SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

A SMALL MISSTEP FOR A MAN...

"How is it possible that we landed on a peak?" Darwin wondered in the middle of the confusion.

The doctor flicked the switches on the upper board.

"We didn't fall on a peak," he clarified. "It has just built up."

"It has just built up?" I questioned.

The captain continued activating the engines and didn't respond.

"Look!" Darwin said.

Four powerful reflectors had been turned on: the light beams like incandescent tubes were making their way through the dust, revealing an impressive thick strong wall in the distance. The zone brought to mind the Grand Canyon...the thick strong wall exceeded our height by dozens of feet and it was saturated with cracks.

You could recognize a couple of layers amazingly delimited by a gray and an ocher color with the naked eye. The region would have been the dream of a geologist.

But a nightmare for us.

A new and powerful trembling took over the cabin, which acquired a noticeable incline.

"What in the world!" I was frightened.

"The thrusters are activating," the pilot reported.

Vast sections of rough steep rock in front of us were starting to come loose like gigantic pieces of rubble.

The spacecraft began to straighten up.

"Here we go!" the pilot screamed. "Here we go!"

While the ship was lifting off, the shiny beams fell on the crest of a shocking seismic wave in the gigantic wall...which was collapsing...

"Just in time!" Darwin celebrated.

The spaceship was reaching considerable altitude, shaking like a Harrier.

"That was close," I whispered in a tremulous voice.

The ship began to swivel around.

"The lateral thrusters have finally activated!" the doctor exclaimed and the tip of the shuttle began to peak. "It's good technology after all!"

Right at that moment, the ship pointed downward brusquely. The Vampire's passengers suffered a brutal jolt.

We were losing altitude.

We fell onto the peak again. We were hanging from the edge...the light beams got lost in a cloud of dust from the distant bottom.

"The cleft!" Darwin exclaimed. "The cleft!"

I was hardly able to look forward. Oh God! The fissures were coming back to life, widening like thick branches. The fuselage was twining...blue sparks were jumping all over the place.

"Brace yourselves!" the doctor shouted.

Stunned, I turned forward immediately, better said, downward. A sparkle lit up the cabin. The splendor, as if it were a thunderbolt, reached the bottom of the abyss.

One second later, while total darkness wrapped all around us, a sucking force pulled us.

It split apart, I thought.

And that familiar and horrible tickling sensation was back in my belly. We were falling.

I was waving my arms. It felt like a shipwreck... as if we were sinking in the open sea...It was completely dark, except for the lights from the helmets which mingled with the rain of sand.

The freefall ceased all of a sudden and we slid down at a terribly inclined angle. The cabin zigzagged like a race car out of control. With each moment, we gained perpendicularity and lost acceleration.

A soft side tug sealed the descent.

Our chaotic breathing was heard through the headphones. In a jiffy, I turned left. Among the dust, to my immediate relief, I could make out my partners, perfectly fastened by the belts.

Suddenly, I felt exhausted.

I leaned back panting. My head was spinning.

"That was close," I said to myself.

No. It was still close.

"Let's get out of here!" the doctor exclaimed. "Otherwise we'll be buried alive!"