by Calista Skye
I raise my eyebrows. “Anything exciting down there?”
“Could be. Oh, and please leave the food you brought. Lots of fruit down there. Water and everything. I only got tired of that stuff after several months.”
8
- Juri’ex -
If I thought Ashlynn’s village was alien, that was nothing compared to the spaceship. But this has a different air to it. It’s sleek and cryptic. Swirly and strange. Hard to understand. Not as wholesome as the female village, somehow. Not as dynamic. Not as… innocent? It has an air of something coming to an end.
I busy myself studying some of the things in here while Ashlynn talks to her friend in their soft language. A female language, of course. Round and braying, almost all vowels, no hard edges anywhere. Very feminine, and so quite pleasant to listen to. The men of Earth doubtlessly have a language more like mine – harder and less wordy.
I know what they’re talking about: going home to their planet. They both want it. Very much.
Ashlynn wants that more than anything. Even now, even after...
After what? What did I think would happen? I took her here, unharmed. That was my mission. It is complete. Did I think she would somehow like me more? Or even… no, absurd. She never gave me any reason to think so.
I straighten my back. Well, then let her. Let her go home. I can start my new tribe without her. She would only be in the way. She’d keep doing dangerous things, placing us all in danger.
Let her go.
Back to her own planet.
Forever.
My jaw clenches so hard I can hear the squeak of teeth rubbing together.
I force myself to look again at my alien surroundings.
I can’t make much sense of the things in here. Someone has scrawled figures and glyphs on them, and I think that might be part of Delyah’s attempt to understand the way things work. None of it appears very useful to me or my future tribe. But it is a large ship. There may be more interesting things elsewhere.
“Juri’ex,” Ashlynn finally calls, her voice curiously bright. “Would you like to explore the spaceship some more?”
I stomp over to them, getting the satisfaction of seeing Delyah quickly drawing back from me, her eyes widening in alarm, while Ashlynn calmly stays put and looks up at me with a little smile.
I take up a broad-legged position. “I would.”
She reaches out to touch my forearm. “Great. I’d hate to do it without you keeping me safe.”
Her simple words send warmth coursing through me. “Are there dangers?”
“I have seen no sign of danger,” Delyah says. “But it is an alien spaceship, mostly unexplored. I don’t know all its secrets. But I have been able to tame one of those secrets. Don’t be alarmed, this is just a robot. A dead thing, harmless.”
Something is moving over by the wall, and I draw my sword and push Ashlynn behind me.
A man-shaped creature is walking this way, shining with a dull, gray luster. It walks strangely, almost clumsily.
“Oh yeah. You told us about these things,” Ashlynn says from behind my back.
Delyah nods. “There were many of these in the ship. Brax’tan destroyed some of them when they attacked us, but some were left intact. They are not good fighters. This one I have programmed to follow you two. You can speak to me through it and I can speak to you. It might be useful.”
The robot comes to a halt in front of us. It is taller than the two women, but not nearly as tall as me. And it is quite spindly and fragile-looking.
I sheath my sword and reluctantly let Ashlynn come forward again. I don’t like the looks of this thing. “Must we take it with us?”
“It’ll be fun,” Ashlynn says with some enthusiasm as she reaches out and strokes the shoulder of the robot. “Like the droids from Star Wars. Threepio and that other one, the beeping trash can?”
“Artoo Detoo,” Delyah yawns. “Yeah, it’s weird – even if it is pretty much just a toaster, it almost gives me a tiny feeling of not being alone. But it can’t do much. Guys, you can come up here and see me anytime. Except, the only way down to the gardens is a narrow staircase that’s plain dangerous to use. I’d suggest not using it more than necessary. I fell down it once, and I don’t recommend it. Okay, so I need some sleep.” She nods to a heap of furs on the floor by one wall.
“We’ll be on our way,” Ashlynn says and grabs my hand. “That robot will just follow by itself?”
