Rescue from the Planet of the Amartos

by Dale Olausen

  “All except Roger Delmen,” Castilo answered shortly. His expression did not invite questions.

  Coryn let that go.

  “Can you stay up here and keep a Hound watch for us, Dav?” he asked instead. “Keep an eye on the Wanderer in case the Sub-Commander Lady wants to pull off something silly, or maybe she has friends on their way to offer aid. The Rangers should be here really soon; then you can return to the surface, if you have unfinished business there.

  “Steph and I have to get Sarah and the greencat down to the planet, if any of us are to see the girl whole again.”

  “Then you better get her down there,” said Castilo. “What unfinished business we have on the surface is—Sarah.”

  Steph looked at Coryn with a sly grin.

  “Before we head down,” he said, “don’t you think we should abort the self-destruct command?”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Sarah was back in her own reality, if not in her own body yet. She stayed on the mountain ledge for a long while, watching the big orange sun slip slowly beneath the horizon. After the sensory deprivation of the void, the Planet of the Amartos seemed like a beautiful, multi-faceted world. Her only regret was that she did not have a physical body through which to appreciate it.

  She could see the mountains and sky around her and hear the winds whistle among the cliffs below, but she understood with an inner knowledge that seemed to have become a part of her, that the “seeing” and “hearing” were not true sensory experiences. Rather, they were some kind of translations of a more direct cognition of forms, which her mind itself was capable of touching. Nevertheless, she enjoyed the views and the sounds nearly as much as she would have enjoyed them with her own eyes and ears. But these seemed to be the only senses that she was able to manufacture in the absence of the related sense organs. She could not feel the coolness of the wind against her skin, nor smell the scent of the small yellow flowers on the ground.

  A fear had begun to nag at her. She had been without her body for such a long time now, and the experience of “seeing” it in the bed in the stone-walled room had been so unnerving, that she wondered if she would be able to enter it again. Now that she was back in her own reality, she was acutely aware that she was a human being split into two; a mindless body and a bodiless mind. For her to feel whole again, the breach must be healed – but could that be done? Or was she doomed to spend the rest of her existence as a formless ghost, haunting the circular mountain range on the Planet of the Amartos?

  She was a naturally practical person, so she quickly banished the frightening thoughts. The truth was that she simply did not know how it was with her. She would not know until she was next to her body, looking into that empty face. It was true that she had not been able to accept that face as her own while inside the void. But there she had been forced to imagine it, building up the image little by little. The coming attempt to rejoin her physical self would be different; there would be no need to imagine anything. Her body would be right in front of her and she would only need to step inside to accept it as the other half of herself. Whether or not she could do that, she couldn’t yet say. She must wait patiently and fight back her fears until her body was back on the planet.

  She ought to do something to divert her thoughts while she waited. Perhaps the Beth 117 was still on the planet. She could peek in on the Explorers.

  She had hardly articulated that thought, when she found herself hovering above the Beth. It was sitting in the spot she had remembered, fading slowly into the brownish-orange shadows cast by the setting sun.

  While Sarah re-oriented herself to the surroundings, a lighted flyer suddenly rounded into view from behind a rocky outcrop. It glided smoothly to the spaceship, and landed outside the large doors that led into the storage area. With a surge of delight, Sarah recognized the small person seated next to the adult at the controls; it was Cherrie! But the ship doors had begun to slide open and in minutes the Beth would have swallowed the flyer and its occupants, leaving Sarah alone again, having had no more than a glimpse of two friends. Impulsively and well aware that what she was doing was not strictly ethical, she willed herself down into the back of the flyer. She could not contact any of the Explorers, she knew that from her many attempts while trapped in the tunnels inside the mountain. But the desire to participate, if only tenuously, in the lives of her friends was too strong to be denied.

  It was Jodi at the controls of the flyer. Beside her, Cherrie clutched a viso-recorder to her chest. She was talking to the planeting crew leader excitedly.

  “Oh, Jodi,” she said, “it was a good trip, wasn’t it? We got some good vid, didn’t we? I’m so glad those furry little animals weren’t afraid of us. And thank you so much for staying to see the mother feed its little ones! That’s my favourite part of the whole vid.”

  Jodi’s laugh was indulgent.

  “I’m happy that you enjoyed it, Cherrie,” she answered warmly. “For a kid your age, you have quite a vid collection. Any zoologist with an interest in comparative planetary biology would love to look through it.”

  “Oh, but I just love little animals. And big ones too, though not quite so much. I’d like to have a pet,” – her child’s voice sounded slightly wistful – “but I wouldn’t want to take any animal away from its home. Having the vids is better because this way I can look at the animals any time I want to, and at the same time know that they’re really still at home where they belong.”

  Jodi manoeuvred the flyer into the ship. Sarah remained where she was.

  “We’re a little late, Cherrie,” Jodi remarked as she parked the machine next to a similar one. “Ginette has been waiting and worrying, I am sure. We’ll have to find her in a flash and let her know that you’re one hundred percent safe and sound.”

