The Human Chronicles Saga Box Set 5

by T. R. Harris

  A comm center was placed along the inner wall, with a huge display screen—easily measuring ten feet square—and a control console set to one side. A table was placed before the screen, telling Sherri and Coop that a lot of Cartel business was conducted from this room. On a side table was the dark matter collector and the satchel holding the cube containers. A mesh screen now covered both items.

  The giant video screen was active and broken into six sections. Although Coop’s side of the prior links was audio-only, the receiver’s signals came in with video, so Coop recognized most of the faces on the screen—which now included a Human. A smaller inset square showed the room they were in, facing out from the CW apparatus. The signal seemed clear and static-free.

  The smaller screen showed the guards as they led Sherri and Copernicus into the room to be placed in chairs set to the side of the table. The Human on the larger screen took note.

  “Is that Sherri Valentine?” asked the square-jawed man with graying hair.

  From his place at the table, Frandon turned to look at his prisoners. “Yes it is. She and Copernicus Smith were so kind as to assign me the task of completing the negotiations for the dark matter collector.”

  “And who are we now bidding with?” asked the representative of the Maris-Kliss weapons company. “We had a prior ratified agreement with the Humans to sell us the collector.”

  “And then you screwed us over!” Sherri yelled out. “If you’d just paid us, none of this would be happening.”

  “Please, Sherri Valentine, calm yourself,” said Frandon, amused by the outburst. He looked at the screen. “You will be negotiating with me—”

  “Are you all right, Ms. Valentine?” the Human asked, interrupting Frandon.

  “Nothing a squad of badass Marines couldn’t cure. You’re not planning a rescue, are you? We could sure use one about now.”

  The man seemed confused and a little embarrassed. “I’m afraid there is nothing I can do.”

  “That’s okay; it was rhetorical. You’re here to buy a dark matter collector, not to save a damsel in distress from the evil Gradis Cartel.”

  The man on the screen murmured something unintelligible before Frandon put a stop to the conversation.

  “Enough. We are here for business. Once concluded, the fate of Sherri Valentine and Copernicus Smith will be of no significance. Put them out of your mind.”

  The alien surveyed the anxious and angry faces of those on the screen. The negotiations had gone on for too long already, and now the Cartel leader had placed them all on a conference link so they could bid against each other. They were not too happy with the turn of events.

  Bornadin Xoo-lin, the representative from the Xan-fi confederation, leaned in close to his screen. “Will there be no more disruptions? We wish to conclude these proceedings here and now. Can we be assured there will be no more need for additional sessions after this?”

  Frandon waved a hand at the dark matter collector. “Prior CW links have been plagued by interference from the collector itself,” he began. “I contacted the Gracilians and they devised a shield for the device that negates some of the effects, at least temporarily. We shall have time to complete the negotiations, as well as a means of transporting the unit to the ultimate winner. You are now dealing with the Gradis Cartel. We know how to conduct business. Does that satisfy your questions, Xoo-lin?”

  Sherri and Copernicus looked at each other. The damping shield will have to go with them. That would be a permanent solution to both the gravity drive and their CW problems. Although they were being held prisoner atop a thousand-foot-tall building at the power center of the Gradis Cartel, things were looking up.

  Adam took the CW link from Jym just as he was approaching Navior. He had studied the planet and learned where the main Cartel force was located. Copernicus only needed a CW facility, which could be found anywhere on the planet. He would avoid the Cartel capital like the plague.

  "I have located Sherri!” the excitable little bear reported. “In a video link.”

  “Where?” Adam’s pulse jumped. Was she here, or somewhere else? And the fact that her image was showing up in a CW link meant she was alive and well.

  “She is on Navior, as you suspected, in a city called Vansis.”

  Vansis was the headquarters of the Cartel. What was she doing there?

  “Send me the coordinates. I’ll change my flight plan and get permission to land there. How old is this information?”

