The Copernicus Deception (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 15)

by T. R. Harris

  Back in Coop’s office, the Juireans sat in the chairs Adam and Riyad had occupied, as the Silean squeezed into his, with Copernicus behind the desk. Extra chairs were brought in for the other two Humans.

  Coop began: “May I ask what this—”

  “The Expansion is assuming control of this facility effective immediately.”

  “On what authority?”

  The Overlord stared at Copernicus with intense yellow eyes. “On my authority, Human. Union members were given ten standard days to vacate Expansion territory. You have failed to do so.”

  “I’m not a member of the Union.”

  “You are a Human.”

  “That doesn’t mean I’m a Unionist. I’m an independent. I have been for years.”

  “And yet you affiliate with notorious figures with long histories of abuse against the Expansion.” Esketon shifted his attention to Adam and Riyad, who were sitting next to the desk on the Overlord’s left.

  “If I’m not mistaken,” Adam began, “there aren’t any outstanding warrants against us within the Expansion…not at this time.”

  “That may be so, yet you surely are Unionists, rather famous ones at that. Being in Expansion territory without permission is a violation in itself. Yet we will discuss that further.” He looked back at Copernicus. “There is also the issue of your affiliation with and support of the smuggler cartels.”

  “I take repairs calls and I service them, regardless of affiliation.”

  “Enough with your denials, Human. We know you are currently engaged in a conspiratorial endeavor with the Gradis. That ship in your repair yard is proof of this.”

  “It was brought here for repairs, that’s all.”

  “Then you will not grieve when we take permanent possession of the vessel.”

  “My Lord,” said Onix. “Mister Smith does not have ownership of the vessel.”

  “You do—I know.”

  “It is registered under title of the Trade Federation. We currently have contracts with the Expansion. Since the Frontier is now part of the Expansion, would not these contracts have precedent in Kidis, as well?”

  “During the transition period nothing takes precedent over my actions, Onix Gru. Your legal maneuverings may ultimately prevail, yet not before that ship out there has been completely dismantled. There is something aboard that many people are quite anxious to acquire. I will learn what that is, unless you are willing to be forthcoming with me.”

  “I do not know what you are—”

  The head of the Juirean Overlord suddenly exploded, spraying tuffs of blood-stained white hair on Adam and Riyad. There was a moment of shock and confusion, until the Juirean Guard rose from his seat, a flash weapon held steady in his hand. He waved the deadly weapon at the other stunned occupants of the room. There was a thin grin on his face.

  He lifted his left wrist and spoke into a communicator. “This is Guard Captain Annoc. The Humans have killed Overlord Esketon. Inform Juirean Command. Take control of this facility immediately and dispatch anyone who resists.”

  “We didn’t kill anyone?” Adam yelled. He went to rise from his chair, but the Juirean’s flash weapon aimed at his mid-section gave him second thoughts.

  “That is not how the official report will read, Adam Cain. It will be you—along with Riyad Tarazi—both agents of the Union, who will be charged with the assassination. It will be the provocation needed to declare war on the Union.”

  The blast from Coop’s Beretta was extraordinarily loud in the close confines of the office. He fired from under his desk, in the opening between the two pedestal legs. The slug ripped into the upper thigh on the Juirean’s right leg. The second shot, delivered a fraction of a second later from a standing Copernicus Smith, was center mass.

  Adam had the alien’s flash weapon in his hand a second later.

  The Beretta was now aimed at him.

  “What now, Coop? Does it all end here?”

  “No, but it might be a good time to start thinking about options. Seeing that the Juireans have effectively shut me down, I need to shift my retirement fund to a new plan.” He turned and opened the drawer of the credenza and removed the plastic box. The orb was gone.

  Adam reached into his shirt pocket and removed the orb.

  “You son-of-bitch!” Copernicus yelled, pointing the gun back at Adam. “Give it to me—”

  “Okay,” came the reply to Coop’s right.

