The Human Chrinicles Box Set 4

by T. R. Harris

  “Hey, buddy, if you want command, you’ve got it,” Adam said. “I was enjoying a quiet nap when you came in and woke me up. Hey, do realize that was only three hours ago, and look how much progress we’ve already made.”

  “Progress?” said Copernicus. “We’ve been in four dust-ups with alien warships, made a two-point-five million light-year jump through space and time, and now find ourselves stuck inside the ribs of a dead alien spacecraft…and with no idea where the hell we are. We’ve made something all right, but I wouldn’t call it progress.”

  “Always highlighting the negative, Mister Smith,” Adam said. They could hear the smile in his voice. “You think you have it bad now? Just give it another day or so and you’ll have more context for all your bitching and moaning.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “I’m gonna sign-off now,” Adam said. “Your girlfriend and I have some navigatin’ to do, if you know what I mean?”

  “Just keep it above the sheets, Mister Cain.”

  “That’s Captain Cain to you.”

  Sherri shook her head. “What is it with you two?”

  “Just having a little fun with your new boy-toy,” Adam said. “Now…let’s find out where we are and where we’re going.” He leaned in closer to the nav screen.

  “And now you want to get serious?” Sherri said.

  “You heard the guys; they’re counting on me to save their asses—again. I don’t want to let them down.”

  The cold, steady stare of Sherri’s blue eyes made Adam flinch. He’d known her for twenty years and suspected by now she could read him like a book. He had to be careful. She would eventually learn his secret, but for now, he wanted to keep it to himself.

  “Six systems within ten light-years,” he said to distract her.

  Slowly…Sherri turned to look at the screen. “Yet only two have the right size of star and age to have planets that can support life as we know it. We’re going to have to move farther into the galaxy.”

  “The problem is we have no idea where Nuor’s located. If we’re not careful we could end up on the gray bastards front door.”

  Sherri flicked a switch on the console to open a link with the repair crew. She didn’t have an artificial telepathy device imbedded under her skin like Adam—at least not a working model. She had to communicate the old-fashioned way.

  “Any chance of finding the nav computer in the wreckage?” she asked.

  “Not a chance,” Coop answered. “The whole front of the ship—bridge included—got eaten by the singularity. We’re going to have to find another one somewhere else.”

  “Roger that,” Sherri said. Then meeting Adam’s eye with a glint: “Love you. Be careful out there…in space.”

  “Will do, sweetie.”

  “That was so…high school,” Adam grumbled, feeling an unwelcome tightening in his stomach. Over the past twenty years, Sherri had had relationships with all three of the men onboard, and Adam was pretty sure he wasn’t over her…not yet. But her current affair with Copernicus seemed to suit her. He wouldn’t do anything to interfere, so long as Coop didn’t break her heart.

  His quiet snicker made Sherri look at him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “Just thinking….”

  Sherri’s expression softened, believing Adam was reminiscing about them and what could have been. She was wrong. Instead, he was thinking about how there was a very good chance that in a couple of days they’d all be dead.

  Four hours later, the Najmah Fayd sped away from the mangled alien spaceship, making a beeline for the first of the potential systems from the initial survey. No one expected the first one to have what they were looking for, and they were right. Two days later, and still no luck, Adam passed through the common room with an announcement.

  “Strategy meeting on the bridge in five, all crew required to attend.” With purpose, he kept walking toward the bridge.

  Riyad looked at Sherri and frowned. “Required to attend? Who died and put him in charge?”

  “I know. Just because he was in the military—like a century ago—he thinks he can boss us around,” Sherri added.

  “Delusions of grandeur if you ask me,” Copernicus chimed in.

  “I can hear you.”

  Copernicus coked his head. “But he does have some damn good hearing…for an old guy.”

  Adam had to give him that. Copernicus Smith was the youngest onboard, technically making Sherri the cougar of the Najmah Fayd and Adam the old man at forty-nine. He had no idea how old Kaylor and Jym were. It didn’t matter. They were on a different biological clock than the Humans.

