The Unreachable Stars: Book #11 of The Human Chronicles Saga

by T. R. Harris

  “I was not aware you were pilot-rated,” said a deep voice from the shadows behind them. Both of them jumped at the sound and turned to see who was there.

  First Celebrant Trimen O’lac stepped forward.

  “Trimen, what are you doing here?” Arieel blurted in her shock and embarrassment.

  “I could ask the same of you, My Speaker.”

  Arieel opened her mouth to speak, but Trimen raised a hand to stop her. “There is no need to formulate a lie. I know what you are doing.”

  “And what might that be?” she asked defiantly.

  “You are rushing off to help Adam Cain. It is the only explanation.”

  “That is absurd. Why would I do that?”

  “Because he is your friend—even more.” Trimen glanced at Lila.

  “That may be so, yet the repurcussions would be catastrophic if I do what you are accusing me of contemplating.”

  “Even so, look around. We are aboard a starship, with you in the control seat and our daughter with you. You intend to go somewhere, and without informing the Order, or even me.”

  “Please, Trimen, leave the ship and let us go. You must realize I do not do anything without reason. Please trust me.”

  Trimen’s square-jawed, handsome features were stern and emotionless as he stared into Arieel’s dark eyes. He was quiet for some time, deep in thought. Then he stepped closer, taking Arieel by the arm and pulling her from the control seat.

  “Trimen, do not do this. It is far too important—”

  Then he slipped into the seat himself and began activating switches. Somewhere in the back of the ship, a hum could be heard as the engines came to life.

  “I do not understand,” Arieel said.

  “I am a much more proficient pilot than are you. In order to exit the system and avoid capture, you will need my expertise.”

  “You are coming with us?” Lila asked, her shock matching her mother’s.

  Suddenly the ship began to vibrate, and through the forward viewport the Temple Complex could be seen falling away. Her entourage was scrambling for cover; they would not be harmed by the liftoff.

  Without looking at the females, Trimen said, “At this time I do not know all the facts of the decision you both have made, yet I do trust you, Arieel. You are making a serious break, not only with the Order, but also with the forces of the Expansion. You surely realize the seriousness of your actions, and yet still you persist. To me that means your course of action is warranted, and to the highest degree—at least in your opinion. I will help you survive, and then at some point you will let me know why you have chosen this path which will forever lead you away from Formil and your people.”

  “I do this for them, Trimen. You must believe me when I say this.”

  “Knowing you as I do, that would be your only reason for taking such drastic measures. I do not know the reasons at this time, but I admire and worship you for the sacrifice you—and Lila—are making…for your people. Others will not see it this way, but maybe with time they will. However, it matters not whether they do. I know, and you know our race will be better for what you are doing, and considering the changing dynamic within the galaxy, nothing less than the very survival of our people would prompt you to take such action. Again, I thank you…for them.”

  Both Arieel and Lila fell upon Trimen, showering him with hugs and kisses.

  “Please, I have piloting to do. We shall all share moments together once the immediate threat is past. Now strap in. We may encounter some resistance on the way out of the system. By the way, what course should I set?”

  “I have no idea,” Arieel said, wiping away her tears. “I will have to contact Adam.”

  “Please do, since we have already acquired a pursuit.”

  Chapter 16

  Adam Cain was in a quandary. He had been expecting Arieel’s contact, but not quite so soon. And now Trimen was with her. Through their mental conversation, she tried to convince him that the First-Celebrant was on their side, having been briefed on the reason why she and Lila were fleeing Formil. She did admit, however, that when he learned that the two females were to surrender their implants to Panur, he nearly changed his mind about helping.

  Adam suspected Trimen was more pragmatic than Arieel let on. He would go along simply to learn the truth, yet be ready to act against them if he sensed any deviation from the stated purpose for the devices.

