“And what would you do if something happened to me? If I died, would you run back to the Shomani, knowing they were only keeping you as a servant?” he asked.
“Don’t talk of such things, Hawke,” she said, “I am fond of you in more ways than you realize.”
“But my life is no more guaranteed than yours. I don’t know these people. They could discover just how useless I am when it comes to my world’s technology and decide to kill me,” he replied, “What if they are the savages you suggest they are. Kill me and steal my beautiful girlfriend.”
She leaned up on her elbow and looked at him.
“If you find be beautiful and call me your girlfriend, why will you not consummate our relationship?” she asked.
“Believe me, Kashuba, I’d love to… to consummate with you. But as I’ve stated before, that sort of intimacy means a little more to me and it should mean more to you as well.”
“On Rain, consummation seals the relationship between the two people, creating a bond that cannot be broken. It is for only those two to ever share with each other,” she said, “I do not take it lightly.”
He nodded, realizing that she was indeed devoting herself to him until “death do us part.” It was a very humbling thought especially since he didn’t feel worthy of such a freely offered heart. He smiled at her, then lay his head down on his pillow.
“I love you, Kashuba, and I’m glad you came into my life,” he said.
“I love you too, Hawke,” she said.
. . . .
They dined on a breakfast of herring sautéed in peppered butter with hot biscuits. The fish was a species indigenous to Rain with a name that Hawke couldn’t pronounce, but it could have just as well been kippered herring when it came to both appearance and taste. He was surprised to see how many people chose to eat at the Fisherman’s Grill for breakfast. He and Kashuba only selected the place after examining the menu at Cloud Seeker’s Diner. They didn’t recognize any of the food choices, so they agreed to check out the establishment next door.
“You can never go wrong with fish, especially when someone knows how to prepare it,” Hawke said, picking up the final morsel from his plate and tossing it into his mouth.
It seemed now that every meal was consumed with ones fingers. There were no utensils on the table with the exception of a shared knife. Kashuba explained that the knife was for cutting certain meats including some forms of seafood. She said that the fact that there was only one knife was because even with large steaks, the people often ate them with their fingers. Cutting your steak was a sign of weakness reserved only for delicate women or children.
“Where would I be without you?” he asked with a grin.
“Oh, not to worry. You’d still have been accompanied by a beautiful servant of the Shomani, but she would have ultimately left you at sea alone,” she laughed.
She picked up a small filet and took a bite while he gazed upon her questioningly.
“Where would she have gone? She couldn’t have stayed behind with the Shomani because she had been kidnapped too,” he said.
“She would have leapt overboard when no one was looking. It’s instilled upon us at an early age that only a coward would leave the service of the Shomani and that includes situations such as unwilling departure. The only way you can prove that you are not a coward and instead, a truly fearless Shomani at heart is to commit suicide in such a circumstance,” she said, “It’s deemed the only appropriate action unless you are able to kill your captors.”
“That’s horrible!” he said, breaking open a steaming dinner roll, “So then why did you not make any attempt to kill yourself?”
“Your eyes,” she replied instantly, leaning forward, “Your eyes always looked at me in a different way than anyone else I’d ever seen… ever. You might have been refusing me at every opportunity, but you looked at me as though I were somehow an equal or even a woman of higher status than yourself. You’re doing it now as you eat.”
“But you are an equal. I told you in the beginning that I refuse to accept you as a slave or servant,” he said, dipping the roll into the cream sauce and offering it to her.
She smiled, leaned forward, and then took a bite of the bread he was holding. She took her roll and did the same, offering him a bite of it. He accepted her offer and chewed it while they both were mere inches from each other. He leaned closer and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“What was that for?” she asked with a smile.
“It was for allowing me the chance to love you instead of following some Shomani suicide pact,” he said.
“It’s completely and totally my pleasure,” she replied.
Fourteen
Night Rain was waiting for them at their tent when they returned from breakfast. He informed them that the tunneling crew had worked through the night because of Hawke’s arrival and had reached the buried spacecraft. Even as they spoke, the tunneling crew was cutting their way through a second hull. They had cut through the outer hull right around the time Hawke was ordering his Pepperbutter Sautéed Breakfast Platter.
Night Rain urged them to waste no time following him to the tunneling canopy so they could be among the first to tour the metal city beneath their own. Several science crews were also readying themselves for the momentous event.
“So, no one knows if the air is even breathable in there yet?” Hawke asked, following quickly behind the governor, “What about radiation or ancient disease spores that have been sealed up in there for eons.”
“Seriously, Hawke?” Night Rain said, waving them to pick up the pace, “You’re going to bring up all these questions now? Between you and me, I think it would already be too late once we open up the ship anyway.”
“What is it that you are hoping to gain from this anyway?” Kashuba asked, “It’s not like the ship would be operational and even if it was, it’s under a billion tons of ice.”
It started snowing as they made their way to the main road and then started toward the Iron Rainbow.
