The Copernicus Deception (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 15) Page 7

Lights from the inner compound were aimed at the jungle wall, creating long, deep shadows that seemed alive within the rapid growth. As rookies on the cutting line, the two Humans thought they saw creatures moving in the shadows every few seconds. The more-experienced prisoners had no such concern, either acclimated to the effect, or uncaring in the resignation of their fate. As a consequence, Adam and Riyad spent more time watching the jungle than they did the prisoner line.

  That was why they failed to see Jym as he worked his way next to Riyad.

  “Am I imagining things, or is this real?” said the tiny bear-like creature.

  Riyad looked down, startled by the familiar voice. His eyes grew wide with recognition and joy.

  “Jym! I’m so glad to see you, my friend!”

  Adam heard Riyad. He stopped his cutting to look for himself.

  “Where’s Kaylor?” he asked.

  “He’s along here somewhere. We work the same shift. What are you doing here?”

  “We came to rescue you,” Riyad said with a full-toothed grin. Adam noticed the brief look of terror fade from the alien’s eyes. Jym was used to the Humans’ habit of displaying facial death-challenges when they were happy.

  “You…you came to rescue us?” Jym’s eyes began to glass over. “That is truly…appreciated.”

  “We came with Copernicus Smith,” Adam added.

  The Jym’s expression changed dramatically. “You did? He is the reason you are here?”

  “We came when he said you were in trouble.”

  “He cannot be trusted. He is only interested in his ships, and those of his clients.”

  “We noticed,” said Riyad. “But we came for you and Kaylor. If his ships get recovered, that will be a bonus.”

  “That is much welcomed. Let us move along now and seek out Kaylor. Do you have a plan of escape, Adam Cain?”

  “Don’t I always?”

  “No. Quite often you are simply creating strategies as you go,” Jym replied matter-of-factly.

  Riyad looked at Adam and smiled. “Our little friend certainly has you pegged, Captain Cain.”

  “Screw you, General. Let’s go find Kaylor so we can all get the hell out of here.”

  “Sounds like as good a plan as any.”

  Chapter 12

  The guards seemed unconcerned as the trio began to thread their way down the line, as long as they hacked at the growth as they went. Five minutes later Kaylor was spotted, his skin seeming to glow as the powerful lights hit him from behind.

  He was so engrossed in his trimming that he didn’t notice when Adam and Riyad moved up and flanked him. Adam then reached into the jungle with his chainsaw and took a huge chunk out of a thick vine. Riyad mirrored the motion, leaving the area in front of Kaylor clear of any growth. The Belsonian paused, looking at the huge cut.

  “I thank you…but—”

  He glanced to his left…and at Adam’s grinning face. He dropped his cutter in shock, before whipping around to find Riyad’s full-face grin staring back at him. Then his gaze shifted to a more-modestly grinning Jym.

  “I do not understand?”

  “I figured I owed you for saving my life aboard the Klin ship, way back when,” Adam said. “Time to pay up.”

  Kaylor spun around. “You…have come to save my life?”

  “That may be a little overdramatic. We’re actually here to rescue you. If that means saving your life, well all the better.”

  “Resume your labors!” a loud voice boomed from behind them, projected from a loudspeaker on one of the guard carts.

  Kaylor quickly picked up his chainsaw and the four of them began hacking at the jungle as they talked.

  “They came with Copernicus,” Jym offered with a sour tone in his voice.

  “He is the reason you are here?”

  “No, the two of you are the reason we’re here,” Adam corrected. “He came looking for our help when you got arrested.”

  “I thought you were in the Sol-Kor universe? That is the last we heard.”

  “All done. You won’t have to worry about the Sol-Kor anymore.”

  “You were victorious?”

  “Of course, Kaylor. Could there be any other outcome?” Adam continued to take wide, powerful swipes at the jungle growth.

  “You could have been killed. I suppose that could have been another outcome.”

  “Didn’t happen.”

  “Where is Copernicus?”

