Aliens Abroad

by Gini Koch

  “Hope this doesn’t end up with us being fed to a monster in the core of the world or something,” Reader said quietly to me.

  Fathade heard him and she giggled. “We have no monsters, and the core of our moon is more metals. We have no religion—Jeff asked and Charles had to explain the concept. We are not in need of believing in a supernatural overseer.”

  “Works for me. Do we want to do the SuperBun planet test now? Or just let everyone else experience the world?”

  “Can we do both?” Fathade asked. “I know you are in a hurry and, frankly, so are we. The sooner the Orange Scourge is gone, the better. And if it turns out that the rabbits cannot save us, then the sooner we know that, the better as well. We have been formulating ideas for how to survive in space.”

  “You’re doing okay in the Distant Voyager. Maybe you’re all adaptable enough to do it.”

  She shook her head. “As long as we are close to Cradus, Spehidon, and Crion, all that we need we can achieve. But the farther we go from our world, the less . . . alive we are. Many years ago this was tested. Those who traveled off world were returned to us dead. We could not even rejoin their dead bodies with Cradus. We are limited to our world. But if the Orange Scourge cannot be stopped, or we cannot figure out how to take enough of Cradus with us if we must evacuate, then we may be facing extinction.”

  “Not gonna let that happen, so let’s rock and roll. Do you somehow have enough Moon Suits for about a hundred people, several for various other animals, and enough for a massive amount of rabbits?”

  She nodded. “We have a full storeroom of them, just in case. We don’t waste things, and they were created long ago, when we used to welcome visitors.”

  “About that,” Reader said, “it really seems like you’re afraid of something.”

  “Many things,” Fathade said sadly. “But mostly that others will come and try to steal our world from us.” She still sounded sad but now looked angry. “Our world is filled with what others consider precious metals and resources. But it is our home and the only place where we can survive.”

  “I saw a lake of something pale and sort of a silvery purple that I couldn’t identify—was that rubidium?”

  She nodded. “It was. We also have rivers of gold and copper, mountains of silver and pewter, beaches of platinum, oceans of mercury.”

  “I can understand why you’re trying to keep people away,” Reader said.

  Joe nodded. “Not just Earth values these things.”

  “Then let’s stop jawing,” Randy said, “and listen to Kitty. It’s time to roll.”

  CHAPTER 63

  WE TRIED A MOON Suit on SuperBun. It worked on him just as it had on the rest of us. While we did so, he spoke with the other rabbits. All of them were willing to give the suits a go.

  Naturally, as soon as the rabbits started heading for us, the others on board noticed. Donned my Recap Girl cape and explained what was going on.

  Was somewhat surprised that everyone wanted to try on a Moon Suit and give the world a go. Was less surprised when Gadhavi explained that they’d found another observation lounge, this one that gave them a view of everything that the ship could “see.” So, they’d been watching Jeff, Jamie, and the others interact with the Cradi and, naturally, if it was safe for them, everyone else wanted in on the fun.

  Christopher was the closest thing to a holdout, but only because he wanted the full explanation for how his children would be safe. Once he’d gotten that from Tito and Fathade, he was also all in on gearing up.

  Realized that Team Tinman hadn’t exaggerated—the boredom levels had clearly been high. Maybe we’d hit this world just in time, for them and us.

  To speed things up, anyone who could walk on their own took at least two rabbits with them as passengers. This included Ginger, Bruno, and Lola, all of whom were all about being able to go out with everyone else and see things, as well as protect everyone from the so-far nonexistent threats Cradus might have for us.

  Shocking me to my core, though, was that Algar was also coming along. “You’re going Full Metal Jacket, my Ard Ri?” I asked him as Reader parceled out rabbits to various carriers.

  “Of course I am, lassie. This is a beautiful place. I want to visit just like everyone else does.”

  “Um, okay.” Maybe he was doing it for cover, though he really had no need.

  “The weasels are coming, too,” he added, as he put Moon Suits on them as well. Then he handed me their carrier. “Would you take them out for me, lassie?”

