Page 100 of Pets in Space 10

The lights from their combined fire was too bright for Lira to see if they were having any success at breaking through. She lifted her free hand to screen her eyes and kept firing.

And then she felt the flow of the murky fluid changing. She was being pulled down in a swirling rush.

She felt Miles grip her utility belt and she spun with him into the rapidly forming vortex. She feared her suit would rip on the jagged edges of the habitat, but by some miracle the hole had widened before they got there.

Suddenly they were outside in a different kind of maelstrom. Lira couldn’t process much except that Miles seemed to be trying to pull her closer to him. She kicked, trying to help him, and then his arms closed around her middle, both of his hands gripping her utility belt in the front now.

From the upward rush, they spun out into a different pulling force, one that threatened to take them back down into the habitat.

She kicked frantically now and knew Miles did, too. Her suit’s sensors were pinging on every warning they possessed, at least the ones that still worked.

Her suit light still worked but it wasn’t that much of a blessing. Debris swirled in whatever substance they were now in. She took blows and knew Miles must have, too. Her suit hadn’t been designed to stand up to this level of stress.

She thought Miles’ head tilted back and she looked up, too.

Bubbles. The nanite bubbles were up there. They might represent safety or not.

The Skaridrex she’d seen in the arched walkway into the habitat suddenly seemed to surround them. Well, this was it, then.

***

Miles thought he knew what was happening. Somehow the Vorthari had opened a vent to allow heat out and water in. It wasn’t a perfect blend, which was why they weren’t already dead. But the melted water was still rapidly turning eroding salt crystals into the water.

Subsidence on steroids.

Every geologist worth their salt — he winced at the unintentional joke — knew about the Lake Peigneur incident when a crew accidentally drilled into a salt mine. Water rushed into the mine, sucking the water from the lake into the mine, and taking down the drilling rig with it.

This wasn’t quite the same thing, but it could be. If the water kept coming, eventually the facility over their head would be sucked down and they’d be toast.

He looked up and saw the nanite bubbles. If they could reach them, they might help. He couldn’t believe he even had the thought, but desperation did strange things to a brain.

He began to kick. He couldn’t let go of Lira, so all he had were his legs.

And then just out of sight of his suit light, he saw the fractal patterns he’d been told were the Skaridrex.

That couldn’t be good.

But maybe it was. The downward drag eased, and they actually began to rise toward the bubble barrier.

More of the fractals surrounded them and the upward surge intensified until he slammed into the barrier.

Luckily his hands were hooked in Lira’s utility belt, or he’d have lost his hold on her from the impact.

That was the good news.

The bad news was it felt solid on this side. How did they get through it?

He didn’t realize they were sinking into the wall at first, not until he saw bubbles in his periphery vision. Something grabbed the back of his belt and pulled and they burst out into the chamber on the other side of the wall.

His first sensation was extreme relief. His second that Lira was a sturdy girl. His third…was that T’Korrin flying?

The bird was screeching loudly, flying toward their exit, then whirling around as if to herd them.

The bird was right.

“We need to get out of here,” he said.

“Subsidence is happening at an accelerated rate,” Harold agreed.

Miles realized that Harold was retracting some kind of grapple.

“You pulled us out.”

“The nanites helped,” Harold said, extending a hand to pull first Lira, then Miles to their feet.

Her father was already standing by the exit tunnel.

“We need to hurry,” he said.

Lira stood staring at T’Korrin, then gave herself a shake as the bird flew into the escape tunnel and out of sight.

“The slacker,” she muttered and then, as Miles grabbed her hand and pulled her into a run.

***

If the trip down had been tense, the trip up made that look like a walk through a mildly creepy cemetery. This was every horror and sci-fi movie black moment ever.

And that was before they got to the lift. It took all he had to step into that thing with the sides of the tunnel heaving and shedding debris from walls and ceilings. They all looked like ghosts because some powder clung to their suits.

He wrapped his arms around Lira who buried her head in his shoulder and clung back. After an endless, wracking ride, they stumbled out onto the small platform. Just to make things more exciting, it was starting to crumble at the edges.

