by T. R. Harris
The
Andromeda
Mission
The Human Chronicles Saga
# 19
an Adam Cain adventure
by
T.R. Harris
Copyright 2017 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.
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Novels by T.R. Harris
The Human Chronicles Saga
The Fringe Worlds
Alien Assassin
The War of Pawns
The Tactics of Revenge
The Legend of Earth
Cain’s Crusaders
The Apex Predator
A Galaxy to Conquer
The Masters of War
Prelude to War
The Unreachable Stars
When Earth Reigned Supreme
A Clash of Aliens
Battlelines
The Copernicus Deception
Scorched Earth
Alien Games
The Cain Legacy
The Andromeda Mission
Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series
The Enclaves of Sylox
Treasure of the Galactic Lights
The Drone Wars Series
Day of the Drone
In collaboration with George Wier…
The Liberation Series
Captains Malicious
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Epilogue
Cast of Characters…
Adam Cain:
Our hero. When the aliens abducted a Navy SEAL, they had no idea they’d bitten off more than they could chew. Now freed from his captives, Adam has spent the past twenty years making the aliens pay for upsetting his comfortable life back on Earth, earning him the moniker of ‘The Alien with an Attitude.’ With Humans evolving on a heavy-gravity world, Adam discovers he’s faster, stronger and more coordinated than most of the aliens he encounters, making him—and his fellow Humans—the creatures to fear throughout the galaxy. And now, through a series of challenges and missions, Adam and his band of loyal warriors defend both the Earth and the galaxy against a multitude of threats, both alien and home-grown. Join Adam and his intrepid band of heroes for their latest escapades.
Riyad Tarazi:
Another abductee by the evil aliens known as the Klin, Riyad was once a high-ranking freedom fighter/terrorist back on Earth. Once free to roam an area of the Milky Way known as the Fringe, Riyad deftly uses his skills to climb the ranks of the Fringe Pirates, before becoming their feared and ruthless leader. Then he meets Adam Cain—first as enemies, then as friends—and his whole life changes. Throughout the years, the two friends have saved each other’s butts more times than they want to admit. Now they’re the most-deadly Human duo in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Sherri Valentine:
Once a young and carefree veterinary student Phoenix, Arizona, Sherri took a fateful jog one evening and ended up like the others—as an alien abductee. Yet once she escapes, she goes on to make a very good living as an alien assassin, working for various cartels and criminal organizations in the Fringe. After hooking up with Adam and Riyad, she’s gone on to become one of the ‘Big Three’ Human heroes, known and feared throughout the galaxy. She’s beautiful, pragmatic—and deadly.
Kaylor & Jym:
These two aliens were dealt a strange hand of fate when they rescued Adam Cain from certain death aboard a booby-trapped Klin starship. Over the years, the pair of galactic scoundrels have accompanied Adam and the Humans on many an adventure, and in the process become Adam’s closest alien friends.
Copernicus Smith:
Passing himself off as a pragmatic starship repairman—specializing in servicing the Milky Way’s criminal element—Copernicus hides a secret which makes him one of the deadliest Human operatives in the galaxy. Affiliated now with Adam Cain, he’s become a vital part of the team, helping to round out its lethal effectiveness.
Arieel Bol:
Recognized as ‘The Most Beautiful Female in the Galaxy,” Arieel is the quasi-religious leader of the planet Formil. She’s also the mother of Lila, an immortal, mutant genius, who was the result of an inter-species union between her and Adam Cain—something the specialists said could never happen. Now as on-again, off-again lovers, Arieel and Adam are the only two beings in the galaxy carrying Artificial Telepathy Devices (ATD’s) implanted under their skin. These brain-interface modules enable the control of electronic devices, such as lights, doors, computers—and energy weapons—as well as telepathic communications between the two. Arieel’s arrogant, spoiled—and drop-dead gorgeous.
The Human Chronicles Saga:
The Alien Games Trilogy:
Alien Games
The Cain Legacy
The Andromeda Mission
Adam Cain and his team face off against the Nuoreans—invaders from the Andromeda Galaxy—whose entire society is built around gladiator-like contests, between not only their own people, but alien races as well. Seeking new challenges, the Nuoreans find a way to link with the Milky Way through the use of a gigantic gravity-well, making jumps between the two galaxies in mere seconds.
Unlike any enemy Adam has ever faced, the Nuoreans revel in the challenge of combat and gamesmanship. They even welcome defeat, as this only means there’s a worthy opponent for them to out-maneuver and overcome. They have no fear or anxiety. To the Nuoreans, there is no such thing as defeat—just delayed victory.
