Interstellar Ruse

by Gregoire, Cil;

  The five habitants of the vast fruitful valley hidden deeply in Lynnara’s Crescent Mountains were gathered around a small bonfire under the star-studded Aaian sky, their bellies full after a good meal. The fire was built on a stone ledge that extended out in front of their multi-chambered cave dwelling overlooking the valley. It would be a while yet before Seaa, the closest star after Aaia’s own sun, rose above the eastern ridge to bathe their world in soft iridescent light.

  “How long will you be gone?” Theon asked. Although crinkled and grizzled with incredible age, Theon sat regally straight with the helpful support of his hefty staff. He hated departures, however simplistic, for they were all starting to feel final. He would never see his cherished Earth-born daughter again, that was certain. Nor was it likely he would see the eventual return of Rojaire, Traevus, and Kiril.

  “I don’t know,” Caleeza said gently, “it depends on what we find at the other end of the valley.” The glow of the fire highlighted her red-orange hair and violet eyes. She felt unease over leaving the First in Longevity in the care of only Tassyn and Edty for an extended length of time even though she knew they would do their best to follow her instructions.

  “We will return as soon as we can,” Ollen said. “All we plan on doing is hiking the length of the valley and back to get a better idea of what it has to offer.” He spoke softly with confidence, his shoulder-length charcoal black hair glimmered in the firelight. He had survived cycles of seasons alone in the Cremyn Valley and did not fear the empty continent’s secrets.

  Ollen and Caleeza, both members of the lost expedition, were found by Rojaire’s mapping team. Ollen was found on the coastal side of the Crescent Mountains, amazing Rojaire’s group with the shelter and kiln he had built and the ingenuity he had applied to establishing a comfortable existence. They had no trouble talking him into joining them.

  They found Caleeza on the interior side of the Crescent Mountains. She had been to Earth and back through an energy field in the Crystalline Landscape and told a bizarre story of Sarus, the leader of the lost expedition, becoming part of the Crystalline Landscape. Caleeza had also been eager to join their group.

  “What about wild animals?” Edty asked trembling at the thought of an animal encounter even though, in the season they have lived here, no one has been attacked. His short gaunt frame, huddled fearfully by the fire, made him look childlike in the light of the dying embers, despite his weathered stubble-covered face and shortly cropped gray hair.

  “I’m sure we will be all right,” Ollen gently reassured his easily frightened friend. “We will take one star stone with us for protection.”

  “And when do you plan on leaving?” Tassyn asked. With Ollen and Caleeza gone he would be left with Theon, delicate from advanced age, and Edty, just simple-minded. That meant most of the responsibility for the duration would fall to him.

  “We will leave after we rise from sleep and Seaa is high in the sky,” Caleeza said.

  “Shouldn’t you wait for the next period of light?” Theon asked.

  “We decided to travel across already familiar terrain by Seaa’s light, thereby reaching new territory by sun rise. At least that’s our goal,” Ollen explained.

  A contemplative pause ensued. Ollen stood, and in silence their eyes followed his loose-jointed gait, visible in tannish white pants as he went for more wood to replenish the fire. His black hair and weathered dark brown skin blended in with the darkness. By the time he returned with an arm load of wood, Tassyn had stirred the coals in preparation for the added fuel and Theon had lowered his staff and eased back into his chair.

  “I wish I had the energy to go exploring with you, but these old joints wouldn’t appreciate it one bit,” Theon lamented. “Still, I do not wish to deny Tassyn and Edty the chance to go adventuring. I do not need staying with,” he said with grumpy indignation.

  “Edty and I wish to stay here,” Tassyn said. For the most part it was true; Edty definitely didn’t want to go and he definitely couldn’t leave Edty with Theon. “Another time,” he added.

  Tassyn’s quietness belied an active mind kept hidden behind dark bushy eyebrows, straggly orange-brown hair, and a mild disposition. He had always been at odds with the dictates of the High Council and had always taken care of Edty who had suffered much of the same. Tassyn’s first taste of real freedom came when he, Edty, and Stram had illicitly followed Rojaire to the Devastated Continent. Then Stram had ruined everything. But now he and Edty were part of a group in which they could feel they belonged.

