Killer Planet

Chapter Five

In spite of the profusion of creeping plants and mosses, the going was much easier now that there was level pavement under their feet. They picked their way along the ruins of broad avenues, at times speculating about what kind of calamity had wiped out such an advanced and thriving culture. Rows of broken columns projecting from the ground-hugging vegetation increasingly reminded Jan of classical ruins on Earth, augmenting his sympathy for the long-dead Verdians.

The humid, murky atmosphere and the frequent stabs of lightning between the ground and the low cloud ceiling added to the pair’s sense of foreboding. It was impossible as yet to know what the Verdians themselves had looked like, but from the proportions of occasional doors and windows which had remained intact it seemed possible that the dead race had been about the same size and shape as human beings.

“I wish we could find a few statues,” Petra said. “It would be like meeting the Verdians face to face.”

Jan nodded. “That’s a thought. I wish we had a camera with us—just in case.”

“I’ve got a pencil, and I can make sketches.”

A few minutes later they had to skirt around a rectangular opening where a section of pavement had collapsed into what must have been a tunnel. An unusually bright flurry of lightning bolts lit up the scene for a moment, enabling them to see the remains of enigmatic machines in the subterranean dimness. The ruined equipment was heavily stained with rust.

“It looks a bit like a power station,” Petra said. “You can imagine workers scuttling around down there and…”

“Wait a minute!” Jan cut in, his words fading away rapidly into the surrounding gloom. “That looks like ordinary rust on those machines! In fact, I’m sure that’s what it is!”

“What of it?”

“Remember the official theory about what caused all the disasters on this world?”

Petra looked thoughtful. “Yes, something about our vehicles and machinery attracting lightning.”

“It was electromagnetic forces, actually, but lightning is near enough.”

“If lightning is near enough,” Petra said impatiently, “why don’t they just say lightning instead of dragging in long words?”

“Because electromagnetism covers other forces which can’t be seen, but which are just as powerful and…” Jan took a deep breath. “We’re getting away from the point, Petra. According to the theory, metal machinery could never have existed on Verdia—but those machines down in the tunnel are covered in ordinary rust. They must be made of metal! And if the Verdians routinely used metal artifacts…”

“Whatever destroyed our< forces must have come on the scene more recently!” Petra glanced up at the sullen clouds. “Could the climate of the planet have changed in the last hundred years or so?”

“I don’t know,” Jan replied. “This place is a bigger mystery to me than ever.”

Suppressing an unaccountable feeling that the threat against them had somehow become more immediate, they moved on. Frowning, their eyes constantly scanning their surroundings, they carefully made their way through mounds of rubble and strangely-coloured vegetation. An indeterminate time later they picked out the spire-like outline of a large spaceship jutting above some trees in the middle distance.

“That’s a civilian craft!” Jan gave a whoop of excitement. “We’re getting somewhere at last! That ship must be sitting where the engineering team landed—maybe we’ll find a sign telling us where they’ve gone.”

They worked their way towards the ship, occasionally hacking through curtains of vines, and scrambling over piles of masonry which had been upturned by massive roots. Eventually they reached the edge of an area where the vegetation was comparatively sparse—an indication that some clearing work had once been done—enabling them to see perhaps four hundred metres ahead.

The scene was one of utter desolation.

The giant spaceship was a rusting hulk which appeared to have been struck by a thousand lightning bolts. Its surface was covered with gashes and scars, where molten metal had run like candle wax, and the heavy plating had been blasted off in places to expose the ribs of the underlying structure. Jan tried to visualise what could have wreaked such damage, but his imagination baulked at the task.

Petra looked awe-struck as her eyes took in the extent of the destruction. “I hadn’t realised it would be as bad as that,” she whispered. “Something really awful must have happened here.”

Jan nodded, his face grim. “I think we’d better prepare ourselves for some ugly sights when we get closer.”

As they went farther into the cleared space around the ship they saw that the area was littered with derelict earth-moving equipment—bulldozers, diggers, trucks, dumpers. All of the machines were streaked with the corrosion which spread so rapidly in Verdia’s warm, moisture-laden atmosphere, and many were overgrown with moss and grass.

