Surviving the Improbable Quest

by Anderson Atlas

  Asantia returns him to the window and pats his shoulder. “Not so hard, eh?” Allan shakes his head. He’s as embarrassed as it gets and wants to crawl under her cot and hide. Asantia breathes hard from lifting Allan, but tries to hide it. She likes to be tough, though Allan wonders how tough she actually is. Allan’s mother was tough. She’d work out at the gym three to four times a week and ran marathons twice a year. But even under her tough, rule obsessed, high-standard personality, she was still his mom and on occasion would collapse into tears, which would drive Allan into her arms.

  Asantia returns to the controls and flips a switch. “I’m sorry you can’t use your legs.”

  “Everyone is sorry,” Allan mutters, still flush with embarrassment.

  “You must feel useless sometimes.”

  “That’s putting it mildly.”

  “But you’re not. You saved my butt. Even after I was a total fart to you. So you’re still good for some stuff.” She winks at him. Now that dawn had invaded the sky, Allan can see Dantia. Far below the floating airship people walk and some fly. They’re as small as ants and just as orderly. Some of the buildings are colorful. The city looks less drab than before and mysteriously inviting like a state fair or an outdoor mall. Different flags flap from poles, and the people wear colorful and exotic clothing.

  Allan looks up at Asantia. Light spilling in from the windows makes her shine. Her skin is soft, her hair is rich and smooth, and her golden eyes are as bright as they’ve ever been. He’s never seen yellow eyes before. Asantia has the most beautiful eyes he’s ever seen. “Are— are you from Earth?”

  Asantia turns to him. “Where else would I be from?”

  “I don’t know. I was just . . .”

  She chuckles. “I don’t know if I’m from Earth. A long time ago when I was just a baby, I was found on a hilltop just south of Dantia. I didn’t cry, just stared at everything. I never cried about anything.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup. Finally I was found and brought to Killian Crow. I was his servant for a long time. But I found his secret room. He had books and this projector that you can put moving pictures into. I would sneak in there every night and read and watch the tapes. It was strictly off-limits to slaves. Eventually, it was my turn to take the Trials.” She shrugs. “I didn’t do so well, but I didn’t die at the Bog of Teeth.” Allan avoids asking what the Bog of Teeth is. Even in his ignorance he’s confident that he’ll never want to go there.

  “Bit by bit, day after day, I stole supplies from Killian Crow’s warehouse and from his basement. Instead of sneaking into his secret room to learn stuff, I’d crawl up to the attic. I built my ship in about a year.” She pulls a lever and the ship starts to descend.

  “One day, I blew the attic’s roof off with black tar-cakes and filled my balloon with helium. My airship flew just like in the books I’d read. I had tried to get others to come with me, but I was the only one that had the guts.” Asantia puts her fist in the air. “Been on the run ever since. They can’t catch me. I’m a ghost.”

  The buildings get bigger as the craft lowers and makes its way to the meeting place Mizzi scribbled on his map. “Jibbawk is a ghost. The freakiest one I’ve ever seen.”

  “If you’ve seen Jibbawk, you’re lucky to be alive,” Asantia replies. She rests her fist on her hip and stares at Allan for a long while. “See, you’re tougher than you look.” Asantia moves from the control panel to a rusty, bent handle by the ramp doorway. She grabs the handle and cranks it around and around. Then she looks through a metal oval that protrudes from the wall and places her hand on a red button below it. After staring into the oval for a minute she slams the red button. Nothing happens. She slams on the button again and then harder the third time. Finally there’s a hiss. The ship shudders. Asantia walks back to Allan.

  “Grappling hook is set.” She can see the question mark on Allan’s face. “It’s a bit sticky. Don’t judge my ship.”

  Allan smiles wide. “I didn’t say anything.” She asks for the key. “You stay here. I’ll get the key to Mizzi and be back before the fleas can bite.” She winks.

  Allan hands her the key. “I . . . I’d like to say goodbye. Mizzi really helped me.”

  Asantia shrugs. “Send him a letter.” She moves to the ramp then stops; her hand rests on the doorway for a moment. She turns. “If there was time, I’d take you to him. But there isn’t. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, just tell him thank you for me.”

