Invasion Force (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 21)

by T. R. Harris

  In the wrong hands, Adam admitted TD travel could be a terrible weapon. And as he prepared to trigger the controls that would open a portal to another universe, he snickered.

  As long as this technology was in his hands, everything would be fine. In the hands of anyone else…not so much. Was that arrogance or what?

  When a strange green glow appeared outside the Defiant, Adam knew the module was working. This was the tell-tale indicator of trans-dimensional travel. He dumped out of the jump and normal space returned—or at least normal space for this universe.

  And that had been one of Adam’s major disappointments during his prior TD jumps. It seemed there were no exotic creations among the infinite number of universes. All were essentially a static version of all the others, with the same matter, the same laws of nature; hell, even the same variety of carbon-based lifeforms causing trouble for everyone else.

  Neither in his universe nor in other dimensions—had he come upon any magic or supernatural events. Even if he didn’t understand the how of things, he knew there was a scientific explanation for…well, everything. It was only a matter of understanding, of learning.

  He shook himself out of his melancholy. The TD ship was operational; he was in another universe. Now all he had to do was get back home.

  He activated the controls and another green fog appeared outside the ship. When he closed the tear in time and space, he was back in his universe. Or was he?

  The Nautilus was gone.

  Adam was on the verge of panicking until he checked the starcharts and found he was in fact back in the Milky Way, just not where he’d left it. Time and space had currents, and even as he lingered in another universe, these currents shifted, both here and in the alien dimension. He’d drifted, and after some quick calculations, found he was about six light-years from the Nautilus.

  The crisis wasn’t serious. A quick CW link to the Nautilus and the huge freighter was on its way. Adam could have activated the gravity drive in the Defiant and met them halfway. But he could only create a single deep-well event before the temporary batteries drained. If he had to dump out and start the generators again, he’d be shit-out-of-luck.

  He had twelve hours to wait for the Nautilus. Unfortunately, the Defiant was too small for him to play with his air currents; he’d suck up too much air for him to breathe if he did.

  So instead he began to reflect on what he’s just accomplished. He’d solved Panur’s mysterious power configuration and now had a fully-operational TD starship. The long transits between trouble spots was over. He could cross the galaxy in a matter of days, rather than months. And he had the means—hopefully—of tracking down the elusive pair of super-mutants. He truly believed he’d just taken a major step toward defeating the Klin menace.

  So he went aft, to the galley, to see if the builders of the Defiant had stocked the processors with any booze. He’d be disappointed if they hadn’t. He felt like celebrating.

  27

  “I’d forgotten how beautiful it is here,” Sherri said, gawking out the bridge viewports as the Nautilus came in for a landing on an island set in the middle of an azure and green sea.

  “Why the hell did you guys leave?” Copernicus asked. He was as much in awe of the scenery as everyone else. “It looks like paradise. This could be a good place for a retake of our tropical vacation, Sher.”

  Yes, the view of the quickly approaching island was inviting, but Adam knew a deeper truth. His old base on Pyrum-3 held some terrible memories for the people who had once lived and worked here, thanks in part to Robert McCarthy’s father, Nigel.

  Adam didn’t want to dwell too much on the backstory—everything was recorded in the archives—except to say that McCarthy the Elder attacked the base with a team of Human commandos. In the process, Adam lost some good men, including a young Navy Commander named Lee Schwartz. Adam captured McCarthy, yet on the trip back to Earth, he managed to escape, killing two more of Adam’s men. After that, the team disbanded, until McCarthy resurfaced, and up to his old antics of galactic domination again.

  Adam eventually personally closed out the chapter on Nigel McCarthy, after chasing the psychopath to the Large Magellanic Cloud, one the sister galaxies of the Milky Way. Nigel was dead this time. Adam made sure of it.

