by James Garvey
“Oh Amy. You needn’t worry about escape. We’ve the technology to keep things under control. I think it’s wrong for you to compare us to the creatures trying to dominate earth from the portal.”
“Say what you want, but I disagree. You can learn much from me about how to harness the natural power of this world. You don’t need to use alien wares to suit your needs.”
Grey’s frustrated. “Well, we depend on it now. I’d like to see your garden someday. I’m sure you can teach me many things.”
“I doubt Thresh left any of my garden for us to visit.” The thought of home makes me sick and forlorn.
Grey gingerly puts his hand on my shoulder and I pat it. We spend the rest of the morning sauntering about Grey’s garden. I worry that I’ve been too hard on him. I do find the many plants he shows me fascinating. He knows so much about other worlds and so little about earth, the home of his ancestors. Perhaps, when all of this is over, I can teach him how to appreciate his home.
We rejoin the others at lunch. Iggy’s offspring are in the ocean grazing for food while Iggy sits at a table spraying itself with seawater. Gorian’s returned, talking with Minns and Etch animatedly. Bets sharpens her sword while Samuel sips on a glass of cider. English naps under a small tree, snoring softly.
Gorian pulls out a tablet similar to the one that Theo lifted from Troll’s compound. She hits a button and the image of another ship like the Fuerst appears in mid-air, except it is black as pitch. “I think I may know where the Raven, Melat’s ship, is. It’s right here on earth.”
She’s met by silence from all of us except English, who’s risen from his self-imposed unconsciousness. “How can that thing that smashed a planet still be around?”
Etch answers. “The Raven was not destroyed. It is difficult to explain. When it began to travel through space, it dragged the planet C9 with it. The ship survived but the planet, of course, did not. Think of our space vessels as drills that tunnel through space from one side to another. The planet tried to follow through the hole, but was too large and broke into pieces.”
Gorian’s clearly excited and seems about to burst. “I have no idea how the Raven got here on earth but it’s likely responsible for the activity we’re seeing.”
“What about Melat?” Grey asks.
“I would have sensed her presence while in the pilot house of the Fuerst. Any time a pilot is in their ship, it transmits their location to other pilots. This is an essential navigation tool, keeping us from crashing into each other.” Etch is perplexed.
Iggy’s tinny, mechanical voice asks the question we’re all pondering. “Gorian, where’s the Raven located relative us?”
“Within shuttle range in the foothills of the mountains, due east of here. We can get there in less than an hour flying at normal velocity.”
Grey strokes the back of his neck. “Whoa, we need to pause here and think about the dangers. What if Melat is still there in the ship? She can direct her weapons at the shuttle.”
“Iggy’s the best shuttle driver we know. He can evade any fire. Also, we can stay out of range of the vessel until were sure it’s safe to investigate. My sensors suggest the Raven is disabled and likely not a threat.” Gorian’s already packing her bag.
Anger wells up inside me. “Are we losing our focus here? We need to find the portal and stop it, not look for your long lost pilot friend.”
Etch pounds his fist. “She is no longer my friend. She betrayed all of us.”
“I have a hypothesis,” Gorian says. “The Raven is not completely powered down. I’m wondering whether it might be acting as an amplifier for you pilot-types out there. This may be fueling Thresh’s killing spree and allowing you to travel in your sleep. If we shut it down, then Thresh and her monsters might go away.” She smiles hopefully.
“Then, by all means, we leave now,” I say, heading to my room to gather my things.
Grey stands up. “No way are you going Amy. You’re our only asset.”
“Hell to you Grey. I’m going or I’m walking toward the dead people to get my daughter back.”
We’ve decided that Gorian, Iggy, English, Bets, and Theo will fly with me in the shuttle. Etch, Samuel, Grey, Minns, and the children of Iggy will remain at camp to await our return and look out for shuffling dead people.
The shuttle’s tucked in the rear of the Fuerst, looking a lot like the winged boxes I saw crashing into buildings in Troll’s moving pictures of the great fall. This memory gives me pause as I walk into its gaping door. Could it be possible that Iggy will lose control of the machine to the Trolls out there?
