Stretching, he discovered how tired he really was and returned to the Slumber Narthex to finish out his sleep with Nicraan.
“Fury”
CHAPTER NINE:
Dawn came. There was gray light. There was pinkish light. Eventually, the grotto entrance glowed in normal yellow sunshine from a dazzling double-sun morning. The viewports were open again, and the team could see all there was to be seen. They did not see much that was informative. Rogue damp walls of rock of unknown mineral composition surrounded the bus, in the background steamed mudflats and steam vents plumed in quiet fury.
Retho awoke stiff from spending his guard stint in one of the drivepit's contour chairs. His usually crisp purple-black fatigue was now crumbled and looked “worn”. He glanced out the forward viewshield to see only a row of gray stalagmites surrounding the vehicle.
Settling back in the comfortable chair, Retho noticed the small evaporating droplets of rain on the bow glass. It must have rained during the night, a phenomenon that occurred regularly. Nocturnal showers were frequent, leaving the day filled with sunshine and little cloud cover.
The safety door to the Slumber Narthex slid aside and Nicraan appeared rubbing the sleepers from his eyes.
"Retho," he called.
"In here," the other responded, extending an arm over the side of the chair. It was clearly seen through the opened hatch of the drivepit through and into the passenger compartment where the beckoning pilot stood.
Nicraan smiled. He was a lean, solidly well-built male in the latter years of fleeting youth, with a smooth handsome face. He still wore his regulation form-fitting boxer-styled shorts and a pair of rubber-soled thongs. Wearily, he rubbed a hand across the large expanse of his bare chest as he collected his thoughts. Finally, he stepped from the antechamber's vestibule and fully into the passenger compartment. Closing the portal behind him, he treaded across the floor and past an active BeeTee installed at the computer spread on his way towards the bow module.
"What's going on?" Nicraan asked, stepping through the supply vestibule and into the drivepit.
Retho looked up at him from his seat, saying, "Nothing. No more communication signals, no registration of alien life forms...nothing. It would appear that whatever caused the communication disturbance has vanished."
Nicraan pulled a face. "Quite odd, wouldn't you say?" he asked.
Retho nodded. "Then again, our scans could be blocked or reflected off by some undetected shield."
"Any on record that has that capability?"
Retho was silent for a moment, and then nodded.
"Well?"
"On file, there is such a shield."
"Yes?" Nicraan pressed, almost annoyed.
"It's a primary defense used on all deep space probes sent out by the Tauron Empire."
A knot formed in the pilot's stomach, and he visibly flinched at the possibility. "Tauron?" he gasped.
Retho nodded.
"Has BeeTee run a check on it?"
"It's been rechecking data since 0400 nodes," Retho reported, estimating that it must have been around that same time he had drifted off into his irresponsible nap.
Nicraan turned and threw his question back into the passenger compartment. "BeeTee," he called.
"Yes, Major Nicraan?"
"Report on the possibility of a shield blocking our scans on the communication disturbance's origin."
A moment, then the cybernetic appeared in the vestibule, its light grid flashing as it said, "Possibility is very likely, Major."
"Do you have anything else on the area?"
"Affirmative. There is a small energy influx within the sector where the communication disturbance was detected. We are still too far to be accurate on exactly what this kind of influx could be. I cannot ascertain a specific energy signature."
Nicraan turned to face Retho. "I think we best get moving."
Retho nodded, leaving the chair and going through the vestibule. As he went, he said, "I'll inform the Pioneer Four of our plans, and waken Capel."
Nicraan nodded, and then faced the cybernetic once again, "BeeTee, plot course and ready the Landrover. I'll be showering."
"Affirmed, Major."
Nicraan was crossing the passenger compartment when he noticed that the Slumber Narthex's door was a jar and saw Capel leaning over the computer spread controls with Retho. He looked fresh and awake.
Perezsire immediately noticed his Number One's attire… "Best get cleaned up, Nicraan. Retho's given me a synopsis on what's been going on," the commander acknowledged. "I'll get us moving while you shower."
