ship. He sat down quickly, unsure if he could keep his feet if the shaking grew any worse.
Without warning, the section of ridge Devon was sitting on broke away and began to slide down
the hill. Jacinda squeaked in alarm as he began moving.
Devon scrambled backward on his rear, trying to keep his place on the ridge, but it was
futile. It was as if he were sledding down the hill on his bottom. He gained speed as he went,
barely able to keep upright on top of the shifting dirt. Devon hit the bottom with a grunt, rolling
over once and landing in a heap. He felt stunned, but could hear his friends arguing at the top of
the hill.
Merrell’s gentle hand on Jacinda’s arm kept her from following Devon down the hill to
help.
“Hold on. It is too dangerous right now. We have to wait until the ground quake has
stopped, or you’ll just end up falling too.”
Jacinda tried to pull away, but Merrell’s grip remained firm. “We have to help him,” she
protested.
“By getting injured too…No? Believe me, we have ground quakes on New California all
the time. We have to survive before we can help anyone.”
As if on cue, the shaking stopped. Devon stumbled to his feet, scattering loose dirt
everywhere.
“Devon, are you okay?” Jacinda shouted and waved to Devon from the top of the hill.
He gave her a thumbs up, smiling widely. “Just a few bumps. It’s good for me to get
dirty once in a while.” They all laughed.
“Hold on, I’m coming back up there.” Devon began to climb back up the slope, but soon
slid right back down. He could not gain and traction on the loose dirt of the slope left behind by
the ground quake. He tried again, but once again slid back down.
“Anyone want to give me a boost?” They all laughed again.
Their moment of humor was interrupted as the ground began to shake once more.
Merrell grabbed Jacinda and Flim, snatching them back from the edge of the hill. They looked
on in horror as the side of the hill that they had originally scaled began to collapse. It seemed as
if the entire hillside was collapsing. Suddenly everything was pelted with flying dirt as
something broke through the hillside. A huge snakelike creature loomed over Devon. The
creature was so huge that most of it was still concealed in the hillside.
“Help!” Devon cried, his voice filled with panic. The creature swayed back and forth, as
if searching for something. At that moment Devon realized that the creature had no eyes. It
must be using its ears to hunt, he thought. That made sense because something that tunneled
under the ground would not need very good eyesight.
Devon froze, holding his breath, hoping that not moving or making a sound would make
him invisible to the creature. It seemed to work for a few moments as the creature swayed back
and forth, seemingly confused by the disappearance of its prey.
The creature stopped swaying and seemed to take in a deep breath. After a moment it
lowered its head. Devon clapped his hand over his ears as the creature roared. The sound made
the nearby ground to shake, knocking Devon off his feet again. As soon as he fell, the creature
reared up once again, aware of where its missing prey had gone. Devon covered his face with
his hands and prepared himself for the coming blow.
Instead of feeling the jaws of the creature crushing him, he felt a deep thrumming coming
from the ground. Peeking through his fingers, Devon watched the creature. It seemed confused
by the sound, not sure where it was coming from. It was frantically swinging its massive head
back and forth, searching for the source of the sound.
“Devon, behind you,” he heard Jacinda shout. Springing to his feet, Devon glanced
quickly behind where he had been laying. His jaw dropped open when he saw the source of the
sound. Sammy, his automatic luggage, was standing in the gash in the side of the ship. A
strange looking probe extended from its side, touching the ground. Each time Devon felt the
earth thrum, the dirt around the probed jumped. Somehow Sammy must be causing the sound.
Devon leaped to his feet and tried to scramble back up the slope to safety. As soon as he
moved the creature swung its head toward him and began to slither forward, intent on making
him a meal.
The creature gave out a bellow of pain and swung away from Devon, back toward
Sammy. Over his shoulder, Devon could see another arm extended from Sammy, firing some
sort of emerald beam at the creature. Where ever the beam touched the creature’s rough hide,
black blood flowed. Somehow Sammy was attacking the creature, protecting Devon from being
eaten.
Devon was frozen in place as he watched Sammy nimbly avoid the clumsy lunges of the
creature. He had never seen Sammy move like this before, and it shocked him. With a final
flourish, Sammy’s beam severed the creature’s neck. Its sightless head fell to the ground with a
thump. This sent the body of the creature into a spasm of panic. Its thick coils thrashed wildly,
knocking large pieces of hillside into the ravine.
With the grace of a deer, Sammy leaped over the madly convulsing coils and skittered
toward Devon. Without stopping, another arm extended for its side and grasped Devon by the
collar. Spindly legs digging into the loose dirt of the hillside, Sammy dragged his master up the
hill and away from the edge.
Jacinda, Flim, and Merrell followed quickly, convinced by the increased amount of dirt
tumbling down toward the ship that the hilltop was no longer a safe place to be. They got away
from the edge mere moments before a huge slab of the hillside separated and tumbled down onto
the thrashing creature.
The creature stopped moving, buried in a grave of its own making. Devon and the others
sat silently, afraid to move too soon, just in case the monster was able to dig itself out. After a
few moments Devon felt another vibration…and it felt like it was right next to him. He rolled
away from the others and leapt to his feet, scanning the ground in a near panic. With a start he
realized he was the source of the vibration. With a relieved sigh Devon realized that the
vibration was coming from his WristVid. He flipped open the lid and pressed the button to
activate the speaker.
“…there, Devon? Are you okay?” Devon recognized Deke’s raspy voice.
“I’m here, Mr. Jacobs.”
