Seeing Stars

  “It’s a win-win situation, Rhus,” Haber insisted, ignoring the question. “You get yourself a new girlfriend and we start to see more black ink on the bottom line.”

  A shiver trembled along Rhus’ dorsal fin. This was moving too fast. He thought he was being clever but, in reality, he was drowning in Haber’s clipped, flat words.

  “Maybe we can talk to Salvia,” he pleaded. He didn’t have to feign the green streaks zapping along his body. “Discuss what you’re unhappy—”

  “There’s a time for talk and a time for action. The company, which I represent, has been more than patient with Salvia but we’re a business, not a fucking charity. I’ve stayed here, seen how this place operates and I’ve made my decision. Are you in?”

  The suddenness of the question took Rhus by surprise. The words were flying by him too fast, pounding him with each syllable before he had a chance to think about what was being said.

  He had such little interaction with normals, beyond conversations aboard the Nemo. Faisbain and he had only exchanged unimportant pleasantries in between medical questions. Salvia was the only person he knew and fully trusted, but she didn’t talk like Haber or even like the more kindly Faisbain. Was he understanding what Haber was saying? Or had he just made a huge mistake?

  “Rhus? Do you want a new girlfriend or don’t you? We could craft her to your specifications, splice in some mood-enhancers so she becomes more compliant when you’re around. We could make you king of Europa if that’s what you’d—”

  “Yes!”

  Rhus interrupted Haber’s words because he didn’t want to hear any more. He just wanted a stop to everything so he could return to the cool quiet of the ocean and the heat of Salvia’s arms.

  “Yes,” he repeated, more softly.

  Rhus didn’t want to be in the tiny tank being stared at by a normal as if he was barely above the level of a trained animal. He should have been proud that he’d discovered Haber’s plan. Instead, amidst the clear water that surrounded him, he felt small and dirty.

  We’ll run away.

  The thought formed in his mind, full of excitement and hope.

  He’d leave the station as quickly as he could, find Salvia and they would swim as far away as they could. To the other side of Europa, if necessary. After all, it was all their domain. Every square centimetre of rock was covered in water beneath a thin, icy crust. The normals needed special equipment to travel in such an environment. He and Salvia didn’t.

  “I’ll go,” Rhus said in the ensuing silence. “I’ll tell Salvia that there’s an emergency here at the station and I’ll bring her here.”

  Maybe Rhus betrayed himself, flashing a prideful violet when he should have been projecting submission. Whatever the reason, Haber stood up, shaking his head.

  “No. We’ll do this my way.”

  “Your way?” Rhus’ voice faltered.

  “I’ll direct the station to get two submersibles ready. After they’ve launched, you can lead us to Salvia. Why wait when we’ve both already agreed on a plan, right?”

  Rhus watched helplessly as Haber grinned at him.

  Chapter Five

  Salvia knew something was wrong. She could feel it deep within herself, like a string in her belly being pulled taut.

  “I shouldn’t have let him go by himself,” she told herself. A small animal, striped white and red, shaped a little like a terrestrial crab, hopped off the boulder she was facing and scuttled off along the ocean floor. Salvia followed its zigzag path with a pensive gaze.

  “But how could I have known?”

  Her sudden tiredness and loss of focus had distracted her and she had let Rhus travel to the station by himself when she should have been following him. Using the network of escape pipes through the station to listen in on what was being said—or done—to him. Being her usual smart self.

  “What if they’re hurting him?”

  Salvia couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to Rhus. They’d only just discovered each other. They were like the Adam and Eve of that old Earth story with a brand new world to explore.

  And, what was more, there was news that Salvia had only just come to realise about herself. The reason for her inattention and lack of focus. The reason why she felt so tired all the time.

  She was sure she was pregnant.

  Dr Faisbain had been the one tasked with her education and that had included biology. It was required as part of her duties, so she’d have an idea of whether the plants and animals she found on Europa would be of interest to the company. And, in learning about biology, Salvia learnt about her own heritage. Of how the company had spent years splicing dolphin and marine animal genes into the DNA structure of a normal, adapting human features so that lungs were now filled with feathery gill structures instead of bubble-like alveoli. Human blood was modified and made more fat-friendly in order to increase its cold tolerance. Bigger and better eyes were created, covered with two sets of eyelids and augmented with photopores. A dorsal fin was added for better stability in the water, webbed fingers and toes were developed, a more streamlined body with tougher, bioluminescent skin was crafted. The list went on and on.

  But there were also side-effects that even someone as smart as Faisbain hadn’t figured out in advance. Salvia’s unerring sense of direction and navigation, for one. And secondly, such a finely-tuned sense of her own body that she knew she carried new life inside her.

  It was wonderful news but also terrifying at the same time. What skills were required to care for an infant? Was she carrying just one new life? Or more? What would Rhus say when he found out? Would he be happy or resentful of a new responsibility so soon after their lives together had begun?

