A Clash of Aliens (The Human Chronicles Book 13)

by T. R. Harris

  Lila’s arms were back to normal, and she buckled into a seat at the nav station. Even at a forty-five degree angle, and fighting the effects of their falling, she was able to access a computer.

  “We have been shot, apparently by a ground-based defensive bolt. Without any shields, the entire aft section of the ship is gone. We have no flight controls.” The report was delivered in a calm, matter-of-fact tone, which was what one would expect coming from someone who couldn’t die. Adam’s report would have been a little more…dramatic.

  “Do we have any way of steering this thing?”

  “Attitude jets are all. Four are still operational.”

  ‘Great, which ones?”

  “I have highlighted them on your screen.”

  Adam saw yellow lights appear on a graphic display of the mining ship, two on each side. He figured they were falling from their portside at about a forty-five degree angle, sliding slightly northward because of the aerodynamics of the ship. He also could sense that along this glide path was the huge M-1 pyramid.

  He activated the two jets on the port side, feeling an almost immediate slowing of their descent and a leveling off of about ten degrees.”

  “That’s not going to help much,” Riyad said.

  “It’s something. Everyone, prepare for impact. I think we’re about to crash into the pyramid.”

  Adam had to congratulate himself on his superb situational awareness. What he hadn’t figured on was that they’d land right smack dab on top of it.

  Two months ago, as a result of Adam’s commando team attack on the nursery of the Royal Zygotes, the domed roof of the uppermost point of the pyramid had broken open. Weak still, the dome crumpled completely now as the mining ship crashed into it and landed nearly flat along the portside fuselage. This floor, plus four more below it, pancaked from the impact of the falling starship. At each level the pulverized debris served to slow the ship’s descent. Eventually, it came to a rest nine levels below what had once been the Zygote nursery, firmly imbedded in a cradle of jagged stone, metal, and concrete.

  The noise in and around the mining ship was deafening, the twisted and deformed hull squealing in tortured agony, being battered by even more falling debris.

  The forward viewport was now a gaping opening to the outside, and even as the stunned and battered occupants fought to regain their senses, large chunks of building were tumbling through, one barely missing the head of the Juirean Benefis Na. He ducked away from the falling debris well after the fact, revealing a dust-filled halo of wild white hair sticking out from his head in all directions, as if he were under the influence of some powerful static electricity field.

  “How is everyone?” Adam called out. There was light in the room coming from outside, reflecting off the two huge orbs above that were the moons of Kor. One by one, a roll call was taken. Miraculously, everyone was still alive.

  Sherri appeared to be suffering the effects of a mild concussion, while Riyad now had a matching bruise on the left side of the torso, along with countless cuts to his bare chest and back. Arieel’s hair covering her entire head, she flung it back with a shake, and with the hair out of the way it was revealed that the front of her outfit the Hal’ic had provided her with had ripped open and she was now proudly displaying what nature—and the universe—had rewarded her with. She seem oblivious to this fact.

  Lila was unbuckling herself, looking none the worse for wear. She could have been sliced in two by the crash and there would be no way of knowing it, except maybe by her own torn garment.

  Adam unfastened his own restraint buckle and climbed out of the pilot’s seat, having to stand at a thirty degree angle against consoles and twisted bulkheads. He didn’t sense any injuries at all, just a tenderness where his shoulder straps had pressed hard against his skin.

  Then he noticed the smell. All eyes turned to Benefis.

  “What?” the alien said. “It is a condition which I have lived with my entire life.”

  “It doesn’t mean the rest of us have to.”

  “Unfortunately you must, since all the grooming stations appear to be inoperable.”

  “In that case,” Adam said, “remain downwind from us.”

  “And which direction might that be?”

  “I don’t know, but we’ll know it when it happens. C’mon, everyone, the Sol-Kor are going to be swarming all over this place as soon the shock wears off. It seems as though we’ve made the old frying pan into the fire leap. Let’s see what other trouble we can get ourselves in.”

