The Human Chronicles Saga Box Set 5

by T. R. Harris

  “No…and that’s why I need your help.” Riyad turned to Kaylor. “You might want to record this; the information could come in handy.”

  Kaylor went to a console. “I am not familiar with these controls. How do I record?”

  Sherri went to help. After a moment, they had a brief sequence from the lower security camera recorded and playing back. It seemed to be working.

  Riyad turned to Adam with a smile.

  “So where are the weapons?” Adam asked.

  “I’ll show you.”

  The two men became silent, each concentrating intensely on the area of the city twenty miles below the ship.

  They should be the only two active weapons on the floor, or at least the only two next to each other.

  I see them.

  What Adam actually saw in his mind were the bright white indicators of the weapon’s energy signal. He focused until he could follow the individual tracks of wires and battery components within each device.

  What do you want me to do? he mentally asked Riyad.

  You’re better with the ATD than I am. I’ll block the battery feeds while you fire the weapons.

  Got it.

  On the count of three, and I mean three, two, one…go. Understood?

  That’s actually four counts. Adam smiled, which confused the others on the bridge, not knowing the mental conversation that was going on.

  Ready? Riyad ask. Here were go. Three, two, one…go.

  It happened in a flash—literally—and the team would have to replay the recording several times, mostly at extreme slow motion, before they understood what happened.

  An intense bright point of light flared where the building had once stood. Instantly, a perfectly curved scoop of ground was removed from the surface of Woken, taking with it the set of buildings and parts of the surrounding neighborhood, as well as half the spaceport, including the MK starship. What was amazing was that other ships and structures at the edge of the annihilation event stood with perfectly smooth slices taken out of them, showing that the event did indeed have a limited range. However, that only lasted a fraction of a second.

  As the sphere of atmosphere, dirt and structures disappeared from existence, there came a volume of air rushing in from all sides to fill the vacuum. It moved at over a thousand miles per hour but had to cover only a quarter mile before reaching the center of the missing sphere. The initial singularity—which had formed when the two dark matter particles met—was now gone. The air mass—and with it, parts of buildings, soil and other debris, collided at the center—compressed and then recoiled, sending out a tremendous shock wave that radiated for two miles in every direction before dissipating.

  Adam’s team was dumbfounded by what they saw in the recording. The results were both more satisfying—and tragic—than they imagined. The devastation was complete and would serve their purpose of hiding the effects of the battle—and the theft—that had taken place. Hopefully, most of the natives had left the area while the fighting was going on and survived. The slum neighborhood where Adam dropped the credits was in shambles, but he laughed when he thought how, for years to come, the natives would be finding stray twenty-five thousand credit chips in the rubble. That helped to pacify some of the emotions he was feeling at the moment.

  The shiny new Maris-Kliss starship had also vanished, meaning no immediate pursuit would be forthcoming. Adam was also sure communications had gone out before the event reporting on the battle in the building and the theft of the money truck. Back at MK headquarters, it would be assumed everything was lost, including the elusive dark matter collector. All the dire predictions the Gracilians had made would be dismissed as just paranoid speculation. Yes, a singularity had been created, but nothing self-sustaining or large enough to destroy the galaxy. Until another collector was found, the promise of unlimited dark matter energy would have to wait.

  77

  Coop set a course out of the Woken system and back to the Klin saucer Kaylor had left about half a light-year away.

  The DMC and loose cubes were under the shielding screen, so the comm was working, along with the gravity drive. As a consequence, a CW link was open with the Colony Ship, and Jym’s excited face looked down on them from a large monitor on the forward bulkhead.

  “So, what now, fearless leader?” Sherri asked Adam as the Gracilian starship dropped out of a deep gravity-well and approached the small Klin saucer. “We still have the dark matter collector and most of the cubes.”

  “We also have a fortune in Juirean credits!” the tiny bear-like alien exclaimed.

  Sherri smiled, about as broadly as Adam had ever seen her smile.

  “That we do!” she said.

  Adam waved his hand at the group. “We still have to be careful. Right now, everyone thinks the money was destroyed along with the DMC. If we go around living high on the hog, someone is bound to notice and put two and two together.”

  Kaylor batted his eyes rapidly, lost in the confusing translation he was hearing.

  “But what about the Gracilians?” he asked, letting Adam’s comment remain unresolved in his mind.

  “Simple. I’ll just tell them what happened,” Adam said. “The DMC was stolen three times, once by MK, then the Cartel and finally by Angar. We tried to recover it but everything was destroyed on Woken.”

  “And the half-million credits we have been paid?” Jym asked. “I have already spent a large amount of that getting the Colony Ship ready to come to your rescue—a rescue I see is no longer required. Arieel and her natives are aboard as we speak helping with the final outfitting.”

  “Arieel’s aboard?” Adam asked.

  “She has been notified of the link and is on her way to the bridge, but the ship is large. She will arrive momentarily.”

  Adam nodded. “About the money, that was non-refundable,” Adam reported. “The Gracilians will be upset, but relieved. They’ll think they’ve lost the DMC, but at least no one else will be able to get their hands on such deadly power.”

