“It’s too risky to put anyone aboard,” Wak said firmly. “With no power to the flight systems, the slightest mistake during the tow could knock it out of the zero-gravity zone and crashing to the ground. You’d be much more help fetching the generator.”
“We could collect Jones on the way,” added Zotz. “On my wristpad tracker your cat is heading across the hollow moon as fast as its little legs will carry it.”
Ravana groaned. “Towards the cliff behind the palace?”
Zotz shrugged. “I think so.”
“Not again! What is the fascination with that dratted cave?”
“Is it following Fenris’ scent?” asked Ostara. “Or is it only dogs that do that?”
“Maybe it has gone to fix the fusion reactor for us,” Wak muttered.
Ravana gave him an odd look. “I don’t understand.”
“Those caves are the sealed entrances to the Dandridge Cole’s engine rooms,” the professor explained. He saw their puzzled expressions and sighed. “The asteroid has two huge fusion drives. How do you think it got here from the Solar System all those years ago?”
“There’s giant nuclear engines behind the palace?” asked Surya, shocked.
“The access tunnels are four kilometres long,” Wak reassured him. “As I said, the engineers looking for the power drain were trying to gain entry until I told them to go with their families on the Indra. I doubt there would have been much they could have done. You try getting spare parts for technology a hundred years old!”
“Isn’t the fusion plant inside the sun?” asked Ostara, still looking confused.
“Of course not!” retorted Wak irritably. “The sun just draws the power and projects it as heat and light. If the Platypus had crashed into a reactor we most certainly would not be standing here right now listening to your stupid questions!”
“Taranis!” exclaimed Ostara. “Of course! That’s where he’s hiding!”
“Inside the sun?” remarked Zotz, looking at her as if she had gone mad.
“Not up there,” Ostara said crossly. “In the old engine rooms!”
Wak rolled his eyes in exasperation. “How did you ever make security officer?” he asked with a sigh. “There’s nobody hiding back there!”
“Taranis is there,” insisted Ostara. “He said he’d been watching the Raja and that they were shortly to meet, so he must be close by! Also, when we listened in on his holovid call to Fenris at Hemakuta, Endymion said the signal was coming from the Ascension servermoon, which is the one we use here.”
“As does everyone else in the Barnard’s Star system,” Wak pointed out.
“Yes, but thirdly, Hanuman told us Taranis had become interested in experimental cloning after seeing what Que Qiao was doing to the greys!” Ostara continued excitedly. “Which now I think about it could be something to do with the disciples the priest mentioned. At the secret plantation, Hanuman also said you needed a lot of power to create clones. If Taranis has set up a secret laboratory here, that could explain the power drain!”
“Greys don’t exist!” retorted Wak.
“They are for real,” Ravana told him. “And yes, Hanuman did say those things.”
“You see!” Ostara exclaimed. “And, err…”
“Fourthly?” suggested Surya.
“Yes! And the alien weirdness that made Ravana’s cat act strangely at the plantation is now luring it to that cave!” Ostara squared up to the professor and stood defiant, her hands on her hips. “It is my deduction that Taranis is hiding in one of the engine rooms and drawing power from the hollow moon reactor to run secret cloning experiments!”
“Experiments that released growth hormones into the air and gave the Platypus Woomerberg Syndrome,” added Zotz, wide-eyed. “It does make sense!”
“Elementary, my dear Zotz!” Ostara exclaimed. “That’s from Sherlock Holmes.”
Wak opened his mouth to reply, then hesitated. His sceptical expression faltered when it became evident he could not think of a good argument against what Ostara had put to him.
“My word,” murmured Ravana, looking at Ostara in a new light. “That is the best piece of detective work you’ve ever done. Do you really think Taranis is doing something like that right under our noses? What can his experiments be?”
“Cloning greys? As if they exist!” muttered Wak, in the manner of someone still not convinced. “On the other hand, you can set up a small cloning facility almost anywhere. It might explain where the missing equipment went from the biology laboratory. How do you propose to put your deduction to the test, security officer Ostara?”
“Find Fenris,” she declared. “He’s got nowhere to go now except back to Taranis.”
In his haste to escape, Fenris had left his personal effects behind in the Sun Wukong, including the wristpad he had taken with him to Epsilon Eridani, something Zotz discovered when he tried to locate the fleeing Fenris via the tracker screen on his own. While Ostara remained convinced that Fenris was to rendezvous with Taranis in the old engine rooms, Surya feared he was instead making for the palace and was concerned for his mother’s safety should she still be there when Fenris returned.
The power drain had put the monorail trains out of use and none of the monocycles in the nearest bay had enough charge to make it all the way across the hollow moon. It was decided therefore that Ostara and Surya would hitch a ride on the hovertruck as far as the palace, leaving Ravana and Zotz to continue onwards to the cave to collect the generator. Surya was confident that any staff left at the palace would side with him rather than Fenris. Professor Wak however had concerns of his own.
“I’m pretty sure you’ll find the palace deserted,” he said. “Everyone left on the Indra. They even managed to take some of the livestock. It looked like Noah’s Ark when it went!”
“You’re still here,” Ostara pointed out. “If you were daft enough to stay, there may be others. The Maharani’s household weren’t keen on mixing with the rest of us at the best of times and for all we know they’re still there, hiding and hoping the problem will go away.”
“I don’t want you to face Fenris alone,” Wak told her. “At least promise me that.”
“You could come with us,” Ostara suggested.
“With this hand?” retorted Wak, holding up his poorly-repaired artificial digits. “Do you want me to slap him into submission? By all means do your investigation, but please wait for Hanuman to join you before you try any heroics. I’m sure it won’t take them long to drag the Platypus back into dock and I only need Ganesa here to try her idea for the airlock.”
“Okay,” Ostara said. She gave his arm a reassuring pat. “I promise.”
The Sun Wukong had left the airlock and Ravana, Ostara, Wak and Zotz went outside to watch as it moved slowly through the zero-gravity zone on its way to rescue the stranded Platypus. Left to their own devices, Endymion and Philyra had been busy rifling through the bundle of Fenris’ possessions Hanuman had chucked out of the passenger compartment before leaving. Apart from his wristpad and a case of clothes, they found a slate loaded with all sorts of interesting material and also, to their surprise, Fenris’ copy of the Isa-Sastra. Eager to show their discoveries, Endymion and Philyra came down to the medical bay.
“He must have really been in a panic to leave this behind,” mused Miss Clymene, as she casually flicked through the book. The dense text was written in an archaic style and the few sentences she read were full of obscure references and double meanings.