by Mark Zubro
Mike and Joe smiled. Mike said, “I’ve been inundating him with questions since the first hour we met, and it hasn’t stopped yet. I try to control myself.”
Joe said, “I try to be patient, but we love each other and we work it out.”
Hok muttered, “Aliens.”
For the millionth time Mike was reminded that he wasn’t from here. And I don’t want to be, he thought. His mind rebelled for the zillionth time, but he kept his mouth shut. They were kind of right, and he thought Hok might have been trying to be funny.
Karsh leapt up and ran toward them, swerved at the last second, and rushed off down the newly dug tunnel. He screamed as he ran.
Joe said, “What the fuck?”
They listened to Karsh’s mad bellowing as it echoed back at them then faded.
Hok snorted. “Let him go.”
“We don’t know how far the tunnel goes,” Joe said. “It most likely comes to an abrupt end. He has no food, no supplies. Death by running away?”
For now they let him go and turned to the injured. Krim was glad to rest with his back against the cave.
Mike sank to his knees.
“You okay?” Joe asked.
“The adrenaline rush has worn off. I’ve never been this tired.”
“It’s all the climbing mixed with the expenditure of energy. You channeled lightning. Remember I needed to get serious medical attention after the battle with Vov. You, my dear, came out of this far better than I. That little device continues to be as magical as a Harry Potter spell, but with, I think, maybe, way more power.”
After Mike rested, he and Joe went to examine what he’d done. Mike placed the tip of his finger against the newly carved wall.
They left Kench with the wounded. Mike, Joe, Krim, and Hok hiked after Karsh down the newly dug shaft.
Mike said, “I still want to know if I can bend steel in my bare hands.”
Hok said, “Huh?”
Mike said, “Skip it.”
They trudged down the tunnel Mike’s power had carved. The vision flashed in his mind of Alice chasing the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole in the animated Disney film version of Alice in Wonderland from the fifties. That film was still his favorite version of the old tale.
They used their communicators to create light.
“Why are the walls glowing?” Mike asked.
“Some element or another,” Joe said. “Another thing to ask Snek when we get back. He’ll have a scientific explanation of some kind.”
“You hope.”
Joe said, “Well, you aren’t going to get one from any of us.”
“I knew that,” Mike said. Besides all his other exertions and muscle strains, his insides felt jelly-like.
They were out of the elements. They were out of their suits. It felt as if they were walking down a tunnel in the prison colony far below. Mike was surprised that it felt so normal. It was an easy slope down so the going wasn’t bad. At least they weren’t outside in vile elements. Here there was no storm, and a wind that gave only the most gentle puff.
Mike asked, “How can there even be the slightest breeze?”
“We’ll have to ask a scientist.”
“Why aren’t the walls glowing hot?”
“Beats the hell out of me.”
“Once again this alien, and I qualify here because I’m the one zillions of light years away from his planet, is disappointed in the lack of instant knowledge.”
“We can try looking it up in the databanks on our communicators. On Earth what would we Google? Titanic, electrical based explosions, tunnel making?”
Mike said, “I bet we wouldn’t get much.”
After fifteen minutes, Mike said, “We’ve been walking around fifteen minutes. A mile or so into the mountain.”
“You are one powerful human.”
“I wonder if I could leap tall buildings in a single bound.”
“Why would you want to?”
“Just another alien issue.” After a few moments of silence Mike said, “Maybe some of this was here before. Are we maybe in old tunnels or natural caves? Maybe my power just expanded what was here.”
Joe said, “What we know now is tunneling, at least with you and thunderstorms, will be ever so much easier.”
“If it doesn’t kill me.”
“I’m never going to let that happen.”
Mike smiled at him. He said, “I could attack a mountain, but I don’t see the point.” He touched the wall. “I vaporized a lot of it.”
Joe said, “A sort of mushroom cloud rose over the valley.”
“Wasn’t it superheated? Why didn’t it kill us?”