  “Minutes. I still have the two images of Sherri and Copernicus in the program. Her name was also spoken. I contacted you as soon as the data was filtered.”

  “Well done, Jym! Well done. I’ll let you know what I find when I reach the surface. And get Kaylor headed my way as fast as possible, just in case.”

  67

  The bidding got underway and quickly climbed to one hundred million credits. Frandon sat back and let the participants haggle with each other, some trying to form collations who would share the technology. These affiliations mainly involved power companies joining with a weapons manufacturer, rather than two of the same industry banding together. The Cartel boss was absolutely giddy at the results.

  The session only lasted ten minutes before the bidding came to a close. The galactic arms leader Maris-Kliss joined with Fazon, the chief maker of cold fusion reactors, to come in at one hundred eight million credits. The others couldn’t match it, not even the Human who none of the others were willing to partner with. No one trusted Humans and Humans didn’t trust the aliens.

  As the frustrated losers continued to complain, Copernicus eyed the dark matter collector. Through his ATD he’d identified the firing circuits in the guards’ MK’s, as well as the alarms, closed circuit cameras and comm devices on the floor, everything that could be used to alert the building when they made their move. The bidding was over, and soon Frandon would make good on his promise to kill him and Sherri. He might even do it in front of an audience on the CW comm. It would show the rest of the galaxy the power of the Cartel.

  Coop reached over and took Sherri’s hand, squeezing it once. She knew what was coming.

  And then Copernicus heard the voice in his head.

  Coop, it’s Adam. I’m detecting your ADT. Can you hear me?

  “Of course, I can,” he mumbled softly before consciously making the telepathic connection with Adam. Coop still wasn’t used to the process.

  Sherri looked at him and frowned. He mouthed the name Adam.

  Sherri’s eyes grew wide. The prisoners looked to the sentries, curious if all their mumbling and strange facial expressions had alerted them that something was up. The guards were watching them, frowning, but hadn’t made any moves, not with Frandon finalizing the sale of the collection device and the other six beings still active on the CW screen.

  I can hear you, Copernicus thought, fighting hard not to mouth the words as they formed in his head.

  Are you and Sherri all right?

  For now. We’re in the top dome. I suppose you know about the dark matter collector. The head of the Cartel has just wrapped up the bidding for the device. Sherri and I are going to take it. Where are you?

  I’m above you in a delta-shaped spacecraft. I’m going to set it down in the courtyard outside the building. Can you get to me?

  I don’t know, that’s pretty far to go. How about outside? There’s a balcony surrounding the dome.

  That’s better. I’ll sweep in and you two jump on the wing. Watch the exhaust.

  All right, Copernicus thought. I’ve neutralized the weapons in the room. Get ready. We’re going now.

  Coop squeezed Sherri’s hand again, this time as he jumped from the chair and crashed into the guard nearest him. Sherri took the other one. The aliens were of a race neither of them had seen before, huge creatures with two main sets of arms and two smaller ones underneath. They also had almost no neck, just thick shoulders and block head. They were strong, if not very intelligent. They needed to be.

  Coop m
anaged to catch his guard by surprise, knocking him to the ground before laying a balled fist into the side of his head. To the Human’s surprise, the beast shrugged off the hit and tossed Copernicus to the side. He recovered his lost weapon, turned it on Coop and pulled the trigger. The alien’s mistake was relying too much on the MK to stop the Human. As he fumbled with his useless weapon, he became a sitting duck for Coop’s powerful blow to his midsection. This time the alien reacted to the hit, doubling over and groaning. Coop lifted a metal chair and smashed it down on the guard’s head. He dropped to his knees, where Coop finished him off with a second hit.

  Sherri came face-to-face with the weapon of the second guard, who like the other, was shocked to learn that the MK was dead. Momentarily distracted by the malfunctioning weapon, Sherri was able to slip around the guard and wrap a strong arm around the alien’s neck. She was much shorter than the beast, but he bent as she applied pressure. All four of his arms were grasping at her, but she was able to walk him backwards while squeezing harder on his throat. The guard fell to the floor, still gasping for breath. Sherri released him at the last second and dropped a sharp elbow into the center of his thick face. Bones cracked and the already flat nose became non-existent, now just a deep cavity filling quickly with blood.

