The Tau Ceti Diversion

by Chris McMahon

  Karic smiled. “That’s right. Now that we have established communication with the mother-ship, we can initiate a launch sequence for one of the six remaining pods. It can even be piloted remotely. But all that can wait until we have reestablished the base-camp.”

  Mara released her belt clasp with a decisive movement. “We can drop more rations, portable computers, more fuel …”

  “And more weapons,” finished Karic.

  They locked the pod securely and covered the small craft with cut tree limbs and large leaves from the forest understory. This time they took no chances.

  “Fix the position of the pod in your minds,” said Karic. “That ridge,” said Karic, pointing up through the misty forest, “and those tall palms should stand out from any high ground.”

  Andrai and Mara paused to take their bearings, then the three earthlings set off through the dark-side forest of Cru. Despite the lack of power in the cylindrical weapon from the alien storage cavern in the darkened valley — the twin of the Awakener’s scepter — Karic took it with him.

  The light from the crystal mountains grew to its full intensity. The mist disappeared and the air became hot and humid. It was tough going, and they were breathing heavily. Their clothes were soon soaked with sweat.

  Karic slipped in the soft earth as the rod snagged on a rubbery vine, pulling him off balance. He yanked the gleaming artifact free and pushed on. The vine snapped and swung backwards, slapping Mara across the face. Her dark eyes fixed on him accusingly.

  “Oh, sorry,” said Karic.

  “Why are you carrying that damned thing?” snapped Mara. “It must weigh almost twenty kilos in this gravity, and it’s dead.”

  Karic paused to catch his breath. “It may be useful,” he said to Mara and Andrai as they clambered over a fallen log. “Maybe we can bluff the natives if it comes to a confrontation.”

  “It’s not going to bluff the leader. He has one that works, remember,” said Mara.

  “Yes, but it should work against the other Imbirri.”

  “We’ll have the barrier fence. We won’t need it,” said Mara, reaching to accept Andrai’s hand as she stepped down from the huge log.

  Karic was exhausted. For days he had been putting on a show of confidence for Andrai and Mara, while he had borne the brunt of Mara’s aggression and anxiety.

  “I am in charge of this mission, Mara. It’s my decision to take this damn thing,” said Karic, slapping the haft of the inert weapon, “and we will damn well carry it with us!

  “As for the Awakener, we will deal with him when and if we meet him again.”

  Mara stopped mid-stride. He had never shouted at her before, even during their painful estrangement.

  “It’s your turn to carry it,” said Karic, handing her the cylinder.

  Mara grimaced, but did not reply as she took the heavy rod.

  They walked in silence for another half-hour. Each took their turn carrying the heavy metal rod. Progress was slow as Karic led them toward the lander’s core section. The jungle was thick, and no landmarks were visible through the green. They were relying solely on manual compass readings and the bearings they had taken from the pod. Also, they had to stop repeatedly as they came to clinging vines and rotting deadfalls that blocked their path. Karic carefully led them around these obstacles, setting a new bearing toward the lander’s core section at each change of course. Behind him, Andrai and Mara drew closer together, whispering in low tones.

  As the hours crawled by, the tension rose and they walked in silence, haunted by the same thoughts. Everything depended on the condition of the lander and of the stasis equipment. The suspension fields were their only link to Earth — allowing them to wait in stasis during the decade-long communication delays.

  Despite their fatigue, they increased their pace.

  They had to reach the lander.

  ***

  Mara was desperate to see Earth again.

  Images flooded her mind. The lashing fury of the tempest and the beautiful calm of morning. The sand and sea, always changing. Sunsets. It seemed ironic she had to propel herself so many lightyears from Earth before she truly grew to love it. And it was love. An intense ache for Earth’s embrace; the familiar sights and smells, the simple things they had always taken for granted. Mara craved the enveloping touch of the stasis field, and the welcome oblivion that followed. In her mind, she had already dismantled and rebuilt a score of critical devices damaged in the disaster. Anything to get that equipment working. To get home.