  “The powers within the Expansion will see your friend as a way of leading them to us,” Panur said as Adam sat mesmerized by the strange green tunnel the mutant’s DPS engines produced. He was now going faster than any creature had ever travelled—as far as he knew—many thousands of times the speed of light. With normal gravity drives, the position of the ship within the event horizon of the series of miniature black holes the engines created was what protected the occupants from the limitations of Einsteinian physics. How Panur’s new drive accomplished the same thing, Adam had no idea, even though the alien had tried to explain it once.

  It had something to do with their location not only within an event horizon, but also within a wormhole channel, which extended between two points in space in a giant loop. As Panur explained it, at any given moment they were both at the beginning of the channel and at the end. Only when the engines were turned off would they find themselves at a point within normal space. So was the strange green swirl outside the Pegasus II the walls of the wormhole? If that was the case, then they would have moved far beyond the event horizon of the black hole and into the singularity itself—indeed, through the singularity.

  After Panur’s explanation—of sorts—Adam had gotten half drunk. With time to kill before reaching Formilian space, he didn’t want the lingering concept of what his body was going through to remain foremost in his thoughts. Space travel had never made him nervous before, but the idea of being stretched light-years in length—and not realizing it—was more than he could handle.

  Even though he felt no physical change, when the Pegasus II dropped out of the DPS drive and reentered normal space, he breathed a sigh of relief—and amazement. They were forty light-years away from Formil, having traveled six thousand in only fourteen hours.

  And they arrived none too soon.

  Arieel’s tiny starship was on the screen, nearly overcome by a fleet of chase vessels. There were six Juirean Class-Fours in pursuit, plus a Klin Guardian class, and eight Formilian medium-size cruisers. Her ship was clearly within weapon’s range, yet destroying the ship was not their mission. It was to find Adam and Panur.

  Now the Pegasus II had popped up on their screens, seemingly out of nowhere. The Juireans and the Klin changed course toward the Pegasus II, while the Formilian ships attempted to cut off Arieel’s ship from meeting up with Adam. They would get their traitorous Speaker back, while letting the Expansion warriors take care of Adam and the mutant.

  “I suppose now you regret that I did not have time to work on your weapons systems,” Panur stated sarcastically.

  “Don’t be such a jerk.”

  “You must realize I have not had much contact with Humans, so my role models have been few. So accept the fact that I have learned most of my mannerisms from watching you.”

  “You’re saying you learned to be such an obnoxious asshole—”

  “By emulating you, that’s right.”

  “Okay, smartass, how do we get to Arieel through that gauntlet of overwhelming firepower?”

  “Easy, dickhead,” said the alien. “Go through them.”

  Adam slowly turned to look at Panur seated in the co-pilot’s seat. “Does being immortal make you lose all sense of reality?”

  “Of course not. I merely suggest you use the DPS as a means to bypass the barricade. Once activated, we are no longer in this dimension, but between dimensions.”

  “We can move right through them?”

  “More correctly, we will wrap around them and come out at the other end. It will be a short hop, which will require some precise control, bu
t I have confidence in your piloting skills. However, I would suggest you do it now to avoid the sixteen plasma bolts that have just been launched in our direction.”

  Adam turned back to his control screen just as the proximity alarms went berserk. He triggered the DPS drive button and pressed the throttle stick just as the forward view screen lit up with a wall of white hot plasma just outside the ship…

  The scene shifted to that of the green tunnel again.

  Adam dumped out a moment later—and then had to scan the space around them looking for Arieel’s ship and all the others. They were not to be found.

  “You went too far.”

  Adam expanded the search grid until he finally located the rendezvous point with Arieel. It was three light-years away. “I guess I did overshoot it a bit.”

  He activated the drive again, but this time for only ten seconds. When they emerged again, they were six hundred thousand miles from Arieel’s ship, just behind the eight cruisers closing on her position.