“Were you hurt? That slither came out of nowhere.”
Devon chuckled, “A slither? Is that what tried to eat me?”
“There were unsubstantiated reports of such creatures, but nothing confirmed.” Deke
sounded embarrassed. “The survey team figured that they were just figments of a few
prospectors’ imaginations. I guess you proved them wrong.”
“Lucky me.” He laughed out loud, brushing dirt from his coveralls.
Jacinda stared at Devon, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you think this is funny! You
were almost killed.”
“But I wasn’t…and if I don’t laugh, I’d probably cry.”
Deke’s voice came over the speaker again. “Never mind that. What happened to the
creature? We couldn’t quite see from here. The view from the passenger windows isn’t very
good.”
“I thought I was a goner until Sammy distracted the thing.”
“Sammy? Who is he?” Deke sounded confused.
“Sammy isn’t a
he
; Sammy is a ‘what’.”
“Excuse me?” Deke sounded even more confused.
“Sammy is what I call my automatic luggage.”
“And how, exactly, did your suitcase distract the slither?”
“Well, I’m not really sure. But he did, and then he saved me. I always knew that Sammy
was specially made, but I never saw him do anything like he did back there.”
Devon glanced over at the trunk, now seemingly dormant.
“I could swear I caught a glimpse of a plasma beam down there.”
Devon cleared his throat, sounding embarrassed. “I think you did. That was Sammy too.
He dragged me up the hill too. I’ve never seen him move that fast before. His legs never got
that long before.”
“I saw it do that. Where did you get that thing?” Concern was creeping into Deke’s
voice.
“My parents had it made for me. I guess they added a few things that they didn’t tell me
about.”
“Sammy sounds more like a Class One SecBot than automatic luggage. Well, that
doesn’t matter right now. You people need to get back in here right now. There may be more of
those things out there.”
Flim was peering over the edge of the ridge, down into the ravine.
“I think we have a problem, folks.”
All eyes turned to Flim. His normal smirk was missing.
“When that thing buried itself, it buried our way back into the ship.”
Devon, Jacinda, and Merrell scrambled over to see if Flim was right. Just as he had said,
there was a huge mound of freshly turned dirt piled against the side of the ship, completely
blocking the gash they had used to leave the ship.
Chapter 12
Ensign Hal Kepler hunched over his data terminal working feverishly. He wiped his tired
eyes and yawned.
“One more time,” he muttered to himself as he scanned the search results. He knew he
had to make sure that he did not miss anything. One sli-up and the captain might never give him
another chance.
Ever since Hal had been assigned to the
Boadicea
, he had tried to make a positive
impression on Captain Leiber. However, it seemed that impressing ‘Old Stoneface’ was
impossible. He usually treated Hal with indifference, which was much preferred to the stern
glare he had seen the captain bestow on crewmembers who disappointed him.
According to the search results, what happened to Forrestal’s atmosphere could not
happen. The only similar incidents of a planet’s ionosphere becoming opaque involved highly
contaminated industrial planets. Forrestal was a nearly pristine wilderness planet. The two
pieces of information just did not seem to fit.
The rescue mission could not begin until he solved this riddle. Kepler knew that this was
his chance to shine. He tried to think of any natural occurrences that could mimic severe
pollution.
The answer hit him like a lightning bolt. He sat up straight and exclaimed, “A volcano!”
Everyone on the bridge turned toward him, startled by his outburst.
The captain raised an eyebrow, “New information, Mr. Kepler?”
“Sir, the atmospheric changes could be the result of volcanic activity.”
“A volcano? This sounds a little extreme for a volcano to cause.”
Ensign Kepler paused for a moment, thinking carefully. “I agree, sir.”
Frowning, the captain rose and walked over the Kepler’s work station. “Please explain.”
“Well, Sir, I agree that a single volcano, no matter how big, probably couldn’t cause such
a widespread problem…but a series of them might be enough.”
The captain turned to face Kepler, giving him his full attention. “How sure are you of
this?”
“It’s just a theory, but it’s the only one that makes any sense. The combined gas output
from multiple volcanoes is the only thing that could replicate the atmospheric contamination that
causes this type of problem…unless the survey team missed a highly industrialized civilization
down there.”
“I doubt that, Ensign Kepler.” The captain gave him a dark look. “It just doesn’t make
sense that they would miss an imminent disaster either.”
Kepler shrugged apologetically.
The captain paused for a moment. “As this is the only theory we have, we will go with it.
However, I need more information…quickly.”
“Yes sir, I’ll try to confirm it.” Kepler hunched over his terminal once again, desperately
trying to think of a way to confirm volcanic eruptions though the haze of Forrestal’s ionosphere.
Chapter 13
Terry and the other children pressed themselves up against the glass of their windows,
hoping to catch a glimpse of Devon and the others that were trapped outside.
Terry snickered, “Serves them right, getting stuck out there. They were just trying to
show off, and it bit them in the backside. Let the bowzers eat them.”
Link and Junior stopped peering out of their windows in unison.
“But, Terry, our brother is out there,” Junior remarked. Both boys wore a look of
concerned confusion.
“Who cares, he made his choice,” Terry said with a sneer in his voice.
Link’s eyebrows furrowed. “But, Terry, Merrell, might get hurt. Are you saying you
want him to get hurt?” Both Link and Junior turned toward Terry, beginning to show signs of
anger.
Sensing that he had gone too far, Terry gulped. “Merrell…hurt? Of course I don’t want
