by Dave Lemel
Li was watching barely visible markings pass by every so often on the wall of the shaft. “This is probably a good place to stop and walk,” he said after squinting particularly hard at the last marking they passed.
Todd slowed to a hover and turned the cruiser 180 degrees to face back up and out of the shaft. He set it gently down on the conveyer below. “Don’t forget the goody bags,” he said over his shoulder to Simon and Jack before opening the door and stepping out into the shaft.
Chapter 23
Simon and Jack climbed out from the backseat and made their way around to the rear of the cruiser. Todd and Simon both tapped a spot on the back of their left gloves. At the base of the four fingers on that glove the knuckles turned into four little flashlights. At the same time, two small rectangles on the front of their shoulders illuminated. Quite bright, they completely lit up the shaft. Simon popped the trunk and threw one of the duffel bags to Jack before slinging the other over his shoulder.
Todd looked at Li and gestured down the tunnel. “Seeing as you’re the only one who knows where you’re going, I suppose you should lead the way.”
“It is pretty simple,” Li responded as he began carefully walking down the slope of the conveyer. “We are going down.”
A few silent minutes had passed when Simon said in a hushed voice, “Stop. I think I hear something up ahead.” The four men stood still and listened.
“I hear it too,” said Jack.
“It sounds like two men talking in Mandarin followed by a dull, cracking sound,” said Simon. Todd and Li nodded, acknowledging they heard it as well.
Todd ejected his wand into his hand, and Simon followed his lead. “You two wait here,” Todd said to Jack and Li. Todd turned to Simon as he tapped the back of his left glove to turn off all his lights. “Let’s go take a look,” he said. Simon dropped his duffle bag and turned his lights off as well. The two marshals moved slowly ahead, side by side, with wands held at the ready.
Down the shaft, about sixty feet ahead, a little light was visible from what appeared to be the start of the tunnel. As they neared the bottom, the cracking noise grew louder, and Todd pulled Simon over to his side. “I’m going to lean out and take a quick look,” he said as quietly as possible. Simon nodded and held his wand a bit higher. Todd leaned ever so slightly towards the edge of the tunnel. As more of the area waiting below became visible, he realized it was a rather large cavern. Seeing nothing around the corner across from him, he decided he needed to take a look around the edge he was leaned up against. The cracking noise echoed all around. He darted just enough of his head out to get a look, and then immediately pulled it back. He pointed up the shaft and walked back about twenty feet as Simon followed.
“What was it?” whispered Simon anxiously once they stopped.
“The whole cavern is coated with the white walls, just like the shaft. There’s a tunnel that way,” Todd pointed back over his shoulder. “Right where that tunnel enters the cavern, there are two miners applying what looks like some kind of patch over an area where lava has slowly worked its way through.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” said Simon. “Maybe we can get Li, and he can talk to them.”
Todd shook his head. “No dice. Two Vikards are standing guard over them as they work. ”
“All right,” said Simon after thinking for a few seconds. “Is the bottom of the shaft in their line of sight?”
“Everybody was facing away when I looked,” replied Todd. “Whatever we do, it’s going to have to be quick so they don’t alert anymore guards.”
“Agreed,” Simon responded. “Right now, we go quiet and quick. We each take one. Sneak up as close as we can get so the pulse has maximum effect.” Todd winked and headed down the shaft.
The two marshals paused at the bottom. Todd pointed at Simon and gestured that he should take a peek. Simon leaned out and then back in. He looked at Todd, nodded, and then silently dropped out to the floor of the cavern. Todd stepped out alongside him, and with his left hand he counted down, three…two…one.
Todd and Simon covered the twenty feet in the blink of an eye. Both leapt into the air at the back of their seven-and-a-half-foot-tall targets. They each jabbed their wands into the side of the red and purple scaled neck of the Vikard they attacked and fired a pulse, dropping the stunned behemoths into lifeless heaps on the ground. The two miners heard and felt the thuds of the Vikards collapsing and turned around to see what had happened. Todd looked at them and fired two more quick pulses, stunning both.
