“Quinn!” I heard Piper scream, the sound dim and far away, even though when I opened my eyes I could see her right in front of me.
A heavy weight pressed on my chest and I couldn’t draw any air into my lungs. I wanted to yell at someone to do something, anything. But my voice wouldn’t work, and everyone just stood there looking at me, their mouths open. I thought my heart was going to explode. Then my chest heaved, and I drew in one breath and another, trying to suck in as much air as I could.
“Quinn!” Piper was crying now.
“I’m okay,” I gasped, trying to decide if I was going to live. “It’s okay.”
I wanted to roll on my side, thinking I’d be able to breathe better. My body wouldn’t obey and someone put a hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t try to get up too fast,” Saunder’s voice said. I lay back, wondering if I was going to throw up.
Mira knelt down beside me and started to speak. Her necklace, a green stone surrounded by some knotted cords, swung back and forth in front of my face and the motion made me sick. I looked away in time to catch sight of the MIbot behind her as it started to float towards us. Flickers of light like small lightning bolts flashed across the sensors.
“Get out of the way, Mira!” I tried to shove her aside and scramble backwards at the same time, but my arms and legs still weren’t working quite right.
The MIbot stopped and the holowoman reappeared. Its voice sounded even more raspy. “If you approach this model again, the beam will be increased substantially. It could cause a member of your species to cease functioning.” We didn’t move as the bot rolled backward to where Mick’s helpbot still stood. The MI’s sensor flashed signals at the other’s intake tap, and then the two bots moved toward the depot. The door opened as they approached, and closed right after they went inside.
“Quinn, are you okay? I think I actually saw sparks coming from your eyes,” Lainie asked.
“I don’t know. I feel strange, shaky.” My heart was jumping and my fingers were tingling. The images in front of me wavered like underwater ripples.
“Try to breathe slowly,” Saunder said. “That was a really bad shock.”
“No one told us those machines were so dangerous,” Decker said.
“They’re not supposed to be dangerous.” I stood up, but my legs were so wobbly I leaned over and put my hands on my knees, trying to brace myself. “They aren’t programmed for weaponizing.”
“It looks like their programming has changed,” Lainie said. “Somebody should have told us.”
“What did your mom do to them?” Decker grabbed my arm and swung me around.
“Decker!” Saunder yelled. “What are you doing?”
I nearly went down. “Let go of me,” I said. “I’m about ready to throw up and I’ll be happy to do it all over you.” Decker backed off and I tried to quell the tremors running through my body. It was as if something was shaking me from inside. Mira came closer to me, which would have been nice in normal circumstances, but I didn’t want to throw up on her either. That wouldn’t have been a good start to anything.
“My mom didn’t do anything!” Piper yelled. Tears ran down her face and she began to tremble. I put my arm around her, trying to get in some more breaths. “Piper’s right. She would never program a bot to do something like that.”
“Somebody did,” Decker said, moving over to the door. “Something isn’t right. Mick, what’s going on?” He pounded on it with his fist.
Mick’s face appeared on the slip next to the door. “Fiss it! Stop that pounding. You’re making my headache worse.” He was so pale now he looked like one of the albino cockroaches that were the bane of every spaceship. “Go away!” He made a snarling sound like he was trying to chase us off.
“Mick, get out here! That MIbot is malfunctioning. It sent out an electric shock on purpose,” Decker said.
“Leave it alone then.” Mick added a few more curses. There was a faint whirring sound from inside. Mick turned his head away from the slip.
“Don’t you understand?” I said. “It threatened to kill me if I touched it again.”
“So don’t touch it, genius.” Mick stood up, glancing over his shoulder. “Just go home for now.”
“Mick, open this door.” Decker pounded even harder. “We need some answers! When my father finds out what’s happened, you’ll be out of a job.”
A smirk appeared on Mick’s face. “I don’t think so, kid. Things are changing around here. Now this is the last time I’m going to say this. Go home.”
“We’re not doing that,” I said.
