The Outback Stars

by Sandra McDonald

  When the afternoon began to wane they brushed dried dirt and grass from their legs, put their shoes on, and went back to the Spheres, which had turned golden pink in the slant of the sun. The first stars of the evening began to shine even brighter, and the rangers gave permission for the lighting of several bonfires. Jodenny and Myell circulated, still looking for Chiba and Quenger, but many in the crowd had donned cheap tribal masks covered with paint and glitter.

  “If we split up, we’ll cover more ground,” Jodenny said.

  “No. We’ll never find each other again.”

  “We’ll always find each other,” she replied, which made him smile.

  Night had darkened the sky, but the floodlights illuminating the Spheres gave off enough light to keep her from tripping over reclining bodies. Jodenny searched the crowd and did her best to keep from looking up at the stars, where the Aral Sea might be the largest one of them all. Near the Child, she thought she saw Ishikawa.

  “AT—” she said, touching her shoulder, but the woman wasn’t Ishikawa.

  “Hi.” The woman smiled. “Love partner?”

  “Have one, thanks.”

  Jodenny started to turn away, but a pilgrim in a dark brown robe and hood grabbed her arm.

  “Don’t scream,” Osherman said. “Don’t make a sound, or you’ll just end up getting your boyfriend killed. Understand me?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “Come on.” Osherman pulled her toward an airvan. “We’ve got some talking to do.”

  Jodenny resisted ineffectively. Had he always been so physically strong, or had all the strength in her body evaporated? “Let me go.”

  “Do you want to help Quenger and Chiba get away?”

  She stomped on his insole and wrenched free. Al-Banna blocked her path. Like Osherman he was dressed in pilgrim robes.

  “Lieutenant!” he snapped. “Stop causing a scene and do as you’re goddamned told.”

  Ingrained obedience made Jodenny falter. The two men escorted her into the van and to a bucket seat. Banks of surveillance equipment had been mounted on racks. Vids displayed feeds from dozens of cameras, all of them pointed at the Spheres and crowd. Two armed techs she didn’t recognize worked the controls.

  “You, too?” she asked Al-Banna. “You’re working for the Inspector General?”

  “Someone had to step in when Matsuda disappeared,” he said. He reached for a thermos wedged between the consoles. “Coffee?”

  Osherman asked, “Jodenny, where’s Myell?”

  She folded her arms.

  “We’ve picked up Quenger on camera two, sir,” one of the techs said. “He’s heading for the Mother Sphere. No sign of the others.”

  Osherman sat at the console and slid a headset over his ears. “Lieutenant Scott, when this entire operation falls into ruin, I’m going to blame it all on you.”

  “You left us to die,” she retorted.

  “No. I saved your life. Chiba and Quenger were ready to shoot you like dogs. But I convinced them to leave you in the tower, like they’d done with Matsuda. Disappearing crew don’t cause as much trouble as dead ones do. I told Ishikawa to notify Commander Al-Banna or the bridge where you were once I was off the ship.”

  “She never did,” Al-Banna said. He poured himself the coffee, his expression dark. “We don’t know where she is, or what became of her.”

  “You could have told me, back on the ship,” Jodenny said. “When we were meeting with the captain.”

  “Captain Umbundo didn’t even know. Not then.” Al-Banna lifted his cup. “There are more secrets on the damn ship than there are dingoes, and you can quote me on that.”

  Osherman spun in his seat toward her. “If you had stayed out of this, you wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place. Now tell us where Myell is before he ruins what’s left of this operation, and that’s a goddamned order.”

  Jodenny kept silent.

  “Sir,” Osherman said to Al-Banna.

  “We both know Lieutenant Scott has no good reason to trust us,” Al-Banna said. “But if I were you, Lieutenant, I’d say we’re your best chance for getting out of this with your career and life both reasonably safe. The commander understands the importance, now, of leveling with you.”

  “Does he?” Jodenny asked.