  The atmosphere around the fire was subdued. With Ollen and Caleeza leaving, however brief the separation, the feeling of security the five of them shared when they were all together would be compromised. They all felt it.

  Little else was said as the group of friends watched the fire burn down to embers. There was no need to express feelings they all shared. Eventually, one by one they sought their beds.

  CHAPTER 3

  Earth

  Maggie knew Vince would take Melinda’s departure hard. She had become a daughter to him.

  “You want to just drop her off in the woods and leave her there?” Vince asked incredulously. “When I suggested a similar plan to return her to her home years ago you practically bit off my head.”

  “She was a frightened orphaned child back then who wanted to withdraw from the world. Now she is a capable young adult who wants to re-enter society,” Maggie explained.

  “Rahlys will be watching over her with the help of the crystal till Melinda makes safe contact with others,” Ilene added to relieve some of Vince’s anxiety. Melinda listened quietly as Maggie, Ilene, and Rahlys shared all they had discussed during their retreat to Rahlys’ guest cabin.

  “Melinda needs to reclaim her true identity as a natural American citizen,” Rahlys explained. “To assume a false identity would only complicate her life. Now that she is an adult she will be more in control of what she chooses to reveal about her past.”

  The five of them sat around Vince and Maggie’s family room table, the women having a late breakfast after finally catching a couple of hours of sleep before returning to Vince and the children. Leaf, Rock, and Crystal were playing quietly in the boys’ room, but Melinda could sense Leaf listening in.

  Melinda knew Leaf would take her leaving the hardest. When she was seventeen she had promised him she wouldn’t leave until she was an adult. She had kept her promise. Still she worried about leaving him to deal with all the trouble his abilities got him into without her help.

  “When is this going to happen?” Vince asked with resignation in his voice.

  I would like to leave tomorrow morning.

  Melinda’s telepathed message reverberated in stunned silence. It was her first contribution since the discussion became heated.

  I love all of you. I will always love you. And I will see you again, but it is time for me to put my life together. I don’t see any reason to wait; I’ve waited long enough.

  “Oh sweetie, I’m going to miss you so much,” Maggie cried reaching for Melinda in a sobbing embrace. Melinda gently returned the hug and tried to soothe the loving soul that had been a mother to her in every way but birth.

  I’ll miss you too.

  She fought back tears of her own.

  Not crying became even harder later that night when the house slept and Leaf crept to her bed.

  “Melinda, you awake?” Leaf whispered, a pale wraith in the moonlit night.

  Of course she was awake; how could she sleep with tomorrow’s plans looming in her head. Here, get in the covers. She knew Leaf could easily draw energy from the elemental forces to warm the air around him, but she moved to a cold spot and flipped back the covers to let him crawl in beside her. His little body was warm.

  Why do you have to leave? Leaf asked.

  It was a question Melinda knew he would eventually ask and she had been striving in her mind for a way to explain it to him.

  I love you and Mom and Dad, and Rock and Cryst
al…

  And Keiluk?

  And Keiluk. What I am trying to say is, there is a whole world out there…

  There’s more than one world out there… Leaf said with certainty. After all, Quaylyn came from Aaia, a world far, far away.

  I meant Earth. The point is this. When you grow up you must seek your destiny.

  What’s destiny?

  Well, it’s sort of like deciding what you want to be, but instead of things working out like you plan, life steers you in a different direction. That’s your destiny.

  Why? Leaf asked.

  Melinda decided to try a different tactic.

  What do you want to be when you grow up?

  Leaf didn’t even hesitate to consider options. I’m going to be a warrior like Quaylyn and travel the galaxy.

  Well, becoming a warrior like Quaylyn and travelling the galaxy may be your destiny, but if it’s not, things may happen along the way that cause you to become something entirely different.

  But that’s what I want to be.

