In fact, there had been seventy-nine other Humans on the Klin ship with him, but they had all been killed by the Klin rather than have them fall into the hands of the Fringe Pirates. Riyad had logically surmised that there must have been hundreds of such trips made by the Klin that had successfully navigated through The Void unmolested, shuttling abducted Humans from Earth to some secret location. The pirate had further advanced the theory that the purpose for abducting so many Humans must have been so the Klin could build a Human army capable of defeating their mortal enemy — the Juireans. Why else would their race be so important to the Klin?

It all made sense, but how the Klin expected a singular, non-spacefaring race like the Humans to defeat a galaxy-wide empire encompassing 10,000 systems, was way beyond Adam’s limited comprehension. Still, his existence in this strange universe — as well as Riyad’s — meant that something was going on.

In fact, just before the nuclear bomb on the Klin ship had detonated, killing the Juirean Overlord, Counselor Deslor and Riyad, the technicians had been able to activate the Klin computer core. In the files, information had been revealed about the Humans that had actually scared the Juireans, members of the mightiest race of beings in the galaxy! For a moment there, just before Riyad had taken the Juirean Overlord hostage, the two Juireans had expressed more fear of the Humans than they did for their archenemy, the Klin.

Adam and his two alien companions had been fortunate to escape the Klin ship when they did, and Adam had seen his first nuclear explosion in space. But before they escaped, Adam had heard a word — Annan — that had profoundly affected the Juireans. It had to be important.

In his research, it wasn’t too difficult to find numerous references to the word Annan, the most-common of which was to a now-extinct, plant-like animal from Klinmon, the homeworld of the Klin.