by GARY DARBY
The scraping sound came again, this time from the room’s far side.
Jadar trained his eyes and his weapon on where the sound emanated. The sound of tumbling rock and dirt filled the room.
From where a tiny avalanche of loose dirt cascaded down onto the cavern’s floor, an enormous snoutlike nose, ringed by dozens of fleshy pods jutted out of the hole in the wall.
The animal, the size of a baby hippopotamus, edged out farther and with its fleshy pods began to daub the floor in quick head-bobbing motions.
It came farther out of its burrowing hole until it stood in full view. Tight fur covered a rounded body that stood on four legs with weblike feet ending in sharp claws.
Using a whiplike tail to balance an oversized head, with rapid strokes of its fleshy nose, the creature poked around at the floor, as if searching for something.
Crawling out from a small side tunnel, Jadar spotted a flat, multilegged, insect-looking creature the size of a kitten. It shimmied forward and stopped, seemingly unaware of how close it was to its neighbor.
The larger beast continued its head bobbing until its pods touched the insect creature. Once, twice, and then in a flash, the insect thing was gone, eaten in a millisecond by the voracious pod creature.
The creature turned toward the crouching humans and began its head dipping, in an apparent search for more prey, more food.
Jadar thumbed his weapon to stun, aimed, and fired. The creature went slack and rolled to its side. Its large fleshy nose twitched several times before the animal became motionless on the earthen floor.
Jadar pushed his eyepieces up and said, “Lights on.”
His two companions shoved their IR devices up and switched on their lights. Together they examined the stunned animal.
Jadar knelt and examined the fleshy pods. “Sensory receptacles,” he said. “Must recognize prey purely by touch.”
“Similar to Terra’s Star-Nose Mole,” Vlad replied.
“Yeah,” Jadar sighed, “but about a hundred times bigger and hungrier.”
Standing, he gestured toward the creature. “And I wasn’t about to give it a chance to see if it could distinguish between its usual prey and human flesh.”
He motioned to where the tunnel continued. “Let’s go, and hope these are solitary creatures.”
They slipped past the sleeping beast and entered the wide crevice. Within a few meters, the tunnel inclined steeply downward, and the scouts had to clamber between and over boulders and jagged upthrusts of stone.
The walls became wetter until Jadar could see trickles of water coursing down the rough-hewn rock.
A tiny stream began to run down the passageway’s middle, carving a serpentine path in the granite-like stone floor.
Jadar stopped and turned to his companions. “Well, this is definitely not a dry cave.”
He glanced at Chia and said, “This is more than ground seepage. You may be right; we might be headed out under the lake.”
“Should we go on?” Chia asked. “If we’re under the lake, how do we get to the top? We’d be too deep.”
Jadar licked at his lips and surveyed the streaming water before saying, “Good questions, but I don’t want to stop just yet.”
The trio scrambled on, while the flood of water continued to grow. Coming around a sharp curve in the rocky corridor, they entered a house-sized room with a sloping overhead that was several meters high.
The water flowed into a dark depression that held coal-black liquid. Jadar shone his lights around the room’s circumference before announcing in a tight voice, “End of the line, men, unless you see something I don’t.”
The three spread out to inspect the walls more carefully, in the hope that there might be a way out instead of what seemed to be a dead end.
Standing close to a fist-sized knobby formation that protruded from the wall, Jadar ran his hand over the wet rock. A small chunk of stone came away in his hand. He was about to drop it when a bit of color in the fragment caught his attention.
Peering intently at the tiny purplish vein that streaked the rock, he ran a finger over the small stripe to feel the texture. “No, can’t be,” he muttered to himself.
With a furrowed brow, he turned back to the wall, and pulled at several loose pieces until he dislodged a fist-sized ball of rock.
Turning it over, his eyes widened at the sight of a solid band of dark purple. He ran a finger across its grainy, rough texture.
