Norman dug away as much of the loose rubble around Albert as he could, but the skeletal frame was still pinned by a boulder the size of a shopping trolley.
‘Wouldn’t it have been flattened anyway?’ Coral’s voice was muffled by the handkerchief she was holding over her mouth and nose.
‘The frame is strong there. Special, to protect,’ Ludokrus said. ‘The generator work by nuclear. Dangerous to break.’
Norman stretched full length on the cold stone floor and angled his torch under the boulder. ‘I can see it. A bluish-coloured box, right? That boulder’s right on top of it. Can you make something to dissolve it?’
‘Yeah, but the by-product will be gas.’
‘Who’ll notice?’ Coral said.
‘Not smelly. Poison.’
‘Oh.’
‘What about making a sledgehammer from those raw materials?’ Norman said.
‘Have idea for something better.’
Ludokrus dived down the passage to the main shaft and returned with the lumps of metal from the dissolved doors. He lined the ingots up, end to end, added blobs of nanomachines to each gap and within a minute the seething machines left behind a long steel pole.
‘Remember your uncle say how to move the world?’ he said to Coral, slipping one end of it under the boulder and using a smaller rock as a fulcrum. ‘Now we try.’
He swung down on the metal bar and was rewarded by a fall of stones from the back of the boulder.
‘Wait. Hold it there!’ Norman wedged some rocks in the growing gap. Ludokrus released the lever, adjusted the position of the bar, and swung on it again.
The front of the boulder rose higher. More dust and stones fell off the back. Coral abandoned her handkerchief and added her weight to the lever while Norman scrambled for larger and larger rocks to wedge in the growing gap.
‘A little more. Keep going. Yes!’
He rammed home the last supporting rock. Ludokrus and Coral released their grip.
‘We’re set. I can get my whole arm in there now.’
Norman held out a cupped hand. Ludokrus tapped a blob of his dish-washing formula into it, and Norman reached in, positioning it as far down the spine as he could. Then he jammed his torch in behind and switched it on to activate the tiny machines.
A minute later there was a snap and the boulder shifted slightly as Albert’s torso separated from his imprisoned legs. Norman withdrew the torch, waited a few seconds to make sure the nanomachines died in the dark, then together he and Ludokrus dragged Albert’s upper body free.
Coral told herself it was just scrap metal, but she still gasped at the sight of the skeletal frame. One arm was missing, the spine had been dissolved below the ribcage, but there was still something recognisable, almost human, in the form.
The ribs on one side were flattened while on the other total collapse had been prevented by strong bracing around a kidney-shaped blue-metal device that sat a little to the left of where a human heart would be. It was as thick as a dictionary and covered in a tracery of fine, copper-coloured filaments.
‘That’s it, right?’ Norman said.
Ludokrus nodded, crouching over it.
‘Still working?’
‘Feel.’
He touched it uncertainly. The metal casing was warm. Then he jerked his hand away in surprise. ‘It’s beating, like a real heart!’
‘Ugh!’ Coral said.
‘No, is good,’ Ludokrus told her. ‘Albert would want this. To be still useful.’ He looked down at the battered frame. ‘And so much use. Many raw material. Optic from the eye to make the laser. Part for circuit. Dielectric for capacitor. And power,’ he touched the micro-fusion generator. ‘Much, much power.’
* * *
Alkemy was cold. Tim saw her shiver and touched her cheek. No wonder. The water she was sitting in was icy. At least he could do something about that.
He half-lifted, half-dragged her into the fungus chamber. She groaned as one of her damaged ankles clipped a rocky outcrop, and he winced at the sight of her wizened flesh, but once past the entrance, the soft spongy floor made things easier.
He dug up a mat of fungus and swaddled her in it up to her chin. She sighed and smiled and her shivering stopped.
He slumped beside her catching his breath, almost succumbing to the sleep-inducing fumes. Leaning on his injured arm, he noticed how the warmth of the fungus seemed to drain away the pain. It clearly had anaesthetic qualities, which was good news for Alkemy.
He considered their position. He’d driven off the Sentinels — for now — but they’d almost certainly regroup and stage a counter-attack, so he had to move fast. After a quick check that Alkemy was comfortable, he made his way back out.
* * *
They dragged Albert’s remains through to the start of the cave-in. Ludokrus set to work with the calculator and the other raw materials while Norman wandered off, playing his torch over the nearby walls.
‘Where you go?’
‘We’ve found two hidden doors. There must be at least one more. Where they took Tim and Alkemy.’
‘OK, but build first, search later. Yes? The nanomachine need much light.’
Norman returned and added his torch beam to the pool formed by the other two. He watched as three solid struts took shape, anchored to the ground. They formed the legs of a tripod, slowly growing up towards each other before fusing together in the middle. Nearby, a complicated box-like device was forming around the micro-fusion generator. Circuits, optics, electronics. It was fascinating to watch, but Norman grew restless.
‘Do you need this?’ He picked up an unused part. The upper half of Albert’s little finger.
Ludokrus shook his head.
‘I’ll head back down.’
‘What, in the dark?’ Coral said.
‘I can feel my way along the side.’
‘And do what?’
‘Keep looking.’ He tapped the finger against the rock wall ‘The other doors were metal, so I should be able to hear the difference.’
They watched as he edged away into darkness. Tap-tap-tap ... tap-tap-tap ...
‘You do not tell me you have the boyfriend,’ Ludokrus said quietly.
‘Had,’ Coral said. ‘Past tense.’
He looked at her.
‘Didn’t you hear that bit?’
‘I ... go back to work.’
‘Well it seems that my so-called boyfriend took up with my so-called best friend about ten seconds after I left to come down here.’
‘I’m sorry. Bad way to find out.’
‘Yeah, well, at least I know now.’
Tap-tap-tap ... tap-tap-tap ...
Ludokrus reached out and covered the back of her hand with his. Coral looked at him sadly but didn’t draw away.
* * *
‘Oooohh!’
‘Stop moaning. Let me think.’
‘Look what that wretched monkey boy has done to me. It will take decades to grow these slime fronds back.’
‘They needed trimming anyway.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you were always slurping about with your curly frills. Very unsentinel-like.’
‘I thought you liked the way I could juggle snot with them.’
‘Yes, yes, very clever. But who do you think you are? You’re not a movie slug, you know.’
‘I might be. One day.’
‘Might have been, you mean. Not now. Look at those puckered fronds.’
‘Oooohh!’
‘Shut up and let me think!’
‘What is there to think about? The wretched creature escaped the dissolving tank and we can’t take live monkeys on our ship.’
‘It’s not due until tomorrow. And they can’t go anywhere. There may still be a way to get that syntho’s memory module. But first we have to get back to the control room and see what’s happening out there.’