Chapter 1

The future Galactic Council was very pleased with our work on the coffee caper, and asked if they could call on us if they ever needed us again. We agreed to help whenever we could, but we were glad to get back home. We felt that the future was better when you worked up to it gradually.

Right now, the big concern at home was the problem of the conquering fish with mind control capabilities. There was unanimous agreement that they had to be stopped, and humans, with their natural resistance, had to be the primary attacking force. Other species could help, but only in close association with humans for the mind protection they afforded.

Since the fish required a water environment to live, their mobility on many planets was severely restricted; therefore, they should be easy to find in such cases. We decided to concentrate our initial efforts on these locations and get some experience before attacking them on the water-covered planets where they could move about as they wished.

The Galactic Police Force, GPF, was well stocked with humans and grokins, the first mind-controlled species that we had encountered. The grokins were humanoid enough that they had no trouble meshing with humans, and an excellent working relationship was quickly established. Until the GPF could get more experience, they assigned two grokins to a human, figuring that this ratio would make it easy for the grokin to stay close enough to a human to be protected, yet, to be an effective fighter in his own right. This ratio could be adjusted as the need arose.

After a thorough study of the possibilities, a desert planet was selected as the first target, since we expected that this would put the most limitations on the fish. The locals called their planet by a long name that defied pronunciation, but translated as "Paradise," so that's what we called it and the natives were dubbed paradisians. They were nocturnal and spent most of their time underground. They resembled the giant scorpions which had been among the first amphibians to appear back in Earth's remote past. They stood about 4 feet tall, but their curled tail reached a height of nearly 10 feet. This meant that we would have no problem walking upright in their burrows where they spent most of their day.

The paradisians were not very intelligent, but presented a formidable enemy if one got too close to their claws. The only reason the fish bothered with Paradise was the very high concentrations of iridium present there. The paradisians were forced to mine the iridium ore and deliver it to ports where the fish loaded it onto their FTLs for transport to refineries. Iridium was one of the few minerals that was rare enough to warrant this type of treatment.

The fish kept six of their number in residence on Paradise, one at each pole, and four equally spaced around the equator. This was enough to keep the paradisians under complete control. We had no idea what to expect in the way of defenses at each residence, but we figured that the fish had never before faced an effective resistance, so they would not have much of a defense in place.

We decided that a coordinated attack was called for. We recruited enough humans to make up 6 teams, with a mobile reserve as the seventh team. Each of the Retro Team members was placed in charge of a 4-member group assigned to attack the residences and be the reserve. I was to step back and be in overall control. I wasn't happy about being out of the actual combat, but bowed to the inevitable. The new team members now all had implanted communicators and a lot of the training time for the squads was involved in being sure that they fully understood how to use the devices.

As nearly as we could tell, all 6 residences were carbon copies of each other. Paradise's poles were so warm that there was little concern for ice and snow, and the equator was so hot that the water tanks were probably refrigerated, though we didn't know for sure. As a precaution, all 28 team members were issued environmentally controlled suits to maintain a reasonable body temperature.

Finally, we were ready to attack! Amy's squad landed at the south polar residence and found that there were no obvious barriers to entry. The ambient temperature was about 20 degrees Fahrenheit, much too cold for native paradisians to be exposed to. This, combined with the iron control maintained by the fish, made it very unlikely that natives would or could ever attack.

Amy led her crew in through a loading dock which had a door that was easy to open. Once inside, they found themselves in nearly total darkness. The natives needed little light and the fish overlords never left their water tank, so there was no need for much lighting. We had planned for this by issuing everybody in the group but Amy the light-amplifying goggles. Amy had her vision opened up for the full spectrum of radiation, so she could see through walls with her X-ray vision and pick up on any detection devices with her radio frequency vision.

We did not expect any booby traps, since there was a lot of traffic by natives up and down the halls. We hoped to meet and convert natives to use as guides early in the attack, as we had done when we invaded the fish's FTL ships back on the prehistoric Earth.

Amy's group quickly met with a native, who skidded to a halt and bowed low. "I don't know who you are, but you must be related to the gods! You have released me from the hateful control of the fish masters. Please, I beg you, kill me before you let them regain control of my mind!"

"We are here to put an end to the slavery your people have had to endure. Help us to locate the fish master and we will shut down its control immediately. We have other groups attacking the rest of the fish masters' residences, and you should all be free very soon if you will help us."

"Wonderful, what do you want me to do?"

"Lead us to the fish master's quarters. We will do the rest."

"Very well, that's simple to do. Please follow me." Amy's crew followed the native through a maze of corridors, leading down into the core of what amounted to a city. As they traveled, they picked up more released natives who dogged their footsteps in fear of being recaptured by the fish master. Finally, there got to be so many of the natives following them that something had to be done.

Amy explained her solution to the problem and all of the natives agreed to go along. The humans set their stun guns to a 2-hour stun level and shot all of the natives within reach of the beam. The natives were now immune to the mind control of the fish masters until they regained consciousness. This wasn't an ideal solution to the problem, but it was workable. It also set a time limit for Amy's group.

They hurried behind their original guide toward the fish's tank. The native became more and more euphoric as they got closer to the fish master and his mind was still not under outside control. They eventually reached the fish's tank and Amy looked through the transparent walls and the monster within. She shot the fish with her stun gun set for 24 hours of unconsciousness. She could see the fear in the fish's four eyes as she pulled the trigger.