I was struck by her last comment. “What do you have to defend against? Do creatures actually attack your village?” The Earthers had a security field around the depot, but I hadn’t thought about how the Fosaanians protected themselves.
Her gaze shifted away from mine. “Not usually,” she said. “And anyway, it’s better to be prepared.” She looked away from me and motioned toward Piper who was dancing in a circle around at the end of the walkway. As soon as Decker drew close, Piper darted off in the direction of the depot, laughing. She was a speedy little thing and I didn’t think Decker would be able to catch her.
“Is your sister always so happy?” Mira asked. “I’ve never seen a child who smiles so much.”
I shrugged. “She’s happy most of the time except when she’s worried about something. Sorry there were so many questions from her.”
“I don’t mind.” She fell silent, and I struggled to find something to say. I wanted to ask her if she had snuck out to the living units before, but that was probably something she didn’t want to talk about. As we got closer to the beach, I could feel the air get heavier and I could taste the sulfur in my mouth. The breeze from the ocean kept the air clean out on the pavilions, but the windbines weren’t finished on the shore.
The sea turned purple on either side of the walkway. “Do you know what those are called?” I pointed into the water at a school of miniscule crustaceans, millions of them moving like a purple cloud. “Piper likes to watch them.”
“They’re called squilla,” Mira said. “They taste terrible, but you can eat them if you are hungry enough.”
“Then I don’t think I’ll tell anyone they’re edible. Someone will get the brilliant idea that I need to catch them. I could really use your help, you know, learning about the life on this planet. You said your uncle wouldn’t allow it. What about your parents?”
“No!” Mira exclaimed. “I can’t explain. We don’t … we aren’t supposed to mix with Earthers.”
“Why not? You work for us. I mean, not you, but the Fosaanians work for the Earthers. It isn’t because of Decker’s father is it? Commander Rigan? We’re not all like him.” She didn’t answer and I tried to think of another way to convince her.
“Would you pay me with food?” she blurted out suddenly. “If I helped you, would you give me food for my sister?”
“Sure, I mean, I’d give you food anyway if your sister needs it.” I felt terrible to hear the desperation in her voice. “Look, if she’s still not recovered from her accident, we have a doctor who could probably help.”
“It wouldn’t be allowed,” Mira said angrily.
“It would only not be allowed if someone knew about it to forbid it,” I couldn’t believe someone would forbid a doctor to see a person. “Can you bring your sister to the depot?”
Mira stopped and I was amazed to see the change on her face. It was lit up with excitement. “The doctor would really see her? I don’t have any currency to pay.”
“Becca wouldn’t charge you! She’s paid by the military.”
“I’d have to get my cousin to help me,” Mira said, almost to herself as if she were planning it out. “Cadia can’t walk far. She’s always been frail and the accident only made it worse. When can we bring her?”
“As soon as Dr. Becca gets back down from the station,” I said, “but I don’t know when that will be.”
“Thank you.” She gave me a dazzling smile. I felt like life had suddenly improved.
When we reached the end of the walkway, Mira pointed to the sky. “I think you have a follower.” The olon was above us, gliding silently.
“I don’t know why that one hangs around so much.” I said.
“Maybe it likes to be talked to. They seem to be intelligent creatures. They nest in communities and work together to care for their young. What type of creature is your animal?”
“It’s a parrot, a species of bird.” There weren’t any true birds on Fosaan, only the olons, which flew but didn’t have any feathers. When I had first seen them, I couldn’t get over their bizarre appearance. It was almost as if someone had taken hairless flying squirrels, added beaks and painted them in bright colors.
“Do all birds speak?” Mira asked. “I never imagined such a thing.”
“No, there are thousands of species of birds on Earth but only a few can mimic human speech. And only some parrots can actually understand the meanings of words.”
“I’d like one of these parrots someday. It would make Cadia laugh.” Mira smiled again.
“Will you come with me to the beach?” I asked, taking advantage of the way Mira’s mood had lightened. “I want to show you something.” If she liked buildings, I knew of something that might interest her.
She looked toward the depot. Piper and Decker were already there, talking to some of the other Earthers. The Fosaanian, Ansun, was standing outside with Mick. It appeared the two were arguing, or at least Mick was, his voice loud as he pounded one hand into another. Ansun stood with his arms crossed over his chest. I couldn’t make out his face. “Yes,” Mira said, “for a moment.” I wondered if she didn’t want to go past the depot to the beach path with her uncle outside. The only other way back to the Fosaanian village, as far as I knew, was through the jungle and that was supposedly too dangerous.
We headed away from the depot, crunching over the black lava rock that was the “sand” on the beach. It shimmered with so much heat, I could feel it through my shoes. When my mother had tried to sell us on coming to Fosaan, she had really played up the part about the untouched beaches for us to enjoy. She hadn’t told us the sand was made of volcanic slivers so sharp you couldn’t sit down on them, and so quick to heat to unbearable levels, you didn’t want to stand around too long. It wasn’t her fault, really. Whoever had written the briefing papers about the planet probably wasn’t the type to have ever actually been to a real beach.