  “He’s back at the barracks. We’re now the barracks kings.”

  “Which barracks?”

  Adam turned and pointed to the building.

  “We are in the one next to it. What happens from here?”

  “I’m going to signal Copernicus when it’s time for us to make our break.”

  “Where to?”

  “Thought you could help with that,” Adam said. “Would it be possible for us to make it all the way back to Swiv in a stolen transport?”

  “There is but one road, and with clearing crews along its entire length. There would be ample opportunity to stop us during the journey.”

  “Then overland?”

  Kaylor stopped his cutting and stared at Adam. “Surely you cannot be serious?”

  “I am…and don’t call me Shirley. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

  “I am confused.”

  “Never mind. But I am serious. We saw the beasts that live in the jungle, but it may be the only way.”

  “You saw only one of the beasts. There are many others.”

  “Well, we can’t stay here. We have these cutters—and we are Human. That may be all we need.”

  “How do you propose to signal Copernicus?” Jym asked.

  “I’ll make the lights flicker in the barracks. That will be his signal.”

  “With your secret Formilian device?”

  Adam nodded.

  “And our collars?”

  “I’ll deactivate them.”

  “You will have to remove them,” Jym said. “They have a battery backup in case of power failure. If that happens, then they produce a half-charge shock to keep the prisoners in line until power can be restored.”

  “What about the towers?” Riyad asked.

  “They have battery reserves as well.”

  “Can you unlatch our collars?” Riyad asked Adam.

  “I can for us here. You’re close enough for me to identify the locking circuits. But all I noted was the power supply on Coop’s, not the locking mechanism.”

  “You have been warned,” said a voice from behind them. They turned to see two guards with angry looks on their faces. “Now you will have to be disciplined.”

  The speaker reached for a small control panel strapped around her left arm. Adam took a step forward, lifting his chainsaw as he did so. The aliens reacted with remarkable speed, drawing their flash weapons, one pointed at Adam, the other at Riyad.

  Adam lifted his free arm. “Wait, I didn’t mean to—”

  The round eyes of the guard met Adam’s, and in that brief moment, Adam knew she was going to fire. As fast as he could, Adam mentally locked on the weapon’s fire control circuits and broke the connection using his Formilian artificial telepathy device—his ATD—preventing the weapon from firing. The guard was confused when she depressed the trigger and nothing happened.

  Yet the other guard wasn’t confused, just trigger happy. He was a male, and he fired at Riyad.

  The blinding plasma flash could be seen across the entire prison compound. It struck Riyad on the right side of his chest, slamming him backwards and to the ground, a perfectly round hole burned through his cape and inner garment all the way to the flesh. The Human’s thick skin kept the level-2 bolt from breaking the skin, but it did create near third-degree burns within a four-inch diameter circle. Riyad didn’t cry out, but he did groan and gnash his teeth quite a bit.

  Adam reacted to the shooting of his friend by lifting the chainsaw and triggering the rotating laser points. The blade sliced through the alien’s arm w
ithout even a trace of resistance, sending the limb falling to the muddy ground with the MK flash weapon still held firmly in the hand. The Visidoran didn’t cry out, either. Instead, he held up the stump that was now his right arm and stared at it with disbelief. Then he passed out.

  To Adam’s surprise, the other guard had produced a meter-long machete from somewhere—probably a necessary part of her gear while working in the jungle. She made a jab at Adam with the shiny blade.

  Adam reacted with blinding speed, dodging the weapon as he swung the chainsaw horizontally at the guard. Again the flat, spinning tongue of the cutter found flesh and sliced through it like warm butter. The guard was cut in half, yet only when her feet collapsed beneath her and the body fell, did the two pieces separate.

  All along the prisoner line, screams rose up and bodies fell to the ground—including Adam and his friends—as crackles of electricity filled the night air. Ignoring the cold mud, Adam rolled and clawed at the collar. His mind was frazzled by the shock, but still he managed to concentrate on the process for unlocking the device through his ATD. The shock ended the moment the collar fell to the ground.

