by Dave Lemel
Todd watched on his link as Dow turned his back on Simon to face the machine. He saw Dow put his head down in concentration and open his hands as he stretched his arms out wide. Suddenly, there was electricity in the air. The hair on the back of Todd’s neck stood up, and his skin tingled in waves up and down his body and limbs. The machine started to groan and rumble. Todd thought he could feel a slight pulling sensation tugging him toward the end of the tunnel and into the mouth of the machine. Todd could see that Simon felt the pull even stronger by the way he was clearly trying to fight it and roll himself away. There was no more time to think. He looked up from his link, held his wand out, and charged out the end of the tunnel.
The intensity of sound coming from the machine was beginning to hurt Simon’s ears as he wriggled and thrashed as hard as he could, attempting to move his body out of the current-like force that he felt. Maybe it’s like a riptide , he thought to himself. If he could just get far enough to the side, it would possibly buy him a little time. Just as the force of the pull increased to a point that he could no longer fight it in his hogtied condition, he saw the bright golden pulses flying past him and heading in the direction of the machine.
“SHELLY GO TO SIMON!” Todd shouted as he emerged from the tunnel firing wildly and frequently to create confusion and, he hoped, cover. Dow was so focused and in such a deep, trancelike state as he connected with the machine that he did not even notice the commotion behind him. Gold pulses crashed into the front of the machine on the side of its gaping mouth, then began whizzing around Dow and into the mouth itself. Finally, two hit Dow in his back, knocking him out of his trance and forcing him to take a half step forward to maintain his balance.
Dow turned slowly as Todd fired three more pulses at him and slid down next to Simon. Dow swatted all three pulses away with a left, right, left as Shelly passed over him and closed in on the two marshals. “Handle out!” Todd yelled to Shelly. “Simon, grab it!” Shelly lowered herself so that Simon could take hold with his bound hands. “Get him into that tunnel and cut him free, Shelly!”
“Todd, behind you!” yelled Simon as he was lifted off the ground by Shelly.
Todd tried to turn and fire but was blasted from behind by what felt like a train. Dow had rammed him with his shoulder and followed that with a kick that sent him flying and then rolling uncontrollably as red flashes danced past his eyes every time they came around to face upward. When he finally stopped rolling, he saw Shelly smoking and sputtering before crashing into the wall of the cavern over Todd’s shoulder, and then both crumbling to the ground.
Todd crawled up and ran as fast as he could to Simon, switching his wand to cutting mode as he went. He grabbed Simon’s arm with his left hand and rolled him onto his back. Todd slashed through the bands that held Simon’s limbs together, hoping he had avoided slashing Simon in the process. “Took you long enough,” said Simon as he stretched his limbs and ejected his wand into his hand. Simon grabbed Todd’s shoulder and pulled him down hard as he thrust his wand up and fired five quick pulses at the onrushing Dow.
Dow swatted the first two away, but the third knocked the blaster out of his hand, and the fourth and fifth hit him square in the chest. Dow stumbled and fell to the ground merely ten feet from Todd and Simon. Dow struggled to push himself back up partway, stopped, and craned his long, scaly neck to stare at the marshals. Todd and Simon returned his stare, frozen, wondering what came next.
Dow stood, turned, and thrust his hands forward, palms up and open. He screamed out a primal, guttural yell, and the machine responded instantly. It whizzed, popped, and whirred, and immediately the pull was noticeably stronger than it had been before and getting stronger by the second. Todd and Simon scrambled to their feet and ran for the tunnel. As they passed Shelly, Todd bent down, scooped her up, and tucked her under his arm like a football as they went .
The intensity of sound and force of the pull grew overwhelming as they got within feet of the tunnel entrance. As hard as they tried, they could not resist the pull any longer and dropped to the ground, laying as flat as they could to avoid flying backward into the massive mouth behind them.
