Return To Lan Darr

by Anderson Atlas

  Asantia grabs Allan’s shoulders and pulls him face to face. “You will see me again, Allan Westerfield. I’m not dying on that field tomorrow. We’re liberating Dantia so it will be safe for everyone. The next time you see me it will be over a JooJa drink in a cafe on Canal Street Five.”

  Allan’s arms wrap around her and they hug.

  Asantia retrieves a few small bags from a pocket. The bags are filled with Hubbu pollen. She hands the colorful bags to Allan. “You have to go home. It’s not safe here. Killian Crow is more ruthless than ever now. You know which color gets you to Earth?” Allan nods.

  Asantia stands, stares at Allan for a long moment, then walks off, disappearing into the darkness that surrounds the small fire.

  Allan shuffles the bags of Hubbu pollen like playing cards over and over in his hand, staring at the pollen. So purple goes to Peebland, pink goes to Katonaay, blue goes to Lan Darr, yellow goes to Bileen, and orange goes to Earth. The colors can be mixed as well. He can make brown and green and various shades of all the colors. He wonders where green would take him, and if he doesn’t like that destination, he can come home now that he’s got all the colors at his disposal. He doesn’t have to go home yet if he doesn’t want to.

  But he’s tired. “I’d rather travel with someone else,” he mumbles. “I need some proof that all these worlds exist. I need a video camera.” But the thought occurs to him that even a video wouldn’t suffice. Some people will still say he made it up. He sighs. Maybe he’ll go home to Rubic, to school, to everyday life, to Earth, and forget these dangerous places exist.

  Allan lies back down and rests his head on his backpack. At least on Earth he won’t be enslaved or lost or go hungry. And he’ll have family there, and friends. These thoughts warm the inside of Allan more than the fire does.

  He’ll rest a bit before he decides anything.

  Chapter 19

  Reasonable Ruse

  Laura stares as the streetlights fly by in a never-ending rhythm. She is cuffed to the armrest of a madwoman’s Jeep and is now an accomplice to kidnapping. If you can call loading a full-grown woman into a Jeep, kidnapping. Is it called adult napping? She glances over her shoulder. The flower woman, Morna, is still unconscious. The cuts on her arm should have clotted, but it is hard to see in the dark.

  Alice drives with a lead foot, mumbling to herself. Her plan has clearly gone astray.

  Laura croaks, “Can I have some water?”

  “No,” Alice snaps.

  “Are you okay? Did you get hurt when you fought Morna?”

  Alice glances at Laura. “You’re a good actor, you know. Pretending to care about me.”

  “I didn’t…”

  “Such a smart brain on you, manipulative and creative. Dangerous combo, girl.” Alice grunts, sounding like a barn animal. “Eeh, fine. Have some water.” She opens the console between the seats and pulls out a water bottle. “You drink half of that. Leave the rest.” She tosses the bottle in Laura’s lap.

  Laura gulps. The cool liquid paves a path of satisfaction down her throat and into her belly. “Thank you.”

  Alice takes the freeway off-ramp a little too fast and blows through a red light. The buildings on either side of the street are large and silent. Surely there are a dozen cameras eyeing the dark, recording their every move.

  Alice checks her phone’s GPS and turns down a side street. A wholesale flower warehouse is at the end of the road. The building is huge. A sign directs delivery vehicles to the back.

  Alice follows the signs at dangerous speeds.

  The back door is as solid as a steel column. No glass door to shoot out, Laura thinks. The roll-up door looks just as strong. Alice will never get inside.

  Alice stomps on the gas pedal and heads straight for the roll-up door.

  Laura’s eyes widen and her breath is caught in her chest. Right before impact, Laura snaps her eyes closed, and she screams.

  BLAM! KRRPeeeeeKK!

  The women are caught by the seat belts. Laura’s wig flies off, freeing her golden locks. The room seems to spin for a moment. There are numerous areas on Laura’s body that complain: her wrists, her skull, and now her neck. The pain makes her angry. Alice will pay for this.

  Alice taps the gas pedal, forcing the Jeep through the metal slats. Scraping and whining fill the silent night. The sound vibrates Laura’s teeth.