“Your choice, but right now, I’m controlling things down here. Let’s just say the situation is in flux. Things are happening, and you’ll be notified of any news when the time is right.” The man moved away from the slip. We were left looking at the corner of his grubby office full of old drink mixers and empty food envelopes.
“Mick?” I called. There was no answer. I waited, and then called again. “Mick, at least tell us what’s wrong up at the station. Who got hurt?”
Still silence.
“Why won’t he come out?” Piper asked.
A faint sound came from inside the depot, barely perceptible at first, then growing steadily louder. It sounded like almost like someone was humming, humming a tuneless song without a melody, except it wasn’t quite human.
“What’s that?” Mira whispered.
“That doesn’t sound like Mick or a bot either. Is somebody else in there?” I turned to Lainie and Saunder. “You two were here earlier. Did somebody go in?”
“We were too busy to notice,” Lainie said. “That doesn’t exactly sound like a person to me.”
The sound cut off and the slip changed to clear.
“Mick didn’t make that … that sound, did he?” Piper asked. She twisted a strand of her hair around her finger, knocking one of the bells out.
It rolled toward me and I bent down to pick it up for her. The dizziness struck me and I had to stand back up before I could get the bell. I looked down at my hand and saw it was quivering. “No, it didn’t sound anything like him,” I said, grabbing hold of the shaking hand with my other one, hoping no one noticed. I didn’t know what had made the noise, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. Mira gave me a worried look, and then reached down for Piper’s bell.
One of the other youngest boys, a quiet kid named Arne, started to cry.
“I don’t like being alone,” another one said, and then several voices chimed in.
“I want my mom!”
“I’m hungry!”
More tears came down Piper’s face.
“I think Mick is right,” Saunder said. “We should go home and wait for the communication link to work again, or the shuttle to come back down.”
“What if it doesn’t come back?” Piper asked. I wished Piper hadn’t spoken that thought aloud. I could tell by the stricken looks on several faces that a group panic was in the works.
“Of course it will come back,” Saunder said. “Everything will be fine. It’s getting late and I’m getting hungry too. Why don’t we all go to Lainie and my quarters and get together a picnic we can share?” Saunder sounded so unconcerned, his voice had an immediate calming effect on the younger ones.
They immediately started to chatter about the idea of a picnic and I was relieved they could be distracted. “Would you mind taking Piper with you?” I asked Lainie. “I want to see if I can get Mick to open the door.”
“He didn’t sound like he was in any mood to open it,” Lainie said. “I wouldn’t make him any angrier.”
“What’s he going to do to us?” I said. “You know he is just all talk.” While Mick had no problem yelling at us, I couldn’t imagine the man taking any action beyond that.
“Go ahead,” Decker said. “I’m staying with Quinn. We’ll be there soon.”
“I think you should come with us,” Lainie said, keeping her eyes on Decker
.
“No.” Decker kicked at the door, and it reverberated with a dull thudding noise. It was too solid to dent. “Mick is coming out of there, one way or the other.”
“Hang on, Decker, let’s figure this out once everyone is out of here.” I didn’t want Piper or the other younger ones to see Decker get too worked up. No matter what was wrong, it wouldn’t do any good if people starting crying about it. I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Even though the sun was already going down, the heat radiating off the ground wasn’t helping with the dizziness.
“Let’s go then,” Lainie said. “You will come over soon, right? The little ones will like it if you play some music for them. It will calm them down.”
“Yes,” Decker said. “Go on without us.”
“Good. Who else is hungry?” Lainie took Piper by the hand and pulled her along, the others falling into place behind her.
As soon as they were gone, I noticed how quiet the depot area became. The only sound was a distant thundering from far off in the jungle. Mira heard it too, because I saw her look in that direction as if she was trying to judge the distance. I rubbed my face. Even though almost everyone had left, I felt like I could still see them with one part of my brain, and I could hear the conversation that had just happened. My brain felt too overloaded, like the shock had made everything inside my head scream for attention.
