HAWK

CHAPTER NINETEEN: INFERNO (4/6)

Kas spent the next day failing to coax a response out of Worm. She ultimately decided that the girl just needed some time alone which was no easy task on such a small ship, and so she moved into the cockpit where she stayed for the rest of the journey.

Captain Mack seemed happy to have sole ownership of the sleeping alcove and he pretty much stayed inside it for the entire trip, sleeping for long stretches that Kas didn't think natural. She had plenty of company with Astrid, though. The AI couldn't get enough of Kas's stories from her years as a bounty hunter and quizzed her for hours about every planet, moon and city she'd ever been to. Kas didn't mind all that much; she was glad for the distraction.

In the last day of travel, the F-88 sped past Vesina in hours, keeping it as a distant orange dot barely discernible from the surrounding stars as they headed towards the solar system's innermost planet. As well as being the closest planet to the sun, Xeo was also the smallest - smaller even than Polo which was Kas's preferred destination.

Xeo was a refinery planet - a place to extract rare elements from the planet's core. All of the work was done by drones so there was no need for humans - not that anyone wanted to go there. Thanks to its close proximity to the sun, Xeo's surface temperature was extremely high and its climate was very difficult to control.

Despite Kas's reluctance to go there, she couldn't deny that Xeo was one of the more beautiful planets in Primi - from a distance, at least. As the small world gradually expanded in the ship's viewport, she was mesmerised by its thin electric pink and blue atmosphere, the result of specialised gases that shielded it from intense solar radiation to stop the various worker drones on surface from melting. Up close, however, the pink and blue clouds turned thick and opaque, covering the viewport with a dusty grey blanket. Kas and Worm had assembled behind Captain Mack in the cockpit to observe the descent, but they couldn't see a thing.

'I hope you know where you're going,' Kas said.

'Relax,' Mack replied. 'I've given Astrid very specific coordinates.'

'Still, it would be nice to see where we are.'

'I might be able to do something,' Astrid replied. 'Just a second.'

The grey blanket covering the viewport suddenly dissolved, revealing the distant chalky terrain of Xeo's surface one hundred miles below.

'Take us down nice and slow,' Mack instructed. 'I don't want to risk a drone seeing us.'

'I know what I'm doing, Captain.'

Astrid enabled stealth mode as she carried the crew slowly towards Xeo's south pole, the furthest point from the planet's skeletal infraport where Xeo's valuable shipments were exported.

Before long, all they could see was the rough and pockmarked terrain of uninhabited ground. As they levelled off, Kas saw tall colourless mountains jutting into the horizon with a narrow canyon splitting them apart. Astrid glided into it at a swift pace and began snaking her way below the mountains peaks, heading ever deeper into the stark alien landscape. The gorge became very tight in places, but Astrid threaded herself through it like a blackbird seeking its roost. After several minutes, the canyon stretched open and gave birth to a clearing.

'This is it,' Mack said. 'Mind if I take over, Astrid?'

'Not at all.' The ship slowed as Mack took hold of the control column and guided the ship down towards the surface, heading for the base of the mountain. It wasn't until they were fifty-feet from the ground that Kas saw the wide cave hidden below a canopy of rock. It was pitch black within and Kas couldn't see a thing, but Mack steered Astrid inside it without hesitation.

The viewport shimmered with yellow light and erased the darkness, revealing a long natural tunnel that descended into the mountain's roots. It went on for almost a mile before they came to a dead end, closed in by a wall of rock. Mack eased the thruster back and brought the ship to a hover.

'I thought you knew where you were going,' Kas said.

'I do. Astrid, tune your comms to frequency DW 0.44919.'

There was a brief pause before a low whistling filled the cockpit. Mack leaned over the controls and flicked a switch.

'Base, this is Captain Mack - do you receive me?'

Silence.

'Base, this is Captain Mack. I'm in the tunnel - can you hear me?'

More silence.

'This is Captain Mack, is anybody--'

'Captain Mack?' a man replied.

'Hey, there we go. Who have we got there?'

'Uh... this is Cooper.'

'Cooper? Basement Cooper?'

'Uh... yes, sir.'

'What are you doing on comms?'

'I... got promoted, sir. We thought you were...' He trailed off.

'You thought I was what?'

'Dead, sir.'

'Not yet. So are you gonna let me in or what?'

'Uh...'

'Damn it, Cooper, I've just flown half-way across the solar system, now open the doors!'

No reply.

'Hello?'

Mack began toggling the switch on and off, trying to get a response. 'I'm gonna kill that kid when I get my hands on--'

The rock wall in front of the viewport suddenly split apart, revealing a large and well-lit cave on the other side.

'About time,' Mack growled as he took the control column and eased the ship into the chamber. As they drifted inside, Kas saw three other vessels already docked: two small courier ships and a freighter which looked older than Xeo itself. Mack landed in front of them and instructed Astrid to power down.

'Three people are approaching,' she informed him.

'That was fast.'

Kas looked out of the viewport to see three armed soldiers jogging towards them. To her surprise, they weren't wearing spacesuits or any special protection other than basic combat fatigues and breathing masks. Kas recognised the weapons they were carrying as R-17 laser rifles - early models that were outdated when Kas was still training at the academy.

The soldiers stopped within twenty-feet of the ship and each took out a hand grenade. They activated them, instantly releasing billows of pink smoke that bled upwards into the air, then tossed them at the F-88. The viewport was soon obscured by a dense pink mist.

Mack stood up. 'Astrid. Open the doors.'