Journey to the Heart of Luna - Andy Frankham-Allen [66]
For a moment he laid there, uncomfortably on top of the guard’s dead body, until a spindly insect arm reached down to help him to his feet. He smiled up at K’chuk. “It is most agreeable to see you,” he said.
“Agreeable too, friend Stone,” K’chuk replied. “Friend Annabelle said…”
Whatever she had told K’chuk was cut off by the sound of Annabelle calling Folkard’s name. Nathanial spun. A shot fired from Folkard’s carbine, but not in time to catch Tereshkov who had fled into the nearest tunnel. Without even thinking, Nathanial grabbed hold of the discarded Russian rifle and gave chase.
4.
ANNABELLE WATCHED as Nathanial hared off, a feeling close to incredulity building in her. This was a side of Nathanial she had never seen before. Perhaps being around a naval captain had affected him in a positive way. She smiled at this.
“Miss Somerset,” Captain Folkard said, stepping forward, “introductions must be saved for later, I fear. If you will excuse me, I…”
Annabelle shook her head. “No, Captain, allow K’chuk. He is much faster than you, and this,” she indicated the metal wall, “is the Selenites’ Holy of Holies.”
Folkard looked confused, but he did not get a chance to argue the toss, since K’chuk dropped onto his six legs and scuttled off down the tunnel with speed a human could only dream of. Folkard shook his head, and smiled grimly.
“Very well, then.” He looked to the wall. “Holy of Holies?”
Annabelle did not answer. Lying there before the wall was her uncle. She slung the carbine over her shoulder and scrambled over to him. “Uncle!”
Folkard came up behind her. “He breathes, Miss Somerset.”
She looked at her uncle’s portly belly, which was rising and falling gently. “Oh, uncle!” she said, and lowered her head onto his body so that Captain Folkard would not see her tears.
5.
TERESHKOV HAD vanished. Nathanial did not know how that was possible, but it was that simple. He had followed the tunnel, the rifle held in his shaking hands, until he reached a dead end. Tereshkov had no way to slip past him.
He turned and leaned against the end wall. There was simply no way he could have missed Tereshkov. Maybe there was some kind of secret passage? If so, in this light it would be almost impossible to find. Tereshkov had been on Luna for many months; he surely knew his way around better than any other bar the Selenites.
Nathanial looked up at the sound of someone approaching. He lifted the rifle. Now the chase was over and the adrenalin rush had subsided he began to feel fearful. He had never shot a weapon in his life. How did one prepare oneself for the buck of the shot?
He need not have worried. The figure that appeared around the corner of the tunnel was the unmistakable form of K’chuk.
“Friend Stone.”
“K’chuk, I am afraid Tereshkov has vanished.”
K’chuk nodded. “Not vanish. Drobates. They take from tunnels, do things.”
Nathanial frowned. “Things? What are Drobates?”
It seemed, for a moment, that K’chuk was going to respond, but instead he turned and walked. “We return to friend Annabelle and see gooddoctor.”
Nathanial shook his head. He did so hate it when K’chuk became evasive. Hopefully, in time, the Selenites would learn to be more trusting of outsiders. Certainly the Russians had given them no reason to be so, but perhaps they had now learned that not all humans were the same.
“K’chuk,” he said, as he started following, “why is there metal in these walls?” He had not noticed before, too intent on following Tereshkov, but now he could see that the same metal from the chamber continued on behind the rock of the tunnel wall.
“Heart lives in world.”
“Right,” Nathanial said, feeling that explained nothing at all.
6.
“ALIVE, YOU say? That is absurd.”
“Can you not conceive of intelligence unless it is clothed in flesh and bone, Captain Folkard?” Doctor Grant asked in an Arizonian drawl.
They were standing in a tent which had been set up as a triage unit. Doctor Beverly was attending to