He’s lying.
Didn’t he specifically mention Neutrino’s parents? Maybe Neutrino heard wrong. That seemed more likely. What could Neutrino’s parents have to do with him becoming a Slipstream Messenger? Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to ask the commander anymore questions. They entered the Launch Room which immediately reminded Neutrino of Arnasi, but this Port was packed with people that seemed to be running around even more than usual.
“You’re late,” Renix called as they came walking in.
“We’ve been through that already,” Neutrino was feeling rather ornery. “We’re here now, let’s go.”
“Is this him?” a voice Neutrino had only heard on public broadcasts asked. It was Darrignar, the Master of the People. Neutrino’s previous boldness shrank to the size of a seed and buried itself in his stomach. He suddenly felt anxious and queasy. So, more or less like usual.
“Yes, sir. Master Darrignar, may I present a very promising young Messenger, Neutrino,” Renix introduced him, and Neutrino tried not to gawk at the bold-faced lie. Darrignar, who looked every bit the role of politician, held out his well-manicured hand. Neutrino shook it, hoping that his own hand wasn’t dripping with sweat.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Neutrino,” Darrignar said, “We’re all very proud of what you’ve accomplished so far. We’re counting on you to see it through.” Every word was sweet and perfectly spoken, like his black hair, not a single strand out of place. He made Neutrino uneasy.
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Neutrino managed to blurt out.
“Neutrino, I’d also like you to meet Mistress Stalizza and Mistress Neriv,” Renix added.
“We’re all behind you, Neutrino,” Mistress Stalizza said as she shook his hand. Neutrino felt the exact opposite towards her as he had for Darrignar. She was not very imposing, but instead had kind, warm eyes and a demeanor that made you want to instantly trust her. Neutrino had to remind himself that she was still a politician however; how much can you ever really trust one of them?
“We’re sorry the rest of the Senate couldn’t be here to see you off,” Stalizza continued, “But there were some other matters to attend to.”
“I understand,” Neutrino said, “Thank you for coming.” I must sound like an idiot.
“Good luck,” was all Mistress Neriv had to say, and that was exactly the impression she gave: as one of little substance.
“I’m sorry to interrupt but I think we ought to get started. Here is the computer tile for Dr. Darwyth,” said Renix, as he handed Neutrino a small rectangular computer tile which he tucked into the data pocket of his suit. “It appears your Navigator is almost ready, why don’t you join her?”
Neutrino looked around the Launch Room for Lylia, who had disappeared around the time Darrignar was being introduced, and quickly spotted her over by one of the storage lockers. Neutrino left the director and the politicians, and walked over to where Lylia was just putting on and fastening the harness with the help of an assistant. He picked up the other piece of the harness and began putting it on as well. He wasn’t sure exactly what to say to her at this point. Whatever he might have said, it didn’t matter; Lylia’s assistant spoke first.
“Hello, Neutrino. I’m glad you made it back.” It was Eclipse, apparently one of the few from his class that had returned. She had her hand outstretched, but Neutrino wasn’t sure he wanted to shake it. Eclipse had been nothing but nasty to him.
Now she wants to be friends? Not going to happen. But then Neutrino got a good look at her. Her eyes were red and had large shadows under them. She seemed like she was barely keeping it together. Eclipse had lost her boyfriend in this catastrophe, and many other friends besides, and she was taking it hard. Neutrino took her hand finally and gave it an awkward shake.
“Thank you, Eclipse,” Neutrino said. “I’m glad to see you made it back also.” A quiet and uncomfortable silence followed. What do you say to someone you used to hate? What do you say to someone you used to look down on, who now has surpassed you? There is nothing.
“Well, Lylia can handle the rest of this I think. I should probably go see what else I can do. Good luck, Neutrino.” Eclipse looked almost longingly at Neutrino for a moment before she left.
“Thank you, Eclipse,” Lylia called after her.
“Neutrino, are you ready?” Renix called from the main console. Neutrino hadn’t noticed that much of the activity in the room had ceased as everyone turned to watch their departure. Darrignar stood with Stalizza and Neriv looking eagerly at them, probably not realizing that their presence was not encouraging, but rather stressful instead.
