Dark Energy: Set in The Human Chronicles Universe (The Adam Cain Saga Book 5)

by T. R. Harris

  “Stop your resisting,” Kanan/Adam ordered. “I will not harm you.”

  “You won’t?” Summer said. She had her back against the cold stone wall, her body caked in the dark grey dust from the floor of the cavern. “Why not?”

  “Because I need you. You will recover the artifacts and deliver them to my ship.” He turned to Summer. “You mentioned Adam Cain.” An awkward smile stretched across the robot’s face. “I am pleased that my current iteration fooled you; however, it was not intended to deceive. Having encountered Human form before, I was curious as to whether or not it is superior to the Aris body of the older designs. Physically, it does appear to be better suited for combat.” Kanan focused his eyes on Tidus, which made the alien step away before bumping into another table. “However, you are much larger, making your form more intimidating. You are a Juirean. I have not seen one in person, having only killed your kind on the battlefield of space. Perhaps my next form will be that of a Juirean.”

  “What do you want from us?” Monty asked, tiring of the lovefest between the Aris service module and the Juirean.

  Kanan held up the device in his hand. “I can track the presence of concentrated dark matter but not with any certainty because of the interference of the surrounding stone. However, I do know it is near. Not here, but close.”

  “So, we are close!” Monty said. “You said to the east. Is that where you’re picking up the signal?”

  “That is correct.”

  Summer frowned at her father. “You’re not supposed to help him,” she growled.

  “The sooner he gets what he came for, the sooner he’ll leave.”

  “And destroy the planet, you idiot.”

  Monty looked again at the figure of Adam Cain. “Is that true? Are you still going to destroy the planet?”

  “Perhaps, however, my priority is to recover the artifacts Jroshin stored here. The outcome of the continuing battle in space will determine what happens after that. Now, guide me to the location to the east. You have experience; you will take me there.”

  “What about the money?” Monty asked.

  “Money?” Kanan frowned. “You mean credits?” Kanan laughed. “The money—as you call it—has no meaning to me. It is just more to carry. I am not interested in that.”

  Monty scanned the faces of Tidus and Summer. Tidus seemed enthused, while Summer was a study in anger and frustration.

  “There’s something seriously wrong with you, dad,” she said. She climbed to her feet and began dusting herself off.

  “Just being practical, sweetie. You know, the whole silver-lining thing.”

  “Whatever.”

  A moment later, the team was herded out of the mine by the robotic Kanan/Adam Cain and out into the cold of Mt. Zocor.

  Chapter 12

  The next mine adit was about ninety yards farther along the ridge. It wasn’t in nearly the condition as the entrance at the base camp with decaying timbers lining the opening and scrunched in toward the middle from the pressure of the slowly moving hillside. Kanan stepped inside for a moment, waving his meter around the interior.

  “This is not it,” he announced as he reentered the sunlight. He was only gone a few seconds, but it was enough time for the trio to begin making silent gestures at each other to run off into the woods. They snapped to attention when the robot reappeared. He ignored them and moved off to the next mine.

  This one was down the slope quite a bit, and they had to pass through the forest to get to the plateau outside the entrance. Early miners had cut away the trees in front of the mountainside. Weeks before, Summer’s team had treated the last mine as Kanan had, by quickly dismissing it. Two billion Juirean credits would fill the back of a couple of trucks and then carted into its hiding place. The last mine was too small for that. But this one had promise.

  The road snaked along the ridge just below this point with a wide turnout leading to the plateau. It was large enough for trucks to traverse—perhaps trucks carrying two billion Juirean credits.

  Over the past month, the team had only explored the first hundred yards or so of the main drift tunnel running into the mountain. There were a couple of splinter corridors to each side, but they didn’t look wide enough to move that many credits. Then the main tunnel began to slope down, following a rich vein of whatever they mined here. A steady stream of water flowed down, making them suspect that the lower part of the mine was flooded. The treasure hunters hadn’t gone much farther beyond that point, reasoning that anyone stashing a fortune of credits and other items in the mine would probably follow the path of least resistance. That had been their thinking when evaluating every potential hiding place they came across. Either their reasoning was faulty, or they hadn’t yet come to the right mine.

