by Brian Lowe
"But then we reached Kur, and Aerios told me you were originally an archeological installation. Obviously, someone was lying, but I figured out pretty quickly you were a mining colony, not an archeological station. What I couldn't figure out was out why you lied to me, too, until I realized that Aerios was a robot. Robots are only used for dangerous labor, like mine excavations. But they can also be used as weapons. You didn't want us to know you had them, because you were planning to use them against Tanar."
Trocas nodded. "Very clever. You're going to go far. The problem with our robots is that they're only intended for mining and related work. In order to use them as soldiers, we would need to escort them all the way to Tanar, and the monsters made that too dangerous. But when Avanya let slip that Tanar had developed a neutron cannon, we knew we'd found what we needed, a weapon that could not only fight off the monsters, but breach Tanar's defenses. The only problem was how to get our hands on it. It took us years to persuade Tanar to part with it, and even then our plan only worked because you came along."
I shook my head admiringly. "That's a long time to put a plan in motion, I'll give you credit for that." I turned to the controls. "It's time to get back. You should strap in." He settled back and let Rose adjust his restraints. I gave him a reproachful look. "And would you mind putting that rifle down, please?" I jerked my head toward the humans. "They're not going anywhere."
"Oh," he said, looking down. "Sorry. I'd almost forgotten I was carrying it." The straps loosened to allow him to bend down and place the rifle on the deck. "Truth is, I'm not all that good with one, anyway."
"I wish I'd known that before; I wouldn't have worried so much. Rose--please secure chair two for emergency landing."
XXXXIII
Heaving a sigh, I secured Trocas' rifle in the weapons locker. As long as Rose had anything to say about it, nobody but me was going to open it, so that danger was over.
"Rose, please unsecure chair four."
Immediately the straps around Avanya slithered away. She sat there, blinking, staring at me in complete bewilderment. Understandable, under the circumstances.
"Sorry about that, but I needed Trocas to trust me enough to put down his rifle. Rose, please take us over the deepest part of the lake."
"Of course, Timash." Her tone was absolutely worshipful.
Avanya, on the other hand, was looking this way and that as if for somewhere to escape from this crazy ape.
"Relax, I'll tell you what's going on. I promise I'm not going to secure you again unless we really are going to crash."
"I'm glad to hear it."
"Good, because I'm going to need you to trust me. First thing we're going to do, is I'm going to dump the neutron cannon into the lake." I held up a hand. "Just let me finish. This won't take long. That cannon is too dangerous for anyone to have: Trocas, Amal, or Vollan. Besides, this one was not only sabotaged, but I'll bet my left arm it's been booby-trapped. Right, Rose?"
There was a barely perceptible pause while she performed a scan.
"Yes, Timash. It has been set to explode if anyone tries to dismantle the mechanism. The work is quite advanced, considering that Tanar's basic technology has not progressed at a normal rate over the past three hundred years. I doubt Kur's sensors would have detected the trap."
Avanya's eyes were wide. "It was set to explode? It would take out half of the Southern Valley!"
"I doubt that. Vollan wouldn't want to risk bringing the roof down. But it would have torn Kur apart, that's for sure."
"Vollan?"
"Of course Vollan. We already figured he was the only person who could have sabotaged the cannon before it left Tanar. If he sabotaged it, he booby-trapped it."
"But why? I mean--" The full import of what had been done, and what it would have meant for her, was slowly becoming clear. "I would have been there. I would have been killed."
"You and me both. That's why Vollan agreed to let his greatest weapon out of his sight. When I came along, and you wanted me as part of the team, it fit his plans perfectly. We were expendable. So were Tierse and the rest, I suppose, but they planned for that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," I said, casting a significant glance at chair number three, "that Tierse knew about the bomb from the beginning. She was looking for an excuse to get away from us, and the lake monster gave it to her. She knew that the cannon would malfunction, and that would give her the chance to order us to run. We'd have no choice but to continue on toward Kur--or Udar, so we thought. Meanwhile, she and her people could make their way back to Tanar. Unfortunately, one of them hurt herself. While Tierse was trying to get word back to Tanar, she was captured and taken to Kur.