Neutrino absently rubbed his arm right over where the handkerchief was stashed in his sleeve, and then looked at Lylia. Her face was tight, but determined.
“Ready?” he whispered.
“Why not?” she answered back with a sarcastic smile. Neutrino activated his air shield and Lylia followed suit. Then they climbed up to the indicated launch pad. Neutrino double checked the harness connection and then hesitated before moving in close to her. Lylia once again wrapped her arms tightly around his chest and he had a hard time thinking of the mission. He knew the unconventional position was raising eyebrows around the room, but he didn’t care. He needed Lylia’s closeness as much as she needed to have something to hold on to.
“We’re ready,” Neutrino called.
“You’re clear to depart. Good luck!” Everyone in the room began clapping as the Slipstream came down around them and hurtled them into the atmosphere.
18. Danger Comes in Small Fuzzy Packages
By the time Neutrino and Lylia had landed on Nikos Speeckian they were becoming quite good at streaming together. It was a short trip but still, they only fell out of the Slipstream twice and they navigated the breaks without too much trouble. Neutrino was particularly surprised to note that his old companion, panic, was curiously quiet this time around. Neutrino’s hands didn’t shake, his heart beat a bit faster, but not the wild pounding out of his chest that usually plagued him, and his stomach only cramped up a bit at take off. He wasn’t sure if having Lylia with him was the cause, or because his newfound status as the sole able Messenger had somehow boosted his confidence. He decided it didn’t matter; Neutrino was just glad to have the reprieve.
They landed on one of the smallest Stream pads Neutrino had ever seen. It obviously had had little usage; it was half grown over by vines and scattered with dirt. There was a small monitor standing nearby, but the area was otherwise dense forest. The air was moist and filled with the sounds of leaves blowing in the wind and birds calling in the distance. Light barely filtered through the treetops giving the feel of late evening though it was only midday. The whole place seemed to be in movement; the underbrush shook frequently as though small animals were scurrying all around them unseen. It was beautiful and green and disturbing at the same time.
They undid their harness and moved away from one another. Deactivating the air shield, the sounds and smells of a damp forest rushed in, adding to Neutrino’s sense of unrest. He hated feeling like he was surrounded by things he couldn’t see.
“What do you think is out there?” Neutrino asked.
“Probably just some animals, I guess,” Lylia said off-handedly, “Come on, I think there’s a path here.”
“Where?” Neutrino could hardly see it; it was almost completely overgrown. Reluctantly, he stepped off the Stream pad and followed her. He was half afraid some kind of creature would bite his foot off. He reasoned that Renix would have told him about that though. He hoped dangerous man-eating things on the planet’s surface wouldn’t be considered classified information.
They had just barely traveled a few meters when he had to rethink his assumption. It was so quick Neutrino and Lylia didn’t even have time to react. Several small creatures with very long, thin tentacles popped up all around them creating a circular enclosure that was less than three meters in diameter. Startled by their sudden appearance, Lylia instinctively bac
ked away from the creatures right into Neutrino, nearly bowling him over into the other ones behind him.
“What are they?” she whispered, still frozen in his arms. Neutrino looked around. There were about eight of them. They were round in shape and no bigger than a person’s head, covered with greenish-blue fluff that wasn’t quite fur or feather. Their tentacles stretched at different lengths in each direction, from the ground all the way up over Neutrino and Lylia’s heads. Each creature’s tentacles met with the next creature’s tentacles to create the “bars” of the makeshift cage. Their two black eyes were opened wide and staring calmly at Lylia and Neutrino.
“I don’t know,” he replied, “But I don’t think they’re our friends.”
“At least they haven’t eaten us yet.” Lylia untangled herself from Neutrino’s grasp and cautiously moved in a little closer to inspect them; Neutrino did the same. He couldn’t discern a mouth with all of the fluff, but, in any case, they seemed too small to want to eat a person. Unless they just liked to eat their food really, really slowly, he thought. His stomach rolled.
