by M J Dees
"Ha! I'd like to see them try," Ozli scoffed. "Walk faster."
Slar and Sevan picked up their speed into the ever increasing darkness as the power of the lights dwindled.
"Ozli," Slar began to reason. "In a moment, your vehicle will lose power and then what are you going to do?"
"My weapon will still function," Ozli warned.
"Maybe it will but we will be stuck out here in the open. Only the Giant Cup knows what creatures might roam about out here, waiting to devour us."
"Don't bring your ridiculous deity into this. There aren't any wild beasts on Nereid. Miners wiped them out long before Barnes arrived. We'll be safe."
"But it is getting cold. Sevan and I might freeze to death in the night."
"Don't be ridiculous. You know that Barnes has engineered you to withstand temperature extremes. The only thing likely to kill you here is a blast from my weapon."
There followed a long silence in which Sevan hoped Slar was coming up with a plan and then the lights on Ozli's vehicle died and the vehicle itself stopped moving.
"Stop!" Ozli commanded. "I can sense your movement. If either of you tries to get away, I will shoot you."
There followed another long silence. In the light reflected off the giant globe, Sevan could just about make out the outlines of Slar and a faint glisten on Ozli's vehicle but that was it.
Sevan heard a rustle and a scuffle. There was a flash of light from Ozli's weapon which illuminated Slar's fleeing body and then only darkness and the sound of Slar's body falling to the ground.
"I warned her," said Ozli.
Sevan concentrated on not moving in case Ozli got a bit too excited and shot him too.
The night was long and Sevan was relieved to see the dawn. He looked for Slar's body but it was gone.
"Don't worry, she won't have got far," said Ozli. "The suns are rising and my vehicle will soon be charged enough for us to continue."
Sevan wanted to sleep, but he worried what might happen if he did so he waited.
After a while there was a beep from Ozi's vehicle.
"Let's go," he said and began to trundle across the dusty ground.
Sevan followed.
Ozli led him around the outside of the smaller mountains which comprised that side of the crater rim. He was heading towards the larger mountains and sheer cliff faces in which the city of Waterfall was nestled, but Sevan knew these mountains would be impassable. Ozli would have to find a passage across this smaller range to the inside of the crater rim if he was to stand any chance of returning to Waterfall.
The way that Ozli was staying close to the foot of the range suggested to Sevan that he was looking for that passage. The alternative was returning via one of the mines' tunnels a prospect Sevan did not relish and he imagined Ozli felt the same.
Soon, Ozli found the path he was looking for. It was wide and rose at a shallow gradient. Sevan imagined that miners of years gone by must have used it to transport minerals and as a result Ozli's vehicle could negotiate it with ease.
They climbed until the path traversed the peak but then, instead of descending into the crater, as Sevan had imagined, the path continued along the ridge and then began to climb again as the mountains around the rim became steeper. This must have been the old trading route to whatever settlement Waterfall had been before it had been transformed into the city Sevan and the others had toured.
The giant globe had already traversed half of the night sky and in the reflected light, Sevan could see great plumes of smoke emanating from behind the waterfall. He wondered what remained in the city and what Ozli hoped to find there.
"The Republic will have gone," Sevan said. "They destroyed the city."
"Not true," said Ozli. "We will find them there."
As he watched the volume of smoke billowing around the cascading water, Sevan marvelled at Ozli's optimism.
The tracks ascended through the mountains until it became nothing more than a wide ledge carved into the rock face. They were now, more or less, at the same height as the city and were viewing the torrent of water from behind. Smoke was still billowing from the giant cavern and Sevan wondered how Ozli expected him to breathe inside.
"It's okay for you in your hermetically sealed buggy but how do you expect me to breathe in all that smoke?" he asked.
Ozli paused. A small door opened in the rear of his buggy to reveal a small compartment in which Sevan found a simple piece of breathing apparatus.
"It's not designed for your specific species but it should do the trick."
Sevan tried it on. It was tight and hurt his antennae a little but it was better than suffocating.
The ledge climbed at a gradual gradient along the cliff face until it reached the cavern. As soon as Sevan stepped from the ledge into the smoke of the cavern, he could feel the heat of the smouldering city.
He followed Ozli's vehicle because the smoke was too thick to see but as they moved away from the edge, Ozli led him into an area where visibility was better.
From there, Sevan could see that they had reduced the entire city to piles of grey ash, much of which was being carried via the canals into the waterfall.
"The idea that anyone would have survived this is preposterous," said Sevan.
Ozli was silent and paused for a moment.
"I don't expect any inhabitants to have survived," he said. "I expect to find Republic troops dismantling Barnes' apparatus. We should go to Trinculo."
"How? The rocket is down there," said Sevan, pointing down past the waterfall towards the crater.
"Via the tunnel. Come on."
"But the rocket travelled at incredible speed," Sevan protested. "It will take us forever to get to Trinculo."
Ozli was silent again.
"Are you thinking?" Sevan asked.
"Of course I'm thinking. I'm always thinking."
"I was thinking I'm hungry."
