Last Flight For Craggy (26 page)

'A tunnel?'
said Berry.

Singh said,
'With observational skills like that, you could have been a miner.
Can we carry on working?'

'Probably not,'
said Hellicoyle. Senior geologists had the authority to halt work
if considered necessary. 'No. Not until we know what we are dealing
with. Would you agree, Raz?'

'Hmm? Oh. Yes.
Everybody stop work and clear the mine until further notice.'

'Including me?'
asked Singh.

'Yes,' said
Hellicoyle. 'But stay accessible.'

'Leave us the
buggy,' said Berry.

Singh looked as
if he had an interesting reply but thought better of it, and
started on the long trip to the mouth of the mine.

'One thing we
can see straight off,' said Berry, 'Is that whomever made the
chamber, made this tunnel.'

Hellicoyle ran
his gloved hands over the perfect, smooth wall of the new tunnel.
'Amazing work,' he said.

'Anything else
strike you?'

'Not very big.
I'm not the tallest guy around, but I'd struggle to walk along
that. What is it? Three feet in diameter? Not the tallest dudes in
the Universe made this, I'm thinking.'

Berry said, 'I
for one am not going down there until I have some clue as to what
to expect.'

'A
roboprobe?'

'I'll get one
of the technicians to bring us the gear. Cramer? Peggy Cramer?'

'Sir?'

'I want you to
bring the roboprobe and all the other gear that goes with it to
deep mine. I'm with Felix at the end of the mine, about eight miles
in. Oh. Try not to run Shamini Singh down in your enthusiasm to get
here. Cramer?'

'Sir?'

'Why are you
not on your way? Move.'

'On my way,
Sir.'

Peggy Cramer
broke the mine speed limit, and had the six wheel roboprobe,
sitting in the mouth of the new tunnel and the controls set up just
outside of it. At eighteen inches long and ten wide, the remotely
controlled probe was ideal for the job. The camera was sending a
clear image back to the receiver and the monitor. 'Mind if I
stay?'

'Sure, Peggy,'
said Berry. She was one of their keenest rookie rock pickers as
they were dubbed. 'Getting a good signal?'

'Nice and
clear. Ready to send the probe down there?'

'Slow and easy.
Away you go.'

The three of
them gathered around the roboprobe monitor and controls. Because of
the smoothness of the wall, the lights on the probe showed up the
progress along the tunnel very clearly.'

'Who made this
tunnel?' Cramer asked.

'The only clue
we have is the chamber we found the artefact in,' said Hellicoyle.
'This was made exactly the same way.'

'How far in are
we?' asked Berry.

Cramer said,
'Just over a mile. Dead straight.'

'Keep going,'
said Hellicoyle. 'Just look at that tunnel. How perfect is
that?'

Cramer said,
'It looks like it has been made out of molten rock. That's basalt,
right?'

'Yes,' said
Berry. 'Same as the chamber. Possibly around the same time. Hey.
What's happened to the signal?'

'Gone,' said
Cramer. 'The camera is still working, but we aren't picking
up.'

Hellicoyle
said, 'Do we still have control of mobility?'

'Yes.'

'Stop it,
then,' said Berry.

Cramer stopped
the roboprobe.

'Put it in
reverse,' said Berry.

Cramer did
that, sure the probe was rolling sweetly in reverse. 'Still heading
our way.'

'Look. We have
visual,' said Berry. 'Stop it, Peggy.'

'Probe
stopped,' Cramer said, 'The signal and images are perfect now.'

They studied
the monitor, intently.

'Go forward,'
said Berry. 'Slow. Slower.'

'Where did it
go again?' Cramer asked.

'Stop,' said
Berry. 'Ease back, but at the slowest speed. It's here again. What
the hell is going on? Forward, inch at a time. Gone. Reverse. Hello
again. Forward. Gone. It's at that exact spot.'

They tested it
several times, but the images stopped at exactly the same place in
the tunnel.

Berry said,
'Peggy. Make a note of the exact position and direction its been
heading.'

'Got that, Sir.
I've just forwarded the recording of the run and the other details
to your laboratory computer.'

'Thank you,'
said Berry. 'Please leave this all set up as it is. Let's get to
the lab.'

