Wandering Star

by Steven Anderson

  “I know. You’re still in my head too, although it’s pretty easy to know what you’re feeling.”

  “Love for you.”

  “That’s in there. Mostly something else right now that starts with the same letter.”

  “Lust? I think that feeling might be rolling around in your head right now too.”

  She scowled at me. “I’m not sure I like you knowing what I’m feeling.” I kissed behind her ear and along her neck. “No, I was wrong. I do like it.”

  We broke camp a couple of hours later and made our way back to town.

  On the morning of the fifty-sixth day Alice came and sat on the desk in front of me. I tipped my head back and she kissed me.

  “You know what today is, Ted.” She didn’t say it as a question.

  I nodded. “This is the longest that Bodens Gate has gone without resupplying Cleavus.”

  “And you know what it means.”

  “Yes. I know you do too, although we haven’t talked about it because we both hoped this day wouldn’t come.”

  Alice said the words calmly. “Their Central Government knows that the Bovita clan is back on Bodens Gate, or maybe they captured them all. Regardless, there’s no longer any reason for them to come here. RuComm thinks we were killed along with Jake and Angela. No one is coming for us. Not ever.”

  “Someone will come eventually.”

  “Ted, how long ago was the last survey here?”

  “Two-hundred seventy-three years.”

  “I’ll be an old woman by then.”

  I laughed and reached out to take her hands. “Rescue may still come. We’ll live day by day until a ship comes or death overtakes us. We have food and water enough to last a lifetime and more. We have a planet to explore and we’ll leave a record of what we do. Our lives won’t be wasted.”

  “And someone might come tomorrow,” she added.

  “Exactly.”

  But they didn’t. Or on the next day.

  On the ninety-first day our geologic report was completed. We had a geochronology of relative dates for a sequence of over twelve-hundred cycles of Cleavus being inundated and becoming arid again. Alice sat on my lap with her head leaned against mine as we scrolled through the finished product of geologic maps, cross sections and descriptions.

  “Do you want your name first on this paper or should we do it the logical way and make it alphabetical?” I asked her.

  “You always seem willing to let me come first in other things so you can have your name at the top on this one. I pray that you are able to present it sometime. It’s a brilliant piece of work.”

  “Brilliant because of you.”

  Mac came into the lab acting excited. “See?” I said. “Mac agrees with me.”

  He tried to climb up into Alice’s lap, which was hard for him because Alice was still in my lap.

  She put her hand on him to push him off and her eyes lost focus when she touched him. “Don’t touch him, Ted. He’s in pure Tarakana mode again.”

  “What is he telling you?”

  After a moment Mac jumped off and curled up on top of my feet radiating warm, happy feelings.

  Alice had a silly, crooked smile on her face. “Don’t ask me how he knows, but he says a ship just cleared the Deep Space Hole between here and Ratatoskr. They should be on orbit in three days.”

  “Does he know what ship?”

  “No, but it’s a ship. Coming to Cleavus.” She rotated on my lap until she was facing me, her knees wedged in beside my hips. She kissed me hard then leaned back smiling. “Are you feeling my emotions, Ted? Do you know what I want?”

  “Right now?”

  “Oh, yes. Right now.”

  CHAPTER 12

  BACK IN THE UNIVERSE

  ALICE AND I CELEBRATED THE rest of the day and into the night. The next morning she was busy organizing the samples we had collected, updating her journal, packing things she wanted to keep and radiating so much happiness that it filled the lab and spilled out into the street. I finished my packing and then Merrimac and I sat together watching her.

  “Do you have everything you want to take with you packed already?” she asked accusingly.

  “You’re planning on coming with me?”

  “Of course.”

  “All done, then.”

  “Ted, you are very simple.”

  “Do you mean uncomplicated or not all that bright?”

  “Take your pick.”

  I got up and gave her a quick hug. “What can I do to help?”

  She looked around the lab. “I think I’m all done for now. We should go back to the camp one last time just to make sure we haven’t left anything there.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. I plan to abandon the tent and blankets and other camping stuff but we should do a last look. I don’t want to spend the night though, unless you really want to.”

  She shook her head emphatically. “Definitely not. I know the ship is still a couple of days out but I keep finding myself listening for the sound of a shuttle and I’ve already checked my display pad four or five times this morning to scan for new connections.”

  “What are we going to do with Mac?” We looked at him lying under the desk, his tail thumping the floor at the mention of his name.

  “He’s a Tarakana. We leave him here and he goes back to having a couple of tentacles growing out of his head.”

  “You need to talk to him. I don’t think he wants to stay. You’ve always been better at seeing his thoughts and I don’t seem to be able to read him at all right now.”

  “So you need me because my thoughts are just as twisted as the scary alien that you keep pretending is a dog?”

  “Yeah. And I know you like him despite that. I’ve seen you petting him and playing with him.”

