Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

“The tunnel seems clear,” Zotz continued. “We could go down and see if we can find the reactor. Whatever’s draining the power may be something really simple to fix.”

“Don’t you think Wak’s engineers have already tried that?”

“They hadn’t finished unblocking the entrance,” Zotz pointed out. “It’s my guess they were called away before they had a chance to look, but I think the hole is big enough for us to squeeze through.”

“That tunnel is four kilometres long,” she reminded him. “That’s quite a walk.”

“We may not need to walk,” he replied cryptically.

“What about the mad priest? Ostara is convinced Taranis is hiding back there.”

Ravana felt weary and reluctant to commit to more adventures. The pilot’s daughter just wanted to be back at her father’s side, but Zotz’s words had found their mark. Ravana, the trainee engineer, understood that if they could do something to save the Dandridge Cole they should. Her unspoken fear was that she did not want to face Fenris again. Her gaze met Zotz’s own, then fell upon the bag at the boy’s feet.

“We do this together,” she said. “The Flying Fox will always be near, eh?”

Zotz blinked in mock surprise. “I don’t know what you mean!”

“I can see part of your birdsuit sticking out of your bag!”

“Never seen it before in my life,” he retorted. “I wonder how it got in there?”

“Zotz!” cried Ravana.

Zotz looked crestfallen. “It was supposed to be a secret,” he mumbled. “I wanted to be your hero, to look out for you, but I know you never saw me that way. So I invented him.”

“The Flying Fox?”

“You said I reminded you of the flying foxes by the lake and I took it from there.”

“You have always been there when I needed a friend,” Ravana said gently. “Now it’s time for you to lead the way. I’ve had my turn at being heroic and it’s worn me out.”

Zotz nodded, picked up his bag and shuffled to the edge of the cave.

“Can you turn around?” he asked nervously. “I won’t be long.”

Ravana solemnly climbed to her feet, retreated to the far side of the cave and politely turned her back. Moments later she heard faint grunts and the squeak of tight fabric as the unseen superhero struggled into his one-piece birdsuit, followed by a sudden metallic clang when a jet pack slipped from a clumsy grip and fell to the floor. In the hush that followed, she heard a myriad of whirrs and clicks as electronic catches pulled the ensemble together, then a loud hiss reached her ears and the cave began to fill with white smoke.

Unable to avert her gaze any longer, Ravana turned and regarded the defiant figure now before her. The masked birdman stood with scarlet wings outstretched, half-concealed by the smoke billowing from his backpack. The artificial muscles of his suit rippled convincingly and for a moment she found herself going quite weak at the knees.

“The Flying Fox at your service!” he declared. “It is time to save this world!”

The aged railcar rocketed down the tunnel, propelled by the flaring jet pack of the birdman at the rear, himself heroically battling to stop himself falling onto the rails below. Ravana and her cat, crouched low upon a seat before him, peered nervously over the front of the carriage as it recklessly clattered along the ancient railroad. She tried not to think of all the things that could go wrong on a hundred-year-old vehicle pushed to its limits and several anxious minutes went by before the end of the tunnel finally appeared in the gloom. The railcar had no power to any circuits so it was fortunate that the emergency brake was a simple mechanical lever. Nevertheless, it took the combined effort of both Ravana and The Flying Fox to bring the carriage to a halt, which they did mere metres from the end of the track.

“Wow,” said Ravana, clambering out. Her cat was not so impressed and had leapt out of the railcar several metres earlier. “That was some ride!”

The Flying Fox strode towards the end of the tunnel with his torch held before him. Ahead was a metal doorway so corroded that the cat had no problems finding a hole big enough to slip through to the other side. Reaching the door, the birdman threw it open with such a bang that it broke from its rusty hinges and crashed to the floor.

“Follow that cat!” he declared.

Ravana stepped over the fallen door and followed him through to an empty concrete-walled chamber. To their left was a plain metal door, covered in the same mould they had seen in the tunnel, upon which was a sign with the words: ‘TO REACTOR A’. Nearby, the cat pawed at a low-level ventilation grill and hissed madly at the purple fungus that oozed from the rusty aperture.

In front of them was a hefty airtight hatch, operated by a hand wheel, that had a notice above it that read: ‘REACTOR B’. There was a tiny spy hole in the hatch and upon seeing nothing dangerous on the other side, The Flying Fox began to turn the handle. The airtight hatch had withstood the test of time and remained in one piece when the birdman finally pulled it open. The door revealed a short corridor and an identical hatch ahead.

“An airlock?” he asked.

“There’s no pressurisation controls,” Ravana pointed out. “I think it’s just a link between sealed sections, like that between two space station modules.”

The second hatch opened easily. Beyond was a sight that took Ravana’s breath away. Before her was a cathedral to the god of engineering; a vast, brightly-lit cylindrical cavern with walls that curved from beneath a steel grid floor below to an apex twenty metres above their heads. The centre of the hall was dominated by a huge spherical nuclear reactor, behind which was an even larger conical construction extending horizontally through the far wall.

A complex network of pipes and electrical conduits ran in all directions and a strained humming noise hung in the air. The hatch had brought them out onto an open gallery, which was one of several running around the perimeter of the chamber at various levels. These in turn were all linked to one another and to the floor below by a series of metal staircases.

“This is amazing,” she murmured. “They don’t build stuff like this anyone. Do you see the huge cone behind the reactor?” she asked the birdman, pointing across the cavern. “That’s one of the main engines! I’ve never seen anything like it on this scale before!”

“Reactor A and B,” he remarked, switching off the torch. “Two engines.”

The walls of the chamber were made of plates of riveted steel strengthened by a lattice gantry. Ravana was puzzled why this reinforcement was needed when the engine room was surrounded by kilometres of rock. Looking closer, she saw that the circumference of the flat wall at their backs was punctuated at regular intervals by red barrel-shaped devices marked with warning symbols. Near the hatch to their right was an archaic control desk covered in dust and she went over to have a closer look.

“I can’t see anything obvious causing the power drain,” she said eventually. “But someone has been here recently. These controls have been bypassed.”

“The problem must be with Reactor A,” declared The Flying Fox. “We must go!”

“And run into Fenris and the mad priest?”

“There’s no time to lose!”

As quick as a flash, the birdman darted back through the hatch. Ravana heard a strangled cry and the sound of someone crashing to the floor. She found The Flying Fox lying in the dark on the other side of the first hatch, having apparently slipped and fallen whilst pulling open the door marked: ‘TO REACTOR A’. The strange mouldy smell they noticed earlier was stronger than ever.