by T. R. Harris
Pleabaen Cosnin was in a fit of rage. More reports had come in about his disappearing fleet. It was undeniable now: someone—or something—was destroying his ships. And McCarthy had not communicated with him in over two hours. In fact, he was not to be found within the building.
Fearing that the Human had abandoned him, he placed a shoot-to-kill order for not only McCarthy, but any non-Klin seen in the headquarters building. He was taking no chances.
Suddenly the building jerked violently. Just once.
Cosnin leaned over his desk and gripped the edges. The Klin had been on Vesper for two years and had experience a multitude of smaller tremors. This was common upon every planet. But that last jolt was different somehow.
When a distant rumbling grew in intensity, Cosnin ran to the window of his office and looked out.
A huge cloud of dust was rising in the distance, possible evidence of an explosion of nuclear proportions. But this cloud was unusual. Rather than spreading out in the light pressure of the upper atmosphere, this one grew narrower the higher it climbed.
Then Cosnin began to notice dirt, trees, buildings and more being sucked into the vortex. The effect was racing closer, consuming the city before him in a matter of seconds.
The last Pleabaen of the Klin never knew what hit him, as the ninety-story headquarters building was torn from its foundation and hurled into space. It took less than a minute to transport half a planet to another galaxy, not only killing every native Vesperian on the surface, but over two hundred thousand other creatures—the last of the Klin.
Both Adam and Robert McCarthy were thrown from their feet as the Colony Ship rocked and tumbled. The ship maintained internal gravity wells, but the inertia compensators were off. However once orientation returned, the two Human stared out the expansive viewport at the scene from Hell taking place outside.
Vesper was located a quarter-of-a-million miles away, about the same distance at the moon was from Earth. But being six times as large, it was a prominent disk in the black of space. Adam could see the surface being swallowed by a dark, brown cloud, which was itself being drawn into space, sending a maelstrom of debris racing past the Colony Ship not more than ten thousand miles away. Adam could tell the ship was being drawn toward the river rock. He also knew what was happening, and if the Colony Ship continued to be pulled in, it would eventually contact the transit beam and be ripped from one galaxy to another.
He turned just as Robert came up behind him and delivered another staggering blow to the back of Adam’s head. He fell against the viewport.
“What are you doing,” he yelled at Robert. “Can’t you see, Vesper is being torn apart. It’s the Nuoreans. And now all your precious Klin are dead. There’s nothing left.”
“Fuck the Klin! I just want to kill you.”
“We have to get the generators going otherwise we’ll be sucked into that!” He pointed out the viewport.
The insane look on McCarthy’s face told Adam he wasn’t listening. Hate and anger were controlling him now. Adam pursed his lips. He had no choice. There wasn’t time.
Adam jumped forward, riding on an incredible surge of strength and power. He crashed into Robert, sending him slamming into the side of a control console. Adam pulled back a balled fist and planted it into the unbreakable composite material of the breastplate. It broke.
Robert’s ribs became splinters and his lungs collapsed. His Human heart compressed and then broke open, spilling blood throughout Robert’s chest. His eyes showed shock for a moment, before a calm expression came over his face.
Adam didn’t wait to hear Robert’s last breath. Instead, he ran to the main control station on the bridge. After a moment of staring at it without comprehension, he raced off the bridge and to the express elevator outside.
In his excited state and facing a life-or-death deadline, there was nothing express about the elevator. It simply meant there was direct link from the bridge to the engine room.
When the door finally opened, Adam faced an entirely new challenge. The engine room was huge. In fact, it was made of multiple compartments, each cavernous in their right. There was nothing compact and streamlined about the engine components either, not aboard a twenty-mile-in-diameter space station.
All Adam had to do now was find out how to start the gravity generators and get the ship moving away from the transit stream. He didn’t have a clue where to start.
Except control panels. There had to be control panels…and there were. Lots of them. Adam raced between chambers trying to get a quick feel for the layout. The generators had to be huge, with a section for the dozens of focusing rings. And then power plants, module units, regulators, batteries, converters and so much more. He could pretty much identify all the parts, until he entered another room, and found even more.
He was about to give up when he heard a pressure door swish open. He pursed his lips in anger. If any of the surviving Klin were coming here to stop him—
But then a familiar figure limped towards him, entering from a side compartment along the outer bulkhead of the ship. He was dripping water, with flakes of ice falling from his body.
“Need some help?” said Panur, the immortal mutant.
Adam ran up to him, never happier to see the obnoxious mutant than now. He went to hug him, but then thought better of it. He still looked awfully cold.
“I thought McCarthy threw you out an airlock?”
“He tried. And then the internal temperature of the room, combined with all the crap going on outside, got me to the point you see before you.”
“Are you all right?”
“All right enough to save our asses. Now step aside, son, and let me do my thing.”