  Suddenly, there’s a loud explosion. The left side of the floating ship drops. Asantia falls back and rolls all the way to Allan, landing in his lap. Another explosion shudders the ship’s metal frame and the entire ship leans further to one side. A hiss comes from the ballast balloons.

  “No you did not.” Asantia cries out. She pulls herself to the controls then yanks on some levers. Nothing happens. She thrusts one lever back and forth, back and forth. “We’re going down. Hold on to something!”

  The craft falls through the sky turning like a Frisbee. The grappling hook still anchors the ship to the ground. The ship hits a building. The building cushions the fall somewhat, sparing Allan and Asantia’s lives, but can’t stop the ship from crashing to the ground. The metal frame crunches through the wall as it slips down the face of the building. A lantern on a balcony ignites the helium. Fire envelops the ship’s fabric. A strange, round man-beast leaps off a bench and clears the area a moment before Asantia’s ship lands on the building’s frontage and slides across the lawn. It stops just before it falls into the canal. The man-beast wasn’t far enough away. His hair lights on fire and he runs away shrieking. People living in the tall building cry out and point to the burning ship; one larger woman faints.

  Smoke fills up the cabin as the gears grind to a stop. Asantia grabs Allan’s arms, drags him to the ramp and pushes him out the door where he falls into the canal. She dives in after him just as an explosion punctuates the total destruction of her floating home. Asantia surfaces and grabs Allan’s shirt. “Can you swim by yourself?”

  “Yeah, I can tread water. What happened?”

  “We were shot down by someone who works for Crow. Most of the authorities leave me alone, but some are really bad guys who have never stopped hunting me.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Hide.”

  “What?!” Allan shrieks as his eyes search his surroundings. His arms clench involuntarily as his fear threatens to immobilize him. He starts to sink, but Asantia grabs his shirt and helps him resurface. She points to an approaching boat and then starts swimming in the opposite direction. The boat is fast and wider than the other boats on the canal. It has a tall mast with a large sail filled with air. It turns as it reaches Allan and Asantia revealing Mizzi at the controls. He throws his tail toward Allan.

  “Get on! Hurry! Before they see us. I’ve been waiting for you and you’re really late.”

  Allan grabs hold of the tail and lets himself be pulled aboard the boat as Asantia climbs aboard. The back of the boat arches up, and the front fèrro is carved into the shape of an elephant. Copper and steel plates anchor the pulleys, blocks, winches and plates that connect and hold up the tall mast. All the wood trim has intricate carvings. Inside the boat are seats in front and behind the mast. The steering tiller is at the back.

  As the boat turns, the sail dumps all the air and flops like a flag. Mizzi pulls one rope tight and loosens another one. The wind fills up the sail with a loud snap, and the boat speeds through the water. Mizzi steers the boat down the wide canal and under a tall, stone bridge. The wind picks up as they near where the canal empties into a lake. The wind pushes the boat faster and faster tipping it until the side of the boat drags in the water. The speed widens Mizzi’s furry smile, which shows off his little teeth.

  Alligator-like animals swarm out of a nearby side street and descend on the wreckage. Asantia sits next to Allan and watches the scavengers crawl all over her home like cockroaches over stale bread. Black columns of smo
ke rise from the engine of Asantia’s ship, and the framework sags from the heat.

  “They are veskews and a lot like attack dogs,” Asantia says. “But with more teeth. And they can crawl upside down and on walls and are as nasty as piranhas.”

  The veskews have beady eyes, large claws, and dark green scales instead of hair. They are about the size of alligators. A metal frame gives out under the weight of a veskew, and the veskew drops into the inferno below.

  “See that guy?” She points to a tall bird-man following the veskews.

  “I know that bird,” Allan mutters. “It’s the ratty-bird who caught me the first time.”

  Asantia pats Allan on the shoulder. “Dodged him again. He’s a bad bub, that one. I’ve run into him on occasion. The world would be better off if he were behind bars. That’s for sure. Unfortunately, he’s the sheriff’s brother. He’ll never go to jail. The whole system is corrupt,” Mizzi adds.

