PHOTO above ... HYANTHA
"Wait up, damn it!"
Brad chased after Kyrri down the trail and into the next cave as Saroh and Clint and Jimmy followed right behind. The silence all around them now was heavy and thick, but the cave was not as hot as the one left behind. There was no flowing lava in it, just an intense darkness pierced by the wavering portable light beams.
Brad caught up and he grabbed Kyrri by the shoulder and pulled him to a halt. "C'mon buddy, take it easy. We have to be careful in here. Remember?"
Saroh joined them, his light aimed at Kyrri's face, and they could see the fear in their friend's eyes.
"All right, damn it," the Andromedan boy muttered angrily. Nevertheless, he stepped forward and dragged Brad along, but at a more sensible pace.
"What are the two reasons the soldiers would be chanting?" Brad demanded, light beans flashing ahead now that the others were all behind them.
"There are certain tributes we recite to government and military persons during drill and parades back home on Magnatar," Kyrri explained. "But it wouldn't normally be done on a mission like this ... marching in formation ... especially in a place like these caves."
"And what's the other?" Clint asked from behind, an urgency to his voice because the chanting was now getting louder as they were moving farther into the cave.
Kyrri's voice was tense and shaky. "The only time they'd chant on a mission such as this one is when ... when ... a new leader takes over in charge of the troops. He or she is hailed in a tribute by all the soldiers. It ... it is required because it helps our collective minds acclimate to the change and direct our allegiance to the new leader in charge."
"Well, they're obviously not marching in a parade on Magnatar," Saroh said. "So it must mean that Egron and Hyantha have met and clashed ... and that one of them is ... dead?"
"Yes!" Kyrri was growing more and more agitated as they hurried on. "We must get close enough to understand them. It will be in the words. One of them must now be gone and ... and ... the other now in charge of everything."
"And if it's Egron," Brad shuddered, remembering the big unpleasant reptilian, "we're all totally fucked."
"Right, because he'll keep Malvaggia in the box as his personal slave of destruction," Saroh growled.
"To rape the Earth," Jimmy added, "for his own intergalactic benefit. Which would undoubtedly result in the destruction of the human race."
Caruso gruffed out from behind, "Me an' Rondin. We get 'em both an' strangle 'em fuckin' dead!"
To which Rondin added an emphatic grunt.
Yank asked, "So then Egron would become the General in charge of the intergalactic mission? Fully able to do what he wanted?"
"Exactly!" Kyrri turned to look back at the professor. "I know it's a flaw in our system but, believe me, it never happens because of our enlightenment. Egron is an exceptional case but ... damn it ... the soldiers will eventually turn to him nevertheless. Perhaps a few will balk, but he will just kill them."
"Then he deserves an exceptional adversary," Brad said tightly. "Us. It's our duty. To save our planet, we must destroy him if he's taken over Hyantha's rule."
Captain Redd had remained quiet, but now he spoke and his voice slapped out. "Yah, us plain old Joes and Johnnies and Jacks. We'll show that crocodile mother fucker the way out of this blimey life, we will. Just another no-good freebooter like those damn tong pirates. Take, take, take. Rape the land, rape the people. The freakin' gahooney! If he killed the CrossQueen, we'll kill him and throw him into a damn lava pit, the wanker!"
Despite his fear and agitation, Kyrri snorted out a laugh. "You sure don't want to see him wanking, Captain. It's not a pretty sight to see a reptilian jerking off. And remember, I have to be the one to kill him. There's no chance the soldiers would transfer their allegiance to one of you guys. Total chaos would ensue."
With that grim thought in mind, they plodded on, the chanting of the soldiers growing louder with every step. Brad's mind was in a whirl. If Egron had carried out his plan to kill Hyantha, they would be facing something humanity had never faced before - an invader from space who had the intent and the power to destroy the human race.
He silently prayed that they would not have to face such a dilemma in the minutes ahead.
They had to get close enough to understand what the soldiers were chanting, Brad was telling himself as they moved on in the darkness. They still were too far away and there was a lot of echoing going on in the caves leading up to them from below. He kept hoping against hope that when they were close enough to comprehend, the chant would tell them that Hyantha had been the victor and retained her titles as General and CrossQueen.
A soft blue light appeared in the darkness ahead on their right and it danced and wavered and grew in intensity as they got closer. Slowly, a rushing sound began to grow from just a barely heard hiss to a louder and louder rush like that of a churning river.
