GeneStorm: City in the Sky (41 page)

“Yes, citizen?”

Snapper called to the computer. “Return all security robots to storage areas.”

Beau waved a hand. “Seconded! Return the robots to storage.”

“Security robots returning to their ready zones.”

The robot jamming the doorway moved off and away. There was a hellish clanking and clattering outside. Kitt peered through the red hot hole blown through the door, shielding her face from the heat.

“It’s working! They’re all heading back into those trenches!”

“Great!” Snapper flinched from the waves of heat coming off the door. “Computer – once the security robots return to storage, shut them down. Quarantine is now over.” Snapper called out. “Beau?”

“Yes – shut down the security robots. We are declaring the quarantine to be finished.”

“Yes, honoured chairman.”

Kitt and Throckmorton blinked in relief. Snapper tried to fight her way forward through the molten door, but the heat drove her back. She measured up the gap, intending to make a running leap, but Kitt held her back.

“Wait!”

“We have to get the critters! We have to chase down Kenda!”

“He has a plasma gun!” Kitterpokkie clung to the shark. “Snapper – we have to wait for it to cool! Throcky can’t go through! His gas might explode!”

Snapper was utterly beside herself. “We can’t let him get away! We have to get those guns!”

“Snapper, he’s already away. We can’t catch him.”

Beau came forward, raising his hands in supplication.

“Dear, as your husband, I really must insist that we speak about this.”

“Beau, not even in jest. I mean it!” Snapper pointed her sabre at the man. “Nup! Nuh uh! No mention! No marriage mentions! None! Never!”

The whole area outside the molten doors was filled with red hot metal, steaming plastic and smoke. Deadly heat radiated up out of the ground. The opening in the door was big enough to crawl through, but a running jump was clearly foolish. Kitterpokkie ran back through to the kitchen.

“Is there water? Let’s cool it down!” There were a few bowls here and there. “Open your packs – use the cooking pots! Throcky – you stay here and fill. Keep away from the heat.”

She started carrying water to the molten door, throwing it from a distance. Steam burst and hissed into life. But three trips and three pots worth of water seemed to do little to cool the metal down. The mantis shielded her face and winced.

“Can we get out through that floor hatch?”

“Um, no.” Beau was helping Throckmorton fill more pots and pans. “It looks melted. I think the robots had started shooting at that one too.”

Snapper swore and tore open her pack. She found a billy can and tossed it to Throckmorton. Kenda’s pack lay nearby – she upended it and spilled the contents all over the floor. She passed the man’s cooking pot to Beau, then found two pieces of weird technology hidden in amongst the underwear and socks.

One was a small hand held box, clearly of ancient manufacture. It had an aerial that could extend outwards a metre or more. She passed it to Kitterpokkie, who flipped it over and examined the controls.

“Radio. He had a radio with a functioning battery.”

“And this.” Snapper pulled out the second item. It was horribly familiar. “Throcky? Do you see this?”

It was a dead ringer for the flattened item Throckmorton had found amidst the tracks of the Screamer stampede. The device had a battery, and a simple on/off switch. Snapper flicked the switch, and almost threw the gadget away as a terrible screeching scraped up and down her nerves.

“Holy Godfish!” She clamped hands over the electric sensors in her snout.
“Off! Get it off!”

Kitterpokkie grabbed the device and shut it off. Snapper instantly relaxed. Kitt looked at her in inquiry. “What was it?”

“You didn’t feel that?” The shark had to shake her head. “That was there every time the Screamers attacked. Before they attacked! Every single time.”

“Coming from the Screamers?”

“I don’t think so.” Snapper shook her head, throwing off the terrible sensation. “But it was out there in the area. Somewhere nearby.”

“You sensed it even on that very first encounter?” Kitt was fascinated by the device. “And after you heard it, an attack always followed…”

The mantis looked up from the device.

“It’s a lure.” Kitterpokkie nodded. “Throckmorton found one at the battle site. They must draw the Screamers into areas by using these lures. Then once the Screamers sight their prey, the creatures go on a rampage on their own initiative.” She tapped the device in her hand. “They have agents out there. Remember the horse shoe? They must have agents herding the Screamers.”

“And infiltrating us.” Snapper arose. “Kenda was a guard for that wagon convoy. Want to bet there were friends of his working with the other convoys that were lost?” Snapper was angry at herself. “Damnit, his sword! No one in the villages ever made that sword. I should have known.”

Beau was still hurtling water onto the hole in the door. Steam hissed and water sizzled as he worked. “They have an army, and they have more Screamers. They intend to invade.”

“And they’ll wipe us all out if we can’t stop them.” Snapper ran fingers through her long hair. “Computer! Can you access the aircraft now present in the hangar? Can you prevent them from launching?”

The computer’s voice stuttered and wavered.

“Aircraft systems are autonomous. They are not responsive to commands from Mistral computers.”

“Can you deny them permission to take off?”

“Aircraft can be denied permission if in defiance of safety regulations, if weather forecasts indicate safety-critical weather, or if the vehicle does not correspond to safety standards.”

“Aha!” Snapper waved a hand at the computer. “Its power plant is a hundred and fifty years past its required servicing date!”

“Checking…”
The computer paused for a moment.
“Vehicle has been advised to return to hangar for servicing.”

“Return to hangar?”

“Vehicle has departed hangar. Passing out of Mistral air traffic control.”

“Damnit!”

Snapper threw Kenda’s clothing at the wall, where they lay atop a pile of hot metal and began smoking. A bottle of green oil sat by his pack. She kicked it aside.

“Damn!”

Throckmorton came flapping forward, dragging a hose along beneath him.

“Throckmorton has found a hose!”

“Excellent.” Beau helped to gather up the hose. “We’ll get the door cooled. Never fear – we can fix this! We shall triumph – the seeds of their doom are already sewn!”

