Chapter Twenty Nine

Devon and the others crowded around Jacinda’s datapad watching the progress of their plan on the tiny screen. It showed a schematic of the liquid core of the planet dotted with bright pin-pricks of light showing where the miners’ probes were located. Most were near the surface hovering in the molten rock, right below the unmanned mining modules. A few were still inching their across the map toward their destination.

“They look nearly there,” Devon said.

“Yup,” Jacinda agreed. “It should be less than fifteen more minutes and then we can activate them. That will put a stop to the mining.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Merrell asked.

“It’s the best one I could think of,” Jacinda said.

“But what if the miners catch us after we blow up their mining thingies?” Merrell asked, concern in his voice.

Jacinda shrugged. “I don’t think it will be a problem. Once we activate the probes we can slip out of here and go back up the cliff. DeepRoot and ClearSky will protect us.”

“Anyway, by the time the miners get back on their feet I’m sure that we will have been rescued.” Devon said. He wore a look of cool confidence. “The Boadicea has one of the best crews in the fleet. I bet they have already picked up Deke and the others.”

“I sure hope so,” Merrell said. He seemed to be satisfied with her assurances.

They waited in silence for a few more minutes, fidgeting as they all stared at the screen.

***

The heat surrounded Cappy like a physical force. It pushed at him constantly as he inched his way through the tube toward the next room where the kids were. Sweat poured down his face behind the mask, making the fabric damp and uncomfortable on his cheeks. He thought to himself for a moment that he knew how a baked potato must feel right before it was finished cooking. He also knew he had better find the exit hatch before he was ready for butter and sour cream. Finally he found the latch to the exit hatch. It was big so that even someone in a toaster suit could turn it easily in the thick gloves of the suit.

The hatch fell open and Cappy could feel the rush of cooler air even through the thick suit. He stepped through the hatch into the room. The red glow from the hot tube cast a harsh red light into the room giving it an ominous feeling.

Cappy scanned the room, intent on finding the kids and ending their little game. The visor on the suit limited his vision but it took him only moments to spy the kids sitting together on the floor. They were frozen, wearing looks of terror.

‘Good,’ Cappy thought to himself. ‘They had a reason to be afraid. They had caused him a lot of trouble and he intended to give it back, and worse.’

***

Devon watched the screen intently. The probes were nearly in place. In minutes they would be able to trigger them and put an end to the mining operation. Jacinda and Merrell watched the screen as well and Devon was sure that they were feeling the same strange sense of excitement that he was.

He could not figure out exactly what this peculiar feeling of excitement was coming from. He knew that he was excited to be helping DeepRoot and ClearSky, but that did not quite fit. Neither did the excitement of giving the bandit miners a taste of justice explain it. There was something else there. Adventure? Maybe that was it. Devon had read all the old stories of swashbucklers and such who craved adventure, but he never thought to taste it himself. Well, maybe he had…and he liked the taste. It had to be the taste of adventure, with a side order of danger to spice it up. Devon knew his parents would never approve, but it was too late now.

Devon’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud clanging from behind them. All three children spun around on their rear ends to see what had caused the sound. Horror filled them as they saw a silver, man-shaped creature step out of a burning hatch in the far wall. A wave of heat rolled into the room, hitting the kids like a slap.

The creature craned its neck, scanning the room, and then it saw them. With a growl it advanced, silver arms stretched toward them. Devon cringed, fear filling him, the taste of adventure suddenly not so sweet.

As the creature approached it brought a new wave of heat with it. Merrell tried to get to his feet to fend off the creature. It swatted him with its silver arm, sending him hurtling into the wall. Merrell collapsed with a grunt. Jacinda scrambled on her hands and knees to his side, crying and shouting his name.

Devon remained frozen in terror, unable to move. His mouth moved in a silent cry while the creature towered over him. The thing raised its arm, ready to strike him. Devon covered his eyes, party from the heat given off by the monster and partly in fear of the impending blow. There was a thump, followed by an even louder thump and a deep moan.

When the blow did not land, Devon lowered his arms. He was greeted with the one of the sweetest sights he could imagine. Flim stood with his foot on the creature, clutching a steel pipe in his hand.

Flim reached down and grabbed the top of the creature’s head, giving it a quick tug. To Devon’s amazement, the head came off; or rather the hood came off revealing a man’s ugly face.

“It’s a man?” Devon exclaimed. He then realized that Flim was no longer missing. He stared at his alien friend in disbelief.

“Yup,” Flim answered. “Luckily he didn’t see me, so while he was giving you the toaster yeti treatment I got the drop on him.”

“But, how did you get here?” Devon asked, still confused.

