Hollow Moon (32 page)

Hanuman shrugged. “Explosives, maybe. Or a toxic gas
cylinder. Who knows?”

“Perhaps it’s keeping something in,” postulated Zotz.
“Rather than keeping us out.”

“Wonderful,” Ostara murmured.

Ravana considered the image in her mind. Hanuman’s
response and her own engineering knowledge was enough to tell her that the
flashing red square with the skull-and-crossbones symbol probably needed to be
deactivated first. Nevertheless, it was with some trepidation that she reached
out to give the square a mental prod; and a huge relief when the symbol stopped
flashing and changed from red to green. With renewed confidence she quickly
released the three locks and jumped as a trio of solenoids shot back with a
clang. Moments later, a warning buzzer sounded and the heavy door swung open.

“Good girl,” murmured Hanuman. He made as if to step
through the door, then hesitated. “A word of warning. This is not for the
squeamish.”

The space inside was dimly lit by a series of glowing
roof tiles that revealed the scale of the interior but little else. The air was
filled with a strong smell of hay and animal sweat, reminding Ravana of her
days on the farm back on the hollow moon, as did the muted rustlings, squawks,
squeaks and heavy breathing that told her they were not alone. Hanuman moved to
the control panel on the wall next to the door and activated a switch. Above
them, the roof tiles brightened and flooded the bunker with light.

Ravana shrieked. In a cage dead ahead, regarding her with
eyes the size of plates, was the biggest spider she had ever seen. Its bulbous
purple-black bulk twitched upon hairy legs that were as tall as she was and
Ravana stared transfixed in horror as cruel pincers either side of its mouth
flexed in anticipation. Ostara scowled and drew her close.

“Yuck,” Ostara muttered. “How gross.”

“Ashtapada!” wailed Ravana, looking fearfully at the
caged arachnid. “I always thought the stories were myths! What’s one doing
here?”

“It’s not just spiders,” exclaimed Zotz. “Look!”

The building was filled with rows of metal cages, nearly
every one of which contained a creature of some sort. Startled, Ravana
recognised some from her childhood days in Lanka: a nearby cage held a bat-like
northern blood yerk, while further along she could see the familiar silhouette
of a rainbow cloud surfer, so called because of the huge hydrogen-filled sac
that enabled the jellyfish-like predator to float in air. Yet there were many
others she could not identify, though a few looked tantalising like the poor
animal she had seen at Hemakuta floating market.

The cages here were larger, but little attempt had been
made to furnish them with a mock natural habitat as a concession to their
reluctant occupants. The whole scene had a clinical air about it, one made
ominous by the way it had been hidden from prying eyes.

“It’s like some sort of secret zoo,” murmured Ganesa,
visibly shocked.

“Yes, but where are the keepers?” asked Ostara. It
puzzled Ravana too that they had not seen another soul anywhere in the
plantation. “Who looks after the animals?”

“They’re automatically fed and watered,” Hanuman replied,
switching off his lamp. “There are dozens of plantations like this on the
Shennong side of Yuanshi. This one has not had a regular team of scientists for
months. They are monitored remotely, of course,” he added, pointing to the
scanners mounted high upon the wall.

“They’re watching us?” exclaimed Ganesa, startled. “You’ve
led us into a top-secret, high-security compound and you knew we were being
watched? They’ll send gunships!”

“Well, maybe one or two,” Hanuman admitted. “I wasn’t
planning on stopping long.”

After recording a few seconds of footage on his camera,
he strode away between two rows of cages, seemingly unconcerned that his every
move was under surveillance by distant Que Qiao agents. Mystified, the others
followed. Ravana made sure she kept well away from the caged ashtapada as she
did so.

“Look,” Hanuman said suddenly, pausing next to a large
cage. “That’s what you get when you let genetic engineers mess with a
thunderworm.”

The huge green worm, resting coiled upon the bare floor
inside, was at least ten metres long and wide enough to swallow a man whole.
Protruding from its bumpy red spine near its skull was a slender chrome needle,
capped and taped to its skin.

“They’re experimenting on them,” Zotz realised. “That’s
horrible!”

“I thought animal testing had been banned,” said Ravana,
disturbed.

