Station Fosaan

by Dee Garretson

  “Um, Mira, what is that thing down there? Is it dangerous?”

  Mira leaned over the edge, and then a second later flung herself back, screaming, “Go higher! Go higher!”

  Chapter 5

  I have become aware that many things were kept secret from me. I am apparently considered an old fool who has no counsel worth giving. Since the Apocalypse, we have lived by the decree that to survive, we should not go beyond the known. Now I learn we have not been abiding by that for a long time.—Erimik, historian of the Family

  Mira’s movements made the riquin tip to Decker’s side. I grabbed hold of the edge as I felt myself slam into Decker.

  “Manual switch!” Decker yelled to the control. “Quinn, move, so I can drive!” He jabbed me in the side so I tried to give him room. “What’s happening?” he shouted.

  I leaned back over the edge. At first I didn’t see anything. A geyser of water gushed up from the surface, drenching the riquin. I shut my eyes, but the blast was so strong I could still feel the salt water sting them. When I opened my eyes I was staring right into long needle-sharp fangs coming out of the impossibly narrow mouth.

  The fangs gnashed at the edge of the riquin, making a screeching sound as they scraped on the door panel. They caught on the latch and the weight of the creature made the riquin tip almost completely on its side. I felt myself sliding toward the water so I grabbed hold of the edge with one hand, bracing my feet. With the other, I hit at the creature’s ugly snout. I was hardly thinking at that point. I felt Mira next to me, and then saw a flash of silver light. She had a blade in her hand and she stabbed at the creature’s bulging eyes. The blade connected with one, and the thing gave a squeal so loud and high-pitched I thought my eardrums were going to burst. Finally, the mouth opened, and the creature fell back into the ocean, the huge splash nearly engulfing the riquin.

  I held on, knowing there was nothing else I could do. If Decker couldn’t keep control of the riquin, we’d all go into the ocean, and that thing would be waiting for us.

  The riquin leveled off. “Do you still see it?” Decker shouted.

  I looked over the side. The water below was calm again, except for the receding ripples from the creature’s impact. No shadow, no nothing. “I think it’s gone.” I sat back and took a deep breath, waiting for the hammering of my heart to stop. “What was that?” I asked Mira, feeling her trembling beside me.

  “It’s a rheisious,” she said. “They are usually only out in the deep ocean. I’ve never even seen a live one, only drawings of them.”

  I wiped my face, tasting the salt on my mouth. “Those definitely weren’t listed on the planetary inventory. I wonder how high they can get out of the water?”

  “I don’t want to find out,” Decker said, directing the riquin up another few meters.

  I watched as Mira cleaned her blade on her tunic. Her hand was still shaking. “Where did you get that knife?” I asked. It was like it had appeared out of nowhere. I couldn’t see any place where she could conceal a weapon in her clothes, which consisted of leggings and a sleeveless tunic belted at the waist. The only place to conceal it would be a tiny pouch attached to the belt, but the knife wouldn’t fit there.

  She didn’t answer. The knife handle looked more like jewelry than a weapon. I looked more closely at the belt and then I understood. “The handle is part of the design on your belt.” Rows of cylindrical beads in black and silver studded the belt, all in the same design as the knife handle.

  She snapped the blade closed, folding it into a slot in the handle and snapping it back onto a spot on the back of her belt. “It’s necessary to carry weapons on Fosaan. You both should carry something.”

  “I didn’t think,” I said. “I have a small impak back in my room, but I didn’t think to bring it. It probably wouldn’t have done much good on that thing. It’s only rated to stop something less than a hundred kilos.”

  “Where’d you get an impak?” Decker snapped at me. “You aren’t supposed to have any weapons at all. It’s not in the protocol for Fosaan. Only authorized military personnel can have them here.”

  This didn’t seem like a time to complain about my possession of a weapon. “My father left it with me,” I said, wishing I hadn’t brought it up. Decker could make trouble about it. “When he’s doing a supply run, he doesn’t like it that we have so little protection. He’s not one to rely on other people.”

