Scorched Earth: (The Human Chronicles Saga Book #16) (4 page)

“Let me worry about that. I’m not going to forget about them.”

Adam smiled wryly. “Yessir. Sounds like a plan. I just have to get my Superman cape back from of the dry cleaners.”

Hollingsworth wasn’t buying Adam’s sudden change of heart. “I know you’re being sarcastic, but I’m serious, Captain. Don’t let me find you sneaking around behind my back. The President will let me do what’s necessary if it means keeping you alive and well on good ol’ Mother Earth.”

Adam saluted the Admiral before spinning on his heel and leaving the room. He was in a hurry. He had to talk with Riyad.

There was no time to lose.

Chapter 2

 “What the hell is a Mark VII anyway?” Riyad asked. He and Adam were slinking along a shadowed wall of an isolated hangar on the vast testing grounds of the Union Technology and Development Division. It was a little past midnight on the night of the war briefing. Adam was in full uniform, just in case.

“It’s like the Mark IV we had, only more advanced. Ever since Panur made his changes to the
Pegasus
, T&D have been trying to duplicate the feat.”

“And they’ve done it?”

“Not completely…shush, we’re coming up on the sentries.”

Adam came around the corner of the building with his chest pumped out and walking with purpose. The two guards at the hangar door jumped to attention and saluted. Even if the set of four gold bars on his shoulder boards weren’t enough, they recognized Adam immediately.

“Captain Cain!” one of the E-5s stammered. “Good evening, sir. What can we do for you?”

“Mr. Tarazi and I need access to the hangar. Please open the door.”

The other guard was frantically scrolling through his datapad. “Sir, I don’t see your name on the authorization list. Either of your names.”

“Of course you wouldn’t, sergeant. Datapads can be hacked. Our schedules are not to be broadcast. Now open the door.”

“But sir—”

Adam smiled. “Sergeant, are you trying to tell me that
I’m
not allowed inside? What do you think I’m going to do, steal the Mark VII.” The two guards looked at each other. “That’s right. How would I even know about the ’Seven if I’m not authorized to enter the hangar?”

“I’ll have to make a call—”

“And wake up a junior officer who doesn’t have the clearance to know about our orders? Do think every officer is privy to such classified information?”

“C’mon, Bill, it’s Captain Cain.”

The first guard looked at the second. He hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Of course, sir.” He grinned. “I’m sure there aren’t very many places
you
can’t go,” he said with a nervous laugh.

The other guard had already tapped in the security code for the door. Adam walked through the doorway while Riyad grasped the enlisted man’s shoulder. “We’ll only be a minute. And hush-hush, sergeant. Top secret stuff. You understand?”

“Yessir, Mr. Tarazi. And I’d like to say it’s an honor to meet the two of you.”

Riyad smiled, flashing his impossibly white teeth at the guards. Then he winked.

“Hurry up, Mister Tarazi, we don’t have all night,” Adam said impatiently.

Once they were inside the hangar, Adam shut the door and locked it. Through his brain interface device, he activated the lights in the hangar. Even manufacturers on Earth were now using Formilian circuit controllers, which gave him control over more than just the lights.

Fluorescent lamps in the ceiling popped on, quickly heating up to full strength, giving time for their eyes to adjust. The room was large and dominated by a sleek, silver-hulled starship. The craft looked very traditional, almost like a sleek jet fighter, but on a much larger scale. It was three hundred feet long by seventy wide, with a sloping forward section dominated by a pair of rectangular viewports. The fuselage widened closer to the aft section until it reached a pair of short matching wings radiating out on each side, with an oblong power generator attached to the ends. There was also a series of gangly-looking tubes strapped to the hull, looking out of place. They ringed the center section of the ship, held there by thick, black cables.

They could also see several recessed ports lining the hull in a number of locations, as well as on the tips of the wing generators pods. Adam had read some of the specs. The ship possessed both energy and ballistic armament, and quite a few of them by the looks of things. There was also an experimental type of torpedo onboard, one which was capable of utilizing a form of trans-dimensional propulsion, if the power supply problem could be solved.

The main entrance hatch opened on Adam’s mental command and the interior lights snapped on.

The two men entered a sizeable airlock, which wasn’t in use on the surface but would come in handy in space. Beyond the next doorway, they entered a spacious central common room, more spacious than other starship layouts since it served multiple functions, such as dining, a lounge and auxiliary control, all without the need for dividing walls. The bridge was to the right, while the passageway leading to the engine room was lined with long tubes along each bulkhead, forward and aft. These were auxiliary energy generators, like those strapped to the exterior of the ship. With the incredible energy draw the jump-drive demanded, the ship’s designers had to use every square inch of available space. There were two small staterooms aft.

