by Gary Weston
Hellicoyle said, 'Leading to, or leading from?'
'There's a difference?'
Hellicoyle opened the safe and took out the artefact. He had almost forgotten how beautiful it was. The gold filigree glistened in the green light of the holograph.
'This is what's humming. I wondered what that annoying sound was.'
Berry said, 'Significant, you think?'
Hellicoyle shrugged and placed it on the workbench with even more reverence. 'Those things inside are more active than before. It looks like it is getting ready for something.'
Berry stepped back. 'Just don't mess with the damn thing.'
'This is no coincidence. You realise that, don't you? The tunnel. The chamber. This.'
'Was it being hidden, do you think?' said Berry. 'I mean of course it was hidden. But I don't mean from us. We humans. I think we were meant to find it. I think it was perhaps hidden...from themselves.'
Hellicoyle suddenly stepped back. 'Is this thing so damned valuable?'
'Or so important.'
'What I don't understand is why the probe stopped sending signals like it did. That happened...just about here.' He pointed at the holograph. 'About four miles from the base of Mons.'
Berry said, 'Only one way to find out, my friend. You and I need to go into that tunnel.'
Chapter 102
Max Morgan was bored, bored, bored. Phobos was depressingly...depressing. Small, insignificant, dull. Every time Christopher Crossman entered the freighter, Morgan was hoping to hear words like “We're going back to Mars.” Instead he got, “Let's try somewhere else.”
So, Morgan would let everybody drag their dust covered gear into the ship, not even giving a thought to who was going to clean it all up, and they would take off for a few minutes, set down again, when they would drag it all out again to chip away at more rocks.
'I could walk around this pebble in a couple of days. Bloody clowns, tap, tap, tapping with their bloody little hammers. Me? I'm just the bus driver.'
Morgan chuckled at the Craggyism. 'Bus driver. Once more more round the block. Where's the indicators on this thing? I hope you're having more damn fun than I am, Craggy. I wonder if they'd miss me if I just took off for a few days? Grab a few beers. Why the hell don't I have beer with me? What was I thinking? Craggy would have stowed beer on board. Craggy. What would Craggy do to get out of this one?'
By the time the survey team added another layer to the already filthy interior, Morgan had worked out what Craggy would have done.
'It's the main thruster ionic stabilising injector unit. All this damn dust. Man. Be lucky if I can get us back in one piece. We have to get home while we can.'
'You just made that up,' said Chris Crossman.
'I...I what? I made it up? Why would I do that?'
'Beer. You want to get back for beer.'
'Are you seriously suggesting...?'
'We have one more site to check out before we go home.'
Morgan sighed. That would have gone so much better if Craggy had done it. 'One more hop and we can go home?'
'I totally promise.'
'Shit. Buckle up.'
Chapter 103
'Without beer?'
'Craggy,' said Dillow. 'I couldn't let you bring beer on the ship with all these youngsters on board, now could I?'
'Fine. That I understand,' said Cragg. 'Me telling stories to keep the troops amused, completely sober; that request I don't get.'
'They're on edge. Just a couple of days until Moon. Most of them have never flown in space before. Kids born on Mars, like that girl Roswell. Do it for Roswell.'
Cragg sighed. 'Okay. The observation deck?'
'An hour from now. Thanks, Craggy.'
* * *
Dillow called for order and got it. 'Okay. Listen up. You've all got to know Captain Dixon Cragg. This man is a legend. Commanders like me teach the technical aspects of flying a ship. Captain Cragg shows how to become one with your ship. Never underestimate the importance of that. Captain Cragg.'
Cragg gave a self conscious wave to the assembly. 'In a short while, we are going to land this bus...ship.' He looked at Dillow. 'You? Captain Ramshorn?'
'Joint effort.'
'Right. Even better. I could do it if you want?' There was a slightly nervous murmur. 'Relax. I'm joking.' There was a collective sigh of relief. 'Commanders Dillow and Ramshorn are two of the best. Things are so much more ...reliable these days. I hope. Not like when I was a hapless young buck of a pilot.' At a nod to Amethyst Ramshorn, the lights dimmed, apart from one which illuminated Cragg's face. 'Did I ever tell you of the time I flew a freighter with a dead man for company? Well...'
