As he went down—so did the ceiling. The supporting pillars must have been pistons as well. Before we could escape out of the way the entire thing, stone ceiling, roof and lintels and all, crushed us like beetles.
Or it would have crushed us like beetles if we hadn't been wearing our battle suits. As the weight of stone struck the nanomolecules in the fabric locked and the suits became as rigid as steel.
Steel coffins. "Can anyone move?" I shouted. My only answer was grunts and groans. Was this the end? Crushed under a power—operated temple in Heaven. Waiting for our air to run out. One hundred hours—and then asphyxiation.
"No… way!" I muttered angrily. My hands were at my sides. All the pressure was on my chest which stayed as hard as nanosteel. But there was no weight on my hand and I could wiggle my fingers. Move them, feeling along my belt in the darkness. Plucking out a percussion grenade by feel. Pushing it into the rubble of broken stone, as far out as I could reach. Taking as deep a breath as I could. Triggering it.
Flame and a great explosion of sound. Smoke and dust of course—that settled and blew away to disclose a crater in the stone. With sunlight filtering in.
A few more grenades did the job. I stumbled to my feet, staggering as another explosion rocked the ruin of the temple, and Angelina emerged from the cloud of smoke. We embraced, then blasted free the others.
"Could we please not do that again," Sybil said, more than a little shaken by the experience.
"An act of desperation on his part," I told her. "Trying to pick us off before we closed in on them. It didn't work—and now we take the fight to them."
"How?" Angelina asked, ever practical.
"This way," I said, leading them back down the steps. "That first pit we fell into in the road was just that. A pitfall pit for killing people~ But this pit leads to the underworld where his entire operation is taking place."
As I said that, I flipped another grenade towards the place on the—road where I and the robot had dropped through. It blew up nicely and opened a hole into the deep chasm below.
"I'll lead since I've been this way before."
We powered up our gravchutes and leaped into the jagged opening. Floated down slowly instead of dropping as I had the first time. The jagged stone walls moved past at a leisurely pace, lit by the ruddy glow from below. Then the bleak, black landscape with its sporadic gouts of flame came into view. The table—like structures were still there, barely revealed by the ruddy light. But there was a difference—the women were gone. We soon discovered why. They were all grouped together before the buildings. My troops landed and spread out, weapons ready. "Don't shoot!" Angelina called out. "Those women, they're the victims, the workers here." As we warily came closer we could hear a low moaning, and the familiar coughing. It was pretty obvious why. They were tied together, ten or twenty in a bunch, bound with ropes. "Safety is here!" I called out. "We've come to free you." "Oh no you're not," Slakey said in chorus. Behind each group of women was a Slakey with a gun. They all spoke at the same time because of course they were all the same person. "Leave or we kill them," he/they chorused as each of them raised his gun and aimed it at the captive victims. It was stalemate. "You can't get away with this," I said, playing for time, wondering what I could do to save them. "Yes I can;" the massed voices said. "I will count to three. If you have not gone by then, one in every group will die. You will have killed them. Then another and another. One… two…" "Stop," I called Out. "We're going." But we didn't—the women did. The coughing and moaning wads replaced by silence and a whooshing sound as they popped out of existence. I had a moment of dreadful fear that they were gone, dead—until I saw the shocked expression on every Slakey's face. Professor Coypu—of course! He had been watching and had snatched them out of Heaven to the safety of Prime Base. I raised my gun and shot the nearest Slakey, ran towards his inert body. Everyone else was shooting now and a blast of fire rocked me back. I stumbled, ran on, grabbed for the Slakey I had shot. Grabbed empty air as he vanished. The firing was dying down, stopped, as the Slakeys disappeared one by one. Angelina reholstered her gun and came over to me, patted my arm. "I saw that you killed one. Congratulations." "Premature. I used my paralysis pistol since I wanted to talk to him." "What next?" "A very good question. There is no point in going to the coal mines right now because that's just the place that supplies the raw ingredient. The same goes for the cyclotron chamber because we know that the unnildecnovum is made there, but brought here for separation from the coal dust." "Then we find where it is taken." "Of course—and it can't be far." I turned to Berkk. "You heard Slakey order the now extinct robot to bring it somewhere?" "That's right." I turned and pointed past the rows of empty tables. "That way, it has to be that way. The opposite direction from the cyclotron, Let's go look." We went. Warily. Knowing that we were getting close to the end of our quest and that Slakey would not like this in anyway. He didn't. "Take cover!" I shouted as I dived. I had only a quick glimpse of the weapon as it floated into position in front of us, a large field gun of some kind. It fired and the shell exploded close by. The ground rose and slammed into me; chunks of shrapnel and shattered rock rained down. This was not good at all—even Coypu's battle suits could not protect a body from a direct hit. It fired again—then vanished. "Got it," Coypu's voice spoke in my radio earpiece. "A remote controlled siege gun. I dropped it into a volcano in Helifrom a great height. Are there any more?" "Not that I can see. But—thanks for the quick action." We advanced, past the spot where the gun had appeared, and on towards a solid metal fortress—like structure. I didn't like the look of it—liked it even less when ports flipped open and rapid—firing weapons appeared. Firing rapidly. "Professor Coypu!" I shouted as slugs struck all around us, and into us, knocking us down and rolling us over.
The professor rose to the occasion. An armored gun carrier appeared between us and the building, firing even as it thudded to the ground. The weapon traversed and the weapon positions were obliterated one by one. With the defense silenced the gun traversed once more and blew away the, front entrance to the building. A hatch, opened as I passed the machine and Captain Grissle of the Space Marines poked his head out.
"I'll cover you when you go in. Just shout and point."
"Right—and thanks." I pumped my right fist in the air, then pointed forward. "Charge!"
We did. Right up to the front of the building, beside the gaping hole where the door used to be.
"Grissle—can you hear me?" "Loud and clear."
"Put a couple of rounds in there before we go in." "No problem."
A couple proved to be more than a hundred; he must have had plenty of ammo. Flame and smoke exploded inside the building. Sounding farther and farther away as the interior was demolished. The firing stopped. Then a last large—caliber shell whistled by—the resultant explosion was so distant it sounded like a mere crump. "Holed through to the other side."
"Cease fire then—we're going in."
Whatever defenses and traps that would have been awaiting us were gone now. Flame and destruction had blasted any obstruction aside. We felt our way through the debris in the darkness. Which began to lift as the smoke cleared. Light poured in from a ragged opening in the wall ahead. Weapons at the ready, we crept forward, looked out.
"Now isn't that—nice?" Angelina said. "It looks like we have finally reached the end of the trail."
Chapter 28
We were looking out on the pleasant valley of Heaven. Blue sky above, green grass below. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves on the ornamental trees and brought sweet perfumes to our noses. Set into the valley floor were white marquees, small buildings with tiled roofs half concealed by flower—filled gardens. Paths twined through the landscape, past fountains and statuary. All of this surrounded the most unusual object I had seen in my unusual life. A matte—black sphere at least ten meters high. Smooth and unmarked in any way; a giant eight ball without the eight, a Brobdingnagian bowling ball without finger holes. We stood and gaped.