Space Hoppers - Dance of the Guinea Pigs

by Jayne Bartholomew

  Xander was leaning up against the wall with his arms folded, listening. Sarah went up to him.

  “Hi, look, sorry for the other night. I was just glad of the company and I think I may have got a little carried away. That’s never happened to me before.” She stopped the lie as he turned to her with raised eyebrows. “Well, sorry anyway. And thank you. So, what’s the meeting about?”

  Xander straightened up and gestured to the group. “Depending on your viewpoint this meeting is a mixture of philosophy and religion. How much do you know already about the Light?”

  “Well, they seem to have got things pretty covered in the room, don’t they? If they made it any brighter people would have to wear sunglasses.”

  He smiled and his eyes sparkled briefly. In the silence between them the voice of the central figure floated by.

  “I believe that the Light is a part of all of us that’s good and pure. I believe that if we can all just work together and really allow ourselves to show the love we feel for each other we can overcome any problems.” The speaker looked up, hope illuminating his face. “I think that the story of the planets is an allegory of how we’re supposed to live our lives.”

  Xander tore himself away from the crowd around the speaker and beckoned to Sarah to move outside. “Well, that’s it in a nutshell really. The major spiritual belief of the majority of crew members serving here. What do you think?”

  Sarah shrugged. “He’s going to bring out a guitar and suggest a group hug, isn’t he?”

  “Have you come to one of these gatherings before?”

  “Lucky guess.”

  “If you don’t mind me saying, that sounded terribly cynical.”

  Catching an undertone in his voice she gave a small conciliatory nod. “Maybe. Is this what you believe in?”

  “Some of it. I know that I am cynical and I don’t believe that a group sing-song is going to solve anything, but this sort of thing does keep people out of trouble for a couple of hours.”

  She took in the group of kindly, smiling people holding hands. “Oh yes. Absolutely. Keeping this lot occupied will reduce the crime rate no end.”

  “I take it you’re not likely to become converted to the Light any time soon then?” Xander smiled.

  Sarah frowned. “Did I miss something? All he was saying was basically be nice to people; I didn’t understand the bit about planets but that’s hardly a religion, is it?”

  “You don’t understand.” His eyes went back to the well-lit room, Sarah tried to be patient.

  “Keep things bright to ward off the evil dark? On Earth we used to worship the sun, I suppose, but that was probably more to do with the fact that we needed it to produce food. It’s a bit primitive, isn’t it?”

  Xander took her arm and moved her further away from the gathering. “Better keep your voice down; some of the crew can get quite passionate about this. OK, quick history lesson – look, there’s some seating over there, this may take a few minutes.”

  He made himself comfortable and absently stared at the palms of his hands; she noticed scarring at the fingertips but said nothing. He took a deep breath. “Right. When the war with the Pirates started and the first planet was destroyed, it triggered the stars to give off a ray of energy. We don’t know how many stars were involved or from how many galaxies but the rays all met at a central point and created a small orb of light. This was collected by a group called the Guardians and kept hidden in a location known only to a select few. In time the Pirates discovered the location and it was decided to send the Light away.” He raised his eyes to meet hers. “It never arrived at its destination and the guardian who was escorting it disappeared as well.”

  “So…” He turned his hands over and scratched at his left one. “The belief is that the Light chose the Guardian as its keeper and went somewhere safe. Legend has it that the Light and the Keeper will return when it’s needed most. Remember I told you about the pith of the planet? Well, one of the reasons why we collect items from different planets is to see if the Light may have affected them. The connection between the Light and the planets will act as a powerful magnet. So far nothing, but we keep searching with hope.”

  Sarah felt that a comment was called for, she searched around for something appropriate. “That sounds very… interesting. Someone told me though that the real problems with the Pirates started around fifty Earth years ago. Is this belief really only that old?”

  “I suppose every religion has to start somewhere.”

  “Couldn’t you just make another ball of energy? From the way you’re talking about it the Light doesn’t sound like a religion, more like an episode from your history that people have fixated on. Even if the essence of stars was extracted into a glowing orb, what good does that do anyone? A giant light bulb that you don’t need to recharge?”

  Xander frowned. “We didn’t make the first one, remember. This is an energy that can’t be manufactured. It can’t be destroyed but it can destroy. It can’t be re-created but it can create. Whoever finds it first would have the same powers as a god. That’s why we have to get to it first otherwise the Pirates would have power beyond our comprehension.”

  “And you think that it would be safe in your care, do you? We have a saying on Earth, ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Can’t you just destroy it?”

  “To decide to destroy something that creates life you’d need to be really sure about what you were doing. No, I’m positive that we would know how to handle it. It’s something that those affiliated with the Lights Academy have been training for since the Light was created.”

  “You said that you believed the Light had chosen a Keeper and gone away, but what if it doesn’t want to be found?” mused Sarah as the speaker pulled out a battered guitar with smiley faces on it.

  “It must have been created for a reason and when the time comes we’ll know what the reason was. What do you believe in?”

