by T. R. Harris
“Can’t you just conjure up a big bolt of energy and blow all this stuff away?” Monty asked as he worked feverishly next to the mutant.
“I cannot do that, not without having first absorbed the energy.”
Monty stopped. “Really?”
Panur stopped as well, looking at Monty askew.
“That would be dangerous. I give off a tremendous amount of heat.”
Sherri knew what they were talking about.
“He’ll also end up naked, and none of us wants that.”
“We have to try,” Monty said. “If Kanan intends to destroy the planet, we may have time to get away. But first, we have to get out of here.”
“We might also be able to help Adam,” Riyad added.
“Yeah, that, too.”
Panur held up his hands. “I’m game if you are. But please stand back as far as you can. I’ll try to make it quick, although I can’t guarantee against future cave-ins.”
“I’m willing to risk it,” Monty persisted.
“Great,” said Sherri, surrendering to the majority. “Let me do the honors.”
“I would suggest both you and Riyad. You have the rifles. The more energy fed into me at once, the more of a reciprocal discharge I can produce.”
Sherri and Riyad, along with everyone else, stood back, pressing themselves against the back wall of the tunnel, where years ago the miners had given up on this particular vein. They cranked their Xan-fis up to full level-one.
“Keep it coming until I say stop—or you burn up,” Panur said with a smile. “Let her rip!”
The flash bolts were blinding, more blinding than normal, coming as they did in the dim light of the cave. Sherri and Riyad squinted into the flare, making sure they kept their aim on the mutant. The weapons didn’t have an automatic mode, so they had to press the trigger each time. Xan-fis had a capacity of twenty level-one bolts per charge, and even in the fight that took place outside the mine, neither had had the opportunity to light off a bolt, so they had full charges. Within seconds, Panur was glowing white-hot from the intake of forty level-one plasma bolts.
Sherri dropped the spent Xan-fi rifle and covered her face with her arms. She felt as if her skin was on fire, and it could have been. Panur was standing in a cloud of steam, rising from the boiling water on the floor. Summer was screaming at Panur to do something, goddammit, and Tidus had passed out from the heat.
None of them actually saw the ball of energy Panur cast out toward the pile of rocks blocking the tunnel. They were all turned away, either passed out or bent over in agony. The sound was incredible, a low, thundering that reverberated throughout the stone walls of the chamber.
But then the temperature began to drop. Sherri took a chance, turning around to see the hole in the top of the pile of rubble. A brilliant beam of light shot in from the other side, rapidly fading as Panur ran for the exterior of the mine.
“Help me with Tidus!” she yelled. “Everyone out of this oven. We’re melting.”
Summer was the first one to climb the low mound and move through the opening. She screeched as she lay a hand on a boulder on her right. Sherri could almost hear the skin sizzling.
“Oh my god! Watch the rocks,” Summer cried out. “They’re on fire.”
One by one, the team passed through the small opening. Tidus had regained consciousness, but he still needed some helping hands to retain his balance. Although the temperature on the other side of the blockage was still close to a hundred, it was a relief from what they’d just left.
“So. who’s brilliant idea was that!” Sherri yelled, directed her comment at Monty.
“I didn’t see anyone else coming up with something better,” Monty snapped back.
Riyad patted the big Navy master chief on the shoulder. “Hey, it worked. We’re alive, and about twenty pounds lighter. I’d call that a win.”
“Hurry up,” Summer said. “Panur’s gone outside. Hopefully, he’s rolled around in the snow a little by now to cool down.”
“And found some clothes,” Sherri added. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The team ran as best they could for the exit to the mine. Their energy was sapped, and they had discarded their jackets and coats in the tunnel, at least those who had them. Where only moments before they were about to be fried to death, they now shivered in the abrupt temperature change.
As they burst out into the dimming light of late afternoon, they gasped, and to a person, they hoped someone had brought an extra piece of clothing with them. Anything would have been better than what they saw.
