"One false move and I'll blow your head off, you son of a bitch!"
Josh kept his weapon level with Warren T's head, ready to blow the corrupt official to hell if he dared make a move. In the background, his henchmen, noticing the threat to their master, had sprung into action and drawn their own weapons. But not the mercenary captain. Probably realising the human's weapon far outstripped anything they had, he'd drawn his sword and, before Josh had a chance to react, grabbed the nearest hostage he could get his hands on: Bernard.
Holding the sword firmly against Bernard's throat, he manoeuvred him into Josh's line of fire, using him as a shield. Brutus tried making a move to help him, but the mercenary captain merely tightened his grip, threatening to kill his hostage if anyone dared come any closer. Warren T smiled with satisfaction.
"Well done, captain," he said. He turned to Josh, "Drop your weapon now, Anderson, or Bernard Mousekewitz dies!" Josh didn't move.
"Tell that buffoon to let him go right now, or I'll blast you away, limb by limb," he growled, "You'll die slowly and in agony!"
"Are you really willing to have to explain to his wife and children why you sacrificed their father in order to destroy your enemy?" challenged Warren T with an evil smile.
"I'm more than willing to avenge him by making his killers pay with torture and with death!" snarled Josh, "I'm warning you, Warren T! Let him go while you still can and walk away. There's nothing for you here."
Warren T seemed to be thinking along the same lines too, but the insult of walking away empty-handed because this accursed human had somehow set him up was too great a stab to his pride.
"I intend to," he said silkily, "But I'm afraid the two of us still have some unfinished business to attend to. Now, once again, where is the Stone?" Josh couldn't believe this guy was still hell-bent on getting his grubby little paws on that last piece of the Stone, even when held at gunpoint.
It seemed they'd reached a stalemate; Warren T, his thugs and their hostage Bernard on one side, and Josh and his party on the other. Josh could easily blow Warren T away right where he stood, but it wouldn't do Bernard any good, who'd be dead in another second if he did.
"I'm not leaving here empty-handed," said Warren T firmly, "Now, human, I'm only going to ask you one more time and then our friend Mr Mousekewitz gets his throat cut. Where is the Stone...?"
"Ah!"
Suddenly, without warning, the mercenary captain was tackled from behind by none other than...
"Sir, don't!" Commander Fitzgibbons, who, so far, had been curled up in a corner in a seemingly catatonic state, was suddenly wide awake and on his feet again. Grabbing the mercenary Captain by the arms, he pulled his sword hand away from Bernard's throat, giving the latter the chance to break free and run to safety.
In an instant, all mayhem had broken loose. Warren T's mercenaries, realising they'd lost their one advantage, drew their weapons and charged back full-force. But this was one fight they stood no chance of winning.
Like swatting flies, Josh opened fire, his EMP gun emitting plasma bursts that obliterated every target in its path. His one thought: get to his former Commander's aid before it was too late. In the background, he could see Commander Fitzgibbons locked in a deadly struggle with the mercenary Captain and quickly losing. Josh wanted desperately to take the shot, but couldn't without the risk of hitting Fitzgibbons. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Warren T, always on the lookout to save his own neck, quickly slip away from the fight.
Fitzgibbons struggled frantically with his opponent, trying to wrestle the sword from the Rat's hands. But old age, toppled by months of bare survival, had drained him of his former strength. With a roar of rage, the angry Rat wrestled his sword free and drove it to the hilt straight through Fitzgibbons' abdomen. The man's eyes went wide as the death blow hit him and he sunk to his knees in a pool of his own blood. His killer smirked at the sight of his victim; he'd so enjoyed showing this pathetic specimen who was stronger. As such, he never saw the plasma burst from Josh's gun coming, obliterating his body from the waist up.
With all of the mercenaries taken out and lying scattered in a scene of total carnage, the party rushed over to tend to the fallen astronaut. Josh made a move towards him to help, but Justin stopped him.
"We got this, Josh. Go after Warren T! Don't let him escape again."
Brandishing his gun, Josh gave chase, following Warren T's trail. As he'd expected, the slimy scoundrel had fled for the exit, no doubt to rendezvous with the rest of his henchmen waiting outside. Not that they would be any good in shielding their boss from Josh's wrath. With his gun, he could take out a whole mob of that riff-raff if he had to. The thought of the pain and suffering Warren T had caused and all the innocents he'd killed; Sophie Mousekewitz and now probably Fitzgibbons too, filled him with a vengeful rage.
To hell with capturing him alive, or giving him a fair trial, he thought. Once he caught up with him, he'd splatter the bastard's insides all over this mountain and be done with him. No more than the likes of Warren T deserved.
Meanwhile, Warren T had made it back up the tunnel and out of the cave. His few remaining henchmen he'd left to guard the entrance stared wide-eyed at their master's dishevelled and shaken appearance. Whatever had happened down there, it wasn't pretty. No sign of their captain or the rest of their comrades.
"In the name of the Great Owl!" exclaimed one of the Rats, "What happened to you, my Lord? Where are the others?"
"Shut up and seal up that cave, at once!" ordered Warren T in a panic, "Hurry up, that human's after me!"
The Rats complied and hurriedly began shifting the massive boulder they'd been loosening from the cliff face above the cave entrance. Just as Anderson appeared at the mouth of the cave, ready for the kill, the boulder came crashing down, cutting them off from the enemy. Warren T breathed a sigh of relief. As always, fortune smiled on him...
Josh had nearly made it to the exit. He could see the light of day up ahead; Warren T was standing at the mouth of the cave, barking orders to, Josh figured, more of his henchmen. What was he doing? He raised his gun, ready to take the shot.
Gotcha, you son of a –...
Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise was heard above his head and the cave walls began to shake. Too late, he realized Warren T had a backup plan in place, in case things went awry. A massive boulder came crashing down in a cloud of dust and falling debris, sealing off the mouth of the cave and trapping him inside. The last thing he saw before the darkness enveloped him was the smirk of triumph on Warren T's face.
