Hollow Moon

by Steph Bennion

  The hovertruck skimmed low over the deserted fields, keeping close to the monorail track as it headed towards Dockside. The crops below looked pale and stunted in the light of the truck’s headlamps and it was clear the hollow moon had suffered greatly in their absence. Dotted around the fields were abandoned mobile light and heat generators, brought out by farmers in a desperate attempt to save the harvest, but they were no substitute for the once raging power of the simulated sun. The ecosystem of any artificial world was a precarious balance between Mother Nature and human ingenuity at the best of times.

  The hovertruck settled to a halt outside one of the maintenance bays. The door to the workshop opened and a figure suddenly ran out and away down the road. Moments later, two others appeared at the door in hot pursuit of the first, then upon seeing the hovertruck gave up the chase and instead approached the parked truck.

  As the figures emerged out of the gloom, Ravana saw it was Hanuman and Ganesa. She climbed from the hovertruck to greet them, then cursed as her cat took their arrival as a signal to wriggle free and leap away into the darkness.

  “Fenris escaped!” growled Hanuman, annoyed. “He jumped us when we went to fetch him from the passenger cabin. I’ve never known anyone be so slippery!”

  “Looks like a job for the local security officer,” said Wak, looking at Ostara.

  “I’ll deal with him later,” grumbled Ostara. “My friends come first.”

  After asking Zotz to take Miss Clymene, Endymion, Bellona and Philyra to one of the habitation cabins, Wak led the rest of the party into the Dockside complex, with Hanuman and Ganesa at the handles of the stretcher upon which Quirinus lay. The workshop and nearby spacecraft maintenance bay had been the scene of many a clumsy accident and so it was no coincidence that the medical unit was close by. The corridors were illuminated by emergency power only and when Ravana followed her father into the dimly-lit medical centre her heart sank at the sight of all the lifeless equipment. Undeterred, Wak instructed Hanuman and Ganesa to lift the unconscious Quirinus onto the nearest bed, then helped Ravana to connect her father up to a battery-powered portable cardiac monitor.

  “His vital signs are fine,” Wak reassured her, pointing at the monitor screen. “Unfortunately, there’s not enough power to run the diagnostic unit or the autosurgeon, so unless anyone here is a trained medic there’s little I can do. Your friends have a ship. I suggest you get your father to Newbrum as soon as you can.”

  “We’d be glad to oblige,” said Hanuman. “But we’re stuck here too. When we tried to bring the Sun Wukong into the hangar on the elevator there was not enough power to shut the doors. The outer airlock is not opening for anyone until we can close the inner one.”

  “Miss Clymene knows first aid,” Surya suggested, looking at the figure on the bed.

  “I’ll go and get her,” said Ostara. Anxious to help, she hurried from the room.

  Wak came over and put an arm around the downcast Ravana.

  “We’ve been in worse fixes than this in the past,” he told her.

  “When?” asked Ravana, incredulously. “Everything that can go wrong, has! I wish we’d never gone to Epsilon Eridani. The trip has been a disaster from start to finish.”

  Ganesa stood by the door and looked through the window beyond. The distant lights of the crashed Platypus were still visible, reflected in the shattered remains of the sun.

  “How about if we drag the Platypus back into the dock and use its fuel cells to power the airlock systems?” she suggested. “That way we could get the Sun Wukong out of here and take Quirinus to Ascension.”

  “It’s a thought,” admitted Wak. “Alternatively, there’s a portable generator not far from the palace we may be able to use. The ship from Newbrum is only a few hours away. At the very least we need to be able to operate the airlock when it arrives.”

  “Can your ship do that?” Ravana asked Hanuman. “Rescue the Platypus?”

  “The Sun Wukong has the original lifting gear still fitted,” he told her. “Those military transports can pluck an armoured tank off a muddy battlefield in Taotie gravity, so I’m sure we can pull your ship out of the hole you made without too much trouble.”

  They were interrupted by the return of Ostara, who had with her both Miss Clymene and Bellona. Miss Clymene immediately went to Quirinus’ bedside and looked with interest at the monitor readings, though acknowledged her medical expertise was limited.

