The Garbage Chronicles (35 page)

Moving to the edge, Javik saw steps leading down from all sides of a square hole. It resembled an inverted, hollow pyramid. In a wild flight of fantasy, he envisioned a pyramid rocket landing here and plowing into the ground. It was a preposterous thought, causing Javik to wonder if a magician was playing tricks with his mind.

Prince Pineapple started down the steps.

“Hold it, Prince,” Javik. said, grasping Prince Pineapple’s arm firmly. “I want you to wait here.” Javik released the prince.

“What do you mean?” Prince Pineapple asked. “We were going to get rid of Abercrombie together.”

“I’m going to see what Abercrombie’s been up to,” Javik said. “If he’s no threat to Earth, I’ll leave him and enter the Dimensional Tunnel with Rebo and Namaba.”

Prince Pineapple’s black button eyes opened wide in shock.
“Leave him?
You can’t do that!”

“I’m not going to get rid of him for you,” Javik said. “I’ve never trusted you.” Javik removed his Tasnard rope from the pack and mentoed it. The black and white striped rope looped around Prince Pineapple’s arms and torso, pulling his arms tight against his body. Javik pulled the struggling prince to the surface.

“Now see here!” Prince Pineapple said. “You can’t—”

“Shut up,” Javik snapped. He mentoed the rope again, instructing it to tie the prince to a nearby willow sapling.

The Tasnard rope curled out of Javik’s grasp and dragged Prince Pineapple to the tree. It tied him there in a standing position.

“Earthian bastard!” Prince Pineapple said. He pulled at the rope and kicked, but it held him fast.

“That’ll keep you on ice,” Javik said. He turned to Namaba. “Stay here,” he said. “It might be dangerous.”

“I agree,” Rebo said.

Namaba leaned down and gave Javik a kiss on the mouth. “I’ll watch the prince,” she said.

“And this is one tough lady,” Rebo said.

Namaba half smiled. Her eyes were full of concern for Javik and Rebo. “I should go with you, Rebo,” she said. “My Moravian obligation

“You can help by staying here,” Rebo said. “Keep an eye on Prince Pineapple. We can’t have him getting in the way.”

“All right,” she said softly.

Javik and Rebo stepped carefully into the hole. The upside-down pyramid was larger than it appeared to be, and soon Namaba saw their forms diminishing in size as they proceeded. She lost her sense of perspective. For a moment she thought they were climbing up the steps.

With her back to Prince Pineapple, Namaba did not see that the Tasnard rope was beginning to slip. Something in the bog had damaged the rope’s delicate mechanism. Quietly, Prince Pineapple removed the rope from his arms and torso, pulling it over his head. He pulled a long goat bone out from under his coat. It was sharp on one end, having been broken in the indeterminate past.

They plan to leave me on the surface!
the prince thought desperately.

Javik and Rebo reached the base of the hole now. Namaba watched as Javik leaned down and looked inside a square, black hole. He jumped into it, followed by Rebo.

Prince Pineapple swung the bone mightily, hitting Namaba on the side of her skull and slashing her skin sack with the sharp portion of bone. It was a mortal blow.

A loud sound of releasing steam came from Namaba. Her body took off like a discharging balloon, looping in the air and wetting Prince Pineapple’s face and clothing with steam. Soon Namaba’s body was no more than an empty, hairy bag of flesh. It dropped to one side of the entrance.

The Sacred Scroll of Cork fell from Prince Pineapple’s coat, unnoticed by him. He leaped down the steps with the zeal of a fanatic, carrying the long goat bone. “It’s mine!” he said. “The Magician’s Chamber is mine!”

Wizzy’s path brought him to a Vegetable village by the sea. Here tiny white stucco houses clung to hillsides and to cliffs overlooking the blue water. Over the center of town, Wizzy looked down on a cobblestone square thronging with thousands of Vegetable people.

Glowing kelly green from his flaming nucleus to the tip of his wispy tail, Wizzy dipped low over the square. He heard the excited conversation of the people.

“Did you hear the news?” a voice said. “Brother Carrot is victorious.”

“Wonderful!”

“Death to the Fruits!”

“Things will be different now!”

While Wizzy had grown to many times his original size, he still was not such a large comet. At first only a few Vegetables noticed him over their heads. Gradually, however, the word was passed and fingers began to point. Soon, Wizzy had become the center of attention.

