Stars Beneath My Feet

by D L Frizzell

  The peach trees sparkled with frost exactly as I remembered them. As we passed them, I felt a twinge of homesickness. There had always been something interesting to do in Sunlo, even though my foster brother resisted most of the activities I considered fun. There were rock walls to climb, fish to catch, and plenty of solitude for a young teen who wanted to be alone most of the time. In retrospect, I really didn’t mind growing up in Sunlo, but Norio convinced me there was so much more to see in the world. And now it seemed that Sunlo was nothing more than a small part of it, and an even smaller part of my past.

  “There’s my boy!” an elderly female voice called out.

  I cringed as I heard the woman screeching through the trees. That would be Carolyn Biedrik. She was right there on the path, with her cold-weather coveralls, a knitted cap, and an apron full of peaches.

  “Hello, Carolyn,” I sighed.

  “You’ve gotten so tall, Alex!” she exclaimed, fighting to keep a stray peach from bouncing out of her apron. “And you brought friends!”

  I knew what was coming next. The Biedriks were predictable.

  “You were in the shallows, weren’t you?” Carolyn tsk-tsked. “Your pants are practically frozen stiff.” She turned to Major Hathan-Fen. “And you look like an ice sculpture! Come to the house and get warmed up. Donald already has some hot darkolate on the stove.”

  “Maybe next…” I started

  “Thank you, Mrs. Biedrik,” Norio interrupted. “I am sure we could all benefit from your hospitality.”

  “Yes, lovely,” Hathan-Fen shivered, giving me the stink-eye. Was she telling me to shut up, or blaming me for Carolyn finding us? I decided the first option was less insulting, so I went with that.

  “You’ve gotten a terrible bump on your eye, sir,” Carolyn told Redland.

  “Hazard of the trade, ma’am,” Redland said, flashing a charming smile that sickened me. “Nothin’ a little peach pie wouldn’t cure, if you don’t mind me sayin’.”

  “Why then, I’ll make one!” she beamed. “That’s why I’m here!”

  “Were you expecting us?” I asked. She never made pies unless company was on the way.

  “Of course I was, dear,” she said, straightening a wrinkle on my sleeve. “I just wasn’t expecting you. I’m so glad you made it. That girl needs you.”

  “What girl?”

  Carolyn sighed and gave me that motherly look she used to give me when I was being evasive. “Kate Runaway, dear. Poor girl, I can hardly understand a thing she says.”

  “Yeah, that would be Kate,” I mumbled.

  “She’s taking a nap in your old room,” Carolyn said. “She’ll be so happy you caught up with her.”

  “I’m sure she will be,” I replied.

  Chapter Nineteen

  My old home looked just as I remembered it. It wasn’t a large house, just a single floor with a partial basement, thickly carpeted everywhere. The walls were painted in warm colors, with wood furniture that had been in the Biedrik family for generations. Daylight reflected down from the town canopy through skylights, illuminating the living room where gold- and black-framed pictures filled one wall. The wall reminded me of the gallery at the Celestial City garrison where the Founding of Arion was memorialized, only the pictures here just showed the Biedrik family. Unfortunately, there were pictures of me, too. Some were just sketches that Carolyn drew from memory. I felt absolutely humiliated.

  Carolyn did as she always did when new guests arrived; she gave us a chance to change into dry clothes, and then gave the story behind every picture on the wall as we warmed up. She started at the oldest ones first, describing her family tree from the Founding to the present, and spent too much time at the end gushing about me and my foster brother Cale. Hathan-Fen commented that I was a lot shorter in my youth, which amused Brady and Traore greatly.

  “Where is Cale these days?” I asked.

  Carolyn beamed. “He’s a scout in the Plainsman Militia now, stationed at Notch Gora.”

  Hathan-Fen nodded appreciatively. “Notch Gora. Impressive.”

  “We don’t see him much,” Carolyn said, losing her smile, “even though it isn’t far away. My husband says the militia’s always sending expeditions into the Colderlands, so the soldiers don’t have much free time.” Her eyes brightened again. “Do you think you’ll see him soon?”

