'Ready.'
Berry went into
the darkness first, but Hellicoyle wasn't far behind. They tried to
communicate, but heard nothing from each other. Hellicoyle suddenly
felt something strong grab his arm and pull him along, and prayed
it was Berry. As he was dragged along, he saw not one, but several
dull yellow lights. The closer they got to one light, the more
obvious they were at the start, or end of another narrow tunnel.
Once out of the dark space and into the new tunnel, like the one
they had crawled along, their helmet radios worked well.
'This the way
to Phobos?' Hellicoyle asked.
'Your guess is
as good as mine. This tunnel is exactly like the first one we
found, precision moulded by intense heat. Come on.'
'Is your
postracker working?'
Berry checked
the disc on his right forearm. It glowed green. 'Yeah. Yours?'
'I noticed it
wasn't until we came into the tunnel. I want to see if we can be
tracking our movements when we get back.'
Berry took the
lead and followed the tunnel, straight and true. After a full hour
of tedious slog they were both wondering whether or not to double
back when they came to something new and unexpected. The tunnel
ended, continuing up above them at ninety degrees to the direction
they had crawled. There was barely room enough for the pair to
stand up straight together, but it was a relief for their backs and
aching limbs. Although dead straight, it appeared to go up for
miles.
'Jeez. How high
is that?' Berry asked.
'It could be
many miles up,' said Hellicoyle. 'Richter didn't mention anything
like this.'
'I agree,' said
Berry. 'I'm sure he would have done. That's way too much just to go
to the surface.'
'I wouldn't be
surprised if we can find some clues at the top of it. I can't think
of anything we have to get us up there to take a look.'
Berry said,
'Assuming we could even find this again.'
'Extraordinary.
All this time and we never knew we had this under our feet. We have
to find a way up that tunnel.'
Propulsion
engineer, Skye Lewquarker, knew a thing or two about thrust. She
was also a genius with figures, although many a man thought her own
figure was quite appealing. She also worked on the jungle beehives
in her spare time, because the age old puzzle of the larger bees
being unable to fly in theory, intrigued her. She also liked
honey.
'Right. You
have a vertical tunnel, about three feet wide, dead smooth walls,
very high, and you need a form of propulsion to get you perhaps
several miles high.'
'That's about
the size of it,' said Berry, admiring Skye's curves.
'Just how
perfect is the tunnel, especially the vertical one?'
'Pretty
flawless perfection, from what I could see,' said Hellicoyle.
'Hmm. Assuming
it is that perfect, I'm thinking the diameter of the tunnel will be
very restrictive for a backpack. Too much of a tendency to rub up
against and bounce around the tunnel wall. A fuel supply would be
very limited, also. Hmm.' Lewquarker paced up and down, chin in her
hand. 'Right.' She paced some more. 'We can use the well made walls
as a guide for some kind of small thruster. If we made the housing
three feet in diameter, with wheels to run against the walls, so
the person can either stand or better still, sit on it, we can have
a grunty engine, with a reasonable fuel capacity. Your suit will
protect you from gases. I have a design in mind.'
Hellicoyle
asked,'Dare I ask how long it will take to make?'
'Good question.
This time tomorrow okay for you?'
'Excellent.
Thanks, Skye. We'll leave you to it.'
They weren't
disappointed when they met with Skye the following day by the small
tunnel entrance.
'Impressive,'
said Berry. 'So's the thing you built.'
'And you a
married man, Raz. Behave. Okay. I took accurate tunnel
measurements. Amazing precision, by the way. So, this is not unlike
a big base drum with an inbuilt propulsion unit. On the outside in
the direction of travel are five spring loaded wheels that ride
against the walls of the tunnel, taking up any minor imperfections,
not that I could see any, so it shouldn't jamb up.
The fuel supply
should be good for between sixty and seventy miles of travel. No
brakes, but you can slow down or accelerate using one simple
control. You kneel on the centre of the drum platform. You hook
your lower legs in this loop and hold on with one hand, control it
with the other.'
'Top speed?'
asked Hellicoyle.