  Salvia knew she would have to tell Dr Faisbain about this new development as soon as possible. But, in the meantime, she had to wait until Rhus returned and her sense of foreboding disappeared. She tried applying herself to her work—there was so much to do—but it didn’t help. She was sure there were many discoveries waiting for her farther out from her present position, but she wanted to remain a close distance to the station. She still didn’t trust all the station staff and, even though she liked Dr Faisbain, the woman was a normal. After the conversation she’d overheard in the pipe system, Salvia was torn between leaving the normals far behind and being near enough to help Rhus should he need it.

  Then she thought she heard it.

  “Salvia!”

  It was Rhus’ voice but it was faint, with no accompanying scent of him on the currents. Salvia spun in the water, looking up towards where the ice crust was located.

  “Rhus?”

  There was nobody around.

  Was she imagining things?

  “Salvia!”

  Clearer this time but also different. In her head!

  Salvia’s hands shot up to her temple. “In my…head?”

  There were no other words, just a sense of danger and urgency. Salvia strained her eyes as she scanned the surrounding water. She tried looking out for Rhus, for one of the station’s submersibles, for anything that might explain this strangeness in her head.

  “Where?”

  Rhus was asking a question this time but the tone was still filled with desperation. For a moment, Salvia’s mind went blank, then she tried to concentrate on an image of where she was.

  “Stonehenge Maze.”

  Could she even do it, transmit a fuzzy picture of her location to Rhus? She didn’t know. The fingers that were still at her temples pressed deep until she felt she was squeezing her head in a vice.

  “Stonehenge Maze.”

  She tried to isolate the Maze’s defining characteristics, most notable of which was its series of semi-dormant vents. The funnels formed tall columns of minerals that had grown towards each other so they resembled giant doorways. Around the columns, forests of fairy feathers had sprung up with their long, white, wispy fronds. Using the occasional heat from the vents, they turned it into energy and food for themselves, as well
as providing good foraging for several species of Europan animal.

  Salvia tried hard to picture the arched chimney structures and swaying copses of stark white plants. She was wondering whether she’d succeeded, and fretfully turning circles in the water, when she saw a glimmer of light in the distance. She could tell in an instant that the illumination was artificial to Europa and so knew it to be a submersible from the station. And was that Rhus swimming beside it?

  She was about to stroke out to him when she got one clear mental message.

  “Hide!”

  She stilled. Did she receive that message correctly? Did it say—

  “Hide!”

  Heeding the warning and with wide eyes, Salvia dove down into the fairy feathers, shivering.

  Rhus tried stalling for as long as he could on the way to finding Salvia. He pretended his swimming was weaker than it actually was. He tried to divert the two submersibles through long routes. While both tactics bought him a little bit of time, it wasn’t enough.

  As far as he was concerned, the only thing he could do once he found Salvia was to help her escape somehow, then turn and fight. He didn’t know how he was going to do it but he was not going to let his love fall into the hands of these merciless normals.

  While being transported from the observation tank back on the station to the ocean, he caught sight of Dr Faisbain and thought he saw an expression of sad resignation on her face. For a moment, hope flared inside him that she might help, but it was quickly dashed when she wordlessly watched the technicians empty him into the tube and keep him there until the two aquatic vehicles were ready.

  At least they hadn’t tied him to one of the vessels for the journey but they didn’t need to. With transmitting beacons inserted somewhere in his and Salvia’s bodies, the normals could track both of them with ease. Rhus gritted his sharp teeth and continued to swim.

  He knew he was close to Salvia when he smelt the fragrance of her carried on the currents. Psychically, he also knew she was close.

  He thought she must have the same feeling about the deep connection they shared, something beyond the physical and rational. And while he would have preferred to test it under more relaxed circumstances, he had no choice. Pushing his senses to the limit, he tried to project a feeling of panic and flight.

  “Swim! Hide!”

  There was a flicker of movement at the farthest edge of his vision and Rhus knew it was Salvia, diving deep into the concealing fairy feathers of the Stonehenge Maze.

  “She’s swum away, Rhus.”

  Haber’s voice reverberated through the water from the submersible’s speakers. At the alien sound of his voice, small shoals of glitter-fins split into separate little threads then darted away from the oncoming party of invaders.

  “I think I know where she is,” Rhus shouted back. He didn’t really care if the normals understood him or not. “I’ll go find her and bring her to you.”

  “Don’t take too long.”

  Haber’s words crashed through Rhus’ head as he dove down, not concealing his swimming speed any longer. Hiding in the fairy feathers was a smart idea, especially when their stems reached so high in the water. With their constant movement in the slight currents, a good swimmer could move through the forest without detection. Salvia was a good swimmer. But there was little hope when the normals could track them, regardless of where they hid.

  He found Salvia deep within a thicket of stems, hard up against one of the quiet chimney vents. Her expression was calm, but her body segued through muted colours of red, green and yellow, indicating her unease.

  “What’s going on?” she asked quietly. “Was that you in my head?”

  He swam up to her and kissed her deeply, running his hands down her taut body. He had missed her so much.

  “Yes, that was me.”

  She pulled back but her eyes were alight with wonder and curiosity. “Rhus! How—”

  “There’s no time to explain,” he cut in. “You must have seen the submersibles? They’re from the station. They’re here to take you away.”

  “Take me away?”

