AL CLARK - Avalon -: (Book Two) Read online

  Columns of rain raced from the ceiling one hundred feet up to land on the surface with a thousand tiny explosions, the sunlight illuminating the drops as they fell. Instantly the surface of the lake became turbulent and full of expanding circles. The rain was hard and steady, a summer shower that started and stopped on its own accord and the noise in the enclosed cavern became deafening.

  The disturbance of the water did not stop there; it increased as creatures from below began to feed on the insects and plant life that were washed down from above. Most of them seemed to know the manna from heaven would not last, and it created a feeding frenzy. Vicious looking fish of various sizes started jumping from the water, trying to get more.

  The lake does not have a fresh water supply. It wasn’t the food alone they were fighting for, it was also the oxygen in the rain water, thought Al.

  Higher and higher they jumped, some landing close to Al. The fish were some form of prehistoric piranha with shiny silver sides, large mouths, and rows of sharp teeth.

  He stepped back from the water’s edge and quickly saw the problem this could become. His eyes fell on the fish landing in the sand and saw the reason for the pockmarking of the beach.

  This crazy dance must be something that happens every time it rains. It would explain many things about this place.

  Some of the flying predators were a foot long, and it was the bigger fish that began throwing themselves from below, landing thirty feet up the beach, they would jump and bite until they bounced their way back to the water. There was no place in the cave that was safe.

  Al turned to see where the captain and Kira were. He could not distinguish their shouts over the noise of the rain and the flopping fish, but they were yelling and jumping around, trying to remove the thrashing fish attached to them.

  Turning around, he saw Tim and Chris with the same problems, spinning in an attempt to free themselves of the little monsters with the big mouths. He had to act, and he had no time to debate the consequences of his decision. Without hesitation, he whispered the phrase: The metal of a man is measured by what is inside.

  Al Clark was back, and it felt great.

  Too fast to follow, he grabbed Kira and the captain, one under each arm and carried them to the entrance. He quickly found that if he squeezed the fish on both sides, they would open their mouths and let go of their prey. The enhanced human had them free of aggressors within seconds and headed back to get Chris and Tim. Just as soon as he had them all together, safe from the bouncing, biting fish—it stopped raining.

  The maelstrom on the surface slowed down and stopped, and the remaining fish on the beach flopped their way back down the sand; returning frantically to the water. A few minutes later, all was quiet again, except for the sound of dripping water echoing around the cave.

  They had been fortunate, with no serious damage done. Al stepped through the arch, away from the others, and discretely powered down. Not because he wanted to, but because he knew he should save his power.

  Before transforming to become human again, he took note of the tiny power icon in his visual display. It was flashing an insistent red seventeen percent. He was way past the top of the curve, and power usage was increasing dramatically.

  Was that a waste of power? Al asked himself.

  No, there was no way to know it would be over so quickly. I did what I thought was right, and my friends came out less injured, Al answered himself.

  Do you think Elizabeth will buy it? Probably not.

  Chapter Four

  The captain worked his way carefully up a steep incline. The ravine he climbed included a narrow patch of smooth rock that was going in the direction he wanted and was much easier than climbing the loose rocks on both sides. Chris had taken to assisting the captain on his little forays into unexplored territory as he looked for essential elements and was now thirty feet behind him on the other end of the safety rope.

  The shuttle had gotten the amateur prospectors most of the way to the top of the mountain west of Camelot, but they had been forced to leave the spacecraft on a ledge, three hundred feet below them. It was now their impromptu base camp.

  It was cold this high up, and both men had a layer of highly efficient clothing under their white cold weather coats. The ever present wind still managed to make them shiver.

  “Are we getting closer?” Chris yelled over the sounds of the mountain.

  The captain looked down at the pad in his hand and replied, “The reading is still getting stronger—it shouldn’t be much further.”

  At the top of the ravine, they found a one hundred foot vertical cliff, leading to a narrow ledge that circled the remainder of the mountain. The ledge was their destination.

  The captain had systematically wound his way out from the village using the shuttle to scan for essential elements; primarily the ore deposits containing titanium. The power supply situation for the shuttles was becoming critical, and he declared their replacement a priority.

  When flying over this mountain two days ago, the readings on the meter indicated large quantities of the metal ore he required. The readings had been off the chart, and they were going to find out why. It was an unusual place to find the metal, usually found in sand and soft formations, but this was the only other possibility after the Sansi caves had been ruled out.

  “Do you want me to shoot the ascent arrow?” Chris asked with an innocent smile.

  “Do you think you can hit your target? That is a good distance to the ledge.”

  “I am ninety-five percent sure I can hit my target…and make it stick.” He said confidently.

  The captain looked up the steep face of the rock, to the struggling weathered bushes peeking over the edge, “Do you want to bet?”

  Chris thought for only a second, “All right, how about a bar of chocolate?”

  Earth chocolate was becoming a precious commodity in Camelot, as they had not yet found a suitable substitute for cocoa beans. If it was chocolate, it came to Avalon on the Excalibur.

  “Do you have a bar of chocolate?”

