Mparntwe

by Peter Wood

  ‘Like the Vac Trains?’

  ‘Yes, but rockets are much more powerful. The engine I’m thinking about wouldn’t have to coast and it would travel to places much faster.’

  ‘How long to get to the Moon?’

  Jarra grabbed his InfoPad.

  ‘I don’t know how strong the engines could be till I work out a lot of things with Yirgella, but if we keep it comfortable and say normal gravity strength it would be … Umm … About 3.5 hours.’

  The answer surprised Jarra himself till the reality of constant acceleration settled in his mind, and while he gave answers to the steady flow of questions he tried again to make contact with Yirgella. The shimmering sky blocked every effort.

  ***

  Cozy and warm under his insulated cover, Jarra listened to the morning calls of the parrots, magpies and kookaburras, and didn’t want to move. Early light brightened the top side of the thermal shelter and for a few minutes he watched its slow downward progress and smiled at the chatter coming from the boys in the adjacent shelter. It wouldn’t be long before their eagerness would have them dressed and active and everyone else would have to follow. Sure enough, the band of brightness had only descended a little farther when the entrance zipper slowly opened and Akama’s head peeked in.

  ‘Would you like a hot drink, Uncle Jarra? We started the stove going and the water is heating.’

  His soft voice was enough to wake Mirri who immediately crawled from under the cover and reached for his clothes. How did he sleep through the loud bird sounds yet wake at Akama’s muted question? Mirri gave Jarra a morning hug then shook Karmai awake. There’d be no more comfortable relaxing now. The explorer was in action.

  ***

  Jarra sat up and reached for the scroggin pack hanging conveniently beside him on the personal carrier. A handful of the high-energy mixture satisfied his yen to eat and he looked for any sign of the others. There wasn’t any, and a time check revealed that there was still a quarter of an hour before he could expect them back. It also revealed that there was still no InterWeb connection.

  After all the morning’s adventures a time of rest and sleep had been more important than usual and, because it wasn’t very far, Jarra had encouraged the others along a sidetrack to explore the top of the range and some caves and rock features he’d noted in his trip research. The twins had been particularly eager to reach the Ghost Caves, and with a name like that Jarra could only agree.

  The view here was inspiring and he looked back where the track had taken them through the Amphitheatre—a valley that lived up to its name—and gazed at the red rock faces of the Taipan Walls. Farther away was Flat Rock, the first major feature they’d explored after they left their camping spot. Not really as flat as its name suggested, it had tested Jarra’s considerable skill to manoeuvre past tricky sections and obstacles, and Mirri and Karmai had needed to manhandle the personal carrier four times in places he couldn’t make it go. The valley of the Amphitheatre had been particularly slow going and had taken most of the morning, despite being only a couple of kilometres and the track being straightforward travelling for the personal carrier. Mirri explored every interesting feature as it presented and it seemed as if every 20 or 30 metres there would be a new rock shelf, boulder formation, cliff face or possible shelter. Karmai and the boys went with him on every little sortie and returned to listen and add to his happy report.

  Jarra had left his personal carrier twice: once to explore a cleft in the rocks which Mirri described as an easy cave, and again to sit beneath an overhanging wall of rock in the soft, richly coloured sand, which had eroded over time, and gaze at the distant plain. Alira should be here. She loved her walks with Mirri, and Jarra wished he’d thought of persuading her to come with them.

  Jarra stood up and looked at the track heading south. There was quite a way to go to reach their evening campsite and there were sure to be more interesting diversions which would slow their progress—he hoped the others wouldn’t be much longer. Karmai would be conscious of the time, though, and after an hour away Mirri would be pushing everyone to get back too. He looked at the clear blue sky and thought they couldn’t have had a better day, then walked to a cluster of trigger plants beside the track and looked for a thin stem of grass. Karmai had shown them earlier how to tease the throat of the flower and trick the plant into thinking a little insect was looking for pollen or nectar. Jarra did this now and watched the trigger snap against the false insect. A real insect would be trapped and slowly dissolved to provide nutrients.

