She was going to speak, but stopped as if struck dumb.
“What’s the matter,” Tom asked with concern.
“I’ve just had an idea,” she answered.
“I hope that it’s not dangerous,” Tom said, only half joking.
“We’re going to Mars. It’s very close, and we don’t need to shift time zones. That will be a good test of my calculations. We’ll find out if there are Earth people there also,” she added for Calvan’s benefit.
Suddenly there was loud bang outside, and the whole machine shook. All eyes were on the monitor screen. The rock that sealed the cave had blown inwards, like a cork leaving a bottle. Then they realized why. The ground outside the cave had erupted in an explosion of mud, followed by what looked like a stream of lava. It was beginning to enter the cave, and had started to pool near the entrance.
Amber sealed the door quickly saying. “The air outside this machine is probably poisonous now, and very hot. This craft wasn’t designed for this, we need to leave – NOW!”
She moved her hand across the control panel with a single swipe, and then started to tap symbols, tracing her finger around dials. The noise outside had grown to a deafening roar, and the monitor went dead as the craft rocked. They were worried about turning over.
Suddenly the walls of the box fell back, and were replaced by swirling clouds. All was quiet, and the shaking had stopped.
24 Mars
“Welcome to Mars!” Amber announced. Both boys stared in disbelief as the walls cleared, and there in front of them was a long plain, dotted with large craters.
“Don’t step through,” Amber shouted, grabbing both of their arms. “We need to wear life support suits.”
“Are you sure we’ll be OK in these?” Calvan asked. They were lightweight, and seemed flimsy, but he realized that the material was tough.
“Sure, they’re far stronger than you can imagine,” Amber told him. “But don’t take my word for it, I’ll step through first”
“No that won’t be necessary,” he replied with embarrassment.
They all donned their suits and helmets. What really surprised Calvan was that once on, the suit slowly adjusted perfectly to his size, so that it was a snug fit. Amber checked their suit safety indicators, and gave the thumbs up. They all took a deep breath and stepped out onto the Martian soil.
They were standing on a great plain that seemed to gradually slope upwards, towards some distant mountains. The Sun looked smaller here, otherwise it didn’t look much different. Out towards the mountains they could make out some clouds, close to the ground. “Dust storms,” Amber told them.
As they explored, the Sun crept closer to the horizon, and their shadows grew longer. Then at sunset, they all decided to return to the craft, and make plans.
Early morning on Mars was not that bad Calvan thought. He hadn’t known that without a thick atmosphere to conduct body heat away, they wouldn’t really notice just how cold it was. Amber had started to explain, and Calvan retorted, “It’s OK really, if I know the answer, it’ll spoil all the fun.”
“Lets call it magic, and enjoy the sunrise,” Tom added as if teasing her.
The three of them had walked for a while now, and so far seen no sign of any other life. They had scanned the radio waves, looking for a signal. Nothing! Amber was in the lead; with the other two close behind laughing and joking. Suddenly she noticed that the ground beneath her feet had shaken slightly for a few seconds
“Did you feel that,” she asked on the suit link. No answer. “Tom, Calvan, did you feel that shake?”
Silence. She turned around. There was no one there! They had disappeared, as if the ground had swallowed them up. She stared in disbelief, panicking a bit now and took a deep breath
“Guys, where are you? Will you answer me please?” How had they done it! She felt like the only living thing on the planet.
One second Tom and Calvan had been walking on the surface, and the next there was a slipping feeling, and sudden shock. They were plunging downwards in a cloud of debris - then darkness, crushing suffocation, and a surge of panic. It was silent now. They were buried, and a great weight was pressing all over them in the darkness.
But wait - something was moving again. There was a feeling of slipping in small jarring steps, followed by release, and a sudden fall. Neither of them spoke for a moment, they were too shocked.
Then Tom switched on his suit light, and announced, “We’ve fallen through into a cavern.”
Both boys breathed deeply. The panic was beginning to subside now.
Calvan spoke first. “At least we’re alive, but we have to find a way out, because we won’t last long even in these suits.”
Tom sampled the air outside of the suit, and shouted in amazement, “I think we can breathe it.”
“I’m going to try anyway,” Calvan said. He seemed to be still in shock. “Here goes.”
Tom was too late to stop him.
“This is about as good as it gets,” Calvan reported. “Try it for yourself.”
Tom removed his helmet and breathed air. “Now all we need is water,” he said
They probed the darkness with torchlight. The walls and roof were all one surface, although there was a soft looking spot where they had fallen through. No one was going to touch this, and they both instinctively lowered their voices, just in case even this could start a landslide effect, and bury them in the debris.
Calvan recalled the old hourglass at home in the kitchen. As a kid he used to watch as the sand fell through, filling the lower space. The comparison was obvious.
Up on the surface Amber was thinking logically. “Well they couldn’t have gone upwards, so there must be sinkholes in this ground. They could have fallen into an impact hole that was full of dust,” she said to herself.
She slowly retraced her steps over the ground, and noticed a small area that looked a bit different from the rest. Amber couldn’t hold the tears back now, as she scuffed at the ground.