Coughing and splattering, Josh turned to look back at where the entrance had been a second ago. Now there was nothing but an impenetrable wall of rock. He was trapped. Cursing in frustration at having been bested by Warren T yet again, Josh fired his gun in rage at the rock blocking his way out. The plasma bursts hit the granite slab, chipping and scorching it, but not penetrating. And why not? After all, the gun was designed to penetrate through flesh, bone and conventional body armour, not ten-foot-thick solid granite. Calming his nerves, he turned and hurried back to the lakeshore.
He found his friends gathered around Commander Fitzgibbons, who was still clinging onto life, but only by a thread. The sword had penetrated clean through his liver, taking a good slice out of it. The ever-caring Elizabeth was holding a cloth over the man's wound, muttering soothing words of comfort.
Grabbing the first-aid kit from his equipment, Josh took out a handful of compresses and gauze and slapped them onto the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. The blade had penetrated clean through Fitzgibbons' lower torso, leaving a clean entry wound in the front and a more rugged exit wound in the back. By the sheerest luck, it had missed his spine by a hairline, but the damage to his liver and internal organs was too severe to treat without major surgery. He was haemorrhaging internally and would soon go into shock. Even if he'd been in better physical condition, there was no way he'd last long enough for them to get him back to the Hab's medical bay in time. The man was dying.
Fitzgibbons seemed to realise that too, as he pulled Josh closer, to talk to him.
"Just leave me," he mouthed to Josh, his face contorted with pain, "I'm done for..."
"Don't talk, sir," said Josh, "I can still patch you up enough to get you out of here. Just save your strength!"
"I'm still your Commander and I'm ordering you to leave me...!" retorted Fitzgibbons, losing patience. Josh couldn't believe the man. Even on the brink of death, he still expected to be obeyed!
"To hell with the chain of command!" snapped Josh, "I'm not leaving you to die...!" But Fitzgibbons, grabbing him by his shirt collar, pulling him close so Josh could listen.
"It was my mistakes and NIMH's insane agenda that led this expedition to ruin," he said, "But you can still complete the mission, Captain. We came here to build a new world, so mankind's evolution may live on, and that task isn't finished yet." Reaching around his neck, he pulled off his dog-tags and passed them to Josh, "You're in change of the mission now. Now go, get your friends to safety, you dumb bastard."
As he lay back down, his pale face twisted with pain for the last time and then he lay still. Commander Fitzgibbons, a respected astronaut and soldier who'd let himself be bought by his own superiors, had passed on. But at least, before dying, he'd found himself some form of redemption for selling out his crew, by helping his last surviving crewmember in the face of danger.
Josh stared down at his dead former commanding officer, feeling a wave of sadness sweep over him. Once again, he was alone; the last human being on Nimh-Beta. Despite their differences, or the realization of what Commander Fitzgibbons and NIMH had done, Josh had longed for the chance of having another human being to talk to. Now, that chance was history. Noticing his sadness, Elizabeth placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Josh. He died saving us all. The best you can do now is to forgive him for what he did to your crew. If anyone's earned it, it's him."
"That human saved my life," said Bernard, with a genuine display of emotion, "I will never forget that and when I return to my family, I will tell them about Commander Fitzgibbons!"
Getting to his feet, Josh stood and saluted, Justin and Brutus following his lead, as the group observed a moment of silence for Paul Fitzgibbons, former Commander of the Nimh-One.
Outside, Warren T and his remaining henchmen made their way back down the mountain, into the valley below, where Fitzgibbons' pod and Josh's party's Rover were. Warren T turned to look in the direction of the cave high up on the mountain, where the interfering human Anderson and his associates were now entombed alive, doomed to slowly starve to death.
"Farewell, Anderson," smirked the evil Rat, "May the Great Owl receive you and your traitor friends!"
"Well, at least we'll be bringing some good news to the King, when he hears of the fugitives' fate," said one of his Rat henchmen, "I'm sure they'll be a rich reward for destroying that murderous human..."
"I'm not going back empty-handed, you fool!" snapped Warren T. With Bernard Mousekewitz gone along with the human, and with the discovery that the third piece of the Stone was nothing but a fake, any hope of finding the real Stone was lost. But Warren T knew when to cut his losses; even without the Stone, there was still something that would be worth much more to him than any crummy reward Jenner might give him. He gestured at Fitzgibbons' abandoned pod nearby, "That thing's coming back with us. If I can't have the Stone, then instead the secrets of flying will be mine!"
Inside the cave, Josh's party had finished doing a thorough search of the cave for another way out. There was nothing. Aside from the skylight high up above the lake and completely out of their reach, there was absolutely no way out. They were buried alive, with the prospect of slowly starving to death in this crystal cave. They could try unsealing the entrance using their tools, but it could take weeks to dig out through that granite and by then, their meagre supplies would have long since run out.
"We're doomed," sobbed Elizabeth, utterly devastated by the news, "We'll never get out! I'll never see my children again!" Josh, who, with Mr Ages' help, had just finished burying Commander Fitzgibbons in a shallow grave of stones on the edge of the lakeshore, wrapped his arms around her shoulders to comfort her.
"Everything will be all right, love," he said, stroking her soft fur, "We'll find a way out, you'll see."
"Oh, very well said," scoffed Brutus sarcastically, "All we have to do is sprout wings and fly out through that hole in the cave roof!"
"That's quite enough, Brutus!" said Justin sharply. This was no time to be listening to any more of Brutus' cheap sarcasm. But Josh, remembering the passage he'd found on the bottom of the lake, had an idea up his sleeve.
"We don't have to fly, we can swim out," he said, gesturing down at the lake, "There's a passage on the bottom and I think it leads outside. Thanks to Commander Fitzgibbons leaving us his spacesuit, we can make our way out one at a time." Not surprisingly, the Rats weren't all that enthusiastic about the plan.