  With mock irritation, the crew gathered on the bridge, slumping into seats, most propping feet onto control consoles. A sea of stars shown through the viewport, casting the room in a kaleidoscope of colors ranging from blue and red, to yellow and orange.

  Adam sat down on the weapons console, careful that his butt didn’t activate any of the fire controls.

  “Okay, here’s our situation,” he began. “We haven’t found any worlds with star-travel capability, just a few with primitive lifeforms more suitable for barbecuing than helping us find the Nuoreans.”

  Sherri was seated in the pilot seat next to Copernicus. “Gee, I must have slept though that part, Captain Obvious.”

  Adam smirked. “I’m glad we’re all in good spirits.”

  “We’re bored, Adam,” Riyad groaned. “When are we going to see some action?”

  Adam patted his pockets. “Let me check my crystal ball—oh, yeah…I left it in the Milky Way. Seriously, I know it’s only a matter of time before we find a star-traveling civilization with a nav computer we can borrow. If not, then we’ll make our way back to the midpoint generator transit zone. There were over five thousand Nuorean ships assembled there, ready to make the jump. That’s enough for two transits, the last coming four days from now.”

  Jym sat up in his chair, suddenly interested. “Are you suggesting that if we do not find a nav computer that we might return to our galaxy?”

  Adam blinked. He hadn’t thought of that. Once a mission was a go, he seldom looked for a way to back out. “That wasn’t what I was suggesting. There’ll be a lot of Nuorean ships around. I was thinking of grabbing a nav computer off one of them as a last resort.”

  “But retreat could also be a last resort.” Kaylor said.

  Adam looked at the faces in the room. The aliens were ready to call it quits, while the expressions on the Humans were that of universal resignation.

  “If we have no hope of finding Nuor—or the LP out to the midpoint generator—what good are we doing here?” Sherri said softly. “I know our mission is important, but without a chance of success, we’re just wasting our time…and potentially a lot more.”

  The original plan called for the team to make the jump to Andromeda and then find the transit zone out to the midpoint generator. Intelligence reports had the Nuoreans calling each of these generator locations LP’s—launch points. The one they were looking for was designated LP-5.

  As the aliens built their bridge to the Milky Way, they first used conventional gravity drive to travel deep into the intergalactic void, where they built the first of the elongated gravity generators. The first was LP-1. It reached from the galaxy out to a point forty-seven thousand light-years into the void. Here the Nuoreans built LP-2, with a range of ninety-four thousand light-years. Through this process, they kept hopscotching farther into the vast emptiness between galaxies. LP-5 reached from Andromeda to the one-and-a-half-million light-year mark. Here the midpoint generators were built—designated LP-6. They were the largest and most-powerful gravity generators ever constructed—how big, Adam and his team had no idea. Scientists in the Milky Way had their estimates, but only the Nuoreans knew for sure.

  This fact confounded Adam’s plans even more. He had no idea how effective the explosives they carried aboard would be on something that big, even using nukes. But that was something they’
d assess on site—once they got to LP-6.

  And the way to LP-6 was through the LP-5 transit line.

  “Have some patience,” Adam said. “We’ve just begun our mission. And contrary to popular belief, I’m not calling this a suicide mission. I want to live, just like the rest of you.”

  Sherri snorted.

  Adam wrinkled his nose at her. “It’s always been the belief that the LP-5 transit zone would be close to Nuor. There’s been no need to change it, not like with LP-6. They would keep it static and close to their supply sources. Once we find Nuor, half our job will be done.”

  Copernicus raised his hand but began talking before he was called on. “After our unexpected arrival, the Nuoreans probably have several thousand ships out looking for us. We may not have to go out looking for a Nuorean ship with a nav computer. They’ll come to us.”

  “That’s another possibility. The bottom line is the mission doesn’t really start until we learn the location of Nuor.”

