Trapped On Talonque: (A Sectors SF romance)

by Veronica Scott

  Thom did rapid calculations in his head. “Six Terra standard hours, give or take an hour.”

  “There’s no alarm in this facility,” Bithia said, referring to Nate’s earlier question. “The pleikn was monitored. The proper personnel would have been notified via their gilintrae.”

  “We have no citywide alarm system,” Celixia added. “A set of bells and trumpets to call people to sacrifice, but as I understand, what you desire is to set people fleeing, not drawing closer.”

  “Issue settled. Much as I’d prefer to warn the populace of the danger, we’ve got no way to accomplish it. I hope the mass evacuation in fear of the invasion will clear as many people as possible from the blast zone.” Nate nodded. “Here’s the plan for us. We check out the flyer tunnel and go like hell toward the coast exit. Sound good?”

  There was no objection, not even from Bithia.

  Once they were back in the lab, Nate paused. “Is there a tunnel from here to the storehouse, Bithia? Any chance of getting supplies? You could identify helpful or essential items.”

  She shook her head, obviously sorry to disappoint him. “No, my father desired the storehouse be an entirely separate facility, as was standard practice. We could check the food-preparation chamber and apparatus here in this complex—”

  Nate had no desire to waste any more time. “Judging from the way this place was left, anything we’d find would be as unpreserved as the contents of your room. Good thing Celixia had us hunt for the red box, or you’d have been one hungry lady by now.”

  The priestess lifted her head, smiling in acknowledgment of his praise. “I was well taught in all the mysteries of T’naritza. My mother omitted nothing, not even details we never expected to need, such as the Two Wines.”

  Because the Hialar were never going to let her go.

  “I appreciate the many services and favors you’ve done for me.” To Nate’s relief, Bithia seemed to feel she needed to give positive commentary on Celixia’s attention to duty, although her tone was flat.

  Without further discussion, Nate led his group from the cluttered lab, headed through the hallway splitting the living quarters and emerged in the large hangar space Thom had previously reconnoitered.

  “The tunnel is across here.” Bithia walked briskly across the bare floor.

  “How many flyers did you have?” Nate asked.

  “Three. Two were large, five-person models with room for cargo. The other was a single flyer with a capacity of two passengers and a small load of cargo. The flyers recharged from the pleikn while parked here or at the main facility in the mountain. See those large plates over there? Charging stations.”

  “No small pleikn for personal use?”

  Bithia shook her head. “Below a certain size, it’s too difficult to keep the pleikn skin from imploding. I think work was going forward on the concept at home, but it wasn’t a subject of interest to me. My specialties lay in other areas.” She stopped in midstep, pointing at an odd machine parked at one of the charging stations. “The tunnel runner, utilized to check the talmere coating in the tunnel because it was prone to cracking or crystallizing over time and needed repair.”

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Nate exchanged a glance with Thom, and both men changed course to examine the squat machine snugged close to a sparkly wall plate. The vehicle hummed, and an oval indicator on its front was cherry red.

  “Can you drive this?” Nate made a rapid assessment of the runner’s length. “At least nine feet long. We can all sit or stand along the chassis.”

  “Of course I can drive the runner. I can drive anything the expedition brought with it. This part here”—Bithia touched the bulky protuberance in the middle—“detaches. The device analyzes and automatically repairs the talmere as the runner glides along the tunnel. There’s no reason why we couldn’t drive the runner ourselves, if you’re strong enough to remove the device.”

  “The lady issues a challenge.” Thom laid aside his cloak and bent to examine the oddly shaped vehicle more closely. “How do you—”

  She tapped the disk on her gilintrae, and a metallic snapping sound echoed in the hangar. “Now you can lift it free.”

  It took Nate, Thom and Atletl working together to budge the immensely heavy repair mechanism off its runner cart. Grunting and swearing in several languages, the men moved the unit far enough to the side to clear the runner’s access to the tunnel and set it aside without much care for possible damage to either the controller or the hangar floor.

