Empires: A Classic Space Opera Adventure (The Adam Cain Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Empires

  The Adam Cain Chronicles Book 2

  T.R. Harris

  Set in The Human Chronicles Universe

  Copyright 2020 by Tom Harris Creations, LLC

  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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  Novels by T.R. Harris

  The Adam Cain Chronicles

  The Dead Worlds

  Empires

  Battle Plan (Feb. 2020)

  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

  The Copernicus Deception

  Scorched Earth

  Alien Games

  The Cain Legacy

  The Andromeda Mission

  Last Species Standing

  Invasion Force

  Force of Gravity

  Mission Critical

  The Lost Universe

  The Immortal War

  Destroyer of Worlds

  Phantoms

  Terminus Rising

  The Last Aris

  The Human Chronicles Box Set Series

  Box Set #1 – Books 1-5 in the series

  Box Set #2 – Books 6-10 in the series

  Box Set #3 – Books 11-15 in the series

  Box Set #4 – Books 16-20 in the series

  Box Set #5—Books 21-25 in the series

  REV Warriors Series

  Rev

  REV: Renegades

  REV: Rebirth

  REV: Revolution

  REV: Retribution

  REV: Revelations (coming soon)

  REV Warriors Box Set #1 – Books 1-3 in the series

  Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series

  The Enclaves of Sylox

  Treasure of the Galactic Lights

  The Drone Wars Series

  Day of the Drone

  In collaboration with Co-Author George Wier…

  The Liberation Series

  Captains Malicious

  Available exclusively on Amazon.com and FREE to members of Kindle Unlimited.

  Contents

  The alien with an attitude is back!

  Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue – Six Months Later

  Up Next:

  Author’s Notes

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  Novels by T.R. Harris

  The alien with an attitude is back!

  The Adam Cain Chronicles

  Moving to the tropical paradise world of Liave-3 was supposed to be a reward for twenty years of saving the galaxy from a variety of aliens with evil intent. But for Adam Cain, Sherri Valentine and Riyad Tarazi, it’s turning out to be anything but a reward. It’s turning into a disaster.

  Besieged by gangster thugs, alien assassins and troublesome dinosaurs, the Humans are learning they’ll need all their skills and natural abilities to survive.

  In this latest adventure…

  The galaxy is on the verge of war—again--and this time it’s over control of The Dead Zone. When a deadly incident occurs between Human and Juirean warships, events begin to spiral out of control. To head off a tragedy of galactic proportion, a peace conference has been set up, to be held on Liave-3 … and at Capt. Cain’s Bar & Grill.

  Nothing bad can come out of that, right? After all, it’s a peace conference.

  If you believe that, then you haven’t been paying attention.

  Adam Cain and friends are back. Let the alien ass-kicking begin!

  Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude

  His story continues.

  Prologue

  Captain Curt Bauer walked onto the bridge of the Naples at 0630-hours, holding a steaming serving of black coffee in a metal flask, before sliding into his command seat and settling in for another day of patrol duty in the Dead Zone.

  “What’s our status, Dan?” the captain asked as his XO stepped up to the chair. Commander Dan Madden had relieved the night watch only minutes before.

  “Nothing much to report, sir,” Madden answered. He referenced a small datapad in his hand. “Pressure in the portside aft air exchanger is down five percent. I have a team looking at it. Shielding is nominal, and the focusing rings are within tolerance. Master Chief Stokes has his people scheduled to begin maintenance of the Wainwright Coils at zero-900-hours, right after the morning’s festivities. It shouldn’t affect the comms much.”

  “And our friend?”

  “Still out there, although he slipped within two hundred thousand klicks of the ship overnight. Nothing to be alarmed about. But if he sticks with the routine, he should be cutting across our bow anytime in the next half hour, closing to within seventy or so. We’ll be ready.”

  “Good,” said the captain.

  Madden could read the frustration on Bauer’s face. “If we’d been in the Zone before the Juireans showed up, it would be us shadowing their squadron, rather than the other way around.”

  “I know, but this whole thing seems childish.”

  Madden smirked. “If nothing else, it’s giving us plenty of practice at setting GQ.”

  “Sir, aspect change in contact Bravo-Charlie,” a scope-operator reported.

