An Island in the Stars

by Susan Laine

  “Let’s focus on the positive, shall we?” Sam looked around. “Alien planet—or moon, actually, since it seems to be orbiting another planet—there’s air we can breathe. The atmosphere seems to be oxygen-nitrogen, like Earth, and there’s a yellow star like our sun to light our way, and we’re surrounded by an environment that should have abundant sources of nutrition. We can only hope there’s an easily accessible source of drinkable water too.”

  Frowning, Marcus nodded toward the ocean. “Are all oceans salty?”

  Sam had to admit he didn’t know the answer. “The salt in Earth’s oceans comes from land as slightly acidic rainwater breaks down the rocks, creating ions, which are—”

  “Electrically charged atomic particles. Yes, I know.” Marcus gave him an admonishing glare but his smile never wavered. “And in oceans, ion concentrations build up over time, forming chloride and sodium. I took advanced chemistry, Sam. I know how salt forms in our oceans. What about the oceans here?”

  Sam blushed with embarrassment. He’d assumed jocks like Marcus didn’t have either the time or the inclination to take advanced anything. But that was a gross generalization, not true of Marcus at all, which Sam well knew. Marcus had a talent for math and physics, which Sam knew from having overheard (or eavesdropped on) many a conversation between Marcus and Simon over the years. Then he realized he didn’t even know what Marcus’s college major was….

  “I haven’t a clue,” Sam admitted finally. “Same process?”

  Marcus regarded the ocean with a skeptic eye. “Don’t know about you, but I’m less than enthusiastic about putting anything in my mouth while we’re here. Drinking seawater, even to test a theory, falls into that category.”

  Sam chuckled at that, surprising even himself. “Let’s cross that bridge if and when we get there. For now, we should try to see where we are, if there’s anything we could use to power up the machine, and if… if there’s anyone here.”

  Marcus swiveled around to face him, eyes wide. “You mean like… aliens?”

  “I doubt H.R. Giger ever set one foot on this planet,” Sam replied, making a jest of it. They were in dire straits, but humor could uplift their mood and overall morale. Though Sam often found Marcus’s banter annoying, now a positive attitude was a valuable commodity.

  Marcus actually chuckled at the joke. “That’s a relief. Okay, seriously now. You really think some… thing or someone could actually be here?”

  Sam hesitated before replying warily, “I think tropical climes are better for permanent settlements than frozen tundras. Beyond that… your guess is as good as mine.” He whooshed out a breath. “Best to have a look around before jumping to conclusions. Though I doubt there are any sentient aliens living here, considering the wrecked state of that chamber.”

  Sam tucked his coat inside his already full backpack as best he could and then threw the bag over his shoulders. Marcus had abandoned his backpack in the woods by the tree stump where they’d fallen in. Too bad Marcus didn’t have it with him, though it was unlikely he had anything more useful in it than what Sam had in his. After all, they’d planned for a day of classes, not a trek to an alien planet. As a result, they had scarce resources.

  The stone deck where they stood, where the stairs from the underground chamber came out, seemed to be a halfway point, as the stairway continued up and down the mountainside. As before, Sam noted that the slabs were cracked, blades of grass and tree roots twisting their way to light. Chips and pebbles had broken off, and a few had moss growing on them.

  Obviously no one had maintained the stairs or the underground chamber in ages.

  Marcus pointed downhill and uphill. “These stairs go up and down. If we go up, we’ll have a better vantage point to determine what kind of place this is. You agree?”

  Sam nodded. The idea had merit. He’d always known Marcus was smarter than the stereotypical jock. Otherwise Sam wouldn’t have been so into him, as he wasn’t attracted to fools. Not that all jocks were idiots by definition. After all, in order to play sports they needed to maintain a decent grade point average. But Sam liked big brains more than big brawn—and Marcus had both. Though he was a bit reckless for his own good.

  The upward-trending staircase rose in a straight line. Soil, moss, roots, grass, and gravel made travel precarious, and there were no railings to aid in the steep climb. Sam stumbled every couple of steps, but Marcus kept him steady with a hand on the small of his back. His companionship made the trip immensely better, and Sam felt relieved he didn’t have to be trapped on this alien planet alone. Or rather, moon. Sam wasn’t normally afraid of the dark or being by himself, but surely an alien environment fell into the exception category.