“It will,” Delyah confirms. “I’ll talk to you through it when I’m awake again. You can sleep on the ground in the gardens. It’s surprisingly pleasant. You won’t get moist or stung by insects. But I can only speak for the upper five levels. Good night.”
Ashlynn and I make our way down, but not all the way.
“Let’s look at the smaller ship,” she suggests and finds another elevator. “It should be about here... yep.”
Another, thicker door opens, and I enter before Ashlynn. It is a smaller space, this. About the same size as the Common Cave in my old tribe. But there the similarity ends.
“Now, see,” Ashlynn says, “this looks more like the kind of spaceship I would expect. It’s almost like a lounge on a cruise ship. Not that I would know, though. Never went on a cruise.”
I touch one of the many similar objects in here. “I wonder if these are for sitting in.”
“Lots of seats,” Ashlynn agrees. “There’s got to be room for five hundred warriors in here. Maybe more. This is the ship that was supposed to take the warriors off the planet to fight the dragons. When the warriors had been hardened enough.”
“And now the dragons are coming here,» I point out. “So you alien females can use it to travel home.”
She sends me a little glance. “That’s the idea. If we can get it to work.”
“I have a feeling you can.”
We leave the small ship and make our way to the enormous hall that contains the gardens. A narrow staircase leads down to the first level, and we carefully make our way to the ground. Down there we both stop and look up, while the robot stays at a respectful distance.
The walls are transparent, and outside lies a landscape that’s very different from Xren.
I point. “Your world?”
Ashlynn shakes her head. “I think it’s the planet where this ship was built. The planet of the Ex. The aliens who built it.”
“Ah. The Ex.”
“It’s crazy,” Ashlynn says, slowly turning. “So much space taken up with just hanging gardens.”
There are bushes and small trees and grass and flowers that cover an immense area. And this is just the uppermost level. Narrow paths of gravel wind their way through it. The ceiling is a depiction of an alien sky. “A strange landscape. So orderly and… cold.”
“I suppose. It’s pretty artificial. At least there aren’t supposed to be any Bigs.”
I walk over to a bush and study a red ball hanging from it. “Can these fruits be eaten?”
Ashlynn joins me and picks the fruit from the twig, then sniffs it. “I think so. Smells nice, anyway.” She bites through the skin and takes a nibble. “Sweet enough. Fresh and tart. Like a… mango?”
“Mango,” I repeat and pick one. “Will it kill me?”
“Yes,” Ashlynn confirms and takes another bite, juice running down her chin.
“Never thought I’d be killed by a piece of fruit.”
“It’s a weird way to die,” she agrees and chews happily. “But it’s an honorable way to go.”
We eat our fill of various fruits, which all taste well and are more filling than I would have expected. While we do that, the light in this gigantic hall slowly dims, like a sunset.
“I guess it’s night on the Ex planet, too,” Ashlynn says and hides a yawn. “Does this grass look comfortable enough to sleep on?”
I bend down and prod the ground. It’s quite soft. “I think that may well be its main purpose.”
Ashlynn sits down and pats the ground next to her. “I think you
may well be right. The Ex gave up their bodies to escape the dragons. They made robots for their minds to inhabit. No, no. Shush. Don’t ask me how. I have no idea how it works.”
I sit down beside her. “I wasn’t going to ask.”
“Good, good. And we think they made these hanging gardens to be able to enjoy the most idyllic scenes of their home planet before they finally entered robot form. I guess they would walk around here and pretend to be back on their home planet. Maybe they slept on the ground, too. That’s what Delyah thinks, anyway. It’s so sad.”
“And it didn’t work. The dragons followed them, still.”
Ashlynn lies back with her hands behind her head. “That’s what it looks like. And now the Ex are extinct. Hey, tell me how you made your sword.”
I smile so Ashlynn can’t see it. Her sudden changes of topic are surprisingly charming. And this new topic does have a certain appeal to me.