  She sighed and sat down on the floor. Mac trotted up to her and she put her hands on his face and closed her eyes. After a few minutes Mac pulled away and went back to lie down under the desk.

  “What did he say?”

  Alice looked confused. “He’s going with us.” She paused, thinking. “There’s a lot there and I don’t understand it all. He can’t go back to the others because he’s no longer a piece of that group. There was also a feeling that we owe him something for the help the Tarakana have given us.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  “There’s something else there, something hidden in the tangled passageways that I’m not seeing. When he said he was going with us it wasn’t a request.”

  “Is there a danger in taking him?”

  “No, I’m sure of that but I don’t know why I’m sure.” She looked back at him. “Please don’t ask me to talk to him again.”

  “I won’t.” I looked at the worry on her face. “Alice? Did you know there’s a ship on its way here?”

  She smiled and I could feel the happiness flood back into her.

  That evening we took a couple of chairs up onto the landing pad after dinner and sat holding hands while the sun went down.

  “We always seem to find ourselves sitting together watching the stars come out, Ted. Why do you suppose that is?”

  I looked at her. She had her head tipped back gazing into the darkness. “I do it because I like looking at beautiful things.” She smiled at the compliment but didn’t turn toward me.

  “I do it to reset my thoughts and try to gather the courage to be able to sleep through the night. The universe is so big and we are so small but we’re brave enough to toss ourselves out into it, to cross between the points of light.” She turned to me her eyes crinkled in a smile. “I think God is proud of us.”

  “Alice, are you planning on staying on Bodens Gate for your missionary work?”

  Her smile faded. “I don’t think so. My father has believed me dead for the past three mont
hs. I think I should go home but I will go wherever you want to go. What about you? Are you going back to the Reunification Commission?”

  “I don’t see how I can. The thought of not having you in my bed for even a single night is hateful. I’ve tried pretending not to love someone. Never again. I should go back to Earth and see my dad. I need to talk to Jake’s folks. But I will go wherever you want to go.”

  “Let’s wait a few days and see where God leads us next.”

  We hiked to the camp the next morning, had lunch and went for a swim before checking for any items we wanted to take back with us. I didn’t find anything worth keeping but Alice found a blue t-shirt that had been left half buried in the sand by the lake. She rinsed it out and held it up for me to see.

  “Do you remember this?”

  “I do.”

  “I’m keeping it.”

  “I didn’t know you were sentimental.”

  “Yes you do.”

  I waded out to join her in the water and kissed her. “I’m looking forward to seeing you wear it again.”

  She changed right there, putting the shirt on even though it was still wet or maybe because it was still wet.

  “Stay right there a moment,” I told her. I took out my display pad. “I need one more image of this basin with the lake at the bottom. You standing there is perfect for providing scale.”

  “If you ever show that to anyone else—”

  “I’m going to send it to your father. Proof that you’re still alive and well.”

  She came up out of the lake and chased me back over the hill to our camp. She kissed me when I let her catch me.

  “Let’s go home.”

  We walked back to town holding hands most of the way.

  Alice kept fidgeting after dinner, looking in boxes, reviewing files and checking her pad every few minutes. I grabbed her around the waist when she walked past me for the tenth time.

  “Alice, you know that the pad will notify you when there’s a connection available.”

  “I know. But what if I miss it? I might not be paying attention. Or it might not work. Or I might have gone deaf.” She sat down next to me. “How can you just sit there? I can feel that you’re just as excited as I am.”

  “I am. I just don’t show it the same way.” I looked into her eyes. “Alice, this is probably our last night here, the last night that we can say we are the only people on an entire planet. What would you like to do with it?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “I want to make love to you under an open sky one last time, a ring of the self-igniters around us. I want to scream as loud as I can and know that there is no one else to hear me. I want to have you in my bed and wake up in the morning with your arms around me.”

  I stood and walked toward the dorms.

  “Where are you going?”

  “It’s almost dark. I think we should get started right away, don’t you?”

  We pulled mattresses off the bunks and put them in the middle of the street. Alice reclined on her elbows and watched me start the fires. I laid down next to her and we looked at the stars and the crumbling remains of the town lit by the firelight. I leaned over her and she kissed me.

  “I really am planning on screaming later,” she told me.

  “I’ll do what I can to give you a good reason.”

  She chuckled, a deep throaty sound. She kissed my cheek and then I could feel her teeth gentle on my ear.

  Much later while we talked quietly in the dark under the blankets I heard the soft chime of the display pad establishing a connection to the ship.

  “0238,” I said, looking at my watch. “I suppose it can keep till morning.”

  “You just try and keep me here.”

  “OK.” I put my arms around her.

  “I will bite you, Theodore.”

  “Race you back to the lab?” I think she would have beat me even if I had been trying.

  Alice was perched on the edge of the chair in front of the desk, one leg under her and the other knee up by her chin. She was wrapped in a blanket she had taken from our makeshift bed.

