Terror on the Trailblazer

by John Thornton

  Looking at Ken and Janae, Lollard spoke, “May your journey be safe, and successful, and all your ways be honoring to all.” This too sounded like a recitation or benediction of sorts.

  “Thank you, Lollard,” Ken said.

  “Yes, I appreciate your guidance and summoning us this vehicle and guide,” Janae stated, but was repulsed at the slaughter of the animals. “I feel like an apology is needed from me as well, but, well, I just tend to be troubled, deeply troubled, by all the crazed animal things I have seen. From the tants, to the painted people in Ida, to monstrous bruins, to these aggressive attack-birds, to some many bizarre foods, yuck. I am just simply overwhelmed. But, I do thank you.”

  Paige opened the opposite side of the bus, and its door swung upward. When both doors on the vehicle were opened, the doors looked like bird wings. Janae looked back at the raptor birds as they sat on the spiky trees. She then blurted out, “Lollard? Tell me about these trees with the spikes? You were doing something to one of them when we met. What are these? Would you help me understand?”

  Lollard tipped his head in a bow, “You honor me by asking for my instruction. I am heartened to know my hubris did not permanently cause a rift between us. The trees with spikes are called the saguaro. Saguaro are host to a myriad of animals, but also provide a way-station for those who travel the outback. With the proper techniques, once can harvest water from them, gather their fruit when ripe—those sweet fruits make our sacred wine as well as candies and jelly. We use their thorns and pulp for other things as well. When you met me, I was gathering some extra pulp for my raptors as their treats.” He looked at Janae and then at Ken who were both watching and listening intently. He went on, “You may notice holes or dens in the saguaro, and that is where various other animals abide. Flickers, woodpeckers, ravens, martins, finches, and sparrows are just some of the smaller birds who make homes in saguaros. My raptors, and other hunting birds; hawks, owls, and such, use saguaros as look-outs and platforms, as well as homes. The roos and rodents also eat the young saguaros, especially in the driest times. Oh, but I hope I am not boring you. In Waldensia, there are those who know far more about the flora of Christianopolis than I do. That is not my specialty, but it is a passion I have. Thank you for asking.”

  “One more question?” Janae asked.

  “Oh, of course.”

  “What does Christianopolis mean? I know it is the name of your home here, but it is unfamiliar to me,” Janae asked.

  “As well it might be, being what you told me of yourselves,” Lollard replied. “This place was once just known as Habitat Six, or the desert, but then the Encounter happened. After that, the people here found the way, and we began seeking to make Habitat Six into Christianopolis, a legendary utopia. I might not get all the details correct. However, in Waldensia, seek out Hiram the historian, as that is his specialized area.”

  Janae and Ken climbed into the vehicle, Janae took a set in the back row, while Ken sat in the front. The middle row was empty, although it could probably seat four people across. Paige pulled the door shut. It locked down tightly, and they recognized that the cabin had airtight capabilities and could be pressurized.

  “First, here are some bottles of cool water, and a packaged meal. I was unsure if you had sufficient supplies, so I brought you each two different meals. Please, help yourself,” she handed the bottles and packages to Ken and Janae. Paige then climbed in the other side, adjusted the control mechanisms to be located in front of her on that side, and gave Ken and then Janae, a tentative smile. Ken took immediate notice.

  “Now, we will be heading to Waldensia, and I am in your service,” Paige stated as she started up the hover bus. The engine of the bus started with a slight whirring sound, and the bus rose to hover over the ground about a quarter meter or so. Its flight was very smooth. “Gravity manipulation is nullified here, in adjusted increments to allow a nearly frictionless mode of movement. Of course, there is still air resistance, especially when I go faster than is typical, as when I came out here, but we will not be going too fast on the way back. I kicked up a lot of dust getting out to you. I do not see a need for excessive speed, now that you are here. Lollard was concerned about your reactions to the raptors—eagles—and the roos, but I can assure you, there are no animals in my bus.” She smiled as she looked at her two passengers.

  “That is reassuring. Your vehicle’s controls are quite simple,” Ken observed, but then hesitated, “I do not mean to diminish your abilities. For you know your machine, as well as the landscape, the region, the wildlife, and all the other factors about this habitat. It is nice to have someone, so nice and helpful, who knows this place to guide us,” Ken’s voice was smooth, and somewhat sultry as he spoke. “Thank you, also, for the food, and water.” He had opened one package, and sniffed at whatever it was inside. “A tempting aroma.”

  Janae rolled her eyes, and looked at the view of the biome. She nearly said, “Incorrigible,” but she refrained. She blew out a long breath and settled into the comfortable seat. If Ken wanted to flirt with some local woman, who was she to interfere? She sat the food parcel next to her, not sure she could eat it, and wishing it was a ration bar from Dome 17 instead.

  “Paige, I appreciate you helping me. You are the expert,” Ken crooned, “And I am new here.”

  “I would never have guessed that,” Paige quipped and winked at Ken.

  “Very little would get past anyone as perceptive and attractive as you,” Ken replied, and touched Paige’s should ever so slightly. “It is nice to have someone who can help me achieve my goals.”

