by T. R. Harris
The three Humans fell to the floor and slid behind a solid stone block where an indecipherable stature of some kind sat on top. The bolts hit the metal of the figure, melting parts while causing the rest to burst into pieces of white-hot shrapnel.
A strange stillness spread over the room. Adam risked a peek over the top of the stone block and saw Lila was standing about fifty feet away, breathing heavily and still glowing white-hot. Her clothing had burned off yet her features were obscured by the brilliance of her skin.
Arieel and Trimen were on the floor twenty feet away, arms lifted to shield their faces from the intense heat. The other two Formilians were lost somewhere in the graveyard of dead and dying littering the floor of the chamber.
There were still Juireans alive, yet not nearly as many as there had been a minute before. Most stood on the wide catwalks at various levels above encircling the room, mesmerized and perplexed by the glowing figure below. They had lost interest in the rest of the team, confused as what to do next. This thing could not be killed.
Adam watched with fascination as Lila lifted her arms above her head and clasped her hands. A powerful stream of energy then shot from her body, aimed at the ceiling far above. Three seconds passed, and as the discharge of blue-white electricity left her body, the glowing subsided. When the beam faded and she lowered her arms, the radiating heat had dropped to a tolerable level and color returned to her skin.
Arieel jumped to her feet, pulling a blue cape from the body of a dead Overlord beside her. She draped the cloth around her daughter’s naked body.
Lila smiled. “Yes, mother, I must maintain feminine decorum when killing our enemy in public.”
Sherri heard the comment and turned to Adam. “She has your wry sense of humor, doesn’t she?”
Adam stood up. “Hurry, to the doors!”
His words echoed in the strange silence—which was suddenly overcome by a loud, thundering thud. He turned to where the bank of exit doors had once been, light from outside flooding in. Now a wall of metal faced him and the room was nearly dark. Huge barriers had dropped from the ceiling above the exits, effectively locking everyone inside.
There was a commotion from the other side of the room. Another twenty or so Juirean Guards came sprinting across the stone floor of the chamber, armed with long round canisters.
The surviving members of the team knew what the canisters held—liquefied gas, the only thing that could stop a creature like Lila. Freezing was the only defense against her, and as another squad of aliens appeared not too far from Adam, it was obvious the word was out and a strategy was being implemented.
Off to his right, Adam saw an open doorway with stairs inside.
“C’mon everyone! To the stairwell. We’re going down!”
Now another round of flash bolts erupted, and the six remaining members of the team raced across the open floor, dodging them the best they could. Lila was behind Trimen and Arieel, her arms spread and hunched over the running pair. A bolt hit her. The cape burned through at that point and a bright light shined through.
Another bolt struck at Sherri’s feet; she hurdled the small explosion with the grace of a person with firecrackers in their pants. She managed to keep going, with only a loud ‘muck’ escaping her lips. At least it sounded like muck to Adam.
They barreled into the stairwell. Adam and Riyad took up covering positions on each side of the door as the rest of them ran down the stairs.
“Where are we going?” Trimen asked as he raced by. “Can we get to my ship from here?”
“I think we just lost your ship as an option. There’s another way out.”
“Down here?”
“Yep. Move!”
Adam cocked the M-4 grenade launcher; Riyad saw him do it and mirrored the action. Moments later, they were spitting deadly canisters into the huge room. Multiple explosions now rocked the huge chamber.
Adam and Riyad took to the stairs.
“How far?” Trimen yelled from below.
“All the way down, twelve stories.”
Before they reached the bottom, flash bolts began streaming down from above, traveling through the open center column and striking stairs and railings. The team fell against the outer walls to avoid the flying sparks and plasma splashes while continuing to take several steps at a time.
When there were no more stairs, Sherri put a shoulder against a grey metal door and crashed through into a wide hallway. “Is this where the security vault was?” she yelled back as Trimen and Lila joined her. A moment later, Riyad and Adam burst through the doorway.
“Is this where Hydon’s vault is?” she repeated.
Breathless, Adam replied. “Yeah, to the left…hurry.”
Sherri’s eyes grew wide, or as wide as the left one could. “The tunnel! We’re going to the tunnel!”
“Bingo, baby! Follow me.”
The door to the vault was still unlocked. Adam led the way through.
“Damn, this place looks different,” Sherri said.
“No time for a tour. Riyad, take them to the tunnel. Lila, I need your help over here.”
The team split up and Adam led Lila into the room with the huge back-up generator.
“This is it,” he said to his mutant daughter. “There’s another one just like it on the other side of the building.” He took off his helmet and inhaled a deep breath of fresh air. It was a relief.
Lila didn’t need an ATD to scan the inner components of the machine, she was beyond artificial means to access her powers. She found the contact points and the fusion reactor, as well as traced the lines to the second unit. “I will have to do this, father,” she stated. “It is more complicated than a simple flash weapon. And the other unit will require even more expertise since it will be done remotely.”
