Human for Hire (8) -- Starship Andromeda (Collateral Damage Included), page 1
Human for Hire (8) Starship Andromeda
Collateral Damage Included
T.R. Harris
A Novel of Human Superiority
THC
Tom Harris Creations
Edited by
Lionel Dyck
Sherry Dixon
Grammarly
And of course…
Nikko, the Grammar Dog
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Copyright 2023 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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Contents
In a rough and tumble galaxy,
1. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…
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
Epilogue
Coming next…
And be looking for…
Author Notes
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Novels by T.R. Harris
In a rough and tumble galaxy,
Ruled by Gun and Muscle …
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When you need the very best mercenary, bounty hunter, bodyguard or just straight muscle,
you find a …
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HUMAN for HIRE
1
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…
Adam Cain thought as he glanced nervously down the sheer rock face of the cliff at the craggy pile of gigantic boulders three hundred feet below. Then he looked up. The plateau of the mountain was now five hundred feet above him, making his decision to head down rather than up the better option. Besides, reaching the summit would only trap him there rather than give him a chance to disappear into the forest surrounding the mammoth monolith.
The mountain looked eerily similar to Earth’s Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, made up of hundreds of vertical hexagonal columns of black and gray igneous rock. Because of this unique formation, the cliff wall afforded Adam multiple footfalls—at least at this level—making his journey across and down the cliff face relatively easy. It also made it easy for his pursuers, the three Rayosian warriors who were cautiously making their way toward him.
Adam had already disabled their energy weapons using his Artificial Telepathy Device—his ATD—so there was no worry they would shoot him off the cliff. That was a relief, a minor one. But, still, it was one less thing to worry about.
He’d escaped from the massive metal fortress buried deep within the mountain fifteen minutes earlier after his team’s attempt at capturing the Rayosian fugitive Argo Warrik had gone bust. Siri, his mutant mind-control partner, was lying unconscious somewhere within the interior of the mountain, while Vinset was nowhere to be found. Adam hadn’t had time to reflect on the clusterfuck that had taken place; there would be time for that later, maybe—if he lived.
Right now, he had to get off the mountain and then find another way back in so he could rescue his friends. Adam Cain wasn’t the kind to leave well enough alone and escape while he had the chance. He had to make the effort, even if it appeared hopeless at the moment.
Using already bloody fingers, Adam gripped a razor-sharp rock slab and moved his left leg to the top of another rock column below him. In quick succession, he dropped another twenty feet before having to search for more hands and footholds. It had been years since Adam had done any mountain climbing, although what he was doing now wouldn’t rank as a sport. This was more like an act of desperation.
Fortunately, with the planet Minoria’s one-half Earth’s gravity, coupled with Adam’s exceptional Human strength, he had no problem staying ahead of the Rayosians. He would beat them to the ground with minutes to spare, allowing him to disappear into the thick canopy of native evergreen trees. Actually, from this vantage point, it was quite lovely up here, with a series of rugged prominences similar to this one jutting up through the rolling forest and with an even taller range of snow-covered mountains to the west. But Adam had no time for sightseeing.
He scrambled down a little farther before he heard a rumbling coming from the trees below. He paused his descent to watch as two motorized all-terrain vehicles emerged from the forest and stopped in a clearing a couple of hundred feet below. Each vehicle carried two uniformed Rayosians, more members of Argo’s security detail. They quickly jumped from the ATVs, swinging Xan-fi flash rifles into position, sighting on the Human.
Accessing his ATD in a rush, Adam quickly identified the control circuits within the weapons and disabled them. His new ATD, one he’d acquired a year ago from the Formilian Arieel Bol, was something special, a fact he’d only recently discovered. Unlike all the other ATDs he’d had in the past, this one had an advanced form of A.I. in it, meaning it could learn. This came in handy for quick actions such as disabling energy weapons. Since the device had done this a number of times before, it knew what to look for without too much input from Adam. However, it did have its limitations. This quick action was great against a handful of weapons, but ten or more, all bearing down on him at once, would still be a problem.
Adam watched as the frustrated soldiers below worked their weapons but to no avail. Then they pulled out MK handguns, and Adam did the same to the microprocessors in those devices, as well. Now, the soldiers stood in a cluster below him, impatiently waiting for the alien to climb down off the mountain.
