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

by T. R. Harris

  Since the Polimors and Kirans were now at war, he was noticing that the aliens had no idea what to do next. The effectiveness of the attack on the data facilities was a perfect example of that. In wartime, a society was required to take certain precautions in order to protect itself, precautions that went beyond solely military considerations. The Polimors weren’t doing any of that, and so Nigel McCarthy would continue to exploit every little weakness he found.

  All the other seven unit commanders—along with their protective units—were at the meeting coordinates a few hours before the Goliath showed up. Although Adam couldn’t see inside their ships when the mighty starship came on their screens, he knew the commanders had to be pissing down their legs at the sight of the behemoth closing on their tiny vessels—that is if their respective species had the ability to piss down their legs….

  Qwels was on the comm at the time reassuring each of the commanders that everything as all right and that this mighty warship was on the side of the Polimors. By the time the officers shuttled over to the Goliath, they were already thoroughly in awe by the vessel—and by extension, its owner.

  Always the showman, Kroekus took the opportunity of the meeting to play all the angles. They met in the huge conference room where Adam and Nurick had first encountered Kroekus aboard the Goliath, with a stunning view of a nearby black hole/white dwarf pair in all their glory. The location had been selected for that very reason—a visual representation of something very small devouring an object as large as a star. Whether the aliens would comprehend the subliminal meaning, Adam had no idea. Yet for him, it was all pretty impressive.

  Kroekus sat at the head of the table in a massive chair—a throne almost—and remained silent as a nervous Qwels Nur addressed the commanders and their seconds, beings who were all senior to him in time-in-service and prestige within the Corps. Adam was seated along the side of the table, immediately to the right of Kroekus. Qwels was across the table from him.

  Special lighting had also been employed in the room, with a little extra brilliance focused on Kroekus and his bulk. Even though the other aliens in the room represented no less than six different species, Kroekus was still twice as large as any of them.

  As a further show of force and superiority, Kroekus had outfitted a dozen fierce-looking Rigorians in battle suits and stationed them in a line on the other side of the inner glass wall of the conference room. The seven-foot-tall, unblinking, yellow-eyed lizards sent the intimidation meter through the roof, and even through his melancholy, Adam had to admire the effect the show was having on their guests.

  To an individual, the fleet commanders looked nervous, yet as Qwels spoke, explaining who Kroekus was and the current status of the fleet, Adam noticed expressions began to change on several of them. Finally, one of the officers gained the courage to speak.

  “This is preposterous,” said Second-Commander Kac Loavor. Adam had been briefed by Qwels as to the identity of the commanders, so he knew Kac to be in command of the largest segment of the fleet, and the leader of the raid on the Kiran factory.

  “I cringe at the idea that a being from Silea would be in command of a Polimor fleet, even if the evidence does prove he financed the project. That is simply a debt we owe him, not an obligation requiring us to relinquish our control to…to a banker.”

  “He is more than simply a banker, Commander Kac,” Qwels countered. “He is the former leader of the Silean Expansion, the ruler of an entire galaxy. He is also the wealthiest individual to have ever lived, either in Silea or here. To me, that speaks of incomparable ability.”

  “Spare us your hero worship, Qwels. His accomplishments occurred in the Silean Galaxy, not here. We are our own masters and cannot be bought by foreigners.”

  “And yet you have been, Second-Commander,” said Kroekus, speaking for the first time. Again, Adam had to admire the showmanship. Kroekus used the most domineering voice he could muster when he spoke, with a deep, powerful resonance that carried no hint of frustration or uncertainty. Even Adam was drawn to the power of the voice as the alien spoke.

  “I have not come here to simply claim ownership of the fleet,” he continued. “If your beloved leader Lord Dakken had not died prematurely, I would have been very content to let him guide the efforts of the fleet against the Kirans. Yet now I find it necessary to offer not only my resources to the fight, but also my expertise. I, along with my First Advisor Adam Cain, have managed a dozen such galactic wars in our time. The practical knowledge and insights we bring should be welcomed, not scorned. We are, after all, talking about the very survival of the Polimor Clan. And since you all arrived for this meeting in starships built with my assistance, and think it's true to say that, without me, there would be no fleet to counter that of the Kirans.”

  As always, aliens were not very quick thinkers, so Adam waited patiently for them to gather their thoughts. Finally, Loavor spoke again.

  “Please do not be insulted, Lord Kroekus. Your efforts on our behalf are appreciated. Yet these are Tanic affairs we deal with here, not Silean. We are a prideful galaxy, just as is Silea. We prefer to guide our own destiny.”

  “However, for the past five hundred years you have benefited from the technology and advancements born in Silea and provided to you by me and my family. Without us, there would be no interaction between worlds. Your galaxy would be a dark and silent place, restricted to only individual planets and species.”

  “Which would be preferred at times,” said another of the commanders, half under his breath.

  Kroekus smiled. “Quite understandable, First-Commander. Yet there is no going back now. What you must all do now is learn to defend yourselves against the evitable aggression of others.”

