Alex The Inventor-Chapter 16

Read Chapters 1 - 15 at: Deep Sky Stories

Chapter 16 - Luss Power and Big Ben's Last Rumble

Big Ben rumbled up to the scene of the battle just in time as Dart and Jade were forced to fly lower, with wings unfolded, and battle on as best they could. They flitted and dodged about, firing madly as their Bubble-Shields glowed dangerously from multiple hits. A swarm of the cat-sized Flies soon surrounded Ben but he continued on despite taking several stinging hits from their Shock-Bolt Guns.Within seconds, the huge, lumbering robot became the target for a hail of tiny missiles and jolting high-voltage assaults. Huddled inside the tiny driver's compartment, Alex and Rainah cringed as each projectile clanged and rattled off old Ben's shuddering iron body.

"Oh crap, I don't think this is going to work", yelled Alex above the horrible din. "He's falling apart, I just know it!" Bang - ting - ting - ting - CLANG, rang the continuous barrage of bullets off old Ben. He soldiered on though and was soon upon the stinging, annoying Flies with all the brute-force and momentum of a juggernaut.He seemed unstoppable in spite of all the punishing blows and he ground onward right over the enemies' milling ranks. Grotesque crunching sounds and muffled explosions beneath them told the children of the clumps of unlucky Flies who ended up under Big Ben's thundering wheels.Louder and still louder the attack raged and onward, up the large hill of blackened scrap-iron climbed old, huge Ben."Come-on, come-on!", screamed the children together over the terrible grinding of his over-heated gears.The Flies were on Ben’s body now, clawing and tearing away at anything they could cling to. Whipping ganglia wires whistled and cracked all over him. The massive robot took Flies two or three at a time in his mighty vice-hands and slowly crushed them down to tin-foil.He was blind though, from all the black bodies crawling about on his head and face, but Alex kept Ben going in the right direction: to the peak of the scrap-iron mountain they were climbing; the mountain under which the precious space vessel lay hidden.There, at the top was the opening to the elevator shaft and it was down this long shaft that the last remaining tank of Parathagon Gas was to be sent.Rainah cried out suddenly as a clawing, angry-eyed Fly clung briefly to the iron grating covering the glass of the driver's cabin. It hissed at the children with vile hatred before it disappeared forever, dragged beneath old Ben's mighty mass.There was now a wide swath of flattened and mangled Flies leading all the way from the ground to the hilltop as the now heavily damaged giant reached his destination.Old Ben activated his heavy-lift electromagnetic crane then, and easily picked up the gas tank from his rear cargo box. The powerful crane swiveled slowly round with the tank swinging in the air along with a dozen wriggling Flies who had flown too close to the magnet.The hilltop, by this time, was covered in a thick swarm of oil-black Flies and Ben was being weighed down by their number. They buzzed viciously and crawled over every inch of him but the crane kept turning.Two halves of a hidden hatch opened and the elevator rose smoothly up out of the shaft of the Biosphere's central pillar, having been sent by Miss Vee. The door slid open invitingly to await the arrival of the children and their precious cargo.Behind him, Alex heard Rainah whispering strange, clipped words in her native tongue, as if to better their fortunes or, perhaps, to bring a god's wrath down upon the enemy. Alex figured it was for the latter; she seemed to be quite a vengeful girl, after all.The boom of old Ben's crane suddenly lurched to a stop as it became jammed with the mangled remains of several Flies who had crawled into the gearbox. Then another Fly stuck to the magnet exploded itself, sending a static charge through the electromagnet and frying its internal wiring. The gas tank fell with a heavy thud still several yards away from the waiting elevator. Without further coaxing though, the two embattled Dragonflies took matters into their own hands. Jade and Dart descended quickly and hooked onto the tank's lifting rings with their spindly insect legs. Their wings buzzed louder as they heaved upward on the dead weight. But, their shields glowed dangerously and the Dragonflies were staggered by the terrible onslaught of firepower that was targeted on them.

"We must help them!", cried Rainah above the nightmare of the surrounding battle. Alex felt the blood drain from his face and cold fear gripped him in the pit of his stomach.Poor old Ben, shaken and battered, was fast becoming useless as one of his arms went limp, its hydraulic lines cut and bleeding fluid. Alex sat still for a few moments too long and received a savage shove from behind.Rainah screamed, "Come on, Alex, now!"With a shaking hand, he reached up to open the iron door. Alex could see Dart and Jade heaving vainly at the heavy tank, their wings beating viciously, their power draining away with each passing second. His throat felt tight and fearfully dry. Shock and tunnel-vision made the whole scene before him look very unreal.Oh God, Alex thought with sickening fear, this must be the end!Something heavy was suddenly in his hand, and it felt warm and reassuring. It had a shifting, slippery feel to it like quicksilver and as he looked down, Alex knew immediately what it was: his Luss!It was his strange, ever-changing device that could be warm and healing or cold and deadly. It seemed to partially have a mind of its own by the way it changed and reacted at different times. It should have been a weapon now, feeling ice-cold in his hand but no, this time it was warm.In fact, it was becoming almost hot!Whatever was about to happen to it was going to happen very soon. Alex felt a sense of shaky relief as he pushed the two little iron doors open.The sound of the battle, loud though it was from inside the robot's belly, was horribly more so as the doors swung open. Alex yelled something like, "come on!", over his shoulder but the chaotic noise was such that his voice became lost within it. Rainah understood, nevertheless and was pushing forward with him.As they stepped out, Alex looked down at the Luss in his hand. It was already shifting and warping very oddly. A stray Shock-Bolt shell clanged loudly off Big Ben's skin, but not before it had been directed harmlessly away from the two children by the rapidly changing Luss.Gold! It had the brightness of liquid gold! In spite of the blistering attack by the horde around them, Alex felt more confident as he planted his feet. Rainah dashed forward to help the Dragonflies and she too had something bright in her hand. It glowed like a golden orange flame and something flashed out of it as a Fly leaped toward her. The Fly vanished instantly, leaving only crackling sparks behind in the air.For a split second, Rainah was alone with the Dragonflies, fighting savagely, her teeth bared and a feverish gleam in her eyes, as she swung a keen-edged sword which cleanly chopped and beheaded a dozen of the nearest attackers. Then, just as quickly, the Luss she wielded shifted its energy over to the Dragons in the form of arcing strands of liquid light. Their shields became re-energized and new power flowed through them. Jade and Dart heaved upward again and this time the fuel tank began to inch toward the elevator.

