The Legend of Earth

were heading for the corridor, each followed by a yellow-haired counselor. The eyes of the Overlords grew wide when they saw Hydon held securely by his two Human guards.

McCarthy tried to think fast. “We’re moving Lord Hydon to a safer location,” he called out to the Overlords. They hesitated.

“No, they are not! I am being taken prisoner,” Hydon countered almost immediately.

“Alert security!” one of Overlords yelled, his voice echoing off the metal walls and ceiling of the chamber, only moments before a bolt from McCarthy’s own MK entered his body just below the neck. A flurry of other bolts sent the remaining five Juireans to the deck.

But now the dozens of other Juireans in the chamber were focused on McCarthy and the other Humans. The team moved out, hugging the side of the curving wall, heading toward the corridor leading to the barracks.

“Stand back!” McCarthy commanded, “or I will kill Lord Hydon.” He insisted on using the prefix ‘Lord’ to make his captive sound even more important, hopefully giving the troops second thoughts about opening fire.

“Disregard my welfare-” Hydon began to say, just before McCarthy smashed the butt of his MK into the side of the Elder’s mouth. Teeth broke and blood sprayed out, stunning the Juirean into silence.

The team continued to move closer to the corridor leading to the barracks, while a phalanx of Juirean Guards took up a position in front of them. When they reached the corridor, McCarthy scanned the hallway and found it empty. They moved inside.

McCarthy grabbed Hydon by the arm, freeing up the two men who had been holding him so they take up defensive stances; down on one knee, flash rifles held securely against their cheeks. Together, the team shuffled farther down the corridor, as dozens of Juireans began to fill the narrow opening with too many unguarded bodies.

“Open fire,” McCarthy said calmly, and his four marksmen began to send bolt after bolt into the mass of aliens. The Juireans in the front rows — those who weren’t killed immediately — tried to retreat, but where blocked by the crunch of other bodies from behind. Soon, over twenty Juireans lay dead, forming a very effective berm across the width of the hallway.

With two of McCarthy’s men providing suppressing fire, the other three — with Hydon — scrambled down the length of the hallway. Once at the entrance to the barracks, others from the team provided cover for the forward two as they ran for cover. Answering bolts were now coursing down the corridor, but all the Humans made it to the barracks safely.

Adam made a quick count as McCarthy’s men reentered the room. Damn, they all made it back — and with Hydon.

There was a second exit from the barracks leading to the mess hall. All the various barracks in the complex were located next to this huge room. Across the mess hall were other corridors leading to the bunker’s life support facilities and workshops — and to the room where the small submarine-like craft was located.

A few aliens were in the main mess hall — not Juireans — when the Humans entered. These creatures wore the uniforms of cooks and attendants, so they were not part of the defense force called to action when the alarms sounded. McCarthy’s men sent accurate bolts of blue energy into their bodies without hesitation.

With McCarthy leading the way, Adam and his people were shoved along behind him by the members of the Englishman’s team. Hydon was now with the last group, used as a shield for when the Juireans burst into the mess hall, however, they were all through and into another hallway before the Juireans managed to form a following party. Moments later McCarthy entered the room with the boring pod.

On the floor around the long, fifteen meter tall craft were four dead Juirean Guards. Baker stepped out from the entrance of the craft, coming face-to-face with McCarthy. “Sorry, we couldn’t wait any longer. We had to take them out.”

“Well done, Zack. Now everyone, get on board.”

Just then a barrage of electric-blue bolts streaked into the room. Even though level-two bolts were more of an annoyance than a threat to Humans, level-ones were deadly; three of McCarthy’s men went down from level- one bolts to the back.

McCarthy’s remaining force of seven armed Humans was still enough to keep the prisoners under guard and Hydon subdued. The Juirean Elder still had not fully recovered the blow to the mouth and was groggy, his head wobbling as he was thrown into one of the hard plastic seats lining the fuselage of the craft.

The boring pod did indeed look like a small submersible, long and rounded in the front. Yet running along its sides were wide tracks like those found on heavy equipment — bulldozers and such — and along the rounded front were several large laser arrays. The interior was one single compartment, with the pilot seat located in front of a large monitor. There were no windows in the compartment, either in the front or along the sides.

Once everyone was inside, McCarthy dogged the hatch and moved to the pilot’s seat. He took a moment to scan the controls and then looked back into the compartment. Spotting Kaylor, he moved back into the compartment and grabbed the alien by his shirt, pulling him into the pilot’s seat. “Can you drive this thing?”

“I don’t know,” Kaylor said as he looked over the controls.

McCarthy placed the MK to Kaylor’s head. “You better figure it out quick. You’re no use to me unless you can.”

Kaylor was familiar with just about every control panel currently in use by the Juireans. He pressed a button, which he knew would activate the generators, and immediately his monitor lit up showing an image of the shiny metal wall the craft was facing.

“Good,” said McCarthy. “Now get us out of here.”

“What do you mean? We’re underground!”

“This thing is called a boring pod. It’s supposed to be able to move through rock,” McCarthy explained. “So start boring!”

Kaylor saw a bank of six uniform control buttons all colored green. There was Juirean writing under them, and from the little Juirean he could read, he believed they said something like heat or melt control. He flicked them all on and was rewarded by a brilliant flash from the monitor as the laser arrays beamed out a massive blast of intense heat. Within seconds, the wall before them had melted, opening up a circular tunnel that grew longer as the lasers continued to send out torrents of intense light. Red molten lava began to flow prodigiously into the chamber where they sat, filling it with an ever-deepening layer of fiery, viscous liquid and incinerating all the Juireans who had followed the Humans into the room.

Kaylor gripped the steering control arm and pressed forward. The craft lunged forward and into the tunnel, which was still being formed by the constant beams from the lasers. The interior compartment of the pod was now filled with a deafening roar as the tracks lining the pod began to scrape against the solid rock sides of the tunnel. A waterfall of lava could be seen flowing down the forward wall of the tunnel and disappearing under the craft. Kaylor experimented with a knob on the side of the monitor and the image switched to a rear view. The lava was flying up behind them like the plume from a jet ski and sticking to a wall that had already formed behind them. They were now inside a bubble within the rock, moving forward at what seemed to be a respectable speed.

Kaylor glanced over his shoulder; McCarthy was still there, looking at the monitor, which Kaylor had switched back to the forward view. “Where to? I have no idea where we’re going.”

“See if you can find a navigation function of some kind.”

Kaylor was already pressing buttons and turning knobs. Finally, the screen was replaced with a green-lined representation of the surrounding bedrock, showing layers indicating the various thickness and makeup of the strata they were moving through. Another adjustment and the view expanded.

In the center of the screen was their present location, with an orange line trailing out behind them, clearly showing where the tunnel met up with the underground bunker. Adam could see the monitor past Sherri’s head, as all the others in the compartment were fixated on the screen. When Kaylor moved the perspective out a little further he could now see the edge of the Kacoran Plain. The line they were presently on was about half way down inside the mountain — and they were heading straight for the edge. Adam could just imagine them break through the side of the cliff and plunging half a mile down to the boulder-strewn base of the mountain….

McCarthy saw the possibility, too. He pointed to a place at the base of the mountain. “Steer us down here.”