"That's too risky, Josh," said Justin, "For all we know, that passage could dead-end somewhere deep underground or lead into a maze of passages you can't navigate. What if you get stuck or run out of air before you can find a way out?"
"And what about the rest of us?" added Mr Ages, "Suppose you do find a way out, how are you going to get the suit back to us so we can follow?" Josh realised Mr Ages had a good point; once he was out, if he made it out, there was no way of getting the suit back for the next person to follow. And he couldn't try ferrying them out one at a time using buddy-breathing like a rescue diver, as it didn't work on a closed-circuit spacesuit. And even if it did, the air supply wouldn't last that long. Unless...
"I can go alone," he finally said, thinking hard, "I'll find a way out, come back up and unseal the cave entrance from outside."
"And how in the name of the Great Owl do you intend to do that?" challenged Brutus, "One pair of hands can't shift a boulder that size...!"
"No, so instead we're going to blow it up!" said Josh with a smile, thinking of Fitzgibbons' pod down at the foot of the mountain. It may not have enough power to fly back to Thorn Valley, but it might be useful for something else, like, say, use it as a flying bomb to unseal the entrance. With the pod's emergency remote-override system in the autopilot and the control console on the Rover, he should have no problem sending the pod on a collision course with the mouth of the cave by remote. Its nuclear fuel cells self-destructing on impact would be equivalent to several tons of TNT detonating, more than sufficient to blow the entire side of the mountain open.
After outlining his plan to his friends, he began suiting up. The life-support pack on Fitzgibbons' suit read 16 minutes of air left; it should suffice. As for his remaining bottom time, it was practically zero, as he'd used it all up trying to get the sarcophagus to the surface, so he'd have to chance it. Elizabeth approached him and took his face into her hands.
"You take great care down there, Josh, you hear?" she said, with tears in her eyes. "Promise me you'll come back to me." Josh pulled her into a passionate kiss.
"I will, love. I always do."
He was just about to seal up his visor and take the plunge, but a cry of surprise from Bernard stopped him. "By all the graces of the Great Mouse of Minsk, I don't believe it! You've got to see this!"
Wondering what all the excitement was all about, they crowded around Bernard, who was clutching the shattered fake third piece of the Stone Warren T had dropped. They could see he was eagerly chipping away the cracked pieces and, as they soon realised, because there was something else, inside the cake of clay.
"By Jove," exclaimed Josh, bursting out laughing, "It's the third piece! Right under our bloody noses!"
Baked inside the clay likeness of the original piece, apparently in an attempt to keep it hidden in plain view, was the gleaming final piece of the Stone, found at long last. Igor Mousekewitz, obviously anticipating someone who didn't deserve to find the Stone might someday come along and desecrate his master's tomb for the third piece, had added a final precaution to ensure it would never fall into the wrong hands. Warren T had had his prize right within his grasp all along and tossed it away without realising... Talk about irony, thought Josh. Then, flashing back to the cryptic message they'd found inside Igor's suit of armour, another piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
"So this is the treasure," he said, gesturing at the massive lake, "Water, the most precious resource in sustaining life on a barren world. That's why your ancestor's King chose to be buried here; so that his worthy descendants, who'd treasure things other than worthless gold, would find the means of building a whole new world for themselves out here, away from the Rats persecuting them. This water supply, if tapped into properly, can turn this whole region into another Thorn Valley. Warren T, driven solely by his greed and ambition, not only missed the Stone, but he missed the treasure too!"
"And serves him right, the murdering scoundrel!" exclaimed Ages, unable to believe their incredible stroke of luck. Just when it seemed this entire escapade had been for nothing, their mission was accomplished at last. The last piece of the Stone had been found. But, alas, unless they could escape this cave and return to Thorn Valley, it would all be for naught. Once again, it was all up to Josh.
Josh was ready to take the plunge. Before he could proceed however, Bernard approached him. He placed the piece of the Stone into his hands.
"If something goes wrong and we don't make it, but you do, I ask that you take this back to my family." Josh nodded, tucking the Stone into his overalls' pocket under his suit. Mr Ages seemed to want to protest, but ultimately said nothing; if Josh didn't make it out, they were all doomed anyway, so it would make no difference. At least, this way, there was a good chance the Stone would make its way back to Thorn Valley.
Sealing up his visor and pressuring his suit, Josh gave his friends the thumbs-up and took the plunge. The ballast of crystals he'd strapped to his waist helped pull him down until he reached the bottom of the lake. Crawling down the incline, he came to the hole he'd spotted earlier. Shining his flashlight down the opening, he saw nothing but darkness. No sign of the light in the distance he'd seen earlier; perhaps it had been an optical illusion? Maybe he was swimming straight into a death trap? Too late to turn back and too early to give up now, he thought.
He crawled down the hole. His suit lights revealing a narrow, pitch-black tunnel ahead that seemed to go on forever, with no exit in sight. The tunnel roof hung low above his head, forcing him to crouch in order to squeeze along. The water was murky, making it difficult to see what lay ahead. More than once, he thought he felt his exposed life-support pack on his back snag on something which would leave him trapped, even trigger a cave-in, but nothing happened.
As he cautiously moved along, he suddenly became aware of an annoying feeling in his head. It felt like light-headedness, of the kind often associated with drinking; only he hadn't drunk any alcohol in months. Narcosis, he thought grimly. He'd overstepped his dive time limit for the day, allowing the nitrogen levels in his blood to build up too much, bringing him into the early stages of narcosis. As if on cue, his suit computer alarm sounded, warning him to abort and move to shallower water.
He pressed on, struggling to fight off the woozy sensation by focusing on his concentration. Two times two is four, nine times seven is sixty-three...or is it sixty-four? An invisible murkiness seemed to cloud his judgement, making it difficult to think clearly. He glanced at his air supply; ten minutes left. Still no sign of a way out and meanwhile the symptoms of narcosis were getting worse. His survival instinct was screaming at him to turn around, but the passage was too narrow.