  Copernicus jumped up and ran for the table where Frandon sat in shock at the sudden attack on his guards. He dropped a shoulder into the alien’s chest and sent him tumbling ass-over-head before landing on his stomach, dazed and coughing.

  The two Humans met at the table with the DMC. Sherri took the covering grid and the satchel, while Coop took the main device. Then just before heading for the door to the outside balcony, Copernicus turned to the shocked viewers on the CW screen and said: “Get your checkbooks ready. We’ll be in touch.”

  And they were outside, clutching their prizes in the cool morning air of Navior, waiting for Adam Cain to descend from the Heavens.

  Chemical landing jets weren’t designed for delicate maneuvers. They came into play during the final leg of a landing, once the ship became too close to the surface to safely use gravity drive. Then a final burst of gas and the ship would settle to the ground. Using the chem drive to hover outside a building without destroying it was proving to be problematic, and especially in a starship with unfamiliar controls. As the ship approached the building in a cloud of fire and smoke, it dawned on Adam that he’d never landed the Gracilian ship before. This was the first time he’d even fired the chem drive. It would be a miracle if he didn’t burn his friends to ashes, and with them the destructive dark matter collector.

  At that point, who would care? They’d all be dead anyway.

  Sherri and Coop were outside the huge dome, carrying objects Adam assumed were dark matter collector and sack of containment cubes, fighting the heat and smoke from the chem jets, trying to get closer to the railing. It was hard enough keeping the ship level, let alone piloting it close to a building a thousand feet in the air. Now he sent the sharp tip of the starboard wing crashing into the balcony, sending a large section cascading to the next layer of domes below.

  Unfortunately, Sherri and Coop went with it.

  They rode the section of hardened foam along the side of the lower dome until it embedded itself into the thin roof of the next level down. The Humans slid off, falling hard to the balcony that encircled this level. They were safe for the moment, even as the dark matter collector fell over the side and wedged itself in the depression between two other domes on the level below.

  Sherri rushed to the railing and looked over. The gravity of Navior was about three-quarters that of Earth, so she catapulted herself over the side and slid down the curved roof of the dome until she landed in the confluence where the unit now rested.

  Sherri had the device on one level, while Coop held the bag of cubes and a thin wire cage in his hands on another. He dropped down to Sherri’s level, sliding on his butt along the curvature of the lower dome.

  Adam shoved the port side wing into the dome, ten feet below where Sherri and Copernicus clung to their precious cargo. A moment later, Coop was on the wing, having jumped from above. He fell to his belly and took hold of a small navigation light to keep from sliding off. The ship bucked, causing the wing to rip upwards, tearing more of the dome apart. As it did, the wing lifted more…and Sherri took the collector and literally walked onto the wing.

  Tell her to hold on, Adam said to Coop through his ATD.

  Copernicus yelled and Sherri dropped to her stomach as well, with one arm around Coop and the other around the DMC.

  Adam pulled the starship away from the building, taking broken debris with it. He gunned the jets and gained altitude momentarily before leveling out and heading north, away from the Cartel complex and the city. He maintained a slow speed, aware of his two passengers on the port wing. Five minutes later he made a rough landing—his first in this spacecraft—in a field still within eyesight of the towering central building.

  The landing sent Sherri and Coop sliding off the wing and to the grassy field below. Adam’s butt clinched when he saw the DMC crash to the ground. Fortunately, no giant black hole opened up, so he figured they were safe, at least for the moment. He activated a side hatch and his two friends rushed inside the starship, bringing their deadly dark matter prizes with them. Adam didn’t wait before activating the gravity drive, taking a huge scoop of Naviorean dirt with them into space. Once in the clear, he kicked in the overdrive, which would leave any pursuit in the dust. They were away from the planet, but that didn’t mean they were safe.