The shark looked up at him.

“Really?”

“Oh absolutely. You and Kitt will figure it out. It’s what we do, it seems.” Beau headed to the kitchen to try and attach the hose. “Right! Here we go. Snapper – please do the honours.”

Snapper rose and took control of the hose. She sighed, and looked back towards the hologram.

“Computer – what’s the aircraft’s destination? Did it tell you its flight plan?”

“Flight plan recorded.”
The computer stuttered badly, then brought up a flickering holographic map.
“Destination is East Maquarrie station.”
The image wavered. It showed the transport map of the outer world. Maquarrie station lay far to the east of Padbury, along a subterranean rail line.
“ETA forty eight minutes.”

“He’ll get there just before the engines blow.” Snapper looked to the east. “So that must be right out in the desert. Way, way out there in the desert.”

“An enclave protected by waterless sands.” Kitterpokkie signalled to Beau, and water came sluicing out of the hose. “So that’s where they are.”

The hose was clearly the right tool for the job. Steam blasted back from the door and the pavement. Snapper worked on the task for the next few minutes, but her mind was on Kenda and his invading hordes.

“Kenda and the Screamers. How are they getting to us across the desert?”

“At a guess? Subway tunnels.” Kitt waded through the splashing water and steam, gingerly feeling the heat from the door. “They’ll be coming straight down that tunnel that leads from the desert towards Padbury. They probably blew in one end of the tunnel to hide their route when the last invasion failed.” The map showed three small stations dotting the route. “They likely have other exits – little stations, inspection hatches… but Padbury brought them right to our door.”

“They could emerge anywhere along that eastern tunnel line.” Snapper finished with the hose. “Find an inspection hatch, dig a wider exit, and they have an invasion route.”

“Exactly.”

Kitterpokkie touched the door. “Right – cool!” She stepped through and checked the world outside. “Excellent. Well, let us not despair. We have one vital, crippling advantage over the blighters.”

Snapper hauled on her pack. “What’s that?”

“Kenda is quite certain that we are dead.” The mantis nodded, feeling a twinge of excitement. “And that will serve us very nicely. I think we can pull the tools we need into place.” She headed back into the security building. “Beau – let us interrogate the computer for a while.

Snapper ran outside, checked for robots, then ran to the garage. The animals were rather subdued, and crept out peering cautiously around. Throckmorton arrived and helped to round up the pack beasts. Onan and Pendleton shook out their respective feathers and fur. Snapper led the entire collection of animals carefully around to the other building, just in time to see Beau and Kitterpokkie ferrying the equipment out onto a patch of unburned lawn. Kitterpokkie was triumphant.

“I don’t think Kenda’s army will be able to do much for a while. It will certainly take them a week to walk through the tunnels to reach the west. Still, we must be busy! Work to do, work to do! We should hopefully be off and flying before nightfall.”

Snapper pushed back her helmet. “The computer told you about stores and stuff?”

“Nitric acid, sulphuric and hydrochloric. They have storage drums. Hopefully intact. Silver and so on…” She looked triumphant. “And also two hundred kilograms of high explosives.”

“Oh!” Snapper blinked. “Whacko!”

“Exactly! So come along, no dawdling! Acid and explosives have to be loaded into the other aircraft. Then we need to do a quick run around to gather other things – tools and the like. We’ll only be able to make one trip!” She leapt up into her budgerigar’s saddle like a true trail veteran. “Our current aircraft has an even dodgier power plant than the last one. Still – it should last the trip home.”

“Really?”

“Hopefully.” The mantis consulted a hand drawn map. “Right, we go a kilometre that way, then two levels down. Yoiks and away!”

“Yoiks and away!” Snapper called back. “Beau! Mount up! We’re working.”

“Yes dear!”

Snapper gave a growl. “Stop that! I mean it!”

Snapper and Beau mounted their animals, then took hold of the pack beasts, along with Kenda’s abandoned beetle horse. With Throckmorton whirring along above, they headed off after the mantis before she could get into trouble.

Up above, the golden morning sun streamed inward through the city’s ceiling, and the artificial birds gave forth a peal of song.

Whilst the security robots were now well and truly deactivated, their past handiwork had left dreadful evidence. As the explorers rode across the vast, deserted city, they found signs of other massacres. Victims had been driven into corrals and gunned down by plasma weapons. Survivors had been hunted down inside the gigantic tree hotels. Some must have managed to escape – clearly there had been many more aircraft in the hangars. But the city was a terrible graveyard.

There were countless skeletons and bones jammed about the locked doors leading down into the storage decks. Kitterpokkie winced, and dismounted carefully. She led her budgerigar quietly forward, gently moving bones aside to clear a path.

Bolts and locks were seldom designed to resist serious work with hammers, chisels and crowbars. Beau and Snapper – far stronger than Kitterpokkie – set to work while Throckmorton hovered above on guard. Kitterpokkie knelt down to quietly move old bones aside, laying them quietly on the scorched, burned plastic grass.

All of the bodies were blue or red chipped – aside from a highly rare gold. Most of the chips were horribly burned and warped – although the gold one and three of the blues seemed in good condition. Throckmorton drifted down and retrieved the gold chip, turning it over and over in his tentacles.

“Should we take these chips?”

Snapper was almost finished hacking through the old bolts on the access door.

“Yeah… Yeah, they don’t need them anymore. When are we ever going to see a gold again?” She wrenched at the door. “Keep it as a souvenir!”

The doors were finally wrenched open. A ramp led down into wide grey corridors below. Light strips flickered into life here and there. Warning signs on the walls were exactly what Kitterpokkie’s dreams were made of. She pushed forward, read the signs, then beckoned everyone to come swiftly down the ramp.