Once Upon a Saturn Moon

by Edward Antrobus

  Once Upon a Saturn Moon

  Edward Antrobus

  For my friend, Sean, who put the idea of becoming a writer into my head and whose idea this book is in the first place.

  Salaris

  Salaris cringed as the high-pitched whistle echoed through the frozen corridors, signaling a call to assemble in the temple. She missed the deep throb of old bells, but shivered in fear as she remembered how the walls shook and dust rained from the top of the battle-worn cavern the last time they had been used. Her friends dropped the religious tracts they were supposed to be reading.

  "I bet it's another drill." Lomis stretched out her long limbs. "What kind of Saarkaak invasion do you think your uncle dreamed up this time?"

  "When is the last time they actually attacked? I'm over these drills." Salaris knew they needed to hurry, but she couldn't stop from tidying her books before pulling on her parka. "I'm so tired of everything down here."

  "Yeah, Bara." Kasil looked down at the ground below them. "You can bring back the sun and warmth. We've been asking you for it long enough."

  Salaris frowned at her friend's irreverence. "Hush. You don't want anyone hearing you say that."

  Every time Salaris entered the main chamber of the temple, she got goose bumps. Bara felt closer here. She felt the goddess's presence in the carved stonework and brightly painted walls. Paintings and statues depicting their history filled niches throughout the room. Ornate columns peppered the room, supporting the ceiling of the excavated cavern. The room was one of the few parts of the temple that had survived the battles with the Saarkaaks, although the occasional missing column and the broken statues reminded her, even here, of the ever present danger.

  Salaris squeezed in between her two seminary friends, grateful for the shared warmth. Most of her friends had abandoned her after she started dating Donoon when they were teens, assuming that her relationship with the high priest's only surviving relative was a grab for power. Only Kasil and Lomis had been willing to give the dashing older man a chance and discover the gentle nature and keen wit that Salaris had fallen in love with.

  Salaris took her normal position in the hall, near a painting of the first Barakaaks worshiping the goddess. She noticed a loose block about chest high. As Salaris leaned against the worn and cracked support, she made a mental note to the man who was as close to a father as she had.

  Vaamick's limbs trembled as he walked up to the podium. The pressures of leading their people had taken a lot out of the old man. She hoped nobody else noticed as that would make him angry. With Donoon gone, Salaris had been doing her best to take care of the cleric, but he was a difficult man to deal with. He was quick to anger and slow to forgive.

  His gnarled hands grasped the podium as he stepped onto the raised dais. "Bara provides all things," he intoned.

  The crowd completed in unison, "Bara helps those who help themselves."

  "The great father Saturn works toward completing his second orbit in the time since we were betrayed. Times have seemed dark, but deliverance is at hand." His shaking hand fumbled with a button and a view screen lowered behind him.

  The image flickered to life, showing ethane snows flurrying on the surface. The bottom of the screen caught the edge of one of their few remaining super-buses. Great fleets of them had once crisscrossed the land with travelers visiting now-abandoned cities in comfort.

  Salaris blushed as she remembered a gossiped story of a young couple of long ago…before the smog. The couple snuck into one of the cars and made love beneath the Saturn-lit sky. Such things were not possible now. The bus's windows had been destroyed in the war. Now instead of glass, large holes lined the sides of the vehicle, gaping holes like the wounds suffered by the rest of their society.

  Lomis nudged her. "That's the great methane sea." She pointed at the dark pool as waves lapped at the shore. "I recognize it from my surface geography classes. It's pretty far. Father Saturn wouldn't be visible even if you could see through the clouds. What do you think Vaamick is up to?"

  Salaris shrugged. The room was noisy as the hundreds in the room carried on their own versions of the same conversation. A flash appeared on the screen, and everyone grew silent. The flash grew into a streak as it arched through the sky.