  Two hundred kilometres above, where the blue for an observer would have changed to deepest black, a low orbit communication satellite approached the optimum position for connection with the ground relay tower at the top of Mount Zero, 4.8 kilometres by line of sight from where Jarra was kneeling.

  Relays clicked as external commands overrode standard safety levels and power drained unsustainably from the storage batteries as transmission power surged higher and higher. At almost eight times the normal maximum allowable level the amplification forced the signal through the interference from the solar flare and the tower receptors passed hastily designed data packets to the antenna of Jarra’s InfoPad.

  In the 2.3 seconds before the tower receptors frizzled beyond repair, seven identical modules transmitted at seven different frequencies stored themselves then tried to function. Four had been corrupted by the ongoing solar storm but the other three took control and activated the built-in speakers.

  Jarra, engrossed in teasing a third little trigger to snap into place, swivelled his head towards his InfoPad. Strange, he hadn’t set any alarms, and stranger still that the insistent beeping wasn’t a sound he’d ever heard it make. Maybe it was a warning signal for some developing fault? He moved to investigate, and at 3 metres distance the sight of the screen flashing red changed his puzzlement to unease. The trigger plant totally forgotten, he picked up the InfoPad and touched the large action icon. The URGENT prompt disappeared and a message appeared on the screen.

  Jarra, you are in grave danger. Before you read further, move everyone from open view.

  There was another action icon and Jarra understood it was a device to emphasise the need to move. Danger? Jarra automatically started to look round, then realised he should be moving. Thirty seconds later the personal carrier was 20 metres down the track and parked between some head-high shrubs.

  Several minutes ago I monitored a conversation referring to the status of a plan for your abduction. Help is on the way but won’t arrive for another 76 minutes.

  With mounting worry Jarra read the salient points and figured the best way to follow Yirgella’s directions. Where were the others? He read more, keeping an eye out, till 6 minutes later he heard a cooee. Oh no! The penetrating call would announce their presence to anyone in the area, but at least it was close. A few minutes later Barega appeared, and while Jarra was waving for attention Akama joined him. Akama saw Jarra first and when he started running Barega followed. Jarra, thinking they might call out, automatically signed for silence then felt a degree of relief at the sight of Mirri and Karmai.

  ‘Uncle Jarra, we reached the top and it was scary. We—’

  Jarra’s expression registered and Barega’s rush stopped abruptly. Both boys, seeing Jarra’s tension, waited quietly for the few seconds it took Mirri and Karmai to arrive.

  ‘JJ, what happened?’

  Mirri knew the instant he saw Jarra that something was wrong.

  ‘There are bad people here, Mirri, and we have to get away from them.’

  Four heads looked round.

  ‘What happened?’

  Karmai’s question sought information rather than assurance.

  ‘Yirgella discovered that some people are here to abduct me and we have to get away from this track.’

  ‘What is abduct?’

  ‘It means they will take me away, Mirri. They want to make me tell them everything about our new Power Supply.’

  ‘We will stop th
em.’

  ‘They’ll be too strong, but if we’re quick and careful they won’t find us. Yirgella thinks they are a small military team somewhere ahead of us and he wants us to go back the other way and hide. Karmai, we should start moving now.’

  ‘What about our packs? Will we collect them?’

  ‘No. Help’s arriving in just over an hour and the packs will only slow us down.’

  Jarra had a thought.

  ‘Go back and hide them though. If they’re close and heard the cooees they might come looking. We’ll wait for you where we have to leave the track.’

  Karmai ran. Jarra told the twins to jump on the back of the personal carrier then set off with Mirri trotting close behind. Karmai caught up when Jarra paused for a moment to consult the map on his InfoPad.

  ‘Anywhere along here we have to head west.’

  ‘Through the bush? You’re going to leave the personal carrier behind?’

  ‘You and Mirri can get it through because there’s another road only 50 metres away, and I’ll need it because it’s nearly 2 kilometres to where we can hide properly.’

