Alien Legion: Arrows of Artemis

By C.S. Hayden

Alien Legion is the trademarked and copyrighted creative property of Carl Potts as published by Epic Comics/Marvel Entertainment 1984-1993. This is a work of fiction loosely based on the characters of Alien Legion and is unauthorized by its creator Carl Potts.

Plot and additional original characters copyrighted 2002 to Christi Smith Hayden

Arrows of Artemis

I. In the pleasure domes of Orestra VII:

Lights in myriad colors and intensity painted artificial fireworks on the inner shell of the pleasure dome where a vast non-stop party ran night and day for galactors and sentients from all over the known worlds. Three of the city-sized environmentally sealed structures dominated the swamps of Orestra VII, each with its own specialty and linked to a central spaceport.

The turbo lift from the spaceport opened onto the main concourse of the casino zone and three travelers emerged. A Jentekian and two humanoids traveling together were not too unusual but it was their intensity of purpose as they scanned their surroundings that attracted attention. They might be dressed as civilians but the way they carried themselves suggested a uniform of another sort.

As the travelers passed by the open entryways of the casinos, they could see myriad beings trying their luck at the gaming tables. It became clear to anyone watching that the three males were searching for something. The working girls peddling their services along the strip caught on and were quick to take advantage of the situation.

"Hey there," purred a grey-skinned female wearing as little as possible. "Looking for a party?"

"Hey-hey, I'm up for it, baby, if you are-"

"Jugger, get your mind out of the gutter."

"Geez, Torie, give me a frigging break! I just spent a month in the stockade!"

The third member of their party ignored the tawdry advances of the pleasure girls. He was distracted by the silken tones of a Jentekian croon that cut through the babble of the multi-species crowds around the gaming tables. Major Sarigar raised his body above the galactors milling around him. A blue-skinned native of Jentek, his species had been genetically engineered with a humanoid torso tapering to a snakelike tail to survive in heavy gravity conditions. Balancing on his tail gave him a higher vantage point to look for their objectives. A second verse of the song began to waft over the crowd and he spied a door opening and shutting farther down the concourse.

"Did you see something?" asked his second-in-command as Sarigar sank back down. Torie Montroc was born to wealth- handsome and well-featured by human standards with his sandy hair and blue eyes -- but was serving in the Legion by his father's orders. He certainly looked more at ease in his civilian clothes than the third member of their party, a green-skinned bruiser with solid black eyes from Thrax named Jugger Grimrod.

"I'm not sure," Sarigar admitted. "Our contact was told to expect a Jentekian and I just heard music from my homeworld. I think we should check it out."

"Anything's better than getting pushed around out here," Jugger grumbled, glancing back sullenly at his missed opportunity. "It's all I can do not to pop one of these rammers."

"This way," Sarigar commanded and led the way through the crowd, whipping his twenty foot long tail about to break a trail for the others.

The sound led to a nightclub area just off the main casino floor. After their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they made their way to a table to the far right of the stage.

"The place is packed," Torie observed. "There are a high number of Orestran nobles as well as tourists."

"Yes, but that's not uncommon." Sarigar settled in a chair facing the stage and coiled his tail up underneath it. "A great deal of the Orestran economy in this sector is derived from its entertainment industry."

"Whatever they're payin' the help here, it's worth it." Jugger leered at the humanoid server passing by with a tray of drinks. "Woo-whee! Come to pappy, sugar!!"

Fortunately, Jugger's outburst was covered by a fanfare by the synth-band performing in a pit by the stage. A native emcee held his hands out for silence.

"And once again, noble sentients, our siren from the stars, the lovely Naja!!"

The three undercover Legionnaires joined in the applause as the house lights dropped. A low thrum began the backbeat as a single spotlight began to slowly pan up a length of azure skin. The arrowhead point of a sequined hem glittered as the light shimmered along a sheer black dress. Bare shoulders rolled with the rhythm of the song as waves of dark curls danced over them and her face - Sarigar had forgotten just how exquisite females from his planet could be. Naja had tilted almond-shaped eyes framed with vermillion face markings over her brow ridges, the corners of her eyes, and along her cheekbones.

Jugger whistled. "Damn! Remind me to take my next furlough on your homeworld, boss."

On stage, the singer began to harmonize with the band, weaving her melodies around the synthesized tones. Sarigar found himself fighting to control his own reactions. Crooning was a traditional form of music from his homeworld that used certain musical sounds to subliminally influence the listener. Naja, whoever she was, was using her ability to control her audience and he was particularly susceptible. A sequence of tones sent a wave of pleasure through his body, making his tail spikes shoot out and rattle violently against the floor tiles before he could control it.

Abruptly, the singer looked in their direction. A brief look of consternation crossed her face for a second but she replaced it with a sultry look as she continued to sing. As soon as the song ended, she slinked off the stage, weaving through the crowd towards them.