'Between three
and five miles per hour, so very controllable. Just keep to the low
end because if you meet a dead end, you could end up dead. Oh. To
reverse, just twist the controls clockwise.'
'A great job in
such a limited time,' said Hellicoyle. 'Thanks, Skye. Who's feeling
brave? Raz?'
'I'll give it a
go.'
Skye Lewquarker
wished them good luck, Berry went ahead of the “drum” pulling it
along, whilst Hellicoyle pushed them. They almost lost it crossing
the black hole, but eventually found the small tunnel they were
after that led to the vertical tunnel, deep inside Mons. It was
tricky getting from the horizontal tunnel to the vertical with
Berry finally in the kneeling position on top of the drum, ready to
press the ignition button.
'Ready,
Raz?'
'As I'll ever
be. Stay well out of the way of the exhaust.'
'I'm clear. Go,
Raz.'
There was a
slight roaring sound, and Hellicoyle saw the exhaust jets from
underneath the drum. With surprising smoothness, Berry was on his
way at three miles per hour to a place never seen before by a human
being, deep inside the tallest mountain in the solar system.
Berry had to
close his eyes. His closeness to the continuously moving smooth
surface, albeit at a sedate pace, was turning his stomach. Then he
realised he should keep his eyes open, to avoid a calamity on his
arrival at his unknown destination. So he opened his eyes...just a
little too late. The propulsion device he rode upon suddenly had no
tunnel to control its assent. When the exhaust propulsion had
nothing solid beneath it, the leisurely ride up became a wildly
uncontrollable tornado. Berry was bounced around the walls like a
pinball in a machine, before he remembered to let go of the
controls. He dropped hard onto the ground. He rolled around in
pain, but his pain melted away at sight of the huge domed room.
Painfully, he got to his feet. He flipped off his sun visor and he
had a clear view. A concerned voice filled his helmet.
'Raz? Raz? Are
you there?'
'Felix. I had a
bit of a hard landing, but I'll be okay. I'm in a sort of big domed
room. Massive. I'm going to try to send you what I'm looking at,
but I'm not sure if it will work after that landing. Jeez. Sorry
you can't be here with me.'
'I can if you
send the damn platform back.'
'Sorry, I
forgot. It doesn't seem too beat up. Make sure you keep out of the
way when it gets there. On its way.' The device set off at a steady
walking pace to get Hellicoyle. 'Felix. Prepare to have your mind
completely blown away. This is incredible.'
'Stop sending
it me second hand. I'm on my way.'
Even so,
Hellicoyle was subjected to fifteen minutes of, WOW! JEEZ! YOU
GOTTA SEE THIS!
Hellicoyle made
a more graceful exit of the tunnel, laying the device carefully by
the entrance. He too flipped his sun visor.
'My God. I
thought you must be exaggerating, but clearly not. Is he...it the
only one?'
'I've had a
quick look around, but he's the only one I've seen so far.'
They stared at
the dried husk of a small being. It was twisted up with thin, bony
knees tucked up into a barrel chest. It was dressed in a smock like
gown of a silver grey material. It wore no breathing apparatus.
Hellicoyle
said, 'He isn't human, but either he's from this planet, or this
dome was some sort of airtight room filled with whatever he
breathed. He wasn't too happy by the look of his expression.'
Berry crossed
the room to some odd shapes along one side. 'This is what I'm
interested in. Remind you of anything?'
'Some sort of
control room. But they look like dummy control panels. Sort of
pretend stuff.'
'I see what you
mean, but what would be the point?'
Berry asked,
'And why only one body? What's that about?'
Hellicoyle was
down on one knee examining the body. 'Not sure if this is his
natural colour, but it's not a very healthy yellow. I'll get the
medical centre to take him to be properly examined later and to do
an autopsy. Interesting.'
'What?'
'Come and
look.'
Berry said,
'I'm not good with dead bodies.'
'I think
there's been foul play, here.'
'Come
again?'
Hellicoyle
said, 'I think he was murdered.'
'Yeah? Well it
sure wasn't me.'
'Come on. We
need to tell the commanders.'
Berry said,
'I'll go first and you can keep taking a look. I'll send the thing
back up to get you.'
