Old Mars

THEY CAME TO THE FALLS, INCREASINGLY COMMUNICATING through their filtered helmet radios. The sound was deafening. An eerie pink light glared up from the chasm’s depths.

“Some say that’s Mars’s core down there.” She didn’t elaborate.

“Have you been here before?”

“Once. Guy jumped bail on Terra. Thought he had immunity here. He did, but they framed him anyway because the judge in Ram owed the judge in Old London a favor. So I was in for double reward. A share of the bail money if I brought him in alive. Well, it turned out he had friends here. Archaeologists. Academics. They crack easily. They told me how they’d found evidence for what they called the lost canal. You know the story?”

He nodded. “Guy’s out in the desert. He beds down for the night. Wakes up suddenly. He hears water. He listens more carefully. Running water. It’s the ghost canal. A kind of mirage, leading travelers astray so they die of thirst convinced there’s water all around them.”

“They told him about a cave system. Legends said it was a way into another world. Some argued it came out on Terra, in Arizona somewhere. Some thought ancient Mars. Others linked it to the discoveries of the so-called hidden universe obscured from our astronomers by drifting clouds of cosmic fog.” She shrugged. “You don’t have to break many fingers before they put two and two together. I found the cave, found this place, found him, hauled him up, took him in, and took the money.”

“Why didn’t I ever hear of that entrance?”

“Because I destroyed it. Didn’t want those archaeologists to be embarrassed again. My guy had two reasons not to talk. He might escape and hide out down here. And he knew what I’d do to him if news of the falls ever reached the surface. They sent him to Ceres. You don’t live long there. As far as I know, he died with the secret.”

The falls mesmerized them. They both found themselves walking too close to the edge, drawn by the vast, rearing walls of water spraying blue and gold, emerald and ruby, in that strange light. Old light, thought Mac without knowing why. Light that appeared to be pressed down by the cavern’s impenetrable blackness. Mac saw all kinds of shapes in there. Faces from his past. People he had hated. Nobody he had loved. Men with weapons. Women wanting his money or contempt or both. Cruelty ran through interplanetary society like a fuel. Not his drug of choice. Peace. Why was he thinking like this as the pink flume blew into a million shapes and offered to hold him like a baby, safely, safely …?

“Stone!”

Her strong hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back from the edge. “Damn! I thought you could look after yourself.” Her anger was like a slap across his face. He swore. Those eyes, those glaring eyes! What had they held in that moment when she raged at him?

He shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

She was frowning now, peering through her distance glasses out across the raging falls and pointing. “What’s that?”

A flash of electric lime green. An obviously unnatural color. Nothing like anything surrounding it. He switched over to the helmet’s optics and brought it in sharply as instruments reported distance and size. She adjusted her own glasses to check it out.

About 1.5 meters square, the star bomb lay balanced between a rough circle of rocks. Almost peacefully, white water whirled around it. Contrary currents held it in suspension. Any one of the currents could alter course slightly and take the bomb over the brink, from where it would never be recovered. And would ultimately detonate, splitting the planet apart.

The falls bellowed, echoing through the vast cavern whose roof lay beyond sight in the glittering darkness. According to the helmet, its walls held deposits of gold, silver, diamonds, and many other metals now very rare on Terra. Stone could imagine what would become of the place once the likes of Delph found out about it. He scanned the falls as far as he could see, pointing out a possible pathway through to it, where a great slab of black granite formed a canopy on which tons of water fell by the second. The rocks beneath the canopy were given a little potential protection, at least for part of the way. Some of the rocks disappeared behind another great massing of fallen debris. They formed a blind spot. Neither Stone nor Chen could see what danger might be waiting for anyone who tried to cross beyond that point. There didn’t seem to be a better route anywhere else.

“We’d best rope up.” She lowered her heavy pack to the walkway. “We can’t work on that thing out there. We’re going to have to fetch it.”