  The reaction of the Formilian crews was slow, having been caught off guard by the sudden reappearance of the Pegasus II. Before their shields could be raised, Adam placed three well-aimed bolts into the engines of the trailing ships, shutting them down and taking them out of any future battle. Then, employing the conventional—yet improved—gravity drive of his ship, Adam zipped past the remaining five cruisers and approached Arieel’s tiny craft. It was streaking away as fast as it could. Even then, Adam had no trouble matching its speed.

  Arieel, I’m going to dock with you from below, he said through his implant. Hold the ship steady.

  Trimen is at the controls. He is a very good pilot. He will oblige.

  Adam let the computer do the fine tuning on the docking while he ran amidships to the topside airlock. A ringing clank was heard through the hull, then a rush of air. He climbed up the short ladder and undogged the hatch. Moments later he was greeted by a pair of golden bronze legs of incredible shape, followed by the most-perfectly shaped—and then an unfamiliar yet stunning Formilian female ducked her head inside the Pegasus II.

  “Who are you?” Adam asked as he helped the young lady down the ladder.

  “I am Lila, Adam Cain. I am very happy to meet you. My mother has spoken often of you.”

  “But…but you’re only six.”

  “Yes. I am mature for my age.”

  Adam scanned the budding breasts, the long black hair, and the voluptuous shape of the young Formilian and his mouth feel open. “You do take after your mother.”

  “I take that as a compliment. Although she is aging now, she is still in fair condition.”

  “Fair…?”

  Arieel was standing next to her daughter, nearly a mirror image, yet standing a good foot taller. Trimen then dropped to the deck with a thud, meeting Adam’s eyes with an almost savage glare.

  “I suggest we depart quickly,” he said harshly. “Come, Arieel and Lila, let Mr. Cain go about his tasks.”

  Arieel sent him a wry smile as she let Trimen lead her away, down the corridor and opposite the direction from the pilot house.

  Trimen and Adam had a long history together. He had first taught Adam how to use his ATD, after the Human had blackmailed the Order into providing him with one—the first male of any race to be equipped with such an implant. Later, he and a group of Formilian commandos had been fitted with devices of their own and joined Adam in his quest to rescue Riyad from the Kracori. It was obvious now that the device had been removed from his body, which could account for some of the hostility the alien felt towards him. Or it could just be jealousy over the feelings Arieel still held for him. After all, Arieel was supposed to be his mate, arranged through the Order to be the father of the next Speaker, Lila.

  After Adam dogged the hatch and made his way back to the bridge, he couldn’t help but be shocked and amazed by the young girl. Besides her phenomenal growth, there was something else very unsettling about her. He was sure he’d figure out what was bothering him, if he lived. But for now he had to bolt out of the area before the Juireans zeroed in on the Pegasus II.

  “What is the daughter like?” Panur asked as Adam took the pilot seat and activated the DPS engines. Soon the Pegasus II was once more wrapped in the green tunnel and speeding away from the hapless pursuit.

  “What do you mean? She seems to be a lot like her mother—almost too alike.”

  “I am quite anxious to meet her.”

  “Why?”

  “No reason, it is just that she evokes a certain set of emotions in you.”

  “How can you tell?”

  Panur frowned and smiled at the same time. “Have you not noticed my ability to read body signals? There is very little I cannot decipher by studying you, or any other creature.”

  “Well knock it off. I don’t feel like being read.”

  “I can’t help myself.”

  “Then go aft and read someone else. I’m sure everyone is quite anxious to meet you, too.”

  “Place the ship on autopilot and join us. I wish to have formal introductions made.”

  Adam looked around at the pale alien. “Why are you acting so weird? Have you been drinking again?”

  “Not much, not enough to affect my judgement.”

  “That’s what you thought the last time.”

  Panur smiled sheepishly while standing. “Shall we go?”

  “I’d just as soon not have to deal with Trimen’s insecurities, but if it will make you happy, sure.”

  ********

  The three Formilians were in the common room, Lila and Arieel at the prep station, Trimen on the sofa with a tablet computer in his lap. He barely acknowledged Adam’s presence when he entered…or the trace of bloodstain from the deceased bounty hunter which Adam had been unable to remove from the cushions.