  “The company thinks you’re not cooperative. I’ve been promised a new—” He faltered. “A new girlfriend if I turn you over to them.”

  “A new—”

  He grabbed her by the arms. “I’m not going to do it, Salvia. I love you. I won’t ever let the normals touch you. But”—he sagged in the water—“I don’t know what to do. They’re waiting for me to return with you and, if I don’t, they’ll come after us.”

  After a short silence, he straightened, his voice strengthening. “You must escape. I’ll try to sabotage their vessels somehow, get them to chase me. While they’re after me, you have to swim as fast as you can, to the other side of the moon if necessary. And don’t come back, no matter how much you’re tempted.”

  “Rhus, no. I can’t let you do that. You see…”

  She paused, obviously struggling with whatever thoughts were occupying her mind.

  “I’m pregnant, Rhus,” she finally told him in a quiet voice, her eyes beseeching.

  But how? He almost blurted the question out loud until he realised how stupid it was. He and Salvia had been having constant sex for the past month. The fact she was going to have a child was the smallest mystery of all.

  “I can’t bring up our child alone,” she continued. “I need you.”

  Rhus was overwhelmed with so many emotions that he couldn’t move. Pride and worry for himself and Salvia, frustration and anger at the normals in their air vessels above them.

  “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me.” Salvia’s voice grew stronger. “We’ll have to think of something else.”

  Rhus shook his head just as a loud squawk echoed through the water. He hadn’t heard the sound before, but he knew it was a warning blast from Haber. They’d have the station crew combing the forest for them in a matter of minutes.

  “The tracking sensors,” Salvia said. “We’ll have to find them.”

  “Aren’t they deep within our arms?”

  Rhus had felt the stab of pain in his muscles when he got the command to go back to the station. He had assumed that meant that the transmitter/receiver and the site of the pain were one and the same, but now it was Salvia’s turn to shake her head.

  “I asked Dr Faisbain about it once. She didn’t answer me exactly but it was clear that the beacon is in a separate part of our bodies to the pain-generating signal. And it was confirmed when you landed on Europa. The one they gave you on Mars didn’t work. I heard them say so. The only question is, where would they put it?”

  “Salvia, even if we could find it, how do we know we could get it out in time?” Rhus spoke quickly, trying to compress his thoughts into a few short bursts of conversation. “It could be buried near our stomach or heart. We could kill ourselves trying to reach it.”

  But Rhus could see Salvia wasn’t really listening. Any moment now, the second signal would sound. Haber was not a patient man. Rhus’ heart hammered in his chest.

  “Salvia,” he said softly, “you have to go. Now.”

  “You were released into the ocean after your check-up,” Salvia mused. “A check-up that was going to include replacement of the beacon.”

  Rhus frowned. “How do you know?”

  “Because I heard them talking.” She looked up at him. “Did any part of you feel bruised or sore just before you were released?”

  How could she think of bruises at a time like this? Rhus twitched as he thought of the seconds of their lives slowly ticking away.

  “No,” he told her with irritation. Of course there weren’t any…

  “Yes!”

  Salvia jerked as she covered the distance towards him. “Yes? Where?”

  “My fin. The base of my fin felt a little tender. I remember because it’s one of the few places on my body that I can’t see.”

  “Turn around.”

  Any time now, Rhus thought to himself as he rotated in the wate
r. Any time now, the white stems around them would part and they’d be trapped in the artificial white light of the two submersibles. And it would be all over. His life. Their lives. His family’s lives.

  “Found it!” Salvia’s voice was high with excitement but Rhus also heard the edge of a sob in her words. “Hold on.”

  Her warmth moved away then, in a handful of seconds, she was back. He felt a sharp pain in his fin and flinched. The scent of his blood floated in the water and filled his mouth. When he turned, he saw Salvia hold a small silver cylinder in her hand.

  “Is that it?”

  The source of their misery held in a small metal shell. She nodded.

  “Now you do me.”

  She gave him a small spear of sharp stone she must have broken off the side of the chimney vent, then pirouetted in the water.

  “Try the base of the fin. It looks like part of our markings but doesn’t change colour with our mood.”

  Now he knew what to look for, the tracking beacon was easy to find. Yet, Rhus still hesitated. He touched Salvia’s smooth skin with one hand. She was carrying their child and the last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her. What if he butchered her fin and she bled to death? What if an infection from the water got into her wound and killed her?

  “Rhus!”

  Her voice brought him back to reality. Clenching his jaw, he dug at her flesh with the stone tip. The water clouded with her blood then cleared to reveal more of the silver device. With a grimace of disgust, Rhus shifted it loose with his thumb and plucked it from Salvia’s flesh.

  “We leave them here?” he asked.

  She spun around and grinned at him. “Let’s give them a little chase. I say we drop it into the Ivory Chasm.”

  The Ivory Chasm was a crack in Europa’s crust and contained more active hot vents than any other part of the explored moon. It also contained some of the deepest water around.

  “You’re a wicked woman,” he told her.

  The second siren sounded above their heads.

  “They’ll send others,” he warned.

  Salvia’s eyes blazed. “Then we’ll free them as well. You. Me. And our children. Europa belongs to us.”