  A muscle clenched in Osherman’s cheek. “What do you want to know that you don’t know already? Our office has been investigating black-market smuggling throughout the fleet for the last eighteen months. I was spearheading the investigation on the Yangtze. After the disaster, I transferred to the Aral Sea. The smuggling ring involves Supply, Flight Ops, and Data. We convinced Matsuda to turn on his partners, but they found out. Greiger turned coat next, but they scared him with that car accident on Kookaburra and he clammed up. We got AT Olsson, finally, no thanks to your and Myell’s interference.”

  Jodenny took her time digesting all that. “Why are Chiba and Quenger here? Why are you?”

  “They think they’re meeting with someone from the Colonial Freedom Project to sell off several thousand assault mazers and grenade launchers stolen from the Aral Sea,” Osherman said. “What they don’t know is that it’s a sting. If they see Myell, the whole operation might fall apart.”

  A comm beeped. Osherman snatched up a receiver and listened. “Camera five,” he ordered, and the vids focused on a line queued up outside the Mother Sphere. Myell was just a few meters behind Chiba and obviously following him. “Fuck it! Try to grab him without anyone noticing. I’ll be right there.”

  “I’m coming,” Jodenny said.

  “No. You’re staying here.” Osherman patted the weapon under his jacket and turned to one of the techs. “Under no circumstances is Lieutenant Scott to leave this van or go anywhere near the Spheres.”

  “You can’t—” Jodenny said, but Osherman was already out the door. When she tried to follow the tech blocked her path.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” he said, his hand on his weapon. “You heard the commander.”

  Jodenny turned a pleading eye toward Al-Banna. “Sir?”

  Al-Banna poured more coffee. “What do you think you could possibly do, Lieutenant?”

  “I don’t know. Help in some way.”

  He shook his head. “Or interfere some more. I can’t take that chance. Here, drink some coffee.”

  She took the cup and let it slip between her fingers. The hot liquid splashed over all of them, causing a yelp or two. Jodenny slid right past the tech and out of the van. She immediately lost herself in the crowd and made her way toward the Mother Sphere. She had broken yet another order, but Myell might need her. That was all that mattered.

  * * *

  Myell had started to despair of ever finding anyone. This endeavor, like so many others, would be marked by failure. Then, over the sea of heads, he saw the ugly face that had defined many of his days and nights on the Aral Sea. Chiba stood in profile, one hand to his ear, listening to a commset. When Chiba started to walk toward the Mother Sphere, Myell followed without any hesitation at all. Perhaps fate had always decreed that things would end this way—just the two of them in the dark hollow of a Sphere, finishing business that had been long neglected.

  Just before he entered the Mother Sphere, Myell heard a commotion off toward his right. Two men in tourist clothes were headed his way, and their intent expressions told him they were either cops or employed by Team Space. But a group of drunk do-wops fighting over a girl slowed their progress, and he was able to duck under the archway into the Mother. The inside was anything but dark. Temporary lights had been strung up on poles, and a sizable crowd was leaving offerings to a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles. Two park rangers manned a post, their stances lazy. Myell scanned for Chiba but found Lieutenant Quenger instead. Out of uniform, Quenger looked like any other casual tourist. A man wearing a gray-feathered mask approached and gave him a slight bow. Quenger didn’t bow back, but he didn’t turn away, either.

  He realized he was on the verge of interrup
ting some kind of rendezvous. Myell tried edging closer to eavesdrop while still evading the men with the serious expressions, both of whom had made their way inside and were scanning the crowd for him. When he glanced back at the arch he saw Osherman arrive, followed seconds later by Jodenny. She saw him and mouthed words he didn’t understand—a warning, he thought, his guess confirmed when something small and hard jabbed him in the back.

  “If you want to get shot, scream for help,” Chiba said in his ear. “If you want me to shoot your pretty Lieutenant Scott, try to escape. This whole deal is a trap, isn’t it?”

  Myell kept his voice level. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Always the fucking do-gooder, aren’t you? Or are you recording this, too?” Chiba’s breath was hot and foul. “I told Quenger this was a setup, but did he listen? Ten million fucking yuros, he said. But they’re going to have to go through you to get to me. I’m not spending the next twenty years in the brig.”

  This was a bad place for a showdown and surely Chiba knew it. Myell considered the chances of cheating death twice in the same week. But he couldn’t let Chiba injure Jodenny or any bystanders, either.