  Arieel turned to him with a masked smile. “We found an empty stateroom in the back. Lila and I can stay there, if that’s acceptable?”

  “Of course,” Adam said. He looked over at Trimen. “You can bunk with me, if you wish.”

  “I will sleep here,” the Formilian said without looking up.

  “And where do you sleep?” Lila asked Panur as she stepped up to him with a smile. She was about two inches taller than him—at least until he straightened up, gaining a good four inches as he did so. Adam knew this to be artificial height, and it didn’t take an expert at body language to see that Panur was smitten by the young—woman?

  “I don’t sleep.”

  “Seldom do I.”

  “You appear to be tall for your age, and of a unique maturity level,” Panur commented.

  “I take your observations as compliments. I thank you.”

  Adam was shocked at how like her mother Lila was. She had a sensuality and flirtatiousness about her that had to be instinctive. But Adam wondered about Panur. He had never seen him like this, and either he had been drinking—a lot—or he was experiencing an attraction to another creature unlike any Adam had seen before. This wasn’t the Panur he knew, and knowing him as he did, Adam was immediately suspicious of ulterior motives on the part of the mutant.

  “Where are we headed?” Trimen asked, breaking the awkward silence in the room.

  “The Sylox system.”

  “What is in the Sylox system? I do not know where that is.”

  “It’s about ten thousand light-years from here.”

  Trimen looked up from his computer. “That will take us over a month to cover. We are to remain here for all that time?”

  “We’ll be there in three days.”

  Now Trimen set the computer on the sofa and gave Adam his full attention. “A journey of that distance cannot be made in that time.”

  “Yes it can,” Panur said, turning away from Lila’s dark eyes to focus on the handsome Formilian. “I built a new engine that can do that.”

  Trimen studied Panur for several seconds before responding. “So you are the mutant everyone is looking for. They say you are five thousand years old, as
well as some kind of genius?”

  “That is correct, on both accounts.” He turned to flash Lila a thin smile.

  “It is also told that you are responsible for the Sol-Kor’s ability to travel to other dimensions and to feed on countless intelligent beings. Is that true as well?”

  The smile vanished from Panur’s face. “I create. What is done with my creations is none of my concern.”

  “Even if entire species are made extinct by mindless creatures seeking food? Do you not take responsibility for your actions?”

  Panur turned to Adam. “I do not like his tone. We need the interface devices from the females, yet the male serves no purpose to our mission.”

  Adam snickered. “What do you suggest, that I throw him out the airlock?”

  “It would conserve our shipboard resources, and I would not be troubled much if you did.”

  Trimen stood up, the muscles of his tan arms flexing from balled fists. “I did my part in getting Arieel and Lila to you. Is that not enough of a contribution?”

  Adam looked at Panur. “He’s right. Arieel and Lila are vital to the operation. I think you owe him an apology.”

  “An apology for what? He did contribute, but that was then. Now he is dead weight, to use a Human term.”

  “Just relax, both of you,” Adam said. “No one’s getting thrown out of an airlock. It’s obvious that the two of you aren’t going to get along, so I suggest you avoid each other for the next three days. Panur, don’t you have some more thinking to do about the detector? And Trimen, chill out. We’ve been on missions before, and I know you’ll come in handy at some point. Until then, get some rest. There’s still a lot to do before this is over.”

  ********

  Adam was on the bridge, slumped down in the pilot’s seat with only the pale green glow of the wormhole tunnel lighting the room. He sensed Arieel as she came near. He sat up and turned around, only to find the Formilian silhouetted in the entryway, displaying the proverbial exaggerated hourglass figure of a long-haul trucker’s fantasy mud flap. It always took Adam a moment to recover from the initial sight of Arieel Bol, and as she entered and sat down next to him, her strong pheromones invaded his senses.