by Capri S Bard
“Yes, Maven. You haven’t visited me since before…” Deni didn’t finish her thought aloud.
“I used to bring Arvin here,” she smiled. “We used to steal tomatoes,” she motioned to the one on the table by Deni. “But we always liked those…oh…what did they call them…black cherry tomatoes? Arvin loved those. Do you have any of those?”
“No, I’m sorry Maven,” Deni said. “We’ve not had those since before I was born.”
“So much loss,” the Maven said. “Arvin loved those.”
“Who’s Arvin?” Deni asked softly.
“He was the son of the first Hoth caretakers,” said the Maven in a far off gaze. She rubbed her hand through the dirt.
“They let Hoth in the gardens?” Deni said in dismay.
“No,” the Maven said as she rubbed her hands together to clean off the black dirt. “That’s why we came during sleeping hours. We snuck in here and ate until our bellies were full of the sweet purple fruits.” She again had a far off gaze.
“Would you like a tomato, Maven?” Deni asked kindly.
“No, no…well…maybe just a slice,” she said with a smile. She delicately picked up a red piece, took a bite, and closed her eyes. “That is magnificent,” the Maven said with a smile.
“Have as much as you like, Maven,” Deni said.
With another bite the Maven finished her fresh tomato. “Thank you dear, but I was looking for Teltel. Has he been here?”
“Sure, the boys are in the fallow field working on some sort of computer. They even figured out how to tap into the electrical system of this room to power their computer since that room’s power has been shut off during its fallow season.”
“I should go check on them,” the Maven said. “But I hear,” the Maven tilted her head down to talk softly, “that you’ve been reading stories.”
“Yes,” Deni said. “Sort of.”
“What does that mean?” the Maven asked.
“Someone else reads. I just listen,” Deni said.
“And I hear that some are upset by this,” the Maven said.
“Indeed,” Deni said.
The Maven smiled and began to walk away toward the fallow field.
“Tell Tala hello and let me know if you have any more trouble from anyone, dear,” the Maven said as she walked down the long aisle. Before she reached the door to the fallow field she met Aiden watering some out-of-control vines.
“I hear you have company,” the Maven said with a smile.
Aiden looked high up to meet Maven Sharla’s gaze and said, “Boys.” He nodded his head. “Says they might get-some old videos-working.” Aiden laughed and said again, “Boys.”
“I think I’ll check and see if they’ve made any progress,” the Maven said.
“Sure, go-right on in,” Aiden said holding the door for the Neph that slightly faded as she went.
Aiden let the door close as he heard the front door open to the main garden. He peered down the row to see Tanik coming into view. He moved his little legs quickly as he approached the keepers’ teacher. Four Emissaries entered and stood behind Tanik. As they did, Tanik folded her arms and looked down at Aiden.
“Don’t-bring-in those-dusty-books you-Goweli,” he said, as his words punched the air.
“I don’t have books, little one,” Tanik said with her condescending smile. “But I hear books have already been here.”
“I-don’t-allow dusty-books in-here,” Aiden protested.
With Tanik and the emissaries looking down at Aiden and Deni who drew near, the door swung open again. Immediately, Tala saw the disturbance and quickly slipped the book she was holding behind the large stalks of sugarcane by the door.
She walked straight to Deni and stood by her side.
“So this is where you come instead of your place at the library,” Tanik said.
“My heart lives here, now,” Tala said plainly.
Deni smiled and quietly took her hand.
“No more reading lies,” the Anthro emissary said to Tala, while rubbing his hands together like he had touched a speck of dirt by just being in the gardens.
“You lie, and you’re spreading lies to others,” the same emissary said.
Deni pulled her knife and let it dangle casually in her hand. “Don’t call Tala a liar,” Deni said with intense calm. “She is good, and kind, and beautiful and deserves every molecule of respect you can squeeze out of your sparsed, arrogant, self-serving little selves. I won’t allow you to be offensive or discourteous to her,” she said. Deni’s golden eyes almost burned bright when she spoke in defense of her partner.
