Well, this should be the *final* update, hopefully. I want to get this
done and out the door, published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine,
and I need C&C. I'd rather not send it off having missed something,
because I'm too close to the story. I'd *forgotten* to introduce the
spiders correctly after months of revisions, having never noticed the
problem, but it was fixed when a reader from this list sent me a comment
on it. (Thanks, Travis! ;) Help me out here, guys.
My account is not sticking around for all that much longer, and since I'm
supposed to be suspended, I'm not really allowed to use the campus
computers to work on it. I need the money I'd get from publishing this
one, along with the next two volumes (soon to be released, after I finish
editing *them*), to get away from Pittsburgh, and move to Berkeley. For
those of you who know why, nothing more needs to be said. For those of
you who don't...well, it's enough to say that Pittsburgh is a very dirty,
unfriendly city.
Well, here it is. For those of you who may not have read Blue Lightning
before, it's a 'fictional autobiography'. Like a self-insertion fic,
but not quite. Not quite, since I actually have a *reason* for putting
myself in the story, and not just for ego gratification. Well, maybe it
is, but the characters are all human in the story, meaning they have
strengths *and* weaknesses. That includes my own character. Anyway,
any serious, thoughtful C&C anyone can give me would be much appreciated.
-----
*******
Blue Lightning
*******
Prologue
(c)1995 By Damon Casale
The year is 2008. Overcrowding, a totalitarian government, and
vicious, constantly infighting intelligence agencies plague the world,
man's prison. Life is, literally, hell.
It had taken me most of my life to create just one chance to leave
it all behind. Now it's only a matter of time...
I look back on what I wrote only five years ago, and wonder at how
simple things seemed then.
I should explain, I guess. I was trying to come to grips with the
backsliding the entire world had gone through in such a short period of
time. By the end of the 1990's, there was already plenty of evidence that
something was seriously wrong. Economic crises were being referred to as
`recoveries', foreign `aid' and other blunders had drained the coffers of
the only remaining superpower, and people generally tried to ignore it all
and just eke out a living. It only got worse during the first decade of
the twenty first century, when world councils were formed from the dying
nations to combat the evils, and given unthinkable amounts of power to do
so. The remaining intelligence agencies sold themselves out, turning
either mercenary, or working for some faction or another left over from the
power struggle.
You knew all this already, of course. If you're reading my diary
at all, you likely witnessed much the same. If you haven't, I can't even
begin to explain *living* through it. Try to imagine being stopped,
handcuffed, and arrested for just looking at someone the wrong way. Or
having your house searched on suspicion of posessing `treasonous documents
with a tendency to incite the masses to rebellion against the lawful
government'. I'm afraid I can imagine that all too well. It happened to
me more than once, you see.
It almost seems like an eternity since all of that. I've traveled
the galaxies, lived every man's dream. And I'm not just referring to my
only partially successful attempt to escape the totalitarian rule.
I should start at the beginning of it all, of course, but then the
story would take forever to tell. I'll start five years ago instead, on
the day Kerin died.
I know I'm not making any sense. You probably have no idea who
Kerin is, although you might know of me. The whole thing is just too much
to tell all at once. But thinking back to five years ago... There were
twelve of us who knew about the Blue Lightning project, not including
myself. The work on my ship had finally been completed, and it was ready
to launch. I had been careful enough to avoid being discovered by the
various intelligence agencies, or so I thought. There was only one thing
left to do...
But I'm getting ahead of myself again. Before I even get into
that, I should introduce some of the major players in my story. As I
mentioned, you might know of me already. Then again, I'm positive you
don't know everything. More than just being the 40 year old CEO of a major
R&D company, I was a scientist, who'd managed to stumble onto something I
shouldn't have. Personally, I'm pretty average, or at least I try to look
it. I'm 5'7", about 125 to 130 pounds, with brown eyes and hair, and an
ancient, melancholy gaze. On the surface, I was just one more too-friendly
face. My greatest flaw, as Steve would have it, is that I'm a pacifist.
In this day and age, that's suicide, he keeps telling me.
Steve, one of my closest friends since we were kids, became my
personal bodyguard. Well trained in many styles of martial arts, and a
connoisseur of anything from a semi-auto to a rifle, he'd had many
occasions to put his talents to use. When I'd first started the research
and development company bearing my ship's name, the powers that be were
understandably suspicious. Several times, we'd both had rather unpleasant
encounters with intelligence agents after certain secrets...but I'll get
into that later.
There are plenty of others who have a part in my story. Chris, the
navigator I'd chosen to fly my ship. She was still pretty much an enigma,
her past mostly a mystery even to me. John, the diminutive ship's doctor,
who had an acidic wit that would offend even Star Trek's McCoy. Jeremy,
the ship's engineer, if anyone could be said to hold that title. He wasn't
a Mr. Fix-it, although his electronics and computer skills I'd had many
occasions to appreciate. All of them had their own reasons for joining the
crew, the foremost of which was Earth itself.
And of course, there was Kerin. But before I get ahead of myself,
let me begin my tale. It was the day Blue Lightning lifted off...
-----
********
Blue Lightning
********
Volume I
(C) 1995 By Damon Casale
The year is 2008. Overcrowding, a totalitarian government, and
vicious, constantly infighting intelligence agencies plague the world,
man's prison. Life is, literally, hell.
It had taken me most of my life to create just one chance to leave
it all behind. It was only a matter of time...
* Questionable Tactics
For me, it was over before it began. Kerin was dead.
I stood in front of her. Hazel-gray eyes closed, not a strand of
hair out of place... even the horrible bloodstains, gone. But her sleep
will last forever.
I tried to shake myself out of it. There, the tube's closed.
Heeding a barely audible click, the conveyor carried it away, and a narrow
hatch opened and shut itself. A dull *thump*, and the launcher kicked the
tube carrying Kerin's body out into open space.
Her death had torn a vital part of me away. I felt hollow and
cold inside. There may be a universe out there, which I'd once longed to
explore... but now the beauty is gone, leaving an empty, mocking husk.
I pulled myself up the ladder from the scoutcraft bay, each step
bringing me a firmer resolve. Somewhere between there and the bridge, I
found the strength to make a decision.
Emerging into the bridge, I straightened up. The air of tenseness
was palpable. I looked at my friends, the people I'd lived with for most
of the past decade. Steve sat lazily stretched out in one of the chairs,
looking at me almost expressionlessly. Trying to read what Kerin's death
had done to me, I knew. Jeff, one of the linguists, refused to even meet
my gaze.
I faced my makeshift crew. "I've decided. We're going back.
We're going back for her."
Steve stared at me, in puzzlement, then shock as understanding
dawned. "Do you have any idea what that'll mean? Damon, you can't just--"
"I know. I don't care any more." The bridge was silent for a
long moment. "I assume no one wants out now..."
Steve had good reason to feel the way he did. Then again, so did
I. He made it a point to know the odds and the risks, for any possibility.
But this time, none of us knew what the future held. Nevertheless, we were
all ready to face those risks. For ten years, no one had dared doubt that
we would succeed. That we *must* succeed.
I sat down in front of the nav console, suddenly tired and
shaking. After a few uncertain taps, the ship thrummed with power. I felt
a slight tug, as the computer compensated for the gravdrive, coming to
life. Earth slid away, off of the viewscreen, and we were on our way.
Jupiter swung before us, looming large and silent. Then Saturn, a
halo and myriad of moons spinning lazily away in space. Finally, the solar
system was left behind.
"Let's go." I touched a few buttons, programming the ship for one
final test, and stood up. There was no turning back now.
On the viewscreen, the stars took on a reddish haze, as the ship
began wrapping itself in a cloak of artificial mass. A thick, inky black
ring of darkness coalesced around the ship, a naked, rotating singularity.
The endless numbers, data, tests...they all mean less than nothing
now, I thought. In a few seconds, we could all be--
The viewscreen exploded into a fierce, intensely bright light,
taking me by surprise. Blue Lightning shuddered, an unsettling tremor
reverberating throughout the ship. I shielded my eyes, but the light
rapidly faded away. I looked...
"Holy--"
I slammed myself into the nav seat. The timejump had worked,
after all. We were thousands, perhaps millions of years in the past, and
millions of miles from home. Directly ahead lay a small, drab, grayish-
white star, growing steadily larger on the screen. The ship, suddenly
thrown before a yawning abyss, lurched and screamed in agony. I attacked
the console furiously, grabbing the control spheres and forcing them to one
side. For a few, frantic seconds, the ship slid ever closer to the neutron
star. Then slowly...achingly slowly...it drifted away to the left, and out
of sight.
"That was *too* close." Steve collapsed into another chair,
shaken.
The star had caught the ship unprepared. Had I activated the
gravdrive again, we would have been shredded like so much confetti, as the
drive forced us *deeper* into the star's gravity well. I shuddered.
"I hate to say it, but let's try that again," I breathed, my voice
quavering. It would be at least one more jump back in time, hopefully
managing to backtrack through fifthspace, before we returned to a
prehistoric earth.
I heard a soft chuckle, and looked back. Nick was hunched in a
chair, grinning. The scraggly geneticist's sense of humor was almost as
bad as Steve's. I glared back. Steve only smiled sarcastically, keeping
silent.
I reactivated the controls, and the stars again began to take on a
reddish haze.
...and...
"We're back already?" Jeff wondered aloud. He threw me a
questioning glance. "Didn't you say you can't steer--?"
Your confidence is overwhelming, I grumbled silently at him. "No,
look at it again. There's only one continent on the whole planet, plus a
few scattered islands."
Time travel was a complicated affair. Perhaps too complicated,
although not impossible, as we had proved. It wasn't managing the actual
jump to somewhere and somewhen else that was the hard part. The hard part
was getting to where and when you wanted to go.
The blue-green world crept closer, like something out of a dream.
A small, pithy moon slid into view. Opposite the planet, another was
barely visible, very dim. The first moon drifted out of sight.
Ever alert, Steve slowly stood and stared, the first to notice the
large, ungainly lump of a ship edging out from behind the planet.
"My...what in God's name is THAT??"
Numb, I shook my head slowly. Whoever they might be, we obviously
weren't welcome, I thought.
Under the silent urging of gravity, Blue Lightning spun about.
The other ship spun off to one side on the viewscreen, and the first moon
swung into view again, growing huge against the starry night. We coasted
into a slow, drifting orbit around it, the planet on the other side.
"Looks like it's already occupied, D."
I glanced back at Steve, deciding to take the risk, as I saw it.
I could think of too many reasons to suspect they weren't friendly. "Not
very likely," I said. "We didn't see or scan any artificial satellites,
and that's only one ship we've seen so far. My guess is they're
investigating it, same as us."
Steve paused at that, not taking my implication very well.
I looked back at the moon, slowly drifting by beneath us, and
continued. "As soon as it orbits back behind the planet again, which
should be in about..." Another quick jab at the console. "...seventy five
minutes, we'll try for a quick landing."
He eyed me, looking a bit disturbed. "Sure that's a good idea?"
A quirked eyebrow, narrowed eyes, I silently told him exactly what
I thought of his question.
Steve breathed a small sigh. "Fine, I'm heading downstairs." He
walked across the deck, stepping onto a protruding ladder, looking back at
me and beckoning. "Coming?"