  Alice jumps out, negotiates the twisted metal like a squirrel, and disappears into the warehouse. The lights flicker on. Large coolers line the interior wall, worktables fill up the center of the room, and shipping boxes are stacked along the far wall next to a large spool of bubble wrap. Alice enters the first cooler and comes out empty-handed. She enters the next cooler. Nothing. She checks the third cooler and is inside longer. This time, Alice emerges with her arms full of purple Hubbu flowers. They are just as Allan had described them.

  Alice wraps the flowers in bubble wrap and crams them in a box. She sets the box in the back seat and belts it in. When she tries to reverse the Jeep it lurches and the tires spin, but the Jeep doesn’t go anywhere. “Come on,” Alice hisses.

  “You want me to get out and push?” Laura snaps, her brow still taut with anger from the pain Alice has caused her.

  Alice drives forward then backs up. The Jeep hits an obstruction and, with more bone-vibrating grinding, leaps out of the warehouse. The Jeep spins around, burning tire rubber and drives off.

  A few police cars pass the Jeep, racing toward the warehouse. They’ll arrive in time to spook curious raccoons, and that’s about it.

  Even in absolute danger and in pain, Laura becomes nervously excited. Is it possible that Allan used a flower to travel to another planet? Is this real? These are the same questions Allan must have been asking himself for months. It’s an absurd and ludicrous idea, but it has to be real.

  Laura can’t wait to see Allan. She knows he’ll forgive her for her mistakes. I’ll never steal Allan’s diary again, and I’ll always believe him no matter how crazy he sounds.

  An hour later, Alice pulls into the university parking garage and parks in a spot marked with her name. The garage is mostly empty with only a few loitering cars around. The dash clock says it’s two thirty in the morning. She un-cuffs Laura. “Don’t try running.” Alice looks at Laura for a moment. “I know you won’t. You want to see where Allan went just as bad as I do.” She hands the box of Hubbu plants to Laura.

  Laura takes the box. She does want to find Allan, but the morality problem still exists. If she helps Alice, she will be guilty of bringing harm and danger to Allan. What will Alice do when she finally gets what she wants? She has to get rid of us all: me, Allan, Morna, my mother. We’re witnesses to her crimes, crimes that will put her in prison for a long, long time. Laura knows what she has to do. Stall. She has to do everything in her power to keep her from finding Allan. It’s the right thing to do. She looks at the Hubbu flowers in the box. The purple is so vivid it practically glows. The petals are so small and glassy. The pollen looks as soft as a baby chick.

  Alice procures a small white vial from the toolbox and snaps off the lid. She waves it under Morna’s nose. Morna wakes with a start. “Oh, what is that smell? Like rotten cabbage it is!” She blinks tears from her eyes and sees Alice. “Arr, it’s you, ya foul beast of a woman. Have ye not found a lad ta distract ye from the shite ideas coming from between yer ears?”

  “Shut your mouth. You don’t know me.”

  “Aye, and I don’ mean to know ye. You’re a rotten egg, ye are.”

  “You’d rather I knock you out again? Or maybe I’ll just let you taste my wrath.”

  Morna doesn’t respond, but not because of Alice’s words. It is because of the gun now pointed at her.

  “Get up.”

  Morna pulls herself out of the Jeep. “Och.” She rubs her neck and inspects the cuts on her arm. “Did ye have ta beat me like a squirrel in a sack? I feel like a banana gone through the fluff and fold.”

  Alice raises her gun over h
er head ready to coldcock Morna.

  Morna flinches, bringing her arms up to shield her face. “Sorry, ya brute. I wonna say a thing more.”

  “Start walking. My lab is in the first building.”

  The three walk to a red brick building. Ductwork line the sides and the windows are small. Alice, looking back and forth, stashes the gun in her pocket and walks a pace behind. The three ride the elevator to the fourth floor. Alice unlocks her office and waits for the two ladies to move past her. She pauses, looks down the hallway, then closes and locks the door.

  She flicks on the lights. The room is a lab with four tables and a far wall full of chemicals and binders and glass beakers. Alice pushes Morna in between the tables to an office in the back. “Get in there and stay quiet. If you make a peep, I shoot the girl. Got it?”

  “I hear ya. I can’t miss yer vile voice, just like I canna miss the reek of yer arse.”

