Last Flight For Craggy

by Gary Weston

  Cragg saw Forbes and Potts, also staring up at the roof.

  'Is Mons erupting?' he asked them.

  'The terraforma destroyed the pathways,' said Forbes.

  Everyone had been kept up to date with what was happening. They were not aware of the decision being made to activate the terraforma, though.

  Misty said, 'You set the bloody thing off? With no warning.'

  Potts said, 'We wanted to surprise everyone.'

  'No shit,' said Cragg. 'Guess bloody what? You surprised us.'

  Forbes said, 'Craggy. We tried to stop it. We were too late. But activating the terraforma destroyed the pathways. We only found that was going to happen minutes before Morgan activated it.'

  Joel had Shyne in his arms, and the little girl was holding a doll.

  'You idiots,' snapped Joel. 'Fawn was in that. If anything has happened to her...'

  'God,' said Potts. 'We had no idea.'

  Cragg said, 'No point arguing about this. We need to get out there and find Fawn.'

  Joel said, 'Misty. Will you take care of Shyne for me please?'

  'Of course,' said Misty. 'Come to aunty Misty, Shyne.'

  'I want mommy.'

  Cragg gave a burning look at Forbes and Potts and said, 'And your Uncle Craggy is going out to get your mommy back.'

  'Promise, Uncle Craggy?'

  'If it's the last thing I do.' With a hard look at the commanders, he growled, 'Don't just stand there, you dummies. Get a search party organised.'

  'We're onto it,' said Forbes, grabbing Potts by the arm and pulling him away from Cragg's animosity.

  Chapter 139

  Strong hands pulled Lance Dillow over on his back. He moaned with pain and looked up through a hole in his visor at a blue sky. With his helmet ruined, why wasn't he dead?

  'Anything broken?' a voice asked.

  Dillow tried to move. 'Just banged up, I think. You speak English?'

  'I am English. This isn't England, though.'

  'Which planet am I on?'

  The face of the young man looked puzzled. 'Earth, of course. Didn't you know?'

  'No.' He looked up the slope and could see a large fragment of the tunnel, everything else covered in rubble. He wasn't going back to Mars that way.

  'Can you stand? I don't fancy trying to carry a big bloke like you.'

  Dillow grasped the hand that helped pull him to his feet and the pain to his leg shot through his whole body, but it wasn't broken. 'Thanks. Who are you?'

  'Dave Foreman. You need looking at. Follow me. Oh. You can take off your helmet. You don't need one now.'

  Dillow did that and felt a gentle breeze on his face. 'Where are we going?'

  'To the commune. It isn't far. Come on.'

  There was a well worn path down the rest of the mountain, and it snaked through dense undergrowth. Dillow limped behind Foreman and they soon came to a collection of buildings in a clearing, built to blend into the surroundings.

  'Not much, but we call it home.'

  Foreman took Dillow to the largest building on the site. Several people of different colours, nationalities and ages were coming and going, busy with things to do. Some stopped and stared at the man in the space suit. Most smiled at him but didn't linger to talk.

  'He'll be in here, I expect,' said Foreman.

  The first thing that hit Dillow was the strong animal smell. There were cages of various sizes covering most of the place, floor to ceiling. Dillow was startled by a large chimpanzee suddenly appearing.

  'Ooh! Hello, hello, hello,' said the chimp.

  Foreman said, 'Hi, Mango. This man is a friend.'

  'Friend, Mango.' Mango offered a hand to shake and Dillow shook it.

  'Hello, Mango. A GenMop?'

  'Ooh. GenMop.'

  'Nice to meet you, Mango. I am Dillow.'

  'Dillow. Ooh. Dillow.'

  'Where's the Boss, Mango?' Foreman asked.

  A voice from above called out, 'I'm up here. I'm coming down.'

  'You be careful, Dad,' said Foreman.

  'Got it,' said Dillow. 'Andrew Foreman.'

  'Guilty as charged,' said Foreman senior.

  Dave said, 'Dad. You shouldn't be climbing up there like that.'

  Foreman rolled his eyes to the ceiling. 'My son thinks I'm a dried up old fossil who would crumble if I fell over.'

  'Dad. Dillow is hurt. He fell out of the cave.'