56
Six days later…
The huge Colony Ship lay stationary between distant star systems near the edge of the galaxy, nineteen light-years from what had once been the planet Vesper. The Defiant was safely tucked away in one of the many landing bays of the gigantic station, while Panur had spent the last two days working on his tiny egg-shaped starship, having removed it from the cargo hold of the Defiant.
Adam and his team were gathered in one of the dozens of lounge areas aboard the station, where once the Klin had sat and contemplated such profound topics as the conquest of the galaxy. Fortunately, there were no more Klin left to debate such profound subjects.
The destruction of Vesper hadn’t killed all the Klin; there were still a fair number of them on the seven manufacturing worlds in the conquered territory. Fortunately, they didn’t survive long after all the black ships disappeared. Although these worlds built the killer robots, over ninety percent of the inventory had recently been loaded aboard the VN-91s heading for the Core Worlds. The Pleabaen never intended on honoring his promise to withdraw his ships after the capture of Adam and his friends. He was going to unleash death upon the most populous and advanced planets in the galaxy. Up to the moment all his delivery ships vanished.
The natives of the manufacturing worlds revolted. The handful of surviving Klin didn’t last long, even as some tried to hide behind a few hundred killer robots. Eventually the robots lost power. That’s when the Klin race went extinct—this time for good.
But even in light of the recent happenings, Adam was still a nervous wreck, as were all the members of his team. The Klin menace may be over, but it had revealed an even more-deadly threat.
“The Nuoreans are going after Earth next,” Riyad stated with conviction. “The only reason they hit Vesper first was because it was closer and they thought you were there.”
“So how do we stop them?” Sherri asked. Everyone seated in the lounge had intimate knowledge of the Nuoreans and their weapons. They also knew there was no way to stop an incoming transit beam, one designed to destroy a world.
And the local Nuoreans would be of no help. They’d climbed under a very heavy rock after Vesper was destroyed. But their objectives were clear. Kill Adam—and all Humans—for what they’d done to Nuor. With the repa
ir of the midpoint generator, it was only a matter of time before they pointed their weapon at Earth.
Panur found the assembled teammates and entered the room with Lila at his side.
“We are leaving now,” the mutant announced without warning.
The news came as a shock. Arieel jumped up from the couch and ran to her daughter. “No, you cannot,” she cried. “You have only just returned. Do not leave.”
“We must, mother.”
“Will you be back?” Adam asked as he walked up to the mutants. He knew they followed their own path, for reasons only they knew and understood.
“Perhaps, but please be assured, we will keep an eye on things.” Lila’s beautiful smile was infectious.
Adam hugged his daughter. Arieel did the same but wouldn’t break the embrace until Lila pulled away.
“I know you are concerned about Earth, but I believe it to be unfounded.” Panur said. “The midpoint generator is not capable of destroying a world that distant. I’ve analyzed the transit wave reaching Vesper. These are not the same generators as before. You destroyed the more powerful units.”
“That helps, Panur; I appreciate it. But we can’t be sure, not really. It may not be this year, or next, but someday they’re going to strike again, and without warning.”
Panur gripped Adam’s arm. “Have faith, my friend. The Nuoreans will never be a threat to this galaxy again.”
Adam smiled. “And neither will the Klin.” He looked at Lila. “There’s still a place for you at the top. A lot of people would like to see you in charge again.”
“That is not my place, father. I cannot enforce peace on the galaxy because of my special abilities. It is up to the people to find their own peace, a real peace among all.”
“Time to go, Lila,” said Panur.
The mutants turned and never looked back.
Adam turned to the group and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Well, that was some shit.”
The tiny glowing starship passed through a trans-dimensional portal and entered intergalactic space only a thousand miles from the crude linkage that was the rebuilt midpoint generator. The ship had skirted normal space by transiting a parallel universe until it was time to shift back. The journey took four days from the time Panur and Lila left the Colony Ship in the Milky Way galaxy.
A new control station had been built near the generators. It wasn’t as large as the old one, but then neither were the generators. The station did, however, have reliable tracking sensors, and they detected Panur’s ship the moment it appeared.
“Unknown ship, identify yourself.”
Panur opened the link, his smiling gray face full of humor and good spirits.
“Who are you, and what are you doing in Nuorean space?”
“Nuorean space?” said the mutant. “I look around and see that you are a million-and-a-half light-years from anyone’s space. Rather presumptuous of you to make such a statement.”
“This is Nuorean space. Your words have no meaning. Now state your business or you will be fired upon.”
“Ah yes, my business. I am a messenger,” Panur stated with flourish.
“A messenger? From whom?”
“From an old friend of yours…Adam Cain.”
The grim-faced alien on the screen was knocked off guard by the statement. “Adam Cain? Adam Cain is dead.”