  “They’re coming!” Asantia cries out.

  The veskews zero in on the boat and run on all fours toward it. They scamper over the bridge like a pack of rabid dogs. People scream and duck out of the way of the veskews, but some get trampled and a rat-person in a fancy tailored suit gets knocked into the water.

  The boat enters the lake with surprising speed for a sailboat. The water smacks the hull noisily, and its nose cuts through the small waves. The veskews skid to a stop at the shore of the lake. One jumps in the water, but instead of swimming, it thrashes around and sinks. The others pace on the shore and shriek.

  After Allan can’t see the veskews anymore, he relaxes. He notices Asantia still watching the column of black smoke. “Your ship is ruined, because he was hunting me.”

  She shrugs. “It’s not your fault, not really. And as for my ship? I’ll make another. It was getting kind of old anyway. Besides, we all have crap we gotta get past.”

  Allan sees tears in her eyes. He thought she never cried. He knew that no one can say that honestly. Her tears take off some make-up, and Allan can see she has little freckles underneath. In the shadow of grief and loss, she looks five years younger. What a tough life she must live. Maybe she is the same age as Allan.

  Asantia touches his shoulder lightly and holds his gaze for a lingering moment. She swallows hard, dabs her eyes and tries to wring out her drenched hair, all while erasing her emotions.

  The boat parallels the shoreline which borders with woods and rolling hills. It’s quiet with the sound of lapping water and creaking sails being the only noise. Allan spies a tall step-pyramid in the distance, overgrown with plants, cracked and weather-beaten. At the top is a large door overhung with a vine-covered roof.

  Allan tries to turn, but his limp legs are crumpled awkwardly in the boat. Asantia helps him pull them up and straighten them out. Mizzi sits next to Allan, while the boat maintains a course toward the pyramid. “So, you did it. I’m not surprised at all, though I got worried.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without your mechanical legs. Can you to make me another set?”

  Mizzi smiles, his whiskers angling upward. “I don’t have another power source like that one. If I find one, you’ll be the first to know. I wish I had a more permanent solution.” His paws scratch at his large snout, and then he meticulously coils his long tail next to him.

  Asantia digs out the key from her pocket and hands it over. “I think you were looking for this.”

  Mizzi takes the key with the furry end of his tail. “You both did good.” He hops from his seat and goes back to steer the boat. He aims for the shore and crashes the boat into the sandy beach. “Nice landing,” Asantia snips, picking herself off the floor.

  “Not as spectacular as yours,” Mizzi replies with a smile.

  “How do I get home now?” Allan asks.

  “You’re going to take this boat across the lake and see a bird-guard named Lyllia of Meduna. She’ll let you pass through a gateway. That gateway will take you home.”

  “Sounds easy.” Allan watches Mizzi get a bag of supplies from a storage box in the front of the boat, and then Mizzi returns to the back. Mizzi tosses his tail onto the beach. Allan points to the pyramid. “Jibbawk’s body is up there?”

  Mizzi nods. “I will lure his ghost there. When he merges with his flesh, I’ll confine him and banish him to one of the outer worlds.” Mizzi hugs Allan for a long while. “I’m glad we met. You’re a brave one. Don’t forget that.” Mizzi leaps out of the boat. He turns then pushes the sailboat back into the lake. “Just cross the lake. When you get to the other side, follow the shore until you get to the House of Gold. Lyllia is there. She’ll know how to get you home.”

  Asantia steers the boat letting the wind fill its sails. The wind is strong on the lake, but not cold. The tipping of the boat eases Allan into a reclining position, his back leaning on the side and his arms resting on the edge. He looks up at the twilight sky and bathes in the warmth of success, at peace now that he’s returning home.

  An hour passes. The sky is at its brightest now, which isn’t that bright, especially since there is no visible sun. Allan wonders what kind of a world would get bright, but has no sun. Maybe the sun is too far away to see, but would still fill up the atmosphere with light. It is a similar world to Earth, but so different. Now that Allan isn’t fighting for his life he thinks about being on another planet. He really is somewhere else. Earth isn’t even in the same solar system as this planet.

