The Transdyne Awakening by Chris Betts Page B

doing? How d’you power the place? I get more surprises every time I come.”
    “It’s no big mystery. We have all we need right here.”
    Greg tilted the viewscreen sideways so that Clay could see it. He punched a couple of keys on the pad. A series of aerial images began to show in a slow sequence. Apart from one or two blanks they were fairly clear.
    “How did you get these?”
    “We’ve knocked down a few dronespies since we’ve been out here. One of them had these images in the camera. The camera gear was ruined but our techs managed to retrieve its internal card. They ran them on our gear just to find out what the snoops had seen. They obviously didn’t get much that was any use to them. Anyhow, these helped us find exactly where the fragment holes were located. It saved us a lot of trekking around.”
    “Fragment holes?”
    “Yes.”
    Greg stopped the images rotating. He pointed at a shot he’d frozen on the screen.
    “You know about the meteor that caused this crater? Yeah, well see the way these markings make a circle around where we are? This was an airburst. A rock like that comes in at incredible velocity and then it hits the resistance of the atmosphere. The meteor that came this way all those years ago must have been massive. When a thing like that explodes, it throws off fragments. In this case the pieces were huge. Where they fell, they drilled holes deep down into the earth. Exploring the entry points we found access to underground waterways. We’ve been able to join up the dots. You wouldn’t believe what’s down there unless you’d seen it for yourself. Let’s put it this way, I don’t foresee any water shortages out here in the near future! What’s more, it’s clean and clear and it’s right underneath us. We’ve explored big stretches, but it just goes on and on. I could show you if you really want to see. Can you swim?”
    “Can I swim?” Clay looked quizzically at him. “A little. I haven’t since I was a child.”
    “Well, good. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then, eh?”
    Clay sat there nursing another frozen question.
    Greg looked across at him and gave one of his earblasting laughs as he flipped off the screen.
    Clay’s dreams were troubled. His childhood sleep had often been invaded by vivid night visions. The phantoms sometimes lingered with him for a while after he had awakened. On mornings when he was slow coming back to consciousness, it felt as if part of him stayed there in that land of shadows. For a while he would find it difficult to tell which was the reality. Dawn carried the echoes of those troubled nights.
    Greg was clearly one of those people who jumped from his sleep instantly ready for the day. Clay had to adjust his usually rather sluggish start to accommodate the other man’s morning rhythm.
    The strong coffee helped and he ate a little of the cereal on offer.
    Greg finished eating. He picked up his eating irons, drinker and plate. “When you’re ready, I’ll get Darren and Skye to give you the sub-aqua tour!” Clay didn’t know what sub-aqua meant but he figured that he’d find out soon enough.
    Greg led him along a steep walkway and into a large tunnel. Clay started to count off his paces in order to get some idea of how far inside the ground they were going. Before he had reached five hundred they had emerged into bright sunlight. A great chamber surrounded them. The jagged channel went up for a long way above them and he could see the gleaming blue desert sky. Walkways had been engineered out of the rocky sides where they stood. Looking into the chasm below them he could see the sun reflecting in clear water.
    “Come on,” Greg beckoned.
    He walked to the edge and gripped the bars of a wide ladder which was bolted securely to the cave wall. Clay could see that it went down a long way. He counted a couple of hundred steps as he carefully followed Greg into the underground lair.
    On the descent he thought about the cavern raid he had been on