The Particle Beast

by Ian C Douglas

  “First order of business, double check my translations.”

  Zeke muttered through gritted teeth. “Gthrethur ngth!”

  Enki tittered. “You’re too young to use insults like that.”

  Zeke bit his lip. “You really think I’m going to help your lunatic scheme?”

  “Cutting to the chase? Okay. I could have Ricasso slit your throats. He’d like that. I found him in a jail at Yuri-Gagarin Freetown. Nasty man.” Enki shuddered at his own threats. “But I’m no monster.”

  He paused, waiting for them to agree.

  They didn’t.

  “Mister Hailey, answer me this. How long can you go without food or drink?”

  “I’ll starve to death if needed,” Zeke cried, spitting the words out furiously.

  Enki bared his teeth. “And now tell me, how long can you watch your little playmate starve?”

  As if to underline Enki’s point, Pin-mei’s stomach growled.

  Zeke clenched his fists. “It’s only a matter of time before the Mariners come looking for us,” he snapped.

  Enki pursed his fat lips. “I don’t think so. You have, after all, resigned. They were expecting you to go.”

  Zeke gulped. Enki was right.

  “B-b-but—” he stammered.

  “But, schmut. The school thinks Pin-mei has gone with you. A forged note left in her room testifies to that.”

  Trixie Cutter again, Zeke thought. Everything rested on Scuff now. At that moment it dawned on Zeke that Scuff didn’t know about the kidnapping. Who knows what lies Trixie told him. They were truly lost.

  Enki leaned over them. “On the other hand, the two of you cooperate and no harm comes to you. If things go really well, I’ll have you back in time for your rendezvous with that space guy.”

  Zeke thumped the table. “What do you need me for anyway? You’re the great translator.”

  Enki turned up his nose. “Yes and I spent a lifetime slaving away to be this good. You got it all in one moment. Without a scrap of study. Just poured into that little childish head of yours. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”

  “Lucky? Lucky? You call this lucky?” Zeke gestured to the shiny steels walls imprisoning him.

  Enki composed himself. “In any case, I need you. When we get to the out-of-synch city there will be runes, codes, passwords, spells. Just like the Infinity Trap. My Hesperian is limited. You’re fluent.”

  “So?”

  “Alone I have a chance. With you it’s certain. We’ll get in. We’ll find out how to use the pool.”

  “Pool?” Zeke asked suspiciously.

  Enki glanced away. “And you might enjoy it. I’d have thought a ruined Martian city would be just your thing.”

  “Go to Martian hell,” Zeke snarled.

  Enki straightened his back. “Why don’t you both talk it over for a few minutes.”

  And with that he left them.

  Pin-mei grabbed Zeke’s arm. There were tears in her eyes. “Please, go along with it, Zeke.”

  “Pin! You know we can’t help him.”

  “No, just go along with it. Till you figure a way out.”

  “Supposing I don’t?”

  She squeezed his arm tighter. “You will. You always do.”

  Zeke stared at his friend. Why was she taking it so badly? He stared deeper. Images flitted through his brain. Pin being kidnapped by the dust devil. Professor Magma imprisoning her. The Spiral. The bowels of the volcano Ascraeus Mons where Fitch nearly burned her to death. Poor Pin. Not even a full year on Mars and already so many bad memories. And it was all his fault. If she didn’t hang out with him nothing would have happened to her. His heart sank.

  “Okay,” he said as calmly as possible. “Can’t have my Martian sister going without food.”

  She smiled from ear to ear and gave him a bear hug.

  “And it can’t help to check out his research,” he added, picking up the magnopad and switching to holo-view.

  A white holo-screen materialised above the table. Hesperian hieroglyphics shimmered before their eyes. The geometrical shapes made Zeke think of robotic worms crawling across the screen.

  “Is that first letter Dhoth?” Pin-mei asked.

  “Yes! You’re learning,” Zeke replied proudly.

  He focussed on the hologram. A crackle of interference ran up the virtual page. The images momentarily pixelated. Zeke blinked.