“Do you think they can talk?”
“Let’s find out,” Lylia said. “Hello, my name is Lylia. I have come from the planet Venthall.” She paused for some kind of indication from the creatures that they had heard her. They just blinked absently.
“This is Neutrino. We are here to talk to a man named Dr. Darwyth,” she paused, again nothing. “Do you know him? Can you lead us there?”
The creatures continued to stare silently at them. Lylia tried several more times to communicate, even resorting to hand gestures and drawing in the dirt. From Neutrino’s perspective it was actually somewhat comical. Despite her best efforts, the creatures remained silent and motionless. Still, she was quite tenacious. Neutrino wondered if she wasn’t perhaps a little claustrophobic.
Lylia was half-way through what seemed to be some kind of interpretive dance when a man came strolling down the path with a blast gun in his hand and several other creatures trailing behind him. His clothes were wrinkled and his slowly graying hair hung messily around his shoulders. He was perhaps middle-aged, although the weathered look about him gave the impression of someone much older.
“Who’s there?” his raspy voice called out when he got closer.
“My name is Lylia, this is Neutrino. We’re looking for Dr. Darwyth.”
“What for?” The man stopped a few meters away and casually crossed his arms across his chest, blast gun still in hand.
“We have a message for him,” Neutrino said.
“What message?”
“It’s classified. Are you Dr. Darwyth?”
“I am,” he said with a slight smirk under an unkempt moustache, “But I’m a little confused as to what you’re doing here. The only Slipstream Messenger that ever comes here is Lightspeed, and he’s not due back for another two months. Why would they send you?”
“It’s a bit complicated,” Lylia said, trying to size him up through the tentacles of the creatures that still surrounded them. “Could you call off these things? Please?”
“Not until I have proof that you are who you say you are.”
“Prove to us you’re Dr. Darwyth first,” Lylia challenged. The man passed his right hand over his moustache and smiled.
“How about this: I’m the only person here, so either you do what I tell you, or you can spend the night with the Nilfrits? They don’t tire easily I can assure you.”
“Hold on,” Neutrino took off his right glove and reached into the sealed data pocket in his suit. “This is the computer tile that Director Renix sent for you. It has the Senate seal on it and it’s coded. Only Dr. Darwyth could open it, so you can prove yourself to us and everyone will be happy, okay?”
Neutrino cautiously reached between the Nilfrits’ tentacles and handed the tile to the man he hoped was truly Dr. Darwyth. The man held the tile right up under his nose to get a better look at it. Then he pulled a small mechanical device out of his pocket and inserted the tile. Although he couldn’t understand a word, Neutrino thought that he heard a minute version of Renix’s voice wafting through the air. Apparently satisfied, Dr. Darwyth pulled the tile out and put the machine back into his pocket.
“All right, let ‘em out,” Dr. Darwyth called to the Nilfrits. His blast gun resting casually on his shoulder, Dr. Darwyth turned and started walking back up the path. “Come on, I’m hungry. And we better get a good look at this thing back at the lab.”
The Nilfrits disentangled themselves and began walking alongside the path, if you could call it walking. The tentacles turned into several legs that seemed to be able to change length at will. They walked by extending different tentacles and then sucking them back into their bodies. Neutrino couldn’t tell if eight was all they had or not, there seemed to be a lot more than that, and they moved so quickly they almost appeared to be rolling at times.
Neutrino and Lylia followed cautiously behind Dr. Darwyth as they walked up an incline through the forest. It was not a terribly long way from the Stream pad to the old, battered cabin that apparently served as the lab. It was quite small and held only the most basic necessities; a bed and a bare wooden table in a seemingly forgotten kitchen. It was more like a place for a mountain man, rather than a scientist.
What kind of a secret project could he be working on here?
“I’m sorry if the Nilfrits scared you,” Dr. Darwyth said as he pulled a box out of one of the cupboards that squeaked loudly as though it were protesting having been disturbed. “They’re the only intelligent life on this planet. We’ve become good friends over the last nineteen years, even if I haven’t got a blinking clue what they’re saying. They’re just crazy about sugar cookies.”
