The Far Side

by Wylie, Gina Marie

  “No, they wouldn’t do that, I’m sure. They’re a man’s last line of defense if a dralka gets close. Once they’re on the ground and hopping towards you, the only arrow targets you have are the eyes, each about the size of a silver dollar. A sword, on the other hand, gives you a fifty-fifty chance of surviving.”

  “I guess our Buck knives aren’t worth much then?” Kris asked.

  “Not a bit. Not even my Bowie.”

  “And that is a big-ass knife,” Andie agreed.

  “Sure, but the dralka have a mouth as long as your arm. It takes one bite to cut through an arm or a leg.”

  Kris sat up. “Did they see them today?”

  “No, and they were looking. Maybe they were killed in the storm.”

  “You never really think of wild animals dying in a storm,” Andie said, a curious look on her face.

  Kris laughed at her friend. “And you think all those fossil animals died of old age, peacefully passing in their sleep?”

  Andie gave her a finger and Kris laughed harder at her.

  There was no point after that in staying up much later, except for wasting flashlight batteries. Melek and his people had let their fire go out and the room was very dark.

  In the morning they were awoken at first light by a commotion. Ezra went over to Melek and waited while the man sent some of his men outside, then went himself. “What?” Ezra asked.

  “Menim leave.”

  Melek and his men spent most of the day looking for him, but he’d vanished. Kris wasn’t sure how that could work, because nights here were very dark, with just faint starlight. That reminded her that she wanted to check the sky. The first night had been traumatic, when they hadn’t recognized the stars.

  It was in the late afternoon that Ezra looked up from where they were, near the cave entrance; he was frowning. Kris watched him curiously. “What is it?” she asked after a minute.

  “It’s getting dark too early.”

  The shorter day had long since hashed their internal clocks, to say nothing of their watches. They had taken to writing down each day what time they thought noon, sunset, and the next day’s sunrise would be, and then going back with twenty-twenty hindsight and noting the actual times. This was their sixth day wherever they were, and sunset was due at six PM, according to their watches. But it was the equivalent of about five now and it was too early for the sun to be setting -- but it was getting noticeably darker outside.

  The three of them got up and went towards the entrance. Ezra stopped suddenly in his tracks, staring to the west as soon as he was outside. Andie’s jaw dropped and Kris followed with her eyes where everyone was looking.

  She had no idea what she was seeing. Along the western horizon, it was like someone had taken a black bite out of the sky. There was a dark crescent that lifted a few degrees above the horizon. It wasn’t as wide as the horizon, but still, two thirds was a whopping big chunk. And the sun was clearly setting behind the bite.

  “What’s that?” Kris asked.

  “That has to be a moon,” Andie said, her mouth moving silently after she spoke.

  “That’s one big moon. And rising in the west -- what’s that called? A prograde orbit?” Kris asked.

  Andie giggled. “No, you’re looking for the wrong answer. You’re thinking of a retrograde orbit, where a moon would rise in the west and set in the east.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

  “Well, in this case it’s actually a prograde orbit. That is, it rotates in the same direction as the planet rotates. If it was a retrograde orbit, it would rise at least once a day, most likely in the west, for sure, but it would zip across the sky relatively quickly. Earth’s moon slowly twirls around the Earth once a month and is a semi-fixed spot in the sky, rising roughly an hour later each day. It’s moving in its orbit in the same direction the earth rotates.

  “This moon must orbit around the planet in a little more than once a day. For this, think of it as something like a geosynchronous orbit, only closer.”

  “This moon has an atmosphere,” Kris pointed out. “You can see it there against the sun.”

  Andie whistled. “Wow! Oh, wow! A double planet!”

  “Pardon?” Ezra asked.

  “That planet may well be roughly a twin of this one.” She chuckled. “I bet these people never had any trouble figuring out that this was a sphere rotating in space!”

  For Kris, her first thought was that if Andie said it, it had to be true. Then she remembered some of the truly inventive models of the universe some of the primitive cultures had back on Earth and she wondered. Then little wheels stopped rotating in her mind.