  “We’ll do our best for your father,” she said to Ravana. “Bellona and I will be able to clean his wounds properly now we’re not bobbing around like drunken fish.”

  “And we’ll make a start on towing the Platypus,” said Hanuman, making for the door. “Unless anyone has a better idea, that is.”

  “Are you suggesting there is one better than mine?” retorted Ganesa.

  Hanuman rolled his eyes and pushed Ganesa towards the door to take their gentle bickering out into the cool night air. Miss Clymene and Bellona quickly got to work changing Quirinus’ dressings, leaving Ravana feeling a little lost and helpless. When Zotz arrived a few moments later, Wak approached her with a proposition.

  “I mentioned a portable generator at the far end of the hollow moon,” he said. “My engineers were there yesterday trying to gain access to an old maintenance tunnel. If you want to make yourself useful, I suggest you and Zotz take the hovertruck and if the generator has any fuel left in it, bring it back.”

  “I’d rather help Hanuman and Ganesa with the Platypus,” Ravana said moodily, as she idly removed her broken wristpad. “I know that ship better than anyone.”

  “It’s too risky to put anyone aboard,” Wak said firmly. “With no power to the flight systems, the slightest mistake during the tow could knock it out of the zero-gravity zone and crashing to the ground. You’d be much more help fetching the generator.”

  “We could collect Jones on the way,” added Zotz. “On my wristpad tracker your cat is heading across the hollow moon as fast as its little legs will carry it.”

  Ravana groaned. “Towards the cliff behind the palace?”

  Zotz shrugged. “I think so.”

  “Not again! What is the fascination with that dratted cave?”

  “Is it following Fenris’ scent?” asked Ostara. “Or is it only dogs that do that?”

  “Maybe it has gone to fix the fusion reactor for us,” Wak muttered.

  Ravana gave him an odd look. “I don’t understand.”

  “Those caves are the sealed entrances to the Dandridge Cole’s engine rooms,” the professor explained. He saw their puzzled expressions and sighed. “The asteroid has two huge fusion drives. How do you think it got here from the Solar System all those years ago?”

  “There’s giant nuclear engines behind the palace?” asked Surya, shocked.

  “The access tunnels are four kilometres long,” Wak reassured him. “As I said, the engineers looking for the power drain were trying to gain entry until I told them to go with their families on the Indra. I doubt there would have been much they could have done. You try getting spare parts for technology a hundred years old!”

  “Isn’t the fusion plant inside the sun?” asked Ostara, still looking confused.

  “Of course not!” retorted Wak irritably. “The sun just draws the power and projects it as heat and light. If the Platypus had crashed into a reactor we most certainly would not be standing here right now listening to your stupid questions!”

  “Taranis!” exclaimed Ostara. “Of course! That’s where he’s hiding!”

  “Inside the sun?” remarked Zotz, looking at her as if she had gone mad.

  “Not up there,” Ostara said crossly. “In the old engine rooms!”

  Wak rolled his eyes in exasperation. “How did you ever make security officer?” he asked with a sigh. “There’s nobody hiding back there!”

  “Taranis is there,” insisted Ostara. “He said he’d been watching the Raja and that they were shortly to meet, so he must be close by! Also, when we listene
d in on his holovid call to Fenris at Hemakuta, Endymion said the signal was coming from the Ascension servermoon, which is the one we use here.”

  “As does everyone else in the Barnard’s Star system,” Wak pointed out.

  “Yes, but thirdly, Hanuman told us Taranis had become interested in experimental cloning after seeing what Que Qiao was doing to the greys!” Ostara continued excitedly. “Which now I think about it could be something to do with the disciples the priest mentioned. At the secret plantation, Hanuman also said you needed a lot of power to create clones. If Taranis has set up a secret laboratory here, that could explain the power drain!”

  “Greys don’t exist!” retorted Wak.

  “They are for real,” Ravana told him. “And yes, Hanuman did say those things.”

  “You see!” Ostara exclaimed. “And, err…”

  “Fourthly?” suggested Surya.

