Jane Doesn't Save the World

by Erin Grey

  Death from lack of water or death by unirhinorexkitties?

  “The fastest one,” said Mitch.

  Brianus ambled along, not saying a word, but humming tunelessly to himself. Speedy followed him as though he were pack alpha.

  It wasn’t long before the sound of running water echoed through the increasingly thick saplings. A narrow brook came into view.

  Brianus and Speedy headed straight for the water and began to drink, but I nervously scrutinized the trees on the surrounding banks for anything that appeared to be a threat. A flock of tiny bright green birds flitted from bush to bush on the opposite bank, playing follow-the-leader. When Jasper had assured himself that they were not going to attempt to eat us, I knelt beside Brianus and examined the water.

  “It is clear and constantly in motion,” noted Jasper. “Brianus and Speedy do not show signs of poisoning.”

  I decided to risk it.

  The water was blessedly cool but brackish. At least it helped relieve the tension headache that had been building behind my eyes. Once I’d drunk my fill, I sat back and rubbed my temples. It had been a long day, and the light was fading quickly now that the sun had set.

  Looking around me, I noticed some thick bushes edging a small, clear piece of ground. I nudged Brianus and pointed, then mimed sleeping. He nodded and crawled directly over to it, curled up into a ball, and fell fast asleep.

  “I don’t know what drugs they were giving him at the clinic, but I want me some of those,” said Sandy.

  I pulled Speedy closer and tied him to a sapling, even though he’d given no sign of wanting to wander off. Still, I didn’t want to risk losing him, if only because he’d saved our lives once and might very well be able to do it again.

  Sinking down beside Brianus, shivering a little from the cold breeze that whipped through the leaves, I closed my eyes and thought of home.

  * * *

  Something nudged me. I batted it away, eyes still closed. It nudged me again. I grabbed at consciousness and finally got enough of a hold on it to drive my lids open.

  Aidon.

  “You found us.” I yawned, which was not an accurate indication of my feelings over being rescued, but could not be suppressed nonetheless. “How?”

  He smirked. “With difficulty. Sleep well?”

  I stretched and pulled myself upright. Behind Aidon, Brianus rubbed his eyes and stared at the ground. “Speedy bolted for miles. Then we outran the unirhinorexkitties—”

  “The what?”

  “The unirhino … those very large, long-toothed, hooved creatures—or is it behooved—I don’t know. Anyway, they were big, really big, with a massive horn here” —I waved at my nose— “and we wanted water but they started chasing us—”

  “Aha,” said Aidon. “You mean the Yewnikruns.”

  “Yewnikruns?”

  “I saw their prints when I was tracking you. It’s unusual to come across such a large herd, what with all the poaching.” He pulled a small, clear stone from his pocket and tossed it in the air, catching and throwing with one hand. “They came very close to making a meal of you all. But I saw the signs of your great leap and knew you had likely made it across. Gudolf here is quite the jumper.”

  “Gudolf?” said Gwendolyn. “His name is Speedy.”

  “The owner has the right to name his own possession,” asserted Jasper. “We must accede to his wishes.”

  “Gudolf is a dumb name,” retorted Sandy. “It’s like that song, except ‘Gudolf the red-nosed llama-horse’. I’m sticking with Speedy.”

  “He saved us,” I said to Aidon. “I’m very grateful.” I petted Speedy’s neck. I didn’t know if he liked it, but he didn’t run away, so I took it as a good sign.

  “Gudolf is not a ‘he’,” frowned Aidon, watching his stone rise and fall, rise and fall. “She is female.”

  “Oops,” I winced. “Sorry, Speedy. Where are we, anyway?”

  “Why bother asking?” scoffed Sandy. “It’s not like we have any point of reference. It’s all wild alien planet to us.”

  “About 20 decium off-course,” said Aidon. “We can take a shortcut across the sea to get back to base.”

  “Base? What’s—wait, I’ll come back to that. What happened yesterday? Why did the llama-horses go berserk?”

