Ensign Alex Dalton plowed her way through the crowded streets of the great underground city of Kurnugi, her fierce facial expression being more than enough to part the throngs in her way like the waters of the Red Sea before the Breath of God.
The reason for the young woman's holy wrath followed at what he hoped was a relatively safe distance. Ensign Dexter Gray tried to keep up, but the parted crowds came crashing together again as soon as Alex had passed, often leaving him swamped in clumps of pedestrians like the Egyptian chariots that had tried to follow the Israelites across the Red Sea. In his hands he carried the empty pitcher Max Vasser had ordered them to refill.
"Alex! Slow down!" he called over the heads of the crowd for the forty-seventh time, but the angry blonde ignored him and instead seemed to hasten her steps even further. He sighed in resignation. One stupid slip of the tongue had ruined his chances with Alex forever. Oh if only he'd been born a mute he'd still be in the lovely Alex's good graces!
After Dexter and Alex had departed with their pitcher, Sam and Max went back inside the inner room of the Banshees' temporary dwelling. They rejoined Lee Carter, Matthew Cross and the leader of Kurnugi, Ereshkigal seated at the table. Cross looked at Max questioningly while shaking his empty cup. She answered his unvoiced query. "I sent the kiddies out to fetch the water. I put the fear of God into them, so it won't take them more than a few minutes." Satisfied, Cross turned his attention back to the discussion.
"Ereshkigal was just telling us that it will take a few more days before we can move against Nergal and his gang," Lee Carter told Max and Sam as they sat down.
"What's the delay?" asked Max, frowning. "It's been almost two weeks since we hatched this harebrained escape plan."
"You must have patience, girl," replied Ereshkigal calmly and with great self-assurance. "All must be in readiness before you confront Nergal before the Gates of the Stairway to Heaven or else all will be for naught. Even if you defeat Nergal and take the Heart of Tiamat from him with which to control the Aqrabu guarding the Stairway, without the key to the Stairway there is still no escape."
"Fine," grumbled Max, not mollified in the least by the old woman's pat explanations. Ereshkigal's subtle yet constant attitude of smug superiority, the way she always called everyone 'girl' or 'boy', the way the pathetic citizens of this dark city revered her almost like a god severely offended Max's sense of propriety. Plus, she simply didn't trust the old bat, and was about to voice another comment in that general vein but Cross spoke up before she had the chance. To Max's surprise, Captain Cross was apparently thinking along the same lines as she was, and her opinion of the man accordingly went up several big notches.
"I've been wondering," began Matthew Cross with deliberate thoughtfulness, "about how the present political situation in Kurnugi came to be. It seems an odd balance of power, not to mention completely counterproductive. Nergal's faction controls the section of the city that houses the Stairway to Heaven, and he controls the Aqrabu, who guard the gates, with the Heart of Tiamat device. Yet he can't use the Stairway because he doesn't know how. You, on the other hand, know how the Stairway operates, but you can't use it because Nergal and his gang keep you from it. You each have something the other needs to make the escape work. It seems to me that if only you and Nergal cooperated, you could all leave this planet together."
For a moment, a look of deep hatred and irritation blackened Ereshkigal's craggy face, but it came and went so quickly it was impossible to say for sure. Her voice when she answered betrayed no hint of any malignant feelings.
"Most of the people living on this planet are the descendants of travelers who were trapped here hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Myself and Nergal however, are more recent arrivals. We came in ships through the dimensional discontinuity -- your 'Black Gate'."
"Why?" prodded Cross.
"Nergal is a wanted criminal on my homeworld," replied Ereshkigal. "I was hunting him to bring him to justice. He fled through the Black Gate and I followed. Once within the city, he quickly formed a new gang and discovered the means of controlling the Aqrabu with the Heart of Tiamat, forcing me to enlist the support of the more honest citizens." A distant look entered Ereshkigal's eyes. "That was almost fifty years ago..." she said wistfully, but the mood quickly dissipated. "He has spent the intervening years inflicting his reign of terror on the people, while I have spent them trying to help his victims and to find a way out of this place. After all these years, I almost have the answer -- the key to the Stairway. Very soon now."
Ereshkigal looked directly into Cross' eyes with her usual haughty beligerance. "Does that answer your question, Mr. Cross?"
Matthew Cross returned the old woman's stare. "For now. Thank you."
"In that case, I have business to attend to elsewhere," said Ereshkigal, standing from the table. With a slight bow, she swept from the room and closed the door behind her.
Max turned to Cross and asked, "You buy any of that?"