  Bauer checked the huge clock on the bulkhead. “He’s getting an early start. You do the honors, Mr. Madden. Wake up the crew.”

  In reality, the crew was already awake and anticipating the call to General Quarters. They’d become acclimated to the routine ove
r the past twenty days, ever since the Naples entered the disputed Dead Zone and picked up their shadow. The other seven ships in the squadron had their own dance partners, and each took turns testing the skills—and patience—of the other. It was the Juirean’s turn; in the afternoon, Captain Bauer would initiate his own game of chicken with the Juirean Class-3 warship. It was necessary, as each side was determined to show they had just as much right to be in the region as the other. And the game would continue until either the Orion-Cygnus Union or the Juirean Expansion claimed the Dead Zone as their own. If that happened, things would become real and not just a game.

  The klaxon blared, followed by a computer recording: “This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill. Battle Stations, battle stations, all hands man your battle stations. Set Condition Red. Secure the ship, seal all air-tight hatches, department heads report readiness to the bridge.”

  With a sigh, Captain Bauer lifted from his chair and pulled out the thin environment suit from a slot in the stand. He slipped it on over his khakis, and a moment later had the helmet attached. He clasped a small air tank onto the breastplate and engaged the suit. It inflated instantly.

  “Bridge secure, sir,” said Commander Madden.

  “Very good; dump the atmosphere.”

  A moment later, the pressure inside the bridge compartment matched that of outside the ship. This way, if the hull were punctured, a catastrophic depressurization explosion wouldn’t occur.

  Bauer watched as seconds were added to a rectangularly shaped green-faced clock along the forward bulkhead. It began running the moment the GQ notice sounded. The screen read nearly two minutes. He frowned, as did Madden.

  Reports continued to filter into the bridge until—at two-minutes, forty-four seconds—the ship was declared secure, with stations manned and all atmosphere evacuated.

  Bauer shook his head.

  “That’s pitiful, commander. Nearly three minutes.”

  “Agreed, captain,” the XO said, his face twisted in anger through the lens of the helmet. “The crew’s becoming complacent. They know it doesn’t mean anything, and they’re getting lazy.”

  “We need to do something about that,” said Bauer. “Call a meeting of division heads after we secure. Let’s light a fire under some asses.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Contact bearing 140-degrees, level plane, arching to cross course,” reported the weapons officer. “Now at one hundred thousand kilometers and closing.”

  “Weapons status?” asked the XO.

  “Shields active and at full strength; cannon charged; ballistics and missiles loaded.”

  “Very good, lieutenant.”

  Captain Bauer looked out the forward viewport at the glow of the planet Annadin sitting two-hundred thousand kilometers away. His small squadron entered the star system three days ago and was only now approaching the planet. Although it had a name, on all modern charts, it was now designated DZ-48—the forty-eighth world in the Dead Zone, a near-lifeless ball of rock that had once been home to a thriving civilization of over three billion souls. That was before the Mad Aris Kracion swept through the region, saturating over one hundred planets with deadly neutron radiation, rendering them uninhabitable and initiating the greatest exodus of living beings the galaxy had ever seen. That was nearly five years ago, and now the wealth of the Class-A planet lay under a veil of radioactivity. Although bathed in radiation, the planet—like all worlds in the Dead Zone—was being slowly stripped by intrepid salvagers willing to risk their lives decontaminating small sections of the planet to get to the riches waiting to be reaped.

  And it was for control of these near-lifeless planets that Bauer and his fellow captains were playing this dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the alien warships. His was one of a dozen such squadrons from the Union demonstrating a show-of-force within the Dead Zone, matched by an equal number of Juirean vessels representing the interests of the Expansion. So far, only minor skirmishes had occurred between the two galactic empires; however, the frequency of these events was increasing. Bauer knew both sides were to blame. Although no one wanted an all-out shooting war, neither would relinquish the DZ to the other. It was too rich of an opportunity to let that happen. Control of the Dead Zone was the new Gold Rush in the Milky Way Galaxy.

  “He’s nearing the redline, captain,” reported the weapons officer.