  Though it was far from quiet, Sam needed some human sounds. “On heavenly bodies that are smaller than Earth, like planets, moons, and planetoids, the atmosphere will be dense, with heavy cloud cover and unpredictable weather patterns. However, the gravity’s our main concern here because lower gravity means not only weakness in our muscles but bigger plants and animals. So we need to be careful.”

  “Check.” Perhaps out of impatience or curiosity, Marcus sidestepped Sam to walk ahead of him. Sam was fine with that. It reassured him to have a well-built jock in front of him to block any threats that might arise.

  “The height record for tropical trees on Earth is less than ninety meters. Here trees are way taller. The vegetation and atmosphere resemble the Mesozoic Era, with giant plants and humid heat and…. No, maybe not. That period also had high levels of carbon dioxide in the air, so it’s not really comparable. Hmm….”

  Marcus chuckled. “Check two.”

  “The air seems to be a bit more oxygen-rich than Earth, even though it smells like an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. There can be symptoms we need to look out for, like dizziness, vision problems, difficulty in breathing, that sort of thing. Too much oxygen is toxic in the long run.”

  “Check three.” Marcus glanced at him over his shoulder. “How do you know all this?”

  Sam’s aspirations covered several areas of interest, and he hoped one day to become an archaeologist, an astrophysicist, or one of those scientists studying exoplanets. He was smart enough to have skipped a grade, graduated high school a year early, and gotten into college at the age of seventeen. He loved books, reading, learning, studying, and using big words with big ideas. But he didn’t tell any of that to Marcus. He didn’t think he could handle the ridicule, though it was unlikely Marcus would ever be so callous or cruel.

  But Sam didn’t know for sure, so he kept his answer short. “I like to read, is all.”

  Their perception of the flatness of the mountaintop proved to be correct as they reached the last few steps. The top of the mountain was flat and mostly bare, obviously deliberately cleared at some point, although the jungle was making inroads in the form of brushes, vines, and undergrowth. A faint cool breeze blew across the plateau. It picked up speed, causing their clothes to billow in the wind.

  They encountered what appeared to be an old street made of square stone slabs. The road seemed to serve no purpose, and to their left it vanished into the jungle at the edge of the flat terrain. If there once had been something there, it was gone now.

  At the right end of the narrow street, however, stood a formidable structure, though it was ancient and mostly in ruins. Constructed of amber-hued stone, the monument had four stylized towers, one in each of the four corners. Instead of a straight sugarcane shape, the towers appeared conical, like closed flower buds.

  And from each of them a blue beam of light rose straight up toward the sky, the glow faint but detectable even in the increasing sunlight. The source of the beams wasn’t apparent.

  “Could that place be harnessing some kind of energy?” Marcus’s optimism was endearing.

  Sam smiled, and positivity bloomed inside him. “We can always hope.”

  They walked closer warily, keeping their eyes on both the remarkable building and the surrounding area. No animals stirred
in the underbrush, but the foliage of the palm trees, giant ferns, flourishing tamaracks, and other leafy plants encircling and encroaching on the plateau rustled with a bevy of ozzies, their color-rich feathers vibrant amid the greenery. They seemed intrigued by the newcomers, rarely taking their eyes off Sam and Marcus.

  Sam wasn’t naïve enough to believe these small furry and feathery creatures would be the only fauna around. Where there were harmless animals, there would always be predators. Or more to the point, herbivores, carnivores, and scavengers. So he skimmed the jungle with his gaze constantly.

  “Shit.” Marcus stopped dead. “We’re on a freaking island.”

  Sam had been so busy watching the stirring of every leaf and the approaching shadows of an otherworldly structure that he’d neglected to take note of their wider surroundings. Now he looked up and saw what Marcus had pointed out.

