by Drew Seren
PANTHERIA WAS a huge, light gray ball floating in the dark sea of space. There were two small moons that moved in a perfectly synchronized orbit. The moons glowed with a bright silver light that seemed to come from their surfaces as opposed to the yellow sun the planet circled. Clouds played across the planet’s topography, giving it the appearance of some snow storms Skylar had seen in video games. It was an incredible sight. Goose bumps rolled over his skin as he shivered. It was surreal, so incredibly different than anything he’d seen in real life before.
“This is Philaneo Clawson in Rescue Paw One, requesting landing at the main space port.” Phil angled the ship down before he continued speaking. “Roger that. I’ll be at the port in ten minutes.”
Phil kept his focus on the descent, but flipped a switch on the control panel to his left. “Students, we’ll be landing in nine minutes. Please make sure you’re buckled in. I’ve been informed that your families are already waiting for us at the space port.” His voice echoed through the ship.
He’d never used his intercom when Skylar had been on the ship before, just yelled into the main cabin. Skylar wondered if he was being a bit more formal due to the other students onboard.
Phil flipped a switch and the front view screen darkened as it started to show the glow from the reentry flare the atmosphere caused on the nose of the ship. Even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to see much due to the flare, Skylar wished the screen was still active so he could watch their descent as soon as the flare dissipated.
As if reading his mind, Phil flipped the switch back to its original position and the screen cleared, showing a mountainous, snowy landscape. Several oceans covered a good portion of the world, with large land masses spotting the planet. Phil banked the ship as they flew over one of the oceans, heading toward the biggest land mass Skylar could see. What looked like a massive city occupied part of a large peninsula near the ocean.
Phil banked again, and their flight leveled out, heading straight for a building with a number of other ships parked around it. From the looks of it, the structure was simply a landing pad. There were passageways spreading out from it to other, larger buildings.
Seconds later, Phil set down between two huge ships. As soon as they landed, the power cycled down, and there was the soft click of a walkway attaching to the airlock.
Phil flipped a few switches and stood. “Okay folks, we’re on the ground. Get your bags and head on out. I think everyone knows where to go.”
There was a hearty round of thanks, and the other passengers began grabbing their bags and running for the airlock.
“You guys also know when to be back here if you want a ride back to school,” Phil said as he leaned against the passageway threshold. “If you aren’t here, I’m not waiting. If anything happens to my schedule, I’ll let you know.”
Everyone shouted, “We’ll remember.”
Skylar glanced at Solaria, still seated in her chair. “Are we leaving or not?” He wanted to go out and see what the spaceport was like.
“Give them a minute,” Solaria said. “Uncle Phil’s got to do a couple of things to lock down the ship before he leaves. He’s probably already arranged for his hover car to be ready for us.”
The mention of a hover car sent a chill through Skylar. He and his mother had been riding in a hover car when the Boarisk attacked, and she’d been killed. He’d somehow survived, but he still had nightmares of his mother’s arm sticking through the vehicle’s windshield before the car exploded. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected on Pantheria, but he hadn’t thought it would be a hover car, although they were the most popular form of land transport in the galaxy.
“We’ll be okay.” Filzbalm said as he hopped from the back of Skylar’s chair to his shoulder. “There aren’t any Boarisk attacking today.”
The way Filzbalm was always in his head, listening to his thoughts and reacting to his fears had taken Skylar a little while to get used to, but it was becoming very comforting and reassuring. “Thanks.” He ran his fingers along Filzbalm’s wing, finding the spot near where it joined to his back that Filzbalm loved to have scratched.
Phil looked back onto the flight deck. “Okay, you three, let’s get her locked up and head to the house. Solaria’s mom is probably already working on dinner.”
“What can we do?” Skylar asked, eager to help out in any way he could. Like everything else with space travel, he wanted to learn it all, even the little things that some people might find tedious.