  “I’m married—I can get a bar of chocolate. I’m pretty sure she has a stash.”

  The captain laughed, “I never thought of it that way, but I guess you have a point…all right, give it your best shot, but let’s make the wager a half bar. I don’t want your wife mad at me.”

  Chris was not a total novice in the use of the modified crossbow, having fired it a half dozen times. Technically, it was almost fool-proof. The arrowhead fingers opened on impact, grabbing onto anything it lands on, and the lightweight line the arrow carried was climb rated to a thousand pounds.

  Assembly required only a few minutes. The high-grade aluminum device was collapsible and easily fit in a standard backpack. The strong, thin line fed from a carefully packed twelve-inch square bag.

  His very first attempt was successful, and Chris demonstrated by putting his entire weight on the rope and then pulling as hard as he could; smiling the whole time.

  “Okay, you win. I owe you half a bar of chocolate. For your excellent marksmanship, you can go first,” conceded the captain.

  Chris attached the auto-climb attachment to the line, checked his harness and pressed the button that pulled him effortlessly up to the ledge. He sent the device back down to the captain, and he followed Chris’ example. Soon they had their sensor pads out and began their search for the metal that brought them here.

  The sky was clear overhead, with the sun sparkling on the snow and ice. Small twisted bushes struggled to keep the mountain from evicting them from their perch on the narrow, rugged ledge, using the ice to help anchor them.

  Chris worked his way to the right while the captain scanned to the left. Even through the dark glasses, not more than twenty feet away from where they started, he saw something dazzling that was not snow or ice. He approached the object that peeked from under a boulder, and the meter on his pad went crazy.

  “Captain…I think I found something.”

  Togeth
er they moved the rock and rescued the trapped object. It was Chris that held it up, turning it over in his hand, looking for clues about what it could be. He glanced at the older man and asked, “Any ideas?”

  Chris handed it to him, and it was the captain's turn to puzzle over this strange little piece of metal. He wiped it on the bottom of his coat to remove some of the dirt from it.

  “It looks like a badge…maybe, or a medal. I have never seen anything like it.”

  Chris looked down at his datapad a little confused, “The detector says it is a high grade of titanium.”

  It was a pin without a fastener. One inch across, lightweight, and thin, it formed a slanted square with what looked like a spaceship in the center; a ship like neither explorer had ever seen.

  “If it is a pin, how does it stay attached?” Chris wondered out loud.

  Something came to him from an old science fiction show he had seen somewhere, and with a grin he held it up to the chest of his coat. It stuck, and required a little effort to remove it. He returned it to his chest, tapped it with his finger and said, “Beam me up, Scotty.”

  Both could have fallen off the mountain when a section of the wall before them opened. A hidden door leading into the mountain, or more precisely—a hatch. Their instruments showed it to be a hatch made from titanium alloy. Chris stared at the opening, and verbalized what the captain was thinking, “This is a strange place for a door.”

  ****

  Al knew the captain to be a serious person when his job was concerned, but he couldn’t believe what he was telling him, “Are you telling me there is a door leading into the mountain?”

  The captain rubbed his hands together and smiled. Chris jumped in and explained.

  “It goes straight in who knows how far. Totally seamless and clean as brand new, the tunnel and the hatch are square more like a hatch than a door. We wanted to go further, but we decided to get some backup before we went too far.”

  “Is there fresh air? I mean, was there a smell to it?” asked Al.

  The captain answered, “There was air moving, and it didn’t smell bad, but we couldn’t tell where the source was.”

  The captain/mayor of Camelot had gathered all his friends to discuss this new development: Al and Elizabeth, Chris and Tammy, Ana and Kayla, and the doctor of the group Cody, with his new wife, Carly. All but Cody’s wife were the original survivors that started the reawakening of the sleeping Excalibur. Friends that had earned each other’s trust through words and actions.

  The group sat around a large dinner table in the dining room of the captain’s estate talking and having coffee and snacks. There were large windows pointed towards the village center that provided a clear view of the community and reminded them of the people for which they were responsible. It was a great place to eat, talk, and make plans.

  Al asked, “Can I see the badge…or whatever it is?”

  The captain took a small box from a side table, opened it, and handed him the small medallion-like object.

  He tested the weight and said, “It’s light. Hardly weighs anything, and it looks almost new.”

  Al directed his attention to Chris, “You just tapped it?”

  “Yeah, while it was attached to my coat. Like they did on Star Trek.”

  “You have got to be kidding—and the hatch just opened?”

  “Yes, and when we left, I just tapped it again, and the hatch closed.”

  Al looked again at the little device in his hand with new respect.

  “Has Edward seen this yet?”

  Doctor Edward Florida was a short fifty-five-year-old scientist, with wild white hair and deep blue eyes. He was not only their senior advisor on technology, but he was also a brain surgeon and roboticist on Earth and assisted Cody in the removal of the meteorite fragment from Al’s brain.

  The captain replied, “Not yet, I was going to have Chris run it over to him when we finish here.”

  “So…it’s a key?”