  It was only now she could look back over her childhood on the space-based Davis Industries Platform and identify the emptiness that lay within every memory. Her isolation amid the cheerless gray of metal walls and access ladders, while her Brazilian parents devoted their waking life to running the station’s AI for DavisCorp.

  She had never seen Brazil. Born on-station, her first glimpse of Earth was the DavisCorp space complex outside Boston when she was accepted at university there. Her parents had transferred Earth-side with her. She was seventeen. Earth seemed an alien, frightening place, both dangerous and enticing with its lack of boundaries. Even then, her world had been dominated by her parents and their work ethic. Both electronic engineers, they had climbed their way from the slums of Brasilia to corporate-driven wealth. She had worked hard to emulate their success. When she had been picked up by DavisCorp and offered a scholarship to study astronomy in the newly formed ExploreCorp subsidiary, it had been a dream come true. Professor Montague, lead space science researcher for the Starburst mission, had taken her on as an intern, and later as a researcher on the mission, when she completed her doctorate.

  Then Janzen, the heir to the Davis fortune, had courted her. Everything that had ever driven her — the quest for position and advancement, the need to make something of herself — was suddenly offered on a plate. In her early twenties, it had been easy to drift into fantasies of becoming a Davis, moving by marriage into the heart of power. But no matter how much she loved that dream, she could not ignore reality. She soon found Janzen had a string of women, all questing like her for a taste of power and wealth. It was over. She had buried it, and had buried herself in her work.

  It was on the Starburst project that she met Karic for the first time. She found herself drawn to a different kind of power. The power of passion and intellect. She thought he loved her, and perhaps he did in a way. But it was not the love born of respect. When he left on the tour with Evelle, she felt like she was nothing more than the sweet young icing on the cake of his ambition.

  In the end they had both disappointed her. When Professor Montague died just before the Starburst’s departure, it was Mara who was selected to take his place on the mission. At last she had a chance to show her own mettle. She had mourned the passing of her mentor, but truth be told was not sorry to see an end to the increasing tensions between Janzen and Professor Montague.

  Yet after all her achievements, in her heart she was still the neglected child, crying alone in a meter-square metal cell, longing for someone to take her away from that grim isolation and give her power over her own life.

  It was time she stood up and opened that door herself.

  Mara looked around her into the alien growth. They were all so lost here on this strange world. She caught a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye and turned toward it. Mara saw the hulking form of an Imbirri against the green wall of the forest. It was only meters away.

  “Karic!”

  Andrai and Karic ran toward her, but they were too late.

  The huge Imbirri advanced. It reached out and grabbed Mara’s arm. She struggled, but the alien’s grip was too strong to break. Six more mottled forms pushed through the jungle toward them, cutting off any hope of escape.

  The circle of Imbirri closed around them.

  ***

  Karic wasted no time trying to free Mara from the huge, green-crowned Imbirri. He knew from personal experience just how strong the creatures were. Instead, he lifte
d the cylinder and shouted. The Imbirri who held Mara let out a discordant shriek. The alien let go of her and backed away, the dark nodules of its eyes fixed on the gleaming haft. The Imbirri sang a rapid series of notes to its companions. A warning? In the space of a breath, all the aliens had turned and fled, leaving only swaying vegetation in their wake.

  Mara trembled in shock.

  Karic ran to Mara, his eyes filled with concern. “Are you alright?” he said touching her arm.

  “Yes! Stop crowding me, damn you.” She shook his hand off her arm.

  “What now, Karic?” asked Andrai.

  “We must be less than two hundred meters from the core section. Damn! If the Awakener is waiting to ambush us we will have no hope of doing anything there except getting captured.” He lifted the inert weapon. “If only this cursed thing worked!”

  Karic thought rapidly. “How close are we to the defensive screen?”

  Mara had recovered her composure and looked around them at the lay of the land. “I recognize that ridge,” she said, pointing upslope. “Not far, but through this jungle? I would say about two hours.”

