Parker Interstellar Travels 6: The Celaran Ruins

by Michael McCloskey

  Siobhan stared at the scan. “No way you can tell all that from this scan. You’re cheating.”

  “If by cheating you mean guessing based on a few observations and what I’ve learned of the Celarans so far, you’re right. From orbit I could see these houses absorb light differently in the morning than later in the day. Presumably without inhabitants, it doesn’t take long to bring this battery up to full. I also noted before we landed that these houses keep a constant temperature. I know the doors open for us but not for those eel things. I’m guessing about the processing component part. See if I’m right.”

  Siobhan nodded.

  “Let’s go ahead and move toward our zone,” Telisa said to Cilreth on a private channel. “I want to make a sweep and see if we can find something that advances our state of knowledge about the Celarans.”

  Cilreth sent a nonverbal agreement over the channel. The two walked out of the building onto the outside platform in the chosen direction. They stood side by side, staring at the collection of natural and artificial vines which criss crossed in a complex mess between them and the next house.

  “I wish we could just jump across like at the habitat.”

  “We may as well use these artificial vines. Maybe it will be easier than climbing back down.”

  Telisa stared across the distance for a moment. “Okay, I have a route. Follow me,” she said.

  “Uhm,” Cilreth started uncertainly. Telisa walked straight out on an artificial vine to a nearby spire, trailing a smart rope. She connected it at the destination a meter above where the vine came to wrap the trunk of the spire. Now Cilreth had one line to walk on and one line to hold on to with her hands.

  “As you get to each point, tell the rope to let go and follow up behind. Toss me the ropes as they free up.”

  “Okay supergirl,” Cilreth said, grabbing the smart rope and following Telisa.

  “We’re headed out into our zone,” Telisa told everyone across the shared channel. Cilreth remembered to check the attendant’s feed from up ahead. The Vovokan orbs revealed a collection of houses covered with overgrowth just like the one behind her. There was no sign of any living thing larger than a housecat ahead.

  And that’s the way we like it, old girl.

  ***

  Telisa and Cilreth reached the last house in a rough line out to the farthest point in their zone. The house was clean and empty like the rest they had seen.

  “This is the same. They all are, I think. I didn’t make a list, but all this was in the other place, right? Shouldn’t they vary more?”

  “Depends on the norm for the Celarans, I guess,” Telisa said. “Does each Celaran or Celaran living group have only the same things? Do they take pleasure in having almost identical houses?”

  Telisa stood silently for a moment.

  She must be checking on the others.

  Cilreth checked the attendants again and spoke with the New Iridar. Everything seemed normal.

  “I think all the houses at the second site are empty. Cleaned out,” Telisa said. Cilreth could hear the disappointment in her voice.

  “Wouldn’t some of them leave stuff behind?”

  “Terrans would. Celarans may be quite different. Besides, if each of our things had ten different functions, there would be less reason to leave anything behind. Surely each thing you had would do something you still valued it for?”

  “So that tells us they had a warning. Whatever reason they left, they had time to take everything,” Cilreth said.

  “It’s a guess,” Telisa said. “Imagine a system where they had robots that notice that no one has lived somewhere for a while, so the robots come and collect the stuff. The house is certainly sophisticated enough to know if it’s being used.”

  Cilreth shook her head.

  “You always have some other theory that sounds about as reasonable,” Cilreth complained. “Well how about this: what if the houses were never inhabited?”

  “Ah, that’s a good one. I don’t see any wear and tear inside here. So a team of machines and specialists came ahead and set up this little town. But the rest of the Celarans never arrived,” Telisa said.

  “I don’t know. But it seems like a good possibility. Could be anything from an accident, to a war, to a simple change of plan.”

  “They could still be on the way,” Telisa said.

  “Cthulhu sleeps. Don’t even mention the possibility!”

  What will they do if they come in here and find us squatting their colony?

  They finished up their current house and walked out the other side. Two things happened at once. A shadow fell across them. Cilreth’s emotion management suite informed her that her three hour cycle of emotion suppression had ended.

  A thick roped net fell over Cilreth. Its surface felt rough on her cheek, almost spiny.

  “What the—”

  Cilreth crouched and looked at the edge of the net, by the rail. A long, thin leg grabbed the edge of the platform and contracted, pulling itself tight with the edge.

  Some living thing is trying to catch us!

  A wave of terror rose up and paralyzed Cilreth. It was as if she had never felt emotion before in her life. It smashed through her brain and destroyed all rational thought. Cilreth realized she was screaming.

  Pain shot up Cilreth’s left arm. She looked down and saw a thick pincer closing on her forearm. The pincer was larger than her hand. Her Veer suit was probably the only reason her hand was still attached. Cilreth’s eyes resolved more parts creature amid thick net. The pinchers and the eyestalks were part of a large but incredibly thin creature. Then she understood more.

  That spiny net... is its body!

  “I’m not a bird you stupid thing!” Telisa said nearby. Cilreth felt Telisa struggling through the net. When Telisa moved Cilreth could feel the tension in the net altering. Cilreth thrashed, but she did not have the strength to force her way out. The pincer could not really hurt her through her armored suit, still, raw terror directed her actions.

