The Decade Worlds

by Patrick McClafferty

  “Please dial up our next destination, Ell.”

  The green light appeared on the operator’s panel. “The Gateway is ready, Gareth. Safe journey.”

  Gareth swallowed. “Thank you.” He muttered as he stepped through the gateway. He took three long strides forward, to give Corporal Yong room to arrive behind him and stopped, his jaw hanging open. Golden morning sunlight streamed through tall trees while vines festooned with thousands of trumpet shaped blue flowers hung from the gateway and lower branches of the nearby trees. The very air seemed golden and pleasant, and the sunlight was warm on his cheek through the clear helmet. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the EVA suit’s computer to do its analysis.

  “The environment is safe for human occupation.” The voice of the suit said calmly. “No dangerous substances have been discovered. Gravity is one point zero two Earth standard. The temperature is twenty degrees Celsius with an absolute pressure of one zero one, point three seven five kilopascals. Gaseous mixture of the atmosphere is well within Earth norm, and no pathogens have been discovered.”

  Gareth watched what appeared to be a monarch butterfly drift by in the light morning breeze. He touched the button on his EVA suit, and smiled as the fresh cool breeze that smelled of sweet pollens touched his cheek. He opened his mouth and was about to tell the young Corporal to join him in the morning air when Athena interrupted him.

  Gareth, stop!! He froze, an automatic frown coming to his face. Tell Corporal Yong to turn around and activate full decontamination protocols for her EVA suit. You have been exposed to a deadly spore carried by the pollens of the blue flowers you see all around you. The spores are not within the programming parameters of the EVA suit. With my help you may survive. His frown deepened at the use of the word ‘may’. Have the corporal return immediately, and have your companions toss you a tent, sleeping bag and supplies for a month. From the rate the pathogen is spreading you only have a couple of hours until it incapacitates you.

  Gareth swallowed. “Mei.” He said slowly, using the Corporal’s first name to get her attention. “I have been infected with a spore carried by the blue flowers you see around us. You must initiate full decontamination protocols for your EVA suit and return immediately. Have the others toss through a tent, sleeping bag and supplies for me to last a month. Under no circumstances are they to come through. If they do they will die. Go now! I don’t have much time to set up a camp before I become disabled.”

  “But…” The young woman began, her dark eyes wide.

  “Go! That’s an order.” He saw her release the deadman switch, and she was gone. With a sinking feeling he disabled his own deadman switch.

  Athena, or an image of her was suddenly walking at his side. Like the last time he’d seen her in the MacDonald’s in Ensenada Mexico, this time she was dressed for the environment, with heavy denim pants, a red plaid wool shirt, the L.L. Bean logo evident on the tail, and well worn work boots. Her lustrous hair was tied back with a simple ribbon. “Down there, I think.” She said, pointing to a wide green swath of grass beside a gurgling rocky brook. She handed him his Gurka kukri that he was positive he’d left in the suite in The Yeugate. “Cut as much wood as you can. You are going to be very sick for a very long time, and won’t have the energy to chop wood.” Her face was concerned. “This is still your adventure, after all, and you have to do some of the work.”

  He picked up the kukri and headed for the woods, taking what Athena had told him at face value. “If I run low on wood my companions can always bring through bundles of firewood and leave them by the fire. They will have to go through decontamination every time, but it will get me wood.”

  Athena smiled. “And he’s smart too.” She pointed to piles of fallen limbs. “Chop, don’t talk.”

  After an hour of chopping, and with a sizeable stack of wood, Gareth took a break to set up his camp from the supplies that had been tossed haphazardly through the gateway. He smiled when he picked up two, gallon bottles of water. He set up the tall dome tent facing the campfire and fairly close to the stream for fresh water. After Athena reassured him that there were no animals to worry about, he stacked his supplies neatly by the tent, prepared his Qual silk sleeping bag and built a low fire in a hastily constructed circle of stones. He was starting to shake and sweat when he finally collapsed into one of two low camping chairs he had set up near the fire, a warm blanket draped across his shoulders and wrapped around his chest.

