GeneStorm: City in the Sky (35 page)

“Grab my dorsal fin!”

Kitterpokkie managed to hook onto Snapper’s great, curved fin. Snapper sped through the water with great strokes of both arms and tail. Kitt was hoisted up and out of the water by the bedraggled Beau. Snapper felt a goldfish biting unsuccessfully at her tough hide, and waited no longer. She clawed her way up out of the water, and sat dripping at the edge of the lily pad with her heart thumping excitedly in her chest.

They were all aboard – explorers, animals and all. Beau tried to politely squeeze the water from his feathers and fur. He had almost managed the job, when Pendleton shook himself, deluging water over everything in sight. The fox-pheasant stood glowering as the moth sniggered in wicked delight. Snapper looked at Pendleton in annoyance, wiped her face, then carefully moved over towards the far edge of the lily pad.

The next pad was perhaps two metres away – an awkward jump that would have to be taken at the run. But that pad connected to another and another and another… She could make out a route that curved about a rubble island and then led off towards the waiting platform tower.

Throckmorton came to hover beside her. He was looking about himself with his little heads. Several of his faces focussed upon Snapper.

“Things would be far easier if everyone could fly.”

“They would indeed.” Snapper patted the plant’s woody gas bladders. “How are you doing, my friend?”

“Very well, thank you. Though Throckmorton would dearly like to eat meatballs and beer.”
The plant smacked several sets of lips. The little magenta/orange faces looked delightfully innocent.
“When we return to Spark Town, Toby has said there will be a barbecue.”

“That sounds excellent! Maybe down at the river again.” Snapper looked out over the lake, with its dreaming towers, and the city ruins all impossibly green and lush at every side. “But I’d love to bring him here – where he and Samuels could see the city again.”

“We shall do it. As long as there are meatballs.”
The plant began flapping his wings, and motored out over the next lily pad.
“Throckmorton shall gain some height, to find his friends the quickest route.”

“Thank you, Throckmorton.”

Snapper was soggy, her clothes smelled of lake water, and a small violent goldfish had clamped onto her tail. Snapper removed the fish and slung it back into the water, then ran about to check on the gear. Guns were still in place – camping gear… But the salty crackers had been thoroughly soaked. Mortified with guilt, Snapper searched about but found that every box had been swamped. Onan looked at her, aghast.

“Salty cracker?”

“All gone!” Snapper was distraught. “There’s salt! Maybe I can bake you some?”

“Bake now?”

“When we camp! We’ll try to bake you some when we camp.”

Crestfallen, Onan made a mournful sound. It utterly broke Snapper’s heart. She rummaged anxiously about her saddlebags, trying to find another treat.

“There’s bacon melon! That’s salty. You like bacon melon?”

Onan was inconsolable. “Cracker! Cracker cracker!”

“Soon! When we make a fire!”

She distracted the bird by grooming him and making a fuss, leading him over to the far edge of the lily pad. The huge plant bent and creaked beneath their feet.

Kitterpokkie summoned Throckmorton. The plant whirred over to the next chosen lily pad, trailing a rope behind him, then drove one of his crossbow bolts into the spongy surface of the pad. The rope was looped about the crossbow bolt, and the lily pad was hauled in closer. Rather than jumping across the awkward gap, the party stepped across, coming over one after another in turn.

It was all rather civilised.

Creatures were living on the lily pads: beautifully coloured butterfly fish swam in clear water that had pooled inside the beautiful lily blossom. They watched the intruders with amiable curiosity, cooing and calling to one another as they flew from flower to flower.

The adventurers moved carefully from lily pad to lily pad, working their way slowly across the titanic leaves. On one plant, they found a colony of little bugs that all ran away from them in a body – a veritable carpet of orange/red. On another, there was a riot of creatures that were part flower, part snail. In the water down below, ancient car bodies were covered with brown furze. Shops and buildings were now home to great, long fish that meandered quietly along the ancient avenues.

