Barrens, page 6
“Thank you for the data and schematics,” Lila said. “Thank you for Denella.”
Garrison smiled. It was clear he was very glad that Denella was staying. Not just for her expertise, either. There wasn’t going to be much privacy for them, but Lila was sure that they would work something out.
“We’ll send you a warp drive system real soon,” Jacques said. “And linguists, xenologists, anything you need.”
Lila smiled. It was different to anything they needed, since once Elegia Fortune left, there would be no way to update the list of requirements.
They’d been through the items time and again.
“Fabricators,” Denella had said, likewise, time and again. If they were going to make this work, they needed to have the means to repair and replace items.
“I admire you,” Jacques said, as they suited up, preparing to take the short walk from the third lander across to the new habitat.
Already, the pilots of the other two landers were on the ice and making their way across, ready for return with Cassidy.
Back up to Elegia Fortune.
“And envy you,” Jacques said. “A part of me wishes I could stay.”
“Which part of you is that?” Lila said. She was halfway into her suit. It smelled of soap, as if it had just been washed out.
“Well, every part of me. Except the part that signed on to captain the vessel. I have a commitment to everyone aboard her. Leaving some of my key crew members behind—” he nodded to Denella, Malé, Fiona and August “—makes that even more important. There are unfillable gaps for the completion of the journey, but this is by far more important.”
“Bigger than all of us, perhaps,” Malé said.
“Quite.”
“Blah, blah,” Cassidy said. “I wish that this was a democracy and that I had a vote on this insanity.”
“Well,” Garrison said. “It’s not a democracy.”
“And I suspect,” Lila said, “that even if it was, that vote would lose.”
Cassidy looked glum, but she nodded.
They’d done the hugs and handshakes. They’d been over everything. Soon, they pilots had cycled in and the six new residents cycled out.
They strode across the vacuum and cycled into their new habitat.
Lila desuited quickly and looked out the viewport at the other lander standing nearby and mute on the surface. It looked lonely and tiny.
“Farewell, then, bold voyagers,” Jacques said through the comms.
“Farewell,” Garrison said. “May we see you again soon.”
“Thank you.”
Lila watched as jets of particles raced from the lander’s underside. As it leapt skyward, she felt a tremble of excitement through her fingers, and a stone of fear settle into her belly.
They’d really done it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lila got busy in the landers with the others. They’d removed the seats and set up cubicle cabins—three in each lander—so that they had some privacy. Despite the changes, the landers still felt like landers, still smelled of that used oil and busy, working vessel. Something that Lila hadn’t really noticed about Elegia Fortune—how the vessel had seemed more like a building than a ship—but did now.
“We’re really doing this,” Garrison said.
“Yes.” Lila managed a smile. A real mix of feeling a thrill of discovery, with an emptiness she hadn’t expected.
And it wasn’t until much later, hours, when they got the final signal from Elegia Fortune, that she was activating her warp drive, that Lila truly felt it.
Some hollow sense there. They were alone. Not abandoned, but left with no way to make contact. Fully dependent on Elegia Fortune’s ability to send someone back.
“You feel it too, huh?” Malé said, as they worked setting up the kitchenette and galley space they’d selected. “What if the hack stops them again? What if they never make it.”
“A little. I suppose that is what Cassidy was talking about.”
“Yes. I mostly liked her, but her response to this surprised me. I thought she’d be volunteering. She was a daredevil, you know that? She used to do atmosphere dives. Just for fun.”
Jumps from hop ships, leaping out at about seventy-five kilometers above the ground and plunging for minutes, with winglets and chutes.
Lila would never have dared.
And yet here she was.
“Regrets?” Malé said. “You seem pensive.”
“Not a regret, really, but you’re not pensive? Not doing some self-reflection here, now?”
“Of course. But I think that’s balanced by the excitement. We’ll make contact. We’ll work out what they need.”
“Will we? They went silent.”
“We have time,” Malé said. “Plenty of time.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
Malé turned to her, eyes kind and smile wide. “This will pass. You’re nervous on account of the departure of Elegia Fortune.”
“It’s that obvious?”
Malé looked up, over her shoulder. Garrison had come through into the space. He looked tired. Confused.
“It’s obvious,” he said. “I’m feeling it too.”
“We’re up to great things here,” Malé said.
“I know. I’ll sleep on it. We’ll get to work. It’ll be fine.”
“That’s the spirit.”
The three of them worked together on preparing the evening meal. They laughed and joked, in part out of those nerves, in part just feeling comfortable together.
They’d prepared a chicken dish, with roast vegetables and a light salad, with ice cream for desert. Boysenberry. They all knew that it wouldn’t be like that every night, but it was almost a celebration.
They’d made the break.
“Almost as if we have new normal,” Denella said. “That is expression?”
“Yes,” Garrison said with a smile. “That will do.”
August had brought chocolates, something hand made from Greece, apparently.