  'He came out of the cave?'

  'I was on duty up the watchtower when it happened.'

  Dillow could feel his leg seizing up. 'I'm from Mars. Mr Foreman. I don't wish to be rude, but if I don't get a drink of water soon...' As if to emphasise that, Dillow started to buckle and Dave caught him. Dillow's mind blanked out and he awoke on a comfortable bed in a room smelling of medical chemicals and his suit had gone. Foreman was sitting by his side.

  'Feeling better?'

  'Not a lot.' There was a pitcher of water on a crude cabinet by the side of the bed and Dillow drank a pint straight off. 'Thanks for helping me.'

  'You're most welcome.'

  The door opened and Mango walked in holding a banana which he gave to Dillow.

  'You are honoured indeed,' said Foreman. 'Normally he just takes banana's, not hand them out.'

  'Thanks, Mango. Jeez. It must have been forty years since I ate one of these.'

  'Enjoy. Why are you here? Not that you aren't most welcome.'

  'Pure accident. I got lost in the blackness. Took the wrong tunnel and ended up here.'

  'No going back that way. The last one through there was Korlyn Num Serdinda. A real nice guy.'

  'You met him?'

  'Of course. How is he?'

  'Dead. Sorry.'

  Foreman looked both stunned and sad. 'Oh. My little pal. Lousy poker player, but such a neat guy. They killed him?'

  'You mean his own kind? Yes.'

  'Bastards. He said they might. Ah. David. Some food for our guest.'

  'Just eggs and some fruit and custard.'

  'That will save my life. Hmm. These eggs are so good. This place. I don't understand?'

  'I'll leave you to let Dad tell you all about it,' said Dave. 'I'll find you some clothes. Can't guarantee a good fit.'

  Dave went away and Foreman senior told him the story.

  'Korlyn was what you would call a scientist, an academic. Not a malicious bone in his body. He was one of the inventors and developers of all that stuff you've seen.'

  'You saw it?'

  'No. Just what he told me. When his cohorts arrived there that was it. He didn't tell them about us and the tunnel here. If he'd told them about us they would have come here to finish us off. He managed to fool them into thinking this was a radioactive wasteland.'

  'We all thought it was.'

  'Ninety percent of the planet is. We gathered the handfuls of survivors and came here. Korlyn had been watching us when he was on his own. He could see we were living in peace even though we were all different nationalities. He made the tunnel here and just walked into the camp.'

  'That was a gutsy thing to do,' said Dillow.

  'He was an amazing character. Mango loved him to bits. Probably because they were the same size. Jeez, I'll miss him. Anyway, he said he would do all he could to keep us a secret. He said he had a way to terraform Mars. They planned to do that for their own kind, but he was stalling them. He was the only one who knew how everything worked.'

  'He paid the ultimate price doing that. But this place. The animals?'

  'Korlyn was fascinated by our wildlife, what little was left. He said, once Mars was a green planet, we could bring all our creatures there to populate the place and help keep it healthy. Obviously, it didn't quite happen.'

  'Sorry. Hey. Do you have a radio, capable of reaching Mars?'

  Chapter 140

  Mars had settled back down after being shaken up. A couple of hundred suited people gathered outside nervously looking up at Mons. Cragg was with Joel.

  'Mons seems stable again,' sa
id Cragg.

  Joel said, 'Look at the mine, Craggy. It has collapsed. Fawn was in there searching for Lance.'

  'So was Berry,' said Hellicoyle.

  'No, Felix. I got out when I heard the explosion. I only just made it. I'm having to walk back to Base.'

  Hellicoyle said, 'Thank God. That doesn't look good for Fawn. but it doesn't mean all the mine has collapsed. She could be just trapped inside. We'll get dozers digging her out.'

  'Hey. Can anyone hear me?'

  Cragg had heard the open frequency call in his helmet. 'Stella?'

  'That you, Craggy?'

  'You bet it is. Stella. We've lost Fawn Dillow.'

  'I'm here Craggy. Joel?'

  'Here, Fawn.'

  'Joel. We are trapped in here, but we're safe for now, I think.'

  Joel said, 'The pathways have gone. Morgan activated the terrorforma. It destroyed the Pathways.'

  'So how the hell do we get out of here?'

