When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12) (30 page)

BOOK: When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12)

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After the remainder of his strike team had been unexpectedly rescued from the portal building, Adam was the sole Human left in the Sol-Kor universe. At first, he didn’t know if that was good or bad. Fortunately, rather than take her frustrations out on him at the loss of the team, J’nae had shrugged off the incident, choosing to focus her attention and curiosity on Adam. In those early days, the Queen came by often, but recently, the visits had become less frequent, as affairs of state took priority over playtime with her new pet.

And Adam wasn’t so much concerned for his own welfare—he could handle whatever the Queen had in store for him.

Who he was really concerned about was the rescue team.

He 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, if the roles were reversed. And although he had no idea how he would pull it off, knowing Riyad, Adam was ninety-nine percent sure that a second team of Human commandos would soon enter Sol-Kor space, but this time tasked with bringing him back home.

To that end, men were going to die, and the least Adam could do was make their mission worthwhile…by staying alive until they arrived.

That…or find the way home himself, before any more lives were lost on his behalf.

Adam now divided his time between exercising and surfing the equivalent of the Sol-Kor internet. An English-to-Sol-Kor language program was provided for him, so he found his surfing expeditions to be quite enlightening. There was nothing on the computer of tactical value—at least as far as the Sol-Kor knew—but every bit of information helped. Who knew what tidbit would provide the spark for a plan? And so when he wasn’t beating himself up with his extremely strenuous exercise regime, he was on the computer looking for anything that could be used to his advantage.

With the gravity of Kor as light as it was, Adam 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 local gravity, he’d lose that advantage.

His watchers couldn’t understand his devotion to the routine, until he explained it had to do with religion. They left him alone after that, although still failing to see the significance in his efforts. He was okay with that. Most of the Sol-Kor were dumb as rocks, even though there was a segment of more-intelligent SK’s he had to be on the lookout for.

And the Queen was the most intelligent of them all.

She was another Panur-like creature, similar to the five-thousand year-old mutant alien, who was the byproduct of the former Queen and another alien race. In fact, 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. This incestuous union—done in genetics labs, of course—had produced another super-mutant. Like Panur, J’nae had regenerative cells, allowing her to have already lived six hundred standard years before assuming her role as the new Queen. She was also extremely fast, unbelievably strong and with a photographic memory and perfect recall.

Although he often took a beating during the sparring sessions with the Queen, the one thing he’d learned was that her own blows were not much more powerful than a strong Human male could deliver. To the native Sol-Kor, she 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.

So now, as he lay on the bed contemplating his future, two things became abundantly clear. One: If he was going to defeat the Queen, it would have to be by other than physical means. And the other: She couldn’t be outsmarted, either.

With that reality staring him the face, Adam smiled, feeling relief when the line of thinking left him with only one option—other than waiting for the rescue team to show up and get themselves killed.

He was going to have to escape on his own.

And the sooner the better. He was sure Riyad wasn’t sitting around twiddling his thumbs. It was only a matter of time before his best friend made the fateful mistake that could cost him his life—along with the lives of all who followed him.

And Adam Cain couldn’t let that happen.

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