  “You’re such a fucking chicken,” Myell said. “Full of piss but never able to deliver. That’s why Ford came to me, not you. She was tired of a chief who couldn’t even get it up.”

  “Shut the fuck up. You think you can distract me? You think I’m that stupid?”

  “You don’t know how stupid I think you are,” Myell said.

  “I’m going to enjoy—” Chiba started, but the mournful call of a horn cut off his words.

  Myell knew that sound. He’d heard it on Mary River and in almost every dream since. The tourists turned their heads, looking for the source, and a baby began to cry. The air inside the Sphere turned dry and tingly, as if a lightning bolt was about to strike down at any second.

  Osherman must have known what was going to happen. “Out, out, everyone out!” he shouted. Slowly at first, then with mounting urgency, the crowd started squeezing out through the arch. Quenger’s accomplice fled in the confusion but Quenger himself hesitated too long. A pilgrim threw back his hood, grabbed the lieutenant, and handcuffed him.

  “Fuck this—” Chiba said.

  Myell elbowed Chiba as hard as he could. Chiba doubled over but then threw his body weight forward. They fell to the ground, grappling and punching, as the horn returned with a deafening blast. Chiba gouged his face and went for his eyes. Myell kneed him in the groin and locked his hands around Chiba’s throat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a snake ring appear around them, and felt Jodenny and Osherman trying to pull them apart.

  “Terry!” Jodenny yelled. “We’ve got to get out!”

  Osherman shook his head. “It’s too late—”

  With a slam of yellow light, Warramala fell away.

  * * *

  Jodenny pulled herself to her knees, unsure of everything except the cold sweat soaking her underarms and the slam of her heart against the walls of her chest. The new place was so musty that she sneezed, and the sneezing made her head hurt even worse.

  “Fuck,” Chiba groaned from behind her.

  Like her, he probably couldn’t see anything in the darkness. Jodenny groped blindly in front of her until she found a body. Osherman or Myell? The body shifted and someone whispered, “Kay?” and she knew.

  “Chief Chiba.” Osherman sounded more clearheaded than Jodenny felt. “I’m right behind you. If you move, I’ll shoot.”

  Chiba didn’t sound impressed. “Where the fuck are we?”

  That was an excellent question, but Jodenny was too busy resting her head on Myell’s chest to consider it. His hands touched her hair. She could have stayed there forever, bent awkwardly over him, the rush of relief making everything bearable.

  “Are you hurt?” she whispered.

  He caught and kissed her hand. “No. You? Your hands are freezing.”

  “I’ve got a light,” Osherman said. White illumination flared and settled. When Jodenny’s eyes adjusted she saw that the four of them were enclosed within the same kind of ouroboros that she and Myell had encountered on Mary River. Beyond the ring were the smooth walls and high ceiling of a Mother Sphere. Myell didn’t appear injured from the fight, but Chiba had a bloody lip.

  “Jodenny, give me your belt,” Osherman said. “Hold this while I tie his hands.”

  “What the fuck for?” Chiba asked.

  Osherman said, “You’re under arrest.”

  Chiba started to swing at him. Jodenny fired without hesitation, and the mazer charge sent him spasming to the ground.

  “I was hoping he’d do that.” Osherman started securing Chiba’s hands.

  Myell sat up, one hand steadying himself against the ground. “Where are we?”

  Osherman tied off the belt with an extra tug. “Not on Warramala.”

  “Not on Warramala,” Jodenny repeated. She scooted as close as she could to Myell and let him rub her cold hands. “Could you be a little more specific?”

  “Look at the symbols,” Myell murmured.

  Instead of just two symbols, the inner ring of this ouroboros contained at least a hundred, maybe two hundred. None of them matched the ones they’d seen on Mary River. Her assessment of the situation must have shown on her face, because when she lifted her eyes Osherman gave her an accusing look.

  “You know,” he said. “You’ve used the system before, haven’t you?”

  “Have you?” Jodenny countered.

  Myell intervened. “By accident, Commander. On Mary River. It took us someplace else and then back again. We don’t know anything more about it than that. But you seem to.”