  “Cilreth! Your machete!” Telisa urged through their channel.

  “What’s wrong?” Caden’s voice came. Cilreth realized she had screamed across all her open channels. Some part of her brain had decided she wanted everyone to hear and come help her.

  She felt a series of sharp impacts across her back. The net tightened from above. Cilreth still saw a way out: A hole where the edge of the net rose over the rail. A buglike leg still scratched around on the platform trying to close it up. Cilreth scrambled forward, desperate to flee before the escape route disappeared.

  “Stay calm. Can you get your machete?” Telisa said.

  Siobhan heard the words but she did not listen. Instead she dove through the hole and right off the platform, flying head-first for the ground.

  A vine hit her legs, flipped her over, then another vine flipped her again. She lost track of up and down. Light... dark... light, then impact. She landed on her stomach amid a pile of dead vines and the stubby little purple plants that grew over them on the vine forest floor.

  “Hang on! We’re en route!” Caden yelled on the common channel.

  She heard the sounds of struggle above. Cilreth staggered to her feet. She started to run as the fear thrilled through her unabated. She ran around one spire trunk and leaped over another mound of the thick ground plants.

  “We were attacked, but I’ve cut my way out,” Telisa said over the channel. “It’s still alive. And Cilreth is gone.”

  Cilreth approached the next spire. She dodged vines high and low. When she reached the base, she looked back to see if the thing followed.

  The ground gave way beneath her. Cilreth fell again. This time, her back scraped a stone and she landed on her back, in a partially upright position. Her suit protected her. In a flash the fear was gone.

  I abandoned her, Cilreth thought. What the hell is wrong with me?

  Cilreth’s eyes had trouble adjusting to the darkness. The hole above was a beacon of light. She avoided lookin
g back up, knowing it would keep her pupils dilated.

  A rustling noise came from nearby. It sounded familiar but she could not place it.

  She felt fear rise again, but this time there was nothing abnormal about it. She had control. She reached for her machete but it was not there. Instead she drew her stunner.

  I can control it now. And I have a stunner.

  Her weapon reported readiness to her link. It had found a target. Then Cilreth lost consciousness.

  ***

  “Cilreth! Where are you?” Siobhan asked for the tenth time. Finally an answer came.

  “I’m... I fell.”

  Caden leaped to the next platform from his spot on a thick vine. Given the slightly lower gravity, he was able to clear the rail and land at the next house. An attendant raced beside him, ready to give him a nudge this way or that if needed.

  “I have your position, just hang on,” Telisa said over the channel. Even though it was not her real voice, but her thoughts sent over the link, he could tell she was busy from the choppiness of her words. “The creature is retreating now. I’m unharmed.”

  “Net creature? Yeech,” Siobhan said to Caden on their private channel.

  It wasn’t a match for Telisa. I wonder if she would have made it if she was her normal old self? I doubt it.

  Everyone checked their map and saw Cilreth. She was less than 100 meters away through the vines.

  “There’s something else,” Cilreth said. Her voice sounded tired. Caden thought she sounded hurt.

  “Go,” Telisa said.

  “Well, it’s a Blackvine. It’s giving me... air. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s saving me or killing me.”

  We need to get there now!

  Caden made another long jump. His attendant gave him a push at the midpoint of his trajectory so he could land atop the curve of one of the trunks.

  “Must be saving me,” Cilreth went on. “It was not giving me anything when I went unconscious. Now it is.”

  “I’m at the hole,” Telisa said. Caden arrived at the house where they had been attacked. He checked the position. The hole was not far. Caden had outpaced Siobhan on the way here. He suddenly felt shame.

  I should not leave her behind. What if she got attacked now?

  Siobhan appeared within ten seconds. She caught his worried look and smiled.

  “I’ll yell eight ways from extinction if some frackjammer rails on me,” she told him on their private channel. “Just go help out.”

  Caden slipped down a vine and ran across the ground to the hole. The small plants and refuse covered the forest floor at least six inches deep.

  There could be other holes we never saw.

  “Could it be a trap?” Caden asked as he approached Telisa.

  “I doubt it. Just keep your weapons out,” Telisa said. She hovered over to the hole. Caden’s attendant peeled out of orbit and plunged into the ground to join Telisa’s inside.

  “Cilreth!” Telisa exclaimed. Caden checked the feed. The attendant was looking at Cilreth. She lay propped up against a rock in the dark tunnel below. A Blackvine stood beside her. As Caden watched, it grasped the end of a smart rope from above in one of its tendrils and held it out for Cilreth.

  It is helping her. Maxsym was right when he said we could cooperate with them.

  “Can you believe that thing?” Cilreth said. She grabbed the smart rope weakly. It wrapped itself through the belt fasteners at her waist.

  “It’s not tool using? The net was part of it?” Siobhan asked.

  “It is the net! That’s its main body!”

  “Impressive,” Caden said. He looked Cilreth over. “Did it bite you? I saw pincers and maybe even a stinger.”

  “Then why aren’t you asking if it pinched me? Or stung me?”

  “Okay, I guess you’re fine,” Telisa said dryly.

