by Letts,Jason
Kid scowled at him and pushed on ahead, but that was the end of it.
They watched the Hudson land and another group of roughly fifty passengers disembark. Loris immediately spotted Brina, who held her arms nervously. She had a small sack hanging over her shoulder, and most of the others carried very little. They’d learned that most anything would be taken away.
There were no introductions, words of welcome, or attempts at philosophizing without Gallow around. Kid had a different take on the situation, and that resembled a march of inmates who neither required nor deserved any form of pleasantries. A somber mood pervaded as they set off on their hike through the forest. Someone asked where they were going and one of the Novans said they’d be escorted to the town ghetto.
Loris quickly found a way to come up alongside Brina, who managed to force a smile when she saw him. The concern on her face was unmistakable.
“Are they really going to kill Stayed today?” she asked, wisely keeping her voice low. Loris was glad that his message had gotten through. He surveyed the rest of the group, many of them officers from the defense corps, and tried to assess whether they’d actually carried out his requests.
“They will unless someone does something,” he said. “I think it’d be for the best if you weren’t there.”
Brina lowered her head and stepped over a root protruding from the ground. To his surprise she took his hand and held it, surely a small bit of comfort to help ease the tense transition to a new home.
“I brought some papers I’ve been working on about those runes. There are a few ideas I’ve been kicking around,” she said, gesturing to her sack.
Loris had been so wrapped up in everything happening lately that he’d almost forgotten about the probe and its cryptic, glowing runes. Trying to figure them out seemed a gentle diversion for a calmer time, now completely pointless to pursue. He smiled and told her he’d be interested to hear her ideas. Normally he’d be twisting himself into knots wondering if she’d join his tent or what he could do for her, but his mind was too preoccupied with what was to come and the revelation about Stayed.
Kid led them right past the murky pool, skipping the dunking ritual meant to initiate them as Novans. They reached the cliff and performed a perfunctory search, confiscating only anything that resembled a weapon. After that they slid down the slope and were pointed to the section of the village where the rest of the newcomers were placed. If they needed help or had an issue, they were told that those who came before would deal with it.
Most of the people fresh from the Magellan looked about their new home awkwardly and despondently. The heat was getting to them and most were hungry, but the new residents from previous landings had little more than warm greetings to offer.
Brina never left Loris’s side. She’d been right that she’d been forced to get closer to him by a lack of any other choice, which robbed Loris of any of the joy he might’ve gotten from it.
“We can make you a tent,” he offered, but she’d seen the empty bed in his and rolled her eyes.
“What difference does it make where I sleep.” It wasn’t a question, more a statement on how the despondency she felt after the explosion lingered. Perhaps being a counselor and knowing so much about psychology made her more susceptible to the trauma from their loss, not less. Still, she soldiered on.
When they had spoken in the library on the Magellan, he said he’d find a way to make her proud to be with him. He’d failed to save Vincent Price, but maybe he’d have better luck now. His father’s life depended on it.
The drums began soon after night fell across the village. That was the signal for everyone to gather together at the square around the cage and the towering rack. Brina refused to stay behind when everyone else was going. The best Loris could get her to agree to was to stay near the rear of the gathering.
They poured in from all directions, drawn by the many torches that had been lit in the area. Kid stood alone on one of the rack’s platforms, Stayed with hands bound on another. Loris, Panic, and Lopez arrived quickly enough that they were relatively close to the front. All had cutting stones on them. The plan wasn’t a complicated one. They were simply going to stop them from killing Stayed.
Kid waited until seemingly all eleven-thousand plus residents of the planet had a chance to come out, including the young and old. She kept them there long enough that a faint smell of urine took to the air. Finally, she raised her arms high in the air and absorbed the cheers of the crowd.
“For most of my life, even as I worked for it every single day, I never dreamed that I would be here with you on a planet of our own. Much less, I never imagined that we’d be here with our brothers and sisters and face such a devastating tragedy when we opened our homes and hearts to those with no place else to go. But some evils are hard to stamp out, and one has followed us across the stars and stands right before us,” she shouted as loudly as she could.
With no microphone, Loris was sure that most of the people gathered couldn’t hear her at all. Her voice was faint even to him.
“Gallow was more than a friend and a leader to me. He was a lover, and he inspired me to live more truthfully in so many ways. He will be missed by all. His killer, who has confessed to his crimes, stands before you. Prepared to face the consequences for what he has done, we humbly accept his sacrifice as penance. In retribution for the pain we’ve all felt at this devastating loss, he will experience that combined agony by the tearing of his arms and legs until the blood drains from his cold heart and his life gives out. Such is what our law dictates.”
Stayed watched without expression, managing to appear tall and dignified even in rags at the moment of his unjust execution. Whether he searched for Loris or had anything left to say, Loris couldn’t tell. He appeared so resolute in what he was doing that the prospect of his own death left him unfazed. The time for action was at hand.
“We will now place the guilty in position and carry out the sentence,” Kid said.