  “He’s breaking the rules,” Decker snarled. “That’s why he’s just a runner hack these days. Everybody knows he got discharged for refusing to follow orders.”

  I tried to keep my anger in check. “Just leave it. You don’t know the whole story, and I’m not going to bother to enlighten you now.” I didn’t know the whole story myself. My parents wouldn’t talk about why my father went from defense commander of an entire planet to just a contract supply runner pilot, or why my grandfather now only contacted us when he wanted to talk about my future training.

  Deciding I was done talking to Decker, I focused on Mira. “All the Fosaanians I’ve seen wear the same belts,” I said to her. “So they’ve all been loaded down with knives?”

  “Didn’t you understand me?” she replied. “It’s necessary. We’re almost at a site where we can land. Look for a small sandy area between two boulders. There, do you see it?”

  “How do you know that thing won’t attack again when we come down?” Decker asked, keeping the riquin in a hover mode.

  “Good question.” I didn’t want to imagine what those fangs would do to an arm dangling over the edge.

  “I think the water is too shallow for it,” Mira said, “but I don’t know for sure. Can you go in steeply?”

  “If it’s the best way to avoid that thing, we’ll go as steep as we can.” Without warning us, Decker practically dived into the landing spot, and I held on to keep from falling out the front. Once we were down, I had to admit the landing was perfect. The beach wasn’t much larger than the riquin, and Decker had set it down right in the center.

  We all looked back at the ocean, but it was perfectly quiet. “Rheisious aren’t able to go on land, right?” I asked.

  “No, not as far as I know.” Mira got out and opened the pouch on her belt. She pulled out some pieces of gray leathery cord which had some small flat round stones attached to them. At first I couldn’t tell what they were, until she put them on. They were bracelets, but instead of putting them on her wrists, she put them around her hand so that they encircled her palms.

  “Do you mind if I ask why you are putting on jewelry right now?” The stones were too small to have knives concealed in them, but I suspected this wasn’t ordinary jewelry.

  “Walking through the jungle at night sometimes requires more than just knives as weapons.” She didn’t explain in any more detail, instead saying, “We must approach the sentries carefully. They will be very alert now that it’s dark.” She pointed at a spot between clumps of gigantic grasses, nearly hidden by the mists. “There’s the path.”

  “Exactly what are the sentries guarding against?” I asked. “It can’t be us, Earthers I mean. There’s no one else on the planet.”

  She didn’t answer my question. “Stop here and wait,” she cautioned. “Don’t speak.” Moving away from us, she disappeared around a corner before I could ask why. Decker and I just stood there. Clicking bug noises filled the air. There weren’t any true insects on the planet, but there wasn’t another good word for the smaller arthropods, some of which flew and some of which scuttled along on the ground. I could hear the sounds of other creatures that sounded a little like tree frogs.

  The sulfur scent was overlaid with a whole array of other scents, odd mixes of odors that were hard to pin down or describe. It seemed everything on Fosaan, plants and creatures, had their own scent to try to stand out from the oppressive sulfur smell. The closest I could come to identifying the scent around us in this place was something similar to orange peel.

  “Y
ou like the girl, don’t you?” Decker said, breaking the silence. “I’ll admit she’s not bad, but you know fraternizing with the locals isn’t allowed on any military outpost.”

  “I’m not ‘fraternizing’ with her.” I said. “I just met her. And that rule is only for government employees and the military anyway.” Even though I’d just met her, there was some sort of connection happening. At least I thought there was. There had been another girl I’d been missing, who was supposed to be here on Fosaan, but things had gone wrong and she’d never made it. I hadn’t heard from her in so long, I suspected she no longer missed me.

  Decker was quiet for a moment and then said, “I guess that’s true about the rule. So is she interested in you?”