The Nilfrits, who had followed them into the cabin, were now bouncing eagerly around Dr. Darwyth and making a noise similar to chirping. Dr. Darwyth tossed them little cookies. The Nilfrits threw out their tentacles to grab the cookies and then shoved them into their small mouths, which were relatively low on their bodies. They ate happily before spreading out inside the cabin, some of them lazing about like little balls, others curiously chirping around Neutrino and Lylia.
“Nilfrit. Why does that sound familiar?” Neutrino was sure he had heard it before.
“It means fuzzy in Litarean. Do they still teach it at the Academy?”
“Not really, just the basics.” A smaller version of the Nilfrits, only about the size of a fist, seemed to take a particular interest in Neutrino. He began rolling around Neutrino’s feet and chirping.
Dr. Darwyth put the cookies away and reached into another cupboard for some bread. Then he took a hunk of what appeared to be moldy cheese out of the icebox. He cut off the blue parts and made a quick sandwich, which he offered first to Neutrino and Lylia, neither of whom were interested in a moldy cheese sandwich.
“No thanks,” Neutrino told him. Not wanting to seem rude he added, “We just ate breakfast.” He was a bit distracted by the little Nilfrit which was now rubbing up against his lower legs. It was kind of cute and a bit disturbing since Neutrino had just recently been held captive by the little guy’s relatives.
“I forgot it was still morning on Venthall this time in the season,” Dr. Darwyth said through a mouthful of food. He took a long swig from a large dirty looking water container and added, “It’s nearly late afternoon here and I missed lunch. It happens frequently I’m afraid. I get a little too involved in my work and days pass me by.”
“Have you really been here all by yourself for nineteen years?” Lylia asked.
“Nineteen years, three months and six days. I take a vacation every three years or so, (usually somewhere warm with lots of pleasant women),” he said with eyebrows raised at Neutrino, “but otherwise it’s been just me and the Nilfrits.”
“And this is where you do your work? In this cabin?” Neutrino asked.
“What? In here?” he laughed heartily through his full mouth, “What kind of scientist do you think I am?”
“This is just camouflage. Follow me, I’ll show you where the real work happens.” He shoved the remainder of his sandwich in his mouth, took another swig of water and walked over to the far wall. He placed his hand on a small painting that hung at about eye level. It looked like some kind of tribal art depicting a mountain, but when Dr. Darwyth touched it, it was clear that the picture was also just camouflage. Each one of his fingertips touched different peaks of the mountains and glowed briefly blue, then the wooden wall disappeared to reveal a bright white elevator.
19. The Mission
All three of them and a few Nilfrits entered the elevator and the door slide silently shut. The little one, that had been rubbing Neutrino’s legs, had apparently decided to nest in Neutrino’s collar with its small tentacles stuck to his neck. Neutrino had thought the tentacles would be slimy and gross, but they were actually quite warm and pleasant and by the time the elevator came to a stop he was growing rather fond of the fuzzy little thing. When the door slid silently open they all poured out into an impeccably clean white hallway. The lights overhead must have been motion activated because they each clicked on and off as they passed.
“Down that way are my real living quarters. Although I frequently sleep in the lab,” Dr. Darwyth said as he pointed down a dark hall to his left. Looking to the right he added, “and down the other way is the kitchen.”
They continued a little further down the hall until it opened up into a large cavern-type area. Everything but the far dirt walls was almost shining, it was so white. There were several computer monitors, including a large one on the near wall, and directly in front of them was an enormous object covered by a white tarp. In a corner off to the right hand side was the only messy thing in the room, a small cot which served as Dr. Darwyth’s sleeping area when he was too tired to bother returning to his quarters. The Nilfrits that had followed them down were happily rolling and walking around them and across the floor, all except for the little one which was now making a weird purr-chirping sound in Neutrino’s collar. Neutrino noticed that several more Nilfrits were entering from holes in the far wall.
Slipstream Messenger (Neutrino Book 1) Page 11