  “I’m not sure because on Earth there are so many religions to choose from. I suppose that I’m in favour of the basic concept of good and bad. I can’t find one religious argument that disagrees so I’m probably on the right track. I had a bunch of hippy friends a while ago and they would go on about a force for good and a force for evil.” She thought back. “Well, when they weren’t smoking things that made them see little green pixies. Does that sound a bit far-fetched to you?”

  He smiled at her. “I don’t think it sounds far-fetched at all. You have to understand though that the Light is just an object. It’s basically a power force, not good, not evil. The person who can harness that power could use it for whatever they wanted but the Light itself has the same amount of personality as a table leg. Obviously myths and legends have grown up around this but I think it’s important to stick with what has hard evidence behind it. ”

  “So why do you say things like ‘go with Light’ or ‘for Light’s sake’ then?”

  “Habit? I wasn’t born when the Light was created and phrases like those have become part of our language now. I grew up with a lot of folklore.” He saw the meeting was starting to come to an end. “I think we should move on unless you want to volunteer to hand out leaflets.”

  Xander grabbed a heavy bag that he slipped over his shoulder and moved off down one of the corridors. “We need to have a chat about what happened yesterday. Engine Room One was sabotaged, which is what caused the orbs to drop out of sequence. Did you see anything unusual?”

  “I probably wasn’t in there longer than a few minutes before there were problems. I’m sorry about Sornath, I tried…” Her voice broke and she turned her head away from Xander, looking down at Monty.

  “Everyone knows you tried to help him and that he trusted you. Otherwise he wouldn’t have made the handover. Of course, as a Visitor on the ship you have a certain privileged status but I would be very grateful if you would spare a few moments to discuss the handover.”

  “The what?”

  “When Sornath passed over some of his life-f
orce to you.”

  Her eyes widened. “He did what?”

  Xander raised his hands to calm her. “I wanted to discuss this with you yesterday but you were… busy. This is probably something we can talk about at a better time. Perhaps you could come over to my quarters later?”

  “I don’t feel any different. Should I feel something different?” The only thing she could feel was a rising sense of panic.

  “It’s not something we’ve had any experience of before. There might not even have been a handover but please, we’ll talk later. OK?”

  “OK.”

  Xander nodded and continued walking. “We discovered a LIP in this sector, which is what we’re going to investigate today. I know we need to head back to Kaor as quickly as possible but I haven’t been to one before and to be honest I’m curious. I know you’re new to all this but keep your eyes open for anything really out of the ordinary. LIPs are very unstable so it’s not unusual for the planets to compensate in interesting ways. After you.” Having reached the landing bay he moved politely aside to let her go in first.

  This time Lingor had opted not to go down to do testing and so Brelt took his place on the landing crew. Martyn was bickering with Garet over who was doing the driving and she had a brief moment of déjà vu as Xander strode over and started lecturing them. Monty sat and watched the scene with his ears pricked forward. He tried to nibble Sarah’s backpack but she brushed him off and threw it over her back.

  The flight down was considerably quicker than the first time. Whether it was because everyone seemed engrossed in checking their packs or because there was time spent putting on protective clothing, she didn’t know. Either way she was grateful that she didn’t have time to think about recent developments.

  The protective suit they allocated her was white, loose and made an annoying rustling sound every time she moved. Monty was reluctantly shoehorned into one and sat, like a giant marshmallow, occasionally pawing at his head.

  Lunches were handed out. Sarah took a quick look at hers before deciding against the grey brick-shaped sandwich. Before she zipped Monty up completely she surreptitiously offered it to him, but he turned his nose up at it. She slipped it down the side of her pack next to one she had made earlier and promptly forgot about it.

  Brelt shuffled over to sit with Sarah. “So… how are you?”

  “Oh, a bit stiff with a headache I can’t shift but nothing that won’t heal. There never seems to be a time to sit and catch up with things. I’m sure that if I was back on Earth I’d be a nervous wreck right now, but here, things seem different. Will there be a funeral for Sornath?”

  “No, we will have to return the body as the Cadovoans re-use them. Don’t look at me like that! They say that they use the body in the same way we use a… a travel bus, it’s just a thing that gets them from A to Z. As a whole they are a very closed-off race, we know very little about them except their capacity for insight.” Brelt put her hand on Sarah’s suited one. “If you ever need to talk about things I’m always around. It can be tough being in a strange place and I know the guys mean well but it’s not the same as girl-talk, is it?”

  Sarah shook her head.

  “Have you been to a LIP before?”

  “I haven’t really been many places like this before.”

  “Well, it’s really amazing. Look, you can start to see it from the window. Obviously it doesn’t become LIP from the start, the scientists believe that there’s some kind of trigger, but once it turns there’s no stopping it.”

  Sarah stared out of the window at miles and miles of empty landscape. “How long are we down here for?”

  The crew worked quickly and efficiently taking samples from the various rocks and dust that littered the planet surface. Monty, bored, was trying to sniff, through the suit, around a dead tree while Sarah was investigating one of the flowers that grew around it. She had never seen such a dull blossom before. It was black, appeared wilted and when she moved in towards it there was a smell like rotting grass. In fact, if there was ever a plant that didn’t want to attract bees or other pollinating creatures, this was it. Looking around she noticed that everything seemed drab. A flash of blue in one of the rock faces caught her eye before winking out.