Joe said, “Same answer as before. You’ve got your aura. If there was vegetation, it would all be dead. But there wasn’t, so it isn’t. You just dug a couple miles into the mountain.” Joe looked ahead. “Hell, maybe more than a couple miles.”
“It almost killed me.”
“Your power can make us free.”
“It can dig a ditch. Good for me.”
Hok touched the side of the tunnel. “It seems safe, solid.”
Joe said, “Like the rest of these damn mountains, it’s solid granite. It’s not going to collapse on us.”
They heard Karsh’s screeches long before they saw him. Joe asked, “Does this guy have any button other than freak out and hysteria? Doesn’t this guy ever give up?”
Mike said, “Apparently not.”
Hok said, “He was like that with all of us in the colony when you weren’t around.”
“Why didn’t someone say something?”
“We figured he was just another asshole boss and probably speaking for you. That’s how he acted.”
Joe said, “Lying asshole.”
Mike listened to the screeches for a moment then said, “That sounds like pain not anger. Or at least not just anger.”
“He managed to hurt himself?” Joe asked.
Mike said, “We’ll find out soon enough.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
After another fifteen minutes, they began to see a small pinpoint of light in the distance.
“Is that outdoor light?” Mike wondered out loud.
Joe was used to Mike’s verbal wonderings and knew he wasn’t asking questions that he expected an answer to.
As they drew closer, they realized it came from a communicator.
They saw Karsh lying on his side next to an underground lake. He clutched at his left ankle and foot. His shrieks had changed to moans. “It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.” Then he spotted them. “Get out! Go away! Get out!”
As they neared the shore, the roof of the cave rose to high above their heads, Mike estimated maybe a hundred feet. The ceiling glowed a strange orange. The sides of the walls were sheer as if some giant had stomped into the mountain and dumped water here.
They hurried up to Karsh. He was gasping for breath and bleeding from numerous wounds.
Joe began taking out medical equipment. Mike reached out to offer help.
Karsh slapped their hands away. “Leave me alone!” Karsh screamed.
Joe said, “You need medical attention. You can’t stay down here. You’ll starve.”
Karsh panted and gasped for a few minutes until his breathing came under control. The four of them knelt next to him.
Karsh whispered, “We’re saved.” He pointed at the lake. They gave him uncomprehending looks. Finally Karsh asked, “Don’t you idiots know what that is?”
Mike frowned. “A lake inside a mountain thousands of feet above the surface?”
Karsh asked, “Are you really that stupid?”
Mike said, “I’ve been practicing my stupid for days. I think I’m pretty good at it.” He sat back on his haunches and looked at the lake and the cavern. The water seemed to glow as if the northern lights on Earth were captured inside of it. He figured it was another phenomenon that no one there would be able to explain.
Mike said, “We’ve been trying to save you guys up here. Do
you have any supplies left?”
“Who cares about supplies?” Karsh lifted a hand and pointed toward the lake that stretched from his left kneecap into the darkness. “Don’t you morons realize what that is?”
Mike said, “Let me try another guess. It’s not just an underground lake, it’s a big underground lake.”
Krim reached out a hand toward the water.
“Don’t touch it,” Karsh commanded.
“Why not?” Joe asked. He squatted down next to Krim inches from the surface then looked back at Karsh. Joe said, “You stepped in it?”
“Yes, you idiot. And it ate away at the covering on my foot and the flesh. It hurts like hell.”
Hok said, “It’s a lake of acid?”
“You really don’t know what it is?” Karsh asked,
Mike shook his head and shrugged.
Joe said, “It can’t be.”
“Yes, you fool, it’s liquid zukoh. Perhaps the largest deposit in existence. At least I’ve never heard of any larger. We are all rich.”
Hok said, “Bullshit. Liquid zukoh doesn’t exist.”
Mike said, “Bex used it to attack me. I thought everybody knew that.”
Hok said, “We only know nobody can kill you. The details get exaggerated and rumored about. No one is sure what’s true.”