Panur still glowed a little, but as Summer had predicted, he did dive into a small snowbank in the heavy shadows near the road. The icy water helped him cool down, but it didn’t cling to his near-featureless grey skin. Instead, it evaporated almost as soon as it touched him. Now Panur stood buck naked before them, full frontal and with a light cloud of white steam surrounding him like an aura.
This wasn’t the first time Sherri had seen Panur naked, but other than Riyad, she was sure it was a first for the others. And if they were like her the first time, an unasked question was answered. Now it made more sense why Lila liked him so much.
Sherri snickered. Panur was a shapeshifter, and as such, she knew he wasn’t above playing tricks on the others, even at a time like this.
“Oh, what the hell,” Monty said as he stepped up to the naked mutant. “I can’t deal with this.” He peeled off his tank top and handed it to Panur, leaving the barrel-chested Human topless; however, standing next to the still radiating mutant helped to keep him warm in the rapidly dropping temperature outside the mine. Panur took the shirt and wrapped it around his lower torso.
“We have to find Adam,” Riyad said, breaking the mood and getting everyone’s mind back on business.
“Where’s his ship?” Tidus asked. No one answered.
“When I first saw him—as Adam—he was coming up the road,” Summer said. “It must be that way.”
“Let me try to contact Adam mentally,” Panur said. “Perhaps he can lead us to Kanan’s ship.” After a moment, he turned a sad face to the others. “I’m detecting no mental connection.”
“What does that mean?” Summer asked, desperation in her voice.
“It means either he’s gone with Kanan, or else he’s dead,” said Riyad softly.
“We still have to look for him, if, if he didn’t go with Kanan,” Summer pleaded.
“I’ll go with you,” Sherri said.
Riyad joined them near the tree line.
“I will stay here and check the contents of the ore cart. Perhaps I will find a clue as to what is in the case, as well as where Kanan has gone.”
“I’ll stay with Panur,” Monty said, crowding in close to the mutant, drafting off his residual warmth. Tidus stayed with Panur, as well.
“Wait!” the mutant called out as he began his survey of the contents in the bucket. He reached in and pulled out the rectangular box Kanan was excited to find in the artifacts. Sherri froze, as did Riyad.
Chapter 15
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked Panur.
The mutant set the box on the ground and flipped open the lid.
“Yes, it is; a dark-matter collector.”
“A what?” Monty asked, leaning over Panur to look into the container.
Sherri and Riyad rushed up, followed by a bewildered Summer Rains.
“What does it do?” Summer asked.
“It collects dark matter,” Panur answered with a straight face. His tone had changed. He was no longer playing around.
Sherri peered into the box, seeing the familiar rows with tiny compartments, each with another small box inside them. She didn’t have to count them. There would be ninety. But what suddenly took her breath away was the fact that four of the holders were empty.
“How can they be empty?” she asked Panur. “The collector has been here for six years.”
“They can’t,” Panur answered. “Not unl
ess they were recently removed.”
“Okay, guys, what’s going on?” Summer asked, picking up on the tension between Panur, Sherri and Riyad.
“Four of the cubes are missing. Considering the exponential effects of critical mass—”
“Wait! Are these the things Kanan makes his dark matter bombs out of?” Summer asked.
“That is correct, Ms. Rains,” Panur replied.
“So, he made a dark matter bomb before he left!”
“It would appear so. The containers replenish themselves in only two days, so for these cubicles to be empty means the cubes were removed since the collector was discovered.”
“Which was something like two hours ago, at the most. What did he do with them? Could he build a bomb just like that?” Summer snapped her fingers.
Panur stood up. “Kanan has the expertise to construct a crude joining mechanism; he could have done it with several items I see in the cart. And a simple degradation timer, as simple as a flask of falling sand, would be enough to allow him time to escape before fusion. But this event will be much smaller than those on Dasnon.”
“How much smaller?” Monty asked.
