by Ralph Prince
“They won’t,” the Underdweller assured. “We have lived in the caves for generations, and yet we never discovered it. It is unlikely the Tants will stumble upon it before we reach the surface.”
“There are so many of them,” Will bemoaned. “What if they realize there’s no one down there before they all get passed? What if they start back up?”
“Don’t be daunted by their numbers,” said Stanton. “The Tants are chaotic and unorganized without a strong leader to guide them. I suspect Don knew that when he challenged Oaklander. They will follow their orders until given new orders. Your plan will surprise and confuse them, further swinging the odds in our favor.”
“How do you know all this stuff?” Will asked, amazed at the Underdweller’s knowledge of the Tants.
“The second rule of war,” Stanton answered. “Know your enemy.”
“What’s the first rule?” Will asked.
Stanton smiled slyly and replied, “Know your allies.”
Will’s confidence heightened at the Underdweller’s words. As he watched the deformed humanoids descend into the lower level, the flow diminished, indicating most of them were now below. He tried to imagine the thoughts that would race through the Tant’s minds when they discovered their foes had somehow escaped.
Several minutes passed. The shaft was vacant, and the shrill battle cries faded into the distance. All was silent, except for the heavy breathing of thousands of frightened Underdwellers.
“Now,” Will whispered, cautiously sliding the door aside. Gazing up and down the darkened shaft, he saw no trace of movement.
A small band of men, armed with photon blasters and rifles, filed past him, and began the ascent toward the surface. It was their job to ensure none of the Tants had stayed above. Stanton and Will watched for any sign of activity below, while the rest muddled around the opening awaiting the signal to follow.
Will sighed with relief, as a light flashed twice at the top of the shaft, indicating it was secure above. Grinning, he prompted the Underdwellers to begin the orderly evacuation. The first to go were the families and the children, followed by the aged and infirm, then the women, and finally the men. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Suddenly, there was a shout from below.
“The Underdwellers!” bellowed a Tant, pointing up the shaft toward them. “They are here. Alert the others.”
Will fired, dropping the mutant where he stood. Rapidly receding footsteps and terrified screams from the tunnel below forewarned the imminent approach of more Tants.
“Damn!” Will exclaimed. “The whole Tant army will be back here in a few minutes. Pick up the pace people; we’re about to have company.”
“Go to the surface,” Stanton urged. “I will stay here and hold them off if I can. It’s important that you survive.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Will argued. “This was my plan, and I’m seeing it through. We’ll fight together; to the death if necessary.”
“You possess great courage, much like your captain,” the Underdweller said. “Is that a trait shared by all earth people?”
“Courage? I’m scared as hell,” Will admitted. “But I have to do this; it’s the right thing to do.”
Shrieks and howls echoed through the hallway below, as the Tants approached. Still, hundreds of Underdwellers awaited the opportunity to make the climb to freedom.
“Here they come,” Will said, stating the obvious. Looking toward Stanton, he readied his weapon and saw the Underdweller doing the same.
Tants swarmed into view, stampeding one another to reach the metal rung ladder. The instilled hatred of the Underdwellers was all consuming, blinding them to any other course of action. Firing beam after beam, Will and Stanton sent showers of gore through the shafts confines. For every Tant that dropped, it seemed two stepped up to replace it. With no regards for their fallen comrades, or own personal safety, they continued to come, dragging the dead out of the shaft to make room for the soon-to-be-dead.
Smoke and the stench of burning flesh caused Will to gag, yet he fired unrelentingly. It would take only a few Tants to overpower them should they reach the upper level. He was determined not to let that happen.
Throughout the onslaught, the evacuation continued until only a few dozen Underdwellers remained.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to hold them off much longer,” Will yelled over the deafening screams of the Tants. “The energy level on my rifle is getting kind of low.”
“I’m afraid you’re right,” Stanton agreed. “It’s doubtful we’ll be able to make it to the surface before they overtake us. It looks as though we will be fighting to the death.”
“At least we’ve bought the others their freedom,” Will said, surprised at how easily he was accepting his inevitable end. He had but one regret: he would never see Jackie again. “I just wish Don and Jackie were here. We could use the help.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” a voice said from behind them. “You just might get it.”
Turning, Will saw the captain and Karen approaching from the hallway leading to the supply level. In their hands, each carried a bulging backpack.
“Don!” Will exclaimed, lowering his weapon. “We thought you would never show up. How did you…?”
“You had better keep your mind on what you’re doing,” Don reminded, gesturing toward the shaft.
Redirecting his attention toward the shaft, Will fired several more shots into the rabble below. “How did you get here?” he asked again.
“I’ll explain later,” Don said, setting down the bag and removing several metallic objects from it. He then stepped to the edge of the pit and glanced down. Below, the Tants cleared away the dead and swarmed toward the ladder.
“Another of your miracles, I suppose,” Will surmised. “Jackie warned me about those.”
“Why don’t you use the rifles to cut the ladder rungs from the wall?” Don asked. “Then, you wouldn’t have to worry about them climbing up.”