At the mouth of
the mine, Singh held his hand up to stop them.

'Can we get
back to work?'

'No,' said
Berry. 'Not for the time being.'

Singh sighed
and took off for home, muttering unsavoury things about geologists
in general.

Cragg made
himself useful anyway he could. Mostly domestic duties. Anyone
wanting to clean their clothes, work the cutlery cleaner, change a
light-bulb, “Change a light-bulb? Really?”, Craggy made himself
indispensable. And when the autocleanse on one of the toilets
started blowing instead of sucking, he was the one for the job.

'Nothing ever
gets wasted,' Cragg told himself, philosophically. That included
the three weeks spent as a sanitation operative on Moon. It was a
job requiring disturbingly long rubber gloves, extremely flexible
joints, and perfect hand eye coordination. Cragg only had the
gloves.

He had been
stuck on his knees, wondering if his shoulder would have to be
dislocated to get him free, when he heard the door open behind
him.

'Say. Whomever
you are. Don't turn the water on.' He tried again when he got no
reply. 'Hello? Can you hear...' The autocleanse suddenly activated
and a suspiciously blue liquid hit him in the face and didn't stop
until the person working the tap turned it off. 'No. I guess you
can't hear me.' At least the sudden reverse flushing freed his
arm.

'Are you
okay?'

'Now you can
hear me?'

She was very
pretty, petite and screamingly worried looking. The running cold
water had been to wash her tears away.

'I...I'm sorry.
Did I make you blue?'

Cragg wiped his
face and chuckled. 'You wouldn't be the first woman to make me
blue. Oh. Are you wanting to...' he waved at the toilet.

'What? Oh. No.
I should go.'

'Wait. Are you
okay?' The girl looked embarrassed and Cragg picked up on that.
'What's your name?'

'Roswell
Strange. Wait. I recognise you. You're Nixon Bragg.'

Cragg smiled.
'Dixon Cragg. I'm guessing this is your first space flight?'

Roswell nodded.
'I tried to get out of it. But I'm part of the crew going to take
the launcher apart.'

'I get the
picture. You'd rather not be here.'

Roswell shook
her head. 'I made you all wet and messy. Am I in trouble?'

Cragg saw
himself in a mirror. His hair was dripping blue, his uniform was
soaked and he had a rubber glove that reached his armpit. 'That
depends. Give me a minute. Get us both a syncoff and meet me on the
observation deck. Oh. We'll keep this to ourselves, yeah?'

She smiled for
the first time. 'Thanks.'

He went to his
room, showered and changed in record time and went to the
observation deck. He found Roswell at a table for two. She had her
back to the heavens they were racing through.

'I hope the
syncoff's how you like it.'

Cragg sat and
sipped. 'In over sixty years, I never had one better than barely
drinkable. This is barely drinkable.'

The window
wasn't really a window, but the image may as well have been. It had
seemed years since he had seen the stars out of the atmosphere of
Mars. Misty had been right. He had missed this.

'Do I still
smell of that blue stuff?' Cragg asked. 'I scrubbed for ages. I can
still smell it. I may have swallowed some. Actually, it tastes
better than the syncoff.'

Roswell
laughed. 'You're funny.'

'One of my more
endearing qualities.'

Roswell was
staring at him. 'I don't get it. All of Mars knows you, but you
were cleaning a toilet.'

'Actually, I
was fixing it.'

'But you're a
captain.'

'Me and half of
Mars, I think. Besides. Plumbing is an essential part of things.
Don't look down on anyone who fixes it.'

'I...I wasn't.
But you shouldn't be doing things like that. I mean, you are
really, really old.'

'Ah! I'm
actually only really old. Out of interest, how old are you?'

'Nearly
eighteen.'

'How
nearly?'

'Earth time?
Another ten months.'

Cragg nodded.
'That nearly. Come and sit by me.'

Roswell
hesitated but sat next to him, facing the screen. 'That is so
scary.'

'That's part of
its beauty. Do you know how many times I did the Moon Mars
run?'

'No.'

'Neither do I.
After my fifteenth trip, I sort of stopped counting. But it never
lost its magic for me. I kinda feel sorry for you youngsters.'

This surprised
Roswell.'You do? Why?'

