The Star-Keeper Imperative

by C N Samson

  “Whoo, so hot!” the young woman said as they marched along. Rheinborne silently agreed; the sunlight on his skin was painful. He remained alert for anyone or anything that might come upon them, but all around was a dead stillness.

  “So quiet out here, it’s almost scary,” Tahla commented, echoing his thought. “I heard that there’s a planet in the Fornav system where there are these huge worm creatures that burrow right through rock, as easily as swimming.”

  “A worthy prey,” Hurgompo said.

  After a few minutes, the drone came to a hover at the edge of a deep, winding canyon. Rheinborne estimated that it was around fifty feet across, and four times that distance to the bottom. The river that had carved out the canyon was little more than a thin stream now, providing moisture to the sad clumps of bushes and vegetation that dotted the sandy floor.

  Kassyrinx looked over the edge and made a high-pitched trill. He drew back, his head crest rising. “I suppose I have to resign myself to the fact that the thing may be all the way down there. Someone please tell me this isn’t so.”

  Tahla typed on the control pad. The ASU bobbled in the air, then descended into the canyon. A holographic projection of the drone’s camera view beamed up from the control pad, allowing everyone to view its progress. It reached the canyon floor and circled a large muddy lump, half-buried in the stream and covered with plant matter.

  “Is that it?” Rheinborne asked.

  “Signal’s at max,” said Tahla. “Let’s get a better look.” She maneuvered the drone closer to the object; the holo-view showed that the lump had an irregular, cloth-like surface.

  “Huh,” the girl said. “It’s not the pod, but then—”

  She shrieked as mud-covered human hands erupted out of the lump and seized the drone. The holo-view jerked crazily, then a filthy, bearded face appeared.

  Rheinborne ran to the edge of the canyon. He slid his goggles up and saw movement down below in the stream, but couldn’t make out the details. Valicia came up next to him, shouldered the rifle and peered through the scope.

  “Can I see?” Rheinborne asked. She passed the rifle to him. The magnified view allowed him to focus on a raggedy human figure, gripping the drone with both hands and holding it up to his face.

  “Blake, don’t shoot! He’s trying to say something!” Tahla exclaimed. “Let’s hear him speak.”

  Rheinborne handed the rifle back to Valicia and returned to the others. On the holo-view, the man’s mouth moved. Tahla shut off the drone’s motor and activated the audio pickup.

  “I knew you’d come! I knew you’d come!” the stranger said, over and over.

  Tahla switched on the drone’s speaker. “Hey, what’s your name?” she asked.

  The man twitched in surprise. Tahla repeated her question.

  “Ho, yes, it’s you,” the man said. “I am Yanizov, and I have what you seek. Please come, please come, please come!”

  Tahla muted the audio. “What do you all think?”

  “Forgive me if I state the startlingly obvious,” said Kassyrinx, “but that fellow looks positively unhinged.”

  “Might be trap,” Hurgompo rumbled.

  “He looks like a survivor,” said Tahla. “We should help him.”

  Captain Drummond had been listening to the conversation on the group channel and asked to know what they were seeing. After Rheinborne informed him, the captain gave his opinion. He suggested that they all go down and force the man to give up the Chythex device.

  “I’ve got a clean shot,” Valicia said over the channel. She was still at the canyon’s edge, the rifle trained on the man below. “Give the word and I can put him down.”

  “No!” said Tahla, shocked. “Look, he’s obviously been out here by himself for Lord knows how long. He’s probably starving, and wants to trade for a few necessities.”

  Kassyrinx emitted a low warble. “What if he’s not alone?”

  “Mr. Rheinborne,” Drummond said, “what’s your assessment?”

  Rheinborne thought it over for a bit and finally said, “We’ll go down and negotiate a trade. Tahla will stay back and monitor us with the drone. If there’s an ambush, then Captain Drummond will come in and extract us.”

  “The Libertine isn’t exactly a gunship, you do realize,” the captain said.

  “But it does have flares and concussion shells, doesn’t it?”

  “Indeed so,” Drummond replied. “But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, eh?”

  “All right,” Rheinborne said. “Any objections?”

