When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12) (23 page)

They quickly powered down, reducing their energy signature to virtually zero, undetectable unless an enemy starship was a hundred meters or less directly overhead. As the generators wound down and fell silent, the strike team got their first chance to relax after six long, harrowing days.

Chapter 21

Adam was the only one on the bridge, the rest of the crew having gone aft for food or sleep, when it dawned on him that they had left Earth only six days ago—and five of the six days had been spent in space, sitting on pins and needles as part of a fleet of five thousand enemy starships.

Stunned by that thought, in the dim light of the bridge, Adam had time to reflect and think back to his days as a Navy SEAL. Even then he’d marveled at the sudden changes of venue he and his teammates went through on a regular basis, something no ordinary civilian could comprehend. On so many occasions he’d be called away at a moment’s notice from his home in Virginia Beach to board a cargo plane or jet destined for some foreign war zone. The team would routinely strike out on their missions—some lasting only a couple of days, others for several weeks—and it was the shorter missions that jolted his senses the most. He could be shopping at the Lynnhaven Mall one day, get called out, and be back four days later, having traveled halfway around the world to end the life of some bad guy, or save the life of another. To the people in the mall around him, they couldn’t conceive of  the visions he carried in his mind as he scanned the clothing racks at Penney’s, or the tastes, smells, and feelings he’d experienced only hours before.

Now here he was in another universe—as inconceivable as that might sound—in a city built five thousand years ago by a race of dead aliens, attempting to avoid death or capture by yet another alien race. After twenty years of adventures among the stars, Adam still found it mind-boggling.

 “Here, take this.”

Adam was jolted out of reverie by Riyad’s voice next to him, and he nearly fell out of the command chair.

Riyad began laughing hysterically. “The big, bad Adam Cain almost crapped his pants. Jumpy, are we?”

“Don’t sneak up on someone like that!”

“Sneak? I’m carrying two M-91 assault rifles. I’ve been banging them against the metal walls all the way up here. That would hardly qualify as sneaking.”

Adam looked at the rifles. “What’s going on?”

“I’m going outside to stretch my legs. Thought you might like to tag along.”

“Why the weapons? This is a dead world.”

“Never leave home without it, that’s why. The advanced species may have been wiped out, but not the lions, tigers and bears, oh my. You coming or not?”

********

The air outside was amazingly fresh, the result of thousands of years of having no industrial pollution escaping into the atmosphere. The landing jets had burned away a patch of the overgrowth around the ship. Beyond that, terraced rows of deteriorating seats climbed toward the crumbling ceiling of the amphitheater. The pair of Humans found an opening in the wall surrounding the playing field and began to carefully climb the cracked concrete steps to higher ground.

It was good to get out and stretch his legs, and the air
was
incredible, reminding him of his Lake Tahoe home, what was left of it. He knew he’d rebuild—eventually—but not before the Sol-Kor crisis was over. In a fit of melancholy, he punctuated the thought with:
If ever…

“You know,” said Riyad, “I’ve been thinking about what we’ve learned about the portal distribution in Sol-Kor space.” They reached the highest level in the stadium and paused to look down on the alien spaceship below, completely out of place in the soft light of the arena. Through dozens of cracks in the stadium’s ceiling, rays of yellow light extended to the surface, like glowing support pillars for the dome.

“What about it?”

“If there’s only one portal on this side supplying our universe, all we have to do is take out the master portal and there’d be no way for the SK to reach us. And Tobias controls a portal on our side.”

“So he mounts an invasion, takes out the array, and then gets back before the door closes?”

“Again, you make it sound so simple.”

“Let’s hope he waits until we’re through before he does that. Otherwise we’re screwed nine ways to Sunday.”

“What exactly does that mean, anyway?”

“It means my dad had a million offbeat sayings that now I’ve got polluting my brain.” Then he turned serious. “There’s no way Andy could realize what he has. Up until a couple of days ago, we figured each portal on our side had a matching one over here. Who would’ve guessed the Sol-Kor would put all their eggs in one basket?”

“And he’s probably just waiting on the other side, thinking we can make the jump from any number of TD portals on this side.”

“Maybe we could take out the portal just before
we
pass through, set a timer and then beat feet for home.”

Riyad laughed. “Sure, the eight of us going up against the one central portal leading to any entire universe. I’m sure the one on this side is proportionally larger than their little satellite stations in our galaxy.”

“Riyad, my old friend, after all these years I’d thought you’d come to realize that size doesn’t matter.”

“You mean the size of the team, right?”

“Whatever. What I mean is that—once again—we have the element of surprise on our side.”

