by Nick Evans
His truck bowled along the corridors and he avoided debris from where the Cryomorph had blasted through walls as he navigated to the portal point. He was excited by what had happened and the way in which they had handled the two girls and the boy. They were well out of harm's way now!
The truck slowed around the bend and there, in front of him, was the atrium area where the portal always revealed itself to transport him back to the Outpost. He stepped down from the truck and pulled the control from his pocket, activating the circuitry that would open the portal. Except that this time, it didn't. There was no sign of the portal and no matter how he signalled for it to appear, it stubbornly refused to do so.
He punched codes into the device, checked its power levels, sought out the receiver plate that was embedded in the wall of the habitat, high up and out of reach, then used the control near to the plate, hoping against hope that the portal would reveal and he could step through, leaving the wrecked habitat behind him. Frustrated now, he was tempted to fling the control across the atrium space, but he restrained himself, uttering a quiet "Aaaagh!" as he realised that his way back was compromised.
What was he doing wrong? There had been no problems previously, even though this was a restricted technology that few people were licensed to use. He knew it was dangerous and also knew that failsafes within the system would lock out any user if there were the slightest chance that an error would occur.
He desperately wanted to see the destruction of Beijing and, ultimately of all mankind on Earth, but here he was, stuck Farside and unable to get back to the comfort of his home. Of course, his pad could give him all the access he needed, but he felt vulnerable here. The Cryomorph was still lurking in the dark corridors and Fark was unsure whether the little control he had over it would extend to protecting himself from its built-in destruct cycle that triggered when it saw human forms.
He made a decision. Stepping back onto the truck, he spun the wheel and sent it back the way he had come, transporting him in the direction of the Control Centre.
* * * * *
Brett stood and studied Castrana. He thought he knew how he would get to her and persuade her to take him to Xalata. She stared straight back at him and said, "You have no reason to be here, Brett. This area is restricted and you don't have clearance."
"Ah, but I do," he replied. "I'm senior in the Lunar Hydroponics division and that gives me access to pretty much any laboratory, either Nearside or Farside."
"Not this one, it's out of bounds."
"Oh, and how will you stop me seeing what's here? Is this where you're hiding Xalata?"
"No, she's safe in the ... ah! Thought you'd catch me? I'm not falling for simple mind games from an idiot you like you. Now leave the premises!"
"Nope - in fact, I'm going on walkabout," and, with that, Brett pushed forward, past Castrana, who shouted and tried to pull him back. "Don't be crazy, Castrana. I'm twice your size and you can't stop me." He headed further into the building and spied the airlock into the Control Room. "See, there's always something interesting going on, on the Moon. What have we here?"
"It's none of your business," said Castrana, still vainly trying to stop him going into the room. "Stay out!"
"OK - I shall, on one condition?"
"What? What condition?"
"C'mon brain cell, I think you know what condition."
"Take you to the brat?"
"Indeed, otherwise, I'm going to poke around inside this place and find out exactly what you are up to here." I shall do that anyway, he thought darkly, but you're too stupid to realise that.
"OK. I'll take you there, but then you need to get out of here. It's not safe."
"Since when did you care about my safety, Castrana? Or any one else's for that matter. Come on, let's go." And Brett led the way out of the Control Room and back into the atrium. Castrana followed behind, but Brett could tell that she was plotting something. "I think you can drive the truck and I'll just keep my eye on what you are doing."
"Yeah, yeah," said Castrana wearily and she got into the driving seat while Brett wheeled around the back of the truck to take up his position next to her. He turned to face her. "Drive. Let's find our daughter."
"Whatever," replied Castrana as she swung the wheel and sent the truck humming down a corridor, back towards the home where Xalata and her friends were captive.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Back in their unsecured prison, Glitch, Xalata, Melody and Wiglet worked feverishly to access the controls of the asteroid. Glitch had cloaked their access to the system in a matter of a few moments, much to the astonishment not only of Wiglet and the girls, but also of himself. "Blimey, that's really weak! I can't believe that they have kept things so poorly protected."
"I think you are benefiting from the access route carved out by the people who have intercepted this mission, actually, Justin," said Wiglet.
"Look, Mr Wiggins, can I just say ... enough with the 'Justin', OK? I'm Glitch. Always have been and always will be."
"Yes, of course. I should have thought. Young people prefer their 'tags' don't they? So, er, Glitch. Let's get this asteroid back on track!" and with that, Wiglet used the access that had been made by Glitch and logged into the system with his own codes. "All seems to be OK. This will be the clincher though, when I go public through the portal."
"Everyone will know you are there?" asked Xalata, "So, the bad guys might try to stop you?"
"Yes indeed. However, I have a few tricks and I know my young friend here has some too," he nodded in Glitch's direction. "So, here it is ... and I'm in."
Melody peered over Wiglet's shoulder, "What's the status, Mr Wiggins?"
"On a quick glance, everything looks set on course for Earth. All course adjustments are complete and the system has been locked down."
"Locked?" said Melody, "But we can unlock it, can't we?"