  “None to speak of,” said Kassyrinx.

  Tahla switched the drone’s audio back on. The holo-view showed that the man sat on the ground, the drone between his knees. He repeatedly uttered “please come” in a prayerful voice.

  “Mr. Yanizov, hi,” the girl said. “Some people are going to meet with you. But how would they get down there?”

  The holo-view tilted wildly as Yanizov fumbled with the drone and aimed it at the canyon wall. “Long trail there, long trail.”

  When the view stabilized, Tahla zoomed in on the wall.

  “Ooh, I see it!” she said. “Right there.” She enhanced the view, and now Rheinborne could perceive a thin path that switchbacked its way down the wall of the canyon.

  “If that’s been settled,” said Kassyrinx, “then we shouldn’t keep the man waiting, now should we?”

  CHAPTER 22

  RHEINBORNE, VALICIA, Kassyrinx, and Hurgompo traversed the trail to the bottom, walking in that order. When the group reached the shadowed canyon floor, Yanizov released the ASU. The drone floated up and came to a hover, a few feet above the man’s head.

  “No shoot! No shoot!” Yanizov shouted. He raised his hands, even though the group was still a dozen yards away.

  Valicia lowered the rifle, letting it hang from its strap. “All right,” she called. “No shoot.” She pulled down her mask and raised her goggles. The others did the same.

  Rheinborne looked back, saw Tahla standing far above at the rim of the canyon. She waved enthusiastically.

  “Come, come!” Yanizov said, gesturing and pointing downstream.

  Rheinborne studied the strange man as he and the rest of the group approached. Yanizov’s enormous beard and wild head of hair were matted and dirt-streaked. He stood nearly as tall as Kassyrinx, and the tattered clothes he wore clung to his lean frame.

  A small metal disk hung from a loop of wire around his neck. Valicia pointed it out to Rheinborne, whispered that it was the locator that she had attached to the case containing the Chythex component.

  “Please exercise all due caution,” Captain Drummond said over the group’s ECM channel.

  “Yeah, and don’t kill him!” said Tahla.

  Rheinborne halted the group several paces from the man.

  “You know what we’re looking for?” he asked.

  Yanizov touched the locator device. “Yes, yes.” His eyes grew wide with fear.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Rheinborne saw Hurgompo moving up, the sword in his hand. He ordered the hrulaphan to stand down and to sheath the weapon. Hurgompo reluctantly complied.

  Valicia raised her hands. “We’re all friends here,” she said. “Please, lead on.”

  Yanizov nodded vigorously, skittered away. He kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure they were following.

  The drone kept pace with the group as they traveled for half a mile along the canyon floor. Tahla informed them that she did a sweep with the drone’s thermal sensors, but detected no other heat signatures around them.

  “In here, here!” Yanizov said. They had arrived at a jagged crack in the wall that led to a smaller side canyon. The bearded man squeezed through, as did Valicia and Kassyrinx. Rheinborne made it in, although his clothes snagged on the rough stone. Hurgompo’s bulk prevented him from even trying, so he remained outside to stand guard. Tahla guided the drone inside by flying it close to the ground, where the crack was widest.

  The passage ran f
or a short distance and ended in a large circular stone chamber, open to the sky. Piles of random junk were strewn about, and in the center of the chamber was the cylindrical sample return container, lying lengthwise on the ground with the hatch thrown open.

  “See? Is here, here!” Yanizov said, hopping around.

  Valicia ran to the container, poked her head through the hatch. She straightened up and said to Yanizov, “It’s empty.”

  “Empty, yes.”

  “Where is the case that was inside?”

  Yanizov plopped onto the sandy ground, fingered the locator. “Not here, not here.”

  Rheinborne began picking through the piles of stuff. “Maybe it’s under all this assorted filth.”

  “No, no!” Yanizov screeched. “No touch! Not here, not here!”

  “Blake, please,” Valicia said, motioning for him to stop.

  Rheinborne crossed his arms, leaned against the wall. How long were they supposed to humor this man, before they just tossed the place over?

  “Yanizov, do you remember where you put the case?” Valicia asked.