"Sarigar?" Torie murmured warningly.

"Bide." Sarigar raised a two-fingered hand. "Let's see what she wants."

Jugger chortled, spraying grogh on the table. "Maybe you can slip her some tail, eh?"

"Can it, Jugger." He couldn't really find fault with the Thracian's crude innuendo however; the Jentekian female had male heads turning all over the room and she was becoming more alluring as she grew closer. Sarigar forced himself to concentrate on the mission.

"Well, well," she purred in a low contralto when she reached their table, "you're a sight for sore eyes, fellow homeworlder. I couldn't help but notice you from the stage."

"Your music drew us away from the gaming tables," Sarigar rejoined smoothly. "Would you like to join us?" He glanced at Torie, who started to rise.

"I'd thought you'd never ask." However instead of taking Torie's chair, Naja chose to settle herself on Sarigar's lap, winding her tail sensuously around his. "I have legions of adoring fans," she murmured against the curve of his ear. "Where do you boys stand?" She began to trace a familiar double triangle pattern on his chest where his Legion insignia would normally be.

"I think it's safe to say that you can number us among them," Sarigar replied back, pleased that he could keep his voice steady; it had been a very long time since he'd had a female this close and her scent beneath the perfume was provoking a profound physical response. Boldly he slipped his arm around her and traced the counter sign against her silk-covered hip. "What do you say to a private show?" Jugger made an indiscriminate noise somewhere between a leer and a laugh.

Naja unwound herself from his lap and stood, pulling him up with her. She smiled sweetly. "I think that can be arranged. Come with me."

As they followed the Jentekian entertainer backstage, Sarigar began to notice a subtle transformation. Naja snatched a clip off a storage case, pulled her hair back, and secured it with the clip without slowing her pace. Likewise, she grabbed a jacket from the back of a chair and pulled in on with the same efficiency. Coming around the final turn of the corridor, they found themselves facing a semi-circle of helguns aimed directly at them. Some of their opponents wore Legion uniforms, some had civilian attire from the nightclub and various places in the pleasure dome, but the curious thing was that all of them were female.

Whipping around to face them, the flirtatious veneer of Naja melted away and Sarigar found himself being stared down by a steely-eyed professional. "All right," she snapped out crisply, "I'm Captain Jaikira, Defense Intelligence, commander of Artemis Squad. What the hell does HQ think it's doing, dropping you in our laps?"

"Major Sarigar, Captain Montroc, Legionnaire Grimrod and it's not your place to question your new orders." Sarigar was mildly irritated by the way she'd toyed with him in front of his men and by the way she was now acting like he was merely an annoyance. "We've discovered that the Orestans have been using this resort world to smuggle weapons to the Harkilons."

"No kidding, major - who do you think has been filing the reports?" Jaikira said sarcastically as she crossed her arms over her chest. "We've had the planetary governor and the trade minister under surveillance for months. They've got a supply depot set up in the swamps south of the domes. There's been an increase in shuttle activity between there and the third moon recently."

"Third moon?" Torie asked curiously.

A tall avian female that they had seen in the orchestra pit with the synth band spoke up in a fluting voice. "The third moon goes into occlusion twice a year -- makes it nearly impossible to scan for incoming traffic. The Orries have a base up there for civilian contractors - or so it says on their government forms."

"We'll need a guide to take us out to this depot," Sarigar said curtly. "Artemis Squad is welcome to join us in the assault there while the battlecruiser goes after the moon base. Central Command wants all Harkilon/Orestran smuggling to be shut down in this sector." He handed Jaikira a compupad. "Here are your orders."

Jaikira's nostrils flared and her face darkened, making her facial markings stand out. "Major, a word with you, please?" She stalked over to a door and jerked it open.

"I'm tellin' you," Jugger muttered as Sarigar passed by, "she wants it..."

The moment he closed the door, she let him have it. "What it is?" she demanded. "Is it because Artemis is an all-female squad? Do you have something against women, major?"

Sarigar gaped at her. "I beg your pardon?" The last vestiges of any illusions he might have had about her were disintegrated by her display of temper.

"Why are you being so damned condescending?" Jaikira threw up her hands as she stalked around the room. "We've been stationed in this gilded cesspool for nearly two cycles, major. This operation belongs to Artemis and we have earned the right to see it through, not Nomad. How dare you take this from us?"

"Need I remind you that I outrank you, captain?" Sarigar promptly got in her face. "There is no room for prima donnas in the Legion, Captain Jaikira, so I suggest you get a grip on your attitude problem right now. My orders were given to me by Legion high command, and as your senior officer, it is up to me to decide how to carry them out."