  “All right,” Nate said, examining a scrape on his arm from an inconveniently placed flange on the repair robo. “Let’s get the tunnel open and we’re out of here. At tunnel runner speed, whatever that may be. Propulsion of any type’s got to beat walking.”

  Bithia activated the massive tunnel door with no problem, much to Nate’s relief. Then she drove the tunnel runner away from its recharging stand and into the center of the tunnel, using a ramp built for the purpose. The vehicle moved with encouraging briskness for its size.

  “Pick a comfortable spot on the runner, and let’s roll,” Nate said. “We need to be long gone before the pleikn blows.”

  “Should we close the tunnel door? In case something goes wrong and the pleikn doesn’t wait to go nova?” Thom asked as he climbed aboard the tunnel runner.

  Bithia shook her head. “The tunnel door, impressive as it appears, only provides mental comfort. If the pleikn explodes, the door won’t repulse the effect for even a second. On the other hand, if we’re caught in the blast radius, we’ll die so rapidly there’ll be no suffering.”

  “Nice to know.” Thom didn’t seem pleased with her assurance about how fast death would strike. “Leave the damn door open, then. One less thing to do before we get on with this plan.”

  “We need to go,” Bithia said. “What if I’m wrong? What if this pleikn has been out of balance for so long the implosion sequence occurs faster than what’s given in the manual?”

  “Less time to get clear than we calculated,” Nate said as the lights in the hangar blinked on and off. He jumped onto the runner next to her, clinging to a protuberance.

  Bithia activated the mechanism, and the small vehicle rolled forward at a good pace, which she steadily increased.

  The tunnel was completely dark, except for the pale glow coming from her gilintrae.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Humming as it proceeded, the tunnel runner took the fugitives away from the underground installation. It moved faster than Nate could have walked. Adding to his apprehension, there were several earthquakes, each tremor causing loud crackling sounds in the talmere walls, although no visible damage occurred.

  “I’ve never been on a seismically active planet before. Or at least not when quakes were happening,” Nate said.

  “Remember I told you the pleikn is synced to the harmonics of the planet itself?” Bithia kept her attention on the controls. “Badly aligned in this case, which is probably why it went out of balance eventually.” Brow furrowed, she grinned a bit crookedly. “I hope my father transmitted a negative report on the setup team. The company came highly recommended, but this installation job was certainly substandard.”

  Nate admired the way she was holding up, able to make jokes, despite finding herself displaced from her time and normal life. The necessity for action must have been helping her maintain self-control. He’d have to be extra observant once they had downtime, if the pace of events ever slackened.

  “Why do I have a feeling it’s going to be plenty spectacular when the pleikn blows, and I don’t want to be anywhere in the vicinity?” he said after a particularly forceful quake pushed the runner off its straight course through the center of the tunnel. He raised his voice to be heard clearly over the slight humming of the propulsion unit and the breeze created by their progress.

  “Sorry for the rough ride.” Bithia stabbed repeatedly at the controlling symbols, first skewing them one way and then the other, working to keep the vehicle from p
lowing into the tunnel wall on either side. “The runner’s guidance mechanism is confused by the conflicting signals caused by the quakes,” she said. “The mechanism wasn’t designed for such conditions.”

  Nate had an anxious eye on the red power indicator, glowing less fiercely now. He decided not to say anything that would alarm the others. Even if the tunnel runner eventually lost power, they’d gotten a respectable head start. He squeezed Bithia’s shoulder gently to acknowledge her comment.

  “We wanted to issue a warning,” he said as the runner rolled forward. “Perhaps all these earthquakes will tempt a few more people to clear the area.”

  “Probably tempt Lolanta to sacrifice a few more too.” Celixia’s retort from her perch on the right side of the runner’s long snout was heated. “Her death can’t come too soon. I hate her even more than I loathe Sarbordon.”

  “This rapid travel in the dark is disorienting.” Atletl covered his eyes with one hand and leaned over the hood of the runner as if he wished to lie flat. “I’m thankful we’ve had no food since before the sapiche matches.”