'Craggy,' Dillow whispered. 'I'm trying to unwind them, not have them checking under their cots for boogie men.'
'Trust me. I never told you how it ended. Right. There we were, on the Moon Mars run, Big Billy Croxford was my captain. I was just a rookie, making the syncoff, doing the laundry. We were about half way, when Big Billy suddenly clutches his chest. Heart attack. His eyes rolled in his head and he gurgled something, fell over and died.' He paused for dramatic affect. All eyes were on him. 'So. I did what I thought best and asked Moon what I should do. Can I throw him out the airlock, I asked.'
Cries of, 'Oh, jeez.'
'Can you believe they said no? So I was stuck with him for the rest of the flight. Anyone smelled a dead body? No? Nor me until then. Two days later, he was starting to smell worse than that curried fish we had not long ago.'
'What did you do?' Roswell Strange asked.
'The only thing I could do. Put his suit on, to seal the stench in.'
'Yuck, gross.'
'Don't look at me in that tone of voice you lot. You weren't there smelling it. Of course, it was a bit of a struggle squeezing him in his suit, but eventually I had his helmet on and job done. Now, the thing about Big Billy was, he never really taught me how to fly the bloody ship. The radio was down on Moon and I had to teach myself to fly the damn freighter. I was halfway to Venus by the time I'd figured it out. It was two days later, I was alone on the flight deck, lights dimmed, not unlike this. When I heard behind me...footsteps.'
Another pause and the young men acted tough and held the girls to comfort them. Cragg could hear them breathing. He continued, low and soft.
'The footsteps were coming closer behind me, closer, closer.' Cragg could feel Dillow's eyes burning into him. Don't spook the troops. 'I could hear this peculiar, rasping breathing. I was like a statue, petrified out of my wits. Slowly, so slowly, I turned to face my worse nightmare. Then...I heard it speak. “Bloody Cragg. What did you do?” I think I peed myself. I turned around and there he stood. Big Billy Croxford. The big tub of fat hadn't died, after all.'
'You rotter,' said Dillow.
'I know. So let that be a lesson to all of you. Never be in too much of a hurry to throw somebody out of the airlock. Sleep tight, everybody.'
Chapter 104
Jay Moore and Roy Tasker were sitting next to Dillow and Rocky Ramshorn.
Dillow asked, 'Just how close do you want us to land to the launcher?'
'Within one mile of it,' said Tasker. 'And the flatter the better. That good for you, Jay?'
'I want the starboard side of the ship facing the launcher,' said Moore.
'Right,' said Rocky Ramshorn. 'One last orbit and down we go. Stay buckled up, people.' Rocky took the huge ship for a slow spin around the block. 'Going down...and...welcome to Moon, everyone.'
'See, Roswell?' said Cragg. 'Nothing to it. Are you okay?'
'Fine. Thanks for staying with me.'
'Happy to. Now you be careful out there.'
'Aren't you coming out?'
Cragg shook his head. 'Maybe later. I'll only be in the way. You all have a whole heap of work to do.'
Roswell and the rest of the crew made their way to the airlock. Cragg found himself sitting alone, wondering why he was there. Why he was really there.
He was missing Misty. He should
be with her. He closed his eyes and felt the ship. He felt the airlock doors open. He felt the heavy gear being driven out the open sections. Not anything disrespectful to the ship. Just professionals doing what they had to do to get the job done. It took nine and a half minutes to get all the gear out on Moon's cold, unforgiving grey surface. The airlock doors closed up and a silence swept through the Big Bird, and Cragg let it wash over him. He was a long way from home.
Chapter 105
Mars Commander Potts said, 'Just how long do we need to have the mine standing idle?'
Hellicoyle stood shoulder to shoulder with Berry. They were prepared for Potts' hard line.
'That artefact might just be the most important thing ever discovered,' said Hellicoyle. 'It's that big.'
'That wasn't any sort of an answer.'
