung-Li trapped. This should make your life easier, people will obey your instructions without questioning them." Kantile replied.

"That is good of Mirtron Pallas, and as you say, it will make my life easier." Troy said.

"He will also be mentioning a few more of the rebellion`s leading lights, are there any with you who you would like mentioned?" Kantile asked.

"Tullis Matlock, Tom Marchant and Sergeant Gallio Trabant and his marines to name but a few loyal people." Troy replied.

One hour later and they had the drones, however, they were waiting for four cavers to arrive, they were on the way from the other side of the capital. Troy now turned on the radio to listen to Pallas`s radio broadcast.

The people mentioned looked a little embarrassed when their names were mentioned, however, it did give them some authority to give orders to the rest of the troops.

The team that had brought back the drones had also brought back their owner, Jules Ballan, he offered to control them, an offer that Troy gratefully accepted. Troy now had him send a drone in to the mouth of the cave, using an infrared camera they were able to investigate every nook and cranny, and no booby traps were seen. So, Troy first sent six marines through the jagged mouth to investigate the approaches to the cave system, then he followed this small force with ten of his civilian troops, enough he reckoned to prevent any action against them while they prepared their own attack. This area of the cave system had normally been tourist territory, it was large, went back some fifty yards before tapering in a little and was fitted out with walkways and stairways, they were meant to take the tourists through some of the major tunnels on the first and second levels. His troops moved further in, some100 yards inside the mouth, still well within tourist territory. Here they huddled behind whatever rocks they could find big enough to give them cover. The area before them was lit up, Troy had found the lights and turned them on, but not before having one of his people take out the lights that would otherwise expose his troops to enemy fire.

Outside the cave mouth, Jules Ballan, following the success of his drone, was busy preparing to send one of his smaller drones further in to the cave system, to see how much of it Sung-Li had decided to surrender without a fight.

It was now that the four cavers arrived, they were led by Alexa Railes, a young woman of good looks and with a figure to go with it. Troy felt his pulse begin to race, similar to when he first saw the two young Earth women, only more so this time. Recovering the power of speech, he introduced himself, only to learn that she and her companions knew of his already, from Pallas`s radio broadcast. After the introductions, Alexa said.

"We all know this cave system, having been down there quite often, here, look at this map Troy, it shows it both in plan and from the side view." Alexa spread a large-scale map of the cave system across the front of her vehicle.

"As you can see it is a very extensive system, troops could be concealed in any of the side tunnels. This will not be an easy operation for you, Sung-Li has chosen well. It goes down quite a way, there is even talk of it joining up with another smaller system on the other side of that high country in front of us, the Quran system lies beneath it. The system has 400 miles of tunnels, goes down over 300 feet, has five distinct levels and has an underground river flowing through it for ten miles before it disappears down through the floor of the cave. Cave divers followed its course and found that it continued on through a series of caves before reappearing as the Mount Georgis waterfall."

Jules Ballan had been waiting patiently for orders, and Troy now turned his attention to him.

"Jules, let us see how far one of your smaller drones can descend before meeting opposition."

Jules immediately sent his smallest drone down, it descended down through the caves for one minute before its transmission cut off in a bright flash.

"I guess that we have found our opposition, they must have positioned themselves just here within the first of the large chambers." Alexa Railes said pointing at the map of the cave system. "From there they will be able to stop an army from proceeding any further, the way through is very narrow there." She then added another, mostly unknown fact.

"For the last year, the security forces closed off the three lower levels, and during the night, when the caves have been closed to the public anyway, they have been secretly transporting supplies down there, what they take and where they stored them, only the security forces and Sung-Li knows." She then added. "I only know this because the night security guard wanted to get to know me better, however, I do not go out with men old enough to be my father."

It was now that Captain Kantile and Mirtron Pallas arrived, they wanted to talk over the events of the day and discuss the future with Troy, their man on the ground. Kantile had already been told of the fate that Johan had met and had hardly been able to hide his astonish, both to the betrayal by a man he thought to be beyond such things, and the way Troy had led the rebels to victory. Troy spoke first, he told them what Alexa had said and then he asked.

"Mirtron, have any of your people managed to capture any the of Sung-Li`s senior security men, ones who could tell us what to expect when we push further in to the cave system?"

Mirtron looked at Troy and replied.

"Yes, Troy, as it happens we do have one, however, at the moment he refuses to talk."

"He will talk, we need to know what weapons Sung-Li has got down there. Have him brought here, I refuse to see most of my troops die because of this one man." Troy declared and then left them to see to his forward troops, Gallio accompanied him.

