by Josi Russell
“It will.”
“Ethan.” Her voice was somber, and the sound of it caught at his breath. He stopped and looked at her.
He saw her then, for the first time in a long time. He saw her star-colored hair, the deep creases around her gray eyes. He saw the slight trembling of her hands and he saw a fear behind her eyes that pierced him.
She was looking down at her hands, repeating a phrase. “Angular velocity,” she said in a small voice. “Angular velocity.”
Ethan reached for her hand. “Something to do with the ship?”
“Yes. How it is moving. I seem to be able to remember it in many contexts, but when I’ve done the battle simulations it escapes me.”
“It will be there, Kaia, when you need it.”
She looked at him, those gray eyes doubtful. “I hope so, Ethan.” Then, lightening the mood, she squeezed his fingers, “Maybe I’ll just have to write it on my hand.”
He loved that she could always pull a serious situation back to a cheerful one. Well, almost always. He smiled at her. “How is the alien situation?”
Kaia sighed. “We still can’t figure out what the Asgre want.”
“The Asgre?”
Kaia glanced at him. “These aliens are called the Asgre. We have heard a few cryptic messages from them. They are here for their property, but we don’t know what that is. They won’t respond to our communications. Don’t tell anyone any of this, by the way. It’s all top secret.” Ethan pretended to zip his lips, and they smiled at each other, remembering a day long ago.
***
Kaia had gone home, the last of the leftovers had been put away, and the Taim had been scrubbed for the last time today. They would be back tomorrow, and the dishes still needed clearing, but Ethan pushed the thought out of his mind and relished the few minutes he and Aria had together alone. The children were asleep. Her head was tipped onto his shoulder, and the contentment he felt was even sweeter contrasted with the terror of the last few weeks. It was all he had wanted, to be home, and even the ominous ship over the city couldn’t spoil the moment.
They talked of the last few weeks, of their loneliness, of their moments of despair. Ethan told her about the wonders of the cave, and some of its horrors.
Aria told him about the crop blight, the mysterious Minean Fever, and about her new friends the Rigos and their tragedies. She showed him a photo on her missive of Daniel and his mother and sisters the first day she’d visited them. She told him about how Gaynes had treated the boy, and Ethan promised to report the cruel man to the Colony Offices.
“I don’t know what he was thinking!” Aria said. “To be so heartless.”
Ethan felt himself tense. He knew. Though he’d never read Gaynes’s mind, he’d heard the thoughts of cruel people like him during those first rough months on Minea.
“He sounds like the kind of person whose thoughts are as dark as their actions,” he said quietly, and Aria sat up and looked into his eyes.
“Oh, Ethan! Your telepathy! I forgot to tell you!”
“Tell me what?” he reached for her hand, unable to discern if she had something good to tell him or something bad.
“Rigel!” she said, her voice higher than usual. “Kaia says he’s telepathic, too!”
Though her eyes were shining with excitement, her words were like blows.
“And it makes sense. That’s why he doesn’t talk! He just plants his ideas in our heads and we bring him whatever he needs!” He saw why she was so happy. This explained so many of Rigel’s worrisome quirks. But Ethan closed his eyes, unable to share her enthusiasm.
He was quiet a long time. When he opened his eyes, Aria was gazing at him quietly.
“I’m sorry,” he offered.
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I remember how it was for you.” They sat uncomfortably. “But—” she began, “it is a gift, Ethan. An amazing one. Maybe with your help, Rigel can . . . grow into it.”
Ethan thought about that. He stood to get the dishes off the table and Aria moved to help him.
“I just wish he didn’t have to bear it,” he said, finally.
“Rigel’s strong. They both are. They’ve gotten so many wonderful qualities from you. This is just one.”
Ethan walked into the kitchen. He had to put the dishes directly in the sanitizer because the counters were covered with Luis’s pottery and all kinds of fruit. He smiled in spite of himself. “Where did all this come from?”
Aria told him of her time searching in the Karst Mountains, and Ethan loved how she spoke about that wild place with an easy familiarity. Polara, he thought, got her boldness from her mother.