Pad by pad, the party made their way into the great, quiet spaces between the waiting towers. The titanic mass of the buildings was wonderfully thrilling – the eye looked up, up towards the tower tops. Ancient windows glittered, greenery moved slowly in the breeze, and far above, clouds drifted in an empty sky.

A great beard of thick, heavy creeper trailed down from the massive tower that Snapper had selected as their target. They worked over into the shadow of the immense tower, until finally they floated on a lily pad mere metres away. They looked up at the majestic tower in awe – chilled by the sheer scale and mass of the achievement.

Throckmorton flew across to an open balcony, towing Snapper’s rope behind him. He tied it to a pillar using a deft little knot. Slowly, slowly the lily pad was towed across until it ground up against the dense mass of creepers. The birds, moths and beetles would be quite able to climb their way aboard. Snapper tied the rope off around the lily pad’s flower, anchoring everything in place, and dusted off her hands.

“Right!” She smoothed back her hair. “OK – so – tower time!”

One by one, the animals were guided over into the ancient tower. The explorers moved out into a cavernous place littered with bird droppings and old leaves. They looked about themselves, gazing about walls that had been scored and burned by ancient plasma fire.

Onan tugged at Snapper’s coat.

“Salty cracker?”

“Yes mate, the moment I get some made.” Snapper patted her bird. “Anyway, we’re here.”

Beau looked about the giant cavern, impressed by the scale and engineering.

“And where is
here
exactly?”

Kitterpokkie carefully pulled old dead creepers away from lettering plated to the wall.

“Ah! We are at
‘Nambeena Metro Skyhub’
!” Kitterpokkie cleared away more old plant stalks
. “Gateway to the South-West’
, whatever that may be.”

Kenda looked at the sign in great satisfaction. “Skyhub. Yes indeed…”

“Intriguing, isn’t it?” Kitterpokkie looked towards a row of broad double doors. “Oh, my interest is truly piqued!”

The stairwells to the levels down below were all blocked – apparently deliberately. Every desk, chair, lamp and table had apparently been used to fashion barricades – barricades that seemed to have been subsequently torn apart. Flooded stairwells showed violent plasma burns all over the walls and steps – even on the ceilings. The savage marks continued all up the stairs, with huge holes in the stairs having been blasted completely through. Snapper carefully approached one set of stairs, but the steps had been demolished for the entire length up to the first landing. The shards and stumps might be climbable, but looked horribly dangerous. Snapper crossed the huge hall and found the second stairwell – this one narrower, and with the barricade down in the water still fairly firm. There were no plasma gun burns on the walls – but a pair of human skeletons in ancient armour lay crumbled on the stairs. Creepers grew from the mouths and eye sockets of the ancient skulls.

The shark came carefully forward, looking up the stairwell. There were more bodies up above – old armour lying here and there. She frowned. Kenda came to join her, for once looking strangely pleased.

“Excellent.”

He began to move. Snapper held up and hand and kept him in place.

“Wait.”

“Why?”

“Bodies in armour. Dead soldiers – and no guns.” Snapper didn’t like the feel of it. “Their own men must have taken the guns.”

Beau came forward – looking thoroughly suspicious. “Booby traps beneath the bodies?”

“That would be my guess.” Snapper was a junk prospector through and through. “Yeah – I don’t want to disturb those unless we have to. That has all the hallmarks of a pocket-apocalypse just waiting to happen.” The stairs seemed rather narrow- the odds of jostling one of the ancient skeletons was rather high. “We still need a way to gain the upper levels…”

A bell suddenly rang from behind them.

Kenda, Beau and Snapper turned. Throckmorton and Kitt had apparently pressed a button beside the big double doors. The doors had slid open to reveal a small room with an ancient armoured skeleton lying strewn extravagantly across the floor.

Music drifted from the odd little room – soporific, sophisticated, and oddly annoying. Snapper’s jaw sagged.

“You’re kidding me.”

