"I don't know, Ryo. Maybe it wasn't a portal, but a wormhole or some kind of natural time machine... My space travel knowledge is as bad as yours!"
"So you think we're still in the Star Nations' galaxy?" Ryo pondered. It kind of made sense. "Either we jumped into the past, into the far future or into a parallel universe, then. Which means we can't predict what we'll find."
"I will tell the navigator to find the closest terraformed planet," Yash decided. "At least the planets should be in the same places."
"Sounds like a plan," Ryo turned back to the dashboard. "Ready to go as soon as Mr. Computer tells me where."
***
"There's a planet." Yash pointed at the computer screen. "According to our data, it should be Serenaide."
"So the opposite side of the galaxy from Alahairo," Ryo mused. "Glad we reached it, because we're almost out of fuel. This stupid Fox only has the average supply and we haven't found anywhere to replenish it. And don't you think the food dispenser is getting worse? The latest meal was awful!"
"And the air is a little stale, yes. Which doesn't mean we're safe yet," Yash replied. "There is no meganet. We should have been online by now. There's no trace of the orbital stations, nor any form of technology."
"None?" Ryo's eyes widened. "So how can it be Serenaide?"
"I don't know." Yash frowned at the computer. "I told you I can't drive a starship, I'm not sure I understand everything this damn computer is telling me."
The round disc of the planet was getting closer and closer. Ryo managed to reach the orbit and glide towards a continent that looked much like those on their own planets. From the air they saw no traces of towns or other forms of civilization as they knew it. Ryo exchanged a worried glance with Yash.
"Does it look like Serenaide to you?" Ryo asked. The radio silence gave him the creeps. And no meganet. No Galaxy Police around.
"I'm not familiar with other planets' geography," Yash replied, frowning at the computer screen.
The dashboard beeped. "Yash, where do I land? We need to touch down, now!"
"I don't know, it all looks the same! Should we head for the valley and plains beyond that mountain range?"
Ryo pursed his lips. "I hope we make it," he muttered.
Both had fastened their seatbelts as soon as they had reached the atmosphere. They had no choice but to land by now since the gravity had taken hold of the starship and it was very hard to control. In fact they ended up crashing in a wide valley with a river running through it and a forest of tall trees that buffered their free fall.
The rental starship slid on the ground and bumped onto the mountainside, stopping against rocks. The dashboard fizzled and died. Ryo yelped, pulling back. The computer screen went blank. Yash banged on it, but it stayed blank.
Both unfastened their seatbelts, slightly bruised by the blunt impact, and stared at each other with wide eyes. They had landed and they were still whole – although probably the starship would never lift off the ground again.
"There. Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere!" Ryo sighed.
"At least it's a planet with breathable air and we have the ship to live in," Yash replied.
"But nothing works – the food dispenser, the doors, even!"
"We'll unlock the doors manually. Let's get out of here and check the rest of the damages."
"As if we can repair them..."
Ryo followed Yash outside. They looked around at the mountainous region dotted with smooth brown stones. It was replete with trees and grass, and they could see a small body of water to the west. The temperature was somewhat warm and the sky was overcast. The cool air coming down from the mountain was refreshing.
Ryo stared at the tall trees around them, some ruined by their passage. "What kind of trees do you think those are?"
"They look like oaks," Yash said, thoughtful. "This feels like the Laylon Forest on Ypsilanti – a temperate deciduous forest. Although it's conifers up there closer to the mountaintops. I think we can sleep in the starship for now. Then we can slowly explore."
"And what do we eat?"
"Let's go to that pond, maybe there's fish in it."
"And how do we get it?"
"Goddess, Ryo, have you ever gone camping in your life?"
"Actually, no. Have you?"
Yash looked at him. "Yes. I know something of living in a tent."
"Good, because I'm a city boy and have no idea of what to do!" Ryo followed him towards the small body of water. "Hey, not so fast, my legs are shorter than yours!"
***
Ryo was glad that Yash was an outdoor kind of guy, or he would have died quickly in the wild. They didn't have many utensils and almost no technology, but they could get by. The starship made for a nice house with its one cabin and bunk beds, but the bathroom might become unusable at some point.