“You do look like you are going to be sick,” Mira said. “Maybe you should go back to your living quarters.”
“Soon.” I wasn’t sure I could walk that far yet.
Decker kicked the door again. “What does Mick mean he controls things down here? It’s like he’s staging some sort of coup, trying to take over. My father is going to kill him.”
I had never heard Decker quite so furious. “But that’s crazy,” I said. “Think about it. Mick can’t control the whole space station, not from down here. Even if he went up there, no one would let him take over. And why would he even want to do that?”
“My father has been worried about raiders with all the valuable bots up there,” Decker replied. “The raiders could get in and get out so quickly there’s no time to fight them. That’s why they’ve increased the defense capabilities on the station.” Decker tried the door control again and ended up pounding on that too. “Maybe Mick is working with some raiders. My father’s been suspicious of him for a long time. He says they never should have hired Mick and he’s planning to order an investigation.”
“But it’s a government facility,” I argued. “I can’t imagine raiders stealing bots, knowing the government would come after them. Besides, how would they even know about it? It’s all supposed to be top secret.” None of my relatives, except for my grandfather, knew what planet we were on, so I didn’t know how raiders could have found out about the station. It all sounded too improbable to me. I knew raiders operated throughout the galaxy, but they usually just went after supply ships. I’d never heard of any bold enough to raid official stations.
“Mick could have sold the information about the location to them,” Decker said.
Knowing Mick, I could almost believe that. Maybe Decker was on to something. The man didn’t seem to like anyone, or act like he cared about the work going on, as long as it didn’t interfere with his little domain. “Mira, does your uncle ever talk about Mick? Has he noticed anything odd?”
“He wouldn’t speak of such things to me,” Mira said. She added, “The dark is coming and the mists are rising. We shouldn’t stay out in the open much longer.”
“We don’t know what’s going on up at the station,” Decker said. “Maybe there are people up there on Mick’s side. If he does it fast enough, how can anyone stop him? The nearest base is fifteen standard days away.”
“You’re getting way ahead of yourself,” I said. “Can you imagine the researchers agreeing to work with raiders?”
Decker snorted. “They probably wouldn’t even notice what they were agreeing to do. Sometimes people who are really smart about one thing are really dumb about everything else, like most of the technos up there.”
“That’s ridiculous. Don’t you think they’d notice raiders strolling around the station?
“Well, then you explain it.”
“I can’t,” I admitted.
“I’m getting into this depot one way or the other. I bet the Fosaanian can get in.” Decker turned to Mira. “Why don’t you go get your uncle? He can help us.”
“No, no!” Mira backed away from us, looking frightened. “Not my uncle.”
“Fine,” Decker said. “If you won’t help us, Quinn and I’ll go to Hadestown and get him ourselves.”
“You can’t just walk into the camp without warning!” Mira darted forward and clutched at my arm. “It’s not allowed!”
More allowing and not allowing. And why was she calling her village a camp? What was it with the Fosaanians?
“It’s allowed by us,” Decker gave one more half-hearted pound on the door.
“It will be all right,” I said, “once we explain what’s happening.”
“It’s too dark,” Mira protested. “You can’t take the path at night. There are too many dangers for an Earther who doesn’t know Fosaan. It will be dangerous even for me. I should have gone home long ago.” Already the sounds from the jungle were starting, the nightly hoots and bizarre screaming noises. “Wait until morning.”
“We have lights.” I pointed the flashmarks on my shirt.
“You can’t use those. You’ll make yourself a target for anything that wants a meal!” Mira spoke as if she was talking to a child.
“I’m sure Mick has some small wrist lights in the supply pod,” Decker said. “We’ll use just enough to see our way. That’s not going to stop us. Right, Quinn?”
I couldn’t imagine waiting around for hours, hearing the humming noise playing over and over in my head. “Right,” I said. “We can take Mick’s ricquin. We’ll fly it along the beach and keep it high enough off the ground that nothing could get us.”