Ahead, the rows of cages gave way to an open area
dominated by four large metal tables, above each of which hung a light cluster
similar to those found in hospital operating theatres. Three tables were bare
but upon the one furthest away lay something covered in a white sheet. To the
right of the tables stood a large medical instrument cabinet, while to the left
was a long workbench equipped with electrical engineering tools. Zotz hastened
over to the workbench and began to excitedly examine its contents.

A sudden movement caught Ravana’s eye and she paused. A
frightened grey face with large almond-shaped eyes peered at her from a nearby
cage. Twelve spindly fingers gripped the bars, like those of a death-row
prisoner awaiting their fate. The creature’s lizard-like expression was alien
yet Ravana recognised both the intelligence and the sadness within.

Philyra had dismissed the strange creature at Hemakuta as
no more than a depilated monkey forced to play its part in a con. Ravana now
knew she was wrong. Meeting her stare of wonder both then and now was one of
the legendary lost alien beings of Epsilon Eridani.

“My word,” murmured Ostara, coming up behind her. “Is
that really…?”

“I always thought I’d imagined it,” Ravana said softly,
feeling a little queasy. Her cat, still in her arms, fidgeted more than ever.
“I was six years old. I’d been naughty and run off to play alone in the woods
near Lanka. There was a wounded creature in a cave, just like this one, except
it had these beautiful blue markings on its skin. I gave it what food and water
I was carrying then ran back home for some more, but because of an air raid it
was days before I managed to return, by which time it had gone.” She looked at
Ostara. “You’re the first person I’ve ever told that to. I’ve often wondered if
I imagined it all.”

“Fenris would love this. It would be like meeting one of
his gods,” Ostara remarked, then caught Ravana’s somewhat peeved expression.
“That probably sounded a bit flippant after your childhood revelation. I’m
finding all this a bit overwhelming.”

They were interrupted by a sudden cry of excitement from
Zotz. Hanuman glanced up from where he and Ganesa were examining whatever it
was under the sheet on the far table, then returned to the hushed argument he
was having with his co-pilot.

“Look at this!” Zotz exclaimed.

Ostara and Ravana joined him at the workbench. Zotz had
been investigating a series of shallow drawers, which when opened revealed row
upon row of tiny electronic circuit boards. Picking one up, he showed it to
Ravana.

“What is it?” she asked, squinting at the tiny board.
There was something familiar about the tiny chip in the centre, which had a
small green blob growing out of it.

“These are AI chips!” Zotz told her. “Prototypes, I
think. They’re much smaller than what I’ve seen before but have the usual
organic processor.”

“Did you never wonder what the organic bit actually is?”
asked Hanuman, coming over. He had given his camera to Ganesa, who was busy
filming everything in sight.

“They’re cloned brain cells,” replied Zotz. “Everyone
knows that.”

They are brain cells,” admitted Hanuman. “And in the
factories which churn out these chips by the billion, the organic bit is grown
in vats. But did you ever stop to think where the original cells came from? Or
how Que Qiao developed the technology in the first place when animal testing
had been banned?”

Ravana looked around at the cages. “You mean…?”

Hanuman nodded. “This is what makes Yuanshi so important
to Que Qiao,” he said. “Epsilon Eridani is the only system so far where intelligent
native life-forms have been found. The greys are the real prize; as you know,
the official line is all higher life-forms died out when humans arrived and set
up home. In fact, supposedly extinct species are secretly hunted and shipped to
these plantations, to become experimental playthings for Que Qiao scientists
looking for new ways to make cheaper, faster gadgets for the corporation to
sell. The civil war just makes it easier to keep these research stations
hidden.”

“That’s dreadful!” Ostara exclaimed, visibly shocked.

“Does that mean Jones also has a bit of alien inside it?”
asked Zotz.

“He means my cat,” Ravana explained, seeing a number of
puzzled expressions. “That might explain why it’s been acting so weird ever
since we got here.”

“Almost certainly,” Hanuman replied. “Everything from
spacecraft navigation units to washing machines uses a version of these organic
processors.”

“Even implants?” asked Zotz with a mischievous grin.

“What!?” cried Ravana, putting a hand to her head. “You
can’t be serious!”

Hanuman looked apologetic. “It’s possible.”

Ravana gave a screech and ran to Ostara, convinced she
could feel an alien about to explode out of her head. Zotz’s grin quickly faded
when he saw Ravana’s reaction.

