by J Battle
‘Sorry. It’s my testosterone talking. You know I got more than my fair share.’
‘What’s that?’
‘What?’
‘It’s a plant. A bush. Look.’
It was indeed a bush; green and healthy looking, with heavy bunches of purple berries hanging from its branches, seeming quite out of place on the dusty ground.
‘There’s another one,’ said J, pointing, ‘and another. There’s loads of them, all over the place.’
Soon they were walking through a green verdant valley, with a dozen varieties of bush and shrub and small trees surrounding them. The air was heavy with the sweet smell of their fruit and provided a highway for all types of flying insects, buzzing in their ears.
‘This is what Captain ‘What’s That Smell?’ was looking for,’ said J, plucking a couple of berries and popping them in his mouth.
‘You don’t know if that’s safe,’ chided D.
‘Well, we’ll know soon enough , won’t we?’
D was looking into the middle distance.
‘You see those trees? I bet there’s a river, or a lake, or something there. I’ll race you!’ He burst into a run, laughing at the surprise on his brother’s face.
They both laughed and shouted as they ran down the side of the valley, bumping into the bushes as they went. It was apparent within only a few minutes that D was correct in his assumption. There was a kidney shaped lake in the lowest part of the valley, surrounded by a narrow ring of trees.
They reached the trees with nothing between them, until J pushed D to one side and claimed victory. He would have bragged insufferably about it if his eyes hadn’t caught a glimpse of something in the still, slate-grey water.
‘Look,’ he whispered, ‘I don’t believe it. I really don’t believe it.’
‘What can you see?’ asked D, as he tried to peer through the trees.
‘There, in the water. Tell me I’m not dreaming. Can you see her?
’Blood and sand! Could we both be having the same dream?’
‘You can see her?’
‘Yes I can see her. It’s not a hallucination. She certainly looks real to me.’
‘I think she’s getting out. Look, she is. And she’s completely naked.’
D couldn’t help looking as she stepped effortlessly from the still cold lake, her hair dark and straight from the water, her breasts full and firm, her stomach gently curved. She was so hot she should have been steaming.
For a second, she just stood there, on the edge of the water. Then she smiled, and the whole cloudy dismal world was lit up. She fairly glowed as she walked towards them.
‘Hello,’ she seemed to whisper.
‘Hello,’ said J, his smile broad, his eyes staring.
‘You speak English?’ asked D, trying not to be too obvious with his own staring.
‘I speak whatever language you require me to speak, Daniel Millett.’ Her voice was husky and warm, like honey dribbled into your ear.
‘How do you know my name? Nobody calls me Daniel. And how can you speak our language, anyway?’
‘You are a seeker of answers, Daniel. That is clear to me. But, what about your brother? Is Jason also a seeker?’ She placed one hand on his shoulder as she spoke; the warmth filled his whole body.
‘If you could put some clothes on, you might have a better chance of an intelligible response from him.’
‘I had taken it that naked flesh was more to your taste. Was I mistaken?’
‘No, naked flesh is great. Especially when it looks as good as you do. Naked is good, at the right time. Just now, it’s a little bit distracting.’ D couldn’t believe that he was actually asking this vision to cover up.
‘Does my nakedness cause you to desire intercourse with me?’
The groan that burst from J’s mouth could be interpreted in the affirmative.
He reached out one hand and gripped D’s shoulder, without taking his eyes off the beauty before him.
‘Don’t wake me,’ he whispered through gritted teeth as she took his other hand and began to lead him from view.
D watched them go, his brother’s clumsy, distracted steps, her hip swinging, bottom jiggling stroll, and was suddenly crestfallen.
‘Would you believe it? This always happens!’ he snapped.
‘Is there anything I can do to alleviate your displeasure?’
D twisted around, almost falling over in his eagerness to see the speaker.
She was slender where the first had been voluptuous, dark skinned instead of light. But, if it was even possible, he thought she was more beautiful. Fortunately she had the same ideas as the first in the wardrobe department.
‘Will you come with me, Daniel?’ she whispered, her voice a gentle lilt, her hand held out for his grasp.
No words came to him. No words were needed.
Chapter 27
‘They’re not coming back, are they?’ It was already fully dark, so Helen was wasting her time standing and staring to the west.
‘No, I guess not. If they were coming back, they’d be here by now.’ Milligan’s soft spoken words held no comfort.
‘So you think these clickerclacker things have got them?’
‘We know nothing about this world. Anything could have happened to them. Maybe they’re just lost.’
‘How can they be lost, with this great big Wall as a guide?’
‘As I said, we know nothing. What do you want to do?’
‘We wait here for the morning. If they’re not back by then, we have some tough decisions to make.’
‘Will you send out a search party, if they don’t come back?’
She sighed and shook her head. ‘How can we risk anyone else? There’s only six of us left.’
She continued staring into the darkness, straining her eyes for some hint of movement.
‘I suppose we’ll have to start listening to Jones.’
Milligan shuddered. ‘Go back to the ship?’
‘That may be the only course left to us. We can’t wander up and down this Wall until we run out of food.’ She put her hand on The Wall, as if that was an ending she was actually considering.
