Without warning, her disc flickered and came on before winking out again. She saw her own sense of alarm reflected in Alondo’s expression. Before either of them could respond, a sound began. At first it was little more than a bass rumble at the limit of their hearing. As the sound grew slowly, inexorably, in pitch and volume, Shann’s mind went back to the Cathgorn Mountains and their flight from the tower. Rael had activated his homemade lodestone grenades and tossed them towards the advancing murghal. The low hum had risen to an intense whine. And then...
She gripped Alondo by the shoulders. “This device. It’s going to explode.”
Alondo’s pale grey eyes grew wide as the full realisation of her words hit home. “We need to get out of here.”
Shann shook her head vigorously. “There’s nowhere we can go. Rael told me that there’s no limit to the energy that thing can produce. If it goes up it will destroy this island. It might very well take half of Kelanni with it.”
“Then we have to try and shut it down. Did Rael happen to mention how we might do that?”
The noise grew louder... louder. Like the death scream of some immense creature, it invaded every corner of her conscious mind, making it difficult to think. She longed to clamp her hands over her ears—to shut it out.
Alondo’s face was directly in front of hers. “Shann?”
She finally managed to get the words out. “Rael told me that once the lodestone reaction starts, then nothing in the world can stop it.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 19
“We don’t know that for sure.” Alondo the optimist. Alondo the morale booster. More than anything else, she wanted to believe what he was saying. “These devices are of hu-man design. They might not operate in the way Rael thinks.”
The gathering clamour emanating from the bronze globe had been joined by another sound—a mechanical alarm, rising and falling like a funeral lament. Shann had to yell to be heard. “Rael worked it out with numbers. I don’t know how, but I’ve never known him to be wrong about these things. If he says it can’t be stopped, then it can’t be.”
“Well, if that’s so, then we have nothing to lose by trying, do we?” Alondo turned to face the huge bronze sphere and began probing its surface with his fingers.
“What are you doing?” Alondo and Shann both whirled around to see a slight hu-man with short wavy blonde hair and soft blue eyes, dressed in a pure white coverall. Susan Gilmer.
“How did you get here?” Shann asked.
“I ‘borrowed’ this,” she rolled up her sleeve to reveal a green band etched with a gold design, “from one of the crew. Everyone else has cleared out. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Alondo returned. “We set the components, but they didn’t work. Then the weapon started making this sound. Shann says it’s going to explode.”
“Let me see.”
Alondo moved aside to allow Susan Gilmer access to the weapon. She walked a short way around the perimeter, pressing the surface at a given spot. A panel silently slid open to reveal an array of multicoloured lights and a small screen with unknown symbols drifting across it. She chewed on one of her knuckles, engrossed in the display for several moments, before starting to push buttons.
“What’s the matter with it?” Alondo called over the penetrating wail.
“I can’t say yet. Diagnostic of the Accumulator Device is still running. There are score marks on the casing, though, and some of the external controls have been damaged. Did you do that?”
“No,” Shann chimed in. “No, we didn’t. Is that what set it off?”
Susan Gilmer continued to peer at the display. “I’m not sure. If you didn’t do this, then who did?”
Shann ignored the question. “Rael says the lodestone reaction can’t be stopped once it’s started.”
There was a long, drawn-out pause. The constant whine from the sphere continued to rise in pitch, drowning out the competing alarm. Susan Gilmer finally shook her head. “These readings don’t make sense. Reactants are leaking into the intermix chamber, but the valves are still showing as closed, as are the backups. It could be a result of the physical damage. Or it could be a software problem—it’s hard to say.”
“Could the components of Annata’s device be responsible?” Alondo suggested.
“I don’t know... maybe.” Susan Gilmer tore herself away from the screen and its streaming output, plucking each of the four discs from the metal surface. The two lit ones died back to a dull white as soon as they were removed. She thrust them at Shann. “Take these and go. Quickly.”