"Gods damn it!" Kyrri swore as the noise shut out the sound of the soldiers' chanting. "Now we can't hear them."
He set off to run again but Brad and Clint jumped forward quickly and grabbed him.
"Hold your horses, space cadet," Clint growled at him. "Remember how I almost fell of that stairway back there? There's gotta be another lava tube ahead by the looks of it, and who knows what the hell it's leading to?"
He was right. A couple minutes later the blue light boiled up bigger and more threatening. It was shot with reds and violets and washed over their faces with its radiance. Flowing fires crackled and hissed in the gash they could now see alongside of them coming out of the darkness beyond.
"What the hell?" Brad suddenly threw out his arm to hold back Kyrri and Clint.
He had arrived at an edge where the cave abruptly ended and opened up into a large cavern, its floor far below them. Half of it down there, he could see, was a large boiling lava lake into which the rushing stream beside them was tumbling down like a fiery waterfall.
"Whoa!" It was Saroh exclaiming as he grabbed onto Brad from behind.
Jimmy joined them, his arms all over the other boys. "Man, it's a lava waterfall." He laughed and snorted. "We sure don't want to take a shower-bath underneath this one, huh guys?"
They heard Yank harrumph from behind them. "There'd be nothin' left of you to feed to the crocodiles later."
"Ha! This is where those ugly fuckers belong," Clint added. "In this liquid fire."
"This underground would certainly be one of the wonders of the world if anybody knew about it," Captain Redd said. He pointed down to the cavern floor below. "How the crikey hell are we gonna get down there?"
"There's a stairway." Brad was struggling to hold onto Kyrri who had also seen the stairs and was pulling hard to get loose and get onto them.
"Stop it, Kyrri, or I'll knock you out," he yelled at the Andromedan boy and roughly shoved him back to Clint and Jimmy. "Those stairs are dangerous. Looks like half of them are crumbled away. We have to take our time or we'll end up in the lava falls or the lake."
Clint and Jimmy, and Saroh too, held back the struggling Kyrri, who grated out, "Well, hurry and scope it out. We have to get down to those soldiers!"
Brad rolled his eyes. Like he didn't know that? They were standing on the verge of an underground fire pit far more astounding than anything they'd seen yet. Curtains of blue light hazed around the red stone of its walls and ceiling as the lava falls crashed down into the waiting cauldron below. Faint rumbles from the bowels of the earth below it could not only be heard but also felt.
"Me no like!" Rondin complained. "This whole place blow 'em up!"
Brad doubted that. It had probably been doing this same damn thing for the last million years, for that's how long ago it looked like the stairway going down had been hacked into the wall. There was a narrow ledge that led to it, about twenty feet in length, and then it hugged the wall, often being obscured by the haze, as it led down to the cavern floor.
"Okay fellas." Brad didn't even try to hide his annoyance. "Be careful. Let's hope this is the last fucking obstacle we run into. And Kyrri, if you don't cool it I'm gonna let Saroh do that choke hold on you he pulled on Kee, and we'll carry you down."
Caruso snorted. "Me carry him down. Hold real tight. No drop."
"No! Me carry him." Rondin argued. "You carry Brad down mountain on island. Feel him up alla way. Now my turn."
"Hey! All right. Enough." Kyrri broke free of the boys. "I'm calming down. I'll behave. Nobody has to carry me." He smiled at them all, his eyes shining and reflecting the fire light. "You guys make me so happy. Nobody ever cared about me before."
Brad moved on because he knew he'd probably kiss the boy if he didn't get away from him. Kyrri probably got bullied and picked on all the time because he was the runt of the whole troop. They hadn't even taken him on the mission into the caves, giving him the easiest job of all guarding the City of Death where nobody had been in thousands of years and almost certainly wouldn't be today, or so the Andromedans had figured.
Ha! How wrong they'd been about that.
Brad led the way along the edge and not only did they have to be cautious but it was also really hot again. He started thinking about a nice snow storm back home in New Jersey, blowing in off the Atlantic with three feet of snow. Maybe even more for when they got down to the cavern floor, where it would surely be, by the looks of it, hotter than Hades itself.
Reaching the stairway, Brad saw that it was similar to the one outside that had led down the inside of the mountain. but it was in far worse condition. Saroh was right behind and the two of them started downward. The cavern was well-lit and they could easily see where they were going, but the steps were broken and crumbling and they had to tread lightly. Within a few minutes everyone was holding onto someone else for support and snickers and hoots and wise-cracks kept erupting on the way down.