Kitterpokkie peeked into the little room and looked about it in interest. “Well the elevators are still here. That’s always good news!”

Snapper blinked. “Are they safe?”

“Well the doors work – and the music. I doubt the actual lift motors still function – far too many mechanical parts to rust and decay… ” She inspected the charred skeleton lying on the floor, and picked up a burst plasma pistol that lay amongst the bones. “Oh! Here we go! Poor chap couldn’t throw it away. Nasty”

A second elevator also held an armoured body. Snapper levered open the creaking doors with her crowbar, and found another skeleton strewn all about the floor. The fallen soldier had clearly been chewed by something with very big teeth. His armour had consisted of a cuirass and helmet. Only the breastplate remained whole and hearty. Snapper removed the cuirass, carefully pulling it free from the old bones. She apologised to the skeleton, smoothing the bones back into place.

“Sorry, my friend. We’ll leave you in peace now.”

She slipped the gleaming black breastplate into her backpack, and looked back at Kitterpokkie.

“Stairs?”

“Stairs it is.”

They emerged back out into the vast main room. Kenda and Beau were peering into an ancient broom closet, and the riding beasts were gazing about at the décor. Snapper looked about herself and suddenly gave a frown.

“Where the hell is Throckmorton?”

There was a clang and bang from behind a desk. Throckmorton was messing about, pulling out some shiny objects from a drawer. There was an ornate hat covered in braid, a pink bra and a thermos flask. The plant dusted it off and looked at it all in interest. Snapper gave a scowl.

“Throcky! What the hell are you doing?”

“Throckmorton has found a thing!”
The plant happily waved his new hat.
“And Throckmorton found silver stairs.”

“Silver stairs?”

At the far end of the massive cavern was a great, transparent wall. Massively thick, it was covered with claw marks, rips and scrapes, as though a frenzied mass of monsters had tried to rip their way through the barrier. The great transparent sheet had apparently withstood almost anything – although it had finally failed when someone had plunged some sort of flying vehicle in through a window. A shattered mass of wreckage had ploughed across the floor, smashing a hole through the barrier and ending up crashed into a nest of shops.
“Handbag World”
and
“The Creamery”
would never be the same.

Multiple sets of silver coloured stairs with glass sided railings lead up to a massive balcony up above – and then on to yet another floor.

The group led their pack beasts and mounts slowly forward, picking their way across the wreckage. Shattered shops were full of mould and decay. Several mechanical devices had been flung against the walls and broken – strange articulated things with many arms, with wheels and treads. Hologram signs flickered suddenly into life, displaying a spectacular flying vehicle that seemed to be crewed by humans in white uniforms – all of whom had immaculately perfect hair. The aircraft – a big dart shaped thing painted in white and blue stripes – winged off into the sunset, headed towards a great, shining island.

A city in the sky.

Snapper, Beau and Kitterpokkie stood and stared.

The hologram images showed a great, round, glass roofed city – an immense disk that floated amongst the clouds. Happy passengers were welcomed by human women who heaped them with flowers. A glittering world of swimming pools, cocktail bars and waterslides seemed to spread out beneath the dome. A shimmering logo burst forth and hovered in the air above the gaping adventurers, crackling and shimmering as the hologram equipment nearly failed.

Mistral.

Snapper walked Onan over to the silver stairs. They seemed solid – the crashed vehicle had never reached quite this far. She tested them out, and then began to walk up, up, up into the air, with Onan and her pack beetle following behind.

There was no collapse – no creak or groan of material fatigue. Kenda came next, moving briskly, towing his beetle-horse and pack animal. The others followed, with Throckmorton floating along beside them, still marvellously happy with his elaborate new hat.

They emerged up onto a concourse filled with seating. More holograms stuttered into life, and eerie music from a corrupted old sound system echoed from above. Bug-mice paused to stare at the visitors before scampering away into ancient shops once filled with sweets, jerky or piping hot fast foods.