Underworld mousebane and.., p.28
Underworld (Mousebane & Red Mist Book 3), page 28
“Andrew,” she said stepping into his view. “It’s OK, they’re squirrels.”
Andrew peered with wrinkled nose at the nearest squirrel gangster. “Oh, right.” He gave his bat a little flourish. His phone torch shone bright. “Lucky for them.” He put the back of his hand to his forehead, a pantomime dame on a blisteringly hot summer’s day. “Oh Amy, it’s been hell. You would not believe. The hitman came—I guess you’ve seen what those creatures did to his man.”
Sternberg gave her a look of “I told you so”.
“I’ve been on my own this whole time and I can’t find Dan,” continued Andrew. “Then some other guys came too. I followed where they couldn’t see.” He limped forwards. “Crawled actually, because once have I been shot and twice have I dropped down that ruddy shoot. And I can tell you it does not get any easier.” He held up two fingers. “Twice.”
“Where did they go?” said Amy.
He shook his head. “They sort of went that way.” He motioned with his bat uncertainly towards an entranceway in the side wall of the room. She’d never spotted it before. “But then when I followed I couldn’t find them. Just an empty room. It’s like they stepped in and disappeared. There were buttons but I didn’t know what to press. I’ve looked upstairs, but no one’s there. I’ve also found something else. A second stairwell, and you’ll never guess what’s up there.”
“What?”
“Come and see.”
The Tower
The first thing Dan came to after leaving what he assumed was an airlock, was a drop. A curving corridor turned vertically had created a pit several metres deep to dark sand below. Above him the passage continued up the side of the ship. A metal sheet welded over most of the space acted as a platform. To his right, a ladder had been attached to the wall. Up was the only way.
A voice made him jump.
“Please, climb to the top of the corridor. We are ready to talk.”
He couldn’t see a speaker. Couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but the sound was close to human. And it spoke English. He palmed himself in the head. Lucky. A language barrier hadn’t even crossed his mind.
“Hold tight, buddy,” he said to the Flash.
The cat’s claws dug into the shoulder of his poncho as Dan began the climb.
It took a while. He suspected the corridor ran the entirety of this section of ship. His arms and legs ached. He numbed his mind to the thought of the open space behind him, of the distance he might fall.
They passed doors off the side of the corridor each with their own platforms welded across the gap. The anxiety as to what lay above was overcome by the wonder at what might be behind those doors. What fantastically different technologies? What books or media or clues to the culture of the civilisation that had built this ship?
At the top, another welded plate underlined a final door which slid open to reveal a wide room illuminated by the red tinted light of the sun. He entered, walking on the wall from the doorway.
He came to an abrupt stop. Five motionless figures watched him in the centre of the room, waiting for him, dressed in the same coloured outfits as the one he’d seen in the facility. Simon must have stolen a set of their clothes when they’d brought him here.
For a moment no one spoke.
Dan glanced up. The right-hand wall, the floor turned vertical, was home to seats and consoles facing towards the ceiling, a blue strip of glass, the ship’s front screen showing only the cloudless sky. This was the bridge. He was on the bridge of a starship.
“You’re not Simon?” said the one standing in the middle.
“No, my name is Dan. Um, Dan Dixon.”
“Hello, Danumdandixon,” they all said.
He swallowed. “Uh, just— it’s just Dan.”
“I’m Rick,” the middle one said. “Did Simon send you?”
Rick?
“Uh, hello, Rick.” He pushed his nervousness aside. Pretended he was talking to an easy-going bride and groom at a wedding. That was always effortless. They always wanted to talk to him. “Yes. But I’m more here off my own back. I want to talk.”
The past-Earthers shared a look. One of them said something Dan didn’t understand.
“What is your offer?” Rick held out a hand.
They were the tallest of the five. Dan sensed the others watching carefully.
He cleared his throat. Was this a shake? He reached out and Rick withdrew. Dan flinched back. Wrong social protocol.
And we’re usually so good at these things.
Rick held out a hand again. What was he supposed to do? He was messing this up.
A whispered discussion began between the two on the left. It sounded heated. Dan couldn’t understand.
Rick silenced them with a clipped word.
“I think they want something,” said the Flash. “It is sometimes customary to bring gifts.”
“Not in my custom,” Dan hissed out of the corner of his mouth. “I don’t have anything.”
The five figures continued to watch him expectantly.
“Oh!” Dan patted himself down and withdrew the only thing he had: Amy’s sprout. He held it up to the light. Andrew must have taken some from her sprig at the diner and sent them with the Flash. Must have thought it might help.
The past-Earthers eyed it, speaking between themselves.
Was that good?
“Here.” He held it forward. “It’s food.”
They’d be alright to eat it, wouldn’t they? It came from the same planet. Imagine surviving an interstellar space flight and the destruction of your entire race, then being poisoned by a sprout.
He peeled a leaf and ate it to show them.
Rick inched forward and plucked it from Dan’s fingers. Immediately the one on their right snatched it. There was a scuffle, a clear agitation in their voices. The sprout changed hands several times, at first a scrabble, then they calmed.
