This is a decent story but one that is pretty obvious.

The stellar cartographers of Earth had designated the red giant Janus GM2797, and its first planet was therefore Janus Prime.  The  star charts were actually copied from those left by the Daleks after their abortive occupation of Earth in the 2160s, and the spacecraft used to travel to the stars, both charted and uncharted, were designed using captured alien technology.

So humankind took its first steps out of the solar system by combining its native ingenuity and determination to ride on the backs of the alien races who had already discovered interstellar travel.  Once again human beings achieved a level of technology beyond their years.

This, Gustav Zemler knew, was how other intelligent life forms in this part of the galaxy viewed Earth and its inhabitants.  He had read the intelligence reports while serving a brief tour of duty in the security service.  The Arcturans and the Mentors in particular were willing but suspicious traders - they watched the humans carefully during negotiations as an adult might watch a child who was holding a sharp knife.  One never knew whether the child would cause injury to himself or others, but cause injury he would.

Gustav Zemler had never seen it like this.  He understood the intellectual reasoning behind such opinion, but he knew from experience what the outcome would be.  Another boy had tried to take little Gustav's knife from him and had lost two fingers for his trouble.  An immediate and awestruck circle of boys had formed around Gustav and from that moment on he had known the power of violence.

The boys had split into two factions - those who avoided him, and those who stuck with at costs.  He treated neither differently, and used his newfound power to keep both factions in their place.

It had been easy on Earth for young Gustay.  The Dakks had been defeated, but the planet was in ruins.  Gustav Zemler grew up in a society that matched violence with violence and then turned on itself when the Daleks were gone.  The Intercity Wars sparked and spat around the globe for decades until volunteer members of Earth's nearest colonies returned to bring it back into order. by force.  Zemler was absorbed into the fledgling colonial military: the human species had to fight back to survive.  With typical and dogged belief in its own right to mete out destruction to those who would destroy it, Earth moved all its resources into preparing for attack.  Gustav Zemler was a natural, his path from raw recruit to captain of a crack small-arms unit made easy by a natural predilection to violent confrontation and a well-nurtured distrust of the alien.

All that seemed like a long time ago now.  Zemler was only thirty-six, although he'd made quite a name for himself fighting the Cybermen in a number of skirmishes on the periphery of Earth's colonial territories.  But that beautiful and addictive spiral of destruction had led, eventually, to a military débâcle which resulted in court martial and sudden disgrace.

Gustav Zemler had been forced to find alternative employment.


'This Zemler guy sounds like a total git,' said Sam.

'He's a mercenary,' Vigo replied.  They were still on the shuttle, sitting in the cramped holding cell, the skull-numbing vibration of its engines loud enough to force them to speak up to be heard.  It was an awful journey, and Sam was talking mainly to keep he mind off it.