Xalata Orbit and Melody Fret: The Hammer of Asttar

by Nick Evans

  "You really don't get it do you? I'm a girl. Girls can cry. On demand. Now, move it!"

  Glitch looked puzzled and worried but followed Melody into the auditorium. "Right," she said, "show me where you went and where you sat." Glitch led the way and pointed out the seats. Melody hurried over to them and then called across to him, "And where did she go when she disappeared?"

  He pointed to the door next to the podium. "So why didn't you follow her?"

  "Er, I don't know. I was talking to someone, as I said and I just saw her go through the door and then she had gone."

  "So didn't you follow her?" said Melody, walking over to the door.

  "I went and opened the door a few moments later but it was dark in there and, um, a security person came and told me I couldn't go in."

  Melody pushed through the door into the dark corridor behind. "Here, hold this door open now so I get some light in. I can't find the light controls." She moved further in once Glitch had held the door and began to look for rooms off to the side.

  Glitch called to her, "I think the guard is coming. We really ought to be getting out of here," then Melody caught sight of a glint of colour on the floor near a dark door. Just as she was about to move towards it she heard the voice of the guard:

  "''Ere, what are you doing in there. You was only supposed to be searching the auditorium." Glitch let go the door and the corridor was plunged into blackness, but Melody had already grabbed the item on the floor and pushed it into her bag. As she did so, the door opened once more and the guard, visibly angry, stood there. "What you think you're doing? Why have you come in 'ere?"

  "Sorry, sir," said Melody, tearful once more. "I panicked - I thought that I might have gone out this way and dropped my pad. Then it went dark. Really sorry," and she hurried through the door and back into the auditorium. She and Glitch then made for the exit with the guard right behind them.

  "I'll need to let you out, now be off with you. Bloomin' kids today. Give 'em a nanometre and they take a parsec."

  With that, he pushed them without ceremony out of the door and locked it behind them.

  "Phew!" said Glitch.

  "Phew? Is that all you can say? Xalata is round here somewhere and you're relieved that you didn't get reported? You're a worm, Justin!" and she strode off back to the TransTrak.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Back at the home, Melody checked her bag. She hadn't wanted Glitch to see what she had found. Pulling out the object she saw that it was a brightly coloured titanium buckle - just like the ones that Xalata had on her boots (that she seemed never to take off). She'd been wearing those boots ever since she arrived; in fact, Melody reckoned that she didn't have any other footwear. Fortunately, they were OK for the requirements that LunarBase had for flooring surfaces in the habitats and public spaces so she had not had to change them.

  Now though, Melody stared at the buckle and wondered aloud, "Where are you then? You went into the dark corridor and then something happened - something that meant your buckle came off." She turned it over and saw that the fixing on the back had snapped. It was made of metal too, like the rest of the buckle and was not meant to come off the boot. Therefore, thought Melody, that's come off with force.

  She thought back to the dark doorway that she had seen, just where she had found the buckle and she realized that it was likely that it was through that door that Xalata had gone when she disappeared. "But where's the door go to?" she mused and then, clicking her brain into gear, she got out her pad and searched The Q for plans of the Outpost. They were not easy to find, but Melody was a resourceful girl and she did something that she had always said she would not do - used her Mum's access codes to get into more confidential areas of information. "I'll be fried for this," she muttered, but she kept on hunting.

  The Outpost itself was a relatively new structure in the original LunarBase habitat so its details were in more recent plans that gave an overview of the whole base. Then, she found what she needed - a 3D visual plan and walkthrough of the habitat itself, with the various institutions, the Praesidium, the Academy and other important buildings clearly marked. This information was usually confidential, but with her Mum's access, Melody could see everything she needed.

  Using the 3D visualization she walked through the entrance lobby where she had had her encounter with the guard and into the auditorium. Everything looked super-real and reflected the current appearance of the area. Although it did not include actual people, the signs of their presence were even marked on the plans, with visible details even down to the security screens on the guard's desk.

  There was the podium and, to the left of it, the doorway into the back of the building. Moving herself through the simulation she passed through the doorway and headed to the area on the left where she had seen the dark door. The corridor appeared as it would if it was lit and so the doors and corridors were easy to spot, but there was no door at all where Melody had found the buckle. The wall was just continuous. "Yet, I saw it, so it must be there," she muttered again.

  As she had spent a lot of her childhood alone, she had become very good at some types of online games and so she automatically treated the simulation as if she was in a game. If the door's supposed to be there, then it must be there, she thought to herself as she attempted to walk herself through the solid walls at the spot where the dark door had appeared. Still nothing. She tried once more and, at this point, a warning flashed on the screen:

  NO ACCESS. YOUR CLEARANCE DOES NOT AUTHORISE YOU TO VIEW THIS AREA.

  "Ha ha!" she exclaimed. "So there is something there." And she set about trying to find a work around to bypass the blockage. "If my Mum's access can't get through here, then I'll just have to try someone else's," and she logged out and keyed in another access, one that she had learned quite by accident, when she had seen Wiglet logging into his portal.

