Claire Takes On The Galaxy

Claire - Chapter Nine

Claire had seen cliffs on Earth but nothing had prepared her for the awesome majesty of the valley’s northern bluffs. These were faces of hard rock, sixteen kilometres high. As the planet did not have earth’s complex geological history, there were no layers or texture, just grey rock with the consistency of granite – a grey curtain looming over the valley. She looked upwards from the seat of the transporter she, James and Maddie were in, trying to see the top. She couldn’t.

The transporter, about three times the length of a family car, used lift crystals for elevation with enclosed hovercraft-style propellers at the back for thrust. The craft did not have the same power and speed as helicopters on earth, James explained, and stopping them once they were started could be a problem. But it was far more convenient and economical than a helicopter and could be taken into the tunnels that laced the northern cliffs – the tunnels they intended to go that day. The energy was supplied by two biofuel engines that drove the propellers and powered the lift crystals. The engines were usually the part that gave trouble.

“I fixed one of these craft once,” Maddie told Claire on the way out.

“You did?”

“Sure. Miners brought in a small one when James was over at the main mining site. I just got them to let the workshop diagnostic system connect to the craft electronics and the system told me what to do. I had to replace a panel with a chip in it. It told me where the spare was, I plugged it in and the engine worked.”

“That’s my girl,” said James.

“I had no idea what I was doing, just following what the system told me to do,” said Maddie, “but the miners were impressed.”

“I bet they were, that was well done,” said Claire. “The craft you have here is convenient for travel.” The forward compartment had the same room as the rear compartment of a stretch limousine on earth with two pilot seats at the front, meaning that there was room to move around. A hatch on the rear bulkhead led to sleeping and equipment storage areas, and then to the engines.

“It’s actually Maddie’s,” said James. “It belonged to her foster parents, so it should be hers when the estate is finalised, but that’s not going to happen soon.”

“Hasn’t it been more than a year,” asked Claire, “what’s the hold up.”

“It’s because I’m supposed to have killed them?” said Maddie, ruefully.

“What?”

“The investigation is still ongoing,” said James, “and that means the estate can’t be settled. Dog has tried to get them to declare the matter unresolved and leave it at that, but the investigator who was out here..”

“He was horrible,” said Maddie.

“Proved to be pig-headed and vindictive. He and I exchanged views on the matter, in heat, and that got his back up. He’s kept the file open out of spite.”

“I can’t even get adopted again,” said Maddie. “I tell people James is my foster dad, but he’s not official.”

“The fact that I’m banished over a large bank heist doesn’t help,” said James, “but Maddie is also under investigation and that’s proved too hard for the administration back on Earth. No one will do anything until the investigation is declared to be at an end.”

“You poor thing,” said Claire to Maddie, who looked close to crying. Claire surprised herself by hugging the child. The marine had never really thought of herself as motherly. “No wonder you want to join in the Shade hunt.”

“If we can prove they exist, then I could at least go back to being a poor little adopted girl,” said Maddie, “instead of poor little orphan girl.”

“A poor little orphan girl who gets to boss James around and skips school whenever she feels like it,” said Claire.

“A poor little orphan girl who has to raise James and has to tailor her own educational experience,” corrected Maddie. “James showed me one of the books that go with the education system. I asked him what tailored and educational experience meant, and it sounds like what I’m doing.”

The craft rose until it came to a huge gap in the cliffs, the precursor to the equally massive pit that gave the world its name. To their left was a group of buildings, including a landing pad on which two transporters were parked, and beyond was a void – as void was the only word Claire could think of to describe the space. It was, as far as she could tell, a circular hole so large that she could not see the other side. On the lip of this hole closest to the buildings, a mining base, was a fence and a viewing platform for those who liked to look into total blackness. Below the fence, on a part of the hole still in light at that time, Claire could see the uniform grey of the cliffs was streaked with traces of lighter material. Their craft kept on going out into this void, to the point where the mining base was just a series of white blocks, and still she could not see the far side.

“What caused this?” asked Claire.

“The official story is that it’s a meteorite impact crater,” said James, “but then the planetary formation guys blame everything they can’t explain on collisions and impacts. It’s far too deep and regular for a meteorite crater, and no meteorite could have formed the tunnels we’ll see in a moment.”