“Uh,” Will stammered. “We didn’t think of that.”
Following the captain’s suggestion, Will and Stanton used the weapons to remove the lower part of the ladder.
After a slight hesitation, the Tants began dragging bodies back to the shaft and piling them against the wall. It was clear they intended to climb the heap to reach the remaining rungs.
“Persistent, aren’t they?” Don observed, shaking his head in disbelief. “You would think they would give up.”
“Not likely,” Stanton said, knowing his enemy far too well. “The destruction of my people is all they have to strive for.”
“Step back,” Don said, pulling a piece from one of the metallic objects, lofting it into the pit, and ducking back.
A thunderous explosion nearly knocked them from their feet as surprised screams rose from below.
“What the hell are those?” Will asked as a billowing cloud of smoke enveloped them.
“Grenades,” Don replied. “We collected a few at the Sands of Doom complex; I thought they might be useful. I guess I was right.”
“You are a man of many wonders, Captain Garris,” Stanton marveled.
“I do my best,” Don said, stepping back to the edge of the shaft and dropping another grenade. Another explosion followed.
“Where’s Jackie?” Will asked.
“She’s at the ship,” Karen answered, handing Don one of the explosive devices. “A storm came up, and we weren’t able to get back there. You don’t have to worry about her.”
“A couple more of these should knock the fighting spirit out of the Tants,” Don said. “At least long enough for us to reach the surface.”
“I should contact Jackie,” Will said, realizing she must be worried about them.
“Good idea,” Don said. “I’ve got things pretty well under control here. Why don’t you go down the tunnel to get away from the noise?”
Will shook his head in astonishment at the captain’s casual attitude toward the situ
ation. Activating the communicator, he slowly ambled down the hallway.
“Will to Jackie,” he said, tapping the temple of his goggles. “Come in, Jackie.”
“Will!” her excited voice returned. “What’s going on down there? Iva’s reporting explosions in the entrance shaft.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Will replied. “Where were you? You missed the party.”
“You can’t imagine how happy I am to hear you’re all right,” came the relieved response. “We were hit by a storm, and Iva had to come and pick me up. Don and Karen have been out there for nearly five hours, and we can’t locate them with the sensors. We tried to contact you, but we couldn’t get through.”
“Relax,” Will said, calming the worried med-tech. “Everything’s all right now. I shut the communicator off earlier so it wouldn’t alert the Tants if you tried to contact me, and Don’s down here with us. He pulled off another of his miracles and saved our butts. We’ll be joining you at the ship as soon as possible.”
“I’m so glad you’re not hurt,” Jackie sighed. “I’ll have Iva send you our location. I’ll see you soon. Over and out.”
Smiling, Will turned back toward the shaft. Although, at the time, his recent experiences had seemed harrowing, in retrospect, they were rather exciting. Now, he was certain he had made the right decision when he had declined the C.E.O. position his father had offered him.
CHAPTER 10: Legacy
Paired at the communications station, Jackie and Will spoke in hushed tones as they awaited the captain’s arrival on the bridge.
“I’m worried about the boy,” Will said. “You’re sure he didn’t follow you and Don to the surface? You know how fond he is of the captain.”
“I haven’t seen him since we left the caves,” Jackie replied, sharing Will’s concern. “The Tants were swarming the building when we left. If he followed us…” she choked on the words.
“All I know,” Will said, “is when the Underdwellers evacuated, he wasn’t with them. Either he followed you and Don, or he’s hiding in the complex somewhere.”
“Maybe we had better keep this between us,” Jackie suggested. “Don already has enough on his mind without—”
They both turned as Don and Karen entered, arm in arm. They were similarly clad in dark jeans, and space force t-shirts. Karen’s head rested sleepily upon the captain’s shoulder.
“Everyone’s alive and well I see,” Don said, gazing about the bridge as though he were returning to a home he had never expected to see again. “Iva, give me an update on the comet.”
“Seventy-eight hours until projected impact,” she reported without hesitation, her full-body hologram appearing near the tactical station. “We must reach it within fifty-four hours if we are to have any chance of diverting its course away from the planet.”
“Okay,” Don said, crossing to the front of the bridge and seating Karen in the copilot’s chair. “Even with our goggles, I don’t want to navigate the ridge at night, but at first light, we’ve got to go to the city and recruit some Underdwellers to help transport the solar panels from the Sands of Doom.”
“What about the mine field?” Jackie asked. “How are we supposed to get through that?”
“The same way Karen and I did,” he explained, taking his seat. “I lost my goggles during my fight with Oaklander, and the explosion he set off obscured a lot of our tracks. The scanner alone wasn’t sensitive enough to pinpoint the mines, and there were enough of them that it wasn’t safe relying on it. I was resting there, trying to figure out what to do, when Karen showed up wearing her goggles. We used them to find a path through the mines. We couldn’t return to the ship because of the storm, and since the crater was pretty much sheltered, we continued to the complex at the center. The scanners and goggles make it easy enough to detect them; with photon rifles, we can vaporize the mines, and clear a wide path right up to it.