In the heart of the ship lay a bit of lost paradise, a small
island of Earth carried into the depths of space. We climbed down onto a
carpet of fine, green grass, slightly damp. An artificial creek burbled
its merry way across the room, adding to the illusion of a real park. A
single stub of a tree leaned over it, drooping, mirroring my own troubled
feelings.
We sat down under the tree. Steve took his boots and socks off,
rolling up his pants, and hung his feet in the cool water.
"Care to talk about it?" He prodded.
I shook my head slightly. "Sorry. Not now, at least." I wasn't
ready to give into his attempt to help me. By force of habit, everyone
around him had to be ready for anything, and even now, I was no exception.
Steve faced the stream, looking away.
It had been an issue of questionable tactics in the first place,
years and years ago. I knew *someone* was onto me, but had no idea who.
My apartment had been searched, though discreetly, my phone bugged...I knew
I had to do something. And so it all began with a loaded phone call to a
longtime friend, one with whom I felt secure in confiding my secrets...
"...I just need something else in my life, you know? I'm even
getting bored with Maison Ikkoku." At the time, it had been my favorite
series. It was a story about life, a romantic comedy that had hit close to
home.
I shrugged, idly lounging on the couch. It was a stupid idea to
begin with, but it was this or nothing. "Well, more like depressed,
actually," I mumbled.
Steve laughed at that. "Can't help ya, man."
Up to this point, I'd never had any kind of relationship with
anyone, being the geek I was, back then. "Maybe I just empathize with
Godai too much." I smiled slightly. There'd been a storybook, happy
ending for Kyoko and Yushaku Godai. It hadn't happened that way in real
life, for Kerin and I.
But by then I'd already decided to attract some of that unwelcome
attention in a bit more of a direct fashion. "Maybe I'm just lonely," I
whispered sadly.
"You? That *is* a change."
It was time to go hunting for my pursuers, and I foolishly chose
the hard way.
**********
On the bridge again, the moon slid away on the screen to reveal
the planet, minus its unwanted visitor. Steve and I exchanged meaningful
glances.
A bay door in the belly of the ship slid ponderously open. The
scoutcraft within drifted forward, and the door closed.
The planet below opened up invitingly, and the scoutcraft brushed
through a few faint wisps of cloud, heading for a small island near the
mainland.
"Just in case. They're probably already on the continent
somewhere."
The exit ramp descended, and a touch of breeze brought the salty
taste of the sea. Outside, we gathered near a small copse of trees. Vivid
green bark and a light purple ocean brought home the alienness of the
world.
"It's a good thing this air is breathable. I'd hate to have to
walk around in those stupid suits all the time." Nick grumbled at nothing
in particular, a walking, bearded attitude.
"Then relax and enjoy it." I managed a weak smile. "Let's take a
look around, shall we?"
A nearby cliff beckoned. The sun was low on the horizon,
reflecting a rainbow of light off of the rippling water below.
I'd never felt at peace. There had never been a time when I
wasn't worrying over another dangerous secret, and the infuriatingly
probing intelligence agents who would religiously seek it out. But here...
This world was so peaceful and serene. It was almost as if I'd stumbled
into a long forgotten vision of paradise. Maybe, for a few weeks...
Then I looked down.
"Oh my god..."
On the rocks below, a humanoid form was spread-eagled next to the
crashing waves of the sea. Steve looked at it, his expression unreadable.
* Choices
"Damn, he's heavy." Steve stumbled a second time, cursing.
Inside the scoutcraft, the three of us laid the sea-dweller on a
bunk set into the wall.
"I hope you know what you're doing," Nick growled. As a
biologist, he was the first to appreciate the `little' problems.
"Do we have any choice? Look." I turned his head, revealing a
small, electronic device, cracked open and innards exposed. "Something
tells me that's not supposed to be there."
"So now what?" Steve looked back at me as I walked down the ramp.
"We wait for him to come around. I'll be outside."
I sat down, dangling my legs over the edge of the cliff, looking
down at the crashing waves. The sun was setting.
Maybe he's right, I thought to myself. This isn't such a good
idea. We knew nothing about him, or whatever injuries he might have.
There were too many unknowns.
I looked out over the sea, as the sun dipped lower, almost below
the horizon now. Thinking.
On the other hand, I can't just leave him to his fate. I've got
to do something.
I rested my head in my hands, watching as the sun finally set, the
last, faint rays of light slowly fading away.
Steve called out from inside the scoutcraft. "He's coming
around."
"I'll be right there."
I stood up, kicking a pebble over the edge of the cliff, and
looking rather despondently at the darkening sky.
The sea-dweller tossed restlessly, slowly regaining consciousness.
He was covered in a thick, dark greenish skin. Ribbed fins sprouted from
his arms, legs, and head. After several long, tense moments, he blinked
slowly, his large eyes opening halfway. Just the barest hint of a melodic
whistle sounded in the still air.
"You're safe. It's all right." Nick rested a comforting hand on
the sea-dweller's arm. His eyes opened a bit more, and he started to sit
up, but clutched in pain at the device on his head. It sparked.
Nick pushed him back down gently. "Careful there. You need to
rest."
"I don't think he understands what you're saying," Steve said.
I shook my head. "Doesn't matter." He's among friends, and that
needs no language to communicate.
I gestured to Steve.
"We've got to do something about that thing on his head."
Steve looked away, at the cliff. "We can't do anything here,
that's for sure."
"Then we're talking about taking him aboard Blue Lightning. Can
we risk it?"
"If we were going to catch anything, it would have happened
already." He faced me again, grinning. "Besides, you said you didn't have
a choice, did you?"
I smiled. If only for a fleeting moment, he'd managed to give me
back a bit of lost cheer.
"What..." I could barely hear it at first, but the sound had been
buzzing around in the back of my mind for the past few minutes. Now
puzzled, I looked intently at the nearby copse of trees, where it was
emanating from. Steve glanced at the trees, curious.
I gestured to him. "Give me your floptical recorder."
He held out a small, rectangular device, with a slot in the back
just big enough for a 3.5" floptical. I took it, holding it out in the
direction of the trees, as the grinding sound rapidly grew louder.
The scoutcraft flew into the night, and the clearing was once
again empty.
...no, perhaps not. The mystery, remained.
John and I helped the sea-dweller onto a medbed. He took a
medscanner, a calculator-like gadget with a couple of odd-looking
attachments thrown in for good measure, and panned it over the head of the
now prone humanoid.
He gazed curiously at it. "Maybe you boys should wait outside."
Steve shot a satisfied look at me. "Now's as good a time as any."
Ahead, around a slight bend in the corridor, a ladder ran through the
ceiling and floor.
I stared confusedly at him. "For what?"
He started down the ladder. "We need to talk. About what
happened that day."
"Now isn't--"
His voice wafted up from below. "You can't keep it bottled up
forever."
I climbed onto the ladder, sighing heavily. He was right.
The door closed behind us. I sat down on my bunk, and Steve
followed suit. Painful it might be, but keeping it inside would only eat
away at that still small hope I clung so desperately to. It was time to
let it go.
"After we got out of the compound where they were holding her, we
headed for the ship...."
I glanced back, watching for any signs of pursuit from the
compound. None in sight. But it wouldn't be long before they followed.
Kerin gazed out at the countryside racing by. She hadn't spoken a
word since we left. I stole a nervous glance at her, but she looked away.
Why was she so angry?
Below, a narrow dirt road was braced by trees. The flitter raced
along, only a few feet above the treetops.
"Why did you bother?" Kerin finally looked at me.
"I didn't want you hurt. You know what they would have done to
you."
I shuddered, thinking of one of my brief encounters with her
`employers'. I'd nearly lost Steve that day, to a hail of armor-piercing
bullets. Their illegality didn't bother them. The government sanctioned
terrorists were only interested in results.
She looked ahead, no trace of emotion. "That's not it. That's
not it at all."
My face flushed red with embarrassment, and I looked down. She
knew me well enough to realize that much. After more than ten years, I
couldn't expect less.
"I'm sorry," I managed after a moment. I was silent after that,
watching the rural towns flash by. It was always so hard to talk to her
about anything other than the most trivial things. I'd always regretted
holding so many secrets from her, and had longed for a semblance of a
normal relationship. Love. But it never came to be.
Behind us, a menacing black chopper rose into view, closing
rapidly. Kerin looked back, fearful.
"Looks like we've got company. Keep your head down."
"Why should you care? You know who I am!" She nearly cried at
me.
"I've known since we met."
Her eyes widened. "...but you couldn't have..." she whispered.
The seconds ticked by. As the chopper grew closer, I could see her finally
realizing what I'd never been able to truly say. Her eyes shone, bright
with tears.
I looked at her again. "Now is not the time to discuss this. As
I see it, you have two choices. I can try to evade these clowns and hide
you somewhere where you'll be safe, or..."
I paused, looking away. I had always been so afraid of losing
her, I'd never been able to say what she meant to me.
"...or you can come with me." I finished.
She blinked in surprise. "Are you serious? Do you really care
about me that much?"
"I..." I stuttered, as always, unable to say it. I *am* in love
with you. No matter what happens...I can't lose you again.
I snapped my head around, as machine gun fire sounded from the
nearly forgotten chopper, almost on top of us. Even now, I couldn't help
letting my emotions cloud my judgment. I shoved Kerin down in the seat.
"Stay down!"
The flitter dashed forward and broke towards the sun, high in the
sky. In the distance, Blue Lightning came into sight, in the middle of a
large field laden with deep gouges and tracks from the recent presence of
heavy equipment. "They're still tailing us," I murmured, glancing back.
We crossed into North Dakota, less than five hundred miles from
the compound. They'd never known the prize they sought was so close. The
ship, my life's work, now only a few miles away.
Another chopper came into view in front of us, swinging out from
behind the swollen ship. "Shit! More trouble."
Kerin peeked above the dashboard, and her eyes widened at the
sight of it. "That's a...a..."
"Stay down! We've gotta make it to the ship!"
I pressed a button and spoke into a grille on the dash. "Steve,
open bay 5. Shut it right after we land."
"Gotcha."
The second chopper fired, grazing the hull of the flitter. The
ship dropped lower, finally slowing to just under 200 miles an hour.
I aimed for the opening door, as both choppers closed in.
Just before we entered, machine gun fire rained over us again, and
Kerin gasped in pain. On her chest and shoulder, two dark splotches were
rapidly spreading. She slumped back in the seat, her breathing shallow and
labored.
The bay door closed behind us, and I spun the flitter around,
nearly crashing into the rear wall. It finally settled to the deck, and
Steve rushed forward, alarmed.
I cradled Kerin in my arms, my face wet with tears, my arms wet
with her blood. I brushed a few brown locks aside, and her eyes fluttered
open momentarily, unable to focus.
"Damon?" She whispered faintly. "I'm s-sorry..."
I was paralyzed. I couldn't move, or talk. Even looking at her,
as she lay dying, I was still too shocked to react.
Her eyes closed slowly, as her breathing grew ragged. Yet
somehow, she spoke once more, for the last time. "Good-bye, Damon. I
l..." Then her eyes rolled back, and her body sagged.
I buried my face in her chest, the tears mingling with her
lifeblood. "Noo..."
