Lands of Nowhere

by Shannah Jay

He smiled and pushed her roughly to one side, staring at the group in the image. As he took in their barren surroundings, a gloating expression settled on his face.

  'It seems you're still in trouble, Davred Hollunby. I shall watch your efforts to survive this latest fiasco with great interest.'

  'Surely we're going to help them?' Soo asked. 'We can't leave them stranded there, Robler! There must be some way of getting supplies down to them.'

  'Why can't we just leave them stranded, my dear?' He ran one fingertip down her arm and as she flinched, he laughed. 'I think you'll find that in a State of Emergency I can do precisely as I please. In fact, you might even say that in a State of Emergency, there are some distinct advantages to being the Exec.'

  Davred, listening intently, asked urgently, 'Robler, what do you mean by "a State of Emergency"?'

  Robler's smile, as he stared at the little group, was pure evil. 'It doesn't mean much, Davred, merely that interplanetary war has escalated in this sector and that our regional base has been captured. Our hopes for peace lay, if you remember, with a renegade Cathartic Agent who saw fit to desert the Confederation and waste his potential on a bunch of primitives. Now the exploration team is stuck on this satellite and we suspect that we'll not be able to return to Confex Central for quite some time - though there is a faint possibility we may be able to contact them. I thought Soo was working on that small problem at the moment, but it seems I was wrong. You really will have to learn to do as you're told now, Soo. It's important for the survival of the group, which is our first duty.'

  Soo glared at him. 'It's the first time we've been able to contact Davred properly for ages. That's important too!'

  'Not to me, it isn't. Those people are as good as dead. I doubt anyone can survive for long without food and water in such a barren place.'

  'But we could send them down some supplies - or we could bring them up here.'

  Robler laughed. 'Are you willing to return to the satellite yet, Davred?'

  'All of us?'

  'Goodness me, no! Just you. Though I might give your friends some food and water if you were to co-operate from now on.'

  Davred stood for a minute, listening to the God within him, as Herra had taught him to do. 'No,' he said after a while. 'That isn't my path.'

  'Pity.'

  'You must help them, Robler!' Soo exclaimed.

  'Must I? Who's going to compel me? And why should I? Davred has very strenuously resisted returning to the satellite, and has chosen to ally himself with the losing side down on the planet. There's no reason for us to encumber ourselves with his bunch of primitives allies at this juncture. We have our own survival to think of. Our supplies aren’t inexhaustible, you know.'

  He stared at the image in silence for a moment, before adding mockingly, 'I do wish you luck, though, Davred Hollunby, and you too, Katia Hollunby. If you're still alive tomorrow evening, and if she behaves herself in the meantime, I may allow Soo to contact you.'

  'Davred! I'll think of something!' Soo called.

  Robler pushed her away from the communication board so violently she fell. 'Don't worry about us, Davred. I'll take great care of the exploration team, especially your dear friend Soo. I have a very particular interest in the welfare of Soo.' He switched off the connection, then turned back to her. 'If you wish to speak to Davred again, you'd better start behaving in a more friendly way towards me. Much more friendly.'

  Soo scrambled to her feet and backed away from Robler, but he was standing between her and the door.

  Never in all her life had she faced physical coercion or violence. She found her breath coming in ragged gasps and her limbs strangely unwilling to obey her. The standard training in self-defence which all Confex teams received seemed to have deserted her - because nothing had been done to prepare her for her own terror in the face of real danger.

  Robler moved forward until she was trapped in a corner. 'Much, much more friendly!' he repeated, lingering on the words with relish. 'That is - if you want to know what happens to Davred - and if you wish to ensure Mak's safety. I hardly think the rest of the team will back you and Mak against the orders of a designated Exec during a State of Emergency. Besides, you don't seem to have noticed but you two aren’t exactly popular around here. Your abnormality disturbs the others.'

  'What do you mean by that? We're not abnormal!'