  “We’ll never make it,” said Andrai, shaking his head. “The Awakener must be close by. He’ll be on us in seconds if we try to run. We have to hide.”

  Karic looked at Andrai. The technician was exhausted. The physical extremes of the planet had worn away his endurance. He had always admired Andrai’s enthusiasm and energy, but realized now that like many naturally energetic people, the tech had never had to dig deep to push through the extremes of fatigue. Now there was no choice. They had to run. “We can’t hide from the Imbirri. They know the forest too well.”

  “Let’s make for the pod, then,” said Mara.

  “No. The pod is our only link to the Starburst. We can’t risk it,” replied Karic. If the main force of Imbirri were waiting at the core section to ambush them, there was a chance that making for the screen at the old base camp would take them off-guard. At least they risked nothing by trying. They could always circle back to the pod later.

  “We’ll make for the screen. If we can reach it, we will have some defense against that weapon. We have to move quickly. Come on!”

  Already exhausted by their trek through the jungle, they turned toward the ridge and ran. They kept to cover as much as possible, dodging branches and slipping in the thick organic mulch as the slope grew steeper.

  Above them, the ridge rose like a knife-edge from the canopy of the forest. It was crowned by a towering column of gray basalt, which had a sparse growth of gnarled trees clinging to its sides.

  At the top of the ridge they collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Sweat soaked their uniforms, dripping down their faces and into their eyes. Mara swept back her sodden hair from her face. The sheer basalt peak rose above the ridge behind them. For long minutes they struggled to control their breathing, trying to limit their intake of the thick, oxygen-rich air.

  Below them, they could see the former base-camp, in which the Awakener had unleashed the power of his weapon. In the center of the ragged, blackened area, the roughly circular shape of the screen shone a clear blue, a sharp contrast to the destruction that surrounded it.

  “We’ve made good time,” said Karic, smoothing back his sweat-slick hair. “In little more than an hour, we will reach the screen. We will carry the control module and the repeater posts back to the pod — you know how compact they are in storage mode. If we are attacked we’ll deploy the screen around us. This time we will set it up properly, as a dome-shaped field.” If Janzen had done his job right the first time, the lander would still be intact.

  Mara looked up wearily from the ground, where she was sprawled beside Andrai. She looked at the screen, far below them, then at the thick jungle in between and back to Karic. “Then what? The Awakener will follow us for sure, and we will be trapped if he catches us.”

  Karic shrugged. “I hope we can reach the pod before then. But if we are trapped, at least we’ll have some means of defending ourselves,” he said, meeting Mara’s gaze.

  Mara turned away.

  Perhaps the Awakener will be too cautious to follow us knowing we have one of the energy weapons. Karic shook his head. He did not think it was likely. He remembered back to those brief moments before the attack on the lander, when he watched the Awakener raise his weapon, preparing to strike. Karic knew the leader of the Imbirri was intent on their death. And they had no way to defend themselves. All their weapons had been taken by the Imbirri. If only he knew how to activate the cylinder!

  Karic stood and the two others climbed to their feet. They all felt safer now that they could see the screen below them, inviting them on.

  “At least it’s downhill from here,” said Karic.

  Lighting flashed across the sky, striking the peak above them. The afterimage dazzled Karic. He watched the dull basalt lighten from gray to yellow for a long moment before his vision cleared. Then the gnarled trees that clung to the slope began to buckle and char, finally bursting into intense flame. “That’s no lightning strike!”

  Karic spun around.

  Below them, hundreds of Imbirri emerged from the jungle. The Awakener loomed over them. In his hands he held the energy weapon — and it was aimed directly at them.

  “Give me the cylinder,” shouted Karic to Andrai, who had been carrying the inert metal rod, but the tech did not move. His face was slack with shock.

  A bolt of blue-white swept past them, as jagged as lightning. The distance was working against the Awakener, the weapon losing its accuracy across the length of the treeless slope that led to the ridge. Even so, it was only a matter of time before he got lucky.