And that he had to do. There was no place else to go. He skirted along the rock face as fast as he could, trying to get away from the soldiers. But they simply shifted over until they were once again directly below him. It was inevitable that he would have to face them in hand-to-hand combat. Adam wasn’t worried. He’d fought Rayosians before, and even four of them wouldn’t be much of a challenge. It was just the hassle that annoyed him.
When Adam was about a hundred feet above the soldiers, he made a decision. The gravity on the planet was light, and Adam was a Human. It would be a piece of cake.
In a surprise move to the Rayosians, Adam suddenly dove off the cliff, stretching his arms and legs out like a skydiver sans the parachute. The aliens were caught off guard with their mouths opened in terror. Was the Human trying to commit suicide? If so, it would save them the trouble of killing him.
But Adam wasn’t committing suicide. He fully intended on using the guards to break his fall. Instead, the aliens simply stepped away and let Adam plunge face-first into the ground. Fortunately, it was spongy soil made up of decades of fallen pine needles and moss. Still, the impact was enough to knock him silly for a moment … and long enough for the Rayosians to pounce on him.
Expertly, they bound his wrists with rope, as well as his ankles, and then they placed another line between the straps, pulling his back into a painful arc. Then they tried to balance him on his rounded belly. He kept falling over, which only infuriated the soldiers more. Eventually, with him on his side, they began to kick and pummel the Human, seemingly enjoying every second of the beating. They knew of Adam Cain—probably watched him recently on their native broadcasts as Adam and his team had participated in a series of arena matches to the death. Needless to say, Adam and his people survived, while several Rayosians didn’t. Now, it was time for some sweet revenge, and the soldiers were relishing every precious moment.
None of the individual alien kicks and hits were that significant against a Human, but cumulatively, they were taking their toll. If Adam didn’t think of something soon, he would fall unconscious, a slumber from which he doubted he’d ever awaken.
Suddenly, the four Rayosians were distracted by a flickering light about twelve feet above their heads and hovering in the air. They stopped hitting Adam and gawked up at the strange apparition. It was about the size of a fist and crackled and sparked as if it was on fire. Indeed, heat emanated from the ball, mesmerizing in its magical existence.
Adam, in an act of desperation, had commanded his ATD to form a static electricity ball, something that was child’s play for a device that controlled and manipulated electricity in its charter. Now, Adam used the ball as a weapon, streaking it toward one of the guards and crashing it into his chest. It hit with such force and speed that it didn’t burn the Rayosian before he was sent backward to fall unconscious onto the soft mat of the forest floor. Then Adam whipped the ball toward another guard. The Rayosian ducked, and the ball sped past him. He spun around toward Adam and laughed defiantly … just as the ball returned and struck him in the back of the head.
With two of the four soldiers out for the count, Adam now hovered the crackling orb at eye level with the other two but hesitated before unleashing it on them.
“Untie me!” Adam commanded. “Do it, or I’ll have my friend here land on your chest and burn a hole clean through you.”
Neither guard put up a fight. Instead, they quickly moved to where Adam still lay on the ground and released him. The guards stood petrified, not understanding what they were up against, while still acutely aware of the intense heat coming off the hovering orb.
A movement caught Adam’s eyes, and he looked toward the rock cliff. The other three guards had continued to move lower and were now about fifty feet away, coming to the assistance of their comrades. However, one was on a communicator, reporting what was taking place below.
Adam grimaced. So much for getting away with no one knowing.
Nonchalantly, Adam walked over to one of the discarded Xan-fi rifles and picked it up. The Rayosians looked confused. The weapon didn’t work. But then Adam lifted it, and with three quick bolts, blasted the three soldiers off the cliff, their inert bodies falling like ragdolls onto the pile of rubble at the base of the mountain.
What could be severed could be reconnected, all with simple instructions through his ATD.
Adam dissolved the static electricity ball since it was hard to do complex activities while keeping the ball formed in his mind. But now he had the Xan-fi aimed at the soldiers. He waved the barrel at one of them.
“Is there another way into the interior?” he asked, nodding back at the massive rock formation.
“I, I do not know,” the alien stammered.
Adam moved the barrel to the other one. “I know not either,” the alien said quickly. “We … we are not from here. This is the first time we have been to the fortress.”
Adam shrugged. He had a point. Why would they know the intricacies of a facility located on an alien world, even if their boss was here for a meeting? Unfortunately for the soldiers, that meant they were of no use to Adam except to slow him down.