And so it ended, with the one person I treasured more than
anything taken from me not a moment before I left Earth, never to return.
"....You know the rest already." A single tear dropped from my
cheek. I dabbed at it, wiping it away. "...so close," I whispered.
"Why?"
And there was only silence.
"Let's go," he said quietly.
I looked at Steve sidewise.
The infirmary door slid open in front of us. The humanoid was
sitting up on the medbed, his head now free of the device, a white bandage
in its place. The device itself rested on a small, wheeled table nearby.
John, standing next to the bed, gestured. "He'll be fine. But I
didn't try to take the wires out of his head that this thing was attached
to. Too much risk of brain damage."
He walked over, looking up at us. "You wanna know something? His
brain is almost *exactly* like ours, except for a small third lobe in the
back of his head."
Wait a second, another puzzle? I snapped out of my daze. "How
could he be that similar to us?"
"I gave Nick a skin scraping -- he'll take a look at his DNA.
Let's wait and see what he comes up with, mmm?"
I approached the bed and held out my hand, helping the humanoid to
his feet. "C'mon. I want to show you something."
Steve and I guided him from the stairway onto the bridge. Blue
Lightning was just beyond the edge of the moon, and the planet was in view.
The sea-dweller approached the viewscreen slowly, a wondering look
on his face.
As the other ship began edging out again, the humanoid's eyes
widened. He slowly touched his hand to the bandage.
He turned around, facing us. He pointed at his eyes...and the
ship, looking at it. "Look at the ship? I don't--"
"No, I think he means he's seen it before. Or maybe something
like it..." Jeff climbed off the ladder, plying his trade in linguistics.
The humanoid faced us again, as Blue Lightning moved back behind
the moon, safely hidden. He paused, then approached me, pointing at his
mouth...then at my ear...then at my mouth...then at his...ear? I nodded
quickly. "You're right. We have to find a way to communicate."
He slowly pointed at the bandage, then cupped his hand in the
shape of the device so recently removed.
"Are you saying...that was a translator?"
He pointed at the viewscreen again, then looked confused.
"It can translate their language?"
We faced each other silently. There were so many possibilities, I
thought. It was just beginning to hit me. A full-fledged contact with an
alien, sentient race, and a friendly one, at that. Learning from each
other was almost a given, and yet what else did the future hold for us?
The mystery beckoned.
I sat down at one of the consoles, and pressed and held the
intercom button. "John, think you could reattach that thing?"
Click. His voice floated out of the console. "Are you kidding?"
"No questions. Can you do it?" I could almost hear his
indecision...but his trust won out, finally. "I...think so..."
"Alright. Tomorrow then." I released the button. "Steve, go
find Jeremy. We're gonna need to get that thing fixed before we can put it
back on."
His concern was plainly visible. "Don't you think you should ask
*him* first before you go messing with his head?"
I glanced back at the humanoid. "I think he's already made that
decision."
"I want Jeremy to make another one, too." I said flatly.
Steve's eyes widened in shock, as he wheezed and coughed
repeatedly, trying to recover. "Are you *nuts*??"
"Not hardly. I'm gonna need one."
Steve looked even more surprised.
"If I'm right, that thing only works one way. You can understand
what's being spoken, but not speak the language yourself."
"Then how will that help?"
I returned with a knowing look. "I can start by using that voice
sample we recorded earlier."
He frowned. "How do you know that was their language?"
I looked back at the sea-dweller, who was watching us both
curiously. "What else could it have been? Besides, I played it for our
friend here, and he seemed to recognize it."
Steve looked glum. "You're crazier than I'd ever hope to be."
I smiled sadly. "It's not like I have a choice, do I?"
* Aliens
"It's not just a translator." Jeremy, sitting on a workbench,
turned to face the two of us.
"Come again?" asked Steve.
"It does a bit more than just translate." John held up the broken
translator. "When I x-rayed this guy's head, welll...those wires are going
to some very interesting places." He gave me a meaningful look. "Not only
does it send stuff to the conscious mind, to the lingual centres of the
brain, it also sends it to a very specific area of the subconscious." He
dropped it back on the table, puzzled. "It also ties into the optic nerve,
but I'll be damned if I know why. It's meant to act almost like a hypnotic
suggestion, except the person knows what's going on."
Ouch, I thought. "That's a rather nasty piece of work, then. So
you just don't connect up those wires, right?"
"Not quite that simple. The thing's delicately balanced to give
out just the right current, and not fry his brain."
Jeremy continued where John had left off. "I can shunt it to a
resistor, but it'll have to be outside the casing. If I put it inside, the
heat might damage the circuitry. Just don't get hit in the head, and
you'll be okay."
John shrugged at me, deadpan. "Otherwise, you'll have a major
headache to deal with."
Jeremy grinned. "So you wanted me to make another one, right?
I'll see what I can do." He picked up the translator again. "It'll
probably take a few days."
I nodded. "No problem. Now we head back."
Steve gave me an I've-had-enough look. I returned the favor. "We
need to get more samples of their language, Steve. And I want to find out
what they're doing here." I gestured at the ladder. "Seeing as how I
won't be able to find that out from *him*, we need to go back. Don't even
bother complaining." I smiled crookedly. "Besides, he might be getting a
bit lonely by now. A bit hungry, too. Let's go."
The humanoid stepped carefully down the ramp. Looking around, his
demeanor suddenly went from cautious to happy, almost glowing with joy. A
few, long strides to the edge of the cliff, and he jumped. Falling, as
Steve and I watched, tracing a perfect swan dive, he disappeared far into
the depths of the sea.
"Pretty strong. For a female."
"When'd you get that idea?" I frowned at him, then stared,
wondering, at the sea below.
"I wasn't sure for a while, but it makes sense. Don't tell me you
haven't noticed the way she acts."
I hadn't noticed anything, but apparently he had. I avoided his
eyes, almost blushing. He smiled. "Embarrassed?"
"A little, yes," I mumbled.
He gave me a friendly slap. "Och, dinna worry lad. We oll make
mistekes sometuymes."
I rubbed my back, and quirked a grin at him. "Hey!" He was built
pretty solidly, even if it didn't show on first glance. A little swing
like that hurt.
The sky brightened a little, and one by one the stars winked out.
I yawned loudly. "They'll probably be out during the day. We'll come
back tonight."
I cleared away a small, circular area by the cliff. "Here. We'll
make a sundial, and mark it for sunset. She'll figure it out."
The continent loomed ahead on the screen, dark and forbidding.
They most likely didn't go there, to keep isolated. But from what, I
wonder?
**********
The walls and floor were steel gray, and the light was stark and
painfully bright. Three creatures shuffled nervously through a low
doorway. Four feet high, blackish gray, thin, fur, six legs (arms?). The
mouths were rimmed with long, chitinous fingers, and filled with rows of
tiny, sharp teeth.
A grinding noise echoed through the room, as the creature with
black fur and brown underbelly rubbed his fingers against his teeth and
each other, in a complex, gyrating rhythm. "<Missing was one of workers
this morning, sir.>"
The gray one answered. "<Will search you? Needed are all workers
now. Progressing well until now is project. Find it you must.>"
The third, dark gray, turned away and emitted a breathy hiss.
"<Sure are you that injured it is? Escaped is possible for it?>"
"<Remove could not controller-device it. Injured it must be.
Search will I.>" The black one skitted to one side as the other two left,
stiffly marching down the long corridor.
The grinding noise subsided a bit. "<Hope to find it soon I do.
Would not be good if died it.>" His head hung low, slowly shaking from
side to side.
**********
I must tell the elders. My people...and my friends, are in great
danger.
Weya swam past the coral reef, deceptively calm. Fierce currents
threatened to dash her against the rocks, leaving her prey to the thousands
of kelpworms within.
She glided above the ridge, finding a safer current.
If only they will listen. I have been an outsider to them for too
long, preferring both land and sea, the solitude of the far and distant.
And yet...now, when I need their help most, will they aid me?
Ahead, a great, rocky protrusion came into view. Numerous
openings and cavelets dotted the rock face.
Home.
She swam toward one of the smaller openings, which shortly opened
out into a huge grotto. A dazzling array of crystalline formations covered
the walls, floor, and ceiling. Ordered chaos, a garden of unparalleled
beauty. And yet the haughty stench of calm immutability hung in the still
water.
The guards, she thought. Two of the younger, male sea-dwellers
swam towards her.
"-Why are you here, Weya?-" One of them spoke.
"-The elders will not be pleased with your presence.-"
She sighed inwardly. "-I must speak to at least one elder. I
would prefer that the circle meet.-"
The first snickered. "-That will not happen. Leave now.-"
"-Wait!-" She paused, gathering her thoughts. "-Our people are
being taken. Would you not know the reason?-"
"-You have found something?-" The other asked.
Weya looked away, distant. "-Much more than I can say now. The
circle should meet.-"
There was a long silence.
The first finally nodded, the distaste plainly evident on his
face. "-You are right, of course. This time, Weya. This time...-"
The two swam off, leaving her to wait. A matter of this
importance should surely provoke a response. They had to act...didn't
they?
Before long, she was escorted into a smaller chamber, nearly
identical to the first. The circle was waiting, long, sagging faces filled
with distaste.
The elders stared at her with narrowed eyes, full of loathing. "-
You would speak to us on this matter? Then speak.-"
She nodded. "-My people, something must be done. Our brothers
and sisters are being taken while they gather crops from the island. A
group of strange creatures which came in flying metal are forcing them to
build more of such metal for them.-"
The water was disturbed as feet and arms were swished in
displeasure. It was by far the easiest way to distort speech and brush off
any attempt to communicate, an incredibly crude gesture for the so-
civilized elders.
"-Listen, please! Other creatures, who look much like us but are
pale and soft, helped me.-"
The water grew cloudier.
"-They removed the thing controlling my mind. See the mark it
left!-" Weya turned her head, showing the First Speaker the purple splotch
near her ear membrane, a small, white circle of bone showing through at the
center. The bandage? Lost, somewhere in the sea.
"-Enough of this foolishness. We will listen no more. This is
another of your fables from above, Weya.-"
She faced the Third Speaker, the sharp jangling of anger plain in
her once melodic voice. "-Can you not see? Our brothers and sisters are
missing, truly. Is that a fable?-"
Low-pitched, dissonant whistling echoed harshly throughout the
chamber.
"-If what you say is true...-"
She faced the First Speaker again.
"-...we will simply not go to the island any more,-" he finished.
"-Your creatures can deal with each other.-"
"-What?? What of the people we have lost? What of them?-"
"-Nothing can be done. I have spoken. You may leave.-"
She was gently but firmly escorted from the settlement. Even the
guards were not afraid to jeer at her, to say nothing of the small crowd
that followed them from the council chambers.
Weya left the settlement behind, returning through the troubled
water near the reef.
I cannot go back, then, she thought. If they will not listen...
She approached the cliff, the beating of the waves upon the rocks
above growing louder. Emerging from the sea, she walked along a small path
leading up the cliff face, smiling a small, sad smile. The sun, high in
the sky, shone down upon her, and a cascade of light fell around the
seawater still clinging to her.
My new friends will help me. But is that enough?
An arm grabbed hold of her from above, hauling her onto the top of
the cliff. The sea-dweller looked forlornly at her, all the while gripping
her hand tightly. Another sea-dweller stood nearby.