  Chapter 29

  Panur and J’nae were thrown to the ground by the violent quake. Immediately, both mutants sourced the explosion and tremor as having originated above, within the pyramid.

  J’nae didn’t wait around to find out what had happened. Seizing the opportunity to get away from Panur, she ran from the room through the open main doorway. Panur recovered a moment later and took off after her.

  The Queen was suddenly surrounded by dozens of armored and armed Sol-Kor defenders, part of the huge security detail tasked with protecting her at all costs. Panur appeared around a corner and a dozen bolt weapons were brought to bear.

  “No…don’t shoot!” J’nae ordered.

  But it was too late.

  Eight level-one balls of white hot plasma slammed into Panur’s body. His clothing evaporated and his back arched to an impossible degree. His skin glowed a bright red, even as his eyes became orbs of pure white energy, with beams of light radiating out from them.

  He recovered somewhat, straightening his back and looking toward the shooters. Two of them fired again. Having already absorbed considerably more energy than these last two bolts, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and looked back at the stunned guards once again.

  “That…my friends…is better than sex,” the tiny mutant said breathlessly. “Or so I can imagine. However, I do not have time for such sessions. Perhaps another time I could have all of you shoot me again?”

  Panur shifted his attention to within the cluster of guards. He didn’t see J’nae.

  He approached the defenders and they separated, giving him a wide berth. The Queen was gone, and with her unnatural speed and intimate knowledge of the structure, she could be anywhere.

  Dejected and disappointed, Panur turned to the ranking officer among the guards and asked: “Did something crash into the building?”

  ********

  “Look, I can see it from here!”

  Adam had climbed out on the very tip of the twisted remains of the mining ship and was looking down over the side of the pyramid.

  “The Najmah Fayd?” Riyad asked.

  “It’s right below, or more correctly, about a thousand feet below us.”

  “There will be no rappelling down this time, my friend. And the conduit lines are a mess, as well.”

  “I suppose we could just wait for a hovercraft to come along…again.”

  Adam climbed back to the crumbling ruins which held the mining ship firmly in its grip. “Everyone grab what weapons and ammo you can. It looks like we’ve got a fight ahead of us. And sorry, Lila, but I’m going to ask you to lead the way.”

  “That is a wise strategy, Father.”

  Adam nearly fainted. It was the first time he could remember Lila calling him father. And he was asking her to act as a shield against enemy attack. A volcano of emotions erupted inside him. Sherri noticed him stagger and fall against the side of the rubble.

  “Are you okay?”

  Adam squinted up at the woman as he fought against the reality that had suddenly hit him. “Yeah, I will be.”

  “What just happened?”

  “It was Cassie. I suddenly realized I had one daughter who was so tender and vulnerable, and now I have another that is the complete opposite, someone who will outlive…everything. I only wish Cassie had had even a trace of Lila’s immunity to death…”

  Both Adam and Sherri jumped when they found Lila standing next to them, having heard the muted conver
sation with her enhanced hearing. “I wish that had been so too, Father. I sincerely wish I could have met her.”

  “You would have like each other,” Adam choked out.

  “I would have loved her,” came Lila’s simple and sincere statement. Sensing that this subject was better left buried, Lila took her Xan-fi flash rifle and belt of power packs and darted through the nearest opening in the shattered walls of the M-1 pyramid. Everyone else followed, with Sherri and then Adam being the last ones through.

  Adam shook off the unexpected emotional escapade, knowing he couldn’t afford distractions, not when entering a building full of a million desperate and determined aliens, all preparing for a fight. They would shoot at anything foreign, and the six beings who had just entered their sanctuary were the most foreign of them all.

  Adam had confidence they would survive, mainly because they had Lila on their side. Yes, his daughter was a mutant, but she was a good mutant. And then he cringed, knowing that somewhere within the ugly black pyramid there were two other mutants who weren’t so good. Where they were, and what they were up to at the moment, Adam had no idea. All he knew for certain was that their paths would cross again, and when that happened, he prayed his daughter Lila would be there at his side.

