SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

UAXACTUN

Next, the doctor rushed to the rear end of the cabin.

"What's the plan now?" Darwin asked.

"Same one. But we have to execute it ten times faster. Keep working, do not stop! Gordo! Help Felix dismount the phone!"

I noticed immediately that the arduous scientist had bent under the main control panel. Trying not to stumble against anything, I walked toward him, nervously—the cabin quivered to the frenetic activity display. Felix kneeled down, stretched out his arm and pulled. I bent down to help him. At that very instant, the doctor's partner stepped aside, as a heavy metal box was coming out with an impetuous twist.

I tried to avoid it, but the box smashed against my shin. Ouch!

Felix ignored the crash.

"Come on," he said laconically.

His apathy didn't surprise me. What caught my attention was the moan of pain that he couldn't repress when he got up. I remembered that he had fractured his knee. I stopped massaging myself and offered him a hand for support, but he refused it.

"The suitcase", Felix pointed out, getting back is dry air.

I wavered, but one of his harsh looks dissuaded me from insisting. I took the suitcase from the fastener—it weighed like it was a made of lead—I lifted it with both hands and walked staggering toward the hatchway. The black boots were at my heels, rushing me to go down the step ladder at a stretch.

I came to halt in the penultimate tread when I heard the doctor's voice.

"Gordo!"

I turned around. Behind Felix, a few steps higher, the unmistakable beard was showing up in the hatchway.

"Catch!" Among the scarce greenish luminosity, I noticed that he was pitching me some round thing. "Use the helmet's lights!"

I descended the two treads, let go of the suitcase and tried to intercept the spherical object; it passed over me and fell in a bush. I fetched it. A padded layer of grass rustled under my feet. Wet leaves rubbed my face and arms...I made my way groping.

A machete would be handy. Not only to make our way in the dense vegetation, but to defend ourselves from the vermin: when I picked up the helmet, something joggled in the undergrowth of weeds.

I moved back at once, and walked cautiously backwards.

"We will need a machete," I murmured, "I believe there are snakes..."

Felix, as indifferent to danger as ever, replied:

"Scare them away."

"But, what if..."

"Light," he interrupted plainly. "Quick."

Resigned myself I moved away completely and then came back. Felix was picking up the suitcase at the foot of the ladder.

"No, no," I hesitated. "I'll carry it, it's too heavy."

Once again, doing without my help, Felix picked up the suitcase, and pointed to the front.

"Turn on the light."

I felt the helmet. I found two circular switches on the sides. I turned them on. Two shiny light bulbs lit up. The light beams illuminated the trees where the ship's tail had been embedded. Clumsily, I turned the helmet over. The light beams went all the way to the sky. Then I managed to hold the helmet steadily and aimed it the direction Felix was indicating to me.

"Lower the intensity," he ordered.

I turned the small wheels counter clock wise. Two dim yellow lights filtered in the ferns, lighting up the trees from a few feet away. They were huge.