The food dispenser was useless, so they built bows, arrows and fishing rods while they tried to figure out what plants were edible. Luckily the emergency kit of the starship had a pocket analyzer for such occasions – being stranded on an unknown planet and having to live on local supplies – which allowed them to check the composition of anything they laid their hands on.
At first they didn't go very far from their "home", but eventually Yash started going further inside the forest – and amazingly never got lost.
"I'm used to it," he said with a shrug when Ryo commented on it.
"I thought you were an athlete, not a boy scout," Ryo replied.
"I lived in a very small city and spent a lot of time in the countryside," Yash said. "And I read a lot of stories of men stranded, shipwrecked or deciding to go live in the wild to get back their humanity."
"I didn't know there was that kind of literature on Ypsilanti," Ryo said. It sounded more like something a patriarchal society would produce.
"Who said all the authors were Ypsilantian?" Yash smiled. "I also found books of low-tech planets, like the story of that Gaian young man who was lost in the wild, Christopher Mc Candless. I had considered it myself before... everything." Yash looked away and frowned. "I thought that if I went off on my own, nobody would bother me with sex requests."
"So you're happy here, and don't want to go back to our civilization," Ryo said, thoughtful.
Yash's eyes were emerald green with all the luxuriant vegetation around them. "No, Ryo, there was never any going back for me. You know what happened..."
"Not really," Ryo muttered, uneasy. "You're not the most talkative companion in the galaxy... I mean, I know you accidentally killed your bride-to-be, but... I still don't know why."
"Because she raped me. And we already discussed it with Birgit – yes, men can be raped by women and I still have nightmares about it."
"And you're asexual, got it." Ryo nodded, thoughtful. "I'm sorry to disturb your adventure..."
Yash flashed a smile at him. "You haven't made any sex requests yet," he replied.
"So I better never do it, or you'll dump me and head off into the sunset, leaving me here to die helplessly." Ryo grinned, but his heart tightened. He might have stuck to Yash out of lust, but now he was totally dependent on him and was terrified at the idea of being left alone on that luxuriant and wild world. He could survive in cities, not in the wild.
"I won't leave you," Yash promised. "You did help me to get away from Alahairo, and I won't dump you – not until I've taught you how to survive."
Ryo grinned. "Cool, you're going to be my mentor!" he said cheerfully.
That wasn't how he felt, but he needed to reassure himself that they'd be all right. Sometimes he was really frightened of their loneliness. If something happened to either of them, they had nobody to turn to.
Yash nodded, but kept staring at him. "Is that all?"
"Um... no." Ryo's smile vanished. "Aren't you afraid, Yash? What if something happens – like you sprain your ankle in the forest and you can't come back? Or if an unexpected monster attacks us? I mean, who can we turn to if we get in trouble?"
&n
bsp; "Nobody," Yash answered. "We're on our own, Ryo. We should have died in outer space in that cramped starship. But we're alive, and we can survive on this planet for much longer than we expected. We can explore more and see if we can find traces of intelligent life, if you prefer."
"You're obviously an introvert and don't need people around you, but I do!" Ryo sighed. "Can we please try to find others? So I won't bother you with my endless chatter?"
"You don't bother me, but yes, we can go farther if you want. We need a tent and backpacks and..."
***
Ryo woke up at the sound of rain. It was pouring over their tent, which made for an interesting concert of drums. The dampness seemed to stay outside, thank goodness. Ryo switched on the lamp and stared at Yash, sleeping by his side.
Ryo couldn't believe how much Yash knew about camping. They had slowly prepared their expedition and left the starship behind, heading for the river and following its course towards the plains.
Yash was teaching Ryo to hunt with their primitive weapons, and together they cooked whatever prey they could catch – usually small animals that rarely looked familiar but tasted good. By now they knew which herbs and fruits could make for a decent meal and they weren't going to starve. They were a good team and Ryo felt safer, but still quite lonely.