  Wanted to say no, but reminded myself that this would be a stupid thing do to. Instead I took the Royal Hatbox in one hand, put SuperBun on my shoulder and Peter in my purse, and headed off. Did check to see if I had Poofs On Board. I did not. Maybe they needed the Moon Suits here and that was why Algar was in one.

  “Should I put protection onto the Poofs?” I asked casually.

  “Oh, I doubt it,” Algar said. “This seems like a very peaceful place. They’re probably getting a bit of a rest.”

  Now wasn’t the time and we weren’t in the place to ask him what the hell he meant. Instead, just went through the airlock with the last group of us. Serion was waiting at the exit from the tunnel.

  “There you are,” she said pleasantly. “I have gathered the star charts for the galaxy.”

  “That’s great, thank you.” Heard squeals of joy from the kids as the street started moving them. There were some squeals from the adults, too. Hacker International weren’t on the street—they were too busy trotting over to any Cradus native and asking them excited questions.

  She nodded. “We thank you for doing what you can to help us. Not many would.”

  “I’d argue that mindset, but I can’t—your world is filled with too much that the rest of us consider precious. If you had diamonds and other precious gems it would be even worse.”

  “Oh, we do,” she said. “They surround the core of the moon. We have them inside of us, too—they allow our circuitry to run, our minds to think.”

  “Wow.” Told her about the various robots, cyborgs, and androids we had on Earth, including the ones that had originally used diamonds in the brains. “We have to find a better way to protect you guys from unwanted visitors than what you currently have.”

  “Why so? It’s already worked several times.”

  “It didn’t work with us. For all we know, those who you think it worked on are coming back with reinforcements. Maybe it worked and they’re not. But statistically you’re not going to be ignored forever. Let me get some of us together and ponder the situation.”

  We caught up with the others at the edge of the Orange Scourge. Everyone had been waiting for SuperBun, so I put him down with a snuggle. “You be careful.”

  He promised that he would, then he hopped over to the edge and sniffed. This still smelled edible. He started eating. He could successfully chew and swallow in the Moon Suit.

  I put Peter down, also with a snuggle. “You be careful, too.”

  Peter also said he would, then hopped over to join SuperBun. All the many rabbits tried the Orange Scourge. All declared it delicious. No one had an issue eating in their Moon Suit. Several shared that they had no problem pooping, either. They tucked in with gusto. Soon the Orange Scourge was littered with golden rabbits and what looked like normal rabbit pellets, like some bizarre Easter pageant.

  The least weasels squeaked at me. They liked what Mother had provided—they got Poof Chow, apparently—but wanted a change.

  Put the Royal Hatbox down with a sigh. “You guys had better all come back when you’re called. I don’t want the Ard Ri freaking out about losing you.” Opened the Hatbox and let them scurry out.

  They squeaked thanks at me, then raced over to where Peter and SuperBun were and began eating. They didn’t look like they were convulsing or anything, so allowed them to continue. Left the Hatbox
there, too, just in case.

  “How often do they eat?” Serion asked.

  “I think at least twice a day at dawn and dusk. Under normal circumstances.” Which these were not. “Could I see how far the Orange Scourge extends?”

  “Of course.” Serion and I were lifted by the ground. Said ground went out of its way to avoid what was truly a vast field of squash. From this perspective, it kind of looked like the Orange Scourge was giving the moon a bad comb-over. Though there was a lot to comb over, so to speak.

  “This reminds me of the scene in Horton Hears A Who when the evil black-bottomed eagle drops Horton’s special clover into a giant field of clover.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Serion said politely.

  “So few ever do.” Was really glad I hadn’t made a comb-over comment. Saw what kind of looked like water if it was made out of mercury, so assumed this was their ocean. “Does the Orange Scourge grow in the ocean?”

  From what I was seeing, it was avoiding it. Turned around to look in other directions. There were patches of orange dotted about—as if the moon had lost most of its hair though some was valiantly hanging on—but we were definitely near the largest patch.

