Deep Space Dead (8 page)

“Well whatever happens she mustn’t go about telling people that Wal is dead, not when we don’t know.”

“I don’t like this whole moon man business anyway,” said Arianna. “It gives me the creeps. She must have been having nightmares or something but she just seems to think it’s so real.”

“All her life she’s been cooped up on the starship,” said Jak soothingly. “And now she’s on solid ground for the first time she’s allowed her imagination to run away with her. Maybe she heard people talking, maybe she’s convinced herself about this Moon Man thing, it’s all just a reaction to a world she could never before imagine.”

“I suppose you’re right,” replied Arianna, forcing herself to smile. “Anyway, we should go to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow after all.”

7

Neither of them got much sleep that night. The sense of dread that had haunted Arianna in the weeks preceding their arrival now returned with a vengeance. That morning Arianna left Ambra in the capable hands of Sol who came out with the little girl to wave them off. The atmosphere between them was still tense but for today they had to put their differences aside for the sake of the rescue mission. “She’s been listening to stories,” said Arianna. “She won’t tell us where they came from but maybe you’ll have more luck with her.” And she relayed back to Sol what the little girl had told her last night.

Sol listened carefully and nodded. “This Moon Man fantasy seems to be doing the rounds,” he said solemnly. “I’ve had more than one parent come to me and say their child has been spooked by something, a giant of some sort. Most of them only seem to have caught fleeting glimpses of it. Ambra is the only one who seems to have expanded on the story.”

So what do you think it is?” Asked Arianna.

Sol looked out over the plains and nodded. “See how the sun catches the river and reflects its light,” he said. “And see how it casts shadows across the trees. Of course you and I think nothing of that, because we’ve grown up with it in the Confederation home planets but for those who’ve never known anything except electric light, reflections and shadows are an unerring experience. Look how much your shadow expands when you turn it a certain way. There’s your giant. I’ll talk to Ambra later, try and find out where she heard about Wal.”

“Thanks Sol.”

“Be careful Arianna.”

Arianna bowed her head awkwardly. She looked down towards Ambra. “Take care of her for me.”

“I will.”

They went out in two rovers containing, each containing three people. Jak and Arianna travelled together alongside Bratten Jorg. Three rangers took the other rover. That left six rangers behind. If they lost anymore they may have to start calling in Sol and his police officers, thought Jak.

This time there was no hero’s departure. They left in the early morning. If anybody saw them and asked questions the official line was they were off to back up the original reconnaissance team. Jak knew his rangers well, had worked with them closely for years. The rangers were keen to get out, having missed out on both the orbiter mission and the original reconnaissance. The engineer Bratten Jorg was there because if, as suspected, Wal and his men had become stuck in a cave in she alone would have the expertise needed to supervise their extraction, provided they were not beyond help of course.

They had been flying for several hours but now Arianna noticed a real change in the landscape. As Arianna looked down she saw a large lake of yellow liquid which she recognised as sulphur and in the distance she saw plumes of smoke rising from the sky. Here were active volcanoes.

“Any sign of serious danger and we’re to get out of there straight away,” said Jak, as though reading Arianna’s mind.

“What do you think happened to them?” She asked.

“Maybe they ate something that poisoned them.”

“This whole landscape is poisonous and you hardly need two brain cells to work that out,” said Bratten Jorg. “They wouldn’t have been so stupid.”

“Doubtless the idiot was looking to make a name for himself and ended up doing himself an injury,” muttered Jak contemptuously.

“Do you think he’s still alive?” Asked Arianna.

“Well I hope he is,” replied Jak. “The last thing we need is to lose so many rangers in one swoop. I can’t think of a worse start to a colonisation campaign.”

“Fratia Bel isn’t much better,” said Bratten. “She was a little too enthusiastic about being sent out on the reconnaissance, and she’s young and inexperienced. I argued against her selection. It wouldn’t surprise me if she overreached herself whilst looking to enhance her own reputation.”

“Why would they stop here?” Asked Arianna, looking critically downwards. “It is like we are flying over a sea of poison, rocks and fire.”

“Most likely they saw something that took their interest in the cave,” suggested Bratten. Suddenly she looked down at her holoscreen which now beeped quickly. “I’m picking up a strange signal,” she said. “It is sending my instruments haywire.”

“What do you think it is?” Asked Jak. “Do we need to be worried?”

“In itself it doesn’t appear to be toxic,” replied Bratten. “But I can’t explain what it is. Whatever is down there in that cave appears to be completely unknown in the annals of the Confederation, something we’ve never seen before.”

“This is what the others were looking for,” surmised Arianna.

“And exactly what did for them in the process,” muttered Bratten. “I know Fratia. She wouldn’t have been one to pass this up and let somebody else come in to claim the glory. Rather she’d have been in that cave like a shot and she wouldn’t have stopped until she found out what it was.”

“But what
could
it be?” Asked Arianna in frustration. “It may not be toxic but it might well have caused harm to the others.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing all that exciting,” said Bratten dismissively. “It’s perfectly common to find unusual substances on unchartered planets. My guess is it’s a new type of fungus or something, might even be some sort of primitive bacterial life form; certainly I’m not detecting any brain activity down there. If we can ever get our hands on it without killing off half our team I’ll have the science officers analyse it and if necessary we’ll send a sample back to the Confederation in a tachyon pod.”

“No brain activity,” said Arianna after a brief period of silence. “You said you didn’t detect any brain activity down there. That means they’re dead, doesn’t it? All of them.”

Nobody answered, everybody appearing lost in their own thoughts. “Not necessarily,” said Bratten after a while. “It is possible they may have travelled downwards so they are out of range. We should know more once we’re at ground level.”

