“At least that solves the mystery of who shut everything down. They knew they had enough protection to be able to handle it. Must’ve been hell, though. I can’t imagine anything close to that size being all that fast. Makes you wonder why they didn’t lower the emergency doors, too. There’s a set at each entrance and exit and each new corridor or section. You could even seal off a greenhouse and get enough air, water, and, if you’re in one with the right stuff growing, even food. Why shut down the control center but not take the time to get people where they had at least a slight chance, maybe keeping the power levels up a bit? It still doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s always a mystery until you know the facts,” Queson replied, breathing hard now. At this pace, she was rapidly approaching her own personal limit.
“You okay?”
“No,” she admitted. “But I will be once we get out of here.”
They went through three greenhouses without any more incidents or discoveries, but then they got a call from On High.
“Hey, you two! Heads up!” An Li called. “We’ve got you on our tracker now and we’re trying to work on as quick an exit as we can. But I have to tell you we’re monitoring some movement behind you. It’s still inside the cliffs, but we’re getting really odd fragmentary radiation readings from there now, distinct from the core.”
“That— thing?” Queson asked her, feeling her stomach knot up.
“Nothing that big. Smaller, faster, and somewhat indecisive. Like whatever it is is trying to figure out where you went. Randi, I’ve got your readings right here and I know what condition you’re in, but you’ve got to keep going and step it up! If you can make another three or four greenhouses and stay roughly in the middle of the complex, we may be able to chance it, come in, and get you off the roof from outside! But you can’t stop and you shouldn’t stumble! My blips have merged and are now coming down the same exit you used. They finally picked up your scent or whatever they use.”
Jerry Nagel unsnapped his pistol and with his thumb set it to maximum power without even stopping. She took hers out but was in no shape to set it. Its average power level would just have to be enough.
“You really think these little pistols can do much?” she asked him.
“Save your breath for moving! I have no idea. I think not, since that window in that far greenhouse was shot out, so they had a few things here and couldn’t dent it, but who knows? Better than rocks. Stay along the far wall there. If anything comes close to us we want to be able to get outside and quick. Whatever that thing is, it’s carbon based, a child of water, and loves the heat. That’s three things that aren’t outside.”
“Yeah? If that’s so, how come these people didn’t all get outside?”
“They had sun suits and walking shoes on, not ones like this,” he reminded her. “The only ones with these were doing what they could close up. I suspect they were moving to get out but time ran out on them. Let’s not make the same mistake!”
An Li broke in. “Whatever it is is now just a greenhouse and a half behind you. You’re still at least two, three away from any point where you might be picked up. Any of those isolation doors have a manual trigger? Just a thought.”
Nagel cursed, wondering why he hadn’t thought of it. The power-down had opened all the doors except ones that would be exempted in the control room or were subject to a manual override, just as the airlock doors on each compartment of the spaceship made said parts little independent biospheres for a while.
Sark’s voice came over their intercom now. “Red handle, always to the right of each interconnect, facing the location map,” he told them. “We just tried one and it works, but you may have to shoot out the cover. Side angle, low power works fine.”
Nagel waited until Queson was through the tube to the next unit, then followed. Immediately he looked for the map, then the opposite wall on the right. The thing was pretty clear; he just hadn’t noticed it before. He took his pistol and shot, and there was a tremendous flare and sparks flew everywhere. The emergency switch turned almost molten, but the door didn’t drop.
“Damn it! I was on high!” he realized. “Come on! I apologize, but we’re gonna have to run the length of this thing and through to the next one!”
Randi Queson tried, but her lungs felt like they were about to burst and her back was an increasingly concentrated single mass of severe pain. “I don’t think I can make it, Jerry! You go! You can always find another frustrated old professor someplace!”
Jerry stopped, turned, and sighed. “I ain’t got time for this, Doc,” he said, then he yanked on her arm and began pulling her along. It was sheer agony, but screaming and cursing at him seemed to give her some extra energy.
The places were huge enough as it was; now, like this, it seemed as if the corridor was actually growing longer as they moved towards the far end.
“Guys, if that energy surge was Jerry’s gun then they’re about to come through the tube into where you are,” An Li warned them. “We’re picking up the rest of the team now. If you can’t make the next greenhouse and close that door behind you in the next five minutes, then get outside and try and climb up on the roof. There are ladders at both ends of the buildings and in the center, both sides. Wind’s really bad, but the suits should be able to take it. Once you’re up there, keep moving until we can pluck you off. Understand?”
“We’re gonna make it through!” Jerry almost yelled to her. “C’mon, Doc! There’s the connector! Get on through!”
Somehow, Queson made it, although she felt as if she were going to faint once she reached the other side of the connecting tube. This time Jerry dialed down his charge, angled, and shot the protective cover cleanly off. He then pulled the lever, praying that, somehow, it would work.
It did, and fast. The door shot out with amazing speed and they could hear the building shake as it went chunk! sealing off the other side.
“Well I’ll be damned!” he breathed. “The thing was spring loaded!”
Randi Queson was breathing so hard the noise almost blocked off the intercom, and she was partially slumped, but she slowly seemed to be getting her wind back.
He knew that they weren’t anywhere near safe yet, but he felt he had to give her a minute or two to catch her breath.
Something went bang! really hard against the metal blast and protective door they’d just triggered.
He jumped. “I thought you said five minutes!”
“That was five minutes ago,” An Li pointed out. “Jerry, you’ve got to keep moving. Get to the far end as quick as you can, then exit and go up the next greenhouse ladder. Understand?”
“But there are doors right there!” Queson protested, pointing. Then, suddenly, she realized just how close things were.
Even a human being wearing very little or nothing at all could stand it long enough to get out one set of doors, pry open another set, and get back inside, and whatever this creature or creatures were, they appeared to be made of much the same stuff as humans, even if put together differently.
Both doors were closed, though, and would require something like Jerry’s crowbar assembly to open manually. That thing they’d seen wrapped around the core was more like a giant slug or worm of some kind, though. Not the most likely creature to figure out crowbars, and unlikely to have really great physical strength in any one part of it. Even if it, or something like it, could get outside from the other greenhouse, one with the same door problem, how long could they stand it out there before the sandblasting and cold got them?