“This doesn’t make sense,” I said, looking at the map. “Did Bokka send us on a totally useless trip?”
“No,” Loor said defensively. “Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe, maybe…” A thought hit me. “Maybe we didn’t get this map from Bokka after all.”
“You were there, Pendragon,” Loor said impatiently. “You took it out of his boot.”
“Yeah, but was it really Bokka? Maybe Saint Dane turned himself into Bokka to get us this map!”
Loor dismissedit, saying, “Then Saint Dane’s ashes are now scattered across the desert.”
Oh. Right. Bokka died. Maybe I was getting a little too paranoid about Saint Dane turning up in various disguises. “Okay, so it was Bokka,” I said. “Then why did he send us into a dead end?”
Loor stared at the blank wall, looking to find some clue that would make sense of this.
She found it.
“Look!” she said, pointing to where the rock wall met the ceiling.
I looked. I didn’t see a thing. “Look at what?” I asked. “Look to where the wall in front of us meets the side of the cavern.”
I looked. Nothing. “I’m still not getting it,” I said.
“Look at the color of the rock,” she explained. “The wall is different from the ceiling, and the side. That is not natural.”
A closer look told me she was right. The ceiling and side walls were a different brown color than the wall. The dead end wall was ever so slightly darker.
“So what?” I asked.
“That is not natural, Pendragon,” Loor said. “I believe this wall in front of us was constructed.”
“Constructed?” I shot back. “You can’t just build a huge wall of rock.”
“The Rokador can,” Loor said confidently. “How can you doubt that, after seeing the world they have built? I believe this is another attempt to stop the Batu attack.”
I took a step back and tried to imagine the wall not being there. Now that I was thinking that way, it did seem like where the wall met the sides and the ceiling, and even the ground, was a little bit too perfect and precise.
“Okay,” I said. “Maybe they sealed off the cavern. It’s still a wall of rock and we’re still stuck.”
Loor smiled and said, “Maybe not.”
“It’s a stone wall, Loor,” I said impatiently. “Whether it was made by the Rokador or not, we can’t get through-” The words were barely out of my mouth when the lightbulb went on. I realized what she was talking about. “Are you serious?” I asked. “Do you really know how to use those things?”
Her answer was to take off running back the way we had come. Not knowing what else to do, I followed. Loor led me past the open area where we had stopped to talk, through another section of tunnel, and back to a larger cavern that had two sizable passageways off to either side. When I looked down one of these passageways, I saw something hidden in the shadows. It was the silver shell of a dygo.
“Wait here,” she said, and ran to it.
A few seconds later I heard what sounded like an engine starting up. But it was like no engine I was familiar with. It was a deep, growling buzz. A moment later the silver sphere came rolling out of the shadows. The giant ball rolled on treads. It moved to the center of the cavern with the giant drill bit positioned to the rear. It stopped, Loor lifted up a side hatch, popped her head out, and said, “Would you like a ride?”
“Oh, I am loving this!” I said.
She leaned back so I could get in. I stepped up on the tread and slid past her to enter the small vehicle. I had never been in a space capsule, but I imagined this was kind of the same thing. It was pretty cramped inside. There were two hard seats, side by side. In front was a window for both seats that was only about a foot high. It wrapped halfway around the sphere to give a little bit of a sideways view. There was no way to see behind us. The controls were in front of the left-hand seat. Loor’s seat. The instrument console had a few switches, along with a round glass ball that looked like one of those compass things people sometimes put on the dashboards of their cars. There were two joysticks in front of the driver’s seat. It didn’t look all that complicated, but I was just as happy to know that Loor had driven one before. She sat in her seat and pulled the hatch shut. It closed with a solidthunk.
“The shell is thick,” she said. “It can withstand tons of pressure.”
“Good to know,” I said. “Let’s not test it. What about air?”
“There are vents to the rear,” she explained while toggling a switch to the left of her controls. “They can be opened and shut, depending on what kind of material is being tunneled through. When they are shut, there is enough air inside to last several minutes.”
“Let’s keep them open,” I suggested.
Loor grabbed the two joysticks and gave me a quick demo. She manipulated the sticks and the sphere instantly responded, moving quickly and smoothly to the right, then the left, up, and down. Our seats swiveled and rotated on yokes, so we were always upright. She cranked one stick one way and one the other, and we did a complete three-sixty. I noticed that the glass ball on the control panel always stayed in one position. I guessed this was the device that told you which way was up.
“The sphere moves in every direction,” she said. “As does the drill.”
She twisted the grip on top of the joystick, and the drill came over the top and settled in front of us. Since the huge drill was hollow, it was possible to see all the way through to the front and ahead of us. Loor moved it to the left, to the right, up, and down, demonstrating how it had complete maneuverability.
“So, this thing can drill any way but straight down?” I asked.
“It can do that too,” she said. “The treads move to the side and raise the vehicle up to allow the drill to face downward. It is quite ingenious.”
“The Rokador are pretty smart people,” I said.
“With machinery, yes,” she said, sounding a touch insulted. “There is much they are not as capable of.”
Meow. Loor’s competitive nature was showing itself. But this wasn’t the time to start a debate about which tribe was better, so I didn’t press. Loor positioned the drill so it was directly in front of us, pushed her foot down on a floor pedal, and we moved forward. The ride was pretty smooth. I guess the treads softened out all of the bumps. Loor was pretty capable, too, steering the vehicle like a pro. It was a good thing the dygo was so small because we had to travel through some narrow passages to get back to the dead end. In no time we were looking at the blank wall of rock where the map, and our trip, had ended.
“What if we’re wrong and there’s nothing but rock?” I asked.
“Then it means Bokka has betrayed me,” Loor said. “I do not believe that is an option.”
“Let’s go,” I said.
Loor toggled a switch on the control panel. The massive drill whined to life and the cutting rings began to spin. She pushed the joystick forward, and the dygo rolled ahead. The tip of the drill touched the wall, and cut through it as if it were cotton candy.
“Whoa,” I said, totally impressed. “No problem.”
It was amazing. The spinning rings were designed so that they not only cut into the rock, but pulled the material back and away, pulverizing it. The rock that was within the hollow drill bit was chewed up and spit out as easily as if we were shredding paper into confetti. The dygo vibrated slightly as it cut, but it was pretty minor considering we were boring through solid rock. It wasn’t very loud, either. I guessed that was because we were sealed inside this thick sphere and insulated from the outside noise.
“Are the vents open for air?” I asked.
“Yes,” Loor answered, but kept her attention straight ahead.
“How thick do you think the wall is?” I asked.
Loor didn’t have to answer. A few seconds after we started drilling, I saw light come through the hollow tip of the drill. The wall couldn’t have been any more than a few feet thick. The drill kept grinding, though. We needed to make the hole large enough for us to move the dygo through. Moments later I felt the shuddering come to a stop. We were through. Loor stopped the drill, turned to me, and announced,”Nowwe can see Kidik.”
JOURNAL #22
