Subterranean

The last thing Jason saw was the flash of muzzle fire.

Ashley stood and stretched her legs in ohna's chamber. She gave Harry's aluminum transport a kick with her toe. Four hours riding piggyback on top of Ben from the mimi'swee village! She worked a kink out of her lower back with a knuckle. Damn!

"C'mon," Ben called from outside. "It's clear. Let's go."

Ashley crawled from the tiny chamber into Alpha Cavern. She had wondered if she would ever see this place again. Bone-tired, she smiled. Finally!

However, when she spotted the means of transport from here, her smile sank. "A motorcycle?" Ashley clambered down the cliff to Ben.

"I have to hand it to Harry," he said. "He builds mean machines."

She nodded, climbing behind Ben on the cycle. It was unfortunate that Harry's brother, Dennis, had to be left back with the mimi'swee, but his injured ankle compromised their speed. He was coming up with the band of mimi'swee hunters, on foot. "I don't care if we have to get there by mule," she said. "I need to see Jason."

"I know. It's bugging me that I can't reach Nob'cobi. Hang on." Within moments, they were racing through darkness toward the distant glow of the base.

Ashley pressed herself against Ben's back, leaning her cheek on his shoulder. She hugged him tighter. She could almost hear his heartbeat.

"Keep an eye out for any of those crak'an," Ben yelled above the engine noise. "Those nasties are creeping all over the cavern."

"You just keep this bike aiming straight toward the base. I don't care what gets in the way. Run over it."

She watched the surroundings for any flash of movement as they traveled. Nothing but darkness. Soon the blackness faded to a dusky twilight as they approached the base. As night was beaten back by the camp lights, a growing stench filled the air.

She crinkled her nose. "My god."

"You'll get used to it."

She prayed she never would. When Ashley saw the devastation and destruction, she closed her eyes. How did Jason survive this?

"Almost there," Ben shouted.

Suddenly, to the right, a reptilian head sprang up behind an overturned car, its muzzle bloody. Ben saw it and gunned the bike. The cycle shot forward, leaving the beast bellowing far behind.

"Over there," Ben said finally, pointing.

She had already recognized it. Though scarred with burns, Blakely's office still stood intact. Ben slowed the bike to a crawl and edged around a corner of the building.

The sight that came into view stopped Ashley's heart cold.

No! She flew off the cycle. The hulking carcass of one of the predators lay sprawled just yards from the building. Khalid lay limp in its jaws, his pallor pale, his eyes staring blindly upward.

This was not the sight that had panicked her. Harry was hunched over a small figure that lay twisted on the rock.

No, she prayed, not after so much.

Ben caught up to her, pulling her back. "Wait," he said.

She resisted his restraint, pushing his arm away. She crossed over to Harry. Standing up, he moved aside for her. Ben stood next to her.

"It's not Jason, Ash," Ben said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "That's what I was trying to tell you. I knew from your face what you were thinking."

She stared down at the dead mimi'swee hunter, a bullet hole in his chest. "Who is it?"

Ben knelt down next to the dead man, placing his hand on his shoulder. "No wonder I couldn't reach him. It's Nob'cobi." Ben lifted his eyes to Harry. "What happened?"

With tears threatening, Harry explained, "I'd gone to check for survivors from the elevator explosion. The mimi'swee were left to guard the building. While I was away, Khalid and Linda returned." He continued to relate how the crak'an attacked and how Khalid attempted to blow the place up as a final act before he died. "The hunters were watching, waiting for the best time to intervene. When Jason grabbed the transmitter, Khalid tried to kill him. But Nob'cobi knocked the boy to the side and took the bullet instead."

Ashley knelt next to Ben. "He saved my boy's life."

"Yes," Harry said. "Jason got a good knock on the head. Blacked out for a few seconds, but he's fine. Linda took him-"

"Mom!"

Ashley whirled to face the building. Jason stood in the blasted opening, a bandage wrapped over his forehead. "Jason!"

She stood up and ran to him. They collapsed into each other's arms. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry." She hugged him hard to her chest.

"I love you, Mom."

She just held him, rocking him in her arms.

Ben pointed to the large carcass. "I thought I had killed that bloody beast."

"Apparently it had a hide as thick as yours," Harry said.

Linda then stepped through the doorway, a smile on her face. Jason saw her and wiggled out of Ashley's arms. He wiped at his nose and straightened his bandage, obviously embarrassed at such a childish display of motherly attention.

Ashley smiled. Was he already that old?

Harry suddenly called out, "Look!" He jabbed a finger toward the roof.

She stood up and joined the others, staring at where Harry pointed.

Lights, pirouetting downward.

In the feeble glow of a few remaining spotlights, ballooning parachutes drifted downward. As she watched, more and more chutes flared open from the top of the skeletal elevator shaft. The chutists each had a halogen light, which they waved to and fro as they descended. Within minutes there seemed to be hundreds of them, drifting in all directions to cover the entire base.

Like fireflies on a warm spring night.

"Who are they?" Jason asked.

"I believe that's the cavalry coming over the hill." Harry said.

Ben snorted. "About bloody time!"

EPILOGUE

Mount Erebus, Antarctica

BEN CRAWLED INTO BED, SIGHING. WHAT A DAY! HE snuggled next to Ashley. She moaned in her sleep and rolled onto her side. He placed his hand on her belly. She was already showing. Four months along, and not a sign that she was ready to cut back on her cultural study of the mimi'swee. Knowing her, she would wait until her water broke before finally putting pen and paper down.

He smiled in the darkness and lay back with an arm propping his head, staring at the ceiling. Alpha Base had almost been put back together again. The sonic repellents that Linda had developed were succeeding in keeping the crak'an away. Her team of biologists had also made another discovery: The erosion of the mimi'swee's ring of protective fungus had not been due to the imbalance of umbo and ohna, as Mo'amba had claimed, but rather to the introduction of and competition from a modern fungus, carried here by humans. So Sin'jari had been right after all-humans were to blame. At least indirectly.