Chapter 12: Stranded

"Can you get it working again?" Phil peered anxiously over Charley's shoulder. "We've got to get out of here, and right now!"

"What's the rush?" Charley had an access panel off and was poking around amidst the wiring with a sour expression on his face. "From the looks of this mess, we ain't going no place right away, if ever. This whole pile of junk was thrown together by a ham-fisted idiot out of odds and ends, and that bullet just about finished things."

"Jordan knows we're here, that's what the rush is. As long as we weren't bothering him, we were safe enough, but now he knows we're after him. Besides, he'll be wild to get his records back. They can hang him if they get into the wrong hands. He knows where this place is, and he can reach it any time he wants to. The only thing I can't figure, is why he hasn't already landed on our necks."

"Maybe he can't reach this place from his real base," Rowlf suggested. "Maybe he can only reach here from Aurora."

"That can't be," Phil answered. "The only reason he couldn't reach us would be if this base is on the same world as his real headquarters... Say, maybe you're right! That would explain a lot of things."

"What would," Charley asked, looking up from the control panel when Phil stopped talking. "Let us in on it, will ya?"

"I've been figuring that his real base is on Earth, because there are so many portals operating from there that one more wouldn't make any difference to detection equipment. Charley! When you drilled that hole in the outside wall of the other base, did the air whistle out like through a portal that's opened out into empty space?"

"Nooo... No, it didn't. It just sort of hissed out. You think, then, that we ain't really on an airless planet?"

"It just could be. Show me where there's an outside wall, and bring your drill."

Phil dashed after Charley as he trotted down one corridor and along another to a room whose outer wall was distinctly curved. Rowlf followed at a more leisurely pace, toe-nails clicking on the metal floors, but even he was interested enough to make him forget his dislike of being closed into just this one building.

Kneeling down so that he was holding the drill a couple of feet above the floor of the room, Charley plugged the cord into an outlet and started drilling between where two rows of welds outlined the wall's structure. The steady whine of the drill motor cut off after only a couple of minutes, and he pulled the bit back out of the hole it had made.

"That's it." He laid the drill down, holding a patch ready to close off the hole. "The air's going out, but not too awful fast. You think we're back on Earth? Maybe on top of a mountain some place?"

"That's my guess. I'll close this door, and see how long it takes the pressure in here to equalize. It opens inward, so we'll be able to open it if we have to."

They watched nervously as the whistle of escaping air gradually died away. Phil swallowed a couple of times to clear his ears, then let out a relieved sigh. "That does it, all right! Now then, let's see if we can cut a big enough opening to escape through."

That proved to be more of a task than he expected. The girders of the framework that supported the dome were almost too close together to squeeze between, and the outer shell of the dome was a bit thicker than the inner one. The makeshift tools they'd scrounged up; hammers, hacksaws and chisels, weren't well suited to their task, and they had to stop a couple of time to rest and gobble down sandwiches before they were finally through.

"Ya ready?" Charley braced his cold chisel and poised his hammer for the final blow that would break the section of wall away from its moorings.

"Go for it," Phil told him, and Rowlf gave an approving growl.

Clang!

The section of steel plate fell away, rattling and banging down the side of the dome, and they peered eagerly out at... Darkness!

Phil switched off the room's light, and they looked again. Still darkness, and a chill wind blowing, but the darkness was no longer absolute.

"Must be night time," Charley whispered, sticking his neck out like a turtle, ready to snap it back inside at the first sign of trouble. "Hey, I see lights! Looks like it might be a road, off that way."

"Watch it," Phil cautioned as Charley leaned out farther. "How high off the ground are we?"