What could he be looking for?
"Why do they send someone up that space gantry every other hour?" Kyx started up again. "I'll tell you why: because they think it puts them closer to God. I guess spinning around in low orbit isn't enough. They have to have a man up there at all times, braving the elements. I guarantee you that man is praying as hard as he can. And if they all pray hard enough, God will send them an army of angels to get them out of this fix."
Finally, one of the other officers piped up.
"Maybe they are considering revitalizing the structure," he said.
Kyx let out a guffaw. "Revitalizing it!" he laughed. "In God's name what for?"
"Maybe to use it again for the reason it was intended," the officer shot back. 'To land more spaceships. Or to repair an old one, or perhaps even build a new one."
Now another junior officer joined the discussion. "My theory all along is that they are a pirating crew in disguise, and all this odd behavior and questions about the Home Planets is just to distract us. I'll wager that they're establishing a base here from which to launch their own operations. And as it will be at least ten years before any of our superiors even know something has gone wrong, we are simply the losing pawns in their game."
Kyx laughed again. It was that cruel laugh of fake superiority he did so well.
"Lieutenant!" he roared. "We are at the end of the Two Arm. There is no one out here to rape, no place out here to pillage or burn. There is no one out here to steal from. What space pirate in his right mind would set up a base out here?"
The junior officer lowered his head, properly admonished. The others did, too. Kyx was right, a painful admission for all three.
The commander turned back to the scene beyond the window, grabbing the bars as if he had enough strength to bend them.
"And besides, they don't have nearly enough men to actually build a ship or even repair one," he went on in a loud voice. He shook his head in a very self-satisfied manner.
"They might have big plans," he said, "but there is no way they can accomplish them. They lack manpower, and that means, eventually, they will lack willpower, too…. We all know it's a big Galaxy out there. Forty thousand troops can get swallowed up pretty quickly."
The three junior officers went back to their game of dice.
They really hated it when Kyx was right.
At that moment, the floor of their cell began shaking. All four men froze. One of the junior officers was in the process of throwing the dice when the rumbling began. They all looked at each other. This was not the heart-stopping roar they'd heard in the opening moments of the attack earlier in the long day. Still, it unnerved them.
"What the hell was that?" Kyx exclaimed.
The cell shook again. "Maybe this dirty little place is finally doing itself in," one officer said, throwing the dice again.
His companions just scoffed.
"How many times do I have to tell you," one said, as they all felt the floor of the cell shake once again. "We will never be that lucky."
"It seems to be coming from the mountains," Kyx noted, straining to see around the corner of the command cluster to the six mountains beyond. "Why would they be blowing holes out there?"
None of his officers cared to reply. It was just one more odd thing the invaders seemed prone to do. The officers just went back to their game of chance.
"Well, I for one am glad I am not walking among them," Kyx went on again. "I'm glad I'm in jail. I hear that cult stuff can wear off on you. Just being around these types can make you stupid and prompt you into doing stupid things over and over and over again. And who needs that?"
Again, none of his officers replied. They'd tuned him out completely now. The floor of the cell rumbled again. Overhead, two more of the invaders' spaceships came into view.
Kyx sighed and unconsciously thrust his hand deep into his uniform's pocket. He hoped that miraculously the Twenty 'n Six holding his precious mind ring would be there.
But there would be no miracles this night.
At least not inside the tiny jail.
Erx and Berx put their hands over their ears and nodded to the UPF officer standing next to them.
The officer in turn gave a signal to a sergeant kneeling on the ground nearby. He was hovering over a small sonic-gun radio set. The weapon itself was set up about twenty feet away, its four legs sunk deeply into some recently melted rock.
"Let it rip!" the officer told the sergeant.
The man immediately pushed a button on the radio set. The gun ripped a sonic current through the air; it hit the side of the mountain about one thousand yards away not a second later. A huge explosion resulted as several tons of rocks and dirt were blasted to dust. The UPF officer then scanned the blast site with his viz scope.
"Nothing…" he reported.
Erx rolled his eyes and handed Berx a wine flask. Berx drank heartily.
"Let's try it again," Erx told the UPF officer.
Another blast, but with the same result. An explosion of dirt and rocks, another section of the mountain disappearing in a swirl of yellowish dust. But that was all.
"Still nothing…" the officer reported.
"Try it again," Erx told him.
The rugged terrain east of the BMK base looked natural. Lots of rocks, lots of craters. The six small mountains meshed very well on this world's uneven terrain. At that moment, it really did seem unlikely they were anything but.
The officer looked to Erx and Berx again. They reapplied their hands to their ears, and another sonic explosion went off. More yellow dirt, more craggy rocks. Another hole blasted in the side of the low cliff. But still, the place looked like a mountain.
They had been at this for more than an hour now, with absolutely no results. The long, chilly night was closing in.
"I fear that I am coming to the mind that everything inside that mind ring was skewed," Erx suddenly said to Berx. "And brother Hawk just imagined it all."
Berx breathed in deep the gathering gloom. "That would be a shame for him," he said softly.
Another explosion. More dirt, more rocks. Nothing more.
This was not good, and they both knew it. It wasn't just the fact that nearly everything Hunter claimed stood here in year 3237 was long gone. With the exception of the gantries and the command cluster, there was little evidence of anything else ever being here at all. The huge processing station. The remains of the huge military base. The bustling metropolis. The UPF had sent down nearly a thousand of its soldiers to scour the area for signs of any of these things. Besides a very wide road in front of the Last Drop saloon, no evidence of any of it had been found.
So this was the last gasp. If nothing could be unlocked inside these mountains, then everything Hunter had seen during the mind trip would have to fall into question.
Another explosion. Nothing…
"It's just the way this whole trip has gone," Erx said now. "We certainly came here with high hopes, and true, the rings were here. They just weren't any good. Then our brother nearly loses his life inside that insane mind trip—
and it's looking as if the overused program filled his head with visions that just weren't true."
Berx nodded in slow agreement.
"Brother Hunter will need some time to get over this one," he replied. "His quest. His dream."
Another blast. More dirt, but nothing more.
"If he asks my counsel, I plan to make many suggestions to him," Erx said. "But in reality, I hope to talk him into returning to the Home Planets, at least long enough for us to petition Princess Xara on the situation."