Traveler_Losing Legong

by Tim Dennis

  Myles avoided looking at him, instead staring out the window. The bartender rushed over with the drinks. Krykowfert smiled, made polite noises and encouraged him to go away.

  "I can't go. It's too risky." Myles said. "I have people here on Legong that depend on me."

  "No you don't." Krykowfert countered. Myles stared back at him, surprise overwhelming shock. "You've had a fright. You're nervous. That's perfectly natural."

  "Yes, that's it. I'm nervous and I can't establish an implant link when I'm nervous."

  Krykowfert stood. "We can talk about this in the hangar."

  "I don't think I should go." Myles said as he rose from his chair. "I've neglected my Advocate duties the past few days and with the flood recovery there's a lot to do."

  "Yes, yes. Very patriotic of you." Krykowfert led Myles toward the door, "but you have been called to a higher duty."

  With that they left. Untouched drinks on the table and a roomful of people who could now tell the story of the time they had a drink with Krykowfert in the Rim Bar.

  During the entire passage from bar to hangar Myles continued his rationalizations. Krykowfert matched him point by point. By the time they'd arrived, both were fatigued.

  "I really don't think I can fly it." Said Myles.

  "Nonsense." Krykowfert dismissed Norte and Peto from the hangar with a nod and surprised Myles by walking straight over to Traveler's ship and climbing in. "Come!" Myles heard from the hatchway.

  Myles followed dutifully and led Krykowfert to the pilothouse. Once they were seated Krykowfert started in with demands. "OK. Take us out."

  What?

  "He wants you to take him out, to show him how it works." said Pig.

  "I understand the ship works like a Cab." Krykowfert said. "So let's go. Open the hangar doors."

  Myles stared dumbfounded, then patted down his pockets searching for the manual link Krykowfert had given him. Krykowfert grunted and opened the hangar by implant.

  "It's not quite like a Cab." Myles said. "A Cab you tell where to go, you use language. Granted, you're communicating through your implant, but you're still using language-based thought. Traveler's ship reads what you want. You can't simply give it data and instruct it, you have to want to go to the destination."

  Nicely spoken.

  "Shut up!"

  "I didn't say anything" said Pig.

  Krykowfert examined Myles's confused expression, decided to ignore his peculiar rudeness and issued an order of his own. "Show me."

  Myles tried to relax, taking deep breaths and letting them out. The blank walls of the pilothouse slowly dissolved, leaving only the hangar around them. Krykowfert felt his chair, looked around. The view changed suddenly, all of Central Command vanished and Krykowfert turned back around with a start, grabbing his chair and looking at Myles in alarm.

  "Oh! Sorry!" In an instant the view returned to the blank ovoid walls of the pilothouse.

  "No, no. Carry on." Krykowfert said.

  The image stabilized, showing the hangar around them with a faded section in front where the image of the starry space outside bled through. With Krykowfert obviously unaware of how the ship operated, Myles's confidence grew. Of course Pig, sitting in a non-existent third chair beside him, helped as well. He glided the ship smoothly out of the hangar and moved away from Central Command. At about five hundred kilometers out the ship halted. The view rotated to show CC, then swung back showing the distant stars. It accelerated away from Legong, stopped, turned and accelerated back. It did this three times, sending Pig on a journey around the pilot house reminiscent of the buoy, spinning and stopping at different moments.

  "Very nice Myles, now settle down." Krykowfert kept his voice calm, but wasn't able to hide the tension.

  "It's not me. I'm not doing it."

  "It sure as hell isn't ME!" blurted Pig.

  Krykowfert again, with calm, measured speech. "Take a breath and relax, the ship won't allow you to hurt anything, just relax, let go."

  Pig nodded harried agreement, climbing back into the third seat. Myles closed his eyes and tried to make his mind blank. The flitting back and forth became worse.

  "Relax," Krykowfert said. "Think of Central Command. It's a safe place, the cradle of our civilization, unchanging-"

  The ship suddenly lurched away, flinging Pig against the far wall of the pilot house. Legong became a tiny dot of light, only their sun was identifiable among the stars. They spun, faced towards Central Command and shot instantly to within a kilometer of the open hangar doors.

