by Jaleta Clegg
I moved my pillow and pulled out the picture I kept there. It was a fuzzy snapshot, a print from a surveillance camera. The man in it was indistinct, it could have been almost anyone but I knew it was Tayvis. I’d bribed our lawyer to get it for me. After I thought I’d sent Tayvis away for good. I smoothed out a wrinkle. Was I just as bad, hiding the picture under my pillow?
I dug through a drawer until I found some tape. I put the picture up, above the bunk. And then laughed at myself. Taping pictures to a wall. As if that would help anything. I curled up on the bunk and let myself be miserable until I fell asleep.
Chapter 4
I woke feeling disoriented. The ship was too quiet. I opened my eyes on lights dimmed to emergency levels. I closed my eyes, hoping it was a bad dream. It wasn’t. We were stranded on a planet in the middle of nowhere.
I made myself get up.
Clark sat at the table in the lounge. Papers were strewn all over it, printouts from the scanners. He poked a stylus at a page already covered in notes.
“Did you sleep at all?” I asked him.
He ignored my question. “I think I’ve figured at least part of it out. The glow we saw is some kind of shield that covers the whole canyon at night. It faded out when the sun rose. The air at night thins out. It’s still breathable, but just barely. The shield keeps the air in the canyon.”
“Why?” I picked up a sheet and looked over the information.
“That’s what I couldn’t figure out.” He yawned.
“You didn’t talk to Jasyn last night.”
“She locked the door.”
“Go get some sleep. I’ll run diagnostics on the engine and see if I can find anything else with the scans.”
He stumbled into one of the unused cabins. I gathered his papers and took them with me into the cockpit.
Two hours later, I’d finished. The engines were low on several fluids, but with a few hours of repairs, they’d be ready to fly. The planet was still as much of a puzzle as before. The huge canyon seemed to be the key. Once we investigated the emergency beacon that disappeared as soon as we landed, we would be good to leave.
I heard a cabin door open and glanced into the lounge. Jasyn and Clark stood outside their cabin door.
“Jasyn,” Clark said.
“Good morning, Clark,” she said stiffly and walked past without looking at him.
I decided to run a few more scans. I shut the cockpit door. I fiddled with the equipment, booting up the more sophisticated systems on the off chance they could fix themselves.
The energy field scanner did, much to my surprise. I didn’t hear shouting or thumping from the other room, so I stayed in the cockpit. Maybe Jasyn and Clark would work their problems out if I left them alone long enough. Out of curiosity I ran the full range of energy field scans.
The machine beeped. I pulled up the results. The first set were exactly what I expected. The planet had a magnetic field, weak compared to most settled planets but strong enough to keep the planet habitable. The red dwarf star spit out a lot of energy. The machine classified it as very unstable, susceptible to exploding within the next five thousand years. As long as it didn’t happen while I was in the area, I didn’t really care. The levels of other background radiation were high, but considering the stellar neighborhood, that wasn’t a surprise.
The energy fields on the planet were not normal, by any definition. I slowed the text down and read more closely. Energy fields, unclassified but not natural, covered the entire extent of the canyon. I referenced them with known fields. The machine gave me a list of seven possibilities. They were all forms of tractor beams or force fields. None of them matched exactly.
I printed out the results and set the scanner to do a deeper scan of the canyon area. I headed to the lounge for a drink but wished I hadn’t when I opened the door.
Jasyn and Clark stood nose to nose. It didn’t look happy. I shifted back and closed the door on them.
I sat in the chair in front of the scanner and fidgeted while I waited for the scan to finish. The sky showing outside the viewscreen was a very dark blue. I ran the other scanner, checking on atmosphere and temperature. The atmosphere was definitely thicker than it had been last night. The temperature was cool, but not anywhere near freezing. The breeze blew steadily from the canyon.