The interior of the shuttle is dark, illuminated by blue, green, red, and yellow lights. We’re cramped in the back while Iggy and Gorian sit in chairs in the front, pressing buttons and murmuring to each other. I freeze at the voice in the space. “Please prepare for departure. Stay seated.” It sounds identical to Troll.
“We need to leave,” I shout. English and Bets react similarly, jumping and standing at the door.
Theo laughs. “Calm down you three. This isn’t Troll, is it Gorian?”
“If you mean the HM interface you encountered at the munitions storage, nope. This is just the HM for the shuttle. It must have a similar voice synthesizer.”
“Thank the gods,” Bets sighs sitting down.
The shuttle floats out of the Fuerst and ascends into the sky. I feel the same lightness I did soaring in the magpie. Theo, Bets, and English stare out of the portholes in amazement. For a moment, a glimpse of a young girl passes Bets’ face. It suits her.
The ocean is so impossibly large from this vantage. Crests of waves wink at me. The water knows whom I am and what I need to do. Iggy banks the shuttle and the ocean recedes as the mountains beckon in the distance. The cabin’s silent, with the exception of an occasional wet sneeze from Iggy.
“Catch a cold in the ocean?” Gorian hands him a wipe.
“I seem to have contracted a virus. Perhaps it was the stress of reproducing. I’ll revive soon, although a good torpor would do me good.”
Gorian laughs. The rest of us haven’t a clue what the frog man or woman is talking about. Gorian catches her breath and says, “So, my friends, I have some things to tell you about Melat before we approach the Raven, if it is really there. First, Melat was one of the best pilots I’ve known. She changed after we had an accident dropping from one location of space to another. We think she was influenced by the powers in the government to abort our mission. Or something unknown got to her in infraspace. Regardless, she found out about the portal on Planet C9 and she blew it up. We barely escaped. Oh, infraspace is the place in between space and time. It’s impossible to explain without math.”
Bets makes the connection, even given Gorian’s gobblygook language. “Should we be concerned that this Melat woman is here to do the same thing to earth, drag it into that infra … space, portal and all?”
Iggy wheezes. “Perceptive Bets. This thought has crossed our minds. Of course, Etch could not sense her, so perhaps she’s dead or incapacitated. It’s better for us to assume she’s alive, just in case.”
“Great news.” Theo’s flushed. “We’ve got Thresh sending dead ones to us and killing innocents and now you tell us we got to deal with doomsday? We had peaceful lives and now all this. You’re all bringing the horrors of the ancient ones with you.”
Gorian shrugs. “Seems to be the way of things, don’t you think? Didn’t you want things to be better? Not get sick so much? Have more comfort? Keep a constant supply of your beloved tobacco? Keep your loved ones around longer? That’s what makes all this happen. People want more and more. And it just gets more complicated.”
English is strangely sober. “The portal. It’s a test for us, isn’t it?”
“Who’s giving the test?” Iggy asks in his machine voice.
“I dunno. Like, a temptation to us. We need to decide what we want to use that portal for.”
Gorian turns in her chair. "Are you suggesting that so
meone has a plan for us? Like a god?"
English responds, "Sure. Don't ya believe in gods? There's more to all this, do you not think?"
"Oh English. We've seen things that we can't explain. But that doesn't mean there's no explanation. I don't believe that any of this is predetermined. And no, there are no gods. Only other beings like us."
English retreats to silence and stares out the window.
Theo plops down next to me. "How's it going Sprouter?"
"We were living a simple life and then - all this. I want my family back Theo."
"We'll get them back. I miss them too."
He touches my hand and Bets glares.
"What if we don't?"
"Then I'll always be with you." Theo gazes a bit too long at me - I feel a warmth in my gut that I can't suppress. I pull my hand away.
"We're approaching. Iggy slow it down and descend." Gorian dims the lights in the cabin, while the shuttle hums lightly. She turns to us. "That sound's coming from a protective field. If the Raven's passively listening for us, then it won't detect us."