  "Stop!" Krykowfert shouted. Myles opened his eyes. "Just look at it, the hangar, or at Legong, just don't think of anything else."

  The ship slowly drifted back into the hangar and settled on its spindly legs. In a manner urgent yet dignified, Krykowfert climbed out of his seat and immediately went down the stairs and out the hatch. Myles followed him as quickly as possible, white as a sheet.

  "Look, I really don't think I can do this."

  Pig waddles along behind them, nodding in frantic agreement.

  Krykowfert took a step towards the exit. "You'll be fine. I have complete confidence in you."

  Myles, followed closely by Pig, chased after Krykowfert. "You don't understand, that wasn't me. There was some other force, I felt it, pushing us out."

  Krykowfert lowered his head. Myles wasn't sure if he was using his implant or just thinking. He looked up and continued in the same slow, deliberate voice he'd used inside the pilothouse. "I shouldn't have come. You did fine, Myles. Remember, the ship won't allow you to get into any serious trouble. If you get lost, just wish yourself home." Krykowfert firmly shook Myles's hand, pushing him gently towards the ship as he made his own way to the hangar door. Norte and Peto came back in, pushing past Myles to load the last bits of gear.

  "I have to make a stop first." Said Myles. "I forgot to feed my- Um. It's a a... I have a pet. I didn't leave it any food."

  Krykowfert stopped and turned back to him. "You mean that lizard in your back yard?"

  He knows about the lizard? How does he know about the lizard?

  "Pet?" Pig stood, hands on hips. "How long have you had this - pet?"

  Myles looked back and forth between Krykowfert and jealous Pig. Images flooded into Myles's mind. The lizard, his parents, Bento. All combined in a parade of memories. His face grew hot, a shiver ran down his spine and his eyes burned.

  "Good God man! You're falling apart!" Krykowfert held his voice down and practically pulled Myles through the doorway out of the hangar. "Alright, pull yourself together, I'll see to the damn lizard. Just, just go. Compose yourself." Krykowfert let go of Myles and nodded for one of his Guards to accompany Myles to the small lounge of the hangar entryway. He then went over to Norte and Peto.

  "Listen to me. Tugot's not Guard, you've got to treat him with care." Norte accepted Krykowfert's comment as an order, but she obviously didn't agree with it. Krykowfert felt the point needed to be driven home. "Look at him. He gets too upset and you could find yourselves stuck out there with no way back, light-years from Legong or Eden." Norte nodded, Peto grunted, both walked to the ship and climbed in. Myles came back into the hangar with Feric. He silently crossed the hangar deck and climbed into the ship. A wavering blue haze filled the hatchway, leaving behind a smooth, unbroken surface. Krykowfert and Feric went up into the observation chamber. As the ship exited the hangar Feric spoke.

  "I've called your ship."

  "I'm not really going down to feed that lizard. Call someone in from S.I."

  "Asha will meet you on board. Tugot has five nephews. The eldest is nine."

  Krykowfert expressed pleased surprise.

  13

  Norte sat beside Myles in the Earth-ship's pilothouse. "Enjoy your chat?"

  "What are you talking about?" Myles asked.

  "You and your friend, the Earth-man. Yeah, I know Tugot." Norte stopped Myles from answering her back. "You go ahead, have your philosophical debates, but you just remember, this is r
eal, and lives are at stake."

  "What are you talking about?" Myles honestly had no idea what Norte was on about.

  "Our lives, me and Peto. You're a politician, a damn bureaucrat, but when you're under my command you're Shield Guard, just like me and Peto, and Shield Guard puts the Colony first. Always. You think about that during your next tea-party with the Earth-Man." She poked Myles in the chest. "That's what I'm talking about."

  The little ball on a stick that Norte had mounted between the seats was now a permanent fixture, recording everything the pilothouse showed them. It also could project data from Norte's implant, and that's what Norte had it doing now.

  An orbital view of Eden appeared in the space between Norte and the pilothouse walls. The probe had been successful, it was sending back real-time images through a Bell's-Transmitter but the attempt at Ripping hadn't gone as planned. This time they were bringing a set of field enhancers through, to help stabilize the Rip at the Eden end.

