“Yes, Professor,” Zeke said with a sad face. “But first we have to finish what we came here for. And live.”
Hiss put hand on Zeke’s shoulder.
“Ach, your strange story of the renegade Mariner. This is not a matter for me, I am telling you with the heart most heavy. But I am wishing you luck.”
A light flashed on the telescope’s console and Hiss switched on the com.
“This is Bobbi speaking. I have located the geological features the blue-headed visitor requested. Eight miles down and three from the surface, location three, three point seven.”
Zeke took a final look at the stars around them and turned to his friends.
“This is it.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ascraeus Mons
The airlock at the base of the Perspicillum slid open and Bobbi glided out, hovering above the prehistoric volcano. Zeke, Scuff, and Pin-mei clung to his sides, secured with cables and feet resting on the base of his anti-gravity coils. Bobbi began moving down the outside of the volcano, nimbly coasting above the boulders and outcrops along the way.
Zeke peered through the visor of his pressure suit. Behind them, the Perspicillum perched on the rim of the caldera. This had been the golden glint he’d seen from the gravscooter. Far beneath lay the endless red plains.
“Yep, it’s a long way down,” Scuff remarked over the com-link.
“Are you reading my thoughts again?” Zeke replied.
Scuff shook his hooded head quickly.
“So, Bobbi, what’s it like being a robotoid?” he asked, changing the subject.
“I am not equipped to answer your question,” the machine replied in its deep, monotone voice. “I have no experience to compare to mine.”
“Don’t you ever get lonely?” Pin-mei said, out of the blue.
“Why would I experience such an emotion?” Bobbi asked.
“I don’t know. It’s just you’re one of a kind.”
The robot’s bulbs flashed.
“Do you get lonely, small female visitor?”
Pin-mei said nothing, gazing instead at the barren landscape, at a world that died before amoebas swam the oceans of Earth.
“Yes, I do,” she said at last.
“Why, small female visitor?” Bobbi enquired.
She sighed.
“I don’t know. My parents are just so far away.” She nodded her head to the sky.
“Sometimes it’s like they’re not real anymore. As if a part of me is missing.”
“Aw, Pin,” Scuff said.
Zeke squeezed her hand.
“I’m not missing. I’m right here for you.”
“I know, Zeke. But you’re not Mummy and Daddy. Sometimes I feel a black hole has swallowed me up and I’ll never see them again.”
A sniffle echoed through the com-link.
Bobbi beeped.
“Small female visitor, I envy you your feelings.”
“Envy? Whatever for?” she cried.
“I deduct that these feelings occur because you have significance.”
“Significance?” Pin-mei said.
“You are important to your parents and they to you. This allows you to have opportunities I have not had. I am a robot of minor significance.”
“There you go, he is lonely,” Scuff muttered more to himself.
Pin-mei tilted her head to one side.
“One day Bobbi, you will be the most significant robotoid in history.”
Zeke and Scuff traded looks. What on Mars was she on about?
“Hey!” Scuff boomed, moving his head towards hers. “Are your eyes glowing? Are you having a pre-cog moment?”
Pin-mei looked at him
“Sorry, I was miles away,” she remarked. “Did you say something?”
~~~
“It’s breathable,” Scuff said, checking the gauge on the arm of his suit. He went to lift his helmet, but hesitated. Zeke clucked irritably and pulled his off with one tug. Cold, thin air invaded his chest. The others copied him.
“Farewell Mr Bobbi,” Pin-mei cried, waving to the robot. He was high above them and shrinking back into the volcanic landscape. “Ooh!” she said suddenly, swaying from side to side.
“Me too,” Scuff remarked, rubbing his forehead.
Zeke nodded in agreement. A light-headedness had overtaken all three of them.
“Reminds me of Peru,” Scuff went on. “Up the top of the Andes.”
“Altitude sickness?” Pin-mei suggested.
“Got it one. Try some deep breathing.”