  Alice slams the office door shut and braces the handle with a chair, then tests it to make sure Morna can’t push it open.

  “Put the flowers on the table, carefully.” Alice stares at the Hubbu, smiling.

  Laura sees the clutter on the table and pauses. Books, papers, beakers, burners, and other equipment fill up every available space. Like frosting, everything is covered in a thick blanket of dust.

  Alice sweeps the top of the table in one swoop of her arm. The racket fills the small office, making Laura cringe.

  I have to stall, but how?

  Laura puts the box on the table. Alice lifts out the flowers and unwraps them as gingerly as though they are glass works of art. She lays them in a neat row.

  “How did lover boy say this works?” Alice asks. She touches a petal, her hand shaking slightly.

  Laura shrugs. “I don’t know.”

  Alice takes out the gun and narrows the space between her and Laura until they are face to face. “I know he told you everything. So cough it up.”

  Laura brings her hands up and shakes her head. “I don’t know, really!”

  As quick as the strike of a viper, Alice thumps the butt of the gun on Laura’s head. “Ahhhuuhh!” Laura falls to her knees and clutches her scalp. She cries for a moment then forces herself to stop. Warm blood runs between her fingers.

  “How did he say it works?!” Fire lights up Alice’s eyes.

  Laura sniffles then wipes her nose on her sleeve. “He said… he said they mixed the pollen with something.”

  “A medium. Hrm,” Alice mumbles.

  “It was sticky. It has to stick to your skin for a while.” She wiped her eyes. Stall her. Think! “He said, he said it was like peanut butter.” Knowing full well the Hubbu reacts when swirled in the air, her only hope is that peanut butter will dilute and render the pollen useless.

  Alice raises her chin and her eyes widen. “I see. It must react to the oils. Maybe the nutrients trigger a reaction. I never thought about that.” Alice skips to a kitchen adjacent the workroom and returns with a jar of peanut butter and a knife.

  “Just mix it together, is what he said.”

  Alice uses the knife to scrape purple pollen off the flower buds and into the jar. She stirs aggressively. “I see a spark! The pollen is reacting!”

  “They started with his face,” Laura said.

  Alice scoops the sticky mess with her hand and smears thick, sticky globs of chunky peanut butter all over her face. She slides the jar over to Laura. “You coming?”

  Laura nods and scoops a handful of peanut butter. She spreads it over her face.

  The two women proceed to spread pollen-laced peanut butter all over their necks and arms.

  Alice finishes and looks at the clock. “How long is this supposed to take?”

  Laura sees that Alice is sweating. It’s causing the peanut butter to run down her brow and into her eye. She feels a chuckle come on. Her chest starts to roll with laughter, but she tries to hold it in. She fails and bursts out laughing.

  Alice holds up her gun. “Oh! You’re jerking me around aren’t you! You’ve messed with the wrong woman.” Her eyes fill with anger, and her finger tightens on the trigger.

  The window shatters as a can flies into the lab. Smoke shoots from the can, filling up the room. The front door bursts inward followed by a S.W.A.T. team armed for war. Red laser lights sweep through the smoke, and the officers order Laura and Alice to hold their hands up.

  The smoke quickly fills the small lab and obscures everything, but not before Laura snatches a Hubbu flower. Alice disappears in the smoke and screams.

  Laura starts shaking the flower above her head even as a S.W.A.T. officer reaches out to grab her. “Please, God. Take me to Allan.”

  Sparks fly and the chain reaction begins.

  Chapter 20

  Deadly Reunion

  Jibbawk and Rubic arrive on Lan Darr in the time it takes to sneeze. Rubic shakes his head, throwing off the sickly feeling that Hubbu travel leaves coursing through his body.

  It is night on Lan Darr and the three moons are up. Rubic studies the sky. So this is the world Allan went to a year ago while we were searching the mountain high and low. Amazing. A shooting star races across the sky, leaving a fiery trail behind it. I wish to find Allan soon so we can talk all about our adventures without pretense.

  Rocks litter the landscape along with dead trees and dirt. It’s not unlike a desert on Earth. The wind is cool and Rubic breathes deep.

  A twig snaps. The dark here is still alien and unknown. This is no time to drop your guard. Rubic’s eyes strain, but he sees nothing.