  “Our goals,” Janae interjected, and then seriously wondered why Ken was flirting, especially after his experiences with Butterfield, but she felt no jealousy. Paige was indeed an attractive woman, roughly the same age as Ken, and she was giving as much coquettish attention as she was receiving.

  “I will take us back via the river. The view there is lovely, and you can see our world. Although, as I understand it, you have seen more of the rest of the world than I have, being that you are visitors to here,” Paige offered. “If I am not intruding, where are you and your sister from?”

  “Sister?” Ken asked.

  “Yes, Janae is your sister, right?” Paige said hopefully.

  “Ken, we told Lollard our story, why not this woman too?” Janae asked, not quite rhetorical, but with no sarcasm or bitterness. “The radiation is already out of containment.”

  Paige’s face hardened at Janae’s use of a common idiom from Dome 17, “Radiation? Axis Mundi, the needle ship is filled with deadly radiation. You are speaking in some metaphorical sense, I hope.”

  Ever smoothly, Ken replied, “Yes, an idiom. Where we originated, containment and barriers to radiation are fundamental essentials. That figure of speech, the one Janae used, just means, something like, once something is set loose, it is hard to put it back.” For some reason, a memory of another adventurer, Jerome, from Dome 17 came to Ken’s mind, and he then added, “In ancient times, they spoke of a djinn getting out of a bottle, and used that phrase in a similar manner.”

  “If I am interpreting your accent correctly, I think I understand. As a child I read of a being called a genie in some Aladdin stories, but that mythical spirit was in a lamp. Is that the same type of entity as your djinn in a bottle?” Paige laughed. “I have heard of an ancient alcohol called gin, which was stored in a bottle. Spilt alcohol is hard to rebottle, right? I suppose it is like Pandora’s box. Figures of speech are interesting. I enjoy dreaming about the other places on the Trailblazer, and I like to read as much as I can. I also try to envision the destination planet, but know I will never live to see it.” When neither passenger replied, she added, hastily, “I beg pardon if speaking about you as brother and sister, was inaccurate or wrong. Did I offend? Or was it a reference to alcohol? I know some people are… oh, what is that old term? Oh yes, teetotalers who abstain from all forms of alcohol.”

  “No offense,” Janae replied. “Ken rarely abstai
ns from any opportunity,” she laughed a bit and then gave a quick overview of their history and how they arrived on the Trailblazer. She gave details about the people involved, and even some information about specific individuals, like the other adventurers, yet, she did withhold her most personal feelings. She was concise, yet fairly technologically comprehensive, including about FTL travel and teleportation, ending with, “So, back to radiation. It was a serious threat all around Dome 17. Because of that, each generation of children was conceived extremely carefully, by gamete compatibility, and then the babies were incubated in extracorporeal wombs, each generation being gestated during the same time-frame. For years, those groups have been five years apart. So, people are age-mates when they are from the same group of babies.” She was about to add the new revelation about how she and Ken were now fertile again, but did not do so. She was not sure why she withheld that information, but felt some guilt about chiding Ken about not being abstinent. She also could not bring herself to open-up about the people who had died, especially about Constance. “So, you see, Ken and I are not sister and brother, but are associates, or teammates I suppose you could call us.”

  “Amazing account. Thank you. Dome 17 sounds… clinical. Very interesting technologies, you describe. I am saddened by those wicked people and what they did. Gamete compatibility and controlled reproduction,” Paige relied, “sounds like extreme measures, to meet extreme stresses, and in extremely tough conditions. Thank you for sharing with me. I can better appreciate how you need to reach your equipment and your ship. If the Trailblazer had not suffered the massive system collapses so many decades ago, you could have taken a tube transport system, or funicular, or simply walked there. I have read about all those methods of transport. Although, that would have been quite a jaunt. Walking, I mean. My bus service runs between Waldensia and Huss, and with the turmoil in Huss today, I had little else to do. I feel blessed to have been able to assist you.” Gesturing at the window, she said, “The river is just beyond the bends up ahead.”

  “You believe me?” Janae asked in wonder.

  “Yes, I meant no sarcasm or mocking. I am trying to listen and learn from you,” Paige replied. “If one does not know something, that thing is older than you.”

  Janae was unsure how to interpret Paige’s idiom, and instead said, “You and Lollard do not seem afraid of strangers, and we saw how the tants were even welcomed,” Janae commented. “What if we were evil people seeking to do you harm?”

  Paige laughed a bit, “Are you evil people seeking to do me harm?” She then winked at Ken.

  “Well, no, but how would you know? I could be lying to you, or deceiving you for some nefarious purpose. Your people let tants in your biome. They will kill, ravage, and plunder your belongings. You obviously have technology, so why not lock them out, or fight them off as they enter?” Janae pressed.

  Paige’s face was thoughtful for a moment, then she said, “That was once a consideration, back in my grandmother’s era. But violence should be a last resort, especially violence against people. Certainly, we protect the vulnerable people, but the animals that our siblings take—the people you call tants—those animals were raised for food, anyway. We have an abundance here. Why not share it with our siblings, who have need? Otherwise they would go hungry, possibly die. Axis Mundi has so little from what I know, and we have so much. To me, and I could be wrong, but I would regret knowing my siblings are suffering because I chose to be selfish.”

