by Mark Lawson
“Just made that one,” Nate thought to himself as he looked up at the cliff face that loomed before him on the edge of the blackened plain. “I’m still on course.”
But as Nate’s body lunged forward, his foot caught in one of the many craters on the edge of the great chasm.
“No!” His screams echoed inside his head. “No, no, no!”
Nate crashed to the ground, his body bouncing on the hard surface. His head came down hard on the edge of a large crater, and bounced along the hardened stone. Nate’s eyes rolled back in his head as his eyes slowly closed.
Nate lay motionless on his side, unconscious on the surface of the alien planet as his watch ticked away precious seconds.
Tiny spouts of acid shot into the air and lapped at the edge of the pit.
The seconds ran into minutes. Still Nate lay motionless on the ground.
Chapter 11: Too late
Nate woke with a headache unlike any he had ever had before. He shook himself as he struggled to remember where he was or what he had been doing. Two words seemed to echo in his head, “Sultron” and “Farden”. What did they mean?
Suddenly Nate remembered his mission. He was on his way to stop the Lisaurians mining the Ionium that they needed to power their deadly weapon. “I’m saving the Universe from almost certain destruction,” he remembered, as he picked himself up from the rocky ground.
Nate glanced at his watch. One hour until sunrise. He had had three hours last time he checked, and that seemed like only minutes ago. Slowly the awful truth began to dawn upon him. He had lain unconscious on the surface of Sultron for almost two hours. “There is no way I can scale the mountain range and run the remaining distance to the compound in time,” Nate realised. His heart sank.
“If only I had paid more attention to where I was going.” Nate was angry with himself. He had focused all of his attention on the geysers but had failed to give any thought to the most obvious thing that he should have been concentrating on – the terrain in front of him. Nate felt the disappointment that he was sure Farden and his new friends would have felt had they been aware of how he had let them down. His inattention had imperiled not only the Earth and Aquarro 5 but the entire Universe. He had failed them.
Nate wondered whether there was any point continuing with his mission. He couldn’t possibly make it to the Lisaurians’ compound in the time that he had left. Nate’s arms fell to his side and his shoulders dropped. “No use now,” he lamented.
He looked forlornly across the great planes of Sultron. “I was foolish to think that I could even do it,” he thought to himself. “I’m just a kid after all. Now I’m going to die on this horrible planet. No one will know where I am or what happened to me. Mum and Dad will never know where I am.” Nate buried his head in his hands as he thought about his poor parents and the torment that they would endure as they waited day after day for their son to return home. Tears formed in the corner of his eyes as he wished he was with them now.
It took Nate a while before he realised that he had to shake himself out of the self pity that had descended upon him. He was not the kind of boy to ever let circumstances get the better of him. “If Dargon is to destroy the Universe,” resolved Nate through his tears, “then I am quite sure that he will have to do so in the face of every effort Nathaniel Armstrong can muster to stop him.” Nate squinted through his tear-soaked eyes at the mountain range that stood majestically before him and began to run for all he was worth. As he drew closer and closer the great cliffs that rose out of the plain came sharply into focus. A sheer, craggy rock face stood before him. It loomed over his head, a monolithic wall of stone that stretched up into the twilight sky almost as far as the eye could see. It seemed to Nate to stand in defiance of every effort he was making to outrun the sunrise, and save the Universe.
Dodging geysers with precision as they blew from the rock underneath, Nate reached the foot of the mountain in a matter of minutes. Without stopping to take a breath he began to scale the face of the monstrous cliff. Nate climbed with the skill of a seasoned mountaineer. Hand over hand, he hauled himself up the stone. Leaping from craggy outcrop to craggy outcrop he flew up the mountain at a ferocious pace.
