Chapter 47 - The Kraken Gate
In spite of it being the small bells of the morning when we returned, Doctor Caldwell was roused to excise the splinter of stone that had lodged in my thigh. James was discharged after a brief checkup, but the doctor kept me in the manor house’s sanatorium overnight, so I slept in the bed that Na-Su had recently vacated. Although exhausted, I slept fitfully. I couldn’t get warm. In a contrast with the heat on Ganessa, Lannerville was enduring a wintery sleet, the noise of it splattering against the tall arched windows of the infirmary, further serving to keep me awake.
Carraday dawned a solid grey with zero promise of sunshine, much like Nurse Vanning on her rounds. She made her displeasure plain to me while she was checking my vital signs.
‘I know your type,’ she said, glaring at me from a face made shiny by the vigour with which her hair had been tied back. ‘Careless!’ She grimaced at a thermometer which I had toasted lightly beneath my tongue. I didn’t need her or the thermometer to tell me that I had a fever coming on, hopefully just a mild infection from the wound.
‘I can’t tell you what a joy it is to bask in the warmth of your bedside manner,’ I said with the brightest smile I could manage. Nurse Vanning harrumphed, checked the fresh bandages on my leg before grabbing my wrist to check my pulse.
‘You’ll sweat a lot. You might get a cough and your head will feel like someone’s opened it up and tickled the contents with a mallet,’ she said. ‘If you drink plenty of water and rest properly, I dare say you’ll pull through.’
I tried to say something, but Vanning kept right on talking.
‘If you’re daft, like the big Omolit woman, you’ll try to get up before you’re ready. Then you’ll get gangrene, and then we’ll have to amputate.’
‘Get up, get gangrene, get amputation,’ I repeated, as though memorising the sequence, but Nurse Vanning had obviously been innoculated against humour. She looked me in the eyes and scowled.
‘Two days, in here. Understand? Once you’re up, you’ll need a walking stick for a few days to take the strain off that leg.’
I nodded, but the prospect of remaining stuck in here for two days was absurd. Nurse Vanning rolled out of the room just as Director Harman arrived. He was as dapper as ever. His tidy little moustache jiggled on his top lip while he apologised for everything that had happened to me. I had no idea what he was talking about. The fever was already taking hold.
‘You needn’t worry, Ms. Derringer,’ said Harman, sensing that I was struggling to stay focused. ‘Mr. Forbes and Lieutenant Scott have given me a full account of your visit to Ganessa. The loss of Private Yates is a tragedy, of course,’ he continued, ‘but in every other respect the trip was a success.’
‘Was it?’ I really didn’t know. We’d been tasked with scouting the area, looking for evidence of the previous touchdown point, repelling dangerous beasts in the immediate vicinity and building the beginnings of a base camp. What we had actually done was wander about for a bit, rile up a nest of Charg and leave behind a steaming puddle of quicklime surrounded by a pile of sodden gear.
‘Of course, Ms. Derringer. That pompous ass Evershed has proved to be useful after all. He believes that the previous touchdown site may be no more than a day or two from the new position. You will simply have to reconnoitre that area on our next foray.’
‘If you say so, Director Harman.’
‘I do say so, so don’t look so gloomy. The Koulomb Gate worked perfectly in spite of Professor Maddison’s dire warnings.’
The old man’s optimism was beginning to grate. He wanted us to set out again on a multi-day trek through hostile territory that had cost the life of Private Yates.
‘And what of Dr. Onacar’s work? Has she sufficient samples for her hydrology survey.’
Director Harman waved a hand dismissively. ‘I’ve already spoken with her. She hasn’t completed her analysis yet, but based on what she’s seen so far, she’s confident that this particular region of Ganessa has sufficient water.’
I made a note to question Millicent Onacar when I next saw her. I didn’t doubt that we’d find it, but if there’s one thing hammered into you in the army, it’s that water is not the same as drinking water. Who knew what kind of microbes or pollutants we’d find when we took a closer look? The fever was making the room spin now. I really wanted to get rid of Harman, but I needed to know how soon he expected us to go back.
