The Caverns of Kronos

The Revolution - Part 2

     They didn’t go back through Fenring park cavern. Now that they knew that the corridor between the caverns and Laxu sector was empty they were able to go the other way instead, through Hewlak park cavern, which was full of vacuum and dead. The cavern was split entirely in two by the fissure that had caused the great disaster. It travelled the entire width of the ceiling and spread right across the floor, partially plugged by soil and plants that had fallen down it. It was only a few inches wide, but Shaun couldn’t help but pause for a few moments as he stepped over it, wondering how far down it went.

     It had been caused by the impact of a small fragment of a comet, he remembered Ban Chin saying. Comets were supposed to be nothing more than clouds of thin gas. How could that be if one of them could do something like this? He wondered how close the tiny moon had come to being shattered completely. He looked up at the crack in the ceiling, staring at the stars visible through it, but then Matthew nudged his elbow, bringing him back to the here and now and he lifted his end of the cabinet again.

     It took them ages to carry the awkward, bulky object. They stopped to rest several times along the way but eventually they made it, and as they passed through the airlock back into Hewlak sector they were greeted by Sejanus and the other soldiers Lirenna had enchanted. They threw a blanket over the Pantry. A big, loose blanket with lots of padding sewn into it to hide the shape of the object under it, and they then carried it down the corridor-street toward the place they’d chosen to hide it, glaring suspiciously at everyone they passed along the way. This was something they could only have gotten away with with someone of Sejanus’s rank with them. The commoners and lower ranked soldiers they passed were simply too scared of drawing attention to themselves to comment or interfere. As Parkus had said, if you act as though you own the place, you can get away with anything.

     “What’ll you tell Lord Basil when he asks what this’s all about?” Shaun asked the Konnen General.

     “I’ll tell him it’s a parcel of food to reward an informer,” replied Sejanus. “It’s a common enough event. Granted, food parcels aren’t normally this size, and I don’t normally get involved myself, but I’ll make him believe it.”

     “I don’t know,” said Silverby, though. “I think we’re pushing credibility to its very limit. Lord Basil’s not stupid. He may not know that you’re working for the Lady Lirenna, may her grace and beauty last a thousand years, but he may suspect you of plotting against him or something. Laying up a store of food for a future coup attempt, perhaps.”

     “I’ll allay his suspicions,” promised Sejanus. “I’ve known him many years, I know all the right things to say. Have no fears on that score.”

     I hope you’re right, thought Shaun nervously as doors opened on either side and people stared curiously out at them. Children laughed and skipped behind them until fearful parents ushered them back indoors. If there were only some way of getting the Pantry to safety without anyone seeing it... but there wasn’t so they just had to make the best of it they could. Their only hope was that the sheer daring and audacity of the plan would stop anyone suspecting what they were up to. After all, who in their right minds would carry a Pantry through the streets of Kronosia right under the noses of all the soldiers? Shaun wanted to burst out laughing at the very thought of it.

     There was a street in Hewlak sector with many empty apartments. Most of the families there were trustworthy, having attended Diana’s religious services regularly, and the families they weren’t sure of, or whom they knew for a fact were informers, had been invited to dinner parties by trustworthy families or otherwise kept busy so that they wouldn’t see what was going on out in the street.