‘I suppose I’d better check on Jones; see how he’s doing. As he’s the only one of us who is armed, he’s going to have to stand watch again.’
‘Hold your breath!’
‘He’s not so bad, out in the open.’
Jones snapped to attention when he noticed her approach.
‘Evening, Sir.’
‘You know you can call me Ma’am or Captain? Everyone else does.’
‘Yes, Sir.’
‘How are you doing? Not too tired?’
‘No, Sir. I managed a couple of hours sleep this afternoon. I’ll be fine. Nothing will get past me on my watch. You can be sure of that, Sir.’
‘Oh, I am, Jones. I have every confidence in your ability to protect the team. Good man.’
Left alone, Jones considered her words; ‘every confidence in your ability’, ‘Good man’. Yes, she was definitely beginning to warm to him. He could hear it in her words, see it in the way she stood a little bit closer to him than normal. It was only a matter of time. The idea kept him warm through the long cold, lonely night.
It was difficult to tell when morning actually came as the heavy rain and low clouds hid the sun’s tentative light. When the crew woke up properly, after a slow damp night of broken sleep on the hard ground, they found Jones, watching over them, his plasma gun held firmly in both hands.
‘Any sign of them?’ asked the captain.
‘No, Sir. No sign of anything at all during the night.’
‘We’ll wait for them, won’t we Captain?’ said Dr. Pascal, rising from his seat by the Wall.
Helen turned and looked at him, frowning.
‘We can’t wait here forever, like sitting ducks. We don’t know what’s out there. We’ll give them another hour while we have breakfast. If they don’t turn up with good news by then, we’ll set off
back to the AEC.’
‘Yes, Sir,’ said Jones.
Without looking back at him, she admonished him.
‘Don’t smile, Jones. We’re going back because we have no other options. If any other opportunities arrive in the meantime, we will grasp them with both hands, believe me.’
‘Yes, Sir.’
‘Now, see if you can prise Armstrong and Miles apart; it’s unseemly the way they are behaving.’
‘Yes, Sir.’
Helen watched him march up to the couple, who were lying in a tangle of limbs. He really was turning out to be a valuable member of the crew. Who’d have thought that he would have become so vital to the crew’s survival?
After a frugal breakfast, and with no sign of the Milletts, it was time to set off on their return journey to the AEC. No-one except for Jones seemed at all keen on the idea.
‘Are we really not waiting for the Twins?’ Jo Miles whispered to Armstrong as they tightened the straps on their packs.
‘It’s the Captain’s decision. She has to think about the welfare of the whole crew.’
‘I don’t want to go back to the AEC. I keep thinking it’s going to crash and kill us all. I dreamt about it last night; it was horrible.’
‘It’s not going to crash. It’s man-made, so the Succ-y-Rist had nothing to do with it. And Jones has checked everything out, so we know it’s safe.’
‘I don’t like the way he looks at me.’
‘Who?’
‘Jones. His eyes watch you. Haven’t you noticed? It’s creepy.’
‘He’s just lonely. And you can’t blame him for looking at you, can you? He’s probably not used to being in the presence of such a beautiful woman.’
She punched his arm, but couldn’t help the smile.
***********
‘Where’ve you been?’ asked Perdus, as he watched the humans get ready for the march.
‘Who, me? I’ve not been anywhere.’
‘You must have been somewhere. I hope I don’t find out that you have anything to do with those humans not returning.’
‘’I’ve not been anywhere near them. Though, I admit, I did think about following them and sitting down to my first proper meal in I don’t know how long. But I didn’t. Look.‘ Deylus reared up on his hind legs and displayed his flat, almost concave, stomach.
‘See. Empty. Believe me now?’
‘I suppose I do. Come on, let’s follow along with Jones. And you could make a better attempt at learning their language, you know. What would you do if something happens to me?’
‘Eat.’
Near midday, the group reached the AEC. The humans dropped their packs on the ground, barely noticing the rain that had returned. The cats sat to one side and commenced some much needed grooming.
Helen stood at the front and addressed the soggy group.
‘Okay, everyone. I know no-one wants to be here, but the decision is made, so we have to live with it. Dr. Pascal, can I ask you to take it from here?‘
Dr. Pascal took her place at the front.
‘Right. I’m going to administer a light sedative to each crew member. It won’t knock you out, but it will reduce your fear levels and allow Jones to guide you to where you need to be. Who’s first?’
After a word with the captain, Milligan moved forward, his left arm held out. The doctor quickly slapped the syringe cartridge against his inner arm, and moved on to the next volunteer. When Armstrong and Miles had received their injections, Helen lined up for hers. After self-administering his dose, the doctor had his last words with the crew.
‘The sedative will take about ten minutes to kick in, so I suggest we all stand in line outside the entrance, to make it easier for Jones to get us inside.’
‘I don’t want him touching me,’ Jo whispered to Armstrong.
‘It’ll be alright. Don’t worry.’ Was his response.