Then she noticed the controllers they were wearing.
The black spider walked out from behind a small outcropping of
rock "<Safe you are! Glad am I to see you.>" He looked intently at her
head, noticing the wound. "<Have not your controller-device you? Most
strange this is.>"
Weya was slowly led away by the two sea-dwellers. The taller,
spoke. "-I'm...sorry, Weya.-"
I am alone.
* Captured!
The scoutcraft settled to the ground, disgorging its occupants.
I frowned, standing and looking towards the reddening sea. "She's
not here? Hmmm...odd."
Steve and I walked along the cliff, reaching the sundial. The
stick in the center was leaning slightly to one side, but otherwise intact
and untouched. I reset the stick.
"That's what I thought. We're a bit late. So is she."
"Wait a sec." I jogged back to the scoutcraft, and retrieved two
small elliptical pads, on the lower half of which were speaker grilles.
"Communicators," I said. "Since we'll be staying a while, we should have
'em along."
I held one out to Steve. "Just in case."
He pocketed it. "Thanks. You could've told me sooner, you know."
"C'mon. Time to do a little exploring. Did you bring that
digital recorder?"
"Why'd you bother?"
"Well, it's the best we've got, considering..." Considering the
floptical could only hold a half hour of audio, and the walkman could hold
up to eight. Yeah, I guess I didn't plan this very well, did I? I thought
at him.
Steve handed me the walkman.
I pressed the top edge of the communicator. "Anybody awake up
there?"
"Hullo." A sleepy voice replied.
"Ben! You're actually up at this time of night?" I could picture
him stumbling around the ship like a pouting ogre, and looking about as
offensive. At least, before he had his coffee.
"I needed *food*."
"Yeah, well...don't raid the icebox while I'm gone." I looked out
towards the sea. "How's Jeremy doing? Any progress?"
"Yeah, he-ahh, he had something to tell you," he stuttered. "Ho-
uh, hold on a minute."
I paced along the cliff edge, then stopped.
"Damon? I've come up with an idea you might like." Jeremy
sounded enthusiastic, as always.
"How about the translator?"
"It's coming. John says he can set up something that plugs into
your head, to let you *think* what you want to say to our friend over
there."
I nodded, intrigued. "Okay, how's it work?"
He mumbled a bit. "Well, your brainwaves get translated into that
grinding language, and transmitted over a microwave linkup. Then, the
translator gets it and puts it in terms our friend can understand. What do
you think?"
"How long?"
"A little under a week for what's his name's. Yours will take
longer."
I smiled at Steve. "Good luck, and thanks. Oh, by the way, it's
'she', not 'he'."
"Oh really? See you later."
I put away the communicator.
"Sounds like you got yourself a bargain."
"Who, Jeremy? He's into that kind of stuff." I glanced in the
general direction of the copse of trees.
"S'not what I meant. Your 'two-for-one' deal."
"Real funny...let's go." I hated his forced humor.
We made our way through a rather dense stand of the alien
greenery, finally reaching what looked for all the world (mine, anyway)
like a construction site. I peered out from behind a tree. Sea-dwellers,
and a few new, different creatures, were mulling about in a semi-ordered
fashion.
I frowned as Steve growled audibly. "Spiders..." It wouldn't be
quite accurate to say he was afraid of spiders. Rather, he was
arachnophobic. When he was living in Florida when we were younger, he had
a bad habit of actively seeking out any arachnid on the premises and taking
a gasohol-loaded supersoaker to it. I wasn't looking forward to dealing
with his reactions to these creatures, no matter their enslaving of the
sea-dwellers.
The sea-dwellers doing most of the heavy duty work, while the
spiders watched and fine tuned. A certain acquaintance was nowhere to be
seen.
"Well, shit in a bucket," I drolled. "These people have been
busy."
"Oh, quite." Steve smiled slightly.
"Don't start."
"What?" He grinned a bit more, managing to look annoyingly
ingratiating. I thought about saying "quit", but decided against it. It
would only encourage him. The `quite quaintly quiet' routine was getting
old.
"Good. What do you think they're building?"
"What're you asking me for? I'm just a bodyguard."
I frowned at him. "Seriously. Opinions?"
Steve looked at the site, flopping back against a tree. "The only
thing I can think of is some sort of mining machines, *maybe*." He pointed
to a rather unoccupied spot on the construction site. "Those drums over
there? I could be wrong, but those look like ore filters."
"What makes you say that?"
"If you dump the ore in through the top, those pistons would
pulverize it, and those electromagnets would grab the ore." He pointed to
and gestured at the appropriate places. "The shit gets dumped, and you can
turn off the magnets and dump the ore wherever you want it."
"Brilliant." Except magnets don't attract all that much. "Now,
how do they move 'em?"
"You got me."
I glanced around the site, then pointed at a far corner. "There,
you see those two crawlers? *That's* how they move 'em."
Suddenly, everybody stopped working. A three-creature wide line
formed, heading out of sight. The spiders made up the sparse third column,
closest to us.
"Quitting time. Chow and bunk," he said.
"My thoughts exactly. What say we make like a very discreet
shadow?"
Steve looked at me, grinning mischievously. "Your da boss, boss."
"Oh, shuddup. Twit."
And we *discreetly* followed the line. That is, except for
Steve's incessant prattling. "I am not a twit. Do not call me a twit.
I'm much more intelligent."
The line diverged. The spiders entered a huge shuttle, and the
sea-dwellers continued on towards what appeared to be a barracks.
Steve and I stayed hidden at the edge of the trees, watching the
disappearing procession. "Gotta be at least fifty of the locals here.
More, unless I miss my guess."
Steve paused in thought for a moment. "What could be so important
that they have to mine it here?"
"Wish I knew. Maybe we'll find out." I frowned. "Hope we don't
though. I wanna get those people out of there long before that."
"Slow down. We can wait an hour or so before we try anything."
I looked back in the direction we came from. "Right. Let's head
back to that construction site. Hope they don't post guards."
"Why should they?"
I glanced back at him. "Good point."
We returned to the site. And indeed, no guards were in sight. :-)
I hadn't really paid all that much attention to the site itself
before, but what I noticed this time made me more than a little suspicious.
We discovered an advanced ore smelter near the filters, self contained in a
medium sized drum and piping apparatus. Apparently, the ore was refined
right here, but there were no facilities that we could see to actually
shape the metal. What I'd thought was some sort of half finished building
was nothing of the kind, but merely a scaffolding network to hold some of
the tools and machines.
"They're mining it," I whispered.
"Huh?"
I glanced back at Steve. He'd been checking over one of the
crawlers, probing it for boobytraps, from his expression. "They're not
building something here, Steve. It's a mining operation."
He simply shrugged.
I walked over, craning my neck to get a better view of the crawler
he was exploring. It was almost seven feet from the tracks to the driver's
seat.
I gestured crudely. "Would you give me a hand? I want a look at
this in case we need to use it."
"Fine. Watch it..." Steve grunted as I put my weight on his
shoulder, clambering over the edge.
"Great! It figures." I muttered.
"What??" He shouted up, alarmed.
"The controls are built for spiders. Naturally..."
I puzzled over the mechanism. "These holes are deep. Can't reach
the end with my fingers. With my luck, they probably have some sort of
manipulators in them, too..."
"Just as long as we don't need to borrow a spider to drive one."
I smiled down at him. "I wouldn't bet on it. All right. We'll
bring the laser next time and cut the tracks."
"Don't you think you'd better find out a little more of what's
going on before you do that?"
"Seems pretty clear-cut to me."
He gave me an unpleasant look. "Don't judge by what you see.
Find out."
I sighed. "Get me outta here, will you?"
"Sure."
Inside the barracks, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the gloom.
All around, sea-dwellers were lying in various positions on the ground.
There was no floor. A pair of lone eyes gleamed in the darkness,
reflecting the faint light from the doorway. I looked back and gestured,
whispering. "Steve..."
I approached the eyes. But it wasn't her.
A soft, fluted tone sounded from around his throat, from what I'd
at first thought were only gills. "Weya?"
"Sorry, I don't understand."
He pointed at Steve. "Ssele." He gestured at me, then beside me.
"Weya?"
"I think he means *her*."
I shook my head slowly.
He pointed towards the doorway, at the spiders' ship. "Weya." I
took his hand. "Can you show us where she is?"
He slowly took it back, and I let go. He tapped the 'translator'
on the side of his head twice.
"I'll be back for you then. All of you."
A few more eyes shone brightly in the darkness, watching us.
"Let's head back for the ship. We're gonna need...uh-oh."
*Very* rapidly, two spiders appeared in the doorway and grabbed
both us, though gently. Steve turned pale, much more so than usual, almost
choking for air.
I felt around in my pocket, and pressed the communicator.
"Whoever's around up there, we've been captured."
"Say again?" Jeremy's tinny voice sounded in the still air. "I
can barely hear you."
"We've been *captured*. Hurry up with that stuff. We're gonna
need it."
Point of View
I tapped the barrier lightly. It gave a little. Not glass, and
it had a bit of a metallic sheen. Beyond, I could see a few other cells
across the corridor.
Steve wasn't in good shape. Pale, knuckles white, and clutching
the floor. "Will you be okay?"
He coughed, clearing his throat. "No. Sorry, I just can't
control that," he rasped.
"I know how you feel. For now, let's get some sleep."
"We'll need it," I whispered.
Meanwhile on Blue Lightning...
The park was a little crowded this particular evening.
"Sorry to wake everybody up, but Damon's in trouble. I think the
aliens from that ship orbiting the planet have him and Steve," Jeremy
began.
Ben shrugged. "So what are we s'posed to do about it?"
"I'll get to that. I came up with an idea for a 'telepathic'
implant."
John quirked an eyebrow at that.
"Whoever is wearing one can just *think* what he wants to say, and
someone else wearing one will 'hear' him."
"Neat, but how will that help?" said Jeff. "I don't think we're
gonna convince one of the aliens to wear one."
"You'd have to hot-wire the alien's brain, too. Difficult." John
stonefaced it as usual.
"That wasn't what it was for in the first place. The native was
going to get one, along with Damon. Originally, we could have found out
what was going on straight from her."
Jeremy paused, looking at the crew. They weren't taking things
very seriously, he thought. They were so inured to friends disappearing
and human suffering that this just wasn't getting through to them. Oh,
they might have a chance of getting back to earth without him, that much he
knew. But chances were a thousand percent better with Damon than without
him.
He finally continued. "I don't know what he has in mind for that
now. But on the other hand, we still have the translator. If I can get
one to him, he'll be able to understand these aliens, maybe find a way to
communicate."
"And?" Eric gazed at him expectantly, his spare frame leaning
against the tree.
"I'm guessing he hopes it'll work out from there." Jeremy
finished lamely.
"If it doesn't? Where's that leave us?"
Jeremy sighed. At least they were beginning to realize the hole
they'd dug themselves into. "It had better work, and soon. I doubt they
know what Damon and Steve eat."
"Sounds...like it could be a problem," Ben said.
"I need volunteers. We've got to finish his translator and the
two 'telepathy' burets in two days."
"You kidding?" Jeff shook his head. "Why two days, anyway?"
"That's about as long as they can hold out without food or water."
