by Gini Koch
The five of them gaped at me. “How . . . how did you know?” Fathade asked finally.
Shrugged. “I’m a really good guesser.”
CHAPTER 61
“WE DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS,” Fathade said. “Other than deadly.”
“It’s choking out our world,” Sciea said. “Wherever it goes it thrives. We don’t know how it’s doing this or how it got here.”
“So it’s not the reason you’re trying to keep visitors out?” Chuckie asked.
“No, but it’s another reason for others to avoid our planet,” Cavus said. “Something hit our world. It didn’t come from Spehidon or Crion, but it was like a wave in space. Soon after, this pestilence appeared.”
“Think it’s the same neutron wave that affected Wheatles Kreaving and the solar system he and his ship landed on?” I asked Wruck.
“It’s possible. How long ago did this event occur?” he asked the Cradi.
“Recently,” Feoren replied. “A few of our months, no more.”
Wruck shook his head. “It can’t be from the same event. Well, I shouldn’t say that. It could be. We have no idea where we really are. Or where Kreaving was when his ship was hit.”
“We have star charts,” Serion said. “Would you like to see them?”
“We would, but first, can we get a sample of the orange stuff?” Tito asked.
“We have examined it, so we have samples,” Cavus said. “But it is deadly to the touch.”
“Fantastic,” Jeff muttered.
“Is it dangerous to look at? And by that I mean, can we see it safely or does it have spores that are deadly if breathed in?” Hey, I’d paid attention in school. Often.
“We have some in our lab.” Feoren indicated one of the buildings nearby. “But are you asking to see the growing scourge?”
“Yes. I’d like to take a look at the Orange Scourge.” Hey, I was the Giver of Names.
“Sooner would be better than later,” Jeff said. “Since we have to find that other solar system and we have little to go on. Is it far from here?”
“Sadly, no,” Fathade said. “The Orange Scourge as Kitty has called it has taken over a quarter of our world. Some is quite close by.”
The street we were standing on moved, taking us with it. Again it was like a smooth roller coaster with no dips and was, admittedly, a fun way to travel. We zoomed along, passing Cradi along the way, all of whom stared at us, though some waved back when Jamie waved at them. The rest of us started waving, too, since it seemed friendlier. By the time we reached our destination, my arm was tired.
“How large is your population?” Chuckie asked.
“Several hundred thousand,” Serion replied. “We maintain our population so that we don’t use up our world. As one of us returns to the bosom of Cradus another is born. Not all of us choose to reproduce, but we are able to control when we do so.”
“Do you control the gender choice of the child?” Chuckie was definitely in Academic Mode. It was nice to see him excited about something that didn’t have to do with people trying to destroy us.
“Oh no,” Serion said. “That is the child’s choice, once they are old enough to decide. Until then, they can and do play with their internal and external makeup, becoming what they choose, not what their parents or our society chooses for them.”
“What about war, fighting, attempts to take power?” Chuckie asked.
Serion shook her head. “We have none of those. It is not . . . logical or right to fight amongst ourselves. We are all one, truly, with Cradus, Spehidon, and Crion. Why would we fight? We can achieve whatever we want in terms of science or art and all are encouraged to do so. Our world is beautiful, full of everything we need, and, until the Orange Scourge appeared, abundant. We have no reasons to be discontented, so we are not.”
“So, this is a utopia.” Chuckie sounded thoughtful.
“Seems like it. What are you thinking, Secret Agent Man? I can see the wheels turning, even through the Moon Suits.”
“Nazez was also a utopia. So was Tropea, before Grumpy and Dopey arrived.”
“So? It’s nice to visit places that aren’t fighting amongst themselves. It’s a relief to know that worlds like this exist.”
He nodded slowly. “It is. However, this is, technically, the third utopia we’ve visited on this trip. And we’ve only made two stops.”
“Oh. Huh. Hadn’t realized that, but you’re totally right. Which seems like far too much of a coinkydink and we don’t believe in those.”
“Exactly.” He was going to say more but we arrived.
Sure enough, there was a ton of orange, pretty much as far as the golden eye could see. But it also looked familiar. Extremely familiar. Like I’d seen this stuff all my life familiar. Even the color, though I was used to the color being something else. “Are those a form of squash? Or carrots? Or carrot-squash?”
“What is squash?” Fathade asked. “Or carrots?”
“Something edible on Earth.”
“We cannot eat this,” Fathade said. “It is deadly, to us and to our world.”
“It’s choking any part of the world it touches,” Sciea added.
“Can I touch it?” Tito and I asked in unison.
“Why would you want to?” Fathade asked.
“Because I’m betting that we both have the same idea. Tito?”
“I think it’s a form of squash, yes, though I agree the color is more in line with carrots.”
“Me too. Based on the vines and leaves and such, I think it’s an orange squash of some kind, and those things grow like weeds. My dad planted a single zucchini plant when I was little. Supposedly it couldn’t grow in Pueblo Caliente’s soil and weather. Ha. It not only grew, it flourished. At first, it was zucchini for the nearest neighbors, then the neighborhood, then a mile radius, until everyone said they’d never speak to us again if we gave them one more freaking zucchini. Then we gave baskets to the homeless shelters until we got the same response. Then my parents had to pay people to come take that stuff out before it overtook our house, since it had taken over the entire yard and the dogs literally had nowhere to go to do their business.”
