Chapter 18

Jim’s week had been too long. After destroying the last of the Krong, he began to destroy all the planets that held the bug-like creatures that had infused spies on the imperial planet into weaker humans. True, it had been a shock to find out that there were different species of them; still, it hadn’t deterred his absolute hatred of all of them. With the Krong wiped out, the only ones to worry about now were their allies, the Krang. Jim knew it wouldn’t be long before they came after him in full force.

So far, they’d been lucky the pattern of movement they were on was erratic at best. Jim had destroyed almost half of the fueling stations in the alien space sector, so at best, there were a lot of mad bugs out there. At worst, almost every warrior race would come for them. Jim decided to head back to the Empire planet. Besides, Amber couldn’t be absent much longer without the fleet setting out to find her. Once inside the imperial space, the empress was updated about everything that had happened in her absence. Sighing, she wished that this could be quicker. This was the most she’d spent with Jim since she had gotten pregnant again. Damn, that man could fuck!

Settling into orbit, Jim looked over all the information they had gathered, especially the new allies that Amber had made. What was it they’d called themselves? The Creca? Against his better judgment, Jim decided to wait and see. All his hatred for any of the bug races was still writhing near the surface. Amber was almost afraid to leave the ship. Jim had just up and left without her before, though this time if he left, she was afraid that he might bring the war to the imperial world. Speaking to Dickie before she left, she had a feeling that if he tried to leave, she’d be hearing an ear full not long after from Jim. Walking to the palace throne room, she reminded herself that she had to enter the Creca on the long list of alien allies the empire had.

Jim knew that they had at least a week here before the station would be ready to depart again. It had held up thousands of times better than he’d hoped for, and the many modifications he and Mary had made had the station damn near impregnable. Wading through the endless hours of information wasn’t doing much to lighten his mood either. Stopping an hour later, Jim was about to click off when a tiny snippet of information flashed across the screen.

Thought transfer and brain swap capabilities, what the fuck? Reading on, Jim saw that the Krong had perfected a technique of taking and fully integrating a human mind into their computer systems. It appeared that it was one of their most used techniques, and it was done using their stinger beams! Jim started to pour over the information even harder, studying the plans and how it worked, not too unlike his extractor, though in this instance, it had storage capacity behind it.

Hour after hour, he read on. It appeared that the Krong only used it on the fiercest and deadliest enemies. Jim was so tired but refused to give up. He had to find where they kept the brains that they had taken were stored. He held on, hoping against hope that they were there. He just had to find them. If they were still alive, then they could be saved. Two days later, Mary walked into the lab only to find a red and blurry-eyed Jim still where she’d left him. Appearing to be asleep with his eyes open, Mary reached to turn off the comp in front of him when Jim screamed, “NO! I’ll never find them if you turn it off!”

Mary jumped away as Jim swung at her, what the hell was going on! “I have to find them they could be alive still. Help them, I can help them.” Jim was saying over and over.

Not sure what to do as she’d never seen him like this, Mary called Amber, who seemed to be privy to everything about Jim rather than her, who’d known him far longer.

Amber arrived a short time after, Jim looked up when she kissed him tears streaming from his eyes, whispering, “They may be alive Amber, they may still be alive.”

Amber looked at the screen as shock caused a gasp to escape from her lips, “Oh my god! Is this for real they actually had the capability to do this?”

“Yes,” whispered Jim, “they’ve had it for well over one hundred years. I have to find out. I have to be sure.”

Amber sat and stared at the screen with Jim, Mary shook her head what the hell was going on what had Jim found that had him pushing his self to the very brink? It had to be something monstrous, something he’d hidden long ago.

Two hours later Jim let loose a shout, “I found it!” Letting loose a huge sigh Jim collapsed causing Mary and Amber to rush to him and gently wheel him to a cot.

Mary looked at Amber, “What had him so excited?”

Sighing, Amber guessed that she could tell Mary some of it, “Years ago, Jim lost family to the Krong. He thought they were dead and threw himself into his work. I believe that you met him a few years after this. He just found evidence that they may still be alive, well, at least their brains. You see, the Krong used stinger beams to not only kill but to take the brains of their selected victims. Though they were defeated, they fought fiercely. Jim thinks that their brains might have been taken.”

“Even so,” Mary replied, “they’d just be brains, disembodied hunks of flesh.”

Amber looked at Mary with an incredulous look, “Mary, you do realize who we are talking about here right? Jim has a whole computer full of ideas, he hasn’t even tried yet, let alone developed.”

Mary looked at Jim, a thin line of anger on her face, then as quickly as it passed, “That bastard! All these years! I bet a lot of mine are in there too! Lost my ass, he’s been holding them all this time.” Turning around, Mary marched up to Jim, “You bastard!” as she slapped his face,” Jim stared at her, wondering what the hell was crawling up her ass. “You had all my ideas all these years! Lost them, my ass! I want them now!”