Hollow Moon (46 page)

“Not really,” Ravana admitted. “But there’s four of us
and only two of them.”

“Assuming we can get in,” added Surya. “When we tried
earlier it would not open.”

“The hatch has been jammed from the inside,” declared The
Flying Fox, who had already tried the door mechanism. The torch was at his
feet, so all anyone else could see was a brightly-lit pair of red legs. “But do
not fear! I shall prevail!”

Surya turned his own torch towards the hatch. The birdman
grasped the wheel firmly in both hands and strained hard against the jammed
lock. A thin whine was heard from his jet pack, then the feeble bulge of his
biceps became impossibly impressive as the birdsuit’s electrically-powered
muscles did their utmost to amplify the wearer’s own movements. There was a
creak of metal and the wheel turned a fraction.

“Those fake muscles are very distracting,” murmured
Ostara.

Ravana heard a note of approval in Ostara’s voice and
smiled. The hatch gave another groan and then with a sudden bang the wheel
began to spin freely in the birdman’s hand. Surya handed Ravana his own torch
and went to help, then together they pulled open the hatch to reveal the short
passage beyond.

The Flying Fox stepped over the fallen steel bar that had
been jamming the lock, spun the handle on the second hatch and pushed it open.
Beyond lay an eerie, green-tinged blackness. A damp smell gusted through the
doorway and Ravana wrinkled her nose in disgust, then was almost swept off her
feet as her frantically-meowing cat darted ahead with the fury of a piranha at
feeding time.

“Jones!” she called. Her words vanished unanswered into
the dark.

“That pet of yours needs its chips examined,” muttered
Ostara.

“The lights were on in the other engine room,” Ravana
murmured apprehensively.

“You want me to go first?” asked The Flying Fox.

As one, the other three nodded. Ravana handed the torch
to the masked birdman and stood back as The Flying Fox defiantly followed the
beam through the hatch.

The lights of the engine room abruptly blazed into life.
Before any of them had time to react, a figure waiting beyond the hatch sprang
out of hiding and pointed a gun at the birdman’s padded chest. The Flying Fox
gave a startled yelp, dropped Surya’s torch to the floor and hurriedly raised
his hands.

“Fenris!” he shrieked.

Ravana cursed and muttered something obscene about
Fenris’ parentage.

“We have been expecting you,” snarled Fenris. He stepped
closer and aimed the pistol at The Flying Fox’s head. “Though not in fancy
dress. All of you, get in here!”

“There goes our plan,” sighed Ostara.

Ravana, Ostara and Surya cautiously stepped through the
hatch and joined Fenris and his captive on the steel gallery. It took Ravana
several moments to realise that the vast cylindrical cavern before them was
indeed the double of the other engine room, for everything in sight was covered
in purple mould or fungus, while vine-like growths masked every steel beam,
ladder and walkway. Like the other room, the centre of the chamber was
dominated by the spherical fusion reactor and its attendant network of conduits
and pipes. The air was filled by the same strained humming, only this time it
was accompanied by an indistinct and almost human wailing that sent shivers
down her spine. Her implant began to pick up vague shadows but nothing her mind
could make any sense of.

“You’re a scumbag,” she said, glaring at Fenris. “A
cowardly, evil little scumbag!”

“We are here to make you pay for your crimes,” added the
birdman, though he sounded far from convinced. One look at the gun had made his
artificial muscles wilt.

Fenris ignored them both. “My Raja,” he greeted, adopting
a mocking tone. “So good of you to finally join us. Taranis was most
disappointed when you declined his invitation.”

“Invitation?” Surya exclaimed, incredulous. “You tried to
kill us!”

“Put the gun down, Fenris,” demanded Ostara. “You’re in
enough trouble as it is.”

Ravana glanced towards the control console further along
the balcony and then froze as Fenris turned and pointed the gun at her.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned. He nodded towards
the flight of steps descending from the balcony. “Down there!” he barked.

When no one moved he placed the gun against Ravana’s ribs
and gave her a push. Ostara mumbled something under her breath and moved
towards the steps, The Flying Fox, Surya and Ravana close behind. Fenris kept
his pistol aimed at their backs and did not follow until they had reached the
bottom of the stairs.