Jak turned the rover in an arcing manoeuvre and they rounded the corner of the mountain and now saw the remains of the ranger’s camp, eerily deserted and with the tent canvases flapping forlornly in the wind. The two rovers landed and the party disembarked.

“All their kit is still here, the tents are pitched and the rovers are untouched and ready to go,” said Jak after a cursory inspection of the abandoned camp.

Arianna looked around with distaste. This was hardly the ideal spot to camp out. The smell of sulphur permeated upwards whilst the all too close rumble of the volcanoes gave forth to an atmosphere of tension and volatility. Jak regarded it all with disgust. “The fool,” he muttered, speaking of Wal. “I can’t believe he was unaware of the dangers of a place like this. Why any number of calamities could have befallen him. I’m almost tempted to go back now and give them up for lost.”

“Significant that their kit is still here,” mused Bratten Jorg. “It shows they didn’t plan a proper investigation of the cave. Most likely they decided they wanted to be in and out in a hurry. They planned a quick look around to see what was down there, nothing more.”

“That means our inspection needs to be even more cursory,” said Jak frankly. “I’m not risking my life for whatever’s down there. We go in, find them dead or alive and get the hell out of there.”

Bratten shone the flashlight into the cave. Jagged stone walls flanked either side and soon the light of the torch was beaten back by the darkness. “This may be close to a fault line but the rock appears stable and from the look of that rock this volcano hasn’t erupted for thousands of years,” she said.

“What else could have happened to them if not a landslip?” Asked Jak. Bratten did not answer him. Arianna looked around again. If this volcano was indeed dormant it must have been one of the only ones in the area for all around there was evidence of recent seismic activity. Arianna could not believe this was the same world that was also home to the lush plains and fresh rivers surrounding their home city.

Bratten sighed heavily and steeled herself. “Come along then,” she said, taking a tentative step forwards. “We might as well get this over with.”

Arianna was suddenly nervous. She regretted having put herself forward for the search party, had only come along so that Jak wouldn’t risk himself too much. She reached for the laser pistol by her side. Arianna had never used one before. The things were made for blasting rocks, which was the only reason they had them. Mostly they were carried by the miners or engineers. The rangers rarely ever used them nor were they trained to do so, for nobody in the Confederation had fired a shot in anger for thousands of years.

Jak turned to two of the rangers. “Stay here,” he ordered them. “Wait five minutes then come and find us. I’m certain I don’t want to be in this hellhole a moment longer than I have to.”

Jak set the mode on his laser pistol to leave a trail of light so that they might find their way back easily enough. They proceeded along the tunnel of the cave but saw nothing. The rocks were jagged and sharp and in places the natural passageway was so narrow they were forced to squeeze through on their sides.

“Five minutes,” said Arianna at last, glancing at the clock on the end of her pistol. “We said we’d head back.”

“Just a little longer,” said Jak. “So far we’ve found no trace, nothing. We need to have at least some idea of what happened to them or the Admiral will only send us straight back.”

“And I’m still not able to identify this curious reading,” put in Bratten. “The Admiral will want to know what’s down here as well. We may as well get it over with. Like Jak I don’t much fancy a return trip.”

“Look at this,” said Arianna, pointing at a blackened patch of the cave wall. Bratten approached and examined the patch closely. “Singed,” she said eventually. “Singed by a laser pistol by the looks of things. That means they must have fired them, and there are more singe marks, look.” She moved the flashlight in an arc to demonstrate other black patches peppering the walls.

Their fear grew but so too did their burning curiosity. They had to know what had happened to the others. Their eyes alighted upon a dark mound in a small chamber. “They look like rags,” said Yalor Hain, one of the rangers.

“They are rags,” said Jak grimly, bending down to pick up one of the tattered garments. “And look at this. The logo of the Confederation as worn on the ranger’s uniforms.”

“Why would they take their own uniforms off?” Wondered Yalor Hain.

“It looks as though they were ripped off,” said Jak solemnly.

“But why?” Asked Arianna, trying to hide the unease from her voice.

“Maybe it is the heat,” said Bratten Jorg. “It is oppressively hot down here.”

They rounded a corner and came into a small chamber with two passages leading off to either side the stopped short and stared. Blood caked the walls and dripped down on to the floor where it formed in congealing pools. Smears of blood lined the walls and it was as if somebody had been clawing at the rock itself in a bid to dig their way out. In places the patches of blood were so thick on the walls it looked as though it could have been hosed on.

“Why is there so much blood?” Demanded Bratten. She was struggling to control her breathing and felt herself close to panic.

“Delirium,” exclaimed Arianna suddenly. “I’ve read about it happening once before. These colonists ended up tearing off their clothes and harming themselves. It was something to do with hypothermia or severe altitude sickness.”

“But we’re not high up and nor is it especially cold in here,” stated Jak simply.

“Either way I think we should get out of here,” said Bratten, and there was no disguising the fear in her voice now.

“You’re right,” said Jak. “We’ve seen enough. There’s no sign of life and too much blood for anybody to have survived for long. Whatever happened will have to be surmised. We need to get out of here.”

Just then Yalor tripped and fell back against the wall of the cave, his cry of shock and pain causing everybody to give a start. The ranger looked down in horror. Everybody followed his stare. It was a large and indistinguishable lump of human flesh. Arianna staggered backwards. She felt as though she were going to be sick. At the sight of it Bratten let out a cry, her already fragile veneer of calm now completely deserting her and set off at a run. “Bratten!” Called Jak after her. “Bratten come back! We can’t afford to get ourselves separated!”