"BeeTee has some information I think you'll find interesting. In the meantime, it's already plotting a new course," the pilot said. Heading for the aft modules, he called, "I'll join you shortly."
Capel nodded and passed by, into the drivepit beyond where he joined BeeTee.
Retho finished his communication with the Pioneer. Swiveling the chair to face Nicraan, he said, "I'll get you something from the galley while you shower."
"Much appreciated," Nicraan said, taking the botanist in his arms as he left the console and headed for the aft galley. "You are the best."
Retho grinned and flushed slightly. "I'm just a mirror reflection of what I'm surrounded by."
They kissed, and then Nicraan pulled away and entered the small sanitary facility inside the Slumber Narthex.
Unlike the washroom he had in the Pioneer 4, the bathing cubby wasn't cramped with bright lights. Nicraan took two bath towels off the linen fabricator niche and placed them next to the shower stall, then slide aside the syntheglass door and tabbed on the recycled water to HOT. He smiled, remembering his recent encounter with Retho, and stepped closer to the spray of water, closing the door securely behind him.
A tube of cleansing gel hung from the showerhead and Nicraan lifted it off and lathered his body, ducking his head in and out of the concentrated spray. The hot water steamed and fogged up the closed stall, making his lithe form become silhouette. A gentle lurch reassured him they were on the move again.
Retho was licking his fingers as the miniature galley's Comm holoset bleeped the attention signal. Tabbing the featureless answering control, Capel's face filled the apparatus.
"Yes?"
"Retho, when you're finished, commence scans of the area for new developments concerning the communication disturbance."
"Affirmed. Retho, Out."
The quarter-sized, three-dimensional representation of Capel's head faded from the viewer. Retho turned his attention back to placing foodstuff on a nearby tray from the food dispenser.
The low hiss of the shower had stopped, and Retho headed for the passenger cabin. He was half-way through the Narthex when Nicraan stepped from the bathing facility with a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. His attention was drawn immediately towards Retho. His approaching walk was both graceful and determined; and, somehow seemed incongruous with his taunt black and purple-color coded regulation uniform. Even at the distance that was between them, Nicraan could tell Retho was in a hurry.
"First Meal?" Nicraan asked, cheerful.
"None other," Retho replied, his mind on other matters; and, the smile he offered distant and not sincere. The idea that a Tauron probe landing on this remote rock in Space disturbed the male, and Nicraan sensed the imbalance in Retho's mental stability. Stress factors were mounting within his intimate, and he followed him into the passenger compartment concerned.
Retho placed the tray on the closest divan's sideboard and went to head for the computer console. He stopped as Nicraan placed his hands meaningfully on his shoulders.
"Calm down, Retho," Nicraan cooed. "Perhaps it isn't a Tauron probe."
"Perhaps it is," Retho turned and accepted the pilot's embrace. "Then what will we do?"
"What we must."
"Which is?"
"Launch and try to find asylum."
"Where?" Retho huffed, squeezing the male tightly. "By now the entire System has succumbed to t
he Empire's influence. With Aidennia gone, what will our allies do..?”
"Don't be of little faith," Nicraan whispered, gently stroking the other's soft auburn hair. "The System's inhabitants are much more resourceful than you may think. Remember, Retho, each ally was an independent solar group before joining The System. I doubt each has lost their ability to be on their own."
Retho considered his intimate's advice, and it sounded strong in his ear. Nodding, Retho withdrew from Nicraan feeling better. "You are right. Let's deal with what we know." Smiling, Retho continued toward the computer array across the aisle.
Back at Base Camp, Moela tended to the last cropping of the hydroponics’ garden. She was young, lovely in her short-sleeved regulation fatigue, and her smoothly rounded face held an elfin beauty. Moving over the soil mats positioned to float over the holding tank stands, her angelic face held an enigmatic mystery. In the glow of the noon suns, her hair shone with the gleam of polished wood.