“Well, since most of the shut down and refuel are automated and I’ve already sent the power down commands to the central computer, all we need to do is grab our stuff and get out. I can lock the door from the outside.” He waved them out of the flight deck. On the way through the main cabin, he stopped and grabbed a medium-sized bag from a cupboard.
Skylar followed Solaria to the airlock, and they stepped out and into a gray hallway. The first thing that hit Skylar was the dramatic temperature drop. He suddenly wondered if Phil made the climate in his ship closer to what Skylar found comfortable when Skylar was aboard. He shivered.
“My ring’s working just fine,” Filzbalm announced, even as he crouched down in Skylar’s shoulder like he might be cold himself.
“Good,” Skylar said as he and Solaria waited for Phil to clear the airlock.
“Is his ring working the way it’s supposed to?” Solaria asked, obviously having guessed what Skylar was replying to.
“Yeah. That’s a good thing. I just hope it holds out the whole trip.” Skylar was still a little nervous about what would happen if the ring failed at the wrong time and Filzbalm got too cold. He was already wishing he’d thought to put on his heavier clothes before they left Stars’ End.
“I trust Del and Melody to have gotten it right,” Solaria said as Phil emerged. “It’ll hold out.”
“What will hold out?” Phil tapped a series of numbers on the airlock’s keypad. “Oh, I bet you’re worried about that warm ring Del and Melody worked up. I’m with Solaria, I bet everything’s going to be fine. Now let’s get down to the parking area so we can head out.”
Skylar and Solaria followed Phil across the access tunnel to an escalator that went down several stories. The escalator made Skylar stumble to a stop as its steps rolled out below him. The entire conveyance was done in light grays and whites, like most everything Skylar had seen on the planet to that point. On the sides of the escalator, some artist had gone in and made it looked like a rocky waterfall—even the moving steps looked more like flowing water than metal. It was surreal and for a moment, it looked like if Skylar stepped onto it, he was going to be swept down the side of a snowy cliff. It was only after he saw Solaria and Phil standing there gently going down that his mind accepted he wasn’t going to die, and he stepped on.
The whole thing made him wonder—if the Pantherians had taken so much time to make the escalator at the space port look like it was part of their natural world, what more they had done? He couldn’t wait to see it all.
6
Aunt Blizza
THE RIDE from the spaceport to Indruias, the outlying settlement where Solaria’s parents lived, took several hours. The entire time, it felt like she pointed out every possible landmark she thought Skylar might be interested in. Things like the Norvashan Icefalls, which was where the Cordoran River splashed over the last rocks of the Holcashan Mountains and onto the Lasholoran Plain, would be forever etched in his memory.
Since he loved experiencing new things, Skylar welcomed all of Solaria’s commentary. He wanted to know and see everything. It was all so different from Hummassa, which was basically a tropical, swampy planet. He knew what ice and snow were, but he’d never seen them in the vast quantities he was faced with while riding in Phil’s hover car.
“Hey, there are the Pillars of Folica.” Solaria pointed to a trio of towering stone spires that reached several hundred feet into the air. They were covered in cascading ice runoff that made them so round they nearly touched, y
et the ice was clear enough to show the brown stones beneath.
“They never completely thaw,” she explained. “There’s a legend that says if the Pillars of Folica ever completely thaw that our people will be forced to leave the planet and never come back. I hope that never happens. I love my home.”
Phil chuckled as he turned the wheel. “The odds of that happening are astronomical. That’s why it’s a legend. Pantheria never gets warm enough, especially in this area, for something with so much built-up ice to thaw.”
“But we’ll have a ringside seat for it, if it does.” Solaria gestured in the direction they were driving and her ears twitched in a sure sign that she was getting excited. “We’re almost home.”
On the horizon, a series of domed buildings dotted the landscape. They were all gray and white, looking more like huge boulders than any houses Skylar had seen before. Similar to parts of the spaceport, it looked as if the settlement was designed to fit in with the environment.
