A Fistful of Dust

by Sharon Bidwell

  13.

  THEY WERE TO leave for Mars with the injured men where Folkard rightly said they would face another kind of justice…and with the body of Joseph Highmore. None of them wanted to contemplate how Sir Henry Routledge would greet this news, although perhaps the knowledge the man had died saving his friend would calm him. Elizabeth was inconsolable. Annabelle was spending much time with her, and if were not for the fact that he saved her fiancé, said she feared the poor woman would never raise a smile again. As for Henry Barnsdale-Stevens…Arnaud believed his heart was the heaviest of all, blaming himself for Joseph’s fate. Not even Arnaud knew what to say to raise his spirits, although perhaps Joseph’s letter had helped. It seemed they were quite the family for leaving notes, and Joseph had left such a letter in Whitlock’s care.

  In the short time they remained on Phobos, the newly born Florenskiite had begun to tunnel. Folkard seemed to have an affinity with it, although no one overly discussed this, perhaps dreading what many back on Earth would think. The creature bore through to the very minerals they sought (leading Nathaniel to much speculation over genetic memory). Folkard planned to return with a team to Phobos to oversee extraction. Some had raised concern over the possibility another adult Florenskiite might exist, and seek retribution, but Arnaud had put their minds at rest. As well as being an excellent geologist, he was becoming versed in many subjects, and felt certain the creature was asexual, likely reproducing at will or when necessary. He could not help thinking how this would make human relationships a great deal less complicated. Annabelle had taken to calling the Florenskiite his and Nathaniel’s son, and because everyone needed a laugh they let the joke continue; although Nathaniel was more put out than he, of course.

  As well as the minerals, the creature broke through to…Nathaniel had said he wanted to call it a Heart, but the term was misleading. Even though the overwhelming effects of Phobos seemed to dissipate with the repairs they affected, in the nucleus, the core…that place still brought dread. Even Arnaud sensed something inherently evil in that place, and had felt relief when they discovered it was dead. As Nathaniel continued working on deciphering the inscriptions he confirmed his belief that the humanoid form that the Chaldrites mistook them for was that of the Drobates. As they were not natural to Luna, he deduced they were not natural to Phobos. Even Arnaud felt he should have realised that the form could not depict mankind earlier but no one had envisioned another…not-Heart. It had no soul and inspired horror. Arnaud had suggested calling it the Eye, partly from Nathaniel’s translations and because, although dead, it was as if it watched from beyond the grave. Alas, the discovery had thrown up as many questions as it answered. The largest of which was what kind of life existed beyond the asteroid belt, how advanced, and what they had yet to discover.

  They had left the monoliths aligned, and Arnaud had taken the time to lay a hand on each, had felt the vibrations of them singing. There Nathaniel found him, and made Arnaud jump almost as though he had a reason to feel guilty. Approaching him, Arnaud failed to recognise the expression on Nathaniel’s face. “I’m all right,” he told him. “You saved my life.”

  Nathaniel was quiet for so long, Arnaud didn’t think he’d answer him.

  “Despite what we may have to face, I…we have already survived things of which I never dreamed. Annabelle is once more safe…for now, as are we all. You say I saved your life, but I feel in many ways you have saved mine.”

  The speech was quite something, yet ambiguous enough to make Arnaud feel a last moment of unease. Then he smiled and laughed at his own foolishness, the sensation likely being a lingering sense of anxiety, of what Annabelle called The Phobos Effect, rather than a premonition. They would leave Phobos, having made friends with a new race of beings. They had suffered losses and gained rewards. Henry took with him some of the soil of Phobos to cast down on Joseph’s grave. They were all saddened, while some were also excited yet afraid.

  Things could have turned out far worse, so despite any lingering sensations of dread, they lived and left Phobos with the possibility of a future, and that was by far better than leaving with nothing more than a fistful of dust…

  Epilogue

  THE STANDING STONES vibrated as though they were sentient and able to tremble with joy. At last they served their purpose, singing, sending out their chant into the universe. Their voices produced a melody far reaching, far beyond the beings wandering within one small moon. Notes rose and floated as dust on a current of air, guided by a voice only one thing could hear clearly.

  A single note carried the sharpest, the others acting as a flow to direct it.

  On the edge of the Solar System something within the heart of Pluto’s moon stirred.

  The End.

  Next; ‘Horizons of Deceit, Book I’

  Acknowledgements

  A thank you to Andy for dragging me on board the Esmeralda 2 and indeed the whole Space, 1889 project. I’m sure I sounded more bewildered than grateful in the beginning, but now have an abiding interest in steampunk and the desire to write more. A thank you to Frank for receiving my work so well and for creating the series. Little did I know as I was heading out into the world and buying my first home that the original RPG was doing the same and that one day our paths would cross. And last but never least, thank you as ever to Kevin for being so supportive in all my creative pursuits. I still remember that kiss on the cheek after his reading my first ever longer-length publication because of its sincerity and because no other reaction could be as important to me.