"Hello, Gabriel. Thanks for the assist. It’s my arm and my leg. I think they're broken."

  Gabe ran his hand, palm-down, over Sana's body. An autoinjector emerged from his left forearm. "Sana, you're in shock, and you have a fractured tibia and a broken arm. You also have internal bleeding. This injector contains a cocktail of drugs and a few hundred thousand short-lived nanorobots. You have my word that I am not going to take over your mind."

  "Promise?"

  "Cross my heart and hope to rust."

  She stifled a laugh, then nodded. He injected her.

  Her eyes went large as the drugs and nanobots did their work.

  "Boss, four strykers and seven mercs inbound," Siv said from inside Gabe’s brain.

  "Do I have drones?" Gabe asked as he returned to infiltrator mode. He gently picked up the injured Marine. "I'm going to take you to safety."

  "Several," Siv replied.

  "Can they be programmed to mimic whatever the strykers are tracking?"

  "Aye."

  "Program two of them, then launch one north and one south. It should keep our friends busy."

  "Roger that. Drones away."

  Two tiny quadracopters emerged from Gabe's back and headed out on diametrically opposed courses

  ###

  Josiah was getting to the good part of his book when Gabe ran in carrying an elf woman in EMEF armor.

  "What happened," Josiah asked while hurrying over to help the elf to the cot. That's when the trouble started.

  "Muntz!" Sana yelled while pulling away from him.

  "Look, I need to get the hell out of here so that I can draw the nasties off. Could y'all wait until I leave before you start with the blood-letting."

  "You're not going anywhere," Sana ordered.

  "Really? You have a death wish? There's a lot of that going around lately."

  Sana lay back down and put her hand over her eyes to stop the room from spinning. "Fine. Go. Just try not to get yourself killed again. The paperwork would be horrendous."

  "Aye. Aye, Colonel," Gabe acknowledged before running out the door. Sana looked at Muntz. "How is it you aren't dead?"

  "Clean living and a glass of whiskey every evening."

  ###

  Gabe hit the corridor running. "Siv, where's Zoe's ride?"

  "Straight ahead, through the wall at the end of the corridor. It's parked fifty yards out with two guards patrolling the exterior. No one's inside and the engines are hot and in stand-by mode."

  "Can you fly it?"

  "Now you ask. Yes, I'm a licensed pilot."

  "Good. Kill the drones. Can we communicate with Mother and her freak children?"

  "Of course. All megalomaniacs need to speak to their minions. You’re on."

  "Mother, do you copy?"

  "Gabe! Thank the gods of Tralaska. You're alive!"

  "No thanks to Stryker-7 and its two merc morons. Sorry about the mess. I hope it was insured."

  "A fluke! A flaw in its programming. Gabe, come home."

  "What, no Stryker-1? Tell me something, Mother. Why did you bother reviving me when you only planned to dissect me when this test was finished?"

  "Stryker-1, you are ordered to stand-down or I will be forced to destroy you."

  "Go right ahead." He stopped at the wall and looked back to see several large, black shapes coming after him. "I'm waiting."

  "Gabe!" Siv yelled.

  He raised an arm and willed a rocket launcher to form on it. He fired first at the wall, then turned toward the oncoming figures.

  "Siv, identify incoming tangos."

  "Scanners indicate tangos are all of the remaining mercs and strykers."

  He switched to bomblet-delivering rockets and let loose with two of them. Half-way to their targets, the trailing rocket dispersed hundreds of grape-sized grenades which exploded on contact. The hallway between him and tangos collapsed, but he wasn't done. The lead rocket passed the tangos and dispersed bomblets behind them, trapping them inside a small pocket between two hundred-foot long sections of collapsed corridor.

  As the dust cleared, he emerged from the building and shot the two guards with stun charges before running into the ship. Once inside, Siv left to take care of piloting tasks while he reverted to human form to seal the ship.

  "Boss, strap in! We're lifting off." For only the second time since his resurrection, Gabe was heading into space.

  Alarms went off around him. "Siv, what's wrong?"