When sufficient time had passed, one by one, Jones took each by the elbow and gently guided them inside the AEC and to their seats. When they were all safely strapped down, he nudged the mangy cat out of the pilot seat, seated himself with the black cat draped across his console, and began to run through the pre-flight checks.
Chapter 28
‘For heaven’s sake, put your pants on!’
‘What?’ J looked down. ‘Oh, I see what you mean. She ripped them off me; I don’t know where they are. ‘
‘Well, you’d better find them. I don’t want to spend all day looking at your backside. And will you stop with the grinning? You look like a clown.’
‘I’ve got a lot to grin about though, haven’t I? She was an animal, I’ll tell you. She couldn’t get enough of me. We were at it half the night.’ He dived into a clump of bushes and came out a second later with his pants held high.
‘Is that a rash?’
‘What!’ J bent over to get a closer look at his privates and D pushed him into the lake.
Coughing and spluttering, but still grinning, J climbed out of the lake and shook water over his brother.
‘We didn’t keep you awake, did we? What with the moaning, and the groaning, and the begging for more; and that was her.’
‘Actually, I didn’t get much sleep myself. I was otherwise occupied.’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘I was entertaining a young lady of my own. She appeared after you left.’
‘What was she like?’
‘She was truly beautiful. A little refined for your tastes, I think.’
‘I can do refined.’ Dropping his grin and adopting a serious expression. ’Do you want to do swapsies when they come back?’
‘Next time you see a dictionary, look up refined. You will see that swapsies are not part of the description.’
‘Where are they, anyway?’ asked J, finally pulling on his pants.
‘I am here,’ was the response, from the beauty who had occupied J throughout the night, this time dressed demurely in a long white gown.
Suddenly J’s grin was back.
‘Hi,’ he said, ‘I don’t think we ever got round to exchanging names. You know mine already, but what is yours?’
‘Nomenclature is only really required when multiple intelligent beings are present, and that is not normally the case for myself. For convenience sake, I shall pick a name from your mind that seems to have important connotations for you. You can call me Mother.’
‘What! No, I can’t call you Mother. No, it wouldn’t be right. Not after what we did to each other.’
D laughed. ‘We can call her Mum. It’s no problem for me.’
‘No, it’ll have to be something else.’
‘If Mother is not a suitable name, and I can now see the reasons why it might be a problem for creatures such as yourselves, I shall pick a name that will have no resonance for you. You may call me Pi.’
‘What? Pie, as in meat and potato?’ asked J.
‘I think she means Pi, as in the Greek numerical symbol, three point something or other,’ said his slightly more numerate twin.
‘Hi Pi,’ grinned J.
‘Good morning, Jacob. And to you Daniel.’
D was looking around. ‘Where is the other young lady?’ he asked, finally.
Pi smiled and, for a moment, he was lost.
‘She is not necessary at this time. If you require intercourse later, she can be made available to you, though it is no longer a requirement from our point of view, as sufficient DNA has already been obtained.’
‘Sufficient DNA? Is that what this is all about?’ D asked, astonished at the idea.
‘This is about much more than acquiring DNA; please be sure of that. That was just the starting point. We want much more from you.’
‘And if we refuse?’
‘Brother, don’t spoil things!’ hissed J.
‘We would hope to persuade you.’ Her smile would have melted an iceberg.
‘And if we still refuse?’
‘Then we will have to reconsider our options.’
/> D turned away from her, and looked across the lake. It was hard to concentrate in the face of that smile.
‘You’re not really a beautiful woman, are you? I mean, you are beautiful, but you’re not a woman. ’
‘Brother!’ snapped J.
Her gentle laugh was a rainbow turned to tiny tinkling bells.
‘You are on a planet orbiting a star sixty light years from your home. What do you think?’
‘Don’t spoil the illusion, man.’ J looked close to tears. ‘I don’t mind pretending.’
‘If you’re not what you seem to be, what are you?’
‘Just as you are, I am a visitor to this place, though I have travelled much further.’
D turned slightly to allow her to drift into his peripheral vision. ‘Can you tell me what you are? I need to know. You look beautiful, and your words are seductive, but what are you? I really need to know before we go any further.
J had decided to sit on the edge of the lake, his feet a few millimetres from the water, he face half turned away from Pi. This wasn’t the way he had hoped things would go this morning; not after last night. Sometimes his brother was such an idiot.
‘If you look to the place you came from, you will be able to see my/our true form. At least it is true at this present time. It has been different, and I expect at some time in the future, it will be different again. But for now, that is me/us.’
D looked across the green meadow towards the barren land.
‘Do you mean the wall?’
‘That is correct. You might call me an avatar of The Wall. It wouldn’t be entirely true, but, also, it would not be completely false.’
‘Right, I’ve got that. I don’t pretend to understand everything, but, let’s put that aside for the moment. What do you, and the wall, want from us? It would be nice if you could actually come out with it in plain English.’
J was becoming more and more convinced that he’d never have sex again; not with the way his brother was talking to her.
‘I can see that I/We are causing you some distress. That is not our intention. Let us sit beside your brother, and allow the lake’s cool waters to soothe our limbs. Then we can continue our conversation in a relaxed and candid manner.’