Moela lowered an instrument she was carrying to a dirt mat, thrust the tip into the loam and triggered a switch on the handle. Satisfied with the low hum that the hand-held device oscillated, she cleared the plant from the agri-scanner's inventory program and then she tested another pre-determined spot; triggered the results to register on its tiny screen, then moved on. Below each point she tested rested a seed, their positions marked by a red tab. Above her, the alien suns glowed with a warmth she remembered when, as a young girl, she had stolen time from orientation to go swimming in the local pool of the Academy and then to bask in the rays from Aidennia's sun. Closing her eyes, she still could smell the rich scent of grass and trees, bushes and wildflowers that lined the thoroughfares and passageways of the Academy and, with a little more imagination, she could almost hear the hum of bees.
They would come, she thought, opening her eyes and looking at the neat plots, some covered with the fuzz of green now; others still waiting to support the crops soon to take root. It would be the last harvest for the garden with the ship’s internal food-water distribution systems back on-line.
Even though Retho was the ship's agriculturist, Moela, like the others, held several science degrees and knew enough about plant growth to help needed maintenance, and to know the situation of the hydroponics garden.
She was about to continue on to the next stand when she thought she heard a weak beeping coming from inside the opened Pioneer Four.
"It's a signal from the Landrover!" she cried out; because she had to think a moment to recall what the distinctively short and drawn-in bleeping tone meant, since she had not heard the particular communication sound for so long. Touching the scanner's "HOLD" contact point, Moela returned the device to her utility belt, and then ran inside and over to the Comm Wall in time to hear Capel's disembodied voice calling them.
"'Rover to Pioneer. Come in Pioneer."
Dara was already at the Commpanel and tabbed a key interface control. "Hello, Capel."
Capel's holographic image appeared on a small holoviewer. "Dara? Report, please."
"Status supplemental...other than being lonely, we're fine, Capel." Dara looked relaxed, a little snug. "What have you to report?"
"We've discovered more drinkable water, and some fruits with the oddest collection of flavors."
"Anything else?" Dara's sixth sense tingling as she put forth her question.
"Retho's taken botanical specimens and I've taken samples of rock. The rocks seem to have high mineral content. There are traces of elements we may need for soldering alloys and electrical contacts; also elements with magnetic properties that could be alloyed in many of our structural materials."
"The transmission?" Moela pressed urgently.
"BeeTee has been scanning the source and has found some kind of energy influx. We're en route to investigate."
"Be careful," Dara cautioned.
"Always," Capel smiled, then looked at his daughter. "How are you doing?"
"Fine, Sire. Thank you for your concern. The fetus is in excellent health according to MediComp’s 0600 node’s scan."
Capel grinned and nodded as he said, "Good. I will report back at 1500 nodes."
"Affirmed. Pioneer, out."
Dara sighed with anticipation for the next transmission, giving Moela a cheerful sidelong look, she said, "Everything's going to be just fine."
"I know, Siress. I just wish..."
"What?"
Moela smiled as Dara placed a concerned hand on her arm. Shaking her head, she said, "Nothing."
"Are you sure?"
Moela nodded and it was enough for Dara; her head swimming with her own fears and doubts. She needed to meditate. Collecting herself, she returned to the lower utility deck to finish her duties. Moela watched her go, yet she did not follow. Instead, the young science officer went to the bowport in the command-apse and looked out at the wilderness of not-so-distant vegetation. It was the same.
The tropical trees had over the period of seven to eight months grown to the size of sequoias; and, like every other kind of flora that had sprouted up, they too consisted of an unexplainable phenomenal cell. It was a cell that could duplicate at an incredible rate that was a thousand times as rapid as anything Moela had known as normal. Retho as well was baffled to come up with any concrete explanation; he could only put cause on the firestorm that had brushed the planet from Space more than half a cycle ago. All living things on the surface had absorbed the bizarre radiation that had emitted from the fiery cloud. And, since then, all indigenous life had sprung from their hibernations beneath the ground and grown to giant scale.