  "Two EMEF battle shuttles have locked onto us. They're arming weapons."

  "Let me talk to them."

  "Go!"

  "Purity, this is EMEF Battle Shuttle Lenora's Wrath. Land and prepare to be boarded." Something about the voice was familiar to Gabe, but he couldn't place it.

  "Wrath, my name is Detective Inspector Gabriel Adon of the United States Police Force, badge number gamma-1-6-3-2-5-alpha. I’m on a mission of utmost importance to the League of Planetary Systems. Your colonel is still in the facility with a civilian by the name of Josiah Muntz..."

  "Boss, start sweet talking. They're bringing weapons online and this tub doesn't even have a defensive shield."

  "Dammit, Sana is hurt, and I don't know how long the mercs and the strykers are going to remain trapped. I am not a threat. Over."

  First, silence, then a simple question, "What did you say your name is?"

  "Detective Inspector Gabriel Adon of the United States Police Force. Who is this I’m speaking to?"

  "EMEF General Marta McMurphy. How old are you?"

  "You wouldn't believe me."

  "Try me."

  "I was born in New York City on July 5th, 1985. I died forty years later."

  "Mom, dammit, this is Sana. Authent code smuggler elf. For gods' sake, don't shoot him. Please, let him go," blared over the comm.

  There was a loud thud as something hit the hull.

  "DI Adon, I've marked your ship with a tracker puck. Don't remove it, and don't lose that ship. I want to talk to you when things are calmer. You're free and clear to navigate. Wrath out."

  "Weapons lock is gone. Both shuttles have changed course and are now heading toward the facility. Gabe, what the hell just happened?"

  "I don't have a clue. Tell me, does the World Wide Web and the Internet still exist?"

  "It's now called the InterWeb and it spans dozens of planets in two galaxies."

  "Is it hard to use?"

  A nearby screen came on with a familiar search engine displayed. "I've reconfigured the display so that it's familiar to you."

  "Thanks. Set course for the nearest planet on Josiah's list, maximum speed."

  "Aye, Captain. Transit time to Lester is a little over seven hours."

  "Good. Hopefully, between the stuff crammed into my brain and your InterWeb, I'll be able to get a handle on this new world I find myself in."

  "Copy that. And Gabe,"

  "Yes, Siv?"

  "I'm glad you're here."

  "Thanks, Siv. I'm glad you’re here too."

  He sat down at the console and began his quest as the Purity flew through the plasma streamers of other-space on its way to whatever awaited them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  General McMurphy watched the interrogation of the mercs they captured inside the R-Sec detention facility. His name was Borth and he was about as useful as a match in a fireworks factory. "Sana, who the hell hires people this stupid, then hands them advanced weapons?"

  "It seems the sister of Josiah Muntz does," her daughter, the colonel, replied. "Too bad the strykers self-terminated. I would have loved to talk to one of them."

  "Are we sure about the 'Self' part?"

  "Pretty sure. No signals in or out were recorded by the master comm system, but it was damaged in the firefight. It's possible Zoe initiated it and we just didn't detect the signal. Maybe Muntz knows something."

  "He knows a lot of things, and he's sharing everything, which is uncharacteristic of him. I swear, he apologized for nearly killing me during that failed invasion he led."

  "So, Dad and his clone killed Muntz's clone instead of Muntz. We really need to pin name tags on everyone so we can keep the players straight."

  "Tell me about it. Your father will be here in an hour, and he wants to talk to Josiah." She looked over at her daughter. "Are you sure you're OK to do this? The docs said you were pretty banged up."

  "I'm fine. Gabe saved my life. What the hell is his story?"

  Marta took her daughter's hand and led her over to some chairs. "Have a seat."

  "I know that look. What's up?"

  "First, according to Muntz, he hacked into his sister's computer banks after seeing Gabe. It seems DI Adon made an impression on the ex-director."

  "What did he find?"

  "Zoe bought an Earth artifact from someone at the Cube."

  "What kind of artifact?"