  But now Kanan had a way to narrow the search. Summer grimaced. Wouldn’t you know it, she thought. So close, yet so far.

  “The signal is stronger here,” Kanan announced at the entrance to the mine. “You go first; I will guide you with the meter.”

  The you he meant were the two Humans and one Juirean. They obliged, flicking on their electric torches. They each had respirators to filter out the stale air and other lingering gases inside the mine. Kanan hadn’t asked for one, and they didn’t offer.

  The explorers moved along cautiously. The mines were in a constant state of flux from floods and cave-ins, so one could never be sure that it was safe to proceed, even if you’d been in the mine the day before. They came to the first side shaft on the right. Kanan stepped forward and scanned the opening with his meter.

  “Indeterminant,” he reported. “We will continue along the main tunnel.”

  The next side shaft was on the left. It was wider than the first one, but not by much. The ground here was muddy with a thin crust of ice on the surface. Kanan checked the meter.

  “Again, variable readings. I suspect that the artifacts are here, in this mine. We will continue farther along.”

  “The tunnel slopes down a little after this,” said Tidus. “It could be flooded. If that is where the artifacts were first stored, they may be impossible to reach at this time of year.”

  “That would be unfortunate,” Kanan said. “In that case, I would not need your physical assistance in removing the items. Proceed.”

  As they moved farther along the main corridor, Summer began to speculate on their fate, even if they found the artifacts and helped Kanan move them to his ship. The same thoughts had been rumbling around in her head for the last forty-five minutes. Either Kanan would kill them if the artifacts weren’t found, or he would kill them once the find was loaded on his ship. Or he’d let them live, only to die when the dark-matter bombs went off, destroying Navarus. Or Summer would die of a stroke from worrying about the myriad of ways she could die. Any way she looked at it, she would end up dead.

  Occasionally, Summer would meet eyes with her father. They didn’t need ATDs to read each other’s thoughts; he was thinking the same thing. The only way to have a fighting chance at survival was to fight back. But how, and with what?

  The with what was easy to answer. All along the tunnel lay discarded mining tools, including jacks, wrenches and even shoring hammers. In the hands of a bull like Monty, a sledgehammer could be quite an effective weapon, even against a three-billion-year-old Aris service module, especially one operating within a robot version of Adam Cain. However, Kanan could teleport. And deliver deadly electric shocks. Even so, Summer began to see her father delivering a massive blow to the top of Kanan’s head with a sledgehammer, like one of those old carnival games she’d seen on TV but never in person, with the bell at the top. Crush the damn module along with Adam’s skull, that was the plan.

  Summer snapped back to reality as she tripped on something in the murky light and dropped to her knees in the cold mud. Monty helped her up.

  “Continue,” Kanan prodded from behind.

  Summer followed Monty’s eyes as they shifted to his left. In a giant fist, he held a rusted wrench ab
out eighteen inches long. He cradled it against his leg, keeping his body turned away from Kanan. Summer grimaced and shook her head slightly. It was one thing to imagine taking on Kanan with a rusty hunk of metal; it was quite another to actually do it. She feared for her father.

  “Stop!” Kanan said suddenly.

  Monty and Summer froze. Had he seen the wrench?

  “The signal is fading slightly. We appear to have passed the source. It is in one of the side tunnels. Turn around. We are going back.”

  Kanan turned away from the others, and that’s when Summer yanked the wrench from Monty’s hand and let it fall to the ground. “Not now,” she whispered. “Maybe on his ship.”

  Monty glowered at the tiny blonde. She could tell he was sick of appearing impotent in front of his daughter. He was a man of action, often bull-headed action. She put a reassuring—yet muddy hand—on Monty’s thick forearm, calming him.

  “Hurry,” Kanan said. “We are close.”

