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THEY STOOD IN FRONT of the massive fan, a respectful distance away, pondering.
“Without stating the obvious,” Padg said, “if it’s just a fan, can’t we stick something in it to stop it going around?”
“How many sword-spears have we got left? I’ve got one,” Dun said.
“Two here,” Padg said. “Worth a try then.”
“Sounds extremely dangerous to me,” Myrch said.
“Got a better plan?” Padg said.
“At the moment, no.”
“Well, then,” Padg said.
“At least put a rope around him,” Myrch said. “Maybe we can reduce disaster, if not prevent it.”
So they tied some of their remaining rope around Padg’s waist and paid it out as he advanced slowly toward the corridor and the high-pitched noise, proffering his sword-spear, point end first, holding firm to the butt end. He edged farther.
With a loud ‘whang’ noise the sword-spear was ripped out of his hands, his shoulders nearly ripped out of their sockets, and Tali, Dun, and Myrch grabbed the rope for all they were worth and pulled. Padg wound up ingloriously on his behind in the thin trickle of water. It was enough to wet him through. Oddly he found it pleasantly distracting from the pain in his shoulder. He hoped it was only a pull and not a fracture. He could still move it, so that was a start.
“Maybe we could get around it?” Tali said.
“You first,” Padg said.
“No seriously, hear me out. The passage is square here, right?”
“Seems to be,” Dun said.
“Well,” she went on, “a fan goes around.”
“...a fan goes around?...” Padg said.
“Shush!” she said. “A fan goes around, and therefore it is round.”
“O..kayy...”
“So there’s...”
Dun finished for her, “A gap in the corners! Clever.”
“Here,” she said, unshouldering what was left of her pack. “Let me have a go. Pass me your spear, Dun.”
“Careful!” Padg said.
“I’ve got no intention of doing what you’ve just done. Trust me.”
“I do.”
“Good.”
She shed other extraneous things that might stick out, her belt and the scabbard with her knife then advanced slowly. Slowly, she lay down, feet toward the fan and wriggled toward it caterpillar style. She couldn’t hear the boys over the thin whine the fan made and the whish of the air that she could now feel when this close. Why she wondered, could they not feel it before? This thing was powerful. Why did it make so little noise and have so little air-sense signature? She started to feel the air on her toes; she must be under the fan edges. It didn’t really feel like a breeze, more like a constant push on one side of her. Luckily, away from the whirling blades. She stopped heart pounding.
“You okay?” Dun shouted.
“Yeah, I think there’ll be enough room for me.”
“Good,” Myrch said. Tali continued shuffling.
“It does raise the question,” Padg said, “of how we get the rest of us through. Since Tali’s the skinniest of us all.”
“Let’s cross one bridge at a time,” Myrch said.
Tali groaned.
“What’s up?” Padg said.
“Cramp,” Tali said.
“Oh good,” Padg said. “Well, not good, but, you know...”
“Padg?” Tali said.
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
He did. The shuffling recommenced. Tali got her legs through and slowly edged her way farther. The air was pushing her flat into the corner of the corridor. It would be quite comforting, she thought, like being cuddled, if it wasn’t being cuddled by huge sharp whirling fan blades of death. She felt that she’d progressed far enough under the fan to risk raising her knees, the better to give her purchase. She did and then her face was under. It was the most horrible feeling: air pushing flat onto her face, forcing its way into her mouth. She needed to breathe and couldn’t. She also needed to stop, the cramp was back, knifing her legs and her diaphragm. She knew that she couldn’t stay under there for much longer, the not breathing not helping with that. She clamped down those unhelpful thoughts and clenched everything for another pull. There was a massive blast of air across her head, pulling her hair by the roots, and then she was out.
“Through!” she gasped. “I don’t think we’re going to get any more of you through there though.”
“No, we were thinking that,” Dun shouted back. “Stay put and we’ll think.”
“Not going anywhere for a few clicks.” She panted. “While I get my breath back.”
“Now what?” Dun said.
“First, grab the end of that rope and tie a knot in it. Then use a spear butt to push it through to her,” Myrch said.
“Okay, I get it,” Dun said. Then he said to Tali, “Hey, Tali! We’re going to poke you this end of the rope through, and then we can tie your stuff on and you can pull it through.”
“That’s good, but how do I get you lot through,” she said.
“Let’s get your gear to you first,” Myrch said, “Then I’ll talk you through it.”
Gear duly transferred; Tali felt marginally more secure alone on the far side of the fan.
“Right,” Myrch said. “There’ll be some kind of a panel to make this thing work somewhere. Check along the walls on both sides; it’ll probably be at about your head height.”
“What am I trying to find?” she said.
“Some kind of box, or a place where the wall where there’s a panel screwed in?”
“Err... hold on. Let me check...” She scuttled off for seemingly an age. It became too much effort for Dun to strain to hear her running her hands over the walls on the other side of the fan noise, so he stopped trying.
“How far should I go?”
“Not more than ten strides or so, it won’t be farther away than that,” Myrch said.
“There’s another passage off here about nine to ten strides from you.”
“Don’t go farther than that then,” he said.
“Hmm... no... no... and no... oh... mmm... wait, I think there’s something here. Ever so slightly warmer than the rest of the wall. So smooth though, I nearly missed it.”
“Will it..?”
“Push? Yes,” Tali said. There was a satisfying ‘click’ from Tali’s side of the fan, and instantly the tension around them died with the high-pitched whine.
“Thank the gods for that,” Dun said.
“That noise was starting to drive me crazy,” Padg said.
The fan began to make all kinds of interesting noises as it very slowly lost momentum. It took a lot longer than all of them expected to finally come to a stop.
“Wow. Feel the edge on these blades, Dun,” Padg said, awed.
Dun ran his fingers along the edges of the fan blades, carefully at first for fear of them being sharp. They weren’t. Instead, they felt for all the world like fabric. Hard as steel, thin as paper, soft as fabric.
“Amazing,” he said in the same hushed tones as Padg.
“Now we’ve all finished admiring the handiwork, where’s that panel?” Myrch said.
“Sorry, I’m over here,” Tali said, “also admiring the handiwork.”
“Are we all on this side, all kit, and chattels?” Myrch asked.
“Yeah, I brought the last of the bags through,” Dun said.
“Okay good. Stand clear down by that side passage, I’m not sure how strong this will be on this side,” Myrch said.
“It’s not too bad,” Tali said. “Strong, but not enough to push anyone over.”
“Good,” Myrch said.
The sharp click again, then, immediately the whine and a slow whirring sound built speed gradually.
“Shall we?” Myrch had to shout. “The side passage, I think.”
––––––––
“If I was a betting man I’d say they developed from some kind of species the first colonists brought as pets, or protein.”
Excerpts from <Distress Beacon SN-1853001>. Found by E.S.V. Vixen Terradate: 26102225.