  “Yet this aggression from the Kirans has only been recent, and I would say primarily as a response to our own build-up of a military presence.” This was First-Commander Daxis Anol speaking. He was the most senior in the room from a political standpoint. He was a member of the governing council of the Polimors, and yet with the least amount of paramilitary training as the others. As politician first and foremost, he was looking for an excuse for the actions of others.

  Kroekus shook his head. “I disagree, Commander Daxis. I have known Alic Kiran his entire life, and I have never experienced a Kiran as ambitious and power hungry as he. The Kirans may be the most-powerful Clan in Tanic, yet he wants even more. He wants to be the only Clan in Tanic.”

  “It was you and your kind that made him this powerful,” said Daxis. “You could have just as easily spread the technology around to the other Clans.”

  “That I do agree with, Commander, yet hindsight will not resolve the current crisis. I am here now, and I offer what I can to help the Polimors survive.”

  “Including your advanced propulsion engines?” asked Loavor.

  “Of course,” replied Kroekus. “It is inevitable that this technology will spread throughout Tanic, either by me, by Alic Kiran, or by the flood of travelers from the Silea who will arrive in time. With this technology—along with Continuous-Wormhole communications, the universe has become a lot smaller. There is no resisting the future. It will come whether you want it here or not. Yet this discussion of philosophy and abstract subjects is wasting time. We know that the Kirans are deploying the new space drive on their warships. That means until we—meaning the Polimors—can answer in kind, we must maintain the strongest unified front against the enemy, using our numerical supremacy to our advantage.”

  “Unified under your command, Kroekus?” It was Loavor speaking again. By the tone of his voice, Adam could tell he still wasn’t sold on the idea.

  “Unified under that of Commander-One Qwels Nur, yet with guidance from me and Adam Cain.”

  “Nur is inexperienced and of lower rank than all of us here.” Loavor’s voice was a growl. “If anyone should lead the effort, it should be me.”

  “And yet I am the highest-ranking officer here,” countered Daxis.

  “You are a politician, n
ot a soldier!”

  “Silence!” Kroekus’s command-voice brought an end to the argument. “And that is why Qwels will remain in command. Once the Kiran crisis is past, you can then settle on a more permanent chain-of-command. And since it appears as though the Clan government is paralyzed at the moment and unable to select an effective replacement for Dakken, all of us in this room will have to do the job of saving the Polimor Clan from extinction.”

  Kroekus then glanced through the glass wall of the conference room at the formidable line of Rigorian troops outside. After an appropriate time for the rest of the occupants in the room to follow his gaze, he said, “If any of you are unable to proceed at this point and wish to abdicate your command, I am willing to accept your resignation on the spot.” He hesitated a couple of heartbeats before continuing. “If not, then I suggest we move on to more serious matters, such as strategy planning. You can be assured Alic Kiran is not wasting time on such trivial matters as command structure and hurt egos.”

  He turned to Qwels Nur. “If there are no further objections, I will turn the meeting back to Commander-One Qwels Nur, who will fill you in on the basic defensive and offensive planning currently underway. Your input on these specific subjects will be welcomed and appreciated. Proceed Number One.”

  Kroekus then turned a sly eye in Adam’s direction. Reading the expression, Adam curled up the edges of his mouth and winked at the huge alien.

  His rendezvous with Nigel McCarthy was now back on track.

  154

  The truth be told, Alic Kiran wasn’t having to deal with anything anymore.

  He had completely recessed into a vegetative state ever since the coup and was now tucked away in a secure room in the Leadership Hospital in the basement of the headquarters building, fed intravenously and supplied with enough drugs to keep him from ever regaining his senses.

  In the meantime, Nigel was allowing former Marine Colonel Emilio Adame—one of his Hundred—to run the war effort against the Polimors, while he spent his time devising a trap for Kroekus and Adam Cain.

  He knew he had only so much time to act before information would leak back them that Nigel was aware of their presence in the galaxy. He was enough of a realist to know that nothing stayed secret for very long, and once they knew that he knew, they would view any report coming out of the Kiran Clan with suspicion. Or at least Adam Cain would. Humans were a distrusting lot, and for good reason.

  So he had to have his plan up and running within days.

  The complicating factor, however, was the awesome starship Kroekus possessed. Nigel was beyond the belief that he could lure the huge Silean out of his sanctuary, making him a more vulnerable target. Instead, Kroekus would come in his warship, a vessel Nigel knew he had no way of defeating in a straight-up fight.

  He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious, so said Sun Tzu. So Nigel would play on his enemy’s insane hatred for him and present them with an opportunity they couldn't pass up. He would set a trap, where even the most-superior force can be defeated, especially when they didn’t even know they were in a battle until it was too late.

  155

  “How reliable is this information?” Adam asked. Whenever something this rich and detailed arrived regarding the enemy, it had to be questioned.

  “This comes not only from our spies, but also from the local news outlets in the Kiran Clan. Alic Kiran is no longer in command of the Clan.”

  “And Nigel McCarthy is!”

  “Yes, Captain Cain.”

  The speaker was the intelligence chief for the secret Polimor fleet, a Di’phoric named Vicum Zee. Somehow the alien had learned the proper form of address for a Human military officer, and Adam was more than happy to let him use it.

  “Unbelievable. Do we know how this happened?”

