Dark Side of Luna by J. T. Wilson & Frank Chadwick

Author:J. T. Wilson & Frank Chadwick [Wilson, J. T. & Chadwick, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction, Steampunk
Publisher: Untreed Reads Publishing
Published: 2014-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“An Escape!”

1.

CHIEF CHARLES cursed under his breath as the Drobate overseers struck a Selenite prisoner with enough force to knock it to its knees. Beside him K’chuk shifted restlessly but Charles put a steadying hand on his forelimb.

“Easy now. Won’t do them any good us getting killed or captured.”

“Yes, friend Charles. Knowing not make watching easy.”

No it didn’t. This was the second time they had lain in the rocks and watched the work party brought out. Was that two days? With no cycle of day and night it was hard to gauge the passage of time. Miss Somerset and Doctor Staples each had pocket watches but both had stopped working after the swim in the river. They’d lain up at the island for the better part of a day as well, gathering food and strengthening the raft. They’d even built a lean-to shelter to block the damp wind which blew down the underground passage. That was odd; Charles couldn’t remember feeling much wind anywhere else on Luna, but a persistent breeze followed the course of the river.

It was only a few hours after they’d left the island that they’d run a long but not particularly difficult rapids and the river had emptied into an enormous cavern, far bigger than the one holding Otterbein Base. The far side of the cavern was simply the glowing fungus of the roof extended right down to the water, so the cavern clearly stretched beyond the horizon—which was quite a bit closer here than on Earth, of course, so no telling how big the place was. One thing was immediately clear: they’d found the city.

Charles had looked back and seen three other distinct inlets into the cavern in addition to the one they had emerged from, all of them to the left of theirs. One of the inlets had no sign of white water, so it was undoubtedly the deep navigation channel the submersibles followed. The party had hiked down the right bank of the river originally, and so whenever the river forked, as it did numerous times, Charles always took the right branch. He’d done it to avoid getting lost in an underground maze, but the choice had saved their lives. The city sprawled along the right bank no more than a mile ahead. Charles had used the long steering sweep to skull the raft toward the shore and when they were close enough O’Hara and Gibbs had slid into the water and helped pull it toward the bank. They’d nestled in a small cove sheltered from direct observation from the city by a substantial rocky hill.

They’d camped. They’d explored the area around the cove. They’d inventoried their weapons and assets. They’d scouted the approaches to the city, found ways to sneak close in the towering rock walls of the cavern above the docks without being observed. They’d watched the work parties, including their people, emerge from the gate by the harbour and toil for hours rebuilding the wall. They’d gathered food and

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