Berry said, 'It's the only one we can give you, Tagg. Look. The first point of interest is just one mile in. For some reason as yet unknown, the probe we sent down just stopped sending pictures. Like, one second perfect, next, nothing. Maybe when we reach that point, we'll know what we have to do next.'
Potts considered the situation. 'I'll deploy Singh and his team to other mines. You two have two days. You're now wasting your time and mine. Go.'
'We'll let you know how we get on,' said Berry.
* * *
'We follow the roboprobe,' said Hellicoyle to Peggy Cramer. 'You lose the signal, you tell us, okay?'
'Have fun.'
'After you,' said Berry.
Hellicoyle didn't argue. Cramer had the roboprobe scurrying along the small tunnel with the two suited geologists on all fours, scrambling behind it.
'Hey, Peggy. Slow the damn thing down, will you?'
The probe slowed down. They had a mile to go.
Chapter 106
Christopher Crossman took off his helmet. He'd left his team at their last site on the tiny moon.
'We need a mole.'
'We never brought one with us,' said Max Morgan.
'No shit? We were only doing a surface survey for the benefit of a couple of rookies, but I think I might have found something worth looking at, but to do that I need a mini mole. I need to go get one.'
Morgan thumbed towards a seat. 'Buckle up.'
It was a hop, skip and a short jump from Phobos to Mars. Shamini Singh had a mini-mole and a case waiting for them.
'What's in the case?' asked Crossman.
'Don't worry about it,' said Morgan. 'You got what you wanted, I got what I want.'
'I hope that isn't booze.'
'Don't worry about it,' repeated Morgan.
'Listen, cowboy. I'm not going anywhere with a boozed up pilot.'
Morgan said, 'Fine by me. Go get yourself a new pilot. And good luck with that.' He picked up the case of beer and started to walk away.
'Hey.'
'Hey, yourself.'
'Okay. Take your beer with us.'
Morgan paused. 'I don't fly drunk. Never. I've just had a gut full of syncoff.'
Crossman grinned. 'You and me both. You're okay, kid.'
It took the two of them to heave the mole in through the airlock. Both knew it was risky carrying it unsecured. Morgan backed himself to fly straight and land soft. He had the beer on a spare seat next to him. He was back on Phobos and helping to unload the mole within three hours.
'You found something interesting?'
Crossman patted the mole. 'I'll soon know. Easy on the beer, kid.'
Chapter 107
'The roboprobe stopped signalling. Nothing this end,' said Cramer.
Berry and Hellicoyle were finding it hard work crawling along the tunnel.
'Bring it back until we get the signal back and stop it,' said Berry.
'Bringing it back,' said Cramer. 'And we have the signal.'
'I see it,' said Hellicoyle. 'I see the probe.'
Hellicoyle passed by the probe. Its light was shining brightly. The geologist's helmet light shone brightly, too.
'See anything?' Berry asked.
'Just tunnel and...' The helmet light went out. 'And nothing.'
'Nothing?'
'Nothing. And lots of it.'
Berry wriggled up and hit a brick wall. Actually, it was Hellicoyle's backside. 'Move over, will you?'
'One of us could do with losing a little weight, and I don't mean me.'
Berry turned around and looked back down the tunnel the way he'd crawled along. 'Tunnel that way,' he turned back, 'Not so much this way.'
'Told you.'
'Yes. But have you actually moved into it?'
Hellicoyle looked Berry in the eyes, which nearly blinded the man with the helmet lamp. 'Moved into nothing?'
'You keep saying it's nothing. How can you tell unless you go into it?'
'Why me?' said Hellicoyle. 'You go into it. Be my guest.'
Berry said, 'Look. There can't be nothing. I mean, the probe went in, then back again.'
'So you go.'
Berry reached forward, his hand sliding cautiously towards the empty space in front of him. He found it too disconcerting to be able to see his arm clearly, then it seemed to vanish. In, gone, out, back again.
'We need a brighter light.'
'Like that'll do it.'
Berry said, 'You got a better idea?'
'Peggy? You hear me?'
