The Human Chronicles Saga Box Set 5

by T. R. Harris

  Could this be it? Adam thought. It wasn’t where it had been before, but close. Could the automated systems have moved the station to avoid some rogue asteroid or comet? As the minutes passed, and the ship made a beeline for the anomaly, Adam’s heart began to race.

  He moved to the comm station and opened a link with the squadron of Union ships following Kracion.

  “Where is he now?”

  “He came to a stop about two hours ago. I’m sending the coordinates to you in an under-signal.”

  Copernicus pulled out the data and compared it to their location. “He’s sixteen light-years out. Still only about twelve hours from here at max drive.”

  “Thanks for the update,” Adam said to the officer on the other end of the link. “Keep us informed of any changes.”

  Adam returned his attention to the nav screen. The gravity source was getting closer, and now a faint glow of light could be seen at the spot.

  “The light readouts are odd,” Tidus reported. “Variable and slightly oblong.”

  “It’s the ring,” Adam announced. “The station has a large metal ring around it that forms a magnetic field. That’s it. It has to be.”

  His voice wasn’t enthusiastic, just relieved. The others on the bridge felt the same. The Aris station was here, and if that was the case, then what was Kracion chasing?

  127

  “Slow down,” Adam said to Monty. “There’s an interphase defense shield in place around it.”

  “What the hell is an interphase defense shield?”

  “Something that shifts between normal space and not normal space.”

  “Is that what those three lines are?”

  The station was now in full view of the crew, a shimmering ball that glowed a light blue in color and was ringed by a metal band reflecting the light of distant stars. The closest star was the Aris brown dwarf, an Earth-size object that gave off very little light or heat. There were other stars in the area, but this close to the edge of the galaxy they were few and far between.

  As the Mustang Sally drew near, three glowing bands of light appeared between them and the station. Monty changed course to go around, but they shifted as he did.

  “Now what?” he asked Adam. “How did you get past them the first time?”

  “I was in a TD ship.”

  “A what?”

  A trans-dimensional starship. We simply jumped to a point in space beyond the shield.”

  Monty grunted. “Last time I checked, we ain’t got one of those TD things, so what do we do?”

  “We think about it for a moment, that’s what.”

  “Can we fire upon it?” Tidus asked.

  “I don’t know, but I doubt it,” Adam replied. “It’s there to protect the station. Firing on it will just confirm us as a threat. And I doubt the little flash cannon Monty has on the Sally will do much against that.”

  Adam opened a link with General Sharp back on Earth.

  “Paul, we’re sending you all the data we have on the interphase screen. See if you can find a work-around.”

  “Are you serious? We have our hands full trying to find a work-around for Kracion’s plasma beams, oh, and a way to stop his service modules from beaming into our warships. Now this?”

  The general took a moment to scan the data files coming through from the Mustang Sally. “There’s not enough here. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  Sharp shook his head. His forehead had permanent creases in it, something new since the last time Adam spoke with the officer. He was under considerable stress—as were they all.

  “Do the best you can, Paul. We’ll work on it from our end. Cain out.”

  Riyad had been studying the data as well. “The shield popped on when we got within ten thousand miles,” Riyad pointed out. “Either it picked up our gravity signature or our mass. At the time the system was built, the Aris didn’t have any outside enemies, only the potential of being struck by asteroids and such. Could it be a defense against us hitting the station?”

  “I don’t know; however, the station itself is covered in debris, large and small rocks that have been attracted by the gravity field. They had to get in somehow.”

  “So, it could be keyed to our electronic signature.”

  “Let’s find out,” Adam said decisively. “Monty, send out a couple of your gas detecting probes, one fully charged and the other ballistic only, no energy output. Let’s see how the field reacts to them.”

  “So, it would be like firing a ballistic round at a diffusion shield.” the master chief stated.

  “Hopefully it will be that simple.”

  “Queuing them up. Probes away. I’ll shut down one of them when it gets closer.”

  “Don’t get it going too fast. We don’t want it to appear to be a threat to the station, even if it’s mistaken for a rock.”

  It took six minutes for the first of the probes to reach the shield, the one on chem drive and with all its electronics active. They were recording the encounter so they could study the results in detail later on.

  The moment the probe came in contact with the shield it disappeared. The other probe was still eight minutes out, time for the team to replay the video. At the moment of contact, the probe was encased in a light blue bubble—then it vanished. Extreme slow motion showed an orange fire appear at the edges of the probe, literally eating it away until there was nothing left.

  “Dang, that was…effective,” Copernicus gasped.

  The second probe made its leisurely approach to the barrier. But this one passed straight through.

  The team had their answer, but they weren’t thrilled by it.

  “So no electronic signatures,” Tidus summarized. “How will we be able to negate all electronics on the muleship?”

  “We can’t,” Monty stated firmly. “It’s impossible. There are always passive systems on and energized. Even in dark status we’re not completely dark…no ship is. Hell, even the battery in my razor might set the damn thing off.”

