The Narrow Path To War

by D L Frizzell

  There was a sandy area along the house’s foundation that caught Alex's attention. It was the only place he'd seen where there wasn't some kind of plant growing. For that matter, it was the only place around the house that wasn't covered by topsoil. It seemed out of place, so Alex knelt and brushed the sand away. Only a few centimeters under the sand, there was a stone slab with handles carved into both ends. He dug around to clear the edges, then yanked up on it.

  The cover came up way too easily, almost causing Alex to fall over. It looked like stone, he realized, but was actually made of aluminum. Underneath, a manhole went straight down into the ground.

  "I guess this is the door," Alex said to himself as he stared down into the darkness. Rungs protruded from the bedrock as far down as he could see.

  Seeing no point for delay, he made his way down. He noted each rung as he descended, counting thirty before his foot hit gravel. With the diminished light at this depth, Alex barely saw a narrow cave to his right. He carefully inched his feet across the gravel, following the sound of dripping water in the darkness ahead.

  When Alex smelled sap, he knew there must be a lamp nearby. He groped blindly until he bumped into a wooden table, and then gingerly probed with his fingertips until he found a glass chimney. There was plenty of sap in the lamp’s reservoir, so he pressed the flint igniter and tended the wick until it was fully lit. Surveying his surroundings, Alex found himself at the end of a long cellar filled with digging tools, supplies, and a cot. The far wall was composed of compacted rock layers, which had been chipped away with a pickaxe. The ceiling, being smooth and reflective, curved over the floor in a perfect semi-circle and reflected the lamplight well enough to illuminate the entire cellar. Across from the cot, a wooden ladder extended up through broken edges of the smooth wall.

  Alex moved toward the ladder to see if light was visible at the top, then stopped when he felt the cellar wall. It was too smooth, without the rough texture one would expect from adobe or concrete. He examined it closer and realized it was not only a bright shade of blue but made entirely of metal.

  Losing interest in the ladder, he stepped back to take a closer look at the cellar itself. It was about seven meters in width, and twenty meters long. As cellars went, this one's dimensions were all wrong. It felt more like a tunnel.

  There was an electric water pump recessed into the dirt near the digging tools, which quietly puttered away as it kept groundwater from seeping in and flooding the cellar. Alex traced the output line back to the ladder and saw that it went straight up from there.

  "I guess this is where Norio gets his water," Alex said, "but this is way too big for a pump room." He pressed the side of his face against the wall and looked down the length of the cellar. The wall was perfectly straight. "Too perfect," he emphasized to himself.

  Another thought struck Alex. Grabbing a shovel from the stack of tools, he began digging along the edge of the wall to find the foundation. The blue metal continued past the dirt floor, sloping inward as he went further down. His best guess was that this wasn’t actually a cellar. Was it an old sewer system that Norio discovered? The Founders might have been building it for the city when their electronics died, he mused.

  "Speaking of sewer," he said, remembering the bad smell coming from the house. Deciding to revisit the cellar again after he’d answered a few questions, he went to the ladder and made his way up.

  The ladder didn't make any of the customary squeaks that a person would normally expect. It went up a rock shaft, where niches had been carved out every meter or so. It had the look of an old mine shaft, with places to hold lamps and tools as it got deeper. Holding his lamp overhead, Alex found a wooden trap door at the top. Three deadbolts held the door firmly shut. Alex put the lamp into the first niche and unlocked them. The door lifted noiselessly to reveal some tunics hanging from hooks in a closet overhead.

  As Alex emerged in Norio's house, a thick, revolting odor enveloped him. His eyes watered, and then he retched when he got a lungful of the fumes. Almost losing his grip on the ladder, Alex stumbled back down into the cellar. He staggered to the cot, wheezing and hacking, unable to see more than a blur. Several long breaths of air helped him regain his composure.

  It wasn’t long before the smell drifted down into the cellar with him and he felt the burn in his lungs heating up again. Dammit, he thought, the trap door is still open. He didn't know how much more of the smell he could take, so he retreated the way he’d entered the cellar, hurrying up the manhole into the alleyway. Once he was back in the clear air, Alex sat on the edge of the entryway and wiped his eyes with his shirtsleeve.