"Imagine all the fun the Andromedan soldiers had coming down these stairs," Saroh gibed.
Yank snorted. "I'm sure the Pacific Fleet boys will have just as much fun when they come down. But, of course, they'll pretend they're not."
Clint hooted. "I don't know about that, professor. They were pretty blatant about it during the war."
"Those were desperate times, ducky boy," Captain Redd reminded him. "They didn't know if they'd ever see their girls back home again, so the other boys filled in just fine, They'll be a little more discreet about it nowadays, I'll betcha."
"Haha! During the war they had Clint along with them," Jimmy tossed in. "And they probably just couldn't control themselves."
In like manner, trying to keep their thoughts away from the danger of the inferno they were descending into, they kept busting each others' chops down the perilous stairway. It grew hotter and hotter and the lava falls louder and louder as they neared the cavern floor and the boiling cauldron of the lake.
Brad could feel the sweat trickling down his face and neck. He tried not to look at the lava falls but it was so close he could almost touch it and his eyes kept wandering toward it.
"The insides of the Earth must be one big volcanic mess," he mused aloud, "ready to blow up any minute."
"A lot of it is," Yank agreed. "Look at the Pacific Rim, on this side near Asia and on the eastern side down the coast of the Americas. Volcanoes everywhere, even on the sea bottom as we witnessed yesterday."
"We know of several planets in the Andromeda galaxy with huge amounts of volcanic activity," Kyrri said. "So much, in fact, that the skies are always dark because of the eruptions and the resulting ash."
"No dark skies for me all day long," Captain Redd muttered. "I'm ready for the good old sunshine already, just being down here this while. If we have to go down any deeper we'll soon come out the other side. Probably somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic."
"Could be that Lemuria was connected to the lost continent of Atlantis," Brad theorized as he finally stepped onto the cavern floor. "There may have been tunnels to and fro, or some kind of quantum portal like the one that connected this place to Magnatar."
He turned to help Kyrri down the crumbling bottom step. "Do you know of any such thing connecting these caves here to a lost continent on the other side of our planet? If it really existed, the Andromedans may have been the ones to colonize it."
Kyrri shook his head. "My knowledge of Earth is very limited, only what I had to learn for this mission. But I can find out for you."
"Yah, and call him on the phone from Magnatar when you do, huh?" Clint asked. "Or would we have to wait twenty-six thousand years till you come the next time?"
Kyrri pushed ahead of them to lead the way. "Let's hope the Andromedans can come here again, and even sooner than that," he said in a take-charge manner. "And to do that we have to make sure Egron is not CrossKing!"
Brad let him go on ahead, knowing how terribly eager he was, and they followed behind quickly crossing the miserably hot cavern . Brad couldn't help looking at the boiling lava lake. Because of the flame and the intense waves of heat it was emitting, there was the illusion that there was no other side to it, no distant shore, as if it were a sea of fire that went on forever. The sight made Brad shudder and he refocused on Kyrri's broad back and hot butt, smiling as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. It was a helluva better view.
"I hope it's cooler in the next cave," Jimmy said as they approached the far wall. "And I'm the jungle boy who loves one hundred degrees. But who the fuck knows how hot this is?"
"Probably two hundred," the captain joked. "Or more. This is a damn fire pit. We gotta get outta here quick, like friggin' pickpockets in a nudist camp!"
Kyrri heard that and he snorted and started running. The trail through the cavern turned to the left now, away from the lava falls, and he followed it, shouting, "There's an archway of stone up ahead. Another passage. And I can already hear the chanting again!"
That spurned them on, and the others all quickened their pace. The farther away from the lake and falls they got, the less intense was the heat and the less blue haze was in the air all around them. And they could once again hear the chanting of the Andromedan soldiers.
One right after another, in a hurry now to get on with it, they reached the cavern wall and ran under the stone archway into the following chamber.
"What ho?" Captain Redd shouted as all their lights zigzagged around crazily. "Well, I'll be buggered!"
The chamber was dark but up ahead about a couple hundred feet were a series of arches that must have overlooked another fiery cavern because beyond them it was all glowing red and orange. But this chamber was not hot and fetid like the last one, It was much cooler with a slight breeze pushing at them from the right.
"A h ... vents, somewhere." Yank drew in a deep breath. "And does that ever feel good!"