They were busy exploring and trying to avoid unexpected dangers, moving ever so slowly through the valley where they'd crashed. Sometimes bad weather slowed them down or the uneven terrain forced them to detour.
Whenever they entered the forest again, Ryo felt trapped and feared some wild beast would attack them. The previous evening they'd set up the tent at the edge of the trees, under the cover of branches so the coming storm wouldn't hit them too hard.
Yash had planted a lightning rod outside of the tent, but Ryo shivered in his sleeping bag as the thunderstorm moved on, but the rain kept pouring.
Ryo's ears perked up in the night. That was the real sound of drums, not thunder!
"Yash!" he whispered, shaking his friend awake. "Can you hear it?"
"What?" Still drowsy, Yash sat and looked around.
"Drums."
Both were silent for a moment, listening carefully to the drumming on the tent.
"Drums." Yash nodded. "But it's pouring, how can we find where the sound comes from? Fire in this rain is improbable, there won't be any light out there to guide us – and it's uneven terrain, what if we sprain an ankle?"
Ryo glared at him, but it only made Yash smile.
"Get back to sleep, Ryo. Tomorrow we'll look around. If there are drums, there must be other artifacts."
Ryo sighed, but lay down again. Yash was right. But it was going to be a long night.
***
In the gray morning light, the damp forest looked different. They looked up at the dripping trees and as they moved around, getting deeper in the vegetation, they noticed there were suspended walkways from one tree to the other, and also some kind of log cabins up there. The artifacts couldn't be seen from the edge of the forest or their tent, but by walking in the direction of the sounds of drums, they reached the strange suspended village.
"They live in the trees?" Ryo marveled. "Are they monkeys?"
"Monkeys don't build houses in the trees," Yash replied. He looked puzzled too as he looked up. "There aren't any lianas on these kinds of trees... how do they get up there?"
"And it's not the right climate for monkeys, too temperate," Ryo added. "Did something move up there?"
And then the first appeared. A tall, slender being with dark skin like Ulba'wissians, but with short straight hair of flaming red that stood out in the forest green. It was vaguely Humanoid, since it had two arms and two legs, and a round head with some kind of face, but it was so fast in climbing down its rope ladder that they couldn't see him well – until he stood right in front of them.
He had pointed ears, almond-shaped eyes all black with no iris and a cat-like white pupil. His nose was flat with big nostrils that made him look like a skull. He had a flat male torso decorated with golden chains and he wore only a loincloth.
He stood as tall as Yash, but he was much thinner and stared straight at the Ypsilantian young man. Ryo's heart jumped in his throat as the being touched Yash's cheek. He could feel his friend stiffen by his side.
Soon an entire tribe came down from the trees, led by a female with bright-pink hair that reached halfway down her back. Ryo and Yash realized that male hair had all the shades of red and females had shades of pink. No fur on them, so they were definitely Humanoids. They were scantily clothed and had golden jewelry. They howled more than speaking, hence Ryo and Yash exchanged puzzled glances.
Until the female with bright-pink hair came forward and put her slender fingers on their faces.
My name is Uhulya. Who are you? We have never seen beings like you.
"Telepathy!" Yash whispered, eyes wide in wonder.
Ryo gulped. My name is Ryo, I'm a Humanoid from another planet. I mean no harm.
You are welcome, Yash and Ryo. Even if he hadn't heard Yash's thought, Ryo assumed Uhulya had and was responding to both. We are the Vree-nahua. Please come and share our food.
Still a little puzzled and quite amazed, Ryo and Yash followed the locals up the rope ladders and into suspended huts and cabins in the trees. The Vree-nahua had some form of civilization – buildings, utensils, clothes, jewelry – but talking to them was impossible except with the intercession of Uhulya, the "mother" of the tribe.
Ryo could see that Yash was tense in the presence of another matriarchal society, but the Vree-nahua weren't as regimented as the Star Nations. The first being to make contact with them was called Uanan, and he was a very young male who seemed fascinated by Yash and stuck to him all the time – to the Ypsilantian's utter embarrassment.