Erina climbed onto the platform and began to move Stayed toward the middle, where the ropes would be attached to his limbs.
“Wait, he didn’t do it!” Loris hollered, getting the attention of Kid and Erina as he began to push forward. “I did!”
Gasps erupted around him and the two women paused for a moment.
“He’s lying. Get on with it,” Stayed said.
“I killed Gallow,” Panic called.
“I killed him and slept with his wife!” Lopez shouted.
Others from the Magellan chimed in with similar calls, and together they moved closer to the raised wooden platforms.
“Keep them back!” Kid ordered the men standing near the bottom of the platform.
Loris and the others pushed closer and found more aggressive resistance. Someone shoved him in one direction and he was hit in the arm from the other. There were people all around them, making it impossible to get through. Loris saw someone reach back to strike him, but he quickly landed a jab to the neck first, preventing the blow.
Suddenly everyone was fighting and the space in front of the rack had turned into a frenzy of writhing bodies. Loris had his arms up to defend against blows to the head, and he managed to peek at the platform where Stayed was still being tied up. He had both arms in, and Kid wasn’t going to wait a second longer than she had to before dropping those tree trunks.
Those down below would never get to him in time, but they didn’t have to. The brawl was a distraction so that Redhook could storm up the platform from the rear. He was a bear, easily plowing over the one remaining guard blocking the steps.
A sharp cry came from behind Loris, signaling that someone had been stabbed. He’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but really it was only a matter of time before the violence escalated. The last thing he wanted was more blood on the ground, but he wasn’t going to back down from defending himself either. He reached for the cutting stone along his hip only to discover that it wasn’t there. That sent his eyes darting to see where
it had gone and if it was coming back for him.
Up above, Redhook stormed the platform and withdrew a cutting stone of his own. The two women were armed as well and prepared to take on their new adversary, but Redhook moved too swiftly for them. He charged Erina and knocked her clear off the platform. In a last ditch attempt for justice, Kid turned the edge of her blade to Stayed, but Redhook smacked it out of her hands and tossed her off the stage as well. In seconds, Stayed had been cut free and together with Redhook they descended.
Loris continued to squirm and struggle, managing to maintain his footing despite people getting thrown around and knocked down. Kid and Erina had run into the fray and tried to double-team Panic, who wasn’t able to bat them away as easily as Redhook. Kid jumped on Panic’s back and yanked at her hair, but Lopez lifted Kid off and slammed her against the ground.
Loris still felt the pain behind his left shoulder from Gallow’s cut, but he fought through with the hope it would all come to an end now that the spectacle on stage had been foiled. The number of Novans taking up the fight was diminishing rapidly, many of them unwilling to fight after just one blow, and most were content to watch from the sidelines.
Sensing something behind him, Loris turned just in time to avoid receiving a deep cut across his neck. Instead it sliced closer to his collarbone, ushering in a flaring sensation of pain. To his surprise, it was Armand Iotache wielding the blade. He had an enraged look on his face and tried to stab Loris again, but Loris blocked with his forearm and received a cut there as Iotache dragged the blade down.
“You fool,” the man spat. “I should’ve thrown you in the brig and starved you like I did to the dimwit before you.”
Before Iotache could swing again, a hand closed on his shoulder and turned him around. It was Stayed, glaring and gritting his teeth.
“Finally decided to fight? You deserve so much worse for what you’ve done to my son, to me, to Unified,” he said.
Iotache convulsed as Stayed drove the edge of a blade into his stomach. Loris watched as the old man twisted his head around as he dropped to cast another look at Loris from the corner of his eye. He was in pain, yes, but he retained a sense of satisfaction. Loris thought he couldn’t die fast enough.
As he fell, a shriek came from Kid and Erina, who were fighting as fiercely as ever. Kid had even managed to find a spear, which was now dripping with blood. They fought to close the gap between themselves and Loris’s group, rallying all the remaining Novan fighters with them, but their numbers were few and the need to preserve as much life as possible became more pronounced.
Before another swing could land, a gasp echoed around the square, followed by calls from innumerable people watching from the sides. Loris saw that thousands were pointing upward and looked to see a spot in the sky growing steadily larger and brighter. He almost wondered if someone back on the Magellan had sent the Cortes to break up the fighting, but this was much different than a ship and moving fast.
The gasps took on a panicked tone and everyone began to run. Whatever it was seemed to be heading in their direction with remarkable precision.
Along with everyone else, Loris’s full attention went to getting out of there as quickly as possible. He had open wounds and a stabbing pain in his thigh, but he rushed around encampments and fumbled in the dark for a clear path. Everyone scattered, but they didn’t make it far before the impact made the ground shake and most fall to the ground. Suddenly there was dust everywhere filling the air, and it was impossible to see people who were just a foot or two away.
Loris coughed and struggled to hold his shirt over his mouth. He wished he’d been able to find Brina, Stayed, Panic, anyone. What had landed and what was coming next were terrifying questions to contemplate. Had the Silica found them? They’d be defenseless with their wooden and stone weapons.