Ahead rose the huge bulk of the fusion reactor. Ranged
before it, nestling amongst the pipes and purple vines, were twelve glass tanks
filled with a green bubbling liquid that masked the grey shape within each one.
The vats were as high as Ravana herself and all were linked to a haphazard
assemblage of laboratory equipment, which in turn was attached via heavy
electrical cables to the fusion plant itself. An irritating dull drone filled
the warm air as the parasitical vats feasted upon the reactor’s power.

“Where’s Taranis?” whispered Ravana.

She cautiously scanned the scene for any sign of the
priest. Her gaze fell upon a pitiful sight. Half-hidden amidst the equipment
was a cage barely two metres square, inside which a trembling creature stared
back at her from almond-shaped eyes. It looked for all the worlds like a
death-row prisoner as its spindly fingers clung helplessly to the bars. As
their gazes met, Ravana did not need to see the beautiful blue markings on its
skin to know it was the grey stranger from her childhood, the wounded traveller
far from home.

“A grey!” murmured Surya, coming to her side. “They
really do exist!”

Suddenly, Ostara shrieked. Something approached from behind
the reactor.

Ravana turned and gasped in horror at the half man, half
multi-limbed machine that now lurched towards them. The face below the metal
skull plates was cruel and haggard with grey skin that hung in folds, yet from
the waist down his body was that of a spider walker, the eight-legged mobility
chairs she had seen on the streets of Hemakuta. Tubes cascaded from the man’s
head and torso into the metal body of the walker, while the black chair upon
which he sat seemed to blend seamlessly with the clothing he wore. Taranis was
literally both man and machine, for there was no clear divide between where one
ended and the other began.

“Ashtapada!” cried Ravana, gripped by the image of a huge
mechanical spider.

“The mad priest himself!” Ostara looked shocked and
stunned. “It is him, right?”

“That was the face on the holovid,” murmured Surya. He
tried to hide behind her.

“I am Taranis!” the newcomer snapped. He sidled closer
amidst a creepy contortion of metal limbs. “I have been waiting for you, Raja. I
did not expect you to bring a retinue!”

“They are of no consequence,” said Fenris with a sneer.
“I will deal with them in good time.”

“They are honoured to be here at the birth of a brave new
world,” Taranis declared. “Today my disciples set forth and soon all will bow
before the word of the greys!”

The scarlet-clad birdman, who up until now had been
silently assessing the situation in the manner of a superhero both startled and
annoyed, took a step forward.

“I am The Flying Fox!” he declared. “This madness ends
now!”

He raised his fists and strode boldly towards the priest.
Taranis shot him a disgusted glare and for an instant Ravana caught a flash of
activity via her implant. The birdman gave a shriek of pain as an unseen force
took his legs and cruelly splayed them wide. He collapsed into an untidy
twitching heap on the floor.

“You fiend!” cried Ravana.

She dashed to her fallen hero and knelt to help him up
into a sitting position, ignoring the threat of Fenris’ gun trained on her
back. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied her cat dart from behind the
nearest vat and towards the cage, its electric nose cautiously sniffing ahead.
Taranis lumbered closer and paused.

“The mighty Ravana.” His voice was bitter. “You’re just a
slip of a girl!”

“Well spotted,” she mumbled, more than a little
perturbed.

“Your mother betrayed the faith!” he snarled. “She was
the chosen one; destined to carry the future king of Lanka, born to unite
Yuanshi and rid the moon of Que Qiao. I planned your life to the last detail,”
he revealed. “You were to have the best schooling, the best training, the best
of everything! You were to be the greatest leader and warrior Yuanshi had ever
seen. It was I who named you Ravana, demon king! Then your whore of a mother
goes and spoils it all by having the audacity to give birth to a girl!”

“How dare you speak ill of my mother!” Ravana retorted,
now back on her feet.

“You gave Ravana her name?” asked Ostara. “She was teased
dreadfully at school.”

Surya frowned. “Are you saying only boys can be great
leaders and warriors?”

“That is the way of the greys!” snapped Fenris.

Ravana glanced towards the caged creature, which was
gently stroking her cat with its outstretched grey fingers, then turned to the
priest with a defiant stare.