“This place has grown since the last time I was here,” Phil said, steering the hover car to the right.
“Several new families had moved in when I was here in the fall,” Solaria said. “Mother told me they were trying to get as many new folks as possible, in hopes of getting enough people for more government money for civic improvements.”
“Good luck with that,” Phil muttered. “The Galactic Council is tightening the purse strings on a lot of things. We’re even seeing that in Intergal Rescue. We’ve had to cut back on the amount of time we spend at the scene of tragedies.”
“Is that why no one ever found Teir?” Skylar asked after his best friend from Hummassa every chance he got, and there was never any word of finding him, alive or dead. It was like Teir had just vanished.
Phil pursed his lips and sighed. “I hate to admit it, but probably. I know most of us would’ve liked to have at least another month on Hummassa, but the head office didn’t have the funds for it, and there were other worlds crying for help.”
Skylar knew that Phil and the rest of the Intergal Rescue team went from planet to planet helping find people after disasters, but beyond that, he wasn’t sure how they operated. Were there certain criteria they had to follow for what constituted a disaster, or did they just get dispatched to poorer areas that couldn’t afford to fund the rescue efforts, or places that didn’t have the raw manpower or resources? He took the opportunity to ask, “What kind of help were the other worlds needing?”
Phil got a faraway, thoughtful look and started counting off on his stubby, claw-tipped fingers. “There was a massive asteroid strike on Yutalan—if we hadn’t shown up in time, it could’ve been an extinction level event. The asteroid was so solid, their planetary defense system couldn’t break it up in time to save them. As it was, all of their continents were moved by the resulting planetquakes and we had to employ atmospheric scrubbers to clean the dust out. It took a couple of weeks to get things where the locals could handle it. Then there was a strange attack on the Tulica system, where the sun was hit by an energy weapon and pushed to supernova. We had five inhabited planets to evacuate in two days. Then we had to disperse them to other systems that needed people.”
“Wait a minute.” Skylar turned in his seat and stared at Phil. “How did somebody get an energy weapon close enough to a star when there were five inhabited planets in the system? Shouldn’t someone have spotted them and stopped them?” It didn’t make sense, just like the strange armada back at Stars’ End hadn’t made sense. He thought everything in the galaxy had been tracked and identified.
“These are strange times in the systems of the Galactic Council,” Phil said, turning again and pointing toward a large dome with several smaller domes around it. There was fencing around the larger building that appeared to have been designed to hold animals. “We’re not sure exactly what’s going on, but things like exploding suns, Boarisk raids, ancient armadas, an increase in the number of rogue comets and other events are occurring more frequently. Planets on the rims are getting scared, and those in the central habitable systems seem to be waiting for things to start happening to them.” He pulled up in front of the main dome, parking in the midst of three other hover cars and a couple of utility vehicles. “Unless they ask, don’t let your folks know I told you guys about the unrest.”
Solaria patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll keep our mouths shut, won’t we, Skylar?”
Skylar nodded. “They won’t hear it from me.”
“Me, either,” Filzbalm chimed in. Skylar didn’t bother relaying it.
Two female Pantherians came out of the large door that looked like the main door to the dome. One of them looked a lot like Phil, but had a feminine grace to her. The other moved slower, and had fur marked like Solaria’s, mottled gray and white. She looked older, but Skylar couldn’t say exactly why. There was just something about her jerky movement, and the slightly slumped way she held herself. If she wasn’t older, she’d had a rough life, or something wrong with her.
Solaria pushed open her door and jumped out of the hover car. “Mother!” She ran and threw her arms around the brown-furred woman who resembled Phil.
“Solaria!” Her mother picked her up and spun her around, then put her down and looked at her. “You’ve grown again. An inch and five pounds. All muscle from what I can tell.”
Solaria nodded. “If there is a positive result from us having to work in the farm area, it’s putting on muscle. Mucking out stalls is hard work.”