Nate never stopped to look down as he climbed up and up. He was unaware that he was now high above the plain. Any slip and it would certainly be his last. He continued to scale and leap up the side of the mountain at a break-neck speed. Just in time, he leapt off a particularly slim outcrop of rock as a stream of acidic gas blew out of the side of the mountain to his left. The danger presented by the acid geysers had evidently not passed. Nate gathered his wits and concentrated hard on listening and watching for the geysers with his newly-discovered sixth sense. This time, however, he was determined not to focus all of his attention on the geysers and ignore where he was going. Nate looked intently for his next hand hold as he continued his progress up the mountain.
Another geyser blew a hole in the mountain just above Nate’s head. Fragments of rock and acidic gasses burst into the twilight beyond the mountain as Nate leapt to his right just in time to avoid the deadly spray.
The rock face seemed to be becoming easier and easier to see as he moved steadily towards the top. Nate no longer had to look intently for his next hand or foot hold, he could now see the face of the cliff with a clarity that he had not experienced before. But then he felt it on his back – an unusual heat that penetrated right through to his skin.
“Oh no!” he exclaimed, “No! No!”
Slowly, Nate turned his head away from the face of the cliff to confront the dreadful truth that lay behind him – the horizon was beginning to glow bright orange as the planet prepared for the dawn of a new day.
In the grip of terror Nate realised that daybreak was now only a matter of minutes away. He continued his ascent up the cliff face, desperately clinging to the hope that he would be able to outrun the intense sunrise.
After a few more seconds of climbing, Nate again looked over his shoulder and saw the unmistakable first rays of daylight running along the plain below. A line of bright light, separating Sultron’s night from its day, rushed steadily towards the base of the cliff. If the sun was rising, Nate knew it was only a matter of time before the whole planet became uninhabitable. He had to reach shelter.
The ground far below him began to melt like toffee as the wall of light sped along the surface of the planet. The holes that had opened over the course of the night closed as molten rock flowed into the sinister voids.
The plains were now a seething mass of liquid, flowing like rivers over the landscape, sculpting it into fresh patterns for the night that lay some 6 hours away. Nate saw how fast the light of day was spreading across the land, getting closer and closer to where he was poised in the edge of the cliff face. He knew he wouldn’t be able to out-run the sunrise. He had to find somewhere to hide from it. And fast.
Nate reached over his shoulder and pulled his suit over his head. The suit responded and slid down over his face affording him greater protection against the increasing heat. The suit thinned into a transparent visor at the front in order to allow Nate to see what lay ahead of him on the cliff face. It flattened out at the top and formed a sharp edge at the back of Nate’s head in order to provide the most aerodynamic shape possible as Nate continued to fly up the cliff.
At last Nate reached the top of the mountain. He hauled himself over the edge and stared at the plateau that lay ahead of him. He barely had time to think about which direction in which to head as he broke into a gallop towards the only feature that stood out from the planet’s dark, pock-marked surface. The outline of the buildings and machinery that made up Dargon’s mining operations sat conspicuously ahead of him. As he raced towards the dark shapes in the distance Nate saw a red and silver flash overhead as the Hope rocketed past on its way back towards the Solaris trade route. Instinctively, Nate raised his hand to wave goodbye to his new friend.
As he ran towards the dark shapes that littered the surf
ace of the planet, Nate scanned the perimeter for any sign of guards. There was no life or movement around the complex that he could see. As he ran at full pace, dodging geyser after geyser, Nate looked in disbelief as the heavy, black shields that sheltered Dargon’s operation from the Sultronian day began to slide up out of the landscape and into place. He strained to run faster, but his legs were already moving as quickly as they could.
The shields slid up and around the complex. Nate ran and ran towards Dargon’s lair.
He had to run as fast as he could. If the shields closed before he was inside he would be left out in the open during the heat of the day. “If I could just run a bit faster,” Nate thought. “I can get there, I can make it.” The shields slid slowly up and around the complex as Nate raced over the terrain. On and on he ran. He thought that he was even gaining pace as he ran for his life. Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks some two kilometers short of the complex. Nate looked on in horror as he saw the giant dome slam shut. Rays of sunlight danced on the surface of the great shields as he stared at the complex in disbelief.