“How can you revere the greys yet treat them so badly?”
she demanded.

“They taught me that mind is all and flesh is a mere
distraction,” Taranis said. “I was on a mission to a frontier planet when my
ship was hit by a meteoroid. I was left stranded, trapped in the wreckage, with
no prospect but death. It was they who rescued and repaired my shattered body,
yet they saw no difference between my own mortal frame and the mechanical
carriage I relied upon to get around. The result is what you see before you.”

“Yuck,” muttered Surya. “I am never going to one of their
hospitals.”

“Do not mock the wisdom of the greys!” roared Taranis.
“It was you, Ravana, who provided the new mother of destiny. My agents followed
you into the woods that fateful day and saw you with the creature. It gave its
body to provide the embryos for my disciples, in the same way that I have
sacrificed my own flesh to the cause.”

“You took away my alien?” cried Ravana. “For your
experiments? How could you?”

“Alien embryos and cloning vats,” murmured Ostara. She looked
at the glass tanks and the thick cables running from the reactor. The part of
her not terrified seemed rather pleased she had deduced Taranis’ plans so
accurately. “I don’t like the way this is going.”

Unseen by all, Ravana’s cat had jumped onto the back of
the priest’s spider-walker legs and was busily nibbling the tubes running down
the walker’s mechanical spine. Abandoned by the cat, the caged creature
stretched a hand towards something beyond its reach on top of a nearby crate,
but continued to look at Ravana as if trying to draw her attention. Ravana
glanced to the crate and was puzzled by the sight of a large old-fashioned
book, then thought of the
Isa-Sastra
that Fenris had revealed was in Taranis’ possession. Meanwhile, The Flying Fox
was back on his feet and more determined than ever.

“Whatever you are doing here, it has to stop!” he
declared. He unhooked the high-tension lightning rod from his backpack and
pressed a button on his wristpad to activate his smoke shield. “And I am the
one to do it!”

“Zotz, no!” screamed Ravana.

Taranis smiled, then gave the masked birdman a stare so
intense that his eyes seemed to flash fire. An intense bolt of pain shot
through Ravana’s implant and with a shriek she fell to the floor, holding her
head in her hands. A sudden whooshing noise filled the air as the birdman’s
backpack unlatched itself, fired its rockets and soared away across the cavern,
taking the smoke screen and lightning wand with it. When the fog cleared,
Ravana looked up to see The Flying Fox kneeling before the priest and slapping
himself around the face as hard as he could. The birdman’s mask hung in shreds
and Zotz’s look of panic made it clear he had no control over his actions. All
sorts of random visions flashed through Ravana’s mind and in a sudden blind
rage she mentally lashed out and dashed the images to oblivion. Zotz’s hand
stopped mid-slap and he fell wearily to the floor.

“Zotz!” wailed Ravana. She crawled across to where he
lay. “Stop trying to be so brave!”

“What is going on?” cried Ostara. Behind her, Surya
looked more scared than ever.

Taranis shuffled nearer and glowered at Ravana. She had
fallen heavily on her weak right arm and the shrapnel wound in her shoulder had
begun to bleed once more. Yet she remained defiant as she climbed to her feet
and stood before the priest. Her hope had been unexpectedly rekindled by the
sight of her cat chewing away behind Taranis’ back.

“Crude but effective,” the priest murmured, unaware of
the electric pet’s presence. “I had forgotten it had been arranged for the
young demon king to have such an implant.”

“What?” exclaimed Ravana.

“A minor oversight,” Fenris acknowledged. “I see now that
Namtar and Inari acted too soon because it was the girl’s implant they detected
at the palace, not that of the Raja.”

“Two oversights,” Ostara pointed out. “Ravana’s cat
sniffed out this secret lair.”

“That makes me number three,” came a woman’s voice from
behind.

Ravana, Surya, Ostara and Fenris turned to see Maharani
Uma standing on the gallery near the hatch, calmly gazing down at the scene
before her. Taranis had seen her enter and was already shuffling sideways
towards the bottom of the stairs. Ravana heard a groan at her feet and saw her
crumpled hero trying to sit up.