“I made some good friends there: Evaders,” she said. “One of them helped me get you in the boat.”
Ethan vaguely remembered a bearded man. He was glad people had been there to help her. He would like to thank the man, but even if he saw him now, he didn’t think he’d know him well enough to recognize him.
Other memories were clear: the caves, the beings who he thought had helped them. He couldn’t have imagined them. He saw them now in his mind with too much detail.
“I need to convince them to stop the blasting,” Ethan said. “Those creatures have their families down there. I saw a whole chamber of sleepers. But I talked to Saras on the missive today, and I can’t get him to listen to a thing I say. All he wants is Yynium, and he maintains that he is not blasting anywhere near the Karst Mountains, but I don’t believe him. I felt the blasting in the caves.”
“Well that’s no surprise. Yynium is all he has ever wanted.” Aria began to load the dishes in her hands into the sanitizer.
“Honey,” he said guardedly, “did the doctors think, the last few days, that my illness was some kind of—” he hesitated, “psychotic break?”
Aria paused. “They suggested it, but I don’t think it’s true. How did you know?”
“Saras mentioned it on the phone today. He thinks the beings we saw were some kind of—” he searched for a word, “hallucinations.”
“No one knows what you saw down there except you,” she said. “Maybe you should go talk to Saras in person.”
***
The next day, Ethan stood across the desk from Saras. He clenched his teeth at Saras’s stubbornness, reminding himself that he was there to convince Saras to stop blasting until they could figure out who was down there. But he was getting nowhere.
“You have no idea what you’re doing,” Ethan said.
“Mr. Bryant, I think it’s obvious he knows very well what he’s doing. Which one of you has a stone and steel house and which one has a free cottage?” Veronika Eppes challenged.
“If you think that cottage, or our life here, came free,” Ethan said, venom dripping from every word, “then you know very little about Ship 12-22.” He took a deep, steadying breath. “We have a responsibility to avoid hurting others. And we need to find out about them. Why are they here? Where did they come from?”
Ethan saw the sneer on Veronika’s face.
“You disagree?”
“We’re here to get Yynium, Mr. Bryant. That is our main objective.” She laid a hand on Saras’s shoulder. Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m not sure that is your main objective, Ms. Eppes.” He looked into her startling green eyes. She didn’t look away.
Saras slipped a gar fruit candy calmly under his tongue. “Every decision we make has to be considered in light of how it affects the company, Mr. Bryant, because what affects the company affects Coriol, and it affects Earth. What we are doing is vitally important.” He looked at Ethan, “Mr. Bryant—may I call you Ethan?” Ethan blinked, waiting for the next manipulation. “Ethan, I know you understand trying to take care of the people you love.” There was, almost, a note of sincerity in Saras’s voice. “We have to get the fleet here before any other aliens arrive to challenge our claims on this planet.”
Ethan sought for words. “But this threat is more real, more present, than the one you think you’re
preparing for. These beings are here. Now. I can show you what I saw.” He reached up, pulling the thought blocker off, steeling himself for their thoughts. But there was nothing in his mind but a strange faint buzzing sound.
Veronika held up a hand. “Don’t bother, Mr. Bryant. We’re aware of your telepathic abilities, and we’ve purchased, and improved upon, the thought-shielding technologies developed by the UEG to keep you from using those abilities here.”
Ethan listened to the strange buzzing for a second more, then slipped his own blocker back on. He looked Saras in the eye. “I saw these beings. They helped us.”
Ethan felt a flicker of sympathy from the man. “I know you believe you saw something down there, Ethan. But you should know that we’ve done scans, and we haven’t detected any significant living beings below the ground level in that area, Mr. Bryant.”
Ethan’s jaw clenched involuntarily. “Significant? Who decides that? Are you saying that you have detected life there and you’re disregarding it?”
Veronika took two steps forward. “Mr. Saras is a very busy man. He’s got several appointments this afternoon.”
“Answer my question.”