A moment later, two black holes smoldered in the chests of the aliens as they lay on the ground. “That’s for hog-tying me and then kicking the shit out of me.”
With a sigh, Adam moved to one of the ATVs. A call had been made, and there would undoubtedly be a dozen more soldiers on their way, including natives who did know this territory. Adam had to hide for a while until he could come up with a plan to rescue Siri and Vinset … if they were even alive to rescue. His heart spasmed at the thought. This was supposed to have been a simple snatch and grab, but as it was with most of Adam’s missions, nothing was simple or happened according to plan.
What would be the fun of that?
Adam drove the ATV into the forest in the opposite direction from where the guards came. Whoever was informed of the events at the base of the hill might assume he would run for the nearest spaceport to get off the planet now that the mission had failed. Instead, Adam would stick around for a while.
He skirted along the base of the mountain, aided by several worn roads circling the monolith. The mountain was the exclusive lair of one of Minoria’s most powerful individuals who hosted the secret meeting that Argo came to attend. Tentatively, the conclave was to discuss the organization of a New Expansion in the galaxy that would be run by a powerful coalition of elites. It would be an affiliation of various races and not dominated by any one species, such as the Juirean Expansion and Human Orion-Cygnus Union. Being the supreme leader of Rayos—and with ambitions far beyond a single world, Argo had accepted the invitation with glee. His ego was such that no matter what others said, he truly intended to bring this new organization under his sole will and dominance. But he wasn’t about to say that at this initial meeting. Instead, he was here to observe … and to plan.
The Minorian Daxis Lap’onin was hosting the meeting. He was the richest person on the planet and also the most paranoid. At one point in his paranoia, he became convinced that the planet would be either attacked by aliens, fall prey to a rogue asteroid or be consumed by volcanoes, earthquakes or other natural disasters. To mitigate his impending doom, Daxis carved out the middle of the monolith and placed within the cavity a four-hundred-foot metal cube, complete with all the requirements for survival. It had bedrooms, kitchens, communications centers, weapons and other amenities that would guarantee both his security and his survival. And then, he had the cube placed atop a gigantic metal plate that served as a shock absorber against the most violent tremors. A void was created around the cube, which allowed it to float effortlessly on the plate during the constant tremors in this part of the planet.
In times of need, the facility was completely self-sustaining, including water, sewer, air and electricity. But to replenish the supplies during times of peace, utilities ran from the plateau above the mountain and through two hundred feet of reenforced concrete. None of the lines coming in or out were larger than a foot in diameter, designed to keep prospective intruders from using them for ingress and egress.
Adam and his team had come in through the front door—the only door—disguised as service workers. And with the help of Siri’s selective brainwave nullification abilities. During part of the infiltration, the three-person team simply walked past nullified zombies, slowly rocking back and forth in place. Once the team passed, the sensation lifted, leaving the guards confused but otherwise unaware.
Adam had escaped through the same door but with a little more bravado—and gunfire. The Rayosians took the lead in his capture and/or execution, leading to him scurrying along the shear rock face of the mountain.
Now, he had to figure another way in—if there was another way in. The front door was effectively sealed now, so that way was blocked. He had to think of something else; otherwise, Siri and Vinset were as good as dead. Along with the twenty-five-million-energy-credit-bounty for Argo’s capture. At the moment, the money was secondary, somewhat…
2
Adam parked three miles away, hidden in the woods, but still with a view of the towering pinnacle lifting out of the forest floor. He had to think.
The Arieel was hidden in the forest about ten miles away, waiting for his call to come get the team—and Argo. Recently, the ship had had a major upgrade in its A.I. system, giving the computer more personality and added abilities. Although the alien initials were different from Adam’s English acronym, he called the upgrade an OCS—Operational Computer System—since the program was designed to assist in on-the-ground operations along with the living agents. The program included sophisticated hacking abilities, along with a full database of tactics and strategies used in combat, spy tradecraft and the security industry.
Tidus was planning on upgrading all the computer systems used by his Starfire Security agents with the OCS, although integration was becoming an issue. Most of his agents didn’t have powerful enough computer links while in the field to utilize the full potential of the system. Adam was unique in that regard since he was the only agent with an ATD. It allowed him to seamlessly link with the OCS, as well as have the computer operate remotely through his brain interface device.