  'We think you are. Normal people share sexual relations openly with the group on expeditions such as these. But not you, Soo! And not Mak. You've been rather foolish, really, or maybe just obtuse. First of all you refused to join in group pleasures, then you decided to devote your not inconsiderable charms entirely to one person, flaunting your personal relationship in our faces. Your marriage to Mak has upset the balance for us all here on the satellite, and it's my duty to restore that balance.'

  She couldn’t move as he drew a heavy fingertip over the taut swell of her breasts, then pulled her head back by the hair and kissed her so savagely her mouth felt bruised.

  As he let her go, he said, 'I'll not force you, Soo. Not yet. It would be cruel to tear you away from your partner so abruptly. Besides, I'm not quite ready for you. Not - quite - yet. I have to mould public opinion, prepare the rest of the team for force, if necessary.'

  He laughed aloud at the expression of horror in her eyes. 'And this way, not only can you have the pleasure of anticipating my eventual attentions, but I can enjoy watching your futile efforts to evade me. In the meantime, don't try to contact Davred Hollunby again unless I give you permission, or I shall have to lock you away - purely for the good of the rest of the team. In fact, don't try to do anything without my permission. After all, we can't have you sending down some of our scarce supplies to the natives, can we?

  That might endanger our own survival. And unlike your precious Davred, we have no desire to live down there with the primitives. Well, not unless we can first work out a way to control them, that is.'

  He walked out, leaving her trembling and weak with shock. Before she had had time to recover, Met came in and found her in tears.

  'Robler sent me to find you. He thought you might be a little upset.'

  She stared at him in surprise. 'Why should he send you and not Mak?'

  'Because he knows how I feel about your marriage. He felt you might be in the right mood to listen to what I have to say.'

  'I don't understand. What's wrong with my marrying Mak?'

  An expression of sheer disgust settled on Met's face at her words. 'What's wrong? Everything's wrong! It's atavistic! Anyone who goes back to that type of relationship is showing signs of being maladapted socially. On my planet, marriage is banned completely - as are all permanent liaisons, except in a group context. They're unhealthy and unnatural. They lead to neuroses and complexes, and people start to feel that they own each other. It's disgusting!'

  He was leaning over her, speaking so vehemently that she could see the spittle forming on his lips.

  She tried to speak reasonably. 'You're entitled to your views, of course, Met, but how I behave has nothing to do with you.'

  'Oh, yes, it has! You were sent here as part of a team. It's understood that teams share everything -

  including their bodies. You and Mak have been upsetting me for a while.'

  'It’s our own choice.'

  'Not in a State of Emergency. We need group coherency to survive, so I'm here to tell you that you two had better get used to the idea of un-marrying yourselves.'

  'We will not!'

  'Oh, but you will, Soo! One way or another. Robler says we must give you time to get used to the idea. I think he's being overgenerous there - but he's Exec and I'll go along with what he says. Some of the others are too squeamish for their own good and need preparing for what we do. I'm not squeamish, and neither is Robler, thank goodness! You and Mak have one standard month in which to reorient yourselves to group participation, and not a day more! After that, we shall use any method necessary to help you readjust.'

  Like Ro
bler, he seized her and forced a rough kiss on her, leaving her speechless and shuddering.

  Not until she and Mak were in bed during the next rest period and reasonably safe from eavesdroppers, did she dare tell him what had happened.

  She could feel the anger in him as he held her close. 'I guessed something was wrong. They came to see me as well afterwards.'

  'Who did?'

  'Met and Lizan. But it was Lizan who did the speaking. She said much the same things as Met did to you.

  Our marriage is not liked and they'll give us one standard month to end it. If we know what is good for us, we'll not wait even that long.'

  Soo clung to him. 'It's Discord, isn't it? It's not only spreading on Sunrise and in the Confederation; it's here on the satellite as well.'

  'It would seem so.' He stroked her hair.

  'What are we to do, Mak? No one has a right to the use of my body. What the team is trying to do to us is a violation of personal freedom, and that's directly against Confederation law, whatever the circumstances.'

  'It may be, but the Confederation has its own problems at the moment, and it can't help us with ours.'

  'The other members of the team seem - well, does it sound stupid to say over-influenced by Robler?'