  “Ezra, can you ask Melek what sort of weapons his ancestors came here with?”

  “From what he said, they had bows then as well.”

  “Fifteen hundred years and they haven’t improved very much,” Andie opined.

  Ezra shook his head. “We had bows on the Earth back a couple of thousand years BC. Things like armor and crossbows came after thousands of years of development. I think the dralka drove the development of the long bow, but they still have a ways to go. I’d say they are like the Greeks or Romans.”

  “They have no armor to speak of,” Kris mused.

  “No, but these are, more or less, scouts,” Ezra told her. “They wouldn’t carry much in the way of armor or heavy weapons.

  “Why don’t you ask?”

  Kris jerked her head south. “It never rains but it pours.”

  Andie and Ezra craned to look. Five or six miles away to the south was a rising pillar of smoke. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Kris went on, “but aren’t most fires man-made? And didn’t Melek’s people go north?”

  Ezra cursed under his breath. “They’re going to think we’re jinxes.” Still, he cupped his hands and called Melek, who came. Melek had a faint smile on his face that made Kris wonder if he’d figured out that they weren’t from this planet.

  Still, he wasn’t happy with the smoke. He called a name and the largest of the soldiers came to him. Kris could see the soldier’s eyes narrow, and while she couldn’t understand any of the words, the meaning was clear enough: go see who’s there, don’t be seen and get right back.

  The man pointed higher on the mountain and traced a line along a higher ridge that would lead south. Melek nodded and then the man was loping along the ground, staying low.

  Ezra pointed to the slice out of the sky and asked a question. Again, Melek looked like he understood their confusion, and he and Ezra spent a half hour hashing over the concepts.

  Finally he turned to Kris and Andie. “Yes, it’s another planet, although he’s not sure if it’s larger or smaller. In fact, the idea it’s round I guess is only a couple of hundred years old. It is, he says, blue and white, dark green, and brown. From what he says, the planet is tidally locked, unlike this one -- the same face always looks down from the sky.”

  Andie nodded. “I wondered why the day was so short here. Typically, rotation periods slow, not speed up. Jesus! These fuckers are sure going to have it good when it comes time to motivate them to go into space.”

  Ezra agreed. “Probably. The ‘Big Moon,’ as he calls it, rises in the west and sets in the east -- it takes about five and a half days before it’ll be out of sight again in the daytime.”

  Andie sighed. “I sure wish Kris’ laser range finder worked that far. With an estimate of the timing of the orbit and a good number for the distance between the two bodies, I can work out their combined masses. A guesstimate of the relative sizes and I’d know their real diameters and the force of gravity at the surface of each.

  “I have a feeling this is a big planet,” Andie went on. “You said their ancestors were supposed to have been at sea for three months. If they were moving at the usual clip of a ship running before the wind, it might be anywhere from eight to twelve thousand miles they sailed. That’s one big honking ocean. And if the oceans store up heat like they do at home, and you have a hurricane that runs fo
r days across warm waters -- you’d get a lot of Category 5 hurricanes -- like the one the other day.”

  “I wonder if the storm came up behind a ship from wherever their homeland was and swept them far, far off course?” Kris suggested.

  Ezra shook his head. “Right now, it’s bad to speculate. Until we get some solid information we shouldn’t do it.”

  Kris suddenly felt like she’d been poked. “This used to be a pirate hideout, right?”

  “Well, outlaws at least,” Ezra agreed.

  “We should move that boulder so that it almost blocks the entrance and be ready to move it to completely block it in case those people are hostile,” Kris suggested. “We should do it before they send a scout here and see us going in and out.”

  Ezra nodded. “Good idea!”

  “And, you have to think these bandits had to have some way for a lookout to secretly look outside, right? They would have wanted to know if the coast was clear, wouldn’t they?”

  Ezra laughed. “I’m sure they would. Are you sure you don’t want my job? I should have thought of that already. They had a lot of spy holes in Afghanistan, although sometimes they were pretty hard to find, even from the inside.”

