Hollow Moon (43 page)

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.

“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!”

“Greys don’t exist!” retorted Wak.

“They are for real,” Ravana told him. “And yes, Hanuman
did say those things.”

“You see!” Ostara exclaimed. “And, err…”

“Fourthly?” suggested Surya.

“Yes! And the alien weirdness that made Ravana’s cat act
strangely at the plantation is now luring it to that cave!” Ostara squared up
to the professor and stood defiant, her hands on her hips. “It is my deduction
that Taranis is hiding in one of the engine rooms and drawing power from the
hollow moon reactor to run secret cloning experiments!”

“Experiments that released growth hormones into the air
and gave the
Platypus
Woomerberg
Syndrome,” added Zotz, wide-eyed. “It does make sense!”

“Elementary, my dear Zotz!” Ostara exclaimed. “That’s
from
Sherlock Holmes
.”

Wak opened his mouth to reply, then hesitated. His
sceptical expression faltered when it became evident he could not think of a
good argument against what Ostara had put to him.

“My word,” murmured Ravana, looking at Ostara in a new
light. “That is the best piece of detective work you’ve ever done. Do you
really think Taranis is doing something like that right under our noses? What
can his experiments be?”

“Cloning greys? As if they exist!” muttered Wak, in the
manner of someone still not convinced. “On the other hand, you can set up a
small cloning facility almost anywhere. It might explain where the missing
equipment went from the biology laboratory. How do you propose to put your
deduction to the test, security officer Ostara?”

“Find Fenris,” she declared. “He’s got nowhere to go now
except back to Taranis.”

In his haste to escape, Fenris had left his personal
effects behind in the
Sun Wukong
,
including the wristpad he had taken with him to Epsilon Eridani, something Zotz
discovered when he tried to locate the fleeing Fenris via the tracker screen on
his own. While Ostara remained convinced that Fenris was to rendezvous with
Taranis in the old engine rooms, Surya feared he was instead making for the
palace and was concerned for his mother’s safety should she still be there when
Fenris returned.

The power drain had put the monorail trains out of use
and none of the monocycles in the nearest bay had enough charge to make it all
the way across the hollow moon. It was decided therefore that Ostara and Surya
would hitch a ride on the hovertruck as far as the palace, leaving Ravana and
Zotz to continue onwards to the cave to collect the generator. Surya was
confident that any staff left at the palace would side with him rather than
Fenris. Professor Wak however had concerns of his own.

“I’m pretty sure you’ll find the palace deserted,” he
said. “Everyone left on the
Indra
. They
even managed to take some of the livestock. It looked like Noah’s Ark when it
went!”

“You’re still here,” Ostara pointed out. “If you were
daft enough to stay, there may be others. The Maharani’s household weren’t keen
on mixing with the rest of us at the best of times and for all we know they’re
still there, hiding and hoping the problem will go away.”

“I don’t want you to face Fenris alone,” Wak told her.
“At least promise me that.”

“You could come with us,” Ostara suggested.

“With this hand?” retorted Wak, holding up his
poorly-repaired artificial digits. “Do you want me to slap him into submission?
By all means do your investigation, but please wait for Hanuman to join you
before you try any heroics. I’m sure it won’t take them long to drag the
Platypus
back into dock and I only need Ganesa here
to try her idea for the airlock.”

“Okay,” Ostara said. She gave his arm a reassuring pat.
“I promise.”

The
Sun Wukong
had
left the airlock and Ravana, Ostara, Wak and Zotz went outside to watch as it
moved slowly through the zero-gravity zone on its way to rescue the stranded
Platypus
. Left to their own devices, Endymion and Philyra had
been busy rifling through the bundle of Fenris’ possessions Hanuman had chucked
out of the passenger compartment before leaving. Apart from his wristpad and a
case of clothes, they found a slate loaded with all sorts of interesting
material and also, to their surprise, Fenris’ copy of the
Isa-Sastra
. Eager to show their discoveries, Endymion and
Philyra came down to the medical bay.

“He must have really been in a panic to leave this
behind,” mused Miss Clymene, as she casually flicked through the book. The
dense text was written in an archaic style and the few sentences she read were
full of obscure references and double meanings.

“May I have a look, miss?” asked Bellona. Miss Clymene
handed her the book.

“The slate has engineering plans for the
Dandridge
Cole
,” Endymion revealed. “Ravana did
mention that Fenris was the inside man for the Raja’s kidnap.”

“Indeed he was,” said Ravana, appearing at the door. “The
scumbag.”

She went to the bed and knelt beside the motionless form
of her father. Miss Clymene and Bellona had replaced the bandages on his head
and chest. A small metal dish on the nearby cabinet held half a dozen fragments
of bloody shrapnel, removed by Bellona’s steady hand. Quirinus remained
unconscious, but Ravana took some reassurance from the pink blush upon his
face, for earlier her father had looked as pale as a ghost.

“How is he?” she asked Miss Clymene.

“He’s no longer critical,” she replied, startling Ravana
who had not been told that he was to begin with. “He should make a full
recovery. Except…”

“Except what?” asked Ravana, her heart sinking.