The Legend of Earth

Chapter 22



Sherri was worried about Adam. She had heard cheering off in the distance a while ago and knew some kind of spectacle was taking place. But now she could hear nothing. Had she just heard the ceremonial death of Adam Cain? And after him, they would be coming for the rest of them….

All the Humans in the tent had struggled as best they could against their shackles, but to no avail. Sherri then noticed one of the Kracori looking at her intensely. The creature leaned over to his bench mate and whispered something. They both spun around in their chairs.

“You’re a female of the Human race, is this correct?” the first Kracori asked her. She did not detect any deviousness in the voice, just curiosity.

Sherri lowered her head, avoiding the interviewer’s eyes. “Yes I am. I fulfill my duties – as I must.” A plan began to blossom in her mind.

All the Human males looked over at her with raised eyebrows, yet none spoke.

“You are much smaller than the males of your species. Are you their mate?”

“Yes. As I said, I fulfill my duties as is dictated.”

The two Kracori smiled and nudged each other. “Is it only one of you for all of them?”

“Yes. It is much work, tending to the needs of them all – especially when it comes to feces removal.”

The Kracori’s mouths fell open in shock – as did those of Sherri’s Human companions. Feces removal?

“Please explain? We do not understand.”

Sherri refused to meet the eyes of the Kracori, instead maintaining the look of submissive weakness. “I will be punished for telling you this, but the males will relieve themselves whenever and wherever they wish.”

“Do you not have grooming stations?”

“Only for the females. They are for our own use, as well as for disposing of the waste of the males. It is a very disgusting chore.”

“Agreed!” said the Kracori guard. “So they just drop feces wherever they wish?”

“True, and as meat eaters, their feces is always sticky, wet and carries such an incredibly foul odor—”

“Female!” Riyad cried out. “It is time. I am beginning to relieve myself and I have not done so for a very long while.”

The two Kracori looked at Riyad with a look of panic and disgust. “You cannot do such a thing here.”

“My body says otherwise. Does your race have control over such natural bodily functions? Must you not breathe when you must breathe?”

One of the Kracori looked to the other. “I’m not going to clean up the mess!”

“Neither shall I—”

“And the smell will linger for hours, I must warn you,” Sherri added.

“Then you must tend to the male.”

“Of course, but how; I am bound?”

“I will release you. You are not a warrior and therefore not a risk. What will you require for the … the feces?”

“A scoop of some kind and a bag in which to place it; then it must then be buried else the smell will remain and become overwhelming.”

One of the Kracori found a small metal sheet and a bag, while the other knelt down next to Sherri and unlocked the shackles around her wrists. He then released the lock on the straps holding her to the support pole.

“Will this suffice?” asked the other Kracori as he handed her the sheet of metal and the bag.

“Yes, very well.” She scooted over to where Riyad was tied and began to undo his pants. “The scene is very graphic….”

“We will wait outside. Let us know when you are done.” The two Kracori exited through the canvas flap of the tent, shaking their heads in disgust as they left.

Sherri looked up into Riyad’s face, which now displayed a broad, wicked smile as she fumbled with his trousers. She pushed herself away. “Keep dreaming, Riyad,” she said, while returning his smile. Then she slipped in behind him and attempted to release the lock to his bindings. It was too strong; she could not free them.

She rose quickly to her feet and ran to the work benches. There she found a large crescent wrench-like tool and moved to the side of the entrance flap to the tent.

“I am done,” she called out.

The two Kracori entered. “That was quick. Where are you?” one of them asked as they entered the tent.

“Right here,” Sherri said as she swung the wrench with all her might. The solid metal tool struck the head of the closest Kracori sending him slumping to the ground. She swung again yet the second Kracori had time to raise his arm in self-defense. Still, the wrench carried a powerful impact and the alien fell backwards, landing on the ground at the feet of John Tindal. The Navy SEAL reached out with his unbound legs and clamped them around the head of the Kracori. Before he could resist, Sherri brought the heavy end of the wrench down directly on the chest of the alien. All the air was expelled from his lungs and his eyes grew wide. Tindal kicked the creature away, and Sherri finished him off with a skull-crushing final swing of the wrench.

“Great job, Sherri,” Lt. Tobias whispered, “if somewhat disgusting.”

Sherri smiled and then ran over to the unconscious Kracori she’d hit first. He was the one who had unlocked her bindings earlier. After rifling through his pockets she emerged with the key, and moments later they were all free.

Only one of the Kracori had been armed and within seconds Tobias had the MK gripped firmly in his hand.