  He went and talked more with Melek, and a group of them went to the boulder. It didn’t take long to move it to partially block the entrance, and Ezra rejoined the girls. “In a bit, we’ll look for the spy holes. That boulder is a very clever piece of work. There are places for six men to grip and lift it, and it’s easily manageable with six. Melek also thinks there are bound to be some spy holes as well.”

  It took about two hours of looking before they found the spy holes -- there were four of them in a small chamber. The only sign of where that chamber was was a series of holes chiseled into the rock, one above the other. You climbed up the wall putting your feet in the holes, and your hands into others. It wasn’t the safest thing in the world, but there were two eyebolts at the top that let you pull yourself into the chamber, eyebolts that Ezra had fastened safety ropes to. With a couple of people keeping the ropes taut, you could get up and down safely and relatively quickly.

  Later, they were sitting all together at dinner when the scout came back. He reported quickly to Melek who then asked questions for a while, and then Melek explained things as best as he could to Ezra. Ezra kept Kris and Andie abreast of things as Melek talked.

  “He says there are maybe a hundred of them. They have a ship that is pulled up on the land, and it’s a wreck, and they seem to be cannibalizing it as well for firewood and shelter.

  “They do seem to be their ancient enemies, and the irony here is too hard not to hurt. Their enemies are black-skinned, tall, and thin. In a total role reversal, they are mostly armed with axes and...”

  Andie interrupted. “How is that a role reversal? Didn’t the Norsemen use axes?”

  Ezra shook his head. “Except the Norsemen were tall, blonde, and blue-eyed. Not only are these men black and have brown eyes rather than blue eyes -- the real role reversal is that there are about eighty of them, according to Collum, the scout, and about twenty whites who are slaves. And, Collum says, they are carrying something that looks more like my P90 than a bow. The axes are carried on their backs.

  “And, the scout says they have a couple of people out scouting as well, but they are staying close to the ship right now.”

  “We’ve shared food with Melek and his men,” Kris told Ezra. “I know Melek said he needed time to think -- now he’s got to pick one from column A or one from column B.”

  “Yes, he either gives us a map or a description, or we can’t go with them,” Andie confirmed.

  Ezra glanced at the locals and turned back to Kris. “Well, there are only nine of us left. The smart thing to do is head north the first thing in the morning, before any scouts can get here. Except that’s back to five cases of food each, which is going to be about eighty pounds. Even if we carry one jug each and find enough water, it’s going to be a close run thing.”

  “Can you even carry a water jug -- much less eighty pounds of food?” Kris asked Ezra.

  He held her eyes. “This isn’t a case of ‘can I’ -- it’s a case of ‘I have to.’”

  “And just how will it affect our ability to move north if your back goes out?” Kris asked quietly.

  He shrugged. “You would go north and I would have to find a good spot to hole up. I wouldn’t be going anywhere.”

  “That’s not an acceptable option,” Kris said heatedly.

  “And the alternative? Everyone else carries ten extra pounds for me?”

  “If that’s what it takes,” Kris told him. “You can take your Protestant work ethic and shove it.”

  “And you fuckin’ know where you can shove it, too!” Andie said with even more heat. She waved at Melek and his men. “You’re the only one who can talk to these guys. I don’t care what you think about Melek; he’s one man. Six men with two teenage girls along would be stretching too many males’ ability to deal with the word ‘no!’”

  “Well, we’ll have to see what happens when I give Melek our ultimatum. Things could end up going in the toilet right then. It’s not a good sign he hasn’t brought it up.”

  Andie sniffed. “Since Menim left, I bet he’s finding himself in sole command for the first time in his life... and finding out how attractive the idea of ‘kick the can down the road’ is. The problem with that is, if you get in the habit, pretty soon that’s your response to every problem or decision.”

  “Amen,” Ezra told her. He stood up and went over to Melek, and the two men drew off a ways and talked for a long time.