Iggy clarifies, "It'll make us invisible to Melat. We hope."
The shuttle gently glides into a thick forest of pine trees. Iggy expertly weaves it in between the boughs. I can sense the age of the forest and the creatures inhabiting it. I expect to see the green ones hanging from the limbs, waving at me. The shuttle slows to a crawl and sinks into a glade of thick weeds. The landing’s so soft that I don’t notice it.
"The Raven's about a thousand meters straight ahead through this meadow," Gorian announces. "We need to weapon up." She and Iggy pull out a series of shelves brimming with guns and other implements. Iggy hands each of us a light blue gun with a short barrel.
"This looks like a toy. I like the colors." Bets points it toward the front of the vessel.
Iggy jumps and forces the barrel down. "Careful. This thing can destroy the helm. There'd be no way for us to get back without it."
We gather outside the shuttle, where Gorian stands holding what looks like a dragonfly in her hand. A closer look reveals that the object in her palm's a machine. It leaps out of her hand and hovers above us. "Do you like my little drone? It'll give us a look ahead." Gorian adorns a pair of odd-looking glasses. "These let me see through its eyes."
"I can do that with magpies," I mutter.
As we struggle through the dry grass, I notice that the air's strangely still and cold, even for this time of year at this elevation. I can tell Bets feels the same way - she's alert, looking intently into the dead vegetation. She's expecting something to jump out, like a mountain lion or perhaps a grub. Gorian seems less concerned, paying more attention to the view in her glasses than the immediate dangers lurking in the brush.
"We're approaching a ridge," Gorian says. Within moments, the ground drops off and we're facing a vast open space with the mountains impossibly close. At the bottom of the valley is the queerest thing I've seen yet. Even Iggy gasps in his alien voice. The same ship we saw emerge from Gorian's tablet earlier is lying in the trickle of a wide stream bed. It’s impossibly large and dark as night. And only half of it is there.
"What the-" Gorian exclaims. A flash of bright light, like lightning, but green rather than blue-white, assaults us.
The area where the back of the ship should be is hazy and crackling. Flashes of emerald light spark from nowhere. The stream disappears into the haze and doesn't reemerge- the bed is completely dry downstream of the ship.
Gorian whistles. “Wow, something bad happened. Let’s shimmy down and get a closer look.”
Bets, English, and I exchange worried glances but we follow Gorian and Iggy down a small gulley into the valley. As we approach the bottom, I'm overwhelmed by a smell that reminds me of the air after a huge thunderstorm. The hairs on my arms tingle- all my instincts tell me to flee.
Gorian cautiously approaches the front of the Raven. She produces her tablet and begins gesturing wildly at it. In response, a crack opens on the bottom of the ship, and the air around us calms a bit. My anxiety has now turned to whatever may emerge from the vessel.
The crack becomes an open hatch and a set of stairs like those on the Fuerst descends. We crouch, pointing our weapons at the opening. We’re greeted by silence - nothing seems to be enticed by the activity. Gorian walks to the stairs and ascends, with Iggy following close behind. The rest of us remain motionless, waiting for something remarkable to happen. We jump at a buzzing behind us, turning to see Gorian's dragonfly. A tiny voice says, "All clear guys. Come on up."
We ascend into the ship. As my eyes adjust, I realize that the interior of the Raven is much like that of the Fuerst. However, instead of the pristine space in the Fuerst, the air in the Raven is musty and damp, with a hint of rotting meat. Gorian emerges from the pilot house, shaking her head in disgust. We enter the large bare room, which resembles that in the Fuerst. In the center is the pilot’s chair, which is occupied by a motionless, emaciated body with dry strands of red hair. It looks similar to the mummies we encountered in Troll's compound - lips shrunken, teeth bared, and fingers clenched. However, the eyes of this body are long gone.
Gorian reenters the room. "Amy, Bets, and English, meet Melat."
"Well, good. She’s dead." Bets asks.
Gorian gives Iggy a knowing look and points at a lighted panel on the chair.