  The balmy, cyan-hued ocean encircled the small island in all directions, and from the flattened summit unfolded a view to all compass points. The peak seemed to have been cleared as the only habitable area, and the rainforest-covered bluffs fell all the way to the beaches below. Now that the two of them had briefly ceased moving and talking, Sam could hear a rush of water that sounded promising. Then again, the constant drizzle all around proved without a shadow of a doubt that they were in a rainforest. Every warm drop sliding down his spine had the same effect, reminding him their new surroundings were far from the wintry mountains of home.

  “Fuck.” Marcus huffed angrily, whirling about with hands on his hips, kicking up dirt and pebbles. “No other islands in sight. And on this stupid rock, nothing but an abandoned ruin.”

  Sam could relate to his frustration. Not that he’d been eager to confront alien life-forms but the inhabitants of the island might have been able to help them turn on the traveling machine or restore power to it. He scanned the horizon, going full circle. The mountainous jungle island seemed to have risen out of the ocean alone, without any other land around. Scattered lone islands weren’t uncommon on Earth, but Sam had prayed for an exception here.

  “No such luck. This must be the Isle of Suryan mentioned on the holoscreen.” Sam glanced over his shoulder. The sun had risen higher, the sky now more turquoise and aquamarine. “We have no idea how long days here last, so let’s make good use of the present sunlight. That building is the sole structure here, so let’s check it out. If even parts of the roof and walls are intact, it’ll provide adequate shelter.”

  They resumed their trek toward the construction. As they got closer, Sam detected unusual symbols carved over the arched entrance. It didn’t resemble the language they’d seen on the holoscreen. That suggested the builders of this site might not have been the same as those who had created the chamber with the portals. Or they might have had several languages on their world, same as humans on Earth. But at this point it was all pure conjecture.

  “Marcus, can you read that?” Sam asked, pointing at the text full of elaborate curls and curves. Though he didn’t know what it said, he recognized writing when he saw it.

  Marcus cocked his head, but his expression was more puzzled than focused. “Yeah, I can. But… it’s weird. The last word keeps… I don’t know, changing.” He shook his head then, perhaps to clear the cobwebs of confusion. “Anyway, it says Temple of Anissa.” Then he harrumphed loudly. “But it also says… Temple of Love.”

  Sam frowned, switching his gaze between the writing and Marcus. “Well, maybe… what if the name belongs to a… a god or a goddess of love? Like Aphrodite or Venus or something.”

  Marcus’s brow smoothed, and he nodded, shrugging. “Sure, okay. Works for me.”

  Sam looked back at the straight path they’d walked along, the other end disappearing into the lush green. “If this place is a temple, then the path we took could be a kind of ceremonial street. Many cultures have them.”

  Marcus chuckled, casting Sam an odd look somewhere between amused and bewildered. “How’d you come to know so much about stuff like this?”

  Sam frowned, getting defensive. “I’m a scientist.”

  Marcus quirked an eyebrow. “You’re a freshman in college.”

  Sam blushed fiercely. “I mean, I… I’m going to be a scientist.”

  Marcus wrinkled his brow while continuing to smile lopsidedly. “Really? I thought you wanted to be a—uh, never mind.” He turned back to the imposing edifice, leaving Sam teeming with questions and curiosity. But the timing was wrong for a heart-to-heart. It was far more important to establish their bearings.

  The Temple of Love burned golden now that the sun illuminated the otherwise dark amber stone. The structure dominated the landscape of the mountain island.

  Sam guessed that the absence of other structures meant that beyond this ancient place of worship, the island served no other purpose. Perhaps the deities or spirits once venerated in the temple had been lost over time, the religion forgotten and the place too as a result. The other possibility was that the creators of this place had died off, maybe in some widespread cataclysm or an extinction level event.

  For some reason Sam found both options kind of sad. Maybe the aliens had left the star system instead? That was a more positive notion. The dense atmosphere, for example, could’ve provided the aliens a means of gathering hydrogen from water vapor to fuel the engines of spaceships and thus leave the confines of their world? Maybe….

  Man, he read too much science fiction.

  Sam also found it kind of curious that the temple’s entrance didn’t face the direction of the rising sun. Maybe in this world sun and love weren’t paired in terms of worship the way fire and passion were on Earth. But since the original builders didn’t seem to be around anymore, Sam’s theories were all guesswork.