  Salaris could hardly breathe as the fireball flew closer. It burned brighter and slowed as it approached the ground. The flames died down revealing a ship. "He's back," she gasped. Vaamick zoomed in on the craft, and Salaris realized that it was not the shuttle that had taken her fiancé from her. This was some sort of alien technology with an odd logo of red and white bars and a blue square instead of the Barakaak's Saturn-and-moon emblem.

  "My people," Vaamick said to the now hushed crowd. "Today is a momentous occasion. This ship brings explorers from another world. Soon, they will bring another, larger ship, which we will use to take to their home world. We will be free of the cold and the Saarkaaks."

  A murmur spread through the crowd. Something felt off. As she turned towards her friends to ask their opinion, Kasil elbowed her in the ribs while removing her mask. She glared at her friend's carelessness.

  "I'm sorry!" Kasil exclaimed, her eyes cast down at her feet at injuring her friend. "I didn't mean to. It's just so crowded in here."

  "It's –" Salaris started, but Kasil didn't even pause her speech.

  "The surface was pretty boring looking, don't you think? Gray snow, gray sky. No wonder nobody goes up there anymore. There's nothing to look at! Except for that ship! Where do you think it came from? Do you think they are going to defeat the Saarkaaks for us? That would be awesome. And a new world! How exciting. I hope its warmer wherever we're going. And prettier. It definitely needs to be prettier!"

  Lomis shrugged and grinned at Salaris when she started rolling her eyes. Kasil was still prattling about the virtues of an attractive sky. She tended to ramble when she got excited. As she was very excitable, she talked a lot. Others found her to be empty-headed, but Kasil simply didn't bother to remember anything she didn't find interesting.

  Lomis was the more serious of her two friends. Salaris supposed that came from being a Lun. Life as a Lun tended to be short and bitter. Luns had no prospects, no future outside of the military. Certainly, marriage was out. Who would marry someone who didn't know who their parents were? Their greatest taboo was a Lun having a child. The child and parents were banished to the surface to die.

  Lomis didn't see the need to bother with frivolous things, like boys and gossip, when her life was decided for her. After completing her mandatory seminary training, she would be separated from her friends and turned into a warrior, sent to die fighting their enemy. A few managed to avoid death and rise in the ranks of the Barakaak's military. But the overwhelming majority did not.

  These things were a fact of life for Lomis, and shaped her life. She managed not to let it drag her down. Salaris respected this attitude and loved her for it, as she loved her chattier friend's carefree attitude. Together the two helped balance her. They had been friends ever since sharing a nook in the orphanage. After reaching adulthood, they had decided to share a living space in the quarters where unmarried women lived.

  Vaamick waved his hands down and waited for the congregation to quiet again. "They will not do this willingly. Humans are little better than the Saarkaaks. They have no belief in the great goddess and seem to try to destroy their own world at every turn. They will not welcome us to show them the proper way of life. When we arrive on Earth, we will be as conquering invaders, taking what they would squander! We will use the plague the Saarkaaks unleashed on us to diminish them and vanquish their remainder."

  Salaris looked at Lomis, who seemed as transfixed by their leader's announcement as the rest
of the crowd. "We can't use the plague. That's wrong," she whispered.

  "Hush." Lomis waved her off, apparently not paying any attention to what she said. "I'm trying to listen."

  "They will not do this willingly," Vaamick continued. "Humans are little better than the Saarkaaks. They have no belief in the great goddess and seemingly try to destroy their own world at every turn. They will not welcome us to show them the proper way of life. When we arrive on Earth, we will be as conquering invaders, taking what they would squander! We will use the plague the Saarkaaks unleashed on us to diminish them and vanquish their remainder."

  "Bara doesn't condone slavery." She tried Kasil this time.

  "Are they even people?" Kasil asked and fell silent.

  Salaris blinked. Are they even people? Usually she could make sense of the nonsense Kasil was spouting. If Kasil meant that the humans weren't intelligent enough to qualify for Bara's mercy, building a ship that could travel to another world should be proof enough. The Barakaaks never built a ship. Even the lone vessel that Donoon took had been built by the Saarkaaks long before the war.