  The bush bash was really hard going and Jarra and the personal carrier had to be lifted or helped most of the way. It was a relief to be off the main track, though, and then more relief when the twins discovered a slight deviation which allowed Jarra to drive the personal carrier for the last 15 metres. Jarra closed his eyes for a few seconds to gather himself. Thank goodness the rest of the way was all negotiable from the comfort of his personal carrier seat. He’d explained the route as they moved: 600 metres along this Pohlners Rd, 300 metres along a joining track and then 500 metres along another old road to a rocky shelter.

  ‘JJ needs to rest.’

  ‘Not now, Mirri. I had a big rest before and we’ll soon be at the shelter.’

  Indeed, with the boys on the back and both Mirri and Karmai so strong and fit, the remaining 1400 metres wouldn’t take much more than 10 minutes.

  Fifty metres along the road the world changed.

  Chapter 22

  Alerted by the carrying call of a cooee, three trained agents rushed to station themselves at a high point very close to Jarra’s resting place. Two stayed at the commanding viewpoint while the third scouted for any signs of the quarry they knew must be close. Traces of footprints, some vegetation flattened as if someone had been lying flat, then the glisten of a pack buckle through a gap in a low shrub informed the practised mind that the target group had been right here. The cooee indicated separation but the physical characteristics of their specific target meant movement from the defined track was unlikely. A look at the packs thrown helter-skelter behind the scrub indicated haste, and quite likely abandonment and an unexpected retreat to the north. The mercenary was about to regroup with his team when the sharp crack of a projectile weapon sounded, again, and then again.

  ***

  Cruel providence gave a clear view of a short section of the old road running somewhat parallel to the hiking track and movement instantly caught the eye of the watchers.

  The target? Yes, there was the distinctive mobility device described in the background dossier. Were the track deviations and obvious haste indications that the mission was compromised? Yes. With only seconds before the group disappeared behind a bank of trees the leader decided the transportation device must be immobilised.

  ***

  Jarra had just enough time to register a strange little cry from Barega when the personal carrier jolted, swerved unaccountably sideways and sent him sprawling at the edge of the road. The shock of hitting the ground and rolling disoriented him till he sat up and saw the personal carrier tipped on its side. What? Had it seized or part of the wheel mechanism jammed? Jarra looked to see if the twins were all right after their tumble. Akama was scrambling to his feet, but just when the sight of Barega on the ground sent a worry signal to Jarra’s brain, he was shocked to feel himself lifted with incredible force, dragged, then dumped in the nearby bushes.

  ‘Get off the track!’

  Shocked by the imperative in Karmai’s yell and momentarily puzzled by the red smear that had somehow appeared on his shirt, Jarra watched Mirri and Akama kneel beside Barega with complete disregard for Karmai’s order. Karmai frightened Jarra by racing and lifting the limp body as if it were weightless and rushing everyone into the scrub. With total disbelief Jarra watched Karmai, a great red blotch spread on the arm of his shirt, gently lower Barega beside him. Mirri was the first to break the frozen moment. He lifted Barega, hugged him close and, willing life to return, rocked him back and forth as if comforting a little baby.

  ‘Barega has gone away.’

  The tears welling from Mirri’s eyes sent the horror of full realisation stabbing through Jarra’s mind. The song of pure sadness welling from Mirri’s throat, a song of love and grief for someone in his world, stabbed Jarra’s very heart. It was too much. He felt himself going and fought to stay awake but all his body limits were overcome and consciousness faded.

  ***

  Kind providence now blocked the view of the two hunters who paused just long enough to plan their pursuit before jogging down the track to regroup.

  ***

  Mirri’s cry cut off and his attention went to Jarra who’d slumped from his sitting position. He put Barega down and moved close to Jarra.

  ‘JJ, please wake up.’

  ‘I don’t think he will, Mirri. We’ll have to look after him. Would you give Akama a hug while I fix my arm? He’s so scared and sad he needs your help.’