  “He’s probably the first person on this planet to get vehicular motion sickness,” Thom said in Basic, chuckling.

  Nate’s attention was to the front as he strained to focus on something looming ahead in the gloom. The dim light cast by Bithia’s gilintrae showed the tunnel completely blocked by boulders and dirt.

  “Brakes—stop this thing.”

  She fought the controls and managed to bring the runner to a shuddering, sideways halt, short of the debris.

  Nate hopped off the tunnel runner, Thom behind him, and walked closer to the mass of rock filling the space from floor to ceiling. “Can you back the runner up a few feet, in case this caves in further with the next tremor?”

  As she complied, Nate grimly contemplated the new obstacle. “Sabotage by parties unknown in Bithia’s time? Or caused by the quakes today?”

  “I don’t know. No fresh dust in the air. Might have happened a long time ago—maybe during the great quake Celixia was telling us about. Impossible to tell. Damn!” Thom kicked a small rock out of the way. “Doesn’t matter anyway. One hell of a lot of debris in front of us.”

  “What do we do now?” Atletl demanded, nervously checking the tunnel over his shoulder.

  “How long have we been traveling?” Nate wanted to check her estimate of elapsed time with his own internal clock, which was usually pretty accurate on these things.

  “More than three-quarters of the time I’d estimated to reach the coast,” she answered after a quick peek at one of the tiny indicators on her bracelet.

  “Time’s running short. We have to dig,” Nate said. “Lords of Space, I wish we had one of our Mark 27’s. We could make short work of this mess by blasting a passage through the blockage.”

  “You think this’ll do any good against rocks?” Thom drew his Mark One.

  “Try it. Wait, all of you take shelter behind the tunnel runner in case the beam bounces back.”

  Dull gray flashes showed where the hits landed, the only observable outcome. Whatever the predominant mineral was in this area of Talonque provided an excellent blast shield against the ancient weapons. The rockfall remained intact after a short but sustained barrage.

  Nate and Thom walked back to the edge of the debris field, agilely moving out of the way as a new quake sent a few rocks tumbling and rolling along the tunnel floor. “At least the debris appears loosely packed.” Nate eyed the blockage as best he could in the dim light. “Maybe there’s hope.”

  He scaled to the top of the rock pile, moving cautiously and stopping often as cascades of pebble-sized debris slipped out from under his feet. The process took ten minutes or so. “We’re in luck. The rockfall doesn’t go all the way to the roof of the tunnel. We can clear enough space to wriggle through to the other side. Thom, Atletl, let’s get to work moving rock. Bithia, Celixia, stay back behind the runner.”

  “We can help,” Bithia said. “I can throw rocks as well as any man.”

  “There isn’t much room here, and you’re barefoot. You’ve been doing your share, driving us to this point.”

  The three men worked feverishly in the gloom, trying to select and remove as many as possible of the critical rocks that held others in place. Nate’s goal was to clear a passage for one person at a time to squeeze through.

  “We’re running short on time,” Bithia said. “You’ve been working longer than you realize. How’s it coming?”

  Nate wiped a mixture of sweat and dust off his brow and squinted through the gloom, evaluating their progress. “The last boulder we dislodged was the final obstacle.”

  Nate sent Thom and Atletl to help Celixia and Bithia climb the pile of rocks, even more unstable now. When all five were perched at or near the top, he said, “I’m going through first. If I can fit, any of you can. If I get stuck, I can probably dig my way through. I’ll yell as soon as I’m on the other side. Then come through one at a time as fast as you can. Thom, take rear guard.”

  Thom nodded. “Good luck.”

  Nate nodded and disappeared into the tunnel within a tunnel. Cursing occasionally as he had to scrabble and dig his way through new blockages, he kept moving except during the increasingly frequent tremors. Then he covered his head with his arms and tried not to think too much about the tons of dirt pushing on the ancient tunnel.

