A Clash of Aliens (The Human Chronicles Book 13) Read online

  A Clash

  Of Aliens

  The Human Chronicles Saga

  #13

  an Adam Cain adventure

  by

  T.R. Harris

  Published by

  Copyright 2016 by T.R. Harris

  All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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  Website: bytrharris.com

  Novels by T.R. Harris

  The Human Chronicles Saga

  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 (coming June 15, 2016) Click here to order

  Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

  The Enclaves of Sylox

  The Drone Wars Series

  Day of the Drone

  In collaboration with George Wier…

  The Liberation Series

  Captains Malicious

  Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Adam Cain was pissed.

  J’nae, the Queen of the Sol-Kor, hadn’t been by to see him in nearly two weeks, and when she finally did, she came carrying two five-foot-long broadswords.

  “I wish to test your prowess with this weapon,” she announced, handing one of the swords to him.

  Adam knew for a fact that the Sol-Kor didn’t use broadswords, so he was confused as to where she would have found a pair of medieval weapons, let alone why she would expect him to have any expertise in their use. But he didn’t complain. At least she still found him relevant enough to make the effort. If she grew bored, or found that his usefulness had been exhausted, he could very well wind up as an appetizer at the next royal banquet.

  Of course, after this sparring session, he might end up on the buffet table anyway, as finger-food already cut up into convenient bite-size pieces.

  Gripping the proffered shiny sword by its leather hilt, Adam discovered it was surprisingly light in the reduced gravity of Kor. “I wasn’t aware the Sol-Kor used such weapons,” he said as he took a couple of practice swings for balance and feel.

  “They are not, yet I was allowed to practice with them during my own captivity. They helped to develop my coordination and spatial awareness. In addition, from the archives we have available, there are countless references to these swords being used as weapons of war throughout Human history.”

  “Not for the past thousand years, J’nae, not since we invented guns. So don’t be too disappointed at my skill level.”

  “We shall see about that.”

  Adam grimaced at J’nae’s thinly-veiled accusation…

  During the early days of his captivity, the Queen had visited often, either engaging in hours of conversation—she did most of the talking—or in sparring contests to test the limits of Human endurance and combat skill. Not one to reveal his hand too early, Adam tried to hold back, at least initially.

  J’nae already had experience with a Human fighter. Ensign Mac MacTavish had attempted to beat her senseless back at the portal farm. From Adam’s observations, that episode had looked to be more of an experiment rather than a fight, at least on J’nae’s part. She had shrugged off the vicious attack without a second thought. Her regenerative cells instantly repaired any damage the huge Englishman might have caused.

  As a result, when she first went up against Adam, she instinctively sensed his conservative strategy and wailed on him to an inch of his life. After that, he didn’t hold back. To his credit, he did manage to get in a few good licks of own, but just like with Mac’s earlier attack, she suffered no long-term—or even short-term—effects.

  Still, the earlier episodes had left her leery of any claims he made regarding combat skill.

  Those earlier bouts had been pure fistacuffs, but now she was bringing in exotic weapons to test him. An escalation? Or a sign of her need for more stimulation in their interactions? Either way, Adam sensed his future had definitely taken a turn for the worse.

  Studying the sword J’nae had kept for herself, Adam noticed it had no protective gear or blunted edge, being just as sharp and deadly as his own. That can be a problem, he thought, seeing that of the two of us, only I can be killed.

  As the pair separated in the wide space of his stone-floored and multi-columned living quarters, Adam wondered how far she would let this go. Was she planning to end his life here and now, or did she still believe him to be entertaining and useful?

  He was soon to find out.

  J’nae struck first, whipping her sword in a short circle and coming at him from his left. The movement was swift, yet he managed to counter the strike to a loud clash of ringing metal, backing away behind a nearby column and out of reach.

  J’nae stutter-stepped towards him, sweeping around the stone column in a smoothly choreographed motion, bringing her blade in low this time. Adam worked his sword against hers at the last moment, sending both blades clanging against the stone floor.

  Each of the Queen’s strikes had come at him at full speed and with purpose. If not blocked, they would have sliced him in two.

  She didn’t appear to be playing around.

  Adam raced across the space between columns and ducked behind another. He had to use whatever cover he could, knowing that to stand toe-to-toe with the Queen wouldn’t be his smartest move. He peeked around the barrier and saw J’nae approaching, almost casually, with a wide grin on her face.