  Karic snatched the weapon from Andrai and pointed the cylinder at the distant figures of the Awakener and the other Imbirri, trying to scare them off. Sweat streamed from his brow and his arm shook with the weight of the rod. The aliens stood firm.

  “It’s not working!” screamed Mara.

  Karic watched helplessly as the Awakener lowered his weapon, made an adjustment and raised it once more. A blue-white arc of energy lanced toward them. It struck the sheer face of the peak above them with a deafening concussion, blasting tons of rock away from the slope. Mara screamed, then was struck by a jagged piece of flying rock that sent her spinning to the ground.

  “He’s started an avalanche!” yelled Andrai.

  Karic looked upslope. Huge pieces of rock began to shear off the mountain. His fingers grew slack and the scepter fell to the ground at his feet. The wall of rubble gathered pace, hurtling toward them. By some miracle, the shattered rock, dislodged boulders and flying scree passed them by and disappeared over the ridge, leaving them inside a choking cloud of dust.

  Karic shielded his eyes, desperate to find a way out.

  Swirling patterns began to form in the cloud, echoing the rhythms of his mind. The fugue! He embraced it. Immediately, his senses expanded, and he quested ahead through the thick cloud. He had more control of the strange, enhanced state than ever before. His abilities were evolving.

  Here was their chance. They had to get out of sight before the dust cleared.

  Karic hauled Mara to her feet and gripped Andrai by the arm.

  “Andrai, grab the cylinder.”

  He led them both toward the peak. Guided by his enhanced vision, he navigated through the choking cloud of dust, stepping around piles of hidden debris.

  “This way!” yelled Karic.

  There was another explosion. Blue-white light flashed nearby, diffused by the dust.

  More rocks tumbled down the slope. Karic could see them through the clouds, darker knots within the darkness, tumbling toward them, bouncing unpredictably. A random promise of death. He led them through the danger and up to the base of the peak, then around it to the other side of the ridge.

  On the other side, the winds had cleared the dust. Here, he found what he was looking for.

  “There!” he yelled. “A cave. If we reach it before the dust settles,
he will think he has killed us. Andrai, did you get the weapon?”

  Andrai held up the inert cylinder.

  “Karic, how did you …?” asked Mara.

  “That doesn’t matter now. Let’s go.” Karic led them to the cave, an elongated fissure at the base of the peak that broadened rapidly into a dark, empty cavern. The air was cool and free from the heavy dust. The three eagerly squeezed through the entrance to safety.

  “How did you do it? How did you see through that dust?” pressed Mara.

  Andrai watched Karic with a curious gaze.

  Even now, Karic could not admit the fugue state to anyone. Call it habit. Call it caution.

  “I just … knew. That doesn’t matter now. Without advanced sensors, there is no way they will find us here. With luck they will think we are dead.”

  “Luck? I think we’re out of luck,” said Mara.

  ***

  The Fountain hovered above the bright, crystalline mass of a transmission node, one of an extensive network that provided heat and light on Cru’s dark side, supporting a thriving ecosystem here. The nodes had all been engineered to resemble natural features, appearing as glowing mountains to the untrained eye.

  Used to the bright side of the planet, even the turbulent thermals rising from the glowing node below him felt cool to him, chilling the delicate skin between the segments of his exoskeleton and the exposed flesh of his wing muscles where they exited his thorax.

  The Fountain used a small, yet powerful instrument to examine the spectrum of radiant energy the artificial mountain was emitting, comparing it against the raw feed to the network from the fusion reactors buried below it. The loss was minimal. Even after all these thousands of years, the transmission network that distributed the carefully designed spectrum of radiant energy across Cru’s dark side was functioning well. A tribute to the caste of Fintil scientists who once designed and maintained it, now long vanished.

  He had at first hoped to find more of the newborn, like the Fintil female who reached the bright side, but perhaps incapable of flight, who had lingered overlong at their hatching site. He had found none.