The Legend of Earth (The Human Chronicles Saga -- Book 5) (7 page)

“That’s right,” said Adam. “And if I’m right, it’s not the Humans who are your most immediate problem, it’s them.”

“My Lord,” said Relion, “the Human fleet delayed their departure for Juir by two months after the attack as they awaited the arrival of their second fleet. What if this other fleet – if it exists – did not hesitate?”

“Then they are due here in less than two months.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Adam agreed. “So you can evacuate all you want, but you won’t have time to do squat before the Klin arrive. And you know the kind of grudge they have against you. They called it a
Reckoning
of their own. I’m sure you get the meaning.”

Hydon continued to stare out the window for what seemed like an eternity, as everyone in the room watched him. Adam was content to let the Juirean digest everything he’d just heard.

“Relion,” the Council Elder began, “deactivate the collars.” He then turned to face Adam. “They can be reactivated at any time. We will investigate your claims, to see if we can detect any mass of ships approaching the Cluster. Fleet Marshal, cease all evacuation efforts and prepare a defense. If what the Human says is true, we may be able to repel a force of three hundred ships with the forces available.”

Adam could see the other two Juireans grow visibly excited. Relion began to bark orders into seemingly empty air, knowing that others were watching and listening.

“Then Juir can be saved!” Overlord Anawar said to the room.

“If what the Human says is correct, it is a possibility” said the nameless Juirean at the table.

Hydon did not speak, but rather locked eyes with Adam. Adam grinned. “That’s right,” he said cryptically to the Elder. “Even if you do stop the Klin fleet, you have a much larger and meaner group of very mad Humans arriving right behind them. So you can use your ships to defend against the Klin, and then you have none available for the evacuation. When the Humans arrive, you will have lost nearly all your defenders fighting against the Klin and have nothing left for the Humans. Juir is lost, as is nearly everything else.”

Adam’s words put an immediate damper on the spirits within the room. Relion and the nameless Juirean had risen from their chairs, but now they dropped back into them, dejected.

After a few moments, Adam figured he’d let them suffer long enough. “Of course,
I
might be able to contact the Human fleet and get them to call off the attack.”

“How can you do that?” Relion asked.

“Well, thanks to you guys, I’m pretty well-known to those in charge of the fleet, and a lot of us already know the Klin have been responsible for everything that’s happened up till now. I might have a shot.”

“A shot?”

“A
chance
at making them stop.”

“You would do that?” It was Hydon asking the question.

Adam leaned in closer across the table, making sure not to cross the imaginary dividing line down its center, just in case the collar had not yet been deactivated. “Don’t get me wrong. We are
not
friends, buddies or allies. I still have the image of the charred and smoking remains of my wife and daughter etched in my mind from your attack on Earth. These so-called mating bonds may not mean much to you, but they do to us. I’ll do this to save as many Human lives as possible.”

“Including your own,” Hydon said, his tone matching that of Adam’s.

“That’s right, along with the others who came with us. But already too many lives have been lost in a war that should have never been fought.”

“On both sides.”

“Whatever.”

Hydon turned to the nameless Juirean. “Have these three – and the others – housed in the Oannean Tower – under guard. So far, we have absolutely no empirical evidence that anything this Human says is true.” He turned to Adam. “In the event that it is, then we will work together to assist you in making contact with your fleet.” Hydon paused as he fought to say the words that seemed so painful to utter. “And then you will be free to leave.”

“Works for me,” Adam said, grinning as widely as he could without exposing his teeth. The last thing he wanted to do was spoil the moment with an inadvertent challenge of the supreme leader of the galaxy.

Chapter 5

Fifteen hundred years ago, the Juirean Empire was still expanding at a prodigious rate. Even though the borders of the Expansion only increased with the addition of new members, there had always been a buffer zone extending another thousand or so light years beyond. This was the rugged frontier, reserved for the adventurers and explorers, those who often spread the word of the coming Juirean Expansion to worlds that knew nothing of such things.

This rapid expansion of the empire caused the Klin to be continually on the move, unable to put down roots for fear of being discovered by the Juireans. Yet the ultimate goal of the Klin at this time was to find a suitable hiding place well within the Expansion, a place where they could easily monitor the activities of their mortal enemy.

When they eventually stumbled upon the Elision stellar system, buried deep within the turmoil of the Juddle Nebula, the Klin knew they had found their perfect sanctuary.

A stellar nebulae is a violent and dangerous place. Ever-changing vagaries of gravity, matter, heat and deadly radiation made these regions of space a place to be avoided by most sane spacers, even the fearless explorers of the Expansion. Also, within these stellar birthing grounds, several generations of new-born stars could come and go within a billion years’ time, and the planets that formed around these young stars were often bombarded with so much left over stellar material during the brief time of their existence that life could seldom gain a foothold.

