by T. R. Harris
“I thought you said I was being lazy for lounging around all the time getting fat?”
“Just do it,” she commanded, pushing him down on the bed. “Now you and your ATD get to work … and no sleeping on the job!”
********
The first thing Adam did was find a link with the Pegasus. His ship was within half-a-mile of his present location, so theoretically he could have complete control of the ship. He activated the internal monitors and did a quick scan of the ship’s present condition. Everything seemed to still be functioning, even though he did detect that the Kracori technicians were in the generator room and currently attempting to gain access to the main computer. Several of the covers had been removed from the generator components with probes attached to the circuits. Multiple-array drives were commonplace, yet it was the intricate arrangement and seemingly impossible overlapping of the focusing rings that had the technicians baffled.
Adam tapped into the various datapads carried by the techs and had the ATD translate the entries that had been made. A recent directive had been given instructing them to do all they could to gain access to the computer, the purpose to see if this technology was widespread among the Humans forces. If this question could be answered, then Adam and Sherri would become worthless to the Kracori. It was also obvious from the tone of the communications that the Kracori believed they had all the time in the world to dissect the Pegasus. The Human ship was now aboard the Kracori flagship, and the two Human pilots would soon be dead or turned over to the Klin. Either way, the ship was now the property of Kracori military and would remain so forever.
Adam Cain was of a different opinion.
He commanded the ATD to send a debilitating virus from the computer aboard the Pegasus to the datapads used by the techs. This would erase all data on the devices, and once the source of the virus was detected, it would give the Kracori pause to try hacking the ship’s computer again.
After the virus was delivered, Adam smiled at the panicked communications going back and forth between the technical crew and the military leaders. The military types insisted that they try again. The scientists and engineers refused, saying that the virus could possibly spread throughout the entire computer system of the flagship. This caused the brass to reconsider their order. A tense period of indecision followed.
Sherri was leaning against a wall of the cell and noticed Adam’s wide grin. He saw her looking at him and gave her a wink. She smiled back, content in the knowledge that Adam was making progress.
Next Adam tapped into the computer system of the flagship. Since all the data was in Kracori, it was difficult for him to decipher what he was looking for. Fleet numbers and operational orders were in there somewhere, he just needed to find them. The problem, he found out, was that once data was entered into the computer, either by written or verbal means, it was converted to an electronic code that effectively spelled out everything in the Kracori written language. If it had been verbal, then the translation device could search for certain words and phrases. He set the ATD to work deciphering the written language, at least to find these corresponding keywords he could then search for. In the meantime, he accessed the latest communications between Commander Runor and the Kracori command back on Elision. These transmissions were both visual and verbal. Adam pulled up an algorithm searching for any reference to fleet size and readiness.
It wasn’t long before he had his first hit. It had been a link only a few minutes ago, as Runor informed Elision of the capture of Adam and Sherri. It appeared that Command shared Runor’s concern for the tech level of the Human fleet, even though the Klin had assured them that there had been no great breakthroughs in gravity-drive technology being used by the Humans.
The Kracori were being cautious. The three-hundred-two ships within the fleet were ready to deploy as soon as confirmation was received that the Jusepi and Human forces had joined battle. That confirmation could come at any time, Runor was informed, and he was ordered to prepare his fleet for departure from the staging area.
Runor would comply, even though he repeated his concern regarding the gravity-drive of the Pegasus. Eventually, another officer on the link back on Elision had pointed out that since the Human fleet had not as yet arrived at Duelux, then the Humans must not be employing this revolutionary type of gravity-drive. If they had, then the battle would have been joined long before this.
The officer was immediately congratulated for his astute observation and Runor was authorized to leave the Aslon system and proceed to Earth at his discretion.
And what of the Human captives?
Runor was informed that a Klin representative would be arriving at the flagship within the hour to take possession of the prisoners. It was a tradeoff for the Kracori retaining possession of the Human starship. It seemed that once the Klin had been informed of the identities of the two Humans, they had been quite anxious to meet them.
Runor had joked with Command on Elision that it was too bad these two Humans would be removed from his ship. He had to explain the punch line to his superiors by saying that in a week or so, the Human race would be essentially extinct, with their kind to be found only in zoos and museums. The two Humans he held captive could become very rare indeed, and worth a lot of credits in the future.
The Kracori back on Elision now shared the joke, while wishing Runor luck on his mission to destroy the Human homeworld of Earth.
Once the link was cut, Adam had the bulk of the information he sought. He knew the fleet was three-hundred-two ships in strength and that it would depart momentarily. What he didn’t know was how the Kracori fleet expected to deliver the death-blow to Earth, yet he assumed it would be nuclear; the Kracori had tried this before. Yet that attack had only had ten ships to carry it out. This one was thirty-times that size.
It seemed as though this time the Kracori were serious about destroying the Human race.