  “Yes! And the alien weirdness that made Ravana’s cat act strangely at the plantation is now luring it to that cave!” Ostara squared up to the professor and stood defiant, her hands on her hips. “It is my deduction that Taranis is hiding in one of the engine rooms and drawing power from the hollow moon reactor to run secret cloning experiments!”

  “Experiments that released growth hormones into the air and gave the Platypus Woomerberg Syndrome,” added Zotz, wide-eyed. “It does make sense!”

  “Elementary, my dear Zotz!” Ostara exclaimed. “That’s from Sherlock Holmes.”

  Wak opened his mouth to reply, then hesitated. His sceptical expression faltered when it became evident he could not think of a good argument against what Ostara had put to him.

  “My word,” murmured Ravana, looking at Ostara in a new light. “That is the best piece of detective work you’ve ever done. Do you really think Taranis is doing something like that right under our noses? What can his experiments be?”

  “Cloning greys? As if they exist!” muttered Wak, in the manner of someone still not convinced. “On the other hand, you can set up a small cloning facility almost anywhere. It might explain where the missing equipment went from the biology laboratory. How do you propose to put your deduction to the test, security officer Ostara?”

  “Find Fenris,” she declared. “He’s got nowhere to go now except back to Taranis.”

  *

  In his haste to escape, Fenris had left his personal effects behind in the Sun Wukong, including the wristpad he had taken with him to Epsilon Eridani, something Zotz discovered when he tried to locate the fleeing Fenris via the tracker screen on his own. While Ostara remained convinced that Fenris was to rendezvous with Taranis in the old engine rooms, Surya feared he was instead making for the palace and was concerned for his mother’s safety should she still be there when Fenris returned.

  The power drain had put the monorail trains out of use and none of the monocycles in the nearest bay had enough charge to make it all the way across the hollow moon. It was decided therefore that Ostara and Surya would hitch a ride on the hovertruck as far as the palace, leaving Ravana and Zotz to continue onwards to the cave to collect the generator. Surya was confident that any staff left at the palace would side with him rather than Fenris. Professor Wak however had concerns of his own.

  “I’m pretty sure you’ll find the palace deserted,” he said. “Everyone left on the Indra. They even managed to take some of the livestock. It looked like Noah’s Ark when it went!”

  “You’re still here,” Ostara pointed out. “If you were daft enough to stay, there may be others. The Maharani’s household weren’t keen on mixing with the rest of us at the best of times and for all we know they’re still there, hiding and hoping the problem will go away.”

  “I don’t want you to face Fenris alone,” Wak told her. “At least promise me that.”

  “You could come with us,” Ostara suggested.

  “With this hand?” retorted Wak, holding up his poorly-repaired artificial digits. “Do you want me to slap him into submission? By all means do your investigation, but please wait for Hanuman to join you before you try any heroics. I’m sure it won’t take them long to drag the Platypus back into dock and I only need Ganesa here to try her idea for the airlock.”

  “Okay,” Ostara said. She gave his arm a reassuring pat. “I promise.”

  The Sun Wukong had left the airlock and Ravana, Ostara, Wak and Zotz went outside to watch as it moved slowly through the zero-gravity zone on its way to rescue the stranded Platypus. Left to their own devices, Endymion and Philyra had been busy rifling through the bundle of Fenris’ possessions Hanuman had chucked out of the passenger compartment before leaving. Apart from his wristpad and a case of clothes, they found a slate loaded with all sorts of interesting material and also, to their surprise, Fenris’ copy of the Isa-Sastra. Eager to show their discoveries, Endymion and Philyra came down to the medical bay.

  “He must have really been in a panic to leave this behind,” mused Miss Clymene, as she casually flicked through the book. The dense text was written in an archaic style and the few sentences she read were full of obscure references and double meanings.

  “May I have a look, miss?” asked Bellona. Miss Clymene handed her the book.

  “The slate has engineering plans for the Dandridge Cole,” Endymion revealed. “Ravana did mention that Fenris was the inside man for the Raja’s kidnap.”

  “Indeed he was,” said Ravana, appearing at the door. “The scumbag.”