  After an hour, Kris couldn’t take the waiting anymore and got up and joined them. She lifted an eyebrow and Ezra nodded. “In principle, he’s agreed. The problem is that drawing a map is treason; leaving one lying around for someone to find isn’t very smart, not to mention even more treasonous.

  “What I’m doing is getting a firm description of the lay of the land, and instead of drawing a picture map, I’ll do it in English, as a narrative. It won’t be as good, probably, and it’ll give him almost no cover, because technically he’s committing a capital offense by giving us the information. And, considering that we’re going to spread it to the folks from back home, I’m not sure but his bosses have a right to worry.”

  “And what are our plans?”

  “We have closed and sealed the door. We’ll stay here tomorrow getting packs ready as best as we can. You understand that they don’t have any of their equipment? No packs and all of that? They aren’t going to be bringing much gear along, because it’s gone.

  “He thinks they can cobble something up to carry what they’ve got; you and I have our packs. We’re going to have to do something for Andie, ourselves.

  “Melek would really like to stay a few days here, making sure everything is as ready as it can be, and eating some of the food. He says that on foot we should be able to make good time, and he doesn’t expect more than one or two difficult river crossings -- and even that’s not certain. The water levels fall fairly quickly after a sudden rain like this.”

  “Did you tell him about your back?” Kris asked.

  “Yes. It’s not a surprise, but such injuries are common here -- usually you just die as they aren’t very big on charity. Your father took a huge step down in his estimation when he found out my back was messed up -- he’s not sure why anyone would hire someone who is ‘broken’ as they so quaintly put it. But he agrees that I’m too valuable to be left behind, and if you and Andie carry part of my stuff, he’s okay with it.”

  “Magnanimous of him,” Kris said dryly. “We ask for a lousy map, and we can’t have it -- just a verbal description. We ask if they’ll carry part of your gear, and they balk.”

  “They balked only a little, Kris. The thing with negotiation is that you don’t back people into corners, and you always leave yourself and the other guy options that you can wiggle around. With their ancient enemy sitting on the beach a few
miles away, we’re lucky Melek is going to cut us any slack.”

  Kris thought about that. “Are they going to associate us with the bad guys?”

  “I have no idea. You have to admit that it’s a mighty big coincidence to have guests from another planet drop in the same week you get a super-duper hurricane and your enemies from 1200 years ago show up on your shores.”

  “Hey!” Andie said with a laugh. “Tell them that God is a woman and she’s a bitch!”

  Ezra looked at her seriously. “You would think our experience back home would teach you to be more careful, Andie. Say that sentence in any Muslim country back home, and you’d find yourself on the execution block in short order. Melek and his people have beliefs and I’ve told him that we have them too -- we’re both smart enough not to want to pry into that can of worms just yet. We skirt around the topic, light on details.”

  Andie spoke more seriously. “Something has happened back home, that’s clear. Either we are lost, or someone isn’t letting them turn on the machine again, or build a new one if the old one was damaged. We had problems with the DWP and the FBI -- and we sure as fuck had trouble with the two assholes.

  “It would take something pretty drastic to make it so that Linda, Shorty, or Lin couldn’t build a new machine if the old one was messed up. Which just shouts that someone is stopping them. At this point in time, our situation is imponderable. It could just be that Kit and Art are trying to hog the machine and get all the credit -- and money -- for it. It could be the government, the power company...

  “But it doesn’t matter who it is because I had my Doomsday Weapon ready to go last week. Fuck ‘em! If I can’t have it, they sure as fuck aren’t going to get it! I’m going to drop the biggest F-bomb the world has ever seen!”

  She looked around. “The problem with that is it won’t kick in for another two weeks, more or less, because time here is so messed up. Then, who knows how long it will take before the Doomsday Weapon wipes out all of the opposition? I have no idea.

  “The bottom line is that I’ve been keeping the instructions under the air horn up to date, morning and evening.” She waved northwards. “I don’t see any long term way we can stay here and with possible enemies that close -- I say we blow this place.”