  "OK." Norte said. "Nothing fancy here. Just do the same thing you did before."

  "OK."

  What did I do before?

  The pilothouse walls faded until Myles and Norte were surrounded by nothing but the empty hangar. The large doors swung open. Nothing happened.

  Since visiting Eden Myles had become conflicted. He didn't know how he felt about the new planet, but right now he wanted to go home. Not the Main Island, not his parents' farm, but to the place that was uniquely his, where he belonged and felt safe. The ship stirred. Norte scanned the skies outside the hangar, startling Myles. The ship settled back down. He imagined being on Eden, then being down on Legong, with Bento and Harry. The ship folded up its five spindly little legs and floated out of the hangar.

  OK. So you're conflicted. Maybe do a little fly-by before setting off?

  Instead of heading up above the ecliptic the ship stayed just outside the hangar, slowly following it around with the rotation of Central Command.

  "C'mon Myles. You can do it." Norte's shift from her threatening words to this kindly, almost motherly tone felt more unsettling than reassuring.

  "I think I'm distracted." Myles said.

  "Yeah. You shouldn't have gone to see Traveler." She added. "It's put all sorts of ideas in your head. You should just follow orders and get the job done."

  The mix of content and tone heightened the motherly aspect of her speech. Myles felt he was being scolded. The ship slowed, falling behind Central Command's spin and drifting further away without actually moving towards any place in particular. Norte sighed and dropped her head into her hands. Wishing not to interfere with Myles's process, she twisted in her invisible chair and climbed out through the hatchway behind their heads.

  The solitude helped Myles focus. He thought about what Norte had said, about Traveler putting ideas in his head.

  What ideas? About fairness and trust? He hardly said anything.

  The star view faded, replaced by images of the atoll. Harry's Cafe still had a mis-matched patch in the roof.

  Still no Maker available for the repairs?

  Myles felt definitely that they were still in orbit and that he was only seeing the islands, not actually flying over them. The view shifted, his home on the slope over the city disappeared, the lagoon spun out below and then the tattered trees along beaches of his parent's home island slipped in under him. A moment later he watched as his parents and brother guided farm hands and machines over patchwork fields. It could have been any image from the last ten years, but Myles felt strongly it was now. In any case, he wasn't in it.

  The image faded away, returning to stars and satellites. Central Command had continued on its orbit leaving the little ship drifting alone. Myles looked around, away from the planet, becoming suddenly aware of the emptiness. Despite the dense arrays of points of light, he could take off in any direction, travel for almost any length of time at any speed he could attain and never, never, come across another living thing.

  The ship shifted itself high above the plane of the ecliptic again and oriented itself towards the far-off Eden planet. Norte leaned into the pilothouse and stretched out a hand, indicating the specific star around which their target revolved. The ship slowly rotated to bring the indicated star directly to center and then continued. Norte's star moved off-center, around to her right, then almost directly behind them.

  "Myles...?"

  The ship slowed, began to rotate back. With the Eden planet directly to their right the ship stopped again.

  "C'mon Myles..."

  The ship rotated a little more the right, then back again to the left. Always slow, never quite returning to the perfect alignment.

  "Tugot! C'mon. This isn't a game."

  Myles dipped his head and tried to concentrate. Norte watched him closely.

  "I don't know what it is. I'm trying, I'm thinking of Eden."

  "You need to focus, you need to want it Tugot."

  Myles heard Peto huff. He turned in time to receive a blow from Peto's boot, catching it half on his jaw and shoulder. He fell back, coming off the chair onto the floor of stars. The ship spun, Eden's star obscured by Peto's face, which had replaced Norte's in the hatchway behind him.

  "That's got you moving!" Peto laughed. Myles struggled to his feet, fully prepared to lose a fist fight with the brute but Norte pulled Peto away and dropped back into the pilothouse herself.

  "There! Wait!" She cried.