Next Adam began mapping out an escape route, not within the ship, but within the ship’s electronics. He not only had to provide cover for Sherri and him to leave the ship in the Pegasus, but he also had to figure out a way to keep the fleet from immediately following them. With the diminished focusing ring array on his ship, he would only be slightly faster than the fastest Class-5 in the fleet. Arriving on Earth only an hour or so ahead of the aliens wouldn’t provide them enough time to mount a defense for an attack they were not aware was coming. The ship’s standard radio would be useless since the Pegasus would be arriving in the system at faster-than-light speeds. The planet would not be warned until their physical arrival.
And now he had a deadline for devising a plan and putting it into motion. There was a Klin coming to take them from the Kracori ship; that he couldn’t allow.
Adam closed his eyes and fought against the frustration he was feeling. His ATD could do so much when he was within range, and a half-mile was plenty when aboard a specific starship. Yet what about the other three-hundred-one ships in the fleet? He thought about trying to link up with Arieel back on Formil and ask for her advice. They could communicate near instantly across interstellar distances by riding along Continuous-Wormhole links. CW-communication was able to open microscopic wormholes between two points and keep them open for as long as an hour at a time. CW had revolutionized communications across the galaxy.
Adam began to search for a CW-link heading in toward the bulk of the galaxy. Once he found one, then he would create a phantom point using his ATD and then piggyback dozens of other links until he found the path to Formil and Arieel’s own module. Once that link was established, then they could communication telepathically for even longer than traditional CW links.
CW had changed the galaxy, and now nearly all advanced ships used the technology for their communications, even when traditional radio waves would have sufficed….
Adam suddenly sat up on the cot, his eyes wide. Sherri jumped at his sudden movement. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” said quickly. “But I think I just came u
p with an idea that could be … well incredible, if it works.”
Sherri looked around the cell quickly, frowning. She knew others were probably listening in on their conversation and didn’t want Adam, in his excitement, to alert the Kracori of a possible escape plan.
Adam smiled and nodded. He then fell back on the cot and closed his eyes. This was going to take a lot of concentration.
First Adam tapped into the communication system for the flagship and found what he was looking for. At any given moment, there were literally hundreds of CW–links going back and forth between the ships of the fleet, and being aboard the flagship meant all the others were coordinating through fleet command. Adam tried an experiment.
He hopped a ride on a link going to one of the nearby ships and was able to establish a subliminal connection with that ship’s central CW-comm computer. After checking that the link was solid and would exist even if the overlying link was cut, he began to see if he could drill deeper into the computer system of the other Kracori ship using the CW-computer as an access point.
The effort was exhausting, as Adam found that he first had to command the ATD to create a ghost version of itself aboard the other ship before he could venture beyond the CW computer. However, once this was done, Adam he was able to convey commands from his ATD directly to the ghost ATD, as if he was aboard the other ship himself. It wasn’t a fast process, but now Adam could bip around throughout the electronics of the faraway Kracori ship even though it could be light-years away.
Why Arieel or Trimen had never told him about this feature of the device was understandable – they probably didn’t even know it could be done! Until she met Adam, Arieel Bol had never used her device for offensive purposes and therefore never had the necessity to stretch the boundaries of its range. Now, as long as CW communications joined two points in space, Adam could infiltrate the CW-computer and other linked electronics at the distant station. His discovery would do nothing to extend his range for just normal electronics, only if they were linked by CW and centrally-controlled by a master computer, as were all electronics aboard a starship.
He opened his eyes and found Sherri staring at him with an intense, troubled look. He smiled.
“Damn, babe,” he said. “This is about to get exciting. Come over here and give me a hug.”
The hug lasted a full two minutes, as Adam whispered in her ear explaining what he had been able to accomplish. Then he said they would wait for the Klin to arrive and let him escort them to the landing bay. Once there, they would make their break.
Sherri whispered back, “Can you disable all the ships in the fleet?”
The question sobered him immediately. It had taken considerable effort to link to the other ship and map out some of its basic systems. There was no way he would be able to link to all the ships; that would take days.
He pointed to the deck. “This one for sure,” he grunted, making his voice hard to pick-up on microphone. “Let’s get off here first and then deal with the rest of the fleet later.”
“Seat-of-the-pants-planning … I love it!” Sherri whispered while lightly biting his ear.
Chapter 26
The Klin…
Anorn Elsinum stepped off the ramp of the shuttle encased in a clear, plexi-glass exo-suit that helped him to move more easily in the oppressive gravity of the Kracori flagship. The suit allowed him freedom of movement, yet it did nothing to relieve the pressure he felt on his lungs and the effort it took to breathe.
Two lowly Kracori officers met him in the landing bay, tasked with escorting him to the prisoners and then making sure they got back to the Klin shuttle without incident. They each carried satchels containing restraints to be used on the Humans.
The journey through the bowels of the starship was exceedingly difficult and Anorn wondered why the prisoners were not in the landing bay awaiting his arrival. He tried to believe this had just been an oversight on the part of the Kracori, yet another part of him said the Fleet Commander Runor had probably done this on purpose just to watch the Klin suffer. He was probably watching a monitor at that very moment, as Anorn labored down the long corridors towards the security section, reveling in every second of Anorn’s agony.