“Not small enough.” Panur scanned the eyes of those around him. “There is no time to search for Adam. We must get to the shuttle as soon as possible. There is no time to waste.”
What followed was a mad dash up the mountain. Although everyone except Panur was injured to some degree and weary to their bones, they did the best they could in the thin mountain air. It wasn’t so much a race as a slog, with Summer, Tidus and Monty continually bitching about how much farther is it? And then complaining even louder about why Riyad hadn’t landed the shuttle closer. Add to that, Monty’s whining about ‘the money, the money.’
Riyad snapped back, telling them how hard it was to find any landing spot, and to be thankful he found one at all.
The team was almost to the point of fist-a-cuffs by the time they found the waiting shuttle and barreled aboard.
Riyad didn’t even bother telling them to strap in before he was already firing off the lifting jets. He fastened his safety harness once they were in the air.
“So, how big will this thing be?” he asked Panur. He had a memory of him and Adam setting off a single pair of cubes on the planet Woken years before. He couldn’t imagine doubling the number of cubes would make that much difference.
“Each set of cubes is similar to your Richter Scale for measuring earthquakes. Each set is a hundred times more powerful than the set before.”
Riyad gasped and shoved the throttle to full power, although that was where it was already sitting.
“Maybe we’re just overreacting,” Sherri said. “Maybe he didn’t—”
The Ed Gibson, Jr. suddenly shuddered and began to lose altitude, spinning in a wild vortex. Monty and Tidus weren’t strapped in, and they ended up glued to the overhead, grasping for conduits and ventilation tubes to keep from being buffeted to death. Summer, Sherri and Panur were strapped into the only other seats in the cockpit besides Riyad’s. They were tossed from side to side as the ship tumbled while Riyad fought to regain control.
“Oh, god, he’s destroyed Navarus,” Summer cried out.
“Not all of it,” Panur corrected. “Now, prepare for the backwash.”
“The what?” someone asked.
A roaring blast of air now hit the small shuttle, rocketing it skyward. G-forces crushed everyone against whatever bulkhead or restraints near them as their lungs almost collapsed from the sudden acceleration.
The lifting jets were useless, as the tiny craft was moving much faster than the exhaust. Engines sputtered than flared out. A moment later, they reached apogee. They became weightless, before beginning the low fall back toward the surface.
Riyad shook off the vertigo and began franticly resetting the engines. They sputtered again but didn’t catch. He tried it again. And again. On the fourth try, the engines ignited. By then, the Ed Gibson, Jr. was careening toward an unrecognizable surface. Riyad pulled back the stick and using the natural aerodynamics of the shuttle—which weren’t much—began to regain control. He pitched the nose up, and the ship began to gain altitude.
Someone bumped into Riyad’s back as the cockpit filled with all seven members of the team, each trying to get a look out the viewport. To help them, Riyad activated a camera on the bottom of the shuttle and sent it to his main screen. What appeared took their breath away.
Although most of the features on the surface were still obscured by clouds of dust and debris, it was impossible to miss the impact of the dark matter event. Below them was a perfectly round and smooth bowl, sitting in the exact spot where Mt. Zocor once stood. The granite surface of the depression reflected the light of the setting sun, creating a spotlight out of the depression. It was both beautiful and frightening. The forests on the adjoining mountains lay in patterns on the ground, having been first knocked down by winds being sucked in toward the singularity, and then cast out as the atmosphere rebounded. Although the event just occurred, there were no eruptions of volcanic magma. The mountain range had been pushed up as a result of plate tectonics, not volcanic activity. There was a chance there would never be magma entering the gigantic bowl, although it would undoubtedly form a lake, a beautiful, incredibly deep and perfectly circular lake where the mountain once stood.
“There it goes,” Monty moaned. “Everything, down the drain. And we had it. We had the money.”
“I am sorry, my friend,” said Tidus, the Juirean. “But we never had it. And if we stayed, we would be gone now, just as Mt. Zocor.”
