by Nick Evans
She chose a direction and set off, hoping to see something familiar, but the landmarks in the habitat were few and far between. Then, she suddenly came to her senses. "How thick? Speak to someone," and she pulled out her communicator. Accessing Melody's details she called through to her, but there was no response. The relays for comms seemed to be out - probably part of the destruction that had happened during the Cryomorph's rampage through the other end of the habitat. She tried Glitch - no result. Then her Dad - likewise. "OK, girl. You're on your own," and she continued walking.
* * * * *
Melody looked at Fark, open-mouthed. "I thought you had gone back to LunarBase!"
"Yeah, that 'ad been my plan, but now I seem to 'ave 'ad to change them. You'll be good insurance in case we meet Xalata's meddlesome father. I 'ave some plans for him since he really was not very nice to me and I intend to give 'im a little repayment. Now, what are you doing 'ere and how did you manage to get out of the locked home I put you in?"
"You're not as clever as you think, Fark ..."
"Mr Fark to you ..."
"You've been outwitted, Fark and your plan will not succeed."
Fark's face looked like thunder. "What do you mean? You kids can't do anything and Wiggins is too stupid to know what to do."
"I think you may have miscalculated. We have control of the asteroid and it's not going to hit Earth any more."
"Impossible. The whole system is locked down. We have made it so no one, either here on the Moon or at the Mission Control in Beijing, can do a thing. The Earth is doomed."
"Wrong," said Melody. "You made a mistake. We got in."
"You can't have. It needs this key and another one before anyone can access the controls." He pulled the sliver of plastic from inside a pocket and pointed it at Melody. "You just can't do it."
Melody gasped in horror, looking wide-eyed with fear. Her face drained of colour and she looked as if she might keel over.
"Yeah, you might well look afraid, girlie. It's all doomed."
But Melody was not looking at him, not looking at the key, but directly behind Fark, with growing terror in her eyes. She pointed slowly and Fark realised that something was amiss. He turned his head to look and, as he did so, Melody snatched the key with her outstretched hand and dashed for the airlock door. Fark howled with rage as he felt the key leave his fingers and he ran after her and reached the airlock as it slammed shut and locked.
Melody, on the other side, knew that Fark would need to recall the code for the door and unlock it so she ran out into the atrium and then headed back in the direction of the home where the others were held. She had a good 30 seconds lead and she hoped against hope that she would be in a position to deal with Fark once he caught up with her.
* * * * *
As Xalata walked she kept thinking that the area she was entering looked familiar - and in a way, it was, in that everywhere looked the same. Then as she continued on, she would find the same blank corridors and then an atrium. She was hopelessly lost and yet knew she could not be far away from her starting point. In an active habitat, this would not have been a problem as she would have had waypoint guides that could indicate where the features were for each area, but these were remotely controlled and since the habitat had been abandoned, they were no longer operational.
Turning into yet another space, she suddenly spied something that could speed up her search - a truck. It sat, charging quietly, in a truck bay that was used normally by the maintenance teams who ran the habitat. Leaping forward, she jumped into the driving seat. The truck immediately woke up and was ready for action so she pressed the Go pedal and she was away, speeding through the white corridors. I don't want to get back to the portal ... I need to find the Control Room, or the home where we all are being held, she thought as she drove along. As she whizzed down yet another long white tunnel she had a feeling that the area ahead actually was familiar. There were some tracks in white dust where a truck had followed before and she recalled that she had seen something similar near the Control Room.
As she rounded another corner at speed she spied Melody dashing away across an atrium and as she approached, she saw Fark fling open the door of the Control Room and throw himself after Melody. Without missing a beat, Xalata pushed the truck even faster and drove straight at Fark who, seeing her hurtling towards him from the corner of his eye, dived to one side as she flashed past.
In a moment she was upon Melody and she shouted urgently, "Jump in. Jump IN!" and kept the truck rolling beside her. Melody looked amazed and then hopped neatly into the seat next to Xalata as the truck accelerated away back to the home.