"Then let Artemis handle the assault on the supply depot while Nomad takes out the base on the third moon," Jaikira suggested. "We've been doing reconnaissance on that place since day one -- where'd you think your information has been coming from? We know all the best ways to get in and out of it, scouted the swamps for the most accessible trails and identified the worst of the nasties you could run across in there."

Sarigar considered her suggestion for a moment. There was some logic to it; Artemis was familiar with the terrain and any opposition they might encounter. Nomad had a Legion battlecruiser waiting behind one of the outer moons for the lunar assault. However, what little he'd seen of Artemis squad so far inspired confidence.

"This is a Legion operation," he said finally, "while Artemis falls under the jurisdiction of Defense Intelligence. This is a job for seasoned combat veterans, not undercover operatives. I couldn't risk untried troops."

"I see." From the frosty tone of her voice, it was clear that she disagreed but Jaikira was controlling her response. "Just because we work behind the scenes gathering information, you think that Artemis is not up to the same combat proficiency standards?"

Before Sarigar could respond, the door snapped open and one of Jaikira's operatives dressed as wait staff burst in. "Captain! T-man is upstairrrs and he's got the whole entourrrage."

"Here? Tonight? Strange..." Jaikira wrinkled her forehead in thought for few moments. "But that could work nicely to our advantage." She swept past Sarigar, shedding the jacket and fluffing out her hair. "Jez, take these guys out to the swamp. Tell Devra to assist them and then get back here. I'll need you to --"

"Excuse me, Captain, but what are you talking about?"

She turned back to Sarigar with a glimmer of Naja's sweetness. "You said it yourself, major -- we're Defense Intelligence and you're Legion. Fine -- if you're going to storm the swamp base, you'll need to do it tonight. I'm going to buy you some time."

"How?"

"The Orestran trade minister, Tumauk Reis, is upstairs and he never goes anywhere without most of the higher staff from the base, because he's a snob -- he only socializes with other elite Orries. That means that you've only got the junior officers and the grunts to deal with out there in the swamp."

Sarigar glanced sharply at Torie who began to contact their ship. "All right, captain," he said to Jaikira, "this is a plan that I can agree to. How long can you keep them occupied?"

"Two, three hours at the most. The minister usually likes to make a night of it." Jaikira gestured to a green-skinned female wearing black leathers and a helmet that concealed all her features save her glittering beetle black eyes. "This is Sergeant Jez Shivblade. She'll take you out to the swamp staging area. Our patrol will take care of you from there."

Snapping her fingers, the tiny woman ushered them down a narrow passageway that wound around the stage. She said nothing as they emerged in a side alley and was silent still as she trotted ahead to a seemingly dead end alley.

"Stuck-up little bint, ain't she?" Jugger muttered. "Now that snakegirl, that was quality pootang, eh, major?"

Like a shot, Jez Shivblade turned back, marched up to Jugger, and sucker-punched him right in the gut. She began gesturing with elaborate and expressive hand signals, expressing her extreme displeasure with his choice of words in regards to her commander.

Torie pulled Jugger to one side. "I'm sorry," he said. "You don't appear to be deaf -- why are you signing?"

Jez lifted her chin and unzipped the high collar of her jacket to reveal an ugly twisted scar across her throat. "Harkilons," she signed simply in the hand gestures of Legion battle language.

"Damn," Jugger swore. "I hope you gutted the Harkie bastard."

She answered with a particularly vicious grin.

"Where are we going, Shivblade?" Sarigar asked impatiently. "We need to meet up with the rest of the squadron."

In answer, Jez pulled a controller out of her jacket pocket and pointed it at the dead end. The air shimmered and the bricks melted away to reveal a dark grey four-man skimmer, modified from a standard Legion model to blend in with local vehicles. She scampered up the side and swung into the driver's seat to begin the start-up sequence.

The three Legionnaires climbed aboard and were strapping in as she was blasting off. Jugger and Torie grabbed onto the sides and Sarigar wrapped his tail around the base of his seat. Jez merely flipped the visor down on her helmet and grinned as she maneuvered into the city traffic lanes.

A harsh metallic-sounding female voice came over the skimmer speakers. "Welcome to Shivblade Airways, please keep your hands and feet in the vehicle at all times, and hang on to your ass."

Sarigar gave Jez a curious look. "I thought you couldn't speak."

"I really can't outside the skimmer." She flicked a cable that was jacked into a socket at the base of her throat and connected to the skimmer panel. "I've got an implanted synthbox but something's wrong with my tonal modulators -- can't get it repaired here without being tagged as Legion technology. F'marrl figured out a way to use the skimmer's sound system to enhance it so if you have questions, ask now."

"Then we'll use this time wisely," Sarigar commented. "What do you know about the recent Harkilon/Orestran alliance?"

