Pendulum: An Aes Sidhe Novel

by A. Omukai

  “Gimme a fucking break.”

  Radio silence answered her.

  When the island with the monolith came in sight, she looked around for cloud chasers that had been there when she had left this place last time. They were nowhere to be found now. Speaking of which, she had seen none when she had come here in her dream either. There had possibly been a reason for them to appear last time. Had they been there to show her something, or to establish communication? For now, there was no way to find out, but she had the vague feeling that, the longer she lingered on this planet, the clearer the picture would become.

  She didn’t even mind anymore. With every day she spent here, the place felt more like home. If not for the infection, she’d gladly spend her holidays here. There was also the problem she had learned of during her dream. The disturbance of balance. Something down here was out of whack, and she felt the responsibility to fix it.

  She did not yet know what was out of balance, nor did she have an idea what she might have done to cause the problem, but she was a druid. She’d have cared about this even without feeling guilty. Which she did.

  She had originally become a druid because she had powers, and she had enrolled in the Space Exploration Agency because there was a way for her to utilise them to explore the galaxy. However, a druid was not just a mere Jump Drive, as cool as that alone was already. A druid was a guardian of nature. She felt a deep love for all kinds of life, plant and animal alike, and the prospect of this beautiful place being in danger to become like one of those two places she had visited earlier, was terrifying. Even more so when it was her fault, and yet more if she actually had the means to do something about it.

  She reached the small island, stepped on its soil, looked at the monolith and stretched out a hand. She had brushed it before, but she wanted to touch it again. Her fingers reached the slab of stone, and as soon as her fingertips connected, she felt the flow of communication in her head become louder and clearer, almost, as if she could make out words, although she realized this sort of communication was not verbal. There were no words. There were pictures, emotions, and something she couldn’t put in words — a feeling of continuity, a movement of time maybe.

  She saw the black valley, specks of black ascending towards the sky, and her pulse sped up.

  She saw a basin, then a mountain, then a ravine, all touched by… chaos. “Chaos” was closest to the vibe she got from those places. The way things belonged together, the way nature constructed matter, the way magical energy permeated all living things, was not working correctly here. Chaos disturbed it and turned it into the scenery she had seen back then. With every place she saw now, she became more aware of the fact that this was not the first time the planet had problems with its energetic balance. Quite the opposite, slight imbalances seem to be the norm.

  But when she looked at those black places now, she also felt a force resembling a rising tide. Something building up quickly and growing quickly to become an irresistible force. She pulled her hand back, and the flow of communication cut off. It was as if she had switched off a radio and stopped the transmission in the middle of a word. The lights went off.

  Another bout, this one hurt like a motherfucker. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, and black rings danced before her eyes. Her knees felt weak, and she stumbled, then hugged the monolith to not fall.

  The coughing stopped immediately. When Ailbhe reached her and grabbed her arm, Deirdre was already strong enough to stand on her own.

  The monolith had helped her. She reached out for it again and laid her hand on it.

  This time, there was no reaction at all. The communication she had received earlier did not continue. This was a bummer. She hadn’t expected this to work like a book where she could just continue where she had left off, but she had hoped for something, even though she wasn’t sure what.

  She shook her head to clear it and succeeded only partially. Then she took a deep breath, which did little for her, but didn’t cause another attack.

  What had she learnt so far?

  She had learnt that the impression she had during her dream had been accurate. There was indeed something that needed to be fixed, and it was her job to do it. A recurring event that happened to this planet in fixed intervals was the problem. The existence of other places that showed signs of the same sort of damage to the environment she had witnessed in person proved that point. The number of places the monolith had shown her might have meant that this was a cyclic problem, similar to phases, the periodic change between full moon and new moon, only that this phenomenon was based on magical energy, and her arriving here had caused it to happen again.

  This was conjecture, but it was a reasonable guess. What now, though? The first step would be to get back to the Wisp. Maybe she should discuss her thoughts with Brilann. If anyone could help figure out what was going on, it was probably him. He had the experience, and he had knowledge she hadn’t had the chance to learn yet. She was still miffed about that. Sending her out into space with an incomplete education had been angering her since they had crashed into the asteroid, and the debriefing after that. But now was not the time to brood over that.

  Back to the Wisp, compose another message, send it over to the Tuatha De Danann and wait. That’s what she would do now. And then, hope that she would get a reply soon.

  “I think I’m finished here. Think the Wisp is done doing・ whatever it was doing?”

  “I don’t know, but enough time has passed.”

  She had no idea why she felt like she was running out of time, and not only because of the infection spreading throughout the body. Something was going on, and her window of opportunity closed slowly before her eyes.

  Yeah, ‘patience’ surely wasn’t a word anyone would associate with Deirdre MacBreen.