“I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere,” Wizzy mumbled. He felt embarrassed. His nucleus changed to a bright shade of crimson, and his tail matched that.

In the next hour and a half he retraced his flight carefully, finally arriving back at the burned-out gazebo. Flying slowly along each of the eight folding paths now, Wizzy encountered a wooden sign which had sprung up in his path.

Wizzy burst right through it.

“You foolish fellow!” the magical agate yelled after him. “Come back here!”

Sheepishly, Wizzy returned and spoke with the agate. Wizzy had his faults, but he knew the truth when he heard it. Shortly he was on the correct path.

How stupid of me,
Wizzy thought as he sped along the path in a bright green blur.
All that wasted time.

“Curious fellow,” the magical agate said, watching Wizzy flash in the distance. The agate felt warm in the rays of three suns. Now, as it grew quiet once again, he drifted off to sleep, his history storehouse just a little bit richer.

With weapons brandished, Javik and Rebo dropped to a rocky passageway surface. The passageway walls were gray stone, dimly lit from unseen sources. Rebo’s eyes glowed bright red, casting an eerie light. Seeing darkness in one direction and light in the other, they walked toward the light.

It was cold here, so Javik paused to mento on a pair of vari-temp pants, matching his orange coat. “You want anything?” he asked, looking at Rebo.

“Naw. I’m fine.” Rebo was cold, but decided he didn’t need more than his club jacket.

The passageway opened into a wide, well-lit cavern. One wall of the cavern faced a series of clear glassplex tubes.

“This place looks familiar,” Rebo said.

Moving around a stocky pillar, they came upon a gray rock throne with black satin cushions. Junk sculptures made of scrap pieces of metal, plastic, and glassplex flanked the throne.

“Of course,” Rebo said, touching a throne cushion. It was smooth and cool. “The half-faced creature sat here.”

“Half-faced?”

“Namaba and I were in those tubes out there, going around and around. Then we landed next to your ship.” Rebo’s red eyes darted around nervously. “He’s here somewhere.”

“Abercrombie? You think it was Abercrombie?”

“I don’t know. But he was very angry with us.”

On the other side of the chamber they found another passageway. They moved from light to dark in this passageway, not speaking. It was very quiet. It was colder here, and Javik saw Rebo shiver.

“You sure you don’t want something to wear?” Javik asked.

Rebo did not answer. He moved ahead of Javik, extending his knife in front of him in the low light of the passageway. Rebo glanced back often as they proceeded, revealing fear in his face. Presently they came upon a side cavern full of silent machinery. Meckies were piled near the doorway. Nothing moved in the room.

“I thought I heard something,” Javik said, pointing up the passageway.

Rebo listened intently for a moment. Then he shrugged his big shoulders. “I don’t hear anything.”

“I don’t hear it now,” Javik said. “Let’s go on.”

They passed dozens of other caverns similar to the first. Inside each it was the same: meckies piled motionless near the doorway and not a gear moving anywhere.

Soon the passageway widened like a funnel opening and grew lighter. They rounded a turn and were in another cavern. This cavern had three mirrored walls. The fourth side was black, with no wall visible. Javik heard wind noises in the room and felt cold through his vari-temp clothing.

Judging from the shadows, Javik decided this cavern was illuminated from above. There was a considerable amount of light where he and Rebo were, contrasting with the darkened fourth side of the room. Oddly, however, when Javik looked up he saw only dark gray rock with no source of illumination. A long train of trunks was in the center of the cavern. Javik saw something move behind one of the trunks.

“You there!” Javik barked, dropping to his belly and holding the gun out with both hands. “Step out where I can see you!” Unnoticed by Javik, the folding shovel and barbed cord slipped out of their sheath and fell to the ground.

A human figure wearing dark coveralls emerged from the shadows. This was a bearded man, much shorter than Javik, stepping forward with his arms folded across his chest. Javik heard Rebo’s heavy breathing at his side.

“I’ve been expecting you,” the man shouted. He walked toward Javik. His beard was dark, of indeterminate color.

“Stay back,” Javik said. “Keep your distance.”

But the man came closer. He was not armed, and appeared harmless enough to Javik. “I was just about to go on a trip,” the man said, nodding toward the trunks. “Everything is packed.”

“You’re Winston Abercrombie, aren’t you?” Javik asked, looking closely at the man’s eyes. They were widely set and large. Javik stood up, still aiming the gun.