  She frantically tried to attach a manual-link to the recording device between the seats. A black disk with unfamiliar stars rapidly grew in the center of their forward view. Myles sat in his seat, turned to front. Seconds ticked by, the new star field enveloped Norte and Myles except where Peto's disembodied head jutted into the field behind them. A blue-green planet, occasional mountaintops poking through bright white clouds lay out before them. Norte spoke.

  "That's not Eden."

  Councilors Six and Five sat with Krykowfert in his little conference room watching the Earth-ship on a collection of images splayed across the walls. Colored lines, circles and arrows highlighted an array of ships and probes carefully arranged to observe the Earth-ship's hole-in-space. After a long period of stillness the little ship suddenly shot off in the exact opposite direction and disappeared.

  Krykowfert leapt from his seat. Six and Three looked up at him, confused. Krykowfert turned to Feric, her head already dipped, her eyes fluttering as she consulted with technicians and pilots and scientists. Krykowfert stared at her in silence until she spoke.

  "We have nothing." She said. "There was only one probe in that region and it was focused on the anticipated location-"

  "This is your responsibility Krykowfert!" Six stood and waved a finger. "This man was your choice-"

  "Choice? No one else can fly the damn thing!"

  Six was unaccustomedly chastised. She sat. Five voiced the obvious question. "Where did it go?"

  Feric looked to Krykowfert, he nodded, she spoke. "We don't have definite telemetry on either launch, but what we do have suggests this launch was in the opposite direction to that previous."

  Krykowfert considered the news for a moment. Six and Five grew increasingly nervous, waiting for more. It didn't come. Instead, Krykowfert and Feric rose to leave.

  "Where are you going!" Six asked.

  Krykowfert turned and addressed her formally. "They are gone. Until they return, there is nothing more to do here, and I have a lizard to feed."

  Krykowfert clicked his heals, bowed, and exited with Feric in his wake.

  Gabrile sat naked, crossed legged on the white sand beach under the equatorial sun. She gazed absently across the waters of the great lake Nyanza, its cool breeze relieving the humidity of the land around it. The man behind her waited patiently.

  The others had skin of flawless ebony, Gabrile was still struggling with the paleness left over from three years on the shores of the Kattegatt. She felt Trendle's building anxiety and let her mind fall out of the deep meditation. She stood and stretched her lo
ng slender limbs, turned and walked to him. He held out a silk robe for her.

  "Having any luck with those methyl tags?"

  "What do you think?" She smirked and spun around to let him see just how pale she still was.

  "ToEv's ship is back. -No, it's that odd fellow and two others."

  Gabrile slipped the robe on and the two walked quickly back to the lanai where the bright, golden Chanly, and the pitch dark Gwirionedd and Sach sat waiting.

  "OK. What do we know?" Gabrile looked around the room at the three women. Gwirionedd spoke first.

  "They're in a confused mental state, that's from the ship, we haven't read them directly yet."

  Chanly touched a button in the middle of the low table and an image of Earth appeared above it. "They're here, in a geosynchronous holding pattern. I think the ship is doing that until someone inside comes to a decision."

  Sach broke in. "The man ToEv spoke of-"

  "Myles, a low-level bureaucrat." Trendle interjected.

  "-he's linked with the ship and it's reading him fairly precisely," said Sach, "the others don't seem to have anything to connect with."

  "This is the defect ToEv mentioned? And it's pervasive?" Gabrile asked.

  The breeze blew through the lanai, Gabrile felt cold and wished her silk robe was longer. The sofa she sat on grew warmer.

  "I'm sorry. I got a chill." Gabrile apologized.

  "It's OK. I think we all felt it." Chanly said.

  Trendle asked the inevitable. "What do we do?"

  Gabrile considered before speaking. "Until I'm able to form a stronger connection with ToEv, I say we let them act according to their whims. Anyone?"

  Trendle looked to the three women. Each in turns shrugged or nodded assent.

  "OK. Make the announcement." Gabrile got back up and walked to the edge of the patio. She gazed back out over the lake and threw her robe across the room. Trendle and Chanly busied themselves with their report, Gwirionedd and Sach joined Gabrile, standing either side of her. Although they weren't naked, they showed enough perfect dark skin to frustrate Gabrile.