by Tim Dennis
"Don't force it, it will come. You were doing fine until ToEv was separated from his ship, you'll do fine once you re-establish the connection." Gwirionedd said.
Gabrile relaxed a little, laughed at the contrast between her pinkness and the others' smooth darkness.
"That's enough for today Gabrile. Come back inside, we're due for lunch anyway." Sach took Gabrile's elbow. She sighed and crossed the room to retrieve her robe. There was much work to be done.
14
Myles's parents stood in their farmyard listening to the thrumming. It was a sound more felt than heard, seemingly emitted by the two blue-glowing rings sandwiched between the three insect-like segments of the peculiar ship. Traveler's ship had produced a similar feel, but much softer, its rings dimmer, varying in hue. Quite unlike this stack of mismatched parts, and without the puffing and hissing. The thing had a home-made appearance, pods stuck to the top and bottom of a shiny tube of a thorax, legs and arms sprouting from anywhere they wished, some holding hissing rockets, others with little padded feet. As it came to rest at the end of the row of cattle stalls Myles's nephews emerged from hidden places and ran towards it.
"Is that Uncle Myles's friend?" Asked Joey of his Grandfather.
"I don't think so." Myles's father placed his hands on the child's shoulders and gently held him from running any closer to the ship.
The beastly thing settled, the glow faded and a stair extended from the lower section to the ground. Feric stepped down with two Guards, followed by Krykowfert and a young girl. Feric stayed near the ship as one of the Guards casually walked along the row of outbuildings, peeking into each as he passed. The second Guard disappeared behind the ship. Krykowfert walked straight up to Myles's father. The children slipped behind their elders, keeping a keen eye on each other.
"Forgive me for arriving unannounced, but we can do without crowds, eh? I am Tendaji Krykowfert, Director of Shield Guard. We have met I think, before all this." Krykowfert waved his hand at the farm buildings.
Myles's father took his hand and shook it distractedly. Myles's mother took a turn next.
"You are wondering why I came - yes, yes. Of course you are. I shall tell you. Your son, Myles, has been detained on Council business, perhaps he told you?" Krykowfert waited for a reaction. Their faces revealed nothing but astonishment, looking first at Krykowfert, then at the incongruous little girl clinging to his pant leg. "I assure you both, Myles is fine, but he expressed concern that he would not be finished in time to feed a lizard that lives in his backyard. You know of it?" Krykowfert continued to smile as comfortingly as he could manage, but the silence of the parents was taxing his patience. He bent his knees slightly and spoke to the little boy.
"Hello. my name is Tendaji."
The child stared up at the man. His grandmother spoke for him.
"That's Joey."
"Well hello Joe." Krykowfert took the little boy's hand and shook it firmly. "You must be a teenager, eh?"
"I'm six." Joey corrected him.
"Six! You're so big and strong. My granddaughter is six too." Krykowfert gently peeled Asha's fingers from his trousers. Given a push, she stepped out and confronted the boy.
"Six and a half." She said.
Krykowfert spoke again to Joey. "You know, your uncle Myles told me about you." An easy lie. "I promised him I'd feed his friend, but I don't know what he eats."
"The lizard?" Joey asked. "He eats anything, like rotten food and bugs."
"Bugs?" Krykowfert pretended astonishment. "I spend so much time on Central Command, I wouldn't know where to find such things." He winked at Myles's parents.
Myles's father finally spoke. "Really? You came to feed his lizard?"
Krykowfert looked very seriously at Joey. "You know, perhaps you could show my assistant where bugs are found?" He indicated his granddaughter Asha. "Eh? You'll do that for me?"
Joey looked to his parents, who barely managed a shoulder shrug. Asha, distracted by her first up-close viewing of livestock had already wandered over to the pig pen. She leaned over the rail and stroked the big sow.
"Careful," said Pa.
Krykowfert laughed gave Joey a little push.
"You show her how it's done!" He said.