Small debris began pelting them and flying past. Todd remembered his wand was in cutting mode. He tapped Simon to get his attention over the eardrum-crushing noise. Todd held up his wand and showed Simon the dial at the base. He stabbed the wand into the ground in front of him and pressed the tip firmly against the cavern floor. Slowly the tip melted its way into the structural coating on the ground until it had penetrated about halfway up the wand to make an anchor.
Simon switched his wand to cutting mode and followed Todd’s lead. Just as he finished, the force of the pull became so strong their legs began to rise and their torsos began to flap up and down against the ground. As Todd held on to Shelly with his left hand and clung to the wand with his right, using every ounce of grip he had, he wondered how Dow could possibly still be standing with this kind of force pulling on him. Todd looked back and saw what appeared to be a shimmering bubble forming around the machine with the same already encasing Dow. The debris was flowing around him as if he was a large boulder in a fast-moving river.
Simon forced his left hand up to hold his anchor with both hands as the force of the pull relentlessly increased. He looked over at Todd, wondering how he was managing to maintain his grip with one hand while holding on to Shelly with the other. Simon quickly recognized he would not be much longer. Todd’s arm shook violently, and his knuckles were as white as his wide-open eyes staring up at this hand, begging it to find some way to hold on.
Todd looked over at Simon and shook his head, then mouthed, “Good-bye, Shelly.” Simon nodded and looked back to watch their beloved hover droid as she would be devoured by the beast behind them. Todd looked back to his left at Shelly and released his grip.
Shelly whipped out of Todd’s arm and deflected up and over the bubble surrounding Dow. Just as she skipped off the top of the bubble, the cavern was rocked. The explosion seemed to engulf the marshals as the sound and force waves pounded them from every direction. Even through the intense ringing it caused in their ears, they could hear Dow screaming out in pain as if the explosions were tearing him limb from limb.
Todd realized immediately they were in a very bad location. He looked up toward the tunnel at the front of the cavern and saw molten lava gushing through the now-gaping hole that had replaced the line of charges he had placed earlier with Li.
Todd yanked his wand out of the ground, and out of the corner of his eye saw Simon doing the same. They both turned and ran toward the machine they had been fighting so hard to resist mere moments before. Dow seemed not to even notice they were still in the cavern with him. The shimmering bubble that had encased him was gone, as was the shimmering field that had been working its way around the machine.
Todd pointed around the right side of the machine as they ran, and Simon veered that way as he sprinted ahead. Todd detoured slightly left toward the mouth, scooped Shelly up from the front edge of it, and followed Simon around the side.
The ringing in Todd’s ear was finally starting to dissipate as he shouted to Simon, “Call the cruiser!” Simon raised his link to his mouth and summoned their black and chrome escape plan. As soon as Simon finished, he turned to Todd and shouted, “I don’t think it’s gonna make it to us in time. We have to get higher!”
“I know,” said Todd. Then between breaths as they ran, he continued, “A little further…I have…an idea.”
“Todd,” Simon said as he slowed and grabbed Todd’s arm. “That’s lava coming at us from the back end.” They looked over their shoulders, and it was closing on them even faster from the front.
Todd looked around frantically, “I know it was right around here!” he said. “It had to be.”
“What was, Todd?” asked Simon anxiously as he looked back and forth at the rapidly approaching walls of lava bearing down on them from either side. “That!” shouted Todd as he ran to the cavern wall and
pulled open a large panel.
Todd turned and underhand tossed Shelly to Simon. He turned back and reached into the now open compartment on the cavern wall. He pulled out a jetpack, threw his arms through the massive straps before tightening and buckling them, and then lugged the oversized contraption back to Simon. “Hug me,” said Todd.
“What?” Simon asked.
“Hug me! Now! Hard!” Todd yelled as he turned to stare at the wave of lava now just twenty yards away and closing fast.
Simon wrapped his arms around Todd, and Todd flipped the ignition switch. They shot off the ground, and Simon lost his grip on Shelly. He squeezed as hard as he could with his right hand and lunged down to catch Shelly with his left as lava sped past his feet below. The wave crashed into the wall of lava coming at it from the back of the machine, and instantly the lava started to fill the cavern upward as they climbed the side of the machine ahead of it.