  Rubic wonders about the beasts on this world. Are they in the dark watching him? Do they fear Jibbawk?

  “Come, we mussst find high ground. If Allan arrives sssoon, we’ll want to catch him. I mean, meet him, as sssoon as possible.” Jibbawk points to a hill.

  When they reach the top of the hill, Rubic can see a gazillion stars extend all the way around. A soft glow of a large city sits on the horizon. “Is that Dantia?” Rubic asks, pointing.

  “Yesss.” Jibbawk still wears its goggles. It scans the night, the lenses zooming in and out. “Allan will arrive sssoon, but we have no idea where. Only that it will be within fifty miles of our current location.” Jibbawk sits cross-legged. It takes its backpack off and digs out the white egg device. The holographic map blinks on. Dots are scattered about, but there are no clusters. Jibbawk sets the map down, leaving it on.

  Rubic sits. He looks around and points at a dark area on one side of Dantia. “What’s over there?”

  “A forest,” Jibbawk says curtly.

  Rubic points to the other side of Dantia. “And over there?”

  “A mushroom forest and some Lithic Furies.”

  Rubic nods. He remembers the Lithic Furies, but only vaguely. They were alive, that’s all he could remember.

  After a considerable and uncomfortable silence, Rubic picks up a long twig then another. The sticks are dry but not brittle. He sets them side-by-side and weaves a thinner twig between them. After weaving a few more sticks tightly together he holds up the square and inspects his handiwork.

  “What are you doing?” Jibbawk asks.

  “Weaving. I’m passing the time. In Boy Scouts, we used to weave lots of things. Baskets, hats, sun shades, and art projects.”

  “Ssso the Boy Scoutsss are where they teach boys to be girls?” Jibbawk snorts.

  “No. On my planet, boys and girls can do the same things if they want. It’s called freedom.” Rubic finds another thin twig and adds to his creation. “Besides, it’s a skill. It can save your life.”

  Jibbawk laughs. “A weave cannot save a life. Unless you can die from boredom.”

  Rubic continues weaving a square larger than the size of a piece of paper. It’s thin and flexible, but Rubic is pleased with it. The twigs are so flexible they create a tight fabric-like surface, and it is stronger than he’d expected. If thick enough, it could be protective. He quickly weaves another one.

  After what seems like forever, the ma
p beeps. “He is here.” Jibbawk points to a flurry of dots on the hologram.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I am confident. Though it is possible the sssignature is not Allan, we need to intercccept to find out.”

  Rubic fills with happiness. He’s come a long way to see his nephew. How surprised he will be!

  Jibbawk leaps up, snatches the map, and carefully studies the topography and points out the best way to go. “Allan is seven and a half miles away.” Jibbawk stands straight, its quills stretching out like a bird fluffing its feathers. “I’ve waited a long time to find Allan.”

  “Let’s go, then,” Rubic says.

  The two hike at a quick pace. Rubic falls behind, not being as fast as Jibbawk. And he finds that he prefers no company to bad company. Jibbawk stops occasionally to let Rubic catch up.

  A noise directs Rubic’s gaze to the sky. From the dark night come lights, dozens of them. The lights get closer and closer. They’re airships, lots of them, all different shapes. Rubic points. “Whoa, that’s cool!”

  Jibbawk pulls Rubic under the canopy of a dead, branchy tree. “Keep your voiccce down. They are the enemy’s forccces. We do not want them after usss.” After the ships pass, the two continue toward Allan.

  Rubic crouches, his heart thumping. “Who are they?”

  Jibbawk doesn’t answer at first. When it does its voice is low. “They are the anti-council. They want one sssupreme leader.”

  “Looks like a lot of ships. I’m assuming the council has their own fleet just as big?” Rubic whispers.

  “No.”

  Rubic cringes. “They are going toward the city pretty fast.”

  “I do have eyes.”

  Rubic grabs the tree trunk and squeezes. “They’re going to attack Dantia? So we’re in a war zone?”

  “Yesss.” Jibbawk leaves the protection of the tree and continues.

  Rubic focuses on the ground as he walks. He can’t ignore the prickling feeling of fear that surrounds him. He lets Jibbawk hike farther ahead.

  They move quickly and the miles fall behind.