James swung the transporter to the right, the east, and descended gently into the void. He switched on the craft’s external lights, but those made little impression on the blackness, and navigated via a display on the craft’s dashboard. Claire sat with him a while to learn the basics and did a little piloting – it was far simpler than an aircraft, she was told – then Maddie. After what seemed an eternity, Claire could see the side of the pit in the lights and a black circle several times larger than the transporter – a tunnel.

“Is this natural?” asked Claire.

“Seems way to regular to be natural but scientists say it is as they can’t find any traces of machining,” said James. “There’s a whole maze of them the miners are slowly exploring and mapping. Sometimes they find small caches of crystals, and sometimes the miners go missing, like Maddie’s foster parents.”

“Most of what I remember about being with Lydia and Ben is them checking these tunnels,” said Maddie. “I even had school lessons out here with an education package they had.”

“Did they find anything?”

“Don’t think so, and there’s never anything to see out there.”

Claire leaned forward to peer out of the pilot window. All she could see was more of the grey rock in a completely circular tunnel. After another ten minutes of flying the tunnel walls abruptly vanished.

“Central,” announced James.

“What’s central?”

“Another hole – big space underground that has a lot of other different tunnels going out of it. Again, no one has any idea why this big space is here, but it’s a sort-of interchange. You get here by one tunnel then pick another tunnel and keep going. Any shades will be much further east, so that’s the way we’re going. There’s another craft below us on that side. James gestured to the right and Claire and Maddie peered out. Far beneath them they would see the glow of a craft’s lights, giving Claire an idea of the scale of the vast chasm.

“Checking the sides for crystals,” said Maddie.

“Looks that way,” said James. “We’ve just said hi by text, so we’ll move on before they accuse us of claim jumping or something and keep heading East.”

He moved the craft into another tunnel. Claire took the controls for a time but found she had little to do. Eventually, James declared that they should set down.

“Computers say this is the spot. We’ll get out for a moment. Air outside is not so good, so breathers everyone, and know where the electronic kill switch is. You okay?” The last question was addressed to Maddie who was looking apprehensive. She nodded.

Claire put her arm around Maddie. “You don’t have to come out.”

“I want to.”

They picked up torches and pulled on the masks, which were something like ones worn by divers back on Earth but enclosing the face and mouth so that they could breathe and still talk into microphones. Claire had been drilled on their use in basic. James handed her a knife in a sheath that could be clipped onto her standard issue marine belt.

“Wish we had a pistol or two but it’s better than nothing,” he said.

Claire took it and clipped it onto her belt. “What about you?”

James reached behind his neck and pulled out a knife from a sheath strapped there. It was in fact the same throwing knife taken from Corporal Gellert, although he spared Claire that information. He had been practising with it and thought he might be able to hit a shade if one presented itself.

“You are a dangerous man, Mr Truslove,” said Claire, smiling.

They got out into what seemed to Claire to be a gigantic horizontal cylinder. She bent down and ran her gloved hand over the surface. Although the tunnel was circular the texture of the surface was rough and pitted, something like granite back on earth. She shone her torch the way they had been going. Nothing. Her light was just swallowed up in the darkness, but she thought she saw some more darkness to the right – a cross tunnel perhaps twenty paces or so in front of the craft.

“Brew and I marked where we found the right front landing strut of the craft,” said James. “Here it is.”

Claire moved up a few paces to pick out a yellow, spray painted stripe in the light of her torch. Maddie was by her side. “There’s a side tunnel – the Shades could’ve been in there,” she said.

“That’s what we think,” said James. “The creatures were in that tunnel when the Tamlyns – that’s Maddie’s parents – got out. Now look here. This is where we found the glow stick that Maddie threw.” They walked on a few more paces and he indicated another mark just by the side tunnel. “So that should put the creature just about here.” He indicated an area just inside the side tunnel.

“I couldn’t see anything – I couldn’t switch the transporter back on and I couldn’t find my breather,” said Maddie. “I happened to know there were glow sticks in the bag by the door.”

“Just as well you didn’t turn the transporter back on,” said James. “They could have come after you. We checked but we couldn’t find any traces of the creature, or any sign of the Tamlyns’ bodies.”

