Michael felt the ice beneath him give way, and reached out, screaming as he did so. The ice fell, the last of the crabs chasing them going with it. He felt himself suddenly suspended in the air, a moment of pure vertigo. Then something clasped his outstretched arm, pulling him back to reality. It was Aileena. She had dived onto the ground, clasping her arm around his. She was laying against the edge of the ice, strain written across her face as she gripped as tightly as she could.
“Come on, I’m not travelling across the galaxy to get you, only to have you die by tripping over your own feet.”
“But being shot at pirates or getting killed in a gladiator pit was fine?” Michael regretted the words as he said them, fear working its way out as sarcasm. “Pull me up!”
“Rhythm help me I will let you drop if you don’t shut up for once. Stop wriggling.” Aileena tried to pull, grunting with the effort. “Brekt give me a hand.”
The well-built mercenary appeared over the edge, reaching out with his own arm. “Got yourself in a bit of a muddle here?”
“Less griping more pulling please.” Michael felt Brekt’s arm grab on. His eyes were cast downwards towards the pit beneath. In the shadows below there were tall objects. Michael was sure they were buildings. “Hey, don’t pull me up yet.”
“Are you crazy!” Aileena’s scream echoed through the chasm below. “You want to die?”
“No of course not. There’s like, buildings down here. I think this whole ice sheet is over a city.”
“What, that’s…” Aileena peered, her six eyes narrowing. “No, you’re right, I can see them too. We’re pulling you up.”
“We should examine this!”
“And we will, once we pull you up. Me and Brekt can take a look without dangling over a deadly drop!”
“Fair point.” Michael felt a tugging on his arm, his shoulder screaming in pain as he was dragged over the edge of the ice. He collapsed into the snow, his arm and shoulder throbbing.
“You’re right, it is a city.” Aileena was on her stomach, hanging out as far over the precipice as she dared. Brekt was kneeling behind her, his hands on her ankles, acting as additional support. “A pretty big one from what I can tell. It stretches out under this whole ice sheet.”
“Think they can help us?” Michael said. “Whoever lives there?”
“Not unless they’re a race of talking skeletons. The people who lived here are long dead. And a long time it looks like.”
“Right, because nothing is that easy for us is it. So, we keep going to that tower then?” Michael gazed off towards the mountains. The star that gave life to the solar system was disappearing behind them, casting everything in an orange glow. “Looks like the sun’s going down.”
“It’s likely to grow a lot colder if that’s the case, Keeper.” Mellok had simply sat down on the ice during Michael’s brush with a fatal fall. He was running his hands through the snow as if it were sand on a beach. “Too cold even for me perhaps.”
Aileena stood up, brushing off the layer of white that had built up on her coat. Vibrant pink shone through with every stroke of her hand. She stretched out her arms, they ached from bracing herself against the edge. “Mellok’s right. We can’t stay out here if it gets dark. We won’t last long.”
“Sounds fun. Pick the destination at random huh? I’m never wrong, right? Not working out so much now is it, Brekt?” Michael crossed his arms, his jacket squeaking as he did.
“We had to pick it somehow, there weren’t any good options. We could have hung around in Ossiark if you really wanted? Wait for the pirates to pay attention to us, rather than the Substrate dreadnought on their doorstep?” Brekt raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “This is better than going back into that arena or finding ourselves in Substrate slave collars.”
“I have no idea what a Substrate is, or why they have slave collars, but I’ll be honest, Earth doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Life out in the galaxy has been fucking awful so far and I’ve only been off-world a few days.”
“Be quiet,” Aileena snapped.
“No, I won’t. I like to talk Aileena, it’s a response, a reaction to stress, or hadn’t you noticed. I’m sure I would have mentioned it at some point. And this has been a very stressful few days for me, starting from when you kidnapped me, remember?”
“No, you idiot, I mean something is coming.” Aileena pointed towards the mountains, to a black speck silhouetted against the setting sun.
The object grew bigger as it approached, its shape becoming clear. It was a long oval, a large lump stuck on its bottom. At the rear was a set of brass propellers, spinning happily. It was heading towards them, slowly losing altitude as it approached.
“What is that?” Aileena said. “Some kind of vehicle?”
“It’s a blimp,” Michael said. “You’ve never seen one?”
“Can’t say I have. It’s very… slow for an aircraft.”
“It’s full of hydrogen. Or Helium. One of the two. It’s basically a big balloon. More of a flying boat than anything. You see them a lot at sports matches.”
“Why?”
“You know,” Michael said, “I have no idea. You’ve really never seen one?”
“Can’t say I see the point in it when a good anti-gravity drive would do. Though I suppose whatever is stopping our tech would stop that as well.” She squinted her outer eyes, trying to take in the slowly drifting blimp. “It’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be dangerous with all the hydrogen?”
“Oh yeah, one exploded at home. It’s very famous. I think we switched to the helium ones after that.”
Mellok coughed. “Isn’t helium a bit too precious to use in balloons though? I don’t know about you, but our medical scanners use it a lot.”
“Yeah, blimps were just a bad idea all around really. That said I’m glad to see one now.”
“You’re assuming they’re friendly,” Brekt said. His voice had no joking tone, no hint of sarcasm, he was simply stating a fact.
“Look, so far I’ve met surly mercenaries, angry pirates, uptight military pricks and whatever Mellok is. Some kind of monk? I figure the galaxy owes me this one.”
Chapter Nineteen
The blimp came to a stop overhead, listing thirty feet or so above them. By the time it had reached them night had fallen completely. Michael’s lips had turned a shade of blue, his hands tucked deep into his pockets to try and ward off the freezing air. Even Mellok was struggling, a slight shaking starting to take over the bird.
There was a creak, the tell-tale squeal of metal on metal as a series of doors swung open on the cabin beneath the blimp, ropes spilling outwards towards the ground. Quickly, and with surprising grace figures leapt through the doors, clasping the ropes in one hand, sliding to the ground in a single controlled motion.
They were humanoid, wrapped tightly in black cloth. The only sign that they weren’t human was the large bushy tail each had, not unlike a squirrel. They had all hit the ice at the same time, landing silently and forming a circle around Michael and his friends. In their gloved hands, each carried a strange weapon, two metal spikes attached to a rod. To Michael, it looked like a crude pickaxe. The figures stood there silently, waiting.
Above them, another member of their party was making their way down from the blimp. They descended differently, carried down in a sling, lowering gently and slowly towards the ground. The armed black-clad crowd split aside, one of their number helping the new arrival from the sling.