Space Rocks! Read Online Free Page A

with their guns. They outnumber us roughly two million to one.”
    At this terrifying statistic, the crowd broke down again—loud bawling, howls of terror; some even fell and began to pound the cavern floor in despair.
    â€œYes, there are at least two hundred million kilometers between us and most of them,” continued Kalac, “but this only highlights a second disadvantage we have: space travel. We all know that in the Time of Legends the Xotonian race could travel the stars as easily as we walk between caverns today. But those days are long behind us. The humans have spacecraft. We don’t. That means that even if we defeat them, they can just come back again. And again.
    â€œSo I propose to you all an alternate plan. One that preserves our advantage of surprise entirely,” said Kalac. “Let us attack the humans without attacking them.” There was a buzz of general confusion as the crowd tried to pull itself back together.
    â€œPardon me, Kalac,” said Loghoz, “but that is a logical contradiction.”
    â€œPerhaps it would be better if I showed you what I mean,” said Kalac, and it wheeled forward a view-screen large enough for even those in the back of the crowd to see. Kalac activated the screen. It showed a green map depicting a well-known part of the cavern system. I couldn’t help but notice how shabby the Xotonian display looked compared with the human hologram device.
    â€œThis is an area of the Gelo caverns,” said Kalac. “And these are the mines that the humans have dug.” It clicked the view-screen remote. Now the mines, square shafts shown in yellow, were overlaid upon the twisting caverns. At several points the yellow and green were nearly touching.
    â€œBut by destroying supports here,” said Kalac, indicating a point on the map, “we could cause a major subterranean collapse. Both the human mines and the natural caverns below them would fall in on themselves. On the surface, this would result in a major asteroid-quake.” Now the map showed the zone of collapse shaded in purple, completely inscribing the mines and caverns.
    â€œThis would happen right beneath the human mothership,” said Kalac. It clicked again, and now the outline of the grounded human vessel sat squarely in the middle of the purple zone. The crowd gasped and began to whisper among themselves.
    â€œThis collapse would damage the human spacecraft, perhaps critically, and destroy much of their mining equipment. Best of all, the humans would believe it was simply a natural disaster,” said Kalac. “They would never even know that any Xotonians were involved.”
    â€œJust a moment,” said Dyves, another member of the Council. “Those ‘supports’ you pointed out are kilometers of solid rock. Destroying them would be impossible. Simply impossible.”
    Kalac paused. “Not if we use the Q-sik.” Another murmur rumbled through the crowd.
    â€œFrom the time of Jalasu Jhuk,” said Kalac, “each Chief of the Council has been passed down an eight-digit numeric code. This is the code to open the Vault. I know that to some of you, using the Q-sik may seem brash, or even sacrilegious. But we face an unprecedented emergency. I believe we can remove the device, use it just once, and then return it to its rightful place.”
    â€œBut what’s to stop the humans from returning?” asked Glyac, the fifth member of the Council. Up to this point, the casual observer would be forgiven for wondering whether Glyac was awake or not.
    â€œWhat will stop them,” said Kalac, “is themselves. If we attack the humans directly, even if we win, they are certain to come back in force. We’ve observed them enough to understand that retaliation is in their nature.” Sheln grumbled and shook its head.
    Kalac continued, “But if a ‘natural disaster’ destroys their settlement, well, the humans will