He kept on going, struggling to control his breathing, keeping it slow and shallow, in a desperate attempt to slow down the onset of narcosis. He wanted desperately to increase the oxygen percentage in his airflow, which would counteract the effects, but he knew if he did that at any depth below 25 feet, he'd only go into a seizure from oxygen toxicity. Too much nitrogen, or too much oxygen. Take your pick. Damn pressure...
With less than five minutes of air left, he saw it; up ahead, about a hundred feet from where he was, the light of day shone down from a hole in the tunnel ceiling, like an overhead light fixture. Or were there two of them? No there were three... What was going on? Josh brought his hand up to his face, doing a V-sign. Not two, but six fingers danced in his line of vision. That's impossible, human hands don't have six fingers... The effects of narcosis had reached the point that he was seeing double and triple.
Don't think about that, don't think about it, Josh kept muttering to himself, struggling to stay focused. Just get to that damn hole. Wait, why is it moving away? The way out seemed to retreat into the distance, as if he were staring at it through a telescope the wrong way round. Tunnel vision, he realised. The final stage of narcosis, after which followed unconsciousness and finally death by drowning.
His brain felt like scrambled eggs. All he wanted to do was drift off to sleep. But, somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind, his survival instinct told him to keep fighting it, keep moving forward towards that light. The hole was right above his head now, the surface just thirty feet away. But it kept moving from side to side, as if to avoid his outstretched hand; or was he involuntarily swimming from side to side? His mind couldn't process any more. A few more seconds and the darkness would consume him forever.
But then, from his own involuntary action, or perhaps sheer luck, the belt of crystal ballast he was wearing around his waist dropped off and his air-filled spacesuit floated up to the surface. He broke the surface of the water, finding himself in another cave with a well that led down to the tunnel he'd just come through. Dragging himself out of the water in a semi-delirious state, he collapsed onto the ground and knew no more.
He awoke to the sound of a no-oxygen-warning alarm. His suit was still pressurized and he'd used up his remaining air, what little was left of it anyway, while he was out cold. Fiddling with the latches, he threw open his visor plate, taking deep breaths. He had a throbbing headache and felt nauseous, but at least he could think clearly again.
The cave he was in was much smaller than the crystal geode he'd just left; the well he'd come through was in fact a spring, fed by the lake deep inside the mountain. Carved on the cave wall right above the spring was the likeness of an armour-clad Mouse, which Josh figured was the First King, with an inscription in some ancient language Josh couldn't understand. A stone archway led outside onto a footpath, leading down from the mountain. He had done it! He was out!
His rejoicing was short-lived however, when a potential danger suddenly occurred to him; he'd way overstepped his bottom time, driving himself all the way into the final stages of narcosis. While he knew from his astronaut training that the effects of narcosis were temporary and wore off once one was back on dry land and in a normal pressure environment, he'd completely forgotten about the other hazard of diving: decompression sickness. Besides being underwater much longer than he should have, in his narcosis-induced haze, he'd done no safety stops during his ascend from the well!
While the effects of decompression sickness were often not imminent, often leading the sick diver into a false sense of security until his blood literally fizzed up like a dropped can of beer, leading to paralysis, stroke, and even death, Josh knew he needed to take preventive measures at once, before the symptoms kicked in. The first thought was oxygen.
Unfastening his life-support pack, he quickly dismantled the N2/O2 tank assembly which automatically fed a balanced mixture of gasses into the system, creating the breathable air needed to keep the astronaut alive, and pulled out the O2 tank. He knew the supply was empty, but there was always a little residue O2 left, even when the suit read zero.
Bringing the tank up to his mouth, he twisted the valve, inhaling hard. He felt an invigorating mouthful of pure oxygen flood his lungs, then another, and then...nothing. The tank was a pure vacuum. He felt his head clear and the tell-tale faint tingling sensation in his joints cease, but he knew it wasn't enough. He needed more oxygen, embolism-repressive drugs and a decompression chamber, and fast. Luckily, he had all these things handy, but they were all back at the Rover at the foot of the mountain.
There was no time to lose. Discarding the heavy suit and getting to his feet, he hurried out of the cave and down a narrow, traitorous footpath that led back to the valley below, where their camp was. It wasn't easy; unlike the entrance to the tomb, the spring was way off the beaten track, with several steep cliff faces to repel down from, before he finally reached firm ground again.
Slipping and staggering, he made his way down to the foot of the mountain. He checked his watch. It had been about half an hour since he'd crawled out of that well. By now, he could feel the tell-tale unpleasant aches building up in his joints, which were the early symptoms of decompression sickness. Unless he got proper treatment and soon, the problem would get much, much worse, probably leaving him with permanent mental and mobility damage.
The first thing he noticed as he scampered back into camp was that Fitzgibbons' pod was gone; and the numerous footprints and drag-marks around the spot indicated it had been carted away, probably towed on a rabbit-drawn cart, judging by the shape of the footprints. No doubt Warren T thought it would make a fine trophy for his collection, he thought. Well, we'll soon see about that... The Rover, thank God, was still behind the rock where they'd left it, either having been overlooked by Warren's thugs, or perhaps not worth bothering with as it couldn't fly.
Opening the airlock, Josh climbed inside and sealed the hatch. Thankfully, NIMH had anticipated every medical contingency when designing the mission's Rovers, including using the cabin as an emergency decompression chamber. Reaching for the atmospheric regulator beside the hatch, he reset it to an emergency high-pressurisation, oxygen-rich mode, normally meant for treating injured astronauts that had sustained prolonged suit breaches during EVA and suffering from embolisms, until they could be transported back to base for proper medical care.
The Rover's computerised environment systems kicked in, raising the atmospheric pressure to twice that of sea level and increasing the oxygen concentration to 100%. The higher pressure would help suppress the formation of nitrogen bubbles in the blood, whilst the oxygen-rich air would dissolve any residue bubbles already in the bloodstream. To complete the procedure, Josh opened up a small med kit under the console, taking out a syringe with a special anti-inflammatory drug that would help alleviate the symptoms, and injected himself with it in the thigh.