“That’s fine. You’re not going to hurt my feelings if you make the nuclear bombs instead of me. What kind of control will you have over the timing? We have to get out through the tunnel before they explode.”
Lila’s expression went blank for a few seconds. “For the reactors to reach critical mass, a fourteen minute build up is required, otherwise the generator will simply explode with a release of radiation, yet no detonation.”
“Fourteen minutes! First of all, the Juireans will be down here long before that, and secondly, it took us over two hours to climb through the tunnel.”
“What tunnel is this that you and Sherri speak off?”
“It was made by a boring pod using lasers. It runs from here all the way to the base of the mountain.”
“How convenient.” Lila said. “It will be faster going down than it was going up. Once inside, we can collapse the tunnel to protect us from the blast and to stop the Juireans from following. Also, the Juireans should not be aware of the meltdown until only a minute or so before detonation, at which point they will be powerless to stop it.”
Adam smiled. “You make a father proud, sweetheart. Go ahead and light the fuse.”
Lila resumed her blank stare. Adam stood patiently, waiting for her come out of the trance. And he waited.
Through his ATD, he tracked the movement of Juirean flash weapons. A squad was down the stairs and in the hallway, headed for the vault. They would be here any second. Yet Lila was still in her trance.
Adam moved outside the room and took a position with a clear view of the center of the vault. He lifted the M-101 to his cheek. When the firing started, he would not only have to fend off a hundreds Juireans, but then sprint down the middle of a huge open room to get to the tunnel.
He began thinking how he could use his daughter for cover….
“We can leave, father?”
Adam jumped at the sound. “You scared me.”
“Scared, the courageous Adam Cain?”
Lila’s smile was as beautiful as a sunrise.
“Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Yes, father.”
They ran. In the light gravity of Juir—and with Lila’s superhuman abilities—
father and daughter were like blurs. The tunnel entrance was ahead and Adam was relieved to see that none of the others had waited for them. He slipped through the bent grate with Lila close behind.
They paused, and Adam raised his eyebrows in awe as he watched his slender young daughter take the bars of the grate—the same one it had taken two super-strong Human men to bend—and return them to their original position with no effort whatsoever.
“That will slow them down.”
38
“You’re right—”
Adam took a step backwards, placing his right foot on a sharp drop-off along the tunnel floor, and one slick with condensation. He slipped and fell, landing on the glass-like surface face-first.
And then he was gone and out of Lila’s sight.
He was sliding down the middle of the tunnel, picking up more and more water from what he knew would be a full-fledged stream farther along. He was also picking up speed. He managed to roll onto his back, using his arms and legs for steering. It was pitch black in the tunnel; he’d left the helmet to his suit in the generator room. It had a light.
His rapid descent may have seemed like a good thing, if it wasn’t for the jagged series of tread tracks cast in the stone on each side tunnel. The environment suit protected him against friction with the stone, but at this speed, if he rolled over to either side and hit the steps, it would be deadly. Occasionally, he would touch the side of the tracks with a hand or foot and have to roll to the other side. This worked fine…until he found himself airborne and scraping along the ceiling of the tunnel.
This was a spot where the pod had dipped down almost at a ninety-degree angle during its one and only trip through the mountain. Adam flew off the surface and hit the rock top of the tunnel before free falling. Fortunately, the pod had steered a horizontal course again, and at very gradual rate, allowing the floor of the tunnel to gently rise up to up to meet him, bathing him a spray of water. As long as he stayed in the stream, he was safe from the tread tracks.
There were signs of light up ahead. It would be the rest of team. At least Riyad was still wearing his helmet.
“Look out below!” Adam cried out. He didn’t want to collide with anyone and send them on the same wild ride he was on, no matter how much fun it looked to be.
He caught only a glimpse of the startled faces as he sped past between the two sets of stairs, spraying up a huge shroud of water along his path.
And then he hit the stairs.
The affect was just as he imagined. His bones rattled, his teeth rattled, the scream he emitted rattled. It only lasted a second, before he was spun and ended up back in the center of the tunnel, only this time racing down head-first.
The stream he was in began to grow deeper and wider as the floor of the tunnel begin to rise below him. He remembered there was a section where the pod had to climb a little above the horizontal to pass through an area of exceptionally hard rock. He fell into a shallow pool and came to stop. His body rocked with the exaggerated waves before falling below the surface of the water.
Choking, he stood up in waist deep water. He was bruised—everywhere—and the only thing that saved him from breaks, burns and cuts was the rugged construction of the environment suit.
He felt his way to the side of the tunnel and the embedded rock stairs. Out of the water now, he sat down, waiting for the rest of the team to catch up.
The bombs. Without a watch, he had no idea how much time had transpired since Lila set the triggers. It had to be getting close. Had Lila collapsed the tunnel, like she suggested? Or would a flood of deadly nuclear fire soon come racing through tube, killing everyone inside?
Then Adam noticed the lack of a breeze in the tunnel. That was a relief.
Light began to dance on the glistening rock walls. “I see him!” Riyad called out.
