1889: Journey To The Moon (The Far Journey Chronicles) (22 page)

[ 72 ]

Merkam watched the
Ares
leave the
Arcadia
and make its way across the moonscape. The dark machine with the yellow brass highlights reminded him of a Mumbai Rajah’s black leopard he had seen in India some two decades ago. The beast had been a large male in its prime, and wore a flowing brass collar that resembled interconnecting flames. The yellow metal against the great cat’s shiny black fur had been striking, and beautiful.

Tesla was several feet behind him and said, “They are stalwarts, Jude. They will find the vermin.”

A spasm of terrible anger flashed through Jude’s mind,
What is he doing on my ship! He wants to steal it! They all do! Except my pets. They will protect me.
Merkam heard a buzzing in his head and he reeled, almost falling out of the chair.

Nikola hurried forward and caught him, straightening Merkam in his chair and saying, “Jude, are you all right? I think your head injury is more serious than we first surmised. I am worried about you.”

Merkam said, “What happened? Where…?” Then he came to his senses and looked into Nikola’s face. “I am sorry Tesla. I feel the anxiety of this voyage is taking a toll on me.”

“Do you want me to assist you to your bed?”

Merkam patted Tesla’s arm, “No, no. It was a momentary fog. I am right as the mail.” He looked out the porthole and said, “The
Ares
is among the rocks. I pray they have luck.”

Tesla said, “They will have more than luck. Denys and our mechanical goliath are exiting the
Arcadia
and will be joining them.”

“Denys and Ross repaired the robots?”

“They certainly did, and they improved the goliath’s rifle arm as well, as only Jay-Patten could. The arm is now a weapon capable of firing the 6.5 JPM bullets at an incredible rate. I tell you, Jude, it makes Hiram Maxim’s Machine Gun look like a single shot musket.”

“They tested it?”

“Yes! Ross sent the robot to the moon’s surface and we watched through the portholes. When it triggered the weapon, the bullets left the barrel at so rapid a pace it appeared the robot was weaving a hose back and forth, spraying a rope of red and green fire into the distance. It is a terrible, beautiful new weapon. I am glad it is under our control. In the wrong hands on earth, it could well change the balance of power if such an army went forward armed with a like technology.”

[ 73 ]

Denys and the giant robot moved at a fast walking pace across the gray, powdery lunar landscape. Denys practiced his hand signs with the robot to make sure they communicated and he could make the mechanical wonder do as he bid. Anyone watching would have thought the robot was defective, as Denys had it hopping sideways, crouching, twirling, aiming, and jumping. Denys was soon satisfied they could coordinate as well as needed.

They reached the start of the rocky ridgeline in less than twenty minutes and Jay-Patten slowed so he could find the footprints of his friends among the moon rocks and boulders. The footprints were difficult, but the tire tracks of the
Ares
left an easy trail to follow.

A short while later, he saw the sleek black vehicle sitting motionless in a small clearing at the edge of a jumble of large boulders. He approached, waving in case anyone inside was looking, but saw no indications of movement inside. Something made him wary, and his hunter’s instinct made him circle, instead of walking directly to it. When he reached a point where he could see the opposite side, Denys stopped, and a cold tendril of concern wormed through his vitals.

The door on the
Ares
was open, and it was empty.

[ 74 ]

Conklin inched forward, so close to the unsuspecting alien he could see striations and faint whorl patterns on its brown, insect-like carapace. The creature was tall, perhaps eight feet, and resembled a praying mantis, with huge, glittering eyes. It had no nose or mouth or ears that he could discern. It was a brown, triangular face with huge eyes. The torso and arms were covered in the carapace, and the hands composed of four long fingers and bilateral thumbs
. Amazing
, he thought
. A thumb on each side of the hand
.

The horizontal torso attached to a vertical, multi-legged lower body comprised of eight legs, the front two of which seemed mere shrunken appendages, as they were too short to reach the surface. The six other legs were long, multi-jointed and mantis-like in appearance. They did the work. Conklin was fascinated, imagining the pleasure of exploring every tendon, every attachment of the hard shell to the body, the legs to the torso, and the marvel that must lie behind the eyes themselves.

The Doctor edged closer, stopping a dozen feet from the alien as it skittered to an area where two tall boulders overlapped. It stopped at the point where the boulders touched, moving one hand over the surface as if exploring the texture of the rock.

Conklin looked down as he repositioned his feet. When he looked up, the alien was gone. All that showed where it had been was a white, glistening sheen on one of the boulders.

He hurried to the spot and could discern nothing from the tracks. Using one gloved finger, he touched the white sheen and realized it was made of ice crystals.
Ice!
His mind reeled. Ice meant water, and water meant oxygen! He turned his attention to the rock, as focused as only an insane killer can be.

[ 75 ]

Ekka and the others watched the alien and Quinlan for ten minutes, then Ekka maneuvered the
Ares
on a circling route that would keep them below the rocks but take them close to the butcher Quinlan. And the moon creature.

She stopped again ten minutes later and put her helmet to the others together and said, “Two Hats, Teach, go among the rocks until you can spy them. We need to know whether to approach in the
Ares
or go on foot.” The pirate and the Lakota nodded and exited the armored wagon.

It took them only a minute to peek above the rocks. They expected to see Quinlan and the alien right in front of them, but there was no one, only a shiny white smear on one of the rocks.

The two men hurried to the
Ares
and relayed their sightings. Ekka pushed the
Ares
as fast as she dared and drove straight to the last place they saw the pirate. She ordered everyone out and had Two Hats and Billy check the footprints while she examined the fine white crystals.

