Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

Quirinus and Ravana pushed this particular mystery to the back of their minds, preoccupied as they were with the manoeuvres needed for their final approach. The entrance to the hollow moon’s dock was a large rectangular airlock on the central axis, which like the rest of the asteroid spun at a stately one revolution per minute. The Platypus had to come in on a perfect trajectory and match this spin precisely if it was to make a successful landing.

“Ravana? Surya? Can you hear me?”

Ravana looked around the cabin, confused. The woman’s voice was familiar but there was only herself and her father on the flight deck.

“Ship?” she called, hesitantly. “Was that you?”

“Please clarify your query,” the AI intoned, inadvertently answering her question. Its voice was not the one she had heard.

Quirinus looked up from the console. “Who are you speaking to?”

“I thought I heard someone,” said Ravana, looking wary. “Didn’t you?”

“First sign of madness, hearing voices in your head.”

“Hello? Is there anybody out there?”

“There it is again!” cried Ravana.

Surya appeared at the hatch, excited and out of breath.

“Ganesa!” he exclaimed. “She’s trying to contact us via her implant!”

“Oh my,” murmured Ravana. She located the headcom icon in her mind. She had forgotten to switch it off after their hasty departure from Ayodhya.

“Finally!” gasped the voice in her head. “I can’t stay here much longer!”

“Ganesa? Is that really you?” asked Ravana, astonished. “Where are you?”

“Hiding in the toilet on the Sun Wukong !”

“Yuck,” remarked Surya, pulling a face. “How gross.”

“What’s worse is Hanuman dumps his dirty laundry in here and it smells as bad as the toilet itself,” replied Ganesa. “But you must listen! You are in grave danger!”

“We’re nearly home!” Ravana protested. “What can possibly happen now?”

“Fenris is here, holding a gun to Hanuman! He made us follow you back!”

“Fenris!” Ravana hissed. “He’s hijacked the Sun Wukong !”

Her father looked up in alarm. “What?”

“Ganesa is hiding in the toilet,” Surya added, feeling he should say something.

“This is too much,” muttered Quirinus. He pressed a switch to activate the ship’s intercom. “Ostara? Can you get up here?”

Ostara was at the hatch almost immediately, relieved to have an excuse to leave the carousel. Having finished reading Sherlock Holmes , she had run out of things to talk about with Miss Clymene and the rest of the Newbrum band were dozing in the bunks.

“Are we there yet?” she asked brightly.

“We’ve got trouble,” Quirinus told her. “Fenris has taken over the Sun Wukong .”

“Ganesa called us on her implant headcom,” Surya explained.

“What does he want?” asked Ravana, speaking hurriedly to Ganesa. “Can we help?”

“Fenris has gone crazy!” Ganesa wailed softly. “He’s put a b…”

Ravana and Surya winced as Ganesa’s sharp scream sliced through their thoughts like a wayward laser-cutter and then just as abruptly cut off. As they sat staring at one another, wondering what had happened, the console holovid flickered into life. Recognising the incoming call-sign as that of the Sun Wukong , Quirinus hesitated a few moments and then touched the screen to accept the call.

“Fenris,” he growled, as the man’s unpleasant leer appeared on the screen. Fenris sat in Ganesa’s usual seat, calmly pointing a plasma pistol at Hanuman, who was at the helm beside him. “You’re the one person I really did not mind leaving behind on Yuanshi. What have you done to Ganesa?”

“Never mind her!” snapped Fenris. “Where is the Raja?”

“I’m here,” declared Surya, moving into view. “What do you want, Fenris?”

Fenris trembled slightly and the holovid screen revealed beads of sweat upon his brow. When he spoke again, his careful words were filled with the quiet desperation of a man who knew the consequences if he did not accomplish his mission.

“My dear Raja,” he said slowly. “Taranis and Kartikeya were ready to give you the throne of Yuanshi, yet you cast them aside. It is not your fate to hide away like a rabbit in a hole. I beg you to accept your calling and return with me to Lanka.”

“You tricked me!” exclaimed Surya. “Endymion found the brain-washing device at the conference. You wanted me as a phoney figurehead to use in your rebellion!”

“Yes, I saw your friend’s broadcast,” Fenris growled. Next to him, Hanuman gave a wry grin. “You have every right to be angry. We have not treated you with the loyalty and respect that a future Maharaja deserves. Come back with me and Yuanshi will be yours!”

“Put the gun down,” said Quirinus, his voice stern.

“You are in no position to give orders,” retorted Fenris. He lifted his other hand to the holovid lenses and showed them the small device in his grip, his thumb poised over its single red button. “Indeed, you would be wise not to cross me at all.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Quirinus.

Without warning, the image on the screen flickered and they were suddenly confronted by the haggard and grotesque countenance of a man poised to give them nightmares. The face of the dark-clad figure was disfigured by metal skull plates, from which a tangle of tubes emerged to run down over the back of his seat. A haze hung in the air, partly obscuring the bubbling vats and laboratory equipment visible in the background. Of those watching from the flight deck of the Platypus , three of them instantly guessed the man’s identity. Quirinus, shocked at how time had taken its toll, knew without a doubt.

“Taranis!” he exclaimed. “But how?”

“Who gives him beauty tips?” Ostara muttered, her face curled in disgust.

Ravana stared in horror at the gnarled figure on the screen. After all she had heard about the mysterious priest, she had been expecting a warrior-like firebrand preacher, not someone who looked like a crippled mad scientist. The priest pointedly ignored herself, her father and Ostara and instead fixed his steely gaze upon Surya.

“Raja Surya,” Taranis declared, his tone cracked but strong. “I have been watching your progress for a while. You disappoint me, my prince.”

“What do you want from me?” asked Surya, his voice wavering.

“You speak as if afraid of what I offer,” Taranis remarked. “What I desire is for you to embrace your destiny! Your public spat with the fool Kartikeya is regrettable though not unexpected, for he is a man of limited vision. Great things are in store for you, but you must heed those who seek to guide you.”

“That doesn’t really answer Surya’s question,” Ravana interjected.

Taranis turned and looked at her coldly, not at all impressed by her interruption.

“The girl who cried wolf,” he said. “Perhaps Fenris should have silenced you at the start. You are yet another who failed to heed their calling, my so-called Ravana.”

Ravana looked startled. “How do you know my name?”

Taranis ignored her. “Fenris will take you back to Lanka,” he instructed Surya. “The peace conference may not have ended the way we planned, but fate has decreed this encounter and fortuitously provided the means to depart this wretched asteroid. The time has come for our disciples to take the word of the greys across the five systems!”

“I do not understand,” Surya protested weakly.

“You’re not the only one,” mumbled Ostara.

“Fenris will collect you shortly,” Taranis replied. “We will meet soon enough!”

The holovid screen went blank, then switched back to showing Fenris and Hanuman on the flight deck of the Sun Wukong . Fenris looked slightly stunned and Ravana was left with the impression that he had not expected Taranis to personally intervene in such a way. Nevertheless, he soon regained his composure.