“Me, I’ve been with you since you got picked up by those green creatures. I just decided to stay hidden, until we knew more. You never know when a little surprise can come in handy.” Flim was grinning from ear to ear.

“Flim!” Jacinda interrupted their conversation. “You creep, you have been following us that long?” she asked. Merrell stood behind her, rubbing his sore head, but looking otherwise unhurt.

Flim looked embarrassed for a moment. “Uh…yes. It was all part of my plan. I wanted to be able to rescue you, just in case. Just like this,” he stammered.

Jacinda’s glare melted. “Okay, I suppose you made the right decision, but you had us worried sick…and you enjoyed it way too much.” She ended with a wide smile.

Flim helped Devon to his feet. All of them looked down at the man, wondering what to do next. Jacinda put her hands on her hips and eyed the others seriously.

“Okay, I have a plan,” she said.

“I didn’t see that coming,” Flim replied, laughing.

Jacinda glared at him for a moment and then smiled again.

“Well, as long as everyone agrees that I’m bossy, I don’t have a problem. Now listen up. Merrell, you find something to tie up this guy with, whoever it is. Devon, you watch that hatch, just in case somebody else comes through. That is not the guy we saw outside, so there is at least one more bad guy around here somewhere. Flim, you do what you do best. Get lost. We may need the surprise again. I’m gonna finish up with the probes and then we can get out of here.”

They all nodded, happy to feel near the end of this particular adventure. Merrell located a length of plastic cord and tied up the man, not worrying too much about being gentle. Devon picked up the steel pipe Flim had used to dispatch their last attacker and positioned himself near the open hatch, ready to defend his friends. He looked up to give Flim a wink, but the alien boy had already disappeared.

Jacinda picked up the datapad and examined the screen.

“All of the probes are in position. I’m going to go ahead and activate them.” She gave each of her friends a quick look to make sure none of them had any objections. Seeing none, she pressed the final button to make the probes blow up.

For a moment they all stood looking at each other, wondering what would happen. Suddenly, a deep boom rang out through the ground. They could feel it through the soles of their feet. The boom died away leaving them all in silence.

“That’s it?” Flim said from somewhere, but still not visible. They all began to laugh.

They were interrupted by a deep rumbling that shook the module, shaking all of the cargo cases around them. They looked in horror at each other as the entire module bucked and shook.

“We had better get out of here,” Merrell shouted over the clatter of falling cargo cases.

Jacinda pointed at the fallen and bound man. “What do we do with him? We can’t just leave him.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Devon answered. “Let’s see if we can drag him out of here with us. Getting him up the cliff will be the problem.”

Merrell and Devon each took hold of the silvery fabric of the man’s suit and pulled together. Unfortunately, the man did not budge. Jacinda bent over and tried to lend a hand, but they still had no luck.

“Sure, we had to knock out the biggest bad guy around,” Jacinda said. “Let’s try one more time.”

The three pulled at the man’s clothes but his bulky mass still refused to move.

“What do we do now?” Merrell asked.

Devon shrugged and looked at Jacinda.

“We just can’t leave him. It is the miners’ code,” Jacinda said, her eyes filling with tears.

The three friends stood silently for a few moments, pondering just how to proceed. Their thoughts were disturbed by a loud pounding on the inner hatch they had locked. Devon rushed to the hatch and listened. The pounding came again and Devon could make out a faint voce.

“Help, I’m trapped in here,” the voice called. “You can’t just leave me here.”

“There is somebody in there,” Devon said. “I think we have to let them out.

Jacinda nodded grimly and retrieved her datapad, still hooked into the mining module’s control system.

Merrell found a stout piece of metal, testing its usefulness as a weapon by swinging it experimentally a few times. Devon still gripped the metal pipe that Flim had used to knock out the man earlier.

Jacinda keyed in a few more commands and then looked up at her friends.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

Devon and Merrell both nodded.

Jacinda pressed the last button the hatch slid open. The grubby looking man they had seen earlier tumbled out of the hatch with a grunt.

Devon hovered over the man, his makeshift club at the ready.

“Oh lord, what did you do?” The man wailed on the verge of panic.

Jacinda stepped forward. “We destroyed your probes, to stop the eruptions.”

The man looked horrified. “You destroyed the probes? Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m not crazy,” Jacinda snapped. “We had to do something to shut you folks down. You were destroying the Creepers’ world.”

“Well, if we don’t get out of here, we are fried,” the man said.

“Well, we kinda figured that out,” Merrell stepped toward the man, his makeshift club raised. “You’re just lucky we decided to let you out.”