  Hathan-Fen smiled guardedly. “We’ll see.”

  “I have a care package for him,” Carolyn said. “If you could take it with you, maybe somebody out there could make sure he gets it.”

  “We’ll be happy to do what we can,” Hathan-Fen said. “Mrs. Biedrik, do you have a room where I could have a private conversation with my team?”

  Carolyn nodded and walked to a room she identified as Donald’s study. “My husband won’t be back for a few minutes yet, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you talk in here. I need to finish cooking dinner, so make yourselves at home.”

  “Thank you,” Hathan-Fen said, and grabbed a small cargo pouch from her gear in the mud room. We followed the major while Carolyn went to the kitchen.

  We entered the study, which was decorated much the same as the rest of the house except that two of the walls were covered by floor-to-ceiling shelves. Scientific books were crammed into every available space – volumes on architecture, sap-fueled engine maintenance, cold-weather farming, plus Donald’s collection of Earth histories. I’d read each of these books, some of them multiple times, as a young teen. There was a table in one corner with cushioned chairs on either side where I used to sit and read for hours, the only youthful activity I engaged in that didn’t end in a visit from an outraged townsperson or the constable. On the table, a sap flame danced softly within a decorative lamp on a knitted doily. A book so old that the print had worn off the binding sat next to it. I was tempted to read it while the major formulated some ultimately futile plan to hide from the T’Neth.

  Hathan-Fen shut the door and approached me. “Alex, can you hear what Kate is thinking right now?”

  “No,” I said. “My old room is just on the other side of this wall, so maybe I can’t hear her while she’s asleep.”

  “Good, that’s what I was hoping.” She opened the medical kit. It was loaded with hypodermic needles. She pulled one of them out and examined the clear liquid inside. “Alex, remember that you said you would cooperate.”

  “Cooperate how?” I asked. I didn’t like the way she was looking at me.

  “Nobody can know we are here,” Norio said as he moved to stand next to the major. “Our mission is too important.”

  I stared at the needle and did the math. Norio knew more about pharmacology than anybody I ever met. I’d seen him mix everything from salve to lethal poisons over the years, many of their ingredients drawn from the collection of exotic plants in his greenhouse. “You’re not just going to hit me in the head with another rock?” I asked.

  Redland took a step toward me.

  “Don’t even think about it,” I growled.

  Brady and Traore looked uneasily at each other, and then questioningly at Major Hathan-Fen. Ofsalle stayed put, sitting uncomfortably at the corner table with his hands clasped together.

  “Nobody knew you’d crash the party in Dogleg, pal,” Redland said. “And you kinda complicated things with your mind-reading trick.”

  “You want to see complicated,” I said, “try to stick me with that needle. No one is knocking me out, especially,” I motioned toward Redland, “with him around.” I thought back to the minutes after waking up on the train. “You’ve already drugged me once, though, haven’t you?”

  “Yes,” Norio replied.

  “Why the hell?” I asked, my voice rising.

  Norio looked back, showing a guilty expression for the first time in my memory.

  “We don’t know what kind of connection you might have with the T’Neth,” Hathan-Fen said flatly, and without a hint of guilt. “You could have a telepathic link, even if you aren’t aware of it.”

/>   “You’re full of it, Major,” I shot back. “You thought dosing me with…whatever that is…was the right move before you had any idea that I could read Kate’s mind. Why don’t you tell me the real reason you want to drug me?”

  “Alex, there are other ways to compromise a person,” Norio said. “Ways as old as mankind itself.”

  Was he really suggesting I still felt something for Kate? That I somehow intercepted the militia at Dogleg to win her back, and that I worked with other T’Neth to find her? As preposterous as that was, I couldn’t think of a counter-argument. I already told them what I was doing in Dogleg and that I didn’t even know Kate was a T’Neth to begin with, but that obviously wasn’t good enough.

  “You will be safe,” Hathan-Fen said. “I promise that.” She angled to my left while Redland moved the other way.

  “Not going to happen,” I growled. “If the T’Neth find us here, I’m going to be awake for it.”

  “Who said we’re staying in Sunlo?” Redland asked.