  The bearded man tittered nervously. His gaze wandered to the drone, which puttered in the air around the chamber.

  “Perhaps something edible would refresh his memory,” Kassyrinx said, reaching into his bag. He withdrew a sealed packet that contained fifteen food cubes and held it out. Yanizov leaped up, eagerly snatched the packet, tore it open. He unwrapped a cube and stuffed it into his mouth.

  “Hey, hey, easy!” Rheinborne said when the man started on a second cube. “You only need three per day. Save some for later.”

  “Yes, later, later!” Yanizov answered, swallowing hard. Kassyrinx gave him a water bulb.

  “It’s so sad,” Tahla said over the group channel. “He’s got hardly anything! Keep him talking while I put together a trade package.”

  The drone rose up out of reach, hovered in the center of the chamber.

  “If I may ask, Mr. Yanizov sir,” Kassyrinx said, “how long have you been existing in this charming pit of bacteria that you call a home?”

  “Long time, long time,” Yanizov said. He drained the water bulb, held his hand out for another.

  Kassyrinx obliged. “And how long, precisely, is long?”

  “Years. Ten, fifteen?”

  “Why do you live here?” Valicia asked.

  Yanizov sipped on the second bulb. “Here? Why not here? Not offworld. Not in domes.” He made a face of disgust.

  The man’s babble was starting to grate on Rheinborne, but he played along. “So you found the container, did you?”

  “Yes, yes! Saw it crash, boom. Brought it back. Found relic. Knew people would come. No one throws away Chythex relic. No one!”

  Rheinborne stroked his chin. That was actually sound reasoning. Maybe he wasn’t quite so crazed, after all.

  “Then today I hear flying sound,” Yanizov continued. “Knew you had come. Knew it!” He grinned, took more sips.

  Captain Drummond’s voice crackled over Rheinborne’s module. “Sorry to intrude, everyone, but I’ve just uncovered some information about your new friend there. His name is Manton Yanizov, formerly a climatologist in the Arctareen Science Council.”

  Drummond went on to say that ten years ago, Yanizov had proposed a number of ideas to stop the planet’s warming. One idea was to construct a grid of mirrors around the planet to reflect excess sunlight; another was to somehow move Arctareen into an orbit that was far enough away from the star to allow cooling. All of his proposals were rejected as too expensive, radical, or unfeasible. He was made a laughingstock in the city press, and eventually dropped out of sight.

  Now we know how he ended up, Rheinborne thought.

  “Okay, I’m back!” Tahla declared, cutting in on Drummond’s transmission. “Come on outside! Say that you have a bunch of gifts for him.”

  Rheinborne nodded at Valicia, who told Yanizov what Tahla had said.

  “Gifts, gifts?” Yanizov echoed gleefully. “Where?”

  “Just outside,” said Valicia. “Let’s all go, okay?”

  Yanizov grinned, exposing yellow teeth. He vanished into the chamber’s narrow passage.

  Rheinborne let the others go first, but exited ahead of the drone. Hurgompo, still waiting in the canyon, curled his trunk as he eyed Yanizov, who hopped around in the stream.

  In the distance, Rheinborne spotted Tahla at the foot of the trail they had taken into the canyon. Next to her was a hover pallet with a tarp-wrapped bundle on it.

  “Our friend over there has the gifts,” Valicia said, going over to the bearded man. “Go on, it’s all right.”

  Yanizov hesitated. He loped forward a few steps, then skittered back to Valicia’s side.

  “Okay,” she said. “We’ll go together.”

  Yanizov and Valicia headed in the girl’s direction. The drone flew on ahead of them.

  “Is safe?” Hurgompo asked Rheinborne.

  “So far, yes. But let’s not let them get too far ahead.”

  They all reached Tahla several minutes later. She introduced herself to Yanizov and invited him to unwrap the bundle. He ripped the tarp away and gave a cry of joy.

  “Now that’s a pile of presents,” Rheinborne said.

  The bundle contained a stack of food cube packets, a case of water bulbs, and a pair of men’s work jumpsuits. Beside those were a hand lantern, two solar batteries, and a portable atmospheric water generator unit. Yanizov looked to be particularly pleased with the latter item, as he kept touching and caressing it.

