Interstellar Ruse

by Gregoire, Cil;

  There was no longer any doubt about the general direction the key wanted her to go; it wanted her to go south. Its directional tug seemed enhanced by the nine hundred miles south she had already covered by moving from the northern Susitna Valley to Ketchikan. Perhaps she should continue heading south.

  The north wind howled over the still frozen muskeg and iced-over rivers along Alaska’s west coast, blowing whatever snow it could unhinge into deep snowdrifts against solidly-built buildings and dry-docked Bristol Bay fishing boats unmoved by the wind’s rage. Jack Faulkner paced his little house of memories aimlessly to the rhythm of the wind buffeting the outside walls, his head full of the newsy letter from Vince and Maggie lying open on the table. The twins were talking and Leaf was coming into true boyhood, a master egg-gatherer now that the Bradley family had a flock of chickens. Rahlys still resided a mile away through the woods, filling her time without Quaylyn painting one masterpiece after another. Jack glanced at the painting by Rahlys of Leaf and Raven playing wizard that hung on his own wall. He had purchased it last year from the gift shop and it never failed to illicit a smile from him. The biggest news was Melinda’s return to Southeast Alaska. Jack wished her well. He couldn’t imagine the Bradley household without her. According to the letter, nothing had changed with Ilene and her mother. Ilene made the trip up the tracks to visit fairly regularly and Elaine was still as ornery as ever.

  Jack smiled at the thought of Elaine. He knew her gruffness covered up a soft side.

  There was no news from across the galaxy. He wondered what Kaylya was doing on her own world; it was hard to imagine. Kaylya had been like family; he missed her, but he knew she was happy now that she and Rojaire were reunited.

  The letter also invited Jack to visit, the mere thought of which lifted his spirits. Jack’s last visit to the Susitna Valley had been nearly a year ago when Kaylya left for Aaia with Rojaire and Quaylyn. Travel from the west coast to the Susitna Valley had been much easier back then, with Kaylya’s help.

  Jack looked around the house cluttered with cheap travel memorabilia and longed for his wife Betsy, dead for more than three years. The only thing new in the house, the only thing that had changed since Betsy’s death, was the painting of Raven and Leaf, Leaf in a red wizard’s cape, playing in the woods. Then for the first time, Jack truly felt the emptiness of his wife’s travel memorabilia and made a radical decision. Reaching for the trashcan from under the sink, Jack walked around the house brushing the cheap dusty statues of landmarks and monuments that lined shelves and filled cubbyholes into the trash. Only the photos he let remain. These souvenirs were not Betsy he finally realized …they were just clutter.

  Jack hadn’t heard Mike’s truck drive up because of the wind. He was just finishing up the task of throwing things away when his son Mike entered the house, slamming the door shut against the swirling snow and wind.

  “What are you doing?” Mike asked, a bit stunned by the change the absence of his mother’s memorabilia actually made.

  Mike had inherited his father’s bulbous nose, though not quite as bad, his receding hairline, though he still had an abundance of thick brown hair over most of his head, as well as his short frame although Mike did top him by an inch or two. Fortunately for Mike, he still had enough youth left on his side to counter these appearance shortcomings. Jack was certain he would never be as ugly an old man as himself and probably had his mother to thank for it. More importantly, Mike had proved himself a competitive, capable fisherman in just two fishing seasons.

  “I thought I would clean up a bit,” Jack answered as nonchalantly as he could muster and placed the trashcan back under the sink. “I’m glad you’re here; I would like you to do something for me. It won’t be difficult,” he quickly added when Mike showed signs of concern.

  “Ah, sure …what do you need?”

  “I received a letter from Vince and Maggie and they invited me to come visit.” Jack chuckled over Mike’s hopeful anticipation. “All I need is for you to help me with the travel arrangements …using your smart phone.”

  “Of course, I’d be glad to,” Mike said breaking into a delighted smile. Jack knew he relished having the house to himself. His girlfriend would take up residence with Mike as soon as Jack was out the door.

  “You two should get married,” Jack said unexpectedly voicing his thoughts.

