The Otherlings and the Crystal Amulet

by S V Hurn

  Henry moved to the single chair of her small room while Dorathy invited Magnus in. “Dora, sorry to interrupt, but I think I may be on to something with these images of the pyramid.”

  She motioned for him to sit next to her on her bed. “Please, tell me what you have. It seems we could all do with a morale boost.”

  Magnus nodded in agreement. “Yes, and I think we might be getting close to our objective. I have been shuffling through copies of the images taken at the lost city. We all agree that these markings represent constellations, but what if I was to say that perhaps they represent the same constellation seen from a different perspective in space.”

  Dorathy looked closer at the markings, her senses a bit sharper than they were a few hours ago. Her eyes grew wide. “Yes . . . yes of course you’re right! Look, they each have the same number of stars and are represented by its absolute magnitude, which means how bright a star appears at a standard distance of 32.6 light years. The carvings are precise in detail and I can figure out . . .” Something caught Dorathy’s attention as familiarity set in. “These are all the constellation Orion!”

  Henry got up and joined them on the side of the bed. “Look all seven stars are here, each one with a different magnitude depending on the view from the perspective from which they are seen.”

  Dorathy jumped up. “I’m going to the main lab, and I want to pull up the map again.” They all hurried to the lab and Magnus brought the views up on 3D imaging. “Okay we have these twelve random planets. And something tells me when Dimitri is done extracting the information from my DNA there will be a thirteenth . . . just a wild guess. I think I can find these planets if I can decipher the seven stars’ alignment to the planet by using their absolute magnitude to that particular planet. It’s not much to go by, but it’s what we got.”

  Dimitri lumbered into the lab, looking tired and disappointed as he downloaded his work and a new image appeared. “Yes, you are right; your DNA didn’t solve anything, it just added to the problem. We now have thirteen rouge planets to figure out.”

  Dorathy looked up at the images floating over her head and said, “Thirteen false doors, just like the Pyramid of Djoser.”

  Henry looked puzzled. “I don’t follow.”

  Dorathy leaned against the inner hull of the ship, feeling it throbbing against her back as she pondered. “Essentially we are looking for a gate or a portal . . . a door. If we find these planets, perhaps we find the door.” She lifted the images of the carvings and held them up in the air. “We find the planets by aligning them to these stars.”

  Brenda startled awake as she heard the commlink buzz with an incoming call. “Oh for heaven’s sake now what?” She turned on the light and rubbed her eyes, not having a clue whether it was morning or night. “Shit, they must all be in the lab.” Brenda growled under her breath, “Wish someone would pick that up . . . damn. Hello Jobar, how are you doing my little friend?”

  “Not very well, not well at all . . . we need to meet with you right away to discuss the map and our current situation.”

  “Okay, well come on over. We’re just hanging out in our usual place . . . you know . . . in the middle of freaking nowhere.”

  Jobar sensed her irritation and thought he should not give his friends any more of Coolie’s spirits. It was becoming apparent they could not handle the strong drink. “Okay Brenda we will be there shortly.”

  “Yay, I can hardly wait,” she said sarcastically. She hung up and rolled over.

  The group worked on local star charts they had been given years ago by Jobar. After a few hours without success Dorathy yawned, “Well gang, I’m whipped and I’m turning in. I have no concept of time; all I know is I’m tired and I’m going to bed.”

  Manus agreed and pushed away from the table. “Sounds like a good idea.” He followed Dorathy out of the lab and stopped her at the door. “Goodnight my dear.”

  “You too, Magnus.” She smiled as she closed her door.

  Magnus was too tired to think about his solitude and turned in.

  Dimitri tried to follow suit, but before he could escape, Henry grabbed him by the arm. Talking in a whisper Henry asked, “Hey Dim, what do you know about cloning?”

  Dimitri shrugged his shoulders. “Enough.”

  “Look, if I gave you some DNA can you do it here on the ship?”