  Akama was in shock and staring silently. For the second time Mirri’s hug enveloped a young body and rocked for comfort while Karmai hastily ripped the sleeve from his shirt and bound his wounded arm.

  Karmai’s mind worked rapidly. Exactly where the attack had come from he didn’t know but most likely it was a vantage point somewhere along the walking track and time must be critical. People prepared to kill a child simply to disable the personal carrier had to be avoided at all costs. They had to move. How to do it? Crouching low, with an eye in the direction where he feared danger, he scrambled to the personal carrier and collected Jarra’s InfoPad, the first aid kit, Jarra’s health machine, and several straps from the big satchel.

  ‘Mirri, they want to take Jarra so we have to get him away from here as fast as we can. Can you carry him?’

  ‘Pig Ride!’

  ‘Yes, but he’s not awake so we’ll have to tie him on. Akama, will you help with the straps please?’

  Lifting Jarra’s slack body into place was extraordinarily difficult and for a moment Karmai despaired. No, think it through. He was starting to worry about Akama too. He hadn’t spoken one word.

  ‘Yes! Yes! Thank you, Akama, that’s perfect. We couldn’t have done it without you.’

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later three hunters made a cursory study of the damaged personal carrier, the broken shrubbery and the traces of blood, then jogged on.

  ***

  Karmai faltered, wondering if he’d be able to keep going. Then, watching Mirri’s steady effort, shuttered the pain and weariness away and caught up. How was Mirri doing this? Jarra, slightly taller than all of them, must be at least three times Barega’s weight and a burden which Karmai knew would have beaten him after several hundred metres, yet here they were more than twice that distance with no sign of Mirri stopping for even a short rest. He was definitely struggling. The hard breathing and deep concentration which meant he was partially in his own world showed that. No, he was caring for his JJ and at the moment nothing else mattered. Well, if Mirri could keep going so could he.

  Karmai checked Akama, his small pack on his back with the vital InfoPad and other equipment, walking next to Mirri, and worried even more. He’d still hardly spoken and hadn’t looked directly at his brother since they started moving, and Karmai wondered if bringing Barega with them was a mistake. At the bad place his mind had said the sensible thing to do was hide him and return later but his heart wouldn’t allo
w it.

  ***

  The group leader swore. The clear footprints tracking for 20 metres past that sidetrack in the soft roadside soil had deceived them for nearly 3 minutes till this wind-rippled patch of sand showed that no-one could possibly have passed here.

  ***

  ‘Uncle Karmai, this is where we turn off.’

  Karmai focused his thoughts. What was wrong with him? He’d cautioned Akama to look out for this track and now he’d nearly walked straight past. At least Akama was talking again. Relief blossomed. They were now only 200 metres from the shelter Yirgella had set as a place of safety. They’d now trudged 300 hundred metres along the joining track, past the old quarry, and battled their way a further 400 metres with the rocky ridges slowly looming closer and closer on their left.

  ‘Try the communication signal and see if anything happens.’

  Akama had the InfoPad out to check the incredibly detailed map which had arrived as part of the warning module. He’d started using it when the sight of the old quarry had somehow acted as a trigger to bring him out of his shock. He’d remembered how to activate the signal Jarra had shown them as part of his instructions and tried it twice already. This signal was designed to be secure—unrecognisable to anything except properly matched equipment—and didn’t use the standard InfoPad transmission mode. The information module had warned that there was almost certainly some sort of extraction aircraft waiting close by and ordinary attempts at InterWeb connection might reveal their position. Akama shook his head.

  ‘Still too soon, Uncle Karmai.’

  ‘How much time?’

  ‘Twenty-four minutes.’

  He adjusted one of the straps holding Jarra secure and pointed along the track.

  ‘This way, Uncle Mirri. Can you reach those rocks?’

  ‘Not far. Little Pig Ride. JJ is sick.’

  Fifty metres farther on Mirri stopped.

  ‘JJ is sick. I want his health machine.’