  “How many other worlds have you been to? Besides Earth?” Allan asks.

  Asantia pulls out some food from her pocket and hands a piece to Allan. Tough and salty, it tastes like beef jerky, but looks more like a sponge than a piece of meat. She hands him another piece and giggles at how he devours it. “I’ve been around. But I always come back here. It’s my home. I’ve got friends here.” She looks up for a moment. “The possibilities are endless in the stars. Every combination you can think of exists. Red stars, purple nights, pink mountains and ocean worlds with flying whales as big as your Earth cities. I was eaten by one of those gigantic whales and survived for two months with the people that lived between its teeth. They were super sweet to me and had a beautiful city. Day and night depended on when the whale would open its mouth.”

  “I’d like to see that. There are a lot of things I’d like to see, but I can’t go far in a wheelchair.”

  “You’d be surprised at the places you can go. When you get a little older, how about I take you somewhere?”

  “I’d like that. But I don’t want to get eaten, no matter how friendly the whale plaque is.”

  “Got it. I’ll pick somewhere super-snug.”

  “I hope ‘super-snug’ means cool.”

  Asantia laughs, “Of course it does.”

  “I’m confused. You were so mean to me when I first met you. Now, you’re not. It’s like you’re a different person.”

  Asantia sighs. “Look, I’m a scavenger. I do what I have to. And, I wouldn’t have sold you to Killian Crow or any of the Metite Houses. Those guys are evil. I would have sold you to a Thinker. You would have worked for a year and then been given the opportunity to Test and earn your freedom.”

  “You know slavery is wrong, no matter what.”

  Asantia’s eyebrows rise. “Yup. But I didn’t make the rules here. There are a growing number of us who will change the rules, but it’s a process. You know?”

  Allan sees, in her rich yellow eyes and her light smile, that she is telling the truth. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask you about your tech,” Allan begins. “Your world doesn’t seem more advanced than Earth, but you can travel to other planets. How do you do it? How did I get here?”

  Asantia adjusts the sails letting the ship pick up speed. She stands up in the boat, holding the steering tiller and a line that keeps the ship’s mast standing up. The wind blows through her hair and reddens her cheeks. “Yeah, we’re pretty backwards here. The only reason why we have any technology at all is because of Mizzi and others like him. He’s head of an underground
society of thinkers and tinkers. They wrote the books that helped me make my ship. We also have a lot of books from Earth. That’s why we speak English.”

  “But how did I get here? I was crawling through the woods.”

  “You must have run into a Hubbu flower. The Hubbu plant produces huge flowers that create a pollen that creates little wormholes. Nobody knows how it works, but if you get enough pollen spores on you, they will take you through space. Mizzi thinks the pollen arrived here a long time ago and started all life in Lan Darr.”

  “How do you know where it takes you?” Allan asks, intrigued.

  “By the color, of course. The flowers bloom into six different colors. I’ve blended the colors and ended up in different places. Everywhere they take you is somewhere they grow. So you don’t have to worry about plopping into a world that doesn’t have air or is covered in lava. It’s almost as if you switch places with the pollen on the other world. That’s how it feels to me.”

  “So you can go anywhere, anytime?”

  “Well, a couple types of flowers, the deep red and the light orange ones, only bloom a few times a year. So if they’re not blooming, you can’t go where their color leads you. I’ve tried to save the pollen spores for later use, but they don’t keep. At some point the spores just pop out of our world and go wherever they go.”

  “That’s amazing. I suddenly want to plant a flower garden.” Allan smiles.

  Asantia winks. “They grow on Earth, too. But they are very rare. Every now and again, someone from Earth shows up. They’re confused and freaked out. They’d picked the flowers and got just the right amount of pollen on them.”

  “Is that why there are humans here?”

  “Probably. It might be why I’m here. I’ve wondered if that happened to me.”

  “I’m sorry you never met your mother or father.”

  “Me, too.” Asantia’s hair blows into her face and she pulls it away, staring into the breeze. “Earth books have helped us see better ways. Your books on the American system have started a revolution here.”