  Adam had used the base as the headquarters for his small force of intergalactic troubleshooters, affectionately referred to as Cain’s Crusaders. They were sanctioned under the auspices of the leader of the Expansion at the time, the Silean Kroekus—back when he was one of the good guys. He’d met his ultimate fate at the same time as McCarthy, and in a galaxy far, far away.

  The base had living quarters, workshops, a starship hangar—and a weapons cache from when they were here ten years ago. Adam was hoping it were still here.

  The huge, ugly behemoth that was the Nautilus dominated the small landing field, which has been designed primarily to hold small, fast fighters. It was especially gaudy-looking when set against the seductive tropical setting, complete with alien-looking palm trees, crescent white beaches and shimmering blue-green water.

  The team made quick work of the move in, the Humans content with the slightly higher than normal Juirean-standard gravity, although it made Arieel, Kaylor and Jym a little winded after only a few moments of hauling gear and supplies into the vacant buildings.

  The main structure was a free-form style building shaped like a shell standing on edge and made of a polyurethane composite material. It boasted over twelve thousand square feet of living quarters broken into nine spacious apartments beginning on the second floor. Each had wide balconies with incredible views of the island-dotted sea and the mainland three miles across the channel. There were plenty of rooms to go around, especially considering that Sherri and Coop shared one, as Adam and Arieel shared another.

  Part of the team took inventory of the supplies still on the base, while others moved the Defiant from the landing bay of the Nautilus and into the hangar. To Adam’s delight, everything they’d left was still here. He suspected it had been protected by the docile—yet impressive-looking—natives of the planet. They were centaur-like creatures called Cupin’los, which were not unlike the ones Adam had run into on the nameless planet at the beginning of his Nuorean bounty adventure. Yet these beings were gentle and had never tried to kill him. With the gravity a little out of the comfort range of the bulk of the galaxy’s inhabitants, the planet remained largely unsettled by offworld interests, and it had stayed that way throughout the years.

  Adam set to work in the shop section of the hangar, building the next ingredient in his quest to find the mutants.

  “What is it?” Arieel asked when she first saw the four-foot tall, two-foot round object. Sherri and Copernicus were with her.

  “It’s a CW broadcaster,” he told them. “It’s basic, designed to hack a message into nearly every signal that passes its way.”

  “What message?”

  “It simply says ‘Lila, call home.’”

  “You are serious?” The Formilian seemed genuinely excited.

  “I figure it’s Lila who wears the pants in the family, so I addressed it to her.”

  “Pants? I do not believe she would wear such attire if there were alternatives.”

  “But she is in control; Panur will do what she says.”

  Arieel nodded. “That is true. That is true in most male-female relationships.”

  Adam didn’t argue the point. He couldn’t.

  “Anyway, the message will spread out at the speed of a CW link. It’s a longshot, I know, but it’s the best I can come up with.”

  “You are often right in your assumptions. I trust you, my love.”

  Adam had to smile. He was indeed a lucky man, to have the most beautiful Prime female in the galaxy calling him her love. She was also a handful, and her alien ways of acting and speaking was a challenge in their own right. But he would soldier onward; the benefits far outweighed the negatives.

  “Where are you going to p
ut the beacons?” Copernicus asked. “You said there are an infinite number of universes. You can’t place a unit in each one.”

  “I’m going to set the first one in the Milky Way, just in case they’re here. The second one will go into the Sol-Kor galaxy, Panur’s home universe.”

  “Why do you assume they’re in another dimension? As you tell it, they left in an Aris starship that wasn’t capable of TD travel.”

  “Yeah, but it had two of the most-intelligent beings to ever exist inside. If they wanted to turn the ship into a galaxy-hopping marshmallow, I’m sure they could.”

  “I am going with you,” Arieel announced.

  “I’ll only be gone a day at the most.”

  “Yes, but I will keep you company.”

  Adam looked over at Sherri, who was grinning ear-to-ear. “I believe she wishes to help you christen the Defiant…officially, if you know what I mean?”

