by T. R. Harris
The Formation Code
The Adam Cain Saga #7
T.R. trharris
Set in The Human Chronicles Universe
THC
Tom Harris Creations
Copyright 2020
by Tom Harris Creations, LLC
All rights reserved.**
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Novels by T.R. Harris
The Adam Cain Saga
The Dead Worlds
Empires
Battle Plan
Galactic Vortex
Dark Energy
Universal Law
The Formation Code
The Quantum Enigma (coming Aug. 2020)
The Human Chronicles
The Fringe Worlds
Alien Assassin
The War of Pawns
The Tactics of Revenge
The Legend of Earth
Cain’s Crusaders
The Apex Predator
A Galaxy to Conquer
The Masters of War
Prelude to War
The Unreachable Stars
When Earth Reigned Supreme
A Clash of Aliens
Battlelines
The Copernicus Deception
Scorched Earth
Alien Games
The Cain Legacy
The Andromeda Mission
Last Species Standing
Invasion Force
Force of Gravity
Mission Critical
The Lost Universe
The Immortal War
Destroyer of Worlds
Phantoms
Terminus Rising
The Last Aris
The Human Chronicles Box Set Series
Box Set #1 – Books 1-5 in the series
Box Set #2 – Books 6-10 in the series
Box Set #3 – Books 11-15 in the series
Box Set #4 – Books 16-20 in the series
Box Set #5—Books 21-25 in the series
REV Warriors Series
Rev
REV: Renegades
REV: Rebirth
REV: Revolution
REV: Retribution (coming July 2020)
REV: Revelations (coming soon)
REV Warriors Box Set #1 – Books 1-3 in the series
Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series
The Enclaves of Sylox
Treasure of the Galactic Lights
The Drone Wars Series
Day of the Drone
In collaboration with Co-Author George Wier…
The Liberation Series
Captains Malicious
Available exclusively on Amazon.com and FREE to members of Kindle Unlimited.
Contents
The alien with an attitude is back!
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
The Quantum Enigma
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Novels by T.R. Harris
The alien with an attitude is back!
The Adam Cain Saga Continues
In this latest adventure…
With a new and diabolical foe causing trouble for Adam Cain and his friends, the team sets out on a desperate mission to find and recover the mysterious Formation Code, an ancient device, and supposedly the key to making the Formation come to life. And if it does, what then?
That’s the mystery Adam is trying to solve. What is the Formation, and what does it do? Why is the evil Aris service module so anxious to find the Code, as is the powerful Maris-Kliss Director Wolfgang Stimmel? Why do they both want the Formation? It must be for power. That’s the only thing creatures like Kanan and Stimmel desire. The question: Will anyone else survive the aftermath of the Formation?
But there’s more here than meets the eye. Friends become foes and foes become friends in this latest chapter in The Adam Cain Saga.
Once again, it’s Tuesday, and the universe needs saving. Who are you going to call?
Adam Cain and friends are back!
Let the adventure begin!
Prologue
Although the results were not as he hoped, Kanan did have to look at the positive effects of the experiment. At least now he knew how to kill a lot of biologics, and in a most horrific manner.
Disrupting DNA formation in the body had a profound effect and one that came on suddenly and with dramatic results. It was encouraging, if not messy.
Kanan’s latest robotic body had a full range of sensory receptors, including smell. It was his way of experiencing what it was like to be alive in the sense of organic beings. He’d programmed the carrier to respond to stimuli, to the point where the android vomited a few moments before. Now the foul taste permeated his senses. He would have to rethink the programming. Such input was distracting—and in another part of his mind—disgusting. But it did give him a better sense of what he was facing. To understand the reactions of biologics to a variety of stimuli would help him in his research. He did not want to kill all life in the galaxy, and knowing what it would take to affect the sensibilities of the masses was crucial. It made the sacrifices of these rotting, foul-smelling piles of organic material an essential cog in a much larger wheel, even though that was not the initial purpose of the experiment.
The indigenous species were not of a Prime classification; however, they shared a similar genetic makeup to the majority of advanced life in the galaxy. The demise of this small group would be noticed, but not missed. They contributed nothing to the welfare of the galaxy.
Kanan was expecting a more positive reaction to the strain, something that would transform the native Riaols rather than melt them. He was studying combinations and attempting to learn from them. This was his seventh such experiment, each with similar results. But what bothered Kanan most was the realization that there were a near-infinite number of combinations possible. So far—both here in the field, as well as in his laboratory—no pattern had yet been detected. He’d spent a standard year with his experiments, and he was no closer to a solution than the first day he created the stack.