The star named Kyrils was an exception. It had burst into existence almost five billion years before near the outer edge of the nebulae, in a more stable region, and was able to clear out most of the rogue dust, rock and gas to form a fairly uniform planetary shield of thirteen worlds. Even though constant concussions from nearby stellar novae deformed the system in its early days, the system had survived, safe within a fairly dense cocoon of gas and dust, hidden well within the very confines of the Juddle Nebula.

Fifteen hundred years before, scouts from the surviving Klin had weaved their way through the maze of gravity eddies to discover the Kyrils system. Immediately, they saw it for what it was: the perfect place for their forward base deep within Juirean territory. There were even two worlds situated comfortably within the star’s habitable zone. One was called Olypon, and would serve well as the Klin’s base of operations. The other was called Eilsion by the race of Primes who dominated its landscape – a people called the Kracori.

Even though Eilsion was a rocky world, with a large molten core and a strong magnetic field, it still suffered from considerably more stellar radiation than did Olypon. The Kracori had evolved as an extremely tough race, with thick leathery skin that had turned a deep, ashen gray over the millennia. But there was another unique quality that set the Kracori apart from nearly every other race in the galaxy.

Eilsion was a heavy-gravity world. Ever since the Juireans had taken over the galaxy and set the surface gravity of Juir as the galactic standard, all worlds were compared against this measure. The home of the Kracori was rated at 1.28 that of standard. This was significant, but not unique. There are literally millions of planets with higher gravity than even Eilsion throughout the galaxy, yet what made the Kracori so unique is how they had adapted to it.

Most inhabitants of heavy-gravity worlds were thick, low-lying and bulky. Also, these creatures had very slow metabolisms, so their movements were sloth-like, almost like a world in slow-motion.

But not the Kracori; they were an active, strong race of beings, able to move within their environment at speeds comparable to those on lower-gravity worlds. The Klin, being as cerebral as they were, classified the Kracori as Prime-D, and they would remain the only race so classified for another thirteen hundred years – until the discovery of the Human race.

The Klin established a small colony on the neighboring world of Olypon and began to watch the Kracori as they developed their society. They also continued to be pushed further out from the heart of the galaxy. This was not a problem for the Klin. Over the millennia, they had learned not to concentrate their population in only one location, and by the time the Earth was discovered, the Klin had established three very distinct colonies.

The main base was on Olypon, and over the years, contact was made with the Kracori, who become willing and proficient manufacturers of the Klin technology. They built spaceships by the hundreds and enjoyed the benefits of all the wonders of Klin science.

A second base – a much smaller one – was located on the planet Glasien-4 in the Far Arm of the galaxy. It was from here that scouts first discovered the planet Earth, although the world had already been visited many times in past. These early visitors had been the frontier adventurers seeking freedom from the confines of the Juirean Expansion, and more often than not, slavers. Although the Humans were an exceptionally strong and durable race, perfect for the slave trade, they had proved to be almost impossible to contain and control. After several thousand years, only the most stubborn slavers continued to find new product among the Humans.

The Klin’s primary administration headquarters was located on the distant world of Marishal, far out near the galactic rim and out of the main gravity lanes. This was where the
Pleabaens
of Klin resided, the leaders of the race. Marishal was also the secondary manufacturing location for the Klin, although not nearly as extensive an operation as on Elision.

All three of these locations served the Klin well for over fifteen hundred years, primarily because of their isolation from the major deep-well gravity lanes.

The Klin had developed the gravity drive four thousand years earlier, just before the Juireans had attacked their world and killed off nearly ninety-nine percent of the population. Even though the Juireans called this event the
Reckoning
, the Klin word for the event more closely translated into
Holocaust
.

Gravity drives work by focusing dynamic-forces to create microscopic singularities in space. Since these miniature black holes were always created at the same distance from the generator, the motherships were already well within the event horizon of the singularity when it was created, thereby shielding the generating spaceships from the effects of relativity. As space would flow toward the singularity, the starships would move as well, requiring no additional energy to propel them forward.

But here is where the true genius of the gravity drive paid dividends. Since the effects of the singularity were felt in all directions around the central point, space on the opposite side of the generating spaceship was also drawn in, and when the singularity dissolved, space would rebound, propelling the starship several billions of kilometers from where it had originally created the singularity. Space travel was achieved through the constant creation and dissolving of hundreds of these tiny black holes along the line of travel.

Of course, as with any great scientific discovery, there were guidelines to be followed to achieve maximum results.

Gravity drives were constantly being affected by other gravity sources around them, such as stars, nebulae and even other black holes. One simply couldn’t plot a straight-line course through space. In addition, gravity drives were very temperamental with regard to the amount of matter available within a particular region of space. Too little matter and the critical mass for singularity generation could not be achieved. Too much and the amount of matter drawn toward the singularity would cause a rainstorm of deadly projectiles capable of ripping any starship to shreds. These large-mass singularities were also very unstable and hard to control.