Worlds on Edge by M. Pax

Author:M. Pax [Pax, M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Adventure, Alien Invasion, Colonization, Exploration, Genetic Engineering, Space Opera, Space Exploration, Science Fiction
Amazon: B00IU0TM6K
Publisher: M. Pax
Published: 2014-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

Meelo

With the help of Dauffer, the burro, and the stranded tourists, Meelo had Pardeep’s natural subterranean tunnels mapped between the ranch and the docking facility. She sent the others off on the hunt for some of Pauder’s ammunitions while she ventured farther north, marking her way with charcoal symbols. Perhaps the ancients of Pardeep, who had left their engraved marks, had explored the underground the same way.

She crawled and scurried through a cramped passageway, her elbows and knees scratched raw, her coat worn thin and torn from rubbing so much against the unforgiving stone. If she let the spark sticks go out, darkness embraced her, holding her in its absolute confines. Her sight couldn’t discern where it ended and she began. She felt her way along the narrow passage, relishing the quiet and the pure solitude.

Some of her past exhaled into the total black and stayed there, lingering then dispersing into the expanse, freeing her, unburdening her. Finally.

From the pocket made from her cousin’s socks, she pulled out an old-fashioned compass Dauffer had given her, war surplus, and checked her direction. The tunnel continued north. Good.

Digging her raw and bloodied fingers into the rock, she crept forward, searching. The spring Pauder had claimed as the only natural water source on Pardeep had to be more than a spring. She had two reasons to believe so.

First, the Water-breather, who had come to Pardeep with the Fo’wo’s when Meelo’s secret life as a snitcher had been revealed, had jumped in the spring under the ash sea and had never resurfaced. The Water-breather couldn’t be seen, disappearing into the depths and staying there. Unless the eely thing had huddled in a corner, the spring spread much farther than that one little hole.

Second, these tunnels suggested liquid water had once been more plentiful inside the moon and from more than the trapped meltings of one asteroid. It didn’t matter how the water came to exist, she needed to find it without resorting to an excursion under the great ash sea. Without the proper equipment, she wouldn’t survive it.

She pulled out another spark stick from her coat and snapped it to activate the chemical light. She marked the wall with the charcoal and continued crawling. At the next junction, her gut told her to swing west. So she did, marking the wall again. Encouraged by a subtle coolness and a change in the feel of the rock and dust, she edged along the passage.

Pardeep Station held onto a more temperate climate underground, thawing out her joints. The spark stick fizzled out. It didn’t stop her. She kept making her way forward, feeling with her hands then pulling her body to catch up.

After what passed for an eon, the unmistakable mineral scent of water hit her nose. Another two feet forward and the sides of the tunnel stretched out of reach of her fingertips. Faint light trickled from above, casting the passage in dark gray instead of black. She could make out her hand, well the movement of it.

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