Bryce saw it first and called out. Then they all saw it, carved into the rock, fifty or sixty feet high, near the top of a cliff face. Eight legs, four pointing up and four down, and a small head at the top of a large bulbous body, with antlers or mandibles protruding from it, had been carved deeply into the rock.
“That’s it. That’s our spider,” said Bark.
“Why a spider?”
“No idea. It’s always been that way.”
They fastened the anchor among some rocks so that the ship was floating beside the gigantic carving. Above the spider’s head, as though it was a precious object delicately clutched between two monstrous claws, was a cave mouth, a perfect circle, maybe a dozen feet in diameter.
Bark walked to the rear of the ship and pulled a tarpaulin from a jumble of knotted ropes and sails.
“Damn.” He moved an armful of the tangled mass aside. “We haven’t used this for years. I’ll need a hand.”
They went to help him, and in a few minutes had uncovered a small boat.
“At least one of us should stay here,” Bark said. “I don’t like leaving the ship unattended.”
“It should be me, I think,” said the Senator. “These two know nothing about the ship.”
“Well, we’ve learned how to use the sails,” said Bryce.
“A bit, anyway,” added Reina.
But Bark agreed with the Senator, and Bryce and Reina were drafted into the shore party. Soon the small boat was afloat beside the ship, suspended over depths lost in mist. It rocked lightly as they climbed into it.
They crossed the space separating them from the Pilot’s Station. The boat was light, and more difficult to handle than they had thought it would be. It took all their concentration to keep it steady, but Bark knew what was needed, and taught them as they went.
They made a bumpy but safe landing at the entrance. Bark secured the boat, and telling Bryce and Reina to be quiet and careful, he pulled a small crystal from a pocket. It glowed gently, casting a soft light over their surroundings.
They were standing in an area about thirty feet square. It was bare, with no features to distinguish it from any other empty room carved into the side of a mountain. In the dim light of the crystal, they saw a flight of stairs at the far end of the room, leading upwards into more of the heavy gloom that sat around like large piles of coal.
Bark passed Reina and Bryce a crystal each. They began to glow as soon as they took them. The light helped. The floor was old, with cracks and missing pieces, and wet with slime and water. They crossed the room without comment, each of them in the center of a cloud of blue light and disturbed insects, and climbed the stairs.
“This is it,” said Bark, his voice sinking. “The Pilot’s Station.”
“It’s a mess,” said Reina, holding her crystal higher so she could see.
“It’s the pits,” agreed Bryce.
“I have to admit, it isn’t what I was expecting.” Bark was disappointed.
The place was a ruin. If anything had ever been here, it was long gone, apart from some broken and crumbling pieces of rock that looked to have been once shaped to some purpose. They had fallen apart, disintegrating under the relentless touch of water and time, so that now the place looked like some recently dredged prehistoric ruin brought up from the bottom of the sea. It even had the right smell; dark and dank, as though there should be gulping fish flopping around in the water on the floor.
“This is no help to us at all.” Bark sat down on the edge of a granite block.
Bryce and Reina walked around, looking behind rocks and in corners. There was nothing but water, slime and darkness. Something small slithered out of a corner and along a wall, its claws clattering.
Bark was about say that they may as well return to the ship when a sound caught his attention.
“What’s that?”
Bryce heard it next, then Reina.
“Motors,” Bryce answered. “Planes, maybe helicopters. What would anyone be doing here?”
“Nothing that will benefit us, I bet,” said Reina. “Back to the ship?”
“Back to the ship.” Bark replied.
They ran back down the stairs and were almost at the boat when the sound suddenly became louder. Beyond the mouth of the cave, a searchlight swept back and forth across the cliff face.
“Helicopters,” said Bryce.
“Can they see the ship?” Reina tugged on Bark’s sleeve to get his attention.
The searchlight had found the entrance.
“Not the ship, that’s not on their frequency,” Bark replied. “But they’ll be able to see the boat. And us.” They edged back into the shadows, taking care to stay out of the light.
“If we get back in the boat, they’ll be able to see us?”
