Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

Miss Clymene produced an empty foil-wrapped carton from her pocket and showed it to Endymion. “And this looks suspiciously like a zero-gravity food pack from a spacecraft,” she declared. “I found it near your sleeping bag just before we left the Ravines.”

“A clue!” exclaimed Ostara. She took the empty wrapper from Miss Clymene and examined it carefully. “See the teeth marks? Maybe some strange alien creature stole this morsel of food from somewhere then found its way to your camp, seeking warmth.”

Endymion nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!”

“Or a certain someone was out and about in the jungle when he shouldn’t have been and took the rations from a possible crime scene,” suggested Miss Clymene. Bellona and Philyra blushed and shuffled along the seat away from Endymion, who stared at his shoes. “Someone with the annoying habit of opening packets with his teeth?”

Ostara considered this. “That is a possibility,” she admitted.

“We suspect the wreckage in the Eden Ravines is indeed the Nellie Chapman , but that hasn’t as yet been confirmed,” Verdandi said slowly. “Young man, are you saying you saw the ship before it was destroyed?”

“We all saw it,” Bellona told her, when it became clear Endymion had lost his tongue. “We were looking for the meteor the scientists said had fallen nearby. Endymion was the only one to go inside, though.”

“Thanks,” muttered Endymion.

“So what makes you think this ship was involved in the kidnap?” asked Ostara.

“The flight computer,” Endymion replied sullenly. “I checked the coordinates and saw that its last flight was from the Dandridge Cole .”

“Clever boy,” remarked Quirinus.

“Not really,” retorted Verdandi. “The scientist at the Ravines who found the spacecraft noticed an explosive device attached to the main console. By the time our bomb disposal expert arrived, there was not a lot left for her to examine. This young man was lucky not to blast himself into orbit. Anyone would think he was on egg!” she said, looking at Endymion.

“Egg?” queried Ravana, confused. Ostara shrugged.

“What sort of ship was it?” asked Quirinus.

“Asteroid miner,” replied Endymion. “With an Astromole digging machine.”

“Astromole!” exclaimed Ravana. “That’s the name I saw on the side of the machine that took the Raja and the men down into the ground!”

“If the boy’s testimony is to be believed then it seems the young Raja may be on Ascension after all,” said Verdandi, looking thoughtful. “I will personally…”

Endymion held up his hand. “Excuse me, Administrator,” he said. “There’s more.”

Verdandi looked most displeased at being interrupted mid-flow. “Well?”

“There was another ship,” he said tentatively. “There were marks on the ground where it had landed next to the mining ship.”

“More witnesses!” Ostara said excitedly. “This Ravines place is a tourist area, right? The other ship could be a coach party from Earth, or one of those flying souvenir shops which sell ice-cream, or…”

Quirinus held up his hand to stop her. “Has anyone got a more sensible theory?”

“The Maharani believes her son has been taken to Yuanshi,” Fenris declared, glaring at Quirinus. “The symbol left upon the palace wall was that of the freedom fighters of Lanka. You have to take me to Epsilon Eridani. We need to continue the search from there!”

Miss Clymene looked at Quirinus. Ravana heard her murmur something about her and the band being dropped off on Daode along the way. Quirinus however had other ideas.

“How dare you ask that of me!” he retorted. “Ravana and I went through hell on that moon. Your crack-pot religion has torn Yuanshi apart. There is no way I am going to risk my life going back to Epsilon Eridani just to hunt for some third-rate prince!”

“Father!” exclaimed Ravana. She had never seen her father so angry.

“Crack-pot religion?” exclaimed Fenris. “You dare to mock the followers of Taranis?”

“I am not going to Yuanshi,” said Quirinus. “I’ve escaped your stupid holy war once already and I have no intention of throwing myself back into that madness again.”

“Madness?” shrieked Fenris. “Stupid holy war?”

“It sounds even more convincing when you say it,” Quirinus told him.

“So you’re definitely not going to Epsilon Eridani?” Miss Clymene asked.

Fenris stood up. “I am not taking any more of these insults!” he declared. Glaring once more at Quirinus, he strode away through the arrivals lounge and was gone.

Ravana stared after the departing figure in shocked disbelief. Her gaze met those of Verdandi and Ostara, who both looked equally stunned.

“Are all you people this highly strung?” Verdandi asked Ostara.

Ostara shrugged. “I don’t think the Maharani is an easy woman to work for.”

“He’ll be back,” mused Quirinus. “He’s got no other way of getting home.”

RAJA SURYA gazed through the porthole at the planet hanging in space before them. The gas giant was truly immense, with bands of turbulent clouds in various shades of brown from cream to rusty red, dwarfing the tiny moon that had moved into view to add a sense of perspective. He had been barely four years old the last time he had gazed upon such a sight with his own eyes, yet the view was all too familiar and somehow comforting.

The tall man sitting opposite, who like Surya was held into his seat by a harness to stop him drifting away in the zero gravity, was captivated too by the view of the distant planet. The man had previously admitted that his own feelings were born more of relief that the end of what had been a busy week was near.

“Shennong, the divine farmer,” the man said. “A Chinese name, but one somehow appropriate. The gardens of Yuanshi and Daode have indeed proved bountiful to the intrepid adventurers who have made these distant moons their home.”

Surya stared at him. “Do you always talk like that?”

“Namtar does like his fancy words,” retorted the fat man, who sat by himself on the other side of the cabin. “He acts all swish but he’s no better than scum like me.”

“If I am scum, I am merely guilty by association,” replied Namtar. “It is regrettable that circumstances have forced me to associate with miscreants of your ilk, my dear Inari. Rest assured that once I have taken my rightful place in the brave new world we are building on Yuanshi, standing shoulder to shoulder with my fellow elite, no one will call me scum.”

Inari gave a derisive snort. “You’ll always be scum to me.”

Surya looked away and smiled. Barely two Terran days had passed since he had been rudely awakened from his afternoon nap and taken bound and gagged from his cosy rooms at the palace. Namtar and Inari had been a little heavy-handed during his kidnap and there was no denying that he had been scared, especially after they had bundled him out of the strange burrowing machine into another cramped vehicle, which had then shot out of a tunnel to present him with a mind-bending vision of the hollow moon spinning through space. After that his senses had been in overdrive as he sought to comprehend their fiery descent towards a small brown planet, the brief sojourn on a strange jungle world to meet another waiting spacecraft, then another hasty departure away into the void of space.

Through all this, it quickly became clear that Namtar and Inari had no intention of hurting him and indeed often treated him with a politeness verging on reverence. Notwithstanding the shock of the abduction, Surya was getting to like being away from his mother’s stifling influence. The scariest part of the journey since had been the stomach-churning leap, lasting mere nanoseconds, which had taken them through extra-dimensional space to Shennong, sixteen light years away.