  “Okay, I’m through,” he said, raising his voice as he stood at the top of the debris on the other side of the rockfall. His voice echoed oddly, so he hoped the others were hearing him well enough. “It’s about four yards of pretty nasty crawling, but there’s room to maneuver. Bad on the knees, I warn you. Send the next person through.”

  Bithia came first, followed closely by Celixia and then Atletl. Nate ordered each one to be careful descending the unsteady slope to the tunnel floor. “As soon as you hit the talmere, run. Don’t look back and don’t wait for me. Thom and I’ll be along.”

  A few moments later, the sergeant emerged from the makeshift tunnel, Nate grabbing his arm and helping to extricate him. “Where are the others?” Thom rose to his feet, dusting himself off.

  “Sent them each running to the exit as soon as they came through. We must be out of time by now.” Nate slid down the dirt and rocks, Thom right behind him, and sprinted along the tunnel after their companions. “Pray there isn’t another blockage before the exit, because from the increasing frequency and intensity of the quakes, we don’t have time to clear more rocks from the path. Bithia said we’re substantially over the limit of time she expected already.”

  Nate skidded around a smooth, gentle curve in the corridor to find the women and Atletl standing in a pool of light from Bithia’s gilintrae in front of a massive door like the one in the hangar bay.

  “What’s the holdup? Blow this thing,” Nate said. “I ordered you not to wait for us.”

  “It won’t open.” Bithia’s voice was taut with frustration.

  “Not responding at all?” Nate said in disbelief. He came to a stop next to her, breathing hard, staring at the door with narrowed eyes.

  “I don’t believe it.” Thom added a spacer’s oath in Basic for emphasis, the tone leaving no doubt of his negative reaction to this new hurdle. “When do we get a goddamn break on this planet?”

  Nate heard the grinding of whatever mechanism should be opening the portal. The door vibrated, straining upward a few inches, then thudded into its tracks. Another quake struck, this one violent enough to throw them all to the floor. Grabbing Bithia as he fell, cushioning her from impact with the floor, Nate was buffeted by massive seismic waves rolling through the ground under him. The sound—somewhere between a roar and a rumble—was deafening.

  “I think the door’s warped,” Bithia said as soon as the rattling and rolling died away. Sitting up a bit drunkenly, she worked the dials of her gilintrae, stabbing at the jewels. “The mechanism tries to respond.”

  “We need something to wedge it open with. If we can g
et the door open far enough to slip underneath and make it to the outside, we’ll be fine,” Nate said.

  “This door must weigh tons. We’re not going to find anything in this tunnel strong enough to hold it,” Thom protested. “Short of going back to the rockfall.”

  Another quake rattled through the tunnel. Nate heard a sharp crack behind him and then a roar as tons of rock fell through the tunnel sheathing. A rolling cloud of choking dust billowed around the curve. The door moved open farther and, as his hopes rose, stayed stubbornly in its new, slightly higher position. A cool, fresh breeze wafted into the tunnel from the small opening, creating an eddying backwash to the advancing dust cloud.

  “The sea.” Celixia drew in a deep breath of the tangy salt air. “We’re so close. Can’t you make the door move a little more, T’naritza?”

  Bithia glared in her general direction but worked the controls again. The door mechanism emitted a metallic shriek as it attempted to obey her commands, struggling ponderously to rise a few more inches. All progress stopped with one final, ear-splitting complaint from the tortured metal.

  “Not getting any better,” Nate said. “We’re going through now.”

  “What if it falls?” Celixia was wide-eyed and fearful.

  “No time to worry, just go.” Nate pushed her in the direction of the small opening that was their only chance at freedom and life.

  “I’ll go first.” Atletl’s voice was gentle, and he hugged Celixia reassuringly. Stepping past her, he wriggled through the opening as Nate and Thom pushed at his feet. Atletl’s optimistic assessment of what lay ahead for them came from the safety of the outdoors. “There’s a ledge out here, perhaps the size of a small table. It’s unstable, crumbling at the edges, so step lightly.”