Meanwhile, Back at Rosie's Diner...

Back in the town of Delta, Sgt. Jim Cash was taking a midnight coffee break at Rosie's Diner when he began to get calls over his radio about explosions and earth-tremors, out in the countryside near Brinnel's Bog. The bog? That sounded vaguely familiar to him. Wasn't that somewhere near...? Sitting at the counter across from him was Old Elliot, the hobo, now older and wiser. Upon hearing the reports on the police officer's radio, Elliot got up slowly and then turned to peer out a window which gave him a view of the distant outskirts of Delta-Town, where a certain scrapyard lay.Sergeant Cash was about to get up and leave when the silent, old man put a hand gently on the officer's shoulder and looked down at him with a pale face and haunted grey eyes; eyes that vividly recalled that horrible night, almost eleven years ago to the day.The old hobo slowly shook his head, knowingly and then mumbled that odd word again under his breath, “Nethlin...Nethlin…”That was all.The old vagrant then shuffled back to the counter to nurse the cup of coffee that Rosie had given him out of pity.Older and also wiser, Sergeant Cash read Elliot's mind quite perfectly and, with a measure of caution, the policeman decided that one more coffee before he left, wasn't such a bad idea. After all, whatever had happened did seem to have happened out in the middle of nowhere.A low-priority call. No need to rush in.Jim cast a caring glance across at the counter where the beaten-down old man held his hot cup and gazed listlessly down at something that he held in his free hand.

“Poor old lost soul”, Jim whispered under his breath. Old Elliot stared fixedly at a needle-thin shard of colored glass held tightly in his gnarled, grubby hand.Rosie was busy cleaning up for the day, but every so often, she glanced up from her work to gaze across at Elliot, curiosity playing briefly across her face, hidden within a frown.Where had the old wanderer come from, she wondered. Had his life been always so...empty? A few minutes more passed before Rosie slid a last morsel of apple pie under Elliot's low, bowed head."Eat up, m'dear", she whispered kindly, "closing time.""He won't answer you, y'know", said Jim as he got up to leave, "his mind has always been somewhere else." "Good night, Rosie, I should go check on something before the night is done."And, with that, the little bell over the door tinkled lightly as Jim bade her good night and stepped out to breathe the cool, fresh autumn air. The old police sergeant dusted off his stetson hat before putting it on and then took a step toward his police car. He paused then cocked an ear as he heard a swift sound approaching on the night breeze. What was that? Looking around him, Jim saw nothing but vague shadows beyond the one streetlamp on the corner. From out of nowhere, Alex Faraway gave a whoop of joy as Dart swooped low and then hovered over Rosie's Diner for a startling moment, just as Sergeant Cash happened to look up.

"Hi!", Alex yelled happily down at him.

"Oh...y-ya...hi", the stunned police officer answered as the breeze from Dart’s wings blew his hat off. To his credit, Jim took only one step back. Next moment, they were gone again, sailing off into the darkness. Without missing a beat, Jim promptly picked up his hat, dusted it off again, then turned around and stepped back into the comfort of the old Diner...for just a few more minutes."One more coffee, Rosie", he called, "and bring me your last doughnut too, will y'please."

“Oh, for heaven sake”, old Rosie grouched as she clicked the kitchen light back on, “two more minutes, Jim Cash, and not a minute more!”

“Yes m'am. Thank you."_______________________

Dart landed daintily back at Alex's home with the exhausted boy on his back. Alex led the Dragonfly into the old workshop where he figured he could settle in quite well with friendly old Legs, the scavenger-bot and all his other inventions.

Looking toward the faint beginnings of a new dawn, Alex saw a soft glow, off in a distant corner of the old scrapyard. The orange glow marked the smoldering crater left from Miss Vee's departure back to Mars, and also where the battle had been won.

Alex gave a little smile and waved a fond farewell up to the starry night sky. He hoped that she and Rainah had made a safe return and that there was still something of the old Mars for them to discover and look back on while they prepared themselves for the future and the Great Change that was soon to come.

Alex's only regret was finding nothing of his father within the amazing vessel that had laid hidden beneath the ground of his scrapyard for so many years. He paused for a last look, up at the twilight sky then turned quietly back toward home and the comfort of his mom's arms. He felt a twinge of guilt then, and, perhaps, a little fear too.

"Oh boy", he whispered to himself, "this is going to be really hard to explain."

But when his mother opened the door, there was an air of calmness about her and a new sparkle in her eyes that Alex had never seen before. Elizabeth Faraway wore a small, contented smile; the kind that one has, without knowing it, after having just seen a long lost friend once more.

"Your father", she said quietly, "your father is coming home, Alex."

"His work on Mars is finished."

Next: Chapter 17 - The First Hello

A message from Alex's missing father brings him hope for a better life at last. The past history of Mars and its people is also revealed though, and with it, the reason why the adventure for Alex may have only just begun.As of 2017-06-19, Chapter 16 is at: Deepskystories.com