Collapsing into the driver's seat, he took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He was pretty sure he'd gotten it in time, so that there wouldn't be any lasting damage. He could already feel the pins and needles in his joints and extremities receding. He might need to stay confined to the Rover's bubble, which was now functioning as a recompression chamber, for a couple of days, but otherwise he'd be all right.
With the medical issues under control, it was time to get down to business. His friends were still up there, waiting for rescue. Although Warren T had stolen the pod, it was of no consequence, as Josh could still control it wirelessly from the Rover's console. Powering up the computer, he activated the wireless uplink and initiated a radar sweep for Scout Delta's navigational beacon.
It wasn't long before the Rover's radar locked onto the pod's beacon, five miles to the east, moving at ground level, at a steady speed of about 25 miles an hour – a very unusual attitude and speed for a space pod to be travelling at! Unless of course, it was being transported by land and on animal-drawn transport. Smiling, Josh typed a series of commands, punching in the primary initiation sequence.
Not too far away, Warren T's procession were making their way along a cleft, retracing their steps that would take them back to Rosebush City. Warren T sat inside the flying machine he and his mercenaries had seized from the fugitives' camp and which now functioned as his new carriage, the original one having been discarded, as every available rabbit was needed to tow their prize back. The pod was all battered and the interior seemed to have many parts missing or broken, much to Warren T's dismay, who always liked to have anything he seized without a single scratch on it. Obviously the human and his sidekicks didn't even know how to take good care of their own property, he thought with disgust.
He lay back in the pilot's seat, feeling pleased with himself. While not entirely successful, this expedition had sure put a valuable prize into his hands. No wonder humans regarded themselves masters of the skies when they could build machines like this, he thought. He couldn't wait to get the machine to some of his trusted scholar friends, who could repair it, study it and teach him how it worked.
He could already picture himself terrorising the peasants and impressing his subordinates when he had complete mastery over the heavens. He might even make King Jenner jealous; so jealous in fact, he might want to take his precious prize away from him. Well, let him try. That incompetent fool had not only lost his two pieces of the Stone, but had been unable to capture Anderson and had even lost the human's other flying machine to that servant girl. Warren T, on the other hand, had bested him on both counts and all in one day. How long before his followers realised there was an even stronger leader than Jenner to be found in Warren T Rat, making the time ripe for a coup? That definitely was an interesting line of thinking...
Suddenly, Warren T was snapped out of his thoughts by a rumbling sound behind him. The pod's engines were firing up; the pilot's console, which, until now, had been dark and dead, was suddenly alight, all the remaining instruments online and running, although Warren T had been pretty careful not to touch anything. What was happening? Before Warren T could process the fact that his new precious toy might decide to take flight on its own, the damage was done.
The pod's jets fired, lifting the ship off the cart where it was being transported and into the air. The cart was completely disintegrated by the jet blast, along with the driver, the rabbits pulling it breaking free of their reigns and scattering in all directions in fright. Trapped inside the pod, Warren T watched terrified as the machine left the ground, hovering high above the earth. The pod manoeuvred itself onto a new course, heading back towards the mountain...
Inside the Rover, Josh plotted a new flight plan for Scout Delta, putting her on a collision course with the mountain, exactly where the entrance to the tomb was. All primary systems read in the green. Power levels read on emergency battery reserve, with only eight minutes of flight time left. But who cared about that? The computer crunched the data; 5 minutes to impact. He hit the execute key.
As he happened to tune in to the Scout's radio frequency, he heard the terrified cries of Warren T Rat...
Trapped inside the airborne pod, Warren T struggled to get his wits together and think. Whatever was going on, he had to find a way out of this! He stared at the pilot's console in front of him and all the other banks of controls around the cabin. Nothing made any sense to him whatsoever. How did one fly this thing?
He tried throwing several switches and pulling a few levers, but nothing happened, other than a few beeps and a few lights changing colour. He grabbed the control sticks on the armrests and tried fiddling with them. Nothing. The pod didn't change course or altitude. Unbeknownst to Warren T, the system was in remote-control mode, under Josh's control on the other end, so all the flight controls were locked.
Looking out the windshield, Warren T saw something that chilled him to the bone; the pod was headed straight for the mountain, gathering speed as it went. He was about to crash straight into a wall of rock! Growing desperate and scared out of his wits, he continued fiddling with the pilot's console trying to gain control, but to no avail. For the first time in his life, Warren T felt something he'd always enjoyed spreading among those around him, but never dreamed of experiencing himself: fear. Fear of his own imminent death.
"Help! Somebody, help!"
Losing it completely, he began pounding on the console with his fists until his fingers were all bloodied, screaming and sobbing like a mad Rat. After a lifetime of enjoying tormenting others before having them killed or robbing them of their fortunes, Warren T now knew what it was like to have his fate staring at him right in the face with him powerless to escape it.
The mountain was only seconds away. Proximity warnings were flashing all over the flight computer screen, but the pod, soon to be his airborne coffin, still didn't change course. It was all over. The last words that escaped Warren T's lips, before the force of the impact hit him, were, "Damn you, Anderson!"
The pod impacted the mountain side like a highjacked plane hitting a skyscraper, instantly exploding. The massive shockwave was felt for over a mile in every direction, among flying debris and the minced remains of Warren T Rat being scattered in the winds.
No sooner had the flames of the explosion subsided than the side of the mountain began to collapse. A massive chunk of the granite wall disintegrated like a sheet of glass and cascaded down the mountain side in a gigantic landslide, followed by a massive torrent of water from the lake inside the cave...
Minutes before the explosion came, back inside the cave, Justin, Brutus, Mr Ages, Bernard and Elizabeth were fretting over their friend's whereabouts. It had been over an hour and still no sign of Josh or the explosion that was supposed to get them out of this living tomb. Elizabeth, fearing the worst, was sobbing her heart out.
