by Gini Koch
Drax ran into the room before she answered. “It’s a virus,” he said, sounding furious. “Ravi and Serene have almost completed the necessary steps to eliminate it.”
“That was fast,” Tim said. “And I mean that as it would be fast for an A-C, let alone humans.”
Drax nodded. “It would have taken us hours normally, but since we were all just in there, working to fix Mother’s other issues, the boys knew where to look. And Serene is exceptional.” The way he said it, was glad Brian wasn’t nearby. He wasn’t as jealous as Jeff—who was?—but he could get a good jealousy snit going, and Drax was clearly a little more enamored of Serene than any other woman he spoke about.
Dragged my mind off of that and back to the interesting matter at hand. There was a lot of interesting on this trip. Our Various Powers That Be really enjoyed working in mysterious ways.
We knew when Ravi and Serene were done, because what we all were seeing out the windshield changed. The gasps were audible, even from Team Tinman.
There weren’t a variety of planets and moons here. There was one planet, one very big gas giant. And it possessed a single good-sized moon. A moon that gleamed in this sun’s light.
Because it appeared to be pure metal.
CHAPTER 56
“THAT’S NO MOON FOR SURE,” Tim said. “Is that a Death Star?”
“No,” Drax said slowly as he stared at it. “We’ve heard rumors . . .”
“Rumors of what?” Jeff asked.
“Rumors that a world made entirely of metal existed. We’ve never found it.”
“I think we have now.” Looked more closely, as we were getting nearer every second. “It doesn’t look smooth.”
“It may not be,” Hughes said. “But I need to point out that we’re going to be trapped in the planet’s orbit soon—this wouldn’t be an issue for this ship normally, but we still don’t have control of it, so we can’t control our flight path. If we’re landing on the moon—and despite everyone’s desires to Star Wars it up, it’s a moon, clearly—we need to prepare for that and figure out if the ship will even let us land. If we’re leaving, we need to leave now.”
My line came back on. “You are cleared to land.”
“Super and possibly even duper. However, land where?”
“Land anywhere that’s not orange.”
We were all quiet for a moment. “Um, excuse me?”
“Orange. Avoid it.”
Looked at the gas giant. It looked a lot like Jupiter. “We weren’t actually planning to land on the planet. I mean, I’m not sure we’re equipped to land on or in a gas giant or however that works.” Had no idea, just knew that the only people we knew who could handle living on a gas giant were the Vrierst. We hadn’t colonized Jupiter for any of the humanoid races, only its moons. No, we’d colonized Jupiter for the Vrierst.
“No, not on Spehidon, which is the planet. That’s uninhabited. We are on Cradus, its moon. Surely you can see us.”
“Yes, yes, we can. And what we see is something that looks silvery or platinum or pewter, but we’re not seeing gold or copper. And definitely not orange.”
“Ah, of course. You’re on the dark side.”
“Of course we are,” Jeff muttered. Avoided sharing that now I wanted to hear Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” because I didn’t want to be told that this was an inappropriate time.
“We can allow you to land there,” most-likely-a-woman said, “but it will be easier if you come to the light side. But, again, avoid anything orange.”
“Gotcha. Right now, we’re not seeing landing strips and things like that.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. As you come to us, we’ll adjust and be able to assist. Just avoid the orange.”
“Roger that. Speaking of Roger, my name is Kitty. What’s your name?”
“Oh, apologies. I am Fathade. I look forward to meeting you.”
Figured. Had no idea if that was a male or female or gender nonbinary name. Also had no idea why he, she, or it was suddenly thrilled about meeting us when they’d been trying to get us to leave only a few minutes prior.
“Aliens are, in general, weird.”
“We’ve always found them so, yes,” Fathade agreed. So we had that in common.
Miraculously, Mother announced that she was once again in control of the ship, and she allowed us to actually fly the thing. My role was, thankfully, limited to ensuring that Fathade and the rest of Cradus’ Mission Control were talking us around and down properly, which was me figuring out how to get the button to stay pushed down so everyone was still on our version of speakerphone.
