Several minutes later, the scouting force shimmered onto the smooth rock surface. Paranak, even broader than normal in his Narlav spacesuit, the others in their cool, shiny… dazzling and intrinsically armoured outfits, all fairly equally effective against cold, heat and vacuum.
“I can’t detect any thoughts in our vicinity,” Karen told the explorers. Apart from all of you… and especially you, my love!
Richard grinned at this.
“Keep your weapons pointed down – fingers off the triggers,” his wife continued. “We’re more likely to be startled into shooting ourselves than detecting any enemy here.”
“Still, we may as well find out where we are,” her husband added, looking around at the emptiness of the landing ground, Narlav rifle cradled against his side.
“I’ll take you into this passageway first.” Paranak pointed ahead with his Narlav laser weapon. “If their layout is like the ones on Craklav, this should lead to a food station.”
“I don’t recognise this place,” Latt admitted, “but this is the only entrance I can see, so…” He shrugged, expressively.
Richard grinned, finding the relationship between the two ‘eternal foes’ to be as unique as ever. He followed the bulky alien into the sheltered entranceway. The others kept close behind him.
“There’s a door here.” Kirrina was at the side of the passage, about ten metres inside the mountain. “It doesn’t open by proximity.”
The team gathered around. Latt banged on the metal surface.
“Sounds quite thin,” Penny observed.
“Let’s go on, further in,” Paranak suggested.
“I don’t want that door to be between me and the ship,” Richard commented, “and not know what is behind it. Spencer, Jane, and Latt… and Paranak of course… between you it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out how to open this.”
Spencer shone his suit helmet light around the perimeter. “I don’t see any mechanism, any switches, buttons.”
“We’ll never find anything at this rate.” Paranak’s deep voice sounded irritated. “Step back a bit.” He swung up his rifle and cut an opening about his width and height, the laser beam dazzling everyone else as it went through one set of parallel vertical arcs and a horizontal topping gesture in very quick succession. A quick kick caused the separated piece to fall back into the space behind, twisting as it fell until it was perfectly horizontal and thus settling in surreal slow motion on the flat floor without so much as a sound. “Follow me.” He stepped through into the gloom.
Richard shadowed his favourite Narlav, staying close behind him as he discovered they were in another passageway.
At the end of this new and rather short corridor there was another door. This one was partly open and a glow was coming from the next area beyond it. Paranak grabbed the edge of the door and pulled it aside, causing a screeching sound.
“Yikes!” Penny-Lee exclaimed. “You broke it!”
Laughter followed this as the others saw that their Narlav had inadvertently – or at least casually – shown his prodigious strength again.
Beyond the now permanently-opened door, slightly more than four times a Narlav’s reach away, a metre-wide stream of dull red lava flowed from the right, across the smoothed rock surface and down through a hole in the floor, presumably of its own making. The air was obscured with vapours of rock and metal. They backed hastily out, returning to the main passageway.
“Carry on, Paranak, Latt.” Richard shook his head. “Nothing should come out of that hellish area, but I think we’ll have Jane and Spencer stay here to watch it. I don’t want to be trapped by some change in the flow.”
The smaller group continued down the gentle grade into the mountain. After about a hundred metres, the corridor opened up into a large room with low tables. “Food station,” Paranak grunted, clearly pleased that his prediction had been confirmed.
Richard looked for further exits. Karen found a door to the right and swung it open to check behind it. “This is a storage and preparation area,” she declared, “but there’s no food here.”
“This looks good.” Latt had found a panel with Narlav inscriptions on it.
“Ah!” Paranak grabbed the lower edge, pulling it outwards. “See, a terminal, or communication station, or an inventory record system. Not sure which.”
“No power.”
“This is Spencer.”
“Listening.” Richard confirmed.
“The lava is working its way across the floor, mostly by melting the rock edging away. I think you should come back. You don’t need to run, but don’t walk too slowly, either!”
“Will do.” Richard shoved the edge of the cover back down and turned away.
The team hurried back up the corridor, meeting up with their rear guard and looking at the lava. It had destroyed about half the room and was now close enough to make the remainder of the door with the handy transit hole measurably warm.
“Let’s get back in Citadel.”
The fumes outside were unchanged when they emerged.
“Take us up, pilot,” Richard directed, as the last of the explorers shimmered into the Assembly Room and removed his helmet – it was an increasingly despondent Latt.
***
Three hours had passed, during which the Patrol Craft had moved from peak to peak, gradually getting further away from the volcano. Several other once-usable caves and two external structures were explored. There was no power in any of these facilities either, and no sign of life. Only one useful clue was found – an abandoned meeting room, again without power, but with a large map on the wall. The map was duly recorded and the troop returned to the safety of the ship; cracks in the ceiling of the room had previously led to several large chunks of rock falling onto the floor and Richard hustled them all out when a small piece fell down, startling Penny as it fell right behind her.
