CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Finally, Mike asked, “How do you know that’s what it is?”

“Look at it,” Karsh commanded.

Mike did so. Up close it was no longer like the northern lights, but had an interior like a star sapphire catching the sun at high noon with sparkling shards running through it.

Karsh said, “That’s what liquid zukoh looks like in its pure state.”

“What good is all that going to do us?” Mike asked.

Joe shrugged.

“Why is it glowing?” Mike asked.

Karsh said, “It’s glowing because it’s reacting with your stupid aura.”

“Is it going to explode?” Mike asked.

Joe said, “Not as far as I can tell. It needs a trigger. As long as your implant and your communicator aren’t triggers. And nothing has happened so far. I think if your aura was going to set it off, that would have happened, and we’d all have been sent to oblivion. And if you were blown into the sky a hundred miles, I think even your aura would have trouble saving you from the impact of the landing. As for why it’s got that sapphire like glow in it, I have no idea. Maybe it likes you.”

“How come nobody else ever found this?” Mike asked. “There’s been other expeditions to this planet, and they came up with nothing. Metal-and ore-seeking probes must have circled the planet. Why didn’t they find all this? This seems like a lot to miss.”

Joe pointed to the walls. “Karsh is right about the theories that it’s part of comets, or asteroids, colliding with planets in titanic explosions. This looks like a huge comet maybe billions and billions of years ago smashed into this world and left this here. It’s possible that the other elements in the comet or asteroid shielded it.”

“Or someone knows it’s here,” Mike said.

“How?” Joe asked. “We only found it because of the accident of your immense power, and Karsh’s blind willingness to hate you to all extremes. If he hadn’t run, we probably wouldn’t have explored this.”

“Got that right,” Mike said. “Now that we know this is here, what do we do about it? We’ve got a colony to build.”

“We can pay for it, just buy it. Hell we could buy several of our own star systems.”

“How does that work on a prison planet?” Mike asked.

“They can’t conquer us,” Hok said.

“They could starve us. Can you eat zukoh, liquid or solid?”

Joe pointed to the debris strewn about the sides of the lake. “This is also where part of your debris went.”

“Why didn’t it land in the lake?”

Karsh snarled. “It did, you fool. It dissolved or sank to the bottom. How dumb are you?” He looked at them and chortled. Then said, “And I’ve got it. I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams.”

“We’re prisoners,” Mike said.

“And you’re powerful beyond our wildest dreams, but you, you poor numb nuts alien, are stuck. I’m not one of you. I can own this. Prisoners can’t. I get credit for having found it. You’re screwed. I’m wealthy beyond all dreams.”

Joe asked, “What do you mean, we’re screwed and you’re rich?”

Karsh laughed and cackled.

Mike voiced his long held suspicion. “He’s a spy. He’s not one of us.”

When Karsh finished this round of grating laughter, he said, “And I’m not the only one.”

Joe asked, “How’d you get the transmissions past Brux?”

“Honestly, do you think the equipment here is better than what Bex has at his disposal? You’re a poor pathetic fag who is going to die.”

More laughter from Karsh.

Joe asked, “Who else is a spy?”

“Cak.” More gales of laughter poured form Karsh. Karsh rose to his knees, then balancing himself with his hands, he stood on his right foot. He tried touching down his left foot. “Shit that still hurts. Ouch! Shit!” He limped, hopped. “Better than it was at first.” Once balanced, he turned to them and gave an evil leer. “Cak is wrecking everything in the colony as we speak. The dams will bust. Tunnels will collapse. You can’t stop him.”

“This whole leaving was to ruin everything?”

“Yes. To destroy the working together collectively to make things better. To destroy your spirits. And to destroy the colony itself. We needed you gone. We knew you’d come rescue us.” If Karsh was Snidely Whiplash he’d have twirled his mustache and given another villainous cackling laugh.

His pride of triumph proved his undoing. Karsh said, “I killed your buddy Bir because he caught me communicating with the Religionists. Bir was going to blab. He had to die. Cak hates you as much as I do, but he’s gay. He helped me trick the boy since you all are so incompetent. Don’t you get it? You poor stupid fool. You and your useless husband. Bex was never going to let this prison succeed. It was funny to all of us, as you all worked so hard. And did accomplish a great deal, sad to say.”

Mike felt Krim stirring next to him. The boy whispered. “You killed my friend?”

Karsh hopped, rebalanced himself away from the boy. He was now inches from the edge of the lake. Karsh snarled, “He didn’t suffer.”

“You’re not gay?” Krim was pointing his finger at the older man.

“Of course not.”

“You were making it with Bir.”

“I don’t care who’s blowing me, or who I’m fucking in the ass.”

“Why didn’t Bir come to us?” Mike asked.

Karsh said, “He’d just found out. He had to die that night, but that was no problem, really. And now you’re all going to die.”

Mike said, “But you’re up here in the mountains, with just us around you. How are you going to survive to get back down from this mountain?”

“You were stupid enough to fix my foot.”

“It’s not back to normal,” Joe said. “The medical device can lessen the pain and bind up some tendons and skin, but you’re still crippled and unless you get to a major medical fix-it device, you’ll be crippled for life.”

“I don’t care. I’m rich.”

“Okay,” Mike said. “We can’t own it. You can’t get out of here without our help. Do you have a ship coming down to rescue you?”

“I can have.”

Joe said, “Double bullshit.”

Mike hadn’t thought he could feel more tired and depressed, but he did.

Joe stood nose to nose with Karsh and said, “You fucking asshole pig!”

More grating laughter. “Cak thinks he’s going to live through this because he’s friends with me. Ha! He’ll be dead. And so will you all.” He pointed at Mike. “Maybe you will be the last gay man alive in the universe. Or this part of it. Who cares?”

Joe took a step back. “You’re willing to murder all those people?”

“Of course.”

Mike’s fury grew. “You can die.”

Krim spoke up. He was in tears. “You killed him! And you don’t care! And you’re just laughing at us! I’ve been laughed at my own life by assholes like you! Never again! Never again!”

Krim rushed at Karsh. He plowed past Mike and Joe. Karsh, bigger than Krim, tried to stop him but when he put his weight on his left foot to balance himself, he tipped. Krim bashed into him, and Karsh went back first into the lake.

Krim overbalanced himself, tripped over his own feet, and fell on top of Karsh.

Karsh screamed and screamed.

The boy wasn’t big, but his fall prevented Karsh from leaping back up to his feet. The entire back of his body was immersed in the liquid zukoh.

The others rushed to pull Krim and Karsh out. Mike got hold of Krim and heaved him out. He saw that only the tips of Krim’s fingers and a bit of the palm on both hands got zukoh on it.

Hok and Joe yanked Karsh out as best they could. Joe had the medical kit out and was ministering to Karsh, whose initial screams in seconds lowered to a moaning burble. They put him on his front as his entire rear was oozing blood and goo.

Mike watched the back of the man’s head dissolve and the clothes on his body eat away from back to front. Joe had the medical device out, but it was no use. Soon Karsh’s back and butt were covered in smoldering shreds of flesh and clothes. In a few more seconds, he was dead.

Krim fell to his knees. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to.” He stopped himself. “Yes I did. I’m glad he’s dead.” He began to cry.

Joe set the medical device to working on Krim’s hands.

Mike put an arm around Krim and said comforting, soothing words.

Hok put a spare spacesuit over Karsh’s remains.