“You two are really a couple of downers, you know?” he laughed, “I’m just excited at the prospect of discovering and learning a better technology than the Shomani have to get into space and to explore. I’m intrigued by the idea of visiting other stars and galaxies. We can hear all the Cheronook activity up there, but we have no hope right now of joining our brothers and sisters in space.”
“Have you personally listened to the stars?” Hawke asked, “Have you got to hear what is being transmitted from Radio Star?”
“You’ve heard of Radio Star?” he asked, never slowing his progress as he looked over to Hawke.
“Yeah, I met a guy by that very name last night,” he replied, “He said that it’s the loudest of the stars.”
“I know the guy you’re talking about,” he said, pointing toward a group of people surrounding a canopy near the roadside, “Yeah, I’ve heard Radio Star, but it’s the star that’s got the least to offer. Their transmittals, though clearly in Cheronook, seem to be more private in nature. It’s like they are communicating to each other without realizing they are broadcasting it to the universe. A lot of nonsense.”
“Hey, if the Iron Rainbow is way over there, why is the entrance over here?” Kashuba asked.
Night Rain stopped and turned to her, bearing an expression of excitement that he was anxious to share with those around him.
“Two reasons, my dear. One is because we tunneled down at an angle so we could easily navigate the tunnel in the future without elevators. And two, the ship is unimaginably enormous. Our entire village is built above some portions of the ship.”
“Oh my,” she muttered.
He grinned widely at the two of them, and then turned and gestured toward the crowded canopy. He continued on to the canopy and then forced his way through the crowd, nearly knocking down two men in the process. Most of the people in the area appeared to be curious onlookers instead of the scientific community that Hawke had expected. Once they made their w
ay through the group, Hawke got his first view of the inclined tunnel. A cart was ascending from the depths, pushed by two sturdy men, so he was unable to get a clear view of the tunnel’s depth.
“Governor,” a guard greeted him, “Sky Listener and his group are down there and are anxiously awaiting your arrival. He asked me to send you down immediately when you arrive.”
“Thank you,” Night Rain replied, motioning for Hawke and Kashuba to follow.
“Uh, sir? I was told only to permit you and Meriwether Hawke. I was given no information about this lady,” the guard said.
“I’m not leaving her behind,” Hawke insisted as an unveiled warning.
“She’s with us, son. Clearly Sky Listener forgot to mention her,” Night Rain said, “Don’t worry.”
The man didn’t appear satisfied with the governor’s answer, but he was given no choice. Without hesitation, the three of them began their descent. The floor of the ice tunnel was covered in long rubber mats that looked to have been tossed to the ground hurriedly. Some were angled, some overlapped others, and some left dangerous gaps of sheer ice between them. It was clearly evident that the mats were required for safety as well as for traction.
They stepped aside and permitted the cart loaded with chiseled ice to pass them. It was only after the men were behind them that they could see how deep the tunnel truly was.
Hawke did the math and realized that if the tunnel continued downward at a 30o angle the whole way, they would have to traverse about two miles just to make it to a ship that was located about a mile beneath the ice. He wondered if the air would be sufficient just before he noticed a wide flexible tube that descended along the tunnel wall.
Lights were hung from the ceiling nearly every twenty yards, offering minimal lighting, but plenty to guide their passage. After several minutes of descent, they passed three men who were ascending toward the surface with some large metal tools.
“Wouldn’t it have been easier just to sit in a cart and let it roll all the way down?” Kashuba asked, breaking the silence.
Hawke laughed, “Could you imagine how fast you’d be going by the time you reached the ship?”
“That would be great!” she replied with a laugh, “As long as you had brakes. Otherwise, I think it would be quite a painful end to a fun ride.”
“We will certainly need to find a better method to access the ship if it’s discovered that regular visits are required of us,” Night Rain stated.
“Maybe an elevator would work best,” Hawke said, “Now that’s a technology I could help with.”
They continued on for what felt like another half hour before they located four men standing near a black wall of metal. There was a rectangular hole cut into the wall from which they could hear voices echoing. One of the men turned to them and immediately shook Hawke’s hand.
“Welcome, friend,” he said, “This is the greatest day of all of our lives. Well, probably not the greatest day of yours. Ships like this are obviously no big deal to you, but to us, they were impossible before this morning.”
“Actually, I’ve never seen a ship this size except in movies,” Hawke replied.
“Movies?” he asked.
“Never mind,” he said, ducking his head to peer into the dark doorway, “That’s a lot of space between the two hulls.”
Night Rain joined him, looking into the abyss between the outer wall and rectangular hole on the inner wall.
“Where’s Sky Listener and his people?” Night Rain asked, shocked to see the door already cut open.
“We’re in here!” a voice echoed in the distance.
A face appeared near the bottom of the other doorway like a severed head lying on the floor. It was Sky Listener holding one of the bane lights to his face.
“We had cut our way into a gymnasium, it appears,” he said, “The floor to this room is about four feet beneath the doorway we created.”
“How’d you get across?” Hawke asked, frightened at the thought of tumbling into the giant abyss between the two hulls.