Tala squeezed Deni’s hand tightly and smiled with pride.
“Ahh! There’s nothing here,” the Het emissary said; quite annoyed.
“But I know they read the lies of the ancients,” Tanik complained to the emissaries. They must be hiding,” she said as her eyes scanned the room.
“There!” she shouted and pointed her finger far off toward the fallow field. She raced down the aisle toward the door.
“You don’t want-to do that,” Aiden called out.
“You can’t stop me,” she shouted over her shoulder.
Aiden climbed up on his step stool and flipped a switch. A shower of water came down on the table gardens and the thick heavy mist covered Tanik.
She turned around and looked at Aiden as if she could knock his head off.
“I thought the water system was cut off,” Tala whispered to Deni.
“I guess not,” Deni whispered with a giggle.
“Nice and cool?” Aiden said with a smile. “No-life-in-fallow-field. No-life support-for-many months now. No-air-left.”
“Come, Tanik. There’s nothing here,” the Goweli emissary called to the angry and wet Tanik.
She dragged herself to the garden door looking like a wet rag.
Just when the first emissary had opened the door to leave, everything went black; the expansive garden room, the hallway, the exterior of the ship that was often lit around the windows – were all in total blackness. A moment later a flashing red warning light above each door lit up and a loud siren sounded.
The emissaries dashed out of the garden leaving the door to close on its own.
“What should we do?” Tala yelled over the whale of the siren.
Deni pulled a small light from her pocket and shined it around the room. Aiden had his own light, which is how he guided the Maven and the boys out of the fallow field.
“Deni,” Aiden called over the noise when he had returned with the others. “Stay-with-them.” He hurried to the door and opened it. He quickly shut it again and returned to the fearful crowd.
“Fire,” he yelled over the noise.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Mathis screamed in his tiny high-pitched voice.
The sirens stopped.
“We should stay and put keep all doors closed,” Deni instructed in the dim silence.
“Yes,” Aiden agreed.
“Fire in the engine room,” a calm, female, robotic voice came on the central intercom. “All emergency medical personnel needed in the engine room. All other passengers stay where you are until the smoke dissipates.”
“How long will that be?” Benai asked with a quivering voice.
Sitting down, Teltel answered, “As long as it takes.” Teltel put his hand on Benai’s back and patted softly. “Use the light from your transmitter.”
Benai jammed his hand into his pocket and then another. “I left it in the fallow field,” he said with panic.
“Here,” Mathis said, turning on his transmitter that quickly gave a bright glow. “Take mine.”
Benai took the transmitter and pointed it around the room as he took a deep breath.
Teltel didn’t say anything to Mathis about his kind deed but he did smile.
Tala let go of Deni’s hand and headed for the door.
“Don’t go, Love,” Deni said with concern.
Tala walked a few more steps, retrieve
d the book she had hidden behind the sugarcane plants, and returned to sit with the crowd.
Tala showed the book to Deni. “Thought we could read since we’re going to be here a while.”
“Dusty-books,” Aiden said, dropping to the floor with the rest of the little crowd. “Well, let’s-hear it.”
In the dim light Tala began to read.
31 BE
On the surface of the planet REEN
Chris was the first one to say, “Let’s not tell anyone else just yet,” and they all agreed. Only the cousins knew about the glowing stone.
“I saw other things down there, further down from where I took Irene,” Scout told the others.
“Yeah?! What sort of things?” asked Stella, fully focused on the latest information of this new planet.
“Well,” Scout began. “You saw the stone. I found a passageway that glowed too. I followed this great hallway that was really tall and it went on for almost three-hundred yards or so. There was a drop off at one bend and it was even brighter down there. I had my flashlight but I turned if off at that point because it freed up my hands. I saw that there was some jagged rock all the way to the bottom so I began climbing down.”
