by T. R. Harris
Adam winked at Sherri and then dropped into the opening, scurrying down the bar ladder to the base of the shaft. He scanned for energy readings and found none nearby. But when he scanned farther in, the energy readings skyrocketed. The base was ablaze with power, including from generators, air recyclers, lights and heating, along with a plethora of flash weapon readings. Either there were several hundred armed Gracilians inside, or each of the soldiers carried multiple weapons. It seemed like a massive operation for something culled together over ten days. Adam had to give Garus kudos for his organizational skills.
I’m in and moving toward the main base, he reported through his ATD.
Excuse me; I was doing my nails, Sherri replied. Bother me only when you have something interesting to report.
Ten minutes later, Adam was to the point where he was dodging enemy energy signals, avoiding the inevitable guards walking an inter-perimeter of corridors. There weren’t many; most of the energy weapons were clustered together in an area Adam knew to be the central hangar platform. It was where the DM ships had been stored. A three-football-field-size door could then be rolled away, opening up the chamber to the open sky, allowing the vessels to cycle through and head off into space. Since there were no longer any DM ships in the facility, the hangar was being used as an open-bay barracks for Garus’s budding army. Believing themselves to be hidden, they appeared to be sitting around, biding their time. An army with no one to fight. Not yet.
Adam avoided the hangar and followed other energy signals.
Most of the corridors were wide with high ceilings, allowing for electric carts to transport personnel and material throughout the base in a more efficient manner, back in the day when it was operational. The Gracilians had been planning on their blitzkrieg attack on the Kidis Frontier long before Kracion came on the scene. Again considering themselves the rightful heirs to the Aris legacy, they would settle for nothing less than galactic domination. And with the secret of dark matter and dark energy firmly in their grasp, they had a pretty good chance of making that happen. They had the technology and six hundred unstoppable super warships to get the ball rolling.
And then Kracion showed up and irradiated the planet, stopping their plans dead in their tracks. Aric Jroshin resurrected those plans several years later. He got things rolling again, but by then, Adam and his team had set up shop on Navarus. They stopped his evil plan … followed quickly by the renegade Aris service module Kanan … and now the Luz Master immortal Garus. Jeez.
In the corridors of the hidden Gracilian base, Adam shook his head at his musing. If not one thing, it was another, and then another. Perhaps Adam was the trouble-magnet. Then he shrugged. At least it keeps my fans happy.
He was heading for a significant concentration of electronic activity to get a better look. Since all the Gracilians carried charged energy weapons, it was easy for Adam to avoid trouble using his ATD. And fortunately, his path to the energy concentration was relatively consistent and threat-free. He was making good time and feeling confident. All he wanted was to see if the Formation was there. He wasn’t planning on taking out the thing by himself. If he did, he’d be besieged with hundreds of Gracilians and one angry immortal. No, he would call for backup. Panur and the others should be arriving on Gracilia anytime now. With confirmation that the Formation was here, they’d be on shuttles to the base in a heartbeat. Then let the immortals deal with the immortal.
This is almost too easy, Adam thought. Every time a patrol would show up blocking his way, they would change course and move away. He was deep within the facility by now, probably deeper than he’d ever been in the past, and farther underground than ever before. This was his third visit to the facility, and he never realized how extensive it was. He was nine stories below the surface. He didn’t know it went that deep.
How you doing there, sport? Sherri asked. Her voice sounded distant and weak in his mind.
I’m fine. This place is a lot bigger than I thought. Your signal is getting weaker.
Blame our friend Panur for that. You’re coming in loud and clear. But with all the metal between you and me, my K-Mart Special ATD must not have the range.
Stop griping. I’m just about to the primary energy source. I’ll take a quick look and then start making my way back to the surface. I haven’t run into any trouble so far. In fact, it’s as if the waters of the Red Sea have parted and …
He stopped in mid-thought, considering his path to this point. It really was like the sea had parted, not so he could get to the power source, but leading him to it.
He scanned behind him, seeing that most of the corridors he’d just travel now had sentries there, blocking his exit. He stopped for a moment, taking in the surrounding passageways. They not only contained armed Gracilians, but the troops were slowly closing in. The only way to go was toward the main power source—the way Garus wanted him to go.
Sherri! I’ve been found out. It looks as if Garus has known I was here for a while. Sherri?
He detected no return thought. Was he out of range for her ATD? If so, then could she still hear him? He had no way of confirming.
Ah crap, he thought to himself. How did he know?
Adam continued along the corridor before passing through a large portal and into a central work center with a high ceiling and ample light. He already knew there were at least twenty guards with flash weapons in the room, but he still entered. They were expecting him.
Garus was standing in the center of the room, dressed in another yellow robe, but this one clean and new. With the alien’s skin tone, a darker color might have worked better…
“We meet again, Adam Cain,” the immortal said. And then telepathically, Or should I say, we meet again. You see, I, too, have an implant allowing for telepathic communications. Yours was easy to detect and quite sophisticated for such a primitive species. Perhaps a product of your mutant friends? I cannot see your Human race having such technology.
