Dryland's End

by Felice Picano

  “Which planet? Where are we?”

  “Sector Thirty-Nine of the Near Scutum Arm. A small binary solar system known as Aquila Epsilon. It possesses one small habitable planet which we discovered is part of the Hesperian resort world group, although so distant from commonly used liner paths for so long as to have gone virtually unnoticed.”

  A viewport in one side of the chamber was slid open for them to look at the planet. Rinne’s first glimpse was of a brown and mottled world, bathed in the light of a double sun. The stars were a good-sized red giant and a larger, and far younger, blue giant, whose gases were being drawn off toward its elder companion like a long, twisting amethyst scarf.

  “It’s called Usk,” Ckw’esso said, as the women stood up and moved closer to the viewport for a look. “I’ve located an old holo-brochure in our files for you to view. You will discover that its most salient features are a large, long-dried-up salt-ocean and several extensive mountain ranges. The planet has a starport and a not-too-distant resort, which appears to have been little used in the past few centuries.”

  It took a few minutes for Ckw’esso to outline the not-very-delightful aspects of Usk. Meanwhile the planet below turned enough on its axis in relationship to the Deneban freighter for a sudden glittering halo to appear, bathed in double-colored light. All of the Humes cried, “Ahh!” And no wonder, for as they watched, even from so high up, the planet’s enormous triple-ring system began to flaunt itself in all its majestic glory.

  “Yes,” Ckw’esso said. “The Rings of Usk!”

  “They’re magnificent!” Rinne said.

  “And,” Diad added, “doubtless the reason why Usk was made a member of the Hesperian resort world group.”

  “Indeed!” the Bella=Arth. admitted. “From most anywhere on the planet, they are even more magnificent. They appear to rise and set, they seem to separate and come together, and they cast spectacular shadows! If this system were closer to Hesperia or to the Center Worlds, Usk would be considered one of the attractions of the galaxy.”

  Ewa half turned from her place among the other refugees at the viewport. “I didn’t know a solid planet could have rings.”

  “They’re rare,” Ckw’esso admitted. “Only several hundred have been found.”

  “I’ve seen several,” Diad said, “but not Usk. In fact, I don’t remember ever noticing Usk on any lading schedule for Plastro or Beryllium.”

  “It’s unlikely you would. The planet is not even regularly scheduled for liquid hydrogen. The starport manager places an order irregularly and often asks us to pick up other necessary materials – including small quantities of Plastro and Beryllium.”

  No one could pull away from the viewport and the sight of those rings. Finally Ewa did and addressed Ckw’esso.

  “May we view one of the brochures you mentioned?”

  “Certainly. May I make a recommendation?”

  “Of course. You’ve been wonderfully helpful so far.”

  “Although the resort is fairly empty and although the starport contains many unutilized facilities, both are quite small and not well populated.”

  “Lacking in privacy, you mean?”

  “Exactly. And thus not suggested for your group. However, through the brochure you might be able to locate some facility upon the world, away from these two areas –”

  “I know of exactly the facility,” Rinne said. It had passed over the screen of Jenn-Four’s memory only a few days ago Sol Rad. “There’s an abandoned Mammalogical Institute research station on Usk. It’s located far from both the starport and the resort, in a chain of north-south mountains. Yet it’s close to several market villages and has its own water supply. Most important, for your offspring, the research station is located among a series of pastures and fields.”

  “Who lives in the villages?” Ewa asked.

  “A people called Pamps – an acronym for their genetic makeup. They were developed by the researchers at the Mammalogical Institute from a primate species on another world which, I believe, was undergoing some perilous natural phenomenon. I’m not sure why the station was closed. I believe it had something to do with the Pamps being left to evolve further on their own. They appear to be small, gentle folk, given to crafts and light farming. They’ve been taught the rudiments of Universal Gal. Lex.”

  The freighter’s gravitational spin in orbit was taking it out of the view of Usk. Ckw’esso took advantage of that fact to offer the holo-brochure.