“Yes. Once the boat is away from the ship, it resonates with the local frequency. It’s just a boat, after all. You’ll be visible, of course, and so will I, going by my experience in the caves.”
“We’re in deep shit then?”
“If that means trouble, yes.”
One of the helicopters had approached the entrance. Against the darkness, the flame of a jetpack’s exhaust became visible. As it crossed in front of the helicopter, the searchlight’s beam fell on a soldier, flying in their direction. Then they saw another, and then two more in quick succession.
“Oh. Deeper shit, then. Back up the steps.”
They ran back up the stairs to the other room.
“Look around for another way out. Anything we might have missed,” Bark said, but he didn’t have to. Bryce and Reina were already doing it. Bark crouched down out of sight of the entrance but close enough, he hoped, to hear what was going on in the lower room.
The whine of the jetpacks stopped as the soldiers landed.
“What the fuck is that?”
“A fucking boat! Bullshit!”
“Hang on, I’ll radio the boss and tell him.”
There was a brief pause, and some talking, followed by a muffled response.
“He says to throw it over the edge.”
Bark groaned to himself. Getting out of here was looking more unlikely every minute. He heard the sound of the boat being dragged to the cave’s entrance. One of the soldiers whooped, no doubt at the successful launch into space. Lacking a crew, it fell like a stone, and in a few seconds would be lying in pieces on the rocks below.
Torchlight flashed around the lower room. “Two of you up those stairs,” a voice said.
Bark was turning to the others, ready to tell them to hide, when Reina arrived quietly at his side. “There’s a door or something,” she whispered.
She led him to where Bryce was waiting. They crouched down, and he saw, partially obscured by a fallen arch, the remains of a doorway.
“Hurry. They’re coming this way.”
Dropping to their hands and knees, they crawled through the gap and then stopped. The way was blocked by a rock fall.
“Shit!”
“You’re not wrong.”
The soldiers were in the room behind them. Bark could see the light from their torches swimming across the walls. There was more talk on the radio, and then one of them spoke to the other.
“The boss says to turn the place upside down. Soon as we’re done here, they’ll frag the place.”
“Don’t those aliens want something here?”
“Yeah, that’s probably why they’re gonna ice it.”
One of the soldiers had moved to the opposite side of the room and was inspecting the wall.
The one that was looking among the debris on the floor found something and called out. They both crouched down and a radio conversation began.
Bryce turned to the others. “We’ve got to move. They’ll find us here. There are jetpacks at the entrance…”
“Yeah sure,” whispered Reina, but she was already following Bryce and Bark.
They crept out of their hiding place and along the wall to the top of the stairs. The two soldiers were still engrossed in their find.
As silently as they could, they crept down the stairs. The other two soldiers were at the cave entrance. One of them was leaning against the wall, and the other was kicking at something on the ground. Neither of them had their torches turned on. Outside, the helicopters buzzed like impatient hornets.
Bryce reached out and pushed Reina back, just enough so that she understood. He and Bark kept walking.
The soldiers heard their footsteps when they were just a few strides away.
“What’s happening? Did you find anything?”
“We’re out of here,” said Bryce, trying to sound enough like a soldier to gain them another second or two.
A light clicked on. They were two strides from the soldiers. The pretence was over.
“Fuck you, asshole!” The soldier lifted his rifle.
Bark leapt forward. He grabbed the soldier by the arm and pulled him forwards. Trying to regain his balance, the soldier fell sideways onto the knife that Bark had pulled. They fell to the ground.
The one holding the torch dropped it. He was scrambling for his rifle, then saw that Bryce was almost on him. He swung his weapon like a club, hitting Bryce in the chest.
Bryce went down. He swung a leg around as he fell, his foot connecting with the soldier’s ankle. They landed together in a heap. The discarded torch cast an unreal, theatrical light over them as they struggled.
Reina ran across the few feet that separated them and pushed as hard as she could. The soldier reeled back.
Bryce rolled with the motion, sending the soldier a bit further. At the same time Reina pushed again, catching him on the shoulder. He stumbled and reached for support, but his balance was too far gone, and he put one foot out into empty space. He went over the edge without making a sound.