Krim said, “This will set us free.”
Mike said, “We’re all prisoners.”
Hok said, “Not if we can make a deal for our release.”
Joe said, “Not if they just take it.”
Hok pointed at Mike. “How can they? You’re the most powerful person in the galaxy.”
Mike examined the liquid from where he crouched. Joe came and hunkered down next to him.
Mike said, “Liquid zukoh as in: Kenton, the prison psychologist, helper, lawyer, said he didn’t know could be used as a weapon and that Bex had a prototype, and that son of a bitch tried to attack me, and I defeated him and it? That liquid zukoh? That they tried to use against gay people in the demonstration?”
“Yes,” Joe said.
Mike and Joe stood up and walked to the edge of the lake and squatted down. Mike watched the lights of the interior of the lake dimly light the side of Joe’s face.
Joe said, “I was told it was only theoretically possible for liquid zukoh to exist. That being able to use it as part of a weapon, as Bex did, took huge amounts of time and equipment, and that the experiments were delicate and often went wrong.”
Mike said, “Well, we seem to have vats of the stuff.” He played his light over the surface of the lake. He couldn’t tell how far the lake stretched. “More than a few vats. I wonder how deep this is.”
“Maybe Snek can figure out a way to measure it,” Joe suggested.
They heard Karsh’s voice from a few feet away. “We don’t need some asshole scientist to know we’ve got the greatest mineral deposit find in ten thousand years. Hell, probably in history. Liquid zukoh has been found in minute quantities on planets scattered around the galaxy. It’s formed when comets and asteroids and planets collide. There’s some kind of chemical formula, reaction.” Karsh tried to stand but fell back. He said, “I get credit for having found it.”
“Why should we give a shit who gets the credit?” Mike asked.
“Actually,” Hok said, “it makes a great deal of difference.”
“Legally,” Joe began
Karsh interrupted. “I don’t want a legal lecture from a broken-down cop from a third-rate world.”
Joe snarled. “After our saving your butts, you’re still willing to be an asshole?”
Mike put his hand out to prevent Joe from throttling the arrogant son of a bitch.
Hok said, “I’ve been on lots of colonies. That’s where the best climbing is. Fewer tourists. I did learn some stuff. Ownership and colony stuff is tricky in a legal sense. In the normal flow of data, who gets what percentage of all that’s found is clear. I’ve never heard of a prison colony finding anything.”
Mike asked, “The government doesn’t just keep it all?”
“Possibly,” Joe said, “but we have some friends in the Senate or at least some who are willing to follow the rules. If all we’ve got is rules, I’ll take that.”
Karsh said, “When there’s this much money involved, there aren’t going to be any rules except who can get here fastest with the biggest and most powerful fleet. And how are you going to communicate with any so called ‘friend’ on the outside? All communications are monitored.”
Hok took the medical device from Joe and offered to use it on Karsh. While Hok used it, they stared at the lake in silence.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Finally, Mike asked, “How do you know that’s what it is?”
“Look at it,” Karsh commanded.
Mike did so. Up close it was no longer like the northern lights, but had an interior like a star sapphire catching the sun at high noon with sparkling shards running through it.
Karsh said, “That’s what liquid zukoh looks like in its pure state.”
“What good is all that going to do us?” Mike asked.
Joe shrugged.
“Why is it glowing?” Mike asked.
Karsh said, “It’s glowing because it’s reacting with your stupid aura.”
“Is it going to explode?” Mike asked.
Joe said, “Not as far as I can tell. It needs a trigger. As long as your implant and your communicator aren’t triggers. And nothing has happened so far. I think if your aura was going to set it off, that would have happened, and we’d all have been sent to oblivion. And if you were blown into the sky a hundred miles, I think even your aura would have trouble saving you from the impact of the landing. As for why it’s got that sapphire like glow in it, I have no idea. Maybe it likes you.”