  "A cryofreeze storage tube retrofitted with microfusion power cells. The tube contained the body of one DI Gabriel Adon of the United States Police force. DI Adon was killed when he sacrificed himself to incinerate eight ounces of pure philogistan in Earth year 1985, old calendar."

  "If he was dead, then why the cryotube?"

  "His body was dead, yet he had brain waves."

  "I think I'm going to be sick."

  "I plan to put Dr. Muntz in that same tube before launching the two of them into Sol."

  "I'll help. Why keep him alive?"

  "They used him to find a way to stop philogistan, then they summarily forgot him."

  "No one deserves that."

  "Cube Director Devlin agrees with you. She has ordered an audit of the tombs. As for the person who sold the tube, he's been tried and sent to the Petra Calli 7 prison planet. He'll be thoroughly interrogated en route before being placed in temporal stasis until death."

  "Too lenient. I know a group of hungry pre-adolescent wombats that would like to have him for dinner."

  "Sana, you've met my family. What do you think of them?"

  "They're great, especially great-great-grandmother Emma. She's a trip."

  "Emma is well over two hundred years old. All the ladies in my family live an extremely long time, which is why the corps allowed me to resume active duty. Physically, I'm your age."

  "Damn. Does Dad know?"

  "He suspects, though I haven't told him as such. It doesn't matter since elves live that long anyway. It just means he and I will pester each other for many years to come."

  "Why are you telling me this?"

  "Grammy Emma's maiden name is Adon."

  "Wait just a damn minute. Are you telling me that the guy that saved my life..."

  "Is your great-great-great grandfather Gabriel Adon. I had medical run a DNA profile using Grammy's data. It's confirmed, she is the daughter of Gabriel Adon."

  "Why would you run a profile on him?"

  "Grammy has a recording of a birthday party he attended before her mother divorced Gabe and took her away. I've seen that vid a thousand times. When he came on the comm, I nearly died from shock. It was Grandpa Gabriel. Same name, same voice; I had to let him go, then I had to be sure."

  "What did you use for his sample?"

  "Gabe's DNA is on file with Earth Security since he used to be a cop for the USPF. Also, the injector he used on you has his DNA all over it. I'm convinced it's him."

  "What happened to Emma's mother?"

  "She remarried, led a normal life, then died in her eighties."

  "So, she wasn't the source of your longevity."

  "No, he was. A team of Cube doctors are going through his records as we speak. Hopefully, they'll find something."

  "Have you told Grammy?"

  "I wanted to do so in person. Telling someone her age that her father is alive, but has been turned into a weapon is something that should be done gently and in person. I just don't know when I can get out of here."

  "Let me do it."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah. Look, she deserves to know, and I'm supposed to be on medical leave, so I should go."

  "Great. Yes, go then. Tell her I'll visit as soon as I can get clear." They stood up and Sana saluted.

  "Dismissed, Colonel," Marta said before returning the salute. Once the formalities were out of the way, Sana hugged her mother and gave her a peck on the cheek before heading out the door. "Damn, we have a strange relationship, but I wouldn't have it any other way." She opened the blind just as another merc was brought in.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Gabe sat in the copilot's seat and watched in awe as Lester spun slowly outside the Purity. He was dragged out of his fugue state by the sound of grayish fingers snapping near his head. "Boss, we're about to break orbit and head down. You should strap in," she advised.

  "Oh, right." He buckled in, then continued to watch the view shift as Siv set the ship on a reentry vector. "What about a heat shield?"

  "Heat shields are so twentieth century. Nowadays we use force fields," she informed him.

  Outside, the air in front of the forward windscreens turned ruddy red, then flame orange. Gabe noticed that there was a space of about a foot between the glass and the flames of reentry. "This is so cool," he said quietly.

  "Yep, things have changed a lot since your kind left their caves and moved into high-rise apartments. I hear women of your species can vote!"

  Gabe smiled. Siv was right; things had changed a lot.

  "Boss, I need the coordinates Josiah gave you."

  "Can I borrow a pencil and a pad of paper?"

  "Think about them appearing on this monitor," the Alue said.

  A set of numbers appeared. She pressed a button, and they disappeared. "Thanks. I input them into the NAVComp. We'll be over the site in a few minutes."

