Prelude to War (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 10)

by T. R. Harris

  The black alien made an adjustment on his weapon and the blue beam disappeared. He spoke again to the Juirean. “Are you the builder—the builder of the array?”

  The Humans watching the recording now remained silent, waiting breathlessly for the Juirean’s fateful reply.

  “I know not what you mean. We have built no…array.”

  The armored alien backed away from the Juirean captain. “That is unfortunate. If you are not the builder, then you will be harvested.” Several of the huge figures moved within the mass of meandering Juireans and looked around, as if surveying the scene. From the barrels of their weapons, double blades of serrated metal extended outward a good three feet. What happened next was unimaginably brutal and unexpected.

  Using accurate and powerful swipes of their long blades, the black figures began decapitating all the Juireans. Jimmy Link and his boarding party gasped in shock. There was no provocation, no reason for what was happening. Then more black-suited aliens rushed into the static bridge scene and began to gather up both sections of the dead Juireans—heads and torsos. They took them all, lifting the huge alien bodies with ease and placing them on mechanized carts that had just come into view. The heads were placed in what appeared to be refrigerated containers, while piles of headless bodies were unceremoniously carted away and out of view.

  Ensign Link and his entourage were mesmerized by the horrific scene. It was as gruesome as it was efficient. To deepen the mystery, the armored creatures didn’t bother with any of the hardware or ordinance aboard the Class-Four. All they took were the bodies.

  They departed as quickly and single-mindedly as they came.

  “It does looks like a harvest,” said Petty Officer Dan Roberts.

  “Like a crop…like in farming?”

  “Yessir. Like reaping the corn or slaughtering the cattle.”

  “So you think they took the bodies…for food?”

  “What else? They didn’t take any prisoners—hell, they didn’t even give them a chance to surrender. They were only concerned with the biological creatures aboard. I’d say from the look of their ship and weapons they had, the Juireans didn’t offer anything in the way of technology to interest them.”

  “Captain?”

  “I agree with Mister Roberts,” came the reply through their helmet speakers. “But what worries me the most was how easy they subdued an entire Class-Four, and without firing a shot.”

  “That beam of theirs put the Juireans into a trance. That made them easy prey.”

  “It would do the same to us, Ensign. Juireans and Humans are around ninety-nine percent alike biologically. What affects them could affect us, too. Get back to the ship. I don’t know what we could do against the black ship if it came back, but I’d rather be far away from the Class-Four and maneuverable if they come back for seconds. We’ll let Fleet Command decide what to do next.”

  “I have a contact, sir!” Petty Officer Jones yelled from the tactical console.

  Link surveyed the screen. “Captain, do you have this?”

  “That’s an affirmative.” Concern was thick in Frost’s voice.

  “Bolt out, sir! We’ll make do here. I can’t believe they’re coming back for the Juireans. There’s nothing over here left for them to take.” He left off the unspoken ending of the statement: Except for us.

  “I hate to do this, but I have the welfare of the entire crew to consider,” Commander Frost said. “We’ll be back as soon—”

  Ensign Link felt the wavering sensation just as Frost stopped speaking. Nausea swept through him and his vision began to close in on itself.

  “Dammit, they’re doing the same thing to us…” Roberts shouted.

  Link could feel his heart beating in his temples; he was scared and consumed with panic. But then he looked around the bridge and his heart began to calm. “It’s not affecting us the same way,” he said to the room. His men looked at each other and then all eyes focused on the officer. He definitely felt something, but nothing that would make him catatonic.

  He leaned over the shoulder of Petty Officer Winston Jones and studied the monitor. The black spacecraft had indeed returned, appearing out of the same section of space as it had before. Yet this time the disk-shaped mothership was pointed at the Tarazi, the visible blue light pulses blanketing the space surrounding the ship. Even then, the pale blue light spread out beyond that, reaching as far as the Juirean Class-Four, though its focus was elsewhere.

  “Boarding party to the Tarazi, come in!” Robert’s voice echoed loudly in the near-empty bridge of the Juirean warship.