  “Did you see that?” he asked.

  The alien letters were larger now. And more solid. In fact the screen had doubled in size.

  “Pin!” he cried. He tried to turn away but couldn’t. His neck was rigid. Fear bubbled up from his stomach. The screen trebled. And the letters, the damn Martian words, were becoming three-dimensional. They grew bigger with every passing second.

  The room suddenly toppled onto its side. The screen was below him now and sucking in air like a wind tunnel. Even as he scrambled to save himself, to grip onto the table, he slipped. With one almighty yell, Zeke tumbled into the screen.

  Chapter Seven

  The Ghost Town

  For a second, Zeke thought he’d landed in a colossal aquarium. Large, organic shell shapes surrounded him, each glowing softly. Some twisted and curved. Others were squat and bulbous. A few had frills, like anemones. He looked up at the sky above and saw only darkness.

  He stood and crossed the gravel. The nearest building, if it could be called that, was coiled like a conch shell. It gave off a soft, pink light. Yellows and blues and purples came from its neighbours.

  Energy surged through Zeke’s body. The city of an alien civilisation! The Hesperians! A species that died out two billion years before. Time had wiped away every trace of their existence. Nobody knew what they looked like or anything about them. Yet here he was, standing in the middle of one of their citadels.

  Nobody knew why they became extinct either. Zeke had a hunch that the Spiral destroyed them. A handful of clues suggested the great demon found a way into this dimension. Somehow they stopped him, but then perished. The very same cataclysm that could destroy humanity, if the Spiral ever returned.

  “How do we get in?” he asked himself, circling the building. There was no visible entry. He examined another and another. No doorways.

  The gravel crunched. Footsteps!

  Someone was approaching, but from where? Hastily Zeke wheeled around, scanning the forest of structures.

  There! A figure passed between two buildings. A human.

  Zeke broke into a sprint, covering the distance in seconds. He skidded to a stop, just in time to see a boy disappearing round a bend. A boy with messy blond hair and the Mariner’s school uniform.

  Zeke gave chase. The boy was hurrying away, deeper into the multi-coloured maze. Although Zeke could only see the boy’s back, there was something familiar about his gait. And the waddle of the buttocks.

  “Scuff!” Zeke cried, desperately trying to catch up.

  Again the figure was gone.

  Zeke spun a full circle, searching for his friend.

  “Scuff!”

  His friend’s portly figure emerged from the shadows and took off in the opposite direction. Still Zeke couldn’t see the face, but it had to be Scuff. But why didn’t he wait? And what was he doing in Zeke’s vision anyway?

  Zeke raced after him.

  “Stop!”

  Scuff ignored him and walked around another corner. Zeke reached the same spot, only to find Scuff vanished once again.

  “Come back!”

  It was like hunting a ghost. A ghost in a ghost town.

  Zeke stamped his foot. “Show yourself!”

  And then suddenly, Scuff was behind him. Motionless, looking away.

  “What’s wrong?” Zeke asked.

  The figure remained silent. Was it even Sc
uff? But it had to be! Those greasy blond curls, the fat neck, the porky hips, all wrapped up in the school uniform. Who else could it be?

  Butterflies hatched in Zeke’s stomach. Butterflies with fangs, gnawing at his insides.

  He reached out his hand, gulped and then placed it on the figure’s shoulder.

  “Scuff?”

  Still the boy said nothing.

  Irritation pushed out the fear. Zeke gripped the shoulder and pulled. The boy swung round. Zeke cried out and stumbled back.

  Scuff was faceless. The eyes, nose and mouth were missing and replaced with a single, rotating spiral. It was Scuff, but not Scuff.

  Those butterflies drowned in bile. Zeke struggled not to vomit.

  Scuff had disappeared and he was alone.

  Only, of course, he wasn’t.

  He was aware of a new noise, far away but getting closer. A scratchy noise, like static electricity. Zeke couldn’t have felt colder than if he were made of ice. Something about the noise was unnerving.

  What had Enki said about a monster?