Caruso chuckled. "Like cool rainy day in monsoon season."
"Mother Nature's air-conditioning," Clint joked, wiping his brow with a handkerchief. "Not as cool as Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan in July, but pretty darn good for a cave two miles underground."
But Brad heard little of what was being said. He was hot on Kyrri's heels, right behind the boy as he ran toward the fiery arches ahead and the sound of the chanting Andromedan soldiers.
"We hail you, hail you
mighty Egron CrossKing.
We hail you, hail you
forever in your command ..."
... Brad heard along with the stomping of a multitude of feet in unison. He knew instantly three things, and it sent a chill streaking up his back and a pain stabbing through his heart. He actually shook his head as if he could shake the truth away. But that was impossible. The soldiers repeated the almost musical verse and he knew it was true- they were marching, Egron was now CrossKing, and Hyantha was dead.
Brad saw Kyrri stumble and almost fall as he let out a wail of desperation. He'd heard the words too. They were repeated again, the voices growing louder and louder as Brad and his companions got closer to the arches. And then another verse ...
"We honor you, honor you,
mighty Egron, CrossKing.
Light our way, light our way,
always shining bright the day ..."
The others behind had heard also.
"Fuck no," Saroh groaned, and there were more curses and sounds of disappointment from the others.
Brad caught up to Kyrri and grabbed onto him. The boy was trembling. In the light coming through the arches Brad could see tears streaming down his face.
He looked at Brad in wild alarm. "My brothers! They're already beholden to Egron. In his thrall! I can feel it now too. Oh ... this damn programming. I don't want to live in that evil bastard's control. I don't ..."
Brad shook him as they reached the wall of arches. "Stop it, Kyrri. C'mon, buck up. You'll kill him. You've already made up your mind. We'll help you. We'll do what's gotta be done."
The others surrounded them, offering similar encouraging words to Kyrri as they all gaped in surprise at the activity in the brightly lit passage below them.
"Hey Jimmy, whoa!" Clint hissed. "Look at those soldiers."
"Fuckin' nice boys," Rondin grunted. "Lots an' lots of 'em!"
Long and narrow and lit up by a huge boiling lava pit across a wide area right in front of where they stood, the cave below stretched out in both directions. Its floor was about six or seven feet below them, accessible by an easy jump. The hundred or so Andromedan soldiers from the two spaceships were marching toward them from their left in formation as they chanted.
"Light our way, light our way,
mighty Egron CrossKing.
Every day, every day,
lead us on your mighty way ..."
"Wow!" Jimmy hissed breathlessly to Kyrri. "They're my brothers too. And all so beautiful."
The stomping boots and manly voices sent chills up and down Brad's spine as the soldiers neared. Some sudden inspiration made him slip the sensor ring off his finger, and the streaking chills intensified as he heard them repeat the verse in their own language.
"Luminari camine, luminari camine,
bruta Egron RexxoChanni.
Alla giorno, alla giorno.
Commandere alla dua camine ..."
It sounded like Latin, Brad couldn't help thinking, the language of the old Roman Empire which he'd studied for four years in high school. It was beautiful, thrilling, and yet so terribly awful to hear because it was the harbinger of news that could mean disaster for all mankind.
"Look!" Saroh pointed in the direction the soldiers were coming from. "At the end of their formation ... it's Egron!"
Brad slipped the ring back on his finger and looked down the passage. There, behind the marching soldiers, Egron the reptilian walked tall and proud in his white uniform, easily noticeable among all the humanoid men.
"Ew ... gross," Clint muttered. "He really is a freakin' reptilian!"
"He monster man," Caruso hissed. "Me no like."
"I don't know ... not quite as ugly as I'd expect," Yank put in. "He presents a pretty dignified figure."
"Yah, for a gahooney crocodile man," Captain Redd sneered. "You don't wanna get him, Kyrri, then I will. I'd love to blast that fucker into a pile of ashes."
Three of the biggest and most awesomely built of the soldiers marched on either side of Egron, their hands resting on the butts of their laser guns. Brad noticed that Ankar and Ogrid, the guards who had captured him outside the mountain, were among them. One of the two, Brad couldn't tell which one, was carrying a sleek gray metallic box by its handle. It looked to be about the size of a bushel basket.
"Egron's private guards," Kyrri scoffed with annoyance. "They are the eldest and the strongest of us all. And that's Ankar who is carrying the transportation vault to put Malvaggia in."
