Crash Landing (9 page)

There was no time left to argue – someone had to get things moving. With a tiny groan, John realized that the
someone
would have to be him.

Turning his head back to face the crowded shuttle, he shouted, “OK, let’s get out of here! Lishtig, you go first. Give people a hand up to the roof. Kaal and I will stay down here and push from below.” Looking round at the sea of frightened faces, John pressed a button by the door. It hissed open, letting a burst of boiling, stinking air onto the shuttle. “
Let’s go
!” he shouted.

A few minutes later, Lishtig pulled at Gobi-san-Art’s hand, his long purple hair blowing in the hot wind and sweat pouring down his face. “How many more?” he growled, straining to heave the massive bulk of Gobi upward.

John glanced past Kaal and down the aisle. “Eight,” he replied. His own face was red from the planet’s heat and the effort of giving his classmates a boost. Skin had already started to peel from his nose and cheeks. He looked out nervously. Slowly, the level of molten rock was rising against the side of the shuttle. Within a few minutes, it would begin pouring over the step. “We have to speed up!” he called to the others, trying to make his voice sound calm. “Mordant, you’re next.”

“I don’t need any help,” Mordant said, stepping forward and then cringing back again as the heat hit him. G-Vez buzzed around his head, one arm extending with a tiny fan at the end. It was useless in the intense heat but the droid still tried to cool its master.

“This is no time for pride!” John yelled back. “You’re slowing us down.”

With Gobi now helping, Lishtig pulled Mordant up and over the edge of the roof, feet scrabbling against the side of the shuttle. Quickly, Kaal helped the next student forward. Minutes later, only he and John were left inside.

“You go first,” said the Derrilian.

“No—”

“What did you say to Mordant? Squabbling will only slow us down.”

With Kaal boosting him from below, John scrambled up the roof of the sinking shuttle, where students huddled in the centre, as far from the lava as possible. Immediately, he turned and held out a hand to his friend. Wings flapping in the hot air, Kaal quickly joined the group.

“So what now?” Kaal asked, looking around.

John spun around, his heart pounding. The shuttle was completely surrounded by lava. Then, through a haze of gas and heat, he spotted a spit of black rock that jutted out into the burning lake. Its tip was just two metres from the shuttle. “There!” he shouted, pointing. “We’ll have to jump for it.”

“No way,” interrupted Mordant. “What if I slip?”

“Perhaps I could be of assistance, young master?”

“
Shut up
, you stupid piece of space junk,” spat Talliver. “You can’t carry me and I am
not
jumping.”

“Pah, it’s easy,” said Lishtig. Without waiting, he ran to the side of the shuttle and launched himself into the air, arms whirling as he crossed the gap. With a hoot of triumph, he landed on all fours an the rocky ground, centimetres from the edge of the molten rock pool.

“Nice one, Lishtig!” John called over. “Who’s going next?”

“I am
not
—” Mordant began again. His words choked off, as strong arms caught him around the chest and massive wings snapped at the air. “
Nooo
!” he screamed, feet thrashing as he was lifted over the side of the shuttle.

“Don’t struggle,” ordered Kaal as he flapped across to the shore. Dropping Mordant onto solid ground, Kaal landed beside him.

“You’re
loving
this, aren’t you?” he hissed into Kaal’s face. “Showing off in front of everyone and making me look pathetic.”

Kaal beat his wings slowly and looked back towards the shuttle. “I can take anyone who can’t jump!” he called out.

John felt metal shift beneath his feet. Trying to keep a tight grip on his own fear, he shouted, “Anyone who thinks they can make it, come forward!”

Moments later, Queelin Temerate ran across the roof of the shuttle, only to come to a skidding halt a metre from the edge.

“I’m s-sorry,” she stammered. “I th-thought I could do it, b-but—”

John saw the tears in her yellow eyes and felt her trembling when he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It’s OK,” he said, pushing her gently towards the group waiting for Kaal to carry them across the lava.

Progress was slow. Aware that the minutes until the Mega-Eruption were ticking by, John did all he could to hurry the students but Queelin wasn’t the only one to look down at the bubbling lava and change their mind. Meanwhile, the shuttle sank slowly beneath the lava. By the time John’s turn finally came to make the leap, molten rock was oozing over the side of the roof.