  Aidon laughed. “I can see your turn of phrase will take some getting used to. I presume by ‘llama-horse’, you are referring to Gudolf and Annai over there?” He pointed to his own llama-horse which was serenely working its way to the roots of a low-growing plant.

  “Yes.”

  “They are called guanis. They spooked because we were attacked by the Regulators.”

  “The Regulators? Are they from the clinic?”

  “No, but they work with them. The Regulators are an international group responsible for rounding up all ‘abnormals’ and incarcerating them. Those who are considered good candidates for doping are sent to clinics like the one we rescued you from. Less fortunate captives disappear. We think they are terminated.”

  “What do you mean by doping?”

  “Drugged. Sedated. Tranquilized. So heavily doped up they lose all concept of reality. Walking zombies.”

  “Why are they incarcerated in the first place? Are they a danger to others?”

  “Mind if we talk along the way?” Aidon asked, slipping his stone back in his pocket. “We have a lot of ground to cover.”

  He used a branch to wipe away all traces of our sleeping spot. Then we started walking, leading the two guanis by their reins.

  “Where is everyone else?” I asked.

  “My comrade and I were able to round the rest up after we escaped the Regulators,” responded Aidon. “She took them on to the safe house while I came after you and your friend here.”

  “His name is Brianus.” I rubbed my nose, feeling dazed. I missed coffee. “Why are they called abnormals?”

  “It’s a bigoted term for anyone who can’t control their energy. Failure to control it causes anomalies, strange behaviours.”

  “Energy—that’s what Zhian called his healing power,” said Jasper.

  “Are you saying that everyone on this planet has an energy?” I asked Aidon. “Do you have an energy?”

  “Of course.” He looked at me with a puzzled expression. “It’s different on Earth?”

  “Yes.” I hesitated. “At least, as far as I know. It depends what you mean by ‘energy’. What sort of energies do people here have?”

  “I can’t name them all. Some can manipulate elements, others have connections to living creatures, and still others have enhanced senses or abilities.”

  “Enhanced senses?” said Sandy. “Like super-powered smell? Might stop you from burning the toast, but otherwise it would be a pain.”

  “However,” said Jasper. “Heightened sight or hearing could be most beneficial, that is, if one were able to switch it on and off, so as not to be overwhelmed by sensory input.”

  The voices continued to brainstorm superpowers, but I forced myself to focus on Aidon before I got stuck in my head and forgot about the conversation I was having. “Zhian can heal people,” I said.

  Aidon frowned. “So I heard.”

  “But what did you mean by ‘anomalies’? Are some powers dangerous?”

  “All powers are dangerous if they are not controlled. A build-up of energy can cause a person to become agitated or miserable, unable to regulate their thinking.”

  “Huh,” said Sandy. “Sound like anyone we know?”

  Aidon continued. “Some can’t function normally, switching wildly between moods, or engaging in irrational, repetitive behaviours. Some energies can create external phenomenon, such as moving objects, storms, or fires.”

  I pictured a group of crazy, agitated arsonists running around wreaking havoc. “So, it’s safer for them to be in the clinics, then?”

  Aidon glared at me. “You think like them.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said, holding up my hands in surrender. “Expl
ain it to me. Why shouldn’t they be in clinics if uncontrolled power can be dangerous?”

  “The clinics drug them into oblivion. They become little more than walking corpses.”

  “Oblivion,” murmured Mitch. “Sweet. Good.”

  “Uh-bwivian,” mimicked Emmy. “Wanna sweetie.”

  “There’s a better option?” I said.

  “Of course!” he barked. “If you learn to control the energy, it can’t harm you anymore. There are even tonics and medications that can assist. These people need training and proper treatment, not isolation and sedation in a living graveyard!”

  “Brianus seemed pretty happy in his drugged haze,” said Sandy. “Although it looks like it might be wearing off.”

  I looked at Brianus who trudged silently next to us. His vacant smile was fading.

  “He doesn’t speak,” I said, gesturing to Brianus. “Do you think he will once he’s off the drugs? With training?”

  Aidon glanced at Brianus, and his lip curled. “I think so,” he said. “I hope so.”