Lena yelled from her kitchen, “Wait, on me. I want to hear too.” She had been hosting this little soirée. She brought a tray of glasses and pitcher to the others around the fire place.
“Oh! Lena! You’re not going to try and feed us petal juice again are you?” Irene asked with a turned up nose.
“Just try it. You don’t know what you’re missing,” Lena said.
Shane chuckled, “I’ll stick to our rations Sis, instead of that native swill.”
Chris tried to put his stamp of approval on Lena’s effort and knew he pulled some weight with his cousins because he was the eldest. “I’ll take a glass. Now is this juice from the petals of the flower they call twelish or rilla?”
Lena had made many friends among the native people where she had learned much about the edible plants on this new planet they now called home. “Twelish is poison, Chris.” Lena answered.
Chris smiled good-naturedly as he said slowly, “So this is rilla?”
297 AE
Aboard the EGRESS
Bug giggled, which made the other listeners snap their heads to look in his direction.
Trina was the first to smile and giggle along with him.
Many from the group took a deep breath and smiled. Bug’s ability to laugh during such stress helped others in the crowd to stay calm.
31 BE
On the surface of the planet REEN
“Hrilla,” Lena corrected. “The twelish flower was named after a character in their folklore named Ish who was the gatherer of the dead. And twell is their word for four. For the four giant petals. The Hrilla flower is huge with hundreds of tiny blue petals with a fuzzy black center. The Hoth say that Hrilla was some sort of princess. She had beautiful black hair with bright blue eyes. Some of the Hoth revere her as a hero. But the people of the city despise the mere thought of her. I’m not sure why there is a difference in their history about her. However both agree she was a real person.”
Scout said, “That’s great. But can I get back to my story?”
“Brother, Brother!” Stella said. “This is important stuff. I heard about a flower that kills you slowly just by touching it. It’s probably that Ish thing.”
Lena tried hard to prove herself worthy of being with her older cousins in this new colony. She spoke up, “People! Have you not been here the same amount of time that I have? Why don’t you know some of this stuff?”
Vincent teased, “’Cause we haven’t found a native we want to get close to.”
As he emphasized the word 'close’, Lena’s face turned read. She sat down her tray of juice and glasses and said, “Fine. Ya’ll go ahead and drink your recycled pee.”
Their laughter immediately ceased and Shane said with a furrowed brow, “Yeah! I’ve never quite gotten used to that. But even early astronauts did it.”
“I miss real water,” Chris said, “instead of water that tastes like chicken.” Everyone looked at Chris for a moment in shocked silence before bursting into laughter again. Even Scout who was so anxious to tell what he had discovered in the underground tunnels was laughing a great belly laugh. Chris gathered their attention again as they calmed.
“Alright, Scout you brought us together tonight. Let’s hear what you’ve got.”
“Oh! Sure! Have me follow the pee jokes,” Scout said as he leaned his head slightly to the side like he always did when he was a little embarrassed. There were chuckles again but everyone was leaning in for an informative talk. “Okay where was I when I was interrupted?”
“You were climbing down,” Chris answered.
“Right! So I climbed down, right. And there were paintings everywhere.”
Irene asked, “Like pictures in the tunnel where you took me?”
“This was more. There were pictures, detailed pictures and paintings, and words.”
“Is there a difference?” Chris asked. “Well some were painted with colors of red and a blackish purple and some were ground out of the rock like someone had used a chisel. And some were just scratched like with another rock. But Oh! It just hit me now that I think about it when Lena was talking about the flowers. I saw a particular flower down there. Not a real flower. But I saw it many times in paint and grooved and scratched and even what I think were bones laid on the edge of a tub shaped rock in the shape of that flower.” They were all on the edge of their seats. But everyone gasped when Lena told the story she had learned about Hrilla.