  Finished with his speech, Vaamick stepped down and began to leave. Salaris couldn't believe her ears. This plan is insane. The Saarkaaks attacked and would destroy us; it is only right to fight them. But unleash the plague on a new world? The humans never did anything to us. This isn't defense; it's murder. This isn't what Bara taught!

  Finally, her astonishment and rage could be contained no longer. While the time after a sermon was a time for quiet reflection and speaking aloud was taboo, Salaris could not hold her emotions in. She shouted after him, "That cannot be a plan from Bara. Her teachings are for peace."

  Vaamick turned slowly, his face scrunched into a glare. "How dare you defy me? As the high priest of our religion, Bara speaks to me personally. To deny the divine nature of my words is to deny Bara. You are a heretic. By the laws of the goddess, you must be sacrificed to appease Bara before you spread your lies and corrupt the population!" Others noticed Vaamick's trembling; it wasn't from weakness but from rage. He nodded to the temple guards and they began to converge upon her.

  Salaris saw the guards starting towards her. She eyed the exit. The guards were between her and it; she would never escape without some sort of divine intervention.

  Moments before, people crowded around her. In a blink of the eye, there was no one around her. She looked to her friends. They had backed away as well. Lomis stood next to Kasil with a look of shock on her face. Her mouth was open as if to speak but no words were coming. Kasil, for her part, was openly weeping.

  My friends won't help me against Vaamick. But Bara helps those who help themselves, right?She backed against the stone pillar. I wonder…

  With all her might, she pushed at the loose stone. At first, it wouldn't budge. The guards were getting close. Then the stone gave way. It fell with a thud to the floor.

  The closest guard barked a short laugh at her. "Think you are going to throw that at us, Salaris? I doubt you can pick it up."

  If she was going to get out of here, the column needed to fall. She didn't want to hurt anyone, she only hoped the noise would make the guards back off. She pushed again at it. The pillar wobbled, and the stonework collapsed with a roar and a cloud of dust. Salaris saw that her friends and other members of the congregation had backed away.

  A block caught one guard in the shoulder but no one else seemed to be hurt. The guard lay groaning on the floor, clutching his arm, which seemed to be hanging wrong. Salaris quickly thanked the goddess that nobody had been killed.

  The path to the exit was now clear, as the remaining guards had scrambled to escape the falling rock. This was her chance to escape. She stepped over the fallen man and ran for the door.

  "After her!" Vaamick screamed. The guards recovered their senses and began to chase her. Out the door, Salaris had two choices. To the left, she could try to hide within the temple compound. The complex was not that big, however. Eventually, they would find and kill her.

  To the right was the labyrinth of tunnels that surrounded the complex. Some were better explored than others. Several were in ruins, abandoned in the early days of the war, as the plague raged through their people. The Barakaaks congregated the remainder of the tunnels for safety, should the Saarkaaks attack their stronghold again.

  Salaris hesitated just a second before turning right and plunging into the darkness. She didn't stop to wait for her eyes to adjust. The guards had lights and routinely patrolled the tunnels nearest to the temple. To escape them, she would have to go deeper. There was only one direction where she felt confident she could lose the guards while not getting lost herself. She turned at the next fork and began to climb a shaft she had discovered as a little girl, memories flooding back as she headed towards the surface.

  Salaris didn't really have a plan. All she could do was keep running. It was all so unexpected. She knew that her fiancé's uncle had a temper, but never thought that Vaamick would attack her for disagreeing with him. She had defied the high priest in public and made herself his enemy and a wanted woman. It was only by the grace of Bara that she escaped his guards the first time. The fact that the goddess helped her against the clutches of the powerful leader of their people should have been proof to him that his cause was an abomination, but she feared that the old man had become so twisted by power and hatred that logic would not deter him.