  “How can they be so cruel to these people?” said Gwendolyn. “It’s not their fault they’re sick!”

  “It appears they are much akin to the mentally ill on Earth,” said Jasper. “Is medical science here so far behind that sedatives are the treatment of choice?”

  “Even you know that it’s anyone’s guess how antidepressants work,” said Sandy. “Anyway, we don’t have the ‘energies’ they have here. Maybe the drugs we have wouldn’t work here either.”

  Jasper was disgusted. “It is positively medieval to herd these people into mental hospitals.”

  “Discrimination didn’t die with the dark ages,” said Sandy. “Looks like that’s true across the galaxy.”

  Aidon paused and dug into his pack. He held out what appeared to be a dried twig. “It’s not much,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a long trek. But it’ll keep you going.”

  I took the stick, and Aidon handed another to Brianus, then began gnawing on one himself. Cautiously, I gave mine a sniff. Salt. I bit into it. It had the taste of dried meat—salty and spicy. My digestive juices growled their gratitude.

  “About time,” said Sandy. “I thought we were going to starve.”

  A pungent herbal odour rose into the air, and I looked around to see we had left the trees behind and waded into a field of thick lavender-coloured growth. Fine, feathery stalks that reached my thighs stretched to the horizon ahead, fluttering in wave patterns when the breeze blew across the grassland.

  “Thank you for rescuing me from the … ’living graveyard’, as you put it,” I told Aidon.

  He scowled. “No one deserves to be stuck in there.”

  “You said you could get me home. What’s your plan?”

  Aidon grinned. “As you may have noticed, my activities are not endorsed by the local or international authorities. I need to get you and Brianus to a safe place before I start making enquiries.” He assessed my gait. “Why don’t you take a turn on Gudolf? It’s a way still.”

  My feet gratefully accepted his suggestion, and I climbed onto Speedy. Sandy wasn’t ready to call her Gudolf. Gwendolyn was still getting used to calling her ‘her’.

  Aidon cajoled Brianus onto Annai. After an hour or two, they swapped. I offered to take turns with them, but chivalry clearly had an Eorthe counterpart.

  The terrain became sparser as we climbed upwards. We must have ascended hundreds of metres when Aidon broke the silence. “We are almost at sea level.”

  I could smell the salty air, but I was thoroughly confused. “Sea level? How much of a depression are we in?”

  “Deep, dark despair—” began Mitch.

  “That is not the kind of depression to which they were referring, Mitchell,” said Jasper.

  Over the next rise, I saw it. A wall of water rising out of the ground.

  “There it is,” said Aidon. “The Suspended Sea.”

  “It can’t be …” Gwendolyn trailed off into open-mouthed wonder.

  “Inconceivable,” said Jasper.

  “Awesome!” said Sandy.

  “Fsssh,” said Emmy.

  The mass of water that rose up before us defied belief. I couldn’t see the top. But I could see in. A morass of aquatic creatures I couldn’t name glided past the liquid barrier, every iteration and combination of fins and gills and tails and flippers. It was like looking into a giant fish tank.

  “How is this possible?” I murmured.

  “I’m not a scientist,” answered Aidon, “but I’ve heard it has something to do with the prevailing winds creating a vacuum … I don’t think anyone fully comprehends how it works.”

  I could hardly tear my gaze away as we ascended the hill that ran alongside one edge of the sea. A pod of beasts strongly resembling plesiosaurs passed us, calling to each other with whale noises that reverberated through the wall and sent ripples across its surface. Fronds of luminescent seaweed undulated with the current while miniature sting rays sporting bright pink spots cavorted between them.

  At the summit of the hill, we found the top of the sea. A wooden jetty jutted from the rocks, out into the water. I couldn’t see a boat anywhere. He wasn’t going to make us swim, was he? I was terrified of dark water.

  I shivered when the cold sea breeze hit, and Aidon unwrapped the wide scarf he wore like a belt from his waist and gave it to me. Unfolded, it provided the same coverage as a cloak.