The other machine beeped. The scan showed multiple point sources of energy radiation lining the canyon, most on the same side we were on. The canyon itself was one big blur of energy. I wished we still had the life scans online, and some kind of aerial scanning equipment. The Phoenix wasn’t supposed to be an Exploration ship. We didn’t have anything of the kind. Our holds were full of medical equipment that wasn’t going to reach its destination anytime soon. I printed out the new information and wondered if it was safe to go back into the lounge yet.
The door to the cockpit opened. Jasyn leaned in the doorway, her face pinched and tired. Clark stood behind her, looking just as rumpled.
“What did you find out?” Jasyn asked, sounding as if she didn’t really care.
I handed her the papers and let her make her own conclusions.
“The engines aren’t serious, but they are going to take some work,” I said.
Jasyn passed the papers to Clark.
I swiveled the chair. “As far as I can tell, we can’t go anywhere until we get that tractor beam shut down. It blankets the whole area. The com is jammed, too.”
Clark handed the papers back to me. “I’ll scout around.”
“Nobody goes alone,” Jasyn said.
“What are you suggesting?” I asked her.
“You’re the only one who knows how to fix the engines. Clark and I will go.”
“I don’t like it,” I said.
“You don’t have to like it. We can’t go anywhere without you, so you stay.”
“We can’t go anywhere without you, either. Clark and I don’t know how to program the nav comp.”
“So none of us are expendable.” She ran her hands through her thick dark hair. “I’m beginning to sound like Lowell. We can’t all go. Someone should stay here with the scanners and keep an eye on things.”
“We’ll go to the edge of the canyon and back. Nothing more,” Clark said. “It should only take a couple of hours.”
“Then take the blasters.” They were technically illegal. I was pretty certain Commander Lowell knew I had them, but he hadn’t seen fit to press charges. Yet.
Jasyn opened the hidden locker under her station and extracted two very lethal looking blasters. She checked the charges as she handed one to Clark. He tucked his away.
They headed out the airlock. I hated letting them leave, but we didn’t have much choice. At least they were together.
I turned back to the scanners and set the two working ones to general scans, constantly monitoring the area around the ship. I popped the cover off another so I could check the circuitry.
An hour later, I’d fixed what I could of the scanners. I moved to the engine controls, recalibrating the settings that were knocked out by the power surges. I checked the scans as I worked, glancing over at the screens. I watched out the viewscreen, too. On a whim, I tried the cameras mounted on the outer hull. They existed mostly for keeping an eye on things when loading cargo. I was surprised they still worked. I set the screen to show a split view from all six cameras.
Time crawled by. I kept one eye on the screens while I worked over the control boards. Most of the problems were fixed by flipping all the resets.
I caught sight of Jasyn and Clark on my screen. They ran, looking over their shoulders as they pushed through the weird vegetation. Clark had his blaster out. They sprinted towards the ship.
Figures came out of the taller plants, trotting after them. I hit the record button. Jasyn passed out of view of the camera, almost at the ship. Clark ran backwards, his blaster aimed at the men behind him. I wondered why he didn’t fire.
The men were tall, their skin a deep golden brown. They look
ed so alike they could have been clones of each other. Their golden hair was clipped back in identical ponytails. White tunics that came to midthigh, belted around the middle by rough cord, stood out against the gray-green of the plants. Five of them carried short wands. Two of them came forward with a strange box. They set it down on the ground and bent over it, out of camera range. I sat helpless as I watched.
The men at the box stepped back. The dozen aliens stood in a semicircle facing the ship. It was weird watching them just stand there, not doing anything.
The airlock cycled, the red light for emergency override blinked on my control board. Why didn’t Clark shoot?
Jasyn stumbled into the camera’s range, her hands clutched her head. She hobbled across the ground towards the men in the white tunics. Clark came behind her. He stopped and raised his blaster, every muscle shaking with the effort he made. The blaster spat sparks in his hand. He dropped it, tumbling to the ground after it.
