by Rick Johnson
Installation of a large iron plate on one wall was the only part of the construction that had actually started. When that point was discussed, Boss asked a question. “Why do you have all those big bolts set into that water-soaked rock? Any miner will tell you that rock soaked through like that is not stable enough for this kind of drilling.”
“The Construction and Installation Manual says that there must be two dozen bolts to properly hold a Fludge Plate. That, sir, is a Fludge Plate. If you care to count, there are exactly two dozen bolts. We follow the Construction and Installation Manual in our work here, sir.”
“But I can’t see why the Fludge Plate could not be on the other side where there’s a much more stable rock wall. Just seems sensible to me…”
“You, sir, need to study the Construction and Installation Manual more thoroughly. The Master of Elevating Works makes the decision about the placement of the Fludge Plate. As the Construction and Installation Manual directs, I have decided to install the Fludge Plate where it is, with precisely two dozen bolts. If you had studied the Manual, you would have no such silly questions.”
Boss lapsed into silence, but his mind was working furiously. The rock wall where the Fludge Plate was installed constantly weeped water. So much so, that a trench had been dug to drain it away. With two dozen massive bolts now set in the wall, each requiring a eight-inch round hole to be drilled five feet deep into the rock, Boss felt certain the rock wall could not hold. Long experience told him it was only a matter of time before the wall gave way and flooded the chamber.
Bem noticed that Boss seemed to be deep in thought during the rest of the briefing. When the briefing ended, Brude, Blind-Ear, and Whip left and Boss continued talking with Milky Joe about the Miner Bear contract. Bem was surprised that, during the meeting, Boss requested that they stay overnight in the Wrackshee camp. He said that he needed more time to investigate the mining conditions in the vertical shaft. “If I come in with the right number of miners and the right equipment, I think my miners can complete the job even faster than you plan,” he said.
“How long do you need to stay?” Milky Joe asked.
“I think one more day will be enough to do what I need to do,” Boss replied. “My assistant and I will need free access to the machinery and the vertical shaft. I’d also request that you assign a couple of Skull Buzzards to work with us. We’ll need some slaves to do some dirty work for us and the Skull Buzzards will be necessary for that.”
“That’s a given,” Milky Joe replied. “No one gets access to the machinery without a Skull Buzzard escort.”
“We’d like to eat and rest a bit, then get to work,” Boss said. “We’ll be ready in half an hour.”
“Dine with me,” Milky Joe said, smiling. “Your dedication to the project is notable, and if you do complete the project early, I will make it worth your while.”
A meal of lizard heads and entrails, battered and fried, and boiled eel, chopped up with parsley and spices, made Bem glad they were staying with the Wrackshees only one more day. Only the crocks of scorched Slam & Pugger made the meal worth eating in her estimation. That the Wrack Lord got to eat the best cuts of lizard, especially the entrails that he loved, and imported eel, did not impress her in the least.
The Shèttings to Smithereens
After eating, Milky Joe escorted Boss and Bem to the drawdoor and assigned two Skull Buzzards to accompany them into the slave-holding cavern. When the drawdoor had closed behind them, Boss said, “Get me a couple of scum-bags out of that pit—I want strong beasts that can work hard.” It was only the look of pain that Bem had seen in Boss’s face earlier that made her put up with his ugly language. Somehow, Boss was working a plan of some sort. Bem was sure of that now.
The two Skull Buzzards walked up to the iron bar gate covering the slave-holding pit. “Show us which ones you want,” one said.
Boss walked over to the pit and pointed out two well-muscled beasts. “Those two fellows right there,” he said, pointing.
One of the Skull Buzzards knelt down at the gate and opened the lock. Just as he was about to ask for help in pulling the gate open, Boss fell to the floor, gasping and choking.
“It’s my heart,” he wheezed, clutching at his chest. “My ticker’s gone bad!”
Immediately jumping to Boss’s side, a Skull Buzzard was kneeling down to help, when Boss let loose a powerful punch to the side of his head. Bem, knowing that this was a moment of surprise not to be lost, launched a flying kick straight at the neck of the other Skull Buzzard. That was it. The struggle was over. Two Skull Buzzards lay unconscious on the floor of the cavern.