  She went to the bed and knelt beside the motionless form of her father. Miss Clymene and Bellona had replaced the bandages on his head and chest. A small metal dish on the nearby cabinet held half a dozen fragments of bloody shrapnel, removed by Bellona’s steady hand. Quirinus remained unconscious, but Ravana took some reassurance from the pink blush upon his face, for earlier her father had looked as pale as a ghost.

  “How is he?” she asked Miss Clymene.

  “He’s no longer critical,” she replied, startling Ravana who had not been told that he was to begin with. “He should make a full recovery. Except…”

  “Except what?” asked Ravana, her heart sinking.

  “His eyes,” Bellona said quietly. “We need the autosurgeon to save his eyesight.”

  Fighting back her tears, Ravana took hold of her father’s hand and clutched it tightly. The pain and anguish she had suffered the last few days had become unbearable. At the forefront of her thoughts was that Fenris was to blame. Everything bad that had happened to her father; his arrest, his imprisonment, the bomb on the Platypus; Fenris had been there. She did not care for the bigger picture, that of Taranis and Kartikeya and their grand schemes for some far-flung moon, for it was Fenris alone who had personally caused so much grief. It was Fenris who was going to have to pay for what he had done.

  “I love you, father,” she whispered. “We will make you well again. I promise.”

  Ravana looked up at the solemn faces of Miss Clymene, Endymion, Philyra and Bellona, suddenly feeling lost and alone in a room full of strangers.

  “Fenris will not take away my family,” she said. “He will not get away with this.”

  *

  The hovertruck sped through the gloomy void of the hollow moon, its headlamps picking out one deserted scene after another as it followed the monorail track to Petit Havre. All four of its passengers were squashed and securely strapped into the front bench seat, for Ravana had made it clear she was in no mood for taking things slowly.

  They had left Dockside barely ten minutes ago and stopped just once to collect Ravana’s errant cat from near the lake, but already the hovertruck was surging past one of the central pylons that supported the mangled artificial sun. The bright lights of the Sun Wukong could be seen overhead, though as yet Ravana had heard no word from Hanuman and Ganesa on whether they had been successful in pulling the Platypus free.

  “Do you always drive this fast?” Ostara yelled to Ravana, raising her voice against the oncoming rush of wind. The hovertruck’s open cabin was not designed for rapid flight.r />
  “I did warn you!” Ravana shouted back. The headlamp beams momentarily fell upon a stray mob of confused wallabies, causing them to bound away in fright into a nearby coppice. “Anyway, eighty kilometres an hour is not that fast.”

  Zotz nervously clutched the cat on his lap and squeezed his knees to hold firm the bag on the floor between his legs. Beside him, Surya stared captivated by the strange landscape that had lain ignored beyond the palace grounds all these years. Ostara thought it a pity that his first proper look at the interior of the Dandridge Cole would possibly also be his last.

  Five minutes later, the hovertruck shot over the perimeter wall of the palace gardens and touched down on the edge of a small courtyard. Ravana looked momentarily bemused to see that they had landed next to the fallen stone statue of an elephant, for the incident with the Astromole seemed a lifetime ago. Ostara almost fell off the truck in her haste to get back onto solid ground, though Surya was no less relieved to follow.

  “You’re doing all you can for him,” she reassured Ravana, seeing the girl’s anxious face. “Just try not to drop the generator on the way back.”

  “I’ll do my best,” replied Ravana, managing a smile. “And you be careful. Fenris is a sly one.”

  Ostara grinned, then quickly led Surya away from the hovertruck towards the palace, leaving Ravana and Zotz to depart in a cloud of dust behind them. Ahead, the entire palace was in darkness, yet she saw the double doors within the nearby porch were already open, revealing an ink-black interior. Reaching the entrance, Ostara watched as Surya cautiously stepped over the threshold and peered into the murky silence beyond. There was not a soul in sight.

  “It looks like they did all leave on the Indra after all,” whispered Ostara.

  “Why are you whispering?” asked Surya, his own voice hushed.

  “I have no idea. Why are you?”

  “I don’t like the dark,” he confessed. “I never knew home could be so creepy.”

  “Is this a good time to mention that I forgot to bring a torch?”

  Surya grinned. “I have one in my room,” he said. “Follow me.”