  “No, thankfully, it does not, nor in any lakes of rubidium. And it does not seem to affect them, either, for which we are grateful.”

  We returned to the others. Noted that the rabbits weren’t eating the squash stems. Did my best to bring up information from my animal sciences classes from so long ago now. As I remembered, they were less thrilled with stems and anything dry, which might have been why they weren’t enjoying Mother’s offerings.

  The least weasels, on the other hand, were eating the stems. So there was that, for whatever it was worth.

  “They seem very hungry,” Serion said hopefully. “Does that mean they will clear out the Orange Scourge quickly?”

  “No bet.” Having seen just how much there was to eat, my real answer was that I doubted it, but that seemed counterproductive to say aloud. Realized we weren’t leaving until the rabbits finished, though. Meaning we needed to do a calculation. Meaning Chuckie was up.

  Conveniently, he was with Jeff and Jamie. Wruck, Butler, Maurer, and the Kristie-Bot were all in conversation with Feoren and Cavus.

  Went to Chuckie and explained the dilemma. He nodded. “I already did the calculations. We’re here at least a week.”

  “I looked at the full expanse, and that was just for the stuff in this area, and I think you’re underestimating.”

  “Should we leave the rabbits and go to Kreaving, then come back?” Jeff asked. “We have no idea how long that system has.”

  “Only if we know where we’re going,” Stryker said, coming up behind us. “This place is fantastic! But once the game was over, we were working with Mother to see if we could narrow down the distress call’s location.”

  “When did the game end?”

  “Once the Ard Ri told us he saw you guys all outside in Moon Suits.” Stryker sounded reproachful. “You just love hogging all the cool stuff.”

  “That’s me, Eddy, all the way. So, what’s the good word on finding Kreaving?”

  “Terrible. We think we have the general sector of the galaxy identified. But it’s a huge area with a lot of stars within it. Mother thinks we could spend weeks searching without a better way to narrow things down.”

  “We can’t just give up,” Jeff said.

  “We aren’t,” Stryker said. “It’s just going to take time.”

  “Wasn’t my plan, either, Jeff. Serion has their star charts. I say we spend the time here, letting the bunnies do their good eating work, while others figure out where we really need to go. That has to be a better use of time than us just flying around randomly, hoping and shouting Kreaving’s name through our hailing channels.”

  “It makes sense,” Jeff admitted. “And the rabbits are going to need more than a day.”

  “Sounds good,” Stryker said. “I’ve always wanted to be an astrogator.”

  “A what? I see no gators here.” Wondered how Alliflash and Gigantagator were doing for a moment. Hopefully well.

  “An astrogator is someone who does astrogation, navigation in space,” Chuckie explained.

  “Oh. That word sounds totally made up.”

  “All words are made up, Kitty,” Stryker pointed out a tad smugly.

  “Blah, blah, blah. Just get all of Hacker International to astrogate or whatever. Chuckie, you’re probably going to need to help them.”

  He grinned. “Not you?”

  “Oh, I could, but I have another issue. We need to figure out where the spores or seeds or whatever came from, because while the rabbits can clear this out—we hope—if we leave and Cradus is hit again, it’s just going to be the same old déjà vu.”

  “I agree,” Jeff said. “I just have no idea how.”

  “Happily, I do.”

  Jeff groaned. “I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?”

  “Probably. I think it’s time for the crew of the Distant Voyager to break up.”

  CHAPTER 64

  AMAZINGLY ENOUGH, there weren’t a lot of arguments about my idea to have the sports car section of the ship—the one made for exploration and fast exits—take a little trip around this small solar system. Drax felt it was sound, Fathade insisted they could easily get the sports car section of the Distant Voyager up high enough for takeoff, and we had more than enough volunteers. And no one was tired, that secret two-day nap having given everyone plenty of rest and energy.

  One who wanted to go was Fathade. “If you go to take this risk for us, one of us should go with you,” she insisted.