"We had the standard Legion databurst last month -- something about a Orrie/Hark thing on Ragullan XI. The Orries, of course, are denying everything." Jez frowned at a city patrol skiff and edged away from it. "The captain manages to keep up on the Orestran side of things. The trade minister has a thing for exotic women, the fat bastard."

"What about this swamp base?" Torie asked from the back seat. "What are its defenses?"

"It used to be an old river fort," Jez answered. "This part of the continent is crisscrossed with waterways. Not much good for anything until they put in the pleasure domes. The Orries kept most of the old fort intact and built the new facility on top of it. Standard gun turrets and guard rotations, as far as I know. You'd have to ask Devra, that's Lieutenant M'tombe, for details. She comes from a swamp world so she's been the primary officer in charge out there."

"Hey!" Jugger called out. "You've picked up three more city guards back here."

"No kidding -- tell me something I don't know." Jez grimaced and swerved around a building, doubling back and changing course. Two of the patrol skiffs nearly crashed into each other at the intersection as Jez dodged a slow-moving transport and skimmed up the side of a building making a turn.

Jugger grimaced. "Now I remember why I left Thrax -- all the bloody-be-damned women drivers!!"

"Oh, shut UP, you big baby!"

Jez used a pyramid-shaped building as a ramp and shot up and over six lanes of commuter traffic. She reached over and typed in a command on her console. At once, an opaque shield covered the top of the skiff and there was a faint hiss as the cabin pressurized.

"Hold on to your stomachs," she said grimly. A visor slid down on her helmet and lit up with a neon green grid. "Now it gets tricky."

Diving at a steep angle, the skimmer shot down toward the artificial river that ran through each of the pleasure domes. It hit the water like a knife, splitting the water cleanly. Curling her lip back in a snarl, Jez shifted her propulsion unit into aquatic mode and reset the turbines.

"Where are you taking us?" Sarigar demanded. "Getting in here was not that difficult."

"Yeah, but getting out to the swamps is." Jez steered the skimmer towards a series of large conduits. "The city guard doesn't allow non-registered vehicles outside of the domes. All tourist access is regulated via the spaceport. Terrestrial travel is prohibited."

"Why?" Torie asked from the back seat. "This is an M-class planet -- it's not like there's a hostile environment to worry about."

"You got me," Jez said with a shrug. She activated a seal on a seemingly welded shut conduit and its concealed iris opened to admit them. The shuttle lights shed eerie illumination on the floating bits of vegetations and garbage in the water. "It took us nearly three months to find this route into the swamps. If you try to go out the regular way, there are Orrie patrols surrounding the perimeter." The sudden surge of water as the door sealed behind them made visibility impossible for a few minutes. "So, we put in our own back door."

"Ingenious," Sarigar commented. "So basically, your operation is two-fold -- Captain Jaikira monitoring the city and Lieutenant M'tombe out in the swamps."

"We take it on rotation, actually," The water was beginning to lighten a bit. "If you'd arrived last month, you would've been talking to Jaikira in the swamps, Devra would've have been at her city assignment, and F'marrl would have been wearing the glittery dress." She glanced at Sarigar and grinned. "You just lucked out tonight, eh?"

Sarigar chose to ignore that. Jugger, unfortunately, decided to continue that line of conversation.

"Naw, everywhere the major goes, women just throw themselves at him," he said jovially. "Ain't that so, Torie?"

Montroc cleared his throat as though as he was stifling an amused response and focused on the readout on the gauntlet he'd been wearing under the civilian jacket. "Lieutenant Arrick is moving into position, major. We should relay our coordinates to him so we can meet up with the strike team."

"Shivblade?"

"Just a moment, major," she murmured. "We're nearly out of the tunnels. Devra will need few minutes to locate our homing beacon. We have to move around a lot out here."

"Why?"

"Not sure - the Orrie patrols have been going farther afield the last few weeks. Luckily we've kept the swamp operation mobile but we've had some close calls. Our orders are not to engage them, just observe."

The skimmer rose through a sheet of floating duckweed. Slowly, Jez rotated the vehicle as it hovered over the water. "Scanning for hostiles," she murmured through the skimmer speakers.

As they completed the three-sixty spin, Torie's hand shot out. "There!"

Rising from the underbrush, seven shadowed figures stood and came towards the water's edge. They were all clad in camouflaged armor, the standard Legion black-and-white replaced by mottled green-and-brown. The leader was a large framed individual with a bulbous head complete with large-nostriled snout. It wasn't until she stepped into the dim moonlight that her liquid brown eyes became visible and she spoke in a mellifluous voice, that the men from Nomad recognized her as being female.

"Major Sarigar? Lieutenant M'tombe - I've been briefed on the situation. We've just received a coded message for launch coordinates, sir. I took the liberty of relaying the information. I've instructed them to come in dark to avoid the Orries."