“Very well. Of course, I had observed the other warriors repairing old swords and making small knives and such, so I had a good idea of how it worked…”
I lie back beside her and stare up at the fake alien sky, telling her in some detail about how I collected the iron, built a forge, made a small blade as a test, then a larger one as another test, and then finally got ready to make my actual sword. “I had ashes that had been burned many times until it was only a fine gray powder. To make steel, it must be mixed with iron. But not too much. The amount must be just right.”
“Carbon,” Ashlynn says.
“Karbn?”
“It’s what we call that dust on my planet. Never mind. Go on.”
“I heated up the iron and mixed in the dust. The mix must then be kept very hot for a long time. The way to do it is to constantly pump air into the fire and to be very vigilant about the color of the steel. It must be a specific shade of red. In the village, the tribesmen would take turns to watch it. But I had no one else to help me. And I didn’t want help. I stayed awake for three days to keep pumping and watch over it. It was the hardest part about making the sword. And also the best. There was only me and the steel. I felt…”
I struggle with the words. I have never talked to anyone about this. “I felt that the steel and I were one. We depended on each other. The steel depended on me to make it right. I depended on the steel to stay true and become strong. It was like… a birth. The birth of my blade and my birth as a full warrior with a real sword.”
I hear my own words and realize how ridiculous this must sound to someone else. “Anyway. The blade is just an object. It has no real life. And still...”
“And still it is your friend,” Ashlynn says softly and puts her hand into a pocket in her garment. “Yes. I know what that can be like.”
She takes her hand back out, empty, and places it on my forearm, resting it there.
The breath sticks in my throat for a moment and there’s an immediate swelling in my crotch.
Ashlynn yawns. “Sorry. I really enjoyed hearing about your sword. I want you to tell me more about it later. It’s just, it’s been a long day.” She half turns away from me on the grass and curls up, her behind lightly touching my hip and making my manhood twitch hard in my pants.
I lie there stiffly, staring up at the dark alien sky with eyes that don’t really see anything.
“Can you hold me, please?” Ashlynn asks with a drowsy voice.
I turn onto my side, careful so as not to crush her. I lightly place one arm around her round figure, making sure my crotch doesn’t press into her behind too hard. Despite the two layers of solid Big skin separating us down there, I fear that could have highly embarrassing consequences.
It is very quiet. Ashlynn’s breath becomes regular and even, while my own takes some time to calm down.
I bend my neck a little to place my nose closer to her hair, quietly drawing in the scent. Her fast heartbeat seems to resonate through the arm I have put lightly around her. My other arm lies awkwardly between us. But I don’t mind.
I allow myself a smile as I close my eyes.
She is an alien. She is your enemy.
My eyes fly open again, and I gaze over at the robot. But in the darkness it looks much the same as always, passive and waiting, fifty paces away. It didn’t say anything.
I realize that nobody spoke. Not with sound.
There was a voice in my mind. It wasn’t my own. But it said exactly what I fear the most. There were no words, just meaning. And there was mirth in it.
I lie awake the rest of that night.
9
- Ashlynn -
“You up yet?”
“I just need to finish this first problem,” I hear myself saying, still half inside a frustrating dream of some kind of admissions test, before I come fully awake.
I sit up and rub my eyes. Ah. Inside the alien ship Bune. Yippee. I would have preferred that admissions test.
Juri’ex is over by a bush, picking fruits. Then who the hell was talking to me?
Then I spot the robot waving its hand. “Just me. Delyah. Can I come closer?”
I stroke my hair back, knowing I didn’t have the foresight to bring a comb. “Sure.”
The robot comes up to me with its strange, clumsy gait. “Just wanted to check on you two. Everything okay?”
It is Delyah’s voice, no question. It just sounds a little weird coming from the robot’s alien mouth, or whatever it has in the middle of its face.
“I think we’re fine,” I yawn. “I had a good night’s sleep, anyway.”