Claire waved her torch over the bits of the main tunnel and side tunnel it could reach but could also see nothing.

“Where does the main tunnel go?”

“Nowhere much. An hour in the transporter will take you to another big, vertical shaft with no traces of anything.”

“What about the side tunnel?”

“If we go for about ten minutes by transporter it connects with a major tunnel – a straight T-junction,” said James. “To the right it just goes back to the main pit, to the left there are a few options. About an hour in it branches, then branches again into smaller tunnels that don’t go in straight line. We could have a look at them?”

“Why not?” said Claire. “We’re brave alien hunters.”

“We are?” asked Maddie.

“We’re brave alien hunters who know when to run away.”

“Oh, okay.”

They moved on, eating sandwiches for lunch, with both Claire and Maddie taking turns at the controls, although the autopilot did most of the work. Then the tunnel they were in split in two. One branch went up at a gentle incline and the other sloped downwards. Unlike all the other tunnels they had seen, the down tunnel was not perfectly circular. There were occasional protrusions and ridges of rock.

“Up or down?” asked James.

“Horrible aliens are probably down in the bad tunnel,” said Claire.

The transporter could still fit easily in the down tunnel but they went more slowly to avoid hitting any of the irregularities with all three of the party peering out of the front screens. Cameras and infrared monitors both fore and aft showed nothing apart from masses of rock. The tunnel abruptly ended at a down shaft that had the same unfinished appearance of the tunnel.

“This is as far as we got before,” said James, “but there is just enough room to fit the transporter.” They descended, turning slowly to inspect the side of the shaft. James stopped the craft abruptly. “Don’t those look like stairs?”

Claire could see an uneven, zig zag pattern in the rock marching upwards.

“Seem narrow,” she said.

“Humans could use them, but you’d want a safety line. Let’s follow them.”

They followed the stairs from the top to the bottom of the down shaft, where another tunnel led east. Unlike all the others, this was roughly semi-circular – more like a Hollywood idea of a cave, than a tunnel – with a distinct trail at the centre, covered in pebbles and flakes of rock. They got out and inspected this trail under strong lights.

“Impressions of feet?” said Claire, pointing at marks in the gravel on the trail.

“Well spotted, Claire Williams, alien hunter,” said James. “Of course, we haven’t been able to find traces until here, now that I think of it. Everyplace else has been bare rock and these creatures, whatever they are, don’t leave marks on rocks. It’s still not much but it’s better than nothing.” They took pictures and moved on. Another kilometre down the track, the mining systems on the transporter detected metal in the rocks. They got out to find a device with a small screen, completely smashed, under a rock outcropping.

“My game device!” exclaimed Maddie. “I was using this when the shades attacked.”

“They came this way then,” said James, looking at the coarse gravel on the tunnel floor. “Looks as if the device got dropped or thrown and it stopped working, so they lost interest in it. Something to put in a report.”

They put the device in a plastic bag as it counted as evidence and James thought that was what you were supposed to do with evidence – put it in a plastic bag. After another fifteen minutes of slow travel they came to a larger area that was an apparent dead end, except for a smaller tunnel that led up. They got out and shone light up this tunnel which was steep and much too small for the transporter.

“We can explore it on foot, I suppose, but we can’t go too far. It’ll soon be time for fearless alien hunters to head back for dinner.”

“Fearless alien hunters should have dinner,” agreed Claire. “Why can’t aliens be in nice, well-lighted areas, instead of horrible holes.”

“Do you feel that?” said James, suddenly.

“Feel what?”

“A breeze; a wind.” He ripped his face mask off, leaving it to hang by a restraining strap, and sniffed experimentally. “Air is fine here and there is a breeze coming from somewhere.” The others took off their masks. There was a breeze. They followed it to the south wall which they now realised was not a wall, but another, short passage which would have led straight out onto the valley floor, except that it was masked by a thick stand of the valley’s twisted trees.

“How about that,” said James, delighted. “Another entry to the tunnel system. We’ve never found anything like this before.” He returned to the transporter for a portable buzz saw on a long electrical cable to cut the trees away.

“I thought no one was allowed to chop down the trees,” said Claire.