After a few minutes of inhaling, the giddiness passed. Zeke turned a full circle to take in the vista. They were still three miles above the barren plains. The gentle slope of Ascraeus Mons spread out around them, the redness of the rock laced with white.
Zeke removed a glove. Then he scraped the surface of a boulder with his forefinger. He inspected his white-coated fingertip.
“Frost,” he said after a pause.
“Side effect of terra-forming,” Scuff explained.
Zeke didn’t reply, deep in thought. This was the site of his recurring dream. Except in the dream it was barren and red. Mars, the dead planet, as it had been for one point eight billion years. And now, after just two centuries of human colonisation, the mountains were growing snow caps. That in itself was pretty awesome.
He remembered the dream-monster, the crawling bundle of rags and flesh, the ghost of Professor Magma.
That part of the dream was just a dream, his inner voice told him. Or was it? Magma had been devoured by the Spiral. Zeke couldn’t help but think the crazy genius had met his just desserts. But over the last three months Zeke had become convinced that Magma was alive, inside the Spiral, digested, but mentally intact. A fate worse than death. And if Magma lived on, so too did Jasper Snod. Zeke imagined a living hell. Existence as a disembodied spirit, trapped within the Spiral’s dark consciousness. He shuddered.
“Hey, bro! Your dog!”
Zeke stirred from his meditation and followed Scuff’s pointing finger.
A rock in the rough shape of a dog sat a few yards away. Zeke strode purposefully towards it. He whistled.
“There it is.”
The sinkhole, around three feet in width, lay beyond the dog-rock and surrounded by a circle of ochre sand, like a doughnut.
“No ice?” Scuff remarked.
Zeke stretched his hands over the hole.
“Hot air.”
The other two joined him and all three warmed their hands on the current wafting up from deep inside the ancient mountain.
Pin-mei frowned.
“Then…there’s a heat source inside.”
“No,” Scuff went on. “It’s not possible. An active volcano? But Mars is geologically dead.”
“Well, this bit isn’t,” Zeke answered.
“So, bro, what now?”
Zeke looked at his friend and cracked into his lopsided grin.
“Why do I feel I’m not going to like this?” Scuff muttered.
And then Zeke jumped.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Down the Sinkhole
The sinkhole was becoming lighter. Zeke looked down and saw a reddish glow in the distance. It was growing bigger. He wondered how fast he was plummeting.
“Ouch!” came a cry.
It was Scuff, maybe twenty yards above. Zeke had remembered to keep his limbs tucked in, avoiding the protrusions from the rock face. Scuff had obviously been less prudent.
“We’ll hit bottom any moment. Slow down!” he hollered, and then thought the same words in case that was easier for his friends to hear.
Rock bottom you mean! Scuff exclaimed in Zeke’s head.
Zeke closed his eyes and concentrated. He visualised an invisible umbrella above him and raised his hand to grab the non-existent handle. He unfurled it in his imagination, and, sure enough, began to decelerate.
He floated out of the sinkhole, high over a cave. An ember-coloured glow illuminated a
scene of twisting rock. Stalactites rose from the shade like the parapets of some immense, fairytale castle. But one that had collapsed into ruins.
Still holding the imaginary umbrella, he drifted the last few yards and came to a gentle landing on stony ground. Scuff and Pin-mei glided down to join him, arms aloft. They had obviously used the same mental image.
“Wow!” Scuff gasped.
“Wow indeed,” Zeke replied, taking stock of their new surroundings.
“Bro!” Scuff hissed and grabbed Zeke’s wrist so hard he winced.
“I hear thoughts! Your playmate, he’s—”
Scuff’s eyes glazed over.
“Pin, what’s wrong with him?” Zeke cried, only to discover she too had a blank expression. The two of them stood as still as statues.
A long, malicious laugh echoed from the depths of the cave.
“Show yourself!” Zeke bellowed, his heart pumping faster.
A shape writhed in the darkness. Zeke stifled a cry as Fitch Crawley stepped into the amber light. The boy was scarcely recognisable. His long overland trek to Ascraeus had clearly taken its toll. His face was caked in dirt. His hair was spiky with grime. He seemed a thing born from this primeval cavern, as if he had evolved out of its slime. And in the centre of all that filth his eyes gleamed with a mad ferocity.