Veronika, with that inconceivable unreachability, smiled. Her smile was cold, a stone smile. “Thank you for coming.” She walked toward him, steering him toward the door with her presence.
Ethan looked directly into Marcos Saras’s eyes. “Are you going ahead with the blasting?”
Saras gazed back, a faraway look in his eyes. “Nine hundred thousand tons of Yynium, Ethan. Do you know how many drives that can help build? How many ships we can bring from Earth? How many people?”
“We appreciate your visit,” Veronika said, closing the door behind him.
Ethan ran into the other Vice President out in the hall.
“Did you get your questions answered, Mr. Bryant?” the skeletal man asked.
“Not really. Do you want to answer some of them?” Ethan challenged.
Theo shook his head. “Oh, no, tough questions are Veronika’s department.” He smiled broadly. “But listen, we’re going to have a party to celebrate you guys getting back safe. Just a little get-together the day after tomorrow at Saras’s. Maybe he’ll be in a better mood for answering questions then. I hope you’ll come. And bring your family!” Theo walked away, waving cheerfully.
Chapter 31
The morning sun’s rays shone high on the spaceport as Ethan pressed his hands to his temples. Was it possible that there were no figures? That they had found their way out, somehow, on their own and invented the figures? He tried to connect with Ndaiye on his missive, but since the crew had been back to work these last few days, they’d been hard to reach until evenings. Brynn hadn’t responded at all. He glanced up as Aria came into the bedroom.
“I want to go back to the cave,” he said quietly, hating the words as he spoke them. “I need to see if they are real.”
Aria stood beside him, running her fingers through his hair. “Let’s go then. Luis says we can use his boat anytime, and I’ve gotten pretty good at navigating the river.”
A few hours later, Ethan watched as Aria skimmed the boat across the water. He smiled when he saw that it was made of Saras shipping crates. She moved it by plunging a long pole down through the water and, when it hit the bottom, pushing the boat forward. When a sandbar came, she navigated around it expertly. The boat scraped the pebbled edge as it passed, and Ethan looked up to see excitement in her eyes. Relaxing, Ethan smiled as he settled in on the small frame seat in the center of the boat.
Ethan soaked in the beauty of the morning sun glinting across the wide expanse of the Mirror River.
“I came out here all the time when I was looking for you,” she said, smiling.
“I still can’t believe you found me.”
Aria seemed lost in her own thoughts as she poled the boat over the glistening surface of the river.
She didn’t speak much, and Ethan was glad. He needed to think through what he’d seen. Was it possible that he had simply been overstressed, hungry, and thirsty? Was it possible his mind had created the glistening white beings? Of course there were no ghosts. Of course no one helped them out of that cave.
What was it that the psychologist had said? That his mind had created a construct to embody his ideas so that he could visualize how they could happen? It sounded less plausible to him than ghosts.
He pulled in the fresh Minean air. Ever since the cave, he felt more fully the effects of it, and of sunlight, of brightness and warmth. People walked around in it every day and didn’t even notice it. He wondered briefly how long it would be before he went back to thinking that way.
Aria poled the boat aground onto the stony bank. Ahead of them gaped the yawning mouth of the cave exit.
This was it all right. He walked just inside the cave, to where it fell away to the pit.
Ethan paused, closing his eyes, then opening them to peer downwards. Orange shone back at him. Aria squeezed his shoulder as she leaned with him.
“I see it, honey,” she said.
The Yynium staircase was still there, block upon block as far as he could see. He wanted to climb down and see if he could see the chamber, but the pit fell sharply below him and he knew it would be foolish to risk it again. He lay on his stomach and reached for the staircase, straining with exertion as he lifted the topmost block of Yynium and pulled it, scraping, backwards onto the surface where he lay at the top of the pit.
He sat, running his hands over it. It wasn’t like the jagged chunks of Yynium he’d seen chipped out of the veins in the mines. It was smooth and polished, the corners curved, and perfectly rectangular. It would be impossible to mine it like this. It was as if a fine craftsman had shaped the chunk into a piece of art. And it was grooved on the bottom. When he peered back down he saw matching grooves on the blocks below it. They’d been shaped to lock together.