He reached down, grabbed a hand-sized rock at his feet, and pounded it several times into the wall structure. A slab of rock sprayed out, exposing what lay beneath the stone.
In his vest lights, Jadar stood immobile and stared at his discovery. The orchid color and gritty texture were all unmistakable.
Jadar glanced around and spotted another knobby protuberance a meter away. He took his stone hammer and battered on the rounded outcropping. Fragments of rock sprayed everywhere, but under the stone’s exterior lay the same mineral composition.
Two more protrusions gave the same results. Jadar stepped back and let his eyes roam the room. Once he knew what to look for, the evidence was overwhelming.
At a slight cough behind him, he turned. Both Chia and Vlad stared at him wide-eyed with deep puzzlement in their expressions.
Jadar laughed at their expressions. “Calm down, fellas, I haven’t lost it, not yet anyway. And no, I’m not trying to chisel our way out of here.”
He picked up a hand-sized fragment of rock that held a purple vein and tossed it to Chia. “See the coloration? Know what it is?”
Chia inspected the rock before handing it to Vlad. The two scouts shook their heads. “Sorry, sir,” Chia answered.
Jadar sighed and said, “Guess that’s to be expected these days.”
Grimly he smiled, reached out, took the stone, and held it in front of him. “In my day, this was one of the first things we learned about in OutLand mineral composition and recognition.”
He hefted the rock so that the purple vein clearly shown in his lights. “That, gentlemen,” he announced, “is what is known as Orchid Kolomite.”
“Kolomite!” Vlad exclaimed.
“But isn’t Kolomite more of a light, almost azure-looking color?” Chia asked. “Or, at least the digi-photos I’ve seen of it show it that way.”
“Normally, yes,” Jadar acknowledged. “But under certain chemical conditions it changes and darkens to this rich, royal purple color. The giveaway is the texture.
“Most Kolomite is smooth, almost glassy, like obsidian, but Orchid Kolomite is rough and granular, almost like sand to the touch.”
“Does the change in color or texture affect its energy yield?” Vlad asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Jadar replied. “From what I know, Kolomite is Kolomite.”
He stared at his find, let out a deep breath and muttered in a low voice, almost to himself, “Rare and very, very costly in a host of different ways.”
He dropped the rock and said, “Well, Kolomite or no Kolomite, this doesn’t do us any good for exiting this underground wonderland. We need to head back.”
Chia spoke up, “Sir, I think there may be a way out of here.”
“Where?” Jadar asked in an eager voice.
Chia pointed at the dark pool. “There. The water isn’t filling up this room so it must be going somewhere, most likely into the lake.”
“Wait,” Vlad said, “I thought you said we were under the lake.”
Chia shook his head at Vlad’s statement. “If we were, the water would have filled this room. No, I think that’s like a drain leading out to the water.”
Jadar stepped over to the small pool. “An underwater passageway,” he murmured.
“Yes, sir,” Chia replied. “Where we took shelter was uphill, above the lake. And water seeks its own level, right?”
“Right,” Jadar returned. “You’re saying that the pool is above the lake’s level, that’s why it’s draining. We’re higher than we thought.”
“I don’t know about you, sir, but after all the twists and turns, I haven’t a clue where we are relative to the waterline.”
Jadar nodded in response. “Same here,” he said, and began to loosen his torso vest and empty the contents of his pant pouches. “But there’s only one way to find out.”
Jadar glanced at the two and watched with a bemused expression while the two exchanged looks. He knew the look, so he said, “Hey, I passed the mandatory swim test just like you did.
“Swam my ten kilometers, and my lung capacity rating is over two minutes. I’m not as old as you seem to think I am.”
Vlad ran a tongue over his lips and said, “Uh, sir, are you sure you want to do this? Might be better if one of us took a crack at it.”
“I’m sure,” Jadar answered in a firm voice. “Get your climbing lines out, and string them together.”
Minutes later, Jadar tied the end of the thin line around his waist. He cinched it tight and instructed, “Once in, give me some slack but not so much that you can’t feel my signals.
