CHAPTER FIFTY
Mike was thrown back. His aura kept him free of debris. Karsh was not so lucky. He was thrown fifty feet outside and landed in a drift of snow.
Mike rushed to him. Karsh was breathing. Joe and Hok hurried to the two men in the cave. Krim stood and gaped.
They got everybody inside. Hok went back and retrieved Kench and his wounded charge.
Assured that all the others were alive and inside out of the elements, Mike, Joe, Krim, Hok, and Kench turned to face the results of the explosion.
They stared.
There was a new, great, gaping hole in the mountain that Mike’s aura and the lightning had created.
Mike said, “That wasn’t there when we got here.”
“No,” Joe said. “You just did that.”
“Not deliberately. I didn’t ‘call’ the lightning down. I don’t know how to conjure a thunderstorm or conjure with one. I was protecting myself and keeping my shot to a minimum to stop him, not hurt him. The lightning showed up and there was this titanic kaflooey.”
They looked some more.
Joe said, “And half the mountain went that way.” He pointed out and to the left where the valley was no longer quite as valleyish. Much of it was filled with the debris from the great, gaping hole in the mountain Mike had just created.
They edged over to the new entrance. Mike pointed into the emptiness. He asked, “How far does this thing extend?”
Joe said, “Remember ages ago on Earth when I said your power would extend as far as your ability and your imagination wanted? Maybe the moon, maybe through the solar system?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, turns out that’s kind of true. That thing Vov created is very powerful. It has a lot to do with energy that combines with it. The implant sort of mirrors it back. In this case you directed it, not back at the cloud. You were already aiming forward.”
They checked the men on the floor. Karsh was moaning and complaining incoherently. Joe ran the medical thing over the injured including Karsh. Their bodies seemed to relax and fall into a restful sleep. The rescuers made sure their semi-space suits were keeping the injured warm.
Joe, Mike, Krim, Hok, and Kench returned to the entrance on the newly hollowed out cave.
“Is it safe to walk into?” Mike asked. “Is this whole thing going to collapse because I did that?”
Joe examined it as did Hok. They touched the wall, ceiling, and floor. Hok said, “I’m not an expert at this, but I think two things happened. You hit a seam that was safe to dig through. That’s probably why one of the earlier expeditions started working here. But there’s something else. Feel the walls and ceiling.”
The others did. It was smooth and slightly warm.
Joe said, “You know how we have usually have to polish and smooth, at least a little bit with every dig, and use the anti-gravity vacuum cleaners. Well, you did all of that. The walls, ceiling, and floor are sealed better than any digger could do it.”
Mike said, “When you used the lightning on Earth, you knew what you were doing.”
“And you’ve learned a lot.” Joe pointed to the new-born cave. “You’ve got power.”
Mike said, “The valley outside pretty much disappeared.”
“I suspect it would help to have a conversation with Snek when we get back. He can probably explain it better than I can, but as far as I can tell, the easiest way for it all to go was back out the way in which it came. Remember it didn’t go directly back at you. As the lightning flashed toward you, your aura responded automatically. It was around you and protecting you and us. The debris couldn’t go toward us. It had to go somewhere. It wasn’t like an explosion of dynamite. It was more like a rope yanked out of a substance. The lightning was like a rope. Karsh must have been within your field of safety at least somewhat.”
“You know that or you’re guessing?”
“Maybe we’ll find you a scientist of your very own to carry around.”
Mike said, “That sounds kind of sarcastic.”
Krim said, “Is this how you guys fight?”
Mike and Joe smiled. Mike said, “I’ve been inundating him with questions since the first hour we met, and it hasn’t stopped yet. I try to control myself.”
Joe said, “I try to be patient, but we love each other and we work it out.”
Hok muttered, “Aliens.”
For the millionth time Mike was reminded that he wasn’t from here. And I don’t want to be, he thought. His mind rebelled for the zillionth time, but he kept his mouth shut. They were kind of right, and he thought Hok might have been trying to be funny.
Karsh leapt up and ran toward them, swerved at the last second, and rushed off down the newly dug tunnel. He screamed as he ran.
Joe said, “What the fuck?”
They listened to Karsh’s mad bellowing as it echoed back at them then faded.
Hok snorted. “Let him go.”