“Stop it!” she thought. “Lots of sinkholes have a cave under them, and that’s the reason they fall in the first place. If that‘s the case, them maybe I can dig them out.”
She was still thinking this when the ground fell in again. There was the shocking fall, followed by a jarring crash, as she landed in a cloud of dust and debris on the hard floor of the cavern. Her head was spinning, and her neck hurt.
There looking at her in amazement were Tom and Calvan. What was wrong with them she thought? They were both staring upwards at the roof. The hole that she had fallen through had filled itself, but a trickle of dirt was steaming from it. She understood then, and felt a numbing fear.
Calvan leapt to his feet, “there’s no time to talk, we’re in an hourglass and need to get out.”
Tom and Amber didn’t know what an hourglass was, but they got the general idea.
A fine choking dust filled the chamber, and both the boys pulled their visors down. It was making it hard to see anything, even with their torches switched to full power. No sign of escape, all the walls were smooth and almost even. In the center of the chamber a pile of dust, gravel, and even some small rocks were beginning to build and spread outwards. Soon the pile would fill the cavern.
Amber thought hard. She was carrying a survey backpack with some geology instruments, and supplies. This was usual for planetary investigation.
“Hey STOP! I’ve found a shadow on the sounder screen, it could be our way out.” She was taking something else out of the pack now, a small square package with no features except a dial on one side and a small lever.
Both boys stared at it. It was an explosive charge, never intended for use in an enclosed space. They were supposed to be well clear when it blew. The lever seemed to be locked with a pin. She twisted the dial, and removed the pin.
“Move across to the other side of the wall, and face the other way, I plan on blasting our way out” she told them.
The explosion felt like a massive blow all over.
The cavity was entirely filled with a thick blinding dust now, and the torches had been thrown from their hands. All of them scrambled around the floor with ringing ears, looking for the light from their torch beams.
Suddenly, as Amber crawled across the ground she noticed a glimmer coming from the other side of the wall, and edged towards it. The explosion had exposed an opening, and maybe a way out from this tomb.
She crawled quickly back for the other two, but then her heart sank. Dust and stones were pouring through the roof now, and filling the cavity fast. Calvan and Tom had noticed that too, and started moving around the wall towards the light
They were both gesturing frantically for her to follow. Then they all jumped through the opening. There was an increasing roar behind them now, as the roof collapsed in one big surge. They were pushed along a tunnel, riding a wave of debris, a tangled heap of arms and legs, helmets banging together. There was no sign of the chamber now, just a wall of dirt behind them. It was sealed off.
The air was beginning to clear. Amber had the only torch left, and she shone it ahead of them. The tunnel appeared to be long and straight, and the walls receded into the darkness.
She said, “let’s move, we need to be well clear of here.” Tom and Calvan were both limping, but it didn’t slow them down. They wanted out from this place.
The light from Amber’s torch was getting dimmer. The tunnel had started to close in on them as they moved forward, and soon they would have to start crawling.
“Keep going,” Amber said encouragingly. “Tunnels usually lead to somewhere.”
“Seems like we’ve swapped one tomb for another,” Tom said.
Just keep moving forwards! Amber replied.
She had noticed that the walls didn’t look exactly black now - there was a slight glow. The others had noticed it also, but didn’t dare speak. All three pushed ahead, their backs aching, heads banging against the ceiling and ears still ringing. Calvan started to wonder what would happen if his helmet cracked. They could actually make out some detail in the tunnel wall now. There was an arrow and some symbols painted on it! As they rounded a slight bend the gloom gave way to light, and there was the end of the tunnel bathed in a warm glow.
The three of them pushed on until they reached a sealed hatch. There was a click, as it automatically opened. They scrambled into a small chamber with seats along either side. There was an identical hatch on the opposite wall. The door closed behind them, and they heard a click as it latched again.
“This is an airlock,” Amber decided.
A light above the far hatch glowed red. “It’s filling with clean air I think,” Amber told them.
As if on cue, a light changed to green, and they heard the latch click on the other hatch. Amber checked the air with her meter. It was clean and pure. She gave the others a thumbs-up, and they all removed their helmets, and clambered through eager to move on.
25 Hall of the Masters
They were in a long hall, bigger than any of them had ever seen. There were three rows of oblong enclosures nearly head height, and running the length of the floor end to end. Alongside these were walkways - avenues lined with small trees.
“Look! These aren’t ordinary trees,” Amber said. The leaves of each tree were radiating a soft white light that illuminated the whole space.
At the far end the space opened into a forest. In any other place this would seem strange, but here it was a picture of perfection. Amber had the feeling that everything in this place was there for a purpose.
They walked slowly along the central walkway. The enclosures were smooth, featureless and seemed to be made of a material unknown to them. Tom rapped it with his knuckles. It seemed very hard, and was in perfect condition without a scratch or blemish visible.
“There’s not even any dust on the surface,” he remarked.