  “Belay that, Mister Roberts!” Link cried out.

  The enlisted man turned a stunned face on the officer. “Sir, we have to contact them—warn them—do something!”

  “It’s obvious the Tarazi has fallen under the full influence of the beam. So far we’re only getting a piece of it. Let’s not draw any attention. Otherwise we may get a full blast of the beam ourselves.”

  “So what do we do, just sit back and let the aliens slice off the heads of all our friends and shipmates?”

  Ensign Link scanned the tactical screen again, just as four small black vessels departed the alien mothership and began to close on the Tarazi. His pulse was pounding and it felt like his head was about to explode, both from the stress of command and the influence of the blue beam.

  “Sir, we have to do something!” Roberts said again.

  Link looked at the lights of the tactical console. “All systems aboard this ship are still functioning, isn’t that right?”

  “They appear to be,” Winston Jones replied.

  “Including weapons?”

  The eyes of the petty officer opened wide. “They sure are! They’re not charged, but that will only take a minute.” The young petty officer swiveled in his chair and began punching buttons.

  “Hold off on that,” Link ordered.

  Roberts was now at Jimmy’s side, face red, eyes angry. “We don’t have a minute. They don’t have a minute.” The smaller black ships were almost at the Tarazi.

  “Relax, everyone,” Link said. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” He turned to Petty Officer Jones. “Begin charging the port weapons batteries, but route it back through the starboard banks. Keep the energy signature confined to the interior of the ship.”

  “So the aliens won’t detect the buildup!”

  “That’s right. As far as we can tell, they don’t know anyone’s aboard.”

  “But once the smaller ships latch onto the Tarazi, we won’t be able to fire on them,” Roberts protested.

  “We won’t be firing on them, Danny, but on the mothership instead. We have to knock out that suppressor beam. If we can do that, then Commander Frost should be able to mount his own defense, if the effects aren’t long-lasting.”

  Roberts nodded quickly.

  Link placed a calming hand on the shoulder of the enlisted man. “Take a seat at fire control.” He turned to Mike Newman and the fifth member of the boarding party, Seaman Mark Wier. “You, too,” he commanded. “We need to get every bolt cannon we can aimed at that ship. We’re only going to get one crack this. If we miss, then they turn the beam on us and it’s all over. Jones, let us know the moment the weapons reach full charge.”

  Link joined the other three at the fire control stations. A ship of this size had multiple gunner stations on the bridge as a backup to the controls found in each battery. The four Humans sat in oversized Juirean chairs and activated the targeting screens in front of them. At each station was a control stick with toggle buttons, and once the yellow aiming circle came up on their screens, each sailor did his best to place it on the image of the black ship floating in space two thousand and forty-eight point-four miles from the Juirean Class-Four, according to the range finder.

  “Sir, I’ve never fired one of these things before,” said Seaman Wier.

  “They’re just like the ones we have—they were all taken from Klin technology,” Link said.

 
“I know that, sir. What I mean is I’ve never even fired one of our own. I’m a mess cook, and my GQ station is with damage control.”

  Petty Officer Roberts leaned over and helped the younger man line up the targeting circle. “It’s just like playing a video game, Mark. You’ve done that before, haven’t you?”

  “Of course,” said Wier, and his face calmed noticeably.

  “When the time comes, just press the button on top of the stick,” Roberts instructed. “It’s actually a lot easier than a multi-function controller.”

  “I see that. Thanks, Dan.”

  “Charge at ninety-percent,” Jones reported. “Full power in thirty-four seconds. Sir, you do know you’re going to have to fire precisely at that time, don’t you?”

  “Or what?” Seaman Wier asked.

  Ensign Link smiled slightly. “Otherwise the charge that’s been built up over a confined circuit overloads—”

  “And the whole weapons bank goes ka-blewie,” Jones finished for him.

  “Thanks for that, Mr. Jones. Now, everyone, line up and prepare to fire. We go on Winston’s command, no hesitation. One of us has to hit the target, so just relax and do the best you can.”

  “Five seconds everyone…three, two…FIRE!”