  Dimitri looked at him sideways. “What are you talking about . . . you want to clone a woman for that English prick?”

  Henry smiled. “Can you do that?”

  Dimitri laughed. “Seriously?”

  “No”, he chuckled. “I want to cheer Dorathy up by cloning the little dog she had as a kid. His cremated remains and a baggie of fur were with her in the cryotube, so can it be done?”

  Dimitri thought for a moment and ran through a mental list of equipment available. “Yeah, something small like that, yes. No problem. It will give me something to do and get my mind off all the other bullshit.” Dimitri smirked. “Don’t tell anyone, but I like little dogs, they are good women magnets.”

  Henry grinned. “Chick magnets.”

  “Yes, chick magnets,” Dimitri said, remembering his old days. They both smiled with thoughts of their previous lives

  Kore took Nikko firmly by his harness and led him out the hatch of the ship. Thick air hit them in the face while the gravity reaped havoc on her joints. Nikko squirmed, trying to climb back into the cool air of the ship. Kore grumbled under her breath, “This had better be a short trip.”

  The flight manager sat in Patsup’s office trying to come up with an excuse why Patsup was no longer on planet, cursing him for leaving him in such a bind. Kore was coming straight for him, making a beeline from the nearby air strip. He pondered what he was going to say and decided the truth was his best option, but the less said the better.

  She kicked in the door. “I want to speak with Mr. Patsup, where might I find him?”

  The flight manager peered over the monitor, pretending to be busy. “Patsup is off-planet.”

  Kore’s eyes grew wide and her face a splotchy red. “Off-planet! I was told he would be here and there was no scheduled departure!”

  “He had an emergency.”

  Kore’s eyes narrowed in a cold stare from beneath her hat. “Then you had better tell me where he has gone!”

  “Sorry to say he left in such a hurry he didn’t log out, must have been pretty upset and very urgent for him to have done that.”

  Kore knew all regulatory ships had trackers on them. “Then you better find out his tracking frequency and give it to me.”

  The flight manager hit a few keys and brought up the information. “I can transfer this to your ship, but it is a short-range frequency as it is not a commercial vehicle.”

  “Damn you, man! How is this possible? How can he have a private ship?”

  All the flight controller could do was shrug his shoulders. “It’s a very old ship and in need of repairs. Frankly I don’t even know how he got it off the ground.”

  Kore’s anger grew to almost the point of boiling and she wanted her answers now, but knew it would have to wait. Frustration was building and her patience growing thin. She turned on her heel. “I will be back, and next time I won’t be as accommodating.”

  Kore boarded her ship with Nikko in tow. She commanded Silas, “pull up the tacking frequency of the ship and transfer it to all our patrol ships in the area. Someone is bound to come across it.”

  Silas silently did as he was told, wishing the day would end, knowing his resolve was rapidly approaching.

  Kore stared out over the airstrip and thought of the ship in her images. She said to herself, “Where are you my friends, and what mysteries are you hiding? Oh I will find you, wherever you might be hiding, I won’t stop until I find you.”

  Coolie met Jobar at the main mining airfield, where all commercial ships were logged in and out in the arrivals and departures department. Jobar had been an independent miner for years and knew his way around the s
ystem. Coolie sat in the co-pilot seat, aware of what he had been doing. “Jobar, one day they are going to get wise to your little contraption.”

  Jobar shook his head. “By then I’ll be retired, so I’m not too concerned.” His little invention worked like a charm by sending out false coordinates for his destination and he had rigged the ship’s tracker long ago. Occasionally he would comply with regulations as not to bring attention to himself, but today was not one of those days.

  Jobar sent Patsup the coordinates. “We are going to pick Patsup up first. He will just have to leave his ship adrift; I don’t want it anywhere near our friends as it is no doubt being tracked.”

  Coolie interjected, “He will not like that plan—if Kore puts a trace on his tracker, they will find it and confiscate it.”

  Jobar shot back, “Well, he should have thought of that before he hung us out to dry.”