But no menacing creatures emerged through the dust. After the impact, the ground remained still. Gradually, the dust settled and breathing became easier. Most were content to keep as far away from the square as possible, but Loris and many of the other officers went back, as they’d been trained to. Some of the injured had been left behind in the confusion, and the collision might’ve hurt or killed more.
Much of the square had been transformed into a shallow crater. The rack and some nearby camps had been completely destroyed. A few were carrying torches, and Loris went to them, finding that Panic, Stayed, and Redhook were some of the first to return to the damaged area. Behind them was Brina, and Loris couldn’t have been more relieved that she had made it through unscathed.
Together they surveyed the crater, approaching the edge in order to see what had fallen from the sky. At first there was nothing but deep blackness, making Loris wonder if they’d need to descend the crater’s slope in order to see, but then strange lights began to glow, forming runes none of them could understand. The answer of what it was formed in Loris’s mind, and with it came a world’s worth of anguish and pain at everything they’d lost.
It was a probe similar to the one they’d recovered from Earth.
CHAPTER 13
Upon seeing the probe, Brina took off in the opposite direction as if her clothes were on fire. Only before she left earshot completely did she call to say she’d be back. That left Loris and the others to investigate the impact crater and attend to the injured. More and more people returned from the darkness, and this time it didn’t matter who was part of the Virgin World mission and who was from the Magellan.
But no matter what they were doing around the area, the probe constantly drew their attention.
“What does it mean?” Panic asked. She was using wood strips to wrap someone’s leg.
“Technically speaking,” Lopez spoke up, “all of the evidence suggesting a link between the probe and the destruction of Earth is circumstantial.”
Stayed had a different assessment.
“I’ll tell you what it means. Someone knows we’re here.”
Loris took another long look into the pit, hoping it would give him some guidance.
“Riki Lala said that the research team had detected barely perceptible microwaves coming from the probe. At the time, she didn’t think there was any need to worry about it because there wasn’t much it could transmit and there was no danger of anything triggering an explosion. I have a hunch she’ll need to reconsider that first part. As for the second, we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
“I have a feeling they’re already all over this,” Panic said. “I hope they come up with something good”
They continued to let their imaginations run wild with the direst possibilities until Brina came back with her notebooks. She was winded but extremely excited, a welcome relief for Loris who had been wondering if nothing could break through her gloom.
“This is what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said to Loris as she snatched a torch and came close with her papers. They depicted drawings of the runes from the probe on the Magellan as well as some musical notes.
“What are you suggesting? These don’t look remotely alike,” Loris said.
“I know the runes and the music notes don’t appear similar, but there’s something about the variations in the patterns that bear a resemblance. I wonder if they made some kind of alphabet out of these transfigured musical notes, inferring shapes for everything after ‘G’ through increasingly complex runes. It’s been my hunch anyway,” she said.
“It’s a better idea than anything else I’ve heard,” Loris said. “Did you bring this to the scientific research team?”
“This just occurred to me not too long ago, and by then no one else really cared about the probe anymore. But now I have a whole second set of data to check my theory against. I can already tell the arrangement of runes on this one is different. It’s saying something else,” Brina said.
“Yeah, we’ve found your new planet and we’re going to blow it up too,” Lopez added.
“I can’t believe no one from the Magellan has come down after all thi
s,” Stayed said.
They were surprised when a voice spoke up from the nearby shadows. It was Kid, who was slumped against a shack, seemingly unscathed.
“They’ll never come,” she said in nearly a whisper. “Armand gave them strict orders not to. No one will come until the next scheduled landing, another week.”
“Maybe we should start working on a smoke signal. This planet might not be here in a week,” Lopez said.
“I’ve got a better idea. I can get a message up to them from the buried ship. It’ll take me a while to get out there,” Loris said.
“Buried ship?” Kid said. “He said he’d sent it into space with a self-destruct command after it had dug our well. We would’ve burned him if we’d known.”
Loris didn’t have much time to sort through the implications of Gallow’s lies for her.
“And he was willing to kill to keep you from knowing, but that didn’t work out too well for him. But we can’t dwell on that. We need answers now.”
No words were required to get the help of Panic and Lopez, who eagerly joined him on the trek to the Space Mole. They sent the message, returned to the village through the darkness, and even caught a few hours of dozing before waking up to find the Balboa floating above their heads. It touched down along one of the paths, crushing a few tents on either side. Riki Lala and her team emerged, along with her characteristic no-nonsense, analytical demeanor.
Riki approached Loris, Brina, and Stayed while the others attended to the probe.
“I can tell you that we’ve scanned every square meter of Nova for any of the trace elements we detected after the explosion on Earth. I’m one-hundred percent positive that there is nothing buried underground that could produce a similar detonation. You are correct that I was gravely mistaken that the microwave transmissions from the probe we recovered were meaningless. It was based on the assumption that the planet was the primary target.”
“Are you saying it was an accident that Earth was destroyed?” Loris asked.