  Mike walked through his father’s likely presumptions to reach his line of reasoning. Of course he knew Brenda would be staying here.

  “We’re thinking about it,” Mike admitted after a pause.

  “You couldn’t find a better girl,” Jack said to his son’s relief.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Now, how about those travel arrangements?”

  “When do you want to leave?” An especially strong gust of wind slammed against the house, drawing their attention.

  “As soon as this blow is over and planes can fly again. I’ll take the first seat available.”

  The big weathered old house hidden deep in the Louisiana woods had become a regular secret hideout for Seth, Alice, and Justin. Every weekend they packed in enough water, sodas, and food to last them all day. The property must be owned by somebody, but no one ever surprised them by showing up.

  Alice loved the mysterious house and surrounding woods, but didn’t particularly like Justin’s company. She thought it would be fun to bring in other friends, but when she broached the topic with Justin and Seth they both adamantly opposed and neither seemed able to explain why.

  It was a hot spring day making the shade of the sprawling giant oak especially inviting. They had made some improvements on the property, clearing away brush to open up the yard between the house and the big oak tree. They used brick and concrete rubble from the crumbling cistern to outline a fire pit, and burned the cleared brush along with rotting boards from the dangerously weathered front porch to build a fire and make hotdogs and s’mores. Today Justin brought a .22 rifle to do some target shooting.

  “Let’s put the target on the oak tree.” Justin suggested. He walked to the broad trunk of the massive old tree and tacked the shooting target in place, placing it at about eye level. Finding tools to work with was no problem. There were all kinds of tools available; most of them looked like they had never seen work.

  An unease deep in her stomach told Alice that using the tree as a target probably wasn’t a good idea, but said nothing. She was certain the guys would read any concern she voiced as a silly girl notion.

  “You can go first,” Justin said returning to the group. Seth was already lining up the sights on the barrel with the target. His first shot hit just one ring from the bull’s eye. His second shot, with adjustment, hit its mark, as did the third. Alice smiled over her brother’s performance with obvious pride. Seth always got his deer in the fall. She doubted Justin would do as well.

  But before Justin could take up the rifle, the crystalline blue sky above them suddenly took on an eerie dramatic turn. What had been a clear blue sky now boiled with roiling dark clouds, seemingly originating directly above the towering massive oak.

  “What the heck?” Seth asked.

  “Looks like a storm’s coming,” Justin rationalized.

  “You think that’s a rain shower?” Alice asked incredulously. Did he and Seth not feel the lurking evil that permeated the place?

  The storm quickly raged. Incredibly, wind whipped around with hurricane force and rain slashed at their faces. The giant oak tree shook and groaned, and its branches and leaves swayed violently. Lightning lit the now darkened woods and thunder rumbled mockingly as the three teenagers dashed to the house seeking shelter. Upon reaching the large inner rooms, they all dropped to the floor panting, hearts beating out of their chests. For the longest no one spoke as they tried to reason out what might have happened.

  “It didn’t like you shooting at the tree,” Alice said matter-of-factly as they sat in a circle waiting out the storm.

  “What do you mean …it… didn’t �
��like… us shooting at the tree?” Justin asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” Alice said giving it some thought. “Call it a spirit, or a force, or …an essence; …whatever; …there’s something here …I can feel it …and it’s very evil.”

  “That’s ridiculous! What a bunch of bullshit!” Justin said scornfully. Seth neither backed her up nor refuted it.

  “Oh, yah, well I bet you wouldn’t want to spend a night here all alone,” she said, daring him to take her up on it.

  “Sure I would. Are you telling me that you and Seth would be too chicken-livered to spend a night in this old house because you think it’s haunted?” Justin asked scornfully.

  “I’m not afraid,” Seth said boosting his manhood. The storm was starting to subside giving him courage.

  “Then what do you say we plan on an overnighter here next weekend?” Justin suggested.

  “Mom and Dad have a family trip planned for next weekend,” Seth said glad that he and Alice had an excuse to back out of it.