“Before we came, we heard about all these incredible places on Fosaan, but I haven’t seen many of them,” I said. “I’d really like to. There are supposed to be waterfalls longer than any on Earth and caves full of crystals of all different colors.”
“I know some of those places. I didn’t know Earthers would find them interesting. What is this other place you want to show me?”
“It’s over here.” I climbed up on some boulders piled in a jumble where the beach met the dense jungle and pulled away some of the wirevines, yanking at one that seemed to have grown several meters since Lainie and I had been there last. I’d heard the Fosaanians called the jungle “the snare” and I could understand why.
Behind the growth of vines stood a wall, almost hidden by the patches of vivid green and blue plants that covered it, each individual plant the size of a tiny dot. I reached out my hand and cleared off a section of it. “My friend Lainie and I found this. When you rub off the lichen-like plants you can see it was built of some sort of rock that’s almost clear.” Mira held back like she wasn’t sure she should get close to it. I had hoped she’d be more excited about the find. “There’s a lot more,” I told her. “We can get inside over there.”
The wall was only a few meters taller than me, but because it was so smooth, there was no way to climb it except through a broken section. “Right here,” I said.
Mira frowned. “I’m not climbing into something when I can’t see what’s inside.”
“There’s nothing dangerous in there. It’s just a big room attached to two other rooms. I’ve been in it several times.” Technically, none of the Earthers were supposed to venture off the beach, but I thought that rule was ridiculous. I’d never learn anything about the planet if I just stuck within the allowed areas.
“Just because there was nothing in there the last time doesn’t mean it’s empty now.” Mira picked up a small stone and pitched it over the wall. It thudded down. No other sound came from inside.
“See?” I said. “Empty.” I climbed over the wall hoping she’d follow
. Inside I waited a few seconds until Mira climbed in too. The overhead plant canopy made the light dim, but I could see she still looked wary.
“It’s okay, really.” I tried to ignore how still and hot the air was. Away from the beach, the ocean breeze was blocked by the wall and the vegetation and the temperature inside always made me break out in a sweat. “It’s almost like being underwater in here, with the way the light comes through the walls. Lainie and I call it a ruin, but it’s not really one. It’s in good shape except for that one spot.”
“What is this place?” Mira asked, running her hand along a section of wall.
I was surprised she didn’t know. “It’s an old Fosaanian building. One of your people’s buildings, from before the Apocalypse. Where do you get this kind of building material? Are your houses made of this?”
Mira walked up and down, “I’ve never seen anything like this before. I don’t think it was a building people lived in. The curving walls don’t make sense. What would people do in this room? And where’s the roof?”
“I guess it collapsed,” I said.
“Where? There’s no rubble.”
I hadn’t thought of that. The floor was made of some dark material in a triangular pattern. There was no broken stone on it, nothing except fallen leaves. “Maybe they used something that has decayed over time, so there’s no sign of it now.” She was right about the room though. A narrow three-sided room with curving walls that met in a sharp point was about as impractical as you could get. “Is it some sort of religious shrine?” I asked. I’d read a little about Fosaanian religion which mentioned shrines, but there were no images and I’d seen nothing that was an obvious religious building.”
“No, it’s nothing like a torey.” She began to turn around very slowly, like she was memorizing each wall.
When she stopped, she went back over to one wall and touched it again. I said, “There are two more rooms like this and something in the center we think is a room but we can’t get in. If you pull back the vines you can see the doorways into the other two, but they’re all empty.”
Mira’s hand drew back. “There are three rooms? Are they all shaped like this?”
“They’re exactly like this.” I traced the shape on the wall, rubbing off some of the plants in the process. “Now that I think about it, each room is kind of in the shape of a bird talon or an animal claw. See how it curves and comes to a point.” Mira didn’t say anything; she just stared at the drawing as if I had sketched something that shocked her. It hit me that the shape I had just outlined was exactly the same shape as the tattoo on her cheek. She had to realize it as well, but she didn’t mention it.
“It isn’t familiar to you?” I asked.
“No,” she said, taking a few steps back to the broken spot in the wall. “I should go.”
“Don’t go yet!” I decided to back off the shape issue if that was upsetting her, though I couldn’t figure out why it would. I flicked on the flashmark on my sleeve to give us some better light. “We did find something that might be words on the inner wall. It could be instructions on how to get in or find a door. I’ll show you.”
I was relieved that she did follow me to the shortest wall. I pointed to red markings glowing in the light. “Someone embedded these on the wall with bits of iridium sulfide, just like the compound the scientists are using to coat the new holobots. Is it really writing?”
Mira knelt down, setting the carryall of food beside her so she could touch the marks.
“What does it say?” I asked.
She frowned, leaned closer and then jerked her hand away. “I have to leave,” she said, jumping to her feet.