“This is good.” Latt was observing the image of the map, now projected in the Assembly Room after their return. “I think this area here,” he jabbed a finger at the image, “might be somewhere that I worked once. There were other humans there, too – at least back then, there was.”
Richard looked at the map, guessing which peak was which in the distorted world left after the pollutions and earthquakes and volcanic activity. He decided to fly to the area which looked more central, not the one that Latt recalled, saying that they could visit the other area afterwards.
Kirrina let Violet continue to pilot the Patrol Craft, taking the opportunity to concentrate on using her own more unique powers, boosted by Richard’s stamina, though of course not augmented by Beckie’s abilities, to search for life, as the scanners were often overloaded by static from the volcanic ash clouds and the fairly incessant lightning storms. As the ship approached the central location, she picked up vague hints of life. “It’s like when we found Kevin inside the workings below crater Tsiolkovsky,” she explained. “I think these individuals are fairly deep underground.”
Paranak was working the scanners to seek confirmation of this, but was unable to determine any definitive results, due to the interference.
“Let’s check it out.” Richard made the command decision.
Walking towards the entrance to this area was initially disorientating. A part of the rock wall above the original entrance had crashed down, perhaps due to the influence of an earthquake, burying a (previously) shallow natural depression and serendipitously creating a roughly level area where it was possible to land Citadel. Fortunately the collapse had not blocked the interior; it had just created a new, wider opening with a rubble-strewn pathway into the still smooth passageway. The route across the rubble required some climbing, some jumping from rock to rock and some clambering down loose screes. The space-suited figures found this quite easy; both their naturally limber forms and the outfits they were wearing made the task a small but pleasant challenge.
The vapours present elsewhere were absent here, as a rough circle of hilly areas and mountain peaks had c
reated a barrier over which these pollutions had not as yet progressed. Richard kept everyone in their spacesuits, heads uncovered, but had them carry their helmets, just in case the situation changed rapidly.
“This looks like a real possibility!” Latt was excited at the prospect of finding survivors, heartened by the qualitative report from Kirrina. Suddenly he was not concerned about the preference he had expressed for visiting the area that he had claimed with cautious optimism to be his old stomping ground.
“They could be Narlavs – or humans – I really can barely detect them at all,” Karen cautioned him as they walked down into the interior.
“There’s lava here,” Penny-Lee reported from up ahead where she had hurried with Terry, “but it is cold, set rock-hard!”
Latt rushed to see this, hoping it did not mean that the way forward was blocked. “It’s okay, there’s a side tunnel here that is clear. And some lights that work, too!”
“Violet, I want you to stay here with Judy,” Richard directed, relaxing his concern about her name; this time he had left Spencer Baldwin in Citadel as the pilot, with just one other – Todd Buchanan – as his ‘shotgun support’.
“We’ll contact you every five minutes, sir!” The Canadian pilot followed the standard protocol, happy to be able to explore into the ‘depths’ of the planet after getting some experience moving Citadel around. Judy looked less than pleased to be left behind; she squeezed Latt’s hand before he moved on.
The passageway was mostly a natural tunnel, though clearly at some points it had been widened and the walls, as well as the floors, had been smoothed. The roof got quite low twice as they moved in deeper. This was only a problem for Richard, as at six foot one inch he did have to duck each time to avoid the low-hanging rock; Latt and Terry, both two inches shorter, had no problem at all.
Paranak and Latt now led the troop, with Richard and Karen right behind them. Terry was joking with Jane and Penny-Lee in the rear, his initial reaction to their rather impressive physical appearance in their spacesuits apparently forgotten, or put aside.
He’s a real character! Kirrina sent to Richard, right beside her. I thought he’d fall for his suddenly slimmed secretary, Alex – she turned into such a stunner and made her interest in him very obvious – but I think he’s an example of a subset of humanity that I have not previously been acquainted with: the eternal bachelor!
That just proves he must be crazy, as well as a character! Richard glanced over his shoulder, seeing how the two young ladies with Stadt were looking more like visitors to an amusement park ride than explorers in a dangerous tunnel with multiple potential hazards on a world hundreds of light years from Earth.
Actually, it’s less than a hundred! Kirrina replied. But you’ve got it about right, apart from that!
Yeah, who’s counting, anyway?
“Hey!” The one word, spoken quite softly, with surprise but no sense of danger, came from Latt, just feet ahead of them.
The others came up to stand beside him and Paranak, looking ahead into a big cave which opened up at that point. On the far side of the cave, about a hundred feet away, there was a small crowd in the semi-darkness, consisting of about twenty full-sized Narlavs and eighteen smaller ones.
“I can’t see any weapons.” Latt finally found his voice again.
“Incredible!” Karen murmured.
Richard realised she was not impressed by the lack of laser rifles or the presence of juveniles; there was something else, far more fundamental, that she had discerned. He felt like the mysteries of life were about to be revealed – or at least one of Narlav mysteries. How do you want to handle this?
“Paranak and I will walk on.” Karen nodded her thanks to him as she put her helmet down quietly on the rock floor. “The rest of you, I suggest you sit down and try to look unintimidating.”