  She laughed a husky laugh inside her helmet, turned towards the path that led out of the grotto, and got moving.

  25

  Conference

  The two men entered the bridge in a hurry. The door closed behind them silently, while they moved straight towards the captain’s chair, on which Thornhill was sitting. Everyone looked busy, and nobody paid them any attention.

  “Captain, do you have a moment?”

  Thornhill turned around to face the speaker and raised an eyebrow.

  “What is it, Mr Adams?”

  “There is something we need to talk about. If you have a moment, maybe we could go somewhere else?”

  The captain’s gaze shifted between Brilann and Adams, then he nodded and rose from his seat.

  “Let’s go to my quarters.”

  The three men left the bridge together.

  The captain’s quarters were near the bridge, right in the centre of the midsection of the Tuatha De Danann. He’d be on the bridge immediately in times of need. The room was so spartan, there was hardly a sign of him living here. He sat down behind his desk and pointed at two chairs in front of it. Adams didn’t feel like sitting, but did it anyway.

  “So what is it you wanted to talk about with me?”

  The captain looked at Adams expectantly.

  “Something interesting happened, when I was showing Brilann the mycelium sample I brought from the planet’s surface.”

  “Something interesting?”

  Thornhill didn’t have to formulate the complete question. Adams understood well what the captain expected from him.

  He looked at Brilann, who nodded, as if he had seen Adams turning towards him.

  “When Mr Adams came to my quarters, to seek my help with his sample, I could sense something within the being in his glass container. It had spawned children, and this offspring was more than just hungry.”

  “Offspring? What does that mean?”

  “The mycelium had spawned spores, without forming a fruit body first. They turned out to be actually dangerous,” Adams added.

  “So, what did you do? Get to the point, please.”

  The captain tapped on the desk. Things were going t
oo slow for his taste, or at least that was the impression Adams got from looking at him.

  They got interrupted before Adams or Brilann answered.

  A small speaker somewhere in the room switched on, and voices in the background were audible before the caller spoke. This was a call from the bridge they had just left a moment ago.

  “Captain, a message arrived from the planet. Do you want me to forward it to you?” Lieutenant Fionnlagh’s voice was muted, as if he tried to avoid being overheard.

  Both Adams and Brilann showed him an exaggerated nod. Thornhill raised both eyebrows.

  “Yes, please.”

  A slight pause, then the Faerie spoke again.

  “There’s another message just in from the sickbay, top priority. Do you wish to see it first?”

  The captain frowned.

  “Go ahead, please.”

  A clicking sound came from inside the desk, then a transparent video window opened a few centimetres above the tabletop. The female face was symmetrical and pale. Burning orange hair framed it and accented the shadows under her eyes. Her lips were white and grim.

  “Captain, I’m sorry to report that we lost Doctor Moan.”

  Thornhill’s face turned to stone. He made a gesture for her to continue, and the Summer Court Faerie nodded.

  “We couldn’t stop the fungus, and it dissolved his lungs・” she looked to the side, then back into the camera, “three minutes ago. I will now perform an autopsy. I can already tell that different physiologies react differently to the fungus, and it seems as if magic attracts it.”

  A moment of silence, then the captain cleared his throat.

  “Please be careful to make sure it can’t get out of the sickbay. An epidemic is the last thing we need now.”

  “The isolated station is shielded. We will continue with great care.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Aislinn. Is that all?”

  “For now, yes.”

  The captain nodded and cut the connection. The face of the Winter Court Faerie appeared. He did a quick salute.

  “Ready for the transmission from the planet?”

  “Let me see what the lieutenant sent.”

  Another salute, then the picture changed again.

  Red hair and green eyes with a naturally penetrating stare. There was no question who looked into the camera. The druid looked just as tired as the doctor had, and more. Adams could have sworn she had lost weight, if not only two days had passed since he had last seen her.

  “Lieutenant MacBreen,” said the face that spoke of an exhaustion that went deeper than just a lack of sleep.

  The report was brief, but shocking.

  “MacBreen out.”

  The video window vanished, and the first to speak was Brilann.

  “Infected.” Only one word, but nothing more had to be said.

  The captain tilted his head.

  “We don’t know if it’s the same infection, and even if so, she’s a human. You didn’t get sick.”

  He looked in Adams’s direction and made eye contact.

  “I didn’t, but—”

  “I heard the doctor. Let’s not jump to conclusions now, especially since we don’t have a boat to rescue her.”

  Adams hadn’t been eager to hear those words, but the captain wasn’t wrong. He envied Thornhill’s ability to push his emotions back and be pragmatic. He nodded.

  “Your report wasn’t finished yet, was it?”

  No, it wasn’t. Where had he left off?

  The spores.

  He rubbed his face with both hands, then continued.