“We have to find Adam,” Sherri said desperately, hoping they were not too late.

“Roger that,” Tobias said. “The sounds came from the left. I’ll take point. It’s dark out now, but not totally, so be careful. Move out.”

Outside the tent all seemed quiet. With the moons of Juir and the stars of the Milky Way so prominent, it could barely be referred to as dark, yet it was still enough to provide them some cover. The cheering within the other tent had ceased a while ago; most of the Kracori had now either retired to the tents or moved inside the spaceships and their living quarters.

They covered the distance to the next tent without a problem, but found it to only contain partitioned rooms with no one inside.

At the next tent, Tobias pulled back a small section of the entrance flap and gazed inside, with Sherri practically on his back looking inside as well. There they saw just a large open space with rows of empty seats off to the right. And near the center of the open area lay the unconscious body of Adam Cain, a heavy metal chain running from him to the tent’s center pole.

Tobias looked back at the rest of them all clustered behind him. “It’s Cain,” he whispered. “And he’s alive.”

“How do you know that?” Sherri asked, concern dripping from her voice.

He smiled. “’Cause I don’t think they’d chain up a corpse.”

He looked inside again, this time sweeping the full interior for any signs of the Kracori. When he was sure there were none, he flipped back the canvas and ran towards Adam, followed closely by the others. Tindal maintained watch at the doorway.

Sherri crouched down and lifted Adam’s head. She felt his carotid artery and found a pulse. His face was badly bruised and blood was caked below his nose. She slapped his face a couple of times – lightly – and could see his eyeballs move under the lids. Slowly Adam opened his eyes. Focusing in on Sherri, he tried to smile, then grimaced with pain.

“That didn’t go exactly as planned,” he finally managed to eke out.

“Anything broken?” Sherri asked as she helped him sit up.

“I don’t think so.” Adam expanded his focus to find Tobias and Riyad staring at him, looks of concern on their faces. “Are you guys free, or did they just throw us all in the same jail somewhere?”

“We’re free – for now,” Tobias said. “But we have to get out of here soon.”

Adam batted his eyes a few more times, as the cobwebs began to clear from his mind – and then he suddenly surged forward and grabbed Tobias by the shirt. “They’re going to nuke the Earth, Andy!” he cried out, far too loudly considering their current location.

“They’re what?”

“Jonnif told me the Kracori are going to nuke the planet so that the fleet will return to Earth instead of coming here.”

“When?”

“He said very soon, within days.”

Tobias followed the chain binding Adam to the center pole and then back to Adam’s wrists. The chain was thick and a hefty-looking lock secured it. “Rutledge, Riyad, grab hold of that chain link there.” He lifted the chain and all three men took hold of one of the links. “Now pull!”

All three men grunted and gritted their teeth until they saw a small separation begin to appear in the link. A few more groans and they’d pulled the link far enough apart so they could break the chain. Adam was still shackled in heavy metal cuffs but at least now they could leave the tent.

“We have to make contact with Earth, let them know about the attack,” Adam said between swollen lips.

“How do we do that,” Sherri asked as they helped Adam to his feet.

“Direct communication with Earth is impossible without comm buoys having already been laid,” Jym said, his tiny body nearly lost among the much taller Humans.

“What about the fleet?” Adam asked. “They’ve been laying buoys since they left.”

“Yes, that might work, but they are many thousands of light years away. Not knowing the comm frequencies for them, we would have to be much closer than we are now to make contact through traditional means.”

“Then we’re just going to have to take one of these ships,” said Riyad Tarazi matter-of-factly. As the former leader of the Fringe Pirates, absconding with a stolen spaceship was second nature to him.

“Target one of the smaller ones in the back,” Adam said, feeling now as though he may have a few bruised or cracked ribs. “We’re going to have to lift off without causing too much alarm.”

With the others helping him, Adam made it to the main entrance to the tent, and then before heading out into the open, he turned to Tobias and asked, “How did you get away?”

Andy Tobias grinned. “Sherri raised such a shit-storm that they just had to let us go.”

“She did what … they just let you go?”

Riyad put his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Let’s save that for another time. The clock is ticking, my friend.”



They moved single file out of the tent and along its perimeter, crouched down in what shadows they could find. Across the wide landing field they could see a number of the Klin spaceships looking like gigantic metal mushrooms reflecting the light of Juir’s moons. There were no security lights around the ships; that would have only highlighted them for any Juirean counterattack, even though that possibility was virtually nil at the time. Only a few stray Kracori still walked the grounds and none of them appeared to be on sentry duty. Such was the Kracori’s confidence in their position on the planet.

