Forsaken Planet

by Rinelle Grey

  “No one knew it was coming, or else we would have.”

  “Actually…” Kerit started, then paused. Should he tell her? Would it cheer her up to know that a whole group of people, aside from the government, had known about the meteor and had had a chance to escape? Well, she was going to find out sooner or later anyway. “Nerris knew about it, so others may have as well.”

  A thought occurred to him. “And there was a ship here, one they used for the anysogen project, but Nerris used it to take the others to the next planet, Zerris. It’s long gone. Sorry.”

  She frowned at him as he spoke. Then shook her head. “That can’t be the ship I’m talking about. The one I’m looking for belonged to my father and it was only big enough to carry the three of us.”

  “Another ship? Now that’s an interesting development. Did your father work on the anysogen project too?”

  As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew they were a mistake. Folly’s look was scathing. “Of course not. He said using anysogen to power faster than light travel was a waste of time, and that it would run out before we got very far. He thought the people who worked on it were short sighted. He tried to tell them he’d found a better way, but every paper he wrote never made it through peer review, even though the science was sound.”

  Kerit only got half of what she was saying, but it was enough to make him raise an eyebrow. “Are you saying he had another method of achieving faster than light travel?”

  “What would you say if I was?”

  There was no mistaking it. There was a definite challenging note to her voice. Was she looking for an argument? Well, she wouldn’t get one from him, he had no idea how FTL worked. Tyris had tried to explain it once, and it had gone straight over his head.

  So he just answered her with open honesty. “Cool.”

  “Cool? That’s all you have to say?”

  “That, and I wish we could find it. It’s the answer to our problems right now.”

  Her lower lip trembled, and the anger left her face. “You believe me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” He paused. “Or are you ribbing me?” He didn’t know her well enough to know if it was some sort of joke. If it was, he didn’t get it.

  “No.” Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. She took a breath, then said quietly, “No one else believes me. They think my dad…” She paused to take another deep breath, then looked at him squarely. “They think my dad was mad, and that he made up the fact that he’d built a spaceship that could travel the distance between here and the central Colonies in a few hours. They didn’t think it was possible. But I know it was, because I was on that ship. And even if I was only five, I know how long it took.”

  Kerit’s eyebrows shot up. He didn’t understand the technical details of faster than light travel, but he did understand one thing. “Hours? To travel between here and the central planets? And without anysogen you said?” He gave a low whistle. “I have no idea why the Colonies weren’t smashing your dad’s door down to get that information.”

  Folly gave him a smile. “I don’t either. And neither did he. He thought there was some sort of conspiracy, though I have no idea what. That’s why he was here. There was an engineer here who he wanted to speak to, a friend of his. He thought he’d help him convince people that his idea was real and viable. I guess whoever he was he’s dead now though.”

  “Perhaps not,” Kerit gave a smile. “You know that guy I mentioned earlier, Nerris? Well, he was the head engineer on the anysogen project, and he escaped with some of the other people. I don’t know for sure, but I bet he’s the one your dad wanted to speak to. If we can find a radio in that office, we can ask him.”

  “He’s here? With you?”

  Kerit nodded. “It’s a long story.”

  Folly didn’t seem interested anyway. She headed straight for the office, and Kerit limped along behind her.

  This door wasn’t locked, but the interior had survived surprisingly well. Filing cabinets stood along one wall with draws hanging open, empty. The desk had been moved to one side of the room, and signs of its use as something other than an office were evident.

  Kerit’s hopes of finding a radio fell. Of course, Nerris’s group had stayed here before they left the planet, they would have taken anything useful with them. And that probably included radios.

  Folly didn’t know that though and was searching through the drawers in the desk. “Ah ha!”

  She pulled out an ancient radio, covered in dust, flicked the power switch, and pressed the PTT button and released it. Kerit held his breath, listening for the tell-tale static that would show that it was working.

  There was nothing but silence. Kerit let out a sigh and leaned against the door frame. So much for that idea.