  'No. I agree with you. It's as if there's some sickness of the mind that's contagious. An Age of Discord, the Sisterhood call it. And it's increasingly obvious why.' He took a deep breath. 'Do you think it's safe to speak openly, even here?'

  'Probably, but we shouldn't talk about anything else until I've done a thorough check of our quarters - and I'll keep on checking daily for as long as we're here.'

  'We'll need to plan the escape carefully,' he breathed into her ear. 'But we won't talk now, not until you've checked everything.'

  'Yes.' She shivered in his arms and clung to him more closely. Soon they were lost in the pleasure of each other's bodies.

  A little later, she murmured sleepily, 'How well do you think we shall fit in down there, Mak?'

  'Better than here, now,' he replied sombrely.

  * * *

  When contact was broken, Davred stared at the com-unit half expecting Soo to get back in touch, but the square of black plasteel remained silent in his hand. Eventually he put it in his pocket and asked bitterly,

  'Herra, what's happening up there?'

  'Discord. It's everywhere. That man Robler has turned to evil. Could you not hear it in his voice?'

  Davred nodded, then added slowly, 'Herra, I'm getting really worried about Soo and Mak. In a State of Emergency, Confex regulations give Robler the power of life and death over the exploration team.'

  Katia moved to his side. She knew how fond he was of Soo. 'We can do nothing to help them, my Davred.

  We can't even be sure we'll be able to survive ourselves.'

  He sighed and clasped her hand for a moment, then straightened his shoulders and looked at them both strangely, as if he were hearing other voices, seeing things beyond their ken. ' I know we'll survive. Our Brother will not let us fail in our Quest.'

  Everyone stared at him, then Herra smiled brilliantly at them all. 'A prophecy.'

  Davred stared at her. 'Me? Prophesy!'

  'You are the Manifestation of our God. As you grow older and develop your Gifts, your powers will increase and you'll begin to catch glimpses of the path ahead of us, as I do sometimes. Doubt it not, dear boy.'

  'You did foretell the birth of Siri-Soo,' Katia reminded him.

  'Well, I just hope he's right, then,' Jonner muttered to himself. 'I'm not ready to die yet. You can always buy a new set of knives, but you can't buy your life back.'

  They all stood there in silence for a moment or two, then Davred shook his head. 'It's hard to think of Discord up there. A satellite is a very small place and there's nowhere to escape to. And Soo, well, she's like a sister to me.'

  'Why did that man call Katia "Katia Hollunby"?' asked Fiana, who had become so quiet and uncommunicative that she rarely joined in the conversations.

  Davred shrugged. 'It was a kind of taunt. Many centuries ago, when marriage was always permanent, the woman would take the man's family name instead of her own to signify that they were married. I think Robler was intimating that our marriage, any permanent marriage, is both old-fashioned and ridiculous.'

  Katia shrugged her shoulders. 'Well, he's wrong. And shall be proven so in the end. Besides, his taunt is meaningless. We of the Kindred do not have family names in that way. The Kindred are our family now.'

  'That man Robler seems to have turned more to evil every time we hear from him,' said Cheral. 'I wouldn’t be sorry if he never contacted us again, whatever danger we're in at the moment.'

  'Small hope of that,' said Davred. 'He'll be back, if only to gloat.'

  Herra clapped her hands together imperatively, 'Well, we'll prove nothing one way or another until we've solved our present problems. Let us consider matters. If we attempt to cross this desert without water, we'll be facing certain death. I wonder if we should try to go back, return to Dsheresh Vale?'

  Fiana asked hesitantly. 'Do you have any Gift for Weather, Elder Sister? If we could make it rain . . . '

  Herra shook her head. 'I have some small ability, though I've never achieved more than a light shower, but to create rain, one must use moisture already in the air. Here, there is nothing. Feel it! The air is completely dry.'

  Cheral came to stand beside Herra, studying her face and laying a hand briefly on her pulse. 'Elder Sister, I think you're still tired from speaking to the High Council. In my opinion, we should go back into the tunnel, where we won't lose our body moisture as quickly. Later on, some of us should explore the area beyond the entrance very thoroughly. There may be a source of water within reach. It doesn't seem likely, but we have to make sure.'