Early in their plans to invade the Milky Way, the Nuoreans recognized Humans as their ultimate challenge—and Adam Cain as the top player (warrior) they must face. Now Adam and his team not only have to save themselves from the Andromeda invaders, but all the other advanced species in the galaxy.
And to complicate matters, Adam must also rescue his kidnapped mutant daughter Lila from an alien race over three billion years old who possess technology far beyond anything that exists today. The mission seems impossible…but it has to be undertaken. It’s just what heroes do.
Together, Adam and his band of intrepid warriors take on their greatest enemy—and journey to where no Human has gone before.
The Alien Games Trilogy of The Human Chronicles Saga is a thrill-a-minute space opera ride of galactic proportion…and only one in a series of multi-book adventures featuring Adam Cain—The Alien with an Attitude.
Check out the other mini-series within The Human Chronicles Saga:
The Fr
inge Worlds & Beyond
The Fringe Worlds
Alien Assassin
The War of Pawns
Tactics of Revenge
The Legend of Earth
The Human Enemy
Cain’s Crusaders
The Apex Predator
A Galaxy to Conquer
The Masters of War
The Sol-Kor War
Prelude to War
The Unreachable Stars
When Earth Reigned Supreme
A Clash of Aliens
Battlelines
Revenge & Redemption
The Copernicus Deception
Scorched Earth
The Alien Games Trilogy
Alien Games
The Cain Legacy
The Andromeda Mission
Enjoy one—or all—of the books in
The Human Chronicles Saga
…now available in convenient, bitesize mini-series.
Available exclusively on Amazon.com and Kindle Unlimited.
And now…
Book #3 in the
Alien Games Trilogy:
The Andromeda Mission
an Adam Cain adventure
Chapter 1
“Wake up, Luke. There’s been a disturbance in the Force.”
Adam pushed Riyad away. “Leave me alone; I’m trying to sleep.”
“Sleep later, young Skywalker. It’s time to get up and kill aliens.”
Adam opened an eye—just one. “How many?”
Riyad flashed his trademark smile. “Hordes, my friend. Tall ones, short ones and in all the colors in the rainbow.”
“You promise?”
Riyad backed away, feigning indignation. “Luke…I am your father. Would I lie to you?”
Now fully awake, Adam sat up on the bed. “Now that’s a disgusting thought.”
“You could do worse than my golden bronze skin-tone and heart-melting smile.”
Adam grinned. “I take it we have a new gravity wave?” He stood up, feeling refreshed and anxious.
“Yes…and a strong one.”
“How far?”
“The report came through a couple of minutes ago. Command estimates we’re about two hundred light-years away. And it’s a tight schedule. This one might work, if you still think this is the best way to go?”
A moment later, Adam Cain and Riyad Tarazi were headed for the bridge of the Najmah Fayd. “I’d rather try this than a couple of thousand trans-dimensional jumps to the midpoint generator,” Adam said. “If anything went wrong on the way, we’d be trapped in one-and-a-half-million light-years of open space.”
“So hitching a ride with the Nuoreans over to Andromeda is a better idea?”
“We’ve been through this before, Riyad. As soon as we pop into their galaxy, we’ll make a quick jump away from any bad guys in the area.”
“It could be three minutes or more while the batteries recharge sitting in the middle of an enemy fleet.”
Adam smiled back at his friend. “Yeah, that could be…stimulating. Certainly better than a hot cup of coffee. Speaking of which, I need one. I’ll meet you on the bridge.”
“Hurry, the party can’t start without you, Mein Fuhrer.”
********
Adam entered the bridge two minutes later with a cup of coffee in his hand and a spring in his step. This was the moment the team had been waiting for. All the other gravity waves detected so far had been too distant to reach in one jump. By the time they arrived, the transit’s return pulse was already gone, along with any waiting Nuorean invaders. That last part was fortunate—and disappointing. That meant the entry point was dead and the aliens would realign the midpoint generator to a new location on the edge of the Milky Way. For four long months they’d done nothing but chase their tail across half the galaxy.
But two hundred light-years was a walk-in-the-park for a trans-dimensional jump starship like the Najmah Fayd; they could make that in a single hop. The only question was what kind of reception would they get at the other end?
Kaylor surrendered the pilot seat to Adam, taking the second seat instead. In the past, the Belsonian muleship-driver had been considered the superior pilot. But recently something had changed. Adam was just a little bit quicker, a little more prescient at the controls. Adam knew why; the others mistakenly chalked it up to the alien’s advancing age.