He faced Ben. "Ben, how're you with electronics?"
He shrugged. "Okay, I guess."
"Fine. I'll give you a crash course in microelectronics in a
minute." He turned to Eric. "Eric, you're pretty good at programming,
right?"
He bobbed his head, and thick, blond curls of hair flopped
forward. "You could say that."
"You're doing the AI for Damon's 'telepathy' buret, then."
"A buret?"
"Goes around the back of your neck." John drew an imaginary line.
"Geordi in reverse."
"Eyes in the back of your head. Cool." He grinned impishly.
Jeremy looked around the room. "Anyone else?"
"I'm working on copying what's her face's brainwave patterns from
the translator over to the buret."
"Great, John. Jeff?"
"I can cook da food." He grinned toothily.
Jeremy chuckled. Fine then, he thought. They didn't have to take
it seriously, as long as everyone cooperated. "Thanks. Ben and Eric?"
The crew separated, going about their assigned tasks.
In the electronics lab, Jeremy motioned Ben onto the workbench,
putting a tiny circuitboard into what looked like a microfiche viewer.
"This should be fairly easy. I've got the parts list right here,
and the circuit diagram." He pointed at a nearby wall. "The parts are in
the bins. Be careful with them. Just put them in the manipulator here,
and solder them in with the trackball."
"Looks simple enough." Ben was a physicist, but he'd dabbled in
computers and electronics.
He turned to leave the lab, and Eric followed. "All right then.
Now it's your turn."
A short jog down the corridor later found Eric sitting down in
front of the mainframe screen in the computer center.
"I need an AI routine that will translate Damon's brainwaves into
the grinding language. You can get the brainwave data from John, and the
info on the grinding language from Jeff."
Ben shrugged. "I can do that. What about you?"
"I'll be working on the buret itself," Jeremy replied.
"Good luck." he said, and left.
**********
The spiders had to physically carry Weya to her cell.
It was too much, she thought. This time, leave me to die.
Her fall from the cliff had been no accident. The spiders'
arrival and claiming of her had been the final blow, and she no longer had
the strength to live.
The cell door slid closed, leaving her alone with Black. He waved
a foreleg at her. "Well now are you? Worried was I."
She looked down at the floor, forlorn. They had generously
provided her with another translator, but she wasn't in the mood for
conversation.
"Wrong, is there? Have been sad for two days you." Black shifted
nervously. "Strange this is. These recent, disturbing events."
Weya looked up a little. Something else had happened?
"Found different, pale creatures we. With our other sea-dwellers--"
Black continued, unnoticing.
Her head snapped up. "No..." (not that Black could understand
her)
He looked mildly surprised, waving his fingers about momentarily.
"Talk you? Have not done that before." Weya had been seemingly quite
stubborn, to Black. She'd simply never had anything to say, and no reason
to overcome her depression enough to talk.
Weya gestured frantically at the barrier. Perhaps... He wouldn't
understand what she was distressed about, but if she could manage the
barrier...
"Quite intelligent are you. Tell this to &(click)(click) I must."
The translator refused to interpret the name.
He approached the barrier, and it flew up through the ceiling of
its own accord.
Before he could act, Weya shot past him, running down the
corridor. She skidded to a halt outside one cell, and started banging on
its barrier.
The spiders had tried talking to the two of us. The simple
gestures and cautious movements did little for Steve's condition, however.
He'd finally snapped when one of them had brushed past him, and he'd lashed
out. The spider was unharmed, but we were quickly and unceremoniously
escorted back to our cells.
"I guess they understand the sea-dwellers better than they do us.
I'd have thought they would have given us our own `translators', if they
could."
Steve grunted, trying to sleep.
Fifteen minutes later, a dull thumping rudely awakened him.
I had been sitting on the floor, but quickly bolted to my feet.
Steve rolled over from where he had been lying down, and stood up.
"Weya!" I shouted happily. Then a familiar grinding noise
sounded, muffled, through the barrier.
Weya stopped banging, lowering her arms slowly, and hung her head.
"Weya, what's wrong?"
A blackish colored spider appeared behind her, and Steve started
looking a tad green.
"Uh oh." I pointed. "She's got another translator."
Black rumbled at Weya, gesturing. She looked away.
I knocked on the barrier, and the two of them looked at me. I
jerked my thumb upward repeatedly. Come on, understand...but Black just
blinked at me uncomprehendingly. I slowly moved my hands up along the
barrier.
Black finally activated the barrier, and I rushed forward. Steve
took a couple of steps backward, his eyes shouting out his unreasoning
fear.
She slowly returned the hug.
"Thank *god* you're all right!"
The creature wrapped its arms around her, seeking comfort. Weya
had none to give, but returned the gesture, hoping it would be enough.
"<Most strange this is,>" Black muttered to himself.
"<Will bring him you,>" Black decided finally. "<Will follow
me.>"
The barrier closed. She separated from the creature, and she took
it by the hand, walking down the corridor together.
They entered a stark room through a low doorway. The gray spider
was waiting.
"<Has happened again. Has been found another.>"
The black spider scratched his fingers together, ending with a
painful screech, then headed off down the corridor. Weya and I followed,
hand in hand, into a bare room where another spider was waiting.
John was momentarily escorted into the room, a large suitcase
handcuffed to his wrist. He started walking towards me, but the gray
spider moved to stop him.
He shoved Gray out of the way with amazing strength for a 5'2"
guy, and walked over. Gray skittered across the room, bouncing off of the
far wall.
"That was fast."
"I only hope it works. Two days for development and bug testing
doesn't leave a lot of room for mistakes."
"So how will you install them?" I asked.
John sat down, opening his suitcase. Inside was a fantastic array
of medical equipment. Blue Lightning's standard medical kit.
He took out a rather bulky, semicircular device, looking at it.
"I brought a portable x-ray machine, but the power is limited. It won't
last more than 30 minutes, tops, without time to recharge."
"How long will it take to install the translator and the other
thing?"
He looked at me, quirking an eyebrow. "For you, just under 20
minutes. I see our local's got a replacement translator already, so we can
just make it in time."
I laid down, and John put the x-ray machine over my head.
"Anesthetic, doctor?"
A clunk just above the ear with an iron mallet from his box of
tricks, and Damon went instantly unconscious. Serves him right, John
thought to himself. He always found a way to let a body know if he wasn't
happy. Sometimes that unique sense of humor might even get physically
painful. In Damon's case, he'd been stupid enough to get himself captured,
and involve the rest of the crew in his problems. John wasn't about to
forgive him for it, yet.
As the spiders looked on, John slowly inserted the wires and
sockets into Damon's skull, and then Weya's, being slightly more gentle
with the 'anesthetic' with Weya.
A couple of slaps to my cheek, and I woke up. John shook Weya
awake. "Y'all ready to face the music?" he drawled in a fake southern
accent. "Let's dance."
I looked at Weya. "Are you ready?"
After a moment, she nodded slowly. John handed me a translator
and buret.
I snapped them into place, and John put on Weya's. I smiled.
"Great. Entering the cybernet, by Dr. John Vost. I tell ya doc, I..."
...a faint whisper, in the back of my mind... My expression
blanked for a second, and I looked up at Weya in wonderment, almost
disbelief. "Weya??..." She was...
She was looking very carefully at me. A tear trickled down my
cheek.
"Weya, I never imagined...no...no, please."
The pain. I'd buried it deep, but somehow she'd found it.
"Don't make me...remember..."
* Memories
Various scenes played themselves out in my mind. They were
fragmented, but anything but disjointed. And it was a very sad tale they
told...
-It's been almost a year now, and I still remember it clearly.-
An image of Weya, sitting on the cliff with her legs
dangling over the edge, looking quite forlorn. The sun was
fairly low in the sky.
-Life has been very unkind, for it stole from me the one I
loved.-
Youth. Small, fragile, and beautiful, yet always sad.
Four others were chasing her, reaching out with stiffly
rippling kelpworms.
-Since my youth, I have been an outcast, despised by the other
children.-
Not quite fast enough, one kelpworm came within striking
distance. She screamed.
She cowered before two adult sea-dwellers.
"-Why do you taunt our children? You will be punished for this.-"
-Even by the adults.-
Solitude embraced her, and she sought refuge and
comfort in it. The crashing roar grew louder, as she neared
the forbidden land.
-Is it any wonder that I preferred the solitude of the open sea
and the continent?-
She emerged from the water. Just beyond the beach, a
dark, haunting forest was visible. Large, black shapes
rustled through the trees, never clearly seen. Angry eyes
leered out at her, waiting for her to come closer.
-For all its danger, there was the wonder, the joy of seeing
something new and different.-
She walked along the shore, leaving the shapes behind.
The forest began to thin out a little.
-I never understood my fascination with the land, but I always
knew I could find peace there.-
The last of the trees fell away, and Weya stood before
a vast, windswept prairie of tall, wild grasses. In the
distance, a mountain range beckoned. The air around it
rippled, as if by great heat or intense cold.
-This land held many mysteries. I have only seen the barest hint
of what is there, waiting to be discovered.-
She entered the tall grass. A small, dark opening now
lay at her feet. She crouched down at it, looking inside.
-Some time ago, I found something that terrified me greatly.-
She was inside the dark cavern. In the dim,
flickering light from the opening, many shapes were visible,
lying on the floor. Most of them looked vaguely humanoid.
A few were unidentifiable, being too crumbled to make out.
One however, was barely intact enough to be recognizable as
the fossilized remains of one of the spiders.
-Long, long ago, a terrible catastrophe occurred. What happened I
will never know.-
She bent down, touching one of the humanoid figures,
curious, yet still fearful. Closer inspection revealed it
to be the fossilized remains of a sea-dweller.
-This rock is very ancient. What could have killed them, I
wonder? Why are they all here together?-
She walked towards the far end of the cavern. A
metallic glint, but otherwise, it was too dark to see.
-I had many more questions, but the mystery only deepened,
especially after I found...-
Weya was facing a large boulder, one side of which had
been crushed by a recent cave in. Inside, barely visible in
the faint light, was a metallic canister, a jagged crack near
its bottom.
-...this. I still do not know what it is, but something about it
frightens me more than I can bear.-
She turned to face the fossils, and the opening.
Sadness.
-Why do I always come here? I have never told the others of its
existence. What is it that draws me to it so?-
She stood on the beach again, holding her head high.
Behind her, the mountains rose up into the sky. The ocean
waves rippled at her feet.
The grotto, where the world itself showed its truest
beauty. Only a few sea-dwellers were present, but all were
joyous on this day. Weya and Uris, her husband, floated in
the center, hands clasped.
-For one brief moment, was I truly happy. Uris had always been
the only one who had ever been kind to me.
They embraced, and the ceremony ended. Two lives had become one.
They swam away, and the water around them sparkled, refracting the
light of the sun high overhead.
-I only wish that moment would have lasted forever.-
Terror, and loss. A six-tentacled creature rushed
towards the rocky home of the sea-dwellers. The tentacles,
I realized, bore a remarkable resemblance to the fingers of
the spiders. They beat the water, pulsating like a squid's,
drawing ever closer.
-Alas, that was not to be.-
Four sea-dwellers swam past the creature, trying to
attract its attention. It made an angry grab, but they slipped
away. It followed them, and they swam out to the open sea,
towards the nether depths where the creature normally roamed.
