Two hours later, the Jadbyr Usem Futune began to spread out just twenty Sedaj above Planet Clasbul.
Their surface recon surprised them with the data that there was still a large number of United Mankind land battle units present. In fact, only one had been captured aboard the ships.
Although land battle was conspicuously absent from the Futune’s long list of capabilities, it wouldn’t be hard for the Futune to reduce the whole planet to rubble. Consequently, Spoor advised the enemy army to surrender and cede control to the territorial citizens.
However, powerful jamming waves disrupted their communications, so they had no way of knowing whether or not their message even made it to the surface.
With no other options, the Futune waited for land battle reinforcement units, keeping a vigilant eye on the surface for any signs of an attack from below.
“What poor sports.” Spoor sighed. “Nahenjocs is so ungainly. Oh well. At least I don’t have to get my hands dirty.”
✦ ✦ ✦
An earthquake-like rumble shook bits of rock loose from the ceiling. Jinto picked up his pace. “Are they trying to blast their way through the cave-in?”
“I don’t know. Did you want to go back and have a look?” asked Lafiel.
It had been more than an hour since the battle, after which Jinto and Lafiel continued plodding through the meandering, snaky tunnel. They were ascending slightly.
A few million years ago, concluded Jinto, lava must have flowed up through this tunnel into the main branch.
The blasts kept coming.
Boom! Rumble!
The cave narrowed.
Jinto feared it would become too small for a person to pass through — it was already too small for two people to walk side by side.
The light from his Klanyu confirmed his worst fear: dead end.
“What’s wrong?” asked Lafiel. “Why did you stop?”
“Dead end. What…?”
The cave’s wall was too smooth to be natural rock. Jinto ran his hand over it and deduced that it was actually crystal ceramic. There was a vertical seam down the middle.
“It’s a door!” Jinto exclaimed. For the next few minutes, he hit and pushed the door, but could not get it to budge.
“Hey, what’s this?” Lafiel pointed at a button (Borsh) to the side of the door. It was labeled “Emergency Use.” Jinto pressed the Borsh.
Whoosh. As the doors parted, a beam of glorious light assaulted Jinto and Lafiel.
Squinting, Jinto stepped into the glow. “What is this place?” asked Lafiel as she entered. Happy calliope music drifted through the air. In front of them, there was a stone building from which children squealed with delight.
People and cartoonish, anthropomorphic creatures walked through the sprawling flowerbeds in front of Jinto and Lafiel. The animals juggled, stood on one leg, laughed and played with the families.
A small train choo-chooed in an endless oval loop. Its conductor, a boar in a clown suit, waved at Jinto and Lafiel. Animatronic animals hung from ropes attached to the ceiling, ascending and rappelling with delighted children in their arms.
“It appears to be an amusement park,” assessed Jinto in disbelief.
The door behind them closed. The sign on the door read “No exit.”
Jinto caught a glimpse of Lafiel in the light. “Wow. You look terrible.”
Sadly, it was true. Her skin, hair, and clothes were barely visible under layers of mud and sand and general grime.
“And you don’t?” Lafiel replied. “You look like someone rescued you from a dumpster.”
“I’m sure I do,” confessed Jinto, brushing the small rocks and dirt out of his hair.
The heavily populated theme park gave Jinto a sense of security. With this many people around, the chances of the United Mankind doing something totally unreasonable decreased.
“Let’s go. Maybe we can find some new clothes.”
As soon as they began to walk, however, a booming voice addressed them from above. “Stop. You two entered this park illegally. Stop.”
Looking up, Jinto saw that the voice came from a giraffe.
“No way!” Jinto took off.
“Stop! Stop!” The gangly mammal gave chase, barely managing to keep its feet.
“Attention guests,” began a broadcast throughout the park, “there has been an emergency, and we must temporarily close Guzornyu Amusement Park. Please exit in an orderly fashion. You will receive a partial refund of your admission. We look forward to seeing you again. I repeat, there has been an emergency…”
“I wonder what that’s all about,” said Lafiel.
“I think I have a pretty good idea,” puffed Jinto, “judging by the guns in our hands, and our long-necked friend.”
✦ ✦ ✦
In planet Clasbul’s infancy, there had been a lake of lava, with several offshoot lava rivers. When the planet reached puberty, the lava dried up and hardened.
People built a city nearby. Fascinated by the large, hollow space, they racked their brains over how to use it.
Eventually, they came up with the idea of a zoo. All they needed was to put a dome down there. Then they could construct a simulation rain forest and a grassy plain where animals could roam free.
But then, they realized that live animals didn’t do tricks, wouldn’t speak to children, and definitely smelled bad. In the end, they decided to use mechanical cartoon animals instead.
Now, Guzornyu Amusement Park was in its seventieth year of operation.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Just as we thought, there they are!” said Inspector Entoryua, clapping his hands. “Strange, though. Some of them are missing.”
“One of them is definitely Abh,” said Kite.
“True. But aren’t you worried we’re blowing this out of proportion? I mean, just look at them; they’re barely older than the rest of the kids in this park.”
“Those two ‘kids’ attacked, wounded, and killed our soldiers. They are ruthless assassins.”
The controller in the surveillance room looked confused.
“Don’t worry,” Entoryua said. “The occupation army will recover.”
“If they can last long enough …” the controller began, but stopped when Kite shot him an evil look. “You know, thirty minutes ago, all our electromagnetic birds went crazy. We sent the mechanic out, and he said there was nothing wrong with the birds, but there was a disturbance in our electromagnetic waves. Since then, we haven’t been able to use wireless telephones, either.”
“And?” asked Entoryua, eager to see where this was leading.
“There’s no time for this, Inspector,” interrupted Kite. “Lets go make the arrest.”
“Are you crazy? They’re armed. We have to wait until the customers finish evacuating.”
“What if they sneak out the exit with the customers?”
“With this kind of surveillance? And with our guards at the gates? Impossible. Now, Controller, if you would, please continue.”
“I can only think of one thing that would cause that kind of disturbance. Know what I mean, Inspector?”
“No. I don’t.”
“Well, since there’s no wireless telephones, I have to control the machines manually. Check this out — I’m going to bring up the Giraffe’s eye cameras.”
He tapped at his Kuro for a moment. The screen became a blanket of crackling static.
“Interesting.” Entoryua looked over at Kite. “Has there been a change in space?”
“How would I know? I’ve been with you the whole time, Inspector!”
“Yeah, but you’ve got that handy personal terminal on your wristband. Don’t tell me you didn’t sneak a peek at it every once in a while. Did they inform you of the reason for the electromagnetic interference, or what?”
“This terminal is for the purpose of inter-army communications, and the messages I receive on it are none of your business. With all due respect.”
“Don’t hold out on me, Kite. We’re in this together, whether you like it or not.”
Kite sighed. “Fine. At eleven fifty-five standard military time, which was thirty-seven minutes ago, it said ‘initiate electromagnetic interference at twelve hundred hours. “
“They didn’t say why?”
“No. They didn’t.”
It was frustrating to have to speculate, but there was only one plausible explanation Entoryua could think of for the interference: the Abh were back.