She began telling her cousins of the stories she had heard about the beautiful Hrilla flower. Lena had met an Anthro boy named Pijin. The Anthro tribe looked and behaved most like the humans from Earth. Also, they were great story tellers and Pijin was one of the best. They had spent many evenings on Lena’s front steps watching the suns set. Lena would listen intently to his stories, his history, and his beliefs.
“Long ago before the Anthro were surface dwellers the underground was a peaceful place,” Lena began. She told the story to her cousins almost word for word the way Pijin had told it to her.
“The tribes of the water and of the Earth were in harmony. They grew a grain called seshawee and a vegetable called tephla. There were the Hoth-of the water, the Nen-small and swift, the Anthro-of strong mind, the Antip-of the Empire, the Tsila-one with nature, the Goweli-of beauty and delight, and the Het-strong and proud. Here on the surface they have another tribe called the Neph-of wisdom and peace. They say the Neph are very tall like the Het and Goweli but they can also disappear at will or sometimes without even trying, like when they get scared or embarrassed.”
“Disappear?” asked Chris. “What do you mean?”
“Well, they are there one minute and gone the next,” said Lena.
“They can teleport?” asked Scout.
“No,” answered Lena. “From what I understand they just fade right where they are and then reappear. All of the tribes have special abilities.”
“Like what?” asked her brother, Shane.
“The Goweli are beautiful and the artists of the tribes. They paint, and sculpt and write; things like that. The Het are giants and they are very strong. They were the guards of the underground empire. The Antip are from a royal line of rulers and they can push their thoughts into other people’s minds, except for the Anthro. They can’t be pushed. The Anthro sound the most like us.”
“Can those Anthro push humans?” asked Vincent.
“Antip,” Lena corrected. “It’s the Antip that can push their thoughts.”
“Ah! This is so confusing,” Vincent said in exasperation.
“No doubt,” Shane echoed.
“I guess that’s the Anthro’s special ability; they can’t be pushed. Then there are the Tsila. They have exceptional hearing and they are connected to nature somehow. Oh! And they don’t talk much. The smaller tribes are the Nen, which ar
e very fast on land and in the water. And the Hoth are the smallest and live mainly in the water. Oh! And they have gills.”
“Gills?” asked Vincent. “Well that’s a bit disturbing.”
“Are you kidding? That would be great,” said Shane with a laugh.
Stella interrupted, “No wonder you soared through school Lena, with a memory like that.”
Lena reveled in the approval.
“Come on, Lena. Tell us more.” Scout was always ready to get right to it.
“Well Pijin said,” Lena began,
“Pijin?” Vincent teased. “Is he part bird?” He laughed. If Darcy would have been there she would have scolded her big brother about his ribbing. But it was because Darcy wasn’t there that he pestered Lena so affectionately.
Scout took over, “Come on man. Let her finish. Even if Pijin is the funniest name I’ve ever heard,” he chuckled.
This family of cousins, who had only reunited weeks before they were approved to join this new colony, was cohesive in their relationship. They enjoyed each other and laughed with carefree ease.
“Okay people, back to Hrilla,” Scout said.
Though Lena was tenderhearted and emotional about some things she was also strong and self-assured most of the time. “Well,” she hesitated and nodded a couple of times before saying, “Pijin,” the others just smiled at each other but Vincent let a little laugh escape. Lena let it roll off of her.
“Yes! Pijin said that the Hrilla flower was named after a beautiful girl from long ago.”
“Beautiful girls! Now we’re talking about something,” Vincent said with feigned seriousness.
Chris raised his eyebrows and smiled, “You got that right,” And he said in a lower tone, “Have you guys seen the girls in our colony?”
Scout agreed, “Who on Earth permitted that lot to come.”
Stella, Scout’s sister, stood to her feet and motioned with her arms. “Okay new rule. Nobody says a word until Lena tells her entire story.”
Sometimes the cousins’ familiarity and casualness with one another irritated Stella who liked to stay on track with the thread of conversation.