“That is correct,” Abercrombie said. His voice was distant and unconcerned. It almost seemed to come from the wind that howled around them. A phosphorescent, pink label on his shoulder flashed this message:

100%

recycled

material

“It’s the same man,” Rebo said. “But his face . . . It’s complete!”

Abercrombie unfolded his arms and gestured toward the blackness behind, him. “That, gentleman, is the famous Dimensional Tunnel.” A smile touched the corners of his mouth, then dropped to steely hardness.

“I am from Earth,” Javik said, gripping the gun handle too tightly. He felt perspiration on his palms. “Sent to investigate the garbage situation . . . and your disappearance.”

“But I have not disappeared,” Abercrombie exclaimed. “Do I look invisible to you?”

“No.”

“I’m quite visible, quite fleshy now.” He laughed. It was a piercing, cackling laugh. The laugh of a crazy man.

“I think you’d better come with me,” Javik said, motioning with his gun barrel.

“Come and get me,” Abercrombie squealed. He stepped back into shadows.

“Hold it!” Javik snapped.

Rebo followed Abercrombie.

Javik moved forward now too and saw Abercrombie stepping backward, approaching the blackness of the Dimensional Tunnel. Abercrombie cackled with laughter.

Rebo was close to him now, but stopped short when he saw the edge of the tunnel just a few steps behind Abercrombie. “Be careful!” Rebo warned.

“I know where I am,” Abercrombie said. “I don’t like to travel without luggage, but we do as we must.”

Rebo switched his knife to his other hand and reached out until his fingertips nearly touched Abercrombie.

“Let him go,” Javik said.

“I’m five times the size of this little feller,” Rebo said. “You want to question him, don’t you?”

“Yes, but . . . ”

Javik stopped when he saw Rebo grab one of Abercrombie’s arms. Rebo towered over Abercrombie and was many times his bulk. Rebo pulled.

But Abercrombie did not budge. He smiled diabolically.

Rebo dropped his knife and grabbed hold with both hands. He dug his paws into the ground and pulled again.

Abercrombie still did not budge. “Heh-heh-heh!” he cackled.

“Let go of him!” Javik shouted.

But it was too late. In one ferocious flip, Abercrombie pulled Rebo over his shoulder and hurled him into the Dimensional Tunnel.

“Aaaiy!” Rebo screamed. Then he was gone.

“I have the strength of fifty,” Abercrombie said, approaching Javik. “You are in my domain.”

Javik pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. He turned and ran, with Abercrombie in pursuit. Javik knew why Abercrombie was so strong. He was insane.

“This is
my
chamber!” Abercrombie squealed.
“Mine,
Earthian.”

Suddenly, Javik dropped to his knees, turned, and fired. This time a flash of orange flame shot out of the gun barrel. A thunderclap reverberated off the walls.

The laser shell hit Abercrombie square in the shoulder. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

Javik tied Abercrombie’s hands and feet with mento-produced strips of heavy cloth from his wardrobe ring. Then he brought the first-aid kit out of his pistol handle and caulked Abercrombie’s shoulder wound.

Since Abercrombie was a small man, Javik lifted him easily over one shoulder. When he reached the passageway, Javik saw Prince Pineapple running toward him at full tilt, waving a long, sharp bone. The big pineapple man had the same crazed expression as Abercrombie, and was approaching fast.

“What are you doing down here?” Javik shouted. “I told you . . . ” He ducked. The bone whistled by his ear. Javik dropped Abercrombie to the ground and reached for his gun. Then a thought struck Javik and he screamed, “There was a young lady of Rhodes! . . . Who sinned in unusual modes!”

Prince Pineapple did a high backflip, landing neatly on his feet. “Damn you!” he said.

Javik continued: “At the height of her fame! . . . She abruptly became!.. .The mother of four dozen toads!”

The angry prince did a double backflip.

Then Javik attacked with more dirty Irish limericks, sending the hapless prince backflipping into the distance of the corridor. Javik heard his rhymes echo, and surmised this would keep Prince Pineapple occupied for a while.

As Javik reached down to lift Abercrombie, he thought of Namaba. He walked rapidly. Then he broke into a full run. Reaching the base of the inverted pyramid, he lifted Abercrombie up to the lowest step. Then he crawled up and again lifted Abercrombie’s limp form over his shoulder.

Javik sprinted up the steps. Reaching daylight, he called Namaba’s name. There was no answer.