“One yank, give me more slack, two means I’m still good, three yanks and pull with everything you’ve got, I’m in trouble.”
He unclipped several vest lights and attached them to his IR eyepiece headband. “If I don’t make it, you two report to the LT, tell her what happened.”
Hesitating for a second, he pushed aside his uneasy feelings, reached down and picked up a fragment of Kolomite. He handed it to Vlad and said, “If she decides that the last resort is to try and blast that landslide away, use this.”
He eyed the two. “I’m not sure that anyone’s ever tried to use unrefined Kolomite as a blasting agent, so it might work and it might not. However, to be on the safe side, I strongly suggest that you use only a grain of this stuff and get everyone way, way back. Got it?”
Both nodded with grave faces. “Yes sir,” Chia replied.
“One last thing,” Jadar said. “If I get in trouble down there and you can’t pull me back, you are not to come in after me. I repeat, you are not to attempt a rescue.”
Both men opened their mouths to respond, but Jadar held up a quick hand and said, “That’s an order, scouts.”
He settled the IR headpiece around his brow and snapped on the lights. He sat down on the pool’s lip, took in several deep breaths to hyperventilate, and slid under the murky waters.
His one prayer as he dove down was that he might see a smiling and alive young scout who was never very far from his thoughts and heart.
Chapter Ten
Star date: 2443.077
The Alpha Prime Planet
Enveloping Jadar like a watery cocoon, the silky, dark waters flowed over him as he stroked downward. His vest lights were but a soft glow in the inky blackness, causing him to swim virtually blind.
The submerged passage was craggy but just wide enough that he could breaststroke but even then, his fingers brushed against rough stone. He swam strongly, but wondered if he would be able to find a way out, or would he run out of air first and drown in the darkness?
Swimming hard, Jadar reached out, one hand after another, to pull and push the liquid behind him. Eyes open, he peered ahead, hoping fervently that he would soon spot a faint glow of light, signaling that he had made it through the underwater labyrinth.
Half a minute later, one hand reached out and hit solid rock. Floating, Jadar explored the sudden barrier that blocked his way.
Diving deeper, he followed the rock down until he came to a rough rectangular slit just wide enough and high enough for him to squeeze his shoulders through.
He could feel the current flowing into the opening. Setting his jaw, he resigned himself to the fact that there was no other way, but to push and drag himself through the narrow channel.
However, if he became stuck, there was no way to turn around or to back out. He either made it all the way through, or . . .
On a hunch, he flipped off his lights. After a moment, his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He peered into the slit, and his whole body stiffened.
Light! A soft glow split the darkness just past the far exit.
Snapping his lights back on, and with a newfound sense of urgency and energy, Jadar reached out to grasp the rocky slot’s rough sides. Squirming and wriggling like a worm, he struggled against the narrow channel, which seemed to have rocky fingers that wanted to grab and hold onto him.
He was almost to the end, his fingertips almost touching the tunnel’s lip when the rock seemed to squeeze down upon him until he couldn’t move. Like a clamp, the rock had him in a viselike grip. He couldn’t go forward, and he couldn’t go back.
He pushed with his legs, contorted his body, trying to reach the hard edge so that he could latch on and pull himself free. However, no matter how hard he tried, the lip remained just beyond the reach of his fingertips.
Feeling his air running out, Jadar redoubled his efforts, kicking his legs, stretching out as far as he could, squirming his body from side to side but it was no good. He just wasn’t able to reach the tunnel’s opening, and the rock trap held him fast and tight.
He felt his lungs start to squeeze inward and an almost irresistible urge to take a breath came over him. He clamped a hand over his mouth in a desperate attempt not to breathe in the liquid.
Reaching out one last time, he could see his fingers just at the lip of the tunnel’s opening but it could have been a kilometer away for all the good it did him.
He could feel his body start to shake and quiver from oxygen starvation. He was drowning, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to save himself.