Tito nodded. “This looks organic—for our world. But it’s not organic for this one. However, if it is a type of squash, that means that we can figure out how to get rid of it.”
“We cannot risk toxins,” Fathade said. “We are one with our world, so any toxins in our world will go into us. We have only managed to keep the Orange Scourge at bay. But soon it will infect us, too.”
“Will it hurt the Moon Suits if we touch it?” Didn’t want to wreck these things or give myself radiation poisoning just because I felt sure the plants weren’t dangerous to me.
“We assume yes,” Cavus said. “Use this tool to gather then.” Cavus handed me what looked like the things people used to pick up trash without bending over—a long set of pincers. How Cavus produced this I had no idea—as with the ball of Moon Suit that Cavus had given to Wruck, it appeared basically out of nowhere.
Took the tool and grabbed the nearest squash vine, which had about ten squash on it. It took some tugging, but I was able to unearth it.
“Those are roots,” Tito said. “And they’re long. We need to confirm what this is immediately.”
“What are roots?” Fathade asked, sounding freaked out.
“Um, I saw what looked like trees and deer and birds on our way down the mountain. Don’t the trees have roots?”
“Nothing like these,” Fathade pointed to the squash vine. “The trees are part of the surface of Cradus, they don’t go into the core.”
“Jeff, you and the others stay here. Chuckie, ask every single question you’ve got. Tito and I are going back to the ship. We’ll be back as soon as we know what’s going on.”
Jeff opened his mouth, presumably to argue. Put
up the paw. He closed his mouth. Wow, the One True FLOTUS Power worked even while in the Moon Suits. “We’re fine, you’re fine, this moon is not fine. We’ll be fast.” Grabbed Tito’s hand and took off.
“Not that I’m arguing,” he said as I tested whether hyperspeed could work here and, happily, discovered that it could, “but why are we racing? I think there’s time.”
“Maybe, but I have an idea. I just need you to be sure that this stuff is not deadly to anyone on board our ship.”
The street managed to match my speed and we returned quickly, this time on a fast roller coaster that took a couple of dips so that we could get where we were going faster. And I might have wanted to see if we could do it and it if was as fun as I’d thought it would be. We could and it was.
The street dropped us off right where we’d come out of the tunnel—the opening Serion had created was still there, so we went through it and ran into the airlock.
Fortunately, Tito had been paying attention, because he did all the door closing stuff. “How do you think we get these suits off?” he asked as he hit the airlock’s normalization mechanism.
“Well, in Bizarro World you just sort of peeled.”
“Wait until the airlock’s ready, just in case.”
While waiting, considered where to start the peeling process. Had no good idea. Once Tito gave me the go-ahead tried at the neck, the top of the head, and the wrists. Didn’t work. Considered the only part of the suit that seemed like it moved, closed my eyes, and gently grabbed at the extra material that was there.
Success. Was able to peel it over the top of my head, and once I had done this, the rest rolled down easily. Tito imitated me and we were soon standing there with a ball of gold in each of our hands.
“We can’t let anyone get to this planet,” he said. “They’ll destroy it in a month or less.”
“Agree with you a thousand percent. Now, you get to your lab or whatever and verify this stuff’s toxicity to us and the others on board.”
“What are you going to be doing?” he asked as we exited the airlock.
“Me? I need to go have a confab with some of our passengers.”
CHAPTER 62
“THIS COULD BE YOUR craziest idea yet,” Reader said. “And I say that with the full knowledge of all your other crazy ideas.”
“What’s our mantra, James? I believe it’s that my crazy tends to work a lot better than everyone else’s sanity.”
“Can’t argue that, girlfriend. Cannot argue with that.”
Tito had confirmed that whatever form of intergalactic squash had landed on Cradus, it wasn’t deadly. Well, he’d confirmed that it didn’t appear to be deadly to those of us not from Cradus. There were elements in the squash that he couldn’t identify, but none of them triggered the very sensitive multirace and multiplanet tox-screen that Drax had installed into Mother.
I’d found our volunteer in terms of testing whether or not this stuff was going to kill someone. He’d been very willing to volunteer, which was nice.
Thanks to Mother—though I really suspected it was thanks to Algar—our phones still worked to contact each other even on a moon made of all metal, so I’d called some of the others back, mostly so that Tito and I wouldn’t have to do the Moon Suit Dance until we knew if my plan was going to work.
So Reader had come back along with Joe and Randy. Fathade had insisted on coming with them. We’d been really worried about her being in our ship because it might hurt her, but she felt that she could adapt. So far, she seemed fine, which was a very good thing. She’d also brought along some extra Moon Suits, per my request.
Tito had the Test Squash laid out on a small platform that was under a clear safety dome. Picked up SuperBun and gave him a hug. “You’re a brave rabbit.”
SuperBun admitted that he was. He was also a hungry bunny, as were the rest of his people—Mother’s food wasn’t as satisfying as they’d expected.