  While the women gathered to watch the holo, the freighter’s captain was called out of the room. She returned just as the women were once more arguing the pros and cons of Usk as a place of settlement.

  “New developments have occurred as a result of the Deneb affair which may be of use to you in your discussion,” Ckw’esso translated what Mcr’ass’t was saying. “In addition to anti-Centaur riots on various planets within the Matriarchy itself, a fleet of Hesperian Fasts arrived late last night at the Near Norma Arm Sector Fourteen and declared a blockade of the Centaur homeworlds. The only ships allowed in were those carrying Centaurs returning home. Early this morning, a dozen MC Fasts commanded by the Cult of the Flowers attacked the Hesperian blockade. As a result, two Cult Fasts had to be abandoned, and one Hesperian ship. A Hesperian captain lost his life in the action. The Inter. Gal. News comms. are available for viewing but are somewhat graphic. As a result, the Centaur homeworlds have resigned from the Matriarchy, closed their system to all outsiders, and called on the Orion Spur Federation to aid them in keeping the Near Norma Arm Sector Fourteen protected.”

  There was silence among the Humes. Then Ewa spoke up. “Do you see now why we can’t go home?” Since no one answered her, she went on, “I think a few of us ought to go take a look at this research station on Usk.”

  Ewa, Janitra, one other pregnant woman with Ed. & Dev. in health and medicine, Rinne, Diad, Lill, and the Hesperian Fast’s Environmental Engineer were assigned to land a small shuttle.

  The freighter had moved to a point where Usk’s rings were almost directly beneath – now little more than a line across the whitish salt-ocean of the planet – when the shuttle dropped out of the ship’s pod-belly.

  Once it had stabilized, the shuttle began to glide sideways across the planet’s atmosphere. It soon passed the rings, which Rinne now saw hovered directly behind like a series of gigantic curtains.

  The landscape they were approaching was an enormous, much-scarred, and obviously geologically ancient series of mountains ranges that appeared to gird the planet from north to south poles. It was so huge and so varied that as the shuttle angled down sharply, it was difficult for Rinne to pick out any single detail.

  When she mentioned this to the others, the normally silent – and lately even sullen – Lill said, “Good! That will make it more difficult for anyone to find them accidentally.”

  Finally the shuttle pilot settled upon a single line of longitude, a rough, long cordillera between which thin, bleak valleys lay. The landscape was so bleak and single hued that the pale green which they began to see came as a relief. They descended in the midst of a small vale hemmed in on either side by the continuous range. Those who had lived in the research station seemed to have worked toward making the area more pleasant: several small groves of trees, which Rinne recognized from Melisande’s extensive parklands, had been planted around the few low-to-the-ground structures that formed the buildings of the station.

  They landed in a nearby meadow. The air was thin but fresh, and rich with difficult to determine, yet definitely floral-like aromas. Janitra spotted one possible source of the fragrance: tiny long-stemmed wildflowers dotted the meadow of tall grass. The six Humes strolled comfortably toward the research station, feeling the silence and peace around them.

  “The holo-brochure said that Thwwings were once bred somewhere in these mountains,” Ewa said.

  “It’s really quite lovely,” Janitra commented.

  The station had been designed to be completely solar-energic: wi
th one entire side buried in the foothills of one range, and enormous Plastro windows several stories high, opening onto the steepest part of the vale, a narrow deep ravine through which a tiny colorless stream of water bubbled. On closer inspection, Rinne noticed that the windows were two-toned, and possibly even of differing thicknesses.

  “Because of the two suns!” Lill pointed up, where the binary blue and red stars shone as white and pale orange in Usk’s atmosphere. “Very clever!”

  “We’d have to clear the foliage from the windows,” Ewa was saying.

  The structures were easily entered and revealed inside as large, clean, and well kept. There were a score of suites on the bottom floor, each large enough for several women. The main gathering rooms, offices, supply areas, and other rooms without furnishings were on the second floor. The topmost floor, with its three completely windowed towers, contained what had been laboratories. Rinne and the Env. Engineer looked these over in some detail and decided that enough basic supplies as well as equipment remained for all and any medical problems – not merely childbirth – to be taken care of.