Troy went to their forward position and scanned the position ahead, he could see the bottle neck just 100 yards ahead of them, to go any nearer without a good plan would be suicide, he decided to position a second line of defence manned by the remaining marines. Should it become necessary to retreat, they would be the people best suited to stop the attackers and aid their comrades.

Half an hour later a shuttle landed and a short weedy looking man was led shackled from it by two hulking guards, the security man had arrived.

Troy had him taken in to the mouth of the cave, inside there were just his 16 troops and now Gallio. Troy sat the man down on a rock, looked him in the eye and said.

"You can answer my questions or die, because if you do not answer them, then many of my troops will die when we launch our attack on Sung-Li, what is it to be, your death or the death of Sung-Li?"

"You had better kill me now, for I will not talk to the likes of you, rebel scum." The security man said contemptuously.

"Oh, my friend, I will not kill you, my troops outside will, and it will be a very slow painful death, for they have all lost friends and family to the likes of your kind, monsters in the pay of a greater evil." Troy said grimly.

Troy turned and called out to Matlock who came in and looked quizzically at Troy.

"This man here, Tullis, has chosen death, he is a senior security man, he could save many lives here tonight, however, he chooses not to. Please take care of him, bring in some of his many victims` families and friends and make his death long and very painful."

Matlock looked at the man, the face of Matlock changed, it became almost evils. The security man recognised the look, his own men had it when they too tortured their prisoners. He turned to Troy, and trembling he asked.

"What is it that you want to know sir?"

**********

Sung-Li has transported a year's provisions down through the cave system, enough for a small army, he also had a nuclear generator installed on the fourth level, just in case he needed a bolt hole. With him in his hideaway were any politicians foolish enough to follow him, his personnel bodyguard and a large number of security guards. He reckoned that this should give him the protection he thought he might need one day. The citizens who had lived nearby, they were a new line of defence, there to provide him with human shields.

Sung-Li looked at the security man and once again he asked his question of the kneeling subordinate.

"Where are the gas masks, where is the Sarin gas, tell me that you did not delay sending it because of a family celebration?"

The man looked up at Sung-Li and cringing he said in a broken voice.

"My Lord, I am sorry for failing you, they are all still in the warehouse, there was no real rush yesterday, before the rebellion."

Sung-Li pulled out his energy weapon and fired it, the bolt whistled across the short space within the large cavern and killed the now whimpering man. He knew at that moment that he would have to make use of the secret exit from the cave system, one known only to Sung-Li and his two personal security men, who just happened to be cavers in their spare time. Sung-Li turned to his senior security man and asked.

"Have they attempted to come through the bottleneck yet?"

"No, my lord, the destruction of their drone stopped them dead." The security man replied. "The rebel commander is soft, he thinks too much of his men."

"If it was Prince John then he would have already sent them through, no, it must be Troy, which means that he has already despatched his prince, I never thought that he had it in him." Sung-Li replied thoughtfully. "You realise that none of us can surrender, it would mean lifelong imprisonment or death."

"The thought had occurred to me my lord." The security replied grimly.

"We will stay here long enough to see most of these pathetic creatures die, then a few specially selected men and women will leave with me for a hideout that only two of them know off. There, we will plan our revenge on this scum." Sung-Li said in an equally grim voice.

**********

The security man had soon answered all of his questions, from the moment that he had met Tullis Matlock, Troy knew he had a quick mind, he knew exactly why he had summoned, and it had not been to invite him to tea. What surprised him most was that once broken, the security man answered every question and volunteered even more, such as the delayed delivery of the gas masks and the gas, delayed because of a birthday celebration. Not that they could use the gas, because of the hostages, but the gas masks would be of use. Troy sought out Mirtron and asked if his people could find a large supply of a quick acting know-out gas.

Meanwhile, Troy despatched Tullis and his team again, this time to check on the warehouse where the gas masks were, thirty minutes later a call came through from Tullis.

"Troy, the gas masks, they are still here in the warehouse."

"Bring them over to the caves, as soon as Mirtron can supply us with a large supply of knockout gas, we will go in." Troy replied.

While he waited for the gas to arrive, Troy was speaking to Kantile and Mirtron about what would follow the end to hostilities when a thought occurred to Troy.

"Sung-Li must know of a back door to the Quran cave complex, to allow him to exit unseen, there is no other logical reason as to why he allowed himself to be trapped inside. He wanted mass deaths to hide the fact that he survived." He looked about him and then said. "Excuse me, I need to speak to Alexa."

Troy found her looking over her maps.

"Alexa, would you try to find another way out of the Quran cave system, one that Sung-Li might use to evade escape?"

"That is a tall order Troy, it could be anywhere out there." Alexa said waving her hands in the general direction of the hills.

