Sol patrolled the fledgling town on foot, keeping an eye on everything and helping out when he could. His duties mostly involved keeping an eye on the children, and especially Ambra who was often running away from the newly set out city limits and going out on to the plains beyond. His police headquarters was a small and slightly cramped building that he shared with his thirty officers. Although he had been offered the chance to continue living in the administrative quarters he soon elected to move into the small one bedroom flat above the headquarters that had been nominally reserved for the janitor. He told Kalp this was because he wanted to be closer to the town but in reality he wanted to be as far away from Jak and Arianna as possible. From now on the three of them rarely spoke. Sol went to pick up Ambra from their apartment with the little girl being practically pushed out of the door which closed quickly behind her. When the police officer came to return her he would knock on the apartment door and had left almost before it had opened. Communication was through grunts and awkward glances only. Ambra noticed the tensions and asked questions but all three of the most important people in her life pushed her concerns aside and with so much to occupy her time Ambra did not push the matter as much as she might have done had they still been travelling aboard the starship.
6
“Ambra! Ambra!”
The grass grew long in the plains as Arianna waded through as best she could, calling her daughter’s name. It had been ten minutes since she’d noticed her daughter had been missing. She had left her playing in the arboretum whilst she popped to return some file cards to the library. When she returned the other children had told her that Ambra had set off in the direction of the wide open grassland beyond the town limits. Arianna was starting to panic now. She had walked to the riverbank the previous day and found it to have shallow inclines but a fast current from where the rainwater flowed down from the streams high up in the mountains. If Ambra had somehow slipped and fallen into the water there would be no chance of her being found.
“Mummy?”
Arianna spun around. Her daughter’s face was cherubic and innocent, a sure sign she knew the trouble she was in.
“Where have you been?” Demanded Arianna angrily, seizing hold of her hand and starting to march her through the long grass back towards home.
“I’ve been making friends,” replied Ambra innocently. “With the Moon Man.”
Arianna frowned and looked closely at her daughter. “What do you mean?” She demanded, curiosity abating her anger somewhat. “Have you been out with somebody? Is there somebody else here?” She looked around, wondering if another child had gotten lost as well. But Ambra was shaking her head. “The Moon Man didn’t come with the ship, mummy,” she said keenly. “He came here to visit. He came to ask questions about what we were doing.”
Arianna smiled with understanding and realised her daughter was now of the age to indulge in imaginary friends. “Well I just hope this Moon Man friend of yours is sensible enough to tell you not to go too close to the river,” she said benevolently. “And I’d appreciate it if the two of you could play a little closer to the town next time. I know you’re excited what with this being a new world and everything but you need to be sensible. You’re not on a ship anymore.”
“The Moon Man doesn’t play,” Ambra told her. “I told you mummy, he wants to know what we’re doing here.”
“I see,” replied Arianna doubtfully. “And what does this Moon Man of yours look like?”
“He’s a tall man,” replied Ambra. “Taller than any man you ever saw, and he can run really fast as well, as fast as the rover which Jak drives. And he’s strong. And his skin is white as a moon which is why I called him the Moon Man.”
“Really?” Arianna raised her eyebrows, perturbed at her daughter’s vivid imagination. “Well this Moon Man of your sounds quite frightening.”
“I was frightened as well,” acknowledged Ambra. “But he said he wouldn’t hurt me, just that he wanted to know what we were doing here. I told him we had come with the spaceship and were going to make a big town with fields and farms. He said he and his friends had tried to do that too once.”
“He said that?” Arianna stopped walking and regarded her daughter closely. As far as she could recall she had not mentioned anything about her investigations into the Suki II. She wondered if Ambra had met somebody from the ship who had led her on before dismissing the thought straight away. Arianna considered she had enough problems without having to worry about the strange fantasies of her daughter’s imagination.
The following day there was a meeting of the Council at which they were all present. Everyone was in a good mood. The city was developing well ahead of schedule and a positive aura had enveloped the entire settlement. The councillors were chatting jovially amongst themselves. The happy atmosphere faded somewhat when Kalp came in accompanied by Bratten Jorg. Of late the Admiral had been chatty and pleasant but now Arianna could see from her worried frown that something was wrong. “I’m not going to sugar coat it,” said Kalp gravely. “We’ve got a problem with the ranger mission. They’ve vanished into thin air.”
The news was digested with consternation. “What did I tell you?” Whispered Jak to Arianna, unable to hide the satisfaction from his voice. “I told you he wasn’t experienced enough, told you he’d mess it up. Probably got himself buried under a landslip or something. I just hope Sol is pleased with himself.”
“Shut up,” ordered Arianna, nudging him hard in the ribs. Losing fourteen people, and rangers too, was a serious matter and she was as worried as the others.
“You mean to say we’ve no idea where they might have gone?” Asked Sol, sounding more worried than anyone.