“Why?” Shann demanded. “What are you going to do?”
“I can’t stop the reaction, but if I can manipulate the valves and control the pressure manually, I might be able to reduce the force of the explosion. However, I would strongly recommend that you get out of this building and as far away as you can.”
Shann’s mind reeled, but not because of the high-pitched shriek pummelling her eardrums. It was the shock of a creature, a member of a ruthless enemy race that had invaded her world, now offering to sacrifice her life for people she had known for less than a day. “But... you’ll be killed.”
Susan Gilmer smiled gently, blonde bob of hair framing her oddly pale face. Her expression was serene. “Better one of us than all three.”
Shann swallowed. “I can’t just leave you here.”
“You must,” Susan Gilmer said. “The others need you. And your injured friend here will need your help to move as quickly as possible. Now get out of here.”
Shann’s heart felt as if it was going to burst. Her vision began to blur as her eyes filled with tears. She found she could not look at the hu-man woman. Instead, she threw her arms around Susan Gilmer’s shoulders and held on tight. Kelanni and hu-man hugged one another in a bond that stretched across the vastness of the stars.
“Go,” Susan Gilmer urged. “And when you find McCann, please, give him my message.”
Shann released her and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. “I will. Thank you... for everything.” She turned, pulled Alondo’s arm about her shoulder, and headed away from the spheres as quickly as Alondo’s injury would permit. Too late, the thought struck her.
I didn’t even tell her ‘goodbye’.
~
Get away! Get away! Faster, faster! Yet the faster she ran—the more she forced her tortured leg muscles to work, the slower her progress became, until it seemed as if she were running waist-deep though thick mud. Behind her, some unknown monster—an incarnation of scale and tooth and claw—shook the ground with its feet and the air with its mighty roar. Closer and closer it came until she could smell its acrid odour and feel its hot breath on the nape of her neck...
This time it was different. This time she was not going to wake up, breathing hard and bathed in cold sweat. This was real. Slowly, tortuously, she struggled along the iron walkway, Alondo’s arm draped about her shoulder. Behind her, the great bronze-coloured monster that Susan Gilmer had referred to as the Accumulator Device screamed in fury.
“Leave me.” Alondo begged. “Go, leave me, I’ll be fine.”
“Quiet.” They reached the iron stairs at the end of the raised structure and she helped him hobble down them. He bared his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut with every step.
“Look, Shann, you have to get far away from here. I’m only slowing you down.”
“‘Quiet,’ I said.”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and started across the immense floor of the hu-man facility. High up on the distant walls, flashing yellow lights complemented the rising and falling alarm. They were tiny insects, crawling away with agonising slowness from a conflagration of unimaginable proportions that threatened to engulf them at any moment.
Alondo grabbed her supporting arm and shoved it away roughly, nearly falling over in the process. His eyes had a wild look that she had never seen before. “No. I won’t be responsible for your death. On your own you can use th
e flying cloak to escape.”
She wanted to slap him, but restrained herself. “And how could I face Oliah, or the others for that matter, knowing I had left you behind? Now stop messing about and let me help you.”
Alondo’s round face creased up, but this time he did not resist the young woman’s supporting arm. “How come you no longer listen to anyone?”
“Because lately, I’m the only one that’s making any sense,” she retorted. “Everyone else seems bent on sacrificing themselves.”
“There are times when a person has no choice,” he pointed out.
She thought of Susan Gilmer, frantically working to control the titanic forces now building inside the Accumulator Device to give them a chance of survival at the expense of her own. “And there are times when they do.”
At the end of the deserted facility, a side door had been left swinging open. They moved through it and stumbled out into the night. The ear-splitting sounds coming from inside were less intense here but still clearly audible. There was still no sign of anyone. Lyall, I hope you are far away by now.
She kept Alondo moving across the floodlit area and into the darkness beyond. The ground rose steadily before them. Cover. They might not be able to get clean away, but if they could find a boulder, an overhang, a cave—some place where they could shelter away from the blast...