“You don’t look so good,” Zeke said at last.
Fitch cackled.
“Well, your precious pals won’t look so good when they’re charred to cinders.”
Before Zeke could think of a reply, a flash of light seared his eyes. A series of bright burning fountains erupted from the cavern floor. They flowed upwards and into fissures in the roof.
“Stop gaping, you’ll catch flies,” Fitch sneered.
Zeke closed his mouth.
“Lava? On Mars?” he asked. “And how is it pouring upwards?”
Fitch gave an arrogant snigger.
“Gravity, magnetism and thought are the forces that bind the universe together. And of these three forces, on this occasion, it’s gravity that is the most powerful.”
“So, are you going to enlighten me?” Zeke said with a fierce scowl.
“Gravity’s Eye. We’re practically in it. And as you get nearer there are ripples, side effects, echoes.”
Zeke clicked his fingers.
“Of course! Gravitational distortions.”
“You’re quite quick-witted for an Earthie, you know that,” Fitch said with mock affection. “Gravity’s Eye is pushing down on the planet’s mantle beneath our feet with such pressure it melts the crust. Has done since the Hesperians made it. But up here around us, gravity becomes, well, dysfunctional. The lava is flowing up along gravitational fault lines. Don’t get too near, you might get sucked in.”
Zeke stepped back hastily.
“They’ll spout like this for another five minutes. They’re on some kind of cycle,” Fitch remarked, his mud-man face grinning wickedly. “Just long enough to torch your friends.”
Zeke’s blood quickened. Surely even Fitch wouldn’t? He pivoted on his heels.
“Stop!” he shrieked.
Scuff was staggering towards a lava-pillar five yards away. His legs trembled as if he were trying to resist. Fear and desperation painted his face.
Another step closer, and another.
“Zeke…help me.”
“Fitch, please stop!” Zeke pleaded.
Fitch’s eyes sparkled in the fiery light, but he said nothing.
Zeke shot out his arm, palm open, towards Scuff. He clenched his teeth and his thoughts exploded. Deep inside his brain synapses fired with psychic power as he imagined what needed to be done. Sure enough, Scuff’s body lifted into the air and flew four feet backwards.
“Zeke!” wailed Pin-mei.
She too was walking towards the fire, fighting every step like a puppet fighting its master. Zeke stared into her terrified features, as she mentally wrestled Fitch’s willpower. Zeke knew already she was not strong enough to out-think Fitch. Nobody was. With a great burst of psychic energy Zeke sent her flying backwards a few paces.
“I can keep this up longer than you can,” Fitch said with a hysterical giggle.
Scuff began lumbering towards the streams of molten rock all over again. With a wave of his hand Zeke shifted him back a few paces. But as he focussed on Scuff, Pin-Mei started over.
It went on like this for what seemed an age. Fitch propelling them towards the lava, Zeke gliding them back. Each time Scuff and Pin-Mei came nearer to harm.
“What do you want?” Zeke cried out.
Fitch laughed aloud.
“Want? For you to watch your friends die horribly.”
“But why? Because you have no friends?”
The jibe burst from Zeke’s lips before he could stop it. But it must have found its target. For a second, Scuff and Pin’s brainwashed steps faltered. Zeke and Fitch exchanged glares through the fountains of fire.
“Stay here, and they live, it’s your choice,” Fitch said in a low sneer. Then he merged into the darkness.
Pin-mei fell to the floor in tears. Scuff looked like he wanted to cry too, but instead drew a big breath. He knelt down and put a comforting arm round Pin. Zeke watched them for a moment, lost for words. Was the danger they’d faced all his fault?
“No, it’s not,” Scuff said, looking up at him.
“You’ve got to stop him, Zeke, he’s about to do something awful,” Pin-mei said, and added, “My pre-cog can sense it.”