There weren’t a lot of creature comforts aboard the Mark VII. This was a prototype, and clearly a work-in-progress.

Adam and Riyad proceeded aft to the main engine room. Another hatchway beyond led to the service bay, which contained a small, six-person shuttle. Again, nothing fancy.

“So what makes this ship so special?” Riyad asked. “I know it’s similar to Panur’s first version of the enhanced
Pegasus
, but obviously without any style.”

“The geeks know the technology works, but they haven’t been able to fully power the modules yet. That’s why both the interior and exterior is full of extra of generators. That also makes the damn thing incredibly heavy, which then requires even more energy for non-gravity transits. My friend in T&D—who shall remain anonymous—said they’ve been pulling their hair out trying to make it work. It’s a case of damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Attaching a dozen exterior generators to the ship in order for the drive to function makes the ship too heavy to lift off the ground.”

Riyad leaned against a huge round generator module and crossed his arms. “So, my friend, why are we here? I thought we were going to rescue Sherri and Arieel.”

“I have an idea. Pogo!”

Riyad frowned, confused.

On a nearby control console, a pale green orb materialized.

“Pogo? You named it Pogo?”

“Yeah, just seemed right. It keeps bouncing around like a pogo-stick.”

I know from your thoughts you actually named me after a cartoon possum.

Now Adam frowned as the object spoke in his mind.

Riyad moved closer to the tiny, four-and-a-half-inch diameter metal globe, covered in strange hieroglyphic markings. “I know…
Pogo
is supposed to be some kind of ancient power generator, so is that your plan?”

“It’s worth a try.”

Adam reached out with his ATD to communicate with the three-billion-year-old alien-created personal service module he’d brought to Earth after his last adventure.

Do you understand the dilemma?
he asked the object. It could only communicate telepathically—and Adam was the only person in the galaxy who had an embedded Formilian artificial
telepathy
device linked to his brain.

Yes, Adam. I’m scanning the nearby units. They are really quite primitive.

Save the editorializing for later, my friend. Can you link with them or not?

Not the actual engines, yet I can access the main battery packs.

Can you add power to them…or whatever it is you do?

Yes. I can supply the packs with near-instant energy, although the composition of my resources are slightly different than used here.

“What’s he saying?’ Riyad asked, growing impatient with Adam’s silent staring at the orb.

“He said he can recharge the batteries, but can’t power the engines directly.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“I don’t know.”

Pogo, what does this mean for the operation of the ship?

The vessel will be able to perform as designed, and the recharge times will be shortened considerably.

By how much?

Hard to know for sure, not without direct experimentation. However, my scan indicates that as of now, after a full draining of the batteries, a one hour, four minute recharged would be required, based on your Human time scale. With my input, I can decrease that to two minutes.

Adam’s eyes widened. He looked up at an anxious Riyad. “Two minutes between recharges!”

“And that means what…exactly?”

“A two minute recycle time between each three light-year jump.”

Riyad blinked. “That’s barely enough time to get our bearings. It’s also something like ninety light-years per hour. That’s fast.” Adam could see the glimmer in his friend’s eyes. The mission was shaping up.

“Okay, this is what we’ll do,” Adam said, his voice trembling with excitement. “We need weapons and supplies. I’m sure the ship doesn’t carry any long-term provisions or armaments onboard, not being an experimental craft. So let’s stock up and be ready to move out tomorrow night.” His face turned solemn. “They’re not going to let us out of here without a fight. We may have to bust a few heads along the way.”

Riyad flashed his trademark smile. “That never bothered me in the past. Don’t know why it would now?”

“Pogo, stay here and learn all you can about the onboard systems,” he said to the orb aloud. It could hear others talk, even as it could only communicate telepathically with Adam.

Yes, Captain Cain, as you command.

********

Adam and Riyad left the ship.

“Let’s pray the sentries don’t tell anyone we were here,” Riyad said. “That could tip off Hollingsworth about our plans.”

“I get the feeling he already has his suspicions. Dammit, I should never have told him I knew about the Mark VII.”

“To head him off, I suggest that later today you do  something to convince him you’ve put any ideas of a rescue out of your mind.”

“Like what?”

Riyad raised his left hand. With his fingers cupped together he twisted his wrist back and forth. “If you’re going to be paraded around the Union, you could show him how you’ve been practicing your
Queen’s Wave
.”

“Asshole. Let’s get going. There’s still a lot of
real
work to be done before we go rescue our damsels in distress.”

********

As soon as he opened the exterior door to the hangar, Adam was blinded by an assault of light from multiple sources. Squinting through the glare, he saw at least twenty armed soldiers, with lights attached to their weapons, and all the barrels aimed at them.