"He's not in it yet?" Brad asked, daring to hope the miserable deed had already been done.
Kyrri shook his head. "No. His presence within will change the metal to a fiery red to inform anyone who might see it that is occupied."
Jimmy had turned to Rondin and Caruso. "Those guards look like you guys. Just lighter skinned and blond like me."
Rondin made no remark, just grunted, eyeing the men lustfully. But Caruso said, "If me look that good, me go tomorrow to Singapore. Have lots much fun!"
Brad was about to tell Caruso that he was way the hell hotter than them and sure as hell knew it, when Kyrri cried out again, almost loosing his balance in sudden shock. Saroh and Clint had to help Brad hold him up.
"Whattsa matter, mate?" the mission boy croaked.
"Oh ... gods no!" Kyrri cried. "Hyantha! There she is. The soldiers are carrying her."
From the darkness at that end of the cave emerged ten soldiers, five on each side. They were shirtless, their muscular torsos gleaming in the flickering fire light. They had made a carrier from their shirts by tying the sleeves together in a net-like pattern. In it lay Hyantha, Brad could see, a tall female reptilian wearing a golden uniform. She was lifeless as the soldiers carried her on, chanting along with all the others.
"Victory! Victory!
Mighty Egron CrossKing.
Over this world and the next one,
and many more to come,
we will fight with right and might!"
"Hyantha is dead!" Anger rose visibly in Kyrri, straining the muscles of his neck. "And Egron has already taken control of the soldiers with his agenda to conquer. I ... I ..."
"You will kill him!" Brad's eyes flashed just as angrily as he spoke. He shook Kyrri by the shoulders as if to scatter all his doubts away. "Focus, damnit! Focus on what must be done. It's the only way!"
"Right,"Clint agreed, squeezing Kyrri's shoulders as if to imbue his own strengths into him. "When he nears us, shoot him. We'll be right above them. It's an easy shot. And then we can jump down, all of us, and the others will see it was you who did it. They'll be happy to be free of him."
"And we'll guard you until their minds are able to switch and focus their allegiance to you," Saroh added, "and accept you as their leader."
The others all added their encouragement, touching Kyrri, holding him, letting him know their solidarity. It reminded Brad of a huddle on the football field, except that the stakes were so much higher than just getting a ball across a line.
As one, they all pulled apart, placed their portable lights on the ground, and withdrew the laser guns from their holsters.
"Set them on disintegrate," Kyrri ordered. "If we must shoot others, we must shoot to kill. There's no telling how difficult it will be for the soldiers to turn in favor of me. They bully and mock me because I'm the least of them. They all want to fuck me and then they toss me aside like I'm the runt of the litter. It won't be easy for them to accept me as General and CrossKing."
"Well damn it blimey! I think you're tougher and stronger than any of them," Captain Redd growled. "At least you're willing to kill Egron. None of them obviously were."
"Forever, forever,
mighty Egron CrossKing,
our allegiance to you we declare,
through all space and time we may fare ..."
The latest verse of chanting sent more shivers up Brad's spine. The soldiers had given themselves completely over to Egron and he could only wonder if they would do the same to Kyrri who was regarded as only a fuck-boy by the most of them. He stiffened as he and the others emerged from the shadows to the open area between the arch facing the wide part of the cave below and the lava pit across the way.
"Holy crap," Saroh suddenly grunted. "There's Kee!"
While they'd been huddling, the tong pirate Kee had emerged from the dark at the far end of the tunnel with two big burly soldiers prodding and pulling him on. He was bound and gagged, stumbling his way along with them, his clothes torn and ragged, and not a pretty sight at all like he usually was.
"So they did get him, the fucker!" Brad looked at the young man with contempt. "I have no sympathy for him, that's for sure. Look at him. He's terrified."
Jimmy let out a hoot. "He's gotta be wondering what the hell's going on - dozens of kanaka soldiers, and two big reptilian people who'd scare the crap out of anyone."
As he and his guards drew closer, Brad could see that in addition to the ropes binding him, Kee was also cuffed with his arms behind his back.
"It looks like they're making sure he doesn't get away," Clint joined in.
"He is very good looking," Kyrri said. "Perhaps they want to take him back to Magnatar for cloning. We have no soldiers who look anything like that."
"Puh! They can have him," Captain Redd hooted.
"Not if me get 'im first," Rondin shot back. "His men try kill us on high road. Me break him in half. Two times!"
