Chapter 1 

The Encounter at the Bar

He was running out of air.

Castor Pollux had his back pinned against the sticky floor of the bar, trapped beneath a giant nearly eight and a half feet tall, with gray skin, a bald head, and segmented armor like plates of dark iron.

Lotus Cneo gripped Castor’s neck with both hands, digging his thumbs in like pincers. The Harmock’s face was inches from his own, with a square jaw, a brow like rock, and merciless eyes.

The edges of Castor’s vision filled with white sparks. If he did not do something now, he would die. His fingers searched blindly for something, a bottle, a chair, anything, but Lotus gave him no room.

The bar roared around them with shouts, breaking glass, and fleeing footsteps. Someone tried to pull them apart, and the giant hurled him into some tables without even letting go of Castor.

He shifted his hip slightly and felt the metal edge of a table support beneath his right hand. He grabbed it and pulled. The table lifted a few inches, and Lotus, with a low, satisfied growl, crushed it with his forearm as if snapping a dry branch. Castor struggled to breathe. Nothing he tried was working. The Harmock was too strong.

Then he drove his elbow into the exposed rib, right where the armor did not fully cover it. The impact reverberated through his own arm. Lotus did not even blink. He only squeezed tighter.

“Bounty hunter,” the giant growled, his jaw pressed against Castor’s temple. “I swore I’d kill you the next time I saw you, and by the great God of the galaxy, I’m going to keep that promise.”

Castor felt the blood pounding in his temples. His arms were beginning to give out.

In the middle of the chaos, he saw the gladius about six and a half feet away, beside a broken chair leg. The grip gleamed with a cold light.

He reached out an arm, but Lotus drove his full weight down on him and twisted his shoulder. Castor pressed his palm against the floor, found traction, and with the last bit of oxygen in his throat, suddenly let his body go limp.

Lotus, sensing the change, leaned in to finish him off. And that was his mistake.

Castor drove his knee between them and created enough space to turn his hip. The giant’s weight shifted just enough.

He pulled his left hand free and dug his fingers into Lotus’s throat. Lotus growled, and his hands loosened slightly. Castor needed no more than that. He pushed off, rolled toward the gladius, and grabbed it before Lotus could react.

From the floor, he activated discharge mode. The gladius hummed as Castor pressed the grip against the Harmock’s side.

Lotus arched as if a bolt of lightning had gone through him. His muscles contracted in violent waves, and his teeth ground together.

The giant fell to one side, hitting the floor with a crash that silenced the bar.

No one moved. Some of the patrons who had taken cover behind the tables peeked out, but none seemed willing to come closer. Castor kept his eyes on the Harmock until he saw that his chest was still rising and falling. He needed to deliver him alive to Nexum 1. After all that, losing the bounty because he had used too much force would have been a terrible way to end the day.

Castor remained on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He brought a hand to his neck and felt the marks left by the Harmock’s fingers. Then he stood.

He was a powerfully built man with broad shoulders and strong features. His black combat suit fit closely beneath segments of reinforced armor. A faint orange “V” glowed on his chest, an emblem few remembered anymore. He had dark hair, a firm jaw, and equally dark eyes that remained fixed on the giant lying at his feet.

“Alive,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. “I wanted you alive.”

The bounty said alive.

He walked over.

“Lotus Cneo, wanted on eight planets for technology theft, sabotage of security systems, vandalism… and for beating up four Imperium officials. An impressive record. But it all ends here. You’ll be sent to Nexum 1, where you’ll finally answer for your crimes.”

When he bent down to drag him, the Harmock’s weight demanded more effort than he had expected.

The bar on Terminus was filled with smugglers, bounty hunters, fugitives, and creatures from different corners of Imperium. It was not the kind of place where anyone asked too many questions.

The murmuring had not stopped completely, but it had changed. Many watched in silence, deciding whether it was worth getting involved.

Castor started toward the exit, dragging the Harmock by the arm, step by step, with the gladius deactivated but ready in his other hand. Some patrons backed away as he passed. Others pretended not to see him.

An old alien with corroded implants in his temple muttered something in a strange dialect as he watched Lotus being dragged across the floor. The tone caught Castor’s attention.

He did not need to understand every word to get the meaning.