Team Tinman had disengaged from their group huddle around Tito and were backing each of us, just in case. Could tell that Joe and Randy desperately wanted to take a seat away from me, Tito, or Jeff, and had to figure that, wherever Jerry was, he would also like to take one of our seats. Knew without asking that Jeff and Tito would like to give their seats up, too.
They were on Mother’s approved alternates roster. No time like the present to try. “Mother, could Joe and Randy take over for Jeff and Tito at the controls?”
“Not at this time.”
“Why not? We’re trying to land on an alien world. I’d personally really love the guys who trained for this for well over a year to be at the controls, and I’m sure I’m speaking for everyone else on board.”
“I’ll stay at Weapons,” Jeff added.
“Fine. Doctor Hernandez can be relieved.” Randy was behind Tito so he scored taking that slot. Joe looked totally jealous.
Jeff demanded that Wruck, Chuckie, and Reader rejoin us, so they did, bringing Jerry along, mostly because he followed them. Really hoped that we were going to have a better landing than arrival, because we had a lot of people in here now and no way to strap most of them in.
Spehidon was much closer to its sun than Jupiter was to ours. Based on the size of the sun from where we were it seemed as close to this sun as Earth. “Think this system was originally trying to become binary?”
“Possibly,” Chuckie replied. “As we’re learning firsthand, every system is different.”
“We should ask those in the Eagle Nebula about that,” Wruck added.
“True dat.” Cradus gleamed, and the closer we got to the light side, the brighter the moon was. “Is it all metal, do you think?”
“It looks like it,” Chuckie said, “because that doesn’t look like ice. We need to be prepared—we may not be able to breathe on the moon, and, depending on which metals make up the moon, the gravitational force could be crushing. Plus, if this gas giant is anything like the ones in our system, it’ll be sending out radiation, and that puts all of us at risk.”
“Not so long as we remain inside the ship,” Drax said. “It’s protected.”
“But the gravitational force is a risk if we land on the moon,” Chuckie replied. “And the radiation is a risk if we step outside. I don’t know that the ship is equipped with enough spacesuits. Certainly not enough for the various sizes we have on board, and by that I mean the kids. Let alone the animals.”
“I can test,” Wruck said. “There is no planet or moon where I can’t go.”
“Excuse me,” Fathade said. “But what are your body constructions? I heard your concerns and they are not without merit.”
Decided I was done being the ship’s telephone operator and that asking Mother’s permission was also something I wasn’t doing right now. “Fathade, you’ll be speaking to Charles in a moment to get all those pertinent details. Enjoy yourselves.”
Took my helmet off and gave Chuckie the “get over here now” hand gesture. He grinned and took the helmet from me while I got up. Then he sat in my chair, put on the helmet, and strapped in. Clearly he’d had the same thought I had about our potential landing. Happily, Mother didn’t object to any of this.
Once settled
, Chuckie started talking to Fathade and my ears turned off. Not that our biological structure wasn’t fascinating, but I didn’t want to hear about what percentage water we all were because it had already been a long trip. Wruck adding in to discuss alien body structures was just overkill as far as I was concerned.
“This may be a bad idea,” Jerry said quietly to me. “If we land, everyone’s going to want to get off the ship. And if they’re told that they can’t, it could be a problem.”
“Yeah, we’ve been being warned about boredom already. But if it means we’re going to die or something, I know that we’re not going to allow anyone to get off.”
“So why land?” Joe asked, as he joined us. “Maybe we just hover out here and talk to Fathade, get what intel we need, and leave.”
“There has to be a reason we were sent here. I mean that seriously. Someone took over Mother’s controls and tossed us here. And before anyone says that it was done to harm us, let’s recall that there are easier ways to kill us out in space. We’re here for a reason. We need to figure out what that reason is.”
