Mudge and I were trying not to stagger so hard it must have been obvious how drunk we were. There were disapproving looks from Cat and Morag as we tried to reach our cots without falling over. I was going to pay for this.
I glanced up the cave to the ledge where Kopuwai stood in its alcove. I saw that the whanau were deep in conversation with Soloso.
Morag was heading for me. I sensed trouble but I thought it was going to be good trouble. If I was going to get told off for being irresponsible then it meant she still cared. Besides, she had told me to go and talk to Mudge about his feelings. Did she not realise how drunk men have to be for that sort of thing? And it was Mudge I was talking to. What did she think was going to happen?
The guy in the top hat with the ancient-looking long rifle, standing on one of the ledges watching everyone was a bit odd though. Particularly as he hadn’t been there when I’d looked that way a moment ago.
‘Freeze!’ I shouted. He wasn’t moving anyway. ‘Put the rifle down!’ Contradictory instructions.
Moving in on him, laser pistol in a two-handed shooter’s grip, the smartlink putting the cross hairs right across his pale face, I suddenly felt very sober. Mudge was moments behind me, Sig in his hand. Morag had drawn her pistol and was running towards us. Others were beginning to take notice.
Whoever it was had ghosted straight through our pickets, sensors and sentries to appear among us. The weapon he carried looked ancient and was made mainly out of wood. There was some kind of coil wrapped around the barrel, which made me wonder if it was a home-made gauss rifle of some kind. He wore dark work clothes, with some kind of half-length duster/cloak-style garment over the top of them. His skin was extremely pale and he was a lot taller and more slender than most natives of Lalande 2. A flexible tube of a brass-coloured material protruded through the chest area of his clothes and extended to a facemask. The mask seemed to be made of a similar material to the tube, as were the protruding lenses of his cybernetic eyes. They looked home-made but finely crafted.
‘On the ground now!’
‘Drop the gun or we will fire!’
He just watched the commotion as if he was studying us.
‘Don’t shoot!’ Tailgunner came running down from the ledge towards us.
‘Friend of yours?’ Cat demanded as he reached us. The rest of the whanau were not far behind him.
‘Never seen him before in my life,’ Tailgunner said, moving through us to get a better look at the guy.
The infiltrator was just moving his head from side to side as he took us all in. Although he was obviously human, there was something very alien about him. He was observing us as though he’d never seen the like before.
‘So who the fuck is he and what’s he doing here?’ Cat demanded.
‘And how’d he just walk through our guards?’ I asked.
‘I think he’s a Morlock,’ Tailgunner said, staring at him with an expression bordering on wonder.
‘Bullshit, they’re a myth,’ Soloso scoffed as he joined us.
‘What’s a Morlock?’ Morag asked. Mudge opened his mouth to reply. ‘Not you; someone who knows what they’re talking about.’ Mudge shut his mouth again.
I noticed that the strange man had looked at Tailgunner when he’d said the word Morlock.
‘Soloso’s right – they’re an urban myth,’ Big Henry began. I saw that a lot of the Kiwis were nodding but some of the others were holding on to the little wooden or greenstone charms I think they called tikis. There was an air of superstitious fear in the cave. I didn’t blame them. This was a weird guy and it was scary how he’d got in so easily. ‘Supposed to date back to early colonial times, before the war, during the great Lalande 2 mineral rush. When the corps moved in there were rumours that some of the prospectors and freelance surveyors went deep, as deep as they could, to get way from the corps and live free.’
‘How long ago?’ I asked.
‘Ninety, maybe a hundred years ago,’ Big Henry said, forgetting that he wanted to kill me for a moment.
‘What do they live on?’ Morag asked.
‘Story goes they took some of the terraforming gear, maybe some livestock.’
‘Tell the rest of the story,’ Soloso said, grinning.
Big Henry sighed.
‘What?’ I asked.
‘They’re supposed to take people, for eating,’ Soloso said, and then his booming laughter echoed off the cave walls.
‘Maybe that’s what he’s here for,’ Merle said scornfully.
I couldn’t help looking around the cave for others silently surrounding us in preparation for a violent barbecue.
‘So we’ve got a group of humans who’ve lived separately for a hundred years, completely isolated, their own society, their own technology by the looks of it, adapting to a deep environment?’ Pagan asked.
‘I guess so,’ Big Henry said.
‘So are you going to talk to us, mate?’ Mudge called.
‘We could make him talk,’ Merle suggested. Morag gave him a look of contempt.
The strange man pointed at Cat, patted his chest and pointed to one of the cave exits.
‘I think he wants you to go with him,’ Morag said.
‘Maybe it’s a date,’ Mudge suggested.
‘Nobody say anything unless it’s useful,’ Cat said distractedly. That would pretty much render Mudge mute. She addressed the strange man: ‘Okay, we’ll come with you, but we need time to get ready. If this is a trap or you in any way fuck with us, you die first. Understand me?’
The man said nothing.
‘Well, it’s good we got that sorted out,’ Mudge said.
‘Mudge, what’d I say?’ But Cat wasn’t really paying attention to Mudge; she was studying the strange man.
‘What are you doing?’ Merle demanded.
‘Stay here if you want.’
‘I’m coming,’ Morag said.
‘Ladies love pale willowy types,’ Mudge said, nodding sagely. The man turned to stare at him.
‘Amazing. You can irritate people who you probably don’t even share a language with.’ Morag seemed impressed.
‘It’s a gift.’
Painkillers, cybernetic medical support, alien nanites – none of them were helping with my hangover. We’d gone deep, very deep, so deep that the caves were starting to get warmer. Occasionally we would see the distant glow of lava.
The Morlock had a vehicle stashed disturbingly close to the pa. It was open-topped and multi-sectioned, and made of the same brassy material. It ran on thick rubbery tracks but made surprisingly little noise. He’d plugged into the vehicle like we would, but the jack had appeared on a mobile snake-like apparatus from within his clothing. The vehicle reminded me of a centipede in some ways but it was fast through the caves and tunnels. It also had a lot of locked cabinets and sealed crates. Presumably these contained examples of their tech that he did not wish to share. The floor of the strange vehicle was covered in some kind of dark soil. I saw Pagan looking at the soil with interest. I remembered how important soil had been to the inhabitants of the Avenues back in Hull.
The Morlock said nothing to us; he just drove deeper and deeper. Tailgunner, Pagan, Mudge, Morag and I had joined Cat. Merle had been too disgusted to go. Big Henry, I think, was too scared. Soloso had seemed scornful about the whole thing. Under the scorn I thought I detected a degree of fear as well. I think the Morlocks on Lalande 2 were thought of in much the same way that the Twists were back on Earth. Every culture needs a bogeyman, something to point at and be afraid of.
My cheek still ached every time I saw Soloso. He seemed cheerfully unrepentant about fish-hooking me with a sickle. Mother had stayed back because she was in command of the pa.
I don’t know why we were taking so much on trust with this guy, but despite his weirdness I just didn’t get a sense of malevolence. I’d been wrong about a lot of people before, however. Like Pagan. I found myself glaring at him almost subconsciously. He knew it and was avoiding catching my eye. We were all carrying our full combat gear