"Yes, I realise that Alexa, I do not want you to do it physically, surely you could ask your caving friends, because Sung-Li must have some cavers amongst his people, if I am correct that is the only possible way that he could have found it."

"Troy, if some cavers found another way in to the Quran caves, they would have shouted it from the roofs, we are like that." Alexa argued.

"Not if they already worked for Sung-Li and were clever enough to know the value of their find." Troy pointed out.

"Maybe, it would certainly point out why Sung-Li allowed himself to be bottled up down there. Although it is a fine defensive position, attack is more Sung-Li. Okay, Troy, I will phone round the other cavers and see if we can come up with anything."

**********

Sung-Li looked at his senior security man and said.

"Find out how many of the rebels are currently within the cave system, if the number is small then drive them from the caves, let them know fear."

**********

Now that Alexa was on the trail of any possible exit route that Sung-Li might know about, Troy turned back to the cave entrance, and he decided that he had better put more people in to the cave entrance, as well as improve the defences, to this end he sought out Gallio.

"Gallio, I believe that Sung-Li will attempt to push us out of the cave entrance, he thinks nothing of the lives of his people. There is a metal works just along the road, take some of the civilians and appropriate whatever will help protect the lives of our troops. You will probably have to break in, oh and be quick, my stomach is hurting me, and it is not only my hunger causing it, it is my knowledge of Sung-Li."

Thirty minutes later and Gallio and his team had built a thick metal wall, for both the forward line and the 2nd defensive line. It would provide some protection against the energy weapons that the people under Sung-Li were thought to have, rifles and hand weapons, with a few grenade launchers, it would at least help against any surprise attack.

Ten minutes later and movement was seen coming from in front of the metal defensive line, this was followed by the lights being shot out. Finally, the troops under Gallio were taking fire, Sung-Li had sent up 100 men, however the bottle neck that was the beginning of the section that Sung-Li had decided to keep now worked against him.

The marines however were waiting for them, the destruction of the lights was a clear sign that an attack was about to be made. As he enemy troops opened fire they showed clearly where they were, the marines, and moments later the civilian troops, opened fire. The dead and injured lay where they fell, making further attack impossible, for the attackers would have to clamber over the bodies and neither side had the stomach for that. The defenders lost three marines killed or injured along with five civilians. The enemy losses were far higher. With the enemy fleeing, Troy called out to Sung-Li`s commander.

"Hold your fire, we are moving forward to tend to the wounded amongst your men and to bury your dead, this is not an attack."

Troy now took twenty civilians with him, the enemy troops at least allowed them to get on with their grisly task as they carried the silent dead away and the groaning wounded. Mirtron Pallas had already arranged for a medical team and ambulances to be in attendance, so they began their work on those still alive.

It was just then that the news of another massacre reached Troy, however, initially he did not believe it, for it was of a large number of security men who had been prevented from joining Sung-Li, and it was the rebel forces who had murdered them.

Mirtron looked at his new friend and he shrugged his shoulders and then said to Troy.

"We only won the war because at times we used similar methods to those employed by the forces of Sung-Li. Surely you realise that Troy? We assassinated many of the leaders who were loyal to him, and even now our teams are carrying out this task, you know that, you even helped to set it up. Soon, we will be able to put these ways behind us, however, for now we must live with them."

"Those earlier deaths were while we were fighting, these deaths were of revenge, they had surrendered to our troops." Troy declared sorrowfully and turned back to this part of the rebellion.

**********

Sung-Li knew that Troy would use gas in his assault on the caves, and without the gas masks they would be pushed back until they died or surrendered. Therefore, he decided it was nearly time to depart this battle field, those who had been chosen to survive the battle were deep below ground, or the fourth level. They numbered just twenty people, he now had them prepare to move out, the battle of Quran was lost to the defenders. Those who had be chosen to stay and die did not realise that the battle was lost. Sung-Li was down on the fourth level of the Quran cave system, his headquarters were in a short side tunnel, miles away from the dead and dying. However, unknown to most cavers, a narrow tunnel led to the Castle cave system, it soon widened out in to a six feet round tunnel that after six miles entered the Castle system at its newly discovered fourth level. Sung-Li`s two bodyguards, while taking time off from their official duties, had literally stumbled across the narrow slit in the wall, high above the floor of the fourth level tunnel. On following it they were amazed when it came out in the Quran system, hiding the narrow entrance behind a large rock they decided to mention it to Sung-Li first. They were lucky at the time, for he repaid them from out of the empire`s treasury.

The first thing that Sung-Li did was to send those chosen to die, and who were not already on the first level preparing to defend him, up to the second level, their orders were to hold this level and the one above at all costs. Those who were to live put on back packs filled with food, weapons and water and prepared to move out.