Krykowfert straightened up and looked around the farmyard, conspiratorially taking Myles's parents by their elbows to lead them away. "Her parents died some time ago, a Shield Guard accident in the outer system. I do what I can, but Central Command is not a fun place for children." He turned the group to face the kids, now chattering freely. "Perhaps Joey would like to accompany us to the Main Island? Feed the lizard?"
Struggling to process one astonishment after another, Myles's parents gaped in silence, first at each other, then at the girl, then back at the Director of Shield Guard. Mother finally spoke.
"You'd have to ask his father. He's in the center field, up there."
"Yes yes. Of course! Is there a Cab? No? Never mind!" Krykowfert turned and nodded to Feric, the Guard in the cattle shed came out and he and Krykowfert marched up the gentle hill at the far end of the yard. Krykowfert turned back to ask "This way? No, no, I'll find him!"
Feric walked over to Myles's parents as Krykowfert and his Guard disappeared. She tried guiding the conversation towards livestock and cooking, and other things that a dirt-farmer would be knowledgeable of, but Myles's parents remained distracted by the little girl tormenting the sow with their grandson. Eventually tea was offered, the six-year olds went inside the house and the younger boys took over the role of pig-teasers. After fifteen minutes the adults began to relax. Krykowfert, his Guard, and Joey's father came down the hill. Li went into the house and Krykowfert attempted to join the tea party.
"Fine day!" Krykowfert said, taking a deep breath and looking around himself at the farm buildings. "I wish I was able to get on the surface more frequently."
Ma and Pa looked down at his feet, caked in mud up to the ankles. Krykowfert lifted a foot and knocked it against the side of the barn. Feric abandoned the conversation to Krykowfert, who, mission accomplished, had little more to say. They suffered through a few more minutes of awkward pauses until Li came out of the house with the kids. They raced to the ship, Li shrugged and walked after them.
"A half hour?" Krykowfert said. "Maybe an hour? It can't take very long to feed a lizard, eh?" With that, Krykowfert climbed into his ship. The glow returned to the rings, the ship lifted and after reaching an appropriate altitude headed towards the Main Island.
Bento watch from Harry's deck as Krykowfert's ship crossed the lagoon and skimmed over the top of City Center. The rest of the patrons glanced over, but the secret, if it had ever truly been a secret, was out. These new ships of Krykowfert's were being seen over the settlements more regularly, and City Advocates were hailing them as another feather in Krykowfert's cap.
So Bento left Harry and his customers and stood in the gravel Cab-lot. Mallick appeared, as if from nowhere.
"You're seeing the end of Legong." Mallick said.
"You're a fool," said Bento. "Just like the others. That's not the Earth-ship."
Mallick laughed. "It doesn't matter. It's not Krykowfert's guns, or the Diverter Fleet that we thank for our security. It's time. Time is what's kept the others away. The time it takes to span the distances between stars. That's what's kept us free from Earth and from the other colonies. That's all over now."
The ship hovered, then arranged its legs to settle onto the sloped land behind Myles's house. Mallick sneered at it and entered the cafe, meeting Harry as he came out. "Think that's Myles?" He asked.
"No. I'd know if it was." Bento started up the overland path that led to Myles's street. Harry glanced back at his customers, then followed her.
They paused at the end of the row of back gardens. The ship rested just outside the low wall defining Myles's allotment. A Guard dropped out, first looking directly at them, then turning his attention to the lagoon, visible in the distance, beyond City Center. A second Guard, th
en Krykowfert, Li, Joey, and a little girl climbed down the short ladder. The second Guard went straight into Myles's house. The others waited. After a few minutes the Guard came back out, and he and Li stood chatting as Krykowfert led the children in.
"Is Myles OK?" Harry asked.
Bento dipped into her implant. "I'm hitting a lot of walls. He's listed as on Central Command, but he's not actually there."