“We are alive,” said Panur. “That should count for something.”
“Alive … but poor,” Monty muttered. “I’m not sure if I prefer that to the alternative.”
“Dead and rich?” Summer inquired.
“What about Adam?” Sherri asked.
Panur looked at her. “We must assume Kanan took him with him.”
“And why must we assume that?” Sherri asked sarcastically.
“Because Adam is a curiosity to him. He built a robot to mimic his form. He knows he has certain abilities beyond those of normal Humans. And he still needs someone to carry his case. Adam poses no threat to him at the moment. Kanan will keep him around to be his service module.”
Sherri shrugged. “I hope you’re right.” She looked out the viewport at the altered landscape of this part of Navarus. “What now?”
“Mr. Tarazi, contact the Ed Gibson. Let us get an update on the battle for the system. I am curious if Kanan recalled any of his ships once he left Navarus. That might give us a clue as to where he might go; to a planet with a military and industrial base, or to a place where a single ship can effectively hide.”
Riyad nodded and opened the link. Lila’s gorgeous and always calm face appeared on the screen a moment later. She took in the gathering of faces she could see on her screen and frowned. Arieel rushed in to look, as well.
“Where’s Adam,” Arieel screeched. The glum, dirty and bruised faces on her screen told the story of an incredible fight that had just taken place. Add to that, news of the Zocor event had already reached them aboard the Ed Gibson.
“He is with Kanan,” Panur answered. “At least that is what we believe.”
“Everyone else appears to be safe,” Lila said.
Panur nodded. “What about the battle? Did Kanan recall any of his forces?”
“He did not. Our victory has been complete, although pyretic, with regards to our forces. Only thirty-nine of our vessels remain operational and damage-free. There are several others that will require extensive repair. Kanan’s service modules received no countermanding orders, so they fought to the last ship, showing no fear of the consequences. I must also assume most of the modules have been destroyed or are incapacitated. Those inside the Lerpiniere fields would have been destroyed with their ships. Others may have teleported and may be existing in space. They will eventually find sanctuary, but without Kanan guiding
their actions, they should be harmless.” Lila leaned in closer to the screen. “And where is Kanan?”
Panur pursed his thin, grey lips. “That we don’t know. But in his escape, he took with him a mysterious case which he valued even beyond his DEmon fleet. Others here say he referred to it as The Key or containing The Key. To what, we don’t know. Were you able to track any ships leaving the area just before the event?”
Lila shook her head. “Not at this time. I can replay the data files. We had sensors focused on the region to monitor your activities and those of Kanan. I have not had time to study any of the logs while I directed the battle. I will do that now.”
“Very good.” Panur looked around at the tired, bruised and sad faces of those around him. “Lila, we are returning to the Ed Gibson—”
“Not Navarus?” Riyad asked, interrupting.
“Not at the moment, Mr. Tarazi. Let us give it a little time, in case Kanan does have other dark matter bombs planted on the surface.”
Riyad nodded. “Good point. Very good point. Setting a course for the mothership. Everyone just sit back and enjoy the ride. I know I will.”
Chapter 16
Kanan wasn’t your typical starship pilot. As a hovering orb capable of remotely integrating with the electronics of the dark-energy warship, he could do it from anywhere aboard. Even so, Adam felt uncomfortable as the craft shot into space with no one seated at the pilot’s station.
“Where are we going?” Adam asked.
The service module had no front or back, but it did seem to have a preferred orientation. There was a slightly darker green patina at a spot on the orb, and Adam took this as its face. It was turned in his direction at the moment.
Nowhere. We must first wait.
Adam found it easier to speak aloud; it came more natural to him. Kanan could hear his words, but he had to respond mentally for Adam to hear him.
“For what?”
You will see.
Adam cringed. He’s going to blow up the planet! Adam’s thought was confined to his mind—or at least he hoped it was.