  “Why don’t we just give it back to them?” Kaylor asked.

  Adam shook his head. “If we did that, news would eventually leak out that the DMC wasn’t destroyed in the—what do you call it, the annihilation event? At that point this whole vicious cycle starts over again. One way or another, this technology will get out into the public domain, either by someone stealing it—again—or Volic will simply give in and sell it. It’s too dangerous for even for the Gracilians to have.” Adam smiled. “And now that we don’t have to sell it to make a shitload of money, we won’t.”

  “What are we going to do with it?” Sherri asked.

  “That I don’t know. I honestly believe it is too dangerous to be destroyed. Look what one tiny cube did on Woken. And the Gracilians say the explosive effect is multiplied exponentially by the number of cubes involved.”

  “We’ll have to hide it then,” Sherri said. “And somewhere no one will ever find it.”

  “That’s right,” Adam agreed. Then he paused and looked around the room at the faces of all the friends he had in the galaxy. “But first, let’s get back to the Colony Ship.” He looked at Jym’s image on the screen. “I assume all the ships that have been waiting for us have left?”

  “Yes, they did. Once word of the event on Woken filtered to them, they were gone almost immediately.”

  “Good, it looks like our ruse worked. We’ll return to the Colony Ship and figure out our next moves there. And remember, no one runs off with their share of the money and starts flashing it around.”

  “And that means you, too, Mr. Cain. So, a log cabin instead of a log home for you back at Tahoe,” Sherri said, smiling warmly.

  “You read my mind.”

  “You know I can’t do that anymore, since my poor little ATD is broken,” Sherri pouted. “But maybe with some of my money, I’ll buy a replacement.”

  78

  The trip back to the Colony Ship would take eighteen days. It should have taken eleven, but Adam had to
hold back so that the Klin saucer could keep up. Even still, Kaylor was trailing two hours behind the Orion.

  The transit time gave the crew an opportunity to unwind and start to grasp the new reality before them. One hundred eight million credits divided six ways—approximately, since Adam had given some of it away to the slum natives on Woken—came out to eighteen million each. The team decided unanimously that each member would receive the same share, this after Jym expressed concern that he would be cut out of the deal. That wasn’t going to happen.

  During the journey, Sherri transferred over to the Klin saucer to keep Kaylor from not feeling left out. He was traveling alone and missing out on all the euphoria inside the Orion. Now after two days, she sat on the bridge with the alien as an awkward silence grew between them. A few moments before, Kaylor had said some things, and then Sherri said some things. Now they were trying to work it out.

  Kaylor spoke first.

  “You do not have to worry about me. I am quite content to be alone.”

  “I realize that,” Sherri said. “It’s just that the rest of us are celebrating our good fortune and I thought you might be feeling left out. Forgive me for having some empathy for your feelings.”

  Kaylor grimaced. He studied Sherri’s face for a long moment before responding. “This is a sensitive subject for me,” said the alien, “but I am not comfortable being around Humans, even Humans like you and Adam. You are my friends, but still you are…aliens.”

  Sherri laughed, which confused Kaylor. “I can understand that,” Sherri said. “That’s the same way I feel about you…hell, about all aliens.”

  Seeing that Sherri wasn’t offended by his embarrassing admission, Kaylor relaxed. “Honestly, when I have to spend any extended time with your kind, I end up frustrated and often angry. Humans have such an odd way of speaking and thinking. It is not normal. Have you noticed that about your species?”

  “Most definitely,” Sherri said. “It’s confusing for us, too. We seem to make things up as we go, and the more obscure the reference, the cleverer we think we’re being. It’s a real pain in the ass. I can understand how you feel.”

  “Then you are not angry or offended by my wish to be alone?”

  “Of course not! I feel the same way most of the time. Can you imagine what it’s like having to hang out with Adam, Coop and Riyad, and be the only girl?”

  “And yet you have had intimate relations with all three.”

  Sherri frowned. Kaylor was right, even though it made her sound like a whore. It wasn’t like that…was it?

  She stood up. “Okay Kaylor, you can have your peace and quiet, free of any Human interaction. I’ll get the shuttle ready and return to the Orion, no hard feelings.”

  “Hard feelings? Is that good or bad?”

  “It’s good. It means I’m not mad.”

  “You do understand what I mean? Even the simplest of statements can become confusing when spoken by a Human.”

  Kaylor leaned forward to check the nav screen, locating the Orion for Sherri’s return to the ship. He tensed and leaned in even closer. Sherri picked up on the alien’s reaction.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The Orion…it is not there.”

  Sherri crowded the screen with Kaylor a moment later. He was right. It was gone…no wait, it had changed course. “There is it.”

  “But why has it changed course?” Kaylor worked his keyboard. “I estimate they have been on that trajectory for ten minutes.”

  “Why didn’t Adam contact us?”

  “I will attempt to reach him—”

  “No don’t!” Sherri cried out. “Something’s wrong. They would have contacted us if everything was fine. Plot their current course. Where are they headed?”

  “Plotting: They are heading away from the galaxy, on a track above the plane. But there is nothing out there except—”

  “—Except the Gracilian research station. I should know. I spent six long months there.”

