The Human Chronicles Saga : Boxset #2 (The Human Chronicles Saga Boxsets)

by T. R. Harris

  “Asses?”

  “Figure of speech, Nurick.”

  “Of course it is. Now I must concentrate. I will let you know when the unit is active.”

  Adam was already mentally connected to the ship’s sophisticated array of monitoring devices, so he would know when the unit came online probably even before Nurick. And it couldn’t come soon enough.

  The abundance of stellar gas found within the huge Tarantula Nebula was increasing the chance of a gravity-well overload. If that happened, Adam would need to dissolve the well before it went critical. They would be dead in the water for at least thirty minutes at that point while the generators rebooted. By then the marauders would be all over them. So he slowed down, which only served to narrow the gap between the Pegasus and the dozen ships now within monitor range.

  The nebula—by whatever name you called it—was one of the Polimors major mining fields, so Adam figured it was a sure bet they would have additional units in the region to call upon. At the moment, the pursuit was only on his six, yet at any time more could appear from just about any direction. However, the only direction they wouldn’t come from was the deadly nebula gas cloud itself.

  “Let me clear out of the tube before energizing the mod…otherwise you are active,” Nurick’s voice reported.

  This was going to be tight. The trailing units had not slowed their pursuit as much as Adam had his, so within a minute or two, the Pegasus would be within flash cannon range.

  “Let me know when you’re clear.”

  “Almost…okay, I am now beyond the field zone.”

  Adam brought the sixth focusing ring online and paired it with the fifth. Instantly, a surge of energy potential was seen on the command screen. If they had been in open space, Adam could have easily bolted away from his pursuit, but that was not to be the case here, because filling the entire forward view of the Pegasus was a brilliant red, green and yellow cloud of roiling nebular gas. Increasing speed into that would just be inviting a well overload.

  Yet that is exactly what Adam did.

  He aimed the recently resurrected pair of focusing rings to a point just beyond the current propulsion well-depth and widened the aperture to about five miles across. The Pegasus shot into the hole in the cloud now created by the secondary gravity-well, allowing him to maintain his speed as they entered. As long as the density of the cloud remained about the same, they would be safe from an overload, as well as from the trailing Polimor Security units.

  Adam began to relax as the screen before him filled with a white mass of contacts streaming past the Pegasus, all except for the narrow tunnel being bore into the massive gas cloud. If he could maintain this course, he would eventually break into clear space again, and metaphorically be on the other side of the river from the town posse, and with no place for them to cross.

  Nurick came onto the bridge, and his mouth fell open as he looked out the viewport at the frenetic wall of gas sweeping past them on all sides. “Are you mad? You must slow down!”

  “Relax, Nurick. I’m using the new ring pair to cut us a path through the cloud. We’re safe, and with the security ships far behind us.”

  “That is not entirely true, Adam Cain,” said Nurick, pointing to the nav computer screen.

  Adam leaned in closer to the screen, not believing what he saw. Just behind their location was a single bright contact, with another bringing up the rear.

  “They’ve followed us into the cloud,” Adam said incredulously. “But the channel is only five miles across.” At that point, part of Adam felt a deep admiration for the piloting skills the Polimor crews, even though they still posed a risk to him and the Pegasus. So he set about making a series of wild sweeping course changes, designed to make the tunnel that much more difficult to navigate. At these speeds, a simple miscalculation would be all it would take—and boom!

  It didn’t take more than thirty seconds of course-change strategy to produce results. The lead starship suddenly flared bright on his screen, and then winked out.

  “There goes one,” Nurick announced. “The second ship is still following, yet it has reduced speed considerably.”

  Adam was already thinking ahead. If this last Polimor ship did manage to follow them all the way through the cloud, then the Pegasus should have no problem taking on a single ship. But a space battle would take time and slow his getaway. Eventually, the rest of the Polimor ships would find a way around the cloud and come looking for them. Adam didn’t want to be anywhere in the vicinity when they did. And yet this last ship could report their location….