Brad heard Egron shout out some orders and the soldiers began to spread out in rows in the wider area right below, their feet still stomping and their voices now humming along to their marching beat, no longer chanting.
"They're stopping here to do something," Yank hissed. "Look! What the hell? Egron is walking up toward the pit."
Brad watched mesmerized as Egron strolled up through the ranks, his guards alongside him, followed by the soldiers carrying the lifeless Hyantha and the ones guarding Kee. The other soldiers all stepped aside to make room for them as they continued to stomp and hum.
Brad could feel Kyrri's feet next to his lightly stomping in accord with the soldiers. He knew that the march was in the boy's blood. It had been an intrinsic part of his life.
"What are they gonna do?" Jimmy asked, as Egron and the others following him arrived at the edge of the pit.
Kyrri's response was hard and tight. "They are going to throw Hyantha into the burning lava. The disposition of the remains by fire is the custom for a deposed CrossQueen or King."
"But what if she's not dead?" Clint asked. "Maybe they just stunned her?"
Kyrri shook his head. "No! Her soldiers would not have turned over to Egron were she still alive. It is not possible. They know she's dead. We were too late in getting here to help them. We were too far behind. They must have met up farther down in the caves there and fought it out, Egron overtaking her. He probably strangled her to show his strength and superiority. It is already done."
As the soldiers marched in place and hummed their low tone chant, Egron and his guards stepped aside and, at his command, the men carrying Hyantha accessed the pit.
Egron shouted for all to hear. "Toss her in, boys, and," he turned to the ranks of soldiers, "forever hail your new leader. Me!" He pounded his chest with his big hands. "Egron the Terrible!"
"Oh come on, get the damn hook and get him outta there," Clint scoffed as the soldiers stomped and cheered. "He thinks he's another fucking Hitler!"
"Or Mussolini," Jimmy added with a grunt.
"Or Lenin or Stalin," Yank added. "Men like that want power and control over millions. And they all end up dead meat like he soon will be."
Brad and his friends all held their breath as the shirtless soldiers swung the carrier far back and then forcefully forward, flinging Hyantha into the boiling pit. The fallen leader disappeared into the bubbling flames of fire.
Brad and the other boys held onto Kyrri as the soldiers all roared in approval and stomped their feet even harder. Their shouts and exaltation thundered throughout the cave and arched chamber above it. Kyrri's face was a mask of rage, a lone tear sliding down his cheek.
"Now is the time," he growled out slowly. "Brad and Clint, you jump with me. Saroh, Jimmy, all you others right behind. Be careful. Likely their guns are just set to stun, but we must shoot to kill because we are so terribly outnumbered."
Brad held his breath as Kyrri, without another word, stepped forward and jumped, his gun in hand in front of him. Brad looked at Clint and their eyes locked. Clint grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him forward, and they jumped too.
They landed in crouching positions and immediately shot up to their full height behind Kyrri, who had his gun pointed straight ahead at Egron. Brad heard the others hit the ground behind them and then some of the soldiers nearby, still stomping and shouting, turned to look at them, shocked to see strangers suddenly in their midst.
With their guns pointed threateningly at the soldiers, Brad and Clint moved to either side of Kyrri as the Andromedan boy pressed the trigger of his gun and a fiery laser beam shot out ahead at Egron, who had just turned to look at them in surprise.
The stomping and shouting stopped. The eyes of everyone in the cave followed the streaking beam. There was a collective gasp as it hit the wide-eyed Egron directly in the chest with a bright flashing explosion and instantly dissolved the reptilian leader into nothing more than a puff of smoke and a pile of ash.
The result was astounding to Brad. Dead silence dropped upon the chamber. Many of the soldiers clutched at their hearts, others clasped hands to their heads. Some fell to their knees in shock while others just stood there gaping back and forth from where Egron had been standing to where Kyrri now stood staring back at them stony-faced.
Suddenly, two of the guards who had been at Egron's side pulled their guns and aimed directly at Kyrri. Brad recognized them as Ankar and Ogrid. Ankar dropped the metallic vault he was carrying in preparation to shoot, as Brad and Clint simultaneously raised their guns and aimed. But Caruso and Rondin had beat them to it and pulled their triggers instantly. Brad watched as the resulting streaking beams shot across at the two men, hit them in the chests, and both Andromedan soldiers exploded into nothingness.