  The air in the house would have to be cleared before he could find out what happened. He remembered the cracked frame on the back door and got an idea. He dug a necker from his pocket, wrapped it tightly over his face, and then walked to the back of the house.

  "This is probably a bad idea," he said. With that, he took a deep breath and kicked the door as hard as he could.

  Alex’s eyes once again filled with tears as he crossed the threshold. He stumbled into Norio’s kitchen, grabbed a chair at the dining table, and pushed through the door into the living room. He propped the door open with the chair and aimed himself toward the front door. It should have been a straight shot, but it wasn’t. He noticed blearily that much of the furniture in Norio’s house had been overturned and shoved across his intended path. Without time to think about it, as the gagging sensation had already seized his throat, he stumbled over the cushions, desk drawers, and books that littered the floor. After tripping twice, he made it to the inner porch door, kicked a book under the bottom edge to keep it from swinging closed, and fumbled with the outer lock blindly until it released. The necker came off the moment he cleared the doorway and staggered across the street. Getting some distance between himself and the house, Alex risked a breath when he could no longer go without air. He sat on the front steps of a nearby house, grateful no one was around to see him, and spit repeatedly onto the sandy ground.

  A fresh breeze had picked up – thankfully – so Alex took several deep breathes, glad to be back in the open again. He walked cautiously back to the front door, relieved that the breeze was blowing the smell back inside.

  Chapter Ten

  Alex had walked halfway back to his dormitory when he saw Keeva running his direction. She looked angry.

  "Hello, Keeva," he said when she stopped in front of him.

  “Where's Cale?” she demanded. “He was supposed to take me to breakfast.” Alex stared at her, surprised that Cale would miss a chance to see her.

  “Sorry, I haven't seen him,” he replied. “Maybe he overslept?”

  "Don't lie to me!" she shot back. "He told me you were working on that stupid motor with him!"

  "I really haven't seen him," Alex replied. "Not today, anyway." He figured Keeva would find out he was helping Cale eventually. It had been his hope that she wouldn’t until his project was finished. Alex guessed that Cale probably felt guilty for keeping the secret from her, and then told her to clear his conscience. "I did offer to help him," Alex admitted. "I don't know what he had in mind, though. I swear I was just going to meet him at the lab to help him build it."

  "When?"

  "I just came from the lab," Alex said, thinking the incident at Norio’s house would only give her more cause to judge him. "I think he was there already. He kind of left a mess."

  Keeva put her hands on her hips and nodded angrily. "He would."

  "I'm sorry," Alex said. "Let me help. Look, he's probably still in bed. I'll wake him up and tell him to find you."

  Keeva shook her head. "I already checked his dorm room," she said, rocking anxiously on her feet.

  Somehow, that didn’t ring true. “Keeva,” Alex said. "Is there something you need to tell me?" It took her a few seconds to stop avoiding his gaze. When she did lock eyes with him, he saw worry.

  “He did something," she started, then paused to look around. "He went,” she whi
spered, "somewhere bad."

  It took a moment for it to dawn on Alex what she was talking about. He remembered the dirt he’d seen on the lab table. It had granite pebbles in it, flakes of quartz and some rust. It wasn’t the kind of dirt found around the city. It was the kind of dirt one would find on the plateaus south of the city, and there was only one plateau that would have any interest for someone trying to build an electric motor.

  “He went to the Celeste?”

  Tears welled up as she nodded her head. “He goes there a lot,” she admitted fearfully. “Sometimes he takes me and shows me around. We never go in very far.”

  “That ship is dangerous!” Alex hissed. “It’s been condemned for centuries.”

  “But,” Keeva tried to soften the rebuke with the excuse Cale gave her, “If it hasn’t rusted to pieces by now, it probably won’t.”

  “Rust isn't what makes that place dangerous," Alex told her, beginning to get worried himself. "The Celeste is made from millions of tons of steel. What do you think happens when a magnetic quake or a guster hits it?"