Krykowfert and the children came back out of the house, the girl saying something Bento and Harry couldn't hear. Krykowfert pointed at the ground and spoke back to her. Both of the children started chattering. He raised his hands in mock surrender and went back inside, a moment later appearing with a large dinner plate, placing it on the ground outside the back door. Each child then placed their offering on it and stepped back. Taking the kids by the hand, Krykowfert led them away to the low wall separating Myles's patch of rubble from the neighbor's. As the three sat, watching the plate, Bento saw a woman in the neighboring house pull aside her curtain. The little rock-throwing psychopath appeared beside her.
The kids watched the plate. Krykowfert watched the kids. The neighbor watched Krykowfert, Bento watched the Guards and the Guards watched everything else. After five minutes or so Harry saw the creature.
"Look!" He pointed.
The lizard sat atop the opposite wall, skittered back and forth a few times with its head held high, tilted to one side then the other. Satisfied the psychopath was absent, it slowly climbed down the wall. Krykowfert kept the kids immobile at either side as the lizard continued across the yard to the plate and began to eat. After a while Krykowfert whispered to the kids, quietly lifted them down from the wall, and led them back to the ladder.
"Should we ask him about the hole in my roof." Harry asked.
Bento shushed him. Krykowfert was now staring at them, talking to Feric, pointing. The group climbed back up the ladder, closed the door and the ship lifted away, hissing and puffing with its little jets as the blue rings glowed and faded.
15
"Get us out of here." Norte's voice was tense, restrained, "or hide us. Don't just leave us here in the open."
I don't know if I can. I mean, I'm trying. I think.
"Myles! Wake up!" Norte repeated.
Peto was frantic, his head popping in and out of the view behind them. "That's not Earth. You just screwed up and got us lost. You just don't want to admit it. That's not Earth."
Myles turned to see a booted foot hovering in the star field behind him. Norte grabbed it, unbalancing Peto who almost fell into the pilothouse between them.
"Everyone just calm down! Peto, go check on the sensor recorders-"
"They don't work from inside the ship-"
"Go!" She cried. Peto pulled away from the hatch. "Myles. You need to move us, put us behind the moon, or even down on the planet, just put us somewhere less conspicuous."
The images in the pilothouse spun and a huge rocky planet came into view alongside the blue-white globe. The ship shot away from Earth orbit, holding in a position that left the two worlds in the distance.
"Behind it, behind it." Norte repeated. "No so far away." Myles stared, the ship didn't move. Norte saw confusion and fear on Myles's face. "That's only the moon," she said. "It orbits the Earth. It's been there forever."
Myles continued to disbelieve. He'd retained enough physics to know such a large body would wreak havoc orbiting so close to another. It would move oceans, distort tectonic plates. He thought of the meteors and volcanism on Legong and wondered if all worlds were so unstable.
Eden wasn't.
Huh?
Myles calmed and the ship moved closer to the moon.
"OK Myles, relax. Can you tell me if we've been noticed? Are we being scanned in any way? Has there been any attempt to communicate with us?"
Myles took a breath and tried to want to know the answers to Norte's questions, but the truth was he didn't really care. Peto's head re-appeared in the star field behind them.
"The door won't open." He said.
"What the hell have you been doing?" Norte asked.
An increasing number of ship's functions were becoming available to Norte and Peto. It generally followed their wishes as far as opening doors and hatches, turning lights on and off. Even the view from the pilothouse responded to Norte's frustrated descriptions to Myles. Peto wasn't quite as adept as Norte, he wasn't able to open the outer doors. Norte dipped her head and they heard a puff and hum as the large docking doors faded away. Peto disappeared into the living quarters.
Norte turned back to Myles.
"Well?"
"I don't really know. I feel that the ship is always monitoring us, kind of a health issue thing. As for communication, I get the impression that if they know we're here, no one cares." Myles reported.
Peto shouted from the living quarters.
"You feel? You get an impression?" His bug-eyed red face appeared again. "We're billions of kilometers from home, orbiting a hostile planet! What you feel doesn't matter!"
"Out!" Norte shouted, then in a more calm voice, "Peto! It's the way the ship communicates, it's OK."