  “You just told me how your guys died trying this before,” I pointed out.

  “And,” Jeff said nicely, “That means not just no, but hell no.”

  “However, the plan is to remain within range of and close to Crion. That means that I should be fine, and if I’m not, I can be brought back quickly.”

  “She has a point, Jeff,” I pointed out. “And you know that James won’t let her be harmed.”

  Because we didn’t want to risk having to leave and no one being able to fly the saucer section—which could fly without the sports car portion—it was decided that all of Airborne would stay on Cradus.

  Reader had pulled rank and put his foot down, so he was captaining the sports car. Wruck and Drax insisted on joining him. Interestingly enough, Hochberg also insisted on going, just in case. “I’m the Vice President, and I’m military. It’s me or Hammy.”

  Hamlin shrugged. “I’d suggest both of us, Jeff.”

  “I’m not going to concede authority,” Reader said.

  Hamlin laughed. “Son, that’s not my plan. But I’m Air Force, meaning I can actually fly. I realize that Mister Drax makes ships that can almost fly themselves. But, just in case, you need backup.”

  “I can agree with that,” Jeff said. “But James is in charge.” Both Hochberg and Hamlin nodded.

  “So, with Fathade, that makes six. Do we need more than that for the away team?” Kind of felt like we did, but didn’t want to be a worrywart.

  “I’d like Mister Buchanan,” Hamlin said. “I realize he’s your guardian, Kitty, but, honestly, this is the safest place I’ve seen in a long time, and we could use his observation skills.”

  “I agree,” Jeff said, giving Buchanan the hairy eyeball.

  Buchanan rolled his eyes. “God forbid I do my job, Mister Executive Chief.”

  “Saving these people matters to Kitty, therefore, it’s part of your job.” Jeff seemed quite bristly. Maybe he’d forgotten that Buchanan and Adriana were an item.

  “Send the boys, too.” Everyone looked at me.

  “Who?” Hochberg asked. “Some of the children?”

  “Dudes, seriously? No. Len and Kyle. They’re both smart, observant, and
they work well with Malcolm. Plus, they’re young and Len has fantastic reflexes. They’ve both learned to think like me. Take them. Or Mister Joel Oliver. Or all three. But I want someone who absolutely can think like me along, and since Tim’s assigned to the saucer and I’m actually going to spend some time being a mother, that leaves Len, Kyle, and MJO.”

  “All three,” Buchanan and Reader said in unison.

  “See? Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “A crew of nine should be sufficient,” Drax said.

  “Pity,” Camilla said from behind me, “because it’s going to be ten. I’m going. I’m with Hammy—this planet is incredibly peaceful and the Moon Suits and rabbits are handling the only threats to our people and the Cradi. So, I’m going, too.”

  “Agreed,” Jeff said quickly.

  Drax nodded. “Ten is preferable.”

  “Super and duper. Let’s get everyone rolling.”

  Preparations were quickly made—Mother had ported a version of herself to the sports car, so everyone would be okay that way. Good-byes were said, the crew got into the lower section, and the spectacle began.

  The ship’s separation was interesting in that it was normally supposed to happen only in space. But Cradus made it easy, by raising the ship up to the top of the highest mountain again, supporting both sections while separation happened, then lowering the saucer back to where it had been while lifting the sports car section higher. During all of this the Distant Voyager sparkled like it was part of Cradus and always had been. The sports car took off in what looked like a shower of fireworks but was just the turbothruster exhaust sparkling against Cradus’ atmosphere and Crion’s light.

  We watched until they went far enough that we couldn’t see them anymore, not even gleaming against Spehidon. The gas giant was huge in the sky—larger than our moon or sun ever looked from Earth. It was beautiful, with bands in all the shades of red, yellow, gold, and orange. Really wondered if the Orange Scourge spores weren’t from the planet somehow, despite Fathade and her people thinking otherwise. Oh well, that was Reader and his team’s job.