“We don’t know how far the tunnel goes,” Joe said. “It most likely comes to an abrupt end. He has no food, no supplies. Death by running away?”
For now they let him go and turned to the injured. Krim was glad to rest with his back against the cave.
Mike sank to his knees.
“You okay?” Joe asked.
“The adrenaline rush has worn off. I’ve never been this tired.”
“It’s all the climbing mixed with the expenditure of energy. You channeled lightning. Remember I needed to get serious medical attention after the battle with Vov. You, my dear, came out of this far better than I. That little device continues to be as magical as a Harry Potter spell, but with, I think, maybe, way more power.”
After Mike rested, he and Joe went to examine what he’d done. Mike placed the tip of his finger against the newly carved wall.
They left Kench with the wounded. Mike, Joe, Krim, and Hok hiked after Karsh down the newly dug shaft.
Mike said, “I still want to know if I can bend steel in my bare hands.”
Hok said, “Huh?”
Mike said, “Skip it.”
They trudged down the tunnel Mike’s power had carved. The vision flashed in his mind of Alice chasing the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole in the animated Disney film version of Alice in Wonderland from the fifties. That film was still his favorite version of the old tale.
They used their communicators to create light.
“Why are the walls glowing?” Mike asked.
“Some element or another,” Joe said. “Another thing to ask Snek when we get back. He’ll have a scientific explanation of some kind.”
“You hope.”
Joe said, “Well, you aren’t going to get one from any of us.”
“I knew that,” Mike said. Besides all his other exertions and muscle strains, his insides felt jelly-like.
They were out of the elements. They were out of their suits. It felt as if they were walking down a tunnel in the prison colony far below. Mike was surprised that it felt so normal. It was an easy slope down so the going wasn’t bad. At least they weren’t outside in vile elements. Here there was no storm, and a wind that gave only the most gentle puff.
Mike asked, “How can there even be the slightest breeze?”
“We’ll have to ask a scientist.”
“Why aren’t the walls glowing hot?”
“Beats the hell out of me.”
“Once again this alien, and I qualify here because I’m the one zillions of light years away from his planet, is disappointed in the lack of instant knowledge.”
“We can try looking it up in the databanks on our communicators. On Earth what would we Google? Titanic, electrical based explosions, tunnel making?”
Mike said, “I bet we wouldn’t get much.”
After fifteen minutes, Mike said, “We’ve been walking around fifteen minutes. A mile or so into the mountain.”
“You are one powerful human.”
“I wonder if I could leap tall buildings in a single bound.”
“Why would you want to?”
“Just another alien issue.” After a few moments of silence Mike said, “Maybe some of this was here before. Are we maybe in old tunnels or natural caves? Maybe my power just expanded what was here.”
Joe said, “What we know now is tunneling, at least with you and thunderstorms, will be ever so much easier.”
“If it doesn’t kill me.”
“I’m never going to let that happen.”
Mike smiled at him. He said, “I could attack a mountain, but I don’t see the point.” He touched the wall. “I vaporized a lot of it.”
Joe said, “A sort of mushroom cloud rose over the valley.”
“Wasn’t it superheated? Why didn’t it kill us?”
Joe said, “Same answer as before. You’ve got your aura. If there was vegetation, it would all be dead. But there wasn’t, so it isn’t. You just dug a couple miles into the mountain.” Joe looked ahead. “Hell, maybe more than a couple miles.”
“It almost killed me.”
“Your power can make us free.”
“It can dig a ditch. Good for me.”
Hok touched the side of the tunnel. “It seems safe, solid.”
Joe said, “Like the rest of these damn mountains, it’s solid granite. It’s not going to collapse on us.”
They heard Karsh’s screeches long before they saw him. Joe asked, “Does this guy have any button other than freak out and hysteria? Doesn’t this guy ever give up?”
Mike said, “Apparently not.”
Hok said, “He was like that with all of us in the colony when you weren’t around.”
“Why didn’t someone say something?”
“We figured he was just another asshole boss and probably speaking for you. That’s how he acted.”
Joe said, “Lying asshole.”
Mike listened to the screeches for a moment then said, “That sounds like pain not anger. Or at least not just anger.”
“He managed to hurt himself?” Joe asked.
Mike said, “We’ll find out soon enough.”