Escape Velocity: The Anthology Read Free

Banger’s face into focus.
           Banger stopped, a sedating chill permeating his body. The kid was a galeaper! Was the little guy after him? Couldn’t be. Banger had destroyed everything: notebooks, computer files, voice recordings, anything that might be used to reproduce his work or provide the first step needed to harness radiation emitted from a black hole. And Jekkie Lane was dead.
           The galeaper took a step toward Banger, and Banger knew at once what was about to transpire.
           Thankful now he wore his running shoes, Banger sprinted away. He had learned a few things hanging out with Farber: in Earth’s gravity and atmospheric conditions, not only were galeapers’ bodies as fragile as dried sea grass, they had slow reflexes and couldn’t run.
           Banger darted through the alley, hurling items in the path of his pursuer. A pulsating shrill sounded from behind: melding-blast! Avoiding the fatal blast, he tumbled to the ground, rolled, scrambled to his feet, and dashed through a passageway that led back onto the street. Flattening himself against a building, he picked up a brick from the pavement and held it firmly, waiting.
           The galeaper had barely emerged when Banger swung  SMACK! The galeaper flew backwards, with a guttural scream. Something fell from beneath the galeaper’s coat and hit the pavement: a translucent, crescent-shaped thing, with green iridescent liquid floating inside. It fizzled to nothing, just like Farber’s makeshift melding gun had done when Jekkie Lane struck him.
           Banger had been running, he had never run this fast, all the way back to his home on 39 th Street and placed his key into the door lock. The key turned without the normal metal grinding resistance. Funny, he was sure he had locked it.
           He walked inside and stepped backwards against the door, slamming it shut.
           “ Doctor Dunn, I presume?”
           The mohawk kid, sat on his sofa with his feet on the coffee table. His face looked beaten and raw. He held a shotgun. Its barrel was pointed at him.
           Banger raised his arms and said in a near whisper, “Percy.”
           Percy showed no sign of acknowledgement.
           “ I’ve been looking for you,” said Banger, searching for words to appease the intruder. “How’d you find me?”
           “ Shut up and sit down. I’ve had a rotten day.”
           His hands still in the air, Banger sat on the chair opposite Percy, who studied him with dark, menacing eyes.
           “ I came here to kill you, Dunn, because you got me into this mess. Thought I might do you a favor before those freaks do it their way. They’ve been chasing my crew and me all over town.”
           “ They’re called galeapers.”
           “ I know what they are.”
           “ You do?” Banger leaned back against his seat. Percy’s galeaper contacts couldn’t have been chance encounters. The aliens were quick at popping in and out of time and place, thereby avoiding detection, so stumbling into them wasn’t possible; they wanted Percy to find them.
           “ I couldn’t believe what they told me.”
           “ You’ve talked to them?”
           “ The ones we hurt were easy to capture, after a while. Nasty things when they get hurt. Had to kill them, though. They turned to ashes and blew away with the breeze, like a spent log. You teach them how to talk?”
           Banger shook his head. “They’ve been on this planet long enough to learn our languages. Did they tell you why they’re after you?”
           Percy’s eyes narrowed. “Because I saw one on the tram. Remember? I told my gang, and now the galeapers are after all of us. They said if their identity is known it upsets their plan. If you ask me, they have a long way to go before they make Earth a paradise. They’ll have to kill every last one of