  “Hey, I’m just going out to plant the beacons.” Then a smile stretched across his face as well. “And to christen the Defiant…officially.”

  There was a power pack in storage that would fit in the Defiant. It wasn’t perfect, but it would allow for a half-dozen wells before petering out. Six days after landing on Pyrum-3, Adam lifted the TD-capable starship from the surface, and with Arieel strapped into the co-pilot seat, he made for outer space. He chose a location just outside the Pyrum star system, away from local interference, but well within the established CW relay lanes. He dropped the beacon and activated it with his ATD.

  Two hours later, he’d completed a thorough check of the TD module and systems to make sure everything was still in order. He never had any concern with Panur’s system. But since then, the techs back on Earth—as well as Adam—had messed with the module. It was working now, but it would take many more jumps before he gained complete trust in his own handiwork.

  He made the jump.

  Afterwards, Arieel sat with her arms crossed, pouting.

  “It does not look any different than our own,” she stated.

  “I told you that. They’re all the same. I have no idea why there are so many, unless they serve some vital purpose in the scheme of things. Perhaps they balance out the energy throughout existence. Or perhaps they’re just here to confuse us.”

  “If that is their purpose, then they are succeeding. Yet you can assure me we are in another universe?”

  Adam frowned. “Yeah, I told you that. We’re in another universe.”

  “Then release your beacon so we can get on to more important matters.”

  “What matters?”

  She smiled wickedly while licking her full, ruby lips. “I have never made sex in another universe. I find the prospect…stimulating.”

  Adam’s jaw fell open slightly and he felt his face flush. “Then I must attend to my duties, my dear.”

  “Yes, yes you must.”

  The moment of truth came, when Adam tripped the controls that would take the exhausted lovers back to their home universe and galaxy. For a moment, Adam considered what a tragedy it would be if he and Arieel got trapped in this alien universe. It would have no Klin, no Robert McCarthy…just a new beginning for him and Arieel.

  He felt a twinge of regret when the green fog covered the space outside.

  Adam had compensated for the drift this time, and the Defiant appeared back in the Milky Way just outside the Pyrum system. He and Arieel were enjoying their quiet time together, so they took the long way back to Pyrum-3.

  It’s when they neared the planet that their quiet reverie was interrupted.

  The planet was under siege.

  28

  There were five ships in orbit around the once-tranquil planet of Pyrum-3, and a quick scan of their configurations made Adam’s stomach turn. There was a small Human Normandy-Class fast attack ship, like those used by Special Forces assault teams. There was also a Juirean Monitor, capable of carrying a fifty-being surface assault force. But what was most surprising: there were three Nuorean warships, and the big boys that made up the bulk of their estranged fleet. Adam didn’t even know they had a dog in this race.

  None of the ships had fired on the others, not wanting to set off an intergalactic incident. Even the Nuoreans, who had been laying low since the Klin invasion, were reluctant to fire on ships from the Expansion and the Union. They had enough trouble hiding from the Klin.

  “Begin evasive man-groovers,” Arieel cried out when the ships began to move.

  “Man-groovers…oh.” Arieel didn’t know the Formilian word for maneuvers, so she’d tried to say the word in English. Unfortunately, translation bugs are only so intuitive.

  “Don’t worry,” he said to Arieel. “They’re all here for the Defiant. They want her intact. No one’s going to open fire.”

  The Defiant had caught the small alien fleet off guard. Adam scanned the vessels and detected activity in their gun turrets. He wasn’t worried. Give them a minute to identify the mysterious ship approaching out-system and they’ll stand down.

  “You sound confident. Are these your true feelings or are you trying to deceive me?”

  “No really. Watch.”

  Adam steered the Defiant toward the Juirean warship. They came close enough to see individual viewports in the hull, and almost close enough to rub against the diffusion shields.

  “You are being reckless. What is happening on the surface?”

  That was a good question. The ship dove into the atmosphere as Adam contacted Riyad through his ATD.