  And maybe you will …if that is your destiny…

  Oh…

  The telepathed message was so faint Melinda barely discerned it. The sound of his soft regular breathing close to her ear indicated he had fallen asleep.

  “We’re almost there,” Seth said pushing ahead of Alice as they thrust their way through the tangle of trees and vines. It was another unusually hot spring day, the heat stifling without a breeze. Alice could feel her thin cotton blouse sticking to her back.

  There could be no doubting Seth and Alice’s relationship as brother and sister; with the same shade and length of wavy sandy hair and nearly identical freckles they were male and female versions of the same prototype. Justin was certain that, if counted, they would have the exact same number of freckles on their faces.

  “There it is,” Justin announced nonchalantly coming to a stop. He gave Alice a leering smile that sent chills through her body despite the exceedingly warm day.

  Alice peered through the dense brush and slowly her eyes picked out the contours of a large weathered structure through the camouflage. She had thought Seth loony when he came home after skipping school (and she knew about that, too) babbling about him and Justin finding an old, old dilapidated house deep in the woods. But here it was …for real. She followed Seth and Justin with open-mouthed wonder to the bramble-choked front yard.

  Instead of risking the rotting front porch, the boys led Alice around the house to a back door. A huge live oak dominated the overgrown yard, its massive trunk as big as a small house. The tree’s dense crown of smooth dark evergreen leaves provided a sanctuary of shade, claiming a large area for itself. Long thick gray moss draped its equally massive branches reaching out in all directions like giant tentacles. As they neared the back door, Alice saw the crumbling brick and mortar remains of what must have once been an old cistern for catching rain water. The disintegrating cistern sat on an arched brick and mortar foundation that had also seen better days. It was now a little brick cave littered with crumbling masonry.

  The boys led Alice to the back door which no longer closed completely in the tweaked doorframe. A laser-cutting machine nearly filled the back room just as Seth had described. But even forewarned, it was a shock to see. Having just traversed the thick jungle growth to get here, the presence of the laser cutter seemed surreal.

  The old Cajun house was a wonder to see, built of long-enduring oak beams and cypress planks that had survived a century of hurricanes. After making their way around the laser machine they entered what Alice was certain had been the kitchen. Most of the massive oak plank shelving was still intact and the huge double fireplace separating the kitchen from the rest of the house was something she had only read about in books. As she made her tour of the rooms, she imagined a family living here long ago, a mother and father …and maybe a grandparent or two… with a passel of children and little else, living happily off the land. Only the computer and several pieces of modern furniture scattered about the rooms, and looking decidedly out of place, ruined the effect.

  “I wonder who was staying here,” she said out loud.

  “I doubt it was a nature worshiper, not with a laser cutter and computers,” Seth said.

  “I bet it was someone sinister,” Justin said dramatically and walked around like a zombie. Suddenly the bright sunlight seeping in through the pane-less windows went dim.

  “This had to have been a secret hideout, but where is the guy now?” Alice asked looking at the chewed up bedding in disgust.

  “Maybe he got caught by the law away from his hideout,” Seth said. The light was getting noticeably dimmer.

  “It’s getting dark out, must be rain coming,” Alice said walking to a window to take a look. Seth noted Justin’s eyes on her.

  “Do you think there’s treasure hidden here?” Seth asked to distract Justin from watching Alice.

  “If this was a secret hideout there must be treasure hidden here somewhere,” Justin agreed, “a stash of money or maybe even gold.” The boys began to hunt for the secret stash, Justin’s lustful stare turning to greed. To Alice’s amusement, they started tapping floorboards and walls listening for a change in sound that would indicate a hidden space filled with treasure. When nothing was found, they searched for loose bricks around the fireplace that might conceal a hidden storage space.

  “It looks like it’s going to downpour,” Alice predicted as lightning flashed brightly followed by a boom of thunder.

  Seth and Justin didn’t seem to hear her or they weren’t paying attention, for their minds had turned to treasure.