  Four powerful plasma bolts erupted from the port side of the Juirean warcraft, closing the distance to the black vessel in the blink of an eye. As it turned out, three of the four blasts impacted the target, including Seaman Wier’s. Although he hated to admit it, the only bolt that missed was fired by Ensign Link.

  “The beam is gone!” Jones shouted. The other members of the boarding party rushed from their firing stations and huddled around Jones, watching his screen.

  The four smaller boarding ships had reached the Tarazi by now, with one already attached to the hull just over the topside escape hatch. “Captain, can you hear me?” Link called into his throat comm.

  There was silence.

  “Captain, can you—”

  “I’m here, Jimmy! Give me a minute—we have some uninvited guests aboard. By the way, great job! Frost out.”

  The other four members of the boarding party swarmed around Ensign Link, patting his back and shaking his hand. “Well done, sir!” they called out. “We did it!”

  “Calm down, everyone, there are still three ships out there, free and maneuverable, plus the one attached to the Tarazi. They may be weapons capable.”

  “If they are, then we’ll never know,” Winston Jones said. “They’ve bolted away and in three different directions. Wait, one…the fourth ship just broke away from the Tarazi. They’re running, too.”

  “Ensign Link, come in,” a voice said over the comm system.

  “Here, sir. Did you suffer any casualties?”

  “A few cuts and scrapes, but nothing serious, thanks to you and your team. We didn’t get a chance to take any prisoners, but we do have three dead aliens over here. Never seen any like these before, all scaly and shit.”

  “Too bad we couldn’t have captured the mothership. It would be nice to know how their suppressor beam works.”

  “No regrets, Mr. Link,” Commander Frost said. “And now the important stuff: What color would you like your medals to come in? That goes for all of you over there.”

  “Gold, sir,” said Winston Jones. “Always prefer my medals to be gold.”

  “You got it, Mr. Jones. Now get back here. We dodged a real bullet this time, and those smaller ships are still out there. They may have other beamships with them nearby, so I want to get back in a gravity well as soon as possible.”

  “I hear that, Captain,” said Ensign Link. “We’re on our way.”

  Chapter 2

  The Human forces lay in ruin, with dozens of once-mighty warships drifting helplessly in the middle of the Kracori minefield. The magnetic mines were still closing on their targets, and occasionally one would latch onto a stricken ship and a devastating explosion would follow as a way of punctuating the defeat.

  Captain Adam Cain stood on the bridge of the Pegasus contemplating the damage his own ship had suffered. Two generators were offline and the shields on the port side were mere memories. Sherri Valentine was strapped in the observation chair, unconscious and bleeding profusely from a wound to her leg. Adam knew she wouldn’t last long, yet he didn’t have time to tend to her, not if he wanted to save the Pegasus and the mission.

  Kaylor Lin Todd, the Belsonian pilot at the controls, glanced back at Adam. “What are we to do? The Kracori are waiting for us outside the minefield. Anything that comes out the other side will be blasted to atoms.”

  “Let me think,” Adam said. “Any word on the Juireans? Hopefully they’re doing better against the Kracori than we are.”

  The tiny bear-like creature named Jym turned from his tactical screen. “They are in worse shape than are the Humans. And to make matters worse, the Klin have managed to power up again and join the battle. The Juireans are boxed in near the entrance to the Void, and between the Kracori and the Klin, they are being squeezed as if in the grip of a Kronos viper.”

  “Does Fleet have any ships to send them?”

  “None. The entry point cut in the wall of the Void to gain access by Admiral Tobias was supposed to be a secret, yet the Kracori were waiting there for them. All of our reserves have been taken out, and now the main fleet is scattered. It is as if the Kracori can anticipate our every move.”

  Adam pumped out his chest in a show of defiance. “We’re not beaten, not yet. Just beyond that line of Kracori warships is their home planet, Elision. If we take out the planet, the Kracori will be defeated.”

  “But how do we get out of the minefield and past their waiting starships?”

  “We retreat,” Adam said. “That’s how we do it.”

  “I do not understand,” said Kaylor.