  “I feel moderately unwell.” He rasped in a gravelly voice, blinking at Athena with bleary eyes.

  She gave him a small sad smile. “You look moderately miserable.” She replied.

  He cackled a laugh. “This hero business isn’t all it’s cut out to be. Hero’s aren’t supposed to get sick.”

  She reached out, touching his forehead as she frowned. “Technically, you aren’t sick.”

  “Oh? Then what am I?” He suddenly found that he was too dizzy to laugh.

  “You’re dying.” She said in a serious voice. “That’s why I’m here. I have too much invested in you to give it all up to a silly blue flower. Now, get up while you still can, and take off your clothes. You need to get into your sleeping bag.” Reaching down, she helped him to his feet, and shuffle his way to the tent, two meters away. To Gareth it felt like two kilometers.

  Gareth finally crawled into his bag, sealing the fine silky material up to his chin. For some reason he couldn’t stop shaking. He glanced over at Athena, who was sitting in a camp chair by his bed. “Why are you doing this for me?”

  She smiled. “It’s what friends do for friends, dear one.”

  “I thought I was simply an employee.” He replied through chattering teeth.

  “You passed that point years ago, my Gareth. An employee would have asked for more pay… for any pay in fact. You simply pushed ahead.” She took a cool damp cloth and wiped his forehead. “I told you once, that I would find a payment for you commensurate with your abilities. This illness will serve nicely.”

  “What? I don’t understand.”

  “You will when you get better.” She purred, her voice silky.

  “I thought you said I was dying.” His thoughts were getting muzzy.

  “You are.” She touched his hot face with her cool fingertips. “Sleep my Gareth. The road to your recovery is long, and will take at least a full month, if not two.”

  “I don’t have a month to…”

  She touched his forehead. “Sleep.” His eyes shut and he slept.

  It was two weeks before Gareth regained consciousness. He blinked and sat up in his sleeping bag, wrinkling his nose at the sour smell of sickness and dried sweat that clung to the silky material like an unhealthy miasma. Unsealing the bag, he crawled out on his hands and knees. Holding out an arm, he was shocked at his thinness. All of his ribs were visible, and his legs looked like toothpicks. With an effort he found that he could barely stand. Suddenly an arm was supporting him, and he looked up into Athena’s smiling face.

  “Your body burned up all its reserves fighting foreign bacteria in your blood. Your immune system has produced antibodies to the lethal bacteria, rendering it harmless to you. Your body, however, is below critical reserves.” Her eyes were sad. “You look like an inmate of a concentration camp.” She led him slowly outside, into the blazing sunlight. I have a pot of porridge on the fire. You need to eat.”

  He couldn’t withhold his snarl. “I really don’t like porridge.” He muttered.

  Athena laughed and handed him a steaming bowl. “Eat in very small bites. If you eat anything more you will throw up, and vomiting in your current weakened state isn’t recommended.”

  He nearly fell into the nearest chair. “As you wish, doctor.” He took a bite… and then another. Very soon he handed back an empty bowl with a sheepish look on his face. “I apologize. That was good porridge.” He patted the tiny bulge that was evident in his shrunken stomach.

  She handed him a glass of water. “Drink this all. You are dehy
drated.” He finished the water and handed the glass back. “Now, if you feel a little better, I recommend stripping and bathing in the stream. Your dragon blood will keep you warm.” She wrinkled her nose. “I will see to fresh bedding.”

  Gareth looked at her for a long time, before he reached out and took her hand in his frail bony one, raising it to his withered lips. He raised his eyes to hers. “Thank you for saving my life, Athena.”

  “You’re welcome.” She replied, after only a moment’s hesitation. A hint of a flush stole up her cheeks. “Now wash.” She pointed at the stream with her other hand.

  He was shaking again as he pulled his semi-clean body back into the new Qual silk sleeping bag. Both he and the bag, he noted with some pleasure, smelled much better. He passed out more than fell asleep.

  There was an IV in his right arm when he woke the next time, and he found he was too weak to sit up. “What happened?”