"Your species always does," Ozli complained. "I've got it!"
Ozli's epiphany made Sevan jump a little.
"The rocket worked on magnetism. All I need to do is configure the correct apparatus to connect my vehicle to the track and..."
"But what makes you think there will be power in the track? They destroyed the city."
"Yes, but the city ran on hydroelectricity. There's no reason they would have targeted the generators and I doubt anyone's switched them off. They're probably still running."
"I don't believe it," said Sevan, trying to keep up with Ozli who was now speeding towards the rocket terminal.
It crossed Sevan's marbles that this would be the perfect time to escape but he worried that he could descend all the way back down into the crater, not find Ay-ttho or Tori, or Slar and starve to death. So he followed Ozli. If Ozli's hypothesis was correct, and they found the Republic troops, it might be the quickest way to get some food.
By the time Sevan caught up with Ozli, he was already jacking up the vehicle on stanchions which had extended from the underside. With the vehicle raised, Sevan could see several small doors had opened underneath and rods supporting metal bars had emerged. The stanchions were articulated and lifted Ozli's vehicle over the line and then lowered it down until it hovered just above the track.
"It works! The power is still on. Climb on, Sevan."
"What?"
Two handles appeared out of the body of the vehicle.
"Come on, we need to go," said Ozli.
"Are you losing your marbles?"
"I don't have any marbles, Sevan. You know that."
Not for the first time, Sevan wondered what in the name of the Giant Cup he was doing as he climbed onto the vehicle and held on tight to the handles.
A moment later he was speeding through the tunnel at a velocity which he imagined must have been close to that of the rocket itself. He held on as tight as he could, not bearing to think what might happen to him if he let go.
After a period longer than Sevan ever imagined he could have tolerated, Ozli brought the
vehicle to a standstill in the ruins of the Trinculo rocket terminal and Sevan fell off.
The stanchions lifted the vehicle off the track and lay it on the rubble strewn across the platform.
Sevan got to his feet and steadied himself.
"Let's go," said Ozli already heading for the gap where the transparent walls of the terminal building had been.
As they emerged onto the plateau, Sevan realised something he should have noticed in the city but hadn't paid attention to.
"All the ships are gone," he said. "In the city too. Everyone has gone. They have deserted us. We're marooned here, Ozli."
"Calm down, Sevan. You can't be sure that there are no ships," Ozli continued across the plateau at a pace but by the time they reached the piles of incinerated bodies in what had been the very important guests viewing area it had become clear that the Republic had destroyed everything, including all the ships.
"They probably left the generators because they thought there would be no-one here to use them," said Sevan. "Come on, let’s get away from these bodies."
He walked back towards what was left of the terminal building and slumped against the ruins of a wall. After a while, Ozli joined him and for a long time they allowed the silence to envelop them.
"So, this is it then," Sevan said at last. "Destined to starve to death on Nereid."
Ozli did not answer.
"Don't you have any ideas?" Sevan asked. "Don't you have any fushy juice in that machine of yours? You've got everything else."
Sevan pulled off his gas mask and Ozli laughed.
"What?"
"It's squished your face into a funny shape," Ozli giggled.
"Oh, great. Here I am starving to death but at least I'll do it with a squishy face."
He then noticed as he looked back towards the very important guest viewing area that the great globe was rising once more.
CHAPTER 11: THE FORGOTTEN MAN
"You said that your father had been president," said Sevan, to break the silence which had felt oppressive. "What happened to him?"
"He died."
"How?"
"I'm not sure. It was unexplained. A freak accident some said."
"And then your uncle became the president because he married your mother?"
"Well, it's not marriage, but it's the closest word you have to it in your language."
"How did that make you feel?"
"I don't like my uncle if that's what you mean."
"Wouldn't you have been president if your mother hadn't married him?"
"I suppose I would."
"Why doesn't she get to be president?"
"It's complicated."
"I thought republics voted for their presidents."
"Not this one. When did you get so well versed in political systems, anyway? In the mines?"
"They selected me as the workers' representative and then I became Chief Council Member. I had access to the excellent library of a good friend."
Sevan thought about Thertee and missed him. Ozli must have perceived the change in Sevan's countenance.
"Did something happen to your friend?"
"He died."
"I'm sorry."
"He introduced me to my favourite drink, pish. What I wouldn't give for a glass of pish now. I haven't had one since..."
He paused while tried to remember the last time he had a pish.
"It was Barnes."
"What was?"
"It was Barnes who gave me my last pish. On your uncle's cruiser."
"You know my uncle?"
"We have spoken. He made me the Chief Council Member on the Doomed Planet. Don't you have anything in that vehicle to contact your uncle, or at least the Republic?"
"What do you think it is, some kind of magic wagon?"
"It has everything else," Sevan sighed. "Do you have any food in there?"
"No, sorry."
Sevan watched the giant globe as is rose across the now darkening sky. Within it he could see the two planets on which he had been, so recently.
"If the Republic wants to destroy Barnes' work, why has it not attempted to destroy those planets?"