Boss leaped to his feet and hugged Bem fiercely. “I hope you’ll forgive me what I’ve done,” he said.
“You’re talking to the wrong beast if you’re confessing wrongs,” Bem said. “Nobody ever made me your judge and keeper—I’ve got enough to worry about with just my own mistakes. Let’s just get on with the future from here.”
The slaves sensed that something wonderful had happened. A low rumble began in the pit. “We’re free! Huzza! We’re free!”
Boss rushed to the pit and called out, “Quiet, good beasts! You’re not free yet. There’s two thousand Wrackshees and several dozen Skull Buzzards just on the other side of that door. It will take some work yet to get you out of here. So, please hold down the noise. We’ll work as fast as we can to get you out of there.” The joyful cries died down, but the spirit of the desperate beasts in the pit was much improved. Hope, when it comes along with action, does that for long-suffering beasts.
Bem and Boss quickly lashed ropes around the Skull Buzzards, assuring that they could not move. Taking off one of the Buzzard’s boots, Boss took off his socks and stuffed one in each of the Buzzard’s mouths.
“Now we’ve got to work fast,” Boss said. “Milky Joe won’t leave us alone in here more than overnight. And—we don’t know how long that wall will hold. When it goes, this place will be flooded.
“What do you plan to do?” Bem asked.
“Don’t have time for a lot of explanation,” Boss replied, “but for starters, we’ve got to use those piles of rope to set up an escape route for the slaves.” He pointed to dozens of coils of new rope intended for the lift construction. “I don’t know either what’s up or down in the vertical shaft,” Boss said, “but I do know that if that wall gives way, we don’t want to be on the down side when the flood comes. So we go up. Do you know anything about using ropes in climbing?”
Bem thought for a moment. “Well, I’ve climbed rigging on a ship,” she said, “but this is a different deal here. What if we ask the slaves?”
“Brilliant!” Boss smiled. “Let’s get them out of the pit. They can stretch their legs, and we can see what they know about climbing.”
Sliding open the gate, in a few minutes, all the slaves were standing outside the pit. Among the joyful beasts, one wiry-looking Lynx stepped forward. “I’m Jax, a Climbing Lynx by training,” he said. “Struck a Skull Buzzard officer and got myself sent to Tilk Duraow, which is how you find me here.”
“Glad to meet you,” Boss said. “We need a ropeway up inside the vertical shaft as fast as we can get one.”
“I’ll need a hammer and some of those spikes over there,” Jax said, indicating crates of iron spikes for the construction.
“For now, you just need to get us a ropeway up far enough so that if the wall blows, all these good beasts won’t be drowned,” Boss said. “I don’t know how much water will come when the wall collapses, but it will be a lot. The down portion of the vertical shaft will act like a drain. I think if we can get all these beasts up the shaft a ways, they’ll be safe.”
Boss’s instructions to Jax were puzzling, Bem thought. As certain as it might be that the wall would eventually collapse, she guessed Milky Joe would be back sooner than that. Why was Boss so worried about getting the freed slaves up in the vertical shaft, but didn’t seem to worry about being discovered by Milky Joe? Then it hit her.
Boss must be planning to somehow bring the wall down! Get the now free beasts up in the shaft and break the wall open! “By the Ancient Ones,” Bem breathed, “by the Ancients…”
Jax was soon making his way up the vertical shaft, hammering spikes into crevices and hanging ropes from them.
“Thanks to that screaming steam vent,” Boss said, “the sound of all that hammering is well concealed. I can’t even hear Jax working anymore.”
“Do you remember when you asked if I forgive you, Boss?” Bem said.
Boss gave Bem a surprised look. “Of course I do,” he replied. “My memory isn’t that bad.”
“Well, just so you know,” Bem continued, “I’ll keep your memory alive in the stories I tell for the rest of my life. You’re doing a tremendously noble thing here. I wish I could stay behind with you when you destroy the wall…”
“You’ve got another mission ahead of you,” Boss said. “These beasts need a leader, and it won’t be me. They won’t be out of danger just by getting them up above the flood that’s coming. They’ve got to find their way out of the Grand Deep. You may not come back alive, so don’t go making promises you may not be able to keep.”