There was no walkway or anything for that matter in the ten to twelve feet that separated the two metal hulls. If one tumbled, there was no telling how far they would fall. Hawke held more firmly to the thick jagged edge of the doorway.
“We had two boards we were using as a walkway between the two hulls, but one of them fell,” Sky Listener stated, “Needless to say, that scared all the breath out of us, so we pulled the other one in here. We didn’t want to get trapped in here with no way to return.”
A wooden plank appeared, angling into the chasm as it grew in length. Hawke and Night Rain took hold of the other end and rested it on the metal edge.
“Did you send anyone to the surface to find more wood or something else to create a better way to cross over?” Night Rain asked.
“Yes, they will be bringing back some wood to fashion a wider and more permanent bridge,” he replied, “Come on over.”
Hawke stared down at the plank, very much aware of why they were using two boards initially. This particular board was no more than two feet wide, which wouldn’t be a problem in ordinary circumstances. But when being used as an unsecure bridge above an eternal fall, two feet was much too small.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Hawke muttered.
“Yeah, I get what you mean,” Night Rain said.
“Look, I’ll hold onto this side and you can just crawl across one at a time,” Sky Listener said, “There are six of us over here and no one died yet.”
Hawke groaned, but his curiosity got the best of him. He turned to Kashuba and asked if she would feel better going first or second. She agreed to go second. He breathed out the last of his anxiety, then knelt to the edge of the bridge and grasped firmly to both sides. He crawled forward, distressed suddenly at how much it bowed beneath him. He was already beyond the point of no return, so he continued quickly to the other side where another man took a firm hold of his wrist and guided him into the large room.
He let out a gasp of relief, then thanked the unidentified man for his help. He returned to the doorway where Sky Listener continued holding the board.
“Come on, it was easier than I thought,” he offered as encouragement.
Kashuba knelt onto the board and crawled forward at a much slower pace than Hawke had. When she was close enough, Hawke took both her hands and slid her the rest of the way into the room. She hugged him tightly before he reminded her that they had another person in their party.
Night Rain crawled across the board rather quickly and joined them in the gymnasium. The others in Sky Listener’s party had been placing bane lamps throughout the room, dragging a crate of the lamps with them across the floor as they went.
Hawke recognized the room as a gymnasium just as Sky Listener had already stated. They had entered the gym near the left side of the court near the basketball hoop. A small set of bleachers separated them from the other side of the court. A layer of dust carpeted the gym, disturbed only by their footprints and the marks of the sliding crate.
“Well, the air is breathable and I don’t feel sick,” Night Rain stated.
“Definitely a good sign, although it does smell a little musty and stale in here,” Hawke stated.
He located three doors from where he was currently standing. There were two along the wall opposite them and there was one directly to his left. All the doors were reminiscent of the sturdy rectangular hatches found on Navy vessels from Earth. Each door had a large manual lever on the left side that he hoped would open the doors. If the doors could be manually opened, they would have no problems navigating throughout the ship without power.
“Should we take a look around?” Hawke asked, “I’d love to see what the future version of my engine looks like.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Sky Listener stated, approaching him with a folded sheet of paper.
Sky Listener unfolded the page and showed him a drawing of the ship as seen from above. A simple bar symbolized the
ring, which intersected an elongated ellipse just a little right of center. Three protruding rectangles jutted from the presumed rear of the elliptical ship. If it had secondary thrust engines, those rectangles would most likely represent the exhaust funnels. The tunnel they had just descended was portrayed by a long shaded line that stopped at the ship, just a little forward of the ring.
“This is a drawing based on the sonar images made of the ship,” Sky Listener stated, “And this is the spot where we entered. I’ll leave it to your good judgment to discern where the engineering section would be.”
Hawke took the paper and examined it, imagining if he were the one who helped build a ship of those specifications. He thought about it for a moment, then handed the sheet back to Sky Listener.
“The centermost part of the ring would contain the heart of the gravitational-reflex engine,” Hawke said, pointing to the portion where the ring intersected the long oval, “It’s something that would remain the same no matter how many upgrades have occurred over the generations. If we came in right here, we just need to head aft once we locate a passageway.”
“Sounds good to me,” Night Rain stated.
Sky Listener quickly rounded up his men and gave them individual instructions. One of them was to remain at the doorway to assist in connecting a more sturdy bridge once the materials arrived. Another was to remain in the corridor outside the gymnasium to act as a verbal guide and relay for any arriving and returning parties. The others were to join in Hawke’s party, each carrying their various equipment bags and lighting.
Hawke chose to ignore the nearest hatch because it could only lead to another room or a passage that was still situated along the hull. He needed to eventually locate the center of the ship and then track down the center of the gravitational-reflex ring. That left him either of the two hatches on the opposite wall.
He led the way to the hatch beneath the vacant scoreboard. The only teams that could play in this gymnasium were “port” and “starboard” according to the display over the hatch. No “home” or “visitors” here - probably because of the subliminal meaning attached to both words.
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