  “I thought you said the mission began when we escaped from the middle of the Nuorean fleet?” Jym pointed out.

  “Or when we made the jump to Andromeda?” Riyad added with a grin.

  “You’re right, both of you. But this is mission-start two-point-oh.”

  “Three-point-oh.” Sherri corrected.

  Even though he knew they were toying with him, Adam could relate to their frustration. “Tell you what. Give it another three days to find a nav computer. If we can’t locate one in that time, we’ll make for the LP-6 transit zone. That’ll give us a day to get into position for a possible jump back home.”

  “And if we miss that, the TZ shifts,’ Copernicus stated.

  “At that point, we’ll have no choice but to continue. The Nuoreans will move the transit zone and the destination point in the Milky Way. After that, the only way to get home will be to learn the new location at the LP-6—or wring in out of some high-ranking Nuorean who knows.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Riyad said.

  “Trust me people, I don’t want to die in the Andromeda galaxy.”

  “Then lead on, Mister Cain,” Copernicus said.

  Adam opened his mouth to speak, but Sherri shut him down. “Don’t! It’s getting really old.”

  95

  It was with reluctance that Copernicus made his report.

  “Gravity sigs, moderate space traffic and comm chatter,” said Copernicus. “All signs of your everyday, run-of-the-mill star-traveling society.” He knew this meant a continuation of the mission. He wasn’t happy.

  “Have they scanned us?” Adam asked. It was two days after the last meeting on the bridge, and they were just now entering a promising star system on the edge of the Andromeda galaxy.

  “General scans of the system only. They know we’re here, but no one’s making a fuss about it.”

  “Good. Get us within long-range visual distance as fast as you can. I want to see what we’re up against before they send out the welcoming committee.”

  All the crew was on the bridge and at their stations as the Najmah Fayd approached the planet. By then they’d identified five distinct varieties of gravity signatures from the nearby ships, meaning five different manufacturers with slightly different designs. That was a lot. In the Milky Way, nearly all gravity-drives followed the same basic Klin blueprint, with only slight variations. The Human and Juirean designs varied the most, and that was mainly out of racial pride. Neither wanted to be accused of copying the other.

  “Nuorean sigs showing up,” Jym said from the nav station. Sherri confirmed his findings. From experience, they could identify the unique signature of Nuorean grav-drives. The pattern was well-known throughout the Milky Way.

  “As we expected,” Adam said to calm any run-away nerves. “We’re still within five hundred light-years of the current LP-6 TZ. And this is Nuorean territory. They’ve had thousands of years to colonize this part of Andromeda.”

  “There’s only a few of them,” Sherri reported. “Most of the other sigs are different. I thought the Nuoreans were supposed to have wiped out all intelligent life in the galaxy? That’s why they came after us.”

  “Keep us clear of the Nuoreans,” Adam said to Kaylor in the pilot seat. “Put the images on the main screen. Let’s take a look at the planet.”

  Since Nuoreans were classified as Prime in the Milky Way, any world they chose to inhabit would naturally fit a common mold. And this one fit it to a tee. It was slightly smaller and less dense than Earth, but had the same mix of ruddy brown land, covered in vast expanses of green vegetation, yet dominated by huge seas of cloud-patched blue. Sensors indicated an average temperature of fifty-six degrees Fahrenheit around the zones with the largest population concentrations. From this vantage point, there were nine of these major cities visible from space, with countless others of smaller size.

  Adam was in the command chair behind the pilot stations when he leaned forward and pointed. “What are those dark circles to the left of that large city?”

  A moment later, the ship was close enough to recognize the shape of Nuorean combat arenas. There were hundreds of them, filling a great plain to the west of the city, with a rugged coastline to the east. Yet as they achieved orbit and zoomed in closer, they could tell most of the arenas were in a state of disrepair and abandonment.

  “Signs of more a prosperous time?” Copernicus said, “before they ran out of aliens to fight.”