Rapidly, it closed. Nearer now, it grabbed again,
narrowly missing.
-In an instant...-
Again, a tentacle shot out, this time wrapping itself
around the unlucky sea-dweller. A second tentacle secured its
grasp even as the sea-dweller squirmed.
-...my joy turned to sorrow...-
Uris screamed. And was silenced, suddenly, by a
sickening crunch.
-...for the Kraken took my beloved from me.-
Again, she was sitting on the cliff. The sun was much
lower now, almost touching the horizon. A drab, grayish black
ocean laughed below, silently mocking.
-This sorrow is buried deeply in my heart. Is there happiness in
the world? I cannot find it. Is there sadness? It is ever with me, a
kelpworm stinging my side.-
Suddenly, she twisted around, looking up at something. Her
concern was evident.
-But there was to be a new horror in my life.-
The spiders' shuttle descended from the sky, heading towards the
further parts of the island. A low rumble grew louder, and the shuttle
settled to the ground, disappearing beyond the trees. Weya, in a purely
human gesture of surprise, put her hand to her open mouth.
-That was when the spiders came.-
**********
The scenes changed, and filled with memories of my own.
Carnegie Mellon, where I went to college. Several
variegated buildings were sprawled up and down a steep hill,
reaching five stories high against one.
-I can still remember when we first met.-
Highlander Cafe, one of the campus cafeterias. It was
some mealtime or other, and the serving area was crowded with
students.
-Seems a bit of a silly way to introduce herself, now that I think
about it.-
I was wiping the counter next to the sink in the front dining
room, slightly hunched over.
"Excuse me..."
-But it was effective. I didn't realize it was her until a bit
later.-
"Excuse me..."
I looked up, realizing the girl was talking to me. "Yes? Can I
help you?"
It was Kerin, much younger. Her hair was tied in the back, then,
and was hanging down. She was smiling just so.
I straightened up.
"Do you have any teabags?"
"Sure. Just a sec."
I opened a cabinet under the counter and pulled out a box of the
regular teabags.
She frowned slightly. "Umm...how about herb tea?"
I looked back at the cabinet, scratching at my hair uncomfortably.
"We have that too. Raspberry, Earl Gray, Lemon, Mint--"
"I'll have lemon, thank you." She smiled again.
I pulled out another box and handed her a teabag, avoiding looking
at her as much as I could.
"Thanks."
"Sure." I put the box back and closed the cabinet. I looked
back, and she was still standing there.
"Was there something else?"
"Oh. No, thank you."
She took a teacup and filled it with hot water. I started wiping
the counter again, just a bit nervous. I watched her as she walked away,
tray and teacup in hand.
-Well, at the time, I *was* feeling a bit lonely. That was the
truth to begin with.-
Doherty hall, near the entrance. Even back then, the
sprawling building looked ancient. Students were walking by.
-I didn't see her again for a couple of days. I had almost
forgotten, but...-
She bounced down the hallway, her hair swinging back and forth,
stopping next to the water fountain where she'd apparently noticed me
taking a drink. "Oh, hi. You go here, too?"
"Yes..." I managed.
"But I thought...I mean, I've seen you at Highlander almost every
day this week."
I fidgeted. "Well...I, have rent to afford and bills to pay."
"Must be difficult."
"Somewhat."
She started to walk away, then looked back. "See you later,
then."
"Bye."
-It was then that I realized what had happened.-
A moment later, Kerin was no longer in sight. I, however, was
still standing there.
-This was going to be more difficult than I thought.-
In front of Warner hall, the main administrative building,
next to the cut: a long stretch of grass with nothing but the
occasional sidewalk to obscure the view.
I was on my way home.
"Hi!" She smiled as I looked up. I had a bad habit of staring at
the sidewalk in front of me all the time.
She must have been coming *from* home. We passed on the steps,
next to the street.
"Again. See you!" I waved.
-We saw a lot of each other after that, I knew what was going on,
and still, I felt happier than I had been in a while.-
"Wait a minute." She stopped.
"Hmm?"
"Are you working tonight?"
"Huh?" I slipped, barely keeping my balance, landing on the next
step down. "No..." She'd managed to take me completely by surprise. I
still wasn't really ready for a girl who actually took interest in me, even
though I knew Kerin had ulterior motives.
She smiled. "Great! How about dinner?"
I chuckled. "That's...different."
"Oh, uhh..." This time, it was her who was at a bit of a loss.
I shook my head. "No no, that's fine! How about lasagna?"
"Sounds good. Where shall we go?"
"My place."
She looked a bit confused. "Are we ordering out?"
"No, I'm cooking it." Maybe I was showing off a little, but I
wanted the chance to talk in private.
She smiled again. "Terrific! What time?"
"Six."
"Fine."
"Right inside the front of Cyert Hall." I pointed to the next
building down the street. "I'll walk you to my apartment from there. It's
only a few minutes away."
She waved, and started up the steps again. "All right, I'll see
you then."
I walked down the steps leading to the street, with a smile on my
face.
-Terrific, indeed. As long as I didn't get carried away. Of
course, that didn't seem to matter as much anymore.-
-Over the next few years until I graduated, nothing much happened.
I 'leaked' tidbits, but nothing important. After all, antigravity and time
travel? What would *you* think? Meanwhile, I never did find out just
which agency was keeping an eye on me. Well, except that it wasn't the
BATF. They weren't the subtle type.-
-After I finally graduated, we still kept in touch. But I wasn't
to see her again until a year later, when I started Blue Lightning,
Incorporated.-
* Communication
Weya and I removed the telepathy burets, and the memories faded
away like a half remembered dream.
I shook my head in wonder, staring at her. "I'm not sure what to
say."
John quirked an eyebrow. "You could at least say, 'Thank you'."
I smirked. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"But...that...." I stuttered. "Images, sounds, feelings. They
all flashed past so quickly..." How could I even begin to explain what I'd
seen?
I looked at Weya. "In the span of a few seconds, I've just
relived both Weya's and my lifetimes. It was absolutely incredible."
I sighed. "I can tell you this much, though. That wasn't
filtered through the spiders' language, it was pure thought." Not unless
Jeremy and John pulled off a miracle, anyway. Perfect, 100% accurate
translation. "I wonder how she did it..."
John gave me a look. "Well, don't leave me in the dark. What's
going on?"
I shrugged. "I don't think she knows."
"Now that *really* helps," he grumbled.
"Well, I remember them building most of those machines over at the
construction site, but not much else. Except..."
"What?" He looked at me.
"It was something one of the spiders said, near her. 'It must
never happen again'. It doesn't make any sense."
"You're right, it doesn't. Now make yourself useful. Get that
food back they took from me."
I pointed at the translator. "You know this only works one way."
"So? You're good at talking with your hands. Now's the time."
John was being pedantic, as usual. "Thanks. But I don't think
that's gonna work."
He glared at me, exasperated. "What else can we do? Steve's
probably a vegetable by now, his arachnophobia and all. We can't stay
here. Do something."
He was beginning to get on my nerves. "Look I appreciate--"
"Damon."
Huh? She...spoke??
Weya pointed at her buret, then at me.
I replaced my buret.
-Damon, listen to me. Whatever we do, we need to do it together.
The spiders never realized we were intelligent. We have to prove them
wrong.- Her lilting, musical voice echoed softly in my head. She had
picked up almost perfect English instantly.
So...that was it. -Okay, I have an idea.-
She nodded, understanding. -It *might* work. Shall we try?-
I stood up. "John, come on. Let's go."
You sure they'll let us leave?" He closed his suitcase.
"Of course. They're coming with us."
His jaw dropped about three stories. "W-H-A-T??"
I chuckled. "Finally got a reaction out of you. Come on."
The spiders, naturally, tried to stop us, but were more curious
than anything else. They followed us down the corridor, and Steve joined
the parade reluctantly.
-Weya, we'll work this out together. I promise you that.-
She smiled. Or tried, rather. It came out rather well, all
things considered.
The two scoutcraft flew into the sky.
Getting from the scoutcraft bay to the bridge was something of an
adventure. "Good thing I bothered to put stairs in here." I said to no
one in particular, smiling.
Jeff gaped. "Houseguests?"
I shrugged. "You could say that." I was sure Jeff wouldn't mind,
though. He enjoyed being around people, even if these happened to look
like overgrown tarantulas.
Weya sat down at the nav console, tapping experimentally at the
controls, while the spiders huddled together nervously.
I stared at her. "Wait a second. Just how much did you get from
me?"
-Everything.-
I frowned. -Strange. I saw only bits and pieces.-
-I'm sorry about your husband.- I thought to her.
She looked away. -Don't be. He died saving the entire village.
That means something, doesn't it?-
"I guess it does. But it still hurts, down deep. It still
hurts..."
Jeff looked at me curiously. "Did I miss something?"
"It's personal. Do me a favor, will you Jeff? Tell Jeremy I'll
need two voders ASAP."
"Okay." He headed for the ladder.
One way communication wasn't going to work. Since the translators
could theoretically work both ways, all we needed was an electronic
voicebox. A voder.
I looked back at the viewscreen. The planet looked a little
closer.
-Weya, what are you doing?-
-Putting the ship into orbit. When we return our guests, we'll
take them directly to their ship. That way, we'll get the same tour you're
about to give Krrlik and Uyykevk.-
I smiled. -How'd you guess?-
The tour was uneventful, which was remarkable in itself
considering it was an interspecies contact. There wasn't all that much to
show, really. The scoutcraft bays they'd seen already, as well as the park
and the ship's garden. We settled for touring the infirmary and the
computer mainframe room, pretty much.
The tour ended two hours later, back in the park, where Jeremy
greeted us with the promised voders.
Weya chuckled at the halfhearted imitation of nature, her voice
tinkling like a gentle rain. -Nice atmosphere, for a spaceship.- She sat
down, hanging her feet in the brook.
I smiled. -Thanks.-
"You two ready?" asked Jeremy.
"Plug us in."
The two spiders looked on curiously, while he handed out his high
tech presents.
"I'm acquiring a headful," I grumbled in mock annoyance.
"That's not my fault." He smiled.
The grinding noise filled the air.
Finally, communication took place. We explained without having
to explain that we were more intelligent than they had first surmised, and
not the 'smart monkeys' they'd expected. Why had they expected that? They
would only give me the "long story" excuse.
"<You probably realize now that all you had to do was ask them.
They would have helped you voluntarily, I'm sure, if it was that
important.>"
"<Realize that we do, yes. Changes nothing. Must still be
repaired our ship.>"
I noticed almost immediately that the translator wasn't perfect.
It did translate the words well enough, but not the grammar or syntax.
Black chimed in. Or rather, Krrlik. Old habits don't die easily.
"<Have lost many who slept. Will die more if hurry we do not.>"
"<I can volunteer my crew. With their technological know-how and
the iron you're about to mine from the surface-->"
"<--we can repair your ship a lot sooner.>" Weya smiled, looking
at me.
"<Grateful are we. Sorry are we to have caused pain to you.>"
"<Let's not worry about that now. What's done is done. Let's
save your people.>"
We'd had enough misunderstandings for one day. I took out my
communicator. "Jeremy, we need some more help. Sorry to bother you again,
but this is gonna be a big job."
