This week with Arlene and Jeff:
...Liam called up to Jeff who was sitting on the cage just above the driver’s head. “The aliens will be expecting us to use the main passageway, but with yours and Dr. Emerson’s permission, I know another way. When we get out of this maze, we’ll soon be back on a wider passageway. If my memory serves, there is only one place that is so low that you’ll have to dismount for a hundred yards or so. I’ll let you know in plenty of time.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jeff said, and a moment later the Doctor gave her permission too.
The first passageway was only a foot or two wider than the runabout, and Liam kept his speed down to little more than a walk. The runabout’s electric motors were almost totally silent, with the mesh wheels crunching on the gravel making more noise than the motors that drove them. No use advertising where we are any more than we have to, Jeff thought. The passageway was drastically different from the route they had used when Jeff, Kayla, General Whitworth and the First Officer had walked in. It had not received the clearing that the main passageway had. Consequently, Liam frequently had to slow to a crawl.
After a particularly rough stretch of passageway, Jeff was glad of the spare steel mesh wheel attached to the back of the vehicle – they might just wind up needing it. Other than the mesh wheels, nothing short of a tracked vehicle would make it through the rough terrain.
Later, as Jeff continued to stare ahead in the hopes that he would see the aliens before they could attack, they rounded yet another of the many turns in the passageway to see nothing but black, glass-smooth water reflecting their lights...
Have a goodun;
Roust