  He rolled on his stomach until he saw Kaylor and Jym, their bodies spasming from the continuous shock. With his mind now clear, Adam located the control mechanisms for their collars and unlocked them. The recovery time for the two aliens was longer than it was for Adam, so for several seconds their eyes remained rolled back in their heads.

  Next, Adam looked for Riyad. He had fallen into the first layer of jungle growth and only his boots were visible, his legs jerking from the shock his body was experiencing. Adam projected his awareness into the jungle, locating what appeared to be a bright spot in the foliage. He commanded the ring to open and a moment later the spot was gone. Riyad’s legs were no longer jerking.

  Adam crawled through the mud until he reached his friend.

  Riyad’s face was a study in controlled agony. He had recovered from the shock well enough, but now he suffered from the burns of a level-2 bolt.

  “Hurts, don’t it?” Adam said.

  “You could say that!” Riyad grunted.

  “You know, Kaylor shot me once? It was our official introduction.”

  “And you’re still friends?”

  “Best buds.”

  “Well, I’m not about to bond with that fucking guard.”

  “Don’t worry. There’s not much left for you bond with.”

  “Copernicus…!”

  “Yeah, let me get on that. Here.” Adam grabbed a handful of cold mud and slapped it onto Riyad’s burn. “That will help. Now, please excuse me. I have more important things to do than treat your minor scratches. You’re such a crybaby.”

  Adam couldn’t make out Riyad’s reply as he crawled back to the tree line, not over the moaning of the prisoners and the sirens going off in the compound. But he was sure it was graphic.

  He looked to the barracks building. Within it, he located the signature for the collar around Coop’s neck. He cut the main power to the ring, knowing now that the battery backup would kick-in. Even that would be enough to incapacitate.

  He tried his best to maintain focus on Coop’s collar, yet failed to find the weak signal of the locking control through all the surrounding clutter. He was picking up hundreds of stronger signals, both from the full-power prisoner collars, and also from security lights, computers and dozens of flash weapons.

  He had to figure a way to cut the main power. That would give Adam time to make it back to the barracks

  The problem was he didn’t know where the cut off was for the entire compound. He could see the main line where it entered Coop’s barracks. Under the original plan, it would have been easy for him to interrupt the power momentarily, flashing the lights and signaling Copernicus. But with the back-up charge triggered within the collar, he still wouldn’t be able to move.

  Adam followed the power line the other direction, away from the barracks. It ran underground and met up with trunk lines from the other barracks, before joining an exceptionally bright contact beam that descended deeper below the surface. All the power ran to what appeared in Adam’s mind as a big box filled with glowing light. With more concentration, Adam was able to identify several control servers within the box. Out of desperation, he began to sever them all.

  It took nearly thirty seconds before the last of the bright spots disappeared from his inner vision. By then, the agonizing screams of the prisons had been reduced. They hadn’t gone away, but having the shock of the collars drop by fifty percent had to be an incredible relief. The main lights in the prison had gone off as well, replaced now by battery backups at about one-third the prior illumination.

  The guards, who had flash weapons drawn and were advancing on the writhing line of subdued prisoners, suddenly stopped in their tracks and stared at the surrounding jungle. Even the moans from the prisons dropped several decimals.

  All around the compound dinosaurs were appearing, slowly at first, testing the security lines. Then night erupted with streaks of light from the shiny balls atop the towers. Yet the flood of light lasted only for a few seconds, as reserve battery power fell to zero from the high number of simultaneous discharges. Then the beasts returned, again testing the line. They grew bolder when no corresponding flashes were produced.

  Adam waited for the guards to begin firing their flash weapons, which they did with little effect.

  Adam felt a looming presence near him, a rustling of the broad leaves along with radical movement of trees and vines. Then he heard heavy breathing—a deep, almost gurgling growl.

  The jungle around him began to separate.