“Okay,” Chuckie said so that everyone was listening. “We’re going to land. Fathade feels that our ship will be able to take off again. We’re also going to be using John Wruck to test the atmosphere.”
“I can volunteer, too,” the Kristie-Bot said. “I’m the most advanced model we have, and that way we have human elements to verify.” We all stared at her. “What?” she asked defensively. “I’m part of the team, I’m willing to take risks, too.”
Realized I was doing to her what a lot of people did to me—doubting her because of her job, her attitude, and the way she talked. Sure, she’d blackmailed me to get a part on Code Name: First Lady, but from all I’d been told she’d done a great job and, beyond that, she’d become Team Kitty the moment we’d agreed to have her on the movie. Frankly, as people who’d started out as enemies went, the Kristie-Bot was pretty much in the winner category.
“That’s great, Kristie,” I said. “We’re just worried about you getting hurt. You’re a public figure.”
“So are you and Jeff and half the other people on this trip. I want to help. I’m capable of helping, and, besides Mister Wruck, I have the best chance of survival. John and Cameron are older models and made to be more human, meaning they have more risk. Joe and Randy are still human, just with cyborg enhancements. I’m the only true cyborg we have. So I’m going.”
“She’s convinced me,” Jeff said.
“Good, because we need test subjects.” Chuckie rolled his eyes at the looks he got. “I’m not suggesting we throw John and Kristie out of the ship and hope for the best. Fathade’s people have suits we can use.”
“Space suits?” Hey, wanted to be sure they weren’t just going to hand us their moon’s version of Armani and call it good.
“In a way. Planet suits, for us.” Chuckie sighed. “Look, as I heard Kitty say when she thought she was being quiet, we’re here for a reason. So, let’s land and find out what that reason is.”
CHAPTER 57
CHUCKIE GAVE JOE HIS SEAT, though Jeff stayed at Weapons. Had no idea why, other than the fact that Jeff might have figured that Mother wasn’t going to okay him or Tim leaving their posts. Decided it didn’t matter.
We were able to spot what Fathade had been talking about once we got to the sun side of the moon—there was a heck of a lot of orange scattered about on one section of the moon’s surface. It didn’t fit, though—it wasn’t a metallic color. It was, frankly, more of a neon. The neon orange certainly stood out, though, even against the warmer hues of gold and copper that were in great evidence on this side.
Waited until we were through reentry, which wasn’t all that bad—no one went flying, for example, which was good because I wasn’t strapped in—then went off with Drax while the others stayed on the command deck. I wanted to make sure my kids were okay. Mother kept communications open, though, so we could all hear each other if needed, though she muted the command deck chatter that didn’t pertain to the rest of us.
We gathered up everyone else and headed to go see what we could see. Noted that Algar wasn’t in either room. Figured that, because personnel divided up, each room thought the Ard Ri was in the other room—if they thought of him at all. Decided not to worry that he wasn’t around—either he’d seen this solar system already, which was my assumption, or he’d miss out.
Those of us not involved with landing the Distant Voyager went to an observation lounge, different and much larger than the one Tim and I had been in with Sandy. Drax thought of everything. And so did Algar, because he was already there, watching. Couldn’t blame him—this moon was amazing.
Because this lounge was actually large enough to accommodate a quarter of the ship if it was full, everyone could see easily and comfortably. They were tired of being bored? Well, watching a mountain of what looked like pewter reform itself into a giant landing pad certainly handled that complaint.
Cradus was, apparently, a shifting world. Hadn’t known those were out there, but I was always open to the new ideas. “Fascinating,” Drax said as the ship headed for the highest mountain, which was the one that now had a landing pad.
“Can other planets do this?” I asked him, as the kids and I got closer to the window.
“Not that I’ve seen. But I haven’t traveled as much as Mister Wruck. I haven’t traveled as much as Mossy.”
The Turleen was perched on Drax’s shoulder, so he could see easily. “I haven’t come across anything like this. I wish Muddy and Dew had come with us—they’d love to see this.”