“Too late!” he sighed. “If only I’d been watching where I was going. If only I hadn’t hit my head.” He could have made it, but he hadn’t. He had failed his very first mission.
The twin suns were now beginning to peak over the horizon. As if in a last effort to escape Sultron’s uninhabitable surface, the geysers that had plagued Nate on the plain below and along the plateau began to increase in frequency and intensity. It was all that Nate could do to dodge geyser after geyser as they blew their deadly fumes into the atmosphere around him. But Nate now had a bigger problem to deal with: the heat.
Nate continued to run towards the dome. Perhaps it was instinct that drove him on, or perhaps it was a hope that he could find some way in through the heavy, metal shield. As he ran on Nate felt the first glow of the planet’s sunrise on the back of his legs. Nervously, he stole a glance behind him and saw a great sheet of light chasing him across the plateau. Surely, it would soon overtake him as he continued his pointless charge towards the closed dome. Behind the bright sheet of light the rocky surface of the plateau bubbled and flowed slowly over itself in an ominous warning to Nate of the fiery death that he would soon meet.
The suns’ rays would surely reach him before he made it to Dargon’s compound. Even if he could reach it before daylight broke out around Nate, he now had no way of getting inside – it was now safely sealed, protecting its inhabitants from Sultron’s unforgiving elements.
Nate felt the sting of the suns’ rays hit the back of his boots. He heard his suit scream in pain. The suit’s roars echoed around inside his head. Still Nate continued to gallop across the planet’s surface.
The rock beneath Nate’s feet was becoming stickier and stickier, impeding his now aimless progress. The suit writhed in agony over Nate’s body as it selflessly flowed to the back of Nate’s heels and legs to provide him with all the protection that it could against the heat.
Nate ran on. He clenched his teeth against the pain as he fought to remain conscious. The heat was almost unbearable, his feet felt like lead as he struggled to lift them from the molten surface of the planet. Sweat was now pouring down his face, drenching his neck and body beneath his suit. The suit, too, was nearing the limits of its capacity to protect him. Still Nate struggled on.
“At least death will be fairly quick,” thought Nate. He would suffer until the temperature reached such a level that his body could no longer function, but that shouldn’t be far off. “I’ll be dead in less than a minute,” thought Nate in a vain attempt to comfort himself. “I don’t want to die on the surface of this horrible planet. It will only be a matter of seconds before my body is burnt to ash, forever to become a part of Sultron’s peculiar landscape. There will be nothing left of me to take back to my family, nothing for them to bury. They won’t even know why I didn’t come home from school.”
Nate staggered on, his body burning and his heart awash with painful thoughts of his own, and his family’s, welfare. His head was almost exploding with the pain. His veins stood out around his face as he poured all of his energy into running along the sticky rock. He would certainly die before he was able to take another five or ten steps.
Nate felt the suns’ rays biting into the back of his calves. He felt a stinging in the small of his back as morning began to break on Sultron. His blood was literally beginning to boil within his body.
“It’s over,” Nate whispered to himself, as he looked back towards the advancing dawn, now only about fifteen or twenty metres behind him. As he turned to look back Nate caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. To his right, not more than 50 metres away, he saw the mouth of a massive cave opening onto the shimmering landscape. Perhaps there was a chance that he might be able to survive the day in the mouth of the cave. It would set his mission back some 6 hours, but at least he would be alive.
Nate rapidly changed direction and ran as fast as he could towards his last hope of survival. He ran with renewed vigour towards the cave, gritting his teeth against the pain. His suit was now coming apart in places along his back. Nevertheless, the suit selflessly flowed around his body as it fought bravely to put more and more material between Nate’s body and the heat of the sunrise.