Reina grabbed Bryce and pulled him back into the shadows.
“Man, I didn’t know I could do stuff like that.” Her heart was pounding.
The helicopters were still hovering outside. There was no sign that anyone on them had noticed anything.
Bark had picked up his victim’s gun. “How does this work?”
“Give it to me,” said Bryce. “I know how to use it.” He took the gun and checked the magazine and the safety.
Reina picked up the torch. She and Bark leaned over one of the jetpacks. “How does it work?”
“I don’t know. Don’t you know? This is your planet.”
“Well that doesn’t mean I know shit about these things…”
There was a sound behind them. One of the other two soldiers had come down the stairs while they were talking.
“Hey guys, come and give us a hand with th…”
Bryce fired.
“No shit,” he said, hefting the gun, admiring its balance. “No recoil.”
“There’s another one up there. He will have heard,” said Bark. “Bryce, do you know how to use one of these jet things?”
“Nah. Does that mean we’re screwed?”
“Never mind about that,” said Reina. “What’s this?”
A rope was hanging in front of them, directly outside the cave mouth. Only a few feet of it was visible; the rest of it faded out gradually, like a parlor magician’s trick.
“One of ours, I should think,” said Bark. “Shall we?” He reached out into the void and swung onto the rope.
“You go,” Bryce said to Reina. It was literally a leap of faith to jump out into space to grasp a rope suspended from nothing, but there was no choice. She followed Bark’s example.
Bryce crouched down, rifle ready. The last soldier came running down the stairs. Bark was gone. Reina was almost gone. He fired, and the soldier retreated, swearing.
It was Bryce’s turn. Without hesitating, he shouldered the rifle and jumped. Grasping the rope and swinging precariously in space, he discovered that their departure had finally attracted someone’s attention.
A searchlight fell on him. A machine gun came to life, firing tracers that were wide, but began closing in on him as he climbed.
He felt a pain in his leg, sharp and intense, like a wasp sting. He faltered, and in the instant in which he might have lost his grip, hands appeared from nowhere and seized his arm. He was dragged up over the rail and onto the deck.
Someone on one of the helicopters made an executive decision. As Bark and the Senator pulled Bryce to his feet, there was a flash of light from the closest helicopter. An instant later, an explosion ripped apart the entrance to the Pilot’s Station. The cave mouth they had been standing in a few seconds ago disintegrated in a fireball.
The helicopter moved away, and fired again. The other two helicopters joined in, firing a small storm of missiles. The light from the explosions illuminated the pieces of mountain that were flying everywhere.
“Should we move the ship?” Reina wasn’t sure how much their invisibility would protect them.
“We should be all right,” the Senator replied, leaning on the rail and enjoying the show. A piece of rock disappeared into the side of the hull and emerged through the deck, without causing any damage. “Different frequencies, remember.”
A section of the mountain was collapsing in on itself. Something in the Pilot’s Station must have been combustible; the explosions were continuing and spreading. The helicopters backed off and continued firing.
Soon most of the cliff face was gone, and with it the carved spider and any sign that the Pilot’s Station had ever existed.
“What a result,” said Bryce. “Massive.” He was lucky. The wound on his leg was just a scratch. His chest hurt a bit from its encounter with the rifle, but it wasn’t about to slow him down.
After a few minutes, the flames subsided and the mountain stopped collapsing. A wind had sprung up.
“What’s this?” Reina wondered aloud.
“It’s not blowing,” said Bark. “It’s sucking. Look.”
A huge hole had appeared in the side of the mountain. Wisps of smoke and ash and trails of sparks were disappearing into it, spiraling like water down a drain. The helicopters had moved in closer again, milling about the result of their handiwork like flies around a carcass.
Bark and the Senator raised the anchor and made the sails ready. “Whatever happens,” said Bark, “we’ll be going somewhere. I don’t know why, but this wind appears to affect us. Strange. It must be aetheric, as well as physical.”
Three more helicopters were arriving. Rounding a distant spur of rock, they grew in size as they approached, their lights sparkling in the darkness like festive decorations. Two of the new machines were large and black like the others. The third was small and red.