  Hey! Riyad shouted in his mind. Are you planning on joining the party anytime soon? You’re supposed to bring the booze. Seriously, do you know what’s happening down here?

  I thought I’d let you fill me in. We’re on our way. ETA, four minutes.

  Well, it’s been nice knowing you, but we may not last four minutes.

  What’s going on?

  Kaylor and Jym are trapped over in the hangar. The rest of us are in what’s left of the seashell. There are three separate forces. The Expansion is over on Malibu Beach. The Humans have The Strand and the Nuoreans are at The Wedge. So far, no one has fired on the hangar or the Nautilus, thinking the Defiant could in inside either one. But the residence and admin buildings…well, that’s another story.

  Adam had set a deeper, faster course through the atmosphere after hearing the concern in Riyad’s voice. He and Arieel could see the island now, bringing into focus Riyad’s report.

  It was a mess. Most of the once-majestic alien palm trees had had their fronds blasted off, and the picture-perfect crescent beaches—all three of them—were now broken with footprints, spent ammo and black landing boats sitting cockeyed in the gentle surf. There was also a greasy film on the waters of the shallow channel between the island and the mainland.

  Yet the most obvious damage was to the once spectacular living quarters building and the admin center next to it.

  The shell-shaped apartment structure was a sick memory of its former self. The building had a thick central pole running up the center where each of the floors radiated from. It couldn’t collapse, but every floor had suffered such severe damage that structural pieces hung from cross supports like ornaments on a nightmarish Christmas tree. There was evidence of flash bolt damage, but most had been caused by the Human’s ballistic weapons. The building next to the living quarters—the Administration Building where the team once had offices, comm equipment, and a number of sophisticated computers—it was gone, now just a pile of smoldering ruins.

  In contrast, the huge hangar building next to it was completely intact, without the signs of a single bolt hit or bullet hole. The same held true for the bulky orange-colored freighter dominating the landing field at the east end of the island. This told Adam a lot about the objectives of the attack. He would use that to his advantage.

  He set the Defiant down directly in front of the crumbling apartment building.

  The moment the starboard hatch opened, Adam and Arieel made for the building and the boxy base from wh
ich the once-elegant seashell-shaped structure rose. The walls were thicker here and had become the last refuge for the three Humans.

  Adam slipped in next to Riyad, while Arieel was flanked by Sherri and Copernicus, each armed with M-80 assault rifles. The more advanced M-101 hadn’t been introduced when the base was active, so‘80s were the largest caliber weapons they had.

  Adam poked his head around the corner of a shattered wall and scanned the beaches on the south half of the island.

  The island was about a mile-and-half long by one-half wide. Behind the three buildings and facing north, was a rough shore made up of jagged corals. The land was elevated here, which is why the buildings had been constructed here.

  On the west end was a small peninsula jutting out into the ocean. To the south of the prominence was a small crescent-shaped beach which Adam had designated Malibu years ago. Using his mutant-enhanced eyesight, he could make out an assault group of about twenty Expansion Special Forces on the beach. A Juirean Guard appeared to be in charge, barking orders as a medium-size inflatable boat was just then running up on the beach. A menagerie of aliens began to lift green-colored boxes from inside the boat. When they broke open the crates, long-barreled projectile weapons were inside.

  “You disabled the flash weapons?” he asked Riyad at his elbow.

  “All we could; you know the Nuoreans use a different technology. Another problem, most of the illustrious Human commandos have learned how to quickly reconnect the contacts, so anything we do to their weapons is only temporary.”

  “It looks like the Expansion troops aren’t as savvy. But they just had a literal boatload of automatic weapons delivered, apparently courtesy of some mutual armament agreement that could come back to bite us. And what about our fellow Humans? What’s their story?”

  Riyad chanced to stick his head up a little higher to look over the wall. Nearly all the firing had stopped after Adam landed the Defiant. Commanders on the ground and in space were reevaluating their attack plans.