More Than Fire

"That those characters on the wall are moving again means that either Khruuz or Red Orc has started the computer up again," Kickaha said. "Let's find out who did it."

This time, he was not going to walk the wearying and time-consuming tu

Their craft were cruising at thirty miles an hour. Nevertheless, in these close quarters, the boats seemed to be going very swiftly.

Through his goggles, the infrared light made the tu

In less than an hour, he saw the two-tu

"What in hell!"

The entrance to the left-hand tu

He got off the craft to inspect the stone. It was smooth and contained many fluorescent chips. It also merged with the sides of the entrance as if it were stone grown from stone. Or as if a stone-welding instrument had been used.

He took from his backpack a square device with a depth indicator on its back. After pressing the front part against the stone, he said, "There's thirty feet of solid stone there. Beyond that is empty space, the continuation of the tu

Kumas's voice came over the tiny receiver stuck to Kickaha's jaw. "I hope Khruuz did it."

"Me, too. But we can't do anything except follow the route so thoughtfully laid out for us. From now on, you and I, Kumas, will be as close to the ceiling as we can get. Ashatelon and Wemathol, you keep your boats several inches above the floor and about ten feet behind us. That way, we can have maximum firepower and yet not shoot each other. I'll be slightly ahead of Kumas."

Although he did not like having the Thoan at his back, he had to be the leader. Otherwise, they would believe he was a coward. He had told Kumas to stay at his side because he was not at all certain that Kumas would know what to do in a fight unless he had orders.

Five minutes later, they decelerated quickly and then stopped. The entrance to the cave was also blocked. But a new hole had been made in the wall by the mouth of the cave. It led at right angles to the tu

"Onward and inward," Kickaha said. "Keep your eyes peeled and your fingers on the firing button. But make sure you don't shoot unless you have to."

"If our father did this," Kumas said, "we're done for."

"Many a Lord has thought that after setting a trap for me," Kickaha replied. "Yet here I am, as healthy and unscarred as a young colt. There my enemies are, dead as the lion who tackled the elephant."

"A braggart is a gas balloon," Wemathol said. "Prick him and he collapses."

Ashatelon spoke harshly. "This man is not called the Slayer of Lords, the man who won the war against the Bellers, for nothing. So why don't you keep your sneering to yourself?"

"We'll discuss this later with knives," Wemathol said.

"Nothing so heartening as brotherly love," Kickaha said. "You Thoan make me sick. You think you're gods, but you haven't graduated from the nursery. And you wipe your asses just like the lowest of leblabbiy, though you don't do as good a job of it. From now on, no more squabbling! That's an order! Keep your minds on our mission! Or I'll send you back to your nurses to wipe your noses!"

They did not speak again for some time. The boats took them along a tu

Either the symbols had ceased moving or they were somehow slipping through the blocking stone.

Again, Kickaha used the depth sounder. Looking at the indicator, he said, "It's ten feet deep. Then, emptiness."

"Do we turn back?" Kumas said.

"And wander around here until we run out of food?" Wemathol said.

"Maybe we should use the ca

"We'll blast our way in," Kickaha said.

They did as he ordered and took turns in beaming the stone. Under the force of the rays, the stone melted swiftly and lava ran out on the floor below. Scraping the semiliquid away from the stone was hot and hard work. Their small shovels made the labor longer, but it had to be done. Sweating, making sure they did not come within range of the narrow beams, they succeeded in throwing the glowing stuff away from the tu

Kickaha told Ashatelon to turn off his beamer.

"It's a wheel!" Kumas cried.

"Tell us what we don't know, stupid," Wemathol said.

They backed the boats away and then waited. The craft noses were pointed at the opening, and the pilots had their fingers on the FIRE button. "Be ready to shoot," Kickaha said. "But don't be trigger-happy."

"Why would anybody except Red Orc have closed the entrances?" Wemathol said.

"I don't know. Maybe Khruuz did it, though I don't know why. Just don't assume anything."

The huge wheel had completely moved within the wall recess. Beyond that was a cave.

Kumas had removed his goggles at Kickaha's order. He was to determine if photonic light was present. He said loudly, "The cave is lit up!"

The others now took their goggles off. The brightness from the cavern was much stronger than could be given by luminiferous plants. There were no shadows, so the illumination seemed to have no source. That meant that a Thoan was providing it. Maybe.

Now they could see that the cave was gigantic. Cool air brushed their bodies. To test it, Kickaha took off his oxygen mask and breathed deeply. Though the air was delightfully fresh, he said, "We'll keep our masks on for a while."

He could not see the distant walls and ceiling of the cave, so vast was it. But he could see strange-looking plants, some of them tree-tall, growing from the soil on the floor.

Kumas said, "Red Orc is waiting for us in there."

"Somebody is," Kickaha said.

"You go first," Kumas said.

"Of course!" Kickaha said loudly. "If I waited for one of you to lead, we'd sit here until we starved!"

"No man calls me a coward!" Ashatelon said.

Before Kickaha could stop him, Ashatelon had shot his boat forward and through the opening. But he did not stop at once. Instead, he accelerated until he seemed to be going at the maximum speed of the craft, fifty miles an hour. The boat rose. For a moment, it was out of sight. Then it appeared and, a moment later, hovered a few inches above the floor and ten feet in from the entrance. Its nose was pointed toward them.

"Now you may know who's a coward!" Ashatelon bellowed.

His words echoed from the distant walls.

Kickaha's boat moved into the cave. He looked around. A green lichenous stuff covered most of the wall behind him. Somehow, the plants had been given a new life. Or else they had never been dead in this cave. The walls near them were about two miles apart, and the ceiling was about a hundred feet high. The other end was so far away that it shrank to a point. The symbols paraded on both walls and toward the end of the cave until they were too small to see.