Peto returned to his business, occasionally muttering to himself. Norte thought it through carefully before issuing the next set of orders.
"OK. They either know we're here or they don't. My guess is ships like this come and go all the time, and unless there's some crisis no one takes special notice." True or not, speaking the words aloud seemed to calm Norte. "Since we're here we may as well take a look around."
So, Norte has a little curiosity in her as well.
This pleased Myles and although the ship seemed to remain stationary the view split into an array of images from all over the planet. Mostly the views displayed geographical features, mountains, canyons, plains. Occasionally an image settled on agriculture or small towns. Norte and Myles sat transfixed. Norte noticed Peto looking in with them and stopped herself from sending him away, so the three of them indulged in the nickel tour of the planet their ancestors had called home.
"Tugot?" She asked, "Why did you bring us here?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure I did."
Myles scanned the geography for evidence of tidal damage from the massive orbiting moon.
"You mean the ship- some sort of homing instinct?"
"I mean I don't know." Myles had been thinking of Earth and the Traveler, about right and wrong and fear and trust. He felt a symmetry in their presence here, and he wasn't afraid.
"Just keep us out of sight." Norte said. "Can you do that?"
What Myles really wanted was to land, right out in the open, and make contact. The compromise was the tour.
The settlements were fairly predictable in arrangement, but the buildings making them up varied by region. Some areas were built mostly of stone, or some synthetic version of stone like concrete or plaster, whereas other regions consisted of buildings of wood. Occasionally metallic and glass structures were interspersed. Small settlements appeared in the middle of plains, forests, and scruffy dry places, but larger settlements were almost always situated near a river or coastline.
On the seas the pilothouse showed them images of watercraft made of wood, some quite large, with sails. Other sea-going ships were metallic, with smoke puffing from their tops. Only rarely did they see anything skimming above the surface like was so common on Legong.
On one continent something that looked like a split-open Launch Rail wound its way across a vast prairie. The pilothouse showed them a closer view. Riding slowly along the Rail was a string of wooden shuttles, apparently dragged by a black metal shuttle, a lingering dark smoke puffing from the top and diaphanous white smoke squirting away from its sides.
At no time did they see large cities or vehicles of any technological significance. Myles wondered if Norte had noticed this, and if she had come to the same conclusion as he.
The ship doesn't want us to see anything originating from the time after the diasporas.
Peto broke
the silence. "This stuff is ancient. This is from way before the diasporas. I remember this stuff, I've seen it when I was a kid, in school."
"Maybe they don't want us to see-" Myles tried.
"I don't think they have anything newer." Peto interrupted, shooting Myles a derisive glance.
"They have this ship." Norte observed. "But, it is not all that different from Krykowfert's new ones."
"It's not an Earth ship at all." Peto cried. "It's from another Colony, someplace more advanced than we are. The Earth-man's not an Earthman. He's just messing with us while he figures out our defenses. It's a tactic. I've learned about it. It's a thing, a real thing."
Norte filed Peto's theory away for deeper consideration. Whoever Traveler was, they were now on Earth and that was what needed her attention.
"The only material difference I can see between this Earth ship and the new Legong series is the control methodology and the navigational capability." Norte's fear completely disappeared. Her voice now was steady, calm and confident. "Assuming this is an Earth ship, they certainly didn't progress from pre-diaspora technology to this in one step. In fact, this ship may represent the pinnacle of their achievements. In any case, there must be interim models, cruder versions, test versions." Norte was working to contain her growing excitement. "Ships without the protections built into this one. Ships that I could fly myself. If they exist, we need to find them."
Myles felt it was rash to make such broad conclusions based on what seemed to him obviously censored images, but in a growing resentment of the treatment he'd been receiving from his two shipmates, he kept his doubts to himself.
"Tugot." She ordered. "Find a ship, something older, anything, so long as it has the same navigational abilities as this thing."
"I don't think-"
"Just do it!" Norte tried to stop herself from berating Myles. She sat back in her chair and looked straight ahead but Myles could still see her struggling with frustration.