Todd struggled to control the thrust on the contraption carrying them. He massively overshot the top edge and nearly crashed them into the ceiling above before cutting the power and dropping them down to the top side of the machine where they bounced hard. They stopped in a heap, safe for the moment, to catch their breath on the top side of the machine.
“Holy crap,” said Simon as he crawled to the edge and looked back down. “I cannot believe we’re still alive. The cruiser better come quick, though, or we still may not get out of this. That lava is rising fast.”
Simon pushed himself back up from the edge, rolled to his back, and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before closing his eyes. That was too close. At this moment, for the first time, he was absolutely positive his decision to make this his final O.E.A. was the correct one.
“Simon,” Todd’s voice pulled Simon back to reality. He opened his eyes and could now feel the waves of heat pouring over the edge above his head like the rush of hot air from an oven as the door is opened. “Simon!” This time Todd yelled it, and Simon sat up. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” Simon said. “Yeah, that’s not why I was calling you,” said Todd.
Simon saw Todd eject his wand and start firing toward the front of the machine. He turned to see what Todd was firing at and found Dow charging toward them with pure rage pulsing from his entire being. Simon ejected his wand into his hand as he scrambled to his feet and fired sideways while running to Todd’s side.
Dow pulled both his long blaster and cluster blaster and fired wildly as he closed the gap between the marshals and himself at astonishing speed. Todd turned to Simon. “Run.”
“What are you gonna do? I’m not leaving you,” Simon said as he turned to see Todd sprinting to Shelly and scooping her up.
“You ain’t leaving anyone!” Todd shouted over his shoulder as he took off toward the back.
Simon caught up to Todd, and they ran side by side as bright red bursts flew past them. “COWARDS!” screamed Dow. “TURN AND FACE ME! ”
Todd looked over his shoulder as they ran, “Boy, is he pissed about something.”
“Totally,” Simon responded. “Dude needs some anger management if you ask me.”
“We should probably get out of here…” said Todd. “And speaking of…”
Simon looked over his shoulder and saw the light glint off the chrome fin at the rear of the cruiser as it shot out of the upper tunnel and right over Dow’s head. It banked and rolled then flew up behind them, turning sideways to block Dow’s shots as the passenger side door opened. Todd threw Shelly into the back and dove across to the driver’s seat. Simon ducked a shot from Dow’s long blaster and slid into the passenger seat.
Todd lifted the cruiser off the surface. As Simon pulled the door closed, they heard Dow yell, “YOU ARE NO WARRIORS!” Simon stopped the door and smiled at Todd. As Todd turned the cruiser to aim at the tunnel he planned to escape through, Simon held the door open and shouted down at Dow, “That’s right! We’re star marshals!”
Simon slammed the door shut as a cluster blast hit the side. Todd accelerated the cruiser into a tunnel and back out toward the beehive. “Outstanding ,” said Todd. “It looked to me like his shield bubble or whatever that was had stopped working too. That lava should be coming over the top edge any moment. He may be a permanent resident down here with his creepy offspring.”
“I don’t know,” said Simon. “Looked to me like he was running for that jetpack we left up there.”
Todd stole a glance over his shoulder before responding, “Well, nothing we can worry about right now. We have other problems.” The cruiser exited the tunnel and entered the beehive. Lava was pouring in from every tunnel below them on this side of the cavern. Todd frantically surveyed the tunnels across from them. “Where is that tunnel back to the shaft we took from the surface?” he asked
“There!” replied Simon, pointing down out the windshield. “Head down and about ten degrees right. Step on it ’cause there is about to be no tunnel there.”
The lava wave was nearly across the floor of the beehive cavern now. Todd pointed the nose of the cruiser down and accelerated toward the tunnel Simon had indicated. As they neared the mouth of the tunnel, he banked and pulled the cruiser hard as he could, but still he skipped off the ground just in front of the lava as they shot into the tunnel.