He had to accept the inevitable. At the pace of his experiments, it would take thousands—if not millions of years—to test every combination. That wasn’t practical and for a variety of reasons.
Kanan took one last look at the wind-swept remains of the village as his mechanical mind reached a conclusion:
He needed the Code.
And from that moment on, all his efforts were spent in its acquisition.
Chapter 1
As a general rule, Humans can run faster than most aliens. However, Adam Cain was learning there were always exceptions to the rule.
The thing chasing him was fast, damn fast. And it was catching up to him as he sprinted down the seemingly-endless underground corridor, clutching the prize he held in the small satchel across his chest, keeping it safe. He knew it was fragile, so he wasn’t about to take any chances that it could get damaged. He’d risked his life to get it, and he wasn’t about to blow it now.
He was approaching a short stairway leading up to the next level with the fleet-footed alien breathing
heavily only steps behind. This seemed as good a time as any to try something radical.
As he raced up to the first step, Adam put on the brakes, sliding along the smooth floor until his right foot contacted the base of the first step. He came to a sudden stop, much more immediate than the creature behind was expecting. Adam leaned back, making his body rigid. Something hard hit the back of his skull, while the long arms of the lanky beast wrapped around him. Adam bent over, taking one of the arms and pulling it forward. It wasn’t hard to flip the alien—its momentum helped with that—and a moment later, the fur-covered creature was on its back, thrashing about as Adam held it pinned against the first five steps of the stairway. Adam smashed down with his right fist into the face of the alien, collapsing the short snout into the skull. That was when Adam realized why his pursuer was so fast. It was tall, limber and with extraordinarily long legs. But its bones were wafer-thin, reducing the creature’s overall weight. Even the thin layer of tense muscles covering the body wasn’t enough to resist the strike from the Human. The crunch of breaking bone was distinctive—and familiar—and a moment later, Adam was up and running again, leaving the corpse behind.
Adam Cain, why do you insist on interfering in my business? said an accented voice in his head. Adam was only vaguely aware that his ATD could detect accents, giving the mental voice an identifiable quality.
Because you interfered in mine. If you remember, you stole the disk from us originally.
And you took it from the Gracilians initially. I can play this game all day long.
There were noises up ahead—shouts of command. More of Stimmel’s henchmen were closing in. The chase animal did its job, herding Adam into the kill zone.
Through his new ATD, Adam could detect the energy signatures of six weapons located in corridors to the side of the main tunnel. They came from a combination of MK and Xan-fis. He’d already discovered that the guns in Stimmel’s underground complex came fitted with proprietary firing circuits, which meant a standard Formilian ATD couldn’t affect them. That was fine. Panur and Lila built his new brain-interface device to overcome that deficit.
Adam mentally located the battery packs in the devices. All energy weapons needed batteries, and Adam’s ATD could sever the power from the source. Even more, if he had time, he could route the electricity back into the units until they overloaded, becoming miniature bombs. The problem was Stimmel’s troops also carried projection blades, deadly swords that had two-thousand-degree laser filaments running along the edges. If their energy weapons became inert, they would revert to the swords.
Adam would have to blow the weapons; however, there were six of them. If they all went off at once, it would destroy a large chunk of the tunnel and create a catastrophic cave-in, potentially trapping him inside. He smiled. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t overload a couple of the pistols and let the resulting explosions take out the other members of the ambush team.
You know what I’ll do next, Stimmel said in Adam’s mind. Beyond the projection swords, I’ll use ballistic weapons, devices you can’t affect with your ADD, no matter what upgrades you may have.
It’s not an ADD. It’s called an A-T-D. If you’re going to have one, you could at least call it by the right name.
Through all the years I’ve studied you, I’ve never known you to take anything seriously. I can see you’re the same old Adam Cain.
You mean witty and charming to a fault?
To the end, that’s more appropriate.
Adam could sense the anger in Stimmel’s thoughts. He had a lot of experience communicating through his interface device, but he couldn’t remember ever having such a clear read on another person’s thoughts. He could almost see what Stimmel was seeing.
Please, Herr Cain, just return the disk. If you do, I’ll let you and Riyad Tarazi go. The galaxy is a lot more interesting with you in it.
I think I’ll take my chances.
I offered, Stimmel thought. You do know you have another kilometer of tunnel before you reach the surface? After that, you have to go up against my mobile units. I’m sure you weren’t anticipating having to fight your way out of my bunker; otherwise, you would have brought an army.