“Great,” the robot says and points with a spindly arm. “There’s a little stream a little ways in that direction. The water is totally safe. For the… um... opposite need, any bush will do. The ground is self-cleaning. At least I tell myself it is.”
I get to my feet and stretch. “Cool. Any news from the control room?”
“The news is that I’m grateful for you bringing that food. Didn’t realize how much I missed it. Thank you. Also that I’ve been thinking a little about what you said about the tachyons, and I like it.”
“What, only good news? I love it. You should publish a newspaper. Nobody likes bad news in the morning. Make one with only good news in it. The Bune Times. All good news, all the… uh… times.”
The robot chuckles. “I’ll think about it. I don’t know, though. I mean, where would I get the typewriter? Okay, I’ll just keep pondering this alien shi— uh, shizzle. You want me, just talk to the robot. I think it can sense when you’re talking to me. It won’t transmit any of your private stuff with your bodyguard, there.”
“Doesn’t have to be a newspaper. I kind of like this interactive radio show you got going on. Maybe add some music? Just a thought. Okay, talk to you later. The bodyguard is on his way here with a bunch of fruit.”
The robot retreats a few paces as Juri’ex comes walking, moving easily and still exuding great power. His thighs flex with muscles, his stripes glow like neon in the fake sunshine, and I swear his bulge is the biggest I’ve seen. He towers over me and shades me from the fake sunlight from above.
“Anything new from your friend?” He hands me a yellow fruit, suspiciously eyeing the robot.
“Not really. She likes the food we brought.” I bite into the fruit, then just pop it into my mouth and chew it whole. The tiny pit in the middle I just spit out.
“And you like this food,” Juri’ex observes. “It hasn’t killed us yet. I’ve been walking around here a little. There’s ample fruit and water everywhere. Not much else.”
“We’ll make our way down to the next level. Sound good?”
He gives me an enigmatic smile. “It sounds good. But then everything you say does.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.” I sashay over to a suitable bush, hoping Delyah is right about the self-cleaning ground. I also hope these leaves aren’t the stingy kind.
They’re not, but they’re also not all that absorbent.
When I return, Juri’ex is inspecting his sword and apparently finding it oka
y, because he replaces it in its long scabbard behind his back. “All ready to go?”
“Ready,” I confirm. “There’s supposed to be a stream with clean water— oh.”
He holds out the water pouch, and it’s clearly been newly filled. “There is one.”
“Okay. Then what we’re looking for is a white column of light. There’s no elevator here.”
Juri’ex motions for me to lead the way, so I do, swiveling my hips just a fraction more than I normally would. The path winds its way through the garden seemingly at random, and I see no reason not to follow it. The gravel crunches under the soles of my dinosaur skin sandals, and it’s not at all unpleasant.
I throw a glance behind me. Juri’ex keeps looking around as if he expects a raptor to attack at any moment, and the robot follows fifty feet behind us.
“There aren’t supposed to be any dangers here,” I remind the caveman. “I think we can talk while we’re walking. If you want.”
“Very well,” he rumbles. “It is my understanding that there are many more floors to these gardens. Levels, as you call them. Of which only a handful have been explored. If there are dangers on the other levels, I imagine it would be no great feat for them to make their way up to where we are.”
“Sure.” I nod, happy to be away from the jungle. “We should remember that it is an alien ship. But we can relax a little bit, even so.”
“The prudent warrior doesn’t relax away from his village,” Juri’ex says as he walks up beside me, and it sounds like he’s reciting some kind of ancient tribal rule.
“Is that some kind of ancient tribal rule?”
“Well, yes. But good words to live by.”
“But you left the village when you were very young. Did you never relax since?”
“I never said I actually lived by those words.”
I glance up at him. There’s a little glint in those turquoise headlights he has for eyes.
I punch his side, not too hard. “You’re quite the rebel, aren’t you?”
“Notice how close the word ‘rebel’ is to the word ‘outcast’. That’s not a coincidence.”