  Overconfidence? That might be something he could use…

  Doing the unexpected, Adam bolted out from behind the column and charged, his sword above his head, crying out in a primal growl…just moments before dropping to his knees and executing a perfect slide into second base. J’nae had lifted her own sword in a high defensive posture, leaving the lower part of her body exposed. Adam slid under her on the polished floor, unleashing his blade at the Queen’s unguarded legs.

  All his blade contacted was air.

  Adam rolled and came up on one knee, bl
indly thrusting his long sword forward, back in the direction where he’d last seen the Queen. He looked up as she dropped back to the floor, having jumped two meters into the air to avoid his swipe at her legs. Now she had to suck in her gut to keep from being impaled by Adam’s desperate defense.

  J’nae stepped back, momentarily regarding her opponent. “As I suspected,” was all she said, before lunging forward again, lashing out at him with wide, wild arcs.

  Adam sprang to his feet, recklessly throwing his blade at the Queen’s incoming blows. The force of their meetings sent him stumbling backwards, barely able to bring his sword into position before another strong contact was made. Then she changed tactics, coming at him with a forward thrust, the tip of her blade heading straight for his heart.

  The pain was like fire as the razor-sharp edge of the Queen’s broadsword slid across his left side, slicing through his shirt into a six-inch length of flesh. He grunted with pain, clenching his teeth. But he didn’t have time to assess his injury; the Queen was already moving in for the kill.

  A flash of metal high above him, he looked up to see the seven-foot-tall alien lifting her powerful weapon high above her head, both hands propelling it downward with all her strength right at his head. Adam lifted his sword, grimacing with pain as the movement stretched the skin along his left side, tearing open his wound even more. But he did manage to place his blade between his head and the incoming leading edge of the Queen’s weapon.

  The impact was incredible, forcing the flat of his own sword to slam into the side of his head. It kept the slicing edge of J’nae’s weapon from filleting him from head to groin, but he fell back, landing hard on the stone floor, where he quickly rolled to his right and rose up on one knee.

  J’nae was lifting her blade again, readying for another savage descent towards his head. But then she did the unexpected. Spinning to her left, she brought her sword toward him along a wide arc, level with his neck.

  Out of pure desperation, Adam thrust out his blade, feeling his teeth vibrate as metal contacted metal. The bottom edge of J’nae’s sword slid along the length of his weapon, creating resonating harmonics not unlike fingernails on chalkboard. Then came a clang as the Queen’s sword came to a rest only inches from his hands, having been blocked by the extensions of his hilt guard.

  The faces of the two warriors were only inches apart. Adam could feel the Queen’s hot breath on his, as her intense, almost insane eyes bore into him.

  Slowly, both combatants shifted their sights, following along the length of Adam’s sword—right up to the point where it disappeared into the belly of the Queen.

  Panicking, Adam lifted his head to look once more at J’nae’s face. She was engrossed with the entry point, an expression of shock replacing her prior look of savage insanity. Then her gaze shifted back to Adam’s wide-eyed face. Their eyes met.

  “Uh oh,” Adam breathed, an embarrassed grin stretched across his face. To his surprise, the Queen mirrored the expression…just before lifting her sword and ramming the butt end of the hilt into Adam’s exposed forehead.

  He fell on his back, dazed, stars dancing before his eyes, losing grip on his sword. Stunned and defenseless, Adam Cain was completely at the mercy of the Sol-Kor Queen.

  As his senses cleared, he tensed even more, watching as J’nae straightened up to her full stature. At any second he expected her to lift her weapon and send it whizzing down once again in one final, deadly motion.

  Rather than delivering the killing blow, the Queen smiled even more broadly and took a step back, holding her deadly sword in her right hand. With her free hand, she gripped his embedded blade and slowly pulled it from her body. No blood marred the blade, and as soon as the tip appeared, the wound had already healed. She tossed the blade aside. It clanged against the stone floor of his quarters.

  Yet the battle wasn’t over.

  Not until the Queen twisted her wrist, whipping her sword in a wide circle and, planting the point firmly into the floor, sent stone shrapnel flying in Adam’s direction. He blinked and turned his head to avoid being blinded by the fragments. When he looked back, J’nae was in the same spot, only now with both hands resting on the blunt end of her sword’s leather grip.

  “That was…stimulating, Adam Cain,” she stated. “I thank you for that.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Yet, as I suspected, you possess much more skill with such a weapon than you originally let on. You Humans are devious creatures indeed, a fact I will have to keep in mind—always.”