Bem did not reply immediately. She was thinking of the other mission that she was on which, apparently, was now going very badly wrong. How would she ever get back to Hadst? What would BorMane think when she did not return as expected?
“Oh, I’ll keep my promise, you old Mining Bear, don’t think I won’t,” Bem answered. “However long I live, I’ll be telling stories about a brave old Mining Bear who gave it all—and don’t you think for a minute that I won’t!” Bem’s eyes began to tear up.
“Drumm n’ Pickin’s!” Boss said, “What are you blubbering around about? Don’t think for a minute I’m not getting out of this place, too!”
Brightening, Bem exclaimed, “Do you mean you’re not going to bring the wall down and drown yourself?”
Boss shook his head, laughing, “Bem, I’m a Miner Bear! Miner Bears are trained to never, ever, let themselves get trapped below ground! What do you think I did, slept through that part of my training? Oh, no, I’m definitely getting out of here. I do have a plan to speed up the collapse of the wall. And my plan includes getting every one of us out of here safely.”
“One question, Boss,” Bem said, “how are you going to break the wall open?”
“It will take some work,” Boss replied. “But that stupid codfish, Whip, did most of the work for me. If you’ve been working underground as long as I have, you get to know rock like it’s family. That wall’s got a few hours, or maybe a day, to live. I’ll get a bunch of us banging on those bolts with sledges and it’ll be gone. Soon as Jax has got the escape route established, I’ll ask for volunteers to be in the last group leaving the cave. We’ll beat on the wall to weaken it, but we’ll stop just before it’s ready to break.”
“Then what?” Bem asked.
“I don’t rightly know what happens after that,” Boss responded. “When it bursts, maybe it will be just a rush of water. Depending on how much water there is, it may be more than can drain away down the shaft. If that happens, the pressure will probably blow out the drawdoor. If that happens, the Wrackshee camp will be flooded. And…if the water rises high enough and reaches that super-heated steam vent, it could blow the whole area to pieces.”
“To pieces?” Bem said. “You mean destroy it?”
“I mean,” Boss said, “the explosion might be powerful enough to blast that entire section of the Grand Deep to smithereens.”
“What about your miners at the Grungg Pit?” Bem said.
“That’s far enough away that they may feel a tremor, but that’s all,” Boss replied. “Like I said, there may be nothing by a flood. But if it blows, it’ll feel like a tiny earthquake back at the Grungg Pit.”
“And when you don’t return, they’ll send a search party and find the entire area collapsed or flooded. They’ll think that’s the end of you,” Bem observed.
“Yes, but that’s why you’re the leader when we’re out of here. You’ve got things to do and beasts to take care of. So do I. I’ve got the Miner Bears and their families to think of. So, once we’re out of here, we’ll have to go our separate ways. That’s the way this story ends,” Boss said quietly. “I’m going to miss you, Bem,” he added.
“Me too,” Bem replied.
With little else to say at the moment, Bem and Boss mingled with the freed beasts, explaining that Jax was preparing an escape route. They did not speak about the details of what would happen, focusing only on keeping the beasts as calm, hopeful, and quiet as possible.
For the next five hours, the group waited, working to keep up each other’s spirits, in the face of almost painful anxiety.
Finally, Jax dropped out from the vertical shaft, smiling broadly. “There’s a ledge up there several hundred feet. It will be a great place to land. There’s plenty of room for all these beasts and looks like there may be a way out,” he reported.
“Great!” Boss exclaimed. “Let’s get these beasts moving!”
“Bem and I go back up first,” Jax directed. “When we’re up on the ledge, I’ll yank the rope as a signal. That will tell you to attach some extra coils to the climbing rope. We’ll pull up enough coils to let down more climbing ropes. I think the shaft can handle three climbing ropes. Once you send the rope coils up to us, you can start beasts climbing the first rope. We’ll use the second rope as a another climbing route. The third rope will be a lift for any beasts who can’t climb. Luckily, these are heavy duty ropes meant for making the lift, so we can run a lot of beasts up at a time. Just keep ’em moving—about thirty feet apart, keep ’em moving. The rope can handle that weight and won’t break. When the last beast is up, we’ll pull the ropes up.”