"He's drowned!" she wailed, "He's gone! First Jonathan, now Josh! Oh, what kind of curse is upon me? All my beloved ones are ending up dead, one by one!" Justin moved to comfort her.
"Don't give up hope, Biff," he said, "You know Josh has come through more scrapes than many of us ever gave him credit for. He promised you he'd come back safely; I'm sure he'll honour his word."
"Quiet! I think I hear something," said Mr Ages. Sure enough, straining their ears to listen, the Rats could hear the familiar roaring sound of a spacecraft's engines outside. Commander Fitzgibbons' pod was airborne again. And the only way that could happen was because Josh was out there. He had made it!
Hearing the sound of the pod getting closer and remembering Josh's warning to take cover immediately when that happened, Justin quickly ushered them all away from the cave wall and behind the only thing sturdy enough to provide cover: the First King's sarcophagus, still sitting on the lakeshore.
"Take cover!" shouted Justin, "Place your hands above your heads and brace yourselves as tight as you can!" Outside, the sound of the incoming pod intensified. Then, the explosion came.
The cave wall around the tunnel that led to the blocked exit shook violently; rocks and shattered crystals fell from the roof all around them, giving the impression that the whole cave was about to come crashing down. The granite wall split apart like a curtain, entire chunks of it dropping away entirely, revealing a gaping hole to the outside. Then, the torrent of water followed; because the edge of the hole was lower than the level of the lake, the water came gushing out of the cave, creating a gigantic waterfall down the side of the mountain.
Not too far away, the procession of the late Warren T's remaining henchmen stared in awe as the seemingly lifeless human machine suddenly came back to life and took flight, taking their master with it. Powerless to help him, they watched as the pod impacted the mountain in the distance and exploding. They had no idea how this had happened, but they did realise Warren T Rat had made a fatal mistake by messing with the wrong enemy. And, as they were soon to find out, they too were to share their master's grim fate.
"What's that sound?"
The Rats were suddenly caught by surprise by a strange sound coming from further up the cleft. From afar, it sounded just like moving water...a lot of it. But, in the name of the Great Owl, they were in the middle of a desert! Where would there be enough water to make that noise? Straining their ears to pinpoint the source, they realised it was getting closer. None of them realised they were standing in the middle of a death trap.
Before any of them could realise this was no illusion, an amazing sight emerged from around a corner in the cleft behind them: a wall of water, which came sweeping straight towards them at tremendous speed, knocking them off their feet. Within seconds, the cleft had become a furious river, the water sweeping away anything in its path. Many of the Rats tried swimming for it, but their suits of armour weighed them down and they quickly lost the fight; a few tried scampering up the cleft walls to higher ground, only to discover the sides were too steep and that there was no escape. The water swept the last of Warren T's expedition away, leaving behind no witnesses to give away the location of the colonists of Thorn Valley.
Inside the cave, coughing and splattering from all the smoke and dust, the Thorn Valley expeditionaries got to their feet, shaken, but otherwise unscathed. The cave around them was a shambles, with fallen boulders and shattered crystals that lay everywhere; one side was completely open to the outside, through which the new river they'd unintentionally created now flowed. The way out was open!
Justin, Elizabeth, Brutus, Mr Ages and Bernard made their way over to the new opening, letting the twin suns shine down on their dirty faces. They were going home! Looking down, they saw the valley at the foot of the mountain was completed flooded, having become the basin of the new river, which snaked away, far into the desert. Out of all this toiling, destruction and the death of a man, a miracle had taken place. This new river would soon transform this barren and totally inhospitable landscape into a green region, with good farmland and a sustainable water source for any future settlers. Just like the First King had intended it long ago.
Staring in amazement at the flooded valley, Elizabeth suddenly uttered a gasp. Their campsite, including the Rover, had been down there and the whole area was now underwater. "Josh! Oh, my goodness, where's Josh?"
The Rats stared down in alarm, desperately looking for any signs of life. The plan certainly hadn't included this; could Josh have been caught unawares when the torrent had come cascading down the mountain and swept away?
"Look!"
Using a pair of binoculars, Justin scanned the edges of the flooded valley, until he spotted a reflection shining on the top of a little hill nearby. Zooming in, sure enough, it was the Rover, sunlight reflecting off its glass bubble. And inside, waving in their direction was Josh, safe and sound. Having seen the water burst out of the mountain and realising the danger, he'd quickly started up the Rover and barely managed to make it to higher ground, along with the supplies and equipment they'd need for the trip home. Once again, thanks to their friend's courage and ingenuity, the day was theirs!
Inside the Rover, Josh powered down sat back in his seat, his heart beating a mile a minute. The console screen, previously linked up to Scout Delta's systems, was now blank. The radio was silent; Warren T's cries had ceased instantly when the pod had hit the mountain. Although Josh felt a slight twinge of guilt at the destruction of the pod, he certainly felt no guilt for Warren T Rat. That fool had been killed as a result of his own folly; that spineless thief and murderer, who'd just tried to kill them by burying them alive, not to mention all the crimes and atrocities he'd committed against Rats and Mice alike, had gotten his just deserts. Josh thought of Commander Fitzgibbons. He turned to look up at the sky.
"This is for you, Commander! May you rest in peace, sir."
The expeditionaries remained at the cave for several days, until Josh was fully recovered. Finally, after three days of being sealed up inside the Rover's positive-pressure environment and breathing pure oxygen, the effects of the bends disappeared completely and he was able to re-emerge from his life-saving cocoon, all stiff and in need of a bath, but otherwise healthy. Running several tests on Dr Boniface's field med-scanner showed no signs of embolism in any part of his body. As he'd expected, they'd been no lasting damage done, although Josh felt he should make a point of not doing any more diving again anytime soon.
