Hollow Moon (45 page)

“Wow,” said Ravana, clambering out. Her cat was not so
impressed and had leapt out of the railcar several metres earlier. “That was
some ride!”

The Flying Fox strode towards the end of the tunnel with
his torch held before him. Ahead was a metal doorway so corroded that the cat
had no problems finding a hole big enough to slip through to the other side.
Reaching the door, the birdman threw it open with such a bang that it broke
from its rusty hinges and crashed to the floor.

“Follow that cat!” he declared.

Ravana stepped over the fallen door and followed him
through to an empty concrete-walled chamber. To their left was a plain metal
door, covered in the same mould they had seen in the tunnel, upon which was a
sign with the words: ‘TO REACTOR A’. Nearby, the cat pawed at a low-level
ventilation grill and hissed madly at the purple fungus that oozed from the
rusty aperture.

In front of them was a hefty airtight hatch, operated by
a hand wheel, that had a notice above it that read: ‘REACTOR B’. There was a
tiny spy hole in the hatch and upon seeing nothing dangerous on the other side,
The Flying Fox began to turn the handle. The airtight hatch had withstood the
test of time and remained in one piece when the birdman finally pulled it open.
The door revealed a short corridor and an identical hatch ahead.

“An airlock?” he asked.

“There’s no pressurisation controls,” Ravana pointed out.
“I think it’s just a link between sealed sections, like that between two space
station modules.”

The second hatch opened easily. Beyond was a sight that
took Ravana’s breath away. Before her was a cathedral to the god of
engineering; a vast, brightly-lit cylindrical cavern with walls that curved
from beneath a steel grid floor below to an apex twenty metres above their
heads. The centre of the hall was dominated by a huge spherical nuclear
reactor, behind which was an even larger conical construction extending
horizontally through the far wall.

A complex network of pipes and electrical conduits ran in
all directions and a strained humming noise hung in the air. The hatch had
brought them out onto an open gallery, which was one of several running around
the perimeter of the chamber at various levels. These in turn were all linked
to one another and to the floor below by a series of metal staircases.

“This is amazing,” she murmured. “They don’t build stuff
like this anyone. Do you see the huge cone behind the reactor?” she asked the
birdman, pointing across the cavern. “That’s one of the main engines! I’ve
never seen anything like it on this scale before!”

“Reactor A and B,” he remarked, switching off the torch.
“Two engines.”

The walls of the chamber were made of plates of riveted
steel strengthened by a lattice gantry. Ravana was puzzled why this
reinforcement was needed when the engine room was surrounded by kilometres of
rock. Looking closer, she saw that the circumference of the flat wall at their
backs was punctuated at regular intervals by red barrel-shaped devices marked
with warning symbols. Near the hatch to their right was an archaic control desk
covered in dust and she went over to have a closer look.

“I can’t see anything obvious causing the power drain,”
she said eventually. “But someone has been here recently. These controls have
been bypassed.”

“The problem must be with Reactor A,” declared The Flying
Fox. “We must go!”

“And run into Fenris and the mad priest?”

“There’s no time to lose!”

As quick as a flash, the birdman darted back through the
hatch. Ravana heard a strangled cry and the sound of someone crashing to the
floor. She found The Flying Fox lying in the dark on the other side of the
first hatch, having apparently slipped and fallen whilst pulling open the door
marked: ‘TO REACTOR A’. The strange mouldy smell they noticed earlier was
stronger than ever.

“Did you trip over your shoe laces?” Ravana asked,
teasing him.

“It was blasted Jones!” the birdman exclaimed. “Acting
like a lunatic!”

The cat meowed, jumped lightly over the birdman’s prone
body and disappeared through the door, its electric nose excitedly sniffing the
air. Bemused, Ravana waited until The Flying Fox regained his feet and switched
on his torch, then followed.

Her cat had not gone far. Ravana gazed wearily at the
spiral staircase beyond the door, then down at her pet, which responded with a
casual scratch of an ear. The dark stairwell was three hundred metres high and
her cat’s pitiful meow made it clear that it did not intend to use its own
legs. The Flying Fox peered up into the distance as if considering the options.