“What did you do that for?” asked Simon as he looked at Todd in dismay.
“I don’t wanna hear it, Simon,” Todd replied. “We’re in the belly of the beast here. No more unnecessary risks.”
Simon looked down at the massive Vikard lying unconscious at his feet. “You’re probably right,” he acknowledged. “Man, you forget just how ugly these things are when you haven’t been up close to one in a while.”
“Text Jack to come on down with the bags, and let’s get these four moved out of sight,” said Todd.
“Good idea,” Simon replied as he began typing the message into his link. “Hey, Todd…”
“Yeah,” Todd grunted as he began dragging one of the miners to the mouth of the conveyer shaft.
“Maybe we should pod those two to be safe,” said Simon, pointing at the two Vikards. “They don’t tend to stay stunned all that long, from what I’ve heard. I mean, it’s supposed to be better when you get ’em on an unprotected neck like that, but still.”
“Couldn’t…agree…more,” Todd struggled to say as he threw one miner up into the shaft leading up. “Plus, I’m not even certain we could drag the big bastards working together. I’ll call for two right now.”
A few minutes later, Todd and Simon had podded up the two Vikards and moved them out of sight. Suddenly, they heard Li from the mouth of the conveyer shaft. “Oh, no. Are they dead?” he asked, looking down at the two miners.
“No, no,” said Simon as he ran over to reassure him. “They’re just unconscious. Stunned. They’ll be fine. Are they friends of yours? ”
Li pointed at one, then the other. “Zhang and Ming,” he said. “I like Zhang, but Ming…” Li looked back down at the unconscious miner. “I would not care so much if Ming was dead.”
“Whoa!” said Simon, taken aback. “I thought you were a pacifist!”
“I am. But Ming’s a thief,” said Li before crouching down and gently patting the unconscious man on the cheek a few times, “And you are a liar, too, aren’t you, Ming?”
Simon and Jack were still chuckling when Todd came over. “We should probably keep moving,” he said. “I’m guessing at some point those two,” Todd gestured in the direction of the two hidden pods, “are supposed to check in.”
“Good thinking,” said Simon.
“Wow!” exclaimed Jack as he exited the mouth of the conveyer shaft and looked around. “This is one big cavern.”
“Actually,” said Li, “this is one of the smaller ones. Wait till you see the main cavern. It is like a hundred times this size.”
Jack looked at Li in disbelief. “Li, this is the size of an arena. How could there be more like this and one a hundred times this size?”
“This place is crazy,” Li responded. “Very active moon. Tidal forces, lava, all sorts of crazy stuff create many voids. We came and coated the interior of some of them to stabilize it enough down here so we could work below and have as safe a habitat as possible above.”
“The history lesson is nice,” said Todd. “But we gotta keep moving. Which way to this main cavern you keep taking about? I got a feeling that may be a good place for us to start.”
“Tunnel over here,” replied Li. He pointed to the opening where the two miners had been working to patch the leak. As they got to the tunnel entrance, Li stopped.
“What’s wrong?” asked Todd.
“I wish we had a camera we could send ahead. I have no idea what changed down here si
nce the jerks arrived.”
“Ask and ye shall receive, my man,” said Todd. He held his link up closer to his mouth and said, “Shelly, my location right away.” A kilometer up the conveyer shaft, Shelly popped up from her home at the back of the cruiser and whizzed down the dark tunnel to the marshals below.
“That thing is great!” exclaimed Li as he walked around the underside of Shelly hovering above them. “Like a little flying turtle.”
“That’s why we call her Shelly,” said Todd. “Like a turtle shell.”
“Ah, I like that,” said Li.
Todd looked ahead down the tunnel and asked, “So, where should I send her?”
Li pointed ahead and said, “Way down that way the tunnel reaches a cavern we call the beehive. Many tunnels meet there. Can we have flying turtle stay just ahead of us till we get there? Then I can show you which tunnels lead to main cavern.”