  Coolie shook his head. “I sometimes wonder about him.”

  Jobar rolled his eyes in agreement. “I sometimes can’t believe the same blood flows through our veins.”

  A short while later, Jobar’s ship dropped into empty space and waited patiently for Patsup to arrive. Once there, Jobar locked with Patsup’s much smaller ship and opened the airlock. He scowled at Patsup who stood there with his head hung low. “You are more trouble than you are worth. Hurry aboard, as I’m sure we don’t have much time.”

  Patsup stopped. “What about my ship?”

  “Leave it!” Jobar demanded. “We don’t have time for this crap. They have no doubt put a trace on it.”

  Patsup knew he was right and hurriedly joined them on Jobar’s ship. Jobar quickly shut the airlock door and disengaged. Coolie was already at the controls as they headed for their friends’ usual spot in the middle of deep space, far off the beaten track. Jobar looked back at Patsup sitting quietly, regretting what he had done. “Look, from here on out you need to keep your mouth shut! I mean it, if you even hint to anyone about this trip I will kill you myself!”

  Patsup’s voice cracked, “What about Prime Minister Athanatos?

  “We will have to deal with her later . . . she currently isn’t looking for Coolie and me, she is looking for you because she thinks you can lead her to our friends’ ship and I will not allow that to happen. We will have to find a way to distract her and I suggest you think of a way out of this mess. Jobar was far beyond angry and was now hovering around, furious. He needed to put some space between himself and his brother. “I’m going to get some rest before our arrival.” Coolie was already snoozing, head propped against the hull of the cockpit with the controls on auto pilot. Jobar, still seething without the ability to restrain himself, spat in Patsup’s direction. “If you were not my brother, I would kill you where you stand, here and now! Completely unforgivable!”

  Patsup lowered his eyes in regret as he thought of how many family members he had put at risk with his little stunt. He struggled with a solution to Kore’s involvement, knowing she would stop at nothing.

  Brenda stretched and yawned, not ever knowing what day or time it was. To her the years had blended together in one nightmarish reality. She wandered into the lab. The lights were dimmed, and the thirteen planets still hung in the eerie silence. Sitting for a moment, she looked at the scale and although clustered together, she knew the planets must be light years apart. She stood and moved to the center of the images floating over her head, looking in every direction. Peering into the space surrounding the planets at every angle, all she saw were distant, faint stars represented by dim lights twinkling at the edges of the image. It was then that something familiar caught her eye, three stars in a row, yearning to be found. Brenda whispered, “Well I’ll be goddamned!”

  Brenda now shouted at the top of her lungs as the rest of the stars came into play, “Damn, I’m so goddamned smart! Rise and shine assholes, I’m your new best friend!”

  Dorathy, nestled in Henry’s strong arms, shifted in her bed. “What is she going on about now, God what time is it . . . oh my head . . . what day?”

  Henry glanced at his atomic watch he never really paid that much attention to, as time was no longer a constant. He rubbed his eyes. “Guess I better go check it out, being the commander of this ship and all.”

  Dorathy chuckled, “Right, you keep on thinking that, but I think that ship has sailed.”

  Henry could only smile.

  Henry and Dorathy were met in the lab by Magnus and Dimitri, Dimitri stubbing his toe as he stumbled in. “What the hell is wrong with you, woman?”

  Brenda stood within the 3D image, waving at them from her spot in the middle of the planets hovering at eye level. “How much will you give me if I tell you I know where these damn things are? At least I think I know where they are. That confirmation is a job is for Dorathy. After all, she is the astrophysicist amongst us. Come over here girlfriend and take a gander.”

  Dorathy did as she was asked, curiosity getting the best of her. Brenda took a step back. Dorathy knew Brenda was not easily excited and, as their eyes met, Dorathy was compelled to view from her vantage point. Brenda pointed in the direction she wanted Dorathy to look. After a short moment, Dorathy’s eyes grew wide. She stepped aside then moved to the outer edge of the image, and then stared back in the opposite direction. Dorathy spoke softly and was very concise. “Magnus, can you shrink the image of the planets, leaving the surrounding stars at scale?”