  A huge beast resembling a T-Rex moved past on his right, not more than five meters away. It poked its huge head out from the jungle cover and sniffed the air with flaring nostrils. Then a thick, muscled leg lifted over Adam as the creature entered the clearing between the tree line and the building where Coop lay incapacitated.

  The guards were busy getting killed, as half a dozen dinosaurs or more—primarily of two predator species—stalked the compound, roaming with impunity and snatching up both guards and prisoners at an alarming rate.

  The animal near Adam focused on the barracks building, before taking a long step in that direction.

  Adam was on his feet, grasping the handle of a laser-tipped chainsaw as he ran. He lifted the tool, triggered the controls and took a wide swipe at a knobby-skinned leg of the towering beast. As with the guards, the cutter sliced through the flesh, but with more resistance this time. Still, the effect was immediate and pronounced.

  The mighty creature let out a deafening roar, while jerking its leg away from Adam and twisting its thick neck around to see what had caused the pain. The dinosaur turned in his direction, the huge mouth widening as it came.

  Adam ran toward the thick torso and jumped. In mid-air, he swung the chainsaw above him, pointing the tip directly at the gray, leathery skin. The bar—with its rotating line of blue-light laser cutters—disappeared into the flesh of the beast, penetrating all the way to the forward handle. Then with Adam hanging on, the spinning chain of burning light began to open a seam in the side of the creature, extending toward the ground, using Adam’s weight to pull it downward.

  This time, the anguished cry of the beast was even more pronounced and high-pitched. It literally jumped in the air, lurching toward the barracks. Adam was nearly to the ground when he felt a blast of hot, foul air on his back. He looked over his left shoulder and all he could see was the gaping dark abyss of the dinosaur’s throat, framed by twin rows of deadly teeth.

  Without thinking, Adam yanked the still-spinning chainsaw from the side of the creature and pushed off with his feet. He flew through the night air, past the rows of razor-sharp teeth, and landed on a mat of soft, sticky flesh at the back of the beast’s throat.

  A Human-size tongue slid toward him, attempting to locate the foreign object and guide it to its teeth. Adam lifted the chainsaw in a defensive move, and half
the red tongue was sliced off.

  The dinosaur let out a deafening roar while tilting its head upwards. Adam began to slide further down the throat. His brain was rattled by the incredible volume and vibration coming from the twin flaps of skin that were the vocal cords of the creature. Adam grimaced with pain, before swiping at the vibrating sheets of flesh with the chainsaw.

  Immediately, the sound stopped, all except a sickly gurgling as blood flooded the dinosaur’s throat. The beast began to jerk its head back and forth. Out of desperation, Adam planted the bar of the chainsaw into the soft flesh of the throat to create an anchor. If not for this, he would have been thrown free, and through the gauntlet of the sword-like teeth.

  There had to be another way out.

  With the chainsaw still spinning, Adam braced his feet against the side of the throat and pushed, pressing the tip of the cutter further into the flesh. Rocking the tool up and down, Adam was able to open a long slice, which he shimmied into, using his knees and feet to press farther into the opening. Soon he was out of the throat and working his way deeper into the beast. He was operating blind, his eyes squeezed shut, protected from the torrent of blood filling the cut. He also held his breath. If he didn’t find a cavity somewhere soon, he would—

  The tip of the chainsaw suddenly lost all resistance, and a moment later Adam spilled out of the belly of the beast and into a puddle of mushy mud. He took a deep breath and sat up, only to be showered by a cascade of gooey blood, infused with globs of yellow mucus. Adam wiped the discharge from his face.

  The mortally wounded beast staggered forward, leaving Adam alone in the mud. But then it fell forward, crushing the front end of the barracks building with its massive body.

  Adam scrambled to his feet. The back half of the building was still intact, barely. He ran to the back door, still clutching the cycling chainsaw.

  He crashed through the door, past the bathrooms and into the main barracks.

  Several prisoners, their collars still on, rolled on the floor, while some of the more hardy among them rushed past and out the back door.

  Adam entered the segregated section where he’d left Copernicus Smith.