“Sounds good,” Todd replied. “Shelly, hug the ceiling and move forward down the tunnel slow and silent. If you pick up any lifeforms, stop.”
Shelly rose to the top of the tunnel and floated ahead without so much as a whisper. A minute later, Todd and the others followed while watching Shelly’s progress on his link.
“Still no sign of anyone?” asked Li.
“No,” replied Todd. “No readings of any living thing ahead right now.”
“That’s strange,” said Li. “The flying turtle should be almost to the beehive now. That used to be a very busy cavern. It leads all over the place down here.”
“Well, everyone stay alert then,” Todd said. Then, “Shelly, stop. I think she’s at the entrance to the busy cavern you were talking about, Li. Still no activity, though.” Todd looked at Simon. “Should I send her in?”
Simon shrugged. “I guess so. She’ll be fine either way, but maybe we should be ready to run.”
Todd nodded and spoke into his link, “Shelly, enter the cavern ahead of you and slowly rise and rotate to give us three-hundred-and-sixty degree views.”
Shelly did as she was told. This cavern was more the size of a stadium than an arena. As Shelly rose and rotated, tunnel entrances appeared everywhere on the screen. There were staircases all over leading up the walls to ones at different levels. In total, there must have been over fifty tunnels converging here. “I see why you call this place the beehive,” said Todd. “Nobody in there, though. Looks safe for us to follow right now.”
The four men walked ahead and soon entered the cavern. “Holy crap!” said Jack as he looked around, taking in the enormity of his surroundings.
“I agree with Jack’s assessment,” said Simon, slowly rotating while making his way to the center of the open space.
“Which one leads to the main cavern?” asked Todd.
Li pointed across the beehive cavern from the tunnel they had recently emerged from. “A bunch of the ones over there,” he said. “Where do you want to be when we get to the main cavern?”
“I don’t know,” said Todd. “It’s kind of hard to say with no idea of what’s there.”
“Okay,” said Li. “There are many choices, so do you want to be toward the ground or the top?”
“I’d say top,” Todd replied. “Get a bit of a bird’s-eye view. Hopefully less activity up there, too, so we can maybe get a look without getting spotted ourselves.”
“Middle or one of the ends?” Li asked next.
Todd replied quickly this time. “Middle. Top, middle. I think that should be a good place to start.”
“We could split up and get a couple different views,” said Simon.
“I don’t know if splitting up is such a great idea down here,” Todd responded. “This place is a Vikard-infested hellhole, and only one of us knows our way around. It’d be real easy to get turned around and lost. Let’s stick together if possible. ”
“Works for me,” said Jack, looking more uncomfortable by the minute.
Li turned and started up one of the staircases along the wall. The other three followed. When he reached the platform above, he skipped right past a tunnel entrance, instead continuing up the next staircase two steps at a time. At the next landing, there were two staircases heading even higher still. Li doubled back and headed up the one over the staircase they had just ascended. Once at the top of that, he stopped on the landing and looked back down over the railing at the three men following his path.
Simon arrived first with Todd close behind. Li continued to look over the railing as Jack finally made his way to the landing below them. As he turned to head up the final staircase, Li said, “Boy, you out of shape, Jack. I thought with those long legs you would fly up these steps like a giant bird.”
“Very… funny,” Jack responded as he took the last step and put his hands on his hips, sucking wind. “You know…this suit…is a little heavier than…your fancy getups.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Catch your breath quick. I want to keep movin’. Do not know why it is so quiet in here, but I am guessing it is not gonna stay this way very long,” said Li. “That is the other reason we called this place the beehive. It is usually very busy.”
Todd took a step into the tunnel entrance in front of them with Shelly hovering just above his shoulder. He immediately stopped and checked his link. “Guys, I thought I heard something, and Shelly confirms. There is something going on at the other end of this tunnel. Shelly is reading plenty of background machine noise and someone talking. Loud, too. Like through some sort of amplifier.”
Simon looked at Jack and Li. “Stay calm and stay together. We’ll move slow and quiet, and Jack…”
Jack looked back at Simon, eyes wide and unblinking. “Yeah?” he asked with trepidation.