"Anyone else?" Clint shouted angrily, aiming his gun around at the others, his voice a roar in the silence.
A few more attempts immediately followed from within the ranks, but Brad and Saroh and Clint and Jimmy, and the captain and Yank were on the ready and cut down the soldiers with the dangerous burning rays.
"They're confused," Kyrri whispered. "Slow-witted and like they're drugged. I can feel it too. It totally grips you. You don't know what to do. This is too shocking for them, so close on the heels of what happened earlier to Hyantha. They are without a leader."
"Puh!" Clint looked at the soldiers disdainfully, outraged at the effects of their collective mind programming. "Good thing they never had to fight the freakin' Japanese!"
Brad grabbed Kyrri by the arm. "Then you go up front now and state your case. You are now their leader."
Kyrri looked at him and Brad could see the faltering self-esteem in the boy's eyes.
"Go!" Brad urged him and pushed him forward. "Lead your brothers and save our world. It's up to you now."
As Brad and the others kept him covered, Kyrri walked slowly up through the ranks, unsure of himself at first but with his confidence growing as he stepped closer to the edge of the lava pit. Brad saw the confusion and the pain and anguish on the faces of the soldiers as they watched their young brother pass through them. Some were now moaning as if in physical pain, others swiping at tears, still others holding their heads as if in a daze, and he began to follow behind Kyrri. Clint and Jimmy and Saroh and the others took up the rear and kept their eyes on the soldiers, they're fingers on the triggers of their guns.
Brad knew the Andromedan humanoid men were laboring under great confusion and emotion, but he didn't give much of a damn. They had been willing to follow Egron in carrying out the destruction of the Earth and its people, so he was not very fond of them at the moment. He was interested only in getting them to turn their collective minds to Kyrri and his leadership.
He was angry at the reptilian Andromedans for having interfered so much with the development of life on Earth. Perhaps it was normal for races from outer space to do that. Perhaps they had done a lot of good. But Brad could not forgive them for imprisoning the chaos predator Malvaggia on this remote South Pacific island for eons of time and so terribly endangering the planet and its people.
The only thing that mattered, now that Egron was out of the way, was getting Malvaggia into the vault, back up to Andromeda, and imprisoned on that lone new world in their own damn galaxy!
"Wake up, you fuckers!" Brad yelled at all of them. "Egron is gone! Kyrri is now your leader. Hail him as CrossKing and get on with your mission. Get Malvaggia the fuck off planet Earth!"
Aiming at the ceiling, he pressed his gun's trigger a consecutive number of times. Fiery rays shot up to the ceiling, thwumping into the stone and sending sparks and dust and pieces of rock falling all over them, startling the men out of their stupor.
Kyrri reached the edge of the pit and turned to face the soldiers, standing next to the pile of ash that had been Egron. He raised his gun at the ceiling of the cave and, nodding at Brad, did the same thing he had done. Kyrri fired several consecutive shots above.
Once again, sparks and dust and rock fell among them.
Brad heard Yank grunting behind him. "Better watch you guys don't bring the entire underground falling down on top of us."
Kyrri pointed a finger down at the pile of ash next to him, then raised his arms and opened them wide to the soldiers, his gun still in his right hand. He looked back and forth at the men spread out in front of him, his expression hard and challenging. Brad saw it falter for just a moment, ever so briefly as doubt must have clawed at the boy, but the grim expression returned quickly, hard as nails and determined as fuck.
"Egron is gone!" Kyrri cried out to his brother soldiers. "I had to kill him and you all know why. There cannot possibly be any doubt in your minds. What he intended to do, and what he did, was wrong, and you know it. I thought one of you would have had the guts to cut him down in his attempt to kill Hyantha, but I was wrong. I am the only one of us with the courage to do the right thing!"
Kyrri raised his left hand in the air and clenched his fist, his jaw set hard and his lips a tight straight line. "I killed Egron. I am now your General and CrossKing!"
There was a low murmur of talk among the men. Most were still in some kind of anguish due to their programmed minds, and their scorn at the idea of Kyrri being their leader was evident.
"Aw, get the Hades out of here!" One of them shook his fist at Kyrri. "You're just a kid. How are you going to lead a star troop of men?"
Some of the others heckled Kyrri in agreement.
"You're good for a hot fuck now and then, boy, but that's about all you're good for," one cried out.
"Yah, you think you're hot shit because they made those androids like you," another one jested. "The only reason they did that is because you have such a hot ass."