Eventually, the small entourage arrived at their destination. The guards within the block of rooms met the other two Kracori and led them to the cells. Anorn was forced to follow.
The two Humans stood staring through the thick security glass with looks of unconcerned curiosity as Anorn finally pressed his way through the barricade of seven Kracori crewmembers blocking his view. He looked to the guards and nodded. The door to the cell slid open and the hulking gray creatures flooded in, grabbing the arms of the Humans and attaching strong, canvass shackles on their wrists and then wrapping the rest of the restraints around their torsos like a straightjacket.
Anorn stepped up to the smaller Human male. “Adam Cain, I am in awe of the importance of that name. I must admit, at first I was not aware of your legacy; I am not part of the high Council so I did not experience the troubles you caused them a few years prior. But I am aware now, and I assure you I will take every precaution to make sure I deliver you to the Pleabaen for his personal gratification.”
“Yeah, so how is old Summlin these days?” Adam smiled up at the tall, silver alien. “The last I saw of him, there was a building crashing down on top of him.”
Anorn’s expression turned icy cold. “That Pleabaen, who had held his post for a hundred years, eventually died from the injuries he suffered that day. The Pleabaen I refer to now is Wesselian Velsum, his successor.”
“I’m looking forward—”
“Stop the chatter!” the senior Kracori officer commanded. “I am to get you off the ship as soon as possible so we can depart on our mission. You are wasting time.”
The other Kracori forcefully jostled Adam and Sherri out of the cell and began the long march toward the landing bay. Anorn was forced to trudge along as quickly as possible, arriving in the bay a full five minutes after the others.
Chapter 27
Adam Cain…
The delay in the Klin’s arrival allowed Adam time to survey the landing bay – fortunately the same one with the Pegasus – and to map out its electronic controls. He hadn’t counted on this form of restraint, so a little improvising would be in order. He made eye contact with Sherri, reassuring her that he had a plan. He could see the near-panic on her face as the time for the escape was drawing shorter by the minute.
The Klin led them to his shuttle and up the ramp, to be greeted by two sweating and suffering O’mly who had accompanied the Klin on the journey to the flagship. They had endured the increased gravity for over half an hour already and they were nearing the end of their limits. Eight-inch talons or not, these O’mly would not be a concern for Adam and Sherri.
Soon the hatch was closing and the two O’mly did their best to escort the prisoners to the rear compartment. The Klin went forward to the pilothouse.
Adam and Sherri took seats opposite each other along the length of the fuselage, while the O’mly essentially forgot about them the moment they were seated. One sat next to Sherri, the other Adam, and they rested their dangerous looking hands on their knees and hung their heads, struggling to breathe.
The front latch of Adam’s straightjacket was made of a tough-looking canvas, material made by Kracori for Kracori. Since they originated on a heavy-gravity world, it was a good bet their material would be strong enough to hold a Human.
So instead of trying to break the restraints, Adam began to gather up the free electrons in the atmosphere and create a small static ball. The sparkling light would be visible to the guards, so he tried his best to create the ball in the small void between the latch and the bulk of the jacket pressing against his stomach. Soon the ball was forming, and as Adam continued to concentrate the energy in such a small area that it began to heat up.
When a faint burning smell could be detected, Adam looked to the guards to see if they’d
noticed as well. At first the two O’mly were too distracted by their own discomfort, but then Adam noticed the one next to him begin to wrinkle his nose and frown even more than before. Adam pulled with all his might trying to separate the singed bindings before the guard turned to the source of the smell. It was going to be close.
“Hey guys, have you ever had sex with an alien before?” Sherri suddenly blurted out from the other side of the cabin. “It can be quite stimulating.”
Confused and distracted, the two guards turned their attention to Sherri, just long enough for Adam’s bindings to break. He whipped his arms out, striking the guard next to him with a debilitating blow, while Sherri buried her shoulder into the guard next to her, knocking him off balance. Adam was now on his feet; he reached Sherri’s guard in a flash and grabbed him around the neck.
“Look out!” Sherri cried out, just as Adam saw the O’mly jab his talons toward Adam’s midsection. He spun the alien around until he was behind him and then tossed the guard across the room before the talons could make contact. The pitiful alien tried to regain his feet in the heavy gravity, yet only made it to his knees before Adam sent a crushing right hook to the creature’s boney head.
With both the guards down, Adam quickly released Sherri’s bindings and then stepped to the hatchway leading to the forward section of the ship.
“What now?” Sherri asked as she disarmed the two guards of their primitive versions of MK flash weapons.
“Follow me,” he commanded as he yanked open the hatch and sprinted for the pilothouse.
The Klin in the pilot’s seat was taken by surprise by sudden the arrival of the Humans; Adam pulled him from the seat, exo-suit and all, and literally handed him to Sherri. She shoved him down in a corner and placed a foot on his chest. With the creature already struggling to breathe, Sherri’s foot on his chest left him with only one thought on his mind, and it wasn’t escape.
