Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

“Fenris escaped!” growled Hanuman, annoyed. “He jumped us when we went to fetch him from the passenger cabin. I’ve never known anyone be so slippery!”

“Looks like a job for the local security officer,” said Wak, looking at Ostara.

“I’ll deal with him later,” grumbled Ostara. “My friends come first.”

After asking Zotz to take Miss Clymene, Endymion, Bellona and Philyra to one of the habitation cabins, Wak led the rest of the party into the Dockside complex, with Hanuman and Ganesa at the handles of the stretcher upon which Quirinus lay. The workshop and nearby spacecraft maintenance bay had been the scene of many a clumsy accident and so it was no coincidence that the medical unit was close by. The corridors were illuminated by emergency power only and when Ravana followed her father into the dimly-lit medical centre her heart sank at the sight of all the lifeless equipment. Undeterred, Wak instructed Hanuman and Ganesa to lift the unconscious Quirinus onto the nearest bed, then helped Ravana to connect her father up to a battery-powered portable cardiac monitor.

“His vital signs are fine,” Wak reassured her, pointing at the monitor screen. “Unfortunately, there’s not enough power to run the diagnostic unit or the autosurgeon, so unless anyone here is a trained medic there’s little I can do. Your friends have a ship. I suggest you get your father to Newbrum as soon as you can.”

“We’d be glad to oblige,” said Hanuman. “But we’re stuck here too. When we tried to bring the Sun Wukong into the hangar on the elevator there was not enough power to shut the doors. The outer airlock is not opening for anyone until we can close the inner one.”

“Miss Clymene knows first aid,” Surya suggested, looking at the figure on the bed.

“I’ll go and get her,” said Ostara. Anxious to help, she hurried from the room.

Wak came over and put an arm around the downcast Ravana.

“We’ve been in worse fixes than this in the past,” he told her.

“When?” asked Ravana, incredulously. “Everything that can go wrong, has! I wish we’d never gone to Epsilon Eridani. The trip has been a disaster from start to finish.”

Ganesa stood by the door and looked through the window beyond. The distant lights of the crashed Platypus were still visible, reflected in the shattered remains of the sun.

“How about if we drag the Platypus back into the dock and use its fuel cells to power the airlock systems?” she suggested. “That way we could get the Sun Wukong out of here and take Quirinus to Ascension.”

“It’s a thought,” admitted Wak. “Alternatively, there’s a portable generator not far from the palace we may be able to use. The ship from Newbrum is only a few hours away. At the very least we need to be able to operate the airlock when it arrives.”

“Can your ship do that?” Ravana asked Hanuman. “Rescue the Platypus ?”

“The Sun Wukong has the original lifting gear still fitted,” he told her. “Those military transports can pluck an armoured tank off a muddy battlefield in Taotie gravity, so I’m sure we can pull your ship out of the hole you made without too much trouble.”

They were interrupted by the return of Ostara, who had with her both Miss Clymene and Bellona. Miss Clymene immediately went to Quirinus’ bedside and looked with interest at the monitor readings, though acknowledged her medical expertise was limited.

“We’ll do our best for your father,” she said to Ravana. “Bellona and I will be able to clean his wounds properly now we’re not bobbing around like drunken fish.”

“And we’ll make a start on towing the Platypus ,” said Hanuman, making for the door. “Unless anyone has a better idea, that is.”

“Are you suggesting there is one better than mine?” retorted Ganesa.

Hanuman rolled his eyes and pushed Ganesa towards the door to take their gentle bickering out into the cool night air. Miss Clymene and Bellona quickly got to work changing Quirinus’ dressings, leaving Ravana feeling a little lost and helpless. When Zotz arrived a few moments later, Wak approached her with a proposition.

“I mentioned a portable generator at the far end of the hollow moon,” he said. “My engineers were there yesterday trying to gain access to an old maintenance tunnel. If you want to make yourself useful, I suggest you and Zotz take the hovertruck and if the generator has any fuel left in it, bring it back.”

“I’d rather help Hanuman and Ganesa with the Platypus ,” Ravana said moodily, as she idly removed her broken wristpad. “I know that ship better than anyone.”

“It’s too risky to put anyone aboard,” Wak said firmly. “With no power to the flight systems, the slightest mistake during the tow could knock it out of the zero-gravity zone and crashing to the ground. You’d be much more help fetching the generator.”

“We could collect Jones on the way,” added Zotz. “On my wristpad tracker your cat is heading across the hollow moon as fast as its little legs will carry it.”

Ravana groaned. “Towards the cliff behind the palace?”

Zotz shrugged. “I think so.”

“Not again! What is the fascination with that dratted cave?”

“Is it following Fenris’ scent?” asked Ostara. “Or is it only dogs that do that?”

“Maybe it has gone to fix the fusion reactor for us,” Wak muttered.

Ravana gave him an odd look. “I don’t understand.”

“Those caves are the sealed entrances to the Dandridge Cole ’s engine rooms,” the professor explained. He saw their puzzled expressions and sighed. “The asteroid has two huge fusion drives. How do you think it got here from the Solar System all those years ago?”

“There’s giant nuclear engines behind the palace?” asked Surya, shocked.

“The access tunnels are four kilometres long,” Wak reassured him. “As I said, the engineers looking for the power drain were trying to gain entry until I told them to go with their families on the Indra . I doubt there would have been much they could have done. You try getting spare parts for technology a hundred years old!”

“Isn’t the fusion plant inside the sun?” asked Ostara, still looking confused.

“Of course not!” retorted Wak irritably. “The sun just draws the power and projects it as heat and light. If the Platypus had crashed into a reactor we most certainly would not be standing here right now listening to your stupid questions!”

“Taranis!” exclaimed Ostara. “Of course! That’s where he’s hiding!”

“Inside the sun?” remarked Zotz, looking at her as if she had gone mad.

“Not up there,” Ostara said crossly. “In the old engine rooms!”

Wak rolled his eyes in exasperation. “How did you ever make security officer?” he asked with a sigh. “There’s nobody hiding back there!”

“Taranis is there,” insisted Ostara. “He said he’d been watching the Raja and that they were shortly to meet, so he must be close by! Also, when we listened in on his holovid call to Fenris at Hemakuta, Endymion said the signal was coming from the Ascension servermoon, which is the one we use here.”

“As does everyone else in the Barnard’s Star system,” Wak pointed out.

“Yes, but thirdly, Hanuman told us Taranis had become interested in experimental cloning after seeing what Que Qiao was doing to the greys!” Ostara continued excitedly. “Which now I think about it could be something to do with the disciples the priest mentioned. At the secret plantation, Hanuman also said you needed a lot of power to create clones. If Taranis has set up a secret laboratory here, that could explain the power drain!”