  Riyad’s shoulder slammed into Copernicus, dislodging the Beretta and sending both of them tumbling to the floor. Adam jumped over the desk and landed on the heap, before rolling Coop over on his back and pressing the flash weapon against his temple.

  Click

  “Level-1, buddy,” Adam said. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “It’s a little late for that,” Coop said. “The whole compliment of a Class-3 will be in here any second.”

  Riyad and Adam hoisted Copernicus up and threw him onto the desktop. Onix sat in petrified shock, unable to move at the sight of the dead Juireans and the fighting Humans.

  “Is there another way out of here?” Adam asked Coop.

  “Always.”

  “Get with it!”

  Copernicus came off the desk and stepped to the interior wall next to where Adam and Riyad had been seated. He shifted an ornament on the credenza and a door-size section of the wall popped open, following the lines of the wood planks. Adam shoved Coop through the opening with Riyad close behind. Once through, Adam pulled the panel shut, leaving the Silean alone in the office with the bodies.

  Through the wall, they heard a commotion, then yelling…followed by the discharge of a flash weapon.

  Turning his attention to the room they were in, Adam found it be a high-tech command center, with comm equipment, computers—and weapons. Lots of weapons.

  He looked at Copernicus and cocked his head. “So, just a simple repairman, huh?”

  “A person has to keep up on affairs. This is my sanctuary for doing so.”

  Riyad was already raiding the weapons cache, concentrating on the M-97 assault rifles, the .45 cal handguns, along with clips of ammunition.

  Copernicus had his back to Adam, watching Riyad, when the butt of the MK-17 slammed against the back of his neck. He collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

  “I was wondering what you had in mind?” Riyad said.

  “We’ve got enough worries without having to keep an eye on him.” Adam moved over to the weapons rack and began arming up. In seconds the two Humans had more firepower on their bodies than the entire crew of the Juirean Class-3 had with their flash weapons.

  ‘This must have been where he went when he disappeared in his bedroom,” Riyad said. “There’s another door by the comm equipment.”

  “There’s one over here, too. This one will lead outside.”

  Adam was right. Behind the weapons racks was another doorway, operated by a latch. They moved to it and then carefully turned the handle.

  Brilliant tropical light poured into the room from outside. The sound of flash weapons discharging was all around, as the Gradis crew and troops from the Class-3 were engaged in a pitched fire fight. From this vantage point, Adam and Riyad could see the smugglers’ position near their ship was about to be overrun by the vastly superior number of Juirean Guards. The outer hatch of their ship had been blown away, so there would no escaping into space. The fight was just about over.

  “Kaylor and Jym,” Adam said. “We have to get them.”

  “Roger that.”

  The pair raced through the doorway, running for the FS-475. The fighting was at the other end of the landing field, so they reached the ship without being spotted. The outer hatch was unlocked and the sentry who had been posted there was nowhere to be found. Adam stood guard as Riyad ran inside to recover their two alien friends. An agonizingly long twenty second later the three emerged through the hatchway.

  “What now?” Riyad asked.

  Adam had been surveying the battlefield. Th
e Gradis ship where Z had been found was too far away and covered with derelicts. Coop’s ship was on the other side of the headquarters building, shielded from view. The closest vessel with the most horsepower was the one belonging to Onix Gru.

  Adam smiled; the Silean wouldn’t be needing the ship any longer.

  “Follow me,” he ordered.

  But no sooner had they left the side of the FS-475, than two Juireans appeared in front of them, Xan-fi rifles at the ready.

  “Stop and surrender,” one of them cried out.

  Adam’s trigger finger stiffened.

  Just then, a large shadow next to Kaylor’s ship reached out and snapped off the head of the lead Juirean. A split second later, Ginger had pounced on the other Guard, with her huge head ripping at the neck of the alien.

  “Good girl!” Adam called out.