  “I’m sorry guys,” Cilreth said. “I’m just a coward I guess. We need to get Magnus back so I can resume my job of babysitting the ship while you guys let the alien monsters chase after you.”

  “Next time flip on your emotion suppressor,” Telisa suggested. “I found a survival trigger for natural emergencies. It can turn on automatically if it detects you’re terrified.”

  “Yes, but... I already had mine on. It had just timed out when we got attacked.”

  Oh, wow. She really is struggling to do this. Not cut out for it, I guess, Caden thought.

  “We need your real skills,” Caden said. “You can leave the exploration part to us.”

  “She’s a better explorer than us,” Telisa said. She turned to Cilreth. “You found the Blackvine!”

  “Are we going to... bring it out of there or what?” Caden asked.

  “We’ll see,” Telisa said. “Where are Imanol and Jason?”

  Chapter 9

  “Let’s go find some more,” Imanol said.

  Jason nodded. “The others are moving into their zones, too.”

  “You take the lead, Salesman,” Imanol said. “I got your back.”

  “Thanks,” Jason said sarcastically.

  Imanol smiled. Jason was warming up to his new name nicely. Since Jason had previously interacted with clients wanting to take deep space trips with Parker Interstellar Travels, Imanol had settled upon calling him Salesman. Unlike the other crew members, Jason took Imanol’s needles and never got mad. He just focused on learning. Imanol liked that, and recognized it was a good thing, because he finally had someone he could partner with.

  Imanol rested his hand upon his laser pistol. He felt the weight of his projectile pistol on the other hip. Though he was joking around with Jason, he was ready to fight anything they found on short notice.

  The first house in their zone was only about 100 meters and three spires away from where they stood on a platform at the edge of the shared zone. Like the others, Imanol could not resist the temptation to get there by vine instead of dropping back down and hacking through all the detritus on the forest floor. The largest vines here were as thick as his torso and branched to form a huge leaf about every three meters. He spotted one that was almost level and climbed out onto it.

  “This is crazy, it’s like being an ant,” Imanol grumbled.

  “It’s a long way down,” Jason said casually, in that way he spoke when he was worried about something but pretended not to be.

  “There are other vines below, plus all that crap at the bottom. And the gravity is a bit lighter. If you fall in your Veer suit, you’ll be fine. Hell, by the end of the day Caden and Siobhan will be doing it for fun.”

  Jason stared down. “Yes, I guess you’re right. Let’s go for it.”

  Imanol moved farther down the vine. Jason climbed out after him. Imanol scanned the video feed from their attendants ahead. He did not see any dangers, yet he felt worried.

  I just got done telling him this would be a breeze. Damn.

  “So now I’ve convinced you it’s safe, let me convince you otherwise. Sooner or later, something is going to get dangerous. I’m just saying, it’s probably not the climbing. There’s going to be a jaguar, or you know, whatever passes for a jaguar on this weird ass planet, and it’s going to try and eat us. That’s the best case scenario. Worst case, something smarter than us with advanced technology will kill us before we even know it’s there. Possibly from kilometers away. Or more.”

  Jason sent the nonverbal link signal for acknowledgement. Jason paused. Imanol imagined he was checking the status of his weapons and scanning the scout’s video feeds. They kept going.

  At first Imanol felt wobbly on the vines and he had to keep crouching to grab a branch or another vine to steady himself. Then he started to get the hang of it, but he found himself paying all his attention on the branch below him and none of it on the other video feeds or his general surroundings. So he started to stop every thirty seconds and do a periphery check.

  Within a few minutes they arrived at the next house. It looked to be in good shape. The exterior was a dark green like the others. Though
its angles looked crazy, Imanol could tell it had been constructed from a lot of smaller components like the other houses they had seen so far.

  “Anyone home?” Jason said behind him.

  “I don’t think so,” Imanol said. One of his attendants was inside. It did not spot anything different about this dwelling.

  “We need to do a walk through of every one,” Jason said excitedly. “There has to be some clues around here!”

  Imanol shrugged. “Yeah, probably. If they’re all empty, I imagine Telisa and Cilreth will start tearing them all apart to examine the insides.”

  He pushed open the trap door and slipped in. Everything looked the same. He sniffed loudly. The air seemed clean.

  Cleaners are still working. And so is this house, whoever it belongs to.

  “Exact same temperature in here,” Jason said. “Close to 22 C.”

  Imanol looked at the flexible bands on the wall and tested the strength of a couple. They reminded him of towel rods except they stretched like rubber bands. They looked familiar. He realized they had been present at the space habitat as well. It was just that they had been mostly obscured by junk there.

  “It feels like a brand new home doesn’t it? Or were they just really good at building and keeping everything looking new?” Imanol asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jason said.

  Imanol pictured the space habitat again. He did not think that had been as new, but he could not tell, because those houses had been so cluttered. After a few minutes, Imanol called it.

  “Next,” he said.

  Jason reluctantly followed Imanol out of the empty dwelling. Imanol paused to plot a course through their search zone. It contained about thirty houses. He rejected the idea of a search spiral and chose a rough circle with zig-zagging perimeter.