"Very good, lieutenant." Sarigar nodded approvingly at her proper military bearing. "We'll be getting underway as soon as the rest of my team arrives."

"Perhaps you'd like to review tonight's data, sir." Devra handed over a compupad for Sarigar's inspection. She glanced over at Jez. "Patrols are hot tonight, midge. We've nearly been tagged twice, so you'd better watch it going back in."

"Will do, Dev." Jez added an ambiguous series of gestures that made Devra give a snorting little laugh. The little Thracian tossed her a salute as she took the skimmer back up and around.

"What was that?" Torie asked. "I understand Legion battle talk and some standard sign language but some of her gestures are a little peculiar."

Devra turned her liquid brown eyes on him as she looked down in amusement. "Well, sir, I've known Jez since before she lost her voice, and trust me, no matter how she communicates, her language is still pretty salty."

"Ah." Torie raised an eyebrow and grinned. "I don't want to know, do I?"

"Most males generally don't," Devra said diplomatically. She turned to Sarigar who had been going over her data. "Any questions, sir?"

"What's all this about 'biological anomalies?' It doesn't seem to have any significance to your mission."

"That's data for Lieutenant F'marrl and Medic Ree, sir," Devra answered. "Central Command authorized them to do biological research on the local biosphere for the Legion science branch." She shrugged. "I came out of the engineer corps - if I can't build it or blow it up, I don't worry about it. I'm here to do a job."

Sarigar's wrist unit beeped. He checked it and then looked up into the sky. "That's Lieutenant Arrick with our troops. He's putting down in a clearing not far from here, to the north."

"With your permission, sir." Devra took the compupad back and pulled up a map. "Would these be the coordinates?" she asked as she handed it back.

Studying the map, Sarigar nodded. "Yes, that's it."

"Kataki! Yosh! Take the swamp bikes - you're on outrider duty." Devra instantly began to put her troops in motion. "The rest of you, fan out. Major, you and your guys had better stick with me. We're going to have to move fast." She reached into a twisted bole of a tree and pulled out some blaster rifles which she tossed to the Nomad legionnaires. "You'd better take these."

"What it is?" Torie asked.

"That's where the Orrie patrols have been the thickest lately," Devra said, moving at a speed at odds with her size. "F'marrl discovered some pods there few months back but we don't know if there's a connection or not."

"Pods?" Sarigar asked. "Would that be the biological anomalies?"

"Don't know, sir," Devra answered as she led them on a twisting trail among the high reeds lining the edge of the swamp. "All I know is that the Orries don't take kindly to unexpected guests."

Following Devra's ungainly splay-footed gallop, the legionnaires slipped and slid along in her wake. They could just see the dim curve of the shuttle's hull over the trees as moonlight reflected off of it.

"There's something over here!" one of the other women called. "Looks like one of those pods."

"Yeah," answered someone else. "It's different - bigger somehow."

"Frag it!" Jugger swore and stopped in his tracks to kick at something. "What is this thing?"

Sarigar and Torie slowed to see what Jugger was looking at. The Thracian had put his foot through the top of a rough-textured ovoid, which was filled with slimy goo that clung to his foot as he drew it out. "Dee-gusting!" Jugger proclaimed vehemently. He froze in place for a moment and sniffed, wrinkling his nose.

Torie instantly went on the defensive and backed up to Jugger, his eyes searching through the darkness. "What is it?"

"Harkilons," Jugger rasped out. "All around us."

"Where?" Sarigar hissed. He had been farther up the trail and was circling back as he scanned the area through his infrared scope. "I don't see anything."

"Trust me, major," Jugger muttered, sweeping the underbrush with his gun. "It reeks t' high heaven o' Hark around here."

"Montroc! Warn off the shuttle," Sarigar said quickly. "That clearing is perfect for an ambush!"

A raw scream rang out from the left. Devra appeared on the top of the trail, having double-backed. Her soft brown eyes were white-rimmed. "Back! Go back!" she called out, even as she swiveled and fired behind her. "Artemis two to squad, check in!"

A frantic voice came over her comunit. "Dev, I've lost visual with Bezel! She's --" Her voice suddenly shut off. Devra bellowed and began to fire vehemently into the clearing below.

Sarigar swore under his breath and whipped up the hill to join her. What he saw staggered him - the clearing was crawling with Harkilons of all sizes, from full-sized adults to crab-like infants scuttling out of open pods. The Legion shuttle was scattering them in the backwash of its landing jets as Arrick reversed the thrusters to abort the landing.

"They're everywhere!" Devra called out. "Team, fall back! Retreat to checkpoint!" An adolescent Harkilon dropped out of a tree on top of her and she hurled it away with a sweep of her massive arm.