  "I really did that?"

  "Yep. Ain't technology wonderful?"

  Soon, they reached their destination. "There's a camp down there," Siv said. She pointed at a spaceship, similar to the one they were in, sitting next to a few large tents. It looked deserted. "Did Josiah mention an active dig?"

  "Nope. He just gave me the planets' locations and where on them the artifacts were located. I wonder where all the people are."

  "Access your scanners and see what's out there."

  Gabe morphed into his infiltrator form. "Sapient life signs detected."

  "You can tell that?"

  "I'm seeing a scan readout superimposed on your pretty face. The readout says, 'No sapient life forms detected,'"

  "You think I'm pretty?"

  "Of course."

  "Shucks. Can you widen your scan radius? This ship's scanners aren't worth the fuel we burn to carry them."

  "Let's see...? Pick a screen."

  She pointed to an unused information display. It immediately filled with life sign data. Siv set the ship to hover while she examined the screen. "OK, we have two groups of life signs congregated up to the North. The computer says they're locals and Leaguers. Now, coming this way is one Leaguer followed by a group of locals. Um, Gabe, I think we might have a hunting party running after a League citizen."

  "Open the airlock, please," he said, still in infiltrator mode.

  "Copy that. Hatch open."

  Two quad-copter drones, each about the size of a deck of playing cards emerged from his back and flew out the open hatch. Two windows opened on the screen with the life sign data, each a view from a drone. Two red dots appeared on the screen and approached the hunting party. "There they are," Siv exclaimed. "Drone two."

  A figure in jeans and a hooded coat was running toward the encampment. They were being followed by a group of six humanoids wearing body paint and loin cloths. In their right hands were wicked looking spears.

  "I can't land anywhere except next to the encampment," Siv reported.

  "Can you get above and between the Leaguer and the hunting party?"

  "Sure, but what then?"

  "Get us there and open the back door. I've always wanted to skydive."

  "Boss!"

  "I'll be fine. Now, just get us there before that hunting party catches lunch."

  "Grrr," she said while taking the ship out of hover and into forward motion. "Ramp is down. ETA 30 seconds. Be careful, dammit."

  "Aye, Captain!" he called out on his way to the rear of the ship.

  When he arrived at the rear ramp at the end of the lower cargo bay, directly under the engine room, he saw a flashing green light in the ceiling. "Gabe. We're right between the Leaguer and the party. You are go for launch."

  "Thanks, Siv. See you in a few minutes. Yeehaw!" he yelled as he dove out into the alien air.

  ###

  Pris didn't know how much farther she could run. She kicked herself for not taking advantage of all those endurance training classes offered at the academy. Finally, she could run no farther. She stopped and turned to face her pursuers when she heard the sound of a ship followed by a loud "Yeehaw!" She looked up and saw a figure drop from the sky for a three-point landing between her and those chasing her.

  It, she had no idea what it was, wore a one-piece suit of black, form-fit armor complete with integral helmet. Diagonally across its back was a sword while a nasty looking pistol was strapped to his right leg. He stood up to face the oncoming retrieval squad.

  "Hold!" it ordered in standard followed by several other languages. It was a male.

  The group came to a halt.

  "Do not interfere, Demon. She is an escaped prisoner."

  The black figure looked back at Pris, then returned his gaze to the leader. "She is a citizen of the League of Planetary Systems. I have sworn to protect her and all citizens of the League. Do you intend to harm her?"

  "She and the other prisoners have been sentenced to death."

  The figure stopped and thought for a moment. As Pris watched, his armor absorbed into his skin.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Pris wondered how she always ended up in these predicaments. This was supposed to be a simple operation: go undercover, gather evidence showing this group of numbskulls were stealing artifacts, then slap the handcuffs on them when their ship arrived at Katala. Easy-peasy. But, noooo. They had to pick a planet filled with angry, and hungry, seven-foot-tall natives who once had an advanced civilization, so they ran around in loin cloths while sporting blasters. Yep, Pris' renowned good luck struck again.