  “Then the weekend after that; we can bring lots of food, some beer, and our sleeping bags, or are you too scared?”

  “I’m not scared,” Seth said with more courage than he actually felt. “Count me in.”

  “How about you, Alice?” Justin asked. “Are you going to join us or is the idea too scary for a girl?” He edged closer to her, “Don’t you want to see if we can coax out the ghost … boo …!” he teased daringly.

  Alice didn’t want anything to do with it. “I have no intention spending a night in this old house. Who knows what may lurk here.”

  “Aw come on,” Seth said, thinking safety in numbers. “You don’t really believe there’s an evil spirit lurking around, do you?”

  Alice hesitated before answering. She didn’t want to leave her brother unprotected, but she didn’t relish an entire night in Justin’s company, even with Seth as a chaperon. Nor was she too keen on spending the night in the company of whatever claimed the area around the old house. But she also didn’t want to be accused of being a superstitious coward.

  “I’ll come,” she said finally in a low voice, unhappy with her own decision.

  CHAPTER 6

  Aaia

  The water was deeper and the current stronger than Ollen had thought possible while suspended in the jungle gym trees above it. By the time he surfaced again, Caleeza was already out of sight, screened by the trees’ thick shaggy foliage. He heard Caleeza cry out his name as he struggled to keep his head above water, but the swirling current repeatedly sucked him back under before he could call back to her. He sought to reach something he could grab on to. The south shore was no longer an option since the bank now rose into a sheer rocky cliff undercut by swiftly moving water. Gym trees rising out the water on the north shore were closer and more accessible, so he doubled his efforts in that direction. But before he could actually reach his goal, a familiar roar announced he soon faced quite a different threat …dropping off the edge of the world.

  And drop he did, the powerful tug of the waterfall taking him along for the plunge. Fortunately the drop proved not to be too great …or too perilous …for he quickly bobbed back up in a large pool. The landscape had changed to his advantage. Instead of jungle gym trees, open mixed forest, brush, and grasses lined a broad stream contained within rocky shores. Ollen’s feet touched gravel bottom as he pushed his way to a shallow shoal. Once out of the main current, he paused, holding on to a rock to catch his breath. Then giving up the water’s buoyancy, he crawled to shore, taking on the full weight of Aaia’s gravity.

  Ollen’s first thought after regaining his feet was finding Caleeza. There was no frantic urgency; after all, Caleeza could take care of herself, and she carried the star stone which offered her better odds against adversity. But the unease he felt over the separation was compelling. He glanced repeatedly at the stream, as he tried to get his bearings, half expecting her to float in at any moment. From where he stood, the waterfall he rode down was still visible in the near distance. To his right, the stream curved out of view behind a wall of boulders.

  What should I do? Should I wait for her here since she knows the direction to take? Would she find me? Or should I back track to find her and risk possibly missing each other along the way? I would need to take a different route to reach her.

  Ollen decided to build a fire and dry things out, giving Caleeza a chance to reach him. He emptied his pack, which he had managed to hold on to, and spread out its contents on heated rocks in the hot moisture-thirsty sun. For further input into planning a course of action in the event Caleeza didn’t make an appearance in a reasonable amount of time, he unfolded the wet crystal floss map and studied it carefully, comparing the map to his surroundings. It didn’t take long for him to realize they didn’t match up.

  He was standing in a rocky chasm, the opposite bank rising high above the stream. The map, despite its errors in size and proportion, had …so far… faithfully rendered basic features of the valley, but there was no indication of the presence of a stream. There were some markings however that may have indicated the presence of a marsh around the overlapping squares and rectangles that represented the jungle gym forest. Nor was there any indication of a drop in the terrain. In fact the bank on which he stood didn’t look anything like the more familiar terrain and growth he could see growing uniformly on the cliff across the water.

  Something catastrophic had taken place here since the map was woven. Some great force had churned the terrain topsy-turvy where he stood, leaving the far bank undisturbed; which made sense considering the map was woven before the Dark Devastation. But Ollen wasn’t convinced the disturbance occurred that long ago. Further reflection on the landscape suggested the disturbance that took place here occurred more recently than the seeding of the forest on the opposite bank. Still the event, whatever it was, happened a long time ago, as new growth, including some trees, had taken root in the jumbled rocky terrain with spotty success.