Abruptly, he felt someone grab his feet and push him forward, once, twice, three times until he was free!
Grabbing the jagged edge, Jadar pulled himself up and out. With one last desperate kick, he thrust himself skyward and burst into life-giving air.
Sucking in great draughts of air, he tread water before he felt a yank around his waist, followed by another. He grabbed the line and gave it two quick jerks. His rescuer replied with his own two tugs signaling he was okay, too.
After a minute, Jadar felt his strength returning. He undid the line around his waist, let it drop, and began breaststroking toward the shoreline. Nearing the shore, his boots touched the gravel bottom, and he clambered over several small, rounded boulders to reach the beach.
He threw himself upon the pebbled shoreline, breathing deeply, trying to quiet his still trembling muscles. After a minute, he stood and searched the skies but found it empty of any ships, friends, or foe.
He skirted the water's edge until he spotted the charred remains of a hovercraft and headed up the incline. Stumbling over the lavalike earthen flows that dotted the ground, he reached a large knoll that stuck out from the hillside.
Before he went farther, there was one thing he just had to do. Pushing himself hard, he scrambled up the ten meters to the dirt shoulder’s top and peered across the lake.
From here, he should be able to see where the Zephyr had sat near the shoreline. He held a hand up to block out the sun and squinted. A small smile played across his lips.
No smoking wreckage appeared across the way. Dason must have at least gotten away from the local attack, and there was just a chance that he had made it into free space beyond the nebula.
Closing his eyes in a silent prayer of thanks, he inhaled, his lungs expanding from his deep draught of air. He was grateful for that small measure of comfort—there wasn’t any charred wreckage across the lake.
Pounding down the hummock, Jadar raced around the outcropping until he spotted the tumbled mass of stone and rock that covered the cave’s entrance. The charcoal-like vegetation crunched under his hurried footsteps as he rushed across the charred landscape.
Stopping at the mound of boulders that dammed up the cave’s entrance, he gave it a quick glance, knowing t
hat one man alone was not going to move several hundred cubic meters of rock and earth.
He hurried on, knowing that what he was looking for lay around the next large hump of hillside. Just before the Mongan attack, Staley had landed three of her platoon’s scouters nearby.
Jadar knew it was an all but impossible hope that any had escaped destruction, but right now, hope was all he had to help the trapped scouts.
Clambering over blackened stones and soil, he rounded a jutting outcrop of rock and stopped. He leaned against the shale-like slag with one hand and gritted his teeth at the disappointing scene.
The scouter’s blasted remains, their insides burned out, sat smoldering on the razed ground. Jadar walked over to the charred skeletons of plas-titanium and stood with head down.
What hope he had melted away, just like the melted sylcron that seemed to flow in small frozen cascades outward from the scouter’s crumpled hull.
Jadar began to walk around the burned-out craft, to see if there might be anything salvageable that could help the entombed scout team.
He stopped dead in his tracks.
His eyes widened in disbelief as he took several half-running, half-stumbling steps forward, a broad grin creasing his face.
An intact scouter!
Jadar couldn’t believe his eyes. When the Mongans began firing, one of their energy bursts had thrown one ship half on top of the scouter last in line. The Mongans must have believed that their discharge had destroyed all of the vessels with one shot.
Jadar ran to the scouter to inspect the damage. One look toward the craft’s rear and his heart sank. The tiny vapor wisp rising from the engine compartment told the story.
When the Mongan weapon had sliced through the ship, at least some of the energy had hit the vessel’s nucleonic engine. The wispy, yellowish gas that rose from the craft’s aft section told Jadar that there was a crack in the engine containment shielding.
Which meant the nucleonic engine wouldn’t work.
Nevertheless, Jadar clambered through the airlock into the little ship and made his way forward to the pilot pod. Settling into the pilot seat, he reached out to engage the backup power system that would at least give him some idea of the status of the ship’s operating systems.
