“Guilty consciences from a commander, at least from the good ones, will always haunt those that give the orders, Niles. Hell, all those kids out there are good. They depend on smart people like you to give them something to work with when the shit hits the fan. Not necessarily to have everything explained to them up front, but to know that later on in life they won’t have to hang their heads in shame for something they were ordered to do.”
Niles placed his glasses back on and stepped up to Jack. He placed his hand on the taller man’s shoulder and lowered his chin.
“That’s what I’m trying to explain to you, Jack. In the past I have always regretted sending my people—you and your men—out into dangerous places where sick people would kill them for a scroll of paper. But this time, Jack, I have no such qualms about sending boys into harm’s way.” Niles looked up at Collins and the determined look on his face sent a chill down his spine. “Everyone here—you, me, those kids in there and out here—we’re all expendable. I can’t tell you until the president says to, but believe me that I want you, of all people, to know what’s going on here. But I can’t tell you. I wanted to tell you that privately when there was no one around but us, so hopefully you could see my frustration at not explaining things. Just suffice it say that we need this technology and we need it fast. Get it. If you have to take a chance at losing all these boys, do it. We have to take what’s here, what’s on the Moon, and we have to reverse-engineer whatever we uncover. We have a very short time to do it—maybe two years, maybe three, four at the outside.”
Jack watched Niles turn away when he heard the other scientists coming over, silently arguing some point or other. Niles placed his hands in his pockets and turned back to face Collins.
“There’s a storm coming, Jack, and I don’t know if the world will survive it.”
Collins turned back to face the front and looked over at the Vietnamese sergeant as he knelt at his position, waiting for the word to advance. The sergeant turned away and said nothing.
“We have company, Colonel,” Tram said. He raised the M-14 up slightly, but lowered it when he saw the large American naval officer emerge from the double doors.
Collins stepped forward, relieved to see Carl as he slung his M-16.
“Sebastian is securing the front of the gallery. It’s a deep one, vast, too much to cover with only two teams. We found a generator room with old Nazi equipment. We are attempting to get the lights on. You won’t believe this, Jack,” Everett leaned breathlessly against the same large rock where Niles had been a moment before. Collins chanced a look back at Compton and saw that he was watching him closely. The words the director had spoken were beginning to drive a wedge into his thoughts. Without explaining anything, Niles had let on how desperate they were to recover anything inside. How sending Sarah, Will, and Ryan to the Moon was only a small part of that desperation move. He turned back to face Everett.
“We go in,” he said, as he looked at the anxious men around him.
“Jack, I said the gallery isn’t secure.”
“We can’t secure it with only two teams. Let’s get what we came for and get the hell out of here.”
“You may change your mind when you see what happened in there,” Carl shot back, angry that Jack was going against everything he ever taught to his own people about securing an area.
“Sergeant Averill,” he said, as he turned to a Marine gunnery sergeant.
“Sir.”
“Move the entire company in, take your Marines and link up with Major Krell and Captain Mark-Patton. The use of radios is still forbidden.”
“Aye, sir, moving in with the follow-up force.”
Collins watched him go and turned to face Everett. “After you, Captain.”
Everett removed the M-16 from his shoulder and, with one last look at Collins, followed his orders, running to the front where the eighty-five men were gathering.
“Niles, you and the science team stay close by. If I say get out, don’t give me any crap about the needs of the world. Run, is that clear? The sergeant here will be your escort.” Collins faced Tram. “You’re responsible for them, got that?”
Compton followed as Jack turned and stepped in beside the last of the men to enter Gallery Number Two. Private Tram followed and looked around to make sure his new charges were close by.
The men all entered a large space, and just like before they knew it was vast, just like the first gallery. As they waited to be led into a previously reconnoitered area, they used the most minimal of lights. The flashlights went here and there, highlighting the cave-in, the old German digging equipment, and what Jack thought were bodies.
“Cover your eyes,” said a voice from somewhere to their left.
Collins lowered his head and partially closed his eyelids. He heard the powerful generator start up like an old diesel truck. The large motor revved several times and then he heard the discharge of electrical power as it was released. When he saw the blaze of light, Jack raised his head and saw the chamber stretch out before him. His eyes adjusted to the brightness and that was when he saw the first of the bodies.
“God almighty, what happened here?” Pete Golding said. Several of the soldiers leaned down, examining the skeletal remains of several bodies. The bodies wore black German uniforms, with a few gray regular army uniforms mixed in. The remains were in disarray. Some parts lay close to the main body, others were tossed about like they had been mauled by some giant bear.
The lighting hanging from the ceiling above was bright, but in areas of the vast chamber hundreds of old bulbs had been smashed, leaving those areas in near darkness. Jack was looking at the scene before him and didn’t even notice Everett talking to him.
“Jack, I think that’s what we’re looking for,” Carl said, looking from the colonel to Niles. “Jack!”
Collins finally blinked and looked at Everett.
“It looks like the SS set up quite an elaborate science section here. Look down there,” he said, pointing to a small drop-off.
