Rikki's Star, page 16
She heard Charley crying, the sound too far away for her to reveal she could hear it, but approaching quickly. She waited until she heard noise at the door before allowing her relief to show. She backed up to the far wall, knowing no one would enter until she did.
A woman she didn’t recognize stepped into the room with a screaming Charley in her arms. She placed the baby in the bassinet and left, closing and locking the door behind her.
Rikki approached the bassinet, crooning softly before she even saw Charley. She looked a little thinner than she had three days earlier, which was a very bad sign. Rikki knew they hadn’t starved her. What they’d done was far worse than that. Their experiments had been so damaging that they’d required Charley’s self-healing ability to use an enormous amount of physical energy.
Other than that, she seemed physically fine. It was the fear and exhaustion in the baby’s eyes that told Rikki how horrific the past three days had been for her.
Rikki held Charley’s tiny, ice cold feet in her hands for a few minutes, breathing on them in an effort to warm them. They always brought her back like this; screaming, exhausted, wearing nothing but a diaper and freezing cold. Once her feet were a little warmer she wrapped the warm blanket around her and picked her up, rocking her gently as she began pacing again.
Charley’s little hands gripped the stiff white gown Rikki wore as though she might never let go. When Rikki saw the desperation and fear in her daughter’s eyes, she couldn’t prevent the tears that wet her own cheeks. The skoteiná had pushed Charley too far. They’d hurt her too much, exhausted her resources, very nearly killed her if Rikki’s bearenca was reading things right, and Rikki didn’t doubt that she was. What Rikki had sensed coming in the next week to ten days was now imminent. They only had two days to escape now. At best. But how?
Her request for aid had been passed along from one species of bird to the next for six weeks. There was no resistance to helping her. The problem was that in order for her plan to work, she needed a very large number of birds, and they had to be big, and strong. Finally, two weeks earlier, she’d spoken to the largest raven she’d ever seen.
She’d been excited about that. Ravens were not only intelligent, they also mated for life, and were devoted to their families. She couldn’t think of another species more likely to want to help her and her baby.
As she’d paced the patio that day she’d spoken with what she understood to be a raven elder. The title she was referred to by her own kind didn’t really translate to anything recognizable to Rikki. The closest she could come was Kyrá, which meant dame, or matron. The raven graciously accepted the title as honorific enough.
Rikki used images to tell the Kyrá what was done to her baby. The Kyrá had been outraged, as Rikki had hoped. She’d agreed that Rikki’s plan was good, but warned that it would take time to gather enough flocks to accomplish it.
Rikki had been as patient as she could be for the two weeks since, but she had just run out of time. She needed help now. Today if possible.
Rikki’s brow creased in confusion. Why was she panicking? She only had two days, which was scary, yes. But it didn’t have to be right now. She admonished herself to calm down before she upset Charley, who’d been through quite enough already.
She walked to the window, gently bouncing Charley in her arms, and saw a huge flock of immense ravens flying low in the sky. In her direction. A rush of excitement filled her, which she carefully hid.
Turning away from the window, she continued pacing, humming softly as her mind raced. Was it just a flock of birds flying by? Or was it the help she’d been waiting for?
She was usually allowed to take Charley out to the patio after lunch, but lunch had been more than an hour earlier. She wondered if they’d skip letting her go out to the patio today since Charley had been returned so much later than usual.
If not, tomorrow will work just as well, she told herself. She just didn’t believe it, and what was worse, she didn’t know why.
She turned around near the door and paced back to the window twice more before she saw ravens again. She wondered if it was the same flock, but there was no way of knowing. If she’d spoken to one of them before, she might be able to communicate from such a distance, but as it was, she couldn’t.
She estimated about half an hour had passed when Charley made signs that she was hungry. Rikki warmed a bottle and fed her while sitting on the edge of the bed. When the bottle was empty, she set it aside, changed Charley’s diaper, then started pacing again.
Another half hour passed by her guess, when the speaker crackled to life, startling her and Charley a little. Her heart leapt in her chest and it took all of her will to maintain an expression of calm.
“Rikki, do you want to walk on the patio today?”
She hesitated a moment for show, then nodded. “Yes, please.” She lowered her head to kiss Charley and whispered softly.
Charley immediately began crying and Rikki sighed heavily. “I need a moment to warm another bottle for her,” she said, grabbing one from the chiller and popping it into the warmer.
“That’s fine,” the voice replied. “It’s a bit cool out so you might want your jacket, too.”
“Oh, all right, thank you,” Rikki said, relieved it had been suggested. She put Charley down on her bed and slipped her arms into the sweat jacket that someone had donated to her for walking on the patio in the cooler weather. It was enormous on her, stained in several places, frayed and worn at the cuffs and hem, but it was an added layer of protection.
She zipped it up, then took the bottle from the warmer which she hadn’t actually run at all. She knew Charley wasn’t hungry since she’d fed her half an hour earlier. She’d only cried because Rikki had asked her to. If those ravens really were there to help her, she wanted at least one bottle for the baby. She dearly wished she could take more, and an extra diaper or two, but the risk was too great.