He gulped. Pounding across the metal roof he launched himself towards the narrow spit of land. As he jumped, a grinding rumble filled the air. Ahead of him the cone of a volcano belched smoke and sparks. John’s feet touched the ground just as an earthquake began. Beneath him, the rock heaved, making his landing awkward. He stumbled, falling back towards the lava, hands flailing at empty air.

Kaal’s hand grabbed him by the front of his jumpsuit and pulled him up.

“Whoa, that was close. Thanks, Kaal. You saved my life,” John panted. Falling to his knees, he coughed while the ground groaned and shivered beneath him.

Kaal shrugged. “You owe me one. Get the drinks in at Ska’s Café when we get back.”

Skin raw from the heat, and hair smoking, John looked up into the Derrilian’s face. Kaal was trying to sound cool, but his face showed his concern. John knew exactly how he felt. “I guess we’d better get moving,” he said. “Which way?”

Emmie stepped forward, holding out what looked like two digital watches. “I took these from the shuttle,” she explained. “Mini computers. They’ll track the science outpost and act as translators. With the shuttle’s computer gone, they’ll make sure we can all still understand each other.”

She snapped one onto her wrist and held the other out to John. He took it and put it on.

“We should have about an hour and forty minutes left,” Emmie continued. “You keep an eye on the time. I’ll lead the way.”

With the ground trembling beneath their feet, the group of students trailed behind Emmie, as she started out across the bleak plain. In the distance, volcanoes roared and spat. Tearing his eyes away from the vast cones, John stood to one side as the line of worried-looking students passed. “If we all walk quickly, we’ll be at the science outpost soon!” he called out.

“Thanks for stating the completely obvious,” Mordant sneered from the back of the group.

“Save your breath for walking, Mordant.”

Mordant immediately stumbled over a rock, falling to his knees in the dust with a curse. “Leave me alone!” he shouted, as John offered him a hand up. “I told you I don’t need your help.”

Shrugging, John left Mordant swearing at G-Vez. The little machine took its master’s insults in silence and busied itself brushing dust from his clothes.

“Oww!” Mordant screeched. “You pinched me. That really hurt.”

“A thousand apologies, young master,” replied the drone, unperturbed.

Jogging ahead to catch up with Emmie, John asked, “How are we doing?”

“Three point four seven kilometres,” she said, glancing at her wrist computer’s small screen. “We should get there with about fifteen minutes to spare, so long as there are no hold-ups.”

“This is so stupid. We’re going to die of heatstroke out here,” whined a voice from behind John.

“Oh, for crying out loud. Stop
moaning
, Mordant!” came a shout.

John forced a smile to his heat-cracked lips. “Maybe we
should
have let him stay on the shuttle,” he said quietly.

Glancing back at the lava pool, Emmie shook her head. The small spaceship had disappeared beneath the surface. “He’s just scared,” she said simply. “We all are.”

John just nodded, fighting down a fresh wave of panic, as the ground beneath his feet shuddered once more.

“I’m going to scout ahead from the air,” Kaal interrupted, joining them.

“Be careful,” Emmie and John said together.

“Will do.”

John watched as his friend took to the sky on leathery wings, wishing he, too, had wings.

As he trudged across the forbidding landscape, the ground had begun to quake almost constantly. All the while, the planet’s hot wind, heavy with chemical stench, blew dust into his eyes and ears. Before long, John was covered from head to foot. There was no choice but to keep walking.

* * *

“How are we doing now, Emmie?” John whispered, when his computer showed they had an hour left.

Emmie turned her dust-stained face towards his, lines creasing her forehead. “Too slow,” she said. “We’ve still got two and a half kilometres to go. At this pace, we’re not going to make it.”

“Good news!” shouted Kaal above them.

All the students looked up to where the Derrilian was circling. “I’ve seen the science outpost!” he called down. “The way is clear betwee—”

The rest of Kaal’s words were drowned by an eardrum-shredding shriek. A black shape swooped from the sky above, slashing at John’s friend with outstretched talons. With a cry of fear, Kaal fell from the sky.

Through the swirling dust, John saw something that looked like a pterodactyl, its long snout – half-beak, half-muzzle – was lined with razor teeth. A bone crest jutted from the back of its head. The mottled skin of its wings ran from wingtip to its rear legs.