  "But it's underground," she argued. "It's protected, right?"

  "Magnetic quakes come from the ground!" He realized he was raising his voice, so he softened his tone for her sake. "It can be as bad inside the ship as it is on the surface. Even worse."

  Keeva's face became a mask of anguish. "Maybe he's," she reeled from the thought, "hurt?"

  “When did he go?”

  “Yesterday after dinner. He said he knew where there were some old motors or something he could use for his project.”

  "There haven't been any quakes since yesterday, so he's probably just lost," Alex tried to comfort her. “Still, we'd better go find him.”

  Keeva’s home was on the way to the city gate. Alex followed her when she insisted stopping there first. "He shouldn't be hard to find," Alex told her. "If he's digging through things, he'll leave a trail, just like he did in the lab."

  "Okay," she said. "If anyone can find him, I know you can." She tried to smile. It was the first time she'd ever given Alex the slightest bit of credit. He wasn't sure if she really believed it, or was just telling herself that to calm her nerves.

  As they hurried toward the edge of the city, it occurred to Alex to ask Colonel Seneca for help. On the other hand, there was the possibility that the militia arrest Cale, even if he was unhurt. Entering the Celeste was illegal, and everybody knew it. With luck, they could bring him back without any help at all.

  Keeva snuck in the house after asking Alex to stay outside. He guessed her parents were still sleeping, and that she didn’t want to wake them. A minute later, she returned with a medkit and a water canteen in her hands. Her eyes wide with fear, she pulled the medkit to her chest and looked up at Alex.

  He nodded and said, "Good thinking”. He took the canteen and put it over his shoulder, but Keeva refused to let go of the medkit. That’s just the way it would have to be, he figured.

  They ran in silence to the plateau. Alex was thinking about what to do when they got there. There were only a few trails that led up to the top, and Cale would’ve taken the closest one. He figured there would be a lot of dirt around the wreckage, so his trail should be obvious. It was a good thing Keeva was too out of breath to talk. He didn’t want to admit that he was the one who showed Cale how to get there in the first place.

  As he ran, Alex noticed black shadows swirling across the sand dunes in the distance. He checked the sky. There wasn't a cloud to be seen anywhere. Keeva ran, still clutching the medkit, focused only on the plateau ahead. Alex was glad she didn't notice the iron dust rising to the surface. He would keep that to himself for the time being and watch for signs of electrostatic buildup on the horizon. Without a word, he picked up his pace. Dutifully, Keeva did the same. Her breathing had become raspy, but the look of grim determination on her face showed that she thought nothing of herself at the moment.

  They stopped when they reached the base of the plateau. Alex saw three sets of footprints leading up an old trail - two leading up and one leading down. Cale had been here, gone back to the lab with something, and then returned for more.

  "It looks like he's here," Alex said.

  "Yeah," was all Keeva could say between heavy breaths.

  It would be an easy climb to the caves for Alex. Keeva would not do as well. She had no strength left. She put her hands on her knees in a fit of coughing.

  “You should stay here,” Alex said. “I'll go up and look around.” He didn't point out that the sky was beginning to grow dark. Instead, he gave her the canteen and watched her drink from it.

  "You'd better bring him back," she warned finally. “You'd better.”

  “I will,” he said, and turned to go.

  “You're a bad friend!” she blurted in condemnation. “He always wants to go where you go, do what you do. He thinks the world of you, and it scares me!”

  “I'm just not afraid of things like other people are,” Alex replied, turning back to face her. "I don't know why." He didn't know if she was demanding an apology, but there was no time to argue. He started up the trail without explaining himself further.

  “That’s the problem!” she shouted. “Why do you think no one wants to be around you? Everybody thinks you’re crazy. Cale thinks you’re the greatest guy in the world. I don’t get it.” She ended with a plea, “Why does he think that?”

  Alex didn’t know what to say. He wanted to avoid her question, use the urgency of the situation to justify a quick exit, but found that his feet would not move.