  Adam noticed that the density of the cloud was growing less wispy and more diffused. “We’re coming out of the cloud. Strap in, I’m going to have to double back to line up for an attack.”

  They burst into clear space—and immediately Adam’s contact screen lit up with at least a dozen new contacts. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the space around the Pegasus was soon filled with the light blue streaks from several flash cannon. The forward diffusion shields were active and managed to absorb the first few hits from the underrated Tanic plasma weapons, yet Adam knew eventually even weak cannon fire would be enough to overload the shields.

  “They must have been waiting for us!” Nurick yelled from the nav station where he’d strapped in.

  “Sneaky bastards!” Adam cried out. “This is what I get for playing on their home field. There’s another cloud to starboard. I’m going to try to get over there. Hold on!”

  “They are still with us!” Nurick screamed.

  A brilliant flash bolt zipped past the Pegasus on the starboard side, just scraping the diffusion shield. “I figured as much!”

  Adam did a quick scan of his tac screen. There were now twelve Polimor marauders cluttering the space around them, four in the rear and two to starboard, with another six angling in from in front of him.

  Gripping the steering column tighter, Adam steered the Pegasus down and toward one of the many gas bands of the massive nebula. This new cloud was about half-a-light-year away. If he could get to it he could plow through this one like he had the other and get lost in the contact noise. Adding the new focusing ring pair to the main array, the Pegasus surged ahead.

  “Another one just came within weapon’s range—”

  Nurick’s report was unnecessary, as another flash bolt impacted the rear diffusion shield. The main computer performed a nanosecond allocation of the ship’s limited energy resources and transferred power to the shield. The bolt was diffused, yet the ship lost speed, with a power drop of a full ten percent. This shouldn’t be happening, Adam thought. We must be leaking energy from somewhere.

  Adam could tell he was fighting a losing battle. He could override the computer and go faster, yet with weaker shields. Or he could go slower and maintain stronger shields—which would allow more of the enemy ships to pull within range and send more bolts into the shields.

  The arm of dense gas projecting from the nebula was directly in front of him. “Hurry, Adam Cain,” Nurick pleaded. “There is not much time.”

  They were just now touching the outer fringes of the vast gas cloud, and the forward gravity-well began to grow as it sucked in more and more matter. Adam would wait as long as he could before transferring the third ring-pair to plow-duty once again, but this time he would make the channel only a mile wide. Let’s see them try to navigate through that!

  The Pegasus entered the second gas cloud, and just like with the first, a few of the Polimor starships followed. Adam began the series of wild turns again and the trailing ships began to fall off quickly. Adam let out a sigh of relief, yet his relief was short-lived.

  The problem with nebula gas clouds is that their makeup varies considerably. So when Adam suddenly hit a high density section, the well-intensity spiked almost off the charts. Both he and Nurick gasped as they saw the edges of the well begin to fray, the first signs of a well-disintegration. Adam knew his array system would seldom result in an explosion from an overload, yet the we
ll could evaporate at any second. That would leave them dead in the water, with the operative word being dead.

  Adam had no choice; he backed off on the well. Fortunately, the following ships were pretty far back by now, their captains having lost courage the deeper they dove into the ever-thickening cloud. This bought them some time, but not much—

  Suddenly the space before them cleared up. The cloud had been dense, yet not very thick, and already he could see more enemy contacts closing on his position. The Polimors seemed to be everywhere.

  Off to port Adam saw small yellow star, a young fiery product of the ample raw material within the nebula that made it such a fertile birthplace for new star creation. The region around it would be clear of the denser gasses, which would give Adam’s gravity-well time to reestablish. He steered in that direction.

  As he entered the realm of the young star, the well did gain in intensity and stabilized. That was when Adam realized that large cavity in the cloud had been created by the star’s gravity, opening up the far edge of the star’s planetary disk to the clear space outside the nebula. And there, at the outer limits of his scanners, were eight new contacts, just waiting for him to emerge from the cloud.