  While they were going through the supplies, a small, squat Cyber appeared in the doorway.

  “Where did that come from?” Rinne asked.

  “Mer Ewa found me,” the Cyber replied, “She sent me here. I’m a model Intern number 455, and fully equipped for all medical services.”

  “Are there any more of you?” Janitra asked.

  “I’m the only intern model on the premises. Two other general labor models remain. They possess various skills and may be used for all heavy work.”

  The women were pleased. “We’re happy to make your acquaintance.”

  “It’s a pleasure to be operating again.”

  “Can you check all of these supplies and let us know what is missing that would be needed for six months of female and infant Hume medical care?”

  “Naturally,” the little Cyber answered and headed for the pharmacy.

  “And when you’re done,” the Env. Engineer said, “we’ll need one lab only to be cleaned spotlessly and ready for all and any medical care.”

  “That shouldn’t be difficult.”

  When Rinne joined the others downstairs, she saw through the windows that Diad was outside, sitting on a slab of rock. After encouraging the women and assigning cleanup tasks to the two other Cybers, she joined him.

  Diad put an arm around her shoulder and drew her to him immediately.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “I think that Ckw’esso is as clever as she is good. And that this will make a wonderful home for the women and their children.”

  He smiled.

  “That’s what you were asking, wasn’t it?” Rinne asked.

  “Not really.” He laughed. “I was thinking, wouldn’t this be a good place for us to retire to?”

  “Why not?” she answered.

  When he didn’t answer, but instead looked down, Rinne turned his face toward herself.

  “Well, we could, couldn’t we?”

  “You mean just leave it all?”

  “Not for good. But why not?” Then she answered herself. “You’ve got to return to the City, don’t you?”

  “We both have to. I’ve got to arrange Lill’s return to the Matriarchy. I owe her that for helping you on Deneb.”

  “Yes, we both owe her that. But we don’t have to stay in Hesperia, do we?”

  “Until this crisis is over, we don’t have the right to our own lives,” he said somberly.

  “Isn’t it over?” Rinne knew he was speaking the truth, but she hated hearing it anyway.

  “No. Not yet. Not until the Three Species can reproduce again. Not until the Cyber Rebellion is crushed. Not until the Matriarchy is –”

  “You expect the two of us to do all that?” Rinne asked.

  Diad laughed. “Maybe not all of it. But, yes, those are the problems we’ve got to help solve. Myself – and you, Gemma.”

  “Why us?” She felt tears rise to her eyes.

  He looked at her, feeling the same thing.

  “I don’t know why, Gemma. We were chosen or ... I just know that our work isn’t done yet.”

  “Even though your prediction of twilight over the galaxy is coming true?”

  “Another day will rise over the galaxy, Gemma. Our task is to help it come.”

  As though in illustration, beyond the mountain range, the Rings of Usk were beginning to be visible: silver at their edges, like a borealis solidifying as they watched.

  They remained sitting there until Ewa came out and said, “We’ve even found food supplies. They must have left in a hurry. One Cyber said ...” As she continued speaking, her face was bright with the future.

  “You’ll come and visit us sometime, won’t you?” she asked finally.

  “Why are we cruising so slowly?” Commander Lill asked, trying not to betray the irritation she was feeling. They had come out of Fast jump an hour ago Sidereal Time, and outside the viewport nothing was visible at all.

  “We’re approaching the City,” Taylor said. “This is the only way to approach it.”

  “Do you mean to tell me there are no Fast ports on Hesperia?” Lill’s irritation was growing.

  “The whole City’s a Fast port!” he responded. “Fasts land at your front door! Or did, until recently. However because of recent circumstances we’ve got to be checked through first. It shouldn’t take too long.”

  He turned to Rinne and, after brushing her cheek with his lips, excused himself. Captain Mcr’ass’t would need him on ship-to-City comm. to ease their way through, he said; the Bella=Arth. freighter wasn’t cleared for landing in the City.