  “The only thing this town has going for it is its remote location,” I said. “You’ve implied we’re going to Notch Gora, but I get the feeling that was a ruse. Den Gora would be better, but just as unlikely in my opinion. I’m sure you know the mountain’s the first place the T’Neth would look for us. It won’t matter a damn bit if we’re on the daylight side or the nighttime side.”

  “We could get there in a few hours by wagon,” Hathan-Fen said. “If that’s where we’re going – though that’s not what I’m saying - you and Kate would only be under anesthesia for a short time.”

  “What makes you think a mountain full of soldiers can defend against a T’Neth pair?” I shot back. “I’ve seen what those monsters can do. Two of them could tear a battalion to shreds. Hell, I doubt your contingent at Dogleg could hold them back very long.”

  “Alex, don’t be dramatic,” Traore said. “We don’t have anywhere else to go. Like you said, we can’t stay here. Den Gora is fortified, so if that’s our destination I’m all for it.”

  “You don’t know where we’re going?”

  “Well,” Traore said. “No, honestly I don’t. It makes sense, though.”

  “We aren’t paid to know, Alex,” Brady interjected. “We’re paid to follow orders. The militia does its duty, even when it isn’t always clear what the mission is. Maybe you should do the same.”

  Brady and Traore were good soldiers, but they didn’t always see the big picture. “Here’s why I don’t want to be drugged,” I explained. “The major didn’t plan for me to show up, remember? You see how many needles she has in that bag? She could keep Kate drugged for a month with all that. Norio, you probably mixed that concoction yourself, so why did you make so much?”

  Norio didn’t answer.

  “You plan to keep us knocked out a helluva lot longer than a few hours,” I said.

  “We brought it for emergencies,” Hathan-Fen said. “In case something happened to Norio.”

  “I doubt that very much, Major.,” I said coldly. “The only thing that drug’s good for is preventing the T’Neth from finding us. That tells me you intend to use all of it, and even make more if you have the chance.”

  “Why would we want both of you unconscious?” Redland asked. “I’m sure not willing to drag your sleeping asses around the countryside until we find a better place to hole up.”

  It was suddenly clear to me that Redland didn’t know where we were going, either. The train was the only leg of the journey he had knowledge about. It made sense that Hathan-Fen wouldn’t tell him any more than he absolutely had to know. She trusted him about as much as she trusted me, which is not at all. “I’m guessing the major plans to leave us at Den Gora while the rest of you lead the T’Neth on a wild goose chase to the middle of nowhere.”

  Redland went quiet momentarily, and then turned to Hathan-Fen. “There’s no way that scenario has a happy ending,” he said. “Alex is right. It’s a stupid idea.”

  “Maybe we deserve an explanation now,” I added.

  Hathan-Fen looked back and forth between me and Redland, her mouth agape. “Damn you two,” she said. “You’re not supposed to team up against me.”

  “Self-preservation makes us do strange things, Captain,” I said.

  Hathan-Fen shook her head. “You cannot be told what our plan is.”

  “It’ll take the T’Neth months to get here on foot,” Brady interjected. “We’d be long gone by the time they arrive.”

  “Then why drug us at all?” I asked. “Don’t bother answering, Major. I already know. The reason is that you think the T’Neth have tunnels of their own. At best, you might only have a few days head start on them. If there was another train waiting for us, we’d be on it already. We can’t stay here, and we can’t go to the Gora. Where else is there?”

  Hathan-Fen shook her head. This time she said nothing.

  “We have one advantage,” Redland said.

  “Which is?” Hathan-Fen asked irritably, putting her hands on her hips.

  “We’re invisible to the T’Neth,” Redland said. “They use their telepathy on each other - animals, too – but they draw a complete blank when they try to read human minds. It’s as if we aren’t even there. That’s why they’re scared of us.”

  “It’s not like people are hard to find,” I countered. I had a sudden sickening feeling that Sunlo could soon feel the wrath of the T’Neth if - when - they tracked us to the equator.

  “You’d be surprised,” Redland said. “Those T’Neth flunkies rely too much on their telepathy, which means they don’t know the first thing about scouting. They also stick out like concertina wire on a toilet, so folks tend to keep out of sight when they’re around.”