I always assume things will go to shit. Nothing I do is easy or according to plan. You’ve studied me long enough to know that much is true. But here I am, still alive and kicking.
Not for long.
Adam had a working knowledge of the underground complex of corridors, offices and workspaces that the former Regional Director for Maris-Kliss took over as his new headquarters. They were part of the old Gracilian dark matter research facility, where the original DE starships had been designed and built. The mutants, Panur and Lila, found schematics of the complex on Navarus, yet it was more from his reading of the weapons signatures coming from the hundred or so foot-soldiers Stimmel had on-site that told him most about the complex. He followed their movements in his mind’s eye, tracing intersecting corridors and attack positions, such as the one he was quickly approaching. And if Adam did manage to make it to the surface, Stimmel had even more troops waiting for him topside. There had to be a hundred or more and clustered in eight separate spots, which could be tanks or armored vehicles. Adam wasn’t sure of the exact number, but Stimmel had somewhere around eighty thousand mercenaries making up his security force on the twenty-six worlds he now owned in the Dead Zone. Most would be here on Gracilia with their employer.
Adam smiled again. Yes, an army would come in handy about now. But he didn’t have one, only his friend Riyad waiting outside. The smile quickly vanished.
I see you coming, Riyad said in Adam’s mind. His thoughts came in on a different frequency than Stimmel’s, keeping the conversation private between the two friends. There’s a welcoming party for you out here. I would suggest an alternative exit.
What do you have in mind?
A small service elevator, about two hundred meters ahead and to your right. But first, you have a roadblock to get past.
I see them. I’m about to take care of that.
A voice broke into Adam’s thoughts, strong and with a slight echo in its resonance. Collapse the exit if he gets past the ambush, said Stimmel’s heavily-German accented voice. And use minimal force to subdue. He has something of value that cannot be damaged.
Adam laughed in his mind.
What’s so funny? Riyad asked.
It’s Stimmel. He doesn’t know how to use my old ATD well enough that he’s broadcasting his thoughts in the clear, even while he’s giving orders to his troops. Whatta jerk.
That could come in handy, Riyad said. His ATD isn’t completely tuned to his brainwaves yet. It’s still tuned to yours. We’re just lucky he doesn’t know how to use it well enough to track our movements.
That’s just a matter of time, Adam thought. He has the best scientists money can buy on his payroll. I’d be surprised if there weren’t even a few Formilians among them. Even then, he hasn’t had any formal training on how to use the ATD. It could take him a while to figure it out.
Let’s hope so.
Okay, get ready. Things are about to go boom down here.
Adam didn’t break stride as two simultaneous explosions rocked the tunnel in front of him. Smoke and fire billowed out from both sides of the intersection, littering the main corridor in bloody alien body parts. Adam hurdled them and ran into the hot smoke cloud before bursting out of it farther along the tunnel.
Where to now? he asked Riyad.
Turn right at the next intersection. I’m looking at the schematics. If they’re accurate, there’s a service elevator at the end that will bring you to the surface. You’ll still be within a hundred feet or so of the troops waiting outside, but you’ll be behind them. I’m moving into position. You’ll be in the open and able to take full advantage of Panur’s ATD upgrades … the bastard.
Riyad was still upset that he only had a stripped-down version of an artificial telepathy device—the ATD—while Adam had the super-delux
e, top-shelf unit, recently designed by the mutant geniuses. It had every bell and whistle Panur and Lila could think of, and Adam was still discovering little things it could do. According to Riyad, it wasn’t fair that Adam always got the Porsche, while he and Sherri had to settle for the Civic.
Adam made a mental note to insist on an upgrade for Riyad and Sherri. Although he liked being treated special by the mutants, having his friends—and frequent comrades in arms—equipped with the most advanced ATDs could come in handy … like now. About all Riyad could do was track energy signals and talk to him telepathically. That left the heavy fighting up to Adam. He was getting tired of having to do everything himself.
Adam was surprised that this new corridor wasn’t guarded. He detected security cameras in the overhead and quickly disabled them with a mental command. Although Stimmel couldn’t track him through the ATD, he could through the cameras.
Adam began to question Riyad’s directions. If there was an exit here, he should see it by now. Elevators ran on electricity, but Adam wasn’t detecting anything other than ceiling lights. A minute later, he found out why.
It’s not an elevator, dickhead, he said to Riyad through his ATD. It’s an air vent of some kind.
It looks like an elevator shaft on the drawings. Blame the architect, not me.