  “Lord Kiran suffered some form of mental breakdown, and in light of the current military operations underway, the supporters of Nigel McCarthy felt his experience could best serve the needs of the Clan.”

  “How convenient. And what about the other part, about his schedule?”

  “Again confirmed by multiple sources. As the new head of the Clan, he is required to make appearances at certain official functions, and the Clan Founding Celebration is one of the most sacred.”

  Knowing Nigel as he did, Adam had to delight in knowing that having to put up with the mundane responsibilities of his new office would irk McCarthy to no end. He was not a politician, and having to act like he cared about the petty traditions of his subjects would be cruel and unusually punishment for the Brit.

  “It’s still going on, even with the war?”

  “It is true that there has been a wholesale shift in population recently, as members of the various Clans return to their respective territories; however the Kirans are still the largest by number in the galaxy. The founding of their Clan is an event of much pride, and for the new Lord not to attend would be an insult to billions of clansmon.”

  “And it doesn't take place on Anicett?”

  “No, the Clan was not founded on Anicett, but on Unifen.”

  Adam read the datapad once more. The fact that Nigel McCarthy was the now the head of the largest and most-powerful Clan in the galaxy irritated him to no end. Do these creatures not know who he is and what he’s like? Obviously not, but they would soon suffer the consequences of their low-information acceptance of Nigel as their leader.

  Yet there was something else in the report that Adam could sense lurking in the back of his mind. He couldn’t bring it into full focus, yet it was there, of that he was certain.

  He dismissed Vicum after thanking him for the report and then went to lay on the couch that ran along one side of his spacious office aboard the Goliath. Something was eating at him, something in the report he was missing....

  And then it dawned on him. It was Nigel’s schedule!

  As the leader of the Clan, he was obligated to conduct certain functions and to attend certain affairs, and according to the report, he had to be on Unifen in twelve days for the Founding Celebration. Yet before that he was scheduled to give an address to the senior Security members. That meeting was in ten days...and was on Anicett. So after the Security meeting, McCarthy would have only two days to get from Anicett to Unifen.

  Adam jumped up off the couch and went to his desk. He pulled up a navigational chart of Kiran space, specifically concentrating on the region between Anicett and Unifen, a distance, he found out, of nine hundred light-years. The journey could be made in two days, but barely. It would mean a straight-line route with no deviation.

  Adam noticed a white blur near the middle of the direct-line route between the two planets. He zoomed in and found it to be a small nebula, designated D-1164 on the chart. Even on the generic nav chart he was viewing, there was a red line running through the center of the nebula, favoring the northern side slightly. This was the safe passage route through the nebula, and after a few more minutes of research, Adam found it to be the only safe route through, other than adding a full day to the journey and avoiding the nebula altogether.

  This was where Nigel McCarthy will be in eleven days, in this narrow channel, two light-years wide.

  Adam’s heart was racing as he made his way to Kroekus’s office. The Silean looked over the information several times before he leaned back in his chair and smiled. “There are only so many opportunities to cut off the head of the serpent, my friend. When one is presented, it cannot be ignored.”

  “And with the Goliath lying in wait, there’s nothing Nigel could bring with him that could provide him with enough defense, not even with CA-drive starships.”

  “We will also be so confined within the nebula, Adam. Have you considered that?”

  “I have. The Goliath does have the capacity of going dark, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, although for something this large it is not done very often. The systems aboard take longer to reboot than do normal vessels, yet it can be done.”

/>   “Good. All we have to do is enter from the Unifen side well in advance of the deadline and find a good hiding place.”

  “The Goliath alone?”

  Adam smiled. “Are you saying it’s not powerful enough to go up against Nigel and a few escorts? C’mon Kroekus, this is an opportunity we can’t pass up.”

  Kroekus was silent for a moment as his analytical mind sorted through the options and logistics of such a mission. In the end he smiled once more. “I will begin the arrangements. It appears as though both our goals could be accomplished in one fell swoop. Unfortunately your death-match may not come to pass. But once Nigel McCarthy is dead, then you can return to Earth free of the guilt you have been feeling for not ending his life before, when you had the chance. And I will be left with an entire galaxy as my own. It seems like a venture worth the risk.”

  The Goliath left Polimor space the next day with a journey of nine thousand light-years ahead of it. Normally a trip of that distance would have taken only four days, yet because they had to travel undetected through enemy space, the route they took was longer and their speed reduced. They arrived on the Unifen side of Nebula D-1164 a day ahead of when Nigel was expected to pass through.

  It had been determined that the narrowest point in the passage would give them the most advantage over the Kiran forces. With only two light-years to operate in, Nigel’s forces would be vulnerable to an all-out surge down the center of the channel by the Goliath, vaporizing everything in its path in only minutes of launching the attack.

  The Goliath was capable of engaging up to fourteen targets simultaneously and with flash bolts powerful enough to pass unimpeded through any diffusion screen built in Tanic. Nigel McCarthy would die in the attack, a fact that Adam both welcomed and regretted at the same time.

  He wanted the evil bastard dead, yet he wanted to see him die in person, and not on some tac screen in the dim light of the Combat Information Center aboard the Goliath.