**********

Finally, the gas masks, a large supply of the knock out gas and the means to fire it at the enemy troops reached the cave mouth. There were 100 masks and he handed them over to his civilian troops, they had been chosen to lead the way after the gas had been fired down through the bottleneck at the defenders.

The first twenty troopers crawled over the floor of the cave until they were with the marines at the forward defensive line, then they fired their grenade launchers and twenty gas canisters sored through the bottle neck to explode amongst the defenders. Then they fired a second salvo of grenades. Jules Ballan then sent a drone through the bottleneck to inspect the scene below them.

The scene of the monitor showed that the defenders had been knocked out by the gas attack, so he sent fifty of the troopers through, some also armed with the gas grenades and some with just their energy weapons.

**********

Alexa was finally told about the two men loyal to Sung-Li, ones who had suddenly come in to money, and it was after they had gone missing for four hours within the Castle cave system. She quickly sought out Troy to tell him the complete story.

"They were missing for so long that Jacobi March, the caver in charge of the team, organised a search for them, just in case they were injured. He came across them at the far end of the fourth level, they were strolling along whistling, they apologised for taking time out for a short sleep and no more was thought about the matter."

It did not take Troy long to mull it over, and he then said.

"When we launched our gas attack, you can be sure that Sung-Li will run, Alexa, will you lead Gallio, his marines and some of the troopers over to the cave entrance to greet them.

"It will be my pleasure Troy." Alexa replied.

Gallio took his remaining marines plus twenty of the civilian troopers with him, they borrowed some of the cars parked in the official car park of the cave system, cars brought there by civilian troopers mainly. The marines place at the front line was taken up by twenty civilian troopers.

**********

Sung-Li allowed his followers to lead the way through the narrow tunnel to the Castle Cave system, he allowed them, once there, to lead the way up through the levels to the mouth of the cave. He even let them breathe in the clear air as they were about to exit the cave.

**********

The defenders in the Quran cave system soon realised that they had been betrayed by Sung-li, it was when he had not answered their call for help. To a man they surrendered, willing to throw themselves on the mercy of their captors and their law courts.

**********

Gallio now at the Castle cave saw a group of people appear in the mouth of the cave.

"They are here, take aim, but give them chance to surrender." He ordered.

So, he warned the newcomers of his presence, he would not kill in cold blood, not even the scum at the mouth of the cave.

"Drop your weapons or we will open fire." Gallio called out in a loud clear voice.

The twenty-one fleeing people were stunned in to inaction. However, Sung-Li was not, he just swore, he had warned the fool Prince Johan that Troy was dangerous. Seeing no way out he screamed to his own people.

"Shoot them, kill them all."

This was a tall order, for the seventeen marines and twenty civilian troopers were behind any available cover. With no option left to him, Gallio order his men to return fire, seconds later those loyal to Sung-Li were dead, moments later, with a burning hatred for Troy Defoe filling his entire body. Sung-Li died happy, for as he lay gasping his life away, he thought that Troy was standing over him, his hands reached out towards the apparition, gripped its neck and squeezed, and finally, Sung-Li died with an evil smile upon his face. The empire was now officially dead and from its ashes the Federation would be reborn.

**********

The news of the death of Sung-Li ended the fighting on Zeta and the colony planets, the federation had been reborn, elections for the senate would happen in four months` time, for the moment the ordinary civilian police were in charge of the peoples` security. The security department was closed down, as was the state police department. Any sort of politician was relieved of their position, the civil servants would continue to run the federation, however, the old federation laws and rules would apply now.

The End

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Also, why not visit my author page by clicking on the link. Smashwords Books.

About the Author

I was born in London, England. Like most of the world, I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills, so I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. My wife and I have a son who is now married to a lovely wife and they have five children of their own. Since retiring to the Greek island of Crete, I have finally found the time and the energy to write some full-length Science Fiction stories.

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Other Books by the Author

Colonies of Earth Series in order

Galaxy Spies

Time Storm

Rebirth

Trial by Ordeal

Horror Stories

Strange tales; three short mild horror stories

The Vampires of Cymru-- coming soon

Rob Hinds black magic stories

Kidnapped and Bound for Hell

The Satanists

Dreamscape

The Return of the Bitch from Hell

David Charlton stories, a science fiction series

Rescue Mission to the Stars

The Treasure of Altaraus

Return to Mazere

Other science fiction stories

Quasar

The Venetou

Invasion Earth

Lost and Far from Home

Journey to the Stars

Short children`s stories

Three Journeys of the Scary Kind