They climbed the side of the valley together, threading their way through a jumble of monochrome silhouettes. Her breath condensed before her in the frigid air. The sky was clear and the shining firmament wheeled overhead in a magnificent procession. Even by the half-light, she could see the strain on the musician’s face. Sooner or later he was going to collapse or pass out from the pain. If she were reduced to carrying or dragging him, they would not get very far.
An ancient-looking line of jagged black rocks jutted out from the top of the rise, occluding the stars. They looked as if they had resisted everything that time could throw at them. Perhaps they could serve as a suitable protective barrier?
She altered direction, making a beeline for them. The high-pitched wail drifted up from the valley floor, spurring her onward. Dark sentinels loomed over the two of them like dispassionate spectators. She half-dragged him the final few steps.
Flash! A blinding light shone all around her, transforming night into day. Before she could turn around, a huge fist slammed into her back, throwing her headlong. Her head struck bare rock and the light went out.
~
“Shann.”
The unwelcome sound penetrated her consciousness, making her skull ring like a bell. Perhaps if I just ignore it, it will go away.
“Shann.”
The inside of her head chimed once again. The word was familiar somehow. It was a name. Her name. And the voice. A female voice. Keris? She screwed her eyes shut.
“Shann. Wake up.”
All right, all right. Just stop ringing that bell. She forced her eyes open and saw a tall, lithe woman with a sharp face and a deep frown kneeling over her. “Wh... what happened?”
Keris sat back. “That was going to be my question. When that horrible sound began, the hu-mans fled. Then Susan Gilmer said that the weapon was about to explode and I knew.”
Shann propped herself up on her elbows. The ringing in her head had diminished, to be replaced by a dull ache. “Knew what?”
“That I was responsible. That the weapon that was about to go off was the one I had attacked.”
Shann shook her head and immediately regretted it. “That’s not true. Susan Gilmer did something she called a ‘diagnostic’. She said that the damage was only superficial. She didn’t think it could be the cause.” It was a lie, or at the very least a distortion of the truth. But no purpose would be served by making Keris feel guilty over what happened. The hu-man weapons were destroyed. Kelanni was safe. They had won. Right now, those were the only things that mattered.
Keris did not react. Shann could not tell if the woman believed her story or not. “Where is Susan Gilmer now?”
“She stayed behind.”
They each bowed their heads in silent contemplation. Finally, Keris spoke. “I didn’t trust her. I was suspicious of her motives. Yet in the end, she saved us all.”
Shann pushed herself upright and saw another cloaked figure standing a little way off. Lyall. She cast about her but no one else was in sight. “Rael and Boxx will be here shortly,” Keris added. “When the explosion happened and the island wasn’t incinerated, Lyall and I immediately headed back to look for you, using our flying cloaks to cover the distance. The others are following on foot.”
A thought struck her. “Alondo. Where’s Alondo?”
A dark shadow passed across the other woman’s face, suddenly making her appear much older. “Keris?”
Their eyes met and Shann knew the truth even before the words were out. “I’m sorry. He didn’t make it.”
~
Shann scrabbled to her feet and for the first time saw a figure lying on the ground just beyond Lyall. Her legs threatened to give way beneath her, as if they were still slumbering. She staggered towards Lyall, who stepped forward and caught her small, wiry frame, supporting and restraining her at the same time.
She sagged in his arms. “Let me see him.”
“No, Shann,” Lyall’s voice was gentle but insistent. “It’s better that you don’t.”
“I want to see him.” She fought, squirmed, and hammered her tiny fists against his shoulder until, finally, he relaxed his grip. Slipping out from his grasp, she stumbled past him and came to a stop next to the body.
Alondo was lying stretched out and stock-still, eyes closed, lips parted. A voice inside her kept insisting that it could not be him. He looked so different in death to the way he had looked in life. The ever-present smile was gone. The light in the eyes. And... the hat. Of all the absurd and idiotic things that could have passed through her mind at a time like this, she realised that it was the first time that she had ever seen him without his cocky red hat.