Lotus caught on a fallen chair. Castor pulled hard until he freed him and continued toward the door. He was only a few yards from the exit when several individuals began moving at the same time.

Then he saw them.

Three aliens stood near the main entrance. One wore a synthetic leather jacket with faded insignia. Another had a bright scar running across his cheek from ear to chin. The third held a short weapon beneath his coat, old but still deadly.

Behind them, others began to move, spread throughout the bar and waiting for a signal.

Castor stopped. He felt the air grow heavy, as if the entire bar were holding its breath. He stopped dragging Lotus. The three blocked the only visible exit.

He tilted his head slightly, judging the distance.

The one with the scar spat on the floor.

“You’re not taking him, Earther.”

“Want to bet?”

The one with the weapon took a step forward. Castor looked up at the large lamp hanging above them, made of glass, rusted metal, and old chains. The gladius moved half an inch in his hand, not toward the alien, but upward. The others smiled, thinking they had him cornered.

Castor fired.

The lamp exploded above them. Glass rained down in a glittering shower, forcing all three back amid shouts and smoke. For a moment, the bar was plunged into darkness, broken by sparks and curses.

Without looking back, Castor grabbed the Harmock by the arms and dragged him through the side door onto the open ground outside, where the dry heat of Terminus hit him like a wall.

Dust hung beneath the reddish sky, and three open-frame buggies waited in front of the bar with their engines off.

The men came out after him, firing before he reached the first one.

Castor dropped Lotus onto the back seat and threw himself behind the wheel as a laser bolt sent a spark flying from the chassis inches from his hand. The engine answered with a harsh roar when he floored the pedal, and the vehicle shot forward, kicking up a white cloud that hid the entrance to the bar.

“Aurora,” he said without taking his eyes off the terrain, “start the engines. Open the hatch.”

The reply came clearly through his earpiece.

“Engines ready in forty seconds. I detect active hostilities on the surface.”

Another shot passed over his head and struck a rusted tower beside the road. The terrain ahead was a trap of metal debris and poorly covered trenches. The buggy jumped as it crossed a crack, and Lotus nearly went flying out. Castor held him in place without looking as the engine’s vibration traveled up his arms.

Behind him, two more buggies launched into pursuit, their headlights cutting through the dust like knives.

They gained ground quickly. Castor pushed his buggy to the limit as he dodged abandoned machinery and metal plates half buried in the sand. Every bump sent them bouncing, and Lotus’s unconscious body shifted from side to side in the back seat. On one particularly sharp turn, Castor had to extend an arm to keep the Harmock from ending up on the ground while steering the vehicle with the other hand.

The first buggy came close enough for Castor to hear its engine over his own. A shot streaked past his head, and another tore fragments from a rusted structure ahead of him. Castor changed course without slowing down, forcing the gunman to adjust his aim as the three vehicles raced through the maze of hangars and pipes on Terminus.

One of the gunmen stood up in the back seat of the nearest vehicle and aimed calmly. The next shot grazed the right side of Castor’s buggy and violently shook the frame.

It had not pierced the structure, but the chassis would not hold up much longer.

He turned between two hangars and drove through a cloud of steam as an enemy blast ruptured a nearby pipe.

Steam covered the road for several seconds. Castor could barely make out the silhouettes of the obstacles appearing ahead, but easing off the accelerator would have allowed his pursuers to catch him. He emerged from the cloud just as the terrain opened up again and saw a poorly supported sheet of metal directly ahead. He had no room to go around it.

The buggy jumped and landed hard on the other side. His teeth slammed together and tension shot through his back, but he kept control and never lifted his foot from the pedal.

The other buggy tried to copy the maneuver and landed badly. Its tire blew when it hit the uneven ground, and the vehicle flipped over in a cloud of orange dust.

One left.

The last buggy accelerated until it pulled alongside him on the left and tried to ram him.

The two vehicles collided once and separated. The impact made the frame creak, and Lotus slammed against the seatback. The other buggy immediately came at him again, this time trying to push them toward a row of columns supporting an old cargo structure. Castor held his course until the other driver had fully committed to the maneuver. He judged the distance and slammed on the brakes just before impact.

The other buggy shot past and crashed into a metal column, bending the frame and sending the gunman flying.

Castor could already see the Centurion 1 at the end of the open ground, with the ramp lowered and the blue engines running. The buggy skidded to a stop in front of the ship, nearly overturning.