  Cragg said, 'Fawn. I'll dig you out with my teeth if I have to. Just keep calm and we'll find a way.' A freighter landed near by. 'Morgan's just come back.'

  Stella said, 'It wasn't his fault, Craggy. Don't have a go at him.'

  'I know it wasn't his fault. Commander Forbes? Pottsy? You getting this?'

  'Onto it, Craggy,' said Potts. 'We'll get them out of there.'

  'Good. See that you do.'

  But as the plans were made to save the two women from the inside of Mons, the biggest mountain in the solar system, it shook violently.

  Chapter 141

  'Jeez,' said Stella, having been thrown heavily to the floor. 'Fawn?'

  'I'm okay. Sort of. Is this volcano going off?'

  'It'll be one hell of a way to go if it is. What the hell is going in here?'

  The truth of the dome was showing itself. The terraforma built by Korlyn Num Serdinda was doing more than turning the red planet green and destroying the pathways. The later modifications Serdinda made before hiding the artefact, revealed what the dome had really been.

  The smooth walls morphed into the interstellar ship it had always been. The floor beneath them seemed to melt away, the end of the tunnel going with it. The shaking was too violent to dare to stand up. Previously concealed instrumentation materialised out of the walls, the ceiling and even the floor. Four small seats with securing arms appeared from out of the floor, too small to offer safety to the two human women.

  Most of those outside had been thrown to the ground. They stared up at Mons, waiting for the impossible; the long dead volcano was about to blow its stack, taking them all with it. Huge pieces of Mons at the peak cracked and broke away, falling down the side of the huge mountain, crashing into the red iron oxide sand, sending vast clouds of dust into the air.

  As the dust settled a little, they could see the alien ship lift off slowly and hover above the wrecked mountain top. Nobody moved, such was the shock of what they were seeing. Then they heard Stella.

  'I think we're in trouble, people. I can't control this. Craggy?'

  'Here.'

  'Craggy. There's some kind of counter on the computer screen. I don't like the look of it.'

  Fawn Dillow came on next. 'Craggy. This damn ship is about to take off. I'd rather not be on here when it does.'

  'I hear you, Fawn. Morgan. You hear that?'

  Morgan's heavy breathing came back at him. 'I'm heading back to the ship.'

  'I'm right behind you, Max. Leave the airlock open and fire up.'

  For a senior pilot, Craggy found an impressive turn of foot. The way he dived through the hatch three seconds before Max Morgan took off would have warranted a round of applause had anyone seen it.

  Cragg buckled himself into the copilots seat as Morgan got them in the air. His mind was working faster than a freighter at full speed.

  'Rocky Ramshorn. Get your ass out of bed.'

  'Craggy? What's going on?'

  'Impress me by getting a ship airborne inside of five minutes.'

  'Big Bird?'

  Cragg said, 'No. Lance Dillow's ship. The Eye. Wendy Breeze?'

  'Here, Craggy.'

  'You're now Rocky's wing man. And I don't mean tomorrow. Stella. Fawn. Don't you two go joy riding. We are right behind you.'

  Forbes came on. 'Craggy?'

  'Not now, Kinda busy.'

  'Just wanted to wish you good luck.'

  'Yeah?' said, Cragg. 'We'll need it.'

  Wendy Breeze beat Rocky Ramshorn to the black ship by fifteen seconds. As a qualified pilot in her own right, she had her hands flying over the controls to fire things up. Like the freighters, it had upgraded twin plasma thrusters and the latest sensor controls.

  Breeze said, 'I never realised how damn uncomfortable these suits were with nothing underneath.'

  'Tell me about it. Can you believe all this?'

  'You mean I'm not dreaming this?'

  'Only if you dream about flying the cosmos with me.'

  There was a slight sensation of movement as the ship lifted off.

  'Amethyst would scratch my eyes out, if I did.'

  Cragg's voice came over the ships radio. 'Breezy. The ships on the move. We're right behind it.'

  'Craggy. Can we keep up with that ship?'

  'Don't scare me, Breezy. These aliens are well ahead of us in many ways. Stella. Fawn. Are you okay?'

  Stella said, 'We were until you reminded us how clever those little buggers are.'