  It was quiet on the bridge for several moments as the team searched for an answer.

  “The shuttle,” Adam finally said.

  “That won’t work, either,” Monty said. “Too many electronics.”

  “But not as many as the Sally. And I can search it for trace readings with my ATD and shut down or remove everything I find that isn’t critical.”

  “And what about your special device, is that not electronic as well?” asked Tidus. He’d been given a brief explanation of what the ATD was and what it did.

  “I think I can turn it off. I’ve done it before…to a degree.”

  “And what about the rest of us?” Coop asked. “I wouldn’t know how to do it.”

  “I could do it for you, and then do mine. Or I could go over on my own. After all, I’m the only one who’s been there before.”

  “I would not be comfortable with that,” Riyad said. “That thing is seven hundred miles in diameter. Even if your intention was to blow it up, how would you do it? You may need another pair of eyes and hands helping out.”

  “Or more,” said Coop. “I can’t let you go off and play the hero again. I’m not famous enough yet to get my own series. This could help.”

  “If you survive,” Riyad added. “Besides, I’ve been around from the beginning and I still don’t have my own series.”

  “Knock it off you two. You can come along if you want, but no one’s being ordered to.”

  “Ordered?” said Riyad. “Since when are we in your chain of command?”

  “You’re wasting time,” Monty Pitts growled.

  “The master chief is right,” Adam said. “Let’s get ready.”

  “What about turning our ATDs back on?” Riyad asked. “Do you know how to do that? I kinda like having a brain-interface device.”

  “I’m not sure. But if we can free Lila and Panur then I’m sure they could help us. If not, then once we get back to Formil—”

  “If we get back to Formil.” Leave it
to Copernicus to be the wet blanket.

  “We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Adam snapped. “For now, let’s get to work on the shuttle.”

  “And what of the rest of us?” Tidus asked.

  “You and Monty stay with the Sally, along with the mercs. If we can figure a way to shut off the shield, then you can come in an save us, if we need saving.”

  Monty looked worried. “I’m all for staying with my ship, but not being left out of the action.”

  Adam placed a hand on the shoulder of the bulky master chief. “I would love to have you along, Monty, but we each have our mission. Yours is to keep the Sally in a position to help if need be.”

  The Sally’s shuttle was barely that. It was a pressurized shell of a vessel with a single chemical drive strapped to the back. It had seating for two people, which meant one of the three Humans would have to stand—or float in this case, since the shuttle had no internal gravity. All of this made it the only viable candidate for the operation. There were very few electronics needing isolation and shutdown at the proper time.

  But still they took their time. They couldn’t miss even one stray circuit.

  Then the link came in from the monitoring squadron following Kracion.

  “They formed up and bolted from the area!” said the excited officer on the other end of the link.

  “Where is he headed?” Adam asked. He was using his ATD to link with the Sally’s comm system. He was going to miss the use of the device when—and if—they made it to the station.

  “He’s on a direct track to your location, captain. ETA, nine hours.”

  Copernicus and Riyad were not on the link. He looked at them. They were using their ATDs but were tracing feed lines within the shuttle and not on the comm line.

  “Keep me informed,” Adam said in his mind. His thoughts were converted to words over the link.

  “Sir, we have a task force headed your way, but they won’t get there for another twelve hours.”

  “Understood, commander. We’ll deal with things on our end. Cain out.”

  “Pick up the pace, boys,” Adam said aloud to his friends. “We have company coming in nine hours.”

  “Kracion?”

  “It ain’t the tooth fairy.”

  “Monty has about sixty pounds of explosives aboard he’s willing to lend us,” Riyad said. “But he says he wants it back after we’re through with it.”

  “Not sure what sixty pounds can do against something that big,” Coop said.

  “It could knock out a system or two…like a mutant assimilation machine.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Adam surveyed the electronic readings aboard the shuttle. They were nearly all dead, except for a small charge to run the chem drive, which they would shut down after the shuttle was moving. They would also go dressed in spacesuits, which themselves would have to be shut down prior to making the pass through the barrier. Fortunately, once they were through, all systems could be reactivated, all except their ATDs. They also had weapons placed aboard, good ol’ fashion assault rifles Monty had lying around. They, too, had a few electronic components, but they could be disabled. Flash weapons carried charged battery packs which couldn’t be hidden from the shield. The way to do that was to take a dead battery, and what would be the use in that? So it was the ballistic weapons or nothing. Not even the use of their artificial telepathy devices….

  128

  The gravity was shut down aboard the Sally and the rear shuttle bay door opened. The escaping atmosphere was enough to dump the shuttle out the back, after which, Riyad lined up on the interphase shield using a minimal burst from the engines. Once the craft was on its way, the three Humans shut down the drive system and then did a quick rundown of the shuttle to make sure they hadn’t missed anything.

  Then they turned solemnly to Adam.