  Chapter 30

  Although J’nae had ordered a path remain clear for her to pass to the eastern launch pad, she found that in the panic of the oncoming alien invasion—as well as the two recent strikes upon the building—discipline had lapsed. She reasoned this wasn’t deliberate, but rather the result of too many orders being barked at too many simple-minded creatures. The lower level Sol-Kor and the Salifens were confused, being buffeted back and forth between Min and Nosleads who sought to commandeer any support troops they could. Having very little will of their own, these simple creatures followed orders immediately, up the point new orders were shouted at them.

  So as J’nae pressed her way through the packed corridors, she found her journey to be slower than she would have preferred, especially knowing Panur was right behind her.

  Throwing caution to the wind—as well as hundreds of her fellow Sol-Kor—J’nae used her special powers to bulldoze her way to her avenue of escape. She had already written off M-1, indeed Kor itself. She would take the Panur-converted Human starship and journey to Silana, the next largest Sol-Kor settlement. There she would find another eighteen billion of her Colony, along with thousands of additional mainships. What was happening on Kor at the moment was just an annoyance, a frustrating and illogical event that could never amount to anything in the long run, no matter what the Hal’ic, or the Humans, or even Panur, thought otherwise.

  Already J’nae had birthed nearly a thousand Sol-Kor females. She knew she would live to birth thousands more until her efforts were no longer needed. Her offspring would go on to create untold millions more. The Colony would survive—it had to survive—and in numbers no one could ever imagine. And it all started with her—

  Without warning, J’nae was pulled back from her original path by something around her thin neck. When she landed on the hard deck, she saw Panur standing near her, his right arm returning to its normal length.

  She scrambled to her feet. This time both of Panur’s arms extended out, hitting the Queen’s chest and pressing her against a wall of the corridor. The Sol-Kor around her stood in stunned silence, before quickly running off. They knew they could do nothing to stop the two mutants from fighting, so they cleared the area to let the two of them settle matters on their own.

  J’nae was strong beyond compare, yet when she resisted Panur’s restraint, she found she could barely move. His body still glowed from the intake of plasma bolts he'd experience earlier. Was this giving him even more strength? Undoubtedly. She looked around the hallway, desperate for any residual Sol-Kor defender who she could order to shoot her as well.

  When she could find no one to help her, the Queen extended her right leg and slammed it against Panur’s much shorter body. Yet by now, her Creator had extended his own right leg until it pressed against the opposite wall, effectively wedging the two combatants between the immoveable sides of the corridor.

  “Why are you fighting me?” she groaned out. “We are of the same kind. We should be united, not divided.”

  “I agree,” said Panur, his eyes still pure white from the excess energy coursing through his body. “Yet it is you who have sided with the Sol-Kor, and who will do everything you can to grow the Colony.”

  “You are of the Colony as well. Why is this a bad thing?”

  “Because you are still a child. You have not experienced existence beyond the Sol-Kor. We seek stimulation and knowledge, yet by allowing the Sol-Kor to consume so many other species in the universe, you take so much away from the experiences we both should be seeking. That I cannot allow.”

  “You created me and placed me where I am just so I could do what I am doing.”

  “You ascended prematurely, before I had a chance to expose you to different races and different realities.”

  “Then you should have stayed rather than run off to the Human universe. I would have listened and learned from you. Yet when the time came for me to fulfill my destiny, you were gone. I felt betrayed and abandoned. I had to learn on my own.”

  “I regret what has happened, but now I must remedy the situation.”

  “You cannot kill me.”

  “No, I cannot. And that is why I must take you away from here, away from the power the Sol-Kor give you, away from all the death and destruction you can cause.”

  “My offspring will continue. They have been taken from here. You cannot stop evolution from happening.”