In only a few minutes, they swung in front of the entrance to the home and they leapt off the truck and in through the airlock door. In a flash, Melody locked the door and then reprogrammed the code so that no one outside could get in.
As they entered the living space they were amazed to see not only Glitch and Wiglet, as expected, but also Brett and Castrana Machin.
"Dad? How in Luna did you get here? And what's she doing here?", said Xalata, pointing at Castrana.
"Xally, thank goodness you're safe," said Brett as he ran to her and gave her a hug.
"Yeah, well OK Dad, that's enough OK?" said Xalata, hating the public display of affection.
"Sorry, Xally, but I was worried sick about you. Now I know what this one and her evil sidekick have been planning, I can't describe how relieved I am."
"OK guys, enough of the tearful reunions," said Melody. "Look what I have!" and she gleefully produced the plastic key.
Xalata looked stunned. "How did you get that?"
"Fark decided to make a generous donation to our Save the World campaign."
"What!" exploded Castrana, "He did what?"
"He gave me the key," responded Melody, "and so now we can make the corrections to the asteroid's trajectory."
"He's fast behind us," said Xalata, "but he won't get in because Melody's reprogrammed the door. So we can concentrate now on the job in hand. The question is, what do we do with this one?" and she pointed to Castrana.
"He gave you the key?" spluttered Castrana. "Why would he do that?"
"Well, it was not altogether willingly. Let's just say that I am a better actor than he is a reactor! Now, let's do it folks."
* * * * *
Outside the home, Fark tapped furiously on the entry pad, trying to sort out the new combination. Nothing worked. In frustration, he kicked the door, but to no avail. Then he sat on the truck that had been abandoned by Xalata and Melody and waited. He couldn't leave the area and all the protagonists were inside, no doubt finding a way to fox his plans. Then he remembered he was not alone. Off he went, in search of reinforcements.
Very quickly, he arrived at the area where he had left his small team. The two other guards had been working on packing equipment that had been used during their time in the habitat, but now it was time to move out.
"Change of plan, lads," said Fark. "For reasons I won't go into now, there's a situation in the lockup we used. I need to get back in there, but they've changed the code so that I can't get in. I need an alternative plan ... "
He stopped for a moment and realised that, by talking about it, he had spurred on his own ideas. "Wait, I have it!"
And without another word, he hurried out, back to the truck and pulled out the control unit that was hidden deep in his pocket. Driving back to the home, he hopped off the truck and removed the thin plastic device that kept the Cryomorph at bay.
"Oh yes, indeed. I have it!" And he started to adjust the controls.
* * * * *
"Never mind the tearful reunions," shouted Glitch, "we're up against time here! Let's have the key and make things jump back into place."
Melanie handed over the sliver of plastic and Wiglet took it and paired it with his, engaging the two as part of a virtual key on the main screen. Each flashed in turn and circuitry inside them lit up to demonstrate that the encryption algorithms were b
eing compared and unlocked.
"This will take a moment or two," said Wiglet, "and then we should have clear access through to the command system. My access on its own is insufficient. So now ..." He stopped speaking and looked at the screen in dismay - an error message indicated that the two keys were incompatible.
Castrana Machin smiled to herself, but that look was seen by Xalata, who then dashed across the room and grabbed her by the arm. "You knew it would fail!" she shouted, "and you just stood there and let us do it. Don't you realise what you're doing here? The Earth will be destroyed and the people on it will all lose their lives. Is this what your wonderful religion is about - getting rid of everyone who doesn't agree with you?"
"You wouldn't understand, sweetie," said Castrana, "your little mind can't get around the concepts that the Lord Asttar deals with. His will is all that matters. His will directs what I do and all the others who follow him. His will is the Right Way." Her eyes were alight with religious fervour and her voice sounded strong in the room. Everyone watched her as she spoke and there was then a sudden silence.