“How long have you been tracking me?” Adam asked aloud.
“Since your arrival topside. The signal is quite powerful. I noticed when we first met on the asteroid. When I sensed it again, I knew it was you.”
No mention of Sherri, Adam noticed. Perhaps her signal is too weak for him to detect.
So, you have me, Garus, Adam announced through his ATD as loudly as possible. He didn’t know if it was louder than usual or broadcasting on all wavelengths at that point. He just wanted to make sure Sherri got the message—if she could still read him.
Garus waved a hand at Adam. “Although I prefer telepathic communications, I cannot allow your unit to remain functioning. As I said, it is quite sophisticated and appears to have many additional features rather than simple communications. It assembles into one unit what I have multiple implants to serve. Therefore, I will disable it.”
As with other times his ATD had been either turned off or destroyed, Adam felt a sudden shock as if he’d lost most of his senses, leaving him in a fog of awareness. The ATD was omnipresent, feeding him information constantly, whether he was aware of it or not. Now it was gone. It took some getting used to.
Garus stepped closer, feeling no fear of the Human. And why should he? He was immortal; Adam wasn’t.
“I know your people have tracked me to Gracilia, and currently, there is much activity at the Lanacon spaceport; more Enforcers coming. I must warn you, the Gracilians have been easy to recruit to my purposes. All it has taken is to feed their fantasies and stroke their pride. They are gullible to a fault, yet willing partners, no matter the risk. I have made certain promises to them, which I intend to fulfill. When I do, they will have nothing to fear, not from the Enforcers, the Humans … no one.”
“So, what are you going to do with the Formation?”
“Good question. Allow me to show you.”
CHAPTER 11
GARUS LED Adam from the huge, circular room and into a more private workstation deeper in the complex. Not surprisingly, the Formation framework was here,
although of a different configuration as Adam had seen at the Aris Technician base. Rather than being vertical, this one was horizontal, with the frame supported by metal brackets resting on thick pads on the concrete floor. On closer examination, there were very few of the disks in the holders, sinking Adam’s hopes that without the missing disk, Garus couldn’t complete his build.
Adam stepped closer to the apparatus, and when he did, he received a powerful shock to his back.
The sensation was incredible, reaching every part of his body instantly. He tensed, still standing, but unable to move. A minute later, most of the effects were gone, and he was able to speak.
“What the hell was that for?” he yelled at the short immortal.
“A demonstration.” Garus displayed his palms to Adam. “For generations, the Aris enhanced their bodies with various implants. The Luz did the same. There were implants for telepathy, for weapons, energy absorption, nutrient distribution, strength enhancements, and more. The Aris and Luz wanted to have powers they did not possess naturally. So, they gave themselves artificial powers, making them appear to be natural. It may have been believed that they evolved to the point of not needing to ingest food for energy, but that was not true. Instead, they created an implant that bypassed the process. The Luz adopted all those practices and installed them in the other Masters and me, although most were not necessary.”
“Speaking of the other Masters, where are they?” Adam asked, his body still tingling from the strong electric shock.
“They are no longer with us.”
“You put them back in a quantum prison?” Adam asked aghast. “Why?”
“I did nothing that elaborate. They are simply floating in space as frozen lumps of immortality. Although I have never experienced such a state of being, I can imagine their minds would stay active for all the time they are frozen. It is a fitting punishment for their betrayal.”
“What betrayal?”
“They believe me insane, affected by the quantum universe we spent so much time within. That is not the case. I am perfectly sane. But the direction I wished us to take was not what they could envision. Where I saw an opportunity to act, they saw an opportunity to retreat. Why would one retreat when he is the Master, when he has all the power?”
Garus glanced at the Formation.
“I now have all the power, Adam Cain. I am sure not even Nunki and the Aris imagined everything that the Formation could do. As creations of the device, the Masters could—or at least this Master could.”
“If you are not going to use it to filter organic material, what are you going to send through it?”
Garus was shocked. “How could you possibly have deduced that from what I have said?”
Adam remained silent, forcing a grin to his still twitching face.
Garus studied him for a moment before shrugging. “It matters not, since I will have you here for a demonstration of the experiment I have been proposing for a hundred years—correction—three billion, one hundred years. You see, for me, I am still living in the time of the Aris, when Nunki and his kind thwarted my efforts at every turn. I would have performed the experiment long before this if the Aris had not confiscated the Formation from the Luz. They had their own selfish needs for the device, while the Masters were tasked with correcting the timeline of existence.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I will explain, but first, the demonstration.”
Garus moved to a control panel and called in assistants.
Three Gracilians entered, including one Adam recognized as Crin.