  “You had a relapse.” Athena’s voice was flat.

  He frowned when he noticed a yellow box sitting on the floor of the tent, beside Athena’s chair. “Is that a defibrillator?”

  “As a matter of fact, it is. Your heart stopped twice, and I had to give you a jump start.”

  Gareth rolled his eyes. It was about all he had the strength to do. “I’m going to be working for you forever to repay all of this.” He muttered.

  Her smile was sympathetic. “You almost got it right. You’ll be working with me.”

  Gareth tried to reply, but the world chose that moment to go dark and he lost track of time.

  The IV was gone this time, when he blinked and sat up. A small solar powered lantern hung in the center of the tent, casting a warm yellow glow on the interior. Through the front of the tent he could see Athena’s back as she sat before the flickering fire. Unzipping the bag, he swung his feet to the floor. He didn’t look as emaciated as he had the first time. He frowned when he noticed the fresh smell in the sleeping bag, and the fresh look of his boxers. Both he and the bed had been laundered at least once. He took a deep breath, and was surprised to find that he felt good. His pants and shirt were sitting neatly folded on the small camp chair beside the bed. He slipped them on and padded outside in his bare feet.

  “Good morning, Gareth.” Athena murmured, not looking around.

  “Good morning lovely lady.” He returned, sitting on a convenient log and stretching out his bare feet to the fire. “I find that I am in your debt even more this time.”

  She sighed, still not looking around. “Why don’t we just drop the (who owes who what)? You sacrificed your life to do a job I asked you to do… for nothing. You never asked for one single thing. I think I’m the one who is in your debt, to be honest.”

  Gareth chuckled. “Yeah, well I wish someone else had been the fool to turn off their EVA suit. I could have foregone all the unpleasantness.”

  Athena did turn to face him at last, and Gareth could see her fine face was lined with worry. “If any other had become infected they would have died. It’s as simple as that. No amount of effort could have pulled them through.” A slow smile smoothed the worry lines on her face. “You did survive, however, and now a serum can be made from your blood to immunize those that would live here.” Her laugh was low and throaty. “None will ever invade this world.”

  “You didn’t have to worry about getting infected?”

  “As Ell told you, I am a noncorporeal, multi-dimensional being. The bacteria from the spores aren’t lethal to me, thank goodness. You survived because you are now partly as I am, and that part saved your life, or at least made you harder to kill.”

  Gareth stared at the fire. “How long have I been here?”

  Athena sighed. “Seven weeks. In one more week you should be well enough to go back. Tell Ell what I said about the serum. Since it’s more or less central to the Decade Worlds, this would be an ideal world for the Aebbea, I’m thinking.”

  Gareth looked up at the dark night sky, and breathed deeply of the sweet air. “I believe you’re right.” He stifled a yawn. “I think I’ll have a little of your porridge, and go back to bed. Tomorrow I may explore. Would you like to come?”

  Athena chuckled. “I’ve already traveled around and seen what there is to see. It’s not very exciting watching you lying there snoring. I had to do something.”

  “You could try knitting.” He said slyly. She stuck her tongue out at him.

  He laughed, and gave her a deep bow. “Good night Athena, and thank you.”

  She stood and stretched. “Good night, Gareth. I’ll tell Chiu that you are on the mend and should cycle back to The Yeugate in about a week. She and Lyndra were mad with worry.”

  “Mairi wasn’t?” Gareth asked with a frown, thinking of his adopted daughter.

  Athena let out a deep laugh. “Mairi is very much like you. The marines stopped her from going through the gate three times to see you. She tried to sneak into the detail of marines who brought us wood. Twice!” Athena shook her head. “I’ll let her know too.” She gave him a wink. “Ta ta!” She was gone.

  In water a few scant degrees above freezing, Athena had left the eggs and ham sitting at the edge of the stream, and Gareth found coffee in a small resealable plastic bag. Birds that he had never noticed before, probably because he was too sick to care, chirped and trilled around his head as he ate and soon, after cleaning his utensils, he was walking down an old trail, further into the woods. Someone had conveniently left a knob-headed walking stick along the path that doubled as a cane. Gareth found this feature useful when his legs proved to be a little shakier than he remembered.