  I wonder what has been stored on these computers, Alice pondered. “I’m going to look for a generator,” she said after a while. “There must be one here somewhere,” she said glancing at the electronics.

  Alice made her way around the laser-cutting machine to the backdoor and stepped outside into the heightening breeze. Dark clouds churned overhead blotting out the sun. The shower was coming on fast. Looking around through the young trees that had taken over what yard remained unclaimed by the giant oak, she found no outbuilding to house a generator.

  Since there was no generator in sight on this side of the house, she walked around the back, circling the old cistern, forcing her way through young trees and vines as she searched for anything that could pass for a generator shed, but found nothing. How strange!

  A sudden gust of wind rattled the trees and the sky darkened even further. Before she had circled back to where she had started, heavy drops of rain were pelting her and the ground. She thought about visiting the old oak tree, letting its umbrella shelter her from the rain, but then lightning flashed and thunder rolled and she feared it might act as a lightning rod, being taller than everything around it. Of course it had survived many thunderstorms before, but the storm seemed to have a sinister quality to it that warned her away. By the time she re-entered the house the storm had hit in all its fury.

  The ferocity of the storm even distracted Justin and Seth from their unrewarded search for gold. Wind stirred the trees, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and then hail pounded overhead, the noise deafening on the old tin roof. They watched the storm together in fascination.

  Then suddenly there was a flash of lightning so close, Alice thought she could hear it sizzle. The immediate boom of the thunder shook the house in rage. All three teenagers dropped to the floor cowering in terror, covering their ears.

  “Who was struck by lightning?” Seth asked several seconds later as he recovered from the blast, his voice fearful. But both Alice and Justin sat up unharmed. Alice glanced out at the old oak tree; it was still intact.

  Then just as quickly as it had approached, the violent storm died away.

  Gray mist dampened the smell of the sea. Rahlys and Melinda looked out over the coastal rainforest sloping toward the ocean. Southeast Alaska was so different from the northern Susitna Valley. It was warmer and more humid here in Ketchikan, Alaska’s southernmost city at the
lower end of the panhandle, but the high humidity made it feel chillier. It would never get as warm here as inland in the summer, but milder winters also meant little snow except at higher elevations.

  “Are you sure you will be all right,” Rahlys asked gently pushing back a strand of dark hair from Melinda’s face. She could see that all the tearful goodbyes had been a strain on the girl. Rahlys longed to take her into another embrace, but didn’t want to stress her further. She had rescued Melinda from Droclum’s clutches; now it was time to let her go.

  I will be all right.

  Rahlys nodded, detecting Melinda’s strength and resolve. Then to her surprise, Melinda grabbed her and held her tight.

  I love you.

  I love you, too.

  After quietly shedding a few more tears, the two women pulled apart and Rahlys teleported away.

  Melinda looked around her; she was alone. Of course Rahlys would track her progress through the power of the crystal until she was safely settled, but for all practical intent and purpose she was alone. She breathed in deeply the intoxicating smell of the sea riding on the breeze, the salty air flavoring the green aroma of the forest. She had been land-locked for so long. Thick dense forest of hemlock and lush Sitka spruce blocked her view of the ocean from where she stood, but she could feel the moisture in the air. The maritime climate felt inherently familiar to her; she was home. According to Rahlys, the crystal had placed them in a wooded area close to the North Highway. As she stepped out with purposeful resolve heading for the highway she knew ran along the coast, a misty rain began to fall.

  There was no mistaking what direction to take, despite the lack of sun. All terrain in Southeast sloped steeply to the sea. Thankfully the slope of the rocky forested terrain where she stood wasn’t quite as steep as in most places. The Oracle of Light had thought of everything.

  There had been much discussion over whether or not Melinda should carry a pack, but in the end she had decided the less she had on her, the less she would have to explain. All she carried with her besides the clothes she wore was the mysterious key hidden in a pocket. Melinda had been concerned that Rahlys may detect the key’s presence when they “travelled,” but she remembered the ominous warning of the evil essence taunting her, “Rahlys cannot hear you.”