The Copernicus Deception (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 15) (8 page)

Copernicus didn’t hesitate. With a textbook spin-kick, he whipped around and planted a mud-caked boot into the alien’s left knee, a target that was just below chest-high to the Human. The force of the kick shattered the kneecap. The giant cried out again as he stumbled backwards, tripped over the broken cot and fell on his back onto two more prison beds. These, too, shattered under his weight.

Copernicus snatched one of the broken bunk’s metal support rods off the floor and hopped onto the remnants of the bed. He stood over the writhing beast, lifting the metal rod in preparation of the final blow—

Suddenly, Coop dropped the rod and grabbed at the collar on his neck.

Adam and Riyad mirrored the movement, as powerful electric charges rattled their brains and blurred their vision. All three Humans collapsed to their knees clawing at the rings.

The shock ended, leaving a deep burning sensation in its wake. Guards rushed up, flash weapons held steady on the Humans. The Visidoran with the red circle on her uniform walked up to Adam, who was just beginning to stand.

The supervisor surveyed the rest of the room, pausing as she did at the diminutive Copernicus Smith, now standing above the still moaning giant. She turned back to Adam.

“Truth revealed, so it seems,” she proclaimed. “Within the bay rules are set by the prisoners. We do not interfere unless it escalates beyond a certain point. Normally, we would have let your fellow Human complete his action, yet the Salken is a—how do I term it—an associate of ours. His presence maintains a certain order. Without a barracks hierarchy, chaos would rule. However, that responsibility must now fall on you.”

She reached out and tapped the collar around Adam’s neck. “Quite effective, are they not? No matter what happens in the barracks, let it be a reminder as to who has the authority here.”

She turned to the other guards, ordering them to remove the whimpering Salken giant from the room. Ten minutes later they were gone, leaving the three Humans alone to face the other prisoners.

Fortunately, none of them were anxious to follow in the footsteps of the fallen giant.

Chapter 11

With matching grins, the trio of Humans decided it was all together fitting and proper that they should occupy the giant’s oasis, at least until he was released from the hospital—assuming they even had a hospital in the prison. There was plenty of room for all three of them and additional cots were moved into the segregated area, and without a word of protest from the other prisoners.

Once settled in, they huddled together.

“That was some fancy spin-kick you made, Mr. Smith,” Adam said suspiciously. “They teach you that in Army motor-pool school?”

“A man picks up a few self-defense skills along the way, Cain. Don’t read too much into it. The bigger question is how are we going to get out of here with these damn collars around our necks?”

Adam looked at Riyad. “That won’t be a problem—when the time comes. But first we have to find Kaylor and Jym.”

Coop nodded. “Okay, you guys seem to think the collars aren’t an issue—that’s fine. But what if we do find Kaylor and Jym and manage to escape? It took us two hours by transport to reach this god-forsaken place. So either we steal a truck and try to make our way back to the spaceport over the only road through the jungle, or we go cross-country. You did notice that they have dinosaurs here, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, and I understand you have one as a pet back home, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Coop smirked. “Seriously, what’s your plan?”

Adam looked around the room to make sure no one was watching. Then he reached up and removed his security collar.

Coop’s mouth fell open. “How…how the hell did you do that?”

“The same way I manipulated the light switch on your ship. A little gift from the Formilians. Never leave home without it.”

“So it is true!”

“What’s true?” Adam replaced the collar and activated the latching controls through his brain-interface device.

“That you have—for lack of a better word—special powers.”

“It’s just technology, Coop, nothing more,” said Riyad. “I used to have one, too.”

“One what?”

“Never mind,” Adam said quickly. “Let’s focus on the matter at hand. In an hour we’re going to be put to work. Keep an eye out for Kaylor and Jym, while making sure nothing reaches out from the jungle and eats you alive. That would really screw up my plans.”

“I’ll do my best not to inconvenience you, Mister Cain,” Coop said.

“For the record…it’s
Captain
Cain to you.”

“In that case, you can call me
Sergeant
Smith.”

Both men looked at Riyad.

“Ha!” he said, flashing his trademark white smile. “I’ve got you both beat. They used to call me
General
Tarazi back in the days of the Fringe Pirates. So I guess that puts me in charge.”