  Even from the outside, Sam was able to tell that beyond the threshold was the main hall and that it appeared to have a square floor plan. Nonetheless, his attention quickly veered off to the external stone walls full of intricately carved reliefs.

  And they were all erotic in nature.

  “Holy shit,” Marcus murmured at his side. Sam’s cheeks flamed, thinking Marcus had observed Sam eyeing the artwork. But Marcus soon proved him wrong. “What are those things? Sam, did you see them? They’re vaguely human but… not.”

  At first Sam had only noticed the figures entwined, but now he realized that the beings were not human. They had two arms and two legs—but they also had long, lizardlike tails, twisted horns on the sides and tops of their bald heads, and they emanated a luminescent glow. An aura seemed to surround their bodies, but the color remained indeterminate thanks to the stone’s single hue.

  “What the heck are they?” Marcus asked in awe. He chuckled loudly out of the blue. “Fuck, that’s not even the main thing. I mean, Sam, you and I are now the only ones who know that aliens are real. They’re freaking real!”

  Sam couldn’t breathe. His chest compressed, feeling two sizes too small. They were on an alien moon, yes, but learning about intelligent life-forms that could build structures surviving the ages? That was a whole other ball game.

  “When we get back home, this discovery will change the world.” Marcus continued to speak, unaware of Sam’s state of imminent collapse. “You and me, Sam, we’ll go down in history. The great explorers of unknown alien worlds.”

  That comment brought Sam back from the edge. He rolled his eyes. “Since you’ve got our whole future figured out, pray tell what means of returning home have you got in your back pocket?”

  Marcus faced Sam, blinked hard in confusion, and then his cheeks turned red as he cleared his throat bashfully. “Oh. Right, yeah. Sorry.” Hot dayum, but Marcus looked sexy when all sheepish and flushed. Sam couldn’t take his eyes off the gorgeous guy. Then Marcus snapped out of his funk and apparently picked up on the sensuality of the images portrayed on the temple walls. “Jesus, are they…?”

  “Well, according to your weird universal translator, this is supposed to be the Temple of Love after all.” Sam coughed aw
kwardly. He didn’t have a problem with sexual imagery. But he did consider seeing them in the company of his crush, as unrequited as the feeling was, awkward and unpleasant. “In our own human history, lots of societies combined shrines of love deities with brothels, and they shared the same kind of taste in explicit art.”

  Marcus snorted. “How convenient.” Sam had to admit he was pleasantly surprised by Marcus’s annoyed tone. His attitude toward prostitution, even of the hypothetical variety, made him more attractive in Sam’s eyes. Sam realized he not only liked Marcus but admired and respected him.

  Marcus whistled low. “Wow, those pictures are pretty shocking.”

  Sam stepped closer to one of the walls. He told himself the act was scientific curiosity. And surely it was just common sense to determine what kinds of life-forms might appear out of the blue. It wasn’t arousal, no sirree.

  Despite their tails, horns, spine spikes, and ethereal glow, the beings had features in common with humans; they were bipedal and had hands with opposable thumbs. And they also seemed to have at least two differing genders, one with external genitalia just like human males. Or maybe they weren’t two genders, Sam mused, not knowing for certain. Perhaps there were more than two. Who knew? Nonetheless, he dubbed the lean beings with a pretty obvious penis as males and the curvaceous and graceful ones without a penis as females.

  Marcus pointed at the reliefs. “Looks like these lizard-folk have men and women too, same as us.”

  Sam glared at him. “Lizard-folk? I’m surprised you aren’t calling them… dino-people, or something equally ridiculous. Just because they have a tail, that doesn’t make them reptilians. I mean, they don’t have scales or armor or anything.”

  Marcus gave him a wicked grin and shameless wink. “I thought it sounded cool ’cause then they would match. You know, ozzies and lizzies.”

  Sam was stunned, and his mouth hung open before he snapped it closed. “Okay, that’s it. You’re not allowed to name anything else on this moon.”

  Marcus pouted playfully. “Aww, you booted me off the scientific naming board? I’m officially offended and hurt.”