Legacy (68 page)

“Oh, shit,” Sarah said as she saw a sight that froze her blood.

“Well, I guess the Moon’s becoming a very crowded place,” Will said. He slowly brought up his weapon, but knew if he made it look too obvious the twelve trained guns would make short work of them.

Lining the top of the ridge were twelve red-clad Chinese soldiers and they had very lethal weapons. They were aimed at the sixteen ESA and NASA personnel, who had just lost their enthusiasm about joining forces.

“This could get real ugly,” Sarah said as she raised her hands into the air, the group now surrounded by soldiers of the People’s Republic of China.

The Moon was indeed becoming a very crowded place.

GALLERY NUMBER TWO, MÜELLER AND SANTIAGO MINING CONCERN, 100 MILES EAST OF QUITO NUMBER TWO

Collins and eighty-five men remaining of the Columbus team waited for any indication of trouble. Jack was standing silently fifteen feet from the double doors. Every few minutes he would see movement in the darkness beyond, but it was nothing more than fleeting glimpses of the men. Because of his order, which he had given on a hunch that really made no sense, Collins knew information making its way back to him could take a while. His hunch may be right, or it may be just paranoia, but they hadn’t heard or felt any of the mysterious vibrations since the order not to use the radios or anything else electronic. He also knew that the German SS had left this place without emptying it of its technological riches for a reason, and all of this at a time when their armed forces could have used the miracle weapons that were obviously buried in the second gallery.

Jack turned when he felt someone step up behind him and saw the faint lighting from above shining off the glasses of Niles Compton. Collins turned back to the doorway in front of him.

“I wish you would stay back until I get the all clear from Mr. Everett and Sebastian.”

“I need to be here, Jack. I—”

“Just when are you going to tell me what the hell is going on, Niles?” Jack turned and faced the director.

Niles took a deep breath and looked around him at the young faces of the soldiers. There were Poles, U.S. Marines, Japanese, Australians, and others who were no more than babies. He felt responsible for bringing them to this awful hole in the ground.

“Jack, there was a time when I wouldn’t give a military man the time of day. Not that I didn’t respect them. I just didn’t think about them.” Niles leaned against a large stone and removed his glasses as he spoke low so no one else could hear his words. “Now look at these kids. They never ask why, or what for. They go where their countries say to go and do what their countries say to do.”

Jack turned fully and watched Niles stare at the ground. The dim lights hanging from the top of the first gallery cast eerie shadows that made Compton look gaunt and sallow.

“Since I became involved with the Event Group and became responsible for these boys, it’s come full circle. I am intimidated to a point that I hate ordering dangerous field missions because I can’t stand to lose anyone. These kids expect that their leaders are doing what’s right, and that makes them obligated to obey an order, no matter how crazy that order may sound.”

“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 the 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.