“That place is incredible,” he continued. “We didn’t have much time to explore, but there was a level with just vehicles and military supplies; that’s where we found the grenades. Another level had storage warehouses filled with soil conditioners and plant seeds. There were laboratories of all types, and it still has a working power grid. Everything there is probably still functional.”
“And there were a lot of dead people,” Karen added solemnly.
“Yes,” Don confirmed. “It looked like they had military and scientific personnel stationed there. There’s no telling what we will find once we get a chance to explore it further. I did grab some data storage crystals from one of the computer stations; hopefully, they’ll contain some useful information.”
“But how did you get back to the caves?” Will asked. “The storm was still going on outside when you arrived.”
“We found a working monorail that connects the Sands of Doom complex with the Underdweller’s shelter,” Don explained. “That’s how we got to the lowest level of the caves. There are three more levels beneath the two we knew about. As near as I can tell, there’s a computer level, a power center, and the air recycling level. We worked our way up the central elevator shaft, and I was able to power the doors from the inside with the spare blaster power pack from my belt and open them. When we came out on the living level, we found it teeming with Tants. Luckily, we were able to get back to the shaft and seal it before being discovered.”
“We were afraid the Tants had killed everyone,” Karen said. “At least until we found you on the supply level.”
“You did good work, Will,” Don commended. “If you hadn’t thought of moving the Underdwellers to the supply level, this day could have turned out far worse than it did. Sorry we didn’t make it to back you up.”
“Don’t worry about it, sir,” Will said. “I’m just glad we all made it out of there.”
“Iva,” Don asked. “Have you finished analyzing the storage crystals I brought back yet?”
“Affirmative, captain,” Iva reported. “The data was remarkably well preserved, and somewhat astounding in content.”
“In what way?” Will asked.
“The data consisted of historical records, as well as several personal journals,” Iva explained. “Aside from a few minor variations, the planetary history was remarkably similar to Earth’s up until the late twenty-first century. At that point, the divergence became more pronounced leading up to the cataclysm.”
“You know what happened to the planet?” Don asked.
“War,” Iva replied bluntly. “War born of political and theological differences. Nations of the world grew in unrest and hostility until, eventually, they destroyed each other and critically damaged the ecosystem of the planet. They essentially killed themselves.”
“How can that happen?” Jackie asked, unable to fathom such behavior from rational people. “How could they bring themselves to cause their own destruction?”
“We almost did it,” Don stated. “In fact, it was around the late twenty-first century. Whatever triggered the war here could easily have happened on Earth back then.” He contemplated his encounter with the Overseer. “This is too much to be coincidence.”
“They knew the war was coming,” Iva continued. “The Sands of Doom and Underdweller complexes were part of their contingency plan. Unfortunately, the war began, and ended, before the plan was complete. According to the personal log, The Phoenix Complex, the one in the Sands of Doom, was supposed to be automated. The land mines were deployed to prevent looting, and once the planetary surface was capable of sustaining life, the soil conditioners and quick-growing seeds were to be dispersed by missiles, restoring the land for kilometers around. The missiles were never loaded, and they now sit empty in the silos of the complex.”
“What happened to the people?” Will asked.
“As I said,” Iva explained, “The Phoenix Complex was supposed to be automated; it wasn’t designed to protect life. The troops and scientists were exposed to the radioactive fallout of the weapons. Those on the upper levels, including
the bulk of the military personnel, were killed in the initial attack. Those on the lower levels either died more slowly of radiation poisoning or left the complex. They may even have been the forefathers of the Tants. The Underdweller complex was meant to be the shelter for those deemed essential to their society’s survival; the politicians, the scientists, and people of influence. The complex was fully constructed, but only partially supplied with provisions and amenities. When the attack began, the automated systems sealed it, trapping the workers inside. They must have eventually become the Underdwellers. The complex was designed to automatically unlock after a predetermined time, so the occupants wouldn’t be trapped should the power generators fail.”
“Why wasn’t The Phoenix Complex locked down when Karen and I got there?” Don asked. “It still has power, but all of the security doors were unlocked.”
“One of the final entries in the journals states that only a few of the scientists were still alive,” Iva explained. “They were dying, and realized the only hope for their race’s survival was if someone were to find the complex and complete their contingency plan. They shut down the security protocols, but were unable to deactivate the mines. In their final days, they realized it didn’t matter which nations survived, so long as humanity didn’t perish. It was a lesson learned too late.”
“It was their legacy,” Don said. “A way for survivors to rebuild their world and have a second chance. That’s a chance I intend to give them.”
“If we can save the planet from annihilation,” Iva said. “The Overseer seemed quite intent on that objective.”
“The Overseer?” Will asked.
“Trust me,” Jackie said. “You don’t want to know about it.”
“Well, if there aren’t any questions,” Don said, waiting for a response before continuing. “We’ll begin work first thing tomorrow. As for me,” he glanced toward Karen, “I have a promise to keep.”