“Actually we’ve got a pretty good idea,” said Bratten. “Our last contact with them was yesterday, some seventy nine degrees west of our present location, at a distance of three thousand miles.”
“Only yesterday?” Put in Jak. “That isn’t exactly a long time. It just means they’ve missed a single transmission, that’s all.”
“You know as well as I do they’re not supposed to miss a single one,” snapped Kalp. “To do so counts as a severe breach of Confederation protocol and that’s drummed into our heads from the moment you enter the training college.”
“Do we have the transmissions from before?” Asked Arianna. “We should listen to everything leading up to their disappearance.”
“Very true,” acknowledged Kalp.
“Captain Sudd Wal of the Rover mission. First broadcast. It is a great honour to have been chosen to make the maiden reconnaissance of our new home. Conditions are fair and the sky is clear. No rain is forecast. We are currently travelling at a speed of three hundred miles per hour in a westerly direction.”
Sudd Wal was indeed delighted at being chosen to make the first full reconnaissance of Hearthstone and crowed over his perceived triumph against his bitter rival Jak. For several months he had been manoeuvring into position and had openly courted the favour of Sol to push his case on the Council. The policeman had been more than happy to act as the ranger’s agent given the rivalry between himself and Jak and had even secretly lobbied Admiral Kalp for Wal to be given the orbiter job. The geologist Fratia Bel was equally excited, although her pride was without rancour. At just twenty-four she was the youngest of the geologists but was seen as something of a prodigy by her superior, Prima Blak, which is why she had been chosen over more experienced heads.
“Captain Sudd Wal of the Rover mission. Second broadcast at seven PM on the first day of the reconnaissance mission. Conditions continue to treat us fairly. Sunset estimated at around two hours from now, dusk already starting to fall on the horizon. We have this evening sighted fault lines and signs of volcanic activity forty degrees west of the Tula IV. We have also discovered a patchwork of natural caves leading up towards the mountain range. Natural ore deposits are believed to be abundant here.”
“We’re going to be heroes,” declared Wal triumphantly as the computers soun
ded out to signal the discovery of another rich deposit below ground. “Why this place, it contains more resources than twenty habitable planets combined. We’ve hit the jackpot I tell you!”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” cautioned Fratia Bel as the rover rose up into the clouds and gathered speed, the computer equipment whirring away all around them. “This is a grave responsibility you have here, and your actions will be written into the annals of history. Be sure to present yourself as an inspiration to those who will follow you.”
Although she was greatly looking forward to taking her place in the history books Fratia Bel was a little uncomfortable with the Council’s decision to appoint Wal to head the mission. As far as she was concerned this was far from the cut and dried prestige operation most of the colonists seemed to be expecting, for the actions of the mission would determine the course of settlement and industry for hundreds of years. The Confederation would be expecting accurate reports and would certainly not appreciate any mining deposits or precious resources being overlooked. But behind his cocky demeanour Wal was determined to impress. He had departed a hero and he was determined to return as one. In preparation for his mission he had read up on the sorts of things the Confederation was looking out for, the deposits and resources that were of the most use to them, had read up on landslips, fault lines, the underground water supplies and the best areas of ground for building cities.
The positive reports continued.
“Instruments read an abundance of natural gases in this area with plains just beyond and a large lake which may serve as a water supply for another potential city.”
“From here we are picking up a weak signal indicating gold deposits may be secreted far down at a depth of five hundred feet.”
“Conditions are considered right for a diamond deposit.”
“Conditions are right for a potential spaceport here.”
“The sea is deep but is thought to contain massive deposits of oil and gas beneath the ocean floor.”
“There is a great deal of sulphur here and the readings show a poisonous environment completely unfit for natural human habitation. Even building a road over this part of the world would prove difficult.”
“Strange,” murmured Fratia Bel, and she began to study her equipment closely before leaning to look out of the window. “I’m getting some odd readings coming from that group of caves over there.” She pointed downwards. Wal craned his neck and looked below towards a rocky patch of ground snaking down from some of the highlands that appeared indistinguishable from the rest of the terrain.
“What kind of readings?” He asked her.
“Something that sends the instruments haywire,” she replied. “Something we haven’t seen before.”
“What could it be?” Asked the ranger captain, his interest piqued.
“No way of telling without going down there,” replied the geologist. “Although I know for a fact dark matter provides irregular readings.
“If so then we’re rich,” laughed Wal. “Dark matter is the mother load as far as resources go. And if you’re right and we relay it back to the Confederation I doubt they’ll take eight years to get over here.”
“Let’s not get above ourselves, it may be nothing,” said Bel, her tone matter of fact. “But we need to investigate it all the same.”
“Are you sure about that?” Said Wal, uncertainly. “Orders are we’re not to undertake any deep investigation. I’ll have to run it past the Admiral.”