Panur shook his head while displaying a face-encompassing smile. “I’m afraid that is not so. He was not on Vesper, and now he has sent me here to deliver a message to the Nuorean race.”
Panur could see the thoughts racing through the alien’s mind. Adam Cain was dead…killed ten days ago. The technician knew the debris from the planet Vesper had passed through the midpoint. The Nuoreans were currently charging the generators and awaiting the marker for the planet Earth. Yet here was a spaceship with information only days old. How did it get here? The tech was turning red-faced as the pressure built up in his head. Finally, he focused again on Panur.
“What is this message you bring from the dead?”
“It is simple. Do not ever return to the Milky Way—the Kac—or you will have to face Adam Cain again.”
“Ridiculous—”
“And he has a gift for you as well.”
“A gift? What gift?”
Panur spun his little ship around, pointing it at the thin white line in the distance that was the midpoint generator. Three tight pulses of white light shot out from the front of the ship and closed the distance to the structure a split second later. The sixty-mile-long machine didn’t explode. Instead, it turned to space dust.
The tiny ship spun back around to face the space station, appearing more ominous now than before.
The alien’s face was pale. He saw the event on his monitors, as well as the data that had suddenly stopped arriving from the generators. He focused wide eyes on the small gray alien and the taller, pink-skinned female sitting next to him.
Panur smiled. He got the message.
“Merry Christmas.”
Epilogue
Adam and Sherri were alone in one of the observation domes of the Colony Ship. The view was incredible as the mighty ship entered the Formilian star system and raced past the colorful gas giant of Andos.
They were returning a heartbroken Arieel Bol to her home planet, to be welcomed back as a hero after months of being treated as a criminal.
The rest of the team was also beginning to receive muted congratulations, even though most of the credit was going to the mutants. Adam was okay with that. He had enough fame for one lifetime. When you become famous, people begin to expect things of you. And right now, Adam just wanted to be left alone. He also had a burned-out shell of a log home back in Tahoe to rebuild. He couldn’t wait to get back to the warm thin air of summer in the mountains, and the picture-postcard views of winter. He liked the seasons. He would enjoy the simple life again.
He laughed to himself. When had his life ever been simple? In fact, life would never be the same for Adam Cain.
“I know,” said Sherri from out of the blue.
“Know what?”
“About you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sherri continued to look out the observation dome. “I know about your powers.”
He opened his mouth to play dumb again, but then changed his mind. He’d been looking for someone to confide in, and Sherri was his closest friend.
He nodded.
“I thought all the brain cells were removed?” Sherri said. “That’s what Lila told me.”
“They were.” Adam had been trying to find an answer for weeks now. He had a theory, but that was all it was. “I think my cells learned from Panur’s. Lila said we advance by evolving. Maybe my body not only used the mutant cells but evolved because of them. I can’t do everything I could before, but that may be just a case of learning. It’s different now.”
“What’s different?”
He gave her a wink. “For one thing, I don’t have to wait for the extra strength to come.”
“You mean it’s there all the time?”
“Not as much as before, but what’s here is always here.”
“What about your intelligence.” She smiled.
He returned the expression, thankful she hadn’t voiced the obvious put-down joke, something equivalent to the oxymoron Military Intelligence. “That remains to be seen. I need some advanced problems to solve before I know for sure. But I can tell you I have more energy and feel healthier than I have in years—or at least before I had Panur’s cells in my brain.”
“So how does this change things for you?”
He frowned. “They don’t. I’m through. I’m going back to Tahoe. Let the galaxy save itself from now on.”
Sherri scooted around until she could look him in the eyes. “You have a gift, Adam. If what Lila said was right, you’re ten thousand years more advanced than any of us.”
“What does that have to do with anything? I di
dn’t ask to be super-man. I still don’t believe I am.”
“Well, you can sure take a lickin’ and keep on tickin.’”
“But why do I always have to be the one taking the lickings? Let someone else get beat on for a while.”
Sherri smiled and took his hands.
“Hey, we all have our mission in life, my dear. Yours is to take lickings…and keep on killing aliens. And one must always follow your calling, no matter what kind of bad attitude you may have.”
The End
Adam Cain returns…
in his next breath-taking, galaxy-spanning adventure:
Mission Critical
Part III
Mission Critical
An Adam Cain Adventure
The Human Chronicles Saga – Book 23
by
T.R. Harris
____
Copyright 2018 by T.R. Harris
All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Welcome to the wild world of Adam Cain…
The alien with an attitude.
The Human Chronicles Saga is a vast, wondrous universe which has evolved and expanded over the years. I’m amazed by it all—and I created it! But just as Life Happens, I didn’t start the series with a set plan for the series. It just…became. One thing led to another, and the next thing you know, a universe has been created. And twenty-nine books later, it’s still growing.