'I hear you.'
'We need a really powerful light in here. Anything come to mind?'
'An argon lamp?'
'Perfect. But hurry.'
Chapter 108
Max Morgan sipped the Martian beer. He was much happier sitting in the freighter, a nice view of the Red Planet, sipping beer. He had finished off two and fallen fast asleep. Now he was warm and comfortable, leaving the others to break rocks. He gave little thought as to what Chris Crossman and his team had discovered. He may have been more interested had he been with them. The mole was burrowing through a dense layer of rock.
The two rookies with them stood awkwardly to one side, trying not to look completely superfluous. It had been one of them who had noticed an unusual rock structure and had nervously asked Crossman what it could be. Crossman didn't have an answer but agreed it was out of place. He had praised the rookie for noticing it and decided they would investigate while they were on that tiny moon. Suddenly, there was no resistance to the mole's industrial diamond covered cone as it chewed its way through.
'Reverse the mole,' said Crossman. Carl Richter, Crossman's deputy, pulled the lever backwards and the machine reversed out of the rock. With the mole out of their way, they could look along the length of the opening for about fifty yards, then the tunnel abruptly ended into inky blackness.
'Is that a tunnel?'
Crossman said, 'It can't be. I've been a geologist on Mars for the last seventeen years. There has been no excavation on this moon in that time.' He shined his torch into the hole but after illuminating the walls of the perfectly formed tunnel, the light disappeared. 'How can that be?'
Richter said, 'Everyone. Shine your torches in there together.'
Four powerful beams were shone into the tunnel as one. All the light vanished as it reached the end of the tunnel.
'That,' said Crossman, 'Is impossible.'
'It isn't natural, that's for sure,' said Richter.
* * *
It took an agonising twenty minutes for Peggy Cramer to return with an argon lamp. She sent it along on the robo probe.
'Use your sun visor, Felix,' said Berry, before he turned on the blinding white light. At least it was blinding in the tunnel, before it vanished into the blackness. 'That is impossible.'
'No it isn't impossible.'
'Don't say it, Felix,'said Berry.
'Black hole.'
Berry said, 'I said not to say it. Anyway. It can't be a black hole. If it were, we wouldn't be and neither would Mars.'
'Okay. A black hole, but not as we know it. The probe came back easily enough. Like you inferred. If it were a true black hole, it wouldn't have been pos
sible.'
'A man made black hole?'
Hellicoyle shook his head. 'No. Not man made.'
Chapter 109
It wasn't until the third day that Dillow, Cragg, Rocky and Amethyst suited up and stepped out of Big Bird. There was a monumental work effort going on. Cragg wondered which one was Roswell Strange. They were using the low gravity almost as a tool. Clambering over the launcher like a family of monkeys, tremendous progress had already been made. As each piece of the launcher was dissected, Jay Moore was just as efficiently organising the packing and stacking as she called it. Cragg also wondered if Moore's almost catastrophic experience with faulty webbing buckles on that very ship was preying on her mind. He hoped not.
Dillow had other things on her mind. 'Come with me, Craggy. Please.'
Finding The Hill, where the ashes of loved ones were scattered to mix with the soft grey sand of Moon, wasn't straight forward with all the landmarks gone. They found it eventually. As per custom, each picked up a handful of sand and threw it down the Hill.
'For Hank?' asked Cragg.
'For Hank. And all the others who died on Moon.
Cragg threw his handful of sand. 'For my son, Leo and all the others.'
They stood and let their thoughts be with their loved ones lost. Above them, the Blue World, oddly still beautiful. Neither said anything, but looking at the cold planet, they wondered if anyone had survived the war. Mars had had no communication from Earth for years.
'Think it will ever recover, Craggy?'
Cragg sighed, feeling his eyes water. 'Not in my lifetime, and sadly, not even in yours. Maybe one day. Come on. Back to the ship.'
They walked slowly back to the huge ship, leaving footprints, perhaps Man's last, in the soft grey sand. 'I could get very cross with you for banning beer, Fawn.'
'You'll make up for it, I've no doubt.'