One of the men stepped forward. Jasyn barely came up to his shoulder. He touched his wand to her head. She crumpled immediately. One of the others caught her, swinging her over one shoulder as if she weighed nothing.
Another man picked up Clark, carrying him back towards the canyon. The two men who had set up their strange black box bent over it.
I felt a pull, a need to walk out of the ship. I ignored it. I couldn’t do anything for Jasyn and Clark if I were captured, too. I had to think, to plan. I had to be smart enough to get all of us out in one piece.
The men picked the box up, then walked away.
I slumped in my chair, gnawing my knuckle.
I replayed the vid loop, watching the men walk out of the short trees to catch Jasyn and Clark, repeating it over and over. I let my mind drift, hoping some clues would emerge.
Why were these strange people here? They had technology, apparent from the wands and the box. Who were they? That question I couldn’t even begin to answer.
Where were they living? They came from the direction of the canyon. It was shielded at night, probably to keep in atmosphere and heat. Logic said they had to be living there. I needed to check it out.
Why were they living on this planet? The star was not in the least stable. The planet was only marginally inhabitable. Without the shield over the canyon, they wouldn’t be able to survive.
Why had they taken Jasyn and Clark? What was I going to do now? I had to find a plan, to be smarter than the golden colored men.
I pulled up the night’s scan data. It would be cold and the air would be thin, but I could survive it. Tonight I’d look around and see for myself what was out there. I reached for the controls, then stopped when something moved in the trees.
Another set of men emerged. They were identical to the men who had appeared earlier except for the addition of a tool belt slung across their shoulders.
They approached the ship, passing out of view of the cameras. I panicked, realizing that the airlock was still open. I jumped out of the seat and ran through the lounge. I skidded to a stop next to the hatch, slamming the controls to shut the outer door. It was still set on manual override. The light blinked red. I heard the men jabbering inside the airlock.
I yanked off the cover for the door controls. It only took a second to remove the wires that controlled the opening mechanism. The only way the door would open now was if I put the wires back in or they managed to cut their way through it.
I ran for the cargo bays. I jumped the stairs into the smaller bay, racing to the back of the short hall.
I yanked open the small access hatch into the larger bays. The cargo bays were jammed with medical equipment and supplies, the cargo I was supposed to deliver in less than ten days. It wasn’t going anywhere now. The restraints had broken during our wild landing. Boxes tumbled every which way. I couldn’t reach the outer doors, but that also meant the golden men couldn't reach me, either, not until they shifted the cargo. I crawled back through the access hatch.
I ran to the cockpit.
I typed as fast as I could. I left such a tangle of interlocking commands that it would take me a week to get the cargo doors open again. I hoped it would hold against whoever those weird men were.
A loud thump shuddered through the ship. I jumped, my heart pounding in my throat. Another loud thump rattled my nerves.
The airlock door was thick, it was supposed to be able to stand up to a direct hit. I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit and wait for them to leave. I left scans running as I sorted through the storage lockers for anything that might help. I jumped at every thump. By the end of two hours, when they finally gave up on the airlock, I was a nervous wreck. I also had a pile of survival gear. I had one shipsuit with a built in heater. It was a dull gray color, one I hoped would blend in with the terrain outside. I had an assortment of ration bars and water packs. The small emergency med kit was in a pocket of my suit.
I checked the screens. The men outside huddled around a box set up not far from the ship.
A low vibration shuddered along the back of my neck. I had a building urge to run outside, to get out of the ship. I fought it, guessing it came from the black box. I made myself sit and strap in to the pilot’s chair, even though some primitive part of my brain screamed to run outside.
I dug my fingers into the arms of the chair. The walls closed in, I was trapped. I had to escape. The arm of the chair gave way, fabric shredding under my hands.