  “Has Adam decided to return the dark matter collector to the Gracilians?”

  “Not voluntarily, I’m sure. Just hang back for a while and let’s see what happens.”

  Kaylor stretched out a thin grin, careful not to expose his teeth. “It is at times like these that I am glad to have a Human around.”

  “And I a Belsonian. You know, we really do make a good team.”

  It happened so fast.

  One moment the Orion was bolting along in a deep gravity-well, on course for the Formilian star system and the huge Klin Colony Ship. The next the ship was out of their control and changing course radically, essentially going back the way they came, but now angling above the plane of the ecliptic. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened and where they were going.

  Coop, Adam and Riyad were the only ones onboard, with Sherri and Kaylor in the Klin saucer, two hours behind. The fact that the pair hadn’t contacted them by CW link meant they realized what was happening. That was good. But whether they knew the whole story remained to be seen, especially since Adam and the others were pretty much in the dark themselves.

  It was an hour before the first contact was made, and not from Sherri and Kaylor, but from a source ahead of them, not behind.

  Adam didn’t have to establish the link if he didn’t want to; he could just as easily let it go to voicemail just to frustrate the Gracilian he knew was calling. But he was curious. The overall picture was pretty clear; it was the details they lacked.

  Adam made the link.

  A frustrated Volic Nusin was on the screen.

  “I hope I am not interrupting?” said the alien.

  “Nah,” Adam said. “We were just being hijacked; happens all the time.”

  “Hijacked? Oh, yes…the translator was slow. You are being hijacked.”

  “How did you know where we were?”

  Volic laughed. “Mr. Adam, you are in a Gracilian ship, the one we provided. We have known your location throughout your journey. And when it was detected that you were traveling away from the Frontier, an embedded program took over your systems that will return you—and the DMC—to the research station.”

  “The DMC? But it was destroyed.”

  “Yes, Mr. Adam, the DMC. Did you truly believe we would not see the truth that the annihilation event on Woken involved but a single cube? Others may believe the collector has been destroyed—with no accompanying major annihilation event—but not us. We know what dark matter is capable of. We have told others, but they did not believe, not fully. And now your insignificant demonstration on Woken has convinced them that we were wrong. That is not good for our long-term plans.”

  “I believe you, and that’s why I wasn’t going to return the collector to you. It’s too dangerous for anyone to have, even you.”

  “And what were you intending to do with it? It cannot be destroyed, or do you believe your Human race could better manage the destructive power of dark matter? Considering the history of your race, you cannot possibly believe that. No, you would have to hide it away. And yet you would know where, and eventually others would, too. In all honesty, only Gracilians know best how to handle this amazing technology.”

  “And yet Sherri and Coop stole it from you. Real secure there, buddy. What’s to say that won’t happen again? You obviously have spies aboard your station. Word will get out that you have the DMC, and then this whole crazy cycle will begin again. You can’t keep something this powerful a secret for long. And you saw what we were able to do on the spur of the moment on Woken, and with a single cube. Imagine what others could do with dark matter if they intend to make it a weapon out of it?”

  “You do not have to voice your arguments to me, Mr. Adam. We have thought them all through for months, since the device was first discovered. We know what to do with dark matter, and all we need is the return of the DMC.” The alien smiled. “And I assume you also absconded with the credits from Woken. As I told you before, all we want is the DMC. Once we have it safely back,
you may keep the credits as your reward. But my offer only lasts as long as you cooperate. So, relax, my friends. You will be at the station in ten standard days.”

  Volic then frowned as he scanned the faces of Riyad and Copernicus standing behind Adam at the comm station. “Where is Miss Sherri?”

  Adam was the first to react. “She’s dead. She was killed on Woken, in the insignificant event—as you called it.”

  Volic looked at Copernicus. “I am terribly sorry, Mr. Copernicus. Gracilians have mating pairs, such as Humans. I knew you and Miss Sherri were intimate.”

  “I’ll get over it.”

  “I hope you do.”

  Adam got the distinct impression Volic didn’t believe a word they said. That was okay. He felt the same about the Gracilian.

  The screen went black.

  “That answers two of the questions I had,” Adam said with enthusiasm.

  “What questions?” Riyad asked.

  “First, they can’t see us or hear us. All they can do is track us. Otherwise they would have known about Sherri and Kaylor. That’s something we have in our favor. They don’t know Kaylor is following.”

  “And the other thing?”

  “It’s a program that’s taken over the ship. All we have to do is find it and we’ll be free to go our merry way.”

  79

  Sherri studied the track chart again and grimaced. Yes, she and Kaylor could follow the Orion all the way to the research station, but then what? They certainly didn’t have the firepower to take on the Gracilian station. Even when she and Copernicus were there they had at least a dozen warships in the space around it. Besides, if the DMC was returned, then they couldn’t shoot up the place without the chance of setting off a dark matter chain reaction that could create a supermassive black hole. The station was located well outside the galactic plane, so maybe the effects wouldn’t be so widespread. Of course, that wouldn’t help them any. Rescue the men just to have them all sucked into a giant singularity. That wouldn’t work.