“They look like they’ve been here for ages,” Petra said, unconsciously lowering her voice. “Can it only have been two years?”

“Two years is a hell of a long time in a place like this,” Jan replied, wondering what state of health his brother and other survivors would be in after existing for so long in such unfavourable conditions.

He and Petra continued to advance cautiously, side by side, and had covered only a short distance when they discovered the first of the skeletons.

The remains of the development engineers had been picked clean, reduced to pallid bones by the jungle’s voracious scavenger animals and insects. They lay everywhere—the skulls grinning, the shadowy eye sockets seeming to reproach the pair for having arrived too late to render assistance in their hour of need.

Controlling her natural revulsion, Petra studied the skeletal figures like a forensic scientist, looking for any kind of a clue about what had happened to them on the fatal day of the landing.

“Look,” she said, touching Jan’s arm, “some of the skeletons are broken up…crushed right into the ground…

It’s as if somebody had deliberately driven right over them with the bulldozers. It’s ghastly!”

“You’re right—nothing else could have done that to them.” Numbed with horror though he was by the grisly finds, Jan’s mind seized on the sinister new element of the mystery of Verdia. Was it possible that some kind of terrible madness, perhaps induced by alien microbes, had afflicted the machines’ operators, prompting them to hunt down and crush their fellow workers? What other reason could there have been for workers turning their machines against their colleagues in such an orgy of death and destruction?

Jan and Petra stood in silence for a moment and, in spite of the oppressive heat, they both shuddered as they took in the vistas of dread.

Only two years earlier this spot had been bustling with life and activity—now it was a nightmarish graveyard, where the only movement was the furtive skulking of rat-like alien creatures and spiders nesting in skulls. Some terrible and unknown evil force had been at work here, and now it seemed that the two young people from Earth had been incredibly brash and presumptuous in pitting themselves against it…

Clank! Clank-clank!

The mechanical sound came from close behind, causing them to spin round to face it.

“What the hell’s that?” Jan exclaimed, features rigid with shock as he scanned the dimly lit surroundings.

“Over there!” Petra cried, pointing at one of the grass-shrouded metal hulks. “One of the bulldozers is moving!”

“But that’s imposs…” Jan’s voice faded as he saw that one of the mechanical monsters had indeed begun to stir. It was rolling directly towards them, and as it burst out of its covering of grass and creepers they saw that there was a skeleton leaning over the controls.

For one pounding instant they were paralysed with fear, then they instinctively linked hands and backed away, shaking their heads in appalled disbelief.

This was impossible!

There was no sound of engines—and yet the bulldozer was on the move; the skeletal figure in the control cabin could see nothing with its eyeless sockets—and yet the bulldozer was coming straight at the two young people. And it was obviously filled with deadly purpose!

Still holding hands, they ran to one side—and the bulldozer promptly changed course and came after them. They veered in the opposite direction, and again the clanking machine turned and came in pursuit.

The weapons in their limited arsenal were obviously useless against the armoured juggernaut, so the only thing to do was to flee to the comparative safety of the jungle.

Jan pointed at the nearest line of trees and Petra nodded. Separating a little in order to achieve maximum speed, they ran for the trees, leaping wildly over mounds of earth, bursting through thickets of brush and grass. Petra easily kept pace with Jan, her booted feet scarcely seeming to touch the ground.

They had covered about fifty metres when they made a fresh horrifying discovery—the lumbering machine was travelling faster than they could!

In normal circumstances they would have been able to outrun that kind of track-laying vehicle, but the bulldozer seemed to have been possessed by a demonic force which was driving it forward with supernatural speed. With an horrendous shrieking of rusted components, gloating skeleton at the controls, the bulldozer was gaining on them with every second. It was becoming quite obvious that they had no hope of winning a straight-line dash to the jungle.

“We’re not going to make it this way,” Jan gasped.

Petra’s strained expression showed that she had already reached the same conclusion. “Start zigzagging again! The dozer is so heavy and clumsy that it’s bound to lose speed when it corners.”

They immediately swerved to the left and heard the juggernaut’s tracks screech as it slewed around in pursuit. They changed direction several times in quick succession, each time with the bulldozer nearly on their heels, before they could accept that the new technique was not proving successful.