"Then Amal tried to get his hands on it, but that wouldn't have done Vollan any good; the idea was for Kur to try to take it apart to see how it worked. When we showed up, Tierse thought we were all dead until she found out we hadn't brought the cannon with us. Once we all got out here, of course, she would have to have come up with a way to foist the cannon off on Trocas and get away with a whole skin, but I'm sure she would have thought of something."
Avanya stared at chair number three. Tierse's silence was deafening. "You knew… I thought we were friends. You were going to let me die!" I could almost the circuits tripping in her brain as she tried to rearrange her entire worldview. She turned her attention back to me. "What are we going to do after you dump the cannon?"
I pointed at her. "You are going home. I'm going to leave all of you in Tanar. Vollan might not like you; he might not be happy to see you, but you're going to give him something he wants very much." I shifted my pointing finger to chair number two, then at five and six, whose occupants had also apparently decided that they were safer the longer they stayed quiet. "Kur and Tanar need to start talking, because sooner or later someone is going to come looking for our Nuum friend, and when they find you, they're not going to ask permission before they come in. They will scorch this valley and walk over your bodies to take your technology. You are going to have a lot of work ahead you, my diplomatic friend."
"Me? What can I do? You just said the Nuum aren't going to want to talk."
"No, the Nuum aren't known for talking. They're much better at shooting. But somebody needs to persuade Vollan and Trocas to talk, and I'm betting that's you."
"But what are you going to do? How are you going to get out? Vollan isn't just going to let you go. He'll want this ship."
I huffed in amusement. "A lot of good it would do him. But see, that’s one of the things Vollan and Trocas need to talk about. I have friends on the outside, friends who will be interested in your tech, and won't come in shooting. But I can't get in touch with them unless I'm out there. So Vollan can let me go, or he ask Trocas to start digging some really deep tunnels."
Avanya took on a faraway look. "So… You captured the leader of Kur, prevented a huge explosion that would have killed thousands, stopped a war, and now you're going to make the two sides work together. Maybe I should fly the ship and you should be the diplomat."
The sky over the south pole was a beautiful pale blue, and Rose's sensors didn't see a hhoonom within miles. Below us, Tanar's secret surface access door had already started to disappear under a light blanket of snow, and I drew in my first free breath in weeks.
"That was very clever you the way you figured all those things out, sweetie."
"Thank you, Rose. I couldn't have done it without you."
"Yes, well, I did scrape my nose for you. That should count for something."
"Indeed it does. And I will take care of that right away. Please resume our original course."
"Oh. I guess we're not going to Tehana City, then?"
"No, not Tehana City. I'm not quite ready to go home. I've only ever seen one half of the world; I'd kind of like to see the other half."
"All right, then. Resuming original course." Could a computer sigh? "But I was really hoping I was going to get to meet your mother…"
END
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About the Author
Brian K. Lowe has been writing since he was a child, the same time during which he was devouring the kinds of books that eventually he would write. As a child, he hid under a blanket when Gort followed Klaatu out of the saucer. Naturally, he became a fan of comic books, pulp magazines, 1930s screwball comedies, and kaiju movies.
Brian lives with his wife in Southern California. He may be reached at brianklowewriter(at)aol.com.
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Copyright
The Valley Beneath the World
Book 1 of The Fugitive Future Trilogy
Written by Brian K. Lowe
This story is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, locations, and events portrayed in this story are either the product of the author’s imagination, fictitious, or used fictitiously. No claim to the trademark, copyright, or intellectual property of any identifiable company, organization, product, or public name is made. Any character resembling an actual person, living or dead, would be coincidental and quite remarkable.
The Valley Beneath the World. Copyright © 2020 by Brian K. Lowe. This story and all characters, settings, and other unique features or content are copyright Brian K. Lowe.
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