  “If I’ve got my timing right,” he said, fumbling beneath the jetty pier and pulling out a large spiral seashell, “our friends should be close to shore.” He pressed his lips to one end of the conch and blew. It wailed like a foghorn. After the echoes died and no ship magically appeared, he blew it again.

  “There,” he said, pointing to a ripple on the water a few metres away where bubbles gathered and popped. The quay trembled.

  A massive squid-shaped vessel burst from the waters like a breaching whale, then smashed against the white foam of its own creation, sending spray towards us. A trap door flipped open, and a hefty, extravagantly-attired man with a sizeable hat climbed out. He flung himself onto the large platform that was being cranked out above the hatch, landing with a dramatic flourish.

  “I give you: The Calliope!” said the well-moustached man, spreading his arms theatrically.

  22

  The bit with the pirates

  “Well, sink me, how can we be of service today?” said the captain.

  Aidon was unperturbed by the tightness of the captain’s pants. “We need to get to Thenicus without running into any Regulators.”

  The captain looked me up and down and raised a theatrical brow. “I see. Contraband. Well, we know how to take care of that, don’t we fellas?”

  He gestured towards the crew who had arranged themselves around him in suspiciously practiced-looking vignettes. I heard the faint ting of metal striking metal and the group hummed.

  “Ohhhh,” they began and then launched into a cappella surround sound.

  “Wow,” said Gwendolyn, stunned. “I mean, I love a good musical, but … wow.”

  Besides the flamboyant rainbow of puffy shirts and head scarves, the range of deep baritone to clear tenor to bright falsetto was startlingly loud.

  “Hurts,” moaned Mitch.

  By the time they had finished, my ears were ringing, and I brushed my thumbs across them to check for blood.

  I leaned over to Aidon who slowly lowered his hands, having carefully covered up his ears at the first note.

  “Do they always do this?” I whispered.

  “Yes. It’s how they make a living.”

  I jerked upright. “People pay to see them?”

  “They pay to make them stop.” He gestured to the dissembling group. “They grapple themselves to passing ships and perform until someone hands over the loot.”

  “Unbelievable,” I murmured, watching them disappear into the vessel.

  “C’mon then, thou camarado, rot ‘ee,” said the captain, and we all scramb
led aboard, our guanis included, and descended into the submarine.

  My nose seized, and I coughed, throwing both hands over my lower face.

  “What is that smell?” I choked out.

  >Warning! High levels of methane detected_

  “Enclosed space,” said Aidon with a smirk. “Were you expecting fresh breezes in the depths of the ocean?”

  I shuddered, not because of the smell, but because he’d reminded me we’d be underwater soon.

  Brianus quickly found a seat and fell asleep with his head resting against the wall.

  Aidon pulled me into a dark corner. “Now, whatever you do, DON’T talk to anyone about who you are, where you come from, or where you’ve been the last few days. I trust the captain not to ask questions, but everyone else is an unknown quantity. Keep my scarf over your head, and stay out of the light. Do not get into a conversation with anyone. A good look at your eyes or skin will tip someone off if they know their galactic biology.”

  “Zhian didn’t want us to talk to anyone either,” said Sandy. “That didn’t end well.”

  “We ought to do as he says and keep quiet,” said Jasper. “He has promised to help us. We are obliged to follow his instructions.”

  “I ain’t obliged to nobody,” bit out Sandy. “Zhian broke his promise. Everyone always does. If an opportunity to get home arises, I’m taking it. I don’t care what anyone says.”

  “Zhian didn’t promise to get us home,” said Gwendolyn. “He only promised to help. He thought taking Jane to the clinic was helping.”

  “Aidon explicitly promised to get us home,” said Jasper. “He has not proved dishonest.”

  “Yet,” said Sandy ominously.

  “Okay, noted,” I said to Aidon.

  The sub rumbled.

  “Reactor’s gone critical!” yelled one of the seamen.

  I grabbed Aidon’s arm. “What are we going to do?”

  “Relax,” he said with a grin, prying my fingers from their death-grip on his bicep. “It just means the ship is ready to move.”