  Magnus did as he was asked without even taking a breath. The image shrank down to where the planets looked as they were, but just a smaller version of their original scale. Dorathy shook her head. “No shrink it more . . . a lot more.” Magnus looked up and could see where she was going. He brought it down as far as it would go. The planets disappeared and all that remained was a dusty cloud with a few specks of light shining from within. Dorathy gazed upon the vastness of space condensed into a small 3D image that hovered in all its glory that filled the very room they were sitting in.

  Dorathy saw the vision in her mind’s eye and had been suddenly transported to a time when she was a kid looking into the cosmos through her telescope in wonderment, “My God,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, “Of course, thirteen rogue planets discovered ages ago. These planets are in the Orion Nebula.”

  Henry stood from where he had been seated. “Are you positive?”

  “Yes, come here and look.” Henry went to stand next to her. “You can even make out the Trapezium Cluster,” she said, pointing to a small grouping of young stars. Dorathy strode to the opposite side of the room with her back against the wall. “If I were Earth, this is the view I would have of the seven main stars. The nebula is the center star of Orion’s sword, which is also the furthest point in the constellation. We peer into space from the nebula . . .” Dorathy made haste to the cloudy cluster, looking back to where she had been. “The configuration is not quite the same but you can still almost see the similarities.”

  Magnus took a deep breath. “I hate to be the one to point this one important fact out, but we still don’t know where the nebula is from here. Wherever here is . . . exactly.”

  Everyone took a moment for that to sink in and to consider the utter unimaginable vastness of the space around them. The silence in the room was only matched by the vacuum that lay inches away.

  Everyone sat in silence as the excitement had been blown out of the room, when the commlink buzzed from the cockpit. Brenda, her shoulders slouched, said, “I’ll get it, its Jobar, he called earlier and said he needed to meet with us . . . something terrible had happened.”

  Dorathy sat and said, “Even if I had all my equipment at my disposal it could take a lifetime to find our vantage point.”

  Henry buried his head in his hands. “Well that’s good because we were designed to last several.”

  Brenda sat at the pilot seat looking out at the billion specs of light. “Hello Jobar, how are you doing?”

  Jobar sounded distressed. “We will be there shortly; we have much to discuss. I have my
brother with us; he has done something incredibly stupid. I do have information regarding your map, but I don’t know how helpful it will prove to be.”

  “Fine,” Brenda replied. “We’re here in our usual spot.”

  Having docked with their unusual ship many times through the years, it had become second nature to Jobar. “We will do our docking procedures in a few moments, could you be ever so kind and please have some hot tea for us?”

  “Yeah sure, no problem . . . and by the way we need to get some supplies soon.”

  “Yes, we will discuss that further when we arrive . . . it may not be so simple anymore.”

  Brenda frowned at the commlink, wondering what that was all about, and thinking that simple was not the term she would have used. “Okay, whatever you say.” The signal went dead as she sat and thought about what kind of trouble they must be in.

  Well whatever . . . she thought as she made her way back to the main lab. “I’m going to make some tea, anyone want any? Jobar, Coolie and Jobar’s brother are coming aboard. Guess they have a lot to tell us concerning the map and the kind of trouble they seem to be in. The group’s spirits were at an all-time low and now the thought of more bad news coming from Jobar was almost too much to bear

  Henry slouched in his chair and tried to sound optimistic. “Look, he says he has information about the planets. They have been a great asset over the years, so let’s hope he has something useful for us.”

  The ship shuttered a moment as the airlock engaged. The inner hatch slid open and the three entered. Jobar and Coolie embraced their friends as Patsup took in their ship. Jobar grabbed at Patsup, “This is my younger brother. He has been a non- believer to the existence of the Otherlings and to the portal, but now maybe he has changed his tune.