“Isn’t there still a hazard?” Terry questioned. “The bigger ones are still very strong, even without weapons.”
“Trust me.” Karen glanced at him, her eyes battleship grey. “There won’t be any danger to any of us.”
Paranak said nothing, but his expression was one of what looked – implausibly but incredibly – like fear! He put his mask, flexible tube and breathing sphere on the ground next to Karen’s helmet; his head covering or hood still laid in wrinkled readiness on his shoulders.
“Come on.” Kirrina took his hand and they moved slowly across the cave.
“Latt.” Richard spoke softly as he got the others to sit down on the lumpy rock floor by the wall. “Did you notice?”
Latt looked at him, puzzled. “They seem different, but I can’t put my finger on it. She’s right, they don’t look dangerous, but I don’t know why I think that!”
“Everyone.” Richard got the others to gather close to him. “Watch that one at the far end, the one that’s reaching to the right to put things on that ledge, shelf-thing.”
Without difficulty, Terry, Penny-Lee, Jane and Latt located the Narlav that their leader had indicated.
“Is he injured?” Jane said at last. “He should be springing up somewhat as he reaches out that way – it looks like he’s going down…”
Latt finally got it, but he was seemingly struck dumb by his delayed epiphany.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Mirror images, but no smoke
Over the other side of the cave, Karen halted her cautious advance as soon as the Narlavs looked nervous at her approach. Paranak, stopping beside her, gave her some validation – or at least his presence seemed to be a factor of interest to the crowd.
How do I get close enough to touch one? Kirrina’s dilemma was solved when a half-sized Narlav decided to run over to see her – or perhaps Paranak. She pulled at her Narlav companion, getting him to sit, and joined him on the cold rock floor just before the little Narlav arrived. Peace. She sent just the one concept as the little alien reached out and took her pale hand between the two thumbs and associated ‘twin’ fingers of one small and rather grubby grey one.
Who are you? The little creature responded – green eyes almost glowing in the gloom – though it was the thought that came over, not the words.
I can tell you… listen! Karen began her slowest and most basic mind merge, keeping her thoughts and comments very simple. After a couple of minutes she asked the little one to get one of the adults to come over.
Paranak watched this exchange, knowing what his blood sister was doing, but still said nothing. His mouth was tightly closed and his eyes were as wide open as she had ever seen them be.
“I think this bigger one will prove it,” Kirrina whispered to him, understanding the turmoil churning through his thoughts. “I know it makes no sense to you, but I have a feeling there will be a simple explanation.”
The little Narlav went directly to a full-sized one and grabbed a hand, squawking and pulling until the adult started to move. Slowly the distance was covered until at last Karen found large green eyes looking down at her, blinking with that fascinating diagonal stroke from centre upper to outside lower part. Karen put out her own hand very slowly, palm up. The Narlav moved one hand out cautiously and tentatively lowered it until, at last the all-important physical contact was made.
Peace! Peace and knowledge! Karen sent. Peace and help! Food! Peace and food!
Finally she felt the acquiescence she needed and began to gently transfer one of the most comprehensive packages of information and understanding that she had ever shared, knowing that she would need Richard’s rejuvenating strength afterwards, like she had never needed it before!
From across the cave, her husband watched, relieved as the moment of contact finally occurred. Ah, my love! This is better than anything we could have hoped for. You are superb! He sent the strongest waves of reassurance he could muster, knowing that the world of humans and Narlavs had changed and would never be the same again.
Latt had frozen, his mind grappling with the truth that he had finally recognised. Jane seemed to have figured it out too,
but Terry and Penny-Lee were still confused and uncertain. A sense of anxious anticipation kept them to an unplanned, undeclared pact of silence.
A full ten minutes passed, the outstretched Narlav hand still resting on the very feminine human one.
At last Karen shuddered and sighed, an indication that she had completed her mammoth task. “I must get my husband to come over now. This process is very tiring. Will you trust me?”
Coming to you! Richard got up, leaving his helmet and rifle on the rock floor; he looked back at the others briefly. “Wait.” Nothing else needed to be said.
Several heads nodded their agreement; the eyes – as one – turning back to the assembly of Narlavs across the cave.
“He will strengthen me.” Kirrina could see multiple facets of understanding dawning in the cat-like eyes, impressed, as she felt her words had come across disjointedly. Oh, how I need him!
“Of course, somehow I know you, I trust you. You should do whatever you need to; your touch, it has given me so many… words, it is … mind-blowing!” The mellow voice – in what was effectively the lingua-franca of Mrs. Fletcher’s birth planet – was music to her ears, as it provided confirmation of what she had achieved: that she had endowed the Narlav with a fair portion of the English language.
And I didn’t blow her mind, either! Using her free hand, for the Narlav still had one hand on top of Karen’s right one, she pointed at the other Narlavs, trying to count them in the gloom. “Goph, gach, gich–”
Cavalry Page 38
