Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

Beyond the outer airlock lay a kilometre-long tunnel through solid rock, leading to the main dock and a second set of doors. Endymion was poised to close the airlock behind them and open the one ahead, but with the holovid channel being used for his hack he had to rely on Surya’s implant conversations with Ganesa to determine where the Sun Wukong was. The whole affair was becoming very complicated indeed.

“They’re clear,” Surya told Endymion.

“Free, free as a bird,” twittered the AI. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!”

Endymion activated the outer airlock once more to shut the two ships inside the tunnel. The Sun Wukong had fired its thrusters to slow to a halt, yet the Platypus sped on unabated. Beads of sweat broke upon Ravana’s brow and she began to waver, overwhelmed by the effort of concentration. Endymion sent a signal to the Dockside airlock and the doors at the end of the tunnel ahead slid open. On the far side of the chamber stood the great circular portal that led into the interior of the hollow moon itself, sealed shut ever since the Dandridge Cole left the Solar System at the start of its epic voyage.

“We have to stop here,” Ostara urged. “This is where the hangar elevators are.”

“Can’t stop,” muttered Ravana through clenched teeth. “I’ve lost the retros!”

“Retros?” intoned the AI. “Where we’re going we don’t need retros!”

Ostara stared in horror as Ravana groaned in anguish and promptly fainted, slumped limp and exhausted in her seat harness. Philyra gave an anguished yelp and pointed straight ahead. The end of the airlock chamber was rapidly approaching.

“We’re going to crash!” she screamed.

“Not if I can help it,” retorted Endymion.

The silence of the deserted colony ship was abruptly shattered by a dreadful squeal of metal. The great circular door, spurred into life for the first time in more than a hundred years, began to slide open. The Platypus was momentarily buffeted by a sharp gust of wind as air surged into the vacuum of the airlock tunnel, then careered through into the hollow moon itself, clipping the edge of the portal as it went. The vast cavern was in darkness, for the dim glow of the artificial sun dead ahead cast barely enough light to signal its own presence.

“Ravana!” cried Zotz, shaking her shoulder. “Wake up!”

“What’s happened to the sun?” Ostara glanced at her wristpad. “It’s supposed to be two o’clock in the afternoon! And why are we heading straight for it?”

Philyra still pointed ahead. “We are quite definitely going to crash!”

“Tally ho!” intoned the ship.

“What’s wrong with Ravana?” asked Surya, coming to her side.

“I don’t know!” wailed Zotz. “I can’t wake her!”

Behind them, the Sun Wukong settled to a stop in the airlock. Hanuman and Ganesa could only watch helplessly as the Platypus continued into the darkness, speeding through the zero-gravity zone of the hollow moon with no way of stopping.

Aboard, Ostara urged everyone to assume crash positions inside the carousel. Surya and Zotz pulled Ravana’s unconscious body through the crawl tunnel and placed her next to her father. Ostara was the last to leave the flight deck and gazed in awe as the barely-glowing sun grew closer. Less than a minute had passed since they breached the airlock. She reached the hatch to the carousel ladder with moments to spare.

The Platypus smashed through the outer glass lenses of the sun in an explosion of glittering shards. The spacecraft ploughed on through a shattered halo of heating elements and reflectors and onwards into the alloy superstructure. With one last awful screech, the battered hull shuddered and then fell still. Amidst the floating debris, the artificial sun looked like an apple pierced by an arrow from a bow.

Inside the carousel, Miss Clymene looked up from where she had strapped herself into her seat. Her prized trophy had broken loose during the impact and floated just beyond her reach, dented beyond recognition. Ravana’s electric cat peered out of a cupboard door, spat out the rest of Zotz’s theremin and gave a disgruntled hiss.

“No competition is worth this,” Miss Clymene declared, seeing the startled faces of her fellow passengers. “I never knew being a music teacher could be so dangerous!”

RAVANA GAZED NUMBLY at the sight of the stricken Platypus wedged in the side of the broken sun, then down at her father’s unconscious form beside her on the back of the hovertruck. Tears welled in her eyes as her fingers reached to touch the bloodied face half-hidden beneath bandages and an oxygen mask.

Professor Wak manoeuvred away from the open cargo bay door with utmost care. Notwithstanding the temperamental interim repair to his hand, the entire crew was huddled on the tiny vehicle and the ground was half a kilometre away in every direction. Miss Clymene had been granted the seat in the open cab next to Zotz and his father. Everyone else clung despondently to the straps stretching across the flatbed at the rear, like stranded mariners upon a life raft at sea.

The truck began its shallow dive towards Dockside and soon its nervous passengers felt the centrifugal pull of the hollow moon once more. Zotz glanced ruefully over his shoulder, for he had wanted to ride behind with Ravana but had fumbled too long when trying to tie the safety line around his waist. Wak had raised the rails at the sides of the flatbed and no one was in any real danger of falling off, but that did not stop Ostara shifting uneasily towards the centre whilst doing her best to avoid looking down. As they descended towards the ground, the Platypus slowly faded into the darkness until all that could be seen were the red and green navigation lights at the tips of the folded wings.

“Home sweet home,” Ostara said moodily, eager to break the silence.

Ravana gave her a withering look and went back to stroking her cat.

“You had us all worried, fainting like that,” said Ostara. “It was an impressive piece of piloting the way you managed to bring the ship through in one piece.”

“I crashed the Platypus into the sun,” Ravana said bitterly. “Father was nearly killed and the hollow moon looks like a ghost ship. What is there to be impressed about?”

“We’re all still alive!” Miss Clymene said brightly. “Be thankful for that.”

“Yes, but for how long?” Zotz murmured, causing Philyra and Bellona to look at him in alarm. “The air doesn’t smell right. It’s getting cold, too.”

The hovertruck skimmed low over the deserted fields, keeping close to the monorail track as it headed towards Dockside. The crops below looked pale and stunted in the light of the truck’s headlamps and it was clear the hollow moon had suffered greatly in their absence. Dotted around the fields were abandoned mobile light and heat generators, brought out by farmers in a desperate attempt to save the harvest, but they were no substitute for the once raging power of the simulated sun. The ecosystem of any artificial world was a precarious balance between Mother Nature and human ingenuity at the best of times.

The hovertruck settled to a halt outside one of the maintenance bays. The door to the workshop opened and a figure suddenly ran out and away down the road. Moments later, two others appeared at the door in hot pursuit of the first, then upon seeing the hovertruck gave up the chase and instead approached the parked truck.

As the figures emerged out of the gloom, Ravana saw it was Hanuman and Ganesa. She climbed from the hovertruck to greet them, then cursed as her cat took their arrival as a signal to wriggle free and leap away into the darkness.