“Surprise can only go—”

They didn’t see the net falling from above until it draped over their heads. Then the edge was pulled out under them, tripping them, coarse rope wrapping tightly around their bodies. Adam fought to bring his M-91 around from behind him, but it got caught in the rope of the net. Riyad wasn’t haven’t any better luck.

Several dark figures hovered over them, just as thick, black shadows descended from above. Something hard struck Adam in the head. He fell on his face to the dirt covering the concrete landing. Another barrage of heavy blows followed. Two of the clubs shattered, but there were enough backups to complete the job.

His vision turned from blurry to black, and he heard a strange grunting…just before passing out.

********

As always, the first thing Adam noticed upon regaining consciousness was the smell. It was sickly sweet, but also smoky. Through his eyelids he could see light in the room, but not much. He assessed his injuries before opening his eyes. Except for an excruciating headache, lessened he was sure by the pain meds still in his system as a counter to the injury to his side, he appeared to be unharmed.

He narrowly opened his eyes.

The reaction was immediate and substantial. Several creatures began scrambling around the low-ceiled room, grabbing long clubs from along the walls and cradling them menacingly in thick, filthy hands.

Their attention shifted to Adam’s right, as Riyad was also coming to. A quick count placed their captors at fifteen or so, and they weren’t Sol-Kor. That was the good news. The bad news was that two of the creatures, who he assumed were natives of this planet, had their M-91’s and were curiously fiddling with them.

“I’d be careful with those. They can kill,” Adam said, knowing his words would be incomprehensible to these creatures. It was a pretty good bet the bulk of their ancestors had been harvested long before translation devices became the norm.

Adam pushed himself up into a sitting position, his hands tied in front of him.
Rookies. No one ties hands in front anymore.
This information could come in handy.

“You okay?” he asked Riyad.

He nodded, although the deep frown on his tanned forehead said otherwise. Blood caked the right side of his face.

Adam turned his attention to the natives. He had been wrong about the natives. They weren’t exceptional tall, but slightly shorter than Humans and with stocky builds. They were remarkably Human-like, with the requisite four-fingered hands with opposable thumbs, indicative of advanced species; two eyes, two arms, and two legs. They wore animal skin wraps around their waists and ponchos over the torso. The men were unshaven, while the few women in the room had long, greasy hair.

They looked like a tribe of Neanderthals.

One elderly native stepped forward. He had a calm demeanor and unafraid eyes.

“Sil-ka,” he said, pointing to Adam.

Adam knew immediately what he said, and shook his head emphatically. “No sil-ka. Human.”

“Sil-ka. Sil-ka!” Then the native flattened out his right hand and began to slide it through the air, lowering it slowly to the ground.

Again Adam shook his head. Although his hands were tied he was still able to mirror the hand signals. “Sil-ka ship, no Sil-ka.” He balled a fist and then struggled with the rope binds to bang it against his open palm. “Human…” He clenched his teeth in a display of animal anger. “Sil-ka!” He continued to hit his other hand until he bent forward and placed his hands on the ground, opening his balled fist and turning it palm up, the universal single for death—or at least he hoped it was universal in this universe.

The old native stood back, his blue eyes scrutinizing Adam.

Another native pointed at the two Humans and began rambling in their language. The older creature barked back before shoving him aside. Then he looked hard at Adam and Riyad again.

Eventually, the gray-haired native pursed his lips. With a look that could only be described as disappointment, he stepped up to Adam. “Cala…
no
…sil-ka.” He spoke the word
no
with emphasis. He was a quick study.

This time Adam nodded. He motioned with his tied hands at Riyad and himself. “No sil-ka.” Then he extended his hands forward, palms up and open. “Friends,” he said.

“They have no friends,” a voice said from the shadows.

Adam and Riyad jerked their heads in the direction of the voice. Two more natives had appeared at an entrance, each holding an emaciated Sol-Kor by the arm.

The alien was hustled in and placed on the ground next to the leader, who without provocation lashed out and kicked the SK in the side. The captive buckled over before painfully regaining his posture.

The native spoke to his prisoner. The Sol-Kor then turned to Adam. “He wants to know who you are, and why you have come in a Sol-Kor spacecraft.”

“Tell him we killed the crew and stole the ship from Kor.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes it is. Now tell him.”

The Sol-Kor talked with the native back and forth for a while. “He asks if you caused the explosion at the canyon earlier.”

“Yes, we did. It happened when we destroyed another Sol-Kor spaceship that had been following us. Tell him we are his friends.”

“They do not trust outsiders.”

“Can you blame them?” Riyad said. His eyes still looked pained and uncertain. He might have suffered a concussion during the attack. Adam needed to resolve this quickly and get him back to the ship for medical care.