“Jet pack?” he suggested.

Ravana smiled weakly. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The centrifugal pull of the spinning asteroid grew weaker
as they ascended the stairwell. Upon reaching the halfway point, gravity faded
completely. Here, the staircase broke off to leave just a couple of handrails
running through a hole in a rotten safety net, beyond which was the one thing
Ravana never expected to find on the
Dandridge Cole
. It was a window, buried deep in an alcove barely a
metre across, with triple-glazed glass scarred by countless micrometeoroids,
but a proper window nonetheless. It looked out of the asteroid from between the
two huge engine nozzles, upon a slowly-rotating vista of the star-spangled
void. As they floated before the window, gazing out at the spread of infinity
beyond, Ravana thought it poignant that the only natural view the original
settlers may have had was not of what they were heading towards, but of what
they were leaving behind.

The Flying Fox remained eager to make progress. It was
not easy for him to fly with Ravana hanging from his shoulders and a wriggling
cat under his arm, but soon they were descending the second half of the
darkened staircase and feeling the spin of the hollow moon once more. At one
point, the birdman wobbled violently and shone the torch towards the staircase,
but Ravana could not see what he was looking at.

When they finally landed at the other end of the
staircase, they found a door leading to a room that was the mirror image of the
one where the birdman had tripped over the cat. The torchlight revealed walls
encrusted with thick purple mould and other strange fungal growths that the
cat, upon being let loose once more, appeared to find both frightening and
fascinating in equal measure. They were now on the opposite side of the hollow
moon and presumably somewhere far behind the palace.

“Did you see her?” asked the birdman excitedly. “On the
stairs?”

“See who?” asked Ravana. “Ostara?”

“I don’t think so.”

They both returned to the staircase and peered up, but
saw nothing. It was then they heard distant voices drifting from the room
behind and paused to listen. Apart from the doorway through which they had
come, there was a corroded metal door to their left and a stout hatch to their
right with a spy hole and a sign marked: ‘REACTOR A’. Thinking that the voices
were coming from behind the hatch, Ravana peered through the spy hole and saw
nothing. She realised the sound came from beyond the rusty door.

“There’s someone in the other access tunnel,” Ravana
whispered.

“With any luck they’ll trip over Jones and break their
necks.”

A sudden loud banging on the door made them both jump. In
a panic, Ravana scuttled to hide behind the entrance to the spiral staircase,
then peered out again when she realised The Flying Fox and her cat had stayed
to face the intruders.

Slowly, the door opened. To her relief, it revealed a
friendly and familiar face.

“Ostara!” cried Ravana, coming out of hiding.

“My word!” exclaimed Ostara, clearly startled at finding
the masked birdman on the other side of the door. “Here to rescue cats?”

OSTARA LED RAVANA and The Flying Fox through the door to
a concrete-lined passage remarkably similar to the one the birdman had
propelled them both down earlier. This tunnel was brightly lit and the railcar
at the end of the tracks showed signs of recent repairs to bring it back into
good running order.

Surya sat at the front of the carriage, his face
illuminated by the console screen before him. Ravana saw the railcar had a
large fuel cell strapped to the rear and guessed it had been modified,
presumably by Fenris, to run on its own power. Another fuel cell on the floor
near the door was connected to the lighting circuits. Fenris was evidently a
man of more talents than previously revealed.

“We need a plan,” Ostara said to Ravana. “Surya has been
speaking to Endymion and we think we’ve found Fenris and the mad priest.”

“Taranis is on the other side of that hatch,” Ravana told
her. “Reactor A.”

“How did you know that?”

“Because we’ve just come from Reactor B and he’s
definitely not there!”

“Well deduced,” Ostara remarked. “I’ll make a detective
of you yet.”

“Have you seen anyone else?” asked Ravana. “Zotz thought
there was a woman on the stairs. He is however wearing a mask and it was very
dark,” she added hastily.