The machine’s preternatural speed and powers were enabling it to keep pace with them—and they were rapidly becoming exhausted. At this rate they probably had only a few tens of seconds left to them before the massive steel blade at the front of the bulldozer brought them down and pulped them into the ground.

Knuckling the sweat from their eyes, they cast about desperately for a means of escape. Ahead and slightly to the left was a shallow, dish-like depression in the pavement. It was reminiscent of the place where they had seen the ancient machinery in the collapsed tunnel section, and the thought came to Petra that underground rooms and workings might be commonplace in the ancient city.

“That might be…a weak spot,” she called out, pointing at the area of sagging pavement, her words blurred by the thick saltiness of exhaustion which was gathering in her mouth. “There might be…another tunnel.”

“It’s worth a try,” Jan panted.

As if responding to a silent command, they suddenly bore to the left and sprinted across the sagging masonry. They felt the paving slabs vibrate beneath their feet, and for a moment it seemed that the whole area might collapse into the depths and take both of them with it.

With one desperate effort they threw themselves at the far rim of the depression—just as the ancient stonework gave way beneath them.

The howling, screeching bulldozer—which had been within a few paces of them—tilted and plunged down into the freshly opened cavity with a deafening crash, sending clouds of dust and pulverised rock billowing into the air. They heard and felt it butting at subterranean walls, like some kind of blind animal struggling to escape from a cage. “That was a near one,” Jan said as they got to their feet at the rim of the cavernous hole which had appeared in the ground. “I thought we were finished.”

“I only hope the monster stays down there.” Petra had to shout to make herself heard above the appalling noise. Tremors raced through the ground every time the bulldozer impacted with the sides of its rocky prison. Apparently driven by some malign and supernatural force, the machine showed no sign of slackening its efforts to escape. The shriek of metal grinding on rusty metal continued to assault the senses, and every now and then there was the rumble of falling earth and masonry.

Jan looked down into the clamorous turmoil. “It’s bringing down a lot of broken rock. If it keeps on doing that it might be able to build a sort of ramp…climb out…”

Petra inclined her head towards the jungle’s edge. “The sooner we get in among those trees the better.”

They set out on legs which were still weary from running and the unnerving din of the bulldozer gradually faded behind them as they neared the inviting cover of the dense foliage. By the time they had penetrated a kilometre into the gigantic, dripping trees they were surrounded by comparative quietness—the sound of the jungle’s wild creatures no longer seemed as threatening as before—and they began to relax a little.

“I wonder if we should stop for a little while,” Jan said, wiping sweat from his brow.

“There’s no need—my legs feel all right again.”

“It’s all very well for you.” Jan gave Petra a rueful glance. “Back home you spent half your time sprinting around race tracks, while I was crammed inside the Seeker getting weak and flabby.”

“Excuses!” Petra taunted.

“Seriously though, we ought to eat something to keep up our strength,” Jan said. “I can’t remember the last time I even saw food.”

“You’re beginning to sound like Ozburt.” Petra pointed at a fallen tree whose trunk offered a good place on which to sit. “Why don’t you park your worn-out old body over there?”

“That looks fine—but I’m not taking any more chances.” Jan drew his sword and drove the point of it into the tree in several places. The blade met with a satisfying woody resistance, so he invited Petra to be seated with an exaggerated courtly gesture.

Joining in the game, she gathered up an imaginary crinoline skirt and sat down on the natural bench. “Talking about Ozburt—where do you think he is now?”

“My guess is that he’s been taken back to Jacksonville by this time.”

“I wonder if he’ll contact my parents and let them know what’s been happening.”

“He will,” Jan said confidently. “You know, I see now that I’ve been giving Ozburt a rough deal. I’m always ribbing him or getting at him for this and that, but when the chips were down he turned out to be an absolute ace. Not many people would have had the guts—or even the ability—to back me up the way he did. Considering the way I’ve been treating him, I’m amazed that he stuck with Dad and me on the Seeker project as long as he did.”

Petra gave him a sympathetic look. “We all know things haven’t been easy for you.”

