The Fire Crystal (12 page)

Amber explained that her own people had seen this many times as they explored the galaxy. This was global warming that had got out of control.

“It could be worse
,” she explained. “There are a few planets that are just wastelands of atomic poisons, and with so much radiation that parts of the landscape actually glow.”

Calvan sat with his head in his hands. “I shouldn’t have seen all this, it’s not natural,” he said, “Even if we get back I will be the only one that knows all this, no one will believe me, and if I keep talking about it they may even lock me away.”

Amber thought quietly for a moment. “My guess is that your people have left this place now,” she said gently, “and spread out into space, thousands of years ago. That’s the best that I can offer, but I do believe it.”

“That does make sense,” Tom said encouragingly. “These changes wouldn’t have happened overnight, or even in a few centuries. The Earth people must have gone to Mars, and maybe the Asteroid Belt
, and beyond. They may even come back here in the future, and put things right.”

Amber spoke holding his hands in hers again. “But for now
, you will just have to have faith. Anyway, what Tom has just said makes the most sense.”

Calvan was already feeling better - thank
goodness he had the support of these wonderful friends.
He remembered the discussion they had when he first saw the time machine, and had decided that somehow he’d get back into the past, and change the future so that none of this would happen.

He told Amber the plan and all she said was, “I’m sorry, but even if that was possible you cannot do it. As I told you both, no one knows what would happen even if you change one small thing in the past.”

She spoke again. “We’re going to try to get back to the right time. Before we continue there’s something else I must explain to you both. When we jump – and we will soon, you may think that all we have to do is travel in time, and stay in the same place.”

“Yes I
’ve worked that one out for myself,” declared Tom proudly.

“ Well sorry to disappoint you,” answered Amber but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

“Isn’t it always?” Tom groaned.

She
explained. “There’s no fixed place in space, because everything is moving. For a start the Earth is spinning, and then it’s revolving around the Sun, and the galaxy that we are in is slowly turning around its hub, as we well know. As you can imagine there are a few calculations, if we want to arrive
back in this cave,
at the right time.”

“So if we end up in the wrong place
, can’t we just use the hyperdrive and come back here?” Calvan asked.

Amber
answered quietly, “Let me put it’s this way. When we jump, it’s no good getting the time right, if we end up in the heart of a supernova star for example.”

This was the worst scenario she could think of at the moment, but it seemed to leave an impression on the two boys.

“The real problem is the gravity waves that we encountered on the trip here. The computer should had taken all that into account, and made the adjustments, but obviously we got it wrong. This is new science after all.”

She was going to speak, but stopped as if struck dumb.

“What’s the matter,” Tom asked with concern.

“I’ve just had an idea,” she
answered.

“I hope that it’s not dangerous,” Tom said, only half joking.

“We’re going to Mars. It’s very close, and we don’t need to shift time zones. That will be a good test of my calculations. We’ll find out if there are Earth people there also,” she added for Calvan’s benefit.

Suddenly there was loud bang outside, and the whole machine shook. All eyes were on the monitor screen. The rock that sealed the cave had blown inwards, like a cork leaving a bottle. Then they realized why. The ground outside the cave had erupted in an explosion of mud, followed by what looked like a stream of lava. It was beginning to enter the cave, and had started to pool near the entrance.

Amber sealed the door quickly saying. “The air outside this machine is probably poisonous now, and very hot. This craft wasn’t designed for this, we need to leave – NOW!”

She moved her hand across the control panel with a single swipe
, and then started to tap symbols, tracing her finger around dials. The noise outside had grown to a deafening roar, and the monitor went dead as the craft rocked. They were worried about turning over.

Suddenly the walls of the box fell back
, and were replaced by swirling clouds. All was quiet, and the shaking had stopped.

“Welcome to Mars!” Amber announced. Both boys stared in disbelief as the walls cleared, and there in front of them was a long plain, dotted with large craters.

“Don’t step through,” Amber shouted, grabbing both of their arms. “We need to wear life support suits.”

“Are you sure we’ll be OK in these?” Calvan asked. They were lightweight
, and seemed flimsy, but he realized that the material was tough.

“Sure, they
’re far stronger than you can imagine,” Amber told him. “But don’t take my word for it, I’ll step through first”

“No that won’t be necessary,” he replied with embarrassment.

They all donned their suits and helmets. What really surprised Calvan was that once on, the suit slowly adjusted perfectly to his size, so that it was a snug fit. Amber checked their suit safety indicators, and gave the thumbs up. They all took a deep breath and stepped out onto the Martian soil.

They were standing on a great plain that seemed to gradually slope upwards, towards some distant mountains. The Sun
looked smaller here, otherwise it didn’t look much different. Out towards the mountains they could make out some clouds, close to the ground. “Dust storms,” Amber told them.

As they explored
, the Sun crept closer to the horizon, and their shadows grew longer. Then at sunset, they all decided to return to the craft, and make plans.

Early morning on Mars was not that bad Calvan thought. He hadn’t known that without a thick atmosphere to conduct body heat away
, they wouldn’t really notice just how cold it was. Amber had started to explain, and Calvan retorted, “It’s OK really, if I know the answer, it’ll spoil all the fun.”

“Lets call it magic
, and enjoy the sunrise,” Tom added as if teasing her.

