Scorched Earth: (The Human Chronicles Saga Book #16) (34 page)

Chapter 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….

********

Comparatively, the explosions were small for nuclear devices. But what they did was blow away two sides of the wide footprint of the pyramid structure. As a general rule, pyramids cannot be toppled, so the building remained upright with very little outward signs of initial damage. However, as the sides fractured and fell into the huge center cavity of the building, the floors above the central viewing chamber—all thirty of them—began to crumble. With very little side support, the weight was too much for the weakened walls to bear. The center of the Malor-Hydon Tower, with it bronze-colored and reflective glass top, began to fall, sinking ever farther and faster into the middle of the structure. Falling debris filled the cavity below, and bellowed out with a huge cloud of dust and nuclear smoke. Then slowly, the skeletal sides, leaning at a radical angle, crumbled inward, crushing the still intact Pinnacle Room.

It took three minutes before the building stopped rumbling. By then it was just a pile of contaminated rubble sitting atop the Kacoran Plain, and a tomb for all those caught inside.

********

Lieutenant-Commander Tom Paulson was getting very adept at making tight dimensional jumps, and now he brought the
Vengeance
in as close as he dared to the planet Juir, using the abundance of navigational information available for the capital planet of the Expansion. He knew there were scores of enemy ships stationed nearby, but they were looking outward, expecting them to bolt in from out-system. So when the ship appeared one hundred eighteen miles above the surface of Juir City, it took time for the defense authority to react. By then Paulson hoped to be on the surface and under the radar.

Travis was next to him in the co-pilot seat, with Pogo resting on a console not far away.

“Okay, Pogo, can you locate Adam through his brain interface thingy?”

Just then, the bridge of the
Vengeance
lit up from the light of an explosion on top of the mountain that Paulson knew was the Kacoran Plain, the seat of government for the Juireans and the Expansion. Moments later, high res images showed the Malor-Hydon Tower collapse in on itself.

“Never mind. There he is,” Tom said with nonchalant detachment. “I’m going in.”

Chapter 41

Pogo did link with Adam’s mind and he led Paulson and Travis to a landing spot at the southwest side of the huge plateau mountain, within a grove of green trees with shiny silver leaves. The two men then hiked through the meadow and followed a meandering stream through a maze of fallen boulders to a clearing where a rusted metal grate covered a perfectly cylindrical hole cut out of solid rock.

Moments later, Adam’s daughter Lila came into view. Travis and Tom knew her from their Sol-Kor universe days, as well as the couple of weeks on Worak-nin before she stole the trans-dimensional starship and disappeared.

“Hey, Lila,” Travis said. “What are you doing here?” He had a crush of the Formilian mutant.

“I came to help my mother and father. What kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t?”

The men stood in awe as the five-foot tall alien took hold of the thirty-foot-round iron grate and pulled it from the rock face of the mountain without even a grunt.

Travis was even more turned on than before.

Soon afterwards, the rest of the team emerged from the tunnel. There was an emotional reunion, where Trimen was introduced to Tom and Travis…and Pogo, who had suddenly materialized.

When Pogo appeared, Lila’s face lit up and her eyes sparkled. She extended her hand and the tiny green-tinted orb disappeared and then reappeared in her palm. She pulled him close to her heart and gasped.

“Do you know what that is?” Adam asked Lila.

“Oh yes! She is an energy conduit of ancient design and age. Isn’t she magnificent?”

“She? She’s a he,” said Adam.

“You are mistaken, father. I have a bond with her already. She is…is life.”

Pogo?

Adam, forgive me, but I have found my new master…a true master. Why did you not tell me of her before?

I…I never thought about it.

May I go with her? I can fulfil my purpose with this magnificent creature.

Yeah, sure. She’s Lila, my daughter.

I know. Even now we are…joined.

As the team hiked back to the
Vengeance
, Adam had a sense of melancholy. He felt like he was losing a good friend or a loyal pet. He hadn’t been expecting this feeling.

At the door to the starship, he suddenly remembered something.