“Point that thing away from the rest of us,” Simon said, pointing his wand at Jack’s. “You get jumpy and stun one of us, and we’re going to have to carry that person the rest of our time down here.”
Jack blinked and looked down at the wand. Through his glove and suit nobody else could see how tense his arm was. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and gently exhaled through his nose. His arm relaxed, and he pointed the wand down toward the ground. “All right,” he said as he opened his eyes. “I’m good. Let’s go.”
Todd looked from Jack to Simon. “I’m going to get shot in the ass again, aren’t I?” he said.
Simon grinned. “He’s good. You heard him.”
Jack smiled sheepishly and said, “I am. I promise. I will not shoot you in the butt…I would like to hear that story sometime, though.”
“Deal,” Todd replied. “Now everyone quiet, and let’s keep moving.”
Todd took the lead with Shelly hovering close over his left shoulder. Li and then Jack followed as Simon waved them forward and brought up the rear. The voice coming from the other end of the tunnel steadily grew louder and clearer as they advanced. “What is that, German?” Jack whispered over his shoulder to Simon.
“Vikard,” Simon whispered back. “Although it does sound a bit like German. He’s going on about the machine furthering the Vikard cause, establishing them in their rightful place as the dominant species in this galaxy.”
“Lovely,” replied Jack.
“Hey,” Jack whispered over his shoulder again. “Is there any language you can’t understand after that upgrade they gave you?”
“There was this one time. I was on Titan, and I swore I heard these two bizarre little creatures talking to each other but nothing translated in my head. I asked Lombargnor, sorry, I asked our boss about it when we got back, but he swore I must’ve been imagining it. I know what I saw and heard. I got the feeling he knew more than he was telling. My guess is they were beings from another galaxy, and that’s why it didn’t translate.”
“No way,” Jack responded. “You think? I mean, galaxy to galaxy transportation has to be impossible. The distances are just too vast.”
“Well, it wasn’t that long ago we thought star to star within our own galaxy was too far,” said Simon. “Then along came the Bopecans and
blew our concept of what was possible right out of the water.”
“That’s true,” said Jack.
“Hey!” Todd whispered firmly from the front. “Would you two shut up back there? I’m trying to listen, and I think we’re close to the end of this tunnel.”
“We are,” said Li. “Around that little bend just ahead we will see the exit.”
As the four men and their hover droid made it to the bend, they stopped. The voice below was quite clear now. Todd leaned around the corner and a look of surprise appeared on his face. “Li,” he said.
“Yes?” replied Li.
“Aren’t we at the top of a massive cavern here?” Todd asked.
“Yes. Why?” Li responded.
“How high above the floor of the cavern is the exit I’m looking out of?”
“Oh, I do not know…maybe a hundred meters?” Li kept looking at the side of Todd’s head, waiting for another question before finally asking, “Why?”
Todd looked at Li and gestured for him to move a little closer. Li took a couple of steps forward, looking at Todd, who was still staring out the end of the tunnel. Li glanced out the tunnel then back at Todd, then quickly did a double take back to the exit of the tunnel. “That does not make sense. I was down here just a couple of months ago. How could they build something that…” Li stopped mid-sentence and started walking toward the end of the tu nnel.
Jack and Simon looked at each other and then stepped around the bend to see what all the fuss was about. At the exit to the tunnel, filling the whole field of vision, was a structure. It appeared to be maybe fifteen to twenty feet away from the edge of the tunnel. Todd began to follow Li, and Simon and Jack continued right behind him. The further they went, the more apparent it became that whatever this structure was it continued on in every direction. Up, down, left, right—it just kept going. Li was just feet from the edge leading to the platform outside the tunnel now. Todd whispered very forcefully, “Li! Li!” On the second attempt, he got his attention, and Li turned around.
Todd held his hand up in a stop sign and the other three caught up with Li. “Maybe just one or two of us at a time should crawl up there for a look,” said Todd.