“In the back there, that’s one of those A’s with a crew of around twenty-five.” Adam said. He looked around at the rest of his team. “How many weapons do we have?”

Tobias held up his single MK-17 and grinned. “That’s it – one gun?” Adam said. He took a deep, painful breath. “These are not your typical run-of-the-mill aliens we’re dealing with. They’re strong, fast and tough. About the only advantage I see we have going for us is that they don’t know squat about martial arts. No offense Sherri, but they fight like girls.”

Sherri sent him a smirk and patted his cheek. “Not all girls.”

“I hear that.” He tried to flash a smile through his broken lips but failed miserably. “But we’ll have the element of surprise. Kaylor, Jym, stay back in the access shaft until we get the ship secured. Okay – let’s roll.”

They darted from shadow to shadow under the forest of Klin starships, which always appeared to be much bigger once you got close to them. At the last one on the field, sitting almost half a klick from the cluster of tents, they crouched near the sliding entry door on the extended pedestal under the ship. The door was shut but there would be no reason to require a security code to open it. Rutledge slapped the operating panel and the door quietly slid open.

Inside the wide, round base was a winding staircase surrounding the central elevator tube. The elevator was used primarily for moving freight and equipment into the ship while crew used the stairs. With Tobias and his MK in the lead they began a slow, silent ascent up the stairs.

At the top they entered into the central generator and storage room, circular in shape, following the natural curvature of the ship. Beyond doorways on the outer wall of this room was a concentric hallway that wrapped around the entire ship; off this corridor where entrances to various other compartments, all set toward the ship’s exterior. There was another level above this one with two concentric corridors and more compartments. Topping it all off was the bridge, a prominent dome sitting in the middle of the disk.

Seeing that Adam was in no condition to engage in another fight with a Kracori, he was the last to enter the generator room at the head of the stairs. He heard a soft click and looked to see Tobias motioning with his hand. Tindal and Rutledge had already spotted it and were moving in that direction. It was a flash rifle, sitting on a table at the other end of the room, as conspicuous as could be. The young petty officer reached it first and snatched up the weapon before Rutledge had a chance. The Chief shot him an evil glare; Tindal just lifted the weapon to his lips and kissed it.

Tobias opened the nearest hatch leading to the outer corridor and did a quick look-see. Nobody; their luck was holding. At each hatch they came to, Tobias would stop and put an ear to the metal, listening for any sounds from inside the compartment.

At the third door, he heard what sounded like a grunt coming from inside. These interior doors were operated by recessed pressplates, not latches, so with Tobias on one side and Tindal on the other, Rutledge pressed the door release and stepped back. The door slid open smoothly and quietly – but not quietly enough for the occupant inside not to notice.

It was a Kracori officer, in the process of removing his shirt, and looking to be preparing for bed. His back was turned to the door and he nonchalantly turned to see who had opened it. His eyes grew wide when three burly Humans slammed into him, one pressing a clamp-like hand over his mouth while the other two held him down on the compartment’s single bed. Riyad, Adam and Sherri soon joined them inside the tiny compartment.

Tobias placed the barrel of his MK-17 against the temple of the alien. “Don’t yell out or I’ll blow your brains all over that wall over there. Tell me now, how many are there aboard?”

A look of defiance crossed the Kracori’s face and he shook his head. “I will tell you nothing, Human.”

“Fine,” Tobias said. He looked at Tindal. “Cut off his nose. Maybe that will make him talk.”

Adam could see Tindal hesitate; he knew he didn’t have a knife. But after the briefest of moments, Tindal leaned back and reached with his left hand behind his back.

“No! No! There are only four of us onboard.”

“Where are the rest?” Tobias asked.

“Most are aboard Ludif Jonnif’s ship. There is a celebration going on,” the alien nodded toward Adam “regarding him and the Juirean. It is a joyous day for us.…” The Kracori’s voice trailed off as he realized just how silly the statement now sounded .

“Where are they, the others aboard this ship?”

“When last I saw them, they were in a feeding room.”

“Where is that?”

“Next level up, next to the stairway exit.”

“Left or right?” The alien seemed confused. “When you come off the stairs, which way do you turn?”

“To the right. Yes, to the right.”

“Tindal, stay with him,” Tobias commanded. “We’re going up. If he’s lying … kill him.”

“No! No! I meant you turn left,” the scared alien corrected.