“And hard work is good for you.” Her mother turned and put her arm around Solaria’s waist. “And this must be Skylar Mars.”
Skylar offered his hand. “Yes, ma’am. Pleased to meet you.”
She ignored his hand and gave him a warm hug. It was the first time anyone had hugged him since his mother had died. Emotions flashed through him. He realized how much he missed his mother, and he felt a genuine happiness from Solaria’s mother.
“Now Felonia, let the boy breathe,” Phil said, touching her arm. “I’m not sure how much of that he’s used to, plus you just met him. He might be worried you’re going to eat him.”
“Sorry.” Felonia stepped back, then pulled Phil into a hug. “We’re a very affectionate people, brother, you know that.”
Phil laughed and patted her back. “Sometimes a little too well.”
Seeing how normal their family appeared made Skylar happy he’d come with Solaria and Phil. In the past months, he hadn’t had anyone around to make him feel like part of a family. Solaria and Del were the closest things he had to it.
“Don’t forget about me,” Filzbalm added.
“I couldn’t if I tried.” Skylar reached up for him, then realized he wasn’t on his shoulder, but hovering above it.
“And this must be Filzbalm,” Felonia said, holding out her hand to him. “Solaria has told me a lot about you too.”
Filzbalm landed on her hand and gave her a short bow. “She’s very kind.”
He hadn’t spoken loud like he did when he was trying to get Solaria to hear him, so Skylar relayed what he said.
Felonia laughed. “I do my best, although I’m sure there are people who would disagree with you.” She addressed Filzbalm, and not Skylar, telling Skylar that she viewed him as sentient, and that raised his opinion of her even higher.
“And when you don’t introduce everyone, it doesn’t exactly look good on you,” the older woman said.
Solaria laughed. “Oh, Aunt Blizza, sorry. You know how things are. Skylar, this is my Aunt Blizza. Aunt Blizza, this is my good friend Skylar Mars, and his Solar Drake Filzbalm.”
Aunt Blizza cocked her head and looked at Filzbalm. “I thought that was what you were when I heard you. Never thought I’d actually see a Solar Drake. Your kind are very elusive.”
Felonia took Blizza’s arm. “They are very unique and he’s quite lovely. Now let’s head into the house. Aniu will be home shortly and we should have everything ready.” She glanced back at Phil. “Sorry, he’s not here to greet
you all, but there are some interesting developments at the site. If you all hadn’t been coming in, I’d still be there myself.”
Skylar wondered what she was talking about. Solaria hadn’t told him much about her parents, or what they did.
As if hearing his internal questions, Solaria glanced at him as they all started toward the door. “Mom and Dad are archeologists. They’ve been working a dig site not far from here. Mom thinks it predates the settlement of Pantheria.”
“The settlement of Pantheria?” Skylar thought the Pantherians were the original inhabitants of the planet, but that made it sound like they weren’t.
Felonia glanced around, and a nervousness that hadn’t been there a few seconds before rolled off her. “Let’s get inside.” She gestured and the door swung open.
Skylar was happy with the idea of getting inside. He still hadn’t had time to change into the warmer clothes he’d brought along, and the springtime cool was starting to make his teeth chatter. He wished he had a ring or something similar to Filzbalm’s that would help generate heat around him.
While the inside of the dome wasn’t that much warmer than outside had been, it was enough to take the bite of the temperature away.
“Solaria, why don’t you show Skylar where he can put his bag? And I bet he would like to change into something a bit warmer. Unless he didn’t bring anything because you didn’t warn him about our temperatures.”
She frowned. “Mom. He’s my friend. I wouldn’t do that to a friend.”
“Good.” She let go of Blizza’s arm. “I’ve got the room across from yours set up for him.”
“Come on Skylar.” Solaria shifted her bag higher on her shoulder. “Let’s get you two settled, then Dad should be home and we can eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry and I’m sure Filzbalm is.”