Chapter 3
I would have liked to have seen and heard the glories of the Old World, the art and the music. My grandfather spoke to me of the wonders of the Palace and the capital. There were scholars then as well, though their freedom was not as great as it should have been. Even my grandfather admitted this when he grew old and it no longer mattered who heard him speak. The dark began long before the Apocalypse.—Erimik, historian of the Family
“Why? What’s wrong?” I scrambled to catch up to her. “It is writing, right?” The thought came to me that maybe Mira couldn’t read. I didn’t know if the Fosaanians even had a school. “Maybe the writing of your people was different a long time ago,” I said, not knowing the right way to ask her. “Or this is a different language. I don’t know how many languages there were on Fosaan.”
“I don’t know either.” She whirled around. Her voice and her face were furious. “If you are so interested, you should ask the Earthers if they kept any records when they destroyed our civilization.” She grabbed the carryall and climbed up and over the broken place in the wall.
“Wait!” I yelled, chasing after her. “We didn’t … Wait!” I climbed up after her and nearly fell over it in my haste. “You have it wrong. We didn’t destroy your civilization. The supervolcano did. It caused the Apocalypse from the ash and the poison rain.” I’d read about the dense layer of ash that covered everything, smothering most of the plants, and about the black rain so acidic it burned the skin of any living creature. It wasn’t until very recently that reconnaissance ships had even ventured to the planet, to find it recovering far more quickly than predicted.
She stopped and spun back toward me, shouting, “Earthers started the war with us before the volcano. If you had left us alone, to live our own way, our ships wouldn’t have been off fighting and more people might have escaped.”
“Oh,” I said. I’d never thought about it in that context. “But the war started because the emperor here was brutal and oppressive. I can’t believe the Fosaanians at the time would have wanted Earth to let things stay the same. It was just a fluke that the volcano erupted when it did. And all the Fosaanians who were already on the ships escaped. They surrendered and … ” I realized I didn’t know what had happened to them. “I’m sorry for what happened, but that was a long time ago. I didn’t start the war. You can’t be angry at me.”
“You know nothing. The war was all about power, about Earth wanting power over the planet. But you’ll never believe that, will you? All Earthers think they are right about everything. I have to go.” She turned away from me.
I was stunned by her vehemence, but couldn’t let her go just like that. “Wait. I’m not like all Earthers,” I called to her. I’d never even questioned the history I’d read of Fosaan. Maybe I should have. Mira didn’t stop, but before I followed her, I pulled the vines back down to cover the wall. Lainie had convinced me we needed to keep it hidden for the moment. If others found out about it, it would be declared off limits until a scientist could examine it, and that could take far too long.
“Wait!” I called again when I was finished. Mira was already halfway down the beach and I sprinted to catch up.
“I don’t know much about the history of the war,” I said. “We were taught the royal family never allowed any dissent. They killed anyone who questioned their rule, or at least that’s what the histories say.”
“Who wrote those histories?” Mira practically spit out the words. “No one portrays themselves as in the wrong. They cloak their actions in higher purposes when all they want is power, always more power.”
She sounded so angry, I had a feeling she was talking about more than ancient history. “You’re right,” I said. “Earthers wrote the histories I read. Tell me the Fosaanian version.”
“It would take hours,” she said. “And you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
I was glad her voice sounded a little more calm, and since it did, I decided not to push her on the topic of the war. “I’d really like to hear what happened, whenever you want to tell me.”
She shrugged. “Maybe some day. It will be a waste of time though. Aren’t you supposed to check your nets?”
“I’ll check the nets later.” The thought of cool ocean water was appealing, but I didn’t want to stand around in it trying to
free the solger from the nets. “It’s not like we even really need the plants. Have you ever tasted them? They taste like salty slimy rags.”
“Why do you have to collect them then? I thought supply ships brought all your food, and they say you never run out.” The bitterness came through in her voice, and I realized I had to talk to someone about the food issue. Clearly it was a bigger problem than any of the Earthers knew. If someone in charge had known, they wouldn’t let it go on. It was odd no one had observed the problem before now.
“Supply ships bring most of it,” I said. “My father pilots one of them. But we still collect food because the scientists voted to try to become as self-reliant as possible.” It irritated me that the ones who voted were actually too busy with their work to carry out the jobs. None of them seemed bothered by the fact that they weren’t the ones doing the work to be self-reliant.
“That Decker will be angry if you do not do your job.” She didn’t add in the threat Decker had made to tell her uncle.
“If you’re worried about Decker telling your uncle you were here, I have an idea. I’ll introduce you to my friend Lainie. Decker listens to her because he’s crazy about her, and she’ll stop him. I don’t think he’d really do what he said anyway. He’s all bluff.”
“I’m not worried,” she said scornfully, but I detected a faint tremor in her voice. I didn’t blame her, especially if she hadn’t been bluffing about the man cutting out people’s tongues. I feared she had been telling the truth, just by the man’s appearance. He wore a fierce expression all the time, the fierceness heightened by his long angular face and the scar that marred it. The scar cut across the corner of his mouth, and looked as if it had come either from a knife slash or an animal claw.
“So you’ll stay around for a while?” I was afraid if she left now, she wouldn’t come back, and I really wanting to see her again. She gave me what might have been a faint smile and I took that as encouragement. “Let’s see what’s happening at the depot,” I said. She nodded and fell into step beside me.
Station Fosaan Page 3