“Okay, sonny, just settle down,” the man’s demeanor suddenly changed. “No need to be so hostile. We are all in this together now. My name is Burgess, by the way.”

“Now that that is settled, grab your friend and let’s get out of here,” Jacinda said. The commanding tone in her voice stopped any argument before it could begin.

Burgess nodded, stood up and walked over to the other man.

“Looks like somebody gave him a good whack on the noggin,” Burgess said as he checked out the man. “I can’t say that Cappy didn’t have it coming.”

Burgess grabbed the collar of Cappy’s silver suit and began dragging him toward the hatch leading outside. His face reddened as he struggled with Cappy’s unconscious bulk.

“Little help?” Burgess muttered.

Merrell sighed but helped Burgess pull Cappy outside. Pulling Cappy across the rough stone toward the cliff proved even more difficult and Devon had to join the effort.

By the time they made it to the bottom of the cliff Devon, Merrell and Burgess were red-faced and breathing heavily.

“If he was this hard to get this far how are we ever going to get him up the cliff?” Devon asked.

“We need some way to let the creepers know we need them to lower the vines so we can get back up,” Jacinda said.

“If Sammy were only close enough I could send a message to him through my datapad, but he is still back near the ship,” Devon said, sounding disappointed.

“No he isn’t,” Flim said, his voice seeming to come from thin air.

“Flim, please don’t do that. It makes me nervous,” Jacinda said irritably.

Flim slowly materialized standing next to cliff.

“My apologies. Sometimes I forget that I am still invisible.”

“What did you say about Sammy?” Devon asked, suddenly very interested in the conversation.

“I said he isn’t back at the ship,” Flim responded with a bit of a smile. “He is right at the top of the cliff.”

“But how did he get there? Did you bring him with you?” Devon asked.

“No, I actually followed him. He is better than a SeekerBot. He never lost your trail.”

Devon could not believe his ears. He never thought that Sammy’s programming was that complex. Devon made a mental note to ask his parents about the programming the next time he saw them. There seemed to be more to Sammy than he ever imagined.

“Let me see what I can do with Sammy,” Devon said. He pulled out his datapad and keyed in the command to open a communication channel to Sammy.

“Sammy, if you are within range please signal” Devon said into his datapad. Almost immediately they all heard a shrill horn sounding from somewhere above.

“We are in luck,” Devon said with a smile.

He set to work having Sammy fasten a winch line to a tree op top of the cliff. They decided to take turns riding up using Sammy’s built in winch.

Jacinda was the first up. She was puzzled when she did not see any of the creepers around. Either they had hidden like they had earlier or they had simply left, sure that their people were no longer in danger. Still, she would have felt better is she could have said goodbye.

Devon was next up, followed by Burgess and then Flim.

Sammy’s electric motor strained to raise Cappy to the top, but finally got him up.

Devon reached down to check on Cappy as Sammy brought up Merrell, the last of them left to make the trip up.

Just as Devon touched Cappy’s neck, the man lashed out, sending Devon tumbling back into the underbrush. Cappy struggled to his feet and took a couple of awkward steps toward freedom. He stopped short, backing toward the clearing at the edge of the cliff.

They were all puzzled by this, but understood when DeepRoot stepped out of the forest, looming over Cappy.

“Don’t hurt me,” Cappy cried, putting his tied hands over his head.

DeepRoot reached out, placing his hand on Cappy’s arm. The big man seemed to crumble before them, falling to his knees and weeping.

Devon had experienced DeepRoot’s touch and knew what Cappy must be seeing with his mind’s eye. He could not imagine how much more powerful the experience must be for Cappy, being the one responsible for the creepers’ pain.

Burgess watched in horror as his boss wept like a child.

“Is that thing gonna do that to me too?” He asked.

Devon shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it all depends on how sorry you are for what you did. The creepers seem to be able to sense stuff like that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…sorry I ever came here. Sorry I ever let Cappy bully me into doing any of this. Sorry for how everything turned out. And most of all, I’m sorry for what we did to them. It wasn’t my idea…but I didn’t stop it either. I guess I deserve whatever they do to me.” Burgess sat down on the ground holding his head in his hands, weeping.

ClearSky emerged from the forest, walking over to Burgess. She looked down at him for a few moments, her huge eyes reflecting the afternoon light. She gently reached down, putting her hand on the grubby man’s shoulder. Burgess froze for a moment and then looked up in wonder.

“They forgive me,” he cried. “How can they be so understanding?”

Devon and the others looked at each other, all smiling. Perhaps the creepers were not the only ones who had been saved that day.

Devon though he might have seen Jacinda wipe away a few tears as well, but he decided not to mention it.