  “It’s time,” said Riyad. “I must say, it will feel like going into battle naked without the ATD. It’s been a part of my life for so long.”

  “I understand,” said Adam. “But it has to be done.”

  He accessed Riyad’s device with his ATD. Shutting it down wasn’t hard, not with the willing assistance of the holder. Before doing so, he scanned the device, looking for any timing mechanism, something that would turn it back on after a period of time. But even that would require a power source.

  Adam switched off Riyad’s ATD.

  “Whoa, I felt that,” he said. “It’s like losing one of your senses. I never realized it was such a part of my being.”

  “You’re next, Coop.”

  “Do it.”

  And he did.

  Now all eyes fell on Adam.

  “You sure you can shut off your own device?” Copernicus asked.

  “If not, then be ready to fire this thing up and turn us around.”

  Coop smirked. “Thanks for that.” All systems were down, including their spacesuits. All they had was the residual air in their helmets. And it was already getting cold.

  Adam could see the brilliant line of white light through the viewport, huge and dominating outside the shuttle, growing closer.

  “Do it, Adam. There’s not much time,” said Riyad.

  Adam located his own device and sent the command. A moment later it was like he’d gone blind. His ATD had been operating within his body on a different level than the others. He’d had his the longest, and with the enhanced level his mind operated at after the meld with Panur, the effects of the device were more integrated within his every sense. The blindness he experience was literal. For a moment he lost the sense of sight.

  “Are you all right?” Coop asked, taking hold of Adam’s extended arms.

  “I…I can’t see!”

  And then the shuttle passed through the barrier.

  There was a sensation, one that caused panic in the three-man crew. Had they missed something? Was this the beginning of their disintegration?

  But the sensation passed. They were on the other side and still alive. Riyad and Coop turned their attention to Adam.

  “I’m getting better,” he said to the relief of his friends. “It’s almost as if I had to learn to see again, without the help of the ATD. I didn’t know I’d become so dependent on the damn thing.”

  Adam could see again, yet it was like looking through a thin, gray fog. Was this how he’d always seen things, before the ATD? Unfortunately, he believed that was the case. He would eventually get used to his new reality, but forever aware of what it had once been like to see with all his enhanced senses.

  Coop and Riyad were already firing up their suits and the shuttle. Riyad gunned the small spacecraft, bolting for the Aris station still ten thousand miles away.

  Copernicus opened a link with the Mustang Sally. “We’re through, safe and sound.”

  “We noticed,” said Monty Pitts. “I set a timer for Kracion’s arrival. Seven hours, forty-two minutes. You might want to make a note of it.”

  “Roger that, thanks, chief. Now you get the Sally away someplace safe. We’ll call if we need you.”

  “On our way…by the way, where is safe?”

  “Hell if I know. Just don’t go too far in case we can get the shield down.”

  “Good luck, gentlemen.”

  “Ain’t no gentlemen here, just a ship of fools.”

  “Yeah…that’s what I meant. See you on the other side of what happens.”

  “Shuttle out.”

  Copernicus looked to their fearless leader, Captain Adam Cain, USN. “Now what?”

  “We look for where the surface has been cleared of debris. That’s where we set down the last time. It hasn’t had time to fill in. That will get us to the area I’m familiar with.”

  Adam had already told them about the three boxes Panur had given them the first time he’d come to the station. The devices turned off the interphase bubbles and created a fake field in their place. Panur’s strategy worked, up to the time J’nae betrayed them and shut off the devices. Adam reasone
d they had to still be aboard the station, and more than likely somewhere near where all the prior action had taken place. If he could find the landing zone and the field nullification boxes, then there was a chance the mutants could be freed of the fields once Kracion arrived.

  Once Kracion arrived.

  That was the sticking point. For Adam’s plan to work, the mad Aris had to be aboard the station, along with all the inherent risk. The other plan called for the team to locate the assimilation equipment and destroy it with the small batch of explosives they had with them. A third option would be for them to kill Kracion before he became immortal. They could do it with the explosives or the assault weapons, although this probably wasn’t an actual option; he would be protected by an interphase field of his own, making him impervious to outside attack. Unless they could find Panur’s devices. The mission had a number of alternatives, along with very few certainties, short of outright failure.

  In Adam’s opinion, it came down to only two viable options: Destroying the assimilation equipment or finding Panur’s field nullification devices. Or both. That would be cool, Adam thought as the shuttle skimmed over the rock-strewn surface of the Aris artificial world. But first things first. They had to find an impossibly small section of the vast crust and gain entry to the interior of the station…and do it in less than seven hours.

  From past experience, Adam knew the station was made up of gigantic metal girders, stanchions and cross braces made of increasingly finer sieves the lower they went. On the surface, huge boulders had accumulated, forming a thick outer crust, drawn to the station by the planet-size gravity influence of the structure. Adam often wondered if this was by design, the debris placed there to disguise the station from curious observers.