The sheet of light that had been chasing Nate for the last half an hour was now almost upon him. For the first time, Nate was able to look for more than a fleeting moment at the effects of the sun rise on the planet. If there had been anything alive on the surface of the planet during its twilight hours, it could not survive a Sultronian day. Rocks melted, steam rose from every surface and the haze created by the heat was becoming so overwhelmingly thick that Nate could barely see as he dashed towards the cave. Nate’s vision was now limited to twenty or thirty metres due to the bright orange haze that was engulfing the planet.
Geysers continued to blow around Nate’s feet. Nate dodged to his left and to his right, but never too far from the path that he was beating to the cave.
The mouth of the cave was now only fifteen metres away.
The right side of Nate’s body felt like it was on fire. His lungs burned from breathing in the boiling air that engulfed him.
Ten metres to the cave!
Nate caught sight of the twin suns out of the corner of his eye as they rose over the horizon, signaling the dawn of a new day on Sultron.
Nate launched himself at the mouth of the cave just as the sheet of light snapped at his heels.
Chapter 12: The cave
Nate lay motionless on the floor of the cave for what seemed like an eternity. Straining every muscle in his body, Nate slowly reached up to his helmet and tore it from his head. It came away from the suit as easily as if it were made of crepe paper. Nate dropped the limp, blackened helmet to the floor of the cave. He struggled to draw in a deep breath, almost choking on the cool air that filled the cave. His whole body ached, but at least he was alive.
Nate looked about the cave. The walls, ceiling and floor sparkled like great sheets of glass.
“Clearly, whatever this rock is, it is able to provide insulation from the heat on the planet’s surface,” thought Nate, as he struggled to his knees. Every muscle complained about being called upon to move. His head was spinning. Nate fought to stand on his two rather wobbly legs. He shifted his weight between his left and his right legs as he struggled to get them to work again. He moved his arms slowly in front of his body and wiggled his fingers.
“Well, nothing broken,” he muttered to himself. That was little consolation. He was now trapped in a dark cave on a foreign, inhospitable planet, his suit in tatters and any hope of completing his mission now at an end.
Nate looked down at his suit. It seemed intact at the front and under the left arm. He turned his head to look at the back and along his right side (the side that had taken the heat of the Sultron sunrise as he ran for his life towards the cave) – it was blackened, torn and scarred. The suit hung from him, motionless
and in shreds..
“Oh no,” thought Nate. “How can I continue without the suit? It’s dead! How can I complete my mission without the suit?”
Nate stared at the scars on his suit, willing it to repair itself, but nothing happened. Nate’s heart sunk. Nate had not only lost the only protection he had against Sultron’s elements, he had lost his partner and a friend. Tears began to well in Nate’s eyes. “It’s gone. It’s gone,” he wailed to himself, his cries echoing back from the sides of the great cave.
Suddenly the suit contracted over Nate’s body as though it were gasping for air. It held its breath for what seemed like an age, and then exhaled. Slowly, the blackened patches at the back of the suit returned to their original silver colour. The scars slowly filled and the tears fused together as the suit moved over itself, filling the pits and scars burned into it by Sultron’s suns.
“Good to have you back,” exploded Nate, wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes.
“Good to be back,” echoed a voice in Nate’s head. “That was close!”
“Sure was. Let’s not do that again,” Nate suggested.
Nate reached down for the helmet that he had torn from the top of the suit. As he held it in his hands, it liquefied, ran along his arms and disappeared into the body of the suit.
“Good as new!” exclaimed the suit as it flexed and stretched itself across Nate’s body. A smile broke out along Nate’s lips.
“Well, we’re safe for the time being,” Nate said, turning his attention to the cave. The heat was kept at bay by the thickness of the walls, and the sunlight outside hardly penetrated beyond the mouth of the cave. Even so, there was an eerie orange glow that seemed to be coming from the cavern’s walls.
Nate edged further inside the cave. The floor was smooth and slippery. He moved cautiously and with as much precision as he could manage in the dim light.