  Salaris paused to catch her breath, and wiped her brow. Despite the cold, sweat dripped from her charcoal black skin. The back of her shirt was damp, making her colder. The air was thin here and difficult to breathe. She knew she wouldn't be able to stay very long. If the sub-freezing temperatures didn't get her first, she would lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Her feet were sore and her legs ached from the exertion. At this point, only adrenaline kept her going.

  Escaping to the tunnels leading to the surface had been a desperate move. While these tunnels were a labyrinth beneath the surface of the moon, they only led to and from the Temple and the surface. She didn't have her mask or surface clothes. If they found her here, she would be trapped. But she figured that her pursuers wouldn't know these tunnels as well as she did. Hardly anyone came to this section of the catacombs anymore. It was too near the surface of Bara; too cold to be comfortable and the thin air was difficult to breathe. More than that, it was too near to Saar, the homeland of their enemy.

  For the better part of an hour, she turned to look behind her for the men who had been chasing her. She was pretty sure she had lost them. It was difficult to see in the dim light and the thin air wasn't helping to sharpen her senses. She pulled one, two, three big breaths of air into her barrel chest and held her breath to listen for footsteps in the distance. There was no sound except for the beating of her heart pounding in her ears.

  She let out her breath. She had escaped. Salaris had no clue what she would do from here, but the immediate danger seemed to have passed. She decided to reward herself by sitting down on a nearby rock to rest for a few minutes. "Just a short break," she told herself. "Then I will figure out what to do."

  The logical part of her brain knew this was a bad idea. If she stopped moving, she would cool down. Freezing to death was an absolute possibility here. But her head was wobbly from exertion in the thin atmosphere and she needed to rest before she could go further.

  Salaris wished Donoon was here. She suspected that he had come with the alien craft that had landed earlier that day. She missed her betrothed dearly. The ringed planet had traveled nearly halfway around the sun since he had left for Earth, taking the last ship not destroyed in the war. It was a mission from the high priest of Bara himself, Donoon had said; though he couldn't explain any more than that, he had promised that they would be wed once he returned.

  Maybe she should try to go back and find him. It would be dangerous to return, but he would never find her out here. He might figure something out, though; Donoon was a man of action. It ran in the family, she guessed. He was alway
s making plans and doing great things. He had even participated in one of the battles against the Saarkaaks. Salaris wasn't a big fan of fighting, but it was nice to know he could defend her from those godless heathens.

  "Godless heathens," she laughed. She didn't really know anything about the Saarkaaks. If it weren't for the near-constant fighting, she would believe them to be only fairy tales told by the elders. The war had started before she was born. Salaris had never even seen a Saarkaak. She remembered ridiculous childhood stories of them being ten feet tall and having two heads, and that they ate Barakaak children for breakfast. Donoon had dissuaded her of that; he insisted their enemy looked just as they did. That they were the same people, simply split by war and religious differences.

  The Saarkaaks weren't her enemy right now. Her own people were against her. And the man leading them certainly wasn't following the dictates of the goddess. Bara-knows how he thought his plan would help them.

  Salaris heard footsteps in the distance. She stood up but got dizzy and fell. The footsteps were getting closer now. She used the wall for support as she pulled herself up once again. She didn't have any more energy to run. She hoped she was far enough away that she could manage to evade them with only a walk.

  She turned a corner and stopped suddenly. A dead end. She turned back but the guards blocked the only other exit. Salaris couldn't think of anything else to try. As they grabbed her, she didn't struggle.

  One bound her wrists behind her back while another hobbled her legs, giving her just enough length to manage a shuffle back to the temple. Only Donoon's nook-mate, Koor, looked her in the eye.

  For a brief second, Salaris thought he might help her. But instead, he looked down and shook his head. He whispered, "Oh, Salaris. Donoon would be so disappointed in you. Why did you have to defy the goddess like that?"

  With less concern for her life than her fiance's reaction when he learned of this, Salaris began to weep.