The sound of the lock on the door releasing was loud in the small room. “Thank you,” she said automatically.
“You’re welcome,” the voice replied, surprising her. They’d become increasingly complacent about her over the past two months, had even started using her name, but this was the first time anyone had returned a courtesy.
Pausing to shove the bottle into a pocket of the sweat jacket, she grabbed both of the thin blankets from the bassinet. The blood suddenly drained from her face and her heart seemed to stop beating. It took a moment for her to realize she’d dropped one of the blankets on the floor. She kept her face turned away from the cam, hoping no one noticed her reaction, and bent down for the blanket. She hastily wrapped both of them around Charley, leaving a flap at the top to cover her head with, then left the room.
They’d stopped escorting her weeks earlier, having apparently decided that, at this late date, she wasn’t going to do anything stupid. She was still watched via the ever-present cams anyway.
She walked up the corridor, forcing herself to go slowly as she usually did, showing no interest in anything or anyone but Charley. The doors at the end opened and she stepped through them, looking up at the woman who sat behind the high desk with a smile. She never spoke, just smiled. The woman returned the smile and Rikki turned toward the door that led out to the patio. Once again the door opened by itself and Rikki stepped through it.
Following a routine she’d established from the first day she’d brought Charley out with her, she went straight to the plasti-glass wall and looked out. After a minute that took far too long to pass, she began to pace the patio, turning her face up toward the sun. Only then did she dare to peek up at the roof through her lashes.
Her heart leapt in her chest, then began to race with excitement when she saw dozens, no hundreds of ravens lining up along the section of roof one story above the patio. Behind them were more ravens. So many that the portion of the roof that she could see was black with them. And yet, they were eerily silent. If she hadn’t looked up, she would never have known they were there.
She reached out with her mind and immediately found the Kyrá. After thanking her profusely, she listened to what the Kyrá had planned. When she was finished, Rikki looked down to find Charley watching her with wide, curious eyes.
“Mi fovásai, Charley,” she whispered after turning to pace away from the cam, then said it in Standard to be sure Charley understood. “Do not be afraid.” Charley smiled. “This time, I can keep you safe.”
She stopped in the middle of the patio to give the ravens plenty of room all around her. She bent her head and began fiddling with one of the blankets around Charley, whispering to her briefly. At the same time, she sent another silent message to the Kyrá.
She turned toward the cam, took a couple of steps, then frowned with apparent annoyance as one corner of the blanket came loose. She stopped to tug it back into place, this time tucking it in securely.
Just as she raised her eyes from the baby, the sound of flapping wings filled the air. Even then it took her a moment to look up toward the sky, as though searching for the source of the sound. Then the light was blocked as hundreds of the enormous black ravens descended on the patio all at once, completely filling the enclosed space with flapping wings and loud, raucous cawing.
She clutched the baby closer against her while doing her best to look terrified, then opened her mouth and scream as loudly and with as much fear as she could put into it. Since she’d already warned both Charley and the ravens to ignore her screams, she really let loose, giving it all she had. If this attempt failed, she didn’t want anyone to think she’d orchestrated it. When there were so many ravens crowding around them that she couldn’t see the cam or anything else, she ducked her head down to cover Charley.
Sharp claws grasped the thin jacket she wore, cutting through fabric and skin alike, though she showed no sign that she felt it. An alarm went off somewhere inside the building as the ravens lifted her off the ground and over the walls while she screamed a few more times for good measure.
She risked a quick look back but couldn’t see much beyond a solid cloud of black wings. She heard screams but she ignored them, looking down at Charley instead, not at all surprised to find her watching the birds without fear.
The ravens carried her over a low hill a couple of hundred yards from the building so that she was no longer in sight, then lowered her to the ground. She didn’t know where she was, exactly, and was afraid to just take off running. When the ravens offered to carry her further, she accepted. Even if they only carried her a mile, it would at least leave no scent for anyone to follow. But she needed to make some adjustments, first.
She removed the two thin blankets from around the baby, leaving the thick one securely wrapped around her, then laid her gently on the ground. She tore the blankets into strips once the ravens had torn the edges with their sharp beaks for her. She reached down and pulled the back of the gown up between her legs and tied it to the hem of the front to help keep the gown on her. Then she wrapped one strip of blanket loosely around her waist and tied it tightly. Another strip went a bit higher up, just under her breasts. She tied the ends of two more strips together, making two circles which she pulled up over her legs, one at her knees, the other at her ankles.
This gave the ravens something better to grasp with their claws, something that wouldn’t stretch as easily as the fabric of the jacket. With the strips around her legs, the ravens could carry her in a prone position, which would give more of them a place to grasp.
When she was finished, she told the ravens they could grab on anywhere except bare skin or her head. They seemed hesitant, so she showed them that the scratches incurred from carrying her away from the building had already healed.
When she turned to pick up Charley she smiled to see the Kyrá standing beside her. Charley’s little hand rested lightly on the raven’s chest feathers, her eyes wide, a smile on her little face. Even though the bird was easily twice the size of the baby, Rikki had no fear that the Kyrá would harm her daughter.