“Not a soul. The palace was deserted, but we found a
secret passage from Fenris’ room that led up to this tunnel. It was quite a
walk! It’s taken us an hour to get this far.”

“Access Tunnel A,” said Surya. “All four kilometres of
it.”

“Fenris took the train, I presume?” remarked the birdman.
“Resourceful man.”

Ostara gave The Flying Fox an odd look and discretely
pulled Ravana to one side.

“Why is Zotz dressed as some sort of superhero?” she
asked, her voice hushed.

“It’s a long story!” Ravana whispered back. “Now we’re
here, I’m not sure it was a good idea. Zotz is so much more confident as The
Flying Fox, but to see him in action is like watching a really bad actor. Does
that make sense?”

“What was that?” asked the birdman.

“He has bat-like hearing though,” murmured Ostara, making
Ravana giggle.

Surya glanced up from the screen. “Are you coming to look
at this?” he asked grumpily.

Ostara, Ravana and The Flying Fox went over to where
Surya sat in the carriage. The railcar’s console was connected to the
Dandridge
Cole
’s network. On its holovid screen they
saw the familiar grinning features of Endymion, though given the circumstances
Ravana was starting to find his perpetual air of blissful ignorance wearisome.
Endymion was speaking into his wristpad, with Philyra visible in the shadows
over his shoulder.

“Ravana!” greeted Endymion, when she moved into view.
“Can I talk to you instead? The professor told me you’re studying engineering.”

“He thinks I’m stupid,” Surya said, speaking in a mock
whisper.

“I never said that!”

“Tell Ravana what you found,” Ostara interrupted,
sounding exasperated.

“Fenris’ slate,” Endymion declared. Behind him, Philyra
held up the slate as if she were selling merchandise on a holovid shopping
channel. “It contains technical information and plans for the
Dandridge Cole
. I think I’ve found what is causing the power
drain!”

“Taranis is causing it,” Ravana replied wearily. “He’s
holed up near Reactor A.”

“Okay, so you know that bit,” Endymion retorted irritably.
“What you may not know is that he has linked the two fusion reactors together,
bypassed the overload prevention circuits and switched off remote network
access. Both reactors are now controlled solely by the console for Reactor A.
The only way to put it right is to go into the engine room.”

“None of us know how to program fusion reactors!”
exclaimed Ostara.

“I’ve studied basic maintenance,” Ravana told her,
thinking of her classes with Professor Wak. “What about Hanuman? Is he on his
way?”

“They’re still working on the
Platypus
,” Endymion replied, with a tinge of frustration. “As
for the reactor controls, I may be able to talk you through it,” he said
doubtfully.

Ravana looked glum. “Is there nothing else we can do?”

“We shall force Taranis to undo what he has done!”
declared The Flying Fox.

“He doesn’t strike me as the sort of man who could be
forced to do anything,” Ostara remarked. “Besides, we have Fenris to deal with
too.”

“There is another option,” Endymion said cautiously. “The
plans show that the reactor and engine assemblies were built as self-contained
modules. The system is designed so that in an emergency the entire engine room
can be ejected into space.”

“Gosh,” murmured Ostara. “That’s one way of disconnecting
Taranis’ handiwork. What sort of emergency?”

“A meltdown?” suggested Endymion. “Something like that.”

“The reactor chamber is secured by explosive bolts,” said
Ravana, remembering the red barrel-shaped devices on the wall in the other
reactor room. “I saw them inside the engine room for Reactor B.”

“So we smash something vital then make a quick exit,” the
birdman announced. “But will justice be done if we send Fenris and Taranis into
deep space?”

“It gets my vote,” muttered Ravana.

“It’s not much of a plan,” mused Ostara. “But it is the
only one we’ve got.”

Ostara turned from the spy hole in the hatch and regarded
Ravana gravely, though it was hard to be serious with a cat bouncing up and
down between them. The electric pet was trying to eat the fronds of purple
fungus splaying from the air vent in the wall.

“Fenris has tried to blow us up once already,” said
Ostara. “I’m pretty certain he and Taranis are not going to be pleased to see
us. Are you sure you want to do this?”