  “If you’d told me,” Osherman said, lips thin, “we might have avoided this. You triggered the call, Sergeant. Once you entered the Mother Ring on Warramala, the transport system was activated. Who knows how many people saw us disappear. It’s going to be hell covering it up.”

  Jodenny stared at him. “What does the Inspector General office have to do with ancient alien transporters?”

  “Nothing.” Osherman leaned back, looking suddenly weary. “I was debriefed about the WTS—that’s Wondjina Transport System—for reasons that have nothing to do with smugglers. Be thankful at least one of us knows how it works. This ring is fully automated. It’s programmed to travel along a predesignated route of stations. The station symbols are inscribed on the inside. We just keep going until it brings us back to Warramala.”

  Jodenny gazed with dismay at the dozens and dozens of glyphs. “Do we have to go to every station? Can we just skip some, or go backward?”

  Osherman said, “No. It only goes in one direction, like the Alcheringa. The symbol shaped like a crescent moon represents Warramala.”

  Jodenny shivered. Not only did Team Space know about the ouroboroses, but they’d figured out how the system worked. She imagined a vast network of uncharted worlds, the possibilities for travel and colonization, a Team Space monopoly. Step into an ouroboros on one world and step out on another. Too bad you felt like shit afterward. The walls of the Mother Sphere seemed to press in on her, tightening the air in her chest.

  “I’m going outside to take a look,” Osherman said. “The odds aren’t good, but maybe we’ve landed somewhere in the Seven Sisters. The only way to know is if the Spheres are in a normal triad formation. You’ll hear a horn a few seconds before the ring tries to take you to the next station. If I’m not back when it blows, step out of it and wait for me.”

  Osherman left them the flashlight and headed for the far patch of daylight that marked the archway. Jodenny watched him go and rested her head on Myell’s shoulder.

  “We’ll be home soon enough.” He kissed her softly. “At least this time we’re not going to start vomiting and losing our hair.”

  The call of the horn made them jump. Osherman jogged back in and stepped over the ouroboros. He said, “Four Fathers outside. We’re nowhere near home.”

  Hard yellow lig
ht came and took them away.

  * * *

  At the next stop Jodenny was too groggy to even open her eyes. If Myell hadn’t been holding her in his arms, the weight of her body would have carried her down through the bedrock and into oblivion.

  “Anything?” she heard Myell ask.

  “Two Fathers, three Mothers,” Osherman said. She heard him shuffling around. “I count one hundred and fifty-seven glyphs on this ring. That’s one hundred and fifty-seven stations. The interval between stations seems to be about seven minutes.”

  Jesus Christ. They’d only gone through two, and she felt worse than she had after the radvaxes.

  Myell said, “One hundred and fifty-seven multiplied by seven-minute intervals means it will take us eighteen or nineteen hours of travel to go all the way around. Can we survive that?”

  “We might not have to pass through every one,” Osherman said. “One of the glyphs might land us in the Sisters.”

  He didn’t sound optimistic, and he hadn’t answered Myell’s question. Jodenny tried not to think about what eighteen hours of travel would do to them. At the next station she must have lost consciousness, because when she opened her eyes it was to morning sunlight filtering through alpine ash trees. She was lying wrapped in Chiba’s pilgrim robe on cold ground near a small campfire. A glowering Chiba was tied to a tree several meters away, and on the other side of the campfire Osherman was napping with his head cradled on his knees.

  “Fucking untie me, Lieutenant,” Chiba called out to Jodenny. “This is inhumane.”

  Jodenny sat up. The inside of her mouth tasted gummy. Behind her stood a Mother Sphere and behind that, half hidden in the trees, two Children.

  “Sam,” she said, and Osherman lifted his head. “Where’s Terry?”

  “Looking for food,” he said.

  “I’ll look for food.” Chiba pulled on his bound arms. “I’m starving here.”

  Jodenny went searching for Myell. The forest was full of pine and oak, and the bite in the air indicated winter wasn’t far off. Distant peaks, glimpsed through the trees, were already covered with snow. A small brown deer darted through the brush just as Myell came over a small rise. He’d pouched his shirt up to hold a dozen small, unimpressive-looking apples.