The Infinity Trap

by Ian C Douglas

  Albie’s only answer was the hum of his processors.

  “Okay let’s go. I’m, um, a bit new to motor scooters. Put rider assistance to the max.”

  “Understood, Sir. Suggest low speed for the first ten miles.”

  “Well, okay, but we need to hurry. We’ve a long way to go!”

  Zeke swung over the saddle, and walked the vehicle back out of the bay.

  “Ignition on.”

  The solar batteries coughed into life. Shakily Zeke steered towards the School’s stone gates. As he crossed an infrared sensor they rumbled open. Mariners Valley lay beyond. A hint of daylight clung to the eastern peaks, while the canyon floor lay steeped in thick mist. Outcrops of rock loomed from the haze like ghosts. Zeke thought for a moment of his father. He felt he was somehow letting him down. Then he remembered Pin-mei’s innocent smile. Without a single backward glance he stepped on the accelerator and drove out into the alien sunrise.

  Chapter Twenty

  Candor Chasma

  Things were not going well. After twelve hours on the scooter he’d covered less than two hundred miles. A steep-sided gorge had taken him from Ophir Chasma into Candor Chasma. But the Freetown was still miles away.

  He had seriously underestimated how fast the Glow-Worm could go. Although there were no roads on Mars, Zeke had assumed the major routes would be smooth after decades of use. He disc-overed otherwise. The dirt tracks were littered with rocks.

  The sun was dropping fast. Inky shadows were creeping out from the canyon walls. There was no way to reach the settlement before nightfall. Zeke slowed to a halt.

  “Albie. Plot coordinates to Melas Chasma.”

  “This route will reach Melas Chasma via Gagarin Freetown.”

  “Yes, but let’s cut the Freetown and take a shortcut through the ravines. There’s a Japanese outpost in Melas. Hoku…?”

  “Hokusai Station. We can make it in ten hours.”

  Zeke’s heart sank. Ten hours before civilisation! And that was without any breaks. He was exhausted and saddle sore. But there was nothing for it. Take the shortcut, camp beneath the Martian skies, and arrive at Hokusai station in the morning.

  “Albie, you know, this is a fantastic adventure.”

  “Voice analysis indicates ninety-five percent insincerity.”

  “Albie.”

  “Yes, Master Zeke?”