"I believe so, given the level of access I have. However, we shall need to tread with caution as I don't want to set off any potential firewall bombs that might block us from access altogether. So we shall try a few little devices first ... Melody, my dear, I shall need your help please. Can you work out the navigation coordinates from the original target data and then provide me a course plotting beginning at, let's say, 20:30 GMT?"
"Sure thing, Mr Wiggins," said Melody. "Xalata, you can help me and check my pad's maths."
"Yep - OK, but maths and I live on different planets. You explain what you're doing and I'll sense check it. If I'm stuck, Glitch can help me out."
"As I see it, we have three choices," said Melody. "First, we take the current trajectory and bend it back on a continuous curve so that the asteroid will create a huge arc and miss the Earth by a big margin. The problem with this approach is that it's going to rely on the engines working flat out for a long period.
"Second, we simply divert the asteroid and make it plummet into the Sun. That's easy as far as it goes, but it will waste all the effort and money that's been put into the terraforming operation on Mars and it will mean that that project is put back for probably a couple of years.
"Third one - we tweak the current trajectory so that, instead of hitting the Earth, it swings around it and we slingshot it back to its original target on Mars."
"Sounds risky," murmured Xalata.
"Yep, but it's the simplest adjustment to make and doesn't rely on the fusion drives doing a huge amount of work. That's my best option, I believe."
"Gambling with the Earth, at all?"
"No - you have a better idea?"
"Nope."
"OK, then let's get calculating. First, I'll need the target impact area on Mars - you source those data for me while I work on the rest ..."
The two girls grafted away at their calculations, while the others busied themselves with their own tasks.
Wiglet was already embedded in his work, staring intently at his pad as he produced a number of frames on the screen that contained elements on the navigation tools. "Glitch, c
an we use the big screen to work together on this? I want to bring together my interface from the pad along with Melody's one to combine things together then we can have a good overview of what's going on."
"Sure thing, Mr W." said Glitch and he worked away at the screen and, borrowing Wiglet's pad for a moment, touched a few areas, entered a piece of code and moments later, the pad's contents appeared on the big screen. "There you go - and all interactive too," and Glitch stood and swept elements from Wiglet's pad across the screen.
Melody's hands flew across the screen. Streams of data merged beneath her fingers and Xalata stood with her, following her every move and watching the process as it developed.
Within ten minutes, the team had established the coordinates of the revised route, had determined where the asteroid stood and had laid down the process for making the course corrections that would prevent the giant rock from hurtling into the Earth.
"OK guys," said Xalata, "we're ready to upload the new instructions and to prime the system to accept our commands. Mr Wiggins, can you provide the necessary codes to unlock the main interface and then we can execute the code that Glitch has just written, assuming it works." She looked pointedly at Glitch.
"Course it'll work. Let me just check it once more though - put doubt in my mind, why don't you?"
"I'm getting to know you," said Xalata, "and I still don't trust you, so don’t screw this up and then I might be more likely to look at you favourably!"
"Honoured, I'm sure," muttered Glitch.
"Ready Melody? Glitch? Mr Wiggins?" said Xalata, "cos now we're going in. let's have the code for the main interface."
Wiglet touched his pad and found the interface. Then he entered a series of complex codes, touching the pad from time to time with a sliver of plastic that was evidently some type of biometric key. "That should do it," he said.
The team waited and saw to their horror that nothing was happening. "What's wrong?" said Melody.
"It's locked still," said Wiglet "It's not giving me an error. It's waiting for further input. There must be either another key needed or ..."
"Or what," said Glitch, anxiously.
"Or, they've imposed a physical key requirement on the terminal at the Control Room. If that's the case, we'll need two physical keys, not dissimilar to this," - he waved the piece of plastic. "Without them, we cannot do anything and the asteroid will continue on its course. This key may work, in conjunction with another one, but we don't know where the keys are or even who the keyholders might be."
"I have a good idea who it'll be," said Melody, "Fark and Machin. Those two weasels will have set this up and we need to get the keys back from them. I'm going to the Control Room to find the key. If I can get it, then I'll contact you from there."
"You can't go on your own," said Xalata, "I'll come too."
"No, you need to stay here - the navigation will need to be adjusted as we have not been able to activate the change in the timeframe we set. New coordinates for the start point will need to be entered and the calculations will need to be run again. You and Glitch can sort that. Let me find the key!"
And with that, Melody dashed to the airlock, turned, waved and walked out.
"Fry that!" called Xalata. "Glitch - you're in charge of navigation," and she ran out of the door after Melody.
* * * * *
"Fret monster! Wait for me!" Xalata yelled as she ran after the fast-disappearing shape of Melody, across the atrium. Then suddenly, she realised that she ought to be quiet. She had no idea whether their captors were nearby or not, but there was no point in waking them up or disturbing them, whatever they were doing. And then there was the Cryomorph - who knew where that was?
She ran in the direction she thought took her to the Control Room, but suddenly realised that she had missed a turning somewhere. Melody was nowhere in sight and the only way out of the situation appeared to be to go back.