  Ginger looked up at him with a mouthful of bloody Juirean flesh. Her tail began to wag.

  “Hurry!” Adam said, leading the foursome past the feeding dinosaur and toward the executive starship.

  The hatch was closed, but Adam managed to locate the door controls with his ATD. They streamed inside without breaking stride.

  Turning to the right, they all entered the small yet lavishly-appointed pilothouse. Adam slipped into a leather-padded pilot seat. “Damn, this is nice,” he mumbled.

  ‘Nicest ship we’ve ever stolen,” Riyad added.

  Kaylor took the co-pilot seat, with Riyad and Jym taking places at nav and weapons.

  Even though this was an executive starship, it still came with an impressive inventory of defensive weapons. VIP’s demanded security when traveling through the galaxy. The ship gave it to them.

  In fact, the vessel had top-of-the-line everything, and the cycle time between generator startup and liftoff was measured in seconds rather than minutes.

  The launching starship interrupted the battle on the ground, as jets of fire scorched the sandy soil and sent deadly heat and smoke blasting into the Juirean and Gradis fighters. Very few survived. The ones who did lost their enthusiasm for fighting.

  “According to Dora, there’s only one Juirean ship in the area. Let’s make sure it can’t follow us,” Riyad suggested.

  Adam slanted the ship to the left, sweeping around to the rear of the mighty warship where the gravity generators were located.

  “Have you got the weapons figured out?” Adam asked.

  “They are standard arrangement,” Jym confirmed. “Generators targeted. On your command, Adam.”

  “Fire!”

  The tiny ship jerked as the flash cannon erupted. At this range, and against unshielded metal, the aft section of the Juirean ship imploded from the hits, moments before the resulting interior explosions reversed the affect. Adam had the small starship racing for the clouds when the Class-3 blew up, sending yellow and red flame billowing over the entire compound.

  No one could have survived.

  Adam snickered. The only loss of life he mourned at the compound was that of Ginger the dinosaur.

  Chapter 26

  Once safely in space, Adam felt his pocket. The orb was gone!

  He panicked, feeling his other pockets and looking around where he sat. That’s when he noticed the object resting in the control panel before him.

  “Stop doing that!” he cried out loud.

  Everyone on the bridge looked at him.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you.”

  Kaylor, seated next to him frowned. He noticed the orb.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s what everyone has been looking for,” Adam said. “But it has a nasty habit of bouncing around from place to place without warning.”

  “It can move? But how?”

  “Don’t know, but trust me, it can.”

  Z, you have to let me know if you’re going to transport yourself from place to place. I almost had a heart attack thinking you were back on Liave-3.

  Forgive me, Adam Cain. I was not aware of your concerns.

  “What does it do?” Kaylor was asking.

  “It creates energy, very efficient energy, energy that can be used to make flash weapons about a hundred times more potent and effective.”

  “Really…that tiny thing?”

  “How does it work,” Jym said as he moved over to get a closer look.

  Should I demonstrate?

  No, Adam thought. The less they know the better.

  “Let’s not worry about that now, Jym,” he said aloud. “We need to get into Union territory before all hell breaks loose. If the Juireans are going to blame us for the death of the Overlord, then there’s going to be war, and both sides will be blaming us—me and Riyad—for starting it.”

  “An Overlord is dead? And you killed him?” Jym’s voice was a screech.

  “No, we didn’t kill him. But the Juireans are going to claim we did,” Riyad explained. “It’s what they need to declare war on the Union.”

  “But youb pid not fill—”

  Kaylor’s words turned to gibberish and his voice slurred. His eyes rolled back in his head and seconds later his head fell forward against the control panel.

  Adam gasped for breath. He saw Jym fall to the deck, and beyond, at the nav station, Riyad’s eyes were open wide as he clawed at his throat.

  Attempting to lift out of the seat, Adam’s vision became blurred and he lost his balance. The next thing he remembered was falling over Jym’s unconscious body…before everything went black.