  “You are very beautiful this morning, Alice Vandermeer.”

  She glanced at me. “Stay focused, Ted.” She smiled. “You may want to put something on too.” Alice looked back at the screen. “She’s the Falling Star, out of Ratatoskr bound for Bodens Gate for resupply and then on to Dulcinea. They were stopping here to recover our bodies. Even her AI sounded excited when I connected. She’s notified the Captain and the RuComm tech team lead. It’s about 2300 ship time right now so they were asleep.”

  Captain Adriensoon was the first to appear, dressed sharply in uniform and looking wide awake.

  “You are Vandermeer and Holloman?” she asked without preamble.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Alice answered. “Angela Dawkins and Jake Barton were both killed when the clan stole our ship.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, although needing to recover only two bodies instead of four is still a blessing. You are both looking well. Is there anything you will need right away?”

  “We could use a ride out of here,” Alice replied, getting the Captain to smile. “And can you please let our families know that we’re alive?”

  “Star has already sent notifications. The one to Dulcinea should arrive in about thirty hours and about ten hours after that for Earth.”

  The tech team lead sat down next to the Captain, the viewing angle automatically changing to include her.

  “Sara O’Dell,” she introduced herself looking flustered, as if she had just woken up.

  “Sara, can you tell us what’s happened to the Wandering Star team?” I asked.

  “Oh, the Bovita clan. Our XO is the expert, he’s from Bodens Gate and has been following this from the beginning. The tech team and crew were ransomed by RuComm, all of them are back on Earth now. Except for Hannah Weldon, of course.”

  “Hannah?”

  The Captain motioned to someone off screen and we were joined by Lieutenant Kelang, Falling Star’s XO.

  “Was Hannah a friend of yours?”

  “Yes,” I answered, appreciating that he asked me that before telling me what had happened to her.

  “Ms. Weldon was ransomed with the rest of your team and was staying with them at the Union embassy in the capital, Eindhoven. She somehow convinced the staff there to allow her to go out in the evening to one of the local clubs, saying it was for research.”

  “She was our linguist.” I explained.

  He nodded. “She never returned. The club was close to the border with the Warrens, the areas controlled by the clans. The local police told us that she was most likely robbed and killed. If that’s true the people who did it will never be found.”

  “You sound like you don’t believe it’s true.”

  Lieutenant Kelang looked away before answering. “No, it’s more likely she was taken. No ransom demand was received so she may have been killed if she put up a fight.” He hesitated again.

  “Or?”

  “I’m sorry. She was probably sold. I’ve reviewed her file. She was young and pretty and in the Warrens everything has a price. She would have been more valuable on the market than any ransom demand and at less risk for whichever clan took her.”

  I felt Alice take my hand under the desk. “What’s being done to get her back?” I asked.

  “You don’t understand the Warrens. Citizens don’t go there, not the police, not even the military other than in force. You would do better to assume she was killed. That was over three months ago. Even if she could be found you wouldn’t want her back. She wouldn’t be the friend you remember, do you understand? Not after three months being sold in the Warrens.”

  “We understand, thank you,” Alice answered for me because she knew I couldn’t.

  I stepped away from the sc
reen and let Alice talk to them about arrival times, uploading our files and arranging to load our collection of geologic samples. When she was done she came and sat beside me on the floor where I was wiping my face on Merrimac’s fur.

  “I’m sorry Alice. This should be the best, happiest day of our lives and I’m sitting on the floor mourning an old lover and wiping my tears on the dog.” She looked at me, not saying anything. “I don’t want you to question my love for you. I remember the commitment we made to each other that night at the lake, the night you wore this.” I touched the blue t-shirt she had on. “Nothing has changed that.”

  She smiled gently. “You love deep, Ted. It’s one of your best features. I’m not jealous. You lost a good friend just now. You should never let friends or family or a lover leave you without shedding tears. It’s what tears are for.” She sat with me for a time, her hand gentle on my back.

  After a while she stood and offered her hand to me. “Falling Star won’t be close enough to launch a shuttle for another twelve hours and it’s still an hour before dawn. If we hurry there’s still time for me to fall asleep so I can wake up in your arms.”

  We walked back out into the street. The last of the flames were guttering low but the stars were bright enough to see by. I laid down and Alice snuggled close to me under the blankets.

  I turned my head to the side to make room for her and saw that the blue t-shirt that she had been wearing was back lying in the sand again.

  “Huh.” I grunted.

  “What is it?”

  “You look very nice in that blue t-shirt, especially when it’s wet.” I spoke softly, caressing her bare shoulder.

  “Thank you.”

  “You didn’t need to hide it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “At the lake. You left it there so that you could find it and wear it again when our rescue was near, wear it to remind me of what we said to each other that night. You were worried about what would happen when I could talk to Hannah again.” I kissed her forehead. “You didn’t need to be.”