“I was saving them for arrival on Ursus 319,” he said. “But this, this is appropriate, I think.”
After eating, they sat and went over the plans for the coming days. Recces to explore the surrounding areas. Setting up the emergency shelter—their back up in case anything went wrong with the lander-habitat complex. Taking some samples from the rock and ice around the stem structure. Getting good imagery from the stems themselves.
“It might be language,” Lila said. “Perhaps some of our systems could process the images, see if there’s regularity, if there’s something that we could interpret.”
“I like idea,” Denella said. “As if they left message for us.”
“We need to look at every angle,” Garrison said. “I want to get started with tooling up for building ships.”
They’d repurposed several of Elegia Fortune’s maintenance robots to work on mineral extraction and then replication. It would be a task of months, but Garrison had already selected a location for his mine and factory.
It all, ultimately, was dependent on the return of a power source. The robots were efficient power consumers, but couldn’t go on indefinitely. Garrison was working on creating a little fission reactor, which he figured he could get operational within a month, assuming he could locate the right minerals.
They had a satellite too, again, a repurposed robot from Elegia Fortune. The satellite was tasked with mapping the planet’s surface, looking for more structures, mineral lodes, and anything else that might be of interest.
“I can’t wait,” Fiona said. “Really looking forward to seeing a starship arise from these barren wastes. It’ll be quite something.”
The talk petered out and Malé suggested that it had been a long day and that they should get some rest.
“I hope your berths are comfortable here,” she said. Technically she was in charge of the team, though she’d made it clear to Lila that it was more of a group effort.
“A democracy?” Lila had said. “With you as tie-breaker.”
“With six of us,” Malé had said, “tie-breakers don’t work.”
“Well, overriding decision, then.”
They left the table, said muted ‘goodnight’s and filtered off to their tiny cabins. Lila stripped and crawled into the narrow bed. It was comfy enough, and warm.
She drifted off, vaguely thinking about micrometeors, from which they essentially had no protection. Thinking about the people she’d left behind on Earth, of the people expecting her arrival on Ursus 319.
Had they done the right thing?
What if they never heard from the people here again?
She dreamed of being lost, out on the surface, wandering through the dark, just like the planet itself.
She woke to Malé shaking her.
“What?” Lila said, cobwebs still trailing back into her dreams.
“Denella,” Malé said. “She’s had a message from them.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lila sat up in bed, for a moment not knowing where she was. This wasn’t her cabin. Wasn’t her home.
Malé stood right there.
“They sent a message to Denella?” Lila said.
“She said that they said, ‘You come’. Lot of people speaking at once.”
“Sounds like them.”
“Denella seemed pretty certain. Almost obsessed. Garrison was trying to stop her.”
“Stop her?”
“She’s out on the surface. Headed over to the structure. Garrison has gone with her.”
“So much for trying to stop her.”
“She’s very determined.”
“Where are Fiona and August?”
“I’m waking them next. Get suited up. We’ll go over.”
Inside of ten minutes the four of them had cycled through the lock and were on the surface on their way over.
Lila was thirsty and hungry. She slurped from the helmet’s water supply. It was cool and tasty, a slight citrus tang to it. Probably filled with electrolytes and nutrients. No substitute for a meal, but vaguely sustaining.
“I see you,” Garrison said through the comms.
The habitat set up was a hundred fifty meters from the structure. The closest they’d felt comfortable setting up.
“Denella?” Lila said. “They talked to you?”
No response.
“Is she all right?”
“She’s here,” Garrison said. “Standing right by the structure. She’s touching the stems the way you did.”
“She’s in trouble here,” Malé said.
“This is what we get for having a democracy,” Garrison said.
“It’s not a democracy.”
“We’ve been over this,” Lila said. “And all our excursions are planned. This is our first full day and already Denella’s gone off program. That endangers the rest of us.”
“They told me,” Denella said. “They said to come.”
“Sirens,” Garrison said. “This is concerning. If they can influence us like this.”
“Can you hear Cassidy now?” Fiona said. “She would be saying that she’d told us so.”
“Sure.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Denella said. “Did not just leave. I told Garrison. There was urgency to it.”
“They’ve been waiting a half a million years,” Fiona said. “A little longer shouldn’t make much difference.”
“Maybe it will,” Lila said. “Maybe they’ve expended what little energy reserves they had left.”
“We’re their last chance,” August said.
“Exactly. After all this time, and yet time is now short.”
“Why Denella, though?” Fiona said. “They’ve already spoken with you, Lila. Surely they would call you?”
“Language,” Denella said. “I speak seven languages.”
“Well done.”
“She means,” Garrison said, “that she’s actually probably the one who it’s easiest for them to converse with. Brain structures.”
“She should have been the one taken first,” Lila said.
“We’re out here thinking that they’re extraordinary because they’ve mastered suspended animation, and been able to stay alive here for millennia on an interstellar planet. Thinking that they can do anything, save for build an interstellar ship.”