Bellowing into his comlink, Sarigar took charge. "Lieutenant Arrick!! Fire thermoblast charges into the clearing! Do it now!" He fired a line of suppressing gunfire to buy them some time. "Lt. M'tombe, come on!" He pivoted on his coils and saw movement in the trees. "Heads up!"

Torie and Jugger saw it too and fired. Leaves and bits of carapace fell like confetti as they struggled to re-group to a more defensible position.

"Devra!" crackled a voice over her comunit. "Yosh, here. Orrie patrols incoming east northeast! Two gunships and a transport!"

"Major!" Devra snapped. "The shuttle! The Orries will shoot it right out of the sky!"

"Arrick! Incoming ships!!" Sarigar snapped out. "Fire the thermocharges and take the shuttle up for air combat!!" He motioned to Devra with a sharp jerk of his head and they both started downhill to get out of range.

"But, major---"

"That's an order, lieutenant!"

Before he finished speaking, the thermo charges struck the hatching grounds and the concussive blast threw everyone to the ground. Bits of smoking Harkilon pattered down around them like heavy rain. Sonic booms and the sounds of artillery marked the arrival of the gunships as they pursued the Legion shuttle overhead.

Devra struggled to feet besides Sarigar and had just time enough to raise her weapon before she was hit full force in the face with a high-density particle weapon. Her lifeless body fell to the ground sizzling.

"Well, this is interesting," said the Orestran enforcer backlit by the landing lights of their transport. "We never expected to find such exotic vermin here in our swamps. This is an unexpected dividend for tonight's hunt."

* * * * *

Swiveling in place, Naja took a deep breath and looked across the room into the trade minister's piggy little eyes. Like many successful Orestrans, he'd finally bulked up enough to require a hoverchair but he was still lusting after her - that was clear by the repulsive way he was leering back at her and smacking his black tattooed lips like she was something tasty. Jaikira merely promised herself a good long soak in a bath later and let Naja get on with the business of seducing the elite Orestran noble. She merely gave a sultry smile and crooned an off-world love song to him.

The other members of his party, however, were raising warning prickles on the back of Jaikira's neck. The subliminal tones that she was using beneath the song normally generated a strong reaction from Orestran males but the four new nobles that had joined the trade minister this evening were simply sitting there, listening politely and looking around. She almost felt insulted.

Naja finished her song and sank into the low coil of a Jentekian bow. She switched off the amplifier on the combination translator/microphone she wore as part of her jewelry and whispered to her avian colleague in the orchestra pit.

"F'marrl? Any word?"

The synth player's feathered crest rose and fell. "I've been in contact with the ship. Everything is on schedule there. Nothing from the swamp yet."

"Strange. I thought sure that Devra would have called in by now."

"Yes, very strange. Shall I send some riders out to check up on them?"

"Jez isn't back yet?"

"No."

Jaikira frowned but the applause was dying down and Naja rose to meet her public. "Thank you, most honored nobles and guests from around the galaxy!" She let her chest swell and posed seductively as she beamed at them. Slithering out onto the catwalk that extended out into the club, she commented, "We have some dignitaries with us tonight - Trade Minister Tumauk Reis and friends. Minister, what may I sing for you and your honored guests?"

The trade minister delighted in attention and basked in the glory of the spotlight. "A selection from one of the more popular Orestran operas will be most appreciated, my dearest Naja," Tumauk said pompously. "You know the one that I like best."

"Of course, minister." Naja bowed her head graciously but underneath the façade, Jaikira was gagging. Only technocrats like the Orries could conceive a musical score based on mathematical formulae. Fortunately, when she sang it in its original language, it sounded better than the translation. She glanced back and made a face at F'marrl, who promptly rolled her eyes and sighed. Between the two of them, they were hardily sick of Orestran opera.

F'marrl struck the opening notes of the song and Jaikira composed herself to hit the impossibly high tones of the first stanza. She decided to cheat a little and embellish it with a rising trill that was easier on her vocal chords. Rolling her tongue against the roof of her mouth, she gave it everything she had, noting with some satisfaction the reaction of the tourists in the audience. They, for the most part, were here for honest entertainment and not engaged in a double-sided game of espionage.

Swinging into the bridge between verses, Jaikira gave a sly come hither look over her shoulder to Tamauk and was astounded to see the new nobles riveted on her. There was something about the way that they were staring at her that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She decided to conduct a brief experiment and sang the next verse exactly note by note as written. The nobles sank back into their seats, seemingly disinterested. The next verse she tried the trilling variation she had used on the opening and their response was dramatic. All four of the nobles nearly jumped to their feet and - Jaikira's eyes widened - the pale yellow face of one noble wavered, showing a flash of lumpy brown skin.