“It’s OK,” he said, holding up his hands. “I can get you more.”
He just had to get home first.
Rick held up a hand to stop the others squabbling. They were a little like the squirrels.
“You could always try some,” said Dan. With Amy’s good vibes inside them, things might go a little smoother.
Rick peeled a leaf and tucked it under their mask.
“It has a very unusual taste.”
Movement behind the mask suggested chewing. Rick passed the sprout along the row. They each took a leaf.
“Yes. Not everyone likes sprouts. But they are a good source of vitamin K.”
Simultaneously the past-Earthers all wonked off to the right and for a second Dan thought he had poisoned them and they were fainting. But no, they were bowing.
He tried the same movement.
They shared glances.
This had to be a joke. Send the social anxiety sufferer off to an alien planet to parley with people with a very particular set of social customs.
Well, actually, he’d been practising trying to fit in his whole life, maybe this would be a walk in the park? An intensely anxious walk in the park. One that would leave him tense with back pain and shoulders pinned to his ears for the next month. But still, a park walk.
He was made for this.
Rick wiggled their shoulders. A rigidity leaving them.
“Oh, yes, I can taste the vitamin K now. Mmm, wonderful,” they said. “We’ve been eating freeze-dried packet snacks since we awaked eleven Earth years ago. Everything else was lost in the crash. It’s nice to have something fresh.”
“Yes, mmm, something fresh,” said another. “What a delicious sprout of K.”
“With that pleasantness out of the way,” said Rick. “Tell us, for I am confused, what is your offer?”
“I thought the sprout was my offer?”
The past-Earthers shared a look.
“Why does Simon send you?” asked Rick.
“He sent me here to steal your tablet. But I thought it’d be better if we talked. I’m here to find out why you want to hurt us. No one needs to get hurt. Just tell me what you need.”
They shared another glance. Dan had the impression they weren’t sure what to say. That there really was no leader.
“Why did you send those creatures to invade us?” he said.
Rick took a short, almost curious step forward. Although Dan was aware that any signal or gesture might mean a hundred different things, it was difficult for him not to liken certain movements to those of humankind.
“We didn’t.”
Dan and the Flash shared a look. Maybe they didn’t understand what he was saying.
“Uh, I don’t quite know the ins and outs, but you sent them there to all of your facilities, so you can take the Earth back for yourselves.”
“Not me.”
“Really? Maybe not you specifically Rick, but another member of the crew, maybe?” He was starting to get a bad feeling.
“Not us,” said another.
Rick took another step forward. “Are you not with Simon?”
“He’s— Wait. Is it just the five of you?” How did five of them control thousands of sites all over the world.
“We are all that survived the crash. And then there’s the children,” said Rick. His head dipped momentarily. Simon hadn’t said anything about children. “We thought you came here to finally destroy us.”
Dan shook his head. “No. Are you not trying to destroy us?”
One of the others whispered something to Rick. They sounded afraid. Was Dan just projecting human emotion upon them?
“Will you permit Dave to sniff you?” said Rick.
“Uh, sure.”
The other moved closer. They looked him up and down, sniffed the air around him.
“He has been with Simon. He smells of Simon. Should we get him?”
Rick patted a hand down. “Let’s see what he has to say.”
“I’m just with myself and my cats.” said Dan, quickly. “I’m not on Simon’s side.” He couldn’t see Catman here. “Where is my cat? The black one.” He pointed down at the Flash then held up two fingers.
“A black one?” Rick pointed at the Flash too. “Dave, have you seen a black one of those?”
“No.”
Rick looked along the line. “Anyone?”
Three more negatives.
“I saw you take him,” said Dan. “The black one is here, right? In your ship?”
“Not us.” Rick straightened. “Can you stop Simon? Can you help us find the children?”
A horrible thought started to bloom behind his eyes. Filling his head bit by bit, like a rusted, leaky tap dripping into a sink blocked with filthy limescale. He’d been duped.
“Simon sent me here to stop you from invading our planet?” It came out more as a question than a statement of fact.
“Not us. Not our creatures.”
“Then whose creatures?”
“Simon’s. Simon’s creatures.”
Dan picked up the Flash. He stepped back, defensive. Were they lying to him?
“Simon said the skorts were your plan to take the Earth back.”
“We do not want the Earth back,” said Dave. “Our people are gone. Earth is yours now. We just want seeds and the means with which to grow them here.”
“Our seed banks were lost in the crash,” said Rick.
“And we want the children back,” said another.
“Where are they?” asked Dan.
“Simon has them in the facility.”
Dan tried to think of everything Simon had done, everything he’d said. Every little moment. He could only remember a confused little man, a man at odds with the world.
He’d always been there. Lurking outside their house as the Hedgehog Man, in Andrew’s on the night Amy was taken, experimenting on the squirrels in his shop on the high street. Never telling them anything concrete, always changing the story.
“We can give you seeds,” Dan said, thinking of Fréo. Surely she could help there. “And my wife can grow them. But …” He was so confused. His brain was locked, refusing to ratchet past this Simon-shaped block. “You’ve had Pippa and Simon and the others under your control for the last decade. You sent the creatures there to destroy us.”