  “This is all yours,” Valicia said. “All we want in return is the relic.”

  “Yes, relic, yes.” Yanizov splashed into the stream, felt around with both hands in the spot where he had lain in wait. He gave a yank, pulled up a muddy aluminum case and presented it to Valicia. She placed the case on the ground, opened it.

  Inside, nestled within a molded gel padding, was the ovoid Chythex component.

  “Wait a second,” Rheinborne said, “it was right there all along?”

  Yanizov cackled, jabbed a finger at him. “Right there, right there!”

  Kassyrinx made an amused chirp. “You are one shrewd fercocker, Mr. Yanizov sir.”

  Rheinborne glowered at the bearded man. “Yeah, you fooled us all, didn’t you?”

  Valicia shut the case, picked it up by the handle and stood. “Thank you,” she said to Yanizov.

  “You know,” Tahla said to the man, “you could come with us, if you want.”

  The suggestion seemed to horrify him. “Leave here? No, no leave!” He removed the locator device from around his neck, flung it into the slow-moving stream. He then grasped the handle of the hover pallet and sped away with his new belongings.

  “So much for gratitude,” Rheinborne said. He retrieved the locator from the muddy water. “Let’s get out of here.”

  CHAPTER 23

  CAPTAIN DRUMMOND MET the group at the foot of the Libertine’s cargo bay ramp. Tahla had the drone tucked under her arm, while Valicia carried the component case. She had rinsed it off in the stream before they left the canyon.

  “Well done, everyone. Well done!” Drummond said. “I trust the mad cat enjoyed his loot?”

  “Oh, come on, Uncle Angus!” Tahla replied. “It was a fair trade.”

  “Did you at least get the pallet? Oh, I see you let him have that as well. Have you any idea how much it cost?”

  Rheinborne cleared his throat. “Could we get under way now?”

  “Ah, yes, certainly,” Drummond said. He sighed in resignation as he headed up the ramp.

  IN THE CARGO BAY, THE captain collected and stowed away the weapons and protective gear from the group. He and his niece then headed to the cockpit to perform pre-flight checks.

  Rheinborne and the others gathered in the crew lounge, where Valicia placed the carrying case on the table and opened it, revealing the Chythex component. Now that Rheinborne could see it up close, he noted that the ovoid object had a hexagonal te
xture overlaid upon an irregular metallic surface, and was riddled with various input ports and connection receptacles.

  “Most interesting,” said Kassyrinx. “It’s of sidhreen design, I’m certain.”

  “How can you tell?” Rheinborne asked.

  “After our military service, my brother and I went to technical college together. He became a master technician, while I went on to greater success in the hospitality industry.”

  The room lights flashed blue, and Captain Drummond announced that the ship would be lifting off in two minutes.

  “I’d better get this stowed away,” Valicia said. She closed the case and took it with her as she exited the lounge.

  Rheinborne and the two aliens moved to sit on the couch.

  “That went easier than I thought it would,” said Rheinborne, taking a nano food cube from his jacket pocket. “I figured we’d have to fight for it or something.”

  Kassyrinx let out an amused cheep. “Why didn’t you take the rifle?”

  “Because,” Rheinborne said between bites of the cube, “Valicia got to it first.”

  “It was my distinct impression that she would have shot that Yanizov fellow, if no one had objected.”

  “Yeah.” Rheinborne finished the cube and grabbed a water bulb from a tray on the low table in front of the couch. He had also gotten that same impression, and it saddened him.

  The ship trembled as it blasted off from the planet. Rheinborne stared out the window, absently sipping from the bulb. The pale blue of the sky soon faded to black.

  “Leaving atmosphere now,” Tahla said over the shipwide comm. “We’ll be doing one full orbit first, because of the captain’s superstition, then—”

  “As I’ve told you before, it is not a superstition,” Drummond interrupted. “It is a valid safety precaution. What would happen if there was an engine fault that developed right after atmosphere departure? If you’re still in orbit, there’s still time to—”

  “Something on the scope,” Tahla said. “Approaching from the stern.”

  “An Arctareen vessel?” the captain asked.