  “It seems like the spores were trying to break down and devour the acrylic glass container itself. If they can do that, then they might eat many other synthetic materials, too. Not only would that be a problem on the Tuatha De Danann, there is also something else to think about.”

  “You’re saying your fungus ate the glass container?”

  Why did the captain parrot him? Adams had to force himself to stay calm. They all were under stress today.

  “Yes, the spores that shouldn’t even exist, were devouring the glass container from the inside. They seemed to break it down and absorb nutrients from it. All this makes little sense scientifically, but this is not the time to worry about such things, anyway. There is a much bigger problem here.”

  “What happened to the mycelium? Did you isolate it?”

  Adams shook his head, and the druid answered in his stead.

  “I had Sabia sterilise it.”

  Brilann’s words were followed by a silence that lingered for a few seconds, before the captain opened his mouth to speak again.

  “So you killed the mycelium sample. Well, at least we won’t have to worry about a mushroom gone wild on our ship, eating it from under our feet while we are in space. Good news for a change.”

  That was one way to say it. Not how Adams would have expressed it, but it put the situation in a nutshell.

  “This is not the only problem. While we saved the ship, we still have someone on the planet. And while we had just a few spores causing tremendous problems on board the Tuatha De Danann, imagine how much of a problem this could become on the surface, where there’re fungi everywhere. In fact, the whole biosphere looks like one gigantic organism to me.”

  The captain squinted, then nodded. His hands, laying on the surface of the table, turned to fists.

  “You’re right. We have to get the druid and the marine off the planet as soon as possible. The problem though is, that we’re not yet ready to launch the lifeboat. Schultz is still working on the problem. This project will take way longer than we can afford to wait.”

  Adams nodded.

  “So, what are we going to do about this?”

  He looked at Brilann, and the old arch druid furrowed his brows. His already wrinkled old face looked even more like the gnarled bark of an oak tree now.

  “According to the last transmission, Lieutenant McBreen found a place of power. We still don’t know if the planet is colonisable, but we have to give her green light to open a portal, to escape.”

  Brilann’s voice sounded tired now.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” The captain pressed his lips shut.

  “Do we have a choice?” Brilann asked.

  Again, silence. Seconds passed, and the only sound in the captain’s quarters was the breath of the three men.

  “It will take about two weeks to get the lifeboat ready, if things go as planned. Which they never do. If I had to guess, I’d say it’ll take a month. The transporter is drifting away at a pretty high speed, and we don’t have the means to chase it yet.”

  “I don’t think she will survive on the planet for a month. She might have been all right if there was no danger of having the Wisp eaten by hungry spores, but she could be unlucky any moment. Heck, she could already be dead, for all we know. She’s sick and in danger, so she will have to act now.”

  Captain Thornhill nodded.

  “We will send her a message, telling her to return to Earth, then come back to pick us up a month later. Can she do this?”

  The captain looked at Brilann, and the old druid nodded.

  “This seems to be the best option. She will have to report the situation the Tuatha De Danann is in to the command centre, and she will have to come back through the gate, and jump us back home. Or another druid, if she・”

  “Alright then. I think this is the way to proceed. Please prepare a message for her.”

  26

  Communication

  Deirdre had just fallen asleep when the call arrived and woke her up. The loud signal coming from the communication console of the Wisp beeped in an annoying tone that made it impossible for her to ignore. By design, of course. She groaned, rubbed her eyes and sat upright.

  “Wisp, open comms.”

  The primary display switched from the view of the landscape outside to the video feed of the pre-recorded message that had arrived just a moment ago. Again, Lieutenant Fi
onnlagh’s face, nodding at her.

  “There is a message for you from Captain Thornhill. I will now play it for you.” Fionnlagh sounded bored, but she knew it was just for show. Eccentric little fellow. When would she meet him again in person?

  She didn’t feel like talking right now, but this was not a call, it was an already finished message, composed minutes ago.

  The face of Captain Thornhill appeared on the screen, replacing that of the Faerie. Someone else was visible standing behind him, the xenobiologist. Adams didn’t look thrilled if she interpreted his facial expression correctly. Yet another person stood on the other side, staring at her out of milky white eyes.

  “Lieutenant MacBreen, I have decided to give you an unusual command. According to your last report, you found a place of power, so you are be able to open a gate to Earth.”

  Yes, that had been the entire purpose of her mission.

  “Normally, Mr Adams would return to the planet for additional tests, and determine the viability of the planet before taking such a decision. One sample Mr Adams took on the surface turned out to be quite dangerous. It seems, part of the flora of the planet can break down and absorb synthetic materials.”

  Finally, something she didn’t know yet.

  “The Wisp is mostly composed of metals, however, there is still the possibility that the fungi can process even those. There is no way for us to test it right now on board the Tuatha De Danann. We had to eliminate the sample to avert danger.”