  Bauer had set fifty thousand kilometers as the closest he’d allow the Juirean to approach. After that, it would be his decision to engage or not. Although he didn’t like it, the captain already knew what he would do if the redline were crossed. He wasn’t anxious to go down in history as the officer who started another Human-Juirean war. He would back down, giving way to the aggression of the alien warship. And everyone knew it, including his crew and the Juirean captain.

  “Helm, prepare to change course. Ready 0-8-0, down twenty. Execute on my command—”

  The bridge suddenly filled with a blinding white light, emanating from a single point dead ahead.

  “Evasive action!” Bauer called out. “Accelerate to flank speed. Helm, come to 0-8-0, execute!”

  The ship changed course, seeking to avoid the barrage of flash cannon bolts that had just been fired from the enemy vessel. At this range, they would be upon the Naples in less than three seconds.

  “Sir, the Juirean did not fire on us,” said the weapons officer through the din of activity on the bridge. “I repeat, they did not fire.”

  “Explain, Mr. Alfonsi.”

  “It … it blew up. The flash came from the Juirean ship exploding, not from flash cannon fire.”

  Bauer stepped over to the station with Madden at his elbow. Both officers studied the readouts on the screens. Lt. Alfonsi was right. The Juirean warship had exploded.

  “Sir! Enemy vessels changing aspect,” said a scope operator. “They’re lining up on us.”

  “Did we fire?” Bauer asked his weapons officer.

  “No, sir! All batteries fully-charged; nothing came from us.”

  “Mr. Forrester, plot an escape route,” Bauer said to the navigator. “No engagement unless absolutely necessary. Communications, release buoys every five seconds with updates. Let’s get this on the record. Release the squadron—”

  “More engagements, sir. The Seattle and the San Diego are under attack. They’re returning fire.”

  “Helm, belay my last. Plot covering vectors. Engage when calculated. Lt. Alfonsi, ready your cannon.”

  “Aye, sir—weapons hot.”

  The Naples moved to cover the San Diego. The ship’s shadow, another Juirean Class-3 cruiser, had unleashed a salvo of white-hot plasma bolts at the Union ship in response to the destruction of their companion. Now all warships in the Annadin system were engaged; however, with one of the Juireans already gone, this allowed the Naples to go where it was needed most. Unfortunately, the Union warship didn’t get a chance to help. Already, two of the Juireans had lit off bolts toward the Naples. Four of them hit the shields straight on, sending one of the panels into the red. A follow-up bolt overloaded the aft portside screen, causing it to fade.

  “Get that shield back up!” Commander Madden yelled.

  Beyond the bulkhead to the rear of the bridge, technicians in the Combat Information Center relayed the orders to the Damage Control teams. Power was rerouted to the shield, and the panel began to glow again, but at only twenty percent intensity.

  And that’s when another three bolts struck the same section of the diffusion screens. The shield dropped completely again, allowing two full-force bolts to reach the hull. Metal melted and twin holes opened up. The roiling energy entered the ship and burned through half a dozen compartments, incinerating crewmembers and equipment alike. A critical power junction was severed, causing the aft section of the ship to lose shielding. Two more bolts entered the engine compartment unobstructed, tearing through the gravity generators, auxiliary control and striking a chemical propellant tank.

  The death of the Naples occu
rred in two gigantic explosions. The first took out the aft section, while another rolling detonation blew out the forward section, including the bridge.

  Five of the Union ships managed to slip into deep gravity-wells and bolt from the area. Four of the Juireans did the same. The battle only lasted sixteen minutes, but it resulted in the combined loss of seven warships and the deaths of two hundred eighty crewmembers, both Human and alien alike.

  Communication buoys were received detailing the brief battle, including archival data showing the explosion of the first Juirean warship. The alert status on both sides of the conflict was raised within the Dead Zone, and all ships ordered away from their shadows. Neither side was ready to start a major conflict without assessing the situation fully. Leveler heads prevailed and a temporary truce agreed upon.

  But a more permanent de-escalation of hostilities would have to be negotiated face-to-face. Delegations were assembled and ships sent off to a neutral location where the critical talks would begin.

  That neutral location—where it would be decided whether or not the galaxy would go to war—was the planet Liave-3. And the meeting place for the negotiations was to be in the coastal enclave of Balamar, along a crescent-shaped beach and at a nautical-themed bar and restaurant known as Capt. Cain’s Bar & Grill.