  But Folly wasn’t deterred. She laid the radio on the desk, and reached for her back pocket, pulling out a small tool case wrapped in leather. Chicken scurried out and sat on her shoulder watching her, her red eyes bright. Folly began fiddling with the back of the radio.

  “Do you think you can fix it?” Kerit asked hopefully.

  “Probably just a flat battery,” Folly said confidently.

  “Do you have a spare?”

  Folly burst out laughing. “No, all our batteries died a long time ago. But I think this should do.”

  She pulled out some sort of home-made device, a cylinder with a handle on one end, screwed onto a piece of wood and began to attach it into the battery chamber with insulated wires.

  Chicken made a flying leap from Folly’s shoulder onto the desk, scrambled across it, then jumped off the other side.

  Kerit jumped almost as high as the little creature had. “What got into her?”

  Folly looked around the room, but Chicken was nowhere to be seen. “No idea. Maybe something spooked her?”

  A horrible thought occurred to Kerit, and he turned to peer out the door into the main building yard. But nothing moved. “Is she usually that jumpy?”

  “Most of the time, yeah.” Folly grinned. She started fiddling with the device she’d pulled out.

  Kerit took one last look around for Chicken, but couldn’t see her, so he turned to look over Folly’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

  “A simple motor. It will only give us charge when one of us is winding it though.”

  He remembered making something similar in school. The memory didn’t fill him with confidence. “Will that be enough to use the radio? They need a bit of power, don’t they?”

  “I’ve juiced it up a bit, with a few gears and capacitors. It should do.”

  She might as well have been speaking in another language, but she seemed confident. Kerit nodded knowledgeably. “Do you want me to wind?”

  Folly paused, looking around for something, running her hands over the edges of the table and lifting up the radio to look underneath it. “Uh, in a second. I’m missing a screw.”

  Kerit bent down beside her to search the floor, running his hand through the dust that had built up. “I can’t see it. Will the radio work without it?”

  “It’ll work, but only until it falls apart. Which probably won’t take long between all the winding and moving.” Folly ran her fingers along the edges of the desk, then paused. She straightened up. “Chicken!” she said threateningly.

  Kerit looked around, but he couldn’t see any sign of the little creature. Had Folly seen something he hadn’t?

  She stood up and walked around the desk, looking into the corners of the room, opening the drawers. She reached into the third one and pulled Chicken out by the scruff of her neck. The little skuttle twisted this way and that, bringing up its hind legs to try to scratch Folly’s hand, but not quite reaching. “Bad, Chicken,” Folly said and reached one finger into the animal’s mouth, wriggling it around for a few moments before holding up something.

  The screw.

  “She stole it?” Kerit asked.

  “Yeah. I should have realised. If anything goes missing while I’m working, usually i
ts Chicken’s fault.”

  Kerit frowned. “Why does she do it?”

  “I don’t know, some sort of mating ritual probably. She has a whole nest full of bits and pieces at home.” She released Chicken.

  To Kerit’s surprise, Chicken bounced across the floor, scrambled up his jeans and jacket to his shoulder, where she looked at Folly and chittered angrily.

  Folly gave a laugh. “Oh dear. Looks like she’s found someone who she thinks will help her out.” She raised an eyebrow at Kerit.

  He reached slowly up to ruffle Chicken’s fur. “Sorry, girl. We need that. But, uh…” He searched in his pockets, finally pulling out the green plastic lid from the empty water bottle. “How about this instead?”

  Chicken tilted her head to one side, regarding him carefully for a moment. Then faster than he could react, she’d snatched the lid from his hand and scampered away.

  Kerit laughed. “She’s cute.”

  “She’s trouble,” Folly corrected from where she was bent over the radio, tightening the last screw. “Ready to wind?”

  Nodding, Kerit came across and began winding the handle.

  “It will take a little while to build up charge,” Folly said.