Melody broke it. "There are two keys. Fark had one and therefore I think it's fairly logical to assume that you have the other since you and he were buddies in this little game. Hand it over." Melody moved closer to Castrana and stood next to Xalata, her hand outstretched and she stood in front of her waiting.
"Melody is of course correct," said Wiglet. "You are in no position to bargain or hold out on us, Ms Machin."
"Give it up, Castrana," said Brett, "because either you give us the key or we shall take it from you."
She stood there impassively, with her hands by her sides and a fixed expression on her face. "Touch me, Brett and you'll pay dearly for doing so. The Lord Asttar doesn't ..." but she was unable to finish the sentence because Brett had leapt across the chair in front of him and grabbed Castrana's arms behind her, immobilising her.
"Girls, check her out please," he said while Castrana kicked and bucked and shouted.
"I'm not going near her while she's kicking like that," said Xalata, "and anyway, are we sure she has the key?"
"Yep," said Melody. "It's the only logical place for it to be. Fark wouldn't hold both. They will have been doing their evil deeds in the Control Room together, locked it up and gone their separate ways."
"You evil little cats," spat Castrana, "you'll regret this!" as Xalata moved towards her, coming at her from the side. "Have you told her yet, Brett? Our little secret?"
"What secret?" Xalata paused and looked at her father. He looked conflicted so she said again, "What secret, Dad?"
"Go on! Tell her," scoffed Castrana, "or shall I do it?"
"Tell me what?" Xalata was getting annoyed now. "Dad?"
"Well, Brett ...?" grinned Castrana.
"You, be quiet. You're frying my wiring big style and I might do something that would get me in deep trouble, so, can it!" Xalata's face was determined and Castrana fell silent.
"You're not going to like this, Xally," said Brett, "But ultimately the truth would come out soon, I guess. I was going to tell you when you were a little older so that you'd understand the adult viewpoint."
"Oh please, you'll be telling me she's my mother next!" laughed Xalata.
"Yes, that's exactly what I have to tell you."
The room went silent. Xalata looked confused and then started to say, "But I thought ..."
"Guys ..." Glitch's voice broke the suspense. "Sorry to break up this reconciliation, but time's running out."
"Reconciliation? My arse!" shouted Xalata and she grabbed Castrana and roughly began to search her pockets. In a matter of moments she triumphantly produced the plastic key and waved it in front of Castrana's face. "More of this later, Mummy!" she yelled, "but for now, we've a world to save."
Chapter Forty-one
The Cryomorph didn't really sense anything, as it was largely a constructed creature that functioned on a very low level. Its aimless wanderings of the corridors and atriums of Habitat 14 were simply down to no received instructions. It was essentially a destruction machine; much like an excavator that is used to dig holes or a propulsion unit that is used to launch spacecraft, it had a function that was programmed by humans and it acted to those humans' commands, even if that meant the destruction of other humans.
It had been created in labs in the back end of Habitat 14, alone and as a huge experiment in the viability of something terrifyingly indestructible. It wasn't just that it could fire frighteningly powerful bolts of electrical discharge that blasted through the reinforced materials of the habitat - or send scalding streams of acid to burn through metals; it could also be programmed to find and hunt down a particular individual and destroy them in whatever way seemed sensible to its tiny brain.
So, when it received its instructions from Fark to attack the home where the team were fighting to redirect the asteroid, it simply obeyed and set off to the coordinates where its targets were working, lumbering along at a surprising speed from the place where its most recent wanderings had taken it. The ground shook as it stumped along on its short, stout legs, carrying a load of several tonnes of body mass that simply shrugged off every attempt to damage it.
Weapons would be useless; fire merely irritated it - it had met enough of that when it was destroying the further parts of the habitat; and the vacuum of space had not the slightest effect on it, meaning that it could blow open the seals of damaged areas and cross them, despite the dangers to normal life.