  Sherri rushed onto the bridge and threw her arms around Adam, who was still in the pilot seat, watching for any hostiles on the threat board. There were several, coming at them from all directions. The Cartel controlled this star system and had ships scattered throughout. Nearly twenty of them, of various classifications, were now trying to box in the Gracilian ship. Despite the ship’s superior speed, it was working.

  “We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said to Sherri. Coop was also on the bridge. “Someone man the weapons station.”

  “Where is it?” Coop asked.

  “Starboard bulkhead, second console.”

  Copernicus slipped into the seat at the station then raised his hands in surrender. “How do I activate it?”

  “Top panel on the left. That will light it up. I practiced a little on the way here.”

  “Then let’s trade places. At least I can pilot the ship.”

  “Good idea.”

  They ran past each other while changing stations. Copernicus was an excellent pilot and he understood flight controls. The weapons controls of a strange starship wasn’t something you learned on the job. Adam had the flash cannon charging a moment later, tied into the threat board. Ships were being targeted—lots of them—just as Adam’s single ship was being locked onto by eighteen other vessels. Eighteen-to-one odds. In a fist fight, Adam wasn’t worried. In a space battle, he was.

  “We can’t out fight them,” he said. “Time to do some fancy flying, Mr. Smith.”

  “So why did we change places?”

  “I’ll give us some room, but it’s going to be up to you to get us out of here.”

  The circle of hostile starships around them prevented a deep gravity well from forming. If they did, they could smash into a ship or suck it into a thin well that would send debris blasting into their path. They would have to work their way into the clear first before engaging the full drive. The ship was still fast and more maneuverable than their competition, but would it be enough?

  Five flash cannon barrages erupted from the Cartel ships, roiling through space in a wide spread. Coop twisted the ship in a corkscrew maneuver, sliding between two bolts, both of which scraped against the top and bottom diffusion shields. The oblique hits were easily absorbed.

  Adam then sent out a barrage of his own. The Gracilian ship was fast, but not exceptionally well-armed. The aliens were scientists, not warriors, so they saw no need for advanced weaponr
y. Still, Adam managed a couple of direct hits, both of which were also absorbed by the Cartel screens. The Cartel had a lot of ships, but they weren’t warships. They ran guns and slaves, and seldom engaged in space battles of any kind. This wasn’t to say they couldn’t take out Adam’s ship. They certainly could, and if they didn’t get to clear space soon, that was about to happen.

  The aft shield lit up from two direct hits. That was it for the panel, and when another five bolts contacted other diffusion screens, Adam was sitting with a third of his defenses down, with Coop having to angle the ship toward incoming bolts just so they would hit charged screens and not vulnerable hull metal.

  Adam was firing nearly non-stop. Three of the Cartel ships had been destroyed and two damaged to the point where they were out of the battle. That still left thirteen healthy ships against his one crippled vessel.

  Adam was about to signal their surrender when an echo sounded in his head.

  Yippee-ki-ay, mother fu—

  Riyad…is that you?

  And who else would be coming to rescue your sorry ass?

  The voice in his head was a godsend, and within seconds he saw the first blasts from the elongated, black-hulled starship coming out of their twelve o’clock. And Riyad wasn’t alone. There was a second ship on his left flank.

  Adam recognized the signature of the ships immediately. They were ancient Marauder class warships commonly used by the pirates of the Fringe. Riyad once commanded the rag-tag fleet of space raiders; it looked like he’d picked up where he’d left off.

  We were in the neighborhood and thought we’d drop by. I have Angar in the other ship.

  Welcome, both of you. But really, how did you know?

  Riyad didn’t answer until he and the second pirate ship had demolished another five Cartel ships and sent the others scurrying away in all directions. Then he positioned his two ships to either side of Adam’s.