Collins and the others stepped forward as the eighty-five men spread out into areas that had already been reconnoitered by Sebastian and the first two teams. As they approached the edge, Jack thought they would see another massive drop-off, but was surprised when he saw that the buildings or huts were only thirty-five yards away. There were fifteen large tin buildings sitting side by side. The first in line was the largest, looking like it was capable of housing a large contingent of troops. As he counted he saw that there were some of the strange composite fiber huts left by the ancient travelers, only these were larger than those in the first gallery and for some reason they looked more permanent. They stretched far back into the gallery. Many of them had been destroyed by the earth movement that had buried the entire ten-mile area, which had been here long before the mountains.
“It’s a colony,” Niles said. He and the others stepped forward for a better look. They could see that the SS had set up a large perimeter around the three-square-mile site and had encompassed the entire area with watch towers and even a barbed wire fence. In the center of the occupied area, just before the stretch of alien buildings began, there was a large concrete blockhouse.
“How many colonists do you estimate, Niles?” Collins asked, as he scanned the area and watched for any sign of trouble from the men who were going from building to building.
“Hard to say, but for the sake of a starting point—two hundred, maybe less,” Compton said. He received nods from the four scientists, who were staring in amazement.
“They came all the way here and then the planet killed them anyway,” Jack said to no one in particular. He strode forward into the giant cave system.
He saw Major Krell advance toward him. Sebastian saluted, surprised to see Collins had entered with so many men before he had given the all clear.
“Ease up on the military discipline, Major,” Jack said, waiting for a report.
“I believe we have counted close to a thousand bodies and that’s not including th
e slave labor pen about a half a mile in that direction,” Krell said, pointing. “There are close to five hundred skeletons in there, mostly in the same condition as the soldiers.”
Jack finally faced Sebastian and raised his right brow. Sebastian held his hand out toward the colonel, and when Collins raised his hand the major dropped two items into it. One was a Star of David and the other a red circle of material.
“I believe you know what those are?” Sebastian said, straining with the words as he tried to keep his shock and anger in check.
“The Star of David,” Jack said, as he looked from the torn and tattered material to the angry eyes of Sebastian. “The red circle is a marker for a Gypsy. That was their labor force in the mines.” They were joined by Niles, who took the two items from Jack’s hand and looked at them.
“Hard to take. Here we’re searching for answers for all mankind and to do it we have to be shown the ugliness of our past.”
Sebastian realized that the director said our and not the German past. He was silently grateful for that small mercy. His anger over the discovery ebbed.
“Do you have any idea how they all died, besides very violently?” Jack said as he himself finally snapped out of a haze of thought.
“By the looks of the uniforms and the condition of the skeletal remains, I would hazard a guess that they were torn to pieces, smashed into dust and crushed. A few of them maybe even have been stepped upon by something. There are thousands of expended shell casings, evidence of large explosions, and areas of the gallery that look as if hundreds of men died making a last stand toward the far end of the cave system. There are also many remains by the cave-in, of men who looked as though they fought until the roof was brought down, blocking the way of whatever did this. The cruel thing about that site is the fact that fifty or so of those smashed bodies were wearing those patches, so in the end these people fought for their slave masters in an attempt to keep whatever evil that was here confined.”
Collins nodded his head at the quickly delivered report from Sebastian, then he stepped forward with the others following closely. Everett stepped up to Jack as he was handed the swatches of material and examined them. When he looked around at the smashed bodies of the men who were used to secure this place, he tossed the old material away and shook his head.
“I guess the Germans shut this place down when they thought all of this would hurt the tourist trade they were hoping for.”
As the soldiers followed the German commando, they knew they had just entered a 700-million-year-old mausoleum.
* * *
The men had spread out and searched the German huts. Another team spread out into the original colony area. The first real discovery came from Pete Golding, who was examining the body of a German soldier who had died in the seventy-year-old battle. Pete was squatting beside the remains and looking at the smashed and crushed bones when he saw a piece of rotting, red material poking free of a large slice of once molten rock. He stood and pulled as hard as he could. When Charlie Ellenshaw saw what he was doing, he stepped up to assist. Finally, the facing of the large stone gave way and they jumped back when they saw what fell free.
“Good lord,” Charlie said, and felt his bladder weaken.
Lying half in and half out of the stone was the space suit everyone had come to know from the pictures from the Moon. The white helmet was smashed and the skull inside crushed. Pete rubbed his hands on his pants. The remains were so old that they had turned to stone and had become a part of the rock that had killed whoever this was. As they looked on, they nearly screamed aloud when Jack and Niles stepped up behind them.
“Why were they wearing suits?” Jack asked. “Do you think their kind may not have been accustomed to this climate?”
“That’s puzzled me ever since the senator told us his story,” Niles said as he knelt down to examine the upper torso of the body. “I think I’m beginning to understand. When these beings arrived here, the Earth was a young place, as evidenced by the upheaval of the Andes that swallowed them up. But it was also a planet that spewed poisonous vapors everywhere from the planet-wide volcanic activity on what had to have been the supercontinent. During a large eruption, they may have resorted to the use of their environment suits.”