  “We go out of the minefield the way we came in, and take with us every able-bodied ship we can muster. The Kracori forces are aligned to stop us from exiting the minefield on the Elision side. We’ll come out the other, and then once in the clear we can use the planet Jorvis as a shield to approach Elision from the left. It will take time for the Kracori to reassemble. By then, Elision will be a molten mass of magma.”

  The Pegasus rotated one hundred-eighty degrees out from her prior heading, at which point Kaylor initiated a shallow gravity well and the ship sped off. Jym was on the comm links, summoning all the surviving ships from the decimated Human fleet to follow. Soon ninety-five warships from Earth were streaming out the back of the Kracori minefield and heading for safety.

  Once free of the mines, Adam ordered his tiny force to steer left, toward the second planet in the Kracori star system, the planet Jorvis. Long range scanners showed that Adam’s maneuver had worked. The three hundred Kracori starships stationed near the vast minefield were still forming up and had yet to head off after Adam’s force.

  Jorvis was growing larger in the forward viewport, and so far no enemy vessels had been detected.

  “Adam, the latest report…the Juireans have been crushed!” Jym cried out in a state of panic.

  Adam shrugged. “Oh well. Now we can’t count on them as backup. It’s us against the combined might of the Kracori and the Klin.”

  “If anyone can save the mission, it is you, Captain Cain,” said Kaylor from the pilot’s seat.

  “All ahead flank!” Adam cried out. “Charge all weapons. Once we whip around Jorvis, we’ll have a clear shot at Elision. Let’s send those gray-skinned bastards back to the hell they came from!”

  The fleet changed course to starboard, ripping up the space around cloud-covered Jorvis. But just as they cleared the edge of the planet and lined up on Elision, another Kracori fleet appeared from the dark side of the planet.

  “Incoming bolts—hundreds of them!” Jym cried out.

  “Evasive maneuvers,” Adam ordered, but it was too late.

  Four plasma bolts struck the side of the Pegasus, ripping open a seam along her port side. Pressure doo
rs slammed shut on the bridge, protecting the four beings inside from the deadly escape of atmosphere taking place throughout the rest of the ship.

  “The fleet is down to only sixteen ships,” Jym reported. “The Kracori forces have lost only eight out of over two hundred. Adam, it is hopeless.”

  Adam turned to look at the peaceful face of Sherri Valentine, eyes closed, her mind oblivious to the tragedy taking place around her. He envied her. She would die in her sleep, while Adam and his two alien companions would watch the dark hand of the Grim Reaper close around them.

  “Bring what weapons we still have active to bear on that Kracori bastard in front of us. Let’s see if we can take one last enemy ship with us as we go.”

  “That’s General Tarazi’s ship,” Jym said.

  “I don’t care…fire!”

  “It won’t matter, Adam,” Riyad Tarazi said with a smile. “I saw this coming. A little twist here…and see, I’m now out of range. Say good-bye, Adam Cain, superman and savior of the Human race. This time you lose!”

  The Pegasus was overwhelmed by another shower of plasma bolts. On the bridge, Adam saw bulkheads buckle and the forward viewport shatter. Kaylor was split in two, his upper torso sucked out the gaping hole at the front of the ship. Jym died when the entire starboard side of the ship imploded.

  Adam was bathed in a blue and yellow flame, and then while in the throes of the devil’s own breath, he arched his head back and screamed out his final dying words. “Damn you, the enemies of Earth! This is not over! I will be avenged!”

  And then his body exploded…as did the Pegasus.

  The screen went black and stark white letters appeared: Game Over.

  ********

  “Who authorized such corny dialogue?” Adam asked as he ripped the virtual reality goggles from his head and tossed them onto the couch next to him. “If I had some last dying words to say—”

  “They wouldn’t be fit for broadcast,” Sherri Valentine said from over by the food processing station.

  Adam glared at her for interrupting. He was frustrated. He shifted his attention to Riyad Tarazi, seated next to him on the couch, his own goggles now removed, yet he had a self-satisfied grin on his face.