  ********

  Copernicus Smith entered the pilothouse with a clear plastic mask over his mouth and nose, connected to a small, silver bottle of compressed gas clipped to his belt. He surveyed his handiwork, before beginning the task of moving the unconscious bodies to the back staterooms and binding their arms and legs.

  Once that was done, he restored full flow to the ship’s atmosphere and removed the mask. Then he triggered the comm line.

  It was a voice-only transmission.

  “I have them.”

  “And the artifact?”

  “That, too.”

  “Although only Cain and Tarazi were mentioned originally, the inclusion of the device within the transaction is an unexpected and welcomed bonus. We have many uses for such technology.”

  “That’s what I thought. Where should we meet?”

  “I will send coded coordinates. As you can well understand, our location must remain secure.”

  “Of course. All I care about is the money.”

  “You shall have it. Proceed with all haste. We are anxious to settle our business.”

  You’re not the only one, Copernicus thought as he cut the connection. Then he looked at the tiny metal globe on the control console. He felt as if he was being watched.

  “Now, my little friend, I have to figure out a way to keep you from jumping around on me.”

  ********

  Copernicus knew it was a risk, but he felt the orb had made some kind of connection with Adam, possibly through his Formilian implant device. So he set a laser on the orb, with the controller on the other side attached to the trigger of the Beretta. He aimed the barrel at Adam’s leg.

  Coop had emergency medical supplies aboard which would save Adam’s life should the orb move, triggering the weapon. He wasn’t too concerned about delivering damaged goods to his customer; he was sure Adam wouldn’t live much longer after the transaction was consummated anyway. Besides, the big payoff would come with the sale of the orb to these very same buyers. They had been completely unaware of the artifact until Coop explained it to them. After that, the orb became their center of attention.

  Yes, that was where he’d make the really big bucks.

  ********

  Adam awoke confused and lightheaded. He was on a table in the ship’s dining area, and when he went to move he found he was strapped down, with his right leg held particularly tight. He craned his neck to get a look. Sure enough, four straps on that one leg alone.

  You’re conscious, a voice sai
d in his mind. That is good.

  “Where…what happened?”

  The ship lost breathable atmosphere, replaced by an inert gas to maintain pressure.

  “Why?”

  Copernicus Smith orchestrated the event.

  “He’s aboard!”

  Yes.

  The problem with Adam’s ATD was that it didn’t feed information to him unless he sought it out. That was why he hadn’t detected the electronic signature of a small, passive voice monitor in the room, not until it was too late.

  Copernicus strode in with a wide grin on his face.

  “So it talks to you,” he stated. “That explains a lot. Is it alive?”

  “Fuck off!”

  “Now Mister Cain, let’s be civil.”

  “It’s Cap—”

  “I know; that joke’s getting old. Now tell me about it, or I may have to put a slug into your leg just for shits and giggles.”

  “I thought we left your burning corpse back on Liave?”

  “We’re Humans, Adam. We tend to think alike, especially when it comes to survival. Now please….”

  “It’s not alive, but you couldn’t tell.”

  “It’s obviously smart enough to know it can’t move without triggering the nine-mil. That says a lot. It communicates through your implant?”

  “Yeah.”

  Copernicus shook his head. “I have really got to get me one of those things. Go on.”

  “Not much to tell. You already know it produces energy. I have no idea how, but the Incus were working on figuring that out when your Silean friend stole it. That’s about all I know.”

  “You offered that up much too easily, Mister Cain. Now tell me something I don’t know.”

  Adam let his head fall back on the hard table. He sighed. “It’s old, really old.”

  “Like how old?”

  “At least three billion years.”

  “Damn, that is—” Then Copernicus took a deep breath. “Who made it?”

  “I don’t know. Obviously a race of beings who are long gone by now.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Dude…I said three billion years.”

  “Creatures that old—and advanced enough to create a device that would last that long—would find a way to survive.”