“How come nobody else ever found this?” Mike asked. “There’s been other expeditions to this planet, and they came up with nothing. Metal-and ore-seeking probes must have circled the planet. Why didn’t they find all this? This seems like a lot to miss.”
Joe pointed to the walls. “Karsh is right about the theories that it’s part of comets, or asteroids, colliding with planets in titanic explosions. This looks like a huge comet maybe billions and billions of years ago smashed into this world and left this here. It’s possible that the other elements in the comet or asteroid shielded it.”
“Or someone knows it’s here,” Mike said.
“How?” Joe asked. “We only found it because of the accident of your immense power, and Karsh’s blind willingness to hate you to all extremes. If he hadn’t run, we probably wouldn’t have explored this.”
“Got that right,” Mike said. “Now that we know this is here, what do we do about it? We’ve got a colony to build.”
“We can pay for it, just buy it. Hell we could buy several of our own star systems.”
“How does that work on a prison planet?” Mike asked.
“They can’t conquer us,” Hok said.
“They could starve us. Can you eat zukoh, liquid or solid?”
Joe pointed to the debris strewn about the sides of the lake. “This is also where part of your debris went.”
“Why didn’t it land in the lake?”
Karsh snarled. “It did, you fool. It dissolved or sank to the bottom. How dumb are you?” He looked at them and chortled. Then said, “And I’ve got it. I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams.”
“We’re prisoners,” Mike said.
“And you’re powerful beyond our wildest dreams, but you, you poor numb nuts alien, are stuck. I’m not one of you. I can own this. Prisoners can’t. I get credit for having found it. You’re screwed. I’m wealthy beyond all dreams.”
Joe asked, “What do you mean, we’re screwed and you’re rich?”
Karsh laughed and cackled.
Mike voiced his long held suspicion. “He’s a spy. He’s not one of us.”
When Karsh finished this round of grating laughter, he said, “And I’m not the
only one.”
Joe asked, “How’d you get the transmissions past Brux?”
“Honestly, do you think the equipment here is better than what Bex has at his disposal? You’re a poor pathetic fag who is going to die.”
More laughter from Karsh.
Joe asked, “Who else is a spy?”
“Cak.” More gales of laughter poured form Karsh. Karsh rose to his knees, then balancing himself with his hands, he stood on his right foot. He tried touching down his left foot. “Shit that still hurts. Ouch! Shit!” He limped, hopped. “Better than it was at first.” Once balanced, he turned to them and gave an evil leer. “Cak is wrecking everything in the colony as we speak. The dams will bust. Tunnels will collapse. You can’t stop him.”
“This whole leaving was to ruin everything?”
“Yes. To destroy the working together collectively to make things better. To destroy your spirits. And to destroy the colony itself. We needed you gone. We knew you’d come rescue us.” If Karsh was Snidely Whiplash he’d have twirled his mustache and given another villainous cackling laugh.
His pride of triumph proved his undoing. Karsh said, “I killed your buddy Bir because he caught me communicating with the Religionists. Bir was going to blab. He had to die. Cak hates you as much as I do, but he’s gay. He helped me trick the boy since you all are so incompetent. Don’t you get it? You poor stupid fool. You and your useless husband. Bex was never going to let this prison succeed. It was funny to all of us, as you all worked so hard. And did accomplish a great deal, sad to say.”
Mike felt Krim stirring next to him. The boy whispered. “You killed my friend?”
Karsh hopped, rebalanced himself away from the boy. He was now inches from the edge of the lake. Karsh snarled, “He didn’t suffer.”
“You’re not gay?” Krim was pointing his finger at the older man.
“Of course not.”
“You were making it with Bir.”
“I don’t care who’s blowing me, or who I’m fucking in the ass.”
“Why didn’t Bir come to us?” Mike asked.
Karsh said, “He’d just found out. He had to die that night, but that was no problem, really. And now you’re all going to die.”
Mike said, “But you’re up here in the mountains, with just us around you. How are you going to survive to get back down from this mountain?”