  The settlement consisted of a half dozen partially erected plastic domes. Trees had been felled, but not moved. Six stainless steel boxes the size of a case of beer sat evenly spaced just off the main path. As Gareth approached the first box, a three-meter transparent bubble suddenly wavered into existence around it and before him. Gareth frowned and stepped inside the bubble transport. A translucent seat appeared beneath him, and the globe rose a half meter into the air and stopped.

  Gareth bit his lip. “Set this as camp one.” He said, guessing at the navigation protocols.

  “Waypoint set.” A neutral voice said out of the air.

  “Increase altitude to five hundred meters, and then proceed forward at one hundred kilometers per hour.” The pod obediently lifted off and began to travel sedately over the virgin forest. “Are there any other settlements on this world?” He asked as they swooped over a large mostly empty meadow. In the center a herd of thirty deer looked up from grazing, stared at the bubble for a moment, and went back to their repast.

  “There are no further settlements on this world. This world was officially abandoned one week after it was first settled. Of the fifty members of the first settlement on Puborg, there were no survivors.” The voice said clinically.

  A virulent bacteria indeed. Gareth thought to himself. “Take us up to five thousand meters and increase speed to Mach one point two.” The bubble shot forward, leaving the sonic boom far behind them.

  Gareth returned to his humble camp as the sun began to set, to discover that his eyesight was blurring around the edges and his legs were trembling. He smiled to himself when he found the small pot of porridge sitting warm on the edge of the fire, and he wasted no time in rekindling the fire and putting on a pot of water for tea. The owls were calling to each other an hour later when he crawled into his sleeping bag and shut his eyes.

  A week later, the equipment from his camp and two of the steel boxes that were the transport bubbles but in standby, were loaded onto a floating carry-all that followed him like an obedient dog. With this entourage, Gareth passed through the gateway and back to The Yeugate. He stood leaning on his cane, under the red sun as he was bathed in a thick decontamination field. A minute later the field flickered off.

  “Welcome home.” The voice of Ell said from the air. “I’m glad to see you survived the ordeal.”

  Gareth smiled. “I was told to tell you th
at an antidote can be produced from my blood to protect others from the effects of the bacteria.”

  “I assume that you are speaking of Athena?”

  “Yes.”

  The AI was silent for several moments. “Do you realize that your corporeal body is rapidly evolving into something like Athena? When I first took my sensor reading of you no more than ten percent of your body was measurably different than human norm. That reading is now up to fifty percent.”

  “If it hadn’t been for those changes in my physiology, I would be dead.”

  “If that is what it took, I’m glad you survived. Do you feel any different?”

  Gareth chuckled. “I’m weaker than I expected, and my whole body aches from the effects of the spore. Ask me again in a month.” He looked around the empty platform and frowned. Even the shuttle was missing. “Where is everybody?” He asked with some concern.

  “As you requested, they are all off exploring the world of Gocaea. A harsh desert world, it is still safer than Puborg.”

  “Speaking of Puborg.” Gareth muttered, leaning heavily on his walking stick. “You should take some of my blood without delay, and begin manufacturing an antidote to the pollen toxins. After that, immunizations should begin immediately for the residents of Oseothan. I'd like to begin sending them through to Puborg as soon as I can.”

  “We should wait for a while. You are still weak, and can ill afford the loss of a half-liter of blood.”

  “Will it kill me?” Gareth growled.

  “No, but…” Ell paused for a moment. “You should go back to your suite before I take the blood. I insist.”

  Gareth laughed. “Yes mother.” He muttered just as a small sausage shaped transparent conveyance floated up to Gareth. He glanced over his shoulder to where the small cart was just floating out of decontamination. “The two steel boxes are transports in standby. The rest is my camping gear. My Colt, the kukri and the EVA belt are in there somewhere, and I’d like those left out.” He struggled into the transport. “I’d appreciate it if you’d take me to my room. I’ll lie down and you can take all the blood you’d like.”