Amber had been taking readings with a device from her pack. “This whole area is a computer room I think. It must be way-beyond the power of anything we have; the data rate it’s just off the scale.”
She added. “One thing I am sure of, it knows we are here and probably has learned more about us already than we know about ourselves.”
“Is it dangerous?” Calvan asked.
“I don’t think so,” Amber answered. “If it wanted to harm us then it probably would have done so by now, so don’t worry.”
They finally reached the end of the hall, and then got their biggest surprise. The forest wasn’t real. It was just a clever holographic image.
“I can see through it now,” Tom said, “We’ve reached a wall, and this is the end of the building.”
“But why is the place so empty?” Calvan asked, remembering a story that he’d heard as a child. It was known as the ‘Mystery of the Marie Celeste’, a sailing ship in perfect condition, but with all the crew missing. It was creepy.
“Maybe the computer looks after itself, and doesn’t need any help,” Amber said.
There was a door in the end wall. It was plain and smooth, just like the rows of enclosures they had walked past. Amber removed an analyzer from her pack, and passed it over the door.
“This material is almost indestructible,” she said. “My guess is that it’s self-healing, so it would be near impossible to damage it.”
The door slid open onto a vast space beyond. All of them felt as if they had abruptly discovered another world, and just stood and stared in wonder.
“Unless anyone has a better idea, let's go in,” Calvan suggested.
The door slid closed behind them. Tom said loudly “Maybe it's a trap.”
“No. As Amber said why bother to go to all this trouble?” Calvan answered.
“Right again, I guess Calvan,” Amber said with admiration.
In the center of this space was a small lake, within a large clear space surrounded by vegetation.
The ground rose on one side of the clearing in a gentle slope, and continued onwards into a range of hills that eventually faded into the distance. There was a river that started somewhere in the hills, and twisted downwards, finally crossing the clearing as a narrow stream of water. It flowed across some rocks, and into the lake. Ripples radiated outwards onto the surface.
“I think the lake is real,” Amber said “but can you notice something odd about the distant view?” There’s no horizon, the scene gradually fades out.”
She took something from her backpack, and pointed it at the dome of blue sky. “We’re more than two hundred meters underground. I think most of this is all a clever computer projection.”
Calvan was reminded of a trip he once took to a planetarium with his parents. When the main lights went out, and the projectors came on it all seemed so real, and just like taking a perfect tour of the Solar System. That was clever - but this was something else again.
As they spoke something moved on the background of hills. It was threading downwards, and moving among the rocks. As it began to move closer they could make out a figure now, and saw that it was a man jumping from rock to rock. He slowly drew closer, finally walking through the clearing and rounding the lake.
Tom said, “I hope whoever this is will be friendly”
The man was smiling, and held up an arm palm towards them. He was small and sprightly, and looked ancient. He appeared to have an aura of wisdom and kindness, so much so that even before he spoke they all felt strangely at ease, almost as if an old friend had arrived. The man waved his arm in a sweep towards the grass. It was an obvious gesture for them to sit down, and exchange introductions.
Amber murmured to Tom. “He probably knows all about us already.”
They exchanged greetings, and explained who they were. He told them in a friendly tone “My name is Jalwath.”
Calvin asked. “So how did you get here?”
“This is our colony, and its people originally came from Earth,” he said. “It’s a very comfortable place now, and each generation has made its mark.
“So how old is this place?” Amber a
sked.
“Our ancestors started it around nine thousand years ago.” Jalwath replied. “It started to become uncomfortable on Earth, and we moved out here.”
Amber glanced at Calvan, remembering his despair in the cave. She smiled, and said under he breath. “He’s just answered a question for you. The warming on Earth was not the end, just a new beginning.”
Jalwath seemed to read Calvan’s mind. “We have not given up on Earth, it will become a sanctuary. We will rebuild all that perished.”
Calvan smiled and simply said, “thank you.”
“It’s something we all want badly,” Jalwath said with understanding.
He already seemed to know what they were doing there, and didn’t ask any more questions. Now he was looking at them with concern.
“First I have some very important news for you, and then a message - for your people,” he declared. “But before we begin, try some of this. You have travelled a long way and have known danger. You can’t do all that without feeling hungry.”
Yes it was true thought Calvan. With all that excitement, none of them realized just how hungry. They’d only expected to leave their craft for a short while!
The man waved a hand, and as if by magic, some objects appeared on the grass. There were also containers of clear liquid. Calvan was reminded of his trek across the burning desert with Tom. It seemed so long ago now, as he recalled the dream of a long cool glass of lemonade.
“Don’t worry it won’t poison you.” Jalwath laughed - but in such a kindly way that they were all reassured.
“If they wanted to get rid of us there would be easier ways than this, so drink it,” Amber said under her breath to Calvan.
Then she picked up one of the objects and turned it around in her hand. It looked like a fruit, but also unlike any she had seen before. She took a bite. The other two needed no further encouragement to join the party.
The food was delicious. Calvan tried to think of what it reminded him of, without success. It was definitely vegetarian, and not that different to what he was familiar with.
The Fire Crystal Page 9
