The morning began with Forsyth, Hartwell and Wilhelm discussing options for assaulting the presumed Shastapsh force working at the crater left by the explosion, in what was assumed to be some sort of salvage operation.
Wilhelm expressed a desire to examine the rockets that were brought in recently1 so everyone trooped into the armory for another look, where they discovered the rockets under the armourer's usual drapings of oily rags (which had begun to affect the paper rings wrapped around the cylindrical bodies). After some back-and-forth between the heroes, they decided not to experiment further with the strange devices.
Forsyth and Wilhelm were thinking that by using some of the liftwood salvaged from the Kite crash2 they could form a raft from which a large barrel of black powder could be suspended. This might be somehow 'flown' over the crater, then made to descend and explode, hopefully dealing the Shastapsh force a crushing blow.
Wilhelm thought that he might be able to cobble together a serviceable timer-controlled detonator for this contraption from materials to hand at the fort, and got to work. Forsyth decided to break out his engineering skills and solve the problem of the liftwood raft - which proved a thornier problem than anticipated and took him all day to make.
While working at these two problems, there was another overflight and bombing run by a kite in the pay of Shastapsh, but the quality of this attack was very poor and only two bombs fell, one a dud and one hitting the graveyard.
Forsyth, Hartwell and Wilhelm set out for the crater after dark, towing the barrel - ballasted to float about a foot off the ground - behind them. Luck was with the heroes, and they managed to arrive at the crater rim without being molested by Steppe Tribes or Shastapsh outriders. Careful scrutiny enabled them to make a stealthy approach to the crater rim at some distance from the posted sentries.
They say no plan survives contact with the enemy. It turned out that the workforce was abed for the night, with only two lone guards in the pit, standing watch over the newly-dug entrance to some sort of mine. A new plan was discussed in which Wilhelm would use his marvelous teleporter to move the barrel into the mine, where it could damage whatever was being dug up and collapse the diggings.
The team waited until the unwary sentinels were warming themselves in front of a burning brazier, then shot them using their captured 'Silent Winchesters', but unfortunately, Wilhelm's shot went wild and ricocheted loudly off the crater wall, raising the alarm in the camp and alerting the sentries on the rim that something was afoot.
Wilhelm quickly teleported into the mine with the barrel, the departure and arrival being announced by loud crackling, bright green ball lightning of great size3 and a loud 'snap'. This clued the sentries first into where the team were, but then where Wilhelm had arrived, prompting them to hurriedly descend into the crater with a a view to apprehending whoever was now in their mine.
Hartwell and Forsyth took this opportunity to start shooting at the guards, though distance and darkness made the task very difficult.
Wilhelm, lit his hand lantern and began to pull the barrel deeper into the digging, but tripped on some metal wreckage, which was so fascinating he temporarily forgot where he was and under what circumstances, and began exploring the wreckage instead of arming the bomb!
The arrival of a couple of the guards inside the tunnel brought him back to the reality of his situation and he set the timer then teleported out to a spot some distance behind Hartwell's and Forsyth's last known position. Forsyth and Hartwell were unaware of this as their attention had been drawn by the take-off of a kite that set off in their direction and began dropping very bright flares that seemed to hang in the air.
Realizing they were about to be hoist on their own petard, Forsyth and Hartwell made haste to return to Wilhelm, who then teleported them back into the courtyard of Fort McMurray, and a scene of dreadful carnage, with dead bodies strewn about the place and fires burning in a number of buildings. The loud detonation of their own infernal device off in the distance was rather lost in the hullabaloo.
Pandemonium briefly reigned, but the NCOs were able to make sense of the chaos and had the fires brought under control, then put out, and the bodies decently covered, while a report was made to Forsyth. It seems a bomb had been detonated in the courtyard, and at the same time several incendiary devices had been set off in key locations around the fort. 12 human soldiers were dead, horribly mutilated by a deadly hail of shrapnel improvised from nails. Six Martian soldiers were missing. These Martians were described by some of the men as keeping to themselves and of being a sort of clique, and Forsyth had them posted as deserters once a search had been made and no sign of them had been found. "Death to All Red Devils" had been painted in red on the wall of one building, along with a longer tract of Parhooni written in the Samisat alphabet4, urging the Martians of the garrison to cast off their allegiance to the Earthmen and to rise up and reclaim their heritage.
The heroes were just beginning to think the crisis was over, when there was a cry from the armoury. A bomb had been found, and the timer was running!
Wilhelm took a look and felt he was up to the task of saving the fort. Forsyth lent his own expertise to the desperate business of defusing the infernal device, and working together Wilhelm and Forsyth were indeed able to remove the timer and detonator from the bomb, discovering that part of the improvised mechanism was a piece of a woman's bracelet.
Meanwhile, ill feelings were running high in the courtyard, with the human soldiery accusing the Martians of treachery. The Martians, insulted beyond all measure by this baseless accusation were also in a foment. Hartwell decided to intervene and placed himself between two of the loudest groups, whereupon he was immediately attacked by multiple assailants. Showing no fear, Hartwell battled bravely against overwhelming odds but was eventually laid low by several haymakers to the noggin.
Forsyth emerged from his work with Wilhelm to discover this new problem, and when his commands were ignored he fired his pistol into the air and demanded the garrison come to order.
Hartwell was taken to the infirmary, unconscious, bruised but not seriously hurt. Forsyth had the NCOs organize various work details and a patrol of equal parts Human and Martian soldiery, then retired.
Wilhelm interviewed the extremely angry Miss Carter-Lloyd and discovered the fragment of jewelry he had recovered from the bomb was last seen by Miss Carter-Lloyd on the wrist of the woman who had rescued her from her vile captivity6 only to abandon her on the Steppes.
Two days were spent recovering from fist-fighting, long walks under the night skies of Mars, midnight bomb emplacement, slightly-after-midnight bomb defusing, putting the fort back in some sort of order (though feelings between the two races are running ruinously high as I type) and so forth, after which our heroes visited the crater once more, by night. They found the crater now had a new fissure running into the camp, or rather, the bare ruins of some small part of the camp that was not swallowed by the conflagration, and the forces of Shastapsh decamped, or deceased. There were so many body parts lying around, and the sound of night scavenging animals feeding on the remains, stilled at the sound of the party's approach, resumed to add the final macabre touch to this sickening scene. Of the kite, there was no sign.
Making their way back to Fort McMurray, lost in thought, the party was ambushed by a band of murderous Steppe Martians. The fighting was fierce and to the last man in the case of the Martian tribesmen, and both Hartwell and Wilhelm sustained wounds before it was over. Luckily, the professor had thought to bring along his miraculous healing mask, and with some admittedly disturbing green glowing and outgassing, the wounds were closed as if they had never been. Another triumph for Professor Wilhelm's command of the art of science!
The bodies were examined and proved to bear the usual tribal tattoos identifying these blackguards as belonging to whatever band of murderous thugs they called their own. Forsyth was particularly careful to check for signs of Brotherhood7 tattoos, and was somewhat relieved to not find them.
And so it was that Forsyth, Hartwell and Wilhelm staggered back into Fort McMurray and fell into their beds only an hour before dawn.
- See Episode 47↑
- as related in Episode 46↑
- A ball of green lightning surrounds whatever is being teleported↑
- The alphabetic glyphic writing most often used in the cities of Syrtis Lapis5↑
- An addition of my own to the world of Mars in Space 1889, not found in any of the source materials I have↑
- As related in Episode 45↑
- of Luxor, do keep up old boy!↑
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