“In your dreams,” Adam said with a smile. “In your friggin’ dreams…
General
.”

********

On cue, a gaggle of mud-caked and weary prisoners entered the barracks at the end of their shift, while guards rousted others from their beds and began to herd them out the back door.

The new prisoners took notice of the occupants in the small, segregated compound at the end of the room and mumbled conversations could be heard during the changeover.

 Two guards approached the oasis.

“You two…to work,” one of them said, pointing to Adam and Riyad. “You will remain in the barracks to maintain order.” She pointed at Copernicus.

“I want to go with them,” Coop protested.

The guards looked at each other with shock before turning stunned faces back to Copernicus. “You wish to work rather than remain here? That is not logical.”

“They are my friends.”

“That still does not make sense. Only one of you is required for security. You may rotate between yourselves, but two of you are going to work.”

“We’ll go,” said Adam. “But give us a moment with our companion to discuss the rotation schedule.”

The guards hesitated, but eventually moved on, guiding the other haggard prisoners outside.

The Humans huddled. “I didn’t see Kaylor and Jym come in with the shift change, so Riyad and I will go out and look for them in the other work crews. If we find them, I’ll make the power in the barracks flicker once. That will be your cue that we’re ready to go.”

“What about my collar?” Coop asked.

“I have it identified. When the time is right, I’ll neutralize it.”

“Just make sure you do. We may be supermen, but, damn, it really hurts when they turn these things on.” Coop grabbed Adam’s arm as he turned to go. “What if they’re in one of the other barracks?”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. We have some additional status here already. We may be able to intermingle with the other prisoners, especially at mealtime.”

“You make a lot of assumptions…Captain Cain.”

“It’s called contingency planning. You always need a backup for the backups, and so forth. Now just chill. We may not find them on our first work detail, but I’m sure we will, eventually. And one last thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t go killing anything without checking with me first.”

“I’ll try…but no promises. And you guys watch your asses. If you get eaten I may be here for the duration.”

********

It was deceptively cold outside the stuffy barracks, and Adam and Riyad were thankful the guards allowed them to keep their full-length capes. They placed the hoods over their heads and cinched down cords. It helped, but the frigid, biting wind still swirled in from underneath the garments.

What was surprising was that the other prisoners wore very little protective gear. The reason soon began apparent.

The two Humans joined a parade of prisoners headed for the perimeter of the compound, where they took turns picking up chainsaw-looking devices from several long tables. Watching the others around them activate the cutters, they found they were indeed a form of chainsaw, yet with tiny laser points instead of tines for cutters. Without being directed, the compliant prisoners formed a line at the imposing jungle and began to hack at the obscenely huge leaves and vines. In the eerie shadows, the jungle wall appeared to be encroaching on the cleared space at a rate of about a millimeter every few seconds. If one stood still long enough, the progression could be seen; stand long enough in one spot and you would become part of the jungle.

The saws were amazingly light for the Humans. The gravity of Visidor was .57 that of Earth, making Adam’s one-hundred eighty pound weight only one hundred three on the planet. Normally gravity that light also meant a greatly reduced surface air pressure and corresponding lack of oxygen in the atmosphere. But the abundance of jungle growth on the planet provided ample oxygen, and although both Humans suffered from irritating inner-ear pain, it was something they could tolerate, at least in the short term.

Adam and Riyad set to work, swiping their laser-tipped chainsaws back and forth against the jungle. Within minutes they were soaked to the skin in the watery spray from the cut vegetation. The physical activity forced them to pull the hoods from their heads and unbutton the front of their capes. Visidor was an enigma. The high humidly provided both a penetrating cold along with a profusion of sweat. Adam knew it wasn’t healthy to sweat in colder climes; that could lead to hyperthermia. So the Humans began to pace themselves, seeing that they were vastly more proficient at clearing than the other prisoners. They took the opportunity to scan the work line, looking for signs of their alien friends.

Kaylor was a Belsonian, with light blue, almost translucent skin. He stood about two meters tall, so he would stand out in the line of shorter workers, just as did Adam and Riyad. Jym, on the other hand, was about four feet tall and covered in a coat of fine black hair. Adam often compared him to a little black bear, walking on two legs. He would be even shorter than the native Visidorans. So Kaylor was the beacon they were looking for.

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.”