Berry got on
the platform and ignited the thruster which gently lowered him down
the tunnel. Hellicoyle continued checking the room, but his eyes
were homing in on the small dead body. The face was distorted in a
twisted grimace of agony. Large, very round, lash-less eyes seemed
to be following him around the domed room. And it was odd just to
be one of them. His thoughts were interrupted by the platform
returning and he hurried to put his weight on it to stop it come
flying out of the tunnel. He knelt down on it, hooked his legs
through the security loop and turned the control clockwise. He was
on his way down.
'Commander
Potts,' said Berry. 'Geology has a certain amount of detective
work, but not so much on people.'
'But murdered?'
said Potts. 'He's an alien. Does that even count as murder for us
humans?'
Forbes said,
'It would be good to have it looked at through the eyes of a
detective, or at least police. Just for interest sake.'
Potts said,
'The nearest we have to a detective is Commander Lance Dillow. I'll
put a call out for him.'
As Potts did
that, Forbes, Hellicoyle and Berry discussed the new find.
Seventeen minutes later, Commander of Space Security Lance “Armour”
Dillow, arrived.
'A murder?'
Dillow studied their faces. This only sounded like a wind up.
'It looked that
way to me,' said Hellicoyle. 'I didn't touch the body, just in case
somebody thought it should be investigated.'
'I'm not a
detective.'
Forbes said,
'Lance. You're the nearest thing to a detective that we have. Look.
That...alien could well have died hundreds or thousands of years
ago. We are just trying to do the right thing here. If you don't
come to any conclusion, it doesn't really matter. Will you check
things out?'
Potts added,
'You might find it interesting. Go take a look around, then let the
medical centre loose on him.'
'Fair enough.
It will make a change from busting drunk teen heads. I always
thought it was a bad mix, youngsters, booze and drugs.'
Forbes had been
expecting that remark. 'Your concerns are duly noted. Again.'
'Yeah, right,'
growled the giant. 'One of you going to show me how to get
there?'
'Of course,'
said Berry. 'Oh. That reminds me. I'd like to take a look on the
postracker, to see where we actually went.'
'I've a
postracker scanner here, somewhere,' said Forbes. 'Here. Give me
your arm.'
Berry held out
his arm and Forbes scanned the small disk. The three dimensional
projector on one wall showed a schematic view of the surrounding
area. Berry's present position showed as a pulsating light in
Forbes' office.
'Computer,'
Forbes commanded. 'Trace postracker Raz Barry. Five minute
increments.' They followed the postracker log of Berry's movements.
'That's the mine.'
'That's me in
the small tunnel. Making my way along, to come here. Coming to
where the tunnel meets the black stuff. What the hell happened
then?'
Hellicoyle
said, 'We would be making our way to the tunnel at that time.
Clearly, the postracker doesn't work in the black stuff.'
Dillow said,
'Where were you before that?'
'Coming from
the tunnel that leads to the dead guy,' said Berry. 'And here's the
signal. Oh, crap.'
'That has to be
a misreading,' said Hellicoyle. 'It puts us in the middle of
Olympus Mons. It was a bit of a slog in that tunnel, but we never
went a hundred and fifty miles.'
'That's half
the diameter of Mons. Let me scan your postracker, Felix,' said
Forbes.
Forbes repeated
the procedure on Hellicoyle's postracker disk. It followed Berry's
journey almost exactly. it also had him in the middle of the huge
mountain.
Dillow asked,
'How high up did the vertical tunnel take you?'
'Not that far.
It seemed like two or three miles.'
Forbes said,
'Try about twelve miles. You were pretty high up Mons, roughly
central.'
Hellicoyle
shared a confused look with Berry as the three dimensional
projection showed both their positions miles higher than they would
ever have imagined possible. 'I have no explanation for what just
happened.'
'Downright
weird,' said Berry.
Dillow said,
'Maybe we can figure that out later. Show me that damn body.'
'I'll take
you,' said Hellicoyle. 'Want to go now?'
'Lets go,' said
Dillow.
'Five more
days,' said Cragg with a sigh.
'Getting stir
crazy, Craggy?'