  “They are few, so the time will be extended before the Sol-Kor can become a threat again. But for now, I will take you away in the starship I have modified, perhaps to a new universe that has never heard of the Sol-Kor. In time, if I allow it, I will introduce you to all the wonders and variety of life that exists so you will learn there is more than just the Colony. That will only be allowed once you have grown up—”

  A cloud of white gas filled the corridor, enveloping Panur and billowing toward J’nae, still pinned against the wall. The Queen felt the pressure on her chest lessen and she twisted away, falling to the floor to crawl away rapidly through the thickening white cloud.

  Her legs became useless even though she felt no pain. She pulled with her arms and hands, even stretching one out several meters to grip a recess in the wall. She retracted the limb, which propelled her quickly away from the numbing gas.

  Her legs recovered quickly, but not completely. She wobbled unsteadily when she stood and looked down the corridor. There, six Sol-Kor in silver protective gear were huddled over an inert body, spraying it with more billowing white clouds from nozzles attached to black metal canisters. They continued to spray the motionless body until their canisters ran dry, and then more were supplied. Eventually the figure on the floor was nothing but a white, frozen mass, wisps of steam rising from it.

  J’nae stepped near.

  “High-Noslead Gorvus, excellent job subduing the mutant.”

  “We were delayed by the crowd. When the corridor emptied we were able to make our way here.”

  J’nae looked down at Panur’s frozen body, looking small and insignificant in its compressed fetal position. “He will thaw quickly, so maintain a vigil and keep applying the liquid nitrogen until he can be placed into the holding chamber. Then have the body placed aboard the starship outside the eastern doors.”

  “I have ordered the chamber to be brought here. It should be arriving soon.”

  “Good. I will be taking the mutant away in the spaceship, to a place where he can cause us no harm ever again.”

  “He is not of the Sol-Kor, my Queen. He is an abomination.”

  “Indeed.” J’nae looked to her loyal Noslead and frowned. “If you view him as an abomination, how do you view me? Be honest.”

  Without hesitation, Gorvus answered: “You are the survival of th
e Colony, my Queen. You are the future.”

  Chapter 31

  “Got some on the right!” Sherri called out. “Any spare packs?”

  “Down to my last two, but here…” Adam tossed Sherri a power pack for her MK-17. She snapped it in and resumed firing. Three more Sol-Kor fell dead as a result, while the others backed away around a corner.

  “Where’s Lila?” Sherri asked. “We could sure use her about now.”

  “She was clearing out the room down the way, the place where Benefis was shot.”

  Adam fired at a curious Sol-Kor peeking his head around a corner. Like the proverbial cat, he wouldn’t be curious anymore.

  “How’s he doing?”

  “He’ll survive, although it didn’t do anything to stop his condition from flaring up again.”

  “Thanks, Adam, but I didn’t need that vision filling my head.”

  “I am here,” Lila announced as she sped past Sherri and Adam and rounded the corner where the Sol-Kor were blocking their way. Brilliant flashes filled the hallway, then Adam’s daughter reemerged, her skin a radiant pink, her eyes already glowing white from the energy she’d been soaking up from the enemy plasma bolts.

  “Are you sure that doesn’t hurt you?” Adam asked, concerned.

  “On the contrary, it is quite the wonderful sensation—incredible, as a matter of fact. I wonder why Panur never told me about this?”

  “Feelings of inadequacy, I would imagine,” Sherri said with a smile.

  “All right, the way is clear,” Adam said as Riyad, Benefis, and Arieel slipped in next to him. “We’re on the ground floor now, and just in time. I’m down to less than one power pack left. I wish we hadn’t left most of our real weapons on the Falcon. But let’s make one last rush for the exit. The ship should be right outside.”

  After having to fight nearly every inch of the way down the interior of the M-I pyramid, the team suddenly found their way clear, only token Sol-Kor resistance around. A wide path was open to them. The Humans—and Lila—ran ahead, securing the hallway for the slower aliens. But then they came to a series of spent gas tanks, and Adam stopped, feeling the containers. They were freezing cold.