Zeke scanned the cavern for a way out. There was none bar the sinkhole above. While a fully qualified mariner might be able to levitate his way back up to the surface, none of them were skilled enough for that.
“Ok, stay here, don’t follow me.”
They both nodded, terrified.
Zeke twisted round to face the upward-flowing lava.
You can do it, said that voice inside his head. Always that voice!
Zeke spent a few moments inhaling through his nose and exhaling through the mouth. A calming strategy he’d picked up from Mariner Knimble. In his mind’s eye he visualised the fountains as harmless red curtains, and with an imaginary hand parting them wide enough to pass. His scalp tingled.
It happened! One fountain kinked to the left while its neighbour moved to the right. The space between them widened. But the effort was excruciating, and Zeke’s eyes were almost blinded by their own light.
“Go!” Scuff shouted.
Zeke knew he could only keep them apart for seconds. His calf muscles strained and he burst into one mad, daring leap. Lava scorched his cheeks as he dived between the fountains. A brief burning sensation, then he was through.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The Chamber Before Gravity’s Eye
The glow from the lava faded as Zeke ventured deeper into the tunnel. His hands were trembling and he tried to steady them. He couldn’t. Frantically, he sought a comforting thought to calm his nerves. Anything. A tune drifted into the back of his mind. The song he’d heard on that disastrous road trip with Fitch and Trixie.
The song about sugarcane and tidal waves. He hummed it softly. The trembling didn’t go away, but it lessened. That was something.
A sudden bend brought him came face to face with the Failsafe.
“Damn!”
The seven-foot-high boulder was blocking the way. The seams of white stone shimmered and a deep rumbling emanated from its core. Zeke froze, uncertain what to do, waiting for it to attack. It didn’t.
Zeke cleared his throat.
“Well, you’ve got me,” he said in Hesperian.
The Failsafe did not respond.
“Ahem!” Zeke said politely.
The seams lit up like a Christmas tree. Here it comes, Zeke thought.
“You are not the threat!”
“Finally!” Zeke replied.
“Mchx-dthfkii made me to protect the Infinity Trap.”
“You can relax. It’s sealed forever.”
“No, it
could be opened.”
Zeke’s heart sank. The stone robot continued.
“Could, but not yet, the new key is not ready. The danger now is Gravity’s Eye.”
“I don’t understand,” Zeke protested.
“Gravity’s Eye is an engine. The makers put it to many purposes. Unlocking atomic structure is one such purpose.”
Zeke scratched his head.
“You mean…it could open the way to another dimension?”
“Easily, if so directed by a strong enough intellect.”
Fitch Crawley! This had been his plan all along. No, not his plan, but the Spiral’s. Perhaps Fitch himself was just a puppet, under the Spiral’s influence? It hungered to break down the barrier between universes. It wouldn’t need long, a few seconds would be enough to invade. And then everyone, everywhere, would be doomed.
“Can you stop him?” Zeke asked.
“Stop him? My power is almost gone. Mchx-dthfkii has left me with only one option.”
Before Zeke could speak a violent shudder ran through the Failsafe. The rumbling became a high-pitched whine, painfully jangling Zeke eardrums. He crammed his hands over his ears.
But the noise ceased. Symbols drawn in light were flickering around the Failsafe’s base, little alien symbols like runes or lettering. They kept changing, like numbers counting down. Worse, the Failsafe’s core had started to pulse.
“What have you done?” Zeke demanded, although somehow he already knew.
“Engaged destruction sequence. Gravity’s Eye will be destroyed. As will this mountain.”
Oh great, Zeke thought. We’re all going to die.
“Switch it off, please! I’ll stop him. I promise.”
“Even now he is close to opening the Eye. I must detonate before it’s too late.”
“And if I stop him?”
“Maybe I can halt the sequence. I advise you to hurry.”
Zeke knew it was useless to argue with the Failsafe’s machine logic. Either they were all going to be blasted to smithereens or eaten by the Spiral. He squeezed around the Failsafe and broke into a sprint.
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