  'Sorry. Me and my big mouth. Stella. This is where your brilliance really needs to shine. You try to get a handle on those computers.'

  Stella said, 'Craggy. Those countdown things on the screen? Just vanished.'

  Morgan said, 'Jeez. Look at that thing go. That is not a slow ship.'

  Chapter 142

  Lance Dillow said, 'You have no idea what it's like to walk outside without a suit.'

  Foreman said, 'Yes. I guess it must have been tough.'

  'Jeez. My big mouth. You were going through hell and I'm moaning about having to wear a suit. Sorry.'

  It seemed somehow natural to be walking hand in hand with a chimp. Mango was holding his hand and eating an apple as he stared up at the big man in ill fitting borrowed clothes.

  'We all had it tough just to survive.'

  Dillow sighed. 'To be honest, we didn't think anyone was still alive down here.'

  'That was the plan. Korlyn told us to lay low, because if his kind knew we had survived, they'd be down here to finish the job.'

  Dillow said, 'What is it with those jokers? No room in the universe for anyone else?'

  Foreman chuckled. 'I can't imagine where they got the idea from, but they got the strange notion we are a little warlike. I mean, where did that come from, I wonder?'

  'They saw us as a threat.'

  'Too primitive and out of control. They would never have put up with the risk. So, no radio contact. Just do what we had to do, biding our time.'

  'Biding your time to do what?'

  Foreman opened the door to the huge main building. 'To take this lot to the new terraformed Mars.'

  Dillow only limped slightly as he followed Foreman on the guided tour. 'Five GenMops. The other four come and go in the jungle. Mango mostly likes to hang around here.'

  'Mango,' said Mango.

  'GenMops love to hear their own names. We collected anything we could find. Hardly a dent in what we should have, but better than nothing.'

  'Rabbits. Useful.'

  'Lost count of those randy buggers. A couple of cats. A few dogs to chase the cats. Three species of butterfly. Seventeen goats. Good for milk and meat. The cheese is an acquired taste.'

  'I've forgotten what cheese tastes like.'

  'We did all we could. The uncontaminated land is not much. But. This is what we are really proud of. Come and see.'

  Foreman opened a back room door. It was dark and cool in there. There were hundreds of small carefully labelled boxes.

  'The seed bank. Nuts, fruit, flowers, wheat, vegetables. But this is
really cool.'

  In a temperature controlled double cupboard were hundreds of eggs. 'We have an aviary at the back with a variety of birds. We incubate the eggs in here and release them back as adult birds to produce a viable stock. Good or what?'

  'Pretty damn good, Andy. But people. How many do you have?'

  'Two hundred and seventy three, not including the fifteen unborn. We think there may be others here and there. That's speculation. This would be the largest settlement either way.'

  'You have radio?'

  'Yes. But we dare not use it. This is too precious to risk.' He looked at Dillow. 'When you left Mars, what was happening?'

  Dillow sighed. 'I can't say it was good. Korlyn left us instructions to destroy the pathways to prevent his kind getting to Mars that way. I was in the blackness trying to find out how to do that, when I ended up in the wrong tunnel.'

  'And that tunnel was destroyed,' said Foreman. 'I see three possibilities. It happened by accident or one of our kind found out how and did it, or the aliens invaded Mars and found out about us and destroyed the Earth tunnel to cut us off. Still want to risk calling Mars?'

  Chapter 143

  Stella and Fawn were fighting the ship's computers. Not much was responding.

  'Come on, damn it,' cursed Dillow. 'This is a ship. Ships want to be flown.'

  Stella said, 'Sounds like something Craggy would say. Craggy? You still around?'

  'We're here, Stella. Flat out, though. Rocky?'

  'On your tail.'

  'Oh, God,' said Stella. 'Craggy. The damn computers counting down again.'

  Cragg said, 'It must be about to speed up again. We can't go faster.'

  'Craggy!'

  'I'm thinking.'

  Dillow said, 'Think faster.'

  'Rocky. You got a laser canon on that bird, yes?'

  Wendy Breeze pointed at a bank of sensors.

  'Yes,' said Rocky.

  'Get in behind their ship, and be quick about it.'

  Breeze said, 'Closing in. We've no speed left.'

  'Okay. Put a low power shot between the thrusters.'