  Both of them were silent, the only noise in the room the whirring of the little generator. A light on the radio flickered, then went out. Kerit held his breath. A few seconds later, it came on again, this time strongly.

  Folly pressed the button a couple of times, but there was no other sound.

  “Is it working?” Kerit asked doubtfully.

  Shaking her head, Folly reached for the screwdriver again.

  “But the lights are on. Surely that’s a good sign?”

  “It means it’s getting power, yes. Chances are something else is wrong though, otherwise it probably wouldn’t have been left behind.”

  Kerit sighed and stopped turning the handle. He sat on the edge of the desk as Folly pulled apart the radio’s innards. All those circuit boards and wires made no sense to him at all.

  He watched for Chicken, but she must have been happy enough with the bottle lid because she didn’t reappear to steal any more parts.

  Folly pulled at some pieces, clipped something here, twisted some wires there.

  All Kerit could do was watch in admiration.

  Finally, she did up the screws again. Straightening her back, she wiped her brow with the back of her hand. “There, try again.”

  Kerit wound the handle until the light came on, then Folly picked up the radio and pressed the button. “Anyone there?”

  She released it, and both of them listened to the muted static.

  Nothing.

  “What channel are they using?” Folly asked him.

  “Channel?” Now he felt completely useless. “I have no idea.”

  She heaved a sigh. “Well, it appears they’re not using the military channel. Not surprising, I guess. Shall we go forwards or backwards?”

  “How many are there?” Kerit asked.

  She shrugged. “Fifty or so?”

  Kerit sighed, and picked at random. “Forwards.”

  They repeated the same process—change the channel, ask if anyone was there and then wait. Kerit’s hand began to get tired from winding. They were nearly at the end, and he was about to suggest they take a break before they went the other way, when the radio crackled.

  Folly held down the button again and repeated her words. “Can anyone hear me?”

  Both of them stared at the radio. In his head, Kerit willed it to live.

  “Folly, is that you? Is Kerit there too?”

  Kerit had never been more relieved to hear his brother’s worried voice.

  “Yes, it’s me, and Kerit is here too.” Folly held out the radio to him, button depressed.

  “Yeah, it’s me, bro,” he added.

  “What’s going on? Why is Folly’s father at the shuttle and the two of you not? And what was all that running everywhere earlier?” Tyris demanded.

  Kerit looked at Folly. Where to start? She just grinned and depressed the button again for him.

  “You’re not going to believe this, Ty, but that wasn’t Folly’s Dad. It’s actually an alien.”

  Folly released the button, but there was only the hiss of static from the other end. Kerit panicked for a moment. What if the radio had died again?

  “That’s not funny, Ker. We’ve all been worried sick about you.”

  For some reason, Kerit was unreasonably annoyed at his brother’s justifiable disbelief. “Just like we were worried sick about you when you crashed your ship on Zerris and were gone for nine months!”

  “So what, this is payback?”

  Kerit was just about to respond in kind, when Folly took the radio back. “He’s telling the truth,” she said quietly. “The alien chased us and we hid in the sewers. It has armour, wings, and giant claws. Now it’s at the shuttle, and we’re not game enough to go anywhere near it.”

  She released the button, then looked at Kerit.

  He braced himself for another rebuke. He probably deserved it.

  Instead, she grinned. “While I appreciate the need to argue with brothers who are being irritating, now probably isn’t the time.”

  A smile spread across Kerit’s face as the silence stretched out on the other end of the radio.

  “Sorry, Ker. I just... Aliens? Wow. I... don’t know what to say.”

  Kerit could imagine him standing there at the radio, running his hand through his hair, his expression shocked. He also knew that his brother’s mind would be running through all the possible ways to fix this.

  Kerit suddenly felt a whole lot better. He gestured to Folly to hold out the radio. “You and me both, bro.”

  “What happened to Folly’s Dad? Is he okay?”