* * * * *
Melody ran as fast as she could go. Her feet pounded the dull white surface of the corridor as she navigated the route she knew, turning quickly around corners before arriving at the Control Room atrium. She had been certain that no one would be there, but, as she approached, she could see a truck standing abandoned in the area in front of the Control Room. She heard the hiss of the airlock opening and she darted behind a corridor opening and watched as two people emerged.
She nearly called out, for there was Brett - Xalata's Dad, walking with Castrana Machin. It didn't seem a very pally association though as Castrana was scowling with evident anger and Brett was gripping her arm as he guided her out of the door, obviously intent on ensuring that she didn't escape.
They headed off down the corridor that Melody had just left and, as they did so, Melody darted into the Control Room entrance and left the airlock door ajar. She didn't want to be trapped in there. She ran into the big operations room and searched the surfaces for any signs of a key. There appeared to be none, yet she found two slots in the interface unit that evidently took similar keys to the one that Wiglet had shown her and used himself.
Where could the keys be hidden? Then she realised. "Idiot!" Of course, the keys would be with the two people who had committed this crime and one of those had just left the building. She turned to run back the way she had come when the door opened and Fark walked in.
"You again?" he smiled. "Just what I need ... a hostage."
* * * * *
Brett and Castrana Machin marched out of the Control Room and headed back towards the home where Xalata and her team had been secured. Castrana's mind was working overtime, trying to think how she could get away from Brett, fool him and overpower him, but he was big, strong and angry and she was no match for him. She led the way sullenly, knowing that she was potentially incriminating herself, once Brett realised the extent of what she and Fark had done.
They walked in silence, passing through corridors and past installations that were part of the LunarBase infrastructure and eventually arrived at the atrium leading into the home where the captives were all held. "OK - that's my part of the deal. She's in there. Now let me go."
"If you think I'm just trusting your word, you're very mistaken Castrana. You've always been a slippery liar and I have no reason to think you've changed." Brett pushed her forward and they walked into the corridor where the entry to the home was situated.
"That's impossible. The door's open," gasped Castrana. "They were all locked in and secure."
"Maybe you've underestimated her - but you said 'they'. Who else was with Xalata?"
"A group of interfering brats and an old teacher. No one valuable."
"Castrana, you're a rat. You still amaze me with your callousness. Let's go in and see what's happened."
They pushed open the door and entered the lobby and were surprised to hear voices. As they went further in, they opened the access to the living space and there in front of them were Wiglet and Glitch, intently working at the large screen at the end of the room. They turned as the pair walked in.
"Brett, well done for finding us," Wiglet said. "I have no idea how you got here, but thanks for capturing this woman. She thought she had imprisoned us, but as you can see, we are free to do what we want! However, there's a crisis - the asteroid will impact Earth if we don't stop it and divert it back to its original track."
Brett looked horrified while Castrana simply smiled crookedly and said, "You'll not stop the will of the mighty Lord Asttar!"
"Oh please, can it with the Lord Asttar stuff. I find it hard to believe that a supposedly intelligent woman like you can be hooked in by this fairy-tale nonsense," said Brett. "It's insulting to the brain power of those people who have fought to make advances in the world to everyone's benefit."
"You're deluded, Brett. Anything you have, you have because Lord Asttar wills it. He gives and he takes away."
"Yeah, well I think we shall be taking away your liberty for a little while - do you think that your Lord Asttar has willed that too?"
&
nbsp; "It's all part of his purpose ..."
"Sure, you can never win these arguments. Let's get down to business. Xalata is not here, unless she's hiding in one of the other rooms?" said Brett.
"No Brett, she ran out after Melody. They're both heading for the Control Room and ..."
"That's where we have come from," interrupted Brett anxiously. "We saw nothing of them."
"Maybe you missed them ...?"
"Maybe the Lord Asttar had other plans for them?" said Castrana, slyly.
"Another word, Castrana and I shall not be responsible for my actions," Brett glared at her and she took a step back, afraid that he might strike her. "Do you really think I would hit you? Is that how you judge me to be? It doesn't matter how much I detest you, after all you've put me through, I could never bring myself to strike you or anyone else. After the first blow, the person who has dealt it has lost the argument."
"Very true," said Wiglet, "but none of this helps us to know where the two girls are."
"Er, guys," interjected Glitch, "we need that key and we need it now ..." He pointed to the screen and the impact schedule showed they had only 24 hours left before the Earth was to be obliterated. "And there's worse news, I'm afraid. If we don't get this asteroid back on track in the next four hours, I've calculated that the gravitational pull will be too strong for the fusion drives to prevent the impact."
Chapter Forty
Xalata decided to retrace her steps, but she had dashed out in such a fluster that she had completely missed where she was in the habitat. The surroundings all looked identical and she knew that she needed to get back to where she started ... but which way was that? "For Frank's sake! How can you be so stupid?"
She turned around and walked back to the atrium she had just left. The signage didn't help - it simply told the numbers and directions for each of the habitat elements, but she had not registered which building they were in. She could spend hours trying to find it again. "I need to find the Control Room. I can make my way back from there. That's where Melody is in any case. So, which way?"