The three of them had walked for a while now, and so far seen no sign of any other life. They had scanned the radio waves
, looking for a signal. Nothing! Amber was in the lead; with the other two close behind laughing and joking. Suddenly she noticed that the ground beneath her feet had shaken slightly for a few seconds

“Did you feel that,” she asked on the suit link. No answer. “Tom, Calvan, did you feel that shake?”

Silence. She turned around. There was no one there! They had disappeared, as if the ground had swallowed them up. She stared in disbelief, panicking a bit now and took a deep breath

“Guys, where are you? Will you answer me please?” How had they done it! She felt like the only living thing on the planet.

One second Tom and Calvan had been walking on the surface, and the next there was a slipping feeling, and sudden shock. They were plunging downwards in a cloud of debris - then darkness, crushing suffocation, and a surge of panic. It was silent now. They were buried, and a great weight was pressing all over them in the darkness.

But wait - something was moving again. There was a feeling of slipping in small jarring steps, followed by release
, and a sudden fall. Neither of them spoke for a moment, they were too shocked.

Then Tom switched on his suit light
, and announced, “We’ve fallen through into a cavern.”

Both boys breathed deeply. The panic was beginning to subside now.

Calvan spoke first. “At least we’re alive, but we have to find a way out, because we won’t last long even in these suits.”

Tom sampled the air outside of the suit
, and shouted in amazement, “I think we can breathe it.”

“I’m going to try anyway,” Calvan
said. He seemed to be still in shock. “Here goes.”

Tom was too late to stop him.

“This is about as good as it gets,” Calvan reported. “Try it for yourself.”

Tom removed his helmet and breathed air. “Now all we need is water,” he said

They probed the darkness with torchlight. The walls and roof were all one surface, although there was a soft looking spot where they had fallen through. No one was going to touch this, and they both instinctively lowered their voices, just in case even this could start a landslide effect, and bury them in the debris.

Calvan recalled the old hourglass at home in the kitchen. As a kid he used to watch as the sand fell through, filling the lower space. The comparison was obvious.

Up on the surface Amber was thinking logically. “Well they couldn’t have gone upwards, so there must be sinkholes in this ground. They could have fallen into an impact hole that was full of dust,” she said to herself.

She slowly retraced her steps over the ground, and noticed a small area that looked a bit different from the rest. Amber couldn’t hold the tears back now, as she scuffed at the ground.

“Stop it!” she thought. “Lots of sinkholes have a cave under them, and that’s the reason they fall in the first place. If that‘s the case, them maybe I can dig them out.”

She was still thinking this when the ground fell in again. The
re was the shocking fall, followed by a jarring crash, as she landed in a cloud of dust and debris on the hard floor of the cavern. Her head was spinning, and her neck hurt.

There looking at her in amazement were Tom and Calvan. What was wrong with them she thought? They were both staring upwards at the roof. The hole that she had fallen through had filled itself, but a trickle of dirt was steaming from it. She understood then, and felt a numbing fear.

Calvan leapt to his feet, “there’s no time to talk, we’re in an hourglass and need to get out.”

Tom
and Amber didn’t know what an hourglass was, but they got the general idea.

A fine choking dust filled the chamber
, and both the boys pulled their visors down. It was making it hard to see anything, even with their torches switched to full power. No sign of escape, all the walls were smooth and almost even. In the center of the chamber a pile of dust, gravel, and even some small rocks were beginning to build and spread outwards. Soon the pile would fill the cavern.

Amber thought hard. She was carrying a
survey backpack with some geology instruments, and supplies. This was usual for planetary investigation.

“
Hey STOP! I’ve found a shadow on the sounder screen, it could be our way out.” She was taking something else out of the pack now, a small square package with no features except a dial on one side and a small lever.

Both boys stared at it. It was an explosive charge, never intended for use in an enclosed space. They were supposed to be well clear when it blew.
The lever seemed to be locked with a pin. She twisted the dial, and removed the pin.

“Move across to the other side of the wall
, and face the other way, I plan on blasting our way out” she told them.

The explosion felt like a massive blow all over. The cavity was entirely filled with a thick
blinding dust now, and the torches had been thrown from their hands. All of them scrambled around the floor with ringing ears, looking for the light from their torch beams.

Suddenly
, as Amber crawled across the ground she noticed a glimmer coming from the other side of the wall, and edged towards it. The explosion had exposed an opening, and maybe a way out from this tomb.

She crawled quickly back for the
other two, but then her heart sank. Dust and stones were pouring through the roof now, and filling the cavity fast. Calvan and Tom had noticed that too, and started moving around the wall towards the light

They were both gesturing frantically for her to follow. Then they all jumped through the opening. There was an increasing roar behind them now
, as the roof collapsed in one big surge. They were pushed along a tunnel, riding a wave of debris, a tangled heap of arms and legs, helmets banging together. There was no sign of the chamber now, just a wall of dirt behind them. It was sealed off.

The air was beginning to clear. Amber had the only torch left, and she shone it ahead of them. The tunnel appeared to be long and straight, and the walls receded into the darkness.

She said, “let’s move, we need to be well clear of here.” Tom and Calvan were both limping, but it didn’t slow them down. They wanted out from this place.

The light from Amber’s torch was getting dimmer. The tunnel had started to close in on
them as they moved forward, and soon they would have to start crawling.

“Keep going,” Amber said encouragingly. “Tunnels usually lead to somewhere.”