  “They call themselves tants,” Janae snapped back, “and what if they sought out people to murder, or rape, or torture?”

  Ken leaned back, and in his mind, was thankful Janae had asked. He was uncomfortable with the flirtation he had started, so he was pleased with the distraction. He too was wondering about this new habitat’s people, and their society. They had only met basically three or four societies, and yet these people groups were so different. Each different from the people of Ida, or the Isle of Pines, or the tants, or these newest people they had met. To Ken, the people in Christianopolis seemed passive and not too concerned with the possibilities. Yet, Lollard was violent in his direction of the predator birds. It was confusing. He knew Butterfield’s people were more than willing to kill for sport, religion, or just spite.

  Paige pulled on her lip a moment and then answered, “I would hope no one would be so mentally disturbed as to deliberately seek violence against others, but I also know it does happen. Some years ago, there was a woman who drown her children in the river. That was a horrific crime, and those who knew her grieved severely for those poor children. It happened not long after her fourth child was born. A hideous tragedy. There are some crimes of violence, but few and far between. Also, back when my grandmother lived, there were those people who argued about ensuring that Christianopolis was separate and secure. There were advocates of armed resistance, and use of preemptive violence, but those views were a small marginal belief. The Trailblazer is one family of humanity, and if we ignore our siblings, they will suffer.”

  “And if the tants decide to just come in and take everything you have, you would let them?” Ken asked. Then thinking of Butterfield and her troops, he asked, “Or some soldiers or raiders came from another habitat and had in mind slaughter and genocide against all of you, what would you do? Do you let people terrorize you?”

  “There have been isolated acts of terror, I admit that. History is replete with accounts of atrocities like you describe, but we have evolved away from that—hopefully. If someone were to act against me, personally, I would have to consider my own actions. Would I kill a person to stop that person from eating food? No. But other matters are tougher. Each person here would have to decide what she or he wanted to do in those extreme cases you mention. It seems, from what you shared, there are those things happening in other habitats, at alarming rates. I am disgusted and appalled. I would hope that reasoning, logical discussion, and a spirt of cooperation would win out,” Paige replied. “You can ask the people we are going to see about that. They are wiser and more knowledgeable than I am. However, do you think criminal behaviors are more wide-spread and common than compassion and cooperation? That has not been my experience. For, I know here, I have seldom met anyone who is determined to commit the evil kinds of deeds you speak about, although rare instances do happen. Rare, isolated, and usually chaotic incidents should not push everyone into living in terror of their neighbors. I am beginning to understand how your experiences have shaped you, and that is different than how I was shaped. I have a lot to ponder.”

  They all rode in silence.

  The bus moved onward, and the landscape had changed little, as the saguaro trees and other foliage looked much the same as where Lollard and his birds had been. Looking up, they could tell they were nearly directly beneath the sky tube. Rounding around a particularly large butte of rocks, the way opened before them. The sandy ground sloped down to a river which was roughly a hundred meters wide, and which reflected back the light from above. The river had a few more plants around it than did the more barren area which Janae and Ken had first seen, but it was still sparse.

  “And here is the river. My hover bus will not disturb the river denizens much, and I just like traveling over the river better. The old roadway is still serviceable, but the sand blows around a lot,” Paige stated, her voice lighter and more comfortable in pointing out scenery. “Also, the views along here are prettier and more varied, and since you are new, I thought you might enjoy this.”

  The bus floated down the slope and out across the water. The hovering ability of the bus barely made ripples in the surface of the water.

  “What is that?” Ken asked as he pointed toward something on the bank.

  Janae looked over and an animal of some kind was in the low grasses along the riverbank. The overall impression was a furless long tube, with side-ways legs, but it was obviously alive and moving. A greyish-brown color with yellow bars, or splotches on its tail, and large, greenish-yellow stripes on its back, it
was nasty looking. It was about two meters long, from toothy mouth in its small head, to the tip of its muscular tail, slender, and low to the ground. It had four short, stubbly—but muscular—legs which came out from its sides, more than underneath it. Its long tail was thrashing about and striking at something else in the grass. As they watched, it bit down and then lifted its head. In its powerful jaws it held a chunk of red flesh which was dripping blood. It gulped that down, and then again, bit into the body beneath it.

  “What horror is that? It must weigh forty kilograms,” Janae asked. “Not as big as a bruin, but an ugly predator.”

  “That is an adult varanus-minor. Big for that species, but not extraordinary. Looks like a male—consuming its meal—a muskrat from the look of things,” Paige replied causally, then she reconsidered what Ken and Janae had said. “Are animals like raptors and that lizard new to you?”

  Janae replied, “Of course! No animals at all on Earth, just old recordings, and images from centuries ago. Everything on this wretched, wasted, wrecked ship is new to us.” She could not keep from looking at the lizard as it devoured the other animal. “Paige? What would happen if a person was like that crazed animal thing? Or like those vicious birds Lollard had? What if someone just launched a violent attack against other people?”