Figured this was because of the Nazez black water. That it had altered the rabbits in some way seemed likely. That it worked as a healing medicine had been proven. Hoped that they still had whatever positive properties inside them. Maybe they’d never lose them—Hixxx hadn’t seemed to think they would, after all.
Tito raised the safety dome, I put SuperBun down on the platform, Tito lowered the safety dome.
SuperBun sniffed the squash. It smelled like food.
“We’re standing by with all the antivenom and such that we can think of.”
SuperBun appreciated our preparedness. He sniffed the squash again. Then took a nibble. Then another. So far, it was delicious and not upsetting his tummy.
He ate the whole thing. Then we waited.
“How long, do you think?” Joe asked.
“I know some mushroom poisons can take hours to affect whoever ingested them,” Randy added.
“Those people aren’t having all their vitals monitored,” Tito said. “We’ll know in another few minutes.”
They were a few long minutes, but ultimately Tito declared SuperBun safe. SuperBun requested another squash, just to be sure. Went and got it for him, using my bare hands. They remained unscathed, as did SuperBun, who ate the second orange squash as fast as he’d eaten the first.
“Okay, so I’m fine from touching it and SuperBun loves this stuff. We have, like, a thousand rabbits on board.”
More, SuperBun shared. And many of them were pregnant.
“Okay, we have a tonnage of bunnies here and soon to be here. This could be the easiest problem solve we’ve ever had. While we can try to harvest everything, it would be faster to let them loose and have them go chow down. But I’m not sure if they can do that, even if they can get a Moon Suit on.”
“They might,” Tito said thoughtfully. “I’m looking at SuperBun’s internal organs. They’re . . . stronger than a normal rabbit’s should be. At least as far as I know. As I keep on saying, I’m not a vet.”
“Sounds like you need to stop being a slacker and get trained in veterinary medicine. We have enough animals and no vet on staff. So, because I’m a thrifty FLOTUS, I’d prefer our White House Doctor also be the White House Vet.”
“Can’t wait,” Tito muttered.
“Great! Make it so. Get the rest of the White House medical staff trained, too.”
“Oh, yes, right away.” Tito, too, had a sarcasm knob. “The moment I can talk to them, that’s absolutely the first thing I’m going to say.”
“Speaking of which, Mother, were you able to send the message Stryker wanted?”
“Yes. Though I am not certain that a reply can reach us where we are. This system is blocked.”
“We have protective holograms, yes,” Fathade admitted, as if we hadn’t flown through them already.
“Let’s get back to the matter at hand,” Reader said briskly. “Can we put a Moon Suit on SuperBun and have it have a chance of working? If it works, can he ingest food through it and evacuate as well?”
“Gosh, no wonder you’re the Head of Field. You think of everything.”
“You weren’t the one who got the complaints about the rabbit poop, girlfriend.”
SuperBun apologized. The Poofs and Ginger had explained the concept of litter boxes and the rabbits were now all clear about where to go to clear out.
“The suits should enable that, yes,” Fathade said.
“Wow, really? You mean we could eat and drink and go to the bathroom in the suits? Wouldn’t that mean they get really, um, dirty?”
“No. The metal adjusts as needed.”
“I don’t think we want to eat anything from or on the planet,” Tito said. “Even if we can, it’s likely dangerous if we do. I suggest all meals be on the Distant Voyager.”
“What about drinks and snacks?”
“Why would you care about that?”
“Really? We have a shi
p full of bored people on it, and kids need snacks, and everyone needs water.”
“We have no water on our world,” Fathade said. “We have rubidium and mercury. Those are as water to us.”
“That settles it,” Tito said, before I could ask Fathade to give me a refresher course in chemistry and share what rubidium was. “No one eats or drinks on the moon. Period. People needing drinks and snacks can just come back to the ship or stay in it.”
Fathade cocked her head. “Oh, wait a moment. I am connecting with Feoren.” We waited a couple of seconds, then she nodded briskly. “Charles and Jeff have already had this discussion with the others. Serion may have the solution. We can create buildings that will shield you as the Moon Suits do. In those rooms you could remove the suits and eat and drink safely.”
“Like, a hundred percent safe? Jamie’s not the only small child with us, let alone everyone else on board. None of us want radiation poisoning.”
“This is true,” Mother said. “However, I have spoken with the others at Jeff’s request and I believe we can indeed create a safe room for those who leave the ship. I will ensure that rooms for evacuation are included in the creation.”
“Mother, you amaze me.”
“This form of creation is similar to what I do to create food and other needful things.”
“No, not about that.”
“The communication is simple for me, based on the fact that you have all worn the helmets and you have all lived inside the ship for long enough. Plus I have provided comm links.”
“Nope, not that, either, awesome though all that is. You’ve already mastered sarcasm. I’m impressed about that.”
“I live to serve.”
“See? Drax really does great work. How long to make the safe house or room or whatever?”
“We are already done,” Mother said. “This world is most . . . accommodating.”
Fathade nodded. “Cradus serves those who live upon it and we serve it in turn.”