  The robot stepped to the side and let the trio resume the lead. Summer watched Kanan/Adam’s blue eyes follow Monty with unflinching concentration. The tension was thick among all in the tunnel; Kanan had to suspect his prisoners wouldn’t simply surrender to their fate without trying something. If he did, then he didn’t know Humans very well.

  At Kanan’s insistence, they entered what had been the second side shaft in the mine. They moved into the cold interior, sloshing through sometimes deep puddles of icy water. Even Monty was shivering from his bare arms, although he remained lock-jawed and determined not to show it. The tunnel branched off, forming a ‘Y’ at one point. They continued to the left before Kanan called them back. They only went a few yards into the other tine when the service module declared that this was the wrong tunnel. It had to be the first side-channel they’d come to, the one they thought was too narrow for the amount of material stored inside.

  A couple of minutes later, they were in the smaller tunnel, the first one they’d come to when entering the mine. It, too, branched off at one point. Kanan was watching his meter more often now, the signal getting stronger. Summer found it strange that the artificial emotions of the service module were being translated accurately in the expressions of the Adam Cain robot. He was getting excited. The end of his quest was near, and he knew it.

  Summer tried to share the same emotions. After nearly a year, she was about to come upon a secret stash of two billion credits. That amount of money was much more on Earth than out in the galaxy. They tried to calculate how much it would be once—okay, more than once—coming up with something close to fourteen billion dollars. And now it was all for naught. They’d get to see it, maybe even feel it. But there was no way Kanan would let them live long enough to have it.

  The sidewall of the tunnel suddenly opened up as it broke into a natural cavern with the requisite stalactites and stalagmites. Smooth, moisture-laden surfaces reflected their lamps and even a small stream coursed through the base of the enormous chamber, before disappearing into a distant dark hole in the sidewall.

  And there, on a high ledge protected against rising water, was piled crate upon crate of what the trio of fortune hunters could only imagine was the missing Juirean credits. Monty let out a long breath, not from the thrill of the moment, but the letdown.

  The robot scampered toward the wide overhang, following a natural path in the rock formations. If only they’d ventured a little farther in, Summer thought. They’d been here two weeks before. That would have been plenty of time to recover the money and to get off the planet. After that, they wouldn’t give a damn what happened to the Dead Worlds. Let the crazy service module have them, for all they would care.

  Atop the ledge, Kanan slipped past the blue storage crates and to another grouping of containers and other items covered by tarps. He pulled a canvass cover away and began foraging through the boxes underneath.

  At one point, he stopped and lifted a rectangularly-shaped metal box about three feet long by two feet high. None of them knew what it was, but Kanan seemed particularly excited to find it. He kept rummaging through more of the items before moving to smaller crates, those not containing the money.

  Kanan paused at one. With zeal, he reached in and pulled out a small metal case about the size of the business briefcase. In a fit of emotion, he looked down on the three gawking spectators.

  “I found it,” he gasped. “There was a possibility it would be here; otherwise, Jroshin would have taken it with him to Aac’or.”

  “What is it?” Monty asked.

  “The key,” Kanan answered. “Although you cannot comprehend to what.”

  “Why don’t you tell us anyway?” Summer prodded. She was curious. It had to be something special to get Kanan this excited.

  “I think not. Instead, I require a transport vessel. One of the old ore carriers will do nicely.”

  “There are no rail lines running in here,” Tidus pointed out.

  “Bring it to the side tunnel entrance. You will then transfer all of these items into the carrier. Hurry. My passage to Navarus was tracked. I suspect you will not like what would happen should my efforts here be interrupted. Go now, and the female will stay with me.”

  Summer took Monty’s hand. “I’ll be okay. Hurry back.”

  “You, the little one. Come up here. Begin moving the smaller items to the outer tunnel.”

  Monty gnashed his teeth in anger before racing off with Tidus to recover one of the old shuttle cars. Summer prayed that at least one of them had wheels that weren’t rusted solid. She’d hate to haul all this crap out by hand.