Tobias smiled, displaying all his pearly-whites at the alien. “That’s better.” And then he brought the butt of the MK-17 down on the head of the Kracori. The force was sufficient to break a hole in the creature’s skull and penetrate the brain. The Kracori officer died instantly.

“Let’s move,” Tobias said as he pressed through the others in the room and out into the corridor, the MK held ready in his right hand.

At a point in the curving corridor they came to the stairway that would lead them to the second level. Again with Tobias and Tindal in the lead, the team of six Humans climbed the stairs and positioned themselves at either side of the doorway just to the left of the stairs.

Rutledge once again tripped the entry pad and the door slid open. The two armed SEALs entered the room in tandem.

It only took a split second for the Humans to see that all three of the other aliens aboard were in the room. They opened fire with their weapons, and a second later all three lay dead, puffs of smoke rising into the room from the clean, level-one bolt-holes burned into their flesh.

Adam turned to Riyad. “Go down and get Kaylor and Jym and meet us on the bridge.” Riyad ran off.

Sherri and Tindal helped Adam up the last flight of stairs leading to the bridge, where he collapsed into one of the side console chairs, much to the relief of his burning ribs. A moment later, Kaylor and Jym followed Riyad into the room. The alien pilot slipped into the command seat and confidently began the preparations for lift off.

“Even this far from the others ships, our leaving will be noticed,” Kaylor said. Jym had taken a position at the nav console and was pulling up star charts even before his ass hit the seat.

“Nothing we can do about that,” Adam said. “Just do it as quietly as possible.”

Kaylor looked back at Adam as if to say are you crazy? “Either we go up on chemical drive – which sounds like a bomb going off – or we go on gravity drive and rip half the landing field away. Either way, I think the Kracori will know we left.”

“Can we use the gravity drive to take out their ships?” Rutledge asked anxiously.

“We’d only destroy a couple and damage a few more. That would still leave the bigger ones near the tents to come after us,” said Kaylor, much to the Chief’s disappointment.

“How fast can we get up?” Tobias asked.

“Once we’re clear of the surface we can switch to gravity drive. But it will still take us a couple of minutes to reach space.”

“Jym,” Adam said, “get all the weapons online and charging. There doesn’t seem to be any way we can do this without fighting our way out—”

Just then a loud explosion reverberated through the spaceship as a brilliant light filled the pilothouse through the forward view port. Another of the Klin saucers had just engaged a chemical drive, sending a tidal wave of smoke and noise across the grass landing field.

“They’re coming after us!” Jym screamed.

“No, it’s the ship taking Hydon to their homeworld!” Adam corrected. “Kaylor, can you get us up using that ship as cover?”

“We’re ready, but the sound will still be significant on the surface, and that other ship will know we’ve followed them.”

“Just do it! We’ll deal with the consequences as they come up. Go!”

Kaylor did his thing, and seconds later the ship was engulfed in its own cloud of white chemical smoke. The landing field fell away quickly as all eyes turned to Jym’s screen, watching for any signs of pursuit. As the seconds increased – and still no other liftoffs – they began to relax.

But then the comm link buzzed.

Jym looked to Adam for guidance. Adam shook his head.

The link buzzed again. Kaylor switched to gravity drive and they experienced the customary surge of vertigo as the internal gravity wells took priority.

After the third buzz Adam nodded for the link to be opened.

“Krylorif, I was not aware you are to accompany us to Eilsion?” said the voice on the link.

“We are not,” Adam answered in quick short words. “Reconnaissance.”

Only a moment went by before the voice came back over the speakers. “I was not aware.” Everyone on the bridge held their breath. “Success with your mission, Krylorif. I envy you. We have three long months before reaching Eilsion, and you know what it is like to traverse the Discourse.”

“Enjoy,” Adam spit out.

“We shall endeavor. And Krylorif, please seek medical attention. You sound as if you may have an affliction of the Juirean Junk, like so many of us.” The Kracori laughed through the speakers and then Jym signified that the link had been cut.

“Juirean Junk, huh,” Sherri said. “Is that anything like Montezuma’s Revenge?”

“Miss Valentine, you seem fixated on bowel movements tonight,” Tobias said with a smile. “Something you’re not telling us?”

“Stay frosty, people,” Adam said. “That was just the first hurdle. You can bet that on the surface they know we shouldn’t have left, and pretty soon they’ll notice that all their prisoners have disappeared. They’ll put two and two together, and then a simple phone call to their ships in orbit and we’re running for our lives.”

“So what’s new?” Riyad said with his patented grin. “That seems to be a one of our favorite past times.”