It didn't take more than two days after the iron was mined to
repair their ship. Fortunately, there were no more casualties in their
hibernation units.
A new era was beginning. Peace, even cooperation between the
spiders and the sea-dwellers, had finally come to pass.
Very fortunate, since they both originally came from the same
world.
* Discovery
Nick flipped on the projector. The screen lit up, showing pairs
of strands of greyish-black material, speckled with whitish stripes.
Weya's and the spiders' DNA -- Nick's current genetic project.
"That's right, a 97% match. There's your theory."
"I was pretty certain to begin with. That fossilized spider
couldn't have gotten there any other way."
I shrugged. "Just out of curiosity, how do we compare?"
"With humans, there's about an 80% correlation. Still fairly
impressive."
I nodded. "I'd say."
I looked at Weya, who was sitting uncomfortably in a chair,
looking disinterested at what was very likely a remarkable discovery.
-What say we take a look at that cave, Weya? I'd like to get a look at
those myself.-
She sighed. -If that's what you want.-
"Nick, have Eric meet me in bay four in 20 minutes, okay?" I had
a feeling a little geology wouldn't be out of the question.
"No problem. Mind if I come along?"
"Sure. Join the party."
Weya took much greater interest once the scoutcraft neared the
planet. She marveled at seeing the planet from space, and drawing closer
and closer to it, diving through the atmosphere. She giggled contentedly
as we flew through cloud bank after cloud bank, and then directed us out
over the sea to watch the local sea life swim and dart about, just under
the surface. For her, it was one thing to see it as part of my memories.
It was something entirely different to explore her world from above,
herself. It was heartening to watch her.
It was almost three hours later before the scoutcraft settled onto
the beach, next to the prairie, and the four of us walked out.
-Lead the way, Weya.-
The grass came up to our waists, making wading through it a bit
difficult. Shortly, we reached the dark opening I remembered from Weya's
memories.
-I'll go first. Hold the light for me to see.- I repeated it
aloud.
I gestured to Nick. He held up a softly glowing rod, and Weya
carefully crept down the unsteady rocks.
-This is it.- She gestured at the cavern before us.
I stood next to her, while Eric made his way down.
-Not a pretty sight.- I thought, looking at the fossil.
"Eric, get a sample of this. I'd like to see how old it is."
He slipped, landed on the floor, then caught the light that Nick
dropped and walked over. "You're not gonna be able to date it that way.
Carbon 14 dating only works for much more recent stuff. The way it's
crumbing, I can tell it's way too old."
I grimaced. "Suggestions, then?"
"There might be other radioactive trace elements in the fossil,
but I can't guarantee it. That's the easy way."
"Should I ask?" I had a feeling this *wasn't* going to be easy.
"We look for traces of radioactivity in this strata, and date the
fossil from those," he said.
"Damn. All right, let's get some help here. Steve, you
available?" I spoke the last into the communicator.
Click. "Not another problem, I hope."
"Not this time. You get to date a fossil."
"Beth would not appreciate that." He growled.
I smiled. "Oh, I don't know. I think it looks kinda cute."
Steve sighed. "All right, I'll be down in a few minutes."
I put away the communicator, gesturing. "Eric, bring that light
over here."
We gathered around the broken canister. "Hmmm. This must be what
killed them. Wonder what it was."
"Your guess is as good as mine," said Eric, shrugging.
"But not his. Nick, we'll load this up and ship it back to your
lab. You and John should be able to come up with something on it."
"I'll see what I can do." He said.
"Good. Weya and I will take a look around the area. You guys can
work on this problem."
Beep, went the communicator. I pulled it out and pressed it.
"All right, I'm here," Steve's voice grumbled. "Where's the date?"
"I've got your dead spider right here."
I could hear him clenching his teeth. "I hate you, Damon."
**********
I had an idea that that wasn't the only remnant of the
catastrophe, so long ago. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I
needed more to work with.
For hours, Weya and I flew onward, covering great sweeps of the
continent in the scoutcraft. We might have passed it, for all we knew--
buried in the forest, or long rusted away. Weya, for her part, was excited
at the prospect of exploring.
We were expecting something a little more spectacular, but...
Something glinted in the distance. Weya saw it first, and
pointed.
The something turned out to be the rusting structure of what was
once a small building. At least that *was* something.
-Not much to look at.- I thought, bringing the flitter up to a
small rise overlooking the ruins.
Weya glanced at me. -Its existence tells us a lot. They must
have built this solidly.-
The foundation was overgrown with weeds, and rubble covered the
area. We stepped carefully around a few fallen girders.
I stumbled over something in the undergrowth. Ouch! Well,
tripping over it was one way to find it. I tugged on the rusty handle of
the trapdoor, but it wouldn't budge. -Weya, over here.- I beckoned.
-What is it?-
I pointed. -It's stuck. Can you lend a hand?-
With an agonizing creak, the trapdoor slowly opened. I got a
funny feeling that I wasn't the one doing most of the work.
Below, a metal stairway descended into the darkness. The stairs,
amazingly enough, showed little sign of rust.
Somewhere below, a room slowly brightened, and we stopped. -Now
this is really odd. Still power, even after centuries.-
Weya wandered into the room. Huge computer banks lined the walls.
Chairs? If that's what they were, were spaced along at even intervals.
After a moment, I realized with a shock that some were still occupied.
Weya touched one. The spider crumbled away into dust.
-This must have been a research center of some kind.- I thought
to her. -Nearly airtight, but they still died.-
I shrugged sadly. -Luckily, your people survived this, somehow.-
I sighed. -But there has to be something here!-
-I think there is. This bank still has power.- She gestured.
-What?-
A few, dim lights blinked on the console. -You're right. I can't
read anything, though. We'll tell the spiders about it later, then.-
At the end of the hall, a steel door blocked the way. -Locked.
That's it then.- I motioned to her. -Let's go.-
Outside, a low growl sounded.
-Uh oh.-
The catlike creature crept closer. Large, almost six feet long,
with a ring of ribbed, greenish bone around its neck. Its feet, taloned
like a hawk's, flexed in anticipation.
-Climb down that stairway again, very slowly.-
She gave me a worried glance. -What are you going to do?-
It didn't waste any time. Less than six feet away, it hissed with
the satisfaction only a predator could know.
-I'll be right behind you.- I thought.
The creature didn't wait. It leaped.
-Run!- I dived for the stairs, but too late. Claws dug into my
neck, tearing. I slumped dizzily, faint under the searing pain.
Suddenly, an ear-shattering squeal pierced the air, and the
creature fell away, cringing. My voder, in pieces, dropped beside it. And
the trapdoor fell into place above us.
Safe.
She looked at me, her mouth wide with what I recognized as near-
shock. -It had you back there. You could have been killed.-
-I was lucky.- I replied lamely.
She hugged me tightly, nearly crying. -Don't ever frighten me
like that again.-
I nodded slowly. -I promise.- And then I was silent.
She'd almost forgotten what it was like to care about someone, I
knew. So had I. The pain had buried it deep, but somehow she'd found it.
**********
It was time to get some answers from the spiders. What had
happened on the planet below us, so long ago?
The scoutcraft entered an octagonal portal in the spiders' sleeper
ship, which promptly slid closed. Weya and I were greeted by two of the
spiders upon our arrival, and escorted into a low room.
"<Uyykevk!>" my new voder squealed, as we walked down the
corridor. "<Nice to see you again. And this is?>"
"<Hkkex this is. Pleased am I that here are you. Our thanks we
give again, Weya.>"
I gathered myself together. "<Uyykevk, we have a few questions
we'd like to ask.>"
"<About Great Death, yes. Tell you we will.>"
"<Long is story. Will take some time to tell.>" Hkkex ventured.
I nodded. "<Go ahead, Hkkex.>"
"<Then our story this is.>" He began.
* Long Goodbye
"One last job. Then you get a well-deserved vacation." I smiled
at Jeremy.
He grinned. "Thanks. What do you need?"
"Nothing much. I need a set of gills."
The grin disappeared. "That's going to be a bit difficult."
I shook my head. "It shouldn't be, with John helping you. I need
a mask that I can wear to breathe water."
"Taking a swim?"
"Off the deep end, Mr. Scott." I smiled.
"What?" He frowned.
"Never mind. I'll see you later. Take your time."
That night, we all relaxed. A space had been cleared out on the
island, under the stars. Steve had set up his keyboard, and the rest of us
relaxed, enjoying the music...
"Sweet dreams are made of these
Who am I, to disa-gree?
I travel the world, and the seven seas
Everybody's lookin' for something."
And it went on. I think even our guests enjoyed the music, though
they weren't the type to let on about it, much to Steve's relief.
After a while, Weya and I wandered out along the beach.
-So much has happened. To both of us.- I thought, looking out
over the quietly murmuring sea.
Weya smiled faintly. -Now isn't the time to think about that, is
it?-
I stopped, facing her. -Better now than later. We're going to
have to leave soon.-
The smile became a grimace. -Why? Can't you stay for a few
months, at least?-
I looked down. -I think you know the answer to that.-
She nodded, understanding. -It's her isn't it.- Weya looked
away, wistful. -You can't forget about her, can you?-
-Not if there's any chance of saving her, no. Would you?-
-I...- She stuttered. This time, I even felt her sadness.
-I'm sorry.-
-Wait. Yes, I would. Because he died saving my village.
Changing that would mean changing what happened. I can't risk my village
to save his life.- She was very sure of herself, but I felt her wishing
desperately otherwise.
Then how can I do the same? I thought to myself sadly, feeling
ashamed.
She faced me again, shaking her head. -But your situation is
different. You *can* save her. You're right about that.-
-But that might change what's happened here. Do I have the right
to risk that?- I was really asking myself that more than her. But after a
moment...
She looked away suddenly, and I felt a hot shame from her. She
didn't want to tell me that I not only had the right, but the obligation,
to risk the lives of every sea-dweller left on her planet for Kerin's sake.
I'm being selfish, aren't I? Why can't I forget about her?
-You can't feel that way about it. Your feelings about her are no
more selfish than mine about my husband.-
-You heard that? But...-
She faced me again. And I could see just how much it hurt her to
say it. -But you can *do* something about that. I can't. I don't have
that choice. You do, and it's yours to make.-
-I know. But why does it have to hurt so much?-
There were times when words weren't enough.
We'd shared something. Something neither of us wanted to come to
terms with. But in the end...
Several weeks went by, as the island was restored. The mining
equipment, the construction site, and the landing pad all vanished,
replaced by greenish violet grass. The spiders were welcome to share a
home, but the island would remain free.
The two of us walked down to the beach, ready to visit Weya's
people for the first time.
-How long does it take to reach your village?- I asked, fumbling
with the oxymask Jeremy had given me.
-Only about an hour or so.-
The mask on halfway, I stopped. -An hour?-
Weya smiled. -It'll be just fine. You won't notice it at all.-
I finished putting the mask on. -If you say so.-
We waded in.
I thought for a moment, then grinned inwardly, and
jumped...cannonball! into the water, sending it spraying up in all
directions.
Weya looked back at me, drenched, and grinning.
With her finned arm, she cut a wide swath across the water,
sending a sheet in my direction. It missed, barely. I played golf,
sending a stream back at her. It didn't miss.