“The Admiral will say no,” muttered Bel contemptuously. “She’ll put it down to a dodgy reading and tell us to carry on starring at the ground. But I think we’re on to something here, Wal. This computer system is top notch. If it sees something it doesn’t understand that means something. I’m not going to miss out on this whilst Bratten Jorg muscles in on behalf of the engineers and claims all the glory for herself. And what if they send Jak back here instead of you? Do you really want him claiming all the glory for discovering dark matter?”
This swung it for Wal. He thought quickly. “I suppose if it could be dressed up as a geological necessity,” he said hopefully.
“Easily,” replied Fratia Bel with confidence, and she smiled.
“We have stopped for the day outside a group of caves. Spirits are good but everybody is very tired. Geology Officer Fratia Bel has decided to take the opportunity to take some measurements. She is also going to collect some rock samples in order to confirm their geological makeup and get an idea of conditions for possible mining. The cave entrance is thirty feet high by ten feet wide, more a crack in the earth really.”
The terrain was harsh and forbidding, for they seemed to be in the middle of a volcano range. The thermometer monitoring the outside temperature read forty degrees Celsius. Wal and his rangers stripped down to their shorts and vests in preparation for the heat outside. The rovers hovered a few feet in the air in their resting position as Wal and the others climbed out. The stench of sulphur was almost unbearable and the heat reached up from the ground to assault their skin. Within seconds everyone was sweating profusely. Fratia Bel approached the cave entrance and shone the flashlight into the darkness. “Interesting,” she mused.
“Look over here,” said Wal. He was standing a few metres away to the side of the cave entrance. “It is almost as if the ground has been stamped down by living feet.”
Fratia Bel came over and regarded the hard earth sceptically. “We’re near a fault line,” she said knowledgeably. “Volcanic activity in this area as well. Pressures in the earth, wind, that sort of thing might all explain it. Dark matter might explain it as well. Gravity doesn’t usually behave itself whenever that stuff is around.”
Up ahead there came a strange rumbling sound. Wal noticed lava that had dried but still looked quite fresh to him before looking doubtfully upwards towards the volcano that loomed overhead.
“Don’t worry,” laughed Bel, as though reading his mind. “It isn’t going to blow, not in twelve hours anyway.”
“Come along then,” muttered Wal. “If I’d known it was going to be like this I’d have given the whole thing a miss. Still, we might as well get it over and done with. He turned to his fellow rangers. “Come along everyone,” he called cheerily. “We’re going to have a look inside. One hour tops and then we’ll have some dinner.”
The rangers came quickly, as anxious as their leader to be away from this place. Wal led the way, flashlight straight in front of him. He stepped past the cave threshold and into the inky blackness beyond.
“What the hell were they thinking going into that cave without authorisation?” Demanded Admiral Kalp angrily, and although she would never admit it Arianna did not doubt she deeply regretted her decision not to send Jak out on the mission instead.
“The consequences of going inside a cave in the middle of an unfamiliar fault line have the potential to be very dire indeed,” said Bratten Jorg. “If they all went inside it might have collapsed in on them, trapping them inside or worse.”
“Why weren’t they stopped?” Demanded Col Gayze haughtily. “Why are we only hearing these transmissions now?”
“Because they were one way broadcasts intended as a record only,” replied the communications man Barra Herr irritably. “If they wanted something from us they could have called us up on another channel. Had they not gone missing we probably wouldn’t have listened to these transmissions until well after they got back.”
“So whatever went wrong clearly took them by surprise,” mused Magnuj Bol. “Had they anticipated the problem they would surely have called on us for assistance.”
Sol fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair. “Let’s not be too hasty,” he cautioned. “Yes, they’ve breached protocol but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve come to harm. We’re still picking up the signals from the rovers. That means they must still be intact out there.”
“The rovers have been in the same spot for twenty-four hours now,” replied Bratten Jorg. “If you ask me that gives us
even more cause for concern.”
“We must keep this to ourselves,” stated Kalp simply. “Morale is high at the moment and I want to keep it that way. Most likely Wal and his rangers have simply gone and gotten themselves trapped. If so we’ll go over there, blast them out and they can carry on with the mission as though nothing has happened.” She turned to Jak. “Looks like you’ll get your tour of duty after all,” she said wryly.
“I’ll go too,” said Arianna suddenly.
“You’re not a geologist,” objected Jak.
“I can operate the on board computers,” replied Arianna. “And I can analyse data too. This isn’t a research mission, Jak. I’m as good a navigator as anyone.”
“Why did you volunteer?” Demanded Jak angrily when they were back at their apartment after the meeting. “You’ve got no experience with stuff like this and it isn’t as if we’re entering a safe situation here what with the place being a fault line and right next to a volcano.”
“It’s like I said in the Council meeting,” replied Arianna flippantly.
Deep Space Dead Page 5