“Good idea,” Decker said, “as long as Mick hasn’t been taking it apart again.”
This wasn’t exactly the way I had planned to get to see the Fosaanian village, but now that the opportunity was there, I wasn’t going to let it go. “Mira, you should come with us,” I said. “If it’s too dangerous for us to take the path at night, it’s too dangerous for you too.” Another shriek sounded and then cut off.
“No it isn’t. I know what to look out for in the jungle.” Even though she spoke the words confidently, I didn’t think she looked very eager to go. She hesitated and then added, “But I can’t let you go alone, if you are determined to do this. You’ll get hurt if you tried to pass the sentries without me.”
“Why do you even need sentries?” Decker asked. “There isn’t anyone else on the planet besides us, right?”
“It is just our way. Now if we are going, let’s not stand here.” Mira shifted her gaze away from us back to the jungle.
I could tell she was being evasive about the sentries, but I didn’t want to waste time finding out why. Her uneasiness made me uneasy.
“I’m in the pilot’s seat then,” Decker said flatly.
“Fine, as long as you don’t ditch us in the ocean,” I said. Considering how shaky I felt, I wasn’t going to waste time arguing over who got to pilot even though I was far better at it than Decker, who thought the thing would fall to the ground if he didn’t keep it at full speed. No subtlety in Decker’s flying, just as there was no subtlety in anything else he did.
The riquin was just a two-seater, so Mira and I crammed into one seat. The design was considered old-fashioned, based very loosely on an old Earth vehicle called a rickshaw, but I knew Mick liked them for how easy they were to keep running. Mick would joke that in a pinch they could always add wheels, remove the power bot and replace it with a young Earther to pull them around, just like a real antique rickshaw. I didn’t think it was funny until I ha
d looked up a picture of a rickshaw. Mick wasn’t too far off.
As soon as we were away from the lights that surrounded the depot, it was almost completely dark, except for a band of orange to the west. Because of the atmosphere, Fosaan’s sun appeared far more orange than Earth’s, and it always led to a spectacular glow on the horizon at the end of the day. Without any moons, everything turned to black as soon as the sun set, except for the faint light from the stars. Decker ordered the running lights on and a small circle illuminated around us.
“Don’t get too close to the cliffs,” Mira warned.
“I’m not going to fly us into them,” Decker snapped. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve got the distance sensors set.”
“I’m not worried about your capabilities. The caves in the cliff face hold some creatures who might be hungry,” Mira said. “You need to move further away.”
Decker spoke the command, and the ricquin shifted out further from the dark shapes. The night mists were thick along the cliff and I couldn’t make out any caves in the stone faces, but I didn’t doubt Mira’s word. What did live in the cliffs? I’d need to know before I did much exploring, but I didn’t want to quiz Mira with Decker listening. Decker didn’t need to know about my plans. I was fairly confident I was going to be able to convince Mira to go along with me. It was a good sign she seemed to want to be around Earthers, maybe even around me in particular, though it was tough to tell.
I wouldn’t admit it to Decker, but it was partly true what Decker had said about the researchers. They only concentrated on their work. When my mother was involved in solving a problem, she didn’t even notice where she was half the time. I had gotten used to reminding her she should eat and sleep once in a while.
The ocean glowed faintly like someone had sprinkled yellow glow paint all over it. I had seen the glow from the microscopic phosphorescent plankton before, but now, this far away from the lights of the compound, I realized the entire ocean was full of them, billions of them. As I watched, the water beneath us darkened and I wondered why the ricquin was suddenly casting a shadow. I looked down and saw a huge dark shape in the water running right beneath us. At first I thought it was the shadow of the vehicle, but I couldn’t figure out why it didn’t have the right shape. Then the shadow changed shape, extending wing-like flippers and I could see it was a body, a massive body with a narrow head, so out of proportion, it was grotesque. The thing moved in tandem with the ricquin, easily matching its own speed to the vehicle’s movement.
Station Fosaan Page 5