  Kerit looked over at Folly, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  They’d had a moment back there, he thought. She’d understood why he’d been frustrated with Tyris, even sympathised with him. Yet now she was pulling back. He could almost feel the wall being built up between them.

  Suddenly, it all started to make sense. All the bits of the puzzle came together; her face when she’d told him her father was in the city, her mention of people thinking she was crazy like her father, the fact that no one believed that his ship existed. And why finding this ship was so important to her. It wasn’t just about the ship itself, it was about proving herself.

  And she wasn’t happy with how she’d handled things. She was waiting for the rebuke she thought was coming when Tyris heard that she’d lied about her father.

  He couldn’t let her down.

  “He’s not here after all, must have headed back to their settlement. There’s just the two of us.”

  Folly looked up at him and smiled.

  For a moment, it was as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. There was just the two of them and the silence stretching out between them.

  Folly realised at the same moment he did, and released the talk button.

  Tyris’s voice came back. “Is your radio failing? Did I miss something? There’s just the two of you?”

  Kerit nodded, even though his brother couldn’t see him. “Just the two of us,” he confirmed.

  Why did that suddenly sound intimate?

  “I’ll have to bring the Resolution down to get you, we need to get you out of there immediately. Can you get to the edge of the city?”

  “Which edge?” Kerit asked. “I don’t want to go near the shuttle and that alien, and we don’t want him getting to the Resolution either.”

  “Hmm, good point. How about you go north then, and I’ll meet you at the northernmost point?”

  That reminded Kerit. “I lost my compass when we were running from the alien. Any directions from here are just guessing.”

  Folly pulled the radio back to her. “And he’s sprained his ankle pretty badly, we’re moving slowly.”

  Kerit gestured, and Folly held the radio out to him again. “It’s not as bad a
s it was, I can make it to the edge of the city, but it needs to be somewhere easy to find.”

  “Right,” Tyris agreed. “Hmm. How about this? You head towards the crater and the ocean, turn left, and follow it out of the city. We’ll meet you there.”

  “That seems like a big enough target that we shouldn’t be able to miss it,” Kerit agreed. “It will probably take us a few hours to make that distance though, and it will be getting dark by then.” He didn’t mention the lack of water. No point in worrying Tyris. They could last a few hours.

  “It will be early morning before I have a landing window. Do you think you’ll be okay until then? If you keep the radio near you, I can let you know if the alien is moving your way.”

  Folly answered this time. “The radio has no batteries, so we’re using a hand powered generator. We can’t keep it going continuously.”

  “Right, so that idea’s out.” Tyris seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. He’d probably get on really well with Folly, they’d understand each other. Jealousy stabbed Kerit unexpectedly, and he frowned. It was stupid to be jealous of his brother, who was crazy in love with his wife. But this wasn’t about love or sex. He was jealous of the connection they shared that he could never be part of. That was even scarier. But he didn’t have time to analyse it because Tyris was still talking. “How about if you check in every hour then?

  “Sounds great. We’ll check back in an hour.” He was being too abrupt, but he really didn’t feel like talking. And his hand was getting tired.

  “An hour. Set an alarm on your watch so you don’t forget.”

  The brotherly reminder just made him more annoyed. Yet another dig at him, another indication that he wasn’t responsible enough to do this. He couldn’t even think to set an alarm on his own.

  He let his hand slow on the handle, and the light began to flicker. Folly frowned at him but just pressed the button and said, “We’ll see you then.”

  The light died and the radio cut out. If Tyris had any more cutting remarks to make, they didn’t hear them.

  “I take it you don’t get on too well with your brother?” Folly raised an eyebrow at him.

  Kerit opened his mouth to reply, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to agree with her, or deny it, so he sighed instead. “I love him to bits, but it’s hard to be constantly compared to him. He always knows what to do, and it’s always the right thing. I just don’t measure up. I’m sure if he’d been stuck down here on this planet with you, he would have made a plan to overcome that alien and take back his ship by now, and it probably would have worked because it always seems to work for Tyris.”