“Let’s move on,” Spader said with respect.
I nodded and he steered the hauler away so we could continue our descent into Faar. All the way down I kept the headlight trained in front of us, looking for any danger in our way. We passed by some familiar sights. We saw the pathways we had walked along. We saw the entrance to our escape tunnel and all the smaller entrances that led deep into Faar’s mountain. As of now the crushing water hadn’t done any major damage to the city. The buildings seemed intact and the paths weren’t washed away. This was great news because if some of these big marble buildings had fallen down and piled on top of the hauler hangar, this rescue would be over before it got going.
I had a brief feeling like we were inside one of those snow globes that you shook to create a storm. I wondered how long it would take for erosion to start doing its worst. Eventually the city would turn to sand, but for now it was intact. It was hard to believe that only a short time ago it had been completely dry and busy with people. ”There we go!” announced Spader.
We were nearing the hauler hangar. I was thrilled to see that it looked pretty much the same as when we saw it last. The building hadn’t collapsed under the weight of the water. There was the pile of dome rubble in front of the entrance, but other than that nothing new had fallen down that would stop us from getting through. Now the question was whether the mechanical arm could move the stuff away.
Spader put the hauler down on the same path we had run along just a while ago. We landed so gently that only a small cloud of sand was kicked up.
“Give it a go, mate,” he said.
He meant the mechanical arm. I grabbed the other joystick that was at my right arm and twisted it. The mechanical sound around us proved the arm was activated and working. The long, white tube of an arm had about four joints so it could move in pretty much any direction. On the end was a large, white mechanical hand. It had three fingers and a thumb, like Fred Flintstone. Swiveling the joystick made the arm move easily. It took me all of thirty seconds to figure out how to move it. Finally I discovered that pulling the trigger on the joystick made the hand close shut. I maneuvered the arm out in front of the hauler, brought the hand back, and right in front of Spader, released the trigger so the hand opened wide — and waved at him.
Spader laughed.
“Iguess you’ve got it figured out,” he said.
I was totally ready to begin the excavation.
Spader gently lifted the hauler off the bottom and got us in position over the pile of rubble in front of the hangar entrance.
“Go slow,” he said. “Once you grab on to a piece, I’ll pull us back. I gotta be careful though, I don’t want to start kicking up sand or we’ll be blind down here.”
I rubbed my hands together, grabbed the joystick, and made my first attempt. I reached the long arm out and found a small piece of rubble. This was just a test. I maneuvered the hand over the chunk, squeezed the trigger, and the hand clamped on. I then lifted the piece away and dropped it off to the side.
“That was spiff,” said Spader, as if he expected it to be harder.
“Let’s try something a little bigger,” I said with confidence.
I saw a chunk of coral sticking out of the pile. It looked perfect to grab on to. Spader didn’t even have to move the hauler. I eased the arm over toward it and latched on with no trouble. But as I tried to pull back, there was some serious resistance.
“It’s not moving,” I said.
“Let’s use hauler power,” said Spader.
He started to ease the hauler backward, but the piece still wouldn’t budge. Spader hit the throttle, the engines whined, but still the piece wouldn’t budge.
Spader said, “Maybe you should try a smaller — “
Suddenly the piece broke free, and so did the pile of rubble. It seemed as if half the pile had been leaning against this one little piece and when we pulled it loose, it was like pulling a card out from the bottom of a house of cards. Huge pieces of dome tumbled toward us and hit the bubble of the hauler. The impact knocked us back and we twisted over on our side. Then another piece hit us from the other side and spun us back the other way. Sand was swirling everywhere. It was impossible to see. Then with a jolt, we hit the bottom on our side and two more heavy pieces fell down on us. There was nothing we could do but hold our breath and hope we wouldn’t spring a leak. We finally ended up on our side with a bunch of broken dome all over us.
“Wrong piece,” said Spader.
“Yeah, no kidding.”
We didn’t move for a while and let the sand settle so we could see what the deal was. I was convinced we were now pinned here on the bottom of Faar and was already making plans to put on our air globes and abandon ship, when Spader gently gunned the engine. I was thrilled to see we could move. He slowly backed us away from the pile of rubble and let it fall down in front of us. We were completely free now, so Spader righted us and we were hovering once again.
“Let’s pick our pieces a bit more scientifically this time, right?” Spader said.
I gave him a sideways “give me a break” look, then started scanning the pile of rubble to choose my next victim. After what had just happened, it was obvious that this wasn’t going to be a quick task. We were going to have to start at the top and only move pieces that were completely clear. We couldn’t afford to have another collapse. This was going to be like playing a game of Jenga… a reallydangerousgame of Jenga.
So we went about the painstaking task of moving the pile. Of course the little pieces were easy. The bigger pieces took a lot more power. One good thing was that because we were underwater, they were a lot lighter than they would have been on land. Many of these pieces were wide, thick chunks of material that withstood centuries of pressure. We pulled off a few pieces that were bigger than a car. I was afraid those pieces would be too much for the hauler, but the little vehicle proved time and again that it was up to the task.
I don’t know how long we were digging. It could have been hours. I tried to focus on the job and not think about the worst, which was that we were too late for Uncle Press and the Faarians.
Finally, with one final tug from the hauler, we pulled over a huge chunk of dome and revealed the doorway to the hangar.
“Yeah!” I shouted.
“Hobey!” added Spader.
It was unbelievable that we had gotten this far. But our victory celebration was short-lived because almost immediately our thoughts went on to the next step. We had no idea what we were going to find beyond that door.
“Uh-oh,” said Spader ominously.
I hated “uh-oh.” Nothing good ever happened after “uh-oh.”
He pointed to a gash that was cut in the wall that must have been made by a falling piece of dome. The gash was so big, it went right through the wall. That meant that as soon as the rising water got high enough, it would have flooded the hangar. We could only hope that the Faarians had their swim-skins, and that they could buddy-breathe with Uncle Press. If not, the hauler hangar was now a tomb.
Spader gently touched the throttle and the hauler eased closer to the door. I shone the headlight on it so we could see exactly what we had to deal with. The door itself was bent. I hoped that didn’t mean it was jammed or anything.
I reached for the joystick of the mechanical arm and was about to go after the door handle, when something caught my eye. It was a flicker of movement. I quickly looked to see that it had come from the gash in the wall. Something was moving in there! ”Don’t stop now,” said Spader with excitement. He’d seen it too.