  Scanning the area to see if anyone else had noticed, she walked slowly up to the spot but found nothing. Gingerly, she put her gloved hands over the rocks and was surprised to find that they were spongy to the touch. She pushed in further with little resistance and felt a small round pebble of solid matter, which she closed her hand around. The cool of the stone sank through the suit and chilled her arm, which was now in up to her elbow. As her fingers encircled it she felt the pebble seem to come away from the rock and drop into her palm and she withdrew her arm. What she found was a small round stone the size of a grape, opaque but shining like a diamond with a fierce blue glare.

  As she was paying so much attention to the stone she failed to notice a creeping thorn bush that had sent a tendril up the outside of one of her trouser legs. When it reached just above the knee it used one of the thorns to slowly make an incision downwards to the boot before sliding off and moving back into the undergrowth. Another tendril wrapped itself loosely around her right ankle.

  Sarah had never seen anything as beautiful as the stone and was wondering how she could persuade Xander to let her keep it when Monty came up to her. He nudged her rucksack with his nose and gazed up at her expectantly.

  “How can you be hungry? You’ve only just had breakfast!”

  Monty sat down and waited with his tongue hanging out. She looked around her and saw Xander standing a little way off.

  “Xander? Would it be OK if I took Monty’s suit off for a moment?”

  He frowned and came over. “What did he eat last night?”

  “What did he eat?” She tried to think. “Nothing, I think. He had some meat this morning and a eucalyptus biscuit. Does it matter?”

  “No, that will be fine. Sarah, I was wondering if…” Brelt called out to him, and he glanced in her direction. “Sorry. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  As Xander left Sarah slipped the hated white suit off Monty.

  “There you go. Right, what do you want then? I have carrot, apple or biscuit.”

  Sarah took things out of the bag to find the treat box and seeing his chance Monty darted forward, grabbed her cheese sandwich and ran off with it into the rocks. As she swivelled around to chase after him the tendril on her leg tightened and she fell forward dropping the stone. Putting her arms out to pull herself up, she didn’t register the blue stone turn to liquid and move, like mercury, through the tear in her trousers. When she got to her knees there was a dull ache in her leg and she absently rubbed the area with her hand.

  Xander, who had been returning to finish what he was saying, rushed over and helped her up.

  “I saw you trip over. Are you all right?”

  “Yes, but I think I pulled a muscle in my leg trying to get up.” She looked down. “Damn, I’ve ripped the suit.”

  “Looks like you’d better get back to the bus then, just to be on the safe side. Have you been scratched?”

  She quickly checked her leg and shook her head. “No, just an ache in my thigh. Did you see where Monty went? He ran off with my sandwich.”

  “I didn’t, sorry. We don’t know what could be out there so you can’t follow him. You’ll have to stay here with the group, I’m afraid, and if he has any cuts on him when he comes back he’ll have to have a full body scan to make sure he hasn’t picked up any parasites. These LIPs are incredibly unstable so it’s best to be on the safe side.”

  “How do you mean?”

  The eco-system here is very fragile, that’s why we have to be so careful about our kit and outfits. Come on, I’m sure he’ll come back once he’s finished your sandwich.” He smiled at her. “You can share mine if you like.”

  “No, thanks, I’ll wait until we get back.” She started to scan the ground around her. “That’s annoy
ing... I found a really beautiful stone a moment ago but I think I must have dropped it when I fell.”

  “Well, if you find it let us know, beautiful and this planet obviously don’t go together very often.”

  “Hey, Xander,” called out Garet. “Come and have a look at this – there are drawings on the side of this rock that look kind of familiar.”

  Xander looked at Sarah, “I’d better go and check it out. You need to go back to the bus and change into a different protection suit. Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Positive. I think I just landed badly.” She rubbed her leg again as he moved off and took another look at the ground before starting to re-pack her rucksack to return to the bus.

  There was a growl of thunder that sounded as though it came from underneath the landing party. Sarah shot a look at Xander and both were thrown to the ground as it started to tremble. The earth rocked and split a few feet away from them. Xander was the first up, and after quickly checking that the rest of his crew were running back to the bus again, he helped Sarah to her feet.

  Monty came out of the rocks running as fast as possible, his ears flapping in the wind and panting with effort. He reached Sarah, grabbed part of her suit at hip level and started pulling her towards the bus.

  “WHAT DID HE DO?” shouted Xander to Sarah above the roar of the planet.

  “DOES IT HAVE TO BE HIS FAULT?”

  Black ash began to erupt from the site where Monty had been and the air grew hotter by the second.

  The crew ran at full speed towards the bus as lava rose up in the cracks formed by the earthquake. Sarah was first in and found herself in the driving seat, Monty sat by her side on the seat and Xander threw himself in next to the dog.

  “DRIVE!”

  With Xander calling out instructions Sarah started moving the bus forward and found that driving it on land wasn’t too hard. Considering she had failed her driving test shortly before leaving Earth, on the grounds of dangerous driving, she thought she was doing quite well. She moved the bus into a faster speed and headed in the direction of the take-off point. A large expanse of dead unidentifiable foliage lay ahead.