“I’ll be right back. Don’t leave without me.”

He sprinted across the meadow and through a large grove of trees until he reached the transport that had brought him and Riyad to the mountain. The bound-up driver was none the worse for wear. Adam untied him. Then without a word of complaint, the red-skinned alien slipped into the driver’s seat and calmly drove away, all the while with that same emotionless expression on his face.

********

With the Malor-Hydon Tower destroyed—and taking with it the Elder, the Elites, as well as seventy-five percent of the general Council—new leaders were quickly selected for the Juireans and tasked with saving the race from the invading Union starships headed their way.

Their ships were ordered to stand-down, while these new leaders made frantic calls to the Humans, demanding—requesting—that they not attack any of the worlds in the Alliance Cluster. Negotiations for peace were offered, which Admiral Curtis Logan—the ranking officer in the fleet—firmly rejected. There would be no negotiations. Either the Juireans accept unconditional surrender or the fleet would continue.

Logan was playing a gambit, but it paid off. Less than ten minutes later the Juireans linked back, agreeing to any and all terms the Humans requested. For a moment, Logan thought of asking the compliant Juirean leader to paint his house. Although it did need painting, Logan thought that might be a little over the top.

Logan contacted Admiral Hollingsworth a few minutes later and filled him in on what had transpired. When asked about Adam Cain, Admiral Logan responded: “He blew up the whole frigging pyramid, sir.”

Hollingsworth’s response would go down in history as another classic addition to the legend of Adam Cain.

He said simply: “Of course he did.”

Epilogue

By the time Adam and his team reached Formil in the
Vengeance
, the Juireans had already left the planet, and Trimen, Arieel and Lila were welcomed back as heroes. The Humans would remain for another two weeks, while preparations were made for the coronation ceremony appointing Lila Bol the next Speaker of the Formilian people.

Two days after their arrival, Admiral Hollingsworth linked to Adam.

“I hate to say it,” Hollingsworth began, “but I’m a little disappointed.”

The statement caught Adam off guard. “Disappointed, sir, in what? We won the war, rescued the women and killed the bad guy. What’s there to be disappointed about?”

“Just that you got to go out and have all the fun, while I had to stay here and suffer through another sweltering Arizona summer.”

“Sir, Arizona doesn’t exist anymore. It’s called the American Sector now.”

“Yeah, whatever. But seriously, Captain, the next time galactic empires go to war, how about leaving a little of the fighting for the rest of us?”

“Sir, yessir. If you insist.”

********

Adam’s chest swelled with pride as he watched his daughter climb the steps to the huge throne platform and turn to face the adoring crowd.

He was in the main Temple on Formil, along with Sherri and Riyad, watching the coronation of Lila as the next Speaker of the Formilian People, the Giver of Life and Light.

She was beautiful beyond belief and dressed in the most-elegant flowing gown of shimmering white he’d ever seen. An enormous and intricate headdress rose from her mass of silky black hair, displaying a cascade of shooting stars and lightning bolts signifying the life the gods bestowed on the Formilians through their glorious leader. Music played, singers sang, people cheered, and all the focus on Lila, the embodiment of their living goddess.

Arieel and Trimen were there as well, also decked out to the nines, and standing close to each other with animated expressions. This was a great moment for the Formilians, the realization of a dream centuries old.

For the past two thousand years, they worshipped their Speakers, believing them to be conduits to their gods. Even the Speakers themselves believed that. Yet through all the pomp and ceremony, all the  miracles, all the illusion, it was still artificial and staged. What the Formilians were celebrating in the Temple that day was nothing less than a Speaker who could actually control the most-mysterious force in the universe—electricity—and do it without artificial means. Lila was a true demi-god, something unique, something beyond normal people.

The Formilians knew this. The Humans knew it. And the Juireans knew it. Already Lila was making moves to assume authority over the Expansion, to lead it from Formil and not Juir. She felt that under her leadership, all the senseless wars would come to an end. After all who would dare confront a leader with verifiable super powers?

Only someone—or thing—with even greater powers….

The End