There were more spatters of laughter here and there and it was obvious that some of the men were getting their confidence back. Brad saw that Clint wasn't liking any of it. He watched as his buddy raised his gun at the ceiling and fired three times. The deadly beams caused more sparks and dust and rocks to rain down upon them.
"What the fuck, you goons!" Clint shouted at the men "None of you had the balls to kill Egron. You let that lousy lizard man murder your General, and then you just like that turned your allegiance to him. You're nothin' but a bunch of wimps!"
Saroh looked at them with similar disgust. He was damn sure going to have his say too. The soldiers had to be persuaded in favor of Kyrri. "You morons," he lashed out at them. "Collective minds or not, you are men first, then soldiers. You can learn to think for yourselves. If you were in the service here on Earth you'd all be court-martialed for the mutiny you've done, and in some countries executed."
There was a low rumble of muttering at that remark and many of the men who had fallen began to struggle back up to their feet. But the boys from Earth were not finished with them. Jimmy stepped forward and a hush fell upon the soldiers as they looked at him, obviously liking very much what they saw.
"Look at me!" he demanded of them. "I'm one of you. A little different maybe, but a whole lot the same. You were made from the seed of my ancestors, a race so strong and proud and beautiful that creatures from the stars took them home to make copies of them. And you know what? All those Earth men would be so fucking ashamed of what the reptilians have done to you. They've made you nothing more than slaves to their own desires!"
The confused soldiers began grumbling to each other, palming their faces, shrugging their shoulders hopelessly, and rolling their eyes in expressions of dismay. To Brad they looked like a bunch of primary grade children who didn't know what to do, who to listen to, or where to go. He gestured to Kyrri to gain their attention again as Captain Redd and Yank, and Caruso and Rondin on their sides, kept watch on the ranks, guns threatening.
Kyrri nodded, holstered his gun and raised clenched fists in the air. "We must follow the Code of Enlightenment," he boomed out. "We are on an intergalactic mission. There has been mutiny and it has been dealt with. The Code states that whoever kills the General becomes the new leader ..."
"But you are not a reptilian," one of the soldiers shouted back in objection. "The General is always a reptilian!"
A rumbling of agreement followed his words from the ranks.
"It is not written in the Code that the new leader must be reptilian," Kyrri argued. "And there are none here anyway to step in place. Just us humanoid men. We must complete our mission and put Malvaggia into the vault and take him back to Andromeda to his new confinement. We must keep our covenant with the governments of Earth to stop our interference with the developing life of their planet!"
Brad knew that the Andromedan soldiers were slowly coming around, still confused and agitated but improving. He glanced warily around at his companions, his head actually hurting because he was thinking so hard about what to do next. Then suddenly the light bulb popped in his mind and the bright idea took form and function, and he knew exactly what had to be done.
He shouted to his friends, "Follow my lead! Monkey see, monkey do!"
He turned back to Kyrri and fell down upon one knee. Raising his arm above his head, Brad pointed his hand at the Andromedan boy he had grown to love and admire.
"Hail Kyrri, CrossKing!" he shouted for all to hear. "Hail Kyrri, CrossKing!
His friend from the stars smiled down at him, fists planted firmly on his hips and his bare chest swelled proudly in a stance of power and command no one would dare to challenge. Brad saw right there and then that the boy had now become a man.
Clint took a knee beside Brad, raised his arm and joined him in the chant. "Hail Kyrri, CrossKing! Hail Kyrri, CrossKing!"
Saroh did the same on Brad's other side as Jimmy knelt down on both knees next to Clint. They were joined behind by the captain and Yank and Caruso and Rondin flanking them, and they kept up the hailing together, loud and strong, until the Andromedan soldiers surrounding them slowly began to follow suit, one by one.
"Hail Kyrri, CrossKing! Hail Kyrri, CrossKing!"
As lava and flame crackled and sparked in the pit in front of them, the ranks took a knee man by man as their collective minds began to sync and they hailed their new leader, the one among them who was the least in stature and physical prowess but the very strongest of mind and spirit.
And as Kyrri stood there surveying the men of his new star troop domain, he knew he could never have taken such a giant step in the evolution of his life without Brad and Saroh and Jimmy and Clint, the boys from Earth who had shown him what it is to truly be a man.
VIDEO ... AMENO by Era *Stargate mix*
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Thanks for reading, everyone!
Next chapter ... VIRTUAL REALITY!