She dived in, and I followed.
We avoided the reef, both of us remembering just how many
kelpworms dwelt there. Minutes passed, and she pulled farther and farther
ahead, at one point passing through a small school of fish.
She was faster and more agile in the water, in her element. But I
was better at hide and seek. Several tall fronds of seaweed presented
themselves, and there I waited for her to come back looking for me...
She did, after several minutes.
Gotcha! I grabbed her from behind, grinning mischievously.
She turned, smiling. -Damon...-
For a moment, we just held each other. Then I--
-Hey, who put that there?- Just above her mouth was a bony ridge,
rather sharp, and very annoying.
-That's not my fault. Who designed your lips?-
After a moment, I sighed and smiled again, and we swam on.
It took us rather longer than an hour, as we kept getting
`distracted'. Finally, the village appeared ahead, and a few sea-dwellers
swam out to greet Weya. Then they noticed me.
Weya smiled inwardly. The same two guards.
"Weya, what have you done?"
"Call the elders, Ukal'el. I will not wait long." This time, it
wasn't the voice of a frightened child fleeing the neighborhood bully. It
was the voice of a calm leader, who knew when she had won.
They swam into the grotto, and she gazed at me. -Soon.-
Less than ten minutes later, they returned, escorting us into the
chamber of the circle. A hastily gathered assembly of elders awaited
us. "We will listen," one of them said. "But you will speak before the
people."
The sea-dwellers gathered outside, answering the call of the
elders. Usually only issued in cases of danger to the village, most were
fearful, not knowing what to expect. Finally, the elders emerged, and we
followed.
She looked around at the assemblage of sea-dwellers calmly, and
began. "My people, you now know that our brothers and sisters have
returned from above. The spider-creatures who controlled them are now our
friends. I bring he who helped to make this possible, to show all that
awaits us. He who brings our peoples together."
"The spider-creatures never intended any harm, but were desperate
for help. Almost three billion years ago, they left our planet fleeing a
terrible plague, and have only now returned. Their ship was damaged and
without our help, and his help, many would have died. They now offer us a
chance to explore not only our own world, but the stars above it, if we
will but show ourselves willing to open our arms to them."
She hadn't mentioned that the spiders made the mistake of assuming
the sea-dwellers were still primitives, as they had been before the
spiders' departure. Since then, the sea-dweller civilization had risen and
fallen, though they had remained highly intelligent. Perhaps that was for
the best that it hadn't been said. It was, after all, the time to be
letting those mistakes lie in the past, and worry about the future.
"I am sorry, Weya. When I was unwilling to take the risk, you
risked everything to save our brothers and sisters. I thank you, Weya.
All of us thank you." The First Speaker smiled, warmly, for the first
time.
"Let us hope that the future will be bright for both peoples!" I
whistled through the voder. I hope I got that right...
-We should go.- I thought to her.
Weya nodded, understanding.
**********
There was still much to be done. But it was up to Weya and her
people now.
The sun was setting. A few clouds, all bright pink, floated right
above it over the sea. A gentle breeze from the ocean brushed through the
clearing, mingling with the small group who had assembled to see us off.
-Thank you for staying,- thought Weya, standing at the front of
the crowd of curious onlookers.
I smiled warmly. -I'm glad I did. And I'll be back soon.-
She smiled back. -When you find Kerin. I'm looking forward to
meeting her.-
-I'm sure she'll feel the same about you.-
-Take care of yourself, Weya.- I thought. For a long moment, we
stood there in silence.
I tilted my head to the side, and missed the bony ridge this time.
"Awww..." Steve grinned, ever his annoying self.
Standing at the top of the scoutcraft's exit ramp, I waved. -
Soon.-
The scoutcraft flew into the sky, a ruddy purple. Gleaming in the
light of the setting sun, the small group of sea-dwellers and spiders below
watched it, until it finally disappeared into the sunset.
-Soon.- She agreed.
A small sphere drifted away from the planet, picking up speed.
Blue Lightning passed the larger moon, heading into open space.
-I'll never forget you, Weya.- I thought into the void.
Maybe it was an afterthought, or an echo. But somehow, I didn't
think so.
-You will always be a part of my heart.-
And the voice trailed off into silence...
* Transition
It had been two weeks since we'd left the sea-dwellers' planet.
Several jumps had failed to bring us any closer to Earth, and so Chris was
scanning our surroundings in hopes of finding a clue to our dilemma.
I needed solitude. I didn't want to deal with Steve's prying
questions, or anyone else's. But the park was occupied this time.
The woman was dark haired, and masculinely heavyset. Who? I
thought, frowning.
"Sorry, I didn't realize anyone was here. I'll leave."
"No, it's okay," she said.
Reluctantly, I sat down next to her, beside the brook.
"You're Steve's friend, aren't you?" I ventured.
"Yes."
I'd met Beth a long time ago, briefly. She and Steve had been
working out together, both attending the same Tae Kwon Do school. She
seemed the decent sort, although a bit shy.
But it wasn't the time to be renewing acquaintances. I stood up,
ready to walk away.
"Wait...what's wrong?" She didn't look comfortable prying, but
she looked even less comfortable just letting me go.
"I really need to be alone right now."
She frowned a bit, concerned. "I heard about what happened down
there. Is that it?"
"No, I just...need to be alone." I turned away, not wanting her
to see the tears, and certainly not wanting to explain them.
"What you need is a little cheering up." She casually rested a
hand on my shoulder. "How about I make dinner tonight?"
"That's kind of you to offer." I kept my voice steady.
"No trouble at all."
I nodded, and headed for the ladder. "Then I'll see you later.
Thanks again."
How long? How long will it take...?
I collapsed onto my bunk, and the door slid closed. Not five
minutes later, it opened again, and Steve walked in. "I hear you've been
feeling a little down lately."
I shrugged. "I guess so." Damn, he's fast.
He planted himself in a chair. "You ready to talk about it?"
"Not really, but you're not gonna go away until I do, are you?"
"Course not. That's what friends are for." He grinned
sympathetically.
I sighed. "I just can't seem to get her off my mind. For a while
on the planet I could forget, but..."
He nodded. "Now it's hitting you all over again."
"Beth was right," he murmured. "You need a little something to
cheer you up."
It's going to be a long time before I'll ever feel happy again.
If ever.
I looked up at him. "Steve, tell me something. Do you think I'm
being selfish? Trying to save Kerin."
"You might call that selfish. I'd call it something else. You
gotta go with what's in here, man." He held a hand over his heart.
I took a long moment to mull that over, finally rejecting it.
"Maybe. Maybe you're right," I said as reassuringly as possible.
"Course I'm right. Come on."
I shook my head. "No, I'll stay here for a bit."
"Suit yourself."
The door closed, and I was alone again.
In the end, it was my heart that made the decision anyway.
I'll find you, Kerin. That's a promise.
The mess hall was a bit crowded on this particular occasion. Even
Chris showed up. She'd been pouting since we left Earth, having been
`forced' to join the team under rather unaccommodating circumstances.
Andrea, Nick, Chris, Eric, John, Jeff, Ben, Jim, the other Ben,
and Lucky, were sitting around two long tables. Steve and Beth were
serving...I don't believe it! It must be the vegetarian version, since we
didn't pack any meat.
"Thanks. Both of you." I smiled warmly.
They finished, and sat down. "I'd like to dedicate this piece of
lasagna to a very large stomach," Steve drolled.
"Whose would that be?"
Beth glared at us with mock exasperation. "Enough, you two.
Eat."
A fair amount of chuckling wafted over the table, and I grinned at
Steve, despite myself.
I still didn't understand. Somehow, in Weya's mind, it was more
important for me to rescue Kerin, and risk changing my saving her people,
than to play it safe. Was it because it was what I wanted to hear?
No, that couldn't be right. She knew the risks. It couldn't have
worked out any better for her, and it hurt her deeply to tell me I could,
and should, change things.
"Hey, there's more. Go get yourself a piece." Steve said.
He stopped eating after another minute, and looked at me, worried.
"Come on now, cheer up."
I looked up at him. "You were right," I said finally. "I wasn't
being selfish."
"Heh?" Steve frowned at me.
"I just realized. Something Weya was trying to tell me."
"Well, don't leave us in suspense."
"Weya's husband died saving her village. She knows that, and even
though she still loves him, she's willing to forget about him. He died for
a reason." I looked down again. "But Kerin's death was pointless. And
Weya was trying to tell me there's nothing wrong in wishing it otherwise."
"I see."
"That doesn't make the pain go away, though."
"Thinking about it never does."
I stood up, finally. "I think I'll take you up on that offer."
"Good," he replied, smiling.
That feels a little better.
**********
I sat down, watching the swirls and eddies creep past me in the
brook at my feet.
"What are you doing back here? I thought you were feeling
better." Steve had climbed down the ladder silently, and crept up behind
me.
I smiled. "Hi Steve. I am. I'm just thinking about Weya."
"And?" He prodded.
"What's going to happen back there? They've got all the
opportunities in the world. More."
I sighed. "I hope she'll be happy."
"I'm sure she is."
He thought for a moment, and a mischievous grin crept across his
face. "So tell me, what did you two do with all that time you spent alone
together, just before we left?"
I smiled again. "It's a looong story. But I'd rather not talk
about that."
"Didn't think you would. But I can guess." He laughed.
"Hey!"
"Don't take it so seriously!" He grinned at me, waiting for me to
laugh along with him. It didn't take him long to figure out why I wasn't
smiling. He sobered up. "You two..."
"It was pretty obvious, wasn't it?"
"Well, it's not like you could hide that sort of thing."
I nodded. "You get to know a person pretty well, once you've been
inside their head."
"What was that like?"
"Difficult to explain. Let's just say Weya got a lot more from me
than I ever expected."
"I guessed as much," he said. "She seemed a lot more confident
after that."
"You noticed that?"
He smiled. "I notice a lot of things. It's my job." He
shrugged, and kept prodding. "What about you?"
"I saw only bits and pieces, but again, let's just say Weya's had
a very painful past, even besides the death of her husband."
Steve was silent for a moment. "One last question. What was the
name of their planet?"
I looked out across the park, seeing something rather farther
away. "Nefaroo. They called it Nefaroo. 'Precious life'."
**********
Weya stood near the shuttle, before a large group of sea-dwellers.
"-If we are to work together, we must be able to talk to one another. Each
of you will receive a translator, and together, we will build a home for
the spiders on the continent.-"
She paused, contemplating. "-In time, perhaps we will venture into
space above. Until then, we are masters of an entire world.-"
She watched the sea-dwellers slowly file into the shuttle. Krrlik
separated from the crowd and joined her. "<Have only one warning. Was no
accident that caused plague that probe. Deliberate it was. Caused it who
know not I. Hope that dead long since are they.>"
She nodded solemnly. "<Otherwise, the Great Death can happen
again. And this time, we cannot save everyone.>"
He followed the last of the sea-dwellers inside, leaving her alone
with her thoughts.
She looked up at the sky, thinking... I hope you do not meet
them, my friend. Whoever they are, they hold no value in life.
A single tear fell.
I will miss you, Damon.
End of Volume 1
Damon Casale, scyth@andrew.cmu.edu
* Love *
Between two people, there is nothing that
can draw them closer together