  Commander Lill’s irritation had begun on Deneb XII around the time that Admiral Thol had decided to attack the Hesperian Fast two days before Sol Rad. Lill had suddenly realized that she had made a terrible mistake accompanying Councilor Rinne down to the planet’s surface. Since then, her irritation had only increased. With Thol for her pigheadedness, and then her stupidity in killing all those women. With the Denebans for the hiding place in their freighter that had made her claustrophobic beyond her ability to explain it. And finally with everyone and everything – those poor women impregnated with monsters and then abandoned, left to fend for themselves on a desert world in the middle of nowhere; Councilor Rinne for being so constantly feminine, yet strong, and for being so openly in love with a male; and that male, North-Taylor Diad himself, for failing to be just another down-and-dirty Beryllium hauler captain, as Lill had known him to be for decades, and turning his coat to become an Eve-damned politician in the Quinx!

  “Maybe I should have stayed on Usk along with those two skimmer pilots!” Lill said disgustedly.

  “Why, Commander Lill, what a gallant thing to say!” Rinne replied.

  “Gallant?”

  “Well, those two skimmer pilots had formed relationships of a sort with the women. One admitted to me that she had grown bored in the MC service. Whereas you –”

  “Could be sold down the Milky Way, for all I know!” Lill said.

  Rinne looked genuinely shocked. “You don’t think Diad would –”

  “Northie’s all right. But no matter how much you and I think of him, he doesn’t run Hesperia. Don’t you think there are some males there who are itching to get their interrogation units attached to MC biggies like you and me?”

  “Don’t be paranoid,” Rinne said calmly. “To begin with, Diad wouldn’t be able to live with himself if everything didn’t go exactly right with the two of us. Second, Hesperians can be very polite and –”

  “Haven’t you gotten it through your head yet, Councilor, as soon as we’re checked through, we’re going to be entering enemy territory?”

  “Hesperia has never been my enemy!” Rinne said.

  “Well, it’s been mine! I’ve tussled with Hesperian Fasts for decades. And Hesperia has been the MC’s enemy. Oh, forget it!”

  To close off any further communi
cation, Lill put her wrist connection into the holo-screen outlet, effectively blocking off any more talk, which could only be fruitless and thus more irritating.

  What had Rinne tuned in to? Oh, great, a history of Hesperia. Just what Lill needed now!

  Yet Lill wasn’t a Commander in MC forces for her looks. If she were about to be placed in the hands of her enemies – whether for the short period of time that Northie promised or longer – all her military intelligence training told her she might as well take a refresher course on that enemy. She called for the holo to be shown from the beginning and watched the screen and listened to the androgynous voice-over as it began to recite.

  ENTRY: 104789: THE CITY (A.K.A. HESPERIA)

  An artificial megalopolis located in Galactic Wedge Sector One, between the Sagittarian and Near Scutum Arms, closer to the latter [charts of the area], this long-dead sphere with no indigenous life was discovered ca. 2576 and found to be the hollowed-out ash of a star which billions of years before had been an extravagantly burning red giant star of the first magnitude. [Animation: the star before and after nova.]

  Hesperia was placed ideally to be developed in the 26th Century as an intersystems comfort station/customs operation for the forty-two inhabited planets and moons of the Scutum Sector under Metro.-Terran control.

  Gigantic girders, thousands of kilometers in length, were embedded into the crust of the dead star, and along these girders were built the necessities and amenities of a large interstellar port. [View via old holos and holo-stats.]

  The discovery within the sphere of vast quantities of crystallized Plastro-Beryllium (Bel8), a material postulated but never found before, led to intensive experimentation. It had been known for centuries that Bel8 was formed within stars at the instant they went supernova [more animation], the unstable element forming from hydrogen four protons as they became helium sixteen protons. Bel8 was a highly unstable, less-than-momentary element responsible for the Helium Flash Effect [animation again], which caused the instantaneous ignition of stars throughout their entire mass and volume.