  The camera swept over the city, which didn’t fare much better than the arenas. But here there were signs of habitation, with box-like transports passing along mostly-deserted roads. It was nearing dusk in this part of the hemisphere and lights could be seen popping on in the bulk of the buildings. A large rectangle of evenly-spaced lights came on to the northeast of the city. Upon closer examination, the crew saw the familiar signs of a spaceport—not large—but with a cluster of small-to-moderate sized spacecraft placed haphazardly around the grounds. And each one of those ships would have a nav computer onboard….

  “No challenges?” Adam asked, knowing the answer already.

  Riyad shook his head. “I guess that means free parking.”

  “Let’s see. Kaylor, take us down. And if there are any Nuorean ships in port, park as far away as you can.”

  “As I was planning.”

  The ship set down on what appeared to be a dirt field but was in reality a concrete pad covered over with years of blown dust which no one bothered to clean off. Kaylor positioned them behind a bulky cargo vessel, with a Nuorean destroyer-class starship on the other side and some distance away. No one was on the field; they were either in town or inside their ships.

  “Oops, there’s someone,” Sherri said from the nav station. She had sensors out looking for any ground movement. A transport was coming their way; a boxy wagon with an enclosed top. They couldn’t tell who—or what—was inside.

  A data stream ran along the side of the main view screen. It indicated a suitable atmosphere outside for Humans and a gravity coefficient equal to point-seven-nine of Earth.

  Adam unbuckled his seat restraints. “Sherri, you come with me, along with Kaylor and Jym. I want them to see we’re a diverse crew, and not manned by only mean-looking Human-types.”

  “Weapons?”

  “Ankle holsters only. We don’t want to make the natives nervous. Riyad, Coop, you have our back.”

  “Yessir,” Copernicus said, seriously. He was all business when facing an unknown race on an alien planet in the Andromeda galaxy.

  A moment later, they cracked the hatch and stepped out onto surface. They wore heavy coats to protect against the rapidly dropping temperature and constant wind blowing in off the nearby ocean.

  The vehicle pulled up to the four crewmembers and an entourage of natives climbed out of the truck. There were nine of them, smallish creatures with iridescent skin stripped in a rainbow of colors. Their faces were thin, with wide, crazy-looking eyes and mouths that appeared to carry perpetual snarls. They wore thick cloth
ing of a variety of styles—not uniforms—that appeared stained in the fading light of early evening.

  The two groups faced off, neither speaking, as first-contact protocols were observed.

  In the unseen world of electronic communications, translation programs set about searching for established baselines between the various languages being transmitted in the ether. When a match wasn’t found, the programs set out deciphering the languages using a tried and true method. At the speed of a supercomputer, millions of images and videos—displaying actions, emotions, objects and concepts—were matched with those in a variety of languages. Each program had their own set of standards, which were used to match words, building up the vocabulary at the speed of light. The computers knew what they were doing, and within forty seconds of being linked, the basic translation was complete.

  Adam heard a soft ‘speak’ in his ear. He stepped a little closer to one of the smaller creatures.

  “Greetings, we seek landing rights to your port.”

  One of the creatures stepped forward, and without warning, two wide fans of flesh, located on each side of the thin face, flared out and began to vibrate. Startled, Adam stepped back. He’d seen this before, on certain lizards on Earth and in pictures of extinct dinosaurs. But on these aliens, it came as a shock.

  What came next should not have been surprising.

  The alien spit on him.

  A thick glob of yellow mucus hit him in the chest and oozed down the front of his coat. Without thinking, Adam laid the alien out cold with a quick hit to the side of his head.

  “Why did you do that?” This was asked by an older alien. His fans had begun to come out, but were quickly pulled back in.

  “He spit on me!” Adam yelled. “Is this toxic or an acid? I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”

  “I want some of that,” Sherri said, as she leaned in with a datapad in her hand.

  “What the hell for?”

  “To test it, stupid.”