Her legs finally gave way, and she fell to her knees beside him. Her chest began to heave and her throat erupted in great sobs. Tears flowed, obscuring her vision, but they could not blot out the terrible reality before her. I should have gotten him out of that place sooner. If we had made it just a little farther...
She felt Lyall’s comforting hand on her shoulder. Keris stood on the other side of the body, hiding her feelings behind a mask of stoicism.
“Hey there!” The shout came from a small, barren rise off to her left. She turned to see the tall figure of Rael waving at them from the summit, with Boxx perched upright next to him. The two of them began trotting down the hill, oblivious to the tragedy that awaited them.
As the lanky youth approached, his pace slowed and his smile vanished. What should have been a celebration of victory suddenly bore the horrible stench of defeat. “How... ?” he asked.
“Caught in the blast. Susan Gilmer is gone, too.” There was something in the way Keris spoke, as if every word were hung with guilt. She still believes she’s responsible—that it was her attempt to damage the globe weapon that caused the deaths of two people. And who is to say that she isn’t right? Maybe she deserves to feel that way.
Boxx sidled past Rael and took up a position on the other side of the body. It drew itself up to its full height, cocked its round head to one side, and regarded Shann curiously. “Alondo Has Stopped.” Shann’s throat was too constricted to speak. All she could manage was a nod. “Shann Is Sad. Like Before, When Others Were Missing From Ship. Water Flowed From Shann’s Eyes. Yet Others Were Here. They Were Found. There Was No Need.”
Lyall got down on his haunches so that he approximated the Chandara in height. “Boxx, try to understand. Alondo is gone. His life is no more. He will not be coming back.”
The Chandara’s head bobbed up and down in an agitated fashion. “Alondo Has Stopped. Somatic Cellular Degeneration Is Underway.”
Lyall shrugged and looked up at Keris and th
en across to Rael. They both looked back blankly.
“Statistical Probability Of Successful Cellular Regeneration Is Two Point One Zero Two Out of One Zero. Falling Rapidly.”
Lyall shut his eyes and then opened them again. “Surely you’re not saying you can revive him?”
“Yes Lyall. But Only If I Act Now. And It Will Take All Of Me. All That I Have. My Time Will Come. We Change. We Eat. We Remember.”
“What’s it talking about?” Lyall threw open the question.
Before anyone could answer, Keris moved forward. “There’s no time for that. Boxx, revive Alondo now... please.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 20
The four Kelanni stood in a circle, their expressions of awe and wonder lit up by a gentle illumination. At the centre, Alondo’s supine form was bathed in ethereal light. Boxx’s three-fingered upper forelimbs were placed on his chest. Its eyes were closed and its mouth rippled wordlessly.
No one dared to move or speak. Shann’s eyes smarted and her throat felt parched. Lifetimes passed. She had almost resigned herself to the conclusion that the attempt had failed, when Alondo’s mouth suddenly opened and he sucked in a great lungful of air. Immediately the light faded and Boxx lowered its head.
Lyall dropped to his knees. “Alondo? Can you hear me?”
“Yes, of course I... ” The musician opened his eyes before pressing them shut again. “Owww.”
“What’s the matter?” Lyall demanded.
“My head... it feels like it was stampeded by a herd of raleketh.” He forced his eyes open once again and registered the expressions on the faces around him. “Why are you all standing around? What happened?”
“You were dead,” Lyall explained.
Alondo smirked. “I do the jokes, remember?”
“No, really, you... ” Lyall looked up at Keris, who was shaking her head vigorously.
“Well, I can’t lie around here all night.” Alondo sat up and one hand went to his head. “All right, which one of you took my hat? Owww.” Shann threw her arms around his neck, nearly crushing the life out of him. Eventually she released him and allowed him to get to his feet.
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