“There are exceptions for necessary work. I’ll do it before anyone has a chance to complain and get Dog to fill out the permission forms when we get back. He knows how to post-date them. No-one but green groups back on earth care about these trees. Horrible things. Anyway, Jenny Alder could do with the wood to make those souvenir knick-knacks of hers.”

“Oh good,” said Maddie. “Jenny Alder is useless Graham’s mum,” she explained to Claire. “His dad is a miner but not doing so well. His mum makes stuff out of local wood in that building opposite the Dollhouse and sells them to rich collectors on Earth. She sells a enough of those and they’ll go back to Earth,” she smiled “and take Graham with them.”

“Graham stands out, out here,” said James, adjusting the controls on the cutter. “But there’re lots of useless people on Earth. If he goes back he’ll blend right in.”

“His mum is nice,” said Maddie to Claire. “She sent me a message when you yelled at James. But no one likes his dad.”

Then James started the cutter, making so much noise in the cave, which echoed, that Claire and Maddie decided to explore the narrow tunnel. This proved to be at least quieter, and the air was still fresh enough for them to leave their breathers off, but far more claustrophobic than the tunnels they had been in to date. As the larger of the two fierce alien hunters Claire went first, although she was not keen on doing so. She had no affinity with cave exploring or spelunking, as James called it. In her view dark, uncomfortable holes should be ignored, not investigated. Maddie hung onto her belt, holding out her own torch.

“I got some of the glow sticks from the transporter,” she said.

They moved more than one hundred paces or so up the tunnel, the sound of James cutting down trees fading.

“Look there!” said Maddie, “in the gravel.”

It was a footprint. The clearest they had seen to date. It looked almost human in that it had a distinct rounded heel spreading out into a broad foot with a part missing where the arch of a foot might be. The shape ended in protrusion that might be a big toe. Claire took a picture with her phone, then felt Maddie’s hand tighten around her belt.

“Listen!” she whispered urgently.

Above the distant sound of James’s saw Claire thought she could hear a sigh, a sound of breath being expelled from an alien mouth. Fear touched her, but did not master her.

“Keep calm,” she recalled a senior sergeant saying in a lecture about facing dangerous situations. “The very worst thing you can do is panic. The next worse thing is to blunder about. Think of a plan, sometimes any plan, and do it.”

“Torches off,” she snapped. The tunnel was plunged into darkness. “Let’s back away down the tunnel.” Getting to the transporter and leaving seemed like a good plan. They turned, Claire pushing Maddie gently before her. Light from the end of the tunnel served only to turn the tunnel’s many obstacles into dim shadows. They could not move fast. The sighing increased. Claire felt as if she was in one of those nightmares where deadly danger was behind her, but she could move only slowly.

“Our phones,” whispered Maddie. “Remember what James said.”

“Good point,” Claire whispered back. “Turn yours off, quick.” Claire was just about to turn hers off, then switched to the camera function instead. “You have those glow sticks?”

“Yes?”

“Break one and throw it and keep backing away. I’ll be right behind you.”

Maddie took out a stick, broke it and then opted for a backhand boomerang throw which kept the stick clear of the cave’s obstacles to sail perhaps three body lengths. There! Beyond the glow stick’s pool of light was the shadow of a humanoid form, about Claire’s height but stockier, long arms by its sides. Claire touched the camera button. The camera flashed momentarily blinded her. The sighing turned to a snarl. The Shades, whatever they were, did not like bright lights.

“Claire!” whispered Maddie urgently from down the tunnel.

“Keep moving.” Claire backed away, she had to look briefly at her phone’s screen to turn it off and banged her head against an outcrop. She yelped.

“Claire!”

Claire shook her head then, finally remembering her knife, drew it to hold it out before her, blade up as she had been taught. She sensed rather than saw the creature hesitate. She shuffled back a little faster, bent over to avoid banging her head.

“I think these things understand knives,” she whispered to Maddie. “Use another glow stick to see so you can get out fast and tell James to get the transporter ready.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“I won’t be far behind. You can count on it.” She did not dare look back but there was a glow as Maddie broke a stick then rushed off. She thought she could see two red dots maybe just a few paces further up the tunnel. Behind them were another two red points. “Come on you bastards,” she breathed. “I’m not a miner you can jump.”