“Thanks, but I still wish I had put things right with Ozburt before…” Deciding it would be better to abandon the subject, Jan opened his pouch and took out a squeezebulb of colourless liquid and a block of what might have been chocolate but when unwrapped proved to be a substance resembling grey plastic. He bit a corner off the block with some difficulty and began chewing.

Petra did likewise and a look of dismay appeared on her face. “My God, Jan, what’s this stuff meant to be? It looks like old tennis shoes, it smells like old tennis shoes…” She scrutinised the block in her hand. “I think it actually is old tennis shoes.”

“Eat up—it’s good for you,” Jan said, vainly trying to look enthusiastic. “It’s loaded with good stuff…protein…and vitamins…and…”

“Old tennis shoes.” Petra took a sip from her squeezebulb and her expression of distaste became even more evident. “Ugh! Sugary water!”

“For your information, that’s a high-energy glucose drink—scientifically designed to keep you going.”

“To the bathroom?” Petra showed her opinion of the drink by squirting some of it over Jan’s boots. “Next time we go on a picnic, Jan Hazard, I’m packing the hamper, and I’ll start off with something that’s worth eating.”

“Do me a favour and throw in some decent food for me,” Jan said, pretending to puke. “This stuff is pretty awful, isn’t it? My Dad chose the rations, and nobody can say he was planning to spoil himself on this trip.”

“Still, if we’d been loaded down with goodies we might not have gotten away from the bulldozer.” Petra’s eyes grew sombre as she recalled the narrowness of their escape. “The skeleton at the wheel looked horrible and spooky, but we know it had nothing to do with the bulldozer coming to life. It was just the remains of the poor driver who was…How can things like this happen, Jan? How could a bulldozer come to life?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, and not getting very far,” Jan said, toying with the unappetising foodstuff. “The official theory about Verdia…about planetary electromagnetic forces somehow entering machines and making them go haywire…has always seemed a bit too pat to me, too easy, too much of a cop-out—but at least it was based on the laws of Nature.”

“So you’re saying the bulldozer was taken over by something…supernatural?”

Jan shook his head. “I don’t want to say that—it goes against everything I was ever taught—but we both know what happened back there. The dozer came after us, hunted us, as if it was being controlled by some kind of an evil spirit. I can’t come up with a logical explanation for that, and I doubt if any of the eggheads back on Earth could, either.”

“We’re a long way from Earth,” Petra said pensively. “It might be that things work differently here. Perhaps the natural laws that we know, don’t apply in this part of the galaxy.”

“If that’s true, the odds against us are worse than we imagined. I was a real smart-ass, Petra. I was so sure I had everything worked out in advance, and now…”

“You’ve done well,” Petra said softly. “Your father would be proud of you.”

“Thanks.” Jan gave her a wry smile. “I wish I had been able to speak to him before I took off.”

“He knows where you are and what you’re doing.”

“He’ll be worried, that’s for sure. You see, my mother was killed in a tourist plane crash on Cerulea when I was three. Then Bari disappeared. And now I’ve vanished into the same jungle without even a radio to maintain any kind of contact. Dad must feel that space is an enemy that robs him of his family, one by one. That’s why he was so determined to go it alone in the Seeker.”

“There’s no need for you to feel guilty,” Petra said.

Jan shrugged. “I know—but somehow I can’t help it.”

“Look at it this way.” Petra tentatively placed her hand over Jan’s. “You and I are good runners in pretty well peak physical condition, but we beat that bulldozer by only a couple of metres. Your father was detained, but if he had been there instead of us the monster would have caught up on him—and that fact alone justifies everything you’ve done.”

Jan was comforted by her words and warmed by her touch. He drained his squeezebulb and threw it away into the surrounding undergrowth, causing a pitter-patter as droplets cascaded from the disturbed leaves. The grey cloud ceiling seemed lower than ever, hiding the tops of the highest trees, and sheet lightning flickered incessantly through the gloom.

“We’d better get going again,” he said, rising to his feet, feeling a renewal of confidence in spite of the depressing environment. “We’ve barely got started on the job.”

“Yes, but we’re going to finish it,” Petra replied as she stood up. “No matter what dirty tricks this damned planet has up its sleeve!”