  It sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, echoing off the rock walls at such a high pitch that it almost made their ears bleed. But at least the old shuttle car could move. Monty and Tidus brought it in from outside after first hoisting it onto a set of rust-red rails that led back into the mine. The men pushed from behind using all their strength. At first, the wheels didn’t want to turn, and they ended up scraping the car along the metal rails. But after a while, the wheels began to rotate, not all the way around, but at least some. By the time they came to the side tunnel, all four wheels were turning, though with the constant screams of protest.

  Summer and Kanan heard the car even before it entered the mine. Now Summer stood with her hands pressed against her ears as her face displayed a look of sheer agony.

  “Holy crap,” she cried out. “No need to torture me before Kanan kills us.”

  “I tried splashing water on the wheels; it helped … some,” said Tidus.

  “It’ll get better,” Monty said. “Hurry up. Let’s get this thing loaded. I’m anxious to get to Kanan’s ship.”

  Summer and Tidus now shared a look. He and Monty had a plan brewing, but something they couldn’t implement until they got to the dark-energy starship. Summer didn’t resist this time. By the time they reached the ship, their fate would be sealed. It would be then or never.

  Summer already had a small stack of miscellaneous items sitting on the muddy floor. She loaded them in the rusty bucket while Monty and Tidus moved back into the cavern. She followed a few seconds later.

  Kanan had organized the load into four containers, using a couple of blue crates that had once carried Juirean credits to hold his precious artifacts. As the trio climbed the rock stairway to the ledge, they got their first glimpse of Jroshin’s fortune. Blue, green and red plastic Juirean credits lay strewn across the rock. Summer had no idea how much it was, but the two crates had only scratched the surface of the dozens of crates that remained unopened. Monty bent down and picked up a red chip, the highest denomination in Juirean currency.

  “Leave that, it is of no importance,” Kanan ordered.

  Monty smirked at the robot … and then placed the chip in his pocket. At the moment, Kanan needed Monty’s muscles more than he needed to enforce his authority.

  What followed were several long and exhausting minutes of shuttling Kanan’s four crates worth of items down the stairway, across the cavern and out
to the drift tunnel. The ore car was full by then, which would make it even harder to push out through the entrance. Kanan followed, leaving the briefcase for him to carry. Summer wished she knew what was in it if only to take that knowledge to her grave.

  And then began the arduous task of moving the fully loaded shuttle cart out of the mine.

  Normally, Humans are pretty strong, especially on a planet such as Navarus that had Juirean standard gravity of three-quarters that of Earth. However, the two Humans had spent the better part of a year living in Navarean gravity, and their muscles had acclimated themselves to local conditions. And since the planet had Juirean standard gravity, Tidus had no special advantage, either. Now all three got behind the heavy steel bucket and began to push. It moved but at about a rate of ten feet a minute. Mercifully, the rusted bearings in the axels began to lose much of their oxidation and moved more freely. The cart rolled a little easier now, but not much. Yet still, the god-awful screeching continued.

  Summer, Monty and Tidus were drenched in sweat as they reached the exit to the mine. The rail line continued, curving off to run parallel to the ridge toward the remains of a dilapidated building that had once held a processing unit of some kind. But once back in the sunlight, the three leaned against the heavy cart and stood panting for several seconds.

  Instinctively, Kanan knew he had to let his laborers rest. They would have to carry the contents of the bucket through the forest, down the road and to the clearing where his starship sat. That would take several trips. This first leg of the journey was the easy part.

  Kanan stood near the adit, impatiently counting off the seconds until he could prod the team back to work. Already he’d been on the planet longer than he’d anticipated. His passage to the planet had been noticed—even protested—and now they knew he made it to the surface. Anticipating their reaction, the Humans would have naturally assumed dark-matter singularities would soon be formed, requiring those forces in space to abandon the planet and flee from its vicinity. However, when no such events occurred, some would risk tracking him. He would be hard to find, but his destination would be predictable, especially by the strange pair of mutants he knew were in service of the Humans. Because of that, he had to get as many of the items he’d recovered to his ship as soon as possible, even if he couldn’t take them all.