Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (71 page)

THE NEW INDEPENDENCE dropped into a low orbit around the planet in the Pyraklies system, and everybody crowded to the visor to get a first glance of the final planet the Ammonites had chosen.

There was a general intake of breath. The planet was there, but it was completely overshadowed by the debris belt nearby. It seemed that although the Pyraklies sun had clung on to this small planet, it had been at the cost of disrupting one of its other satellites, for there were huge asteroids circling the sun, quite close to the planet. The debris belt spanned the night sky, illuminating a sizeable smudge of the celestial sphere, almost as bright as Lumina was from Kwaide.

Ledin was at the control panel, trying to collate information about the surface of the planet. He pushed buttons, and then gave a whistle as the first images of the ground below came up.

“Come and look at this!”

The others turned back from the visors and went to the console screen. The first close up of the surface was showing, and they all blinked. The surface was made up of a honeycomb of hexagonal rocks and columns, jostling each other, piled one on top of the other, forming hills and valleys, mountains and plains, but always hexagonal.

Ledin looked up from the console. “The atmosphere might even be breathable,” he said. “I am getting borderline readings. The trouble is that the debris belt is so close that the whole planet must be subject to intense meteors all the time, and those that make it through most of the atmosphere could cause lethal explosions. Look! There is one there!” He pointed out of the rexelene screen in front of them all.

They watched as a thin trail of fire in the upper atmosphere became wider and wider as the rock began to fall towards the planet. Slowly, it became incandescent, and the trail it left behind it grew more and more brilliant. They were already having to shelter their eyes when a huge explosion flashed in the sky, blinding them all momentarily. Some long seconds later the clap of noise and the wave of expansion rocked even the New Independence.

Six stared. “Hmm. It’s all right if those things explode up in the atmosphere, but if one were big enough to make it right down to the ground it would leave a pretty impressive dent.”

“Like that one?” Ledin pointed to the scene now showing on the screen. They were overflying an area where the hexagonal rock had been fused into one twisted basin, with strange vitrified remains curling up and over each other and reaching for the sky.

“That must be ... what? ... a mile across?” Diva stared. “The shock wave on the ground must have been tremendous. That would kill anything alive straight away, surely?”

Ledin went back to the controls. “I can’t see any signs of life,” he admitted. “And there is certainly no vegetation. As far as I can tell from up here, the planet is completely sterile.”

“Pity,” said Grace. They all looked at her.

“Well, it’s a waste of a breathable atmosphere, isn’t it? It seems a shame to actually find a planet which could have life, and then find that for some reason it doesn’t.”

“We don’t know that for sure, yet,” pointed out Ledin. “The data I have so far seems to suggest that there is nothing down there alive, but it doesn’t preclude it.”

Tallen peered down at the surface of Pyraklion from the visor. “There is not much for them to eat, even if there are lifeforms down there. But surely the morphics can tell us about the surface of the planet?”

Six gave a snort of derision. “Yeah! Like they’ve done a great job so far! They nearly got us killed, twice.”

“We certainly did not.” They looked up to find all three morphics hovering near the ceiling of the New Independence. “That was all your own fault.”

Ledin stared. “The metazoans were
our
fault?”

“How are we supposed to know how weak Coriolan lungs are? You’d think at least they’d be able to survive the simplest living organisms in the galaxy, wouldn’t you? You lot should have evolved a more efficient system of absorbing oxygen by now!”

“And what about the sharks?” Six raised one eyebrow.

“We told you about those!”

“You told us there were some animals which lived in the water, not that they spent their lives breaking up ice packs!”

“You are very critical, considering we have done all the hard work for you,” said the visitor.

“Hard work?
Hard work?
All you have done is flit through the ortholiquid until you found a few new worlds. Big deal!”

The visitor spun rapidly. “At least we have found these lost planets. Something none of you transients could have done.”

“Yes, but you can’t free the lost animas, can you? That needs somebody with real arms and legs, somebody who can move their laser machines about and turn them on and off!”

“You are quite correct. We do need someone to do the donkey work. I agree that you are ideal in that respect.”

“What in Lumina do you mean by that?”

The bimorph seemed inordinately pleased with himself. “I was merely agreeing with you.”

Six was about to answer in a vehement fashion, but his wife, who had both hands on her hips, was looking at him. He stopped, and gave a deep sigh. Then he looked suspiciously at the morphics. “So there are no lifeforms at all down there? You haven’t forgotten to tell us about the abominable snowman, or the sabre-toothed tiger, have you?”

The twins shimmered. “We haven’t seen any signs of life,” one of them said. “Of course, we haven’t spent long on the surface of the planet, either.”

“And where is the ortholiquid?”

The morphics went to the console, where they hovered over the plan of Pyraklion which was slowly being built up by the on-board computer.

“Here,” the bimorph hung over a particular spot. “There is a sort of cave on the edge of this cliff-face, about half-way down.”

“Where could a shuttle land?” Ledin peered down at the surrounding areas. “This all looks very abrupt.” He stared some more at the screen, and then managed to amplify the image he was getting. The small hexagonal rocks sprung into focus, and they looked at them with dismay. They were layered upwards from the ground like a pyramid, but they could see no area level enough to take the shuttle. Every rock seemed to be at a different height to its neighbour, jutting up into the air on its own column. There was no smooth surface to be seen anywhere.