“Not true. Simon used us. He wishes death upon you. Upon all of you.”
Their heads turned to face the same way, and for a moment he thought he was witnessing another social custom. Then he heard the sound of rumbling footsteps and the tower shook with a thunderous crack.
The Second Stair
Andrew led Amy and Sternberg, carrying Little Fréo Two, up the second staircase. He’d insisted no one else come. The entrance had been tucked away on the other side of the storage room.
“I don’t know what they’re doing here,” he said. “None of them wanted to talk to me. They all look a little odd.” He motioned at his face.
“Who?” asked Amy.
“I think they’re … well, I don’t know. I think they understood me.”
He pressed open the door at the top of the stairs and led them past a second canteen. It was bigger with more chairs than the other.
“The layout is almost identical to the other part of the facility,” said Sternberg.
“Yeah, but there’s more dormitories down there.” Andrew motioned down the passage that in the other section of the facility led to the dormitories and teleportation room. “And the lab’s not a lab.”
He stopped just outside the door that, on the other side, led to the laboratory.
“What is it?” said Amy.
“Now, when I came in before, I think I spooked them a bit so be real gentle.” Andrew placed a hand on the door. “I think it’s a school.”
He pushed through. Frantic retreating movement on the other side caused him to slow his advance.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m not here to scare anyone.”
Amy followed him in. Sternberg behind.
The walls of the room beyond were plastered with drawings and paintings and shelves full of books and toys. Colourful mats covered the ground. Small tables and chairs, with assortments of pens and paper. A musty paper odour brought her back to her primary school. A whiteboard on one wall was topped with the letters of the alphabet. Some easy number sentences had been written out below in a looping careful hand.
A shuffle behind the desk and a little leg poked out, then pulled back in.
A woman stood brandishing a wooden metre stick like a baseball bat.
“Don’t come any closer,” she said.
She wore a T-shirt and leggings. Pale skinned with grey bags under her brown eyes. Brown curly hair. She looked a lot like Pippa. Maybe a few years younger. Yet tiredness had aged her.
“It’s OK,” said Sternberg. He held his hands out by his sides. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
“Who are you?” she said. She even sounded like Pippa. She glanced down. Pressed a hand towards the floor. Something moved behind the desk. “How did you find this place?”
“It’s OK,” said Amy.
The woman squinted, like she was trying to see something behind Amy’s eyes. “Did he send you?” Her gaze jumped between Andrew, Sternberg, and Amy. “Is it time?”
“What do you mean?” Sternberg’s voice was soft.
The woman’s grip tightened on the stick, breathing fast. “Look, if it’s coming to the end, you could just send them back to be with their parents. You don’t have to …” Her gaze tracked down to behind the desk.
“Are you related to Pippa?” Sternberg asked.
The woman stopped and stared at him. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Kyle Sternberg. I’m a police officer. We discovered this place by accident. We know you and the others are being kept against your will.”
“You’re police.” She lowered the stick slightly.
“Why are you here?” asked Amy. “Why are you separated from the others?”
“I’m just here to take care of the children.” The woman laughed, almost hysterically. “Pippa told me it would be an unusual teaching gig, but I guess you could say I’m their foster parent now. When did you last see her? Is she safe? Are Ha and Matthew with her?”
Amy nodded. “They’re all up top. We found a way to remove the control this place has on them.”
“You have?” The woman held Amy’s gaze. “Can you help me?” A little hand rose up and tugged on her T-shirt. She patted it and brushed it down, said, “No, it’s OK. Give me a second.”
Amy didn’t mention it. “A friend of ours has created something that can free you, it can give you your life back. We can get it. Or you could come with us.” She didn’t want to push her.
Her eyes flicked between them. Her shoulders relaxed. “Really?”
“Yes,” said Sternberg. “We can get you out of here. But … who did you think we were. Before, when you asked ‘is it time’? What did you mean?”
“I thought you were with him. I thought he’d finally come to … uh.” She glanced down and breathed in deeply. “He’s going to unleash the creatures on Walton. It’s Simon. All of this is Simon.”
Amy shared a look with Andrew and Sternberg.
“Simon’s keeping you down here?” said Sternberg. “He’s the one in control?”
“How does he do it?” asked Andrew. “And why aren’t you saying ‘it’s complicated’ all the time?”
“It’s the lichen they sent back for him to work on,” said the woman. “They wanted him to use it to keep the creatures away, but he uses it to control us. I don’t know how it works. I’m just a primary school teacher. I was just supposed to teach and look after the kids.” Her voice broke. “And you can’t teach much if everything’s complicated, so he separated us so I could still do the job, but couldn’t share what I knew with the others.”
“What lichen? Who sent it?”
“The ones in the tower. Simon’s keeping their children here so that they give up the teleport locations to the other sites. But they won’t.”
“What tower?”
“The tower is part of a ship that originally came from Earth millions of years ago and is now three hundred light years away on a planet called Kepler-1649c. The crew grew the facility here a decade ago after teleporting back, and then hired Simon and Dr Tanaka to help them survive there.”