Koothrappally touched his helmet to hers and said, “Ice. Most definitely ice. There is atmosphere somewhere near this location, Ekka.”

Two Hats and Billy motioned everyone together so all helmets touched. Billy said, “There’s a door here somewhere.”

Two Hats said, “Quinlan walk through rock. Him follow big bug through rock. Spirit man, spirit bug.”

Billy said, “There’s a hidden door, you crazy injun. They aren’t spirits.”

Two Hats tapped on the rock with his gloved fist. “Rock not door, crazy
wasi-chu
. This place,
hanhepi-wi
, is spirit place.”

“Stop talking Sioux. You might as well be talking Hottentot to me.” Billy said.

Koothrappally said, “In the Lakota language,
wasi-chu
means, roughly, “white man”, and
hanhepi-wi
is their word for Luna, the moon.”

“You speak Sioux?”

“Two Hats and I talked on the flight here. I picked it up.”

“You…picked it up?”

“It is simple, once you have the basic phonetics and apply the math.”

Billy rolled his eyes, “I think my head is going to explode.”

Ekka touched Billy’s arm, “Focus on what is at hand. Find us a way inside.”

Teach discovered how to open it when he slid his gloves high up on the rock. A slight depression had a tiny lever in it as small as a sewing needle. Teach caught the tip of his glove under one end and lifted.

A section of rock slid silently open and a puff of wind blew out and immediately turned to ice crystals, sticking to the wall outside the opening.

They gathered at the opening and looked at each other once, then stepped inside. The door closed behind them. They were in a rock-lined chamber, with another tall door at the far end. Ekka walked to it and grasped a long lever, pulling it down. The door slid open and they gazed at a lighted world, not some dark cavern.

It was a place of ice, with soft light seeming to emanate from the frozen floors and walls and ceilings. A wide path led down as far as they could see before it curved around a glistening white hill and disappeared.

Billy looked at the path and saw the prints they were after, the prints of the man who butchered Abigail Ross. There were other prints as well, many, many prints of the aliens.

Ekka said, “We go with care. Be on your guard.” They fanned out across the path and descended into a world of shining white.

[ 76 ]

The giant robot and Denys stood beside the abandoned
Ares
while the African hunter studied the ground, then walked to the rocks. He found the small lever in the rock, pulled it and the first door opened with a puff of ice crystals. Denys knew instantly the giant robot would not fit. He gave the giant several hand signs and the mechanical man walked away in the direction of the
Arcadia
. Denys entered the room and the first door closed behind him. He pulled the lever on the second door and stepped without hesitation into the white world of ice. The tracks were in front of him, and he started down the path at a quick pace, hoping his friends were not too far ahead.

Denys saw them as he rounded the curve. It took less than a minute to join them. As he approached Billy, his foot slipped and their helmets clanged against each other. Koothrappally was five feet away and turned at the sound, his eyes bright with sudden knowledge. He reached up to remove his helmet as Teach rushed to stop him, “Are you mad?”

Koothrappally put his helmet under his arm and breathed deeply. “It is fine. Very refreshing.”

The others looked at him, and removed their helmets. Ekka said, “I should have realized, with the ice there must be enough air.”

Billy said, “I’m happy about this. I was feeling mighty closed in.”

Denys said, “Any indication of the butcher Quinlan?”

Billy pointed at the path, “Tracks are right here. I figure we must be close.”

[ 77 ]

Conklin was amazed at the size of this underground world. It was immense, and opened up in all directions, with hummocks and hills of ice, frozen waterfalls hundreds of feet high coming from the sides of ice ridges that seemed to be a thousand feet in height. The path he followed was smooth, but had frozen columns and wagon-sized mounds interspersed on it. Other paths, some narrow and some only slightly smaller than the main one, branched out in all directions and seemed to flow and interlace into the landscape as far as he could see. Ice caves were frequent, with some only as high as his waist, while the larger ones were three times his height and went far into the ice.

One of the more amazing things he studied were the ice saucers that spun and slid away at the slightest touch. He could not imagine how they formed, but he guessed it had something to do with whatever produced the soft, even light that emanated from the ice itself. That, and the faint sense he had of a humming sound just beyond the range of his hearing. He wasn’t sure if it was the blood rushing in his ears that he heard or not, but he did not think so. It was an engine or a power source somewhere in these depths. He was positive it was the heart of this place.

Conklin was careful to keep as much concealment as possible in front of him while he walked. When the alien emerged from a cave some twenty feet in front of him, Conklin had only to bend his knees to drop behind an ice mound and be invisible to the creature. He watched as the alien reached its arms to its head and used the fingers to manipulate something on each side.

Then it removed the head to reveal it as a helmet.

In quick, practiced movements the alien took off the rest of the carapace-like suit, and hopped down from the six-legged body to stand beside it. Conklin was open-mouthed in glee.
They wear moon suits on the surface! They are air breathers!
Their bodies were similar in a way to humans with two arms and two legs. The head was different in that it was hairless, but had two owlish, amber eyes, a small blade of a nose and a thin mouth. The skin was a caramel color. And it wore clothing; a loose fitting white shirt and similar pants, with white shoes that appeared to be soft and supple. Other than its skin color and eyes, the alien blended perfectly with the icy surroundings. Conklin saw it was slightly smaller than he was, and more slender, but not by much.

He watched the alien toss the helmet and other parts on the torso, reach a six-fingered hand to the front of it and twist what appeared to be a wheel. The legs jerked and straightened, and the alien led the legged portion into the cave as if it were a pony.