“They one thing they needed,” Fiona said.
“Yes,” Garrison went on. “Everything they’ve done is from desperation. A last ditch effort.”
“How are they even able to make those efforts, while they’re in suspended animation? It doesn’t make sense. Do they have better AI than we do?”
“Probably,” August said.
“They are at the very edge,” Lila said. “But maybe they found a way to communicate while suspended. After all, it’s clearly telepathy. They don’t need to move their mouths. Don’t need to move anything. How low could their brain processes go before they could no longer think and communicate?”
“A half a million years of being immobile and conscious?” August said. “No thank you.”
“Someone is awake,” Denella said. “There is a custodian. She would like to meet us, but is afraid.”
“Awake?” Malé said. “A custodian.”
“Someone is always awake,” Lila said, unsure how she knew. “They take turns.”
“I’m not following this,” Malé said. “But perhaps this is a discussion better had back in the habitat.”
“Agreed,” Lila said. “But we’re here now. Let’s see if we can gather more information.”
“More information.”
“Come Denella.” Lila stepped closer. Went right up to the stems. Her suit lights played over the markings.
She reached up and touched the stem.
Light flared.
Lila shivered.
Back in the room with the lattice work. With all the others. Garrison, Denella, Malé, Fiona and August.
And someone else.
A woman. Perhaps thirty, with a small mouth and a too-slim body. She was wearing an aubergine-colored robe or dress. She had her hands clasped at her neck.
Long fingers. Three on each hand, but with more joints than a human’s fingers. Her chin was more prominent and her nose was much smaller. Her eyes seemed to be angled, about thirty degrees, and her ears were very flat.
But still, almost human.
“You stayed,” she said, her voice rough and multi-timbred. “You stayed.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was months later when the Elegia Fortune returned. She went into orbit around the planet, transmitting immediately, asking for updates and details.
Asking if they were actually still alive.
Lila and the others were having a meal when the transmission interrupted.
“You’re eating!” Jacques said through the comms. “You’re still alive.”
“Did you doubt that would happen?” Lila said.
“I worried.”
“He’s so sweet,” Malé said.
“Sweet on her,” Fiona whispered with a wink at Lila.
She felt herself flush.
They were all seated around the table, loaded with plates of mashed potato, corn, strips of chicken and a gravy boat, and a garbanzo-based salad. They’d managed to make the meals a special part of living here. A good bonding time, with good food.
“Hush now,” Denella said. “Let the man speak.”
Jacques didn’t speak for a moment. Fiona giggled, and gave another wink.
“Um, we’ll send down a lander soon,” Jacques said. “We have a fusion generator for you, and a warp drive. And parts for constructing more. And more mining robots.”
“Sounds good,” Garrison said, taking more chicken. “We could use the help.”
“You’re in good cheer.”
“We’ve made pleasing progress.”
“I’ll be down soon. But please give me an update.”
Everyone was quiet. Denella poured herself some juice from the carafe in the table’s center.
“Malé?” Lila said. “An update for Jacques.”
“I think it should be you,” Malé said.
Lila nodded. “All right,” she said. “I’ll get started.”
“Thank you,” Jacques said.
“Well, I suppose you’ll be surprised when you get down here. The habitat has changed, we’ve built a triple-layered dome over it.”
“Micrometeors,” he said.
“Exactly. And we’ve begun building a vessel. Thanks to Garrison.”
“They knew more than me,” Garrison said.
“They?” Jacques said. “So you’ve made better contact.”
“Conversations,” Denella said. “They look like us. They...” Her eyes widened and she stared at Lila. “Sorry. I did not mean to take over.”
“I know,” Lila said. “Perhaps this update would be better in person.”
Denella raised her eyebrows.
She was right to. Lila was surprised by how good it felt to hear Jacques’s voice.
Never would have admitted it to herself.
“In person?” he said.
“He is smiling,” Denella whispered to Lila. “You can hear it in his voice.”
Lila waved her away.
“I’ll meet you on the surface,” Lila said. “We’ll go meet her.”
So an hour and a half later, a lander with Jacques and some others aboard set down nearby. Lila and Garrison were already out and suited up, ready to meet them.
Jacques stepped nimbly down the lander’s exit steps and strode across to them.
It was easy to tell that it was him, even in the EVA suit.
“It’s good to see you,” he said, coming close to Lila, putting his hand on her shoulder.
“You too. After, we can have a meal, catch up.”
“Good, yes. I appreciate that. As if we’re getting down to business. Plenty of time for social chitchat and debriefings later. Good to see you too, Garrison.” Jacques lifted his hand.
“Thanks for coming back. Thanks for bringing so much stuff.”
The lander was bigger than the ones they had, and already there was a big hatchway opened on the side of it, with boxed equipment inside. A crane was folding out.