  “Shut up.”

  ~~~

  Zeke had left the wide-open valley and was chugging through a gully. The Glow-Worm’s headlamp threw its pitiful light into the darkness. Weirdly shaped boulders emerged into its beam, one after the other, only to fade back again. Zeke was too busy fighting his ravenous hunger to feel spooked.

  Albie stopped abruptly.

  “Hey! Start the engine!” Zeke was furious.

  “Radar indicates uncertain terrain. Recommend retreat.”

  “We will not! Full speed ahead.”

  “As you wish, Master Zeke.”

  The power returned but instead of movement the scooter groaned horribly. The back wheel was stuck, splattering mud in all directions.

  “What the—?”

  Zeke pressed firmly on the accelerator. The wheel groaned more loudly. They were trapped. The front wheel was sinking. A horrifying word leapt into Zeke’s mind.

  Quicksand!

  The terra-forming of Mars was not without its drawbacks. One of those was the melting of immense ice deposits buried in the soil. Freezing waters seeped to the surface, causing flash floods and deadly bogs. Few survived these phenomena.

  The ground around Zeke was rapidly turning to mush. Reacting instinctively he jumped off the Glow-Worm. That was a big mistake. The freezing mud sucked in his feet.

  “NO!” he cried. “Albie help!”

  Albie’s wheels were already engulfed.

  “No solution available, Master Zeke.”

  “I’LL DIE! THERE MUST BE SOMETHING!”

  “Recommend closedown and await rescue.”

  The computerised Glow-Worm clicked and its lights faded. That was the worst thing about robots. They didn’t worry about dying.

  Zeke was up to his knees. He tried to pull his right leg out. Nothing.

  “HELP!”

  The word bounced off faraway cliffs and echoed back. It was useless. He hadn’t seen a soul all day. With every ounce of strength he strained against the bog. This just made him drop faster.

  The Glow-Worm tipped forward, rapidly submerging. The handlebars sunk first, then the saddle. Finally, with a sickening slurp the taillight disappeared. Albie and the scooter were gone.

  “HELP ME! SOMEBODY PLEASE!” he screamed.

  Surely it wasn’t going to end like this, so unexpectedly, so pointlessly? There had to be a way out.

  The icy quicksand tightened its grip. His thighs were vanishing. Zeke was all out of options.

  “GRAB THE LINE!”

  Hope surged through Zeke’s heart. Rescue! And that accent was familiar. The headlamp of another Glow-Worm was shining twenty yards back down the gully. A tow cable shot through the night air. It landed short!

  “Damn!” cursed the rescuer, silhouetted by his lights. He flicked a switch and the cable retracted into the wheel guard. He fired again.

  “YES!” Zeke cried.

  This time it fell within reach. But as Zeke leaned over he lost balance and toppled. Splash! The bitter-cold slush dragged him under. For a moment everything was chaos. He resurfaced, on his stomach and moving. Somehow he had caught the cable and was hanging on with every ounce of strength.

  The ground beneath his torso hardened as he left the quicksand behind. Zeke let go of the cable and lay exhausted, heaving and gasping like a beached fish. His clothes were saturated with icy mud. His limbs were trembling. He felt as cold and wet as an iceberg.

  The newcomer towered over him, a dark figure against the glittering night sky. Zeke drew a deep breath, stilled his shaky legs, and staggered to his feet.

  “Decided to come to your senses then?” he said, as coolly as he could manage.

  “You Brits and your stiff upper lips!” Scuff laughed and squashed him in a bear hug.

  The happy reunion was short-lived. Zeke saw the horror spreading across Scuff’s face. The ground was turning squishy beneath their shoes.

  “Zeke! On the count of three jump.”

  “Jump!?”

  “Onto this boulder.” Scuff nodded to the wall of rock beside them.

  Zeke glanced up. Had his friend gone crazy? It was too steep and too high.

  “Just jump and imagine there’s no gravity. Visualise flying the last few feet to the top.” Scuff took Zeke’s hands in his.

  “B-b-but—”

  “JUST DO IT!”

  Their feet were disappearing into the mire.

  “One, two, three, JUMP!”

  They leapt high in the weak gravity, but lost momentum and began to fall. Then an unseen force grabbed them and heaved them the higher.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Between a rock and a soft place

  They sat on the summit for a long time without speaking. Zeke rested his chin on his knees, shivering. Scuff sprawled on his back. His rescue beacon bleeped monotonously behind him.

  “So that’s why it’s called the Milky Way,” he remarked.

  The night was saturated with starlight.

  “It’s just so—”

  “Milky?” Zeke suggested.

  “Totally, bro. Awesome! To think Martians once looked at these same stars, all those millions of years ago.”

  “Well, they were different then. The constellations.”

  “You’re joking?”

  “I never joke about astronomy. I’m a fully paid-up member of the London Galactarium.”

  “That’s the antique space museum? Three hundred years old or something?”

  “Right, but it’s still fantastic. I learnt so much from their shows on the night sky. Stars travel at mind-boggling speeds. But across distances so, um, mind-
bogglingly big we can’t see the difference. Not even in a thousand years. But the Hesperians lived two billion years ago. The stars made different patterns back then.”

  “How come you’re so crazy for astronomy, anyway?”

  Zeke glanced down.

  “My father, I suppose. When I was little I would look out my bedroom window every night. Always hoping for a sign of my dad.”

  “What? A message written in star beams?”

  Zeke made an effort to stop his chattering teeth.

  “Silly isn’t it. But I was only a little kid.”

  Scuff stared at the ground too. “When I was a tiny tot I thought my dad was the Prime Minister of Canada. Not the president of a company selling second-rate fusion reactors.”

  A pause settled in the frosty air.

  “The temps really plummet after dark, don’t they?” Scuff went on. “There was a foil blanket in my Glow-Worm.”

  “I could really do with that. Pity it’s halfway to the planet’s core.”

  “You should worry. I have to tell Mariner Flounder I lost his beloved scooter. I’m going to have to fork out some serious compensation!”

  “You should have stolen one. A lot less complicated.”