  “A savage monster, a raging brute, a creature without intelligence, programmed to kill.”

  Zeke had experienced Hesperian guardians before. First, the Dust Devil and then the Failsafe, or rockbot, as Scuff called it. Both unstoppable killing machines. But this one sounded far worse.

  Get away, now! said that little voice at the back of his head.

  The noise was growing louder. Not only the crackle, but also a deep, inhuman roaring. Something from the fires of hell.

  Zeke started to walk away. Panic swamped him and he burst into speed. He ran blindly among the glowing structures, without any idea where he was going. Anywhere that took him away from that sound. Away from the hray-za-qkerrzch. The Hesperian word popped into his head. In English: the Particle Beast.

  A ear-splitting howl thundered through the citadel. The structures shook. Zeke was almost whimpering with fear.

  Run faster! came the voice.

  Alien houses blocked his way like a nightmarish assault course. He tried to go faster but only succeeded in banging his elbow.

  Maybe he could translocate to safety? Damn, Enki’s bracelet was still there. And anyway, where would he translocate to? But it was worth a try. He closed his eyes and conjured up an image of the bronto.

  Ow!

  He’d run smack into the side of a building. The collision threw him to the ground. Jumping up and wiping his bleeding nose, he glanced back. His heart stalled. Flames were spitting above the rooftops. No, not flames, but sparks, like fireworks. What on Mars was this creature?

  Zeke’s heart coughed back into action. His feet took on a life of their own and pounded the dirt.

  The amorphous shapes of the citadel blurred. He scrambled on and on. Was there no escaping this terrible place? Finally, the buildings started to thin out.

  A path formed out of nothing. A series of steps, roughly-hewn from the bedrock. They led out of the citadel and down into blackness. Zeke leapt from layer to layer, as shards of rock erupted around him. As though eons of geology were happening in seconds, pillars of feldspar heaved their way up and froze, forming huge stalagmites. They towered over Zeke, as the steps fell deeper into the void.

  The roars ceased. Zeke stopped, panting like a racehorse. It took a while for his pulses to calm down, then he straightened up and ventured on. He was in the bowels of a dank cavern.

  The stony path wound its way around the stalactites, until all of a sudden, it reached its destination.

  Zeke whistled. He was standing before a rock pool. Its surface was so perfectly black, so totally still. Like glass. Both opaque and bottomless at the same time. As if he were gazing into a black hole.

  He tossed a pebble into the pool. A few ripples would give a sense of depth. But there was no splash. The pebble vanished in the poor light.

  Zeke knelt down for a closer look. He considered dipping his finger into the inky slime.

  Don’t!

  Instead he leaned over the pool.

  There was something underneath. A tiny flicker. He peered harder. It was fuzzy and spinning. A…spiral!

  The shape exploded from the water. A great beak-like mouth broke through the surface. Zeke screamed. Even as he reared back, the mouth snapped over his head.

  Chapter Eight

  Candor Chasma

  Sunshine reached down into the gloomy canyon. The first rays of dawn were chasing away the night. Candor emerged from the dark, an immense dustbowl littered with rock. Another day on Mars.

  Zeke was sitting on a boulder next to Pin-mei. Her hair was bedraggled. They were both balancing fried breakfasts on their laps. The smell of eggs and bacon raised his spirits. A scrap of warmth in this cold, dead desert. Ricasso was watching them from the bronto, neural disruptor at the ready. Enki was standing beside the cookomac, clapping his hands like an excited toddler.

  “You look better,” Pin-mei remarked. “You came out of that trance whiter than a ghost. Not to mention the bruised nose.”

  “It was a vision. Just like the others. Somehow the orb made me open to them.”

  She said nothing.

  “Everything has changed now,” he went on. “We have to escape.”

  She threw him an anxious look.

  “Really Pin. If Enki finds his way into that citadel, he may release the Spiral.”

  “You can’t be sure, Zeke.”

  “I hope I’m wrong, but we can’t take any chances. The Spiral would destroy everything.”