The lava sped up as it was forced into the tiny tube of the tunnel and began to close on the cruiser from behind. Simon was staring out the back window as they exited the tunnel and shouted, “Don’t miss the shaft!” Todd nearly stopped to make the sharp turn, finessed the front corner around the edge, pointed the cruiser upward, and slammed the accelerator forward. The lava tickled the back of the cruiser, taking just a kiss of the chrome finish off in the back corner.
The cruiser rocketed up the shaft. Simon leaned back and exhaled as he rested his head on the seatback behind him. “Well,” he said before looking at Todd. “At least my last assignment wasn’t dull.”
“No,” replied Todd. “That was definitely not a boring day at the office. Let’s get back to the Henrietta and safely on our way home before we relax, though. I gotta get you back to Earth. Your wife’s already going to be pissed at me when she sees what I let happen to your face. I mean, you were ugly before, but now…” Todd looked over at Simon and shook his head. “Now it’s just tragic.”
Chapter 28
“Maybe check on Jack and Li before we head out for the Henrietta ,” said Todd as the cruiser exited the shaft and the hellish landscape of Io was revealed again under the inky darkness of the outer solar system.
“Good idea,” Simon responded as he tried to call Jack on his link.
“Hmmm, he’s not answering,” said Simon. “I wonder if they ran into more trouble.”
“What do you mean more?” asked Todd.
“Before I ran into Dow, I called to check in with them. They had a run-in with a few Vikards.”
Todd looked concerned. “You’re sure they got out of it?”
“Oh, yeah,” replied Simon. “Turns out Li is some sort of badass ex-soldier. Took out four Vikards and barely broke a sweat from the sound of it.”
Todd looked at Simon and blinked a few times. “That guy is the worst pacifist I’ve ever met.”
“Ha! I know, right?” said Simon. “Oooop, and speaking of, they’re calling back from Jack’s ship right now.”
“What’s up?” said Simon as he answered.
“Not us,” replied a frightened-looking Jack. “Whole place is dead. We heard and felt the explosions as we got to the garage. A few moments later, total blackness. Backup lights kicked in, but Li said that’s about all the backup can do. Lights and life support systems. He can’t get the main overhead door to the garage open, and Ol’ Gertie is too big to fit through anything else.”
“Where are you now?” asked Simon.
“When I missed your call a couple minutes ago, we were scrambling in the ship. When the power failed, Li thinks it also kept the safety doors from closing. Apparently they’re placed strategically around the main living q
uarters to ensure all passageways to the mine can be blocked off in case the mine ever flooded.”
“Makes sense,” said Simon.
“Yeah, well I’m pretty sure he’s right about them failing,” said Jack. “At the moment this garage is filling with lava, and we’re hovering at the top in Ol’ Gertie. Our only hope is the power magically comes back online in time and the overhead door opens before we’re engulfed from below by the rising lava.”
“We’ll be right there!” said Simon.
“Just a couple of minutes. Hang in there, guys,” added Todd as he scanned the horizon in front of them. “Crap,” he said. “Which way was that again?”
“The opposite of the way you took there!” yelled Li.
“I know that,” said Todd. “It’s just everything changes here like every two minutes. There are no consistent landmarks.”
“There,” Simon pointed out the windshield as he played with the navigation computer. “Other side of that lava lake.”
“Hurry,” said Jack. “I don’t think we have long.”
Todd slammed the accelerator, and the cruiser blazed over the surface toward the lava lake. Just as they approached the front edge, the lava heaved and then erupted skyward from the center of the glowing red mass. With the low gravity and almost non-existent atmosphere, the plume reached enormous heights. Todd was forced to bank the cruiser hard and re-route them way around the lake. “Not good,” said Todd.
“What’s not good? Can you see the garage yet?” asked Jack.
“Not exactly,” replied Simon. “We ran into a slight problem of a volcanic nature.”
“I don’t think you’re going to make it in time,” said Jack, the hope leaving his voice with every syllable. “The lava is inches from us now.”
“What the hell was that?” said Todd.
“What?” Simon asked.