The Kyrá stepped back so she could pick Charley up, communicating how glad she was to have summoned her kind to save such a child. Rikki thanked her first as was her due, and then sent thanks to the others.
After wrapping the blanket around the baby more securely, Rikki tucked Charley closer against her chest and used the last strips of blanket to form a harness of sorts to hold Charley against her body, just in case. It wasn’t enough that she felt comfortable releasing the baby, but it was enough to keep her from falling immediately if Rikki’s grip slipped or something untoward happened.
Satisfied with her preparations, she paused for a moment to think. There wasn’t anything else she could do that came to mind, so she spoke to the ravens again.
For the first time, she was glad that she’d lost weight over the past three months because it would be easier for the birds to carry her. She doubted that she and Charley weighed much more than one hundred ten or pounds together.
The strips of blanket helped a lot more than Rikki had thought judging by how much higher and faster the ravens lifted her this time. They went much faster too, now that they could carry her in a prone position.
Rikki looked at the lab which they passed from a distance, and clearly saw what had to be thousands of ravens covering the building. She was stunned, and very grateful, and told the Kyrá so.
The Kyrá was pleased and accepted the praise on behalf of all the flocks that had answered the call. She indicated to Rikki that the flocks would remain on the building until dawn, and that they would allow no one to leave.
Rikki thanked her, but asked her to please not risk lives unnecessarily. It wasn’t easy to communicate complex thoughts using only mental images, and Rikki had never done it to this extent before. Eventually she managed to get the Kyrá to understand that if many bright lights, people, or sirens approached, they were to leave as quickly as possible.
The Kyrá promised, and passed the message. Rikki was a little startled to find that her concern for their lives made them that much more determined to prevent anyone from leaving until she was safe with her daughter.
Once Rikki settled down enough to look around, she noticed a city in the distance. There were only four major cities on Argon, and two of them were on the far side of the planet. Of the other two, she thought Ari was the only one close to the desert, but she wasn’t sure.
If the city ahead was Ari, then they were in luck. Ari was not only the location of Argon’s only spaceport, but also the city just twelve miles north of the Carlson’s home. She couldn’t say she knew the city well, or even much at all. But it was more familiar to her than any other city on Argon.
Sometime later she saw a sign beside the road below and asked the ravens to go low enough for her to read it. Instead, the Kyrá flew down and sent her a mental image of it, which was much simpler for everyone.
Rikki was relieved to discover that not only was it the right city, she recognized the name of the street and even had a fair idea of where they were. “Looks like luck is on our side precious,” she said to Charley. “At least the city up there is the right one. How are you? Do you hurt anywhere?”
Charley smiled at her and tapped her chin twice, the sign she used for Mommy. Rikki understood her meaning. She was fine now that she was with Mommy.
“I love you so much,” Rikki said, her eyes stinging as she kissed the baby’s forehead. Charley smiled again, then yawned. “You go ahead and get some sleep. You’re safe now. We’re both safe now.” Charley turned her face into Rikki’s chest, closed her eyes and, within moments, was fast asleep.
Rikki didn’t want to think about what they’d done to her daughter over the past three days. Not yet, anyway. Instead, she considered her next move.
She dismissed the idea of going to the authorities. She wasn’t sure why, but every time she’d thought of that over the past couple of months, something had warned her against it. Maybe it was the unthinkable number of women who’d gone through that place without anyone being caught. Maybe it was because she was a complete stranger on Argon and was afraid to trust anyone. Whatever the reason, her instincts hadn’t steered her wrong yet, so she decided to follow them.
That left her with very few options. She had no clothes, shoes, money, or ID. She only had one bottle of formula for Charley, and no diapers. She couldn’t get through a single day as things stood, let alone get off of Argon and back home to Jasan.
The first thing she had to do was try to get her belongings back. Unless the people from the lab had packed her bag before taking her, there was at least a chance that her things were still at the Carlsons’ home. If they were still there, and if they were still alive, hopefully they’d be willing to help her. Since they were the only people she knew on Argon, there wasn’t anyone else she could ask.
Going there was risky, and she knew it. When the people from the lab started searching for her, that was the first place they’d look. She had no other options though, so it was a risk she was just going to have to take.
Luckily, the Carlson home was surrounded by five hundred acres of their own private property, most of which was covered with trees. Their nearest neighbor was several miles to the east, and from her current vantage point, there were no houses or buildings for miles, save the one she’d just escaped from.
She did her best to communicate where she wanted to go to the Kyrá, who sent out a few spotters in an effort to find it. It was the only house in the area she’d indicated, so it didn’t take long for one of the ravens to find it, much to Rikki’s relief. They’d have to go a little further west and quite a few miles north to get there, though.
She asked the Kyrá if it would be too much, worried about overtaxing the giant birds. The Kyrá insisted that they could do it. It would take time, she warned, and they’d need to stop regularly to rest, and to rotate positions from guards to carriers. Rikki let her know she had no objections or complaints.
