The creature headed for an opening in the side of the building and passed through the shower of sparks inside. Lucy followed. The sparks came from a battered control panel. Her gaze swept the interior. It wasn’t a building but a giant machine. She crossed to where a series of mechanical metal arms were pressed against the side of the cliff. Hoses and jets were frozen in place from when the machine stopped working. Jets of molten rock, metal or some substance manufactured to mimic the two that had once sprayed out in liquid form from some of the many hoses, had solidified like frozen fountains. The machine was actually building the landscape like some sort of terra-forming machine, perhaps building an ecosystem for some of the creatures the ark spaceship carried.
The creature tugged at her arm again, impatient for her to continue their journey to God-knows-where. Lucy was led past a pool of water lit from below by turquoise light. Stubby, gnarled trees had forced their way through the floor of the machine and stood like strange statues arranged in a museum for public viewing. A large rip in the wall on the far side of the machine revealed a wide tunnel whose floor was covered with bizarre, mushroom-like growths. The tallest was a foot high. Stubby red stalks supported a pointed domed top formed from intertwined tendrils that emitted a soft blue glow and lit up the dark tunnel. The floor was carpeted with a bright orange growth that had a mossy texture. The scene had a magical, fantasyland feeling.
The creature paused at the tunnel entrance and waved Lucy forward with an impatient arm and a creepy beckoning smile. Lucy glanced around the machine; there might be something here she could use as a weapon. If she encountered anymore of the ship’s vicious inhabitants, the club wouldn’t save her for long. If it weren’t for Pinky coming to her rescue the Demon Bats would have feasted on her corpse. Her roaming eyes stopped on a sharp metal shard lying on the ground. She picked it up. It was light, but strong, ideal for her purpose, but the edges were too sharp to grip with her bare hands. She wandered around the room, searching for anything else she could use to fashion a weapon. In one corner she found something that might be useful; a grisly pile of teeth-scarred bones, some of which she thought might be from the Demon Bats. She glanced back at the pink creature, who stared at her. Though the scary smile remained, its expression was one of puzzlement―no doubt wondering what Lucy was doing.
Lucy returned her attention to the bone pile and picked out one of the longest. A glance around revealed the next item she needed, a cluster of thin wires hanging from a rip in the machine wall. She grabbed one strand, pulled it tight and used the metal shard to cut off a long length. Five minutes later, the sharp scrap of metal was secured to the end of the bone. Lucy held up the ad-hoc spear and admired her handiwork. She jabbed it in the air around her, as if fighting an invisible monster, and started when Pinky squealed in what seemed delight at the spear. She relaxed a little and smiled at the creature that understood she had made a weapon.
When Lucy approached the creature, Pinky entered the undergrowth and again turned its head after a few steps to make sure she followed. Though Lucy couldn’t shake the feeling she should turn around and seek an alternative route on her own, she entered the mushroom tunnel. When she passed the strange fungi, their tendril tops unfurled and waved in the air, emitting a pleasant, flowery aroma. Lucy was just thinking what a pretty performance it was when hooked barbs sprouted from the tendrils of the nearest one and sprung at her.
Pinky grabbed Lucy’s arm and yanked her away from the tendrils grasp before they made contact. It pointed at the vicious mushrooms and shook its head.
Lucy nodded she understood. She wouldn’t venture too close to the aggressive plants again. Not for the first time, she wondered how anything had managed to survive on the planet the spaceship and crew originated from with so many things intent on killing and eating its inhabitants, and why they had bothered transporting them to a new world. Taking a wide berth past the hostile fungi, Lucy followed Pinky through the tunnel that didn’t seem so magical anymore.
CHAPTER 11
The Offer
JACK GLANCED ADMIRINGLY at Jane’s form stretched out on the sunlounger, roamed his appreciative eyes the length of her bikini-clad body and let out a satisfied sigh. This truly was paradise. “Good book?” he asked.
Jane glanced up from the novel, El Dorado by Ben Hammott. She had purchased it from a local store and had soon become engrossed in the story set in the Amazon jungle about a search for ‘a fabled lost city and a legendary treasure greater than any yet discovered’ as the back cover blurb described it. “Yeah, it’s exciting. You should read it when I’m finished.”
Something distracted Jack. He raised his sunglasses and examined the man dressed in a dark suit gazing around at people on the beach. He sensed an aura of bad news about the man. “He’s a bit overdressed for the beach.”
Jane followed the direction of Jack’s gaze as the man turned towards them. A look of recognition appeared on his thin face and he headed over. “He seems to be looking for us. I wonder what he wants.”
“Nothing good I should think,” said Jack.
“Hello, Miss Harper.” The suited man stopped at the foot of Jane’s sunlounger.
Though his eyes were concealed behind dark glasses, Jane felt them wander over her near-naked body. “Yes. And you are?” She grabbed a thin shawl from the back of the lounger and wrapped it around her.
“Simon Hawthorne. I’ve been requested to contact you by certain interested parties from the American government. The clerk from your hotel said you were on the beach.”
Jack frowned. He had no doubts that ‘certain interested parties’ included the CIA. “What does the American government want with us? We’ve already been debriefed.”
The man glanced at Jack briefly. “Actually, I’ve come to see Miss Harper.” He looked back at Jane. “They need the services of a glaciologist and I’ve been informed you are one of the best, but that’s not the only reason I have been tasked with seeking you out. It is also because you have first-hand knowledge of the ice in question.”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what ice the man alluded to. “The iceberg the spaceship’s trapped in,” assumed Jane.
Hawthorne nodded. “As you are fully aware, it’s now adrift and a salvaging operation is underway to save what they can from the spaceship. However, you won’t be involved with that. What we need you to do, as far as it is feasible to do so, is to determine how long they have before the iceberg deteriorates and the alien vessel is lost.”
Jack humphed. “If you think we’re going back there again, you are very much mistaken, Mr. Hawthorne.”
When the man turned his gaze on Jack, his annoyance was hidden behind his sunglasses but not from his voice. “We have no need of a pilot, Mr. Hawkins, as we have plenty of our own. Your services are not sought or required.” He refocused back on Jane. “Your services are, though, Miss Harper. You will be well paid for your expertise and time and returned here―or anywhere else in the world you wish―when you have finished your assessment.”
Jane stared at the man for a few moments. “As I am sure you are fully aware, Mr. Hawthorne, I have just returned from Antarctica where I, Jack, and the rest of our scientific team suffered a horrendous experience that not all survived. So you can understand my reluctance to return. Sorry, I’m not interested.”
“Believe me, Miss Harper, if I had faced those alien monsters I read about from your colleague’s newspaper story, I wouldn’t want to go back either, but we’re not asking you to go aboard the spaceship, only to examine the ice it’s entombed in. A crack has formed across a wide section and a few large chunks have broken off, which has caused concern as to the iceberg’s stability. NASA scientists and technicians are aboard the craft, as well as American and British engineers and soldiers. Their lives are at risk. This is why they are keen to enlist your help.”