  Pin-mei squeezed his arm. “All the more reason to stay. After all, he might get in without your help. But if we tag along, you’ll stop him.”

  Zeke shrugged. “I thought you were scared.”

  “I am. But less so than yesterday.”

  Zeke put his arm around her shoulder. “He’ll use you as ransom, Pin. Threaten to kill you unless I help. How can I stop that?”

  “Magma tried and you outsmarted him.”

  “Listen. I’ve run through Enki’s translations. He’s almost figured how to get in. He’s got the runes, the passwords. He’ll still need a psychic brain as a power source, exactly like the Infinity Trap. But he doesn’t know how to stop a particle beast. It’s very purpose is to annihilate trespassers.”

  “So…if he goes in alone, he’ll be killed?”

  “Problem solved,” Zeke said grimly.

  Pin-mei looked over at Enki, who was now jumping on the spot and licking his lips.

  “Can’t you talk him out of it? I don’t want anyone to get hurt, not even him.”

  Zeke sighed. Pin was being soft. Enki deserved everything he got. But then she fixed him with a mournful expression.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, melting. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Why don’t you tell him about your vision?”

  “He’d never believe me. Let’s try his vanity. That might be his Achilles heel.”

  At that moment Enki came over, his plate wobbling with sausages. His eyes burned with gluttonous frenzy.

  Zeke stayed quiet while Enki slobbered and guzzled. Then, as he wolfed down the last mouthful, Zeke cleared his throat.

  “I checked your notes. Brilliant!”

  Enki purred like a Cheshire cat, his mouth still full of sausage.

  “I have to hand it to you,” Zeke went on, trying not to choke on false admiration.

  Enki paused in mid-gulp.

  “You’re gifted,” Zeke said.

  Enki gave a little bow.

  “That’s why I want to help. Humanity needs talent like yours.”

  Now the great translator frowned.

  Zeke went on hastily. “You think once we get in, there will be a way of shutting down the particle beast, but you’re wrong.”

  Enki’s frown deepened.

 
“I read and re-read the parts you couldn’t work out. It’s quite clear. The beast is unstoppable. Everyone who enters the citadel will die.”

  “That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Enki said.

  “But why? What could possibly be worth the danger?” Pin-mei asked.

  Enki gave her a sneering look. “Some things are worth the risk of death, child.”

  He tapped his nose and shifted on his fat buttocks to face away. Zeke and Pin-mei exchanged hopeless looks. What was Enki keeping secret?

  “Ooh, look!” Enki squealed, and pointed into the distance.

  A breeze blew across the sand. It scattered a handful of grains. Then more. The grains began to lift and dance. A dust devil.

  “Bravo! Encore!” Enki cried.

  As if to oblige him, another dust devil picked up, travelled a short distance only to peter out. Three more could be seen further away.

  “Why so many?” Enki asked, wide-eyed with delight.

  Zeke paused, expecting Pin-mei to answer. After all, she was the child genius. But she was staring at the devils, rigid with fear. Clearly, she was recalling the trauma of her abduction.

  “They happen all day,” he said to Enki. “But first thing in the morning the ground is at its coldest. The sun heats it up faster than the air. So this causes more of the convection effect. Upward draughts.”

  Zeke said to his friend, “How did you sleep?”

  It was the first idea that popped into his head. Anything to change the subject.

  Pin-mei smiled. “Deeply. I had a very vivid dream.”

  Zeke gestured for her to continue. Her cheeks coloured slightly.

  “It was about you, Zeke.”

  “Oh? A nightmare then?”

  She giggled. “I was in a beautiful purple forest. And I found you outside a tent. Only you were older. Grown up.”

  “Ooh, there’s a fast one!” Enki said, mesmerised by the twisters. They ignored him.

  “So I said, ‘Are you Zeke Hailey?’ And you said, ‘No, my name is Cole Hailey.’”

  “That’s my dad’s name, but you knew that.”

  Pin-mei nodded. “And then you, or rather he, said to me, ‘Tell Zeke, now we are three.’”