Iggy tries to explain. "Bets is still alive – just in a different way. She's part of the ship now, all around us. When pilots travel through space, their minds enter the ships via a conduit, allowing them to navigate the impossibly complex pathways. She uploaded herself into the ship and never re-entered her body. This form, her cadaver, simply died of neglect in that chair."
"So, she and the ship’s one? Just like Amy and the bird? Then half of Melat’s ass is hanging in nowhere," English muses.
"How can she be in a machine?" I ask.
Gorian responds. "Same way that you are able to occupy the minds of Thresh, the bird, and the sentient fog. You channel them telepathically using the energy of your brain melded with the energy of the ship."
Bets groans. "So, that means that she's still here, like Troll?" She looks up and around. "We're inside of her?"
"Yup, but the ship's disabled, so I think we're safe." Gorian fidgets with a panel of buttons on the wall.
My skin feels strange, the sensation mingled with the now familiar tugging in my mind. "I don't think she's completely disabled, Gorian." The lights intensify and we all crouch in fear.
"Sorry," Gorian giggles. "I just turned up the lights. No Melat."
The air crackles. “No, Gorian, I’m here. Please help me.” We all freeze - the cold, faceless voice piercing our skulls.
“Melat?” Gorian stammers.
“Yes, my friend. Things have gone terribly wrong.”
“No shit, Melat. You tried to kill us and destroyed an entire planet. That’s pretty hard to forget. And then there’s the part about your rotten body here…”
“Gorian, the problem will only get worse if you don’t help me.”
“Mel, I can see that you landed the Raven half-way in earth. Bad parking job. Where’s the other half?”
“The Raven’s stuck between earth and infraspace. I brought it here to destroy the natural portal on earth. You’ve got to free me – the ship - and help me close it forever. The beings without eyes cannot be allowed to escape.”
Iggy responds. “Mel, are you telling us that you want us to help you destroy earth like you did C9?”
“Yes. It’s the only way to stop them, the lifeless ones, from invading.”
“Are you talking about the fog and the monsters?” I ask. “Because if you are, you’re too late.”
“You’re a pilot? I sense this.” Melat’s voice asks me.
“No. But I’m smart enough to know that destroying my home’s not the answer. That’s what the others – the things- are already doing.” The tugging grows stronger and my vision grows dim. “What are you doing to me?”
“Bringing you along for the ride.”
I feel the Raven inside of me. Wires, chips, circuits – things I never heard of and could never hope to comprehend seem natural to me. Mel tells me to sit in the pilot's chair. I try to resist but the pull’s too great. I lurch toward the seat, lob the mummified husk of the corporeal Melat out if it, and sit down. Straps emerge, binding my arms and legs. To my dismay and dread, a wire snakes out and pierces the skin of my hand. In my last moment of consciousness, I perceive a flurry of activity as my companions try to free me.
I'm floating in that same, strange void in which I confronted Thresh. "I'm so sick of this," my unvoice says.
"What are you weary about?" A red-haired woman appears. She's clearly excited to see me.
"You- you people. All of this. I'm losing grasp of myself, flying around outside of my body. How’d you force me into the chair?"
"I don’t know. I think it has something to do with the power of the portal on earth. It’s allowing me to extend my reach beyond the Raven. You can do it too, can’t you?” She gives me no time to answer. “You don't know how great it is to see someone else. It's been a long time since I've had a chance to talk with someone. I’m lonely."
I’m incensed. "What's wrong with you? How dare you force me to join you here? I don't want to be trapped in some machine and certainly don't want to chat with you. I'm sure Gorian's working to revive me and then destroy your ship."
Mel's ghost laughs. "You’re not going anywhere, my new friend. Your body's now part of the ship. If Gorian disconnects you, your body will die and you'll be here with me forever. Not that I’d be disappointed. The company’s welcome."
I hope that Melat’s lying to me. She floats in front of me, smiling warmly. “As you probably know, this is my ship. I learned that the holes in the universe are bad. They let the things get out. I can’t let that happen. Before I joined the Raven, I was a lot like you. I loved someone very much, as I’m sure you do. So, you understand what must be done to protect them?”