  She found the plans once more and dived into the simulation, this time as one Waldorf Wiggins. Waldorf? she thought. Ouch. Someone was unkind.

  The Outpost swung into view in clear three dimensions and she once again passed through the lobby and auditorium, into the dark corridor. With Wiglet's access, the door was there, quite clearly and, with her heart in her mouth, she moved herself forward through it into the space beyond. As she gasped with shock at what she saw, the visualization disappeared from view and an alert box flashed on the screen:

  ACCESS VIOLATION! ILLEGAL ACCESS. SECURITY RESPONSE INITIATED.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Melody stood in shock in front of her pad, the flashing sign giving her clear news that her pad was locked down and inaccessible. What she had seen had left her speechless, but now she realized the significance of it and hurried out of the door to her home, stopping only to grab Xalata's pad, which she had left with Melody as she departed for the Outpost.

  She crossed the small atrium that led back into the various homes in this cluster and headed down a side tunnel that would lead her around the back of the main access route. As she ran, she heard the sound of feet in the other tunnels and, looking back, she saw Adolf Fark and a group of armed security men running up the access-way to her home. She pulled back against the wall of the tunnel as they dashed past and then, without wasting a moment, hurried off, getting herself as far away from the scene as possible.

  But where to go? She couldn't go back to the Academy - Wiglet would certainly know that she had "borrowed" his access. If she went to find her mother, she would get the most dreadful strip torn off her. And she couldn't go back home, for obvious reasons. The girl called Fret started to do just that.

  "Get a grip, for Frank's sake," she muttered to herself, "you've only yourself to blame so either face the music or go and find Xalata. Brave enough are we?" She often taunted herself to try and kick herself into action when she was in tricky situations, but this one beat all the scrapes she had been in before and she felt very alone and scared.

  What she had seen in the secret room was the spur that got her going. As the doo
r had opened, the view in front of her was of a strange and desolate habitat, totally unlike the one that she inhabited. The walls were even more plain, if that was possible and there was a feeling of isolation about the place that was confirmed when she saw the navigation prompt at the bottom of the screen: "Habitat 14". Little-used tunnels, led off from the access point where she stood and there was no sign of anyone living there.

  From everything that she had seen on the newsfeed, Habitat 14 had been where the cryomorph destruction had taken place ... and it was on Farside. Therefore, somehow, unlikely though it seemed, this doorway was a portal through space, and perhaps even through time, to a location on the other side of the Moon.

  "And if that's where that door leads, then Xalata went there. And it's where I have to go now, to find her." She gulped at the thought of what she had to do, but once again she teased herself and persuaded her subconscious that, yes, this would be a great idea. Her conscious mind was violently disagreeing, needless to say.

  She set off, looking over her shoulder and headed for the TransTrak. She had no idea how she was going to get to Habitat 14, but the answer had to lie in the Outpost and its secret doorway.

  * * * * * *

  It was quite late in the day when Melody arrived at the Outpost. It was busy there and she had successfully avoided the security people who were quite evidently looking for her. She knew though that it was only a matter of time before she was spotted on a ViewCam. Her best bet was that the level of security alert had not been raised, so that her disappearance would only be a small issue.

  Hoping against hope, she walked past the Outlook and checked out the situation. There was an evening event just beginning - a concert, by the looks of the formal dress that people were wearing as they arrived. There was no chance of getting inside by the main entrance because she had no virtual ticket for a seat, so she was just going to have to be inventive.

  Moving around the outside perimeter, she spotted a smaller door that was evidently the Stage Door as a number of musicians were walking in. She screwed up her courage to screaming point and simply joined the group of young people who were heading for the interior of the Outpost.

  "Dressing rooms are on the left down corridor 3," said a guard to the group as they walked by. No request for ID or access - she was in. She followed the group further down the corridor and then, at the first opportunity, peeled off into a small side room that seemed to be unused. The problem was that she had no idea where she was in the building, although she was fairly certain she was at least on the correct side, near the dark corridor.

  She determined that she would wait until the concert started and then prowl the area backstage until she found the right corridor. She dug around in her bag and found an energy bar and then settled down to wait. Outside, she could hear more people passing and she prayed that she would not be disturbed so that she could continue the hunt for Xalata.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The moment she was grabbed, Xalata had kicked with both feet, as hard as she could. The satisfying "Oomph!" that exploded from her attacker, when she made contact with her foot, was soon followed by being wrestled through a door into a much lighter area. She shouted for help, but a gloved hand was quickly wrapped around her mouth so that she could barely breathe, let alone scream.

  "You've caused quite enough trouble," said a rough voice, "and we need to keep you quiet. We don't want to wake the bogeyman now do we? Now, are you going to be a good girl and make no noise, or shall we gag you? I have a lovely dirty rag here to stuff in your mouth," and the speaker waved in front of her face a piece of oily cloth that looked as if it had been used for cleaning drains. Xalata nodded to show that she agreed to be quiet, although every part of her was straining with the impulse to scream.