  It was obvious the Polimors knew this space much better than he. They knew where he was going and where they had to station their ships to catch him.

  A quick check of his energy levels showed that the power required to keep the well established in the cloud had drained even more from the modules. Something had to give; either speed or shields. Either outcome would prove disastrous.

  There was a third option.

  Adam switched his forward screen from navigation to tactical. At the same time he began to divert energy from the rear shields to the weapons, charging the batteries.

  “You cannot expect to fight this number of ships?” Nurick stammered. “You have not the energy to sustain speed, shields and weapons. It would be suicide. Surrender, Adam Cain, make an offer to let them have your ship and all its secrets. Maybe in return the Polimors will allow you—us—to live.”

  “You said it yourself; after the mess we left on Ralic-Sim, I don’t think they’ll be in the mood to be generous. I’ll attack along their flanks and maybe take a few with me. After that it will depend on how anxious the Clan ships are for a fight to the death.”

  “Since you are determined to follow this line of action, I will assist as much as I can. We may just get lucky.”

  As they burst into the clear beyond the yellow star, Adam lined up on the nearest eight Polimor ships, favoring the right side of the line. He would do a head fake in that direction, and then at the last minute, whip to his left. He’d have a much better chance against two ships at a time rather than allowing all eight to bring their weapons to bear. And he couldn’t slow down, not with two more ships now to his rear.

  The charge indicator on the weapons switched from yellow to green, and he flicked off the tops of the two control sticks he held, revealing the firing buttons for the flash cannon. The Pegasus did have a separate weapons station, yet Nurick wasn’t qualified to man it, and Adam wasn’t about to leave piloting to the Vicorean as he operated the weapons from there. He would have to pull double duty.

  “Nurick, do your best to balance the power between the weapons, shields and engines. It won’t be easy, seeing that we don’t have a lot of energy left for any of them. I’m going to the left, so keep the shields on the right side of the ship as strong as possible.”

  Adam heard Nurick sigh. “I will do my best, although I’m afraid it will not be enough.”

  “Optimism, Nurick. Remember to always keep a positive attitude and everything will work out fine.”

  “You are truly insane—”

  Just then, Adam was suddenly blinded by a brilliant flash of light that flooded the bridge from outside the ship. Nurick squealed, as his rat-like eyes had even a harder time dealing with the intense light.

  So is this what it’s like to stare directly into a bolt from a flash cannon? Adam thought. If so, then they had just taken a direct hit—and yet they still lived….

  When his eyes cleared enough to make out images again, Adam saw that two of the ships in the line before him were no longer there. In a panic, he leaned forward, frantically searching his tac screen for the missing ships. Were they attempting to outflank him? Yet as he looked, all he could tell was that the two missing contacts were just that—missing.

  Just then another brilliant flash of light filled the bridge, but this one further in the distance so not nearly as intense. What Adam saw outside the ship took his breath away. The light was a bolt from a flash cannon, yet one thicker and brighter than he’d ever seen before. In fact, there were two such streaks, each targeting a separate Polimor ship in the line. The aim was true, and even with their shields at full, the powerful bolts struck the hulls of the ships as if the shields didn't exist. But the most amazing thing was that the two ships didn’t explode; they simply disintegrated—vaporized almost—from the strongest flash bolts Adam had ever witnessed.

  The remaining four ships in the line began to turn away, gravity-wells at max, and that was when Adam saw the massive contact appear on his screen. It came from the upper left side, and even though he knew it wasn’t as large as the white dot on his screen indicated, the sheer amount of energy emanating from the contact made it appear to be an object about half the size of Earth’s moon.

  Two more flash trails shot out from the gigantic contact, and Adam was able to follow them to the two Polimor ships that had followed the Pegasus through the gas cloud. In a split second, the energy signatures of these two ships also disappeared from his screen.