She smiled as if she hadn't seen a thing and soared into the chorus, using the full range of her voice. Nodding graciously to a humanoid applauding in the first row, she glanced back at F'marrl. The avian musician was looking at her, puzzled with Jaikira's improvisations.

"Four Harks," Jaikira signaled as part of an elaborate dance move as she writhed sensuously for the crowd. "Full alert. Takedown."

F'marrl nodded and tapped on a comunit concealed as part of her synth board. Jaikira turned back to the audience in a sweeping gesture as the song reached its crescendo and emoted for all she was worth. She wanted to pump up the adrenaline level of the crowd as much as possible. Minister Reis was eating it up, waving his pudgy hands as though he was directing her performance.

Her left earring gave three short buzzes and F'marrl's voice smoothly merged with hers, taking over the lead vocals. One of the more interesting things Jaikira had learned about her science officer was that F'marrl had an inherent knack for mimicry and an excellent if untrained vocal range. By using F'marrl to support her own performance, Jaikira found she could use her subliminal crooning in ways that her instructors on Jentek would have considered blatantly unethical.

She dropped the main melody line and began to weave a set of Harkilon mating calls into the tune. The resulting clicks, pops and high-pitched trills merely sounded like an interesting percussion line but the transformed Harkilons reacted so strongly that it nearly jerked them right out of their exoskeletons. Tamauk Reis was staring at them in dismay as he began to notice subtle changes in his companions' appearance.

"In position," Zora's voice purred in her other ear. "Jez is outside. She's securrring Tamauk's vehicle."

Jaikira smiled and nodded as if it was part of the performance. One of the Harks had his foot on the edge of the minister's box as if he was going to jump. A quick check of the room had four members of her squad circulating through the crowd. Jez appeared at the front door, her leathers mud-splattered. She had her hand on her hel-gun inside her jacket and a long knife held along her forearm in a discreet but deadly slashing grip. Jaikira smiled coldly at the Harks and began to croon in the fashion of a receptive female accepting the victor of a mating battle.

Abruptly, the Harkilon dropped his disguise as an Orestran noble and called to her, his carapace turning a rusty orange around the edges. One of the others tried to pull him back but he struck out at it viciously. Shrieking like a frightened child, Tamauk Reis tried to escape in his hoverchair, only to shift it into reverse and hit the back wall, leaving an impacted dent. Zora dropped her server tray and pounced on his bloated body to inject him with a hypospray. She perched on his lap while he was incapacitated and quickly steered his chair away from the action.

Jaikira and F'marrl simultaneously shrieked conflicting tones and blew out several speakers with the resulting feedback. Panicking tourists fled their seats and ran for the exits screaming. Jez vaulted over the back of a well-dressed dowager struggling to her feet to leap onto the abandoned tables to cross the room. She shot the two struggling Harkilons with her hel-gun, toppling the orange-tinged one into the orchestra pit. Crazed with lust, he tossed the local musicians aside and clawed his way on stage.

"Right," Jaikira said grimly. "Come and get it." She pivoted hard and used her tail to whip his feet out from under him. The Hark tumbled into the front row, bellowing in rage. F'marrl pulled a needler out from under her synthboard and fired along the top of the stage as he charged again. Riddled with narcotic darts, the carapaced alien threw himself back at Jaikira who dodged his hormone-crazed attacks with serpentine speed.

"I can't get a good shot!" F'marrl screeched.

"Secure the others!" Jaikira yelled back. She hauled back with all of her heavy worlder strength and let the Hark have it with a right cross, following it with a left upper cut to the chest that staggered him back. "I want some of them alive for questioning!"

She didn't speak soon enough. Jez Shivblade jumped onto the crazed Hark's back and buried her knife between his exoskeleton plates. Jaikira threw her hands into the air exasperatedly.

"Hey! What part of 'alive for questioning' didn't you understand?"

Jez shrugged apologetically and wiped her blade meticulously on the stage curtains. F'marrl climbed onto the stage and began examining the body.

Shaking her head, Jaikira yelled up to the minister's box. "Miah! Rhianna! Report!"

A red-headed humanoid appeared over the railing. "Jez got a head shot on one but the other two are lively enough. Miah is securing them now."

"And the trade minister?"

"Backstage with Zora, captain. She knocked him out and hijacked his chair."

"Clever kitten," Jaikira commented. She turned and noticed how intently F'marrl was examining the orange-tinted Harkilon. "What's the deal with him?" she asked. "Why'd he get so worked up into a froth?"

"I'm not sure, captain," the avian scientist said slowly. She called up to the balcony. "Miah! I'm going to want to talk to one of those Harks!"

"All right - this one is resisting anyhow. We're bringing it down."

"Jez, give me your knife, will you?" F'marrl held out her hand. The silent Thracian did so warily. Both Jez and Jaikira looked on with interest as F'marrl heaved the corpse over and began to pry up some of his dorsal plates.