Castor jumped out before it had completely stopped, grabbed the Harmock by the arms, and pulled him out of the buggy. The weight nearly brought him down. Lotus hit the ground with a grunt, and Castor had to brace himself with both legs before he could start dragging him toward the ramp.

“Castor,” Aurora warned. “Hostile forces approaching. I recommend immediate takeoff.”

“Not yet.”

A laser bolt struck the ground inches from his boot. Castor kept pulling.

Another shot ricocheted off Lotus’s lead-gray armor as he finally reached the ramp.

There he changed position. He grabbed the Harmock by one arm and began climbing backward, pulling him while the huge body slid across the inclined metal. Every step took effort. Lotus moved only a few inches at a time.

“They’re entering firing range.”

“I said not yet!”

A shot struck the edge of the ramp and sent up a shower of sparks. Another passed beside Castor and slammed into the interior of the ship.

He gritted his teeth and kept pulling. With one last effort, he managed to drag Lotus completely inside and fell backward beside him.

“Now!”

The hatch began to close.

The shots came almost at the same time. One struck the outside of the ramp. Another exploded against the metal as it rose. A third hit the hatch when only a narrow opening remained and sent a shower of sparks into the interior.

The ramp finished closing.

The Centurion 1 took off.

The noise outside faded into a deep, controlled hum.

A hologram greeted him. The image slowly materialized, revealing a woman of enigmatic beauty. Her long black hair fell softly over her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin. Her deep violet eyes radiated a hypnotic calm, as if they could see beyond the tangible. She wore a short white Greco-Roman-style tunic that fit closely to her figure. Her hologram floated just above the floor, like a celestial entity amid the technology.

Aurora slowly circled Lotus Cneo, who was still unconscious.

“I see you caught him,” she said softly.

Castor leaned against the wall to catch his breath, his neck still burning. He immediately got moving again and secured Lotus in the cargo seat with reinforced cuffs and a short chain around his ankles. The Harmock would have limited mobility when he woke up, but not enough to cause any harm.

Then Castor sat at the controls and activated the navigation systems as the Centurion passed through the atmosphere and the void opened before them.

Lotus began to regain consciousness a few minutes later. He strained against the cuffs with a deep growl and looked around.

“Earther, when I get loose, I’ll crush you like an insect!” he howled in fury.

Castor looked at him with disdain as he bit into a sandwich. He was relaxed, his feet resting on the ship’s controls.

Lotus pulled at the cuffs again. The metal held, although the seat groaned under the Harmock’s strength. Castor watched the effort, then calmly returned to his sandwich.

Aurora appeared in front of him.

“We have two ships approaching at high speed.”

The bounty hunter barely looked up from his sandwich.

“I don’t recognize their origin.”

Without hurrying, he activated the intercom.

“Spacecraft licensed IGBX-312346, registered with the Imperium Space Authority, reporting. Identify yourselves. Repeat, identify yourselves.”

“They’re approaching even faster,” she insisted, without changing her tone.

Castor set the sandwich aside and fixed his eyes on the screen.

“Their flight patterns do not correspond to any civilian or military model registered in Imperium databases.”

Castor enlarged the image on the display. The ships showed no insignia or identification signals, and their design resembled nothing he had ever seen along the routes of Imperium. One began moving off to the left while the second maintained a direct course toward them. Lotus stopped struggling against the cuffs and stared at the screen.

Castor kept watching the display.

“Friends of yours?”

Lotus shook his head.

“I don’t know them.”

Until then, Castor had assumed they were rival bounty hunters, a frontier patrol, or smugglers with some outstanding score to settle. Lotus’s answer ruled out those possibilities.

“They’re attacking us,” Aurora confirmed.

Castor took the controls.

“Impact in fifteen seconds.”

Who is attacking Castor… and why?

Will he survive this ambush in deep space?

And what fate awaits him on Nexum 1, the prison planet?

The shots have begun. The enemy shows no mercy.

And you’ve only witnessed the first assault.

Do you have the courage to see it through to the end?

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About this series:

Pulp short stories set in the Imperium universe.

Each book is a self-contained adventure starring Castor Pollux on a different planet, facing new enemies, dangers, and mysteries. You can start with any one.