Where was the Claire who had opened the closet door in the church? That Claire would not have snarled defiance at aliens down a hole on a distant planet. Much later Claire realised she had been lucky on that first encounter. The Shades could not get behind her. She backed away as fast as she dared and, after another minute, was aware that it was light enough for her to see the walls of the cave. She was close to its mouth. James was just outside the cave entrance. He was calm.

“Claire, we’re set up to leave. Maddie’s on the transporter, and it’s revving. When you get out turn and go. I’ll race you to the side hatch.”

“You’re on,” said Claire. She brandished her knife at the Shades again, still just dim shapes in the cave, then turned and ran abreast with James. The transporter and been turned around and pointed at the entrance to the valley floor. Enough trees had been cleared away for it to get through. Claire dived through the transporter hatch. James jumped up and turned, holding his knife by the blade. Claire saw him fling it and heard something shriek. She looked out to see a pale-skinned form huddled on the cavern floor, clutching at something in its side. She glimpsed two more forms spread out, one climbing the cavern wall with ease.

“Maddie punch it!” yelled James. He slammed the hatch shut. The craft surged forward, brushed past the trees and shot out onto the valley floor.

They hovered above the valley floor, well out of any likely jumping distance, asking each other if they were alright. Taking over the controls James turned the transporter to point towards the cave entrance and switched on the spot light used for mining, but they could not see anything. As they dared not get any closer, and it was too late to go back to the main pit, there was nothing else to be done, so they left.

“You two did well,” said James. “Backing out of there coolly; Maddie coming to tell me what was happening, so we could all ran away at the right time, like the fierce alien hunters that we are. No human casualties.”

“What about the Shade you hit?”

“The recording systems were on at the time. They may have caught the action.”

After dinner they reviewed the picture Claire took, and the ship recordings in what proved to be a de-briefing session. The cams on the transporter were positioned to take pictures square to the ship and the Shade had been approaching at an angle, and it had been dark. That meant the Shade appeared as an indistinct figure in a few frames. The picture Claire took was better but by no means conclusive. After cleaning up the images with the software James had to hand, a pale, humanoid face with no nose, a gash of a mouth and a red, bulging eyes, emerged. The torso was shaped something like that of a hairless, ape with white skin, long arms and thick legs.

“Ick!” said Maddie.

“Probably it has a mother which loves it,” said James.

“Are you alright with all of this?” Claire asked Maddie.

“I feel better now that there’s something more than poor little orphan girl claiming stuff.”

“It’s not much evidence,” said James, “but it’s worth sending on. I’ll get Brew and a couple of the other miners to come with me and we’ll check out that cavern. Maybe my knife got dropped; maybe there’s a blood trail.”

“I’m coming too,” said Claire. “I’m now a fearless alien hunter who knows when to run away.”

James came and sat beside her on the couch, facing her. Maddie vanished. They both had wine.

“Where has Maddie gone?”

“Upstairs to be with her virtual friends. She has some ridiculous idea that if left to ourselves we might do stuff.”

“Ridiculous – what stuff?” Claire was suddenly aware that after the day’s stressful incident, a physical release would be pleasant.

“Boy-girl stuff.” James edged closer

“Hmm, really! Boy-girl stuff? What boy-girl stuff?” She did not edge away. She had decided that she quite liked James.

“You’ve got to admit, that was quite a first date. Not many girls get to face down aliens on their first date.”

“Maybe,” said Claire. “But as far as girls are concerned, boys count as aliens who have to be faced down. Then there’s that rule about no girl-boy stuff on the first date. It’s not a bad rule.”

“Rules indeed,” said James, although he stopped edging. “I’m a criminal, remember. It’s not safe to quote rules to me. But if you must talk about arbitrary rules, then I also helped you and your friends thaw out a couple of times – that sort of counts as dates.”

“That depends,” said Claire, turning to face him, aware that the wine was affecting her.

“On what?”

“This is just about fun, right? We have fun and then I get on the troop transport outta here at the end of my tour with no regrets.”

“I’m a guy,” said James spreading his arms. “When is it about anything else with guys?”

Claire rolled her eyes then smiled. “Then let’s see what you’ve got, criminal.”