The sun’s reflection on this moon was so dazzling that we couldn’t have looked directly at it if not for the fact that the windows were able to shade, just like transitional sunglasses, depending on the intensity of light. We were likely at Top Of Kilimanjaro Level for the tint, but apparently the glass was also polarized, because the colors seemed accurate.
I was holding Charlie and Siler had Jamie, with Lizzie and Wasim in between us. “This is so totes cool,” Lizzie said, sounding awed as we watched what looked like a river of gold glisten against a silver valley, the mountain adjusting so that these areas weren’t disturbed.
“Amazing,” Wasim agreed. “I’m so glad I got to come along on this journey.”
“Me too, but I sure hope your grandfather understands and doesn’t think you’re kidnapped.” And that none of us got radiation poisoning or worse.
“I’m sure it will all be alright, Queen Katherine.”
Looked at him. Despite the coloring and height differences, Wasim almost always reminded me of Chuckie—he was a brainy, nerdy kid who did his best to make his family proud of him and was also, some day, going to rule his country. He had flashes of cool and flashes of pure royalty, but mostly he was just a cute geek. I approved heartily of cute geeks.
However, because he was smart, knew he hadn’t called me Queen Katherine for no reason. “Mind telling me what that hint was for?”
He nodded. “We are about to greet a new race. We don’t know their political structure. Many are not impressed with presidents or other politicians, I have seen. But everyone seems impressed with kings and queens.”
“The kid has a point,” Siler said. He looked around. “Where’s Mister Gadhavi?”
“Right behind you, sir,” Gadhavi rumbled. “I was checking in with King Jeffrey.”
“Oh, you and Wasim had a chat about this already, didn’t you?”
Gadhavi went to my other side and grinned at me. “We did, yes. We understand this perhaps better than you and your husband do. You are, at your cores, egalitarian. Most you will meet are not.”
“Elected by the people versus ruling by bloodline,” Siler said. “There’s definitely a difference. However, we don’t know what the people on this moon think.”
“Do you think they call it a moon or a planet?” Lizzie asked. “I
mean, it’s totes a moon, but they live on it, so do they think of it that way?”
“Landing in five minutes,” Mother intoned over the loudspeaker.
“Think we’re about to find out,” I said to Lizzie.
“We have been assured that crash positions will not be needed,” Mother went on. “However, I recommend crew and passengers strap in.”
“I don’t want to stop watching,” Jamie said fretfully.
“We don’t have to.” Wasim pointed up. “There are straps here.”
Indeed there were. Mossy transferred to Gadhavi’s shoulder while Drax explained to everyone how to use them. They were a lot like those on various forms of public transportation but with the Drax Extras so near and dear to our hearts. Each strap was attached to something that resembled a shoulder holster—crisscrossed in the back and around each shoulder. The setup kept you on your feet and steady, and it adjusted to all heights and sizes, so we were able to strap all the little kids in, even JR, though Christopher kept a tight hold of his son while Amy held on to Becky.
I followed suit and kept Charlie in my arms and Siler did the same with Jamie. All the other younger kids were being held by adults, so clearly none of us felt safe in trusting that “smooth landing” idea. Gadhavi didn’t offer to hold Mossy, but that was because he wasn’t an idiot. However, could tell that Gadhavi was ready to grab Mossy if need be.
So, prepped and ready, we all got to watch as the Distant Voyager achieved its first landing.
The mountain had already been reforming from a landing pad into something that was shaped more like our ship, so that the saucer would be as supported as the base, and, as we lowered, it raised to meet us. There was a small jolt, like we’d gone over a pothole, but that was it. As landings went, Cradus was number one with a bullet.
Once we were settled and stationary, though, is when the real excitement began.
The mountain or whatever it really was that we were on flowed, taking us and our landing pad with it and carrying us down its side. It was a fast but gentle ride, like being on a smooth roller coaster that didn’t have any big drops.