"Perhaps it has," said Ozli. "Perhaps that's why Barnes put them in that globe."
"I can understand why your uncle would want to get rid of someone as intimidating as Barnes."
"Why?"
"A machine, able to create an organic version of itself, then genetically engineer whole colonies and armies and now seems to have discovered how to open its own portals - scary stuff."
"I can't imagine my uncle being intimidated by anyone," Ozli seemed to sigh, as far as a collection of sentient gas in a machine can sigh. "I'm sorry, Sevan, for pointing my weapon at you."
"That's okay. I think it's Slar you should apologise to."
"Oh my future! Do you think she's okay?"
"I doubt it. You shot her."
"We have to help her."
"How? She disappeared into the night and now night has come again."
“We should try.”
Sevan did not want to be dragged through the tunnels back to the remains to the city and then trek down the trail again until they reached the foot of the mountains where they would search pointlessly for Slar. It was like trying to find a marble on the head of Qagvok.
However, given that the alternative was sitting and starving to death near a mass open grave, Sevan thought retracing all the steps they had already painstakingly taken might not be the worst idea he had ever heard. He had heard quite a few terrible ideas recently.
"Okay, let's go," he said, getting himself to his feet. He was feeling tired and weak and wasn't sure he could hold on to Ozli's vehicle for the whole journey back to the incinerated city.
As he followed Ozli back to what remained of the rocket terminal, Sevan mused on the fact that he had never wanted to go on the revenge mission in the first place and he only went along with it because he had nowhere to go.
He looked up at the Doomed Planet within the giant sphere passing above and realised that he had somewhere to go.
"Ozli? Do you think we could get up there?" he said, pointing towards his home planet.
"How? We have no ship and while this vehicle is very versatile, it has its limits."
"What good is finding Slar going to do then?" Sevan snapped. "We have no ship, can't get off this planet, we're marooned."
"I can help Slar."
"You wouldn't need to if you hadn't shot her."
"Even the more reason to find her and help her."
"And then what?"
"I doubt the Republic has eradicated every mining colony on Nereid. I think they just wanted to disrupt the work of Barnes. We find a mining colony to help us and feed you so you stop complaining and then we go about finding, or building a ship to get us off this planet."
"Building?"
"Yes. Have you forgotten who I am? I am Ozli Man, son of Pax Man, ex-president of the Republic, nephew of Layne Man, the current president of the Republic."
"The president's name is Layne?"
"I may have been forgotten in the Republic's upper circles but I have not forgotten my training, including building spacecraft from whatever materials are close to hand."
"You have an idea?"
"Yes. The rocket to Trinculo could, with a few minor modifications be repurposed for interstellar travel."
"Have you lost your marbles? The rocket runs on magnetism."
"I do not have marbles but if I did, then I would not have lost them. The rocket is simply going to provide the body for our craft. I will provide the engine."
Now Sevan was convinced he would die and yet he still lacked a better plan. At least if he allowed Ozli to take him into the crater he might find a mining colony which might feed and help him.
He followed Ozli all the way to the rocket track and then held as tightly as he could onto the handles on the back of Ozli's vehicle as it sped off back down the track.
As they approached the cit
y, it became clear to Sevan that Ozli was not decelerating.
"What are you doing," Sevan tried to shout, but he felt his words being swept behind him.
"Hold on," Ozli warned.
The ashes of the city flashed by as Ozli sped up. Sevan realised he would not stop, and as Slar had done with the rocket, he was planning to drive his vehicle off the end of the track and through the waterfall.
Sevan closed his eyes and gritted his three rows of teeth, holding on as the vehicle ran out of track and hovered in the air for a moment before Sevan felt the weight of the torrent of water swatting him and the vehicle towards the ground.
He allowed himself the briefest moment in which he opened his eyes and saw the ground rushing towards them at a frightening pace, then something seemed to catch them and they were no longer hurtling downwards but forwards.
Ozli had deployed what looked like wings out of the side of his vehicle and it was gliding above the crater rather than plummeting. In the gloom of the reflected light off the globe, Sevan could see the wreck of the rocket in the crater below and Ozli seemed to steer his vehicle towards it.
As they approached the rocket, Ozli touched his vehicle down on the rough crater floor with surprising smoothness and brought it to a standstill beside the rocket. Sevan climbed off and stretched. He was stiff with the tension of gripping onto Ozli's vehicle for so long.
"Come on," said Ozli. "We'll spend the night in the rocket. I'm sure there must be a catering car where we can find you some food."
Sevan left Ozli in the guard's car which looked as if someone had ransacked it since they had been there last. He made his way through the rocket until he found an area which looked as if it had provided refreshments. This area had also been ransacked but Sevan found a cupboard the looters had missed and he sat on the floor, ripping open packaging and stuffing the contents into his mouth. He ate all he could in one sitting and then found a bag which he filled with the remaining snacks before wandering back through the wrecked rocket to the guard’s car.
"Do you feel better," Ozli asked him as he entered the car.
"Yes, thank you. Someone has been here."
"Yes."
"Do you think they'll come back?"
"Possibly."