“Although nearly all the Gracilians at the base are warriors, I have retained a few of their more enlightened scientists,” Garus said. He placed a hand on Crin, who beamed with pride from the attention. “This was one of the scientists who helped build the Formation before. He and his companions will control the filtration process while I guide the quantum beam.”
“The quantum beam?”
“Yes, Adam Cain. You have questioned what I will pass through the Formation. Now you know.”
“What is that going to do?”
“That is the question, is it not?” Garus smiled. “That is what it means to experiment. However, I assure you I do not regard experimentation as does your primitive race. Experimentation to me is simply a display of already predicted results.”
“That didn’t tell me anything,” Adam said. “What do you think will happen?”
Garus walked the short length of the Formation. It sat in the middle of the room, but it wasn’t the only piece of high-tech equipment on display. At the feeding end was a bulky stack of electrical components with tubes and wires running into them. Vents were in most of the units, allowing excess heat to escape. And pointed toward the Formation was a short snout-like attachment with a ruby lens on the tip. Adam knew that quantum waves were used to guide teleportation beams during the recent rash of bank robberies, but he’d never seen an actual quantum beam generator.
“A quantum beam is like a light beam, made up of various frequencies,” Garus announced. “The Formation, as I have it configured, will serve as a prism and break the beam down into its constituent parts. What I seek is the most refined quantum source available, that which makes entanglement possible. I will not even attempt to explain how this works, but you must have some understanding of entanglement pairs by now, how information can be duplicated at both ends of a quantum beam. Interstellar communications function using this technology.”
“Of course, I do,” Adam lied, nodding.
“The issue comes from the contamination of various other frequencies to this transfer of data. By stripping away everything except for pure quantum energy, I will be able to transfer not only data but also energy through the beam.”
“Like a super powerful laser?” Adam asked.
Garus raised a thin eyebrow, nodded his head and smiled. “Not even close. Lasers only concentrate light along certain wavelengths. It can only transmit elements of itself. My quantum beam will carry all kinds of energy, including physical energy, and from one source to another. That is the key. My beam must be linked to an energy source and then paired with another.”
The immortal moved to the other end of the Formation. “The other aspect of the experiment is the temporary storage of the refined quantum beam. That is what this device is intended to do. For your information, I assembled the Formation in less than a day. It was building these accessories that have taken the most time. Not only that, but I have had to build relay dishes to transfer the beam. If the storage unit works, I will be able to transport the beam energy to other parts of a planet, a space station or a starship. From there, I can link energy sources from all across the galaxy.”
“And what happens when you do?” Adam asked. “You make it out to be some monumental achievement. Are you able to transfer power through space to provide it at places that don’t have it? That sounds like a good thing, rather than this sinister-sounding way you put it.”
Garus continue to grin at Adam. “Crin, please energize the circuits. Let us test our setup for our skeptical guest.”
Equipment began to hum, and the temperature in the room climbed instantly. Cool air blew down on Adam from the ceiling. It helped, but the generators in the room were producing a lot of residual heat.
“This will be a simple one-way transfer,” Garus narrated. “Crin, initiate the sequence.”
The quantum beam generator spun up a notch, increasing the frequency of the hum. Adam took a step back from the Formation, not sure what to expect.
“The storage will be only for a few minutes, but time enough for me to set up the link,” Garus continued.
And then a soft blue glow appeared on the tip of the generator’s ruby lens. It was a strange effect, as the beam of light grew slowly. Adam had never seen anything like it. It was as if the light was a solid and growing in length until it entered the Formation focusing rings and landed on the first silver-dollar-sized disk.
The wafer absorbed the blue light, with tiny sparkles flashing on the surface. Then the light emerged from the other side, reaching toward the next disk. By now, the color was slightly darker blue. The process continued for much longer than Adam anticipated. He thought the beam would shoot into the Formation at one end and instantly shoot out the other. That wasn’t the case. At each stage of the six-disk stack, the color of the beam changed. What came out the other end before disappearing into another electronic array was pale green. Even so, the shaft extended from the Formation at the same speed it had entered, extending until it met another lens in the collection chamber.
And now things got really boring. The beam continued to be fed into the Formation and out the other end for several minutes with nothing else happening. Adam looked at Garus, who was thoroughly enamored with the workings of his device. Eventually, the quantum generator beam ended and slowly moved through the Formation like a rope through a person’s hand. When it had disappeared entirely into the collection chamber, Garus checked a panel on the device and made some adjustments.
The humming decreased, and the beam generator was shut down. However, the collection unit was still active. Garus moved to the control console and spent several minutes working the computer and gauges. Even Crin and the other two Gracilians stood aside as he did so, leaving the fine-tuning to the Master.
He eventually pushed away from the console.
“There has been success. I have captured the entanglement beam in the chamber and can now aim it more efficiently. Come, Adam Cain. Let us move to the control room. You will find this fascinating.”
Adam didn’t notice the command given, but four new Gracilians entered the chamber with MK-17s aimed at him. Garus saw Adam glance at the weapons.