“Get down!” screamed Emmie, shoving John and sending him sprawling into the dust. John saw the creature swoop towards him. Claws snatched at the space where he had been standing seconds before. Then it swiped again, this time finding prey.

Through horrified eyes, John watched as the creature’s viciously hooked talons closed around Emmie. With a hideous shriek of victory, it flapped its wings and rose into the air — Emmie struggling in its claws.

Scrambling to his knees, John stared aghast as the creature flapped away across the dusty landscape, Emmie writhing in its grip. He opened his lips to shout after her, but the wind that blew Emmie’s screams across the plain filled his mouth with dust. All he could do was watch as the monster carried away his friend.

Get up, John. Do something, you useless idiot.

“Kaal,” he croaked. He had to go after Emmie, and Kaal was the only one among them who could give chase. John ran through thick dust to where his friend had fallen. Dropping down to his side, he shook the Derrilian by the shoulder. “Kaal, are you hurt?”

Groaning, Kaal sat up, rubbing his ribs with one hand. “What was
that
?” he choked, flexing his wings and checking them for damage. “It came out of nowhere.”

“Doesn’t matter what it was; it’s got Emmie,” John told him. “We have to go after it. Can you fly?”

Kaal was already on his feet, wings beating strong. There was a small tear in the leathery skin, but he paid it no attention. “Get on,” he answered grimly, turning so that John could climb onto his broad back.

Mordant staggered towards them across the shaking ground. “What’s this?” he demanded. “You’re leaving? What about us?”

John’s hands were already on Kaal’s shoulders. Turning towards Mordant, unable to hide his scorn at the boy’s selfishness, he took the mini computer from his wrist and hurled it at the half-Gargon’s chest.

“That will lead you straight to the science outpost,” he replied angrily. “If the Mega-Eruption begins before we get back, then you’ll just have to leave without us.”

“But—”

John, however, had finished with Mordant. Jumping, he gripped the sides of Kaal’s torso with his knees and pointed over his shoulder. “
Go
. It went towards the volcano with the half-collapsed crater: there.” The pterodactyl creature was now just a black dot against the brown sky.

John’s stomach lurched as his friend leaped upward. For a moment, Kaal seemed to struggle to say aloft – his great wings pounded, swirling dust – but as he adjusted to carrying a passenger, they began climbing into the sky.

“Hurry up!” John yelled down to the others, and then scanned the horizon for the tiny speck that carried Emmie away from them. Shielding his eyes, he frowned and squinted his eyes against the constantly blowing dust.

Below, the rumbling beneath the planet’s surface increased. In the distance, the crater of another volcano lit up like a giant firework, shooting sparks and great gobs of white-hot rock into the sky. John could feel his friend’s muscles heaving as the Derrilian pushed himself to the limits of his strength.

“Higher. Need... more... height...” Kaal grunted. Then, “
Husharg... n’quar... taskit
.”

John tore his eyes from the alien creature carrying Emmie and stared at his friend, wondering why he had started speaking gibberish. “What?” he shouted. “I don’t understand.”

Kaal glanced back over his shoulder, a frown crossing his green face. “
Cartikka churg
?” he shouted back.

“Why are you speaking like—” John began. Understanding dawned. They were beyond the range of the computers. He was hearing untranslated Derrilian, and Kaal was hearing English.

“
Cartikka
?” Kaal repeated, looking back at John.

In reply, John tapped his wrist. “No computer!” he shouted.

Kaal’s reply turned into a cough, as a sudden rain of ash began falling; the cough turned into a yelp of pain, as a falling ember punched another hole through his wing.

John could see nothing through the falling ash. “Kaal!
Kaal
? You OK?” he panted.

Kaal didn’t respond, but his wings kept beating. Seconds later, they burst free of the ash. The creature was still ahead of them.

“We’re gaining on it!” John yelled, hoping Kaal would hear the excited tone of his voice, even if he couldn’t understand the words. Now he could make out Emmie’s limp body clutched in its talons. As John watched, the beast swerved off its course, making for the smoking cone of a smaller volcano.