  “She’ll be wanting to put me to bed right away,” sighed the girl, but the eavesdropper could see that in spite of her excitement, the child was tired enough to fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. Her day must have been a long one.

  They found Cherrie’s mother very quickly. She was waiting at the door leading into a corridor.

  “Sorry I kept her so late,” Jodi apologized as she and Cherrie approached Ginette – with an invisible third party hovering behind them. “I hope you didn’t worry too much. I didn’t have the heart to rush her – we ran into a very interesting family of tiny, furry animals just as we were ready to leave. They went about their business as if we didn’t exist, and Cherrie shot her best vid footage then and there.”

  “Oh, mom, it was fantastic! Want to see the vid right away?”

  Ginette hugged the child but shook her head.

  “Afraid no, love. Tomorrow we’ll have plenty of time for that. Tonight I just want to feed you and put you to bed.”

  Cherrie made a face but, as was her habit, accepted the inevitable without fuss. She slid one hand into her mother’s and clutched the precious viso-recorder with the other.

  “I’ll admit to having had a few anxious moments,” Ginette said to Jodi over the girl’s dark head. “Since Sarah disappeared I guess we all have become a little paranoid about the nights on this planet. I’m glad Coryn and Steph found her, but I wish there was a way of knowing exactly what happened to her – things would seem easier that way.”

  Jodi sighed.

  “Every one of us would give a lot to know,” she muttered.

  “That nightdress Sarah had was pretty,” Cherrie chimed in. “Mother, when is she coming back? I’d like her to see my vids. I never had a chance to show them to her. I’m sure she’d like to see them.”

  The two women looked at each other. Both of their faces were grave.

  “I’m sure she wants to see you too, Cherrie,” Ginette said gently. “And I’m sure she will come visit us – if she can – when she can.”

  “Ginette, has there been any word?” Jodi asked the navigator, a hint of anxiety in her voice. “I mean since the message that we received that they made it safely to Kordea?”


  “Yes,” she replied. “A message came on the omega-band while you and Cherrie were out. The Witches weren’t able to bring her back. They told Coryn to get her body back here as fast as possible. They are on their way now. The hope is that once she’s here, she’ll revive somehow – I can’t say that I understand it.”

  “Oh, no!

  “And we’re leaving?” asked Jodi.

  “We’re leaving immediately. Dav can’t see how our staying would help. That Agent and the pilot are quite competent, and Sarah’s problems are outside of Jaff’s medical experience. Dav wants to head into orbit in the hopes that we’ll get the opportunity to turn the prisoners over to the Rangers very soon.”

  “I suppose Dav’s right. The sooner we get those three safely out of the Beth, the better.”

  *****

  Shocked, Sarah willed herself away from the Beth. Unable to visualize any exact location, she just kept repeating to herself the words “outside, anywhere outside.” Seconds later she found herself clinging to a dark cliffside, staring out into the blackening sky.

  The Explorers were leaving! If she could have wept, she would have. Her crewmates had given up on her; they did not expect to see her alive again – ever. They did not believe that bringing her body back to the planet of the amartos would do any good! What if they were right?

  For a long time she hung numbly onto the cliffside, feeling that all hope had been extinguished. But once again her common sense welled up from within, to pull her back from despair. None of the Explorers knew anything about her predicament. Not one of them was the least bit amarto-sensitive – had they not all been oblivious to her attempts at mental contact, even when she had the power of all the armartos on the planet blazing behind her?

  “The thing is,” she told herself severely, “that you just don’t know. You have to wait and see. You can’t know what will happen until you’re up against the test.”

  In the meantime, her common sense told her, the logical course of action was to find for herself a more pleasant place to wait than the craggy black cliffside.

  *****

  She discovered a sheltered crevice among some rocks and settled herself inside. It was a small space, but having no physical body, that didn’t matter. A short, tough bush grew in a neighbouring crack, hiding the opening. She didn’t know what she was protecting herself from, but the presence of the bush was oddly reassuring.

  Inside the shelter she refused to entertain negative thoughts. She would think about the good things that had happened and try to forget her worries. Accordingly, she began to reminisce about the time she had spent in Eden, for those had been pleasant hours. Perhaps their memory would buoy her spirits until dawn, when she could go search for the spaceship that had her body aboard it.

  *****

  “Whereabouts would you like me to put her down?”

  The Camin hovered above the northernmost peak of the circular mountain range. Coryn was sitting in one of the seats beside the star-screen. It was now night on that side of the planet so they were observing in infrared.

  “How about the slope where we picked up Sarah and the cat in the first place? That’s about as close as we can get to where she actually went out-of-body. Can you land the ship there?”

  “Sure can. You think that she might be waiting for herself somewhere near where she first lost herself?”

  “Something like that.”

  Coryn’s eyes were on the greencat. It was leisurely picking itself up off the floor, stretching its body luxuriously.

  “I’m curious to see what the cat does when we land,” he commented.

  “The cat? Oh, it’ll run off into the bush the moment we open the door. Just watch.”

  The greencat was at the hatch the moment it began to slide open. As soon as there was enough room between the two outer doors for it to squeeze through, it had its head outside the ship and was sniffing the night air. Then, without a backward glance, it crouched its muscular body and sprang into a graceful leap, which carried it into the darkness.