Charlie looked over at Niles and wiped sweat from his brow.
“If that is the case, why would these people colonize such a hostile world?” he asked as he looked from face to face.
“Maybe because they weren’t colonists in the sense we may understand,” Jack said. He looked at the petrified bone smiling back at them through the smashed helmet.
“Meaning?” Pete asked, also staring at the ancient astronaut.
“Meaning maybe they hadn’t a choice but to be here,” Collins answered.
Before anyone could follow up with another question, they were approached by a young Marine.
“Captain Everett sends his regards. He would like you to join him right over there, sir.”
Jack and the others turned and followed the Marine. They stopped when they saw Carl leaning over a body. This one wasn’t petrified nor was he wearing a uniform.
“I think we may have found the man of the hour,” Everett said. He stood and examined something. Jack walked over and looked down at the remains. They were also skeletal, but not nearly as old as the others. There was a black suit jacket and what caught his attention more than anything was the white collar wrapped through his once purple shirt collar. The head had been smashed to oblivion just above the minister’s shoulders.
“I take it this is the Reverend William T. Rawlins, father of Samuel Rawlins, who disappeared many years ago.”
Carl tossed Jack the wallet he was holding and nodded.
“Good guess. I imagine the Reverend went into private practice after the war. He had his son, Samuel, and years later curiosity got the better of him,” Everett said, looking around nervously.
“He met the same fate as the others,” Pete said, looking at the remains but feeling not the least bit sorry for the good Reverend.
“Look at this, Jack,” Niles said, as he straightened from the body. He tossed an object over and Collins caught it.
“A radio,” Jack said as he examined it.
“It was in his hand.”
“He may have been using it when attacked,” Jack said and put the ancient walkie-talkie down.
“It looks like your hunch about the vibrations being linked to the electronic radios may be correct,” Everett said, looking toward the top of the chamber.
“Gather up the men. I want to talk to them as soon as possible. Warn them that we may be in an extremely hostile situation. Also, pick a four-man team and get them back to the surface. Call in more help. I don’t care if it’s Ecuadorian National Guard or their soccer team, just get them here.”
As the men surrounding Jack listened, they realized that they could sense fear in the colonel’s words, and that in turn made them start looking around for anything other than the technology they were seeking.
Something was inside Gallery Number Two with them.
16
SHACKLETON CRATER, LUNAR SURFACE
Three of the Chinese approached cautiously.
It had been hard to control the soldiers as they took up defensive positions on the low side of the sloping area. As Sarah looked around, she knew that the depression they were in wasn’t like the rest of the terrain. The Moon had no hills. Sarah mentally slapped herself and brought her thoughts back to the current situation.
The first Chinese astronauts reached the bottom of the depression and stood there. Their gold-tinted visors were down. The first man stood with his legs apart. He had his comrades lower the weapons.
Whew. No shootout.
The lead man stepped forward six tentative steps. He raised his gold visor. Sarah watched him closely. His red space suit was not unlike theirs. Their weapons were simpler, explosive-driven kinetic-energy weapons, but far more compact than DARPA’s design.
&
nbsp; “Colonel Kendal?” the man asked in passable English.
Sarah stepped forward, her hands still held out.
“The colonel was killed by debris in space. I am Lieutenant Sarah McIntire, U.S. Army.”
“You are in command?” the man asked looking over at the others, who were in various positions around the base of the incline. “Do you speak for the ESA contingent also?”
“I am a geologist. I have command of the American unit.”
One of the ESA men stood and shouldered his weapon over the large oxygen package on his back.
“I am Captain Philippe Jarneux. We are under the command of our rescue team. Our lander was severely damaged upon touchdown. Thus I offered the lieutenant the services of my command, since she is the only surviving mission specialist.”
“I am Major General Kwan Xiang, commander of the People’s Republic spacecraft Magnificent Dragon.” He took a few steps forward. “On orders of our new chairman, and the people of my country, I am to offer you any and all assistance in the mission as outlined by your president to our chief of staff.”
Sarah saluted the general. The general returned the salute.
The Chinese force shouldered their weapons and started down the incline. A sigh of relief passed through the allied ranks as they too stood and relaxed, making it much easier to breathe the tanked air.
“General, I bow to your superior rank,” Sarah said as she lowered her hand.
“That will not be necessary, Lieutenant, as I doubt very much we will run into a military situation on this floating rock. I believe you are better suited to carry on the mission as commander of the ground teams. We have other work to conclude. We need to create space aboard two spacecraft for the addition of the ESA team.”
Sarah nodded, then realized that the general couldn’t see her head bob in the large helmet. She just gestured, hoping the general would follow her. As they moved toward the area where the men were, the other eleven Chinese soldiers joined the group of astronauts. Sarah was happy to see men shaking hands and patting one another on their backpacks.
Legacy: An Event Group Thriller Page 50