How could the beings have done it so quickly? How could they have moved in and out of the rock faces as they did? They must have some abilities that allowed them to manipulate minerals.
Aria ran her hands over the block. “It’s beautiful,” she said, and then, catching his eye. “And you were right.”
“I want to wait,” he said, “and see if they come out. I think they might look for water at dusk and dawn.”
“I brought a lunch,” she said brightly. “And the kids are at the Chavez’s. I told them we might be back late. We’ll just spend the day here.”
Ethan nodded. “If I can find them, I can prove to Saras that I’m not crazy,” he said.
Aria’s eyes were cloudy. “Good idea,” she said, “but he’s the type that may need to see the beings themselves.” She laid a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Even then, he might not care.”
The sound of a blast echoed in the arch of the cave. It was still kilometers away, but the mining was getting closer. Ethan had reported it to the Colony Offices, but Saras was, somehow, still only blasting on his own land, and there was nothing to be done about that.
***
Ethan stood at the edge of the cave as night came. He couldn’t bring himself to go inside, but he believed that his figures came out at night, just as Ndaiye had said. He nervously tapped the translator on his belt. He hoped he had programmed it correctly.
The clamor of the porcubats surprised him. He had forgotten that they would be spiraling out of the cave to find their supper. They darted through the air, twisting upward in the last scraps of light to pass through the peaks. Even though they were several feet above him, he couldn’t help but duck, thinking of their long spikes. Ethan darted away from the cave, back to the river and down along the bank.
“Keep down!” he called to Aria, who was resting on a rock near the boat.
He slowed and then glanced back toward the cave’s mouth. That’s when he saw them. No longer shadowy figures in the half-light, the rounded, graceful forms moved out into the gathering dusk, walking upright, their musical voices ringing softl
y through the evening air.
He remained perfectly still, watching as they moved cautiously out, adults with smaller, more childlike creatures, holding their hands.
Their glistening silver-white skin was wrinkled, and Ethan remembered its incredible softness. The creatures moved in family groups to the edge of the river, where they lay down and drank, the drops of water falling from their mouths like jewels.
So he wasn’t crazy. He hadn’t had a breakdown. They were real, and Saras had to be stopped before they got hurt.
The creatures looked up and saw him, farther down the riverbank, and they rose from the water and walked toward him without fear. Ethan stood still at the water’s edge. He reached up and removed the thought blocker.
Aria’s clear, warm thoughts washed over him. She wasn’t afraid. She was amazed by the beautiful, graceful creatures. Ethan smiled and blinked, searching the voices in his mind.
Amid his own tumbling feelings, he found them. The creatures’ thoughts were in no recognizable language. He saw no symbols, heard no words. There was no familiar pattern that he could discern. He knew he had found their thoughts only because there was something strikingly unfamiliar in the known space of his mind. Ethan sucked in a breath at the strangeness of it. Their thoughts were a swirling vortex of experience that he couldn’t comprehend. It felt like spinning through a void. He reeled, lost in his own psyche, reaching out and grasping at anything he could find to anchor him.
It came to Ethan just as he began to suffocate under the weight of the alien thoughts. Like a leaf in a stream, one recognizable thing in the twisting maze: love. He felt it among them, felt them radiating it to each other, strengthening each other with it. These creatures loved each other. It was deep and clear and comforting.
Ethan was dizzy. So much of their experience was still too foreign. He put the thought blocker back on with a quick motion and closed his eyes, feeling the silence in his head like a fresh breeze. He took a deep breath.
“I am Ethan,” he said, the translator kicking in and issuing a stream of Ikastn words.
One of the fathers stepped up and offered his name. Though the translation wasn’t exact, the name sounded like Aemon, and when Ethan tried to pronounce it back, the whole group of them seemed pleased. Aemon took Ethan’s hand and touched it briefly to his forehead. The alien’s skin was as cool and soft as Ethan remembered from the cave. He watched as the being took Aria’s hand as well. She returned the gesture with a smile and a slight nod of her head.