‘I had hoped you’d be able to return tomorrow, but Nurse Vanning won’t allow it. Also, Maddison says there are some minor repairs to carry out. Apparently three power couplers burned out yesterday, so there will be a two day pause before we try again.’
I lay back on my pillows feeling dizzy, though I couldn’t have said whether that was the effect of the gathering fever, or whether it was the thought of returning to Ganessa so soon after barely escaping with our lives. Harman took the hint and sauntered out. I may have fallen asleep, but what seemed like a few moments later, I awoke to the sound of my team, chattering like a bunch of school children on a field trip. Ellen had thoughtfully fetched a carpet-bag of my clothes which she deposited on a chair in the corner.
James had a cut on his cheek where it had come into contact with the sharp stones on Ganessa, but otherwise was recovered. Mahkran wasn’t suffering from any effects of our run-in with the aliens, but one of Inigo’s eyes was very red where it had been dusted with quicklime.
‘Chief, would you like to debrief now?’ Ankush asked. ‘We could come back this afternoon if you’d prefer.’
‘I expect you’ve already told each other what happened yesterday, haven’t you?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ This was Ellen.
‘Alright. There’s no need to go over everything then, though I would like to hear from James about the trip along the opposite ridge. Mr. Dunn, would you oblige?’
James didn’t enjoy being the centre of attention. He began haltingly, but speeded up as his tale progressed. He had scaled the eastern ridge with Lieutenant Scott, Private Overstrand and Polonius Evershed. The naturalist made heavy going of it, blowing and sweating like a pit pony. It was hard to imagine that he had once crossed the Nurgian Highlands on foot, as he claimed in one of his books. Perhaps he had been thinner back then.
Like us, they had seen a number of insect-like creatures, and sighted one of the lizards with the scorpion tail. James’s face betrayed disgust as he described seeing two furry creatures that looked like small, flattened dogs, except that their eyes protruded from their backs on stalks.
‘When we reached the top, we saw a forest on the far side,’ James continued. ‘It was big. Couldn’t see where it ended. Twisted, dirty-yellow trees. We heard noises from down there, a kind of whooping sound, like children playing larking about.
‘Evershed said he recognised it from the first trip.’ James shrugged. ‘We didn’t see much else, and we’d gone so slowly that we had to start back down before we got to the end of the valley.’
‘I hope he’s right,’ I said. ‘Otherwise we could spend years looking for the previous site.’
‘Wait please,’ Na-Su interrupted. ‘Why Harman so keen for visiting other site?’
‘Bring back the bodies?’ suggested Ankush.
‘I don’t think he cares one bit about the dead. He told me it was important to understand the damage that had been done. His niece is helping Maddison tune the machine.’
‘Stands to reason,’ Inigo cut in. ‘Imagine the consequences to an established base on another world if the blast had the same impact on the far side as it did in Rostov Park.’
Everyone was silent for a while, remembering the ruined buildings and the people who had died. James concluded his version of events at the point that the two parties had met. I thanked him and asked Ellen and Ankush if their day had produced anything worth sharing; they both shook their heads. Na-Su showed us the prototype for a hand-held catapult that she claimed could lob quicklime packets to a distance of eighty paces. She agreed to give the others a demonstration on the range later that day.
The conversation continued for a while until Ellen started to shoo everyone out. They were on their way out when Ankush stopped at the door.
‘Oh, chief! Director Harman says Chancellor Gordon is coming tomorrow.’
Chancellor Gordon, the first minister of the Republic, was coming to Lannerville, a mining and logging backwater. Against the backdrop of an escalating war, it was hard to fathom what could be so important that Emberland’s leader would spend time here.
‘Is the air-train fixed?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know, Ms. Derringer, but I heard he is coming by airship.’
‘Thank you, Ankush,’ I said, nodding as the team filed out. Was it possible that the chancellor had received tidings of our trip through the gate and was coming to get a first-hand report from Director Harman?
Benjamin must have sent a report as soon as we’d returned from Ganessa, following the chancellor’s instructions, and for his part, the leader of the Republican Council had immediately commandeered the air-ship and set off for a face-to-face with Director Harman. It was interesting that the industrialist hadn’t mentioned it to me earlier.
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