“But why use aliens?” Ostara asked, putting a protective
arm around Ravana. “Surely all extra-terrestrial life should be protected.”

“All except giant spiders,” muttered Ravana.

“If Que Qiao had chosen to experiment on some Terran
life-form when developing their AI units, the corporation would have been
hauled before the courts on animal cruelty charges years ago,” Hanuman
explained. “Que Qiao instead claims the cells are entirely synthetic, knowing
full well that using the brains of presumed extinct aliens makes the source
material virtually untraceable. The latest twist is that thanks to the gullible
fools who follow Taranis, Que Qiao is starting to convince people that greys
were invented by the Dhusarian Church and never existed at all. Sightings are
never taken seriously.”

“So what’s under the sheet?” asked Ostara, pointing to
the table.

“Don’t let them see this!” cried Ganesa.

She was too late. Zotz appeared out of nowhere and with a
single swipe of his hand pulled the sheet clean away. As they stared at the
misshapen and butchered corpse hidden beneath, the boy’s face went deathly
pale. On the table lay a creature just like the grey humanoid staring out from
the nearby cage, only this alien was very dead.

“How gross,” murmured Ostara. “What makes people do
things like that?”

“Money,” replied Hanuman sadly. “Research facilities like
this one have made a lot of Que Qiao shareholders very wealthy.”

Ravana stared in horror at the mutilated carcass. The top
of the creature’s skull had been removed, as had part of its brain. Hanuman’s
words sounded blunt and cruel but she knew them to be true. The great space
race of the late twenty-first century had seen humans venture into space not to
explore but to exploit. The quest to safeguard supplies of helium-three to
power the new fusion reactors brought about the first lunar colonies and
cloud-mining facilities at Saturn, projects which in turn led to the invention
of the extra-dimensional drive and the urge to see what was worth having in
other star systems. Ascension had ended up a forgotten backwater, albeit
notionally a British colony and part of the Commonwealth, because the Barnard’s
Star system had nothing anyone wanted. Ravana now saw that Yuanshi had become a
war zone for precisely the opposite reason.

“Why are you showing us all of this?” she asked Hanuman.
“It’s horrible.”

Hanuman looked at Ganesa, then sighed. “We hate what
we’ve learned about Que Qiao over the years,” he said. “We would have quit
running these errands long ago if we had not been effectively blackmailed into
continuing. Worse still, it’s not just Que Qiao; when Taranis found out what
the corporation was doing to his beloved greys it just encouraged him to start
his own cloning experiments. You’ve given me a chance to turn the tables.”

“How?” asked Ravana, puzzled.

Ganesa held up the holovid camera. “We now have something
with which to do a little blackmailing of our own,” she said. “An insurance
policy, if you like. I wasn’t convinced it was worth the risk to get this, but
it isn’t nice being under the Que Qiao thumb.”

“Risk?” Ostara glanced at the cameras, startled by the
reminder they were illegally trespassing in a top-secret research station. “Are
Que Qiao agents on their way?”

“Almost certainly.” Hanuman relieved Ganesa of the
camera. “We should get back to the
Sun Wukong
. You’ve done me a big favour,” he told Ravana. “A very big favour.”

“Don’t thank me,” she muttered darkly. “Thank my alien
implant.”

“Now it’s my turn,” Hanuman said, then smiled. “I’ll take
you to Ayodhya, but I think we first need to recruit some help. Unfortunately,
the only people we can turn to on this moon are Kartikeya’s bunch of idiots,
but beggars can’t be choosers.”

Ravana looked at him in surprise. “You mean…?”

Hanuman nodded. “Let’s go and get your father.”

Ravana gave him a hug. “Before we go, there’s one last
thing I’d like to do.”

Governor Jaggarneth glared at the holovid display upon
the wall of his office. Today’s cricket highlights and seeing Yuanshi soundly
thrashed by Australia had already put him in a bad mood, but now the Ayodhya
news channel had picked up on an item from Anjayaneya and a local reporter was
on screen babbling excitedly about strange creatures in the night. By the time
Jaggarneth’s own sources had confirmed that someone had broken into a nearby
research station and opened the cages, the story had hit the interstellar
grapevine and it was too late to bury the bad news. He was just flicking
through the security footage from the plantation on a second screen on his desk
when there came a knock at the door.