Patrick just ran, hardly realising where he was going except that it was away from Mondeo. He reached the top of a snowbank and looked back down on the base below. There were several dragoons gathered round the entrance at the end of the concourse. They were moving around on the snow, slowly, and Patrick thought at first, at random. But then he realised that they were testing something, tracks which they had fitted to their wheels that enabled them to overcome the problems they had experienced with the snow at first.
He stood and stared as the dragoons, one by one, formed a line and began moving out across the snow. Then he realised. They were heading for the place where the tunnel was being dug!
The others were inside the tunnel, they wouldn't know until it was too late. He began to run down the slope towards the entrance to the tunnel, slipped, fell and picked himself up again. He had to warn them.
He reached the entrance to the tunnel and looked around briefly. The dragoons were still out of sight. He ran on, down the tunnel. It seemed long, longer than he remembered. At last he reached the end where the group of diggers were, and panted out the news.
"How far away are they?" Commander Douglas said when he had finished.
"Not far," he said.
"Is there time for us to reach the tunnel entrance before they do?"
"I don't know," he said. "I don't think so."
"We're trapped," Tom said, almost shouted. "We're cut off!" People started to panic and murmur to one another.
"All right, keep calm," Commander Douglas said. "Yes, we're trapped. But we're the ones with digging equipment, and if we can keep our heads we can dig our way out."
"But there's no time- they'll be here before we can get half way to the surface!" Will said agitatedly.
"We've got explosives. We can hold them up," Commander Douglas said. "You three, get to work on that. Mine the tunnel about a hundred metres down. Quickly!"
"But that'll bring the tunnel down around us!" Tom said.
"Like I said, we can dig ourselves out. Now stop talking and start digging!"
They did as she said, digging upwards with such energy that the tools quivered and bent under the strain. Even so, they seemed to hardly be making progress. One of those working on the explosives came running back.
"We've got the explosives set up," she said. "But there's still no sign of them."
"Maybe they're waiting at the tunnel entrance," Will suggested. Commander Douglas shook her head.
"If you see them coming, prepare to set the bombs off," she said. "But not till then. Give us as long as you can. And the rest of you, keep digging!" she shouted. The engineer nodded and went back to the others.
The digging went on and on. At the time it felt like hours, but Ruth realised afterwards that it could only have been minutes. Even Patrick forgot his other troubles in digging furiously. All he noticed was that Mondeo was not in the tunnel with them.
Suddenly they heard shouting and the three engineers came running down the tunnel.
"They're coming! Get down!"
Everyone crouched on the floor of the tunnel, hoping desperately that they were far enough away that the force of the bomb would be softened by the snow. And that it would destroy the dragoons. Now that everything was quiet they could hear them far away, muffled by the snow, rattling down the tunnel.
Seconds of silence that seemed to last forever. Then finally the explosion, that seemed to rip the silence apart and fling it into a million high pitched fragments of noise. Then quiet again, seeming somehow more silent than before in contrast to the explosion, but in reality full of soft sounds, of snow settling, of people pulling themselves to their feet. Ruth put her hand to her cheek, which had been struck by what she took to be a piece of flying metal, but her hand found a piece of solidly frozen ice next to her face.
She stood up. The tunnel behind them had collapsed completely, and there was neither sight nor sound of the dragoons. The others who had been in the tunnel were all chattering away loudly and at cross purposes, so that with her ears still ringing from the blast she struggled to make out what they were saying. She looked up. She could just see the daylight coming in through a tiny hole in the roof of the tunnel- now much thinner than it was, thanks to the blast from the explosion.
"Quiet!" Commander Douglas shouted authoritatively. Everyone turned to look at her, falling silent. "Now," she said, "Let's get out of here." She got them organised, building steps out of packed snow till they could reach the hole and widen it.
"Can you see anything?" she asked Nick, who had put his head through to look out.
"All clear, as far as I can see," he replied.
One by one they clambered up. Ruth had never thought she would be as pleased to feel the icy wind on the surface of that snow covered planet again. They walked back along the line of the tunnel, which it was easy to see because the ground had sunk down along its length, leaving a snow-filled trench.
Further back near the entrance the ground was scuffed up, and shards of metal and plastic lay scattered about in the snow. It was evident that they were right above the centre of the explosion. It was evident too that serious harm had been done to the dragoons, since bits of their casings were lying about.
"Looks like it's worked," Tom said, turning a piece of metal over with his shoe.
"How many were there, though?" Commander Douglas wondered aloud, looking at Patrick. Immediately he looked nervous. "Er...I don't know. Maybe...maybe ten?"
"Ten," she said. "Well, even if it was a few more, that still leaves us with plenty more to deal with at the base." She looked around. "It's getting dark. We should head back to the ship."
The story continues...
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