'Because you'll
never get what I had. Gliding majestically through the
heavens.'

'You talk
funny.'

Cragg smiled.
'So I gather. Just remember this. You are making history. This is
most likely the last ever run between Moon and Mars. Apart from the
occasional helium three ** processing trip, that is. This is
something for you to remember forever and tell your grandchildren
about.'

'Grandchildren?'

Cragg nodded,
'Perhaps not for a good few years.'

Roswell stared
at the stars, trying to fix the sight in her memory, so she could
tell her grandchildren one day. 'I'm not scared any more.'

'Good.'

'I have to go.
Thanks, Captain Cragg.'

'Craggy.
Special friends call me Craggy.'

Roswell said,
'Thanks, Craggy.' She kissed his forehead and scurried away.

Cragg watched
the stars and thought of his son, Leo. The son robbed of his life
because a war started a month too soon. But, just suppose he had
been spared, met a woman, fallen in love. Had a kid. Maybe Dixon
Cragg would have a granddaughter. And he'd put money on her being
as delightful as Roswell Strange.

Hellicoyle and
Berry stared at the three dimensional holographic projection.

'Just as I
thought,' said Berry. 'That tunnel leads directly to Mons.'

Hellicoyle
said, 'Leading to, or leading from?'

'There's a
difference?'

Hellicoyle
opened the safe and took out the artefact. He had almost forgotten
how beautiful it was. The gold filigree glistened in the green
light of the holograph.

'This is what's
humming. I wondered what that annoying sound was.'

Berry said,
'Significant, you think?'

Hellicoyle
shrugged and placed it on the workbench with even more reverence.
'Those things inside are more active than before. It looks like it
is getting ready for something.'

Berry stepped
back. 'Just don't mess with the damn thing.'

'This is no
coincidence. You realise that, don't you? The tunnel. The chamber.
This.'

'Was it being
hidden, do you think?' said Berry. 'I mean of course it was hidden.
But I don't mean from us. We humans. I think we were meant to find
it. I think it was perhaps hidden...from themselves.'

Hellicoyle
suddenly stepped back. 'Is this thing so damned valuable?'

'Or so
important.'

'What I don't
understand is why the probe stopped sending signals like it did.
That happened...just about here.' He pointed at the holograph.
'About four miles from the base of Mons.'

Berry said,
'Only one way to find out, my friend. You and I need to go into
that tunnel.'

Max Morgan was
bored, bored, bored. Phobos was depressingly...depressing. Small,
insignificant, dull. Every time Christopher Crossman entered the
freighter, Morgan was hoping to hear words like “We're going back
to Mars.” Instead he got, “Let's try somewhere else.”

So, Morgan
would let everybody drag their dust covered gear into the ship, not
even giving a thought to who was going to clean it all up, and they
would take off for a few minutes, set down again, when they would
drag it all out again to chip away at more rocks.

'I could walk
around this pebble in a couple of days. Bloody clowns, tap, tap,
tapping with their bloody little hammers. Me? I'm just the bus
driver.'

Morgan chuckled
at the Craggyism. 'Bus driver. Once more more round the block.
Where's the indicators on this thing? I hope you're having more
damn fun than I am, Craggy. I wonder if they'd miss me if I just
took off for a few days? Grab a few beers. Why the hell don't I
have beer with me? What was I thinking? Craggy would have stowed
beer on board. Craggy. What would Craggy do to get out of this
one?'

By the time the
survey team added another layer to the already filthy interior,
Morgan had worked out what Craggy would have done.

'It's the main
thruster ionic stabilising injector unit. All this damn dust. Man.
Be lucky if I can get us back in one piece. We have to get home
while we can.'

'You just made
that up,' said Chris Crossman.

'I...I what? I
made it up? Why would I do that?'

'Beer. You want
to get back for beer.'

'Are you
seriously suggesting...?'

'We have one
more site to check out before we go home.'

Morgan sighed.
That would have gone so much better if Craggy had done it. 'One
more hop and we can go home?'

'I totally
promise.'

'Shit. Buckle
up.'

'Without
beer?'

'Craggy,' said
Dillow. 'I couldn't let you bring beer on the ship with all these
youngsters on board, now could I?'