Chapter 25

The worm was moving quickly through the tunnel it had made previously. Its passengers were all laughing and chatting. Olympus Mons grew ever closer as the final pieces were being added to Loyd's newest monster.

Charlette opened her eyes and took a deep breath, "Where am I?"

"Ah, finally awake, are we?" the strange creature shined a bright light into Charlette's eyes.

She shoved the light away. "What are you doing? That's bright!

"Motor response is in the acceptable range. Now say, ahhh," the creature said, sticking something into her mouth and pressing down her tongue.

Charlette bit the wooden stick in half, grabbing the creature who leaned over her and threw it off her. "Get away from me, you…"

The creature stood back up and looked at Charlette. It had a human face with a long pale body stretching out the only door. Its many limbs holding onto anything solid.

"I am merely giving you a look over, now that we've finished transferring you to your current body. May I continue my job or do I need to sedate you?"

"Touch me again and I'll kill you." Charlette glared at the creature. "What were you doing to me?"

"I was making sure that your neurons were all connected to your current body correctly and that all six of your senses were functioning. You can obviously feel, see and hear but can you detect the link, smell, and taste?" the snake questioned.

("That stick you used tasted disgusting. This place smells like metal and bleach. And the way I'm talking to you should indicate that I can detect the neural link, me and the Martian Swarm have. Now, who the fuck are you?!")

("Charlette! Good to hear you're awake. I'll be there in about two minutes. Please don't break anything. Oh, and I'm bringing mom with me,") Loyd said, his voice reverberated in Charlette's head.

xX At the production plant about three blocks south of Charlette Xx

The massive furnaces spit out molten metal into the huge cooling troughs at a steady rate. The soundless, that had been renamed by Loyd to younglings, were watching over the entire process and making adjustments as needed.

"Thirteen more tons of mineral sand to get through, then we can stop for a break while the metal cools. Keep up the good work people!" an overseer shouted over the intercom, trying to be heard over the sound of the furnaces.

A cheer came up from the child-like younglings. They seemed to work even harder knowing a break was just around the corner. The furnaces belched more smoke into the atmosphere as the next batch of sand was dumped into the vast crucibles.

"Turn the airflow up another fifteen percent and double the pour rate," one of the younglings shouted into a radio.

The younglings could detect and receive the neural messages being sent by the Martian Swarm but they weren't developed enough to send any messages.

The air injection system started to whine louder as more air flooded through it. The steady stream of metal coming from the furnace turned into a small river flooding the cooling troughs. The furnace groaned from the added stresses but it didn't need to survive the ordeal. One would be dismantled and hauled to the space elevator at Greeley with the younglings.

"We can start the tungsten in furnace three now. It's gonna melt if we're not fast, though."

"Roger that, I'm adding the tungsten into furnace three now."

The feeder arm that had dumped the sand into the other furnaces, moved over to a bucket of tungsten sand and held it over furnace three's crucible. The sand was slowly added to make sure the crucible didn't break from shock. The tungsten sand began glowing almost immediately. Before the entire bucket was empty, the tungsten was already starting to bubble.

"Alright, you can open furnace three's pour spout. The tungsten is molten."

"Roger! Opening the pour spout! Everyone get back!"

An alarm and lights went off around furnace three as the pour spout was slowly opened.

"Stop now. You're equalizing… shut it by two centimeters and we'll be golden."

The pour spout slid down the required amount and the molten metal stayed at an even level, allowing the sand to melt faster.

The smelting process was interrupted by another alarm at furnace two. The smokestack leading outside the colony wasn't made from tungsten crystal and was starting to melt.

"All hands on deck! Get the water pumps going!"

"Keep the fires lit or we won't finish in time!"

The younglings scrambled, keeping as much infrastructure functioning as possible, while they rushed around trying to get the high-pressure hoses in position. The smokestack was starting to droop when the first spray of water hit its side. The steam explosion was enormous, scolding several of the people manning the hose.

"Hose one is up and cooling!"

The second hose opened up, causing another explosion that shook the furnace. The third hose opened its nozzle but hadn't built up enough pressure for the water to reach the smokestack from its position. The wall of the smokestack continued to droop as the younglings hurried to build up pressure. they fired another blast of water and it punched through the now partially molten wall of the smokestack. The atmosphere was sucked through the growing hole in the smokestack.

"Everyone, please evacuate to your designated shelter. There is a breach in the air dome," repeated over the intercom over and over as the younglings continued to try and save the furnace.

"Get me twenty feet worth of girder and have the hose ready."

"What are you going to do with the loader suit?"

"I'm going to patch the hole in the smokestack as best I can."

"You wouldn't last a minute in that kind of intense heat," Jim said walking up in a reflective suit. "Let me pilot that thing. I've got more experience with the controls."

"Yes, sir," the youngling said disappointed in itself.

"Don't beat yourself up about this. They were going to recycle them for this exact reason. Even if you managed to cool the outside wall, the inner wall is still going to try and melt." Jim ruffled the hair of the youngling.

"Right, we'll get you anything you need."

"A cold bath and something to eat would be nice. Other than that, I think I've got everything I need."

Jim climbed aboard the loader and switched to manual control. The loader stood up and tested its equipment with a series of movements.

"Alright, you guys, clear the area. I've got to rip out a good chunk of the caved-in wall before I can put the patch over the hole."

"We've already cleared the area."

Jim smiled; he had always liked being able to fix things, even if he didn't have the most mechanically oriented mind.

Steering the loader to the hangar exit, Jim grabbed the door on his way out. He ran to the scaffolding where the hose team was positioned and started climbing.

The hose team was waiting for him. "Hey, how do you intend to knock the molten bits down when we're still a good fifty feet out?"

"I grabbed this loader specifically for that reason," Jim said, jumping to the smokestack and smashing the hangar door against the molten area. "Spray it now!"

The hose team sprayed the hangar door with water causing it to form a sort of weld with the surrounding material. Jim landed on his loaders back, completely destroying it. The nearest younglings rushed to help him to the hospital where everyone else was.

"That was reckless, mister."

"Yeah, but it was the fastest way to fix the hole," Jim laughed with a wince. His leg hung at an awkward angle and his ribs ached with every breath.

"Trying to be a hero?" asked Madeline smirking at him as he was carried by on the stretcher.

"Why not? It was fun and necessary!" he joked, it getting even harder to breath with every bump and jostle.

"Well, don't worry. We'll have you fixed up in a jiffy. Here's a batch of biomass to eat," said a youngling holding out something that looked suspiciously like pork, even though everyone knew there weren't any pigs here.

"I'm just going to pretend this is lab-grown and eat up," he wheezed, pausing before taking a bite. "Is this cooked?"

The youngling sighed and took it back for a moment, holding it outside a window on a metal skewer, before bringing it back in smoking with a small flame still burning on top. Blowing the flame out, it handed it to Jim, still on the skewer.

"Mmm, meat on a stick, what better way to eat it?" he commented before taking a bite.

"When have you ever had meat on a stick to know?" asked Madeline.

"Mmmm mmm mmm," he responded, holding up the stick and taking another bite, without having finished with the first.

She just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Brothers!"