A weird feeling was bugging Moela, and it wasn't that of her ignorance of how the jungle about had almost grown over night to such intensity. Yet, it was the ignorance she had to Nicraan's unborn seed held safely within her womb. Her worry was based on her sexual confidence. She knew from orientation conditioning and from her not-to-distant Ka-tela phase that it had less to do with a female's looks than how she felt about herself, and how she felt may depend on coming to terms with that often-elusive first mate in her life. But, Nicraan wasn't the first possible mate in her life; in fact, he was the third, and none of the others had ever made her feel this way. She had once loved Nicraan, but now...did she still love him? Or was its mere obligation for carrying a shared fetus? As far as feeling about how she felt about herself, Moela knew that it couldn't cause the apathy Nicraan seemed to generate toward her, she felt wonderful about herself. Looks were no question... she had them, and they couldn't be put to blame, no matter what faults she tried to find. Then what was it? she asked herself. For one thing, she knew it had to do with her sexual confidence, she was certain about that. It was one of the more paradoxical facts of Aidennian life; how often the most sexually self-confident female turned out 'not' to be the most beautiful, glamorous, or charming. Was she too perfect?
In the long run, Moela knew exactly how Nicraan felt about her didn't matter. She had her child and could contend to raise it on her own without any male counterpart. If they truly were the only survivors of the sundered planet Aidennia; then there was never any hope of a male replacement, and she would be the child's only parent. But, what if Nicraan wished for Retho and himself to raise the child?! She hadn't even thought of that being a possibility! She stifled a gasp, shook her head. Merciful Ancients! her mind screamed in frustration.
Life was never to have been this complicated! Millennium of planning and cultural conditioning had eliminated such problems as divorce, child custody, infidelity, unplanned pregnancy, and sexual confusion for modern System life. Yet, something had gone wrong and now she stood on the deck of a grounded spacecraft on an alien world, pregnant with the child of an Echelon wondering what else could go wrong.
The agri-scanner in her utility belt hummed as a reminder of unfinished work in the hydroponics garden. Squaring her slumped shoulders, Moela turned on her heels and faced the opened airlock.
Clouds piled up like bales of fleece and, by mid-afternoon, smothered the tops of th
e mountains. The suns had long ago begun to paint the mountain walls as the Landrover away team arrived in the quadrant's central highlands. The jungle was wet and hot, thickly covered with ferns, mosses, and giant horse-tail trees. The jungle contained many small streams, lakes, and thinning riverbeds that lead into a gulf. Gnarled, mature trees cloaked in mantles of green leaves and heavy with fruits and bloom stood as they must have for months past in the sylvan forest. Lush bushes and strange, beautiful plants obscured the lower boughs. There were more shades of green and more breathtaking colors than Retho or Nicraan could remember seeing in the plasticrete built population areas on Aidennia.
They walked through the vegetation upriver, their stimulus-starved bodies touching the cool leaves and inhaling the heady fragrance, birds erupting from the forest canopy -- kingfishers darting from the riverbanks, flocks of hornbills skimming above the treetops, their wings sounding like runners panting for breath. The banks of the tea-colored water sprouted wild breadfruits, bananas, and a host of palm and fern trees, all tangled up with hanging vines. As the heat of the rotate intensified, the river's green walls vibrated with the ringing of cicadas.
Then the river grew shallower, forcing them over rocks. Retho surmised that it was the dry season, something hard to fathom in a place drenched with more than two hundred milliretems of rain so far that cycle. As they journeyed deeper through the trees in search of the transmitter, they left the clearing and the Landrover far behind and a feeling of malice steadily increased.
Tangled swamps and cloud-veiled mountains locked away much of the land that stretched before the two Aidennians. Pensively, Nicraan pulled out a portable environmental sensor and began studying it. Retho wandered off ahead, sampling berries and flowers, and noting down details of botanical interest.
Sidereal Quest Page 9