  She couldn't see her attackers as they held her from behind, but the sound of their voices was slightly muffled, as if they were wearing something over their faces. She felt a bag being pulled over her head and the last thing she saw was the image of a very derelict-looking area of habitat that had no place being part of the Outpost.

  Another voice laughed and Xalata was hauled onto some sort of vehicle where she was dumped like so much luggage. Her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were fastened together with strong, thin bands. Then the hands let go of her and she was left lying on her front while the two attackers evidently climbed into seats on the vehicle and drove silently away - to where, she had no idea.

  As she lay there, she felt her hands going numb from the tightness of the bands and so she tested them but they were fastened firmly and, as she wriggled, they cut into her wrists and ankles, making her gasp with pain. Then she tried to move her head to see if she could manage to find a chink of light to see out from under the hood. Nothing. So she stopped moving and listened carefully. The vehicle hissed along on near-silent wheels, making little jolts as it passed over slight unevenness in the tunnel through which they were driving. The two kidnappers - for such they were, she realised in horror - were not talking, keeping silent because perhaps they did not want to give away any more than they had already. She had not recognized the voices, but she was in no doubt that she would know at least the one voice again, if she heard it.

  The vehicle travelled on and the silence simply grew deeper. So, what had she seen when she was attacked? The light had been bright in the space she had entered, but the area looked totally unlike the rest of the habitat that made up LunarBase. In fact, it looked more like the images she had seen on the newsfeed about the attack on Habitat 14. As she considered what she had actually seen, she recalled a large space with blast-damaged walls and smoke patches as well as broken furniture and fittings that were strewn around. But was she remembering the newsfeed or was it what she had actually seen? She couldn't be sure as her mind was in a whirl from the adrenalin pumping around her body.

  Still the vehicle zipped along and Xalata had a strong sense of motion whenever it went around corners - but that happened very rarely. The gentle hum made her feel quite sleepy and, despite being very uncomfortable, she fell into a sort of shocked sleep where wild dreams screamed around in her head.

  * * * * *

  She couldn't tell how much time had passed when she felt the deceleration of the vehicle and heard sounds of a much larger space, voices echoing and the noise of heavy machinery. The motion stopped altogether and she felt the two attackers get down from their seats and muffled talk that she could not make out. All at once, rough hands picked her up bodily and carried her away from the vehicle.

  "Where am I being taken?" she shouted. The answer was a quick thump on her shoulder.

  "Be quiet," the same rough voice again. "We don't want to hear from you at all. I still have the gag so just behave. You, my dear, are just a pawn in our little game."

  The other man laughed again, but said nothing. She heard the hiss of an airlock door being opened and she was put down on the ground. Someone cut the binding on her feet and she was dragged upright again.

  "Right, now, you walk. No silly tricks - just behave like a nice girl, my dear, and nothing'll happen to you." With that, one of the men pushed her forward, still with the bag on her head and she stumbled to stay upright as the sensation began to return to her numbed feet and, without any vision, her balance was unsteady.

  She staggered along the corridor, guided by a firm hand on her shoulder and lurched through another airlock into a space where there was very little sound. They all stopped and Xalata was pushed down onto a seat and someone undid the ties on her hands.

  "Don't make a move until we leave. If you decide to take a peek at who we are, that'll be the last peek you make, my dear." Again with the 'my dear' bit, thought Xalata.

  "You can't get out of this room. Food will be brought to you and you'll have everything you need. Your job is to sit and wait." With that, she heard footsteps retreating and the airlock door closing. There was a clunk as it resealed and then everything was silent.

  She paused, listened aga
in and then decided it was safe to remove the bag on her head. Rename myself, Edna Bagg, she thought and laughed, despite feeling very scared. As the bag came off she looked around. There wasn't much to see. She was in a standard type of lunar habitat living space. It was small, with a table and chairs, a couple of armchairs, a large screen on the wall and a kitchen area with a cooler. Everything was a neutral grey colour and there was no decoration or ornamentation at all. To be honest, she thought, this could be my home. But she quickly discovered that it wasn't.

  She got up and wandered around to explore the space - first trying the airlock door to see if it would open. Nope - no luck there. Not that she had really expected that people would go to the trouble of capturing her and then leave her in an unlocked room.

  In the kitchen space the cutlery was all flimsy plastic - no weapons there then. The cooler contained some drinks and a couple of parcels of ready to cook food: all standard stuff. Through a door to the left of the kitchen was access to a shower room and then a single bedroom with a bed made up. There were clothes in the wardrobe - her size and style: someone was expecting me, she thought.

  So why had they captured her? What was the plan? How was she a "pawn" in their "little game"? She thought suddenly about her dad and what he would think when he found she had been captured - if only I had been able to tell him where I was going. And Glitch isn't going to tell - he's in on it! With sharp realization, she suddenly recalled that her friend - so called - had betrayed her. Why? There were plenty of questions - no answers.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Xalata quickly realized that there was not much that she could do. She was locked in and powerless and there seemed to be no way to get in touch with anyone she knew. Worse still, she had no idea where she was and couldn't recall anything much that would give her a clue ...other than the strange sight of the derelict looking environment that had met her eyes, just as the bag went on her head.