Three of the men bent over the box. Two others argued. The urge to flee the ship battered at me. My hands pulled the straps holding me down. I was very glad that the release tended to jam. In my current state of near hysteria I couldn’t get it loose. I whimpered, yanking at the straps. My fingernail caught on the webbing. Pain throbbed from my finger. I welcomed it, embraced it as yet another way to fight the compulsion.
The urge built to a screaming need. And then went beyond into mind blinding pain. I screamed. I ripped at the seat. I had to escape the pressure of that need. I had to run. The straps gave. I fell onto the floor. I held my head and screamed at the pain that squeezed my brain out my ears.
It ended without warning. One second I was in utter agony, the next it was gone as if it had never been. I collapsed to the floor.
A trickle of something warm ran from my nose. I wiped it, smearing red down my sleeve. I’d ripped one arm off the chair and shredded the restraints. My nose wasn’t the only thing bleeding. Bloody handprints marked the seat. I looked up at the screen. The golden men carried the black box away.
I wiped my nose again, leaving streaks of blood on my hand. I went to my cabin to clean up and change into the heated suit.
Chapter 5
They left an hour before sundown.
I jumped at every small noise the ship made while I choked down stale bread. Sunset light painted the sky orange. The reflection from the viewscreen cast bloody light across the cockpit. I chewed while it faded.
I loaded the pockets of my suit with supplies, then stood in front of the airlock for ten minutes before I found the courage to open it. I put the wires back in place and palmed the lock. The door groaned and jammed. It would take several hours and heavy equipment to get it open again.
That left the emergency hatch located above the small cargo hold, an inconspicuous door barely big enough to crawl through. I walked through the ship and stood under the hatch, hands on hips as I tilted my head back.
I almost lost my nerve. But Jasyn and Clark needed rescued, and I was the only one who could help. I hit the release button. A ladder dropped from the ceiling next to the hatch. The releases on the door glowed green.
“Now or never,” I said, then wished I hadn’t. My voice was hoarse, my throat raw.
I climbed the ladder then undid the releases one by one. The hatch popped up. I pushed it back. It toppled and hit with a clang on the ship’s hull. I climbed onto the hull.
A thin breeze ruffled my hair, tasting of the plants crushed under the ship. A purple glow marked the horizon through the scrub
by trees. The sky overhead rippled with energy as the planet deflected radiation through its magnetic field.
I made myself shut the hatch. I sealed it and locked it, though my hands shook.
I slithered down the rounded side of the ship. The plants cracked underfoot as I landed. Their sharp smell increased. I turned up the heater in my suit. I left my handlight off, the storm crackling through space overhead cast an eerie blue-green light and threw blurred shadows over the low plants.
I double locked both cargo bay doors, setting them to open only to voice and hand prints. If the men wanted to pry off the control panels, I couldn’t stop them. I went around the side to the airlock.
They’d left rocks inside, not small ones. Most of them had rope tied around them to make a crude but effective weapon. I picked one up, and staggered under the weight. I put it back down. It hit the floor of the airlock with a clang.
I froze, waiting for a shout, something to say I’d been discovered. Nothing happened. I was alone with the plants. The temperature dropped. The air grew thinner with each breath.
I stepped out of the airlock, dropping three feet to the ground. I couldn’t reach the controls. I jumped and slapped the control panel. The outer door ground shut.
I couldn’t reach it to lock it. At that point, I realized I would have a hard time getting back into the ship. I’d deal with it after I’d rescued Jasyn and Clark.
I looked around the hollow, getting my bearings. I made myself take a step away. And then another, and another. About the fifth step I tripped over Clark’s blaster. I picked it up. The energy pack had melted, shorting out the whole thing. I didn’t know anything that could do that to a blaster. But then, I didn’t know of anything like the black box either. I tossed the ruined blaster towards the ship.
I trudged away from the ship, heading for the purple glow over the trees. The plants crackled underfoot, releasing their pungent odor with every step. They rose from barely ankle high to knee high. I stumbled over a path and turned to follow it. The scent of the plants was overpowering even in the thin air.