The expeditionaries sealed up the First King's sarcophagus and lowered it back into the depths of the lake where it belonged. Bernard said a few words in memory of his ancestor's king, whose legacy had prevailed over those willing to steal it or destroy it, and would now endure for a long time to time. The party then cleared away all the rubble and bodies from the cave, cleaning up the damage caused by the explosion best they could, and shoring up the new river so it would continue to flow smoothly after they'd gone. The final touch was to plant a few seeds they'd brought with them from Thorn Valley on the shore around the basin. The next visitors here would hopefully find a blooming oasis with green pastures, just like Thorn Valley.
At last, it was time to go home. With the Rover heavily laden down with equipment, which now included Fitzgibbons' spacesuit and gun, provisions, and all the water they needed to make it back home, the expedition was ready to return to Thorn Valley. Taking with them the prizes of their trip: the third piece of the Stone, Igor Mousekewitz's armour, which Bernard felt should return to the family, rock and crystal samples from the cave for Josh to study, and a new, detailed map of the tomb Josh had drawn up from satellite imagery to help any future expeditions relocate the area, they departed in high spirits. Before leaving, they agreed to name the new river, the Fitzgibbons River, in honour of Josh's fallen Commander who had saved them.
The return journey was much easier than the trip out. The Fitzgibbons River followed them for several days, allowing them to conserve their water reserves, even allowing them the occasional bath, until it eventually changed course to the south and they lost sight of it.
Eventually, they returned to the muscovite region they'd passed through earlier; from there, they were able to plot a steady course that would take them back to Thorn Valley. After several more days of open desert, they came back to the edge of the Dry Sea, close to the mountain range they'd crossed on the first few days out. On the morning of Sol 228, 41 days after setting off on their expedition, they reached Thorn Valley.
Fievel and the Brisby children were playing in the yard outside the Hab, using a football that had once belonged to flight navigator Wilson. Tanya was assisting her mother with the vegetable garden they'd been preparing during the last few days. Yasha was napping in her makeshift crib, beside her mother. With the crops doing well, Emily had insisted on sampling and planting more seeds from around the valley, to enrich the variety of their little community's food supply.
With her little army of errand-boys, namely the children, sent out to gather fruit and seedlings, they'd set up a whole new garden in the clearing outside the Hab, consisting of fruit trees, vegetable patches and herbs, as a welcome-home surprise for when the expeditionaries returned.
Emily had been very quiet for the last few days, focusing entirely on her work and insisting others do the same. It had been over three weeks since they'd lost contact with Josh's party and while they hoped it was just a problem with their communication equipment, every passing day without news from her husband was having a terrible strain for Emily Mousekewitz, although she was making a great effort in keeping her worries to herself. Nonetheless, Tanya could tell her mother was sick with worry.
"Try not to worry, Mama," she said, as they worked on the vegetable patch, "Josh won't let anything happen to Papa or the others. If there's anyone in the world we can trust to keep them safe, it's him." In truth, beside her father, she missed Josh terribly. How she wished they'd come home soon. Her mother however seemed to think differently.
"Even heroes don't stay heroes forever, Tanya," she said sharply, "Captain Anderson should have known better than to allow your father to go along on this dangerous and, as far as I am concerned, utterly pointless escapade! Your father can sometimes be such a child, going on these quests for glory and riches!"
"But he only does it for our family's benefit, Mama!" protested Tanya, "He's dedicated to our happiness!"
"And look where that got us!" retorted Emily, thinking of Warren T Rat, "That accursed Stone nearly destroyed our family once already and now your father insists on continuing with this folly! When will he learn that wealth and power don't bring happiness, only pain and sorrow! We've always been a family of modest means, Tanya, but at least we've always been happy. Captain Anderson, on the other hand, doesn't have a family; he has nothing to lose by venturing into danger. Your father should have known better than to go along with them! I knew I should have stopped him when I could!" She burst into tears, thinking she'd never see her husband again; a sandstorm, breakdown, bandits, or perhaps they'd been captured by the Rats. Most likely, they'd never know.
Tanya wrapped her hands around her mother's shoulders, "Please don't cry, Mama. I too was desperate when I thought I'd lost Fievel to those terrible bandits. I kept blaming myself, feeling I'd let you and Papa down, when I'd promised to keep him safe. When Josh first came to Nicodemus' court, hearing all those rumours about him, I was prepared to offer myself into his servitude as payment, if he would bring Fievel back. And yet, he offered to help me, a complete stranger, for nothing. He risked his life for us just because I chose to trust him, when so many others wouldn't. He won't let us down now, Mama, you'll see."
As if on cue, Timothy, who had gone to retrieve the football from a nearby ditch, came running. "It's the Rover! They're back!"
"They're back!" screamed an overjoyed Tanya, jumping to her feet in delight. They all run to meet the Rover as it came down the footpath, pulling up in front of the Hab. The first thing they noticed was that the expedition has returned one Rover short; there was no sign of Rover 2, whilst Rover 1 bore clear evidence of rough travel: its formerly shiny, brand-new white paintwork was coated in red dust and scratches from the desert and the tyres were badly worn after forty-one days of travelling. The Brisbies and Mousekewitzes felt their hearts sink; had some of the expeditionaries been lost with the missing Rover? But that was not to be the case.
The airlock hatch opened and the expeditionaries disembarked: Josh, Justin, Brutus, Ages, Elizabeth and Bernard. All six of them had returned home safely, looking tired and fatigued, but overjoyed to see their beloved ones again.
Elizabeth ran to embrace her children, who literally jumped into her arms with delight, knocking her to the ground, while Bernard did the same with his wife and daughter. As for Fievel, he latched onto his father's shoulders, hugging and kissing him. Emily and Elizabeth were both in tears. Tanya kissed her father and then kissed Josh too, muttering, "Thank you."
That night, they had a big dinner in the Hab to celebrate. The children were anxious to hear their story of everything that had happened out there since they'd lost contact. The expeditionaries told them everything; their journey through the desert, the mysterious distress signal, losing Rover 2 to the muscovite, the discovery of the downed pod, the crystal cave, Commander Fitzgibbons, their run-in with Warren T and his thugs, raising the sarcophagus of the First King, only to discover the decoy, and their extraordinary escape. The best part of all was the news of Warren T's demise.
