GDA gunship, Ballenhyght Caverns, Dresse
They’d gone around twice, inspecting every corner of the five kilometre-deep cavern. There was plenty of abandoned equipment lying around the walls, but no GDA-issue drones. They were about to give up, when Clunk suddenly pointed at the cavern wall on the left-hand side.
‘That just moved,’ he said.
‘What moved?’ said Bache, following the direction of Clunk’s finger. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘The wall, sort of swayed.’
‘Take the ship back slowly.’
Clunk crept the gunship backwards and this time Bache saw what he meant. A small section of the wall wobbled slightly, probably caused by the back-draught of the antigravs.
‘That section of wall isn’t solid,’ said Bache, standing up. ‘Set us down here—I want to have a look at that.’
The ship clunked down heavily on the solid rock floor, dumping Bache back in his seat again. He threw an exasperated stare in Clunk’s direction.
‘I can see where your moniker came from, still haven’t perfected the landings then?’
‘New ship,’ he replied, with a shrug. ‘I’ll get the hang of it.’
‘Please do that,’ said Bache, standing again. ‘Come on, let’s see what that is,’ he added before disappearing down the stairs.
Clunk shut the motors down and followed. Bache met him in the loading bay. He’d donned a warm marine-issue jacket and a weapon. He handed a jacket to Clunk.
‘It’s freezing out there, so you’ll need that and grab a rifle too.’
Bache bypassed the safeties and opened both airlock doors. They jumped down, lit their rifle lights and moved towards the weird wall. Apart from the ticking of the cooling antigravs, the cavern was silent, cold and very dark.
The cavern wall was only thirty metres away and Bache reached out an arm and pushed it when he arrived. It moved back slightly and something rattled off to the right. He followed the noise with his light and discovered a crudely made latch about two metres away.
‘It’s a door,’ said Clunk, stepping up and lifting the latch.
It opened inwards and he was able to push it back inside a three metre-wide tunnel. They both shone their lights inside. It stretched away into the gloom, further than their lights could penetrate.
‘Perhaps it’s a connecting tunnel to the neighbouring cavern,’ said Clunk.
‘Yeah, could be,’ said Bache. ‘I’ve been thinking—perhaps this isn’t cavern eight. We didn’t start at one and count up, we started at what we presumed to be fourteen and counted back. What if there were more than fourteen caverns?’
Clunk looked at Bache and then down the tunnel.
‘It could be that one down there then?’ he said, emphasising the point by flashing his light down the tunnel again.
‘Or the next, or the next. We really don’t know how many of these things there are do we?’ said Bache, dejectedly.
‘Do we go back out, head south to the first one and then count back eight?’ asked Clunk.
Bache looked back at the gunship and then turned to stare down the tunnel again. Deciding on a course of action, he retrieved the remote activator from his pocket and pointed it at the ship. The airlock closed and sealed, the vessel cloaked and was then completely invisible in the gloom.
‘Come on then,’ he said. ‘Let’s stretch our legs and see where this leads.
‘You said they had other ships besides the fourteen big ones?’ said Clunk, as they walked.
‘Yeah—they have some medium-sized freighters and gunships and so on.’
‘Well, they would’ve been built somewhere too. You could only get one battleship in that cavern and if all these caverns are around the same size, then there must be more.’
A door in the left-side wall appeared out of the shadows. Clunk tried the handle.
‘Locked,’ he said and went to walk on.
‘I have a key,’ said Bache, holding up his rifle.
Changing the setting from stun to full power, he lined it up with the mechanism and gave it the good news. The report of the laser rifle sounded louder than usual in the confined space, as it echoed around the tunnel. It had the desired effect though. The circular hole where the lock had been glowed red as Bache kicked the door. It swung inside and crashed against the internal wall.
Shining their lights inside they immediately took a step back, as dozens of faces stared back at them from behind three high bunk beds, all shielding their eyes with their hands from the brightness of the lights.
‘Fuck the ancients,’ blurted Clunk. ‘Who are these guys?’
‘They’re locals,’ said Bache, recovering quickly from the shock and recognising the facial features and clothing.
‘They’re so skinny,’ Clunk said. ‘How many are there?’
Bache fumbled inside his pockets for his translator and set the language for Guasse.
‘We are GDA—not purrers,’ he said and waited for the translator to do its work.
‘Who are GDA?’ croaked one man, stepping out from the darkness. His clothes were no more than rags and they hung off him as if five sizes too big. His hair was long, grey, matted and framed his gaunt lined features.
‘That’s a long story, but rest assured we are your friends,’ Bache answered. ‘How many of you are there?’
The man watched Clunk nervously checking up and down the corridor with his rifle.
‘You’re not with them?’ he said, a little more confidently this time.
‘Absolutely not,’ said Bache.
‘Two hundred and forty-one in this dormitory.’
‘There are more like this?’
‘Hundreds of dormitories,’ he said. ‘We have to build ships. Ships gone now. Left us here to die.’
‘You’re free now,’ said Clunk, as they both stepped back into the corridor and gestured for them to follow.
The line of human misery traipsed past one by one and turned right, back towards the cavern with the gunship.
‘What’s that way?’ Bache asked, pointing in the other direction as the man who’d spoken approached them.
‘Command cavern,’ he said, stopping in front of them and giving Bache a concerted stare. ‘I’ll come with you as you release the others,’ he added, sternly.
Bache realised that was more a challenge than anything else. He smiled and nodded.
‘What’s your name by the way?’ he asked.
‘Elder Parsic,’ he said, confidently.
‘You’re one of your villages elders?’ said Bache, nodding his head in a respectful bow. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you. Now, if you’ll show me where they are, let’s get the rest of your people out of this prison.’
Parsic nodded at both of them, turned and marched off up the corridor with a surprising gait considering his weakened condition.
Over the next hour they opened and released twenty-four more dormitories. Parsic would enter and explain the situation, before they all traipsed out, or were carried out and went always in the same direction. They were to grab tools from the cavern and the fitter ones carry on through all the caverns and release the other prisoners in that direction.
‘Surely, we must be nearer that cavern now?’ said Clunk, pointing in the opposite direction. ‘Wouldn’t it be quicker to go out through that one now?’
Parsic stopped, his expression darkening.
‘For years, anyone dragged off to the command cavern was never seen again. There were rumours of torture and horrific murders,’ he said. ‘Whether it was true or not, nobody knew, but just the threat of going in this direction was enough.’
‘Is it also known as cavern eight?’ Clunk asked.
Parsic nodded.
‘And the cavern of skulls,’ he said, his eyes dropping to the floor. ‘Both my brothers went there some years ago.’
‘You haven’t seen them since?’
This time he shook his head, before taking a deep breath and looking back up at them.
‘I’m coming with you,’ he said. ‘Someone’s got to cross over and organise releasing everyone in the other caverns.’
‘Are you up to it?’ asked Bache.
‘I have to be,’ he said, turning and marching off again.
Bache and Clunk exchanged a glance and trotted off to catch him up.