“What on Sacras made Pyraklion look like that?” asked Diva.

Grace pursed her lips. “Some sort of volcanic activity and cooling, I would think. That definitely isn’t instellite. It looks more like basalt from up here, doesn’t it?”

Six looked at her. “Does it? I don’t know how you can remember all of that.”

Grace grinned. “It was the only part of Atheron’s lessons that I enjoyed, apart from the art appreciation classes. I like to think of how the planets were made.”

Six grimaced. “Don’t remind me of the whitebeard’s classes, please! Just the memory of being shut in the orthobubbles and having to put up with 12 hours of classes every day makes my head spin!”

Grace shook her own head. “That’s all I can tell you, in any case. There is absolutely nothing like this anywhere in the binary system. It is beautiful, though, don’t you think?”

Diva nodded. “It’s like looking down on a forest of gallarium crystals, isn’t it?”

“It is a bit. But some of those drops from one level to another must be two or three metres in height, and just look where the cave is perched!”

They moved closer. The cave where they would need to go to reach the ortholiquid was set into a cliff face, where there had been a severe fracture in the surface of the planet, and the drop between the top and the bottom of the escarpment must have been about a mile. The cave was a third of the way down. Guarding the entrance to the cave were long thin columns. These hung side by side, almost touching, looking like nothing so much as the fringe of a curtain, to the right and left of the cave entrance.

Tallen’s jaw dropped. “Who is going down there?” he asked, his voice tight.

Six looked at Ledin, who nodded. They had already known who would have to go. “That will be us,”
he said, indicating the two of them. “We are the only ones who can climb well enough.”

Diva frowned. “Can’t we get the shuttle close in, somehow, and fire the lasers from there?”

The bimorph buzzed unhappily. “The ortholiquid is round a twist in the cave. You will need to go deep inside it in order to be able to fire the lasers.”

“Terrific!” Diva looked disconcerted. The idea of Six risking his life while she had to sit and watch was not the most appealing thing she could think of. “I shall come with you.”

Six squeezed her shoulders. “You can’t,” he said gently, aware that she was feeling mortified not to form a part of the climbing expedition. “We will need you in the other shuttle.”

She stared at him, confused. “Well, I certainly can’t drop you in there from the shuttle.”

He shook his head. “No, but you will have to bring us the laser machines. There is no way we can carry those down a third of a mile of rock face. Not that one, at least; there are too many sheer overhangs. We would never make it.”

“How? I can’t take the shuttle in close enough.”

“We couldn’t think of any other way to do it. There isn’t enough rope for the lasers to be lowered down from the top, and we can secure ourselves to some of those pillars, to make sure we don’t get pulled off. Grace thinks you could attach some sort of device to the shuttle.”

She bit her lip. “Oh, very well. But what about you two, how will you get back to the shuttle afterwards?”

“Us?” Six’s voice was too nonchalant. “Oh, Ledin and I will shimmy back up that thing in a flash. But we may need to return the lasers, so you had better wait there while we fire the things, and see if the lost animas really are here on Pyraklion.”

If Diva had been watching him closely, she would have noticed the change in his expression. The deliberate smoothing of the forehead and slight widening of the eyes was a dead giveaway that Six was planning something else that she wasn’t going to like. But she was concentrating on the logistics of delivering the lasers safely.

“Tallen, do you think you could help me to fasten a net between the two forward guns on the shuttle? Ledin, didn’t you say you had included two acoton nets in the cargo?”

Ledin nodded. “With snap-to-rigid frames, yes.”

“Then we can bind extensions in or onto the gun barrels, and sling an acoton net between them. That should keep the lasers above and beyond the thrust of the engines, and reasonably accessible.”

Six nodded. “Sounds fine,” he said, with a faint smile.

Bennel stepped forward. “I will accompany you.”

Grace began to laugh. “
No
such thing. Both you and Tallen need a bit more time to recover from Yttrea. You are still both wheezing like faulty mask packs! You will stay here and look after the New Independence. I shall go down with Six and Ledin.”

A BEAUTIFUL ROSE-TINTED dawn welcomed them the next morning. It shone off the hexagonal columns beneath them, and made the Pyraklion rocks glisten prettily. Grace thought they were stunning.

The first shuttle separated from the New Independence, and flashed in the early morning light from the sun and the debris belt, before it angled away and downwards, towards the nearest crater to the rock face. It was about three kilometres away from the precipice, but offered the only possibility of a safe landing, since it was the nearest flat land available. Three small figures made their way out of the hatch and onto the planet.

Grace was panting by the time they all got to the sheer drop down. Hauling themselves up and over the hexagonal rocks took more than a little energy, even though they had no need to carry the lasers with them this time.

Six walked fearlessly over to the top of the cliff face and peered down. “Sacras! That is pretty sheer.” He withdrew his head hastily.

“Can I be of any help?” Grace edged to the brink and the two Kwaidians could see that she had to steel herself to look below. There was a brief silence.

“Gosh, Grace, you
have
gone a bit green about the gills!” said Six.

“It ... it’s just that it looks an awful long way down.”