  “We grew up together,” he told her.

  “What?”

  “After I lost my parents,” Alex said. “Some of my father’s friends offered to take me in. My mother had just run away when my father got killed during the Jug invasion.”

  Keeva stared at him.

  “I lived with the Biedriks until I was sixteen,” he continued. “Cale and I are kinda brothers.”

  “I didn’t know that,” she said.

  “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Alex said.

  “Why?” Keeva asked.

  “Because a guster is coming.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Stay here,” Alex told Keeva. “Catch your breath while I go up and look for him.”

  “Please hurry,” she said. Her face was dirty, and her shoulders were hunched from exhaustion.

  Alex gave her another drink from the canteen, then put it over his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine,” he replied, and started up the trail. He reached the top of the plateau a minute later and kicked at the dusty rocks he found there. Most plateaus in the area still looked the way they had for thousands of years; grassy plains sitting above the surrounding marshes. This area more nearly resembled a crater. All but forgotten, the hull of the Celeste had sunken into the center of the plateau. Broken into pieces by uneven erosion and covered by wind-driven soil, the only visible remains of the city-sized spaceship were the caverns that opened where an occasional bulkhead collapsed. Large yellow signs warned of deadly conditions within the ship, their words reinforced by the smell of dead animals. The foliage around the Celeste was sparse. Even the dirt was dark and mottled, contaminated by seeping toxins from the ship’s internal systems.

  "Welcome to the biggest grave in the universe," Alex muttered, sorry that he’d ever brought his only friend there. He got back to the business at hand when he saw what looked like black blades of grass swaying on the ground. It wasn't grass. Iron filings were being pulled together by the oscillating magnetic fields on the plateau.

  Alex noticed several fissures that Cale could have entered. The nearest ones were vertical shafts. He bet that Cale wouldn’t climb into them if there wasn’t one he could simply walk into. After a minute of scanning the terrain, he saw an old cargo door that had been pried open. It stood at the end of an easy gravel path, and looked to have been travelled upon recently.

  His sigh of relief was interrupted when he felt a vib
ration, and then a shudder, beneath his feet. Somewhere in the bedrock below, the Celeste was shifting - a sure sign of increased magnetic activity. He wished more than anything to see Cale run through the door, frightened out of his wits. A muffled squeal of bending metal accompanied the vibration. Alex hurried across broken rocks toward the door, looking once across the plateau. The blades of iron dust were dissolving into the air and floating upward.

  Alex stopped when he heard animal noises behind the cargo door. He recognized the sounds as coming from something domesticated – horses. He edged along the rusty hull to the door and looked inside. There were six of them with decorative leather saddles and harnesses. The animals were agitated, pawing at the ground, snorting, and pulling at the ropes that held them to an exposed girder. Electricity crackled in the air, and Alex knew he was in danger, not just from a static discharge but from the horses’ owners.

  “Jugs!” he whispered.

  Keeva sat atop a rock covered with green moss, wringing her hands. As the minutes dragged by, she got up to pace, and then moved up the path where Alex had gone. She had only gone a few steps when Alex rushed back down the path, skidding recklessly down the gravel and kicking up dust. He latched onto the edge of a boulder to stop himself and waved for her to stay quiet.

  “I need you to do something,” Alex urged. Looking back over his shoulder, he told her, “Go back to town and find Colonel Seneca. He’s the garrison commander there. You know him, right?”

  “Yes," she said. "But where's Cale?"

  He grabbed her by both shoulders and stared into her eyes. “It’s important. Tell him to bring a platoon of armed men right now!” He pushed her back down the trail.

  “But,” she started.

  “Jugs are here!” he interrupted. “You have to go tell the colonel.”

  "No!" Keeva dropped the medkit and put her hands over her mouth "Where's Cale?" She started to cry.

  Seeing she was beginning to panic, Alex tried to re-assure her. “It’s a big place, so they probably haven’t crossed paths. You get the colonel, and I’ll get Cale before they find him.” Keeva nodded and ran off as fast as she could toward Celestial City.