“The wave was detected sixty-one hours after its creation,” Riyad reported from the comm station to Adam’s left. “Once the techies were able to triangulate the location, it’s left us with only an hour to get on station before the next transit pulse.”
“First wave in the sequence?” Adam asked.
“That’s affirmative. If there’s a second transit, we should be able to catch it.”
A month ago, the team had spent six days sitting in the middle of an entry point, waiting for it to be reactivated. It never was. This confirmed their suspicion that only when enemy ships were present would a repeat transit take place. If the aliens had already bolted for the interior of the galaxy it meant the entry point was abandoned.
The gravity generators of the midpoint station require three days to recharge, since it takes a lot of power to create the pair of super-massive blackholes needed to link space across two-and-a-half-million light-years. Once created, however, space between the two opposing points would be drawn to the midpoint. Then in the blink of an eye, polarity was flipped, allowing the opposing points to switch places. The generators would then be shut down, allowing the space/time continuum to return to normal. In the process, what had once been in Andromeda was now in the Milky Way…and vice versa. The resulting surge of returning space was what created the ripple effect of the gravity waves.
First detected over six months ago, the waves were now monitored as best they could by an array of several thousand passive buoys laid along the leading edge of the galaxy closest to Andromeda. But the Milky Way was a huge place. It would take a million more buoys to make for timely detection of the shockwaves, at least enough for allied forces to arrive on station to counter the incoming alien war fleets.
For now, the desperate people of the Milky Way were fighting a losing battle. Just when they had a bead on a new Nuorean entry point, the aliens would shut it down and shift to a new location. The difference could be as little as a few hundred light-years, all the way to ten thousand or more—and only the Nuoreans knew where the next entry point would appear.
By consensus, the midpoint generators were the problem. And it was Adam’s mission to take them out…by whatever means necessary.
Adam swiveled his chair around and looked at Sherri Valentine, seated at the nav station, the tiny bear-like alien Jym at her elbow. “Can you get us in close without being spotted?”
“Already plotted,” she answered. “There’s a star system about half-a-light out. We should be able to hide our arrival and slip in for a closer look after we land.”
Her expression was anything but enthusiastic. A year ago, she and Copernicus Smith had accidently been sucked into the Andromeda Galaxy through the very process Adam’s was trying to replicate. It was by sheer luck the pair made it back. The prospect of a replay wasn’t something she was looking forward to.
Adam looked next to Copernicus at the weapon’s console. The two men shared a nod. No matter how this turned out, there was a good chance there would be some shooting along the way. Coop was ready.
Everyone strapped in, their expressions conveying the shared belief that this jump was different from the others. This could be it. Within minutes they could be in another galaxy, with no back-up, no quick-extraction plan, and no friendly forces to help. Once committed, there would be no turning back. Either they succeed…or they never come home.
If the six people on the bridge of the Najmah Fayd were having second thoughts, none chose to voice them. Instead they turned stern-faced to their stations, resolute in their mission.
Call them heroes if you like, but someone had to step up to the
plate. Besides, Adam didn’t trust anyone else but him and his team to get the job done.
With a firming of his jaw, Adam Cain activated the controls to the trans-dimensional jump drive.
A greenish glow filled the forward viewport—the sign of a transit to a parallel dimension. A moment later the glow vanished, after which the Najmah Fayd spent the next twenty-four seconds in an alien universe—a universe separated by only the width of a hydrogen atom from their own. After a slight shift in the return portal location, the glow returned. There was a sensation of nausea throughout the jump, but Adam’s team was used to it. Even still, when the stars of their home universe reappeared through the viewport, they breathed a sigh of relief. Each jump into a foreign dimension was a crap shoot. They had no idea where they would appear—in open space, or the middle of a star. There was no way of telling; they didn’t carry navigational charts for parallel universes.
But now they were back, two hundred light-years from where they had been only a minute before…and a hundred thousand miles from a fleet of several hundred alien warcraft.
********
“Shields up!” Coop cried out. “Some of the gray bastards have already fired on us.”
“I’ve located the entry point!” Sherri Valentine yelled out from the navigation station.
“Too soon to jump,” Adam pointed out. “We can’t sit in the middle of a transit zone for an hour.”
“We cannot say here, either,” Kaylor added. “The Nuoreans have a protective screen out to a light-year around the entry point.”
“How long until we can jump?”
“Seventy-seconds…give or take a lifetime,” Riyad replied.
The Najmah Fayd rocked as the first plasma bolts impacted the diffusion shields.
“Second round incoming,” Copernicus reported. “We can handle one more full charge. After that, the shields could fail.”