  I knew why Decker was asking. My friendship with Lainie made Decker angry and jealous most of the time, as if the friendship was what kept Lainie from falling into Decker’s arms. Actually, I didn’t know what kept Lainie from falling into Decker’s arms. I didn’t want to know. Deciding I wasn’t going to make life easy for him, I said, “She might be interested. She is good-looking, almost as pretty as Lainie.”

  I could hear Decker’s intake of breath, but Mira’s voice sounded in the distance before Decker could respond. “The password is ‘Remember’,” she called. “May I approach?”

  A man’s voice barked, “Mira, is that you? Show yourself!”

  “This is more than a little weird,” I said softly. “Why do they need passwords?”

  “I don’t know,” Decker shifted beside me, brushing at his arm as if something was crawling on it. “I don’t like this. I don’t like going in blind into the jungle either.”

  “Quinn, Decker, come forward.” Mira ordered.

  “I don’t know,” Decker said again.

  “Look, we’re here.” I didn’t want the trip wasted. “Let’s go ahead. The worst thing that can happen is Ansun sends us away.” At least I hoped that was the case. The more I learned of Ansun, the more I realized I didn’t know.

  Decker slapped at his leg like a bug was biting him, but I couldn’t see anything. “Okay,” he said. “I don’t want to stay here. Let’s get this over with. I’ll go first. You keep an eye on the rear.”

  When I got a look at the sentries, I was glad Decker and I hadn’t tried to come alone. The Fosaanian sentries were big, and managed to tower over us, even though both Decker and I were as tall or taller than most of the Earth adults. None of the Fosaanians who came to the depot matched the size of these two. One in particular was as tall as my father and had arms that bulged with muscles. The man didn’t look underfed as did the other Fosaanians I had seen. Both wore clothing that resembled uniforms. All Fosaanian clothing was made of some roughly woven greenish fiber, but over their tunics these men had sashes of a lizard-like skin across one shoulder. I saw they had belts that resembled Mira’s, and they also carried weapons strapped to the belts. Not knives or the spears I had imagined they might have, but old-fashioned Earth walthasers by the look of them. I didn’t think anyone used those anymore.

  “These Earthers need help,” Mira said. “There is a problem at the depot.”

  “You know it is not allowed.” The sentry who spoke looked very angry. “I’ve never seen a more foolish female, roaming in the jungle at this time of night with Earthers! You need to get in and stay where you belong. These two may not pass.”

  “I’ve never been foolish, Sato,” Mira shot back. “Not ever,” she said.

  The sentry made a strangled noise like a growl. He and Mira stared each other down, and I could feel the tension between them. It was clear the two didn’t like each other.

  “My uncle will want to see them,” Mira insisted, speaking to the other sentry. “He will be displeased if he learns they were kept away. They have important information.”

  I tried to look as if I knew some important information. I didn’t think Mick’s locking himself in the depot counted as such, but I’d go along with Mira’s efforts if it got us past the sentries.

  The other sentry, who acted interested rather than angry, said something I didn’t quite catch and motioned for the bigger one to move away from us. The two moved a couple of meters down the path and spoke to each other in voices too low for me to hear. Finally, the muscled one gave a slight nod of his head and the other said, “We’ve decided you should take them to Ansun.”

  Mira gestured to Decker and me to follow her. As I passed between the two men, I could feel their tenseness, and as I moved away from them, I knew they were watching, hands no doubt still on their weapons. I hoped they didn’t have a change of heart. The muscled one said again, “Foolish girl!” but neither followed us.

  “Is your uncle in charge here?” Decker asked Mira. “They acted like he was important.”

  Once again, Mira didn’t answer the question. “When we get there, it would be best if you let me do the talking,” she said instead. “And you should quit talking now and pay attention to the ground when you walk. Sometimes the night worms crawl onto the path. If you step on them, their insides will burn through your foot coverings into your skin.”

  I stopped dead, one foot still in the air. “Now you tell us. I don’t know what a night worm looks like. How easy are they to see?”