  “At the very least. We’ll have to do more checking to see what else it might do,”

  Elizabeth had a question of her own. “Can we salvage some of the titanium in the walls to fabricate Al’s power pack?”

  The captain looked at Liz and smiled, “We thought of that, and tried to get a sample, but it is a very hard metal, and nothing we had with us could even make a dent. When we go back there, we’ll have better equipment. But we will have to be careful. We can’t just go taking chunks out of something we don’t yet understand.”

  It became apparent to the captain by the expressions on their faces they all wanted to go exploring. Tammy was pulling on Chris’ sleeve and whispering in his ear. He decided he better speak up. “Listen, folks, I know you all want to go, but we are going to have to keep the party to a minimum. I think it should be me, Chris, Al, and Doc Cody to be the first to explore this passage in the mountain.”

  Cody spoke up, “I cannot leave right now. This flu or whatever it is that is going around is getting worse, and I am starting to get more patients. I need to stay here and tend to them.”

  “How many patients do you have now? Is it that serious?” Al asked.

  “There are three people in isolation, and I am testing several others.”

  “All right, you should stay here. I’m sure I can talk Edward into going with us. He will be our medical go-to.”

  Chris reminded Al, “You know Robot Nine will want to go. You promised him the last time we went out. Plus, I think he might come in handy.”

  Al smiled, thinking about trying to argue with a robot, he laughed a little as he said, “You are probably right Chris. He can be the security contingent—and pack mule, he’ll like that.

  They passed the badge around, each taking a turn examining the impression of the ship, turning it over, and expressing their thoughts. They talked about the tunnel into the mountain, leading who knows where, and they discussed what they thought were the answers to solving all the problems of their world. Power for their machines, the safety of the village with the new predator threat, raising children in an environment such as this, and the ever present knowledge that Al Clark would cease to function if he didn’t get a new power pack.

  It was very late when they decided to break up the party and head home. Tammy and Liz stayed to help the captain clean up, so Chris and Al walked back together. They took their time and talked about the trip ahead while something resembling crickets chirped in the background.

  Chris was wound up in the spirit of exploration and had a lot of questions, the last one being, “Are we going for salvage or just exploration?”

  “I am hoping a little of both. For the time being, we will not salvage more than small samples; only what we need for testing. I agree with Tobias, let’s find out what we are dealing with before we start taking it apart.”

  Chris nodded, and they continued, watching the ground as they walked. Both of them wondering, what is at the end of that tunnel?

  ****

  It was early in the morning with a misty rain falling as Al stepped to the front door to leave. Elizabeth was still in her robe, too busy to change while she got breakfast for Al and sent him on his way.

  “You’ll be back tonight?” She asked as she stood on her toes and gave him a kiss.

  “Yes. All we’re going to do is have a quick look around and get some samples.”

  She looked him in the eye and smirked, “See that’s all you do. Trouble seems to follow you so keep your eyes open. Your regular eyes—right?

  “I couldn’t help it last time if I had to go enhanced, believe me, I tried not to.”

  “Sure—sure you tried. Maybe you did a little, but I know how much you love the feeling. Your face lights up every time you talk about it.”

  Al placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close, “Liz, I promise I will keep my eyes open, and won’t say the phrase unless I have to.”

  “And you’ll wear your mittens?” she asked while grinning.

  “Yes ma'am
, I’ll wear my mittens.”

  Chris was walking up to the door holding an umbrella as Al was walking out, and he allowed him part of his shelter as they headed for the community center. The captain, Edward, and Robot Nine were assembled in the supply room, gathering last minute items.

  “Are you folks about ready?” asked Al when he walked in.

  “Our packs are on our backs, and we’re waiting for you guys to put yours on so we can get going,” the captain said, hands on his hips and a smile on his face.

  Al held up his hands and acted offended. He said, “I had to say goodbye to my wife. You know how she is.” He went on, not wanting to elaborate, “All right then, let’s get this show on the road.”

  The expedition was deemed worthy of the use of a shuttle, so they loaded their equipment and boarded. An air of excitement permeated the atmosphere at the beginning of their venture, and moral was high. The mountain was not far if you were flying, so it was not long before the little craft was sitting on the ledge, and they were watching the falling snow. As their altitude had changed, the rain became snow, and now visibility was reduced to only about twenty feet.

  Chris looked skeptically out the porthole, “Maybe we should wait till the weather clears. I don’t like the way it looks out there.”

  Al had an idea, “Do we have the anchor cross-bow?”

  Chris replied immediately, “Yes, it’s in the pack.”

  “How about we shoot the ledge next to the hatch and drop the line down. It could be both a safety and a guideline?”

  Chris said, “That’s a good idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.”

  “Okay wise guy, just get the crossbow ready will you? Who’s going to make the shot?”

  The captain spoke from the pilot’s seat, “You should let Chris take the shot. He’s showed me he can be pretty good.”

  Chris beamed and said, “Thank you, Captain, I didn’t think you noticed.”

  Chris was good and hit his mark again on his first try, the arrow sailing up to stick solid into the frozen ground just outside the hidden passage. He almost fell out the open door while jumping up and down when he saw what he had accomplished.