  “Then why are all of you so worried about them following us?” I asked.

  “If the T’Neth have learned one thing,” Redland said, “it’s how to get humans to find each other.”

  “You would know this first hand,” I said sarcastically.

  My thinly-veiled accusation didn’t go unnoticed. “Matter of fact,” Redland said. “The T’Neth hired me to find someone a few years back.”

  I turned to Hathan-Fen. “And you wonder why I’m not the trusting type.”

  “Who the hell are you to talk, Vonn?” Redland shot back. “You told us yourself that a T’Neth lawman was followin’ you. That raised a helluva lot of red flags and jeopardized our mission to boot. You might hate me for taking their money, but you more’n likely brought them straight to your girlfriend without gettin’ paid a slim nickel for the trouble.”

  “Go to hell,” I said. “I could tell everybody a few things about you.”

  Redland glared at me wordlessly. He could just as easily turn on me as agree with me in this situation. I decided to play it cool a little for the moment.

  “The T’Neth have been known to torture people for information,” Hathan-Fen interrupted, not acknowledging my stare-down with Redland. “Anybody who sees us is a potential informer whether they want to be or not. This is why we need to keep you and Kate under sedation and out of sight.”

  “It’s already too late for that,” I said. I didn’t want to admit it, but thinking about Donald and Carolyn Biedrik having their arms chopped off at the elbows upset me a great deal.

  Hathan-Fen refused to back down. “We put Dogleg in danger,” she said. “We just put Sunlo in danger, too. Same thing goes for Celestial City. For that matter, every human settlement on the damn planet is in danger. They’re all going to be destroyed if we don’t find a way to turn the tables, and Kate is our best hope right now. So, I don’t mind taking a tour of every goddamned water stop in the quartersphere if I think it would keep us one step ahead of the T’Neth.”

  When I realized what she was saying, I could scarcely believe it. “You’re running away.”

  “Yes, but there are other considerations, too,” the major said.

  “Which you can’t tell me about.”

  “Correct,” she replied. She look
ed at the needle in her hand and pulled the cap off.

  I wanted to tell the major that she wouldn’t be able to protect anybody if she had a broken arm, because that’s what she’d get if she came at me with that needle. I held my tongue on that point. No sense making things awkward.

  “We’ll use any means necessary to accomplish our goal,” she continued. “No apologies, no explanations. That’s exactly what you’d do, even if you can’t bring yourself to admit it right now.”

  “I don’t mind taking extreme measures,” I said. “I have absolutely no problem with that. I do take issue with stupid measures.” I pointed at the needle. “That is stupid, and I will use any means to stop you.”

  Major Hathan-Fen balked at hearing her own words thrown back at her. She looked at the needle one more time and took a step back. “My business is getting Kate to safety,” She said, quieter now. “I know you two aren’t together anymore, but I think you and I still have the same goal. We protect people. It’s what we do.” She made a point to recap the needle. “I’ll make you a deal, Alex. No sedatives. You can go with us, in which case I’ll expect you to protect Kate. You can read her mind, so maybe that gives us an advantage. If you don’t want to go with us, then you need to go, right now, and never look back. I’m tired of playing games. Pick a damn side and stick with it.”

  Hathan-Fen had just thrown down the gauntlet. She wanted me to trust her leadership without question and without hesitation. I stared at her, hoping she would blink. She did not. Dammit, I thought. “If this situation is as bad as it looks,” I finally said, “then we don’t have time for a homecoming party with peach pie. Let’s wake up Kate and get back on the road.” I stared at Hathan-Fen, wondering if I should sleep with one eye opened for the rest of the trip.

  “I want to hear you say it,” Hathan-Fen pressed. “Mean it, or there’s no deal.”

  She was as serious as I’d ever seen her. She had been willing to work with Redland on this mission, and I expected she gave him the same ultimatum on the train. Now she was willing to let me stay on, but with equally high expectations. She didn’t plead for cooperation. She didn’t resort to manipulation or persuasion. Just a simple statement of fact. In or out. Choose now.