  Adam just shrugged. If he was considered skillful with a broadsword, then that didn’t say much for the competition she’d been facing. Even still, as it dawned on him that the match was over, Adam had to let his ego have its due; if he’d been up against a normal opponent—one who could actually be killed—he would have come out victorious. Not bad for a rookie swordsman.

  J’nae looked to the wide swath of red soaking his shirt and pants. “I will have someone attend to you,” she announced, before turning away abruptly and marching towards the door. Just as she reached it, she stopped and turned. She then returned to where he still lay, reached down and retrieved his sword from behind a nearby stone column. She flashed him a smile, and left the room without another word.

  ********

  After the medical attendant left, Adam remained on his bed, shirtless, with a large white bandage covering his wound. He stared up at the high ceiling, once again lost in thought concerning his uncertain future.

  After the remainder of his strike team had been unexpectedly rescued from the portal building, he was the last Human left in the Sol-Kor universe. At first he didn’t know if that was good or bad. Fortunately for him, rather than take her frustrations out on him for the loss of the other Humans, J’nae had simply shrugged off the incident, choosing to focus her attention and curiosity on Adam rather than engage in sadistic acts of torture and revenge.

  A month and a half had passed since he’d been placed in his rather palatial prison adjacent to the Queen’s Chambers within the ugly black pyramid the Sol-Kor referred to as M-1, the seat of government for the Colony. The Queen came by often, but the visits had become less frequent recently as affairs of state took priority over playtime with her new pet. Even though he was fed regularly, allowed exercise time, and even granted limited computer access so he could keep his mind stimulated, he knew his days were numbered. And that set his mind to panicking.

  His fear came not for his own welfare; he could handle whatever the Queen had in store for him. He was really concerned about the rescue team.

  Adam held out no false hope that Riyad and the others would simply write him off and not even bother mounting a rescue attempt. He wouldn’t, not if the roles were reversed. And although he had no idea how Riyad would pull it off, Adam was ninety-nine percent sure that a second team of Human commandos would soon be entering Sol-Kor space, this time on a mission to bring him out alive.

  As a consequence, men were going to die, and the least Adam could do was make their sacrifices mean something…by being alive when they arrived.

  That was one option.

  The other was to find a way to escape on his own, before any more lives were lost on his behalf.

  To that end, Adam divided his time between exercising and surfing the equivalent of the Sol-Kor Internet, learning all he could about Sol-Kor society and preparing himself physically for when the opportunity presented itself. With the benefit of the Sol-Kor version of a translation bug, Adam found his Internet-like surfing expeditions to be quite enlightening, even though he’d found nothing on the computer to be of tactical value—at least not yet. But every bit of information helped. Who knew what innocuous tidbit would provide the spark for a plan?

  When he wasn’t on the computer, Adam was beating himself up with an extremely strenuous exercise regime. With the light gravity of Kor, he had to work hard to maintain his strength and muscle mass. His natural Human abilities were his ace in the hole, and if he let his body acclimate to the loca
l gravity he’d lose that advantage.

  His watchers couldn’t understand his devotion to the exercise routine, not until he explained that it was part of his religion. They knew of the concept, based on their own fanatical worship of their Queen, so they left him alone after that.

  Fortunately for him, most of the Sol-Kor were dumb as rocks and could be easily manipulated. However, there was a class of more-intelligent Sol-Kor, most of whom tended to hover around the Queen and her chambers.

  And the Queen herself was the most intelligent of them all.

  She was another Panur-like creature, similar to the five-thousand-year-old mutant alien who was himself a byproduct of the former Queen and another alien race. From what Adam had learned, J’nae had been created in the same manner, only using Panur and the Queen—his mother—for the necessary DNA material. Like Panur, J’nae had regenerative cells, allowing her to have already lived over six hundred standard years before assuming her role as the new Queen. She was also extremely fast, unbelievably strong, and possessed a photographic memory and perfect recall.

  Yet in spite of all her superior qualities, there was one thing Adam had learned about J’nae during their numerous sparring sessions that he found to be unexpected. Her own blows were not much more powerful than those of a strong Human male. To the native Sol-Kor, their new Queen was Superwoman, yet if it wasn’t for the fact that she couldn’t be killed, Adam was sure he could take her in a fair fight…if there was such a thing as a fair fight against an immortal mutant alien.

  Adam’s musings came down to two major conclusions. One: if he was going to defeat the Queen, it would have to be by other than physical means.