Its pace quickened as the signals that were guiding it urged it onwards to its target. And the target was completely unaware of the fact that it was approaching.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Fark was busy removing the protective unit from the entrance to the home. The thin strip of plastic would deflect any attentions of the Cryomorph but, without it, the home was vulnerable. He grinned to himself. Can't believe I didn't think of using the beast to get rid of them all. This will fix my little problem!
He wasn't sure of the Cryomorph's location so had no idea how long it would take to arrive, but he had programmed it to arrive at the home, then blast the entry and kill the people inside the building. He, meanwhile, would be well out of the way, hiding behind another airlock that would protect him.
He checked that all was set and then he left the area, grabbing the truck that the girls had arrived on and driving back to the Control Centre in order to watch the final hours of the Earth.
* * * * *
Inside the habitat, Melody had decided to check the airlock codes were holding up and, as she studied the screen, the outside view showed Fark heading off on the truck. "Hey guys, something strange. Fark's been trying to get in but now he's going off - what do you think he's up to?"
There was no reply - everyone was intently working at his or her task to pull the asteroid back on course. Then Wiglet spoke up, "Melody, we really need your revised coordinates now. We're in the interface and we've unlocked the access to the navigation system. You were going to revise the data, based on the time that has elapsed, I believe?"
"Sure thing, Mr Wiggins. It'll take only a few moments," and she pulled out her pad, swiped the interface over onto the large screen in order to share the data and then joined the others, standing at the screen and working on the coordinates. "So, with the programming that I had put in place, that needs to have ..." her voice tailed off as she thought, then her fingers flashed over the screen and a new set of coordinates and settings appeared. "Here we go ..." and she dragged the settings across to Wiglet's panel area where he set things in motion.
"Now, I need someone to communicate with the team in Beijing. Not Thien Thi, I guess! Glitch, could you open up some channels please and tell them where we are with this? Also tell them that putting the settings back in place here is easier than unlocking their access - we have no idea how that has been frozen."
"Sure thing, Mr W.!" said Glitch and he stepped aside to use his communicator. At the same time, Wiglet and Melody checked
over their settings and then stood back.
"OK, folks," said Wiglet. "This is the acid test. I shall run the simulator on the system once to check all is well and then action the update to the navigation in T-minus 300 seconds from the point we set it going. Everyone all right with that?"
There was much nodding of agreement and Wiglet initialised the test, watching every metric to make sure they'd not missed anything. "Here we go," and he set the test in motion. On the screen, the representation of the asteroid and its view of the Earth began to swing on a different trajectory. "Bear in mind that this is speeded up ten times, so we shall not see this effect so clearly."
The swing stopped and the asteroid was clearly pointing past the Earth so, Wiglet then announced, "Now we speed up even more so we can check that it will hitch a slingshot on the Earth's gravitational pull," and so saying, he adjusted the speed and the asteroid appeared to swing behind the Earth and then gather speed and shoot away into space.
"Finally, we check whether the trajectory is on track for the landing site on Mars. So let's crank up the speed ratio again," and as he said this, he increased the time factor to 5000 times. The asteroid hurtled through space and in due course, Mars flew into view, at which point, Wiglet slowed down the simulation and they all viewed the planet filling the screen as the huge rock plummeted toward the surface, right onto the impact zone that had been clearly defined in the original navigation. There was no impact of course and the simulation simply stopped.
"All's well with the data as far as I can see," said Wiglet. "Any comments, team? No? Then, we'll just ..." but Wiglet was unable to finish his sentence as a massive, thundering noise smashed into the room and the airlock door in the lobby disintegrated into a pile of dust. Outside, standing and surveying the wreckage with piggy eyes, the Cryomorph geared itself up for the next blast.
Chapter Forty-two
"This way please," said Wiglet as he stood up calmly from where he had been sitting. "I rather anticipated that this might happen, so I have taken some precautions." The Cryomorph was building up to send another blast of powerful energy into the home and it moved back a few steps while it recharged. "It's safe for a few moments, my friends and, in that time, I can take you to safety."