The team—Lila with them—were running as fast as they could on the slick, wet rock towards him. They were on the level-to-slightly-inclined section of the tunnel and soon most had fallen into the shallow pool and were romping around, celebrating their reunion.
“How much time, Lila?” Adam asked.
Without hesitation, she said. “Four minutes, sixteen seconds.”
He didn’t ask how she knew so precisely.
39
Council Elder Synnoc li Qriss had received word of the huge battle taking place at ground level in the building. From the Pinnacle Room he accessed security cameras—the ones that still operated through all the rogue electrical discharges taking place—and was astounded at the sight of the brilliantly glowing mutant with rivers of blue light streaming from her hands.
This creature was not of Synnoc’s world or his universe. This was something else, something his rational mind could not comprehend. He knew there were no real demons or any real gods. Yet here was this abomination.
He ordered every Guard who could find a liquefied atmosphere canister to attack the creature. To his surprise and delight, there was an ample supply of the mutant-freezing liquid in the maintenance and dining sections of the building. Apparently it was used in air conditioning and refrigeration units, which made sense.
But then he watched in horror as Adam Cain led his terrorists out of the room and into a stairwell. He knew there was no exit from the lower levels, so he relaxed, knowing that his Guards would flush them out—if the mutant could be subdued.
He became distracted by a new report. The Elites had been located.
Acus rushed into the room. “They are in sub-level thirty-one, room six. They were found locked in a room, apparently by Adam Cain.”
“They had contact with the Human?”
“Yes, my Lord. And Master Jolin was killed.”
“Where are they now?”
“Still in the conference room, my Lord. Shall I have them brought here?”
“No, I will go to them.”
The Elites who were seated around the conference table rose when Synnoc entered the room. Most were already up and pacing the floor, frustrated at their inability to leave, blocked by the armed Guards at the door.
Synnoc had acquired a flash weapon from a Guard before entering, and now had it hidden in the folds of his robe.
“Elder Synnoc, we must all leave the building immediately!” Master Malens yelled as he rushed up to him. “There is a bomb!”
All the Elites were now circling Synnoc.
The Elder was surprised by comment. He had come to the room expecting the Elites to be embarrassed and humbled by their disgraceful act, yet they all appeared scared and panicky.
“A bomb? Where?”
“I am not sure, but the Human mentioned a nuclear device—two of them—within the building.”
The Elites now moved toward the door of the conference room, feeling that with Synnoc there, they would be allowed to leave.
“Stop!” Synnoc yelled. The Guards closed ranks with weapons held steady. The Elites stopped, yet many appeared willing to face wrath of the weapon than stay in the room.
“You had a conversation with Adam Cain?”
Malens turned back to him. “We must leave. There is no time.”
Synnoc waved his hand. “There are threat detectors throughout the building. Radiation is one item of which we monitor. If Adam Cain had brought a nuclear device into the building, we would know of it. Master Malens, the Humans are very deft at lying. I feel this is the case.”
“It is true!” cried several of the other Elites.
“Although your passion is real, additional assertions about the existence of a bomb—or bombs—only meant Cain has persuaded more of you with his lies. If he planned on detonating such a device, why has he and the others fled into the catacombs where there is no escape? Such an explosion would surely consume them as well. And from the scene I witnessed below, they did not appear to be creatures resigned to their own destruction. They are attempting to survive.”
Synnoc pulled the flash weapon and pointed it at Malens. The Vice-Elder stood aghast.
&n
bsp; “What are you doing, Synnoc?”
“Rather than be distracted by stories of bombs and impending doom, I ask you to answer for the subterfuge you and the others are engaged in. I know you are plotting against me.”
Malens’ expression went blank, resigned to his fate. Synnoc enjoyed the look of surrender he was witnessing.
“That is true, Synnoc. We have been conspiring against you, and against your reckless and dangerous judgement. We know of the fate of Fleet Marshal Kradis, your friend.”
“I will not stand for insubordination, either from him or from you. I am the Elder. I rule the Expansion.”
Synnoc wasn’t prepared for the wide grin that stretched across Malen’s face. If he didn’t know better, he would have taken it as a death challenge.
“Yes, you are the Elder…but for how much longer, that is the question.”
40
The dual explosions were heard and felt by everyone in the room. The building vibrated strongly for several seconds, but then this subsided. There were sounds of crashing debris, bursting pipes and panicked Juireans coming from around them, but that was all.
After the rumbling calmed, Synnoc looked at Malen’s shocked face.
“So, was that the catastrophic event you were so afraid of? There will be damage, I grant you that, but hardly the nuclear inferno you were expecting. I will also propose that we will find the bodies of Adam Cain and his cohorts in the damage below our feet—”
The trembling vibrations returned, yet stronger this time, knocking Synnoc from his feet. All around was the sound of crashing and thunder from unknown origins. Then suddenly, all in the room became weightless, as the floor fell out below them. Walls cracked and the ceiling raced down to meet them….