Harold took the lead, followed by Lira’s father, Lira and then Miles. It felt like all the rock hounds of hell were on his heels as they scrambled up the ancient stairs, pausing from endless time and several innumerable waits for Harold to clear away more rubble than they could squeeze past.

He helped both Lira and her father up into the basement and then Harold hoisted him up and they scrambled for the door. More debris to clear away.

Through the kitchen being attacked by flying, non-breakable items.

Lira’s father took the lead outside, since he knew the quickest way out.

Running.

Dodging.

Falling.

Getting up.

Running some more.

And then the atrium was in sight.

They were around it.

They spilled out into bright light. Okay, he face-planted.

He scrambled upright, noting without happiness, that steam vents had formed all around the facility.

Lira ran toward her runner, and he followed her.

Her father and Harold scrambled into their runner.

Had the father and the robot bonded while alone?

T’Korrin came with them, still screeching its warning. It circled the runner once, then flew inside.

Miles ducked, even though he was sure the bird meant to miss him. It made a mocking sound before setting down on the deck behind Lira’s seat.

Engine on.

Enough power to lift.

The ground under them was rippling and moving as if it couldn’t make up its mind if it was solid or fluid.

Harold and Lira’s father were in the air.

So were they.

“More altitude,” Miles said, trying to snap out the order.

Below them he saw the first signs the area around the facility was beginning to collapse.

Like the round habitat below, the subsidence was circular. It surged around the building, slowly at first. Then the whole facility began to rotate. Water spouting from the ground with the released steam pressure.

A sudden waterfall formed to one side, tilting the facility to one side. More and more water surged up out of the ground. In a kind of horrifying slow motion, the facility tipped more and more to the side and then sank out of sight in a slow-moving whirlpool.

All the water that had come up out of the ground, now vanished from sight down the hole.

“Wait for it,” Miles said, even though Lira hadn’t made a sound.

As they circled about the now gaping hole, water began to seep upwards again. The water was probably hot, he decided because it kept bubbling up. The edges began to freeze, the ice creeping slowly toward the center of the newly formed lake.

Something appeared in that center.

The roof of the facility.

It didn’t fully emerge. It bobbed up a little, then sank until just the corner of the roof was still visible, a small, dark island in a sea of mostly white ice.

“Sedimentary, my dear…” he didn’t finish the sentence. He’d always wanted a reason to say it, but Lira wasn’t the right audience. It was possible there wasn’t a right audience.

Following Harold’s lead, Lira turned her runner until they were well away from area. They both landed and they all climbed out. Harold had picked a small ice drift that had enough rise so they could see the facility, or rather what was left of it.

“Well,” Lira’s father said, finally breaking the long silence, “that is a very interesting turn of events.”

Even Harold turned to give him a look that Miles believed was incredulous.

Lira tried a couple of times to speak, but she ended up just shaking her head.

T’Korrin made a disgusted sound and flew up to land on top of the runner.

“You could fly all this time, couldn’t you?” Lira said.

The bird ruffled his feathers in a way that looked very much like a shrug to Miles.

“He started flying because we weren’t paying attention to his warning that something was very wrong,” her father said. “We weren’t too worried when you didn’t come out, but then he got very agitated. The nanite barrier began to change colors, too.”

“And the seismic activity increased,” Harold put in.

“How did you know when and where to retrieve us?” Miles asked. It wasn’t need-to-know or anything, but he was curious.

“The nanites signaled me when you made contact with their surface,” Harold said. “I deployed my grapple.”

“Thank you,” Miles said, and Lira echoed it.

If he didn’t know better, he’d say the robot was embarrassed.

“Of course.”

“And thank you, T’Korrin,” Miles added. “I wish we could thank the nanites,” he added.

“I’m sorry they are stuck in there,” Lira said.

“They will be fine,” Harold said.

It could have been taken as a heartless statement, but Miles had a feeling that Harold knew something they didn’t. He nodded instead of asking anything more.

The bird gave the impression of a regal nod of acknowledgment.

“Is it finished, do you think?” Lira asked, turning back to gaze at what was left of the facility.

No one would be sleeping there ever again.

The ground around them was remarkably calm now.

“Finished?” Miles shook his head. “Maybe. If the chamber below filled up with water and silica, it could be relatively stable. No reason to stay here, though.”