After Jax explained the climbing process to everyone, Boss asked for volunteers who would work with him on weakening the wall. More than two dozen beasts volunteered, but only a dozen were needed, so again volunteers were requested, this time, to go ahead and climb up the shaft.
Anxious hope kept Boss going as the operation went on like clockwork for the next several hours. Beast after beast climbed out of sight, with those too young or weak lifted up the shaft on ropes. Hour by hour, the cavern emptied. When everyone but Boss and the volunteers had begun the journey up, Boss peered up the shaft until they were out of sight. Then, taking a deep breath, he went to the construction area and provided a sledgehammer to each of the volunteers. “Thirty more minutes. Please Ancient Ones—thirty more minutes. I need thirty minutes…”
Walking over to the Fludge Plate, Boss carefully examined the wall behind it. With water seeping so strongly around some of the bolts that the stone was flaking away, it was obvious where to begin work. Hammering on the bolts from every angle with unchained anger for everything the Fludge Plate represented, water was soon spraying out from behind. Minute by minute, the massive Plate looked more and more like a beast trying to keep a thumb over the end of a gushing hose.
WHAM! SLAM! KA-CHUNK! Again and again, the beasts slammed the bolts, slashing and battering them from every direction. With two dozen massive bolts holding the Fludge Plate, other beasts might have wearied and despaired. But the beasts stayed at their deadly work, furiously swinging the 16-pound hammer; paws turning raw, hard-callused-skin wearing away; hearts pounding, ready to burst.
As the minutes sped by, the Fludge Plate itself began to shudder with each blow from the sledges. The entire structure of rock behind it was giving way. “A few more blows,” Boss panted, “then we stop and get out of here.” Hardly aware of anything else but lifting their arms and swinging the sledges, the beasts did not stop until Boss dropped his sledge and said, “Stop! To the ropes—let’s get out of here.”
The night detail of Skull Buzzards charged with operating the drawdoor between the Shèttings and the slave-holding chamber had special trials in their duty. Nothing ever happened during the night detail. Boredom reigned supreme. Seldo
m were there calls to open the drawdoor during the night and never had there been anything to guard against. With such trials as this, and only card playing and dice games to while away the hours, it was common for one or more to fall asleep at their post. Although the Wrack Lord severely punished any guards caught napping, with only guards awake during the night detail, slumber-at-post was rarely charged. It was one of the few weaknesses in the Wrack Lord’s order at the Shèttings.
Thus, some hours later, when one of the Skull Buzzards on night detail awoke with a start, it was not odd that he had been asleep at his post. What was uncommon was that water, spraying on his face, wakened him. Startled awake, the Buzzard rubbed his eyes and instantly realized something was terribly wrong. The gigantic drawdoor, towering above him and dwarfing everything around it, was pitching and trembling, as if under tremendous pressure. The source of the pressure was clear. Water was spraying around the edges of the drawdoor. Rousing his slumbering comrades, the alarmed Buzzard ran pell-mell to wake the Wrack Lord.
By the time he reached Milky Joe’s tent behind the Tronet, the Buzzards back at the drawdoor were screaming. “HELP! HELP! WE CAN’T HOLD IT BACK! HELP!” The drawdoor was creaking and cracking, threatening to give way. Throwing their full strength against the door, the Buzzards valiantly struggled to make the door hold. They could not hold it long without help, maybe not at all.
Coming awake to the screaming before the wild-eyed Buzzard could reach him, the Wrack Lord shouted, “BESHREW YOU! WHAT FOUL SCURVY IS THIS?” Milky Joe never heard a response to his question. At that moment, there was a horrendous CRACKER-BOOM-SPLOOSH. The drawdoor blew off the wall, sending a flood of ice-cold water into the Shèttings. With the immense drawdoor gone, water poured into the Wrackshee camp like a tsunami.