Gulping down the terrifying thought that Emmie might already be dead, John pointed over his friend’s shoulder again and yelled, “Veer right!” John leaned into the turn, as Kaal swooped to the right.

Minutes ticked by as they followed the fleeing creature into a maze of volcanoes. Streams of fire poured from craters, joining to become a vast river of lava running along a valley floor. John gritted his teeth, wanting to tell Kaal to hurry but knowing that his friend was already straining every muscle. Instead, he tried to count the minutes, calculating how long they had left before the planet exploded into one vast eruption.

Suddenly, the monster dived with a flick of its wings. For a second it hovered over the rim of a volcano, before dropping Emmie. John winced as her body smashed onto rock on the lip of the crater and rolled a metre down the slope. Landing on the rim just above its prey, the creature’s razor teeth gnashed at the air. A talon reached out and claimed its prize. Spreading its wings and lifting its long muzzle, it screeched in triumph and hunger.

In John’s mind, terror turned to rage – an eruption as fiery as any of the volcanoes around them. “
KAAL
!” he screamed. “It’s going to kill her.”

Kaal had already seen. His wings swept back. Now John understood why his friend had been so determined to gain height. Wind whipped his hair back from his face as they fell towards the beast; gravity gave them speed. Kaal’s wings beat in a fury that matched John’s white-hot anger. Faster and faster they hurtled towards the creature.

It bent down to begin tearing at Emmie.

John bellowed a ferocious challenge.

Confused, the beast looked up from its prey. Just then, John and Kaal hit it full in the chest. The creature screamed as it fell backward into the volcano, its wings thrashing as John’s fingers closed around its throat. At the same time, Kaal’s powerful hands gripped the creature’s wing, breaking bones like twigs.

Whirling, it howled in agony, talons clawing at thin air, one wing flapping uselessly. It twisted, trying to free itself from its attackers. John’s fingers tightened around the creature’s throat, barely noticing as he was thrown from Kaal’s back by the beast’s frenzied convulsions.

“
JOHN
!”

With a start, John realized that he could understand Kaal again. Emmie’s computer must still be working. But at the same time, he also realized that he was falling fast.

Crippled and shrieking, the beast was spiralling down into the smoky-hot depths of the volcano, carrying John with it. Releasing his grip, John looked up desperately. Above was a circle of light that made up the rim of the volcano. For half a second, John tumbled, clutching at nothing but smoke. A scream formed on his cracked lips.

But suddenly a hand reached though the smoke and grabbed his wrist. John gripped it. With a clap of beating wings, his descent came to a sudden stop. Green arms reached out for him.

John glanced down, once, while Kaal pulled him from the blasting heat of the volcano’s crater. The creature had disappeared, but the depths below thundered and groaned. The Mega-Eruption was very close.

Bursting out of the smoke, John and Kaal dropped to the ground, coughing. Their scrabbling feet started small landslides of pebbles as they slipped down the slope to Emmie. John leant over her still body, his face close to her mouth, feeling her shallow breathing with a wave of relief that brought tears to his eyes.

“She’s alive!” he shouted.

“Broken arm,” replied Kaal.

John looked down. Emmie’s arm was twisted at a stomach-churning angle. Gently, he unclipped the mini computer that was fastened to her wrist and snapped it onto his own.

“John? Kaal?” Emmie’s eyes fluttered open.

“It’s OK, it’s OK!” John yelled above the rumbling. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Emmie slipped out of consciousness again. Worried, John looked up into Kaal’s face. “You
can
carry us both, can’t you?”

“
No choice.
” John couldn’t hear the words – the roar of the volcano was deafening – but he understood Kaal’s shrug.

A metre away, a crack opened in the rock. Fresh smoke billowed from the summit, carrying with it the first sparks of eruption.

John glanced down at the computer. With horror, he saw that there was little more than half an hour left before the Mega-Eruption turned Zirion Beta into a ball of fire. It would take almost twenty minutes to get back to where they had started, and this time Kaal would be carrying two people.

“Come
on
!” Kaal’s roar interrupted his thoughts. The Derrilian had picked Emmie up and was holding her protectively to her chest.

John swung himself, once again, onto his friend’s broad back.

As Kaal’s wings stretched out, a massive boom rocked the volcano and hunks of molten rock began shooting into the sky.