  “I’ll be damned,” Coryn said. “You were right.”

  Coryn wrapped Sarah into the blanket that the manservant of Ferhil Stones had left with them. Steph flicked a few switches at the controls, faintly illuminating the outside of the ship.

  “What’s next?” he asked, joining the Agent, who was picking up the girl’s limp body. Both men avoided looking at the blank features of the face.

  “We take her outside and wait. And hope.”

  While Coryn started for the hatch, Steph made a quick detour back into the control sector. When he followed the Agent down the steps he carried two stunners in his hands.

  Coryn laid Sarah on the ground. He was glad that Steph had not turned on too many lights – this way he could turn the girl’s face into the shadow and not have to see it every time he looked down on her. He seated himself on the ground next to her, facing the pilot who was now sitting across from them. Steph tossed a stunner to him.

  “We don’t know what we’re up against on this world at night,” he explained.

  Coryn accepted the weapon. It was true. Sarah was the only human being who had spent an unprotected night outdoors on the planet – and she had not fared well.

  He looked up into the sky. The few stars were only faint pinpricks. How different this night was from those on Kordea! Here there were few stars and no moon, whereas on Kordea there were seven moons and a myriad of stars to illuminate the night. On this world of soft sunlight and pitch black nights the mind of a young woman roamed, awaiting the return of her body. Coryn lay a protective hand on the comatose form beside him and once more felt gripped by anxiety. Would Sarah be able to return to physical existence or was it already too late?

  The stunner was cold in his other hand. Sarah’s predicament might not be the only worry they had. He shifted position so that he was not sitting with his back to the darkness and tried to decipher the night noises around him. It was a shame that he could not read the odours of the night air around him. They might have given him warning of the dangers that were lurking around them.

  *****

  What? Something had alerted Sarah back into the present. The bush in front of the crevice had not protected her after all. Whatever it was that had found her, it was intruding into her mind – or more accurately, nibbling at its edges. Outside it was still dark. Her first frightened thought was of the two fires that had chased her out of this reality after her escape from the caves. One of them had been a creation of the Kordean Witches, she now knew. But there was still the other one, the one that had claimed to be of The Organization. Had it stayed on the planet of the amartos, awaiting her return?

  The presence did not pressure her, however, but retreated as soon as it had felt her begin to bristle with fear. This surprised her and aroused her curiosity. Was the fire using some new tactic on her? Or was the presence not that of the fire, but of something or someone entirely different? Curiosity wrestled with fear and after a few moments, curiosity prevailed. Tentatively, she mentally probed the area in an attempt to learn the identity of the intruder.

  “Little one.”

  “It’s you! The greencat!”

  She let her defences fall, allowing the animal’s familiar mental touch envelop her. She felt lonely no more.

  The cat responded to her enthusiasm with an image of itself purring contentedly. Then it grew serious.

  “I am very glad to have found you,” it told her. “You must come down to where I am.”

  It sent an image of itself standing at the top of a cliff, looking down upon a large expanse below. All was dark as yet, except for a dimly lighted object some distance from the bottom of the cliff. It was a small spaceship!

  But, of course! The greencat had been taken up in the net at the same time as her body had. If the animal was back, then her body must be back too! This had to be the ship that brought them back.

  The fear that had earlier nagged at her began to return. The moment
was almost upon her. Soon, too soon, now, that it approached, she was going to find out whether she could re-join her body and return to normal life.

  The greencat nudged at her impatiently. It reminded her that all it was asking her to do was join it on the cliff-top. Surely she could do that much without panicking!

  If she could have drawn a deep breath, she would have. Then she took the plunge, willing herself to be beside the animal. There she was, no longer in the crevice, but next to the physical form of the greencat.

  “Wonderful,” mindspoke the cat, focusing its eyes on the very spot which Sarah thought of herself as occupying. “You have learned a thing or two during your absence. But, of course, little one, you still have a long way to go before you really know anything.”

  Sarah wished that she had a face to screw up to protest such damning faint praise. As it was, she let the comment pass, knowing full well that the greencat was reading her reaction anyway, no doubt amused by it. However, it was right – she knew nothing about the game she was playing. Not enough even to shield her thoughts and emotions from her peculiar feline friend.

  “See the spacecraft down there?” the animal changed the subject.

  Sarah replied in the affirmative.

  “If you look closely, you will see three human beings outside of it. One of them is lying in a bundle on the ground.”

  Sarah knew who that had to be. She threw it a casual glance, but looked at the other two more closely. They were both men. They looked like they were alertly waiting for something to happen. At least one was cradling a stunner in his hands.

  “All three of you are in great danger.”

  She flinched at the unexpected words.

  Instead of explaining, the cat changed the subject again.

  “I want to give you a lesson, little one – a very fast lesson. I know you are a quick learner. I want you to learn to see in the dark. It is not difficult. Without your body you are not limited by its shortcomings – you can detect forms without eyes and light.”

  “Just below us, next to the cliff, there’s a wood. Are you aware of it?”