Cross reflected thoughtfully for a few seconds, then repeated, "For now."
Eventually, Alex Dalton and Dexter Gray reached the enormous dining cavern wherein stood the huge food vats and huge dinner gong. The place was deserted at this hour in the day, so they had no difficulty making their way through the closely-packed tables and benches to the carven rill that ran all along the rear wall of the cavern. A ribbon of water about a foot deep and two wide trickled sluggishly at the bottom of the channel, entering the dining cavern through a gated culvert in the stone wall at one end and exiting through another at the far end. This was this section of Kurnugi's water supply.
Alex approached the stone trough slowly and peered down into it. Her face wrinkled in disgust at the brackish water. "It's a miracle these people haven't all died from cholera or something," she said. "I suppose we can boil it or something when we get back to the cliff dwelling.
"Gimme that," she said, reaching over and snatching the pitcher Max had given them from Dexter's hands. She made it a point not to look at his face, making it clear she was still mad at him for his careless, accidental 'You look good in the dark' comment earlier.
The young man, for his part, was determined to get back on Alex's good side, so he was on the lookout for any chance to be helpful. "Maybe we can find a spot where the water isn't so stagnant," he suggested.
Alex studiously ignored him and dipped the neck of the pitcher below the water's surface. The oily liquid swirled around the pitcher and clung to her skin in a thoroughly disconcerting manner, and the odor that arose was something you'd expect from a sewer, not a fresh water supply. After a few seconds, Alex withdrew the pitcher and muttered, "Maybe you're right..." She dumped out the contents and began walking downstream looking for a better spot.
Dexter set off after her. "Um... Y'know, there's an ancient Vulcan proverb..." he ventured cautiously. There was no response from Alex, so he continued. "...It goes something like this -- 'Always drink upstream from the herd'."
From behind, Dexter could see Alex's shoulders shake, and she emitted an abrupt sound like a choked-back laugh. The girl stopped, turned, and began walking the other way up the rill. Her face was still an inflexible mask of unfriendliness, but Dexter thought he could detect a slight upward curl of her lips that wasn't there five seconds ago. With renewed hope, he trotted after.
They reached the culvert through which the water flowed without finding any clean spots in the stream.
"Well, I guess we don't have any choice," said Alex, preparing to fill the pitcher again. "But I'm going to make you give it to Max. Consider it payback."
"Wait a sec," said Dexter, peering thoughtfully into the dark culvert opening. The cavern's torchlight didn't extend more than a couple of feet into the small orifice; all the rest was black. "I wonder where this water comes from. I wish I had my tricorder." He set off following the wall beyond where the rill started, running his hands on the stone surface, obviously looking for something.
Alex was caught in a terrible dilemma. She didn't want to follow Dex because she was still supposed to be mad at him, but on the other hand, she didn't want to be left all alone in this dark and scary cave. The internal fight was quick though -- irrational fear clobbers ego every time -- and she scurried after Dex who was already almost out of sight in the dim lighting.
"What are you looking for?" she asked as she caught up to him.
"Maybe there's another cavern where the stream runs through," was the reply. Dexter suddenly stopped. "Aha!" He snaked around a sharp corner in the rock where the shadows were the deepest and entered a narrow crack in the dining cavern's wall. Alex hadn't even seen it. After a second, his arm popped out of the crevice and waved to Alex. "Come on. I can hear water running!" said his disembodied voice from within the crack's gloom. Taking a deep breath and clutching the pitcher to her chest, Alex stepped through the crack into whatever was beyond.
A short but very narrow and winding natural passage opened onto a medium-sized cave. The floor was fairly flat and worn, and the ceiling twenty feet above their heads was an inverted forest of stalactites. At the rear, a crack in the floor was the source of the rushing water sound. Alex rushed over and looked down. She sniffed the air tentatively, and smiled. Bending down, she began filling the pitcher.
Dexter had hung back near the entrance, and wore a troubled expression. "Alex, would you say the Kurnugians used this cave?"
"Doesn't look like it."
Dex nodded in agreement. "I think so too. So why is there a lit torch in the wall over there?"
As soon as those words were out of Dexter's mouth, the air all around the cave shimmered, and suddenly the space was filled with a dozen armored figures. Two of the helmeted soldiers grappled Alex while several more moved towards Dexter.
"What's keeping those kids?" asked Lee Carter. "They should have been back half an hour ago. I'm getting worried."
"Knowing them, they probably got into trouble," said Max.
"We should go find out," suggested Sam.
Carter looked at Captain Cross, who nodded his agreement, and the four of them immediately set out in search of their missing companions.
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