Part 26
[John,] You say slowly. [You and I have AE suits on. We could try and do as TIM suggests.]
John looks doubtful.
[I was planning to try but, Jay, it's going to be very dangerous and you're still not fully trained.]
[I can do this.] You insist, beginning to feel irritated at how protective the other Tomorrow People have been of you. [You don't need to look after me. I'm a Tomorrow Person now. I have responsibilities.]
John shares a look with Elizabeth that you're not sure how to interpret and then both nod.
[You're right.] John agrees. He addresses the others. [Jay and I will go to the vents TIM wants opened and see what we can do. The rest of you had better get back to the villages and see what you can do about keeping them moving.]
[What about this secret base thing though?] Andrew asks.
[I don't think we should get involved with the Soviet military.] Elizabeth shudders as if bothered by a bad memory.
[I agree.] John supports her. [We're going to have difficulty getting all the civilians out of here in time. I don't think we can spare the time to investigate a site that might not even be manned.]
There is general agreement and Elizabeth, Hsui Tai and Andrew jaunt back to the villages under threat. You and John check the seals on each others suits worried that volcanic ash in the catches is preventing them from sealing completely. Still, they should prevent you from the worst of whatever the volcano has to offer.
TIM jaunts the two of you to different points on the volcano's surface. As you look around, it takes you several moments to get your bearings. You are on the north face of the volcano, upwind of the crater, and the air is blessedly clear of ash. There is still a smell of burning although that could as easily be from the ash already within your suit as from outside. For the first time in two hours or more though, you are able to rely on your eyes to navigate. Even here an ash cloud high in the atmosphere casts a twilight shadow but it is not the solid darkness of the villages on the southern slopes.
The sides of the mountain are steep and largely barren although here and there scraggy shrubs cling to the hillside and you hold onto one of those until your sense of balance adjusts to the sloping ground. Well above and to your left you are aware of an angry red lighting the sky. It looks hotter and more dangerous from outside the ash cloud and you feel a frightening sense of urgency.
[Alright, TIM.] You call. [Where do I begin?]
[There is a fissure immediately below you, Jay.] TIM's voice is calm and soothing. [The crack is closed but runs all the way to the volcano's main vent, below the blockage. If you can use your telekinesis to open a narrow track along which some of the volcanic gases can be released the severity of the eruption may be reduced. John is attempting a similar task on two other vents.]
[I'll give it a try, TIM.] You promise a little doubtfully and break the communication.
You know how this works in theory but it still takes you several minutes to focus your mind enough to reach through the two metres of soil below you and feel the fissure itself. As TIM told you it runs deep, deep underground. A massive fault in the rock, it is emblematic to you of all the other fractures in this battered world. You don't know enough about volcanoes to be entirely sure of what TIM's suggesting but you do as he asks and insert your mind forcefully into the razor edge crack between the two massive shelves of rock. Time passes as you study every inch of the fissure, feeling its weak points and the points where one surface catches against another. Slowly, a fraction at a time you begin to ease the two surfaces apart.
It shocks you when you feel the compressed gases deep within this mountain finding their way into your narrow crack and forcing it wider with a power a hundred times that you can bring to bear. You stand, awed by the power of nature, until you feel the ground shift beneath your feet and you stagger as the very soil begins to bubble and heave with trapped gas. Strange, foul smells fill the air and make you light-headed. You're dizzy as you scramble a few meters back from the crack that is now beginning to show even on the ground's surface. Downhill you hear the beginnings of a roar as the shifting soil sets off a landslide below and the sound seems to echo on the inside of your skull.
[Jay!] TIM's voice in your mind is urgent. [The volcanic gases are getting into your suit and reducing your blood oxygen levels. You need to get away from there!]
[How...how is John doing?] You manage to ask.
[He is having a little more difficulty.] TIM admits. [His faults are smaller and more deeply buried.]
[Then you need this one fully opened.] You realise.
[You can't do any more there, Jay. The fumes are affecting you.]
You hear TIM calling the others now, warning them that the volcano could explode at any moment. You've done enough, he tells you. The pressure in the magma chamber is released but even so you're not sure if you can do more here.
Your head spins, thick with the volcanic fumes and you're not sure you could teleport even if you tried
You hesitate.
Do you:
a) Make sure by opening the fault fully?
b) Teleport back to the Lab?
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