  Scuff threw a pebble over the ledge. The sound of a splash confirmed their fears. Zeke attempted a smile.

  “So we’re trapped. I wonder what’s going to kill me first? The cold or your jokes?”

  “Seriously, bro, sooner or later Mars Valley Rescue will pick up our signal.”

  “They better get here before I freeze solid. That quicksand was arctic! Anyway, why were you hanging out with Trixie Cutter’s gang?”

  Scuff chuckled. “They were hanging out with me, actually.”

  “But why?”

  “Well it doesn’t take a telepath to read Snod’s mind. Obviously he was keeping an eye on me. Making sure I didn’t help you.”

  “What reason would they have for that?”

  “You tell me.”

  Zeke, despite his tiredness, recounted everything that had happened since they broke into Lutz’s office, the engraving, the Spiral, the Dust Devil, Lieutenant Doughty, the Orb of Can-do, and the Infinity Trap.

  “Wow!” was all that Scuff could say.

  Zeke suddenly lowered his gaze and stared at the ground. A silence as immense as the great sky above weighed down upon them.

  “Bro? What is it?” Scuff asked at last.

  Zeke lifted his head. His eyes, full of hurt, met Scuff’s.

  “Why did you tell them?”

  “Sorry?”

  “You told Trixie my secret. Why?”

  “Sheesh! She knows?”

  “Don’t pretend you didn’t tell her.”

  Scuff scratched his ear.

  “Bro, honestly. But you know, she insisted I meet Alonzo Caracol.”

  “El telepático?”

  “Right, Mexico’s greatest junior telepathist. I thought he was staring at me oddly. Must have been sifting through my brain for info.”

  Zeke fell quiet again, thinking it all through.

  “Okay, forgiven.”

  He began shivering more violently.

  “Hey, bro, want my jacket? Before your teeth fall out?”

  “Not especially, I’m feeling warmer.”

  Scuff gave his friend an odd look.

  “Warmer?” He slipped off his thermal coat and handed it over. Zeke accepted it with a grunt.

  “You know, bro, you made me so mad dumping me in the Principal’s office. Guess I needed time to glue my ego back in one piece.”

  “Yes, sorry about that.”

  “Okey-dokey. Maybe we both got carried away.”

  Scuff gave a gawky smile. Zeke returned it with his own lopsided grin.

  “So, wanna hear about your dad?”

  Zeke forced open his droopy eyes. “Tell away!”

  “He graduated with Distinction. Special commendation from Lutz as an outstanding student.”

  “Where did he go? What was his mission?”

  “The only mention was that years later he joined the Flying Dutchman Project. But what that was, or where he went, well, not a nano-byte.”

  “It’s a good start. Scuff, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had.” Zeke’s voice was sluggish and slurred.

  “Scuff, do you think you can love someone you’ve never met?”

  “Your dad? That’s natcho, it’s a father and son thing.”

  “I feel like I’ve failed him, putting him on the backburner while I track down Pin.”

  “Zeke, he’ll be fine with it. Totally.”

  Strangely Zeke’s limbs stopped shivering. Scuff jabbed him in the ribs.

  “OW!”

  “Keep talking, bro.”

  “About what?”

  “Um, spot quiz. What’s the population of Mars?”

  “Who cares?” Zeke replied, struggling to stay awake.

  “Over a million.”

  Zeke giggled. “Where are they all when we need them?”

  “The Big Pumpkin’s hardly an asteroid. One million is a drop in the ocean. Your turn.”

  There was an urgency in Scuff’s voice. He poked Zeke again. “Your turn.”

  Zeke sat bolt upright. “Ocean? Yes! You’re swimming in the dead ocean!”

  Scuff didn’t reply. He knew it was the hypothermia talking.

  Zeke slumped onto his side, unconscious. His body was giving up.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Medical Facility

  For a long, dreamy time Zeke gazed at the surface of Mars. He remembered his first sighting, ninety miles high in Edward Dayo’s Go-Ship. Somehow the surface was different this time. As his eyes slowly focused, he realised it was near enough to touch. Zeke was looking at the roof of a cave.

  He lifted his head.

  “Ouch!” His neck ached. In fact every muscle in his body ached. “Is it flu?” he asked no one in particular.

  “Hardly,” laughed a voice.

  Zeke blinked and took in his surroundings. He was in the Medical Facility. A young, beautiful woman in a white coat sat at her computer typing notes. It was the school medic, Dr Chandrasar.

  “Take it easy, Mr Hailey. You’ve been out for three days.”

  “What!” Zeke cried, and sat up.

  “Hypothermia. A falling of the body temperature below that necessary for normal metabolism.”

  Zeke stared at her blankly.

  “To be expected after skinny-dipping in ice water.”

  “I wasn’t skinny-dipping.”

  The doctor turned towards him with a radiant smile on her catlike face. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to make light of your predicament. It’s a remarkable story. Barnum is quite the school hero.”

  “Scuff?”

  “He used psychokinesis to warm the air around your body. I understand the emergency rotorcopter took ages to reach you. All that time Scuff kept you alive with an air blanket. Ingenious really. If only I were psychic, I’d use those powers to save lives, not go gallivanting around the galaxy.”

  The doctor was one of the few people at the Chasm who was not extrasensory. Zeke dearly yearned to tell her he was another.

  “Scuff’s been awarded the Ophir Chasma Cross.”

  Zeke knew he should be grateful but deep down he felt jealous. A school full of special kids, at times he wanted to throw up. Chandrasar saw his expression.

  “You did well, too. Scuff told us how your powers lifted you both out of the quicksand, up onto that boulder.”

  “Oh, yes, that’s right, Doctor.” It was good of Scuff to cover for him but Zeke still felt an idiot among eggheads.

  “I’ve been here for three days?”

  “Yes, Mars Valley Rescue airlifted you here. I’ve had you sedated while the nanotherapy did its work. But you’re fully recovered. I imagine you can sleep in your room tonight.”

  A gleam of fear darted through Chandrasar’s dark brown eyes.

  “As long as you lock your door.�
�

  “Whatever for?”

  “Hans Kretzmer, Year Three. Vanished in the night! Lutz has instigated a curfew. Good thing for her all your parents are on another planet. On Earth the whole school would be closed. On Mars, of course, one can get away with murder, not to mention kidnapping.”