  Caleeza could only watch in horror and near panic as the current swept Ollen away. Calm down. Stop and think. Ollen would eventually come ashore somewhere. All she had to do was find a way to reach him.

  She could make out what looked like a low ridge and dry ground to the north through the trees. It was the direction she wanted to go, but an open gap in the reach of the jungle gym tree branches made crossing over the main current of the stream impossible. Then she remembered she had the star stone in her possession. With it she could draw upon enough elemental energy to teleport herself, within a limited range, across the rushing water …the distance across was within that range she hoped.

  Calming her rapidly beating heart and forcing her mind to focus, Caleeza’s fingers caressed the small smooth golden stone stashed in a secure pocket inside her tunic and willed herself to a cluster of branches beyond the deep rushing current. A breath later, to her relief, she was clinging to her new perch on the north side of the stream.

  “Ollen!” she called out again, searching for Ollen in the water and in the trees. She teleported several short jumps to the shore. As the ridge of dry land drew closer, the jungle gym trees thinned and ground became exposed. Caleeza climbed down to stand on soil once again.

  Drawing energy from the elemental forces took its toll. Caleeza paused briefly, breathing hard, and replaced the star stone to its pouch. She could hear the distant rush of water, a sound quite different from the softer murmur of the stream. With rising panic, she hurried downstream calling out his name, then listened for a response, but no voice returned her call.

  Following the bank of the stream she eventually came to a drop off into oblivion through high rocky cliffs that barred her progress. She would have to take a circuitous route over rocky terrain to the lower level.

  Leaving the waterfall, she hadn’t gone far when she came upon a new crisis. Ice cold terror coursed through her veins.

  “Growl…l…l…!” The horrendous roar paralyzed her with fear.

  Caleeza’s heart p
ounded hard in her chest, her limbs shaking, her blood throbbing past her ears. It was Theon’s meat-eater, the species he claimed kept the plant eaters in check. The colonists had seen the enormous tracks, but never before had any of them actually encountered one …until now. The scaled beast, twice her height and ten times her weight, reared up on its massive hind legs.

  Theon had predicted bear like creatures kept the valley’s plant eaters in balance. Caleeza had actually seen Earth bears during her long sojourn in Alaska, but the beast that threatened her now, despite its long sharp claws and teeth, looked more like the pictures she had seen of Earth dragons. It didn’t breathe fire, but Caleeza could smell its foul breath as it roared at her again. Trembling uncontrollably, she slowly stumbled backward, away from the beast, away from the stream, away from the direction she needed to go. The beast approached slowly studying its unfamiliar prey. Not daring to take her eyes away from the predator to look behind her, she stepped on something thick and soft that squished under her feet. Then losing her footing, she began to fall. Almost instantly the sky disappeared.

  The fall down a rocky hole turned into a long bouncing, sliding ride down a narrow slippery tunnel that glowed with a phosphorous green light. Frantically, she tried to stop her momentum, but the angle of the tunnel was too steep. She grabbed at the iridescent green growth, but it had no strength to hold her. Nor did it slow her down. The thick glowing succulent growth cushioned much of the course except for the occasional bruising from protruding underlying rock. Finally Caleeza landed with a jolt, her head hitting hard against a rock upon landing …and she lost consciousness.

  The long awaited holiday break from the Academy finally arrived. The long dreaded holiday break would be a more apt description in Kiril’s opinion, but there was little he could do except take the punches. Rojaire, Kaylya, Traevus, Kiril, and Thayla teleported from the academy gardens to Galeza, Kiril’s home village and the home of Councilor Kreeze, Proctor of the Northern Provinces. Councilor Kreeze would have his chance to further reprimand and mete out punishment; and his chosen mother and chosen father, as well as his entire village, would have a chance to refuse to allow him to join the colony. The only one he was looking forward to seeing was Drak; Drak at least would understand.