  When they were back in the cool darkness, Cheral waited for Herra to give orders, and when she didn’t, took it upon herself to say firmly, 'It will be a comfort to us all if we gather now. It'll renew our inner forces.'

  She looked around. 'See, there's plenty of room here for a circle and it's nice and level. Come along!'

  Even Jonner didn’t object, and, as Cheral had said, the Gathering was a great comfort to them all. When it was over, Herra smiled and gestured to Cheral, 'What next, Kinswoman?'

  Cheral looked at her suspiciously, wondering if the Elder Sister was teasing her, then, seeing that Herra was still looking tired, she again took charge.

  'Benjan, would you go and look around outside?'

  'Yes, of course.'

  'But I think someone should go with you. Two is safer than one.'

  'Me,' said Katia firmly. 'I have the Gift of Location.'

  Cheral nodded. 'Yes, that makes sense. We'll have to learn how to recognise and develop that Gift.'

  Herra leaned back against the rocky wall and watched with tired amusement the re-emergence of the Novice Mistress Cheral had been for most of the past hundred years.

  Cheral turned back to Benjan and Katia. 'Wait until it's fully dark before you go outside - if your Gift can be used at night, that is, Katia - because you'll lose less body moisture then. Fortunately, it's going to be a three-moon night. Thank goodness something is in our favour! You should wait until all the moons have risen. And in the meantime, since we have no water, I think that all of us who can should slow down our body functions. Carryn! Narla! Jonner! Benjan! Come over here and let me help you to settle down. You won't be able to slow your bodies down as well as those of us who are fully trained, but if Fiana will assist me, we can certainly help you to reduce energy expenditure.'

  Herra stood up. 'If we all work together, we can slow them down quite adequately. No, I'm all right to do this small thing, Cheral.'

  And so it was done. How comforting it is sometimes, Herra thought, as she settled down again, to let Cheral direct our actions. She deals so well with the practical details.

  Two hours later, Katia roused Benjan. 'I think we should go now,' she whispered. Fian
a, who was taking the first watch, nodded to them as they left, but the others didn’t stir.

  Outside, moonlight had turned the landscape into chequered patterns of darkness and light, and the triple shadows seemed denser and more menacing than the daytime shadows. The light from the three sky-riders, as children called them, frosted the undulations of white sand with a silvery glow that would have been beautiful in other circumstances.

  Benjan stared around them. 'I think there's nothing to be found, Katia. It feels deserted, as empty as a husk with the grain removed.'

  'I sense that, too,' she said softly. 'But we must make sure.'

  For most of the night they quartered the sand around the entrance to the tunnel, but they found nothing, not a glimpse, not even the faintest sniff, of life or moisture.

  In the end, Benjan said firmly, 'I think we should waste no more energy on this search. Can you get us back?'

  'Yes, easily. It's that way.'

  When they arrived at the tunnel, Herra was keeping watch. They told her of their lack of success and she clasped their hands in turn.

  'Thank you for trying. I can't think of anything else we can do at the moment, except wait and see if chance will favour us.' She stared at the entrance and frowned. 'The deleff would seem to have been too strong for us once again. And yet . . . '

  She fell silent, and eventually Katia prompted gently, 'And yet what, Elder Sister?'

  'And yet, like Davred, I cannot feel all is lost. Our Brother will help us - somehow - I know not how, but I'm sure of it. So, rest now. I'll keep watch.'

  By the next evening, they were all suffering from thirst, though only Jonner complained about it. They roused to take a little exercise and to gather. Just as they were about to slow their bodies down again, a blue light began to flicker in the tunnel's mouth.

  Herra gestured to her friends to stand close to her and they waited together for the SS'Habi to materialise.

  When they did, the platform remained slightly above the ground and didn’t come into clear focus.

  'Iss dangerous place,' hissed a voice faintly. 'Iss no water, no food. Giver of Words says can return to Dsheresh. Start new community. Not live in Dsheresh Kashal. Live together in peace.'