  ~~~

  Late in the afternoon Scuff popped his chubby face around the door.

  “Howdy, bro, how’s tricks.”

  “The Doc said I could go home today, if the assessments are okay. She’s just gone to the lab to pick them up.”

  “Okey-dokey. Guess you heard about Hans Knees and Bumpsy-daisy. I remembered what you said and went to investigate his room. Just like you said, bro, a dust trail all the way to the busted exit.”

  “The same creature that got Pin, who, incidentally, we are no nearer saving.”

  “Chill out, bro. You’ll do it. Now, remember levitating us the last few feet to the top of that damn rock?”

  “There you go again. Messing with my head.”

  Scuff sat down on the bedside.

  “Listen up, Zeke. We flew the last five feet of that jump by mind power alone. And I didn’t do it, deliberately.”

  Zeke glared at his friend coldly.

  “Lets face it,” Scuff went on. “Left to me and we would’ve crash landed back in the dippy doo!”

  “Rather brave of you, wasn’t it? Staking our lives on the slim chance I might have some psychic gift in here.” Zeke tapped his skull angrily.

  “You forget I’m a genius. I figure it’s a survival thing. Faced with danger your subconscious springs into action.”

  “So how long have you been studying Fantasy 101?”

  Scuff was lost for a reply. At that moment Chandrasar breezed into the Medical Facility with Zeke’s results.

  “Not a chill bone in your body. You’re free to go.”

  Scuff said, “Doc. Do you have anyway of testing for psychic powers?”

  “Not here. That’s what the ESP exam is for. We’d need a psychometer. Why?”

  Scuff took a deep gulp. “My friend here, well, he’s having doubts.”

  “Shut up!” Zeke growled. The nerd was giving the game away!

  Chandrasar pulled up a chair. She took Zeke’s hand in hers.