  “You’ll see them. They glow slightly.” She walked off, and I hurried to catch up, trying to stay close without stepping on her heels. I assumed the worms wouldn’t speed crawl onto the path in between Mira’s steps and my own. The area around us was quiet, except for the occasional slap Decker gave himself. I was glad my blood wasn’t as tasty as Decker’s to whatever was munching on him.

  The path continued on through dense plant growth, barely wide enough for one person. Foliage brushed against us as we went along. I could see flickering lights in the distance and hear the sounds of voices. Just before we reached the edge of the village, I heard a rustle in the foliage.

  “What’s that?” I tried to grab at Mira to pull her to a stop, but before I could, a dark shape jumped in front of us, the shadow of a knife in an upraised hand. I was amazed when Mira sprang at the shape.

  “No, Tasim!” she hissed. I trained my light on the figure. It was the younger Fosaanian from the station, Mira’s cousin.

  “Move, Mira.” The boy kept his knife raised and tried to shove her out of the way with his other hand, but she grabbed hold of his arm. I saw he wore the same type of bracelets around his hands as Mira did.

  “Get out of my way Quinn,” Decker ordered. “I’ve got this.”

  “I don’t think so.” I stayed put between the boy and Decker. I could see Mira’s fingers digging into her cousin’s arm. She seemed like she had no intention of letting go, but if she did, I didn’t think Decker stood much of a chance. Fists against a knife didn’t make for great odds, and Tasim looked as if he knew what he was doing with the weapon.

  “Did they force you to bring them here?” the cousin asked, never taking his eyes off Decker.

  “No, I offered to bring them,” she said.

  Tasim dropped his attention from Decker and turned to Mira. “That was foolish! You know it’s not allowed.”

  “There’s trouble at the depot.” Mira let go of his arm. “Will you two stand down so I can talk and you can listen? Please, Tasim.” I could see the reluctance in the boy’s expression, though he did lower the knife.

  Mira stayed close to her cousin, but turned so she could speak to all of us. “Tasim, the Earthers need help. I wanted to talk to Uncle about it.”

  “No, Mira, you can’t disturb him. He’s in a staff meeting and something important is happening. In fact, it’s the only reason you’re not in trouble. Nobody but Cadia and me has noticed you’ve been missing. She’s been asking for you. It hasn’t been one of her good days.” Tasim said in a louder voice to Decker and me, “Ansun won’t see you.”

  “We’ll wait until Ansun is done and ask him ourselves,” Decker said.

  “It could be all night. You can’t stay
in the camp that long and you don’t want to wait in the jungle,” Tasim said.

  I became aware of a hissing noise off to my right. I didn’t like the sound of it.

  “It doesn’t matter. We’ll wait.” Decker crossed his arms like he was settling in to wait right there.

  The hissing noise grew louder. Mira shifted, her face uneasy. “Let’s get into the camp at least,” she said. “We shouldn’t stay out here any longer.”

  It sounded like a good plan to me. I was more than ready to get to some place of relative safety. Whatever the source of the sound, I could guess it wasn’t something I wanted to come face to face with in the dark in the middle of the jungle. I didn’t envy the sentries having to listen to that noise all night.

  “Tasim, let’s get to the camp and talk about this more,” Mira urged. Tasim seemed to decide the hissing noise was more of a problem than we were, because he finally gave in to Mira’s pleading, and hastened down the path in front of us.

  The path grew easier to see the closer we drew to the village, and I realized the light from the village was spilling out into the jungle. We reached two sentries in front of a stone archway. While Mira talked to them, I examined the entrance, wondering why the Fosaanians had bothered to build an entrance to their village when there were no walls surrounding it. I looked more closely at a thick line of plants came right up to either side of the archway. I recognized the leaves of the santovi, the plant with the thorns as long as my hand. It was clear no one could sneak into the village undetected through those.