Whistling to get Jaikira's attention, Jez signed, "What IS that smell?"

"I don't smell anything," Jaikira commented. "Well, other than dead Hark and swamp muck. Where'd you pick up the mud anyway?"

"There was a big commotion out in the swamp just when I was trying to come back," Jez answered. "I had to leave the skimmer in one of the commercial tunnels and hike in."

"This is interesting," F'marrl said to no one in particular. "Spermatophores."

"What?"

F'marrl delicately scraped the underside of one of the Harkilon's plates and came up with a pearl grey gelatinous glob on the blade of Jez's knife. "Spermatophores - seminal receptacles for the purpose of procreation." She looked up into the confused faces of her comrades and rolled her eyes. "It's a sexually active male - figure it out."

"Ugh...," Jaikira said, wrinkling her nose while Jez stuck a finger in her mouth and gagged. "I thought they were asexual for some reason."

"There's a lot we don't know about Harkilon biology." F'marrl looked up as Rhianna and two other members of Artemis brought the conscious Harkilon onto the stage. "We do know that they have a definite breeding cycle and that they need certain environmental conditions that can't be generated artificially. This coloration," she tapped the orange carapace, "is indicative of a prime breeding specimen."

Jez snorted and pointed at Jaikira as she laughed silently. "First major hardass and now this," she signed. "We need to bottle your strange power over males!"

"Not funny," Jaikira growled. She turned and glared at the other Harkilon. "What is this one doing so far from home in this condition?" she demanded in the clicks and trills its native language. "Why is it here?"

Sniffing, Jez walked all around the live Harkilon. "This one smells funny too. Different."

"Yes," agreed Zora as she walked up with a medical scanner in hand. "Verrry strrrange." She ran her medical scanner on both the live and dead Harkilon. "This one," she indicated the dead one on the stage, "was rrready to brrreed. This otherrr has done so alrrready."

"The swamps - something I read in a scientific paper once speculated that Harkilons' reproductive cycle never evolved beyond the need for their primeval conditions." F'marrl glanced up, her round yellow eyes wide and bright. "What if Orestra VII has those conditions? What if the Harks are breeding brood troops here, behind the lines in the Galarchy?"

"Didn't Devrrra say that the arrrea arrround the swamp base has been morrre heavily guarrrded in the past few weeks?" Zora asked. "That arrrea to the west is verrry similar to the Harrrkilon home worrrld."

"Yes, and I was never able to get an example of those pods we found there. They were stuck to the ground with some kind of secretion."

While Zora and F'marrl tossed around theories, Jaikira kept her eyes on their captive. Harkilons were not the most expressive of beings but there were subtle nuances to look for if one knew of them. The only indication that she had that it was disturbed in any way was by the jerky twitching of its mandibles and the subtle changes in color. It was wearing a translator collar so she knew it understood very well what being said.

"That's it, isn't it?" she asked in Harkilon. "The Orestrans don't know it yet but you've selected this as a Hark brood world. It's got everything - climate, shelter, food - and the pleasure domes provide the cover for the operation."

The Harkilon didn't say a thing but it slowly, deliberately cocked its head and stared arrogantly at her.

"Great," Jaikira muttered to herself. "Those legionnaires are walking straight into a hive of Harks and I sent my people with them."

"What do you want to do?" F'marrl asked. "The battlecruiser is scheduled to hit the moon as soon as they clear the planet. The swampies will know something's up when they lose their communication link."

Jaikira shot a look at Jez leaning against the wall in her muddy leathers. "And Devra?"

Jez threw up her hands. She looked at the circle of faces around her and reluctantly began signing. "I don't know. Major hardass had a shuttle of soldiers arriving and Devra's crew was set to take the lot of them in. That's the last I saw of them."

"Ram it to hell and back." Jaikira tapped her tail against the wall. "There's nothing else for it - we've got to go there after them, the sooner the better." She glanced around. "Zora, bundle up the T-man for a trip -- central intelligence wants to have a long chat with him. You're in charge of pulling the plug here. Call for an extraction team."

"Rrright, captain."

"F'marrl, do you know if Devra's crew prepped those charges like we talked about?"

The tall avian nodded slowly. "I believe so. I've got the passwords to her files. I'll check."

"Do it." Jaikira began to roughly braid up her hair. "Jez, you break out the hardware. I want everyone in full gear. The Harks and the Orries are going to be on full alert and we'll need everything we've got."

Jez made a particularly vulgar gesture. "We gonna ram it to 'em?" she asked, raising her eyebrows hopefully.

"Hey, you know me," Jaikira said as she smiled coldly. "I've always liked a big finish."

To be continued in "Part II: Artemis Rising."