  The four other clan ships had entered deep wells and were well on their way to departing the area. Unfortunately for them, that was not to be allowed. The huge contact crossed Adam’s screen faster than anything he’d ever seen, easily overtaking the tracks of the enemy ships. Then thick, fuzzy white lines of energy drew out from the huge contact—like flashes from a static electricity globe—targeting all the enemy contacts in the region at once. And just like that, the space around the rogue nebula star was clear of Polimor contacts.

  All that was left was the Pegasus…and the massive contact.

  As he watched his screen, Adam saw the contact begin to double back and head his way.

  “Adam, we must run!” Nurick cried out. “We cannot stand against that monster.”

  “We can’t outrun it, either,” Adam said. “The Clan ships are destroyed, so whoever is in command of that behemoth must be on our side.”

  “Or not on the side of Polimors; there is a big difference between our two versions.”

  Nurick had a point, yet Adam was curious to learn the truth. He cut power to the weapons and engines, while keeping the rest of the ship’s systems active. He wasn’t dark, but he also wasn’t going anywhere.

  Moments later, a large, dark void began to obscure the stars ahead of the Pegasus. Adam and Nurick looked out the forward viewport as the mighty starship closed on their position. What they saw outside contrasted sharply with what was on the tac screen. On the monitor there was a brilliant white dot, yet outside was a near-black spaceship coming within visible range. The skin of the ship had a dull finish, which refused to reflect the nearby stars and fiery colors of the nebula. The vessel was multi-level, beginning with an obvious bottom as the longest and widest level, and then tapering upwards through at least twenty different sections. To Adam, it looked like a stretched out pyramid.

  He had seen ships of this configuration before, but nothing nearly as large. In fact, as he waited for what was to come next, he had the ship’s computer run a simulation comparing known starship sizes and configuration to this one. The results were shocking. The ship outside the Pegasus was equivalent to a Juirean Class-10 warship—if the Juireans built Class-10 warships. But they didn’t; the largest ever built had been a pair of Class-7’s.

  Yet it wasn’t just the immense size of this ship that set i
t apart. Adam had witnessed the intensity of her flash cannon, which had been able to vaporize an average-size starship with a single shot and even through fully-charged shields. The technology behind such weapons would be a sea-change over existing systems. Add to that the fact that a craft this large could so nimbly outrun extremely fast and maneuverable marauders, and Adam knew he was looking at a whole new generation of starship design.

  Adam wasn’t nervous; if they wanted him dead, he’d be dead already. Now he was curious. Was this friend or foe, which begged the question: Who knew him well enough in this galaxy to make such a determination? The only creature he knew intimately was Nigel McCarthy, and if he was in command of such a vessel, then Adam’s mission just became infinitely more difficult.

  However, he was still alive, thanks in no small part to this gigantic starship.

  Ship-to-ship comm crackled. “Pegasus, you will release all electronic shielding and engine fields and prepare to be maneuvered into the mid-port landing bay. Acknowledge.”

  Well, they knew the name of his ship; that was a major clue in itself. He fingered the comm button. “Acknowledged and will comply. Who is in command of your ship? I would like to know who my host will be.”

  “That is not my responsibility to discuss. Prepare to be grappled aboard.”

  Adam felt a slight nudge, as lines of electromagnetic energy grabbed the Pegasus and began to pull her close to the huge ship. As they drew near—and within the half mile range of his ATD—Adam began to detect a myriad of familiar electronic signatures—this was definitely a ship from the Milky Way, using Formilian and Juirean technology. But just as he was about to begin a more detailed probe of the inner workings of the behemoth, a thin veil dropped over his awareness.

  He’d never experienced anything like this before. It was different from what he sensed with Tanic-built processors. This was like an opaque screen had been placed between him and the processors; he could still detect electronic devices on the other side, yet he couldn’t see any detail and was therefore unable to gain control over any of them.