Days flew by as Ryo and Yash tried to interact with the locals and learn some skills from them. The language of gestures was fun, but sometimes it was frustrating, and Ryo and Yash were mostly observers of the tribe's life, since they couldn't really take part in any of the gatherings, having no idea of what was going on. Sometimes they wondered if they'd ever meet other Humanoids more like them on the big planet – if they found the courage to explore even farther away from their crashed starship, now seven days behind them – and the friendly Vree-nahua colony.
***
Ryo and Yash retired to sleep in their tent, away from the Vree-nahua tribe. No matter how welcoming the locals were, communication was too hard since only Uhulya was a telepath. And Ryo and Yash didn't feel comfortable sleeping on trees, even if they'd tried the suspended houses more than once.
"Are you happy we found people?" Yash asked, staring at Ryo with an amused look on his face. "Although it's not easy to talk to them, but you seem to be doing fine."
"They're nice, but I miss dealing with others like us." Ryo sighed. "I know, plenty of bastards and assholes in the Star Nations, but this is... too much. I mean, the Vree-nahua seem to be more civilized than any of us – at least they don't kill each other and they work together for their well-being – but..."
"They have families and weddings and ceremonies and maybe they don't fight because they have so much space, they don't really need to invade anyone else's lands to survive," Yash said. "I like their children, they look like faeries of the Ypsilantian tradition – if only they had wings. But those hair-colors... Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a dream."
"Is it a good dream?" Ryo asked, frowning. "Because sometimes I feel we've crashed into a nightmare..."
"Why? Because of the lack of technology?"
"And the loneliness. I know, we were supposed to die alone in outer space, but this is taking way too long. I mean, we'd be dead already if we hadn't gone through the portal. Sometimes this life feels like an endless agony."
Yash stared at him as they lay down in their sleeping bags. The temperature was going down, winter must be coming. The trees were losing their leaves and the forest was a blur of yellows and re
ds.
"You are afraid of this way of life, because you were used to having everything served to you. You took everything for granted, Ryo. I guess that in spite of your sexual orientation, being a man on Xi-kong meant you had people working for you."
"Sort of," Ryo grumbled, embarrassed. He hadn't realized how much he'd been spoiled until he'd found himself stranded on an unknown, low-tech planet with no idea of what to do. "The only time I went out of the city was for illegal races. I left my hometown only to go to martial arts championships."
"So how did you spend your days?" Yash asked. "I liked training in the open and sometimes I preferred mountain climbing to a few hours in the gym, so I packed and left for two or three days, usually with my best friend Shahid. He wasn't a professional athlete, but he liked the outdoors as much as I did. We felt free from our society rules when we were on our own."
"I like people, Yash. I wasn't their favorite, but they usually tolerated me. And I belonged to a team of enforcers, so we were always together – except when they went into whorehouses. We had to keep an eye on a suburb, and we did – patrolling, enforcing my father's orders, stuff like that. I didn't have that much free time. That's why I didn't have a steady boyfriend yet."
"But you were sick of that life," Yash objected. "Or you wouldn't have run away with me and Birgit."
"It was getting worse for me." Ryo shrugged. "They had decided to get rid of me, after all... so yes, leaving was the right thing to do. We should have stayed on Friport once we discovered you were wanted for murder, though. Trying to find a legal job, even with a fake ID, wasn't the smartest move. For you, I mean. I'm not wanted or anything."
Yash sighed. "I'm not a criminal," he said, staring at the ceiling. "I could never get used to the outlaws' world. Besides, I think I wanted to get caught. When that cop showed up on Alahairo, I didn't really run, did I?"
"No, I had to drag you away." Ryo smiled at the memory.
"And why did you come with me?" Yash asked.
"Because I felt it was the right thing to do. And I wasn't expecting us to be sucked in by a portal and spat out somewhere else – with no traces of civilization as we know it. I thought at some point we could turn around, re-enter the Star Nations and find our way to Friport, joining the rogues' world. I'd have helped you survive there – much like you're doing here with me."
Yash and Ryo Lost in the Milky Way Page 4