"Your Aunt Sophie's soul can finally rest in peace," Bernard told his children, "Our family is safe at last from Warren T Rat's evil ambitions." Emily muttered a silent praise to the Great Mouse of Minsk. No longer should they fear that cruel Rat's revenge.
"You got that wanker Warren T Rat?" said Martin, cheering out loud, "Wish I could have seen the look on his ugly face before he was splattered all over that mountain! Maybe I could find his teeth..."
"Martin!" Elizabeth scolded her oldest son, "Criminal or not, that Rat died horribly! There is no reason to crack jokes about it!" Martin muttered a half-hearted apology.
The news of the discovery of the third piece of the Stone had mixed reactions; some were ecstatic, others solemn, realising this was a blood artefact, which many had killed over, and might still do, once they realised they had it.
After cleaning off centuries worth of grime in a chemical bath down in the lab, Josh had brought the third piece of the Stone into the Hab's kitchen and placed it on the table alongside the other two pieces. After all these centuries, the Stone of All Knowledge, formerly the Nimh-One's Rosetta Stone, which had cost the lives of Nicodemus, Jonathan Brisby and so many others that had been killed over it, was whole again. The search was finally over.
"So what are we going to do with it?" asked Tanya, staring at the Stone, clearly unimpressed. Now she could see this thing, which she'd grown up imagining it to be a powerful magical object, was just a broken gold disk with miniature writings so small they couldn't even be read all over it. This trinket held the sum of all knowledge? Not likely!
Josh came in from the workshop, bringing a digital microscope he'd modified for a demonstration. The Nimh-One didn't carry the apparatus needed to read the Stone, as the science team onboard, all top PhDs, would never need to refer to any of the information on it, most of which could be found in the ship's e-library anyway, so he had no choice but to improvise.
By mounting the microscope's lens on a bracket-on-wheels above the Stone, alongside a small lamp so that the image would not come back in shadow, he could zoom onto any part of the stone he desired, using the help of an attached laser to guide him. The camera in the lens would, in turn, project the picture onto a screen above the table.
Plugging the apparatus he'd cobbled together into the screen, he switched on the microscope. After making several adjustments with the lens, he got a clear enough picture. The Rats all gasped as a tiny spot on the Stone, no bigger than a grain of salt, came up magnified several thousand times its normal size. A page from a familiar book of poems from Earth materialised before their eyes.
"'And still the ancient ruby yields, and still a garden by the water blows...'" read Mr Ages out loud, "What's this codswallop supposed to be?"
"A passage from the Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam, I think," said Josh, remembering his high school summer readings, which at some point had included the Rubaiyat, which he'd hated. Poetry was never his forte, flying was. Moving the microscope elsewhere, they found more.
"Who on earth is that?" asked Teresa with a giggle, staring in amazement at the handmade drawing of a man standing in an X posture, with different markings separating the different moving parts of his body.
"The Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo Da Vinci," said Josh, "Marvellous inventor and doctor, not unlike our friend Mr Ages, in fact," he said, gesturing at the old mouse, who stood as if in a trance at the sight of all this new knowledge unfolding before his eyes. "He was the first person to conceive the idea of flying, although it took a further 400 years before it became reality."
The group spent hours examining the Stone under the microscope. They found many interesting texts, including scientific formulas, dictionaries of dozens of languages, astronomical models, Biblical scriptures, journals on political theory, even images of works of art. Unfortunately, about 10% of the Stone was not visible, including the area where the cracks separating the pieces were, as well as several parts obscured by grime that was too deeply embedded to be removed. Nonetheless, it would revolutionise the Rats' civilization overnight. Or rather it could, if it could be introduced to society without fear of it being stolen by those who wanted to exploit it for their own dark ends.
"Let's not get too excited, friends. Let's not forget about Jenner," Justin reminded them, "As long as he remains in power, we have no chance of fulfilling Nicodemus' dream, even if we now have the Stone. The people of Rosebush City will never be able to share any of this if they remain in the dark about what Jenner did to Nicodemus."
"Then, we have to find some way to overthrow Jenner," said Josh. Now that their quest to find the Stone was complete, they still had a duty towards their fallen king and Josh, for one, wasn't about to shy away from it. Nicodemus had received him with kindness and trust, "It is our duty to avenge Nicodemus and bring that traitor to justice!"
"Easier said than done, young man," said Mr Ages solemnly, "We wouldn't stand a chance going to war against that maniac or his army."
Although Josh knew all this talk about overthrowing Jenner was just tall talk, given that they had no army or firepower big enough to take on the entire Rat army, and their efforts should be better spent elsewhere, like finding more ways to improve their own lives here in Thorn Valley, deep down, he knew they couldn't go on living in hiding forever. Sooner or later, Jenner would come after them and the Stone. And when that happened, they had better be prepared!
Little did Josh or his friends realise that their paths and that of their mortal enemy were about to cross again and soon. A war was approaching on the horizon, with fate about to bring both sides in a head-on collision.
On the peak of the ancient volcano overlooking Rosebush City, everything was quiet. Only the cold wind could be heard blowing across the dark, icy peak of the dead mountain. But the sensors Josh had set up there months ago were not all that quiet.
Although faint readings, the seismometers were picking up new activity building up deep in the bowels of the volcano; gas sensor readings were also spiking with elevated levels of CO2 seeping out of the soil. Even the temperature was slowly rising, causing the snow down in the crater to start melting. Following a massive eruption pre-dating the planet's habitable era or the Rat city beneath it, the dormant volcano was finally waking up.
Oblivious to the danger about to befall them, at the foot of the mountain, the people of Rosebush City continued to sleep soundly...
Author's note: Another chapter is up! Now that the search for the Stone is over, the final showdown with Jenner is close. Enjoy and please review!